what it had been; nor were his professions of loyalty regarded by men like Balcarres as above all suspicion.  For Queensberry had been wise with the wisdom of Hamilton and Athole.  The great House of Douglas was prudently divided against itself, and come what might it should not fall.  And Athole now, after with great show of bravery urging Gordon to fire on the town, had grown somewhat less than lukewarm, while Mar, the Governor of Stirling Castle, put an end for ever to any thoughts of a fresh Convention in that city by boldly declaring for William.  The hopes and the hearts of the Jacobites had gone northward with Dundee; and in truth there was not at this moment a brave company of either.

Dundee did not draw rein in Stirling.  He galloped through the town, across the bridge, and on by Dunblane, where he stayed the night, to his own home at Dudhope, where his lady was then waiting her confinement.  The only man of his own quality who had ridden with him from Edinburgh was George Livingstone, Lord Linlithgow’s son, whose troop of Life Guards had been taken from him in the general re-arrangement of regiments that had followed the fiasco of Salisbury; and he had left his companion on the road to make for Lord Strathmore’s house at Glamis.  For a week of unwonted quiet, the last he was to know on earth, Dundee rested at Dudhope.  Then his enemies found him.  On the morning of the 26th Hamilton’s messengers appeared before his gates, summoning him to lay down his arms and return to his duty at the Convention, on pain of being proclaimed traitor and outlaw.  Dundee replied by a letter which, as it has been styled both disrespectful and disingenuous, it is worth while to print in full.

     “Dudhope, March 27th, 1689.

“May it please your Grace:—­The coming of an herald and trumpeter to summon a man to lay down arms that is living in peace at home, seems to me a very extraordinary thing, and, I suppose, will do so to all that hear of it.  While I attended the Convention at Edinburgh I complained often of many people being in arms without authority, which was notoriously known to be true; even the wild hill-men; and no summons to lay down arms under the pain of treason being given them, I thought it unsafe for me to remain longer among them.  And because a few of my friends did me the favour to convey me out of the reach of these murderers, and that my Lord Livingstone and several other officers took occasion to come away at the same time, this must be called being in arms.  We did not exceed the number allowed by the Meeting of Estates.  My Lord Livingstone and I might have had each of us ten; and four or five officers that were in company might have had a certain number allowed them; which being, it will be found we exceeded not.  I am sure it is far short of the number my Lord Lorn was seen to march with.  And though I had gone away with some more than ordinary, who can blame me when designs of murdering me was made appear?