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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 MONTROSE 
 
 AND 
 
 THE COVENANTERS, 
 
 THEIR 
 
 CHARACTERS AND CONDUCT, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 FROM PRIVATE LETTERS AND OTHER ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED, 
 
 EMBRACING THE TIMES OF CHARLES THE FIRST, FROM 
 
 THE RISE OF THE TROUBLES IN SCOTLAND, 
 
 TO THE DEATH OF MONTROSE. 
 
 BY 
 
 MARK NAPIER, Esq. 
 
 ADVOCATE. 
 
 VOLUME FIRST. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER. ROW. 
 
 M.DCCC. XXXVIII.
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN STARK, EDINBURGH.
 
 DA 
 
 803 . 7 
 
 ftsNi 
 
 v.. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Some years ago, having occasion to examine the 
 Napier charter-chest, I discovered materials there which 
 suggested the idea of illustrating, more fully and ori- 
 ginally than had hitherto been done, the lives of two 
 of the greatest worthies, in their separate walks, whom 
 Scotland has produced, viz. Napier and Montrose. 
 Different as were the characters and pursuits of the 
 Inventor of Logarithms, and the Hero of the Scottish 
 Troubles, some of the illustrations contained in the 
 " Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston," and those 
 now brought together to elucidate the comparative 
 merits of " Montrose and the Covenanters," are not 
 without an historical connexion. Napier, a great 
 champion of the Protestant Church, attracted the 
 eyes of Europe even more, in his own day, by his very 
 learned and original Commentaries on the Apocalypse, 
 than by his immortal discovery in mathematics. He 
 was a most distinguished leader of that church party 
 in Scotland who stood forth, sturdily and conscien- 
 tiously, but without disloyal or anti-monarchical feel- 
 ings, against the supposed papistical inclinations of 
 James VI., and the desperate attempts of absolute Popery 

 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 from abroad. Napier's eldest son, the first Lord Na- 
 pier, a sincere disciple of his father's in those rigid 
 Protestant doctrines, became the personal friend both of 
 James VI. and Charles I., and, moreover, a second pa- 
 rent to Montrose. But, in the progress of events, all 
 that was honest and sincere of the anti-papistical party 
 in Scotland was superseded by an insidious democratic 
 clique, who, disguised for a time under the mantles of 
 such enthusiasts as Knox and Napier, and pretending 
 to identify Episcopacy with Popery, pressed onwards, 
 through their various stages of duplicity and crime, 
 until an ephemeral throne, born of their anarchy, was 
 reared upon the prostrate necks of Religion and Li- 
 berty, whose sacred names they had taken in vain. 
 Hence it happened that the immediate representative 
 of the great Napier, and his illustrious pupil Montrose, 
 were covenanting at first, and, without the sacrifice of 
 a principle, martyrs to their loyalty in the end. 
 
 But, even in our own enlightened times, there is 
 a disposition to confound the cause of truth with 
 that career of democracy, and to claim for the fac- 
 tious Covenanter of Argyle's Dictatorship, — as vicious 
 a compound as ever agitated under a veil of sanctity, — 
 the respect due to the stern virtues of some of our early 
 reformers, and also that admiring sympathy which the 
 violent and impolitic retaliation of the Government of the 
 second James has rendered no less due to the wrapt he- 
 roism of the Cameronian peasant. Some, indeed, carry 
 their vague ideas, of the political sobriquet " Covenant- 
 ers," so far as to consider the term sacred, to identify
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 those factionists with the Church of Scotland in all eras, 
 and to resent any attempt at exposing their vices, with 
 as much keenness as if the respectability of the Presby- 
 terian forms depended upon the fame of the unprincipled 
 school of Argyle, such as Wariston, and Lauderdale 
 himself, the persecutor of the second race of Covenan- 
 ters. It is not, however, in a sense so indiscriminate, 
 that I have adopted the title " Montrose and the Cove- 
 nanters," or have instituted that contrast. 
 
 The name and actions of Montrose were too conspi- 
 cuous, and influential, in his critical times, not to have 
 become familiar even to such as cannot, in a strict 
 sense, be termed readers of history. The romantic 
 pages, and historic genius, of Sir Walter Scott, have made 
 the hero as well known to the general or luxurious rea- 
 der, as he is to those who study, more inquiringly and 
 systematically, all the historical annals of their country. 
 Hence there is an impression, widely prevailing though 
 very erroneous, that no more need or can be recorded 
 of Montrose and his times. But, I venture to say, had 
 the original materials now first brought to light in the 
 following pages, been in the possession of David Hume or 
 Sir Walter Scott, greatly would the acquisition have aid- 
 ed, enlightened, and enriched, a deeply interesting and im- 
 portant chapter of their historical compositions. Even the 
 domestic facts, though few in number, which I have been 
 enabled to add to a more minute illustration of the prin- 
 ciples of Montrose's public conduct than had hitherto been 
 afforded, would have been treasures in the hands of the 
 " Great Magician." With such stores, new to the
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 world, his exquisite, but unfortunately too meagre, 
 " Legend of Montrose," might have expanded in a work 
 of yet greater interest and effect ; combining, too, the 
 truth and importance of historical discovery, with some 
 domestic matters of unquestionable fact, that beggar 
 even his powers of romantic fiction. The devotion, to 
 Montrose, of his nephew, who was so dearly beloved in 
 return, and who preserved that devotion to his uncle in 
 the face of the most powerful entreaties and tempta- 
 tions to forsake, or at least to quit him, — the no less 
 heroic adherence, to Montrose and his cause, displayed 
 by his nieces, who on his account suffered the impri- 
 sonment of malefactors, and were reduced from the af- 
 fluence and luxuries of their high station to discomfort 
 and poverty,— the " well known token," sent by them 
 to guide the hero to his career of ill-fated victories, — 
 — the abstracting of his heart from his mutilated trunk 
 beneath the gibbet, — and, above all, the extraordinary 
 progress of that romantic relic, through perils by land 
 and sea, even into the possession, and among the bar- 
 baric treasures of an Indian chief, — himself an heroic 
 sufferer, whom we must not call savage, — these are in- 
 cidents which ought to have been introduced to the 
 world by no other pen than Sir Walter Scott's ; but 
 which, it may be hoped, will cause, even by this hum- 
 bler record of them, the Legend of Montrose itself to 
 be perused with additional interest. 
 
 The most important new matter, however, contained 
 in these volumes, are the historical fragments obtained 
 from the private archives of the Napier family, with
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 the addition of some discoveries among the manuscripts 
 of the Advocates' Library. These throw an entirely- 
 new light upon the moral springs of Montrose's iso- 
 lated and almost incredible exertions, and, at the same 
 time, aid not insignificantly our reflections upon the 
 state and results of his times, — an exhaustless source 
 of political and moral instruction. Whilst such enthu- 
 siastic democratical writers as Mr Brodie, (now Histo- 
 riographer Royal for Scotland,) followed by Lord Nu- 
 gent, and, in the chapter we refer to, quoted and relied 
 upon even by an historian of such superior powers as 
 Hallam, — whilst these have run riot in their assump- 
 tions of Montrose's unprincipled selfishness, reckless 
 ambition, and insatiable appetite for blood and murder, 
 how little has been done to illustrate what was the 
 actual state of the Hero's mind in his meteor-career 
 of self-devotion. But, as an antidote to those bane- 
 ful historical calumnies, — in opposing which I am 
 conscious of having caught too much of the tone of ex- 
 cited controversy, — of having written " tumultuante 
 calamo" and, it may be said, occasionally somewhat in 
 King Cambyses' vein, — I would desire no more than 
 that beside those calumnies should be placed the hi- 
 therto unknown letters and documents I have now 
 produced, in which Montrose may be said to speak for 
 himself, on the matter of his advice to Charles I. and 
 the motives and principles of his own conduct. 
 
 From the charge of having " touched that unclean 
 thing whiggery," — (I adopt the expressive phrase of a 
 distinguished literary correspondent, who honoured me
 
 Viii PREFACE. 
 
 with a perusal of these volumes before they were pub- 
 lished,) — of having committed a false step in joining 
 at their outset the covenanting clique in Scotland, — a 
 word I do not shrink from using, as being truly de- 
 scriptive of a party who arrogated to themselves the 
 character of a whole nation's generous voice, — of having 
 acted inconsistently with the dictates of his reason, and 
 his maturer principles of action, by having carried, 
 what he fondly considered the arms of " the Covenant," 
 against the last hope of true Religion and Liberty in the 
 north, — from these charges Montrose can never be ex- 
 onerated. But the moral, and, when we remember his 
 expiatory struggle and death, it may be added, the 
 grandeur, of his heroic character and career, cannot, 
 by such defects, lose their value and interest. The 
 documents referred to must carry an irresistible con- 
 viction, at least to every unbiassed mind commencing 
 its study of the times past, that, even in his first error 
 and inconsistency, Montrose was humane and honest, 
 was no far-sighted and selfish factionist, no blood- 
 thirsty destroyer, but a youthful and mistaken en- 
 thusiast. If the sudden and violent excitement of the 
 period, and Montrose's age of four-and- twenty, will not 
 suffice to reconcile such political inconsistency as can 
 be proved against him, with the character of an honest 
 statesman, and a glorious hero, we may close the annals 
 of human virtue. 
 
 I am induced to notice still further in this place the 
 manuscripts which prove Montrose to have exercised, 
 in his later patriotic struggle, the ratiocination of an
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 upright and accomplished politician, from having, in a 
 recent visit to Cambridge, my attention called to a 
 published Discourse, pronounced by one of the living 
 ornaments of that seat of learning and loyalty. I will 
 be excused for transcribing the whole passage from 
 such a writer as Professor Sedgwick. In his scrutiny 
 of some of Paley's defective Philosophy, occurs what 
 will be found in the note.* I have no reason to ima- 
 
 " Why is it our duty to obey the civil government ? Paley replies, 
 
 because it is the will of God as collected from expediency so long as 
 
 the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public 
 inconveniency, it is the will of God that the established government be 
 obeyed — and no longer. This principle being admitted, the justice of 
 every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the 
 quantity of danger and grievance on one side, and of the probability and 
 expense of redressing it on the other. But who shall judge of this ? We 
 answer, every man for himself* A more loose and mischievous doctrine 
 — one more certain to be turned to base purposes by bad men — was 
 never, I believe, upheld by any Christian moralist. In times of excite- 
 ment, men are too much blinded by passion ever to enter fairly on a com- 
 putation of civil grievance : and as for danger — brave men of sanguine 
 tempers are not restrained by it, but on the contrary, are urged by it into 
 action. On Paley's principles, civil obedience cannot continue to be re- 
 garded as a duty : and if civil order be retained at all, it can only be 
 through selfishness and fear on the one hand, and by corruption and brute 
 force on the other. Such a state of things can only lead to ruin and con- 
 fusion, or the establishment of a despotic executive. 
 
 "An unbeliever may ground his duty of obedience inexpediency : but 
 a Christian finds, in the word of God, a ready answer to the question we 
 started with. Obedience to the civil government is a duty, because the 
 word of God solemnly and repeatedly enjoins it. But does this doctrine 
 lead us to the slavish maxims of non-resistance and passive obedience f 
 Undoubtedly not. The Apostles of our religion gave us an example and 
 a ride for the resistance of a Christian. They resisted not the powers of 
 the world by bodily force; but by persuasion, by patient endurance, and 
 by heroic self-devotion : and the moral and civil revolutions, which they 
 and their followers effected, were incomparably the most astonishing that 
 are recorded in the history of man. 
 
 " Should it, however, be said, that ordinary men, not having the powers 
 
 Moral and Political Philosophy, Book \i. Cbap. iii.
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 gine that those powerful passages were composed un- 
 der the direct influence of a recollection of the times 
 of Charles I., or with an immediate reference to Mon- 
 trose and the Covenanters. Certainly Professor Sedg- 
 wick had never seen the fragments of papers which 
 have preserved to us the reasonings of Montrose, and of 
 his preceptor, Napier, on the subject of Sovereign power, 
 and Rebellion. Yet, notwithstanding all that has come 
 and gone, since about the year 1641, when those frag- 
 
 given to the inspired Apostles, must, on that account, adopt less exalt- 
 ed maxims as their rules of life : we may state in general terms (with- 
 out loading this discussion with extreme cases which lead to no practi- 
 cal good in moral speculation), that where the Christian religion prevails 
 in its purity, it is impossible there should ever exist an unmitigated des- 
 potism : and where the power of the executive is limited (in however 
 small a degree) there will always be found within the constitution some 
 place where the encroachments of bad and despotic men may be met 
 by a moral and legal resistance. Rebellion is proscribed by human law, 
 and is forbidden by the law of God. But a moral opposition to the 
 executive, conducted on constitutional grounds, is proscribed by no law, 
 either of God or man : and if it be wisely and virtuously carried on, it 
 has in its own nature the elements of increasing strength, and must at 
 length be irresistible. If, however, during the progress of a state, the 
 constituted authorities be in open warfare with each other ; a good man 
 may at length be compelled to take a side, and reluctantly to draw his 
 sword in defence of the best inheritance of his country. Such an ap- 
 peal, to be just, must be made on principle; and after all other honest 
 means have been tried in vain. 
 
 " Unfortunately, the opposition to the encroachments of arbitrary power, 
 has too often been commenced by selfish men for base purposes. In- 
 stead of taking their stand in a moral and constitutional resistance — in- 
 stead of trying, by every human means, to concentrate all the might of 
 virtue and high principle on their side, they have broken the laws of 
 their country, dipped their hands in blood, and needlessly brought ruin 
 on themselves and their party. The vices of the subject are not only the 
 despot's plea, but the despot's strength. Where the virtuous elements 
 of social order are wanting in the state, whether men be willing slaves 
 or not, they are unfit for freedom." — Discourse, Sfc. by Adam Sedgwick, 
 M. A., F. R. S., Sfc. Woodwardian Professor and Fellow of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge. Fourth Edition, 1835, p. 137-139.
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 ments entered, not history, but the obscurity of a Scot- 
 tish charter-chest, to the year 1835, when one of the 
 most accomplished of her sons addressed Alma Mater 
 as quoted, Montrose's principles of civil obedience, his 
 axioms of political government, his anxious and elabo- 
 rate search for that invisible line of demarcation, be- 
 twixt the philosophy of non-resistance and passive obe- 
 dience on the one hand, and, on the other, justifiable 
 resistance to arbitrary power, — the reasoning and senti- 
 ments, we say, of Montrose, when deprecating the ap- 
 proach of the great civil war, are wonderfully similar, in 
 their philosophy, logic, and even language, to those with 
 which Professor Sedgwick instructed the youth of 
 Cambridge in the Chapel of Trinity College. " Re- 
 bellion is proscribed by human law, and is forbidden 
 by the law of God. But a moral opposition to the 
 executive, conducted on constitutional grounds, is pro- 
 scribed by no law, either of God or man ; and if it be 
 wisely and virtuously carried on, it has in its own na- 
 ture the elements of increasing strength, and must at 
 length be irresistible. If, however, during the progress 
 of a state, the constituted authorities be in open war- 
 fare with each other, a good man may at length be 
 compelled to take a side, and reluctantly to draw his 
 sword in defence of the best inheritance of his country. 
 Such an appeal to be just, must be made on principle ; 
 and after all other honest means have been tried in 
 vain." So inculcates the living Professor. And more- 
 over, he maintains obedience to the civil government 
 as a duty, ' because the word of God solemnly and re-
 
 Xii PREFACE. 
 
 peatedly enjoins it ;" and he refers us to the example of 
 the apostles of religion, who " resisted not the powers 
 of the world by bodily force, but by patient endurance, 
 and by heroic self-devotion." Finally he tells us, in 
 the concluding passage of the pages we have quoted 
 from him, a passage singularly applicable to the con- 
 duct of the covenanting rulers, that " unfortunately, 
 the opposition to the encroachments of arbitrary power 
 has too often been commenced by selfish men for base 
 purposes," who, he adds, " have broken the laws of 
 their country, dipped their hands in blood, and need- 
 lessly brought ruin on themselves and their party." 
 
 This is an unpremeditated and unconscious echo 
 of what the murdered Montrose, and his Mentor, 
 inculcated two hundred years ago, before the great 
 civil war, and its fearful results, had verified their 
 worst anticipations. " Civil societies, (said they) 
 so pleasing to Almighty God, cannot subsist with- 
 out government, nor government without a sove- 
 reign power to force obedience to laws and just 
 commands. * * * This sovereignty is, a power over 
 the people, above which power there is none upon 
 earth, whose acts cannot be rescinded by any other, 
 instituted by God for his glory, and the temporal and 
 eternal happiness of men. * * * Patience in the sub- 
 ject is the best remedy against the effects of a prince's 
 power too far extended. * * * But there is a fair and 
 justifiable way for subjects to procure a moderate go- 
 vernment, incumbent to them in duty, which is, to en- 
 deavour the security of Religion and just Liberties, (the 
 
 4
 
 PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 matters on which a prince's power doth work,) which 
 being secured, his power must needs be temperate and 
 run in the even channel. * * * The perpetual cause of 
 the controversies between the prince and his subjects, 
 is the ambitious designs of rule in great men, veiled un- 
 der the specious pretext of religion and the subjects' li- 
 berties." Professor Sedgwick's sacred principle of obe- 
 dience to civil government, and his views of the moral 
 depravity of rebellion, are not to be distinguished, ex- 
 cept by those who indulge in mere verbal disputes, from 
 Montrose and Napier's exposition of the divine and 
 inviolable character of sovereign power upon earth, 
 " whether in the person of a monarch, or in a few prin- 
 cipal men, or in the estates of the people."* 
 
 It is hoped, then, that the new materials, with which I 
 have illustrated Montrose and his times, will be consider- 
 ed as not limited, in their interest and importance, to the 
 tastes of a certain class of historical readers in Scotland, 
 but as being valuable to the cause of truth and justice 
 generally. Could I suppose my own treatment of these 
 materials to be worthy of the field of inquiry they re- 
 open, I might have aspired to dedicate the result to 
 the best existing representative of those lofty, unim- 
 passioned principles, — so conservative of good govern- 
 ment and time-honoured institutions, — those attributes, 
 of untainted integrity in the senate, and matchless hero- 
 ism in the field, which may they never cease to be the 
 characteristics of the British nation. But I do not pre- 
 tend to have brought to my task the talent and judg- 
 
 * Fee infra, pp. 397, 424, &c.
 
 Xiv PREFACE. 
 
 inent it required. If, however, the various original do- 
 cuments now produced, and which, instead of consign- 
 ing to the retirement of an appendix, I have interwoven 
 with my text, shall be found to add any thing to the 
 facts, and the interest of the most instructive period of 
 British history, and, above all, shall in any degree tend 
 to redeem from unmerited obloquy one illustrious vic- 
 tim of hypocritical democracy, I am satisfied to give up 
 my own lucubrations in these volumes to whatever cri- 
 ticism they may call forth. 
 
 It only remains to be added, that I was not so far 
 wanting to my subject, nor in duty to the noble family 
 whose proud distinction it is to represent the Hero, as 
 to omit an application in the proper quarter for any 
 original materials, in possession of the family, which 
 might illustrate the life of Montrose. But that no such 
 materials exist, I learn, with great regret, from his Grace 
 the present Duke of Montrose, who, in a polite com- 
 munication on the subject, informs me, — " I am sorry 
 to say that we cannot give you any assistance in the 
 performance of the task you are preparing to undertake, 
 as there are no papers whatever existing, and in our 
 possession, which can throw light upon the subject." 
 
 11, Stafford Street, April 1838.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 1625-1633. 
 The character of Montrose, how variously treated by histo- 
 rical writers — Mr Brodie, Historiographer Royal for Scot- 
 land, his character of Montrose contrasted with the opinions 
 of Clarendon and De Retz — The Covenanters' character of 
 Montrose — Nature and objects of the present Work — Lord 
 Napier of Merchiston's connection with Montrose — Napier 
 Manuscripts — Bishop Burnet's character of Montrose — 
 Original letter, in the Napier charter-chest, illustrative 
 of Bishop Burnet's own character — The question of Bur- 
 net's truth and impartiality, in his delineations of character, 
 set at rest by this letter — Scotch faction — Extracts from 
 Lord Napier's private papers, illustrative of the character 
 of Scotch councils and councillors, from the commencement 
 of the reign of Charles I. in 1625, to his coronation in 
 Scotland in 1633 — Lord Napier's private notes of some in- 
 congruities in matters of State — Manuscript of his offers 
 of service to Charles I. — His manuscript on the subject of 
 the Tithes, and illustration of the King's position and dis- 
 positions — -The Rothes faction of 1633 — Seeds of the Co- 
 venant — Balmerino's condemnation, pardon, and ingrati- 
 tude, ...... Page 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1633-1636. 
 Montrose's birth, parentage, and education — His early mar- 
 riage — Contemporary notice of his youthful travels and ac- 
 complishments — Prevalent mistake that he commanded the
 
 XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 Archer Guard of France — Contemporary portraiture of his 
 rival the Marquis of Hamilton — Contemporary portraiture 
 of Montrose — Anecdote of Hamilton's double dealing and 
 treachery to Montrose at Court — Archibald Lord Lorn — 
 Montrose's contempt for him — The old Earl of Argyle's 
 character of his son, .... Page 114 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 163G-1637. 
 When and why Montrose joined the Covenanters — Seditious 
 and secret agitation in Scotland, betwixt the periods of the 
 promulgation of the Canons in 1636, and the appointment 
 of the new liturgy in 1637 — Popular tumult against the 
 liturgy in Edinburgh — Instigated by the ministers from tbe 
 pulpit — Secretly organized by Balmerino and the Advocate 
 — Commenced by the servant-maids on the 22d of July 
 1637 — Secret instructions, to Archibald Johnston of Wa- 
 riston, to organise a popular insurrection against the Bishop 
 of St Andrews should he appear in public — Montrose no 
 party to this secret agitation — Weakness and irresolution 
 of the Privy-Council — Parties to the agitation against the 
 Bishops — The Reverend Robert Baillie's account of the 
 petitions against the Bishops, and the manner of his own 
 conversion to it — Result of the agitation in the great con- 
 vention held at Edinburgh, 15th November 1637 — Mon- 
 trose first joins the insurrection against the Bishops at this 
 convention — Induced to join by the persuasions of Rothes 
 and the Minister of Methven, and not through displeasure 
 at the King's reception of him at Court — Constitution of 
 Scotland overthrown, and the Tables erected, under the 
 sanction of the King's Advocate against the King's au- 
 thority, . . . . • . 131 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1637-1638. 
 The Covenant — Its insidious nature and false pretensions — 
 Concocted by a few factionists — Dr Cook's contradictory 
 views of it a proof of its indefensible character — Mr Bro- 
 die's eulogy of the Covenant — Contemporary account of 
 the Covenant, and the mode of its agitation and imposition, 
 from the manuscripts of James Gordon, parson of Rothemay
 
 CONTENTS. XV11 
 
 — Mr David Mitchell's letter on the subject of the perse- 
 cution of the Episcopal clergy in Scotland — Other contem- 
 porary correspondence illustrative of the period — Cove- 
 nanters' attempts to gain over the Marquis of Huntly — 
 Huntly's rejection of the Covenant, . • Page 146 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 
 1633. 
 The Marquis of Hamilton's first visit to Scotland as Com- 
 missioner to settle the affairs of the Church — The Cove- 
 nanters prepare to receive him with studied neglect — The 
 Reverend Robert Baillie's account of the Commissioner's re- 
 ception — Anecdote from the manuscripts of James Gor- 
 don — Bishop Guthrie's anecdote of Hamilton's double-deal- 
 ing—Its authenticity considered and illustrated — Hamilton 
 returns to Court — Agitation of the Scotch factionists dur- 
 ing his absence — Rothes writes to his cousin, Patrick 
 Leslie, in Aberdeen, to agitate the loyal town preparatory 
 to Montrose's presence there.— -Montrose's first mission to 
 Aberdeen — Is attended by Messrs Henderson, Dickson, 
 and Cant, called the three apostles of the covenant — Loyal- 
 ty of the North — The excellent divines of Aberdeen — 
 Montrose's reception in Aberdeen — Transactions and re- 
 sult of the covenanting crusade, . . . 163 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1638. 
 Hamilton returns to Scotland— Is more reserved in his con- 
 verse with the Covenanters— His double-dealing — Insa- 
 tiable demands of the Covenanters — Condemned by Dr 
 Cook in his History of the Church of Scotland Mon- 
 trose's most factious position — General Assembly of 1638 
 
 — Its character — Baillie's account of the opening scene 
 
 Minute account of its constitution, from the manuscripts of 
 
 James Gordon— Montrose's conduct in that Assembly 
 
 His violent contest with his father-in-law, the Earl of 
 Southesk — Montrose's fearless and open display of the ma- 
 chinery of the faction contrasted with the more deceitful 
 policy of the prime Covenanters— Characteristics of the 
 Reverend Robert Baillie derived from his own manuscripts 
 —His insincere letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow— H« 
 VOL. I. h
 
 xviii contents. 
 
 acts and reasons against his own conscience — Characteristics 
 of the Marquis of Hamilton — Bishop Burnet's eulogy of 
 him not to he trusted — Characteristics of the Earl of Ar- 
 gyle — The King's just view and estimate of his conduct — 
 His secret opposition to the King compared with Mon- 
 trose's first attempt to countermine the democratic schemes 
 of the covenanting chiefs, . . . Page 180 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1639. 
 
 Huntly appointed the King's Lieutenant in she North — Hamil • 
 ton's douhle-dealing — The King implicitly trusts Hamilton, 
 who hetrays his cause in the North — Montrose stents the 
 landholders of the shire of Angus, to raise funds for the 
 Covenant — Is opposed hy his father-in-law, and hy his 
 future companion in arms, Lord Ogilvy — Montrose's forced 
 march across the Grampians with the cavalry of Mearns 
 and Angus, to hold a committee at Turreff — Huntly oppo- 
 sed to him there with superior force of loyalists — The royal 
 Lieutenant controlled in his movements by the policy of 
 Hamilton — The first raid of Turreff — Hostile preparations 
 of both parties — Character of the mercenary soldier, invalu- 
 able to the cause of the prime Covenanters — Alexander 
 Leslie — Spalding's graphic description of him — Is engaged 
 by Rothes to serve the Covenanters in their preparation for 
 rebellion — Hamilton secretly combines to paralyze the 
 loyalty of the North — Montrose takes the field against 
 Huntly — Narrative of Huntly 's missions to Montrose, from 
 the manuscript of James Gordon — " Montrose's whimsies" 
 — False alarm in his camp — Signs of the times — Huntly 
 retreats, and Montrose occupies Aberdeen — State of the 
 town — Personal interview betwixt Montrose and Huntly — 
 Account of the conference and its result, from the manu- 
 script of James Gordon — Montrose's policy controlled by a 
 committee — Huntly led captive to Edinburgh — The Cove- 
 nanters disappointed and displeased with Montrose's for- 
 bearance and generous dispositions, . . 209 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1639. 
 Hamilton's treachery illustrated from the manuscripts of
 
 CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 James Gordon — Anecdote of Hamilton's mother — Original 
 bond for support of the covenanting' army, from the papers 
 of Lord Napier — Alexander Leslie organizes the army — 
 Its characteristics — State of the North — The young Vis- 
 count of Aboyne appointed the King's lieutenant there, in 
 room of his father, Huntly — Aboyne claims succours from 
 the King, but is counteracted by Hamilton — Traitor Gun 
 — The manuscript of Patrick Gordon of Cluny — His ac- 
 count of the first collision in arms, betwixt the Covenant- 
 ers of the north and the loyal Barons, called the Trot of 
 Turreff — Montrose's rapid march across the Grampians to 
 Aberdeen — Massacre of dogs — Montrose's conduct to Aber- 
 deen marked by forbearance and lenity, contrary to the de- 
 sire of the covenanting clergy — Besieges Sir George Gor- 
 don's Castle of Gight — Marches to the south — Aboyne 
 enters the road of Aberdeen, with a small fleet and army 
 — Youthful commanders — Lord Lewis Gordon and his fol- 
 lowing — Aboyne, attended by Traitor Gun, seeks Mon- 
 trose, - Page 247 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1639. 
 The King at Dunse Law — Hamilton's operations in the 
 Firth of Forth — His seci'et inclination to the Covenanters 
 — Lord Napier's instructions to treat with him, on their 
 part, from the Napier papers — Review of Hamilton's 
 treacherous policy — Aboyne overtakes Montrose at Du- 
 notter — Paid of Stonehaven — Fate of Aboyne's army — 
 Account of the treachery of Colonel Gun, from the manu- 
 scripts of Patrick Gordon — Montrose marches upon Aber- 
 deen — Account of the battle of the Bridge of Dee, from 
 the manuscripts of Patrick and James Gordon — Montrose 
 evades the covenanting committee's warrant and command 
 to burn Aberdeen, and saves the town — Montrose's lenity 
 commented on by the Rev. Robert Baillie — Montrose, 
 Marischal, and Aboyne join the King at Berwick — Aboyne 
 nearly killed by the mob of Edinburgh — Baillie justifies 
 them, ---._. 272 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1639-1640. 
 
 -Montrose's first interview with Charles — Circumstances un-
 
 XX CONTENTS. 
 
 der which he met the King — New agitation and fresh im- 
 pulse to the movement — When and why Montrose turned 
 from the Covenanters and tried to save the King — Cove- 
 nanting calumnies — Revolutionary Parliament in Scotland, 
 held in June 1640 — The treasonable propositions of the 
 democratic leaders there urged, and Montrose's opposition 
 to them proved — James Gordon's manuscript account of 
 the constitution of the Committee of Estates 1640 — Con- 
 servative members of that Committee — Causes of Mon- 
 trose's conservative conduct at this crisis — First invasion 
 of England by the covenanting army under Alexander Les- 
 lie — Anecdote of Montrose's showing them the way across 
 the Tweed — Passage of the Tyne — The Covenanters oc- 
 cupy Newcastle, ... Page 297 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1640-1641. 
 v/Fate of Montrose's first conservative attempts in support of 
 the King's authority — His correspondence with the King, 
 how discovered by the Covenanters — -Montrose fearlessly 
 justifies himself — His conservative Association — Copy of 
 the Cumbernauld bond, from the manuscripts of the Ad- 
 vocates' Library — Its fate — Original manuscript of Co- 
 lonel Cochrane's declaration — Covenanting notions of trea- 
 son illustrated from original manuscripts, - 321 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 1641. 
 A view behind the curtain of the Covenant — Archibald 
 Johnston of Wariston — A covenanting antiquary — A co- 
 venanting patriot — Covenanting reformers — Covenanting 
 justice — Secret machinery of the Covenant — Original let- 
 ters of Archibald Johnston, hitherto unprinted, exposing 
 the profligacy of himself and party — Original letter from 
 Sir Thomas Hope, secretly informing Wariston of the cap- 
 ture of Walter Stewart, on his journey, bearing a letter 
 from the King to Montrose, - - 338 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1641. 
 
 The reasons of Montrose's conservative bond, and the grounds
 
 CONTENTS. XXI 
 
 of his alarm for the monarchy, illustrated from original 
 manuscripts — Original MS. record of Mr Rohert Murray's 
 deposition — Original MS. record of Montrose's declaration 
 — Argyle's violence — Coolness and dignity of Montrose — 
 Affair betwixt Montrose and Lord Lindsay — Original MS. 
 record of their respective declarations, relative to their 
 private conversation together on the state of the country 
 — The Committee's judgment thereupon, - Page 371 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Review of the documents produced, and their bearing upon 
 the times, and upon the question of Montrose's principles 
 — Montrose's letter, expounding his views of the inviolable 
 and sacred nature of sovereign power, and the necessity of 
 so upholding it, ... 391 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Some domestic notices of Montrose from family papers — His 
 curious provision for the Lady Beatrix, his sister — History 
 of his conservative meetings with Lord Napier — Their 
 supper parties at " Yule" 1640 — Malcolm Laing's meagre 
 and inaccurate account of Montrose's separation from the 
 Covenanters — Manuscripts in the Napiercharter chest un- 
 folding the true history of those transactions — Original 
 draft of a letter from Montrose and Napier to Charles, 
 urging his presence in Scotland to quiet the troubles 
 ■ — Advice of Montrose and Napier to Charles on . the * 
 subject of governing Scotland — This letter the secret 
 spring of the King's determination to visit Scotland in 1641 V 
 — His Majesty's letter to Napier — Montrose, Napier, Sir 
 George Stirling of Keir, and Sir Archibald Stewart of 
 Blackball, called " the Plotters," imprisoned by the Co- 
 venanters in the Castle of Edinburgh, - - 411 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The case against the Plotters — Covenanting tactics — Secret 
 history of the plot fully unfolded from the original manu- 
 scripts of Walter Stewart's depositions, - - 433 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 History of the imprisonment and confessions of John Stewart
 
 Xxii CONTENTS. 
 
 of Ladywell, from the original manuscripts — Original ma- 
 nuscripts illustrative of the treatment and demeanour of 
 Montrose, Napier, and Keir at this crisis — Lord Napier's 
 manuscript notes of his examination before the Commit- 
 tee, and their attempt to separate him from Montrose — 
 Fate of John Stewart, and its bearing- upon the character 
 of Argyle — Montrose justified in the reasons of his sepa- 
 ration from the Covenanters — Pious motives of the King, 
 
 Page 469 
 
 Additional Notes and Illustrations. 
 
 I. Bishop Burnet's letters in the Napier charter- chest. 
 
 II. Lord Napier's correspondence with James VI. — His letter 
 on the subject of the Justice clerkship — Letter remonstrat- 
 ing with James on the subject of proposed mortifications to 
 the Chapel Royal — Napier's character of James VI. Re- 
 monstrance of Napier to prevent the execution of Somer- 
 set and his Countess — Curious contract for furnishing the 
 confectionary of the King's table in Scotland. 
 
 III. Charles I. and the Scotch Parliament of 1633 — Refuta- 
 tion of Dr Cook's history of the King's conduct there, as 
 derived from Burnet. 
 
 IV. Account of the manuscripts of James Gordon, parson of 
 Rothemay, and of Patrick Gordon of Cluny. 
 
 V. Original manuscript accounts of " Margaret Mitchelson's 
 gracious raptures." 
 
 VI. Extracts from the town-council books of Aberdeen. 
 
 VII. Anecdotes of Argyle from the manuscripts of James 
 Gordon. 
 
 VIII. Archibald Johnston's double-dealing proved by the 
 letter from the Commissioners in London, to the Commit- 
 tees in Scotland. 
 
 IX. Original paper, interlined by the King, of Charles' in- 
 structions to Dunfermline and Loudon, from the charter- 
 room of Fy vie Castle. 513
 
 ERRATA. 
 Vol. I. 
 Page 16, line 4th of notes, for " well, said Bishop," read " well said, Bishop." 
 _____ 352 — — . 3d of text, for " mistake the character of" read " slight or over- 
 look." 
 
 Vol. II. 
 Pa«-e 442, line 3d of text,/o/- " fourscore years" read threescore years." 
 
 470, 7th of text, for " shalt not" read " shall not." 
 
 484, 7th from hottom of text, for " affrontery" read " effrontery." 
 
 188, 1st of text, for " the Master of Napier" read " the now Lord 
 
 Napier." 
 ,V20 1 1 tli of text,/or " acquainted" read " unacquainted."
 
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 f^i^J^l^r
 
 MONTROSE 
 
 AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Character of Montrose how variously treated by Historical Writers 
 — Napier Manuscripts — Bishop Burnet's Character of Montrose — 
 Original Letter from Burnet proving his own Character — Prelimi- 
 nary view of Charles I. and his Scottish Councils and Councillors — 
 "Views of Policy and Government entertained by Montrose's Preceptor 
 before the Troubles in Scotland — Seeds of the Covenant. 
 
 The latest elaborate character of the Great Mon- 
 trose, from the pen of a historian, is the following : 
 
 " Active, cruel, daring, and unprincipled, he seem- 
 ed formed by nature for civil broils. Chagrined at 
 real or supposed neglect from the court, he joined the 
 Covenanters with a bitterness of spirit which was 
 mistaken for enthusiastic zeal. But vexed, on the 
 one hand, at being eclipsed in the council by the abili- 
 ties and influence of Argyle, and in the army by Les- 
 lie, and allured, on the other, by the prospect of high 
 court favour, the want of which had first stung him 
 with mortification and revenge, he eagerly listened to 
 tempting offers, and not only engaged to renounce the 
 principles for which he had contended, but to betray the 
 cause, to conspire by perjury against the lives and ho- 
 nour of the individuals with whom he had acted in con- 
 cert, and latterly to propose cutting them off by assas- 
 
 VOL. I. a
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sination, or by suddenly raising a faction in the hour 
 of unsuspecting security, to perpetrate an indiscrimi- 
 nate slaughter upon all the leading men of the party. 
 Detected in his wickedness, and utterly cast off by the 
 whole body as bloated with iniquity, he allowed the 
 tumultuous fury of wounded pride and disappointed 
 ambition to assume the semblance of principle, and look- 
 ed towards the ruin of the political franchises and the 
 religion of his country, which he had so sworn to main- 
 tain, as to the necessary removal of standing reproach- 
 es of his apostacy, and barriers to his aggrandizement. 
 Hence there was no scheme so desperate that he hesi- 
 tated to recommend, none so wicked that he declined 
 to execute" * 
 
 There is no character, in ancient or modern times, 
 more atrocious than what is here described. Nor is our 
 historian contented with this concentration of his indig- 
 nant feelings against Montrose. Throughout various 
 passages of the work in question, he has exhausted the 
 powers of his language to paint that nobleman a mon- 
 ster. He calls him a " nobleman destitute of either 
 public or private principle ;" and, while revelling in the 
 barbarous details of his execution, speaks of him as 
 " the blackest criminal," — of " his manifold enormities," 
 his " breach of the Covenant," — his " assassinations 
 and massacres," — his " cold-blooded, indiscriminate, un- 
 manly vengeance," — his " horrid devastations," — his 
 " infamous end," — and, finally, his " poetry, no less exe- 
 crable than his actions had been as a member of socie- 
 ty." f Mr Brodie is an author of laborious research, and 
 it were not impossible that he had brought facts to light 
 
 * A History of the British Empire, by George Brodie, Esq. Advocate, 
 Vol. ii. p. 404. 
 f Vol. iv. pp. 270, 271, 272.
 
 CHARACTERS OF MONTROSE. 3 
 
 which might alter our estimate of Montrose. The above 
 would be a remarkable result, however, for such a cha- 
 racter of this loyalist was never hitherto imagined, and had 
 it been placed, reserving the name, before, not to say his 
 most intimate friends, but the bitterest and most preju- 
 diced of his contemporary enemies, we may venture to af- 
 firm that not a feature of resemblance would have been 
 recognized. Nor must we forget that Montrose, in 
 his own times, was pourtrayed by the greatest master 
 that ever excelled in that peculiar art of fixing, for pos- 
 terity, the moral lineaments of conspicuous men. Cla- 
 rendon says, " Montrose was in his nature fearless 
 of danger, and never declined any enterprize for the 
 difficulty of going through with it, but exceedingly af- 
 fected those which seemed desperate to other men, and 
 did believe somewhat to be in himself which other men 
 were not acquainted with, which made him live more 
 easily towards those who were, or were willing to be 
 inferior to him, (towards whom he exercised wonderful 
 civility and generosity,) than with his superiors or equals. 
 He was naturally jealous, and suspected those who did 
 not concur with him in the way not to mean so well as 
 he. He was not without vanity, but his virtues were 
 much superior, and he well deserved to have his me- 
 mory preserved, and celebrated amongst the most illus- 
 trious persons of the age in which he lived."* 
 
 Now assuming, what we by no means grant, that Mr 
 Brodie is better informed in point of fact, than was 
 Lord Clarendon, as to Montrose's dispositions, motives 
 and conduct, and that he is, moreover, a less prejudiced au- 
 thority on the subject, still it were incredible that the ad- 
 vantage overClarendon,thus supposed to be possessed by 
 
 * Clarendon's Hist. Oxford edit. 1826, with the suppressed passages, 
 Vol. vi. p. 422.
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the modern historian, could be to the extent of the dif- 
 ference betwixt these two portraits. There was, besides, 
 another keen observer of human nature, the celebrated 
 Cardinal de Retz, personally acquainted with our 
 hero ; and he pronounced the memorable opinion, that 
 the only being who had ever realized his idea of a class 
 of heroes no longer living save in the pages of Plutarch, 
 was Montrose, who had sustained the cause of the King 
 of England with a greatness of soul unparalleled in that 
 age.* What has our modern historian established to 
 excuse his own unmeasured condemnation of Montrose 
 in the face of such contemporary opinions ? In vain have 
 we searched through his labours to find proof for any one 
 of those flagrant acts upon which his delineation of Mon- 
 trose's character appears to be founded. We obtain 
 from him, indeed, a new and most extraordinary 
 portraiture of Montrose, but no new illustration of the 
 obscurer passages of his history, — not a single addi- 
 tional fact on the subject. The value of the vitupe- 
 rative censure in question is, in our humble opinion, 
 about equal to that of the contemporary abuse which 
 Mr Brodie, in his turn, might quote against our re- 
 liance upon Clarendon and De Retz, and which was 
 invariably expressed, and proved, thus: — " That cruel 
 Murtherer, and bloody excommunicated Traitor, James 
 Graham, sometime called Earl of Montrose /" The 
 Presbyterian democracy to which Montrose fell a vic- 
 tim, because he detected and opposed the designs of a 
 faction against the throne, systematically originated that 
 
 * Le Comte de Montross, Ecossois, et chef de la maison de Graham, 
 le seul homme du monde qui m'ait jamais rapelle l'idee de certains he- 
 ros que Ton ne voit plus que dans les vies de Plutarque, avoit soutenir 
 le parti du Roi d'Angleterre dans son pais, avec une grandeur d'ame qui 
 n'en avoit point de pareille en ce siecle." — Memoires du Cardinal de 
 Iietz.
 
 CHARACTERS OF MONTROSE. 5 
 
 monotonous calumny, which they made it treason to 
 contradict, or even to refuse to echo. Among the manu- 
 scripts of the Advocates' Library there is a most amus- 
 ing and not uninstructive private journal of the period, 
 entitled " Nichol's Diary," in which Montrose is never 
 named without the accompaniment of those violent and 
 opprobrious epithets. At some subsequent period, how- 
 ever, they had been partly erased by the writer himself, 
 who qualifies all the passages where they occur by this 
 explanation ; — " Such were the orders of Parliament and 
 Committee, and prohibitions of the kirks, that none 
 durst speak in favour of that nobleman, for fear of cen- 
 sure and punishment ;" — and after narrating a grievous 
 punishment inflicted by the Committee of Estates upon 
 a citizen of Glasgow, for uttering an exclamation in fa- 
 vour of Montrose whom they were proclaiming a trai- 
 tor, — " wherefore," says this simple time-server, " and 
 for eschewing the like trial and punishment, the writer 
 is forced to set down in these observations the same 
 titles, styles, and designations, vented, spoken and print- 
 ed of him, as before, by authority and power of those 
 that ruled for the time."* Now we cannot help think- 
 ing that the outrage upon History, committed in the 
 modern character of Montrose, will pass down the 
 stream of time, obtaining no more credit, with unpre- 
 judiced and reflecting minds, than if it had been penned, 
 in a factious pamphlet, by some Presbyterian dema- 
 gogue employed by the Committee of Estates. 
 
 It was not, therefore, for the sake of specially refut- 
 ing what in a great measure destroys itself, that we 
 commenced by quoting a page of Mr Brodie's History 
 of the British Empire, but because in those sentences 
 
 * This very curious historical manuscript is now in progress of be- 
 ing privately printed.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 we find gathered together, and assumed as facts, vari- 
 ous obscure points which we mean to elucidate. The 
 object of the following pages is to supply an im- 
 portant and interesting chapter of history, no less than to 
 do justice to Montrose himself, by illustrating, frequent- 
 ly from original manuscripts, those circumstances of his 
 life that have been least investigated, and most violent- 
 ly assumed to his disadvantage. More moderate and less 
 prejudiced historianshavealso assumed what Mr Brodie 
 calls the " bitterness of spirit," the stinging of " morti- 
 fication and revenge," for "real or supposed neglect 
 from the court," as the state of mind with which Mon- 
 trose joined the Covenanters. But even in this false step 
 of his early career, it may be shown that his motives 
 and feelings have been misunderstood or misrepresent- 
 ed. His separation from the Covenanters can be ac- 
 counted for by circumstances that must redeem his cha- 
 racter from those vague and passing calumnies of the 
 day, — his alleged jealousy of Argyle in council, and Les- 
 lie in the field " on the one hand," and the allurements 
 of tempting offers " on the other hand," — so undoubt- 
 ingly recorded by Mr Brodie as the sole motives of his 
 change. With the aid of original manuscripts, we 
 will unravel much of the secret history of those mys- 
 terious occurrences on which our historian, totally 
 uninformed as to the details, founds his accusation 
 against Montrose, of having " conspired by perjury 
 against the lives and honour of the individuals with 
 whom he had acted in concert." We will prove that 
 the well-known anecdote found in Lord Clarendon's ma- 
 nuscript, that Montrose made an offer to Charles I. 
 to assassinate Hamilton and Argyle, — an offer, as the 
 story goes, indignantly rejected by the Monarch, — did 
 not, and could not possibiy occur ; and that the great his-
 
 CHARACTERS OF MONTROSE. 7 
 
 torian had hastily noted a confused and improbable 
 calumny, arising out of the factious persecution of 
 Montrose and the double-dealing of traitors round 
 the throne. From the same original and unexplored 
 sources it will be demonstrated that Montrose, so far 
 from being " detected in his wickedness, and utterly 
 cast off by the whole body as bloated with iniquity," 
 was never brought to a fair trial for any one of the 
 many vituperative accusations heaped upon him by 
 the enemies of good order, justice, and mercy ; that 
 even the lawless tribunals by which he was persecuted, 
 totally failed in their attempts to convict him, down 
 to the hour when they murdered him for his loyalty ; 
 and that at any time, before his conquering sword 
 had fallen so heavy on the head of a rampant democra- 
 cy, he would have been received with open arms, and 
 loaded with their favours, had he but consented to fall 
 down and worship them. Finally, instead of the political 
 apostate and traitor destitute of either public or private 
 principle, the ruffian stained with assassinations and mas- 
 sacres, we hope to disclose, — upon unquestionable evi- 
 dence, and without attempting to conceal defects in the 
 disposition of Montrose, common to humanity, or cha- 
 racteristic of himself, — not merely a statesman too ho- 
 nest for the councils of the Covenant, and a soldier too 
 humane for its arms, but a gentleman, accomplished in 
 mind and body, his head stored with classic learning, 
 and his heart overflowing with lofty and generous 
 sentiments. 
 
 There is no life of Montrose except the elegant La- 
 tin history of his achievements written by his faithful 
 chaplain Dr George Wishart, afterwards Bishop of 
 Edinburgh. This only commences at the period when 
 our hero had detected the covenanting designs, and was
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 extricating himself from the movement party, about 
 the close of the year 1639- It is principally a history 
 of his wonderful efforts in support of the falling cause 
 of Monarchy, — an enthusiastic appeal in his favour to 
 honour and high feeling abroad, from the barbarous 
 anarchy of 6 the cloud in the north" then expanding 
 over Britain. There is a domestic circumstance, how- 
 ever, incidentally mentioned by Wishart, which of itself 
 affords some contradiction to the extraordinary theory 
 that Montrose was a monster of malevolent impulses, 
 with whom no one of Christian feelings could have 
 endured to be familiar. Immediately after the de- 
 feat at Philiphaugh, he is disclosed to us mourning 
 over the grave of his brother-in-law, Lord Napier, 
 a nobleman many years his senior, and one of the 
 most pious and irreproachable statesmen of his day* 
 Montrose, deprived of his own parent in early life, 
 was reared with parental affection by this Lord Na- 
 pier, who was one of his curators and married to his 
 elder sister. But, moreover, it was in councilship and 
 in company with this nobleman, who had also sub- 
 scribed the Covenant, that Montrose passed through 
 that revulsion of political feeling which some would 
 have us believe to have been solely caused, in his 
 breast, by an aptitude to betray, and a propensity to 
 shed blood. The passage in Wishart is remarkable, and 
 we shall quote it from a translation published two 
 years before the death of Montrose. " About this 
 time (1645,) the Lord Napier of Merchiston depart- 
 ed this life in Atholl, — a man of a most innocent life 
 and happy parts, a truly noble gentleman and chief of 
 an ancient family ; one who equalled his father and 
 
 * Archibald first Lord Napier, (eldest son of the Inventor of Loga- 
 rithms) married Lady Margaret Graham, second daughter of John fourth 
 Earl of Montrose.
 
 NAPIER MANUSCRIPTS. 9 
 
 grandfather, Napiers, (philosophers and mathemati- 
 cians, famous through all the world,) in other things, but 
 far exceeded them in his dexterity in civil business ; 
 a man as faithful unto as he was highly esteemed by King 
 James and Kins: Charles. Sometime he was Treasurer, 
 and was deservedly advanced into the rank of the high- 
 er nobility, and since these times had expressed so much 
 loyalty and love to the King, that he was a large par- 
 taker of the rewards that rebels bestow upon virtue, — 
 often imprisonment, sequestration, and plunder. Mon- 
 trose, when he was a boy, looked upon this noble man 
 as a most tender father ; when he was a youth, as a most 
 sage admonitor, when he was a man, as a most faithful 
 friend ; and now that he died was no otherwise affect- 
 ed with his death than as if it had been his father's. 
 Whose most elaborate discourses of the right of Kings, 
 and of the origin of the turmoils in Great Britain, I 
 heartily wish may sometime come to light." * 
 
 Unfortunately the compositions here alluded to are 
 no longer to be found. Among the Merchiston papers, 
 however, there are various remnants, which appear 
 to have suffered from fire as well as time, all in the 
 handwriting of this Lord Napier, and relating to 
 his connexion with the events of the reign of Charles I. 
 It is interesting to trace in some of these manuscripts 
 the peculiar and learned style, interspersed with classical 
 allusions and quotations, which, as appears from every 
 account, and indeed from the examples we have it in 
 our power to afford, characterized the compositions of 
 Montrose. We can have little doubt, on perusing Lord 
 
 * The last sentence of what is quoted ahove is, in the original Latin, 
 1647, as follows: " Quem Montisrosanus puer, quasi indulgentissinnmi 
 parentem, — adolescens monitorem consultiaaimum — adultus vero fidis- 
 siraum amicum semper coluit;ejusque mortem haudaliter quam paternam 
 tulit. Cujus de jure Regio, et tuniultuiun in Britannia origine, erudi- 
 tissime dissertationes, utinam aliquando videant lucem." P. 199.
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Napier's papers, of the source of his distinguished 
 pupil's early command of classic lore. But, what is of 
 more consequence, we derive from them much and curi- 
 ous information relative to that critical period of Mon- 
 trose's career when he was becoming sensible of his false 
 position, and of the insidious approaches of an unprinci- 
 pled faction against the throne. They afford, in the most 
 convincing manner, a complete exposure of the baseless 
 calumnies upon which Montrose, Napier, and a few 
 others were so virulently pursued by the Committee of 
 Estates, on the pretext of what was termed " the Plot," 
 in the year 1641, and out of which arose " the Inci- 
 dent" — the shadow of a shade. This plot, the unravel- 
 ling of which will open up the whole merits of Mon- 
 trose's separation from the Covenanters, we are now 
 enabled to elucidate thoroughly, by means of connect- 
 ing what remains of Lord Napier's papers with other 
 original manuscripts on the subject, which likewise have 
 been hitherto unexplored, though preserved among the 
 exhaustless stores of the Advocates' Library. The 
 only historical composition left complete by this noble- 
 man is a manuscript in his handwriting, entitled " A 
 true Relation of the injust persute against the Lord 
 Napier, written by himselfe." This does not refer 
 to " the Plot," nor to any of the transactions which fall 
 under the denomination of " the Troubles" in Scotland. 
 It relates to a private cabal at court to deprive Napier 
 of royal favour and countenance, a storm through 
 which his unflinching integrity bore him with safe- 
 ty and honour. The period embraced by this Rela- 
 tion is from the beginning of the reign in 1625, to the 
 date of the King's coronation visit to Scotland in 1633. 
 It was written soon after that event, and before the 
 period of Montrose's return from his youthful travels.
 
 NAPIER MANUSCRIPTS. 11 
 
 But the narrative is interspersed with curious anec- 
 dotes of the growth of faction, and sketches of public 
 characters, furnishing withal so apt and instructive 
 a preliminary to the factious scenes which ushered in 
 the great Rebellion, that we need offer no apology for 
 presenting our readers with the extracts from it that 
 will be found in this introductory chapter. * To these 
 we shall add, also as preliminary to the scenes in which 
 Montrose himself so conspicuously figured, some facts and 
 reflections, left in manuscript by Lord Napier, and hith- 
 erto buried in the charter-chest of his family, relating to 
 the character and conduct of Charles in his policy for the 
 government of Scotland. Such fragments, of a date prior 
 to the disorganization of that country, and when the wri- 
 ter had obtained no bias, from the subsequent insurrec- 
 tions and Rebellion, in his estimate of the King and 
 his faithless courtiers, may be of more value in guid- 
 ing us to a just appreciation of the character of that 
 unhappy monarch, of the difficulties he had to strug- 
 gle with, and of the degree of his culpability amid the 
 distractions of his reign, than pages of dissertation on 
 the subject from a Hallam or a Brodie. 
 
 Before proceeding, however, with these interesting 
 aids, to consider the seeds of the great Rebellion, — 
 quickening amid the heat of petty factions while Mon- 
 trose was in his boyhood or prosecuting his travels, 
 — we must notice, and dispose of with retributive justice, 
 another portraiture of our hero, less outrageous in ex- 
 pression, but more dangerous in effect, than Mr Brodie's. 
 The celebrated Bishop Burnet, in his History of his own 
 
 * In the year 1793 Francis seventh Lord Napier caused a very limited 
 impression of this manuscript to be printed. But it has attracted little or 
 no attention, not being accompanied with any illustration, and, indeed, 
 is known to few besides historical antiquaries.
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Time, (the whole malice of which has only of late years 
 become known to the world by the restoration of the 
 suppressed passages in the Oxford edition,) attributes 
 the ruin of the King entirely to the successes of Mon- 
 trose. " The Marquis of Montrose's success," says the 
 Bishop, " was very mischievous, and proved the ruin 
 of the King's affairs ;" and, after amusing the reader 
 with some of his fascinating gossip, he adds, — " his (the 
 King's) affairs declined totally in England that sum- 
 mer, and Lord Hollis said to me all was owing to Lord 
 Montrose's unhappy successes." This paradoxical as- 
 sertion is the finishing touch to a sketch, composed of 
 various sly and malicious notices of Montrose, by the 
 right reverend artist, in which he would persuade us 
 that the predominant features of that nobleman's mind 
 were a mischievous spirit of enterprize arising from a 
 weak superstition, and a vain affectation of heroism 
 checked and paralyzed by his persoyial timidity in 
 the field ! Well might filial piety, more tender of the 
 Bishop's reputation than he was of that of others, 
 suppress such a sentence as the following : — Mon- 
 trose " in his defeat took too much care of himself, 
 for he was never willing to expose himself too much." * 
 Was Montrose a coward ? We will believe all that 
 the Bishop tells us of his own moral courage, — how 
 he, Gilbert Burnet, stood serene amid the convulsions 
 of faction, and, whether by the side of his friends 
 perishing on the scaffold, or in the presence of frown- 
 
 * In the original edition, by the Bishop's son, this scandalous passage 
 is suppressed; but restored in that published at Oxford, (with the curi- 
 ous notes from the MS. of Lord Dartmouth, Dean Swift, and others,) 1823, 
 p. G7. Burnet says, Montrose " wasted the estates of his enemies, chiefly 
 the Humiltons," upon which Lord Dartmouth notes this remark, — "which 
 might have been an inducement for the Bishop to give so malicious an 
 account of the Marquis of Montrose's transactions."
 
 BISHOP BURNET. 13 
 
 ing and dangerous majesty, told the unwelcome truth, 
 and feared not, — before we will believe that Montrose 
 was a coward. But what, at bottom, was the Bishop ? 
 Lord Dartmouth, after perusing the portion of his His- 
 tory first published, noted on the margin, — " he was ex- 
 tremely partial, and readily took every thing for grant- 
 ed that he heard to the prejudice of those that he did 
 not like, which made him pass for a man of less truth 
 than he really was ; I do not think he designedly pub- 
 lished any thing he believed to be false." When, how- 
 ever, his lordship had perused the rest, he notes a more 
 decided opinion : — " I wrote in the first volume of this 
 book that I did not believe the Bishop designedly pub- 
 lished any thing he believed to be false ; therefore 
 think myself obliged to write in this that I am fully 
 satisfied that he published many things that he knew 
 to be so." And upon the concluding prayer of this 
 celebrated performance the noble critic remarks, — "thus 
 piously ends the most partial, malicious heap of scan- 
 dal and misrepresentation, that was ever collected for 
 the laudable design of giving a false impression of per- 
 sons and things to all future ages." This censure has 
 been thought much too severe. But from the Napier 
 charter-chest, the store that encouraged us to the task 
 of rescuing the name of Montrose from all the asper- 
 sions we have noticed, by a species of retributive jus- 
 tice there, at the same time, rises up in judgment against 
 the Bishop, a letter of his own, which we now produce in 
 corroboration of the meanest opinion that has ever been 
 conceived of this prelate. * It is sufficient to premise 
 that the letter is occasioned by that memorable crisis 
 
 * The history of this letter's appearing among the Merchiston papers 
 will he found in the note to this page, at the end of the volume.
 
 14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the Rye-house plot, when, after the suicide of Essex, 
 Lord Russell is under condemnation, and on the eve of 
 ascending the scaffold. It is addressed, " For John Bris- 
 bane, Esquire," (Secretary of the Admiralty,) and with- 
 in the cover there is written, — 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I have writ the inclosed paper with as much order 
 as the confusion I am under can allow. I leave it to 
 you to shew it to my Lord Halifax, or the King, as you 
 think fit, only I beg you will do it as soon as may be, 
 that incase my Lord Russel sends for me, the K'mgmay 
 not be provoked against me by that. So, Dear Sir, adieu. 
 
 " Memorandum for Mr Brisbane. 
 " To let my L. Privy Seal know that out of respect 
 to him, I doe not come to him.* That I look on it as 
 a great favour, that when so many houses were searched 
 mine was not, in which tho' nothing could have been 
 found, yet it would have marked me as a suspected per- 
 son. That I never was in my whole life under so ter- 
 rible a surprise and so deep a melancholy f as the dis- 
 inall things these last two or three days has brought 
 forth spreads over my mind \% for God knows I never 
 so much as suspected any such thing ; all I fear'd was 
 only some rising if the King should happen to die ; and 
 that I only collected out of the obvious things that every 
 
 * Lord Halifax. If Burnet, as he tells us in his History, was in the 
 habit, before and after the date of this letter, of bearding in their dens 
 both the King and the heir presumptive, why so ceremonious with the 
 Privy Seal ? 
 
 f " Terrible-a-surprise-and-so-deep-a-melancholy." Had Swift seen 
 this letter he would have noted that here was a Scotch word signifying 
 fright. 
 
 X Here Swift would have bad his usual fling at the Bishop's style — 
 " dark nonsense" — " Scotch trash."
 
 BISHOP BURNET. 15 
 
 body sees as well as I doe* and to prevent that took 
 more pains than perhaps any man in England did,f in 
 particular with my unfortunate friends, to let them see 
 that nothing brought in Popery so fast in Q. Marie's 
 days as the business of L. Jane Grey, which gave it a 
 greater advance in the first moneth of that reigne than 
 otherwise it is likely it would have made during her 
 whole life. So that I had not the least suspition of 
 this matter ; yet if my Lord Russell calls for my at- 
 tendance now, / cannot decline it,\ but I shall doe my 
 duty with that fidelity as if any Privy-Counsellour were 
 to overhear all that shall passe between us. 
 
 " I am upon this occasion positively resolved never to 
 have any thing to doe more with men of business, par- 
 ticularly with any in opposition to the Court, but will 
 divide the rest of my life between my function and a 
 very few friends, and my laboratory ; and upon this 
 I passe my word and faith to you, and that being given 
 under my hand to you, I doe not doubt but you will 
 make the like engagements in my name to the King ; 
 and I hope my L. Privy Seal will take occasion to doe 
 
 * " Well said, Bishop," Swift would have exclaimed. It is really cu- 
 rious to compare this solemn declaration of his perfect ignorance of the 
 existence of a conspiracy with the History of his own Time, many pas- 
 sages of which prove that he was particularly cognisant of a dark re- 
 volutionary scheme, though to what extent is uncertain. Indeed, his most 
 intimate friends were the leading conspirators. 
 
 f " Puppy," Swift would have said. 
 
 J Yet by his History we are led to believe that Burnet's attend- 
 ance on Lord Russell in his last moments was a determined act of mag- 
 nanimous friendship. Speaking of his cousin Baillie of Jerviswood, 
 who was imprisoned at the same time, he says, — " I also, at his de- 
 sire, sent him books for his entertainment, for which I was threatened 
 with a prison. I said I was his nearest kinsman in the place, and this 
 was only to do as I would be done by. From what I found among the 
 Scots, I quieted the fears of Lord Russell's friends." The Bishop had 
 enough to do, it would seem, to quiet his own fears.
 
 16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the like, for I think he will believe me.* I ask nor 
 expect nothing but only to stand clear in the King's 
 thoughts ; for preferment, I am resolved against it, 
 tho 1 I could obtain it ; f but I beg not to be more 
 under hard thoughts, especially since in all this disco- 
 very there has not been so much occasion to name me 
 as to give a rise for a search, and the friendship I had 
 with these two,:): and their confidence in me in all other 
 things, may show that they know I \vas not to be spoke 
 to in any thing against my duty to the King.\ I doe 
 beg of you that no discourse may be made of this, for 
 it would look like a sneaking for somewhat, and you in 
 particular know how farre that is from my heart ; 
 
 * How well the Bishop (no Bishop then) kept his word ! Here Swift 
 would have applied the epithets by which he loved to designate Burnet 
 • — " Scotch dog, rogue, canting puppy, treacherous villain." 
 
 f " Well, said Bishop." Swift. 
 
 % Essex and Russell. 
 
 § But see the History of his own Time ! " Lord Essex, being in 
 the country, I went to him to warn him of the danger I feared Lord 
 Russel might be brought into by his conversation with my country- 
 men. He diverted me from all my apprehensions, and told me I might 
 depend on it Lord Russel would be in nothing without acquainting him, 
 and he seemed to agree entirely with me that a rising in the state in which 
 things were then would be fatal. I always said that when the root of the 
 constitution was struck at to be overturned, then I thought subjects might 
 defend themselves ; but I thought jealousies and fears, and particular 
 acts of injustice could not warrant this. He did agree with me in this ; 
 he thought the obligation between prince and subject was so equally mu- 
 tual, that, upon a breach on the one side, the other was free ; but though 
 he thought the late injustice in London, and the end that was driven at 
 by it, did set them at liberty to look to themselves, yet he confessed 
 things were not ripe enough yet, and that an ill-laid, and ill-managed, ris- 
 ing would be our ruin. I was then newly come from writing my History 
 of the Reformation, and did so evidently see that the struggle for Lady 
 Jane Gray, and Wyat's rising, was that which threw the nation so quick- 
 ly into Popery after King Edward's days, that I was now very appre- 
 hensive of this ; besides that I thought it was yet unlawful." — Vol. ii. 
 p. 156. It appears from this and other passages of his History that Bur- 
 net was consulted. 
 
 3
 
 BISHOP BURNET. 17 
 
 therefore I need not beg of you, nor of my Lord Hali- 
 fax, to judge aright of this message ; but if you can 
 make the King think well of it, and say nothing of it, 
 it will be the greatest kyndnes you can possibly doe me. 
 I would have done this sooner, but it might have lookt 
 like fear or guilt, so I forbore hitherto, but now I 
 thought it fit to doe it. I choose rather to write it 
 than say it, both that you might have it under my hand, 
 that you may see how sincere I am in it, as also because 
 I am now so overcharged with melancholy that I can 
 scarce endure any company, and for two nights have 
 not been able to sleep an hour. One thing you may, as 
 you think fit, tell the King, that tho' I am too incon- 
 siderable to think I can ever serve him while I am alive, 
 yet I hope I shall be able to doe it to some purpose after 
 I am dead; this you understand, and I will doe it with 
 %eal ;* so, my dear friend, pity your poor melancholy 
 friend, who was never in his whole life under so deep 
 an affliction, for I think I shall never enjoy myselfe 
 after it, and God knows death would be now very well- 
 come to me ;f doe not come near me for some time, for 
 I cannot bear any company, only I goe oft to my Lady 
 Essex and weep with her ; and indeed the King's car- 
 riage to her has been so great and worthy, that it can 
 never be too much admired, and I am sure, if ever I 
 live to finish what you know I am about, it and all 
 the other good things I can think of shall not want all 
 
 * This and the concluding paragraph of the letter alludes to the His- 
 tory of his own Time, which he was then weaving. When, however, 
 that posthumous work saw the light, there appeared the most villanous 
 character of Charles II. it was possible to draw. But the character of 
 Charles I., given in that work, is the most disgraceful to Burnet; Swift 
 notes upon it, " not one good quality named !" 
 
 f There were, however, two wealthy wives and a bishopric, yet in 
 store for our " poor melancholy friend !" 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the light I can give them. Adieu, my dear friend, 
 and keep this as a witnesse against me if I ever fail in 
 the performance of it. I am, you know, with all the 
 zeal and fidelity possible, your most faithful and most 
 humble Servant," 
 
 " Sunday Morning, " G BURNET." 
 
 MthJitly 1683." 
 
 Burnet's abject letter did not succeed. He was dis- 
 graced, and obliged to go abroad. He became the most 
 active agent of the Revolution, and obtained a mitre 
 from King William. Lord Dartmouth says, " Mr Se- 
 cretary Johnston, who was his intimate friend and near 
 relation, told me, that, after a debate in the House of 
 Lords, he (Burnet) usually went home, and altered 
 every body's character, as they had pleased or displeased 
 him that day." This remark has been considered ca- 
 lumnious, but something worse is proved against Bur- 
 net by his own letter. In his Life, prefixed to the His- 
 tory of his own Time, it is said, " His behaviour at the 
 trial of the Lord Russell, his attendance on him in prison, 
 and afterwards upon the scaffold, the examination he un- 
 derwent before the council, in relation to that Lord's 
 dying speech, and the boldness with which he there 
 undertook to vindicate his memory, as also the indig- 
 nation the court expressed against him upon that occa- 
 sion, are all fully set forth in the history." But it is im- 
 possible to credit that history, in such matters, after 
 reading the above letter, which, be it observed, was to 
 be made known to the King. Where had Burnet 
 miraculously found the courage which, as the danger 
 thickened around him, made him so collected and dar- 
 ing, before that very King and his Council, as to en- 
 
 3
 
 BISHOP BURNET. 19 
 
 rage them all? " Lord Halifax (he says) sent me 
 word that the Duke looked on my reading the journal 
 (before the Council) as a studied thing, to make a pane- 
 gyric on Lord Russell's memory." Lord Halifax, for 
 whom the letter had been written from our " poor me- 
 lancholy friend" ! Credat Jadceus, And there is an- 
 other story of which the above letter utterly destroys 
 the credibility. Burnet, in his History, narrates how 
 he took occasion to write what he calls " a very plain 
 letter to the King. I set before him his past life, 
 and the effects it had on the nation, with the judg- 
 ments of God that lay on him, which was but a small 
 part of the punishment that he might look for ;" &c. — 
 a letter, in short, of such coarse and fool-hardy philippic 
 as was never written, by subject to his sovereign, before 
 or since. That Burnet ever penned such a letter, at 
 least with the intention of sending it to the King, was 
 scarcely to be believed ; that he actually sent it was in- 
 credible ; but after perusing what he meant for the 
 King's ear in 1683, we have little hesitation in saying 
 that his former letter was impossible* 
 
 Here, then, is Burnet Redivivus, and now the Bishop 
 may call Montrose a coward, or what he likes, and per- 
 
 * Burnet's son, in the Life of the Bishop prefixed to the History, 
 gives the letter, mentioned in that history, at full length. It is dated 
 29th January, 16H> The Bishop's own account of it will he found 
 under the year 1681. It is remarkahle that Burnet says, " I told the 
 King, in the letter, that I hoped the reflections on what had hefallen his 
 father on the 30th of January might move him to consider these things 
 more carefully." But this coarse and insolent allusion to the murder 
 of Charles I. is not to be found in the letter itself, produced by the Bi- 
 shop's son. That editor also notes, — " the original of this letter is now in 
 the editor's hand, wrote by the Bishop, with a memorandum how it was 
 delivered, and when and how it was received." Surely this does not 
 mean the original sent to the King, for Burnet, in his narrative of the 
 matter, says that the King threw it into the fire after reading it.
 
 20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 suade the world of his own superemiiient moral cou- 
 rage, if he can. For our part, after reading the above 
 letter, we do not believe one malicious word of what Bur- 
 net has uttered, in the History of his own Time, against 
 Charles I. and Montrose, — and he has therein said nothing 
 about them that is not malicious. We do not believe that 
 the apology for Hamilton, which he has given to the 
 world in the Memoirs of that house, is by any means so 
 truthful an exposition of the character of that mysterious 
 Marquis, as the letters and papers entrusted to the Bi- 
 shop, for the purpose of compiling the Memoirs, enabled 
 him to give. We feel thoroughly persuaded that Bishop 
 Burnet in that work, as well as in the History of his 
 own Time, reversed the golden maxim of Cicero, ne 
 quid falsi dicer e audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. The 
 marvellous of himself,* and the malicious of others, we 
 henceforth altogether disbelieve when resting on the 
 sole authority of the Bishop's historical record, and will 
 never listen to when retailed traditionally and at se- 
 cond-hand from him.f Finally, we do believe the 
 truth of that anecdote, that the Bishop, " after a debate 
 
 * Ex. gr. Burnet tells not a very credible story of his earliest inter- 
 views with Charles II. He says the King read in his presence part of 
 the Memoirs of the Hamiltons in MS. — was much pleased with them, 
 and more with the author ; and, further, that, " in a long private audience, 
 that lasted above an hour, I took all the freedom with him that I thought 
 became my profession." Burnet goes on to tell very minutely what the 
 King said to him, and what he said to the King, and describes a scene 
 in which never King was bearded by a bolder subject. Then follows 
 the description of another private scene with the Duke of York, whom 
 he also lectures most severely. 
 
 f Ex. gr. The cock-and-bull story (said to have been derived from 
 Burnet's conversation at a dinner party) of Charles I. having ordered 
 the secret execution of Loudon, when in the Tower for the letter to the 
 King of France, and how Hamilton saved him. See this story adopted 
 by Mr Brodie, Vol. ii. p. 515 — and well sifted and exposed by Mr D' Israeli 
 in his Commentaries, Vol. iv. p. 359. 
 
 4
 
 SCOTCH FACTION. 21 
 
 in the House of Lords, usually went home, and altered 
 every body's character as they had pleased or displeased 
 him that day," — and that he kept weaving in secret, 
 till he died, this chronicle of his times, not to enlight- 
 en posterity, or for the cause of truth, but as a means 
 of indulging in safety his own interested or malicious 
 feelings towards the individuals that pleased or offend- 
 ed him. So much for Bishop Burnet, whose authori- 
 ty must henceforth always be received cum nota. 
 
 It was a Scotch faction that, in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, when paving the way to such enormities as the 
 murders of Charles I. and Montrose, had wielded the 
 destinies and decided the fate of England. The savage 
 contempt for royal authority, the arts of popular agi- 
 tation, the spirit of persecution, that instantly sprung up 
 to clear the path for democracy, these characteristics of 
 the tumults and insurrection of Scotland in the years 
 1637, 1638, and 1639, all extended to England, where 
 the puritanical faction were ready to adopt the lessons, 
 and eager to profit by the active co-operation of instruc- 
 tors they otherwise despised. Clothed with the lan- 
 guage of loyalty and patriotism, and advancing under 
 cover of " Religion and Liberties," the determined be- 
 siegers of monarchical government, worked up from 
 Scotland to the throne itself. " We declare before God 
 and man," said the impious contrivers of the Covenant, 
 " we declare before God and man, that we have no in- 
 tention nor desire to attempt any thing that may turn 
 to the dishonour of God, or to the diminution of the 
 King's greatness and authority" * — and forthwith the 
 very fanatic who framed that sentence appears in England 
 
 1 The Covenanl of 1638,
 
 22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as the prime minister of the Covenant, collecting round 
 the devoted monarch the toils of the great Rebellion — 
 scenting, not afar off, his blood in the blood of Straf- 
 ford, and howling like a savage, for the rewards that 
 were to satiate the malice and the avarice of Scotland.* 
 The blood of Strafford and of Laud, the Genevean ban- 
 ner planted in England, the murder of the King, the 
 domination of a usurper, were the fruits of the Cove- 
 nant. 
 
 Yet how mean is the origin of that revolutionary 
 faction in Scotland, and how fallacious those views of 
 it that represent its leaders in bright relief, of holy 
 and patriotic zeal, against the tyrannical enormities 
 of the monarch ! Let us examine the seeds from 
 which the Scottish commotions sprung into that re- 
 volution which has been called " our second and glo- 
 rious Reformation in 1638, when this church was again 
 settled upon her own base, and the rights she claimed 
 from the time of the Reformation were restored, so that 
 she became fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and ter- 
 rible as an army with banners." f Was Charles I. real- 
 ly an oppressor amid religiously and patriotically dis- 
 posed chiefs of Scotland ? Must we indeed concede to 
 the Historiographer for Scotland that the monarch was 
 worthy of the death he died ?| And will we discover, in the 
 impenetrable mists of faction that surrounded his throne 
 
 * Archibald Johnston, of whom anon. 
 
 f Wodrow's Introduction, p. 2. This historian of the Church of Scot- 
 land adds, somewhat in the style of the Rev. Robert Baillie's contra- 
 dictory eulogies, — " it is hard to manage a full cup, and I shall not take 
 upon me to defend every step in that happy period."— That task was re- 
 served for Mr Brodie, who has fearlessly fulfilled it. 
 
