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THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 

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 Lord Lornk. 
 I'rubably at the lime of his Marriage in 1626. 
 
 From Original in NcMhattlc Abbcv. 
 
THE 
 
 Great Marquess 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF ARCHIBALD, 
 8th earl, and 1st (AND ONLY) 
 MARQUESS OF ARGYLL (1607-1661) 
 
 By JOHN WILLCOCK, B.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A SHETLAND MINISTER OF THE 
 
 18th CENTURY" "SIR THOMAS URQUHART, 
 
 OF CROMARTIE, KNIGHT," ETC. 
 
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 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER 
 
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 INTERTWINED INITIALS, A. C. AND M. D., ARCHIBALD 
 CAMPBELL AND MARGARET DOUGLAS, AFTERWARDS 
 MARQUESS AND MARCHIONESS OF ARGYLL, FROM A 
 RUBBING TAKEN FROM AN INSCRIBED STONE FOUND 
 AT ROSNEATH. 
 
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 [All Rights Reserved] 
 
PriKtcd hy Morrison and Gibb Limited, Edhihuy^h 
 
DEDICATED 
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 HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS LOUISE, 
 DUCHESS OF ARGYLL 
 
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PREFACE 
 
 The title of " The Great Marquess " is one which has been 
 appKed both to the subject of the following biography and to his 
 rival Montrose. The title in question has not been conferred 
 upon either of them by the general consent of their countrymen, 
 for each has had a large circle of enemies and detractors, and 
 accordingly neither of them can claim any definite property in 
 it. Those, therefore, who may have been accustomed to think 
 of Montrose as " The Great Marquess," and have now this 
 volume in their hands, are asked to read it with an open mind, 
 and only to come to a final decision as to whether the claim put 
 forward for Argyll's right to the title is valid after they have 
 perused the story of his life. 
 
 No one can write of either of the two Marquesses without 
 forming and expressing some opinion of the other, and liking for 
 the one is generally accompanied by dislike of the other. As 
 many lives have been written of Montrose, and as no regular 
 biography of Argyll, beyond articles in biographical dictionaries, 
 has been attempted before our own, we freely admit that in 
 many minds a certain prejudice exists against him, which we 
 hope to be able to dispel. Yet, though we seek to vindicate 
 Argyll's right to the high place which he occupies in the 
 estimation of a very large proportion of his fellow-coimtrymen, 
 we do not desire to exalt his fame by seeking to depreciate 
 Montrose. In the very abundant literature which deals with 
 the career of the latter we regret to notice what seems to us 
 the fault which we have sought to avoid. Two striking instances 
 of it we may be allowed to refer to more particularly. 
 
 The popularity enjoyed by Sheriff Aytoun's Lays of the 
 Scottish Cavaliers has induced many people to regard him as an 
 
 xi 
 
xii PREFACE 
 
 authority on historical matters, and to accept his defamation of 
 the characters of prominent Covenanters as accurate portraiture. 
 His special gifts and tone of mind, however, find more ample 
 exercise and illustration in dealing with ideal personages like 
 " Ta faliant Fhairshon " than with those like the MacCailein 
 Mor, who belong to the actual world of history. In the body 
 of the following work we deal with the view of matters given 
 in the poem entitled " The Execution of Montrose," and therefore 
 make no further comment upon it here, lest we exhaust the 
 patience of our readers by slaying the slain an unnecessary 
 number of times. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, in A Legend of Montrose, has introduced the 
 Marquess of Argyll as one of his characters, and has delighted 
 multitudes of readers by that brilliant novel. His unwillingness 
 to deliver an open attack upon one so closely connected as Argyll 
 was with the Covenanting movement, and one, moreover, who 
 was regarded by so many as a martyr on its behalf, has led him 
 to somewhat more subtle and effective methods of assault. Thus 
 in his description of the battle of Inverlochy he seems to be 
 labouring with all his might to set down all that can be said in 
 defence of Argyll's procedure, while at the same time by skilful 
 innuendoes he destroys the effect of his exculpation with a finish 
 and completeness that Mrs Candour might have envied. After 
 reading the compositions of both writers, one is inclined to think 
 that an eminent Covenanter would suffer less damage from being 
 knocked down by Aytoun than from being picked up by Scott. 
 
 The reason why our friends the Episcopalians have spent so 
 much admiration upon Montrose, who with his dying breath 
 spoke contemptuously of Bishops, and who was himself an elder 
 in the Presbyterian Church, is a difficulty to which we have 
 alluded in a footnote on one of our pages, but which we have 
 been unable to solve. If we had not been forbidden by 
 Christian charity to impute motives, we might have said that 
 they had chosen that hero as a stick with which to beat 
 Presbyterians. 
 
 We have to acknowledge a debt of obligation to the 
 voluminous and luminous history of the first half of the seven- 
 
PREFACE xiii 
 
 teenth century by the late Dr Gardiner, and also repeated acts of 
 kindness on his part in supplying information on various points 
 on which we had consulted him. The vast research and the 
 skilful handling of materials displayed by that historian render 
 his works indispensable to all who follow him in dealing with 
 the events of the period named, though we candidly acknowledge 
 the fact that our estimate of the character and career of Argyll 
 differs widely from his. On this point, indeed, it is our opinion 
 that the eminent historian was unconsciously biassed by the 
 partisan literature dealing with the life of Montrose, with which 
 he was very intimately acquainted. So distorted is the view of 
 matters in much of that literature that even the fairest-minded 
 and most patient student who familiarizes himself with it is apt 
 to be affected by the intellectual and moral strabismus which 
 afflicts so many of those in whose company he finds himself. 
 
 To some of those who would fain rise above mere partisan 
 prejudice in judging the character of Argyll it seems only 
 possible to form a more favourable estimate of him than that 
 held in many quarters by regarding him rather as an almost 
 independent potentate than as a Scotch noble and a subject of 
 Charles I. A good case might conceivably, they admit, be made 
 out for him if it were possible to accept him as the former, but 
 as the latter they are inclined to think he cannot escape 
 condemnation for disloyalty and ambition. We decline, however, 
 to accept the censure passed on him even as thus modified. 
 There is still a third capacity in which he may be regarded — 
 that of a patriotic statesman — and our contention is that from 
 this point of view he is worthy of admiration. The mere fact 
 that he offered strenuous resistance to the policy of Charles I. 
 in dealing with Scotch affairs may be sufficient in the eyes of a 
 few stray obscurantists to condemn him as disloyal, but such an 
 opinion may be dismissed as the result of mental aberration, in 
 view of the fact that the arbitrary government of that Sovereign 
 drove two of his three kingdoms into passionate resistance to 
 it. The question rather is whether ambition and self-seeking 
 were outstanding faults in Argyll's public life which compel his 
 being classed with those who have taken advantage of disorders 
 
xiv PREFACE 
 
 in the State to engage in the occupation figuratively described as 
 " fishing in troubled waters." We answer the question in the 
 negative, and in proof of our contention refer our readers to the 
 plain, unvarnished narrative of his life which we have sought to 
 give in the following pages. 
 
 The discontent which ultimately drove the people of Scotland 
 to rise in rebellion against the government of Charles I. was 
 neither originated nor fomented by Argyll : it had reached great 
 intensity before ever he gave an indication of sympathy with 
 it. Whether we approve or condemn the movement which 
 issued in the formation of the Covenant, the fact that it was a 
 great national upheaval cannot be denied. The overwhelming 
 majority of all classes of the people supported the movement 
 enthusiastically. The high rank and commanding ability of 
 Argyll rendered it the easier for him to assume the role of leader, 
 but the main source of his power in the country was his 
 conscientious acceptance and ardent maintenance of the National 
 Covenant. The second phase of the movement, when those 
 who had won all that they had contended for chose to take part 
 in the civil war then raging in the adjoining kingdom and 
 formed the Solemn League and Covenant with the English 
 insurgents, is fairly open to censure. That Argyll lent all the 
 weight of his influence to their dubious policy is certain, but 
 there is no reason for doubting that he and the large majority 
 of those who supported the policy in question believed that the 
 path of danger on which the nation had entered was also the 
 path of duty. 
 
 During the whole period of the alliance, from the conclusion 
 of the Solemn League and Covenant down to the coup d'itat 
 which led to the King's trial and execution, Argyll was steadily 
 faithful to the English Parliamentary party. The establishment 
 of some modified form of Presbyterianism in England and the 
 rigid limitation of the royal power may be said to constitute 
 the two main articles of his political programme. The execution 
 of Charles L destroyed all his plans and swept away the alliance 
 with the Parliamentary party which he had had a large share 
 in effecting. Henceforth he drifted at the mercy of circum- 
 
PREFACE XV 
 
 stances. The experiment of setting np Charles II. as a 
 Covenanted King turned out a ghastly failure, and in the end 
 Argyll found himself an object of suspicion and aversion in the 
 eyes of the extremer Covenanters, the Koyalists, and the King 
 himself. The utter defeat of the Covenanting party in England 
 and in Scotland, by the hands of those who struck down the 
 Monarchy, put an end to the public life of Argyll. He Tmder- 
 took to live peaceably under the Government of the Common- 
 wealth, and he kept his promise. His arrest and execution at 
 the beginning of the new order of things introduced by the 
 Eestoration make any suggestion as to the part in the affairs of 
 his time which he might again have played mere idle conjecture. 
 On the whole we are convinced that his failure and downfall 
 from power resulted from the fact that the cause with which he 
 was identified had run its course, or at least had passed into a 
 phase in which it was impossible for him any longer to guide 
 or serve it. It is only by bearing constantly in mind the fact 
 that he derived his influence from his championship of the policy 
 approved by the mass of the nation at the time of its inception, 
 that we can form a just estimate of his place in history. The 
 idea that he was a crafty, self-seeldng schemer is an explanation 
 of his career which may be attractive from its simplicity, but 
 which is not borne out by facts. 
 
 In the preparation of this volume we have to acknowledge 
 many acts of kindly help and encouragement which have made 
 our work very pleasant to us, and have enabled us to give a 
 more adequate account of the Marquess of Argyll than would 
 otherwise have been possible. 
 
 Our thanks are due to Her Eoyal Highness Princess Louise, 
 Duchess of Argyll, for the permission graciously given us to 
 dedicate this volume to her. 
 
 His Grace the Duke of Argyll has from the first taken the 
 deepest interest in our work, and in the kindest manner has placed 
 the archives of his illustrious House at our disposal, from which 
 we have drawn the valuable series of letters printed in App. 
 VI., the production of which at the trial of the Great Marquess 
 secured his condemnation. 
 
xvi PREFACE 
 
 We desire also to express our gratitude to the Earl of 
 Morton for the interesting series of letters, thirty -four in 
 number, from the Marquess of Argyll, his father, wife, and 
 daughter, which are contained in App. III. These letters 
 have never been published before, and we print them in full, 
 along with those above referred to, as a contribution to the 
 sources of the history of the epoch to which they belong. 
 
 To C. H. Firth, Esq., Oxford, whose own achievements in 
 the field of history have been so brilliant, we owe both the 
 original suggestion to write the life of the Marquess of Argyll 
 and various items of information imparted in the kindliest and 
 most painstaking way. 
 
 We are indebted to the Marquess of Lothian, to J. H. 
 Stevenson, Esq., Advocate, and to J. L. Caw, Esq., Curator of 
 the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, for the portraits of the 
 Marquess of Argyll which enrich this volume; and to Sheriff 
 Guthrie, K.C., for providing us with that of the Eev. James Guthrie ; 
 and to Sir James H. Gibson -Craig, Bart., for permission to 
 reproduce the portrait of Lord Warriston. From J. A. Eairley, 
 Esq., Edinburgh, we received the illustration containing the 
 signatures of Argyll and of other members of the Committee 
 of Estates in 1643,^ and to the same friend we owe gratitude 
 for innumerable items of information sought out for us or supplied 
 from his own rich store of antiquarian knowledge. 
 
 We have also to thank the Council of the Society of 
 Antiquaries of Scotland for the use of the blocks which reproduce 
 the two sides of the Argyll medal preserved in St Andrews, 
 and which we have used for the adornment of the title-page. 
 
 Sheriff Moffatt, Lerwick, has aided us by the loan of books 
 and by various suggestions, and we desire to record our gratitude 
 to him here. 
 
 In the correction of proofs we have received most valuable 
 help from Dr Milne, Aberdeen; H. J. Tedder, M.A., London; 
 
 ' The above document is a passport granted to "Mr Robert Ker, Gentleman," 
 most probably a member of the Lothian family. The signatures appended to it are 
 as follows: — "Loudoun (Chancellor), Glencairne, Wigtoune, Yester, A. Gibsone, 
 Durie, Leven, Eglintoun, Kingorne, Calander, Lauderdaill, Angus, Argyll, 
 Lanerick, Hamilton, Southesk." 
 
PREFACE xvii 
 
 J. A. Fairley, Esq., above named ; Kev. W. T. Cairns, M.A., 
 Abernethy ; and G. Carstairs, M.A., Glasgow. 
 
 In conclusion we desire to say that all our labours will be 
 amply rewarded if we shall be thought to have made any addition 
 to historical knowledge in connexion with the period with which 
 we have dealt. But above all will it be an unending source 
 of pleasure to us if our endeavours to present to the world a 
 worthy narrative of the career of the great Argyll shall be 
 pronounced to be in the least degree successful. His portrait 
 has been slightly dimmed by Time, that " hath an art to make 
 dust of all things," and has been stained by the calumnies of his 
 enemies. Against both have we striven, and no joy could be 
 keener than that we should feel if, in the judgment of our 
 critics, we should be found to have made the noble, pathetic 
 figure of the champion of the Covenant stand out once again in 
 bright and living colours. 
 
 JOHN WILLCOCK. 
 
 St Ringan's United Feee Chukch Manse, 
 Lerwick, Wi Navenibcr, 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 TAGES 
 
 Preface ........ xi-xvii 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Early History of the clan Campbell — Rise and Prosperity of the MacCailein 
 Mor branch — Romantic History of the seventh Earl of Argyll — Birth 
 and Early Life of Lord Lome, afterwards eighth Earl of Argyll . , 1-15 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Lord Lome enters the University of St Andrews — While still a Young Man 
 aids in suppressing Highland Rebels — His Marriage — His relations with 
 his Half-brother and with his Father — His Entrance upon Public Life 
 — A curious Project — His Son "fostered" — Gilderoy — The Struggle 
 between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism — Quarrel with Bishop Sydserf 
 — Friendly relations with Samuel Rutherford .... 16-33 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Nobles jealous of the Bishops — The Book of Canons and the Liturgy — 
 Riot in St Giles's Church, Edinburgh — Popular Discontent — "The 
 Tables" established — The National Covenant — Lord Lome's Visit to 
 London — ^ Hamilton appointed Royal Commissioner — Accusations against 
 the Bishops ........ 34-49 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Meeting of the General Assembly at Glasgow in 1638 — Prominent part taken 
 by the Earl of Argyll in support of the Covenanters — The Abolition of 
 Episcopacy — Hamilton's Estimate of Argyll— Personal Characteristics 
 and Appearance of the latter ...... 50-66 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The Marquess of Huntly refuses to join the Covenanter.", — Alexander Leslie 
 ayipointed their Leader — Capture of Scotch Fortresses — The first 
 "Bishops' War" — Occupation of Aberdeen by Montrose and Leslie — 
 Encampment at Duns Law — Terms of Pacification agreed upon — Argyll 
 coldly received by Charles I. ..... . 6/-S2 
 
XX CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 TAOES 
 
 The Pacification violated — Argyll and other? refuse to meet Charles I. in 
 Conference — Negotiations of the Covenanters with France — The King 
 and the Scotch Bishops — The Proceedings of the Assembly in Glasgow 
 ratified — The Large Declaration condemned — Dislocation of the Con- 
 stitution — The "Altercating Parliament" — The Magistrates of Edin- 
 burgh decline to publish a Royal Proclamation against Argyll . . 83-97 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Renewal of the Rebellion in Scotland — "The Short Parliament " dissolved — 
 The Committee of Estates exercise Supreme Power in Scotland — Argyll 
 receives a Commission of Fire and Sword against Royalist Clans — A 
 Proposal to appoint him Dictator — " The Bond of Cumbernauld " 98-114 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The second "Bishops' War" — The Scotch Army invades England — They 
 force a Passage across the Tyne — Accident at Dunglass — Conference at 
 Ripon — Negotiations transferred to London — Montrose inclines to the 
 Royalist side — Conspiracy against Argyll — Execution of Stewart of 
 Ladywell — Imprisonment of Montrose and his Associates . 115-131 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Treaty concluded with Scotland — Charles I. goes to Edinburgh — He makes 
 many Concessions to the Covenanting Party — Argyll and the Earl of 
 Morton — "The Incident" — Return of Argyll and Hamilton after their 
 Flight from the City — Argyll made a Marquess — Outbreak of Rebellion 
 in Ireland ........ 132-146 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Outbreak of the Civil War in England — Argyll and the General Assembly 
 — Appeal from the Parliamentary Party to Scotland for help — "The 
 Solemn League and Covenant" — Negotiations of the Covenanters with 
 Montrose — A Scotch Army again invades England — Argyll recalled to 
 suppress a Royalist Rising under Huntly — His Success in accomplishing 
 this task ........ 147-162 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Montrose appointed by Charles I. Lieutenant-General for Scotland — He enters 
 the Country in disguise — Takes command of the Troops from Ireland — 
 Battle of Tippermuir — Occupation of Aberdeen — Argyll resigns his 
 Commission — Montrose invades Argyllshire — Battle of Inverlochy — 
 Montrose excommunicated and declared a Traitor . . 163-177 
 
CONTENTS xxi 
 
 PAGES 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 The Course of Events in England — Defeat of the Covenanting Army at 
 Kilsyth — Escape of Argyll — Scotch Troops recalled from England — Battle 
 of Philiphaugh — Argyllshire laid waste by Royalist Troops — Charles I, 
 surrenders to tlie Scotch Army at Newark — Interview between the King 
 and Argyll — Discussion of Terms to be offered to Charles — Argyll's great 
 Speech in London ....... 178-195 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Argyll appointed a Member of the Westminster Assembly — Charles I. given 
 up by the Scotch — Argyll's Popularity begins to decline — General Leslie 
 and he conduct Military Operations in Kintyre — Hamilton's Party gain 
 ascendency in Parliament — Argyll's Duel with the Earl of Crawford — 
 "The Engagement" — Hamilton defeated at Preston — The " Whigganiore 
 Raid" — Cromwell's Visit to Edinburgh — Execution of Charles I. — "The 
 Act of Classes " — Charles II. proclaimed in Edinburgh . . 196-222 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Condition on which the Crown was offered to Charles II. — Royalist Rising in 
 the North of Scotland — Execution of Huntly — Abortive Negotiations 
 with Charles II. — Montrose invades Scotland, is defeated and executed — 
 Charles II. 's ungi'ateful Repudiation of him — Argyll and the Letter from 
 the Earl of Lothian ...... 223-239 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Treaty of Breda concluded with Charles II. — Arrival of the King in Scotland 
 — The Discomfort of his Condition — His relations with Argyll — Cromwell 
 invades Scotland — The Royal Army purged of "Malignants" — The 
 Battle of Dunbar — Honours promised by the King to Argyll — "The 
 Start" — Charles II. 's position made more comfortable . . 240-255 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Remonstrance of the Western Covenanters — A strong Royalist Reaction sets 
 in — "The Act of Classes" modified — Coronation of Charles II. — The 
 Proposal for marrying a Daughter of Argyll's — Unpopularity of the 
 Marquess — "The Act of Classes" rescinded — Revolutioners and Pro- 
 testers — Cromwell occupies Perth — The Royalist Army invades England 
 — Argyll retires from Public Life — Battle of Worcester . . 256-275 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Overthrow of the Scotch Government — Abortive Attempts to call a Parlia- 
 ment — Negotiations between Argyll and the Commonwealth — English 
 
xxii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Troops enter Argyllshire — The Marquess capitulates — Royalist Rising in 
 the Highlands — The General Assembly forcibly dissolved — Lord Lome 
 joins the Royalists — Argyll loyal to his Engagements with the English 
 Government ....... 276-292 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Monck suppresses the Royalist Insurrection in Scotland — Argyll burdened by 
 Debt — Arrested in London but liberated — Lord Lome surrenders to the 
 Protector's Government — Connexion between Argyll and the Protesters 
 
 — He enters the Parliament of Richard Cromwell — Restoration of 
 Charles II. —Argyll goes up to London and is committed to the Tower 
 
 — Writes Instructions to a Son — Is sent down to Edinburgh lor Trial 293-307 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Argyll's Trial before Parliament — Three Classes of Charges brought against 
 him — His eloquent and skilful Defence of himself — A Passage-of-arms 
 with the Lord Advocate — A supplementary Charge of Complicity in the 
 guilt of Regicide brought against him — He is acquitted of this — Monck 
 forwards Letters which secure his Condemnation — His Sentence — The 
 Reason for Monck's Animosity towards him . . , 308-323 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 The Marchioness of Argyll's fruitless Appeal to the Royal Commissioner — 
 Covenanting Party deeply moved by the Marquess's Condemnation — A 
 Letter of Encouragement received by him — His Letter to the King — His 
 Demeanour on the Scaffold — His Death and Funeral — Various Testi- 
 monies to his Integrity and Innocence — His Intellectual and Moral 
 Characteristics — Conclusion . . . . . 324-338 
 
 Appendices : — 
 
 I. Particulars of Family History ..... 341-346 
 
 II. Ballads connected with the Marquess of Argyll . . 347-351 
 
 III. Letters from Members of the Argyll Family . . . 352-369 
 
 IV. A Letter from the Marquess of Argyll in 1642 . . 370-371 
 
 V. A further Examination of the Charge against the Marquess of Argyll 
 
 in Deeds of Mmitrose (Murdoch and Simpson), p. 277 . 372-377 
 
 VI. The famous Six Letters sent by Monck to secure Argyll's Con- 
 demnation .,.,... 378-386 
 
 VII. A Contemporajy Broad-sheet describing the Battle of Philiphaugh 387-388 
 Index ......... 389-396 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 1. poktrait of loed lorns in 1626 (?)... 
 
 2. Argyll Medal ...... 
 
 3. Cipher sculptured on a Stone found at Rosneath 
 
 4. Portrait of Lord Lorne in 1630 .... 
 
 5. Signature of the Marquess of Argyll and other 
 
 Members of the Committee of Estates in 1643 
 
 6. Portrait of the Marquess of Argyll in 1644 (?) : 
 
 Castle Campbell Portrait" 
 
 7. Portrait of Lord Warriston 
 
 8. Portrait of the Marquess of Montrose in 1649 
 
 9. Portrait of the Marquess of Argyll in 1652 (?) 
 10. Portrait of the Rev. James Guthrie 
 
 •The 
 
 Frontis2nece 
 
 Title-page 
 
 Page vii 
 
 Facing page 20 
 
 » i> 154 
 
 „ „ 184 
 
 ., „ 214 
 
 ,. „ 227 
 
 ,, 279 
 
 ,, ,, 328 
 
 xxiii 
 
,1 - •. - 
 
 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Early History of the clan Campbell — Rise and Prosperity of tlie MacCailein 
 Mor Branch — Romantic History of the seventh Earl of Argyll — Birth 
 and Early Life of Lord Lome, afterwards eighth Earl of Argyll. 
 
 THOUGH the question as to which of the Highland clans 
 might with most justice claim precedence over the others 
 on the ground of long descent, is one that it might be difficult to 
 decide, there can be no doubt that the clan of the Campbells, which 
 has played such a prominent part in the history of Scotland and 
 has had so many illustrious chieftains, is of great antiquity. The 
 representative of another of the clans is said to have remarked 
 that while there were in Europe many ancient and noble families, 
 there were only three Houses — the House of Bourbon, the House 
 of Hapsburg, and the House of Macnab. A historian of the 
 Argyll family is very indignant at this statement, and accuses the 
 author of it of being " a historical smatterer " and ignorant of 
 the annals of his own country, for not adding to his limited list 
 the House of Campbell.^ That the list should have been thus 
 enlarged can scarcely be disputed, for, as this author reminds us, 
 there are surely no necessary qualifications for a place in it 
 which are not possessed by the family of which the MacCailein 
 Mor 2 is the head. 
 
 The first ruling family in Argyll of which history tells us 
 was that of the O'Duins, a colony from Ireland, who, like many of 
 their compatriots found sojourning in the land of the stranger, 
 
 1 The MacCallum More, by the Rev. Hely Smith (1871). 
 
 ^ The above is the correct form of the name, which, largely through Sir Walter 
 Scott's influence, is current in English literature in the meaningless form of the 
 MacCallum More. The epithet denotes "a son of big Colin," the father of Neil 
 of Lochow, Bruce's friend. 
 I 
 
2 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 cotild boast that royal blood ran in their veins. The founder of 
 the ITov^se of O'Duin was a certain Diarmid (Dermot), who was 
 a nephew of no less a personage than Fionn MacCual himself, 
 the son of the High King of Ireland. Frequent intercourse must 
 from the earliest times have taken place between Ireland and 
 the islands and mainland of the west of Scotland across the 
 narrow sea which separates them from each other, " From the 
 point of Cantyre the eye can see, in clear weather, the fields on 
 the coast of Antrim, From Ireland the Scottish mountains 
 loom large against the morning horizon." ^ By peaceable settle- 
 ment, apparently, rather than by conquest, the Irish colonists 
 founded the kingdom in Argyllshire, one of the earliest leaders 
 being, it is said, a Loarn, who has left traces of his existence in 
 the place-names of Larne in Ireland, and of Upper and Lower 
 Lome in the neighbourhood of the present town of Oban. Many 
 marvellous legends concerning the strength, and prowess, and 
 skill of the early chieftains of Argyll are on record, and some 
 of those who are versed in this lore assure us that Achilles, Ajax, 
 and Diomede owe their superior fame simply to the fact that 
 they were more fortunate in the bards who sang of their deeds 
 than were these northern heroes. So famous was the Diarmid 
 O'Duin above mentioned, that in later times the whole clan 
 Campbell were often called " the seed " or " the race of Diarmid " 
 {siol Diarmid, or slioch-nan-Diarmid). The period during which 
 the chieftains of this line flourished is said to have extended from 
 the end of the fourth century of the Christian era down to the 
 end of the eleventh ; so that, if this were true, it might be said 
 of them, in Macaulay's phrases, that they were " great and respected 
 before the Saxon had set foot in Britain, before the Frank had 
 passed the Ehine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished in 
 Antioch, and when idols were still worshipped in the temple of 
 Mecca." But unfortunately no historical particulars concerning 
 them survive, unless we may count as such the event which 
 marks the transference of rule from their hands into those of 
 a new line of chieftains in Argyllshire. For a firmly rooted 
 tradition exists to the effect Uiat a Norman knight named 
 Gillespie Cambel ^ married Eva, the daughter and heiress of Paul 
 O'Duin, otherwise known as Paul an Sporran, the King's treasurer, 
 and thus became possessed of the lordship of Lochow. The 
 date of this occurrence is said to have been early in the twelfth 
 
 1 Advenhtrcs in Legend, by the Marquess of Lome, 1898, p. 4. 
 
 2 Campbell, Pcrprdar Tales of the West Highlands, vol. iii. p. 94, 
 
ORIGIN OF THE NAME CAMPBELL 3 
 
 century, and in an ancient charter one of the new Lords of 
 Lochow is briefly described as " Cambel, formerly called O'Duin." 
 
 The origin of the name Campbell has been a matter of much 
 discussion, and several derivations have been suggested for it. 
 The most plausible of these is that which explains it as meaning 
 " wry-mouthed," and connects it with the Celtic words cam or 
 caime (curved) and hcid (the mouth), in allusion to some 
 personal peculiarity in the case of one of the early chieftains of 
 the clan in question. Those who hold this theory are able to 
 strengthen their case by reference to a similarly formed name of 
 another Highland family, that of the Camerons, which is derived 
 from the same word cam or caime and sron (the nose).^ On the 
 other hand, a Norman origin has been claimed for the name, and 
 occasionally it has been asserted to be another form of the " de 
 Bello Campo," which afterwards was modified into Beauchamp. 
 There is, however, no ground whatever for supposing that 
 this famous Norman name was at any time current in the 
 reversed form of " de Campo Bello " ; and accordingly it is more 
 reasonable to hold that, if the name Campbell be really of French 
 origin, it is perhaps connected with that of the Campellos or of 
 the Campvilles, which may be found in the Eed Book of the 
 Exchequer of Henry II., where many of the Norman names of 
 that time are recorded.^ 
 
 The chieftains of the clan Campbell were as a rule loyal to 
 the Scotch throne, and cast in their lot with it time after time 
 when it was assailed by insurgent nobles, by Viking hordes, and by 
 English invaders. It was claimed by them that service of this 
 kind had been rendered as far back as the reign of Malcolm IV., 
 in the defeat inflicted upon Somerled, the Lord of the Isles. 
 This latter potentate had for some years exercised independent 
 authority in the western islands, and had held territory in Argyll- 
 shire from which he had made incursions into the Lowlands. In 
 A.D. 1164 he sailed up the Clyde with a fleet of a hundred and 
 sixty ships, on board of which was a large army collected from 
 the isles, from Argyllshire, and from the north of Ireland, In the 
 battle that followed at Kenfrew he was defeated and slain, and so 
 great were the services which the Campbells claimed to have 
 rendered in overcoming this formidable invader that, five hundred 
 
 ^ Scotland as it Was and Is, Duke of Argyll, p. 44. 
 
 2 Ldher Ruheus de Saccario, or The Eed Book of the Exchequer (Eyre & 
 Spottiswoode, 1896). Cambelanus is also said to be the name of a Norman pro- 
 prietor given in one of these lists {Adventures in Legend, p. 72). 
 
4 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 years after, Charles II. was reminded of them by the sons of the 
 Marquess of Argyll, and those services were vainly pleaded as a 
 reason for the exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy towards 
 their father,^ 
 
 One of the most famous chieftains of Argyll was the Colin 
 Campbell who received knighthood in a.d. 1280 from Alexander 
 III., and who eleven years later was chosen by Eobert Bruce as 
 one of the forty nominees who supported his claim to the throne 
 of Scotland.^ From him his successors have derived the title 
 to which we have already referred — " the MacCailein Mor " (the 
 son of great Colin). He met with his death at the hands of one 
 of the Dougals of Lome, which did not then belong to the 
 Campbell family, but which became theirs a century later by 
 the marriage of the first Earl of Argyll with the heiress of the 
 rival house. 
 
 The original seat of the Campbells seems to have been 
 Garmoran, in Argyllshire, and the branch of the clan settled there 
 was distinguished by the patronymic MacArthur, and claimed 
 headship over the branch to which the Colin just mentioned 
 gave his name. The MacArthurs maintained a position of con- 
 siderable power and dignity until the reign of James L, when 
 they fell under the royal displeasure and were so effectually 
 crushed as to be unable to offer any further resistance to the 
 claim of their rivals to the headship of the clan.^ The Mac- 
 Cailein Mor branch of the clan Campbell owed their strong 
 position in Argyllshire to Eobert the Bruce and his immediate 
 descendants, who thus rewarded their fidelity to the royal house. 
 By grants from the Crown, by conquest, and by marriage dowries 
 their domains were extended and their prestige increased. They 
 henceforth played a most conspicuous part in the history of their 
 country and, generation after generation, members of their house 
 were connected with great events of national life. In addition 
 to the energy and capacity of the race and of many individual 
 heads of the clan, the increase of the power of the family was 
 
 ^ A copy of this petition is in the archives at Inveraray Castle. 
 
 ^ Burton, History, vol. ii. p. 132. 
 
 ^ Skene, The Highlanders of Scotland, p. 357 (ed. 1902). This WTiter says that 
 it is "invariably the case, that when a clan claims a foreign origin, and accounts 
 for their possession of the chiefship and property of the clan by a marriage with the 
 heiress of the old proprietors, they can be proved to be in reality a cadet of that 
 older house who had usurped the chiefship, while their claim to the chiefship is 
 disputed by an acknowledged descendant of that older house. To this rule the 
 Campbells are no exceptions." 
 
OFFICE OF JUSTICIARY-GENERAL 5 
 
 largely due to tlie fall of the Lords of the Isles in 1493, and to 
 the course which events took in connexion with the Reformation, 
 which followed seventy years afterwards. By the former of these 
 events the Campbells were freed from a great rival power in 
 the west of Scotland ; while by their steadfast adherence to the 
 Protestant cause during the Eeformation struggles they found 
 themselves at the close upon the triumphant side. " Throughout 
 their long career," says Dr James Taylor, " the Campbells have 
 always been staunch supporters of the cause, which, whatever 
 temporary reverses it might suffer, was sure to win in the 
 end — the cause of the independence of Scotland against foreign 
 aggression, the cause of Protestantism against Popery, and of 
 freedom against despotism." ^ It is surely a proof of a strain 
 of generous feeling on the part of the chieftains of this clan 
 that time after time the cause of patriotism and of civil and 
 religious liberty should have found in them champions and 
 protectors. 
 
 The title of Baron was conferred on Sir Duncan Campbell 
 in 1445 by James I. of Scotland, no higher rank than that of 
 knighthood having been possessed by the head of the clan up to 
 that time. His grandson and successor, Colin, the second Baron 
 Campbell, was created Earl of Argyll twelve years later by 
 James 11.^ At the same time, the high office of Justiciary-General 
 of Scotland was bestowed upon him, and thus he became second 
 only to the Sovereign himself both in actual power and in dignity. 
 As this office was to be hereditary, and as it carried with it the 
 exercise of the supreme judicial authority, it can scarcely have 
 been granted as a mark of personal favour for the individual 
 chieftain who first received it. The bestowal of it upon the most 
 powerful ruler in the Highlands was no doubt intended to secure 
 the use of his influence and authority on behalf of the Crown ; 
 for upon the Justiciary was laid a certain measure of responsi- 
 bility for restoring or preserving peace in that part of the royal 
 dominions. For serious emergencies a commission of lieutenancy 
 would of course be needed, in order that he might employ the 
 forces of the Crown in repressing disorder ; but in dealing witli 
 the almost normal condition of turbulence among his half- 
 civilized neighbours he would be expected to act decisively in 
 many instances upon his own responsibility. This hereditary 
 office was exercised by the Earls of Argyll for nearly two 
 
 ^ The Great Historic Families of Scotland, vol, i. p. 229. 
 ^ Hist. 31 SS. Commission, vol. iv. p. 470. 
 
6 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 hundred years, and was resigned into the hands of Charles I. in 
 1628 by Lord Lome, afterwards the Marquess of Argyll.^ 
 
 Archibald Campbell, the seventh Earl of Argyll, the father 
 of the subject of our biography, was a man of somewhat peculiar 
 character and he had a very chequered life. The soubriquet of 
 " Gillespie Grumach " {Gilleasbuig Gruamach), or " Gillespie the 
 sullen," was popularly apj)lied to him on account of his somewhat 
 forbidding aspect.- Sir Walter Scott, in A Legend of Montrose, 
 states that this nickname was applied to the Marquess ; but this 
 assertion is incorrect, except in so far as the common Highland 
 practice may have prevailed in his case of loosely applying a 
 title of the kind to descendants of the person to whom it was 
 first given. The seventh Earl of Argyll was only eight years 
 old on the death of his father, and during his minority he was 
 under the guardianship of six of his cousins of the clan Camp- 
 bell, who were appointed to assist his mother in protecting his 
 interests. His guardians, however, quarrelled among themselves, 
 
 ' Hist. MSS. Commission, vol. iv. p. 486. A somewhat unfavourable view of 
 the means by which the power of the Campbells grew from less to more is given 
 by Skene in The Highlanders of Scotland. "By good fortune originally," he 
 says, "and subsequently by well-judged policy, the family of Campbell had 
 gi'adually arisen from the condition of petty chiefs in Argyllshire to that of powerful 
 Barons. Their only opponents in that quarter had been the Lords of the Isles ; the 
 extinction of that family now afforded them a favourable opportunity of extending 
 their power, which was not neglected, and a succession of talented and crafty states- 
 men, secretly and steadily pursuing the same policy, soon enabled them to attain 
 their object. The general line of policy pursued by these Earls was, by devising 
 means to incite the different clans in their neighbourhood to rebellion and acts of 
 aggression, and when these proceedings had attracted the attention of Government 
 towards them, the Earl of Argyll made offer of his services to reduce the 
 turbulent clans to obedience upon certain terms. Should Government, however, 
 upon any occasion, despatch another person for that purpose, the expedition was 
 certain to have an unsuccessful issue, and the Council of State found itself under 
 the necessity of accepting Argyll's offer ; so that the affair generally terminated 
 in the unwary clans finding themselves betrayed by the very person who had 
 instigated them to acts of rebellion, and that additional power consequently devolved 
 upon the Argyll family," p. 138. But it is quite evident that action of this kind 
 could not be often repeated without defeating itself, and consequently that the 
 above writer exaggerates what may have occurred on some particular occasion, or 
 occasions, by representing it as proceeding from a course of policy tenaciously 
 adhered to by the Argyll family. 
 
 - "Gillespie," we may say, is the Highland name applied to persons of the name 
 of Archibald. Those who have seen portraits of the seventh Earl will know how 
 appropriate the nickname is, for his expression is distinctly scowling or sulky. 
 It was not appropriate for his son, as our readers may themselves judge from the 
 frontispiece and other portraits of him which this volume contains. For proof that 
 the soubriquet properly belongs to the seventh Earl, see Macfarlane's Gcnealojical 
 Collections (Scottish Hist. Soc), vol. ii. p. 300, and Argyll Papers, p. 19. 
 
BATTLE OF GLENLIVAT 7 
 
 aud a plot was formed to poison him. A serious illness at 
 Stirling, soon after his marriage to the daughter of the Earl of 
 Morton in 1592, was the result of an attempt of this kind, some 
 members of his household having been bribed to do the deed by 
 Archibald Campbell of Lochnell, one of his faithless guardians 
 who was near in succession to the Earldom. Unfortunately the 
 fact of his treachery was unknown to Argyll ; and two years after- 
 wards, when the latter was appointed the King's lieutenant to 
 suppress a rebellion raised by the Eoman Catholic Earls of 
 Huntly aud Errol,^ Lochnell was in charge of one of the 
 divisions of his army. The two forces met at Glenlivat,^ in 
 Banffshire ; and Argyll, confident in superiority of numbers, re- 
 solved to attack. He had an army of some six thousand men, 
 while the enemy had only fifteen hundred, though the latter 
 were for the most part trained soldiers. Before the battle 
 Lochnell sent advice to Huntly to make a sudden attack, and to 
 direct his artillery against the place where the royal banner was 
 flying, and he promised to desert and join him as soon as the action 
 began. On the morning of 3rd October, when the King's troops 
 were at prayers, the enemy opened fire, and one of the first 
 missiles aimed at " the yellow flag " killed the traitor himself. 
 His followers, however, carried out his secret instructions, and 
 deserted their posts ; and, as a result of their doing so, Argyll was 
 defeated with a loss of about seven hundred men.^ He and a 
 small band of faithful clansmen would have fought to the death, 
 but he was forced by Murray of TulUbardine to leave the field, 
 and he is said to have shed bitter tears of mortification and anger 
 at the unexpected turn events had taken.* As soon as he was 
 
 ^ Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. v. p. 176. 
 
 ^ In Calderwood's History of the Church this is called tlie Battle of Balrinnes : 
 Argyll's forces are set down as five thousand in number, but for the most part 
 " naiked Heelaud men," p. 306 (ed. 1704). 
 
 ^ Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. v. p. 179 n. 
 
 * In the Faithful Narrative of the Great and Miraculoiis Victory obtained by 
 George Gordon,, Earl of Huntly, and Francis Hay, Earl of Errol, Catholic Noblemen, 
 over Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyll, Lieutenant at Strathaven, in the North of 
 Scotland, 3rd October, 1594, Argyll is accused of having been "accompanied by a 
 noted witch, on purpose to discover the property and hidden treasures of the in- 
 habitants by her incantations. Which," says the narrator, "notwithstanding they 
 injured others, did us no harm ; for when she raised a thick mist to confound our 
 eyes, as we absolutely saw, it immediately failed, there being something in our 
 camp, she said, after she was taken, that greatly impeded her exertions, etc. The 
 enchantress, of whom I have spoken, delivered oracles to Argyle worthy a Pythian 
 spirit ; one of her prophecies was, that on the following Friday, which was the day 
 after the battle, Argyle's harp should be played in Buchan, and the bagpipe, which 
 
8 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 able he attempted to renew the conflict ; but before he could 
 effect much in the way of avenging his defeat at Glenlivat, or of 
 punishing the treachery which had so largely contributed to it, 
 the King interposed, and, somewhat ungratefully, had him appre- 
 hended and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle on account of 
 excesses said to have been committed by his followers. After a 
 short time, on finding security for the settlement of claims made 
 against him, he was liberated.-^ A characteristic story is told 
 concerning James VI. and the Earl of Argyll, which shows that 
 the King was not sorry that the pride of his lieutenant should 
 have been humbled by the defeat at Glenlivat. He saw Argyll, 
 we are told, coming into the Abbey Close at Holyrood shortly 
 after that disaster, and, though he recognized him at once, he asked 
 who he was. On being told that he was the Earl of Argyll, he 
 exclaimed, " Fair fa' thee, Geordie (Huntly), for sending him 
 home like a subject."^ The malice which led him to rejoice 
 over the defeat of his own representative on the field is a very 
 repulsive trait in the character of James VI., who even at his 
 best was a singularly unattractive personage. 
 
 Argyll had carried the crown, the sceptre, and the sword of 
 state in processions at the opening of Parliament,^ and had, in spite 
 of his high office of Justiciary-General of Scotland, known what it 
 was to be the occupant of a prison cell ; but further and more 
 remarkable vicissitudes of good and evil fortune were yet in store 
 for him. A reconciliation between him and the Earl of Huntly 
 was effected by James VI. in 1603, shortly before his departure 
 for England,* and to cement the newly formed friendship the 
 Earl of Argyll afterwards gave his eldest daughter, Anna, in 
 marriage to the son and heir of his former adversary. In com- 
 bination with his new ally he attacked the clan Macgregor some 
 five years afterwards, and almost annihilated it. In 1617 he 
 
 is the principal military instrument of the Scottish mountaineers, should sound in 
 Strathbogie, Huntly's seat. Nor were her vaticinations entirely vain ; for both the 
 harp and bagpipe sounded in Strathbogie and Turef ; but the general was not there 
 to enjoy their most agreeable music ; nor could her sorcery foresee the death that 
 awaited her after the victory." The foregoing is taken from the Prefatory Notice 
 to Law's Memorialls, p. xliv, edited by C. K. Sharpe, Edinburgh, 1818. 
 
 ^ Merjister of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. v. p. 209. 
 
 ^ Black Book of Tayviouth, p. xxxii. James VI. seems to have been rather 
 neglected by the historical whitevvashers, who have found occupation for their 
 industry in trying to vindicate reputations which had previously been thought to 
 be hopelessly shady. 
 
 * Calderwood, History, 2MSsiin. 
 
 ■* Ibid., vol. vi. p. 205. 
 
7TH EARL BECOMES A ROMAN CATHOLIC 9 
 
 reached the culmination of his power, when, after completely 
 subduing the turbulent MacDonalds, he received a grant of their 
 country, which included the whole peninsula of Kintyre.^ The 
 acquisition of this extensive territory greatly increased and 
 confirmed the power of the Argyll family in the west of Scotland, 
 but it was apparently not immediately attended with any con- 
 siderable accession of income, for we find that the Earl was at 
 this time burdened with debt,^ some portion of which at any 
 rate had come down to him from his father. In Sir John Scot of 
 Scotstarvet's curious volume entitled The Staggering State of Scot- 
 tish Statesmen, we read : " Colin [6 th] Earl of Argyle succeeded 
 to be chancellor after Athole, who also continued not long in the 
 same. His house found little advantage, but hurt thereby : for 
 there was so great burden of debt upon the same, that it behoved 
 his son, the late Earl, to leave the country, not being able to give 
 satisfaction to his creditors." ^ 
 
 In 1610 the Earl had married a Koman Catholic lady as his 
 second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir William Cornwallis, of Brome 
 in Suffolk,^ and under her influence he was led to become a 
 member of the Church to which she belonged. This supplied 
 another motive for going abroad ; for, on receiving permission in 
 1618 from James VI. to leave Scotland under the pretext of 
 going to Spa for the benefit of his health, he went to West 
 Elanders, abjured his Protestantism, and entered the service of 
 Philip III. of Spain.5 Sir John Scot, in the work above 
 mentioned, gives us some rather amusing satirical verses which 
 were written by an Alexander Craig ^ on the occasion of the Earl's 
 departure, and in which there is more gall than poetical fire — 
 
 ' ' Now earl of Guile, and lord Forlorn thou goes, 
 Quitting thy prince, to serve his Spanish foes. 
 No faith in plaids, no trust in highland trews, 
 Camclion-like, they change so many hues." 
 
 1 Ecgistcr of the Privy Cotoicil of Scotland, vol. vii. pp. 749, 750. The infeftment 
 of the Earl in the lordship of Kintyre took place 30th May, 1607, and was ratified 
 by the Parliament of 1617 {Acts of Pari, of Scotlatid, vol. iv. pp. 559, 560). 
 
 " Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. x. p. 439. 
 
 3P.'40(ed. of 1872). 
 
 * The marriage took place on 30th November, in the Parish Church of StBotolph's, 
 Bishopsgate. The bride was heiress to the manor of Kensington, which the Earl 
 afterwards sold for £85 (Masson's Life of Milton, vol. ii. p. 11 ; Adventures in 
 Legend, p. 200 n.). 
 
 5 Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. xi. p. 507. 
 
 ^ He belonged to Banfi', published several volumes of poetry, and enjoyed the 
 favour of James VI. His birth was about 1567, and he died in 1627. 
 
10 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 He was formally declared a traitor and rebel at the Market- 
 Cross of Edinburgh, on 16th February, 1619, "with sound of 
 trumpets, and two or three heraults of armes " ; ^ but within two 
 years' time the sentence of outlawry was reversed, and he was 
 declared to be once more a loyal subject. Some years later he 
 returned to England,^ and henceforth to the end of his days he 
 lived in great retirement. Some lines addressed to him by the 
 Eoman Catholic poet, William Habington (1605— 1654), in his 
 Castara, form a remarkable contrast to those of Craig-'s above 
 quoted, and seem more appropriate to the case of one who had lived 
 as a holy anchoret, than to that of a man who had so often 
 looked into the fierce face of war, and who had passed through 
 so many strange experiences as the chieftain of a powerful clan, 
 as a politician and a courtier, and as a rebel and an outlaw. 
 The lines in question begin as follows : — 
 
 "If your example be obey'd, 
 The serious few will live i' th' silent shade ; 
 
 And not endanger by the wind 
 Or sunshine, the complexion of their mind ; 
 
 Whose beauty weares so cleare a skin 
 That it decayes with the least taint of sin." 
 
 He died in 1638, just before the beginning of the troubles 
 in Scotland, in which his son was destined to play such a 
 prominent and decisive part.^ 
 
 The first wife of this Earl of Argyll was Lady Anne 
 Douglas, the fifth daughter of William, eighth Earl of Morton. 
 Their family consisted of five daughters, Anna, Annabella, Jane, 
 Mary, and Elizabeth, and one son Archibald, the subject of our 
 biography.* Very few particulars are known of the early life 
 of the most famous of all the chiefs of the House of Campbell, 
 and even concerning the date of his birth a very serious error of 
 some nine or ten years has hitherto been repeated time after 
 time in biographical notices of him. It is generally said that he 
 
 ^ Calderwood, History, vol. vii. p. 351. 
 
 - He returned to England in October or November of 1627, and " offered himself 
 in all dutifiil obeisance to his Majesty" {State Papers, Dom., 1627-28, p. 389). 
 
 ^ An approximate date for his death is given in a letter from the King to Went- 
 worth, dated 5th November, 1638, in whicli he speaks of " Lorn that is now Arg3'll " 
 {Strafford's Letters, vol. ii. p. 232). A nearer date is suggested in a letter written 
 evidently immediately after it by Aigyll, dated Rosneath, 4th September {Black 
 Book of Taymouth, p. xxi). 
 
 * See Appendix I. 
 
DATE OF BIRTH 11 
 
 was born at Inveraray^ in 1598 though sometimes the year is 
 set down as 1597 ; but there is every reason to beheve that the 
 more correct date is 1607. In the absence of definite informa- 
 tion upon the subject, we have to trust to inferences drawn 
 from facts which bear upon the question, and which happen to 
 be fairly abundant. 
 
 On the 6th and 7th of August, 1626, Lord Lome, who was 
 ah'eady married, granted charters to his wife with the consent 
 of his curators.^ This clearly proves that he was not yet of age. 
 In April, 1628, he renounced the hereditary office of Justiciary- 
 General of Scotland, without intervention of his curators.^ He 
 must accordingly have come of age between August, 1626, and 
 April, 1628, and must have been born between August, 1605, 
 and April, 1607. He chose curators on 27th March, 1622, and 
 must, therefore, have been at least fourteen years of age, for 
 according to Scotch law it was at that period in a ward's life 
 that this step was taken. If he had then been only fourteen 
 years of age, his birthday would have fallen some time in 1608; 
 but this late date is precluded by the fact that his mother had 
 died 3rd May, 1607.* For some reason or another the choice 
 of curators did not take place for a whole year after the time 
 when it might have been made. Probably, as the necessity for 
 appointing curators arose from the fact that his father had not 
 died but had become a Eoman Catholic and an exile, circum- 
 stances at the time were such as to allow of delay in the matter.^ 
 As the surrender of the office of Justiciary-General to the Crown 
 was a matter of importance and was strongly desired by Charles I., 
 it is but reasonable to suppose that it took place as soon as 
 
 ^ The present castle at Inveraray is a modern bnilding belonging to the middle 
 of the eighteenth century. The ruins of the castle, in which the Marquess resided, 
 and in which perhaps he had been born, were cleared away in 1745. 
 
 * Gen, Reg. of Sasines, vol. xxii. p. 310. For this and for many other items 
 of information we are indebted to the kindness of J. Maitland Thomson, Esq., 
 Register House, Edinburgh. 
 
 ^ Acts of Pari, of Scotland, vol. v. p. 77. 
 
 * Eeg. of Deeds, vol. 146, fol. 142. 
 
 'The curators chosen were as follows: — ^John, Earl of Mar ; William, Earl of 
 Morton ; James, Earl of Moray ; Robert, Earl of Lothian ; George, Lord Gordon ; 
 William, Lord Keith ; John, blaster of Loudoun ; Colin Campbell of Lundie ; Sir 
 Duncan Campbell, elder, of Glenurquhy ; Sir John Campbell of Calder ; Sir James 
 Campbell of Lawers ; Sir Dougal Campbell of Auchinbreck ; Sir Colin Campbell of 
 Ardkinglass ; and Alexander Campbell of Lochnell, curators ad negotia : any three 
 of whom could act, the Earl of Morton being always one of them. The curators ad 
 lites were Thomson Nicolson, Thomas Hope, and George Fletcher, all advocates of 
 high standing {Acts and Decrees, vol. 354, fol. 270-71). 
 
12 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 could be conveniently arranged after Lord Lome had reached his 
 twenty-first birthday. According to our theory he would be just 
 of this age in the April of 1628. 
 
 There are several other facts which strengthen the conclusion 
 at which we have arrived. In a contemporary genealogy it is 
 stated that at the time of writing the seventh Earl was fifty-nine 
 years of age and his son twenty -seven.^ The document is 
 undated, but we know that the seventh Earl was born late in 1575. 
 This would give 1634 as the date of the genealogy, and if Lord 
 Lome were then twenty-seven years of age he must have been 
 born in 1607. The ordinary age at which a student entered the 
 University in those days was fourteen or fifteen years. Lord Lome 
 matriculated at St Andrews on 15th January, 1622, when, 
 according to the ordinary date of his birth, he would be twenty- 
 four or twenty-five years of age. Some explanation of his ten 
 years' delay in taking that step must be given by those who 
 would defend the current statement with regard to the year when 
 he was born. According to our reckoning, he was then of the 
 average age of " men " of his standing at the University, 
 
 In a somewhat unpleasant " flyting " scene in the Scotch 
 Parliament of 1641, the Earl of Morton upbraided his cousin 
 and son-in-law, the Marquess of Argyll, with ungratefully for- 
 getting the fact that he had for twenty years protected and 
 brouglit him up.- The natural inference from this is that his 
 mother had died when he was still in infancy, and that during 
 the time specified his cousin, who was some twenty -five years his 
 senior, had been his Tutor and principal curator. This exactly 
 harmonizes with our theory that Lord Lome was born some time 
 in March or early in April of the year 1607,^ and that he was 
 only a few months old at the time of his mother's death. How 
 so serious a blunder with regard to his age should have been 
 made by previous writers is beyond our conjecture, but we con- 
 sider that the evidence we have given in support of our statement 
 on the matter is decisive.* 
 
 ^ Records of Argyll, Lord A. Campbell, p. 4. 
 
 ^ Balfour, Annals, vol. iii. p. 70. 
 
 •* 111 the ordinary books of reference it is generally stated that in 1626 Lord 
 Lome was appointed a member of the Scotch Privy Council. This seemed at first 
 to be an argument against our theory of his age, as it did not seem likely that he 
 would have received this appointment whilst still a minor. It now turns out that 
 the correct date of his appointment is 23rd May, 1628 {Reg. of Privy Council of 
 Scotland, 1627, 1628, 2nd series), when he was newly of age. 
 
 ■* Since the protection above mentioned, as being shown to the young Lord Lome 
 by the Earl of Morton, was not called for by the former's having lost his father, the 
 
RELATIONS WITH LORD MORTON 13 
 
 We are accordingly to think of Lord Lome as one who was so 
 unfortunate as not to have known a mother's love and care, and we 
 can scarcely be wrong in concluding that this loss had an effect 
 upon his after-life and character. In consequence of his mother's 
 death and of his father's second marriage not very long afterwards 
 to a Eoman Catholic, it is almost certain that his upbringing would 
 be largely in the hands of servants and of strangers. As already 
 said, his cousin, the ninth Earl of Morton, who succeeded his 
 grandfather in the Earldom in 1606, was his principal guardian,^ 
 His own claim to the gratitude of Lord Lome for the protection 
 afforded him from a very early age, we have just referred to. In 
 one of the letters printed in an Appendix we give his ward's 
 acknowledgment of " the goodness and care which," he says, " had 
 been bestowed upon him by Lord Morton since he came into the 
 world." 2 The affectionate terms which all through the corre- 
 spondence in question he applies to the Earl of Morton, whose 
 daughter he had married before the date of the earliest of the 
 letters, may be the conventional language of address to a father- 
 in-law. Yet we have every reason to believe that the latter had 
 treated Lord Lome more hke a son than a cousin. One is sorry 
 to think that afterwards, in consequence of differences in political 
 opinions, these ties of affection should have been broken, at any 
 rate for a time ; and we cannot doubt that it was bitter to both 
 parties thus to find themselves in antagonism to each other. At 
 a later time, a rancorous critic, whose cue it was to represent 
 Lord Lome as under very deep obligations to the Earl of Morton, 
 in order to aggravate the charge of ingratitude which he brought 
 against him, spoke of the second Countess of Argyll as a cruel 
 or unscrupulous woman whose machinations against her stepson 
 had with difficulty been foiled by his guardian. He speaks of 
 Lord Lome as having but ill requited " the great care taken by 
 the Earl of Morton for his education and for the preservation of 
 his life from the crafty designs of a stepmother, and for the 
 recovery of his almost ruined estate." ^ How much truth there 
 
 statement with regard to twenty years can only be understood as referring to his 
 mother's death. As we know that this occurred in 1607, the fact that Lord Lome 
 was then only a few months old seems indisputable. The only allusion which we 
 have come across to a date for the birth of Lord Lome, different from that usually 
 given, is in Burton's History of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 230, where he remarks casually 
 that he was thirty years old in 1638. But no reasons are given, either in text or 
 notes, for this departure from the date ordinarily given. 
 
 ^ William Douglas, ninth Earl of Morton, was a nephew of the first Countess of 
 Argyll, being a son of her eldest brother Robert. 
 
 ^ See App. IlL ^ Clement Walker, History of Indeipevdency, App. p. 5, 
 
14 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 was in these assertions it is now impossible to say. However, 
 in one of the letters to which we have referred, Lord Lome's 
 knowledge or suspicion of the Countess's animosity appears in 
 his assertion that he durst not trust certain legal documents in 
 her possession.^ Unfortunately there is more definite proof, as 
 we shall afterwards see, of very strained relations between him 
 and his half-brother, the eldest son of this second marriage. 
 
 It is said that Lord Lome received a classical education and 
 was carefully instructed in the Protestant faith ; ^ and it is 
 probable that from his early years he was imbued with the 
 earnest though somewhat sombre spirit of religion which forms 
 such a marked element in his later life. How far his classical 
 studies extended we have no means of knowing, but probably 
 in these early years he stored up that collection of Latin pro- 
 verbs, aphorisms, and maxims, on which he drew so freely after- 
 wards in his speeches on public occasions. A certain Eobert 
 Barclay is spoken of as having been his tutor or " pedagogue," 
 and it would seem that all through his pupil's hfe he acted as 
 his most devoted adherent and agent.^ He is, indeed, one of the 
 most puzzling figures of his time. For, though he occupied this 
 subordinate position in Lord Lome's household and was indeed 
 spoken of by the latter as " my servitour," * he afterwards took a 
 most prominent part in politics, as a member of the Scotch 
 Parliament and of the General Assembly, and as a commissioner 
 from Scotland to England at important crises in the subsequent 
 history of the two kingdoms. So far as we know, there is 
 nothing to explain his connexion with the House of Argyll, 
 though probably the eminence he afterwards reached was due to 
 his pupil's commanding influence in Scotch politics. A passage 
 in the Marquess of Argyll's little book. Instructions to a Son, 
 written in 1660 or 1661, may contain an allusion to the position 
 which Eobert Barclay had held in his household in early days. 
 " Keep always," he says, " an able scholar for the languages in 
 your house, besides your chaplain, who may be ready at hand to 
 read to you out of any book your fancy or judgment shall for the 
 present pitch upon, you will find him to be of great use and service 
 
 1 See App. III. 
 
 ^Sioff. Brit., "Arch. Campbell." 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 79 ; Clement Walker, History of Independ- 
 ency, App. 9 : "His quondam Tutor (now Slave) Barcley." He was of the Barclays 
 of Perceton in Ayrshire, and was a Provost of Irviue — a town of which the Earls 
 of Argyll were hereditary patrons or protectors. 
 
 * Thanes of Cawdor, p. 272. 
 
EARLY ANXIETIES 15 
 
 to you, and give him salaiy accordiugly." ^ There is reason to 
 believe that Eobert Barclay not only directed Lord Lome's 
 studies, but acted as his adviser and confidential agent in various 
 difficulties occasioned by the unfortunate relations in which his 
 father now stood with the Scotch Government. 
 
 The conduct of the Earl of Argyll in forsaking his covmtry 
 and Protestantism, and in associating with those who had fled 
 from Scotland to escape punishment for treason and rebellion, 
 excited the deep displeasure of James VI., and at one time it 
 seemed likely to lead to the utter ruin of his house. The 
 forfeiture of honours and property was only averted by the 
 timely mediation and intercession of friends of the family. The 
 danger in which he stood was acutely felt by the young Lord 
 Lome ; and a letter is extant which he wrote to his " cousin," 
 the Laird of Cawdor, who was afterwards one of his curators, 
 entreating his aid and counsel in the painful circumstances in 
 which he was then placed.^ His cousin, the Earl of Morton, 
 in a speech in Parliament many years afterwards, took the 
 principal credit to himself for having averted the proposed decree 
 of forfeiture which would have ruined the House of Argyll ; ^ but 
 doubtless, after the first feelings of irritation and anger had 
 passed away, it would seem, even to the peculiarly constituted 
 mind of James VI., unjust to visit the sins of the father upon the 
 son. The letter, however, to which we have referred remains as 
 a record of the season of keen anxiety and distress which came 
 thus early in a life which was fated to experience many of the 
 kind. 
 
 ' P. 75. 
 
 - This letter was wi-itten IStli November, 1618, and is printed in The Thanes of 
 Cawdor, p. 246. 
 
 2 Balfour, Annals, vol. iii. p. 70. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Lord Lome enters the University of St Andrews — While still a Young Man 
 aids in suppressing Highland Rebels — His Marriage — His relations with 
 his Half-brother and with his Father — His Entrance upon Public Life — A 
 curious Project — His Son " fostered " — Gilderoy— The Struggle between 
 Episcopacy and Presbyterianism — Quarrel with Bishop Sydserf — Friendly 
 relations with Samuel Rutherford. 
 
 FEOM the tuition of Eobert Barclay, Lord Lome passed to the 
 University of St Andrews, where he matriculated, as we 
 have said, at St Leonard's College on 15th January, 1622. No 
 records preserve for us any account of the progress he made in 
 his studies, or of the length of time he spent in that delightful 
 city, about which so many interesting historical and ecclesiastical 
 associations are clustered. But from one or two quarters we 
 learn that while he was there he took his share in the pastimes 
 which engaged the attention of ingenuous youth, at any rate in 
 their leisure hours. In his time archery was a favourite amuse- 
 ment, and the student who was most proficient in the art was 
 accustomed to present to the University a silver medal bearing 
 his name and coat-of-arms, to be preserved in all time coming in 
 memory of his skill. The medal presented by Lord Lome is a 
 record of the fact that he was the best archer in the year 1623, 
 and it is interesting to notice that a similar medal was presented 
 in the year 1628 by a student who was afterwards his great 
 rival in public life, the Earl of Montrose.^ Another pastime to 
 which we know that the Marquess was afterwards more or less 
 addicted was golf, and we can scarcely be far wrong if we venture 
 to conjecture that he received his first lessons in that fascinating 
 game on the Links of St Andrews in his student days.^ In the 
 last year of his life, in the little volume of advice to his son 
 already referred to, he recommends among other forms of physical 
 training the acquirement of skill in managing the war-horse, or 
 
 ^ Lyon, History of St Andrews, vol. ii. p. 201. 
 
 "^Instructions to a Son, p. 77: "That excellent recreation of Golf-ball, than 
 which truly I do not know a better." 
 
 16 
 
ENTRANCE ON PUBLIC LIFE 17 
 
 " the great horse " as it was then called ; but we need not con- 
 clude from this fact that he had himself devoted much time to 
 that exhausting form of exercise, since in such matters people 
 often recommend otliers to cultivate arduous employments from 
 which they themselves seem to shrink instinctively. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that Lord Lome did not 
 stay longer than three years at the University, and that he left 
 it without graduating. He evidently passed while still a youth 
 to the management, in co-operation with his curators, of the 
 estates of which he was virtually the proprietor. We have proof 
 positive that in 1625, when his University career was over, he 
 was already involved in some of the responsibilities attaching 
 to the position he occupied in the west of Scotland. On 21st 
 April of that year a warrant was issued in Edinburgh by the 
 Privy Council of Scotland of Charles I., who had now been less 
 than a month on the throne, authorizing the Archbishop of 
 Glasgow, and Sir William Livingstone of Kilsyth, to go to Ayr 
 to arrange for the fitting out of a ship and pinnace for service 
 against the rebels of the clan Maclan. They were instructed 
 to direct the masters of the vessels to send word to Lord Lome, 
 as His Majesty's Commissioner, when they were to sail from Ayr, 
 so that, as the warrant expressed it, " he and his forces might 
 attend thame in placeis convenient." ^ This military expedition is 
 interesting, since it marks the first appearance on the stage of 
 public life in Scotland of one who was afterwards to play so 
 prominent a part in national affairs. And it is remarkable 
 enough that he who was afterwards regarded as having but little 
 qualification and liking for military enterprises should have been 
 introduced to the public notice in connexion with an expedition of 
 this kind. The position, however, which belonged to him as the 
 head of a powerful clan, and as the principal representative of 
 law and order in that part of Scotland, rendered it inevitable that 
 such tasks as this should be laid upon him. 
 
 As soon as the rebellious Highlanders were reduced to sub- 
 jection Lord Lome journeyed up to London, probably for the 
 first time, and paid homage to that Sovereign of whose policy in 
 Church and State he was afterwards to become so formidable 
 an opponent.^ Neither of them, however, had probably the 
 faintest idea that they would ever stand in these relations to 
 
 ^ Ri^g. of Priry Council of Scotland, 2nd series, vol. i. p. 27 ; Balfour, Annals, 
 vol. iii. p. 425. 
 
 - App. IIL, Letter ii. 
 2 
 
18 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 each other, and for the present the King seemed to regard the 
 young Scotch chieftain with special favour. A curious little 
 incident which belongs to the year 1626 shows the interest 
 which Charles I. took in him. The future Earl of Argyll was 
 still unmarried, and the King proposed to bestow upon him the 
 hand of Elizabeth Stewart, sister of the Duke of Lennox. She 
 was a kinswoman of Charles himself, and indeed it was on this 
 ground that he regarded her as a kind of ward whose fate he 
 might dispose of. No doubt, the King hoped by this arrange- 
 ment to attach the Scotch chieftain firmly to his interests. 
 The young lady, however, had already fallen in love with Lord 
 Maltravers, the eldest son of the Earl of Arundel, and she found 
 a very strong ally in the Countess of Arundel. The Earl knew 
 nothing of the matter until the marriage of the lovers had taken 
 place. He was no doubt, as the most innocent of those con- 
 cerned, the right person to break the news to the King, but 
 he fared the worst of all upon whom the royal anger broke 
 forth. His share of the punishments, which were dealt out to 
 the culprits without a trial, was three months' imprisonment 
 in the Tower.^ We have no means of knowing what Lord 
 Lome's thoughts and feelings were in connexion with this 
 episode in his life ; but any humiliation and disappointment 
 he may have experienced were evidently not keen enough to 
 prevent his seeking speedy consolation in another quarter, for 
 four months later he married Margaret Douglas, the second 
 daughter of his cousin William, the ninth Earl of Morton.^ 
 According to our reckoning of the bridegroom's age, he was still 
 a minor, and not more than nineteen years old. His wife was 
 still younger, for she was born in 1610 and was now only 
 sixteen years of age.^ 
 
 The letters from Lord Lome to his cousin and father-in-law, 
 the Earl of Morton, just before his coming of age,* reveal the 
 
 ^ Gardiner, History, vol. vi. p. 72. 
 
 2 Gen. Reg. ofSasines, vol. xxii. p. 310. Certain settlements on his wife were made 
 on 6th and 7th August, 1626, from which we may fix approximately the date of 
 the marriage as being shortly after that time. As Lord Lome was still under age, 
 the settlements in question were made with the consent of his curators. 
 
 ^ The ages of bridegroom and bride, nineteen and sixteen respectively, have 
 some slight bearing upon the question of the date of the former's birth. Had the 
 birth been in 1598, these would have been twenty-eight and sixteen respectively — 
 a somewhat unusual incongruity in years. 
 
 * App. in., Letters vi.-xiii. There seems to be some difference in the matter 
 of enumerating the Earls of Morton. For convenience we follow the order given 
 in Burke's Peerage. 
 
DISPUTE ABOUT KINTYRE 19 
 
 fact that he had many anxieties and troubles in connexion with 
 his property during the time of his minority. At that period 
 of his hfe he could of course take no definite action of his own 
 without the consent of his curators, and at times he seems to 
 have thought that they were careless in dealing with matters 
 which intimately concerned him. He was especially anxious to 
 guard against the danger of the royal consent being sought and 
 obtained for the sanction of arrangements of which neither he 
 nor his friends would be likely to approve. He thought that 
 the interests of the members of his father's second family, and 
 especially those of the eldest son, who was afterwards Earl of 
 Irvine, were at times promoted in a way injurious to his own. 
 The great bone of contention between them was the estate of 
 Kintyre, which, being a recent acquisition of the Argyll family, 
 was not entailed and consequently stood on a different footing 
 from the rest of the landed property in their possession. The 
 purpose of the seventh Earl to leave this estate to the eldest 
 son of his second marriage was ultimately carried out. But 
 Lord Lome had evidently to make an arduous struggle to prevent 
 this being done in such a way as to impoverish still further his 
 inheritance, on which there was already a burden of debt.^ By 
 an Act of Parliament in the last year of the reign of James VI. it 
 was decided that the estate of Kintyre was to bear its share 
 of the burdens on the whole landed possessions of the family, 
 and accordingly Lord Lome felt bound to resist the attempt to 
 settle it upon the younger son without carrying out this obliga- 
 tion. The unhappy relations between the half-brothers are 
 illustrated in the letters to which we have alluded, and which 
 we give in an Appendix.^ Lord Lome was quite willing to 
 make his brother an adequate allowance and was desirous for 
 him to complete his education, in order, probably, that he might 
 be occupied in some useful manner at a distance from Kintyre. 
 The younger son, however, who was now nearly sixteen years of 
 age, no doubt thought that he had already acquired most of what 
 was necessary for him in the way of education, and that a large 
 estate was better than what might seem to his brother a reason- 
 able allowance. Some of the sordid details of their contention 
 with each other are contained in the letters in question, but 
 there is no need for us to recount them. It is sufficient to say 
 that the estate of Kintyre, which was given to the younger son, 
 was sold by him to his brother after their father's death. 
 
 ^ App. Ill,, Letters vi.-xill, ^ Ibid., Letters, jjossiw. 
 
20 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 It is abundantly evident that very bitter feelings of injury 
 and humiliation cast a shadow over Lord Lome's happiness at 
 this time, though, as he says himself, he sought to bear his wrongs 
 with dignity, and " to do nothing unworthie of a Christian and 
 a nobill man." ^ His high-spirited and outspoken maintenance 
 of what he regarded as his rights is a pleasing trait in his 
 character. In his later life he was credited sometimes with 
 unduly disguising his feelings, and with seeking occasionally to 
 attain his ends by policy rather than by opener and bolder 
 methods. It is, therefore, satisfactory for those who wish to 
 form a favourable view of his character, to see that he was capable 
 when " much enforced " of emitting the " hasty spark " of anger, 
 and that he could be wrought up to threaten to leave Scotland 
 rather than submit to the neglect of which he complained, and 
 to declare that he would sooner be " free abroad then ane sleave 
 at horn to suffer anything unworthie of Lome." ^ But, with his 
 coming of age, and his entrance on a more independent life, 
 his circumstances improved, and probably he found his happiness 
 beginning when he took up the share in public affairs which 
 belonged to him in virtue of his position in Scotland, and of his 
 varied intellectual gifts. As, however, the relations in which he 
 stood with his father so far as concerned the family estates were 
 peculiar, and as his enemies founded upon them various charges 
 against him, our readers will perhaps pardon our dwelling upon 
 the matter at a little greater length than we have hitherto done. 
 Shortly before the second marriage of the old Earl of Argyll, 
 and probably in view of it, the fee-simple of his estates was 
 conveyed to Lord Lorne.^ The practical effect of this legal 
 transaction was that the whole heritable property belonging to 
 the father was irrevocably secured to the son, though the former 
 still enjoyed the income from it as a life-rent. The interests of 
 the heir were thus secured against any change or diminution, 
 for the power of selling or alienating any part of the estates 
 was necessarily given up by the execution of this deed. In the 
 year 1631 the Earl renounced the life-rent also of the estates, 
 and thug gave over into the hands of his son everything included 
 in the Earldom, except the bare title. No reason for the pro- 
 cedure is assigned in the Act of Parliament of 1633 which con- 
 firms this arrangement,* though the matter may admit of a very 
 
 1 App. III., Letter vii. * Ibid., Letter xiii. 
 
 ' Gregory, JVcstcrn Highlands, p. 401. 
 
 * Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. v. p. 80. 
 
Lord Lorne in 1630. 
 
 From Original in Nexvbattle Abbey. 
 
RELATIONS BETWEEN FATHER AND SON 21 
 
 simple explanatiou. Probably it would bo much move convenient 
 for the Earl, who chose to live in London, to receive a certain 
 fixed income, and to leave to his son the task of managing the 
 property and of collecting the rents. Certainly the labour in- 
 volved in controlling the aifairs of what was virtually a princi- 
 pality in the Highlands from such a distance as the English 
 capital must have been very considerable in those days, when 
 even a journey down to Scotland was a serious undertaking. So 
 great was the necessity of keeping a check upon the trouble- 
 some clans of the Macgregors and MacDonalds that, when the 
 seventh Earl of Argyll renounced the Protestant faith and left 
 Britain to enter the Spanish service, twenty of the barons and 
 leading proprietors of the county assembled and commissioned 
 his brother, Sir Colin Campbell of Lundy, to take charge of 
 matters until Lord Lome was old enough to assume command.^ 
 In the case of an estate with which such serious responsibilities 
 were connected, a proprietor who chose to be non-resident could 
 scarcely follow any other course than that of formally renouncing 
 his office and position. 
 
 In two quarters hostile to the Marquess of Argyll there are 
 to be found comments upon these relations between father and 
 son which must be received with great caution. Clarendon says 
 that the renunciation of the life-rent of the property was brought 
 about by royal intervention on behalf of the heir. " The latter 
 had been preserved," he says, " by the King's immediate kindness 
 and full power, and rescued from the anger and fury of his 
 incensed father ; who, being provoked by the disobedience and 
 insolence of his son, resolved so to have disposed of his fortune, 
 that little should have accompanied the honour after his death. 
 But by the King's interposition, and indeed imposition, the Earl, 
 in strictness of the law in Scotland, having need of the King's 
 grace and protection, in regard of his being become Koman 
 Catholic, and His Majesty granting all to the son which he could 
 exact from the father, the old man was in the end compelled to 
 make over all his estate to his son, reserving only such a 
 provision for himself, as supported him according to his quality 
 during his life, which he spent in the parts beyond the seas. 
 The King had too much occasion afterwards to remember, that in 
 the close, after His Majesty had determined what should be done 
 on either part, the old man declared, ' He would submit to the 
 
 ^ Adventures in Legend, p. 200 ; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. xi. 
 pp. 487, 488. 
 
22 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 King's pleasure, though he believed he was haiclly dealt with ' ; 
 and then with some bitterness put his son in mind of his 
 uudutif ul carriage towards him ; and charged him ' to carry in 
 his mind how bountiful the King had been to him ' ; which yet, 
 he told him, he was sure he would forget ; and thereupon said to 
 His Majesty, ' Sir, I must know this young man better than you 
 can do : you have brought me low that you may raise him ; 
 which I doubt you will live to repent ; for he is a man of craft, 
 subtilty, and falsehood, and can love no man ; and if ever he 
 finds it in his power to do you mischief, he will be sure to do 
 it.' " ^ The King, we are told, regarded this speech at the time 
 as a mere ebullition of bad temper, though the historian seems 
 to imply that afterwards it seemed to him a proof that the Earl 
 in his old age had attained " to something like prophetic strain." 
 The early part of Clarendon's History, however, was written 
 without books or hterary material of any kind, and it contains 
 much that can only be called unfounded gossip. The passage 
 we have quoted seems rather to belong to that category than to 
 be an illustration of the exercise of prophetic powers or " second 
 sight" on the part of the Highland chieftain. The story is 
 reduced to insignificant proportions by the mere fact that in 1610, 
 when the heir was only some three years of age, the settlement 
 of the estates upon him once and for all took place. That the 
 renunciation of the life-rent involved an obligation on the part 
 of the new possessor to provide a certain maintenance for his 
 father is absolutely certain ; it is indeed referred to in an Act 
 of Parliament of a much later date — that of 1661,^ in which 
 considerable trouble is taken to blacken the character of the 
 Marquess of Argyll, who had been beheaded a couple of months 
 before. In this Act we are told that " under the colour of law " 
 he had got possession of his father's property, and then had " put 
 him to intolerable straits."^ This certainly implies that he had 
 been under an obligation to provide for his father, though it 
 asserts that he had been culpably remiss in discharging it, and 
 it admits that he had had legal sanction for all that he had 
 done.^ The distinction between what is legal and what has only 
 " the colour of law " is one which none but accomplished casuists 
 
 » History, vol. ii. p. 183 (Oxford ed., 1816). 
 " Ads of Parliament of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 337. ' 
 ^ Ibid., vol, V. p. 340. 
 
 * See in App. II., Letters iv. and v., in which reference is made to an annuity 
 due by Lord Lome to his father. 
 
ADVANCED TO HONOUR 23 
 
 would be qualified to deal with, and need not detain us here. 
 With regard to the statement that he had " put his father to 
 intolerable straits," all that we need say of it is that it must be 
 classed with all assertions that are made without proof to damage 
 the reputation of persons who are dead, and are consequently 
 incapable of defending themselves. At the same time, we can 
 easily see that, so long as the two stood in such peculiar and 
 unfortunate relations to each other, it would not be difficult for 
 those who had on other grounds a dislike to the son to 
 misrepresent matters and assert that he had acted harshly or 
 injuriously towards his own father. As a mere matter of fact, 
 the Argyll estates which had come to the seventh Earl with a 
 burden of debt upon them seem to have been transmitted by 
 him to his son with that burden undiminished, if not indeed 
 considerably increased. For in the year 1634 we read of Lord 
 Lome " being in great debt," and of his applying to his kinsman, 
 Sir Colin Campbell of Glenurquhy, for some " help to relieve 
 him of the same." The latter came loyally to the assistance of 
 his chief, and at Martinmas of that year gave him the sum of 
 eight thousand merks [about £444 Sterling].^ We are therefore 
 not at liberty to think of the son as in affluent circumstances 
 while his father was in comparative poverty ; since there is 
 abundant evidence that both suffered from that " eternal want of 
 pence " which has so often vexed public men. 
 
 On 12th June, 1628, he was chosen a Privy Councillor,^ and, 
 in reference to this and to other official appointments which he 
 received from the Crown, the historian Clarendon speaks of 
 obligations heaped upon him by his Sovereign, which he asserts 
 would have prevented any generous nature from ever resisting 
 the royal will and power.^ The principle thus enunciated is, 
 however, of very dubious worth. The affairs of a nation would 
 be ill guided if men placed in Argyll's position were to regard 
 their offices of trust and authority as bribes to secure their co- 
 operation or silence with regard to schemes entertained by the 
 Sovereign of which they disapproved. Nor need the offices con- 
 ferred upon Argyll be taken as a proof that " he was basking in 
 the royal favour " ; they were such as would naturally fall to a 
 man occupying such a high position in the country as was his 
 
 ^ Black Book of Taymouth, p. 77. 
 
 2 By a warrant dated Whiteliall, 23rd May {Reg. of Pricy Council of Scotland, 
 ii. 1627-28, 2nd series). 
 ^ History, vol. i. p. 183. 
 
24 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 by birth, and who evidently possessed qualifications for them. 
 In 1633, on the occasion of the coronation of Charles I. in 
 Edinburgh, he was confirmed, as above stated, in the life-rent 
 of the Argyll estates, and in the possession of the heritable 
 jurisdiction which had been specially arranged for when the 
 office of Justiciary-General of Scotland was surrendered to the 
 Crown.^ 
 
 A curious glimpse into one of the schemes which about this 
 time interested Lord Lome is given us by a couple of documents 
 from the Argyll Papers, which have been printed by the Historical 
 Manuscripts Commission. It seems that he had been told of an 
 island lying outside the Hebrides which had not been explored 
 or planted; and on 16th March, 1633, he signed a contract 
 with a Captain David Alexander, of Anstruther, of the ship 
 Unitic, for the investigation of the whereabouts and condition 
 of this new territory. The captain binds himself to set out in 
 his vessel fully provided with sails, anchors, etc., and manned by 
 an expert skipper, a master's mate, and ten sailors, by the 20th 
 of April immediately following, and to proceed from Anstruther 
 to the Western Isles, and thence into the main sea outside of the 
 Hebrides. He was " to searche, seek, and use all utter and exact 
 diligence " for the discovery of the isle, and to take perfect notice 
 of its extent and commodities, to observe whether it was inhabited, 
 and how far and in what " airth " it lay from the Hebrides, and 
 to report on the results of his voyage to Lord Lome before the 
 1st of August. A Captain William Campbell was to sail, under 
 Lord Lome's orders, with the company of the Unitie, to guide 
 her through the islands, and to assist in the discovery of the 
 new land ; and on the homeward voyage he was to be set ashore 
 on Canna, or some other convenient place in the Isles, from which 
 he might with greatest speed reach Lord Lome with a report of 
 the results of the expedition. Captain Alexander was to receive 
 £800 Scots [£66, ISs. 4d. Sterling] before his departure, and 
 £400 Scots [£33, 6s. 8d. Sterling] on his return, for the expenses 
 of the voyage. Lord Lome reserved to himself the decision of 
 what remuneration he should bestow upon the captain for his 
 " awne paynes " if the isle were discovered.^ It is to be feared 
 that Captain Alexander got no more than the expenses of the 
 voyage, for there is no reason to believe that any extension of 
 
 ^ Ads of Parliament of Scotland, vol. v. p. 77. 
 
 * Hist. MSS. Com., vol. vi. p. 631. The date is as above, from Holyrood House, 
 and the documeut is signed by the two parties and three witnesses. 
 
OLD CELTIC CUSTOM 25 
 
 the Argyll property resulted from the expedition. Our readers 
 may be amused by the second document, which we give in a 
 footnote, and which contains the arrangements made for the 
 government and exploitation of the new island. So complete 
 are these that scarcely anything is forgotten, from the precious 
 minerals that might be lying in the depths of the earth, up to 
 the unconscious rabbits that might be frisking upon its surface. 
 As neither St Kilda nor Eockall appears in Blaeu's map of 
 Scotland, which belongs to this period, it is possible that some 
 vague rumour about either the one or the other of these reached 
 the ears of Lord Lome and led to the expedition in question. 
 The contrast between the actual condition of these outlying, 
 storm-swept rocks and the rich, populous island which floated 
 before the imagination of the legal functionary who drew up 
 Argyll's title to the new territory, is sufficiently striking.^ 
 
 It is interesting to notice that Lord Lome in his own family 
 maintained the old Celtic custom of " Fostering," by sending his 
 eldest son, while still a child of four and a half years of age, 
 to be brought up by one of his kindred and clan. The benefit 
 sought by both parties in a transaction of this kind was mutual 
 support and strength. " In times," says Cosmo Innes, " when 
 none counted much on the protection of the law, famihes 
 endeavoured to surround themselves with friends and allies ; 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol, iv. p. 482: "Signature subscribed by King Charles the First, in 
 favour of Archibald Lord Lome, whereby His Majesty, with consent of William, 
 Earl of Morton, treasurer ; John, Lord Stewart of Traquair, treasurer-depute, dis- 
 poned to Lord Lome and his heirs male, that isle lying without the whole known 
 and inhabited isles of the kingdom of Scotland, called Hebrides Insula;, and now lately 
 
 known by the name of . . . ., and lying or of whatsoever other name or 
 
 designation the same be of, with the castles, towers, fortalices, manor-places, houses, 
 buildings, burghs of regality, burghs of barony, towns, seaports, havens, harbours, 
 mills, woods, and the fishings of salmon and other fishes, with the lochs, cunnings 
 [rabbits], cunningares [rabbit warrens], coals, coal heughs, parts, pendicles, and 
 pertinents of the said isle whatsoever, with the mines and minerals of gold and 
 silver, tin, lead, brass, copper, etc., within the bounds of the said isle with the 
 privilege and jurisdiction of a free regality, chapel, and chancery, with the casualties 
 belonging thereto ; which isle is united and annexed to the sherifi'dom of Tarbet ; 
 and Lord Lome's heritable offices of justiciar and sheriff within the sherilfdom of 
 Argyll and Tarbet are extended to the isle above mentioned, with power to build 
 and erect burghs of barony, to appoint weekly markets, and yearly free fairs, to make 
 and create burgesses and other officers requisite, and to erect parish kirks, of which 
 Lord Lome is made heritable patron, and to whom is disponed the patronage 
 thereof with the teinds, fruits, and rents of the same ; and likewise Lord Lome and 
 his foresaids are constituted heritable lieutenants to His Majesty within the bounds 
 foresaid ; to be held in feu of His Majesty for payment of 26 shillings Scots yearly 
 [2s. 2(1. Sterling], and doubling the same tlie iirst year of the entry of each heir. 
 Dated 13th May, 1633." 
 
26 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 and a relation like this of fosterage begot feelings of mutual 
 friendship better than the artificial system of Bonds of Amity, 
 which were apt to stand or fall with the interest and temper 
 of the parties." ^ The kinsman to whom Lord Lome entrusted 
 the education and upbringing of his son was Sir Colin Campbell 
 of Glenurquhy, one of the most accomplished and loyal members 
 of his clan. We get a glimpse into the household life both at 
 Glenurquhy and Inveraray from a little bundle of letters and 
 accounts which is still extant. Thus from them we learn that " a 
 discrit woman and ane sufficient man quha had bothe Irisch 
 and Englisch," accompanied the child to Glenurquhy to wait upon 
 him and to attend to his lessons, and that their services were 
 supplemented by those of a page. Lady Lome writes to ask 
 her son's foster-father to see that he is not allowed to drop 
 the use of Gaelic or " Irishe." " I heair," she says, " my sone 
 begines to wearye of the Irishe langwadge. I intreatt yow to 
 cause hold hime to the speakeing of itt, for, since he hes 
 bestowed so long tyme and paines in the getting of itt, I sould 
 be sory he lost itt now with leasiness in not speakeing of itt." 
 On another occasion she expressed her anxiety for care to 
 be taken to send an adequate escort, and to arrange otherwise 
 for his safety on the journey from Glenurquhy to Inveraray. 
 " I hoipe," she says, " ye wilbe cairfull to send sufficient company 
 with him, and to cans prowyd some secure place be the way, 
 quhar he maybe that night he comes frome you." Lord Lome 
 writes from Eosneath to inform his " cousin " that his son, who 
 is home on a visit, is about to return to Glenurquhy. " I will 
 assoor you," he says, " your foster [son] longs very much to see 
 you, and doethe not dar to tell he had rather be thair nor her, 
 and I assoor you he shall heave his choice." The child's letter 
 to Sir Colin when he is about eight years old is pretty, and is 
 worth quoting. The quaint spelling is, we think, partly to be 
 accounted for by the tender age of the writer. It runs as 
 follows : — "To my louing foster-father and respected freind 
 the Lard of Glenurqhey, these : Louing Freind, louing foster- 
 father, I thoght good to wryt thir [these] few lyns to yow to 
 shawe yow that I am in good health and am vearie sorie that 
 ye wryt not for me and I long weri much to sie yow ; and 
 as ye wold wis me to be well and to come to yow, send to 
 me in all the heast and diligence ye can, Duncan Archibald 
 and tuey horse with him on to Mr Johen and on for my 
 
 ^ Bl-ack Book of Taymouth, p. xviii. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY LORD OF SESSION 2 
 
 -:/ 
 
 cariage ^ : and prays and requests yow to send them in all the 
 heast ye can, and 1 wil looke for them that they may ho heir at 
 Fryday or at the fardest at Setterday at night : and take it not 
 in anay uncounes [strangeness] that I send not hack the 
 ansuere of the letter that I got in Edinbruch, I could not 
 stay because I was in heast ; and bring my commendations 
 to yowr shelf and to yowr wyf and houpes that I wil seie 
 yow my shelf shortlie, if ye doe yowr deutie, not duting but 
 ye wildoe the same, comiting yow to God's protection for euer. 
 So I rest, Yowrs at pouer, Archibald, Lord of Lome." ^ The 
 accounts of the boy's expenses were carefully kept, and contain 
 some quaint items : thus, " For ane brusche for my Lord 
 of Lome's sone to brusche his head with " (x s.) ; " Given to 
 my Lord of Lome's sone to play him with quhen he went 
 to Edinburgh to sie his father " (x lib.) ; " For ane Inglisch 
 byble to him " (x lib.) ; " For the practise of pietie being double 
 over-gilt " (iii lib.) ; " Item for tua pair of gloves to the baime " 
 (xiii s.) ; " Item half ane ell of Cramoisie velvett to be him 
 ane bannet mutch " (x lib.), etc.^ The boy who was the object 
 of so much love and solicitude had afterwards a chequered 
 career, closed at last, as that of his father had been, by a 
 bloody death. The memory of this adds a touch of pathos 
 to these little particulars of his childish days, when the 
 shadow of danger was still far aloof from him, and an 
 affectionate conspiracy to make him happy was formed by 
 all about him. To these early days and to this peaceful 
 home his thoughts in after -years, we cannot doubt, often 
 recurred. 
 
 Among the various official appointments bestowed upon 
 Lord Lome was that of a judgeship in the Court of Session, as 
 an Extraordinary Lord of Session. According to an Act of 
 the year 1537,^ the Sovereign was at liberty to name three 
 or four " Lords of his great council or Parliament " to sit 
 and vote with the fifteen ordinary judges. These Extraordinary 
 Lords of Session received no emolument beyond the opportunity 
 
 ' i.e. one for his tutor and one for himself. Mr John was afterwards evidently 
 dismissed for misconduct of some sort. 
 
 - The signature seems somewhat premature, but it is not the same as his father's, 
 which is " Lome." 
 
 ^ Black Book of Taymmdh, pp. xviii-xxiii. Our readers will bear in mind that 
 the pounds and shillings need to be divided by twelve to reduce them to Sterling 
 value. "The practise of pietie " above mentioned is of course a book. 
 
 " 1537, c, 40. 
 
28 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 of obliging themselves and their friends/ which doubtless 
 seemed to most of them a more valuable as well as a more 
 immediate advantage than the training for the public service, 
 and particularly for judging in appeals brought from the 
 Court of Session to the House of Lords, on which apologists 
 for the system have laid stress. Lord Lome took his seat on 
 the 14th of January, 1634, in place of Sir John Hay of Barro.- 
 
 His connexion with a famous criminal trial of that time 
 deserves a passing notice. Although the power of the 
 Macgregors as a clan had been broken by the old Earl of 
 Argyll, various individuals of that name gave trouble to the 
 authorities from time to time by their acts of rebellion and 
 violence. One of the most famous of these, Patrick Macgregor, 
 popularly called, from the colour of his hair, Gilderoy or 
 Gillie Eoy {i.e. the Eed Lad), who is famous in ballad literature 
 and in the prose fiction which deals with the exploits of 
 highwaymen, about the year 1632, at the head of a gang of 
 caterans, plundered various districts of the Highlands. The 
 " arch-rebel " and nine of his companions were apprehended 
 by Lord Lome, and executed in Edinburgh in July 1636. For 
 his services in capturing this bold outlaw, an Act of Approval 
 was passed by the Privy Council, who ordained that special 
 mention should be made of it to the King. On the occasion 
 of the trial. Lord Lome received a commission appointing him to 
 sit on the Bench as an assessor to " His Majesty's Justice and 
 his depute" in conducting the trial,^ The fine ballad of 
 " Gilderoy " in Percy's Eeliqucs gives us a view of matters 
 from the standpoint occupied by the outlaw's friends.* 
 
 "We now arrive at the period in Lord Lome's life at which 
 he felt called upon to come forward as the defender of a 
 great cause — that of religious liberty and national independ- 
 ence — and to enter upon a career of public service from which 
 he was never to be released until he bowed his head upon 
 the scaffold to receive the stroke of death. In order that 
 
 ^ The description of the English judges who visited Scotland in the time of the 
 Commomvealth as " a pack of kinless loons " will recur to the minds of some of our 
 readers. 
 
 ^ Erskine's Institutes, vol. i. p. 57 ; Brunton and Haig, Senators of the College of 
 Justice, pp. xlviii, 294. By the statute Geo. I. c. 19, it was decided that no future 
 appointments of the kind were to be made, and the office expired accordingly with 
 John Hay, Marquess of Tweeddale, who died 9th December, 1762. 
 
 ^ Hist. HISS. Covimission, vol. iv. pp. 471, 490. 
 
 * See App. II, 
 
EPISCOPACY AND PRESBYTERIANISM 29 
 
 our readers may understand the ecclesiastical agitation in 
 Scotland, which broke out into such fierce disorder in the 
 twelfth year of the reign of Charles I., it is necessary for us 
 to give a brief outline of the course of events which led up 
 to it. 
 
 The struggle was between Episcopacy, which had the support 
 of the Sovereign, and Presbyterianism, which commended itself to 
 the overwhelming majority of the people of Scotland, and which 
 was closely allied with the type of religious reformation which 
 had been carried into effect in Scotland. Though Knox and 
 his brother-reformers had no consuming zeal against Episcopacy, 
 and had even set up a system which had a superficial resemblance 
 to it, they undoubtedly aimed at a condition of matters very 
 different from it. The " Superintendents," who had provinces 
 or districts in which they were expected to plant and erect 
 churches, to appoint ministers, and to exercise discipline in 
 cases of misconduct or negligence, were in no sense prelates 
 for they were themselves subject to the General Assembly, 
 by which at the impeachment of an elder they might be 
 rebuked, suspended, or deposed. There were still persons who 
 occupied the offices and enjoyed the titles and revenues of 
 Bishops, and who had seats in Parliament as holding baronial 
 benefices, but they exercised no ecclesiastical authority unless 
 they had been admitted into the ministry of the Protestant 
 Church, or had received a special commission from the General 
 Assembly. When these offices became vacant by the death 
 or forfeiture of incumbents, the Church would have preferred 
 that they should have been abolished and their revenues ap- 
 plied to the support of Superintendents and ministers. But 
 her representations and requests were ignored. A twofold 
 motive influenced the civil authorities in refusing to accede 
 to this proposal : on the one hand, the presence of Bishops in 
 Parliament was necessary for the validity of legislation — a 
 consideration of special importance during the minority of 
 James VI. ; and, on the other hand, the noblemen who 
 presented preachers to the vacant sees took care to secure 
 for themselves a considerable portion of the income. This 
 practice of maintaining the Episcopal office in order to have 
 legal authority for drawing the revenues, only part of which 
 was used for the salary of the incumbent, suggested the well- 
 known soubriquet of " Tulchan Bishops." The tulchan was the 
 stuffed figure of a calf, sometimes used to delude an unwilling cow 
 
30 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 into giving her milk ; and so, under colour of keeping up the 
 ecclesiastical office in question, the nobles were enabled to draw 
 freely upon the endowments that were meant for the support 
 of the Bishops.^ The whole history of the struggle between 
 Presbyterianism and Episcopacy, during the greater part of 
 the reign of James VI., may be summed up in the statement 
 that those who conferred, and those who enjoyed, the Episcopal 
 office were ever seeking to add to it a measure of spiritual 
 jurisdiction, while the great majority of clergy and people 
 resented and resisted the exercise of authority by one minister 
 of Christ over his brother-ministers. It took some time before 
 Presbyterianism could muster its forces and put forth its 
 strength to resist this domination. In its primitive form in 
 Scotland its constitution was incomplete, as the governing bodies 
 consisted merely of Sessions or Courts formed of ministers and 
 elders of individual congregations, and General Assemblies 
 called by royal authority at irregular intervals. But in course 
 of time Presbyteries, or district courts, came into existence, 
 and were able to discharge the functions which in an Episcopal 
 Church belonged to Bishops. In the struggle between the 
 two systems, the victory lay sometimes with the one party, 
 and sometimes with the other; but from the year 1610 
 Episcopacy of a moderate type was finally established in 
 Scotland. The Bishops, in accordance with a temporary arrange- 
 ment which had been come to in 1572 but which had never 
 been repealed, were still subject to the control of the General 
 Assembly, by which they might be censured or even deposed. 
 This, as we shall afterwards see, put into the hands of 
 the Presbyterian party a weapon of tremendous power, when 
 in the course of events they succeeded in gaining control 
 of the Assembly and in filling it with men hostile to 
 Episcopacy. 
 
 As a mere matter of fact, it may be safely averred that in the 
 beginning of the reign of Charles I. the Episcopate was an in- 
 stitution thoroughly unpopular with both clergy and people in 
 Scotland, and consequently those who occupied the office were 
 unfortunately very largely out of sympathy with those over 
 whom they had charge.^ This unhappy condition of matters 
 showed itself in various ways. Under pressure from the 
 Sovereign, several religious practices had been introduced which 
 
 ' Peterkin, Records of the Kirk, p. 248. 
 
 * See Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 38 et seq. 
 
TYRANNY OF BISHOP SYDSERF 31 
 
 in the public estimation savoured of I'opeiy/ and the Bishops 
 by enforcing these incurred the suspicion of aiming at the re- 
 establishment of forms of superstition which the nation abhorred. 
 In Scotland also Puritanism began to prevail, and it led to the 
 cultivation of an austerer and more rigid type of piety than had 
 hitherto been known ; and as this movement affected the com- 
 munity at large, the Bishops were likely to regard it with dis- 
 favour, and to provoke further unpopularity by what seemed to 
 be laxity of conduct in matters of manners, if not, indeed, of 
 morals. Accordingly, at the period now before us, those who 
 were the representatives of Episcopacy had partly inherited and 
 partly built up for themselves a highly undesirable reputation. 
 They were popularly regarded as open to the charges of Popish 
 inclinations and of " worldly " practices.^ Some instances of 
 harsh conduct on the part of one or two of them served to fill 
 up the measure of indignation which had long been accumulating, 
 and, unfortunately for them and for the cause they represented, 
 when final disaster was at hand, there were among them no men 
 of special ability or force of character who could do anything 
 to avert it. Their vacillation and incapacity served only to 
 aggravate their misfortunes when the evil day arrived. 
 
 Some cases of oppression on the part of Thomas Sydserf, the 
 Bishop of Galloway, called forth the indignation of Lord Lome, 
 and led him to take action in the Privy Council to remedy them. 
 The Bishop in question, who was one of the most intolerant of 
 those who held the office at that time, had set up a diocesan 
 court, subordinate to the Court of High Commission, in which he 
 dealt with cases of nonconformity or other ecclesiastical offences.^ 
 In this he passed sentence of punishment upon Alexander Gordon, 
 the Laird of Earlstoun, who on one occasion, when the Eucharist 
 
 ' These were the Perth Articles, decided upon by a General Assembly at that 
 city in August, 1618: 1. That the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper should be 
 received kneeling. 2. That the same Sacrament might be celebrated privately in 
 cases of serious illness. 3. Tliat Baptism, as a rule, should be administered in 
 churches, and not in private. 4. That all children above eight years of age should be 
 taught the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Catechism, and 
 be confirmed. 5. That Christmas, Holy Week, Easter, Ascension-tide, and Whit- 
 suntide should be duly commemorated (Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 
 vol. ii. p. 317). 
 
 - A contemporary satire dubs them "fourteine belly gods" (Maidment's Pasqvih, 
 vol. ii. p. 2). No such scurrility can of course be received as evidence against them, 
 but in order that it might pass current there must have been some ground on which 
 such a charge could with any plausibility be made. It would not have been made 
 against men who were notoriously austere and ascetical in their habits. 
 
 ^ Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 24. 
 
32 THE GREAT iMAROUESS 
 
 was given to kneeling communicants, " cryit out, saying it wes 
 plane idolatry."' ^ For this oftence the culprit was fined five 
 hundred merks [£27, los. 6d. Sterling], and was banished to 
 Montrose. Earlstoim was the Tutor or s^uardian of the vounir 
 Viscount Kenmiu-e, and he had the principal charge of his aft'airs 
 and so came to be associated in many ways with Lord Lome. 
 who was the uncle of his ward.- The fine was paid by 
 Lord Lome, and he understood that this was accepted as a 
 sufficient atonement for the offence.^ The Bishop took the 
 money " without ceremony," but did not remit the sentence of 
 banishment. " Xo dealing," says Bailhe, " could move the Bishop 
 to pass from the execution of this sentence ; yea, at the Coimcill 
 table, when Lome was relateing some circumstances of this 
 businesse, he got a reply from the Bishop, which he called a lie 
 [i.e., as it seems, was given the lie], and so raise in high passion, and 
 yet remaines malcontent for that injurie. For myself, I think 
 the Bishop could not be so impertinent, bot that rather that wise 
 nobleman would make use of some rash word, which hes fallen 
 from his mouth ; however, he and all the nobles takes it for a 
 very pert afiront done to their estate, even in Councill. The 
 matter, I hear, is before the King, and yet not agreed." ^ Ulti- 
 mately, by the exercise of strong pressure on the part of Lord 
 Lome, the sentence of banishment was quashed, and Earlstoun 
 returned home ; but the incident served to increase the popular 
 indignation against the Bishops. Lord Lome, indeed, called a 
 meeting of some of the leading nobles in Scotland, at which " the 
 pryd and avarice of the prelates seiking to overrule the haill 
 kingdome " received the condemnation which it deserved." 
 
 Another case in which Lord Lome interposed on behaK of 
 the Puritan or Presbyterian party was that of the famous Samuel 
 Kutherford, who was brought before the Court of High Com- 
 
 ^ Spalding, Memorials of the TruNes, vol. i. p. 78 ; Life of Robert Blair, p. 107. 
 
 " See App. I. In the reference to this incident in the article ' ' Archibald Campbell, 
 eighth Earl of Argyll " in the Dictionary of National Biography, Earlstoun is spoken 
 of as a "tutor," as though he were a kind of Dominie Sampson in the household 
 of Viscount Kenmnre. Dr Gardiner in his History (vol. viii. p. 316) describes him 
 as "one of Argyll's followers," as though he were an obscure member of the clan 
 Campbell over whom the chief spread his protecting sgis. As a matter of fact, 
 Eai'lstoun was a landed proprietor of distingxiished position in Galloway, and, as 
 above mentioned, the principal guatdian or "Tutor" of Viscount Kenmure, who 
 was then of very tender years. See also Life of Livingstone, p. 136 (Wodrow Soc). 
 
 ' Stevenson, History of the Church and State of Scotland, p. 317. 
 
 * Letters and Journals, vol. i. p. 16. 
 
 * Spalding, Mtmorialls of the Trubles, vol. i. p. 79. 
 
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD 33 
 
 mission iu lG3t5, uiid wiis chargfJ with nonconfonnity, with 
 preaching against the Five Articles of Perth, and with supposed 
 reflections upon the Church of Scotland in one of his books. 
 He declined to recognize the court as a lawful judicatory, or to 
 give the Bishops their titles. He was condemned to give up 
 the exercise of his sacred calling within the bounds of Scotland 
 and was banished from Anwoth in Galloway to Aberdeen. Lord 
 Lome exerted himself on behalf of the accused, and earned his 
 lasting gratitude. In one of his letters Eutherford says : " My 
 Lord has brrjuglit me a friend from the Highlands of Argyle, my 
 Lord of Lorn, who hath done as much as was within the comjjass 
 of his power. God gave me favour in his eyes." And again, in 
 a letter to Lady Kenmure, he says : " And write thanks to your 
 brother, my Lord of Lorn, for what ho has done for me, a poor 
 unknown stranger to him. I shall pray for him and his house 
 while I live. It is his honour to open his mouth in the streets 
 for his wronged and oppressed Master, Jesus Christ." ^ 
 
 ' LelLcrs, i. 4, iii. 36. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Nobles jealous of tlie Bishops — The Book of Canons and the Liturgy — • 
 Riot in St Giles's Church, Edinburgh — Popular Discontent — "The 
 Tables" established — The "National Covenant" — Lord Lome's Visit 
 to London — Hamilton appointed Royal Commissioner — Accusations 
 against the Bishops. 
 
 ANOTHER cause of the troubles which broke out in Scotland 
 in the reign of Charles I. was the discontent of the nobles, 
 which had been excited by what they regarded as a harsh 
 exercise of the royal prerogative, and by the increasing poHtical 
 influence of the Scotch prelates. So far as the former of 
 these grievances is concerned, it is difficult to see that there 
 was any real ground for discontent. For two generations the 
 higher nobility had been in possession of Church revenues, 
 and had proved themselves oppressive in their modes of 
 exacting tithes, and grudging in the payment of the small 
 portion of them which was applied to the support of the 
 clergy. The result was that smaller proprietors and farmers 
 were kept in a position of unjust and often injurious subjection 
 to their superiors, and the provision for the support of religion 
 was both inadequate and irregular.^ One of the earhest pro- 
 ceedings of Charles I. after coming to the throne was to issue 
 an Act of Eevocation, by which the Church property held by 
 laymen was reannexed to the Crown on the ground of technical 
 defects in the original grants by which it had been bestowed 
 upon its present possessors.^ This sweeping proposal aroused 
 great indignation and opposition, and ultimately a reasonable 
 compromise was effected, by which the grievances which had 
 provoked the royal interference were corrected, and decent 
 provision made for the support of the clergy. The nobles 
 were really in consequence of this new arrangement secured 
 in the possession of their property by an indefeasible title, 
 
 ^ Napier, Memorials of Montrose, vol. i. pp. 24, (56. 
 
 ^ Acts of Parliament of Scotlaiid, vol. v. p. 23 ; Large Declaration, p. 6 ; Echard, 
 History of England, vol. ii. p. 102. 
 
 31 
 
DISCONTENT OF THE NOBLES 35 
 
 though their incomes might be somewhat diminished, and 
 the causes of irritation between them and their tenants, and 
 between them and the clergy, were taken away. Nevertheless, 
 they felu sore at the diminution both of their power and of 
 their revenues, and were suspicious of the next step which 
 might be taken by the Government in dealing with matters 
 in which they were specially interested ; and many among 
 them were on the watch for an opportunity of requiting their 
 fancied injury upon their Sovereign. 
 
 A second and more intelligible ground of aristocratic dis- 
 content was afforded by the fact that the Bishops had been 
 gradually endowed with political power, and now filled offices in 
 the State which the nobles regarded as theirs by birthright. The 
 Archbishop of St Andrews was appointed Lord Chancellor 
 of Scotland in January, 1635, on the death of the Earl of 
 Kinnoul, and of the thirteen other members of the Episcopate 
 seven were at that time in the Privy Council.^ It was the 
 first time since the Eeformation that the office of Chancellor 
 had been given to a Churchman ; and it was generally believed 
 that Lord Lome was very much disappointed that it had not 
 been conferred on him. It was said that he had formally 
 applied for the office, and received a refusal.^ But perhaps 
 rumour exaggerated matters, as it is apt to do. 
 
 According to the peculiar arrangements of the Scotch 
 Parliament the actual work of legislation was carried on by 
 a large committee of the Estates, called the Lords of the 
 Articles. The nobles elected eight of the fourteen Bishops 
 to this committee, and the Bishops, in their turn, chose the 
 same number from the sixty-six members of the higher nobility 
 who were eligible for this office. The nobles and Bishops then 
 chose eight of the untitled gentry, and as many commissioners 
 from burghs ; and to the committee thus formed the Sovereign 
 had the right of adding eight nominees of his own, with the 
 Lord Chancellor as President.^ From this brief statement 
 it will be easily seen that each member of the Episcopal 
 order had a weight in the affairs of government far in 
 excess of that of any of the nobles ; whilst it was in their 
 
 ^ Gardiner, History of England, vol. vii. p. 298 ; Napier, Memorials of Montrose, 
 vol. i. p. 70. 
 
 ^ Echard, History of England, vol. ii. p. 131. 
 
 ^ Gardiner, History of England, vol. vii. p. 287 ; Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii, 
 p. 364. 
 
36 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 power, as a whole, to reduce legislation to the mere regis- 
 tration of the will of the Sovereign. They could always be 
 counted upon to vote in accordance with the royal pleasure, 
 and could at any time select from the higher nobility those 
 who would do the like ; and the members of these two Estates 
 of Parhament, together with the royal nominees, had the whole 
 power of government in their hands, even if all the other 
 Lords of the Articles were in opposition. And so the same 
 men who were obnoxious to many of their countrymen because 
 they were Bishops, and who were dishked by others because 
 of their supposed inclination to Popery and " worldly " habits, 
 were regarded by the nobles and by the leading members of 
 the legal profession with hatred and jealousy, as intruding 
 into the sphere of poHtics, and as monopohzing offices and 
 dignities to which others were entitled. The condition of 
 things in Scotland in 1635 was therefore such that any 
 further innovation in religious affairs was certain to lead 
 to a general insurrection : combustible and explosive matter 
 was abundant on every hand, and all that was needed was the 
 application of a match.^ 
 
 A very much more long-suffering people than the Scotch 
 nation of that time would have been roused to anger by 
 the affront which led to the general rising against the royal 
 authority. The decision had been formed after the visit of 
 Charles I. to Scotland, on the occasion of his coronation in 
 1633, to publish a new Book of Canons to regulate the 
 constitution of the Church of Scotland, and a new Liturgy 
 to secure uniformity in the matter of worship. The purpose 
 which Charles I. asserted that he had in view in coming to 
 this decision was to promote " the good and peace of the 
 Church " and " the increase of religion." ^ We have no reason 
 for doubting the purity of his motives, but something like 
 judicial blindness or infatuation is the only explanation of 
 the course he took in carrying out his purpose. The Book 
 
 ^ The strength of the case against the Bishops may be judged from the fact that 
 after the Restoration when Episcopacy was re-established in Scotland, in the sermon 
 jireached on the consecration of some of the prelates they were warned against 
 imitating the conduct of their predecessors. The preacher, we are told, "insisted 
 upon the faults and escapes [escapades] of the former prelates, which made them 
 fall, and exhorted the Bishops not to encroach upon the nobility, but to keep 
 themselves sober, and not exceed the bounds of their function" (Wodrow, History, 
 vol. i. p. 255). 
 
 2 The King to the Bishops, 13th May ; see Sprott's Scottish Liturgies^ Introd., 
 p. xlviii. 
 
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 37 
 
 of Canons appeared first in the beginning of the year 1636, 
 and it imposed upon the people of Scotland a form of Church- 
 government in many respects very different from tliat which 
 then existed and was recognized by law. Some of the Scotch 
 prelates may have assisted in drawing it up, but it had been 
 thoroughly revised by Archbishop Laud and Dr Juxon, Bishop 
 of London, and it was issued with no sanction whatever but that 
 of the royal authority. It was surely new for the constitution of 
 a Church to be remodelled and changed without even any dis- 
 cussion of principles or details by those immediately concerned, 
 or at any rate without the formal sanction of the Church's 
 most responsible officials.^ The Book of Common Prayer did 
 not appear until eighteen months afterwards, but it was already 
 placed under very strict guardianship in the Book of Canons. 
 The penalty of excommunication was threatened against any one 
 who asserted that it " contained anything repugnant to the 
 Scriptures, or was corrupt, superstitious, or unlawful." ^ " It 
 was quite reasonable," says Dr Grub, himself an Episcopalian, 
 " that a Code of Canons should be issued before a Service-Book, 
 but it was a proceeding equally absurd and tyrannical to 
 denounce the penalty of excommunication against the infringers 
 of a hook the contents of which were not yet known." ^ 
 Archbishop Laud had been in favour of enforcing the use in 
 Scotland of the English Book of Common Prayer, but in conse- 
 quence of the remonstrances of the Scotch Bishops it was 
 agreed that the new Liturgy should, while similar to that used 
 in England, be allowed to differ from it in some points.* What- 
 ever share any of the Scotch Bishops had in preparing this 
 Liturgy, the work of revising was carried out by Archbishop 
 Laud, Dr Juxon, and Dr "Wren, Bishop of Norwich ; ^ and, 
 as in the case of the Book of Canons, the work was issued 
 simply by royal authority, without the sanction of any 
 ecclesiastical court or assembly. By a letter of the Privy 
 Council all ministers were required, under penalty of outlawry 
 
 ^ Burton, HlstoTy of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 397. 
 
 - Laud's Works, vol. v. p. 583. 
 
 ^ Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 367. 
 
 "'Gardiner, History of England, vol. vii. p. 282 ; Large Declaration, p. 18. 
 
 ® Ecliard, History of Englaiul, vol. 1. p. 132. A very unfavourable account of this 
 prelate, Bishop Wren, is given in W. Lilly's Observations on the Life, and Death of 
 King Charles (1651). The lowliness of liis origin is described in an oddly-sounding 
 sentence — "'a fellow, whose father sold Babies [i.e. dolls], and such pcdlcry-wnio, 
 in CheaDLjide." 
 
38 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 for rebellion, to provide themselves with copies of the volume 
 for the use of their parishes within fifteen days^ — a remarkable 
 kind of stimulus for promoting the use of a devotional work ! 
 No charge of Eomanizing tendencies can fairly be brought 
 against the authors of this Liturgy, but, unfortunately for 
 them, the appearance of such was discernible in it, at least to 
 the jealous scrutiny to which it was exposed. By a change in 
 the Communion Office in the way of removing clauses of a 
 supposed Zwinglian character, which dated from the second 
 Prayer-Book of Edward VI., the doctrine of the Eeal Presence 
 was set forth in a somewhat more emphatic form.^ This fact was 
 enough to serve for the foundation of the statement that the 
 new Liturgy was merely the Mass in disguise. But, even if it 
 and its companion volume had been perfectly unexceptionable 
 in character, the mode in which they were introduced would 
 have sealed their fate. The patriotic emotions of the people 
 of Scotland, who had three hundred years before thrown off 
 the yoke of England, were stirred to their lowest depths, and 
 men and women of all ranks and classes were determined not 
 to submit to tyrannical dictation in the sphere of religion, nor 
 to make use of a volume which was possibly Popish, and was 
 certainly English. 
 
 It was decided that the new Service-Book should be first 
 used in the chiu^ches of Edinburgh on the seventh Sunday after 
 Trinity, 23rd July, 1637, and notice of this was given on the 
 previous Sunday. In " the Great Church," as St Giles's was 
 then called, the inauguration of the new Liturgy was to be 
 celebrated with unusual pomp at the morning service, which 
 began at ten o'clock. The Archbishops of St Andrews and 
 Glasgow, the Bishop of Edinburgh, with several other Bishops, 
 many of the Privy Council, the Judges of the Supreme Court, 
 and the magistrates of the city, were present ; while a large 
 congregation filled the church. The Dean of Edinburgh, Dr 
 Hanna, stood up in his " whites " [surplice] to read the service. 
 The moment he opened the book a great outcry arose which 
 drowned his voice. " A number of the meaner sorte of the 
 people," says the historian, " most of them waiting maides and 
 women, who use in that towue for to keepe places for the better 
 sorte,^ with clapping of their handes, cursings, and outcryes, 
 
 ^ Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 379. 
 
 - Laud's Worls, vol. iii. p. 357. 
 
 2 There were no pews in the churches then, and many people brought folding- 
 
RIOT IN ST GILES'S CHURCH 39 
 
 raised such ane uncoth noyse and hubbubb in the church, that 
 not any one could either heare or be heardc." ^ Some said that 
 the Mass had come among them, others that Baal was in the 
 church. The Bishop of Edinburgh, who was to preach that day, 
 entered the pulpit above the Dean, and, reminding the congre- 
 gation that they were within a sacred building, entreated them 
 not to profane it. Probably many of his hearers regarded this 
 admonition as savouring of a superstitious reverence for the 
 stone and lime of the edifice, for they proceeded to use greater 
 violence towards the Bishop than towards the Dean. Bibles 
 and a stool were hurled at his head, and, as most of his assail- 
 ants were women, it is probable that he escaped being struck 
 only through their well-known want of skill in taking aim. 
 The Archbishop of St Andrews and some others came for- 
 ward to aid in restoring order ; but they only succeeded in 
 drawing down upon their own heads the curses and impre- 
 cations which now began to be poured out freely upon the 
 Bishops and their " abettors." The Provost and Bailies were 
 therefore called down from the "loft" or gallery where they 
 sat, and with their help the unruly rabble were thrust out 
 of the church, and the doors were shut. Amid the confusion 
 caused by the clamour of the mob outside, by loud knocking at 
 the doors, and by occasional showers of stones through the 
 windows the service was with difficulty carried through to its 
 close. The Bishop of Edinburgh on leaving the church was 
 surrounded and hustled by the mob, and he would probably have 
 been crushed or trampled to death but for the timely intervention 
 of the Earl of Wemyss, who saw his danger and sent his servants 
 to rescue him. The members of the Privy Council who were in 
 Edinburgh were hastily convened in the lodging of the Lord 
 Chancellor, and instructions were given to the magistrates of the 
 city to protect the afternoon service in St Giles's, and in other 
 churches where disturbances had taken place in the forenoon. 
 In consequence of the measures of precaution that were adopted, 
 one of which was the exclusion of women from St Giles's, the new 
 Liturgy was used at the afternoon service without interruption. 
 The Bishop of Edinburgh, however, again ran considerable risk of 
 his life on his way home from church. The Earl of Eoxburgh, 
 who was then Lord Privy Seal, gave him the shelter of his 
 
 stools with them. The servants above mentioned occupied places until their 
 mistresses arrived, 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. i. p. 7 ; Large Declaration, p. 23. 
 
40 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 carriage, but it was pelted with stones all the way along the 
 streets, and the Earl's footmen found it necessary to draw their 
 swords to keep off the enraged crowd.^ 
 
 A long and weary correspondence now took place between 
 the members of the Privy Council, on whom the charge lay 
 of carrying out the royal instructions, and their Sovereign, who 
 was utterly incapable of understanding the very difficult circum- 
 stances in which his officials were placed, and the excited 
 condition of public feehng. Nor were the members of the 
 Council all of one mind : some of them who were laymen were in 
 sympathy with the popular cause, and they were glad to see the 
 Bishops humiliated. Some slight attempt was made to discover 
 the rioters, but with little success. In a report to His Majesty 
 " the barbarous tumult " was asserted to have proceeded from 
 " a number of base and rascall people " ; ^ but, in spite of all 
 endeavours to minimize matters, the whole Council, including 
 the Bishops, agreed that it was not safe to attempt to use the 
 new Liturgy on the Sunday following that on which the riot had 
 occurred. Until the King's pleasure should be known both the 
 old and new Service-Books were suspended ; and the worship in 
 the churches of Edinburgh in the meantime consisted simply of 
 a prayer before the sermon, and one following it.^ The only 
 instructions that came from the King were that the authors of 
 the late tumult must be searched for and punished, and that the 
 clergy must be amply supported in establishing the use of the 
 new Service-Book. But neither of these orders could be carried 
 out : the very largeness of the number of those involved in the 
 riots, as well as the rank of many concerned in them,* made 
 it difficult to bring them to justice ; while among the clergy there 
 were none to be found who could be induced to run the risk 
 of being torn to pieces for the sake of introducing or continuing 
 to use the new Liturgy.^ The Bishops complained to the King 
 of the lukewarmness of the lay members of the Privy Council ; 
 and the lay members wrote to complain of the precipitation 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. i. pp. 7, 12 ; Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. IS ; Row, 
 Church of Scotland, pp. 408, 409; Rothes, Relation, ai»i). 198-200. 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 45. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. i. pp. 18, 447 ; Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. i. p. 12. 
 
 ^ ' ' This tumult was so great that it was not thought meet to search either the 
 ])lotters or actors of it ; for numbers of the best quality would have been found 
 guilty" (Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 21). 
 
 ^ The magistrates to Laud, 19th August (quoted by Gardiner) ; Large Declaratiov., 
 p. 28. 
 
PERPLEXITY OF THE GOVERNMENT 41 
 
 with wliich, as they said, the Bishops had acted in the whole 
 matter. The only reply was that both parties were to blame, 
 but more especially the Bishops for having laid an interdict upon 
 Divine service. The unyielding attitude taken up by the 
 English Government, or, to speak more exactly, by the King 
 and the Archbishop of Canterbury, provoked obstinate resist- 
 ance in many parts of Scotland outside the capital. Petitions 
 against the enforced purchase and use of the Service-Book 
 began to pour in upon the Privy Council, and iniluential 
 deputations of noblemen, gentry, and ministers appeared before 
 it in support of the popular cause.^ 
 
 Kiot after riot took place in Edinburgh, and the Privy 
 Council and magistrates were utterly helpless in the hands of 
 the mob ; and the only way in which the representatives of the 
 royal authority could restore order or secure their own safety 
 was by appealing to tlieir opponents, the noblemen and gentry 
 who were regarded by the Sovereign as contumacious and re- 
 bellious towards him, to use their influence in calming the 
 popular irritation. Order was restored, but at a heavy cost. 
 Eor the virtual authority had passed from those who had the 
 titles and emoluments of office into the hands of those who 
 represented the people — who sympathized with their religious 
 opinions and aspirations, and who were willing to become their 
 leaders in a struggle against the tyranny of King and of Arch- 
 bishop.2 The only reply that had been sent to the scores of 
 petitions forwarded from Scotland was another fruitless demand 
 for the punishment of the disturbers of the peace, an order for 
 the expulsion of strangers from Edinburgh imder pain of out- 
 lawry, and another for the removal of the Privy Council and 
 Court of Session to Linlithgow.^ The petitioners now took a 
 bolder step : in a document which was in form " a Supplication," 
 they declared that the Bishops were the authors of the evils 
 complained of, and they asked that they should be put on trial, 
 and in the meantime should be prohibited from acting as judges 
 in matters that were in dispute.* 
 
 Events now proceeded with great rapidity. The petitioners 
 caught at a suggestion of their opponents, who were embarrassed 
 
 ^ Large Declaration, p. 26 ; Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 18, apyi. 148 ; Spalding, 
 JlemoriaUs of the Truhlcs, vol. i. p. 80 ; Echartl, History of Enijla,id, vol. ii. p. 135. 
 
