It was determined to hear what Claverhouse had to say for
himself. He was summoned to London, graciously received by the King, and
pleaded his cause so effectually that the Treasurer was ordered to
refund the money.
Claverhouse and Balcarres returned to Edinburgh on December 24th. With
them came the Chancellor Perth and his brother, John Drummond, the new
Lord Melfort. The brothers were in James's best books, for they had
recently professed themselves converted to the Roman Catholic faith by
the convincing logic of the papers found in Charles's strong-box and
made public by the King.[72] But they were not so popular in Edinburgh.
The new year opened with something very like a No Popery riot. Lady
Perth was insulted on her way home from mass by a baker's boy. The Privy
Council ordered the lad to be whipped through the Canongate, but the
'prentices rose to the rescue of their comrade. The guard was called
out: there was firing, and some citizens fell. There was disaffection,
too, among the troops: one soldier was arrested for refusing to fire on
a Protestant: another was shot for threatening to run his sword through
a Papist. In the Council Perth moved that one Canaires, minister at
Selkirk, should be arraigned for preaching against the Pope; but he
found no man on his side except Claverhouse, who, though Protestant to
the backbone, had no mind to see his King insulted under the cloak of
religion.
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