CHAPTER II.

Summon an hundred horse, by break of day,
To wait our pleasure at the castle gates.
Douglas.

Under the reign of the last Stewarts, there was an anxious wish on the
part of government to counteract, by every means in their power, the
strict or puritanical spirit which had been the chief characteristic of
the republican government, and to revive those feudal institutions which
united the vassal to the liege lord, and both to the crown. Frequent
musters and assemblies of the people, both for military exercise and for
sports and pastimes, were appointed by authority. The interference, in
the latter case, was impolitic, to say the least; for, as usual on such
occasions, the consciences which were at first only scrupulous, became
confirmed in their opinions, instead of giving way to the terrors of
authority; and the youth of both sexes, to whom the pipe and tabor in
England, or the bagpipe in Scotland, would have been in themselves an
irresistible temptation, were enabled to set them at defiance, from the
proud consciousness that they were, at the same time, resisting an act of
council. To compel men to dance and be merry by authority, has rarely
succeeded even on board of slave-ships, where it was formerly sometimes
attempted by way of inducing the wretched captives to agitate their limbs
and restore the circulation, during the few minutes they were permitted
to enjoy the fresh air upon deck. The rigour of the strict Calvinists
increased, in proportion to the wishes of the government that it should
be relaxed. A judaical observance of the Sabbath--a supercilious
condemnation of all manly pastimes and harmless recreations, as well as