 * Rothes, Relation, p. 19 ; Large Dcclaraiion, p. 35 ; Strafibrd, Letters, vol. ii. 
 p. 117. 
 
 ^ Large Declaration, p. 32. '* Ibid., pp. il, it. 
 
42 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 by their numbers, that they should appoint commissioners to act 
 in their name ; and ultimately an organization, entitled " The 
 Tables," was set up, consisting of four committees of nobles, 
 gentry, ministers, and representatives of boroughs.^ And thus, 
 out of the confusion into which the despotic action of Charles I. 
 had thrown the country, emerged what was virtually a 
 governing body to which the people almost unanimously yielded 
 obedience, and which, though careful to use respectful language 
 concerning the Sovereign, was firmly resolved to resist all his 
 unconstitutional proceedings. His public proclamations were 
 answered on the spot by protestations drawn up by the hands 
 of sldlful lawyers. The royal authority was openly defied, and 
 the crowds who listened to the heralds received the announce- 
 ments made in the name of their King with jeering and laughter, 
 and compelled his officials to remain to hear them repudiated. 
 The protesters treated the proclamations as coming from the 
 Privy Council, and they returned answer that they would accept 
 no orders from it as long as the Bishops were members of it. 
 They declared that they appealed to their Sovereign for redress 
 of their grievances, and they desired " in a legal way to prose- 
 cute the same before the ordinary competent judges, civil or 
 ecclesiastical." ^ 
 
 To all these protestations Charles I. turned a deaf ear. 
 It was impossible for him to make concessions without such 
 loss of prestige as would greatly weaken his position in England 
 as well as in Scotland and overthrow like a house of cards 
 the whole fabric of government in Church and State which he had 
 founded upon his own autocratic will, in defiance of so many of 
 the most intelligent and well disposed of his suljjects in both king- 
 doms. Matters came to a head in Scotland by the framing and 
 adoption of what was called " The National Covenant," in which 
 the subscribers pledged themselves to defend the true Eeformed 
 religion, to abstain from innovations in worship and Church- 
 government until these were approved in a free Assembly and 
 Parliament, to maintain the true religion and the King's person 
 and authority, and to defend the same by all means in their 
 power, and to be good examples of all godliness, soberness, and 
 righteousness. In addition to this Covenant or " Bond," the 
 subscribers declared their belief that the innovations complained 
 of were contrary to the Confession of Faith on which the 
 
 1 Rothes, Filiation, p. 17 ; Baillie, Letters, vol. i. pp. 35, 38. 
 * Large Declaration, p. 51. 
 
THE NATIONAL COVENANT 43 
 
 Church of Scotland rested, to the spirit of the Itoformation, and 
 to Acts of ParHanient, and tended to the rc-estabhshmcnt of 
 Popery and tyranny, and the overthrow of tlie true rehgion.^ 
 
 This Covenant was publicly signed with great enthusiasm 
 in Edinburgh on 28th February, 1638, by an immense number 
 of people of all ranks and ages and of both sexes, and was circu- 
 lated immediately afterwards throughout the country.^ So great 
 was the ardour with which it was received and signed that 
 public feeling ran very high against those who were out of 
 sympathy with the movement and refused to subscribe their 
 names to the Covenant. The document in order to be of service 
 had to have at least the appearance of expressing the national 
 feeling ; so that all wbo held aloof from it did what in them 
 lay to support the high-handed policy of the King and the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury which had provoked resistance in 
 Scotland. In these circumstances it is not surprising that 
 strong pressure, amounting in some instances to intimidation 
 and violence, was brought to bear upon those who were unwilling 
 to subscribe the Covenant ; though it is only fair to add that 
 it was only in actual warfare at a later date that blood was shed 
 on this account.^ 
 
 Soon after the subscription of the National Covenant the 
 King sent for several members of the Scotch Privy Council to 
 come up to London to advise with him as to the course to be 
 followed in the circumstances. The Earls of Traquair and 
 Eoxburgh as prominent members of the Council, being Lord 
 Treasurer and Lord Privy Seal respectively, received a formal 
 summons, but a special missive was sent to Lord Lome,* whose 
 support the King was very anxious to have in carrying out his 
 schemes. " He was," says Baillie, " by far the most powerfull 
 subject in the kingdome," ^ and so far he had not committed him- 
 self to the popular cause. As a member of the Privy Council he 
 had had his share of responsibility for many of the unpopular acts 
 which had provoked the people of Scotland into virtual rebellion. 
 Thus his name occurs in a list of those present at a meeting of 
 Council in Edinburgh on 28th July, 1637, five days after the 
 riot in St Giles's, in which orders are given to the Provost and 
 Bailies of that city to take steps to secure the peaceful use of the 
 Service-Book on the following Sunday, and the safety both of 
 
 ^ Large Declaration, p. 57. - Rothes, Relation, pp. 71, 70. 
 
 ^ Gardiner, History of Enrjl and, vol. vii. p. 338 ; Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. i. p. 45. 
 
 * Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 47. ® Ibid., vol. i. p. 146. 
 
44 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 those using it and of those present at Divine worship — orders 
 which were reversed by a decision arrived at next day to suspend 
 for the present the use of the Book in question.^ But at a 
 later date, 2nd March, 1638, at a meeting in Stirhng.^ to which 
 place the Privy Council had been removed from Linlithgow, 
 he, along with his fellow - members, spoke of the causes of 
 what they described as " the general combustion within the 
 Countrie " in terms that must have been very unwelcome to the 
 ears of Charles I. : they declared plainly that these causes are the 
 general fear of innovations by means of the Service-Book, the 
 Book of Canons, and the Court of High Commission upon the 
 form of religion and Church-government established by law, and 
 the manner in which changes had been made, either contrary to 
 the laws or without legal warrant.^ No more striking testimony 
 could be given to the reasonableness of the agitation to which 
 the ecclesiastical policy of the King and the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury had given rise than the fact that such a declaration 
 should have been made by such a body as the Scotch Privy 
 Council itself. 
 
 The lay members of the Privy Council who were summoned 
 to London were soon followed by their clerical colleagues, and 
 the Covenanting leaders waited anxiously for news of what 
 might be determined for suppressing the movement with which 
 they were connected. Though Lord Lome had not subscribed 
 the Covenant and had taken no steps inconsistent with the 
 terms of special intimacy and friendship in which he was known 
 to stand with the King, yet his want of sympathy with the 
 extreme Episcopal party made it certain that he would not 
 approve of the strong measures of repression which they were 
 likely to advocate. Consequently many of his friends regarded 
 his journey to London with misgiving ; but he himself was 
 determined to run all risks and obey the royal summons. 
 
 It was currently reported that the Archbishop of St 
 Andrews — Lord Chancellor of Scotland — and Dr Maxwell, Bishop 
 of Eoss, had brought forward a scheme for overwhelming the 
 Covenanting party by the Highland clans from the north which 
 had not as yet subscribed the Covenant, aided by the forces 
 which a few of the Eoyalist nobles in the Lowlands might be 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. MS. 
 
 - Large DedaratAon, p. 26. It may be worth mentioning that only one Bishop 
 (Brechin) was present at tins meeting. 
 ^ Baiilie, Letters, vol. i. p. 45U. 
 
ADVICE OF THE EARL OF ARGYLL 45 
 
 able to raise for the purpose.^ For the complete success of this 
 scheme its authors considered that it would be advisable for the 
 King to secure the person of Lord Lome as a hostage in pledge 
 for the clan Campbell. The scheme, however, was utterly futile. 
 The Covenanters sent emissaries into the far north and into the 
 west and succeeded in attaching leading clans to their cause, 
 and they took special care that the tenants of nobles who were 
 of Eoyalist proclivities were afforded ample opportunities of 
 signing the Covenant. In the case of the Campbells, all without 
 exception gave in their adherence to that cause. The scheme 
 to which we have referred throws great discredit upon its authors ; 
 for, apart from the suggestion of solving religious difficulties 
 by the sword — a suggestion highly unbecoming Churchmen — 
 the scheme could not have been carried into effect without 
 a disgraceful breach of faith on the part of the King, who, 
 in specially summoning Lord Lome to conference with him, 
 virtually gave him the protection of a safe - conduct. Yet, 
 strangely enough, the proposal to make him a prisoner in 
 London was also advocated by his father, the old Earl of Argyll. 
 The story is told by Bishop Guthry in his Memoirs.^ He states 
 that Lord Lome left London before his colleagues, the 
 Earl of Traquair and the Earl of Eoxburgh, and he says, " the 
 reason of Lord Lome's haste was talked [said] to be a counsel 
 that his father (the Earl of Argyle, who resided at court) gave 
 the King, which was to keep his son with him, and not let him 
 return to Scotland, or else he would wynd him a pirn ^ (that 
 was his expression). The King thanked Argyle for his counsel, 
 but said, ' He behoved to be a King of his word ' ; and therefore, 
 having called him up by his warrant, would not detain him. 
 So Lorn was dismissed, and came quickly home." 
 
 In July of this same year the suggestion was made that 
 the Scots might be brought to reason by an army sent across 
 from the north of Ireland under the Earl of Antrim. This 
 Eoman Catholic nobleman, who was a grandson of the rebel 
 Tyrone and was afterwards himself engaged in rebellion in 
 Ireland, was, according to this scheme, to land five thousand 
 men in Argyllshire. As he was connected with the MacDonalds 
 it was natui'ally to be expected that many of them would eagerly 
 embrace the opportunity of joining his banner, and of avenging 
 
 1 Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 70. " Memoirs, p. 36 (edition of 1748). 
 
 ^ i.e. do him a mischief. Compare the French: "donacr aux enemis un joli 
 peloton de fil h. retordre." 
 
46 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 the defeats inflicted upon that clan by the Campbells. It 
 seems that this scheme was planned by the Marquess of Hamilton, 
 the Earl of Antrim, and Charles I., and that as a reward of 
 his labours, if they were successful, the Irish nobleman was to 
 have a share of the Argyll estates. The Earl of Antrim, who 
 was, according to Clarendon, " a man of excessive pride and 
 vanity, and of a very weak and narrow understanding," ^ crossed 
 over into Ireland to make arrangements for the coming cam- 
 paign. Wentworth, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, afterwards 
 Earl of Straflbrd, opposed the scheme, and it fell into abeyance 
 for a time. In letters to the King and to the Secretaries of 
 State he speaks in language of great contempt of the whole pro- 
 posal, and of the person who was to be the principal instrument 
 in carrying it out. According to his account of matters all 
 sorts of turbulent ruffians and bloodthirsty scoundrels were 
 to be formed into regiments, and to receive weapons and 
 military training which would be an admirable equipment for 
 the career of assassins in their own country, and their officers 
 were to be outlaws for whom Ireland and Scotland had been made 
 too hot, and who had taken refuge in Spain and in Flanders. It 
 was not surprising that the scheme miscarried, and that it was 
 only at a later period, when the King was in desperate straits 
 for soldiers, that he fell back on these Irish recruits. The 
 proposal to reward the Earl of Antrim with a portion of the 
 Argyll estates was to have been kept a great secret but it soon 
 leaked out, and Wentworth was of opinion that the knowledge 
 of it induced Lord Lome to declare sooner for the Covenant 
 than he might otherwise have done. The fact, however, that 
 80 soon after matters had come to a head in Scotland such a 
 scheme should have been broached, shows that Lord Lome was 
 regarded by the King as certain to take the popular side, 
 and that it was not the proposal itself which drove him 
 to do so.^ 
 
 The Covenanting leaders in Scotland — Lord Eothes, Lord 
 Cassihs, and the Earl of Montrose — sent to the Scotch nobles 
 who were at court a statement of their grievances, and of the 
 measm'es of relief which alone would be accepted as satisfactory. 
 
 ^ History, vol. ii. p. 764. The Earl of Antrim, then Lord Dunluce, had married 
 the widow of the Duke of Buckingham, the favourite of Charles I., who was 
 assassinated at Portsmouth. He afterwards received a marquessate. 
 
 2 Strafford Letters, vol. ii. pp. 225, 278, 304, 306, 325, 358 ; Enquirrj into the 
 Share which Charles 1. had in the Transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, p. 300. 
 
HAMILTON APPOINTED COMMISSIONER 47 
 
 The mere withdi'awal, they said, of the Service-Book and Book of 
 Canons woukl not be enough. They complained of the Articles 
 of Perth, of the civil offices and places held by Churchmen, and 
 of the oaths exacted from ministers ; and they called for the 
 abolition of the Court of High Commission and the summon- 
 ing of a lawful and free General Assembly and Parliament.^ 
 
 The outcome of the conference between Charles I. and his 
 leading counsellors was that the Marquess of Hamilton was 
 appointed Eoyal Commissioner to Scotland, and authority was 
 given him to declare that the King would forgive all that had 
 passed, and would refrain from pressing the Canons and Service- 
 Book " except in a fair and legal manner," and would modify 
 the Court of High Commission ; but, on the other hand, the 
 Covenant must be renounced as treasonable.^ The Eoyal Com- 
 missioner was provided with two forms of proclamation, one 
 definite and one vague, either of which he might make use 
 of as occasion required, to declare the King's will to his 
 rebellious subjects ; and general instructions were given him 
 to protract negotiations, and to make no concessions until 
 Charles was able to take the field and vindicate his royal 
 authority by force of arms. But the Marquess of Hamilton 
 found it utterly impossible to bring back the people of Scotland 
 to anything like even a show of obedience ; and when, after 
 some delay, the royal proclamation was published, it was in 
 the usual way repudiated upon the spot, and a public declara- 
 tion was made by the Covenanters that they would hold on 
 firmly in their present course until their grievances were con- 
 sidered in a General Assembly and a Parliament.^ 
 
 After long negotiation and several visits on the part of 
 Hamilton to London to convince the King of the necessity of 
 making concessions to his Scotch subjects, Charles agreed to 
 issue a summons for a meeting of Assembly and of Parliament ; 
 the former to be held at Glasgow on 21st November, 1638, and 
 the latter, as usual, at Edinburgh, on loth May of the follow- 
 ing year. The Book of Canons, the Service-Book, and the Court 
 of High Commission were revoked, the Articles of Perth were 
 suspended, and their abolition was agreed to, if Parliament should 
 so decide. At the same time an attempt was made to super- 
 sede the Covenant, since it was vain to expect that those 
 
 ^ Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 5. 
 ^ Burnet, Lives of the Hamiltons, p. 43. 
 ^ Large Declaration, p. 98. 
 
48 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 who had signed it so recently would renounce it. Charles 
 brought out the Confession of Faith of 1580, which indeed 
 formed the basis of the National Covenant,^ and which bound 
 subscribers to defend the Protestant faith ; and to it he added 
 a Bond, also dating from the previous century, in which the 
 duty of standing by the King in the maintenance of the 
 true religion and the exercise of his rightful authority was 
 emphatically asserted. At the same time private instructions 
 were given to Hamilton to use every possible opportunity of 
 sowing dissensions between the nobles and the clergy, by warning 
 both parties separately of the oppression which they would 
 experience, each from the other, if some check were not put 
 in force.^ 
 
 The concessions made by Charles succeeded for a very 
 brief time in dividing his opponents. Many of the Covenanters, 
 and certainly almost all who could be called moderate in their 
 opinions, rejoiced in the fact that the worst stumbling-blocks 
 were taken out of their way, and that the demands of the 
 nation had been granted in the summoning of the General 
 Assembly and Parhament. But the extremer partisans, and 
 those also who were more clear-sighted than their neighbours 
 in estimating the true value of the royal concessions, protested 
 against its being taken for granted that Episcopacy still existed 
 in Scotland,^ and against the introduction of a new and un- 
 meaning Covenant. The Marquess of Hamilton, by using some 
 pressure, persuaded the members of the Privy Council to sign 
 the King's Covenant ; but very few signatures were appended 
 to it when, like its more popular rival, it was circulated 
 throughout Scotland. A letter, which Lord Lome among others 
 signed, was addressed to the King by members of the Council, in 
 which they " thanked him for his gracious concessions, and pro- 
 mised to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in maintaining his 
 authority, and in repressing all who should attempt to disturb 
 the peace of the Church and kingdom."* 
 
 The election of members of the General Assembly to be 
 held in Glasgow was taken in hand by " The Tables," as the 
 Covenanting governing body was called ; and they took care to 
 
 ^ Large Declaration, p. 138. 
 
 - Burnet, Mernoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, pp. 65-75. 
 
 ^ The power of the Bishops was utterly gone, and only a very few of them 
 even ventured to remain in their dioceses (Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 
 vol. iii. p. 21). 
 
 * Large Declaration, p. 154. 
 
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE BISHOPS 49 
 
 secure the choice of men devoted to their cause. It was 
 decided by them that the Assembly should be modelled on those 
 belonging to Presbyterian times, and accordingly an Act of 
 Assembly of 1597 was followed, which prescribed that three 
 ministers and one lay commissioner should be sent up by each 
 I'resbytery, and that each burgh should be represented by a lay 
 commissioner, except Edinburgh, which was to send up two. In 
 this way provision was made for the nobles, and for other 
 prominent Covenanting leaders who were laymen, being returned 
 as members of the Assembly. In the Presbyteries also, which 
 liad under the Episcopal rdgivie become purely clerical bodies, the 
 lay elders were restored to their former position ; so that the 
 very constitution of the ecclesiastical courts which were to elect 
 representatives to act for them in the Assembly was changed at 
 the bidding of " The Tables." In order to control the elections 
 still further, instructions were sent down for keeping out, under 
 one pretext or another, men who were committed to the opposite 
 side in ecclesiastical politics. At the same time " The Tables " 
 prepared a formal charge against the Bishops, accusing them of 
 every kind of ecclesiastical irregularity and crime, and of almost 
 every other crime in the calendar.^ This formal complaint was 
 laid before the Edinburgh Presbytery and was referred by it 
 to the forthcoming Assembly, and the parties concerned were 
 cited to appear and answer the charges made against them. 
 Certainly no more effective means for overthrowing Episcopacy 
 could have been devised than this, for it secured that the only 
 character in which the Archbishops and Bishops could appear in 
 the Assembly was that of culprits at the bar.^ 
 
 ^ Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 113. 
 -Ibid., pp. 209, 222. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Meeting of tlie General Assembly at Glasgow in 1638 — Prominent part taken 
 by the Earl of Argyll in support of the Covenanters — The Abolition of 
 Episcopacy — Hamilton's Estimate of Argyll — Personal Characteristics 
 and Appearance of the latter. 
 
 THE General Assembly of 1638 is a prominent landmark 
 in the history of Scotch Presbyterianism, since at it the 
 system of Church - government and ritual imposed upon the 
 nation by royal authority was utterly swept away by the rising 
 tide of patriotic and religious enthusiasm, and in its stead that 
 more democratic form of ecclesiastical polity which had approved 
 itself to the mass of the people of Scotland was set up. " What- 
 ever Scotland was," says Dr Gardiner, "in its strength and 
 its weakness, in its fierce uncompromising dogmatism, in its 
 stern religious enthusiasm, in its worldly ambition and hair- 
 splitting argumentativeness, in its homely ways and resolute 
 defiance of a foreign creed and of a foreign worship, was reflected, 
 as in a mirror, in the Assembly which was now elected in the 
 teeth of the King's Commissioner." ^ Many Presbyterian writers 
 have spoken of the proceedings of this Assembly as if they 
 needed no defence, but, on the contrary, were most admirable in 
 character ; ^ while Episcopalians have usually regarded them as 
 grossly unjust and detestable. The truth is that it was a 
 revolutionary gathering rather than a Church Council ; and, 
 though weighty technical objections to the validity of the 
 proceedings were raised at every point, the majority of the 
 Assembly felt themselves strong enough to defy and overrule all 
 opposition. The Privy Council issued an order that no com- 
 missioner to the Assembly was to be accompanied by more than 
 his ordinary retinue, and that no weapons except swords, which 
 
 ^ History of England, vol. viii. p. 366. 
 
 ^ "It was the triumph, for the time, of the second Reformation, the Bannock- 
 burn of Scottish religious liberty, a bright morning, to be followed by clouds and 
 conflicts, but never forgotten " (Rev. J. Ker, D.D., The Psalms in History and 
 
 Biography, p. 163). 
 
 50 
 
MEETING OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 51 
 
 were allowed by law, were to be carried. The Covenanters 
 replied by a public protestation tliat the danger of highway 
 robbery made it necessary for them to travel fully armed, and 
 in violation of the royal orders great numbers of their partisans 
 poured into Glasgow to give the support of their presence and 
 approval to those who represented their cause in the Assembly. 
 Even some of the clerical members were provided with swords 
 and pistols, an equipment which seemed remarkable at the time 
 but which afterwards was often seen in the case of those 
 who frequented the Covenanting armies.-^ 
 
 The Assembly met in the Cathedral of Glasgow on Wednes- 
 day, 21st November, 1638, and was presided over by the 
 Marquess of Hamilton as Koyal Commissioner. The public 
 interest in its proceedings was so great that for the first fourteen 
 days of its sitting the building was densely crowded, and it was 
 with difficulty that members could get to their places. Eobert 
 Baillie, then minister of Kilwinning, to whose pen we owe so 
 many vivid pictures of events in those stirring times, gives 
 us a very unfavourable description of the behaviour of these 
 onlookers. " It is here alone," he says, " where, I think, we 
 might learne from Canterburie, yea, from the Pope, from the 
 Turkes, or pagans, modesty and manners ; at least their deep 
 reverence in the house they call God's ceases not till it have led 
 them to the adoration of the timber and stones of the place. 
 We are here so farr the other way, that our rascals, without 
 shame, in great numbers, make such dinn and clamour in the 
 house of the true God, that if they minted [attempted] to use 
 the hke behaviour in my chamber, I could not be content till 
 they were down the stairs." ^ 
 
 The members of the Assembly, some two hundred and thirty- 
 eight in number, of whom one hundred and forty were ministers 
 and ninety-eight were elders, were accommodated with seats in 
 the chancel of the Cathedral. The Koyal Commissioner sat in a 
 chair of state, and, below, on either side of him were members of 
 the Privy Council and assessors, among the latter of whom was 
 Lord Lome, now Earl of Argyll in consequence of his father's 
 recent death. At a little table in front of them were placed the 
 moderator and clerk of Assembly. The noblemen and barons 
 who were representatives from Presbyteries sat at a long table 
 on the floor, on each side of which were placed five or six 
 tiers of seats rising one above the other, for the accommodation 
 
 ^ Large Dedaraiion, pp. 232, 385. ^ Letters, vol. i. p. 124. 
 
52 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 of ministers and commissioners of royal burghs. At the opposite 
 end from the chair of state an elevated platform was erected, 
 which was occupied by the eldest sons of peers ; while, in the 
 two tiers of galleries in the aisles and on the floor of the 
 Cathedral, the somewhat unruly crowd of spectators con- 
 taining a goodly sprinkling of " honourable women," found 
 standing-room. An onlooker who knew nothing of the character 
 of the gathering might have been pardoned if he had been in 
 doubt as to whether it were an ecclesiastical synod or a court- 
 martial ; for, though nearly all the clergy appeared in black 
 cloaks, the elders were dressed in their ordinary secular attire 
 and wore their swords even within the sacred walls.^ 
 
 The Assembly unanimously elected Alexander Henderson, 
 the ablest and most eloquent of the Presbyterian Divines in 
 Scotland, as moderator, and Archibald Johnston, afterwards Lord 
 Warriston, who is supposed to have drafted the National 
 Covenant, as clerk. Any hope that Hamilton may have had of 
 controlling or guiding the Assembly in the management of 
 business must have been soon taken away; and, from the 
 moment that it became evident that this ecclesiastical court 
 was not likely to consent to accept the scheme of modified 
 Episcopacy that the King was prepared to grant in the way of 
 concession, the Koyal Commissioner was on the outlook for a 
 convenient opportunity of dissolving the Assembly. Adequate 
 excuses, if not reasonable grounds, for taking this step were to 
 be found in the presence of lay elders voting along with clerical 
 members ; in the mode that had been followed of electing 
 representatives in Presbyteries consisting of such laymen on an 
 equal footing with ministers ; in the evident determination on the 
 part of the Assembly to be both accusers and judges of the 
 Bishops and to overthrow Episcopacy, which was still legally the 
 only rightful form of Church-government in Scotland ; and in the 
 fact that " The Tables " had beforehand controlled the elections 
 and given directions as to who should be chosen as members of 
 Assembly. A glaring illustration of the interference of " The 
 Tables " with the election of members led to a somewhat lively 
 passage of arms between Hamilton and the moderator. The 
 clerk inadvertently read a memorandum on the back of a disputed 
 commission to the effect that it was an objection to the rival 
 candidate that he had been elected contrary to the directions of 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. i. pp. 123, 124 ; Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. i. p. 157 : 
 Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 119. 
 
DECLINATURE OF THE BISHOPS 53 
 
 " The Tables " in Edinburgh. Instantly the Eoyal Commissioner 
 demanded an official copy of the paper read, with the names of 
 subscribers, as it was a clear proof that this was a packed and not 
 a freely chosen Assembly. The moderator refused to give this, on 
 the ground that what had been read was a private memorandum, 
 which could not be given up without the consent of the writer. 
 Hamilton retorted that no paper could be called private which 
 had been read publicly in the Assembly by the clerk ; and, wlien 
 he found that he could not get what he desired, he had it placed 
 on record that he had been refused a copy of a document con- 
 taining such and such statements which had been read in the 
 Assembly. The moderator, who with all his ability and learn- 
 ing had but an imperfect control of his tongue, could not refrain 
 from saying that the Eoyal Commissioner needed no copy of a 
 document the contents of which he could so faithfully repeat ; 
 upon this, Hamilton called the Assembly to witness that the 
 moderator had borne testimony to his accurate recapitulation of 
 the paper of which he had been refused a copy.^ 
 
 None of the Bishops had made their appearance ; but, as 
 soon as the preliminary business connected with the verify- 
 ing of commissions was over, a declinature on their part to 
 acknowledge the lawfulness of the Assembly was handed in. It 
 bore the signatures of the two Archbishops and of four Bishops.^ 
 Hamilton now determined to dissolve the Assembly. On the 
 morning of Wednesday, the 28 th of November, he called together 
 the members of the Privy Council and told them his intentions. 
 When the Assembly resumed business on that day, after some 
 discussion the question was about to be put to the vote as to 
 whether in spite of the declinature the complaint against the 
 Bishops could be decided upon. Hamilton arose and, after 
 repeating tlie concessions made by the King in the matter of 
 the Service - Book and of other grievances, declared that he 
 could not admit the legality of this Assembly, since laymen 
 had had a voice in electing members of it, and laymen were 
 also members of it. He therefore formally dissolved the 
 Assembly and departed with the Lords of the Council, and left 
 the clerk standing engaged in reading a protestation which had 
 been prepared in view of a dissolution. By an overwhelming 
 majority the Assembly decided to disregard the action of the 
 Eoyal Commissioner, and to proceed with the business before them 
 
 1 Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. i. p. 152 ; Large Declaration, p, 240. 
 
 2 Large Declaration, p. 248 ; Spalding, Memorialls, vol. i. p. 118. 
 
54 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 as though nothing had happened to invalidate their doing so ; 
 and with absolute unanimity they declared their competency to 
 judge the Bishops and their resolution to go on with the trial.^ 
 A brilliant stroke of eloquence on the part of one of the members 
 of Assembly in connexion with this incident deserves to be 
 recorded here. Wodrow tells us that " after the Marquis had 
 dissolved the Assembly in the King's name, and charged them 
 to rise, and left them, Mr Dickson rose up and made a speech 
 to this purpose : ' That that Nobleman was very much to be 
 commended for his zeal and faithfull[ness] to his master the King, 
 and sticking closse by what he thought for his credite and 
 interest ; and he craved leave to propose his example for the 
 Assembly's imitation : They had a better master, Christ the 
 King of kings, to serve ; and His credite and honnour to look 
 after, according to their commission and trust ; and therefore he 
 moved that, having this in their eye, they might sit still and doe 
 their Master's work faithfully.' " " This speech," says Wodrow, 
 "mightily moved the Assembly, and they cheerfully sate 
 still" 2 
 
 The Earl of Argyll was not, properly speaking, a member of 
 the Assembly, but he was one of the six assessors who were in 
 attendance upon the Commissioner to aid him with their advice, 
 and who were permitted to take part in debates though they had 
 no vote on any business that might be transacted. So far as 
 appeared, he was rather observant of the mood in which the 
 members of the Assembly were than inclined to confirm them in 
 it ; and, though it may have been known by some who were present 
 that he had incurred the royal displeasure for failing to support 
 the despotic pohcy which had led to the present confusion in 
 Scotland, it is probable that very few, if any, in the Assembly were 
 fully acquainted with his opinions, or could predict the course 
 which he would follow. He had already intervened in one of 
 the debates with regard to the procedure to be adopted in dealing 
 with the declinature of the Bishops to acknowledge the com- 
 petency of the Assembly, and he had drawn down upon him- 
 self a curt rebuke from the moderator for what seemed to him 
 merely captious criticism.^ Just before the Eoyal Commissioner 
 announced the dissolution of the Assembly, Argyll came forward 
 
 ^ Large. Declaration, pp. 2G9, 279 ; Gordon, Hcots Affairs, vol. ii. p. 6 j Burnet, 
 Dulces of Hamilton, p. 140. 
 - Analcda, vol. ii. p. 116. 
 ' Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 131. 
 
ARGYLL DECLARES HIMSELF 55 
 
 and asked permission to speak. Hamilton granted it and called 
 on all present to listen to what he had to say. He spoke in a 
 low tone, but eagerness to hear him soon procured for him perfect 
 silence throughout the building. To the surprise of all he openly 
 expressed his adherence to the popular cause. He said that he 
 had by the royal command been in attendance at the Assembly, 
 and he called on all present to testify to the impartiality which 
 he had manifested ; but he declared that nothing would induce 
 him to render a flattering obedience to the King or to be one 
 who would advise him to enter on a violent course. So far from 
 acquiescing in the opinion of Hamilton, he was surprised at the 
 decision to dissolve the Assembly, and he considered that whatever 
 there might be in the technical objection to the presence of lay 
 elders, on which such stress had been laid, it was not an adequate 
 reason for so strong a measure as dissolution. His own private 
 opinion was that a combination of clerical and lay elements was 
 needed in an ecclesiastical Council ; and so he had no hesitation 
 in declaring his firm conviction that those to whom he spoke 
 " were now members of a lawful Assembly and [his own] honest 
 countrymen." ^ On one point he thought it needful to explain 
 his position, and that was with regard to his having, together with 
 other members of the Privy Council, subscribed the King's Cove- 
 nant. This action he considered was not at all incompatible 
 with approval of the National Covenant, though the one had 
 been set up against the other. He had, he said, expressly stated 
 at the time that he accepted the documents of 1580 — 81, of 
 which the King's Covenant consisted, in the sense in which 
 they were then understood, as an expression of fidelity to the 
 constitution in Church and State which then existed, and conse- 
 quently he was not committed to an approval of the innova- 
 tions which had afterwards been brought in by the establishment 
 of Episcopacy, and the changes in matters of ritual and worship 
 which had been so offensive to the nation.^ 
 
 On Thursday, the 29 th of November, the General Assembly 
 resumed its meetings, in spite of the fact that the Eoyal Com- 
 missioner had forbidden any further proceedings and had taken 
 his departure, after lodging a protest against the validity of any 
 decisions that might be come to in his absence. The only Privy 
 Councillor who was in his place was the Earl of Argyll, and this 
 
 ^ Hid., Letters, vol. i. j). 14-1. 
 
 - Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. i. p. 192 ; Large Declaration, ji. 286 ; Baillie, 
 Letters, vol. i. p. 144. 
 
56 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 fact was specially noticed by the moderator. Baillie says : " The 
 moderator earnestlie intreated him, that though he was no member 
 of our Assemblie, yet, for the common entres [interest] he had m 
 the Church, he would be pleased to countenance our meetings, and 
 bear witness of the righteousness of all our proceedings ; this, 
 to all our great joy, he promised to doe, and did truelie perform 
 his promise." ^ So astonishing was Argyll's procedure in re- 
 pudiating the action of the Eoyal Commissioner and in joining 
 the popular cause that at first many suspected that it was only 
 an astute political move. It was generally thought by those 
 who were not behind the scenes that he was on the best of terms 
 with the King and with Hamilton, and it was considered by 
 many that he had acted with the consent of both in order to be a 
 restraining influence upon the Assembly and to hinder the adop- 
 tion of violent counsels. But very soon all learned that his conduct 
 had provoked the keenest indignation and anger in the King, 
 and that between him and Hamilton there had passed words of 
 disdain which verged upon threats and personal challenges. " It 
 hes been the equitie of our cause," says the acute observer of 
 the events of that time whose words we have just quoted, 
 " which hes been the only motive to make that man [Argyll] 
 in that necessare [critical] time, to the extreame hazard of his 
 head, and all he possesses, to encourage us openlie by his assist- 
 ance." ^ It is a remarkable testimony to the force of character 
 and ability of Argyll that he was immediately accepted as 
 leader by the Covenanting party, and that his counsels were 
 received with deep respect and were obeyed implicitly ; though, 
 of course, we have to bear in mind that to the intrinsic value 
 of his advice had to be added the fact that he could put five 
 thousand men in the field to support the policy which he advocated. 
 That consideration would have given much additional weight 
 to counsels even less judicious than those which he was able 
 to offer. 
 
 One of Argyll's first admonitions to the members of Assembly 
 was to the effect that they should be careful to abstain from 
 criticisms reflecting injuriously upon the royal person and 
 authority — a course of action which he was himself scrupulous in 
 following. The occasion on which he gave this advice was on 
 a day immediately after a sermon had been delivered by Mr 
 George Gillespie of Wemyss in Fifeshire, whose book on 
 
 1 Ibid., Letters, vol. i. p. 145. 
 ^ Ihid,, vol. i. p. 146. 
 
SWEEPING CHANGES 57 
 
 " Popish Ceremonies " ^ had been in the previous year thought 
 worthy of being condemned by name in a royal proclamation 
 and of being publicly burned by the hangman, and who was after- 
 wards a distinguished member of the Westminster Assembly. 
 This young divine (for he was only twenty-sLx years of age) had 
 preached a sermon from the text, " The king's heart is in the 
 hand of the Lord " (Pro v., chap. xxi. 1), in which he had dealt more 
 freely than prudently with questions of the royal prerogative, and 
 with the recent actions of the reigning Sovereign. The Earl of 
 Ai'gyll took the earliest opportunity of warning his hearers, and 
 especially the ministers, against unnecessary provocation of " the 
 powers that be." He reminded them that their enemies would 
 be glad to take advantage of any injudicious utterances of theirs 
 of this kind, and said that " so good and gracious a Prince " as 
 he who now ruled over them would be more impressed by their 
 modesty than by any railing speeches they might utter. The 
 moderator thanked Argyll for his good advice, and he added some 
 words of his own in support of it ; and though neither of them 
 referred directly to Gillespie's sermon it was understood by all 
 present that they had it in view.^ 
 
 With great rapidity the Assembly carried through the work 
 of demolition and of reconstruction from which the Eoyal Com- 
 missioner would fain have restrained them, but the execution of 
 which the members held to be absolutely necessary for securing 
 the freedom and independence of the Church of Scotland. They 
 declared that the last six General Assemblies, from that held in 
 Linhthgow in 1606 down to that in Perth in 1618, were un- 
 lawful and that the Acts passed at them were null and void, be- 
 cause lay elders were not present as members of those Assemblies, 
 because persons took part in them who had not received com- 
 missions from Presbyteries (i.e. Bishops), and because of the 
 undue influence of the Crown in carrying through the elections 
 and in interfering with the business transacted at them.^ This 
 very extraordinary mode of procedure, by which the legislation 
 duly sanctioned by Acts of Parliament was swept away in a 
 moment by a vote of the Assembly, is a striking proof of the 
 revolutionary character of the ecclesiastical Council now meeting 
 in Glasgow. Those who advocated and carried through this and 
 
 ^ The full title was, A Dispute against the English Fajnsh Cercmcmies oUrudcd 
 ■upon the Church of Scotland. 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. ii. p. 45 ; Balllie, Letters, vol. i. p. 146. 
 ^ Stevenson, History of the Church of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 602, G03. 
 
58 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 similar measures well knew that they could only support what they 
 had done by an appeal to force. They perhaps scarcely reaUzed 
 the fact that a day of reaction might come when their enemies 
 would imitate their procedure, and when they themselves would be 
 unable to command the power of the sword to defend what they 
 had won. Yet there can be no doubt that the sweeping measure 
 of 1638, which abolished by a resolution in the Assembly the 
 ecclesiastical statutes which had been in force for nearly thirty 
 years, suggested the " Act Eescissory " of 1661, which cut off 
 from the body of the law the Acts of Parliament for the previous 
 twenty-one years, and left Episcopacy again standing as the only 
 legal form of Church-government in Scotland. Yet Presbyterian 
 writers who approve of the procedure in 1638 usually speak of 
 that in 1661 as an act of unheard-of and astounding injustice, 
 and generally quote in connexion with it Burnet's account of 
 the Eestoration statesmen in order to explain matters : " It 
 was a mad, roaring time, full of extravagance ; and no wonder 
 it was so when the men of affairs were almost perpetually 
 drunk." 1 
 
 All the innovations which were regarded as grievances were 
 in like manner swiftly abolished. The oaths which Bishops had 
 imposed upon those entering the ministry, by which they were 
 pledged to any of these innovations, were declared unlawful and 
 no longer obligatory. The Articles of Perth, the Service-Book, 
 the Book of Canons, and the Court of High Commission were 
 formally condemned, and it was declared that the Confession of 
 1581, which had been sworn to over again in the King's Cove- 
 nant, was virtually an abjuration of Episcopacy and all its works.^ 
 The unfortunate Archbishops and Bishops, none of whom had 
 ventured to appear in the Assembly, now received the condemna- 
 tion which in the opinion of their adversaries they so richly 
 merited. There can be no doubt that the crowning offence for 
 which they suffered was that of holding the Episcopal office, 
 though all kinds of other transgressions and crimes were con- 
 fusedly ascribed to them as a class. That these charges were 
 not mere calumnies can scarcely be doubted in view of the 
 statements made by Hamilton himself in a letter to the King 
 which he wrote on the day before he dissolved the Assembly. 
 " It will be found," he says, " that some of them have not been 
 of the best lives, as St Andrews, Brechin, Argyle, Aberdeen : 
 
 ^ Quoted in Burton's History of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 145. 
 " Peterkiu, Rcco^-ds of the Kirk, pp. 24-33, 161-168. 
 
DEPOSITION OF THE BISHOPS 59 
 
 too many of them [have been] inclined to simony." ^ The Arch- 
 bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, and the Bishops of Edin- 
 burgh, Galloway, Koss, Brechin, Aberdeen, and Dunblane, were 
 deposed from all their functions as " pretended Bishops " and as 
 ministers, and were excommunicated. The Bishops of Moray, 
 Orkney, Argyll and the Isles, were in like manner deposed, 
 but the sentence of excommunication was to be remitted if they 
 professed repentance and submitted to the Assembly ; while the 
 Bishops of Dunkeld and Caithness, who had sent excuses for 
 non-appearance and thus avoided adding the sin of contumacy 
 to all their other offences, were deposed from Episcopal office 
 and suspended in the meantime from the ministry, but the way 
 was left open for their being restored to the position of parish 
 ministers if they expressed penitence for the sin of having held 
 the higher office which was now abolished. The two last-named 
 Bishops and the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles recanted, but 
 they gained very little beyond personal safety by that measure. 
 The formal sentences were pronoimced on the whole fourteen 
 prelates on Thursday, IStli December, after a sermon from the 
 moderator. The portion of the Scripture before the sermon 
 chosen by the reader, who was probably a friend of the Arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow, was found rather disconcerting. It ran : 
 " These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be 
 offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues : yea, the 
 time Cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth 
 God service" (John, chap. xvi. w. 1, 2). At this point he 
 was interrupted by one of the members of the Assembly and 
 ordered to choose a more suitable, or, perhaps we should rather 
 say, a less suitable portion of Holy Writ.^ 
 
 A week after the deposition and excommunication of the 
 Bishops the proceedings of this memorable Assembly came to 
 an end. The right of the Church to hold Assemblies once a 
 year, or oftener if occasion required it, was asserted ; and the 
 next meeting was appointed to be held at Edinburgh on the 
 third Wednesday of July, 1639. An address was drawn up 
 for presentation to the King, in which, with all humble expres- 
 sions of loyalty. His Majesty was asked to confirm their Acts in 
 the Parliament which was to be held in the following month 
 
 ^ Ilardwicke, State Papers, vol. ii, p. 114. 
 
 2 Peterkin, Bccords of the Kirk, pp. 26-42, 163-193 ; Baillie, Letters, vol. i. 
 pp. 154-176; Balfour, Annals, vol. ii. pp. 305-316; Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. ii. 
 pp. 97-101, 131-175. 
 
60 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 of May,i and the proceedings were closed by the singing of 
 
 Ps. cxxxiii. : 
 
 " Behold, how good a thing it is, 
 And how becoming well, 
 Together such as brethren are 
 In unity to dAvell."^ 
 
 The Earl of Argyll had taken a prominent part in the 
 deliberations of the Assembly, and the extent to which the 
 members of that body depended on the advice he had to give 
 is indicated in a naive remark by Baillie that u]3on one special 
 day " they did nothing of moment because of Argyll's absence 
 at a funeral." ^ Consequently it is not surprising that in his 
 closing speech the moderator referred to the comfort and strength 
 given by his presence and counsel ; or that Argyll himself, who 
 must have felt that by this time he was almost as much an 
 ecclesiastic as he was a Highland chief, took it upon him to utter 
 the last parting admonitions to the members of Assembly. He 
 spoke at considerable length, and began by saying that he hoped 
 none of those who heard him would misconstrue his having 
 delayed so long severing his connexion with the Episcopal cause 
 and declaring for them. He had always, he said, been on their 
 side, but had refrained from open acknowledgment of the fact 
 in order that in secret ways he might aid the common cause. 
 But now of late matters had come to such a pass that he must 
 either join their society openly or be a knave. His parting 
 advice was for elders and ministers to keep in harmony with 
 each other, and to avoid falling into the snare which their enemies 
 were setting by attempting to sow discord between them ; and 
 in particular he would entreat all ministers to remember that 
 the Bishops had been brought to ruin by pride and avarice, and 
 that it behoved them to avoid making shipwreck upon the same 
 rocks. And in conclusion he reiterated advice already given 
 by the moderator to be careful to speak respectfully at all times 
 of the King and of his authority.^ 
 
 The speech produced a favourable impression upon his 
 hearers, and many of them took special notice of the strong 
 feeling manifested in the phrase he had used about proving a 
 knave if he had not openly embraced their cause. And indeed 
 
 ^ Ibid., Scots Affairs, vol. ii. p. 170. 
 
 ^ J. Ker, D.D., The Psalms in History and Biography, p. 1C3. 
 
 ^ Letters, vol. i. p. 1 'jS. 
 
 "Ibid., vol. ii. p. 171 ; vol. i. p. 485, 
 
A SERIOUS CRISIS 61 
 
 one may truly say that Argyll declared himself for the Cove- 
 nant at a moment when it was in peril, and when no mere 
 time-server would have identified himself with it. For the 
 Covenanters, though resolute in their attitude and language, 
 were as yet wholly unacquainted with the military strength 
 which they could muster for the support of their cause, while 
 from many quarters they had reason to dread hostile attack. 
 The condition of mind in which many were is reflected in 
 Baillie's words : " We are threatened with a bloodie onsett by 
 the Navie on the East Coast, by an Irish Army on the West, 
 [and] by all the power three Marquesses in Scotland ^ and the 
 Popish partie can make, with the help of the North of England. 
 ... In God is our great confidence." ^ The prospect of a war 
 with England was no light matter. Three times in the previous 
 century — at Flodden, Solway Moss, and Pinkie — had Scotland 
 suffered crushing defeats at the hand of her powerful neighbour, 
 the anger of whose King she was now so thoroughly rousing. 
 On many sides she was open to attack, and as yet she was not 
 sure about being able to present an undivided front to the 
 enemy. It was therefore at a serious crisis in the national life 
 that the Earl of Argyll came forward to encourage his country- 
 men to resist firmly the despotic policy of their Sovereign. He 
 is accused of having failed in physical courage on more than one 
 occasion in his life when confronted by danger of wounds and 
 death on the battlefield, but on more than one occasion he 
 showed his possession of it as well as of great moral courage, 
 which by general acknowledgment ranks as a rarer and nobler 
 virtue. And there is certainly, whatever the ordinary Philistine 
 may think, an element of pathos added to the case if we are to 
 ascribe to him who exhibits the more spiritual virtue a deficiency 
 in nerve, or in some element which goes to form physical courage. 
 The drawback which arises from a subtle weakness in natural 
 temperament only adds to the glory of the moral victory won at 
 times in spite of it. At this great crisis in Argyll's life, when 
 he came to the parting of the ways and had to make a decision, 
 he was not found wanting. He cast in his lot with those whose 
 cause his conscience approved and staked everything he pos- 
 sessed, even life itself, upon his attachment to it. In a letter 
 from the Marquess of Hamilton to the King a very striking 
 estimate of Argyll is given which enables us to realize the im- 
 
 ^ i.e. tlie Jlarquesscs of Huntly, Hamilton, and Douglas. 
 ^ Bnillie, Letters^ vol. i. p. 71. 
 
62 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 pression made by him at this time both upon the nation at large 
 and upon his opponents. " The Earl of Argyll," he says, " is the 
 only man now called up [praised up] as a true patriot, a loyal 
 subject, a faithful counsellor, and, above all, rightly set for the 
 preservation of the purity of religion. And truly, Sir, he takes 
 it upon him. He must be well looked to ; for it fears me he 
 will prove the dangerousest man in this State. He is so far from 
 favouring Episcopal government that with all his soul he wishes 
 it totally abolished. What course to advise you to take with 
 him, for the present I cannot say : but remit it to your 
 Majesty's serious consideration." ^ Hamilton himself was destined 
 to j)lay many parts as a politician, and grave suspicions have 
 been cast upon the sincerity of his attachment to the King at 
 this very time. But there is no reason to doubt that he now 
 gave a perfectly truthful account of the high regard in which his 
 chief opponent was held by the mass of the nation ; and we may 
 well believe that the generous instincts of the people of Scotland 
 were not at fault in the estimate they had formed of the 
 champion who took up the defence of their cause in the hour 
 of danger. 
 
 Yet though we have spoken of this Assembly as a revo- 
 lutionary gathering rather than a Church Council, and though 
 according to Baillie's evidence the boisterousness of those who 
 were spectators and hearers detracted somewhat from the 
 dignity of the proceedings, it would be a mistake to suppose 
 that the general tone of the Assembly was lacking in spiritual 
 fervour and sincere devotion. On the contrary, the fire of 
 religious zeal and of self-consecration to God burned brightly in 
 the hearts of many, and in some instances the liame was ht in 
 breasts that had up till then been strangers to it. One of those 
 who were largely instrumental in thus deepening and strengthen- 
 ing the religious life of his associates was the moderator, 
 Henderson. The account which Wodrow gives of his labours to 
 this end has a grave beauty of its own which will agreeably 
 surprise many readers who have been accustomed to hear this 
 historian spoken of contemptuously. " I find," he says, " from 
 very good hands, that during the sitting of the Assembly at 
 Glasgow, Mr Henderson, notwithstanding of the vast fatigue 
 he had through the day, yet, with some other ministers, he 
 used to spend the night-time, at least a great part of it, in 
 meetings for prayer and conference. I find that their meetings 
 
 ^ Ilardwicke, /S'tote Papers, vol. ii. p. 115 ; Strafford Letters, vol. ii. p. 258. 
 
PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF ARGYLL 63 
 
 were remarkably countenanced of God, and that the Marquis of 
 Argyle, and several others who sometimes joined in them, dated 
 their conversion, or the knowledge of it, from these times." ^ 
 This little glimpse into the inner life of the statesman and 
 chieftain whose fortunes we are engaged in following is 
 interesting. It gives a touch of vividness to his history to learn 
 of this episode in it — to think of him as henceforth, in council- 
 chamber, on the battlefield, in the prison-cell, and on the scaffold, 
 bearing about with him this sacred memory of the days in the 
 year 1638, when the countenance of God seemed to shine clearly 
 upon him, and when he realized the fact that the spiritual 
 change of which he had heard in others had now passed upon 
 himself. 
 
 The personal appearance of those whose names are famous 
 in history and in whom we are interested is always a matter we 
 desire to know about ; and accordingly one or two details with 
 reference to Argyll will probably be welcome to our readers. 
 He was rather above than below the average height in stature, 
 and in person he was slight and wiry. His portraits represent 
 him with high forehead, long aquiline nose, small dark blue eyes, 
 and slightly arched eyebrows. His hair, worn long according to 
 the fashion of the time, was of that colour which an enemy 
 might describe as red,^ but for which a friend might choose a less 
 definite designation. Two of the artists who painted his portrait 
 represent it as brown hair, though the shade of colour in the one 
 case is light, and in the other dark. In satires and pasquils of 
 the time much is made of his obliquity of vision,^ but in his 
 actual presence the defect in question was soon forgotten. 
 Clarendon, who is by no means friendly to him, says : " Though 
 by the ill-placing of his eyes, he did not appear with any great 
 advantage at first sight, yet he reconciled even those who had 
 aversion to him very strangely [remarkably] by a little con- 
 versation." ^ Like John Wilkes afterwards, he only needed the 
 advantage of a few minutes' longer time to be able to outstrip 
 others in winning the good graces of those in whose company he 
 found himself. The cast in his eyes suggested the nickname of 
 " gley'd Argyll," and at a later time " the gley'd Marquess." It 
 
 ^ Historical Fragments, p. 81. 
 
 ^ Gordon, Britane's Distemper, p. 57. Among the Highlanders, too, he was 
 often called "the red Argyll." 
 
 ^ JIaidment, Scottish Pasquils, vol. ii. p. 8 : "Cam [crooked] is thy name, Cam 
 ar thy lie eyies and waye.^," etc. 
 
 •*i2/e(1857), voL ii. p. 368. 
 
64 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 may be that the reputation which he had for subtlety was 
 increased by the shade of moral dubiety which people, probably 
 quite unjustly, often associate with this particular defect of vision.^ 
 We may be allowed here to say a word or two regarding 
 the portraits of Argyll contained in this volume. That which 
 forms the frontispiece is here published, for the first time, from 
 the original in Newbattle Abbey, which is singularly rich in 
 portraits of Campbells of the seventeenth century. It is very 
 graceful and pleasing, though it recalls distinctly the features 
 and cast of face of the fourth of the likenesses we give of him 
 — that in which the Puritanical expression and garb are so 
 strikingly prominent. In this portrait the squint has been 
 subdued by the artist's skill in posing him so as to diminish 
 as far as possible the defect in question. The air and dress 
 have a bridegroom-like daintiness about them, and we con- 
 jecture that the picture was painted in 1626 at the time 
 of his marriage. The second of the portraits represents him 
 at full length, and it is also from an original at Newbattle. 
 In it he appears dressed in black, and he is holding a 
 firelock in his right hand. He wears a moustache and a 
 small tuft upon his chin ; and the defect in his eyes is some- 
 what noticeable. The date upon the picture itself tells us 
 that it was painted in 1630, when the future Marquess had 
 entered on his twenty-fourth year. The third portrait is that 
 commonly called " the Castle Campbell portrait," concerning 
 which a curious story of vicissitudes of fortune has to be 
 related. Like the first it exhibits head and bust, and it was 
 painted on a piece of wood which once formed part of the 
 panelling of Castle Campbell in Clackmannanshire. This 
 stronghold belonged to the Earls of Argyll, and it was assaulted 
 and sacked during the Marquess's life — once by a lieutenant 
 of Montrose's during his marvellous campaign in Scotland in 
 the years 1644-45, and a second time in 1654 in connexion 
 with the Koyalist insurrection under the Earl of Glencairn.^ 
 The contents of the castle were evidently flung out of doors 
 and dispersed ; but, fortunately, this portrait escaped destruction. 
 It was found about 1867 by an antiquary in a cottage not far 
 from the ruins of the castle, and it was presented by the finder to 
 the eighth Duke of Argyll. Unfortunately it was burned in the 
 disastrous fire at Inveraray Castle in 1877, along with so much 
 
 ' Qttem Deus in oculo notavif, hunc caveto (Latin proverb). 
 
 " Deeds of Montrose, (1893), p. 121 ; Scotland and the FrotecloraCc, p. 153. 
 
PORTRAITS OF ARGYLL 65 
 
 that was of rare historical interest and vahie. The engraving 
 we give is reproduced from a photograph of the picture which 
 was taken soon after it again came into the possession of the 
 Campbell family. From the description preserved of the 
 original we learn that " the complexion was pale, the eyes 
 dark grey - blue, the hair dark brown, the armour black or 
 very dark, and the scarf white with gold points at the 
 edges." ^ The face of the warrior is handsome and dignified, 
 with a certain air of melancholy about it which seems a faint 
 presentiment of the tragical close of his career. Possessors 
 of historical Scotch portraits of the seventeenth century have 
 a weakness for attributing them to Jamesoue, the Scotch 
 Vandyke. But in this case we are told that, by the general 
 consent of experts, the belief that he was the painter is well 
 founded. The date we have suggested for the portrait is a 
 mere guess, based upon a consideration of the apparent age of 
 the Marquess as represented in it and the year when Castle 
 Campbell was sacked and burned by Montrose's soldiers. The 
 fourth portrait, from an original also at Newbattle Abbey, is 
 that which is most frequently engraved or otherwise reproduced 
 as the likeness of the subject of our biography. The grave and 
 demure expression of face, the sober black dress, and the skull- 
 cap, suggest a Puritan divine rather than a Highland chief. 
 Yet, though the face is lacking in comeliness, there is not want- 
 ing in it an air of distinction and even, at closer inspection, of 
 geniality — qualities which were strikingly manifest in the out- 
 ward manners and demeanour of the Great Marquess. Traces 
 of ill-health seem noticeable in the picture, and they probably 
 are partly accountable for the element of depression and morose- 
 ness which some have discerned in it. We have conjectured 
 that it may belong to the later life of the Marquess, when his 
 political course had been virtually run. If this is the case, 
 and if it dates from any time after 1652, it cannot be by the 
 inevitable Jamesone whose name is popularly connected with 
 it, for he died in 1644. An inferior copy of this picture, 
 wretchedly engraved and reproduced, appears in Napier's 
 Life of Montrose, and it aids very considerably in impressing 
 upon the minds of readers the unfavourable opinion of Argyll 
 which that writer held so strongly. Yet, in common fairness, 
 a portrait of a man in his last years, and perhaps in poor 
 condition of health at the time of its being taken, cannot 
 ^ Scottish Antiquary, January, 1897. 
 
 5 
 
66 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 be accepted as a satisfactory representation of him. We hope 
 our readers will associate with the statesman and chieftain 
 and patriot whose life we are tracing the more adequate 
 and worthy portraits of him, in the flower of his age, which 
 we have provided for them. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Marquess of Huntly refuses to join the Covenanters — Alexander Leslie 
 appointed their Leader — Capture of Scotch Fortresses — The first 
 "Bishops' War" — Occupation of Aberdeen by Montrose and Leslie — 
 Encampment at Duns Law — Terms of Pacification agreed upon — Argyll 
 coldly received by Charles I. 
 
 AND here we emerge from the din of ecclesiastical and 
 political wrangling recorded in books and pamphlets 
 upon which the dust now lies thickly, and pass from the heated 
 atmosphere of council - chambers and Church - courts into the 
 open air, to witness the prosecution of the same controversy 
 with new and different weapons upon the field of war. For 
 to this had matters come. Immediately after the signing of 
 the Covenant, early in 1638, the leaders of the popular party 
 took steps to prevent fresh supplies of ammunition and mili- 
 tary stores from being brought into Edinburgh Castle, and thus 
 they incurred the serious responsibility of virtually blockading 
 a royal fortress.^ 
 
 One district of Scotland excited in their minds special 
 apprehensions as a quarter from which danger might arise. 
 This was Aberdeenshire, in which as yet the Covenant had 
 but few adherents, and in which the Episcopal party had 
 considerable strength.^ The Covenanting leaders resolved to 
 attempt to secure themselves against danger from this quarter 
 by making a tempting offer to Argyll's brother - in - law, the 
 Marquess of Huntly, the great territorial magnate of the 
 north of Scotland, with the view of inducing him to join 
 their side. They sent to him a special envoy, Colonel Eobert 
 Munro, to endeavour to entice or terrify him into abandoning 
 the royal cause. They offered, if he would take the Cove- 
 nant, to serve under his leadership, to increase the greatness 
 
 ^ Large Declaration, p. 83 ; Rothes, Relation, pp. 112, 119. 
 
 ^ Perhaps the author may be allowed to refer his readers for fuller information 
 concerning this district and period to his Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarlie, 
 Knight (Edinburgh : Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier). 
 
 67 
 
68 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 of his house, and to give a hundred thousand pounds Sterling 
 for the payment of debts on the estates which he had recently 
 inherited from his father with that burden upon them. The 
 futility of attempting resistance to the Covenanting cause was 
 at the same time pointed out, and the certainty of utter ruin 
 for himself and his family if he were to take up arms on 
 the royal side, was impressed upon him. As the Marquess of 
 Huntly was thus closely related to the Earl of Argyll there 
 can be little doubt that this negotiation was carried on with 
 the full knowledge of the latter, if indeed it had not been 
 undertaken at his suggestion. Had the embassy succeeded 
 the whole of Scotland would have been virtually with the 
 Covenanters, for, apart from the support given by Huntly, 
 their opponents in Aberdeen and the neighbourhood could 
 have offered no serious resistance. The reply of the Marquess 
 was a very noble one : he thanked the envoy for the offer 
 made him, and for the advice to accept it, which, he said, 
 he believed to have been meant kindly ; but he said his family 
 had always been loyal to the Kings of Scotland, and " for his 
 part, if the event proved the ruin of this King, he was resolved 
 to lay his life, honours, and estate under the rubbish of the 
 King's ruins." ^ The reply was no empty vaunt, for the 
 chivalrous Huntly did ultimately lay down possessions and life 
 itself in the royal cause. 
 
 After the splendid bribe had been put aside by the noble 
 whose influence the Covenanters were anxious to secure for 
 their cause, they very wisely resolved to place a professional 
 soldier at the head of the forces they might raise. The 
 advantages were that he would be amenable to orders, and that 
 his appointment would not excite the jealousies and intrigues 
 which would inevitably arise if the ofi&ce of Commander-in-Chief 
 were conferred on any one of the Scotch nobility. It was, 
 perhaps, worth while to run this risk in the case of Huntly ; 
 but since he had refused their offer a trustworthy mercenary 
 with a thorough knowledge of the art of war would serve their 
 purpose best. 
 
 Such a leader was found by them in General Alexander 
 Leslie, " an old, little, crooked soldier," ^ the natural son of 
 one of the distinguished family of which the Earl of Eothes 
 was the head, and which, though originally belonging to 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. i. pp. 49, 50. 
 ' Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 213. 
 
LESLIE RETURNS TO SCOTLAND 69 
 
 Aberdocnsliire, had offshoots in Fil'eshirc and Morayshire. 
 He was born in 1582, and from early years he had, like 
 many thousands of his fellow-countrymen for whose energies 
 there was very little employment at home, served in armies 
 on the Continent. He had played an important part in the 
 Swedish service, and, in a brilliant defence of the important 
 town of Stralsund at a critical juncture of the Thirty Years' 
 War, he had forced the redoubtable Wallenstein to abandon the 
 siege. His courage and resolute spirit, his caution, and his 
 diplomatic skill had rendered his services of high value to 
 the King of Sweden ; and these qualities, together with his 
 long experience in the most terrible of all European wars, 
 admirably fitted him for the post which he was now called 
 to hold in his native country. The Earl of Eothes, the head 
 of the house of which Alexander Leslie counted himself a 
 member, was the most active of the Covenanting leaders ; 
 and it was probably at his suggestion that in August of 
 1638 the General resigned his post in the Swedish service 
 in order to return home. Two months afterwards he set 
 out for Scotland in a small barque and succeeded in eluding 
 the vigilance of the English cruisers, which were anxious to 
 intercept him. He brought the welcome tidings that he had 
 gained many subscribers to the Covenant among Protestant 
 officers in Germany, from whom active support might be 
 expected now that the armies there were breaking up and 
 the war was drawing near an eud.^ 
 
 Not many weeks after his return to Scotland the meeting 
 of the General Assembly in Glasgow, already described, took 
 place, the result of which was the repudiation of the royal 
 authority, and the utter overthrow of the form of Church- 
 government to which Charles I. was not only conscientiously 
 attached but which he was pledged to maintain and defend. 
 For some time past the Covenanting leaders had been raising 
 money for the expenses of the war which they foresaw to be 
 inevitable ; but, now that the struggle was near at hand, they 
 increased their efforts and supplemented voluntary contribu- 
 tions by an assessment based upon rental to be levied in every 
 county of Scotland.^ 
 
 The plan of campaign on which the King fixed was formid- 
 
 1 Spalding, MeynoriaUs, vol. i. p. 130 ; Baillie, Leiicrg, vol. i. p. Ill ; C. S. 
 Terry, Life and CamjJaigns of Alexander Leslie, p. 39. 
 ^ Rothes, Eelaiion, pp. 72, SO, Si. 
 
70 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 able enough on paper. He proposed to call on all the nobles 
 in England for the military service due from them and their 
 dependants, and in this way he expected to raise a sufficiently 
 large army to suppress his rebellious Scotch subjects. The gar- 
 risons of Carlisle and Berwick were to be strengthened ; he him- 
 self was to approach the Scotch Border with an army of thirty 
 thousand men; the English fleet was to cruise about the Firth 
 of Forth and to blockade the seaports of Fife and the Lothians ; 
 while an army of five thousand men, under the Marquess of 
 Hamilton, was to be landed in Aberdeen to join with Huntly's 
 forces, and, after making all secure in the north, to proceed 
 southward to free loyal subjects, of whom there were supposed 
 to be a great number, from the yoke of the Covenant. In the 
 meantime the Earl of Antrim, with at least ten thousand 
 men from Ireland, was to land in Argyllshire, and the Earl 
 of Strafford, with as many soldiers as could safely be with- 
 drawn from Ireland, was to come with a fleet up the Firth of 
 Clyde. The Marquess of Hamilton, who was to be Commander- 
 in-Chief in Scotland, suggested that this fleet might touch at 
 Arran, the only part of his property which he could place at 
 His Majesty's disposal, to obtain in that island both recruits 
 and provisions for the ships.^ 
 
 The leaders of the Covenanting party, however, took advan- 
 tage of the delay occasioned by the difficulty which Charles ex- 
 perienced in raising money for a war with Scotland, and altered 
 the complexion of matters in such a way that the schemes of 
 their opponents were utterly frustrated. Their plans were very 
 cleverly laid, and they were carried out with a success that surprised 
 even themselves and petrified their enemies with amazement. 
 Leslie with a strong force demanded the surrender of Edinburgh 
 Castle, and he was foolishly allowed to approach near to the outer 
 gate. When his demand was refused he retired after having 
 screwed a petard on the gate, the explosion of which so astounded 
 the garrison that they surrendered without striking a blow.^ 
 Dumbarton Castle was well provisioned and had a strong garrison, 
 but it also fell without the shedding of a drop of blood. The 
 governor and a large number of the garrison were in the habit 
 of attending a church outside the walls of the castle, and on one 
 Sunday morning they were intercepted and taken prisoners. So 
 
 1 Buruet, Memoirs of Hamilton, p. 113 ; Strafford Letters, vol. ii. p. 319 ; Hist. 
 MSS. Com., vol. xii. a}ip. iv. p. 509. 
 * Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 195. 
 
ARREST OF HUNTLY 71 
 
 few were left in the castle that they made no attempt at resist- 
 ance, but gave it up when summoned to surrender. Dalkeith 
 Castle was incapable of resisting an attack, and the Covenanters 
 captured in it not only a large quantity of warlike stores, but 
 also the regalia of Scotland, which they conveyed with somewhat 
 gratuitous marks of great respect to Edinburgh Castle.^ The 
 Earl of Mar, who was friendly to their cause, had Stirling Castle 
 in his possession. And thus in a very short time all places of 
 defence south of the Tay, with one exception, were in the hands 
 of the Covenanters. This w^as Caerlaverock Castle, a border 
 stronghold of considerable strategic importance, which no doubt 
 was left unassailed from a prudent desire to avoid coming into 
 conflict with the English troops who would likely be summoned 
 to its aid if it were attacked ; for, though the Covenanters were 
 now engaged in rebellion, they were specially anxious to avoid 
 arousing the hostility of the English nation. 
 
 The great blow which was to have been struck in the north 
 was averted by very prompt action on the part of the Covenant- 
 ing leaders. The Marquess of Huntly, who had received from 
 the King a commission of lieutenancy over the provinces from 
 the north water of Esk to the extremity of Caithness, raised an 
 army of five thousand men ; but, before the English troops on 
 whose help he counted could arrive, a well-appointed army 
 under Montrose and Leslie was upon him.^ The Eoyalist leader, 
 on the advice of his council of war, disbanded his forces, and 
 left Aberdeen at the mercy of the Covenanting troops. Huntly 
 was invited to a conference with a view to a peaceful arrange- 
 ment of matters, but, in spite of a safe -conduct signed by 
 Montrose and the other principal officers which had been granted 
 him, he was taken prisoner and brought to Edinburgh.^ In 
 passing we may draw our readers' attention to the fact that the 
 sacrilegious custom of turning churches into stables was intro- 
 duced by Montrose, whose first exploit of this kind was to 
 profane the church of Udny in Aberdeenshire.* His conduct 
 
 ^ Rushworth, Collections, vol. ii. p. 906 ; Buruot, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 149 ; 
 Strafford Letters, vol. ii. p. 325. 
 
 ^ Though Leslie was from the first virtually the Commander-in-Chief of the forces 
 raised by the Covenanters, he did not receive his formal commission until 9th May 
 of this year (C. S. Terry, Life and Cam^migns of Alexander Leslie, p. 54). This ex- 
 plains why he did not take precedence of Montrose on this expedition to the north. 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. ii. p. 237 ; Spalding, Memorialls, vol. i. p. 168 ; 
 Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 150. 
 
 * Gordon, Scots Affairs, ii. p. 264. Messrs Murdoch and Simpson, the editors 
 of Deeds of Montrose, compare that hero to Hyperion (p. xli). The above action 
 
72 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 was widely reprobated, but the public both in England and 
 Scotland became only too familiar with the practice in the course 
 of the Civil War. Cromwell is popularly credited with being a 
 great offender in this matter, but Montrose is not to be allowed 
 to escape from the disgrace connected with the introduction of 
 the abominable custom. 
 
 On the 30th of March Montrose and Leslie entered Aberdeen 
 with nine thousand men ; and on the same day Charles I., under 
 less fortunate auspices, entered York.^ The army which he led 
 to the Scotch Border consisted of raw levies and was commanded 
 by inexperienced generals ; and, in the circumstances in which 
 the King was then placed, the longer it was kept on foot the 
 more difficult became the task of providing the money for carry- 
 ing on the campaign. Since 10th March, 1629, no Parliament 
 had met in England, and consequently, as the ordinary mode 
 of obtaining war-subsidies was unavailable, Charles was driven 
 to attempt to raise the funds needed by the somewhat unpromis- 
 ing means of voluntary subscription. The public feeling in 
 England was, however, lukewarm in the matter, and subscriptions 
 came in but slowly. Bishops were not very popular at that 
 time in England, and this war was regarded as being carried on 
 in their interests, to coerce the people of Scotland into receiving 
 back the ecclesiastics whom they had driven away. The number 
 of soldiers in the army which marched northwards was two 
 thousand cavalry and fourteen thousand infantry ; and, though 
 it was afterwards increased by a thousand more horse and four 
 thousand foot, it was never in a fit condition to meet the almost 
 equal number of men whom Leslie commanded. The soldiers 
 were undisciplined, ill furnished with weapons, and lacking 
 in provisions whether for men or for horses ; and the longer 
 they remained in the field the more miserable their condition 
 became. 
 
 On the 7th of April a new proclamation was addressed by 
 the King to his rebellious subjects in Scotland, in which he 
 assured them of his intention to keep the promises made in his 
 name in Glasgow. In the first draft of the proclamation nineteen 
 of the leaders, among whom our Earl of Argyll had the foremost 
 place, were excepted from pardon if they did not, within twenty- 
 four hours after the proclamation appeared, submit and cast 
 
 of defiling a sanctuary with horse-dung will probably be found by the unsophisticated 
 reader somewhat inharmonious with his preconceived ideas of the Sun-god. 
 ^ State Pampers, Bom., 1639, ccccxy. p. 78. 
 
ROYAL PLANS PROVE FUTILE 73 
 
 themselves upon the King's mercy. After the expiry of that 
 period, if they still held out, a price was to be set upon their 
 heads, to be paid to any who should put them to death. But, in 
 consequence of strong remonstrances against this encouragement 
 of assassination, the general statement was substituted for it that 
 all rebels who did not lay down their arms within eight days 
 would be held as traitors, and would forfeit all their estates and 
 property. All tenants of rebels were ordered to cease payment 
 of rent to them : half of the amount was to be paid to tlie King, 
 and the other half was to be kept by themselves. All those 
 tenants who would take the King's side were to receive long 
 leases from the Crown at two - thirds of their present rent ; 
 while loyal landlords were ordered to expel disloyal tenants 
 from their holdings. But the tempting offer of diminution 
 of rent produced but little effect. It was regarded as a mere 
 repetition of the Satanic proposal — " All these things will I 
 give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." ^ The 
 endeavour to put down the rebellion in Scotland by proclama- 
 tion proved futile ; and equal want of success attended upon 
 the scheme of warlike invasion. Before the King had actu- 
 ally committed himself to the latter method of dealing with 
 his rebellious Scotch subjects, he received a letter from the 
 Earl of Argyll in defence of their procedure and deprecating 
 the employment of force against them. The mood in which 
 Charles received this advice may be guessed from the treat- 
 ment the letter received. It was instantly torn to pieces, and 
 from the King's words or manner those who were present 
 were convinced that he was " resolved to have the writer's 
 head." ^ Argyll was indeed fated to undergo the penalty to 
 which his Sovereign would now wilHngly have consigned him, 
 but many heads were to fall on the scaffold before his turn 
 came. Charles little thought that Strafford and Laud, and he 
 himself, were all to die by the executioner's axe, the aid of 
 which he now desired for putting an end to the rebellion he had 
 provoked. 
 
 At every point the King's plans broke down. The Earl 
 of Antrim's proposal to land ten thousand men in Argyllshire 
 turned out to be merely a visionary project : he had not that 
 number of men to dispose of, and the Viceroy of Ireland reported 
 to Charles his opinion that Antrim was not fit to command such 
 
 1 Gardiner, History of England, vol. ix. pp. 9, 23. 
 = State Pa,j)crs, Dom., 1630, p. r.2. 
 
74 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 a force, even if it could be got together.^ In the meantime the 
 Earl of Argyll took prompt action to checkmate invasion from 
 Ireland by raising a force of nine hundred men, of whom some 
 were stationed in Kintyre to guard the coast, and others were 
 sent to Lome to prevent a rising of the MacDonalds. With the 
 remainder the Earl himself crossed over into Arran and seized 
 Brodick Castle. This last achievement nullified Hamilton's 
 proposal to provision the fleet which was to support the invasion 
 of the west of Scotland from that island, of which he was the 
 proprietor. 
 
 The scheme of making a base of operations in the north by 
 the landing of several regiments of soldiers from Hamilton's fleet 
 had been averted by the occupation of Aberdeen and the capture 
 of the Marquess of Huntly by the Covenanters. Hamilton 
 was accordingly instructed to enter the Firth of Forth in the 
 hope of being able to effect a landing there and to aid Charles's 
 loyal subjects, who were supposed to be the great majority of the 
 population, in shaking off the yoke of the Covenant. But in the 
 meantime Leith had been sufficiently fortified to resist attack. 
 Men and women from Edinburgh and from the surrounding 
 country had wrought with great ardour at the entrenchments ; '^ 
 and a striking indication of the condition of public feeling is 
 given by the fact that Hamilton's own mother, who lived at 
 Kinneil House near Bo'ness, appeared one day among them with 
 a pistol in her hand, which she asserted she would use against 
 her son if he attempted to land. On other parts of the coast, 
 both north and south of the Firth of Forth, preparations were 
 made by the Covenanters to prevent the disembarkation of 
 troops ; and accordingly Hamilton took possession of the islands 
 of Inchkeith and Inchcolm, both in order to give the soldiers, 
 few of whom probably had been at sea before, some relief from 
 the discomfort of life on board ship, and also to impart to them 
 a little of the military training which they greatly needed.^ 
 
 On the 14th of May the King, who had reached Newcastle- 
 on-Tyne, published another proclamation, in striking contrast 
 with that which he had issued a month before. In it he 
 announced that he was advancing with his army and " with 
 the attendance of the nobles and gentry of the kingdom," and 
 
 ^Strafford Letters, vol. ii. p. 230; Wentvvorth to Coke, Hist. MSS. Com., 
 vol. xii. app. ii. p. 227. 
 
 ^ Buruet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 146. 
 
 '^ State Pa2)crs, Dom., 1639, p. 126; Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 157. 
 
SCOTCH ARMY PROCEEDS SOUTH 75 
 
 iutcnded shortly to be at Berwick ; and he asserted that it was 
 his purpose " to give his good people of Scotland all just satisfaction 
 in Parliament, as soon as the present disorders and tumultuous 
 proceedings of some there were quieted and would leave His 
 Majesty a fair way of coming like a gracious King to declare his 
 good meaning to them." He went on to say that he would not 
 invade Scotland if " all civil and temporal obedience were shown 
 liim " ; and that, on the other hand, he would not allow Scotch 
 troops to invade England, If any, without authority from him, 
 were to raise soldiers and to bring them within ten miles of the 
 Enghsh Border, he would consider their action as invasion of 
 England and would instruct his General in command and his 
 officers to proceed against them as rebels and destroy them.^ 
 
 The answer returned by the Scotch nobles who headed the 
 popular revolt was that their warlike preparations were for self- 
 defence, that their hearts were loyal to their Sovereign, and that 
 they would obey his order as to the ten-mile limit if he would 
 withdraw his fleet from the coast and his army from the Border. 
 This request, as might have been expected, was ignored by Charles, 
 and the prohibition in question was consequently not observed. 
 Four days after this reply the Scotch army was mustered 
 on the links of Leith, the articles of war were read to the 
 soldiers, and without further delay they marched towards the 
 English Border and encamped at Dunglass on the Haddington- 
 shire coast.^ The number of men who were now ready to 
 maintain their country's cause on the field of war was tw^enty 
 thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry. But, though the 
 English army was slightly larger, it was inferior to Leslie's in 
 weapons, equipment, and discipline, and, above all, in the 
 absence of the stimulus imparted by the sense of being entrusted 
 with the defence of a great cause. Though the English soldiers 
 now menacing the Scotch Border were not wanting in the 
 courage and high-spiritedness which has distinguished them for 
 so many centuries, and joyfully welcomed the prospect of a 
 battle, there can be no doubt that in those of the other side 
 there was that nobler ardour which springs from warm patriotic 
 and religious feehng. 
 
 The King freed his opponents from obligation to keep at a 
 distance from the English frontier by sending strong bodies of 
 soldiers into Scotch territory, one of which proclaimed at Duns 
 
 ^ Peterkin, Records, p. 220 ; Gardiner, Ilist.ory of England, vol. ix. p. 16. 
 * Burton, History of Scotland, vol. vi. p. •j:59. 
 
76 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 the treasonableness of the conduct of the Covenanting leaders 
 and repeated the tempting offer of reduction of rent to their 
 tenants who should desert them ; and another would probably 
 have done the same at Kelso, had it not been that they were 
 outnumbered by the Scotch troops stationed there and thought 
 it prudent to retreat.^ In consequence of these movements of the 
 English army Leslie determined to leave Dunglass and to take 
 up his position on Duns Law, a prominent hill not far from the 
 English Border, which would give him the command of the roads 
 leading northward. 
 
 The description given by Baillie of the encampment at Duns 
 Law is vivid and picturesque. " It would have done you good," 
 he says, " to have casten your eyes athwart our brave and rich 
 Hill, as oft I did with great contentment and joy. . . . Our 
 Hill was garnished on the top towards the south and east, with 
 our mounted cannon, well near to the number of forty, small 
 and great. Our regiments lay on the sides of the Hill, almost 
 round about ; the place was not a mile in circle, a pretty 
 round rising in a declivity, without steepness, to the height of 
 a bow-shot ; on the top somewhat plain ; about a quarter of a 
 mile in length and as much in breadth, as I remember, capable 
 of tents for forty thousand men. The crowners [colonels] lay in 
 kennous [canvas] lodges, high and wide ; their captains about them 
 in lesser ones ; the soldiers about, all in huts of timber covered 
 with divots [thin grassy sods] or straw. . . Every company 
 had, flying at the captain's tent-door, a brave new colour stamped 
 with the Scottish Arms, and this ditton [motto] FOE CHRIST'S 
 CROWN AND COVENANT, in golden letters." 2 The men 
 were for the most part strong, young ploughmen ; the captains 
 were noblemen or gentry of note, and the lieutenants were 
 almost all experienced soldiers from the German wars. They 
 received a fair sum in the way of pay, were well cared for, 
 and were in good spirits. Baillie says that even the humblest 
 soldiers had wheaten bread to eat, and for a groat could buy 
 a leg of lamb, which were better provisions than they were 
 ordinarily accustomed to. He also tells us that morning and 
 evening there might be heard in the huts the sound of some 
 singing psalms, of others praying, and of others reading Scripture. 
 Both in his time and in our own these militant saints have been 
 regarded by some with admiration and by others with distaste. 
 
 * Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 7 ; Baillie, Letters, vol. i, p. 210. 
 ^Letters, vol. i. p. 211. 
 
CAMP AT DUNS LAW 77 
 
 Those who have no liking for them may be gratified by learning 
 that all in the Covenanting army were not of the same stamp ; 
 for we are told, on the same authority, that in some quarters 
 there was cursing, swearing, and brawling.^ 
 
 Among the troops encamped on Duns Law the Highlanders 
 from Argyllsliire attracted great attention. The Earl of Argyll 
 had been stationed with his followers at Stirling in the heart of 
 Scotland to guard against unexpected dangers that might arise 
 from the north, or from attacks upon the east or west coasts, and 
 to be a check upon secret treachery as well as open hostility. 
 But, when it became evident that the King was likely to open 
 negotiations with a view to peace, he was sent for, since " without 
 him none would mint [attempt] to treat." He came attended 
 by several companies of Highlanders belonging to his clan, 
 whose dress, weapons, and foreign tongue excited as much 
 curious attention among many who visited Duns Law as if they 
 had been Indian warriors from the wilds of North America. 
 " It was thought," says Baillie, " the country of England was 
 more afraid for the barbarity of his Highlanders than of any 
 other terror: those of the English that came to visit our camp 
 did gaze much with admiration [wonder] upon these supple 
 fellows with their plaids, targes, and dorlachs." ^ 
 
 In the meantime the soldiers in the English army which 
 Charles had led to the Border were in a very different condition 
 from those under the command of Leslie. They had no tents 
 or huts to live in, but they had to sleep on the bare ground, or 
 to be content with the shelter of turf walls which they erected, 
 or with anything else which they could devise to protect 
 themselves against the weather. As time passed on and there 
 
 ^ Ibid., Letters, vol. i. p. 214. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. i. pp. 211, 213. The report of one of these is quoted by Dr 
 Gardiner, and is as follows: — "They were all, or most part of them, well-timbered 
 men, tall and active, apparelled in blue woollen waistcoats and blue bonnets, a pair of 
 bases of plaid and stockings of the same, and a pair of pumps [brogues] on their feet, 
 a mantle of plaid cast over the left shoulder and under the right arme, a pocket before 
 for the knapsack, and a pair of dirks on either side the pocket. They are left to 
 their own election [choice] for their weapons. Some carry only a sword and targe, 
 others muskets, and the greater part, bow and arrow, with a quiver to hold about 
 six shafts, made of the mane of a goat or colt, with the hair hanging on, and 
 fastened by some belt or suchlike, so as it appears almost a tail to them. These 
 were about a thousand, and had bag-pipes, for the most part, for their warlike 
 [musical] instruments. The Lord Buchanan was their leader. Their ensigns had 
 strange devices and strange words, in a language unknown to me, whether their 
 own or not I know not"' (History of England, vol. ix. p. 27 n.). "Dorlachs" are 
 the quivers above described. 
 
78 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 was no immediate prospect of their being led against the enemy, 
 they sank into apathy and listlessness. Disease broke out 
 amongst them, and many deserted. The poor fellows who were 
 thus neglected and deprived of means of comfort and cleanli- 
 ness were infested by a certain kind of vermin, to which the 
 rough humour of the camp gave the name of " covenanters." ^ 
 
 As soon as the King received the tidings that Leslie was 
 about to leave Dunglass and encamp upon Duns Law, he sent 
 word to the Marquess of Hamilton, who had already despatched 
 the soldiers on board his fleet to reinforce the royal army, to 
 come and advise with him as to the next step to be taken. 
 Apart from the inefficiency of the troops which were under 
 his command, his hands w^ere weakened for w^ar by the fact 
 that the noblemen and gentry whom he had spoken of as 
 accompanying him to the Border were inclined to peace, on the 
 ground that they did not think that the demands of the people of 
 Scotland were unreasonable. From his trusted counsellor Strafford 
 he received strongly worded advice to abstain for the present 
 from warlike operations, and the assurance that the condition 
 of Ireland was such that no soldiers could be spared to take 
 part in any conflict with Scotland. All that he himself could do 
 in the way of joining in the plan of campaign which had been 
 formed would be to assemble soldiers and vessels at Carrick- 
 fergus, as if for an invasion of Argyllshire ; but this would be 
 a mere feint, which might deceive no one. No action of the 
 kind threatened could by any possibility be taken at present.- 
 
 On the other hand, the Scotch army, though strong enough 
 to drive before them the English troops now assembled within 
 such a short distance of them, were most anxious to avoid 
 arousing the hostility of the English people. The defeat of an 
 Euglisli army by a Scotch would be sure to excite deep 
 feelings of resentment, however indifferent the people at large 
 might be to the matters out of which the original quarrel sprang. 
 In the circumstances it is not surprising that the suggestion 
 for negotiations with a view to peace, when once made, was 
 readily acted upon. One of the royal pages, Kobert Leslie, a 
 young Scotchman, came over to visit friends in the Covenanting 
 camp, and took occasion to remark that even yet it might not 
 
 ^ Gardiner, History, vol. ix. p. 30 ; see also Charles II. and Scotland, j). 136. In 
 our recent ■war in South Africa (1902) the same unpleasant insects received the 
 name of "Roberts's Horse." 
 
 - Gardiner, Histoi^y, vol. ix. pp. 33, 34. 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 79 
 
 be too late to send " an humble supplication " to the King 
 and thus open the way for a peaceful settlement of grievances. 
 At once an address couched in most respectful terms was 
 presented to Charles by the Earl of Dunfermline, asking for 
 persons " well affected to the true religion and to the common 
 peace " to be appointed to confer with the Covenanting leaders, 
 in order to hear " their humble desires and make known to 
 them his gracious pleasure." ^ The reply was that, as the King 
 had issued "a gracious proclamation" which had not been 
 publicly read as ordered, nothing could be done until this 
 defect was repaired. The reference was to the proclamation in 
 which the leaders of the rebellion had been declared traitors 
 and their estates forfeited. Beyond the reading of it at the 
 orders of the English at the town of Duns this proclamation 
 had not as yet been made in Scotland. This obstacle to 
 negotiations was, however, quickly removed: the document in 
 question was read over in one of the tents in the hearing of 
 Argyll and of a number of others who like him were specially 
 denounced in it, and this was taken as being equivalent to a 
 public proclamation on Scotch soil.- Any satisfaction the King 
 may have had in thus securing the semblance of obedience to 
 his authority in this matter must have been sadly diminished 
 by the prompt repetition on the spot of a former protest which 
 had been made by the Estates against the illegal character of the 
 proclamation in question. 
 
 A summons was thereupon sent to the petitioners to appoint 
 some of their number to meet " six persons of honour and trust," 
 whom they would find in the General's tent, on the south side 
 of the Tweed, at 8 a.m. on Monday morning, the 10 th of 
 June, and who had been appointed " to hear their humble 
 desires." A safe -conduct signed by Sir John Coke, Secretary 
 of State, was also sent for those who might be appointed to 
 act as deputies from the Scotch camp. It is a striking com- 
 ment upon the respectful language used by the petitioners that 
 this safe-conduct was sent back to receive the signatm-e of the 
 King himself, with the reminder that according to the laws of 
 England no such document was, strictly speaking, of value unless 
 it had passed the Great Seal. They hoped that no offence 
 would be taken at their action, but said that the people and 
 army would certainly not consent to their going unless they had 
 the security given by His Majesty's own signature. No doubt 
 ^ Hushworth, Collections, vol. iii. p. 938. ' Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 215. 
 
80 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Charles felt the sting of insult which the suspicion of bad 
 faith contained, but his only reply was to add his own name 
 to that of the Secretary of State upon the safe-conduct.^ 
 
 Six commissioners were sent from the Covenanting army, 
 viz. the Earls of Eothes, Loudon, and Dunfermline, Sir William 
 Douglas (Sheriff of Teviotdale), Johnstone of Warriston, and 
 Henderson. Scarcely had they entered the General's tent 
 when, much to their surprise, the King himself came in ; indeed, 
 as the Scotch commissioners had their backs to the door and 
 he came in unannounced, he had been in the tent for some 
 moments before they observed his presence. The requests of 
 the petitioners were that the proceedings of the General Assembly 
 in Glasgow, in which Episcopacy was abolished, should be ratified 
 by Parliament ; that in future all ecclesiastical affairs should 
 be determined by Assemblies of the Church, and all civil affairs 
 by Parliaments and Courts of Law ; and that peace and security 
 of life and property should be again restored. The Scotch com- 
 missioners were at a disadvantage in this conference, as in 
 the circumstances was inevitable. The strength of their case 
 lay in the army which was assembled on Duns Law, and 
 not in the fact that their arguments against Episcopacy 
 were superior to those the King might employ in favour of 
 it. The powers assumed and exercised by " The Tables," the 
 changes in the constitution of the Church introduced on their 
 authority, the " packing " of the Glasgow Assembly and its 
 continuing to transact business after the Eoyal Commissioner 
 had forbidden any further proceedings, were all weak points 
 in the case which the Scotch commissioners had now to defend. 
 And so, while nothing would induce them to condemn their own 
 proceedings in the aboHtion of Episcopacy at the Assembly, they 
 were unable by force of argument to justify the means and 
 methods by which they had attained their purpose. On the 
 other hand, the King utterly and steadfastly refused to ac- 
 knowledge the validity of the Acts of what he persistently 
 called " the pretended General Assembly of Glasgow " ; and 
 according to his view of matters Episcopacy was still the 
 lawful constitution of the Church of Scotland. Yet he con- 
 sented to the principle of leaving General Assemblies to deal 
 with ecclesiastical matters, and Parliaments and law - courts 
 with civil, and finally referred all difficulties and grievances 
 
 ^ Rushworth, Collections, vol. iii. p. 939 ; Hardwicke's State Paj^crs, vol. ii. 
 p. 130. 
 
TERMS OF PEACE 81 
 
 for solution to a free General Assembly and a free I'arliament 
 to meet iu Edinburgh in the month of August following, on 
 the 6th and 20th respectively.^ 
 
 Both parties accepted this as the basis of pacification. The 
 Scotch commissioners were fully convinced that both Assembly 
 and Parliament would ratify what had been done irregularly at 
 Glasgow ; and the King, confident in his having had the better 
 of the argument, was probably under the impression that the 
 cause of Episcopacy in Scotland was by no means hopeless. 
 The impression Charles made upon the commissioners was very 
 favourable : he surprised them by his grave, patient attention 
 to all that they had to say, and Baillie says that they thought 
 him " one of the most just, reasonable, sweet persons they had 
 ever seen." ^ But his character was more complex than they 
 thought ; and under that gracious manner was a disposition 
 utterly lacking in tact, while with his changeableness and 
 vacillation he combined an obstinacy or tenacity fully equal 
 to their own. 
 
 It was agreed to disband both armies ; and on the Cove- 
 nanting side it was conceded that the royal fortresses should 
 be restored to persons appointed by the King, that " The 
 Tables " and other illegal committees should be dissolved, 
 that the regalia should be given up, and that the works of 
 fortification which might have been begun should be abandoned. 
 It was also agreed that prisoners on both sides should be 
 liberated. The King spoke of being present at the meetings 
 of the Scotch Parliament and of the General Assembly, though 
 this proposal was not afterwards carried out.^ Some offence was 
 given by the action of the leaders of the Covenanting party 
 in protesting that, though they accepted the King's Declaration, 
 they did not acquiesce in the condemnation contained in it of 
 the proceedings of the Glasgow Assembly ; and the Earl of 
 Morton, who came into the Scotch camp as a commissioner from 
 the King, broke out into " bitter and evil speech " against his 
 cousin and son-in-law Argyll as being the author of this 
 protest, which he declared was an infringement of terms 
 already agreed upon. But, for all that, the generals, nobles, 
 ministers, and others who had signed the protest adhered to it. 
 In a rash moment the King had promised to visit the Scotch 
 
 ^ Burnet, Dukes of Tlamiltmi, pp. 178, 179. 
 
 " Letters, vol. i. p. 217. 
 
 " Kushwortli, Collections, vol. iii. p. 944. 
 
82 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 camp ; but his advisers dissuaded him from doing so, on the 
 very reasonable ground that such an action would really be 
 giving some countenance to those who had rebelled against 
 him, and who had only laid down their arms on conditions 
 which the force of circumstances had compelled him to accept. 
 Argyll and some few of the other lords went over after the 
 conclusion of peace to kiss the King's hand. We are told that 
 he was but coldly received, at which little surprise need be 
 felt by any. Even a much " sweeter " person than the Scotch 
 commissioners supposed Charles to be would probably in the 
 circumstances have been unable to manifest any other warmth 
 than that of anger.^ 
 
 So convinced were the Covenanters that they had averted 
 the dangers which had led them to take up arms that they 
 proposed to send Leslie with an army of ten or twelve thou- 
 sand Scotch soldiers to the aid of the Elector Palatine ; but 
 difficulties with regard to the question of payment cropped up, 
 and the scheme was abandoned.^ The mere fact, however, that 
 it was seriously entertained is strong proof that the leaders of 
 the Covenanting party had anticipated that the Pacification of 
 Berwick would lead to a final settlement of the disputes between 
 them and their King, and that they had no further hidden designs 
 inconsistent with their loyalty to him. 
 
 * Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 220. 
 
 ' Gardiner, History of England, yol. ix. p. 42. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Pacification violated — Argyll and others refuse to meet Charles I. in 
 Conference — Negotiations of the Covenanters with France — The King 
 and the Scotch Bishops — The Proceedings of the Assembly in Glasgow 
 ratified — The Large Declaration condemned — Dislocation of the Con- 
 stitution — The "Altercating Parliament" — The Magistrates of Edin- 
 burgh decline to publish a Royal Proclamation against Argyll. 
 
 ON which side lay the fault of violating or of neglecting to 
 carry out the terms of the Pacification it is perhaps 
 difficult to determine. But the fact is that the terms of agree- 
 ment were far too vague. It was decided that the ecclesiastical 
 matters which were in dispute should be settled by a General 
 Assembly ; but it was not decided how that Assembly should 
 be elected, or whether the King should or should not have 
 the right of veto in case their proceedings were displeasing to 
 him. As matters stood, the abolition of Episcopacy by the 
 Glasgow Assembly being as yet of no effect because it had not been 
 confirmed by Parliament and King, Archbishops and Bishops were 
 still legally entitled to the principal place in the forthcoming 
 Assembly, and the King could scarcely have done other than 
 summon them to a meeting of that body. And, as it would have 
 been in the highest degree absurd to invite such personages to 
 meet with others in an Assembly in order to be ejected from it 
 or to be degraded in rank, it became quite evident to the people 
 of Scotland that, in spite of the Covenant and the proceedings 
 in Glasgow and the armed resistance of the nation, Charles 
 still intended to maintain Episcopacy as the established form of 
 religion. The Covenanting party must therefore have realized, 
 when on the 1st of July the Archbishops, Bishops, and others 
 having a place in the Assembly according to the old constitution 
 of the Church were summoned to meet, that they had failed as 
 utterly in attaining their object and were as much at the King's 
 mercy as if Leslie and his army had been scattered by the royal 
 troops like chaff before the wind, and that they had by the 
 
 83 
 
84 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Pacification of Berwick relinquished everything which they had 
 struggled to secure.^ 
 
 It was therefore with grim displeasure that the citizens of 
 Edinburgh saw the Castle handed over to the charge of General 
 Euthven, a strong Eoyalist, and heard the proclamation sum- 
 moning the Episcopal functionaries to take charge of matters in 
 the forthcoming Assembly. The usual protestation against the 
 conduct of the King was made immediately after the herald 
 had read the royal proclamation ; and the angry mob of the city 
 found some vent for their feelings by chasing the King's friends 
 through the streets and maltreating his representatives. The 
 carriage of the Lord Treasurer — the Earl of Traquair — was 
 attacked, and before the coachman could drive out of the throng 
 it broke down ; and the Earl on getting out received, we are 
 told, " some knocks with some women's neives [fists]," of which, 
 strangely enough, it was said he was very glad, for they endeared 
 him to the King at a time when his credit was in a somewhat 
 tottering condition.^ 
 
 In fact, matters were in precisely the same state as at the 
 time when the rioting began on the occasion of the introduction 
 of the Service-Book at St Giles's Church. In these circumstances 
 " The Tables " and other committees which watched over the 
 interests of the Presbyterian party could not be dissolved as the 
 Pacification of Berwick prescribed ; and the leaders of the popular 
 faction felt that the time had not come when they could safely 
 demolish fortifications put up for self-defence and disband their 
 army. Accordingly the King could, with at least some colour of 
 justice, maintain that the terms of the treaty with his opponents 
 had been broken by them ; and the latter could, with equal plausi- 
 bility, lay the blame of breaking them upon his shoulders. No 
 doubt Charles would have been willing to reduce the powers of the 
 Bishops very considerably and believed that, in this way and by 
 a general modification of the ecclesiastical constitution, all real 
 grievances the origin of which was ascribed to Episcopacy would 
 be corrected ; but beyond this he felt it would not be safe to go. 
 Had he simply accepted as valid the abolition of Episcopacy by 
 the Glasgow Assembly, he would not only have substituted the 
 rough-and-ready methods of revolution for the orderly course of 
 legislation by the constituted authorities, but he would have lost 
 the last vestige of royal power in Scotland and would have been 
 
 ^ Peterkin, Records, p. 230. 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 220 ; Burnet, Dukes of JIamilton, p. 182. 
 
DISTRUST OF THE KING 85 
 
 at the mercy of turbulent nobles in alliance with an equally 
 turbulent democracy. Whether the Bishops had wide or limited 
 powers in ecclesiastical matters was to him a question of but 
 slight importance. Their existence as one of the Estates of 
 Parliament was absolutely essential if he was to have any 
 control over legislation and the government of the countr3^ 
 
 Charles now summoned fourteen of the Covenanting leaders 
 to come to a conference at Berwick, where he still was ; but his 
 action in so doing was regarded with great suspicion. Only six 
 out of the fourteen obeyed the summons. The Earl of Argyll 
 sent a flimsy excuse for non-appearance ; while most of the others 
 were hindered by the citizens of Edinburgh from exposing them- 
 selves to what was regarded by them as the danger of being 
 kidnapped by the King. The Covenanting leaders who went to 
 Berwick exasperated Charles by their audacity, for one of them, 
 the Earl of Eothes, went the length of saying that if they were 
 not allowed to get rid of Bishops in Scotland they would be 
 forced to open an attack upon Bishops in England and Ireland. 
 Fierce altercations took place between the King and the Cove- 
 nanting leaders ; and finally the latter were dismissed with orders 
 to return four days later with the others of their number who 
 had been originally summoned, but who had stayed or had been 
 detained in Edinburgh. At the time appointed only two of 
 them reappeared, and, though they made some promises as to 
 disbanding troops and demolishing fortifications, but little reliance 
 was placed upon their words ; and the only real effect of the 
 conference was to embitter the relations betw^een the King and 
 his subjects. Charles felt deeply the affront which had been 
 offered him by the refusal of so many of the Covenanting leaders 
 to obey his summons, and he declared that he would not trust 
 himself among those who distrusted him, and that he would 
 abandon his design of being present at the meetings of Assembly 
 and Parliament.^ 
 
 Before the meeting of the General Assembly which was to 
 settle the principal matters in dispute a somewhat awkward 
 incident occurred which must have modified the favourable 
 impression made by the King upon the Scotch leaders. The 
 latter had printed and published a document professing to be a 
 recapitulation of the main decisions which had been arrived at in 
 the conference at Berwick. This being a record of conversation, 
 
 ^ Gardiner, History of England, vol. ix. pp. 46, 47 ; Stevenson, History of the 
 CJiurch and State of Scotland, p. 386 ; Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 187. 
 
8G THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 it is not surprising that exception was taken to it by Charles as 
 inaccurate, though nothing like bad faith can fairly be alleged 
 against the authors of the document, which all through is 
 couched in reasonable and respectful terms. So far from its 
 being a mere pamphlet of news issued to gratify public curiosity, 
 it was a formal State document published by what was virtually 
 the Government of Scotland.^ As copies of it had been circulated 
 in England, the King brought it before the English Privy Council, 
 and the result of their deliberations was that it was condemned 
 as " in most parts full of falsehood, dishonour, and scandal to 
 His Majesty's proceedings in the late Pacification," and it was 
 ordered to be publicly burned by the hangman.^ The insult 
 thus offered to the Scotch leaders was not only calculated to 
 alienate them and their followers still further from the royal 
 cause, but also to produce the impression upon the minds of all 
 who regarded the document in question as a truthful record of 
 proceedings that the King was a truce-breaker, and that hence- 
 forward little reliance need be placed upon his word.^ 
 
 Early in the preparations for a struggle with Charles I. 
 the Covenanting leaders endeavoured to revive the ancient league 
 with Prance, which had so often stood Scotland in good stead 
 in conflicts with England. The overtures from this quai-ter 
 were welcomed by Eichelieu, who was less shocked than one 
 would have expected a Cardinal to be by the anti - papal 
 opinions and sentiments of the Scotch insurgents, and he eagerly 
 embraced the opportunity of weakening the power of England 
 by fostering rebellion in the northern kingdom. In the 
 M4moires du Comte de Rochefort, EicheHeu's secret agent, by 
 Courtilz de Sandras, we have picturesque details regarding 
 these negotiations which make us wish that the romance 
 in question could be regarded as an authentic history. The 
 story as there told reads like an extract from a novel by 
 Dumas, who indeed drew the materials for some of his immortal 
 works from the compositions of this earlier romancer. Thus 
 we read of the Comte de Piochefort carrying letters in cipher 
 from his chief to the Covenanting leaders, and landing in the 
 north of England in the guise of a young Prench nobleman 
 travelling for his own amusement. These important documents 
 were concealed between pieces of iron which were welded 
 
 ' Peterkin, Records, p. 230. 
 
 ^ Paislnvorth, Collections, vol. iii. pp. 965, 966. 
 
 2 Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 31 ; Buruet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 205. 
 
A COVENANTING EMISSARY 87 
 
 together and inserted as plates in a saddle which the Frenchman 
 had got specially made for the journey. The emissary from 
 Paris fell into the hands of a troop of Eoyalist cavalry, who, in 
 spite of his protests, searched him and ripped up the saddle but 
 did not discover the secret of the double plates. After a detention 
 of live days and much cross-examination, which yielded nothing, 
 he was liberated. By means of various feints and doublings he 
 succeeded in evading the enemy and in delivering his letters in 
 the right quarter, and then he returned home in a fishing-boat.^ 
 
 This message from the Cardinal was followed, we are told, 
 by the visit to Paris of one who was of high rank and also 
 a prominent leader of the party. We should have liked to 
 believe that it was Argyll, as the events in which the un- 
 named Scotchman was said to take part would have shown 
 the subject of our biography in highly romantic and dramatic 
 surroundings. " Rochefort," we are told, " received orders to 
 go to the Faubourg St Marceau, over against the Conduit, where 
 he would find a small tavern with the sign of the Headless 
 Woman, He was to ascend the stairs without knocking and to 
 enter a room up two flights, where he would find a gentleman 
 in a large bedstead with yellow curtains ; after certain signals 
 had been exchanged, he was to bid the gentleman be at the 
 Hotel d'Aiguillon shortly after eleven o'clock that night without 
 fail. Everything was as the Cardinal had said ; and when 
 Eochefort had entered the room described and looked behind the 
 yellow curtains, he saw that the gentleman there concealed was 
 the expected leader of the Covenanters. . . . Whoever he was 
 he obeyed the Cardinal's mandate, and came at the appointed 
 time to the house of Madame d'Aiguillon, disguised as a man 
 crying jumbles {oullies) in the street. He was at once ushered 
 into the private cabinet, and he remained there with Richelieu 
 until four o'clock next morning." ^ As the result of this con- 
 ference, a chest of money containing half a million francs was 
 carted to a second tavern, called the Spinning Sow, to which the 
 Scotchman had in the meantime for greater concealment betaken 
 himself. The Cardinal, however, had promised a grant of six 
 hundred thousand francs, and the agent of the Covenanters 
 refused to take a sou less than that amount, and so the chest 
 of specie was carried back to the Treasury. The result of 
 his firmness was that before the close of the same day the 
 
 1 Macmillaihs Magazine, February, 1901 : "The Cardinal's Agent," p. 313. 
 ' Ibid., p. 314. 
 
88 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 full amount was paid over to be conveyed to Scotland, as a 
 contribution towards the expenses of the militant Presby- 
 terians. 
 
 This negotiation between the Scotch leaders and the French 
 Government was regarded and spoken of at the time as a league 
 between Argyll and EicheHeu, as though the one were as pre- 
 dominant in Scotland as the other was in France ; and one of 
 the results of it was that a regiment of two thousand men was 
 levied in Scotland and sent over to France under the command 
 of the Earl of Irvine, Argyll's half-brother. These soldiers were 
 ranked as one of the first regiments of the guard, and various 
 special privileges were conferred upon them, among which 
 was permission to have their own Protestant chaplains and 
 the free exercise of their religion.^ It is quite possible that 
 Argyll's half-brother himself visited Paris as the agent of the 
 Covenanters, and that the melodramatic details above recounted 
 have this basis of fact on which to rest. 
 
 The Marquess of Hamilton was not inclined to accept 
 a second time the post of Eoyal Commissioner to the General 
 Assembly, and the Earl of Traquair was appointed to this 
 office. Very shortly before the Assembly opened Charles sent 
 express word to the Archbishops and Bishops, who had been 
 formally summoned to it, that they were on no account to 
 obey the summons and present themselves at the Assembly. 
 In a letter to the King they had advised him to prorogue 
 Assembly and Parliament for the present, and he now replied 
 that that was a course he would willingly follow but for 
 the excited condition in which the country was and the promises 
 he had made in the Articles of Pacification. In the meantime 
 he forbade them to meet together to consult upon Churcli 
 affairs : he could not guarantee their safety in Scotland, and 
 he considered it would be out of place for them to meet 
 elsewhere. But he added : " We doe hereby assure you, that 
 it shall be still one of Our chiefest Studies, how to rectifie and 
 establish the Government of that Church aright, and to repair 
 your losses, which We desire you to be most confident of." ^ 
 The recommendation which he gave them as to the best mode 
 
 ^Gordon, Britang's Distemper, p. 6. See also, in App. IV., a letter from 
 Argyll regarding the raising of men for this service. This regiment of Scots Guards, 
 as it was called, landed at Dieppe in the autumn of 1643, and was present at the 
 siege of Thionville, under the command of the Prince of Conde, during the same 
 year (Montereul, Corrcsjwndence, vol. ii. p. GOi). 
 
 - Peterkin, Records, p. 234. 
 
CHARLES AND THE SCOTCH BISHOPS 89 
 
 of procedure in the circumstances in which they were placed 
 is a striking ilhistration of that duplicity which at last was 
 his ruin. They were to prepare a protest or remonstrance 
 against both tlie Assembly and the Parliament from which they 
 were excluded, and send it by some secret and trusty messenger 
 to the Koyal Commissioner. It was not to be read or alluded 
 to in the Assembly, where it was certain to meet with very 
 scant courtesy, but was to be transmitted by the Earl of 
 Traquair to himself. " And you may rest secure," he said, " that, 
 though perhaps We may give way for the present to that 
 which will be prejudicial both to the Church and Our Own 
 Government, yet We shall not leave thinking, in time, how 
 to remedy both." In the meantime the unfortunate prelates 
 were recommended to remain in England, where they would 
 receive maintenance from himself, and, though this would be 
 on a scale less munificent than he would have wished, it would 
 secure them from actual want. " Thus," he concluded, " you 
 have Our Pleasure briefly signified unto you, which We doubt 
 not but you will take in good part ; you cannot but know 
 that what We doe in this We are necessitated to." ^ This 
 advice was taken ; and a protest, in their own names and in 
 those of as many as would adhere to them, that the proceedings 
 of the forthcoming Assembly were null and void, was lodged 
 in the hands of the Eoyal Commissioner ; and appended to this 
 protest was an appeal to a council of all the clergy in the 
 British dominions, to whose decisions they promised to render 
 obedience.^ 
 
 On the 12th of August, 1639, the Assembly met at 
 Edinburgh, and, after a sermon by Alexander Henderson, tlie 
 retiring moderator, David Dickson, minister of Irvine, was 
 appointed his successor. The same care had been taken as in 
 the previous year to choose as members of Assembly only those 
 who were devoted to the popular cause, though the matter 
 was now more easily accomplished than then in consequence 
 of the fact that the Covenant had vanquished its foes. The 
 Earl of Argyll was a member of Assembly, and was one of six- 
 teen assessors whom the moderator was permitted to summon 
 to advise him in private if occasion should arise for requiring 
 such assistance. Those appointed to this office were naturally 
 the most zealous and capable of the leaders of the Covenant- 
 ing party, and accordingly we find the names of the Earls 
 
 ^ Ibid., Records, p. 234. - Burnet, Dulccs of Hamilton, pp. 195, 196. 
 
90 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 of Montrose, Kothes, and Loudon conjoined with that of 
 Argyll.1 
 
 The whole business to be transacted at this Assembly was 
 practically to endorse what had been done in Glasgow in 
 an irregular way in the previous year ; but, in order to keep 
 matters in proper form, no mention was made of the Glasgow 
 Assembly in the Acts now passed at this, though it was often 
 referred to in debates. A comprehensive Act was introduced, 
 and passed unanimously, in which all the grievances that had 
 been complained of received their quietus. The Service-Book, 
 the Book of Canons, and the Court of High Commission were 
 abolished, the Articles of Perth condemned, the Episcopal form of 
 Church-government and the holding of civil offices by Church- 
 men pronounced unlawful, and the " corrupt " AssembHes from 
 1606 to 1618 declared null and void. In order that there 
 might be no recurrence of the evils now abohshed it was 
 decided that General Assemblies properly elected should meet 
 annually, or oftener if necessary, to deal with ecclesiastical mat- 
 ters, and that the regular gradation of Church-courts according 
 to the Presbyterian constitution — kirk-sessions, presbyteries, and 
 synods — should be maintained. 
 
 Some of the older men in the Assembly who remembered 
 the former days before Episcopacy had laid its destroying hand 
 upon so much that was dear to the heart of the nation poured 
 out their thanksgivings for the work of that day. Their joy 
 was like that of the Jewish exiles when the decree of Cyrus 
 allowed them to return and rebuild their Temple and Holy 
 City, or Hke that of the Greeks when, after the defeat of 
 the Macedonians by Flaminius, it was announced at the 
 Isthmian Games that the Komans would allow them to retain 
 their liberty : they were " like them that dream, their mouth 
 was filled with laughter, and they said, ' The Lord hath done 
 great things for us whereof we are glad.' " ^ The mere change of 
 Church-government from Episcopacy to Presbyterianism may 
 seem but a slight cause for such ecstatic joy ; and no doubt to 
 the eyes of outsiders the system rejected might seem equally 
 good with that which was established in its place, or even in 
 some respects superior to it. But the fact was that Episcopacy, 
 whether of apostolic origin or not, was felt to be an incubus 
 upon the national life, and it was natural that the deliverance 
 from it should be accompanied with rejoicing. 
 
 1 Peterkin, Records, p. 243. ^ Fs. cxxvi. ; Livy, Book xxxiii. p. 32. 
 
 \ 
 
CONDEMNATION OF THE KING'S BOOK 91 
 
 The Eoyal Commissiouer gave his assent to this Act, but ho 
 attempted to have a clause added to it declaring that Episcopacy, 
 though contrary to the constitution of the Church of Scotland, 
 was not in itself unlawful, and tliat the Act in question implied 
 no censure of it as it existed in England and Ireland. He had 
 received express orders from Charles to see that this explanation 
 shoidd be given if Episcopacy were abolished in Scotland. But 
 the Assembly w^ould not consent to accept the declaration, and 
 merely put on record the fact that the Eoyal Commissioner had 
 made it. Their assertions that Episcopacy had no warrant from 
 Scripture would have been stultified by their accepting the 
 suggestion made by Traquair, and an opportunity would have 
 been given for reversing some day what had now been done, if 
 what they had pronounced unlawful had been declared to be 
 merely contrary to use and wont in Scotland. Their refusal 
 was no doubt calculated to embarrass Charles in his relations 
 with the Churches of England and Ireland, but this they 
 probably thought was more a matter of concern to him than to 
 them. Indeed, many of them anticipated that the downfall 
 of Episcopacy in Scotland was likely to be follow^ed by 
 similar ecclesiastical revolutions in other parts of the King's 
 dominions.^ 
 
 The Assembly proceeded to pass a strong vote of censure 
 upon a narrative of the disorders in Scotland, from the riot in 
 St Giles's Church down to the dissolution of the Glasc^ow 
 Assembly, which had been published by the King under the 
 title of The Large Declaration, but which was generally known 
 to be principally the work of Dr Balcanquhal, the Dean of 
 Durham.2 It was asserted " that it was so stuffed with re- 
 proaches, and calumneyes, and wrestings, and falshoods, that it 
 could contain no more." ^ The Commissioner besought the 
 Assembly to let the book jjass, or, at any rate, to use respectful 
 language concerning it since it had the King's name as author 
 upon the title-page; but he was told that as long as the 
 King was not really the author of it and it was false in 
 character it might and should receive the same treatment as 
 is given to false coin, even though it bears the royal image 
 
 ^ Gntliry, Memoirs, p. 62 ; Peterkin, Records, p. 235. 
 
 - "Dean Balcauqual, a man of great parts, of subtle wit, and so eloquent a 
 preacher, that he seldom preached in Scotland without drawing tears from the 
 auditors" (Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 87). 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 51. 
 
92 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 and superscription. After some unpleasant remarks about 
 hanging or cutting off the heads of such libellers it was agreed 
 to " supplicate " the King to call in all copies of The Large 
 Declaration and to condemn the lies published in it, a list of 
 which was to be forwarded to him, and to give orders for sending 
 the Dean of Durham to be tried in Scotland for the serious 
 offence of stirring up animosity between King and people. It 
 was thought by some that so much notice would not have been 
 taken of the book if it had not contained a scurrilous reference 
 to the Earl of Argyll. The latter had at the Glasgow Assembly 
 asserted that he had been for some time in sympathy with the 
 Covenanters, and had as a Privy Coimcillor acted in their 
 interest, but that a time came when he must either openly 
 join them " or be a knave." The King's (or Dr Balcanquhal's) 
 comment on this in The Large Declaration was, " what he [Argyll] 
 hath proved himselfe to bee by this close and false carriage, let 
 the World judge." ^ The deep animosity to him which the 
 King now cherished, and which was indicated by this open 
 sentence of scorn and indignation, was part of the price at which 
 Argyll had to purchase freedom to act in accordance with the 
 ])romptings of conscience and to support the cause of civil and 
 religious liberty. 
 
 In the Assembly at Edinburgh, Argyll took a fairly promi- 
 nent part, and, though on one occasion he spoke in strong terms 
 of the resolution with which he and his party would adhere 
 to what had been done in Glasgow,^ his speeches were distinctly 
 marked by a spirit of conciliation towards both the Eoyal 
 Commissioner and the King whom he represented. The 
 Assembly appointed committees to visit the Universities of 
 Aberdeen, St Andrews, and Glasgow, from which the Episcopal 
 leaven had not as yet been fully purged out, and the Earl of 
 Argyll was appointed one of those whose duty it was to attend 
 to the last named of these seats of learning. As one way of 
 showing thankfulness for the concessions made by the King- 
 to the popular demands an explanation was appended to the 
 Covenant asserting that this confederation was simply meant 
 for the preservation of religion and the maintenance of the 
 royal authority, and all subjects of the King in Scotland were 
 ordered to accept it and thus testify afresh to the fact that 
 those who had taken up arms to defend their rights and liberty 
 were unshaken in their loyalty to the Sovereign. The next 
 1 P. 325. - Peterkin, Eecordx, p. 259. 
 
DISLOCATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 93 
 
 meeting of Assembly was appointed to be beld at Aberdeen, 
 on 28th July, 1640. 
 
 The abolition of Episcopacy was not merely a measure of 
 religious importance ; it had also a political bearing, as became 
 immediately evident when the Scotch Parliament was assembled. 
 As already explained {supra, p. 35), legislation in Scotland was 
 A'irtually in the hands of the Lords of the Articles who prepared 
 the measures on which the Estates gave their votes Ay or No. 
 The King, by means of the Bishops, was able to secure a majority 
 of the Lords of the Articles and thus control the operations 
 of Parliament. His desire now was that fourteen members of 
 the clergy should take the place of the Bishops in Parliament 
 and furnish their quota of the committee above referred to, who 
 exercised so much power. This, however, was out of the question. 
 The Presbyterian clergy, who had complained of Bishops lording 
 it over their brethren, were not likely to consent to allow some 
 of their own number to do the same ; nor were the nobility, who 
 had been jealous of the power of the Bishops, inclined to arrange 
 for the establishment of another form of clerical domination. 
 Difference of opinion on the question as to what should be done 
 to remedy the dislocation of the constitution caused by the 
 abolition of the Bishops now drove a line of cleavage through 
 the Covenanting party. A temporary arrangement was patched 
 up by Traquair at the first meeting of Parliament. He himself 
 chose eight members of the higher nobility from the dominant 
 party in politics, and they in their turn chose eight of the lower 
 barons, and as many burgesses, to act with themselves as Lords 
 of the Articles ; but the question still remained as to who 
 should permanently fill the place of the Bishops. A section 
 of the Covenanters, of whom Montrose was the leader, desired 
 to give the King liberty to choose fourteen laymen to sit in 
 Parliament as the Bishops' successors ; while others, who found 
 a spokesman in Argyll, were anxious to put into the hands 
 of the middle-classes in Scotland the power which had been 
 wrested from the King. If the higher nobility, the gentry, and 
 the burgesses each elected their eight representatives to form 
 the committee which controlled legislation, power would be 
 transferred from the King to the Parliament. In that case 
 the King would become a constitutional ruler according to our 
 conception of that office, but, in his own opinion and in that 
 of most persons of that generation, he would be deprived of 
 all but the name of sovereignty. The nobles, too, would find 
 
94 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 themselves in a serious minority. Henceforth any ambitious 
 aristocrat would only find a way to power by assuming the role 
 of a popular leader.^ 
 
 This, some began to think, was the part Argyll was playing; 
 but perhaps they did him an injustice, for there is no evi- 
 dence to lead us to believe that he counterfeited a zeal for the 
 cause with which he had cast in his lot, or that he affected 
 a religious enthusiasm to which he was really a stranger. The 
 wave of patriotic and religious feeling which swept over the 
 country has left its mark upon the nation down to the present 
 time ; and in those of earnest mind who intelligently yielded to 
 its influence it must have produced a consecration of character 
 and an accession of moral strength such as in Holy Scripture 
 are described as attending a call to the prophetic office. No 
 one who overlooks this fact can form a true idea of the events 
 of that time, or do justice to many of those who were prominent 
 in them. The idea that the Covenanters were a comparatively 
 small section of the population of Scotland, and that they 
 were to a large extent ignorant rustics and artisans who were 
 the dupes of a few designing knaves and fanatical enthusiasts, 
 has no foundation in fact. The Covenanters included the great 
 majority of the Scotch people of all ranks and conditions — the 
 great majority of the peerage, of the gentry next in rank to it, 
 of the parochial clergy, and of the magistrates and burgesses 
 of burghs through the length and breadth of the land. Argyll 
 is sometimes spoken of as owing much of his influence to the 
 supposed fact of his having " the capacity to grasp clearly ideas 
 of which the numbers " who swarmed to the side of the Covenant 
 " were dimly conscious." - Among these numbers the qualities 
 of intelligence and moral earnestness were not wanting : they 
 knew what they desired and what they were determined to have ; 
 and they placed their confidence in Argyll as a leader because 
 they were convinced both of his sympathy with their cause, 
 and of his having the integrity and steadfastness which are 
 indispensable qualifications for leadership. And, if his career is 
 devoid of some of the generous and attractive elements whicli 
 adorn that of Montrose, the explanation is largely due to the 
 fact that the cause with which he is identified is in itself some- 
 what lacking in picturesqueness, for we suppose that even a 
 bad king suggests more romantic and poetical ideas than a 
 respectal^le presbytery. 
 ^ Gardiner, History of England, vol. ix, pp. 50-52. - Ibid., vol. viii. p. 372. 
 
THE <* ALTERCATING PARLIAMENT" 95 
 
 Almost no busiuess was done by the Scotch rarlianient 
 of 1639.^ The difficult question as to the readjustment of the 
 constitution to suit altered circumstances excited a consider- 
 able amount of discussion. A motion by the Earl of Argyll that 
 henceforth each Estate should choose its own representatives 
 to act as Lords of the Articles was passed by the latter by one 
 vote — a measure which gave the whole power of legislating into 
 the hands of the Estates of Nobles, Gentry, and Burgesses, and 
 took it from the King. For, according to this new constitution, 
 each of these bodies chose eight members to serve on the 
 committee which virtually carried out the whole work of 
 making laws for Scotland, and the King's power of modifying 
 the character of that committee by nominating a certain 
 number of members was quite taken away.^ An act of oblivion 
 for the past was proposed, but great difficulty was found in 
 stating it in terms which should give general satisfaction. The 
 Eoyal Commissioner was willing to introduce a Bill which 
 would pardon illegal and criminal actions on the part of 
 rebels ; but the Covenanters maintained that their actions 
 had been both legal and laudable, that on good grounds 
 they had taken up arms, and that if necessary they would 
 do the same again. Then, too, with regard to the ratifi- 
 cation of the Acts of Assembly, an insuperable obstacle, 
 in the King's opinion, stood in the way. He was willing 
 to consent to the abolition of Episcopacy as contrary to 
 the constitution of the Church of Scotland, but, as his Com- 
 missioner had declared, he would not agree to pronounce it 
 in itself unlawful. Nor would he by any means consent to 
 cancel the legislation with regard to Episcopacy which had 
 been accomphshed by the " corrupt " Assembhes from 1606 
 to 1618, and which had been confirmed by Parliament. He 
 wrote on 1st October in the plainest terms on this point to 
 Traquair : " We cannot," he said, " consent to the rescinding any 
 Acts of ParHament made in favour of Episcopacy ; nor do we 
 conceive that our refusal to abolish those Acts of Parliament 
 is contradictory to what we have consented to, or that we were 
 obhged to. There is less danger in discovering any future 
 intentions of ours, or, at the best, letting them guess at the 
 same, than if we should permit the rescinding of those Acts of 
 Parhament which our fathers with so much expense of time and 
 
 * Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 63. 
 ^Gardiner, History of Eivjland, vol. ix. p. G4. 
 
