to judge
whether it is most likely that a party of persecuted and insurgent fanatics
should mangle a body supposed to be that of their chief enemy, in the same
manner as several persons present at Drumclog had shortly before treated the
person of Archbishop Sharp; or that a domestic dog should, for want of a single
breakfast, become so ferocious as to feed on his own master, selecting his body
from scores that were lying around equally accessible to his ravenous appetite.
 
27 There was actually a young cornet of the Life-Guards named Grahame, and
probably some relation of Claverhouse, slain in the skirmish of Drumclog. In the
old ballad on the battle of Bothwell Bridge, Claverhouse is said to have
continued the slaughter of the fugitives in revenge of this gentleman's death.
 
»Haud up your hand,« then Monmouth said;
»Gie quarters to these men for me;«
But bloody Claver'se swore an oath,
His kinsman's death avenged should be.
 
The body of this young man was found shockingly mangled after the battle, his
eyes pulled out, and his features so much defaced, that it was impossible to
recognise him. The tory writers say that this was done by the whigs; because,
finding the name Grahame wrought in the young gentleman's neckcloth, they took
the corpse for that of Claver'se himself. The whig authorities give a different
account, from tradition, of the cause of Cornet Grahame's body being thus
mangled. He had, say they, refused his own dog any food on the morning of the
battle, affirming, with an oath, that he should have no breakfast but upon the
flesh of the whigs. The ravenous animal, it is said, flew at his master as soon
as he fell, and lacerated his face and throat.
These two stories are presented to the reader, leaving it to him to judge
whether it is most likely that a party of persecuted and insurgent fanatics
should mangle a body supposed to be that of their chief enemy, in the same
manner as several persons present at Drumclog had shortly before treated the
person of Archbishop Sharp; or that a domestic dog should, for want of a single
breakfast, become so ferocious as to feed on his own master, selecting his body
from scores that were lying around equally accessible to his ravenous appetite.
 
28 The belief of the Covenanters that their principal enemies, and Claverhouse
in particular, had obtained from the devil a charm which rendered them proof
against leaden bullets, led them to pervert even the circumstances of his death.
Howie of Lochgoin, after giving some