The publication of a stern and high-toned manifesto against Charles Stuart, and all supporters of his authority, together with the secret murder of two gentlemen of the Life Guards, who had been particularly active in discovering conventicles, and who were assassinated a few nights after its appearance in November, 1684, excited great alarm in the minds of the Scottish ministry. An oath, abjuring the principles inculcated by this document, was ordained to be put to all persons above sixteen years of age, and capital punishment was the penalty of all who refused it. Dalyell took measures still more decisive with the parish where the guardsmen were murdered; and he marched a body of troops to Livingstone, where the officers had authority to summon before them the inhabitants of that parish, and of five others adjacent, that they might be interrogated upon the late seditious manifesto.
Those who owned it were instantly to be shot; and those who refused to answer were also to be shot. Officers and soldiers were sent through Edinburgh—particularly to the Calton, where the poorest and most humble class of citizens resided—to enforce the oath of abjuration and ask ensnaring questions, as to whether the rising at Bothwell was a rebellion, and the slaying of Archbishop Sharpe a murder? "Old women were taken from their wheels, and journeymen and apprentices from the forge, to answer these teazing and captious questions," and the thumbikins were always at hand to freshen their memories.
A document preserved in the General Register House at Edinburgh, signed by Charles II. at Windsor, 16th of June, 1684, and printed by a literary club, affords us a list of the Scottish standing forces, then commanded by Dalyell, and irrespective of the militia which formed the main strength of the country.
Reduced since Bothwell, the Life Guards then consisted of a hundred men; each officer was furnished with two horses; the pay, sterling, of a captain was 1l. per diem; of the lieutenants 12s.; of the cornets 7s.; of the troopers 2s. 6d.
His Majesty's regiment of Foot Guards, still commanded by Lieut.-General George, Earl of Linlithgow, consisted of ten companies, each consisting of three officers, two sergeants, two drummers, and seventy-three rank and file, making a total strength, staff included, of eight hundred and seven men.
The grenadiers of the Foot Guard were the same in number as the ten preceding companies.
The Earl of Mar's regiment consisted of eleven companies of eighty strong. The pay of a captain of infantry was 8s. sterling per diem; the privates received 5d.
A regiment of horse (armed with sword and pistol), consisting of five troops of fifty men each, including officers and men.
A regiment of dragoons (armed with sword, pistol, and musket, for service on horseback or on foot), the Scots Greys, consisting of "six companies," also of fifty-nine each, including officers. All troopers received 1s. per diem.
The garrison of Edinburgh Castle consisted of 5 officers and 121 soldiers; of Stirling Castle, 3 officers and 47 soldiers; of Dunbarton Castle, 3 officers and 32 soldiers; of the Bass Rock, 1 officer and 28 soldiers.