Crime & punishment > Times of Claverhouse, or, Sketches of the persecution

THE TIMES OF CLAVERHOUSE.
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, was originally made by the men and their deeds.
I How much have the landed proprietors in their
| power for the weal or woe of a country, and what
a blessing might they be if they would only con¬
duct themselves in a paternal and beneficent way
toward those who are dependent on them ! These
| persecuting lairds were roistering, graceless fellows,
who acted according to their own caprice, and
moved just as the times guided them, without prin¬
ciple and without motive.
But the spies were important persons in those
!' times, and wrought great and deadly mischief
throughout the land. These spies and informers,
as has been already stated, were hired, some by the
council, and others by individuals who employed
them in this infamous calling. None but base
men, it is true, and men lost to all character, and
reckless of public opinion, could engage in an occu¬
pation so infamous; but then there was abundance
of individuals found ready, at all hazards, for a
vile reward, to do the work which an honourable
i mind would utterly scorn. No agency, next to that
i of the curates, was so successful in discovering the
' persons, and finding out the haunts, of the poor
1 Covenanters. The guise which these insidious men
/ assumed was of such a kind as effectually to lull
all suspicions on the part of the sufferers. They
: went sometimes in the character of pedlars, vending
their wares through the country. By this means
, they found their way to the hearths of the pea-
i santry, who, suspecting no evil, afforded them a
) place at their board, and a night’s lodging. Ped¬
lars were universally welcome guests in the houses
• in the landward districts, because, in an age when
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