96 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 industry established, and which may hereafter he of so great use 
 to us." 1 
 
 This decision practically nullified the Articles of Pacification 
 agreed upon at Berwick and made a second revolt inevitable ; 
 for the tenacity with which the King held on to the laws 
 which established Episcopacy made it clear that he only waited 
 for some change of public feeling in Scotland to find an 
 opportunity of reintroducing the hated form of Church-govern- 
 ment. The labour of doing so would be greatly lessened if 
 the laws in favour of Episcopacy were allowed to remain on the 
 statute-book. This " Altercating Parliament," as it was after- 
 wards called, wrangled to the very end over the royal proposals, 
 and rose without passing any measures for relieving the disorders 
 of the time ; and, when it was prorogued to the 2nd of June, 
 1640, it entered a protest against this being done on the very 
 reasonable grounds that there was no precedent for a proroga- 
 tion of Parliament before the business had been transacted for 
 which it had been summoned, and that this unusual course had 
 been taken without its consent. 
 
 About this time the King sent down a letter to the Provost and 
 Bailies of Edinburgh, together with a proclamation, announcing 
 that he had decided to deprive the Earl of Argyll of his office of 
 Justiciary of Argyll and Tarbert, and to give orders that none 
 should obey him, appear at his court, or pay him taxes or duties, 
 until he had appeared personally before the Parliament of 
 England and answered certain charges which would be brought 
 against him. The reply which was sent to Charles I. breathes 
 the very spirit of patriotism and liberty. The magistrates 
 declared that in the then disturbed condition of the country it 
 would be dangerous to issue a proclamation of this kind against 
 such a prominent noble as the Earl of Argyll ; but that, apart 
 from this consideration, it was not agreeable to the laws of 
 Scotland to deprive such an one of liis estate or dignities without 
 the advice of the Privy Council and Parliament and a regular 
 trial, and that no one would be sure of his life or property or 
 honours if such a precedent were established. They further 
 reminded the King that a Scotch noble was imder no obliga- 
 tion to go for trial into England, but had the right of being 
 tried by his peers in his own country. At the same time 
 they admitted that the King had the power to suspend an 
 accused person from office until he had received a regular and 
 
 ^ Petoikin, Records, p. 236. The italics are our own. 
 
ROYAL PRESTIGE DIMINISHED 97 
 
 formal trial.^ The result was that the proclamation was not 
 published, and the only effect produced by the high-handed 
 attempt to deprive the Earl of Argyll of his legal rights and 
 privileges was that the royal prestige in Scotland suffered 
 still further diminution and the cause of the Covenanting party 
 was advanced and strengthened. 
 
 1 Spalding, Mcmorialls, vol. i, p. 264. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Eenewal of the Rebellion in Scotland — " The Short Parliament" dissolved — 
 The Committee of Estates exercise Supreme Power in Scotland — Argyll 
 receives a Commission of Fire and Sword against Royalist Clans — A 
 Proj)osal to appoint him Dictator — " The Bond of Cumbernauld." 
 
 BOTH the King and the Covenanting leaders came to see 
 that the Pacification of Berwick was not likely to result 
 in any permanent settlement of difficulties, and that the sword 
 alone could decide the dispute between them. The Scotch 
 leaders despatched four commissioners to London to plead their 
 cause and to look after their interests ; but probably the only 
 practical results they expected from this measure were the 
 obtaining of information as to the plans likely to be adopted 
 by the King, and the opening of negotiations with those who 
 would be members of the opposition in the forthcoming English 
 Parliament. For Charles had now decided to call a Parliament 
 either to obtain funds for a war with Scotland, or, if this were 
 refused, to give the country an object-lesson on the futility of 
 Parliamentary government, and to justify the use of extraordinary 
 means of raising the money needed for averting the overthrow 
 of his authority in the northern kingdom. 
 
 The Short Parliament, as it was called, showed very little 
 interest in the suppression of rebellion in Scotland, but a very 
 great interest in the grievances and wrongs which arbitrary 
 government had created in England. It might indeed be the 
 case that the country was in danger of invasion from Scotland 
 by a Covenanting army, but in the meantime there had been actual 
 invasion of the liberties of the subject in England ; and the latter 
 was a matter of much greater importance than the former.^ It was 
 in vain that Charles laid before the Parliament evidence that the 
 Covenanting leaders had appealed for aid to the King of Prance, 
 and had thus, in his opinion, been guilty of treasonable practices. 
 Such overtures had been made, though the evidence the King 
 produced was too slight to prove actual treason ; but the House 
 
 ^ Gardiner, History of England^ vol. ix. p. 99. 
 
CIVIL WAR RENEWED 99 
 
 of Commons passed over the matter with the most contemptuous 
 indifference. 
 
 Affairs were brought to a crisis at the beginning of May, a 
 little more than a fortnight after Parliament had met. News 
 came that civil war had again broken out in Scotland. The 
 Castle at Edinburgh was being besieged, and the governor had 
 fired upon the city, killing several persons and damaging some of 
 the houses. A distinct and emphatic request was therefore made 
 by the King for a grant of money to put down the rebellion in 
 Scotland, and it was plainly indicated that a refusal would be 
 followed by the dissolution of Parliament. But the House of 
 Commons, though by no means inclined to refuse a grant, was 
 evidently determined to put an end to all modes of arbitrary 
 taxation, and they gave this matter precedence of all others. 
 If Charles had freely given up not only ship-money but also the 
 mihtary taxes which he had levied on his own authority, it is 
 probable that subsidies for a war with Scotland would have been 
 granted, though on a lower scale than he demanded. Had he 
 made terms with the Commons and accepted a grant, however 
 small, he would have embroiled the two nations in war ; and once 
 that England had undertaken to restore the royal authority in 
 Scotland there would have been reasonable hope of success. 
 But the distinct assertion by Sir Henry Vane, the Secretary of 
 State, that less than the amount demanded would not be accepted, 
 unaccompanied as it was by a promise of abandoning arbitrary 
 taxation, cooled whatever lukewarm zeal for war which may have 
 existed in any section of the House of Commons. If Parliament 
 had not been hastily dissolved on the 5 th of May, there is not 
 the least doubt that a strong petition from both Houses would 
 have been sent up to the King asking him to come to terms 
 with the Scotch.^ 
 
 After the dissolution of Parliament desperate efforts were 
 put forth by the King and Strafford to raise money for the war 
 with Scotland. Strong pressure was put upon the Mayor and 
 Aldermen of London to induce them to get money by way of loan 
 from wealthy citizens ; Strafford appealed to the Spanish 
 Ambassador to ask the King of Spain for what was needed as 
 the price of an alliance against Holland, while the Queen 
 addressed a similar request to the Pope. But from none of these 
 quarters did the help that was needed come.^ 
 
 ^ lUd., vol. ix. pp. 112-116. 
 " Jbid., vol. ix. p. 175. 
 
100 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 In the meantime the Scotch Parliament, which had been pro- 
 rogued to the 2nd of June, 1640, met in spite of a royal pro- 
 clamation postponing its meeting for a month. For some time 
 past it had been almost impossible to secure the adequate 
 publication of any royal proclamation which ran contrary to 
 public feeling ; and so, although all knew that the King had 
 issued sucli a notice, no official intimation of it was brought 
 before the Parliament. Consequently all through their proceed- 
 ings the usual phrases about "having been indicted by His 
 Majesty " and " convened by His Majesty's special authority " are 
 gravely used, though they are in ludicrous contrast with the facts 
 of the case. 
 
 Yet, though terms of respect were still employed with regard 
 to the Sovereign, very serious discussions had been held by the 
 Covenanting leaders before the meeting of Parliament as to 
 what steps might or should be taken in the circumstances in 
 which they found themselves. The question was broached as to 
 the limits which existed to the loyalty of subjects to their 
 Sovereign ; and cases were suggested in which he might justly 
 forfeit it and be deposed, A King who sold his country to an 
 enemy, or deserted his throne, or invaded his territories with a 
 hostile force, would in the opinion of the majority merit deposi- 
 tion. Naturally enough, all had not the hardihood to come to so 
 definite a decision as this on a matter of such great consequence, 
 or even to withhold from the Sovereign the full measure of 
 obedience, without some twinges of conscience. Some, among 
 whom was Montrose, evidently thought that, as long as there was 
 a King, no Parhament could be held without his sanction ; while 
 Argyll and others maintained that the mere ignoring of his 
 authority in this matter was of shght importance, in view of the 
 fact that he had exposed himself to the risk of deposition. This, 
 at any rate, would seem to be the interpretation of a somewhat 
 dark phrase ascribed to Argyll that " to do the less was more 
 lawful than to do the greater." ^ At the same time, in order that 
 we may not exaggerate the supposed treasonable sentiments 
 uttered by Argyll, we need to remember that precedents could 
 be quoted for the meeting of the Estates independently of the 
 Sovereign, and that there was even a doubt as to whether or not 
 the royal consent were necessary for the validity of Acts passed 
 by the Estates.^ 
 
 ^ Napier, Life of Montrose, p. 128. 
 
 * Burton, History of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 284. 
 
COMMITTEE OF ESTATES 101 
 
 In the absence of a Koyal CommisBioner\ one. of uhti Peers, 
 Lord Burleigh, was appointed to preside. " Tarliahient' "now 
 formally ratified all the Acts of the Assembly of 1639 which 
 abolished Episcopacy and established Presbyterianism, and which 
 had been accepted by the Ptoyal Commissioner. The Covenant, 
 after being accepted by each member present, was passed 
 as an Act obligatory upon all citizens ; while the Estates of 
 the realm, which had formerly consisted of Bishops, Barons, 
 and Burgesses, were now declared to consist of Nobles, Barons, 
 and Burgesses.^ The severe sentence pronounced on The Large 
 Declaration, which had been published by the King's orders and 
 which bore his name as author upon the title-page, was endorsed 
 by the ParHament, and it was declared " to be dishonourable to 
 God and His true religion, to this Kirk and kingdom, to the 
 King's Majesty, and to the Marquess of Hamilton — then His 
 Majesty's Commissioner — and to divers other persons tiierein, 
 and to be full of lies." ^ A very important measure was adopted 
 by this Parliament, appointing a " Committee of Estates " con- 
 sisting of representatives of all three to act as an executive 
 Government when Parliament was not sitting, and on it was con- 
 ferred an authority as ample as had ever been enjoyed by King, 
 Parliament, and Privy Council. The name of Argyll is not to 
 be found among those nominated to serve on this Committee, for 
 it was in accordance with his policy and temperament to take 
 greater pleasure in exercising power than in having the show of 
 it ; so that his abstention from open possession of office is not to 
 be explained so much by his abounding in the virtues of modesty 
 and self-denial, as by a weakness for wire-pulling in secret 
 wliich seems inseparable from some types of Scotch character. 
 No one was deceived by his attitude. " All saw he was major 
 potesfas," says a contemporary, " and though not formally a 
 member, yet all knew that it was his influence that gave being, 
 lyfe, and motione to thes new modelld governours ; and not a few 
 thought that this juncto was his inventione." ^ 
 
 The newly appointed Committee of Estates began to act with 
 great vigour and promptness. The army which had encamped 
 on Duns Law had been disbanded ; but care had been taken to 
 instruct the soldiers to hold themselves in readiness to obey a 
 call to reassemble, and the services of the officers had been 
 
 ^ Ihid., History of Scotland, vol. vi. pp. 284, 285. 
 - Ads of Parliament of Scotland, vol. v. p. 264. 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 182. 
 
■im THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 :?pp(VialIy retained with a view to further employment in the near 
 future. "Orders were how given to LesUe to gather together his 
 forces again upon the Enghsh Border ; and, before a month was 
 over, an army of twenty-four thousand infantry and two thousand 
 five hundred cavahy, with provisions for forty days and a 
 sufficient quantity of ammunition, was encamped at Choicelee 
 Wood, four miles south of Duns.^ 
 
 In the meantime the hand of the Covenanters was laid 
 heavily upon their Eoyalist opponents in the north and centre 
 of Scotland with a view to prevent any attempts at a rising, 
 while the bulk of their army was engaged in menacing the 
 English Border or invading English soil. The inhabitants of 
 Aberdeen and the neighbourhood round about it were visited by 
 General Monro, who reproduced in Scotland some of the scenes 
 of violence to which he had been familiarized by his experiences 
 in Germany. In his hands the Covenant became an instrument 
 of tyranny, for military force was used to secure subscrijition to 
 it. Those who could not be " compelled to sign it voluntarily " 
 were treated with considerable severity and suffered both in 
 person and in property.^ 
 
 At the same time a commission of fire and sword against 
 several of the Highland clans in the districts of Athol and 
 Angus who had risen against the Covenant was conferred on 
 Argyll, who set out from Inveraray on the 18th of June with an 
 army of four thousand Highlanders.^ The commission was one 
 which Argyll doubtless had special pleasure in undertaking, as it 
 meant not only suppressing the enemies of the Covenant but 
 also extending the influence of his House over outlying hostile 
 clans. In a case of this kind, where religious and political 
 sympathies coincide with or promote a man's private interests, 
 his zeal is apt to be ascribed to unworthy motives ; and doubtless 
 many thought that Argyll on this occasion acted rather the part 
 of the ambitious chieftain than that of the patriot or the religious 
 zealot. But fortunately we are not called to decide upon the 
 motives which influenced him ; and all, therefore, that we need 
 say about them is that it would probably be indiscreet to affirm 
 that they were altogether disinterested. 
 
 The state of matters in the Highlands at this time was, 
 to compare small things with great, something like that which 
 
 ' Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 257. 
 
 ^ Spalding, Memorialls, vol. i. pp. 272-307 ; Balfour, Annals, vol. ii. p. 381. 
 
 '^ Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. v. p. 398. 
 
COMMISSION OF FIRE AND SWORD 103 
 
 has prevailed for some generations in that part of Asia which 
 lies between Hindostan and Knssia and is inhabited by people of 
 lawless and turbulent character, who are often at war among 
 themselves, and are drawn from time to time into connexion 
 now with the one and now with the other of the two powerful 
 Empires which are situated on either side of them. And so, in 
 the district between the actual possessions of the House of Huntly 
 and those of Argyll and of their respective kinsmen and allies, 
 there were wild Highland tribes over whom now the one and 
 now the other of these great potentates sought to establish some 
 measm-e of control. In addition to this cause of unrest there 
 was the hostility of tribe against tribe which made society there a 
 somewliat perfect example of anarchy. " There was," says Dr John 
 Hill Burton, " through and through the whole mountain district 
 such a ramification of hereditary quarrels and old wrongs standing 
 over for vengeance, that the most diligent of the local and 
 genealogical historians become confused in the attempts to trace 
 them. Sometimes the feud lay between a clan in Argyll's interest 
 and another in Huntly's, and indeed was the cause of their thus 
 drawing off into opposite camps. But sometimes the two ene- 
 mies belonged to the same organization, which their bickerings 
 continually disturbed. It has to be added that all were in- 
 veterate thieves and, when temptation fell in their way, did not 
 always distinguish with proper nicety their allies from their 
 enemies." ^ 
 
 This being the condition of affairs we can easily understand 
 why the Committee of Estates gave " a commission of fire and 
 sword " to Argyll. Less forcible means of repression w^ould 
 scarcely have been worth employment. And so, after declaring 
 that " the Earl of Athole and the Lord Ogilvie, with their accom- 
 plices the Farquharsons on the Braes of Mar, and the inhabitants 
 of Badenoch, Lochaber, and Eannoch, had not only proven enemies 
 to religion, but also had proven unnatural to their country," the 
 warrant authorizes Argyll to " pursue them, and every one of 
 them, in all hostile manner by fire and sword, ay and until he 
 should either bring them to their bounden duty, and give 
 assurance of the same by pledges or otherwise, or else to the 
 utter subduing and rooting them out of the country." ^ 
 
 It was doubtless with considerable trepidation that the 
 inhabitants of the district of Angus, which corresponds to part 
 
 ^ Histcyry of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 243. 
 
 " Acts of I'arliament of Scotland, vol. v. p. 398. 
 
104 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 of modern Forfarshire, heard of the approach of the Highland 
 host, four thousand in number, and with cannon in their train.^ 
 Those who inhabited territory which was half -Lowland, and which 
 had for some time past enjoyed a fair measure of security and 
 peace, must have looked forward to the coming of these ruthless 
 soldiers, with their savage modes of warfare, with very much the 
 same feelings as those with which the inhabitants of a Bulgarian 
 village would anticipate a visit from a horde of Bashi-bazouks, or 
 as would formerly have been excited in the minds of peaceable 
 colonists in the backwoods of Canada by the news that the Indians 
 in their neighbourhood were on the warpath. 
 
 The Earl of Athol, who had but twelve hundred men to 
 meet Argyll's four thousand, hastened to make overtures of peace, 
 and promised not only to abstain, and to compel his followers to 
 abstain, from any further acts of warfare, but also to aid ■' the 
 good cause " to the uttermost of his power, and as a pledge of 
 sincerity sent eight gentlemen of rank from " the countrie of 
 Steuartes and Eobertsones " as hostages. According to the 
 historian Spalding, who is unfriendly to Argyll, the Earl himself 
 was entrapped by a clever device. His story is that Argyll 
 received the hostages kindly and retained them in his camp but 
 sent word to the Earl of Athol that in no case would he 
 conclude terms of peace without a personal interview ; and that 
 the Earl, having received a safe-conduct, was on his way to the 
 place of meeting, at the east end of Loch Tay in Perthshire, 
 when he fell into an ambush of Argyll's men, who seized him 
 and brought him in as a prisoner of war,^ The upshot of the 
 matter was that the Earl of Athol and his hostages were all 
 sent as prisoners to Edinburgh ; but after brief detention they 
 regained their liberty on giving securities for good behaviour in 
 time to come. The evidence is too slight to convict Argyll 
 of actual breach of faith in this matter. But the mere fact, 
 which can scarcely be doubted, that the professed willingness to 
 submit was largely feigned surely diminishes the guilt of a formal 
 breach of safe-conduct, if such there were, though nothing could 
 justify it. And, if we take matters at their worst, we still owe 
 it to Argyll to say that the standard of honour among public 
 men of that time was unhappily not high enough to prevent the 
 occurrence of such acts of treachery ; for in the previous year 
 Montrose in spite of his plighted word had made the Marquess of 
 Huntly a prisoner, and, on the part both of the Covenanting 
 
 1 Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 247. ^ Jilcmorialls, vol. i. p. 271. 
 
AIRLIE CASTLE 105 
 
 leaders and of the Scotch people, open expression was given to 
 the suspicion that Charles I. was capable of acting in the 
 same way. 
 
 Argyll now made his way into Angus in order to assail the 
 enemies of the Covenant there, and the episode of the burning of 
 " the bonnie House of Airlie " ^ is one of the most notable incidents 
 in this raid. The Earl of Airlie had gone into England to avoid 
 being compelled to sign the Covenant, and had left his house in 
 charge of his eldest son, Lord Ogilvie. Montrose had, it would 
 seem, already made a fruitless attempt to take Airlie Castle ; 
 but before the arrival of Argyll with his Highlanders, or 
 " Eedshanks " as they were popularly called, it was given up to 
 him and garrisoned l)y some of his soldiers, under the command 
 of a Colonel Sibbald.^ The signature of Montrose had been 
 affixed to the commission of fire and sword bestowed upon 
 Argyll ; ^ but the suspicion seems to have become rife that the 
 two were not in sympathy and that Montrose was beginning to 
 incline towards the EoyaUst side. He visited Perthshire and 
 Angus to raise a couple of regiments for the Covenanting army, 
 and before marching south to join Leslie the castle was 
 surrendered to him by Lord Ogilvie, in order to save it from the 
 fate of being captured by wild Highlanders. In spite, however, 
 of a letter from Montrose that Airlie Castle was now occupied 
 by the forces of the Estates, and that nothing further need be 
 done, Ai'gyll continued to advance, and on his arrival he dis- 
 placed the soldiers who were in possession and occupied the 
 castle himself. It was not without exercising a certain amount 
 of pressm-e that Argyll succeeded in persuading Colonel Sibbald 
 to deliver up Airlie Castle to him. In the libel against 
 Montrose in 1641 it was stated as a matter of complaint against 
 him that the Colonel, acting under his orders, had " in ane 
 contemptable [contemptuous] arrogant way refuissit to delyver 
 the said hous to the said Erie of Argyle."^ The Highland 
 soldiers on entering it found, much to their mortification, that 
 Montrose had permitted Lord Ogilvie to remove most of the 
 articles of value which it contained. They revenged themselves, 
 however, by spending some days in plundering the tenants and 
 
 ^ The Castle of Airlie was probably erected about 1432, in -which year Sir "Walter 
 Ogilvie of Luntrathen received a licence from James I. to erect his tower of " Eroly " 
 in the form of a castle (Spalding, Mcmorialls, vol. i. p. 291 n.). 
 
 'Ibid., vol. i. pp. 216, 217; Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 164; Napier, 
 Memorials of Mcmfrosc, vol. 1. pp. 264 et seq., 328. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol, 1. p. 328. * Ibid., vol. i. p. 330. 
 
106 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 lands belonging to the Earl of Airlie, and so completely did they 
 carry out the work that we are told they did not leave behind 
 them a cock to act as herald of the day to the impoverished 
 inhabitants.^ Before the Covenanting troops left the district the 
 castle was burned down. 
 
 Wild rumours arose with regard to Argyll's zeal in destroy- 
 ing the Castle of Airlie, and it was reported that he himself 
 openly engaged in the work of destruction. The historian 
 Gordon says : " At the demolishing thereof [Argyll] is saide to 
 have showed himself so extremely earnest, that he was seen 
 taking a hammer in his hande and knocking down the hewed 
 worke of the doors and windows, till he did sweate for heate at 
 his work." ^ Had this story been reported by a sufficient number 
 of trustworthy witnesses, one would have had no option but to 
 accept it in spite of its being ludicrously incongruous with all 
 that we know of Argyll, who certainly was not lacking in reserve 
 and self-restraint, and was not in the habit of doing work 
 which he could employ others to do for him. A mere rumour, 
 however, of this fantastic type may safely be dismissed, with 
 perhaps a shade of regret that an incident so picturesque should 
 not be sufficiently authenticated to be allowed to stand. 
 
 Forthar Castle, a seat of Lord Ogilvie, the Earl of Airlie's 
 eldest son, situated in Glenisla at no great distance from Airlie 
 Castle, underwent the same fate. In a letter still extant in- 
 structions are given by Argyll for the perpetration of this last 
 exploit. They are addressed to Dugald Campbell, " fiar of 
 Inveraray," one of the members of his clan. After some directions 
 with regard to sending cattle, sheep, and horses, which had 
 formerly belonged to Lord Ogilvie, " the nearest way home," i.e. 
 into Argyllshire, he says : " And albeit ye shoulde be the langer 
 in followeing me, yeit ye shall not faill to stay and demolishe my 
 Lord Ogilbie's hous of Forthar. Sie how ye can cast off the u'one 
 yeattes and windowes; and tak doon the rooff: and iff ye find 
 it will be langsome, ye shall fyre it weiU, that so it may be 
 destroyed." With characteristic caution he adds : " Bot you neid 
 not to latt know that ye have directions from me to fyer it : 
 onlie ye may say that ye have warrand to demoleishe it, and that 
 to mak the work short ye will fyr it." ^ A more serious charge of 
 
 ^ Patrick Dmmmond to Sir John Hay, Siate PcqKrs, Dom., 1640-41, p. 53. 
 - Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 165. 
 
 ^ ITist. MSS. Cow,., vol. vi. p. 616. This letter is sometimes quoted as referring 
 to the burning of Airlie Castle, but erroneously {Notes and Queries, 5th series, 
 
ALLEGED ACTS OF INHUMANITY 107 
 
 violence and inhumanity is alleged by the same historian against 
 Argyll in connexion with the destruction of tins second strong- 
 liold. The story is that Lady Ogilvie, who was near her confine- 
 ment, was turned out of Forthar Castle, although she entreated 
 to be allowed to remain as she did not know where to find a 
 shelter outside its walls ; and that Argyll refused her permission 
 to go to the house of Kelly where her grandmother lived, and 
 was only restrained by public opinion from resenting the action 
 of the elder lady, who took her kinswoman under her protection 
 and defied all consequences that might follow.^ Fortunately for 
 the reputation of Argyll, this story also is of but dubious authen- 
 ticity ; for, in a letter written a few months later, he is said to 
 have accused Montrose of having permitted the lady in question 
 to escape before his arrival. Such an accusation might, of course, 
 be fairly taken as evidence of a certain lack of generosity and 
 chivalry on Argyll's part, but, at any rate, the fact of its having 
 been made disposes of the allegation that he was guilty of actual 
 inhumanity to Lady Ogilvie.^ 
 
 It is also asserted that some old quarrels between Argyll 
 and a cousin of the Earl of Airlie, Sir John Ogilvie, explained 
 the destruction of his house by the Highland soldiers. The 
 circumstances connected with this act of war, if the narrative 
 containing them can be relied upon, certainly exhibit Argyll in 
 an unfavourable light. It is said that the sergeant who received 
 orders to destroy the house of Sir John Ogilvie returned with 
 the report that it was not a stronghold but an ordinary dwelling- 
 house, occupied at the time by a sick lady and some servants, 
 and that accordingly he thought that he was justified in hesitat- 
 ing to carry out the instructions given him. According to the 
 historian who relates the incident, Argyll angrily despatched the 
 sergeant to plunder and destroy the house and was overheard 
 muttering what was supposed to be a Machiavellian political 
 maxim, abscindantur qui nos perturbant (let those be cut off who 
 trouble us) — words which, the historian says, were often upon his 
 lips, together with a proverb closely allied with them, quod mortui 
 non mordent (because dead men do not bite). Although in this 
 
 vol. ix. p. 364). Argyll must have forgotten this letter, when he said at his trial 
 that he "knew nothing of it at all, until some days after it was done " {Stale Trials, 
 vol. V. p. 1395). It is quite possible, however, that Airlie Castle was burned without 
 orders from hira, and that the fragmentary accounts of the trial contain a confused 
 report of his statements. What he said of Airlie Castle may be reported of Forthar. 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 165. 
 
 - State Papers, Bom., 12th September, 1640. 
 
108 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 case we are not sufficiently acquainted with tlie circumstances to 
 condemn or acquit Argyll on the charge of undue severity in 
 warfare, yet we may be allowed to remark that it was very 
 strange that the follower should have been more merciful than 
 the chief, and that the latter should have acted a part so like 
 that of the wicked nobleman of melodrama.^ 
 
 If any of our readers are inclined to judge, from the number 
 of unpleasant stories which cluster round the action of Argyll on 
 this raid, that the campaign must have been one of somewhat 
 exceptional brutality as wars go, we may at once admit that this 
 is very probable. Civil war, which is always more ruthless 
 than any other, was now waging on the Braes of Angus, and the 
 invaders were, as we have said, savages in instincts and habits. 
 " Employing the Celtic races in civihzed warfare," says Dr John 
 Hill Burton, " was employing a force not expected to concede the 
 courtesies of war to the enemy against whom they were let loose. 
 Their hostility was not that of pugnacious enemies met in battle 
 — it was the hatred of one race to another ; and the object was 
 not victory but extirpation. To them the infant and the aged 
 mother were objects of hate and hostility as much as the armed 
 soldier. Hence it was a reproach to any civilized ruler to have 
 used such a force — a reproach like that of employing Indians 
 in the American War, the object of one of Chatham's famous 
 phiHppics. In the present struggle both sides came under this 
 reproach." ^ 
 
 The next step taken by Argyll was to carry out the in- 
 structions of the Estates to punish " the Highland limmers, 
 broken out of Lochaber, Clangregor, out of Athole, Braes of 
 Mar, and divers other places," who had been very busy of late 
 in harrying the lands of friends of the Covenant. His conduct 
 in repressing these mischievous hordes, whose daily occupation 
 seems to have been breaking most of the Ten Commandments and 
 playing the part of hornets ^ at the expense of their neighbours, 
 would have entitled Argyll to the general gratitude of the nation, 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 166. It is odd that Gordon, who was a clergy- 
 man, did not recognize the words abscindantur qui nos perturhant as a quotation or 
 adaptation of a passage in St Paxil's Epistle to the Galatians, "I would they were 
 even cut off which trouble you," chap. v. 12 {utinam ct abscindantur qui vos 
 conturhant — Vulgate). 
 
 - History of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 343. 
 
 ^ A similar comparison is found in one of the Argyll Papers (Hist. MSS. Com., 
 vol, iv. p. xx), in which the wild clans are called "an infamous byke of lawless 
 limmei's" {i.e. a wasp's nest of lawless vagabonds). 
 
ENTANGLED POLITICS 109 
 
 had not he himself been a Highland chief and proprietor, with 
 interests of his own to safeguard and promote and with claims 
 upon some of the lands into which he now led his army. This 
 fact rendered it easy for his enemies to assert that he had used 
 the resources of the State for his own private benefit, and made it 
 difficult for his friends or for the impartial biographer to refute 
 the charge. In the previous year he had become a " cautioner " 
 to some of Huntly's creditors for the repayment of debt, his rival 
 chieftain in the north being his brother-in-law, and the lands of 
 Lochaber and Badenoch had been pledged to him as security.^ 
 Some of the inhabitants of Lochaber — members of the clan 
 Cameron — who were for the most part vassals of Huntly, were 
 disaffected to their chief on account of the severity with which 
 he had punished their rebelliousness and turbulence, and were 
 just in the mood to transfer their allegiance to a new superior. 
 They hated Huntly, and though before this they had had no love 
 for Argyll by politic management something might be done to 
 create it. Accordingly Argyll was credited with worming him- 
 self into their good graces, and with being conveniently blind 
 to the fact that their zeal for the Covenant was but lukewarm 
 and that some of those who were received as allies were, if the 
 historian is to be trusted, " profligate murderers." Others in 
 Lochaber, who might as zealous Covenanters have expected to 
 be greeted with affection and sympathy, were said to have for- 
 feited all claim to such treatment and have exposed themselves 
 to rough handling, because they were MacDonalds and partisans 
 of Huntly.^ The house of Keppoch, occupied by the principal 
 representative of this branch of a clan hostile to the Campbells, 
 was burned to the ground, and the rumour was that if this had 
 not been done by Argyll's orders he had at any rate connived 
 at it. What amount of truth there was in these charges or 
 surmises it is impossible to tell; for, in addition to other cir- 
 cumstances which make it difficult to unravel the matter, we 
 are dependent for information as to his procedure upon two 
 annalists both of whom were unfriendly to him and the cause 
 which he represented.^ 
 
 A certain semblance of order was secured by Argyll's pro- 
 gress through the centre of Scotland. Some of those who had 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 163. 
 
 - They were known as the Clanranald of Lochaber, or Macranalds of Keppoch, in 
 addition to their desiu;nations as MacDonalds, and Sliochd Allaster Vic Angus. 
 ^Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. pp. 163, 164. 
 
110 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 broken the peace, or were likely to break it, were despatched as 
 prisoners to Edinburgh, while others were allowed to remain at 
 home on condition of subscribing the Covenant and paying a 
 substantial war-tax. After stationing a force of two hundred men 
 to keep Lochaber, who very shortly after were driven out of it, 
 Argyll disbanded a large part of his ti'oops and made his way 
 down Deeside with about twelve hundred men. Though very 
 little had been done to put down " the broken men " who preyed 
 upon the more peaceable section of society, the Eoyalist cause 
 had suffered severely in this brief campaign, and that of the 
 Covenant had been proportionately advanced. 
 
 Probably many of those who were enrolled under Argyll's 
 banner had but a faint idea of what the Covenant exactly was ; 
 but those who returned to their native glens enriched with 
 plunder from the Lowlands must have come to the conclusion 
 that the cause which the MacCailein Mor had embraced, if 
 not identical with godliness, was so far akin to it as to 
 " have promise of the life that now is." It was unfortunate 
 that the cause of religion should have been mixed up with 
 arson and plundering, and personal ambition and political in- 
 trigue ; yet this was inevitable from the moment that those 
 who were ecclesiastical leaders in Scotland committed themselves 
 and their followers to the policy of resisting wrong-doing with 
 those " carnal weapons " which St Paul was so careful to explain 
 were not Christian weapons, and which One greater than St 
 Paul said were fatal to those who drew them. In ancient 
 times Christianity had prevailed over the hostile forces of 
 Paganism and had won complete liberty without striking a blow ; 
 and, a generation later than the time of our history, a section 
 of Christian society in England — the people commonly called 
 Quakers — disarmed persecution with equal success and by a 
 like policy of non-resistance. But, even if the result of trusting 
 simply to spiritual weapons in a conflict with material force 
 had been much more doubtful than it was, the duty still rested 
 upon the Church of obeying the teaching of her Lord and His 
 apostles, upon which her very existence was based. 
 
 So far as Argyll himself was concerned, he exposed himself 
 to the danger of retaliation if ever his enemies became strong 
 enough and had opportunity to carry fire and sword through his 
 territories — a fate that afterwards fell upon him with disastrous 
 and overwhelming completeness. In the meantime, as some 
 safeguard against legal proceedings that might be taken against 
 
ACT OF INDEMNITY 111 
 
 him if by some turn of Tortune's wheel his opponents were to 
 come into power, he got the ParHament to pass an Act of In- 
 demnity for all the proceedings in the late campaign. The Act 
 in question is elaborate, and no doubt it has in view charges 
 that might possibly be made on insuflicient ground, as well 
 as deeds that were open and notorious ; but enough is said 
 to make it clear that a good deal of a questionable nature 
 had taken place in the late raid. Thus protection is granted 
 " for attacking towers, fortalices, or other houses, or demolishing 
 of the same to the ground, or burning of the same, or putting of 
 fire there-intil, or otherwise sacking and destroying of the same 
 howsoever, or for putting of whatsoever person or persons to 
 torture or question, or putting of any person or persons to deatli, 
 at any time from the said eighteenth day of June and [until] the 
 said second day of August thereafter ; and declares these presents 
 to be ane sufficient warrant to all and whatsoever judges, civil or 
 criminal, for exonering and assoyling [acquitting] the said Earl 
 of Argyle and all and whatsomever his colonels, captains, com- 
 manders, and whole body of the army, and to their servants, men, 
 boys, and followers in the said army during the space foresaid." ^ 
 It would be difficult to distinguish between the kind of 
 enterprise in which Argyll had been engaged and actual rebellion 
 against the royal authority, since the Estates from whom he 
 received his commission had usurped the rule in Scotland. One 
 is not surprised, therefore, to know that treasonable language 
 was used, if not by Argyll himself, at any rate by his followers. 
 It was said that he had in conversation with the Earl of Athol 
 remarked upon the fact that he was eighth in descent from 
 Eobert the Bruce. The ominous hint was, we are told, taken 
 up and repeated by his soldiers in a very emphatic form in the 
 declaration that they were not now " King Stewart's but King 
 Campbell's men." A highly curious fragment of a Gaelic song 
 has been preserved in certain depositions concerning Argyll's 
 procedure on this campaign, which sets forth the same idea 
 with but little disguise or adornment of poetical phrase. The 
 translation runs as follows : — " I gave Argyle the praise, becaus 
 all men sies it is treuth ; for he will tak geir from the lawland 
 men ; and he will tak the Croun per force ; and he will cry 
 [be proclaimed ?] King at Whitsonday." ^ Even Argyll's worst 
 enemies do not deny that he possessed the virtue or quality of 
 
 ^ Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. v. p. 399. 
 ^ Napier, Memorials of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 477. 
 
112 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 astuteness ; so that it is very improbable that he gave open 
 expression to the idea of seizing upon the Crown of Scotland, 
 though his followers, in the exuberance of their devotion to him 
 and in the joy occasioned by their successful raid, may have 
 indulged in language of crude and unblushing treason. 
 
 A striking proof of the extraordinary influence exercised by 
 Argyll in Scotland at this time is given by the fact that the 
 suggestion was made that, in the existing state of affairs, a 
 military dictatorship should be set up, and that the office should 
 be conferred upon him. Though care seems to have been taken 
 in broaching this scheme to avoid mentioning names, and to 
 specify only that the person thus appointed should be " one of 
 themselves," no one had any doubt that the reference was to 
 him.^ The need of a strong executive Government in this crisis 
 of the national life was keenly felt ; and one can easily believe 
 that in the opinion of a considerable number of intelligent 
 men it was a mistake to entrust to the hands of a large 
 committee liable to be divided by faction and intrigue the power 
 which had been wrested from the King. The wisdom of the 
 Eoman custom of appointing a dictator with absolute power for 
 a time, in circumstances of special danger, commended itself to 
 those of this way of thinking. The farce of affecting to cherish 
 feelings of loyalty and devotion to the Sovereign who was 
 threatening a warlike invasion, and whose troops the Covenanting 
 leaders were preparing to repel by force of arms, was difficult 
 to maintain ; and accordingly it seemed to some that the wisest 
 policy would be to abandon the pretence of loyalty to a ruler 
 who had done so much to forfeit the allegiance of his subjects, 
 and openly to substitute for his authority that of a dictator. 
 Various suggestions were made as to how the scheme might be 
 carried out : according to one, all Scotland north of the Forth 
 might be put under the rule of such an official, while the care 
 of the counties south of that river might be entrusted to two 
 nobles of the greatest territorial influence there ; and, according 
 to another, the whole country might be thus governed for a time 
 by one military ruler.^ 
 
 The daring character of these suggestions, and the undis- 
 guised resolution which they indicated to repudiate utterly the 
 royal authority, alarmed many who were sincerely devoted to 
 the Covenanting cause and had not given up hope that Charles 
 
 1 Ibid., vol. i. p. 184. 
 
 ^ Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. i. j). 263. 
 
PROPOSED DICTATORSHIP 113 
 
 would ultimately accept their religious and political creed, and 
 govern in accordance with it. Nor can it be doubted that 
 in some minds feelings of jealousy of Argyll were strongly 
 excited by the proposal to confer upon him such extraordinary 
 powers. The aristocratic scorn for the populace which both the 
 great parties in the State cherished and expressed, and which 
 lasted on in Britain for at least another century, whetted the 
 indignation which sprang up in the minds of many at the thought 
 of one of the nobility being elevated in this way above his com- 
 peers and owing his exaltation to an alliance with the democracy 
 against the throne. 
 
 The principal opponent of the scheme of a dictatorship was 
 the Earl of Montrose, who, though still set upon securing the 
 religious and civil liberty claimed in the Covenant, recoiled from 
 what seemed no less than the destruction of the Monarchy, He 
 was now high in command in the Scotch army that lay encamped 
 within a short distance of the English Border. The scheme of con- 
 ferring the office above described upon Argyll was brought before 
 him there in a very definite form, for a bond, according to the old 
 Scotch custom, was laid before him for signature, which pledged 
 him and all others who might subscribe it to support the arrange- 
 ment by which all Scotland north of the Forth should be laid 
 at the feet of " a particular man," as the exact phrase seems to 
 have been. One of the members of the opposite party with 
 whom Montrose had some conversation about the matter was 
 Lord Lindsay, who, as Montrose afterwards averred, mentioned 
 Argyll as the person to be made dictator.^ Lord Lindsay himself 
 firmly denied that he had gone so far as this ; but the fact that 
 he was an adherent of Argyll's and that he had said at this in- 
 terview, when asked if the latter were Hkely to have any prefer- 
 ment, " that there was a great esteem had of him in the country," 
 makes it quite certain that Montrose was left in no doubt as 
 to the person to be made dictator, even if no name were actually 
 mentioned. He instantly refused to sign the bond and said he 
 " rather should die or he did it," " and hastened from the camp 
 to Edinburgh to confer with prominent members of the party 
 to which he belonged. The upshot of his deliberations with 
 his political friends was that a counter document was drawn up 
 and signed by himself and eighteen other members of the nobility, 
 in which the subscribers affirmed afresh their devotion to the 
 Covenant, and protested firmly, but with dignified moderation 
 
 ^ Ihid., vol. i. p. 264. ^ Hid., vol. i. p. 265. 
 
114 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 of expression, against what they called " the particular and 
 indirect practising of a few." ^ This " Bond of Cumbernauld " 
 as it was called from its having been signed at that place, 
 where Montrose's relative, the Earl of Wigton, resided, was 
 kept secret ; but it none the less served to defeat the scheme 
 of a dictatorship, and to postpone the question of the future 
 government of Scotland until the campaign in England, which 
 now was approaching, should have been concluded. Yet the 
 " Bond of Cumbernauld " was no merely factious plot inspired 
 by jealousy of Argyll. It was now becoming evident that, 
 within the ranks of those who had presented a united front to 
 the enemy, two distinct parties were beginning to form them- 
 selves. Some were prepared to go great lengths and to make 
 radical changes ; while others who had resented royal tyranny 
 shrank from what seemed to them open treason. We may 
 freely admit that pure and conscientious motives prompted the 
 leaders on both sides. Argyll, there is every reason to believe, 
 shared the opinions and sentiments of the democracy of which 
 he seemed to be becoming the spokesman ; while Montrose 
 was no doubt drawn by generous feeling, as well as by firmly 
 cherished convictions, to become the champion of monarchy. 
 ^ Deeds of Montrose (Murdocli and Simpson), p. 20. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The second "Bishops' War" — The Scotch Army invades England — They 
 force a Passage across the Tyne — Accident at Dunglass — Conference at 
 Eipon — Negotiations transferred to London — Montrose inclines to the 
 Royalist side — Conspiracy against Argyll — Execution of Stewart of 
 Lady well — Imprisonment of Montrose and his Associates. 
 
 THE circumstances in which the Scotch army was placed 
 were now more favourable for success than those in which 
 they found themselves on the former occasion when they 
 were encamped on the English Border. They had now no 
 reason to fear arousing against themselves the animosity of 
 the English nation ; and the helplessness of Charles to raise an 
 army fit to meet that under Leslie could scarcely be concealed. 
 Throughout England there was general unwillingness to engage 
 in a war with Scotland, especially on behalf of Episcopacy, 
 which had many enemies in England itself ; and this feeling 
 was reflected in the mood and conduct of the soldiers who were 
 ordered north for the defence of the frontier. The fact that a 
 large number of Eoman Catholics had received commissions as 
 officers made many of the men suspect that they were to be 
 employed in some way for the injury of the Protestant religion, 
 and this suspicion, together with the uncertainty of receiving any 
 pay, rendered them mutinous and disorderly. Many officers were 
 driven away by their men, and in more than one instance an 
 officer was murdered by members of his own company, without 
 the possibility of punishing the criminals, in consequence of wide- 
 spread disaffection ; while, in many of the churches in towns on 
 the hue of march, some rough attempts at what was supposed 
 to be religious reformation were made by the soldiers — such, for 
 example, as pulling down the communion-rails and destroying 
 them. Their idea in so doing was, it is to be presumed, to 
 express hatred of anything like superstition. The attempts of 
 the King to raise money for the war were hopeless in the 
 extreme. The City of London refused to come to his aid ; 
 while the Governments of Spain and France, and the Pope, to 
 
 115 
 
116 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 all of whom pressing appeals had been made, were equally 
 obdurate.^ 
 
 In these circumstances the Scotch leaders decided to invade 
 England, and their immediate aim was to seize Newcastle, which 
 was but poorly and incompletely fortified, and to gain possession 
 of the coalfields of that district, from which London was largely 
 supplied with fuel. Before they took this step they issued 
 manifestoes to the i^eople of England asserting that they could 
 not submit to be ruined by keeping on foot a large army while 
 interminable negotiations were being carried on, and that in com- 
 pelling a settlement of their grievances by crossing the Border with 
 an armed force they were not animated by any spirit of enmity 
 to the English people ; that they would be careful to abstain 
 from violence unless they were attacked, and that they would pay 
 for all supplies they might need. Their further statement that 
 they would not stay in England after their grievances had been 
 heard and redressed in Parliament made it quite clear that their 
 purpose was to force the King to call a Parliament, and in this 
 way to put an end to the absolute government which for so 
 many years past had produced so much mischief in both England 
 and Scotland. Their grim reference to their unwillingness to do 
 more in the way of punishing " those pernicious counsellors in 
 England, the authors of the miseries in both kingdoms," than 
 what the English Parliament should decide iipon might well have 
 sounded in the ears of Strafford and Laud like the knell of doom.^ 
 Three years before this time Milton had rebuked false shepherds, 
 and hinted at a day of vengeance as being near at hand, in the 
 
 words — 
 
 "But that two-handed engine at the door 
 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." 
 
 The words of the Scotch manifesto were an indication that the 
 fatal blow was imminent, and that the shadow of coming 
 judgment had already fallen upon two of the three who might 
 justly be described in Puritan phrase as " those who troubled 
 Israel." 
 
 The great majority of the English people, there is every 
 reason to believe, regarded the Scotch invasion as an undisguised 
 boon, and there can be no doubt that the Covenanting leaders 
 received encouragement from some of the English malcontents. 
 With characteristic caution, however, the former sought to obtain 
 
 ^ Gardiner, History, vol. ix. p. 175. 
 
 ^ Siialdiug, Meinorialls, vol. i. p. 321 ; Gordon, Scots Affairs^ vol. iii. p. 263. 
 
INVASION OF ENGLAND 117 
 
 promises of open support from men of rank and influence after 
 they had crossed the border, either by their joining the invaders 
 or by their sending them aid in money. At an early stage in 
 their military preparations they entered into correspondence with 
 Lord Savile, and received from him a letter signed by seven 
 prominent members of the nobility besides himself, in wliich 
 assurance was g-iven that those who had in the last Parliament 
 supported the Scotch cause against the common enemy would 
 continue to do so in all lawful ways. But the suggestion that 
 they should commit treason by countenancing an invasion of their 
 country was emphatically repudiated. The Covenanting leaders 
 were not satisfied with this reply, and they pressed for some 
 more definite promise of co-operation. Lord Savile drew up a 
 document of the kind desired and forged the signatures of the 
 other seven nobles who had already with himself been in com- 
 munication with the insurgents. The letter was concealed in a 
 hollow walking-stick and sent down to Scotland by a trusty 
 messenger disguised as a pedlar, with instructions that it was 
 to be shown only to Argyll, Henderson, and Warriston. Lord 
 Savile afterwards confessed the forgery, but affirmed that he 
 had acted from patriotic motives.^ 
 
 Against the advice of his most responsible counsellors, and 
 with characteristic gallantry, Charles himself set out for the 
 north to take command of his mutinous, ill-provided army, and 
 appointed the Earl of Strafford his Lieutenant-General. The 
 trained bands of a number of counties in the north and in the 
 midlands were called out for service, and it was hoped that the 
 royal forces would reach Newcastle before it fell into the hands 
 of the invaders. 
 
 On the 20th of August, 1640, the very day that the King 
 left the capital to crush the rebellion which had now grown so 
 formidable, the Scotch troops crossed the Tweed at Coldstream. 
 They consisted of twenty-two thousand infantry and three thousand 
 cavalry. " Their uniform was of hodden gray with blue caps, and 
 each man had a moderate haversack of oat-meal upon his back." ^ 
 Lots had been cast to fix the order of march across the river, and, 
 strangely enough, it was Montrose to whom it fell to lead the 
 van. The ardour with which he made his way through the 
 swollen waters of the Tweed was noticeable by all ; but there is 
 every reason to believe that his sympathies were alienated, not 
 
 ^ Buruet, Dulces of Hamilton, pp. 209, 210. 
 ^ Carlyle, Cromicell, vol. i. p. 91. 
 
118 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 indeed perhaps from the cause of the Covenant but from the more 
 extreme supporters of it, who probably were in the majority, and 
 it was rapidly becoming clear to him that his true course was to 
 support the royal authority against the turbulent democracy. In 
 the meantime, whatever his private feelings may have been, he 
 was conspicuous amongst those whose action in invading England 
 brought the day of retribution distinctly nearer to the King and 
 the chief agents of his despotic policy. 
 
 On the 28th the Scotch forces, which had been allowed 
 to march unopposed through Northumberland, were near to 
 Newcastle. Something had been done to strengthen the 
 fortifications on the north side, on which an attack might 
 naturally have been expected ; but the town was undefended on 
 the south side. Leslie's plan was skilfully laid : it was to cross 
 the river at Newbm'n, about five miles west from Newcastle, 
 and attack the city on the unfortified side. An attempt was 
 made to hold the ford at Newburn against the invaders ; but 
 Leslie, whose troops greatly outnumbered those of the King and 
 who was better supplied with artillery, forced his way through. 
 After a sharp conflict in which sixty or eighty men on the 
 English side were killed the defeated army drew off, the infantry 
 fell back in disorder on Newcastle, while the cavalry in a similar 
 plight made for Durham. Instead of making an attempt to 
 hold Newcastle until the arrival of the Earl of Strafford with 
 reinforcements, the Enghsh commander decided to evacuate it at 
 once ; and accordingly it fell into Leslie's hands within ten days 
 after he had crossed the Tweed. Without delay the invading 
 forces occupied Tynemouth, Shields, Sunderland, and Durham, 
 and obtained such a firm hold upon the north of England that 
 they were able to dictate terms to the Government. Every effort 
 was made to minimize the inconvenience and irritation which 
 the presence of a foreign army inevitably caused, and to con- 
 vince the English people that those who were now in such a 
 fair way to get good conditions for themselves would not be 
 satisfied unless aU in the King's dominions were partakers of 
 the same.^ 
 
 The joy occasioned by the \'ictory of the Scotch army at 
 Newburn was damped by a serious accident which occurred 
 to their garrison at Dunglass in Haddingtonshire. A large 
 stock of gunpowder had been stored in the castle there, and 
 by some accident it exploded on Sunday, 30th August, and 
 
 ^ Burnet, Dukes of Hamiltmi, p. 221. 
 
EXPLOSION AT DUNGLASS 119 
 
 destroyed the building.^ The Earl of Haddington, who had 
 married a niece of Argyll in the beginning of this same year, 
 was killed, with about eighty other persons including a con- 
 siderable number of men of distinguished rank and position. 
 The Earl had just entertained his officers and friends at dinner 
 and was going downstairs reading a letter which he had newly 
 received, when the explosion took place. An English page of the 
 Earl was suspected of having deliberately blown up the castle. 
 It is said that he had been mortified by hearing his master on the 
 day before exulting over the news of the victory at Newburn 
 and jeering at the cowardice of the English, and that he had 
 fired the magazine with a red - hot ladle of iron. Whether 
 this is true or not it is impossible to tell, but it is certain that 
 he perished in the explosion. The only fragment of his body 
 that was ever found was his arm, and in the hand was still the 
 iron utensil which it was supposed he had used with such fatal 
 effect.^ The passionate grief of the Countess of Haddington for 
 the loss of her husband is referred to by many of her con- 
 temporaries,^ and it is by no means to his credit that a modern 
 writer has on utterly worthless evidence cast a slur upon 
 her name.^ The King is said to have remarked about the 
 accident that he had lost a good subject, but that the Lord 
 God of Hosts was fighting for him. 
 
 Charles had arrived at York and he had drawn together his 
 scattered forces ; but there was no prospect that the loss of 
 material advantages and of prestige already suffered could be 
 made good by force of arms. He therefore announced that 
 the " humble supplication," which now as so often before his 
 Scotch subjects presented to him, would be considered by a 
 Council of Peers. The result of their dehberations was that 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 261 ; Spalding, Memorialls, vol. i. p. 337. 
 
 - Balfour, Annals, vol. ii. p. 396. 
 
 ^ Gordon, Scats Affairs, vol. iii. p. 262 ; Spalding, Memorialls, vol. i. p. 337 ; 
 LithgoAV, "Time's Sorrowfull Disaster." 
 
 * She is the person referred to in Aytonn's poem "The Execution of Montrose" 
 as being in the balcony of Moray House in Edinburgh and laughing at 
 Montrose as he passed, a prisoner, in the cart driven by the hangman. We 
 direct our readers' attention to our narrative of that incident in Chap. XIV. She 
 was the third daughter of the Marquess of Huntly, and had married the Earl 
 of Haddington on 14th January of this year (according to our present mode of 
 reckoning). She had been a Roman Catholic but on her marriage she had embraced 
 Protestantism. This religious change was largely due to the influence of her uncle 
 Argyll (see Earls of Haddington, Fraser, vol. i. p. 195). He had been surety for 
 her dowry, which amounted to 30,000 merks (£1666, 13s. 4d. Sterling), as we are 
 informed by Spalding {Memorialls, vol. i. p. 24.".). 
 
120 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 the invaders were invited to send representatives to Eipon, on 
 the 1st of October, to confer as to terms of peace. In the 
 meantime the fortresses in Scotland which had been in the 
 possession of the royal troops, namely, those at Edinburgh, 
 Dumbarton, and Caerlaverock, were compelled to yield to the 
 Covenanting forces. Accordingly the Scotch commissioners 
 entered ufjon the conference at Eipon with the assurance 
 inspired by the facts that their expedition into England had 
 been successful beyond all their expectations, and that their 
 country from end to end was fully subject to the Committee 
 of Estates, of which they were representatives. 
 
 In the helpless condition in which Charles then was, he 
 could no longer resist the pressure put upon him from all 
 quarters to call a Parliament ; and thus that formidable 
 assemblage, aftea'wards known as the Long Parliament, to 
 which we are so largely indebted for the destruction of 
 absolute monarchy in Britain, came into existence. Indeed, 
 so weighty were the consequences of Leshe's invasion of 
 England in 1640, that his crossing the Tweed on the 20th 
 of August is w^orthy to be compared for importance with 
 Csesar's passage of the Eubicon, which heralded an equally great 
 change in the fortunes of the Eoman Eepublic. 
 
 Owing to the calhng of the Parliament the negotiations 
 with the Scotch were transferred to London ; and, as the 
 presence of their army on English soil was a circumstance 
 of great advantage to those who were anxious to restore 
 constitutional government in England, the negotiations were, 
 if not deliberately protracted, at any rate conducted in a very 
 leisurely manner ; and in the meantime the invading army was 
 paid at the rate of £850 Sterling per diem, as an acknowledg- 
 ment of their " brotherly assistance." The Scotch commissioners 
 were received by the Parhament and the City of London, says 
 Sir PhiHp Warwick, " as if they had been angels of light." ^ 
 They were treated as honoured guests ; and one of the churches, 
 St Antony's, being set apart for services according to the 
 Presbyterian form, multitudes thronged thither to hear the 
 sermons of Henderson, Baillie, and other northern divines. 
 The eagerness thus manifested Clarendon describes in some- 
 what icy terms. " To hear those sermons," he says, " there 
 was so great a conflux and resort — by the citizens out of 
 humour [caprice] and faction, by others of all qualities out of 
 
 ^ Memoirs, p. 164. 
 
POPULARITY OF SCOTCH DIVINES 121 
 
 curiosity, and by some that they might the bettor justify the 
 contempt they liad of them — that from the first appearance 
 of day in the morning on every Sunday, to the shutting in of 
 the light, tlie church was never empty. They, especially the 
 women, who had the happiness to get into the church in the 
 morning (they who could not, hung upon or about the windows 
 without, to be auditors or spectators), keeping their places till 
 the afternoon's exercise was finished," ^ According to another 
 equally unsympathetic witness the strangers were rather in- 
 clined to regard their English audiences as belonging to " an 
 unsanctified, heathen nation " — a tendency still noticeable in 
 some of their fellow-countrymen, otherwise perhaps persons of 
 intelligence ; while the subject of discourse was, for the taste 
 of some of their hearers, too frequently the superstitious nature 
 of " ceremonies " [i.e. certain religious rites], and the fact that 
 Timothy and Titus were mere presbyters, and not Bishops as had 
 been popularly imagined.^ 
 
 During these operations in England military affairs in 
 Scotland were for the most part in the hands of the Earls 
 of Argyll and Eglinton. The latter was stationed with his 
 forces in the lowlands of Ayrshire, to aid in guarding against 
 a possible invasion from Ireland, which though greatly dreaded 
 did not take place. Argyll, after his successful raid into 
 Perthshire and Angus which we have already described, did 
 not engage in any further military operations beyond receiving 
 the capitulation of the garrisons of two royal fortresses — Dum- 
 barton Castle (27th August), and Edinburgh Castle (15th Sep- 
 tember). Considerable irritation was expressed by the members 
 of the Committee of Estates who had accompanied the army 
 to Newcastle when they heard that the second of these garri- 
 sons had been allowed to depart with all the honours of war, 
 and that they had embarked at Leith for Berwick with flying 
 colours and in possession of arms, baggage, and ordnance.^ But 
 the fact was that the inhabitants of the capital had suffered 
 so much from them that they were glad to be rid of them at 
 any price, especially since they had had in their possession the 
 regalia of Scotland, the public registers, and a large quantity 
 of ammunition, and therefore might, if driven to desperation, 
 have inflicted a great deal more damage than they had already 
 wrought. 
 
 ^ History, vol. i. p. 259. 2 Warwick, Memoirs, p. 165 
 
 ** Spalding, Memorialls, vol. i. jip. 33G, 340, 
 
122 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 A commission to raise ten thousand men for an invasion 
 of the north of Ireland was given to Argyll, but most probably 
 it was a mere ruse to diminish the risk of suffering invasion 
 from that quarter ; though, now that such brilliant success 
 had attended the expedition into Northumberland, many 
 Scotchmen were inclined to believe that no great difficulty 
 would be found in carrying out such a scheme, especially in 
 view of the expectation that many thousands of their fellow- 
 countrymen in Ulster would co-operate with them. How- 
 ever, nothing was done at present to test the value of such 
 an opinion. 
 
 The party which had so successfully resisted the tyranny 
 of King and priest now began to be divided within itself and 
 to be somewhat " perplexed with fear of change." So far back 
 as the meeting of the General Assembly or the Parliament 
 of 1639, the Earl of Montrose had been out of sympathy with 
 some of the leaders of his party and had put himself into 
 communication with the King. Indeed it was thought by 
 many that, at his interview with Charles at Berwick in July 
 of that year, much of the enthusiasm with which he had 
 supported the popular cause had been charmed away. As we 
 have seen, at the meeting of Parliament in 1640 he opposed 
 the decision which was defended by Argyll and others to con- 
 tinue proceedings in defiance of the royal orders ; and very 
 shortly before the invasion of England he had drawn up the 
 " Bond of Cumbernauld " as a check upon those who were, 
 in his opinion, inclined to break away from the loyalty to 
 the Sovereign which the Covenant had so distinctly expressed. 
 While he was at Newcastle it came to light that he was 
 in correspondence with the King. Burnet, who gives us 
 many picturesque historical details which are very welcome 
 when the truthfulness of the main facts is supported by 
 independent evidence, tells us ^ that when a bundle of letters 
 to be despatched to the King was handled one of them 
 fell to the ground, and on being picked up was noticed to 
 be addressed to him in the handwriting of Montrose. On 
 being accused of a breach of the articles of war in thus 
 "having intelligence with the enemy," Montrose boldly asked 
 if they whose expressions of loyalty had been so profuse as to 
 find a place in those same articles of war really regarded the 
 King as an enemy. The retort was clever and unanswerable, 
 
 ^ Dickes of Hamilton, p. 228. 
 
BOND OF CUMBERNAULD 123 
 
 yet it would probably not have been regarded as a sufficient 
 defence but for the anxiety of Leslie and others to avoid the 
 scandal and risk of an open quarrel with Montrose, and 
 accordingly, in Baillie's phrase, " water was cast on this spunk 
 [small fire] beginning most untymouslie to reek [smoke]." ^ The 
 Lieutenant - General of the Covenanting army, Lord Almond, 
 was known to be in sympathy with Montrose ; while amongst 
 others of the leaders there was dissatisfaction on the ground 
 that important business was transacted without consulting them.^ 
 So that it was only by very prudent management that the risk 
 of a serious rent in the party was averted. 
 
 Yet we need not suppose that in his letters to the King 
 Montrose acted treacherously by giving any secret information 
 to the prejudice of the cause of the Covenant or any of his 
 political associates. The general tenor of his communications, 
 if we may judge from a letter which belongs to the following 
 year, and the contents of which are known,^ probably consisted 
 of advice with regard to the interests of the Monarchy in 
 Scotland in the existing condition of matters ; and such 
 procedure on his part was by no means inconsistent with 
 observance of the Covenant which he had subscribed. Yet 
 the mere fact that he was corresponding with the King, whose 
 hostility to the Covenant and its principal supporters was 
 extreme, was naturally enough somewhat disquieting to Argyll 
 and his associates. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1640 the story of the "Bond 
 of Cumbernauld " leaked out. Suspicion that something of this 
 kind existed was aroused in the minds of outsiders by the con- 
 duct of some of those who had signed it and had recently been 
 indulging in protestations of devotion to the King's interests and 
 in denunciations of Argyll and his party. 
 
 On the 19th of November one of the subscribers of the Bond, 
 a son-in-law of the Earl of Wigton, Lord Boyd by name, died 
 of fever at the early age of twenty-four ; and on his deathbed he 
 dropped some hints of the existence of such a document, though 
 he disclosed no particulars as to its precise contents. Argyll on 
 receiving this information did not rest until he had investigated 
 the matter. He paid a visit to Lord Almond, another of those 
 who had signed the Bond, at his house in Callander where he 
 was on a visit from the army at Newcastle, and in the 
 
 1 Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 262. " Gutliry, Memoira, pp. 87, 88. 
 
 ^ Napier, Memorials of Montrose, vol. 1. p. 208. 
 
124 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 course of a couple of days the sagacious politician succeeded 
 in getting all the information he desired. The Committee of 
 Estates at once summoned Montrose and others concerned who 
 were in Scotland at the time to appear before them and 
 give some explanation of the compact into which they had 
 entered. Apparently the Bond itself was produced, and reasons 
 were given in defence of it, which the Committee refused 
 to accept as adequate. Beyond a sentence of blame and the 
 confiscation of the document the Committee did not venture 
 to go. " Indeed some of the ministers," says Guthry, " and 
 other fiery spirits, pressed that their lives might go for it. But 
 Argyll and his Committee considered that they were too strong 
 a party to meddle with that way, especially seeing divers of them 
 having the command of regiments in the army ; and therefore 
 they consulted to pack up the business upon a declaration 
 under their hands, that they intended nothing against the public 
 [good], together with a surrendering of the band [Bond], which 
 the Committee having gotten caused it to be burned." ^ The 
 result of these proceedings was not only to demonstrate the extra- 
 ordinary influence exercised by Argyll but greatly to increase it, 
 by the humiliation of those who had ventured to league them- 
 selves together in opposition to him. 
 
 But though Argyll had triumphed in the Conmiittee of 
 Estates and had secured the burning of the document in which 
 liis opponents bound themselves to foil what they regarded, or 
 pretended to regard, as his ambitious schemes, he was by no 
 means out of danger. An opposition began to form, of which 
 Montrose was the centre and mainspring, aiming at shaking 
 and overthrowing the power of their great opponent. Their 
 first attempt had failed, and they were convinced that no other 
 need be made on the same lines. Their second and more serious 
 endeavour was to persuade the King to enter into an alliance 
 with them. There was every probability that he would be 
 constrained to accept the terms demanded by the Scotch 
 commissioners and to ratify the Acts of the Parliament which 
 liad been held without his sanction, and thus consent to the 
 limitations put upon his power and to the installation of Presby- 
 terianism in Scotland in the ]Aace of Episcopacy. Let him but 
 satisfy the demands of the nation and they would stand by him 
 in resisting further encroachments upon his power which self- 
 seeking nobles, " seditious preachers," or the fickle mob might be 
 ^ Memoirs, p. 90 ; Spalding, Mamorialls, vol. i. p. 37(3. 
 
ACCUSATION AGAINST ARGYLL 125 
 
 disposed to make. They accordingly invited Charles to conio 
 down to Scotland and to make concessions which would sweep 
 away all the real grievances which had moved the nation to 
 such obstinate resistance, and thus cut the ground from under 
 the feet of such men as Argyll ; and, at the same time, they seem 
 to have intimated to the King that they were in the possession 
 of evidence on which Argyll could be convicted of positive treason 
 and brought to utter ruin. 
 
 They founded their accusation upon language which he was 
 said to have used at the Ford of Lyon on the occasion of his 
 raid into Perthshire and Angus, when he conferred with the 
 Earl of Athol and the eight hostages whom he afterwards sent 
 as prisoners to Edinburgh. One of the latter, John Stewart 
 of Ladywell, affirmed that Argyll then said that they, i.e. 
 the dominant party in Scotland, " had consulted both lawyers 
 and divines anent the deposing of the King, and gotten resolution 
 that it might be done in three cases, 1. Desertion, 2. Invasion, 
 3. Vendition ; and that once they thought to have done it at 
 the last meetiusr of Parliament, and would do it at the next 
 sitting thereof." ^ There can, of course, be no douljt that a good 
 deal of what might in ordinary circumstances be called treasonable 
 language must have been current in Scotland from the very 
 beginning of these troubles down to the time at which we have 
 arrived ; and the more grave accusation of treasonable actions 
 might be brought against many thousands of men who had taken 
 up arms against the King and had shed the blood of his soldiers, 
 and were even now in possession of fortresses and territory from 
 which they had driven his troops. In order that these actions 
 might be justified to themselves and to the world at large it was 
 inevitable that some expression should be given to opinions as to 
 the limits which existed to the obedience of subjects, and conse- 
 quently to the royal authority ; and many persons who in quieter 
 times would have been law-abiding, loyal subjects, must have used 
 language which could easily be described as treasonable. Some 
 conversation may have taken place in Argyll's tent on the occa- 
 sion in question in which he may have justified resistance to 
 the royal authority by asserting principles concerning the rights 
 of subjects and the duties of kings which some of his hearers 
 may have considered audacious, if not actually treasonable ; but 
 it is quite absurd to imagine that a grave and subtle politician 
 like Argyll would sit and prate to his enemies about the 
 
 ^ Gutliry, Mevwirs, p. 92 ; Spalding. Memorialls, vol. ii. p. 47. 
 
126 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 deposition of the King as a matter practically decided upon by 
 himself and his political associates, while they took the greatest 
 care in all their public utterances and proclamations to express 
 loyalty to the Sovereign, and to lay the blame of the actions 
 which had caused them to rebel upon evil coimsellors who had 
 led him astray. 
 
 With extraordinary candour or thoughtlessness Montrose 
 spoke freely to one and another of the attack to be made upon 
 Argyll in the coming Parliament, and before long the matter 
 was openly referred to in a meeting of the Presbytery of 
 Auchterarder. The speaker, the Eev. John Graham, was sum- 
 moned to Edinburgh to appear before the Committee of Estates 
 and give some explanation of his words. He told the name 
 of his informant, who, in his turn, on being questioned gave up 
 that of Montrose as having declared that Argyll had been spoken 
 of in connexion with a dictatorship in Scotland, or in the part of 
 the country north of the Forth, and as having asserted that there 
 was proof that he had talked of deposing the King. It was now 
 Montrose's turn to defend himself and to give the names of his 
 informants. He recounted the conversation he had had with 
 Lord Lindsay about the matter of the dictatorship, and he 
 declared that his authority for the charge of using treasonable 
 language was the John Stewart already mentioned. Nothing was 
 made of the supposed connexion of Argyll with the abortive 
 scheme of a dictatorship ; for, even if Montrose's memory had 
 not played him false and Lord Lindsay had said that he sus- 
 pected that Argyll would be appointed to that office, there was 
 nothing in this on which a criminal charge could be founded. 
 It would certainly be a new and easy way of proving treason if 
 the conversation of two men about the possible designs of a 
 third could be taken as proof positive of the existence and the 
 nature of such designs. The matter of the treasonable words 
 ascribed to Argyll himself was of supreme importance, and 
 Montrose or his friends grew somewhat anxious that he should 
 not be left in the lurch by his informant Stewart. In all haste 
 he was summoned to appear before there was any chance of his 
 being " got at " by the other side. 
 
 The next day Stewart repeated before the Committee the 
 statements which he had already made to Montrose and gave in 
 a written declaration of the same signed by himself. " Where- 
 upon," we are told, " Argyll broke out into a passion, and with 
 great oaths denied the whole and every part thereof." The 
 
STEWART'S RECANTATION 127 
 
 historian adds tliat " many wondered thereat" ; ^ Init their reason 
 for wonder is not stated and can scarcely be conjectured, since 
 we do not know the exact language used by him in conversa- 
 tion with the Earl of Athol and his hostages. The modern 
 biographer of Montrose, to whom Argyll seems more a personi- 
 fication of evil than a creature of flesh and blood, speaks of his 
 passion and oaths as " undignified violence " ; ^ but we think the 
 unprejudiced reader, who learns that this wretched man who 
 charged Argyll with treason confessed next day that he had 
 been guilty of lying, will rather consider them as the result of 
 honest indignation. As a mere matter of fact, John Stewart 
 wrote on the 1st of June, from the prison to which he had been 
 consigned on the day before, a letter to Argyll in which " he 
 cleared him of those speeches and acknowledged that he himself 
 had forged them out of malice against his lordship." ^ He also 
 confessed that " by the advice and counsel " of the Earl of Mon- 
 trose and his associates — Lord Napier, Sir George Stirling of 
 Keir, and Sir Andrew Stewart of Blackball — he had sent a 
 written copy of these forged speeches to the King by one Captain 
 Walter Stewart. This recantation should surely be regarded as 
 a sufficient exoneration of Argyll from the charge of treason ; 
 yet the historian Guthry, to whom we are indebted for the 
 particulars of this incident, contrives to surround the story 
 with a flood of vile insinuations against him, which have been 
 found very convenient for later writers wishing to represent 
 him in an unfavourable light. According to him Stewart was 
 the victim of the artful statesman. He alleges that two of 
 Argyll's friends, who were " profound men " and would know 
 well what arguments to use, persuaded Stewart to accuse himself 
 of falsehood and thus save Argyll.^ And he suggests that they 
 convinced the prisoner that the disgraceful occurrence would 
 be soon forgotten, and that not only immediate safety but also 
 
 ^ Guthry, Mcvioirs, p. 93. 
 
 - Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. i. p. 304. 
 
 ^ Guthry, Memoirs, p. 93. Stewart declared, on retracting the accusation, "that 
 the Earl of Argyll having spoken of kings in general, and the cases wherein it is 
 thought that kings might be deposed, the deponent did take the words as spoken 
 of our King ; and out of the malicious desire of revenge, the deponent confesses ho 
 added these words, ' that the first thing the parliament would have begun upon was 
 to depose the King ' ; and siclike added these words, ' and however they had 
 continued [deferred] it, he feared it was the first thing they would fall upon at the 
 next session,' or * the first thing that will be begun in the next session' " (Laiug, 
 History uf Scotland, vol. iii. p. 545). 
 
 ■• Memoirs, p. 94. 
 
128 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 future preferment might be given him by the grateful criminal 
 for whom he had perjured himself. 
 
 The honourable, straightforward conduct of Argyll through- 
 out this affair is beyond reasonable doubt. Thus he received 
 a pressing letter from Stewart, after he had in general terms 
 withdrawn his accusation, in which the prisoner asked him to 
 pay him a private visit and referred to declarations he might 
 make which would be to Argyll's advantage. The latter laid 
 the communication before the Committee, declaring his deter- 
 mination not to speak with Stewart apart or alone, but to be 
 accompanied by witnesses if any interview were to take place. 
 And accordingly three other members of the Committee were 
 appointed for this purpose.^ 
 
 Whatever may be the particular name of the crime which 
 John Stewart had committed against Argyll, he had, by 
 sending the false statements to the King, incurred the penalties 
 for what in Scotch law was called " Leasing-making." This 
 offence consisted in sowing discord between a King and his 
 subjects by disseminating falsehoods and might be punished by 
 death, though so heavy a penalty for it was very rarely exacted. 
 Ordinarily, the form of the crime with which the law had to 
 deal was that of slandering a King to his subjects ; but in this 
 case the conduct of Stewart in slandering a subject to his King 
 was treated as equally criminal, and sentence of death was 
 passed upon him. The Earl of Argyll consulted the chief 
 legal authorities in Scotland with the view of inflicting on 
 tlie prisoner a less severe penalty than death, in consideration 
 of the fact that he had made open confession of his crime.^ 
 But they were of the opinion that if the life which he had 
 justly forfeited were spared Argyll's enemies would assert that 
 the prisoner had been bribed by the remission of the death- 
 sentence to withdraw the charges which he had made ; and 
 so the law was left to take its course. Stewart was beheaded 
 publicly in Edinburgh on the 28 th of July, and he betrayed 
 such a lack of the courage with which even bad men have 
 often faced death, that some, who affected to believe that he had 
 borne false witness against himself, thought that he must have 
 been overcome with mortification at the fruitlessness of his 
 crime.^ But whether there was, or was not, beneath the deep 
 iniquity which appeared in the sight of all men, a still lower 
 
 ' Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. i. p. 327. "^ Gutliry, Memoirs, p. 9i. 
 
 ^ Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. i. p. 330. 
 
ARREST OF COLONEL STEWART 129 
 
 depth of secret sin, is neither a matter with which history need 
 concern itself nor one which is an interesting subject of enquiry. 
 Certainly it would be doing grave injustice to a dog to con- 
 demn it on evidence as poor and tainted as this on which 
 some have based a charge of a specially mean crime against 
 Argyll ; and we think a great statesman, the trusted repre- 
 sentative of a party comprising probably the majority of the 
 nation, and certainly the majority of the God-fearing people 
 in it, is entitled to be treated with at least as much considera- 
 tion as is ordinarily shown to the inferior animals. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Stewart, who had taken to the 
 King a letter or letters from " the Plotters " and the written 
 charge of treason against Argyll, was arrested on his return. 
 He was intercepted between Cockburnspath and Haddington 
 by a messenger sent out to meet him, and concealed in the 
 pannel of his saddle were found a letter from the King to 
 Montrose and documents of a suspicious character.^ The royal 
 missive was couched in general terms, and gave no sign of any 
 secret or unworthy connexion on the part of the King with 
 petty intrigues. It was evidently written in reply to a letter 
 from Montrose, recommending him to come in person to Scot- 
 land and to secure his own authority and the peace and hap- 
 piness of his subjects, by establishing religion and liberty on 
 a firm basis. The King's reply was that he saw the advan- 
 tages to be attained by being present at the approaching Parlia- 
 ment in Scotland, and that he intended to visit his northern 
 capital ; and he went on to say that he desired " to satisfy his 
 people in their religion and just liberties," and expected that 
 they would reciprocate the kindly feelings which he cherished 
 towards them.^ Colonel Stewart declared that he took letters 
 in cipher from the Plotters in Edinburgh, which he translated 
 and, with the aid of his cousin the Earl of Traquair, put into 
 better shape for the King's use ; but his statements were re- 
 pudiated by all the persons concerned, and seem to deserve 
 little credit. Some confused and stupid hieroglyphical docu- 
 ments in his own handwriting were found in his possession,^ but 
 they appear merely to record the vagaries of a half-witted busy- 
 body who thought that he was dabbling in State secrets. Yet 
 
 ^ Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. i. p. 309; Spalding, Memorialls, vol. ii. p. 48. 
 - Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. i. p. 316. 
 
 ^ Id them Argyll is referred to as "the Dromedary" (Campbell = Camel = 
 Dromedary). 
 
 9 
 
130 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 the connexion which Montrose and his friends had had with 
 Colonel Stewart was such as to expose them to considerable 
 suspicion, and they were accordingly arrested and lodged in 
 separate rooms in Edinburgh Castle.^ The fact that the 
 Committee of Estates should have consigned four of their own 
 number to prison — two of them Peers and one a Privy Councillor 
 and a Lord of Session — has been spoken of by Eoyalist writers 
 as very high-handed procedure, and Argyll has been repre- 
 sented as the autocrat who was virtually responsible for it. 
 But it is difficult to see how any other course could have been 
 taken. They were closely connected with John Stewart, who 
 was fovmd guilty of a capital charge, and, by their advice 
 to him to send the forged document to the King, they had 
 brought themselves dangerously near being involved in the 
 crime for which he was punished. Their only safety lay in 
 the fact that they had believed the statements contained in it 
 to be true. 
 
 The news of what had occurred in Scotland reached the 
 ears of Charles I., and he promptly wrote to Argyll to clear 
 himself from all connexion with the intrigues with which his 
 name had been very unpleasantly associated. He said that he 
 was informed that Colonel Stewart, who was reported to have 
 been employed in London by the Earl of Montrose, had asserted 
 that offices of State were to be conferred on persons who had 
 entered into the Bond of Cumbernauld, and had intimated that 
 he was coming to Scotland at the instance of that faction 
 and to promote their objects. In dignified terms he repudiated 
 any such intention. His purpose in visiting Scotland was to 
 arrange matters in accordance with the Treaty shortly to be 
 formally concluded, and to establish himself in the affections 
 of his people. " I am so far," he said, " from intending division 
 by my journey, that I mean so to establish peace in the State, 
 and religion in the Church, that there may be a happy harmony 
 amongst my subjects there." No promises of offices of State 
 to particular persons had been made — such offices would be 
 bestowed upon those who would serve the State best. He 
 said that the letter he had written to Montrose had not been 
 unworthy of himself or of the person to whom it had been sent, 
 who, for anything he yet knew, was not undeserving of such a 
 favour. He concluded by saying that he had made matters 
 thus clear to Argyll, a member of his Privy Council and thus 
 ^ Napier, Life of Montrose vol. i. p. 335. 
 
MONTROSE IN PRISON 131 
 
 his " particular friend," in order that the latter miglit, as he 
 had opportunity, correct any false statements that might be 
 current with regard to his journey into Scotland. He subscribed 
 himself " Your assured friend, Charles E.," a phrase which no 
 doubt was entirely conventional but which, one would think, 
 must have struck both himself and his correspondent as 
 strangely incongruous with the relations in which they had 
 stood to each other for two years past.^ 
 
 Though little or nothing beyond vague suspicion and the 
 confused statements of the two Stewarts could be alleged 
 against Montrose and his friends, they were kept in prison 
 for five months. Endless enquiries and interrogations before 
 the Committee of Estates and the Parliament were carried on 
 in order to elucidate matters, but the charge of conspiring 
 against the public weal was not found to be substantiated by 
 any new and trustworthy evidence. Montrose's houses were 
 entered, and his papers examined ; but, as the historian Guthry 
 says, they found nothing therein belonging to public affairs, 
 only instead thereof " some letters from ladies to him in his 
 younger years, flowered with Arcadian compliments." ^ All 
 this, no doubt, was very unpleasant to those who were in 
 custody ; but there was nothing extraordinary in their experi- 
 ence. Before and since their time persons proudly conscious 
 of their rectitude have been found by the police in suspicious 
 circumstances, and in some cases have only with extreme 
 difficulty succeeded in persuading the guardians of the public 
 peace to believe in their innocence. 
 
 ^ lUcl., vol. i. p. 315. ^Memoirs, p. 112. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Treaty concluded with Scotland — Charles I. goes to Edinburgh — He makes 
 many Concessions to the Covenanting Party — Argyll and the Earl 
 of Morton — "The Incident" — Return of Argyll and Hamilton after 
 their Flight from the City— Argyll made a Marquess — Outbreak of 
 Rebellion in Ireland. 
 
 ON the 10th of August, 1641, the Treaty with Scotland was 
 concluded. According to it the King agreed to accept 
 as valid the Acts passed in the Parliament which had been 
 held without his sanction, and to leave those who had been 
 the authors of the late " combustions," and who were therefore 
 appropriately called " Incendiaries," to be dealt with by the 
 Parliaments of England and of Scotland ; while the sum of 
 £300,000 Sterling was fixed upon for the payment of the 
 Scotch troops who had invaded and occupied the north of 
 England. 
 
 Charles I. had now for some months been experiencing 
 what he must have felt as the misery of subjection to 
 absolute government on the part of the Parliament, and he had 
 virtually forfeited a large measure of the power of the Crown 
 by consenting to the Bill which provided that the present 
 Parliament could not be dissolved without its own consent. 
 Strafford had been beheaded ; and Laud was in prison, awaiting 
 his trial, with every reason to expect a similar fate. A deep 
 gulf now divided the King from the great mass of his English 
 subjects : those whom he looked upon as faithful servants were 
 in the eyes of his people traitors worthy of death, while their 
 trusted leaders were regarded by him with as passionate a scorn. 
 The fact that he had been goaded and driven into signing the 
 death-warrant of Strafford could never be forgotten ; and upon 
 the proud soul of the King the memory of that fatal deed, 
 which proclaimed both his own weakness and the insolence 
 of his foes, was a stain which throbbed like a wound. 
 
 Some hope of regaining power sprang up in the mind 
 of Charles when he thought of his northern subjects who had 
 
 132 
 
CHARLES I. AND GENERAL LESLIE 133 
 
 wrested from him all that they wislied to have, and who now 
 might be in a mood to show that loyalty to his person and to 
 Ids royal authority which they had been so careful to express in 
 words, even while they were engaged in the most seditious actions. 
 While negotiations were being carried on between the Scotch 
 commissioners and the English Parliament there was always 
 a possibility that something would go wrong and an animosity 
 be aroused which might be turned to his advantage. But the 
 English Parliament were too wise to fall into such an open 
 trap, and took pains to give full satisfaction to those to 
 whose " brotherly assistance " they were so much indebted 
 for the overthrow of the despotism under which they had 
 groaned for so long. Now that the Treaty had been signed, 
 Charles determined, much to the consternation of the Parliament 
 and of the people of London, to go down to Scotland, where, 
 as his friends assured him, he would find a people whose hearts 
 abounded in affection and devotion towards him, which would 
 now find full scope for exercise seeing that religion and liberty 
 were established on a firm basis. 
 
 No entreaties could move the King to delay his journey 
 into Scotland. " He would make any one repent, he said, 
 who laid hands on his horse's reins to stop him. He told 
 the crowd in Palace Yard which besought him to remain 
 that they might console themselves for his absence. His 
 Scotch subjects needed him as much as Englishmen did." ^ 
 On his way north he passed through the army which had 
 been assembled to repel the northern invaders and was now 
 being disbanded, and on the 13th of August he reached 
 Newcastle. The Scotch soldiers, who were on the point of 
 returning home, were drawn up to receive him ; and General 
 Leslie, with every expression of humble loyalty, accompanied 
 him as he passed through their lines. The scene is vividly 
 described in a contemporary pamphlet : " The Generall alighting 
 from his horse (which was presently taken by two of his 
 footmen), Hee prostrated himselfe and service before the 
 King upon his knees, his Majestie awhile privately talking 
 to him, and at his rising gave him his hand to kisse, and 
 commanded his horse to be given him, whereon remounted, he 
 ridd with the King through the Armie." ^ A dinner had been 
 prepared for the King at the house of the Mayor of Newcastle, 
 
 ' Gardiner, History, vol. ix. p. 417. 
 
 ♦ Quoted in C. S. Terry's Life and Campavins of Alexander Leslie, p, 153. 
 
134 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 but he preferred to diue with the General who had been so 
 active an opponent of his and might possibly be charmed 
 into becoming as active a friend. After dinner and before 
 he resumed his journey northwards he had some conversa- 
 tion with Leslie, and there can be no doubt that he hinted 
 at the Earldom which very shortly afterwards he bestowed 
 upon the rough soldier of fortune, if indeed he did not now 
 definitely promise the honour, and received from him profes- 
 sions of loyalty which might be easily construed into a pledge 
 never again to draw the sword save in the defence of his 
 Sovereign. 
 
 On Saturday the 14th the King rode into Edinburgh 
 at six o'clock in the evening and took up his abode in Holyrood 
 Palace. On the following morning, in the Abbey Chapel he 
 listened to a sermon by Alexander Henderson, who had presided 
 at the Glasgow Assembly and had been one of the Scotch com- 
 missioners in London. The preacher was able and devout, and 
 courtly in manner, and Charles can scarcely have failed to 
 be favourably impressed by him. Yet, in spite of his courtly 
 manners, Henderson's sense of duty was so keen that he spoke 
 to the King with an authority which probably Archbishop Laud 
 would not have ventured to exercise. For on this Sunday 
 Charles stayed away from afternoon service ; but upon Henderson's 
 speaking of the matter to him, " he promised not to do soe 
 againe." From what we know of Henderson we may well 
 believe that the admonition was given in such a gracious manner 
 that no offence could reasonably be taken. The same divine 
 acted as chaplain to the King, and each day in the morning 
 and before supper in the evening " said prayer, read a chapter, 
 sang a psalm, and said prayer againe." The King, we are told, 
 heard all duly, and uttered no complaint for want of a liturgy 
 or any " ceremonies." ^ 
 
 On the following Tuesday attended by trumpeters and 
 heralds he proceeded, in somewhat diminished but still 
 imposing state, up the Canongate to the Parliament House, 
 the Marquess of Hamilton carrying the crown before him, the 
 Earl of Argyll the sceptre, and the Earl of Sutherland the 
 sword. The King's speech was couched in very gracious terms, 
 and made but light of the struggles of the last four years 
 which had resulted so disastrously for himself: these he 
 described as " unlucky differences," and " unhappy mistakings " 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. i. pp. 385, 386 ; Buruet, Dukes of Hamilton, \\ 235. 
 
THE KING DISSEMBLES 135 
 
 [misunderstandings], which he hoped to settle now once for all. 
 In spite of difficnlties and obstacles he had taken this journey 
 instead of sending a commissioner, and he trusted he would 
 be met by his subjects with the affection and loyalty which had 
 been so often professed, and which the Covenant itself bound 
 them to maintain. After the president, Lord Burghley, 
 had replied in appropriate terms to the royal speech, the Earl 
 of Argyll arose and seconded what had been said by him. 
 His speech, which the annalist calls " a short and pithy 
 harangue," consisted for the most part of a nautical simile 
 wdiich has done duty in poUtical addresses from the days of 
 Horace ^ down to our own times, but to which he added 
 a detail specially referring to the treatment which Montrose 
 and his associates had received. " He compared this kingdome," 
 we are told, " to a ship tossing in a tempestuous sea these years 
 by past ; and seeing His Majesty had, like a skillfull pilote, 
 in the times of most danger steered her throughe so many 
 rocks and shallows to safe anchor, he did humbly entreat His 
 Majesty that now he would not leave her (since that for her 
 safety he had given way [consented] to cast out some of the 
 naughtiest baggage to lighten her), but be graciously pleased 
 to settle her in her secure station and harbour againe.'"^ The 
 comparison of his political opponents to worthless encumbrances 
 which had been thrown overboard to lighten the ship of the 
 State was no doubt exasperating to them and to those who 
 sympathized with them, and must have been specially mortifying 
 to Charles as illustrating the complete triumph which Argyll 
 and his party had won over the faction specially devoted to 
 his interests. But no expression of this feeling was allowed to 
 escape him. 
 
 The extent to which the King dissembled his actual opinions 
 and sentiments may be judged by the fact that he was more 
 eager than those who had been his opponents to fulfil without 
 delay the terms of the Treaty lately concluded in London, 
 and to ratify the Acts of the ParUament which Iiad been 
 held without his sanction. These consisted of thirty-nine 
 legislative measures which, on this the first day of his presence 
 in this Parliament, he was anxious to accept in the usual form 
 by touching them with his sceptre. The Scotch commissioners 
 had not yet returned to Edinburgh, and it was thought by the 
 Parliament that such speed in concluding matters would be 
 
 ^ Odes, i. 14. ^ Balfour, Annals, vol. iii. p. 40. 
 
136 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 somewhat unseemly and might hereafter be used as an argument 
 against the present settlement as a hasty and ill-considered 
 proceeding. The zeal of the King to stamp out the form of 
 Church-government which he loved and to establish that 
 which he loathed, and to confirm his northern subjects in the 
 possession of the civil rights which they had with extreme 
 difficulty wrested from him, had therefore to be repressed ; 
 and it was not until a week afterwards that he was permitted 
 to sanction the Acts which reduced his authority to a mere 
 shadow of a name. 
 
 The King expected that, after these ample concessions 
 had been made to the demands of his Scotch subjects, he 
 might rely with confidence upon receiving aid from them in 
 deahng with his turbulent English Parliament. The people 
 at large had gained all that they had bound themselves by 
 the Covenant to strive for, and so might be expected to be 
 favourably disposed towards him ; while the support of their 
 leaders, who had been his opponents, he thought he could 
 secure by bestowing upon them offices and honours. At his 
 first arrival in Scotland the suggestion was made that part of 
 the army under Leslie should be maintained until the army 
 in England had been disbanded ; and Charles eagerly caught 
 at the idea of employing them to promote his schemes for 
 recovering all that he had lost in his southern kingdom. His 
 reception in Edinbm-gh was such as to foster the delusion 
 that something might be accomplished in this way. His 
 acceptance of the form of religion which was so dear to the 
 people of Scotland seemed sincere and complete. Henderson was 
 now as intimate a councillor and associate as Laud had ever 
 been ; and the King sat in the church of St Giles and heard 
 Bishops denounced in language which a short time before would 
 have been punished with fine or imprisonment. His patience 
 and politic conduct gained an immediate reward in expressions 
 of loyalty and affection which filled Mm with delight and made 
 him confident that all his hopes would speedily be realized. 
 " You may assure every one," he said, in one of his despatches 
 to his secretary, Nicholas, " that now all difficulties are past 
 here." He also wrote to the Queen that Argyll had promised 
 to serve him loyally, and that he had driven through the streets 
 of Eduiburgh in company with Leslie amid the cheers of the 
 populace.^ 
 
 1 Gardiner, TUstory of England, vol. x. p. 19. 
 
FURTHER CONCESSIONS 137 
 
 But he was soon awakened from the dream which he cherished 
 of receiving aid from his Scotch subjects iu the labour of restor- 
 ing absolute government in England. The army which had done 
 such good service under Leslie was disbanded and paid off'; and 
 with its disappearance from the scene Charles must have felt 
 that his journey into Scotland had become utterly fruitless. But 
 a further humiliation was in store for him. The leaders of the 
 Covenanting party felt that the concessions which they had 
 extorted from the King would be nullified if they left him the 
 power of nominating Officers of State, Privy Councillors, and 
 Judges ; and accordingly the Scotch commissioners had de- 
 manded as one of the conditions of the Treaty recently concluded 
 that all who had to do with the executive functions of govern- 
 ment should only be appointed by the King " with the advice 
 of the Estates." The matter was now brought up iu the Par- 
 liament in Edinburgh, and the King signified his intention of 
 granting the demand and of nominating such officials, subject to 
 the advice which might be given him by members of that House. 
 When the Estates, we are told, " had receaved this gratious answer 
 from his Majesties owne mouthe, they all arrosse and bowed 
 themselves to the ground." ^ 
 
 It is possil^le that he expected that the grateful acknowledg- 
 ment of this astonishing concession would naturally be followed 
 by a sparing use of the power of veto which he thus granted to 
 Parliament ; and that, if he nominated prominent members of the 
 Covenanting party to some of the offices of State, he would be 
 allowed to appoint to some of the others men who had shown 
 themselves devoted to his interests throughout the struggles which 
 were now at an end. Yet we cannot wonder that the popular 
 leaders were determined not to allow the main offices of State 
 to be held by their defeated opponents. The principle that the 
 spoils belong to the victors would have forbidden such an arrange- 
 ment ; and, even if the victors had lieen willing to forego their 
 rights, it is questionable whether they would have been justified 
 in doing so. The struggle to secure a reasonable measure of 
 civil and religious liberty had been too recent, and the result of 
 it had been too precarious, for them to imperil what they had 
 won by entrusting the administration of public affairs to the 
 hands of their adversaries. To accept the King's nominees 
 might have had the semblance of generosity, but it certainly 
 would not have been for the public good. 
 
 ^ Balfour, Annals, vol. iii. p. C>5. 
 
138 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 The two main offices of State were the Chancellorship and 
 the Treasurership, to the former of which the King nominated 
 the Earl of Loudon, one of the most prominent and zealous 
 of the Covenanting leaders. The majority of the Estates would 
 have been pleased to see Argyll appointed Treasurer ; but, in 
 the opinion of a strong minority, his power was already too great 
 to permit of such an addition to it. In place of him his father- 
 in-law, the Earl of Morton, a Koyalist of the most pronounced 
 type, was nominated for the office. The nomination was reso- 
 lutely opposed by Argyll himself, who affirmed that his kinsman 
 was unfit for such an office since he was heavily in debt. Already 
 during the negotiations at the time of the first Bishops' War, 
 we heard of " bitter and evil speech " between the two Earls, 
 or at any rate of such being addressed by the elder to the younger. 
 Something of the same kind which BailHe describes as "a verie 
 foule flyting [scolding-match] " now took place.^ The Earl of 
 Morton asserted that for twenty years he had educated and 
 protected Argyll and that consequently the latter was in no 
 slight degree indebted to him for the position in Scotland which 
 he now held. But this was no answer to the charge of being 
 himself burdened with debt. Some urged the King not to give 
 way ; but next day the Earl of Morton asked permission to 
 withdraw his claims to the office and thus relieved Charles from 
 a somewhat embarrassing position. 
 
 The King thereupon nominated the Earl of Almond, who 
 had been second in command of the Scottish army which had 
 invaded Northumberland ; but Ai'gyll was equally firm in oppos- 
 ing his appointment. He had, he said, always been a special 
 friend of Almond's, but the pubHc welfare was to be preferred 
 to private friendship. The explanation of the objection made to 
 him was that he had been one of those who had signed the 
 Bond of Cumbernauld, and that, if he were appointed to the office 
 in question, there would be a risk of his doing much harm by 
 acting as leader to the malcontents. The Parliament accord- 
 ingly put its veto upon the appointment and began to claim 
 the right to nominate such officials, and thus to reverse the 
 relations in which at present they stood to the King. After 
 a month's delay Charles was again forced to give way to the 
 majority, and he sent a message to the Earl of Almond asking 
 him to follow the example of the Earl of Morton and to decline 
 being nominated for the office. Ultimately the Treasurership 
 
 1 Lttlers, vol. i. p. 390. 
 
SOURCE OF ARGYLL'S POWER 139 
 
 was put in commission, under the charge of five commissioners, 
 of whom Argyll was one. The lists of Privy Councillors and 
 other officials given in by the King were subjected to severe 
 scrutiny, the names of persons regarded as suspicious were struck 
 out remorselessly, and in their place were inserted the names of 
 those in whom the Covenanting leaders had confidence.^ 
 
 We cannot doubt that Charles regarded the defeat of his 
 plans and the increasing power of Argyll, who had triumphed 
 in every contest with his Sovereign, with an impatience and 
 irritation which it would be difficult for him to conceal, and that 
 the feeling which he already cherished, that in the Highland 
 chieftain he had a personal enemy, became more and more 
 intense. Yet a moment's refiection might have convinced him 
 that the strength of Argyll lay in the fact of his representing 
 the convictions, the feelings, and the aspirations of the great 
 majority of the people of Scotland, and not in any mere 
 force of character possessed by him or spirit of overweening 
 pride which urged him to oppose his Sovereign's will. This is 
 a fact which has often been overlooked in later times when his 
 conduct has been under criticism, and he has consequently been 
 sometimes hastily condemned as a mischievous influence by which 
 the current of public affairs in Scotland was for a considerable 
 period disturbed and turned awry. That which rendered him at 
 present an irresistible force in public life was the clearness with 
 which he realized, and the fidelity with which he expressed, the 
 national sentiments and claims. 
 
 The power of the King to exercise any control over the party 
 which had been dominant in Scotland since the drawing up of 
 the Covenant was seriously limited by the fact that there was 
 no statesman of weight on the Eoyalist side to be a serious rival 
 to Argyll. Montrose was in prison ; his associates in the Bond 
 of Cumbernauld were under a cloud ; while the Covenanting 
 leaders had already reduced to impotence the Eoyalist party. 
 The risk of being plundered of their property and treated as 
 " Incendiaries " was certain to reduce very considerably the 
 number of Charles's thoroughgoing supporters. The Marquess 
 of Hamilton, who had at an early stage in the contest represented 
 the royal power in Scotland and had both dissolved the Glasgow 
 Assembly and been in command of forces to reduce the country 
 to obedience, had exposed himself to grave suspicion of encourag- 
 ing the rebellion which he denounced and was commissioned 
 
 ^ Petcrkin, Records, p. 313. 
 
140 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 to suppress. By a private arrangement with the King he 
 had recently undertaken to mingle with the Covenanters as 
 one of themselves and to play the part of a spy ; ^ but, though 
 no human being can now unravel his tortuous intrigues, there 
 was full reason to believe that he had gone over to the popular 
 side, and was along with his brother, the Earl of Lanark, hand in 
 glove with Argyll. By so acting he had no doubt drawn down 
 on himself the royal displeasure, but he had saved himself from 
 the still greater risk to which he would have been exposed if he 
 had been prosecuted as an " Incendiary " and as one of the authors 
 of the evil counsels which the King had followed so faithfully. 
 
 It would have been surprising if the mortification and anger 
 with which Charles must have regarded the overthrow of the 
 schemes which he had hoped to promote with the aid of his 
 northern subjects had not infected some of his more reckless 
 followers, and led them to plan an act of violence against their 
 leading opponents. The discovery of a plot of this kind led 
 to the startling event which has in Scotch history received the 
 name of " The Incident," concerning which a large mass of con- 
 fused and contradictory details have come down to us. And 
 though the task of constructing a consistent and trustworthy 
 narrative of the occurrence might well seem hopeless, there can 
 be no doubt that Argyll and his confederates were at this time 
 exposed to very real danger from several quarters : on the one 
 hand they had incurred tlie anger of the King whom they had 
 so persistently and successfully thwarted, and on the other they 
 had aroused the jealousy of the feudal aristocracy of Scotland, 
 who saw the power which had been wrested from the grasp of 
 the Sovereign wielded by the democracy and by those who acted 
 as its leaders. 
 
 The Earl of Montrose, who was still a prisoner in Edinburgh 
 Castle, wrote on two occasions letters to the King in which he 
 offered to reveal a matter " which not only concerned his honour 
 in a high degree, but also the standing and falling of his crown " ; ^ 
 but apparently they were treated as the mere devices of a 
 desperate man to recover freedom. But on the 11th of October 
 Charles received another letter in which Montrose declared that 
 he could prove that the Marquess of Hamilton was a traitor. 
 This statement could not be easily ignored, and the King laid 
 it before some of the Privy Council, among whom was the Earl 
 
 ' Ihid., Records, p. 232. 
 
 "Napier, Memorials of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 5. 
 
♦'THE INCIDENT" 141 
 
 of Argyll, in order to obtain their advice upon the matter. But 
 on this very day Argyll had received intelligence from another 
 quarter that he himself was in risk of his life. The same charge 
 of treasonable conduct might in the opinion of many be brought 
 against him on as good grounds as against Hamilton, and the 
 definite purpose of seizing them both seems to have been formed. 
 Whether the King was privy to this or not is doubtful. We 
 can with perfect confidence believe that he would shrink from 
 any proposal to assassinate his political opponents, but it is quite 
 possible that he knew of the suggestion to apprehend them, or 
 that he gave orders for their apprehension with a view to a 
 regular legal trial for treason, even though it was probable that 
 their armed followers would offer strenuous resistance to their 
 being taken prisoners. 
 
 The discredit of planning something very like the murder of 
 Argyll and Hamilton belongs to the Earl of Crawford, who, like 
 so many others of that time, had learned evil lessons of cunning 
 and ferocity in the Thirty Years' War in Germany, where, as a 
 Roman Catholic, he had fought in the Austrian army. He pro- 
 posed to entrap them both and carry them off to a ship then 
 lying in the Firth of Forth, and, in case of any endeavour at a 
 rescue, to put them to death. The news of what was likely to 
 be attempted reached the ears of General Leslie, who frustrated 
 the plot by giving timely warning to those against whom it was 
 directed. Both of them informed the King of the danger to 
 which they had been exposed, and withdrew from the Court. 
 On the following day the Parliament at once ordered an inves- 
 tigation to be made into the whole matter ; and as the King, on 
 proceeding thither to clear his good name from the slur cast 
 upon it by the surmise that the plot had been formed with his 
 cognizance, was indiscreet enough to allow himself to be accom- 
 panied by a band of five hundred devoted partisans, Argyll and 
 Hamilton and Hamilton's brother Lanark considered that their 
 lives were not safe and fled from the city. They took refuge at 
 Kinneil House, a feudal keep which belonged to Hamilton and 
 was situated some twelve miles from the capital in the neighbour- 
 hood of the modern town of Bo'ness. 
 
 The excitement caused in Edinburgh by the flight of Argyll 
 and his companions was very great, and in the popular mind the 
 evil resolved upon or planned against the Covenanting leaders 
 was but part of a large scheme for the re-establishment of tyranny. 
 Wild rumours were current as to Eoyalist proposals for 
 
142 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 suppressing the Parliament by armed force, for the trial by 
 martial law of those who had been prominent in opposing the 
 King's authority, and for introducing into the city Highland 
 soldiery. Border ruffians, or Irish cut-throats, all of whom were 
 regarded with acute terror.^ The King felt very keenly the 
 stigma which these widespread fears and suspicions cast upon 
 his honour, and he laboured with passionate intensity of feeling to 
 regain the public confidence. " With tears in his eyes, and as it 
 seemed with very great grief," says an eye-witness. Sir James 
 Balfour,^ he announced to his Parliament that three of the lead- 
 ing statesmen in the kingdom, one of them his own kinsman, had 
 fled from the city on the pretext that their lives were not safe 
 by his side. His anger burned more hotly against Hamilton than 
 against his two associates, and indeed he accused him of per- 
 suading Argyll to strike this cruel blow against his honour ; ^ 
 and, with a pathos which must have touched every generous 
 heart in that audience, he referred, in his speech to the Parliament, 
 to a former occasion when Hamilton had been accused on very 
 strong evidence of a plot against his life, and he had refused to 
 believe the charge and had shown his confidence in the loyalty 
 of his Idnsman and friend by giving orders for him to sleep in 
 the royal bed-chamber.* 
 
 The King pressed for a public investigation into the matter 
 by the whole House, but this was overruled and a Committee of 
 the Estates undertook the task. Yet, though the depositions of 
 witnesses were elaborate and voluminous, and the King was con- 
 strained to lay before the Committee his correspondence with 
 Montrose, little that was definite emerged into view. After long 
 consideration of the whole affair the general conclusion arrived 
 at seems to have been that the fugitive statesmen had had good 
 reason for " absenting themselves for a time to avoid tumults," 
 and that the King was altogether guiltless of any blame in the 
 matter. In the opinion of some the alleged plot was nothing 
 more than " the drunken discourses of three or four soldiers." ^ 
 The upshot of the whole was that Argyll's power was estabhshed 
 on a firmer basis than ever, and so great was his triumph over 
 his opponents and over his Sovereign that he could afford to 
 consent to a general amnesty. He and his companions in danger 
 
 ^ Burton, History, vol. vi. p. 339. ^Annals, vol. iii. p. 95. 
 
 3 State Papers, Dom., 1641-43, p. 139. 
 
 ^ See Burnet's Dukes of Hamilton, p. 16 ct seq. 
 
 5 State Paxiers, Dom., 1641-43, p. 156. 
 
DIVISION OF ECCLESIASTICAL REVENUES 143 
 
 and flight returned to Edinburgh, and in token of reconciliation 
 went to Holyrood to kiss the King's hand. The Earl of Craw- 
 ford and others who had been accused of being involved in the 
 plot to assassinate were liberated ; and in a short time Montrose 
 and his associates were also set free, on condition of giving 
 security that they would come up when summoned for trial by 
 a committee of the Estates. The completeness of the King's 
 surrender or defeat was strikingly demonstrated by the honours 
 which with lavish hand he showered upon his political adversaries. 
 The Earl of Argyll was made a Marquess with a pension of £1000 
 Sterling a year, the Marquess of Hamilton was made a Duke, and 
 Alexander Leslie, " the little crooked old soldier " who had so 
 successfully led the army of the Covenant, was raised to the 
 peerage witli the title of Earl of Leven. Indeed, on all those 
 who had been prominent in resisting the King's authority and 
 in thwarting his policy, titles and rewards were conferred, as 
 Clarendon with a tinge of pardonable bitterness remarks, " in 
 proportion to the capacity and ability they had for doing him 
 a mischief ; " and, according to the same historian, all that had 
 been effected by the royal visit to Scotland was the making " a 
 perfect deed of gift of that kingdom " to the Covenanting party.^ 
 The revenues of the Episcopal estabhshment, which many 
 would have liked to secure to the Presbyterian Church for the 
 augmentation of the very meagre stipends of a large number of 
 its working clergy, were distributed in other quarters. The four 
 Universities in Scotland received portions of them, and most of 
 the rest was divided among friends of the Covenanting cause.^ 
 The revenue of the see of Ai^gyll and the Isles was bestowed 
 upon the Marquess of Argyll as his share.^ Nor was there any- 
 thing necessarily discreditable in this arrangement. It was but 
 just to repay him some part of the great expense which he must 
 have incurred in rendering the services which the vast majority 
 of his countrymen appreciated so highly ; and it is to be pre- 
 sumed that the Parliament which had diverted endowments 
 from the Eoman Catholic Church and applied them for the 
 support of Protestantism, had the right, as it certainly had the 
 power, to deal as it chose with some part of them and now use it 
 for purposes which approved themselves to it as worthy. The 
 
 ^ History, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 405 (edition of 1826) 
 - Peterkiu, Records, p. 317. 
 
 * The revenue of the Bishopric of Argyll is put down by Kirkton as £130 
 Sterling {History of the Church of Scotland, p. 135). 
 
144 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Marquess of Argyll may have been ambitious of rule, though, 
 in consequence of the position in which he was born, and the 
 circumstances in which he was placed, the exercise of authority 
 seems to have been rather thrust upon him than sought by him ; 
 but no one has just grounds for accusing him of the sordid vice 
 of greed. In a petition which he afterwards addressed to the 
 Protector for relief from some of the public debts for which he 
 along with others had become responsible he proudly declares 
 that he had not drawn pay for any of the offices, civil or military, 
 which he had held. Neither as a member of the Committee of 
 Estates, nor as president of the section of the same body which 
 accompanied the army on various occasions, nor as colonel, nor as 
 commander-in-chief had he received public money, with the excep- 
 tion of a solitary £100 Sterling, and in no campaign had he ever 
 availed himself of the free quarters to which many in his circum- 
 stances would have thought themselves entitled.^ So far from 
 enriching himself at the expense of his country the losses which 
 he sustained in her service were, as we shall see, extremely 
 severe. 
 
 Charles I. was recalled from Scotland to London by the news 
 which he received early in November, 1641, of the rebellion 
 which had taken place in Ireland. The first tidings which 
 reached him were serious enough, yet gave no intimation of the 
 appalling horrors which, as soon came to be known, attended 
 that outbreak and made it for ever infamous in history. He 
 announced to the Scotch Parliament that it was possible that 
 he would have to call upon them to aid him in suppressing the 
 revolt,^ and received assm-ance of their willingness to respond to 
 his desires in the matter. 
 
 One of the last things done in the Parliament was to 
 present Argyll with the patent by which he was created a 
 Marquess : " wich being read," says the historian, " hes Ma*"*, 
 in presence of the housse, dehvered the same to him out of hes 
 auen Eoyal hand, wich he on hes knees receaved, randring his 
 Maiesty humble and harty thankes for so grate a grace and 
 favour, far by [beyond] hes merite and expectatione, bestoued 
 one him." ^ The Estates had decided to meet at least once every 
 three years, and before dispersing to fix the date of their next 
 assembhng ; and accordingly on the 17th of November, 1641, 
 
 ^ State Papers, Bom., 15th July, 1656. 
 
 * Burton, History of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 340. 
 
 " Balfour, Annals, vol. iii. p. 164. 
 
CHARLES'S FAREWELL TO SCOTLAND 145 
 
 they decided to adjourn until tlie first Tuesday of Juno, 1644. 
 In the meantime a large Parliamentary Commission was 
 appointed to act as an executive Government and to manage 
 public affairs, and thus the functions of sovereignty and its 
 prerogatives were virtually extinguished in Scotland. 
 
 In closing speeches Charles was assured that, since he had 
 given satisfaction in all things concerning religion and lil^erty, he 
 was departing " a contented prince from a contented people." ^ 
 Yet his share in the general satisfaction was probably but very 
 small, and many anxious thoughts must have pressed upon his 
 mind as he sat among his nobles at a farewell feast in the great 
 hall of Holyrood Palace, the night before his departure for 
 London. His dream of obtaining help from Scotland for control- 
 ling his turbulent English subjects had melted away ; and, now 
 that his bands were weaker, the fresh task had been given him 
 of extinguishing the flames of rebellion which had so suddenly 
 burst out in his third kingdom. No one need have envied him 
 his regal crown within which so many thorns were set, nor the 
 glittering royal apparel which must often have oppressed him 
 with a leaden weight, as he now went on his way to meet new 
 humiliations and experience yet more disastrous failures. 
 
 The struggle between Charles I. and the Covenanting leaders 
 was now at an end, and the latter had good reason to be satisfied 
 with the results secured. Episcopacy had been utterly over- 
 thrown, and the form of Church-government dear to the people 
 of Scotland had been established in its stead. Arbitrary govern- 
 ment had been abolished, and the power wrested from the hands 
 of the King had been lodged in those of the Parliament. These 
 changes had been brought about more by the display than by the 
 use of armed force — a circumstance which considerably flattered 
 the national vanity — and were now accepted by the Sovereign and 
 formally sanctioned by the Legislature. Eor several years from 
 this time the nation had rest from political and ecclesiastical 
 agitation of a serious kind, and watched with deep interest the 
 struggles of the English people to secure a measure of liberty 
 like that which they themselves enjoyed. 
 
 The concessions which Charles I. had been forced to make 
 to the popular demands in England, and the inclination which 
 he seemed at this time to show of being willing to reign 
 as a constitutional Sovereign, served to divide the ranks of his 
 opponents and to strengthen the Royalist party. The leaders of 
 
 ^ Peteikin, Records, p. 317. 
 lO 
 
146 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 the House of Commons, however, were not deceived by his policy, 
 but they were determined to ward off the danger in which they 
 stood of being crushed by some reactionary and violent step on the 
 part of the King, and they aimed at securing in their own hands 
 the command of the militia, then the only military force existing 
 in the kingdom. That their fear was not unfounded was proved by 
 the attempt made by Charles, on 4th January, 1642, to seize five 
 of the leading members of the House of Commons on the charge 
 of treason. In face of the popular indignation which this breach 
 of the privileges of Parliament aroused the King's position 
 became untenable, and a week after the outrage he left London, 
 never to return except as a prisoner with the prospect before 
 him of that violent death which waits so closely upon captive 
 kings. The next few months were spent by both parties in 
 preparations for war. 
 
 Early in the month of April the King announced to the 
 English Parliament and to the Scotch Privy Council that he 
 intended to raise a force of two thousand infantry and two 
 hundred horse, and provide them with arms from the magazine 
 at Hull, where the military stores belonging to the late northern 
 army were kept, and to proceed to Ireland to suppress the 
 rebellion there. The belief that this was but a device to obtain 
 the command of troops to be used for his own purposes, and that 
 this army would probably be reinforced from Ireland from the 
 ranks of those against whom he proposed to lead it, many of 
 whom declared they were on his side, was strong both in England 
 and Scotland. The Scotch Privy Council, in reply to his 
 message, advised him to give up the Irish expedition and come 
 to terms with his Parliament. No other reply than this need 
 have been expected. The influence of Argyll was supreme in 
 Scotland at this time, and his resolution to stand by the English 
 Parliament was firmly fixed.^ Charles advanced upon Hull to 
 take possession of the arms and ammunition there, but the gates 
 were closed against him by Sir John Hotham, who held the town 
 for the Parliament. After this technical act of rebellion — for 
 there can be no doubt that the munitions of war belonged to the 
 King and that his taking possession of them would have been an 
 act quite within his right — all hope of accommodation was past, 
 and civil war was certain as soon as one of the parties felt itself 
 able to strike the first blow. 
 
 ' Gardiner, History of England, vol. x. p. 194 ; Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 247. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Outbreak of the Civil War in England — Argyll and the General Assembly — 
 Appeal from the Parliamentary Party to Scotland for help — "The 
 Solemn League and Covenant" — Negotiations of the Covenanters with 
 Montrose — A Scotch Army again invades England — Argyll recalled to 
 suppress a Royalist Rising under Huntly — His Success in accomplishing 
 this task. 
 
 CHARLES now formally appealed to the Privy Council of 
 Scotland to consider the wrongs done to him by the 
 English Parliament, and to send commissioners to it to protest 
 against its proceedings. In order to secure a vote in his favour 
 the King summoned all the members of the Privy Council on 
 whom he could rely to be present at the meeting at which the 
 matter was to be considered. According to the custom of the 
 country and time the nobles and others thus summoned came up 
 to Edinburgh accompanied by as many armed retainers as they 
 could muster ; and so threatening was the aspect of matters that 
 the Lord Chancellor Loudon and the Marquess of Argyll were 
 believed to be in danger of their lives. " There was," says 
 Baillie, " a great rumor raised of a wicked designe against 
 Argyle's persone ; bot incontinent [immediately] the gentrie 
 and ministrie of Fyfe running over in thousands, and the 
 Louthians with the towne of Edinburgh cleaving to Argyle above 
 expectation, the Banders' ^ courage and companies of horse and 
 foot melted as snow in a hott sunshyne." ^ In presence of 
 so many stalwart defenders of the Covenanting cause, who de- 
 manded that peace should be kept with the English Parliament, 
 the Privy Council was helpless. The only reply they could 
 return to the King was that no assistance need be expected by 
 him from Scotland in any conflict with his English subjects. 
 At last, on the 22nd August, 1642, Charles I. raised the royal 
 standard at Nottingham, and summoned " all his loving subjects 
 
 ' Banders, i.e. supporters of Montrose and others who subscribed the Bond or 
 *' Band " of Cumbernauld. 
 
 2 Letters, vol. ii. p. 43 ; Gardiner, History, vol. x. p. 203. 
 
 M7 
 
148 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 to assist him in suppressing the rebellion of the Earl of Essex in 
 raising forces against him," ^ that noble being in command of the 
 Parliamentary army. 
 
 It was a matter of considerable importance for the leaders 
 of the Parliamentary party to be on terms of good understand- 
 ing with the people of Scotland, whose admirably equipped and 
 disciplined army had secured for them so large a measure of 
 civil and religious liberty. Accordingly at the Assembly in St 
 Andrews in 1642, a month before the outbreak of the Civil War 
 in England, letters from them were read, along with a message of 
 goodwill from the King, couched in terms of more than usual 
 graciousness. The EngHsh Puritans did not seek for a definite 
 alliance with their brethren in the north, for probably most of 
 them were under the impression that a single battle would decide 
 the contest between themselves and the King ; ^ but they strove 
 to enlist the sympathies of the people of Scotland by setting forth 
 their earnest wishes for a thorough reformation of Church and 
 State, and by expressing strong condemnation of the Bishops and 
 their adherents. There can be no doubt that the general feeling 
 of the Assembly and of the people at large was favourable to 
 the English Parliamentary party, especially in view of the hopes, 
 which the leaders of that party were careful to encourage, of a 
 union of both nations in matters of faith, worship, and Church- 
 government. 
 
 At this meeting of the General Assembly in St Andrews the 
 Marquess of Argyll attended as an elder from the Presbytery of 
 Inveraray^ and took a prominent part in all the business that 
 
 ^ Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 780. 
 
 2 Baxter says, "We all thought one battle would decide it" (quoted by Carlyle, 
 Cromwell, vol. i. p. 110). 
 
 ' A note may be allowed here with regard to Argyll's connexion with the English 
 congregation in Inveraray. On 25tli November, 1650, he was appointed a member 
 of Session of that congregation, though he had acted before this in the capacity 
 of an elder. The minute of his appointment runs as follows: — "November 25, 
 1650. After invoking the name of God ther was a formall Election of My Lord 
 Marquess of Argyll, My Lord Lome, Georg Campbell, SherifT-Deput, Archibald 
 Campbell, Master [of the] houshold to My Lo. Marquess, Donald M^Olbory, 
 provost, Donald Cameron, William Loudoun, David Roger, Patrick Fleming, to be 
 elders ; lykwyse of John Zuil, William Brown, William Carudders, Duncan Fisher, 
 to be deacons, etc." Attendance of the Marquess at meetings of Session on tlie 
 following dates is noted: — "August 14, 1651 ; December 11, 1651; March 24, 
 1652; March 31, 1652; May 4, 1652; August 18, 1653; February 9, 1654; 
 August 14, 1657 ; October 14, 1658 ; January 12, 1659 ; January 20, 1659 ; 
 December 28, 1659 ; January 12, 1660 ; January 20, 1660" ; and after that date 
 no further mention is made of him. For these particulars we are indebted to the 
 courtesy of the Rev. D. A. Cameron Reid, B.D., the minister of Inveraray. 
 
A PURITAN HOUSEHOLD 149 
 
 was transacted. Baillie speaks with enthusiasm of the zeal 
 which he displayed.^ He was present at every meeting of the 
 Assembly, and he spoke on every subject that came up for con- 
 sideration in such a careful and painstaking way that his advice 
 was always greatly valued. He attended endless committee 
 meetings with unfailing punctuality, and never manifested, and 
 probably never experienced, the least weariness. Baillie noticed 
 with amused admiration the dexterity with which he managed 
 to checkmate some fussy members of the Assembly, who were 
 anxious to be appointed commissioners to England, by having them 
 put on the committee for nomination of persons for that office, 
 where of course it was impossible for them to nominate them- 
 selves. In short, he showed that from nature and from grace 
 he had received the gifts which would have fitted him to be 
 both an ecclesiastic and a leader in the General Assembly of 
 a Presbyterian Church, whilst by the irony of fate he had been 
 born a Highland chieftain. 
 
 The historian Wodrow gives us some details with regard to 
 the Marquess's domestic habits which confirm this view of his 
 character. His information is derived from Mr Alexander 
 Gordon, the minister of Inveraray, and gives us an interesting 
 glimpse into the interior of a Puritan household of the time. 
 " He told me," says Wodrow, " that the Marquis of Argyle was 
 very piouse. He rose at five and was still ^ in privat till 
 eight. That besides family worship, and privat prayer morning 
 and evening, he still prayed with his lady morning and evening, 
 his gentleman and her gentlewoman being present ; that he 
 never went abroad, though but for one night, but he took his 
 write-book, standish [ink-stand], and the English notes, Bible, 
 and Neuman's Concordance with him." He goes on to tell of 
 arrangements with regard to preaching at Inveraray on Sunday 
 forenoons and afternoons, and on Thursdays, and adds that " the 
 Marquis still wrote the sermon." This last item of information 
 is imexpected, and we think highly curious.^ 
 
 In the early stage of the Civil War matters turned out 
 unfortunately for the Parliament. The first great battle, that of 
 Edgehill (2.3rd October, 1642), was indecisive, and both sides 
 claimed the victory, but the advantage really lay with the King. 
 In the course of the following year disasters accumulated thickly 
 upon the Parliamentary arms. The King was firmly established 
 
 1 Letters, vol. ii. p. 47. ^ << still," i.e. always. 
 
 ' Analecta, vol. i, p. 22. 
 
