VII. 1677. venticles, in consequence of their dispersion, be BOOK came more widely diffused through the southern counties, from the borders of England to Perth and Lennox, beyond the friths; and were held in morasses, woods, or on the summits of mountains, to prevent surprise. From the vicinity and from the frequent assaults of the garrisons, the concourse of people became more numerous, and better armed and mounted for mutual defence. The conventicles assumed a more formidable appearance, and were protected by regular patroles and guards of horse, till the people dispersed. The ministers who rejoiced in the multitude of their audience, and the people who were delighted with the romantic and meritorious dangers of the sabbath, preferred the fields to the shelter of houses or the sanctity of churches; and while they braved or eluded, or suffered the united rage of the military and the laws, imagined that the gospel was far more efficacious and successful, when preached in the wilderness. During six years, their contests with the military were frequent and bloody, but not always successful. A price was fixed on the field preachers, whom the soldiers daily pur sued like a partridge on the hills. The Bass, a steep rock in the mouth of the Forth, was converted * comfortable to them; nor have any intelligence with them "by word, writing, message, or otherwise, under the pain of "being repute and esteemed art and part with them in the "crime foresaid, and to be pursued therefore with all rigour." 1677. BOOK into a fortress or state prison, where they pined VII. in misery and want for years, neglected and forgotten. The people intercepted on their return from conventicles, were delivered up as recruits for the service of France.68 In this desperate situation of the country, a severe example was chosen to intimidate, or rather to exasperate the people by a perfidious violation of honour, justice, and of the public faith. 1678. January. trial, Archbishop Sharp had observed a person who Mitchel's eyed him attentively, and imagined that he beheld the features of the assassin who had attempted his life. When arrested, he proved to be Mitchel, a fanatical preacher; a loaded pistol was found in his custody to confirm the suspicion; but no proof appeared of his actual guilt. To discover his confederates, and the extent of the danger, a solemn promise was made by Sharp to procure a pardon if he would confess the fact. On the most solemn assurance of life, confirmed by the chancellor, commissioner, and privy council, he acknowledged the attempt to assassinate the primate; but instead of numerous associates, or a regular conspiracy, none but a single person then dead, was privy to the design. Disappointed and mortified at such a slight discovery, the perfidious council proceeded to determine what punishment less than death might be inflicted on the crime. The justiciary 68 Burnet, ii. 167. Kirkton. Ralph, i. 315. Wodrow, i. 427-32-41. VII. 1678. court was instructed secretly to pronounce a sen- BOOK tence for the amputation of his hand; but when he was produced to renew his confession at the bar, the whisper of a judge in passing, admonished him to acknowledge nothing, unless his limbs as well as his life were secured. The torture was next applied under the false pretext of extorting a confession of his concern in the insurrection of Pentland; and after enduring the question till he fainted under the repeated strokes of the executioner, he remained four years in fetters forgotten in the solitary confinement of the Bass.69 His trial, on the return of Lauderdale, was now resumed at the instigation of Sharp. Nisbet, the king's advo cate, was displaced for Mackenzie, who, as counsel for Mitchel in the former trial, could not be ignorant of the promise to preserve his life, yet preferred an indictment, against him for a capital crime. Primrose, from the lucrative office of clerk register, removed to be justice general, transmitted privately to his advocates a copy of the act of Wodrow, i. 375. 511. Burnet, ii. 176. At first it was proposed in council to cut off both his hands, but this was prevented, not from humanity, but by a jest of Rothes, too gross to be transcribed. Id. Nisbet was removed, because he was rich, and had refused a sum of money to the duchess of Lauderdale; Primrose, because the clerk register's was a lucrative place. It was given nominally to another, but the profits were seized by the rapacious duchess, and Primrose was made justice ge VII. 1678. BOOK Council in which the assurance was contained. His former extrajudicial confession, the only evidence of his attempt to assassinate a prelate and a privy counsellor, was attested by Sharp the primate, Rothes the chancellor, Lauderdale high commis, sioner, and Hatton a lord of the treasury and session, who, in their zeal to convict the prisoner, did not scruple to declare on oath that no assurance whatsoever had been given for the preservation of his life. The copy of the act of council was produced. The books of council, deposited in the adjoining chamber, were demanded as evidence for the prisoner, since his extrajudicial confession before the same judicature had been admitted as proof. But the duke of Lauderdale, who as a witness was not entitled to speak, interrupted the court in a strain of imperious authority, declared that the books of council contained the secrets of the king, which no court should be permitted to examine; and as he affirmed that the four counsellors came not there to be accused of perjury, it was immediately understood that they were all forsworn. The court, intimidated perhaps by his threats, determined by an obsequious majority that it was too late to apply for produc tion of the record, of which an authenticated copy had been refused by the clerk. But it is observable, as a melancholy instance of the depravity or servility of the bench, that the justice general, who furnished a surreptitious copy, and had previously admonished Lauderdale of the existence of the act, possessed neither virtue nor fortitude sufficient to attest the fact, as a witness or as a judge, but pro nounced condemnation to death, upon a man whom his evidence ought to have preserved."1 BOOK tion. VII. 1678. Before the jury had returned a verdict, the four and execu lords, as soon as the court had adjourned, examin- Jan. 18. ed the books of council where the evidence of their perjury was recorded, and where it is still preserv ed to their eternal reproach. Their conduct sufficiently evinces the persuasion under which they acted, that there was no record of their assurance to Mitchel; and they still affected to believe, that nothing more was intended than a promise to intercede with the king for his life. The blame was transferred from the chancellor who subscribed, to the clerk who inserted the assurance in their minutes; the latter discovered that the act of council was framed by Nisbet, from whom they proposed to levy a severe fine; but the latter procured nine privy counsellors who offered to swear, and lord Hatton's letters also were produced to prove, that a full assurance of life had been approved and confirmed by the privy council, when engrossed in its books. Lauderdale was at length inclined to grant a respite till the king was consulted; but the primate was inexorable. He urged that the example was absolutely necessary to preserve his life from assassins, to which Lauderdale assented with a |