Experience had at length convinced his Majesty that mercy would be weakness.

Even the Jacobites were disgusted by learning that a Restoration would be immediately followed by a confiscation and a proscription.

Some of them did not hesitate to say that Melfort was a villain, that he hated Dundee and Balcarras, that he wished to ruin them, and that, for that end, he had written these odious despatches, and had employed a messenger who had very dexterously managed to be caught.

It is however quite certain that Melfort, after the publication of these papers, continued to stand as high as ever in the favour of James.

It can therefore hardly be doubted that, in those passages which shocked even the zealous supporters of hereditary right, the Secretary merely expressed with fidelity the feelings and intentions of his master, [336] Hamilton, by virtue of the powers which the Estates had, before their adjournment, confided to him, ordered Balcarras and Dundee to be arrested.