150 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 in Oxford, and the main army of his opponents protected London 
 but did very little work of an aggressive character. In the 
 north their forces, led by Lord Fairfax and his son, were almost 
 driven out of Yorkshire by the Eoyalist troops under the Duke 
 of Newcastle ; while in the west Sir William Waller experienced 
 one crushing defeat after another, and with the loss of Bristol 
 (26th July) the cause of the Parliament in that quarter seemed 
 almost hopelessly ruined. Only in the eastern counties and in 
 Lincolnshire, where Cromwell was in command, was there anvthim^ 
 like distinct and continuous success. In these circumstances the 
 English Parliamentary leaders resolved to ask assistance from 
 Scotland, and with a view to this proposed to conclude a formal 
 treaty with that country. 
 
 Accordingly at the meeting of the General Assembly in 
 August, 1643, the younger Sir Harry Vane and three other mem- 
 bers of the House of Commons, along with two ministers, made 
 their appearance as commissioners from the English Parliament 
 to enlist the sympathy and help of their northern brethren. Tliey 
 announced the fact that they were anxious for a reformation of 
 religion in England, and that a number of divines were assembled 
 at Westminster to deliberate upon the matter, who were desirous 
 of aid from Scotland in the way of counsel and co-operation ; and 
 they asked the General Assembly both to appoint commissioners 
 to act along with these divines, and also to use their iniluence in 
 procuring material help for the Parliamentary party in England. 
 In addition to this appeal a letter was presented by the com- 
 missioners signed by more than seventy ministers " supplicating," 
 as Baillie says, " in a most deplorable style, help in their present 
 most desperate condition." ^ So lamentable indeed was their 
 story that we learn from the same authority that the letter when 
 read drew tears from many eyes. All in the Assembly were 
 convinced that it was impossible to refuse to intervene at this 
 critical time in the contest between the King and the Parliament ; 
 and the only question was as to whether they should attempt to 
 mediate between the conflicting parties, or openly take the side 
 of the English Puritans. The policy of mediation would probably 
 have been decided upon ; but the futility of it was so clearly 
 set forth by Johnstone of Warriston that it was abandoned, and 
 the momentous decision was arrived at to conclude an alliance 
 with the Parliamentary party. The English commissioners were 
 anxious that this should take the form of " a civil league," but 
 
 1 Letters, vol. ii. p. &9. 
 
ALLIANCE WITH ENGLISH PURITANS 151 
 
 the General Assembly would hear of nothing but " a religious 
 covenant," and ultimately they got their way.^ 
 
 The causes which moved the people of Scotland, who had 
 assured Charles I. on the occasion of his last visit to them of 
 their contentment, to range themselves on the side of his enemies 
 have been differently estimated by different writers. Nothing 
 had happened since that declaration was made to undermine 
 their security, or to threaten the overthrow of their dearly 
 prized liberty. Dv Gardiner suggests that the Covenanting 
 leaders were urged by political considerations to support the 
 movement in favour of an alliance with the English Parliament. 
 " Amongst the Presbyterian leaders," he says, " Argyll, at least, 
 was clear-sighted enough to perceive that Charles's triumph over 
 Pym would inevitably be followed by a reaction in Scotland, 
 supported by the bulk of the nobility through jealousy of the 
 new organization of the middle-classes and of the power of the 
 Presbyterian clergy." ^ Yet there does not seem to be evidence 
 to prove that any such considerations had weight with those 
 who advocated and supported the alliance in question. 
 
 The General Assembly, in their unanimous decision to enter 
 .nto a religious covenant rather than a political league, made 
 it quite evident that they regarded the line of action on which 
 :hey entered as likely to promote the interests of religion, and, 
 whether their judgment was sound or false, there can be no 
 doubt that this was the end they had in view. The idea 
 that Episcopacy was a human though a very ancient invention, 
 and essentially pernicious in character, and that Presbyterianism 
 was the only lawful form of Church-government, was deeply 
 engrained in their minds, and they could not resist the tempta- 
 tion to take advantage of what seemed an almost Divine call 
 to establish it in England. Had they proposed to do so by 
 means of persuasion, no fault could have been found with their 
 procedure, but unfortunately the decision to send an army into 
 England, conditionally upon the religious part of the ]3rogramme 
 being accepted, was virtually a repetition of the attempt which 
 Charles I. had made and been forced to abandon, to promote 
 the cause of religion at the point of the sword. 
 
 The most usual explanation of the eagerness of the people of 
 Scotland to enter into this alhance with the English Parliament 
 is that they were persuaded that if Charles I. succeeded in over- 
 coming his enemies, he would speedily withdraw the concessions 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. ii. p. 90. ^ Civil War, vol. i. p. 265. 
 
152 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 he had been compelled to make in Scotland, and re-establish 
 both the Episcopacy and the absolute government under which 
 the nation had groaned. According to this view of matters 
 they broke their contract with him on the ground that he might 
 possibly at some time break it with them. But very little 
 support for such a theory can be found in the literature 
 which reflects the opinions and feelings of the nation at that 
 time. Occasionally there are faint allusions to some such 
 danger ; but certainly there is nowhere to be found any trace 
 of the panic-stricken fear which such a surmise would need to 
 excite in order to force a people into immediate warfare in 
 self-defence. The Solemn League and Covenant, when first 
 read over to the General Assembly, " was received," says Bailhe, 
 " with the greatest applause, and with heartie affections, ex- 
 pressed in tears of pitie and joy by verie manie grave, wise, 
 and old men. ... In the afternoon with the same cordiall 
 unanimitie it did passe the Convention of Estates." ^ Nothing 
 but keen religious feehng could have produced such an effect 
 upon the General Assembly ; and there is no reason to doubt 
 that the dominant political party with which the Church was 
 in alliance were to a very large extent affected by the same 
 influence. Some shrewd and cool-headed pohticians among 
 those who then guided pubHc affairs in Scotland may have had 
 but little interest in the movement as a religious crusade, while 
 they heartily approved of it as securing the co-operation of the 
 people of Scotland with the political faction in England, with 
 whose aims they were in sympathy. Theoretically, England 
 might be described as an adjoining kingdom from whose affairs at 
 this period it was possible and desirable for the people of Scotland 
 to keep aloof. But practically it was found impossible to main- 
 tain this attitude of isolation ; and when once it became clear to 
 all concerned that mediation between the victorious Eoyahsts 
 and the hard-pressed Parliamentary party was out of the ques- 
 tion, Scotland felt constrained to cast in her lot with those who 
 were struggling to secure the same rights and privileges which 
 she had won. And so the course which the rehgious enthusiast 
 welcomed appeared also to the politician of Laodicean temper 
 as highly desirable. 
 
 The question as to the moral character of their procedure 
 towards Charles I. is but seldom considered by those who 
 sympathize with the action of the Covenanting leaders at this 
 
 * Letters, vol. ii. p. 90. 
 
SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT L^S 
 
 crisis in Scotch history. They had obtained from him con- 
 cessions which amply satisfied their demands, and, had they 
 not chosen to take part in the civil war in the neighbouring 
 kingdom, there seems no reason to believe that they would ever 
 as;aiu have been in hostile relations with their Sovereign.^ 
 When the Covenanting leaders chose to break the contract with 
 the King, they released him and his successors from obligation 
 to abide by the concessions which had been made in 1641 to the 
 demands of the people of Scotland, and they prepared the way 
 for the truculent legislation of twenty years later which swept 
 all traces of them from the statute-book. "Woe be to you, 
 Presbyterians especially," said Milton, " if ever any of Charles's 
 race recover the English sceptre. Believe me, you shall pay 
 all the reckoning." ^ 
 
 The deliberations of the General Assembly with regard to 
 the alliance with the English Parliamentary party were brought 
 to a conclusion by the adoption of the Solemn League and 
 Covenant, in which both nations bound themselves to join 
 together " to preserve themselves and their religion from utter 
 ruin and destruction." This docimient was largely based on 
 the Scotch National Covenant of 1638, and it pledged those 
 who accepted it to maintain the Church as it then existed in 
 Scotland, and to endeavour to secure uniformity between it and 
 the Churches in England and Ireland, by reforming the latter 
 " according to the word of God, and the example of the best 
 reformed Churches." ^ The vagueness which characterized the 
 description of the nature of the religious reformation to be 
 undertaken in England and Ireland was due to the influence of 
 Vane, who was anxious to avoid pledging the EngHsh people to 
 a servile imitation of the Church of Scotland. His desire, as 
 BailHe phrased it, " to keep a door open in England for Inde- 
 pendency," * and to secure for the Parliament a large measure 
 of control over the Church, which was inconsistent with the 
 theory of Presbyterianism, indicated points of divergence from 
 
 ^ This view of matters was afterwards very forcibly expressed by Montrose in a 
 conference with some ministers before his execution. "But when," he said, 
 "the King had granted you all your desires, and you were every one sitting 
 under his vine and under his fig-tree, that then you should have taken a party 
 in England by the hand, and entered into a league and covenant with them 
 against the King, was the thing I judged it my duty to oppose to the yondmost 
 [uttermost]" {Diet. Nat. Blog., "James Graham, Marquess of Montrose "). 
 
 - Quoted in Morison's Johnston of Warristcm, p. 119. 
 
 ' Peterkin, Records, p. 362. 
 
 ■• Letters, vol. ii. p. 90 ; Burnet, Dulces of Hamilton, p. 307. 
 
154 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 the Scotch model which afterwards came more clearly into 
 view. The Solemn League and Covenant also provided for 
 the extirpation of Popery and Episcopacy, for the maintenance 
 of the rights and privileges of the two Parliaments, and for 
 the punishment of "incendiaries and malignants," by whom 
 were to be understood all persons hostile to the objects which 
 the contracting parties declared it to be their purpose to 
 promote. 
 
 The Covenant, after being ratified by the Estates,^ was sent 
 up to London, and on the 25th September, 1643, it was 
 solemnly sworn to with uplifted hands by the members of the 
 Assembly of Divines, and of the House of Commons together 
 with those of the House of Lords who still adhered to them, at 
 St Margaret's, Westminster,^ It was then sent down to Scotland, 
 where it was in like manner sworn to by the Committee of the 
 Estates and the Commission of the Assembly, and issued for 
 acceptance by the nation at large. The way was now open 
 for the people of Scotland to enter into active co-operation with 
 the English Parliament in the warfare which had hitherto been 
 waged with such varying success. They undertook to supply 
 an army of eighteen thousand infantry, three thousand cavalry 
 and a train of artillery, and required payment of £30,000 
 Sterling a month from their English allies. The Earl of Leven was 
 appointed to the chief command, and his nephew, David Leslie, 
 who ultimately proved the abler soldier of the two, received 
 the post of Lieutenant-General. 
 
 A very curious and unexpected suggestion had been made 
 with regard to the office which was bestowed upon David Leslie, 
 and that was to offer it to the Earl of Montrose, who was at 
 this time known by many to be out of humour with the King, 
 and whose military reputation was of a high order. Had he 
 been won over to the Covenanting party, the risk of a Koyalist 
 rising in Scotland would have been virtually at an end. In 
 July, 1643, when there was a prospect that an army would 
 be sent into England, BailHe says that Argyll and his associates 
 would have been content in the public interest to overlook 
 Montrose's past behaviour and employ him, but that they 
 found him " verie double," and that negotiations with him 
 turned out to be fruitless.^ The fact of the matter was that 
 Charles I. was at this time under the influence of Hamilton, 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. ii, p. 91 ; Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 47. 
 - Gardiner, Civil War, vol. i. p. 275. ^ Letters, vol. ii. p. 74. 
 
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ARREST OF HAMILTON 155 
 
 upon whom he had just conferred a Dukedom.^ The latter 
 assured him thue after time that there was no groimd for fearing 
 any danger from Scotland, and had pledged himself to that 
 country's remaining loyal to him.^ The information which 
 Montrose gave the King of the critical state of affairs in Scot- 
 land, and his repeated assertions that it was only by prompt and 
 vigorous action that a fresh invasion of England by a Covenant- 
 ing army could be averted, were ignored, and he found himself 
 treated as a mere hot-headed dreamer. 
 
 In these circumstances overtures were made to him by the 
 Covenanting party, and no effort was spared in the attempt to 
 entice him to cast in his lot with them. They offered to pay 
 all his debts, which were considerable, and to give him the second 
 place in the army which they proposed to raise, as Lieutenant- 
 General to the Earl of Leven. Montrose, it is almost certain, had 
 no intention of accepting the tempting proposal, but he protracted 
 the negotiations for some time, probably in order to discover as 
 much as possible of the plans which the Covenanters had in 
 view. When he had assured himself that actual invasion of 
 England was contemplated, he broke off the negotiations and 
 withdrew to join the King at Oxford. It was not until the 
 Covenanting leaders began their military preparations that the 
 eyes of Charles were opened to Hamilton's treachery or fatuity, 
 and to the fact that Montrose had been right from the first. 
 After a formal enquiry into the conduct of the Duke he 
 was sent as prisoner to Pendeunis Castle in Devonshire, and 
 afterwards to St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, where he remained 
 until he was liberated in April, 1646, by the Parliamentary 
 forces.3 
 
 It was not until the month of January, 1644, that the second 
 invasion of England by a Covenanting army took place. Argyll 
 had command of a portion of the cavalry, and in addition to this 
 military office he was a representative of the " Committee of Both 
 Kingdoms," v/hich had been appointed to control the war.^ 
 His English colleague was Sir William Armyne, vrho had been 
 
 ^ Burnet, Dvkes of Hainilton, p. 287. 
 
 ^ " He gave the King many assurances and undertakings that he would at 
 least keep that peojile from doing anything that might seem to countenance the 
 carriage of the Parliament " (Clarendon, Histm-y, vul. ii. p. 89; Napier, Life of 
 Montrose, vol. ii. p. 376). 
 
 'Napier, Memoirs of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 381; Guthry, Mevwirs, p. 131 ; 
 Burnet, Duhcs of Hamilton, p. 321. 
 
 ■* C. S. Terry, Life and Cam;paigns of Alexander Leslie, p. 177. 
 
156 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 a commissioner to the General Assembly in Edinburgh along 
 with Sir Harry Vane when the aid of the northern kingdom was 
 solicited by the Parliament. A Committee of the Estates was 
 also present with the army, according to an arrangement which 
 had been found convenient on previous occasions, by which part 
 of the executive Government was appointed to accompany the 
 forces in the field, and part to remain in the capital. 
 
 We have now reached the culminating point of Argyll's life. 
 The day when he set out, clothed with civil authority, and en- 
 trusted with military office in the army which expected and 
 was expected to play a decisive part in securing victory for the 
 English Parliament, must have afterwards seemed to him to mark 
 the acme of the success as a statesman which he was to win. 
 Up to now every poHtical scheme which he had proposed, or to 
 which he had given his aid, had prospered marvellously and 
 attained the purpose aimed at ; but now he had embarked upon 
 a larger and more dubious undertaking, which he had a consider- 
 able share in launching. Had he been a pagan he might have 
 dreaded lest the gods, envious of his previous good fortune, 
 should abase him ; and might have offered costly sacrifices to 
 propitiate their favour. But we may firmly believe that such 
 thoughts were far from his mind, and that he was convinced 
 that the heavenly powers themselves had espoused the cause to 
 which he and his party had persuaded the nation to commit 
 itself. " All things," wrote Baillie at this time, " are expected 
 from God and the Scotts " ; ^ as though there were no doubt but 
 that the national policy was divinely sanctioned. All were yet 
 to learn the truth of the words of ancient prophecy : " * My 
 thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' 
 saith the Lord." 
 
 The main body of the Scotch army crossed the Tweed at 
 Berwick on the 19 th of January, when the ice was so thick upon 
 the river as to allow a passage over for their heavy baggage. 
 Their first task was to drive the Eoyalist forces out of the north 
 of England, and it was confidently expected that they would in 
 a short time take possession of Newcastle and put an end to the 
 coal famine which had been keenly felt in London. The Eoyalist 
 general with about four or five thousand men was stationed at 
 Alnwick, and on the 20 th of January he received from Argyll and 
 his colleague by a trumpeter a copy of the Solemn League and 
 Covenant and a statement of the reasons of the present invasion. 
 
 ^Letters, vol. ii. p. 114. 
 
ENGLAND AGAIN INVADED 157 
 
 On consult ing with the gentlemen of the county as to the course 
 to be followed he came to the conclusion that resistance at that 
 point was hopeless, and, after destroying the bridge across the 
 river on which Alnwick is situated, he fell back upon JSTewcastle. 
 As the Scotch army marched along the coast, Argyll gained 
 possession of a small fort on Coquet Island and put a garrison 
 into it. He took seventy officers and men prisoners, and cap- 
 tured seven pieces of ordnance and a large quantity of ammu- 
 nition and stores.^ 
 
 Before the invading troops, however, reached Newcastle on 
 3rd February the Marquess of Newcastle had entered the town 
 with a considerable body of soldiers. The Earl of Leven soon 
 discovered that he would not be able to repeat the easy victory 
 he had won on the occasion of his last attack upon the town. 
 The ford at Newburn was strongly fortified, and the south side 
 of Newcastle, which had formerly been its vulnerable part, was 
 now thoroughly strengthened against assault. In answer to the 
 summons to surrender sent by Argyll and Sir W. Armyne, tlie 
 Mayor announced that he and other inhabitants of the town 
 " intended to hazard their Lives and Fortunes " in the defence of 
 it. It was now found that a regular siege would be necessary ; 
 and as the Earl of Leven was indisposed to lock up the whole 
 of the Scotch army, from which so much was expected, in that 
 task, after three weeks' delay he left part of his forces to con- 
 duct the siege, and marched south into Durham, crossing the 
 Tyne near Hexham by fords which the enemy had found it 
 impossible to defend. On the 4th of March he entered 
 Sunderland without opposition. The Marquess of Newcastle 
 was now strengthened by joining with the troops in Durham, 
 and by the accession of a large force from Yorkshire under Sir 
 Charles Lucas, so that he was able to approach within three 
 miles of Sunderland with ten thousand horse and foot. But 
 after the two armies had been drawn up face to face for a day's 
 time, the English commander fell back upon the city of Durham. 
 A great snowstorm hindered their opponents from molesting 
 them in their retreat. Leven now resolved to withdraw his 
 army to the country between the Tyne and the Wear and to assail 
 the positions which guarded the mouth of the Tyne, and thus aid 
 in the isolation of the town of Newcastle which he had begun to 
 besiege. On the 20th Marcli he succeeded in storming the fort 
 which had been erected for the defence of South Shields. At 
 ^ C. S, Terry, Life and Campaigns of Alexander Leslie, p. 183. 
 
158 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 this point of the campaign, however, the Marquess of Argyll 
 was recalled to Scotland, and we have consequently to follow the 
 course of events in that kingdom in which he took part. We 
 therefore content ourselves with saying that Newcastle was not 
 taken by the invaders until 22nd October, 1644 ; but that in the 
 meantime the part of the army not engaged in the siege had 
 co-operated with the forces of the Parliament in winning a great 
 victory over the Eoyalists at Marston Moor, four miles from York, 
 on 2nd July, and had compelled the surrender of that city a 
 fortnight later. Thus, when in November Leven returned to 
 Scotland, having left his army in winter quarters in Newcastle 
 and the neighbourhood of it, he had the satisfaction of knowing 
 that in the nine months' campaign he had secured the north 
 of England, from the Tweed to the Humber, for the English 
 Parliament.^ 
 
 The matter which recalled the Marquess of Argyll from the 
 army in England was a Eoyalist outbreak in the north of Scot- 
 land, of which his brother-in-law, the Marquess of Huntly, was the 
 moving spirit. The latter had been instigated by the King, who 
 promised aid in the hope of setting on foot such a serious rebellion 
 against the usurped power of the Estates, who were now making 
 war on him, that they would be forced to withdraw their army 
 in England to defend themselves at home. Other parts of the 
 scheme, soon afterwards unfolded, were an expedition into Scot- 
 land under the Earl of Montrose, and the carrying out of the 
 long threatened invasion of the West Highlands by an Irish army. 
 
 The Marquess of Argyll left Sunderland about the 20 th of 
 March and came by sea to Edinburgh, where the Committee 
 of the Estates was sitting daily to deliberate and act in the 
 present anxious crisis of national affairs. The main body of the 
 troops available for the defence of the country was employed 
 in England. The smouldering disaffection of the party in Scot- 
 land which refused to acquiesce in the Solemn League and 
 Covenant might now therefore burst into flame ; while the 
 present seemed the very moment which their enemies were 
 likely to choose as suitable for invasion from abroad. 
 
 A week before Argyll reached Edinburgh the Marquess of 
 Huntly had openly and formally set on foot the rising of the 
 Eoyalist. party in Scotland, for which all things seemed prepared. 
 
 ^ For fuller information concerning the above and other campaigns of the Earl 
 of Leven, we refer our readers to Mr Terry's admirable volume, upon which we have 
 drawn freely in the above and preceding pages. 
 
A ROYALIST OUTBREAK 159 
 
 Ho issued a declaration aiiiu)uncing his intention to resist l)y 
 force all attempts to compel him to pay the war -tax, or to 
 aid in the levying of troops for the Estates ; and he followed 
 up this declaration immediately by gathering together all the 
 soldiers at his disposal and along with his friends and partisans 
 taking possession of the city of Aberdeen. His hopes were that 
 simultaneously Montrose would invade the south of Scotland, and 
 the Irish troops would be landed in the west ; and that the Estates 
 would be so perplexed by the attack from three different quarters 
 as to be unable to act effectively against him. Some of his men 
 went south as far as the town of Montrose, which they plundered, 
 and left, as the historian says, " in wof ul cace," ^ in time to escape 
 falling into the hands of Argyll, who had received a commission 
 from the Estates to act as Commander-in-Chief of the forces to be 
 employed in the suppression of this rebellion. On the 26 th of 
 April he rode quietly into Dunnottar, with about thirty-two horse, 
 and awaited there the arrival of the forces from Perthshire and 
 from Ireland that had been appointed to act under his orders." 
 In the meantime Montrose attempted to carry out his part of the 
 scheme, crossed the Border with a small force of eight hundred 
 horse and foot and occupied Dumfries ; but on finding that no 
 support was given him locally, and that effective resistance would 
 be offered him, he retired hastily to England.^ The delay that 
 occurred in despatching the Earl of Antrim's Irish soldiers for the 
 invasion of Argyllshire gave the crowning blow to Huntly's plans, 
 and he was left alone to bear the brunt of the failure of the under- 
 taking on which he had entered with great confidence of success. 
 In a very short time nearly five thousand two hundred men 
 were at the disposal of Argyll from his own territory and from 
 Fifeshire, Perthshire, and the Mearns, whilst eight hundred more 
 were expected from the Scotch forces still in Ireland. In proportion 
 as the forces of the Estates increased those of Huntly dwindled 
 away ; and soon the utter hopelessness of his enterprise became 
 evident to him and his associates. He accordingly lost no time 
 in withdrawing to his house at Strathbogie, and shortly after he 
 escaped by sea to Sutherland, where he remained " sore against his 
 will " ■* for the next eighteen months. The army of the Estates 
 
 ^ Spalding, MemoriaUs, vol. ii. p. 348. ^ Ihid., vol. ii. p. 319. 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Civil War, vol. i. p. 395. 
 
 ^ Spalding, Meviorialls, vol. ii. p. 332. He sought refuge in Strathnaver in tlie 
 deserted house of Lord Reay, chief of the Mackays, himself at this time besieged in 
 Newcastle (Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii, p. 414). 
 
160 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 passed through Aberdeenshh'e and Banffshire, and found some 
 consolation for their want of success in capturing the author of 
 the insurrection that had so speedily died down at their approach 
 in plundering the houses and farms of those who had been in- 
 volved in it. Among the places thus pillaged was the house of 
 Irving of Drum, whose eldest son had been Huntly's right-hand 
 man in the abortive rising. He was married to a daughter 
 of Huntly's, and consequently his wife was Argyll's niece. 
 This circumstance, however, was not allowed to hinder the in- 
 fliction of punishment. The household was very summarily 
 broken up ; and we are told that the two ladies, the wife of the 
 old laird and his daughter-in-law, fled away " with grey plaidis 
 on their heads " ^ on two farm-horses into Aberdeen, a distance of 
 some twelve miles. It was easy for those who on other grounds 
 objected to Argyll's proceedings to represent this as an instance 
 of special harshness, and to say that he might at least have 
 shown compassion to his own niece ; but, in this as in aU wars, the 
 innocent on both sides were often involved in suffering with the 
 guilty, and it was hardly to be expected that the family of one 
 of the chief offenders should get off scot-free. 
 
 Before Argyll left the north of Scotland he made every 
 arrangement possible to hinder another insurrection from being 
 organized in the same district. Considerable rewards were 
 offered for the apprehension of the leaders of the late rising 
 either living or dead. Full lists of disaffected persons in the 
 coimties of Aberdeen and Banff were drawn up, and those of 
 them who could find security were bound over to keep the peace, 
 while those who could not were imprisoned. Some of the 
 regiments that had been gathered for this expedition were now 
 disbanded, but several bodies of troops were left in Aberdeen and 
 the adjoining district. Among the latter a regiment of Argyll's 
 Highlanders was stationed at some distance from the city, and yet 
 within the county of Aberdeen, where they would be available 
 in case of need. The sum of £1000 Sterling was imposed upon 
 the city, subject to the ratification of the arrangement by the 
 next Parliament, as their contribution towards the expenses of 
 the expedition. On Tuesday, the 28 th of May, the magistrates 
 of Aberdeen gave expression to their gratitude for the labours 
 of Argyll and his colleagues by conferring upon them the 
 freedom of the city. A suggestion of festivity in the proceed- 
 ings is given by Spalding's brief record of the fact ; for, after 
 
 ^ Spalding, Memorialls, vol. iL p. 854. 
 
ARGYLL AS A COMMANDER 161 
 
 mentioning the names of the new burgesses, he says that they 
 " gat the wyne liberally." ^ In the account the same writer 
 gives us of Argyll's departure from the city we have a very 
 vivid picture of the profound respect paid to him by the 
 inhabitants of all ranks. His words are as follows : — " Thir 
 [those] things done, the Marquess of Argile, upone Frydday the 
 last of May, took his leive of Aberdein, quhair all this time he 
 wes lodgit in the prouest Patrick Leslie's houss most honorablie. 
 And when he went to horss, he wes convoyit with nobles, 
 barronis, burgesses, bair heidit for the most pairt ; so heichlie 
 wes he in thir dayis exalted, litle inferiour to ane king." ^ 
 He now returned to Edinburgh after successfully accomplishing 
 the task given him of suppressing the attempt at rebellion in 
 the north, though, in the opinion of some, the fact that Huntly 
 had not been captured detracted a little from the glory of the 
 expedition, and from his credit in conducting it. 
 
 We have now come to the period in Argyll's life in which he 
 entered upon an open struggle with his rival Montrose, and in 
 which his inferiority to that brilliant soldier as a military 
 commander became manifest. It was said of a descendant of 
 his in the early part of the eighteenth centmy, the second Duke 
 of Argyll — 
 
 "Argyll, the state's whole thunder born to wield, 
 And shake alike the senate and the field." ^ 
 
 But to the Marquess this double portion of capacity had not 
 been given. The senate rather than " the field " was the sphere 
 in which he was at home. Dr Gardiner goes so far as to say : 
 " He was absolutely without personal courage : he could not look 
 upon a hostile array without being overcome by sheer terror." * 
 But this is to be taken more as one of those over-statements 
 by which historians sometimes heighten the effect of their de- 
 scriptions than as well based in fact. So far as being engaged 
 in martial enterprises is concerned, it would be much nearer 
 the mark to speak of him as a man of war from his youth. 
 His position as the head of a powerful Highland clan marked 
 him out as leader in all military undertakings that might be 
 entered upon by it ; and, in addition to this, the circumstances of 
 his time led to his being repeatedly called by the State to 
 maintain with the sword claims and liberties which had been 
 
 ^ Spalding, Memorialls, vol. ii. p. 372. ^ Ibid., vol. ii. p. 374. 
 
 * Pope, Epilogue to the Satires. * History, vol. viii. p. 372. 
 
 II 
 
162 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 asserted in proclamations and in decisions of Parliament. In 
 the narrative prefixed to a commission giving him a command 
 of forces to be employed in Ireland in 1642, he is said to be 
 worthy of the honour and trust because of "his resolute and 
 courageous appearance for His Majesty's interest at all occasions." ^ 
 He was scarcely, therefore, the " decadent " he is represented to 
 have been by the modern historian. Yet, in spite of his 
 famiharity with war, the conduct of military operations was a 
 task for which he had but httle aptitude ; and, when the re- 
 sponsibihty was laid upon him of carrying on a serious campaign 
 against an enemy commanded by a skilful, daring, and inventive 
 soldier of genius like Montrose, it is not surprising that he 
 proved unequal to the burden. It is no disgrace for an able 
 statesman to be devoid of great mihtary skill, though the com- 
 bination of the varied gifts which lead to eminence in the two 
 departments always excites in a high degree the admiration of 
 beholders. The position which Argyll occupied as a leader in 
 the poUtical world, and as the chieftain of a clan, led to his 
 endeavouring to sustain the parts of a statesman and a soldier, for 
 but one of which he had the special gifts necessary for success. 
 
 * MS. at Inveraray Castle. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Moutiose appointed by Charles I. Lieutenant- General for Scotland — He enters 
 the Country in disguise — Takes command of the Troops from Ireland 
 — Battle of Tippermuir — Occupation of Aberdeen — Argyll resigns his 
 Commission — Montrose invades Argyllshire — Battle of Inverlochy — 
 Montrose excommunicated and declared a Traitor. 
 
 EAELY in 1644 Charles I. had conferred upon the Earl of 
 Montrose, to whom he soon after gave the rank and title 
 of a Marquess, a commission as Lieutenant-General to himself 
 for Scotland ; and he had arranged with him to carry the war if 
 possible into that country, and to compel the recall of the Cove- 
 nanting troops now in England.^ His first attempt, to which we 
 have already referred, was a failure, and for a couple of months 
 he gave what help he could to the Eoyalist cause in the north of 
 England, He then applied to Prince Kupert for aid, but, un- 
 fortunately for the success of his request, it was made the day 
 after the disastrous battle of Marston Moor, and he was told 
 that not a man could be spared to assist in the projected ex- 
 pedition. He therefore resolved upon the daring scheme of 
 entering Scotland with but two companions, and of maldng the 
 attempt to rally together and employ the Eoyalist forces, of 
 wliich Huntly had made such poor use on the recent occasion of 
 liis rising against the Covenanters. He hoped also to be joined 
 by Irish troops despatched by the Earl of Antrim, which had 
 been some time overdue. Accordingly on 18 th August he set out 
 from Carlisle, accompanied only liy Sir William EoUo and 
 Colonel Sibbald, of the latter of whom we have heard before in 
 connexion with the seizure of Airlie Castle by Argyll.^ As all 
 the passes and main roads in Scotland were guarded by the 
 Covenanters, it was necessary for the three adventurers to be 
 carefully disguised, in order to make their way into the heart 
 of the country. Montrose was dressed as a groom and pre- 
 
 ' Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 587. The date of the patent confening a 
 Marquessate is Oxford, 6th May, lt)i4. 
 ^ See p. 105. 
 
 16S 
 
164 TVlE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 tended to be Colonel Sibbald's servant, behind whom he rode 
 leading a spare horse. The two others gave themselves out to 
 be Covenanting soldiers. In four days Montrose made his way 
 from the Enghsh Border to the house of a kinsman in Perthshire, 
 at Tullybelton, about four miles south of Dunkeld. Here he 
 received news confirming what he had already heard of the utter 
 failure of Huntly's attempt at insurrection, and of the flight of 
 that chieftain into Sutherland.^ 
 
 A definite direction was given to his plans by the news 
 which came to him that sixteen hundred Irish troops had already 
 landed and were wandering about the Highlands. These were 
 under the command of Alexander MacDonald or Colkitto, a 
 cousin of the Earl of Antrim's,^ who had arrived at Ardnamurchan 
 early in July and hoped to receive aid from his kinsmen in 
 that part of the Highlands, who were hereditary enemies of 
 Argyll and his clan. The MacDonalds, however, did not dare 
 to join him ; and so, after wasting the lands of the Campbell 
 tenants for about forty miles, Colkitto resolved to return to 
 Ireland. 
 
 But when he came to the coast he found that the Campbells 
 had burned his ships and that his retreat was cut off. With 
 great courage he resolved to make his way into the territory of 
 Huntly, and to summon the Eoyalists to join his standard. But 
 from one quarter after another he encountered refusals and 
 rebuffs ; and in the meantime the forces of the Covenant were 
 being summoned to overwhelm him.^ The Eoyalists in the 
 territory through which he passed doubted his commission, and 
 they were disinclined to serve under a man whom they regarded 
 as an upstart and not of noble descent. By the time that the 
 Irish troops had arrived in Athol three armies were prepared to 
 annihilate them : one under Argyll from the west was close upon 
 them, another under Lord Elcho in Perth on the south-east 
 blocked up their way down the Tay valley, while the forces 
 collected at Aberdeen to the north-east closed Deeside to them. 
 In this alarming and critical juncture of their affairs, Montrose, 
 of whose presence in Scotland they were not aware, appeared 
 
 ^ Deeds of Montrose (Murdoch and Simpson), chap. iv. The judicious reader will 
 take the statements of Wishart, Montrose's chaplain and biographer, cum grano 
 salts. Malcolm Laing perhaps goes a little too far in describing him as "that 
 fabulous writer " {History of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 328). 
 
 " "Colkitto" was a nickname applied both to Alexander MacDonald and to his 
 father, the chief of Colonsay. 
 
 ^ Wishart, Deeds of Montrose, chap. v. ; Gordon, Britanc's Distemper, p. 72. 
 
BATTLE OF TIPPERMUIR 165 
 
 before them iu Highland dress/ accompanied only by a single 
 companion as guide, and was received with transports of joy as if 
 he had been their guardian angel. He raised the royal standard 
 and sent round the fiery cross to summon the Koyalist clans, and 
 in a short time found himself at the head of three thousand men ; 
 for many who would have resisted the Irish strangers were willing 
 to serve with them imder the King's Lieutenant-General. 
 
 In order to avoid being crushed between two armies 
 Montrose resolved to attack the nearer of them — that under 
 Lord Elclio — and to gain possession of Perth. The engagement 
 between the hostile forces took place on the plain of Tippermuir, 
 three or four miles west from that city, on Sunday the 1st 
 of September. The Covenanting army was more than twice the 
 size of that under Montrose, but it consisted of inexperienced 
 citizens and peasants, while their enemies were for the most part 
 men inured to war and exposure and hardships. The military 
 tactics which Montrose employed were of the simplest and most 
 effective kind. He drew up his men in line, three-deep, and 
 thus by presenting a very long front to the enemy gave them 
 the idea of having to do with a formidable army. Those of his 
 soldiers who had muskets were instructed not to waste their 
 scanty ammunition, but to reserve their fire until they were 
 within short range of the enemy ; while those who had no 
 muskets provided themselves with stones to be used as missiles. 
 The battle was soon over. The volley of shot and of stones 
 threw the Covenanting troops into confusion, and before they 
 could recover from it a wild charge of the enemy, sword in hand, 
 put them to flight. The pursuit of the fugitives spread over six 
 or seven miles, and in the course of it two thousand were slain, 
 while the loss of the victors was very slight. Montrose now 
 gained possession of Perth, but he made no attempt to retain the 
 city.^ He was anxious to defeat the second of the Covenanting 
 armies before the arrival of the third of them under Argyll ; and 
 accordingly after three days' delay he went northward in the 
 direction of Aberdeen. His Highland soldiers returned to their 
 homes with the plunder they had secured ; but the fresh forces 
 which came in from Angus and the Mearns to join Montrose 
 provided him with an army of fifteen hundred infantry and a 
 small body of cavalry wherewith to assail Aberdeen. 
 
 ' i.e., according to Spalding, with " coat and trewis " {Mcmorialls, vol. ii. p. 409). 
 " Wialiart, Deeds of Montrose, chap. v. ; Simlding, Memorialls, vol. ii. pp. 385, 
 402 ; Gordon, Britane's Distemper, \k 65. 
 
166 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 It was not until the eleventh day after the battle of Tipper- 
 muir that Argyll's troops entered Perth ; but this fact affords no 
 ground for the malicious suggestion that has sometimes been made 
 that he was unwilling to come into close quarters with Montrose. 
 The movements of a regular army must, in ordinary circum- 
 stances, be necessarily slower and more deliberate than those of 
 a flying column such as that which Montrose now commanded. 
 So far from inspiring fear Montrose's case must have seemed 
 utterly hopeless, until by the battle before Perth he show^ed 
 what could be done with a small force of irregulars carefully 
 handled. The impression thus created was deepened and intensi- 
 fied by the series of engagements which he fought so brilliantly 
 in the course of the next few months ; but, up to the time of 
 Tippermuir, Argyll was much more likely to have commiserated 
 the fate which his rival seemed to be preparing for himself by 
 his desperate venture than to have been alarmed by the thought 
 of his succeeding in it. 
 
 Shortly after Montrose left Perth on his northward journey, 
 one of his principal supporters, Lord Kilpont, the eldest son of 
 the Earl of Airth and Menteith, was murdered in his camp, and 
 the assassin, James Stewart of Ardvoirhch, fled to Argyll. In 
 his version of the story a different colouring was given to the 
 incident. He said that he had repented of having joined the 
 rebels, that he had determined to leave them, and that the quarrel 
 with Kilpont had arisen from his suggesting to him to join him 
 in deserting Montrose. He asserted that the act of homicide 
 was one of self-defence; and from the Committee of Estates, if 
 not from his own conscience, he received a sentence of approval 
 for what he had done. The rank of major in Argyll's army 
 was also conferred upon him. It was, indeed, unfortunate that 
 a man who lay under grave suspicion of being an assassin should 
 have met with a favourable reception on joining the opposite 
 party. The fact that he did does not necessarily cast a slur upon 
 the cause of the Covenant, which was, from its very nature as a 
 religious bond, hostile to iniquity of every kind. It is rather to 
 be taken as an illustration of the bitterness of feeling and lack of 
 generosity which are so often manifested when civil war has once 
 been entered upon. The rights of the enemy as belligerents 
 come in such cases to be denied, and the hostile parties tend 
 to regard each other rather as vermin to be exterminated in any 
 way and at any cost than as honourable opponents. The guilt 
 of condoning a crime, if crime there was in the present case, 
 
A PRICE SET ON MONTROSE'S HEAD 167 
 
 about which a cloud of uncertaiuty hangs, does not rest upon 
 Argyll alone, as unscrupulous partisans of Montrose are in the 
 habit of asserting, but upon the whole Committee of Estates, 
 who passed an Act approving of Stewart's conduct in the 
 affair.-^ 
 
 The same remark has to be made concerning a proclamation 
 published in Edinburgh on the 12 th September, the day after 
 Argyll entered Perth, by order of the Committee of Estates, 
 setting a price upon Montrose's head. This is often spoken of 
 as if it were an act of private malice on the part of Argyll 
 towards his rival ; but it both formally and really emanated 
 from the Government of Scotland and was directed against one 
 who in the eyes of that Government was a public enemy. The 
 proclamation offers £20,000 Scots [£1666, 13s. 4d. Sterling] 
 in money to the person who should apprehend Montrose, and 
 " exhibit him alive before Parliament or the Committee of 
 Estates," or who should " exhibit his head, if he should happen 
 to be slain in the taking " ; and it suggests that the attempt 
 should be made by one of those now in the army of Montrose by 
 promising a free pardon to the person who might earn the reward 
 for all concurrence in this rebellion, and for any other crimes of 
 which he might be guilty.^ Public feeling at that time was not 
 sufficiently sensitive or refined to condemn the issuing of such 
 a proclamation ; and, seventy years later, a somewhat similar 
 proposal with regard to the Pretender found advocates in the 
 House of Lords. No charge of special barbarity can therefore 
 be brought against the Committee of Estates for their action on 
 this occasion ; though we should have desired that a government 
 so much under ecclesiastical influence had exhibited a little more 
 of the Christian spirit, which has inspired chivalrous feelings 
 even in warfare, and has striven to render justice less harsh in 
 its procedure. 
 
 In the meantime, however, Montrose hastened towards 
 Aberdeen, in order to defeat, if possible, the Covenanting army 
 there before the forces under Argyll could overtake him. On 
 13 th September he appeared before it on the western side. 
 His opponents were about two thousand five hundred in number, 
 and were for the most part from the south of Scotland ; but, 
 though they were more numerous than the attacking army, there 
 was no general among them of any experience or ability who 
 
 ^ Acts of Pari, of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 359 ; Wishart, Deeds of Montrose, chap. vi. 
 -Napier, Memorials of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 1613. 
 
168 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 could cope with Montrose. After a fierce struggle of a couple 
 of hours the forces of the Covenant were defeated and put to 
 flight, and both the victors and the shattered remnants of the 
 defeated army poured into the city. The scenes of brutality 
 and cruelty that followed are indescribable. Before the battle 
 Montrose's messenger who summoned the inhabitants to sur- 
 render had been accompanied by a little drummer -boy. As 
 they passed a body of the enemy's cavalry on their return one 
 of them shot the lad, and so exasperated was Montrose by this 
 act of treachery that he promised his soldiers the plunder of the 
 city. Twice before had he scourged Aberdeen as a Covenanter, 
 and now he repeated the process as a Eoyalist ; but nothing had 
 occurred in the civil war either in England or Scotland which 
 for sheer horror could be compared with what went on for days 
 in Aberdeen after the battle of the 13 th September.^ The 
 admirers of Montrose glide swiftly over this episode in his 
 history ; but his conduct in letting loose a horde of savages upon 
 the defenceless inhabitants of that city leaves an indelible stain 
 upon his name. Probably few of those who are horrified at 
 the ruthless treatment which he himself received when he was 
 taken prisoner and executed have put themselves to the trouble 
 of enquiring into the causes of the bitter hatred which was 
 manifested towards him. If they were to do so, they would find 
 that it dates from the time of which we are now speaking. In 
 the proclamation which put a reward upon his head he was 
 accused of having joined with " a Band of Irish rebels who had 
 two years before bathed themselves in the blood of God's people 
 in Ireland " ; ^ and, the very day after the proclamation was issued, 
 the soldiers who were regarded with such terror were allowed 
 to perpetrate every sort of crime upon the inhabitants of 
 Aberdeen. On later occasions Montrose showed himself generous 
 and merciful in his own conduct, though he was often unable 
 to restrain the bloodthirsty excesses of his followers ; ^ it is all 
 the more, therefore, to be deplored that on this occasion he 
 should have tarnished his laurels by being guilty of such a 
 frightful crime as that of giving over the unoffending men and 
 women of a captured city as a prey to his brutal soldiery. 
 
 The military exploits which Montrose had accomplished 
 
 1 Spalding, Memorialls, vol. ii. p. 406 ; Gordon, Britane's Distemper, p. SO. 
 ^Napier, Memorials of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 163. 
 
 ^ "Having no pay to give them he durst not exercise that severity of martial 
 discipline which had been otherwise necessary " (Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 354). 
 
GUERILLA WARFARE 169 
 
 witbiu less than a mouth of his entering Scotland were astonish- 
 ing in the highest degree. In that brief time he had raised 
 an army, fought two battles, defeated forces far superior to his 
 own in number and equipment, and taken Perth and Aberdeen ; 
 and, but for the fact of his Highland soldiers having returned 
 to their homes with the plunder they had secured, there is little 
 doubt that he would have defeated the forces under Argyll, who 
 was in command of the third army of the Covenanters. His 
 hopes of receiving aid from the Gordons were disappointed. ■ The 
 family of Huntly were divided, for two of his sons were serving 
 with their uncle Argyll, and a third was engaged on the Koyalist 
 side in England ; while their father, who had himself been 
 appointed Lieutenant of the North of Scotland, showed no inclina- 
 tion to acknowledge the higher commission bestowed upon Mon- 
 trose, or to aid him in his present enterprise. Montrose found 
 it necessary, therefore, to alter his tactics, and, instead of fighting 
 a pitched battle, either by attacking his opponents or by waiting 
 to be attacked by them, he determined to tire them out by rapid 
 movements from place to place. His forces were exactly adapted 
 for strategy of this kind, while those of his opponents were too 
 cumbrous in their operations to excel in it, and they were besides 
 under the command of a general whose cautious and deliberate 
 modes of procedure incapacitated him for dealing effectively with 
 an agile and cunning antagonist.^ 
 
 There is no need for us here to follow the long, weary chase 
 which Montrose led Argyll for a couple of months, from Kintore, 
 to which he had withdrawn after taking Aberdeen, to the Spey, 
 and then south into Badenoch, through Athol and Angus, and 
 across the Grampians to the seat of the Gordons at Strathbogie. 
 No discredit necessarily attaches to Argyll for being unable, with 
 the number of men at his disposal, to circumvent liis enemy. 
 He would have needed an army several times the size of that 
 under his command to complete the task he had undertaken ; 
 and those who taunted him with omitting to take advantage 
 of opportunities of striking a decisive blow, or who repeat such 
 taunts from Eoyalist narratives of the campaign, have but an 
 imperfect idea of the kind of warfare which was being waged. 
 In recent times we have had knowledge of generals, far more 
 skilful than Argyll, who could have made no headway against 
 an enemy adopting tactics similar to those of Montrose without 
 having an overwhelming number of troops and an unlimited 
 ^ Wishart, Deeds of 3fmitrose, chap. vii. 
 
170 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 treasury at tlieir disposal.^ Once at Fyvie Castle did Argyll 
 almost entrap his opponent, who after a sharp skirmish succeeded 
 in escaping. It was now winter, and Argyll determined to sus- 
 pend operations for a time. After sending his cavalry into winter 
 quarters he lay at Dunkeld with his infantry ; but he withdrew 
 to Perth, where there was a strong garrison, to avoid an assault 
 by Montrose, who had made a hurried march for the purpose out 
 of Badenoch into Athol.- 
 
 Argyll proceeded to Edinburgh along with his kinsman, 
 the Earl of Lothian, who had been his second in command, 
 and both resigned their commissions to the Committee of 
 Estates. He complained that he had been inadequately sup- 
 ported with men and money — a fact which bears out what 
 we have already said as to the special difficulties connected 
 with the kind of campaign in which he had been engaged. 
 A formal vote of thanks was given to the commanders ; and 
 a malicious remark was made in connexion with it, that it was 
 all the more deserved because there had been so little bloodshed.^ 
 Neither the Earl of Lothian nor the Earl of Callander, who 
 as Lord Almond had been second in command in the army that 
 invaded England in 1640, was willing to accept the office of 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Covenanting forces in Scotland ; and 
 accordingly it was conferred on General Baillie, another of the 
 Scotch soldiers who had served an apprenticeship to war under 
 Gustavus Adolphus. 
 
 In the meantime a number of Montrose's allies, especially 
 those of the Scotch gentry who had joined his standard, found 
 themselves unable to continue in the kind of warfare in which 
 they had been engaged. The winter marches across wild, path- 
 less mountains, beset with rocks and thickets and often deep 
 in snow, were too much for them, and they asked with all 
 humility permission to retire, which was somewhat scornfully 
 given them. From the west, however, a fresh body of Mac- 
 Donalds had come in, anxious to be led against their hereditary 
 enemies the Campbells. Indeed, from all sides the foes of 
 that clan began to gather — MacDonalds of Keppoch, of Glen- 
 garry, of Glencoe, and Glen Nevis, and Stuarts and Eobertsons 
 of Athol, and Cameron s of Lochaber — all eager to attack the 
 devoted Campbells, and to plunder those who had enjoyed the 
 prosperity secured by the protection of the MacCailein Mor.* 
 
 ^ In the South African War (1901-2). - Wisliart, Deeds of Montrose, chap. vii. 
 ^ Guthry, Mnnoirs, p. 172. * Wishart, Deeds of Montrose, chaji. viii. 
 
ARGYLL'S FLIGHT FROM INVERARAY 171 
 
 Montrose had now to face the question of providing for 
 his troops during the winter. The Lowlands were held by 
 Covenanting garrisons and bodies of horse and foot, and they 
 were consequently closed to him ; yet he had no resource but to 
 lead his men into the enemy's country, since by remaining in 
 that of his friends he would only exhaust and ruin them. The 
 enterprise of invading Argyllshire in the depth of winter was 
 one which he hesitated to undertake. In summer it would 
 have been a work of diiticulty, in winter it seemed impossible. 
 Yet he was urged by the MacDonalds to make the attempt. 
 In answer to his question as to whether there was food enough 
 in the country of the Campbells for his army, one of them 
 replied : " I know every foot of every farm or half-farm under 
 MacCailein Mor ; and if good water, tight houses, and fat cows 
 will do for you, there is plenty to be had." ^ 
 
 Argyll himself had returned home to Inveraray to summon 
 his clansmen and to make preparations for a campaign in the 
 spring, and he had fixed the day and place of rendezvous. He 
 was convinced that he was absolutely safe in his Highland 
 retreat, and that the enemy was far away. Often had he 
 been heard to say that he would rather lose a hundred thousand 
 florins than that any mortal should know the passes by which 
 an armed force could invade his country. His horror and 
 amazement we can imagine when one day trembling cow-herds 
 came down from the hills and told him that Montrose and his 
 army were within two miles of Inveraray and were spreading 
 devastation far and wide. Eesistance was impossible, and so 
 with all haste the Marquess got on board a fishing-boat and 
 saved himself by flight.^ 
 
 Montrose had divided his forces into three bands, and had 
 marched from Blair Athol south-west to Loch Tay, and thence 
 through Breadalbane, at that time for the most part in tlic 
 possession of Sir Eobert Campbell of Glenurquhy, a Covenanter 
 and a kinsman of Argyll's. The hardy soldiers climbed the 
 mountains and waded through snow-drifts, and came down 
 like an avalanche upon the valleys where their enemies abode 
 wrapped in a fatal security. Every armed man whom they 
 found on Ms way to the rendezvous appointed by Argyll 
 they put to death ; and every one capable of service, who 
 had not been able to escape out of their hands, met with the 
 same fate. " Although," says the historian, " out of a generous 
 ' Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 471. - Wishart, Deeds of Montrosr, cliap. viii. 
 
172 THE GREAT MARQUESS ;| 
 
 disposition Montrose would have spared the people, yet the 
 clan Donald, wheresoever they found any that was able to carry 
 arms, did without mercy despatch them." ^ Every house was 
 plundered and given to the flames, and all cattle were destroyed 
 or carried off. The amount of misery and suffering caused by 
 such a war of extermination is inconceivable ; and, though in 
 the passage we have quoted Montrose is acquitted from some 
 of the blaine connected with it, his conduct in employing this 
 ruthless soldiery against the Covenanting party aroused a fury 
 of hatred which never slackened imtil his head was nailed up 
 on the pinnacle of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh and his limbs 
 were distributed among the cities of Scotland. 
 
 The proceedings above described, which took place in the 
 territory belonging to Aa-gyll or acknowledging his authority, 
 lasted for six weeks, from 13th December, 1644, till about the 
 28th or 29th January, 1645. On the former of these dates 
 the armed bands broke into Argyllshire, and by the latter 
 they had gone through a large tract of it and laid it waste. 
 The Athol men and many others who had recently joined 
 Montrose's standard, returned for a time to their homes, gorged 
 with plunder, so that there were only some fifteen hundred 
 men for purposes of attack or defence in the Eoyalist army. 
 
 In the meantime Argyll, on his flight from Inveraray, arrived 
 at Dumbarton, where he met General Baillie, the new Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Covenanting forces. From him he 
 received eleven hundred regular troops, most of whom were 
 newly enlisted recruits from the Lowlands ; and, with these 
 added to the members of his own clan who could take the 
 field, he hoped to defeat and scatter the army which had 
 inflicted such cruel loss upon the Campbells. Unfortunately 
 he met with an accident which disabled him from leading 
 his own troops in the field : by a fall from his horse he dis- 
 located his arm and was unable for a good many weeks to use 
 it in any way, so that he could not employ sword or pistol 
 even to defend himself. In these circumstances he transferred 
 the leadership to his cousin, Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchin- 
 breck, whom he summoned from Ireland, where he was in com- 
 mand of troops — " a stout sojour," says BailHe, " but a very 
 vitious man." ^ 
 
 ^ Gordon, Briiane's Distemper, p. 98. 
 
 ^ Guthry, Memoirs, p. 174 ; Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 263 ; Balfour, Annals, 
 vol, iii. p. 256. 
 
THE SURPRISE AT INVERLOCHY 173 
 
 The army of Montrose had entered the great valley through 
 which the Caledonian Canal now runs, and it was on its way 
 north to attack a large force of the Covenanters under the Earl 
 of Seaforth at Inverness. This consisted of about five thousand 
 men, some veteran soldiers, but the greater part raw levies, who 
 could scarcely be expected to offer much resistance to seasoned 
 troops like those under Montrose. He had reached Loch Ness 
 when he heard that Argyll with his army of clansmen and Low- 
 landers had followed him and was encamped at Inverlochy Castle, 
 below Ben Nevis, thirty miles behind him at the entrance of the 
 great valley. He instantly determined to return and give fight. 
 If he had come back by the same road through the valley by 
 which he had gone north, his approach would have been observed 
 by the Campbells, and the attack upon them would have been 
 accordingly all the more serious an undertaking. He therefore 
 decided to change his route and take them by surprise. On 
 Friday morning, 31st January, he struck off to the east into 
 the wild, pathless mountains of Lochaber, and took a course 
 parallel to the great valley, and on Saturday evening arrived at 
 a point at which he had the Campbells between him and the 
 sea. The latter were quite unconscious of their danger, but 
 after night had set in on the 1st of February they observed 
 in the bright moonhght a body of men descending the mountain- 
 side. Their scouts had been surprised and killed, so that, before 
 they knew of Montrose's arrival, he was upon them. In a few 
 moments the Campbells had run to arms and prepared for resist- 
 ance ; but for some hours nothing beyond light skirmishing took 
 place. Montrose paused for a while to allow the rear of his 
 army, which had fallen behind through fatigue, to come up.^ 
 
 The Marquess of Argyll not being in command, and being 
 incapable even of striking a blow in self-defence, was per- 
 suaded — Baillie says " compelled " ^ — by his friends to go on 
 board his barge, the Duhhlinnseach (the Black - sailed), which 
 had brought him up Loch Linnhe and was lying close at hand. 
 Several members of the Committee of Estates were present with 
 him, and there can be no doubt that they used the argument 
 to persuade him that his life was too valuable to the Covenant- 
 ing cause to be lightly and uselessly placed in jeopardy .^ 
 
 ^ Wishart, Deeds of Montrose, chap. viii. ; Gordon, Britane's Distemper, p. 100. 
 -Letters, vol. ii. p. 263. "Urging him by force to retire to his galay" is the 
 phrase used by the Royalist historian, Gordon, p. 100. 
 2 Guthry, Memoirs, p. 178. 
 
174 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 At daybreak on Sunday morning both armies were ready 
 for the conflict. The Campbells occupied the centre of their line, 
 and on either side were placed the Lowland regiments. This 
 arrangement showed that they were intending to stand on the 
 defensive, and thus gave the advantage of the attack to Montrose. 
 The latter commanded the main body of his troops, while Alaster 
 MacDonald and an Irishman named O'Kean were entrusted with 
 the right and left wings respectively. A small body of cavalry, 
 an arm in which the Covenanters were quite deficient on this 
 occasion, was present on the other side ; and the sound of the 
 trumpets that gave the signal at sunrise for them to charge, 
 both announced the unexpected fact and suggested that 
 Montrose himself was present with his whole army. For, 
 until now, the opinion had prevailed that the forces on their 
 way down to battle were merely part of the Eoyalist troops 
 under one of Montrose's generals. The Lowland regiments, 
 as at Tippermuir and at many other fights between High- 
 landers and Lowlanders down to Falkirk and Prestonpans, 
 gave way before the impetuous charge of their opponents, and 
 soon were in full flight ; but the centre of the Covenanting 
 army offered more strenuous resistance. Even Wishart, the 
 panegyrist of Montrose, has a word of generous appreciation 
 for the opposite side : " The chieftains of the Campbells," he 
 says, " stout and gallant men . . . began the battle with 
 great personal courage." ^ Yet their efforts were all in vain ; 
 in a short time their whole force was swept into irretrievable 
 ruin, and for nine miles the flight and slaughter continued. 
 A force of three hundred Camerons, who were regarded by 
 the Campbells at this time as their allies and whose young 
 chief Lochiel was a ward of the Marquess, was at hand and 
 joined in the fray, but treacherously went over to Montrose 
 and aided in securing the overwhelming defeat which he suc- 
 ceeded in inflicting upon his enemies at Inverlochy.^ 
 
 Out of the Covenanting army of three thousand men, 
 seventeen hundred, most of them Campbells, were slain. Their 
 General (Sir Duncan Campbell) and fourteen gentlemen of rank 
 belonging to the clan perished. Twenty others of the same 
 station were taken prisoners and owed their lives probably 
 to Montrose's efforts on their behalf. And thus Argyll had 
 the misery of witnessing with his own eyes the destruction of 
 
 ^ Deeds of Montrose, chap. viii. 
 
 - History of the Camerons, A. Mackenzie, 1884 ; Adventures in Legend, p. 223. 
 
ESCAPE OF ARGYLL 175 
 
 the military power which had given sucli additional weight to 
 his counsels, and which had been popularly beheved to be safe 
 beyond all possibility of overthrow within the limits of the 
 territory which nature had done so much to fortify."^ 
 
 The action of Argyll in making his escape in his barge 
 from the battlefield of Inverlochy has often been referred to 
 as a proof of his cowardice ; but we think the explanation 
 we have given of the position in which he was then placed 
 as a non - combatant should in all justice be allowed to 
 modify that conclusion, or to make it doubtful. Whether 
 he would have died, sword in hand, fighting against the 
 enemy, if he had been able to wield a sword on that eventful 
 day, is a question to which his detractors can only give a 
 conjectural reply. That he did not choose to present his 
 throat to the sword as a helpless victim, when defeat fell 
 upon his kindred and clan, is no proof of cowardice. The 
 general question as to whether this craven quality can be 
 fairly ascribed to him cannot be decided by an opinion con- 
 cerning a single incident in his life, especially when it is dififi- 
 cult to see what other course than that which he adopted he 
 could reasonably have been expected to take. On more than 
 one occasion, as we have already remarked, did he manifest 
 the truest and noblest courage. We had an instance of it in 
 the zeal which he displayed for the Covenant in the hour when 
 it was menaced by many dangers ; and yet again was it shown 
 to all the world in the calm dignity with which he defended 
 himself at his trial, and in the serenity of his demeanour 
 upon the scaftbld. The minds of those who, as it seems to us, 
 devote undue attention to Argyll's escape from Inverlochy, as 
 though it were an action with but few parallels in history, 
 might recover balance if they would ponder for a little over 
 Montrose's rapid flight some months afterwards from Philiphaugh, 
 and at a later period from Carbiesdale. It would be a task of 
 some difficulty to enunciate a principle under which the conduct 
 of Argyll should be branded with infamy, and the similar con- 
 duct of Montrose in similar circumstances appear as an indica- 
 tion of Paladin-like heroism, or as consistent with it. It will 
 scarcely be maintained, we think, by any of the friends of the 
 latter, that he possessed any special or exclusive right to the 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. ii. p. 262 ; Wishart, Deeds of Montrose, chaps, vii., viii. ; 
 Gordon, BrUanc's Distemper, pp. 85-102 ; Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. 
 p. 483. 
 
176 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 employment of this method of extricating himself from circum- 
 stances of danger. 
 
 The Marquess of Argyll appeared before the Estates of 
 Parliament in Edinburgh, on the 12th of February, and gave 
 a brief account of what had happened. His arm was still 
 " tied up in a scarf, as if he had been at a bones-breaking," 
 says Bishop Guthry.^ Apparently he was either unable or 
 unwilling to dwell upon the details of the crushing overthrow 
 at Inverlochy ; for a subsequent speaker. Lord Balmerino, went 
 so far as to say that the number there slain did not exceed 
 thirty, and to pledge his honour to this statement. But that 
 there had been defeat and slaughter of the Covenanting forces 
 at that place could not be concealed, and widespread conster- 
 nation prevailed throughout the party. The Estates, however, 
 were not so overcome by panic as to forget what they owed 
 to the Marquess who had been so faithful to their cause and 
 had suffered so severely in the defence of it. The expression 
 of their thanks to him is characterized by both dignity and 
 kindliness. It ran as follows : — " The Estates of Parliament, 
 having heard the Marquess of Argyll give, verbally, ane clear 
 and short account of the progress of his late expedition against 
 the rebels, and having well considered the same, — They find, 
 that the Lord Marquess hath painfully [painstakingly], wisely, 
 and dihgently, behaved himself in that charge ; and, therefore, 
 that his carriage therein deserveth public thanks and approba- 
 tion ; and that himself should be entreated and encouraged 
 to continue in the service with that forwardness of affection 
 which in all his actions he hath ever constantly witnessed to 
 Rehgion and [to this] Kingdom." ^ 
 
 The ecclesiastical sentence of excommunication had already 
 been passed against the Marquess of Montrose, and to this the 
 Estates added that of forfeiture of honours and property ; so 
 that henceforth he is referred to in pubHc documents under 
 the plain designation of James Graham. The general impression 
 which his third notable victory produced upon the Covenanting 
 party is reflected in Baillie's words. " This disaster [at 
 Inverlochy]," he says, " did extreamhe amaze us. I veriUe 
 think had Montrose come presentlie from that battell, he 
 should have had no great opposition in all the Highlands, 
 in the Lennox, and the shirrefdome of Aire, Glasgow, Clydesdale, 
 
 ^ Memoirs, p. 180. 
 
 "^ Quoted in Napier's Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 490. 
 
MONTROSE'S EXULTATION 177 
 
 scarce till he liad come to Edinburgh. But God, in mercie to 
 us, put other thoughts in his heart : he went incontinent 
 [immediately] northward." ^ 
 
 It was with pardonable exultation that Montrose himself 
 wrote, on the 3rd of February, a narrative of his last victory 
 to Charles I. After a lucid and detailed statement of the 
 circumstances of the battle, in which he refers to his opponents 
 in a generous tone, he earnestly protests against the King's 
 making any terms whatever with his rebellious subjects in 
 England unless upon condition of their absolute surrender, 
 and anticipates being able shortly to give effective aid to the 
 royal cause in that country. " Through God's blessing," he 
 says, " I am in the fairest hopes of reducing this kingdom 
 to your Majesty's obedience. And, if the measures I have 
 concerted with your other loyal subjects fail me not, which 
 they hardly can, I doubt not before the end of this summer 
 I shall be able to come to your Majesty's assistance with a 
 brave army, which, backed with the justice of your Majesty's 
 cause, will make the rebels in England, as well as in Scot- 
 land, feel the just rewards of rebellion. Only give me leave, 
 after I have reduced this country to your Majesty's obedience, 
 and conquered from Ban to Beersheba, to say to your Majesty 
 then, as David's general did to his master. Come thou thyself, 
 lest this country he called hy my name." ^ The best com- 
 mentary upon this letter, it seems to us, is the criticism 
 of the Marquess as a soldier, which Scott in his brilliant 
 novel, A Legend of Montrose, has put into the lips of Dugald 
 Dalgetty : " He has a sensible, natural, pretty idea of military 
 matters ; somewhat irregular, though, and smells a little too 
 much of selling the bear's skin before he has hunted him." ^ 
 
 ^ Letters, vol. ii. p. 263. 
 
 ^ Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 487. The reference is of course to 2 Sam. 
 xii. 28. In modern historical novels only Puritans and Covenanters are repre- 
 sented as indulging in Biblical phraseology. The practice was widespread, and both 
 Charles I. and the Royalists furnish illustrations of it. 
 
 ' Chap. iii. 
 
 12 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 The Course of Events in England — Defeat of the Covenanting Army at 
 Kilsyth — Escape of Argyll — Scotch Troops recalled from England — 
 Battle of Philiphaugh — Argyllshire laid waste by Royalist Troops — 
 Charles I. surrenders to the Scotch Array at Newark — Interview 
 between the King and Argyll — Discussion of Terms to be offered to 
 Charles — Argyll's great Speech in London. 
 
 IN order that we may understand the effect which the news 
 of Montrose's victories in Scotland had upon the prospects 
 and counsels of the Eoyalist party in England, we need to 
 keep in mind the course of events in the latter kingdom after 
 the battle of Marston Moor. From the date of that battle 
 early in July, 1644, down to the end of October, the Scotch 
 troops in England under Leslie were engaged in the siege of 
 Newcastle, which finally capitulated to them and left them 
 free, if necessity arose, to give aid to the Parliamentary cause 
 in other parts of England. The northern counties had been 
 won by the Parliament, while nothing but disaster attended 
 their arms at this time in the rest of England. Essex and 
 Waller had attempted to enclose the King in Oxford, but he had 
 escaped between them to Worcester ; and thereupon Essex left 
 Waller to pursue the King, while he himself set out to conquer 
 the west of England. Both enterprises failed utterly : the King 
 got safely back to Oxford and defeated Waller at Cropredy 
 Bridge (29th June), on the borders of Oxfordshire and North- 
 amptonshire, after which the Parliamentary General returned 
 to London, having lost most of his remaining men by desertion 
 on the way, Essex, who had gone into Devonshire and Cornwall, 
 was surrounded by the royal forces ; his cavalry cut their way 
 out, but all his infantry were taken prisoners (1st September), 
 and he himself escaped by sea to Plymouth, and thence to 
 London. New armies were found for both generals, and the 
 Earl of Manchester and Cromwell were summoned from the 
 east of England to co-operate with them ; and with the newly 
 constituted army another battle was fought at Newbury (22nd 
 
 17S 
 
TREATY AT UXBRIDGE 179 
 
 October), which was as indecisive as the former battle which 
 took place there. The blame for this result was attributed 
 by Cromwell to a want of inclination on Manchester's part 
 to inflict a crushing blow upon the King, with whom he and 
 a large section of English society hoped yet to be reconciled 
 — a reconciliation which, according to Cromwell and many who 
 sympathized with him, would mean " the abandonment of every- 
 thing worth fighting for at all." ^ The former and the latter 
 views of matters were held by the Presbyterian and Independent 
 parties respectively, who now began a contest with each other 
 which for a time imperilled the cause of liberty, and inspired 
 Charles I. with the hope of destroying the one by means of the 
 other, and of ultimately prevailing over both. 
 
 The solution of matters which was suggested by the Pres- 
 byterian party was to bring the Scotch troops south as the 
 nucleus of a new army ; while Cromwell and those who supported 
 him proposed to get rid of the old commanders and put more 
 energetic men in their places, and to remodel the army. It was 
 in November that he brought a charge of culpable inactivity 
 against his colleague, the Earl of Manchester, but it was not 
 until some months had passed that the Independent party 
 succeeded in carrying the more drastic of the two proposals. 
 In the meantime the Presbyterians were sufficiently influential 
 to initiate fresh negotiations with the King at Uxbridge, which, 
 however, turned out to be utterly futile. They lasted for some 
 three weeks (31st January— 22nd February) ; but the demands of 
 the Parliament for the abolition of Episcopacy, the command of 
 the army and navy, the continuation of the war with the Irish 
 rebels, and the right to nominate the great officers of State, were 
 found to be too revolutionary to be entertained. It has been 
 sometimes said that the tidings of the victory at Inverlochy, 
 which reached Charles soon after the negotiations at Uxbridge 
 had been set on foot, induced him to refuse to come to terms 
 with his opponents in England, and that Montrose's victory 
 tended to ruin his master by leading him to reject feasible terms 
 of reconciliation. But this is quite a mistake. Even if Montrose 
 had done nothing in Scotland or had been defeated there, the 
 cause of Charles I. in England was by no means in such a 
 hopeless condition as to incline him to grant the demands made 
 upon him at Uxbridge ; though, no doubt, the tidings of the 
 brilliant victories won in Scotland would have their own weight 
 ^ Gardiner, Civil War, vol. ii. p. 20. 
 
180 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 in confirming the King in the belief that it was still possible to 
 maintain with the sword the claims which diplomacy would fain 
 have him sign away. 
 
 It is not necessary for our present purpose to give a detailed 
 narrative of the various battles fought by Montrose, except in so 
 far as the Marquess of Argyll was concerned in them ; but a 
 brief outline of the former's victorious career is desirable in order 
 to preserve the continuity of our story. Immediately after the 
 battle of Inverlochy, Montrose turned northwards along the valley 
 in which Loch Ness is situated, and, without attacking Inverness, 
 journeyed eastward. The army which would have opposed him 
 if he had been defeated and would have cut off his retreat had 
 disappeared ; and, soon after he reached Elgin, its leader. Lord 
 Seaforth, renounced the Covenanting cause and submitted to him. 
 His general plan was to make his way south in the hope of 
 receiving reinforcements from England, and of being joined by 
 Charles I. in the Lowlands ; but at first he effected little more 
 than the plundering of the lands and property of his enemies in 
 all the country through which he passed. On entering Forfar- 
 shire he was opposed by the Covenanting army imder Generals 
 Baillie and Sir John Hurry, and was compelled to betake himself 
 to the hills. His two opponents divided their forces ; and while 
 Baillie made Perth his headquarters. Sir John Hurry went north, 
 and suffered a crushing defeat at Auldearn, two miles from Elgin, 
 on the 9 th of May. Two months later the same fate fell upon 
 his colleague at the battle of Alford, in Aberdeenshire (2nd 
 July).i 
 
 No position could be more unenviable than that occupied by 
 General Baillie, whom the Estates, in spite of his repeated offers of 
 resignation, kept in the office of Commander-in-Chief. He had 
 been defeated and discredited, and now he was expected to take the 
 field with a levy of raw, undisciplined troops against the capable and 
 victorious soldiers under Montrose. Nor was this the only dis- 
 advantage under which he lay. The orders of Parliament to the 
 counties south of the Tay, to furnish eight thousand eight hundred 
 infantry and four hundred and eighty-five cavalry, were accom- 
 panied by a summons to the nobles and gentry of that part of 
 Scotland to place themselves at the heads of companies raised from 
 the tenantry of their estates. And thus the Commander-in-Chief 
 was supplied with a number of colleagues most of whom were 
 inclined to do that which was right in their own eyes without 
 * Wisliavt, Deeds of Montrose, chap. ix. 
 
AN UNFORTUNATE COMMANDER 181 
 
 consulting him. Already had General Baillie experienced the 
 kindred disadvantage of being checked and interfered with by 
 members of the Committee of Estates who accompanied the 
 army and assumed or possessed the right of controlling his 
 actions or of modifying his plans. It was dangerous for him 
 either to accept or to refuse the advice thus given him ; for 
 acceptance of the guidance of ignorant and incompetent amateurs 
 meant probably losing the battle, while rejection of it prepared 
 for him the ill-will of some important personage who might 
 ruin him if he succeeded in escaping from the enemy. One of 
 those of whom Eailhe thought that he had just reason to 
 complain was the Marquess of Argyll, He says in a letter of 
 self -vindication : " I was pressed, or rather forced, by the per- 
 suasion of some friends, to give obedience to the Estates, and 
 undertake the command of the countrie's forces, for persewing 
 its enemies ; bot because I would not consent to receave orders 
 from the Marquess of Argyle (if casuallie we should have mett 
 together) after I had received commission to command in chietf 
 over all the forces within the Kingdome, My Lord seemed to be 
 displeased, and expressed himselfe so unto some, that if he lived, 
 he should remember it ; wherein his Lordship indeed hath 
 superabundantly been as good as his word." ^ 
 
 It was in uupropitious circumstances like these that General 
 Bailhe found himself at the head of six thousand foot and eight 
 hundred horse — the last army the Estates could raise — at 
 Kilsyth, half-way between Stirling and Glasgow. He was fully 
 aware that the fate of the kingdom depended upon the result of 
 the conflict there to be waged. In numbers he was the stronger, 
 for Montrose had not more than four thousand four hundred 
 foot and five hundred horse, but this advantage was amply 
 counterbalanced by the inexperience of the Covenanting troops 
 and the miserable limitation of his own powers as General. 
 On the day before the battle Argyll and the other aristocratic 
 commanders asked him what his plans were, and they were in- 
 formed that he had been so slighted as a Commander-in-Chief 
 that he intended simply to take his orders from them and to do 
 his best to carry out their instructions. The decision was an 
 extraordinary one, but evidently in the circumstances it was the 
 best that he could form ; since there was a reasonable probability 
 that his officers would co-operate zealously in executing plans of 
 which a majority of them had approved, and in which they had 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters and Journals, vol, ii. p. 417. 
 
182 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 some measure of confidence. It did not, however, need the gift 
 of inspiration to predict the fate of " an army commanded by 
 a debating society." A fatuous plan was adopted as the result 
 of their deliberations, and put into execution in spite of Baillie's 
 most earnest protests. The Covenanting leaders who had been 
 overwhelmed at Tippermuir, Aberdeen, and Inverlochy were 
 now evidently alarmed lest Montrose should escape, and ventured 
 upon the very dangerous manceuvre of crossing the enemy's 
 front within striking distance in order to secure a position which 
 would cut off his retreat.^ Before they had succeeded in gaining 
 the point at which they aimed, a charge by two of the Highland 
 regiments cut their forces asunder, and in a short time utter 
 destruction overtook all who had not horses swift enough to 
 carry them out of reach of the enemy. The chase extended over 
 fourteen miles, and the loss of life was appalling ; for out of the 
 six thousand infantry on the Covenanting side who entered the 
 battle scarcely more than a hundred got off safe.^ Some of the 
 officers succeeded in reaching the shelter of Stirling Castle, but 
 others, among whom was Argyll, rode from Kilsyth to South 
 Queensferry, a distance of twenty-five miles as the crow flies, 
 and taking refuge on board vessels in the Firth of Forth made 
 their way to Berwick and Newcastle.^ Unfriendly critics have 
 represented Argyll's action in thus leaving Scotland as due to 
 a panic-stricken fear which would not allow him to remain 
 within the bounds of the kingdom in which his enemy was now 
 supreme. But the matter is capable of a very simple explanation. 
 The only resource within the power of the defeated Estates was 
 to recall their army from England, or such part of it as might 
 be needed for defeating Montrose ; and Argyll could render no 
 better service than in hastening south to arrange for the speedy 
 execution of this plan. 
 
 Yet, though Montrose had gained such a series of brilliant 
 victories, and though there was not an army in Scotland to offer 
 him resistance on the open field, his task was, and must have 
 seemed to him, utterly hopeless. Hitherto he had been engaged 
 only in a work of destruction, but now he was called upon to 
 build up the fabric of government in Scotland, and to restore 
 the authority of the King in the place of that of the Estates. 
 
 1 Gardiner, Civil War, vol. ii. p. '270. 
 
 - Wishart, Deeds of Montrose, chap. xiii. ; Gordon, Britane's Distemper, ]). 139 ; 
 Baillie, Letters, vol. ii. p. 420. 
 ^ Gntliry, Memoirs, p. 194. 
 
THE KING A FUGITIVE 183 
 
 The army with which he had won tlio hattle of Kilsyth melted 
 away. The Highlanders departed to their homes, and were not 
 likely to be tempted to return to his standard unless he could 
 promise them more plunder ; and, at the same time, the welcome 
 which he gave to some of his new recruits excited the jealousy of 
 older associates and led them to abandon his cause. Numbers 
 of the gentry and nobles of Scotland who were dissatisfied with 
 the democratic, or perhaps we should rather say the theocratic, 
 government which had prevailed in Scotland for the last eight 
 years, joined him, but the middle and lower classes held severely 
 aloof. It need scarcely be said that this rendered the situation 
 desperate from a military point of view. On all sides he received 
 congratulations, and cities hastened to acknowledge his authority 
 as the King's Lieutenant and to liberate those of his friends who 
 were in prison ; but the means by which he might reduce the 
 fortresses which his enemies still held in Scotland and render 
 aid to the royal cause in England were not forthcoming. He 
 summoned a Parliament to meet in Glasgow on 20 th October, 
 but before that day came round his power had passed away like 
 a dream. 
 
 The object of Montrose, which was to cause the Scotch 
 army in England to be recalled, and thus to free Charles 
 from those who had cast their sword into the balance and 
 made it incline to the side of his opponents, had not been 
 gained. It is true that Scotch forces were now summoned to 
 return home to reverse what Montrose had there done ; but 
 by this time the Eoyalist cause in England was irretrievably 
 lost. For on 14th June, three weeks before the battle of Alford, 
 in Aberdeenshire, that of Naseby had been fought in North- 
 amptonshire, and the royal troops had after a gallant fight been 
 utterly shattered by Cromwell and the New Model army. The 
 King fled from the field to the town of Leicester. " He stayed 
 but a few hours here," says Carlyle ; " rode on, that same night, 
 to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which he reached ' at daybreak ' — poor 
 wearied King! — thea again swiftly Westward, to Wales, to 
 Eagland Castle, to this place and that ; in the hope of raising 
 some force, and coming to fight again ; which, however, he could 
 never do. Some ten months more of roaming, and he, ' disguised 
 as a groom,' will be riding with Parson Hudson towards the Scots 
 at Newark." i 
 
 Montrose received orders from Charles I. to hasten to tlie 
 ^ Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. i. p. 193. 
 
184 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Tweed in order to meet a body of horse to be sent to him as a 
 reinforcement, by the help of which, together with his own troops, 
 he might intercept David Leshe, who was on his way north with 
 the whole body of Scotch cavalry in England, four thousand 
 in number.'^ At Newcastle Leshe was joined by a number of 
 infantry, and at Berwick by ten members of the Committee of 
 Estates, among whom was the Marquess of Argyll.^ With these 
 he surprised Montrose at Phihphaugh near Selkirk, on the 13th 
 September, and infhcted on him a defeat as overwhelming as any 
 of the Covenanting armies had ever received at the Eoyahst 
 general's hands. A heavy mist lay upon the meadow near 
 Selkirk, where the army of Montrose was collecting for the 
 morning's rendezvous, when the avenging host under Leshe swept 
 down upon it. Out of the twelve hundred Eoyahst cavalry 
 not more than a hundred and fifty were in a position or were 
 inclined to offer resistance, so that the struggle was a hopeless 
 one from the very first. The remnant — about five hundred in 
 number — of the Irish troops who had landed in Argyllshire a 
 year before, offered strenuous resistance, but only two hundred 
 of them succeeded in escaping. Montrose himself with a handful 
 of cavaliers broke through the enemy, and, like his rival Argyll 
 at Liverlochy and at Kilsyth, fled for his life.^ 
 
 The butchery that followed is frightful to contemplate. In 
 accordance with a decision formally made by the Parliaments 
 of Scotland and England, no quarter whatever was given to the 
 Irish soldiers ; and three hundred Irish women and some children 
 
 ^ "Wishart, Deeds of Montrose, p. 139. 
 
 * Journals of the House of Lords, vol. vii. p. 593, See App. VII. 
 
 ^ In Aytoun's picturesque and soul-stirring ballad, " The Execution of Montrose," 
 which has supplied many readers with all that they know of Argyll in the shape of a 
 portrait in lurid colours, there is a little slip which somewhat rubs the bloom off 
 the highly polished invective. An English soldier is made to reproach him with 
 avoiding a meeting with his great rival. He says : 
 
 ' ' Back, coward, from thy place ! 
 For seven long years thou hast not dared 
 To look him in the face." 
 
 Neither the English soldier, nor Sheriff Aytoun, nor Mr Mowbray Morris, the latest 
 biographer of Montrose, seems to have been acquainted with the fact that Argyll was 
 at Philiphaugh. If he and Montrose did not then look each other in the face, the 
 fault was certainly not Argyll's. The author of the ballad in question simply 
 versified some scurrilous charges screamed out by some of the mob that escorted 
 Montrose as he passed, a captive, through the Canongate in Edinburgh (Napier, Life 
 of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 779). Such charges uttered by such persons are of no great 
 weight in forming an estimate of a character ; they are, however, very handy missiles 
 with which to pelt a political opponent. 
 
Marquess of Argyll in 1644 (?). 
 
 " The Castle Campbell Portrait." 
 
 From Photograph belonging to II is Grace the Duke of Argyll. The Original ivas destroyed 
 
 by fire at Inz'eraray, 
 
THE MASSACRE AT PHILIPHAUGH 185 
 
 were put to death. Such a decision can only be explained by 
 the horror and indignation which was excited in tlie minds 
 of the people in both countries at the danger of being exposed to 
 the atrocities connected with savage modes of warfare and per- 
 petrated on such a large scale in the massacres of Protestants in 
 Ireland. The resolution that no quarter should be given to Irish 
 soldiers was therefore not an unmeaning piece of cruelty, though 
 it seems to us at this distance of time very ruthless and unjust. 
 One hesitates to speak harshly of men who fought so bravely as 
 these Irish soldiers did in every battle in which Montrose em- 
 ployed them ; but it may be safely said that, if the terrible 
 description of their proceedings given by a contemporary Eoyalist 
 historian is true, there can be no doubt that every one of them 
 had earned the death-penalty many times over,^ Many modern 
 writers who are hostile to the Covenant and its defenders seem 
 to gloat with a kind of grim satisfaction over this massacre at 
 Philiphaugh, and to consider that the execution of the women, 
 probably as brutalized as the men, was an act of cruelty 
 unparalleled in those times. Yet, unhappily, a similar deed 
 of vengeance took place after the battle of Naseby. No 
 excuse or extenuation can, however, be found for the cruelty 
 which led to a few unfortunate children being involved in the 
 fate of their parents on the present occasion, and those who 
 paint the iniquity of the perpetrators of the deed are welcome 
 to use their darkest colours. Something has been said about 
 the execution of prisoners to whom quarter had been promised 
 on surrender at this battle, but the charge has not been fully 
 substantiated. Who can tell whether the surrender of some of 
 the Irish soldiers in the heat of the battle was a surrender " to 
 mercy " or was unconditional ? They might be under the im- 
 pression that it was the one, while the victors with equal good 
 faith might be fully convinced that it was the other.^ 
 
 After the battle of Philiphaugh, Montrose made his way 
 again into Athol, but, in consequence of being deserted by the 
 Gordons, whose own territory in the north was menaced by a 
 Covenanting force under General Middleton, he was imable to 
 carry out any further schemes against his enemies. In a short 
 time, therefore, it was possible for David Leslie to return into 
 England with the forces under his command. For some months the 
 authorities in Scotland were occupied in bringing to justice those 
 
 ' Gordon, Britane's Distemper, n. 1()1. 
 
 ^ Guthiy, Memoirs, p. 162 ; Rushworth, Colhxtions, vol. vii. p. 231. 
 
186 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 who had been involved in the guilt of civil war, or against whom 
 the charge of countenancing or of aiding the enemy could be sub- 
 stantiated. It is easy for modern writers who have no sympathy 
 with the Covenanting party or who have an animus against them, 
 to speak of their proceedings as vindictive. But when we re- 
 member that Montrose's soldiers could boast of having slain fifteen 
 thousand of their fellow-countrymen, that large tracts of Scotland 
 had been laid waste, and that frightful miseries had been inflicted 
 on the inhabitants, it is not surprising that it should have been 
 thought necessary to punish those who were responsible for what 
 had happened and who were within reach ; though here again 
 we have to express regret that the voice of the Church was 
 urgent in impressing upon the civil authorities the obligation of 
 executing justice rather than in reminding them of the claims of 
 mercy towards the vanquished. It was a consequence of the 
 fatal mistake of the Church's having allied itself with one 
 political party in the State, and of its having begun to maintain 
 its cause by the sword, that it now regarded its opponents as 
 enemies of God and spoke of them in the hour of defeat as 
 evil men whom God had delivered over into their hands for 
 punishment.^ 
 
 So far as Argyll is concerned, he was necessarily involved in 
 whatever guilt his party incurred by their wilful or blinded pro- 
 cedure on this occasion, should their preference of justice to mercy 
 be held as exposing them to that censure ; but it is pleasing to 
 be able to record the fact that through his intercession the Earl 
 of Hartfell, one of the accused who was condemned to death, 
 was pardoned.^ A romantic story is told of a prominent Eoyalist, 
 
 ^ One 13 ashamed to find a grave historian like Gardiner speaking of ' ' the howls 
 of the Kirk for blood " {Civil War, vol. ii. p. 390). Such hysterical phrases should 
 be left to partisan writers of biographies of Montrose. Is it necessary to explain 
 that the Covenanters were not ogres or cannibals, and that an outcry for the execu- 
 tion of justice upon the guilty is quite a dill'erent thing from the demand for 
 refreshment by persons of the latter class ? Dr Gardiner was probably betrayed 
 into the use of this phrase by having inadvertently employed the nickname of 
 "the Kirk" for the Church of Scotland. The idea of The Church howling for 
 blood would strike most persons as grotesquely incongruous with its spirit and 
 history. But after "The Church " had, according to the offensive practice employed 
 by some Episcopalians, been transmogrified into "the Kirk" and conceived of as 
 some sordid, malign institution, destitute of all spiritual authority, it became 
 possible to represent it in this attitude. It was nothing unjust which the Church 
 then demanded, though we say again that it was to be regretted that it was on 
 justice rather than on mercy that she laid stress. AVe may remind our readers 
 that both are Divine attributes. 
 
 - Guthry, Memoirs, p. 210 ; Annandale Family Book, Sir "W. Fraser, p. cxcix. 
 
DEVASTATION OF ARGYLLSHIRE 187 
 
 Lord Ogilvie, who was also coudemned to death but succeeded 
 in escaping, much, it is said, to Argyll's mortification. On 
 the night before the day appointed for his execution his wife 
 and mother and sister were permitted to visit him in his cell in 
 the castle of St Andrews. His sister exchanged clothes with 
 him and lay down in his bed ; and he succeeded in passing out 
 of the castle with his mother and wife, and in reaching the horses 
 provided for his escape. A reward of £1000 Sterling was offered 
 for his apprehension, living or dead, but in vain. Probably it 
 was because it was generally thought that the escape was due to 
 the connivance of some of those in authority to whom Lord 
 Ogilvie was related that Argyll was specially indignant at the 
 occurrence.^ 
 
 The condition of matters among the clan Campbell, and 
 other adherents and tenants of the Marquess of Argyll, in con- 
 sequence of the war which had been carried into their territory, 
 was wretched in the extreme ; and, though the power of the 
 enemy to work mischief had been considerably broken in other 
 parts of Scotland, predatory warfare was still smouldering in the 
 west. After the battle of Kilsyth, Montrose's lieutenant, Alaster 
 MacDonald, on whom he conferred knighthood, had insisted upon 
 being permitted to carry on war on his own account though 
 he promised to return to assist Montrose if needed, and he had 
 gone off into Argyllshire with a large following of Highlanders 
 and a bodyguard of a hundred and twenty of the best Irish 
 soldiers.2 Here he continued for the greater part of a year, and, 
 under the pretext of avenging wrongs inflicted, or alleged to 
 have been inflicted, by Argyll upon his family and clan, revelled 
 in carnage and plunder. The task of dislodging him was too 
 serious an undertaking to be entered upon for the present, and 
 so he wrought his wicked will in spite of proclamations and 
 commands and sentences of denunciation and excommunication 
 that were launched against him. 
 
 For many years after 1644, as the Marquess himself tells us,^ 
 he received no rents from Argyllshire, and both his own con- 
 dition and that of his unfortunate clansmen and tenants became 
 a matter of solicitude both to the Parliament and to the nation 
 at large. The Parliament of 1646-47 ordered £15,000 Sterling 
 
 ^ Guthry, Memoirs, p. 210 ; Deeds of Montrose (Murdoch and Simpson), p. 168 ; 
 Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 596 ; Balfour, Annals, vol. iii. p. 358. 
 - Deeds of Montrose (Murdoch and Simpson), p. 138. 
 ^ State Papers, Dovi., 15th July, 1656. 
 
188 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 to be paid to him for subsistence, and £30,000 Sterling to be 
 devoted to the relief of the county of Argyll.^ In addition to this, 
 collections were appointed by the Commission of Assembly to be 
 made in all the churches throughout Scotland for the benefit 
 of the destitute and helpless tenantry.^ We can easily believe 
 that the consciousness of having suffered in a good cause would 
 have its own weight in consoling the high-spirited chieftain and 
 clan under the mortification of having their wrongs and losses 
 announced in every county throughout Scotland and of being 
 reduced to the necessity of accepting public alms ; but, for all 
 that, the experience must have been a very bitter one. The 
 estate of Mugdock, in Strathblane, Stirlingshire, which belonged 
 to Montrose, was transferred to Argyll as some additional com- 
 pensation for the losses inflicted upon him, but as this property 
 was burdened with debt it is not probable that any considerable 
 accession of income resulted from this arrangement.^ 
 
 The miseries suffered by his tenants were strikingly brought 
 before Argyll, though surely he stood in little need of the 
 reminder, by a curious episode which is related in Bishop 
 Guthry's Memoirs. It had been decided to bring back to 
 Scotland the troops that had been sent over into Ireland to 
 suppress the rebellion there, and the Marquess of Argyll was 
 appointed to go on this errand into the neighbouring kingdom. 
 On his journey he found near Stirling a band of his own tenantry 
 in a very wretched plight. They had fled from the marauding 
 host under Colkitto and found refuge here and there in out-of- 
 the-way corners, until they had been forced by hunger into 
 seeking subsistence elsewhere. They were about twelve hundred 
 in number, and under the leadership of Campbell of Ardkinglass 
 they had attempted to plunder the lands of Eoyalists in the 
 district of Monteith, but had been beaten off at Callander with 
 heavy loss. The survivors were now huddled together in the 
 neighbourhood of Stirling in a deplorable condition. The 
 Marquess took them with him into Eenfrewshire, in the hope 
 that the people there, who were strong supporters of the Covenant, 
 would welcome the new-comers. They, however, refused to have 
 anything to do with them, and even threatened to take up arms 
 against them unless they were removed. Argyll's only resource 
 was to despatch them into the Lennox to prey upon the lands of 
 
 "^ Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. vi. }it. i. pp. 6^3, 675. 
 - Proceedings of Commission, 1647, p. 173 (Scottish Hist. See). 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. ii. p. 74. 
 
CHARLES SURRENDERS TO LESLIE 189 
 
 Eoyalists there ; and this arrangement was found to be all the 
 more practicable from the fact that the troops who had repulsed 
 them at Callander were now in the north with Montrose. It is 
 indeed a curious fact, and one which illustrates the strange con- 
 dition of matters in Scotland at this time, that a man of devout 
 character like Argyll, and one interested in the establishment 
 and maintenance of public order, should have been unable to 
 suggest a better arrangement for righting the wrongs of the 
 victims of rapine and violence than that they should proceed to 
 recoup themselves for their losses by perpetrating similar crimes 
 upon their neighbours.^ 
 
 While the Marquess of Argyll was engaged on the puljlic 
 business in Ireland above referred to, he received a special 
 message from the Earl of Morton that he must return home at 
 once, as a most important event had happened : the civil war 
 in England was at an end, and the King had surrendered himself 
 into the hands of David Leslie.^ On the 27th of April he had 
 left Oxford, and on the 5th of ]\Iay he arrived in the camp 
 of the Scotch army, which was then engaged in the siege of 
 Newark, in Nottinghamshire. By the royal orders Newark was 
 given up to the Scots, and immediately thereafter their army 
 marched northwards to Newcastle-on-Tyne, with the King virtu- 
 ally a prisoner in their custody.^ 
 
 The complicated and entangled condition in which matters 
 were at this time offered a fair field for the employment of those 
 diplomatic talents with which Argyll was so riclily endowed, and 
 in the exercise of which he appears at his best. The Scotch 
 army was present in England in virtue of the arrangement 
 between the two nations under the Solemn League and Covenant 
 that brotherly aid was to be given by Scotland on the condition 
 of a reformation of religion which would secure uniformity in 
 creed, ritual, and Church-government throughout the three king- 
 doms — in other words, on the condition that Presbyterianism as 
 it existed in Scotland was to be established in England and 
 Ireland. A great obstacle in the way of the realization of this 
 plan existed in the firm and conscientious belief on the part of 
 the King in the Divine right of Episcopacy; but to this had 
 now to be added the opposition of the Independents, who were 
 determined not to permit the tyranny of Bishops to be replaced 
 by the autocratic rule of Presbyters. Had Charles I. honestly 
 
 ^ Guthry, Memoirs, p. 213 ; Deeds of Montrose (Murdoch and Simpson), chap. xix. 
 ■^ Guthry, Memoirs, p. 217. ^ Gardiner, Civil War, vol. ii. p. 577. 
 
190 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 accepted the Covenant he would have had the support of the 
 Scotch nation and army in recovering the English throne, but 
 without this condition it was fruitless to expect to enlist their 
 sympathies and aid. The glittering bribe of a dukedom, the 
 Garter, and a great fortune, was offered to David Leslie if he 
 would restore the King without insisting upon his acceptance of 
 Presbyterianism ; but it was refused, not merely perhaps because 
 of the religious scruples of the Scotch commander, but because 
 he must have seen that it was hopeless to face Cromwell and the 
 New Model army without the support of the English Presby- 
 terians and in violation of the Solemn League and Covenant. 
 On the other hand, Cromwell and the Independents were by no 
 means able to control the situation, though they influenced it so 
 profoundly. They were not strong enough as yet to set aside the 
 religious covenant with Scotland which had, to their secret mor- 
 tification, been imposed upon them instead of the " civil league," 
 which they would have preferred ; and accordingly they had to 
 be careful to avoid open expression of their dislike to those who 
 had been called in to help in an hour of need, but who showed 
 no great haste to depart when the crisis had passed. They were 
 extremely anxious for their allies to return home and leave the 
 King in the custody of his English subjects ; for, as long as he 
 was in the midst of the Scotch troops, the risk always existed of 
 his accepting the Covenant, and of an alliance being concluded 
 between the Eoyalists and the Presbyterians which would over- 
 whelm their opponents. This, indeed, was no imaginary danger. 
 It was from this quarter that the security of the Commonwealth 
 afterwards established upon the ruins of the Monarchy was most 
 seriously menaced, and it was by an alliance of this kind that 
 the Kestoration of 1660 was brought about. In the meantime 
 the King was unconsciously labouring in the interests of his 
 bitterest opponents ; for, though his attachment to Episcopacy 
 was inalienable, he wasted much valuable time and exposed 
 himself to the charge of insincerity by expressing desires to be 
 instructed in Presbyterianism, by engaging in academical dis- 
 cussions concerning forms of Church-government, and by suggest- 
 ing impossible schemes of compromise, in the hope of deluding 
 his opponents, until in some happy conjunction of circumstances 
 he might be able to set his foot upon their necks. 
 
 On the 29th of May, Argyll, who had returned from Ireland, 
 together with his father-in-law the Earl of Morton, and the Earl 
 of Crawford and Lindsay, visited the King at Newcastle and 
 
CHARLES AND ARGYLL 191 
 
 kissed his hand.^ The King and he had not seen each other since 
 the adjournment of the Scotch Parliament in November, 1641, 
 shortly after the latter had received his ]\Iarquessate. What a 
 dreadful experience had each of them passed through since then ! 
 And yet Time had in his wallet something worse for them both, 
 and the two causes which they represented were one day to 
 cherish their names as those of men who had hallowed them with 
 their blood. A great gulf still divided them in politics ; but it is 
 pleasing to think that in their personal relations now and from 
 this time forward there was less bitterness than there had been. 
 Argyll still hoped to serve not only the Monarchy, but Charles ; 
 and the latter, in the confidence of a letter to the Queen, spoke 
 of him in terms in which, if we mistake not, a vein of kindHness, 
 though very thin, mingles with his wounded pride. " He was," 
 says the King, " very civil and cunning." The sentence is not 
 strong enough to bear any heavy superstructure of inference, but 
 we think that the words express, along with a measure of aversion, 
 a surly acknowledgment of Argyll's desire and endeavours to be 
 gracious in manner, and that the tone of the acknowledgment is 
 not altogether unfriendly. A more intimate relationship between 
 the two is revealed in another letter to the Queen, dated 10 th 
 June. " Argyll," he says, " went yesterday to London with great 
 profession of doing me service there : his errand (as is pretended) 
 is only to chasten down and moderate the demands that are 
 coming to me from thence." ^ If we had no further information 
 with regard to the matter thus alluded to, we should naturally 
 conclude that it merely implied that Argyll, who was going to 
 London, had undertaken to try to modify the terms on which the 
 Parliament was wilKng to conclude peace with the King. But 
 from other quarters we learn the somewhat surprising fact that 
 Argyll's journey to London was undertaken at the request of 
 Charles,^ and that a secret commission was entrusted to him 
 together with the Chancellor Loudon, which was faithfully dis- 
 charged.* The commission was that he should consult the Duke 
 of Richmond and the Marquess of Hertford, both of them Eoyalists 
 and intimate friends of the King, as to the expediency of the 
 Scotch Parliament and army declaring for him, and as to the 
 effect which this procedure would have upon the Eoyalist party 
 
 ^ Guthry, Memoirs, p. 220. 
 
 ^ Charles I. in 1646 (Camden Society), pp. 47, 49. 
 
 * State Trials, vol. v. p. 1397. 
 
 * Burnet, Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, pp. 283, 284. 
 
192 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 and upon the country at large. The words in the King's letter, 
 " his errand as is pretended," must therefore be understood as 
 implying that the ostensible reason of Argyll's journey afforded 
 an opportunity for executing the private commission. We are 
 told that he consulted these friends of the King, and reported 
 to him their answer. It was to the effect that probably the result 
 of the measure proposed would be utterly disastrous to the royal 
 cause, as the two nations would almost certainly go to war with 
 each other, and all parties in England would probably unite 
 to resist being conquered.^ The fact that Argyll received this 
 commission confirms what we have said with regard to a certain 
 measure of friendly relationship being restored between him and 
 his Sovereign. Yet we need not believe that, though he consulted 
 the English Eoyalists in question with regard to the course 
 suggested by the King, he himself approved of it. He was, of 
 course, anxious that the Covenant should be carried into effect, 
 and that the uniformity in religion prescribed by it should be 
 secured, but he clearly saw that this could only take place by co- 
 operation with the English Parhament rather than with the King. 
 
 The conditions of the treaty with the King which the 
 Houses of Parliament had carefully drawn up were very drastic, 
 and were evidently prepared with the view of rendering it 
 impossible in all time to come for him to make war upon 
 his people. According to them he must accept the Covenant 
 for himself and agree to its being imposed upon all his subjects. 
 They also prescribed the abolition of Episcopacy, and the refor- 
 mation of the Church in accordance with the Covenant and the 
 advice of the Assembly of Divines. The control of the militia 
 and navy was to be exercised by Parliament for twenty years, 
 and at the end of that time the future arrangements were to 
 be decided upon by the same authority, and any resolutions 
 the Houses might come to were to have the effect of laws 
 even if the King were to refuse his consent to them.^ 
 
 The " Propositions," as they were called, were nineteen 
 in number, but those which we have given were the most 
 important of them. A copy of the document containing them 
 was supplied to the Scotch commissioners, and two days 
 afterwards Committees of both Houses of Parliament met 
 with them in the Painted Chamber at Westminster for con- 
 ference upon the matter. To this assembly Argyll delivered 
 
 ^ BiograpJiia Britannica, vol. iii. p. 184 ; State Trials, vol. v. p. 1397. 
 - Rush worth, Collections, vol. vi. p. 309. 
 
GREAT SPEECH BY ARGYLL 193 
 
 ou 25th June, 1646, a speech which made a great impression 
 and settled definitely the course of policy which the two nations 
 were to follow in this juncture of public affairs. He was pro- 
 bably known by sight to but few of his audience, but all 
 must have long known him by repute. Doubtless from the 
 iirst the general attention was riveted upon the Scot with the 
 fair hair, "misplaced eyes," and a slight shade of insignifi- 
 cance of manner, which strangely vanished, however, when 
 his persuasive voice was heard. His romantic personahty as 
 a Highland chieftain of princely rather than patrician rank, 
 the commanding position he was known to have attained in 
 Scotland, his stalwart and successful resistance to the royal 
 policy, and his recent misfortunes in warfare, must have all 
 contributed to the interest of seeing him and hearing him 
 on that day. Probably many were surprised, as it is certain 
 that almost all were deeply gratified, by the line of argument 
 he followed, which was not that of a narrow doctrinaire or 
 a rancorous zealot but of a statesman of broad views and 
 sympathies, 
 
 " Who knew the seasons when to take 
 Occasion by the hand, and make 
 The bounds of freedom wider yet." 
 
 After a brief introduction he entered upon the difficult question 
 of the form of Church -government which was to replace the 
 Episcopal, and he made it clear that he was in favour of some 
 modified kind of Presbyterianism, which, while it would secure 
 a reasonable measure of uniformity in religion, would not press 
 heavily upon devout, well-disposed persons who had conscientious 
 scruples which prevented their acquiescing in what commended 
 itself to the majority of their fellow -citizens. " Upon one 
 part," he said, " we would take heed not to settle lawless liberty 
 in religion, whereby, instead of uniformity, we should set up 
 a thousand heresies and schisms, which is directly contrary 
 and destructive to our Covenant. Upon the other part; we are 
 to look that we persecute not piety and peaceable men, who 
 cannot, through scruple of conscience, come up in all things 
 to the common rule." After touching upon the fact that the 
 two kingdoms, England and Scotland, were so closely allied 
 in many respects that they differed in little but name, and 
 expressing a wish that they could be actually amalgamated, 
 he proceeded to deal with the delicate matter of the relations 
 between the Scotch and Charles, and assured his hearers that 
 13 
 
194 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 there was no danger of his fellow-countrymen forsaking their 
 associates at this juncture. The Scotch had always cherished 
 affection for the King. " Yet as," he added, " experience may 
 tell, their personal regard for him has never made them forget 
 that common rule, ' The safety of the people is the supreme law,' 
 so likewise their love to Monarchy makes them very desirous 
 that it may be rather regulated than destroyed." He con- 
 cluded by announcing that the commissioners from Scotland 
 approved of the terms of peace which were to be submitted 
 to the King and had no change or modification of them to 
 suggest.^ 
 
 In a letter to the Speaker written by Cromwell after the 
 battle of Naseby reference is made to the large section of the 
 army who had not seen their way to accept the Covenant, 
 and entreaty is made by the General for some consideration 
 to be shown to them. " Honest men," he says, " served you 
 faithfully in this action. Sir, they are trusty ; I beseech you, 
 in the name of God, not to discourage them. . . . He that 
 ventures his life for the liberty of his country, I wish he trust 
 God for the liberty of his conscience, and you for the liberty 
 he fights for." ^ This speech of Argyll's expressed the same idea 
 in other words. Spiritual life was not to be crushed in the 
 name of order because it would not in every respect grow on 
 the lines laid down by the Covenant. The statement was all 
 the more remarkable as coming from one who was the champion 
 of the Covenant, and it showed that he held by the spirit rather 
 than by the letter of that document and was not prepared 
 to repudiate those who believed that further light in religion 
 might yet break from God's Word than had hitherto been 
 vouchsafed to those in the northern kingdom. 
 
 To this suggestion of liberty of conscience was added that 
 of a constitutional or hmited Monarchy, which, so far from being 
 a fond imagination, had for some years past been virtually 
 established in Scotland. For, as we have seen, the power which 
 had been wrested from the hands of Charles had been lodged in 
 the Parliament, and the overweening power of the aristocracy 
 in Parliament had been taken away. Altogether the speech was 
 both luminous and inspiring, and manifested the enlightened policy 
 of a great statesman rather than the mere astuteness of a vulgar 
 
 * Lords' Journals, vol, viii. p. 392. This speech was published in a tiny 
 pamphlet, London, 27th June, 1646. 
 ^ Carlyle, Crovucell, Letter xxix. 
 
A CONSISTENT CAREER 195 
 
 politician. " Astuteness " is indeed the easy phrase with which 
 many historians have labelled Argyll and set him aside ; but it 
 may be safely said that no one could have secured and held the 
 position in public life which he occupied for nearly a generation, 
 without possessing some noble and generous qualities of mind 
 and heart. Had he been merely astute we should have found 
 him shifting his sails from time to time to suit the varying 
 currents of public opinion ; whereas one of the most remarkable 
 features in his character is the tenacity with which he adhered 
 to the cause to which, in 1638, he had given in his allegiance 
 and for which he was yet to lay down his life. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Argyll appointed a Member of the "Westminster Assembly— Charles I. given 
 up by the Scotch — Argyll's Popularity begins to decline — General Leslie 
 and he conduct Military Operations in Kintyre — Hamilton's Party gains 
 a.scendency in Parliament — Argyll's Duel with the Earl of Crawford — 
 "The Engagement" — Hamilton defeated at Preston — " The Whi^'gamore 
 Baid " — Cromwell's Visit to Edinburgh — Execution of Charles I. — "The 
 Act of Classes" — Charles II. proclaimed in Edinburgh. 
 
 IT would have been strange if the Marquess of Argyll, whose 
 inclinations were so strongly ecclesiastical and who had 
 done and suffered so much for the cause of Presbyterianism, had 
 been overlooked when the General Assembly of the Church of 
 Scotland had to choose representatives to sit and act with the 
 English Divines at Westminster, to whom the task had been 
 given of securing uniformity of creed and worship in the Churches 
 of Scotland and England. That Assembly had begun to meet 
 on the 6th Jvdy, 1643, but it was not until three years later 
 that Argyll was associated with it. The reason for this is quite 
 evident. His energies had been taxed to the utmost both in 
 diplomatic and military affairs, as he had organized the aid which 
 Scotland afforded England in the war against Charles I., and as 
 he had striven to defeat the invasion of Scotland in the royal 
 interests, which had resulted in such a heavy loss being inflicted 
 upon himself. Since he was now in London in connexion with 
 the negotiations between the captive King and the Parliament, 
 he was appointed by the Commission of the General Assembly of 
 the Church of Scotland a member of the Assembly of Divines 
 at "Westminster in room of Lord Balmerino, who had for some 
 reason or another not been able to act, or who had not chosen 
 to act in that capacity. Argyll's commission was laid before 
 the House of Lords and approved by them on the 7th of July, 
 1646,^ and then received the sanction of the House of Commons. 
 It was not until these secular bodies had endorsed his com- 
 
 ^ Lords' Journals, 7tli July, 1646 ; Proceedings of Commission of General Assembly, 
 1646-47, p. 9. 
 
 IDC 
 
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 197 
 
 mission that he could join the Synod of Divines — so much was 
 the latter under control of the State. 
 
 In the Presbyterian section of the Church the Westminster 
 Assembly occupies a place somewhat similar to that of the 
 Council of Trent in the Koman Catholic section, or that of 
 Nicaea in the Greek ; though in the matter of outward pomp 
 and state the sober Puritanical Synod fell far short of that 
 which in the previous century had been held to repair the 
 barque of St Peter shattered by the storm of the Eeformation, 
 or of that earlier gathering in Asia Minor over which the 
 Emperor Constantino had presided. In the matter of personal 
 character, however, those who constituted the Assembly of 
 Divines were not inferior to the members of either of the 
 other Councils to which we have alluded. A competent witness 
 goes so far as to say of them and of those who met earlier in 
 the same century in the Synod of Dort, that, all things con- 
 sidered, the Christian world had never seen Synods of more 
 excellent Divines since the days of the Apostles.^ Yet the 
 Assembly in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster was not 
 without a measure of dignity and state in its procedure which 
 would both command the respect of the world outside and remind 
 the members themselves of the gravity of their office. This was 
 illustrated in the formality with which Argyll was received. 
 " The Assembly," we are told, " was informed that the Marquesse 
 of Argile was without ; and an order for his admission into the 
 Assembly was read from the Lords and Commons." Upon this, 
 four of the most distinguished members of the Assembly are sent 
 to receive the Marquess and to bring him in. He presents a 
 letter from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 
 which is read aloud. Stately words of compliment then flow 
 from the lips of the Prolocutor or Moderator in praise of the 
 Church whose greetings have been delivered to them, and of 
 its representative who is now before them, and with whose 
 strivings and sufferings all present are well acquainted. " In 
 the midst of all difficulties," he said, " we have ever found 
 encouragement from that famous, religious, and pure Church 
 implanted in that kingdom. . . . We have found it abundantly 
 in this place. And to crown all the rest it is the joy of 
 our hearts to find [among us] a person of so great and famous 
 renown and honour, in which the greatest safety of the kingdom 
 of Scotland is reposed. . . . We look upon Your Lordship as 
 
 ^ Baxter, Life and Times, vol. i. p. 73. 
 
198 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 one of the greatest instruments under God [for the forwarding 
 of this work]." ^ The generous words of appreciation from such 
 a quarter may well have touched the heart of Argyll, and have 
 afforded him some consolation for the sufferings which fidelity to 
 his religious convictions had brought in their train. 
 
 The difficulty that beset Argyll's scheme of a comprehensive 
 ecclesiastical establishment and a constitutional Monarchy was, 
 as Dr Gardiner points out, that it could not be realized without 
 the King, who hated both with a perfect hatred and was deter- 
 mined not to consent to either of them. At Newcastle, on the 
 30 th of July, the Propositions which had been drawn up were 
 presented to him by commissioners from the English Parliament, 
 only to be declined on the pretext that time was needed in 
 order to come to a decision upon them. From every quarter for 
 a couple of months past pressure had been brought to bear upon 
 Charles to accept the Covenant, but in vain. The Scotch com- 
 missioners had knelt before him and with tears entreated him 
 to do so. A deputation from the General Assembly came with 
 instructions " to let him know what Church censure was," if 
 he refused his consent ; and one of them, Andrew Cant, in a 
 sermon preached before him, addressed him as " a piece of clay," 
 and called upon him " to think where he sat of his death, resur- 
 rection, and judgment, and of eternity," and then, in a flood of 
 compassion, " offered him mercy upon repentance." - Another 
 day the Earl of Leven and nearly a hundred officers were ad- 
 mitted to an audience, and begged him " to comply with the 
 just desires of his Parliaments " ; ^ while from the French Ambas- 
 sador, and from his own wife whose influence upon him had 
 been so strong, he received virtually the same advice. But his 
 resolution was unshaken, and, in the hope both of aid from 
 abroad and of dissension springing up among his opponents by 
 which he might profit, he returned answer on the 1st of August 
 to the commissioners from the English Parliament that he de- 
 sired to come to London to discuss the matters in question, but 
 that he would never " consent to anything destructive to that 
 just power which by the laws of God and the land he had been 
 born unto." * 
 
 In this state of matters the Scotch authorities decided 
 upon the withdrawal of their forces from England on receiving 
 
 ^ Civil War, vol. ii. p. -194. 
 
 ^ C. S. Terry, Life and Cam})ai(jns of Ah-xandcr Leslie, p. 116. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 417. * Gardiner, Civil Jl'ur, vol. ii. p. 514. 
 
THE ESTATES UNJUSTLY BLAMED 199 
 
 security for the payment of their expenses, and on making 
 arrangements with the English Parliament for the future custody 
 of the King. Cliarles's refusal to come to terms upon the only 
 conditions that seemed practicable had produced dire disap- 
 pointment in Scotland. " The King's answer has broken our 
 heart," says Baillie, " we see nothing but a sea of more horrible 
 new confusions. We are afraid of the hardness of God's decree 
 against that madd man, and against all his kingdomes. We 
 look above to God : for all below is full of darkness." ^ 
 
 The action of the Estates in deciding to give up the King 
 has often been blamed ; but it is difficult to see that they had 
 any option in the matter. Their troops were no longer needed 
 for the purpose of aiding the English Parliament, and conse- 
 quently they were bound to remove them on the payment of 
 the subsidies to which they were entitled. Nor could they 
 reasonably dispute the claim of the English Parliament to dis- 
 pose of the person of the King so long as he was upon English 
 soil, though they might expect to be consulted before a decision 
 was arrived at. No separate arrangement or composition could 
 be made by the Scotch with him without a disgraceful violation 
 of the Solemn League and Covenant by which they and the 
 English nation were united together. The only other alterna- 
 tive, allowing him to escape to the Continent, was equally out 
 of the question. It would have involved a similar breach of 
 faith and would have exposed the people of both countries to 
 the risk of foreign invasion, for Charles would most certainly 
 have endeavoured to win back his throne by the aid of any 
 foreign troops whom he could engage for the purpose. In the 
 meantime no serious danger to his honour and person seemed 
 likely to result from transferring him to the custody of his 
 English subjects. And, indeed, as a mere matter of fact it was 
 not by those to whom they handed him over, but by their 
 political opponents, that he was afterwards brought to trial and 
 execution.^ 
 
 1 Letters, vol. ii, p. 386. 
 
 - The Commission of the General Assembly in 1650 indignantly repudiated the 
 charge of treachery towards the King in delivering him up to the English, which 
 had been brought against them in Montrose's declaration. They say: "This 
 Kingdome was so far from making any sale of him, that they did not condiscend 
 [consent] to leave him with his subjects in England, untill sufficient surety was 
 given by both Houses of Parliament concerning the safety and preservation of his 
 Majestie's person" {General Assembly Commission Records, 1648-49 (Scottish Hist. 
 See), p. 343). 
 
200 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 The often-repeated taunt of having bartered their King for 
 gold scarcely deserves refutation, so little is it justified by the 
 facts of the case. It assumes that the payment of a just debt 
 by the English Parliament was a bribe to the Scotch people, 
 and also that all the varied and complicated motives which 
 influence the policy of a nation can be adequately represented 
 by those which affect the conduct of an individual. The 
 possession of the King as a prisoner afforded a guarantee that 
 their pecuniary claims would be settled to their satisfaction ; 
 but even if the King had never come among them those 
 claims would have existed imdiminished. It was of course 
 unfortunate for the people of Scotland that they were placed in 
 circumstances which gave their enemies a plausible excuse for 
 accusing them of so hateful an action as that of selling their 
 King ; but their honour would have been deeply stained if 
 they had broken faith with their English allies to avoid the 
 mere appearance of ungenerous action towards their prisoner.^ 
 Probably the best advice which Charles I. received at this crisis 
 in his affairs was that which Argyll gave him. It was to the 
 effect that, without asking again for permission, he should pro- 
 ceed to London and throw himself upon the generosity of the 
 Enghsh Parliament. But this, like all the other schemes on 
 his behalf that were at this time suggested, came to nothing ; 
 and at the end the King was face to face with the same diffi- 
 culties and dangers as had confronted him at the beginning. 
 
 The Scotch claims for sums due to them were greatly in 
 excess of what the English Parliament was prepared to allow, but 
 after much discussion £400,000 Sterling was agreed upon as the 
 amount to be paid in settlement of them. Half of this was 
 to be handed over before the army returned home, and the 
 remainder in two instalments within two years thereafter. A 
 considerable time was occupied in making these arrangements 
 and in raising the money needed ; and so several months passed 
 away before the carts, thirty-six in number, laden with specie 
 for the payment of the subsidy, slowly wended their way north- 
 
 ' It may occur to some of onr readers that we are told in Holy Scripture 
 (1 Thess., chap. v. 22), "Abstain from all appearance of evil" ; but, even if this were 
 so, there is no reason to conclude that we should try to escape the appearance of one 
 form of evil by rushing into the reality of another. There is, however, no ground 
 for holding the Pharisaical maxim in question ; for it is one of the merits of the 
 Revised Version that it has freed the English Bible from it, by giving a more 
 accurate translation of St Paul's words. That apostle was certainly tlie last 
 person in the world to relax attention to realities in order to keep up ai)peavanccs. 
 
AN ILL-OMENED PARTING ?01 
 
 wards. It was not until the 26th of January, 1647, that the 
 business was concluded and the King transferred to the care 
 of the English commissioners, who conducted him to Holmby 
 House, in Northamptonshire, there to remain until some arrange- 
 ment had been arrived at between the two kingdoms with regard 
 to the disposal of his person.^ 
 
 The circumstances attending the departure of the Scotch 
 army from England augured ill for the prospect of peaceable 
 relations being maintained between the two countries. " I do 
 not know," says Montereul in a letter to Mazarin, " what will be 
 the result of the bargain that the English have just concluded 
 with the Scots, but it seems to me that they have not separated 
 very satisfied with each other. ... It will be very difficult for 
 the enmity that is between these peoples to remain long without 
 breaking out." ^ The alliance from which so much had been 
 hoped had proved abortive. The uniformity in religion, which 
 the people of Scotland had had in view in concluding that 
 alliance, had not been secured, and there seemed but little 
 hope that it would be eventually established. In the mean- 
 time their troops had been paid off very much as if they had 
 been hired fighters whose services were no longer needed, and 
 whose claim to have a voice in the further settlement of affairs 
 was both absurd and offensive. The last of the soldiers who left 
 Newcastle for their homes in the north heard as their parting 
 greetings insults and taunts in which they were described as 
 " nothing but Jews, people who had sold their King and their 
 honour " ; and we are told that " the English officers had con- 
 siderable trouble, with blows and threats, to prevent the women 
 of the town from following the Scottish troops and throwing 
 stones at them while they were leaving it." ^ 
 
 Malicious tongues and pens busied themselves in promoting 
 discord between the two countries and made it very difficult 
 for the party of which Argyll was the head to maintain their 
 policy of strict and loyal co-operation with the English Parliament. 
 We can indeed trace a decline of Argyll's popularity from this 
 period of his life, which was largely if not altogether due to the 
 fluctuation of interest to which the cause of the Covenant, like 
 that of other great public movements, was exposed. The fervour 
 and absorbing zeal of its early years had to a certain extent died 
 
 ' C. S. Terry, Life and Camjmigns of Alexander Leslie, p. 434. 
 - Montereul, Correspondence (Scottish Hist. Soc), vol. i. p. 444. 
 ' Ibid., vol. i. p. 445. 
 
202 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 down, and in the meantime its adherents had in many parts of 
 Scotland experienced the scourge of civil war as a result of their 
 connexion with it. Now that the power of Charles had been 
 utterly broken and that he was a prisoner, a certain reaction in 
 his favour set in which incUned many to dwell more upon his 
 misfortunes than upon the faults which had occasioned them. 
 
 So marked was this new phase of public feeling, and so 
 distinctly did it affect the standing and reputation of the leader 
 of the Covenanting j)arty, that Baillie, writing on the 22nd of 
 September, 1647, says: "The Lord help him [Argyll] out of 
 his troul)le ; his enemies are many, and friends for any purpose 
 bot few : yet God is not dead." ^ Among those who had presented 
 a firm and united front to royal and ecclesiastical tyranny, 
 diverging and hostile factions made then' appearance once that 
 the danger which had bound them together had passed away. 
 The two main political parties in Scotland which now come into 
 view are those of which the Marquess of Argyll and the Duke 
 of Hamilton are the leaders — the latter having been freed by 
 the Parliamentary army from his imprisonment in the castle at 
 St Michael's Mount, and having been again reconciled to the 
 King.2 Though both parties held to the Covenant, they might 
 be described as democratic and Eoyalist respectively in their 
 tendencies, and in course of time they obtained for themselves 
 their own special and characteristic names. It was said at the 
 time that Argyll was opposed to the Monarchy, and that Hamilton 
 was favourable to it but would have liked to be himself the 
 King ; ^ and, though this estimate was not quite fair to either of 
 them, it may serve to give us an idea of the different character- 
 istics of the two parties. Eound Argyll gathered the more 
 thoroughgoing and rigid supporters of the Covenant, while those 
 who were lukewarm in their attachment to it, and indeed all 
 varieties of Eoyalists, rallied about Hamilton. Yet the parties 
 were not at first so widely separated from each other as to make 
 it easily possible to distinguish them ; and at times, in the ebb and 
 flow of political life, their aims were so similar to each other that 
 the show of opposition between the two seemed somewhat unreal. 
 
 The first task which the executive Government in Scotland 
 had to undertake, now that their army had returned from 
 England, was to extinguish the smouldering remains of rebellion 
 
 ^ Letters, vol. ii. p. 39S. - Buinct, Di'kes of Haviilton, p. 359. 
 
 ^ We need to keep in mind the fact that Hamilton was, after the family of 
 Charles I., the next heir to the throne of Scotland. 
 
