on upon the memory of the Scots people. But
there was no superstition so mad that it was not credited to
Claverhouse, and no act so wicked that it was not believed of him.
During the hours of day he ranged the country, a monster thirsting
for the blood of innocent men, and the hours of the evening he
spent with his associates in orgies worthy of hell. His horse,
famous for its fleetness and beauty, was supposed to be an evil
spirit, and as for himself, everyone knew that Claverhouse could not
be shot except by a silver bullet, because he was under the
protection of the devil. Perhaps it is not too much to say that during
those black years--black for both sides, and very much so for
Claverhouse--he was, in the imagination of the country folk, little
else than a devil himself, and it was then he earned the title which
has clung to him unto this day and been the sentence of his infamy,
"Bloody Claverse."

Although there were not many houses of importance in the west which
Graham had not visited during those years, it happened that he had
never been within Paisley Castle, and that he had never met any of the
family except the earl and his aged countess. Lady Cochrane and the
Covenanting servants could have given a thumb-nail sketch of him which
would have done for a mediaeval picture of Satan, and an accompanying
letter-press of his character which would have been a slander upon
Judas Iscariot. Her heroic ladyship had, however, never met
Claverhouse, and she prayed God she never would, not because she was
afraid of him or of the devil himself, but because she knew it would
not be a pleasant interview on either side. But it was not likely in
those times that the Dundonalds should altogether escape the notice of
the government, or that Graham, ranging through the country seeking
whom he might devour, as the Covenanters said, should not find himself
some day under their roof. The earl himself was known to be well
affected, and in any case did not count, but Lady Cochrane was a
dangerous woman, and her brother-in-law, Sir John, had been plotting
against the government and was an exile. No one was much surprised
when tidings came to the castle early one morning that Claverhouse
with two troops of his regiment, his own and the one commanded by Lord
Ross, Jean Cochrane's cousin, was near Paisley, and that Claverhouse
with Lord Ross craved the hospitality of the castle. It was natural
that he should stay in the chief house of the