offered him the paper, but he, loving a bone rather than it, absolutely
refused it; then they rubbed it over with butter (which they called an
Explication of the Test in imitation of Argile), and he licked of the
butter, but did spite out the paper, for which they hold a jurie on him,
and in derision of the sentence against Argile, they found the dog guilty
of treason, and actually hanged him.'

[23] Sir George Mackenzie also, who criticises Lauderdale's proceedings
very freely, pays a fine tribute to one trait in his character,
'Lauderdale who knew not what it was to dissemble.'--_Memoirs_, p.
182.

[Sidenote: H.O. 166]

[Sidenote: H.0. 196.]

[Sidenote: H.O. 189.]

Although Lauder considered that Argyll had been unjustly condemned in the
matter of the Test, his opinion about the expedition of 1685 was very
different. He did justice to his capacity. He writes, 'Argile had always
the reputation of sense and reason, and if the Whigs at Bothwell Bridge in
1679 had got such a commander as he, it's like the rebellion had been more
durable and sanguinarie' But as soon as the news of Argyll's landing on
the west coast came, this is his note, 'Argile, minding the former
animosities and discontents in the country, thought to have found us all
alike combustible tinder, that he had no more adoe then to hold the match
to us, and we would all blow up in a rebellion; but the tymes are altered,
and the peeple are scalded so severely with the former insurrections, that
they are frighted to adventure on a new on. The Privy Council, though they