DEFEAT OF COLKITTO 203 
 
 in several parts of the country. Soon after Charles T. had given 
 himself up to General Leslie at Newark, he had sent orders to 
 Montrose, Iluntly, and Colkitto to cease operations and to disband 
 their forces. Montrose obeyed, and by an arrangement with 
 General Middleton, with which many of his opponents were dis- 
 pleased, he was allowed to leave Scotland. He embarked from 
 Stonehaven for Bergen in Norway on 3rd September, 1646. 
 Huntly would also most probably have given up the struggle 
 but for a private message from the King not to do so. Colkitto, 
 who had in the meantime been joined by the Earl of Antrim, 
 refused to obey, on the ground that he was fighting rather to 
 avenge his own wrongs than to maintain the royal cause.^ 
 
 Some of Leslie's troops were disbanded on their return from 
 England ; but an army of five thousand foot and twelve hundred 
 Iiorse was organized, and it was employed to stamp out the 
 last sparks of rebellion. In this force Argyll held ottice as a 
 colonel of foot. He did not, however, take part in the first 
 operations of the new campaign, which were intended to secure 
 the reduction of Huntly 's strongholds in the north and the 
 capture of the Marquess himself. Leslie met with but little 
 opposition in carrying out the instructions given to him. The 
 forces of the Marquess deserted him, and he took refuge in the 
 wilds of Lochaber, whence he wrote in vain asking for liberty to 
 leave Scotland for the Continent, as Montrose had done. Leslie, 
 after overrunning his country and taking his fortresses, left 
 Middleton to pursue the fugitive, and made his way south to deal 
 with Colkitto.2 
 
 He was joined at Dunblane in the middle of May by Argyll, 
 who was free to take the field since the meetings of the Com- 
 mittee of Estates were adjourned, and after four days' march they 
 arrived at Inveraray. The campaign was brief though bloody. 
 The forces of the Covenant broke into Kintyre, and, after a 
 day's skirmishing, Colkitto managed to embark with a large 
 part of his followers and to take refuge in Islay. Some of 
 the remainder, several hundred in number, were surrounded in 
 a fort at Dunavertie.^ 
 
 They capitulated, but all but one of them were put to death. 
 
 ^ Gutliry, Memoirs, p. 219 ; Napier, Life of Montrose, pp. 639-643 ; "Wishart, 
 Deeds of Montrose, chap. xxi. 
 
 ' Guthry, Memoirs, p. 243. 
 
 " In Ads of Parliament of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 338, it is asserted that they 
 numbered live hundred. But there is reason to believe that this is a gross ex- 
 aggeration. Turner sets them down as three hundred [Memoirs, p. 45). 
 
204 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 The responsibility for this frightful deed lies at the door of the 
 General, David Leslie, by whose orders the massacre took place. 
 A share of the blame was attributed by some to Argyll, and one 
 of the charges afterwards brought against him was based upon 
 this occurrence ; but a minister, Mr John Nevoy, is said to have 
 urged Leslie to the perpetration of the deed by protesting against 
 a repetition of Saul's offence of sparing the Amalekites. So far 
 as Argyll is concerned, the evidence is favourable to him. Sir 
 James Turner, who was present on the occasion and was afterwards 
 examined as a witness in the matter, declared that even if he had 
 advised Leslie to put the captives to death, " counsel was not 
 command," and that he had no knowledge of such advice having 
 been giveu.^ Nevoy must be left to bear his own share of the 
 guilt of his cruelty or of his culpable ignorance of the spirit of 
 the religion of which he was a minister. Probably Leslie, in 
 acting as he did, was simply carrying out the stern law of war 
 then in force, that those who refused to surrender a fortress 
 at the first summons lost all right to quarter ; ^ though the fact 
 that quarter was often given in such circumstances, and that 
 refusing it on the present occasion meant the death of a large 
 number of prisoners, made the act of butchery an appalling one. 
 If it is true, as is averred, that for three days Leslie was irresolute 
 what to do, his action in ordering the massacre is all the more 
 revolting in its cruelty.^ What Argyll's private opinions or 
 feelings with regard to the matter were we have no means of 
 knowing, and any conjectm'e as to them would be valueless. 
 None of our readers, it is to be hoped, will be of the opinion that 
 we are seeking to justify this terrible deed, but in fairness to 
 those who were in any degree responsible for it we have to 
 remember that those who were put to death on this occasion were 
 rather brigands than regular soldiers. They were not only in 
 rebellion against the Government of Scotland, but for some time 
 
 ' Turner, Memoirs, pp. 45— iS. Some remarks alleged to have been made by 
 Leslie to this Covenauting minister are generally quoted in relating the above 
 incidents. They are to the effect that as " the Marquess of Argyll and he [Leslie] 
 and Mr Nevoy were walking over the ancles in blood, he turned round and said, 
 ' Now, Mr John, have you not once gotten your fill of blood ? ' " The story is most 
 strenuously and indignantly repudiated and declared to be false by the above Sir 
 James Turner, who served on this campaign with Leslie and Argyll as Adjutant- 
 General {Ibid., p. 240). As a mere matter of fact, there was probably but little 
 blood upon the ground, if the local tradition be correct that most of the prisoners 
 were killed by being flung over the cliffs into the sea. 
 
 " Gardiner, Commonwealth aiid Protecto'ratc, vol. i. p. 132. 
 
 ' Guthry, Memoirs, p. 244 ; Turner, Memoirs, pp. 45-48. 
 
SCOTLAND AGAIN AT PEACE 205 
 
 past they had been engaged in warfare contrary to the express 
 commands of Charles I., for whose cause they professed to have 
 drawn the sword ; and since the defeat at Phihphaugh they had 
 been occupied in pillage, outrage, and murder, of which the help- 
 less tenantry of Argyllshire had been the victims. Thus one of 
 their exploits was to fill a barn at Lagganmore with men, women, 
 and children, and to burn them alive in it. It is indeed doubtful 
 whether Leslie, though in supreme command, was altogether a free 
 agent in the matter. " The Argyll men," we are told, " were so 
 furious against the MacDonalds on account of all the slaughter 
 and cruelty of which they had been guilty in MacCailein Mor's 
 lands that they would not hear of any mercy being granted, 
 and they threatened to take all revenge into their own hands." ^ 
 Doubtless, to many of that time who heard of the merciless deed 
 at Dunavertie it must have seemed that Justice, though lame, 
 had at last overtaken the wicked, who had too long defied her 
 pursuit, and that her anger against them was so great that she 
 could not suffer them to live.^ 
 
 The troops which Colkitto had sent into Islay were defeated 
 by the army of Leslie after a sharp struggle, but there was no 
 repetition of the ferocity which had stained the victory in Kin- 
 tyre. The garrison which held the Castle of Dunneveg, after 
 stoutly resisting the Covenanting troops, capitulated on receiving 
 a promise from Leslie and Argyll that their lives would be 
 preserved, and the terms agreed upon were faithfully kept. 
 Colkitto himself escaped to Ireland, where six months later he 
 was treacherously kiUed after a defeat of the Koyalist forces at 
 Mallow, while he was engaged in negotiating a surrender.^ 
 
 By the month of July Scotland was once again free from 
 the turmoil of civil war in which it had been involved for 
 three years past, and the Eoyalist cause was, for the present, 
 overthrown. The Connnittee of Estates was therefore at 
 leisure to take some part in the events which were being 
 transacted in England, and it was in possession of an army, 
 which might in case of need be employed to second and 
 carry out its plans. The news reached Scotland just after 
 the defeat of Colkitto that the King had been carried off from 
 Holmby House by a party of soldiers and was virtually in 
 the custody of the army, though Living in his own house 
 
 ' Adventures in Legend, p. 241. 
 
 - Turner, Memoirs, p. 240 ; also p. 47. 
 
 ' Gardiner, Civil War, vol. iii. p. 354. 
 
206 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 at Newmarket. The cause of liberty in England was now 
 being fought out between the Parliament and the army ; for 
 the majority in the Houses of Legislature who had resisted 
 the tyranny of the King seemed to be inclined to exercise 
 as rigid and oppressive a rule as that which had been over- 
 thrown, and it was amongst the Independents in the army 
 that the champions of toleration and freedom were to be 
 found. The Parliament gave orders for the greater part of 
 the army to be disbanded, and for the few regiments which 
 were to be kept on foot to be sent for employment into 
 Ireland under Presbyterian officers. The neglect of the Parlia- 
 ment to arrange for the payment of arrears, in some cases 
 nearly a year overdue, and to secure indemnity for acts done 
 during war, and pensions for the widows of those slain, gave 
 the army a reasonable excuse for refusing to disband, and for 
 addressing a remonstrance and petition to Fairfax, their 
 Commander - in - Chief. 
 
 The Parliament attempted to take a high hand with the 
 army, and it denounced the petitioners " as enemies of the State 
 and disturbers of the public peace " ^ — words which they were 
 afterwards compelled to expunge from the records of the House. 
 In these circumstances the idea of an understanding being come 
 to between the King and the army sprang up and found ready 
 acceptance, and the outcome of matters was that Cornet Joyce, 
 with five hundred troopers, went to Holmby House and took 
 the King into custody. Their action checkmated the plans 
 of the Presbyterian party, who hoped, by inducing Charles to 
 consent to a modification of the terms offered him in the 
 previous year and by calling in the aid of Scotch troops, to 
 impose upon the country what many regarded as an intolerable 
 yoke. The King was convinced that ultimately he would be able 
 to destroy the one set of his opponents by means of the other, 
 and he was indisposed to come to any final settlement with 
 either of them. His forcible abduction by the army was not 
 displeasing to him, as the terms suggested by its leaders at that 
 time were rather more favourable than those of the Parliamentary 
 party. 
 
 In the meantime the majority of the Estates in Scotland, 
 
 which consisted of the more rigid and thoroughgoing supporters 
 
 of the Covenant and in whose counsels Argyll was still supreme, 
 
 was not inclined to desert the cause of their Presbyterian 
 
 ^ Lords' Journals, vol. ix. p. 115. 
 
"THE ENGAGEMENT" 207 
 
 brethren in England. Soon after Charles reached Newmarket, 
 he received from Argyll and the dominant party in the Estates 
 the offer to send an army into England to restore him to the 
 throne ; but, as this necessarily involved the acceptance of the 
 fidl Presbyterian programme, he instantly set the offer aside.^ 
 It was the last time that any such offer came from that 
 quarter ; for, though in the course of a year a Scotch army 
 invaded England to deliver the King from his captivity and 
 restore him to power, the enterprise was undertaken by Argyll's 
 political rival, the Duke of Hamilton, whose devotion to the 
 Covenant was but of a lukewarm character, and who was 
 therefore inclined to accept terms to which the more ardent 
 supporters of the Covenant would not listen. This divergence 
 of policy between the party of Argyll and that of Hamilton, 
 the one of which became predominant in the General Assembly 
 and the other in the Estates, was extremely unfortunate, as it 
 deprived the public counsels of the nation of a large measure 
 of the strength which had characterized them from the beginning 
 of the struggle for liberty. 
 
 The negotiations between the King and the army were 
 broken off in consequence of a written pledge given to him by 
 the Scotch commissioners that their country would aid him to 
 regain his throne. The commissioners belonged to the party of 
 Hamilton, and they were sure of the support of those who looked 
 to him as their leader ; but, though the pledge they gave 
 depended for its value upon its being sanctioned by the Estates, 
 it is most probable that they knew enough of the condition 
 of public feeling in Scotland to justify them in asserting their 
 conviction that this sanction would not be withheld, especially 
 in view of the fact that the results of the approaching elections 
 in Scotland would almost certainly strengthen their political 
 party in the Estates. The vague condition was expressed by 
 them verbally that Charles would satisfy them in the matter 
 of religion, and they promised that if he did so the Covenant 
 would not be imposed upon him personally.^ 
 
 On the evening of 11th November, 1647, Charles made his 
 escape from Hampton Court, where he had been residing for 
 more than two months, and took refuge in the Isle of Wight. 
 Here, in Carisbrooke Castle, on 26th December, he signed a 
 formal treaty or, as it was called, " an Engagement " between 
 himself and the Scotch commissioners. According to it the 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Civil War, vol. iii. p. 124. - Ibid., vol. iii. p. 193. 
 
208 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Solemn League and Covenant was to be confirmed by an Act 
 of Parliament, and the Presbyterian form of Church-government 
 was to be established for three years. At the end of that time 
 a final settlement of ecclesiastical matters was to be made by 
 regular legislation in Parliament, after consultation with the 
 Assembly of Divines, who were to be reinforced by twenty 
 members appointed by the King. On the other hand the 
 Covenant was not to be forced on any who conscientiously 
 objected to it, and in the royal household the accustomed 
 mode of worship was to remain unaltered. In consideration 
 of the concessions made by the King the Scotch commissioners 
 undertook to support the demand for his being allowed to come 
 to London in freedom and honour to carry on negotiations there, 
 and for the disbanding of all armies with a view to a peaceable 
 settlement. If these terms were refused, they pledged themselves 
 to defend his rights by force of arms. The document containing 
 the Engagement was, after being signed, carefully wrapped in 
 lead and buried in the garden of Carisbrooke Castle until an 
 opportunity could be found of taking it safely out of the island.^ 
 
 The anticipations of the commissioners with regard to the 
 results of the elections in Scotland proved to be well grounded. 
 The representatives of the shires and boroughs were about 
 equally divided between the parties of Hamilton and Argyll, 
 while, of the fifty nobles who were present at this Parliament, 
 all but eight or nine were on the side of Hamilton ; and this, 
 since both Estates met in a single House, secured for him a 
 decisive majority.^ Parliaments in Scotland were at that time 
 triennial, and the leader of the Eoyalist party must have 
 felt that he had ample support for his policy in the present 
 crisis of the fortunes of his Sovereign. 
 
 It was the first time that Argyll had been in a minority 
 in Parliament since he had been a leader in politics, and 
 probably he found the new experience very distasteful. Some 
 indication of the extent to which his temper was ruffled 
 by it may be found in the somewhat startling fact that he, 
 an elder of the Church and a member of the Westminster 
 Assembly of Divines, made his appearance in the character 
 of a dueUist. For some time past the charge of cowardice 
 had been freely made against him by his enemies. How little 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Civil War, vol. iii. p. 272 ; Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 
 vol. iii. p. 130. 
 
 - Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 35. 
 
ARGYLL AS A DUELLIST 209 
 
 ground there was for it was shown by his action in calHng 
 the Earl of Crawford and Lindsay to account for words which 
 lie regarded as contemptuous, and in his meeting him at seven 
 o'clock in the morning on the Links of Musselburgh prepared 
 for exacting satisfaction with the sword. The party challenged, 
 however, evidently apologized, and those who came an hour 
 later in hot haste to stop the conflict found the duellists 
 engaged in putting into writing the causes of their disagree- 
 ment. The principals in the affair exposed themselves to 
 some ridicule in consequence of the fiasco in which the 
 expected duel had resulted. But, as Argyll was the chal- 
 lenger, it is quite evident that it was a reasonable apology 
 from his opponent which led to the peaceful conclusion of 
 matters, and that no slur could be cast upon him in con- 
 nexion with the incident unless the apology which he accepted 
 was palpably inadequate or insincere. As there had been 
 recently several more serious encounters of this kind, and as 
 it seemed necessary to check the growing practice of duelling, 
 the Commission of Assembly, of which Argyll and his opponent 
 were both members, called them to account for their conduct. 
 Before the matter was allowed to drop, both had to undergo 
 rebuke and to confess penitence for the guilt they had incurred. 
 The completeness with which the Marquess acknowledged his 
 offence, and the submissive manner in which he yielded to 
 the authority of the Commission, gave him a new lease 
 of popularity among them. They accepted his confession, 
 " admonishing and exhorting him to take head [heed] that 
 he fall not into such a sin and scandall in tyme coming." 
 The Commission also sent a formal petition to Parliament 
 urging the necessity of taking steps to suppress the practice 
 of duelling altogether.^ 
 
 The general condition of matters in Scotland during several 
 months of dreary wrangling and indecision may be thus 
 described — the Parliament was inclined to approve of the 
 Engagement with Charles entered into by the Scotch com- 
 missioners, wJn'le the Commission of Assembly strongly dis- 
 approved of it on the grounds that the King's concessions 
 in the matter of religion were unsatisfactory, and that it 
 would be unlawful to co-operate with persons who were 
 hostile to the Covenant. The two factions in Scotland came 
 
 ^ Gciieral Asserahly Commission Records, 16-16-47, pp. 393, 412 ; Baillie, Letters, 
 vol. iii. p. 36 ; Guthry, Memoirs, p. 261. 
 
 14 
 
210 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 to be known as the Engagers and the Anti-Engagers ; and the 
 struggle between them which now began ultimately rent the 
 Church of Scotland into two discordant parties and prepared 
 the way for its overthrow in 1661. Strong as the Engagers 
 were in votes in Parliament, the Anti-Engagers were strong in 
 many parts of the covmtry, and they embarrassed the executive 
 Government in their endeavours to carry out promptly the 
 war policy on which they were set. Every pulpit resounded 
 with protests against the Engagement, while from counties and 
 boroughs, as well as from Synods and Presbyteries, petitions 
 against it were sent up to the Parliament. Yet, in spite of 
 this strong opposition to the Engagement, the party in favour 
 of it succeeded in plunging the country into war. 
 
 At the end of April two parties of Royalists from Scotland 
 surprised Carlisle and Berwick, and close upon this an ultimatum 
 was sent to the English Parliament demanding acceptance of 
 the Covenant and Presbyterianism, liberty for the King to 
 come to London to make terms with his people, and the dis- 
 banding of the Parliamentary army.^ Had the Government 
 of Scotland been in a position to follow up these bold com- 
 mands by an instant and efficient invasion of England, they 
 would have had the advantage of co-operation with Royalists 
 whose insurrectionary movements in all parts of England 
 kept the Parliamentary armies very actively employed for the 
 next two months. But the unavoidable delay connected with 
 raising and equipping an army that would be able to cope 
 with the great task to be undertaken gave the English 
 authorities time to suppress the enemies within their borders 
 before confronting the invaders. 
 
 The Parliament in Scotland had decided upon raising an 
 army of thirty thousand foot and six thousand horse ; but the 
 levies, in consequence of the widespread hostility to the 
 enterprise, did not bring in more than a third of that number. 
 Argyll retired from Parliament to Inveraray to avoid signing 
 the bond for the maintenance of the army, and he used his 
 influence on all hands to strengthen the party opposed to war 
 with England. Indeed it was generally believed that he sent 
 a message to Cromwell to anticipate the invasion of England 
 by despatching some troops into Scotland to join with the 
 Covenanters there against Hamilton and the Estates ; but so 
 great was the confusion in which matters were involved that 
 ^ Gardiner, Civil IVar, vol. iii. p. 3?0. 
 
ENGLAND AGxVIN INVADED 211 
 
 it was impossible for the Government to take notice of an action 
 which bore such a close resemblance to treason. A body of 
 two thousand Covenanters, headed by their ministers, from 
 the districts of Clydesdale, Kyle, and Cunningham, assembled 
 together in arms at ]\Iauchline in Ayrshire, in the month 
 of June, and were only dispersed after a sharp conflict with 
 the troops under General Middleton, in which eighty were 
 killed. One of the absurdities connected with the present 
 state of matters in Scotland was that Argyll himself, and 
 others in Parliament who had opposed the levies, were nominated 
 as colonels of the regiments to be raised in their counties. 
 It was owing to the distracted condition of the country, and 
 the haste with which the military expedition was being carried 
 out, that their neglect to raise the prescribed levies and the 
 divisive courses they followed were not dealt with by the 
 executive Government.^ 
 
 The Scotch army, ten thousand strong, was under the 
 command of the Duke of Hamilton, who had never shown 
 much aptitude for military matters though he was one of those 
 who had formerly served under Gustavus Adolphus in Germany. 
 Neither the Earl of Leven nor David Leslie would have any- 
 thing to do with a cause which was under the ban of the 
 Church. The general condition of the army was such as to 
 increase the burden of responsibility which rested upon the in- 
 competent Commander-in-Chief. " The regiments," says Burnet, 
 " were not full, many of them scarce exceeded half their 
 number, and not the fifth man could handle pike or musket. 
 The horse were the best mounted ever Scotland set out, yet 
 most of the troopers were raw and undisciplined. They had 
 no artillery — not so much as one field-piece — very little 
 ammunition, and very few horses to carry it ; for want of which 
 the Duke stayed often in the rear of the whole army till the 
 countrymen brought in horses, and then conveyed it with his 
 own guard of horse. Thus the precipitation of affairs in 
 England forced them on a march before they were in any 
 posture for it ; but now they were engaged, and they must go 
 forward." ^ 
 
 The army assembled at Annan, and on the 8th of July 
 crossed the Border and occupied Carlisle ; but it was more 
 than a month before the battle was fought at Preston which 
 
 1 Guthry, Memoirs, pp. 268, 269. 
 
 ' Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, p. 355. 
 
212 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 shattered it and overthrew the hopes of the Eoyalists. 
 Hamilton had decided upon marching through Lancashire, 
 Cheshire, and the western counties, in the hope of being 
 reinforced by bodies of EngHsh Eoyalists, and he was attacked 
 at Preston in Lancashire by a much smaller but compact and 
 efficient army under Cromwell. That General, who had come 
 north to deal with the Scotch invasion, was in the adjoining 
 county of York, He descended the valley of the Eibble 
 and assailed the flank of the Scotch army, which was loosely 
 straggling over a considerable extent of country, and drove 
 one part northward and another southward in hopeless ruin.^ 
 Hamilton had received an accession of three thousand six 
 hundred men under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, but the battle 
 at Preston cost him a thousand killed and four thousand 
 prisoners ; and at Winwick, near Warrington, another fight took 
 place, in which he was again defeated with a loss of a thousand 
 killed and two thoiisand prisoners. At Malpas, in Cheshire, 
 Hamilton turned eastward in the hope of making a long 
 detour and of getting back to Scotland as best he could ; but 
 on 25th August he and all who still adhered to him were 
 forced to capitulate at Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire.- 
 
 The defeat and capture of the Duke of Hamilton and of 
 so large a part of his army left Argyll once more supreme in 
 power in Scotland. The same turn of Fortune's wheel which 
 had depressed the royal cause had raised that of the 
 Covenanters; and Argyll saw his political rival both deprived 
 of power and a prisoner of war in the hands of the enemy 
 whom he had provoked. A general rising on the part of the 
 more rigid section of the Covenanters took place. A force of 
 six thousand men — for the most part west-country peasants, 
 under the leadership of Lord Eglinton, and the Earl of Loudon, 
 Chancellor of Scotland, himself a Campbell — marched eastward 
 to Edinburgh and took possession of the capital, whence the 
 troops of the Committee of Estates had departed to join with 
 some of the other remaining forces of the army raised by 
 Hamilton. This movement is known in history as " the 
 Whiggamore Eaid." " When they drew nigh to the city," 
 says Guthry, " some of the magistrates and ministers thereof 
 went out to welcome them, and conducted them towards 
 the town, where the gates were cast open and they received 
 
 ^ Carlyle, CromiceU, vol. ii. p. 14 ; Memoirs of Caxilain John Hodgson, p. 33. 
 2 Gardiner, Civil War, vol. iii. chap. Ixiv. ; Burnet, Ditkes of Hamilton, p. 461. 
 
"THE WHIGGAMORE RAID" 213 
 
 with joy,"'' ]>oth the Leslies cast in tlieir lot with the 
 " AVhigs " — to iiso a name which soon afterwards was 
 appHed to the more pronounced Covenanters ; the Earl of 
 Leven again took up the office of Commander-in-Chief and 
 occupied Edinburgh Castle, and his nephew, David Leslie, acted 
 as his Lieutenant -General. The members of the executive 
 Government — that is, the remaining members of the Committee 
 of the Estates — retired to Stirling, where soon after they 
 were joined by the forces still at their disposal. The 
 latter nearly captured the Marquess of Argyll, who was 
 on his way from the west to Edinburgh and had arrived 
 at Stirling. He was in the house of the Earl of Mar ; but 
 just before dinner, while the meat was being brought in, he 
 heard of the approach of the hostile troops and saved himself 
 by flight, riding the eighteen miles to North Queensferry as 
 expeditiously as might be, whence he journeyed by sea to 
 Edinburgh. And thus for the fourth time the Marquess, "in 
 perils," like the apostle, " by his own countrymen, and in perils 
 among false brethren," saved himself by embarking upon the sea.^ 
 The army was anxious to fight, but the Committee of 
 Estates knew that their case was hopeless, and on 26th 
 September they capitulated and resigned all claims to govern 
 the country. So far as Argyll was concerned, he had no legal 
 standing beyond his being a member of the Parliament. He 
 was not even on the Committee of Estates, for, though he 
 and others of his party had been nominated to that position 
 in the last Parliament, their acceptance of the Engagement 
 had been made a condition of office.^ But none the less did 
 Argyll act as the virtual head of the Government in Scotland, 
 and as such entered into communication with the victorious 
 English General. Cromwell crossed the Tweed with his army, 
 and, at a conference with Argyll and others at Mordington, 
 three or four miles north of the Border, arrangements were 
 made for the surrender to the English of Carlisle and Berwick. 
 In a letter from Cromwell to the Speaker Lenthall * a full 
 account of these negotiations is given ; and special mention is 
 made of the impression produced upon him by Argyll and his 
 colleagues. Those in Scotland who followed his leadership are 
 called " the well - affected party," and much is hoped from 
 co-operation with them. In reference to the interview at 
 
 1 Gutlny, Memoirs, pp. 286, 287. - Ibid., p. 290. 
 
 " Burnet, Dukes of Hamilton, p. 477. ■* Carlyle, Crotmcell, Letter Ixxv. 
 
214 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Mordington, he says : " Some time [was] spent in giving and 
 receiving mutual satisfaction concerning each other's integrity 
 and clearness — wherein I must be bold to testify for that 
 noble Lord the Marquis, the Lord Elcho, and the other 
 Gentlemen with hiui, that I have found nothing in them other 
 than what becomes Christians and men of honour." In order 
 to strengthen the position of those who for lack of legal 
 standing are described as " the Noblemen, Gentlemen, and 
 Burgesses now in arms, who dissented in Parliament from the 
 late Engagement against the Kingdom of England," and who 
 after the coup d'dtat formed the new executive Government of 
 Scotland, Cromwell sent up six regiments of horse and a troop 
 of dragoons under Lambert to within six miles of Edinburgh, 
 and ordered a body of infantry to take up their quarters 
 in support at Cockburnspath in Berwickshire.^ And so, for 
 fully three months, from the conference at Mordington down 
 to the meeting of the Estates in January, 1649, the Whigga- 
 more leaders governed Scotland, though they held no office 
 for which they had Parliamentary sanction. With the calm 
 consciousness that there was no power in Scotland superior to 
 their own, they took it upon themselves to dissolve Parliament 
 and order fresh elections to be held throughout the land. 
 Pieasonable terms were concluded with the Engagers, in con- 
 sequence of which they disbanded their forces and left the 
 decision of matters, ecclesiastical and civil, to the General 
 Assembly and Parliament, respectively, which were to meet in 
 the beginning of the following year.^ 
 
 On Wednesday, 4th October, 1648, Cromwell after obtaining 
 permission from the English Parliament paid a visit to Edin- 
 burgh. He was received with great respect, and he was honour- 
 ably lodged in the house of the Earl of Moray in the Canongate, 
 where a strong guard of his own soldiers kept watch at the doors 
 day and night. The first evening of his stay the Marquess of 
 Argyll, and Lord Warriston, who as Archibald Johnstone had 
 acted as clerk to the General Assembly of 1638, and who had 
 ever since been in the very forefront of political life in Scotland, 
 supped with him. The meeting of the English general and 
 statesman, who was yet to be clothed with all but royal dignity 
 and with greater power than most kings have exercised, and the 
 Highland chieftain, who for ten years past had held the political 
 
 ^ Carlyle, Cromwell, Letters Ixxiii., Ixxv., vol. ii, pp. 51, 58. 
 ^ Gardiner, Civil War, vol. iii. p. 491. 
 
«c:~-w^c73V^[%>-'e£^T:^?2&rGrZ9C£" , 
 
 Sir Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston. 
 Executed in Edinburgh, 1663. 
 
 l-'roin the Portrait hy Jai}usoiic. P>y kind permission o/Sir James I!. Cihsoii-Craig, Bart., niiii the 
 
 Scottish History Society. 
 
CROMWELL AND THE PRESBYTERIANS 215 
 
 fate of Scotland in the hollow of his hand, must have been very 
 striking. They had a common dislike to the movement under 
 Hamilton, which, if it had succeeded, would have overthrown all 
 that they both had built up by policy and by the sword ; but in 
 most other matters they must have found themselves in dis- 
 agreement. Yet we need not imagine that their knowledge of 
 this hindered genial intercourse between them ; for of Argyll it 
 was said years before that he was " so subtle that he could 
 liugely dissemble," ^ a gift which commonly increases with use, 
 while we know that Cromwell was not one of those who wear 
 then- heart upon their sleeve. We can scarcely believe that 
 politics would not be broached on that eventful evening in the 
 state-room of Moray House, when the three experienced makers 
 of history found themselves alone and the stern countenances 
 of the guards of Ironsides scared eavesdroppers and enemies 
 from the doors. The scheme of policy so far as Scotland was 
 concerned which was afterwards put into execution was one 
 on which they were all equally bent, and that was the rigid 
 exclusion from public life and from employments of trust of 
 those who had been active in the late Engagement or who 
 had consented to it. This request was formally presented by 
 Cromwell to the Committee of Estates in a written communi- 
 cation on the next day ; ^ and in the meeting of the Parliament 
 in the following January it was carried into etfect by Argyll and 
 Warriston, We are therefore probably not unduly exercising 
 our imagination in conjecturing that it formed a subject of 
 conversation on the evening in question. 
 
 A curious and amusing story in connexion with this visit of 
 Cromwell to Edinburgh is told in the Life of Robert Blair, one 
 of the prominent Presbyterian ministers of the time. We hope 
 our readers will excuse our digression in giving it. It certainly 
 affords a contemporary estimate of Cromwell which differs con- 
 siderably from that which is at present in vogue. Among those 
 who called upon him at Moray House were three Presbyterian 
 ministers — David Dickson, James Guthrie, and Ptobert Blair 
 himself. He held a long conversation with them, and indulged 
 in what our informant calls " a fair flourish of words," punctuated 
 at times with tears and appeals to God to bear witness to his 
 sincerity and good intentions. Mr Blair brought matters to a 
 
 1 Sir R. Poyntz to the Marquess of Ormonde, 1st June, 1643 ; Memorials of 
 Montrose, vol. ii. p. 23. 
 
 - Oarlyle, Cromwell, Letter Ixxvii., vol. ii. p. 64. 
 
216 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 point by asking him three searching questions. The first was, 
 What he thought of monarchical government. To which he 
 replied, that he was for monarchical government, and that in 
 the person of this King and his posterity. The second was. 
 What he thought of toleration. His answer was, that he was 
 altogether against toleration. The third question was, What 
 was his opinion concerning the government of the Church. But 
 here the cloven foot of the Independent appeared, and he com- 
 plained that he was pressed too severely and needed time to 
 deliberate. As the ministers retired Dickson touched Blair upon 
 the elbow and said, " I am very glad to hear this man speak as 
 he does." Blair's reply was characterized by the great plainness 
 of speech which St Paul occasionally used rather than by the 
 charity of which the same apostle thought so highly ; for he said, 
 " And do you believe him ? If you knew him as well as I do, you 
 would not believe one word he says. He is an egregious dis- 
 sembler and a great liar. Away with him, he is a greeting 
 [weeping] devil." ^ 
 
 The Committee of the Estates returned a favourable answer 
 to Cromwell's request, which corresponded exactly with their own 
 desire, that adherents of the late Engagement should be dismissed 
 from office and be hindered from having the opportunity of again 
 lieing disloyal to the State, On the Saturday of the same week 
 l)efore their departure for the south, Cromwell and the rest of the 
 English officers were invited to " a very sumptuous banquet " in 
 the Castle, at which the Earl of Leven presided. The Marquess 
 of Argyll and other Lords were present to grace the entertain- 
 ment. " At our departure," says a contemporary English narrative, 
 " many pieces of ordnance and a volley of small shot was given 
 us from the Castle ; and some Lords convoying us out of the 
 City, we there parted." ^ At the request of the Committee of 
 
 ^ Life of Hobcrt Blair (Wodrovf SociPty), p. 210. The opinion above expressed 
 is of course not necessarily to be accepted as au accurate estimate of the character 
 of Cromwell, but it certainly testifies to the fact that this very able and devout 
 contemporary of the great Englishman was deeply convinced of his duplicity. 
 More than Blair at the time held the same opinion, and those who have striven to 
 rehabilitate the character of Cromwell have scarcely given an adequate explanation 
 of the fact. Carlyle's custom of persistently attaching epithets like "wooden " and 
 "pudding-headed" to inconvenient witnesses whose words he is constrained to 
 quote is a "short and easy method" of discrediting them, and probably would 
 have been employed by him in the case of Blair if he had chosen to refer in his 
 Cromwell to that divine's interview with the English General in Edinburgh. The 
 method in question, however, is not to be commended. 
 
 - C^uoted in Carlyle, Croniirell, vol. ii. p. 66, 
 
UNFOUNDED SURMISES 217 
 
 Estates two regiments of horse aud two troops of dragoons under 
 Major-General Lambert were left for their protection, until the 
 army of foiu' thousand horse and foot which they had decided to 
 raise was ready. ^ 
 
 The highly amicable terms on which Cromwell separated 
 from Argyll and his associates make it almost certain that the 
 latter had no suspicion of any purpose on his part to bring the 
 King to trial. Guthry, after mentioning the names of those who 
 were on intimate terms with Cromwell on the occasion of this 
 brief visit of his to Edinburgh, says : " What passed among them 
 came not to be known infallibly ; but it was talked very loud, 
 that he cUd communicate to them his design in reference to the 
 King, and had their assent thereto." ^ But there can be no 
 doubt that this is mere gossip, without any ground of probability 
 to support it. Certainly it was not Cromwell's custom to discuss 
 beforehand schemes which were immature, even if there were 
 evidence to show that at the time in question his mind was made 
 up as to the trial of the King. Whatever his plans may have 
 been, it would have been madness on his part to broach the 
 subject of regicide to the leaders of the Presbyterian party. Eor, 
 however much the latter might be inclined to limit the royal 
 power, a King was an essential figure in their ideal of the con- 
 stitution of Church and State. Both for the defence of the lives 
 and property of his subjects, and for the maintenance of the 
 lionour and privileges of the Church, they regarded it as necessary 
 that there should be a King and that he should wield the power 
 of the sword. It is true that Charles I. by his despotic pro- 
 cedure had weakened the bond of loyalty towards himself in the 
 minds and hearts of many of his subjects, and that years of 
 conflict with him had carried the process of disintegration still 
 further ; but yet, according to the general feeling in Scotland, 
 the crime of regicide was regarded as approaching in guilt 
 that of parricide, if indeed it were not on an equality with 
 it. In all the negotiations between the Presbyterian leaders 
 and the King the principle had been laid down that his person 
 must be protected, and that the honour which was his due must 
 be retained undiminished. And though Argyll on one occasion 
 had been imprudent enough to remark that this would be 
 amply fulfilled if Charles were kept permanently in prison, 
 provided that he were guarded against assassins, and that his 
 attendants served him upon their knees, this modified theory of 
 
 ^ Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. ii. p. 70. ^ Memoirs, p. 298. 
 
218 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 royalty, which was more adapted to the state of matters in bee- 
 hives aud ant-hills than to that in the British Isles, found no 
 general acceptance in the country at large.^ 
 
 While the army was engaged in putting an end to the Second 
 Civil War, as it was called, in which the Koyalists had in- 
 volved the country, the English Parliament, in which the Pres- 
 byterians were in the majority, was carrying on another, fruitless 
 attempt at negotiation with the King in the Treaty of Newport. 
 So far as Charles was concerned the matter was a mere farce, 
 since all the time his real desire and purpose were to secure his 
 escape from imprisonment. Immediately after the war was over, 
 the army sent into the Parliament their formal Bemonstrance 
 against neg;otiation with the King and their demand that he 
 should be brought to trial. Matters quickly came to a head in 
 consequence of the Parliament's rejection of the Bemonstrance, 
 and their decision that the King's answers to their proposals 
 afforded sufficient ground for a settlement of the peace of the 
 kingdom (5 th December). The course of events after this is 
 well known, and we do not need to do more than recapitulate it. 
 On the following day the Parliament was in the hands of the 
 army, which " purged " it of the majority and left those who were 
 hostile to the King in possession of power. Colonel Pride stood 
 at the door of the House of Commons with a list of names in his 
 hand, and above a hundred members were taken into custody 
 or scared away. The mutilated House, or the " Eump " as it 
 was afterwards irreverently called, passed an Ordinance which 
 appointed a special court for the trial of the King, and accom- 
 panied it by a Eesolution that " by the fundamental laws of this 
 kingdom it is treason in the King of England for the time being 
 to levy war against the Parliament and kingdom of England."^ 
 The Ordinance and Eesolution were both rejected by the Lords, 
 but the Commons proceeded upon their own responsibility to pass 
 an Act for erecting a High Court of Justice for trying the King, 
 " to the end no Chief Officer or Magistrate whatever might here- 
 after presume traitorously and maliciously to imagine or contrive 
 the enslaving or destroying of the English Nation, and to expect 
 impunity for so doing." ^ On the 20th of January, 1649, the 
 trial began, and ten days afterwards, by sentence of the court, 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Civil War, vol. ii. p. 569 ; Montereul, Correspondence, vol. i. p. 350. 
 - Ibid., vol. iii. p. 559. 
 
 2 Preamble to the Act, Stale Trials, vol. iv. p. 10-16 ; Rusliworth, Collections, 
 vol. vi. [I, 562. 
 
"THE ACT OF CLASSES" 219 
 
 the aiitliority of which Charles had never consented to recognize, 
 he was put to death ; and the long controversy between him and 
 his subjects was closed when the executioner lifted up his dis- 
 severed head from the scaffold, and showing it to the horrified 
 spectators said, " Behold the head of a traitor ! " 
 
 The Parliament of Scotland met at Edinburgh at the 
 appointed time, early in January, 1649, and its deliberations 
 were presided over by the Chancellor, the Earl of Loudon. One 
 of its first proceedings, to which everything else was made to 
 give way, was to appoint a day of fasting and humiliation to 
 be kept by all the members for themselves, on which to con- 
 fess their own sins and those of the nation, and to renew the 
 Solemn League and Covenant. Their next procedure was to 
 repeal all the Acts of the late Parliament and Committee of 
 Estates which authorized the invasion of England under the 
 Duke of Hamilton. These were condemned as contrary to the 
 Word of God, destructive to religion, and injurious to the King 
 and his dominions. The protests against these Acts by Argyll 
 and others were ratified, and the armed opposition which had 
 led to conflict at Mauchline Moor was approved.^ 
 
 The main work of the Parliament, however, was to carry out 
 the pledge given to Cromwell to exclude from office and from 
 employments of trust all persons who had promoted the late 
 Engagement or who had taken part in it, and also those who 
 were known to be of Koyalist or, as it was called, " Malignant " 
 opinions, and those of vicious life. An Act was passed entitled 
 " The Act of Classes," which formally recapitulated the grounds 
 on which such persons were pronounced unworthy of any share in 
 public life, and which excluded them from it, either permanently 
 or for various periods of years according to the degree of their 
 guilt. The designation of the Act was derived from the various 
 classes of offenders who were condemned in it. The only way 
 in wliich those who came imder the censure of Parliament could 
 regain the status they had formerly held, in case they did not 
 lie under the sentence of permanent exclusion, was by giving 
 satisfaction to the courts of the Church, and after a due period 
 of probation undergoing the sentence of humiliation and penitence 
 which might be passed upon them. " The Act of Classes " was 
 drawn up by Lord Warristou, but was moved in Parliament by 
 Argyll. We are told that the latter made a long speech in 
 support of it, consisting of five heads or divisions, which, with 
 ^ Sterenson, History of the Church of Scotland, p. 610. 
 
220 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 a grim humour somewhat unusual with him, he called " the 
 breaking of Malignauts' teeth." He carried this felicitous but 
 uncomfortable metaphor still further in the close of his speech 
 by announcing that the author of the Act who was to follow 
 him would clinch matters by " breaking their jaws." This 
 undertaking was attempted by Warriston in a speech of two 
 hours in length which he carefully read from his paper, wherein 
 he reiterated what Argyll had already said, and dealt with the 
 objections which Engagers or their sympathizers might be inclined 
 to make.^ 
 
 The party in the State which had in the National Covenant 
 and in the Solemn League and Covenant fused together politics 
 and religion, was now once again in possession of power and in 
 overwhelming strength in Parliament, They little suspected 
 that a new force was about to be aroused in the nation which 
 would wreck tlieir policy and foil their plans. The grievous 
 error involved in committing the Church or the cause of 
 religion to an alliance with a faction struggling to secure 
 political advantages lawful enough in themselves was now 
 revealed in all its proportions ; for the opponents of the policy 
 which approved itself to the party supreme in Scotland were 
 declared to be the enemies of God. This deplorable conclusion 
 was the direct and logical result of the whole movement, and 
 the leaders of the triumphant party must in the very moment 
 of their success have been filled with a feeling somewhat 
 akin to despair when they realized that their power was 
 breaking up, that factions were fast becoming rife among 
 themselves, that against them were now being arrayed not only 
 the Eoyalists but the English " sectaries " who repudiated 
 both King and Covenant, and that the hypocritical submission 
 of many of their opponents to ecclesiastical penalties would 
 restore them to a fresh career of mischief in their midst. " All 
 churches," says Burnet, in writing upon matters relating to 
 this period, " were upon that full of mock penitents, some 
 making their acknowledgments all in tears to gain more credit 
 with the new party. . . . Those that came in early, with great 
 show of compunction, got easier off; but those who stood out 
 long found it a harder matter to make their peace." ^ 
 
 ^Balfour, Annals, vol. iii. \k 377. In this Act "Malignauts" were divided 
 into four classes, the first of whom were excluded from office for life ; the othei 
 three for periods of ten, five, and two years respectively (Lament's Diary, p. 1). 
 
 - History of My own Times, vol, i. ^i. 44, 
 
TRIAL OF THE KING 221 
 
 " The Act of Classes," and many of the State Papers which 
 belong to the period between this present time and the conquest 
 of Scotland by Cromwell, are melancholy reading and are dis- 
 creditable to the Covenanting party ; for they express a fanaticism 
 which sprang from a misguided policy that was now in extremis. 
 Those who have any doubt as to the deterioration of both religion 
 and politics when they are, as we have said above, fused together 
 should look into these documents, and their eyes would be opened. 
 The calm assumption by the authors that what is condemned 
 by them in the Parliament in Edinburgh is also condemned in 
 heaven, the claim to knowledge of the Divine purposes and 
 counsels, the free use of the most sacred words of Scripture, 
 the dark fanaticism which inspires many of the utterances, and 
 the intense passion which makes many of them sound like mere 
 raving — are all calculated to sadden a thoughtful mind. 
 
 The Scotch Parliament was in the midst of its deliberations 
 and labours when it received tidings of the creation of the High 
 Court of Justice, before which the King was to be brought on 
 the charge of treason. The members of it were, we are told, 
 " prodigiously shocked " ^ to hear of this, and they instructed 
 their commissioners in London to oppose the proceedings taken 
 against the King by all means within their power. The latter 
 accordingly addressed a dignified and emphatic protest to Lenthall, 
 the Speaker of the House of Commons.^ In addition to this, 
 the Commission of the General Assembly sent up through the 
 Parliament a strong expression of their feelings in the matter, 
 and they showed to all the world that the constituted authori- 
 ties in Church and State in Scotland were unanimous in their ab- 
 horrence of the present proceedings.^ The Scotch commissioners 
 even appealed to Fairfax, the Commander-in-Chief of the Par- 
 liamentary army, to use his influence in saving Scotland and 
 
 ^ Stevenson, History of the Church of Scotland, p. 611. 
 
 'Ibid., pp. 610-617 ; Burton, History, vi. p. 426. 
 
 ■' Dr Grub in his Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 138, calls these 
 " feeble remonstrances" ; our readers may find them in Stevenson's History {I.e.) 
 and judge for themselves. Of course we need to remember the peculiar position 
 in which the Scotch authorities were placed at this time. They plainly declared 
 that they were not satisfied with the King's concessions in the matter of religion, 
 and that until he gave such satisfaction they would not desire or seek his restora- 
 tion to power, but at the same time they protested most vigorously against any 
 injury to his person. The reservations they were compelled to make in the 
 above matter may seem to some to weaken their case, but at the same time their 
 protestations against violence being offered to the King could not have been 
 couched in stronger terms. 
 
222 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 England from the infamy which would result from putting the 
 King to death, who had been entrusted to the care of the English 
 Parliament by those into whose hands he had surrendered himself. 
 Strong and eloquent appeals were addressed to those in whose 
 power the fate of the King lay, but in vain ; and the reasonable 
 claim of the people of Scotland to have a voice in the disposal 
 of their Sovereign was brushed aside in the most contemptuous 
 manner. The result was that, while the English Parliament after 
 the execution of the King threatened death to any one who should 
 proclaim his successor, the Parliament in Scotland immediately 
 on hearing the fatal news proclaimed his son Prince Charles as 
 " King of Great Britain, Prance, and Ireland." This ceremony 
 took place in Edinburgh on the 5th of February, 1649.^ 
 ^ Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. vL pt. ii. p. 157. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Conditionp on which the Crown was offered to Charles II. — Royalist Rising in 
 the North of Scotland — Execution of Huntly — Abortive Negotiations 
 with Charles II. — Montrose invades Scotland, is defeated and executed 
 — Charles II.'s ungrateful Repudiation of him — Argyll and the Letter 
 from the Earl of Lotliian. 
 
 THE alliance between Cromwell and the party of which 
 Argyll was leader had lasted but a very brief time and 
 was dissolved in consequence of the trial and execution of the 
 King ; and thus the policy of harmonious co-operation on the 
 part of the Parliaments of England and Scotland, which for 
 almost ten years past Argyll had succeeded in inducing his 
 fellow-countrymen to follow and which had only been temporarily 
 interrupted by the Duke of Hamilton's invasion of England, was 
 utterly and irretrievably shattered. It must have been with a 
 sore heart and with a sense of addressing himself to a hopeless 
 task that he took up afresh the role of political leader in these 
 new and altered circumstances. The state of mind in which he 
 was is depicted in his own words contained in his little volume. 
 Instructions to a Son, which he wrote while in prison : "By that 
 confusion my thoughts became distracted and myself encountered 
 so many difficulties in the way, that all remedies that were 
 applied had the quite contrary operation ; whatever, therefore, 
 hath been said by me or others in this matter, you must repute 
 and accept them as from a distracted man of a distracted 
 subject in a distracted time wherein I lived." ^ 
 
 The Scotch Parliament, by the authority of which Charles 
 II. had been proclaimed, passed an Act two days afterwards in 
 which they laid down the conditions to be accepted by the King 
 before he would be admitted to the exercise of royal power. 
 Those who framed this Act were certainly free from the feeble- 
 ness and perplexity which spring from not knowing clearly 
 one's own mind. They prescribed that he must sign the National 
 Covenant, and the Solemn League and Covenant, and swear to 
 
 ^ Page 5. 
 228 
 
224 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 maintain them ; that he must consent to the Acts of Parliament 
 which had established Presbyterianism and sanctioned the West- 
 minster Confession of Faith, Directory and Catechisms ; and that 
 he must promise to observe them in his own practice and family, 
 and make no attempt to change them. He was also required to 
 dismiss all advisers who were hostile to religion or to the Cove- 
 nants, and to consent that all civil affairs should be settled by 
 the Parliament, and all ecclesiastical by the General Assembly.^ 
 These conditions may seem hard, but they are scarcely more 
 than a summary of the measure of civil and religious liberty which 
 the people of Scotland had succeeded in obtaining and to which 
 Charles I. had consented in 1641, and of the obligations in 
 which they were involved by the religious league which they 
 had formed with the English people. 
 
 It would have been mere fatuity on the part of the 
 Covenanting leaders to allow all that they had gained at so 
 heavy a price to slip through their fingers ; while at the same 
 time they could not abandon the Solemn League and Covenant 
 with England without incurring the guilt of bad faith and 
 perjury. The intolerant demand that, in spite of conscientious 
 objections which the King might cherish, he must accept the 
 Presbyterian creed, ritual, and discipline, does not argue any 
 special arrogance or fanaticism on the part of those who made 
 it, for at that stage of the history of liberty but few of any 
 religious school realized adequately the rights of the individual 
 conscience. After appointing four commissioners to proceed to 
 Holland and offer the crown to Charles on the above conditions, 
 the Parliament adjourned. 
 
 In the meantime the Eoyalist party in the country, who were 
 indifferent or hostile to the Covenant, were as truly a source of 
 danger to the State as the powerful army of English sectaries 
 which might now be expected to invade Scotland. Indeed the 
 danger of rebellion at home was at this time more acute and 
 pressing than that of invasion from abroad ; for within a month 
 after the date of the execution of Charles I. the Eoyalist gentle- 
 men of the north of Scotland broke out into open insurrection 
 under Mackenzie of Pluscarden, a brother of the Earl of Seaforth, 
 and took possession of the town of Inverness. The Committee 
 of Estates lost no time in dealing with this rebellion, and by 
 energetic action prevented its spreading into other quarters. 
 But almost three months passed before the movement received 
 
 ^ Acls of Parliament of Scotland, vol. vi. pp. 363, 411-413. 
 
HUNTLY EXECUTED 225 
 
 its quietus in a fierce engagement at Balvenie Castle, in Banff- 
 shire.^ This futile attempt to overthrow the Covenanting 
 Government has not received the attention from historians which 
 it deserves ; for it helps to explain the failure of Montrose's 
 campaign shortly afterwards in the same district, and it sealed 
 the fate of the Marquess of Huntly. The latter had been a 
 prisoner in Edinburgh for about two years. For a long time 
 past, ever since he had refused to cast in his lot with the 
 Covenanters ^ and had accepted from Charles I. the commission 
 of Lieutenant of the North, he had been the most prominent 
 Royalist in Scotland, though, as he himself acknowledged before 
 his death, he had effected but little for the cause which he repre- 
 sented. His jealousy of Montrose, or his distrust of him on 
 account of his breach of faith towards himself ^ and of his former 
 career as a Covenanter, had hindered his giving him effective 
 support on many occasions when he might have done so. Yet 
 in spite of his unwillingness to co-operate with Montrose he had 
 kept rebellion smouldering in the north for years, and he had 
 lost his chance of securing his personal safety by refusing to lay 
 down his arms at the time when the King ordered the leaders 
 of the Royahst forces in Scotland to give up the contest. The 
 fact that Charles had approved of his loyalty and had ordered 
 him by a private message to refuse to submit seems to be 
 taken by modern writers of a certain school to justify his 
 conduct.* Yet, so far as the actual Government which had 
 maintained its position in Scotland for ten years past was 
 concerned, he was steeped in treason to the lips ; and now that 
 the enemies of the Covenant had again risen in arms in the 
 north, and among them were members of the Gordon clan, the 
 authorities showed their firmness and their resolution to make 
 no compromise with the Eoyalist party, though they were 
 negotiating with the King, by bringing the Marquess to 
 execution. If the Government which now existed in Scotland 
 is to be regarded as having any standing or rights whatever, 
 it is a mere misuse of language to call this action " a judicial 
 
 ^ The author may perhaps be permitted to refer his readers, for a detailed account 
 of this somewhat obscure episode in Scotch history, to his Sir Thomas Urquliart 
 of Croinartie, Knight (Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, Edinburgh). 
 
 2 See p. 68. 
 
 2 See p. 71. 
 
 * "At the very time when the commissioners were on their way to the Hague 
 the Marquess of Huntly was executed in Scotland, for no reason except his loyalty " 
 (Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 705). 
 
 15 
 
226 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 murder," ^ and it is absurd to imagine that the mere word of the 
 King against whom they had fought in open field was sufficient 
 to absolve of guilt any one who had sought to overthrow them. 
 It is said by a partisan of Huntly that his sister and his three 
 daughters went to Argyll and on their knees begged him to 
 interpose to save his brother-in-law's life, but that he refused 
 to interfere with the decision of Parliament.^ There is, how- 
 ever, most trustworthy evidence to show the utter falsehood of 
 the story. Argyll did interpose on Huntly's behalf ; but the 
 Government with which he was influential was beyond his 
 control. In his trial after the Eestoration this matter was 
 brought up against him, and he defended himself on that ground. 
 " I may truly say," he replied, " I was as earnest to preserve 
 him, as possibly I could, which is very well known to many in 
 this honourable House,^ and my not prevailing may sufficiently 
 evidence I had not so great a stroke nor power in the Parliament 
 as is libelled." * The mere fact that he appealed to persons then 
 present in Parliament to testify to the truth of what he alleged 
 and was not contradicted, is sufficient to dispose of the story to 
 his discredit which his enemies seem to repeat with a mahcious 
 delight. 
 
 It was on the 22nd of March, 1649, a fortnight after the 
 Duke of Hamilton had been executed in London, that the 
 Marquess of Himtly met the same fate in Edinburgh. He 
 appeared on the scaffold dressed in the mourning garb which he 
 had worn since the death of his Sovereign, and he behaved 
 himself at the last dread hom- with the gallantry and dignity 
 which became one of his station and illustrious descent. His 
 estates were forfeited on account of what were reckoned his 
 treasonable practices, and they were conveyed to Argyll. Yet 
 no one need suspect that any unworthy gain accrued to the latter 
 from that transaction. The Huntly property was very heavily 
 in debt, for in the year 1640 the financial burdens upon it 
 amounted to a million merks [nearly £55,560 Sterling],^ and 
 since then they had certainly not diminished. The Marquess 
 of Argyll was the principal creditor, and by taking over the 
 estates with the burdens that lay upon them he virtually 
 saved them for the family. Some parts of them became his 
 own by the legal process of " apprising " ; but beyond this, and 
 
 ^ Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotlaiid, vol. iii. p. 1 40. 
 
 -Gordon, Britane^s Distemper, p. 224. ^ i.e. of Parliament. 
 
 * State Trials, vol. v. p. 1 126. ^ 7?)?W., vol. v. p. 1427. 
 
JAME.S GRAHAxM, MaR(JUF.SS OF MONTROSK, in 1649. 
 Pahited by Hotithorsi. 
 
NEGOTIATIONS AT BREDA 227 
 
 beyond the fact that by bis own management of the estates 
 he may have been able to secure a more regular payment 
 of interest due to him Mian had been customary, there is no 
 evidence to prove that he was any great gainer by the new 
 arrangement. A letter from one of the sons of the Marquess 
 of Huntly, Lord Charles Gordon, afterwaixis first Earl of Aboyne, 
 is extant,^ in which he complains of the difficulty of getting 
 a settlement from his uncle, or a definite statement of the 
 condition in which affairs then were. But, as the demand to 
 have the compHcated financial position of a great estate set down 
 ill black and white by a certain date may not have been quite 
 practicable, we need not be in a hurry to conclude that Argyll 
 was at all to blame in not acceding to it with the promptness 
 desired. At any rate, at his trial he referred to his intro- 
 missions with the Huntly property as a matter in which he had 
 done no injury to his relatives' interests ; all his transactions 
 were, he said, recorded, and he could give an account of every- 
 thing that he had received.- 
 
 The Scotch commissioners dressed in deep mourning for 
 the late King appeared before Charles II. at the Hague, on 
 Tuesday, 27th March. They expressed their detestation of the 
 execution at Whitehall in terms as strong as the most devoted 
 Eoyalists could have used ; but after that preamble they 
 evidently never again found common ground of agreement with 
 the young King. Their first demand was that he should 
 instantly and permanently banish from his counsels " that cursed 
 man, James Graham," by whom they knew that their desires and 
 advice would be frustrated. This action of theirs is often 
 described, even by historians who affect to be impartial, as 
 insolent and overbearing ; but their conduct was both reasonable 
 and dignified. They were not casual guests at the Hague object- 
 ing to the presence of a fellow-guest, who was distasteful to 
 them but to whom the King chose to show favour. They were 
 plenipotentiaries from the kingdom of Scotland prepared to offer 
 the crown of that country to Charles upon certain conditions. 
 In these circumstances it would have been monstrous in the 
 extreme if they had consented to co-operate with Montrose or to 
 tolerate any connexion with him, since the Government they 
 
 ^ Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. i. p. 37. 
 
 - State Trials, vol. v. p. 1427. Reference is made to the complicated relations 
 of Argyll with the Huntly property in Burnet, History of My own Times, Supple- 
 ment, p. G. 
 
228 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 represented had condemned him as a traitor, defaced his honours, 
 and sequestrated his property ; while the Church to which they 
 belonged, and from which as well as from the secular Govern- 
 ment of Scotland they had received a commission, had ex- 
 communicated him as an apostate. They would have been dis- 
 gracefully neglectful of their duty and careless of their own 
 official dignity if they had acted otherwise than they did. So 
 strong was their case that several Eoyalist nobles, among whom 
 was the new Duke of Hamilton (formerly Lord Lanark), who 
 had been exiled from Scotland on account of their share in 
 the Engagement, joined in the protest.^ The negotiations with 
 Charles IL were futile. The commissioners insisted upon his 
 accepting the Solemn League and Covenant with all that it 
 involved, and would not abate one iota of their demands ; while 
 he, though declaring his willingness to do all in his power to 
 meet the wishes of his Scotch subjects, definitely refused to 
 acquiesce in their proposals. He had submitted them to 
 Montrose and to other Eoyalist counsellors and had asked their 
 advice concerning them, and they had strongly urged him to 
 reject them. Montrose suggested an invasion of Scotland in 
 the royal interests and undertook to lead it. Apart from this 
 alternative policy, which had much to recommend it, the state 
 of affairs in Ireland, where the Duke of Ormond had succeeded 
 in uniting almost all parties in favour of Charles, rendered that 
 country a more promising base of operations than Scotland for his 
 winning back all that his father had lost. Baillie, who was one 
 of the Scotch commissioners, records for us the impression made 
 upon them by the King, which shows us how imperfectly they 
 had gauged his real disposition and character, unless the general 
 conclusion to which mankind have come upon that point be very 
 far astray. " His Majestic," he says, " is of a very sweet and 
 courteous disposition. ... It were all the pities in the world hot 
 he were in good companie. . , . He is one of the most gentle, 
 innocent, well-inclyned Princes, so far as yet appears, that lives 
 in the world : a trimme person, and of a manlie carriage ; under- 
 stands prettie well ; speaks not much : Would God he were 
 amongst us." ^ It was, he tells us, " in discomfort and grief " that 
 they kissed his hands and returned home.^ 
 
 ^ Lister, Life of Clarendon, vol. i. p. 333 ; M. Morris, Montrose, j). 199. 
 2 Letters, vol. iii. pp. 87, 88. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 520. Lament's Diary says they returned "mutch un- 
 satisfied " (p. 2). 
 
MONTROSE'S EXPEDITION 229 
 
 Immediately after their departure Charles II. conferred 
 upon Montrose a new commission as Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Scotland and Commander-in-Chief of the royal forces there, and 
 appointed him Ambassador-Extraordinary to all foreign States, 
 in order to enable him to solicit aid and raise troops for carrying 
 out his enterprise. Montrose accordingly visited the northern 
 Courts of Europe and endeavoured to obtain as much support 
 as possible for the cause of which he was now the foremost 
 champion. The results of his labours were, however, but meagre ; 
 for in the spring of 1650 he had gathered together in the 
 Orkneys only some four or five hundred men, mostly from 
 Hamburg and Holstein. By recruits from the Orkney Islands 
 his army was brought up to about twelve or fifteen hundred 
 infantry, whom he was able to provide with arms out of a supply 
 given him by Queen Christina of Sweden. With this small 
 force he landed in Scotland at Duncansby Head, on the 11th or 
 12th of April, 1650.1 
 
 It is instructive to keep in mind the tortuous intrigues in 
 which Charles II., who had commissioned Montrose and sent him 
 forth, engaged at this time. He repeatedly wrote to Montrose 
 urging him to prosecute his enterprise vigorously, and assming 
 him of the fullest support he could give ; and at the beginning 
 of this year he sent him, as a proof of his favour, the George and 
 Eiband of the Garter. And yet, notwithstanding this, Charles 
 was at the very same time negotiating afresh with the Committee 
 of Estates with a view to an amicable restoration to the throne 
 of Scotland. The clue to his strange procedure is given in a 
 letter to Montrose, in which he says : " As we conceive that your 
 preparations have been one effectual motive that hath induced 
 them [the Estates] to make the said address to us, so your 
 vigorous proceeding will be a good means to bring them to such 
 moderation in the said treaty, as probably may produce an agree- 
 ment, and a present union of that whole nation in om- service." "^ 
 In other words, he expected that by employing Montrose to invade 
 Scotland he would be able to terrify the Covenanting party 
 into lowering the terms on which they were willing to receive 
 him as their King. The loyalty which burned like a passion in 
 the heart of the Marquess may have forbidden him to suspect or 
 dread being betrayed by the King ; but he can hardly have failed 
 to perceive that he was being used like a pawn in the game that 
 
 ^ Deeds of Montrose (Murdoch and Simpson), pt. ii. chap. viii. 
 ' Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 752. 
 
230 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 was being played. The part assigned to Montrose was too much 
 like that of a bully to be worthy of a man of honour, and it is 
 much to be regretted that on receiving the above communication 
 from the King he did not at once retire from his enterprise. 
 
 The upshot of the matter was that Charles, whose hopes of 
 effecting anything in Ireland had been destroyed by Cromwell's 
 victories there, found that he must either accept the terms whicli 
 the Committee of Estates offered, or abandon for years, perhaps 
 for ever, the hope of restoration to his ancestral throne. He 
 acquiesced in the demands which a year before he had rejected ; 
 and he hoped to save Montrose by giving orders for him to 
 disband his forces, and by requesting the Scotch commissioners 
 to arrange for his safety and for his being allowed to leave 
 Scotland for any port on the Continent which he might choose.^ 
 
 Yet he overestimated the respect which the authorities in 
 Scotland were prepared to pay to his desires or commands, in 
 order to free him from the difficulties into which his double 
 dealing had brought him. They were justly exasperated by the 
 invasion of Scotland by Montrose and proceeded to deal with 
 him as a public enemy, and manifested utter indifference to 
 any plea of justification he might be supposed to put forward 
 on the ground of obeying royal orders. 
 
 The campaign on which Montrose had now entered was soon 
 over. He made his way down to the border of Eoss-shire, and 
 was surprised by an ambush adroitly planned at Carbiesdale, by a 
 small detachment of troops under j\Iajor Strachan (27th April). 
 Only the foreign soldiers made any attempt at resistance, and 
 in the course of about two hours the little army was destroyed 
 with scarcely any loss to the conquerors. Many of the fugi- 
 tives were drowned in the Kyle of Sutherland ; and probably 
 not more than a hundred succeeded in making their escape. 
 Montrose had received several wounds and his horse was killed 
 under him, but by the generosity of one of his officers he was 
 remounted, and enabled to flee from the field of slaughter. 
 After wandering for three days and nights in the wilds of 
 Sutherland, he was taken prisoner disguised as a peasant. The 
 badge of the Garter and the royal letter that accompanied it 
 were discovered hidden under a tree.^ 
 
 ^ Charles n. of Scotland in 1650 (Scottish Hist. Soc), p. 126. These orders 
 were given on 5th May. 
 
 2 Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. pp. 744-746 ; Deeds of Montrose (Murdoch 
 and Simpson), pp. 307-313. 
 
IGNOMINIOUS TREATMENT OF MONTROSE 231 
 
 He was soon afterwards brought to Edinburgh and lodged in 
 the Tolbooth. Less than a death-sentence he could not have 
 expected ; nor indeed can it be reasonably maintained that in 
 inflicting it the Parliament was guilty of any injustice. But 
 the insults heaped upon him only disgraced those who per- 
 petrated them. Orders were given that when he was brought 
 into the city he was to be carried in a wretched cart to be 
 driven by the hangman ; and that he was to be bare-headed, and 
 fastened by ropes to the cart.^ Some among the victorious 
 Covenanters thought that he was treated " in too ignominious a 
 way " - — a fact which is usually ungenerously suppressed by 
 their opponents. The malignity of hatred which these insults 
 manifested was of no mysterious origin. When the multitude 
 saw him carried through the streets of the capital as a prisoner 
 securely bound, the feelings of many must have been like those 
 of the inhabitants of Gaza when Samson was led out in triumph 
 before them : " Our God hath delivered into our hands our 
 enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many 
 of us." 3 
 
 The story is told, the truth of which there is no reason to 
 doubt, that as the procession passed up the Canongate it was 
 made to halt before Moray House, where a number of spectators 
 were assembled on the balcony, among whom were Argyll and 
 Warriston, and the young Lord Lome with his newly married 
 wife.* Whatever may have been the feelings and behaviour of 
 some of those who now looked down upon their fallen enemy, 
 Argyll himself had the good taste to keep in the background ; 
 though his curiosity, if not a less excusable motive, led him to 
 seek a glimpse of the sight through blinds partly closed.^ What 
 his thoughts were we do not know, but we may at least hope 
 that one who had for so many years been the guiding spirit 
 in the public life of Scotland was above the petty feelings 
 of spite and malicious gratification with which so many vulgar 
 minds have hastened to credit him. Often had he been himself 
 in peril of Ms life, and it may well have been that in this tragic 
 fall of his great antagonist he dimly perceived a fate which 
 might one day be his own, if, in the inscrutable counsels of 
 
 ^ Balfour, Annals, vol. iv. |). 13. 
 
 - Life of Jiobert Blair, p. 224 ; Letters aiid Jaur/uils of Mrs Calderwood, p. xxx. 
 ' Judg., chap. xvi. 24. 
 
 ■• On 13th May, 1650, Argyll's eldest son had married Lady Mary Stewart, eldest 
 daughter of the Earl of Moray. 
 
 * Najiier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 781. 
 
232 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Heaven, the Covenanting cause should for a time be permitted 
 to suffer defeat.^ 
 
 In 1645 Montrose had been summoned to give himself up 
 to the Estates to answer for his conduct in stirring up civil war 
 in Scotland, and as he had not appeared at their bar he had l^een 
 outlawed. No further trial was accordingly necessary, and so 
 sentence was pronounced upon him. He was condemned to be 
 hung at the Cross of Edinburgh, and after three hours his body 
 was to be taken down and cut in pieces — his head to be affixed 
 to the pinnacle of the prison or Tolbooth, and his legs and arms 
 to be distributed among the towns of Stirling, Glasgow, Perth, 
 and Aberdeen. If he were penitent and desired the sentence of 
 excommunication to be remitted, his mutilated trunk was to be 
 buried in Greyfriars chm-chyard, otherwise it was to find a dis- 
 honoured grave. The narrative of his campaigns wiitten in Latin 
 which had been published by his chaplain (Wishart) and his last 
 Declaration to the people of Scotland were ordered to be hung 
 
 ^ It is in connexion with this incident in Montrose's progress through the streets 
 of Edinburgh, that in Sheriff Aytoun's ballad or "lay," entitled "The Execution 
 of Montrose," the epithet of "Master-fiend" is applied to Argyll. "This noble 
 person," "this excellent patriot," "this godly martyr," are among the terms in 
 which Wodrow refers to the same person. We have no doubt that in his calmer 
 moments Sheriff Aytoun would have declined with humility to consider himself a 
 better judge of saintliness than the Church historian and martyrologist to whom 
 he was so much indebted for information concerning the period of the Covenanting 
 struggles. In this conviction we may say that we would quite agree with him. 
 
 We cannot help referring to another incident which occurred at the same time 
 and which is mentioned in the above poem. A lady in the balcony at Moray House 
 either laughed or was accused of laughing at Montrose in his present forlorn plight. 
 This was the Countess of Haddington, the third daughter of the Marquess of Huntly 
 who had recently been executed. Some one in the street called up to her that "it 
 better became her to sit upon the cart for her adulteries " (Napier, Life of Montrose, 
 vol. ii. p. 779). There is not the faintest evidence to show that there was any 
 ground for this charge of immorality. A few months after her marriage she had lost 
 the husband to whom she had been passionately attached, and she had now been a 
 widow for ten years. Aytoun cannot have been ignorant of these facts, and yet he 
 weaves the vile calumny into this same poem — 
 
 " The painted harlot by his side, 
 
 She shook through every limb," etc. 
 
 This is not what we expect to find in "Cavalier" lays, if we are under the impres- 
 sion that the Cavaliers represent the gentlemanly interest. The legend seems to 
 grow as time goes on, for in M. Morris's Life of Montrose (1892) already referred to 
 we read of the same lady : "The wretched creature is even said to have spat upon 
 her dead brother's friend as the cart passed below the balcony in which she sat " 
 (p. 217). If no contemporary evidence can be brought to prove the truth of this 
 last assertion, the addition of this detail to the narrative is, to use a Johnsonian 
 phrase, "mighty offensive." 
 
MONTROSE'S LAST HOURS 233 
 
 about his neck, as the most convenient summary of the crimes 
 for which he was suffering the penalty of death. The dignity 
 and heroism with which Montrose met his fate are for ever 
 memorable ; and the horror which the terms of his sentence 
 excite is relieved by the graceful sentiment which they sug- 
 gested. " I could heartily wish," he said, " that I had flesh and 
 limbs enough to have a piece sent to every city in Christendom, 
 as proofs and tokens of my unshaken love and loyalty to King 
 and country." ^ 
 
 In the proceedings against Montrose the Marquess of Argyll 
 took no part, though we need not doubt that he was fully con- 
 vinced that the death-sentence had been amply earned. There 
 is extant a letter written by him on the day of Montrose's 
 execution, in which he gives a description of the last speech and 
 actions of his distinguished rival. The letter is addressed to 
 the Earl of Lothian, his niece's husband, who was then with 
 Charles II., and it is somewhat disappointing from its brevity and 
 reticence. The birth of a daughter which took place on that day 
 is naturally an event which bulks largely in his thoughts at the 
 time of wilting, and it takes the place of matter which might 
 have been more interesting to us. " It being now leat," he says, 
 " I confes I am wearie, for all last night my wyf was crying, who, 
 blessed be God, is saiflie brocht to bed of a dochter, whois birth- 
 day is remarkable in the tragick end of James Grahame at this 
 cros. He was warned to be spairing in speaking to the king's 
 disadvantage, or els he had donne it ; for befor the parliament, 
 in his own justification, he said he had severall commissions 
 from the king for all he did, yea, he had particular orders, 
 and that leatle [lately] for cuming to the main land of Scot- 
 land. He got sum resolution after he cam her how to go 
 out of this world, but nothing at all how to enter into ane 
 other, not so muche as once humbling himself to pray at all on 
 the scaffbld,^ nor saying anything on it that he had not repeated 
 many tyms before when the ministers were with him.^ For 
 
 ^ Deeds of Montrose (Murdoch aud Simpson), p. 329 ; Lamont, Diary, p. 21. 
 
 - Yet, though Montrose uttered aloud no word of prayer, we are told of his 
 engaging in silent prayer before his death — Deeds of Montrose (Murdoch and 
 Simpson), p. 334. 
 
 ^ The fact seems to be forgotten by those who speak indignantly of Montrose's 
 having been in his last hours and upon the scaflold troubled by Presbyterian 
 di^^nes and urged to confess his faults, that they were ministers of the Church to 
 which he belonged, and of which he had himself been ordained a "ruling elder." 
 Ihe reason why Episcopalians have been so solicitous for his honour is not very 
 
234 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 what may concern the publick, I leave it to the publick 
 papers." ^ 
 
 Hostile critics have blamed Argyll for the remark in this 
 letter that Montrose would have spoken to the King's disad- 
 vantage if he had not been warned against doing so, and have 
 indignantly denied that any such warning was needed. Mon- 
 trose himself in his speech upon the scaffold refers to the matter. 
 " It is spoken of me," he said, " that I would blame the King. 
 God forbid." ^ Such critics in their haste to malign Argyll 
 fail to observe the very peculiar circumstances of the situation. 
 Montrose could not defend himself by alleging that in his last 
 invasion of Scotland he had acted under orders from the King, 
 without accusing the King of the grossest treachery to the Estates, 
 with whom he had been negotiating and had now virtually con- 
 cluded a treaty. There can be no doubt that this fact was 
 pointed out to him, and that the warning had its weight with 
 him in framing his last speech. For though he does allege what 
 was perfectly true, that in acting as he had done he had obeyed 
 the commands of Charles II., he lays no stress upon the fact, and 
 he is much more zealous in vindicating his conduct in 1644-45 
 than he is with regard to that in his last campaign. In short, the 
 King had involved himself in such a web of intrigue and falsehood 
 that the only way in which the Estates could preserve a decent 
 appearance of respect towards him was by affecting to believe 
 that Montrose had acted without the royal sanction. In Argyll's 
 trial afterwards the fact of Montrose having been His Majesty's 
 Commissioner is referred to as an aggravation of what was 
 called " his murder." To this Argyll replied by saying that no 
 such commission was shown to the Parliament. " On the con- 
 trary," he went on to say with stinging sarcasm, " the said 
 Parliament conceived they had just reason to presume that 
 there could be no such commission for his coming against them 
 
 obvious, for one of liis last utterances was, "Bishops, I care not for them ; I never 
 intended to advance their interest" (Napier, Life of Jlo/Urose, vol. ii. p. 787). Of 
 course we are told to be specially kind to those who care not for us, and one should 
 respect greatly those who succeed in this difficult duty. 
 
 ^ Kirkton's History of the Church of Scotland, p. 124 n. 
 
 ^ Napier, Life of Montrose, vol. ii. p. 807. The industry and accvtracy shown by 
 Mr Napier in collecting and editing historical documents bearing upon the career 
 of Montrose are above all praise. He has published a number of volumes containing 
 them, which will always be valuable to the historian. His violent prejudices, how- 
 ever, and the scurrility with which he often gives them expression, though at first 
 amusing, soon pall upon the reader and tend to obscure the real merits which his 
 works possess. 
 
ROYAL PERFIDY 235 
 
 at that time ; because His Majesty, after the murder of his 
 royal father, very graciously had admitted their applications 
 to him." 1 
 
 The risk of being convicted of treachery against the Estates, 
 witli whom he had been negotiating, was one which Charles II. 
 felt very keenly at the time, and which he tried to avert by an 
 act of baseness which must have been bitter to him. For on 
 25th May, 1650, a letter from him dated 12th May was read 
 in the Parliament, in which he said " that he was hartily sorey 
 that James Grahame had invadit this kingdome, and how he had 
 discharged him from doing the same, and earnestly desyred the 
 Estates of Parliament to do him that justice as not to believe 
 that he was accessorey to the said invasione in the lest degree." 
 Along with this was sent a copy of a letter which Charles had 
 recently written to Montrose commanding him to lay down his 
 arms.^ A somewhat more pronounced condemnation of Montrose's 
 conduct was contained in a letter which came by the same post 
 from Breda. It is thus given by Sir James Balfour : " The Mar- 
 quess of Argyll reported to the house, that himself had a letter 
 from the Secretary, the Earl of Lothian, which showed him that 
 his Majesty wes no wayes sorey that James Grahame was defait 
 [defeated], in respect, as he said, he had made that invasione 
 without, aad contrarey to his command." ^ The astounding base- 
 ness and ingratitude displayed by this have led some to doubt 
 the authenticity of the letter, and to suggest that it was an 
 invention of Argyll's own.* Yet if he had been immoral and 
 audacious enough to forge a statement of the kind we may be 
 sure that this would have formed a charge against him at his 
 trial ; for certainly nothing that Charles II. ever did or said 
 presents him in so odious a liglit as does this cruel repudiation 
 of Montrose. The ground on which doubt has been cast upon 
 the statement made by Argyll is a suggestion that Charles II. 
 had probably not heard of Montrose's defeat at the date when 
 the letter, if genuine, must have been written. 
 
 In order to come to some definite conclusion upon this 
 matter, we shall give an account of occurrences in Breda during 
 the first half of May in the order in which they took place. On 
 
 ^ StaU Trials, 13 Charles II., 1475 (Cobbett). 
 
 ^ Balfour, Annals, vol. iv. p. 24. ^ 
 
 ^ Ihid., vol. iv. p. 24. 
 
 * "The base forgery of Argyll" — Deeds of Montrose (IMurdocli and Simpson), 
 p. 277. For a fuller discussion of this charge we refer our readers to App. V. 
 
236 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 1st May Charles II. signed an agreement with the Scotch 
 commissioners, which was a prehminary to the final and binding 
 treaty afterwards signed off Heligoland on the 11th June, 1650.^ 
 He specially arranged with the commissioners that he would 
 send orders to Montrose, of whose defeat four days before he had 
 no suspicion, to lay down his arms and to give up his ammunition 
 and other military stores to the legal authorities of the district 
 where he might be at the time ; and he instructed those with 
 whom he was negotiating to arrange for his lieutenant to be 
 taken by ship to any Continental port which he might choose.^ 
 On both the 3rd and 5th of May he wrote letters to Montrose 
 instructing him to disband his forces, and on the 8th he wrote 
 to the Scotch Parliament saying that he had fulfilled his 
 promise in giving these instructions. He did not, however, 
 inform them that he had given private directions to the envoy 
 carrying the letters to consult with Montrose and to deliver 
 them or suppress them, according to the condition of affairs 
 which he might find in Scotland. If Montrose were victorious 
 the way might be open for Charles to impose upon the govern- 
 ing body in that country terms much more to his taste than 
 those which were now being imposed upon him ; for, though 
 the preliminary agreement had been signed, the formal and 
 binding treaty had not yet been concluded between him and the 
 representatives of the people of Scotland. And finally, on 9th 
 May, Charles wrote his last letter to Montrose, saying that the 
 messenger by whom he was sending it would inform him fully 
 of the particulars of the understanding at which he had arrived 
 with his Scotch subjects.^ But on the very day last named a 
 report came to Breda tliat Montrose had been utterly defeated. 
 In a letter from that city of that date we read, " of whose {i.e. of 
 Montrose's) being routed and beaten we have some rumours." * 
 It was quite possible that this was authentic news transmitted 
 from the north of Scotland, and not a mere rumour which 
 happened to anticipate the truth. Twelve days had elapsed 
 since the fatal disaster fell upon the Eoyalists at Carbiesdale. 
 In a very brief time the tidings may have been signalled across 
 the country, or may have otherwise been conveyed to a seaport 
 on the Scotch coast, whence a vessel bound for some Continental 
 
 * Gardiner, Charles II. and Scotland in 1650, p. 85. 
 2 Ibid., p. 126. 
 
 ' Wigton Papers, pp. 115, 116. 
 
 * Gardiner, Charles II. and Scotland in 1650, p. 89. 
 
RUMOURS OF DEFEAT 937 
 
 port may have carried them without much delay. We are, 
 however, of the opinion that the report in Breda on 9 th May 
 was a rumour that owed its origin to the anxiety with which 
 news of the expedition on which so much depended was desired 
 and looked for. The fact that Charles made no allusion to it 
 in his letter of that date may be accounted for either by his not 
 having heard of it when he wrote, or by his attaching no weight 
 to it. That it was a rumour rather than authentic news seems 
 to be confirmed by the fact that, on the 11th of May, the 
 Scotch commissioners in writing home make no reference to 
 it.^ They must, one would think, have heard the reports which 
 were current, and their silence about them is almost conclusive 
 proof that they did not regard them as important. Had the 
 news seemed trustworthy, a matter of such great moment would 
 certainly have been noticed by them. But, by the 12th of May, 
 Charles was informed, on what he regarded as good authority, of 
 the battle which had taken place in Scotland. In a letter 
 addressed by him to the Parliament of Scotland he says, " that 
 he is very sorrowfull and grieved to heare a report which is come 
 to him by credible persons . . . that there hath been some 
 blood shed of late of his good Subjects of the Kingdome of 
 Scotland." " He hath heard severall Keports," he says, " as to 
 the manner and the result thereof, which doth very much trouble 
 him ; " and he asks that particulars may be supplied to him.^ 
 On this same day, according to the statement of Sir James 
 Balfoui', the letter was written which was read in the Scotch 
 Parhament and from which we have already quoted, in which 
 the King said, that " he was hartily sorey that James Grahame 
 had invadit this kingdome," and denied that he was in the 
 least degree accessory to the invasion.^ 
 
 Dr Gardiner endeavours to bring the cruelty and baseness 
 on the part of Charles II. in thus repudiating Montrose within 
 the bounds of credibility, by suggesting that, if we had before 
 us the actual text of the letter referred to by Balfour, we 
 might find that the King merely dissociated himself from the 
 undertaking on which Montrose had embarked, and showed 
 that he had already done all that he could to avert evil 
 by ordering his lieutenant to lay down his arms immediately 
 after a treaty had been concluded with the Scotch oommis- 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Charles II. and Scotland in 1650, p. 101. 
 
 2 Ihid., p. 103. 
 
 ' Annals, vol. iv. p. 24. 
 
238 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 sioners.^ But no such suggestion as to what the" letter might 
 possibly have contained can outweigh the consideration that we 
 have the testimony of an ear-witness, whose veracity there is 
 not the faintest reason for doubting, as to what it did contain. 
 The idea that the letter was a fraud or a forgery is utterly 
 incredible in view of its having been immediately referred to a 
 committee who were instructed to reply to it. Had it been a 
 fabrication we should have heard more about the matter. The 
 conclusion that the letter in question did really contain a 
 repudiation of Montrose by Charles II. is confirmed by the fact 
 that words in support of it were quoted by Argyll as having 
 been uttered by the King and transmitted to him by the Earl 
 of Lothian, Secretary of State, then in Breda. These words we 
 have already given. They were to the efiect that " His Maiestie 
 wes no wayes sorey that James Grahame was defait, in respect, 
 as he said, he had made that invasione without and contrarey to 
 his command." 2 That Charles had appointed Montrose his 
 lieutenant and encouraged him in his undertaking time after 
 time was beyond question. Thus in January of this year, 
 1650, he had written a letter urging him to prosecute his 
 enterprise vigorously, and this letter, after being published in 
 Paris in a French translation, had been retranslated into English 
 and had appeared in London newspapers.^ The members of 
 the Estates, therefore, cannot have been ignorant that Montrose 
 acted under the direct orders and sanction of the man who now 
 repudiated him. 
 
 As we have said, some attempt has been made to involve 
 Argyll in the infamy of this transaction, if not indeed to lay the 
 responsibihty for it altogether upon his shoulders, on the sup- 
 position that Charles II. had not heard of Montrose's defeat 
 at the date when the letter read in Parliament on 25 th May 
 must, if genuine, have been written. But the narrative of 
 occurrences in Breda during the first half of May which we have 
 given above effectively disposes of that conjecture. Nmnerous 
 reports concerning his defeat were current in that town when 
 the correspondence recorded by Sir James Balfour was despatched 
 to Scotland. No one who has followed the course of Argyll 
 would think of ascribing fatuity to him ; yet he would have been 
 
 ' Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. i. p. 258. 
 - Balfour, Annals, vol. iv. p. 24. 
 
 ^ Carte, Orirjinal Letters, vol. i. p. 358 ; Gardiner, Commonvxaltlt and Protectorate, 
 vol. i. p. 214. 
 
A DIFFICULT POSITION 239 
 
 nothing less than fatuous if lie had tried to palm off upon the 
 Parliament comments of Charles II. upon an event of which 
 he had not yet heard. The Earl of Lothian, too, was a man 
 of honour and integrity, and it is incredible that he would 
 have allowed his name to be mixed up with a forged letter 
 read in public in which an abominable slur was cast upon 
 his Sovereign. Difficult as it is to believe that Charles could 
 be guilty of such foul treachery to his loyal servant, it would 
 be much more difficult to believe that he would allow his 
 name to go down in history branded with the infamy of a 
 crime of such a low and despicable type if he had been inno- 
 cent of it. On the whole, we are afraid that he must be left 
 to bear the disgrace of his ingratitude towards Montrose ; and 
 we are once more face to face with the profound mystery 
 how members of the Stewart family could inspire a passionate 
 loyalty and fidelity of which they so often showed themselves 
 utterly unworthy.^ 
 
 The feelings of those who reported and heard Charles's words 
 and who affected to accept them as true were not enviable. Yet, 
 before we pass any severe censure upon them, we should in 
 justice to them remember the difficult position in which they 
 were placed. Base as he was, Charles had been proclaimed their 
 King. His personal unworthiness did not nuUify the fact that in 
 their opinion he was the only person who was entitled to govern 
 Scotland, and they may have thought that there was no other 
 practicable course than to shut their eyes to his duplicity and 
 to treat his repudiation of Montrose as equivalent to a tardy 
 expression of regret at ever having employed him to terrorize 
 his Scotch subjects by lighting again the flame of war in their 
 country. The acceptance of Charles on these terms was but an 
 ill omen for the new career as a Covenanted King on which he 
 had entered, and soon the sword broke in the hands of those 
 who had insisted upon his consenting to occupy that false 
 position and had imdertaken to uphold him in it. 
 
 ^ Those who have any difiBculty in believing that Charles II. would repudiate 
 an agent so fully accredited by him may find a striking parallel to the conduct 
 thus imputed to him in the relations of Charles I. with the Earl of Glamorgan. 
 See the vol. entitled A71 Enquiry into the Share which King Charles I. had in 
 tlie Transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, 1747. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Treaty of Breda concluded with Charles II. — Arrival of the King in 
 Scotland — The Discomfort of his Condition — His relations with Argyll 
 — Cromwell invades Scotland — The Eoyal Army purged of " Malignants " 
 — The Battle of Dunbar — Honours promised by the King to Argyll — 
 "The Start" — Charles II.'s position made more comfortable. 
 
 THE second deputation sent from Scotland to arrange a 
 treaty with Charles II. had already succeeded in bring- 
 ing him to terms. His hopes of Ireland had now been, as we 
 have said, defeated by Cromwell's victories there. No doubt, 
 when he began the negotiations which led up to the treaty 
 which he signed on 11th June, he still had expectations that 
 Montrose would soon effect some change in the condition of 
 matters in Scotland which would modify the harshness of 
 the terms which were forced upon him. After he heard 
 of Montrose's defeat and death he still adhered to his plan 
 of going to Scotland, and probably he anticipated being able by 
 the charm of his manners and by subtle policy to bend matters 
 to his will. But even at Breda the representatives of the 
 narrower, and at the same time the more honest and consistent, 
 section of the Scotch Covenanters were with difficulty per- 
 suaded to acquiesce in the farce of presenting the National 
 Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant to Charles 
 for acceptance. They saw him surrounded by persons as his 
 counsellors and friends whom they called " Malignants " ; they 
 knew that he adhered to the Episcopal form of service in his 
 own household, and in spite of their remonstrances " communi- 
 cated " kneehng ; and they were not unacquainted with the fact 
 that " many nights he was balling and dancing till near day." ^ 
 In these circumstances they regarded his promise to accept the 
 Covenants as mere hypocrisy, and as a profanation of the sacred 
 duties and responsibilities involved in them. It was only by 
 persuasion and almost by compulsion that they were induced to 
 agree to allow Charles to perjure himself, and to journey home 
 
 ^ Select Biographies (Wodrow Society), vol. i. p. 170. 
 
 2^0 
 
CHARLES II. LANDS IN SCOTLAND 241 
 
 with him in the same sliip. Their hearts were heavy ; for what 
 with the " profane mahgnant companie " on board, and the 
 dishonest King, and their own sin in weakly suppressing their 
 better judgment, they felt, as one of them says, that they " were 
 taking along the plague of God to Scotland."^ Alexander 
 Jaffray, a commissioner, who belonged at that time to this 
 section of the Covenanting party, afterwards wrote : " We did 
 sinfully both entangle and engage the nation and ourselves, 
 and that poor young prince to whom we were sent ; making 
 him sign and swear a Covenant, which we knew from clear 
 and demonstrable reasons that he hated in his heart. Yet 
 finding that upon these terms only he could be admitted to 
 rule over us (all other means having failed him), he sinfully 
 comphed with what we most sinfully pressed upon him ; where, 
 I must confess, to my apprehension, our sin was worse than liis!' - 
 On the 3rd of July the vessel on board of which the King 
 had embarked arrived at the mouth of the Spey ; but before he 
 was allowed to set his foot upon Scotch soil he had to sign 
 both the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Cove- 
 nant.^ His friends and counsellors, who were of the types of 
 English " Malignants," or Scotch " Engagers," were obliged to leave 
 him and to betake themselves to obscurity to avoid being dealt 
 with as public enemies. The only exception made was in the 
 case of the Duke of Buckingham — an exception which seems 
 very remarkable when one considers his dissolute course of life.* 
 Burton suggests that perhaps he had, with his well-known 
 powers of mimicry, succeeded in passing himself off as a child of 
 grace ; ^ but the Covenanting leaders had more shrewdness and 
 
 ^ Select Biographies (Wodrow Society), vol. i. p. 180. 
 
 - Diary, p. 55. 
 
 ^ Sir Edward Walker, Jovrnal, p, 159 ; NicoU, Diary, p. 16. 
 
 •• Clarendon, vol. iii. chap. i. p. 476. 
 
 ^ History of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 14. It is always pleasant to a historian to 
 nail down on the counter some of the false coin which he finds current. The story 
 is told that Charles II. was joined by Argyll at the Bog of Gight, the seat of the 
 Marquess of Huntly's, a few days after his arrival ; and that on the royal progress 
 southwards the Duke of Buckingham rode on the right of the King, and Argyll on 
 the left. At Pitcaple a woman, described as "The Goodwife of Glack," is said to 
 have addressed Charles in a loud voice from amidst a crowd of spectators, invok- 
 ing blessings on his journey, but bidding him beware of the man on his left hand, 
 who had taken off his father's head, and who, if he (the King) did not take 
 care, would have his next (Davidson, Inverurie, pp. 297, 373 ; Lyon, Persona/ 
 History of Charles II,, p. 34). As a matter of fact, Argyll did not go north to 
 the Bog of Gight to meet Charles II., but waited at Perth until his arrival there 
 {State Papers, Dom., 1650, p. 266). The above story is therefore utterly false. Its 
 i6 
 
242 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 good sense than that historian is disposed to ascribe to them. 
 The true reason seems to be given by Bishop Burnet, and it is 
 less creditable to them than guileless simpHcity would have 
 been ; for he tells us that Buckingham's advice to Charles at 
 this time was to put himself entirely in the hands of Argyll and 
 his party.^ 
 
 Yet our readers must not suppose that among the general 
 population of Scotland there was any lack of warmth in the 
 demonstrations of joy excited by the news of Charles having 
 landed on the shores of his ancestral kingdom. The news 
 was brought to Edinburgh, late at night on the Wednes- 
 day, that on the previous Sunday he had disembarked after 
 his voyage of twenty days. The diarist Nicoll gives us a 
 narrative of the enthusiasm created by the tidings, and it is 
 worth while to preserve in our quotation from it the quaint 
 spelhng of the original. " All signes of joy," he says, " wer 
 manifested throw the haill kingdome ; namelie, and in a speciall 
 maner in Edinburgh, by setting furth of bailfyres, ringing of 
 bellis, sounding of trumpettis, dancing almost all that night 
 throw the streitis. The pure kaill wyfes [poor market-women] 
 at the Trone sacrificed their mandis [baskets] and creillis, and 
 the verie stooles thai sat upone to the fyre. Efter a great 
 volie of musketis from the castell, foUowit xxiii great peces 
 of ordinance." ^ 
 
 Within a short time Charles II. found himself a tenant of 
 Falkland Palace, but in circumstances very unhke those of a 
 reigning prince. Argyll, we are told, received him with all 
 outward respect imaginable ; ^ but he soon found that he was 
 allowed no share in the government of Scotland, and that 
 councils were held without his presence at which important 
 decisions were arrived at which were not even communicated 
 to him. The best of food was provided for him, and it was 
 served with decency ; he had good horses to ride out upon, 
 and respectful attendants to accompany him, so that to all 
 outward appearance nothing was wanting that was due to a 
 king. Yet he was utterly devoid of power and influence, 
 and the place of his residence was a matter as Little within 
 
 inherent improbability scarcely needs to be pointed out. It was bighly unlikely 
 that such a gross insult could have been offered with impunity to a man in Argyll's 
 position, especially when raising enmity between the King and his subjects was at 
 that time a capital offence according to Scottish law. 
 
 ^ History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 55. ' P. 16. 
 
 * Clarendon, History, vol. iii. chap. i. p. 474. 
 
AN UNHAPPY LOT 243 
 
 his choice as it would be in the case of one of his subjects 
 who had been sentenced to a term of imprisonment. Nor 
 was this his sole reason for complaint. A slight element of 
 exaggeration may be present in tlie accounts which we have 
 of the long and sombre religious exercises which were imposed 
 upon him under the guise of instructing him in spiritual things. 
 Clarendon says that they made him observe the Sundays with 
 more rigour than the Jews observed their Sabbaths ; and that 
 they reprehended him very sharply if he smiled on those days, 
 and if his looks and gestures did not please them, whilst all 
 their prayers and sermons, at which he was compelled to be 
 present, were hbels and bitter invectives against all the 
 actions of his father, the idolatry of his mother, and his own 
 " mahgnity." ^ Yet, even after some deduction is made on the 
 ground of the picture being a little over-coloured by prejudice, 
 there can be no doubt that when all is considered Charles's lot 
 was far from happy. Bishop Burnet describes this episode in 
 the King's life with a sympathy born of a similar experience. 
 " He [Charles] wrought himself," he says, " into as grave a 
 deportment as he could : he heard many prayers and sermons, 
 some of a great length. I remember in one fast day there were 
 six sermons preached without intermission. I was there myself 
 and not a little weary of so tedious a service.^ The King was 
 not allowed so much as to walk abroad on Sundays ; and if at 
 any time there had been any gaiety at court, such as dancing 
 or plapng at cards, he was severely reproved for it. This was 
 managed with so much rigour, and so little discretion, that it 
 contributed not a little to beget in him an aversion to all sort 
 of strictness in religion." ^ The grotesqueness of the situation 
 was emphasized by the fact that those who treated him with 
 such remarkable brusqueness and severity made a great outward 
 show of reverence to him, and, as it were, reproached him on 
 bended knees with every gesture of humility. 
 
 The relations between Charles II. and Argyll at this period 
 are described by Clarendon with such verisimilitude that we 
 feel that he exactly reproduces matters as they were and 
 provides us with a most vivid and characteristic portrait of 
 Argyll in one aspect of his subtle and manifold nature. 
 " There was never," he says, " a better courtier than Argyle, 
 
 ^ History, vol. iii. chap. i. pp. 475, 476. 
 
 " Cf. Dido's : "Haud ignara mali miseria succurrere disco," yEn., vol. i. p. 630- 
 
 ' History of My ovm Times, vol. i. p. 55. 
 
244 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 who used all possible address to make himself gracious to the 
 King, entertained him with very pleasant discourses, with such 
 insinuations, that the King did not only very well like his 
 conversation, but often believed that he had a mind to please, 
 and gratify him ; but then, when His Majesty made any attempt 
 to get some of his servants about him, or to reconcile the two 
 factions, that the kingdom might be united, he gathered up his 
 countenance, and retired from him, without ever yielding to any 
 one proposition that was made to him by His Majesty." ^ The 
 allusion in the phrase " retired from him " is to an odd custom 
 of the Marquess's of abruptly ending an inconvenient discussion 
 by leaving the room and closing the door.^ 
 
 Charles II. must have felt that from his arrival in Scotland 
 he had been taken in charge by Argyll, and the impression could 
 not fail to be intensified by the appointment of Lord Lome, the 
 Marquess's eldest son, to be the captain of his guard. The young 
 noble, though devoted heart and soul to the Eoyalist cause, was 
 not inclined to treat his office as a sinecure, but, as Clarendon 
 says, " had so watchful a care of his Sovereign night and day, 
 that His Majesty could not go any whither without his leave." ^ 
 But deliverance was at hand, though in a most unexpected form ; 
 for it was to be through Cromwell that the captive was to 
 recover freedom. 
 
 Probably the main reason why Charles came to Scotland was 
 to use it as the base of operations against the enemy in England 
 who had usurped the rule that was his by birth ; but he found 
 that the more rigid section of the Covenanters, into whose hands 
 he had committed himself, was by no means anxious to promote 
 his scheme. They felt the extreme difficulty of undertaking with 
 their limited resources a contest with an English army flushed 
 with many victories, especially when they had no confidence in 
 the King for whom they were asked to fight. Many of them 
 were accordingly desirous that he should avert the shock by some 
 declaration which would make it plain that, though he did not 
 give up his claim to the English crown, he did not intend for 
 the present to prosecute it by the sword. Their advice was 
 that he should wait until the confusion in England had died 
 down and a desire for his presence became general ; or until 
 
 ^ History, vol. iii. chap. i. p. 476. 
 
 2 Records of Argyll, Lord A. Campbell, p. 27. See also Scotland and the Pro< 
 tecforate (Scottish Hist. Soc), p. 413. 
 ^ History, vol. iii. chap. i. p. 488. 
 
CROMWELL INVADES SCOTLAND 245 
 
 the impression made by his good government of Scotland should 
 inspire envy for a share in the blessing. Perhaps Charles 
 thought that the operation of this law of the survival of the 
 fittest would require too long a time ; but at any rate he replied 
 to these advisers, with an asperity for which few could blame 
 him, that he hoped they did not wish him to sell his father's 
 blood.i 
 
 On 31st May Cromwell reached London after his Irish 
 campaign of nine months, in which he had crushed rebellion 
 with such force and severity that but little was left for Ireton 
 to do, to wliom he committed the chief command in Ireland. 
 He had now, doubtless much against his will, to undertake the 
 task of drawing his sword upon those in Scotland with whom 
 he had so much in common, and who had so recently been in 
 alHance with him but had embraced the cause of Charles II. 
 Fau'fax, who was under Presbyterian influences, refused to accept 
 the chief command in a war with Scotland and laid down his 
 commission. Seven weeks after his arrival in London, Cromwell 
 entered Scotch territory with an army of live thousand cavalry 
 and over ten thousand infantry, many of them veterans, and 
 some of them soldiers who had been engaged in warfare on the 
 Parliamentary side since the outbreak of the Civil War in 
 England.- The invaders found the country between Berwick 
 and Edinburgh on the line of their march laid waste and de- 
 populated, and they were provided witli food by vessels which 
 sailed along the coast in attendance upon the army. On 
 Tuesday, the 30th of July, "the English sectaries," as they were 
 called in Scotland, lay at Musselburgh, and began to face the 
 extremely difficult task of dislodging and defeating the powerful 
 army under David Leslie, which was so skilfully disposed as 
 to render the Scotch capital quite impregnable. For a whole 
 month Leslie lay steadily quiet, and allowed Cromwell to make 
 one fruitless attempt after another to lure him out to open 
 battle.^ Yet, though an army of at least twenty thousand men 
 was now prepared to maintain the cause of Monarchy and of 
 Charles II., it was only by the most humiliating concessions on 
 the part of the latter that it was possible to keep it together 
 to resist Cromwell. The King himself was not allowed to 
 
 1 Select Biographies (Wodrow Society), vol. i. p. 184. 
 
 2 Carlyle, Cromwell, vol.ii. p. 257, vol. iii. p. 4 ; W. S. Douglas, Cromwell's 
 Scotch Campaigns, p. 37. 
 
 ^ Carlyle, Croimoell, vol. iii. p. 16. 
 
246 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 remain in it, as many were persuaded that his presence would 
 bring a curse upon it.^ He accordingly retired to Dunfermline, 
 not so much to be out of the way of danger as to be less a 
 source of danger to others by reason of the insincerity and 
 hypocrisy of which it was gravely suspected he had been guilty 
 in accepting the Covenants. 
 
 Yet, even though an enemy was in possession of a consider- 
 able portion of Scotland and was at the gates of the capital, the 
 Covenanting leaders set about the work of purging the army 
 of all officers and men who were known to be Eoyalists, or who 
 had taken part in the Engagement of 1648.^ The policy of 
 excluding from military service brave and efficient men who were 
 eager to fight for the King has seemed to many in later times 
 mere frantic folly ; but it was certainly the logical consequence 
 of the mistaken idea that the cause of the Covenanting party 
 was the cause of God. To those who cherished this delusion 
 the presence of an Achan in the camp was a greater danger 
 than any that could assail it from without, and it was essential 
 in the highest degree to take precautions against incurring such 
 a risk. On the other hand, in the case of those members of 
 the party who were not victims of this fanaticism, it was still 
 a matter of importance to keep the army from passing into the 
 control of Koyahsts or " Malignants." Had no check been im- 
 posed upon their joining the levies, they might either have out- 
 numbered those who were more devoted to the Covenant than 
 to the King, or they might have hampered them very seriously 
 and injured the cause which had the chief place in their hearts. 
 
 The danger of harbouring within their ranks the traitor 
 who might draw down upon their army the wrath of Heaven 
 made the Covenanting leaders manifest still greater severity 
 towards Charles II., who was called by many " the chief Malignant." 
 He might reasonably enough, as it seems to us, have thought 
 that after his acceptance of the Covenants the worst was past ; 
 but a second bitter draught specially compounded for him was 
 now presented to his hps, with the prospect before him of 
 utter ruin if he rejected it. A Declaration, drawn up by 
 the Commission of Assembly and confirmed by the Committee 
 of Estates, was laid before him for signature ; but so stringent 
 and humihating were the terms in which it was couched that 
 he shrank from accepting it. By this document the King was 
 made " to profess his sorrow for his mother's idolatry, and for 
 
 1 Life of Robert Blair, p. 235. 2 /j^v/., p. 235. 
 
G-HARLES SIGNS «'THE DECLARATION" 247 
 
 his father's guilt in being the author of so much blood of the 
 Lord's people that was shed during the civil wars, his sincerity 
 in subscribing the Covenant, his wish to satisfy the just desires 
 of his English and Irish subjects, and his resolution to prosecute 
 the ends of the Covenant, especially in the reformation of the 
 Church of England ; to admit his former sinfulness in opposing 
 the work of God ; and to express a hope that, as he now pre- 
 ferred God's interest to his own, so God would now be gracious 
 to him." 1 
 
 On Charles's refusal to sign this document, another meeting 
 of the Commission of Assembly was held in St Cuthbert's or 
 the West Kirk of Edinburgh, in which after great debate 
 another Declaration was prepared, which disclaimed " all the sin 
 and guilt of the King and his house, both old and late, and re- 
 pudiated him and his interest in the quarrel between them and 
 the enemy that had invaded the kingdom." ^ The King was 
 so alarmed by these threatening proceedings that he at once 
 signed the original Declaration which reflected so injuriously upon 
 his father and mother, and which committed him to religious 
 opinions and vows with which he cannot have had the faintest 
 sympathy. Some few trifling alterations of phrases were made 
 in the Declaration, which left its character unchanged but gave 
 Charles an excuse for accepting a document which he had rejected 
 a few days before. This disgraceful transaction took place on 
 16th August, 1650. 
 
 The proceedings of the Commission of Assembly, which drove 
 the King to this profanation of things sacred and to the sin of 
 perjury were by no means in accordance with the wishes of the 
 more intelligent and experienced members of that body. It 
 was only, indeed, by a majority of one that the Declaration was 
 passed in the West Kirk refusing to own the King except so far 
 as he maintained what they said was the cause of God ; and, as 
 some technical objection was established against the validity of 
 one of the votes which had been given for it, the document had 
 not full legal sanction. But none the less it was read at the 
 head of the army, and a copy of it was even sent to Cromwell 
 himself. Blair tells us that " the most grave, moderate, and 
 prudent ministers and elders were displeased with the Act," and 
 
 1 Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 147. The full document 
 with a few trivial changes is given in General Assembly Commission Records, 1648-49 
 (Scottish Hist. Soc), p. 460. 
 
 2 Life of Robert Blair, p. 236, 
 
248 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 that it was carried by the younger men, who were more hostile to 
 the King than their seniors.^ A modern writer, who is an acute 
 observer of human natm'e, has spoken of the austere type of 
 goodness which so often appeals powerfully to the young mind ; 
 and his words are a striking commentary upon this incident. 
 " It is dangerous," he says, " for young men to be too good. 
 They are so sweeping in their condemnations ; so sublime in their 
 conceptions of excellence, and the most finished Puritan cannot 
 outdo their demands upon frail humanity." ^ That Argyll was 
 among " the more grave, moderate, and prudent men " who were 
 opposed to the policy of humiliating Charles II. and of forcing 
 him to the publication of statements which on his lips were 
 mere falsehood and profanity, is quite certain. His indignation 
 and disgust at such action were expressed by him to the King 
 himself in words which show the deep gulf that divided him 
 from the fanatical section of politicians who were in power, 
 but whose overthrow was so close at hand. He told Charles 
 that " when he came into England he might be more free, but 
 that for the present it was necessary to please these madmen." ^ 
 His passing such a sentence of condemnation upon those who 
 were carrying out to its logical results the policy to which he 
 had for so long a time past given his support is an expressive 
 and pathetic commentary upon its real merits. A man of his 
 wide experience and statesmanlike temper must now at last 
 have realized how futile much of his life-work had been, and 
 how near shipwreck was the cause which he had steered through 
 so many dangers. The second-rate minds which could rest 
 serenely upon conclusions, which were to them infalhbly true 
 because they were logically drawn, could only be aroused from 
 their delusion by the shock of actual disaster, but before that 
 moment came the clear-sighted Argyll must have tasted all the 
 bitterness of disappointment and defeat. The movement which 
 had begun under such fair auspices, and which had been con- 
 secrated by the devotion of so many saintly and gallant hearts, 
 had now fallen into chaos and frenzy, and the best advice which 
 he who had once been its foremost champion could give to his 
 Sovereign was to humour the madmen into whose hands he 
 had fallen, until an opportunity were given him of escaping 
 into happier conditions. 
 
 1 Life of Robert Blair, p. 236. 
 
 ^ G. Meredith, Evan Harrington, chap, xxxiii. 
 
 » Qal. State Papers, Dom., 28th August, 16.00, p. 310. 
 
BATTLE OF DUNBAR 249 
 
 By the end of August Cromwell found himself in very 
 forlorn circumstances. By no means could he force or tempt 
 Leslie to come to open battle or to leave the strong positions 
 held by him. The English General's men were falling sick, his 
 supplies were being exhausted, and the weather was broken. He 
 found it impossible to remain where he was, and so, on Saturday 
 the 31st, he burned his huts and fell back upon Dunbar, with 
 the view probably of embarking thence for England. " At sight 
 whereof," says Carlyle, " Leslie rushes out upon him ; has his 
 vanguard in Prestonpans before our rear got away. Satm-day 
 night through Haddington, and all Sunday to Dunbar, Leslie 
 hangs, close and heavy, on Cromwell's rear ; on Sunday night 
 bends southward to the hills that overlook Dunbar, and hems 
 him in there." ^ His retreat was cut off by the pass at 
 Cockburnspath being seized by the enemy ; for, as he said him- 
 self, " almost a miracle " ^ would be needed to enable him to 
 force his way through. He wrote on the 2nd of September to 
 Sir Arthur Haselrig, governor of Newcastle, to gather forces 
 together for the support of the English Government in case of 
 a great disaster in Scotland ; and the extremity of the danger 
 in which he believed himself to be is indicated in the closing 
 sentences of the letter. " Let Sir H. Vane," he says, " know 
 what I write. I would not make it public, lest danger should 
 accrue thereby." ^ But the next day altered the whole com- 
 plexion of matters, and afforded the English General, as he 
 beheved, another illustration of that Divine mercy of which, as 
 he said at this crisis of his fate, he already " had had large 
 experience." * 
 
 If Leslie had only been patient and had continued for two 
 or three days longer the policy of refusing to give fight, few of 
 the Enghsh army would probably have got away from Dunbar. 
 But imfortunately for himself and for the cause he defended he 
 came down from the heights to attack Cromwell, whose con- 
 dition he regarded as hopeless. His army of sixteen thousand 
 foot and seven thousand horse was double the size of Cromwell's, 
 but before he could arrange it in order of battle he was himself 
 attacked. An overwhelming assault upon his right wing drove 
 it back upon his main army, which was too crowded together 
 to assist it, and threw it into utter confusion. The Enghsh horse 
 
 ^ Cromwell, vol. iii. p. 28 ; Memoirs of Captain John Hodgson, p. 42. 
 
 - Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. iii. p. 30, 
 
 '^ Jbid., p. 30. * Ibid., p. 31. 
 
250 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 and foot instantly charged their opponents with irresistible force, 
 and the latter became " as stubble to their swords." ^ The 
 chase of the fugitives extended over eight miles, and as the 
 result of the day's fight three thousand of the Scotch troops 
 were killed and ten thousand taken prisoners. The young Lord 
 Lome had had a command in the defeated army, and had 
 behaved in this battle with conspicuous valour, and begun those 
 services to the House of Stewart which were afterwards so un- 
 gratefully requited. 
 
 The cause of the blunder that led to the defeat of the 
 Covenanting army has sometimes been attributed to the inter- 
 ference of the Committee of the Estates and of ministers with 
 the plans of Leslie, and to his weakness in giving way to 
 their suggestions. But this is very doubtful. Probably the 
 movement of the Scotch army which exposed it to the danger 
 of overthrow commended itself to all in it from Leshe down- 
 wards. His position on the hill exposed his troops to hardships 
 from want of shelter in broken weather. Those of Eoyalist 
 sympathies among his soldiers were impatient with his Fabian 
 policy and inclined to ascribe it to " a secret fellow-feeling for 
 the Sectarians and Eegicides " ; ^ while the Covenanting leaders 
 chafed at his hesitating to seize the advantage which seemed 
 to have been so plainly offered to him. Leslie himself, in a 
 letter to Argyll, complains of the relaxation of discipline, 
 occasioned no doubt by the " purging-out " process which went 
 on almost until the two armies entered into conflict. " I take 
 God to witness," he says, " we might have easily beaten them 
 as we did James Graham at Philiphaugh, if the officers had 
 stayed by their troops and regiments." ^ 
 
 The result of the battle was that the power of the sword 
 was finally taken out of the hands of the Covenanting leaders ; 
 for, though a Scotch army was soon again on foot to make 
 another attempt in favour of Charles II., it was composed of 
 EoyaHsts and of persons who were not so devoted to the 
 Covenant as to be unwilling to co-operate with them. The 
 defeat at Dunbar was, indeed, a crushing blow to the party 
 that had, with the exception of the short period during which 
 Hamilton was supreme, for twelve years past succeeded in 
 
 ^ Burnet, History of My oum Times, vol. i. p. 67. 
 - Carlyle, CromiceP, vol. iii. p. 35. 
 
 ^ Quoted from the "Lothian Papers" in Burton's History of Scotland, vol. vii. 
 p. 26. 
 
RESULT OF THE DEFEAT 251 
 
 holding possession of power ; for, since the overthrow of the 
 expedition into England in support of the Engagement which he 
 organized and led had been declared to be a mark of the Divine 
 wrath against it, those who now were in their turn overwhelmed 
 by disaster could not easily avoid drawing the same conclusion. 
 They began to mutter something about " not hanging the equity 
 of their Cause upon events [accidents]," and described as " tribu- 
 lations " what in the case of their enemies they would certainly 
 have called "judgements."^ But no wary use of vague lan- 
 guage could conceal from themselves the fact that both they 
 and their opponents had solemnly commended their respective 
 causes to God, and had appealed to Him to decide between 
 them, and that in what Cromwell called " this mighty and strange 
 appearance of His " ^ they had been hurled into utter ruin. 
 
 The defeat sustained at Dunbar is said to have given 
 satisfaction to Charles II. himself, for whom the army under 
 Leslie was supposed to be fighting. Indeed, Clarendon says 
 roundly that he and Cromwell were equally delighted at the 
 turn which events had taken.^ The King saw now some 
 prospect of the gilded captivity in which he had been kept 
 since his arrival in Scotland coming to an end ; and we are 
 told that when the news of Dunbar was communicated to him 
 he fell on his knees and gave thanks to God,^ perhaps the first 
 sincere act of devotion which he had performed for some 
 months past. The ingratitude which led him to ignore the 
 lives sacrificed for his sake in that terrible slaughter is very 
 characteristic of him and of the family to which he belonged ; 
 for of many of them it may be said that they thought their 
 sul)jects were honoured by having an opportunity given to them 
 of sacrificing life and all that was dear to them for their sake. 
 
 The Government of Scotland under Argyll left Cromwell to 
 take possession of the capital, where he found abundance of the 
 provisions and comforts of which his army stood so much in 
 need. Yet it was not imtil the 24th of December that the 
 Castle of Edinburgh was surrendered to him.^ The remnants 
 of the Covenanting army and the Committee of Estates rallied 
 their forces in Stirling, which Cromwell did not find it practicable 
 
 ^ Carlyle, CromvMll, vol. iii. p. 61. * Ibid., vol. iii. p. 66. 
 
 ^ History, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 508. 
 
 •* W. S. Douglas, CromwilVs Scotch Campaigns, 130 n. ; Whitelocke, Memorials, 
 p. 472, 
 
 ^ Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. iii. p. 99. 
 
252 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 at present to assail. The position in which Argyll and his 
 party were now placed was a highly unenviable one, for in 
 addition to the need of coping with the victorious army of the 
 invaders they had to face divisions in their own ranks. At 
 such a crisis in national affairs they felt that it would be 
 dangerous in the highest degree to enter upon any new policy ; 
 and so the only plan that commended itself to them was to 
 fill up the broken ranks of the army with fresh recruits and 
 to fight on for King and Covenant.^ To this policy a strong 
 opposition now began to spring up. A right wing, consisting 
 of those who accepted the Covenant but were more devoted to 
 the King's interests than to it, came into view, and to it rallied 
 Eoyalist partisans of every variety and degree ; whOe at the 
 same time, and to some extent in consequence of this movement, 
 a democratic left wing began to form, to which those adhered 
 who were attached above all things to the Covenant and who were 
 inclined to repudiate the King on the ground of his insincerity 
 and hypocrisy in relation to it. So definite was the distinction 
 between these two parties, and so well founded in reason were 
 their respective principles, that between them the members of 
 the third or moderate party, to which many of the official class 
 belonged, were bound to scatter and to give in their adherence 
 either to the one or the other. As little choice in the matter 
 was allowed to them as is given to the corn that finds itself 
 between the upper and lower millstones. 
 
 At this juncture of national affairs, when so many of those 
 who had accepted the Covenant were becoming indifferent to the 
 cause of Charles or were definitely refusing to fight any longer 
 in support of it, while the Koyalists were legally disqualified from 
 rendering the service of which the King stood so much in need, 
 it was a matter of the highest importance to secure the continued 
 support of Argyll. His intimate friend and political associate, 
 Johnstone of Warriston, was now the most prominent person- 
 age in the ranks of the stricter section of the Covenanters, and 
 it would not have been very surprising if Argyll had chosen 
 to join their party rather than that of the Royalists. The 
 fear that he might take this course and utterly wreck the 
 royal cause agitated Charles and led him to heap upon Argyll 
 assurances of his favour and promises of every honour in his 
 power to bestow. Three weeks after the battle of Dunbar he 
 assured the Marquess that he would still be guided by his 
 
 ^ Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. iii. p. 76. 
 
"THE START" 253 
 
 counsels/ and pledged himself in writing to fulfil the promises 
 which he had made so profusely. As the letter is but short, 
 and as it may furnish our readers with the means of measur- 
 ing the royal perfidy of which Ai-gyll was the victim, we 
 shall give it in full. It is dated " St Johnston [Perth], Sep- 
 tember 2-4th, 1650," and runs as follows: "Having taken into 
 my consideration the faithful endeavoin-s of the Marquis of 
 Argyll, for restoring me to my just rights, and the happie 
 setling of my dominions, I am desyrous to let the world see 
 how sensible I am of his reall respect to me, by some particular 
 marks of my favour to him, by whiche they may see the trust 
 and confidence I repose in him ; and particularly, I doe promis 
 that I will mak him Duk of Argyll, and Knight of the Garter, 
 and on of the gentlemen of my bed-chamber ; and this to be 
 performed when he shall think it fitt. And I doe further promis 
 him to hearken to his counsels . . . [worn-out]. Whensoever it 
 shall pleas God to restor me to my just rights in England, I shall 
 see him payed the forty thousand pounds sterling, which is due to 
 him. All which I doe promis to mak good, upon the word of a 
 King, Charles E." ^ 
 
 An awkward incident that occurred at this time served both 
 to hasten the process of disintegration and also to strengthen 
 the position of the extreme Covenanting party. The close sur- 
 veillance under which Charles II. felt that he had been kept by 
 Argyll since his coming to Scotland had been mortifying enough ; 
 but there had been no remedy against it so long as the power of 
 the Covenanting Government remained unbroken. Now, however, 
 that the Committee of Estates was in such great perplexity and 
 confusion, the strictness of the watch over the King was of 
 necessity relaxed ; the nobles and officers who were specially his 
 partisans resorted openly to him, and he began to complain and 
 expostulate when things were done of which he disapproved. 
 Some of those of the Hamiltonian party, who had served in the 
 Engagement and had been in sympathy or association with Mon- 
 trose, were scattered through the Highlands, and were waiting 
 for an opportunity of declaring for the King. A Dr Frasier, 
 an experienced conspirator,* and, like most such, of a restless 
 spirit, was an intermediary between them and Charles and 
 
 ^ See the letter which is given below. 
 
 * nist. MSS. Commission, vol. vi. p. 606 ; see also the text of the above letter 
 given in the article "Archibald Campbell" in Biographia Britannica. 
 ' See Hillier'3 King Charles in the Isle of Wight, passim. 
 
25t THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 persuaded the latter to put himself into their hands. The plan 
 was for the Eoyalist partisans to assemble at a fixed rendez- 
 vous on a certain day, with all the forces they could muster, 
 and for the King to join them. Matters went so far that 
 a declaration was actually prepared in which Charles com- 
 plained of the ill-treatment he had endured since his arrival in 
 Scotland, and in particular expressed indignation against Argyll. 
 The whole affair was revealed to the Marquess by the Duke of 
 Buckingham, who had from the first, as we have said, been well 
 affected towards him. According to one story he accidentally 
 found in an open cabinet some of the letters which had passed 
 between the King and his Highland friends and did not scruple 
 to divulge them ; but according to another story Charles 11. him- 
 self had thoughtlessly told him of his plans.^ Some uncertainty 
 must have existed with regard to the date of rendezvous, for 
 before Argyll thought it necessary to take any steps for the 
 defeat of the plot the King had fled from Perth, which had for 
 a short time past been his place of residence. "With a dozen or 
 twenty horsemen he rode out of that city on the 4th October as 
 if on a hawking expedition, and, as soon as he was fairly in the 
 open country, he and his companions galloped off westward and 
 before nightfall were more than forty miles away. The loosely 
 constructed plot, however, turned out a failure. Either some 
 mistake had been made as to the day of meeting, or some of 
 those who had been expected to assemble had hung back at the 
 last moment. At any rate, Charles II. found himself without 
 soldiers or resources for undertaking a Eoyalist insurrection, and 
 he had to pass the night in a wretched hut among the Grampian 
 Hills, " with nothing but a turf pillow to sleep on." ^ In these 
 circumstances he resolved to return next day to the comfortable 
 quarters in Perth which he had so rashly abandoned, and the 
 troop of cavalry which Argyll despatched after him was scarcely 
 needed to persuade him to remain steady to his decision.^ This 
 somewhat ludicrous incident, known in Scotch history as " The 
 Start," caused serious alarm in the minds of Argyll and his 
 associates. "With Cromwell in possession of a large part of 
 Scotland and of the capital, an insurrection of the Eoyalists in 
 
 ^ Clarendon, History, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 509 ; Gardiner, Commonwealth and 
 Protectorate, Tol. i. p. 373. 
 
 - Balfour, Annals, vol. iv. pp. 113-115. The description given by the annalist of 
 Charles's condition on this occasion is very vivid. He was found " in a nasty room, 
 on an old bolster, above a mat of seggs and rushes, overwearied and very fearful." 
 
 * Clarendon, History, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 510. 
 
