could find no evidence of communications with the Parliament after that time, he must have been acquitted had it not been for Monk, who at the last moment produced certain letters written by Argyle to him when acting for Cromwell.  Johnstone of Warriston was another victim, whom, like Argyle, it was no hard matter for judges who had a mind that way to bring within the compass of the law of treason.  He, however, managed to get across to the Continent before he could be arrested.  He was tried and condemned in his absence.  After two years of painful shifts and wanderings he was tracked down in France by a man known as Crooked-back Murray, and sent back to his fate.  A third victim was James Guthrie, the most vehement and active of the Covenanters, the framer of the original Remonstrance and author of a seditious pamphlet called “The Causes of the Lord’s Wrath.”  With him would probably have suffered Samuel Rutherford, a minister as zealous as Guthrie, but of more education and manners.  Fortunately for him, he died before the reign of punishment began; and the Government was forced to content itself with ordering his book “Lex, Rex,” to be burned by the hangman at the Cross of Edinburgh and at the gate of the University of Saint Andrews, where he had been Professor of Divinity.  In 1662, an Act of Indemnity was made law, by which future punishment for the past was adjusted by a scale of fines.

Close on the heels of the Act of Indemnity followed one demanding from all persons holding any office of public trust a public abjuration of the Covenant, and another requiring all clergymen who had been appointed since 1649 to receive collation from the bishop of their diocese.  Those who did not obey were, after a short respite, expelled from their parishes.  Those who obeyed were regarded by their congregations as backsliders and self-seekers.  Three hundred and fifty ministers were driven with their families from their homes in the depth of winter; and to supply their places new ministers were appointed, popularly known as the King’s Curates.  Another Act required attendance at the parish church on penalty of a fine graduated according to the rank of the absentee.  Finally, to crown all, the Solemn League and Covenant was publicly burned at the market-cross of Edinburgh; and an aggravated copy of the English Five-mile Act against Non-jurors, known as the Mile Act, was passed, prohibiting all recusant clergymen from residing within twenty miles of their old parishes, within six miles of Edinburgh or any cathedral town, and within three miles of any royal burgh.  The punishment for transgressing this law was to be the same as that for sedition.

Enough has now been said to show the nature of the bullying adopted by the Government.  Over the years which still lie between us and the entry of Claverhouse on the stage I must pass more rapidly.