Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

of offering any resistance. In order to reach this
end they resolved to begin a reign of tenor. In
Thomas Dalziel of Binns, whom we have already
named, they found an instrument admirably
adapted for their purpose. This man united the not
uncongenial characters of fanatic and savage. If
ever he had possessed any of the "milk of human
kindness," he had got quit of what certainly would
have been a great disqualification for the work now
put into his hands. In his wars among the Tatars
and Turks his naturally cruel disposition had been
rendered utterly callous; in short he had grown not
less the Turk than any of those with whom he did
battle. From these distant campaigns he returned to
inflict on his countrymen and countrywomen the
horrid cruelties which he had seen and practiced
abroad.
His outward man was a correct index of the
fierce, fiery, fanatical, and malignant spirit that
dwelt within it. His figure was gaunt and weird. To
have seen the man striding along at a rapid pace,
with his flinty face, his hard cheek-bones, his
gleaming eyes, his streaming beards -- for he had
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