REACTION IN FAVOUR OF CHARLES 255 
 
 the Highlands on any consideral)le scale could scarcely have 
 failed to overwhelm them utterly ; and tliey felt compelled to 
 guard against a repetition of the danger by making concessions 
 to their opponents. Popular sympathy was being aroused in 
 some quarters in favour of the King, on the ground that he was 
 not being treated as he ought to be. It was decided, therefore, 
 to call a meeting of Parliament at which he should preside, and 
 in the meantime he was allowed to be present at meetings of the 
 Committee of Estates.^ Great preparations also were made for 
 his coronation. 
 
 ' Balfour, Annals, vol. iv. p. 168. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Remonstrance of the Western Covenanters — A strong Royalist Reaction sets 
 in — "The Act of Classes" modified — Coronation of Charles II. — The 
 Proposal for marrying a Daughter of Argyll's — Unpopularity of the Mar- 
 quess — "The Act of Classes" rescinded — Resolutioners and Protesters 
 — Cromwell occupies Perth — The Royalist Army invades England — 
 Argyll retires from Public Life — Battle of Worcester. 
 
 IN the meantime the tide of feeling and opinion among the 
 extreme Covenanters was rapidly rising against Charles 11. 
 and those who were apparently conniving at his feigned de- 
 votion to the Covenant, or watching for an opportunity of joining 
 him openly as Eoyalists and enemies of the cause for which 
 Scotland had sacrificed so much. The belief that the defeat 
 at Dunbar was due to laxity in purging out from the Scotch 
 army and from the King's household the leaven of " Malignancy " 
 soon found armed exponents and defenders. Colonels Strachan 
 and Ker, both of whom had done good service to the Cove- 
 nanting cause in suppressing the Eoyalist insurrection under 
 Mackenzie of Pluscarden and shattering the army of Montrose 
 at Carbiesdale, became the leaders of this faction. After Dunbar 
 their attitude towards Leslie was such that they could not con- 
 tinue to serve under him, and they were employed to raise troops 
 in the western lowlands of Scotland, where zeal for the Cove- 
 nant still glowed with unabated fervour. They anticipated, no 
 doubt, being able after a time to play as decisive a part as the 
 Western Covenanters had played in seizing the reins of power 
 after Hamilton's departure into England with the army of the 
 Engagement. Strachan, indeed, openly confessed as much by 
 writing a letter to Cromwell, in which he offered to secure 
 England against being invaded in Charles's interest, if the English 
 army would leave Scotland.^ In a short time the Western army 
 amounted to five thousand men. 
 
 On 17th October they drew up at Dumfries a Remonstrance 
 addressed to the Committee of Estates, in which they refused to 
 
 ' Gardiner, Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. i. p. 370. 
 
 256 
 
CONFLICT AT HAMILTON 257 
 
 fight for the King, on the ground of his insincerity in relation 
 to the Covenant, and his intimate connexion with " Mahgnants," 
 to whom his recent action in withdrawing from Perth showed 
 his real and strong attachment. They protested against invad- 
 ing England in order to force a King upon the English people, 
 and against any employment of " Malignants," and they concluded 
 with cliarging some members of the Committee of Estates with 
 covetousness and extortion.^ The Eemonstrance contained many 
 statements which the majority of the members of the Committee 
 of the Estates and of the Commission of the Assembly were 
 forced to admit were " sad truths," ^ though the terms in which 
 they were expressed were tinged with both fanaticism and 
 insolence. It was not possible, therefore, to pass any severe 
 sentence of condemnation upon the Eemonstrance. Argyll cen- 
 sured it with some asperity, but it was defended by Warriston, 
 who was largely responsible for drawing it up. Finally it 
 was condemned by both the Committee of Estates and the 
 Commission of Assembly, though in such guarded terms as to 
 avoid exasperating those from whom it emanated.^ 
 
 The resolution not to fight for the King ought naturally to 
 have been followed by submitting to Cromwell or by making 
 terms with him ; but some of the Eemonstrants, with that faculty 
 for making fine distinctions which is the pride and the curse of 
 some types of the Scotch mind, resolved to continue the war. 
 Colonel Ker attacked the English troops at Hamilton, and, after 
 a sharp conflict in which a hundred of his men were killed 
 and he himself was severely wounded, his forces were defeated.'* 
 His colleague, Colonel Strachan, openly joined Cromwell. In 
 a short time the whole Western army melted away, and the 
 members of it returned to their ordinary occupations, which 
 probably they regretted having ever left. The whole of Scotland 
 south of the Forth and Clyde was now subject to Cromwell — 
 Edinburgh Castle, the last stronghold to submit, having been 
 given up to him, as we have said, just before the end of the year. 
 
 The refusal of the extreme section of the Covenanters to 
 support the cause of Charles II. against the English invaders, 
 and the disappearance of their army, forced the more moderate 
 section into an alliance with the Eoyalists which rapidly became 
 
 ^ Peterkin, Records, p. 604 ; Balfour, Annals, vol. iv. pp. 141-160. 
 
 2 Johnston of Warriston (Famous Scots Series), p. 134. 
 
 ^ Life of Robert Blair, p. 247. 
 
 * Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. iii. p. 86. 
 
 17 
 
258 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 an absorption into their ranks. Very much against their will, 
 Argyll and others whose religious sympathies were with the 
 thoroughgoing supporters of the Covenant found themselves 
 forced to separate from them on questions of politics ; for the 
 union between the religious and the national spirit which had 
 imparted such zeal to the supporters of the popular cause in 
 1638 was now dissolved.^ Those who abhorred hypocrisy and 
 falsehood held aloof from public life even at the risk of seeming 
 unpatriotic, and so indifferent were they to the cause of their 
 country's independence as to refuse to aid in driving out the 
 English invaders. The Act of Classes had excluded from offices 
 of trust all who had taken part in the Engagement, or who 
 were known as Eoyahsts, or who were of vicious character. 
 Some were liable to exclusion for life, and others for periods of 
 years varying according to the supposed degrees of their guilt, 
 while none could be restored without giving satisfaction to the 
 ecclesiastical authorities. Yet to these proscribed classes belonged 
 the very persons to whom alone the Government of Scotland 
 could now turn for the defence of the country. Immediately 
 after Dunbar the question was raised as to the wisdom or justice 
 of the Act of Classes, and it was recognized by the great majority 
 both in the Committee of the Estates and in the Commission 
 of Assembly that it would need to be seriously modified to suit 
 the condition of national affairs. 
 
 As soon as Parliament met various prominent Eoyalists 
 were admitted on accepting the Covenants ; and, on the matter 
 being referred to the Commission of Assembly, it was decided 
 that those who expressed penitence for the sin of " Malignancy " 
 might be allowed to serve in the army. This small breach 
 having been made in the barrier erected by the Act of Classes, 
 it was not long before the pressure of pubhc opinion carried the 
 process still further and the disabilities under which the Eoyalists 
 lay were altogether removed. Unfortunately the Covenanting 
 party were still strong enough to insist upon the condition of 
 giving satisfaction to the Church being maintained ; but this 
 became a mere form the observance of which was discreditable 
 to both parties. A Eoyalist, whose conscience was enlightened 
 enough to discern the guilt of hypocrisy in submitting to this 
 ordeal but who had not sufficient strength of will to resist it, 
 says : " Behold a fearful sin ! The ministers of the Gospel 
 received all our repentances as unfeigned, though they knew 
 ^ Gardiner, Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. i. p. 382. 
 
CORONATION OF CHARLES II. 259 
 
 well enough they were hut counterfeit ; and we, on the other 
 hand, made no scruple to declare that Engagement to he unlawful 
 and sinful, deceitfully speaking against the dictates of our own 
 consciences and judgments. If this was not to mock the all- 
 knowing and all-seeing God to His face, then I declare myself 
 not to know what a fearful sin hypocrisy is." ^ 
 
 The irritation and disgust of those who were thus compelled 
 to undergo this humiliating ceremony are intelligible enough ; 
 but our view of matters would be incomplete if we omitted to 
 take notice of the sullen anger and despair of those who saw 
 men whom they regarded as the enemies of religion invested 
 with the power of the sword. Friends of the Engagement, 
 officers and soldiers of Montrose's armies, and wild Highland 
 clans, were now formed into an army for the national defence 
 and for the maintenance of the throne ; while the strength 
 which the Covenanting movement had imparted to the national 
 spirit seemed utterly exhausted. " Surely," says Baillie at 
 this time, " we had never more cause of mourning. ... It 
 cannot be denyed that our miseries and dangers of mine are 
 greater nor for many ages have been : a potent victorious enemy 
 master of our seas, and for some good time of the best part of 
 our land ; our standing forces against this his imminent invasion, 
 few, weak, inconsiderable ; our Kirk, State, Armie, full of divisions 
 and jealousies ; the body of our people be-south Forth spoyled, 
 and near starveing ; they be-north Forth extreamlie ill-used by 
 a handfuU of our owne ; many inclyning to treat and agree with 
 Cromwell, without care either of King or Covenant ; none of 
 our neighbours caUed upon by us, or wilhng to give us any help, 
 thoug-h called. What the end of all shall be the Lord knowes. 
 Many are ready to faint with discouragement and despaire ; yet 
 divers are waiting on the Lord, expecting He will help us in 
 our great extremities against our most unjust oppressors." ^ 
 
 On 1st January, 1651, the coronation of Charles II. at Scone 
 was carried out with but maimed rites, as compared with the 
 gorgeous ceremonial which had been observed in the case of his 
 father eighteen years before. Appropriately enough, in considera- 
 tion of the circumstances of the time and of the temper of those 
 to whom Charles was indebted for his restoration to his ancestral 
 throne, the coronation was preceded by days of fasting and 
 humiliation.^ On one of these the King was expected to mourn 
 
 ^ Sir James Turner, Memoirs, p. P4, - L'-Ucrs, vol. iii. p. 127. 
 
 ^ Life of Robert Blair, p. 254. 
 
260 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 publicly not only for his own transgressions, but for those of his 
 father and grandfather. He is said to have suggested in private 
 to some of his intimates the propriety of his completing matters 
 by lamentmg that ever he had been born.^ The coronation took 
 place in the parish church at Scone, and it was conducted with 
 some measure of pomp and magnificence. A couple of short 
 paragraphs from the contemporary narrative of the proceedings 
 may be welcome to our readers. " The Commissioners of Bur- 
 roughs and Barons," we are told, " and the Noblemen accompanied 
 his Majesty to the Kirk of Scoon, in order and rank according 
 to their quality two and two. The Spurs being carried by the 
 Earl of Eglington. Next, the Sword by the E. of Eothes. Then 
 the Scepter, by the E. of Crauford and Lindesay. And the Crown 
 by the Marq. of Argile, immediately before the King. Then 
 came the King, with the great Constable on his right hand, 
 and the great Marshal on his left, his train being carried by 
 the L. Ereskine, the L. Montgomery, the L. Newbottle, and the 
 L. Machlene, four Earls' eldest Sons under a canopy of crimson 
 Velvet, supported by six Earls' Sons ; to wit, the L. Drummond, 
 the L. Carnegie, the L. Eamsay, the L. Johnstoun, the L. Brechin, 
 the L. Yester, and the six Carriers supported by six Noblemen's 
 Sons. Thus the King's Majesty entred the Kirk. The Kirk 
 being fitted and prepared with a Table, whereupon the Honours 
 were laid, and a Chair set in a fitting place for his Majesties 
 hearing of Sermon over against the Minister, and another Chair 
 on the other side, where he received the Crown, before which 
 there was a Bench decently covered, as also seats about for 
 Noblemen, Barons, and Burgesses. And there being also a Stage 
 in a fit place erected of twenty-four foot square, about four foot 
 high from the ground, covered with Carpets, with two stairs one 
 from the West another to the East ; upon which great Stage, 
 there was another little Stage erected, some two foot high, 
 ascending by two steps, on which the Throne or Chair of State 
 was set." 2 
 
 The Moderator of the Commission of Assembly, Kobert 
 Douglas, one of the ablest and most eloquent men in Scotland, 
 preached what we are told was " a very pertinent, wise, and good 
 sermon." 2 His text was taken from 2 Kings xi. 12, 17 : "And 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. i, p. 385. 
 - The Form and Order of the Coronation of Charles II., hy Robert Douglas, 
 minister at Edinburgh, p. 2 (London, 1660). 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 128. 
 
SERMON BY DOUGLAS 261 
 
 he brought forth tlie king's son, and put the crown upon him, 
 and gave him the testimony : and they made him king, and 
 anointed him ; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save 
 the king:. • • • And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord 
 and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord's 
 people ; between the king also and the people." With consider- 
 able liveliness of expression the preacher repudiated the cere- 
 mony of anointing as part of the coronation rite. It had lost 
 whatever original value it had contained by falling into the hands 
 of Popes and Bishops. " But now," he said, " by the blessing 
 of God, Popery and Prelacy are removed ; the Bishops, as limbs 
 of Antichrist, are put to the door [i.e. out of doors] ; let the 
 anointing of kings with oil go to the door with them, and let 
 them never come in again. . . . Kings are the anointed of the 
 Lord, because, by the ordinance of the Lord, their authority is 
 sacred and inviolable. It is enough for us to have the thing, 
 though we want [are without] the ceremony." ^ He laid great 
 stress upon the King's entering into covenant with God and 
 with the people as the most important part of the proceedings 
 of that day ; and, in words which must have sounded strangely 
 revolutionary to some of those who were present, he spoke of 
 subjects being justified in controlling and opposing kings who 
 abused their power and broke the conditions of their contract or 
 covenant with their people. 
 
 In conclusion he warned the King to avoid the errors of 
 his father and grandfather and exhorted him to be faithful to 
 his vows. It seems to be taken for granted by many who are 
 lacking in historical imagination that such discourses must of 
 necessity have been dreary ; and Charles has been spoken of as 
 listening to this " with all appearance of interest." Yet, even if 
 we suppose the King to have been insensible to the charms of 
 the eloquence which the speaker undoubtedly possessed, his 
 audacity and the treasonable character of his principles — from 
 a Eoyalist point of view — must have served to prevent the 
 sermon from being tedious. After prayer the National Covenant 
 and the Solemn League and Covenant were read over, sworn 
 to and subscribed by the King, and the coronation oath was 
 administered to him. Thereupon he was invested with the royal 
 robes, with the sword of state, and with the spurs. " Thereafter," 
 we are told, " Archibald, Marquis of Argyle, having taken the 
 Crown in his hands, the Minister prayed to this purpose : * That 
 
 ^ Form and Order of the King's Coronation, p. 6 ; Lamout, Diary, p. 33. 
 
262 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 the Lord would purge the Crowu from the sins and transgressions 
 of them that did reign before him: That it might be a pure 
 Crown, That God would settle the Crown upon the King's head ; 
 and since men that set it on were not able to settle it, that the 
 Lord would put it on and preserve it.' " And then the Marquess 
 of Argyll placed the crown upon his head, and presented him 
 to receive the homage of his nobles and people. The Earl of 
 Crawford and Lindsay gave him the sceptre, and Argyll placed 
 him on the throne, saying, as he installed him, " Stand and hold 
 fast from henceforth the place whereof you are the lawful and 
 righteous heir by a long and lineal succession of your fathers, 
 which is now dehvered unto you by authority of Almighty God." ^ 
 After which Douglas again addressed to him grave exhortations 
 interspersed with warnings drawn from the history of his im- 
 mediate predecessors. The 20th Psalm having been sung, the 
 proceedings closed with the apostolic benediction. 
 
 " The King," we are told, " in all the solemnity, especially in 
 swearing the Covenants, did carry [himself] very seriously and de- 
 voutly, so that none doubted of his ingenuity [ingenuousness] and 
 sincerity ; yea, he did, both before and after the coronation, profess 
 his sincerity in taking the Covenant to some honest ministers . . . 
 begging this favour of them, that if ever, in any time coming, 
 they did hear or see him breaking that Covenant, they would 
 tell him of it and put him in mind of his oath." ^ His conduct 
 in view of his after-history suggests to us that his being born a 
 King, though no great gain to the Monarchy, was a distinct loss 
 to the Stage. But yet, so strangely constituted is man, that it is 
 not impossible that at times, if not for long, the heart of the young 
 Prince was affected by the religious emotions which influenced so 
 profoundly many of those with whom he was now compelled to 
 associate. A remarkable story to this effect is told by Wodrow, 
 who derived his information from the Marchioness of Argyll. 
 " After King Charles's Coronation," he says, " when he was in 
 Stirling, the Marquise waited long for ane opportunity to deal 
 freely with the King anent his going contrary to the Covenant, 
 and favouring of Malignants, and other sins. And Sabbath night, 
 after supper, he went in with him into his closet, and there used 
 a great deal of freedom with him, and the King was seemingly 
 sensible, and they came that length as to pray and mourn 
 together till two or three in the morning ; and when at that 
 
 ^ Form and Order of the Kinrfs Coronation, p. 21 ; Nicoll, Diary, p. 46. 
 ^ Life of Robert Blair, p. 256. 
 
CHARLES II. AND ARGYLL 263 
 
 time he came home to his Lcady, she was surprised, and told him 
 she never kneu him soe untimouse. He said, he had never 
 such a sweet night in the world, and told her all ; what liberty 
 they had in prayer, and hou much concerned the King was. 
 She said plainly they wer ' crocodile tears,' and that night 
 would cost him his head."^ It is probable that part of the 
 bitter resentment against Presbyterianism which Charles 11. in 
 later years cherished arose from the remembrance of pious 
 feelings with which his mind had once been stirred, but which 
 in Scriptural phrase had " gone away as a morning cloud and as 
 the early dew." And surely in this incident we have a view of 
 the Marquess of Argyll which intensifies our interest in him. It 
 was not a mere schemer, or a shifty politician, or a self-seeking 
 courtier, who spent hours of devout conversation and engaged in 
 prayer with his King, seeking to turn that young but wayward 
 soul to a life of consecration to God. Only those who are void 
 of all generous feelings, and who are so poverty-stricken mentally 
 as to be incapable of intellectual sympathy with minds different 
 from their own, would speak of Argyll's conduct on this occasion 
 as a proof of his gloomy fanaticism. His action was, we have 
 no reason to doubt, inspired by the purest motives, and his 
 undertaking it was evidence of a certain engaging simplicity 
 of mind which few have preserved who have like him spent 
 a large part of their lives in the world of politics. 
 
 The part which Argyll had taken in the coronation at Scone 
 belonged to him because of his rank in Scotland and the antiquity 
 of his House ; but the thought can scarcely have failed to sug- 
 gest itself to those who witnessed the ceremony and to Charles 
 himself that the Marquess held a position somewhat like that 
 of the Earl of Warwick who was known as " the King -maker." 
 And indeed there can be no doubt that, if Argyll had not laid 
 down and maintained the principle that on Charles's giving 
 satisfaction concerning religion and the Covenant the people 
 of Scotland were bound to receive him as their King and to 
 support his cause,^ he would not have been recalled. The 
 fact was too patent to be disguised from the King himself ; and, 
 as it necessarily involved, at least for a time, a measure of de- 
 pendence upon Argyll, it is not surprising that the suggestion 
 should have been made to secure his influence permanently by 
 a marriage between the King and one of his daughters. The 
 scheme had indeed been a matter of gossip at the Hague in the 
 
 ^ Wodrow, Analeda, vol. i. p, C7. " Halfour, Annah, vol. iii. p. -IIG. 
 
264 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 previous May, when Charles was still there as an exile ; but there 
 is no reason to believe that it was broached in any formal 
 manner.^ In view of the fact of Argyll's commanding position 
 in Scotland and of his having daughters, the suggestion as to a 
 marriage was too obvious to be inexplicable except on the ground 
 of an express proposal to this effect having been made by the 
 Marquess. Indeed it would be quite inconceivable that he had 
 made a formal suggestion of this kind and that the matter had 
 remained in suspense for nearly a year, as would have been the 
 case if the hand of Lady Anne Campbell had been offered to 
 Charles before he set out for Scotland.^ 
 
 ^ Dr Gardiner states, in his Commonwealth and Protectorate, under the date of 
 14th April, 1650, that a special agent had then recently arrived at Breda to offer 
 the hand of Argyll's eldest daughter to Charles as a means of strengthening his 
 interest in Scotland ; but the authorities quoted (vol. i. p. 225) do not bear out this 
 assertion. Two only of them are connected with the matter, and the one {Charles 11, 
 and Scotland in 1650, p. 114) merely records the above-mentioned gossip at the 
 Hague ; while the other (Livingstone's Life, p. 170) alludes to the scheme as a 
 suggestion made to Argyll. The latter passage runs as follows : — "William Murray 
 and Sir Robert Murray, negotiators for the King, who it is thought put him [Argyll] 
 in hopes that the King might marry his daughter," p. 170 {Select Biographies, vol. i., 
 Wodrow Society). A matter of fact can only be established by evidence, and this 
 Dr Gardiner does not give ; nor does he explain how it came to pass that nothing 
 was heard of the scheme until after Charles's coronation eight months later. 
 
 ^ In a note by Lord Dartmouth on Burnet's History of My oavn Times (1823, 
 vol. i. p. 150) it is distinctly implied that the marriage scheme was not broached imtil 
 Charles IL was in Scotland. The passage is as follows : — "He [the Marquess] told 
 Charles that he could not serve him as he desired, unless he gave some undeniable 
 proof of a fixed resolution to support the Presbyterian party, which he thought 
 would be best done by marrying into some family of quality that was known to be 
 entirely devoted to that interest ; this he thought would in a great measure take off 
 the prejudice both kingdoms had to him on his mother's account, who was extremely 
 odious to all good Protestants ; and he thought his own daughter would be the 
 properest match for him : not without some threats if he did not accept the offer, 
 as the King told Colonel Legge, who was the only person about him that he could 
 trust with the secret. The Colonel said it was plain that the Marquess looked upon 
 His Majesty to be absolutely in his power, or he durst not have made such a pro- 
 posal ; and that, therefore, it would be necessary to gain time, till he could get out 
 of his hands, by telling him that in common decency he could come to no conclusion 
 in an affair of that nature before he had acquainted the Queen, his mother, with it : 
 who was always known to have a very particular esteem for the Marquess and his 
 family, but would never forgive such an omission. But that was an answer far 
 from satisfying the Marquess, who suspected Colonel Legge had been the adviser ; 
 and he committed him next day to the Castle of Edinburgh, where he continued 
 till the King made his escape from St Johnstoun, upon which he was released 
 — the Marquess then finding it necessary to give the King more satisfaction than 
 he had done before that time." After making some allowance for the prejudice 
 against Argyll evidently cherished by the writer of this note, we may accept 
 much of the information in it as substantially correct. The advantage of the pro- 
 posed marriage lay, of course, in its being a sop to the Presbyterian party ; and 
 
THE PROJECTED MARRIAGE 265 
 
 This lady was the eldest of the Marquess's four daughters, 
 and in the current gossip at the Hague, in which her name was 
 connected with Charles's, she was said to he " a gentlewoman of 
 rare parts and education." ^ Little surprise need he felt by 
 any at the idea of such a marriage, for the lady in question 
 was by birth worthy of Charles, and we should pay her a very 
 poor compliment if we did not believe that she was at least 
 his equal in most other respects. The correspondence is still 
 extant in which the King brought the question of this alliance 
 with the House of Campbell before his mother, Henrietta Maria, 
 who had always had a high opinion of Argyll's ability, and 
 received her advice on the point.^ Clarendon would have us 
 believe that Argyll was a dupe in the matter. He says that 
 the influence of the Marquess was still so considerable " that 
 it was thought very expedient to raise an imagination in him 
 that the King had a purpose to marry one of his daughters ; " ^ 
 and that the negotiation was carried so far that the only way 
 in which the King could defeat the scheme was by sending 
 a special messenger into France to obtain his mother's consent. 
 As this did not seem likely to be forthcoming, the messenger 
 delayed his return, and in the meantime the fate of Scotland 
 was decided. The envoy who was despatched on this delicate 
 mission was Colonel Titus, who was, the same authority tells 
 us, " a persone grateful to Argyll, and to all the Presbyterian 
 party," and who sought afterwards to ingratiate himself with 
 Charles 11. by claiming to have been the author of the pamphlet 
 against Cromwell entitled " Killing no Murder." * 
 
 Charles II. was for most of the time he spent in Scotland in the power of Argyll. 
 We doubt, however, the accuracy of the latter part of the note. After the battle of 
 Dunbar, Edinburgh Castle was very speedily besieged, and at the end of the year 
 it surrendered to the English. Colonel Legge's imprisonment must have taken 
 place in July or August of 1650. It is scarcely possible that the question of the 
 marriage with Lady Anne Campbell was discussed at that time. It was not until 
 the 17th of March, 1651, that the envoy was despatched to lay the matter before 
 the Queen-mother. We can scarcely be in error in supposing that once the matter 
 had been broached and a decision formed to submit the suggestion to Henrietta 
 ]Maria no time would be lost in bringing affairs to a conclusion. It seems reason- 
 able, therefore, to set down the date of the marriage scheme as some time early in 
 1651, and to conclude that if Colonel Legge suffered imprisonment in Edinburgh 
 Castle it was for some other cause than having irritated Argyll in connexion with 
 this matter. 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Charles II. and Scotland in 1650, p. 114. 
 
 2 G. Hillier, King Charles and the Isle of Wight, p. 324. 
 
 ^ History, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 511. 
 
 * Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. iv. p. 238 n. 
 
266 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 In the private instructions given by Charles II. to Colonel 
 Titus he is directed to tell the Queen -mother the grounds on 
 which the marriage in question was proposed. After stating 
 that at that time no foreign match could be proposed which 
 was not either impracticable or too insignificant to be of 
 value in promoting his interests, the advantages of the present 
 scheme were to be set forth. " The Marquess of Argyll," he 
 was instructed to say, "is a person of great interest, of a very 
 ancient and noble family, that hath been always loyal to the 
 Crown, and sometimes aUied to it, and himself, in aU transactions 
 between me and my subjects of this kingdom, hath particularly 
 merited of me. I am informed that this marriage will be a 
 great satisfaction and security to all the Church and all the 
 Presbyterian party, and the best means to unite all parties, 
 and remove all differences occasioned by the late troubles. 
 The strength of Scotland being united, it will be the greatest 
 encouragement to all of loyalty in England,"^ Along with 
 these instructions from the King, Colonel Titus received, probably 
 from the Marquess himself, messages for the Queen -mother 
 and her counsellor. Lord Jermyn, recommending the scheme 
 to them, and assuring them that their support of it would 
 be remembered to their advantage by the people of Scotland. 
 The reply of Henrietta Maria is very carefully worded, and 
 the diplomatic wariness whicli characterizes it suggests that 
 she had skilled advice in drawing it up. The concluding 
 paragraphs in it, which contain the substance of her advice, 
 are worth quoting. " You are to let him know," she says, 
 " that I am not uninformed of my Lord of Argyll's ability, 
 credit, or affections, nor how usefully he hath employed them 
 all for the good and benefit of the King, my son ; that there 
 is nothing new or extraordinary that a person so well born 
 as the Marquis of Argyll's daughter should be married to 
 the Crown ; that towards this daughter there can lie no 
 exception in regard of herself, she being a person of whom 
 I never heard anything but very good. But it is to be 
 considered that the misfortunes under which we are fallen, 
 are of a large extension — that the settlement of the affairs 
 of Scotland, though it be a great and difficult work yet is 
 not to be rested in without the recovery of England — that the 
 kingdom of England, upon very great claims is like to require 
 a part in a council in which it is so much concerned, and would 
 
 ' G. Hillier, King Charles and the Isle of Wigld, p. 329. 
 
LADY ANNE CAMPBELL 267 
 
 take themselves to be too justly offended, if by a present 
 conclusion of the thing in question they should find themselves 
 excluded totally from it. That even Scotland itself may not 
 be without parties very considerable to the present affliirs, 
 that would be so far perhaps from concurring now to this 
 matter, that a finishing of it might induce a most unseasonable 
 irritation of them. . . . That I cannot think fit to give any 
 other advice than that the thing remain for a while in the 
 same estate it doth, by which he will have tlio opportunity, if 
 the difficulties that now occur should be removed, to go then 
 seasonably through with it." ^ 
 
 It may be reasonably doubted whether Charles II. was 
 sincere in this matter. It is, of course, quite possible that 
 his susceptible he?rt had been captivated by the charms of 
 the lady in question, but the tone of his communication to 
 his mother leaves an impression upon us that he is broaching 
 a scheme which has been proposed to him rather than one 
 which he has himself set on foot, and that he desires an excuse 
 for evading it. The historian Gibbon tells us that when in 
 somewhat similar circumstances he received the parental refusal 
 " he sighed as a lover and obeyed as a son." ^ Charles may 
 have thought it necessary to go through some such form of 
 regret, but we need not believe that his feelings were very 
 deeply moved. The effect of the abandonment of the scheme 
 was, however, disastrous to the happiness of the Lady Anne 
 herself, if the report of the historian Kirkton is to be relied 
 upon. He says that " so grievous was the disappointment to 
 the poor young lady that of [i.e. from being] a gallant young 
 gentlewoman, she lossed her spirit and turned absolutely 
 distracted." ^ At any rate she found no consolation in any 
 other matrimonial scheme, for slie died unmarried, most probably 
 some time before 1660.* 
 
 Her name emerges in a curious way, about five years later 
 than the correspondence between Charles II. and his mother 
 regarding her, in connexion with strained relations between the 
 King and the Duke of Buckingham. In the Clarendon Papers 
 we read of the latter as seeking in 1656 to be reconciled to 
 
 ^ G. Hillier, King Charles and the Isle of Wight, p. 333. 
 - Life and Letters, p. 48. 
 ^ History of the Church of Scotland, p. 50. 
 
 * One of her letters printed in App. III. is dated lOtli July, 1657 ; sec also refer- 
 ences to lier ill App. I. 
 
268 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Charles II., with whom he had been on bad terms for nearly a 
 couple of years ; and we are told that one of the causes of the 
 royal displeasure was " his speaking to Argyle's daughter of 
 marriage." ^ The Duke afterwards sought to gain favour with 
 the Presbyterian party by marrying the daughter of Lord Fairfax ; 
 and there is little doubt that his overtures to Lady Anne 
 Campbell at an earlier date were inspired by the same motive. 
 It may be that Charles's anger sprang from a lingering affection 
 for Argyll's daughter, but more probably it arose from resent- 
 ment at the idea of a subject's improving his political position 
 by an alliance which had once been proposed for himself. In 
 an Appendix 2 we give our readers two hitherto unpublished 
 letters by Lady Anne, one of which reveals the fact that she 
 had inherited somewhat of the anxious Puritanical piety which 
 was a marked feature in the character of both her parents. 
 This fact heightens the contrast between her and the two 
 debauchees who were to some extent and for a short time her 
 suitors. Pascal speculates upon the possible change in history 
 if the nose of Cleopatra had been so much shorter as to mar 
 that beauty which captivated the masters of the world.^ A less 
 exciting but still interesting line of meditation is suggested by 
 the thought as to the different course events in Scotland and 
 England might have taken if the Lady Anne had married 
 Charles II. and had survived him. 
 
 Some unfavourable comments have been passed upon Argyll's 
 conduct in the matter ; but we think that the circumstances in 
 which he was placed should be taken into account before any 
 judgment is passed upon it. Dr Gardiner goes so far as to 
 speak of his "hoping to entangle his Sovereign in a family 
 alliance " and of this being " a base intrigue for the maintenance 
 of his own influence." * We fail, however, to see how this view 
 of matters is consistent with the same historian's assertion that 
 he offered his daughter's hand to Charles before ever the latter 
 returned to Scotland. Surely there would have been but little 
 evidence of underhand scheming in such a plain declaration of 
 the condition on which Argyll was willing to give Charles his 
 support. We, however, do not find any evidence in favour of the 
 theory that the plan of a marriage was broached at that early 
 date. It seems rather to have arisen after the King had been 
 for some time in Scotland. The question as to whether the 
 
 ^ Vol. iii. p. 137. 2 ^pp_ jji_ 3 Penst^cs, art. xix. 7. 
 
 * Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. i. pp. 392, 393. 
 
UNPOPULARITY OF ARGYLL 2G9 
 
 Kiug or Argyll took the initiative in the matter is of consider- 
 able importance, but it is not easy to answer it. The fact that 
 Argyll had been in friendly relations with Cromwell before the 
 death of Charles L and that many of the extreme Presby- 
 terian party with whom he had much in common were even 
 now inclined to come to terms with Cromwell, must have sug- 
 gested to the King the need for attaching him firmly to his side. 
 Clarendon, who was hostile to Argyll, speaks, in the passage we 
 have already referred to,^ of the marriage plan having been 
 broached to him in order to secure his support in the then 
 critical condition of Charles's affairs. If there was, therefore, 
 any intrigue in the matter, we have that historian's authority for 
 asserting that the King was the person responsible for it. But, 
 even if we were to admit that the proposal came from Argyll, 
 we are not shut up to the conclusion that it was prompted 
 by restless ambition or by any motive less worthy than that of 
 defending himself against very imminent danger. 
 
 As we have already pointed out, the course of politics in 
 Scotland at this time led to the formation of two well-defined 
 opposing parties — that of the Eoyalists and that of the ex- 
 treme Covenanters — to both of whom Argyll was an object of 
 aversion. The Eoyalists could not forget that since the year 
 1638 he had been the leader of the movement which had issued 
 in the overthrow of Episcopacy and the humiliation of Monarchy ; 
 and that, at every stage in the history of Scotch affairs and of 
 the co-operation of the Covenanters with the English Parliament, 
 his policy had been steadfastly hostile to that of the party to 
 which they belonged and had triumphed over it. No aid to the 
 Eoyalist party in Scotland which his conscience might now allow 
 him to give could by any possibility wipe out the memory of 
 his past. On the other hand, the thoroughgoing Covenanters 
 who repudiated " a hypocrite from reigning over them " ^ had 
 also become, though perhaps not so bitterly, hostile to the 
 man who had brought him into Scotland and now sought to 
 maintain him on the throne with the aid of " Malignants " and 
 enemies of the Covenant. Among the adherents of either the 
 one or the other of these two parties the remorseless course of 
 events was gradually compelling the inhabitants of Scotland to 
 range themselves. The small knot of poKtical associates of 
 
 1 See p. 265. 
 
 2 From a speech by the Rev. Hugh Binning ; quoted in Johnston of Warriston 
 (Famous Scots Series), p. 135. 
 
270 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Argyll who had approved of his policy of recalling Charles as a 
 Covenanted King could scarcely avoid casting upon him some of 
 the blame of the failure of the plan and repairing the blunder, 
 so far as they themselves were concerned, by joining either the 
 one or the other of the two political parties above referred to. 
 The result was that Argyll was likely both to be left alone and 
 to find himself the most unpopular man in Scotland ; and there 
 seemed to be nothing to defend him against the danger of his 
 position ^ but the favour of the King. A week after he had 
 with his own hands placed the crown upon the head of Charles 
 lie is reported as " often saying to those he counted his friends 
 that he verily believed they would shuffle him out ; " ^ and as time 
 went on his anticipations were only too fully realized. In these 
 circumstances we can easily believe that, whether he proposed 
 the marriage scheme above referred to or eagerly acquiesced in 
 the suggestion of it, the principal advantage it would have in 
 his eyes would be its affording him an opportunity of repairing 
 his shattered political fortunes. Yet fate had something better 
 in store for him than he sought to secure for himself ; and in the 
 long-run the ingratitude and resentment of his unworthy Sovereign 
 were better for his fame than his friendship would have been.^ 
 
 Eoyalists or " Malignants " having been admitted to serve and 
 to hold commands in the army and to act as members of the 
 Committee of Estates, all that was now needed to complete the 
 process of reaction was the formal rescission of the Act of 
 Classes, which had been passed after the defeat of the army of 
 the Engagement. This rescission took place on 2nd June, 
 1651,* and it marked the final overthrow of the power of 
 Argyll, Henceforth his political influence in Scotland was at 
 an end, and he remained rather a spectator of events that 
 were transacted in the country than one who had any share 
 
 ^ Kirkton, the historian, who was a contemporary of Argyll (1620-1699), credits 
 him with proposing the match between the King and his daughter, but says that 
 he did this " to make all sure for himself, being in great danger from the envy of 
 his enemies " {History of the Church of Scotland, p. 50). 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Commontcealth and Protectorate, vol. i. p. 387. 
 
 " In Lyon's Pergonal History of Charles II. it is asserted that the Marquess was 
 consoled for the rejection of the marriage scheme by the promise of a Dukedom 
 and the Garter and other rewards and honours. Our readers scarcely need to 
 be reminded that this promise in question was made on 24th September, 1650 
 (see p. 253), and that Henrietta Maria's unfavourable reply which put an end to 
 the scheme of the mai-riage was not received until after 15th April, 1651. The 
 malignity and slatternly inaccuracy of the above statement are highly characteristic 
 of second-rate writers of this school. Non ragioniam di Jar, via 'jvarda ej^assa. 
 
 * Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. vii. pt. ii. p. 676, 
 
A DISCREDITED POLICY 271 
 
 in them. Dr Gardiuer, in commenting upon this part of his 
 career, says that " he fell unaided and unregretted because a 
 base intrigue for the maintenance of his own influence had taken 
 the place of manful championship of his nation's cause." ^ We 
 do not think, however, that this view of matters can be sub- 
 stantiated. He rather fell because the inherent weakness of the 
 cause of the Covenant as a political movement had now shown 
 itself, and because he could only enter upon a fresh term of 
 power by the betrayal and abandonment of all that he had 
 supported dming his public Hfe. What was now his country's 
 cause which he might have championed ? It was scarcely that 
 for the maintenance of which Charles II. was gathering an arm3^ 
 Scotland had, with an enthusiasm which every generous heart 
 must admire, committed itself to an endeavour to set up the 
 Kingdom of God on earth and had landed itself in utter 
 confusion and chaos. In the cause of the Covenant many 
 thousands of her bravest sons had been sacrificed ; and the 
 party which either was indifferent to the Covenant or regarded 
 it with aversion had now control of the government of Scotland 
 and of armed force for carrying out their plans. In 1638 there 
 was a national cause worthy of Argyll's championship — that of 
 religious and political freedom — but in the unhappy condition 
 of affairs at present no one with his convictions could find 
 honourable employment in the promotion of the Eoyalist cause. 
 The overthrow of the policy to which Argyll was committed was 
 a matter of certainty, and had almost been effected at the time 
 when the marriage scheme was broached ; so that his downfall 
 from power was quite imconnected with the failure of that scheme. 
 The extent to which the Marquess had lost ground m 
 popular favour at this period in his career may be judged from a 
 couple of paragraphs in a newspaper of the time. Under date of 
 11th July, 1651, Mercurius Politicus says, " Argile is gone down 
 the winde ; nobody takes any notice of him ; as he rides along, 
 private troopers justle him sometimes almost off' his horse." Nor 
 was the change in the royal demeanour towards him less marked, 
 though it did not take such an offensive form. In the same 
 number of the newspaper in question we read : " Argile lately 
 told the King that he had done wickedly in admitting all the 
 Malignants into power. The King reply 'd. He knew not what 
 he meant by Malignants, and that they were all Malignants to 
 God." The Marquess must have felt deeply mortified by these 
 
 ^ Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. i, p. 393. 
 
272 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 indications of the altered position in which he stood as compared 
 with that which he had occupied for so long in the pubHc life of 
 Scotland ; and probably the scarcely veiled scorn and aversion of 
 the King cut him more deeply than the brutaUty of Royalist troopers. 
 
 The disastrous effect of a Church entering into the sphere 
 of politics and forming an alliance with one particular party was 
 illustrated in a most striking manner at this time in connexion 
 with the Church of Scotland. On the question of rescinding the 
 Act of Classes a great controversy sprang up, which divided the 
 Church into two factions bitterly hostile to each other. The 
 strife between them lasted until they were both overthrown after 
 the Eestoration, and Episcopacy was re-estabhshed in Scotland.^ 
 Those who were in favour of the Eesolutions of Parliament for 
 the admission of Eoyalists to office on expression of penitence 
 were called Eesolutioners, while those who objected to them 
 received the name of Protesters or Eemonstrants. Had the 
 causes that divided the parties been of great moral or spiritual 
 importance some dignity would have been imparted to the 
 controversy ; but they were comparatively trivial, and the fact 
 that good and able men were to be found on both sides fails to 
 redeem the history of the dispute from a certain measure of 
 squalor. The sole value of acquaintance with the episode in 
 question is that it serves to explain the course which events took 
 after the Eestoration. As time went on the Eesolutioners became 
 more ardently EoyaUst in sympathy, and many of them in the end 
 found little difficulty in accepting the change from Presbyterian- 
 ism to Episcopacy which was made in 1661;^ while from the 
 ranks of the Protesters were drawn the larger proportion of those 
 who were martyrs and confessors for the Covenanting cause in 
 its second and more heroic phase, when the fires of persecution 
 played upon it and revealed the strength and nobility which 
 characterized so many of its supporters. 
 
 The Scotch army, nominally under the command of Charles 
 II., but virtually under the leadership of David Leslie, took up 
 a strong position at Torwood to the south of Stirhng. Cromwell 
 found it impossible to force or entice his opponents to repeat 
 the mistake made at Dunbar and come down into the plain ; and 
 accordingly he determined to cross into Fife with the view of 
 
 ^ Morison, Johnstmi of Warriston (Famous Scots Series), p. 135. 
 
 * "111 1651 the ministers adhering to the Resolutions amounted to about six 
 hundred ; and all of them with the exception of about forty conformed to Prelacy 
 after tho Restoration " (Xi/e of Robert Blair, p. 362 n. ). 
 
ARGYLL RETIRES TO INVERARAY 273 
 
 delivering a flank attack and of cutting off part of the enemy's 
 supplies. On 20th July his troops under Lambert inflicted 
 a severe defeat upon the enemy's forces at Inverkeithing, two 
 thousand of them being killed and fifteen hundred taken prisoners. 
 Cromwell now saw the way open for dislodging the Eoyalist 
 army from Stirling by seizing Perth and thus cutting off their 
 supplies from the north, and he lost no time in carrying out his 
 plan. In less than a fortnight after the fight at Inverkeithing 
 he was in possession of Perth, and he had so altered the condition 
 of matters that the decisive blow which he was desirous to strike 
 was made possible. Yet after all it was not struck in Scotland, 
 for Cromwell by his last military operations had left the way 
 open into England, and this the Scotch army hastened to take. 
 That the English General had anticipated this movement, or 
 regarded it as possible and laid his plans accordingly, there is 
 abundant evidence to prove.^ 
 
 The Marquess of Argyll was opposed to the plan of invading 
 England, but was, as Clarendon says, " the only man who urged 
 against it reasons which were not frivolous." ^ The almost 
 unanimous advice of the officers of the army and of the King's 
 most confidential counsellors was in favour of the daring scheme. 
 The King was nearer to England than Cromwell was, and he was 
 sure of reaching it several days before his adversary could do 
 so ; and he expected to be joined by large numbers of Eoyalist 
 supporters in the northern counties of that country whence he 
 had received many assurances of willingness to help him. The 
 Marquess of Argyll took no part in the expedition of which he 
 disapproved ; and when the King began his march south from 
 Stirling he retired to his castle at Inveraray. He never again 
 saw Charles II. ; for, though he was in Whitehall a few months 
 after the Eestoration to offer his congratulations to the King, the 
 latter refused to receive him and hurried him to that bloody fate 
 which had been the lot of so many of the principal actors on the 
 stage of those troublous times. 
 
 The dangerous illness of his wife at this time afforded the 
 Marquess of Argyll an opportunity of asking Charles to be 
 allowed to leave him at this critical juncture in his affairs. In 
 the indictment afterwards drawn up against him he was accused 
 of having then " disloyally and basely deserted the royal person 
 
 ^ Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. iii. p. 146 ; Gardiner, Commonwealth and Protectorate, 
 vol. i. p. 426. 
 
 - History, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 513. 
 i8 
 
274 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 and army ; " ^ and his reply was that the King had given him 
 permission to depart to his home. This was doubtless a perfectly 
 adequate reply to the charge of desertion ; though, of course, it 
 may have been quite understood on both sides that the illness 
 in question furnished a pretext rather than a reason for his 
 departure. Charles had now shaken himself free of Argyll as a 
 counsellor and could scarcely expect him to take part in schemes 
 of which he did not approve. In his decision to have nothing to 
 do with the invasion of England Argyll was followed by Loudon 
 and others of his partisans ; - and the King was left to the support 
 and advice of the Hamiltonian party and of his English Cavalier 
 friends. Clarendon tells us that Charles was advised by some 
 to imprison Argyll before leaving Scotland, to prevent his " doing 
 mischief " during his absence. " But," he says, " his Majesty 
 would not consent to it, because he was confident he [Argyll] 
 would not attempt anything while the army was entire : if it 
 prevailed he neither would nor could do any harm ; and if 
 it were defeated, it would be no great matter what he did." ^ 
 There is no inherent improbability in the story. Argyll had for 
 many years been a great political power in Scotland, and it may 
 well have seemed to many unwise to leave him with such a clear 
 field for the use of his diplomatic gifts and of the influence and 
 resources still remaining to him. But their fears were unfounded. 
 The Covenanting cause of which he had been the champion, and 
 which had afforded him for so long a standing-ground from 
 which to move the nation, was too hopelessly divided and distracted 
 to be an object of apprehension. Charles was right, if we accept 
 the words which Clarendon ascribes to him, in saying that Argyll 
 would hold his hand for the present. No man of sense in hia 
 position would do otherwise than wait to see the outcome of the 
 adventure upon which the King had embarked, and upon the 
 result of w^hich he had staked not only his own life and fortunes 
 but those of so many of his Scotch and English subjects. Nor 
 was he held in suspense for long : " the crowning mercy of Wor- 
 cester " once again laid Scotland at the feet of Cromwell. 
 
 The army with which Charles II. left Stirling on 31st July, 
 1651, was about twenty thousand in number. They marched south 
 by Biggar and Carlisle, and then through Lancashire. The hope 
 of being joined by numerous English recruits proved to be utterly 
 
 1 State Trials (Cobbett), vol. v. p. 1376. 
 
 - Gardiner, Commoniccalth and Protectorate, vol. i. p. 431. 
 
 " Clarendon, History, vol, iii. pt. i. p. 513. 
 
BATTLE OF WORCESTER 275 
 
 fallacious : the invaders were regarded as foreigners, and the 
 national spirit was roused to resist them. " They marched," says 
 the historian, " under rigorous discipline, weary and uncheered, 
 south through Lancashire ; had to dispute . . . the Bridge of 
 Warrinston with Lambert and Harrison, who attended them with 
 horse-troops on the left ; Cromwell with the main army steadily 
 advancing behind. They carried the Bridge at Warrington ; 
 they summoned various Towns, Init none yielded ; proclaimed 
 their King with all force of limg and heraldry, but none cried, 
 (xod bless him. Summoning Shrewsbury, with the usual negative 
 response, they quitted the London road ; bent southward towards 
 Worcester, a City of slight Garrison and loyal Mayor ; there to 
 entrench themselves and repose a little." ^ Yet but slight 
 opportunity for this was given them. The course taken by 
 Cromwell was through York, Nottingham, Coventry, and Stratford- 
 on-Avon, and, when he arrived at Worcester with his army from 
 Scotland and with the country militias who had risen at his 
 summons, his forces numbered over thirty thousand men as 
 against the enemy's which had fallen to sixteen thousand. On 
 the evening of the 3rd of September, the anniversary of the 
 battle of Dunbar, and afterwards the day of Cromwell's own 
 death, the battle of Worcester was fought, and the royal cause was 
 hopelessly shattered. The fight was a most desperate one, and for 
 four or five hours victory trembled in the balance, but ultimately 
 it inclined to the Pmitan side. Cromwell, in writing an account 
 of the battle next day to the " Speaker of the Parliament," says : 
 " The slain . . . are very many. . . . There are about Six or 
 Seven thousand prisoners taken here ; and many Officers and 
 Noblemen of very great quality : Duke Hamilton, the Earl of 
 Rothes, and divers other noblemen — I hear, the Earl of Lauder- 
 dale ; many Officers of great quality ; and some that will be fit 
 subjects for your justice." ^ The after-sufferings of many of the 
 prisoners were severe in the extreme. Some perished from want 
 of food and from jail diseases, while large numbers of the sur- 
 vivors were shipped for the plantations and sold as slaves. Very 
 few of the army that invaded England ever found their way 
 back to their native land. Charles II. after many romantic ad- 
 ventures succeeded with difficulty in escaping to the Continent, 
 there to spend an exile of nine weary years ; and the idea of his 
 governing as a Covenanted King flew up to that limbo provided 
 for the reception of " all things transitory and vain." 
 
 ^ Carlyle, Cromwell, vol. iii. p. 148. ^ Hid., vol. iii. p. 1.'7. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Overthrow of the Scotch Government — Abortive Attempts to call a Parlia- 
 ment — Negotiations between Argyll and the Commonwealth — English 
 Troops enter Argyllshire — The Marquess capitulates — Royalist Rising in 
 the Highlands — The General Assembly forcibly dissolved — Lord Lome 
 joins the Royalists — Argyll loyal to his Engagements with the English 
 Government. 
 
 A WEEK before the defeat of the Scotch anny at Worcester, 
 a troop of cavalry under Colonel Alured captured a large 
 number of the Committee of Estates and Commission of Assembly 
 at Alyth in Perthshire and despatched them as prisoners to 
 London ; ^ so that Scotland was now left without even the 
 semblance of a Government which might continue resistance to 
 the English Commonwealth. Among those who were thus taken 
 prisoners was the old Earl of Leven, who had been so largely in- 
 strumental in organizing the military force which protected the 
 Covenant at its origin, and who now saw his country exhausted 
 by all that she had done and suffered m that cause, and prostrate 
 at the feet of the conqueror. He was soon released on parole 
 and ended his days in peace, after surviving to witness the 
 Kestoration of Charles 11.^ 
 
 The person whose office and rank in Scotland laid on him 
 the responsibility of taking the lead in matters relating to the 
 defence of the kingdom in its present circumstances was the 
 Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Loudon, Argyll's kinsman. A more 
 hopeless task could scarcely be conceived than that to which he 
 set himself. The absence of the Sovereign, the presence of a 
 powerful enemy in occupation of a large part of Scotland, and 
 the incurable divisions and heart-burnings which existed among 
 those to whom he had to appeal for help in this emergency, were 
 all calculated to defeat his endeavours. The capture by the 
 enemy at Alyth of members of the Committee of Estates and of 
 
 ' C. S. Terry, Life and Camimigns of Alexander Leslie, p. 449 ; Lament, Diary, 
 p. 41. 
 
 ^ C. S. Tei ry, Life and Campaigns of Alexander Leslie, p. 450. 
 
 276 
 
PROCLAMATION AT KILLIN 277 
 
 the Commission of the Assembly was, as he himself says, " a sad 
 disaster and blow," ^ and it hastened the collapse of the attempt to 
 continue the struggle. Various meetings of the members of the 
 Committee of Estates who had escaped capture were held, but 
 nothing of consequence was done, for, to use his own words, " the 
 sad news of the defeat of the King's armie at Worcester . . . did 
 so much damp and discourage us that all men almost everie wher 
 lossed both heart and hand. " ^ The difficulty of getting together 
 the quorum of members needed for securing the validity of decisions 
 arrived at was added to all the other trials and distresses of the 
 unfortunate Chancellor, who was inclined by temperament to take 
 technical defects of that kind seriously to heart. By exercising 
 strong pressure he had induced Argyll to give up his attitude of 
 isolation, and to join with him in his fruitless efforts to main- 
 tain an independent Government in Scotland, At a meeting in 
 Kothesay at which Argyll and Loudon and a few others were 
 present but which lacked authority on account of the want of a 
 quorum, it was decided to call a meeting of Parliament about the 
 middle of November.^ The place fixed upon as most convenient 
 for the proposed meeting was Finlairg, near the west end of Loch 
 Tay in Perthshire, which was central in position and could with 
 comparative ease be guarded against surprise by the English 
 army. The proclamation calling the Parliament was duly made 
 at Killin, and to it was added the notification that though the 
 meeting " could not by reason of the enemy be proclaimed at 
 Edinburgh Cross as formerly, yet it should be as effectual to all 
 intents and purposes." * Though this Parliament was called in the 
 name of the Committee of Estates, it was spoken of on all hands 
 as having been summoned by Argyll, he being incomparably the 
 most eminent of the small knot of politicians on whose authority 
 the step in question was taken.^ 
 
 A month before the proposed meeting of the Scotch 
 Parliament, Argyll addressed a letter to General Monck asking 
 that endeavours should be made to secure a peaceful settlement 
 of matters. " I desire to know from you," he said, " as one 
 having chiefe trust in this Kingdome, if it were not fit that 
 some men who have deserved Trust in both Kingdomes may not 
 meet to good purpose in some convenient place, as a meanes 
 
 ^ Firth, Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. 23. 
 
 ^ Ibid., ^. 2b. ^Ihid.,\x2Q. 
 
 ■* Mercurius Politicus, No. 76 (quoted in Burton, vul. vii. p. 48). 
 
 ^ Whitelocke, Memorials, p. 489 ; Scotland and the Commonwealth, pp. 337, 338. 
 
278 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 to stop the shedding of more Christian blood ? " Had this 
 suggestion been accepted, Argyll would probably have followed 
 it up by requesting permission for the Scotch Parhament to 
 assemble in order to appoint commissioners for drawing up 
 such a treaty. But Monck replied by saying that he could 
 not treat without authority from the Parliament of England.^ 
 The action of the officers of the English army, in taking the 
 members of the Committee of Estates prisoners and sending 
 them to London, was a plain intimation that the Parliament 
 of England did not intend to recognize any authority or 
 jurisdiction in Scotland but that which it might set up there. 
 Consequently it is not surprising that Argyll's proposal was 
 at once rejected. His next step was to request an interview 
 with Monck or with officers appointed by him, with a view 
 to arranging for his own personal submission to the Parhament 
 of England. This was at once agreed to. A pass was sent to 
 him granting him permission to travel to Perth with not more 
 than thirty armed servants, there to meet with Colonel Brayne 
 and Major Pierson on the 19th of November; but he was 
 required not only to give no countenance to the "pretended 
 Parliament by him called to meet at Kickillum [Kirk of 
 Killin ?]," but to use his utmost endeavours to hinder its 
 meeting.^ Yet he neither responded to the summons of the 
 Lord Chancellor by presenting himself at the meeting which 
 he had called, nor travelled to Perth to confer with the EngHsh 
 officers. The alleged reason in both cases was an illness which 
 prevented his leaving home. The proposed meeting of the 
 Scotch Parhament proved a fiasco, for only three members 
 appeared on the day appointed. All they could do was to 
 express their sympathy with the Chancellor, and to assure him 
 that he had done everything that could be expected of him, 
 but that hope of obtaining assistance in any further struggle 
 to maintain an independent Government in Scotland would 
 be utterly vain.^ 
 
 In December of 1651 commissioners were appointed by 
 the English Parliament to order and manage affairs in Scotland, 
 and to arrange for the country being politically united with 
 England. Some of their number had an interview with Argyll 
 
 ^ Scotland aind the Commonwealth, pp. 333, 335. 
 
 "Ibid., p. 338. The conjecture as to the place meant by "Kickillum" is Mr 
 Firth's in the volume from which our quotation is taken. 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 26, 27. 
 
Marquess or Argyll in 1652 (?) 
 
 "The Newbattle rortr;iit." 
 
 From Original in A'it. bat tit Abl'ey. 
 
IRRITATION OF ENGLISH AUTHORITIES 279 
 
 at Dumbarton, at which the latter repeated his former scheme 
 of a discussion of the questions at issue by trustworthy repre- 
 sentatives of both nations ; but he was obhged to acquiesce 
 in the mode of procedure decided upon by the Enghsh com- 
 missioners. He declared his willingness to do all that he 
 could do with a safe conscience "for the peace and union 
 of this Island," and hoped that he would never be found 
 to be a cause or occasion of the contrary, but he refrained 
 from any formal act of submission to the English Parliament. 
 In a news-letter, dated 2nd March, 1652, we have a faint 
 glimpse of the Marquess in his home surroundings. " Hee 
 hath noe souldiery," says the writer, "about his house at 
 Innerara [Inveraray], nor any show of leavying an Army, his 
 chaplin usually prayes for the King under the notion of a 
 distressed prince.^ There are noe persons of quality with him 
 only his son (the Lord Lome), his Lady, and 4 daughters."^ 
 His hesitation and his desire to postpone the evil day of sub- 
 mission at last exhausted the patience of the English authorities, 
 who resolved upon sending a military expedition through the 
 Highlands to compel him and all other chiefs of clans to en- 
 gage for themselves and their followers to live peaceably under 
 the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England. The irrita- 
 tion caused by his attitude towards the English commissioners 
 is reflected in a letter written on 27 th April. " Arguill is 
 now," it says, " againe seeking to come in, the pitcher goes 
 often to the conduit but at last is dasht in peeces. He 
 solicites hard and sends letter after letter, and one messenger 
 after another, using all the means he can through his best 
 policy to obtaine some singular act of favour. But I cannot 
 understand that he will much advantage himself by his policy, 
 for we are, I hope, sufficiently satisfied of his put offs and over- 
 reaching intentions, which will be a snare probably to himself. 
 His curiosity in aiming too high wiU cause such delayes, as 
 will give us opportunity when grass is more grown ^ to fall 
 to action. Eor we shal shortly be enabled to come upon 
 
 ^ Under the year 1655 Blair says that "public remembering of the King by 
 name, in the public prayers, was left off by almost all the ministers of Scotland ; 
 yet still he was prayed for, not only in families and in secret, but in public, heing 
 involved in some general {phrase\ that did clearly enough design him to all intelligent 
 hearers " {Life, p. 325). 
 
 ^ Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. 38. 
 
 ^ i.e. when the season was further advanced and forage for horses could easily 
 be got. 
 
280 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 him and the rest that stand out with a double infall [attack] ; 
 I hope we shall find no very great difficulty to reduce his 
 country." ^ 
 
 The expedition into the Highlands was organized and car- 
 ried out by Major-General Deane, Monck having been compelled 
 by a serious illness to leave Scotland. Before the Enghsli 
 forces entered his territory the Marquess had an interview 
 with Deane, in which he formally submitted to the Parlia- 
 ment of the Commonwealth.^ As one of the conditions of 
 the surrender was that various places of strength in Argyllshire 
 were to be occupied by EngHsh garrisons, the negotiations be- 
 tween the Marquess and the Commander-in-Chief in Scotland 
 were not concluded and pubUshed until some weeks later, when 
 this condition had been carried into effect. In the speech at 
 his trial in which he defended himself Argyll declared that he 
 had been compelled by threats to agree to the terms Deane 
 imposed upon him ; ^ and there can be no doubt that this 
 was a true representation of matters. However courteous in 
 manner the English General may have been, the Highland chief- 
 tain was quite at his mercy ; and terms agreed upon while an 
 overwhelming force was upon its way to carry them into effect 
 can scarcely be called other than compulsory. 
 
 Yet the irritation which the agents of the EngHsh Govern- 
 ment may have felt at Argyll's long hesitation to admit that 
 the conquest of Scotland by the army of the Sectaries was an 
 accomplished fact need not affect us. We need not ascribe 
 his conduct to merely restless ambition to play again the part 
 of a dictator in Scotland, such as he had virtually been time 
 after time until the fatal shock of Charles I.'s execution had 
 thrown the Scotch world of politics into confusion. The 
 prominent place which he had occupied for years in the 
 Government of Scotland had involved him deeply in financial 
 obligations into which he had entered in order to raise funds 
 for the public service. The disappearance of an independent 
 Government in Scotland which was pledged to provide for 
 these debts out of taxation meant ruin for him, since he not 
 only ran the risk of losing the money he had advanced to 
 the Government but was left at the mercy of any of the 
 State's creditors who chose to come down upon him as a 
 guarantor. This, indeed, was the hapless condition in which 
 
 ^ Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. xxii. - Ibid., p. 361. 
 
 ^ State Trials, vol. v. p. 1427 ; Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. 48. 
 
EXPEDITION INTO ARGYLLSHIRE 281 
 
 he found himself until the obligations of the Scotch Parlia- 
 ment were accepted by the English, and arrangements were 
 made for the repayment of the debts due to him,^ That 
 there was combined with this strong practical reason for 
 resistance to the subjugation of Scotland by England an 
 objection grounded upon patriotic feelings is quite possil)le, 
 though it would be absurd to lay much stress upon this view 
 of matters. For, when we assert that a man has strong financial 
 reasons for adopting a certain policy, reference to other and 
 more sentimental motives which may influence him is generally 
 regarded as superfluous. As a matter of fact, however, the 
 main interest of Argyll's history so far as we are concerned 
 was now largely over ; since for some years the voyage of 
 his life, before its heroic and triumphant close, was " bound 
 in shallows and in miseries." 
 
 One of these unhappy experiences consisted in the humilia- 
 tion of seeing his territory invaded and occupied by an English 
 army. He acquiesced in the inevitable with as good a grace as 
 he could assume, though the effort must have heavily taxed 
 even his power of dissembling his feelings. The forces which 
 entered Argyllshire were under the command of Colonel 
 Overton, and immediately after the interview between Deaue 
 and the Marquess the latter hastened into his own country 
 to receive the invaders as guests. 
 
 A few paragraphs extracted from letters written from the 
 Highlands by members of the English army will give our 
 readers a vivid idea of their experiences and of the attitude 
 towards them of Argyll and his clansmen. William Gierke, 
 a mihtary secretary, writing from Leith to the Speaker, on 
 13th July, says: "The party under Colonel Overton, which 
 landed at Tarbut in Cantire, were met by the Marquesse 
 of Argyles Steward by his appointment with a complement 
 [compUment], but we heare not wliat they have done since." ^ 
 Five days later, " A Letter from the Highlands " gives us 
 some interesting particulars. " Our Forces here," says the 
 writer, " blessed be God (after their long march), are in 
 good health. The Marquesse of Argyle doth entertaine 
 Col. Overton, Col. Eeid, and Col. Blackmore in much state ; 
 and makes many pretences of love and affection, but who 
 knows not that it is but constrained ? The Marquesse is 
 
 ^ State Pcqx'rs, Dovi., 1656-57, p. IS. 
 Scotland and tJic Conimomccallh, y. :;G2. 
 
 2 o^ 
 
282 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 no stranger in the art of Politicks ; but we shal make use 
 of him accordingly. He hath so sent out commands to 
 the Countries under his Dominions, that the Inhabitants 
 doe somewhat civilly intreat our Souldiers where they come. 
 This is a moimtainous and an odde Country in some places, 
 yet in other places rich and good in the vallies. But the 
 people [are] very simple and ignorant in the things of God, 
 and some of them live even as bruitish as heathens. . . . 
 Some of the Highlanders have heard our preaching with great 
 attention and groanings, and seeming affection to it." In 
 another letter dated the following day, 19th July, we read: 
 " Having setled some Garisons in Cantyre, we divided our forces 
 and sent Col. Eeid, with the major part to Innerary, and 
 yesterday was sevennight begun our march, with above 700 
 horse, dragoons and foot, from Tarbet towards Dunstaffenage, 
 in hope to have found our ships which garison there ; 
 and after four hard dayes march, we got thither, viewed 
 that [place] and another within a mile or two of that, called 
 Dunolley, finding them very strong, but no provisions being 
 come, although wee stayed there two nights, wee were forced to 
 act the King of France's part, to face about.^ ... If we doe 
 heare they arrive at their designed Port, we shall take an- 
 other ramble and scramble againe ; but over such Mountaines 
 and Mosses, such Places and Passes, such Lakes and Loughs 
 did never poor people wander ; yet with such cheerfulness we do 
 anything to promote the publick Service, Argyle beyond measure 
 assisting us in person, presence, men, friends, provisions, or any 
 thing else." ^ 
 
 The Articles of Agreement between the Marquess of Argyll 
 and Major-General Deane which were signed on the 19th of 
 August were evidently framed so as to save the honour and 
 credit of the former as far as possible, and they partook of the 
 nature of a treaty as well as of a capitulation. On the one hand, 
 the Highland chieftain undertook to do nothing either directly 
 or indirectly to the prejudice of the Parliament of the Common- 
 wealth of England or of the authority exercised by them in 
 Scotland, and promised to use his utmost endeavours to secure 
 
 ' Evidently an allusion to the well-known nursery rhyme — 
 
 "The King of Fiance with twice ten thousand men 
 Marched up a hill and then — marched down again." 
 
 ^ Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. 363. 
 
ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT 283 
 
 that his children and family and vassals and tenants should 
 do the same. If any of them were inclined to violate this 
 engagement the Marquess was pledged to give information of 
 the fact to the officers of the nearest garrison, or to the 
 Commander-in-Chief in Scotland. On the other hand, Argyll 
 stipulated that this article was not to be understood as 
 " hindering his good endeavours for the establishing religion 
 according to his conscience." It was also agreed that either 
 the Marquess or Lord Lome would give himself up as a hostage, 
 if the Parliament or the Council of State should require it. 
 If these conditions were observed the Parliament undertook 
 to respect the Marquess's person, property, and rank, and 
 to abstain from placing a garrison in his chief residences at 
 Inveraray and Carrick, unless, indeed, some extraordinary 
 occurrence should make it advisable to depart from this 
 stipulation. Five garrisons were planted within his territory, 
 at Dunstaffnage, Dunolly, Lough, Kincairn, and Tarbert. At 
 the same time Argyll formally accepted the union of England 
 and Scotland ; and it is significant of the almost royal position 
 which he occupied, even in this time when its splendour had 
 somewhat faded, that it should have been thought desirable 
 by the English Government to publish the document in which 
 that acceptance was expressed. It ran as folhjws : — " My duty 
 to Eehgion, according to my Oath in the Covenant, always 
 reserved, I doe agree (for the Civill part) of Scotland being made 
 a Commonwealth with England, That there be the same 
 Government without King or House of Lords derived [extended] 
 to the people of Scotland, and that in the mean time while 
 [until] this can be practicable I shall live quietly under the 
 Parliament of the Commonwealth of England and their authority. 
 Sic subscribitur, Argyle." ^ 
 
 A little incident that happened before the English army 
 got out of the wilds of Argyllshire must have brought home to 
 the soldiers the fact that in a country of that kind a resolute 
 
 ^ Scotland and the Commonwealth, pp. 48-50. The editors of The Deeds of 
 Montrose (published in 1893) in their preface accuse Argyll of inconsistency in thus 
 compounding with Cromwell. They say : " If it was impossible to accept Charles 
 and his royal supporters without [acceptance of the Covenant and League] in 1650, 
 how was it possible to accept Cromwell without it in 1652 ?" The question seems 
 somewhat fatuous. Charles II. was very much at the mercy of the Covenanting 
 leaders at the time specified, while the latter were in their turn at the mercj' of 
 Cromwell at the latter date. Argyll's submission to the English Government was 
 reluctant, and extorted from him at the point of the sword. 
 
284 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 enemy might easily inflict upon them serious loss, if not 
 utter destruction. The rumour had been circulated through- 
 out the district that after leaving garrisons in the places above 
 mentioned the troops which were on their return were carrying 
 off the Marquess of Argyll as a prisoner, and the clansmen 
 gathered to rescue him. They evidently, however, abstained 
 from attack in consequence of discovering their error. The 
 description of the danger incurred and of the feelings of the 
 soldiers, which is given in a news-letter of the time, is worth 
 quoting. " Having setled our Garisons in the Highlands," says 
 the writer, "and concluded amicably with Argyle, the 21 
 instant [August] wee marched from Innerary 5 miles, where wee 
 incamped neer Arkinlesse for a day, in which time the Major- 
 Gen. [Deane] being formerly gone on board of Cap. Sherwin's 
 Frigot, the wind falling fair, he set sail for Ayre ; and on 
 Monday morning wee began our march again, and are 
 now, blessed be God, lately arrived at this place [Paisley] ; 
 though the treacherous Highlanders, who carried fak to us 
 while we continued in their Country, upon our departure 
 gathered betwixt 1000 and 1500 of them together to an 
 impregnable Passe, called Glen Crow, and where onely we 
 could but file over, they in the interim standing secure upon 
 advantageous and inaccessible Kocks, and undoubtedly fully 
 resolved when they came thither to act according to their 
 opportunity ; yet God, who restrains the fury of the most 
 savage beasts, doth also muzzle the mouthes and stop the 
 outrages of bloody-minded men. ... In fine, we advanced one 
 by one over the Passe, they stood every way prepared to take 
 their advantage upon us, yet had not the power or the spirit to 
 do it. In all which time wee drew up our men under their noses, 
 untill our Eear-guard was got over, and then we advanced a mile 
 further, and encamped that night and heard no more of them." ^ 
 When the soldiers arrived at Dumbarton they were joined 
 by the Major-General, who informed them that three out of the 
 five garrisons left in Argyllshire had been surprised by the 
 Highlanders, and that only those in Dunstaffnage and Dunolly 
 were left.^ There is no evidence that this had been done by 
 
 ^ Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. 366. It is to be hoped for the credit of 
 liumau nature that there were none to be recognized in the menacing crowd who had 
 been conspicuous for their deep attention and their groans of compunction when the 
 military divines had held forth in Inveraray and other places in Argyllshire. 
 
 " JUd., p. 366, 
 
ARGYLL SECURES BETTER TERMS 285 
 
 Argyll's orders or at his suggestion ; but there can be no doubt 
 that the achievement would give him satisfaction, and tliat his 
 clansmen knew that it would. He, however, rescued a number 
 of the English soldiers who were suffering somewhat rigorous 
 imprisonment, and he treated them very hospitably, giving 
 them money for their journey and passes to secure their safe 
 departure out of his territory. He offered to restore to the 
 English Government the posts that had been captured, but it 
 was not thought necessary or worth while to reoccupy them ; so 
 that the article in the terms of Agreement which provided for 
 a strong military hold being kept upon Argyllshire was very 
 considerably modified.^ Indeed the military occupation was 
 reduced to something like a mere form ; ^ for by a supplementary 
 Agreement concluded on the 27th of October, 1652, it was 
 conceded that if the country remained peaceable the troops 
 in the garrisons of Dunstaffnage and Dunolly would not be 
 brought up to any greater strength, and that no additional 
 forces would be brought into the country, " except on some 
 urgent occasions to march through the Country for the peace 
 of the Island, or reducing those that might be refractory." ^ 
 As a precautionary measure, however, the Major - General re- 
 quired the Marquess of Argyll to give up eighteen brass cannon 
 and five hundred muskets which were in his possession, and 
 he agreed to pay a reasonable price for them upon their being 
 landed at Ayr.'* On the whole, the Marquess succeeded in 
 obtaining better terms for himself than could have been 
 reasonably expected, and he retained at the end of the negotia- 
 tions his hereditary status of a potentate of almost independent 
 rank. 
 
 Eeduced as was the power of the Marquess, it was still 
 sufficiently great to render Charles II. apprehensive lest an 
 alliance should be formed between the Highland chieftain and 
 the Protector which would serve to weaken the Eoyalist cause 
 in Scotland. In a letter from the Hague, written on the 
 14th of October of this same year, the King again placed on 
 record his indebtedness to the Marquess and renewed his 
 promises of liberally rewarding the services the latter had 
 
 ' Scotland aiul the Commonwealth, pp. xxii, 368. 
 
 ^ They then numbered only 120 t'oot-soldiers, 12 horse-soldiers, with tlieir 
 officers. 
 
 ^ Scotland and the Commonwealth, ji. GO. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 58. It is perhaps worth noticing that he agreed to pay Is. 4d. 
 Sterling per lb. for the brass, and 8s. Sterling for each musket. 
 
286 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 rendered to him. The following were the terms in wliich 
 Charles wrote : — " Mj Lord, since both by my absence and 
 ill fortune, I want occasion and means to put myselfe in 
 any probability of giving you so reall an acknowledgment 
 of those respects to my person, and affection to my interests, 
 you have so effectively shewed att my being in Scotland, 
 as they deserve, I shall herewith desire your Lordship to 
 be satisfied with the thanckfullnesse I shall ever conserve in 
 my minde towards you, untill some good opportunity make me 
 as capable as I shall be ready to show myselfe really Your 
 Lordships most affectionate friend to serve you, Chaeles R" ^ 
 We beheve that in some quarters admiration for Charles IL 
 has been or is being sedulously cultivated. The difficulties 
 under which the process must be carried on call for a certain 
 measure of commiseration, which any sympathetic heart will be 
 forward to render. We do not, however, envy the person who 
 could read this letter and not be inspired by a deep loathing for 
 the royal perfidy of which Argyll was the victim. 
 
 Though the Scotch nobihty and gentry had suffered many 
 severe losses in the royal cause, and though the country was to 
 so large an extent occupied by English forces, advantage was 
 taken of the fact that England and Holland were embroiled in 
 conflict to light again the fire of civil war in the Highlands. 
 As early as 25th June, 1652, Charles IL, at the request of 
 some of the Highland chiefs, gave his sanction to the under- 
 taking and appointed General Middleton to the command 
 of troops that might be raised for renewing the war with 
 England, giving him the title of Lieutenant - General.^ But 
 owing to Middleton's illness nothing further was done for 
 some time. As the delay occasioned some impatience among the 
 royal supporters, the Earl of Glencairn, who offered his services 
 to the King, received a commission as Commander-in-Chief 
 until Middleton should arrive in Scotland ; and he zealously 
 exerted himself to make the best possible use of the meagre 
 materials at his disposal for entering upon a new campaign 
 against the powerful enemy.^ The Marquess of Argyll kept 
 quite aloof from the scheme, and early in 1653 he informed Colonel 
 R. Lilburue, the commander of the Enghsh forces in Scotland, 
 that MacDonald of Glengarry and five or six other chieftains 
 were engaged in some undertaknig against the Government. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. JRejyort, vol. vi. p. 613. 
 
 - Scotland arid the Commonwealth, p. 46. ' Ibid., p. 99. 
 
GLENCAIRN'S RISING 287 
 
 The English General was uot incHnecl at first to attach much 
 importance to the ei'lbrts of " the rabble " whose movements 
 were brought under his notice, but in a very short time the 
 rising assumed such dimensions that he found himself without 
 sufficient armed force to suppress it.^ 
 
 On the 27th of July the royal standard was set up at 
 Killin; and from various parts of Scotland, Highlands and Low- 
 lands, volunteers began to assemble at the rendezvous.^ One 
 Eoyalist noble after another hastened to recognize the com- 
 mission given to Glencairn and to raise small bodies of recruits 
 to serve under him. In the Presbyterian chm^ches throughout 
 Scotland prayers had been continuously offered for the King 
 with whom the nation was in covenant, though he was now 
 in exile. The fact, however, that a rebelHon in his interests 
 had now been set on foot directed the attention of the authorities 
 to the danger of permitting the practice, and notice was issued 
 prohibiting it.^ Colonel Lilburne on his own authority pro- 
 ceeded to the still more drastic measure of forcibly dissolving 
 the General Assembly. This took place on the 20 th of July ; 
 and by the decision of the English officer an end was put to the 
 ecclesiastical court which for fifteen years past had been so 
 powerful an engine of government in Scotland. The Assembly 
 had just met and prayers had been offered for the King, when 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Cotterel entered and ordered the members 
 to dismiss. His words were accompanied by a display of 
 military power similar to that made by Cromwell in dissolving 
 the Long Parliament three months before, and they were reluc- 
 tantly obeyed.^ The reason assigned for this violent act, so 
 calculated to outrage the religious feelings of the people of 
 Scotland, was a desire on the part of the authorities to hinder 
 anything being done which might aid the Eoyalist insurrection 
 in the Highlands.^ 
 
 Though the Marquess of Argyll not merely kept aloof 
 from the rising of the King's partisans but at an early 
 date put Colonel Lilburne on his guard against it, he 
 was unable to keep his clan and family free from the dis- 
 traction which always attends on civil war.^ Both his sons 
 
 ^ Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. 85. -Ibid., p. 186. 
 
 ' Ihid., p. 192 ; Life of Robert Blair, p. 309. 
 
 * Scotland and the Commonivealth, p. 162 ; Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 225 ; King's 
 PamiMcts, E. 708 (23). 
 
 ' Life of Robert Blair, p. 307. 
 ® See App. VI., Letter i. 
 
288 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 were strong Royalists, and the elder of them, Lord Lome, after 
 the King's standard had been raised at Killin, lost no time in 
 offering himself as a volunteer to fight nnder it. From the 
 first his inclinations had led him to adhere to the royal party. 
 For children to take a different course in politics and religion 
 from that followed by their parents is by no means a rare 
 phenomenon, especially when the parents are very pronounced and 
 strenuous in the support of any particular cause. Nor need 
 we attribute the fact of such divergence to mere depravity of 
 nature or any other discreditable cause. Those who hear one 
 side of matters very much insisted upon are often inclined from 
 intellectual weariness to revolt from it, and to think sympatheti- 
 cally of its contrary ; and if they have inherited any of the 
 force of character displayed by their parents they are likely to 
 manifest it in promoting what the latter would have abhorred. 
 Lord Lome had scarcely more than come to years of manhood 
 when he was prepared to face the risk of drawing his sword 
 in defence of a cause to which his father might be opposed. 
 Soon after the execution of Charles L he wrote to offer his 
 services to Charles II. He cannot then have been more than 
 twenty-two years of age, and for some time past he had been 
 engaged in foreign travel, so that, as he said in the letter 
 referred to, for two years he had l^een such a stranger to home 
 that he had but seldom heard of the state of his parents' health. 
 He zealously protested against the calumnies which had been 
 heaped upon his father, in which he had been accused of approv- 
 ing of the execution of the King and the abolition of Monarchy ; 
 and he declared his conviction that his father was a loyal sub- 
 ject and a very true and real servant and well-wisher of the 
 royal house. " Nevertheless," he went on to say, "... I protest 
 to you before God, I am so farre loyall to his Majestic that if 
 I thought my father meant otherwise then he professes, and 
 were, as some have beene pleased to call him, ane enemie 
 to JMonarchicall Government or the King's Majestic, I would 
 not only differ from him in opinion . . . but allso quite all the 
 interest I have in him rather than prove disloyall to my lawfull 
 prince or to the government we have lived so happily undei' 
 tliese many hundred yearss." ^ 
 
 The well-known Eoyalist proclivities of Lord Lome were 
 calculated to bring his father into suspicion with the English 
 authorities now that the rising had taken place in the Highlands. 
 ^ Scotland and the Commomoealth, p. xlvii. 
 
FATHER AND SON 289 
 
 The latter's submission, under constraint, to the Govormnent 
 of Cromwell rendered it easily credible that he desired the 
 success of this attempt to overthrow it. The appearance 
 of his sou and of gentlemen of his clan among the rebels 
 would make it very difficult for him to convince the authorities 
 that he was not in collusion with those who were taking up 
 arms in the royal cause. Consequently we caimot be surprised 
 that he exerted himself energetically to prevent Lord Lome's 
 compromising him by joining in the insurrection. Baillie 
 says, probably in reference to the precautions taken by the 
 Marquess, that his son had reason to complain of " being but 
 coarselie used " by him.^ The unhappy condition of matters at 
 Inveraray is disclosed in a letter from Argyll to Colonel Lilburne, 
 probably written on Wednesday, 20 th July. In it he refers 
 to the fact, already communicated by him to the English com- 
 mander, that some of the Eoyalists had assembled at a house 
 about two miles away from the castle. In consequence of this 
 he says that he had taken some men into his company for 
 the defence of his own person, " which," he adds with a touch of 
 bitterness, " God knowes is not soe much worth." He then 
 proceeds to tell of the course taken, much to his displeasure, by 
 Lord Lome. " I desired," he says, " to know if I was cleare 
 in my owne family, whereupon I cal'd for my eldest sonne, 
 that I might put him to it (as I did) to declare to mee if he 
 was free from engagements with these people now stirring, 
 and that he would assure mee he would never engage with 
 them. He declared that he was not resolved to engage with 
 them but would not declare in the negative, though he said 
 to some in private he resolv'd not to joyne with them ; however 
 imediately after his goeing out of my sight bee tooke horse 
 and went to Glenurquhy where it seem'd he appointed a meet- 
 ing with Auchinbreck, MacNachtane, Sir Arthur Forbes, and 
 such as are of that crew ; but imediately after I knew of his 
 resolucion I caused my last warning [to] come to his hands, 
 whereof the inclosed is a copie, soe what resolucion he takes 
 on it, I know not, for he went but from this upon Monday 
 [the 18th] after 12 a clocke." ^ The letter he sent to his son, 
 a copy of which he enclosed to Colonel Lilburne, commanded 
 and entreated him to refrain from rebellion, and it was couched 
 in the strongest and most affecting terms. "Hearing," it began, 
 
 ^ Letters, vol. iii. p. 250. 
 ^See App. VI., p. 381. 
 
 19 
 
290 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 " you are upon a course for disturbing the quietnes and peace 
 of [the] country in generall, and drawing new troubles upon 
 this shire, and my family in particular, whereupon there may 
 follow soe much guiltinesse and prejudice. Therefore if there 
 be in you either feare of God, or respect to His law in your 
 obedience to your Parents, or any feare of the curse pronounced 
 in God's Word against the setters lightly [despisers] of either 
 father or mother, or if you desire not their curse to follow 
 you in all your waies, These are requiring you as you will 
 answere for it one day before the Throne of God, and as you 
 desire to be free of all the guiltinesse and prejudice which will 
 follow such waies, and as you desire to enjoy anything that 
 is mine, or would eschue to deserve my curse, that you will 
 hearken to my counsell to forbeare such courses." The letter 
 concludes with invoking upon his son all dire judgments of 
 Heaven which filial disobedience has reason to fear, if he were 
 to continue in his present course, and with reminding him of 
 the Divine mercy which the penitent may count upon.^ No 
 right-minded person can fail to be touched with sadness at 
 reading of these unhappy relations between the father and the 
 son ; and there can be no doubt that on the day when the 
 letter was written Argyll felt that nothing more bitter in earthly 
 experience remained for him to taste. In addition to this 
 communication from his father, a letter of protest and advice 
 was sent to Lord Lome from a number of prominent members 
 of the clan Campbell, his " affectionate friends and cousins," who 
 were then assembled at Inveraray, in which, while expressing 
 their willingness to assist him in all lawful ways, they declare 
 his present time of action to be both imprudent and evil.^ On 
 the other hand, there were some of his kinsmen, of whom 
 Campbell of Auchinbreck was the principal, who supported him 
 in taking the Koyalist side — " vaine men " and " sons of 
 Beliall " they are called in an unsigned letter to Colonel 
 Lilburne, but which there is every reason to believe was written 
 by their indignant chief.^ 
 
 The Eoyalist insurgents were far from being united among 
 themselves, and by their mutual enmities and disputes they 
 nulUfied to a large extent the many advantages which they 
 possessed in the then condition of Scotland. No sooner had 
 Lord Lome ridden in to give the aid of his sword and influence 
 
 ^ Firth, Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. 167. 
 2 Ibid., p. 168. » Ibid., p. 261. 
 
ROYALIST INVASION OF ARGYLLSHIRE 291 
 
 to the cause thau he met with MacDouald of Glengarry, a 
 hereditary enemy of his family aud clan ; and at once we are 
 told they fell out and drew upon each other. They were pre- 
 vented from fighting by those present, but they parted in bitter 
 enmity,^ Glencairn, it is said, regarded Lome with distrust and 
 slighted him ; ^ and very shortly afterwards the latter was on hos- 
 tile terms with Lord Kenmure, another of his associates and his 
 own cousin. This dispute arose from what occurred in connexion 
 with an expedition which they led into Argyllshire. Some 
 thirteen years before this time the Marquess of Argyll had 
 either invited or accepted as tenants a number of Presbyterian 
 families from the counties of Ayr and Eenfrew and had settled 
 them in his estate of Kintyre, and recently the Lowland colony 
 there had received some fresh accessions of persons of the same 
 stamp.^ All were stalwart and zealous supporters of the 
 Covenant, and they were very strongly inclined to maintain the 
 policy of Argyll and in this crisis to cast in their lot with the 
 soldiers of Cromwell rather than with the Eoyalists. On receiv- 
 ing information that a rising in Kintyre in the English interests 
 was imminent. Lord Lome and Lord Kenmure went thither with 
 some five or six hundred horse and foot to hinder or to suppress 
 the movement. The English Commander-in-Chief was somewhat 
 disappointed and irritated to hear from Argyll that any attempt 
 to oppose this expedition would be fruitless, as the people of the 
 district would not resist his son, and he declared that if the 
 Lowland settlers acted in like manner he could only conclude 
 that something very like " juggling " was being practised at his 
 expense, since he regarded the tenants in question as quite under 
 Argyll's influence.* Sufficient resistance, however, was made to 
 avert this suspicion. At the approach of the Eoyalists these 
 Lowlanders took possession of the castle of Lochheid, and 
 fortified it, in the hope that either from Argyll or from the 
 English garrison at Ayr aid would be despatched to them, and 
 that they would be able to offer strenuous resistance to the 
 enemy. But as this hope was not realized they surrendered the 
 castle to Lord Lome, and received from him better terms than 
 his colleague considered they deserved. It is by no means 
 likely that Lord Lome was inclined to deal harshly with persons 
 
 ' Firth, Scotland and the Commmiwealth, p. 222. 
 - Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 250. 
 
 * Scotland as it Was and Is, Duke of Argyll, p. 218. 
 
 * Firth, Scotland and the CoviinonvxaUh , p, 243. 
 
292 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 who were probably among the most trustworthy and well-doing 
 tenants on the estate to which he was heir ; so that it is likely 
 that they were more favourably treated on that account than 
 they would otherwise have been. At any rate, Lord Kenmure 
 considered that too great partiality had been shown them and 
 departed to lodge a complaint with Glencairn.^ 
 
 But, though the Marquess of Argyll may have incurred some 
 shght suspicion by his failing to hinder the invasion of Kintyre, 
 the English Government had abundant proof of his good faith in 
 the aid which he gave to Colonel Cobbett in an expedition into 
 the Western Islands. This officer, after taking possession of the 
 island of Lewis and establishing a garrison there and in a strong- 
 hold on the coast of Eoss-shire, landed in Mull and occupied 
 Duart Castle. While he was there the Marquess visited the 
 island and persuaded the inhabitants to engage to live peaceably 
 and to obey the authority of Parliament, as the rest of the 
 shire of Argyll had agreed to do. The vessels, however, which 
 contained provisions for the English troops were wrecked in 
 a great storm on the 23 rd of September, and Colonel Cobbett 
 had to return by land. He conveyed his men over from Duart 
 Castle to Dunstaffnage in boats, and marched thence through 
 Argyll's country to Dumbarton — an undertaking of great danger 
 in consequence of the risk of their being intercepted by the 
 Eoyalist troops. Their indebtedness and gratitude to the 
 Marquess for timely aid are expressed in a letter from the 
 Commander-in-Chief in Scotland to Cromwell. " Had not Lord 
 Argill," he says, " and his people bene good guides to him, and 
 assisted him with anything they could, the party in all 
 likelyhoode might have miscarried, [so] that Col. Cobbett 
 acknowledges his saifety was under God in the Lord Argill's 
 favour to him." ^ 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 250. 
 
 2 Firth, Scotland and the Cotmnonwealth, pp. 275, 221. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Monck suppresses the Royalist Insurrection in Scotland — Argyll burdened by 
 Debt — Arrested in London but liberated — Lord Lome surrenders to the 
 Protector's Government — Connexion between Argyll and the Protesters 
 — He enters the Parliament of Richard Cromwell — Restoration of 
 Charles IL — Argyll goes up to London and is committed to the Tower 
 — "Writes Instructions to a Son — Is sent down to Edinburgh for Trial. 
 
 WE have no intention of attempting to relate in detail the 
 events of the guerilla warfare which was waged in 
 Scotland for a whole year from this time, as the Marquess of 
 Argyll had but little active connexion with it. Suffice it to say 
 that the Eoyalists strove to irritate and exhaust their opponents 
 without coming to an open engagement with them ; while the 
 latter were additionally handicapped by the fact that they got 
 little effective information or aid from those of the population 
 who were supposed to be hostile to the Eoyalist cause. Indeed 
 the general opinion of the mass of those who strenuously 
 supported the Covenant seems to have been that the Sectaries 
 were more objectionable and dangerous enemies than the 
 Malignants. A stronger hand than Lilburne's was needed to 
 guide the war, and ampler supplies of money and of men were 
 needed than it had been possible to give while the struggle 
 with Holland engrossed the attention of the Government. At 
 last, when the war with Holland was over, Monck was sent down 
 to Scotland and succeeded in a few months by " the methods of 
 barbarism " in stamping out the fires of rebellion which had 
 been smouldering for so long.^ The Marquess of Argyll lent 
 somewhat more active aid to Monck than he had done to 
 Lilburne, for we are told of their conferring together for the 
 conduct of military operations.^ But, unfortunately, during the 
 later stages of the war several incidents occurred in connexion 
 with Lord Lome and his father which illustrate the dreadful 
 tendency of civil war to dissolve the ties of filial affection and 
 
 1 Gardiner, Couimomccalth and Protectorate, vol. ii. p. 416. 
 - Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 259. 
 
 293 
 
294 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 piety. Thus we hear of a fierce conflict between the forces of 
 the father and those of the son in which wounds and death were 
 inflicted,^ of the son's intercepting a vessel laden with provisions 
 for his father's men,^ and of his driving away cattle from his 
 father's lands, and of its being found necessary for Argyll to 
 apply to the EngHsh authorities for protection against the 
 insolence and violence of his son.^ These events belong to 
 the later months of the year 1654.* Baillie, writing well on 
 in the following year, gives us these details of the sad business. 
 " The domestick divisions," he says, " among them are so 
 real and true as makes both their lives bitter and uncom- 
 fortable to them ; and the great burthen of debt puts their 
 verie house in a hazard to ruine, if the English be no more 
 kind to them than they have been, or it seems they will be. 
 The father sought a garisone to lye in Argyle, to keep it from 
 his son's violence ; hot when it was on the way, he repented, 
 and gott a new order for their returne ; yet they would [goe] on ; 
 yea, took up his owne best house of Inneraray, made the kirk 
 and schooU their stables, and hardlie at this very time have been 
 gotten removed. The people's great hatred lyes on him above 
 any one man, and whatever befalls him, few does pitie it : at 
 this very time his state is very staggering." ^ 
 
 The burden of debts, for the most part obligations as 
 guarantor to persons who had supplied funds for State purposes, 
 was now a very serious matter for the Marquess of Argyll. In 
 writing during the summer of 1654 to Colonel Lilburne the 
 Marquess expressed his willingness to meet the English General 
 for conference in any place he might choose, provided that he 
 were protected from " the violence of his creditors." ^ The naive 
 declaration imphed in this that in his Highland retreat he was 
 safe from " hornings," writs, warrants, and judgments of court, 
 and all the legal apparatus for the recovery of debt, is amusing, 
 especially as the writer is evidently quite unconscious of there 
 being anything extraordinary in this condition of matters. And 
 indeed it is easy to believe that few warrant officers would find 
 much pleasure or success in journeying into Argyllshire to 
 
 1 Nicoll, Diary, p. 140. 
 ^ Firth, Scotland and the Protectorate, p. 175. 
 
 ^ Whitelocke, Memorials, p. 590 (quoted in Did. of Kat. Biog., "Archibald 
 Campbell, 9th Earl "). 
 
 * i.e. according to our reckoning as closing in December. 
 
 » Lr.Ucrs, vol. iii. p. 288. 
 
 " rirth, Scotland and the Commonwealth, p. 166. 
 
VIOLENCE OF CREDITORS 295 
 
 trouble the MacCailein Mor with inconvenient demands for 
 money, or to present to him legal documents of a disagreeable 
 tenor. The man who would accomphsh such a feat would be 
 entitled henceforth to rest upon his laurels, quite as much as he 
 who had been daring enough to beard the Hon in his den and 
 had hved to tell of it. But, away from the protecting shadow of 
 the great mountains set round about his home and deprived of 
 the bodyguard of loyal clansmen, things were different. Nicoll, a 
 Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, who has left a Diary of con- 
 siderable histcnical value, depicts vividly the deplorable condition 
 to which the Marquess was reduced at this time, when he showed 
 himself outside his territory. The unsympathetic tone of the 
 writer is, we may say, in accordance with his general practice of 
 seeking to reflect the public opinion of his time — in other words, 
 of fawning upon the powerful and trampling upon the unfor- 
 tunate. As in a former quotation from the same author,^ we 
 think it worth while to preserve his quaint spelhng. " In the 
 moneth of November 1654," he says, " the Marques of Ergyll 
 repaired to Dalkeith, quhair Generall Monk remayned for the 
 tyme, and thair complened greathe of his sone the Lord of 
 Lome, and of the ha^de injm"eis done be his sone to the 
 father. At quhich tyme he resaved (I meane the Marques) much 
 effrontes and disgraces of his creditouris, quha being frustrat and 
 defraudit be the Marques of thair just and lauchfull dettis, 
 spaired not, at all tymes as he walked, ather in streit or in the 
 fieldis abroad, [to call him] ' a fals traitour.' Besyde this, his 
 hors and hors graith [harness], and all uther houshold stuff, 
 wer poyndit in Dalkeith and at Newbottill, and brocht in to 
 Edinburgh, and thair comprysit [forcibly sold] at the Mercat 
 Croce for dett."^ 
 
 From this intolerable condition of matters the Marquess got 
 some temporary relief by applying to the Law Courts for a sus- 
 pension of debts due by him, which he obtained under an Act 
 recently passed for the benefit " of distrest persones and dettouris " 
 in certain cases of extremity.^ This, so far as Scotland was con- 
 cerned, gave him a breathing-space and an opportunity for arranging 
 his affairs. But in the following year one of his principal creditors 
 took action against him in London, whither he had gone to 
 obtain from the Government of the Protector the payment of the 
 debts promised to him by the Scotch Parhament and referred to 
 
 1 See p. 242. 2 p, j^q, 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 143. 
 
296 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 in one of the articles of the treaty he had made with General 
 Deane. The article in question stipulated that his estates, lands, 
 and debts were to be free from sequestration,^ and under this 
 arrangement he now sought to have his burdens lightened by 
 the Council of State. In November, 1655, he was arrested in 
 Westminster by the creditor above referred to, Elizabeth Max- 
 well, the widow of the Earl of Dirleton,^ for a debt apparently 
 of £1000 Sterling, for meal supplied to the Scotch army in 
 England during the campaign of 1644-45. For this debt others 
 besides Argyll were pledged, but the creditor came down upon 
 him for repayment. The Marquess protested against the matter 
 being dealt with by any but the Scotch Judges, and the legal 
 authorities in England took the same view ; but the Countess of 
 Dirleton was so obstinate in resisting the orders of the Council 
 that at last, after many months of wrangling, a warrant was issued 
 for arresting her on the ground of contumacy.^ Ultimately the 
 Countess was paid, and the Marquess, on presenting a petition to 
 the Protector's Government, received assurance of the payment 
 of upwards of £12,000 Sterling due to him by the authorities 
 in Scotland. A grant was made to him of a sum, not exceeding 
 £3000 Sterling per annum, upon the excise of wine, etc. in 
 Scotland until the whole amount should be paid. It is interesting 
 to notice that the Colonel Cobbett who counted himself so much 
 under obligation to the Marquess for safety during his perilous 
 journey through Argyllshire proved himself a friend in need. 
 He advanced £1000 Sterling needed for paying off the Countess 
 of Dirleton, and he received repayment from the Office of Excise 
 out of the first money that fell due to the Marquess.* Yet this 
 amount for which the Coimcil of State accepted liability was only 
 a portion of the debts incurred by Argyll in the public service. He 
 himself says in his petition to the Protector : " Being ready at all 
 times to venture all for the interest of the three nations, I laid 
 out large sums therefore both in England and Scotland, for many 
 of which I am still bomid." ^ These pecuniary troubles continued 
 to the very end in spite of the Marquess's strenuous efforts to 
 overcome them; for we find him on 9th June, 1659, making 
 terms with a creditor for tlie payment of the comparatively 
 
 ^ Firth, Scotland and the Commomvealtli, p. 49. 
 
 2 He had died at Holyrood, 26th April, 1650 (Balfour, Annals, vol. iv. p. 8). 
 
 ^ State Papers, Dom., 1655-56, passim. 
 
 ■* Ibid., 1656-57, 17th February ; also Hist. MSS. Com., 1899, p. 111. 
 
 ^ State Papers, Dom., 1655-56, 15th July. 
 
SURRENDER OF LORD LORNE 297 
 
 small sum of £100 Sterling, for which he had become security 
 at the request of his kinsman the Earl of Loudon. In his letter 
 he refers to the risk he ran of being again arrested for debt, and he 
 explains that he would not be able to pay the amount in question 
 until Candlemas (2nd February), when his rents would come iu.^ 
 We need not again refer to this source of mortification and anxiety 
 in the life of the Marquess. It forms part of the suffering which 
 resulted from the career on which he entered as the champion 
 of civil and religious liberty, and it is no more discreditaljle to 
 him than the cost incurred by a Government in carrying through 
 a righteous war. In pecuniary matters he was honourable and 
 generous and public -spirited, and, but for the crushing losses 
 inflicted by Montrose and the MacDonalds in Argyllshire — for 
 which he received but inadequate compensation — he would pro- 
 bably have escaped a considerable portion of the burden of debt 
 which weighed so heavily upon him. Debts that result from self- 
 indulgence, or prodigality, or carelessness, entail a certain amount 
 of discredit which does not necessarily attach to those which 
 are incurred in the public service. This may seem a truism, but 
 it is worth while to remind our readers of it ; for the Marquess 
 of Argyll has been subjected to so much carping criticism that 
 we feel it is only fair to protest against some of it for which 
 there is least ground. 
 
 In August of 1655 his son. Lord Lome, concluded terms of 
 surrender with the English Government,^ and thereafter was in 
 such relations of intimacy with his father as to be again under 
 the same roof with him, but it is to be feared that some time 
 elapsed before cordial intercourse between them was resumed. A 
 kinsman of Argyll's, Alexander Brodie of Brodie, visited Koo- 
 neath at this time, and he has recorded in a diary his impres- 
 sions of what he witnessed in the household of the Marquess. " I 
 saw," he says, " the incurable wounds that were in the family 
 by difference, implacableness, unsubmissiveness, humour, asperitie, 
 etc., and by other burdens." He seems to have been somewhat 
 wanting in tact or good sense, for he says that he expressed to 
 the Countess his dissatisfaction with both her sou and her 
 husband, as though that were likely to make matters better. 
 " To my Ladi Argyl," he says, " I did express my unsatisfiednes 
 with her sone's unsubmissiveness . . . ., also her husband's deep 
 receuting of and keeping in his mind injuries, and offences, and 
 
 ^ StMc ra-pcrs, Dom., 1659, Otli June. 
 ' Did. of Nat. Biog., vol. viii. p. 331. 
 
298 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 prejudices."^ Both father and son had passed through trying 
 experiences, and they felt, no doubt, very keenly the miseries 
 which the political and religious dissensions that had raged in 
 Scotland had inflicted upon their house. As they were now on 
 opposite sides in politics, it is not to be wondered at if they were 
 inclined each to blame the other for some share of the disasters 
 which had come upon them. 
 
 In the more important concerns of Church and State Argyll 
 was henceforth but little involved. His religious sympathies 
 were with the Protesters or Eemonstrants rather than with the 
 Resolutioners — or, in other words, with those whose attachment 
 to the Covenant was stronger than to the King, whose sincerity 
 in accepting what they held as so sacred lay under grave sus- 
 picion. For a time they resented the part played by Argyll in 
 the brief episode of Charles II. 's visit to Scotland and his in- 
 stallation as Covenanted King, and consequently his overtures to 
 them were at first somewhat coldly received.^ But in course of 
 time their relations with him became so close that he acted as 
 their representative in London in negotiations with Cromwell.^ 
 In the unhappy condition of the Church of Scotland at that 
 time, with its constitution and powers maimed by the suppression 
 of its supreme court, Cromwell became the umpire between the 
 Protesters and the Ptesolutioners ; and, though he saved them from 
 the dishonour and loss which would have resulted from their 
 being at liberty to attempt to subject each other to ecclesiastical 
 discipline, his relationship to the Church was in many ways 
 highly unsatisfactory. In the existing circumstances the two 
 parties found it convenient from time to time to appoint agents 
 or representatives to plead their cause with the Protector. One 
 of those who frequently acted in the interests of the Resolutioners 
 was James Sharp, minister of Crail, who, a year after the 
 Restoration, incurred deep blame by his acceptance of the 
 Archbishopric of St Andrews, and who met with an appalling 
 
 ^ Brodie's Diary, p. 150. The Marqiiess went up to London in September, 1655, 
 and remained there for some time. An odd notice of him is found in Evelyn's 
 Diary under date 28th May, 1656. He and Lord Lothian and some other Scotch 
 noblemen, all strangers to the diarist, visited him in Sayes Court. He notes the 
 fact that the Marquess mistook some turtle-doves in the aviary for owls. The fact 
 that Evelyn calls him the "old Marquess" has no bearing upon the question of the 
 latter's age, as the passage in the diary was evidently written up or supplemented 
 after the Marquess's execution, when Evelyn felt there was a risk of his readers 
 mistaking the father for the son. The ninth Earl is mentioned by him once or 
 twice as "the young Marquess." 
 
 2 Caillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 249. ^ Life of Robert Blair, p. 329. 
 
BECOMES MEMBER FOR ABERDEENSHIRE 299 
 
 death eighteen years later. On one occasion, at least, the 
 ]\Iarquess of Argyll checkmated his procedure hy requesting 
 that the action to which the agent of the Eesolutioners had 
 persuaded the Protector should be delayed until the opinion of 
 some of their opponents had been ascertained.^ 
 
 One of the ties by which Argyll was connected with the 
 party of the Protesters or Eemonstrants, though he had also 
 devoted friends among the Eesolutioners, was doubtless the special 
 characteristics of their religious life. " Their ministers," we arc 
 told, " were for the most part distinguished by a quality which has 
 never failed to win the hearts of Scottish Christians ; they were 
 men of unction ; they were fervent preachers of the doctrines of 
 grace. Among them were some who have never been surpassed 
 in that respect in the history of the Scottish pulpit." ^ There 
 can be no doubt that over the earnest and devout spirit of the 
 Highland chieftain, with its share of the native impulsiveness 
 and fervour of the Celtic temperament, the qualities of the 
 preaching above described would possess a great charm. 
 
 So far as any share in the political events during the later 
 years of the Commonwealth was concerned, Argyll had still less 
 influence than in those of an ecclesiastical character. He sat 
 as one of the thirty representatives for Scotland in Eichard 
 Cromwell's brief Parliament, but he took little part in the business 
 transacted in it. He had refused in Oliver's time to act in this 
 capacity, but, for reasons which he afterwards explained at his 
 trial, he felt constrained to agree to the request from the people 
 of Aberdeenshire to become their member.^ General Monck used 
 all his influence to hinder his being chosen, on the ground that 
 he was " disaffected to the English interest " and might be hostile 
 to the Government of the Protector. The office of Sheriff of 
 Argyllshire, which he held by the authority of the Commonwealth, 
 was regarded for some reason or another as a disqualification ; 
 but this difficulty was evidently set aside and the Marquess took 
 his place in Parliament.* In consequence, apparently, of the 
 objection to his election he seems not to have acted as member 
 for Aberdeenshire for longer than one month of the three for which 
 that Assembly lasted (27th January to 22nd April, 1658-59). 
 
 » Life of Rohert Blair, p. 329. 
 ^ Morison, Johnston of Warriston, p. 136. 
 ^ State Trials, vol. v. p. 1403. 
 
 •» Biog. Brit., "CampViell (Archibald, Marr[uis of Ai'gyle)," p. 191 n. ; Scotland 
 and the Protectorate, p. 411. 
 
300 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 His reappearance in public life at this time was therefore of a 
 somewhat faint and shadowy character. Few who saw him then 
 could have suspected, if they had not already known his career, 
 how important a part in the history of both Scotland and 
 England he had played ; though the sound of his name could 
 scarcely have failed to recall to those who were acquainted with 
 the events of the last twenty years the commanding ability he 
 had so often displayed, and the striking and romantic vicissitudes 
 of fortune through which he had passed. 
 
 The Eestoration of Charles II. was welcomed in Scotland 
 with the same exuberant joy as was manifested in the southern 
 kingdom. The fullest confidence was felt by the great majority 
 of the people in his goodwill towards those who had acknowledged 
 him as their lawful Sovereign from the very moment of his 
 father's death, and who had striven at such a great cost to place 
 and maintain him upon the throne. The fact that he had re- 
 peatedly sworn to keep not only the National Covenant but also 
 the Solemn League and Covenant induced many to expect that 
 he would zealously support the policy in Church and State to 
 which the nation had committed itself but atrainst which Crom- 
 well had persistently set his face. They little suspected that instead 
 of the whips of Cromwell they were to feel the scorpions of 
 Charles II. The only section of the nation which was anxious 
 regarding the future was the extreme wing of the Covenanting 
 party, known as the Kemonstrants or Protesters, with whom 
 tlie Marquess of Argyll had been associated for some time. 
 Baillie, whose invaluable letters give us such vivid pictures 
 of the varying moods of the nation, and whose words must 
 seem to many of our readers to come in from time to time like 
 a chorus in a Greek play, tells us of their forebodings and fears. 
 " I have heard," he says, " some of them preach these three 
 last Sundays, bot not a word tending to any thanks, or any joy, 
 for the King's returne ; albeit they have some prayers for 
 him. Their studie is to fill the people with fears of Bishops, 
 Books [Liturgy], destroying of the Covenant, [and] setting up of 
 profanitie." ^ Events fully justified their melancholy prophecies, 
 which seemed to many at the time to be mere croaking. We 
 may well believe that Argyll was not less clear-sighted than those 
 with whom he was so closely associated ; but it is by no means 
 likely that he had any fears for his own personal safety. Only 
 those who were actively concerned in the trial and execution of 
 
 ' Letters, vol. iii. p. 404. 
 
SIGNIFICANT OMENS . 301 
 
 the late King bad reason to dread the Eestoration. Could he 
 who had with his own hands placed the crown on Charles's head 
 at Scone be in danger of being classed with tlieni ? It was true 
 that he had aided in suppressing the rising under Glencairn and 
 Middleton, which Charles II. had sanctioned. But then, on the 
 other hand, Monck, who had with such severity crushed out that 
 insurrection, now stood highest in the King's favour. 
 
 Yet, if we may believe the stories afterwards recounted, 
 there were not wanting omens which might have prepared 
 Argyll for the fate that was awaiting him. Thus we are 
 told that his sister the Countess of Kenmure, that " gracious 
 lady " who had been a correspondent of Samuel Eutherf ord, 
 had been taught some little skill in physiognomy by an old 
 servant of the house, and had years before told her instructor 
 that the knowledge he had imparted to her had enabled her 
 to foresee that the Marquess " would die in blood." On the 
 night on which Charles II. arrived in England Baillie's son-in-law 
 and daughter were at Eosneath, and they observed that " all the 
 dogs that day did take a strange yowling and glowring up to My 
 Lord's chamber windows for some houres together." ^ A still 
 more definite intimation of the evil determined against him 
 was afforded, it was said, to one of his companions when he 
 was playing at the bullets on the occasion of his last visit to 
 Kintyre. He was engaged in that pastime with some gentlemen 
 of the country ; and one of them, when the Marquess stooped 
 down to lift the bullet, turned pale and said to those about 
 him : " Bless me ! What is that I see ? My Lord with his 
 head off, and all his shoulder full of blood ! " - 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 466. 
 
 '^ Wodrow, Analeda, vol. i. p. 73. The story is told on the authority of 
 Mr Lachlan Campbell, a minister in Kintyre. Two more similar stories may 
 be here inserted. They are given in Law's Me^norialls (Edinhargh, 1818). "The 
 late Lord Marquis of Argile in the year 1657, being in Falkirk, travelling towards 
 Edinburgh, a dumb man being there, did make a sign of his end, and taking up 
 Reider's Dictionary, casts up a place and points at it in Virg. yEncid, — 'luque 
 humeros cervix collapsa recumbit ' [ix. 434], making mention of the beheading of 
 a certain person, which the beholders could not read nor expound ; but the 
 minister coming into the same room, who was Mr Edward Wright, the same 
 who was Principall of the College of Glasgow afterward, they told the matter 
 to him, and desired him to expone that sentence which the dumb man had pointed 
 at ; and he told it was relating [to] a man that was beheided. Mr Edward 
 Wright told this to myself. Another instance relating to this same noble person : 
 When this same Lord Marquis of Argyll went up to see the King after his return 
 from exyle in the year 1661 ; when he went from Inerara to go to London he went 
 in his birline [galley] to Rosneath. Mr Alexander Gordon, minister there, with 
 
302 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 It is quite probable that in the secret counsels of the King 
 the resolution had been formed, from the moment that his 
 restoration became certain, to begin the policy of reaction 
 against the Covenant by striking a blow at Argyll. It is 
 certain that if this had been determined upon the fact was 
 so carefully concealed from the victim that, without much 
 exaggeration, his apprehension might be described as entrapping 
 him. Other nobles who had been as much engaged as himself 
 in the events before 1650, which could now be described as 
 rebellion, had presented themselves at Court and had been 
 favourably received, and he had no definite reason for suspect- 
 ins that matters would be different in his own case. He sent 
 up his son, Lord Lome, who was received by Charles II. with 
 great kindness, and by this the Marquess was led to believe that 
 a similar welcome would be afforded him. Under this delusion, 
 which there is every reason to believe was encouraged by the 
 King without going so far as to give any assurance of good- 
 will,^ Argyll was tempted, against the advice of some of his 
 friends,^ to leave his Highland retreat, from which he coidd 
 only have been taken by force by an army, and to make his 
 appearance at Whitehall, on Sunday, 8th July, 1660.^ Earlier 
 on that day he had called several times at the lodgings of 
 Clarendon, the Lord Chancellor, in order to arrange for an 
 
 some others, accompanyed him to the boat, and after the said noble lord had taken 
 boat, and was upon his voyage, the said Mr Gordon returning home with another, 
 meets a dumb man who falls a whynning and mourning, and having a staff in his 
 hand, laid down the staff on the ground, and lays his body on the ground, laying 
 his neck upon the staff, and smytting the upper part of his neck with the edge of 
 his hand, he arose from the ground and pointed at my Lord Argile in the birline, 
 which accordingly fell out, for he was beheaded" (p. 116). Law says naively: 
 " It's hard to defyne how these dumbies that are so naturally comes at this 
 knowledge" (p. 113). Probably many of our readers will find themselves in agree- 
 ment with him on this point. 
 
 1 It is stated in a contemporary letter printed in Eraser's Red Book of Grandtully 
 (vol. ii. p. 151 ) that Argyll was twice invited by Charles II. to come to London. AVe 
 regard this as incredible on the ground that the Marquess would most certainly 
 have insisted upon such invitations, had they been given, as being virtually equal 
 to a safe-conduct. His son, Lord Lome, seems to have informed him that he was 
 \;nder the impression that a personal interview with the King was all that was 
 needed to secure the royal favour (Argyll Pa2)ers, p. 17), and this may have been 
 suggested to him with the view of entrapping his father. But a direct invitation 
 from Charles for the Marquess to visit London seems utterly improbable. 
 
 "Ibid., p. 17: "Sir J. Stewart, provost of Edinburgh, advised the Marquess, 
 when come the length of Edinburgh, to retire to the Highlands and wait there, and 
 meddle with nothing. But nothing would prevail. I think Mr Robert Douglas 
 advised the same." See also Wodrow, History, vol. i. p. 130, 
 
 * Kennett, A Eecjister and Chronicle, p. 202, 
 
ARREST OF ARGYLL 303 
 
 interview with the King, but he had not been admitted to see 
 him. Argyll, however, intercepted him as he was entering 
 his coach, together with his son, on his way to Whitehall. 
 The Chancellor brusquely refused to engage in conversation 
 with him. " Not one word, my Lord," he exclaimed ; and with 
 that, as the narrator says, he stepped into his coach, pulled 
 his son in hastily after him and drove off. The Marquess 
 went by the river, and he arrived at Whitehall before the 
 Chancellor. He again attempted to address the powerful 
 Minister as he passed through the ante-chamber ; but Clarendon 
 waved him off and whispered to his son, " That is a fatal 
 [doomed] man,"^ Argyll thereupon sent in Lord Lome, who 
 had unconsciously been used to decoy him into the hands of 
 his enemies, to inform the King that he was waiting in the 
 outer chamber and wished to kiss his hands. Clarendon and 
 Albemarle had already been closeted with Charles, and the 
 result of their brief consultation was soon announced. The 
 King returned no reply to Lord Lome, but secretly sent for 
 his secretary, Sir Edward Nicholas, whom he ordered to instruct 
 Sir Edward Walter, the Garter King -at -Arms, to arrest the 
 Marquess on the charge of treason.^ The blow was unexpected 
 and humiliating. From the chamber crowded with curious 
 spectators, among whom probably he could not discern a single 
 friendly face, the Marquess was removed in a coach to the 
 Tower. He earnestly begged Sir Edward Walter to allow him 
 to see and speak to His Majesty, but his entreaties were in 
 vain. To others the request might seem utterly unreasonable, 
 in view of the serious crime with which he was charged ; but 
 Argyll liimself may well have thought that the man who had 
 acknowledged a load of obligations to him, which he had 
 promised to repay " on the word of a King " with the highest 
 honours which he had to give, would in a personal interview 
 be easily induced to lay aside the resentment or to accept an 
 explanation of the possible misunderstanding by which his 
 favour was now overcast. Some of Argyll's enemies were 
 anxious to prevent his having an opportunity of exercising 
 his persuasive eloquence to charm away the anger of the 
 King.^ They might have spared themselves all anxiety, for 
 that anger was too deep-seated to be thus dissolved. On the 
 
 ^ Argyll Papers, p. 16. 
 
 - Monoirs of tlie Affairs of Scotlaiul, Sir G. Mackenzie, p. 13. 
 
 ^ Argyll Papers, p. 16 ; Biog. Brit,, "Archibald Campbell." 
 
304 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 evening of the arrest the King received congratulations from 
 many of his EngHsh nobles, and from ladies prompted by 
 enemies of Argyll, upon the step that he had taken in 
 securing one whose past career might well make them dread 
 him as the opponent of new schemes against civil and religious 
 liberty.^ 
 
 Immediately on hearing of his arrest the Marchioness of 
 Argyll went up to London and was granted free access to 
 her husband, but she was unable to obtain for him permission to 
 have an interview with the King.^ For upwards of five months 
 he lay a prisoner in the Tower, and, though during that time 
 the thought may have sometimes passed through his mind that 
 release might come only in the form of a bloody death, we can 
 scarcely doubt that his sense of innocence, or of immunity from 
 offences which the law could punish, was too strong to allow 
 him to dwell for long upon this idea. One of the ways in 
 which he reheved the tedium of confinement was in the 
 composition of a little book entitled Instructions to a Son, 
 which was published in EdinJjurgh in the following year. 
 This was not the first time that he had appeared as an author, 
 for his speech, deUvered in the Painted Chamber before the 
 Committee of the Lords and Commons in 1646, had been 
 published immediately afterwards ; but on neither of his 
 literary efforts could he have founded any claim to be remem- 
 bered by subsequent generations. For indeed he had no great 
 skill with the pen, and, though his less pretentious compositions 
 in the form of letters are fairly numerous, they are somewhat 
 featureless and indefinite. He was one of those who rather 
 did things worthy of being related than lorote things worthy 
 of being read ^ — it being given but to few to be conspicuous 
 both in the world of action and in that of letters. In the 
 little volume in question we have a series of brief essays, 
 which follow those of Lord Bacon at a great distance, in 
 which such subjects as Eeligion, Marriage, Travelling, Study, 
 and Exercise, are handled. In an edition of the book published 
 in 1743 some General Maxims are added, evidently from the 
 same hand, which in a similar manner deal with topics like 
 the Duties of a Prince, War, Courage, Command, Fortune, 
 and Victory. Those who know of the charge of want of 
 
 ^ Memoirs of the Affairs of Scolland, Sir G. Mackenzie, p. 13. 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. ii. p. 447. 
 * AUmoires de Casanova, vol. i. p. 4. 
 
SENT DOWN TO EDINBURGH 305 
 
 courage which has been brought against the Marquess will 
 naturally turn with some curiosity to see what he has to say 
 about that virtue. They will, however, not find much that 
 is interesting in the chapter, as the ideas and the terms in 
 which they are couched are quite commonplace. Yet a 
 second reading of it may reveal a reference in one of the 
 paragraphs to critical events in the Marquess's own life on 
 which the charge in question had been based. The passage 
 is somewhat ambiguous, as the words chosen seem a little to 
 darken the counsel they contain. The writer is desiring to 
 impress upon his readers that true courage does not always 
 demand a rush upon danger when things are utterly desperate. 
 " Matters of danger," he says, " not despair, are the true objects 
 of valour ; every virtue is tied to rules, and bounded with 
 limits, not to be transgressed ; the extremes alter all goodness 
 if they be pitch'd upon. Courage loseth its merited honour, 
 if willfullness and overguided petulancy overbear it ; a well- 
 grounded reason, without prejudice to a man's honour, may 
 justly countermand a rash and inconsiderate resolution [resolute- 
 ness]."^ A later sentence in the same essay is probably 
 more in accordance with the spirit of the heroic reader, though 
 to some it may seem strange upon Argyll's lips : " 'Tis better 
 to trust in valour than in policy."^ On the whole the book 
 is disappointing to the biographer seeking for references to the 
 chequered and romantic life of the author, for most of its contents 
 might have been written by any one, in almost any country, 
 and at any period in the world's history. The few allusions 
 it does contain to his special circumstances and experiences we 
 have already made use of in the coiu"se of our narrative. 
 
 On the 7th of December, 1660, the Marquess of Argyll, 
 and Sir John Swinton of that ilk, the latter of whom had been 
 one of the Judges in Scotland appointed by Cromwell, were 
 sent down by sea to Edinburgh for trial. They were in charge 
 of a Major Grant, afterwards governor of Dumbarton Castle,^ 
 and were despatched from London on board the Eafjlc man-of- 
 war. The voyage lasted for nearly a fortnight, and the weather 
 was so stormy that the vessel very narrowly escaped shipwreck 
 
 1 P. 109 (edition of 1743). - P. HI. 
 
 2 NicoU, Dianj, p. 323. On 30th November, 1660, the order was given by the 
 King to Sir J. Robinson, Lieutenant of the Tower, to deliver the Marquess of 
 Argyll in safe custody to the Earl of Middleton {Hist. MSS. Com., vol. xi, 
 app. vii. p. 2). 
 
 20 
 
306 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 or foundering at sea. The Marquess's fellow-prisoner was not 
 likely to be very congenial society for him though they were 
 companions in misfortune, for he is described as being "ane 
 fanatik persone and ane quaker." ^ Swinton had gone over 
 to Cromwell in 1651, and he had been excommunicated by the 
 religious authorities in Scotland, as well as outlawed by the 
 civil power. After the battle of Worcester the post of a 
 Judge in Scotland had been conferred upon him ; and now 
 he was in the unpleasant position of having to figure at the 
 bar as a criminal in that city where he had occupied a seat 
 upon the judicial bench. It was shortly before this that he 
 had joined the sect of those commonly called " Quakers " and 
 had exposed himself to the suspicion of fanaticism and lawless- 
 ness which was then persistently associated with a section of 
 Christian society which for a long time past has afforded 
 many examples of purity, gentleness, and other law-abiding 
 virtues. A curious distinction between him as an excom- 
 municated and " forfeited " traitor, and Argyll, who was accused 
 but not yet convicted of crime against the State, was made 
 on their landing at Leith. The authorities of that town, 
 attended by troops with displayed colours, received the two 
 prisoners, conducted them to the foot of Leith Wynd, and 
 delivered them over into the custody of the Edinburgh officials, 
 who were in like manner accompanied by soldiers in full 
 military state. The ex - Judge was taken in charge by " the 
 town officers," led through the streets bare - headed, and 
 locked up in the Tolbooth or common jail. The Marquess, 
 on the contrary, was subjected to no ignominy in the 
 matter of dress, and, after being " tenderly convoyed " 
 between two bailies or city magistrates of Edinburgh, was 
 handed over to the governor of the Castle for imprisonment 
 in that fortress.^ Thousands of men and women poured out 
 of the city to witness the strange procession,^ attracted 
 principally, we may well believe, by curiosity to see the 
 Marquess, whose power and dignity and influence had so 
 often been manifested in that city in earlier days. Yet, 
 though some may have exulted over the humiliation of their 
 
 1 Nicoll, Diary, p. 309. - IhkL, p. SOD. 
 
 2 Lament, Diary, p. 162. Our readers may wish to be informed concerning 
 Swinton's fate. He was tried for high treason and condemned to forfeiture and 
 imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle. He was imprisoned for some years, and after 
 his release his life was passed in wanderings, chiefly in Scotland. He died at 
 Corthwick early in 1679, at the age of about fifty-eight years {Did. of Nat. Biog.). 
 
