or him to seek a wife in, and many were the whispered gibes the news of
his courtship provoked at Edinburgh. Was this strong Samson, men asked,
to fall a prey at last to a Whiggish Delilah? Hamilton, whose own
loyalty was by no means unimpeachable, and who was no friend to
Claverhouse, affected to be much distressed by the Lady Susannah's
partiality for the young Lord Cochrane, and made great parade of his
disinclination to give his daughter to the son of such a mother without
the express consent of the King; and this Claverhouse chose to take as a
hit at him, who had not thought it necessary to ask any one's permission
to choose his own wife. Affairs were still further complicated by the
backslidings of Sir John Cochrane, Lady Jean's uncle, a notorious rebel
who was then in hiding for his complicity with Russell and Sidney, and
was even suspected of knowing something of that darker affair of the Rye
House. Claverhouse was furious at the gossip. "My Lord Duke Hamilton,"
he wrote to Queensberry,

"has refused to treat of giving his daughter to my Lord
Cochrane, till he should have the King and the Duke's leave.
This, I understand, has been advised him, to load me.
Wherefore I have written to the Duke, and told him that I
would have done it sooner, had I not judged it presumption
in me to trouble his Highness with my little concerns; and
that I looked upon myself as a cleanser, that may cure
others by coming amongst them, but cannot be infected by any
plague of Presbytery; besides, that I saw nothing singular
in my Lord Dundonald's case, save that he has but one rebel
on his land for ten that the lords and lairds of the south
and west have on theirs; and that he is willing to depone
that he knew not of there being such. The Duke is juster
than to charge my Lord Dundonald with Sir John's crimes. He
is a madman, and let him perish; they deserve to be damned
that own him. The Duke knows what it is to have sons and
nephews that follow not advice. I have taken pains to know
the state of the country's guilt as to reset; and if I make
it not appear that my Lord Dundonald is one of the clearest
of all that country, and can hardly be reached in law, I am
content to pay his fine. I never pleaded for any, nor shall
I hereafter. But I must say I think it hard that no regard
is had to a man in so favourable circumstances