Argyll, who sailed from Holland on May 2, had a council of Lowlanders who
thwarted him. His interests were in his own principality, but he found
it occupied by Atholl and his clansmen, and the cadets of his own House
as a rule would not rally to him. The Lowlanders with him, Sir Patrick
Hume, Sir John Cochrane, and the rest, wished to move south and join
hands with the Remnant in the west and in Galloway; but the Remnant
distrusted the sudden religious zeal of Argyll, and were cowed by
Claverhouse. The coasts were watched by Government vessels of war, and
when, after vain movements round about his own castle, Inveraray, Argyll
was obliged by his Lowlanders to move on Glasgow, he was checked at every
turn; the leaders, weary and lost in the marshes, scattered from
Kilpatrick on Clyde; Argyll crossed the river, and was captured by
servants of Sir John Shaw of Greenock. He was not put to trial nor to
torture; he was executed on the verdict of 1681. About 200 suspected
persons were lodged by Government in Dunottar Castle at the time and
treated with abominable cruelty.
The Covenanters were now effectually put down, though Renwick was not
taken and hanged till 1688. The preachers were anxious for peace and
quiet, and were bitterly hostile to Renwick. The Covenant was a dead
letter as far as power to do mischief was concerned. It was not
persecution of the Kirk, but demand for toleration of Catholics and a
manifest desire to restore the Church, that in two years lost James his
kingdoms.
On April 29, 1686, James's message to the Scots Parliament asked
toleration for "our innocent subjects" the Catholics. He had substituted
Perth's brother, now entitled Earl of Melfort, for Queensberry; Perth was
now Chancellor; both men had adopted their king's religion, and the
infamous Melfort can hardly be supposed to have done so honestly. Their
families lost all in the event except their faith. With the request for
toleration James sent promises of free trade with England, and he asked
for no supplies. Perth had introduced Catholic vestments and furnishings
in Holyrood chapel, which provoked a No Popery riot. Parliament would
not permit toleration; James removed many of the Council and filled their
places with Catholics. Sir George Mackenzie's conscience "dirled"; he
refused to vote for toleration and he lost the Lord Advocateship, being
superseded by Sir James Dalrymple, an old Covenanting opponent of
Claverhouse in Galloway.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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