provisions and forage; for, so far from quartering his men at large upon
the peasantry, he seems, at any rate in those first months, to have been
scrupulous to pay at the current rates for all he required to a degree
that matches rather with the niceties of modern warfare than the customs
of those rough times.

In March Claverhouse was appointed Deputy-Sheriff of Dumfriesshire by a
particular warrant from Whitehall, and Andrew Bruce of Earlshall, one of
his lieutenants, was nominated with him. This step gave great offence to
Queensberry, who, as Sheriff of the shires of Dumfries and Annandale, by
law held all such patronage in his own hand, and marks the beginning of
the petty jealousy which from this time forward he seems to have shown
to Claverhouse whenever he dared, and which rose afterwards, as we shall
see, to a serious height. But Queensberry was no match for Lauderdale;
and Claverhouse was duly settled in his new office, which, while
strengthening his hands and enabling him to dispense with many tedious
formalities, at the same time considerably increased his labours.

And so winter passed into spring, and still Claverhouse found no work
more worthy of him than patrolling the country, arranging for his men's
quarters, examining suspected persons, and endeavouring to persuade the
Government to leave him not entirely penniless. More than once he sent
word to Edinburgh that he believed something serious was afoot. "I
find," he writes to Linlithgow on April 21st, "Mr. Welsh is accustoming
both ends of the country to face the king's forces, and certainly
intends to break out into open rebellion." This Welsh is a famous figure
in Covenanting history. Grandson to a man whose name was long held in
affectionate memory by his party as that of the "incomparable John Welsh
of Ayr," and great-grandson to no less a hero than John Knox himself, he
was on his own account a memorable man. He had inaugurated the first