conventicle, and had ever since been zealous in promoting them and
officiating at them among the wild hills and moorlands of the western
shires, till his name had become a byword among the soldiers for his
courage in braving and his skill in evading them. But though one of the
most resolute and indefatigable of the ministers of the Covenant, he was
also one of the most moderate and sensible. Had no one among them been
more eager than he to carry the war into the enemy's country there had
been no Bothwell Bridge. And, indeed, we shall find him seriously taken
to task by the more extreme of the party as a backslider from the good
cause for his endeavour to avert that disastrous affair.

Yet Claverhouse was right. Something very serious was soon to be afoot.
During the last few weeks the Covenanters had been notoriously growing
bolder. They did not always now, as hitherto, content themselves with
evading the soldiers: they became in their turn the aggressors. More
than once an outlying post of Claverhouse's men had been fired upon;
and on one occasion a couple of the dragoons had been savagely murdered
in cold blood. Even Wodrow found himself forced to own that about this
time "matters were running to sad heights among the armed followers of
some of the field meetings." But the trouble did not arise through John
Welsh. It came through a servant of the Crown who had been a sorer
plague to his countrymen than a myriad of disaffected ministers.

On May 5th, Lord Ross[22] from Lanark, and on the 6th Claverhouse from
Dumfries, sent in their despatches to the commander-in-chief at
Edinburgh as usual. It is clear that neither of them had at that time
heard any rumour of an event which had happened a few days previously at
no very great distance from their quarters. On May 2nd the Primate of
Scotland had been dragged from his carriage as he was driving across an
open heath three miles out of Saint Andrews, and murdered in open day