 X " We differ from Mr Brodie (says the Edinburgh Review of March 
 1834,) as to many of the measures of the Parliament during the war — 
 as to the necessity of the King's death, and the merits of the common- 
 wealth and the long Parliament."
 
 SCOTCH FACTION. 23 
 
 from the first moment of his reign, and the abandoned 
 treachery that dogged his person through life, no ex- 
 cuse for the worst steps of his policy in the govern- 
 ment of Scotland ? 
 
 " King James being dead (says Lord Napier) and his 
 son King Charles succeeding to him in his kingdom, 
 and to his virtues too, — although with some want of ex- 
 perience, which is only got with time, all the turbulent 
 and discontented humours of the former time were up, 
 as is usual in these great transitions, and plied his Ma- 
 jesty incessantly with accusations, personal assertions, 
 new projects, and informations of abuses. And truly there 
 wanted not matter, and their endeavours had deserved 
 praise, if spleen to the persons of men, and their own 
 private interest, had not given life and motion to their 
 proceedings, rather than the service of the King and the 
 good of the state. Then was there nothing but factions, 
 and factious consultations, of the one, to hold that place 
 and power they possessed before, — of the other, to wrest 
 it out of their hands, and to invest themselves ; and no 
 dream or phantasy of innovation came in any body's 
 head, but presently he durst vent it to the King ; and 
 still the most ignorant were boldest. Neither wanted 
 there some honest and wise men who gave their advice 
 out of mere affection to his Majesty and the public ; but 
 wanting that bold forwardness, and factious assistance, 
 which the other had in prosecuting of their private ends, 
 no great hold was taken of them."* 
 
 Charles, not yet crowned King of Scotland, received 
 sundry mysterious hints, that, if he did not conduct 
 
 * Lord Napier's MS. Relation. See Note at the end of the volume, 
 for an account of this nobleman's connexion with the court.
 
 24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 himself in a manner that seemed fully to recognize the 
 Independency of his ancient kingdom, the crown might 
 be bestowed somewhere else ; and most anxious was 
 Charles to avoid the imputation of intending to " re- 
 duce Scotland to a province." Thus the affairs of that 
 country became to him a separate burden of a difficult 
 and irksome nature- For his privy-council of England 
 were not suffered to be cognisant of the affairs of the 
 other kingdom, which the King managed, through 
 the reports of his privy-council there, with the aid 
 (if aid it could be called) of his Scotch favourites, 
 or such of the council as he summoned from Scotland 
 for special consultation. Indeed at this time there ap- 
 peared to be no connexion or sympathy betwixt the 
 kingdoms. The English nation, we are informed by 
 Clarendon, knew and cared less about Scotland than 
 they did about Poland or Germany ; — " no man ever in- 
 quired what was doing in Scotland, nor had that king- 
 dom a place or mention in one page of any Gazette." 
 But it was not the privilege of Charles to be able to 
 forget his ancient independent kingdom ; and certainly 
 his attention to the affairs of Scotland was kept alive 
 in a manner most disagreeable to himself, and most dis- 
 creditable to his native country. Lord Napier, a Privy- 
 councillor, and Treasurer-Depute, under the Earl of 
 Mar, who held the white staff, mentions in his Rela- 
 tion, that Mar was not free from that storm of faction, 
 the great object of which was to wrest place and power 
 from each other, " but was charged home by his ene- 
 mies with some abuses, in the King's presence, which 
 they were not well able to make appear ; therefore, there 
 was a gentleman directed to me, desiring me to give 
 them intelligence upon what points my Lord might be 
 charged ; with assurance from them that it should never
 
 SCOTCH FACTION, 25 
 
 be known , and before I should declare any thing in that 
 kind, I should have assurance, from the King's own 
 mouth, and my Lord of Buckingham, of the white staff! 
 This I flatly refused, as an office unworthy of a gentle- 
 man, and told him that I disdained any honour that 
 should be acquired by so dishonourable means against a 
 man that was in terms of outward friendship with me, al- 
 though I knew he had no friendly intentions towards me ; 
 but I was evil requited, and it maybe because this motion 
 made to me, and my refusal, came never to his ears." 
 The nobleman who could make such a reply in those 
 days was much too honest to be suffered to hold a place 
 in the King's affections, or a seat in Scottish councils ; 
 and, accordingly, strenuous exertions were made to ruin 
 Lord Napier, who had offended in other respects. " Of 
 the commission of the tithes (he says) I had the honour 
 to be one, and according to my duty and power did ad- 
 vance his Majesty's just and gracious purpose. This, 
 and my integrity in the King's father's time, together 
 with the title of Lord, his Majesty's first favour in that 
 kind to a Scottish man, and a lease of Orkney bestow- 
 ed upon me, did so much offend the chief statesmen, 
 who were the greatest teind-masters also, and, by a 
 great incongruity* members of this commission, that in 
 their private meetings they concluded my overthrow ; 
 whereof I got private intelligence, but did no whit 
 swerve from my duty for that. They set on Mr David 
 Fullarton, a Receiver, a young man of little wit, to dis- 
 perse calumnies against me in the court, to try how they 
 would be received or seconded ; whom I brought before 
 
 * From Charles himself we learn that it was with the view of recon- 
 ciling all parties, in his henevolent design, that he did not omit the Lords 
 of the erections, and laick patrons, in the commission of surrenders. 
 —Lmgc Declaration.
 
 26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the King, in presence of the Lords of Exchequer, and 
 whose answers were so poor, and excuses so frivolous, 
 
 as made even those present, who set him on, to be 
 ashamed." 
 
 The absence of every principle of honour and hones- 
 ty, among the leading Scotch factionists who beset the 
 King, is further illustrated by the following very curi- 
 ous scene, and by-play of Scottish councils in England, 
 which cannot be given more graphically than in Lord 
 Napier's own words : " Sir Alexander Strachan and 
 some others, his partners, (of whom the Secretary* was 
 one, for nothing passed whereon he was not a sharer, 
 and then nothing was so hurtful to the King or coun- 
 try which was not delivered under the title of good ser- 
 vice,) had projected to the King great profit to arise out 
 of the wards of marriage and nonentries, which, being 
 most pernicious to his majesty and the best of his sub- 
 jects, I mainly opposed here in Scotland, and with much 
 ado got the passing of it delayed (so strongly had they 
 made their party in our exchequer) till it should be 
 debated before the King, who had sent for all his offi- 
 cial's to court, to have their opinion concerning the 
 business of the tithes. These and such like matters 
 increased their spleen against me, who still upon all oc- 
 
 • This was Sir William Alexander of Menstrie, created Earl of Stirling 
 by Charles I., and celebrated both as a poet and a courtier. " He travelled 
 through Italy and France with his Lord superior the Earl of Argyle, 
 where he attained to the French and Italian tongues. He got great 
 things from his Majesty, as especially a liberty to create a hundred Scots- 
 men knights-baronet, (of Nova Scotia,) from every one of whom he got 
 L. 200 Sterling, or thereby ; a liberty to coin base money, far under the 
 value of the weight of copper, which brought great prejudice to the 
 kingdom ; at which time he built his great lodging in Stirling, and put 
 on the gate thereof Per mare, per terras, which a merry man changed, 
 per metre, per turners, meaning that he had attained to his estate by 
 poesy and that gift of base money." — Scot of Scotstarvef s Manuscript, 
 Advocates' Library.
 
 SCOTCH FACTION. 27 
 
 casions continued my wonted freedom to give advice 
 without respect of any thing else but the public good. 
 The most part of my enemies being present at court, 
 fell a consulting, and plotting my overthrow, which 
 from this time forth they so eagerly prosecuted, that 
 they forgot conscience, honour, their own qualities, and 
 the places they possessed. And this way they went to 
 work. They made Sir Alexander Strachan waken his 
 project for the wards, and procure from the King a 
 hearing of the exchequer, knowing well that I would 
 oppose it, to incense him (Strachan) against me, and to 
 move him to be my accuser upon their former informa- 
 tion ; a man, as much as I, hated by them, especially by 
 the chancellor,* Avhom he had accused the year before of 
 bribery, to his face before the King, which he pressed so 
 hard upon him, that, to save his reputation and his 
 place, James Douglas, deputy-secretary, — a man religi- 
 ous and honest, but too, too simple, who hardly could 
 be induced to take the ordinary benefit of his place, — was 
 persuaded to take the fault upon him, and thereby lost 
 his place. Sir Alexander perceiving their drift and 
 spleen against me, made his advantage of it, promising, 
 if he might have a commission to bring in concealments 
 and omissions of the treasury, (which he afterwards 
 got to his great profit,) he should have matter enough 
 against me, and would charge me. When the exche- 
 quer met, I opposed Sir Alexander's project for the 
 wards, and found no resistance, but excusing himself, 
 that he thought it was for the good of the King and 
 benefit of his subjects, and if it were found not so, he 
 would willingly relinquish his suit, but said withal (ac- 
 cording to the plot) that the King's profit was neglected 
 by the official's, and that he would give twenty thousand 
 
 * Kinnoul, of whom afterwards.
 
 28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pounds for the omissions of the treasury, if he might 
 have commission to bring them in ; as indeed there was 
 something in that kind through no fault of mine. I 
 answered, that there were some omissions, which was 
 not altogether my Lord treasurer's fault or mine, but 
 partly theirs who served before us, and that we intend- 
 ed to bring them in ; neither was there such perfection 
 among men to omit nothing ; and for my part, I would 
 not only not oppose him, but be a means to move the 
 King to grant him commission, and accept the condi- 
 tion ; but that he had not done amiss to have inform- 
 ed the official's of these concealments, who would have 
 had a care to see his pains recompensed ; whereas now 
 this offer of his was of the nature of an accusation and 
 imputation to us. Those who were of the party, fear- 
 ing that I would hold him to his word, and engage him, 
 brought him off with this motion, that he should have 
 the commission, and of what should be thereby brought 
 in, the King to have the one-half, and Sir Alexander 
 the other ; to which they all assented but myself, (who 
 now began to smell the drift of it,) and the Bishop of 
 Ross, * whose opinion was, that the officiars should 
 bring in these omissions, and Sir Alexander be consi- 
 dered for the discovery. The report was made to the 
 King, by the chancellor and secretary, that Sir Alex- 
 ander's project of the wards was disallowed, but that 
 he had undertaken to bring into his Majesty's great 
 profit out of concealments, an excellent piece of service, 
 and that none of the number was against it but I, 
 for my own ends. The commission was drawn up in 
 
 * Patrick Lindsay, Bishop of Ross from 1613 to 1633, when he was 
 translated to the Archiepiscopal see of Glasgow. He fell a victim to 
 covenanting] persecution, and died in lGM, under the excommunication 
 of the kirk.
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 29 
 
 great haste, and signed, and was to be sent down to 
 Scotland to be subscribed by the treasurer, and past 
 the seals, whereof they were assured since it tended to 
 my hurt. How soon I understood the same, I told his 
 Majesty that the commission was sending away, and I 
 had never seen it, that ofttimes specious pretexts were 
 made for his benefit, and nothing intended but the gain 
 of the projectors. Whereupon the King called to him 
 Mr Mauld, commanding the secretary by him to let 
 me peruse the commission before it went, which Mr 
 Mauld did, but for all that I could never come to see 
 it. But a meeting being for the tithes before the King, 
 they brought in mention of that commission. The 
 chancellor said, it was a great piece of service, and the 
 gentleman had deserved well. I answered, that will be 
 best known after the performance ; for me, I thought it 
 might prove so too, but that I thought fit that the word 
 concealments might be defined and explained ; for the 
 King's tenants in some ill years were not able to pay 
 (it may be) at the precise time, yet the chamberlains 
 would bring them in at another time when the tenants 
 were able. If these, or of the like nature which were 
 known and in charge in exchequer, were called con- 
 cealments or omissions, the King should lose the half 
 of that rent, and give fees unnecessarily for that part of 
 his rent to chamberlains and stewards. ' But, Sir,' said 
 I, 'whatever is in that commission is unknown to me, 
 for I never yet saw it, not-the-less of your Majesty's 
 command.' At which the King was angry, and looked 
 sternly upon the secretary. But the chancellor, — whose 
 manner was to interrupt all men, when he was dispos- 
 ed to speak, and the King too, — did fall upon aggravat- 
 ing these omissions so far that the Marquis of Hamil- 
 ton said, —
 
 30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Hamilton. " My Lord, how can there be such 
 neglect as you speak of, since I know they had almost 
 put my mother * to the horn for forty shillings Scots ? 
 
 " Whereat the King smiled, and, rising up, said to 
 Sir Alexander Strachan, — 
 
 The King. " You have said to me that there are 
 many omissions and faults, and that you will do me good 
 service. You shall have the commission, but, if you be 
 not as good as your word, I shall find a fault somewhere. 
 
 " All this while my Lord Erskine, f the treasurer's 
 son, stood by mute, as if the matter had no way con- 
 cerned his father, for the chancellor had blocked up his 
 mouth, by a promise that not his father, but I only 
 should be charged with these omissions, and that he 
 should be free from any such imputation ; which he 
 performed, saying he was a nobleman now in age, and 
 could not take care of the King's affairs, nor his own, 
 but all was my fault, excusing him so, to his disadvan- 
 tage, from particular omission, by disabling him of the 
 care of all. When we came from the King, the chan- 
 cellor told Sir William Balfour^: how much he had been 
 
 * His mother, a daughter of the Earl of Glencairn, was the celebrat- 
 ed leader of the female church-militant of Scotland, who commenced 
 the tumults against the Service Book. 
 
 f John Lord Erskine, afterwards eighth Earl of Mar. When this 
 was written Lord Napier knew not the interesting ties that were to 
 unite the families. Lady Elizabeth Erskine, daughter of this Earl, be- 
 came the wife of Napier's eldest son, who was the nephew of Montrose, 
 and his dearest companion in arms, — and this lady it was for whom the 
 heart of Montrose was stolen (from under the gibbet where his trunk was 
 buried,) that she might preserve it embalmed. 
 
 % The same, probably, upon whom Charles conferred the Lieutenancy 
 of the Tower. " Sir William Balfour took an early part with the Parlia- 
 ment, zealously rendered the captivity of Strafford inexorably severe, 
 and resisted the most considerable bribe ever offered to a governor to 
 connive at the escape of a state prisoner. Having thus manifested him- 
 self to be worthy of the confidence of the party, he became one of their 
 ablest commanders, when he had the satisfaction of encountering his 
 royal master in arms." — V Israeli.
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 31 
 
 my friend, although I had moved the King to take Ork- 
 ney from him to get a lease of it myself. I desired Sir 
 William to tell him that he had exprest himself my 
 enemy, and that I knew nothing of Orkney till he told 
 it me himself. And withall tell him (said I) that I 
 was never so ill a servant to my master, as to advise 
 him to give thirteen thousand pounds Sterling for re- 
 nouncing his grant of Orkney, for the which he would 
 gladly have taken five thousand pounds Sterling, as they 
 can tell whom he employed to procure it. 
 
 " After this my persecutors changed their mind, and 
 thinking it fit that my name should be to the commis- 
 sion, who opposed it, to make it the more effectual 
 against myself, the secretary delivered me a command 
 from the King to subscribe it. To which I replyed, 
 that is contrary to the commission of exchequer, which 
 ordains us to subscribe all signatours judicially, but if 
 he would say before witnesses that his majesty com- 
 manded me to subscribe it in particular, I would obey ; 
 but the next day he brought me a warrant under the 
 King's hand to subscribe. I finding that my opposi- 
 tion had drawn upon me no small suspicion of fear and 
 guiltiness, having received this warrant, did subscribe 
 cheerfully and willingly, defying Sir Alexander and all 
 the world to charge me with any fault or malversation 
 in my office, in presence of the Bishop of Ross, Sir Alex- 
 ander himself, and divers others. This confidence and 
 alacrity did make the chancellor fear that the commis- 
 sion would not work the effect against me that he wish- 
 ed ; and then he began to peruse it more seriously, 
 and finding that himself might come within the com- 
 pass of it, being a collector of taxation, did delay his 
 subscription, finding some faults and informalities in it, 
 and being further pressed, did pretend the gout in his
 
 32 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 handy which was in his Jeet, not subscribing twenty 
 days after me, till the Earl of Nithisdale, Sir Alexander's 
 friend and none of his, told his Majesty that the chan- 
 cellor only did hinder the service himself had so 
 much commended in his presence. He then subscribed 
 it. But Sir Alexander could not have way for it through 
 the seals till he gave assurance to the chancellor and 
 treasurer, to meddle with nothing whereinto they had 
 interest. When it was past the seals they pressed him 
 to accuse me. He told them he had made diligent search 
 of the registers, and could find no matter ; if any of them 
 would inform him against me, and set their hands to 
 the information, he would accuse me as he promised : 
 otherwise to misinform the King without a warrant, 
 and succumb in the probation, he thought it neither the 
 part of a wise nor honest man. They being disappoint- 
 ed of the pleasure they conceived, to see the one of us 
 ruin the other, whom they equally hated, were so far 
 incensed against him, that at a convention of the estates, 
 which was shortly thereafter, they stirred up some of 
 the estates to complain upon him for purchasing a com- 
 mission to execute penal statutes, and made him so 
 odious that he was forced to give it over ; yet, by the 
 help of his good friends, he got good satisfaction from 
 his Majesty." 
 
 Lord Napier records another curious anecdote of the 
 dishonesty of Scotch factionists, and of the effront- 
 ery with which they harassed and deceived the King. 
 ft His Majesty (he says) — being possessed that the lease 
 of Orkney was given to me upon trust, not only to pay 
 the whole rent to the King, but also all benefit that 
 should accress to me as taksman, — while I was at court, 
 had given command to one {whom, I do not know, nor 
 could ever learn, although I used extraordinary impor-
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 33 
 
 tunity with the King for that purpose,) to repare to me, 
 and will me, in his Majesty's name, to surrender the 
 lease of Orkney to the King. The party never came 
 to me, nor told any hotly else that he had such commis- 
 sion from his Majesty to me. But after I had kissed 
 his Majesty's hand, and taken horse for Scotland, he 
 framed this answer to the King, as from me, that I 
 would stand out in law against his Majesty, and that 
 in justice the King could not take the lease from me. 
 How soon I knew the cause of his Majesty's displeasure 
 against me, I sent a power to Sir William Balfour to 
 make the surrender, to whom the King expressed his 
 anger against me in great measure. When I came up 
 I found his countenance altered, and therefore desired 
 the Marquis of Hamilton to procure me access and 
 hearing, which for a long time he could not obtain, be- 
 cause (said the King) ' he will not surrender his lease of 
 Orkney to me.' But the Marquis affirmed that I was 
 come up for that purpose, which the King would not 
 believe, so strongly was he possessed of the contrary, 
 and would not admit me till I surrendered. Where- 
 upon the secretary was commanded to draw up a sur- 
 render. But he, loath that that way should be made 
 open to me to recover the King's favour, excusing him- 
 self, alleged the surrender must be legal, and drawn up 
 by the King's Advocate, who sent up one which he 
 knew I would never agree to, for by it I was only to 
 surrender 7000 marks, payable to me by my subtaxs- 
 man, and remain obliged to pay yearly 45,000 marks 
 to Nithisdale, to whom the King had given the duty of 
 Orkney. This by all men was thought so unreason- 
 able, that the secretary was forced to draw up a total 
 surrender, as well of the duty, as of that the subtaxs- 
 man was to pay me, and that (in express terms) for all 
 vol. i. c
 
 34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 times to come, to which I put to my hand. This 7000 
 marks was given to Annandale,* who, not content there- 
 with, foisted into his grant a term's duty of the same 
 before my surrender. Then did they begin their calum- 
 nies afresh, without regard of truth or honour ! And to 
 countenance the matter the better, the Lord Treasurer 
 was sent for by them, (a man of great age, and lame 
 of his leg, and went upon crutches,) assuring him that 
 they had prepared the King so, and given him such im- 
 pressions of me, that there needed no more but his pre- 
 sence to turn me out. Mar was not slow to undertake 
 such a journey to that end, and in the midst of his 
 journey got so shrewd a fall, that for many days he was 
 not -able to stir; yet at last went forward, so impla- 
 cable and malicious he was of nature. In the meantime 
 all the terrors of the world were given me, — that the 
 King would send me home to be tried where my ene- 
 mies were to be my judges, — that I should not only 
 want my fees, pension, and place, but the King's fa- 
 vour, and my own honour also, — and, as a delinquent 
 and criminal, be warded in the Castle of Edinburgh, 
 and deeply fined ! Neither did they stick to lay this im- 
 putation on the King's justice, that the King was resolv- 
 ed to dispossess me of that place, and a fault must be 
 found, though there were none, to excuse the King in 
 that point. Upon no condition could I be induced to 
 hear so much as an offer, till my reputation were clean- 
 sed from all their foul aspersions." Napier adds, that 
 Sir James Baillie left no means untried to obtain the 
 place of treasurer-depute, and made interest with Lord 
 Loudon, (here characterized as " my friend, a wise 
 
 * Sir John Murray, of the bed-chamber of James VI., by whom he 
 was created Viscount of Annand, and Lord Murray of Lochmaben, and 
 afterwards Earl of Annandale. He died in 1640^
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 35 
 
 and honest man,")* and Mr John Hay, to speak to Na- 
 pier on the subject. ' I (says the latter) spoke thus to 
 Mr John : ' I have served the King's father and himself 
 long, yet to serve him against his will, I will not. Let 
 Sir James use his friends to move the King to tell me 
 that it is his will to be served by another, then I will 
 treat,' — but, I thought in my mind, never with him, 
 ' The King,' says Mr John, ' will never do that.' 
 ' Then,' replied I, ' do you think it fit for me to give 
 the King his leave, as we say, before he give me mine ? 
 I know not where to find so good a master ;' and not 
 being able to indure any longer the ambition of so base 
 a fellow, I desired Mr John to tell him, that I was a 
 better friend to him, than he took me to be, in not 
 treating with him, for if he were in that place he could 
 not hold up his hands, and would be hanged it may be 
 within a year." 
 
 Hearing that the old Earl of Mar was on his way to 
 court, Napier determined to come to an explanation 
 with the King himself, and having obtained an audi- 
 ence, " told his Majesty how unjustly I was dealt withal 
 in Scotland ; that I, who was to pay other men their 
 fees and pensions, could get none of my own, which, I 
 said, was very strange, if it were not by his Majesty's 
 command or allowance ; which his Majesty disclaimed 
 with an oath." The following characteristic dialogue 
 then occurred. 
 
 Napier. " Sir, your Majesty has been hardly pos- 
 sessed of me, a long time, by sinister information, and 
 I am not conscious to myself of so much as a thought 
 other than becomes a faithful servant. 
 
 * The same who became Chancellor of Scotland when Argyle was 
 disappointed in the scramble for offices in 1641. It may be doubted if 
 Lord Napier would have given him so good a character, had the above 
 been written after the Rebellion had commenced.
 
 36 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The King. " No? Did not you refuse to surrender 
 your lease of Orkney to one who had commission from 
 me to demand it to my use ? 
 
 Napier. " Truly, Sir, never man demanded it of me, 
 neither did I know that such was your pleasure till 
 I heard in Scotland of your Majesty's anger for my re- 
 fusing. 
 
 The King. " Did not you say to him that you would 
 stand out in law against me, which is also under your 
 hand ? 
 
 Napier. " Do me the favour, Sir, to-let me know to 
 whom your Majesty gave that commission, and confront 
 us before you, and I doubt not to make him confess 
 that he has abused your Majesty with an untruth ; and 
 if any such thing can be shown under my hand, I will 
 not only give the hand, but the head also to be strick- 
 en off. 
 
 " Then did I press with importunity to know this 
 fine commissioner ; but His Majesty by no means would 
 do it. 
 
 The King. " It is enough, I am satisfied, and do not 
 believe it. 
 
 " Then did I tell His Majesty what storm was pre- 
 pared against me at my Lord of Mar's upcoming, that 
 I desired no more but impartial hearing, and protection 
 if my cause were honest, which he graciously promis- 
 ed, and thereupon gave me a kiss of his hand. 
 
 " Some two or three days after my Lord of Mar's ar- 
 riving at court, they altogether, and singly when they 
 had opportunity, vexed the King with their calumnies, 
 urging him to send me home to be judged, a point which 
 they laboured by all means, * so that the King, for his 
 
 * This we shall find was also at all times a great object of the cove- 
 nanting faction, namely, that the King should put those whom they ac- 
 cused into their merciless hands in Scotland.
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 37 
 
 own quiet, was, I may say, forced to send Sir Archibald 
 Acheson, the other secretary, to me, (for my Lord Stir- 
 ling excused himself upon the hate I carried to him,) to 
 tell me that there were many informations against me, 
 therefore desired to know whether I would stand to 
 my justification, or submit myself to him. I answer- 
 ed that I was much bound to his Majesty, and would 
 myself give his Majesty my answer, and, I doubted not, 
 satisfaction. Which Sir Archibald having reported, I 
 put myself in the King's way the next day when he 
 was going from dinner. He beckoned to me, and I 
 followed him into his bed-chamber, and being alone 
 with him, — 
 
 Napier. " Sir, I have received your pleasure by Sir 
 Archibald Acheson, and humbly thank your Majesty for 
 having given me a choice to stand to my justification, or 
 submit myself to your Majesty. I will not, Sir, absolute- 
 ly justify myself before God, nor before you. Your 
 Majesty might have had a servant of more eminent 
 abilities, but never a faithfuller nor more diligent, nor 
 better affected. And as for submitting myself to your 
 Majesty, if my life or estate were in question, I could 
 lay them both down at your feet ; but this is my ho- 
 nour, (dearer to me than both,) which loses by submit- 
 ting, and cannot be repaired by your Majesty, nor any 
 King in the world. 
 
 " The words at first seeming sharp and brusk, he 
 mused a little, then burst out with these, — 
 
 The King. "By God, my Lord, you have reason. 
 
 " And withal he told me some of their informations. 
 
 Napier. " Sir, their hate against me is for no cause 
 given by me, and to most of them I have done real 
 courtesies, but because I will not comply with them, nor 
 give way to their desires, to your Majesty's prejudice.
 
 38 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and your subjects, and for your Majesty's service and 
 my undertakings in it. But, Sir, I desire no more but 
 the most rigorous and exact trial that can be desired, 
 so it be just, and your Majesty my judge, and that I 
 be not remitted to Scotland, where my enemies are 
 to be my judges, and where, if I were as innocent as 
 Jesus Christ, I should be condemned. For the more 
 exact the trial be, the more shall my faithfulness 
 and integrity appear to your Majesty ; and I will not 
 only answer for my own actions, but if wife, friend, or 
 servant (who, by corrupt official's, usually are set out 
 to be bawds to their bribery) have done wrong, I am 
 content it be imputed to me. If I had cozened your Ma- 
 jesty, and oppressed your people, and then made some 
 men sharers in the prey, your majesty had not been 
 troubled now, nor I thus persecuted, but had been de- 
 livered to your Majesty for a good and faithful servant. 
 
 " Then his Majesty promised that he would hear all 
 himself, which was a point I desired much to gain, and 
 did serve me afterwards to good purpose. 
 
 Napier. " Then, Sir, be pleased to make these in- 
 formers set down their informations in writing, and set 
 their hands to it, and within three hours after I shall 
 either give a punctual and satisfactory answer, or other- 
 ways your Majesty may dispose of meat your pleasure. 
 ' His Majesty was pleased with the course, and I took 
 my leave. Immediately thereafter the Earl of Mar and 
 the whole troop of my adversaries (who were waiting in 
 the Earl's chamber till I should come from the King,) 
 expected a surrender of place and all to the King, be- 
 cause of the word satisfaction that I used to Sir Archi- 
 bald Acheson. As they came down stairs slowly, be- 
 cause of my Lord's lameness, * one said, this is like the 
 
 * Of this John seventh Earl of Mar, Scotstarvet says,—" His chief de-
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 39 
 
 Lord Napier, who is going down by degrees. Another, 
 as they were going through the court, told his friend 
 that asked, that they were all going to give the Lord 
 Napier the last stroke. In this insulting humour they 
 came to the King, who told them that I affirmed all 
 their informations to be calumnies, and that I would 
 stand to my justification, and commanded them to set 
 down their accusations and informations in writing un- 
 der their hand, and to deliver the same to me to be 
 answered. This, falling out far beyond their expecta- 
 tion, astonished them a little, especially the Earl of Mar, 
 who fell down upon his knees with his crutches, and, 
 with tears, intreated the King to free him of my trouble, 
 and that he could not serve with me, thus stirring 
 pity to cause injustice. * To whom the King said, — 
 
 light was in hunting, and he procured, by acts of Parliament, that none 
 should hunt within divers miles of the King's, house; yet often that 
 which is most pleasant to a man is his overthrow; for walking in his 
 own hall, a dog cast him off his feet and lamed his leg, of which he died ; 
 and at his burial a hare having run through the company, his special 
 chamberlain, Alexander Stilling, fell off his horse, and broke his neck." 
 
 * Among the manuscripts of the Advocates' Library, I find an origi- 
 nal letter from this same Earl of Mar to James VI. in which he expres- 
 ses the following opinion of the nobleman against whom he was now 
 combining ; — "Most gracious Sovereign, I received your Majesty's let- 
 ter of the 21st of October, shewing that ye have made choice of Sir Archi- 
 bald Napier to be treasurer-depute of this kingdom, with the motives 
 moving your Majesty to take this course. Since your Majesty hath so 
 resolved, I shall in all humility obey your direction. As for the gentle- 
 man, he is known to be both judicious and honest, and, as your Majesty 
 writes in your own letter, free of partiality or any factious humour, and 
 I, with all my heart, do wish that all your Majesty's subjects were as free 
 of these two faults as I hope time shall make known to your majesty 
 that both he and I are ; in which respects your Majesty hath made a 
 good choice. For myself, my care and pains shall be nothing the less 
 in furthering of your Majesty's service,in all things incident to that place 
 which your Majesty hath honoured me with; and beseeching Almighty 
 God to bless your Majesty with many happy days, I rest your Majesty's 
 most humble subject and servitor, — " Mar." 
 
 " Holyrood House, the 24th of November 1G22."
 
 40 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The King. " My Lord, I would do you any favour, 
 but I cannot do injustice for you. 
 
 " For the space of eight days after, I was free of 
 their persuit, so long as the King remained in Hampton 
 Court, for the command to set down in writing under 
 their hands did much amaze them, But every day they 
 had their meetings and consultations how to overthrow 
 me, and being ignorant of the King's promise to hear 
 all himself, all their endeavours tended to get me re- 
 mitted to Scotland, and then they were sure of their 
 desire. His Majesty, having removed to TheobalPs, 
 asked the secretary if the informations in writing were 
 delivered to me, and commanded it to be done instant- 
 ly. This put them in some fear that the Lord of Tra- 
 quair * and his friends had procured this, (who was 
 one expecting the place if I should have been put out 
 of it, and a man of another faction than Menteith 
 and the secretary,) and, therefore, by the Earl of 
 Carrick they most earnestly dealt with me afresh to 
 treat with Sir James Baillie, adding great promises, but 
 with the like success as before. The secretary then sent 
 me the informations, inclosed within a letter of his own 
 to me, shewing that it was his Majesty's pleasure that 
 I should send the answers to him to be delivered by him 
 to the King : but I would not do so. When I opened 
 the articles of accusation I found no hand at them, but 
 written on a little piece of paper, so near the end there- 
 of as not one letter could be written more, of purpose 
 that, if the King should urge them to set to their hands 
 upon a sudden, they might gain sometime, in writing 
 them over, to consult upon the matter. I presently drew 
 up the answers, and on the morrow I told his Majesty 
 
 * The same who was afterwards treasurer, and fell a victim to co- 
 venanting persecution.
 
 CHARLES T. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 41 
 
 that I had received these articles, and that there was 
 no hand at them. 
 
 The King. " That is all one ; you know the mat- 
 ter now, and may answer it. 
 
 Napier. " Sir, there is no judicature, civil nor crimi- 
 nal, can be established without these necessary mem- 
 bers, a judge, a pursuer, and a defender. True it is 
 in Scotland, in the factious times, men were called in 
 without knowing either crime or pursuer, which they 
 called super inquirendis, but that barbarous and unjust 
 custom was abolished, by your Majesty's father, by an 
 express act of Parliament yet standing in force. I hope 
 your Majesty will not introduce it again, and make me 
 the precedent of it. 
 
 The King. " If it be so, they must set to their hands, 
 and shall set to their hands. 
 
 Napier. " Upon my allegiance, Sir, it is so. But I 
 believe they will never do it, not for fear of me, but, 
 knowing in their consciences that they are mere forg'- 
 ed calumnies, they know they shall succumb in the pro- 
 bation, and then they fear your just displeasure. Be- 
 side, Sir, they think your Majesty will not deny me 
 place to recriminate them, after I am cleared myself, 
 and then they know they cannot come fair off. But, 
 Sir, do me the favour to press them to subscribe the 
 articles, and if they refuse, yet, for your Majesty's satis- 
 faction, I shall answer punctually, and deliver the an- 
 swers into your own hand. 
 
 " The King was well pleased, and indeed pressed them 
 to subscribe. But they having met, and each of them 
 putting the accusation upon another, and Sir James 
 Baillie objecting their promise to accuse me, to some of 
 greatest place for onerous causes, no man of all that great 
 number, great nor small, was found that durst set to 
 their hand. Such force hath truth !"
 
 42 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Napier, however, put in writing an articulate reply 
 to each charge, and after explaining in the most satis- 
 factory manner every circumstance upon which a ca- 
 lumny could possibly be founded, thus concludes, — "Nei- 
 ther hath there any thing been done by me but that for 
 which I have your Majesty's warrant, your father's, the 
 council's warrant, or that which by the duty of my 
 place I ought to do. My humble suit, therefore, is, that 
 your majesty will be pleased to judge of these things 
 by your oivn wisdom and justice, to which, only, I ap- 
 peal; or otherwise to free me of these calumnies by 
 your majesty's declaration of my honest and faithful be- 
 haviour, as your Majesty hath already done by your 
 gracious letter to the exchequer, that I may be the bet- 
 ter encouraged to do you service." This defence he 
 presented to Charles, and the result is curiously cha- 
 racteristic of the times and the actors. " My enemies," 
 says Lord Napier, " refusing to subscribe the informa- 
 tions given by themselves, both by word and writ, to 
 his Majesty, gave me a great deal of advantage in the 
 King's and all other men's opinion. Yet ceased they not 
 still to persecute me. So bold were they in their ac- 
 cusations because no man was punished for any calum- 
 ny, or the worse liked, out of a bad impression given 
 to the King that, if he punished any such, he should 
 not get knowledge of the estate of his affairs, no man 
 daring to do it unless they were able .to prove it clearly, 
 which, although true, could not always be done. My 
 adversaries, being ignorant of his majesty's promise to 
 hear all himself, and being oft refused, when they de- 
 sired him to remit my trial to Scotland, without know- 
 ing the cause, drew up a letter commanding me to be 
 tried before the Council of Scotland, which letter they 
 foisted in among other letters, and stole the King's hand 
 
 4
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 43 
 
 to it, whereof I came to the knowledge after this man- 
 ner : Sir James Baillie, who had tried many ways to 
 make me transact with him, and all in vain, did try 
 this too. He said to Alexander Auchmowty,(my friend,) 
 ' I am sorry for the Lord Napier's wilfulness, and more 
 sorry that I should have had any hand against him, 
 which my Lord of Mar induced me to do, for now he 
 is now all utterly undone ; he is to be sent home to 
 Scotland, to be tried by his enemies, and if he doubt 
 of this, I shall let him see the King's letter with his 
 hand at it to that purpose.' Alexander stopt there, and 
 I held my peace. ' But (said Alexander,) Sir James says, 
 if you will be content to deal with him, he will under- 
 take, by the help of Menteith and the secretary, that 
 you shall come fair off with honour and profit.' Hav- 
 ing discovered Sir James's meaning, I bitterly refused 
 dealing with him. Yet did I not slight the advertise- 
 ment, and, after enquiry, found that there was such a 
 letter past the King's hand, and to be sent down to meet 
 me in Scotland, whither I was going. Then was I 
 much moved, and waited upon an opportunity to tell 
 the King, which they perceiving were much qffrayed, 
 and sent Sir Alexander Strachan to accommodate the 
 matter, who promised in their names that that lefter 
 should be riven in my presence, if I would be quiet for 
 that time, and another (because I was going home) of 
 my own penning should be signed by the King, where- 
 of I was content, knowing by experience how bold these 
 men were with the King, and how little he resented it* 
 Then Sir Alexander delivered me the letter to be riven, 
 
 * This unfortunate nature of the King's, which rendered him totally 
 unable to cope with the turbulent and dishonest spirits of his age, and 
 whereby his enemies triumphed, his friends were sacrificed, and himself 
 destroyed, we will find most fatally exemplified in 164? 1, when Montrose 
 and Napier were in prison for their attempt to save his prerogatives.
 
 44 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 but because I saw the King's hand, I refused to rive it, 
 and he did it. And because I would not seem to avoid 
 trial, I drew my letter thus : * Whereas divers infor- 
 mations have been made to us against the Lord Napier, 
 it is our pleasure that you receive any thing concerning 
 them that shall be given in to you, and thereafter send 
 up the Lord Napier, together with his accusers, to us, to 
 receive our determination, and that this letter be regis- 
 tered ; in the meantime, the Lord Napier to enjoy his 
 fees, pensions, and full exercise of his place.' My ene- 
 mies speeding no better at court, gave out that what- 
 ever warrant I gave out should not be answered, as in- 
 deed I found by proof: I asked my arears, — I could 
 have no part of them, the treasurer had forbidden the 
 receivers to pay me ; I asked an account of their de- 
 bursing the King's money in my absence, — that was 
 denied me, and all the use of the King's favourable letter 
 was this, that it was registered not without difficulty, not- 
 withstanding the King's command. Then the chancellor 
 askedfor the articles of accusation, as if he had never seen 
 them, which being produced he commanded to be put in 
 the public register, (without any warrant from the King 
 or council, and would not by any means register my an- 
 swers to them,) there to remain for a dishonour and a 
 stain to me, my house and posterity, to after ages who 
 should not know that they were shamefully disavowed 
 by the informers themselves, nor [that they were] an- 
 swered by me, — an act of superlative malice ! I made an 
 offer of the account of the fines received by me, — they 
 would not hear it, nor yet give me out instruments of 
 my offer when I asked them, which the clerk durst not 
 give out according to my words, but framed in such 
 terms as they set down to him. 
 
 " At this time Annandale came to Scotland, and 
 brought with him a letter from the King to the exche-
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 45 
 
 quer, commanding me, upon a wrong narrative, to pay 
 him a term of the duty which William Dick was to 
 pay me, and which was due to me long before my 
 surrender, and most unjustly inserted into Annandale's 
 gift, (although his Majesty had accepted my surrender 
 for the time to come,) without any mention of what 
 was due to me before it. And in case I refused to pay 
 that term, warrant was given to the King's Advocate* to 
 pursue me for all I had received from my subtaxsman 
 during my lease and before my surrender. But the 
 sense of this letter was extremely perplext and intri- 
 cate, as all letters of the secretary's penning are, of 
 purpose to leave open a way to the other party paying 
 as well for it, to get another in his [the other party's] fa- 
 vours, to which the former might be reconciled, in his 
 construction, without contradiction, and to provide 
 himself of a defence, if they should come to be examin- 
 ed or compared before the King, which in clear words 
 were not feasible ; and indeed the council was in no- 
 thing so much troubled, as in finding out the King's 
 mind in his letters, f (which ought to be clear, and ad- 
 mit of no constructions but one,) and some causes have 
 been debated, where parties have vied the King's let- 
 ters, as in a play they use to do, one against the other. 
 But leaving digression upon this subject, — which, for 
 bribery at both hands, concussion of the people, and 
 abusing of the King, no age can parallel, — I, finding 
 that by this letter they had made the King my party, 
 would not stand in judgment against him, but, how 
 soon I was summoned, I offered to that term's duty of 
 7000 marks to Annandale, and made also a judicial of- 
 
 * The celebrated Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall. 
 f This method, too, of deceiving the King, enters deeply into the his- 
 tory of his ruin.
 
 46 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fer of it before the exchequer, and did give direction 
 and a discharge to William Dick to pay it to Annan- 
 dale. The offer was refused, and the discharge sent 
 back by William Dick, who now had left me, and had 
 correspondence with them. They would not suffer 
 Annanclale to take it, but would needs go on with pur- 
 suit against me for all I had received before my sur- 
 render, which they ought to have done (by the King's 
 letter,) only in case of my refusal to pay the term in 
 question. The King's Advocate — a base follower of 
 greatness, and maliciously eloquent — pursued me hard, 
 alleging the lease was given me in trust, to bring- 
 in improvement to the King, and that I had confessed 
 it ; and he took out my answers to their informations, 
 to prove his alledgeance, and read these words, — ' I 
 never denied it, for I took it on condition,' — and there 
 most unfaithfully would have staid, but I made him 
 read out all, to his shame, * whereby the few indiffer- 
 ent Lords that were, did detest his dishonest dealings. 
 I was forced to answer for myself, for, by no means, 
 could I procure an advocate to be admitted to plead for 
 me, although by our law it is not denied in any case, 
 even in treason, to any. So long as he kept off the 
 point of law I answered sufficiently ; but when he came 
 to dispute in law, I would not answer, but would be 
 absent, against a professed lawyer. Whereupon at 
 
 * The clause in Lord Napier's answers, alluded to, is as follows : " It 
 is alleged that the lease was entrusted to me, — I never denied it, for I 
 took it upon condition to surrender when, and upon what terms, your 
 majesty should be pleased, and that then the improvement might come 
 into the exchequer. But that I should advance great sums of money, and 
 be liable to the yearly payment of 45,000 marks, (enough to have un- 
 done my estate, if one evil year had come, or if my subtaxsman had 
 bankerouted,) without all hope of advantage or recompense, — I will never 
 conceive to be your majesty's mind, in which nothing can harbour con. 
 trary to justice and^equity,'' &c.
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 47 
 
 last, [they] being ashamed to do otherwise, I got leave 
 for Mr Lewis Stewart to plead for me, who performed 
 his part so well, as closed the Advocate's mouth from 
 uttering law or reason, but never from breathing out 
 idle words. So the Lords seeing nothing could be 
 done to my prejudice, did refer all to the King, and 
 would not absolve me as they ought. Shortly after, 
 the Earl of Mar, finding that I could not be remov- 
 ed, made a privy transaction for his own place 
 with the Earl of Morton, without the knowledge 
 of those who assisted him in the pursuit against 
 me, whereby he became disabled to work their ends, 
 Who therefore were much displeased with him, espe- 
 cially Menteith, with whom, as he alleged, he (Mar) 
 had handsomely equivocated, promising that he should 
 pay to him a precept of L. 5000 Sterling before Pasche, 
 if he were treasurer, before which time he had resolv- 
 ed to quit the place. This gave occasion that Menteith 
 and I entered on some better terms of correspondence, 
 but had still his variable and inconstant humour in sus- 
 picions. This friendship was confirmed by Sir Richard 
 Graham of Eske, who made us interchange promises 
 of friendship, assuring us that on whose part the breach 
 should be, he would bear witness against him. One 
 particular promise he desired of me, that I should not 
 transact with Traquair, for my place, without his pri- 
 vity, as Mar had done with Morton. For Traquair dealt 
 fairly with me, and if my honour had not been in ques- 
 tion I would have concluded with him.* I answered 
 that I would transact with no man, unless his Majesty 
 expressed his pleasure to be so. There was nothing I 
 
 * Lord Traquair got the place, and from that was promoted to be high 
 treasurer, in which office we will again discover him enduring a worse 
 persecution, from the covenanting faction, than Napier had .suffered. Of 
 this nobleman Napier entertained a good opinion, as appears from vari- 
 ous passages in his manuscripts.
 
 48 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 more desired in my secretest thoughts than to be fair- 
 ly rid of that place, long before my trouble, for after 
 my wife died, (a woman religious, chaste, and beautiful, 
 and my chief joy in this world,)* I had no pleasure to re- 
 main in Scotland, having had experience of the chief of 
 [the Lords of] Council and Session,! and of their man- 
 ners, to which I could never fashion myself, and con- 
 sidering the place I held could never be profitable to a 
 man that had resolved fair and honourable dealing." 
 
 That the King's Advocate could countenance se- 
 cret meetings for organizing sedition, — that the gentle- 
 men of the King's bed-chamber were capable of picking 
 his Majesty's pockets, in order to make themselves mas- 
 ter of his private correspondence, — that the nobleman 
 whom Charles trusted above all others was constantly 
 betraying him to his enemies, — these, and other myste- 
 rious anecdotes of the rise and progress of the covenant- 
 ing faction, do not appear so incredible after reading 
 what we have extracted from Lord Napier's manu- 
 scripts, and still less so when we find, by the following, 
 how very low Scottish noblemen could stoop, in false- 
 hood and treachery, to attain their private ends. 
 
 " At court, Morton, Roxburgh, and the secretary 
 made up a faction and agreement, wherein the Earl of 
 Menteith and the chancellor were comprised, whereby 
 they, who had wont to cross other, should now serve 
 others turns, and monopolize to themselves the King's 
 favour, to his and his subjects' heavy detriment, nobody 
 
 * There is an original picture by Jameson, of Lady Margaret Graham, 
 in possession of the present Lord Napier. The date upon it is 1626, con- 
 sequently she must have died betwixt that year and 1630, the year of 
 the transactions to which Lord Napier refers in the passages quoted above. 
 
 •j- Napier had been a privy-councillor since 1615; in 1623, he was 
 Justice- Clerk, and an Ordinary Lord of Session; in 1626, an Extraordi- 
 nary Lord of Sessiom
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 49 
 
 being then to oppose their proceedings but myself ; for 
 Nithisdale was discarded (after the death of my Lord 
 of Buckingham, whose near cousin he had married,) by 
 means of his religion (averse from that professed by the 
 state) and the greatness of his debt. Therefore they 
 thought it now more necessary than before, that I 
 should be removed, whom they thought to be of such in- 
 vincible integrity, as they were never able to make me 
 comply with them in their intended courses. This plot 
 being ripe, Menteith was sent for by the secretary, but 
 he had before so much employed his friends in caution- 
 ary that now they began to fail him, neither was his 
 own name of any credit with moneyed men. Having 
 no other means, he intreated me to take up 6000 marks 
 for him, which I did in my own name, and took his 
 bond of repayment. He vvent to his journey, and pro- 
 mised that, if he took any course with them, I should be 
 comprised within the agreement, (adding many oaths, 
 whereof he was never sparing,) whereof I was most un- 
 willing, as being contrary to my ends, who lay in wait 
 for a fair occasion to leave the place, yet seemed to be 
 well content, to make proof of him. When he came to 
 Court, the first article of agreement was proposed that 
 by all means I should be removed [from my place] which 
 he undertook I should leave to Traquair upon most easy 
 terms, (for Baillie's nose was out of joint, my Lord of 
 Mar being no more treasurer,) which they thought feasi- 
 ble in respect of the new friendship betwixt us. To effec- 
 tuate which, and thereby to endear himself to the new fac- 
 tion, he told the King that I was desirous to give over 
 the office ; and, I believe, told the King also (for to all 
 the Court he did) that he had commission and power 
 from me to that effect, which was most false. To the 
 which the King gave way, as being my own desire, and 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 then was moved to make a promise of it to Traquair, 
 by this new faction of which he was one. And Menteith 
 coming to Scotland, a letter was purchased from the 
 King, after the usual obscure style, whereby he would 
 have made me believe that it was the King's pleasure 
 that I should give way to Traquair, and, to that pur- 
 pose, that I should transact with Menteith, although 
 the letter in my understanding contained no such mat- 
 ter, but was his Majesty's answer to a suit of mine, 
 wherein his Majesty wrote that he had imparted his 
 pleasure, concerning my desire, to the Earl of Menteith. 
 This letter was kept up long, of purpose, till the new 
 treasurer, Morton, should come home, who was upon 
 his journey ; but Menteith would have had me take his 
 word upon if. But I desiring nothing more (although 
 I pretended the contrary) than that the King would 
 have expressed his desire to be that I should leave the 
 place, (for then with honour, profit, and the King's good 
 will, I might treat with them,) made Menteith this an- 
 swer, that the letter contained no such thing as he gave 
 out, and that I would not treat with him, nor no man 
 else, till from his Majesty's own mouth his pleasure 
 were delivered to me to that effect. At this answer he 
 was extremely moved, and being immoderately earnest 
 with me afterwards, and, nevertheless, not being able 
 to effectuate any thing whereof he had made so large 
 promises to them at Court, gave them advertisement, 
 and they dealt earnestly with the King. For this com- 
 bination had now undertaken the whole government 
 here,* under the King, and great hopes given, and great 
 promises made of excellent service, only, they told the 
 King, that his service would be still hindered by my 
 
 * i. e. Of Scotland.
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS, 51 
 
 opposition, and at last won him to think it expedient 
 that I should remove. 
 
 "About this time (1630) the treasurer Morton came 
 from Court, and finding that I was not to be dealt with, 
 the chancellor, Menteith, and he, to make me loath the 
 service, (which in my secretest thoughts I did long ago,) 
 undertook a business no way honourable for them, and 
 which hereafter might prove dangerous if any of them 
 should happen to fall from the King's favour. There 
 was, after the death of King James, a commission of 
 Exchequer sent down by his Majesty now reigning, un- 
 der his hand (for by the death of his father all former 
 commissions expired) and left undated, to those who 
 were of the former ; the manner of which commission 
 is this : The King signs a commission in paper, which 
 thereafter is ingrossed in parchment, translated in La- 
 tin, and the King's Great Seal appended to it, and the 
 paper under the King's hand is kept for a warrant to 
 the Great Seal. This commission in paper under the 
 King's hand being sent down, and being defective, or 
 at least the King's Advocate would have it to seem so, 
 because it was not drawn up by him, was not passed 
 the seals, but kept by him, the chancellor, or secretary, 
 and another sent up of the Advocate's penning, which 
 being sent down again signed by the King, was passed 
 the seals, which was the warrant of all the Exchequer's 
 proceedings six years after. The old unpassed sig- 
 nature of commission they took, and where these words 
 ■ treasurer or treasurer-depute' occurred, (as they did 
 very often through the body of the signature) they 
 made Mr William Chamber, in a chamber of Holy- 
 roodhouse, put a mark betwixt treasurer and treasurer- 
 depute, before ' or,' and in the margin write these words 
 ' in his absence,' so that it was to be read ' treasurer,
 
 52 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 or, in his absence, treasurer-depute,' and the word in 
 the margin about five or six several times subscribed by 
 Morton and Menteith. Besides, they inserted the 
 date, ' White-hall, 28th June, 1630,' with new black 
 ink, where all the rest was worn whitish, and it was 
 torn in the foldings, which ocular inspection bewrayed 
 the antiquity and falsehood of the same. So by this 
 commission I was to do nothing, (directly contrary to 
 my patent, and the purpose of the institution of that 
 office) the treasurer being present. About twelve o'clock 
 I got intelligence that there was a new commission 
 brought down by the treasurer, Morton, and was at the 
 seals. I presently went to the director of the Chancery's 
 chamber, * who showed it to me, and said he mar- 
 velled much how the chancellor durst append the Great 
 Seal upon such a warrant. I viewed it as well as I 
 could in so short a space. At two o'clock thereafter, the 
 Exchequer convened, where, before the chancellor, lay 
 this signature of commission, and the double in parch- 
 ment in Latin, with the Great Seal thereat, together 
 with two letters of the King's. We being all set, the 
 chancellor gave the signature in paper to the clerk to 
 be read, and the double in Latin with the seal, in parch- 
 ment, to the King's Advocate to be collationed. The 
 clerk had much ado to read it, it was so worn, being 
 now made use of six years after it was signed by the 
 King. But I, seeing two of the King's letters unbro- 
 ken up, took no exceptions at the signature, (suspecting 
 that they did contain something to supply the defects 
 and informality of the signature,) till the letters were 
 read, which contained nothing of that purpose. Then 
 I rose up and said, — 
 
 * Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, whose curious though malicious ma- 
 nuscript, entitled the " The Staggering State of the Scots Statesmen," 
 is preserved in the Advocates' Library.
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 53 
 
 Napier. " My Lords, this is a strange signature, 
 and such as I never saw — (and was going on, my Lord 
 Morton interrupted me, and rose from his place in a 
 great anger, saying,) 
 
 Morton. " The first day that I have the honour 
 to sit here, and carry this white staff, I must hear my 
 honour called in question impertinently. 
 
 Napier. " My Lord, I do not call your honour in 
 question pertinently nor impertinently, neither is it 
 my custom towards any, although some men have done 
 so to me. 
 
 Chancellor. " By God, but you have. * 
 ("When I spoke before the Lords in Sergeant Walthew's 
 business my words were, that that business was report- 
 ed to the King, by men ill affected to me, except one ho- 
 nest man, Sir James Fullarton ; the chancellor would 
 conclude, against himself and the secretary, that I said 
 they were not honest, by consequence which gave him 
 occasion to answer me so bruskly as this time.) 
 
 Napier. " But my Lord, give me leave to answer 
 my Lord Morton first, and then you when you please. 
 
 * We shall have to notice presently an anecdote of this gouty old 
 nobleman's choler directed against the King himself. Before the above 
 scene, Napier having obtained an order from the King, upon the chan- 
 cellor, to see certain accounts for furnishing to his Majesty, standing be- 
 twixt Napier and Walthew, called in and cancelled, — " the sergeant pro- 
 duced the contracts, and the chancellor would fain have picked some- 
 thing out of them to my disadvantage. Then said I, I acquainted the 
 King (as indeed I did, and his Majesty remembered it,) with the manner 
 and matter of this bargain. To which Sir James Baillie replied, that the 
 King knew it not till it was questioned ; and I not being able to contain 
 myself, said, that it was not like his bargains, and [that of] his accompli- 
 ces, in the King's service. At which the chancellor was so furiously mad, 
 ((or it touched him,) that forgetting himself, and me too, he commanded 
 me out of his chamber, which I would not do ; the chamber was none 
 of his, but a borrowed one, and within the King's house, whether I went 
 by the King's command." — Lord Napier's MS.
 
 54 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 My Lord, (turning- towards Morton,) your Lordship is 
 very hot with me, but be assured there is nothing done 
 amiss which concerns either the King's service, or me in 
 my particular, that I will stand in awe of any man to 
 question. 
 
 Morton. " This was done by the King's direc- 
 tion, and we will answer it. 
 
 Menteith. " My Lord Napier, you are so passion- 
 ate in your own particular, that you will not forbear 
 to question what the King commanded ! For his Ma- 
 jesty stood by while it was done, and we will answer it. 
 
 Napier. " If it had been the King's direction, why 
 would you not bestow upon him a clean sheet of paper, 
 and ingrossed these marginal notes of yours in the body 
 of the signature, rather than made use of this old torn 
 thing ? Then needed not the signature, with the King's 
 hand at it, receive validity from yours upon the mar- 
 gin. 
 
 " But he, that never was ashamed to do or say any 
 thing, still affirmed that his Majesty stood by till he 
 saw them subscribe, and that it was his direction ! 
 
 Napier. " My Lord, I marvel that you are not 
 ashamed to say so. Let the Lords look the date with 
 a blacker ink than the rest, ' at White-hall the 28th of 
 June, 1630;' — then you were there, you say, with the 
 King ? Your Lordship has ridden fast, for you were 
 here, and presided in council, the 29 th of June 1630, 
 to verify which, I desire that the clerk of Council's book 
 of sederunt may be produced, and, my Lord Morton, 
 your Lordship set out of London before him. 
 
 " Menteith, being convinced of a manifest untruth 
 in presence of all the Lords, was so confounded and sur- 
 prised with it, that he made this answer, nothing to 
 the purpose, —
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 55 
 
 Menteith. " My Lord, I brought not the signa- 
 ture home. 
 
 " All this while the Lords were silent, hung down 
 their heads, and were ashamed on their behalf, and 
 even the chancellor himself sat mute. When the 
 signatures came to be compounded, my Lord Morton 
 used me kindly and familiarly, asked my opinion con- 
 cerning the composition and nature of the signatures, 
 so that it was by all clearly perceived that he repented 
 himself, and was ashamed of the business, whereunto, 
 by all appearance, he was induced by the other two, for 
 in his own nature he is noble and generous. I ask- 
 ed the Lords if I should subscribe the signatures, (of 
 purpose to set before their eyes the inconvenience of 
 this stained commission,) ' for the Lord-Treasurer is 
 present, and, by this fine commission, I am only to serve 
 in his absence.* Then said the Chancellor, ' you ought 
 to subscribe with the rest.' At this time there was a 
 warrant presented of 5000 pounds Sterling to my Lord 
 Morton. ' Then (said I,) my Lords, what shall be done 
 with this. My Lord Morton cannot set his hand to his 
 own business, and I cannot, because he is present, and 
 without one of our hands it is not receivable in 
 chequer?' To which I had no answer. ' But (said I,) 
 if my hand can serve the Earl of Morton, he shall have 
 it with all my heart, for no man will grudge at any 
 thing the King bestows on him.' Perceiving then that 
 this device was not like to take effect, they began them- 
 selves to find fault with the commission, as defective. 
 These passages being related to the King, (for Kings 
 have long ears.) he disliked these proceedings, as I am 
 informed, extremely. Yet such was the hopes of the 
 great service this combination was to do, (which to this 
 hour did nothing but to his heavy predjudice, and their
 
 56 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 own profit,) that he was content to take no notice 
 of it. 
 
 " I resolved then to go to court, and, some days be- 
 fore I went, Menteith sent up his man, Mr Henry 
 Drummond, with a letter, drawn up by himself and the 
 secretary, and sent up to the secretary's son, who wait- 
 ed there in absence of his father, who was in Scotland, 
 the contents whereof were to stay me by the way, or 
 to command me to return again into Scotland. This 
 letter was to be signed by the King, and Mr Henry 
 was to meet me upon the way, and to deliver it to me. 
 I rode on my own horses to Berwick, and purposed to 
 send them back, and take post there, where the post- 
 master told me, (having asked who rode last,) that Mr 
 Henry was gone up post, and told him he was to ride 
 night and day, and was very shortly to come back. 
 Upon which I conjectured that he was sent up to pro- 
 cure my stay or return, (as indeed he was,) upon some 
 misinformation. Therefore, to prevent their purpose, 
 I changed mine, and upon my own horses rode on the 
 western way, where no post lyeth. 
 
 " The secretary's son having presented this letter for 
 my stay, for the King's hand, his majesty threw it away, 
 saying, this man hath suffered enough already ; and in 
 place thereof made him write another to me, most gra- 
 cious and favourable, which he signed. This letter was 
 given to Mr Hary Drummond to be given to me, but 
 he gave it to his master, (who then was on his journey,) 
 with the copy thereof sent down by the secretary's son, 
 which by no means I could ever come to the sight of, 
 although I got knowledge of the tenor afterwards. 
 How soon I came to Court I had speech with his Ma- 
 jesty concerning these businesses, who said, that he 
 could not but acknowledge my good service, my honesty, 
 and integrity, but that he was informed that the prin-
 
 CHARLES I. AND SCOTCH COUNCILLORS. 57 
 
 cipal officiars and I could not agree, whereby his service 
 was hindered. Then desired I his Majesty to try whose 
 fault it was, — theirs, who wentabout matters prejudicial 
 to him and the country, or mine, who opposed them 
 out of duty to God, and to him. But not daring to insist 
 further in this point, fearing lest the King should have 
 resolved to continue me in that service, which was con- 
 trary to my desire, took the opportunity, — ■ Then, Sir, 
 since they have made your Majesty think that Lhinder 
 your service, I will not be refractory to your Majesty's 
 desires ; but your Majesty is a just King, and cannot 
 take that place from me but by consent, or for a crime, 
 and as for a crime, if your Majesty be not satisfied with 
 what is past, I will refuse no further trial, how exact 
 soever, being just, and your Majesty judge' '* Then 
 the King, having used many favourable words acknow- 
 ledging my faithful service, willed me to speak with Men- 
 teith,who, he said, was my kinsman. ' Truly, Sir, (said I) 
 he is my kinsman, but was never my friend, and certainly, 
 he and I shall never agree.' — ' Then,' replied the King 
 smiling, ' he will take it for a disgrace if he be not the 
 doer of it.'—' Then (said I) I shall talk with him.' " f 
 
 * Mr Brodie has written voluminously on the subject of Charles L, 
 without, seemingly, having formed a just idea of him as a King or a 
 man. It is truly preposterous to attempt to persuade the world that 
 Charles was a monster of despotic cruelty, — capable, for instance, of is- 
 suing an order for the private execution without trial, (i. e. murder) of 
 a nobleman in prison. We shall find that Lord Napier, and indeed every 
 one accused, and conscious of innocence, felt perfectly safe if the King 
 was permitted to be the judge. 
 
 f The result was, that Traquair was at first joined with Napier as joint 
 treasurer-depute, " without fee or pension, of which he was glad, or 
 seemed so, and took a kiss of the King's hand upon it. Menteith and 
 the secretary (Stirling) did exceedingly please themselves with tins de- 
 vice, and did every where proclaim it, arrogating so much to their own 
 judgment and dexterity as was hateful to every wise man. And indeed 
 they were in nature not unlike in this, that no living man was ever more
 
 58 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It was amid such an atmosphere of petty but dis- 
 tracting factions, that Charles the First passed the short 
 period of his reign which, at the time, was the admira- 
 tion and envy of Europe for its apparent prosperity 
 and repose. Even the few pages of secret history we 
 have quoted, besides affording some instructive views 
 of the characters of Scotch councillors and courtiers, 
 suggest reflections not unfavourable to the King. The 
 scenes are during those few years immediately preced- 
 ing the revolt of Scotland, when, says Clarendon, " Bri- 
 tain enjoyed the greatest calm and the fullest measure 
 of felicity that any people in any age for so long time to- 
 gether have been blessed with." Butwesee how small was 
 
 vain-glorious than they both, but different in the expressing of that hu- 
 mour. For the secretary was a gross and downright flatterer of himself, 
 and drew all discourses from their proper subject to his own praise. 
 Menteith did the same, but, as he thought, more subtily, but indeed so 
 ridiculously as gave matter of mirth to all those to whom it was related." — 
 Lord Napier's MS. These portraits are worthy of the pen of Clarendon ; 
 indeed, had Napier survived the troubles, and completed his history, he 
 would have been the Scottish Clarendon. His kinsman Menteith, whom 
 he brought to such shame, was a very conspicuous person. Before 1628 
 he was invested with the offices of justice-general of Scotland, presi- 
 dent of the privy-council, and an extraordinary Lord of Session. He 
 was William Graham seventh Earl of Menteith, and lineally descended 
 from Robert II., to whose eldest son by Euphemia Ross, David Earl of 
 Strathern, Menteith was served heir, which service was ratified by the 
 royal patent, 31st July 1631, authorizing him to assume the title of Earl 
 of Strathern and Menteith. At this time it was supposed that Euphemia 
 Ross was the first wife of Robert II. (and not Elizabeth More, subse- 
 quently ascertained to have been so,) and the pretension to the 
 crown of Scotland, involved in this service, was suggested to Charles, 
 especially by Drummond of Hawthornden, as dangerous to his crown, 
 Scotstarvet says, that when Menteith renounced his claim to the Crown 
 he did so under reservation of his right of blood, and boasted that he 
 had the reddest blood in Scotland. Accordingly his titles were all set 
 aside in 1633, and he deprived of his offices and confined for a time to 
 his own isle of Menteith. But when divested of his other titles, the 
 Earldom of Airth was conferred upon him. It was his eldest son, Lord 
 Kilpont,'^who was so basely murdered in Montrose's camp, immediately 
 after the battle of Tippermuir, by Stewart of Ardvoirlich.
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF CHARLES I. 59 
 
 the share, enjoyed by the monarch, of that national ease 
 for promoting which he has obtained the eulogy of the 
 great Clarendon, though Mr Hallam will not admit that 
 it was merited. * With domestic virtues, and private ac- 
 complishments, infinitely superior to the age in which 
 he suffered, we find this truly Christian King, — in 
 the single item of settling claims and disputes among 
 those leading Scotsmen to whom he looked for assist- 
 ance in the government of Scotland, — .deceived, haras- 
 sed, cheated, insulted and chafed, at the very time to 
 which Mr Hallam alludes when he says, " we may 
 acknowledge without hesitation that the kingdom had 
 grown during this period into remarkable prosperity 
 and affluence." . But if the King's own dispositions 
 created none of this happiness, (the position Mr Hallam 
 maintains against Clarendon,) neither, alas ! was it for 
 the King to share. We suspect after all, that such con- 
 temporary observers as Lord Clarendon in English af- 
 fairs, and Lord Napier in Scotch, are safer guides to 
 our estimate of the quality of the times, and the cha- 
 racter of the King, than either Mr Hallam or Mr Brodie. 
 This preceding Relation," Lord Napier says, " being- 
 written in haste, and imperfect, many passages being 
 omitted, for brevity's sake, which might have shown the 
 iniquity of these times,f is nevertheless most true. And 
 thereby thejudicious may perceive the formersettled man- 
 ner of government shaken by frequent innovations in- 
 
 * See Hallam's Constitutional History of England, chap. viii. 
 
 f These omissions are much to be regretted. Had the Relation of 
 Lord Napier comprehended all the history of " the iniquity of these 
 times," and had he also exposed the iniquity of the times immediately 
 succeeding the period of his Relation, (as, indeed, we are informed by 
 Wisliart, that he actually did, in a" most elaborate discourse of the ori- 
 gin of the turmoils in Great Britain,") such a history would have been 
 a most valuable addition to that of Clarendon, who was but ill informed 
 in Scotch affairs.
 
 60 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tertained and practised, factions in Court and state 
 a-foot, accusations, calumnies, and aspersions ordinary, 
 and, which was worse, combinations, and hopes given 
 thereby of great service to the King, without any perfor- 
 mance, but, by the contrary, his Majesty's just and gra- 
 cious inclination abused by misinformations, his ears 
 blocked up and so straightly beleagured that truth could 
 not approach them, — and all for their own profit and 
 prejudice of the King and State, — the presence of ho- 
 nest men, who could not comply with them in their ob- 
 lique courses, so hateful that they could not endure it, 
 and so bold, in consideration of the strength of their 
 leagues, that they did not stick to falsify the King's 
 hand, surreptitiously to steal his majesty's superscrip- 
 tions, and to frame letters contrary to his meaning, and 
 many other things of this kind."* So much for Charles's 
 enjoyment of the repose of this pastoral period of his 
 reign. In illustration of his share of its affluence, let 
 us cull another story from Lord Napier's manuscript. 
 
 "His Majesty intended a journey into Scotland, but no 
 money being in his coffers there, Chancellor Hay made 
 offer of ten thousand pounds Sterling, for his Majesty's 
 entertainment during the time of his abode there, upon 
 condition he might have the collection of the taxation, 
 at which he ever aimed most earnestly for the hid pro- 
 fit that was therein, especially the extraordinary, an im- 
 position of his own invention. This galled Menteith, 
 Nithisdale, and that faction, who left no means unat- 
 tempted to cross the same. But it was still entertain- 
 ed, no other appearing to offer a better expedient. They 
 dealt earnestly with me to make offer of money, and 
 
 * Sir Philip Warwick (p. 146,) also alludes to this method of deceiv- 
 ing the King, during the correspondence betwixt his Majesty and the 
 
 Marquis of Hamilton, when with his fleet in the Frith of Forth, in 1 639. 
 
 3
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF CHARLES I. 61 
 
 promised to concur for the levying, alledging the trea- 
 surer's indignity, and mine, if another should do that 
 which belonged to our place. Little did their speeches 
 move me, (who knew their ends,) and their promises 
 less, assuring myself that, whoever advanced the money, 
 the treasurer and I were to see it spent, and to order 
 the entertainment ; and, esteeming the chancellor's ad- 
 vancing of money no greater indignity to us than if it 
 were done by a merchant, I never stirred till I under- 
 stood, elsewhere, that the chancellor had sent to Scot- 
 land for Sir James Baillie, and that their purpose was, 
 the one by advancing the money, the other by making 
 provisions, to thrust my Lord Treasurer and me out of 
 all employment ; and, considering the avarice of the one 
 and the ambition of the other, I was confident of my 
 intelligence. Then suffered I myself to be persuaded 
 by Menteith and Nithisdale, and the rest, and made 
 offer to his Majesty of so much as should serve him dur- 
 ing his abode in Scotland, telling that I did believe the 
 Lord Treasurer would do the like, without other condi- 
 tion than assurance of repayment, leaving the rest to his 
 Majesty's good pleasure. He took my offer in very good 
 part, commanding me to repair to him, within two days, 
 for answer, which I did. Then he told me he would 
 employ all the statesmen (of whom I was one) to take 
 up the money, giving them assurance upon his rents 
 and taxations. I did much commend his Majesty's pur- 
 pose, and was glad of it, for thereby I was freed from 
 the hazard of advancement of so great a sum, and the 
 rights of our place not in the course to be impaired. To 
 this effect his Majesty sent letters to the official's of estate 
 who were in Scotland. This delay, together with the 
 advice of the Lords, English and Scottish, did put off
 
 62 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 his journey till the next spring.* He went a progress, 
 and I took my leave for Scotland. But, while his Ma- 
 jesty was at Beaulie the answer of his letter came up, 
 not only refusing his desire, but advising him to call a 
 convention, and impose (I use their very words) a tax- 
 ation : and, if his Majesty would need have them levy 
 money, they thought it reasonable that every man hav- 
 ing warrants, fees, or pensions out of the exchequer, 
 (who, indeed, for the most part are poor, and have no 
 other means to live) should bind with them for the 
 money. At which his Majesty was much offended, as 
 he had good reason, and did suspect that they had no 
 mind to see him there. At this time Archibald Campbell 
 being at Court was told of the letter by the secretary, 
 who asked him where I was, and if I would yet un- 
 dertake to furnish the King money for his journey. He 
 answered that I was still in London, and was assured 
 that I would do any thing I was able for the King's ser- 
 vice.f This being reported to the King, Archibald 
 Campbell was presently dispatched away with a letter 
 to me. When I came, his Majesty told me that he re- 
 ceived a most shameful refusal, and asked me what I 
 would do for him. Nothing, Sir, (said I) less than I am 
 able, and, if my friends who are to engage themselves 
 for me shall see a sure way of relief, if ye want money 
 ye shall blame me, but I will desire your Majesty to 
 give commission to your officiars to order your enter- 
 
 * This was the memorable coronation visit to Scotland, which, after 
 many delays, the King effected in 1633. It was only less fatal to him 
 than the next visit in 1641, when, in spite, as we shall find, of the zeal- 
 ous exertions of Montrose and Napier to save him, his Majesty was vir- 
 tually dethroned in Scotland. 
 
 f Archibald Campbell was a brother of Sir James Campbell of Law- 
 ers. He figures during the troubles as the confidential agent of the si- 
 nister Argyle.
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF CHARLES I. 63 
 
 tainment, and if things be not orderly done, let your 
 Majesty blame them, for I cannot take that upon me." 
 After narrating his arrangements to carry this plan 
 into effect, Lord Napier proceeds, "I went about 
 the furnishing of such things as could not be con- 
 veniently had in Scotland, specially the banquetting 
 stuff, for which I agreed with Robert Walthew, 
 sergeant of the King's confectionary, at ordinary 
 rates, for ready money, (not daring to trust any other 
 with that which was for the King's own mouth,) and, 
 at Archibald Campbell's desire did offer the employ- 
 ment under me to Sir James Baillie, of whom, because 
 I shall have often occasion to name him, I shall once 
 for all give his character. He was basely born, and had 
 his education under a butcher, * — the height of his 
 ability was to be clerk of a kitchen, — extremely ambi- 
 tious, — and, to attain his ends, would give largely of 
 that which he had got indirectly. This man did re- 
 fuse it, (knowing, by long experience, that hardly should 
 he make unlawful benefit where I was to look to him,) 
 pretending disability, and a desire to retire from pub- 
 lic services ; whereby I conjectured that he had some 
 wicked purposes, as indeed he had, for within two days 
 after he went to Scotland, possessed the Lord-Treasurer 
 that I went about to take his place from him, and, per- 
 ceiving the official's of estate to be so offended with me 
 (for daring to undertake what they had refused,) that 
 they resolved not to give way to any warrant I should 
 bring down, conceived hopes that by their means I 
 might be displaced, and himself succeed." 
 
 * Napier mentions that Baillie had heen the bosom friend of the last 
 treasurer-depute, Sir Gideon Murray, under whom he was a receiver, 
 and most unfairly tried to oust his patron, that he might get the place, 
 as he now tried by Lord Napier. He was treasurer of the navy, and, 
 from Napier's account, a very dishonest man.
 
 64 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In consequence of this mean intriguing of the Scotch 
 factionists, — not for the " good of the state," but out of 
 " spleen to the persons of men, and their own private 
 interest," — this scheme, to assist the King with money 
 for his long projected visit to Scotland, was frustrated, 
 and the royal warrants which Lord Napier brought to 
 Scotland were actually refused to be received. " Upon 
 which," says he, " I resolved to go up to show his Ma- 
 jesty what rubs his service had got in my person, that 
 his service might not be disappointed, but that he might 
 remove them, or take some other course in due time." 
 On his journey, however, Napier was encountered 
 at " Cobbrandspath," by Roxburgh, Archibald Camp- 
 bell, and Sir James Baillie, who persuaded him to pause 
 eight days on the road, until they should communicate 
 with the Earl of Mar, with a view of accommodating 
 matters. Then they brought the draught of letter to 
 the King, for Napier to sign, so worded as to imply a 
 voluntary resignation by him, in favour of Mar, of the 
 employment for which Napier had obtained the royal war- 
 rant to himself. " This (says he) not giving satisfaction, 
 they persuaded me to go to Tuninghame to the Earl of 
 Haddington, * who undoubtedly would find a temper of 
 
 * This was the celebrated Thomas Hamilton of Priestfield, (a younger 
 branch of Hamilton of Innerwick,) who was Lord Advocate in 1596, and 
 President of the Court of Session in 1616, having been previously rais- 
 ed to the peerage by the title of Lord Binning and Byres. In 1619, he 
 was created Earl of Melrose, and some years afterwards Earl of Had- 
 dington. Upon one occasion, when presiding in the Court of Session 
 " in an improbation of a writ, which the Lords were convinced was forg- 
 ed, but puzzled for want of clear proof, Lord Binning taking up the 
 writ in his hand, and holding it betwixt him and the light, discovered 
 the forgery by the stamp of the paper, the first paper of such a stamp 
 being posterior to the date of the writ quarrelled. At another time a 
 Highland witness in a cause, who had been hard put to it by his Lord- 
 ship's interrogatories, meeting another Highlander who came to depone 
 in favour of the same party, advised him to beware of the man with the 
 partridge eye." — Preface to Forbes' s Collection of Decisions. Among Sir
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF CHARLES I. 65 
 
 mind to please us both. Where when I came he went 
 about to persuade me to expunge these words, ' my 
 name jointly with his,' as of no importance ; but I un- 
 derstood the importance of them, and their intentions 
 too, for certainly if any such letter had been sent by me, 
 they would have used it as an argument of my un wor- 
 thiness of that employment, who had so basely given it 
 over." The result of this petty faction was, that both 
 the Earl of Mar and Lord Napier were driven to re- 
 sign their respective offices, before the King came to 
 Scotland to be crowned . 
 
