It was suspected to have been the
policy of Lauderdale and his associates to push these unhappy men to
extremities, and force them into rebellion, with a view of reaping
profit from the forfeitures and attainders which would ensue upon it.
But the Covenanters, aware of this policy, had hitherto forborne all
acts of hostility; and that tyrannical minister had failed of his
purpose. An incident at last happened, which brought on an insurrection
in that country.
The Covenanters were much enraged against Sharpe, the primate, whom
they considered as an apostate from their principles, and whom they
experienced to be an unrelenting persecutor of all those who dissented
from the established worship. He had an officer under him, one
Carmichael, no less zealous than himself against conventicles, and who,
by his violent prosecutions, had rendered himself extremely obnoxious
to the fanatics. A company of these had waylaid him on the road near
St. Andrews, with an intention, if not of killing him, at least of
chastising him so severely as would afterwards render him more cautious
in persecuting the nonconformists. [*]
* Wodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church of
Scotland vol. ii. p. 28.
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