286 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. *

9

chap. equally exposed to the rapacity of those barbarians,liXvi. confirmed themselves still more in the resolutionma. of refusing them. The voice of the nation wasraised against this enormous outrage; and aftertwo months free quarter, the highlanders weresent back to their hills, loaded with the spoilsand execrations of the west.

Those who had been engaged to subscribethe bonds , could find no security but by turningout such tenants as they suspected of an inclina-tion to conventicles , and thereby depopulatingtheir estates. To increase the misery of theseunhappy farmers, the council enacted, that noneshould be received any where, or allowed ahabitation, who brought not a certificate of hisconformity from the parish- minister. That theobstinate and refractory might not escape fartherpersecution, a new device was fallen upon. Bythe law of Scotland, any man, who should gobefore a magistrate , and swear that he thoughthimself in danger from another, might obtain awrit of law - burrows , as it is called ; by whichthe latter was bound , under the penalty ofimprisonment and outlawry, to find security forhis good behaviour. Lauderdale entertained theabsurd notion of making the king sue out writsof law-burrows against his subjects. On thispretence , the refusers of the bonds were sum-moned to appear before the council, and wererequired to bind themselves, under the penaltyof two years’ rent, neither to frequent conven-ticles themselves, nor allow their family and