 Throughout all the scenes which Lord Napier thus pri- 
 vately recorded, (with no view to a defence or eulogy of 
 the King, not yet embarked on the great sea of his trou- 
 bles,) we look in vain for that Tyrant whom Mr Brodie 
 has so laboriously imagined, and of whom he says, — " had 
 this misguided prince even confined himself to the illegal 
 and wicked device of extorting money from the subject, 
 his conduct would have been less exposed to censure in 
 civil matters than it necessarily was ; but his arbitra- 
 ry and his capricious system of government reached 
 departments where he seems to have intruded for the 
 purpose only of proving the plenitude of his power ; 
 the hackney-coaches in London offended his eye, and 
 therefore he imposed severe regulations upon them, and 
 restricted their number."* We pity the historian who 
 has more sympathy for hackney-coaches than for 
 
 James Balfour's manuscripts, in the Advocates' Library, there is an epi- 
 taph upon this Earl, which we give in modern orthography. — 
 Here lies a Lord, who, while he stood, 
 
 Had matchless been, had he been 
 
 Tbis epitaph's a syllable short, 
 
 And ye may add a syllable to it, 
 But what that syllable doth import ; 
 My defunct Lord could never do it. 
 * History of the British Empire, ii. 279. 
 VOL. I. E
 
 ()6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Charles I., and who, in his fatiguing" endeavours to 
 prove that monarch a monster, enriches a history 
 of the British Empire with such facts and exclama- 
 tions as, — " What will the reader think of a pro- 
 clamation prohibiting the use of snaffles, and com- 
 manding that of bits ?" * Let it be our humbler but 
 happier task to call attention to this trait of Charles, 
 that when, for a factious purpose, the old Earl of Mar 
 " fell down upon his knees with his crutches, and with 
 tears intreated the King — thus stirring pity to cause 
 injustice — the King said, ' My Lord, I would do you 
 any favour, but I cannot do injustice for you;' — and that 
 when a dominant faction, upon whom his Majesty felt 
 entirely dependent in the government of Scotland, pre- 
 sented, for his signature, a tyrannical letter against a 
 faithful servant whose only power was his integrity, 
 '< his Majesty threw it away, saying, ' this man has suf- 
 fered enough already.' " 
 
 But the subject of these noble expressions was not in- 
 sensible to a weakness in the character of Charles, which 
 was at the root of all that monarch's misfortunes. 
 Mr D'Israeli quotes from the Sloane manuscripts a 
 remark of St John, that " the truth is, the King had 
 an unhappiness in adhering to, and unweariedly pur- 
 suing, the advices of others, and mistrusting his 
 own, though often-times more safe and better than 
 those of other persons." Clarendon also says, " he 
 had an excellent understanding, but was not confident 
 of it, which madehim often-times change his own opinion 
 for a worse, and follow the advice of men that did not 
 judge so well as himself." These opinions were record- 
 ed after the scenes of the great Rebellion had passed 
 away. Lord Napier must have been a close and phi- 
 losophical observer of the times, and of the King, to have 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 280.
 
 WEAKNESSES OF CHARLES I. 67 
 
 noted down, with a spirit of prophecy, reflections to the 
 very same effect before those scenes had commenced. 
 That Charles, though after the death of Buckingham 
 he assumed the reigns of government, never shook off 
 his early habits of dependency,— -that he placed a fatal 
 reliance on the probity of certain Scotchmen about his 
 person, who yet were so faithless as to steal his corre- 
 spondence and turn it against himself, — that he was ever 
 a slave to favouritism, so that the first false steps of his 
 inexperienced government, the "unseasonable, unskilful, 
 and precipitated dissolutions"* of his sour and ungene- 
 rous parliaments, were to screen his favourites from popu- 
 lar pursuit, — that his pious and patriotic intentions with 
 regard to the church and state of Scotland turned to his 
 ruin, from a too implicit reliance upon the rash policy of 
 Laud, — all these circumstances are mournfully comment- 
 ed upon by Clarendon, as having been instrumental in 
 the wreck of empire that statesmen lived to deplore. 
 But before the name of Covenanter was applied, or the 
 Covenant imagined, Lord Napier had, in these dis- 
 positions of the King, detected the sources of future 
 evil. Among the fragments of reflections in his own 
 handwriting, which time has spared, I find the following. 
 
 ** A short discourse upon some incongruities in mat- 
 ters of estate. 
 
 ' 1. That churchmen have competency, is agreeable to 
 the law of God and man. But to invest them into 
 great estates, and principal offices of the state, is neither 
 convenient for the church, for the King, nor for the 
 state. t Not for the church, for the indiscrete zeal, and 
 
 * Clarendon. 
 
 \ Unfortunately Laud entertained sentiments diametrically opposed 
 to the above, which it is interesting- to compare with a well known pas-
 
 68 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 excessive donations of princes were the first causes of 
 corruption in the Roman church, the taste whereof did 
 so inflame the avarice and ambition of the successors, 
 that they have raised themselves above all secular and 
 sovereign power, and to maintain the same have ob- 
 tended to the world certain devices of their own for mat- 
 ters of faith. Not to Kings, nor states, for histories 
 witness what troubles have been raised to Kings, what 
 tragedies among subjects, in all places where church- 
 men were great. Our reformed churches having re- 
 duced religion to the ancient primitive truth and sim- 
 plicity, ought to beware that corruption enter not in 
 their church at the same gate, which already is open 
 with store of attendant thereat to welcome it with pomp 
 and ceremony. 
 
 " 2. Tutors and counsellors to young princes, next 
 under God, have the fate of after-times in their hands. 
 For according as the first impressions and maxims of 
 government, wherewith these new vessels are seasoned, 
 be solid and true, or subtile and false, so prove the times 
 happy or miserable. 
 
 " 3. To know men, their abilities, dispositions, and 
 affections, is the proper art of princes, their most pro- 
 fitable study, the abridgement of all good government. 
 For, there being no public business which falleth not 
 
 sage of Clarendon's, written at a later period. Laud " did really believe 
 that nothing more contributed to the benefit and advancement of the 
 church, than the promotion of churchmen to places of the greatest ho- 
 nour, and offices of the highest trust. This opinion, and the prosecu- 
 tion of it (though his integrity was unquestionable, and his zeal as great 
 for the good and honour of the state as for the advancement and security 
 of the church,) was the unhappy foundation of his ownruin, and of the 
 prejudice towards, malice against, and almost destruction of the church." 
 — Hist. Vol. i. p. 152. — The date of Lord Napier's MS. is probably soon 
 after the coronation visit to Scotland, and when Charles imprudently 
 raised so many churchmen to his councils, and invested Archbishop 
 Spotiswood with the seals of that kingdom.
 
 WEAKNESSES OF CHARLES I. 69 
 
 within the compass of some office or employment, by 
 this knowledge, though there were no other, the prince 
 shall be able to furnish all offices with able and honest 
 men, who doing the duty in their several spheres and 
 employments necessarily concludeth a happy govern- 
 ment of the whole. Such men are rich prizes, and the 
 most precious jewels of the crown ; to take them upon 
 hazard is a lottery, and recommendation is factious ; 
 election upon knowledge is the best, and next to that 
 is the common report and reputation, for, nemo un- 
 quam omnes fefellit, neminem omnes Jefellere. * 
 
 " 4. Absolute and implicit trust in whatever they do 
 or deliver, without further inquiry, like blind obedience, 
 neither religion nor wisdom doth allow ; for ipse dixit 
 is a premiss necessarily inferring truth in God alone, — 
 it emboldeneth men to deceive, — it maketh the servant 
 great and the master contemptible, — indicium regis 
 non magni, magni liberti,\ — for a prince, like a good 
 horseman and pilot, should never let the reins and rud- 
 der out of his hand. 
 
 " 5. Kings are the formal warrant of justice betwixt 
 subjects ; much more are they obliged to [be just] \ 
 in their own deed. To countenance bad causes is 
 most dishonourable to them ; of sovereigns they de- 
 base themselves to be parties, vilifying thereby the prince- 
 ly authority ; thereby, it may be, they get the love of 
 the one, the dislike of the other, — a bad exchange, for 
 injuries are written in marble, benefits in dust. Be- 
 sides, all men find themselves interest in justice ; the 
 stoping the course thereof, or perverting it, grieves every 
 
 * No man ever contrived to deceive all the world, just as all the world 
 never deceived any man. 
 
 \ The Icings who magnify their slaves, forge for themselves a chain, 
 And bloated minions near the throne bespeak a sickly reign. 
 
 \ The words within brackets are here supplied conjectural! y, the manu- 
 script being torn.
 
 70 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 heart ; wicked are those who move them to it, — like 
 Dalila they cut their hair when they are asleep, and 
 rob them of the subjects love, wherein their strength 
 consisteth. 
 
 " b\ To govern well, good counsel and sure informa- 
 tion are requisite ; this is the ground of that, for no 
 good advice can be given if the estate of the matter be 
 mistaken. Of the two, true information is the most ne- 
 cessary for the affairs of remote kingdoms ; for those 
 businesses which require deep advice are managed there 
 where the person of the prince resideth ; seldom do 
 great matters occur in remote places, and where they 
 do, the nature of the thing alloweth time of deliberation, 
 (for great bodies have slow motions ;) there, if matters 
 go in the ordinary way, all is well ; but, without true 
 information, a prince can neither order things, com- 
 mand, sign, nor direct anything aright. 
 
 " 7. This is good for the King, ill for the people, good 
 for the people, ill for the King, and contrarily, are in- 
 congruities in speech, impossibilities in nature, and can- 
 not be instanced ; they divide things indivisible, and 
 separate what God has conjoined, and have wrought 
 bad opinions in the minds of princes and their subjects 
 in some parts of the world ; they are false though fre- 
 quent, and are the eruptions and sallies from the minds 
 of those evil spirits who walk betwixt a King and his 
 people. For a King and his people make up one poli- 
 tic body, whereof the King is the head. In a politic 
 as in a natural body what is good or ill for one is so 
 for both, neither can the one subsist without the other, 
 but must go to ruin with the other. 
 
 " 8. Princes' letters and laws ought to be clear and per- 
 spicuous, without equivocal or perplexed sense, admit- 
 ting no construction but one. For an obscure law 
 alleged in any cause, gives occasion of more process,
 
 ORIGIN OF THE TROUBLES. 71 
 
 more dispute, and delay, than the cause itself; and an 
 obscure letter makes the party, in whose favour it is 
 conceived, to come up and require an explanation by a 
 second, and his adversary to purchase a contrary one, 
 (which may be done, where there is double sense and 
 obscurity, without danger, the interpretation being al- 
 lowed to the contriver, or at least may serve him for 
 excuse, as being his error not his avarice* which can- 
 not be where words run in a clear and genuine sense,) 
 whereby the prince ******** + an d t \ iey ex _ 
 tremely damnified. 
 
 " 9. Wise princes love rich subjects ; for seditious 
 commotions, nor insurrections, do seldom or ever pro- 
 ceed from men who find themselves well in their pri- 
 vate estates ; j: but they who are pressed with necessity 
 at home are glad of any occasion or pretext to trouble 
 the public quiet, and to fish in troubled waters to bet- 
 ter their fortunes. Pernicious, therefore, is that advice 
 to keep subjects low and poor the better to govern them. 
 " 10. To protect faithful servants is a generous and 
 princely part ; and [to protect] the guilty, too, against 
 the pursuit of another that is powerful, may perchance 
 seem to maintain a prince's prerogative ; but then he 
 
 * See this explained in a passage of Lord Napier's Relation, ante p. 
 45. The value of the advice was verified in the sequel. In each fresh im- 
 pulse given to the democratic movement, the covenanting faction ex- 
 cused themselves, as a certain class of writers yet attempt to excuse them, 
 upon some double sense alleged to be detected in the King's conces- 
 sions. 
 
 f Manuscript torn. 
 
 X The needy Rothes was the father of the Covenant. He was bought 
 off by the prospect of a place and a rich marriage at court. The first 
 great result of the Covenant was, as we shall find, the scramble among 
 its leaders for offices torn from the King's prerogative in 1641 ; and it- 
 subsequent progress was simply the securing by Revolution, what had 
 been so lawlessly acquired by insurrection. Hardly one generous feel- 
 ing, one Christian impulse, or one legitimate act belongs to the real bis- 
 tory of the Covenant.
 
 72 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ought to be punished by [the prince] himself. So shall 
 justice be satisfied, the honour of the King's service, 
 and his prerogative remain inviolated. 
 
 " Those councils (with the like of that kind,) wherein 
 the prince's good is pretended, the private ends of these 
 bad councillors only intended, hath been the efficient 
 causes of the ruin of kings, kingdoms and estates, — 
 which Almighty God can only remead. And therefore, 
 let all good subjects who love their prince and country 
 pray with Solomon, Lord remove the wicked* 
 from the King, and his throne shall be established in 
 righteousness." 
 
 Such were the reflections, on the prospects of King 
 and country, noted in the privacy of his closet, and ere 
 the great Rebellion had commenced, by one who may be 
 said to have reared that " bloody murtherer and ex- 
 communicated traitor" Montrose, and whom we shall 
 presently discover sharing and approving every step of 
 his calumniated pupil's career, from his early and mis- 
 taken support of the Covenant, to his raising the roy- 
 al banner in Scotland. Had Napier, like Clarendon, 
 lived to know the fate of Charles, and to trace his 
 history back from its bloody close through all the ma- 
 zes of faction and faithlessness that destroyed him, 
 he would have needed not to depart from or alter a 
 single sentence of his painful meditations. There is a 
 melancholy interest in redeeming from its lurking 
 place of many generations, so prophetic a manu- 
 script, on such a subject, to contrast it with the vo- 
 lumes that have been published since, and especially 
 with the too perfect fulfilment as recorded in the 
 
 * These words are written emphatically in large letters in the manu- 
 script.
 
 ORIGIN OF THE TROUBLES. 73 
 
 pages of Clarendon. Those who love to linger over 
 that exciting period of our history, when they read 
 this additional record, will call to mind how Charles I. 
 was surrounded hy " servants of the Scottish nation, 
 who, he thought, could never fail him, and among these 
 no man had such an ascendant over him, by the hum- 
 blest insinuations, as Duke Hamilton had." * They 
 will remember, too, the mysterious stories against this 
 unfathomable Hamilton, — how he enchained the King's 
 affections as if by magic, — how he deceived Montrose, 
 and exiled him from the King's presence and affections, 
 — how he betrayed Huntly, and then betrayed his mas- 
 ter to the faction that sold him to his murderers. And 
 they will remember how the King trusted " little Will 
 Murray of the bed-chamber," who picked his pockets 
 of his letters, and whispered in his startled ear foul 
 calumnies, about Montrose and assassination ! In the 
 progress of our illustrations of Montrose and his times, 
 we shall have to unravel or elucidate some of these 
 mysterious double dealings, and to show how much of 
 his fate, and that of his unhappy sovereign, is involved 
 in the fact, that it was not the will of the Almighty to 
 remove the wicked from the King. 
 
 Among these melancholy fragments of Lord Napier's 
 prophetic views of his times, I find another very inte- 
 resting paper, all in his own handwriting, which ap- 
 pears to have been addressed to the King himself, a 
 few years before his progress to be crowned in Scot- 
 land. Whether it was actually sent to his Majesty, or, 
 if sent, ever suffered to reach him, and how far the 
 scheme proposed was practicable, there is now no means 
 of knowing. But it will be seen from the tenor of 
 it how intensely the writer had felt on the subject of 
 
 * Clarendon.
 
 74 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the fatal effect of those mists of ignorance and " mis- 
 takings," as to the affairs of Scotland, in which the King 
 was continually enveloped, by those who, for the sake 
 of petty and private interests, so treacherously practis- 
 ed upon the facilities of his disposition. 
 
 " Offers of useful service to your Majesty, some few 
 propositions being first premised whereby the use of 
 that service may be better known, 
 
 " That the state of business is oftimes disguised to 
 princes, for private ends. 
 
 " That the truth of business is hardly to be expected 
 from the relations* of great men, whose friendships and 
 dependencies extend far, — or from men factious, — or 
 from such servants as endeavour to build up their for- 
 tunes with their own hands, not leaving to their masters 
 to do it upon their good deserving, — or from parties. 
 
 " That from misinformation, all errors, incongruities 
 in matters of estate, and mistaking of the true means, 
 whereby the just and gracious purposes of princes come 
 to be disappointed, do proceed. 
 
 " That it is not easy to distinguish truth from false- 
 hood, seconded by friends, and supported by reasons 
 probable. 
 
 " That it is impossible to do any thing conveniently 
 or rightly, or to determine any thing dejure, if first it 
 be not known how it is de facto. 
 
 " That the justest and wisest princes must err in 
 their directions given upon sinister information of the 
 state of the business in hand. 
 
 " That it is an easy matter to a just prince, by fol- 
 lowing only the bent of his own inclination, to give 
 
 * i. e. Information. 
 3
 
 ORIGIN OF THE TROUBLES. 75 
 
 such directions and commands, upon matters perfectly 
 known to him, as thereby he may reap honour, profit, 
 the love of his subjects, and the reputation of wisdom 
 and justice. 
 
 " The truth of these foresaid propositions being so 
 well known to your Majesty, it would be impertinent 
 to me to go about to prove. But to be a means and 
 instrument whereby the- true state of business of Scot- 
 land, a place remote, may be conveyed to your sacred 
 ears, is the best and most useful service can fall within 
 the compass of my power, the highest of whose endea- 
 vour is to be a faithful servant, and not to make an un- 
 just claim to eminent abilities. If therefore, your, Ma- 
 jesty may be pleased to prefer some honest and well- 
 deserving servant to the place I hold of your Majesty,* 
 
 * This proves that the manuscript was written before Lord Na- 
 pier had given up his place of treasurer-depute, and consequently be- 
 fore the King's visit to Scotland in 1(533. The proposal to be placed 
 about his Majesty's person Napier was justified in making, having been 
 for many years gentleman of the bed-chamber to James VI., and speci- 
 ally recommended by that monarch, on his deathbed, to Charles I., and 
 thus Napier was the first Scotsman whom Charles raised to the peerage. 
 " After I had left the schools," says Lord Napier in his manuscript Re- 
 lation, " 1 addressed myself to the service of King James of blessed me- 
 mory, and was graciously received by him, and, after the death of Queen 
 Elizabeth, I followed his Majesty into England when he went to receive 
 the crown of that kingdom. I served him there, as gentleman of his 
 privy-chamber, the space of sixteen or seventeen years, or thereabout, 
 continually, till his Majesty was pleased to cast the Earl of Somerset out 
 of his favour, and take in his place George Villiers, afterwards Duke of 
 Buckingham, a powerful favourite, and no good friend of mine, because 
 I, with some of our countrymen, endeavoured to support Somerset, which 
 in his (Villiers') construction was an opposing of his rising. Therefore 
 I, being much desired thereto by my worthy father,* took this occasion to 
 repair to Scotland, and expect the event of things; wherewith I did ac- 
 quaint the King, and desired his leave, which he granted, but not before 
 he made his favourite, against his mind I think, to give me large pro- 
 mises of friendship and fair blossoms of protestations and compliment 
 
 * This is the only notice to be found, in all Lord Napier's manuscripts, of his 
 celebrated father, the Inventor of the Logarithms, who died in 1017.
 
 76 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and to give me some place of access to your Majesty's 
 person, (without which, services of that kind are nearly 
 unuseful,) and a reasonable means that I be not forced 
 to undo my estate, and instead of a useful servant be- 
 come a troublesome suitor, (whereby there shall be more 
 by many degrees brought in, and saved in your Ma- 
 jesty's coffers,) then I do humbly offer and undertake, — 
 
 " To establish such correspondence in most parts of 
 Scotland, and in all the courts and judicatures thereof, 
 with men honest and judicious, not interested in affairs, 
 and not knowing one of another, who shall give me 
 sure intelligence of the state of every business which 
 shall occur ; and if any of them shall chance to be par- 
 tially affected, the relation of the others shall controul 
 what is amiss in his. Which relations shall be made 
 known to your Majesty by me, without passion or af- 
 fection, and without respect to any end of my own or of 
 others, as I shall answer to God in conscience, to your 
 Majesty upon my alledgeance, and under pain of your 
 highest displeasure. Whereby your Majesty shall reap 
 these commodities following, and many more. 
 
 " 1. As the clouds which obscure and darken the 
 sun are dispersed by the heat of the same, so shall the 
 cloud of factions, compacted to no other end but to mis- 
 
 which never bore fruit." A few years afterwards, however, the King 
 made a point, against very powerful opposition, of preferring Napier to 
 the place of treasurer-depute, " and (he adds) a little before his death he 
 recommended me, I being then in Scotland, to his son King Charles, as 
 his majesty (Charles) himself was pleased to tell me, than which a greater 
 testimony of a gracious master's favour to an absent servant, at such a 
 time, could not be expressed." I find from a letter of Napier's, (while 
 gentleman of the bed-chamber,) to the celebrated Sir Julius Caesar, that 
 he was very much impoverished by that post, (probably from lend- 
 ing money to the King,) and indeed in great difficulties, which accounts 
 for his cautious qualification of the above offers to Charles. It would 
 have been well for the monarch had Napier been in the place of " little 
 Will Murray of the bedchamber,'' 
 
 4
 
 ORIGIN OF THE TROUBLES. 77 
 
 inform your Majesty for their private advantage, and 
 to the prejudice of your Majesty's just and gracious de- 
 signs, be dissolved by the knowledge of the true state of 
 things, and your Majesty's resolutions and directions, 
 proceeding from that knowledge, being constant and 
 absolute, shall render their combinations vain and of 
 no force, and your Majesty's affairs shall go more smooth- 
 ly than hitherto they have gone. 
 
 " 2. All your Majesty's officers there shall endeavour 
 to approve themselves to your Majesty by their faithful 
 service, when they shall see that their demeanour is 
 truly known to you, and shall not trust any more the 
 recommendation of their faction, whose manner is to 
 endear to your Majesty the worst services of their side, 
 and to disable and traduce others who are not of their 
 cabal, although your Majesty's true servants. So shall 
 your Majesty be well served, and your subjects made 
 happy. 
 
 " 3. I undertake that no man employed in receiving 
 or debursing of moneys, of any kind belonging to your 
 Majesty, shall be able to deceive your Majesty, or con- 
 vert it to their own use, but it shall be made known to 
 your Majesty, which is no small benefit in regard of the 
 former carriage of business. 
 
 " 4. No more gifts shall be procured from your Ma- 
 jesty surreptitiously, or upon wrong narratives, and 
 the true value shall be made known. 
 
 " 5. The perpetual confluens of the Scottish nation 
 hither, (who come up either to procure unjust things 
 by means of their friends, or to recal such things pur- 
 chased upon wrong information tending to their detri- 
 ment, whereby your Majesty is exceedingly troubled, 
 they undone, and that kingdom exhausted and drained 
 of money,) shall be much diminished.
 
 78 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " These commodities, and many more, shall redound 
 to your Majesty by knowledge of the true estate of busi- 
 ness, which I do humbly offer to procure, if your Ma- 
 jesty do think that I can be faithful. But if it shall 
 not please your Majesty to embrace or like of these of- 
 fers, I shall pray Almighty God, who hath the hearts 
 of princes in his hand, to direct your Majesty to a bet- 
 ter course than this, for your Majesty's own good and 
 that of your subjects." 
 
 The endeavours of Charles I. to relieve the Scottish 
 nation from the oppression of the aristocratic tithe- 
 holders, and the state prosecution of Lord Balmerino 
 for a seditious libel, a prosecution which arose out of the 
 circumstances of the King's coronation visit to Scotland 
 in 1633, may be termed the seeds of the Covenant, and 
 of that revolt in the north which so greatly aided, if it did 
 not bring about, the subsequent Rebellion. With regard 
 to the important subject of the tithe policy of Charles I. 
 Lord Napier's manuscripts afford a more authentic and 
 interesting elucidation, especially as regards the King's 
 motives and intentions, than has hitherto been recorded.* 
 Malcolm Laing observes, that " a general revocation of 
 the tithes and benefices usurped by the laity had been 
 projected by James, but deferred from the unexpected 
 
 * MrConnell (Treatise on Tithes, Vol. i. p. 230,) speaking of the sys- 
 tem introduced by Charles I., observes, — " The events which led to the 
 accomplishment of this great undertaking are involved in some obscu- 
 rity. They are faintly alluded to by the historians of the day, and few 
 of our lawyers attempt to trace their origin and progress. The work was 
 probably the result of a combination of circumstances. Something of 
 the kind was in agitation soon after the Reformation, but Charles I. had 
 the honour of carrying the plan into execution, although it seems to be 
 a matter of doubt whether it was a voluntary measure of policy on his 
 part, or took its rise from the disputes between him and his nobles in 
 Scotland, concerning the revenues of the popish clergy,"
 
 \ 
 
 TITHE POLICY OF CHARLES I. 79 
 
 opposition to the articles of Perth ; but his schemes 
 had been carefully infused into Charles, and in the ex- 
 ecution of those dangerous and useless projects, the 
 tranquillity of Scotland was imprudently sacrificed." 
 The same writer says that by this revocation Charles 
 " intended to aggrandize the dignified clergy ;" nor 
 will he attribute to the monarch one beneficent inten- 
 tion, or credit him with one beneficial result in follow- 
 ing out this most difficult policy. Mr Brodie is yet more 
 severe. He will allow the King no better motive for 
 the revocation of tithes, than " in order to support the 
 prelates in becoming state ;" and asserts that he " only 
 aimed at lessening the aristocratic power as it clashed 
 with his own, leaving the people still naked of protec- 
 tion," — and thus this historian traces all those distrac- 
 tions in the state of Scotland, which preceded the in- 
 surrection, to the conduct and " the intention of the 
 King." 
 
 Lord Napier, who probably knew more of the in- 
 tentions of the King than did either of the above his- 
 torians, (for, says he, " of the commission of the tithes 
 I had the honour to be one, and, according to my duty 
 and power, did advance his Majesty's just and gracious 
 purpose,") recorded at the time, and before the troubles 
 broke out, this very different view of the matter. " The 
 business of tithes, amongst others, was most constantly 
 prosecuted by his Majesty ; — a purpose of his father's, 
 or his own, who, finding the heavy oppression of teind- 
 masters and the servitude of the people, did earnestly 
 endeavour to remedy it ; but in this, as in other mat- 
 ters, what truly might be said to be his, which were 
 his intentions only, was most just and princely ; but the 
 means, which were other men's inventions, were most 
 unfit to compass his ends, but fit enough to serve their
 
 80 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 turns that found it their private prejudice (interest) to 
 render the business intricate, longsome, and difficult, 
 upon hope his Majesty would relinquish the same ; 
 neither was this form of proceeding displeasing to some 
 most intrusted, for by the difficulty they did indear 
 their services, and in the mean time, giving his Majes- 
 ty hopes of great matters, they drew from him present 
 and certain benefits, above the proportion of their merit, 
 or of his Majesty's ability." 
 
 The design of recovering the tithes from the hands of 
 those grasping and factious barons who had made the 
 reformation of the church in Scotland an excuse for ap- 
 propriating that property to themselves, was thus pro- 
 tracted through a number of years from the commence- 
 ment of the reign ; and Charles himself refers to the un- 
 just discontent of the nobles, whose power was to suf- 
 fer from this salutary restriction, the murmurs and 
 heart-burnings which found a vent in the insurrection 
 against Episcopacy. When the general revocation was 
 first proposed, the King met with a violent opposition 
 from interested noblemen, several of whom were at the 
 very time disgusting his Majesty with those petty fac- 
 tions at court, of which Lord Napier has left so curious a 
 record. Mar, Haddington, Roxburgh, Morton, and 
 the violent old gouty chancellor, Sir George Hay 
 (Kinnoul) were, from personal interest, among the lead- 
 ers of that opposition, which, we are told by Burnet, 
 very nearly brought on an extraordinary scene of assas- 
 sination and massacre when Nithisdale came to Scot- 
 land commissioned by the King to make good the revo- 
 cation. It was after this failure that the famous " Com- 
 mission of Surrenders of Superiorities and Tithes" was 
 issued in the year 1627, the following illustration of 
 which, from a manuscript in Lord Napier's handwrit-
 
 TITHE POLICY OF CHARLES I. 81 
 
 ing, (apparently addressed to a friend when his Lord- 
 ship was under the temporary displeasure of Charles, 
 occasioned by the arts he exposed,) is both interesting 
 and valuable in reference to the history of that much 
 canvassed policy, and the character and position of the 
 King. 
 
 " A Discourse upon the business of the Tithes, now 
 
 in hand. 
 
 " I will not, worthy friend, * enter into any curious 
 inquisition whether or no the business of the tithes now 
 in agitation, of its own nature easy, be rendered diffi- 
 cult by the practice of men interested, whose manner 
 is to praise the designs of princes, and cross them in the 
 means, by opposing those that are fit and advising the 
 unfit, — or by the subtilty of those who are entrusted 
 and employed, to endear thereby their services, and to 
 draw from his Majesty present and certain benefits, giv- 
 ing in exchange future and uncertain hopes, — or by 
 their ignorance who never fix their thoughts upon 
 means ready and in hand, (as unfit to compass greater 
 matters, and bearing no proportion with them,) but hunt 
 after the odd and extraordinary, not knowing that as 
 in nature and art, so in the affairs of men, (which are 
 not merely natural, but partly so and partly voluntary, 
 and therefore much beholden to art and dexterity in the 
 managing,) the greatest matters are performed ofttimes 
 by the easiest and most obvious means. Whether any 
 of these be the cause, or all, or none, but somewhat else, 
 I know not, and therefore will not wrong any man by 
 conjectures, but leave the search of remote and hidden 
 
 * The manuscript is not otherwise addressed. 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 causes to deeper judgments. Neither will I meddle with 
 the Commission,* nor the tenor of it. But that I may 
 in some measure give satisfaction to your desire, I will 
 only set down the known effects, and then deliver my 
 opinion of the nearest cause of these effects. 
 
 " The effects are these : A tedious longsomeness, in- 
 superable difficulties, and a general complaint of all par- 
 ties, — evident arguments of a business ill managed and 
 miscarried, and giving just cause of fear that the event 
 shall not answer his Majesty's expectation in honour 
 nor profit. That it is longsome, and like to be so still, 
 and that it is intricate and dificile, these three years' en- 
 deavours, with so small advancement, gives evident de- 
 monstration, where difficulties, like the heads of Hydra, 
 no sooner one cut off but another arises. That the com- 
 plaint and discontent is general the induction of parti- 
 culars will best shew. 
 
 " The Clergy complain that they are not only de- 
 frauded, by this course, of the tithes the true patrimony 
 of the church, but of all hope of recovering the same 
 in any time coming, — that the constitutions of men are 
 preferred to the law of God, not only by derogating 
 from it, but by utterly abolishing the same, — that sa- 
 crilege is allowed by public authority, and brought in- 
 to the King's house. 
 
 " The Titulars f complain that their infeftments, 
 and ratifications of the same in Parliament, (the funda- 
 mental law whereby the subjects possess any thing in 
 
 * " Commission granted by King Charles to the clergy, nobility, gen- 
 try, and burghs of Scotland to treat anent his revocation. Given at the 
 Court of Whitehall, 7th January 1G27." 
 
 f Anglice, impropriators, — the nobles and barons, namely, who after 
 the Reformation, obtained to themselves gilts from the Crown of these 
 tithes, burdened with the support of the clergy.
 
 TITHE POLICY OF CHARLES I. 83 
 
 property,) are, in their particular, by this course sub- 
 verted ; that they are not only pressed to sell their vine- 
 yard, but forced to do it, and the liberty of the price 
 not permitted to the agreement of parties, but first their 
 part diminished by a quota, and then the remainder 
 undervalued by a price imposed, not the less that some 
 have, and all pretend to have, acquired the same for 
 causes onerous. 
 
 " The Possessors allege that their lands are valu- 
 ed above the worth, and not according to the true and 
 natural fertility, and that there is no defalcation, or de- 
 duction, in regard of their industry, or of accidental or 
 removable causes of their increase, — that most of them 
 not being able to buy their tithe, and the able not wil- 
 ling, for want of security and for other respects, must of 
 necessity pay the quota to the teind-master in victual, 
 which becomes an inherent duty of the land and affects 
 it, and not being paid at the precise and ordinary terms, 
 as few are able to do, the prices and fiars shall be (as 
 hitherto they have been) made exhorbitant by the com- 
 missioners, whom they allege for the most part to be 
 pensioners to the titulars for the purpose. So shall it 
 be still in the titular's power to oppress them, contrary 
 to the King's gracious intention, — 
 
 " Who, in my opinion, has more just cause of offence, 
 than any other of complaint, to find his gracious and 
 just endeavours, of vindicating the greatest part of his 
 people from the oppression of another part,* to be thus 
 
 * The reader may be referred to Mr Bell's Principles of the Law of Scot- 
 land, 3d edition, for an instructive historical sketch of the law of teinds or 
 tithes. With submission, however, to the learned author, the following 
 passage of that elementary work is unjust to Charles I. " On Charles I.'s 
 accession a design appears to have been formed, of supplying the wants of 
 the Crown by a resumption of teinds as well as lands. In the very be- 
 ginning of his reign, he executed a general revocation of all the giants
 
 84 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 frustrated and disappointed, and that which his Majes- 
 ty intended for the general good, to give general dis- 
 contentment, through the ill carriage of the business, 
 whereby his Majesty is defrauded of the honour due to 
 his virtuous and good designs, than which never ])r in ce 
 intended more just, more gracious, nor more truly ho- 
 nourable ; and in the end it is most likely that his pro- 
 fit shall be much diminished, unless some better course 
 be taken. For after the valuations be made, which 
 some of good judgment think will come short of that 
 which was made when the thirds of benefices were as- 
 sumed, and after that the ministers have procured aug- 
 mentations of stipend, which indeed is expedient, and 
 of number, which is more necessary for the service of 
 God, and after that maintenance for hospitals and 
 schools, and other means, be deducted off the tithes, 
 and after that the titulars, either out of favour, or out 
 of consideration of the loss, and the just and meritori- 
 ous causes of their acquisition of the said tithes, get sa- 
 tisfaction, which undoubtedly all will pretend to, all 
 demand, and most of them likely enough receive from 
 so bountiful a disposition, — the remainder is not likely 
 to prove so great as is given out. 
 
 " As to that other way invented to raise profit to his 
 
 of church property made within eighty years, comprehending thus all 
 the lavish and profuse grants of James VI. The threats of a proceeding 
 thus begun excited great alarm ; and the King was forced to lower his 
 tone, and as a justification of the measure to profess two objects to have 
 been in view, in themselves fair and reasonable : — 1. A competent pro- 
 vision for the clergy, and for education ; and, 2. The freeing of owners of 
 land from the oppression suffered in the drawing and levying of tithes." — 
 P. 308. But all the manuscripts of Lord Napier on the subject — written, be 
 it remembered, long previous to those troubles which arose out of the 
 factious opposition to, and interested mismanagement of, the King's pious 
 schemes, — afford a view, of the purity of his intentions, from one so long 
 and intimately acquainted with Charles, that his testimony cannot be 
 doubted.
 
 TITHE POLICY OF CHARLES I. 85 
 
 Majesty, (which by relation I hear only, being made of 
 late a stranger to all these businesses) by appointing to 
 the King a certain part of that money which shall be 
 given for every chalder that is sold, I think it not ho- 
 nourable, for even among subjects it is counted base and 
 called brocage, neither will it prove profitable, but car- 
 ries only a shadow of profit, which upon proof will eva- 
 nish, because it is likely there will be little or no buy- 
 ing of tithes, for many are unable, and more are un- 
 willing, for these reasons : 1. Because no security can 
 be given them, (as they think ;) for the titular, as titu- 
 lar, can give no better than he hath himself, which is 
 esteemed but a patched up one, now in question ; and 
 for the clergy, it is no reason to urge them to give it, 
 who have no benefit, but allege detriment ; neither do 
 they think his Majesty can give such a right as by his 
 successor may not be quarrelled, by alleging the detri- 
 ment of the Crown, which has only got a mean annui- 
 ty of that which totally belongs to it, and so may fall 
 under revocation. 2. Whatever any augmentation 
 of stipend, or new provisions for ministers shall be 
 hereafter, it must come from those who have the in- 
 heritance of tithes, which hazards, those who pay their 
 money will think so hard to be subject to, as they will 
 rather forbear buying at all. So there being no buying, 
 this ground faileth, and the project built thereupon 
 falleth. But granting that all or the most part will 
 buy, the very same benefit the King may reap in a fair 
 and ordinary way, by adding it to the ordinary composi- 
 tion, when they come to seek their confirmations after 
 they have bought. 
 
 " The nearest cause of all these bad effects before 
 expressed, I take to be the preposterous and unfit means 
 used for attaining the King's purpose, and specially the
 
 86 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 endeavour to establish a general quota upon which ne- 
 cessarily dependeth the valuation of all the lands in 
 Scotland. Indeed if the Commission had been given 
 to this end, to establish a certain tithe in some new 
 found land, where never any was before, this had been 
 the only way ; but in Scotland, where there has ever 
 been a known, or easily to be known, tithe of every 
 parcel of ground, since first it received the Christian re- 
 ligion, according to which tacks have been set, fines 
 raised, and bargains of sale made, to induce a new quo- 
 ta, and fit it to all parts of the kingdom alike, were, in 
 my opinion, the way to disturb and confound the whole 
 business, and no more a means to facilitate the sale, ad- 
 mitting that sale had been the true means, than if a 
 merchant, to the effect his cloth might sell the better, 
 would sell none with the old received yard, but stay 
 till a new one were made by Act of Parliament. 
 
 " But it may be said, aut ne carpets aliena, vel ede tua* 
 The first whereof I would not do, if I did not think there 
 were a way (if I be not mistaken) to perform the 
 King's gracious intention, in short time, with ease, con- 
 veniency, contentment and profit to all, or the most part, 
 without any considerable innovation (which, though to 
 the better, is ever of dangerous consequence in a settled 
 state,)| and, what is no little ease to his Majesty, by 
 which no man, of what quality soever, can have any 
 the least pretext to demand satisfaction, or to diminish 
 his Majesty's profit. But neither is this time fit for 
 any such proposition, — when his Majesty is made so 
 hopeful of the course in hand, and so well conceited of 
 the abilities and the affection of the instruments employ- 
 ed and entrusted, — neither am I a fit man to do it in the 
 
 * Either do not carp at the plans of others, or publish your own. 
 f This was prophetic.
 
 TITHE POLICY OF CHARLES I. 87 
 
 terms I now stand ; * for no matter, how good soever, 
 delivered by a man against whom there is prejudice 
 conceived, can relish well. But if hereafter (as is very 
 likely) this course fail which now is run, and that these 
 mists, which calumny and malice have raised to darken 
 his Majesty's countenance towards me, be dispersed by 
 the rays of his own clear judgment, I shall not then be 
 wanting in my affection and duty. At which time, if the 
 proposition like his Majesty, to make it effectual he 
 must own it himself, and, to try it, must ask the opinion 
 of the wisest and best affected concerning the same. 
 For if it should be known or suspected to proceed from 
 any other, it is the humour of some of greatest trust and 
 credit about princes, to disgrace the man, and to slight 
 and cry down any motion, though never so good, which 
 doeth not proceed immediately or mediately from them- 
 selves ; and upon every occasion that occurreth, will 
 rather give bad information, and worse advice, than 
 give way to others, or seem incapable of any thing 
 themselves. Much like that gentleman who rode out, 
 in the company of others, to bring in the Pope to a city 
 in Italy. The Pope asking many questions, and inquir- 
 ing the names of cities, rivers, and places, that came 
 within his view as he went along, this gentleman made 
 answers to all, and gave names to every thing, but ne- 
 ver a true one, being himself ignorant of the same. 
 And so he continued in discourse with the Pope till he 
 came to his lodging, and when a friend of his rebuked him 
 for abusing his holiness with untruths, ' if (said he) I had 
 seemed ignorant of what was asked, the Pope would 
 have called another, so should I forego the honour I 
 
 * This manuscript must have been written (luring the temporary dis- 
 pleasure of the King towards Napier, as narrated in his Relation. See 
 before, p. 36.
 
 88 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 had, — to be seen riding so near the Pope and in speech 
 with him, — and he rests as well satisfied as if the truth 
 had been exactly told him.' 
 
 " And truly, if ever any King, our Sovereign, in so 
 far as concerneth Scottish business, may justly make 
 Dioclesian's complaint, — Colligunt se quatuor ant qnin- 
 qne circa Imperatorem, atque sibi utilia, sub pretextu 
 boni publici et principis, proponunt, — bonos, et virtute 
 prceditos, ab Imperatore amovent, — malos, Jactiosos et 
 sibi idoneos adsciscunt, — veritatem ad aures principis 
 appellerc non simtnt, — Sit bonus, sapiens, cautus, 
 
 DECIPITUR 1MPERATOR."* 
 
 From these, and other fragments of his reflections 
 we shall yet have to quote, it might almost seem 
 that the preceptor of Montrose had been gifted with 
 the second sight of his country, and that to him the 
 " coming events cast their shadows before." It is in- 
 teresting to connect the above manuscript, upon one of 
 the most influential and least elucidated events of the 
 times, with a passage in Heylyn's Life of Laud. That 
 contemporary writer narrates, that, in the minority of 
 
 * These last words are written emphatically large in the manuscript* 
 It is a speech put in the mouth of the Emperor Diocletian, after his vo- 
 luntary abdication of the throne, when declaiming on his favourite topic, 
 the difficulty of being a good prince. Gibbon thus paraphrases the pas- 
 sage. " How often is it the interest of four or five ministers to combine 
 together to deceive their Sovereign ! Secluded from mankind by his ex. 
 alted dignity, the truth is concealed from his knowledge, — he can see 
 only with their eyes, he hears nothing but their misrepresentations. He 
 confers the most important offices upon vice and weakness, and disgraces 
 the most virtuous and deserving among his subjects. By such infamous 
 arts the best and wisest princes are sold to the venal corruptions of their 
 courtiers." The quotation in Lord Napier's manuscript is from Vopis- 
 cus, a learned Syracusan, reckoned the Coryphaeus among the six au- 
 thors, called Histories Augusta Scriptores. His style is considered more 
 elegant and pure than that of any of the others, and Gibbon in particu- 
 lar sets great store by him.
 
 TITHE POLICY OF CHARLES I. 89 
 
 James VI., the lands of all cathedral churches, and re- 
 ligious houses, which had been settled on the Crown by 
 act of Parliament, were, by the connivance of the Earl 
 of Murray and other Regents, shared among the re- 
 volutionary lords and barons ; and that, " they lorded 
 it with pride and insolence enough in their several ter- 
 ritories, holding the clergy to small stipends, and the 
 poor peasants under a miserable vassalage and subjec- 
 tion to them, not suffering them to carry away their 
 nine parts till the lord had carried off his tenth, which 
 many times was neglected out of pride and malice, those 
 tyrants not caring to lose their tithe, so that the poor 
 man's crop might be left unto spoil and hazard." Hey- 
 lyn then narrates how Charles, adopting the projects of 
 his father, " resolves upon an act of revocation, com- 
 missionating for that purpose the Earl of Annandale, 
 and the Lord Maxwell (afterwards Earl of Nithisdale,) 
 to hold a Parliament in Scotland, for contribution of 
 money and ships against the Dunkirkers, and arming 
 Maxwell also with some secret instructions for passing 
 the said act of revocation if he found it feasible. Be- 
 ing on his way as far as Berwick, Maxwell was there 
 informed, that his chief errand being made known had 
 put all at Edinburgh into tumult, — that a rich coach, 
 which he had sent before him to Dalkeith, was cut in 
 pieces, the poor horses killed, the people seeming only 
 sorry that they could not do so much to the lord him- 
 self." In consequence of this failure, Charles adopted 
 the advice of his Solicitor-General for Scotland, Mr Ar- 
 chibald Acheson, who had been a puisne judge in Ire- 
 land. This lawyer it was who proposed the machinery 
 of the Commission of Surrenders, with which the King 
 was so highly delighted, that he honoured the inventor 
 withknighthood. Three yearsfrom the date of this Com-
 
 90 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mission, matters were in the state commented upon by 
 Lord Napier in the manuscript we have quoted. It 
 appears, however, that, shortly after expressing those 
 opinions, he had not only been restored to the royal fa- 
 vour, but obtained an opportunity of communicating 
 all his views on the subject of the tithe policy to the 
 King himself. " In the year 1630," says Heylyn, " com- 
 missioners (from the tithe-holders) are sent to the Court 
 of England, and amongst others, the learned and right 
 noble Lord of Merchiston (Napier) from whose month 
 I had all this relation ; who, after a long treaty with 
 the King, did at last agree that the said Commission 
 should proceed as formerly, and that all such superio- 
 rities and tithes as had been, or should be surrendered, 
 should be regranted by the King on these conditions : 
 1. That all such as held hereditary sheriffdoms, or had 
 the power of life and death over such as lived within 
 their jurisdiction, should quit those royalties to the 
 King. 2. That they should make unto their tenants 
 in their several lands, some permanent estates, either 
 for their lives, or one-and-twenty years, or some such 
 like term, that so the tenants might be encouraged to 
 build and plant, and improve the patrimony of that 
 kingdom. 3. That some provisions should be made for 
 augmenting the stipends of the clergy. 4. That they 
 should double the yearly rents which were reserved 
 unto the crown by their former grants. 5. That these 
 conditions being performed on their parts, the King 
 should settle their estates by act of Parliament. Home 
 went the commissioners with joy for their good success, 
 expecting to be entertained with bells and bonfires. 
 But they found the contrary, the proud Scots being ge- 
 nerally resolved rather to put all to hazard, than to quit 
 that power and tyranny which they had over their poor
 
 CORONATION PROGRESS. 91 
 
 vassals, — by which name, after the manner of the French, 
 they called their tenants. And hereunto they were 
 encouraged underhand by a party in England, who 
 feared that by this agreement the King would be so 
 absolute in those northern regions, that no aid could 
 be hoped from thence when the necessity of their de- 
 signs might most require it ;* — just as the Castilians 
 were displeased with the conquest of Portugal by King 
 Philip II., because thereby they had no place left to 
 retire unto, when either the King's displeasure, or their 
 disobedience should make their own country too hot 
 for them. Such was the face of Church and State when 
 his Majesty began his journey for Scotland to receive 
 the Crown." 
 
 At length Charles effected that memorable progress 
 in the month of June 1633. On the night before his 
 coronation, he was feasted in the Castle of Edinburgh 
 by the old Earl of Mar, whom he had beheld at his feet, 
 crutches and all, " stirring pity to cause injustice." On 
 the morrow, when seated in the great hall of the Castle, 
 to receive the crown which some would fain have filch- 
 ed from him, it was Hay, the crabbed Chancellor, — he 
 whose " manner was to interrupt all men when he was 
 disposed to speak, and the King too," — that now, in 
 the name of the estates of the kingdom, " spake to 
 the King." Among the six noblemen, whom his Ma- 
 jesty selected to support the bearers of his canopy, was 
 Lord Napier. Rothes, the father of the future Cove- 
 nant, carried the sceptre, — and Lorn, the deeper and 
 
 * But the result was, that to that party in England,— 
 " The beggarly Scot 
 Sold his King for a groat."
 
 92 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 more deadly promoter of the Rebellion, assisted to bear 
 the train. 
 
 The factious insolency of his Scotch nobles which 
 Charles had experienced in England, he now met with, 
 in more dangerous and personal collision, " at home." 
 No sooner had he set his foot in Scotland than he cre- 
 ated the chancellor Earl of Kinnoul, a favour which 
 had little effect in molifying the temper of that states- 
 man. Charles had always wished that the primate of 
 Scotland should have precedence of the chancellor ; 
 " which," (says Sir James Balfour) " the Lord Chancel- 
 lor Hay, a gallant stout man, would never condescend 
 to, nor ever suffer him to have place of him, do what 
 he could, all the days of his lifetime." Once again 
 Charles endeavoured to effect this. It was when ar- 
 ranging the pageantry of his coronation with Sir James 
 Balfour, the Lord Lyon, in whose own graphic words 
 we must give the anecdote. " I remember that King 
 Charles sent me to the Lord Chancellor, being then 
 Earl of Kinnoul, the day of his own coronation, in the 
 morning, to shew him that it was his will and pleasure, 
 but only for that day, that he would cede and give place 
 to the Archbishop ; but he returned by me to his Ma- 
 jasty a very brusk answer, which was, that since his 
 Majesty had been pleased to continue him in that office 
 of chancellor, which, by his means, his worthy father, of 
 happy memory, had bestowed upon him, he was ready 
 in all humility to lay it down at his Majesty's feet ; 
 but since it was his royal will he should enjoy it with 
 the known privileges of the same, never a stol'd priest 
 in Scotland should set a foot before him so long as his 
 blood was hot. When I had related his answer to the 
 King, he said, * Weel, Lyon, let's go to business ; I will 
 not meddle further with that old cankered, gouty man,
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 93 
 
 ai whose hands there is nothing to be gained but sour 
 words."' * Thus even the regal procession, which to the 
 eyes of all Scotland betokened gaiety and gladness, was 
 to the devoted monarch replete with vexation and bit- 
 terness. From that hollow pageantry he passed to his 
 Parliament of Scotland, with a spirit lofty, and long 
 chafed, but as placable as it was royal. 
 
 By this time the Scotch factionists had some young- 
 blood among them, hot as the chancellor's, and even more 
 vicious. These recruits were not strangers to Charles. 
 About the close of the year 1626, three commissioners 
 had been despatched by the tithe-holders in Scotland, to 
 present a remonstrance against the act of revocation 
 proposed by the King, who, having some intelligence of 
 their plan, and not chusing to be insulted by the faction 
 from whose oppressions he wished to relieve the people, 
 sent a mandate to these emissaries to stop short of the 
 Court. Their petition was received, however, and 
 proved to be couched in such terms that " his Majesty 
 stormed at their petition, as of too high a strain for 
 subjects and petitioners ; but shortly thereafter, on 
 the acknowledgment of their error, they obtain par- 
 don, and license to come to the court." f They were 
 John Earl of Rothes, Alexander Earl of Linlithgow, 
 and John Lord Loudon. When these harbingers of 
 " the troubles" obtained an audience, the storm had 
 passed from the brow of the generous King, who jocu- 
 larly told them that they had been treated like so many 
 young does, whom the old ones, finding themselves hot- 
 ly pursued and in hazard of being taken, cunningly 
 
 * Balfour's Annals, MS. Advocates' Library. Published in 1824 by the 
 Messrs Haig of the Library. The above anecdote of Chancellor Hay 
 agrees precisely with Lord Napier's account of him. See ante, p. 29, 53. 
 
 f Balfour.
 
 94 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 expose to the hunter's fury, to save their own carcases. 
 So he dismissed them to a conference with his secre- 
 tary, Sir Alexander Stirling, and the nobleman who 
 had interceded for them, namely, the Earl of Menteith. 
 These stricken does, however, did not retire to weep. 
 When Charles took his seat in the Scotch Parlia- 
 ment of 1633, Rothes and Loudon proved to be leaders 
 of the very dangerous herd he there brought to bay. 
 The King had paused in his favourite and pious scheme, 
 of arranging a uniformity of worship throughout his 
 kingdoms, and now determined to conquer more gradu- 
 ally, and with as little violence as possible, the selfish 
 obstinacy of the tithe-holders, which, he had every rea- 
 son to believe, was the only obstacle to his ameliora- 
 tions of the Episcopal church of Scotland. But he had 
 no idea of giving up to this faction Religion and the 
 Church as already established. Unconscious of Papis- 
 tical inclinations, and too enlightened himself not to 
 perceive, in the rising murmurs against popery, either 
 an irrational or a treacherous opposition, he determin- 
 ed to assert in his own name what had been peacefully 
 established by his immediate predecessor. That the 
 King could take his seat in this Parliament, (at a time, 
 too, when prerogative and privilege were all undefin- 
 ed,) with calm and prudential feelings towards such an 
 opposition, was not to be expected. To adopt his own 
 account of the matter, — which, from its truth, became 
 so hateful to the Covenanters, — " we (says the King,) 
 undertook a journey to them, and, according to our ex- 
 pectation, were most joyfully received by them. But 
 immediately before., and at the sitting down of our Par- 
 liament there, we quickly found that the very same 
 persons who since were the contrivers of, and still con- 
 tinue the sticklers for, their now pretended Covenant,
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 95 
 
 begun to have secret meetings, and in their private 
 consultations, did vent their dislike of our innocent re- 
 vocation, and our most beneficial commission of sur- 
 renders. But knowing that these two could gain them 
 no party, then they begun to suggest great fears that 
 many and dangerous innovations of religion were to be 
 attempted in this present Parliament. Not that they 
 themselves thought so, but because they knew that 
 either that or nothing would soil with suspicious jea- 
 lousy, or interrupt and relax, the present joy and con- 
 tentment which did overflow in our subjects' hearts, and 
 appeared in their hearty expressions, for our presence 
 among them. But we readily confuted all these sus- 
 picious surmises ; for, except an act which gave us 
 power to appoint such vestures for churchmen as we 
 should hold to be most decent, nothing concerning re- 
 ligion was either propounded or passed in that Parlia- 
 ment, but that which every King doth usually, in that and 
 all other Christian kingdoms, pass at their first Parlia- 
 ment, viz. an act of ratification of all other acts heretofore 
 made, and then standing in force, concerning the religion 
 presently professed and established, and concerning the 
 church, her liberties and privileges. Which act, being 
 an act of course, though it passed by most voices, yet 
 was it disassented from, to our great admiration, by the 
 voices of many of those who are now the principal pil- 
 lars of their Covenant ; which made all men then begin 
 to suspect that sure there was some great distemper of 
 heat at the heart, when it boiled so over at their lips, 
 by their unnecessary and unprofitable denying of as- 
 sent to the laws, concerning the religion and church, 
 already established, this first act passing more for 
 form, and the honour of religion, than for any use or 
 necessity of it, all the former laws still standing in
 
 96 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 force and vigor, without the need of any new ratifica- 
 tion."* 
 
 The noblemen who led this factious opposition, 
 and the manner in which they did so, were particularly 
 calculated to throw the hasty King off his guard in 
 this unhappy collision with the Parliament of Scotland. 
 The leading spokesmen were Loudon and Rothes. 
 It had been conceded to King James, by act of Par- 
 liament, that the ordering of the apparel of churchmen 
 should appertain to him. Charles, consistently with 
 his object of uniformity in church matters, was anx- 
 ious not to lose sight of this act, and the Lords of the 
 articles had included it in the general act of his prero- 
 gative. The opposition seized upon this as the most 
 favourable subject for popular agitation, it being easy, 
 with the aid of a fanatical clergy, to excite the people 
 into irrational violence against the surplice, and through 
 that perverted medium to poison their minds with false 
 ideas of the King's intentions. From Sanderson's con- 
 temporary history , we derive the following quaint andcir- 
 cumstantial description of the style of a debate that was 
 in fact pregnant with the fate of England. " The first 
 that opposed this act was the Lord Loudon, a bold young 
 man of a broken estate, lately come from school (their 
 college) and a Master of Arts. A deft Lord he was, who 
 missing of the Court to civilize his studies, must needs 
 want morality to bring him to manners, and being 
 besides of a cavilling contradictory nature, nothing 
 w T ould seem to him so positive in reason as his own opi- 
 nion ; and therefore now, as heretofore at school, he argu- 
 ed with his distinctions — duplici qucestioni non potest 
 dari una responsio ; ita est sicprobo, — and after his syllo- 
 
 * The King's Large Declaration ; printed in the year 1639 ; of which 
 in a subsequent chapter.
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 97 
 
 gisming in this kind he sits down with a challenge, — re- 
 sponde, perge, urge, punge. The King told him the or- 
 ders of the house, not to dispute there, but to give his vote, 
 yea or nay, — ' which I do' said he, ' negative] and so sat 
 down in a snuff; yet the King had the major voices 
 affirmative. Loudon stands up and questioneth the re- 
 gister, scans the calculation with great contest before 
 the King could carry it."* 
 
 The King appears to have been annoyed and irri- 
 tated, and even to have afforded a handle to faction 
 by not repressing his indignant feelings. Only con- 
 scious of being there opposed by the tithe-cabal, and 
 aware that they had held seditious meetings in secret 
 before the assembling of Parliament, Charles had come 
 prepared to carry matters against these turbulent no- 
 bles, with a higher hand than prudence dictated, espe- 
 cially as it was not in his nature effectually to sustain 
 an arbitrary system of government, upon any determined 
 or steady views of his own. Rushworth declares, that, 
 during this stormy and fantastical debate, in which 
 there was manifested such a disposition to insult the 
 King, " he took a list of the whole members out of his 
 pocket, and said, Gentlemen, I have all your names here, 
 and I'll know who will do me service, and who will 
 not this day," f According to Clarendon, the King had 
 
 * " A Compleat History of the Life and Raigne of King Charles from 
 his cradle to his grave, collected and written by William Sanderson, 
 Esq."— Printed 1658. 
 
 f Rushworth, Vol. ii. p. 183. But this celebrated Collector was assist- 
 ant-clerk of the Long Parliament, and it is now well known that his tes- 
 timony against Charles I. must always be received cum notu. The an- 
 tidote against Rushworth's partial collection is the " Impartial Collec- 
 tion" of Nalson, who says in his Introduction, — " If I do not make it 
 appear that Mr Rushworth hath concealed truth, endeavoured to vindi- 
 cate the prevailing detractions of the late times, as well as their barba- 
 rous actions, and with a kind of rebound libelled the government at se- 
 cond hand, I will be contented the award shall go against me." 
 VOL. I. G
 
 98 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 remarked that at this time Rothes and his party en- 
 deavoured " to make themselves popular by speaking 
 in Parliament against those things which were most 
 grateful to his Majesty, and which still passed notwith- 
 standing their contradiction, and he thought a little dis- 
 countenance upon those persons would either suppress 
 that spirit within themselves, or make the poison of 
 it less operative upon others." That great historian 
 adds, that of the Earl of Rothes, and others, the King 
 had the worst opinion, and purposely withheld from 
 them any grace by never speaking to them, or taking 
 notice of them in the Court. Yet such was their ef- 
 frontery, and determination to attain their ends, that 
 " when the King was abroad in the fields, or passing 
 through villages, when the greatest crowds of people 
 flocked to see him, those men would still be next him, and 
 entertain him with some discourse and pleasant rela- 
 tions, which the King's gentle disposition could not 
 avoid, and which made those persons to be generally 
 believed to be most acceptable to his Majesty," — a cha- 
 racteristic demeanour of ambitious democracy, upon 
 which Clarendon passes the shrewd reflection, that " let 
 the proudest or most formal man resolve to keep what 
 distance he will towards others, a bold and confident 
 man instantly demolishes that whole machine, and gets 
 within him, and even obliges him to his own laws of 
 conversation." Such was the faction with whom Charles 
 came into collision in the Scotch Parliament of 1633, 
 and to whose bitter disappointment the King's preroga- 
 tive was saved, for the time, by his still commanding a 
 majority of that Parliament against the rising tide of 
 disloyalty and disorder. * But it was not merely to ac- 
 
 * Dr Cook has been misled into a most mistaken history of this mat- 
 ter, by Bishop Burnet, to whose malice the Reverend author would pro-
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 99 
 
 quire a short-lived triumph over the factious and turbu- 
 lent that Charles accomplished this memorable progress. 
 His object was to secure the peace and happiness of his 
 subjects, no less than to protect his crown. According- 
 ly, in this Parliament, his tithe policy was finally adjust- 
 ed upon its present basis, and at the same time he added 
 another inestimable benefit to the Scotch people, in the 
 statute for the endowment of parochial schools. " Thus," 
 — says an excellent historian of the church in Scotland, 
 — " thus did Charles I. confer upon Scotland two of the 
 greatest boons that legislative wisdom could devise ; se- 
 curing to the ecclesiastical body a permanent though 
 frugal endowment, and providing for the poor the faci- 
 lity of acquiring a cheap and pious education." * 
 
 From such scenes as we have adverted to, the excel- 
 lent Monarch returned, weary and disgusted, to forget 
 his cares in those pious habits and domestic enjoyments 
 for which nature had fitted him better than for a throne. 
 No sooner had he returned to England, however, than 
 he was constrained to institute a criminal process against 
 a Scotch nobleman. To agitate the country against 
 the King was the great object of Rothes and his party. 
 The elements of revolution were abundant in Scotland. 
 An aristocracy, turbulent and disloyal by hereditary 
 
 bably not have given up the character of Charles I., had he known of the 
 Bishop's letter to Mr Brisbane, Burnet's account of the conduct of the 
 King in the Scotch Parliament of 1633, as well as of the subsequent trial 
 of Lord Balmerino, is contradicted by the best contemporary evidence, and 
 confirmed by none of any value. Yet Malcolm Laing, Dr Cook, Mr 
 Brodie,and others, have adopted it with implicit confidence, and indulged 
 in the severest strictures against Charles in consequence. The view of 
 these events offered in our text is so opposite to that of the above his- 
 torians, that we have thought it proper to examine all the authorities 
 in a note, which, being too long for this place, will be found at the end 
 of the volume. 
 
 * History of the Church in Scotland. By the Rev. Michael Russell, 
 LL. D. Vol. ii.
 
 100 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 right, had been restrained in their power. A clergy, 
 born of democracy and fanaticism, were threatened 
 with the extinction of their extempore addresses, and 
 the diminution of their power, under a learned hierar- 
 chy. Thus there was no want of materials for orga- 
 nizing and leading insurrection. But the question was, 
 how to combine these somewhat discordant elements 
 safely and effectually for the purposes of a clique. 
 
 Their first essay was the malicious rumour, that cer- 
 tain measures in the late Parliament had only been 
 carried by bribery and corruption on the part of the 
 King ; nay, that some of the acts had in reality not pas- 
 sed, though the clerk-register, in summing up the votes, 
 falsely declared that they had. This factious whisper, 
 however, was merely intended for the vulgar, it being 
 well known that there were too many, present in Par- 
 liament, keenly interested in the state of the vote, and 
 actually checking the notes both of the King and the 
 clerk-register, to have rendered so desperate a deceit 
 practicable, had the King been capable of conceiving it. 
 Another whisper, the factionists had better hopes of 
 swelling into a popular clamour, namely, that the 
 Commission of Surrenders was nothing else than a 
 scheme of the bishops, for the sole purpose of their own 
 aggrandizement, and thattheintention of the King was, 
 by a series of such measures, to subvert the " Religion 
 and Liberties" of Scotland. How much truth and sin- 
 cere patriotism belonged to these views of the King's 
 tithe policy, we have noticed already. But this direc- 
 tion of the storm against the courtly hierarchy was 
 a master art of insurgency. Scotland was swarming 
 with poor clergymen, who, for the most part, uncouth, 
 unlearned, and unenlightened, and hopeless of becom- 
 ing bishops, yet felt their passions, and their lungs,
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 101 
 
 strong enough to afford them a chance, when the waters 
 were troubled, of emulating the popularity of Knox. 
 On the King's arrival in Scotland, one Mr Thomas 
 Hog, a minister, had been put forward in the name of 
 this church faction, with a petition, entitled — " Griev- 
 ances and petitions concerning the disordered estate of 
 the reformed kirk within this realm of Scotland," — 
 which he presented to the clerk of the articles, at 
 Dalkeith, before the King had reached Edinburgh. 
 This petition involved a complete revolution in the 
 church and state of Scotland, and was like a shadow 
 of the coming Covenant. The first clause intended 
 the exclusion of the bishops from Parliament, and 
 aimed that very blow, at one of the three estates, which 
 not long afterwards took effect. The next clause assert- 
 ed the supremacy of the church of Scotland over the 
 civil magistrate, in regard to the much envied bishops, 
 and this papistical doctrine, and persecuting power, 
 was also subsequently realized by the covenanting as- 
 semblies of 1638 and ] 639- The remainder of this pe- 
 tition laboured for the subversion of every thing that 
 was anti-democratical in the constitution of the kirk. 
 So palpable a manoeuvre of the faction, the lords of the 
 articles did not even consider worthy of being prepar- 
 ed for the consideration of Parliament, and it fell to the 
 ground. The wits of a lawyer were next set to work, 
 and certainly he managed to raise a considerable flame. 
 William Haig, the " King's Solicitor,"* a lawyer whose 
 luck was not so great as Archibald Johnston's, though 
 his political intentions were just as deserving,-:— con- 
 cocted a " supplication," which, says Lord Balmerino 
 upon oath, Haig told him, " he had made out of some 
 collections which he had gathered upon some confe- 
 rences, which he had with .sundry perso?fs the time of 
 
 * Burnet.
 
 102 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Parliament."* This precious egg of sedition the 
 Solicitor privately conveyed to Lord Balmerino for 
 incubation. Now this lord was the son of a noble- 
 man who had practised the very same trick upon 
 King James, that Lord Napier informs us was practis- 
 ed upon Charles, namely, that of stealing his subscrip- 
 tion to a state paper. Old Balmerino was detected, 
 tried, and condemned to die, for surreptitiously obtain- 
 ing the royal signature to a letter to the Pope. King 
 James pardoned him, and restored his blood, though he 
 could not redeem it from its inherent vice. The son was 
 of the keenest of the cabal against Charles I., and to 
 this nobleman it was that Haig first submitted his 
 scheme of a revolution, which he called " a fit suppli- 
 cation to be presented to his Majesty." Lord Balmerino, 
 as appears from his own depositions, immediately car- 
 ried it to Lord Rothes, and further " declares, that the 
 Earl of Rothes, and the deponer, having read the sup- 
 plication, thought it no ways fit to be presented to his 
 Majesty, but to be absolutely suppressed." It is not 
 surprising that even their effrontery, who at the 
 very time were forcing themselves upon the King 
 in his progresses, was unequal to the task of pre- 
 senting this petition ; for a more purely insulting 
 document, if offered to the King, and, if circulated 
 among the people, a more insidiously seditious one, could 
 not have been framed. It began by accusing the King 
 of asserting in the recent Parliament, " a secret power 
 to innovate the order and government long continued 
 in the reformed church of Scotland," — -it referred to the 
 known wish of Charles to have a liturgy prepared for 
 
 * See Lord Balmerino's depositions in the record of his State Trial 
 which, it is to he regretted, Dr Cook had not consulted. See note at the 
 end of this Volume.
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 103 
 
 Scotland, as " reports of allowance given in England 
 for printing books of popery," — it presumed to " sus- 
 pect a snare in the subtle junction" of the act of church- 
 men's apparel with that of the prerogative, — to call it 
 " a sophistical artifice," and to add, most insultingly, 
 " which blessed King James would never have con- 
 founded," — it complained of the suppression of the mi- 
 nisters' grievances, — and, finally, the whole drift, and 
 modest purpose, of this petition, full of such imperti- 
 nencies mixed up with the most contradictory expres- 
 sions of loyalty and humility, amounted to this, that 
 Charles should give up the established Church, to the 
 meaner model of a Scotch faction thirsting for demo- 
 cratic power. This ingenious scheme, concocted by a 
 single lawyer out of some conferences he had held with 
 sundry of a disappointed minority in Parliament, was 
 entitled " The humble supplication of a great number 
 of the nobility and other commissioners in the late Par- 
 liament." The real intention never could have been 
 to present this to his Majesty, — at least with any other 
 view than that of insulting and enraging him. It must 
 have been conceived with the covert view of agitating 
 Scotland against the King. It was to pass for the 
 suppressed voice, of a loyal but subjugated people, 
 against a tyrannical monarch and papistical clergy ; 
 and if the ministers joined heartily in the scheme, the 
 nation, it was foreseen, would be revolutionized from 
 the pulpits. In short, this insidious paper involved 
 one of the most dangerous instances, of the statutory 
 crime of leasing-making, that could well be imagined. 
 Even Rothes and Balmerino thought it should be " ab- 
 solutely supprest." Yet their conduct had been most 
 inconsistent with this declaration. Haig had given two 
 copies to Balmerino, who confessed that he caused his
 
 104 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 man copy one of them for him, and that he returned the 
 draft to its notable contriver. The other copy Balme- 
 rino delivered to Rothes, who, " sworn upon his great 
 oath," declared he read part of it, when going with the 
 Earl of Cassils and Lord Yester (dissenting Lords) in 
 coach to the King at Dalkeith, and that, " finding it of 
 such a strain, and having told them that his Majesty 
 had given him an express command to suppress all that 
 was of that nature, the deponer and they, all in one 
 voice, thought it should he suppressed; and the de- 
 poner did put it in his pocket." That same day, the 
 King having taxed Rothes at Dalkeith with certain 
 information laid against him, " he purged himself clear- 
 ly to his Majesty," taking great credit to himself with 
 the King " for suppressing all petitions of the nature 
 of that which was moved in the time of the Parlia- 
 ment," and then, with ludicrous effrontery, added, 
 that he had one of these suppressed petitions in his 
 pocket, " if your Majesty be pleased to look upon it." 
 The King replied, " It is no matter, I have no leisure, 
 I am going to the park," where, of course, this pertina- 
 cious factionist pursued the unfortunate monarch with 
 patronizing attentions, and jesting conversation. The 
 petition remained in Rothes's pocket for eight days " un- 
 looked upon by him ;" but, most probably, for the in- 
 spection of the valet who dusted his clothes. He then 
 " caused copy it by his own servant," and returned the 
 original to Balmerino. Yet he swears that " he ever 
 thought it fit to be supprest," and most earnestly dis- 
 claims having any concern with Mr William Haig, " of 
 whom he had ever suspicion, because he has ever been 
 busy upon such idle and foolish toys." 
 
 Balmerino obviously intended to make some use of 
 the copy he had retained, for it was slightly interlined 
 
 4
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 105 
 
 with his own hand, as if he had been endeavouring to 
 render some of the seditious matter less glaring and tan- 
 gible. But, when examined upon oath " whether he did 
 allow and approve the same himself in the matter and 
 substance, he declares that he neither allowed nor allows 
 the same, and declares he condemns the same both in mat- 
 ter and form." But how had he acted? In the first place, 
 he gave it to Mr Robert Dalgleish, his own man, and 
 desired him to take it to Edinburgh, (they being in 
 the country) and copy it for him. Dalgleish did so, and, 
 as might be expected, made another copy for himself. 
 While he was in the act of copying, very opportunely 
 " Mr William Colville, minister of the parish, came in, 
 and read the same." Thus, what Rothes and Balme- 
 rino utterly condemned, both in matter and form, and 
 thought should be absolutely supprest, was, by their 
 means, already in a fair way of secret circulation 
 throughout the country. In the next place, according 
 to Balmerino's own deposition, " Mr John Dunmure 
 having given to him the copy of my Lord Brechin's 
 sermon, preached at his Majesty's coronation, and Mr 
 John having seen the paper, he gave it him to look up- 
 on, but to keep it to himself alone, and to show it to 
 no other, as he respected his Lordship's credit." Dun- 
 mure, " deeply sworn upon his knees," declared that he 
 took it to Dundee with him, for the purpose of forming 
 his own opinion, which Balmerino had requested from 
 him, on the subject. Now this Dunmure was Balme- 
 rino's man-of-business, and Hay of Naughton, another 
 of Dunmure's clients, coming into his chamber in Dun- 
 dee, the man-of-business requested his client to give 
 him his judgment of the petition, being " well acquaint- 
 ed with the affairs of the kingdom." Dunmure then 
 gave the paper into the laird of Naughtoii's hand, who
 
 106 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " began to read, and before he had ended it, he said to 
 the deponer, ' Mr John, I intreat you heartily that I 
 may have this paper to Naughton, that I may read 
 it and consider it at leisure.' : So the document, un- 
 der another promise of secresy, was allowed to progress 
 to Naughton. Some time afterwards the man-of-busi- 
 ness went to his client at Naughton, and earnestly re- 
 quested him to return the paper, " who answered ' tritle, 
 tratle, ye need not be so curious ; there was a gentleman 
 at his own table told me that there was three copies 
 thereof going through Fife, and my Lord Balmerino 
 had given one thereof to Mr William Scot, another to 
 Mr Alexander Henderson, and thethird, the gentleman 
 would not name.' ' It seems that the laird of Naughton 
 formed the very same opinion of the petition that 
 Balmerino and Rothes had ; he thought it should be 
 absolutely suppressed, and he acted consistently with 
 that opinion. The poison had circulated, however, and 
 there was but one way now of counteracting its effects, 
 which was what Hay adopted, namely, to carry this 
 infernal machine, so cunningly prepared against church 
 and state, directly to the Primate of Scotland. 
 
 Had this memorable document been simply present- 
 ed to the King, or displayed openly to the country, it 
 would have been comparatively innoxious. But the 
 mysterious and secret circulation of such a revolution- 
 ary scheme, maturing in the closet of Balmerino, or 
 hatching in the pocket of Rothes, noblemen of whom 
 the King entertained the " worst opinion," characte- 
 rized this state delinquency, and the deep design of 
 its conscious perpetrators. To appreciate the conduct 
 of Balmerino, (who was properly selected as the exam- 
 ple on this occasion,) and justly to estimate the danger 
 apprehended by those who advised the prosecution, we
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 107 
 
 ought never to lose sight of the state of the times, or of 
 the fact that secret combinations were then rife, and 
 were well known to be the means constantly employ- 
 ed by such intriguers, whether the object was to ad- 
 vance some petty interests by the ruin of an individual, 
 or the selfish designs of a political clique by the ruin of 
 the state ; — we must keep in mind, (to recur to the ex- 
 pressions of Lord Napier,) " the iniquity of those times, 
 which, for bribery, concussion of the people, and abus- 
 ing of the King, no age can parallel," and which were 
 haunted by the " evil spirits who walk betwixt a King 
 and his people." 
 
