had brought ruin on the expedition of Argyle, and had caused not a little annoyance to the government of William.  In the Club which had braved the King and domineered over the Parliament there had been no more noisy republican.  But a title and a place had produced a wonderful conversion.  Sir Patrick was now Lord Polwarth; he had the custody of the Great Seal of Scotland; he presided in the Privy Council; and thus he had it in his power to do the worst action of his bad life.

It remained to be seen how the clergy of Edinburgh would act.  That divines should be deaf to the entreaties of a penitent who asks, not for pardon, but for a little more time to receive their instructions and to pray to Heaven for the mercy which cannot be extended to him on earth, seems almost incredible.  Yet so it was.  The ministers demanded, not only the poor boy’s death, but his speedy death, though it should be his eternal death.  Even from their pulpits they cried out for cutting him off.  It is probable that their real reason for refusing him a respite of a few days was their apprehension that the circumstances of his case might be reported at Kensington, and that the King, who, while reciting the Coronation Oath, had declared from the throne that he would not be a persecutor, might send down positive orders that the sentence should not be executed.  Aikenhead was hanged between Edinburgh and Leith.  He professed deep repentance, and suffered with the Bible in his hand.  The people of Edinburgh, though assuredly not disposed to think lightly of his offence, were moved to compassion by his youth, by his penitence, and by the cruel haste with which he was hurried out of the world.  It seems that there was some apprehension of a rescue; for a strong body of fusileers was under arms to support the civil power.  The preachers who were the boy’s murderers crowded round him at the gallows, and, while he was struggling in the last agony, insulted Heaven with prayers more blasphemous than any thing that he had ever uttered.  Wodrow has told no blacker story of Dundee.798

On the whole, the British islands had not, during ten years, been so free from internal troubles as when William, at the close of April 1697, set out for the Continent.  The war in the Netherlands was a little, and but a little, less languid than in the preceding year.  The French generals opened the campaign by taking the small town of Aeth.  They then meditated a far more important conquest.  They made a sudden push for Brussels, and would probably have succeeded in their design but for the activity of William.  He was encamped on ground which lies within sight of the Lion of Waterloo, when he received, late in the evening, intelligence that the capital of the Netherlands was in danger.  He instantly put his forces in motion, marched all night, and, having traversed the field destined to acquire, a hundred and eighteen years later, a terrible renown, and threaded the long defiles of the Forest of Soignies, he was