could well desire, have deigned, while partaking of the humble cheer of
the Wallace Inn, to furnish me with information corrective of the facts
which I learned from others. There are also here and there a laird or
two, who, though they shrug their shoulders, profess no great shame in
their fathers having served in the persecuting squadrons of Earlshall and
Claverhouse. From the gamekeepers of these gentlemen, an office the most
apt of any other to become hereditary in such families, I have also
contrived to collect much valuable information.

"Upon the whole, I can hardly fear, that, at this time, in describing the
operation which their opposite principles produced upon the good and bad
men of both parties, I can be suspected of meaning insult or injustice to
either. If recollection of former injuries, extra-loyalty, and contempt
and hatred of their adversaries, produced rigour and tyranny in the one
party, it will hardly be denied, on the other hand, that, if the zeal for
God's house did not eat up the conventiclers, it devoured at least, to
imitate the phrase of Dryden, no small portion of their loyalty, sober
sense, and good breeding. We may safely hope, that the souls of the brave
and sincere on either side have long looked down with surprise and pity
upon the ill-appreciated motives which caused their mutual hatred and
hostility, while in this valley of darkness, blood, and tears. Peace to
their memory! Let us think of them as the heroine of our only Scottish
tragedy entreats her lord to think of her departed sire:--

'O rake not up the ashes of our fathers!
Implacable resentment was their crime,
And grievous has the expiation been.'"