 Charles, then, was advised, to make an example of 
 Balmerino, the factious and ungrateful son of a traito- 
 rous father, — an advice fully justified by the results 
 of the excitement at last triumphantly effected by 
 the very same party, whose Covenant swept all before 
 it, including the Throne. Balmerino received every 
 advantage that equity could demand. He was remit- 
 ted to a jury of his own countrymen, to be tried in his 
 own country, on the statutes against leasing-making, 
 It was ever the demand of the factious in Scotland, 
 that their enemies should be sent home to be dealt with ; 
 and it was a friend and leader of faction that now 
 acquired what to him was an advantage, and very 
 nearly equivalent to an acquittal. He was indicted by 
 Sir Thomas Hope, and the libel presents a curious con- 
 trast to the opinion delivered a few years afterwards 
 by that distinguished legal adviser of the Crown, that 
 the Covenant, (of which the Balmerino petition was but 
 a type or preliminary,) with all its machinery of sedi- 
 tion, was a legal and constitutional act. The Balme- 
 rino petition, however, this indictment characterizes, in
 
 108 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the name of the King, as " a most scandalous, reproach- 
 ful, odious, infamous, and seditious libel ;"— speaks of 
 the " curious and furious brain of the cursed and un- 
 happy libeller," who, it adds, " not content with these 
 reproaches, most villanously and despitefully belcht 
 and vomited forth against our sacred person, proceeds 
 to a most fearful and dangerous undermining of our 
 honour, credit, and greatest happiness, in affirming that 
 there is now a general fear of some innovation intend- 
 ed in essential points of religion ; albeit, blessed be 
 God, it be certainly known to all our good subjects 
 that we are, and in all our actings have shown ourselves 
 to be, a most devout and religious prince, hating and 
 abhorring, in heart and affection, all papistical super- 
 stition and idolatry." Strange to say, the Lord Ad- 
 vocate, who did his duty con amove upon this occasion, 
 was the same who, about two years afterwards, so 
 effectually, though secretly, aided and abetted the most 
 seditious plot (being the same 'plot, and the same 
 actors) that ever brought a country to disgrace and 
 ruin. Every art of sedition was exerted to turn the 
 trial of Balmerino into the triumph of democracy. The 
 people were excited into a state of frenzy, and the lives 
 of the judges and the jury were threatened, if they should 
 dare to condemn the accused. It was falsely asserted 
 against the King and his advisers, that the noblemen 
 and gentlemen composing the assize had been secretly 
 influenced, and packed for the purpose of securing a con- 
 viction. Besides all this tremendous machinery of fac- 
 tion to overawe the proceedings, Balmerino was de- 
 fended by the whole strength of the bar, and the rele- 
 vancy was attacked by volumes of elaborate and intri- 
 cate arguments from the civil law, enough tohave turned
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 109 
 
 the brains of the jury. Sir Thomas Hope, with his dis- 
 tinguished powers, cleared away every cloud that the 
 bar could raise from the dust of the civilians, and dis- 
 played the statutes of leasing-making bearing irresist- 
 ibly upon the nobleman he had indicted. According 
 to Bishop Burnet, (whose general account of this trial 
 we shall elsewhere show to be malicious and untrue,) a 
 very extraordinary scene occurred when the jury were 
 deliberating upon their verdict. Gordon of Bucky,a man 
 far advanced in life, who forty- three years before had been 
 concerned in the foul murder of the Earl of Murray, 
 "spoke first of all, excusing his presumption in being the 
 first that broke the silence; he desired they would all con- 
 sider what they were about; it was a matter of blood, and 
 they would feel the weight of that as long as they liv- 
 ed ; he had in his youth been drawn in to shed blood, 
 for which he had the King's pardon, but it cost him 
 more to obtain God's pardon ; it had given him many 
 sorrowful hours both day and night ; and as he spoke 
 this the tears ran over his face ; this struck a damp on 
 all ; but the Earl of Traquair took up the argument," 
 &c. Now Traquair was not a murderer. Upon his 
 mind there was no such awful weight of recollections, 
 and his head was as clear as his conscience. The dri- 
 velling of a superannuated murderer, — for what else 
 was this, — made no impression to the effect, at least, 
 of convincing Traquair that a conscientious discharge 
 of their duty as jurymen, even though the result were 
 the death of Balmerino, would lay the self-same burden 
 upon all their consciences, as that which, for half a cen- 
 tury, had disturbed the repose of Gordon of Bucky. As 
 foreman of the jury, he calmly recalled their attention 
 to the fact upon which they had to pronounce yea or 
 nay, and the verdict was against Balmerino by, it is said,
 
 HO INTRODUCTION. 
 
 only a majority of one. That nobleman had been in- 
 dicted as " airt and part of the penning and forming of 
 the said infamous libel, at the least concealer and not 
 revealer thereof;" also, " of the dispersing and divulg- 
 ing of the said infamous libel ;" also, " of the not ap- 
 prehending of Mr William Haig, whom he affirmed to 
 be the author." The verdict was far more restricted 
 than what the proof might have sustained, and it 
 little justified the accusation against the jury of being 
 subservient and venal. They only found him guilty 
 " of the hearing of the said infamous libel, concealing 
 and not revealing of the said Mr William Haig, af- 
 firmed by him to be the author thereof." The Lord 
 Justice-General (Errol) declared, " that the said John 
 Lord Balmerino has there-through incurred the pain 
 of death contained in the acts of Parliament ; sus- 
 pending always the execution thereof, until the time his 
 Majesty's will and pleasure be shown and declared there- 
 anent ; to whose sacred Majesty the manner, time, and 
 place of the execution of the said sentence is remitted." 
 To overawe the justice of the King, or to rob him of 
 the attribute of his mercy, the senseless mob had been 
 agitated throughout to a pitch of audacity, that now 
 threatened thelites both of the judges and the jury. 
 But the desire of Charles, at no time, was the death of 
 a human being. Into this present prosecution his 
 long-sufferance had been forced by the political iniqui- 
 ty of Scotland, and the selection made was indicative 
 of a lofty sense of justice, but at the same time an 
 extreme moderation in the desire of examples. Had he 
 been the King to carry that example to extremity, — the 
 justice of which must have been acknowledged by civi- 
 lized Europe, — it could not have been his fate to have 
 been led to the block by his own subjects, who usurp- 
 
 3
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. Ill 
 
 ed the sword of justice, and drove mercy away. The 
 statutes of leasing-making have been sometimes indig- 
 nantly condemned as instruments of oppression and 
 cruelty. They proved to be so, not in the hands of 
 Charles, but in the hands of the Covenanters. A dis- 
 tinguished modern commentator on criminal law, * has 
 more meekly and judiciously criticised the several en- 
 actments against leasing-makers, " a class of offenders, 
 (he says) very fit, indeed, to be sharply reproved, but 
 too rigorously dealt with, in being exposed to the pain 
 of death, even if the legislature had employed more pre- 
 cise terms in describing their offence." None of these 
 statutes had passed in the reign of Charles. The more 
 recent and severe, — forbidding any one, " publickly 
 to declare, or privately to speak or write, any purpose 
 of reproach or slander of his Majesty's person, estate, 
 or government, or to deprave his laws and acts of Par- 
 liament, or misconstrue his proceedings, whereby any 
 misliking may be moved betwixt his highness and his 
 nobility and loving subjects, in time coming, under the 
 pain of death," — had been passed, as a matter of abso- 
 lute necessity, in the year 1585, " to repress the intem- 
 perance of the clergy of those times, who had indulged 
 in violent sarcasm and invective against the King, with 
 relation to his laws for the government of the church ;" 
 and in 1594, it was found necessary to ratify these 
 acts, and to extend the like pains against the insidious, 
 frequently the more guilty, promoters of such revolu- 
 tionary crimes, namely, those hearing and not reveal- 
 ing them. Did the reign of Charles afford fewer in- 
 stances of the propriety of these penal statutes, or prove 
 that it was possible effectually to legislate in more pre- 
 cise terms against the pens, and the tongues, and the 
 
 * Baron Hume.
 
 112 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cunning of democracy ? If Charles had been the Kingto 
 claim the head of the justly condemned Balmerino, the 
 menaces of a faction would have been powerless against 
 his justice, nor could so stern and determined a disposi- 
 tion ever have been compelled, by that very faction, to 
 sign the death warrant of his greatest statesman. But 
 he exercised the mercy so honourable to his nature, — 
 mercy which Balmerino himself, among others, would 
 not suffer the King to extend to Strafford. From his 
 Majesty's own account we shall now quote the result of 
 Balmerino's trial. " Notwithstanding the head of this 
 family, which was first raised by our father, and then be- 
 ing fallen, yet raised by him again, and now relapsed, 
 was once again brought under our axe, as it had been 
 before brought under the axe of our royal father, we, 
 desirous to shew ourself the true heir of none of our 
 blessed father's virtues more than of his mercy and cle- 
 mency, were contented, upon his deep protestations of 
 loyalty for the time to come, to grant him under our 
 great seal for that our kingdom, not only a pardon of 
 that crime of which he stood convicted, but also his 
 liberty and enlargement ; which gracious pardon of 
 ours, when it was delivered to him by our council, who 
 sent for him, being then prisoner in the Castle of Edin- 
 burgh, he did before that table receive on his knees, 
 with the highest magnifying of our mercy, with the 
 humblest acknowledgments of those infinite obligations, 
 by which he and his family stood for ever engaged in 
 the service of us and our crown, with the deepest pro- 
 testations of all loyal, quiet, and peaceable deportment 
 of himself even hereafter, and of bending all his endea- 
 vours to attend upon all our loyal courses and com- 
 mandments, so that our council remonstrated unto us that 
 we had bestowed our mercy and grace upon a man, of whom
 
 SEEDS OF THE COVENANT. 113 
 
 there could not be the least suspicion of his averseness 
 from our service at any time hereafter, but of whom 
 they might safely promise all forwardness and alacrity 
 in all our just courses, whensoever it should please us 
 to use him. And now this same pardoned Lord Bal- 
 merino, being one of the chief contrivers and most ma- 
 licious prosecutors of this wicked Covenant made against 
 us and our authority, how he can be able to answer it 
 to God, us, and our crown, his own conscience, or to the 
 world, even in the point of honour and reputation, it 
 must be left to the world to judge." 
 
 The history of " this wicked Covenant," — and if law- 
 less designs, and cruel deeds, perpetrated under a false 
 though specious exterior of religion and patriotism, be 
 sins, the Covenant was indeed very wicked, — we shall 
 have to trace in recording the life and death of 
 Montrose. 
 
 vol. i. h
 
 114 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MONTROSE — HUNTLY — HAMILTON — ARGYLE. 
 
 Montrose was not more than fourteen years of age, 
 when his father, John third Earl of Montrose, died un- 
 expectedly upon the 24th of November 1626. * It must 
 have been from this date to the time of his first going 
 abroad, about the commencement of the year 1633, that 
 the young Earl found in Lord Napier " a most tender 
 father ;"t and, if we may judge from the intellectual ac- 
 complishments which not even his stormy destiny could 
 altogether suppress or conceal, and of which we shall be 
 able to afford proofs hitherto unnoticed, there can be no 
 doubt that the greatest pains had been bestowed upon 
 his education. It is said that, being an only son, he was 
 advised to marry at a very early period of his life, and 
 that he did so is apparent from the fact of his eldest son 
 being sixteen years old, when, to the great grief of Mon- 
 trose, he died at Gordon Castle early in 1 645. | The lady 
 whom Montrose married was Magdalene, a daughter of 
 
 * We are told by Dr Wishart that Montrose was in his thirty-fourth 
 year when he quitted Scotland for Norway, in the month of September 
 1646 ; and from other expressions in the same work it would appear that 
 he was born about the close of 1612, or the commencement of the fol- 
 lowing year. 
 
 f Wishart. 
 
 t "4th March 1645. Ye heir how Montrois cumis to the Bog (of Geicht, 
 now Gordon Castle.) His eldest son, the Lord Graham, wes in his com- 
 pany, a proper youth, about 16 yeiris old, and of singular expectation. 
 He takis seikness, deis in the Bog in a few dayis, and is bureit in the 
 kirk of Bellie, to his fatheris gryt greif." — Spalding.
 
 YOUTH OF MONTROSE. 115 
 
 Lord Carnegyof Kinnaird, afterwards first Earl of South- 
 esk. Crawford, the peerage writer, (who obtained mate- 
 rials, for his account of the title, from the Montrose fami- 
 ly, before the year 1 71 4,) tells us that this early marriage 
 interrupted Montrose's studies, but that afterwards he 
 had good masters at home, and applied himself with 
 such success, " that in a very little time he became not 
 merely a great master, but a critic in the Greek and 
 Latin." Certainly he had been a diligent student at 
 some period of his life, and when we consider how soon 
 he entered those stormy scenes that left him but little 
 opportunity for such attainments, we must be satisfied 
 that his boyhood was not spent in idleness. 
 
 To finish the education so well commenced, Montrose 
 proceeded to the continent, where he remained only for 
 a few years. A contemporary writer, — whose name has 
 not come down, but who savs of himself, that he fol- 
 lowed Montrose in several of his expeditions,* — gives 
 this account of his travels. " In his younger days he 
 travelled France and Italy, where he made it his work 
 to pick up the best of their qualities necessary for a 
 person of honour. Having rendered himself perfect in 
 the academies, his next delight was to improve his in- 
 tellectuals, which he did by allotting a proportionable 
 time to reading and conversing with learned men, yet 
 still so that he used his exercise as he might not forget 
 it. He studied as much of the mathematics as is re- 
 quired for a soldier, but his great study was to read 
 men, and the actions of great men. Thus he spent three 
 years in France and Italy, and had surveyed the rari- 
 ties of the east, if his domestic affairs had not obliged 
 
 * " A Relation of the True Funerals of the great Lord Marquis of Mon- 
 trose in the year 1661," printed, from the original manuscript, in the ap- 
 pendix to the translation of Dr Wishart's Latin History, edition 1720.
 
 116 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 his return home, which chanced at that time the late 
 Rebellion began to peep out." This is a more pleasing 
 picture, of the manner in which Montrose was occupi- 
 ed when abroad, than we obtain from Bishop Burnet, 
 who corroborates, however, the account both of our he- 
 ro's learning and his travels. He says that the Earl of 
 Montrose was " a young man well learned, who had tra- 
 velled, but had taken upon him the part of a hero too 
 much, and lived as in a romance, for his whole manner 
 was stately to affectation. "* As this portrait, how- 
 ever, might convey a more favourable opinion than the 
 malicious Bishop intended, he qualifies it by the infor- 
 mation, that, " when Montrose was beyond sea he tra- 
 velled with the Earl of Denbigh, and they consulted all 
 the astrologers they could hear of ; I plainly saw the 
 Earl of Denbigh relied on what had been told him to 
 his dying day, and the rather because the Earl of Mon- 
 trose was promised a glorious fortune for some time, 
 but all was to be overthrown in conclusion." The al- 
 leged accuracy of this prediction is not bad evidence 
 that it never occurred, and there is probably more of 
 malicious detraction in the spirit with which Burnet 
 retails it, than superstitious reliance on the truth of his 
 anecdote. The difficulty of discovering any prominent 
 vices in the character of Montrose has rendered his 
 political enemies, of all eras, vaguely extravagant in 
 their terms of abuse, and somewhat puerile in their anec- 
 dotes of detraction. Conscious that the unprejudiced 
 would still be apt to admire him as a generous hero, 
 though designed a "bloody murderer and excommunicat- 
 ed traitor," such writers have laboured to trace his best 
 qualities from impure sources, and to annihilate the ab- 
 
 * Burnet's History of his own Times, p. 51, Oxford edition, 1823, with 
 the suppressed passages.
 
 YOUTH OF MONTROSE. 117 
 
 horred idea of his heroism, by imputing his most bril- 
 liant actions to impulses derived entirely from selfish- 
 ness or superstition. But we shall not pretend to doubt 
 the assertion of another historical gossip, that Mon- 
 trose's " mother consulted with witches at his birth,"* 
 when we remember that that mother was sister to the 
 necromantic Earl of Gowrie ;t though we may be per- 
 mitted to slight what is added by the same chronicler, 
 that Montrose's " father said to a gentleman who was 
 sent to visit him from a neighbour Earl, that this child 
 would trouble all Scotland ; he is said also to have 
 eaten a toad while he was a sucking child."^ 
 
 * Scot of Scotstarvet, MS. see before, p. 52. 
 
 f Lady Margaret Ruthven, eldest daughter of William first Earl of 
 Gowrie, and sister of John third Earl, the hero of the Gowrie conspiracy. 
 
 J Scotstarvet must have thrown this mud at random ; for in an old 
 contemporary MS- of the times of Mary, (in the hands of Mr Macdonald 
 of the Register-House) being a historical defence of that unfortunate 
 queen , the same anecdote is thus told of the Regent Morton : " Morton 
 had credite at the Courte, being left there by the traitoures to give intelli- 
 gence how all maters past there, and how to betray his Mistres ; for they 
 could not chuse a more fitte man than him to do such an act, who from 
 his very youth had been renouned for his treacherie, and of whome his 
 own father had no good opinion in his very infance ; for at a certane 
 time his nurse coming foorth with him in a garden where his father was, 
 with some that had come to visite him, busie in talk, the nurse setting 
 down the childe on the greene grasse, and not much mindinge him, the 
 boy seeth a toade which he snatched up, and had eaten it all till a little 
 of the legges ; which when shee saw, shee cried out, thinking he shoulde 
 have been poisoned ; and shee taking the legges of the toade that he had 
 left as yet on-eaten, he cried out so loude and shrill, that his father and 
 the other gentlemen, who were not far, heard the outcries, who sent to 
 see what should be the cause ; and when the messinger returned and 
 told the mater as it happned, in all haiste he come where his son was, 
 and, understanding as it was, he caused give the legges also, which 
 he greedilie ate up also ; which the father seeing said, the Dewill chewe 
 thee, or burste thee, there will never come goode of thee. As he prog- 
 nosticated so it happned, for after, he was beheaded at Edinburgh, at- 
 tainted, and found guiltie of heigh treason for the murder of the King 
 his maister." Whether, this be a fable in regard to Morton also, we leave 
 -to those who may write his life.
 
 118 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 It would be a fact of greater interest to establish that 
 Montrose, when in France, " became passionately 
 attached to the military profession, and accepted a 
 commission of captain of the Royal Guard of Louis 
 XIII."* Several modern writers have recorded with- 
 out expressing any doubt as to this interesting circum- 
 stance. That Montrose's innate love of arms and heroic 
 adventure had been first stirred by visiting the war- 
 like nations of the continent, in the age too of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, may readily be believed ; and the manly 
 accomplishments, and military capacities, which so 
 soon distinguished him at home, indicate that when 
 abroad he had studied to perfect himself for the field. 
 But he could not have been much more than twenty- 
 two years of age when he returned to Scotland, about 
 the commencement of the year 1636 ; he was only three 
 years abroad, during which time he was travelling, and 
 it seems that he meant to have visited the east, had his 
 presence not been required in Scotland. Yet some 
 contemporary historians have even asserted that Mon- 
 trose commanded the Scottish Guard in France. San- 
 derson, in his Life of Charles I., (printed only eight 
 years after the death of Montrose,) speaks of that no- 
 bleman's " return from his travels in France, where he 
 had command of the Scots Guard." Heylyn in his cu- 
 rious remarks (printed two years earlier than Sander- 
 son's work) upon Hammond L'Estrange's History of the 
 Reign of Charles I., also records Montrose's " return 
 from the court of France, where he was captain, as I 
 take it, of the Scottish Guard." The command alluded 
 to must have been of that illustrious body, so famous 
 in the romance of history, sometimes called the Com- 
 
 * Lodge, D' Israeli, also, records the same as a certain fact.
 
 YOUTH OF MONTROSE. 119 
 
 pany of Scottish Archers, whose high privilege it was 
 to guard the person of the King of France. Arising 
 out of the ancient league between Scotland and France, 
 to protect their respective territories from the preten- 
 sions of England, this corps of alliance, memorable in 
 many a bloody field, became the representative of the 
 kingdom of Scotland in France, where, indeed, our na- 
 tion showed more chivalrous than at home. Bossuet, 
 in his eloquent funeral oration over Henrietta Maria, 
 identifies the Archer Guard with Scotland, in a remark, 
 the severity of which is certainly not applicable to 
 Montrose. The Scotch, he says, in whose hands the 
 King of England placed himself, gave him up to the 
 Parliamentarians, and thus the faithful guards of our 
 Kings betrayed their own ! * 
 
 There is a circumstance in the history of the Scottish 
 Guard which may account for Heylyn's surmise, and at 
 the same time afford the most probable theory of Mon- 
 trose's first departure from his native country. Before the 
 time of Louis XIII. the guard had lost much of its Scottish 
 exclusiveness, with the concomitant honour and privileges 
 to that nation, and French noblemen aspired to, and ob- 
 tained, the distinctions that still nominally belonged to 
 Scotland. From some original papers on the subject 
 it appears that James VI. was induced to interpose his 
 personal demand to have the guard restored to its pris- 
 tine glory in France, or that it should no longer be 
 identified with his kingdom. This happened in the 
 years 1611 and 1612, when Mary de Medicis was Re- 
 gent of France. In 1624, her son, Louis XIII. ap- 
 pears to have been very anxious to derive this aid 
 
 * " Lcs Ecossois, a qu'il se donne, le livrent aux Parliamentaires 
 Anglois — et les gardes fidelles de nos Rois, traliissent le leur." — Oraison 
 Funebre de Henr- Marie de France.
 
 120 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 from Scotland upon its original footing. He granted 
 his patent, dated 19th April in that year, of the " com- 
 mand of a company of a hundred men at arms, vacant 
 by the death of its former commander the late Duke of 
 Lennox," to George Lord Gordon, eldest son of the 
 Marquis of Huntly. This Lord Gordon was the noble- 
 man to whom Montrose, when first in arms for the 
 Covenant, was opposed in the north of Scotland, who 
 was said to have afterwards entertained a fatal jealousy 
 of Montrose in their loyal career, and who finally 
 suffered death in the same cause, about the same time. 
 It appears by various letters, from about the date of this 
 patent to the year 1637 inclusive, that the King of 
 France had long ardently desired the presence of Lord 
 Gordon and his company, which was organized in Scot- 
 land. Hitherto it has been recorded that this noble- 
 man passed over to France, with his brilliant cortege, 
 in 1624, the date of his commission, in which case 
 Montrose was too young to have accompanied him. 
 But that he did not do so until the year 1633 is prov- 
 ed from the tenor of the correspondence alluded to, and 
 the occasion was after Louis had resolved to aid the 
 united princes of Germany against the house of Austria. 
 A contemporary manuscript history of the family of Gor- 
 don says, that young Huntly " conducted with him from 
 Scotland the bravest company of Scotch gens d'armes 
 that ever had been seen in France, all of them gentle- 
 men, and the Baron Gray, one of the most ancient barons 
 in Scotland, for their lieutenant."* The letter of Louis, 
 in which he appoints Lord Gray to be Lieutenant, in 
 consequence of the demise " dujeu Sieur de Gourdon" 
 is preserved with the rest. 
 
 Manuscript History of the Family of Gordon. Advocates' Library.
 
 YOUTH OF MONTROSE. 121 
 
 Thus it appears to be distinctly proved that Mon- 
 trose held neither the principal nor the subordinate 
 command of those men-at-arms, nor is there any reason 
 to suppose that he served at all with them. It was not 
 until the year 1637 that their distinguished commander 
 came over to Scotland, apparently for the purpose of re- 
 cruiting the guard ; but his father, the old and sorely per- 
 secuted Marquis, dying about the time, and the insur- 
 rections commencing in Scotland, young Huntly never 
 returned to his command abroad. * The doubtful re- 
 mark of Heylyn may very possibly have arisen from some 
 confusion of Huntly's early history with that of Mon- 
 trose. Upon a comparison of dates, however, it ap- 
 pears most probable that the two noblemen passed over 
 to France together in 1633, — an interesting circum- 
 stance when we reflect upon their future fates.f The 
 Scottish Guard immediately distinguished itself in Lor- 
 rain and Alsace ; and the young Lord Gordon, who ac- 
 companied his father, " was wounded in the thigh at 
 the storming of Spire, valiantly fighting upon the breach 
 of the wall, with his pike in his hand, and never gave 
 
 * The commission to Huntly, and the French King's correspondence 
 with him, whom he addresses " a Monsieur le Marquis de Gourdon, 
 Capitaine de ma campagnie d'hommes d' armes Ecossois," are printed in 
 the appendix to a History of the family of Gordon, by William Gordon 
 of old Aberdeen. The work is scarce, and appears not to have been 
 consulted by the various writers who have noticed imperfectly and inac- 
 curately Huntly's passing with this company to France. 
 
 f There is in the Montrose charter-chest, a mutual discharge of all 
 actions betwixt James Earl of Montrose, with consent of his curators, 
 and John Earl of Perth, dated at Edinburgh, 22d October 1632. In the 
 Lord Lyon's list of noblemen attending Charles I. in Scotland at his co- 
 ronation in the month of June 1633, the name of Montrose is given with 
 the word absent after it, both in the pageant and the Parliament. Now, 
 it was early in 1633, being the intermediate date, that Lord Gordon went 
 over to France with his company.
 
 122 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 over till the city surrendered."* This was the same 
 gallant youth who commanded the left wing of the loy- 
 al army at the battle of Alford, and whose death there 
 so sadly clouded the success of Montrose. 
 
 The " thirty years war," then, was the school of arms, 
 and its heroes the chivalry, by whose fame at least, if 
 not in actual service with them, Montrose first felt 
 awakened within him the lofty and warlike longings 
 which, Burnet tells us, made him " take upon him the 
 part of a hero too much," though the Bishop will allow 
 no purer source of that demeanour than the fact of hav- 
 ing hunted astrologers with the Earl of Denbigh. Mon- 
 trose returned to Scotland about the close of 1635, or 
 the commencement of the following year, when he met 
 with a reception from Charles I. to which alone has been 
 generally ascribed the most mistaken step of our hero's 
 subsequent career. But before narrating this anecdote, 
 we must notice another nobleman, whose character and 
 conduct exercised a fatal influence in all that befel the 
 King, Huntly, and Montrose. 
 
 The excellent Sir Philip Warwick, speaking of that 
 prudent Marquis of Hamilton who was the minister of 
 King James, adds, " he had two sons, James and Wil- 
 liam, neither of them so graceful persons as himself, 
 and both of some hard visage, the elder of a neater 
 shape and gracefuller motion than his brother ; how- 
 ever,! was in the presence-chamber at Whitehall, when, 
 after his father's death, he (the elder) returned from his 
 travels, and waiting on the King from chapel with great 
 observance, and the King using him with great kind- 
 ness, the eyes of the whole Court were upon the young 
 man. His hair was short, and he wore a little black 
 
 * Hist, of the Family of Gordon.
 
 HAMILTON. 123 
 
 callot>cap, which was not then usual, and I wondered 
 much that all present, who usually at Court put the 
 best character upon a rising man, generally agreed in 
 this, that the air of his countenance had such a cloud 
 on it, that nature seems to have impressed aliquid in- 
 signe, which I often reflected on when his future ac- 
 tions led him first to be suspected, then to be declaimed 
 against. I have lately seen the memoirs of a countryman 
 of his,* who is master of a very good pen, and who hath 
 represented this great man by a light which few others, 
 either of his own nation or ours, discovered him by. 
 Willingly I would sully no man's fame, especially so 
 eminent a person's, for to write invectives is more cri- 
 minal than to err in eulogies. As for myself I was 
 known unto him and ever civilly treated [by ?] him ; 
 however, I must concur in that general opinion, that 
 naturally he loved to gain his point rather by some ser- 
 pentine winding, than by a direct path, which was 
 very contrary to the nature of his younger brother (La- 
 nerick) of whom that gallant, loyal peer, the Earl of 
 Montrose, was wont to say, that even when this gentle- 
 man was his enemy, and in arms against the King, he 
 did it open-faced, and without the least treachery, ei- 
 ther to his Majesty, or any of his ministers, — a charac- 
 ter worthy of a great man, though deflecting from 
 duty."f 
 
 A curious glimpse of Hamilton has already been af- 
 forded, exciting a smile from his admiring mastty* dur- 
 ing an angry discussion at the councils of Scotland, — 
 " My Lord Chancellor, how can there be such neglect 
 as you speak of, since I know they had almost put my 
 
 * Bishop Burnet's Memoirs of the House of Hamilton. 
 
 f Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs of the Kei#n of Charles I. p. 111.
 
 124 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 mother to the horn for forty shillings Scots ! whereat 
 the King smiled."* His mother was the noted Lady- 
 Ann Cunningham, of the right covenanting breed, 
 being a daughter of the Earl of Glencairn. This lady 
 was the unrivalled leader of the female church-militant 
 in Scotland. Her officers were the Nicholas Balfours, 
 Eupham Hendersons, Bethia and Elpsa Craigs, and 
 other " godly matrons" of the Covenant. Her veteran 
 guards were such as the stool- propelling Jenny Geddes, 
 and her light troops, the " serving-maids" recorded so 
 exultingly by Robert Baillie as the first victors against 
 Episcopacy. The Marquis was about ten years older than 
 Montrose, and from boyhood had obtained that ascen- 
 dency over the affections and judgment of Charles which 
 enters so deeply into the history of the times. The con- 
 trol exercised by the mysterious "serpentine" Hamilton, 
 was not less pernicious to the country and the King, 
 than had been the influence of Buckingham. In secret, 
 and while, perhaps, only contemplating petty and sel- 
 fish results, his deceptive and wavering conduct sapped 
 the foundations of the throne itself. Burnet has most 
 artfully laboured to gain for him greater favour with 
 posterity than he deserves. But Clarendon, in a single 
 sentence, throws more light upon the Marquis's charac- 
 ter : " His natural darkness (he says) and reservation in 
 discourse, made him be thought a wise man, and his 
 having been in command under the King of Sweden, and 
 his continual discourse of battles and fortifications, made 
 him be thought a soldier ; and both these mistakes 
 were the cause that made him be looked upon as a worse 
 and more dangerous man, than, in truth, he deserved to 
 be." He has, indeed, been suspected of designs in his 
 
 * Introductory Chapter, p. 30. 
 4
 
 HAMILTON. 125 
 
 political life, probably beyond the range of his vice, and 
 certainly above the flight of his daring. Clarendon, 
 however, throughout his history, appears to have form- 
 ed precisely the same estimate, of this favourite's sin- 
 cerity and patriotism, that Sir Philip Warwick had 
 done. Vandyke has handed him down to posterity, 
 sheathed in bright armour, and grasping his baton, as if 
 he had led the Archer Guard of France, and saved the 
 Crown at home. Alas, he added nothing to the loyal 
 chivalry of his princely house, and when he discoursed 
 of battles, and of Gustavus Adolphus, the characteristic 
 which Burnet attributes to Montrose, may be justly 
 transferred to his insidious enemy, as being one who took 
 upon himself the part of a hero too much. In all his 
 warlike expeditions, not very numerous, but most un- 
 happily conspicuous, he exhibited failures scarcely con- 
 ceivable (considering the occasions and his resources) 
 in a nobleman who behaved with becoming dignily on 
 the scaffold, and touching whose personal courage the 
 severest remark ever made was that uttered by his 
 long-trusting, long-suffering master, when he told the 
 Earl of Lanerick, that he believed him to be an honest 
 man, but that he thought his brother (the Marquis) had 
 been very active in his own preservation.* 
 
 It is not surprising that one of Hamilton's disposi- 
 tions should have felt some uneasiness at the idea of a 
 rival like the young Earl of Montrose, returning from 
 the seat of war, as Heylyn expresses it, " in the flower 
 and bravery of his age." Of Montrose* too, we are so 
 fortunate as to have transmitted to us a minute per- 
 sonal description. " I shall acquaint you (says the con- 
 temporary already quoted) with both what I know my- 
 
 * A Relation of the Incident, 1641, by Lord Lanerick. Hardwicke's 
 State Papers, Vol. ii. p. 299.
 
 126 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 self, having followed him several years in his expedi- 
 tions, and what I have learned from others of good 
 name and credit. He was of a middle stature, and most 
 exquisitely proportioned limbs, his hair of a light chest- 
 nut, his complexion betwixt pale and ruddy, his eye 
 most penetrating, though inclining to gray, his nose ra- 
 ther aquiline than otherwise. As he was strong of 
 body and limbs, so he was most agile, which made him 
 excel most of others in those exercises where these two 
 are required. In riding the great horse, and making 
 use of his arms, he came short of none. I never heard 
 much of his delight in dancing, though his countenance 
 and other his bodily endowments were equally fitting 
 the court as the camp." * 
 
 Montrose's father had been president of the council ; 
 his grandfather high treasurer, chancellor, and finally 
 viceroy of Scotland ; his ancestors, of royal descent, 
 were distinguished by every circumstance most likely to 
 recommend their representative to the King ; and his 
 own personal accomplishments were such as to plead 
 yet more powerfully in his favour. To ingratiate him- 
 self with such a monarch as Charles, could not fail to 
 be Montrose's first desire on returning from his travels, 
 and he was well entitled to expect to succeed by no 
 
 * Dr Wishart describes Montrose in similar terms : " He was not 
 very tall, nor much exceeding a middle stature, but of an exceeding 
 strong composition of body, and an incredible force, joined with an ex- 
 cellent proportion and fine features. His hair was of a dark-brown co- 
 lour, his complexion sanguine, of a quick and piercing gray eye, with 
 a high nose, somewhat like the ancient sign of the magnanimity of the 
 Persian kings. He was a man of a very princely carriage and excel- 
 lent address, which made him be used by all princes, for the most part, 
 with the greatest familiarity. He was a complete horseman, and had a 
 singular grace in riding. He was of a most resolute and undaunted 
 spirit, which began to appear in him, to the wonder and expectation of 
 all men, even in his childhood."
 
 Hamilton's jealousy of montrose. J 27 
 
 more elaborate art than appearing at Court. It is not 
 unlikely to be true, however, that he had been " advis- 
 ed to make his way by the Marquis of Hamilton." The 
 Earl of Denbigh, who, according to Burnet, was Mon- 
 trose's travelling companion, was the Marquis's brother- 
 in-law, and probably suggested this channel of prefer- 
 ment. There can be little doubt that Montrose met 
 with a repulse from the King owing to the art of the 
 favourite, the fact being alluded to by various contem- 
 porary historians, among whom Heylyn, both in his 
 Life of Laud, and in his Commentary upon L'Estrange, 
 gives the following particulars, which are completely 
 corroborated by the whole of Hamilton's subsequent 
 conduct. 
 
 " The reason (says Heylyn) of James Earl of Mon- 
 trose adhering to the Covenanters, as he afterwards 
 averred unto the King, was briefly this : At his return 
 from the court of France, where he was captain (as I 
 take it) of the Scottish Guard, he had a mind to put 
 himself into the King's service, and was advised to make 
 his way by the Marquis of Hamilton, who, knowing the 
 gallantry of the man, and fearing a competitor in his 
 Majesty's favour, cunningly told him that he would do 
 him any service, but that the King was so wholly given 
 up to the English, and so discountenanced and slighted 
 the Scottish nation, that, were it not for doing good ser- 
 vice for his country, which the King intended to reduce 
 to the form of a province, he could not suffer the indig- 
 nities which were put upon him. This done he repairs 
 unto the King, tells him of the Earl's return from 
 France, and of his purpose to attend him at the time 
 appointed, but that he was so powerful, so popular, and 
 of such esteem among the Scots, by reason of an old de- 
 scent from the royal family, that, if he were not nipped
 
 128 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 in the bud, as we used to say, he might endanger the 
 King's interests and affairs in Scotland. The Earl be- 
 ing brought unto the King, with great demonstration 
 of affection on the Marquis's part, the King, without 
 taking any great notice of him, gave him his hand to 
 kiss, and so turned aside ; which so confirmed the 
 truth of that false report which Hamilton had de- 
 livered to him, that in great displeasure and disdain he 
 makes for Scotland, where he found who knew how to 
 work on such humours as he brought along with him, 
 till, by seconding the information which he had from 
 Hamilton, they had fashioned him wholly to their will."* 
 The disgust which Charles had conceived at the 
 Rothes party in Scotland, and the circumstances which 
 occasioned that disgust, have been noticed in our intro- 
 ductory chapter. Most probably Hamilton had taken 
 advantage, of the King's disposition to evince upon every 
 opportunity a marked discountenance of all who adher- 
 ed to that faction, to persuade Charles that Montrose 
 was to be a leader among those turbulent nobles. Be 
 this as it may, such a reception of a young nobleman, 
 as yet only distinguished for every personal attraction, 
 must have been as remarkable, as it was mortifying to its 
 object. Sir Philip Warwick tells us, that Charles " with 
 any artist or good mechanic, traveller, or scholar would 
 discourse freely ;" and he also records this trait of the 
 King's affectionate character, that" whenever any young 
 nobleman, or gentleman of quality, who was going to 
 travel, came to kiss his hand, he cheerfully would give 
 
 * This is from Heylyn's Remarks upon L'Estrange, p. 205. In his 
 Life of Laud he tells the same story, but omits the surmise of Montrose's 
 commanding the Guard of France. It will be observed, as noticed in 
 our introductory chapter, that Heylyn obtained some materials for his 
 Life of Laud from Lord Napier. Sanderson and Whitelock both allude 
 to the circumstance narrated by Heylyn.
 
 MONTROSE'S CONTEMPT FOR ARGYLE. ] 29 
 
 them some good counsel leading to moral virtue, espe- 
 cially to good conversation, telling them that if he heard 
 they kept good company abroad, he should reasonably 
 expect they would return qualified to serve him and 
 their country well at home." Were it not for the ex- 
 planation given by Heylyn, we might almost suppose, 
 that Charles had now determined to select his favou- 
 rites by a rule contrary to that which had elevated Vil- 
 liers. The hard visage, little black callot-cap, and pu- 
 ritanically cropt hair of the young Marquis of Hamil- 
 ton, had found favour in the sight of the King whose 
 own " love-lock" became the theme of puritanical scur- 
 rility. And there was another young nobleman, gene- 
 rally described as of mean stature, with red hair and 
 squinting eyes, whom the King had already regarded 
 most graciously, admitted to his councils, and loaded 
 with favours. This was Archibald Lord Lorn, after* 
 wards Earl, and Marquis of Argyle, — the coward, par 
 excellence, of his times, — one who through life, but ever 
 at a distance, watched and followed Montrose with sinister 
 and deadly aspect. Argyle was the snake in the grass 
 to his sovereign, as Hamilton was " the serpent in the 
 bosom." Montrose, says Clarendon, " had always a 
 great emulation, or rather a great contempt of the Mar- 
 quis of Argyle, (as he was too apt to contemn those he 
 did not love,) who wanted nothing but honesty and cou- 
 rage to be a very extraordinary man, having all other 
 good talents in a very great degree." The same noble 
 author also remarks of these rivals, that " the people 
 looked upon them both as young men of unlimited am- 
 bition, and used to say, that they were like Caesar and 
 Pompey, the one would endure no superior, and the 
 other would have no equal." Ue Hetz confirms the 
 comparison as regards Montrose, — the parallel be- 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 ISO MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 twixt Pompey and Argyle would be more difficult to il- 
 lustrate. The old Earl of Argyle had embraced the 
 Roman Catholic faith, and the King, never papistically 
 inclined, commanded him to divest himself of his vast 
 territorial rights, in favour of his son, reserving only a 
 competency for his own life. Lorn, Clarendon tells us, 
 had provoked his father by " disobedience and inso- 
 lence ;" and the old Earl meditated such a disposal of the 
 property as threatened his representative with impo- 
 verished titles. Charles, to save the family, made that 
 arrangement which banished the father, and extorted 
 from him those memorable and prophetic sentences, — 
 '** he would submit to the King's pleasure, though he 
 believed he was hardly dealt with ;' and then, with some 
 bitterness, put- his son in mind of his undutiful 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 may raise him, which I 
 doubt you will live to repent, for he is a man of craft, 
 siibtilty, 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,' " — a prophecy fulfilled to the very letter. 
 But it was fated that Charles should trust Hamil- 
 ton and neglect Huntly, elevate Argyle, and discoun- 
 tenance Montrose, — and that one and all of them should 
 perish on the scaffold.
 
 SECRET AGITATION. 131 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHEN AND WHY MONTKOSE JOINED THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 However probable it may be that Montrose would 
 not have been so far misled as he was by the demo- 
 cratical party in Scotland, had the King attached him 
 to his person, instead of repulsing him from court, it is 
 a mistaken idea, though generally assumed for a fact, 
 that in the fever of his disappointment, and without any 
 better impulse, he had on the instant become bitterly 
 opposed to the measures of the King.* Let us glance 
 at the history of the sudden combustion in Scotland, 
 which brought on the great Rebellion, and mark, as pre- 
 cisely as we can, the time and the occasion when Mon- 
 trose joined the ranks of the insurgents. 
 
 Guided by the policy of Laud, Charles at length de- 
 termined to effect the long-meditated scheme of ecclesi- 
 astical uniformity throughout his dominions. The 
 book of Canons was circulated by authority in Scot- 
 land in the year 1636. The interval betwixt the pro- 
 mulgation of the Canons, and the appointment of the 
 liturgy in the month of July 1637 was employed, by 
 the fomenters of discontent in Scotland, as a pe- 
 riod of secret agitation, during which they laboriously 
 infused into the minds of the people ideas that the laws 
 
 * Even D'Israeli, doing injustice to his own brilliant and critical Life of 
 Charles, no less than to the character of Montrose, by so loose an asser- 
 tion, thus gives it: "The slighted and romantic hero, indignant at the 
 coldness of that royalty which best suited bis spirit, hastened to Scot- 
 land, and, threw himself, in anger and despair, into the hands of the Co- 
 venanters." — Comment. Vol. p. i v. 15.
 
 132 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of the country were about to be infringed, and the Pro- 
 testant religion on the eve of being forcibly supplanted 
 by Popery, — the same false view of the King's inten- 
 tions, that, for a like factious purpose, had been propa- 
 gated against the tithe policy. The scheme of unifor- 
 mity in the Protestant worship of the kingdom was, 
 in itself, rational and praiseworthy, not originating 
 with, but inherited by, Charles. The attempt, how- 
 ever, was ill timed, and worse conducted, and resistance 
 to it in Scotland might have claimed some admiration, 
 as well as sympathy, had that resistance been the na- 
 tural and unanimous expression of a rational feeling, or 
 had it possessed one feature which deserves to be re- 
 garded with other sentiments than disgust. The peo- 
 ple of Scotland, though, as Malcolm Laing well ob- 
 serves, " seldom distinguished for loyalty," were not, ge- 
 nerally speaking, anti-monarchical, nor were they dis- 
 posed, says Clarendon, to enter into " a bare-faced rebel- 
 lion against their King, whose person they loved, and 
 reverenced his government ;" nor, he adds, " would they 
 have been wrought upon towards the lessening the one 
 or the other, by any other suggestions or infusions, than 
 such as should make them jealous, or apprehensive of a 
 design to introduce Popery, their whole religion consist- 
 ing in an entire detestation of Popery, in believing the 
 Pope to be antichrist, and hating perfectly the persons 
 of a^l Papists." A false alarm of Popery was, indeed, 
 the great lever of insurgency in Scotland, and the bet- 
 ter suited for the purposes of those who used it, that 
 the enlightened monarch was capable of regarding it, at 
 the time, as nothing else than what the Church of Scot- 
 land herself now admits it to have been,* namely, a 
 
 * See " Popular Reflections on the progress of the Principles of Tole- 
 ration, and the reasonableness of the Catholic claims, by a Protestant,"
 
 SECRET AGITATION. 133 
 
 senseless clamour, raised by faction, and echoed by ig- 
 norance. 
 
 If Montrose's only reason for joining this agitation 
 was a feeling of rancour against the King, it may be 
 supposed that he would have embraced the earliest op- 
 portunity of revenge, by mingling in the first storm 
 that arose against the Episcopal measures. Unquestion- 
 ably there was in his disposition none of the close cun- 
 ning, so characteristic of Hamilton and Argyle. Mon- 
 trose was fearless, open, and even rash in obeying and 
 avowing all his impulses ; and it is scarcely to be cre- 
 dited that had his motives for allying himself to the 
 turbulent inventors of the Covenant, been purely vin- 
 dictive, such a nature as his would have required to be 
 craftily worked upon, even after Scotland was in a blaze. 
 We may trace in the contemporary chronicles of the pe- 
 riod, especially in the letters and papers of the well- 
 known Robert Baillie, afterwards Principal of the Col- 
 lege of Glasgow, the rise and progress of the revolt of 
 Scotland, and we shall find that Montrose, though se- 
 duced and deceived by Rothes, and others of the fac- 
 tion, never, properly speaking, belonged to that faction, 
 or was fully cognizant of their deep designs. 
 
 Baillie,* writing to Mr Spang, (minister of the Scots 
 congregation in Holland) 29th January 1637, imme- 
 diately after the royal proclamation of the service- 
 book, makes one of those frank admissions which, from 
 a clerical covenanting historian, cuts so deep. He says, 
 that both sides of the " pitiful schism" by which he sup- 
 quoting addresses of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, in 
 1813, to the throne in favour of their Catholic brethren. 
 
 * For the perusal of the manuscript collection of Baillie' s Letters and 
 Journals, as well as the printed abridgement, I am indebted to the Rev. 
 Dr Lee.
 
 134 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 poses his church is about to be divided, are to blame ; 
 " the one puts idolatry, Popery, superstition, in sundry- 
 things which are innocent of these faults ; they speak 
 of the persons and actions of men otherwise than be- 
 comes, * * * the other seems wilfully to add fuel to their 
 flame, to command upon sole authority, without ever 
 craving the advice of any, so far as we can hear, if such 
 things be expedient, yea if they be lawful," — a view of 
 the whole matter which happens precisely to coincide 
 with Clarendon's statement of the seditious fanaticism 
 of the Covenanters, and the overbearing Episcopal po- 
 licy of Laud. The contents of "the 1 Book," we learn 
 from the same covenanting source, are canvassed before 
 they are known or understood, and pronounced to be a 
 popish ceremonial illegally imposed, — " in a word, that it 
 was nought but the mass in English, brought in by the 
 craft and violence of the bishops, against the mind of 
 all the rest, both of church and statesmen." It is re- 
 markable, considering the previous history of the 
 Church of Scotland, how much laborious agitation it 
 cost the Rothes faction, and the clergy, their instru- 
 ments, to rouse the tumultuous portion of the commu- 
 nity, even with all the advantage obtained from Laud's 
 mismanagement. The violent burst against the ser- 
 vice-book was far from being a spontaneous or general 
 impulse of the people, — " these things (that the liturgy 
 was just the mass in English, &c.) sounded from pul- 
 pits, were carried from hand to hand in papers, were 
 the table-talk and open discourse of high and low."* 
 With all this preparatory agitation, when the royal 
 order, for reading the new service, on Sunday 23d July 
 1637, was attempted to be fulfilled, in St Giles' Church 
 by the Bishop and Dean of Edinburgh, and in the 
 
 * Baillie. 
 3
 
 SECRET AGITATION. 135 
 
 Grayfriars by the Bishop of Argyle, the people were 
 passive, we may say to a man. But " incontinent the 
 serving maids began such a tumult as was never heard 
 of since the Reformation in our nation."* Baillie was 
 not present but came to Edinburgh the day after " that 
 foul day,"f the miserable details of which have been 
 fully and frequently recorded to the disgrace of Scot- 
 land, and her church. 
 
 The privy-council, in their letter to the King, cha- 
 racterized the resistance as " that barbarous tumult, 
 occasioned solely, for any thing we can learn as yet, by 
 a number of base and rascally people." But it appears 
 that Sir Thomas Hope, his Majesty's advocate, and one 
 of the councillors who sign this very report, could have 
 told a different story. " This tumult (says Bishop 
 Guthrie) was taken to be but a rash emergent without 
 any pre-deliberation, whereas the truth is, it was the re- 
 sult of a consultation at Edinburgh in April, at which 
 time Mr Alexander Henderson came thither from his 
 brethren in Fife, and Mr David Dickson from those in 
 the west country, and those two having communicated, 
 to my Lord Balmerino and Sir Thomas Hope, the 
 minds of them they came from, and gotten their appro- 
 bation thereto, did afterwards meet at the house of 
 Nicholas Balfour in the Cowgate, with Eupham Hen- 
 derson, Bethia and Elspa Craig, and several other ma- 
 trons, and recommended to them that they and their 
 adherents might give the first affront to the Book, as- 
 suring: them that men should afterwards take the busi- 
 
 • Baillie; who thus exultingly records the anniversary of the second 
 Reformation of the kirk : — " This day twelvemonth the serving-maids 
 in Edinburgh began to draw down the Bishops' pride, when it was at 
 the highest, being July 22d 1G37." 
 
 f Baillie.
 
 136 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ness out of their hands," — which, accordingly, the ma- 
 trons undertook to do. Some have affected to treat this 
 story as a gratuitous invention by Bishop Guthrie. Dr 
 Cook attributes the riots, (which, however, he cannot re- 
 strain himself from calling "atrocities from which men not 
 destitute of religious impressions, would naturally have 
 shrunk,") to a conscientious persuasion, "that they were 
 engaged in the cause of religion, and were contributing 
 to purify those temples which apparently they profaned."* 
 Bishop Guthrie, however, is not only generally corrobo- 
 rated by the admissions of Baillie as to the systematic 
 outrages committed by the women, but the fact that the 
 ebullitions of popular fury were arranged before-hand 
 by the leaders of the faction, who pretended to disclaim 
 the riots, is sufficiently proved by an original and anony- 
 mous letter, to that noted character Mr Archibald John- 
 ston, the son of Elspa Craig, — the clerk of the Assem- 
 bly — the procurator of the church, — the framer of the 
 Covenant — the pillar of the cause — and, finally, created 
 a Peer by Cromwell ! 
 
 " Dear Christian brother, and courageous Protes- 
 tant," says this worthy's anonymous correspondent, 
 " upon some rumour of the Prelate of St Andrews 
 coming over the water, finding it altogether inconve- 
 nient that he or any of that kind, should show them- 
 selves peaceably in public, some course was taken howhe 
 might be entertained in such places as he should come 
 unto. We are now informed that he will not come, but 
 that Brechin is in Edinburgh or thereabout. It is the 
 advice of your friends there, that, in a private way, 
 some course may be taken for his terror and disgrace, 
 if he offer to show himself publicly. Think upon the 
 
 * Dr Cook's History of the Church, Vol. ii. p. 378.
 
 PUBLIC CONVENTION. 137 
 
 best way, by the advice of your friends there. I fear 
 that their public appearance at Glasgow shall be prejudi- 
 cial to our cause. We are going on to take order with 
 his chief supporters here, Glaidstanes, Scrymgeour, and 
 Haliburton. So, wishing you both protection and di- 
 rection from your Master,* I continue your own, whom 
 you know, G. 26th October 1638." 
 
 It has never been hinted that Montrose had any 
 hand in this mean and atrocious organizing of insur- 
 rection. He had no secret sympathies with the party 
 whom he joined. He was not of the Rothes school of 
 politics, although it was Rothes who seduced him. It 
 is nowhere pretended that his disaffection had any 
 thing to do with previous factions. Neither does 
 Baillie name Montrose until after the period when, we 
 shall find, he was first " brought in" f by the faction of 
 the Covenant. 
 
 The power and ascendency of the mob having been 
 thus cautiously ascertained, — and so successfully that, 
 says Clarendon, " by the time new orders came from 
 England, there was scarce a bishop left in Edinburgh, 
 and not a minister who durst read the liturgy in any 
 church," — anewscene opened in the dramaof democracy. 
 Nor yet in this second scene shall we find Montrose. 
 
 The distracted and divided privy-council, too incon- 
 gruously composed to act upon any determined plan of 
 co-operation for protection of the King's authority, 
 were assailed by petitions, or supplications, as they were 
 
 * Meaning the Almighty ! This letter (which we take from the 
 original in the Advocates' Library) is printed by Hailes in his Memo- 
 rials and Letters relating to the reign of Charles I. It appears to have 
 escaped the observation of those who deny the secret organizing of the 
 tumults, and reject with scorn the testimony of Bishop Guthrie. 
 
 f Baillie.
 
 138 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTORS. 
 
 termed, to suspend the imposition of the service-book. 
 The 20th September 1637, a convention was assem- 
 bled, at which noblemen and gentlemen now ventured 
 to appear, commissioned from various shires and burghs 
 to present petitions against the Book, in the name of 
 their constituents, who asumed the designation of sup- 
 plicants. " The oracle," says Bishop Guthrie, " whom 
 the supplicants consulted anent the legality of their 
 proceeding was Sir Thomas Hope, his Majesty's advo- 
 cate, who, though he professed to have no hand in the 
 business, being the King's servant, yet, in the mean- 
 time, privately laid down the grounds and ways where- 
 by they were to proceed ; and that he might not be re- 
 marked, pitched upon Balmerino and Mr Henderson 
 to be the men who, from time to time, should come to 
 him and receive his overtures." First and foremost to 
 this convention came the needy and dissolute Earl of 
 Rothes. With him came Cassils, Eglington, Home, Lo- 
 thian, and Wemyss, Lindsay, Yester, Balmerino, Cran- 
 ston, and Loudon, accompanied by ministers and bur- 
 gesses from Fife and the western shires. Their sup- 
 plications were too respectfully received by the privy- 
 council ; and the excellent Duke of Lennox, who had 
 just arrived in Scotland to attend his mother's funeral, 
 was burdened with the odious task of representing the 
 business fully to his Majesty. The council dissolved, 
 but the supplicants still held meetings for the purpose of 
 organizing- sedition, not being quite satisfied with their 
 numerical demonstration. Various districts were al- 
 lotted to the most active of the ministers attached to 
 the faction, in which they were enjoined, not to preach 
 Christianity, but to agitate — agitate — agitate.* 
 
 * 
 
 * " It was laid upon Mr Henry Pollock to deal with those of Lothian,
 
 THE BISHOPS ATTACKED. 189 
 
 Upon the 17th of October 1637, Balmerino and Lou- 
 don, with their clerical agitators, Dickson and Hender- 
 son, were intrusted with a new step in the insurrection, 
 much beyond a petition against the liturgy. This was 
 " to draw up a formal complaint against the bishops, 
 as authors of the Book, and all the troubles that had 
 been, or was like to follow upon it." Baillie adds, " that 
 night these four did not sleep much ;" and the result of 
 their vigils was the most violent and intolerant docu- 
 merit that had hitherto marked their proceedings. 
 The new petition was presented on the following day 
 for signatures, at a meeting secretly congregated, and 
 the contradictory feelings and expressions which it eli- 
 cited from the " accomplished Baillie," * are worthy of 
 attention. He says, " all did' flee upon it without much 
 advisement ;" and, happening to enter the room at the 
 moment when the paper was passing rapidly under their 
 signatures, " I asked at one or two what they had sub- 
 scribed, who could not inform ; it seems too many went 
 on Jide implicita. I desired the writ to be read over to 
 us who were new come in. When 1 heard the piece, I 
 was in great doubts what to do. Some hard passages 
 .were in it, that had neither been reasoned nor voted." 
 But this clergyman having ranged himself under the 
 banners of Rothes, Balmerino, and Loudon, must put 
 his hand to whatever intolerance they might chuse to 
 prescribe. No man had his conscience under better 
 
 Merse, and Teviotdale ; Mr Andrew Ramsay to take the like pains with 
 those of Angus and Mearns ; Mr Robert Murray to travail with them 
 of Perth and Stirlingshire* ; and an advertisement was ordered to be 
 sent to Mr Andrew Cant to use the like diligence in the north, and so 
 the ministers disbanded for the time." — Bishop Guthrie. 
 
 * " So Mr Brodie vaguely characterizes this fantastical chronicler, 
 whose real character we shall take another opportunity of* illustrating, 
 from his own confessions.
 
 140 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 control than Baillie. If it were troublesome he reason- 
 ed with it, and if very refractory, he prayed ! " After 
 a little silence and advisement, I got my mind extend- 
 ed to subscription upon thir two grounds ; 1 . That the 
 words, ' seeds of idolatry and superstition, and the mass,' 
 with throwing might reach far ; and, indeed, according 
 to my mind, in the Book, after the Englishmen's late 
 commentaries, such seeds truly were sown. 2. That 
 who subscribed a complaint upon the narrative of many 
 wrongs, it was enough to abide by the conclusion, and 
 so many of the premises as truly justified it." * By 
 this reasoning, with an additional assurance, from " the 
 penners and chief hands in that writ," that they intend- 
 ed no more than to oblige all the subscribers to pursue 
 the bishops, but not that each should be tied to believe 
 all the parts of the narrative, Baillie quieted his con- 
 science and signed the paper. " If (says the Covenan- 
 ter) I had refused my hand to it, I had been as infa- 
 mous that day, for marring, by my example, a good 
 
 * This puerile, not to say dishonest reasoning, was neither more nor 
 less than a mode of smothering his conscience ; for Baillie (whose own 
 record of his covenanting feelings and opinions is a mass of inconsis- 
 tent extravagances) elsewhere uses the' very converse of this reason- 
 ing. In the Assembly of 1638, it was proposed by the faction totally to 
 abjure Episcopacy, as something unlawful in itself. The more conscien- 
 tious of the Presbyterian party disassented from this violent and irra- 
 tional proposition, especially Baillie, who saved his conscience, not by 
 resisting the proposition to the last, but by shuffling out of the vote. All 
 the rest, however, voted generally in the affirmative of the proposition — 
 remove, and abjure. Baillie, exulting in the mean trick that saved him- 
 self from being so committed, criticises those who afterwards complain- 
 ed, that the clerk (a great rogue) took their affirmative as meaning 
 abjure as well as remove, whereas they only meant remove ; the clerk, 
 says Baillie, acted " very justly, for answering affirmative to one part of 
 the question, and negative to none, they ought to be taken as affirming 
 the whole." — Letters and Journals, Vol. i. p. 133. Afortiori,if one sign the 
 whole of a paper, of " many premises," without reserve, he must be held 
 to affirm the wliole.
 
 ORIGIN OF THE TABLES. 141 
 
 cause, as yesterday I was famous for furthering it with 
 my discourse." — " However, (adds his conscience,) 1 
 thought then, and yet think, that the penners were yet 
 more happy than wise : I think they were very impru- 
 dent to make that piece so hard, so rigorous, so sharp, 
 that they minded to present to so many thousands sto- 
 machs of divers tempers." Sharp as it was, no stomach 
 refused it, to whom it dared be offered, and though 
 some signed it without knowing the contents, and others 
 without approving them, upwards of thirty noblemen, 
 and many gentlemen subscribed ; nor did any of the 
 burghs, with the single exception of the exemplary 
 town of Aberdeen, escape the revolutionary epidemic. 
 That same day another disgraceful and premeditated 
 tumult occurred, which very nearly effected the murder 
 of the Bishop of Galloway, and actually drove the pro- 
 vost out of Edinburgh, which now was in the hands of 
 the mob. In the evening certain of the nobility (as- 
 sembled contrary to the royal proclamation) " used all 
 diligence to have a council for presenting their magna 
 charta ; which after great pains they obtained." But 
 the faction, though nearly masters of the privy-council, 
 could not prevail so far, at that time, as to obtain a hear- 
 ing for their new supplication. The bishop and the 
 magistrates accused them of being the authors of the 
 recent outrage, and added, that the cause of all the 
 tumults was the frequent congregation in Edinburgh 
 of the disaffected nobles and gentlemen. " In that case," 
 it was artfully replied, "we shall call a convention, 
 to chuse commissioners to wait in small numbers upon 
 the privy-council, in terms of the motion of the provost 
 and the bishop." Thus originated the memorable meet- 
 ing of the 15th November 1637. This, says Baillie, 
 " was the pretence ; but the truth was, that night after
 
 142 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 supper in Balmerino's lodging, where the whole nobi- 
 lity I think supped, some commissioners, from the gen- 
 try, town, and ministers, met, where I was among the 
 rest : there it was resolved to meet against the 15th of 
 November, in as great numbers as possibly could be had, 
 to wait on the answer of their prior supplication, and 
 to get their complaint once tabled and received." At 
 this covenanting conviviality, the learned but somewhat 
 incoherent and bewildered Baillie, sat in wondrous ad- 
 miration of those long headed arch-insurgents, Balme- 
 rino and Loudon. He " thought them the best spokes- 
 men that ever he heard open a mouth." He says it 
 was " a meeting of harmony, and mutual love, zeal, and 
 gravity beyond what had occurred even in a meeting 
 composed solely of churchmen for forty years." When 
 taking leave of the nobles, however, one of the ministers 
 lectured their Lordships upon the " reformation of their 
 persons, and using the exercise of piety in their fami- 
 lies ; which all took well, and promised fair" The 
 ministers returned to their respective districts of agita- 
 tion, to raise, from their preverted pulpits, the seditious 
 cries that were to bring the people to the meeting of the 
 15th of November. " The fame of that 15th day spread 
 at once far and broad, even to the King's ear, and all 
 were in great suspense what it might produce." * So 
 closed the second scene. 
 
 Thus by the arts of a desperate faction, — working in 
 Scotland, under the leadership of the Earl of Rothes, 
 ever since the period when Charles attempted to ame- 
 liorate the country at the expense of the tithe-holders, 
 — was the community wrought up to its highest pitch 
 of excitement before Montrose became in any way con- 
 nected with these proceedings. It was at the great 
 
 * Baillie.
 
 MONTROSE GAINED OVER. 143 
 
 convention of the 15th of November 1637, which had 
 been most laboriously organized, that Montrose first ap- 
 peared. " Among other nobles (says Bishop Guthrie,) 
 who had not been formerly there, came at that diet the 
 Earl of Montrose, which was most taken notice of; 
 yea, when the bishops heard that he was come there to 
 join, they were somewhat affrighted, having that es- 
 teem of his parts that they thought it time to prepare 
 for a storm when he engaged." And why had he ap- 
 peared at this time ? Was it that, like Argyle, he lurk- 
 ed behind the scenes until he saw the safest moment for 
 declaring himself, — or was it the spontaneous impulse 
 of patriotic alarm, — or was it, as Dr Wishart says, that 
 " the tales they made, they never wanted fitting instru- 
 ments to tell and spread," and that his youthful and ar- 
 dent mind had been worked upon by the faction? Bail- 
 lie has answered the question in a few expressive words, 
 — " the canniness * of Rothes brought in Montrose to 
 our party V But it can be shewn that even Rothes is not 
 entitled to the sole merit of this conquest. In an ori- 
 ginal manuscript deposition, (taken during that perse- 
 cution of Montrose and his friends, in 1641, which will 
 be the subject of a future chapter,) I find, what had 
 hitherto escaped observation, that Montrose himself 
 names a minister as having laboured to convert him. 
 " Thereafter my Lord (Montrose) says to the deponer, 
 * you were an instrument of bringing me to this cause ; 
 I am calumniated and slandered as a backslider in this 
 cause, and am desirous to give you and all honest men 
 satisfaction :'" Now this deponer is Mr Robert Mur- 
 ray, minister of Methven, — the very clergyman upon 
 whom (preparatory to the grand agitation for this meet- 
 
 * Canniness, i. e. Scotch cunning.
 
 144 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ing of the 15th of November) " it was laid, to travail 
 with them of Perth and Stirlingshire," — the districts in 
 which lay the estates of Montrose, and his relatives, Lord 
 Napier, and Sir George Stirling of Keir. 
 
 At this grand convention the treasurer Traquair, one 
 of the most able and eloquent of the privy-council, and 
 well disposed towards the King's interests, though ad- 
 verse to the civil aggrandizement of the bishops, chal- 
 lenged their proceedings, says Baillie, " with great ad- 
 miration to some of his wisdom and faculty of speech." 
 But, he adds, " the advocate, after some little displea- 
 sure at the treasurer for his motion, resolved, that they 
 might meet in law to chuse commissioners to Parlia- 
 ment, to convention of estates, or any public business." 
 It was then determined to appoint a committee of twelve, 
 representing as many several estates as in their wis- 
 dom this convention saw fit, that the new constitution 
 should embrace. Rothes, Loudon, Montrose, and Lind- 
 say, were the four noblemen selected ; and Sir George 
 Stirling of Keir, (Montrose's nephew by marriage with 
 Lord Napier's daughter,) was one of those chosen to re- 
 present the lesser barons. Thus originated that scourge 
 of the kingdom, factiously appointed committees, usurp- 
 ing the whole functions of government in Scotland. 
 So artfully was the matter managed as to seem a con- 
 servative act of the privy-council itself, fortified by the 
 legal opinion of the first law officer of the crown. It 
 was, however, as Baillie assures us, a deliberate plan of 
 the faction to constitute a new and irresponsible go- 
 vernment of their own, at which their contemplated 
 persecution of the bishops might be received, and 
 " tabled," a phrase which afforded a vulgar nomencla- 
 ture to a lawless and tyrannical constitution. * 
 
 " « The Tables."
 
 MONTROSE GAINED OVER. 145 
 
 Yet the day was not far distant when Montrose was 
 to learn to appreciate a covenanting committee of 
 estates ! when his horror of such tribunals was even to 
 mingle with the gentlest effusions of his accomplished 
 mind, — 
 
 My dear and only love, I pray, 
 
 This noble world of thee 
 Be governed by no other sway 
 
 But purest monarchy. 
 For if confusion have a part, 
 
 Which virtuous souls abhor, 
 And hold a synod in thy heart, 
 
 I'll never love thee more. 
 # # * # # 
 
 If in the empire of thy heart 
 
 Where I should solely be, 
 Another do pretend a part, 
 
 And dare to vie with me, 
 Or if committees thou erect, 
 
 And goes on such a score, 
 I'll sing and laugh at thy neglect, 
 
 And never love thee more. 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 146 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE COVENANT CONTRADICTORY VIEWS OF IT FALSE VIEWS OF IT TRUE 
 
 VIEWS OF IT — HUNTLV's REJECTION OF IT. 
 
 The constitution of Scotland being thus overturned, 
 the destructive party instantly proceeded to the contri- 
 vance of their memorable charter. The Covenant, that 
 bond of faction and banner of rebellion, is inseparable 
 from the name of Montrose, not only because eventual- 
 ly he fell a sacrifice in the vain attempt to save his 
 King and country from its desolating effects, but be- 
 cause he was amongst the foremost to sign it, and, for 
 a brief space, supported it in council and enforced it in the 
 field. Some, of the original editions of the Covenant are 
 yet preserved in the Advocates' Library, and among the 
 crowded signatures attached to these sad memorials of 
 national turbulence, and human vanity and folly, ap- 
 pears the name of Montrose, conspicuous both from its 
 foremost place, and the characteristic boldness of the 
 autograph. Were this bond what some have imagin- 
 ed it to be, a patriotic and holy expression of unanimous 
 feeling in all who signed it, — a feeling for the preserva- 
 tion of their Religion and Liberties, — had Charles I. 
 really entertained the determined purpose, against the 
 " Independency" of Scotland, which the Covenant is by 
 some supposed to have met, then, however illegal in it- 
 self, and though leading to worse evils than it professed 
 to cure, all who signed it in that good faith and feeling 
 might well be excused. If Montrose, who we shall find 
 only abjured the Covenant after he distinctly saw that
 
 THE COVENANT. 147 
 
 it was made to serve the ruinous purposes of a revolu- 
 tionary movement, had really signed it under circumstan- 
 ces which necessarily impelled every Christian patriot 
 so to do, his political character would be blameless. 
 It is to be feared, however, that the martyr of loyalty 
 stands not so well excused in his early career. He appears 
 to have taken that step, as many others did, with but 
 crude and confused ideas of its propriety. The best 
 clerical historians ofthe Church of Scotland now admit, 
 or but feebly veil the fact, that the Covenant, as disho- 
 nestly and impiously it was styled, came reeking from 
 the hot^bed of faction, and from the hands of reckless 
 unprincipled politicians. But Montrose was naturally 
 as incapable of conceiving so profound a plot, as he 
 was of appreciating the scope and tendency of the 
 Covenant at the time when he signed it. He was 
 not one of the intriguers who so artfully contriv- 
 ed this too successful scheme against established or- 
 der. Rothes, Loudon, and Balmerino, with their 
 legal demagogue, Archibald Johnston of Wariston, 
 and their clerical apostle Alexander Henderson, — 
 these five are immortalized as its able, though disinge- 
 nuous, devisers. The scheme of the Covenant is well 
 known. It affected to adopt that Confession of Faith — 
 directed against Popery at a time when the popish plots 
 of Spain, and a less enlightened era, rendered the fer- 
 ment more excusable and sincere — which King James 
 in his youth had signed along with the nation. There 
 was originally added to this protestant confession a bond 
 or obligation for maintenance of the true religion, and 
 of the King's person. Some years afterwards James 
 superinduced upon his constitution of the church, the 
 five articles of Perth, and thus, with the acquiescence of 
 his people, introduced that Episcopal imparity of church 
 government, which was virtually the scheme of Knox
 
 148 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 himself. The adoption of the acts of the previous reign, 
 as the charter of the revolution of 1637, was a trick for 
 the purpose of transferring to the faction a colour of what- 
 ever was' respectable, and constitutional, in those enact- 
 ments. " It was," says the learned historian of the Cove- 
 nanting church, an " expedient admirably devised, the 
 success of which exceeded even their own most sanguine 
 expectation."* The first aim of these power and place 
 hunters, who had progressed from the tithe cabal to the 
 Balmerino petition, and from that to the Tables and the 
 Covenant, was to root out the bishops from church and 
 state. While they pretended, therefore, only to renew, 
 as a solemn form of expressing a loyal and patriotic 
 feeling, what was already the law, they, in point of fact, 
 contemplated the violent abrogation of every vestige of 
 Episcopacy in the island, however constitutionally esta- 
 blished. In the prosecution of this scheme, they at 
 once rendered the bond for defence of the King's per- 
 son and authority, which they pretended to adopt, a dead 
 letter, by adding an obligation to defend each other even 
 against the King himself. " This remarkable addition," 
 says Dr Cook, " gave a new complexion to what was 
 held forth merely as the revival of a former confession, 
 - — this bond places beyond a doubt the determination of 
 those by whom it was framed, to defy even the King 
 himself in attaining the objects which it was designed 
 to secure. Yet Hope, his Majesty's advocate, did not 
 hesitate to give it as his opinion, that it contained no- 
 thing inconsistent with the duty of subjects, a fact strik- 
 ingly evincing how much the spirit of faction can be- 
 wilder even the most vigorous minds. The obligation 
 was written and sanctioned, not by Parliament, not by 
 men acting in any official capacity, but by individuals 
 
 * Dr Cook.
 
 THE COVENANT. I 4() 
 
 assuming the right of deciding upon the measures of 
 their sovereign, and considering their private judgment 
 as a sufficient warrant for despising his authority."* 
 It is of some consequence to a complete illustration 
 
 * This is severe upon the " good cause," coming as it does from 
 the pen of one of its most distinguished advocates, — and the apology 
 which immediately follows the condemnation quoted in our text, only 
 tends to show how indefensible that cause in reality is. Dr Cook 
 proceeds to say ; — " it does not alter the case that the cause was really 
 good, — it might have been quite the reverse, and therefore the vindica- 
 tion of the Covenant must not be rested upon the far-fetched attempts 
 to reconcile it ivith loyalty, but upon this great principle, that, when the 
 ends for which all government should be instituted are defeated, the op- 
 pressed have a clear right to disregard customary forms, and to assert 
 the privileges without which they would be condemned to the degrada- 
 tion and wretchedness of despotism." — Hist, of the Church of Scotland, 
 Vol. ii. p. 414-415. But unfortunately, this " great principle," — this hos- 
 pital to which the reverend author refers the foundation of his church 
 after having rendered it raw from his scourge, — is inadequate to the cure. 
 The assumptions involved in the vague, though magniloquent, defence, 
 are incapable of proof, nor does that defence coincide with the circum- 
 stantial animadversion which it was intended to neutralize. To "reconcile 
 the Covenant with loyalty" is not the sole difficulty which Dr Cook's 
 previous censure had presented to the " far-fetched attempts" of its 
 champions. He had accused the Covenant, though in subdued 'and ten- 
 der phrase, of motives and principles that render it very disgraceful! to 
 its contrivers, the most vigorous minds among whom he declares to have 
 been bewildered by the spirit of fiction, — that their scheme was inconsist- 
 ent with the duty ofsidjjects, — that they had assumed the right of decid- 
 ing, and had placed their private judgment against constituted autho- 
 rity ! How does all this quadrate with the author's great principle of 
 vindication, namely, that before the Covenant arose, the ends for which 
 all government should be instituted had been defeated, and the only du- 
 ty of subjects remaining was, that of the oppressed (not thefactiuus) hav- 
 ing a clear right to disregard the principles of the constitution, and to 
 assert their privileges ? Can we reconcile or apply this vindication to 
 the case of the Covenant, which, on the very next page of the same his- 
 tory, Dr Cook thus characterizes, — " The Covenant was, notwithstanding 1 
 the essential alteration in it which has been noticed, still denominat- 
 ed by its former title, a piece of disingenuity which was not necessary to 
 support the cause, and which afforded its enemies some ground for ques- 
 tioning the integrity of the zealous in< n by whom it was espoused." So 
 difficult is it to defend the Covenant!
 
