" "History of England," iv. 281. I do not
think the text quite bears out the commentary; and indeed elsewhere in
the chapter Macaulay seems inclined to allow more credit to these
professions. The "escort" under which Dundee was "suffered to travel"
consisted of his own troopers, who had followed him from Watford to
London, and stayed with him to the end.
CHAPTER IX.
All eyes were now turned to Scotland. England had practically accepted
William, and although the terms of acceptance were still in some
quarters kept open to question, there was no longer fear that the final
answer would have to be given by the sword. In Scotland the case was
different. Many of the great nobles and other dignitaries had indeed
professed themselves in favour of William, but political morality, a
custom nowhere in those days very rigidly observed, may be said to have
been honoured by Scottish statesmen almost wholly in the breach. No man
trusted his neighbour, and his neighbour was perfectly aware of the
fact. It was impossible to say what an hour might not bring forth; and
in this flux of things no man could guarantee that the Whigs of to-day
would not be the Jacobites of to-morrow. Hamilton was the recognised
leader of the Whigs, Athole of the Jacobites. Both were great and
powerful noblemen. The influence of Hamilton was supreme in the Western
Lowlands: only Mac Callum More could muster to his standard a larger
gathering than the lord of Blair, and the glory of Mac Callum More was
now in eclipse.
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