All eyes were now turned to Scotland.  England had practically accepted William, and although the terms of acceptance were still in some quarters kept open to question, there was no longer fear that the final answer would have to be given by the sword.  In Scotland the case was different.  Many of the great nobles and other dignitaries had indeed professed themselves in favour of William, but political morality, a custom nowhere in those days very rigidly observed, may be said to have been honoured by Scottish statesmen almost wholly in the breach.  No man trusted his neighbour, and his neighbour was perfectly aware of the fact.  It was impossible to say what an hour might not bring forth; and in this flux of things no man could guarantee that the Whigs of to-day would not be the Jacobites of to-morrow.  Hamilton was the recognised leader of the Whigs, Athole of the Jacobites.  Both were great and powerful noblemen.  The influence of Hamilton was supreme in the Western Lowlands:  only Mac Callum More could muster to his standard a larger gathering than the lord of Blair, and the glory of Mac Callum More was now in eclipse.  Yet Hamilton had been one of James’ Privy Councillors, and had not declared for William till the Dutch guards were at Whitehall.  His son Arran and his brother Dumbarton were both on the other side:  Arran had accompanied James to Rochester, and Dumbarton had refused to hold his commission under the Prince of Orange.  Athole had more than once coquetted with the Whigs, and his present Jacobitism was shrewdly suspected to be due to the coolness with which his advances had been received:  his son Lord Murray, who had married a daughter of Hamilton, had declared for William.  These great noblemen had indeed the satisfaction of feeling that, however the die might fall, their titles and estates were at least secured.  But the wisdom of their family arrangements did not increase their reputation with their parties.  The Duke of Gordon held the castle of Edinburgh for James; and, though the Duke was a weak creature, his position was strong.  The bulk of the common people were undoubtedly Whigs:  the bishops, and the clergy generally, were, if not exactly Jacobites, undoubtedly Tories.

There were religious troubles of course to swell the political ones.  When the news of James’s flight reached Edinburgh, Perth had been imprudently induced to disband the militia, and the Covenanters had been quick to take advantage of the imprudence.  The Episcopal clergymen were rabbled throughout all the western shires.  Their houses were sacked, and themselves and their families insulted and sometimes beaten:  the churches were locked, and the keys carried off in triumph by the pious zealots.  In Glasgow the Cathedral was attacked, and the congregation pelted through the streets.  In Edinburgh Holyrood Palace was carried by storm:  the Catholic chapel, which James had built and adorned with great splendour, was gutted, and the printing-press, employed to publish tracts in favour of the Catholic religion, was broken up.  Perth fled for his life, but was overtaken at sea, carried back and lodged in Stirling Castle, followed by the threats and curses of the mob.  Such was the temper of the Scottish nation when the Convention of Estates, summoned by William, met at Edinburgh on March 14th, 1689.