 150 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of the life and actions of Montrose, that we should ob- 
 tain a juster view, of the principles and history of theCo- 
 venant of 1638, than is usually presented to us, even by 
 the most conscientious covenanting historians of the 
 Church of Scotland. Those who glorify the Covenant in 
 vague terms of admiration, without venturing into minute 
 details, are the most apt to record that Montrose only join- 
 ed it from motives of selfish pique, and quitted it from yet 
 more selfish feelings of disappointment. But if it be the 
 case that every art of insurgency had been employed, by 
 a political clique, to rouse the passions and blind the un- 
 derstanding of all classes of the community, and that 
 thereafter they proceeded in a more reckless and head- 
 long course of democracy, — if such, in few words, be the 
 history of the Covenant, it is not difficult to understand 
 how the young and ardent Montrose came tojoin it with 
 thoughtless zeal, and to quit it so soon with disgust and 
 indignation. The movement, however, has been other- 
 wise characterized, and by none more imposingly than 
 by the learned author of a History of the British Empire. 
 The Covenant, according to this writer, was " a grand 
 national movement against arbitrary power, civil and re- 
 ligious," — it was "not merely a cool assent of the under- 
 standing, but of the heart, heated to an enthusiasm, of 
 which a faint conception, only, can be formed by those 
 whohave livedin quiet times ;* the Covenant was embra- 
 ced with tears of penitence for past defection, and shouts 
 
 * Some are apt to consider the assent of a cool understanding, more 
 trust-worthy and laudable, than the assent of a heated heart, to whatever 
 pitch its thermometer may rise. As for our " quiet times" being incapa- 
 ble of appreciating the enthusiasm of democracy, they are at least mend- 
 ing. Mr Brodie's History was printed in 1822, since when Bristol has 
 been burnt by a reforming mob, and many other circumstances have 
 occurred to remind us of the rise of the troubles in Scotland, and the 
 subsequent fate of the British Monarchy.
 
 THE COVENANT. 151 
 
 of unutterable joy for the hoped-for fruits," — not of busy 
 faction and seditious agitation, — but of " reconcilement 
 with Heaven." Yet neither will this historian suffer the 
 Covenant to escape without " severe reprehension," — 
 not because it roused rebellion while professing loyalty, 
 and effected a secret combination against the person and 
 authority of the King while it took God to witness a 
 determination to defend both, but because of its " into- 
 lerance towards the Catholic body." " Men," adds our 
 historiographer, " who were themselves smarting un- 
 der the effects of intolerance, might have had sympathy 
 with the feelings of those who also adhered to their own 
 notions of worshipping their Maker,"* — meaning there- 
 by not the protestant Church of England, which the Co- 
 venanters so intolerantly and inconsistently assailed, but 
 the worshippers of the Pope. How incongruous is this 
 idea, of sympathy for Roman Catholic worship being 
 an ingredient in the composition of the Covenant ! so 
 much so, indeed, that we must altogether distrust the 
 vision with which our wrapt historian had contemplated 
 the great presbyterian crisis. For that eloquent page 
 then of Mr Brodie's constitutional history, we would sub- 
 stitute the following details, afforded by the manuscript 
 account of James Gordon, parson of Rothemay.f 
 
 " The Covenant was no sooner agreed upon, but in- 
 stantly it was begun to be subscribed, in Edinburgh 
 first, and the church chosen out for that solemnity was 
 the Grayfriars church, where, after it had been read 
 
 * Mr Brodie's History of the British Empire, Vol. ii. p. 471, 472. 
 
 \ James Gordon was the son of a conspicuous actor in the troubles of 
 Scotland, Robert Gordon of Straloch. Some account of James Gor- 
 don's very curious and valuable contemporary history, which has never 
 been printed, and from which we shall frequently have occasion to ex- 
 tract, will be found in a note at the end of this volume.
 
 152 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 over publicly, and a long* speech had been made by the 
 Lord Loudon in commendation thereof, Mr Alexander 
 Henderson seconded him with a prayer, and then all 
 fell a swearing and subscribing, some of the nobility 
 leading the way. The first, as I am credibly informed, 
 was John Gordon, Earl of Sutherland, and the next was 
 Sir Andrew Murray, Lord Balvaird, minister at Abdie 
 in Fife, two noblemen who, out of zeal to their profes- 
 sion, without any by-ends, thought it a happiness to 
 be among the first subscribents and swearers to the 
 Covenant. After them, all that were present ran to 
 the subscription of it, and then through the rest of the 
 city it went, every one contesting who might be first, 
 and others, without further examination, or question- 
 ing the articles thereof, following their example. Wo- 
 men, young people, and servant-maids, did swear and 
 hold up their hands to the Covenant. All who were 
 present at Edinburgh at that meeting in the month of 
 February, subscribed and swore to the Covenant be- 
 fore they went from thence, and at their parting, 
 ministers, and noblemen, and gentlemen, who were 
 well affected to the cause, carried copies thereof along 
 with them, or caused them to be written out after their 
 return to their several parishes and counties of Scot- 
 land, which copies were ordinarily written upon great 
 skins of parchment, for which cause, at that time, in a 
 written pasquil, the Covenant was termed the constel- 
 lation upon the back of Aries. And such as took copies 
 along with them to be subscribed, caused ordinarily 
 such as had sworn, or underwritten their names al- 
 ready, if they were noblemen or ministers of note, to 
 set to their hands anew, to the several copies, that, 
 where themselves could not be present to invite others, 
 their handwriting might be their proxy. The months
 
 THE COVENANT. 153 
 
 of February, March, and April, were mostly spent in 
 subscribing the Covenant, as that time, and some while 
 after, in purchasing hands thereto. The greater that 
 the number of the subscribers grew, the more imperious 
 they were in exacting subscriptions from others who 
 refused to subscribe, so that by degrees they proceeded 
 to contumelies, and exposing of many to injuries and 
 reproaches ; and some were threatened and beaten who 
 durst refuse, especially in greatest cities, (as likewise in 
 other smaller towns,) namely, at Edinburgh, St Andrews, 
 Glasgow, Lanark, and many other places. Gentlemen 
 and noblemen carried copies of it about in their port- 
 mantles and pockets, requiring subscriptions thereto, 
 and using their utmost endeavours with their friends 
 in private to subscribe. It was subscribed publicly in 
 churches, ministers exhorting their people thereto ; it 
 was subscribed and sworn privately ; all had power to 
 take the oath, and were licensed and welcome to come 
 in ; and any that pleased had power and license to carry 
 the Covenant about with him, and give the oath to 
 such as were willing to subscribe and swear. And 
 such was the zeal of many subscribents, that, for a 
 while, many subscribed \vith tears on their cheeks, and 
 it is constantly reported that some did draw their own 
 Mood, and used it in place of ink to underwrite their 
 names. Such ministers as spoke most for it were heard 
 so passionately, and with such frequency, that church- 
 es could not contain their hearers in cities, — some keep- 
 ing their seats from Friday to Sunday to get the com- 
 munion given them sitting, — some of the devouter sex, 
 as if they had kept vigils, sitting all night before such 
 sermons in the churches, for fear of losing a room or 
 place of hearing, or at the least, some of their hand- 
 maids sitting constantly there all night, till their mis-
 
 154 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 tresses came to take up their places and to relieve them, 
 so that several, as I had it from very sober and credi- 
 ble men, under that religious confinement, were forced 
 to give way to those natural necessities which they 
 could no longer contain. These things will scarce be 
 believed, but I relate them upon the credit of such as 
 knew this to be truth. Nor were they scrupulous to 
 give the Covenant, to such as startled at any point 
 thereof, with such protestations as in some measure 
 were destructive to the sense thereof, as was seen in 
 several instances, so that they got subscriptions enough 
 thereto, and it came to that height, indeed, that such as 
 refused to subscribe were accounted no better than Pa- 
 pists. Such ministers as dissuaded their people from 
 subscription, either had enough ado to maintain them- 
 selves in their parishes, (and though afterwards they 
 did subscribe, yet other quarrels were found to drive 
 them from their stations,) or, if not that, do or say what 
 they pleased, they were held in suspicion and not trust- 
 ed. Although it be true that some ministers, who were 
 recusants at first, did afterwards vie for zeal and ac- 
 tivity with the first subscribents, — by this means both 
 redeeming their delay of time, and rubbing off all sus- 
 picion from themselves, — others were forced to flee and 
 desert their stations and places, being persecuted by 
 their parishioners, especially such as had been active for 
 the bishops, and had been hasty to read or commend 
 the Service-Book, or Book of Canons. Many ministers 
 at first not being well satisfied, refused to subscribe, 
 pretending scruple of conscience, and some few, as we 
 shall hear, were scrupled indeed. Other ministers, as 
 other men likewise, hopeful that the cause would not 
 prevail, refused to swear, fearing that the King and 
 bishops would in the end be masters, and question all
 
 THE COVENANT. 155 
 
 that was done. Some ministers who were concerned 
 in the bishops, out of fashion, stood out for a while, 
 and suffered e'er they were aware, finding too late to 
 their sad experience, that the bishops, their prop, 
 were removed from them. It were a longsome 
 task to give an account of all the particulars. Most 
 of these passages are fresh in the memories of many 
 now living, who, after some few years, finding 
 the effects not agreeable to their expectation of what 
 was promised, became cold, and remitted of their for- 
 mer zeal, and not a few turned as bitter enemies to 
 the Covenant as they were at first forward friends to 
 it, and died fighting against it, or suffered exemplary 
 deaths upon scaffolds for opposing that which once vo- 
 luntarily they did engage themselves to maintain. All 
 noblemen and gentlemen and others who were wearied 
 of the present government, and maligned the Episcopal 
 greatness, readily embraced it, and most part or all 
 their followers by their example. Ministers who had 
 ever been opposite to the bishops, and such ceremonies 
 as King James had established, subscribed with the 
 first, and by their examples drew either most part of 
 their parishes, or all of them after them. Such minis- 
 ters as refused, they took pains to win over to their side 
 by allurements and dispute, — if they were men otherwise 
 pious, or painful in their calling, or learned, — but if they 
 knew them to be faulty, then they were brought over 
 with threats, and terror of church censures. Such mi- 
 nisters for a while stood out till they saw no shelter else- 
 where, and then there were of them who were glad to 
 flee into the Covenant as a sanctuary ; (instances of such 
 might be given, but I forbear to rub upon the crimes 
 of such who are removed, and gone to their place,) some 
 yet living, and known to have come over upon that ac- 
 count. Finally the fears of the more zealous professors
 
 156 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 that religion was in hazard, the factious spirits of others, 
 example, allurements, threats, terrors, brought over the 
 multitude. The non-subscribents on the other part 
 might be reduced either to, 1. Papists, for it was de- 
 structive to their profession ; 2. such as would not en- 
 gage for displeasing the King, as holding their places 
 of him, or those who by their refusal of the Covenant 
 thought one day to plead merit and reward at the 
 King's hand, without any further aim or reason, being 
 otherways not concerned in the matter of religion ; 
 others were non-subscribents, as being unsatisfied that 
 the ceremonies of the church of England, Perth arti- 
 cles, and Episcopacy, should be abjured as popery, they 
 being already established ; others quarrelled both with 
 the abjuring of these things for their matter, as also for 
 the formality of the oath, and refused to accept of it, — 
 as pressed without and contrary to authority, without 
 necessity, — or for all these causes together. Albeit the 
 subscription of the Covenant was carried on, as to the 
 multitude, in short space, yet this was but a declar- 
 ing of men's party who before were practised upon, or 
 had fully discovered themselves, nor were they so in- 
 considerate as to fall a subscribing it publicly till they 
 were sure, underhand, of the greatest part of the king- 
 dom, who, for their power and number, might be able to 
 bear down all their opposers. Nor were underhand as- 
 surances wantingfrom Engiand,iov without that, there 
 had been as many opposers as might have rendered the 
 game hazardous and desperate enough. As they did 
 encourage them to declare themselves, so it did quick- 
 ly let all be seen who were either against them upon 
 their own private account, (these were all the Papists,) 
 or such as would own the King's authority, which was 
 now beginning to reel in Scotland. So that now they
 
 THE COVENANT. 157 
 
 began to be distinguished by divers names, as well as 
 factions, — Protestants and Papists, who were non-sub- 
 scri bents, were put all in one predicament, and called 
 anti or non-Covenanters, and all the subscribents were 
 called Covenanters, which names afterward changed 
 into others equivalent, as the face of affairs altered." 
 
 This minute contemporary account, of the machinery 
 of the Covenant, is more worthy of credit than the 
 many vague encomiums bestowed upon it by those wri- 
 ters who are anxious to invest a democratical revolu- 
 tion with a sacred character. The following sentences 
 of a letter from Mr David Mitchell, one of the perse- 
 cuted ministers of Edinburgh, to Dr John Lesly, Bishop 
 of Raphoe, afford a curious confirmation of the record 
 of the parson of Rothemay. " The greater part of the 
 kingdom have subscribed, and the rest are daily sub- 
 scribing a covenant. It is the oath of the King's house 
 1580, with strange additions, a mutual combination 
 for resistance of all novations in religion, doctrine, and 
 discipline, and rites of worship that have been brought 
 in since that time ; so as if the least of the subscribers 
 be touched, — and there be some of them not ten years of 
 age, and some not worth twopence* — that all shall con- 
 cur for their defence, and for the expulsion of all Pa- 
 pists and adversaries, (that is, all that will not subscribe,) 
 out of the church and kingdom, according to the laws, 
 whereof an hundred are cited in the charter. This 
 goes on apace. The true pastors are brought into Edin- 
 burgh to cry out against us wolves, and they, with our 
 
 * To evince the universal feeling against the liturgy, the petition of 
 the faction, to the Chancellor, after the tumults, ran thus, — "Unto your 
 Lordship humbly shews, we men, women, and children, and servants, in- 
 dwellers in Edinburgh, being urged with this book of service," &c. 
 
 4-
 
 158 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 brethren here, Mr Andrew Ramsay, Mr Henry Pol- 
 lock, and your whileome friend the Principal, [Adam- 
 son] crying out that they are neither good Christians, 
 nor good subjects, that do not subscribe, nay, nor in 
 covenant with God, have made us so odious that we 
 dare not go on the streets. I have been dogged by 
 some gentlemen, and followed with many mumbled 
 threatnings behind my back, and then when in stairs, 
 swords drawn, and ' if they had the Papist villain, 
 oh.'* Yet I thank God I am living to serve God and 
 the King, and the church, and your Lordship. Your 
 chief [Rothes] is chief in this business. There is no- 
 thing expected here but civil war." 
 
 These are not the only contemporary sources from 
 which it can be proved that the views of those writers 
 who maintain that a unanimous, spontaneous, pious 
 and patriotic impulse gave birth to the Covenant, are 
 baseless and rhapsodical. f But even had that political 
 
 * Compare this with the secret letter to Archibald Johnston, quoted 
 supra,]). 136. Robert Baillie, though he sometimes condemned the system, 
 has expressed his sense of the value of strokes in making a Covenanter. 
 ,( D. Monro (he says) since his strokes, is amongst the foremost in our 
 meetings." Monro had been nearly stoned to death, by the women of 
 Kinghorn, for his supposed affection towards the bishops. 
 
 f There are some very curious and amusing letters written in 1G38, 
 during the covenanting tumults, by one signing himself "Jean de Ma- 
 ria," (and obviously addressed to the Duke of Lennox in England from 
 one of his household in Scotland,) jDrinted by Lord Hailes, in his Histori- 
 cal Collections, from the originals preserved in the Advocates' Library. 
 They are very long and circumstantial, and evince in the writer great 
 penetration, spirit, and humour- Nothing can be more complete, in an 
 epistolary form, than "Jean de Maria's" expose of the arts of insurgency 
 that begot the Covenant. He says that the King's backwardness to take 
 strong measures against the Covenanting combination, " makes many 
 doubtful whether he be disposed to break the same, and resent the wrong 
 which is done him thereby, in a true degree or not, which is the cause 
 that a thousand and a thousand are come in within this month, and sub- 
 scribed the same, who otherwise had undoubtedly stood out;" and, " if 
 
 4
 
 THE COVENANT. 159 
 
 movement not been characterized by the lawless plot- 
 ting of a faction to concuss and terrify the lieges into 
 their scheme, it would still have been but a gigantic in- 
 stance of that fallacious harmony of patriotic feeling 
 which is so graphically exposed by Dr Johnson, in tra- 
 cing the rise and progress of a factious petition multitu- 
 dinously signed."* In the course of his admirable illustra- 
 tion he says, — " Names are easily collected ; one man signs 
 because he hates the Papists, another because it will 
 vex the parson, one because he is rich, another because 
 he is poor, one to show that he is not afraid, and an- 
 other to shew that he can write." And such, on a larger 
 scale, was the patriotism of the Covenant. The grand 
 national movement, the penitent embraces, the tears, 
 the shouts of joy unutterable, the promised hopes, all 
 that Mr Brodie has so imposingly crowded into his 
 beau ideal of that revolutionary charter, was but the 
 seditious agitation, the false excitement, the senseless 
 clamour, and the lawless violence, of its day. " The 
 passage, however," continues Dr Johnson, in the ce- 
 lebrated political essay to which we have referred, — 
 " is not always smooth. Those who collect contribu- 
 
 you knew what odd, uncouth and ridiculous courses they use to draw 
 in ignorant fools, fearful fasards, women and boys, I can hardly say 
 whether it would afford his Majesty more occasion of laughter or anger;" 
 and among other instructive illustrations contained in these letters is 
 the following : " You may judge whether we who have not subscribed 
 the Covenant are in [a good] taking, when an insolent clavering puppy, 
 [quere] whose wife is a sister of our Sheriff's, (whose deportment for 
 many respects I regret most of any man's in this county,) and who qua- 
 lifies himself as his joint commissioner for this shire, dared be so pert 
 as to come down to our church, and there, seeing how few were like to 
 concur with them, say, that he desired but the names of those who should 
 refuse to subscribe, with a note of their worths in means or otherwise, 
 and let them alone to take order with them." — Original MS. Advocates' 
 Library. 
 
 * " The False Alarm." 1770.
 
 160 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 tions to sedition sometimes apply to a man of higher 
 rank, and more enlightened mind, who, instead of lend- 
 ing them his name, calmly reproves them for being se- 
 ducers of the people." Would, that, in pursuing the 
 parallel, we might claim this lofty position for Mon- 
 trose. But, although certainly not of the faction who 
 secretly organized and propelled the movement, Mon- 
 trose was carried by the arts of insurgency, and, 
 for a time, deluded like many others. There is one no- 
 bleman, however, in whom the parallel is sustained. 
 He, who " instead of lending them his name, calmly 
 reproved them for being seducers of the people," was 
 George Gordon, Marquis of Huntly, the solitary noble- 
 man who, from the first moment of the covenanting 
 excitement, never hesitated in his determined loyalty, 
 although, unfortunately, his means of assisting the 
 King were not in proportion to his inclination. 
 
 Huntly, whose early distinction in France we have 
 already noticed, had been reared at the Court of Eng- 
 land with Prince Henry, and Charles then Duke of 
 York, and, under the superintendence of King James, 
 (who had found the task of protecting his father, the 
 popish Earl, neither easy nor safe,) was instructed in 
 the protestant doctrines of the church of England. 
 Thus the reputation of the old Earl, and his own epis- 
 copal education, made it easy for the presbyterian party 
 to denounce Huntly as a papist, whenever he presum- 
 ed to evince his loyalty. This nobleman was, more- 
 over, much embarrassed in his circumstances, having 
 contracted debts, to the amount of about a hundred 
 thousand pounds Sterling, in keeping up his military 
 state abroad during the lifetime of his father. The 
 Covenanters made one attempt to bring over Huntly, 
 by mercenary offers, before it fell to the lot of Montrose
 
 HUNTLY REJECTS THE COVENANT. 161 
 
 to endeavour the conversion of the north vel arte vel 
 marte. There had lately returned from the German 
 wars Colonel Robert Monro, afterwards conspicu- 
 ous as a covenanting commander, who had served 
 under Gustavus Adolphus. He is described as a fear- 
 less and free spoken soldier, of some powers of ad- 
 dress, who had been at the Court of England, where, 
 it is said, he was slighted and had retired in dis- 
 gust. This officer suggested to the Earl of Rothes the 
 great advantage of acquiring Huntly for a military lea- 
 der, and offered himself as an agent to negotiate the deli- 
 cate proposal. Charged accordingly with a commission 
 to that effect, Colonel Monro set out for Huntly's place 
 of Strathbogie, where the Earl received him as an old 
 companion in arms, and presently, while they were walk- 
 ing together in his garden, was insulted by his guest, 
 with the temptation in these terms : " It is," said the 
 Colonel, " my love and duty towards you and your house, 
 that have induced me to come with a proposal which 
 I intreat you to take under your serious consideration. 
 There is now so strong a party combined against the 
 King, that whoever shall attempt to raise a party in his 
 favour will find themselves in the proportion of one to a 
 hundred. I am commissioned, on the other hand, to offer 
 you the Covenant, and to say that, if it please you to give 
 in your adherence to that party, you will be chosen for 
 its leader, and your fortunes restored ; but if you de- 
 termine to adhere to the King, and oppose the Cove- 
 nant, means will be taken to render your assistance to 
 his Majesty totally ineffectual, yourself will be ruined, 
 and your house sink under its load of a hundred thou- 
 sand pounds of debt."* The manuscript from which 
 this anecdote is derived, does not proceed to say that 
 
 * James Gordon's MS. 
 VOL. I. L
 
 162 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Huntly handed over his guest to the " hangman of 
 Strabogie,"* but that the Colonel, having delivered his 
 harangue so as to impress the Earl with a feeling that it 
 was at least not meant as an insult, received this short 
 and resolute reply : " My house," said Huntly, "has risen 
 by the Kings of Scotland, has ever stood for them, and 
 with them shall fall ; nor will I quit the path of my 
 predecessors ; and if the event be the ruin of my Sove- 
 reign, then shall the rubbish of his house bury beneath 
 it all that belongs to mine." It is added that Huntly 
 sent his Majesty an account of this proposal, in order to 
 put him on his guard. Thus it became the great object 
 of the Covenanters to destroy Huntly, and to revolu- 
 tionize the district over which his loyal influence, in 
 conjunction with the enlightened learning of Aberdeen, 
 prevailed against the arts of insurgency. The noble- 
 man whom they selected to accomplish this important 
 end was Montrose. 
 
 * " James Grant came with four and himselfe, to the ground of Stra- 
 bogie upon the tenth of Aprile 1836 ; and, be chance, came to the hang- 
 man's house, and craved some meat. But he knew not that it was the 
 hangman's house of Strabogie." — Spalding.
 
 HAMILTON COMMISSIONER. 163 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Hamilton's first visit to Scotland as commissioner from the king 
 — montrose's first visit to Aberdeen as commissioner from the 
 covenanters. 
 
 It was immediately before Montrose's first expedi- 
 tion to the north that the Marquis of Hamilton arrived 
 in Scotland, invested with authority, as the King's Com- 
 missioner, to settle that unhappy kingdom, by yielding 
 as much as, under the circumstances, it was possible for 
 a King to yield. The Marquis's mother was well known 
 to be a zealous Covenanter; but Hamilton's intentions to- 
 wards " the cause" were yet a mystery, and probably not 
 absolutely determined in his own breast. It was arrang- 
 ed, by the factionists, first to mortify the Commissioner 
 with studied neglect, and then to alarm him by means of 
 an imposing demonstration of " the majesty of the peo- 
 ple." Hamilton had written to the whole nobility, and 
 gentry of note, to meet him at Haddington, and many 
 " would gladly have done him that honour, but, for se- 
 veral reasons, it was decreed that none of the subscrib- 
 ers (of the Covenant,) no not of his nearest friends and 
 vassals, should go."* If, as there are grounds for pre- 
 suming, a vision of the Crown of Scotland being trans- 
 ferred to his own head had long secretly presented it- 
 self to Hamilton, this unlooked for mark of disrespect 
 could not have been very agreeable, and, accord- 
 
 * Bail lie.
 
 164 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ingly, when Loudon and Lindsay met him with excuses 
 from the rest of the aristocracy, he was so highly of- 
 fended as to be on the point of turning his horses heads 
 back again to Court. But Rothes, — the canny Rothes, — 
 " having communed some two or three hours with him 
 in Dalkeith, appeased and removed his mistakings." * 
 It was on the 8th of June 1638, that Hamilton made 
 his vice-regal progress from Dalkeith to Holyrood 
 House, by Musselburgh and Leith. " In his entry, I 
 think at Leith (says Baillie) as much honour was done 
 unto him, as ever to a King in our country. Huge 
 multitudes, as ever was gathered on that field, set them- 
 selves in his way. Nobles, gentry of all shires, women, 
 a world ! the town of Edinburgh all at the Watergate. 
 But we were most conspicuous in our black cloaks, 
 above five hundred on a brae-side, in the links alone, 
 for his sight ; we had appointed Mr William Living- 
 ston, the strongest in voice and austerest in counte- 
 nance of us all, to make him a short welcome" This 
 last compliment, however, the Commissioner, who had 
 obtained a timely hint of the probable nature of such 
 covenanting welcome, begged to decline, and it was be- 
 stowed upon him afterwards in private. Already did 
 Hamilton adopt that system of duplicity, in negotiat- 
 ing betwixt the King and his rebellious subjects, which 
 eventually paralyzed the loyal struggles both of Huntly 
 and Montrose. " The Marquis, in the way, was much 
 moved to pity, even to tears ; he professed thereafter 
 his desire to have had King Charles present at that 
 sight of the whole country so earnestly and humbly cry- 
 ing for the safety of their liberties and religion.' 1 ! One of 
 the most characteristic anecdotes, however, of that cele- 
 
 * Baillie, t Ibid.
 
 HAMILTON COMMISSIONER. 165 
 
 brated progress is the following, which we extract from 
 James Gordon's manuscript : " At this meeting betwixt 
 the Commissioner and the ministers, there passed a 
 rencounter, which, though related upon the by, may- 
 give matter of laughter to some in a serious business. 
 The Commissioner, passing by the crowd of the mini- 
 stry, who were there waiting on his entry, did re-salute 
 them in a very respectful manner, who were all mak- 
 ing curtsies to his grace. At this time he, looking 
 upon them with a smiling countenance, repeated the 
 words of Matthew v. 13,* in Latin, vos estis sal terra. 
 A minister, not far distant, who could not distinctly 
 hear what the Commissioner spoke, questions another 
 minister, who was nearer, upon the Commissioner's 
 words, who, wittingly, instead of what the Commission- 
 er had spoken, told him, ' Brother, the Commissioner 
 said, it is we who make all the kail salt,'' alluding to a 
 Scottish proverb, which is usually spoken when any 
 thing is said to mar or undo an action, or to make mis- 
 takes. There was so much of salt truth in the jest that 
 it was by many taken notice of, though what sense the 
 Commissioner spoke it in is unknown" 
 
 Scarcely had Hamilton been a month in Scotland, 
 when an incident occurred which first awakened the 
 suspicions of Montrose that the excitement of the times, 
 on the subject of Religion and Liberties, was taken ad- 
 vantage of, for other purposes, by traitors too near the 
 throne. Montrose had been selected, along with Rothes 
 and Loudon, to treat, on the part of the Covenanters, 
 with the Royal Commissioner during that revolution- 
 ary struggle of protestation against proclamation, which, 
 
 * " Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have lost his savour 
 wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to 
 be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men."
 
 166 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 owing to the peculiar management of Hamilton, now 
 raged as fiercely as ever. After one of these disgrace- 
 ful scenes it was, that Montrose, Rothes, and Loudon, 
 with their reverend agitators, Messrs Henderson, Dick- 
 son, and Cant, being admitted to an audience of the 
 Commissioner, in presence of the Privy-Council, his 
 Grace, at the close of their conference, requesting the 
 councillors to remain in the audience chamber, accom- 
 panied the deputation through the royal apartments in 
 Holyroodhouse, till they arrived at the great gallery, 
 where, leading them into a corner, he addressed them 
 confidentially in these remarkable words : " My Lords 
 and Gentlemen, I spoke to you before those Lords of 
 Council as the King's Commissioner ; now there being 
 none present but yourselves, I speak to you as a kindly 
 Scotsman. If you go on with courage and resolution 
 you will carry what you please, but if you faint, and 
 give ground in the least, you are undone, — a word is 
 enough to wise men" This story, if it be true, is deci- 
 sive of the character of Hamilton, and that it is true, 
 neither the direct evidence offered in support of it, nor 
 the remarkable confirmation afforded by every thing 
 that can be ascertained of the conduct and character of 
 that statesman, permit us to doubt.* It is recorded by 
 Bishop Guthrie (then minister of Stirling) who, after 
 narrating thus circumstantially the time, place, and oc- 
 casion, with the particular words uttered, proceeds to 
 support his statement by what he calls, " my warrants 
 for what I have set down." 1. On the same dav that 
 
 * Dr Cook has only noticed this anecdote in a note, as follows : — 
 " Guthrie, in his Memoirs, p. 34, 35, records a speech as made by Hamil- 
 ton, which, if genuine, would place his treachery beyond a doubt ; but the 
 evidence of his having spoken it is not conclusive, and Burnet has satis- 
 factorily established his loyalty." — Vol. ii. p. 446.
 
 HAMILTON'S DOUBLE-DEALING. 167 
 
 the conference occurred, Mr Cant, one of the deputa- 
 tion, told this extraordinary story to Dr Guild, who the 
 next morning repeated it to Mr David Dalgleish, mini- 
 ster at Coupar, Mr Robert Knox, minister at Kelso, and 
 to Henry Guthrie himself. 2. On the evening of the 
 day that Guthrie heard this from Dr Guild, " the said 
 Henry (says the Bishop of himself) being that night 
 with the Earl of Montrose at supper, his Lordship 
 drew him to a window, and there told him, in the very 
 same terms Dr Guild had reported it to him, adding, 
 that it wrought an impression, that my Lord Hamilton 
 might intend by this business to advance his design,* 
 but that he would suspend his judgment until he saw 
 farther, and in the meantime look more narrow to his 
 walking." The enemies of Montrose are precluded from 
 the argument that Bishop Guthrie had been imposed 
 upon by a false statement of that nobleman to prejudice 
 his rival, for Mr Cant, also present when Hamilton, as 
 alleged, so addressed the deputation, had made the very 
 same narration previously to Dr Guild. It remains 
 then to defend Hamilton by supposing that his words 
 had been misunderstood, or that the whole story, with 
 its alleged proofs, is a circumstantial falsehood, delibe- 
 rately recorded in his closet by Bishop Guthrie, f Such 
 violent suppositions, however, are rendered desperate 
 by the conduct of Hamilton himself, as subsequently 
 
 * i. e. On the Crown of Scotland. 
 
 f Mr D' Israeli notices this anecdote against Hamilton, and adopts it 
 but he has stated the evidence inaccurately. He says, — " this remarkable 
 conversation is given by Bishop Guthry, who at the same time furnish- 
 es his authorities. The same story had reached Montrose in the same 
 words." — Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I. Vol. ii. 
 310. This critical writer seems not to have been aware that Hamilton ad- 
 dressed the speech to Montrose himself who repeated it from his oun 
 knowledge to Bishop Guthrie.
 
 168 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 disclosed. Whatever might be his ulterior objects, and 
 whether he was swayed at the time by selfish and va- 
 cillating timidity, or a deeply plotting ambition, there is 
 no doubt that he was acting a double part, ruinous to 
 his King and country, and most discreditable to him- 
 self. We learn from Baillie, that Hamilton met the sedi- 
 tious demonstration of the Covenanters with affectionate 
 sympathy, that even showed itself in tears, and that he 
 lamented the King himself was not there to be edified and 
 subdued in heart, by the " humble crying" of the pa- 
 triotic multitude. " His Grace's countenance and car- 
 riage," says Baillie, " was so courteous, and his private 
 speeches so fair, that we were in good hopes for some days 
 to obtain all our desires." A few months afterwards, the 
 same chronicler, in his account of the memorable as- 
 sembly of 1638, favours us with this portrait of the 
 Commissioner : " I take the man to be of a sharp, ready, 
 solid, clear wit, — of a brave and masterly expression,— 
 loud, distinct, slow, full, yet concise, modest, courtly, 
 yet simple and natural language. If the King have 
 many such men he is a well served prince. My 
 thoughts of the man were hard and base. But a day 
 or two's audience wrought my mind to a great change 
 towards him, which yet remains, and ever will, till his 
 deeds be notoriously evil." So writes our penetrating 
 Covenanter in 1638; but in the following year, at the 
 treaty of Berwick, we find him again at fault in his at- 
 tempts to fathom the serpentine favourite : " The Mar- 
 quis's ways were so ambiguous that no man understood 
 him, only his absolute power with the King was oft 
 there clearly seen." Now at the very period when 
 Hamilton felt, or affected, such melting sympathy for his 
 seditious countrymen, he was corresponding with his 
 royal master, in terms inevitably calculated to impel
 
 HAMILTON'S DOUBLE-DEALING. 1 69 
 
 the peaceful and generous, but hasty monarch, into 
 hostile expressions and projects, which Hamilton him- 
 self had pre-determined should proceed no farther than 
 just to compromise the honour of the King, and aggra- 
 vate the disaffection of Scotland. Burnet tells us in 
 general terms, without producing the letters, that, soon 
 after his Grace had arrived in Scotland, he transmitted 
 to the King a detailed account of the state of affairs ; he 
 advised him to garrison Berwick with 1500 men, and 
 Carlisle with 500, and to follow up these orders vigo- 
 rously in person, at the head of a brave army, which, if 
 the matter were well managed, would be crowned with 
 victory. Hamilton added, however, a caution, calculated 
 to mingle doubt and weakness with the vigorous mea- 
 sures he provoked, — " he represented withal, (says Bur- 
 net) that his Majesty would consider how far in his 
 wisdom he would connive at the madness of his own 
 poor people, or how far in justice he would punish their 
 folly, assuring him their present madness was such that 
 nothing but force would make them quit their Cove- 
 nant, and that they would all lay down their lives e'er 
 they would give it up." That, notwithstanding his cro- 
 codile tears, and " his private speeches so fair" in Scot- 
 land, Hamilton, while he acted so equivocally there, 
 had done his utmost to inflame the King, and that hav- 
 ing done this, he continually checked the spirit he had 
 roused, and thus occasioned that contradictory policy 
 which has been solely attributed to want of sincerity in 
 Charles, — all this may be gathered even from the very 
 partial view of the correspondence with which Burnet 
 chose to favour the public. It is impossible, then, un- 
 der all the circumstances, to doubt the truth of the 
 anecdote which Bishop Guthrie has recorded. 
 That at this, the second meeting of Hamilton and Mon-
 
 170 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 trose, another instance of the duplicity of the former 
 should have occurred, so similar to that which had driven 
 Montrose from Court, is somewhat remarkable, and raises 
 our curiosity to know in what manner the wily commis- 
 sioner was at this same time speaking of Montrose to the 
 King. Now of this we happen to be informed by a letter 
 from the Marquis to his sovereign, dated 17th November 
 1638, which, though suppressed by Burnet, has been 
 presented to the world in that very valuable collection, 
 the Hardwicke State Papers.* In this letter, his Grace 
 comments upon the Covenanters in a manner that would 
 have petrified their deluded chronicler Baillie. " It is 
 more than probable," he says, " that these people have 
 somewhat else in their thought than religion ; but that 
 must serve for a cloak to rebellion, wherein for a time 
 they may prevail, but to make them miserable, and 
 bring them again to a dutiful obedience, I am confident 
 your Majesty will not find it a work of long time, nor 
 of great difficulty as they have foolishly fancied to them- 
 selves." And of the leading Covenanters he thus speaks : 
 " Now, for the Covenanters, I shall only say this, in ge- 
 neral they may all be placed in one roll, as they now 
 stand. But certainly, Sir, those that have both broach- 
 ed the business, and still hold it aloft, are Rothes, Bal- 
 merino, Lindsay, Lothian, Loudon, Yester, Cranston. 
 There are many others as forward in show, amongst 
 whom none more vainly foolish than Montrose. But 
 the above-mentioned are the main contrivers." Here 
 we obtain another curious confirmation of the truth of 
 Bishop Guthrie's anecdote, for, taking that anecdote in 
 connexion with the above letter, it brings out a game 
 of double-dealing, forming a perfect pendant to what 
 Hamond L'Estrange has recorded against Hamilton on 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 413.
 
 MONTROSE'S MISSION TO ABERDEEN. 171 
 
 the former occasion. To Montrose, and the rest of the 
 covenanting deputation, his Grace represents the King 
 as an enemy to Scotland, who must be energetically 
 opposed in order to be vanquished. To the King, on 
 the other hand, he points out Montrose, not, indeed, as 
 one of the deep contrivers of the Covenant, but as an 
 enthusiastic adherent, generally intoxicated with a vain 
 ambition, — -just such a character, in short, as he had pre- 
 dicted of him before to induce the King to exclude Mon- 
 trose from Court. 
 
 Hamilton, having managed matters in Scotland so 
 as to satisfy the leaders of the Covenant that they had 
 the ball at their foot, returned in the month of July to 
 report progress to his Majesty, and to obtain instruc- 
 tions as to the demand for an Assembly and Parliament. 
 In the interval, the Covenanters were most anxious to 
 bring under subjection the loyalists in the north, that 
 when the Commissioner returned it might be said that 
 the whole of Scotland was within the pale of the Cove- 
 nant. Montrose was the leader entrusted with this im- 
 portant, and it might be perilous, expedition to seduce 
 or concuss the learned and loyal Aberdonians. It 
 was not a warlike expedition, however, but rather a 
 crusade of itinerant agitators, taking advantage of 
 a vacation at the main scene of action, to stir up dis- 
 affection in quiet districts, and, by threatening the 
 respectable and haranguing the vulgar, to create that 
 false excitement upon which a vicious revolution de- 
 pends. There can be little doubt, however, that Rothes 
 organized the scheme, and influenced Montrose in the 
 conduct of it. This appears to be proved by the fol- 
 lowing letter, addressed by the former to his cousin, Pa- 
 trick Leslie, and dated 13th July 1638, shortly before 
 Montrose and his party arrived at Aberdeen.
 
 172 montrose and the covenanters. 
 
 " Loving Cousin, 
 
 " Because vour town of Aberdeen is now the 
 
 ■r 
 
 only burgh in Scotland that hath not subscribed the 
 Confession of Faith,* and all the good they can obtain 
 thereby is, that if we sail fairly, as there are very good 
 conditions offered, they shall be under perpetual igno- 
 miny, and the doctors that are unsound punished by the 
 Assembly ; and if things go to extremity because they 
 refuse, and, in hopes of the Marquis Huntly's help, the 
 King will perhaps send in some ship or ships and men 
 there, as a sure place, and if that be good for the coun- 
 try, judge ye of it. It is but a fighting against the 
 High God to resist this course, and it is so far advan- 
 ced already, that, on my honour, we could obtain with 
 consent, 1. Bishops limited by all the strait caveats ; 2. 
 To be yearly censurable by assemblies ; 3. Articles of 
 Perth discharged ; 4. Entry of ministers free; 5. Bishops 
 and doctors censured for bygone usurpation, either in 
 teaching false doctrine or oppressing their brethren. 
 But God hath a great work to do here, as will be short- 
 ly seen, and men be judged by what is past. Do ye all 
 the good ye can in that town and in the country about, — 
 ye will not repent it, — and attend my Lord Montrose, 
 ivho is a noble and true-hearted cavalier. I remit to 
 my brother Arthur to tell you how reasonable the Mar- 
 quis Huntly was being here away ; he was but slight- 
 ed by the Commissioner, and not of his privy-council. 
 No further. I am your friend and cousin, 
 
 " Rothes." * 
 
 * i. e. The Covenant. This first sentence of Rothes's letter does infi- 
 nite honour to Aberdeen. 
 
 f This letter is printed from the original, (which is in private hands) 
 for the Bannatyne Club, in the appendix to Rothes's Relation, present- 
 ed by James Nairne, Esq. 
 
 3
 
 MONTROSE'S MISSION TO ABERDEEN. 173 
 
 Montrose was accompanied upon this occasion by 
 Lord Couper, the Master of Forbes, Arthur Erskine, (a 
 brother of the Earl of Mar,) Sir Thomas Burnet of 
 Leys, Sir Robert Graham of Morphie, and, instead 
 of an armed host, the redoubtable trio called the " three 
 apostles of the Covenant," viz. Henderson, Dickson, and 
 Cant. The district to be honoured with this special 
 visitation was an oasis in the desert. The arts of 
 insurgency had been so successful throughout the rest 
 of Scotland, as to create a specious, but false, appear- 
 ance of national feeling in favour of the Covenant. 
 Here, however, all that was rational, well-ordered, and 
 estimable, was yet actually predominant. Blasphemy 
 did not pass current for piety, nor the darkling and 
 destructive ravings of fanaticism, for the out-pour- 
 ings of gifted and enlightened minds. The towns and 
 College of Aberdeen were at this time rich in divines 
 and professors eminently distinguished for their learn- 
 ing, integrity, and good sense. The celebrated Dr John 
 Forbes of Corse was Professor of Divinity in old Aber- 
 deen, Dr William Lesly, Principal of the King's Col- 
 lege, and Dr Alexander Scroggie, minister. In new 
 Aberdeen, Dr Robert Baron was Professor of Divinity, 
 and Drs James Sibbald and Alexander Ross were mini- 
 sters. The characters and habits of these highly gift- 
 ed, and sorely persecuted, clergymen of the north, were 
 afFectingly pictured about a century ago, by a townsman 
 of their own. " These," he says, speaking of the divines 
 whom we have enumerated," were then the ministers of 
 Aberdeen, famous then, yet, and ever will be, for their 
 eminent learning, loyalty, and piety. While they were 
 allowed to live there, there was no such cry heard in 
 the streets of that then loyal city, to your tents, O Is-
 
 174 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 rael, the common cant then of the Covenanters. They 
 were faithful pastors, — they led their flocks to quiet wa- 
 ters — they fed them with wholesome food, brought from 
 the Scriptures, and the practice of the primitive Christ- 
 ians. They had read most exactly the writings of the 
 ancient fathers, in their own language, undervalued now 
 because unknown to the present teachers in that city. 
 They knew the practice of the primitive Christians, 
 in the time of their hottest persecutions by the heathen 
 emperors. They taught their people to obey the King 
 as supreme, and those subordinate to him, for conscience 
 sake, and not to rise up in arms and rebel for conscience 
 sake, as the Covenanters did. They were affectionate 
 fathers to their flocks, — they taught them, in the words 
 of the wise man, My son, fear God, and honour the 
 King, and meddle not with those 'who are given to 
 change, and as they taught so did they practise. In 
 fine, the learned works they left behind them, will con- 
 tinue their fame all the learned world over, as long as 
 learning is in any esteem." Such were the champions 
 who, when they heard of the approaching visitation by 
 Montrose and his party, cheerfully made ready to do 
 intellectual battle with the " three apostles of the Co- 
 venant."* 
 
 The town-council of Aberdeen, informed of the 
 honour that awaited them, had met upon the 16th 
 
 * Mr Brodie, overlooking a whole district peopled with those who en- 
 tertained independent, rational, and conscientious feelings in abhorrence 
 of the Jesuitical Covenant, — and in the face of the fact that Huntly himself 
 was murmured against in the north for his supposed want of energy in 
 support of the Episcopal and loyal cause, — thus shortly disposes of the 
 exception of Aberdeen : " In about two months the Covenant obtained 
 the assent of almost every quarter of Scotland, with the exception of 
 Aberdeen, which was withheld through the influence of the Marquis of 
 Huntly, its patron." — Vol. ii. 471.
 
 montrose's mission to Aberdeen. 175 
 
 of July, and resolved to persist in their refusal of the 
 Covenant, and to remain firm in their obedience to the 
 King. * But with the most cordial and Christian feel- 
 ings were these admirable royalists inclined to meet the 
 disturbers of their peace, and future persecutors. No 
 sooner did the commissioners arrive than the provost 
 and bailies sent one of their number to compliment them, 
 and to offer what was called the courtesy of the town, 
 being a collation of wine and confectionary. " But," 
 says honest Spalding, " this their courteous offer was 
 disdainfully refused, saying, they would drink none 
 with them until first the Covenant was subscribed, 
 whereat the provost and bailies were somewhat offend- 
 ed, took their leave suddenly, and caused deal the wine 
 in the bead-house, amongst the poor men, which they 
 so disdainfully had refused, whereof the like was never 
 done to Aberdeen in no man's memory." It was not 
 alone with food for their bodies that Montrose and his 
 party were greeted at Aberdeen ; there was at the 
 same time tendered to their excited minds, the whole- 
 some sedative of certain rational queries and doubts con- 
 cerning the merits of the Covenant. These were pre- 
 sented to the Commissioners, soon after they had alight- 
 ed from their horses, in a paper drawn up by the pro- 
 fessors and divines of Aberdeen, in which they also de- 
 clared, that, if Montrose and his compatriots would re- 
 move these doubts, the propounders would join in that 
 Covenant with them, from which they had hitherto ab- 
 stained not without many and weighty reasons, though, 
 by reason, they were most willing and anxious to be 
 convinced. There can be no question that even the 
 three apostles of the Covenant were powerless, in all 
 save the arts of insurgency, before the wisdom, the learn- 
 ing, and the Christian integrity of these northern divines. 
 
 * Town Records of Aberdeen.
 
 176 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 So to the arts of insurgency they instantly betook them- 
 selves. The request they preferred, in reply to the 
 challenge of the doctors, was no less than to be permit- 
 ted to occupy the pulpits on the following Sunday, when 
 they engaged to convert the people, and to satisfy the 
 doctors themselves. To this modest demand it was an- 
 swered by the champions of Aberdeen, that, although 
 they were willing to yield to any rational proposition, 
 yet they must be excused from admitting to their pulpits 
 those who were anxious to contradict the established 
 doctrines, taught there by clergymen who ought first 
 to be convinced that those doctrines were erroneous. 
 Thus the ministers of Aberdeen were so unreasonable, 
 according to Baillie's view of their conduct, as to insist 
 upon preaching in their own pulpits to their own flocks. 
 The result we may give in the words of Spalding, who 
 was present in Aberdeen at the time : " Upon the 
 morn, being Sunday, thir three covenanting ministers 
 intended to preach, but the town's ministers keeped 
 them therefrae, and would give them no entrance, but 
 preached themselves in their own pulpits. They, see- 
 ing themselves so disappointed, go to the Earl Maris- 
 chall's Close, where the Lady Pitsligo, his sister, was 
 then dwelling, a rank puritan, and the said Mr Alex- 
 ander Henderson preached first, next Mr David Dick- 
 son, and lastly Mr Andrew Cant, all on the said Sun- 
 day, and divers people flocked in within the said close 
 to hear thir preachers, and see this novelty. It is said 
 this Mr Henderson read out, after his sermon, certain 
 articles proponed by the divines of Aberdeen, amongst 
 which was alleged, they could not subscribe this Cove- 
 nant without the King's command, whereunto he made 
 such answers as pleased him best." From James Gor- 
 don's manuscript it also appears, that this was one of
 
 montrose's mission to Aberdeen. 177 
 
 • 
 
 the too frequent occasions when the sacred functions of 
 clergymen were perverted to the purposes of political 
 agitation. They chose the intervals of the regular ser- 
 vice of the day, in order to collect the people, and, ac- 
 cordingly, says James Gordon, " a numerous convention 
 resorted to hear them ; nor wanted there many who 
 came also for derision, which was manifested by the 
 people, of whom some, with little civility, from the leads 
 of a not far-distant building, threw a raven into the 
 crowd of the convention while they were at sermon, 
 which was ill taken by all discreet men. All the three 
 ministers that day preached by turns, over the large win- 
 dow of a wooden gallery that looked into the yard to- 
 wards the multitude. The arguments of their sermons 
 were, for the brief sum thereof, agreeable to their pro- 
 testations and remonstrances, and concluded with exhor- 
 tations and invitations to the people to join in cove- 
 nant with them, and how necessary it would be so to do 
 at that time ; likewise in their sermons they did read 
 the queries of the doctors of Aberdeen, and made a fa- 
 shion to answer them." On the Monday following, the 
 ministers of the Covenant again preached, or rather ha- 
 rangued the mob, by turns, and their mingled threats 
 and ravings were crowned with a miserable success. 
 Some country ministers of little note, and one doctor, 
 of inferior learning, (Dr William Guild,) were induced 
 to subscribe the Covenant. Among certain burgesses 
 of Aberdeen who subscribed, and for whose conver- 
 sion the apostles of the Covenant took great credit 
 to themselves, we find Patrick Leslie, Rothes's cor- 
 respondent, who, thus instructed, had probably made 
 a party before-hand, — an idea, indeed, confirmed by 
 James Gordon, who says, " the result of their preach- 
 ing was the public subscription of some that night 
 vol.. i. M
 
 178 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 and of some others the week following, who were 
 thought by many to have either delayed, or been pur- 
 posely kept off till that solemnity, both for the credit of 
 the speakers, and that they might be a leading prepa- 
 rative and example to others." But the greatest prize 
 gained by Montrose and his party upon this occasion was 
 Dr Guild, though the terms of his submission scarcely 
 justify their exultation. That clergyman, along with Mr 
 Robert Reid, minister at Banchorie, only signed, " with 
 these express conditions, to wit, that we acknowledge 
 not, nor yet condemn, the Articles of Perth to be un- 
 lawful, or heads of popery, but only promise, for the 
 peace of the church, and other reasons, to forbear the 
 practice thereof for a time. 2. That we condemn no 
 Episcopal government, excepting the personal abuse 
 thereof. 3. That we still retain, and shall retain, all 
 loyal and dutiful subjection and obedience unto our 
 dread Sovereign the King's Majesty, and that in this 
 sense, and no otherways, we have put our hands to the 
 foresaid Covenant. At Aberdeen, 30th July 1638."* 
 Having thus distinguished themselves in Aberdeen, 
 Montrose and his party, about thirty on horseback, vi- 
 sited various districts of the north, holding meetings 
 with ministers and presbyteries, and picking up- signa- 
 tures to the Covenant, from all whom fear, fanaticism, 
 or ignorance characterized, rather than enlightened re- 
 flection. Within the presbytery of Stratlibogie, how- 
 ever, the perambulators did not venture, for the heart of 
 that was the residence of Huntly. During this excur- 
 
 * This important qualification was attested by the signatures of the 
 Commissioners themselves, in these words : " Likeas, we under sub- 
 scribing do declare that they neither had, nor have, any intention but of 
 loyalty to his Majesty, as the said Covenant bears." — (Signed,) Montrose, 
 Couper, Forbes, Morphie, Leyes, Henderson, Dickson, Cant.
 
 MONTROSE S MISSION TO ABERDEEN. 179 
 
 si on from Aberdeen, the doctors prepared and printed 
 a reply to the feeble answer their adversaries had put 
 forth to the queries and doubts presented on their arri- 
 val ; and when Montrose and his cavalcade returned to 
 Aberdeen, a paper war awaited them on the subject of 
 a mission that was incapable of a rational defence. 
 Each party claimed the victory upon the whole result 
 of this crusade, though it was not much to boast of 
 on either side. Montrose returned to Edinburgh with a 
 parchment full of signatures, too contemptible for his- 
 tory to record, and which he himself was ere long to 
 despise. The doctors of Aberdeen remained in pos- 
 session of a field of reason, in which their antagonists 
 had been Henderson, Dickson, and Cant.
 
 180 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN WHICH IT WILL BE SEEN THAT MONTROSE WAS NOT THE MOST DISRE- 
 PUTABLE OF THE LEADERS IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1638. 
 
 Hamilton returned to Scotland early in August, 
 with an altered countenance. " The Commissioner," 
 says Baillie, " came back before his day, and Dr Bal- 
 canqual with him. He kept himself more reserved than 
 before. His mother he would not see. Colonel Alex- 
 ander he did discountenance. Mr Eleazer Borthwick 
 he met not with. After four or five days parleying no 
 man could get his mind. The King indeed was displeased 
 with his mother, and when his brother Lord William's 
 patent for the earldom of Dunbar came in his hand, he 
 tore it for despite, as he professed, of her. Colonel 
 Alexander openly did give countenance to the nobles' 
 meetings. Mr Eleazer was the man by whom his 
 Grace, before his commission, did encourage us to pro- 
 ceed with our supplication. * From all these now his 
 Grace's countenance was somewhat withdrawn." Yet, 
 
 * This confession of Baillie's is remarkable, and when compared with 
 Hamilton's professions to his trusting master, his secret denunciations of 
 the Covenanters, and his execrations (to the King) against Scotland, af- 
 fords oneof those startling illustrations of the favourite's duplicity, which 
 will not permit us to doubt the truth of those anecdotes of his double- 
 dealing, and treacherous deportment, so circumstantially related of him 
 by Hamond L'Estrange, and Bishop Guthrie. Mr Eleazer Borthwick is 
 now known to have been the great emissary between the growing re- 
 volutionary factions of England and Scotland. He was a Scotch clergy- 
 man, but of the covenanting or political temperament, which was too apt 
 in those times to supersede the pastoral duties of a Christian clergyman.
 
 GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1638. 181 
 
 when last in Scotland, Hamilton had so impressed the 
 Covenanters with the idea of his inclination towards 
 them, that even Henderson, their most honest and able 
 apostle, ventured to print, as an argument in his con- 
 troversy with the doctors of Aberdeen, that the com- 
 missioner himself was favourable to the Covenant, and 
 well satisfied in regard to all their proceedings, — an as- 
 sertion which that nobleman, with real alarm, but af- 
 fected indignation, now took the utmost pains to con- 
 tradict. * 
 
 It is well known that, upon his return to Scotland, 
 the Commissioner, in the name of the King, offered cer- 
 tain rational proposals for the restoration of order, the 
 security of the persons and property of the lieges in 
 Scotland, and the protection of the freedom and consti- 
 tutional form of elections, as the necessary conditions of 
 summoning an assembly and parliament. These con- 
 ditions were vehemently resisted by the Tables, whose 
 object was to obtain such control over the returns as 
 would insure to them the power of packing their con- 
 ventions ; in other words, of retaining the Tables, under 
 a different denomination. Hamilton had also suggested 
 to the King a method of superseding the Covenant itself, 
 by putting in place of it the Confession of Faith, esta- 
 
 * Hamilton published a long manifesto to clear himself, upon which it 
 is remarked, by James Gordon in his MS. — " The Covenanters on the 
 other part publish an answer to the commissioner's manifesto, in winch 
 they confessed that they never heard him say so much, verbally, that 
 he was satisfied with that declaration, hut, that by probable reasons, which 
 they expressed, they were induced to believe that he was satisfied there- 
 with. It cannot be denied but the three ministers did affirm it positive- 
 ly in their printed answers, and many thought that all the injury that 
 they did to the Marquis was, that they should have told so much, for 
 afterwards it appeared that they had no great reason for to think other- 
 wise of him, than they gave out concerning him then. But this paper 
 shot quickly ended betwixt him and them."
 
 182 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Wished by various statutes in the previous century, (of 
 which statutes the Covenant professed to be simply a 
 loyal and patriotic renewal,) and commanding it to be 
 signed by his privy council of Scotland, and the whole 
 nation. This Protestant confession, (generally distin- 
 guished from the Covenant as the King's Covenant 
 or Confession of Faith,) and his Majesty's unqualified 
 recall, by proclamation, of every measure that could be 
 construed an innovation upon the Religion, Laws, and 
 Liberties of Scotland, might well have satisfied the peo- 
 ple, and would, in fact, have done so, had it not been the 
 interest of a faction to meet as usual the gracious con- 
 cessions of their Sovereign, by a specious and public pro- 
 testation. The insatiable demands of the Covenanters, 
 and their conduct throughout, have been variously com- 
 mented upon, and by none with more effective severity 
 than by Dr Cook. Speaking of the crisis to which we 
 allude, that historian observes, — " The various acts 
 of concession .were regularly proclaimed, and it was 
 with much reason hoped that moderate men would be 
 contented, and would resist any endeavours to thwart 
 the intentions of the King. A protestation, however, 
 replete with the most disingenuous reasoning, and evin- 
 cing the determination of the leading Covenanters to re- 
 sist all terms, was read,* and the Earl of Montrose ap- 
 peared, upon this occasion, in name of the discontented 
 nobility. This conduct of the Presbyterians cannot be 
 justified."" t 
 
 * It was read by Archibald Johnston, and most probably composed by 
 him. It is inserted at full length in the King's Large Declaration. 
 
 f History of the Church of Scotland, Vol. ii. pp. 450, 451. But why 
 not justify them upon some " great principle," as in the instance we 
 have noticed before, p. 149. Perhaps the fact of Montrose being pro- 
 minent upon this occasion rendered a justification less desirable to a 
 historian of the kirk.
 
 GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1 638. 183 
 
 Unquestionably this crisis displays Montrose in one 
 of the most factious positions of his early and mis- 
 taken career. Yet still, though thus excited, and 
 carried with the movement, he was an active par- 
 tisan of the Covenant only in public. Of the secret 
 workings, and ultimate objects, of the political party to 
 which he was attached, Montrose was cognisant only in 
 proportion to the congeniality of his dispositions with 
 those of the hypocritical Rothes, the faithless Hamil- 
 ton, and the cowardly Argyle. If, in the history of the 
 Memorable Assembly of 1638, we do trace indications 
 of Montrose having been forward, factious, and in- 
 temperate, we discover him at the same time cha- 
 racteristically distinguished, by his manly and open 
 bearing, even from such Covenanters as Henderson 
 and Baillie, who are generally represented to us as 
 if they had passed without a blemish through those 
 revolutionary transactions. From Baillie himself we 
 obtain an involuntary expose of a convention, the 
 most lawless, tyrannical, and anti-christian, that ever 
 took in vain the sacred names of Religion, and Liberty, 
 and Law. A marked feature of the covenanting revolu- 
 tion was this, that in regard to all the main articles of 
 " the cause," its most plausible professions, and princi- 
 ples, were unblushingly contradicted by its practice. 
 Popish superstition and tyranny were irrationally im- 
 puted to the measures of Charles, — and grossly mani- 
 fested in the doctrines and acts of the covenanting cler- 
 gy. A freely constituted national Assembly was sedi- 
 tiously demanded from the King, — and the Covenanters 
 proceeded to pack a convention, by means subversive of 
 the fundamental principles of liberty, and freedom of 
 election. The inviolate possession of their laws \\ as
 
 184 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 tumultuously maintained against a monarch, who never 
 dreamt of subverting them, — and, anon, before the in- 
 quisitorial tribunals of the Covenant, churchmen, and 
 statesmen of the first respectability, already condemned 
 unheard, were insolently summoned to receive their 
 doom from self-constituted judges, who disregarded the 
 established rules of evidence, and scorned the attributes 
 of justice and mercy. 
 
 This destructive Assembly met at Glasgow in the 
 month of November 1638. " On Wednesday the 21st 
 November," says Baillie, " with much ado could we 
 throng into our places, an evil which troubled us much 
 the first fourteen days of our sitting. The magistrates 
 with their town-guard, the noblemen with the asssist- 
 ance of the gentry, at times the Commissioner in person, 
 could not get us entry to our rooms, use what force, 
 what policy they could, without such delay of time, and 
 thrusting through, as grieved and offended us. Whe- 
 ther this evil be common to all public confluents, or if 
 it be proper to the rudeness of our nation alone, or whe- 
 ther the late times, and admiration of this new re- 
 formation, have at all public meetings stirred up a 
 greater than ordinary zeal in the multitude for hear- 
 ing and seeing, or what is the special cause of this ir- 
 remediable evil, I do not know ;* only I know my spe- 
 cial offence for it, and wish it remedied above any 
 evil that I know in the service of God among us. As 
 yet no appearance of redress. It is here alone, I think, 
 we might learn from Canterbury, yea from the Pope, 
 yea from the Turks or Pagans, modesty and manners, 
 at least their deep reverence in the house they call God's 
 
 * Perhaps it was what modern factionists have termed " the pressure 
 from without."
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE ASSEMBLY. 185 
 
 ceases not till it have led them to the adoration of the 
 timber and stones of the place. We are here so far the 
 other way, that our rascals, without shame, in great 
 numbers, make such din and clamour in the house of 
 the true God, that if they minted (offered) to use the 
 like behaviour in my chamber, I would not be content 
 till they were down the stairs." The subsequent pro- 
 ceedings were in perfect keeping with this opening 
 scene. The details are minutely recorded by the keen 
 partisan who has favoured us with the above, but we 
 shall confine ourselves to what affords an illustration of 
 the conduct and position of Montrose in this Assembly. 
 Montrose, as we have observed, was not fully in the con- 
 fidence of the Rothes' clique, and, although at this moment 
 co-operating with them too ardently, was in reality less 
 a party to their secret designs than Baillie, who, in many 
 respects, was himself deluded and deceived. The mix- 
 ture of shrewd reflections, and simple confessions, thrown 
 out in the letters of that chronicler, betray in a great 
 measure the dishonest constitution of the celebrated 
 convention we are considering. But this light is par- 
 tial and accidental, for it was not Baillie's object to de- 
 tect and expose the cabal. To the record of James 
 Gordon we must turn for a detailed account of the 
 scheme of the General Assembly of 1638 ; and as that 
 account has hitherto remained in manuscript, and will 
 not be found abstracted in the pages of our latest his- 
 torians of the Church of Scotland, no excuse need be of- 
 fered for presenting it verbatim to our readers. 
 
 " The time appointed for the Assembly was drawing 
 on apace, and commissioners began to be chosen every 
 where. To the end that such might come there only 
 who should stand firm in all the ends of the Covenant,
 
 186 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 it was resolved that two sorts of ministers should be 
 passed by. Of the first sort were moderate ministers, 
 who, though they had subscribed the Covenant, yet had 
 discovered their inclinations to rest satisfied with the 
 King's last declaration. The second sort were mini- 
 sters non-Covenanters, for whom order was taken that 
 their election should be protested against, if they were 
 elected by plurality of votes, and that they should be 
 processed, (which could hardly be shunned by any 
 means,) so they would be sure that all such should be 
 laid by, and have no vote in the Assembly. Next, for 
 such ministers as they were sure did incline to the Co- 
 venant order was taken that (in case they got not a 
 full vote of the ministers in their respective presby- 
 teries) the ruling elders should have vote in their no- 
 mination then, and even after, for which purpose they 
 send their avise to the several presbyteries to send in 
 ruling-elders from every church session, who should 
 equal the voices of the ministers in every presbytery. 
 This device was thought (not only by the King but 
 by many others) disadvantageous to the ministers in 
 four respects : For 1. That no minister should be Com- 
 missioner to the Assembly but such as the ruling-elders 
 pleased, for they being equal in number with the mi- 
 nistry, and six ministers being to be put upon the list, 
 out of which three were to be chosen, it is the practice 
 that all the six ministers must be removed at the elec- 
 tion, and have no voice themselves, so that undoubt- 
 edly the ruling-elders behoved for to over-rule the 
 election of the three ministers to be chosen j or if in 
 any presbytery the six ministers gave their voices be- 
 fore their removal, yet, no man being able to give voice 
 to himself, of necessity the number of lay- voices (if they 
 were unanimous,) must exceed the number of the mini-
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE ASSEMBLY. 187 
 
 sters' voices by one, although the ministers should con- 
 tradict them. 2. Hereby ruling-elders in presbyteries 
 were made capable of a casting voice upon the mini- 
 sters, or by equal voice to make a schism and stop all 
 that they pleased. Nor can the answer that is given 
 to the inconvenience satisfy, — viz. that ministers are 
 still moderators, — except you grant a negative to a mo- 
 derator. 3. That whatever the General Assembly con- 
 cluded, the Parliament should likewise conclude that 
 same, (except the King's negative hindered, which ever 
 after the Assembly at Glasgow was denied to him,) for 
 their instructions ordered noblemen to be chosen rul- 
 ing elders where they were, and all such have vote in 
 Parliament. Next, that, for want of noblemen, the chief 
 gentlemen should be chosen commissioners to the as- 
 sembly, who probably likewise (or some of them,) would 
 be chosen commissioners to the Parliament. For the 
 barons the like may be said, and was seen of the burghs 
 their commissioners, and they were sure what such 
 had voted in an Assembly they would vote over again 
 in a Parliament. This made the Tables so contest to 
 have the Assembly meet before the Parliament should 
 sit down, that so the acts of Parliament might depend 
 on the General Assembly, the members of the Ge- 
 neral Assembly depend on the Tables, or be the 
 very members of the Tables, but neither Parliament 
 nor Assembly any more to depend on the King, but 
 in effect upon themselves, as it appeared in the fol- 
 lowing years after they took the power in their hands. 
 Lastly, by this means the laics excused themselves 
 from the power, and from all fear of the clergy, and 
 this was the temper that the noblemen did find out for 
 to curb the untowardliness of the former presbyterian 
 power, which the ministry had exercised in the mino-
 
 188 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 rity of King James. These conclusions (as has been 
 already told) though they were prosecuted with great 
 violence by the laity, yet they did meet with resistance 
 amongst the ministry in several presbyteries, and in 
 some presbyteries by all the ministers ; for either they 
 refused to let them sit with them, or desired a time 
 to deliberate how they could admit such an innovation, 
 seeing that the Covenant did oppose the like, because, 
 beside the reasons which I mentioned formerly, it was 
 alleged that, albeit at the beginning of the Reformation 
 there was a necessity for ruling elders, yet it was never 
 ordained that they should be equal in voices, or num- 
 ber, with ministers ; and next they denied that ever 
 it had been practised that laymen should nominate 
 churchmen who were to be commissioners ; they desire 
 them, therefore, to name their lay commissioner, and 
 for to let the ministers name the churchman commis- 
 sioner, being that ministers knew best who were ablest 
 amongst themselves for such an employment. Yet this 
 contest was ineffectual upon the ministers' parts, for the 
 ruling elders will sit and voice in the election, who, if 
 they can, shall be only such ministers as the Tables had 
 pitched upon, of whom, thus chosen, some had eight mi- 
 nisters' voices, and the suffrages of twenty-two ruling el- 
 ders. However the plurality of the ruling-elders' voices 
 mostly carried it everywhere. This was complained 
 upon by some ministers to Mr Andrew Ramsay, and 
 Mr Hary Rollock, ministers at Edinburgh, men of the 
 Covenant. But they were answered, that it behoved to 
 be swallowed for the time, otherwise the nobility and 
 Boroughs threatened to desert them, which would be a 
 division contrary to their oath. Their next care that 
 the ministers thought on for this evil was for to enter 
 protestations against this clero-laicall, linsey-wolsey, 
 
 3
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE ASSEMBLY. 189 
 
 suffrages and elections. But the nobility had got their 
 foot into the stirrup — there was no remedy for these 
 laic-bishops but patience ; it was believed no time now 
 to retire ; so all these motions were stifled in the cradle, 
 and proceeded no further than grumblings, of which 
 there was abundance." 
 
 » 
 
 The above history suggests the reflexion, that as the 
 unanimity of the nation in signing the Covenant, so much 
 insisted upon by covenanting historians, was false and 
 fallacious, so was the pretended harmony of feeling, and 
 unity of patriotic purpose, upon which they have laid 
 equal stress in recording the history of that memorable 
 Assembly, the mere machinery of a faction, out of which 
 arose the covenanting constitution of Scotland. Nor can 
 the accuracy of the account we have quoted be doubted ; 
 for not only is itconfirmed by Bishop Guthrie and others, 
 but we find Baillie, in his epistolary history of that As- 
 sembly, using these remarkable expressions, — " thirty- 
 nine presbyteries already have chosen their commis- 
 sioners as they were desired''' by the Tables in Edin- 
 burgh, — and afterwards he affords, unwittingly, a valu- 
 able testimony to the superiority which the mind of 
 Montrose displayed, even in the moment of his most 
 factious position, over the meanness of his early political 
 associates. The anecdote now alluded to we proceed 
 to illustrate. 
 
 Certain instructions had been sent to the Presbytery 
 of Brechin to direct them in the choice of a representa- 
 tive. Erskine of Dun was first elected, as their ruling- 
 elder, by the voice of one minister, and some lay elders. 
 Thereafter the Presbytery met in a greater number, and, 
 by the voices of all the other ministers and elders, Lord 
 Carnegie, the eldest son of the Earl of Southesk, and
 
 190 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Montrose's brother-in-law, was elected. Montrose con- 
 sidered Erskine a more out-and-out Covenanter than 
 Carnegie, and, accordingly, the commission of the for- 
 mer, having been transmitted by the presbytery to be 
 advised by the Tables, was returned with an imprima- 
 tur on the back of it, to this effect, that the commission 
 must be sustained, and that Carnegie's election was il- 
 legal, having passed contrary to the instructions of the 
 Tables. The leading signature to this bold assump- 
 tion of authority was that of Montrose, who, accord- 
 ingly, now tendered Erskine's Commission to be read 
 publicly by the clerk of the Assembly. Baillie says, 
 " the clerk, I think unadvisedly, read in public, not only 
 the commission, but also the Tables' subscribed appro- 
 bation on the back." This clerk was the notorious Ar- 
 chibald Johnston, and it was not from manliness that 
 he had read aloud what Baillie wished had been kept 
 out of view. The account in the King's Declaration is, 
 that the clerk read out various reasons written on the 
 back of Erskine's commission in support of it, " in 
 which, amongst other things, it was objected against the 
 Lord Carnegie's election that it was made contrary to 
 the directions of the Tables at Edinburgh, which the 
 clerk perceiving stopped, and would read no further." 
 But the Commissioner instantly caught at the advan- 
 tage, and demanded a copy of that commission, with 
 the deliverance on the back, and the names of those 
 who had subscribed it. The earnestness with which 
 the Marquis of Hamilton pressed this demand in the 
 name of the King, and the severity of his animad- 
 versions upon the proceedings of the Covenanters, 
 present one of those contradictory views of his own 
 policy which sometimes raise a doubt whether his 
 object was to support the King or the Covenant.
 
 DISPUTE RAISED BY MONTROSE. 191 
 
 It is only, however, when these instances are consider- 
 ed hastily, and by themselves, that an idea of true- 
 hearted loyalty can be suggested in his favour. Upon 
 the present occasion Hamilton knew that Montrose was 
 the person responsible for this undisguised assertion 
 of the supreme jurisdiction of the Tables ; and all his 
 present earnestness, and vehement assertion of consti- 
 tutional authority, is accounted for by the desire of ob- 
 taining such plausible evidence against the nobleman of 
 whom he was so jealous. The Moderator absolutely re- 
 fused to comply with the Commissioner's demand, which 
 Hamilton repeated, and said it was necessary to the 
 performance of his duty in the King's service, as his 
 Majesty's delegate, that he should be furnished with a 
 copy. With increasing heat Henderson replied that 
 it could not be granted, as the declaration on the back 
 had been both written and read accidentally, and was but 
 a 'private note. " It is no accidental writ, or private pa- 
 per," rejoined Hamilton, " for it has been publicly pre- 
 sented to the Assembly, by a member of high place and 
 quality, as a justification of his own proceedings in the 
 particular election, and I hereby protest,— which I would 
 do were I the meanest subject in the land, instead of 
 his Majesty's High Commissioner, — against the with- 
 holding of any thing so exhibited in a court of justice." 
 After much discussion, Hamilton desired the Modera- 
 tor to put the question, which Henderson refused to do. 
 The King's Declaration, from which the above details 
 are taken, proceeds to say that, — " the Commissioner, 
 with some mild expressions of distaste, said, ' Let God 
 Almighty judge, if this be a free assembly in which his 
 Majesty's Commissioner is denied that which cannot be 
 denied to the meanest of his subjects', and at last he 
 took instruments, in the hands of the Clerk- Register,
 
 192 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 that he was refused the copy of a declarator given in 
 to the Assembly, delivered into the clerk's hands, and 
 publicly read by the clerk, in which, amongst other 
 things, was contained that the election of the Lord 
 Carnegie, commissioner from Brechin, was invalid, as 
 being contrary to the directions of the Tables of the 
 commissioners at Edinburgh ; which occasioned the 
 Moderator to say that the Commissioner needed no copy 
 of it, he had so faithfully repeated all that was contain- 
 ed in it. The Commissioner, hereupon, since he could 
 not obtain a copy of it, desired all present to be wit- 
 nesses of what the Moderator had spoken, and that he 
 had acknowledged his faithful repetition of that part of 
 the declarator whereof he was refused a copy, and there- 
 upon again took instruments. In this business, Sir 
 Lewis Stewart, one of the Commissioner's assessors, 
 spoke some few words, which the Moderator being about 
 to answer, the Lord Montrose forbade him to answer 
 one who had no place to speak there. Afterwards there 
 arose a great contest betwixt the Earl of Southesk, one 
 of the Commissioners assessors, father to the Lord Car- 
 negy, and the Moderator, with so much heat on the 
 Moderator's side, and some Lords who sided with him, 
 that the Commissioner was put to moderate the Mode- 
 rator, and quench the heat of the choleric assembly, for 
 which many of them gave the Commissioner thanks." 
 The following additional particulars of this scene are 
 from the manuscript of James Gordon. 
 
 " Montrose disputed for Dun, and by eighty persons 
 attested Dun's election. Southesk disputed for Carne- 
 gie his son, with whom the Commissioner, in Carne- 
 gie's absence, took part ; but the Assembly sided with 
 Dun. The stir grew so great that the Moderator wish- 
 ed both their commissions to have been annulled before
 
 MONTROSE DERANGES THEIR COUNCILS. 193 
 
 such heat should have been. To this did Southesk 
 answer sharply. The Moderator replied that he had 
 been his minister twenty-four years, yet had never 
 wronged him. Loudon then said that no lord ought 
 to upbraid a moderator ; and then Southesk excused 
 himself and qualified his own words. The contest be- 
 twixt Montrose and Southesk grew so hot, that it ter- 
 rified the whole Assembly, so that the Commissioner 
 took upon him the Moderator's place, and commanded 
 them all to peace." 
 
