...d the horrible perversion of justice by the king's chief judge in the Bloody Assizes; the barbarous hunting of the Scotch Dissenters by Claverhouse; the melancholy fate of the brave and noble Duke of Argyle ,—are described with graphic power unknown to Smollett or Hume. Personal portraits are sketched with a bold freedom which at times startles us. The old familiar faces, as we have seen them thr...