nd of the quarrel
at Loo, are told in the "Life of Lieut.-General Hugh Mackay," by John
Mackay of Rockfields, and in the "Memoirs of the Lord Viscount Dundee,"
published in 1714, and professing to be written by an officer of the
army. This little book is remarkable chiefly as being the first recorded
attempt at a biography of Dundee. The writer was possibly not an
officer, nor personally acquainted with Dundee. But he had certainly
contrived to learn a good deal about him and his affairs; and as later
research has either corroborated or, at least, made probable, much of
his information, it seems to me quite as fair to use it for Dundee, as
to use the unsupported testimony of the Covenanters against him.
According to his biographer, Mackay himself was Claverhouse's successful
rival. According to the earlier writer, the man was David Colyear,
afterwards Lord Portmore, and husband of Catherine Sedley, Lady
Dorchester, James's favourite and ugliest mistress.

CHAPTER II.

It will be necessary now to review the condition of Scotland at the time
when Claverhouse began first to be concerned in her affairs, and of the
causes political and religious--if, indeed, in Scottish history it be
ever possible to separate the two--which produced that condition.
Without clearly understanding the state of parties which then distracted
that unhappy country, it will not be possible clearly to understand the
position of Claverhouse; and without a clear understanding of his
position, it will certainly not be possible to form a just estimate of
his character. It is by too readily yielding to the charm of a writer,
who had not then for his purpose the impartial estimate of a human
character so much as the embellishment of a political principle, that
public opinion has been for many years content to accept a savage
caricature in place of a portrait. It would be impertinent to say that
Macaulay did not understand the circumstances into which Claverhouse was
forced, and the train of events which had caused them; but it would not
have suited his purpose so clearly and strictly to have explained them
that others might have traversed the verdict he intended to be
established. He heard, indeed, and he determined to hear, only one side
of the case: indeed, at the time he wrote, there was not much to be
heard on the other; and on the evidence he accepted the verdict was a
foregone conclusion. It is impossible altogether to acquit Claverhouse
of