 But it is Baillie who supplies the fact of most import- 
 ance to our estimate of Montrose's conduct and charac- 
 ter while thus aiding the storm of faction. Baillie's 
 own objection to the proceedings was not that the Ta- 
 bles controlled the presbyteries, but that Montrose 
 should have been so rash as to commit his party, by a 
 written declaration to that effect on the back of the com- 
 mission, and the clerk of the assembly so hasty as to read 
 it aloud. Mr David Dickson, one of the three apostles 
 who accompanied Montrose to Aberdeen, even took the 
 liberty to express some such opinion to the Assembly, for 
 Baillie adds," when Mr David Dickson spake of this back- 
 writ as having some negligence in it, Montrose took him 
 hotly, and professed their resolution to avow the least jot 
 that was wrote." We shall find this same chronicler 
 afterwards complaining, bitterly, that even when Mon- 
 trose was with the Covenanters, they found " his more 
 than ordinary and evil pride very hard to be guided," 
 The fact is, that the great characteristics of the party 
 to which Montrose was now attached, and under whose 
 relentless malice he fell, were want of courage and of 
 truth. It has been well remarked, that, " it is im- 
 possible to contemplate without disgust the rank hy- 
 pocrisy and double-dealing which disgraced the leaders 
 
 vol. i. N
 
 194- MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of the Covenant, at the commencement of the civil war ; 
 hypocrisy has been justly pronounced the reigning vice of 
 that unhappy age ; the motives most commonly avowed 
 were seldom those which really gave birth to the actions 
 of the leading personages on either side, it being usual to 
 cherish a secret purpose, and to keep the eyes fixed on 
 an ulterior object, which, until it was fully accomplish- 
 ed, could only be made the subject of conjecture."* 
 Another historian, — he who says that Montrose was 
 " bloated with iniquity," — bestows the following com- 
 mendation upon Baillie. " The writings of Baillie, even 
 his familiar letters, breathe a manliness of spirit, and 
 evince intelligence and erudition, that must, for ever, 
 rescue from contempt a class of which he did not con- 
 ceive himself entitled to rank at the head."f If the 
 class to which this clergyman belonged was in danger 
 of being consigned to contempt, it is not easy to under- 
 stand how his individual manliness of spirit, intelli- 
 gence, and erudition, could rescue them. But let us 
 cull an example or two from Baillie's own writings to 
 test the character of one whose prejudiced and excited 
 correspondence is the most authentic source of many of 
 the calumnies yet existing against Montrose. 
 
 When the royal order to read the service book was 
 proclaimed, Patrick Lindesay, Archbishop of Glasgow, 
 laid his commands upon Baillie to perform that duty 
 before the synod of Glasgow. Baillie wrote in reply a 
 most humble, we should say abject letter, entreating 
 his Lordship to excuse him, upon these grounds, name- 
 ly, that having only taken a slight view of the contents 
 of the book, and not being satisfied in his own mind 
 
 * History of the Church in Scotland, by the Rev. Michael Russell, 
 LL.D. pp. 181, 183. 
 
 f Brodie's History of the British Empire, Vol. ii- p. 506.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF BAILLIE. 195 
 
 with regard to it, finding also that it was generally 
 disagreeable to pastors and people, his mind was " filled 
 with snch a measure of grief, that I am scarce able to 
 preach to my own flock ; but to preach in another con- 
 gregation, and that in so famous a meeting, and that 
 upon these matters, I am at this time all utterly un- 
 able. Your Lordship, I put no question, is so equi- 
 table as to take in good part this my ingenuous confes- 
 sion of the true cause why I am unable to accept that 
 honourable compliment, which your Lordship's more 
 than ordinary respect would have laid upon me. So 
 for this, and many more favours received, far above my 
 deserving, I pray God to bless your Lordship, and to 
 continue you many years to be our overseer ; for be 
 persuaded that many thousands here where I live are 
 greatly afraid that whenever your Lordship shall go, 
 their peace and quietness shall go away with you. 
 This from your Lordship's very loving friend and obe- 
 dient servant, R. Baii.lie. Kilwinning, August 19th, 
 
 1637." 
 
 But to his foreign correspondent, Mr William Spang, 
 Baillie thus reports the matter : " Our synod in Glas- 
 gow was indicted on the last Wednesday of August. 
 The bishop wrote to me, from Edinburgh, to preach 
 thereat, and withal to incite all my hearers to obey the 
 church canons, and to practise the service. I wrote 
 back aflat refusal, shewing the irresolution of my own 
 mind. For all this, on the Friday before the synod, 
 I receive new letters, commanding me, upon my cano- 
 nical obedience, to preach on Wednesday before the sy- 
 nod, committing the matter of my sermon to my own 
 discretion. However I had but two free days, yet I 
 chose rather to obey than to hazard myself in needless 
 contests with a troublesome man, and made myself ready
 
 196' MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 as I might, on 2d Tim. iv. 1. 2. I charge thee he/ore 
 God to preach in season and out of season." * 
 
 Now, in these letters at least, we can discover none 
 of the " manliness of spirit" to which our historian re- 
 fers ; that to the bishop is tinged with hypocrisy and 
 want of courage, and that to his friend, with something 
 very like want of truth. But this is not all. In the 
 following year this very bishop, whom Baillie knew to 
 be an excellent man, and a valuable pastor, upon whose 
 presence in the diocese Baillie admitted that the peace 
 and happiness of " many thousands" depended, was 
 summoned as a delinquent, along with all the other bi- 
 shops, to answer (at the bar of an Assembly where they 
 ought to have sat as judges,) to what those prelates 
 justly called " a most infamous and scurrile libel," 
 charging them, indiscriminately, with simony, incest, 
 fornication, adultery, Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, 
 and gaming. Had Baillie possessed one spark of 
 manliness of spirit, he would have raised his voice, 
 at least in defence of that bishop to whom he had writ- 
 ten, but the year before, the letter we have quoted. 
 On the contrary, he joined in the inhuman persecution 
 by which this excellent prelate was ruined — driven 
 from the flock whose peace and happiness depended up- 
 on him — excommunicated — and all because he declined 
 the authority of an unconstitutional and lawless conven- 
 tion ! It adds to the meanness of Baillie's conduct that 
 he retained his good opinion of the bishop, and did not 
 desire his destruction, though he thus comments upon it: 
 — " Since his sentence of excommunication he has lived 
 
 F Baillie contrived to shuffle out of the duty, and did not preach after 
 all. Mr John Lindsay, the clergyman who did the duty, was very near- 
 ly murdered by the women. Probably the danger he apprehended from 
 these furies had more weight with Baillie than his conscience had, — Jour- 
 nals and Letters^ Vol. i. pp. 7, 8.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF BAILLIE. 197 
 
 very privately, miskent by all, and put well near to 
 Adamson's misery ; had not peace shortly come, his 
 wants had been extreme, and without pity from many, 
 or great relief from any hand we know." 
 
 Baillie's conscience was at continual variance with 
 his conduct, which betokens no great manliness of spi- 
 rit. The bishops declined their judges, — it was abso- 
 lutely impossible to do otherwise and retain a particle of 
 honour or principle. From their presbyterial Vatican 
 the faction proposed to launch the thunders of excom- 
 munication. The proposition was monstrous, and Bail- 
 lie opposed it, — " excommunication seemed to me so ter- 
 rible a sentence, and that obstinacy, the formal cause 
 of it, required admonition and some delay of time after 
 the close of the process, that I voiced him, [the Bishop 
 of Galloway, their first victim,] to be deposed, but not 
 presently excommunicated. In this I was followed by 
 some five or six, but the rest went on to present excom- 
 munication. I remained that night in my negative voice, 
 that no bishop should be excommunicated till they had 
 gotten more time to declare their contempt of public 
 admonition from the pulpit of Edinburgh and their ca- 
 thedral ; yet, considering better of their declinature, I 
 found it an obstinate avowing of extreme contempt, and 
 so, to-morrow. I professed my recalling of my yester- 
 day's voice, and went with the rest in a present excom- 
 munication of all the declining bishops." And yet, af- 
 ter all, if a bishop, when he heard of the scandalous in- 
 justice done him in his absence, proposed to appear and 
 justify himself, it was termed impudence ! " The 
 Bishop of Brechin," says Baillie, " followed. He was 
 proven guilty of sundry acts of most vile drunkenness, 
 also a woman and child brought before us that made 
 his adultery very probable ; also his using of a massy
 
 198 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 crucifix in his chamber. The man was reputed to be 
 universally infamous for many crimes, yet such was his 
 impudence that it was said he was ready to have com- 
 peared before us for his justification ; but was stayed 
 by the Marquis, lest his compearance should have been 
 [taken] for an acknowledgement of the judicatory." 
 In their absence, however, the most improbable charges 
 were received against them, and the very charge was 
 considered tantamount to proof of the fact.* 
 
 The utter destruction of Episcopacy ,perfas autnefas, 
 even in England, was the main object of the faction of 
 lfi38, which then passed from the leadership of Rothes 
 to that of Argyle. An Episcopal order had unques- 
 tionably entered the constitution of the Church of Scot- 
 land even under the sanction of Knox himself. It was 
 now determined, however, for the sake of destroying 
 the effect of the King's Covenant, that all the acts com- 
 posing it implied a total ahjuration of every con- 
 dition and species of Episcopacy. The question was 
 thus stated to the Assembly : Whether, or not, accord- 
 ing to the Confession of Faith first published in 1580, 
 universally sworn in 1581, and again renewed in 1590, 
 there be any other bishop approved of in the Church 
 of Scotland than the pastor of one flock having no power 
 over his colleagues, and whether or not, according to 
 the received sense of that confession, as it was sworn 
 in these years, every other species of Episcopacy was 
 
 * Speaking of the Bishop of Murray, Baillie says, — " Murray had the 
 ordinary faults of a bishop — a fourteen days ago Mr Henry Pollock ex- 
 communicated Murray, and, as I think, in the great church, to perform, 
 as he said, the man's own prophecy, who said in that place he would yet 
 be more vile to please the King. There was objected against him, but, 
 as I suspect, not sufficiently proven, his countenance of a dance of naked 
 people in his own house, and of women going bare-footed in pilgrimage 
 not far from his dwelling."
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF BA1LLIE. 199 
 
 abjured, and wow, for that reason, ought to be remov- 
 ed ? Baillie was sufficiently enlightened to feel in his 
 heart and conscience that the proposition intended by 
 this question was not only unsound, but absolutely dis- 
 honest. He had brought his mind to accede to the re- 
 moval of Episcopacy from the Covenanting church, 
 " but withal," he says, " I heartily wished in the act of 
 removal of it, no clause might be put which might 
 oblige us in conscience to count that for wicked and 
 unlawful in itself, which the whole reformed churches 
 this day, and, so far as I know, all the famous and clas- 
 sic divines that ever put pen to paper, either of old or 
 of late, absolved of unlawfulness." Again, — " The ques- 
 tion was formed, about the abjuration of all kind of 
 Episcopacy, in such terms as I profess I did not well, in 
 the time, understand, and thought them so cunningly 
 intricate that hardly could I give any answer, either ita 
 or non" The determination he came to was to make 
 no speech on the subject, but when his vote was called 
 to add a few words in qualification thereof ; for, he says, 
 " to make any public dispute I thought it not safe, be- 
 ing myself alone, and fearing, above all evils, to be the 
 occasion of any division, which was our certain wreck 
 So when all men were called to propone what doubts 
 they had, before the voicing, I, with all the rest, was 
 dumb as a fish." When it came to his vote he attempt- 
 ed to qualify it by a distinction, but was easily silenced 
 by Loudon and Argyle. On the last day of the As- 
 sembly, the proposition, that Episcopacy had been total- 
 ly abjured in the Confession of Faith in 1580, was again 
 before them, and an act was proposed for ordaining the 
 signing of the Covenant over again, under this new in- 
 terpretation of the negative confession. To this Bail- 
 lie was decidedly opposed, and, in the shape of a letter
 
 200 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 to the clerk, drew out his reasons of dissent, to be com- 
 municated to the Moderator and Lord Loudon. The 
 latter knew well how to manage the conscience of his 
 reverend friend, who himself informs us that, " in voicing 
 this act, whereunto all yielded, I was ready to have 
 dissented, which, for my good allenarly [solely,] lest I 
 alone should so oft be found contradicting the synod, 
 Lord Loudon perveened, by moving the clerk to pass 
 by my name in calling the catalogue."* 
 
 A young clergyman of the name of Forsyth, whom 
 Baillie, though shocked by his having fearlessly expres- 
 sed opinions condemning the resistance to the service 
 book, loved and admired, was deposed upon a libel 
 which accused him of calling the Covenant seditious, 
 treasonable, Jesuitic, to which charge was added such 
 sundries as these, that, — " he gave money at his entry for 
 his place, and struck a beggar on the Sabbath day ; a 
 number of such things were libelled, and urged hotly 
 against him." Baillie's heart told him that injustice 
 was about to be done, — " the Moderator and others, for 
 his sister's sake, had a great mind to have delayed him, 
 but, no man speaking for him, he was deposed. I re- 
 pented of my silence ; but the reason of it was, both my 
 lothness to be heard often in one day to contradict the 
 whole synod, as also my fear and suspicion of further 
 ills in the youth than yet was spoken of !" 
 
 So much (and a great deal more might be added,) 
 for the enlightened mind, manly spirit, and sensitive 
 conscience of the Reverend Robert Baillie, among the 
 
 * This was worthy of the party that accused Charles the First of in- 
 ducing a false return of the vote in the Parliament of 1633. The King's 
 Large Declaration narrates the fact of the suppression of Baillie's vote, 
 and comments upon it with merited severity. — See Note in illustration of 
 the Large Declaration at the end of this volume.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF BAILLIE. 201 
 
 best of the covenanting clergy. He was learned, in the 
 sense of having acquired (it is said) a knowledge of 
 thirteen languages — he had a conscience, for it cost him 
 some trouble to keep it quiet — he was enlightened, for 
 he was sensible of the sacred and constitutional cha- 
 racter of the episcopal order, with whose irrational de- 
 stroyers he nevertheless continued to make common 
 cause — nay he was loyal, for he possessed a secret ad- 
 miration, and sneaking kindness, for the monarch whose 
 ruin he ardently aided to accomplish. But neither the 
 learning, nor the conscience of Baillie, were such as to 
 save him from becoming a blind instrument in the 
 hands of unprincipled democratic spirits, and thus it 
 is, that the voluminous record he has left of his feelings, 
 opinions, and actions, presents so many deplorable in- 
 consistencies. Whatever judgment he possessed was 
 continually overwhelmed by fits of violent fanaticism, 
 and all his good qualities of meekness, modesty, and 
 moderation, became strangely mingled with their op- 
 posites, as his not very powerful mind got more and 
 more excited under the fantastical banners of the Co- 
 venant. And this is the man who, in his correspond- 
 ence with the reverend friend whom he was furnishing 
 with materials for a history of the times, did not scru- 
 ple to impute the meanest motives to the manly-spirited, 
 the high-minded Montrose, in speaking of that noble- 
 man's departure from the covenanting faction. 
 
 The Marquis of Hamilton, too, affected to treat the 
 conduct and character of Montrose with contempt. Let 
 us consider his own at this juncture. The persecution 
 of the non-covenanting clergy, and the unprincipled de- 
 struction of Episcopacy, took place in a convention
 
 202 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 which had previously been dissolved, under pain of 
 treason, by the royal Commissioner, who having done 
 much, by his " serpentine" policy, to ruin the King's 
 affairs in Scotland, and work up the revolt to its pre- 
 sent pitch of ungovernable frenzy, suddenly " turned 
 his back upon them," to use Baillie's phrase, when he 
 knew that the Assembly would sit without him, and 
 act more outrageously in his absence. Upon Wednes- 
 day, the 28th of November, he announced his determi- 
 nations to leave them to themselves. " When the Mo- 
 derator," says Baillie, " pressed the voicing if we were 
 the bishops' judges, there fell a sad, grave, and sor- 
 rowful discourse. This was the Commissioner's last 
 passage ; he acted it with tears, and drew, by his speech, 
 water from many eyes, as I think, — well I wot much 
 from mine, for then I apprehended the certainty ine- 
 vitable of these tragedies which now are in doing. 
 Much was said of his sincere endeavours to serve God, 
 the King, and his country ; of his grief, yet necessity 
 to depart. The cause he alleged was the spoiling of 
 the Assembly, which he had obtained most free, by our 
 most partial directions from our Tables at Edinburgh." 
 The letter in which Hamilton tells the King, that of all 
 the promoters of the Covenant, none was " more vainly 
 foolish than Montrose," is dated on the day previous to 
 this scene.* That characteristically fearless expression 
 by which Montrose announced his determination, and 
 the determination of his party, as he supposed, to " ac- 
 knowledge the least jot of what was writ" by the Tables 
 to the presbyteries, had been so interpreted by Hamil- 
 ton. Was it his earnest desire for the constitutional 
 purity of the Assembly, or his jealousy of Montrose, 
 
 * See before, p. 1 70.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF HAMILTON. 203 
 
 that induced Hamilton to seize upon what Montrose 
 alone had avowed, as the cause of his departure ? Did 
 he feel the grief he displayed at his departure, — and 
 were those tears the overflowing of a 'patriotic no less 
 than a loyal heart ? His most able and determined eu- 
 logist, Bishop Burnet, tells us, that, as the Marquis re- 
 turned to Court, " his thoughts did bear him sad com- 
 pany during his journey. The least painful of them 
 was, that he knew he had many enemies who would 
 impute the present disorders to his mismanagement, if 
 not to his unfaithfulness, but those he quieted with 
 his confidence in his Majesty's justice and his own in- 
 tegrity, and, indeed, any personal hazard could meet 
 him must have had small footing in a mind prepos- 
 sessed with other thoughts. That which tormented 
 him most, as appears by his letters, was, that he saw 
 inevitable ruin hanging either over his master, or his 
 country, if not over both, since the ruin of either would 
 prove fatal to both. * * * His affection to his country 
 and friends did struggle strongly against his engaging 
 further, yet it yielded to his duty, but not so entirely 
 as to clear his spirit of sad regrets." All this is as 
 well feigned on the part of Bishop Burnet, as were the 
 sorrows and tears poured out by Hamilton upon his 
 beloved country. Where are these letters by which 
 it " appears" that alarm for his personal interests was 
 the least, and a foreboding as to the fate of his country 
 and King the greatest torment that possessed him ? His 
 eulogist gave them not to the public, because he knew 
 they contradicted that interesting picture of the mind 
 of his hero. Upon the 27th of November 1638, the 
 day before he dissolved the Assembly, Hamilton wrote 
 that memorable letter to the King, which we find, not 
 in Burnet, but in the Hardwicke Collection ; and in
 
 204 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 that letter his love for his native country, and his tear- 
 ful tenderness of heart, are manifested in expressions 
 that amount to execration of Scotland. * But of Ha- 
 milton's duplicity we shall have too many instances to 
 notice in the progress of our illustrations. 
 
 As the favourite glided back to the bosom of his mas- 
 ter, Argyle emerged from his lurking-place. This co- 
 venanting character was another puzzle for their inde- 
 fatigable chronicler, and the naivete of Baillie's record 
 is not less amusing than instructive. " Before his 
 Grace's departure, Argyle craved leave to speak, and 
 that time we did not well understand him ; but his ac- 
 tions since have made his somewhat ambiguous speeches 
 plain." When the Commissioner left them, the As- 
 sembly were in a state of confusion and perplexity, and 
 " some three or four Angus-men, with the laird of 
 Aithie, departed, alleging their commission had an 
 express clause of the King's countenancing of the As- 
 sembly." The Moderator, Loudon, and some others, 
 harangued them on the propriety of protesting against 
 the Commissioner's departure, and of their continuingto 
 sit. To this all agreed, but, adds Baillie, " it was good we 
 were all put to it presently, for if it had been delayed 
 till the morrow, it is feared many would have slipt 
 away." On the morrow, however, " Argyle came back 
 to us. The Moderator earnestly entreated him, that 
 though he was ?w member of the Assembly, yet, for the 
 common interest he had in the Church, he would be 
 
 * " If I keep my life (though next Hell I hate this place,) if you 
 think me worthy of employment, I shall not weary till the government 
 be again set right ; and then I will forswear this country. * * * I have 
 now only this one suit to your Majesty, that if my sons live they may 
 be bred in England. * * * I wish my daughters be never married in 
 Scotland," &c.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF ARGYLE. 205 
 
 pleased to countenance our meetings, and bear witness 
 of the righteousness of all our proceedings. This, to 
 all our great joy, he promised to do, and truly perform- 
 ed his promise. No one thing did confirm us so much 
 as Argyle's presence, not only as he was by far the most 
 powerful subject in the kingdom, but also at this time 
 in good grace with the King and the Commissioner ; 
 we could not conceive but his staying was with the al- 
 lowance of both, permitting him to be amongst us to 
 keep matters in some temper, and hold us from despe- 
 rate extremities." The fact was, however, that Argyle 
 took this opportunity of unmasking himself, and of us- 
 urping — after his kind — the government of Scotland. 
 The King had honoured and trusted Argyle, notwith- 
 standing the solemn declarations of the old Earl, that 
 neither loyalty, nor truth, nor social feeling would be 
 found in his son Lorn. This prophecy was now to be 
 fulfilled. The revolutionary convocation, assembled in 
 that nobleman's patrimonial kingdom of the west, and, 
 suddenly left Without a head, was now ripe for his lurk- 
 ing ambition. How accurately had the old Earl pre- 
 dicted in that solemn warning to Charles ! A few years 
 from the time it was uttered, and disregarded, the King 
 himself was constrained to publish the commentary we 
 now quote upon the conduct and character of Argyle in 
 this Assembly. 
 
 " Towards the end of their Assembly, they divided 
 themselves into several committees, which should, after 
 their rising, see all their acts put in execution, a thing 
 never heard of before in that church. The Moderator 
 concluded with thanks to God for their good success, 
 and then to the nobility and the rest for their great 
 pains, and, last of all, with a speech to the Earl of Ar- 
 gyle, giving him thanks for his presence, and counsel,
 
 206 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 by which they had been so much strengthened and com- 
 forted. The Lord Argyle answered him with a long 
 speech, first intreating all present not to misconstrue 
 his too late declaring himself for them, protesting that 
 he was always set their way, but had delayed to pro- 
 fess it so long as he found his close carriage might be 
 advantageous to their course. But now of late, mat- 
 ters had come to such a height, that he found it behov- 
 ed him to adjoin himself openly to their society, except 
 he should prove a knave, — this was, as we are inform- 
 ed, his own word. Then he went on, and exhorted 
 them all to unity, wishing all, but especially the ruling- 
 elders and ministers, to keep a good correspondence, in- 
 treated all the ministers to consider what had broughtthe 
 bishops to ruin, viz. pride and avarice ; and therefore 
 willed them to shun these two rocks if they would escape 
 shipwreck. The Lord who delivered this speech, deliver- 
 ed, indeed, the true meaning and sense of the Covenant- 
 ers, for it was neither the bishops bringing in the pre- 
 tended innovations, nor their suspecting them to be 
 guilty of the odious crimes expressed against them in 
 their libel, which incensed this and the other Covenanting 
 Lords against the Bishops, but their fear of their daily 
 rising in dignity and place, which, in this speech, is 
 called pride in them, and their fear that the bishops 
 might recover out of their hands by law, some of the 
 church lands belonging to their churches, which in this 
 speech is called avarice in the bishops. In the mean- 
 time, whether it be not pride in these lords to envy any 
 man's rising in the church and commonwealth, accord- 
 ing to that worth and sufficiency, which his Prince shall 
 find in him, and whether it be not avarice in them, not 
 to endure that other men should legally seek to recover 
 their own from them, shall be left to the judgment of
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF ARGYLE. 207 
 
 the indifferent reader. But for this revolted Lord, who 
 made this speech, and professeth in it, that, if he had 
 now not adjoined himself to them, he should have prov- 
 ed a knave, We can give this testimony of him, that at 
 his last being here with Us in England, at which time 
 we had good reason to misdoubt him, he gave us as- 
 surance that he would rest fully satisfied if we would 
 perform those things which we have made good, by 
 our last gracious declaration, in which we have grant- 
 ed more than we did at that time promise, so that we 
 had little reason to expect his adjoining himself to 
 them, who had given us so great assurance to the con- 
 trary, besides that assurance which he gave to our Com- 
 missioner when he was in Scotland ; and now, if by his 
 own confession he carried things closely for the Cove- 
 nanters' advantage, being then one qf the Lords qf our 
 secret council, and that in the end he must openly join 
 with them or be a knave, what he hath proved himself 
 to be, by his close and false carriage, let the world 
 judge."* 
 
 When Montrose crossed Tweed with the rebels in 
 1640, and, as democracy became developed from under 
 the disguise of patriotism, bethought himself of secret- 
 ly countermining the omnipotent faction that had de- 
 ceived him and others, he was only struggling to save 
 the King, from whose councils he was excluded, and 
 acting a part, which, however derogatory and uncon- 
 genial to his open character, was perilous to his per- 
 son, and sufficiently justified by the necessity of the 
 case. That of Argyle is the converse of this. The 
 anomalous position he avowed — of a concealed patriot, 
 
 * King's Large Declaration, 1639, p. 325.
 
 208 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 professing loyalty, and promising aid to his sovereign, 
 yet lurking in his councils only to betray him, — can 
 admit of no excuse. To he a privy-councillor was Ar- 
 gyle's hereditary and constitutional position ; and that 
 he continued to be a privy-councillor for the alleged 
 purpose of playing into the hands of bolder patriots, in- 
 stead of patriotically joining them in their open revolt, 
 can be classed under no category of virtue, enterprise, 
 or necessity, but was simply a safe and cowardly per- 
 version of a sacred constitutional trust. The difference 
 between the two cases is the difference betwen the cha- 
 racters of Argyle and Montrose.
 
 POLICY OF HAMILTON. „ c 209 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HOW THE LOYALTY OF THE NORTH WAS PARALYZED BY HAMILTON, AND 
 HOW HUNTLY WAS MADE PRISONER BY MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Having, in the last chapter, contemplated Montrose 
 as a leader in the Assembly of 1638, wherein he shewed 
 somewhat too honest for the councils of the Covenant- 
 ers, we have now to follow him in expeditions where he 
 likewise proved himself to be too humane for their arms, 
 namely, against Huntly, and the ever-memorable loyal- 
 ists of the north. But, in the first place, we must 
 consider the position in which Huntly was placed by 
 Hamilton. 
 
 Even after certain individuals in Scotland, among 
 whom we must reckon Montrose, had brought that un- 
 happy country into the predicament which might have 
 excused a little *' fire and sword" to check the progress 
 of anarchy, Charles invariably proved himself more apt 
 to yield than to resist, and, as we have seen, instead of 
 leading an army against them, devolved the task of set- 
 tling Scotland upon a " kindly Scotchman," the " ambi- 
 guous" son of a covenanting mother. When that Com- 
 missioner, after apparently exertinghimself,and in vain, 
 to keep the armed convention of 1638 within the bounds 
 of constitutional and Christian order, wrote to Charles, 
 — " it is more than probable that these people have 
 somewhat else in their thoughts than religion ; but 
 that must serve for a cloak to rebellion, wherein for a 
 time they may prevail ; but to make them miserable, 
 and bring them again to a dutiful obedience, I am con- 
 
 vol. I. o
 
 210 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 fident your Majesty will not find it a work of long time, 
 nor of great difficulty, as they have foolishly fancied to 
 themselves," — and when he proceeded to lay down the 
 plan of a most formidable invasion, which, he adds, 
 " will certainly so irritate them, as all those who with- 
 in this country stand for your Majesty will be in great 
 and imminent danger,"* — it was impossible for the 
 monarch to do otherwise, than respond in a tone of 
 royal indignation against his unruly and irrational sub- 
 jects, and prepare for inevitable civil war. f Still, 
 however, it was the evil genius Hamilton that ruled 
 the destinies both of Scotland and the King. That re- 
 
 * The letter dated 27th November 1638, in Hardwicke's State Papers, 
 already referred to. 
 
 f Charles, in one of his letters to Hamilton on the subject of that inva- 
 sion which the favourite urged and planned, concludes with the loose ex- 
 pressions, — " and so to proceed with fire and sword against all those that 
 shall disobey," his Majesty's proclamation at this crisis. Mi- Brodie (Hist, 
 ii. p. 560,) says, that Charles, "in spite of the general abhorrence, was ready 
 to force the canons and liturgy by fire and sword upon Scotland." But 
 this assertion is quite contrary to history. Charles was not prepared with 
 a single regiment or ship to enforce those measures, which he withdrew 
 when he ascertained the violent excitement they were said to have caused. 
 Even Baillie, in one of his mawkish fits of feeling and affection for Charles, 
 says, — " it has been the King's perpetual fault to grant his people's desires 
 by bits, and so late he ever lost his thanks." Nor does Baillie deserve the 
 credit which this opinion has sometimes procured for him, it being bas- 
 ed upon at least three unwarrantable assumptions ; viz. 1st, That it was 
 possible for a high-minded, enlightened, and Christian king at once to 
 perceive either a necessity, or propriety, of yielding any thing to insur- 
 rectionary demands, springing from such a root as the tithe-cabal, and 
 first publicly manifested by such an out-break as, to use Baillie's own 
 words," the serving-maids of Edinburgh, beginning to pull down the bi- 
 shop's pride." 2d, That Charles's vision of the whole affair was not 
 troubled and distorted, and his policy controlled and mutilated, through 
 the policy of the faithless Hamilton. 3c?, That the King yielded too lit- 
 tle and too late, instead of too much and too hastily, and that, supposing 
 he had granted, what Baillie calls " his people's desires," at the very first 
 howl of faction, and to the full extent of its hunger, he would have got 
 other " thanks" than being led sooner to the block.
 
 POLICY OF HAMILTON. 211 
 
 niarkable letter to which we have so frequently referred, 
 wherein Hamilton comments so cunningly and par- 
 tially upon the characters of the leading noblemen in 
 Scotland, covered a deeper design than to put the 
 King in possession of authentic information. Though, 
 in addition to the execrating expressions we have else- 
 where quoted from it, Hamilton says, — " I have mis- 
 sed my end in not being able to make your Majesty 
 so considerable a party as will be able to curb the inso- 
 lence of this rebellious nation, without assistance from 
 England, and greater charge to your Majesty than this 
 miserable country is worth," — he could not fail, the fact 
 being notorious, to point to Huntly as the centre and 
 rallying point of loyalty in Scotland. " The best way," 
 he says, " that for the present I can think on to secure 
 them, and to make some head for your Majesty, is to 
 appoint the Marquis of Huntly in the north your Ma- 
 jesty's lieutenant, with full power to him to raise such 
 and so many men as he shall think convenient for the 
 defence of the country :" And yet, it will be remember- 
 ed, Rothes, in his letter to Patrick Lesly, tells us, — " the 
 Marquis Huntly was but slighted by the Commissioner, 
 and not of his privy-council," — and in the very letter re- 
 commending Huntly's appointment, the wily favourite 
 takes care to damn him with faint praise."* When, in 
 a series of political portraits calculated to impress Charles 
 with the idea that nobody at this crisis could be fitly 
 
 * " The Marquis of Huntly is unknown to me, more than in general ; 
 hut much misliked is he here (yet not the worse for that) traduced to be 
 not only popishly inclined, hut even a direct Roman Catholic; nay, they 
 spare not to tax him with personal faults. But, however, this I am sure 
 of, since my coming here he hath proved a faithful servant to you, and I 
 am confident will be of greater use when your Majesty shall take arms in 
 your hand * * * The Marquis of Huntly certainly may be trusted by 
 you, but whether fitly or no I cannot say."
 
 212 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 trusted with the government of Scotland but Hamilton 
 himself, that nobleman adds, — " though next hell I 
 hate this place, if you think me worthy of any employ- 
 ment, I shall not weary till the government be again set 
 right, and then I will forswear this country," — it is im- 
 possible to doubt that his selfish object was still to pre- 
 serve his exclusive influence over the King, and the af- 
 fairs of Scotland. Such was the effect, at least, of his 
 letter, for by return of post his Majesty replied : " Ha- 
 milton — I have sent back this honest bearer both for 
 safety of my letters, and to ease me from length of 
 writing : therefore, in a word, I thank you for your full 
 and clear dispatch, totally agreeing with you in every 
 point, as well in the characters of men, as in the way you 
 have set down to reduce them to obedience ; only the 
 time when to^begin to act is considerable. To this 
 end I have fully instructed the bearer with the state of 
 my preparations, that you may govern my business ac- 
 cordingly. You have given me such good satisfaction 
 that I mean not to put any other in the chief trust in 
 these affairs hut yourself." 
 
 Under these fatal auspices, Huntly was nominally in- 
 vested with the lieutenancy of the north, and with au- 
 thority to raise his own levies for the King's service. 
 Most reasonably had he required that, along with his 
 commission, there should be sent to him from England 
 two or three thousand men, and arms for five thousand 
 more, as he was in daily expectation of a hostile visit 
 from Montrose. Upon the 25th of January 1639, Sir 
 Thomas Burnet of Leys, a keen Covenanter, though at- 
 tached to the house of Huntly, came to the Marquis, 
 and in a friendly manner told him that the Tables at 
 Edinburgh had directed a committee to publish the acts 
 of the last Assembly at the market-cross of Aberdeen, 
 
 4
 
 POLICY OF HAMILTON. 213 
 
 and also to visit the College of Old Aberdeen, and " re- 
 pair the faults thereof." Upon Huntly's expressing 
 some disapprobation of this plan, as contrary to the 
 King's authority, and the peace of the country, Sir 
 Thomas replied, "My Lord, I fear these things will be 
 done with an army." In vain the gallant Huntly took 
 up his abode in Aberdeen, (his person guarded night 
 and day by four-and-twenty gentlemen of rank and con- 
 dition) and, from thence cast many a longing look to 
 the sea-port for his promised succours from England. 
 " The commission Huntly received, — the aid of men was 
 promised — but nothing came to him, after much ex- 
 pectation, but arms for three thousand foot and a 
 hundred horse, which came not to him till that year 
 in March, and were sent upon the charges of Dr Mor- 
 ton, Bishop of Durham. As for the soldiers who should 
 have landed at Aberdeen, or elsewhere, it is true that 
 the King had promised Huntly assistance of men, but 
 the Marquis of Hamilton, — who always looked upon 
 Huntly with an evil eye, as the emulator of his great- 
 ness, and withal was a secret friend to the Covenan- 
 ters — dissuaded the King from sending men, alleging 
 for his reason that, if the King did so, it would turn all 
 the burden of the war upon the King. How truly this 
 was said I leave to the readers. One thing certainly is 
 true, that, by this counsel, the King's hopes that he had 
 conceived from his friends in Scotland were blasted ; 
 for the noblemen and Highlanders, who stood for the 
 King in Scotland, promised their concurrence upon that 
 express condition, that they might have a considerable 
 number of trained soldiers to join with, who never ap- 
 pearing, some of those who had undertaken to do much 
 for the King, either could not, or made that their pre- 
 text why they would not stir. It was by this means
 
 214 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 that Huntly was engaged in a manner alone, and ne- 
 cessitated to lay down his arms, and render himself in 
 March following !"* 
 
 But Hamilton was not contented with leaving Huntly 
 to his own resources, at this critical juncture. The 
 King wrote to the latter that he, Huntly, must receive 
 all his commands from Hamilton, and the instructions 
 which, through this channel, Huntlydid receive were, to 
 remain as much as possible on the defensive, and to 
 risk no hostilities. Thus all the loyalty of the north 
 became worse than useless, and the gallant and ener- 
 getic preparations, which had been made by the Aber- 
 donians in defence of their Religion, their Liberties, and 
 their King, only brought severer persecution upon them- 
 selves. 
 
 Upon the 1st of February, Montrose, the Earl of 
 Kinghorn,Lyon of Auldbar (Kinghorn's brother) and se- 
 veral other barons and gentlemen of the covenanting 
 faction, came to Forfar, the head burgh of the shire of 
 Angus, and there, by direction of the Tables, held a com- 
 mittee within the tolbooth of the town. In opposition to 
 these came the Earl of Southesk, the Lord Ogilvy, the 
 master of Spynie, the constable of Dundee, and sundry 
 other loyalists. The committee required them to sub- 
 scribe the last edition of the Covenant, containing the 
 total abjuration of Episcopacy as unlawful in itself; but 
 having received the indignant reply they probably an- 
 ticipated, Montrose and his friends proceeded to their 
 chief business, which was to provide the sinews of war 
 by stenting, or apportioning the financial burden of it 
 
 * James Gordon's MS. Bishop Burnet is totally unable to disprove 
 this charge ; and the defence he attempts, in a single paragraph of his 
 Memoirs of Hamilton, p. 117, is a complete failure.
 
 MONTROSE STENTS THE LIEGES. 215 
 
 upon the landholders within the shire. " Southesk," 
 says honest Spalding, " speired (inquired) by what au- 
 thority they were thus stenting the King's leidges ? 
 Montrose, being his son-in-law, answered, their war- 
 rant was from the Table, (for so were their councils at 
 Edinburgh now named,) requiring him also, and the 
 rest that were there, to number their men, and have 
 them well armed, and in readiness to concur and assist 
 the Table. Southesk answered, they were all the King's 
 men, subject to his service, but to no Table nor subject 
 sitting thereat, and that their lands were not subject to 
 be stented, nor their men numbered, but at the King's 
 command and in his service, and so they took their 
 leave, leaving Montrose and the rest sitting still in the 
 tolbooth of Forfar, at their committee." 
 
 At this same time intelligence was brought to Hunt- 
 ly that Montrose and his committee were to hold a 
 meeting at Turreff, a market-town about eleven miles 
 eastward of Huntly's castle of Strathbogie, and that their 
 object was to join in a grand conclave with the northern 
 Covenanters, chiefly composed of the Forbeses, Frazers, 
 Keiths, and Crichtons. Huntly was strenuously ad- 
 vised, by Ogilvy of Banff, to muster his own followers 
 at the same place, on the same day, to operate as a 
 check upon the Covenanters. Montrose was informed 
 of this resolution, which Huntly adopted, but the effect 
 upon his ardent and enterprizing disposition was the re- 
 verse of what had been expected. " Montrose," says 
 James Gordon, " was ready at a call, and, — being desir- 
 ous to show himself as active in his charge as he had 
 been remarkable for countenancing protestations, and 
 the General Assembly of Glasgow, and pulling down the 
 organs of the Chapel Royal of Holyrood House, in the 
 King's Palace, the summer and winter past, — with such
 
 21 6 M0NTK0SE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of the cavalry of the Mearns and Angus gentryas were 
 nearest or readiest, or most zealous to the service, he 
 flies over the Grampian hills with all speed possible, 
 scarce ever sleeping or resting till he got to Turreff, 
 accompanied with the number of near two hundred gal- 
 lant gentlemen, having first not neglected to bid the 
 Forbeses and Frazers, and all whom the shortness of 
 the time could permit them to convene, to be there 
 timeously upon the day appointed, which they failed 
 not to do." By means of this forced march, Montrose 
 reached Turreff before Huntly arrived, and mustering, 
 with his own followers and friends who had joined 
 him, to the number, says Spalding, of " eight hundred 
 well-horsed, well-armed gentlemen, and foot together, 
 with buff coats, swords, corslets, jacks, pistols, carbines, 
 hagbuts, and other weapons, — they took into the town of 
 Turreff, and busked (arranged) very advantageously 
 their muskets round about the dykes of the kirk-yard, 
 and sat within the kirk thereof, such as were of the 
 committee, viz. Montrose, Kinghorn, Cooper, Frazer, 
 and Forbes." 
 
 No sooner were they thus established, than the van 
 of Huntly's army arrived, and, finding the village so 
 formidably occupied, drew off to the fields in the neigh- 
 bourhood. Huntly was accompanied by a gallant host 
 of " gentlemen and others, about 2500, all mounted on 
 horse, though all the horse not fit for service, nor all 
 the men fit to serve on horse." For his council of war 
 he had his gallant sons, the Lords Gordon and Aboyne, 
 who, with the loyal lairds, Drum, Banff, Gight, Haddo, 
 Pitfoddels, Foveran, Newtoun, and Udny, urged their 
 commander to fall on the Covenanters at once, and 
 crush rebellion at its first appearance. The King's 
 Lieutenant, they said, would do no more than his duty
 
 FIRST RAID OF TURREFF. 217 
 
 by dispersing the rebels, and if, on the other hand, he 
 departed without striking a blow, his loyal and reso- 
 lute followers, disheartened by this inaction, would 
 not so readily convene again. But the Marquis of 
 Hamilton had arranged matters otherwise. Huntly, in 
 reply to their spirited reasoning, could only answer, that 
 his orders were not to fight > and, taking aside the princi- 
 pal noblemen and gentlemen of his train, he satisfied 
 them of the discouraging fact, by showing the instruc- 
 tions he had received. For the rest, he thanked them 
 for their prompt attendance, and exhorted them to con- 
 tinue firm in their loyalty. Meanwhile the Earl of 
 Finlater, who accompanied Huntly, but, as alleged by 
 the contemporary chroniclers, with little stomach for 
 fighting, passed over, of his own accord, to Montrose, 
 to deprecate a rencounter. Montrose sent back this 
 message to Huntly, that he and his party had no inten- 
 tion of breaking the public peace, or molesting any one, 
 but would not submit to injury, if they could help it ; 
 adding, that, if Huntly and his friends had business to 
 transact in the town of Turreflf, they might betake 
 themselves to any part of it except that occupied by 
 the Covenanters. So ended a meeting; from which 
 much was expected and little came to pass. Huntly 
 broke up his rendezvous before sunset, and sent the 
 most of his own followers back to Strathbogie, under 
 the command of his second son, the Viscount of Aboyne, 
 directing his own coarse towards Forglen, the house of 
 Ogilvy of Banff, accompanied by the brave barons whose 
 blood was up in vain. They dashed their steeds through 
 the village of Turreff, riding under the walls of the 
 kirk-yard, and within two pikes' length of Montrose 
 and his comrades. But not a word was interchanged 
 and no salutation, or sign of courtesy, past betwixt the
 
 218 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS 
 
 loyal Huntly and the covenanting Montrose. Baillie, 
 — prejudiced, and ill informed as to the motives and 
 springs of action that regulated the conduct of many 
 whom he records, — when rejoicing, with fanatical ex- 
 citement, over the sufferings of the north, speaks of 
 HuntJy as one whose cowardice had betrayed the party 
 that relied upon him. In France, however, where that 
 nobleman was better known, the rumour of this ren- 
 dezvous took its shape from the reputation Huntly had 
 acquired in a land of chivalry. " This is that meet- 
 ing," says James Gordon, after narrating what vve have 
 more shortly noticed, " which afterwards was known 
 under the name of the first raid of Turreff, to distin- 
 guish it from a rencountre that fell out there in May 
 following, that year, (1639,) betwixt Huntly's followers, 
 and their neighbours, the Covenanters of the shires of 
 Aberdeen and Banff. It was looked upon as an action 
 on Huntly's part, whose depth or mystery few or none 
 could dive into. * Yet fame, that is no niggard in her 
 reports, when it came the length of Paris, made it pass 
 there in the Parisian gazette, under no less a notion 
 than the siege and taking of the great town of Turreff, 
 in Scotland, by the Marquis of Huntly, whom France 
 knew better than they knew Turreff, having seen him 
 some few years before amongst the armies of the most 
 Christian King, commander of the company of the 
 Scottish gendarmes, which company is the second of 
 France, in the service against Lorrain and Alsatia, 
 where likewise his two eldest sons, George Lord Gordon, 
 and James Viscount of Aboyne, past their apprentice- 
 ships in the school of Mars." 
 
 * It is sufficiently explained by what we now know of the policy of 
 the Marquis of Hamilton.
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 219 
 
 The good town of Aberdeen, expecting a visit from 
 Montrose upon this occasion, had placed themselves in 
 a most formidable posture of defence. But the day 
 after Huntly broke up his array, Montrose disbanded 
 his own army, and betook himself to the south, where 
 preparations were to be made on a greater scale against 
 the stronghold of loyalty and learning. 
 
 The momentary glaring on each other at Turreff, ir- 
 ritated both Huntly and Montrose to active operations 
 for a hostile encounter. Huntly still expected the re- 
 inforcements from England, along with instructions to 
 act, and in the meanwhile raised a little army entirely 
 from his own private resources. " I have in my young- 
 er years," says James Gordon, " often had occasion to 
 see both parties at that time, yet I cannot peremptori- 
 ly determine the number of those who then and after- 
 wards bore arms under Huntly's command. Yet I sup- 
 pose I am not far from the truth if I say that his fol- 
 lowers and friends were about three thousand, most 
 part foot, and horse the rest. It was with a number 
 not many fewer that Huntly did keep his next rendez- 
 vous at Inverury in the end of March." 
 
 Montrose, on his part, was no less active than Huntly 
 to put himself in a posture offensive, and was resolved 
 to be no longer as peaceful as he had been at Turreff. 
 In order to be thoroughly prepared for Huntly, he 
 sends intimation * of his plans to the covenanting party 
 of the Forbeses, Frazers, and others, in the shires of 
 Aberdeen and Banff, and advertises the Covenanters be 
 north the river Spey, such as belonged to Murray, Ross, 
 Sutherland, Caithness, to be ready, with all they could 
 
 * It was two lawyers who were sent with these commands from Mon- 
 trose to the northern counties ; namely, Messrs James Gibson, and James 
 Baird.
 
 220 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 make, to march over Spey and join with him, if need 
 should be. 
 
 For more than a twelvemonth past, and ere the 
 King had been led by Hamilton to contemplate the ne- 
 cessity of an appeal to arms, the junto at Edinburgh, 
 — who suffered neither Montrose nor Baillie to have 
 the entree to what the latter calls the " secret wheels 
 within the curtain, where the like of me wins not," — 
 had been secretly preparing for civil war, by collecting 
 ammunition, pikes, and other offensive weapons, and 
 enticing home, from mercenary campaigns on the con- 
 tinent, their war and weather-beaten countrymen, who 
 had served the very best apprenticeship for the pur- 
 poses of the faction. It was not merely the military 
 experience of such officers that would render them more 
 efficient than even Montrose, — as the pretended defence 
 of Religion and Liberties, became developed in its 
 offensive form of a factious rebellion, — but the inferior 
 and professional status, of these mercenaries, guaranteed 
 the cause from the fatal effect of rivalry among noble- 
 men, whose relative claims to command could not have 
 been so easily adjusted ; and, moreover, — an invalu- 
 able circumstance to the covenanting arms, — it was the 
 principle of mercenary service to attend rather to the 
 profit that might be gained in the professional en- 
 gagement, than to the merits or the nature of the cause 
 espoused. The well known Sir James Turner, (who be- 
 came a covenanting soldier for a short time, simply be- 
 cause, when in search of service, he happened to stumble 
 upon their army,) makes this confession in his amusing 
 memoirs, that he was one who " had swallowed, with- 
 out chewing, in Germany a very dangerous maxim, 
 which military men there too much follow, which was 
 that so we serve our masters honestly, it is no matter
 
 ALEXANDER LESLIE. 221 
 
 what master we serve." It happened, accordingly, that 
 the German wars had trained up a general who in 
 every respect was most suited for the purposes of the 
 " prime Covenanters." But this celebrated character 
 must be introduced in the words of the dramatic Spald- 
 ing. 
 
 " Now about this time, [January 1639,] or a lit- 
 tle before, there came out of Germany, from the wars, 
 home to Scotland, ane gentleman of base birth,* born in 
 Balveny, who had served long and fortunately in the 
 German wars, and called to his name Felt Marshall 
 Leslie, his Excellence. His name, indeed, was [Alex- 
 ander] Leslie, but, by his valour and good luck, attain- 
 ed to this title, his Excellence, inferior to none but to 
 the King of Sweden, under whom he served amongst 
 all his cavallirie. Weill,— this Felt Marshall Leslie, 
 having conquest, frae nought, honour, and wealth, in 
 great abundance, resolved to come home to his native 
 country of Scotland, and settle besides his chief, the 
 Earl of Rothes, as he did indeed, and coft fair lands in 
 Fife. But this Earl, foreseeing the troubles, whereof 
 himself was one of the principal beginners, took hold of 
 this Leslie, who was both wise and stout, acquaints 
 him with this plot, and had his advice for furthering 
 thereof to his power. And first, he advises cannon to 
 be cast in the Potter-row, by one Captain Hamilton, f 
 he began to drill the Earl's men in Fife ; he caused 
 send to Holland for ammunition, powder and ball, mus- 
 kets, carbines, pistols, pikes, swords, cannon, cartill, and 
 all other sort of necessary arms, fit for old and young 
 
 * This must mean base by comparison with his rise, and not in 
 the odious sense. Alexander Leslie was of the same stock as the Earl 
 of Rothes. 
 
 \ Probably Colonel Alexander Hamilton, mentioned afterwards.
 
 222 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 soldiers, in great abundance ; he caused send to Ger- 
 many, France, Holland, Denmark, and other countries, 
 for the most expert and valiant captains, lieutenants, 
 and under officers, who came in great numbers, in hopes 
 of bloody wars, thinking, (as they were all Scots soldiers, 
 that came) to make up their fortunes upon the ruin of 
 our kingdom ; (but the Lord did otherwise, blessed be 
 his holy name ;) he establishes a council of war, con- 
 sisting of nobles, colonels, captains, and other wise and 
 expert persons, and in the beginning of this month of 
 January, began to cast trenches, about the town of 
 Leith." Thus the " canniness" of Rothes did more 
 for the cause, by catching Felt Marshall Lesly, his 
 Excellence, than could possibly have been effected by 
 any other means ; for, having entered into contract with 
 his chief against his Sovereign, the veteran mer- 
 cenary, full of talent, experience, and military resour- 
 ces, bent his whole energies to the fulfilment of that 
 contract, and the attainment of his own reward, which 
 he then little dreamt was to be an Earldom from the 
 King himself. As yet invested with no particular com- 
 mand, he continually sat at their Tables, the mainspring 
 of their military movements, and, by his indefatigable 
 and well-applied exertions, not only put them in pos- 
 session of the Castle of Edinburgh, (which Hamilton 
 had left nearly defenceless,) and the other strongholds 
 of the kingdom, but raised and organized an army suf- 
 ficiently formidable to march to the borders against the 
 royal standard. 
 
 At this crisis, it became of great importance to crush 
 the efforts of Huntly in the north before the King's 
 forces reached Scotland, as a vigorous diversion occa- 
 sioned by the loyalists in that quarter, would be more 
 than the Covenanters could well cope with in addition 
 
 3
 
 ANECDOTE OF HAMILTON. 228 
 
 to invasion by land and sea. But the same evil genius 
 of Charles, who infused the materials of certain failure 
 into the royal expedition, took effectual measures to 
 prevent the efficiency of the nobleman he had recom- 
 mended to the lieutenancy of the north. And, if we 
 may trust the record of a contemporary clergyman, it 
 was not merely by withholding supplies from Huntly, 
 and the power to act with vigour, that Hamilton in- 
 sured his discomfiture. He is said actually to have 
 written a secret letter to the Covenanters, which he 
 contrived to convey to them within a pistol, and " which 
 private advice was to curb their northern enemies, or 
 to expect no quarter from the King." * James Gordon 
 asserts that this information was the " main reason" of 
 the activity of Montrose, at this time, to subdue the loyal 
 Marquis of Huntly in the expedition we are about to 
 notice. But, even without this anecdote, there is suf- 
 ficient to account for Montrose's present excitement, in 
 the approaching invasion from England, and the war- 
 like transactions throughout Scotland, under the mili- 
 tary agency of Alexander Leslie. 
 
 Montrose was followed by the cavalry of the M earns, 
 Angus, and part of Perthshire, and other districts to 
 the north of the river Forth. Levies of foot were also 
 drawn from these counties, trained, regimented, and 
 put under experienced officers, called from abroad for 
 that purpose, and placed at the command of Montrose, 
 whose whole force, according to the estimate by James 
 
 * This anecdote rests on the authority of James Gordon's IMS. I 
 have not met with it elsewhere. If the separate and distinct anecdotes 
 of Hamilton's double-dealing-, narrated by Hamond L'Estrange, and 
 Bishop Guthrie, be true, there is the less difficulty in believing this 
 one ; if they are not true, it is remarkable that so many elaborate fabri- 
 cations, from different sources, should have been got up against this 
 nobleman.
 
 224 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Gordon, did not at first exceed two thousand horse and 
 foot. With this little army he was now to attempt the 
 reformation of Aberdeen in a more peremptory manner 
 than on the former occasion, when he trusted to the 
 reasoning of the three apostles of the Covenant against 
 the doctors of that enlightened town. Montrose was 
 accordingly invested with the title of General ; and the 
 anxiety of the faction for the success of this expedition 
 is evinced by the fact, that, in the quality of his adju- 
 tant, and instead of the three apostles, there was added 
 to his councils no less a personage than " Felt Marshall 
 Leslie, his Excellence, inferior to none but to the King 
 of Sweden." Huntly was well aware of this gathering 
 storm, but all the aid and encouragement he received 
 from Hamilton were instructions to gain delays, and 
 risk no blood ; and though surrounded by gallant hearts 
 like his own, continually urging him to vigorous hos- 
 tilities, the nobleman who had distinguished himself 
 in fairer fields of chivalry than the kirk-militant was 
 likely to produce, was compelled to plead his positive 
 orders from the King, in opposition to the manifest in- 
 terests of the royal cause. Under these circumstances, 
 Huntly could do nothing but treat. And here the 
 manuscript account we have so frequently quoted ac- 
 quires additional authenticity and interest, from the 
 fact, that the writer of it, James Gordon, accompanied 
 his father, Robert Gordon of Straloch, who was one 
 of the commissioners employed in these negotiations. 
 
 In the month of March, Montrose arrived at his own 
 house of Old Montrose, to prepare for his expedition, 
 and, according to Spalding, he had with him there, the 
 Earl of Argyle, Lord Couper and others. Before his 
 troops were collected, there came to him, at Old Mon- 
 trose, as commissioners from Huntly, Robert Gordon
 
 HUNTLY S MISSIONS TO MONTROSE. 225 
 
 of Straloch, and Dr William Gordon, Huntly's physi- 
 cian, a professor in the University of Aberdeen ; and 
 along with these, as representatives of the town of 
 Aberdeen, Dr William Johnston, Professor of Mathe- 
 matics, and George Morison, one of the town-council. 
 The proposal they brought with them was, that Mon- 
 trose should confine his military operations to the coun- 
 try south of the Grampians, which divide Aberdeen- 
 shire from Angus and the Mearns, until it should be 
 known what prospects there were of a treaty betwixt 
 the King and the Covenanters. Huntly on his part 
 promised to keep himself within the bounds of his own 
 lieutenancy, and to take no measures against the Co- 
 venanters be-north the barrier mountains. To this 
 peaceful overture, which was much pressed upon Mon- 
 trose by the Commissioners, he would only reply, that, 
 in terms of an act of the last Assembly, he was bound 
 to visit the College of Aberdeen, but that he and his 
 followers would pay for whatever they took, and be 
 aggressors in no acts of violence. The result of these 
 missions we shall give in the precise words of the un- 
 published manuscript. 
 
 " How soon they returned from Montrose to Aber- 
 deen, and related their answer, which was nothing pleas- 
 ing to many, Huntly began to rendezvous his men, and 
 against the 18th of March, had about two thousand two 
 hundred foot and horse well-armed at Iuverury, but all 
 of them country people, and though none wanted good 
 will, yet few or none were amongst them who had skill 
 to command, or had ever been upon any considerable 
 service. Huntly, who neither had orders to fight, nor 
 great confidence in the skill of his commanders, resolves 
 at least to put a good face upon the matter, and to keep 
 his men together till he might see the utmost of it. 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 22() MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 To which purpose he dispatches the former Commis- 
 sioners towards Montrose, from the rendezvous at In- 
 verury, once more to try if his former offer of cessation 
 would be accepted, or at least to gain time, till he might 
 have new advertisement from the King, from whom 
 he hourly expected it, either to engage or retire ; or 
 if none of that could be acceptable, at least to let him 
 know what the Covenanters' pretences were, and what 
 they desired of him. The Commissioners took little 
 rest till they came where the Earl of Montrose was. 
 They found him in the town of new Montrose, — which 
 is two miles eastward of Montrose's Castle, Old Mon- 
 trose, and both standing upon the river of Southesk, — 
 with General Leslie in his company, and a considerable 
 number of cavaliers and soldiers, making his rendez- 
 vous for his expedition. Thither likewise had he caused 
 bring two pieces of brass demi-cannon, with some 
 other lesser pieces, — strange ingredients for the visi- 
 tation of a university, — as supposing he should be 
 driven to make a breach in the new walls of Aberdeen, 
 before he should get entry. But when the Commis- 
 sioners began again to urge their former propositions 
 in behalf of Huntly, they could draw nothing from 
 Montrose but fair and general answers, which either 
 signified little, or were flat refusals, or were slightings 
 of all their proposals. They told the Commissioners, 
 by way of derision, that they behoved to come to Aber- 
 deen to proclaim the General Assembly, which was to 
 be holden that year at Edinburgh, and some such ne- 
 glectful undervaluing answers, and that they behoved 
 to proclaim the Assembly of Glasgow 1638. Nor did 
 the Commissioners insist much, for at their return they 
 saw Montrose's motion towards the north not like to 
 be retarded by what they had to say, being that he had
 
 montrose's whimsies. 227 
 
 taken so little notice of their last coming as that he 
 did not pause nor delay his rendezvous one hour, nor 
 his march any while, upon that account. 
 
 " Great was the trepidation that was amongst them ; 
 and whatever might be the General Montrose's confi- 
 dence, yet the mixed multitude, his followers, either 
 wanted stomach to the service, or were fearful of the 
 event ; and albeit they saw no enemy as yet, they went 
 not about their business with confidence enough. Hither- 
 to they had assisted the reading of protestations, or sit- 
 ten in Assembly, or taken some empty or disarmed castles ; 
 now they supposed they were to dispute it with their 
 enemy in the fields ; and whatever means was\ised by 
 the nobility, or their ministry, to persuade the vulgar 
 sort of the justness of their quarrel, yet the most part 
 of them, who had been born and bred up under a long 
 peace, could hardly distinguish it from rebellion against 
 their King. This abstracted confidence from many of 
 the meaner sort, and bred trepidation in them at the 
 hearing of their own drums, trumpets, and shots. 
 
 " At this time likewise, the Covenanters began to 
 wear and take for their colours blew ribbons, which 
 they carried about them scarf-wise, or as some orders 
 of knighthood wear their ribbons. This was Mon- 
 trose's whimsies. To these ribbons ordinarily the ca- 
 valry did append their spanners for their firelocks, and 
 the foot had them stuck up in bushes in their blue caps, 
 which device seemed so plausible, that when the army 
 marched towards the border, some short time afterwards, 
 many of the gentry threw away their hats, and would 
 carry nothing but bonnets, and bushes of blew ribbons 
 or pannashes therein, in contempt of the Englishers 
 who disdainfully called them blew caps and jockeys. * 
 
 * Spalding thus notices " Montrose's whimsies." " Few or none of
 
 228 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 " All instance of the fear that was amongst them was 
 visible enough to Huntly's Commissioners the first time 
 that they came to speak with Montrose ; for that night 
 the townsmen of Montrose, espying some fire in the 
 night time, in the hills towards Innermark and Edgell 
 Castle, fell upon a strong conceit that it was Huntly 
 and his forces who were already come within two or 
 three miles of their town, making havock of all before 
 him with fire and sword. This imagination, fostered 
 by their fears, moved them to beat drums and ring 
 their alarum-bell, and albeit it was after ten o'clock at 
 night, yet to arms they would needs go, half in a rage, 
 half in a fear. Great was the noise that they made ; 
 and although the Commissioners from Huntly, who were 
 there lodged that night, assured them there was no 
 danger, and that none who belonged to Huntly was 
 nearer them than Aberdeen, yet all that could not quiet 
 them. Nor were they far from falling in upon the Com- 
 missioners, to affront or do by them as their fear and 
 fury should prompt them, had it not been for the mas- 
 ter of the house where they lodged, who, being pro- 
 vost of Montrose at that time, interposed his authority 
 to pacify the multitude, and caused shut his gates 
 against them. But here it rested not, for need must 
 they run out, they know not whither, nor against whom, 
 remaining at some distance all night in their arms, till 
 
 thishaill (whole) army wanted a blue ribbin hung about his craig (neck,) 
 down under his left arm, which they called the Covenantees ribbin. 
 But the Lord Gordon, and some other of the Marquis's bairns and fami- 
 ly, when he was dwelling in the town, had a ribband of a red flesh co- 
 lour, which they wore in their hats, calling it the royal ribbin, as a sign 
 of their love and loyalty to the King ; in despight and derision where- 
 of this blue ribbin was worn and called the Covenanter's ribbin by the 
 haill soldiers of the army, and would not hear of the royal ribbin, — such 
 was their pride and malice."
 
 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 229 
 
 break of day discovered their error, and made them 
 know that their supposed enemies were nothing else 
 but heather kindled in the hills, (the which about that 
 time of year the country people used to do in these places 
 when the heather grows old,) which burning, the Com- 
 missioners sent from Huntly saw burning, all the day 
 before, hard by them whilst they were on their jour- 
 ney to Old Montrose. 
 
 " But the Commissioners sent from Huntly in their 
 return towards Aberdeen, after their second journey to 
 Montrose, saw that which deserves to be put upon re- 
 cord to posterity, and which at that time they looked 
 upon as a certain presage of the war and bloodshed which 
 quickly ensued in the years following ; for having taken 
 horse at Montrose, where they left the Earl of Mon- 
 trose and his followers, a little after sun rising, as they 
 were going towards the mouth of the north-water, which 
 is some two miles distant from the town of Montrose, 
 they and their waiters did espy the sun shining in a 
 perfect blood colour, yet could they discern no vapour 
 which could physically occasion the change of his co- 
 lour, for he shined at some distance above the sea, and 
 they were hard by the shore. The difference betwixt 
 and other times, when his colour is obfuscated by va- 
 pours, was that at other times, at his rise and set, his 
 red colour is dreggy, and inclines to brown ; but that 
 day his colour looked like to fresh blood, whereof a lit- 
 tle quantity is poured into a bright silver bason ; or 
 like a red rose, or like that blood in the cheek which 
 physicians call -sanguis jior'idu.s. A second great dif- 
 ference was in the duration and continuance of that 
 extraordinary colour, for, whereas at other times the 
 vapours take or keep away the sun's bright colour but 
 for some short space after his rise or before his sett, it
 
 230 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 was evident enough that this day he keeped that co- 
 lour most part of the forenoon, and before he did part 
 therewith clouds arising about eleven o'clock in the 
 forenoon took the sun out of their sight. I would have 
 been loath to have related this prodigy, so confidently 
 and particularly, upon any man's assertion or informa- 
 tion, being that it is usual to make these things great- 
 er than they are, had I not at that time been myself 
 in company with the Commissioners from Huntly, and 
 an eye-witness thereunto. Nor should I at that time 
 have trusted my own skill to distinguish between what 
 was natural and what was prodigious, had not I heard 
 the Commissioners, three of whom were well known to 
 have been able scholars and philosophers,* conclude at 
 that time, that neither that colour of the sun, which 
 they were beholding at that time, nor the long conti- 
 nuance thereof, did or could flow from any discernible 
 natural cause. The event since has put it out of doubt 
 that it was as prodigious as these gentlemen at that 
 time did unanimously prognostick it would be. But 
 'tis time to leave these digressions, which possibly may 
 recreate the reader, and return to the thread of my nar- 
 ration. 
 
 " The Commissioners at their return had news that 
 Huntly was disbanded, and had retired himself to Stra- 
 bogie. Whether it were that he had changed his re- 
 solution after he sent away the Commissioners towards 
 Montrose, or that before their return, which was but 
 two nights, that he had some advertisement from the 
 King so to do, I cannot, nor ever could afterward, cer- 
 tainly learn. The last I dare not confidently affirm, 
 being that, about that very time and day which was 
 
 * These were, Robert Gordon of Straloch, (the narrator's father,) Dr 
 William Johnston, and Dr William Gordon.
 
 MONTROSE AND LESLIE. 231 
 
 his rendezvous at Inveruiy, March 18th,* the King's 
 household entered their journey towards York, and the 
 King himself took not journey towards York till March 
 27th, which was after Huntly's disbanding some days." 
 
 It appears to have been in strict compliance with 
 his orders from Hamilton, that, to the disappointment 
 and disgust of many of his gallant followers, Huntly 
 dismissed a portion of his army, and retired to his own 
 house of Strathbogie, where he took up a defensive po- 
 sition with the forces he retained about his person.f 
 The retreat of the King's lieutenant enabled the north- 
 ern Covenanters, with the Lord Frazer and the Master 
 of Forbes at their head, to march without molestation 
 to Aberdeen, there to join Montrose, who entered it, 
 says James Gordon, " on Palm Sunday, 30th March, 
 with a veni villi vici." By his side there appeared the 
 veteran of many a desperate field in the land of battles. 
 Well had Rothes catered for rebellion, when he " took 
 hold" of Leslie. Montrose was instructed to give im- 
 plicit attention to the advice of this experienced leader, 
 and to consider him as his military tutor. Even the 
 lofty mid imperious Montrose submitted, it seems, to 
 this arrangement. " We were feared," says liaillie, in 
 his happiest manner, " that emulation among our no- 
 
 * Spalding says, that Huntly hold Ins rendezvous at [nverury on the 
 25th of March, and dissolved his host on the 26th. These dates are pro- 
 bably more correct than James Gordon's. 
 
 f " The reason why Huntly laid down his arms, and at this time en- 
 tered into capitulations, was that, some time before this, he received by 
 * * * Leslie, brother to the Lord Lindores, express orders from the 
 Marquis of Hamilton, (from whom, by particular mandate from the King, 
 he was to receive his Majesty's orders,) shewing him that it imported 
 for the King's service not to enter in blood, by lighting against the Co- 
 venanters." — William Gordon's Hist, of the Family of Gordon, p. 2< S
 
 232 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 bles might have done harm when they should be met 
 in the field ; but such was the wisdom and authority 
 of that old, little, crooked soldier, that all, with an in- 
 credible submission from the beginning to the end, 
 gave over themselves to be guided by him, as if he had 
 been great Solyman. Certainly, the obedience of our 
 noblemen to that man's advice was as great as their 
 forbeers (forefathers) wont to be to their King's com- 
 mand ; yet that was the man's understanding of our 
 Scots humours, that gave out, not only to the nobles, 
 but to very mean gentlemen, his directions in a very 
 homely and simple form, as if they had been but the 
 advices of their neighbour and companion." And this 
 crooked familiar, who now so ominously graced Mon- 
 trose's side, was he who had been greatly honoured by 
 Gustavus Adolphus, his instructor in battle. But Leslie 
 degraded himself too long under the impious banner of 
 the Covenant, and even learnt to become a coward ; for 
 this same little old fighting Mentor was in full flight, at 
 the head of " all his cavallirie," from the battle of Mars- 
 ton-moor, some twenty miles homewards, when over- 
 taken by the news that the battle was their own. 
 Shade of the immortal Gustavus ! * 
 
 * The reverend Mr Aiton, in his Sketches of dramatis personce intro- 
 ductory to his Life and Times of Alexander Henderson, thus notices 
 Leslie : " Lord Leslie deserves also to be here mentioned as the con- 
 queror of Montrose, and the military leader on the part of the Cove- 
 nanters. This wary General," &c. p. 76. The contrast with their ori- 
 ginal companionship would have been striking, had the fact so been ; 
 but the reverend author is in error, which we must here take the liberty 
 to correct. The conqueror, — if, under the circumstances, that term be 
 applicable, — of Montrose at Philiphaugh, was not this Alexander Leslie, 
 created Earl of Leven, but a much better soldier, namely, David Les- 
 lie, created Lord Newark, who contributed greatly to gain the battle 
 from which the Earl of Leven ran away. Mr Aiton, throughout his 
 work, has failed to distinguish betwixt these two mercenaries of extra- 
 ordinary fortune.
 
 MONTROSE OCCUPIES ABERDEEN. 233 
 
 It must have been a sore sight, to those who remained 
 in Aberdeen to see it, when the combined forces of the 
 Covenanters, eleven thousand strong, paraded upon the 
 links there. Besides his Mentor, Montrose was accom- 
 panied by the Earl Marischal, the Earl of Kinghorn, 
 Lords Elcho, Erskine, and by his own brother-in-law, 
 Lord Carnegy, whom Montrose had endeavoured to un- 
 seat in the Assembly. Spalding's lament, over the state 
 of his beloved town, at this crisis, is pathetic. He says, 
 that the noble burgh of Aberdeen, being " daily deaved" 
 with the news of the coming of an army, and their own 
 Marquis having dissolved his host at Inverury, and ap- 
 parently deserted them in the hour of need, and no help 
 arriving from the King, they began to be heartless and 
 comfortless, and entirely to despair, not knowng what 
 course to take. Hitherto there had been brave mus- 
 terings and drillings, casting of trenches, watches and 
 catbands in the streets, pieces of ordnance in the cause- 
 ways, and fortifications in every direction ; moreover, 
 every man carried at least a sword by his side. But 
 when Huntly seemed to desert them, they held mourn- 
 ful consultations together, and agreed, that, as all seemed 
 lost, they should cast their weapons away, forbear all 
 their warlike preparations, and open wide their gates 
 to the approaching Covenanters. Then every man, 
 forgetting his community, began to shift for him- 
 self. Some removed their goods, and some fled with 
 their families from the town. Amongst others, there 
 fled by sea about sixty of the bravest men and youths 
 of Aberdeen, well armed with sword, musket, and 
 bandilier. They took one of the town's colours, 
 and John Poak, their drummer, with them, and 
 resolve to go to the King. And with them were the
 
 & 
 
 234 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ever loyal lairds of Drum, Pitfoddels, Foverane, Bal- 
 gouny, and the intellectually victorious Doctors, all 
 
 upon the 28th of March,* hoist up sail, and to the 
 King go they." Then to the forlorn pulpits of those 
 excellent divines — who had read, most exactly, the 
 writings of the ancient fathers in their own language, 
 led their flocks to quiet waters, and fed them with 
 wholesome food brought from the Scriptures, and the 
 practice of the primitive Christians — there rushed the 
 trash of " the Tables," the comfortless, half-crazy 
 trumpeters of the Covenant, the illiterate and the into- 
 lerant, the fanatical, the malevolent, and the ferocious, 
 to howl and hammer out uncouth sedition to the terri- 
 fied and bewildered people. " There they cry victory ! 
 and begin to sing a song to the townsmen of a far other 
 tune than they had learned from their own ministers 
 and doctors, crying down that doctrine which the town's 
 doctors, they knew, were not now in equal terms with 
 them to maintain any more, without affronts to their 
 persons." f 
 
 After remaining a few days in Aberdeen, which they 
 completely disarmed, and having done as little violence 
 to persons and property, but as much to conscience and 
 Christianity, as circumstances admitted of, Montrose 
 
 * See at the end of this volume, some extracts of this date, from the 
 Town-Council books of Aberdeen. 
 
 f James Gordon, who adds — " all their success was imputed to the 
 goodness of the cause, to which God began to shew himself so favourable, 
 that their enemies had fled, whilst none pursued them ; and that now 
 the curse was alighting upon Meroz, (so they termed Aberdeen in their 
 sermons,) which came not to help the Lord against the mighty ! There 
 was a minister at that time, who did ascribe the fairness of the three last 
 days of March, commonly called borrowing days, that time, to a miracle, 
 in a sermon preached before many witnesses."
 
 DEAR sandie's stoups. 235 
 
 and Leslie marched their host to Inverury, to discuss 
 Huntly, leaving behind them the Earl of Kinghorn, 
 as Governor of Aberdeen. " They did lie down at Inver- 
 ury with open leaguer, having drawn along with them 
 some short field pieces of three feet long, or thereby, 
 which, for all that, were of an indifferent wideness, and 
 did shoot an indifferent great ball. These pieces, — com- 
 monly nick-named Dear Sandie's Stoups, as being the 
 invention, or so thought, of Colonel Alexander Hamilton, 
 master of their artillery, who himself was nick-named 
 Dear Sandie, — were the ordinary field-pieces that after- 
 wards, for some time, were made use of by the Cove- 
 nanters." * Huntly in the meantime had retired to 
 the Bog of Gicht (Gordon Castle) ; and, anxious to re- 
 lieve the north from the plundering and oppressive vi- 
 sitation of the covenanting army, he wrote to Robert 
 Gordon of Straloch, once more to become a mediator 
 betwixt them. Straloch immediately proceeded to Mon- 
 trose's quarters at Kintore, and urged a treaty. Mon- 
 trose showed himself well inclined to bring matters to 
 that pass ; and it was finally arranged that Huntly and 
 Montrose, each accompanied by eleven of their friends, 
 should meet a few days afterwards, at Lowess, a country 
 village about nine miles south of Strathbogie, and five 
 miles north of the Covenanters' camp. The respective 
 parties met at the appointed place and time, (Lords Oli- 
 phant and Aboyne being with Huntly, Lords Elcho 
 and Couper with Montrose,) armed only with walking- 
 swords, and such was the mutual jealousy or formality 
 of the meeting, that a gentleman from either party was 
 appointed to search the other, for fear of hidden arms. 
 Huntly and Montrose then respectfully saluted each 
 
 ■ .Taines Gordon's MS. See before, p. 221.
 
 236 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 other, and, after interchanging some expressions of 
 courtesy, they stepped aside and held together a long 
 private conversation, to which the rest were merely spec- 
 tators. Huntly's friends were somewhat offended at 
 the privacy of this conference, and James Gordon adds, 
 that he never could learn what were the particulars of 
 the private conversation betwixt Huntly and Montrose, 
 which did not transpire. The immediate effect, how- 
 ever, was an agreement quite unlooked for. After a 
 few hours occupied in this manner at Lowess, Huntly 
 mounted his horse, and, without a reason assigned, rode 
 forward with Montrose and his friends to the leaguer at 
 Inverury, where, their appearance being as welcome as 
 it was unexpected, Huntly and his astonished compa- 
 nions, among whom was Robert Gordon of Straloch, 
 were entertained by the Covenanters with great respect 
 and forbearance. The result was, that Huntly signed a 
 paper, the precise terms of which are not known, but 
 which seems to have been some qualified version of one 
 or other of the Covenants, amounting to no more than a 
 declaration in favour of the national Religion, and Li- 
 berties, — probably something similar to what Mon- 
 trose had been satisfied with (on his previous reform- 
 ing expedition) from Dr Guild and others at Aber- 
 deen. 
 
 Montrose, being no party to the covert designs of the 
 faction, was but a blundering Covenanter, and, being 
 upon this occasion left very much to his own devices 
 in furthering the cause, was not only willing to accept 
 of very equivocal converts, but, totally forgetting the 
 importance of the Magna Charta of his party, now at- 
 tempted to make Covenanters of Papists, by the in- 
 genious device of waiving the Covenant itself, — as the 
 Play of Hamlet was modified by the itinerant manager.
 