FEELINGS OF THE PUBLIC 307 
 
 opponent, and others may have been awestruck at this evidence 
 of the power of One who often puts down the mighty from 
 their seat, it would have been passing strange if, in tlie hearts 
 of multitudes who had turned against him, some revulsion of 
 feeling did not take place, and if his faithful championship of 
 the Covenant for so many years did not receive its due meed 
 of acknowledgment and praise. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Argyll's Trial before Parliament — Three Classes of Charges brought against 
 him — His eloquent and skilful Defence of himself — A Passage-of-arms 
 with the Lord Advocate — A supplementary Charge of Complicity in the 
 guilt of Regicide brought against him — He is acquitted of this — Monck 
 forwards Letters which secure his Condemnation — His Sentence — The 
 Reason for Monck's Animosity towards him. 
 
 ON the 31st January, 1661, a herald in his coat appeared 
 before Argyll in the Castle to serve him with the formal 
 summons to attend in Parliament and to answer the charge of 
 treason that would be brought against him.^ No special un- 
 fairness was shown to him in the form of trial to which he was 
 subjected — that by ParUament rather than by the ordinary pro- 
 cess of law ; for according to ancient Scotch usage it was quite 
 competent for the legislative body to constitute itself a judicial 
 court for the trial of any form of crime. The fact, however, 
 that the persons by whom the case was to be decided were 
 either political friends or political opponents of the accused, and 
 that members of Parliament were Hkely to be affected by public 
 opinion, or by Court influences, in coming to a decision, was 
 sufficient to condemn this mode of procedure. Yet in Argyll's 
 time there had been too many recent precedents of the kind 
 to allow much weight to be attached to the request which he 
 put forward to be tried by a Court of Justice rather than by 
 Parliament.^ 
 
 The Marquess of Argyll desired the Parliament to instruct 
 Sir John Nisbet, a distinguished lawyer, who was three years 
 later appointed Lord Advocate, to undertake his defence in 
 co-operation with other of his colleagues at the bar ; but he 
 refused to act, and six advocates of good standing were chosen 
 to plead for the accused.^ Among them was one, Mr George 
 Mackenzie, who afterwards gained for himself an unenviable 
 
 1 Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, Sir G. Mackenzie, p. 34. 
 ' Ihid., p. 36. 3 Wodrow, History, p. 132, 
 
 SOS 
 
BROUGHT TO TRIAL 309 
 
 reputation and souhriquet iu consequence of the part he played 
 later on in the reign of Charles IT., as Public Prosecutor in the 
 cases of some of the Covenanters. The aid which advocates 
 were then able to render to clients placed in the position of 
 Argyll was very slight. They spoke at the risk of being them- 
 selves accused of treason if any of their words reflected upon the 
 Government, and in the present instance the claim they put 
 forward in the usual terms to be allowed a certain latitude 
 in this matter was not entertained. At the very outset they 
 were called to account for advice which they had given the 
 Marquess to ask for a trial before an ordinary Law Court 
 rather than before Parliament. The request was regarded as 
 bordering upon a contumacious declinature to recognize the 
 authority of Parliament to conduct such a trial, and it was not 
 only refused but treated as otlensive.^ 
 
 It is not our intention to follow in detail the course of the 
 trial of the Marquess, or to attempt to unravel the intricacies 
 of Scotch legal procedure of that time in cases of treason. It 
 is enough for our purpose to set forth the charges brought 
 against Argyll and to indicate his line of defence, as well as 
 to describe the various stages of the trial. On the 13 th of 
 February he was brought down from the Castle in a coach, 
 with three of the magistrates of Edinburgh, attended by the 
 Town Guards, to the Parliament House, where he had for so 
 many years been the principal figure in the deHberations of the 
 Estates and in administering the government of Scotland.^ In 
 accordance with the usual custom on the occasion of a criminal 
 trial before Parliament, the Eoyal Commissioner, the Earl of 
 Middleton, on taking his seat put on his hat. The accused and 
 his advocates were stationed upon a platform specially erected 
 for the purpose near the entrance door.^ The formal accusa- 
 tion of High Treason was brought against Argyll by Sir John 
 Fletcher, then Lord Advocate. The task of prosecuting on a 
 capital charge a man who had for so many years been the lead- 
 ing figure in the political life of Scotland was an unpleasant one, 
 but Fletcher undertook it with zeal. Had he been a man of good 
 character, or had he discharged his present functions with decency, 
 we might have been inclined to credit him with regarding his 
 employment in prosecuting Argyll as a painful duty incumbent 
 
 ^ Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, Sir G. Mackenzie, p. 36. 
 
 ^ Wodrow, History, vol. i. p. 132. 
 
 ^Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, Sir G, Mackoiizie, p. 34, 
 
310 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 upon him because of the office he held. But, as he was afterwards 
 compelled to resign his office for receiving bribes and for other 
 misdemeanours/ and as during the trial of Argyll he assailed the 
 accused with scurrilous abuse,^ we need not believe that he 
 possessed feelings capable of being harrowed up by being called 
 upon to seek the condemnation of one so much in every way his 
 superior. The Lord High Commissioner who presided over the 
 trial was the Earl of Middleton, a bitter enemy of the Marquess, 
 who was high in favour with Charles II., and who was credited 
 with urging on the prosecution in the hope of obtaining for 
 himself a goodly share of the Argyll estates.^ 
 
 The reports of the trial which have come down to us are very 
 voluminous, and from them we see that the whole of the public 
 life of Argyll for the past twenty-two years had been closely 
 scrutinized, and a heterogeneous mass of charges of a more or 
 less heinous character had been based upon a malign interpreta- 
 tion of it. For convenience we may group these charges in 
 three classes.* The first contained those which were connected 
 with his conduct during the Civil War : as, e.g., the share he 
 had had in the invasion of England in 1644, the delivering up 
 of Charles I. to the English at Newcastle, his opposition to the 
 Engagement, the part he had taken in the Whiggamore Eaid, 
 the reception of Cromwell and of an English army in Scotland 
 after the battle of Preston, and the execution of the Marquess 
 of Huntly and the Marquess of Montrose. The second class 
 consisted of charges of cruel and barbarous murders, perpetrated 
 by officers under his command upon persons acting under the 
 King's authority, of which many details were recounted. The 
 third class contained charges of his having concurred in the 
 usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, his opposition to the Earls of 
 
 1 Nicoll, Diary, pp. 419, 421. ^ g^^^t^ Trials, vol. v. p. 1503. 
 
 ^ Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 135. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 132 ; Slate Trials, vol. v. p. 1369. The formal record of the trial, 
 with an account of proceedings from day to day, and depositions of witnesses, etc., 
 has disappeared (Burton, History, vol. vii. p. 150). In the volume of State Trials 
 to which we often refer, the main documents are preserved in the indictment against 
 the Marquess and his reply to it, and in his petitions and speeches. Other jjarticulars 
 are given in Wodrow's History, the Acts of Parliament of Scotland, Burnet's History 
 of My own Times, Baillie's Letters, NicoU's Diary, etc. ; so that there is no diffi- 
 culty in making out the general character and stages of the trial. The lack of the 
 formal record would doubtless be a very serious obstacle in the way of one who 
 wished to give a technical account of the proceedings. We have to keep in mind 
 the fact also that these Parliamentary trials were not bound by law and precedent, 
 and so were likelj' often to be capricious and irregular in character, 
 
AGGRAVATIONS OF HIS OFFENCE 311 
 
 Glencaim and Middleton on the occasion of the rising in the 
 Highlands, his having been present on the proclamation of 
 Eichard Cromwell as Protector and having sat in his Par- 
 liament. To these was afterwards added a charge of having 
 planned with Cromwell in Edinburgh the trial and execution 
 of Charles I. As over against these accusations many of the 
 general public in the three kingdoms might be inclined to set 
 the Marquess's services to Charles II., of which his setting on 
 his head the crown at Scone was the consummation and the 
 symbol, this action was with clumsy and unblushing impudence 
 referred to as aggravating the guilt of his treason. All these 
 evil things it was said he had done in forgetfulness of duty, 
 honour, and reputation, and also of the dignity vouchsafed him 
 in being allowed the trust and honour of setting the imperial 
 crown upon the royal head.^ It is to be hoped that our readers 
 will forgive our adding that Argyll might also have been accused 
 of having forgotten that he had had the privilege and honour at 
 the same time of filling the empty pockets of Charles with 
 money. This is not a matter to which, so far as we know, 
 Argyll made any reference in the way of complaint or claim ; 
 but we have it on the best authority that the King was indebted 
 to him in this way. In the letter written in 1650 which we 
 have already given ^ Charles speaks of £40,000 Sterling as 
 due to Argyll ; and that this was not merely money advanced or 
 guaranteed by him for State purposes is proved by an admission 
 of the King's some years later. In a conversation between 
 him and Don John of Austria about Scotch affairs reference was 
 made to Argyll, and the King alleged in favour of the genuine 
 loyalty with which he credited him that he (Charles) had received 
 more money from him than from any other person in Scotland.^ 
 Argyll's being so heavily in debt was puzzling to many in his 
 time ; " for," as Baillie says, " he got nmch, and w^as allwayes 
 sober and spareing." * But what we have now said may serve 
 to cast some light upon the mystery. 
 
 The net in which it was sought to entangle the Marquess was 
 spread so wide that it seemed almost hopeless to escape it. Not 
 only was zeal shown in collecting evidence against him, but he 
 
 J state Trials, vol. v. p. 1375. 
 ■ See p. 253. 
 
 ^ Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. vi. pt. ii. p. 905 ; Thurloe, State Papers, 
 vol. V. p. C04. 
 
 * Letters, vol. iii, p. 466. 
 
312 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 was hindered the liberty and opportunity of doing anything in 
 the way of preparing defence. While he was in London he 
 asked to be allowed to have the evidence of certain persons 
 taken by commission, in order to meet some charges which he 
 anticipated might be brought against him, but this was refused ; ^ 
 and, after the charges were formulated and the indictment served 
 upon him, the proceedings in connexion with the trial began 
 without leaving him time to prepare adequately for his defence. 
 As he himself complained, he had only had as many days for 
 answering the accusations as his adversaries had had months for 
 collecting them.^ From every quarter charges were raked up, 
 and persons were urged to present complaints to Parliament 
 against him, while obstacles were put in his way as if for the 
 express purpose of consuming the too brief time at his disposal 
 for drawing up answers to them.^ In these circumstances he 
 asked permission to cast himself upon the royal mercy, instead 
 of attempting to deal with the multitudinous and various accusa- 
 tions which the Lord Advocate had drawn up in his indictment. 
 This ]Aea. was, however, at once refused ; ^ and there was no 
 option but for him to accept the inevitable and to deal with the 
 charges brought against him as best he might. So serious were 
 the accusations in the indictment that indeed it was highly 
 desirable in the interests of justice and of Argyll's own reputation 
 that they should be investigated rather than set aside by the 
 exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy. 
 
 When Argyll addressed himself to the task of answering the 
 charges brought against him, the skill and eloquence with 
 which he defended his public career and repelled the calumnies 
 by which his enemies had tried to overwhelm him aroused 
 general admiration,^ and they began to regain for him some of 
 the popularity which he had long enjoyed but lost for a time, 
 and which was soon to be transformed into the veneration which 
 surrounds the name and memory of a martyr. The first class 
 of charges, according to the division we have adopted, had to do 
 with his conduct during the Civil War and was soon disposed 
 of. He pointed out that he was accused of many things which 
 had been done by the Estates of Parliament and by the Commission 
 of the Assembly for which he as an individual member could 
 not accept full responsibility ; that he had never acted in public 
 
 ' Wodrow, Histm-y, vol. i. p. 131, ^ State Trials, vol. v. p. 1428, 
 
 3 Wodiow, History, vol. i. p. 132. * State Trials, vol. v. pp, 1434-36. 
 
 ^ Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p, 133, 
 
REPELS ACCUSATIONS 313 
 
 matters without the sanction of these bodies ; that in some 
 of the proceedings complained of he did not happen to be 
 involved; and that both in 1641 and 1651 Acts of Indemnity 
 had been passed by Parliament and had received the royal 
 sanction, whicli prevented any charges in connexion with 
 events previous to these dates being pressed against him. 
 Still, however, he proceeded to deal with special accusations 
 based upon what had happened in the period covered by the 
 Acts of Indemnity, and he showed that much in the way of 
 slander and misrepresentation was to be found in them. With 
 regard to the second class of accusations of acts of barbarity 
 and cruelty alleged to have been perpetrated by officers of the 
 Marquess upon persons in arms for the King, his exculpation 
 was full and complete. " I never," he said, " took any man's 
 life, but what was done in conflict, or by order of law, for 
 notorious crimes, according to standing Acts of Parliament." ^ 
 So far as some of the items specified were concerned he was 
 in London when they were committed, and they had not taken 
 place in consequence of his orders. It was well know^n, he 
 said, that great outrages had been committed by the MacDonalds 
 on his people ; and he believed his people, when they had the 
 better of them, had taken cruel revenges : this was to be imputed 
 to the heat of the time and to the tempers of the peoj)le, who 
 had been much provoked by the burning of his whole country, 
 and by much blood that was shed. And, as to many stories 
 laid to the charge of his men, he knew some of them were 
 mere forgeries, and others were exaggerated much beyond the 
 truth ; but what truth soever might be in them, he could not 
 be answerable but for what was done by himself or by his 
 orders.2 These charges, like those in the first of the classes 
 
 1 state Trials, vol. v. p. 1385. 
 
 - Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p. lS3. A curious illustration of the 
 superstition prevalent in that age, as well as of the extravagance of the charges 
 brought against the Marquess, is afforded by a reference made in the formal indictment 
 to a miracle by which the Divine anger against the accused was said to have been 
 displayed. In connexion with the charge of hanging a jiumber of prisoners on a 
 tree at Dunoon, some circumstances are related as aggravating the iniquity of the 
 act. "Insomuch," the indictment says, "that the Lord from heaven did declare 
 His wrath and displeasure against the aforesaid inhuman cruelty, by striking the 
 tree whereon they were hanged, in the said month of June, being a lively fresh 
 growing ash-tree, at the Kirk -yard of Denoone, amongst many other fresh trees with 
 leaves, the Lord struck the said tree immediately thereafter ; so that the whole 
 leaves fell from it, and the tree withered, never bearing leaf thereafter, remaining 
 so for the space of two years ; which being cut down, there sprang out of the very 
 heart of the root thereof a spring like unto blood popling up, running in several 
 
314 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 referred to, were conuected with events covered by the Acts 
 of Indemnity. 
 
 In the meantime Lord Lome had been engaged in London in 
 endeavouring to mitigate the royal displeasure against his father, 
 and he had succeeded so far as to secui-e the writing of a letter 
 from Charles II. to the Earl of Middleton to the effect that 
 the Lord Advocate was to admit the plea urged by Argyll, and 
 to drop all charges which were connected with events belonging 
 to the period before 1651, when the second Act of Indemnity 
 was passed.^ So far from this being a remarkable concession 
 to the accused, the Acts in question could not have been set 
 aside without a gross and scandalous breach of faith towards 
 those protected by them, such as would have imperilled the 
 life and property of many in Scotland besides Argyll. It, 
 however, served to clear the case against him of the greater 
 part of the offences laid to his charge. A concession of a 
 more genuine and valuable kind was made by Charles in the 
 additional directions sent to Middleton that when the trial 
 of Argyll was ended the whole record of it was to be laid 
 before the King, and that sentence was not to be pronounced 
 by Parliament until this had been done. The Lord High 
 Commissioner, however, strongly protested against these in- 
 structions as expressing distrust of the justice of Parliament. 
 He said in reply that he durst not let them be known unless 
 he received a second and more positive order, which he hoped 
 would not be sent, as it would be certain " to discourage this 
 loyal and affectionate ParHament." In accordance with this 
 remonstrance the order in question was cancelled.^ 
 
 The only matters now alleged against Argyll were various 
 instances of compliance with the Government of Cromwell, and 
 
 streams, all over tlie root, and that for several years thereafter ; until the said 
 murderers or their favourers perceiving that it was remarked by persons of all 
 ranks (resorting there to see the miracle), they did cause houck out the root, cover- 
 ing the whole with earth, which was full of the said matter like blood. Of the 
 which cruel murders, the said persons, and especially the said Marquis of Argyle," 
 etc. etc. {State Trials, vol. v. p. 1382). We can imagine the scorn and indigna- 
 tion that would have been displayed by writers of a certain school if this had been 
 found in the indictment against a Eoyalist drawn up by a Covenanting prosecutor. 
 Even I'espectable historians who write from an Episcopalian and Royalist point of 
 view seem to take it for granted that superstition and fanaticism were manifested 
 exclusively by the Presbyterian party in that age. The above extract may serve to 
 explode that absurd fancy. 
 
 1 Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 134 
 
 ■^Jhid., vol. i. p. 134. 
 
ESCAPE SEEMS PROBABLE 315 
 
 auy sliaio he might be proved to have had iu concoctiug with 
 the EngHsh Gcueral the trial and execution of Charles I., which 
 took place so soon after the meeting in Moray House. Argyll's 
 case seemed so satisfactory that his second son, Lord Neil 
 Campbell, who went up to London to see his brother, Lord 
 Lome, spoke somewhat too openly concerning the likelihood of 
 his father's escape from the perilous position in which he stood.'^ 
 With regard to his compliance with the Government of the 
 usurper, the Marquess pointed out that when the nation had 
 been conquered he had been one of the very last to surrender, 
 and that such enforced submission had never at any time been 
 reckoned as a crime. In the terms which he had made with 
 the English he had merely agreed to live peaceably under a 
 government without a King and House of Lords, and he had never 
 expressed or affected approval of such a form of government. 
 In connexion with this matter a stirring passage-of-arms took 
 place between him and the Lord Advocate, Sir John Fletcher, 
 which must have brought a smile to the faces of most of 
 those present, though the incident was connected with the 
 humihation of that exalted legal functionary. " In one speech," 
 says Burnet, " excusing his compliance with Cromwell, Argyll 
 said, what could he think of that matter, after a man so 
 eminent in the law as His Majesty's Advocate had taken the 
 engagement ? This inflamed the other so much, that he called 
 him an impudent villain, and was not so much as chid for 
 that barbarous treatment. Lord Argyle gravely said, he had 
 learned in his affliction to bear reproaches ; but if the Parlia- 
 ment saw no cause to condemn him, he was less concerned at 
 the King's Advocate's raihng." ^ 
 
 Very httle was made by the prosecution of the charge 
 against Argyll of having disloyally abstained from giving aid 
 to the Earls of Glencairn and Middleton in the insurrection 
 which under the royal sanction they had promoted in the 
 Highlands. His helpless position at the time as virtually " a 
 prisoner on demand," in consequence of the Articles of Capitu- 
 lation which he had been obhged to conclude with General 
 Deane, freed him from a considerable amount of his responsibility 
 in the matter. He was able to strengthen this part of his 
 defence on the technical ground of not having received any 
 formal notice from either Glencairn or IMiddleton requiring his 
 
 ^ Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 465. 
 
 2 liurnet, Hist(y>-y of My own Timrfi, vol. i, p. 134. 
 
316 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 assistance — a point of considerable importance, as according to 
 law only those who refused when specially summoned were 
 liable to punishment for disobedience. He reminded the Earl 
 of Middleton that he had on one occasion sent him a request 
 to meet him and confer on public matters but had received 
 no reply. ^ 
 
 Argyll had but little trouble in answering the various 
 other items of the general charge of compliance with the 
 Government of the usurper. His presence at the procla- 
 mation of the Second Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell in 
 1657, which had been incorrectly described in the indictment 
 as that of Eichard Cromwell in 1658, he explained to have 
 been accidental and unpremeditated. He happened to be in 
 Edinburgh and " was commanded by General Monck to wait 
 on the Council before he knew any intention of such a pro- 
 clamation." 2 This statement of his was confirmed by a letter 
 of Monck's specially written to testify to its truthfulness.^ 
 The absurdity and injustice of treating presence when the 
 proclamation was made as an offence, now that the vastly 
 greater offence of making it had been condoned, were not 
 referred to by the defender, but they can scarcely have escaped 
 the notice of some of his judges. 
 
 His brief tenure of office as a member of the Parliament 
 which sat under Eichard Cromwell afforded very little ground on 
 which to base an accusation of treason. It was, he said, the 
 only visible power or authority in the country, and as Scotch 
 affairs were brought before it it was but reasonable to take 
 advantage of the opportunity which it afforded of protecting 
 the interests of the people of Scotland. His purpose in becom- 
 ing a member of Parliament under the Protector was not only 
 to safeguard his own just rights, but also to do what in him 
 lay to secure the laws and judicatories and religious institutions 
 of his country from injurious interference, and to obtain equitable 
 arrangements in the matter of taxation. The anticipation and 
 
 1 state Trials, vol. v. p. 1400. ^ Ibid., vol. v. p. 1403. 
 
 ^ Hist. MSS. Com., vol. vi. ]). 617. Monck certifies in the letter here printed 
 that Argyll was present with other members of the Scotch nobility then in Edin- 
 burgh, because of a request from the Council for their attendance at the ceremony of 
 proclaiming Richard Cromwell. Argyll himself, however, declares that this was 
 a mistake, and that it was at the proclamation of Oliver Cromwell's Second Pro- 
 tectorate that he was present, and his statement is confirmed by independent testi- 
 mony (Lament, Diary, p. 124). The probable explanation of the discrepancy is 
 that Argyll, like many others, had applied to Monck for a certificate of the kind, 
 ajid that it had in his case been inaccurately given, 
 
REPUDIATES SYMPATHY WITH REGICIDE 317 
 
 hope of being able to do something in the way of promoting 
 the interests of Charles II. weighed also with him, ho declared, 
 in forming the decision to enter Parliament.^ There is no 
 reason to doubt his assertion ; for, though he had engaged to 
 live peaceably under a government without King or House of 
 Lords, he had never concealed his predilection for the type of 
 constitution which he had endeavoured to set up — that of the 
 rule of a Covenanted King whose power in civil and ecclesi- 
 astical matters was hmited by Parliaments and General Assembhes. 
 Bitterly as the King and his Cavalier partisans might loathe 
 this ideal constitution, Argyll was regarded by the Sectaries 
 as a Royalist at heart.^ 
 
 The temper of the Parliament was described hj the Eail 
 of Middleton, Argyll's bitter enemy, as " loyal and aft'ectionate " 
 towards the King and likely to be discouraged by any 
 favour shown to the accused. But, even in the opinion of a 
 large number of this partial and hostile assembly, presided 
 over by one who allowed no restraints of decency to veil 
 his animus against the Marquess and his anxiety to secure 
 his condemnation,^ it was clear that no deiinite evidence of 
 guilt had been brought before them, and it seemed possible 
 that the case might conclude with an acquittal. The last 
 determined onset was made upon Argyll in an attempt to 
 convict him of the crime of having concerted with Cromwell 
 the trial and execution of Charles I. For this charge there 
 was not a shred of evidence, or even reasonable ground for 
 suspicion. Time after time, from the meeting of Parliament in 
 the beginning of 1649 at which the Marquess had denounced 
 the crime of regicide down to his last speech upon the scaffold, 
 he expressed his abhorrence of the proceedings against the 
 late King, and he vehemently denied the connexion with 
 them which his political opponents persistently strove to 
 establish. On the present occasion he said : " And whereas 
 that most horrid and abominable crime of talcing away the 
 precious life of the late King, is most maliciously and falsely 
 charged upon me ; if I had the least accession to that most 
 vile and heinous crime, I would esteem myself unworthy to 
 live, and that all highest punishments should be inflicted upon 
 me ; but my witness is in heaven, and my record on high, that 
 no such wicked or disloyal thought ever entered into my 
 
 ^ State Triah, vol. v. p. 1403. " Firtli, Scotland and llyi Protectorate, p. 411, 
 
 ^ Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 135. 
 
318 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 heart." ^ The Parliament of Scotland would have been lost 
 to all sense of righteousness and truth if it had consented 
 to the deep iniquity of taking away life on the ground of 
 a suspicion so remote and unsubstantiated. Therefore we 
 are not surprised that, although Argyll's enemies were in 
 the majority, strong protection was afforded him against this 
 unjust and odious procedure by some who on other grounds 
 would have condemned him. Sir John Gilmore, the President 
 of the Court of Session (the supreme court of justice in Scot- 
 land), zealously took up his defence on this point against the 
 Earl of Middleton, who was most vehement in urging the charge. 
 A long and animated discussion arose in which they were the 
 principal speakers, and the debate lasted many hours. When 
 the matter was put to the vote Argyll was acquitted on this 
 charge by a large majority. His joy was great, and he seemed 
 at the time but little concerned as to anything that might 
 now befall him.^ 
 
 Yet there was reason for anxiety on his part. Two of his 
 relentless enemies, the Earl of Glencairn and the Earl of Eothes, 
 the latter a son of the man who in the beginning of the struggle 
 with Charles I. had been the most truculent supporter of the 
 popular party, had gone up to London to announce progress and to 
 advise concerning future procedure.^ Argyll's heart sank at the 
 thought of what might be done against him, and, though doubt- 
 less he hoped that the bitterness of death was past, the shadow 
 of danger still menaced him. The project of attempting an 
 escape from the Castle was suggested to him or devised by him, 
 and some of his friends entered zealously into it. Por a few 
 days during an interval in his trial he kept his bed, and his wife 
 went and came regularly to and from the Castle in a covered 
 chair. One day he put on some of her clothes and was on the 
 point of stepping into the chair, when for some reason or another 
 he altered his mind and resolved to face the worst that might 
 befall him. It may be that a touch of the constitutional timidity 
 with which many credited him shook his resolution ; it may be 
 that he thought the scheme a hopeless one, or that in his 
 circumstances an escape of this kind would be discreditable 
 for a man of his standing.* 
 
 1 state Trials, vol. v. p. 1434. 
 
 - Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 13.5. 
 
 * Mackenzie, Mojioirs of the History of Scotland, p. 37. 
 
 * Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 134 ; Wodrow, Histotij, vol. i. p. 152. 
 
A FATAL PACKET 319 
 
 According to the procedure in Scotch law tlie proof of 
 matters alleged in the indictment had been led, and all that the 
 accused had to say in reply had been heard. The next stage, 
 after " probation " on both sides had been closed, was to debate 
 the case and to vote upon the prisoner's guilt or innocence. The 
 Acts of Indemnity had disposed of a great number of the 
 accusations, and by vote of Parliament another and the weightiest 
 of all — that of plotting the late King's death — had been dis- 
 missed. Wodrow tells us that he was informed on undoubted 
 authority that, after all the debates were pretty much through, 
 Gilmore arose and said : " I have given all the attention I was 
 capable of to the whole of this process and I can find nothing 
 proven against the Marquis but what the most part of this 
 house are involved in as well as he, and we may as well be 
 found guilty." The strong impression which this statement was 
 calculated to make was, however, counteracted to a large extent 
 by Middleton's reply. With loathsome servility the Koyal 
 Commissioner exclaimed : " What Sir John has said is very true : 
 we are all of us, or most, guilty, and the King may pitch on any 
 he pleases to make examples." ^ The only question now was as 
 to whether the various actions summed up in the charge of com- 
 pHance with the usurpers amounted to treason or not. The 
 debate had just begun and Argyll's friends were preparing to do 
 their utmost for him, when a packet brought direct from London 
 by a messenger was presented to the Lord High Commissioner. 
 As the messenger was a Campbell the first thought in the minds 
 of many who were present was that he brought some document 
 in favour of the Marquess — a warrant or letter of remission — 
 which might close the case happily for him. When the packet 
 was opened it was found to contain private letters written by 
 Argyll to Lilburne and Monck when they were in command 
 of the forces of the English Commonwealth in Scotland, and 
 which the latter, to his eternal infamy, had sent down to 
 secure the condemnation of the Marquess.^ The letters, all of 
 which we give in an Appendix, were amply sufficient for the pur- 
 pose. The cruel pressure of circumstances had driven Argyll into 
 supporting the action the Enghsh Government had taken in sup- 
 pressing Glencairn's rebellion, and into intimate association with 
 
 ^ Argyll Papers, p. 13. 
 
 - Mackenzie, Mcmoira of the History of Scotland, p. 39 ; Buruet, History of 
 My oivn Times, vol. i. pp. 135, 136 ; Firth, Scotland ami the Protectorate, pp. 104 n., 
 177 n. The letters themselves are in App. VI. 
 
320 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 agents of the usurper. The accused acknowledged that he had 
 written these letters, and after they were read no doubt could 
 remain in the minds of any that, though Argyll's submission 
 to the Government of the Commonwealth had been at first a 
 matter of compulsion, he had afterwards co-operated in some of 
 the proceedings which the Government of the Eestoration could 
 fairly describe as treasonable. This had been the outcome of 
 the conference in London. " my soul, come not thou into 
 their secret ; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou 
 united ! for in their anger they slew a man. . . . Cursed be 
 their anger, for it was fierce ; and their wrath, for it was cruel." 
 
 The reading of the letters was contrary to the forms of 
 justice, since the proof on both sides had been closed ; but 
 the friends of Argyll were too dismayed to raise what would 
 probably have been a fruitless debate on the ground of a merely 
 technical irregularity in the proceedings. They left the court, 
 and the decision to condemn the Marquess to death was carried 
 unanimously by the remaining members. The young Marquess 
 of Montrose alone refused to vote, on the ground that he had 
 too deep reason for resentment against Argyll to allow him 
 with decency to act as a judge in the matter. The proposal 
 was made to execute him, as in the case of Montrose, by hanging, 
 but it was not carried ; and the less ignominious punishment of 
 beheading was decided upon, but without the other horrible 
 circumstances of mangling the dead body which so often dis- 
 graced executions for treason in that age.^ 
 
 On the following day, Saturday, 25th May, 1661, Argyll was 
 brought to the bar of the House to receive his sentence in the 
 presence of Parliament. It ran as follows : " That he was found 
 guilty of high treason, and adjudged to be executed to the death 
 as a traitor, his head to be severed from his body at the Cross 
 of Edinburgh, upon Monday, the 27th instant ; and affixed in the 
 same place where the Marquis of Montrose's head was formerly, 
 and his arms torn before the Parliament and at the Cross." ^ 
 This last was a heraldic ceremony usual in cases of treason. 
 The number of members present in Parliament on that day was 
 extremely small, and they consisted almost exclusively of those 
 who were thoroughgoing supporters of the Court policy. When 
 Argyll came to the bar to receive his sentence he reminded the 
 Parliament of the enactment of the Emperor Theodosius that a 
 
 ^ Burnet, History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 136. 
 * Wodrow, History, vol. i. p. 150. 
 
SENTENCE OF DEATH 321 
 
 scuteuce of death should not be executed till thirty days after 
 it had been passed, and added : " I crave but ten, that the King 
 may be acquainted witli it." This was refused, and he was 
 ordered to kneel to receive his sentence. He replied : " I will, 
 in all humility," and immediately knelt down. In the absence 
 of the Lord Chancellor, the sentence of death was pronounced 
 by the Earl of Crawford, who was President of the Parliament. 
 This noble had been in both friendly and hostile relations 
 with Argyll since the day he had discussed with Montrose 
 the propriety of appointing him a military dictator.^ He had 
 adhered to the Hamiltonian party in politics and had been the 
 Marquess's antagonist on the occasion of the duel to which we 
 have referred on an earlier page.^ The present sentence he 
 regarded as unjust, and yet in virtue of his office it fell to him 
 to pronounce it — a task which he performed with tears streaming 
 down his face.^ After the sentence Argyll was about to speak, but 
 he was interrupted by the sounding of trumpets.* When there 
 was silence, he said : " I had the honour to set the crown on the 
 King's head, and now he hastens me to a better crown than 
 his own." He then addressed the Lord High Commissioner and 
 Parliament in these w^ords : " You have the indemnity of an 
 earthly King among your hands, and you have denied me a share 
 in that, but you cannot hinder me from the indemnity of the 
 King of Kings, and shortly you must be before His tribunal. I 
 pray He mete not out such measure to you as you have done 
 to me, when you are called to account for all your doings, and 
 this among the rest." He was then removed to the Tolbooth or 
 common jail of Edinburgh in which for the two past nights he 
 had been confined.^ 
 
 The reason why so much unrelenting animosity was shown 
 to Argyll is not far to seek. Some may have detested his 
 politics, others may have desired to obtain a share of his pro- 
 perty,^ while the King himself may have vindictively cherished a 
 determination to avenge the humiliations he endured when in 
 
 ' See p. 113. 2 gge p. 209, ^ Life of Robert Blair, p. 385. 
 
 ■* Our conjecture is that the sentence of condemnation was followed by the 
 formula, "God save the King," immediately after which there was a flourish of 
 trumpets. 
 
 ^ ^Yod^ow, Uistory, vol. i. p. 150. 
 
 8 Wodrow, Analecta, vol. ii. p. 52 : " It is said that Middleton and Glencairn, at 
 that time, wer soe sure, as they thought, of their will, that they had meetings 
 and minutes betwixt them of ane equall division of the Marques of Argyle's estate 
 among them." 
 
 21 
 
322 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Scotland and the tutelage in which Argyll had then held him. 
 But none of these motives would probably have been strong 
 enough to secure his destruction had they not been seconded by 
 the fear of what he might yet do if he were allowed to live. 
 The overthrow of the Covenant and of Presbyterianism in Scot- 
 land, and a reversal of the measure of political liberty which 
 the struggle for religious liberty had brought with it, had been 
 decided upon by the Government of the Restoration, and they 
 were likely to find in Argyll one who would foil their schemes. 
 His rank and reputation and the position he occupied as an 
 almost independent potentate in Scotland would enable him to 
 play over again the part he had played in the reign of Charles I. 
 in organizing and leading an opposition to arbitrary govern- 
 ment and Episcopacy. Though far from being of robust health 
 he was still comparatively young in years, and it may well have 
 seemed to his enemies that they had much to fear from him. 
 As Baillie says : " The man was very wise, and questionless 
 the greatest subject the King had ; sometime much known and 
 beloved in all the three dominions : it was not tJiought safe 
 he should live."'^ Eesentment on account of the past was 
 supplemented by dread of his power in the future, and hence 
 every point was strained to hurry him to the scaffold. We have 
 seen that one serious technical irregularity occurred at the trial 
 in the admission of evidence after proof had been closed. 
 Another and even more gross irregularity consisted in his being 
 executed without the authority of a death-warrant signed by the 
 King. These circumstances show a discreditable eagerness to 
 take his life, but they need not be insisted upon by his defenders. 
 They have more weighty reasons for accounting the trial an 
 infamous travesty of justice than any technical objections to 
 procedure can afford, and they would reckon his death a judicial 
 murder even though the forms of law had been most pedantically 
 observed. 
 
 The eagerness on the part of the Government to serve out 
 to Argyll the same punishment as the English regicides received, 
 though he was acquitted of any complicity in their guilt, shows 
 us the resentment cherished against him, as well as the desire 
 to hinder his becoming a leader of the opposition to the 
 political schemes which had been resolved upon for Scotland. 
 However reprehensible the action of the King and of his leading 
 advisers was, it was not unintelligible. The conduct of Monck in 
 ^ Letters, vol. iii. p. 465. The italics are ours. 
 
MONCK'S RESENTMENT 323 
 
 the matter is difficult to understand. Nothing can ever palHato 
 his guilt, but some slight clue to one of the motives influencing 
 him is discoverable in the irritation which he felt towards 
 Argyll, whose relations with the Government of the Protectorate 
 had not been altogether amicable. For two years after the 
 Marquess had concluded terms with Major-General Deane, the 
 two Ensrlish Commanders-in-Chief in Scotland, Lilburne and 
 Monck, formed and expressed favourable opinions concerning his 
 " sood affection " to the Government of the Protector. It was 
 during this period that the letters were written which were after- 
 wards used with fatal effect against him.^ The action of Lord 
 Lome in joining the Eoyalist insurrection brought suspicion of 
 collusion on his father, though, as we have seen, the grounds 
 for such suspicion were quite inadequate. Early in 1658 an 
 Adjutant-General Smith ^ brought evidence before Monck which 
 seemed to show that the surprisal of the English garrisons in 
 Argyllshire, soon after the Marquess's capitulation, had taken 
 place with his knowledge or sanction ; and at the same time 
 other occm-rences tended to prove that his Eoyalist sympathies 
 were still unextinguished, and even to suggest that possibly he 
 had secret relations with that party. In March of 1659 Monck 
 said of him : " In his heart there is no man in the three nations 
 does more disaffect the English interest than he." ^ All this 
 may have exasperated Monck at the time ; but, now that he had 
 himself become a Eoyalist, the grounds for suspicion against the 
 Marquess, which he had formerly entertained, should have been 
 recommendations to his favour and goodwill. For if those 
 suspicions were well founded they simply showed that for a long 
 time past, if not all through the interregnum, the Scotch chieftain 
 had cherished an attachment to the Monarchy and the House of 
 Stewart which Monck himself had but recently manifested. It 
 was for compliance with the Protector's Government that Argyll 
 was condemned ; while Monck's resentment was, so far as we can 
 trace its origin, founded on the fact that his compliance had 
 not been in his opinion thoroughgoing and steadfast. Neither 
 he, therefore, nor the Government of the Eestoration, of which 
 he was in this matter the accomplice or the tool, can be acquitted 
 of deep and cold-blooded villainy in the treatment of the Marquess. 
 
 ^ Firth, SrMland and the Protectorate (Scottish Hist. Soc), pp. 61, 110. 
 2 Hid., p. 412. His adventures as given in his narrative remind one of some of 
 Dugald Dalgetty's experiences in Inveraray, 
 ^ Ibid., pp. Ix, Ixi. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 The Marchioness of Argyll's fruitless Appeal to the Roj-al Commissioner — 
 Covenanting Society deeply moved by the Marquess's Condemnation — A 
 Letter of Encouragement received by him — His Letter to the King — His 
 Demeanour on the Scaffold — His Death and Funeral — Various Testimonies 
 to his Integrity and Innocence — His Intellectual and Moral Character- 
 istics — Conclusion. 
 
 AFTEE the Marquess of Argyll had received his sentence, 
 he was removed to the Tolbooth, where he found his 
 wife waiting to receive him. Upon seeing her he said : " They 
 have given me till Monday to be with you, my dear, there- 
 fore let us make for it [prepare for it]." ^ She embraced him 
 with tears and said : " The Lord will require it, the Lord will 
 require it." Amid the lamentations of his wife and friends the 
 Marquess was perfectly composed, and said : " Forbear, forbear ; 
 truly I pity them, they know not what they are doing : they 
 may shut me in where they please, but they cannot shut out 
 God from me ; for my part I am as content to be here 
 as in the Castle, and as content in the Castle as in the Tower 
 of London, and as content there as when at liberty ; and I 
 hope to be as content upon the scaffold as [in] any of them 
 all." With some of that simplicity which formed such a 
 winning element in his religious life he told of a comforting 
 sentence he had lately heard quoted by an " honest " (i.e. 
 Covenanting) minister in the Castle, and how he had endeavoured 
 to put it in practice. The quotation was from the passage in 
 the history of David, where we are told that after Ziklag was 
 taken and burned the people spoke of stoning him, but " he 
 encouraged himself in the Lord." ^ 
 
 On the evening of the day on which the death -sentence was 
 passed on Argyll the Marchioness went down to Holyrood to 
 intercede with the Earl of Middleton for delay at least, to allow 
 time for an appeal to the King in the hope of obtaining a 
 
 ^ "To make for," i.e. to lay one's account against an expected event. 
 2 Wodrow, History, vol. i. p. 152. 
 
 324 
 
PRAYER MADE WITHOUT CEASING 325 
 
 reprieve. She had an interview with him and found him 
 confused with wine, yet quite able to understand the purport of 
 her request. He treated her courteously ; but we are told " w^hen 
 she came to propose her suit he told her he could not serve 
 her there. It was, he said, as much as his life was worth, and 
 would, though he should give it, be fruitless, for he had received 
 three Instructions from the King, which he behoved to accomplish 
 — to rescind the Covenants, to take the Marquise of Argyle's 
 head, and to sheath every man's sword in his brother's breast." 
 For days afterwards it is said that he was melancholy and 
 irritated at the thought that in his drunkenness he had blabbed 
 State secrets which had been entrusted to him, and that possibly 
 he was a ruined man.^ 
 
 During the Marquess's imprisonment, and especially during 
 the few days which separated his receiving sentence from its 
 being executed upon him, it might be said that in Scotland 
 " prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for 
 him." By the permission of the authorities, a fact which should 
 be remembered to their credit, some of the most zealous 
 Presbyterian ministers who had long been his personal friends 
 were allowed to be with him in prison, not only to administer 
 consolation and sympathy, but to be witnesses of his serenity, 
 cheerfulness, and piety in the face of death. Those whose 
 names have come down to us in this connexion are Mr Eobert 
 Douglas, Mr George Hutcheson, and Mr David Dickson. 
 Another minister, Mr James Guthrie, who belonged to the 
 extremer section of the Covenanting party and had been deeply 
 involved in the stormy politics of his age, was also at that 
 time in the Tolbooth as a prisoner under a death -sentence. 
 Mr Douglas and Mr Hutcheson conducted Divine service and 
 preached in the prison on the last Sunday of the Marquess's life ; 
 while Mr Dickson, a very dear and valued friend, shared his 
 cell that night and prayed with him during the time before and 
 after sleep. By his desire his wife had said the last farewell 
 to him on the Sunday evening and thus left the day of his 
 death free from the saddest of all his leave-takings.^ 
 
 It would have been strange if in the tension of feeling in 
 so many minds something of a supernatural cast had not been 
 reported as occurring in answer to prayer. It is said that, on 
 the minds of several in different parts of the country and on that 
 of the Marquess himself, on the evening before his death and 
 1 ■\Vodrow, Analeda, vol. i. p. 68. ^ Wodiow, History, vol. i. p. 153. 
 
326 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 during the day on which it occurred, the words were impressed, 
 " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee," as having 
 special reference to him. Early on the Monday morning he was 
 occupied in signing papers, adjusting accounts, and transacting 
 other business in connexion with his estates, and " a number 
 of persons of quality " were in the room with him. While he 
 was thus employed he was overcome by feehngs which for a 
 time he tried to conceal by turning to the fire in the grate 
 and stirring it up with the tongs. At last he burst into tears 
 and exclaimed — his thoughts taking their colour from the 
 occupation in which he had been engaged during the forenoon — 
 " I see this will not do ! I must now declair what the Lord has 
 done for my soul ! He has just now, at this very instant of time, 
 sealed my chartour in these words, ' Son, be of good cheer, thy sins 
 are forgiven thee ! ' " ^ To some of his friends he spoke of his 
 having prayed to God to be strengthened to overcome the strain 
 of timidity which he acknowledged to be in his nature ; and 
 none could deny that the prayer had been answered, or, if they 
 hesitated to accept a supernatural explanation of his present 
 undaunted courage, that in the glow of generous and exalted 
 feeling the Marquess had triumphed over that fear of death 
 which holds so many of us in lifelong bondage. 
 
 The historian Wodrow records a letter received by Argyll 
 from a minister whose name is not mentioned, which gave him 
 great encouragement on the morning of this day so eventful for 
 him. Some sentences of it may be quoted here as showing the 
 position which the Marquess occupied in the estimation of a 
 large section of his countrymen, and the affection for him 
 which had revived in the hearts of many. " My Lord," it ran, 
 " I hope by this time you know that God sendeth no man a 
 warfare upon his own charges ; the report of your seasonable 
 and suitable support, and of what the Lord doth to your soul, 
 with your rising integrity before the world, as it was clear to 
 others before, so it doth much comfort us over many things, 
 so that we can speak with the adversary in the gate. We 
 reckon it was a mercy to the Cause (if I may speak so), and to 
 many friends of it, that God hath brought your Lordship upon 
 the stage ; He hath vindicated His reproached work in spite of 
 reproach, so that it will be advantageous for the nation : neither 
 do I doubt but it was a singular mercy to yourself, and shall be 
 a relief to your oppressed name, which this day is visibly come 
 ^ Wodrow, Analeda, vol. i. pp. 117, 164. 
 
LETTER TO THE KING 327 
 
 above water. If you had been in favour with the greatest of 
 men, and had the world smiling upon you, I much question if 
 it had been so well with your soul and conscience, and if you 
 had had that room in gracious hearts, which I can confidently 
 say now you have. . . . Your Lordship may reckon your labours 
 and sufferings sold at a good rate, when you consider how many 
 souls have been refreshed these twenty-three years bygone ; the 
 reward of which we wish may now richly return to your bosom ; 
 so are many wishing this day who never saw your face, to whom 
 your name and chain are savoury. Be of good courage, and 
 God shall strengthen your heart, and be your guide even 
 unto death." ^ 
 
 One of Argyll's last actions before leaving the prison for 
 execution was to write a letter to the King couched in simple 
 and dignified terms, in which, after protesting his innocence of 
 all the charges brought against him, except that of compliance 
 with the usurpers after they had conquered the country — an 
 offence which he says was " an epidemic disease and fault of the 
 time" — he asked for the royal protection to be extended to his 
 wife and children. " These, I hope," he says, " have not done 
 anything to procure your Majesty's indignation." And he 
 added : " Since [my] family have had the honour to be faithful 
 subjects, and serviceable to your royal progenitors, I humbly beg 
 my faults may not extinguish the lasting merit and memory of 
 those who have given so many signal proofs of constant loyalty 
 for many generations." In the concluding passage of the letter 
 he asks that arrangements may be made for the payment of 
 his creditors out of the income and debts due to himself and to 
 his son." 
 
 At twelve o'clock he dined ^ with his friends and was quite 
 calm and cheerful, and after dinner, according to his custom, 
 he withdrew and lay down for a short nap. When he returned 
 to the company he again expressed his sense of God's nearness 
 to him, and of the Divine mercy in the forgiveness of his sins. 
 The summons to execution was expected at two o'clock in the 
 afternoon. Some reference was made to the fact, when the 
 Marquess discovered that the prison clock had been stopped 
 since one, and that the hour of departure was now close at hand. 
 He deprecated the would-be kindness which had prompted the 
 
 1 History, vol. i. p. 153. 2 juj^^^ ^^^^ i_ p_ i53_ 
 
 3 "In Scotland the executions are after dinner " (Burnet, Sujiplement to History 
 of My own Times, p. 81). 
 
328 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 action, and he knelt down and prayed aloud in affecting terms. 
 As soon as he had ended he received word that the bailies who 
 were to conduct him to the place of execution were below and 
 were waiting for him. On this he called for a glass of wine 
 and, according to the quaint Scotch custom which long 
 continued in use, asked a blessing upon it standing, and then 
 said : " Now, let us go, and God go with us." When he had 
 taken his leave of those in the room who were not to go with 
 him, he said as he went towards the door, probably to one of 
 his advocates, Mr Mackenzie, that he would not die as a Eoman 
 braving death, but as a Christian without being affrighted.^ 
 His farewell to the minister, Mr James Guthrie, who was 
 to suffer death in hke manner on the Saturday of the same 
 week, suggests a companion picture to that of Strafford on 
 his way to execution receiving the blessing of Archbishop 
 Laud. We give the story in Wodrow's words : " When 
 going down he called Mr James Guthrie to him, and embrac- 
 ing him in the most endearing way, took his farewell of him, 
 Mr Guthrie at parting addressed the Marquess thus, ' My 
 Lord, God hath been with you. He is with you, and God will 
 be wdth you ; and such is my respect for your lordship, that 
 if I were not under the sentence of death myself, I could 
 cheerfully die for your lordship.' So they parted for a very 
 short season, in two or three days to meet in a better 
 place." 2 
 
 The Marquess was accompanied to the scaffold by various 
 noblemen and gentlemen, a list of whom he had furnished to the 
 authorities to obtain permission for them to be present : among 
 them were his sons-in-law, the Earl of Caithness and the Earl 
 of Lothian ; his kinsmen, the Earl of Loudon and Montgomerie of 
 Skelmorlie ; Mr Hutcheson and Mr Hamilton, ministers ; Mr 
 Trail, his chaplain ; and Mr Cunningham, his physician. They 
 were all dressed in mourning, including the Marquess, who, 
 as he went along the street, had on his hat and cloak and 
 was unbound. The sight of him walking calmly to his death, as 
 though his action were quite voluntary, was thought by the 
 authorities likely to impress beholders in his favour, or at any 
 rate to suggest that the terror which they wished to inspire was 
 not shared by their victim ; and care was taken that the next 
 to suffer should be pinioned and bare-headed on his way to 
 
 ^ Memoirs of the History of Scotland, Sir G. Mackenzie, p. 40. 
 ' History, p. 155, 
 
Rev. Jamks Clui'HRiE, Minister at Stirling. 
 Executed at Kdinburgh, 1st June l66i. 
 
SPEECH ON THE SCAFFOLD 329 
 
 the scaffold.^ On each side of the Marquess city magistrates 
 walked, and the procession was attended by a detachment of the 
 Life Guards on horseback, with carbines and drawn swords, 
 while soldiers with displayed colours lined the street.^ The 
 demeanour of the crowds that watched Argyll pass and that 
 surrounded the place of execution was quiet and respectful. 
 " However he had been much hated by the people," says Baillie, 
 " yet in death he was much regrated by many, and by none 
 insulted over."^ 
 
 With undiminished serenity he mounted the scaffold and 
 saluted courteously those who were upon it, and then Mr 
 Hutcheson engaged in prayer. Thereafter the Marquess ad- 
 dressed the people and spoke for half an hour with great 
 composure and collectedness. His speech had been carefully 
 written out, and it contained not only a vindication of his public 
 life from the charges brought against it but warnings against 
 evil living and religious indifterence, and presentiments of fiery 
 trials in the near future by which the faith of many would be 
 put to a severe test. The general tone of the speech may be 
 judged from its concluding paragraph, which ran as follows : — 
 " Some will expect that I will regret my own condition ; but 
 truly I neither grudge, nor repine, nor desire I any revenge. 
 And I declare I do not repent my going to London ; for I had 
 rather have suffered anything than lie under such reproaches as 
 I did. I desire not that the Lord should judge any man, nor do 
 I judge any but myself : I wish, that as the Lord hath pardoned 
 me, so may He pardon them for this and other things, and that 
 what they have done to me may never meet them in their 
 accounts. I have no more to say, but beg the Lord that since 
 I go away, He may bless them that stay behind." * During his 
 speech his friends noticed that he nervously played with some 
 of the buttons of his doublet, fastening and unfastening them, 
 and that while he spoke he moved to different corners of the plat- 
 form, as though the restraint which he had imposed upon him- 
 self was beginning to give way. But the nervousness, if such 
 it was, went no further.^ 
 
 Mr Hamilton then prayed, and after him the Marquess 
 
 * Wodi'ow, Analccta, vol. i. p. 108. Burnet says : " All go to their execution on 
 foot ill Scotland" (Supplement to History of My oion Times, p. 81). 
 
 ' NicoU, Diary, p. 334. ^ Letters, vol. iii. p. 466. 
 
 * AVodrow, History, vol, i. p. 156 n. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of the Histvry of Scotland, p. 42. 
 
330 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 prayed aloud and took leave of all his friends on the scaffold. 
 He gave the executioner a napkin with some money in it. With 
 a smile he said to his son-in-law, the Earl of Caithness, that he 
 had promised him his silver watch and would now pay his debt, 
 and with that he put it into his hands. Other things that were 
 in his pockets he gave to those about him. To the Earl of 
 Lothian he gave a double-ducat, and to the Earl of Loudon his 
 silver pen. He then bowed to those on the scaffold and threw 
 off his doublet. As he drew near to the rough guillotine, 
 popularly called " The Maiden," Mr Hutcheson said to him : 
 " My Lord, hold now your grip sicker." He answered : " Mr 
 Hutcheson, you know what I said to you in the chamber. 
 I am not afraid to be surprised with fear." ^ His physician, Mr 
 Cunningham, afterwards told Bishop Burnet that he touched the 
 Marquess's pulse, and that it was beating at the usual rate, calm 
 and strong.- Before he knelt down he turned to those near him, 
 and said in the hearing of all : " I desire you, gentlemen, and all 
 that hear me, again to take notice, and remember, that now when 
 I am entering on eternity, and am to appear before my Judge, 
 and as I desire salvation and expect eternal happiness from Him, 
 I am free from any accession, by knowledge, contriving, counsel, 
 or any other way to his late Majesty's death ; and I pray God to 
 preserve the present King His Majesty, and to pour His best 
 blessings on his person and government, and the Lord give him 
 good and faithful counsellors." ^ He then knelt down cheerfully, 
 and after he had prayed for a httle he gave the signal by lifting 
 up his hand. The axe fell and struck off his head ; and he was 
 now in the ranks of those who had been faithful unto death. 
 The indecent haste with which his execution had been carried 
 through may be judged from the fact that the warrant for it was 
 not signed in London until the 28th of May, 1661, the day after 
 his death.* 
 
 ^ Wodrow, History, vol. i. p. 157. 
 
 ^History of My own Times, vol. i. p. 136. 
 
 2 Wodrow, History, p. 157 n. 
 
 * Hist. MSS. Com., vol. v. p. 203; \Yodrow, Analeda, vol. ii. p. 103. The 
 blunders perpetrated by Clarendon in connexion with his narrative of Argyll's trial 
 and execution are both numerous and shamefully careless. He says that he was 
 convicted of murders on clear evidence, whereas the Acts of Indemnity precluded 
 the necessity of even discussing the charges in question ; and he goes on to tell that 
 on the day of condemnation he was hanged on a gallows — amid universal joy — along 
 with a seditious preacher named Gillespie {Life, vol. ii. p. 30). Gillespie, who was 
 pardoned, is confused with Guthrie. It is surely but seldom that such a heap of 
 clotted falsehood is presented to a reader as authentic history. 
 
BURIAL AT KILMUN 331 
 
 His head was set up on the spike ou the west eud of 
 the Tolbooth ou which that of Montrose had been fixed. His 
 bleeding body was carried by his friends to the httle church 
 of St ]\Iagdalene in the Cowgate, and thereafter to Newbattle 
 Abbey, the residence of his kinsman, the Earl of Lothian ; and 
 in the night-time a month later it was taken in a carriage of 
 Earl Marischal's, drawn by six horses and attended by a numerous 
 company, to the family vault on Holy Loch. The funeral pro- 
 cession passed through Linlithgow, Falkirk, and Glasgow, to Kil- 
 patrick and thence by boat to Dunoon and Kilmun.^ And there 
 in his native Highland soil, surrounded by mountains, emblems 
 of God's protection, his body was laid within sound of the sea- 
 waves, which might be taken to represent the turbulent ocean of 
 political hfe on which for so long he had been tossed. He had 
 now reached a higher shore and could look back and gaze on the 
 dangerous water with a heart glad at the deliverance granted 
 him.2 Three years later, by permission of Charles II., the head 
 affixed upon the Tolbooth was taken down and buried beside his 
 body at Kilmuu ^ — surely an apt illustration of the saying of 
 Scripture that " the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." ^ 
 
 Though, as Lord Bacon reminds us, there is no passion in the 
 mind of man so weak but it masters the fear of death,^ and 
 though it may be, as he says, as natural to die as to be born, yet 
 the spectacle of a serene, dignified, and resolute acceptance of 
 the stroke that divides soul and body never fails to impress 
 men with a measure of astonishment as well as of admiration. 
 Even a weak and vicious criminal may succeed, by summoning 
 up so poor a sentiment as vanity, in maintaining for a brief 
 period the appearance of stoical calm upon the scaffold ; but 
 Argyll's courage had to meet a far greater strain than is impHed 
 in an effort of that kind. He was surrounded by friends who, 
 though silent, resented and lamented, as he well knew, the 
 sentence then about to be executed, and by general consent the 
 grief of those we love is one of the circumstances of death which 
 show it terrible. Yet so far was Argyll unaffected by this and 
 
 ' Baillie, Letters, vol. iii. p. 466. 
 
 ^ " E come quel, che con lena affannata 
 
 Uscito fuor del pelaga alia riva. 
 Si volge air acqua perigliosa, e guata." 
 
 Dante, Inf., i. 22. 
 2 Life o/Eohert Blair, p. 469 ; Hist. 3ISS. Com., vol. vi. p. 607. The date was 
 8th June, 1664 {Red Book of GrandtuUy, vol. i. p. cix). 
 * Pro v., chap. xii. 10. * Essays, 2. 
 
332 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 other trying experiences in connexion with the last scene of his 
 life that he was able to speak for half an hour in as composed 
 and quiet a manner as that in which he had ever addressed the 
 Parliament or the General Assembly. Even his enemies were 
 astonished at his demeanour upon the scaffold ; and the thought 
 that it was partly due to the worth and greatness of the cause 
 of which he had for so many years been the champion could not 
 be altogether banished from the minds of some of them. The 
 Earl of Crawford, who had once been challenged by Argyll to 
 fight a duel and who had with tears pronounced the death- 
 sentence upon him in Parliament, openly declared his opinion 
 that the Marquess had been supported in his last hours by a 
 higher than earthly power. In reply to a brutal remark of 
 Middleton's as to the dead man's now suffering the penalty of 
 evil deeds, he asserted that he was convinced that the courage 
 which had so deeply impressed all spectators must have been due 
 to some supernatural assistance, for it was not Argyll's natural 
 temper.^ 
 
 The feelings which the tidings of Argyll's trial and death 
 awakened in the minds of those who had been more or less 
 closely associated with his public life, may be guessed from 
 notices in Baillie's Letters and in Blair's Autobiography — to both 
 of which we have repeatedly referred in the foregoing pages as 
 authorities for the history of the Marquess and his times. Baillie 
 speaks as one who had been for some years past a political 
 opponent of the man for whom he once had cherished an un- 
 bounded admiration. " Argyle," he says, " long to me was the 
 best and most excellent man our State of a long tyme had 
 enjoyed ; but his complyance with the EngUsh and Eemonstrators 
 took my heart off him these eight years ; yet I mourned for his 
 death, and still prayes to God for his family. His two sons 
 are good youths, and were ever loyall." ^ The tone of Blair's 
 reference to the Marquess is more cordial. " The sentence 
 against Argyle," he says, " was much cried out against, especially 
 because he was condemned for compliance with the usurpers — 
 whereas some that sat on the bench and condemned him were 
 more guilty of that than he — publicly disowning and renouncing 
 the King and his family, both at Loudon and in Edinburgh. . . . 
 The generahty of God's people were much affected with his death ; 
 for whatever had been his escapes [escapades] and complying 
 
 1 Burnet, History of My own Times (quoted in Did. of Nat. Biog., vol. viii. ]}. 328). 
 
 2 Vol. iii. p. 466. 
 
A LETTER OF CONSOLATION 333 
 
 with the usurpers, he was a man that ever owned the good 
 Cause and the work of reformation of religion, and lived devoutly 
 himself, always keeping a good order in liis family. All did 
 compassionate his religious lady and cliildren." ^ 
 
 Some idea of the poignant grief with which Argyll was 
 mourned by the inner circle of his family and friends is given 
 us by a letter w^ritten in Edinburgh on the evening of the day 
 of execution by Lord Ker of Newbattle, afterwards fourth Earl 
 of Lothian, to his w^ife. Lady Jane Campbell, the Marquess's 
 second daughter, whom he had married in the beginning of the 
 previous year. The letter bears the very form and pressure of 
 the time to which it belongs, and gives us, as it were, a glimpse 
 into the hearts of those upon whom the grief of such a sad 
 bereavement fell with crushing force, at the time when that 
 grief was still new and full. In our opinion it is one of the 
 most touching letters on record. It runs as follows : — " Deare 
 Hearte, I am confident of you so farre (that since the removall of 
 your Father was so well known to and expected by you all this 
 whyll) the hearing by me, who was an eye and eare witness of 
 his heavenly, Christian, grave, yet magnanimous and resolute 
 cariage in this last and greatest step in all his lyfe, will give 
 you greater joy and comforte then any resonable sorrowing 
 can overcom. Truly, deare hearte, I was ever a lover of your 
 Father, but this last action of his hath made me an admirer 
 likewayes, and I am sure his beheaviour this day hath galled 
 very many of his enemies. God was pleased to uphold him 
 wonderfully in his sufferings, and I am sure he would not 
 change one moment of his immortell condition for all the 
 happiness immaginable this world can afforde ; and, as he said 
 att the receiving of his sentence, I am confident God hath 
 crowned him with an immortell crown of glory. I trust, God 
 willing, to com forth to-morrow. In the meantyme, deare 
 hearte, comforte yourselfe in the true Comforter, who will never 
 be hidde from any that seekes him. I am your most affectionate 
 Husband till death, Ker."- Only a man of generous, noble 
 strain could have written such a letter ; and we may be quite 
 sure that, had Argyll been such as the enemies of the cause he 
 represented have striven to persuade the world he was, the 
 memory of him could never have inspired feelings like those here 
 
 ^ P. 385. A magnificent monument to the memory of Argyll in St Giles's 
 Cathedral, Edinburgh, was unveiled on 27th May, 1895. 
 
 * Corrcsjwndence of the Earls of Ancrum and Lothian, vol. ii. p. 448. 
 
334 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 disclosed. The fact that such a testimony could be given to 
 Argyll vindicates, we consider, the position with regard to him 
 which we have taken up ; and, though we despair of finally 
 quenching by anything we have written the spirit of calumny 
 which has done its worst so far as he is concerned, we think 
 that we have set down an array of facts which will render it 
 difficult for the detractor of the great Marquess of Argyll to 
 resume his hateful work. 
 
 The last speech of Argyll was printed and widely read, and 
 so great was the impression produced by it that the Government 
 took steps to suppress it.^ But their efforts were in vain ; and 
 at a later period it found its place in the popular literature 
 which contained the records of the dying speeches and testi- 
 monies of those who had suffered for the Covenant. On the 
 day after his execution the Act Eescissory was passed in 
 the Scotch Parliament, which abolished at a stroke all Acts 
 and decisions of Parliament since the year 1641, and which 
 left Episcopacy standing as the legal form of Church-government 
 in Scotland. The treachery which marked the action of the 
 Government in initiating this change, and the cruelty with 
 which they carried it through to the bitter end, will never 
 be forgotten, but the history of their proceedings belongs to 
 a later period than that of our story. One result of the Act 
 Eescissory, so far as the subject of our biography is concerned, is 
 that the Acts of Indemnity of 1641 and 1651, by which he had 
 shielded himself against a flood of accusations, were repealed ; 
 and, in a public document which appeared shortly afterwards, 
 the authorities were not restrained by considerations of decency 
 from allowing many of the accusations in question to be 
 brought up again as though they had been offences of which the 
 Marquess had been found guilty. The attempt to justify their 
 action in taking his life, by endeavouring to blacken his 
 character after his death, may be left to the contempt which 
 it deserves. 
 
 His widow survived him seventeen years and died 13th March, 
 1678, at the age of sixty-eight. The last notice of her which 
 we find makes it clear that she had been worthy of her heroic 
 husband. " His noble lady," says Law, " Lady Margaret Douglas, 
 a lady of singular piety and vertue, bore this sad stroak, with 
 other both personal and domestic afflictions, with great patience 
 and incredible fortitude, giving herself always to prayer and 
 
 ^ Wodrow, History, vol. i. p. 246. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS 335 
 
 fasting, and miuisteriug to the necessity of the saints." ^ The 
 title of Earl of Argyll and the family estates were restored to 
 the Marquess's elder son by a patent dated 16tli October, 1668.^ 
 Twenty-two years later Archibald, the ninth Earl, perished like 
 his father upon the scaffold, after a misguided and unsuccessful 
 attempt to overthrow the Government of James VII. 
 
 Our readers will naturally expect us to say something in 
 the way of describing the main cliaracteristics of the Marquess 
 of Argyll, whose story we have followed to its tragic close. 
 Anything in the way of formal panegyric would be foreign 
 to the purpose, and, we hope, to the spirit of this biography ; 
 though we freely confess our belief that the virtues possessed 
 by Argyll vastly outweighed the faults which, in common with 
 us all, he possessed, or those which unfriendly eyes have dis- 
 cerned in him. Had this not been the case, the firm hold which 
 he has now maintained upon the respect and affection of so 
 many of his fellow-countrymen for nearly two and a half centuries 
 would be inexplicable. 
 
 Even his enemies themselves are constrained to bear witness 
 to the astonishing intellectual gifts which he possessed, and 
 which enabled him to guide and control the politics of Scotland 
 for so many years, and to make a deep impression upon Enghsh 
 political life during the period when the two nations were united 
 in offering resistance to the arbitrary government of Charles I., 
 and in breaking down the military power by which he would 
 fain have maintained it.^ The trial and execution of the King, 
 followed as they were by war between the two nations, over- 
 threw all his plans and ultimately led to his fall from power. 
 His steadfast support of the cause of the Covenant sprang from 
 religious conviction, and so identified was he with that cause 
 that, as Wodrow says, " it was buried with him in the grave 
 for many years." * Yet he ever sought to impress upon his 
 fellow-countrymen moderate counsels, and he himself walked in 
 a way removed alike from fanaticism and indifference. Episco- 
 pacy with its " ceremonies " appeared to him to be foreign to 
 the genius of his nation rather than unscriptural ; and such 
 
 ^ Memorialist p. 10. 
 
 ^ Did. of Nat. Biog., vol. viii. p. 332. 
 
 ^ A testimony to his force of character and intellectual ability is given by 
 Clarendon in a letter of ISth March, 1647. "I have," he says, "a sadder [more 
 serious] apprehension of mischieve from that Scotch Arguyle then [than] from the 
 whole packe of both kingdomes" (Lister, Life of Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 49). 
 
 * Wodrow, History, vol. i. p. 159. 
 
336 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 matters he regarded as subordinate to the mam interests of 
 rehgion.^ 
 
 His political opinions were undoubtedly in advance of those 
 of his time, for his ideal constitution was a Monarchy limited 
 by the checks which the collective wisdom of statesmen has 
 succeeded in imposing upon the royal prerogative. Largely 
 through his influence the Democracy in Scotland succeeded to 
 a considerable measure of the power which had been wrested 
 from the King ; so that Argyll cannot be accused of securing 
 advancement for his own order by the humiliation of the 
 Monarchy, The worst that can be said of him in this respect 
 is that he made the career possible of a noble's succeeding by 
 aid of the Democracy in checkmating both the power of the 
 Throne and that of the Aristocracy, and that he was by some 
 thought to have himself followed that course. 
 
 So far as his political influence and career are concerned, 
 our data for forming an opinion regarding them are abundant. 
 The case is different when we come to speak of the depth and 
 sincerity of his religious life. Here we have to do with matters 
 which are but imperfectly known to us. Suffice it to say, there- 
 fore, that whatever sins he might have to deplore before God 
 in his outward life he manifested a high degree of devoutness ; 
 that often it seemed from his habits and idiosyncrasies that 
 the life of an ecclesiastic would have been much more congenial 
 to him than that of a politician ; and that nothing could quench 
 the ardour of his attachment to the Church of which he was 
 both a defender and an ornament. 
 
 From every quarter, both from friends and from enemies, 
 we have testimonies to his charm of manner : it consisted in 
 a certain unassuming simplicity combined with great gentle- 
 ness, afiability, and courtesy.^ Beneath this apparent genial 
 pliability lay a fixedness of purpose which could not be over- 
 come, and a memory for wrongs received which his enemies 
 came to dread ^ and which his friends were inclined to de- 
 plore as verging on implacability. " His wit was pregnant," says 
 Clarendon, " and his humour gay and pleasant, except when 
 he liked not the company or the argument." ^ Few who had 
 
 ' Instructions to a Son, p. 22. 
 - Gordon, Britane's Distemper, p. 56. 
 
 " Clarendon says : " He carried himself so that they who hated him most were 
 willing to compound with him " {History, vol. i. p. 368). 
 * Ibid., vol. ii. p. 100. 
 
MONTROSE AND ARGYLL COMPARED 337 
 
 but a casual acquaintance with him could have suspected the 
 vast range of mental ability and the daring political plans which 
 were veiled by what they thought his unaffected plainness of 
 manner. Hence words like " subtle," " crafty," and " dissimu- 
 lating," were applied to him by those who might rather have 
 accused themselves of denseness and superficiahty. 
 
 It was his misfortune rather than his fault that for a time, 
 at any rate, he was ahenated from his father and from his 
 son by differences which sprang from divergence in matters of 
 rehgious belief and of poHtics, respectively ; but otherwise in his 
 home-life he seems to have been both exemplary and happy. 
 His high position in Scotland as an almost independent 
 potentate might easily have led him to manifest ostentatious 
 splendour in his style of living. But, so far from this being 
 the case, his habits in this respect were sober and sparing ; 
 and in him we see the unusual combination, which to our mind 
 is very attractive, of economy in small matters along with 
 bountiful and princely generosity on worthy occasions. No 
 accusation of seeking to profit by the disorders of the State 
 to promote his own selfish interests was ever made against 
 him ; while for pubUc purposes he freely — perhaps too freely 
 — employed his own private fortune and credit, and thereafter 
 was called to undergo the cruel experience of seeing his pos- 
 sessions ravaged and destroyed by a public enemy. Other char- 
 acteristics of the Marquess have already been pointed out in 
 the course of our biography, so that what we have now said 
 must be regarded as merely supplementary touches to com- 
 plete the portrait we have endeavoured to present. 
 
 Montrose and Argyll have been compared to Caesar and 
 Pompey, of whom it was said that the one could not endm-e a 
 superior and that the other would not have an equal.^ Such 
 historical parallels are of little value, except as rhetorical exer- 
 cises, and they have often but slight foundation in fact. A 
 more specious parallel might be traced in the varying characters 
 of the sons of Isaac. Montrose recalls the attractive quahties 
 of Esau, while in Argyll we see much of the moral and spiritual 
 strength of Jacob. In Montrose we have impulsiveness and 
 chivalry, combined with a certain levity in forsaking one cause 
 and embracing another, and a brilliancy of heroic achievement 
 which suddenly died down and left behind it no lasting benefit 
 or even result , while there were in Argyll a strong suscepti- 
 
 ^ Clarendon, History, vol. i. p. 392. 
 22 • 
 
338 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 bility to religious impressions, a keen shrewdness of judgment, 
 and a tenacity of purpose which remind us of Eebekah's 
 favourite son. Our instinctive feelings lead us to receive into 
 our hearts the one type of character, while our maturer judg- 
 ments approve the other as greater and more worthy. Still 
 another though a fainter feature of resemblance may be traced 
 between Argyll and the Hebrew patriarch in the halo of glory 
 which surrounds the close of their lives. The piety of both 
 then shone forth most clearly, their parting words were caught 
 up and treasured as though they had been holy oracles, and, 
 in spite of all their failings, it was felt that there had been 
 that in their lives which would make them influential for good 
 in the ages yet to come. 
 
 THE END 
 
APPENDICES 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 PARTICULARS OF FAMILY HISTORY 
 
 The following particulars of family history may be of interest to some 
 of our readers. 
 
 Archibald Campbell, 7tli Earl of Argyll, born in 1575 {Herries 
 Peerage, p. 1), died in London shortly before 4th September, 1638 
 {Black Book of Tay mouth, p. xix). 
 
 Married (1) on 24th July, 1592, Anne, fifth daughter of William 
 Douglas, 8th Earl of Morton. She was born in 1574, and died 
 Sunday, 3rd May, 1607, about midday {Epicedium, etc., Edin. 1607). 
 
 Their children were — 
 
 Anna, born in 1594, contracted 27th to 30th June, 1607, to be 
 married to George Gordon, Lord Enzie, afterwards 2nd Marquess of 
 Huntly.^ She died, leaving issue, 14th June, 1638, at Aberdeen, and 
 was buried in St Machar Cathedral. Her husband was beheaded in 
 Edinburgh, 22nd March, 1649. 
 
 Annahella, married in 1611 Robert Ker, 2nd Earl of Lothian, who 
 was on Saturday, 6th March, 1624, found dead in bed at IS'ewbattle 
 Abbey with his throat cut. The author of the crime, if the death were 
 not by suicide, was never discovered. His wife is described by Scot of 
 Scotstarvet as "a woman of a masculine spirit but highland-faced." 
 He also relates some scandal concerning her {Staggering State, 1872, 
 p. 91 ; see also, Masson, Life of Drummond, p. 297). She retired to 
 the Continent, and died at Antwerp in 1652 {Correspondence of Earls 
 of Ancrum and Lothian, p. C). She left two daughters, Anne and 
 Joanna. Anne married "William Ker, her kinsman of the Fernihurst 
 family, who was by creation the 3rd Earl of Lothian. Their son, 
 Robert Ker, Lord Newbattle, married Jane, second daughter of the 
 Marquess of Argyll. Of Joanna, Scot says she left the kingdom shortly 
 after her sister's marriage, " being much slandered for incontinency, and 
 
 ' That she was actually married at this early age, incredible as it may seem, is 
 proved by an Epithalamium written on the occasion, a copy of which is in the 
 British Museum. Her age on her marriage is given as thirteen in The Book of 
 Ahoy lie y p. 527. 
 
 341 
 
342 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 is now in Holland in a boor's house, teaching children" {Staggering 
 State, p. 92, probably written soon after 1662). 
 
 Jean, contracted in 1624, married in 1628 (1) Sir Robert Gordon 
 of Locliinvar, created Lord Lochinvar and Viscount Kenmure in 1633, 
 who died at Kenmure, 12th September, 1634, in his thirty -fifth year. 
 She married (2) on 28th or 29th January, 1640, Sir Henry Montgomerie 
 of Giffen, son of Alexander, 6th Earl of Eglinton. Her second husband 
 died without issue, 3rd May, 1644. 
 
 Mary, married on 23rd August, 1617, Sir Robert Montgomerie of 
 Skelmorlie, who died before 22nd May, 1654. 
 
 Elizabeth, died unmarried (Records of Argyll, p. 5). 
 
 Archibald, afterwards 8th Earl, and 1st and only Marquess of 
 Argyll. He was born probably early in 1607, and was beheaded 27th 
 May, 1661. 
 
 On 30th November, 1610, the 7th Earl of Argyll married (2) Anne, 
 daughter and heiress of Sir John Cornwallis of Brome, Suffolk, an 
 ancestor of Lord Cornwallis. She was a Roman Catholic. The mar- 
 riage took place at the Parish Church of St Botolph, Bishopsgate • 
 and she died at the Earl's house in Drury Lane, London, 12th January, 
 1634-35, and Avas buried on the 13th at St Martin's-in-the-Fields. 
 
 Their children were — 
 
 James, born in the end of 1611, created Lord of Kin tyre, 12th 
 February, 1626; and afterwards on 2Sth March, 1642, created Earl 
 of Irvine, and Lord of Lundie, in Forfarshire. Baillie says of him, 
 17th June, 1645, "My Lord Irvine, this day, took a fitt of ane apo- 
 plexie : it's thought he cannot live long" (Letters, vol. ii. p. 281). He 
 sold the estate of Kintyre to his half-brother, the Marquess, raised 
 a regiment of soldiers and entered the French service under Louis 
 XIIL, and he died without issue about the middle of September, 
 1645. 
 
 Mary, married James, 2nd Lord Rollo, on 20th March, 1642, by 
 whom she had issue. Lord Rollo's first wife, Dorothea, was a daughter 
 of John, 4th Earl of Montrose. Lord Rollo was thus first of all a 
 brother-in-law of the Earl of Montrose and then of his rival, the 
 Marquess of Argyll. His first wife died in 1638 without issue. 
 
 Isabella, born in 1614, became a religiense ; lived to be at least 
 eighty years of age ; received a pension of £50 Sterling per annum from 
 James VII., dated 7th January, 1687-88 (Treasury Reg., vol. iii. p. 310) ; 
 was living in Brussels in 1694 (see letter quoted below). 
 
 Henry and Charles (1), twin sons, born in 1616, to whom the 
 Queen Anne and Prince Charles stood as sponsors on 24 th January of that 
 year. Henry died at the age of twenty. Habington the poet has an 
 elegy upon him, in which he speaks of his having been "in warre." 
 His brother, whose name we conjecture to have been Charles, probably 
 died in infancy. 
 
APPENDIX I 343 
 
 Victoria, who became a clianoinesse religieuse of St Augustine, and 
 received a pension of £40 Sterling per annum at the same time as lier 
 sister Isabella, as noted above. 
 
 Barbara, also became a religie^ise, and was in the Abbey of English 
 Benedictines in Brussels. She received a pension of £40 Sterling 
 per annum at the same time as her sisters. 
 
 Aline, born 1619, in 1633 her parents prosecuted for sending her 
 to be popishly brought up abroad. A warrant was issued that year to 
 attach "Anne BroAvne, alias Coriate, alias Campbell," which suggests 
 her being smuggled abroad under assumed names. On 21st December, 
 1640, she is described as "now wife to Mr Bulleyn, the Earl of 
 Lindsay's chaplain " {Hist. MSS. Report, vol. iv. p. 34). Afterwards, 
 apparently on becoming a widow, .she became a religieuse like her 
 sisters. 
 
 Clement "Walker, in his scurrilous History of Independency, gives 
 some particulars with regard to these daughters by the 7th Earl of 
 Argyll's second marriage. He says that £12,000 Sterling was left for 
 their maintenance and marriage portions, and that the Marquess of 
 Argyll got himself appointed, instead of the person nominated in the 
 will of their mother, to have charge of their affairs. He asserts that the 
 eldest, who married Lord Eollo, should have received a dowry of £5000 
 Sterling but only got £1000 Sterling " or thereby," and that the others 
 were "reduced to go to monasteries" in order to deprive them of their 
 portions, as there was a clause in the will that if they became nuns they 
 would only receive a lumj) siuu of £300 Sterling. He states that all but 
 one had then (in 1661) taken upon them the religious vows, and that 
 she was likely to follow her sisters' example. We understand from this 
 that Lady Anne had now become a widow and was thus at liberty to enter 
 a convent. We see no reason to doubt some of the items of information 
 contained in the book above referred to, though they are blended with 
 insinuations against the good faith of the Marquess for which no proof 
 of any kind whatever is adduced, and which on various grounds arc 
 highly improbable. 
 
 An interesting notice of these religieuses is given in a letter written 
 by James, Earl of Perth, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, to his sister, the 
 Countess of Erroll. It is dated Aug\ist, 1694, and says : " We went to 
 Bruxelles the 16th July where we waited for the second time on our old 
 great-aunt Mad"* d'Argile, who is near 80 years old. She was daughter 
 to the old Earl, the Marquises father, one of four religieuses, their fifth 
 sister having been mother to this Lord Rollo. She speaks no English, 
 is a good soul as lives, and in esteem with all the great folks at 
 Bruxelles. She had another sister a clianoinesse religieuse of Saint 
 Augustine, Lady Victoria, a very fine lady. She herself is a most 
 excellent musician, and though her voice fails much she sings true still, 
 and plays finely on many instruments, but chiefly the organ. She 
 
344 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 composed a song for my wife, and made words and all, which shoes 
 she is not quite broke : her name is Isabell. Her other sister 
 at Bruxelles was in the Abbey of English Benedictines ; Lady 
 Barbara was her name ; both she and Lady Victoria are dead lately." 
 [We are indebted to the kindness of Lady Eussell, of Swallowfield, 
 Berkshire, for a copy of this letter.] 
 
 Family of Archibald, 8th Earl, and 1st and only Marquess of 
 Argyll. He married, 6th or 7th August, 1626, his cousin's daughter, 
 Margaret, second daughter of William, 9th Earl of Morton, by Avhom 
 he had issue. He was executed Monday, 27th May, 1661. His wife, 
 who was born in 1610, survived him, and died 13th March, 1678 
 (Law's Memorialls, p. 10 n.). 
 
 Archibald, born at Dalkeith, 26th February, 1629 (see App. IIL, 
 Letter xvii.), afterwards 9th Earl of Argyll. At the age of thirteen he 
 was appointed captain in the Scotch regiment raised to serve in France 
 under his uncle, the Earl of Irvine (see App. IV.). There was a 
 proposal of a marriage between him and Lady Anne, the elder daughter 
 of the Marquess of Hamilton, in 1641-42 (Napier, Life of Montrose, 
 vol. ii. p. 374 n.). The marriage portion fixed was 100,000 merks [£5555, 
 lis. lid. Sterling], the yearly jointure 15,000 merks [£833, 6s. 8d. 
 Sterling], and the penalty of resiling 36,000 merks [£2000 Sterling], 
 "all remeid of law excluded." But this arrangement was never carried 
 out. Lord Lome married (1) on 13th May, 1650, Lady Mary Stewart, 
 eldest daughter of the 4th Earl of Moray, at Moray House, Edinburgh, 
 by whom he had issue, and who died May, 1668 (Lamont, Diary, 
 p. 257) ; and (2) on Friday, 28th January, 1670, Lady Anne Mackenzie, 
 dowager Lady Balcarres, who died in 1706. He was beheaded 30th 
 June, 1685. 
 
 Neil, of Ardmaddie, Argyllshire, governor of Dumbarton Castle, 
 born probably in 1630 or 1631, as in 1645 he was at the University 
 of Glasgow along with his brother {vide Preface to D. Dickson's 
 Commentary on the Apostolical Epistles, Glasgow, 1645). He married 
 (1) on 23rd January, 1668, Lady Vere Ker, third daughter of the 
 3rd Earl of Lothian (Lamont, Diary, p. 254). She died in 1674; by 
 her he had issue : Charles, who joined the Earl of Argyll in the 
 rising of 1685, and who was in consequence condemned to death but 
 had his sentence commuted ; and Ai'chibald, afterwards Bishop of 
 Aberdeen, and a strong non-juror (d. 1744): and married (2) in 1685, 
 Susan, daughter of Sir Alexander Menzies, 1st Baronet of Weem, and 
 left issue. The marriage contract is dated 13th and 20th March, and 
 apparently should have been post-nuptial, as it provides for two sons 
 by name, the elder of whom, Neil, must have been born in 1683 at 
 latest, for he was admitted advocate in 1704. According to the local 
 histories of New Jersey, U.S.A., Lord Neil Campbell took refuge there 
 in the end of 1685, and was accompanied by many members of his 
 
APPENDIX I 345 
 
 kindrod and clan (Mefuchan and her History, E. M. Hunt, 1870).'^ He 
 died in 1692, and was buried on 11th April of that year in Greyfriars 
 Churchyard, Edinburgh. 
 
 In a pamphlet entitled Scots Mist, published in 1685, some details 
 are given with regard to these sons. Of Archibald, afterwards 9th Earl 
 of Argyll, it is said : " He was sent abroad to be bred at Geneva, with 
 recommendations from his father to that Kirk and to the Presbyterians 
 of France, where he kept correspondence between his father and them." 
 Of the younger son it says : " He was lately proved to have been privy 
 and consenting to all his father's treacherous compliances with the 
 English in Scotland, and to have been actually in arms with them." 
 
 Anne, died unmarried, evidently after 10th July, 1657 (see Letter 
 XXXIV. in App. III.), and before 19th October, 1663, when Nicoll in his 
 Diarij speaks of two sisters of Lord Lome's {Jane and Mary) as being 
 with him the only surviving members of the family. 
 
 Jane, married in January, 1660 (contract dated 3rd, 9th, and 10th 
 January), Robert Ker, Lord Newbattle, eldest son of the 3rd Earl of 
 Lothian, who succeeded him as 4th Earl in 1675; on his uncle's death 
 became 3rd Earl of Ancrum in 1690, and was created Marquess of 
 Lothian, Viscount of Briene, etc., 23rd June, 1701. He was born 
 8th March, 1636, and died in London, 15th February, 1703. She died 
 leaving issue, 31st July, 1712. 
 
 Mary, born after 1634, married (1) on 23rd September, 1657, George, 
 6th Earl of Caithness, at Eosneath. Her tocher was only £22,000 
 Scots [£1833, 6s. 8d. Sterling] (Lamont, Dianj) ; he died in 1676: 
 (2) married on 7tli April, 1678, as second wife. Sir John Campbell, 
 of Glenurquhy, afterwards on 13th August, 1680, created Earl of 
 Breadalbane and Holland. He was the Breadalbane implicated in the 
 Massacre of Glencoe. She had a son by him. A very pretty portrait 
 of her is in Holyrood Palace. 
 
 Isabella, born in Edinburgh, 20th May, 1650, the day of Montrose's 
 execution; died apparently before 19th October, 1663 (see above, under 
 Anne, the note from Nicoll, Diary). Her name does not appear in 
 any previous notices of the family, but is given by C. K. Sharpe, on 
 the authority of a MS. in the Advocates' Library, in his edition of 
 Law's Memorialls, p. 10 n. 
 
 In the genealogy given in Records of Argyll, which belongs to 1634, 
 
 ^ We have received this item of information from Alden Freeman, Esq., of East 
 Orange, New Jersey, himself a descendant of a John Campbell, an early settler in 
 the district, who was, there is every reason to believe, a prominent member of the 
 illustrious clan of which our Marquess was in hia time the chief He seems to have 
 left Scotland for America towards the close of the reign of Charles II., and to have 
 died in December, 1689. It is extremely interesting to know that in that part 
 of the United States there are those who are proud of their descent from some 
 branch of this great historical family, though the period of their separation from 
 their kinsfolk in Scotland is now to be measured by centuries. 
 
346 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 it is said Lord Lome had then two sons and two daughters; con- 
 sequently Mary must have been born after that date. 
 
 In the volume of the Historical MSS. Commission Reports con- 
 taining the Argyll Papers, there is a curious contract between the 
 Marchioness of Argyll and a John Campbell, clothier in Musselburgh, 
 dated Edinburgh, 17th iN'ovember, 1652, which we may insert here. 
 " By this contract John Campbell binds himself to remove from Mussel- 
 burgh to Inveraray, along with his family and two workmen, before 1st 
 February, 1653, and with his two workmen to attend on his work 
 weekly for twelve months. John was to be held accountable for what 
 should be got for any work he might do during this time to others 
 by her Ladyship's order. At the end of a year an agreement as to his 
 wages was to be made with him. The Marchioness on her part was to 
 pay the expenses of the removal of the tailor and his family, to furnish 
 him with a house before the expiry of the twelve months, and to supply 
 all the materials necessary for his work. He was also to have a * cail- 
 yaird,' two cows, grass, and two acres of land ; and during the first twelve 
 months he and his servants were to have their Sunday's meat furnished 
 by the Marchioness. The weekly wages to be given at first were ten 
 shillings to John himself, six shillings to one of his men, and five 
 shillings to the other, which they might have either in money or in 
 victuals" {Report, vol. vi. p. 631). 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 BALLADS CONNECTED WITH THE MAEQUESS OF 
 
 AEGYLL 
 
 GILDEKOY 
 
 The earliest version of this ballad was published in London in 1650. 
 The following version of it contains some slight changes on the 
 original by the authoress of " Hardiknute," which adapt it for modern 
 readers. (Pinkerton's Select Scottish Ballads, vol. i. p. 62.) 
 
 Gilderoy was a bonnie boy, 
 
 Had roses tuU his shoone ; 
 His stockings were of silken soy, 
 
 Wi' garters hanging doune. 
 It was, I weene, a comelie sight, 
 
 To see sae trim a boy ; 
 He was my jo and hearts delight, 
 
 My handsome Gilderoy. 
 
 Oh ! sike twa charming een he had, 
 
 A breath as sweet as rose ; 
 He never ware a Highland plaid, 
 
 But costly silken clothes ; 
 He gain'd the luve of ladies gay, 
 
 Nane eir tull him was coy : 
 Ah ! wae is mee ! I mourn the day. 
 
 For my dear Gilderoy. 
 
 My Gilderoy and I were born 
 
 Baith in one toun together. 
 We scant were seven years, beforn 
 
 We gan to luve each other ; 
 Our dadies and our mammies, thay 
 
 Were fill'd wi' mickle joy, 
 To think upon the bridal day 
 
 'Twixt me and Gilderoy. 
 
 347 
 
348 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 For Gilderoy, that luve of mine, 
 
 Gude faith, I freely bought 
 A wedding sark of holland fine, 
 
 Wi' silken flowers wrought ; 
 And he gied me a wedding ring, 
 
 "Which I receiv'd wi' joy ; 
 Kae lad nor lassie eir could sing 
 
 Like me and Gilderoy. 
 
 Wi' mickle joy we spent our prime, 
 
 Till we were baith sixteen, 
 And aft we passed the langsome time, 
 
 Among the leaves sae green ; 
 Aft on the banks we'd sit us thair, 
 
 And sweetly kiss and toy ; 
 Wi' garlands gay wad deck my hair 
 
 My handsome Gilderoy. 
 
 Oh ! that he still had been content 
 
 Wi' me to lead his life ; 
 But ah, his nianfu' heart was bent 
 
 To stir in f eates of strife : 
 And he in many a venturous deed 
 
 His courage bauld wad try, 
 And now this gars mine heart to bleed 
 
 For my dear Gilderoy. 
 
 And when of me his leave he tuik. 
 
 The tears they wat mine e'e ; 
 I gave to him a parting luik, 
 
 " My benison gang wi' thee ! 
 God speid thee weil, mine ain dear heart, 
 
 For gane is all my joy ; 
 ]\Iy heart is rent sith we maun part, 
 
 My handsome Gilderoy." 
 
 My Gilderoy, baith far and near, 
 
 Was f ear'd in every toun. 
 And bauldly bare away the gear 
 
 Of many a lawland loun. 
 Xane eir durst meet him man to man, 
 
 He was sae brave a boy ; 
 At length wi' numbers he was tane. 
 
 My winsome Gilderoy. 
 
APPENDIX II 349 
 
 Wae worth the loun that made the laws, 
 
 To hang a man for gear ; 
 To 'reave of life for ox or ass, 
 
 For sheep or horse or mare ! 
 Had not their laws heen made sae strick, 
 
 I neir had lost my joy, 
 Wi' sorrow neir had wat my cheek 
 
 For my dear Gilderoy. 
 
 Gifif Gilderoy had done amisse, 
 
 He mought hae banisht been ; 
 Ah ! what sair cruelty is this, 
 
 To hang sike handsome men ! 
 To hang the flower of Scottish land, 
 
 Sae sweet and fair a boy ! 
 Nae lady had sae white a hand 
 
 As thee, my Gilderoy. 
 
 Of Gilderoy sae fraid they were, 
 
 They bound him mickle strong ; 
 Tull Edenburrow they led him thair, 
 
 And on a gallows hung : 
 They hung him high aboon the rest, 
 
 He was sae trim a boy ; 
 Thair dyed the youth whom I lu'ed best, 
 
 My handsome Gilderoy. 
 
 Thus having yielded up his breath, 
 
 I bare his corpse away ; 
 Wi' tears that trickled fur his death 
 
 I washt his comelye clay ; 
 And siker in a grave sae deep, 
 
 I laid the dear-lu'ed boy ; 
 And now for evir maun I weep 
 
 My winsome Gilderoy. 
 
 For further particulars with regard to the celebrated outlaw we may 
 refer our readers to Spalding's Memorialls of the Truhles in Scotland, 
 vol. i. p. 437. (Spalding Club edition.) 
 
 THE BONNIE HOUSE 0' AIRLIE 
 
 It fell on a day, and a bonnie summer-day, 
 
 "When green grew aits and barley, 
 That there fell out a great dispute, 
 
 Between Argyll and Airlie. 
 
350 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Argyll has raised an hunder men, 
 
 An hunder harness'd rarely ; 
 And he's awa' by the back o' Dunkekl, 
 
 To plunder the castle o' Airlie. 
 
 Lady Ogilvie looks o'er her bower window. 
 
 And 0, but she looks weary, 
 And there she spied the great Ai-gyll, 
 
 Come to plunder the bonnie house o' Airlie. 
 
 " Come down, come down, my Lady Ogilvie, 
 
 Come down and kiss me fairly." 
 " 0, I wadna kiss the fause Argyll, 
 
 Though he should na leave a standing stane in Airlie." 
 
 He has taken her by the left shoulder, 
 
 Says, " Dame, where lies thy dowry ? " 
 " 0, it's east and west yon wan water-side, 
 
 And it's down by the banks o' the Airlie." 
 
 They hae sought it up, they hae sought it doun, 
 
 They hae sought it maist severely ; 
 Till they fand it in the fair plum-tree, 
 
 That stands on the bowling-green o' Airlie. 
 
 He has ta'en her by the middle sae sma', 
 
 And 0, but she grat sairly ! 
 And he's set her doun by the bonnie burnside, 
 
 Till they plundered the castle o' Airlie. 
 
 " 0, I hae seven braw sons," she says ; 
 
 " The youngest ne'er saw his daddie, 
 But though I had an hundred mae, 
 
 I gie them a' to King Charlie ! 
 
 " But gin my gude lord had been at hame, 
 
 As this nicht he is wi' Charlie, 
 There durst na a Campbell in a' the west, 
 
 Hae plxinder'd the bonnie house o' Airlie." ^ 
 
 " Of this ballad," Aytoun says, " there are many versions, with a 
 great variety of readings ; but the above, I have reason to believe, is 
 the original." In a version published in Kinloch's Ancient ScottisJi 
 Ballads (London, 1827), the epithet "gley'd" [squint-eyed] is several 
 
 1 BoUads of Scotland, edited by W. E. Aytoun, D.C.L. (Edinburgh, 1870). 
 
APPENDIX II 351 
 
 times applied to Argyll, and the exploit of burning the house of Airlie 
 IS represented as agreed upon between that chieftain and Montrose 
 Ihis incident in Scotch history is probably indebted for its prominence 
 in ballad and song to the smooth and poetical sound of the word 
 "Airhe." The historian Spalding {Memorialls, vol. ii. p 51) says 
 that in 1641, by order of the Estates, "the staitlie hous of Mu"dok" 
 belonging to Montrose was demolished. But no ballad -maker or 
 lyrical poet has as yet ventured to weave this name into any of his 
 compositions. 
 
APPENDIX III 
 
 LETTERS FROM MEMBERS OF THE ARGYLL FAIMILY 
 
 We here give the full text of five letters from the 7th Earl of 
 Argyll, and twenty -six from his son the 8th Earl and 1st and only 
 Marquess of Argyll, copied from originals in the possession of the 
 Earl of Morton at Dalmahoy, which have been most obligingly 
 placed at our service by His Lordship. From the same source we 
 have obtained a letter from the Marchioness of Argyll, and two from 
 her daughter, Lady Anne Campbell, who was spoken of as a wife 
 for Charles II. 
 
 Letter I 
 
 My uarie good Lord, — Least the being ignorant of my procedings 
 sould mak souch a frend as your Lo[rdship] is, uncertaine hoii to proceed 
 to plesur me at this tyme whone the ignorance of sum and the malecie of 
 uthers hes gifin place be my absence to say what thay plais against me, 
 zour Lo. [your Lordship] schal knoii that I cam to seriie the King of 
 Spaine, with the King of Inglands lisence with certain exceptions, as 
 zour lo. wil persaiie be the coppie of the same wh'^'^ the Spaneich Em- 
 bassadeur (who ues the procureur of it) did send me. I haif eiiir sence 
 obserued al my Injunctions, onlie I can not goodlee trust my lyf til a 
 king in wrath as I heir his Ma*'® is, tU I be moir certaine of his fauor, 
 tho I asseur zour lo. I can not uaeil [well] know whairin I haif ofiended, 
 for his Ma*'®^ hes gifiji under his hand to the Spaneich Embassadeur 
 leiiie to any of his subjects to serve ather the Empereur, the King of 
 Spaine, or the Archduk, and to me, ane particulier licence as I haif said 
 alreddy. Zour lo. considering thir [these] things wil I doubt not be 
 bold to interseed with his Ma*'® that I get not actuaU iirong, for a 
 suppoised undeutifulnes wh'^'' I have not zit [yet] commited nor dis 
 neiiir intend to commit, God willing. Whon I know that zour lo. hes 
 resaued this my letter by ane other from zou, I schall aliiay gif zour 
 lo. a treu relatione of al my procedeings, desyring to haif the continuance 
 of zour frendschip, wh'^'' I schal labour to mereit as, — Zour lo. frend to 
 seriie zou, Argyll. 
 
 BuuxL. the 23 of July 1620. 
 
 362 
 
APPENDIX III 353 
 
 Letter II 
 
 My Lord and Cousing, — Tho I haif wraitin many letters vhairof T 
 haif nevir resaued any ansiiair from zour lo. zitt will I nott leiue of 
 to lett zou knou hou -willing I am to do zou any seriiice vhairby I may 
 schau my thankfulnes for the cair ze haif had of my hous in my 
 absence. I heir my sone hes beine att court whois estait I would 
 glaidly heir, for wh'^'' cans and concerning uthers of my affairs I haif 
 iiraitin [written] to Mr Al^ Coluill and to Wm Stirling that thay may 
 cum unto me, for I heir I am much wronged by misreports and mis- 
 takings. It will pleis zour lo. thairfor to haist thair cuming as ze schall 
 alluays haif me to remaine, — Your lo. cousing to serve zou, Argyll, 
 
 Beuls. the 12 of May 1626. 
 
 Letter III 
 
 Address : To my uary good lord and cousing the Erie of Mortounc. 
 
 My varie good Lord, — As I labour by all my actions to expres my 
 loiie to my soone and cair of my hous, so haifing toght [thought] on a 
 bussines vh*^^ is considerable for the aduanceing of the one and seceur- 
 ing the uther, I haif appointed thir [these] baeriers Ar'^ Campbell and 
 Vill"' Stirling to impert the particulier to zour lo. that ze may (as on 
 vho is interesed, to gif zour best adiiyse to inhable zour frends to serue 
 zou) call my soon and lett him heir that wh'''' I think heirefter schalbe 
 hable to lett the Vourdle [world] knou, hou mouch I love my hous, 
 above all uther temporall good, sua [so] recommending this to zour lo. 
 vyse consideratn I rest, — Zour lo. Cousing to serve zou, Argyll. 
 
 Froni my hous this fnjday at nyt. 
 
 [? Drury Lane ; before 1630 ; perhaps May or June, 1629.] 
 
 Letter IV 
 
 Address : To my varie Ho''^' lord and cousing the Erie of Mortoun, 
 lord Thesorier of Scotland. [^N.B. — He was treasurer from 1630 
 to 1635.] 
 
 My ijarie good Lord, — As I haif beene stil trublsum to zou in my 
 complents concerning my soone of Lome, so I think good too lett zour 
 lo. lykuays understand of his amendment. He hes sent to pay the 
 merchants and promesses to performe the rest : Wh'^^ this good beginnig 
 maks me confident in ; Your lo. good counsaile hes wroght this good 
 
 23 
 
354 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 effect ; to wliome I moust acknouledge my self obleiged and my soon no 
 les, for besyds the blissing God gifs for being deutifull to parents, wh'='' 
 is the greatest good, if euir my fortoime be bettred, I schall better his, 
 for efter necessarie foud [food], my hous is my nyxt cair, and for the 
 noblenes I find in zow as I am I am zours, and vhon I am moir it 
 schalbe for zour seruice that schall euir remaine, — Your lo. Cousine and 
 fathfull Frend to serue you, Argyll. 
 
 Drourie Laine, (he 7 of Ncm. [1630-1635 ?] 
 
 Letter V 
 
 Address: To my IN'oble lord and cousing the Erie of Morton, 
 Thessorer of Scotland. 
 
 My Lord, — I haif vraetin [written] to my soon to haif cair to secur 
 me of the annuetie deu to me from his brother befoir he putt his monie 
 or asseurance for it out of his hands, vh*^^ I will intrait zour lo. to 
 remember of unto him, both as his father and a frend unto me who am, — 
 Your lo. Cousin to serve zou, Argyll. 
 
 Hameeden, the 28 of July [1630-1635 ?]. 
 
 LETTERS OF 8th EARL AND 1st MARQUESS OF ARGYLL 
 
 Letter VI 
 
 Address: To my mouch Honored lord and cousing, the Erie of 
 Mortoune. 
 
 Most hono^^ Lord and dear Father, — According to your Lo. desyr in 
 your Lo. last letter I have done, and hes directed this bearer to your Lo. 
 with such things as I could have in heast, and withall I have sent to 
 your Lo. the extract of that act mad in King Jams last parliament quhair 
 Kintyr sould be lyabl to the debt, all to be used as your Lo. thinks best. 
 To mak your Lo. kno the better hou bussi they ar to my preiudice I 
 have sent your Lo. the coppie of Sir William Alexanders letter quhairin 
 he lyes in on point, for I never receaved word nor wryt from his Ma. 
 [Majesty] in that busines ; and if thay have taxed me for my ungrait 
 carieg to my brother (quhich I kno they doe) your Lo. shall be ansuera- 
 bill for the contrair, for besyds I haue been mad ane strainger to all his 
 busines since he cam hear, I have sindrie tyms offered if he wold go toe 
 scools he sould nather want for his honour nor for his contentment 
 (quhich he will not deny), besyds sumthing he hes gotten for his 
 necessitie bot not for his prodigalitie, and yit am content his Ma. wold 
 
APPENDIX III 355 
 
 appoint your Lo. with others of our nobil freinds and the freinds of 
 Argyll to tak sume cours to prevent any evill may fall out hearafter. I 
 have given information to the bearer quhat thes peaple that ar about my 
 brother maks him to doe, that your Lo. may think of it, and doe as your 
 Lo. thinks best for me ; and my last suit to your Lo. is that quhen your 
 Lo. shall come from that place your Lo. wold leave such direction with 
 Sir Robert Kar ^ or any other your Lo. thinks fit to advertise your Lo, 
 quhen any hote dealing shall be for my father that I may advyse quhat 
 shall then be my best. If his Ma. wold promise it himself it wold be 
 far best in all thir [these] things. As I have ever done, I wait on your 
 Lo. directions and shall ever remain, — Your Lo. most loving Sone to serve 
 you, LORNB. 
 
 Innerraray, 16 Ap. 1627 
 
 Letter VII 
 
 Address: To my very Hono" good lord and father, the Erie of 
 Mortone. 
 
 Right honorable and dear Father, — Plais zo"" Lo. be advertissed 
 that efter I had directed Mr Robert Barklay unto zo"" Lo. my occasions 
 drew me to Kyntyr, quhair my brother had remaned about sum sax 
 oulkis [weeks] bot neuer com within the castle till the verie nicht befor 
 my cuming, and they that my disgrace micht be the mor remarkable, by 
 the pernitious counsaill of sum baise villains they seduced a treacherous 
 servant of myn to delyver the keyeis, and so entered within the castle 
 and tuk possession w"* out any preceiding sentence, and thair efter 
 receaved me as a guhest bot not as a maister. Morover quhen I wes 
 content to overleuk this intolerable vrong by the aduyce of sum of my 
 best frindis, and only to reestablishe him that was the ordinair keiper 
 of my hous giving him expresse comand to seriie and honor my brother 
 in all things, y"" by [thereby] to maintaine my possession till decision of 
 law or appointment of frinds, zit neuertheles my broy [brother] was so 
 far from being content with my humble cariage, that immediatlie efter I 
 turned my bak, by the persuasion of his young counsello" he expelled 
 my servant and so disgraced me and him. Morover thay directed George 
 Vachop, Mcnachtans Man, to my father, whom they have incensed 
 agains me by thair misinformations as zo"^ Lo. may perceave by the copie 
 of his letter heir inclosed. By this y' I have vrettin yo"" Lo. may perceave 
 how I have bene vexed and tempted, and left to myself, and how great 
 missing I have had of zo"" Lo. prudence and fatherlie counsaills in my 
 grittest difficulteis. All this I tak from the Lord my God, quho can 
 
 ^ Sir Robert Kerr of Ancrum, gentleman of the bed-chamber, and keeper of the 
 privy-purse to James VI. and Charles I. In 1633 created Earl of Ancrum. 
 
356 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 turn all for the best in his appointed tyme, desyring zo"" Lo. according to 
 zo"^ accustomed goodnes and cair that ye have had of me since I com in 
 this vorld now to direct me w*'' zo'' comfortable counsaill, quhen I am 
 destitut and straitted, assuring zo'' Lo. that I am that powerfull of my 
 self that I shall do nothing unworthie of a christian and a nobill man, 
 and if yo"" Lo. cum not speedilie home, q"^ I could hartlie wiss, vreet 
 [write] to my Lo. chaunceler that he may supplie yo' Lo. absence with 
 his counsaill and concurrence, and signifie unto his Lo. that I am not 
 insensible of that proof that he hes alreddy given me of his kyndnes 
 q"' I shall neuer forgeit. Quhen yo' Lo. hes considdered of all that is 
 passed, ye will sie that my enemeis ar not idle, so on the vth. [other] 
 part as I will not presum to direct yo' Lo. hou to do in particulars zit as 
 I halve don formerlie so now I am to put yo'' Lo. in rememberance to 
 prepair his ma*'^ that as I in many occasions have had experience of his 
 princelie fauor, so he void be plaised to continou towards me, quhen I 
 am most put to it, thus wissing unto yo' Lo. all health and prosperitie 
 and expecting with all diligence yo' Lo. ansuair, as I shall ever remain, — 
 Your Lo. most affectionet Sone and Seruant, Lorne. 
 
 I houpe your Lo. will pardon me that I have not wreten this with my 
 aun hand, for I am so taken up with busines heir, and wryting of letters 
 to others quhom I will use greater ceremonie with than your Lo., bot this 
 is al treuth tho not al the treuth. 
 
 Ottir, 8 May 1627. 
 
 Letter VIII 
 
 Address: To my very hono" lord and dear father, the Erie of 
 Mortone. 
 
 My honorabll Lord and dear Father, — I most regrait to yoiir 
 Lo. my sisters doings in going to Ingland, quhich I was never privi to 
 bot on night befor shooe tooke jurney, and then it was impossibll for 
 any to mak hir shainge hir resolutions. Yit be hir discourses I per- 
 ceaved shoo wold be desyrouse to bring over hir father, and least it had 
 been suspitious in me I durst not desyr hir not to be rasch (for hir 
 fathers weall) in ane busines of such importance ; yit your Lo. may doe 
 as you think goode. This bearer M'Nachtan hes moved me to desyr 
 your Lo. according to your Lo. dyet [1 inditement] to appoint him ane 
 meeting of my freinds with my brother, quhairin he wil sho himself ane 
 good instrument (quhen it is done I shall beleeve it), and in the mean 
 tym your Lo. may give him such ane countenance as his dealing thair 
 deserves, and I wisch rather then I sould truble your Lo. thair, I 
 might have the happines to wait on your Lo. hear a? becometh, — 
 
APPENDIX III 357 
 
 (I had wreten other particulars to your Lo. if I expected they sould 
 find your Lo. at court), — Your Lo. loving Sone and Servant, Lorne. 
 
 Dalkbith, 4 Jv.l]i 1627. 
 
 Letter IX 
 
 Address : To my hono^ lord and dear father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 My hoxorabill Lord and dear Father, — I mervell much I heard 
 nothing from Lawers since my pairting from your Lo., for his aune 
 presence might doe some good hear besyds all I can doe, always if he be 
 als busie els quhair as I shall be hear, your Lo. may assoor your self 
 to have on company readie for shiping again [1 against] your Lo. day 
 appointed : and in my opinion (salving your Lo. aun judgment) it will be 
 fit that ane ship be readie as I wrote to your Lo. befor and withall your 
 Lo. may advertise the Laird of Lawers according to your Lo. resolution. 
 So wisching your Lo. good success in all your noble interpryses I rest, — 
 Your Lo. loving Sone and Servant, Lorne. 
 
 Innekraray, 30 Ag. 1627. 
 
 Letter X 
 
 Address: To my honorabill Lord and dear father, the Erie of 
 Mortone. 
 
 My honb^ Lord and dear Father, — I receaved your Lo. letters and 
 his Ma*'^* from Georg Donaldsone, and I wisched from my heart thair 
 had been any of my freinds quho wold heave undertaken the listing of 
 ane company from thir [these] pairts to your Lo. ; for imedialy after 
 your Lo. letters com to my hands I advertised that man quhom I 
 beleeved wold [have] imbreaced the busines, yit quhen he com, both 
 fearing the shortnese of the tym and the unwillingnes of the peaple, he 
 wold not undergo it, always your Lo. shall not slip any good occasion for 
 placeing of your Lo. captans ; tho I shall deall quhen all my freinds ar 
 present to see if thair be any will undertak the busines. I heave wretten 
 this day to Lawers to have his peapU in readines again[st] the 15 of 
 this instant, for altho I heave appointed myn to be hear again[st] the 
 10, yit I fear it shall be the 15 befor they be all readie. Always [not- 
 withstanding] in this and all other things concerns your Lo. thair shall 
 be nothing wanting in me to proove myself, — Your Lo. loving Sone to 
 serve you, Lorne. 
 
 Inxbreaeay, S Sep. 1627. 
 
 I heave sent this inclosed letter to your Lo. to be thoght on and 
 prevented as your Lo. thinks fit. 
 
358 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Lbttkr XI 
 
 Address: To my hono^ lord and dear father, the Erie of Mor- 
 tone, theis — 
 
 My honorabl Lord and dear Father, — I most creave your Lo. 
 pardon for keeping of this bearer so long, for quhen I fand so litl resolu- 
 tion in young Lauers freinds (as your Lo. may perceave be thair letters) 
 I could not send him to your Lo. with uncertantie, for quhen Lawers 
 himself went out of this I remitted his resolution (as your Lo. may 
 see be the coppie of my letter to his father) to his freinds, and fred my 
 self of that chairg of furnisching him with any men, so I keeped still 
 the bearer untill I might give your Lo. coumpt [? information] of ane 
 Captan. Now your Lo. shall kno that (as I am oblidged) if the 
 busines wer my oune I could be no mor ernest in it nor I am in 
 your Lo. and seeing your Lo. knoes the natur of this peapell how 
 requisit it is to heave on of thair oun to comand them I heave mad 
 choise of the laird of Barbrek (as your Lo. geave me warrand) to be 
 thair C[aptain] upon thir [these] conditions, that I sould furnisch him 
 iii^ men and himself the other fortie upon that sam rait as your Lo. 
 and Lauers agrieed, and your Lo. to heave the placeing of all the 
 officers. Only I most entreat your Lo. not to dispon upon [dispose of] his 
 cullowis untill I advertis your Lo. and your Lo. shall expect quhat other 
 men I gait shall be shiped heir (godwilling once this nixt week) to be 
 disponed as your Lo. and I shall agree. I have advertised the skper and 
 sent the Ilsmens letters according to your Lo. direction, and shall ever 
 acknowledg my self fortunat in finding the occasion quhairin I may 
 proove myself, — Your Lo. loving Sone to serve you, Lorne. 
 
 Innerraeay, 13 Sep. 1627. 
 I houp your Lo. will heast this gentlmans patent. 
 
 Letter XII 
 
 Address : To my hono^' lord and dear father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 My honorabll Lord and deir Father, — I am sorie I sould heave 
 so iust occasion to regrait to your Lo. the slones in provyding the ships, 
 for as I wret last to your Lo. I had all my men appointed to the 
 Tarbet to have been shiped thair, as I shew your Lo. and was my self 
 this far on my way (reddie to apprehend some quho wold not goe 
 willingly) quhen I receaved this inclosed ansuer, and seeing the skipper 
 hes undertaken to be reddie the last of this moneth, I wil yit (tho it be 
 
APPENDIX III 359 
 
 trubulsum as your Lo. may kno seeing the men ar reddie) stay till then : 
 and I houpe your Lo. will give such direction that they may nather stay 
 any longer for ships nor after they ar shiped ; for if they doe I dar 
 not undertak hot many may run away (tho they seem nou willing) : so 
 remitting all this to your Lo. ouue resolution I rest, — Your Lo. loving 
 Sone to serve you, Loune. 
 
 Orchakd, 20 Se]}. 1627. 
 
 Your Lo. most give me leive to bleam you for my disapointing at 
 this tym : thairfor I intreate your Lo. to have the greater cair in 
 tym cuming. 
 
 Letter XIII 
 
 Address: To my hono'^ lord and deir father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 Mt honorabll Lord and deir Father, — I heave receaved this day 
 such letters as I have sent to your Lo. and I can not mervell anoch that 
 such ane busines of importance hes been wrocht unknoen to your Lo 
 or any other of my freinds, yet seeing I am ingadged in your Lo. service 
 I will not leave it undone for any thing can concern my self, hot I heaue 
 directed this bearer to your Lo. both to creaue your Lo. advyce to my 
 self, and with such other directions quhich I remit to his relation : only 
 I most assoor your Lo. (if it be so as it seems) befor I suffer such con- 
 tempt as I find the beginnings of alreadie (my brother being wretten toe 
 and I neglected) your Lo. shall expect ane man mor to your Lo. service, 
 for I will rather chose to be free abroad then ane sleave at hom to suffer 
 any thing unworthie of, — Your Lo. loving Sone to serve you, Lorne. 
 
 Innekeakay, 29 Sep. 1627. 
 
 Letter XIV 
 
 Address : To my hono" lord and deir father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 My honorabll and dear Father, — Your Lo. can expect no other 
 neues from this bot to hear that all your Lo. freinds ar in good health 
 and longs to hear of your Lo. good successe in all your busineses, and if 
 it wer necessar I would intreate your Lo. to doe that quhich your Lo. 
 thinks best for him quho shall ever remain, — Your Lo. loving Sonne and 
 Servant, Lobne. 
 
 Dalkeith, 28 Jaim. 1628. 
 
3G0 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Letter XV 
 
 Address : To my hono" lord and dear father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 Most honorabll and dear Father, — I will bleam your Lo. sloness 
 and not your unkyndnes that I hear so seldome from your Lo. Yit I 
 shall stryve to mak the best construction on it if I hear from your Lo. 
 shortly quhat is done in my busines ; for my Lord Seafort is to be at 
 court shortly (with my Lord chancier) quhom yoiu' Lo. knoes to stand 
 in such termes as he does ; thairfor I houpe your Lo. will be the lese 
 freind to him (tho your Lo. be intreated) that he may be disapointed 
 both in his dealing for the Bisshoprik of the Isls, and in the preiudce of 
 my busines. Always I wisch your Lo. may not be slo in your oune 
 busines, least your Lo. neglect mak your self bear the bleam of your oune 
 misfortoune, and if I can be any way steadabll your Lo. may ever comand 
 me, — Your Lo. loving Sonne to serve you, Lorne. 
 
 Dalkeith, 1 Ap. 1628. 
 
 Letter XVI 
 
 Address : To my hono^^ lord and dear father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 Most honorabll and dear Father, — I spak my Lord of Mar and 
 some other Lords of the excheker yisterday concerning my assingment 
 to some deiuties quhairwith I am to be payed of tuo thousand pound 
 (as your Lo. knoes), and I find I shall be directly refoosed, except your 
 Lo. purches ane particular letter to my Lord of Mar, commanding him 
 to exped it for such reasons (quhich I will not troubll your Lo. with, hot 
 hes wreten them to Sir William Alexander quhom I think will sho them 
 to your Lo.) ; and in all this I find it on thing amongs freinds to intertain 
 freindship in the generall, and aneother to descend to particulars for I 
 wold not [have] beleeved my Lord of Mar wold heave shoen himself so in 
 my particular quhairin I was not ane preparative [mover]. Always your 
 Lo. may (if you think good) advyse in it with Sir "William Alexander 
 and let me kno quhat your Lo. resolves, for in this and all other things 
 I will ever be that bold as to troubll your Lo., for the quhich your Lo. 
 can heave no mor hot, — Your Lo. loving Sonne to serve you, Lorne. 
 
 Dalkeith, 4 Jidy 1628. 
 
 I houpe your Lo. will be cairfuU to advertise the king that he doe 
 nothing with my father in the particular of his esteat till I be thair, and 
 if your Lo. be absent, quhich I pray God may not be, I houpe your Lo. 
 shall both speak in that befor you go and leave your Lo. directions 
 to me. 
 
APPENDIX III 3G1 
 
 Letter XVII 
 
 Address : To my bono" lord and dear father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 Mt honorabll Lord and Father, — As I kno your Lo. will be 
 glaide to hear that your dochter is saifly brocht to bed, so I doubt not 
 hot the mor because it is of ane sonne : quhairfor I will presum the mor 
 boldly to intreat your Lo. to remember of your self, and hou dangerouse 
 it is to heave the cure to prepair quhen the disease is cum to ane bight , 
 yet I assoor my self of your Lo. cair, not doubting of your wisdom, and 
 shall ever houpe for the best, only stryving for my self in any service 
 I can doe to deserve the name of, — Your Lo. loving Sonne to serve you, 
 
 LORNE, 
 
 Dalkeith, 2Uh Feh. 1629. 
 
 Letter XVIII 
 
 Address : To my bono" lord and dear father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 My honorabll Lord and loving Father, — Of all evells the least 
 most be chosen, quhairfor seeing your Lo. most ather suffer justly (being 
 ingadged as I hear nou) if I should refoose to free my lord Hamilton, 
 or I [be] unjustly censured if I shall, I will rather tak my ventour then 
 bring your worde in question, not for respect to any man but your Lo. 
 self : thairfor let your Lo. tak it upon you only for theas lands that ar 
 presently the Marquisese, and doe in it as your Lo. thinks best, still 
 desyring the Kings Ma*'® to see me perfectly establisched in the rest : 
 otherwayes your Lo. may think with your self I mak ane ivell bargan. 
 Always remiting all to your Lo. self, I rest, — Your Lo. loving Sonne to 
 serve you, Lorne. 
 
 Dalkeith, 27 Feb. 1629. 
 
 Letter XIX 
 
 Address: To my very bono" lord and dear father, the Erie of 
 Mortone. 
 
 My honorabll Lord and d^r Father, — I heave receaved ane letter 
 from my father deated the 20 of Apryll, quhairin he only shoes me that 
 he is to be in Ingland about the end of May and desyrs me to sho so 
 much to his freinds also ; bot (quhich I mairvaill most of) he nather 
 commands me to come nor stay. Thairfor I must intreat your Lo. to 
 advyse me quhat is best, and according to your Lo. advertisement I shall 
 doe. I cannot bot advertise your Lo. with Sir Donald Gorroms intention 
 in going thither, for I shall be abll to proove that his men of lau and 
 
362 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 agents said he could not suffer to be under me any way, and it seems so, 
 for I being in your Lo. house of Dalkeithe, did never hear of him till he 
 was gon. Thairfor let me intrait your Lo. that he and such unhonest 
 men to me as he is (quho speaks to me on way and does quyt contrarit 
 quhich I shall mak good) may not find your Lo. friendship for any 
 mans requeist : for if such peapll as your Lo. knoes the best of those 
 ar, may not find some lose by losing me your Lo. may think hou much 
 the mor unabll it will mak me (of your Lo. have to comand me with 
 [sic]) to sho my self, — Your Lo. loving Sonne and Servant, Lorne. 
 
 Dalkeith, 4 Jan. [1629 ?] 
 
 Letter XX 
 
 Address : To my hono*' lord and dear father, the Erie of Morton. 
 
 My noNORABLL Lord and Father, — Heaving some wrets to passe 
 with my mother in law, quhich I durst not trust to hir self, hes made 
 me direct this bearer that at your Lo. eight all things may be ended. 
 As this bearer and the wrets themselves will informe your Lo. thair is 
 ane busines quhairin I heave been spoken be the Marquis of Hamilton 
 direction, for dimitting of all richt I heave to the Justitiarre of his lands 
 in Arran, quhich I think very hard, seeing thair was not on word of it 
 till my richt was esteblisched in my own person, and I kno if it be done 
 now it shall sufi"er the worst construction. Yet seeing my father is thair, 
 your Lo. may speak with him in it, and seeing I kno your Lo. will be 
 wroght upon in it, I intreat your Lo. let me kno your Lo. advyse, and 
 your Lo. shall kno my resolution. I heave made bold to trubll your 
 Lo. with this at this tym to preveen thair dealing with your Lo., that 
 your Lo. should not ingadge your self in any thing may tuch upon the 
 honor or wealfair of on over quhom your Lo. may shelleng [challenge] so 
 much authoritie to command him as, — Your Lo. Sonne and Servant, 
 
 Lorne. 
 
