William gave no sign of displeasure, but said at parting: "Take care, my Lord, that you keep within the law; for, if you break it, you must expect to be left to it." [286] Dundee seems to have been less ingenuous.

He employed the mediation of Burnet, opened a negotiation with Saint James's, declared himself willing to acquiesce in the new order of things, obtained from William a promise of protection, and promised in return to live peaceably.

Such credit was given to his professions that he was suffered to travel down to Scotland under the escort of a troop of cavalry.

Without such an escort the man of blood, whose name was never mentioned but with a shudder at the hearth of any Presbyterian family, would, at that conjuncture, have had but a perilous journey through Berwickshire and the Lothians, [287] February was drawing to a close when Dundee and Balcarras reached Edinburgh.

They had some hope that they might be at the head of a majority in the Convention.