Claverhouse | Page 6

the last degree
confused and doubtful. If it is so in the case of such a man as
Marlborough, small wonder that it is so in the case of such a man as
Claverhouse, whose name was practically unknown till ten years before
his death. That he did, however, at one time bear arms in the Dutch
ranks seems as indisputable as any part of the scanty story of the first
two-and-thirty years of his life can be said to be. But beyond this it is
impossible to go.
In 1677 he left William's service and returned to Scotland. An idle
story was circulated some years afterwards of a brawl with one of
William's officers who had received the regiment promised to
Claverhouse, of a reprimand from William, and an indignant vow never
to serve again under a prince who had broken his word. The judicial
weight that has been brought to demolish this slender fabric is
unnecessary. The story itself is not consistent with the characters of
either men. It is very possible that the young soldier, like another young
man of those days, may have grown "tired with knocking at
preferment's door;" but, in truth, a reason to account for their parting is
very easily found. With the campaign of 1677 all fighting on the
Continent was stayed for a time. Claverhouse's profession was fighting.
After the peace of Nimeguen in 1678 Scotland was the only European
country then offering a chance of employment to a soldier of fortune. In
1677, accordingly, he resigned his commission in the Dutch service and
crossed over into England, taking with him a reputation for courage and
ability that at once recommended him to the King and Duke of York
for a man likely to be useful in such affairs as they had then on hand.
Indeed, the character that it is clear he brought back with him from
Holland is alone sufficient to disprove the story of the quarrel in the
courtyard at Loo.[6]
FOOTNOTES:

[1] Fountainhall's "Historical Notices:" Napier's "Memorials of
Dundee," i. 183. The decision in question is dated July 24th, 1687, and
certainly appears to prove that Claverhouse did not attain his majority
till 1664, which would fix his birth in the year above given.
[2] The "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel" were
printed for the Abbotsford Club in 1842. They are believed to have
been written between 1730 and 1740 by John Drummond of Bahaldy, a
grandson, or great-grandson, of Lochiel. Several copies of the
manuscript are in existence, of which the best is said by the editor to be
the one then in the possession of Mr. Crawfurd of Cartsburn. It is
written in a clear hand upon small quarto paper, and bound in two
volumes. On the fly-leaf of the first volume is written "Aug. 7. 1732, Jo.
Drummond." See also Burnet's "History of My Own Time," ii. 553;
Dalrymple's "Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland," i. 344; Burton's
"History of Scotland," vii. 360; Napier's "Memorials of Viscount
Dundee," i. 16-32, and 178-9. Burnet married Lady Margaret Kennedy,
daughter of the Earl of Cassilis and aunt of Lady Dundee. In point of
style and arrangement, of taste and temper--in everything, in short,
which helps to make literature, Napier's book is perhaps as bad as it is
possible for a book to be. But his industry is unimpeachable; and,
through the kindness of the late Duke of Buccleuch, he was able to
publish no less than thirty-seven letters written in Claverhouse's own
hand to the first Duke of Queensberry, not one of which had been
included in the collection printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1826, nor
was, in fact, known to be in existence by anyone outside the family of
Buccleuch. His book includes also the fragment of a memoir of Dundee
and his times, left in manuscript by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, of
Hoddam, Walter Scott's friend. The memoir was thrown up, it is said,
in despair on the appearance of "Old Mortality." Some idea of the
extent to which Napier suffered from the Lues Boswelliana may be
gathered from the fact that he regards even the Claverhouse of that
incomparable romance as a libel.
[3] "The Hell wicked-witted, bloodthirsty Graham of Claverhouse
hated to spend his time with wine and women."--"Life of Walter
Smith," in Walker's "Biographia Presbyteriana."

[4]
"I saw the man who at St. Neff did see His conduct, prowess, martial
gallantry: He wore a white plumach that day; not one Of Belgians wore
a white, but him alone And though that day was fatal, yet he fought,
And for his part fair triumphs with him brought."
Laing's "Fugitive Scottish Poetry of the Seventeenth Century."
[5] The passage occurs in the fifth book. Dundee, retreating before the
forces of