"You cannot imagine," runs the letter, "how overjoyed I
should be to have any employment at my disposal that were worthy of your
acceptance; nor how much I am ashamed to offer you anything so far below
your merit as that of being my lieutenant; though I be fully persuaded
that it will be a step to a much more considerable employment, and will
give you occasion to confirm the Duke in the just and good opinion which
I do assure you he has of you." The writer goes on to say that he
himself was expecting instant promotion, and to promise his kinsman a
share in whatever fortune might befall him: none but gentlemen, he adds,
are to ride in his troop. The offer was accepted, and the promotion was
not long delayed.
The Indulgence had failed, as by some at least of those who had
countenanced it it had been expected to fail. The Opposition, led at
Edinburgh by Hamilton and Argyle, and backed in London by Monmouth and
Shaftesbury, which had for some time past been working openly against
Lauderdale, had also for the moment failed. The Commissioner's hands
were strong. With the King and the Duke of York at his back, and, in
Edinburgh, Sharp, Burnet, and the majority of the Episcopalian clergy,
together with all the needy nobles who loved best to fish in troubled
waters, Lauderdale could afford, as he thought then, to laugh at all
opposition.
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