by which Government after the Revolution showed an
inclination to interfere with the management of the Church, and they
positively refused to take the oath of allegiance to King William and
Queen Mary until they should, on their part, have sworn to the Solemn
League--and Covenant, the Magna Charta, as they termed it, of the
Presbyterian Church.

This party, therefore, remained grumbling and dissatisfied, and made
repeated declarations against defections and causes of wrath, which, had
they been prosecuted as in the two former reigns, would have led to the
same consequence of open rebellion. But as the murmurers were allowed to
hold their meetings uninterrupted, and to testify as much as they pleased
against Socinianism, Erastianism, and all the compliances and defections
of the time, their zeal, unfanned by persecution, died gradually away,
their numbers became diminished, and they sunk into the scattered remnant
of serious, scrupulous, and harmless enthusiasts, of whom Old Mortality,
whose legends have afforded the groundwork of my tale, may be taken as no
bad representative. But in the years which immediately succeeded the
Revolution, the Cameronians continued a sect strong in numbers and
vehement in their political opinions, whom Government wished to
discourage, while they prudently temporised with them. These men formed
one violent party in the State; and the Episcopalian and Jacobite
interest, notwithstanding their ancient and national animosity, yet
repeatedly endeavoured to intrigue among them, and avail themselves of
their discontents, to obtain their assistance in recalling the Stewart
family. The Revolutionary Government in the mean while, was supported by
the great bulk of the Lowland interest, who were chiefly disposed to a
moderate Presbytery, and formed in a great measure the party who in the
former oppressive reigns were stigmatized by the Cameronians for having
exercised that form of worship under the declaration of Indulgence issued
by Charles II. Such was the state of parties in Scotland immediately
subsequent to the Revolution.

It was on a delightful summer evening that a stranger, well mounted, and
having the appearance of a military man of rank, rode down a winding
descent which terminated in view of the romantic ruins of Bothwell Castle
and the river Clyde, which winds so beautifully between rocks and woods
to sweep around the towers formerly built by Aymer de Valence. Bothwell
Bridge was at a l