To assume that his design had been from the first to goad
the West into open rebellion affords, indeed, a simple explanation of a
policy that in its persistent unwisdom and brutality seems strangely
irrational and monstrous, even for such times and men. But it is rash to
take any policy as certain in those dark and crooked councils, unless it
be--as probably in Lauderdale's case it was, and as it assuredly was in
the case of most of his creatures--the policy of personal
aggrandisement. At any rate, after the failure of the Indulgence had
been made clear even to those hopeful spirits who still, with Leighton,
had believed it possible to efface years of wrong by a few grudging
concessions, the cruel game was renewed with fresh vigour. The
Highlanders, indeed, had gone, but their place was now to be filled by a
more dangerous because a more disciplined foe. Orders were given to
raise three new troops of cavalry for special service in Scotland. The
Earls of Home and Airlie were chosen by Lauderdale to command two of
these troops: the third was, at the King's express desire, given to
Claverhouse. At the same time, Athole, who was now in opposition with
Hamilton and Argyle, was superseded by Montrose, and Linlithgow named
commander-in-chief of all the royal forces in Scotland.
Claverhouse now for the first time steps in his own person on the stage
of Scottish history.
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