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,