traitors: to fail in this duty was to
participate in the treason: the conclusion, on the whole, was, You have
conversed with a rebel; therefore you are yourself a rebel. A reprieve
was with some difficulty procured for Weir; but it was seriously
determined to make use of the precedent. Courts of judicature were
erected in the southern and western counties, and a strict inquisition
carried on against this new species of crime. The term of three years
was appointed for the continuance of these courts; after which an
indemnity was promised. Whoever would take the test, was instantly
entitled to the benefit of this indemnity. The Presbyterians, alarmed
with such tyranny, from which no man could deem himself safe, began
to think of leaving the country; and some of their agents were sent
to England, in order to treat with the proprietors of Carolina for a
settlement in that colony. Any condition seemed preferable to the living
in their native country, which, by the prevalence of persecution and
violence, was become as insecure to them as a den of robbers.

Above two thousand persons were outlawed on pretence of their conversing
or having intercourse with rebels,[*] and they were continually
hunted in their retreat by soldiers, spies, informers, and oppressive
magistrates. It was usual to put insnaring questions to people living
peaceably in their own houses; such as, "Will you renounce the covenant?
Do you esteem the rising at Bothwel to be rebellion? Was the killing
of the archbishop of St. Andrews murder?" And when the poor deluded
creatures refused to answer, capital punishments were inflicted on
them.[**] Even women were brought to the gibbet for this pretended
crime. A number of fugitives, rendered frantic by oppression, had
published a seditious declaration, renouncing allegiance to Charles
Stuart, whom they called, as they, for their parts, had indeed some
reason to esteem him, a tyrant. This incident afforded the privy council
a pretence for an unusual kind of oppression. Soldiers were dispersed
over the country, and power was given to all commission officers, even
the lowest, to oblige every one they met with to abjure the declaration;
and, upon refusal, instantly, without further questions, to shoot the
delinquent.[***] It were endless, as well as shocking, to enumerate all
the instances of persecution, or, in other words, of absurd tyranny,
which at that time prevailed in Scotland. One of them, however, is so
singu