 I houpe seeing your Lo. is nou red of Sir Archbald Campbell, your 
 Lo. will not dispose of his company over his sonns head. 
 
 Letter XXI 
 
 My hob'-'' Lord and dear Father, — The letter I heave receaved 
 is to that sam effect your Lo. hes hearde, and howsoever I tak it, I will 
 suspend my judgment till I see your Lo., quhiche shall be with Gods 
 grace once this nixt week, so I rest, — Your Lo. afi'ectionat Sonne to 
 serve your Lo., Lorxe. 
 
 ROSNEITHE, 5 Ja. 
 
APPENDIX III 3G3 
 
 Letter XXII 
 
 Address : To the Most Hono" Lord and my dear father, the Erie of 
 Mortone, Th"" of Scotlande. 
 
 My hob'-'' Lord and dear Father, — Altho I shall not be very 
 troublsume to your Lo. in this kynd, yit for this bearer I most intreat 
 your Lo. favour in his composition for ane confirmation he is to creave 
 befor your Lo. in excheker, for I kno him to be ane very honest man, 
 and quho oblidges me. Thairfor quhat extraordinar favour your Lo. 
 shoes him, I kno your Lo. will finde him very thankf ull for it, quhairfor 
 I shall be suirtie, for he is on of them in Glesgow, quhairof he is clerk, 
 most respective to me, quhiche I houpe will mak your Lo, accept him 
 the more favourabllie, so shall I ever remaine, — Your Lo. affectionat 
 Sonne to serve you, Lorne. 
 
 ROSNEITHE, 10 Mar. [1630-1635]. 
 
 Letter XXIII 
 
 Address : For my most Hob" lord and dear father, the Erie of 
 Mortone, Th"" of Scotlande. 
 
 Most Horabll Lord and dear Father, — I have wretten alreadie 
 to sho your Lo. for quhat reasons my freinds hes thoght it unfit I sould 
 come thair, and to intreat your Lo. to heast the dispatch of my fathers 
 letters, and nou withall I intreat your Lo. (as your Lo. knoes best hou) 
 to remember his Ma. of that favour he did me in bestowing that lyfrent 
 and essheat on me, and as his Ma. promised befor he wold doe nothing 
 to my preiudice befor I wer acquanted with it. I houp your Lo. wil 
 have ane cair of thir [these] and other things that may concerne me, 
 seeing I kno others ar not eydle to my preiudice, bot seeing nou your 
 Lo. may doe for your Lo. freinds I rest, — Your Lo. loving Soone to 
 serve you, Lorne. 
 
 Abekdoue, 18 Mar. [1630-1635]. 
 
 Letter XXIV 
 
 Address : To my most honored Lord and dear father, the Erie of 
 Mortone, 
 
 My honorabil Lord and dear Father, — I regrait nothing so much 
 as my aun misfortune that now quhen I have mainest busineses and of 
 greatest importance to doe, I sould want your Lo. advyce quhich ever 
 hithertils hes directed me ; for amongst the rest of directions quhich I 
 
364 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 have receaved from my father thair is on impossibl, that thair sould be 
 130^ pund sterling layd in "William Diks^ hand to be desposed on as 
 his Lo. thinks good, quhich is altogither impossibil, yit may be esilier 
 excoosed then ane thing mor facil. I have lykways hard be Mr 
 Alexander Colvils relation (and sumthing be your Lo. letter) quhat 
 difficulties thair was to gait my brother out of ingland, and so far as I 
 can coniectour no lese to keep him hear ; for altho I was in Argyl 
 quhen he cam home, yit so soone as I hard of it I made heast and 
 cam doun thinking to find him in your Lo. hous, bot he has been al 
 the tym in Ed'', quhair be the advyce (of quhom I kno not) they have 
 passed the signator of Kintyr, with ane resignation of my fathers 
 lyfrent mad be himself, and as I hear mynds presently to creave 
 possession and doe as they please. Bot for that becaus I kno I have 
 lau and reason on my syd, they shal be stronger then I before they get 
 it : and altho my brother hes caried himself to me as ane strainger as 
 yit, quhich I behold patiently, yit til I speak to himself particularly I 
 wil wryt no mor of this busines to your Lo., bot wisclies your Lo. al 
 happines quhair you ar, with ane saif return hom quhair your Lo, shal 
 find me, — Your Lo. most loving and obedient Sonne, Loune. 
 
 Ed*', 5 Decern. 
 
 Letter XXV 
 
 Address : To my very bono" Lord and father, the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 Most honorabil Lord and dear Father, — I doubt not bot befor 
 this your Lo. hes receaved my last letter quhairby your Lo. knoes of 
 that meeting quhich I have had with my freends, quhom I have found 
 so deutiful to me in every particular as I wisched, both in thos that 
 concerned my father, and that betuix me and my brother ; and in that 
 especially becaus in it they find I have gotten greatest wrong, quhich 
 they have shoen my father be thair letter, quhich is now at Glen- 
 orquhy getting his hand to it, or els I had directed it to your Lo. 
 with this bearer. Always for the particulars I have directed heer 
 ane memorandum of them to your Lo. Only for my brothers ingrait 
 carieg in al his busineses your Lo. shall kno he hes done them al be 
 himself unknown to me, and quhair I thoght his intention in cuming 
 hom had been to have gon to the scoole and thau" passed his tym for 
 ane quhyl : now I find (as himself says) having gotten the King's 
 confirmation to Kintyr, without debt, and his fathers without reservation 
 
 » Or 13" [£1300 Sterling] : the original is difficult to decipher. 
 
 ^ William Dick, a wealthy Edinburgh merchant and Lord Provost of the city, 
 was in January, 1642, created a baronet of Nova Scotia. He lent much money to 
 Charles I., and afterwards to escape annoyance gave £69,934 Sterling to the Parlia- 
 ment. He was thrown into prison by Cromwell, and died at Westminster, 19th 
 December, 1655, in a condition of poverty (Scot's Stagrjcring State, 1872, p. 21 n.). 
 
APPENDIX III 365 
 
 of his lyfrent, he craves sum present satling, and then mynds to retir 
 bak to ingland ; hot my freends hes stayed him upon ane letter (most 
 favorable for me) they have directed to my father, quhich shall go be 
 your Lo. And altho my freends thoght it most fit I sould come to your 
 Lo. and the King to informo him mor particularly of that busines, and 
 to secoor my self again of his Ma. favour (quhairon they brag so much), 
 yit heaving your Lo. so happily thair at such ane tym, I wil doe nothing 
 unknoen to your Lo., hot wil intreat your Lo. as you loues my weell 
 (quhich I kno your Lo. does as your aun), that your Lo. wold think on 
 al thir [these] things, and especialy on this, that your Lo. may direct to 
 me your Lo. advyce quhat is best nixt to be done, and with als great 
 heast as your Lo. can, for if your Lo. thinks fit I come, my freends 
 thinks so toe. So remiting al this to your Lo. fatherly cair without 
 ceremonie your Lo. shal ever haue pour to comand me as, — Your Lo. 
 most loving Sone to serve you, Lorne. 
 
 E''-, 25 Jann. 
 
 Letter XXVI 
 
 Address : To my very honorabil Lord and dear father, the Erie of 
 Mortone. 
 
 My hoble Lord and dear Father, — I heave stayed the bearer two 
 days waiting for the wrets of Kintyr. Wee ar all so desyrous of your 
 Lo. horn cuming and the sooner the better, that wee heave put this 
 bearer to the pains to bring advertisment to all your Lo. freinds of ane 
 paremptour dyet for meeting whair your Lo. pleases, hot I think your 
 Lo. Avill choos this place. I heave desyred my brother to intreat 
 your Lo. if you think it good to speak with S'' Harie Knowls. So 
 wisching your Lo. ane happie jurnay I rest, — Your Lo. affectionat Sonne 
 to serv you, Lorne. 
 
 Ed''-, 25 Jun. 
 
 Letter XXVII 
 
 Address: For my most Hono" Lord and dear father, the Erie of 
 ^lorton. 
 
 My'hobll Lord and dear Father, — Your Lo. will hear all what 
 hes passed her from others and how the Duk of Hamilton is mad Gnll, 
 the Erie of Callander L.-Gnll, and the old Gnll, Gnll-L. David Leslie, 
 Gnll-^fajor Holburne : with many other officers, both hors and foot, 
 have quit chairg ; the whole church are dissenting to the ingagement, 
 and declairs it unlawfull. But I cannot furnisch your Lo. at this tym 
 with the churches papers, to wit, the representation, thair declaration, 
 with the remnant papers. What shall be the event God knowes. The 
 
366 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 hous of Commons is now full 340, and indeed ar for a present satling 
 as your Lo. will finde by thair leat vots. If your Lo. be desired 
 [1 desirous] to cum from that think it happines that you ar thair and 
 free of our present business, I speak it reali for your Lo, advantag for 
 without all complement I am, — Your Lo. affectionat Sonne and humbll 
 Servant, Argyll. 
 
 EdR-, 15 May [1648]. 
 
 Letter XXVIII 
 
 Address : For the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 My hobll Lord and dear Father, — Befor I went to Dunstafnag 
 all the vessels that wer thair cam to this firth, so it was impossibll for 
 me to send your Lo, boat, which I am heartili sorie for, becaus shee 
 cannot serve me to so muche use as in being usefull to you, Besyds 
 shee will be unservicabll to ather of ous till shee be dressed the nixt 
 summer, for many things will spoill with a litll lying idll. Your Lo. will 
 hear from others the condition of affairs her and in England betf then 
 I can tell you. My fear is that our Maister be still aboosed, for the 
 pi* [Parliament] heave voted his answer a refoosall of the propositions,^ 
 which they never did befor, which is preparatorie to any thing they 
 pleas to say agains the King, but God hes all mens hearts in his hand. 
 Sum heave been very active to the disbanding of our armie, which 
 suffers divers constructions always to satisfie sum who ar stumbled at it 
 till my lord chancF and Lanerecks report cum bak. They say a 
 betf affected on shall be quicklie on foot. Howsoever I beleeve not- 
 withstanding all [that] is past, the armie will be keept up by the 
 meeting the 12 S^"" [October] till the kingdome look about them. But 
 what may interveen God knowes, I shall wisch the best tho my fears 
 be great, Otherwayes I intreat your Lo. consider the incloased and 
 let me know from your self what is best to be donne in it. After our 
 frequent meeting I shall heave mor to troubll you with. Your dochter 
 is this day beginning to be seek, but the bearers pairting maks that I can 
 say no mor, ]\Iy lord Lanerick and Callander pairted from this on 
 Wedensday. My lord chancF goes Godwilling on Teusday. This with 
 my service to my lady and all your good companie is this tyms troubll 
 from, — Your Lo. affectionat Sonne and Servant, Argyll. 
 
 Ed«-, 2 S^r [1647]. 
 
 ' On 21st September, 1647, both Houses voted Charles's answer a refusal of 
 the nineteen propositions {Lords' Journal, vol. x. p. 440 ; Commons^ Journal, 
 vol. V. p. 331). 
 
APPENDIX III 367 
 
 Letter XXIX 
 
 Address: For the Erie of Mortone.^ 
 
 Right hono'''' dear Brother, — I told you of a cliairg I had got from 
 a Englisch man for a debt of your fathers, which every on says to me is 
 payed : and Icist by my negligence the Erie of Morton should suflfer 
 preiudice I have resolved to indeavour to get a suspention, which I 
 think will not be had without a cationer. Thairfor if I stand in need 
 of on I intreat you to len your name for me : and besyd the ordinar 
 claus in such bands, I doe by theis oblidg my self to releeve you of any 
 dainger or lose, and being both my lord Mortons concernment and myn I 
 houpe you will doe it and oblidge, — Your aflfectionat Brother to serve you, 
 
 ARGYLL. 
 
 Campbell [? Campbeltown], 21 Feb. [1648-1649 ?]. 
 
 Letter XXX 
 
 Address : For S'' James Douglas,^ sonne to the Erie of Mortone. 
 
 My hobll Lord and dear Nepheu, — I creave your Lo. pardon that 
 I have not answered two of your Lo. letters which I receaved. The 
 last was concerning the admiralitie of Orknay, to have sum allowance 
 for it in byrun duties. I must confess thair is much reason for severall 
 particulars, that cannot be soon understood her, and after they ar known 
 they can hardly get a hearing becaus of the multitud of other greater 
 affairs. So my humbll opinion is that any thing your Lo. desyrs her 
 let it be presented thair ; for if it be in thair instructions it will be at 
 last remited thair, and if it be not any freinde you have thair in the 
 Counsell may procoor you a recomendation to his highnes, and I will 
 use my best indeavor to get a dispatch. If I knew any better way for 
 your Lo. I wold both advyse it and concur. I have signed a Com- 
 mission as on of your Lo. curators to the Erie of Traquair, but I 
 declaired I wold signifie to your Lo. that the particular soum must first 
 be condisscendet upon, which is du to him ; and that any Commission 
 to him might not prejudg any former, nor my Lord Dunfermlin and my 
 releef, and your Lo. and the rest of your freinds wold look to that 
 
 ^ This ^vas the 10th Earl of Morton, who died in Orkney in 1649, his predecessor, 
 Argyll's cousin and father-in-law, having died in 1648. 
 
 ^ Sir James Douglas was the second son of William, 9th Earl of Morton. His 
 eldest brother and nephew were 10th and 11th Earls respectively ; on the death of 
 the latter in 1681, Sir James Douglas became 12th Earl of Morton. He died in 
 1686. — There seems to be some mistake about the address of this letter. The 
 contents seem to refer to William, 11th Earl, who succeeded in 1649. His sister 
 Anne married William, 7th Earl Marischal, who is referred to in the letter. The 
 allusion to the debts of the grandfather of the person receiving the letter seems to 
 agree with the supposition that he is the 11th Earl. 
 
368 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 befor you conclud it, tlio indeed I think his condition be hard by his 
 ingadgments for your grandfather, which deserves consideration so far 
 as can be. Your sister the Countes of Marshall is desyring sum such 
 thing may be donne for what is du to hir. I houpe your Lo. will 
 pardon me for so long silence, for tho I may be slow to wret, yit I 
 houpe never to faill in any dutie that is in the power of, — Your 
 Lo. affectionat Uncle and Servant, Argyll. 
 
 [? London : probably after September, 16.55, and before 15th August, 1656]. 
 
 Letter XXXI 
 
 My hobll Lord and dear JS'ephew,^ — At my Lord Traquairs being 
 her he often spoak to me concerning that debt he aleadges owing to him 
 by your Lo. grandfather, which he says he is willing to instruct befor 
 your own freinds, and after that is donne he promises to deall as fairly 
 with your Lo. in the way of his satisfaction as is possibll for him. But 
 becaus I desyr to doe your Lo. all the service I can, I thought it most 
 usef ull for your Lo. every way to have his propositions in wreting, Avhich 
 I send your Lo. the double of, her incloased, that your Lo. may tak them 
 to your consideration by the advyce of the rest of your freindes. For I 
 cannot deny (only looking to your Lo. good in it) I think them very fair, 
 except thair be sum other thing known to your Lo. and others in the 
 busines, which I never heard of. I have indeed seriously considered his 
 paper, and I conf es freely I have heard no proposition for your Lo. affairs 
 in Orknay that I lyk better ; for tho I know many will be jealous of my 
 Lord Traquairs medling in your affairs, yit your Lo. must consider if thair 
 be a just debt owing to him, he must be satisfied. And if your Lo. get 
 his assistance (as the papir bears) both in getting up the rents and 
 bringing others to coumpt without a factor's fiall [1 retainer], I think it 
 may proove advantagious to your Lo. But I submit my judgment in 
 this to your self and other freinds upon the place. Only let me tell your 
 Lo. again it was ever my opinion that sum active man might have par- 
 ticular employment in your affairs, or I could never see how your Lo. 
 busines could be rightly managed. And now becaus I am named in 
 the paper and leist my absence might be any impediment to your affairs, 
 I did fullie communicat my thoughts in the particulars to the Erie of 
 Lothian, who I know will impairt them treuly to your Lo. And with 
 respect to your famelie and becaus it is your Lo. good I consider most in 
 the busines, I am content your Lo. acquaint the rest of your freinds with 
 my thoughts of the busines and in all things command me as, — Your Lo. 
 affectionate Uncle to serve you, Argyll. 
 
 London, 15 Ag. 1656. 
 
 1 n 
 
 This is William, 11th Earl of Morton, who succeeded iu 1649 and died in 1681. 
 
APPENDIX III 3G9 
 
 Lettku XXXII 
 
 Dear Brother, — It his pleassed God to restor our neplme to health 
 after ane loung alarming seikness ; he is now busse at his bouk ; and 
 much affected when he heirs what conserns him gos not right wher 
 ye ar ; and indeid so is moe [more] of us, but our Lord seis good to 
 humbell this land in everie corner of it in on way or other, so that ther 
 is no aduice can be given but a paciant wating for our lord who will in 
 due tym arays with healling under his wings, and tell then I know 
 nothing better then to wat at his fitt stull for derectsion ; for he will 
 disapoynt non that corns to him : and that ye may know the way of 
 doeing this the better, I have sent you this inclosed, which is set furth 
 by ane freind who is heir.^ It is worth your parushing and the Lord 
 give you the right ush of it ; this I ame, — Your affectionat Sister and 
 Servant, Margaret Douglas. 
 
 Innerakay, 22 Jan. 
 
 Letter XXXIII 
 
 Address : For Sir James Douglas in Orkney. 
 
 Dear Cousin, — I long to hear from you. It was not willingly that 
 I brock my trist to you, but I hop you have no reason to regrat you kept 
 it. I shall be glad to hear you have resolved to make God your God 
 upon his own tearmes, and shall not faithlesly pray to see the fruits of 
 his free mercies in your cariage, (at lest) some years after this. Pardon 
 this ill writ, it is from, — Your very affectionat Cousin and humble 
 Servant, Anne Campbell. 
 
 30iA July 1655. 
 
 Letter XXXIV 
 
 Address : For the Earl of Morton. 
 
 My noble Lord and dear Cousin, — Tho I must acknowledge my self 
 in your debt for a letter, and therefor shall not dout you do your cousins 
 heir the honor to remember us, yett your long absence maks me jealous 
 you dout we deserve the name which I assure you is very much affected 
 by me of, — My Lord, Your most affectionat Coussin and humble Servant, 
 
 Anne Campbell. 
 
 10 Jxihj 1657. 
 
 ^ Perhaps the sermons of David Douglas, preached at Inveraray and written out 
 at the desire of the Marchioness of Argyll. He was transported to Glasgow in 1639. 
 Tliese sermons were afterwards published with the co-operation of the Rev. Mr 
 Durham, under the title of The Stem of Saving Knoioledge. 
 
 24 
 
APPENDIX IV 
 
 A LETTER FROM THE MARQUESS IN 1642 
 
 In the volume entitled The Family of KilravocTc, 1290-1847, 
 published by the Spalding Club, the following letter is given without 
 note or comment. We give it as supplementing our brief account 
 of an episode in Scotch history which seems to be known to but few. 
 It has value to us here as giving some details of family history, and as 
 exhibiting Argyll in the somewhat novel character of recruiting-sergeant 
 for the King of France. 
 
 "■o 
 
 From the Marquess of Argyll 
 
 Right honorable, — Whairas the kingis majestie hes beine pleased 
 with advyse of the counsall to grant warrand to the Erie of Irwing, my 
 brother, for levying a regiment for serving the French king as a regiment 
 of guard, which no doubt will be both honourable and advantagious in 
 all tyme comeing, ffor breding of younge noblemen and gentlemen of 
 this kingdome ; and in regaird my sone the lord of Lome is allowid to 
 be the first capitane of that regiment, the capitanes of that regiment 
 being all younge noblemen and gentlemen of qualitie ; and that I am 
 to levy my sones company, consisting of ane hundred and ffiftie men, in 
 the in countre, and heirin to be troublesome to non bot such as ar my 
 reall frends, amongst which I am confident of yow ; thease ar thairfor 
 earnistlie to requeist yow to provyde some younge abill men to be of my 
 sones company, such as ye can convenientlie have, and to send thame 
 to Edinburgh so soone as possiblie may be, at the farthest betuix and 
 the tuentie of July nixtocum, whair my sones lieutennent, my cowsine, Mr 
 Archibald Campbell, sal be ready to resave them and gif tham pay from 
 the day ye sail tak thame on, so long as they remane heir ; or uther- 
 wayes so much in ane sowme as sail be aggreit upone during the tyme 
 of ther abode heir ; and thair sal be shipping and sufficient provisione 
 for ther transporting to France ; and everie ane of thame sail have ane 
 suite of apparell, with hat, stockings, and shoes. And as ye sal be 
 pleasit to further this my requeist, so ye may be confident that I will 
 tak it as a most singular favoure done to me, and ever acknowledge 
 myselfi' thairby obleidgid to remaine, — Your assurit and loveing Freind, 
 
 Argyll. 
 
 Edik^', pennult Junii, 1642. 
 
 370 
 
APPENDIX IV 371 
 
 Let me lykewyes intreat that I may heir from yow with this bearer 
 wliat I may expect anent the premisses. Argyll. 
 
 To the richt honorable the Barrone of Kilraik. 
 
 [We are indebted to G. Bain, Esq., Nairn, for pointing oixt to us the 
 above letter.] 
 
APPENDIX V 
 
 A FURTHER EXAMINATION OF THE CHARGE AGAINST 
 ARGYLL IN DEEDS OF MONTROSE (p. 277) 
 
 {Edited hy Canon Murdoch and Mr H. F. Morland Simpson, 1893) 
 
 Messrs Murdoch and Simpson, the editors of Deeds of Montrose, 
 
 with an emphasis for which there seems but little occasion, repudiate 
 
 the idea that Montrose had really disobeyed royal orders in invading 
 
 Scotland. " That the King," they say, " continued up to the very last 
 
 to urge the expedition is beyond question. The evidence for this is, in 
 
 truth, so complete and overwhelming, that only ignorance and malignant 
 
 prejudice can stoop to repeat the base forgery of Argyll " (p. 277). The 
 
 allusion in this last sentence is to the statement made by Sir James 
 
 Balfour and quoted in our text (p. 235), that Argyll asserted in 
 
 Parliament four days after Montrose's execution that he had received 
 
 a letter from the Earl of Lothian, then with Charles 11. in Breda, 
 
 " which showed him that His Majesty wes no wayes sorey that James 
 
 Graham was defait, in respect he had made that invasione without 
 
 and contrarey to his command." There may have been some writers so 
 
 credulous as to believe the statement thus ascribed to Charles II., 
 
 though we confess that we have not met with their works. In view 
 
 of the proclamations and speeches of Montrose himself in which he 
 
 declared that he had obeyed royal orders in invading Scotland, and of the 
 
 fact that he was afterwards spoken of as " His Majesty's Commissioner " 
 
 in State documents,^ it seems mere imbecility to affect to believe that he 
 
 had acted upon his own responsibility in invading Scotland. We have 
 
 aheady in the text of our volume dealt briefly with the assertion that 
 
 the alleged letter from the Earl of Lothian was a fabrication of Argyll's, 
 
 but perhaps our readers will excuse our again referring to the matter 
 
 here at greater length. 
 
 The first point to which we desire to draw attention is the calm 
 
 assumption on the part of Messrs Murdoch and Simpson that the 
 
 charge of crime they thus make is beyond question. The ordinary 
 
 reader would imagine from the passage above quoted that the truth of 
 
 the accusation was either notorious or that the editors of the Deeds of 
 
 Montrose were in possession of ample evidence in support of it, though 
 
 ^ e.g. in the indictment of Argyll {State Trials, vol. v. p. 1415). 
 
 372 
 
APPENDIX V 373 
 
 they did not produce tliat evidence. Yet as a mere matter of fact the 
 whole ground on which the charge is made is already known to the 
 reader : namely, it has been suggested that, at the time when the alleged 
 letter referred to in Parliament must if genuine have been written, it 
 was improbable that Charles II. had heard of the defeat of Montrose. 
 How utterly at variance this suggestion is with the facts of the case we 
 shall leave our readers to judge from the account we have above given 
 in the text of the tidings that came to Breda before the letters in 
 question were despatched to Edinburgh. Even if it could be shown 
 tliat authentic news of the defeat of Montrose did not reach Charles 
 until a much later date, the tidings or rumours to which we have referred 
 would furnish ample ground for the repudiation of Montrose, if that were 
 a course the King was prepared to take in case of his failure to carry out 
 his undertaking successfully. 
 
 We say again that the matter is not to be settled by comparing 
 the date, if it could be discovered, when the actual tidings of defeat, as 
 distinguished from rumours, arrived at Breda, with the date at which the 
 letter read in Edinburgh on 25th May must have been despatched ; for, 
 as we have pointed out, the rumours current would be enough to furnish 
 ground to Charles II. for a statement of the kind attributed to him. 
 The editors of the Deeds of Montrose are the last persons in the world 
 who need be surprised at the King's conduct, for they more than once 
 speak of duplicity as characteristic of Charles 11.^ 
 
 The fact that in the brief summary given by Sir James Balfour of 
 Charles II. 's direct letter to the Parliament no reference is made to the 
 defeat of Montrose, is perhaps of no special significance. The very 
 occasion of his writing to dissociate himself from the undertaking on 
 which Montrose had embarked implies that he had heard of defeat. 
 Had he heard a rumour of victory, is it not probable that he would have 
 refrained from writing and would have waited to see " whereunto this 
 would grow " 1 
 
 If, however, it was a fact that in Charles's letter to the Estates no 
 direct reference to the defeat of Montrose was contained, Argyll's action 
 in reporting his comments upon that event from information supplied by 
 the Earl of Lothian is in itself remarkable. If our readers will allow 
 us for a moment to leave the region of dates, facts, evidence, and 
 arguments, and to enter that of pure conjecture, we shall give what 
 seems to us the most probable explanation of the whole incident. It is 
 our opinion that Charles on hearing the news or rumour of the defeat 
 wrote his letter to the Estates, and made no reference to his having heard 
 it. The information which he had received may still have been sufficiently 
 indefinite or uncertain to allow him to ignore it in this communication 
 addressed by him to the authorities in Scotland ; and our conjecture is 
 that he wished to appear to have written the letter independently of 
 
 ' See pp. 251, 263, etjmssim. 
 
374 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 that information. We also think that in conversation with the Earl 
 of Lothian, or with one of the other Scotch commissioners in Breda, 
 whose animosity against Montrose was boundless, he expressed himself 
 in terms which he knew would be acceptable to them, and said that he 
 was not sorry at what was said to have happened, since "James 
 Graham " had acted contrary to orders. Our supposition is that this 
 was reported as an item of news to Argyll by his kinsman, the Earl 
 of Lothian, and was skilfully used by him in his speech in Parlia- 
 ment. Charles was now forsaking his Royalist supporters to form an 
 alliance and treaty with the Covenanting party. His sincerity was, to 
 say the least of it, doubtful, and Argyll was anxious to attach him 
 firmly to his new political associates. And so, if our readers will allow 
 the use of a mixed metaphor, the skilful politician played a trump 
 card to clinch the alliance between Charles and the Covenanters by 
 disclosing the remark which the former had made, perhaps rashly and 
 hastily, concerning his lieutenant's defeat. The result to be expected 
 was that a breach would be formed between Charles and the Royalists 
 by this cruel repudiation of the ablest and most devoted member of 
 their party, and that the King would be irrevocably committed to his 
 alliance with the faction now dominant in Scotland. After the 
 Restoration the scattered portions of Montrose's body were collected 
 together by royal orders, and a magnificent State funeral was decreed 
 and carried out in honour of his memory, while at the same time 
 instructions were given that Argyll's dissevered head was to be placed 
 on the same spike on the Tolbooth as that on which that of his rival 
 had been fastened. All this looks like a tardy and remorseful act of 
 expiation on the part of Charles of his crime towards Montrose. We 
 have not the least doubt that the bitterness of Charles's hatred of Argyll 
 was partly due to the latter's having discredited him so deeply by disclos- 
 ing his treachery to the man who had served him with such unswerving 
 loyalty. Had Charles been able to assert that the words attributed to 
 him and reported in public to the Estates of Parliament were a 
 fabrication either of the Earl of Lothian or of the Marquess of Argyll, 
 is it conceivable that he would have omitted to hasten to clear himself 
 from the slur thus cast upon his honour ? 
 
 There is, we think, no reasonable ground for suspicion in the fact 
 that the actual letter quoted by Argyll was not laid on the table of 
 Parliament. The letter was apparently a private one from the Secretary 
 of State, who happened to be his niece's husband, and not a State paper. 
 No doubt, if the truthfulness of Argyll's announcement had been 
 challenged at the time the whole text of the letter would have been 
 given; or if the matter had been brought up at his trial it is quite 
 probable that the accused would have been able to clear himself of any 
 chaise of false-dealing by producing the original document. But it was 
 not until Mr Napier in his Life of Montrose (1840) drew attention to 
 
APPENDIX V 375 
 
 what he thought was a discrepancy of dates that any doubt was thrown 
 on Argyll's veracity in the matter. The supposed discrepancy probably 
 led to the statement by some partisan writer that Argyll was quite 
 capable of forging the letter, and this vague suggestion has apparently 
 crystallized into the definite reference to " the base forgery of Argyll " 
 in the passage above quoted. 
 
 The editors of the Deeds of Montrose are somewhat oppressed by 
 a sense of Argyll's general iniquity, and they freely express their feelings 
 to their readers in the course of their editorial labours. Sir Peter Teazle 
 spoke of himself as early in his matrimonial career experiencing the 
 sensation of being "nearly choked with gall." Messrs Murdoch and 
 Simpson seem to run a somewhat similar risk when they have occasion 
 to mention Argyll. " A dangerous fanatic," " a weak or crafty bigot," 
 a man "of malice and ambition," and "a satyr," are epithets which they 
 apply to him on two consecutive pages of their work (pp. xl and xli), 
 and, as we have seen, they attribute to him the crime of forgery attended 
 by specially iniquitous circumstances, which call for the adjective " base " 
 to designate them. Our biography of Argyll will enable our readers to 
 judge of the justice of the descriptions which they give of his character 
 and career. "We have no hesitation in expressing our opinion that the 
 abusive terms in which they refer to the great statesman are unjustifiable, 
 and that such a comparison as that of him to " a satyr " is as monstrously 
 grotesque and out of place as it would be if it were applied to either of 
 themselves. They speak of Montrose as " being the victim of a heartless 
 monarch " (p. xli), which surely implies that he was sent or encouraged 
 by Charles II. to invade Scotland and was then repudiated by him. If 
 it does not mean this we scarcely know what it can refer to. And yet is 
 not this an acceptance of the accuracy of the letter quoted by Argyll 
 which they so hastily and unreasonably reject ? A couple of sentences 
 further on we read that Montrose was Argyll's victim ! Was he any one 
 else's victim? He took his life — a life already legally forfeited — in his 
 hand and ventured to invade Scotland with the full knowledge that 
 death would be the penalty of failure ; and he met the death he had 
 amply earned. He yielded to his fate with heroic courage, and he made 
 no complaint of being this man's victim or that man's victim. 
 
 In our Preface we refer to our opinion that the late Dr Gardiner 
 in forming an estimate of Argyll was unconsciously biassed by the 
 partisan literature dealing with Montrose, in which he was thoroughly 
 versed. "We think we see an illustration of this in the way in which 
 he treats the above incident. He believes that Argyll received a letter 
 from Lothian, and that it contained some cruel and treacherous utter- 
 ances of Charles, but he suggests that they were exaggerated by Argyll. 
 " On the whole," he says, " the most likely explanation is that Argyll, 
 trusting to Charles's eagerness to be received in Scotland, and his well- 
 known easiness of character, did not scruple to distort or exaggerate 
 
376 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 phrases which, as spoken, bore a comparatively, though only a com- 
 paratively innocent meaning." ^ We confess that we consider this 
 decision to be strangely incongruous with this historian's reputation for 
 judiciousness. Beyond " impressions " unfriendly to Argyll he has no 
 ground for convicting the Covenanting statesman of a crime akin to 
 forgery, and yet he goes the length of passing a virtual sentence of 
 condemnation upon him. Exaggeration or distortion of words or senti- 
 ments could only be established by evidence, and of this not a scrap 
 is forthcoming. It would be a poor commentary upon this historian's 
 acuteness in forming judgments, if Argyll, to whom he uniformly 
 attributes high political sagacity and statesmanship, were really guilty 
 of a petty fraud like that thus ascribed to him, which might possibly 
 have been exposed upon the spot by any one of his hearers challenging 
 his veracity and demanding to see the text of the letter from which 
 he quoted. No man of his intellectual ability and political astuteness 
 would have gratuitoiisly run the risk of being at once unmasked as a 
 calumniator and a forger. 
 
 In conclusion we desire to state our strong conviction that the charge 
 of "base forgery" made by Messrs Murdoch and Simpson should be 
 withdrawn by them, since they have no evidence wherewith to support 
 it. It is not open for them to remand Argyll in the meantime on the 
 ground that he lies under gi'ave suspicion, though testimony to prove 
 his guilt is lacking. The public are the judges who alone are entitled 
 to remand historical personages against whom charges may be brought, 
 or to pronounce upon them verdicts of " innocent," " not proven," or 
 " guilty." It would be a grievous miscarriage of justice if the counsel for 
 the prosecution were also to assume the office of the judge. If he has 
 not evidence to support the charge he formulates, he should be allowed 
 no other option than to withdraw it. 
 
 Since writing the above we have received the following statement 
 from Mr H. F. Morland Simpson for insertion in our work. It is in 
 the form of a paragraph bearing to be from us, and containing an 
 account which he authorizes us to give of the present position occupied 
 by the editors of the Deeds of Montrose with regard to the above matter. 
 It is as follows : — 
 
 " In answer to a letter addressed to Canon Murdoch as to the grounds 
 on which the above charge was made in 1893, Mr H. F. Morland 
 Simpson has replied to the effect that the editors had too implicitly 
 followed Napier's statement of dates in his appendix, p. 535, to Life 
 and Times of Montrose (1840), from which that writer had drawn the 
 conclusion that at the date of the alleged statement Argyll could not 
 have received any such letter from Lothian ; but subsequent examina- 
 tion of these dates in the light of the documents published by the late 
 ^ Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. i. p. 258. 
 
APPENDIX V 377 
 
 Dr S. R. Gardiner {Cliarles II. aiid Scotland in 1G50) shows that j^apier 
 had confused Old and New Style, leaving it, in Mr Morland Simpson's 
 judgment, doubtful whether some such letter from Lothian may not 
 actually have reached Argyll within the dates specified. The present 
 writer has, therefore, Mr Morland Simpson's authority for stating that 
 the charge of forgery laid to Argyll is not substantiated, responsibility 
 for the alleged statement resting between Charles, Lothian, and Argyll — 
 and, of course, Balfour, to whom we owe our knowledge of the state- 
 ment. The point requires further elucidation ; but at the time of 
 writing Mr Simpson was unable to give it that close, careful revision 
 which it demands." 
 
 All we have to say about this statement is that in our opinion the 
 point has been sufficiently elucidated in this Appendix, and that as 
 long as the sole evidence on which a charge of such a serious crime as 
 forgery was made against Argyll has, even in the opinion of his accusers, 
 disappeared, an ample retractation of the charge should have been 
 supplied us for insertion in this volume. As matters now stand, we 
 think that our readers will agree with us in wishing that the virtual 
 withdrawal of the accusation had been accompanied by an expression of 
 regret that it had ever been made. 
 
APPENDIX VI 
 
 THE FAMOUS SIX LETTERS SENT BY MOXCK TO SECURE 
 ARGYLL'S CONDEMNATION 
 
 The originals of these letters are in the archives of the Argyll family at 
 Inveraray, having been purchased by the 8th Duke from a collector of 
 antiquities into whose hands they had come. The history of them is 
 given by Sir William Eraser in his report on the Argyll Papers in vol. vi. 
 of the Report s of the Historical 3ISS. Commission. For some time they 
 had disappeared, and their existence w^as doubted in the absence of 
 evidence to confirm Burnet's statement that Monck had furnished private 
 letters to secure the condemnation of the Marquess. But the publication 
 of Sir George Mackenzie's Memoirs of the History of Scotland early in the 
 nineteenth century confirmed Burnet's narrative, and the discovery of the 
 letters themselves with the formal endorsement that they were produced 
 in court by the Lord Advocate in Edinburgh, on 24th May, 1661, leave 
 no doubt as to Monck's infamous action. ^ 
 
 The handwriting of the letters is very crabbed and the ink with 
 which they were written has faded, but otherwise the documents are in 
 good condition and only one or two words are difficult to decipher or 
 of uncertain significance. Along with the letters themselves there is a 
 careful transcript of them by an accomplished expert which we have 
 collated with the original and found to be accurate. In our transcript 
 the spelling is modernized for the reason that in scores of instances while 
 the words were plain enough the precise spelling was uncertain, and we 
 thought it better to follow the course we have adopted than to give a 
 piebald version of ancient and modern spelling. 
 
 The significance of the letters for the purpose for which they were 
 used will be apparent to the reader who keeps in mind the position in 
 which Argyll was then placed. To use an expression which will be 
 familiar to many — he was between the devil and the deep sea. On the 
 one hand, the army of the Commonwealth had a firm grip of Scotland, 
 and the suspicion of bad faith on his part would have led the English 
 Government, with whom he had concluded a treaty, to crush him at 
 once ; on the other hand, the Earl of Glencairn and the Earl of Middleton 
 had the royal authority for the rebellion they set on foot in Scotland, 
 ^ Sec Biofj. Brit., article "Archibald Campbell." 
 
APPENDIX VI 379 
 
 aiiJ Argyll's resistance to it exposed him to the charge of treason if 
 ever Charles II. came to the throne. The Marquess's position was 
 rendered still more precarious by the fact that his son had joined the 
 Royalist insurrection, as the suspicion of collusion between father and 
 son naturally would be suggested to all who heard of Lord Lome's 
 action. Argyll, therefore, from the mere instinct of self-preservation, 
 as well as from the desire to keep his pledges to the Government of the 
 Commonwealth, would feel bound to supply the English authorities with 
 early and full information concerning their enemies' movements and to 
 co-operate with them energetically in endeavouring to suppress the revolt. 
 In the volumes entitled Scotland and the Commomvealth and Scotland 
 and the Protectorate, by C. H. Firth, M.A.,^ we have the record of his 
 anxieties and struggles during this period, and the information therein 
 contained is supplemented by the letters in this Appendix. Of these 
 letters the first and second appear in the volume Scotland and the 
 Commonicealth, and are there numbered cxxiii. and cxxvi. The text 
 we give is necessarily more accurate than that which Mr Firth found 
 in the Clarke MSS. — the only source then at his disposal. The third, 
 fourth, fifth, and sixth of the letters appear here for the first time. 
 
 In Letter I. we find the Marquess giving information to Colonel 
 Lilburne, the Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, of the movements of 
 prominent Royalists in his neighbourhood, and an explanation of the 
 reason why he had just raised a company of soldiers. He had found 
 himself in danger and had adopted this measure of self-defence. He 
 is careful to give full details of his son's procedure in order to clear 
 himself from blame and from suspicion ; and he offers to give himself up 
 to the English Government, if called upon to do so, and promises to do 
 all in his power to hinder the spread of the rebellion that had been set 
 on foot. A copy of the letter he speaks of as being enclosed, in which 
 he entreats and commands his son to give up his present course of con- 
 duct, is given in Scotland arid the Commonwealth and is there numbered 
 cxxiv. 
 
 In Letter II. he gives further particulars regarding his son's move- 
 ments and sets down the names of the principal leaders of the Royalist 
 insurrection who have any connexion with Argyllshire. 
 
 In Letter III. similar information is given concerning the rebels, 
 and the writer places himself absolutely at the disposal of the English 
 Government, and protests that in spite of all the detraction to which he 
 may be subjected he is faithful to his plighted word. 
 
 In Letter IV. to Slonck's secretary, Mr Clerk, he records the en- 
 deavours he is making to secure the payment of Cess to the English 
 Government, and gives an explaiiation of the action of some of his 
 tenants in Kintyre in raising a troop of soldiers. These persons he 
 speaks of as " lowland planters," i.e. they were farmers from Ayrshire 
 ^ Scottish History Society's publications. 
 
380 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 and other Lowland districts whom he had invited to settle in Kintyre 
 and who were devoted Covenanters. They had recently adopted 
 measures of self-defence against the Royalists by raising and equipping 
 a company of soldiers, and the Marquess apologizes for his oversight in 
 omitting to give notice that this was about to be done by them, 
 and he pledges his word that these military preparations are com- 
 paratively insignificant and have not been inspired by any disloyal 
 motive. 
 
 In Letter V. to Monck himself he gives more particulars concerning 
 his son's proceedings and tells of having intercepted some of the enemy's 
 papers, and refers to letters which he had written to Monck but might 
 possibly have miscarried. 
 
 In Letter VI., written to Monck to vindicate himself from suspicions 
 of unfaithfulness and treachery under which he had fallen, he protests 
 that, if his honesty or affection to the English authorities should on ex- 
 amination be found wanting, he was willing to be considered and treated 
 as the unworthiest of men. 
 
 Altogether Argyll in these letters had accumulated evidence of 
 zealous co-operation with the Government of the Commonwealth in 
 suppressing the Royalist insurrection — a course of action which was 
 sufficiently near treason to secure his condemnation when Charles 11. 
 regained power. According to English law, obedience to a reigning 
 sovereign was not allowed to rank as treason against the legitimate 
 sovereign who had been supplanted by a rival ; but, even if Scotch law 
 admitted this plea, Cromwell's not being formally a king would pre- 
 vent its being urged in Argyll's case. His conduct was well known to 
 Glencairn, who, at some period in the year 1653 — probably towards the 
 close of it — requested from Charles a warrant under his hand declar- 
 ing Argyll a traitor. ^ Argyll's doom, therefore, was sealed the moment 
 his confidential correspondence with the Government of the Common- 
 wealth was laid on the table of Parliament by the Lord Advocate. 
 
 For the Right Honourable Colonel Lylburne, Commander-in-Chief 
 of the forces in Scotland, these — 
 
 [July, 1653.] 
 
 Right Hono^''^,- — I have not yet seen my servant James Campbell 
 whom I sent to your Honor after my meeting with my nephew. I sent 
 the last week ane letter to him wherein I desired him to acquaint your 
 
 ^ The editors of Deeds of Montrose (1893), p. xli, ask why Argyll did not support 
 Glencairn. We need not do more than remind them of the sacredness of a promise. 
 He had pledged himself to live peaceably under the Government of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 2 Clarke MSS., " Mr Macpherson." 
 
APPENDIX VI 381 
 
 Honor with M'Naugliton's return to a son ^ of his within five - miles of 
 this, with Sir Artliur Forbes, one Captain Gerard Irvine (who was taken 
 prisoner at Worcester and released since), and some otliers. Whereupon 
 I have taken some men into my company for defence of my own person, 
 which, God knows, is not much worth, but that Christian duty in 
 using lawful ordinary means is not to be neglected. And I have no less 
 ground but more to increase my jealousy, for at my return hither I 
 desired to know if I was clear in my own family. Whereupon I called 
 for my eldest son, that I might put him to it (as I did) to declare unto 
 me if he was free from engagements with those people now stirring, and 
 that he would assure me that he would never engage with them. He 
 declared that he was not resolved to engage with them, but would not 
 declare on the negative, tho he said to some in private he intended not 
 at all to join with them. Howsoever immediately after his going out 
 of my sight he took horse and went to Glenorquhy, where it seems he 
 had appointed a meeting with Auchinbreck, M'Naughton, Sir Arthur 
 Forbes, and such as are of that crew. But immediately after I knew of 
 his resolution I caused my last warning come to his hands, whereof the 
 enclosed is a copy. So what resolution he takes on it I know not, for 
 he went but from this upon Monday after twelve o'clock. This much 
 I declare unto your Honor that what I do in this is sincerely done, as 
 in the Lord's sight, before whom I must answer one day for all I do 
 otherwise. And if I had not some apprehension that my presence here 
 might hinder their designs in a great measure I had come myself to your 
 Honor upon any hazard. And if your Honor require it let me be pro- 
 tected from violence of creditors, and I shall wait on your Honor where 
 you please. They have not one man as yet together but their ordinary 
 servants, and I believe without very great violence they will get but 
 very few. Sir James M'Donald came here on Monday, whom I find 
 most inclinable to peaceable and quiet living, but he wants not his owy 
 threatenings for it. I shall strive, with the Lord's assistance, to do my 
 best to hinder the country people here from raising men, which I do 
 find them very inclinable to obey. And I pray God the guilty may find 
 their own weight and that the innocent suffer not with them. I can 
 say no more till I hear from your Honor, but that I am, — Your very 
 humble Servant, Argyll. 
 
 It is the way of all that take them to such ways as these people are 
 upon to make lies their refuge. They haunt the common people with 
 them, either for stirring them up or disaffecting them as it makes for 
 their purpose. 
 
 The above letter is endorsed : 
 
 " Jlarq. of ArgylVs, concerning his son, July, 1653." 
 
 1 Clarice MSS., "aue house." 
 ^Ibid., "two miles." 
 
382 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 II 
 
 For the Right Honorable Colonel Lilburne, Commander-in-Chief of 
 the forces in Scotland. 
 
 Right Honorable, — I find the proverb true that experience may 
 teach fools, and that it is the ordinary practice of such as has followed 
 or do follow malignant courses to be expert in lying and dissembling ; 
 for tho as I wrote in my former letter to you my son had professed that 
 he intended not to join with the Highlanders, yet since his parting from 
 this I hear he has resolved the contrary. And so your Honor's informa- 
 tion concerning him has been better than mine. For after the writing 
 of this letter which this bearer carries, my servant James Campbell 
 came home, with whom I received your Honor's letter, and has gotten 
 any certainty that I have of my son's resolutions after that. Likewise 
 yet I may assure your Honor for anything that I know there is not any 
 at all that concerns this shire that countenances him in his present 
 course and resolutions, except Auchinbreck, M'Naughton, Straquhurre,^ 
 and Ardchattan. For the whole rest of the gentlemen of the shire are 
 here with me at present, professing their unsatisfaction of this way, 
 which they are to make known to himself this day ; and tho I dare say 
 nothing positively in this world, yet I am very hopeful, with the Lord's 
 assistance, they shall get very little concurrence from this shire in any 
 of their desperate designs. Since the writing of my last letter, likewise, 
 Sir James M'Donald tells me that he is to write to your Honor, and to 
 desire the same favour which he obtained from Major-General Deane ; 
 and indeed I do really think he deserves it, for, so far as a Christian and 
 a gentleman's expressions can be believed, I am persuaded he resolves 
 to live peaceably, and indeed he is considerable in the Highlands and 
 Isles. I find the gentlemen in this shire very inclinable to do their 
 duty concerning the Cess ; and I am confident if they had present 
 money, it would be instantly satisfied. And tho it be never so incon- 
 siderable that is to be had in money, it shall be received, and oblige- 
 ments under their hands for payment of the rest at a certain day, 
 whereof your Honor shall have an account, so soon as I can. For, 
 hearing that your Honor was to remove from Dalkeith, I have only sent 
 a footman ^ with this to find you out wherever ye are, that upon your 
 advertisement where you are certainly to be found, I intend to send an 
 express to wait upon your Honor. For in everything I desire, with the 
 Lord's assistance, to walk uprightly, and so I shall remain, — Your 
 Honor's very humble Servant, Argyll. 
 
 Inveraray, 21 of July, 1653. 
 
 1 Clarice MSS,, " Gdoquhire." Straquhurre is evidently Strachur on Loch Fyne. 
 ^ Ibid,, "a gentleman," 
 
APPENDIX VI 383 
 
 The above letter is endorsed : 
 
 " Jifarq. of Argyll, 2\st July, 1653, concerning his son, the Lord 
 Lome." 
 
 Ill 
 
 The Right Honorable Colonel Lilburne, Commander-in-Chief of the 
 forces in Scotland, these — 
 
 Eight Honorable, — I received your Honor's letter from Dalkeith, 
 the 24th of August. I doubt not but your Honor knows that the 
 Highlanders who came together (and very inconsiderable) are divided 
 and most part gone home. Only I hear my Lord Kenmore and 
 M'Xaughton, and, as some say, my son with them, are towards the 
 head of Monteith, treating upon mischief, and boasting to fall upon any 
 about them, who will not concur with them. I declare freely to your 
 Honor I know not the man you mention, Cornett Redpath, neither 
 heard I ever of him. I know, indeed, M'Naughton kept severals 
 in Kintyre unknown to me till I discharged him of any employment 
 there from me, always I shall try [sic] more of him, if possibly I can. 
 What I wrote to your Honor anent the Assess I am striving to make 
 good, though all the impediments are cast in my way that disaftected 
 people can. And if I had not some few men in arms to assist me in it, 
 I could do little ; so much are ignorant people led by example, and do 
 what I can, I profess ingenuously to your Honor that it will be impossible 
 to get it in money. I think I may get sufficient [1 loans] at reasonable 
 rates, wherein I have commanded the bearer to speak to your Honor 
 more particularly. I acknowledge it was a very great oversight that 
 your Honor was not acquainted, before the gentleman in Kintyre sent 
 for those commodities which your Honor mentions. And if I had known 
 of the doing of it, it had not been so ; but the truth is, if it be no more 
 than I imagine, your Honor I hope will not disallow of it, upon the 
 ground that it is done. For, when I removed M'Kaughton from his 
 charge in Kintyre I did to him and the lowland planters prejudice 
 against him was for what he did against the English. And he did vow 
 and swear, if he were but able to command one man, he should be 
 revenged on them, and not leave them one reeking house in Kintyre (I 
 use his own words, reeking is smoking). Whereupon the gentlemen 
 resolved to put themselves in some posture, with my concurrence, to 
 oppose any such violence of his, and all those brainsick people who are 
 making stirs in the country, with whom, I will assure your Honor, these 
 gentlemen will never have any meddling but to oppose them. Neither 
 shall any whom I have power of. The number of horse which was 
 spoken of to me, which they conceived they could afford, was not above 
 220. So I cannot imagine their provisions in furniture [1 equipment] 
 will exceed that quantity. This is the truth of all the business to my 
 
384 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 knowledge. So I entreat your Honor command me what is yonr 
 pleasure and it will be done. For I trust in the Lord whatsoever 
 the malice of men shall either openly calumniate me in, or privately 
 suggest against me, my way shall be found straight, doing no other 
 than what I profess, and that in His strength alone who is only able 
 to sustain His own and guide them in a way they know not. I want 
 not [i.e. am not without] presently [at present] the malice of all 
 who are perversely disposed in this nation, which wants not its own 
 weight of trouble and difficulty. But the wrath of man works not 
 the righteousness of God. I will not trouble your Honor any more, 
 but rest, — Your Honor's humble Servant, Argyll. 
 
 ROSNEATH, the BOth Aug. 1653. 
 
 rv 
 
 For Mr Clerk, Secretary to General Monck, Commander-in-Chief of 
 the forces in Scotland. 
 
 Sir, — I received a letter this morning from the Earl of Glencairn by 
 M'Naughton's trumpet [i.e. trumpeter], the copy whereof I send to you 
 with my answer, which I did write and deliver in Colonel Cowper's 
 chamber. You may show them to the Commander-in-Chief. My Lord 
 Burly and Sir James Halket came here, who are engaged in several 
 sums of money for me ; and tho I have several sums owing me, by 
 my necessary attendance always towards the Highlands for the public 
 peace, I am like to suffer much [loss] : yet lest it may be mistaken, I 
 shall make no desire of leaving ofF that duty till it please God that 
 business be further advanced, and that it be by General Monck's allowance 
 [i.e. permission]. I make no haste to Argyll, for I conceive my being 
 with the forces or near them is a better protection for Argyllshire nor 
 anything I can do otherwise ; for these malignants in arms do imagine 
 if they fall into the shire I will be a better guide to the forces nor 
 any else, which is the greatest restraint they have. I entreat you to 
 send the enclosed letter to Colonel Lilburne, and present my humble 
 service to the General. — I am. Your Friend to serve you, Argyll. 
 
 Glasgow, 25th May [1654]. 
 
 The above letter is endorsed : 
 
 " Marq. of Argyll, concerning Glencairn^s Truvipett.,25th May, 1654. 
 
 " Edinh., 2Uh May, 1661. Produced by the L. Advocate in Parliament 
 for proving acts of hostility, arid assisting of the English by counsel, and 
 acknowledged by my Lord Argyll to be all written and subscribed with his 
 own hand." 
 
APPENDIX VI 385 
 
 For General Monck, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Scotland. 
 
 Right Honorable, — After my last to your Honor I received these 
 from my son, and the last of them is from a place within four miles 
 of this, and tlio I could not but be ill-satisfied with the way that he 
 never spoke of an assurance [sic] till he was come that length, and that 
 he ought to have thought it his best way to submit himself to his parents 
 and friends, yet at the earnest desire of the gentlemen present, and their 
 promise of real concurrence against him, if he agreed not to my desire 
 and theirs, I yielded to his desire. So we met, and not to be trouble- 
 some to your Plonor with unnecessary circumstances that passed, at last 
 he was content to declare that he could not agree to our desire till he 
 exonerated himself first to Middleton whom he termed his General. This 
 is all which he would come to in public, but that he has taken [? will 
 take] a day or sooner if he can, to give his positive answer. In his way 
 hither he took Daniel O'Neill, John Nicol's man, who was formerly 
 taken by M'jS'aughton. His reason which he pretends was that 
 M'JS'aughton had released him, upon his engagement to go straight to 
 your Honor for releasing a soldier of his in exchange, and they were the 
 more bold with him, as they say, because he served themselves for a 
 time, and he pleases them in his discourse when he is with them. 
 Howsoever he is released again. Before my son's coming here I did 
 intercept some of their papers which they were putting abroad, and 
 whereof they seemed to rejoice much, the printed petition by Colonels 
 Sanders, Alured, and Okey, with some mementoes [? memoranda] in another 
 sheet of paper. I doubt not but your Honor has heard of an engagement 
 betwixt some of the M'Gregors and the Laird of Lenie (?), wherein 
 some are killed on both sides and Lenie (?) wounded. It is the righteous 
 judgment of God upon such people. I expected to hear from your 
 Honor both anent the garrison and of Rosneath ; but I know not if my 
 letters may not have miscarried. I shall trouble your Honor no more at 
 this time, for I am, — Your Honor's most affectionate humble Servant. 
 
 Argyll. 
 
 After I had enclosed my letter I received your Honor's, and tho my 
 lands in Rosneath be not wasted, yet they are so impoverished as they 
 can pay me no rent almost at all. I find the allegiance [sic] that Daniel 
 O'Neill has in service in the hills is strong, for he was only in Balcarres 
 regiment and had his capitulation. 
 
 The above letter is endorsed : 
 
 "16^^ Dec. 1654, Marq. of Argyll, concerning the meeting with Jiis 
 son Lorn. 
 
 '^Ed., 24 May, 1661. Produced by my Lord Advocate and aclcnoivledged 
 by my Lord Argyll to he all written and subscribed with his own Jiand." 
 
 25 
 
386 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 VI 
 
 For Gn^^ Monck, Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Scotland. 
 
 Right Honorable, — I doubt not but your Honor knows there is 
 nothing more grievous to an honest heart than to be thought otherwise, 
 especially by such whom they honor and desire to serve. I had not 
 said a word at this time, if John Nichols had not commanded me to 
 wait on him till he knew your Honor's pleasure anent his stay here, for 
 I had his consent once to my going to wait on your Honor, and was 
 ready to part this morning. But now he has resolved the contrair. 
 I shall not fall upon particulars at this time, but as ever I had any- 
 thing of your good opinion or may yet serve you, let not prejudices 
 groAv without hearing, neither let other men's constructions, who are 
 apt to misconstruct me, take place with your Honor ; neither let any- 
 thing which has fallen out, hinder your Honor from doing that which 
 you shall j&nd necessar for the publick service ; and tho I shall not go 
 about to excuse my ignorance or weakness, yet upon the exactest trial 
 that can be, which I beg may be taken, if your Honor find any want in 
 me either of honesty or affection to the service your Honor was about, 
 I shall be content to be accoumpted [i.e. accounted] and used as a most 
 unworthy person. My request is that your Honor may be pleased 
 to call for me to wait on you and let me have your Honor's grace as 
 formerly, with an order for a convoy, and I shall not fail, God willing, 
 life and health serving, to be with your Honor speedily, and in despite 
 of the malice of men I trust in the Lord it shall appear I have been 
 faithful and that I am, — Your Honor's affectionat humble Servant, 
 
 Argyll. 
 
 The above letter is endorsed : 
 
 "14 Sept. 1654. Marq. of Argyll, ane prejudice being talcen 
 ag* him. 
 
 " Edn., 24 Mmj, 1661. Produced by the L. Advocate in Parlia^ and 
 acknowledged by my Lord Argyll to be his own liand-vrritt all over and 
 the subscription to he his oion hand-ivritt." 
 
APPENDIX VII 
 
 "Account of the Eotifing of the Scottish Rebels at Philiphauch, 
 signed by Lords Argyll, Crawford, and others. For R Bostock, London, 
 Sept. 18th, 1645." 
 
 The above is the title of a contemporary broad-sheet, preserved in 
 the British Museum, and catalogued under the heading of "Archibald 
 Campbell, 1st Marquis of Argyle." It places beyond dispute the 
 fact of his having taken part in the battle at which Montrose was 
 routed, and disposes satisfactorily of the scurrilous affront to him 
 which Aytoun has versified in his well-known ballad. As we lay claim 
 to no skill in objurgation, we gladly avail ourselves of Messrs Murdoch 
 and Simpson's handiwork, and say that henceforth " only ignorance and 
 malignant prejudice can stoop to repeat" the statement in the ballad, 
 and remarks akin to it which have been made concerning Argyll's 
 conduct at Inverlochy. 
 
 The following is the full account of the battle of Philiphaugh from 
 the above broad-sheet. 
 
 " Right Hoxoukable, — The Lord hath this day, here at Philiphauch 
 n' Selkirk, appeared gloriously for His people. The Rebels foot are all 
 cut off, and the horse totally routed ; many prisoners are taken, amongst 
 whom are Sir Alexander Leslie their Generall-Major, their Agitant- 
 Generall Stuart, Sir John Hay, Sir William Rollock, Colonel Hay, and 
 Sir Robert Spotswood, whom the Earl of Lanerick took, and from him 
 the signet with his own hand. The Particulars are not so well-known, 
 that we can write all. Onely, God be praised, we have lost no noblemen, 
 or chief officer. This we thought fit to acquaint you with from the 
 Field, that as you joyned with oxir dear Brethren in fasting for us, so 
 you may joyn with them and us in giving God the praise who hath 
 wrought this and all our works for us. We hear Generall-Major Munro 
 is landed, and the Generall-Lieutenant David Leslie will be as active in 
 prosecuting as God hath made him in being the Instrument of this 
 begun Deliverance. Let God have all the glory from you and from, — 
 Your affectionate Friends, 
 
 "Argyle, Crawford, Lindsay, William Scot, 
 Balcleuche, Lauderdaill, Lanerick, Yester, 
 Bargeine, Rutherford, Forrester. 
 
 " Philiphatich, the 13th of Sept. 1645. 
 
 S87 
 
388 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 "To the Right Honourable the Commissioners of the kingdom of 
 Scotland, residing at London." 
 
 From our knowledge of the Marquess's style of composition we have 
 no hesitation in affirming our conviction that the above account of the 
 battle was of his drawing up. The phrase at the close of it, " The 
 Instrument of this begun Deliverance," is exactly in accordance with 
 the want of skill in literary expression which we have pointed out 
 as among his characteristics. The opening phrase as to " God's having 
 appeared gloriously at Philiphauch near Selkirk " is worthy of being 
 compared with that ascribed to Cromwell at sunrise on the morning of 
 Dunbar: "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered" (Carlyle, 
 Cromwell, vol. iii. p. 37). 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aberdeen, the Covenant forced upon the 
 citizens, 102 ; taken by Huntly, 158 ; 
 freedom of, conferred upon Argyll, 
 160 ; excesses of Montrose in, 168. 
 
 Aberdeenshire, an Episcopalian strong- 
 hold, 67. 
 
 Aberntthy, John, Bishop of Caithness, 
 deposed, 59. 
 
 Act of Classes, 219-221, 258, 270-272. 
 
 Airlie, Earl of, his lands raided by 
 Argyll, 105, 106 and ii., 349, 
 
 Alexander, Captain David, 24. 
 
 Alexander, Sir William, 354, 360. 
 
 Alford, battle of, 180. 
 
 Almond, Lord, afterwards Earl of Cal- 
 lander, q.v. 
 
 Alured, Colonel, 385 ; captures the Com- 
 nattee of Estates, 276. 
 
 Antrim, Earl of, 45, 46 and ii,., 70, 73, 
 159, 163, 203. 
 
 Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl, 
 attempted murder of, 7 ; defeated by 
 Huntly at Glenlivat, 7 and n. ; a 
 prisoner, 8 ; defeats the Macgregors 
 and MacDonalds, 8, 9 ; obtains the 
 Lordship of Kintyre, 9 and n. ; de- 
 clared a rebel ; sentence reversed, 10 ; 
 the estates made over to his son, 
 20-22 ; death, 10 and n., 51 ; letters 
 from, to the Earl of Morton, 352-354. 
 
 Argyll, Archibald, 8th Earl and 1st Mar- 
 quess, birth, 11, 12 ; at St Andrews 
 University, 16 ; troubles during his 
 minority, 19-23 ; sends an expedition 
 in search of an unknown island, 24, 25 
 and 11.; a Lord of Session, 27; captures 
 "Gilderoy," 28 ; his dispute with the 
 Bishop of Galloway, 31, 32 ; defends 
 Samuel Rutherford, 33 ; conference with 
 the King, 43 ; at the General Assembly 
 in Glasgow, 51 ; declares for the 
 Covenanters, 55-57 ; Hamilton's esti- 
 mate of, 61 ; his personal appearance, 
 63 ; portraits, 64 ; his defence of the 
 Covenanters, 73 ; takes Brodick Castle, 
 74 ; joins the army on Duns Law, 77 ; 
 interview with the King, 82 ; his 
 qualifications as a leader, 94 ; hated 
 by the King, 73, 92, 96 ; obtains a 
 commission of fire and sword against 
 Royalist clans, 102, 103 ; raids Angus, 
 105 ; accused of acts of cruelty, 107, 
 
 33l> 
 
 108 ; ravages Lochaber, 108 ; results of 
 the expedition, 110 ; suspected of 
 designs on the Crown, 111, 112; his 
 influence, 101, 112, 335 ; accused of 
 treasonable language, 125, 126 ; the 
 accusation withdrawn, 127 and n. ; 
 his speech in Parliament, 135 ; quarrels 
 with Morton, 138 ; defeats the schemes 
 of the King, 139 ; jJot against his life, 
 141 ; made a Marquess, 143, 144 ; at 
 the General Assembly in St Andrews, 
 148 and oi. ; his piety, 149, 336 ; 
 marches with the Covenanting army 
 into England, 156 ; recalled to Scot- 
 land, 158 ; raids Huntly's country, 
 160 ; his military capacity, 161 ; in 
 pursuit of Montrose, 170 ; his flight 
 from Inveraray, 171 ; his flight from 
 Inverlochy, 173, 175 ; receives the 
 thanks of the Estates, 176 ; his flight 
 from Kilsyth, 182 ; at the battle of 
 Philiphaugh, 184 n., 387; intercedes 
 on behalf of the Earl of Hartfell, 186 ; 
 vote of money granted to, by Parlia- 
 ment, 187 ; visits the King at New- 
 castle, 190 ; his mission to London, 
 191 ; his speech in Westminster, 193 ; a 
 member of the Westminster Assembly, 
 196 ; his advice to the King, 200 ; the 
 rival of Hamilton, 202, 208 ; his duel 
 with the Earl of Crawford, 208, 209 ; 
 opposed to a war with England, 210 ; 
 his interview with Cromwell, 213, 214 ; 
 supports the Act of Classes, 219 ; 
 intercedes on behalf of Huntly, 226 ; 
 obtains the Huntly estates, 226 ; a 
 spectator of the fall of Montrose, 231, 
 232 and n. ; meets Charles IL at 
 Perth, 241 n. ; difficulties of his 
 position, 248, 252, 269, 270 ; promi-ses 
 made to him by the King, 252, 253 ; 
 censures the Remonstrance, 257 ; crowns 
 the King at Scone, 261, 263 ; proposed 
 marriage of his daughter with the 
 King, 263 - 269 ; the close of his 
 political career, 270 ; opposed to an 
 invasion of England, 273 ; approaches 
 Monck with a view to peace, 277, 279 ; 
 submits to the Parliament of England, 
 280, 282 ; his country invaded, 281 ; 
 acce])ts the union with England, 283 ; 
 military occupation of his country, 
 
390 
 
 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 283-285; letter to, from Charles II., 
 285 ; gives informatiou of a rising in 
 the Highlands, 286 ; his son joins 
 Glencairn, 288, 289 ; applies for 
 assistance against Lord Lome, 294 ; 
 his debts, 294-297 ; arrested for debt 
 in London, 296 ; his connexion with 
 the Remonsti-ants, 298, 299 ; a member 
 of Richard Cromwell's Parliament, 
 299 ; evil omens, 301 and n, ; in 
 London, 302 and n. ; arrested on 
 a charge of treason, 303 ; a prisoner 
 in the Tower, 304 ; sent to Scotland 
 for trial, 305 ; his trial, 308 - 320 ; 
 letters sent by Monck to secure his 
 conviction, 378 ; execution, 330 ; con- 
 trasted with Montrose, 337 ; his family, 
 344 ; ballads connected with Argyll, 
 347 ; letters fi'om, to the Earl of 
 Morton, 354-366 ; letters from, to the 
 10th Earl of Morton and Sir James 
 Douglas, 367 ; letter from, to the 
 11th Earl of Morton, 368 ; letter from, 
 on raising a regiment for the service 
 of France, 370 ; letters from, to Monck, 
 385, 386 ; examination of the charge 
 of forgery made against Argyll in the 
 Deeds of Montrose, 372. 
 
 Argyll, Archibald, 9th Earl. See Lome. 
 
 Argyll, Colin, 1st Earl, 5. 
 
 Argyll, Colin, 6th Earl, 9. 
 
 Argyll, Countess of, 9, 13, 342. 
 
 Argyll, Countess of, 10, 341. 
 
 Argyll, Earls of, made hereditary Jus- 
 ticiary-Generals of Scotland, 5. 
 
 Argyll, Marchioness of, 18, 26 ; her fruit- 
 less efforts on behalf of her husband, 
 324 ; her death, 334, 344 ; contract 
 with John Campbell, 346 ; letter 
 from, 369. 
 
 Argyllshire, early settlers in, 2 ; Argyll- 
 shire Highlanders at Duns Law, 77 
 and 11. ; revenues of the bishopric, 
 143 and n. ; parliamentary grant for, 
 188. 
 
 Armyne, Sir William, 155, 157. 
 
 Arundel, Earl of, 18. 
 
 Athol, Earl of, expedition against, 103 ; 
 taken prisoner by Argyll, 104. 
 
 Auldearn, battle of, 180. 
 
 Baillie, General, Commander-in-Chief of 
 the army of the Covenant, 170 ; at 
 Dumbarton, 172 ; defeated by Mon- 
 trose at Alford, 180 ; his limited 
 powers, 181 ; defeated at Kilsyth, 182. 
 
 Baillie, Robert, minister of Kilwinning, 
 51. 
 
 Balcanquhal, Dr, Dean of Durham, 91 
 and w. 
 
 Ballenden, Adam, Bishop of Aberdeen, 
 deposed and excommunicated, 59. 
 
 Balmerino, Lord, 176, 196. 
 
 Balvenie Castle, 225. 
 
 Barclay, Robert, 14 and n., 355, 
 
 Baron, Robert, Bishop of Orkney de- 
 posed, 59. 
 
 Beauchamp, origin of, 3. 
 
 Berwick, 70, 213 ; conference at, 81-85, 
 96, 98. 
 
 Bishops, appointed to political offices, 
 35, 36 ; the cause of the Edinburgh 
 riots, 41 ; their power gone, 48 ; charges 
 brought against them, 49, 58 ; refuse 
 to acknowledge the lawfulness of the 
 General Assembly, 53 ; deposed, 58, 
 59 ; their unpopularity in England, 
 72 ; necessary to the King, 85 ; ordered 
 not to attend the General Assembly, 
 88. 
 
 Blackmore, Colonel, 281. 
 
 Blair, Robert, his opinion of Cromwell, 
 215, 216 and n. 
 
 Bond of Cumbernauld, 114, 122-124, 
 138, 139, 147 and n. 
 
 Book of Canons, 36. 
 
 Book of Common Prayer, 37. 
 
 Boyd, Lord, death of, 123. 
 
 Brechin, Lord, 260. 
 
 Breda, negotiations at, 235. 
 
 Bristol taken by the Royalists, 150. 
 
 Brodie, Alexander, of Brodie, 297. 
 
 Brown, William, 148 n. 
 
 Buchanan, Lord, 77 n. 
 
 Buckingham, George, 1st Duke of, 46 n. 
 
 Buckingham, George, 2nd Duke of, 241 
 and n., 254, 267. 
 
 Burleigh, Lord, 101, 135, 384. 
 
 Caerlaverock Castle, 71, 120. 
 
 Caithness, George, Earl of, 328, 330, 
 345. 
 
 Callander, Earl of, 123, 138, 170, 365, 
 366. 
 
 Cameron, origin of the name of, 3. 
 
 Cameron, Donald, 148 n. 
 
 Camerons of Lochaber, 170 ; treachery 
 at Inverlochy, 174. 
 
 Campbell of Ardkinglass, 188. 
 
 Campbell of Aucliinbreck, 289, 290, 
 382. 
 
 Campbell of Strachur, 382. 
 
 Campbell, Alexander, of Lochnell, 11 ii. 
 
 Campbell, Lady Anna, wife of the Earl 
 of Huntly, 8. 
 
 Campbell, Lady Annabella, 341. 
 
 Campbell, Lady Anne, 264 and «..-269, 
 341, 343, 345 ; letters from, to Sir 
 James Douglas and tlie Earl of Morton, 
 369. 
 
 Campbell, Archibald, Earl of Argyll. See 
 Argyll. 
 
 Campbell, Archibald, Bishop of Aber- 
 deen, 344. 
 
 Campbell, Sir Archibald, 362. 
 
 Campbell, Archibald, of Lochnell, plot 
 against the life of the Earl of Argyll, 
 7 ; his treachery at Glenlivat, 7. 
 
 Campbell, Archibald, 148 n., 370. 
 
 Campbell, Lady Barbara, 343, 344. 
 
INDEX 
 
 391 
 
 Campbell, Coliu, knighted by Alexander 
 
 III., 4. 
 Campbell, Colin, of Barbreck, 358. 
 Campbell, Sir Colin, of Ardkinglass, 
 
 11 v. 
 Campbell, Sir Colin, of Glenurquhy, 
 
 23, 26. 
 Campbell, Sir Colin, of Lnndio, 21. 
 Campbell, Colin, of Lundio, 11 «. 
 Campbell, Sir Dougal, of Aucliinbreck, 
 
 11 n. 
 Campbell, Dugald, receives orders from 
 
 Argyll to destroy Fortliar Castle, 106. 
 Campbell, Sir Duncan, created a IBaron 
 
 by James I., 5, 
 Campbell, Sir Duncan, of Auchinbreck, 
 
 172 ; killed at Inverlochy, 174. 
 Campbell, Sir Duncan, of Glenurqi;liy, 
 
 11 n. 
 Campbell, George, 148 11. 
 Campbell, Gillespie, 2 ; inherits the 
 
 Lordshiji of Lochow, 2. 
 Campbell, Lord Henry, 342. 
 Campbell, Lady Isabella, 342, 345. 
 Campbell, Sir James, of Lawers, 11 11. 
 Campbell, James, 380, 382. 
 Campbell, Lady Jane, 345. 
 Campbell, Lady Jean, 342. 
 Campbell, Sir John, of Calder, 11 n. 
 Campbell, Sir John, of Glenurquhy, 345. 
 Cam})bell, Sir John, of Lawers, 357, 
 
 358. 
 Campbell, John, of Ardchattan, 382. 
 Campbell, John, of New Jersey, 345 n. 
 Campbell, John, clothier in Musselburgh, 
 
 346. 
 Campbell, Lachlan, 301 n. 
 Campbell, Lady Mary, 342, 345. 
 Campbell, Neil, Bishop of the Isles, 
 
 deposed, 59. 
 Campbell, Lord Neil, 315, 344. 
 Campbell, Neil, advocate, 344. 
 Campbell, Sir Robert, of Glenurquhy, 
 
 171. 
 Campbell, Lady Victoria, 343, 344. 
 Campbell, Captain William, 24. 
 Campbells, antiquity of the clan, 1, 2 ; 
 
 their loyalty, 3 ; increase of their 
 
 power, 5, 6 and 7J., 9 ; support the 
 
 Covenanting cause, 45 ; slaughter of, 
 
 at Inverlochy, 174 ; their destitute 
 
 condition, 187. 
 Cant, Andrew, preaches before the King, 
 
 198. 
 Carbiesdale, defeat of Montrose at, 230, 
 
 236. 
 Carlisle, 70, 213. 
 Carnegie, Lord, 260. 
 Carudders, William, 148. 
 Cassillis, Lord, 46. 
 Castle Campbell, 64, 
 Charles I., coronation of, 24 ; attempts 
 
 to introduce the Prayer-Book into 
 
 Scotland, 36-41 ; his authority defied, 
 
 42 ; favours a scheme for landing 
 
 Irish troops in Argyll, 46 ; his con- 
 cessions and demands, 47 ; attempts 
 to sow discord between tlie clergy 
 and the nobles, 48 ; his plan of 
 camj)aign against the Covenanters, 
 69 ; in York, 72 ; his anger against 
 Argyll, 73, 92, 96 ; enters Scotland, 
 75 ; advised to try for a peaceful settle- 
 ment, 78 ; denies the validity of the 
 Acts of the General Assembly, 80 ; 
 his reception of Argyll, 82 ; resolved 
 to force Episcopacy upon Scotland, 83 ; 
 stormy conference with the Covenant- 
 ing leaders at Berwick, 85, 86 ; pro- 
 hibits Bishops attending the General 
 Assembly, 88 ; his duplicity, 89 ; his 
 Large Declaration denounced by the 
 Assembly, 91 ; asserts the lawfulness 
 of Episcopacy, 95 ; attempts to de- 
 prive Argyll of his office of Justiciary 
 of Argyll, 96 ; calls the Short Parlia- 
 ment, 98 ; endeavours to raise money 
 for war purposes, 98, 99, 115 ; calls 
 the Long Parliament, 120 ; reasons 
 for his visit to Scotland, 129 ; comes 
 to terms with Scotland, 132 ; reaches 
 Newcastle, 133 ; in Edinburgh, 134- 
 136 ; at a meeting of the Scotch 
 Parliament, 135 ; his concessions, 
 136, 137 ; his plans defeated by 
 Argyll, 139 ; his indignation at the 
 flight of Argyll and Hamilton, 141, 
 
 142 ; the result of his visit to Scotland, 
 
 143 ; the Irish rebellion hastens his 
 return to London, 144, 145 ; the 
 gates of Hull closed against him, 
 146 ; appeals to Scotland against the 
 Parliament of England, 147 ; at 
 Nottingham, 147 ; his troops victori- 
 ous over Waller and Fairfax, 150 ; 
 neglects the warnings of Montrose, 
 155 ; makes Montrose Lieutenant- 
 General, 163 ; his flight from Naseby, 
 183 ; sun-enders to the Scotch, 189 ; 
 his interview with Argyll at Newcastle, 
 190 ; rejects the proposed terms, 198, 
 199 ; delivered up to the English, 199 
 and 01., 201 ; removed from Holmby 
 House, 205, 206 ; escapes to the Isle of 
 Wight, 207 ; signs an "Engagement" 
 with the Scotch, 207, 208 ; his trial 
 and execution, 218, 219 ; letters from, 
 to Montrose and Argyll, 129-130 ; 
 letter to, from Montrose, 177. 
 
 Charles II., proclaimed in Edinburgh, 
 222 ; the conditions attached, 223, 224 ; 
 refuses the proposals of the Scotch 
 commissioners at the Hague, 228 ; 
 urges Montrose to activity, 229 ; 
 accepts the conditions of the Scotch, 
 230, 240 ; his duplicity, 229, 234-239, 
 373, 374 ; signs the Covenants on his 
 arrival in Scotland, 241 and m. ; refuses 
 and afterwards accepts the Declaration^ 
 246, 247 ; his promises to Argyll 
 
392 
 
 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 253 ; hia flight from Perth, 254 ; 
 crowned at Scone, 259 ; suggested 
 alliance with the family of Argyll, 
 263, 264 and n., 266, 269 ; defeated 
 at Worcester, 274, 275 ; approves of a 
 rising in Scotland, 286 ; his standard 
 raised at Killin, 287, 288 ; his re- 
 storation, 300 ; orders Argyll to be 
 arrested for treason, 303 ; his indebt- 
 edness to Argyll, 311 ; repudiates 
 Montrose's invasion of Scotland, 
 372-375. 
 
 Choicelee Wood, 102. 
 
 Christina, Queen of Sweden, 229. 
 
 Churches converted into stables, 71, 72. 
 
 Clarendon, Earl of, 302 ; his historical 
 inaccuracy, 330 n. ; on the ability and 
 influence of Argyll, 335 n. 
 
 Clerke, William, ''281. 
 
 Cobbett, Colonel, 292, 296. 
 
 Cockburnspath, 214. 
 
 Coke, Sir John, Secretary of State, 79. 
 
 Colvill, Alex., 353, 364. 
 
 Committee of Estates, appointment of, 
 
 101 ; grant a commission of fire and 
 sword to Argyll against Royalist clans, 
 
 102 ; off'er a reward for the head of 
 Montrose, 167 ; members of, accom- 
 pany the army, 173, 181,184; their off"er 
 of assistance rejected by Charles I., 
 207 ; agree to Engagers being debarred 
 from holding ofiice, 215, 216 ; their 
 negotiations with Charles II., 229, 
 230 ; condemn the Remonstrance, 257 ; 
 captured by Colonel Alured, 276. 
 
 Cornwallis, Anne. See Argyll, Countess of. 
 
 Cotterel, Lieutenant-Colonel, 287. 
 
 Court of Session appointments, 27 ; 
 
 Covenanters, statement of their griev- 
 ances, 44, 46 ; their army mai'ches 
 to Dunglass, 75 ; encamps on Duns 
 Law, 76 ; commissioners from the 
 army confer with the English, 80 ; 
 their concessions, 81 ; prevent military 
 supplies entering Edinburgh Castle, 
 
 67 ; their overtures to the Marquess 
 of Huntly, 67 ; their ofifer declined, 
 
 68 ; take the Castles of Edinburgh, 
 Dumbarton, and Dalkeith, 70, 71 ; 
 conference with the King at Berwick, 
 85 ; they publish an account of the 
 conference, which the King orders 
 to be burnt by the hangman, 86 ; 
 open negotiations with France, 86, 
 98 ; the army on Duns Law disbanded, 
 101 ; issue a manifesto to the people 
 of England, 116 ; cross the Border, 
 117 ; their commissioners in London, 
 120 ; dissensions among, 122-126 ; 
 a plot against the leaders, 140-141 ; 
 resolve to support the English Parlia- 
 ment, 150, 151 ; their attempts to 
 secure the services of Montrose, 154, 
 155 ; their army invades England, 
 155 ; defeated at Tipperniuir, 165, and 
 
 at Aberdeen, 168 ; General Baillie 
 appointed Commander-in-Chief, 170 ; 
 defeated at Inverlochy by Montrose, 
 174-176 ; gain a victory at Philip- 
 haugh, 184 ; defeated at Auldearn and 
 Alford, 180, and at Kilsyth, 182 ; 
 the King joins the Scotch army, 189 ; 
 the army leaves England, 200, 201 ; 
 in possession of Edinburgh, 212 ; their 
 strict treatment of Charles II., ou 
 his coming to Scotland, 242 ; purge 
 the army of Royalists, 246 ; defeated 
 at Dunbar, 249, 250 ; dissensions, 
 252, 257-259, 274. 
 
 Craig, Alexander, his satire on the Earl 
 of Argyll, 9 and n. 
 
 Crawford and Lindsay, Earl of, 141, 
 143, 190, 260, 262; his duel with 
 Argyll, 208 ; pronounces the death- 
 sentence on Argyll, 321, 332. 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 150, 178, 179 ; gains 
 the battle of Naseby, 183 ; defeats 
 Hamilton at Preston, 212 ; his confer- 
 ence with Argyll, 213 ; in Edinburgh, 
 214-216 ; his victories in Ireland, 
 230, 240, 245 ; marches into Scotland, 
 245 ; defeats Leslie at Dunbar, 249, 
 250 ; in possession of Edinburgh, 251 ; 
 in Perth, 273 ; defeats the Scotch at 
 Worcester, 274, 275. 
 
 Cunningham, Mr, 328, 330. 
 
 Dalkeith Castle surrenders to the Cove- 
 nanters, 71. 
 
 Deane, Major-General, 280, 282, 284. 
 
 Deeds of Montrose, examination of, 
 372. 
 
 Dick, William, Lord Provost of Edin- 
 burgh, 364 and n. 
 
 Dickson, David, 215, 325 ; his speech at 
 the General Assembly, 54 ; moderator, 
 89. 
 
 Dirleton, Countess of, sues Argyll for 
 debt, 296. 
 
 Dirleton, Earl of, 296 and n. 
 
 Donaldson, George, 357. 
 
 Dougals of Lome, 4. 
 
 Douglas, Lady Anne. See Argyll, 
 Countess of. 
 
 Douglas, David, 369 n. 
 
 Douglas, Sir James, afterwards 12th Earl 
 of Morton, letter to, from Argyll, 367 ; 
 letter to, from Lady Anne Campbell, 
 369. 
 
 Douglas, Lady Margaret. See Argyll, 
 Marchioness of. 
 
 Douglas, Robert, 325 ; his sermon at 
 the coronation of Charles II., 260. 
 
 Douglas, Marquess of, 61. 
 
 Douglas, Sir William, 80. 
 
 Drummond, Lord, 260. 
 
 Duart Castle, 292. 
 
 Dumbarton Castle, taken by the Cove- 
 nanters, 70 ; capitulates to Argyll, 
 120, 121. 
 
INDEX 
 
 393 
 
 Dunavertie, massacre of MacDonalds at, 
 
 204. 
 Dunbar, battle of, 249-250. 
 Dunrermline, Earl of, 79, 80, 367. 
 Dunglass, 75, 118. 
 
 Dunlucc, Lord. Sec, Autrini, Earl of. 
 Dunneveg Castle, 205. 
 Dunolly, 283, 284. 
 Duns Law, 76, 101. 
 Dunstalfiiage, 283, 284. 
 Durham, James, 369 n. 
 
 Edgehill, battle of, 149. 
 
 Edinburgh, riots in, on the attempt to 
 introduce the Prayer- Book, 39-41 ; the 
 Castle taken by Leslie, 70 ; renewed 
 rioting, 84 ; the Castle transferred to 
 the Royalists, 84 ; besieged, 99 ; sur- 
 renders to Argyll, 120 ; taken by 
 Cromwell, 251. 
 
 Eglinton, Earl of, 121, 212, 260. 
 
 Elcho, Lord, 164, 214 ; defeated at 
 Tippermuir, 165. 
 
 Engagers, 210, 214-216, 219. 
 
 Episcopacy versus Presbyterianism, 29 ; 
 abolition of, in Scotland, 90, 93, 101, 
 145 ; Episcopal revenues, 143 ; re- 
 established, 334. 
 
 Errol, Francis Hay, Earl of, 7. 
 
 Erskine, Lord, 260. 
 
 Essex, Earl of, 148, 178. 
 
 Fairfax, General, 150, 206, 221, 
 245. 
 
 Fairley, James, Bishop of Aigyll, de- 
 posed, 59. 
 
 Farquharsons, expedition against, 103. 
 
 Finlairg, 277. 
 
 Fisher, Duncan, 148 n. 
 
 Fleming, Patrick, 148 n. 
 
 Fletcher, George, 11 n. 
 
 Fletcher, Sir John, 309, 315. 
 
 Forbes, Sir Arthur, 289, 381. 
 
 Forthar Castle destroyed by Argyll, 
 106, 107. 
 
 Fostering, custom of, in the Highlands, 
 25. 
 
 Frasier, Dr, 253. 
 
 Fyvie Castle, 170. 
 
 Garmoran, original seat of the Camp- 
 bells, 4. 
 
 General Assembly, its power over the 
 Bishops, 30 ; to be held in Glasgow, 
 47-50 ; declines to dissolve at the 
 bidding of the Commissioner, 54, 55 ; 
 condemns the Service - Books, etc., 
 58 ; deposes the Bishops, 59 ; its Acts 
 not recognized by the King, 80 ; pro- 
 ceedings in Edinburgh, 89-92 ; in St 
 Andrews, 148 ; resolves on an alliance 
 with the English Parliament, 150 ; its 
 reception of the Solemn League and 
 Covenant, 152, 153 ; condemns duel- 
 ling, 209 ; protests against the trial 
 
 of the King, 221 and n, ; dissolved by 
 Lilburne, 287. 
 
 Gillespie, George, his Popish Ceremonies 
 burned by the hangman, 56, 57. 
 
 Gilmore, Sir John, 318, 319. 
 
 Glasgow, meetings of the General As- 
 sembly in, 47-50, 54, 55, 58, 59, 
 SO. 
 
 Gleiicairn, Earl of, 64, 286, 287, 318, 
 321 n., 380, 384. 
 
 Glcnlivat, battle of, 7 and n. 
 
 Gordon, Alexander, 149, 301 n. 
 
 Gordon, Alexander, of Earlstoun, 31. 
 
 Gordon, George, Lord, 1 1 n. 
 
 Gordon, Sir Robert, 342. 
 
 Gorrom, Sir Donald, 361. 
 
 Graham, Rev. John, 126. 
 
 Grant, Major, 305. 
 
 Guthrie, James, 215 ; prisoner in the 
 Tolbooth, 325 ; his parting with 
 Argyll, 328. 
 
 Guthrie, John, Bishop of Moray, de- 
 posed, 59. 
 
 Haddington, Countess of, 119 and n., 
 232 n. 
 
 Haddington, Earl of, killed at Dunglass, 
 119 and n. 
 
 Halket, Sir James, 384. 
 
 Hamilton, Lady Anne, 344. 
 
 Hamilton, William, 2ud Duke of, 46, 
 134, 139, 140, 361, 362, 365 ; Royal 
 Commissioner, 47, 51, 52 ; dissolves 
 the General Assembly, 53 ; his charges 
 against the Bishops, 58 ; his estimate 
 of Argyll, 61, 62 ; in possession of 
 Inchkeith, 74 ; his flight from Edin- 
 burgh, 141, 142 ; his influence over 
 the King, 154, 155 ; a prisoner, 155 ; 
 obtains his freedom, 202 and n. ; 
 obtains a Parliamentary majority, 
 208 ; leads an army into England 
 on behalf of the King, 207, 211 ; 
 defeated at Preston, 211, 212 ; his 
 Acts condemned by Parliament, 219 ; 
 execution of, 226. 
 
 Plamilton, William, 3rd Duke of, 140, 
 228, 275, 366, 387. 
 
 Hamilton, Mr, 328, 329. 
 
 Hanna, Dr, Dean of Edinburgh, 38. 
 
 Hartfell, Earl of, 186. 
 
 Haselrig, Sir Arthur, 249. 
 
 Hay, Colonel, 387. 
 
 Hay, Sir John, 387. 
 
 Hay, Sir John, of Barra, 28 and n. 
 
 Henderson, Alexander, moderator of 
 the General Assembly, 52, 60, 62, 80, 
 89, 120, 134, 136. 
 
 Henrietta Maria, Queen, 266, 267. 
 
 Hertford, Marquess of, 191. 
 
 Holburne, General-Major, 365. 
 
 Hope, Thomas, 11 n. 
 
 Hotham, Sir John, closes the gates of 
 Hull against the King, 146. 
 
 Huntly, Earl of, 7, 8, 
 
394 
 
 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Huntly, Marquess of, 61 ; refuses to 
 join the Covenanters, 68 ; a ijrisoner 
 in Edinburgh, 71 ; taken prisoner by 
 Montrose, 104 ; takes the field on 
 behalf of the King, 158 ; failure of his 
 expedition, 159 and ?t. ; unwilling to 
 support Montrose, 169 ; his execution, 
 225 and 71., 226, 
 
 Hurry, Sir John, defeated by Montrose 
 at Auldearn, 180. 
 
 Hutcheson, George, 325, 328, 329. 
 
 Inchcolm, 74. 
 
 Inchkeith, 74. 
 
 Inveraray, English congregation at, 148 n. 
 
 Inveraray Castle, 11 n. 
 
 Inveraray Presbytery, 148 and n. 
 
 Inverkeitiiing, battle of, 273. 
 
 Inverlochy, battle of, 174-176. 
 
 Irish settlers in Argyll, 2 ; Irish troops 
 
 land in Scotland, 164 ; slaughter of 
 
 Irish at Philiphaugh, 184. 
 Irvine, Earl of, 19, 88 and n., 342, 344, 
 
 370. 
 Irvine, Gerard, 381. 
 Irving of Drum, his house plundered by 
 
 Argyll, 160. 
 
 Jaffray, Alexander, 241. 
 
 James VI. and the Earl of Argyll, 8 
 
 and 11. 
 Jameson, George, 65. 
 Jermyn, Lord, 266, 
 Johnstone, Archibald, of Warriston, 52, 
 
 80, 150, 214, 219, 220, 231, 252, 257. 
 Juxon, Dr, Bishop of London, 37. 
 
 Keith, William, Lord, 11 and n. 
 
 Kenmure, Countess of, 33, 301. 
 
 Kenmure, Lord, 32, 291, 292, 383. 
 
 Ker, Colonel, 256 ; defeated at Hamilton, 
 257. 
 
 Ker, Sir Robert, of Ancrum, 355 and n. 
 
 Ker, Robert, Lord Newbattle, after- 
 wards 4th Earl of Lothian, 341, 345 ; 
 letter from, on the death of Argyll, 
 333. 
 
 Ker, Lady Vere, 344. 
 
 Kilpont, Lord, murdered by Stewart of 
 Ardvoirlich, 166. 
 
 Kilsyth, battle of, 181, 182. 
 
 Kincairn, 283. 
 
 Kinnoul, Earl of, 35. 
 
 Kintyre comes into the possession of the 
 Campbells, 9 and n. ; a bone of con- 
 tention, 19. 
 
 Knowles, Sir Harry, 365. 
 
 Lambert, General, 214, 217, 273, 
 Lanark, Earl of. See Hamilton, Duke 
 
 of. 
 Langdale, Sir Marmaduke, 212. 
 Large Declaration, The, denounced by 
 
 the General Assembly, 91, 101. 
 Laud, Archbishop, 37, 43, 116, 132. 
 
 Lauderdale, Earl of, 275. 
 
 Law, James, Archbishop of Glasgow, 17. 
 
 Legge, Colonel, 264 n. 
 
 Leith fortified, 74. 
 
 Leslie, Sir Alexander, taken prisoner at 
 
 Philiphaugh, 387. 
 Leslie, General Alexander, 198, 211, 
 213 ; chosen to lead the army of the 
 Covenant, 68 ; in possession of Edin- 
 burgh Castle, 70 ; marches to Dun- 
 glass, 75 ; encamps on Duns Law, 76 ; 
 assembles an army on the Border, 
 102 ; takes Newcastle, 118 ; his inter- 
 view with the King at Newcastle, 
 133 ; his army disbanded, 137 ; frus- 
 trates a plot against Argyll, 141 ; 
 created Earl of Leven, 143 ; appointed 
 to command the Scotch army, 154 ; 
 besieges Newcastle, 157 ; returns to 
 Scotland, 158 ; taken prisoner at 
 Alyth, 276. 
 Leslie, Lieutenant-General David, 154, 
 211, 213, 365, 387 ; defeats Montrose 
 at Philiphaugh, 184 ; marches to 
 England, 185 ; the King surrenders 
 to, 189 ; refuses to be bribed, 190 ; 
 massacres the MacDonalds, 203 ; de- 
 fends Edinburgh against Cromwell, 
 245 ; defeated at Dunbar, 249, 250. 
 Leslie, Robert, 78. 
 
 Leven, Earl of. See Leslie, Alexander. 
 Lilburne, Colonel, 286, 379 ; dissolves 
 the General Assembly, 287 ; letters to, 
 from Argyll, 380-383. 
 Lindsay, Alexander, Bishop of Dunkeld, 
 
 deposed, 59. 
 Lindsay, David, Bishop of Edinburgh, 
 assailed by the mob in St Giles's 
 Cathedral, 39 ; deposed, 59. 
 Lindsay, Patrick, Archbishop of Glas- 
 gow, deposed, 59. 
 Livingstone, Sir William, of Kilsyth, 17. 
 Lome comes into the possession of the 
 
 Campbells, 4. 
 Lome, Lord. See Argyll, Marquess of. 
 Lome, Lord, son of the Marquess of 
 Argyll, and afterwards 9th Earl, 231 
 and n., 335, 344, 345; captain of the 
 guard over Charles II., 244 ; at the 
 battle of Dunbar, 250 ; joins the 
 rising under Glencairn, 288-290, 382 ; 
 his quarrel with Kenmure, 291 ; his 
 forces in conflict with those of his 
 father, 293, 294 ; comes to terms 
 with the English, 297 ; at the Court 
 of Charles II., 302; his efi'orts on 
 behalf of his father, 314 ; note on, 
 344 ; letter from, to Campbell of 
 Glenurquhy, 26. 
 Lothian, Robert, 2nd Earl of, 11 n., 341. 
 Lothian, Robert, 4th Earl of. See Ker. 
 Lothian, William, Earl of, 170, 235, 
 
 238, 239, 328, 330, 341, 373, 374. 
 Loudon, John, Earl of, 11 n., 80, 90, 138, 
 147, 191, 212, 219, 276, 328, 330, 366. 
 
INDEX 
 
 395 
 
 Loudon, William, 148 n. 
 
 Lough, 283. 
 
 Lucas, Sir Charles, 157. 
 
 MacArthurs, 4. 
 
 MacDonald of Glengarry, 286, 291. 
 
 MacDonald, Alastair, " Colkitto," 164, 
 174 ; ravages Argyllshire, 187 ; takes 
 refuge in Islay ; killed iu Ireland, 203. 
 
 MacDonald, Sir James, 381, 382. 
 
 MacDonalds harried by Argyll, 9, 109 
 and n. ; join Montrose, 170 ; ravage 
 Argyllshire, 172 ; massacre of, by 
 General Leslie, 204. 
 
 Macgregor, Patrick, "Gilderoy," trial 
 and execution of, 28 ; ballad on, 347. 
 
 Macgregors defeated by the Earl of 
 Argyll, 9 ; their skirmish with Lenie, 
 385. 
 
 Machlene, Lord, 260. 
 
 Maclan, expedition against the clan, 
 17. 
 
 Mackenzie, Lady Anne, 344. 
 
 ilackenzie, George, 308. 
 
 Mackenzie of Pluscarden, 224. 
 
 MacNachtane, 289, 382, 383, 385. 
 
 M'^Olbory, Donald, 148 w. 
 
 Maltravers, Lord, 18. 
 
 Manchester, Earl of, 178, 179. 
 
 Mar, Earl of, 11 n., 71, 360. 
 
 Marischal, Countess of, 368. 
 
 Marston Moor, battle of, 158. 
 
 Maxwell, John, Bishop of Ross, 44 ; 
 deposed, 59. 
 
 Menzies, Susan, 344. 
 
 Middleton, General, 185, 203, 211, 286, 
 309, 310, 314, 316-319, 321 n., 332; 
 his instructions from the King, 325. 
 
 Monck, General, 277, 280, 316 and oi., 
 293 ; his share in the death of Argyll, 
 322 : letters sent by Monck to secure 
 the conviction of Argyll, 378 ; letters 
 to, from Argyll, 385, 386. 
 
 Montgomerie, Lord, 260. 
 
 Montgomerie, Sir Henry, of Giffen, 842. 
 
 Montgomerie of Skelmorlie, 328. 
 
 Montgomerie, Sir Robert, of Skelmorlie, 
 342. 
 
 Montrose plundered by Royalists, 159. 
 
 Montrose, Marquess of, 46, 90, 93, 100, 
 104, 153 n. ; at St Andrews Uni- 
 versity, 16 ; in Aberdeen, 72 ; takes 
 Airlie Castle, 105 ; opposes a dictator- 
 ship, 113 ; favours the Monarchy, 
 113, 114, 118 ; marches into England, 
 117 ; in communication with the 
 King, 122, 123 ; opjiosed to Argyll, 
 124-127 ; a prisoner in Edinburgh 
 Castle, 130, 131, 139 ; joins the King, 
 155 ; marches into Scotland ; retires 
 across the Border, 159 ; his military 
 genius, 161, 162 ; Lieutenant-General, 
 163 ; enters Scotland in disguise, 164 ; 
 defeats Elcho at Tippermuir, 165 ; 
 price put upon his head, 167 ; plunders 
 
 Aberdeen, 168 ; evades Argyll, 169 ; 
 ravages Argyllshire, 171 ; defeats the 
 Covenanters at Inverlochy, 173, 174 ; 
 excommunicated, 176 ; wi'ites to tlio 
 King after Inverlochy, 177 ; defeats 
 Hurry at Auldearn and Baillie at 
 Alford, 180 ; defeats Baillie at Kil- 
 syth, 182 ; his cause hopeless, 183 ; 
 defeated at Philiphaugh, 184 and n., 
 3S7 ; ordered to disband his forces, 
 203 ; sails for Norway, 203 ; lands iu 
 Scotland, 229 ; defeated at Carbies- 
 dale, 230, 236 ; repudiation of, by the 
 King, 235-239, 372-375 ; a prisoner 
 in Edinburgh, 231, 232 and n.; execu- 
 tion of, 232, 233 and ti. ; contrastetl 
 with Argyll, 337. 
 
 Montrose, James, 2nd Marquess, refuses 
 to vote against Argyll, 320. 
 
 Moray. See Murray. 
 
 Mordington conference, 213. 
 
 Morton, Robert, 10th Earl, letter to, 
 from Argyll, 367 and 7(. 
 
 Morton, William, 8th Earl of, 10, 
 
 11 71. 
 
 Morton, William, 9th Earl of, 12, 13 
 and 71., 15, 18 and ?t., 25 n. ; his quarrel 
 with Argyll, 81, 138 ; visits the King 
 at Newcastle, 190 ; letters to, from 
 Argyll, 353. 
 
 Morton, William, 11th Earl, letter to, 
 from Argyll, 368 ; letter to, from 
 Lady Anne Campbell, 369. 
 
 Mugdock, 188, 351. 
 
 Mimro, General, 102, 386. 
 
 Munro, Colonel Robert, envoy of the 
 Covenanters to the Marquess of 
 Huntly, 67. 
 
 Murray of Tullibardine, 7. 
 
 Murray, James, Earl of, 11 w. 
 
 Murray, Sir Robert, 264 7i. 
 
 Murray, William, 264 ji. 
 
 Napier, Lord, 127. 
 
 Naseby, battle of, 183, 185. 
 
 Nevoy, John, his responsibility for tho 
 
 massacre of MacDonalds, 204. 
 Newbury, battle of, 178. 
 Newcastle, siege of, 157 ; surrenders to 
 
 the Scotch army, 178. 
 Newcastle, Marquess of, 150, 157. 
 Newport, treaty of, 218. 
 Nicholas, Sir Edward, 303. 
 Nicol, John, 385, 386. 
 Nicolson, Thomas, 11 7i. 
 Nisbet, Sir John, 308. 
 
 O'Duins settle in Argyll, 1, 2. 
 
 Ogilvie, Lady, 107. 
 
 Ogilvie, Lord, 103, 105, 106, 187. 
 
 Ogilvie, Sir John, 107. 
 
 Okey, Colonel, 385. 
 
 O'Neill, Daniel, 385. 
 
 Ormond, Duke of, 228. 
 
 Overton, Colonel, 281. 
 
39G 
 
 THE GREAT MARQUESS 
 
 Perth in possession of Montrose, 165 ; 
 occupied by Argyll, 170, — and 
 Gromwell, 273 ; Perth articles, 31 n., 
 47. 
 
 Perth, James, Earl of, 343. 
 
 Philiphaugh, battle of, 184, 387. 
 
 Presbyterianism and Episcopacy, 29. 
 
 Preston, battle of, 212, 
 
 Pride, Colonel, 218. 
 
 Puritanism, increase of, 31. 
 
 Pkamsay, Lord, 260. 
 
 Reay, Lord, 159 n. 
 
 Redpath, Cornet, 383. 
 
 Regalia, the, removed to Edinburgh 
 Castle, 71, 121. 
 
 Reid, Colonel, 281, 282. 
 
 Richelieu, Cardinal, welcomes the over- 
 tures of the Covenanters, S6-S8. 
 
 Richmond, Duke of, 191. 
 
 Ripon conference, 120. 
 
 Rol)ertsons of Athol, 170. 
 
 Rochefort, Comte de, an agent of 
 Richelieu, 86, 87. 
 
 Roger, David, 148 n. 
 
 RoUo, Lord, 342. 
 
 Rollo, Sir William, 163. 
 
 Rollock, Sir William, 387. 
 
 Rothes, Earl of, 46, 69, 80, 85, 90, 260, 
 275, 318. 
 
 Roxburgh, Earl of, 39, 43. 
 
 Rutherford, Samuel, banished to 
 Aberdeen, 32, 33. 
 
 Ruthven, General, governor of Edin- 
 burgh Castle, 84. 
 
 St Andrews, meeting of the General 
 
 Assembly in, 148. 
 St Giles's, Edinburgh, riot in, 38-39. 
 Sanders, Colonel, 385. 
 Saville, Lord, 117. 
 Scone, coronation of Charles IL at, 
 
 259-260. 
 Scots Guards in France, 88 and n. 
 Seaforth, Earl of, 173, 360; joins 
 
 Montrose, 180. 
 Sharp, James, Archbishop of St 
 
 Andrews, 293. 
 Sibbald, Colonel, 163 ; hands over 
 
 Airlie Castle to Argyll, 105. 
 Smith, Adjutant-General, 323. 
 Somerled, Lord of the Isles, slain at 
 
 Renfrew, 3. 
 Spottiswood, John, Archbishop of St 
 
 Andrews, Lord Chancellor, 35, 39, 44 ; 
 
 deposed, 59. 
 Spottiswood, Sir Robert, 387. 
 Stewart, Sir Andrew, of Blackhall, 127. 
 Stewart, Elizabeth, 18. 
 
 Stewart, James, of Ardvoirlich, murders 
 
 Lord Kilpont, 166. 
 Stewart, John, of Ladywell, his evidence 
 
 against Argyll, 125 ; his confession, 
 
 127, 128 ; execution of, 128. 
 Stewart, Lady Mary, 231 n., 344. 
 Stewart, Lieut. -Col. Walter, 127, 129. 
 Stewart, Adjutant-General, 387. 
 Stewarts of Athol, 170. 
 Stirling, Sir George, of Keir, 127. 
 Stirling, William, 353, 
 Strachan, Colonel, 230, 256, 257. 
 Strafford, Earl of, 46, 70, 99, 116, 117, 
 
 132. 
 Sutherland, Earl of, 134. 
 Swinton, Sir John, of Swinton, trial of, 
 
 305-306 and n. 
 Sydserf, Thomas, Bishop of Galloway, 
 
 31. 
 
 "Tables, The," 42, 48, 49, 52, 81. 
 
 Tarbert, 283. 
 
 Tippermuir, battle of, 165. 
 
 Titus, Colonel, 265, 266. 
 
 Trail, Mr, chaplain to Argyll, 328. 
 
 Traquair, Earl of, 43, 93, 129, 368 ; 
 assaulted by the mob in Edinburgh, 
 84 ; Commissioner to the General 
 Assembly, 88, 91, 95. 
 
 "Tulchan Bishops," 29. 
 
 Udny church converted into a stable, 71. 
 Uttoxeter, surrender of Royalists at, 
 
 212. 
 Uxbridge, negotiations at, 179. 
 
 Vachop, George, 355. 
 
 Vane, Sir Henry, 99, 150, 153. 
 
 Waller, Sir William, 150, 178. 
 
 Walter, Sir Edward, 303. 
 
 Wedderburu, James, Bishop of Dun- 
 blane, deposed and excommunicated, 
 50. 
 
 Wemyss, Earl of, 39. 
 
 Westminster Assembly, 196, 197. 
 
 Whitford, Walter, Bishop of Brechin, 
 deposed and excommunicated, 59. 
 
 Winwick, defeat of Hamilton at, 212. 
 
 Worcester, battle of, 274, 275 . 
 
 Wren, Dr, Bishop of Norwich, 37 
 and 11. 
 
 Wright, Edward, Principal of Glasgow 
 University, 301 m. 
 
 Yester, Lord, 260. 
 York, surrender of, 158. 
 
 Zuil, John, 148 n. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 SIR THOMAS URQUHART, OF 
 CROMARTIE, KNIGHT. 
 
 Large Crown 8vo, 251 pp., Cloth Extra, with Five Illustrations, 
 
 Price 6s. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 " Mr. Willcock's description of Urquhart as a kind of Don Quixote, both in 
 letters and in politics, with a dash of Mr. Micawber in finance, and of Ancient Pistol 
 in style, hits near the mark. , . . His full-length sketch of him, as one may call it, 
 done with much literary skill and in a liberal spirit, makes one wish to know him still 
 more fully and closely." — Scotsman, 
 
 " Sir Thomas Urquhart stands out in full relief from the background, and the 
 reader is enabled to follow his career with intelligence and interest from those early 
 days when he studied at Aberdeen and very undutifully imprisoned his father ' in the 
 inner dortour,' down to the last fight of Cavaliers and Puritans, when 'the Precious 
 Jewel ' was discovered in the kennel at Worcester, and still later to the year of the 
 glorious Restoration, when the gallant knight is said to have laughed himself to death 
 in a paroxysm of loyal joy. . . . Altogether the monograph is a sound piece of work, 
 and deserves hearty welcome as the first adequate attempt to introduce one of the 
 strangest of our Scottish worthies to the general literary public." — Glasgozv Herald. 
 
 "We have to congratulate Mr. Willcock on the admirable performance of a bit 
 of useful work. He has produced a life of a very extraordinary man, that has all 
 the agreeable qualities of a story. ... It is a most interesting book of enduring 
 value. Its arrangement is workmanlike and its illustrations are excellent." — Banff- 
 shire Joui-nal. 
 
 "The first exhaustive account of the life of a very versatile and remarkable 
 member of an influential and distinguished family. . . . Mr. Willcock gives a vivid 
 picture of the personality of Sir Thomas, a graduate of Aberdeen University, who not 
 only made a brilliant and unique translation of Rabelais, but wrote original contri- 
 butions in such diverse departments as poetry, trigonometry, genealogy, and bio- 
 graphy, besides taking a prominent part in the public life of his time, and playing 
 the soldier, diplomatist, and feudal chief to perfection. He was altogether a 
 romantic, eccentric, and fantastical figure, and the author of this life has rendered 
 a distinct service to Scottish literature by the record here presented." — Aberdeen 
 Journal. 
 
 " It must be acknowledged that the biographer has done his work well. The 
 book gives evidence of careful and unwearied research, and is characterized by its 
 genuine critical method, and keen and sympathetic insight into the mind of this 
 wonderful man. It is withal written in a popular vein, and will undoubtedly spread 
 the fame of the Knight of Cromartie among thousands who never heard his name." — ■ 
 Glasgow Evening News. 
 
 "Mr. Willcock has made the most of his curious subject. . . . He gives a good 
 sketch of the family, and a full account of the personal history and odd character of 
 the translator of Rabelais." — Northern Chronicle. 
 
 "This is a charming book. Fresh and interesting in its subject-matter, clear 
 and graceful in its style, and elegant in its outward form, it is a real pleasure to have 
 it in one's library. It is an account of the life and writings of one of the most fantasti- 
 cal figures of the Seventeenth Century in .Scotland, Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, 
 a man who was at once a poet, a man of affairs, a warrior, a scholar, a traveller, a 
 voluminous author on all sorts of subjects, and an inventor not merely of a literary 
 style, but of a new language. All these accomplishments were united, as it were, by 
 a common bond of amiable eccentricity, which makes the story of his life entertain- 
 ing to a remarkable degree. . . . The work is done with taste and accomplishment. 
 
SIR THOMAS URQUHART, OF CROMARTIE, KNIGHT. 
 
 and we gladly acknowledge our indebtedness to the author who has saved a man of 
 such exceptional character from the comparative oblivion in which his life and work 
 have hitherto lain." — Nortlierit Ensign. 
 
 "He has drawn 'a romantic, fantastical figure,' and drawn it well." — Daily 
 News. 
 
 " Mr. Willcock has given ample quotations from Urquhart's works, and his book 
 will be highly esteemed by students of Scottish literature. He is a careful biographer. 
 . . . This is by far the best extant biography of a very eccentric and notable Scots- 
 man." — Dundee Advertiser, 
 
 " Mr. Willcock's portraiture of Sir Thomas is kindly, even generous, interesting, 
 and satisfactory. Sir Thomas himself, indeed, is made to draw most of it ; and if we 
 cannot accept him in colours of his own choosing, we can at least, with the author's 
 assistance, strike a likeness for ourselves out of his pigments." — Ross-shire Journal. 
 
 "This 'quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.' . . . Many will be glad to 
 have so delightful a portrait of Urquhart's 'romantic, fantastical figure.' . , . Mr. 
 Willcock's most readable book, the 'get-up' of which is in keeping with its contents." 
 — St. Andrew. 
 
 "The most complete account of that eccentric personage that has yet appeared. 
 . . . The volume is a notable addition to Scottish literary history." — Lite7'ature. 
 
 "The Knight of Cromartie was the most fantastic creature that the cold North 
 ever begot. He wrote in a style which reads like an insane variant of euphuism with 
 a Scotch accent. . . . Mr. Willcock has given us a careful and sympathetic study of 
 his subject. He has avoided an easy pictorial manner and gone to original authorities 
 for his facts. " — Speaker. 
 
 " Mr. Willcock has told the story of one of the strangest figures in the world of 
 letters in a way that gives evidence of much research and care. There was room for 
 a popular account of Sir Thomas Urquhart, and this volume supplies it." — Aber- 
 deen Free Press. 
 
 "There is no more curious figure in Scottish literary history than Sir Thomas 
 Urquhart, of Cromartie. . . . Mr. Willcock has shown great diligence in collecting 
 all available information. His book bears witness on every page to painstaking and 
 scholarly research, and he has embodied in his narrative all that we are ever likely 
 to know of the quaint Knight of Cromartie." — North British Daily Mail. 
 
 " An entertaining and useful historical work." — Leeds Merairy. 
 
 " We have nothing but praise for the manner in which Mr. Willcock has executed 
 his task. The book is a monument of painstaking research, and it has the further 
 merit of being written with charming literary grace." — British Weekly. 
 
 "Mr. Willcock has done his work very carefully, and the book bears the un- 
 mistakable evidence of scholarship, accurate and painstaking, on its every page." — 
 Bookseller. 
 
 " Mr. Willcock has a proper sympathy with his hero, he writes well and clearly, 
 and has gathered within two covers all that we shall ever know of the author of 
 ' The Exquisite ]&\vq\.'"'— Spectator. 
 
 "We welcome Mr. Willcock's life of Urquhart, which will introduce to the 
 vast majority of readers a quaint, original, and brightly flamboyant individuality. 
 Mr. Willcock's book is pleasant and readable, and gives a full account of the life of 
 Urquhart, and a still better account of his works. . . . We have marked for 
 quotation over a score of passages, but considerations of space forbid the indulgence. 
 Two admirable portraits of Urquhart are inserted in Mr. Willcock's agreeable and 
 scholarly book, and add greatly to its attractions." — Notes and Queiies. 
 
 "An odder, vainer, more unpracticable, more Quixotic specimen of knightly 
 humanity it would be difficult to find. . . . Those who love out-of-the-way studies of 
 character should certainly read this book, on which no end of pains has been 
 bestowed." — United Presbyterian Magazine. 
 
 " It is a most entertaining book. . . . Mr. Willcock has given us an excellent 
 biography of a notable character." — Presbyterian. 
 
 " Mr. Willcock has given us in his charming volume a vivid portrait of 
 Urquhart." — Westminster Gazette. 
 
 " A delightful sketch of a strange career." — Liverpool Daily Post. 
 
 "The first and probably the final life of the chief translator of Rabelais. . . . 
 We like it with its little bits from Sterne, Jane Austen, Dickens, Heine, and Lewis 
 Carroll, its gentle raillery of Mrs. Grundy, the vegetarians, the anti-tobacco people, 
 and the teetotalers, and its strictures even on the Covenanters." — At/ieuceum. 
 
SIR THOMAS URQUHART, OF CROMARTIE, KNIGHT. 
 
 "It would be but meagre praise to say that in 'Sir Tiiomas Urquhart, of 
 Cromartie,' the United Presbyterian minister of Lerwick has written one of the best 
 biographies of the year." — People's Journal. 
 
 "A truly competent biographer of Urquhart has been found in Mr. Willcock, 
 who has gathered every scrap of information that he could from the most out-of-the- 
 way corners. Indeed he may be regarded as the authority on Urquhart, for he has 
 devoted much time and labour in patient research." — Piiritan. 
 
 " It is a pleasure to have a life-like portrait supplied in place of the sketches with 
 which we have previously had to be contented. JMr. Willcock's book will do some- 
 thing to spread a knowledge of the most remarkable Scot that ever crossed the border 
 in the train of James i. Sir Thomas Urquhart seems to have united in his own 
 person the leading traits of the men of his epoch, and is a quaint mixture of the 
 Admirable Crichton, Cyrano de Bergerald, and d'Artagnan. . . . Mr. Willcock's 
 book is written with a certain amount of reticence, but deserves to be read by all 
 Pantagruelists." — Gentleman's I\IagazT7ie. 
 
 " Mr. Willcock has made excellent use of the material supplied by the Knight of 
 Cromartie himself, and has given extracts which illustrate the character of the man as 
 well as the extraordinary originality and richness of his sesquipedalian vocabulary. . . . 
 He is a sympathetic chronicler, and has given us an excellent portrait of a wayward 
 genius. " — Manchester Guardian. 
 
 "This volume fills a niche that has hitherto been vacant. It contains the only 
 full memoir that has been attempted. . . . Mr. Willcock has certainly made the 
 most of his materials, and put them together in lucid and attractive fashion. . . . He 
 has accomplished an interesting piece of work with conscientious care and with 
 undoubted success." — Inverness Courier. 
 
 " In writing a life of Sir Thomas Urquhart, Mr. Willcock has done the educated 
 public a service. The whimsical Knight of Cromartie richly deserved a biography ; 
 but to write the biography of such a freak demanded a combination of special 
 qualities. . . • Mr. Willcock has patiently ferreted out facts which previous writers 
 overlooked, and has woven them into a whole with a historian's sympathy and insight. 
 The book is written in a lucid and forcible style, and from preface to appendix the 
 interest of the reader never ^a.gs."— Joint d" Groat Journal. 
 
 " The literary antiquary will cordially welcome Mr. Willcock's biography of Sir 
 Thomas Urquhart. Untrammelled by the restrictions of a series, his work fills a 
 sensible gap in the portrait gallery of Scottish worthies." — St. James's Gazette. 
 
 " Mr. Willcock has written a delightful book on an amusing character, . • . He 
 is to be congratulated on the fine skill and humour with which he has selected from 
 Urquhart's own accounts what is most characteristic and delightful, and on the spirit 
 in which he has amplified and expanded these. His own writing bubbles over with 
 humour. He has enjoyed writing this biography, and we have enjoyed reading it." — 
 Bookman. 
 
 "An excellent monograph." — Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature. 
 
 A SHETLAND MINISTER 
 OF THE 18th CENTURY: 
 
 Being Passages in the Life of the Rev. John Mill, 
 
 Second Thousand. In Fcap. 8vo, 174 pp., Cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
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 Saturday Review. 
 
 "John Mill was a character such as Robert Louis Stevenson would have 
 rendered immortal, and that Mr. Willcock's well-written sketch portrays with skill." 
 — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 "A very remarkable life-history." — New Age. 
 
 "A phase of Scottish life and character." — Standard. 
 
A SHETLAND MINISTER OF THE 18th CENTURY. 
 
 " A most readable little book." — Athenaum. 
 
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 interesting character and phase of life. " — British Weekly. 
 
 " A readable and interesting life-story." — Literary World. 
 
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 subject-matter fresh and interesting." — Scottish Notes and Queries. 
 
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 " The picture of a man of remarkable vigour and individuality of character." — 
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 "A really readable little book, which should find a considerably wider public than 
 that of the Shetland Islands." — Glasgoiv Herald. 
 
 " Mill was a man of mark in his day, and his life-story is simply and worthily told 
 in this little volume." — Aberdeen Free Press. 
 
 " Glimpses of old-world life in these remote islands." — Scottish Pictorial. 
 
 " A perspicuous and complete sketch." — Dundee Advertiser. 
 
 " A little volume which is full of charm and interest. "-^u/^k d Gt-oat Journal. 
 
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 the light it throws on the religious and moral condition of the times it covers, and 
 is specially interesting from the uniqueness of the character of Mr. Mill." — North 
 British Daily Mail. 
 
 "A curious and interesting picture of old Shetland life." — Elgin Courant. 
 
 "Mr. Mill's idiosyncrasies furnish an unfailing source of amusement." — United 
 Presbyterian Magazine. 
 
 "The whole work is excellent, and, we cannot doubt, will be welcomed in a wider 
 area than the northern islands in which Mr. Mill spent his life." — Banffshire Journal. 
 
 " A very interesting biography, which has already and deservedly attracted a good 
 deal of attention." — Northern Ensign. 
 
 ' ' We commend the perusal of the volume to all those in any way interested in 
 Scotland and her past." — Liverpool Daily Post. 
 
 " We can recommend the book as interesting to many more than Shetland 
 readers." — Life and Work. 
 
 " One can see what a romance Stevenson could have constructed out of Mill's 
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 pictures of Shetland life and manners during the Eighteenth Century." — Orkney 
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 "Mr. Willcock has done well to provide this record of a man so memorable." — 
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 "There is a great deal that is interesting in this book. . . . Mr. Willcock has 
 done his work well, and we feel indebted to him for making us acquainted with a 
 character which ought not to be forgotten." — Free Church Monthly, 
 
 " Mr. Mill stands out as quite a remarkable man. Though the volume will have 
 a special interest to the people of the Shetland Isles, it will be read with much 
 interest on the mainland." — Perthshire Advertiser. 
 
 " A succinct and readable account of Mill's life. . . . Nothing essential has been 
 omitted, and nothing unnecessary has been retained. . . . The volume furnishes 
 interesting reading from beginning to end." — Shetland News. 
 
 "The book is eminently readable, and will well repay perusal. ... A vein of 
 quiet humour, mingled with delicate satire, crops up every here and there in its 
 pages." — Shetland Times. 
 
 "A certain antiquarian interest attends the proceedings of this worthy (Mill). 
 His claims in the latter half of the Eighteenth Century, to cast out devils, and his 
 treatment generally of demons, for whom he had a wonderful _/?a?>, give the book a 
 certain interest." — Notes and Queries. 
 
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