 MONTROSE ADOPTS THE PAPISTS. 237 
 
 The fact we are about to illustrate must redeem our 
 hero iu the eyes of the historian, whose only objection 
 to the Covenant is, that it did not sympathize with Pa- 
 pists. * The anecdote is not noticed in any account of 
 Montrose that I have seen, except in the manuscript 
 of James Gordon, who thus narrates it : — 
 
 " Huntly, (besides consenting* to oblige himself to 
 maintain the King's authority, together with the liber- 
 ties both of Church and State, of Religion and Laws,) 
 likewise purchased some assurance to his friends and fol- 
 lowers. They were of several predicaments. Some of 
 them were landed gentlemen of his name, or his asso- 
 ciates, but not his vassals, — others were his own follow- 
 ers and tenants, and amongst these, some were Protes- 
 tants and others Papists. Assurance was given for 
 all of them in the general that they should not be 
 harmed, nor any thing that belonged to them, they car- 
 rying themselves peaceably, and such of them as would 
 subscribe the Covenant, as they were invited to it, so 
 they were content to let them advise upon it, and not 
 to be hasty with them ; and Huntly was content to re- 
 strain none who were willing to take the oath of co- 
 venant. The difficulty only remained for such as were 
 Papists, and so not like to subscribe the Covenant, how 
 they should be secured ; as also what assurance might 
 be expected from them. To this purpose there was a 
 midds fallen upon with all such, that they should be 
 taken under protection, they subscribing a declaration 
 of their willingness to concur with the Covenanters in 
 maintaining the Laws and Liberties of thekingdom; and, 
 that the Papists might be encouraged into the subsign- 
 ing of such an obligation and bond, there was a decla- 
 
 * Mr Brodie. See before, )>. 151.
 
 238 MONTROSE AND THE COVEN YNTERS. 
 
 ration emitted by Montrose to that purpose, signed by 
 such noblemen as were present with him at that time 
 at Inveruiy, and by Huntly amongst the rest. The prin- 
 cipal copy of that declaration having fallen into my 
 hands some short time thereafter,* and being as yet by 
 me, I have set it down word for word, it being but very 
 short, and it is as follows : — ' For as meikle as those who 
 by profession are of a contrary religion, and therefore 
 cannot condescend to the subscribing of the Covenant, 
 yet are willing to concur with us in the common course 
 of maintaining the laws and liberties of the kingdom, 
 these are therefore requiring that none of those who, 
 being Papists by profession, and willing to subscribe 
 the bond of maintenance of the laws and liberties fore- 
 said, shall be in any ways molested in their goods or 
 means, nor sustain any prejudice more than those who 
 have subscribed the Covenant.' (Signed) ' Huntly, 
 Montrose, Kinghorn, Erskine, Couper.' " 
 
 When Huntly arrived with Montrose at the leaguer 
 at Inveruiy, he there perceived many of his own pri- 
 vate and personal enemies, among the Forbeses and 
 Frazers, and immediately became sensible that every 
 attempt would be made on their part to induce Mon- 
 trose to regard him more unfavourably than he had 
 hitherto done, and perhaps to detain him prisoner. Too 
 proud to enter into conversation himself on the subject, 
 Huntly commissioned his friend Straloch to tell Mon- 
 trose to be on his guard against the prejudiced councils he 
 would receive from these individuals against the King's 
 lieutenant. Straloch accordingly watched his oppor- 
 tunity, and, finding Montrose alone in his tent, dis- 
 
 * Probably in consequence of his father, Gordon of Straloch, having 
 been one of Huntly's companions on that occasion.
 
 MONTROSE'S POLICY CONTROLLED. 239 
 
 charged himself of his confidential mission, and withal 
 told Montrose, that if an attempt were made to take 
 Huntly south with them as a prisoner, the country 
 would not so quietly submit to the outrage as Huntly's 
 enemies imagined. Montrose replied, that very pro- 
 bably these people bore Huntly no good will, and that, 
 indeed, he knew as much from themselves, but, for his 
 own part, was willing to do for Huntly all the good 
 offices he could, and would fail in no promise to him ; 
 ' only,' added Montrose, ' there is this difficulty, that bu- 
 siness here is all transacted by vote and a committee, nor 
 can I get any thing done of myself.' ' You have done 
 so much by yourself already,' rejoined Straloch, ' why 
 not the whole ? If you be so inclined, of which I make 
 no doubt, then being General here, and the principal per- 
 son upon this expedition, when you stand to your point, 
 Huntly's enemies must yield.' To which Montrose an- 
 swered, ' I shall do my utmost for Huntly's satisfaction,' 
 — and with this answer, says James Gordon, who nar- 
 rates the above, his father was dismissed ; nor, he adds, 
 did Montrose " fail of the performance of his promise ; 
 for that night, after Huntly had subscribed the paper 
 agreed upon, Montrose was content that he should re- 
 turn peaceably to his own house, which he did accord- 
 ingly, not without the great miscontent of those who 
 would have had him detained." * 
 
 Having thus discussed Huntly, Montrose broke up 
 
 * I have adopted this circumstantial account by James Gordon, whose 
 father was one of the party. Spalding says, that the meeting at Lowcss 
 occupied two days, the 4th and 5th of April ; that on the evening of the 
 4th, Huntly slept at Pitcaple, and Montrose returned to the camp; and 
 that, after parting on the second day, Huntly went not near the camp, 
 but straight to Strathbogie. Bishop Guthrie gives a very meagre notice 
 of the incident, in which he appears to have been misinformed, and pre- 
 judiced against Huntly.
 
 240 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 his camp at Inverury, and marched back to Aberdeen. 
 On the march twelve Highlanders, some of Argyle's 
 " uncanny trewsmen," came to Montrose with this mes- 
 sage from their master, that he had ordered a re- 
 giment, five hundred strong, of his own men, fully 
 equipped in the Highland fashion, to offer their du- 
 tiful services. Our hero, who probably wished Ar- 
 gyle and his Highlanders any where but with him, re- 
 turned a courteous answer, and issued orders for this 
 accession of force not to enter Aberdeen, which was 
 sufficiently burdened already, but to take up their quar- 
 ters upon the rich lands of the Lairds of Drum and 
 Pitfoddels, a mode of making a campaign pay itself, 
 which " Felt Marshal Leslie, his Excellence," had learnt 
 from the King of Sweden, and now taught them in 
 Scotland. Accordingly, says Spalding, " the gentle- 
 men returned to their Heighland company with their 
 directions, which they took in good pa?% and lived 
 royally upon the goods, nolt, sheep, corns, and victual 
 of the ground above-specifeit, to the great hurt and 
 wrack of the country people, for their master's cause, 
 being great anti-covenanters." 
 
 On the 9th of April, Montrose was joined at Aber- 
 deen by the Earls of Murray and Seaforth, the Master 
 of Lovat, and others, (with about three hundred horse, 
 well armed,) to offer their assistance in the field, or in 
 council. Accordingly, about this time, a grand con- 
 clave, or committee, was held for some days, in which 
 the state of the north, and the position in which 
 the Marquis of Huntly had just been placed, was ea- 
 gerly discussed. It appears that Huntly's enemies 
 were not satisfied with the manner in which he had 
 been disposed of by Montrose, and the declaration of 
 the latter to Straloch, that he had no command of the
 
 MONTROSE'S POLICY CONTROLLED. 241 
 
 councils of this expedition, and was overborne in commit- 
 tee, now became verified. Huntly was again requested 
 to meet the Covenanters, with which request he reluct- 
 antly complied, upon receiving assurance from Montrose, 
 and the other leaders, that he would not be detained 
 prisoner. No sooner had he arrived, however, than 
 the Forbeses and Frazers, and more especially Crich- 
 ton of Frendraught, the sworn foe of Huntly, began to 
 urge his detention in the most vehement manner, and 
 the result was very discreditable to the party that effected 
 it. Various obligations and new terms were attempted to 
 be imposed upon Huntly, who indignantly demanded 
 that the bond of maintenance he had signed at Inver- 
 ury should, in the first instance, be restored to him. 
 Then, (says Spalding) the bond being immediately de- 
 livered to the Marquis, he asked, ' Whether will ye 
 take me south with you as a captive, or shall I go vo- 
 luntarily?' Montrose answered, ' Make your choice.' 
 ' Then,' said the other, ' I will not go as a captive, 
 but as a volunteer. 1 Upon this affair, James Gordon 
 thus comments : " Whether Montrose was content to 
 be overborne by votes, that so it might be his greater 
 glory to lead Huntly to Edinburgh as a trophy of his 
 conquest, or if, indeed, Montrose was overpowered, and 
 constrained to yield to the clamours of the northern 
 Covenanters, who had drawn the south country men 
 their way, it is uncertain ; but, however, it was con- 
 cluded that Huntly must go along with them to Edin- 
 burgh under a guard, though not disarmed as a pri- 
 soner, which was accordingly performed. So Montrose 
 and his party, within less than a fortnight after their com- 
 ing, marched south again, establishing a committee of 
 the Forbeses and Frazers, and their associates, to guard 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 242 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 the country, which they easily undertook, Huntly 
 being now out of the way. He went to Edinburgh 
 foot for foot with Montrose, accompanied with his two 
 eldest sons, George Lord Gordon; and James Viscount 
 of Aboyne, who voluntarily went along with their fa- 
 ther, Lord Ludovick Gordon being but a young boy 
 at school in Boig (Gordon Castle,) with his grandmo- 
 ther, the others, Lords Charles and Harry, young 
 children, the last of the two in France, where he was 
 born, so none of the three in capacity to be taken no- 
 tice of. True it is that for that time, when Huntly, 
 contrary to parole, was made prisoner, (for I can give 
 it no better name,) few or none of the Covenanters re- 
 sented that dealing, but rather allowed it ; yet it did 
 avail them nothing who were the main abettors there- 
 of, being exposed to greater affronts by his followers 
 immediately thereafter than if he had staid at home, 
 who would have undoubtedly, according to assurance 
 given, have kept in his followers. And for Montrose's 
 going along with that action, it is most certain, to the 
 best of my knowledge, for I write this knowingly, that 
 it bred such a distaste in Huntly against Montrose, 
 that afterwards, when Montrose fell off to the King, 
 and forsook the Covenanters, and was glad to get the 
 assistance of Huntly and his followers, the Marquis of 
 Huntly could never be gained to join cordially with 
 him, nor to swallow that indignity, which bred jars be- 
 twixt them in the carrying on of the war, and that 
 which was pleasing to the one was seldom pleasing to 
 the other ; whence it came to pass, that such as were 
 equally enemies to both (who knew it well enough,) 
 were secured, and in end prevailed so far as to ruinate 
 and destroy both of them, and the King by a conse- 
 quent."
 
 Montrose's policy controlled. 243 
 
 Such is an unfavourable account of this matter for 
 Montrose, recorded by a particular friend and follower 
 of Huntly. Menteith, whose history of the troubles 
 was written in French, and printed at Paris in the year 
 1661, states positively, that when Huntly made his ap- 
 pearance, under promise of safety, at Aberdeen, " im- 
 mediately they commenced to solicit Montrose not to 
 suffer him to remain in his own country, whatever pro- 
 mise he had made him to the contrary, and although 
 Montrose opposed them to his utmost (s'opposast tie 
 tout son pouuoir) to prevent their breaking the parole 
 that had been given, nevertheless his single authority 
 being insufficient to prevent it, Huntly and his eldest 
 son were carried prisoners to the Castle of Edinburgh, 
 from whence they were not liberated till the peace of 
 Berwick." Both Wishart and Guthrie exonerate Mon- 
 trose, but are neither precise nor accurate in the few 
 details they afford, in which they appear too much pre- 
 judiced against Huntly. From all the accounts, how- 
 ever, it is obvious that this discreditable proceeding was 
 not the policy of Montrose, and had been carried into 
 execution contrary to his remonstrance and plans, for, 
 when acting for himself, Montrose had actually dis- 
 missed Huntly upon the most favourable terms ; and 
 if Huntly was of a disposition to cherish, even to the 
 ruin of his King and country, the remembrance of that 
 wrong in after years, the fact of Montrose having com- 
 manded various covenanting expeditions in arms against 
 the loyalty of Huntly's district, is sufficient to account 
 for that fatal " distaste," without the necessity of sup- 
 posing that Montrose was a willing party to the dis- 
 honourable act.* Indeed, it appears to be obvious, from 
 
 * Huntly, in his spirited reply to the noblemen, gentlemen, and mini- 
 sters who, on the part of the Covenanters, gave him the option of join-
 
 244 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 other unquestionable evidence, that the whole conduct of 
 Montrose upon this occasion was tempered with a ge- 
 nerosity and forbearance contrary, not only to the wishes 
 and conduct of the chiefs who accompanied him, and 
 controlled his actions, but to the expectations and in- 
 structions of the Tables, and even of some of the most 
 christian of the covenanting clergy. That such an 
 army as he commanded, in those rude and excited times, 
 should have riotously and wastefully luxuriated in their 
 free quarters, upon the estates of the loyalists, seems but 
 the inevitable consequence of such an expedition. But 
 it is worthy of remark, that both Spalding and James 
 Gordon, partisans of Huntly, so far from imputing un- 
 necessary severities to Montrose, bear testimony to his 
 generous forbearance under very difficult circumstances. 
 The plundering that occurred James Gordon refers to 
 the policy of Leslie. He says — " It was observed ge- 
 nerally by all, that Argyle was the first who raised fire 
 in Scotland, by burning Airly's house, as General Leslie 
 had first begun plundering at Inverury ;" and this is 
 corroborated by Spalding, who states, that " upon Thurs- 
 day, the 11th of April, the Earl of Argyle's Highland- 
 men, at command of General Montrose, came into Aber- 
 deen, from out the bounds of Drum and Pitfoddel's 
 ground, and the country thereabout, (where they wanted 
 
 ing tliem, or being confined in Edinburgh Castle, notices thus generally 
 the manner in which he had been entrapped : — " To be your prisoner 
 is by much the less displeasing to me that my accusation is for nothing 
 else but loyalty, and that I have been brought into this estate by such 
 unfair means, as can never be made appear honourable in those who used 
 them." And after scorning the terms offered him, concludes : — " For 
 my own part I am in your power, and resolve not to leave that foul title 
 of traitor as an inheritance to my posterity. You may take my head 
 from my shoulders, but not my heart from my Sovereign" This reply 
 is dated 20th of April 1639, the day Huntly was sent to the castle, and 
 was printed in London in the following year. 
 
 4
 
 GENEROSITY OF MONTROSE. 245 
 
 not abundance of beasts, mutton, and good fare for little 
 pay,) in order of battle, with bagpipes and Highland 
 arms, about five hundred men. They went about the 
 cross in rank, and being viewed, the General (Montrose) 
 commanded them to go to their lodgings, which were 
 prepared within the town for them ; and that they should 
 do no wrong, which they carefully obeyed, and for the 
 which the town gave them five hundred merks in money 
 when they removed with the foot army." It is mani- 
 fest, therefore, that Montrose had been exerting him- 
 self, and successfully, on all hands to relieve, as far as 
 possible, town and country from the burdens and ex- 
 cesses of war. Again, James Gordon notes, that, — 
 "April 12th, General Leslie marched out of Aberdeen, 
 southward, compelling the town to pay him ten thou- 
 sand merks, as a great courtesy to him." The fact was, 
 however, that Montrose's instructions were to exact 
 a hundred thousand merks, and to visit the recusant 
 north, and especially Aberdeen, with the greatest seve- 
 rity in every respect. Had he carried fire and sword 
 through the whole district, he would have done no 
 more than what the Tables, and especially the cove- 
 nanting clergy, wished and expected him to do. It was 
 through Montrose's leniency, as Spalding expressly ad- 
 mits, that the fine upon Aberdeen was reduced to ten 
 thousand merks ; and Baillie, after shortly narrating 
 the subjugation of Aberdeen by Montrose, adds these 
 remarkable expressions of disappointment : " The dis- 
 cretion of that generous and noble youth (Montrose) 
 was but too great. A great sum was named as a fine 
 to that unnatural city, but all was forgiven ;" and, 
 speaking of the free quarters upon Drum and Pitfod- 
 dels — " This was much cried out upon by our enemies, 
 as cruel and barbarous plunderings, but a little time
 
 246 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 did try that we had been too great fools not to disarm 
 that country altogether, and use some severity for ex- 
 ample among them ; at that time they had no reason 
 of complaining, but greatly to commend, as they did in 
 words, our leader's courtesy.'''' The severity which this 
 reverend partisan desiderated was, (as we shall find on 
 another occasion when Montrose's forbearance again 
 disappointed thefaction,) not sparing the enemy's houses; 
 and thus Baillie himself affords the strongest confirma- 
 tion of Bishop Guthrie's assertion, in reference to this 
 expedition, namely, that " some fiery ministers, that 
 attended Montrose, urged no less than that he should 
 burn the town, and the soldiers pressed for liberty to 
 plunder it, but he was more noble than to hearken to 
 such cruel motions."
 
 HAMILTON IN THE FIRTH. 247 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SHEWING HOW HAMILTON BETRAYED THE LOYAL BARONS OF THE NORTH, 
 AND HOW MONTROSE SUBDUED THEM. 
 
 It was about the middle of the month of April 1639, 
 that Montrose and Leslie returned in triumph from the 
 north with Huntly a prisoner. This was the period of 
 the most general and sincere excitement, throughout 
 Scotland, against the measures of the Court, for the 
 real secret, and the actual temper of the present threat- 
 ening attitude of the King, was understood only by a 
 few. His Majesty had reached York with an inefficient 
 but most imposing array, and his evil genius, Hamil- 
 ton, " must," says Sir Philip Warwick, " be a distinct 
 General both by sea and land, and with a good fleet 
 must block up the Scotch seas, and, to my knowledge, 
 he promised so to visit his countrymen on their coasts, 
 as that they should find little ease or security in their 
 habitations." Hamilton's own letter, which time has 
 disclosed, verifies the above, for therein, when planning 
 this very expedition, he advises the King to " curb the 
 insolency of this rebellious nation," and to " make them 
 miserable," with " assistance from England." This, 
 he adds, " will certainly so irritate them, as all those 
 who within this country stand for your Majesty will 
 be in great and imminent danger." * Five months 
 from the date of this letter had scarcely elapsed, when 
 
 * Letter in the Hardwicke Collection, already referred to, dated Nbi . 
 27, 1638.
 
 248 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Hamilton was in the Firth, and having brought Scot- 
 land to its highest pitch of excitement and irritation, 
 and the King into the most critical position, and hav- 
 ing suffered Huntly at that very crisis to be taken pri- 
 soner by the Covenanters, he instantly establishes him- 
 self on the most peaceful footing with the rebels he 
 was to reduce to misery, and takes the most certain 
 means, by not standing for his Majesty, of placing 
 all who did " in great and imminent danger." The 
 important crisis of Hamilton's arrival before Leith is 
 thus recorded in the manuscript of James Gordon : — 
 
 " Hamilton came into the Firtb of Forth on the first 
 day of May,* with a fleet of about twenty-eight ships, 
 wherein were said, besides the mariners, to have been 
 five thousand foot soldiers, English, together with mo- 
 ney and ammunition, for levying and arming soldiers 
 at Hamilton's landing. Sundry noblemen of Scotland, 
 who stood for the King, and some officers of fortune, 
 as they term them, who came along with Hamilton, 
 were appointed to command these levies. Hamilton, 
 at his coming into the Firth, anchored betwixt the two 
 little isles, or Inches, called Inch-Keith and Inch-Columb, 
 riding in the very place where the passage-boats be- 
 twixt Leith and Bruntisland make their ordinary and 
 nearest passage at all times. His coining hither begot 
 
 * From theTown-Council books of Aberdeen, it appears that the Tables 
 addressed a letter, dated 1st May 1639, to the magistrates, stating that 
 the royal fleet, consisting of twenty-nine sail, had just entered the Firth. 
 Aberdeen was therefore required to levy every fourth man of the she- 
 riffdom, burgh and landward, and send them, suitably accompanied with 
 horse, to the rendezvous at Edinburgh, well armed, and provisioned for 
 ten days, in order to march to the borders, where a simultaneous attack, 
 in co-operation with the fleet, was expected. Tbe town of Aberdeen 
 remonstrates against the order, and pleads its inability to furnish such 
 levies, in the existing distracted state of the north.
 
 HAMILTON IN THE FIRTH. 249 
 
 a great alarm amongst the commons, and such as were 
 not acquainted with the mysteries of business, who upon 
 both sides of the Firth began to run to arms, and to 
 guard the coasts, that Hamilton and his soldiers might 
 be kept from landing ; and their trepidation was no 
 whit diminished by the covenanting noblemen, who 
 kept a great deal of stir with rendezvousing, and draw- 
 ing up horse and foot to keep off Hamilton, who made 
 no great haste* to come ashore; for all he did was 
 to set his soldiers by turns ashore upon Inch-Keith 
 and Inch-Columb to refresh them ; and it was affirmed, 
 that, being there, they caused make some fire-works, 
 which made a noise like unto a volley of muskets shot 
 off, and all to make the ignorant people believe that 
 his numbers were greater than indeed they were. The 
 rest of the time they lay there was spent in making 
 excursions upon passage-boats or fishermen, without 
 offering to come a-land, till his victuals began either 
 to consume or to spoil, or the land soldiers to sicken, 
 and some of them to die ; otherwise the fleet did more 
 hurt to the King who sent them than to the enemy. 
 For during the time that he lay in the Firth commander 
 of the fleet, Hamilton had daily correspondence by let- 
 ter or message with the prime covenanting noblemen, 
 who, under the pretext of that which shall be present- 
 ly told, sometimes would come a-board of the ships 
 
 * Even Baillie remarks this, and declares that lie and a tow others 
 thought Hamilton " yet a lover of his country, — that the employment 
 was thrust upon him, — that he had accepted it with a resolution to ma- 
 nage it for our greatest advantage, — that loyalty to his prince would 
 permit him." But Baillie was not aware of Hamilton's recent letter to 
 the King, in which he denounces them as hypocritical rebels, and for- 
 swears Scotland as a miserable and worthless country ! Baillie adds, — 
 " It was evident he eschewed all occasion of beginning the war; he did 
 not trouble a man on shore witli a shot."
 
 250 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 where Hamilton was, sometimes one, sometimes another 
 of them. Thus were matters carried underhand, whilst 
 great noise was made about the hindering of his land- 
 ing, in a comical way ; and amongst other zealots none 
 busier to bar his landing than Hamilton's own mother, 
 who came riding towards Leith, at the head of some 
 armed troops, with two case-pistols at her saddle, pro- 
 testing, as is affirmed, that she would kill her son with 
 her own hands if he should offer to come a-land in an 
 hostile way ; and some affirm that she had balls of gold 
 instead of lead to kill him withal : The last report I 
 shall not assert for an undeniable truth, though it ap- 
 pears to be true, which was reported of that lady's ro- 
 mance-like caprice in this particular, by the testimony 
 of such as, having written a manifesto * for the Cove- 
 nanters, do not glory a little in the valour and resolu- 
 tion of the old Lady Marquise of Hamilton against her 
 son." 
 
 Among the papers of Montrose's friend and adviser, 
 we find a bond, which will serve to illustrate the gene- 
 ral excitement that now prevailed in Scotland. Lord 
 Napier, who adored the King, and abhorred faction, 
 and who strenuously maintained the divine right of 
 Kings, was nevertheless hostile, as we have seen, to the 
 aggrandizement of the bishops. Conceiving that the 
 policy of Laud had brought the King, against his own 
 better judgment, into this hostile posture, and deluded 
 with the idea that the covenanting party meant only 
 to stand on the defensive, for their Religion and Liber- 
 
 * Alluding to William Spang's Latin History of the Troubles, which 
 he compiled from the letters he received from Robert Baillie. Sir Philip 
 Warwick says, — " When Hamilton anchors in the Firth, his mother, a 
 violent-spirited lady, and a deep Presbyteress, comes on board him, and 
 surely she had no hard task to charm him."
 
 COVENANTING ARMY. 251 
 
 ties, Napier, though, like Montrose, destined to be in- 
 volved in the ruin of his Sovereign, was at this mo- 
 ment a Covenanter. The original of the bond, which 
 we quote below, appears to have been left with this 
 nobleman, and it bears evident marks of having been 
 written with great haste and perturbation.* Obvious- 
 ly it refers to the support of the great covenanting 
 army, which for some time past had been gathering 
 under the military auspices of Leslie, who, on the 15th 
 of this month of May, obtained from the estates his 
 commission of Generalissimo, and shortly afterwards 
 marched to the borders to oppose the King. It appears 
 to have been by the common consent of the covenant- 
 
 * " Act subscryved for releif and surtie to the lenners of moneys to 
 the good cause. ISth May. 
 
 " Quhairas thair is ane absolut necessitie of present moneys for the 
 suply of the good cause, and preventing of the disbanding of our airmies, 
 quhUk ar lyklie to dissolve if they be not furnished — We noblemen, 
 commissioners of shyres and burrowes for Parliament conveined, gives 
 full power and authoritie to the committe quhilk we have apoynted to 
 sit at Edinburgh, to give al sort of securitie, eyther in general, or by any 
 particular persons, quhether noblemen, barons, or burgesses, quhom the 
 persones, lenners of the moneys, please to nominat unto thes quho wil 
 credit the money, and obliges us, theschyres and burrowes for whom we 
 ar commissioners, to pay and refound to the saids lenners of the moneys, 
 or thes quho secureth them to our publik use and behoofe, quhatsom- 
 ever soumes of money schal be lenned by any, and secured to the lenners 
 by the said committe, or any particular person at their direction, ar [sic] 
 thir to be als sufficient a warrand and securitie als the most formal band 
 with the strictest clauses, and obliges us to extend the same in the most 
 formal way, in taiken quhairof, we have subscryved this act at Edin- 
 burgh, 18th May. [Signed] 
 
 " Rothes, Mar, Montrose, Cassilis, Montgomery, Boyd, Naper, Forres- 
 ter, Forrester, Balmerino, J. Erskine, Loudoun, J. Cunynghamheid, WL 
 Rig. of Atherny, J. Blair of that Ilk, Ro. St Clair, Sir J. Moncreiff, Tho- 
 mas Hop, W. D. Riccartoune, Dundas of ytt. Ilk, Sir J. Moncreiff, J. 
 Smith for Edinr., Richard Maxwell for Edinr., George Bruce, Da. Con- 
 ynghaime, Tlios. Bruce for Sterling, T. Durhame for IVirth." 
 
 Lord Forrester and Sir John Moncreiff bad affixed their signatures 
 twice to the above.
 
 252 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ing nobility of Scotland, that their whole military ar- 
 rangements were now left to the experience and talents 
 of Leslie, who, from his long professional habits, was 
 unquestionably better qualified than any of themselves 
 to organize and order the disposition of their forces. 
 His arrangements were of the most effective nature, 
 and did not bely his reputation as the favourite gene- 
 ral of Gustavus Adolphus. The colonels of the army 
 were, for the most part, those nobles who had been 
 active in the cause, and the subordinate steps were be- 
 stowed upon professional officers long inured to arms 
 and discipline in their mercenary campaigns abroad. 
 Leslie submitted to the Tables certain articles of war, 
 which he had drawn up after the model of the severe 
 code of Gustavus Adolphus, and these being approved 
 of, he caused to be printed, and circulated among his 
 soldiers. Nor did he neglect the peculiar and import- 
 ant element of his present service, — " the pulpit drum 
 ecclesiastic." No one could accuse Alexander Leslie of 
 being a fanatic, but he well knew the value of fanati- 
 cism on the present occasion. To keep, no less than 
 to attract, the whole country to his standard, he flat- 
 tered the vanity, excited the ambition, and thus attached 
 the services of the covenanting clergy. The camp of 
 the Covenant he imbued as much as possible with the 
 spirit of the Tables, and the General Assembly, in or- 
 der to increase its belligerent qualities. The ministers 
 were vastly elevated, as well might they be, by the im- 
 portance of their present position. The very articles of 
 war were redolent of the pulpit. On the title-page was the 
 scriptural motto — " When thou goest out to battle 
 against thine enemies, be not afraid of them, and keep 
 thee from every wicked thing," * — but in case the text 
 
 • We quote from a copy of this now rare tract, printed at Edinburgh 
 by James Btyson, an. Dom. 1639.
 
 COVENANTING ARMY. 253 
 
 might not be sufficiently efficacious, it was articled, — 
 " When any march is to be made, every man that is 
 sworn shall follow his colours ; whosoever presumes 
 without leave to stay behind shall be punished. If any 
 upon mutiny be found to do. it, be they many or be 
 they few, they shall die for it." The first article of 
 the code, however, is titled " Ecclesiastical Discipline," 
 and commences with the provision — " That in every 
 regiment under a colonel, there be an ecclesiastical el- 
 dership, or kirk-session," &c. Nor must we forget 
 their celebrated banner, in which a worldly craving for 
 regal power, so characteristic of the Kirk, was thus im- 
 piously typified, — " the Scottish arms, and this motto, 
 for Christ's crown and Covenant, in golden letters." 
 The policy of all this, in the little old crooked friend 
 of Gustavus Adolphus, may be gathered from the ac- 
 count of Baillie, who, more than half-crazed with ex- 
 citement on the occasion,* favours us with the follow- 
 ing exquisite portrait of himself: " I furnished to half- 
 a-dozen of good fellows, muskets and pikes, and to my 
 boy a broad-sword. I carried myself, as the fashion 
 was, a sword, and a couple of Dutch pistols at my sad- 
 dle, but, I promise, for the offence of no man, except a 
 
 * He says, " I was as a man who had taken my leave from the world, 
 and was resolved to die in that service, without return. I found the fa- 
 vour of God shining upon me, and a sweet, meek, humble, yet strong 
 and vehement spirit leading me all along; hut I was no sooner on my 
 way westward, after the conclusion of the peace, than my old security 
 [i. e. his senses] returned." As for the sweet, meek, &c. spirit which 
 carried him along, take the following specimen from the same let- 
 ter : " They saw we were not to he boasted, and that before we would 
 be roasted with a lent-fire by the hands of churchmen, who kept 
 themselves far adjack from the flame, we were resolved to make 
 about through the reek, to get a grip of some of these who had first kind- 
 led the lire, and still lent fuel to it, and try if we could cast them in the 
 midst of it, to taste if that heat was pleasant when it came near their 
 own shins."
 
 254 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 robber in the way ; for it was our part alone to pray 
 and preach for the encouragement of our countrymen, 
 which I did to my power most cheerfully * * * Had 
 you lent your ear in the morning, or especially at even, 
 and heard in the tents the sound of some singing psalms, 
 some praying, and some reading scripture, ye would 
 have been refreshed — true, there was swearing', and 
 cursing, and brawling in some quarters, whereat we 
 were grieved, but we hoped, if our camp had been a 
 little settled, to have gotten some way for these misor- 
 ders." The camp was sufficiently settled, however, to 
 take excellent order with their bodies, and Baillie does 
 not forget the refreshment of another description, which 
 his sweet and vehement spirit seems to have no less 
 enjoyed. He descants, with more than the genius of a 
 hungry Scot, upon the comparative merits of the sump- 
 tuous feasts of the English general and his own ; the 
 fare, he says, at Lesly's long side-table was " as became 
 a general in time of war, but not so curious by far as 
 Arundel's to our nobles." And then, " our meanest 
 soldiers were always served in wheat bread, and a groat 
 would have gotten them a lamb-leg, which was a dainty 
 world to the most of them." 
 
 In this disgusting army, Montrose commanded a re- 
 giment of above fifteen hundred men ; but, at the very 
 moment of its march, his services were again required 
 in the north, and he was directed to leave his regiment 
 in the Castle of Edinburgh, under the command of his 
 lieutenant-colonel, and hasten to exert himself in the 
 quarter where the most immediate danger was appre- 
 hended. Argyle was at the same time appointed to 
 watch the western coast, where a descent was expected 
 from Ireland, under the Earl of Strafford. 
 
 It was in the north that the first collision occurred, the
 
 STATE OF THE NORTH. 255 
 
 opening scene of that civil strife which ceased not until 
 after the national honour had received an indelible stain, 
 and the throne itself was swept away. This was the 
 vital quarter at present of the royal cause ; and Ha- 
 milton, accordingly, there left it to its fate, while Mon- 
 trose displayed a corresponding degree of activity on 
 the side of the Covenanters. The Viscount of Aboyne, 
 Huntly's second son, a mere boy, was now looked to 
 by the loyal barons as their leader, the Lord Gordon 
 being at this time with his father in the hands of 
 the enemy. But even of this youthful leader the 
 north was deprived at a most critical juncture ; for, 
 on the 3d of May, he had suddenly taken his depar- 
 ture by sea, in order to claim succours in person from 
 his Majesty. Aboyne succeeded in obtaining the King's 
 ear, the favourite being absent ; and he implored his 
 Majesty to grant him an order upon the Marquis of 
 Hamilton for some of the English troops, to aid the ris- 
 ing in the shires of Aberdeen and Banff. Charles in- 
 vested the young nobleman with the lieutenancy of 
 the north, and, at the same time, sent a letter by him 
 to Hamilton, in which his Majesty told the latter not 
 to involve him in money expense, his Exchequer being 
 drained, but " as for what assistance you can spare him 
 (Aboyne) out of the forces that are with you, / leave 
 you to judge, and I shall be glad of it if you find it may 
 do good ;" and again, — " if, with the countenance and 
 assistance of what force you have, you may uphold 
 my party in the north, and the rest of those noblemen 
 I have sent to you, / .shall esteem it a very great ser- 
 vice."* So the fate of the north, and of the monarchy, 
 was again cast upon the will of Hamilton, whose extra- 
 
 * This letter, which is printed by Burnet in Ids Mem. of the Dukes of 
 Hamilton, p. 137, is dated .Newcastle, 13th May 1639.
 
 256 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ordinary decision is thus lamely accounted for by his 
 cunning apologist Burnet : — " The Marquis found 
 Aboyne had no propositions to make besides general 
 stories, and he saw him to be of an unstayed humour, 
 so that he was hopeless of any good account of his busi- 
 ness. As for money, he was limited by the King, and 
 for men, he had sent away the two regiments that same 
 day ; and since he expected orders every hour from his 
 Majesty for somewhat to be executed by the third regi- 
 ment, he could not weaken it too much, yet he sent a 
 few officers, the chief of whom was Colonel Gun, to- 
 gether with some ammunition, and four small pieces of 
 artillery." Now it is in curious keeping with the po- 
 licy we have been considering, that this hero with the 
 portentous name, a Gustavus Adolphus man, so con- 
 ducted himself in the service upon which he was now 
 sent, as to acquire the title of Traitor Gun. James 
 Gordon informs us, that when Aboyne had so far suc- 
 ceeded with the King, " Hamilton, who had quick in- 
 telligence of all that passed about the King, being ad- 
 vertised thereof, upon pretext of scarcity of victuals and 
 sickness, sends back these two thousand men for Eng- 
 land, before Aboyne came to him with the King's or- 
 der ; so that when Aboyne came to the Firth to Ha- 
 milton he was heartily welcomed and feasted it is true, 
 and many vollies shot off at drinking the King's health, 
 but it was shewn him that the men were gone, and all 
 that Aboyne could procure was four brass field-pieces, 
 and some field-officers, and some small quantity of am- 
 munition. And above all things, Hamilton gives to 
 him one Colonel William Gun, a Caithness-man by 
 birth, whom he recommends to Aboyne as a trusty and 
 experienced soldier, advising him in all things to be
 
 TRAITOR GUN. 257 
 
 directed by Gun. Meanwhile, as appeared by the event, 
 Hamilton gave secret instructions to Colonel Gun how- 
 to act, as to this hour it is constantly affirmed."* 
 
 It was during the interval of Aboyne's absence that 
 a collision in arms betwixt the political parties oc- 
 curred. The contest was neither obstinate nor bloody, 
 but it acquired importance from being the first clash 
 of civil war, and, as the success was on the King's 
 side, Montrose was dispatched to the north, while 
 
 * The following account of the matter is also imprinted, being from a 
 transcript of a manuscript entitled, " A short abridgement of Britain's 
 Distemper, from the year of God 1639 to 164-9," — by Patrick Gordon, (a 
 son of Gordon of Cluny,) who was admitted a burgess of Aberdeen 
 March 23, 160S. An account of this manuscript will be found at the 
 end of this volume. 
 
 " Aboyne coming to the fleet [from the King] was very graciously ac- 
 cepted, and by the Marquis, in the Admiral's ship, was royally feasted, 
 with playing of the ordnance at every health; and all this show was sealed 
 with many promises of a real friend, which, by many compliments, pro- 
 cured a firm confidence that all was real. And now, because he could 
 not give him the aid according to his Majesty's appointment, he sends 
 with him some commanders, — for of such he told him he understood 
 his country was wholly disfurnished. One in particular, called Colonel 
 Gun, he recommends unto him, as one whose worth, whose long expe- 
 rience in war, and whose judgment in the art military, deserved a parti- 
 cular regard ; and therefore he obtains of Aboyne that he should have 
 the leading of such forces as he could bring to the fields. Such was the 
 integrity of this young Viscount, who was but a child in years, nor had 
 he ever been in action before, much Less had his innocent soul been ac- 
 quainted with the subtle fallacies of state policy ; and, therefore, the free- 
 dom of his noble disposition would not sutler him to be jealous of what- 
 soever the Marquis advised him to, and the rather for that they were so 
 near in blood as cousin-germans once removed. But this man's carriage, 
 who was thus recommended unto him, brought forth another aspersion, 
 or rather an evident presumption of Hamilton's intentions. For he com- 
 mitted so many palpable errors in the execution of his charge, as could 
 not be performed by a practised commander but ot set puipo.se to over- 
 throw the business. Yea they were blind who could not Bee how he, for 
 the short time lie commanded in the north, did, as ii seemed by preme- 
 ditation, both weaken and crush in pieces whatsoever was intended lor 
 the King's service." 
 
 VOL. 1. R
 
 258 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Leslie marched to the borders. We may here extract, 
 from another imprinted and contemporary chronicle, 
 (Patrick Gordon's manuscript quoted in the preceding 
 note,) some account of the state of affairs which now, 
 for the last time, called forth the energies of Montrose 
 to subdue the loyalty of the north. 
 
 " Whilst Aboyne was on his dispatch with the King 
 and the Marquis of Hamilton, the Gordons, and some 
 other barons with them that favoured the King, were 
 forced to look to themselves. For the Forbeses, their 
 old enemies, being a great and numerous family of brave 
 and valiant gentlemen, for the most part, with the 
 Hays, Keiths, Frazers, Crichtons, and the whole of the 
 north, being all Covenanters, drew themselves to a head, 
 having their rendezvous at Turreff, where there came 
 numbers of goodly gentlemen well horsed, with a com- 
 petent power of foot. Of this preparation the Gordons 
 being advertised, repair to Huntly, of some called Strath- 
 bogie, and after consultation, being for the most part 
 all landed gentlemen of equal quality, they could not 
 condescend upon a leader. Some would have had the 
 Marquis's brother, Lord Adam ; but his brains being 
 cracked, either through some distemper, or rather 
 through a malignant temper of melancholic blood, which 
 ran in his veins from his grandmother, Duke Hamil- 
 ton's daughter,* was not fitting for the charge. Then 
 they talk of Lord Lewis, the third son of the Marquis ; 
 but he was but a child at school, and had not attained 
 to thirteen years of age, and therefore too young for the 
 fields, and his grandmother, the Lady Marquise, was 
 loth to part with him ; yet e'er it was long he could not 
 
 • 
 
 * Lady Anne Hamilton, daughter of James Earl of Arran, and Duke 
 of Chatelherault.
 
 THE BARONS. 259 
 
 be restrained, for he secretly conveyed himself to the 
 Highlands, and took the guiding of the rude Highland- 
 ers upon him, shewing thereby what one day might be 
 expected, and how this spark was like to grow to a 
 great and ardent flame. Then they resolve to chuse 
 some one of the barons that was there, and they pitched 
 upon the Laird of Banff;* but because he was not of 
 the name, they join to him the Laird of Haddo. And 
 before they could be ready to march, there was a thing 
 which mightily troubled them, which was, in whose 
 name, and for whom, the service should be done ; and 
 this bred some delay, till the Laird of Carnburrow, a 
 learned, perfect, wise, and discreet gentleman, told them 
 that the matter was of no small moment, and might 
 come one day in agitation before his Majesty, as it did 
 indeed, and therefore his advice was, that there should 
 be a bond drawn up, — that the same was done, first, in 
 defence of his Majesty's royal prerogative, and, next, 
 for the duty, honour, and service they owe to the house 
 of Huntly, and for the advancement, preservation, and 
 grandeur thereof, against all their enemies. This advice 
 was followed, the bond drawn up, and every man of 
 quality set his hand to it. Then they began chearfully 
 to march, resolving to seek out their enemies, although 
 their numbers were greater than their own by very far. 
 They would not stay for their coming, but, marching 
 all night, they came to Turreff in the morning twilight." 
 TurrefT was occupied by a covenanting army of about 
 twelve hundred horse and foot ; but this night march 
 
 * James Gordon says: — " After some dispute it was in end concluded 
 that Sir George Ogilvie of Banff, and sir John Gordon of Haddo, should 
 be Generals, conjunctly, both of them of known courage, but Banff the 
 wittier of the two, and Haddo supposed to be pliable to Banff's councils 
 and advice."
 
 260 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of the barons, who mustered only about eight hundred, 
 took them so completely by surprise, that, it maybe said, 
 the Covenanters scampered out as the loyalists scam- 
 pered in, and this transient and almost bloodless suc- 
 cess of the King's cause, obtained the appellation of the 
 Trot of Turreff. The leaders of the victorious party 
 — for they were all leaders, and called " the barons" 
 par excellence, and this particular crisis, " the barons' 
 reign" — were Clunie, Gight, Haddo, Abergeldy, New- 
 ton, Buckie, Park, Letterfurie, Carnburrow, Craig, 
 Inverinarkie, all of the surname of Gordon, with the 
 Ogilvies of Banff and Carnousy, the Urquharts of 
 Cromartie and Crombie, Turing of Foverane, Udny of 
 Udny, Leith of Harthill, Seaton of Pitmedden, &c. 
 With these there was but one officer of experience and 
 professional habits, namely, Lieutenant-Colonel John- 
 ston, (son of Johnston of Crimond, provost of Aber- 
 deen,) who led their van. 
 
 After their successful dash at Turreff, the barons oc- 
 cupied Aberdeen, and Ogilvy of Banff, and Huntly 
 himself, endeavoured to communicate the hopeful state 
 of the north, by letters, to the King. The fate of these 
 letters we learn from Baillie. " Banff made haste to 
 take all advantages of his scarce-hoped-for victory. 
 He ran over the country, repossessed Aberdeen, which 
 was not unwilling to be brought back to their old 
 friends, advertised the King of his success, and prayed 
 for supply. The matter tvas of consequence. Ogilvie's 
 and the Marquis's letters were intercepted, where- 
 in we saw the appearance of some more troubles 
 from the north." To the utter amazement of the Co- 
 venanters themselves, even at this crisis Hamilton per- 
 sisted in neglecting the cause of the King'. " It was 
 thought," says Baillie, " that the most, if not all the
 
 THE BARONS. 26'1 
 
 land soldiers which the Marquis had, were intended 
 first for Huntly's service ; but God disappointed this 
 very dangerous intention, by keeping the navy some 
 weeks longer on the English coast than was expected, 
 even till Huntly was in hands, and all his designs 
 broken." But the success of the barons at Turreflf, 
 their occupation of Aberdeen, and the ardour of Aboyne, 
 opened a prospect of certain success for the royal cause, 
 had Hamilton co-operated with the north at this time : 
 " Yet if at this same time a considerable supply had 
 been sent to Banff, [Ogilvy,] he had wrought us much 
 woe ; but Montrose at once, with Marischal, who be- 
 fore this were avowedly joined to our side — these two 
 noble valiant youths made haste with al) the friends they 
 could gather." * 
 
 The Trot of Turreff occurred early on the morning 
 of Tuesday the 14th of May, and the barons occupied 
 Aberdeen from the 15th until Monday the 20th. It 
 appears, by the bond we have quoted from the Napier 
 papers, that Montrose was still in Edinburgh on the 
 18th. The young Earl Marischal had reached the north 
 before this, (having hastened thither, with some forces 
 levied in the Mearns, to save his lands from pillage,) 
 and from his castle of Dunnotter was negotiating with 
 the loyalists, (through the medium of that prudent and 
 peaceful baron, Robert Gordon of Straloch,) and keep- 
 ing them in play, before Montrose arrived. In vain 
 the gallant barons scattered the Forbeses and the Fra- 
 zers, and, like a hive dethroned, kept hurrying to and 
 fro, and disputing among themselves, by the Dee and 
 by the Spey, now at Strathbogie, and now at Aberdeen. 
 
 * Baillie's Letter to Spang, dated 28th Sept. 1639, a few months after 
 the event.
 
 262 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Aboyne came not with the hoped-for succours. On the 
 20th they marched from Aberdeen, up the Dee towards 
 Durris, in search of Donald Farquharson of Monaltrie, 
 whom they expected to meet them with the Highland- 
 ers of Strathdee, Braemar, Strathaven, and Glenlivet. 
 That night they lay in the fields, and in the morning 
 their hopes obtained a partial elevation, for, with Mo- 
 naltrie and his men, there came to them a leader in the 
 person of " Lord Ludovick Gordon, Huntly's third son, 
 who had broke away from his grandmother at the Bog 
 of Gicht, and had forsaken the school and his tutor, 
 leaping over the walls, so hazardously, that he went 
 near to break one of his arms ; he, I say, in highland 
 habits, being as yet a young boy, had the name of leader 
 to those Highlanders." * Marischal, certain of the im- 
 mediate co-operation of Montrose, marched upon Aber- 
 deen, which he occupied without resistance on the 23d 
 of May, and had the satisfaction of reconnoiteringa host of 
 dissentient highland barons in full retreat before him. 
 Montrose, in the meanwhile, passing the Grampians 
 in his usual rapid style, entered this luckless town on 
 the 25th, at the head of about four thousand troops, 
 (the flower of which were the cavalry of Angus and 
 Mearns,) and followed by a train of thirteen field-pieces. 
 " He entered the town," says Spalding, " at the Over 
 Kirk-gate Port, in order of battle, with sounding of 
 trumpets, touking of drums, and displayed banners ; 
 they went down through the Broad-gate, through the 
 Castle-gate, and to the Queen's Links march they, 
 where all the night they staid under straight watch." 
 Here Montrose found himself surrounded by a council 
 of nobles, the Earls of Marischal, Athol, and King- 
 
 * James Gordon's MS.
 
 MASSACRE OF THE DOGS. 263 
 
 horn, the Lords Drummond, Couper, and Frazer, and 
 the masters of Forbes and Gray ; and this army brought 
 with it the usual and inevitable accompaniments of 
 such desultory expeditions in such times, — pillage, op- 
 pression, and cruelty. Montrose, however, as we shall 
 presently prove from Baillie's letters, did much to restrain 
 the excesses of his army, even to a degree that first 
 brought him into disfavour with the clergy of the Co- 
 venant. Nor does Spalding, though no friend to Mon- 
 trose, fix the excesses upon him. " Upon the 26th of 
 May," he says, " being Sunday, the Earl of Montrose, 
 now called likewise General, with the rest of the nobles, 
 heard devotion ; but the rascal soldiers, in time of both 
 preachings, are abusing and plundering New Aberdeen, 
 pitifully, without regard to God or man." One strange 
 outbreak of their cruelty consisted in leaving not a 
 dog alive that could be found in Aberdeen, from the 
 hound to the house-dog, and from the luxurious spa- 
 niel to the cur of low degree. w The reason was, when 
 the first army came here, ilk captain, commander, ser- 
 vant, and soldier, had ane blue ribbon about his eraig ; 
 in despite and derision whereof, when they removed 
 from Aberdeen, some women of Aberdeen, as was al- 
 leged, knit blue ribbons about their messens' craigs, 
 whereat thir soldiers took offence, and killed all their 
 dogs for this very cause." 
 
 On Monday the 27th, Montrose summoned a council 
 of war to decide upon the fate of the prelatic towns. 
 Those eulogists of the Covenant, — who execrate the me- 
 mory of that " bloody murtherer," Montrose, and deem 
 it anti-christian to criticise the " sweet, meek, humble, 
 yet strong and vehement spirit" of a Baillie, a Dickson, 
 a Henderson, a Rollock, or a Cant, — reject with scorn 
 the testimony of Bishop Guthrie, when, in reference
 
 264 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 to these northern expeditions, he says of Montrose, 
 " his generous mind was more eager for victory than 
 execution," and that he resisted the urgent demands 
 of the ministers, that the towns of Aberdeen should 
 be given up to the horrors of indiscriminate plunder 
 and conflagration. But this account is unquestion- 
 ably corroborated by the contemporary notices of 
 Baillie and Spalding. Even the meek, sweet spirit of 
 Baillie panted after the blood and ashes of the loyal 
 north ; but Montrose refused to glut it. The matter 
 had been debated in council, and Baillie insinuates, that 
 the soldiers of the Covenant fell off from their stand- 
 ard, in consequence of the ill-timed humanity of Mon- 
 trose. " Banff," he says, " dissolved his forces, Aber- 
 deen rendered at once, all was carried before us. But 
 ere it was long, our forces likewise disbanded, as was 
 thought on some malcontentment, either at Montrose's 
 too great lenity in sparing the enemy's houses, or some- 
 what else." And this was Baillie's constant complaint 
 of Montrose while in arms for the Covenant; " the 
 discretion of that generous and noble youth was but 
 too great" — " all was forgiven to that unnatural city 9 
 — "fools not to disarm that country altogether, and 
 use some severity for example among them ; they had 
 no reason of complaining, but greatly to commend our 
 leader's courtesy." 
 
 Spalding, on the other hand, dwells pitifully on the 
 sufferings of his native place, successively the prey of 
 either party. He cannot, indeed, bring himself to laud 
 the too victorious Montrose, but he scarcely directs a 
 bitter word against him, and even affords positive tes- 
 timony to his forbearance. The salmon fishers of the 
 Dee and Don had been attacked by the lawless soldiery, 
 and robbed of their fish. These brave watermen killed
 
 MONTROSE'S CONDUCT TO ABERDEEN. 265 
 
 a soldier in defence of their salmon, and also complained 
 to Montrose, " who commanded ane watch, night and 
 day, to keep and defend both the rivers of Dee and 
 Don from such wrongs and oppression, and thus the 
 watermen were made free." Spalding, indeed, with- 
 holds the merit here, for, says he, " thir waters per- 
 tained heritably, for the most part, to burgesses Cove- 
 nanters ;" but then he admits, that the result of 
 Montrose's council of war was, " that they took 
 from the town of Aberdeen, ten thousand merks, to 
 save it from plundering," and that the money being- 
 paid, and the order upon the inhabitants to deliver up 
 their arms complied with, " no other goods nor gear 
 were plundered out of any of the towns, as the General 
 had given orders, except arms, and the town's fine." 
 There is no reason, however, for saying that Montrose's 
 leniency was of a nature that indicated at this time 
 any want of sincerity in the cause he was supporting. 
 He did what he could lo restrain the lawlessness of a 
 desultory army, by submitting them to musters and 
 reviews upon the links, and then ordering them to their 
 quarters. But so peremptory was he in dismantling 
 the hostile preparations and defences of the town, and 
 in disarming the inhabitants, that when the drum beat 
 through the Old Town of Aberdeen, commanding them, 
 on pain of death, to deliver up their whole arms to the 
 Laird of Craigievar, " the Old Town people, trembling 
 for fear at this uncouth kind of charge, came all run- 
 ning with some few muskets and hagbutts, others with 
 a rusty sword, others with a headless spear;" and, 
 adds the same inimitable chronicler, " the country 
 round about was pitifully plundered, the meal girnels 
 broken up, eaten and consumed, — no fowl, cock or hen, 
 left unkilled." Then Montrose decreed that, by eleven
 
 l Z66 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 o'clock of the day following that on which he held the 
 council of war, the fine of ten thousand merks should 
 be paid, under pain of the town being given up to plun- 
 der. Thus he both exacted the fine and saved the 
 town. It appears, by the treasury accounts still ex- 
 tant in Aberdeen, that the treasurer paid accordingly, 
 to the uttermost farthing, and Spalding himself tells 
 us, that, by the General's orders, neither goods nor 
 gear were plundered. Even the remonstrance of Aber- 
 deen indicates a sense of the humanity of its Conqueror, 
 while the reply of Montrose shews that he was as ear- 
 nest in their subjugation, though not so savage, as his 
 present coadjutors. ' Why,' said the representatives 
 of this persecuted place, ' are we thus used ? You re- 
 quired us to subscribe the Covenant, at your sword's 
 point, and we did so — we are Covenanters ; yet we are 
 the only Burgh, throughout covenanting Scotland, 
 which is not suffered to abide in peace, but is kept in 
 continual perturbation and misery.' ' True,' replied 
 Montrose, ' you subscribed the Covenant, but you have 
 broken faith, and are not good Covenanters, for you 
 have endeavoured to stir up the King himself against 
 the cause, and you have received and entertained the 
 plundering and oppressive barons, and therefore the town 
 of Aberdeen is neither to be trusted nor believed.' To 
 which the town of Aberdeen made answer, that what 
 they had written or done, was with the best intention, 
 and as for receiving the barons, they could not keep 
 them out, and got no good by them. 
 
 Montrose now thought it high time to break " the 
 barons' reign." Having punished and lectured this 
 ill-fated town, but withal spared its inhabitants and 
 houses, he marched out of Aberdeen on the morning of 
 the 30th of May, in order of battle, the infantry going 
 
 3
 
 MONTROSE BESIEGES G1GHT. 267 
 
 first, followed by Montrose at the head of his well ap- 
 pointed cavalry. Spalding says they were ten thou- 
 sand strong, and cheered on the march by their bag- 
 pipes, trumpets, and drums, and the rattle of ten bra- 
 zen field-pieces in their rear. " Montrose's intention," 
 says James Gordon, " was to besiege the houses of the 
 gentlemen of the name of Gordon ; for upon his ap- 
 pearance the barons were disbanded, and every one run 
 a several way, so that Montrose could hardly tell where 
 to find an enemy." That night they encamped at 
 Udny, and marched from thence on the following day 
 to Haddo House, or Kellie, belonging to Sir John Gor- 
 don of Haddo. But the place where Montrose deter- 
 mined to commence operations was before the castle of 
 Sir George Gordon of Gight, in which that bold baron, 
 aided by the determined spirit and practical skill of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston, whom he had along with 
 him, was so well fortified as to reject and defy the sum- 
 mons of his formidable pursuer. Montrose, unprovided 
 with a battering train, turned his field-pieces against 
 the castle, and for two days and nights vainly essayed 
 to effect a breach, when suddenly he heard that a fleet, 
 bearing Aboyne, as Lieutenant of the North, and a well 
 appointed army, was about to arrive at Aberdeen. 
 Never doubting that the royal lieutenant would be 
 now at least most efficiently supported, and his own 
 forces being diminished, (according to Baillie's account, 
 " on some malcontentment at Montrose's too great le- 
 nity,") our hero, aware of the danger of a superior force 
 interposed between him and the Tables, fell back up- 
 on Aberdeen, which he again entered, on Monday the 
 3d of June, by one of those rapid movements so cha- 
 racteristic of his desultory campaigns. Montrose main- 
 tained his dignity as a conqueror, by remaining a whole
 
 268 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 day in the town of Aberdeen, which he quitted shortly 
 before Aboyne entered the Road, and marched home- 
 wards, in perfect order, with his troops and artillery. 
 On the way he paused for a night at the Castle of Dun- 
 notter, where he was received by the Earl Marischal 
 himself, who, with a few horse, had preceded Montrose 
 some days on the retreat. 
 
 It was about the 5th of June that Aboyne entered 
 the Road of Aberdeen, with two armed vessels of six- 
 teen guns each, and a Newcastle collier. He was ac- 
 companied by Ogilvy of Banff, Irving of Drum, and 
 other loyalists, who had been lately compelled to seek 
 safety in flight, but now returned with renewed hopes 
 for the success of their cause. The Earl of Tullibar- 
 dine also accompanied the young Viscount ; and, to the 
 great annoyance of the Covenanters and their reverend 
 chronicler,* with Aboyne came even Glencairn, the 
 representative of the noblest and purest covenanting 
 blood in Scotland, who refused to recognize the faction 
 that now took the name of the Covenant of his fathers 
 in vain. And last, though not least, there was Colonel, 
 alias Traitor Gun, one who had become a creature of 
 Hamilton's, from the period of the Marquis's memorable 
 campaign with thatimmortal andeternal Gustavus Adol- 
 phus. For several days the young lieutenant, having 
 proclaimed his Commission, abode in his ships, in the 
 hope of being joined by three thousand auxiliaries, 
 which Hamilton had given him some reason still to ex- 
 pect. But these came not, and Glencairn and Tulli- 
 bardine, apparently disheartened and disgusted at the 
 aspect of affairs, took their leave of Aboyne, and de- 
 
 * " Glencairn, who unhappily all this time otherwise than his for- 
 bears, to the losing of the hearts of all his friends, for the Marquis's 
 pleasure, had deserted his company." — Baillie.
 
 YOUTHFUL COMMANDERS. 269 
 
 parted to their own homes. Thus was this young and 
 inexperienced nobleman left to sustain the weighty 
 burden of the royal cause in the north, and that witli a 
 less trusty military preceptor at his side than the Cove- 
 nanters attached to Montrose on his second expedition 
 to Aberdeen. 
 
 There was now a most important collision about to 
 occur, at a very critical period for the country, and yet 
 the leaders on both sides were mere boys, with the ex- 
 ception of Montrose, who himself was not above twenty- 
 seven years of age. His distinguished ally Marischal 
 (Baillie calls them " these two noble valiant youths") 
 was somewhat younger, being at this time scarcely 
 three-and-twenty. James Gordon, speaking of Maris- 
 chal in the year 1640, says that " he was not ill dis- 
 posed if left to himself, and at this time too young to 
 see the depth of these courses that he was led upon by 
 the wisdom of his cousin Argyle, though much against 
 the liking of his mother, Lady Mary Erskine, Countess 
 of Marischal, who laboured much, but in vain, to re- 
 claim her son to the King's party." Then, the loyal noble- 
 man, whose duty was no less than to sustain the King's 
 cause, had seen but nineteen summers ; and, as Glen- 
 cairn and Tullibardine left him to his fate, there came 
 to support that standard, tottering in the youthful grasp 
 of Aboyne, a hand less steady and a head less wise than 
 his own. Young Lord Lewis Gordon, whom we have 
 already heard of as the spoilt pet of his grandmother, a 
 boy of thirteen, or little more, and the wildest and most 
 wilful of his times, " hastily," says Spalding, " raises 
 his father's ground, friends and followers, men tenants 
 and servants, who most gladly and willingly came with 
 him, and, upon Friday the 7th of June, marched in 
 brave order, about a thousand men on horse and foot,
 
 270 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 well armed, brave men, with captains, commanders, and 
 leaders, trumpets, drums, and bagpipes, and to Aberdeen 
 came they, to meet the Lord Aboyne, having also in their 
 company four field-pieces of brass, which they brought 
 with them out of Strathbogie." It is not unlikely, that 
 the departure of Tullibardine andGlencairn, to their own 
 homes at this time, was occasioned by disgust at the fact, 
 that while Hamilton persisted in withholding all efficient 
 assistance from the royal cause, now left with the strip- 
 lings of Huntly, others joined them who neither added 
 strength nor credit to the cause. With Lord Lewis 
 came " James Grant, a son of the family of Carron, on 
 Spey side, with some twenty of his followers. This gen- 
 tleman had been an outlaw several years before, upon 
 a private account, which was, that his nephew, John 
 Grant of Carron, had been killed by a near neighbour, 
 John Grant of Balnadalloch, which slaughter was so re- 
 sented by James Grant, that, to prosecute the revenge 
 thereof, he wilfully turned outlaw, and had been pri- 
 soner in Edinburgh Castle not long before, and had 
 made his escape thence ; but being well descended, and 
 cousin to Huntly on his mother's side, he was protected 
 in the country, and at this time owned by Aboyne, 
 although the Covenanters took occasion thence to tra- 
 duce Aboyne and that party for taking such associates 
 by the hand. They got greater ground to speak by 
 Aboyne's taking under his protection one John Mac- 
 Gregor, a Rennach man born, known by the Irish nick- 
 name of John Dowgeare, and a notorious robber ; yet 
 was he and his followers, about twenty-four arrant 
 thieves and cut-throats, taken into the party. The ad- 
 dition of all these, as it contributed little to the service, 
 so it gave great occasion to the Covenanters to upbraid 
 Aboyne, who, being young and inexperienced, was per-
 
 ABOYNE MARCHES AGAINST MONTROSE. 271 
 
 suaded thereto by such as either looked not to his ho- 
 nour, or wilfully strove to affront him ; and the wise 
 and most sober of his friends were very ill satisfied 
 therewith, and so much the rather that these two ban- 
 dits, though both of them were willing to serve Aboyne, 
 yet they could not agree together, but wherever they 
 met they were like to fall to blows with their compa- 
 nies, and could hardly be kept asunder, — the reason 
 whereof was, because James Grant had killed one Pa- 
 trick MacGregor, brother to the Laird of MacGregor, 
 who had undertaken, by warrant from the Privy-Coun- 
 cil, to kill or retake James Grant. This slaughter was 
 as much resented by the Clan Gregor, according to the 
 Highland form, as Carron's slaughter was resented by 
 James Grant." * 
 
 Such was the position of the royal cause when Aboyne, 
 and Traitor Gun, marched against Montrose early in 
 the month of June 1639. 
 
 * James Gordon's M S. This evil communication appears to have cor- 
 rupted the wild Lord Lewis, for Spalding narrates of him, that, in the 
 beginning of the year 1641, " Lewis Gordon, being with his father the 
 Lord Marquis of lluntly at London, upon some alleged misconteiitment 
 left his father's company, but [without] his knowledge, and to his great 
 grief and displeasure; for his said son, unwisely and unhappily, con- 
 veyed privately away with him his father's bail) jewels in ane little cabi- 
 net, being of a great worth, and to Holland goes lie, leaving his lather 
 sorrowful for his lewd miscarriage; whilU, amongst the rest of his 
 crosses,he behoved patiently to suffer, suppose [notwithstanding] himself 
 had not great store of wealth lying beside hiin for maintenance of his 
 noble rank at that time." We will hear of this wild sprig again, in his 
 petted and wayward rivalry of Montrose, — when Montrose was no longer 
 his enemy, — whence a rhyme, says Sir Walter Scott, not yet forgotten in 
 Aberdeenshire : — 
 
 If you with Lord Lewis go, 
 
 You'll get reifand prey enough; 
 If you with Montrose go, 
 
 You'll get grief and wae enough.
 
 272 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOW HAMILTON BETRAYED THE KING, AND MONTROSE DEFEATED ABOYNE 
 BEFORE THE TREATY OF BERWICK. 
 
 It was about the latter end of May, and while Mon- 
 trose was retreating southwards from his successful 
 campaign, that the King pitched his camp in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Berwick, from whence he reconnoitered 
 through his prospect-glass, the covenanting army en- 
 camped at Dunse Law. Although Hamilton, to use 
 Baillie's expressions, had " eschewed all occasion of 
 beginning the war, and did not trouble a man on the 
 shore with a shot," and although his forces were un- 
 diminished by any assistance afforded to Aboyne, not 
 only did he still persuade the King of his constancy, 
 courage, and warlike purposes, but actually made a de- 
 mand for more troops, at a crisis when they could be 
 least spared from the royal army. This is proved by 
 a letter, dated from the camp, near Berwick, 2d June 
 1639, in which his Majesty says to Hamilton, — "every 
 one that I dare consult with about this, protesteth 
 against the diminishing of one man from my army ; 
 besides, I have no mind to stay here upon a mere de- 
 fensive, which I must do if I send you that strength 
 you mention," — and after referring to assurance he had 
 obtained of certain Scots nobles returning to loyalty, 
 he adds, — but clearly in a strain whose spirit and ex- 
 pressions were derived from Hamilton himself, — - 
 " wherefore now I set you 'loose, to do what mischief
 
 HAMILTON'S HOSTILITIES. 27S 
 
 you can do upon the rebels, for my service, with those 
 men you have, for you cannot have one man from 
 hence." The story which Bishop Burnet relates, as the 
 immediate consequence of the above letter from the 
 King, if it be a fact, places Hamilton in the most ridi- 
 culous and contemptible point of view. " The Mar- 
 quis," says Burnet, " no sooner got this, but he pre- 
 sently set to ivork, resolving neither to spare Burroughs 
 stowness, which was his own town, nor Prestonpans, 
 which was his cousin's. But a strange accident befel 
 him the next day, for as he went out in a small ves- 
 sel, with a drake on her, and sixty soldiers, to view the 
 Queensferry, and burn the ships that lay in the har- 
 bour, he saw a merchant-barque coming down towards 
 him, and he caused row up to her ; but she, perceiving 
 her danger, run herself aground upon the sands of 
 Barnbougle ; the tide falling apace, and he following 
 her indeliberately, run himself likewise on ground, 
 where he was like to have been very quickly taken by 
 the men on the shore, who were playing upon him, and 
 some vollies passed upon both hands. But they on 
 the land were waiting till the water should fall, reck- 
 oning him their prey already, which had been inevi- 
 table, had not the seamen got out, and, being almost 
 to the middle in water, with great tugging set them 
 afloat, and so he returned safe to the fleet ; and this 
 was all the ground for that calumny of his making ap- 
 pointments on the sands of Barnbougle with the Cove- 
 nanters." * 
 
 * Bishop Guthrie, at least as good an authority as Bishop Burnet, 
 tells the story thus, — " Mr William Cunningham of Brownhill was sent 
 aboard to him (Hamilton;) and after his return the next night, the 
 Marquis came ashore by boat to the links of Barnbougall at midnight, 
 where my Lord Loudon met him, and had two hours conference with 
 him; and afterwards his Lordship returned to his ships, and Loudon to 
 those that sent him." 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 274 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Here Burnet would persuade us, by a most impro- 
 bable story, which no one contemporary chronicler re- 
 cords, and totally unsupported by proof, that this 
 mighty admiral, who had planned the present invasion 
 of Scotland by sea and land, now, at the eleventh hour, 
 heartily " set to work" for its destruction, and was on 
 such terms with the Covenanters, that while he was 
 sneaking after their ships at Queensferry, they were 
 ready to effect his destruction, or make " him their 
 prey," if they could only have pounced upon him stick- 
 ing in the sands of Barnbougle. Clarendon, however, 
 speaks of " the Marquis of Hamilton's neighbourly resi- 
 dence, with his fleet and foot-soldiers before Leith, with- 
 out any show of hostility, or any care taken to draw his 
 friends and followers together for the King's service ;" 
 and we find an original document, in the Napier charter- 
 chest, which affords a curious confirmation of this esti- 
 mate of the Marquis's zeal in the cause of his master. 
 
 While Montrose was overrunning the north with the 
 arms of the Covenant, his friend Lord Napier, admitted 
 to its public but not its secret councils, appears to have 
 been anxious to bring matters to an amicable conclusion 
 with the King. It suited, on the other hand, the ultimate 
 designs of the movement party, that peaceful overtures 
 should be now tendered to Hamilton, to be laid before 
 Charles ; and they were politic in selecting, as their 
 principal organ on the occasion to which we refer, a 
 nobleman who had long been characterized as one " free 
 of partiality or any factious humour." * Precisely jive 
 
 * See before, p. 39. It appears from one of " Jean de Maria's" Let- 
 ters (see before, p. 158,) dated 16th April 1638, that the faction had en- 
 deavoured, but unsuccessfully, to obtain Lord Napier as their organ for 
 presenting their first unconstitutional and tyrannical supplication against 
 the bishops : — " My Lord Napier was the man designed for the present- 
 
 4
 
 Hamilton's neighbourly fleet. 275 
 
 days before that on which, according to Burnet's story, 
 Hamilton had nearly been " made their prey," he was, 
 nevertheless, upon the " neighbourly" footing and un- 
 derstanding, with the covenanting faction, which the 
 following instructions indicate. 
 
 Instructions for the Lord Naper and Lord of Durie. 
 
 ult. May 1639. 
 
 " Please your Lordships, go aboard the Admiral of 
 the King's Majesty's fleet, lying in the Road of Leith, 
 to the Noble Lord, the Marquis of Hamilton, his Ma- 
 jesty's Commissioner, his Grace, and represent unto his 
 Grace the particulars following : 
 
 " 1. That we humbly desire his Grace to go in per- 
 son to Berwick, to the King's Majesty, to mediate 
 some accommodation, and prevention of these evils 
 likely to ensue upon these unkindly wars, which being 
 once begun, (as they are too far advanced,) will not so 
 soon be quieted. 
 
 " 2. To remonstrate, that it is most proper to his 
 Grace to mediate in this matter, both as a, prime prince 
 in this land, who should be sensible of the dangers 
 threatened to his native country, and as one who, in the 
 managing all the business, hath heretofore represented 
 his Majesty by commission, with warrant to settle the 
 disorders. 
 
 ing thereof, who, finding the same too licit, as we understand, tor his 
 fingers, and none else willing to undergo that charge, they changed their 
 copy, and contented themselves to present their condolences to the Tri- 
 umviri, I mean these three grandees of our nation, who arc thought to 
 have the principal rule of his Majesty's cares, who, without offence ho 
 it spoken, are supposed, by many and good subjects, to tender more t ho 
 safety of their friends, followers, and favourites in this kingdom, than 
 
 they do their master's honour," &c. Hamilton, Argyle, 1 Traquair 
 
 are here alluded to.
 
 276 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 " 3. That his Grace would go in person to the King's 
 Majesty, and attend the event of this treaty, because 
 our condition may not admit that delay of answer, or 
 conclusion, which this distance of his Grace from his 
 Majesty will produce in the frequent consultations may 
 occur. 
 
 " 4. That his Grace would be pleased to solicit that 
 this treaty were expede with all convenient expedience, 
 and that during this treaty, all acts of hostility may 
 be discharged both by sea and land, which already hath 
 been too frequent, and that free passage may be per- 
 mitted at sea in the meantime. 
 
 " 5. That his Majesty would be gratiously pleased to 
 appoint his Grace, with such others as his Majesty shall 
 nominate, to meet at any fitting place with our nobility 
 as shall be sent by us for treating upon the means of 
 accommodation, with such haste as our estate re- 
 quireth." (Signed) " Balmerino, Forrester, Scottstarvitt, 
 Tho Nicholsone, A. Hamilton, Robert Drummond, A. 
 Gibsone Durie, Wm. Dick, preist [provost] of Edin- 
 burgh, Richard Maxwell for Edinburgh, T. Durhame, 
 Da. Cunynghame."* 
 
 Thus it is very manifest that, notwithstanding the 
 pretence which at this very time Hamilton was still 
 keeping up, for the purpose of deceiving his Sovereign, 
 — namely, that his inclinations and plans were of the 
 most hostile and warlike nature against Scotland, — and 
 notwithstanding the tales of his eulogist Burnet, by 
 which he would insinuate that Hamilton now sought 
 the destruction of the Scotch faction, while they were 
 most anxious to make him their prey, the Covenanters 
 knew better, and considered and addressed the Admiral 
 
 * Original. Napier charter-chest.
 
 CHARLES DECEIVED AND BETRAYED. 277 
 
 of that neighbourly fleet, not as their enemy, but as 
 their best friend and mediator with the King. The 
 document we have quoted, when contrasted with Hamil- 
 ton's correspondence with the King, as found in the 
 Hardwicke collection, and in Burnet's Memoirs of his 
 house, is sufficient of itself to prove that the favourite 
 was acting not merely a vacillating, but a deceptive and 
 traitorous part. Indeed when we attend, chronologi- 
 cally, to the events crowded within the space of about six 
 months, and which were decisive of the fate of the 
 King, it is impossible to doubt that he was betrayed 
 by his evil genius Hamilton. 
 
 In his letter to Charles, dated 27th November 1638, 
 Hamilton speaks of Scotland as a rebellious nation, a 
 miserable country, a people having other thoughts than 
 religion, which they used as a cloak to rebellion. Then 
 he lays down the plan of a most effective invasion, to 
 reduce this people to dutiful obedience, to irritate them, 
 to make them miserable, and he suggests the Marquis 
 of Huntly to be his Majesty's lieutenant in the north. 
 Charles puts himself entirely into the hands of the 
 favourite, Huntly is appointed, the invasion proceeds, 
 and, by the first of May, Hamilton anchors in the Firth, 
 and the King is with the army on his way to Berwick. 
 But, at the same instant, Huntly is taken prisoner — a 
 mortal blow to the royal cause, and one which Hamilton 
 assuredly could have prevented. Hamilton withholds 
 all succours from Aboyne, though thai young nobleman 
 went in person to obtain them, and manifestly ought 
 to have been supported with a vigour and activity in 
 proportion to the loss sustained by the captivity of his 
 father. Between the 8th and the 29th of May, Charles 
 writes various letters to Hamilton, evincing the utmost 
 desire that Aboyne should obtain the aid he demanded,
 
 278 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 and that the loyalists should be vigorously supported 
 in the north. Upon the 17th of May, the King writes 
 from Newcastle to Hamilton, showing himself inclined 
 to a treaty, but stating, at the same time, that if the 
 rebels " march down to meet me with a great strength, 
 in that case you are to fall on them immediately, and, 
 in my opinion, as far up in the Firth as you think pro- 
 bably may do good, thereby to make a diversion." The 
 rebels marched to the borders, as his Majesty had anti- 
 cipated, but Hamilton stirred not, except upon the 
 memorable occasion when (if Burnet is to be believed) 
 the Admiral in person was nearly captured while strug- 
 gling, like a stranded whale, in the sands. Yet, on the 8th 
 of May, Charles himself had transmitted to Hamilton a 
 paper containing the most accurate and minute statis- 
 tical details,* with a plan of operations which, if adopt- 
 ed, would have wrested the north, and the destiny of 
 the King, out of the hands of the Covenanters. Upon 
 the 29th of May, Hamilton writes earnestly to the 
 King, that since " the rebels " had obeyed the royal 
 proclamation not to approach within ten miles of the 
 leaguer, and his Majesty being thereby secure, which, 
 he says, was the sole object of treating, therefore, " I 
 conceive it will now be time to speak other language 
 than hitherto hath been done, and they to be enjoined 
 a total obedience to your just commands." Hamilton 
 adds a declaration of his extreme unwillingness " to be 
 employed in treaty with this people," and his " averse- 
 ness of further treaty." f This letter is not to be found 
 
 * The paper of instructions drawn up by Mr Thomas Hamilton, and 
 printed by Burnet in the Memoirs of Hamilton, p. 128. It was the very 
 plan by means of which " the stork, Cromwell," afterwards made him- 
 self master of Scotland. 
 
 f Franklin, 777.
 
