The Jacobites were delighted by the prospect of being able to make out a case which would bring discredit on the usurper, and which might be set off against the many offences imputed by the Whigs to Claverhouse and Mackenzie.

The zealous Presbyterians were not less delighted at the prospect of being able to ruin the Master of Stair.

They had never forgotten or forgiven the service which he had rendered to the House of Stuart in the time of the persecution.

They knew that, though he had cordially concurred in the political revolution which had freed them from the hated dynasty, he had seen with displeasure that ecclesiastical revolution which was, in their view, even more important.

They knew that church government was with him merely an affair of State, and that, looking at it as an affair of State, he preferred the episcopal to the synodical model.