=38. Western Rising.=--In spite of fines and penalties the churches still remained empty, while the people went long distances to gather round their "outed" ministers. On the hill-sides, wherever in short they were least likely to be dispersed by the dragoons, they met to hear the sermons of their favourite preachers. But so great was the danger incurred by thus worshipping God according to their consciences that sentries were stationed on the hill-tops round to give warning of the approach of danger, and the men stacked their muskets so that they could seize and use them on a moment's notice. Such meetings were called _Conventicles_, and to hunt them down bands of soldiers scoured the country in all directions. In the south-west the troops were under the command of _Sir James Turner_, and it was his severity that drove the people to actual revolt. The immediate cause of the outbreak was the rescue of an old man from the clutches of a group of soldiers who were ill-using him. In the scuffle one of the soldiers was wounded. This affair happened at _Dalry_, in _Ayrshire_. A large body of peasants soon gathered to protect their conventicles. They seized Turner at _Dumfries_, and, when their numbers had increased to nearly three thousand, they set out for _Edinburgh_, expecting the people of the Eastern Counties to show their former spirit by rising to join them. _General Thomas Dalziel_, who had made himself a reputation by fighting for the Czar of Russia against Turks and Tartars, was sent to bar their way. But they avoided and passed him. He had to come back after them as far as the _Pentland Hills_, where they were so well posted that the troops could only break and disperse them by repeated attacks. But the feeling of this district had changed so much that the peasantry now turned against these wild Whigs of the Westland, and treated them nearly as badly as the troopers had done. =39. The Persecution.=--This rising did no real good, for after the defeat at _Pentland_ in 1666 the tyranny became even more cruel than before. The trials which followed were infamous, from the shameful and constant use of torture. The instruments used for this purpose were the _thumbkin_, a screw applied to the thumb-joint, and the _boot_, a cylinder in which the leg of the victim was crushed by hammering in wedges. Both inflicted the most fearful pain without destroying life. Twenty men were hanged in different places. The fines and forfeitures inflicted were given as rewards to soldiers and lawyers who might get them out of the offenders as they best could. At this time certain bonds called _law-burrows_ were originated. These were bonds by which all the principal men in a district pledged themselves to prevent those beneath them in rank from breaking the peace.