 CHARLES DECEIVED AND BETRAYED. 279 
 
 in Burnet, who says, however, that " on the 29th May 
 the Lord Aboyne came to Hamilton with the following 
 letter from the King " — the very letter, namely, entreat- 
 ing him to " uphold my party in the north," which Hamil- 
 ton was determined not to do. Two days afterwards (the 
 last day of May) is the date of the paper of instructions 
 to Lord Napier which we have quoted above. On the 
 2d of June Charles writes (in a strain obviously called 
 forth by Hamilton's own correspondence) — " Where- 
 fore now I let you loose to do what mischief you can 
 upon the rebels for my service." On the 4th of June, 
 only two days afterwards, Heniy Vane writes to 
 Hamilton — " His Majesty doth now clearly see, and 
 is fully satisfied in his own judgment, that what pas- 
 sed in the gallery betwixt his Majesty, your Lord- 
 ship, and myself, hath been but too much verified on 
 this occasion ; and, therefore, his Majesty would not 
 have you to begin with them, but to settle things with 
 you in a safe and good posture, and yourself to come 
 hither in person, to consult what counsels are fit to be 
 taken, as the affairs now hold." Deaf as the favourite 
 had been to warlike instructions, though arising out of 
 his own policy and suggestions, he instantly obeyed this 
 summons, which it is not at all improbable had been 
 also suggested by himself to Vane. But let us hear his 
 apologist. " How great the Marquis his surprise and 
 trouble was, when he received this, cannot be easily 
 expressed, though it was but what he always looked 
 for; and before the King left Whitehall, he told him 
 in the gallery, none but Sir Henry Vane being present, 
 that few of the English would engage in an offensive 
 war with Scotland. However, he was too well taught 
 in ohedience to question or delay it after such positive 
 orders, and, therefore, could neither give a satisfactory
 
 280 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 answer to the Earl of Airly, — who at that time wrote 
 to him, pressing him to come to the north in all haste, 
 otherwise the King's party there would be presently 
 overrun, — nor to my Lord Aboyne's letter, who desired 
 fresh supplies of men and monies, though the refusing 
 of both of these was after that alleged against him.* 
 Yet the last, being dated the 4th of June, met him on 
 his way to the King, and the other could be no sooner 
 at him, being of the 26th of May, and in the postscript 
 excuse is made that it was of an old date for want of a 
 sure bearer ; both these are yet extant. But most of 
 all it appears how groundless that great and crying 
 accusation was, (which, as it made up no small part of 
 his charge to be mentioned in its proper place, so was 
 it in the mouths of every person,) that he betrayed his 
 Majesty's service in the Frith." 
 
 Mr Hallam, in his constitutional History of England, 
 observes, that " the pacification, as it was termed, of 
 
 * Thus Burnet would insinuate that the Marquis, against his own 
 warlike inclinations, was forced to forego all co-operation with the loyal- 
 ists in the north, and betake himself unwillingly to a treaty at the King's 
 command ! But the Bishop does not venture to print tbese letters from 
 Airly and Aboyne. The whole affair appeai-s to have been a juggle 
 between Hamilton and Vane, who were playing into the hands of the 
 Covenanters. Sir Philip Warwick, referring to the treaty of Berwick, 
 thus speaks of Vane : — " And for all this, Sir Henry Vane, the interlop- 
 ing secretary, was a most proper instrument, for through his hands all 
 the trifling intelligence which Hamilton had given to amuse the King, 
 both of his own and the Scots proceedings, had passed, and those an- 
 swers which the King wrote not with his own hand passed Vane's, who, 
 God knows, was an ordinary penman, but his letters still had some mark 
 of the King's, that in the future they might not be disowned. For all 
 which, thanks were given to Hamilton for these services, by which he 
 had brought the King into a seeming necessity of this pacification," 
 p. 146. The letter from Vane to Hamilton, requiring the latter to come 
 to the treaty at Berwick, as printed in Franklin, has no postscript. 
 Burnet prints it with a short postscript from Charles, acknowledging 
 and approving the contents.
 
 PACIFICATION OF BERWICK. 281 
 
 Berwick, in the summer of 1639, has been represented 
 by several historians as a measure equally ruinous and 
 unaccountable. That it was ruinous, that is, that it formed 
 one link in the chain that dragged the King'to destruc- 
 tion, is most evident ; but it was both inevitable and' 
 easy of explanation." And one reason of its necessity 
 offered by this able writer is, that " the Scots were en- 
 thusiastic, nearly unanimous, and entire masters of their 
 country." The value of covenanting enthusiasm and 
 unanimity, as a national characteristic, and principle of 
 action, we have already had occasion to consider. That 
 the Covenanting faction were now entire masters of 
 their country, and that, again to use the words of Mr 
 Hallam, — " the terms of Charles's treaty with his re- 
 volted subjects were unsatisfactory and indefinite, enor- 
 mous in concession, and yet affording a pretext for new 
 encroachments," are fatal truths, involving a nation's 
 misery and disgrace, for which Hamilton is deeply re- 
 sponsible, who at this time so meanly betrayed his too 
 confiding master. And now the crisis was at hand, when 
 Montrose, awakening to a sense of the monarchy in 
 danger, and becoming gradually confirmed in the con- 
 viction that Charles was betrayed by those he trusted, 
 paused in the delusive excitement of covenanting patrio- 
 tism, while his heart yearned to tell his Sovereign of "the 
 serpent in his bosom." Meanwhile we must follow Mon- 
 trose through his last covenanting triumph in the north. 
 
 It was upon Friday the 14th of June \6S9, that 
 Aboyne, despairing of the promised assistance from 
 Hamilton, and not in the secret of the transac- 
 tions we have noticed, commenced his march from 
 Aberdeen towards Angus. His hope was, with the aid 
 of the gallant Ogilvies, at least to create such a diver-
 
 282 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 sion as would draw off no inconsiderable portion of the 
 Covenanting army opposed to the King on the Borders. 
 The three vessels which composed the fleet of Aboyne 
 were ordered to sail along the coast, and attend the 
 motions of the loyalists. The brass field-pieces, and 
 most of the ammunition that had been obtained from 
 Hamilton, were sent on board these vessels by Colonel 
 Gun. The pretext was the difficulty of carriage ; the 
 result was, that the wind shifted, the vessels turned sea- 
 wards, " nor did they ever see them again to this hour, 
 so that cannon, and ammunition, and the three ships, all 
 vanished together."* Scarcely was the march com- 
 menced, when the intelligence reached them that Mon- 
 trose had again collected his forces, and was already 
 arrived at Stonehaven on his way to meet them. Aboyne 
 accordingly encamped that night at Muchalls, the place 
 of Sir Thomas Burnet of Leys, and sent on a party of 
 horse within little more than a mile of the enemy's 
 quarter, to watch the motions of Montrose, who, along 
 with Marischal, was strongly entrenched before Dunot- 
 ter, with about eight hundred foot and horse, two brass 
 demi-cannon,and some field-pieces, brought out of Mari* 
 schal's stronghold, the gates of which were open to 
 receive them on a retreat. Montrose and his party kept 
 themselves closely and quietly within their works at 
 Stonehaven all night, without attempting to molest 
 Aboyne's cavalry, which returned to the main body 
 before sunrise. Early on the morning of Saturday, 
 the loyalists marched forward in the direction of the 
 church of Fetteresso, till within a mile of Stonehaven, 
 when Colonel Gun, into whose hands Aboyne had placed 
 the command of his army, gave orders to turn off the 
 high road, to the left hand, upon a heath or moor, where 
 
 * James Gordon's MS.
 
 RAID OF STONEHAVEN. 283 
 
 he drew them up in battle array. The van, commanded 
 by Sir John Gordon of Haddo, was composed of 
 a volunteer corps of a hundred gentlemen, cuirassiers, 
 " who for their colours carried a handkerchief upon a 
 lance ;" next came a regiment of musketeers, citizens 
 of Aberdeen, about four hundred strong ; in the rear 
 were the Highlanders, and the cavalry were disposed 
 on the flanks. Montrose, aware that Stonehaven was 
 not tenable, had made arrangements to retreat into the 
 stronghold of Dunotter ; but, it is said, in order to gain 
 time to reinforce his troops, he now sent to Aboyne " a 
 letter by way of complimenting challenge," which had 
 the effect of drawing that young nobleman still nearer to 
 Stonehaven, upon a rising ground called the Meagre-hill, 
 where his troops were again drawn up in order of battle, 
 but completely exposed to the fire of Montrose's artil- 
 lery. " Whether," adds James Gordon, " such a letter 
 were ever sent or not, I could never learn, only this 
 much I am sure of, that Aboyne, when his party had 
 got order to march towards Stonehaven, came himself, 
 and told that Montrose had sent them a letter, which 
 lie told very cheerfully, and desired all to take courage." 
 The intention of Aboyne was to inarch directly to the 
 relief of the King, without turning aside to engage 
 Montrose and Marischal, but he was overruled by 
 his military master, upon whom the following severe 
 remarks occur in the manuscript of Patrick Gordon 
 of Cluny.* 
 
 " But Gun, who was now begun to play his pranks, 
 finds this course (of inarching southwards) too safe and 
 fair for a good success, and resolves most basely rather 
 to lose the estimation of a good leader than to put it 
 
 * See before, p. 25"!
 
 284 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 in practice. Arid this did not a little confirm the jea- 
 lousy of the wiser sort, that he had been schooled before 
 he came there ; for when he came near Stonehaven, he 
 leaves the way he should have marched, and most idly, 
 ignorantly, or rather, in plain terms, treacherously, (for 
 he never could give a reason for it but that he did it to 
 harden them, to be cannon-proof,) he draws them all up 
 in battle, upon the side of a little hill that looks towards 
 the town, from whence he was not able to do them the 
 least harm in the world without great ordnance, but 
 was sure to receive it ; for he exposed them all, both 
 horse and foot, to the mercy of the cannon, so that if 
 they (Montrose and Marischal) had been well-stored of 
 good cannon, they had broken and defeated them all, 
 with the devouring fury of the cannon only, without 
 the force of men or arms. But it was their good fortune, 
 as God would have it, the enemy had but two cartowes, 
 and, through want of skill in their cannoneer, some balls 
 went over them a great way, some fell short, and but 
 one lighted amongst them, whereby some were hurt, 
 and some slain, but not many. When he had given 
 the enemy this advantage, and the day was near spent 
 to no other purpose, the Highlanders, of whom there 
 was more than a thousand, seeing the leader expose 
 them wittingly and willingly to the danger, and that 
 in such a posture as their own valour and courage 
 served them to no use, without possibility to revenge 
 the injuries of their enemies, but there must they stand 
 as sheep brought forth to the slaughter, or as a mark 
 to shoot at, they began first to mutiny and desire liberty 
 to depart. This motion pleased him (Gun) well, being 
 only that he sought for, to have those forces weakened, 
 being ashamed to have the charge of an army from 
 which great matters might be hoped for, since he in-
 
 RAID OF STONEHAVEN. 285 
 
 tended nothing less than the advancement of the King's 
 cause. Whereupon this discontentment of the High- 
 landers, he takes occasion to persuade my Lord of 
 Aboyne to dissolve all the foot, and with a camp vo- 
 lant of horsemen he promises to do great matters, and 
 for that end advises him to return to Aberdeen. The 
 young and inexperienced nobleman believes him yet to 
 be so real, that without the advice of the council of war, 
 he licensed all the foot to depart home, and with the 
 horse returns to Aberdeen. And now Gun, having 
 acted the first essay of his treachery, he could not hope 
 but that the enemy, seeing so fair an advantage offered, 
 would be sure to take the occasion, as indeed they did." 
 The account in James Gordon's manuscript is sub- 
 stantially the same, though it varies in some particulars. 
 He says, that after a little skirmishing, in which Aboyne's 
 cavalry were driven back, Montrose sent a few cannon 
 bullets among Aboyne's brigades, which so alarmed the 
 Highlanders that they wheeled about and fled in con- 
 fusion, nor ever looked behind them, (although Aboyne 
 himself made every exertion to rally the fugitives) until 
 they reached a morass about half a mile distant.* This 
 
 * The Highlanders, it seems, were totally unprepared tor the extra- 
 ordinary effect of a " dear Sandy's stoup." They had another name 
 for it, no less expressive, as we learn from Baillie; who thus shortly no- 
 tices the above events, in his correspondence with Spang. " So soon 
 as Montrose had turned homewards to the Mcarns, at once Aboyne and 
 Banff, with Colonel Gun, and some other officers, gathered great forces. 
 Aberdeen joined heartily to the party. They spoiled Marischal's lands, 
 and all our friends there. They bad devoured Dundee and all Angus 
 in the throat of their hope. But at once Montrose and Mnrischal, most 
 valorous and happy noblemen, gave them some other matter to do, though 
 much inferior in number. They came to seek them (Montrose and 
 Marischal.) Some great ordnance we had which moved our part] to 
 hold off, when they were coming on hoping to have clean defeat us; for 
 their Highlanders avowed they could not abide (In musket's mother, 8.1x6 
 so fled in troops at the first volley."
 
 286 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 example, and the indignation felt by the troops at the 
 manner in which they were exposed by Gun, caused the 
 whole of the royal infantry to mutiny and march back 
 to Aberdeen. But a party of horse remained firm, 
 (though played upon by Montrose's two formidable 
 cannon), and masked the retreat, so that Montrose was 
 not aware of the falling away of the forces opposed to 
 him. In the meanwhile Aboyne dispatched two of 
 his officers to Aberdeen, who ordered drums to be beat 
 through the town, summoning these deserters instantly 
 to return to their standard under the pains of treason. 
 No sooner, however, was this proclamation issued, than 
 Aboyne himself entered the town, on Saturday night, 
 having been left with scarcely troops sufficient to 
 guard his person. On the morning of the 15th of 
 June, the royal lieutenant was at the head of four 
 thousand foot and horse, " as gallant and resolute and 
 well-appointed men," says James Gordon, " as were to 
 be found in Scotland ;" and this in the face of an enemy 
 not above eight hundred strong. On the morning of 
 the 16th, he was back in Aberdeen with no more than 
 six hundred horse, composed of the gallant Gordons, 
 who still rallied round him, intreating him. however, 
 as he valued the royal cause, to have nothing more to 
 do with traitor Gun. No one seems to have imputed 
 this disaster, (which acquired the name of the Raid of 
 Stonehaven,) to the misconduct of Aboyne, but such 
 was the disgust at his military adviser, that the royal 
 standard could not now command a single foot regiment. 
 Yet, neither could the young Viscount be persuaded that 
 the distinguished veteran whom theMarquis of Hamilton 
 had desired him to rely upon, and who, like his patron, 
 was full of stories of the immortal Gustavus, intended 
 treachery, or deserved to be ignominiously dismissed 
 saAboyne was entreated to do.
 
 MONTROSE MARCHES UPON ABERDEEN. 287 
 
 Montrose, with the prompt energy to which he owed 
 his future successes, instantly determined to march once 
 more upon Aberdeen, and when within six miles of 
 that devoted town, an advanced party of his cavalry 
 encountered an equal number of the Gordons, whom 
 Aboyne had dispatched to watch the motions of the 
 Covenanters. Being only seven on each side, there was 
 something knightly and romantic in this encounter, 
 in which the Gordons were victors, for after several 
 wounds sriven and received, Montrose's seven horsemen 
 were defeated, and the laird of Powrie Fotheringhame 
 made prisoner by Gordon of Fechill, and Ogilvy of 
 Powrie, younger, wounded and taken by Nathaniel 
 Gordon, best and bravest of loyalists, the future com- 
 panion, and fellow martyr, of Montrose. Aboyne's par- 
 ty was led upon this occasion by the gallant Colonel 
 Johnston, who was most anxious to have returned to 
 the charge with the whole chivalry of the Gordons, 
 which he promised would utterly rout the combined 
 forces of Montrose and Marischal. The result of his 
 spirited councils, and of his obstinate defence of the 
 bridge of Dee, all rendered abortive by traitor Gun, 
 we cannot do better than present to our readers in the 
 precise words of the manuscript accounts left by Patrick 
 and James Gordon. 
 
 " Then arose," says Patrick Gordon, " a new occasion 
 of jealousy towards Gun ; for my Lord (Aboyne) had 
 commanded Johnston to take some horsemen with him, 
 and go forth to view the enemy, which he did very 
 exactly, and, when he returned, assures my Lord that 
 if he would give him out an hundred horse, and fifty 
 commanded musketeers, he Mas sure to give them such 
 a commissado as should bring them all to confusion, and 
 if he were well seconded with the rest of the horsemen,
 
 288 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 it might haply gain them an entire victory ; yea, if 
 the worst should come, which could not come except 
 the heavenly providence had decreed it, he was sure by 
 God's grace to make a safe retreat,— for at that time 
 they lay at the Cassie-nsunth, careless and at random, — 
 that they could never have a fitter and fairer occasion. 
 And truly this was not be imputed to their leader 
 Montrose, who was both valiant and vigilant, and ever 
 in action, and had given out his orders very carefully ; 
 but they, for the most part, having never had experi- 
 ence of martial stratagems, and the under-officers being- 
 assured that Aboyne's forces were dissolved, kept neither 
 watch nor ward according to their orders. The Vis- 
 count was very willing to satisfy Johnston according 
 to his demands, yet would not seem to slight Gun so 
 much as not to have his approbation to it. Wherefore, 
 he went himself to his lodging, whom he found already 
 in bed, as one that little cared how the business went, 
 to whom he imparted Johnston's offer, but found him 
 so averse from any such enterprize, that he avowed, if 
 they would not be ruled by him, nor follow his advices, 
 he would quit his charge, and return to his Majesty, 
 leaving them to bear their own burden and blame. This 
 young and hopeful Viscount, being yet under twenty, 
 and this being the harvest or first fruits whereby he 
 was to give a proof of his love and loyalty to his Ma- 
 jesty's service, would not directly oppose a man of such 
 known experience, to the no small grief of many that 
 were there." 
 
 We shall now follow the manuscript of James Gor- 
 don, which is fuller than Cluny's in the account of Mon- 
 trose's forcing the passage of the Dee. 
 
 " The party that went out upon Monday at night, 
 brought back word to Aberdeen, that Montrose was
 
 BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE OF DEE. 289 
 
 marching close at their (heels. Whereupon, a little 
 before sun rising, June 18th, drums beat, trumpets 
 sound to horse, and the Aberdeensmen were com- 
 manded to arm. Such Strathbogy foot, as had not dis- 
 banded with the rest, were ordered to march instantly 
 towards the bridge of Dee, two miles distant south- 
 west from Aberdeen, to make good the pass of the 
 bridge till the rest should come up. These failed not 
 to do as they were commanded, casting turfs and earth, 
 as much as the shortness of the time would permit, 
 behind the gate of the bridge which stands upon the 
 south end thereof. This was to some purpose, for 
 Aboyne had not numbers to fight Montrose, and besides 
 that, the rains had swelled the river Dee so that it 
 could not be crossed by horses. Immediately after 
 followed such horsemen as Aboyne had, who came upon 
 the spur to the bridge of Dee, but they were no sooner 
 come there than they could espy Montrose's forces 
 upon the high ground beyond the bridge, at a quarter 
 mile of distance ; who seeing Aboyne's party possessed 
 of the bridge, made a stand, and fired their two pieces 
 of half cannon upon Aboyne's cavalry, which fell short 
 of the foremost rank. They had got close to the 
 bridge, out of curiosity to get a fuller sight of the 
 enemy, therefore they were commanded to retire to 
 safer ground. Their retreat gave the enemy a fuller 
 view of them, who thereupon discharged at them about 
 sixteen shot of field-pieces, besides their two half can- 
 non, but without any hurt done. By this time the 
 Aberdeen companies, about four colours, were come up 
 to the bridge, and the horsemen drew under cover. 
 Before ever they could approach, Montrose caused dis- 
 charge some cannon shot amongst them, but without 
 effect, and how soon their commanded party took up 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 290 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 their post upon the long bridge of seven arches, the 
 Covenanters began to discharge their battering pieces 
 against the ravelins of the bridge, and to fall on with 
 parties of commanded musketeers. The Aberdeensmen 
 stood to it gallantly, and all that day continued giving 
 fire, Johnston, their townsman, still assisting and en- 
 couraging them, nor lost they any man that day, save 
 one John Forbes, a burgess of Aberdeen. And now 
 their women and servants were become so courage- 
 ous, that after two or three hours service they, misre- 
 garding cannon and musket shot, went and came to the 
 bridge with provisions and necessaries for their friends 
 and relations who were upon service. In the afternoon, 
 the companies of Dundee, emulous of the Aberdeen 
 citizens, desired to be letten (allowed to) storm the 
 bridge, which Montrose readily yielded to. Two com- 
 panies fell on under the command of one Captain Bonar, 
 but they found so hot a welcome from the Aberdeens- 
 men that they made a quick retreat, which was seconded 
 with whooping and hollowing of such as were looking 
 on, who mocked their poor bravado. The service con- 
 tinued till the night came, both sides being weary 
 rather than it falling dark, for there is no sky-set then 
 in the north of Scotland. So both sides intermitted till 
 the morning of the next day, June 19th, and there in 
 the forenoon they began afresh Montrose, who thought 
 such a delay little better than to be beaten, caused draw 
 his two half cannon within nearer distance to the bridge 
 in the night time, and by help of the coming daylight, 
 did cause level them against the port of the bridge of 
 Dee, both to break the gates of the port, and scour the 
 bridge all along ; for the day before, most of the cannon 
 shot were made against one of the corners of the port, 
 which looked to the south-west, whereby one of the
 
 battle of the bridge of dee. 291 
 
 small watch turrets upon the sides of the port, was 
 much shattered in the top of it, being all hewn stone, 
 as all that bridge is, one of the gallantest in Scotland, 
 if not the stateliest itself. 
 
 " But the defendants could not thus be driven to 
 leave it, albeit the cannon shot had broken the gates of 
 the port, and scoured the way of the bridge all along. 
 Aboyne's horsemen likewise drew near to second the 
 foot, which Montrose espying, made a feint with a part 
 of his horsemen, causing them ride upwards along the 
 side of the river, as if they meant to have crossed it 
 near Banchory. Colonel Gun, who could espy no oc- 
 casion before to draw off the horsemen, cries, ' march 
 up the river's side, and stop Montrose's crossing.' It 
 was told him there was no danger, the fords having been 
 lately tried and found impassable. But no assurance 
 could serve his turn who would not believe that which 
 he knew to be true. Therefore, forwards up the river 
 he goes, and now his horsemen being in full view of 
 the enemy's cannon, and a near distance, the Covenant- 
 ers began again to let fly some shot at them. It was 
 with one of these that a gallant gentleman, John Seton 
 of Pitmedden, was shot dead, most part of his body 
 above the saddle being carried away and quashed. This 
 following upon Gun's wilful retreat, discouraged the 
 cavalry a little, who began to speak out that Colonel 
 Gun was betraying them. This misfortune was follow- 
 ed by another. Montrose's party grew still more and 
 more impatient. Lieutenant-Colonel John Middleton, 
 afterwards better known, cried out that their cannon 
 would make them all arrant poltroons, since all their 
 confidence was in their cannon-shot at a distance. Yet 
 nobody durst set on, being somewhat discouraged by 
 the slaughter of one Captain Andrew Ramsay, brother
 
 £92 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 to the Laird of Balmain, a gentleman of Montrose's 
 party, whom one John Gordon of Inch-stomack, a 
 Strathbogie man, had killed the day before with a mark- 
 ed shot, out of indignation that they had killed John 
 Forbes, a burgess of Aberdeen. For this cause, Mid- 
 dleton resolved to storm himself ; but, whilst he was 
 making ready, a part of one of the turrets of the bridge, 
 hard by the port, being struck down by a cannon shot, 
 overthrew Johnston, who stood all the while where the 
 greatest danger was, and being half buried in the ruins, 
 it so quashed one of his legs to pieces, that he could no 
 longer stand. Johnston was instantly carried off ; but 
 his departure discouraged the defendants so that short- 
 ly after, and before the enemy pursued, their Captain 
 being lost, and the horse retired they could not tell 
 whither, they forsook the bridge of their own accord, 
 and left it empty, every one taking a sundry way. 
 
 " The news of Johnston's hurt being brought to 
 Colonel Gun, who was but ridden up the river side a 
 little, his next order that he gave was this — ' Gentle- 
 men,' says he, ' make you for the town, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Johnston is killed, and the bridge is won ;' but 
 his words got slender obedience. Therefore Aboyne, 
 and the rest with him, rode off for Strathbogie, leaving 
 Aberdeen to shift for itself. Whilst they were thinking 
 of a retreat, William Gordon of Arradoule, a resolute 
 gentleman, desired Colonel Gun to stand and wait upon 
 the Covenanters' fore-party crossing the bridge, and 
 showed that as yet they had the advantage. He told 
 him it was not the fashion of Huntly's family to leave 
 the field without fighting the enemy ; but there was no 
 hearing, for it was Gun's fashion always to cry out 
 that, if they would not obey his orders, he would lay 
 down his charge and complain to the King. This re-
 
 BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE OF DEE. 29'i 
 
 fusal of his to charge was so ill taken, that the company 
 began to tell Aboyne that Gun had betrayed him, and 
 Arradoul, in a great chafe, told him to his face that he 
 was a villain, and an arrant traitor, all which Colonel 
 Gun swallowed quietly. Half-an-hour after the foot 
 had left the bridge, the Covenanters' fore-party entered 
 the port, and marched alongst it, keeping their journey 
 towards Aberdeen, for it was late in the afternoon, 
 without offering to pursue any of Aboyne's party, who 
 had got time to retire." * 
 
 Thus was Aberdeen once more in the power of the 
 yet covenanting Montrose. In the next chapter we 
 will have occasion to advert to an assertion of Robert 
 Baillie's, that Montrose, because he had not been ap- 
 pointed in place of Leslie to the command of the cove- 
 nanting army at the borders, was doing his utmost at 
 this very time to ruin the Covenanters, and would ac- 
 tually have placed the whole of the north in the hands 
 of the King, upon the present occasion, had he not been 
 prevented by the " honesty and courage" of Marischal. 
 Such was Baillie's theory of Montrose's motives and 
 actions, when the spleen of the reverend partisan had 
 been stirred by the subsequent career of our hero. Yet, 
 at the time, Baillie expresses the highest admiration of 
 Montrose, and condemns nothing but his lenity — "At 
 once Montrose and Marischal, most valorous and 
 happy noblemen, gave them some other matter to 
 do." " Montrose and Marischal, knowing the danger, 
 not only to their country, but the whole cause, if they 
 should either retire or stand, resolved to go and light." 
 " At last, with some slaughter on both sides, we won the 
 
 * James Gordon's MS. Patrick Gordon's manuscript is equally severe 
 upon Colonel Gun.
 
 %9i MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 bridge ; — we put our enemy to rout — goes forward that 
 same night to Aberdeen, lodges without in the fields, 
 being resolved to-morrow to have sacked it orderly, that 
 hereafter that town should have done our nation no more 
 cumber" But this thirsting for the utter destruction 
 of Aberdeen had no place in the mind of Montrose. 
 It was the natural impulse of an excited and desultory 
 army, and the unnatural, though characteristic longing 
 of a clergyman of the Covenant. " But," he adds, in- 
 consistently and wildly, " as it pleased God to keep us 
 from all marks of the least alleged cruelty from the first 
 taking up of our arms, so there the preventing mercies 
 of God did kythe* in a special manner ; for that same 
 night, by sea, the King's letters of pacification were 
 brought to the town, which to-morrow early, being 
 presented to our nobles, made them glad they had got 
 that blessed cord to hind up their soldiers'' hands from 
 doing of mischief whereto that wicked town's just 
 deservings had made them very bent ; for all our spar- 
 ing, yet that country's malicious disloyalty seems not 
 to be remeided."f 
 
 If the " sweet, meek, humble spirit " of Baillie had 
 commanded this army, instead of Montrose, what would 
 have been the fate of Aberdeen and the north ? It was 
 the generous disposition of a nobleman upon whom 
 covenanting writers, even in our own times, heap every 
 epithet applicable to a blood-thirsty disposition, that 
 now again saved the north, not, indeed, from all the 
 misery and excesses of such intestine commotions, but 
 from the deliberate devastation which, sanctioned by 
 express commission from the Tables, and hallowed by 
 the ardent desire of the covenanting clergy, he was now 
 
 * t. e. was manifested. 
 
 f Baillie's letter to Spang, dated September 28, 1639.
 
 MONTROSE SAVES ABERDEEN. 295 
 
 expected to perpetrate. From Baillie's own excited re- 
 cord it is not difficult to gather thus much. But in the 
 manuscript of James Gordon we find the facts more ex- 
 plicitly stated. 
 
 " The Earl Marischal, and Lord Muchalls, (Burnet 
 of Leys) pressed Montrose to burn the town, and urged 
 him with the Committee's warrant for that effect. He 
 answered, that it was best to advise a night upon it, 
 since Aberdeen was the London of the north, and the 
 want of it would prejudice themselves. It was taken 
 to consideration for that night, and next day the Earl 
 Marischal and Lord Muchalls came protesting he would 
 spare it. He answered he was desirous so to do, but 
 durst not, except they would be his warrant. Where- 
 upon they drew up a paper, signed with both their 
 hands, declaring that they had hindered it, and pro- 
 mising to interpose with the Committee of Estates for 
 him. Yet the next year, when he was made prisoner 
 and accused, this was objected to Montrose, that he had 
 not burned Aberdeen, as he had orders front the Com- 
 mittee of Estates. Then he produced Marischal and 
 Muchalls' paper, which hardly satisfied the exasperated 
 Committee." 
 
 Bishop Guthrie records that Montrose disbanded his 
 forces in Angus, and retired to his own house, expect- 
 ing that Leslie and his council would have sent for him 
 to come and take command of his regiment, and that, as 
 they neglected to do so, he remained at Old Montrose 
 until the return of the army. This account, however, 
 appears to be inaccurate, for, as Baillie himself was with 
 the covenanting army, it may be presumed that he 
 could not be mistaken in what he writes to Spang up- 
 on the occasion, namely, that " Montrose and Marischal 
 did post to Dunse to have their part of the joy, as well
 
 29() MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS 
 
 they did deserve, in the common peace, where they 
 were made most welcome both to their comrades and 
 to their King."* 
 
 * Aboyne took ship to Berwick on the 26th of June, but had nearly 
 been killed by the " rascal multitude," in his coach in Edinburgh. 
 James Gordon's MS. The particulars are thus given by Baillie in his 
 letter to Spang, September 28, 1G39 : " The people of Edinburgh, being 
 provoked by the insolent and triumphant behaviour of that unhappy 
 spark, Aboyne, who yet reeking from our blood in the north, would rat- 
 tle in his open coach through their causey, made an onset upon him, and 
 well near had done him violence." So Baillie, who condemned Mon- 
 trose for not having given up Aberdeen to fire and sword, speaks of the 
 conquered Aboyne as one " reeking from our blood in the north," and 
 justifies the attempt upon his life by what he calls the provocation of 
 Aboyne's travelling in his own carriage through the streets of Edin- 
 burgh, ten dat/s after the pacification had been signed at Berwick ! 
 This was the time when the treasurer, Traquair, was also nearly mur- 
 dered. This breach of the pacification appears to have been the result 
 of some plan, " that in a private way some course may be taken for 
 their terror and disgrace, if they offer to show themselves publicly." — 
 Letter to Wariston. 
 
 Gun went to Berwick at the same time as Aboyne, but we hear of no 
 assault upon him. " But shortly afterwards Johnston coming to court, 
 his leg being cured, accused him as a traitor, and challenged him to 
 single combat. But Hamilton conveyed Gun away to Holland, who, 
 the while that he staid at court, traduced Huntly's followers as boldly 
 as they confidently accused him, so that hardly knew the King whom 
 to believe amongst them." — James Gordon's MS.
 
 FRESH IMPULSE TO THE MOVEMENT. 297 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HOW MONTROSE TURNED FROM THE COVENANTERS, AND TRIED TO 
 
 SAVE THE KING. 
 
 The incident to which historians have generally re- 
 ferred the departure of Montrose from the path of re- 
 bellion, is, as Malcolm Laing expresses it, " the return- 
 ing favour of his Sovereign at Berwick," — a vague and 
 ill-informed assertion, that has been generally, though 
 much too hastily, admitted. Let us consider the cir- 
 cumstances under which Montrose then met the King. 
 
 Had the revolt of Scotland ended with the treaty of 
 Berwick, amply sufficient as the concessions upon that 
 occasion were for the " Religion and Liberties" of Scot- 
 land, the real objects of the faction would yet have been 
 unfulfilled. Their unchristian enmity against the 
 Bishops, their irrational and sweeping projects against 
 Episcopacy, were all unsatisfied. Besides, some of 
 the leaders of this party appeared to be as far as ever 
 from the wealth, power,and aristocratic distinctions, the 
 desire of which was the main-spring of their democratic 
 agitation. The Movement, therefore, must proceed, or 
 the Covenant itself had failed to yield the fruits its in- 
 ventors anticipated. It is an instructive fact, that their 
 chronicler perceived, at the very outset, and before the 
 Covenant was signed, that he was embarked with a 
 party who could not stop short of rebellion and anarchy. 
 " If God," he says, " be pleased to bring upon us the 
 year of our visitation, the Devil could never have in-
 
 298 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 vented so pregnant a means, and ruin this while, one 
 and all, from the prince to the ploughman. For will 
 the prince, at the clergy's desire, go on in violence to 
 press their course, the mischiefs are present, horrible, 
 in a clap, — will he relent,- and give way to our suppli- 
 cations, the danger is not yet passed, — we wot not where 
 to stand, — when the book of canons and service are 
 burnt and away, when the high commission is down, 
 when the articles of Perth are made free, when the 
 Bishops' authority is hemmed in with never so many 
 laws, this makes us not secure from their future danger. 
 So, whatever the Prince grants, I fear we press more 
 than he can grant, and when we are fully satisfied, it 
 is likely England will begin where we have left off." 
 In these sentences how accurately has Baillie epitomized 
 the history of his party. The career of the Covenant 
 was a succession of increasing demands, urged upon the 
 principle, that the moment the pressure was removed, 
 the recoil might be fatal to some of the faction ; till at 
 length the Covenanters considered it essential, not to 
 the happiness and respectability of the country, but to 
 their own existence and individual safety, that England 
 should begin where they, however, did not leave off. 
 
 But Montrose^ though hitherto he had aided the 
 Movement with thoughtless ardour, was not, as we 
 have elsewhere observed, one of the faction. He had been 
 " brought in" as a great prize, but never amalgamated 
 with the Rothes' clique, and when in highest favour 
 with the " Prime Covenanters," was always considered 
 by them apart from the initiated, and simply as a 
 " noble and true-hearted cavalier," — " that noble valiant 
 youth," — " that generous and noble youth," whose 
 " discretion was but too great in sparing the enemies' 
 houses." It was impossible that such a character, at-
 
 FRESH IMPULSE TO THE MOVEMENT. 299 
 
 tached so loosely to the faction, should not have been 
 awakened into loyal feelings by the conduct of the 
 Covenanters, after the King's concessions at the treaty 
 of Berwick. Another of those disgraceful riots in which 
 " the devout wives who at first put life in the cause," 
 were so conspicuous, and which unquestionably were 
 secretly instigated by the principal agents of the faction, 
 again occurred in Edinburgh upon the 2d of July 1639, 
 when the Lord Treasurer Traquair was so brutally 
 assaulted. Bishop Guthrie declares that there were few 
 who doubted that this breach of the pacification " had 
 private allowance," but that Lord Loudon was dis- 
 patched on the 4th to the King at Berwick, to excuse 
 it, and returned with an order from his Majesty re- 
 quiring fourteen of the covenanting leaders to attend 
 him at his court there, in order to arrange his progress 
 to Scotland, where he meant to hold an Assemblv and 
 Parliament in person. Only three of the noblemen 
 obeyed this summons, namely, Montrose, Rothes, and 
 Lothian, and his Majesty was so disgusted by the in- 
 sulting excuses sent by the rest, as to return to London 
 on the 29th, and forego his intention of trusting him- 
 self in the hands of this faithless and unprincipled 
 faction. * 
 
 Dr Cook, in his History of the Church, has adopted, 
 without sufficient examination, the popular theory of 
 Montrose's loyalty. Speaking of the occasion, when 
 Montrose was one of the three noblemen who dared to 
 
 * Guthrie is confirmed in this statement by the King himself, who 
 says, "one of the greatest discouragements we had from going thither 
 was the refusal of such Lords, and others of thai nation whom we sent 
 for, to come to us to Berwick, by which disobedience they manifestly 
 discovered their distrust of us; and it cannol be thought reasonable that 
 we should trust our person with 1 1 1 < <> e- thai distrusted us after SO many 
 arguments and assurances of our goodness towards them."— Declara- 
 tion, 1640.
 
 300 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 trust themselves with the King, he remarks, " but what 
 renders this conference peculiarly memorable is the 
 impression which was made upon Montrose ; hitherto 
 he had been zealous for the Covenant, but he now 
 changed, and resolved to employ his talents for promot- 
 ing the royal cause; the other two remained firm to their 
 party." This, apparently, is recorded in no complimen- 
 tary sense, and the contrast with his companions would 
 seem to be unfavourable for Montrose, although there is 
 no fact brought out inconsistent with his complete justifi- 
 cation. If, however, by the impression alleged, no more is 
 to be understood than some reaction in the generous 
 mind of Montrose, occasioned by a gracious reception 
 from the King, which he had never experienced before, 
 or an explanation of the King's intentions with regard 
 to Scotland, as to which Montrose had been deceived, his 
 keenest eulogist might leave that accusation unrefuted. 
 But that Montrose should have been suddenly gained 
 over, and have " now changed," merely in consequence 
 of some contingency that touched his avarice or ambi- 
 tion, (for it is certain that no immediate reward was 
 held out, as when Rothes fell,) is, under all the circum- 
 stances, any thing but a probable theory. He appears 
 indeed to have been proof against the mere prospect of 
 admission to Court, or the first signal of his " Sove- 
 reign's returning favour," as we learn from Mr Archi- 
 bald Johnston himself, from whom we accept the 
 anecdote as he gives it. That distinguished Covenan- 
 ter is strenuously endeavouring, in a long and charac- 
 teristic epistle, dated 2d January 1639, a few months 
 before this conference at Berwick, to seduce Lord John- 
 ston, and persuade him not to go to Court ; when he 
 uses the argument, — " rather do nobly, as my Lord of 
 Montrose has done, who having received a letter from
 
 INTERVIEW WITH THE KING. 3 01 
 
 the King himself to go up with diligence to his Court, 
 convened some of the nobility, shewed unto them both 
 his particular affairs, and the King's command, and 
 that according tohis covenant of following the com- 
 mon resolution, and eschewing all appearances of di- 
 visive motion, nobly has resolved to follow their counsel, 
 and has gone home to his own house, and will not go 
 to Court at all." It would, however, be a poor defence 
 for Montrose to maintain that he was unmoved by the 
 interview at Berwick with Charles, whose kingly pre- 
 sence and noble aspect were never so imposing as when 
 he was beset by difficulties and danger. The monarch 
 may indeed have particularly desired to reclaim Mon- 
 trose. Struck by his stately and heroic bearing, con- 
 trasted with the irreverent levity of Rothes, and the 
 repulsive democracy of Archibald Johnston, and, per- 
 haps, favourably impressed by the humane forbearance 
 which, contrary to the wish of the covenanting clergy, 
 had characterized Montrose even in rebellion, it is not 
 unlikely that Charles, in the words of his favourite 
 poet, may have inwardly exclaimed at the sight of 
 him, 
 
 O, for a falconer's voice 
 
 To lure this tassel-gentle back again ! 
 
 and the accomplished King, who fascinated Presby- 
 terianism itself,* had indeed a falconer's voice for such 
 a " tassel-gentle." We believe, then, that Montrose 
 
 * Baillie, says, referring to this conference at Berwick, "the King 
 was much delighted with Henderson's discourses, but not so with .John- 
 ston's; much and most tiro communing there was of tin- highest mat- 
 ters of state. It is likely his Majesty's ears had never been tickled with 
 such discourses, yet he was most /><<//( at of them all, and loving of clear 
 reason. His Majesty was ever, the longer tin- better, Loved of all that 
 heard him, as one of the most just, reasonable, weel persons they ever 
 had seen."
 
 302 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 had felt his heart yearn towards Charles the First, 
 that some scales had fallen from his eyes, and that 
 he departed from that interview a wiser and a better 
 man. But the popular calumny is certainly not his- 
 tory, and, indeed, we may distinctly trace its origin 
 in circumstances that suggest a more adequate cause 
 of Montrose's growing opposition to the covenanting 
 faction. 
 
 The General Assembly of 1639 met early in August, 
 the Earl of Traquair being Commissioner. All the 
 extravagant and irrational accusations, confounding 
 Episcopacy with Popery, were now boldly stated, and 
 vehemently pressed. It is well known that, upon this 
 occasion, the original demands of the Covenanters were 
 far exceeded. The whole of King James's establish- 
 ment of the Church of Scotland was overturned, and 
 there was then forced upon the Commissioner and the 
 Privy-Council an ordinance as to imposing the Cove- 
 nant, which Dr Cook condemns as an act to be " ab- 
 horred," as w a deviation from the tolerant spirit of pure 
 religion," as, " in fact, an engine of severe persecution." 
 The Parliament which was to ratify these proceedings 
 met on the 31st of the same month. At the very 
 threshold of this Parliament the faction were met by a 
 necessary result of their reckless violence. The exclu- 
 sion and condemnation of the Bishops had expunged 
 one of the estates of the kingdom, and the whole frame 
 of parliament was by consequence dislocated. The 
 clergy constituted one of those estates, a position of 
 government which in all the previous revolutions con- 
 trolling episcopal power had been saved and ratified. 
 This blow to the existence of the Parliament itself was 
 a sudden and remarkable crisis in the progress of re- 
 sistance to the liturgy, and supplications against the
 
 REVOLUTIONARY PARLIAMENT. 303 
 
 Bishops. Of necessity it impelled the Covenanters 
 upon a new subject of agitation, the structure of 
 Parliament, which they had to remodel on the instant. 
 The Constitution had already broke down under their 
 insane career, and they were constrained to patch it up 
 for the occasion as they best might. To this predica- 
 ment had the demands of the Movement, and the con- 
 cessions of the half-alarmed, and half-outwitted Com- 
 missioner, brought the country and the King. The 
 crisis was so abrupt and violent, that it could not fail 
 to open the eyes of many. For, besides all this, a most 
 determined attack was now made upon the prerogatives 
 of the crown. The control of the Mint, — the com- 
 mand of the strongholds, — the dispensing of honours, 
 offices of state, and jurisdictions, — the regulating pre- 
 cedency, — these were all demanded to be transferred, 
 as privileges, to the Parliament. Here were innova- 
 tions infinitely beyond anything attempted by the King, 
 and which must have convinced all who retained the 
 power of calm reflection, that the design was to abro- 
 gate monarchy. Bishop Guthrie alludes to this state 
 of matters when, in reference to this Parliament, he 
 says, — " The leaders of the cause had further projects, 
 and, instead of rising, proposed a number of new mo- 
 tions concerning the constitution of Parliaments, and 
 other things never treated on before, whereanent the 
 Commissioner told them he had no instructions. Mon- 
 trose argued somewhat against those motions, for which 
 the zealots became suspicious of him, that the King 
 had turned him at his being with his Majesty at Ber- 
 wick ; yet they seemed to take little notice thereof, 
 only the vulgar, whom they used to hound out, whis- 
 pered in the streets to his prejudice, and the next 
 morning he found affixed upon his chamber door a pa-
 
 304 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 per with these words written in it, invictus armis ver- 
 bis vincitur"* 
 
 It is remarkable that temperate historians, such as 
 Mr Laing and Dr Cook, should have recorded, as an 
 undoubted historical fact, a mere vulgar clamour, 
 prompted, indeed, by the faction, but generally appre- 
 ciated even at the time according to its true value. 
 Baillie, in a letter dated 12th October 1639, (the third 
 month of the Parliament in question) speaks, even then, 
 of Montrose's defection, not as having been certainly 
 secured at Berwick, but as a rumour, and in prospect 
 only. Nor does he name Montrose alone, but accord- 
 ing to his peculiar vision of the matter, points to many 
 others who were now beginning to waver in their head- 
 long course. " Division," he says, " is much laboured 
 for in all our estate. They speak of 'too great prevail- 
 ing with our nobles. Hume evidently fallen off- — 
 Montrose not unlikely to be ensnared with the fair pro- 
 mises of advancement — Marischal, Sutherland, and 
 others, somewhat doubted — Sheriff of Teviotdale, and 
 some of the Barons, inclining the Court way — divisions 
 betwixt the merchants and crafts of Edinburgh, and so, 
 by consequence, of all the burghs of Scotland, carefully 
 fostered by our Commissioner — our prime clergy, like 
 
 * " The invincible in arms is vanquished by words." This mode of 
 conveying the calumny was a compliment to the valour and letters of 
 Montrose, indicating the estimation in which he was held for both. 
 Whoever affixed it to his door, the vulgar could not have conceived the 
 mode of reproof. But the calumny only went abroad as a vague and 
 vulgar rumour, and was never made a charge against him, except by 
 modern historians. We shall afterwards have occasion to refer to the 
 original manuscript deposition of Montrose himself, wherein he declares 
 that he did not correspond with the King when his Majesty was at 
 Berwick, but that he wrote one or two letters to him during the ensuing 
 Parliament. This corroborates the view that it was the proceedings of 
 that revolutionary convention, (against which Montrose argued) that 
 first made him seriously alarmed for the Monarchy.
 
 COVENANTING CALUMNIES. 305 
 
 to fall foul upon the question of our new private meet- 
 ings." We find, too, in the correspondence of this re- 
 verend partisan, another version of Montrose's defection, 
 somewhat different from that of the Berwick seduction. 
 In a letter, dated in 1645, to which we have elsewhere 
 alluded, when most violently excited against Mon- 
 trose, Baillie writes, — " Our present posture is this ; 
 when the canniness of Rothes had brought in Montrose 
 to our party, his more than ordinary and evil pride 
 made him very hard to be guided ; his first voyage to 
 Aberdeen made him swallow the certain hopes of a 
 generalate over all our armies ; when that honour was 
 put upon Leslie, he incontinent began to deal with 
 the King, and, when we were at Dunse-law, had given 
 assurance, and was in a fair way of performance had 
 not the honesty and courage of Marischal prevented it, 
 to have given over the whole north to the enemy ; 
 when our voyage to Newcastle came in hand, by his 
 damnable band he thought to have sold us to the 
 enemy ; thereafter he was ever on correspondence for 
 our ruin." From such vague calumnies, — the prejudiced 
 assumptions of the moment, by narrow and clouded 
 minds judging characters they were incapable of ap- 
 preciating, — a certain class of writers concoct pages of 
 positive assertion against Montrose, and call it history. 
 It may be seen, from the history we have already traced, 
 how groundless is the assertion that jealousy of Leslie's 
 appointment, to command the rebellious army of 16S9, 
 induced Montrose, at tins time, to turn against the Cove- 
 nanters. Baillie's theory in 1645 is totally at variance 
 with the facts he himself records in 1639* Besides, 
 Marischal, a youth of about three-and-twenty, was 
 obviously swayed by Montrose, and we shall find that 
 the very first signature to what Baillie calls Montrose's 
 vol. i. u
 
 306 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 " damnable band," is that of Marischal. Because Mon- 
 trose, on the eve of the pacification, had resisted the 
 entreaties of those around him, to obey the warrant of 
 the Committee of Estates, and give up the town and 
 country of Aberdeen to the devastation of fire and sword, 
 this covenanting clergyman, some years afterwards, 
 paints it as a piece of interested treachery, on the part 
 of a commander too humane for the arms of the Co- 
 venant, and assumes that Montrose was in a fair way 
 to have given over the whole north to the enemy. Then, 
 in the nineteenth century, Mr Brodie, without ex- 
 piscating the circumstances upon which Baillie's theory 
 is founded, thus epitomizes it into a historical fact ; — 
 " Montrose, who had been 'previously tampering, was 
 seduced at Berwick from his party and principles, and 
 afterwards became the most furious enemy of the cause 
 he had formerly been the most forward to espouse." * 
 
 At the time when Traquair obtained his commission 
 under the Great Seal, to hold the Scotch Parliament in 
 June 1.640, another commission, under the quarter seal, 
 was issued to Lord Elphinstone, Lord Napier, the 
 Lord Justice-Clerk, and the Lord Advocate, by which 
 any three of them were empowered to act in Traquair's 
 absence, but upon his order. The Lord Advocate had 
 been placed under confinement in his own house of 
 Craighall, " upon pretence (says Burnet ) of some pet- 
 ty malversation in his office, but really because of his 
 adhering to the Covenanters too much." When this diet 
 of Parliament arrived, however, as Scotland was in open 
 rebellion, and Traquair had been nearly murdered 
 on the streets of Edinburgh when last there, Charles 
 did not choose to send down his commissioner to run 
 
 * Hist, of the Brit. Emp. ii. 507. The forcing- the passage of the 
 Dee was a novel mode of tampering.
 
 PARLIAMENT OF JUNE l6iO. 307 
 
 such risks, but transmitted a command to the Justice- 
 Clerk to take the Advocate along with him, and proro- 
 gate the Parliament in virtue of the sub-commission. 
 Burnet says that the Lord Advocate " was glad both of 
 being delivered from his disgrace, and for being honoured 
 with the employment," and that when the Parliament 
 met, he moved Lord Elphinstone, as first named in the 
 commission, to go up with them to the throne and 
 execute the King's command. That nobleman required 
 to see Traquair's order. Hope urged the King's com- 
 mand as paramount, but Elphinston would not depart 
 from the letter of his commission. The Advocate then 
 turned to Lord Napier, who was much too precise and 
 punctilious in all such matters to be guided by any 
 thing but the express terms of the Royal Commission, 
 and he, too, declined to act. Nevertheless the Cove- 
 nanting Parliament determined to sit, and elected Lord 
 Burleigh as their President. 
 
 The only nobleman who appears to have opposed 
 with spirit and determination the assumed powers of 
 this extraordinary Parliament was Montrose himself. 
 Bishop Guthrie has told us that, in the deinocratical 
 proceedings of 1639, Montrose first incurred the dis- 
 pleasure of the faction by arguing against their revolu- 
 tionary propositions. What we are about to narrate 
 corroborates that statement, and from a quarter that is 
 not to be doubted. It will be manifest, when we come 
 to record the history of Montrose's first conservative 
 attempts to countermine the leading Covenanters, that 
 in these Parliaments, and elsewhere, he had been startled 
 and shocked by the treasonable manner in which the 
 King's authority, or the necessity of having a King at 
 all, began to be spoken of; and lie had even gathered 
 expressions, and rumours of expressions, from Argvle
 
 308 MONTUOSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 and others, which, if proven, amounted to "high treason 
 in the highest degree," — expressions we here anticipate 
 from an original manuscript of Montrose's own conversa- 
 tion on the subject. There is no record of the speeches that 
 passed in these Parliaments, but, fortunately, we discover 
 an original letter throwing more light upon the matter 
 than has hitherto been obtained. When the noted Archi- 
 bald Johnston was in London with the commissioners for 
 the treaty of 1641, a report had reached him of a threat- 
 ened impeachment of some of their number, and his con- 
 science immediately informed him upon whom, and from 
 whence, that impeachment was to come. In April of 
 that year he wrote privately to the clique in Edinburgh, 
 to be prepared with some prosecution or rather perse- 
 cution of Montrose, whom he heard was the author of 
 certain accusations of high treason, understood to be 
 impending over the most conspicuous of their own 
 number. He further states his suspicion, that the ac- 
 cusation rested upon the speeches that passed at the 
 debate on the meeting of this Parliament in June 1640, 
 and he reminds his correspondents, that, upon that oc- 
 casion, " Montrose did dispute against Argyle, Rothes, 
 Balmerino, and myself, because some urged, that, as 
 long as we had a King, we could not sit without him ; 
 and it was answered, that to do the less was more law- 
 ful than to do the greater." * This is not very fully 
 or explicitly stated ; but, taking it in connection with 
 an accusation preferred against Argyle in reference to 
 the same occasion, (a mysterious story we shall after- 
 wards have occasion to expiscate,) we make no doubt 
 that the above is a very cautious and subdued reference 
 to certain treasonable expressions and propositions that 
 
 * Original MS. See Chapter XI. where Archibald Johnston's cor- 
 respondence is given from the original manusciipts. 
 
 4.
 
 COMMITTEE OF ESTATES 1640. 309 
 
 had occurred at this lawless convention, " whereof 
 (says honest Spalding) the like was never seen in the 
 Christian world, where any King ruled and rang." The 
 whole revolutionary plan of the previous Parliament 
 was here effected, and various acts were passed and 
 forced upon all, the manifest object of which was to 
 fortify the faction in the approaching rebellion. The 
 conservative feelings of Montrose, and a few others in 
 this Parliament, were powerless to arrest the develope- 
 ment of the " cloud in the north." They were induced, 
 or rather compelled, to subscribe with the rest its law- 
 less proceedings, in the vain hope that here was the 
 utmost limit of the movement, and that by giving way 
 to the pressure now, they were preserving themselves 
 to be of use to the King in future. Nay, by a master 
 stroke of policy on the part of the faction, they were 
 even put upon the monstrous committee to which this 
 Parliament gave birth. 
 
 From James Gordon's manuscript we shall now ex- 
 tract a very distinct and curious account of the new go- 
 vernment, constituted by this revolutionary convention 
 of June 1640. 
 
 " It will not be amiss to give some account of the 
 Committee of Estates, and their power, as it was spe- 
 cified in this Parliament, because in the following year 
 this new representative had the power of kings and 
 parliaments engrossed in their persons and judicatories. 
 The members of it were noblemen, Rothes, Montrose, 
 Cassils, Wigton, Dumfermline, Lothian, Earls ; for 
 Lords were, Lindsay, Balmerino, Couper, Burleigh, 
 Napier, Lower ; Lords of Session were, Lord Dury, 
 Lord Craighall, Lord Scotstarvet ; then followed Sir 
 Thomas Nicholson of Carnock, lawyer, Sir Patrick 
 Hepburn of Wachton, Sir David Hume ofWedderburn,
 
 310 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Sir George Stirling of Keir, Sir Patrick Murray of 
 Elibank, Sir Patrick Hamilton of Little Preston, Sir 
 William Cunningham of Caprington, Sir William 
 Douglas of Cavers, James Chamber of Gadgirth, Sir 
 Thomas Hope of Carse, Drummond of Riccarton, 
 Laird of Lesley, Forbes, Mr George Dundas of Man- 
 ner, John Smith, burgess of Edinburgh, Thomas Pa- 
 terson, taylor, Richard Maxwell, sadler in Edinburgh, 
 William Hamilton, burgess of Lithgow, Mr Alexander 
 Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee, George Porterfield, bai- 
 lie of Glasgow, Hugh Kennedy, bailie of Ayr, John 
 Rutherfurd, provost of Jedburgh, Mr Alexander Jaf- 
 fray, burgess of Aberdeen, in his absence, James Sword, 
 burgess of St Andrews, and James Scot, burgess of Mon- 
 trose. These were a mixed multitude — many heads here 
 but few statesmen, though all nominated to sit at the 
 helm. Some of these were /mown to favour the King* 
 yet were nominated either to unmask them, or to de- 
 bauch them by their concurrence against him ; others 
 added for their insufficiency, as knowing that they bore 
 a zeal to the cause without knowledge, so the fitter for 
 their ends ; they were added as ciphers, to the few di- 
 gital statesmen who sat here, to make up number, and 
 for the greater authority, and mainly to delude these 
 simple ignorants by making them believe that they had 
 power and authority, when indeed they mad but the 
 name, and others the sway. These were added, and 
 augmented, and changed, or turned off, as the few 
 ringleaders saw occasion in the following years, or as 
 they found them faithful and forward, or growing cold 
 or slack ; and before the year turned round there inter- 
 
 * I have marked with Italics the names of those who were certainly 
 of Montrose's party, and may be termed conservative.
 
 POWER AND CUNNING OF AltGYLE. 311 
 
 veiled a foul rupture and schism amongst the principal 
 members of this committee. One thing was much re- 
 marked here by all men, that it shewed much modesty 
 and self-denial in Argyle to be contented not to be 
 preferred to this high honour. But all saw he w r as 
 major potestas, and though not formally a member, yet 
 all knew that it was his influence that gave being, life, 
 and motion to these new-modelled governors ; and not 
 a few thought that this junto was his invention. If it 
 were so or not, I determine not. A reason why he was 
 not nominated was his absence at this time in the 
 Highlands, and his being employed much of this sum- 
 mer in waiting upon the supposed invasion of Straf- 
 ford's army. Yet there was a door left open for him 
 to enter the committee whenever he pleased, both as an 
 officer of the army, and upon the call of the committee ; 
 for they had power to call any they pleased to assist 
 them, so, albeit he was not nominated, yet he was in- 
 cluded in the state committee." 
 
 That the above is a true account of this committee, 
 which usurped every function of government, and by 
 means of the lurking power of Argyle, and the factious 
 abilities of a i'vw leading Covenanters, commanded the 
 Parliament of which they professed to be the organ, will 
 be amply proved even by the history of their proceedings 
 against Montrose, to be presently unfolded. The re- 
 volt of Scotland was manifestly progressing (from 
 the tithe agitation of Rothes, who was now compara- 
 tively insignificant,) to be under the dictatorship of 
 Argyle, whose " great power and following," and vi- 
 cious ability, rendered him, notwithstanding his con- 
 stitutional nervousness, without a competitor in such a 
 pretension. Argyle was sent, both in 1639 and 1640,
 
 312 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 by the Covenanters, (which of course means by his own 
 desire) against the loyally affected in the north, where 
 many of his personal and hereditary enmities were to be 
 gratified. These expeditions appear to have been cha- 
 racterized on the part of Argyle by treachery, cruelty, 
 and a malicious jealousy of the more generous cam- 
 paign of Montrose. The latter had garrisoned the 
 ever loyal house of Airly, but at the same time behav- 
 ed with the humanity which in his general treatment 
 of " the enemy " was so displeasing even to the Rev. 
 Robert Baillie. Argyle, a soldier worthier of the Co- 
 venant, followed, not like mercy, the steps of Montrose 
 in the north. In vain Montrose wrote to him that the 
 house of Airly had been already visited, and was occu- 
 pied by his own soldiers. It was doomed to destruction 
 by Argyle, who (as he generally contrived) found no force 
 opposed to him, and who, " at the demolishing thereof, 
 is said to have shewed himself extremely earnest, — that he 
 was seen taking a hammer in his hand, and knockingdown 
 the hewen work of the doors and windows till he did 
 sweat for heat at his work." * But, besides indulging 
 his vindictive feelings against the gallant Ogilvies of 
 the Braes of Angus, Argyle, on this same expedition, 
 concussed the people of Athol, and as contemporary 
 writers record, by the treacherous tactics characte- 
 ristic of his military capacities, without a blow struck (to 
 the great disappointment of the Athol men, who, says Gu- 
 thrie, " would gladly have had a bout with the Argi- 
 lians,") surprised and made prisoners the Earl of Athol 
 himself, along with eight gentlemen of that country, 
 among whom was the unfortunate John Stewart, 
 younger of Lady well. They were made prisoners in 
 
 * James Gordon's MS. See note to this page at the end of the volume.
 
 MONTROSE'S MOTIVES AND OBJECTS. 313 
 
 Argyle's own tent, at the Ford of Lyon, where, as cir- 
 cumstantially reported to Montrose by John Stewart, 
 certain expressions passed, in presence of the soldiers, 
 relative to dethroning the King in Scotland. It is 
 worthy of remark, too, that, according to Stewart's 
 story, this conversation had reference to that very de- 
 bate mysteriously alluded to in the passage we have 
 quoted from the secret correspondence of Archibald 
 Johnston. The history of this charge of high treason 
 against Argyle (which became the means of destroy- 
 ing the conservative party in Scotland) will appear in 
 a subsequent chapter. 
 
 Thus it happened that Montrose, (independently of 
 the circumstances already detailed as having opened his 
 eyes to the danger of the country, and caused him in 
 the parliaments of 1639 and 1640, to " dispute" against 
 such statesmen as Argyle, Rothes, Balmerino, and 
 Archibald Johnston,) shortly after the last convention 
 of the Estates in June, had become impressed with the 
 belief that a plot really existed to dethrone the King 
 in Scotland, and to place the Earl of Argyle as dictator 
 over the distracted country. This had been pressed 
 upon his attention by various circumstances occurring 
 about the same time, and which were sufficiently con- 
 vincing, though it was not so easy to bring home an 
 accusation of the sort against the wily and powerful 
 highland potentate, who rejoiced in a supreme crimi- 
 nal jurisdiction as his own appanage, and lorded it over 
 hosts of " uncanny trewsmen," — as Baillie calls them 
 with mingled fear and admiration, — " these supple fel- 
 lows with their plaids, targes, and dorlachs," — whose 
 memories and consciences were as supple as their limbs. 
 Montrose determined, however, to unravel the treason 
 and denounce the traitors, and he was most anxious
 
 314 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 that the Parliament should meet in November 1640, 
 (to which time it had been prorogued from June,) and 
 that the King should be present in person, when he in- 
 tended, first, to clear himself from the aspersions cast 
 upon him as a " backslider in the cause," and then to 
 prefer an impeachment even against the most powerful 
 if he found the proofs sufficient. 
 
 But Montrose, much too ardent and open to cope with 
 his wily opponents, or to conduct a scheme of the kind 
 in such times, even Montrose felt the necessity of cau- 
 tion. As yet he had no access (notwithstanding the 
 calumny against him) to the King's ear, and he re- 
 quired to be backed by a powerful party, and irresisti- 
 bly armed with proof, ere he could effectually prefer 
 this public accusation. For the faction had adopted, 
 in their own favour, various acts against leasing-mak- 
 ing (most tyrannical instruments in their hands, as we 
 will find), a measure pointedly directed against all who 
 might in any way impugn their proceedings. Now, 
 when it was discovered that Montrose was " very hard 
 to be guided," his enemies were ever on the watch to 
 bring him under some of these lawless covenanting acts 
 against " incendiaries" and leasing-makers. Of his criti- 
 cal position Montrose himself was perfectly aware, and 
 what he did was this : Sometime in the month of July 
 1640, he framed a conservative bond, to which he ob- 
 tained the signatures of various noblemen, chiefly his 
 own connections, at Cumbernauld, the bouse of his re- 
 lative Fleming, Earl of Wigton. Montrose was now 
 decidedly marked by the Covenanters, or the few who 
 represented them, as inimical to their schemes, though, 
 from cunning policy, they still retained him, and other 
 loyalists, in their military commands. But Montrose 
 resolved, in his own mind, that, so far as his influence
 
 MONTROSE'S MOTIVES AND OBJECTS. 315 
 
 could prevail, that army should not rob the King of his 
 prerogatives. To the bond above-mentioned he had 
 obtained, among other important signatures, that of the 
 Lieutenant-General himself, Lord Amond, who was 
 second in command under Leslie. Thus Montrose 
 hoped to have saved the King from any desperate de- 
 signs of this invasion, and also to have bound together 
 a party to support his undisguised opposition in the 
 ensuing Parliament. This measure of necessity, the 
 true history and details of which have never been re- 
 corded, is vaguely referred to by those inimical to the 
 fame of Montrose, in order to prove mean duplicity 
 against a character naturally as truthful and fearless as 
 ever fell a victim to faction. Compelled as he was to 
 manoeuvre for his King, in times when loyalty scarce- 
 ly dared to manifest itself in Scotland, we will find that 
 for the successful conduct even of this stratagem his 
 nature was totally unsuited. The terms of this bond, 
 and the reasons for it assigned by Montrose himself, 
 will be laid before the reader, when we arrive at the 
 circumstances which brought the matter prematurely to 
 light. In the meantime we must follow him with the 
 invading army to Newcastle. 
 
 Argyle acted as whipper-in to the Scotch army, but 
 always found an excuse for not joining it in person.* 
 
 * Baillie gives a most amusing account of Argyle's campaigns with 
 the covenanting rebels. Upon the occasion of their first expedition to 
 Berwick that nobleman did not accompany them ; hut " Argyle was sent 
 for to the treaty of peace, for without kim none would mind to treat; 
 lie came and set up his tent in the hill, hut few of his people with him." 
 His peculiar province, however, was " to lie about Stilling, in the hearl 
 of the country, to he always ready in subsidies for unexpected accidents, 
 to be a terror to our neutralists, [i. e. all peaceably inclined and well dis- 
 posed persons] or but masked friends [i. c all conservative Covenanters .
 
 316 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 A respectable army, numerically considered, was at 
 length assembled, and encamped at Chess-law (or Chou- 
 seley) wood, near Dunse, where it remained for some 
 weeks, apparently in doubt whether to venture upon the 
 borders. The general Committee, which now governed 
 Scotland, had been divided into two parts, one whereof 
 was destined to attend the march, and the other to sit 
 at home. A deputation was sent from the army to the 
 town of Edinburgh to petition for money, and this was 
 the old clique, Rothes, Loudon, and Mr Archibald 
 Johnston. They were anxious also to obtain linen for 
 tents, " because," they said, " it would be troublesome 
 to those of England, who were much delighted with 
 their planting, if our army should cut down timber for 
 building huts." A fanatical minister and a congregation 
 of women afforded machinery sufficient to realize this lat- 
 ter expectation ; and, accordingly, " Henry Pollock had 
 so sweetly spoken into the people's minds on the Sunday, 
 that the women, afternoon and to-morrow, gave freely 
 great store of that stuff, almost sufficient to cover our 
 whole army." The deputation also collected a large 
 sum of money, their hopes of assistance from England 
 having been grievously disappointed. However, the 
 faction was not to be turned aside from this mercenary 
 crusade against the " Religion and Liberties" of Eng- 
 
 to make all without din march forward, lest his uncanny trewsmenskovldL 
 light on to call them up in the rear — it was thought the country of 
 England was more afraid of 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 upon these supple fellows, with their plaids, 
 targes, and dorlachs." On the second expedition, after all the fighting 
 is over, and the Covenanters in such exultation that, says Baillie, " we 
 shall get for ourselves fair enough conditions ; but it will be to our great 
 regret if we get not all the King's dominions to our happiness," — (i. e. the 
 Presbyterian model!) then, he adds, — " Argyle, with a brave band of 
 gentlemen volunteers on horse are making in," — Letters and Journals.
 
 ENGLAND INVADED, 1640. SI 7 
 
 land, " from whence," adds their too honest chronicler, 
 " there was no expectation of money till ive went to 
 fetch it." It was sometime during this pause, betwixt 
 the mustering of the army and its crossing the borders, 
 that Montrose framed and obtained signatures to his 
 conservative bond * 
 
 The little crooked Felt-Marshal, engaged to fight in 
 the leading strings of a covenanting committee, now 
 again saw himself surrounded by that motley host of 
 black gowns and blue bonnets which composed the fan- 
 tastical ranks of the kirk- militant, and not a man of 
 them with a certain or sane view of their precise plan 
 and purpose. Seizing that attitude of mingled doubt, 
 and daring, and fear, and bravado, some wag of the 
 day has embalmed the Scots invading army of 1640 in 
 an immortal ballad, most descriptive of its extravagant 
 visions, and uncouth array : 
 
 March ! March ! 
 
 Why the devil do ye na march ? 
 
 Stand to your arms, my lads, 
 
 Fight in good order ; 
 
 Front about ye musketeers all 
 
 Till ye come to the English border ; 
 
 » Dr Wishart states, that Montrose was absent when the rebel army 
 came to the determination to cross the borders ; and be adds, — " Which 
 resolution of tbeirs the chief of the Covenanters had taken up in their 
 cabinet counsels more than six weeks before, and to that purpose hail 
 been busy in divulging through all Great Britain their apologetic pam- 
 phlets, whereby they laboured to set a gloss upon the reasons of their 
 expedition. This resolution of theirs, Montrose, being returned, seeing 
 he could not hinder, would not seem to disapprove. Montrose com- 
 manded in this army two thousand foot and five hundred horse; his 
 friends (who were most obliged unto him, and had religiously promised 
 their best endeavours in the King's service) had the command of five 
 thousand more; and truly, if a great part of them had not been worst- 
 than their words, they bad either brought the whole army along with 
 him to the King, or at least had broken the neck of the Covenanters' 
 designs."
 
 318 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Stand till't and fight like men, 
 
 True gospel to maintain, 
 The Parliament's blythe to see us a' coming — 
 
 When to the kirk we come 
 
 We'll purge it ilka room, 
 Frae popish reliques, and a' sic innovation, 
 
 That a' the warld may see 
 
 There's nane in the right, but we 
 Of the auld Scottish nation. 
 Jenny shall wear the hood, 
 Jockey the sark of God, 
 And the kist fou of whistles * 
 That mak sic a cleiro — 
 
 Our pipers bravv 
 
 Shall hae them a', 
 
 Whatever come on it. 
 
 Busk up your plaids, my lads ! 
 
 Cock up your bonnets ! 
 
 When (about the middle of August,) the Covenanters 
 arrived at the Tweed, a curious scene and incident oc- 
 curred, for which we have the authority of James Gor- 
 don, and also of Baillie who was with the army. The 
 chiefs were assembled, and " dice were cast" to determine 
 which should first pass through the river. The lot fell 
 upon Montrose. Either it was so managed to test his wil- 
 lingness, and commit him conspicuously in the rebellion, 
 or the fortune was remarkable. All the contemporary 
 accounts coincide in their description of the alacrity 
 with which our hero set the example to the whole army. 
 " He went on foot himself first through, and returned 
 to encourage his men." There was considerable dan- 
 ger in the attempt, for the stream was so strong that 
 some of the horse were afterwards stationed in the 
 water to break the force of the current, and one of 
 Montrose's soldiers was drowned in the passage. Ani- 
 mated, however, by the gallantry with which he had 
 
 * The organ.
 
 SCOTS ARMY AT NEWCASTLE. 319 
 
 passed and repassed, " boots and all," the whole 
 army prepared to incur once the risk he thus in- 
 curred thrice. " And so," says Baillie, " we passed 
 Tweed the 20th of August with great courage, our 
 horse troops standing in the water, our foot all wading 
 in order about their middle." The miserable affair of 
 Newburn, where Lord Conway scarcely disputed the 
 passage of the Tyne, enabled the Scots to fasten with 
 impunity upon Newcastle, and afforded them the pre- 
 tensions of a great victory. Sir James Turner (appa- 
 rently the prototype of Rit-master Dugald Dalgetty) 
 happened at this time to be returning from mercenary 
 service abroad, and was roving anywhere for a new 
 commander. So he stumbled upon the victorious Scots 
 at Newcastle, where, he says, "I found this success 
 had elevated the minds of my countrymen to such a 
 height of vanity that most of them thought, and many 
 said, they should quickly make a full conquest of Eng- 
 land ; but time hath shewn them since that they made 
 their reckoning without their host." * 
 
 In none of the accounts of this passage of the Tyne 
 do we find any mention of Montrose. The affair ap- 
 pears to have been decided by Leslie's judicious ma- 
 nagement of his " dear Sandie's stoups." f It was to 
 
 * When they came actually to realize the fruits of their adventures, 
 Baillie, I presume the least worldly, tlie most conscientious, ami the 
 most disinterested patriot of the faction, thus gloats over their extraor- 
 dinary good fortune, in the true spirit of the cause, and of liis country. 
 " L.300,000 Sterling — 5,408,000 merks Scots ! is a /urtti/ sum in ,,/ir land, 
 beside the 1,800,000 merks for our army these last four months, and 
 L.25,000 Sterling for the fifth month coming! Net the hearty giving of 
 it to us, as to //it ir brethren, refreshed us as much as the money itself." 
 — Letters and Journals. They had certainly " gone to fetch it " to some 
 purpose. 
 
 t The only mention of Montrose in the Covenanters' dispatches is as 
 follows: " When the army came to their night's leaguer at Newburn-
 
 320 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 their own utter amazement that the Scots obtained 
 this easy possession of Newcastle, " not well knowing," 
 says Baillie, with great simplicity, " not well knowing 
 what to do next, yet this is no new thing to us, for 
 many a time from the beginning we have been at a non 
 <plus" — and, in some tribulation at the long promised 
 assistance from England still failing them, he adds, 
 " if we trouble in the least sort the country of England, 
 we are feared for their rising against us." 
 
 We have now to record the secret history of the 
 conservative plans of Montrose, who (with Lord Na- 
 pier and a few other loyally-inclined Covenanters) was 
 nominally and officially a member of the covenanting 
 committee that accompanied the army, though never 
 consulted, nor admitted to the free masonry of the re- 
 volutionary junto.* 
 
 ford, the general and lieutenant-general, Earl of Montrose, Lord Ker, 
 and some few with them, were going about the fields towards the water, 
 an English troop appeared above the water-brae within a short distance 
 of them. Both halted till some more of our horses came up, and then 
 the English retired over the water.)" 
 
 * The treaty commenced at Rippon in October 1640, and shortly af- 
 terwards, greatly to the advantage of the corresponding factions, was 
 removed to London. Bishop Guthrie, speaking of the state of the com- 
 mittee with the army at Newcastle, says, — " divers of the nobility, such 
 as Montrose, Erskine, Drummond, and others, quarrelled (complained) 
 that they were neglected in the matter of consultation, and that busi- 
 ness was contrived and carried on by a few."
 
 TRAITORS IN THE BED-CHAMBER. .321 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 fate of montrose's first conservative attempts in support of 
 the king's authority. 
 
 Towards the end of the month of September 1640, 
 Montrose contrived to transmit a letter to the King. 
 " In the time of the truce (says Dr Wishart) Montrose 
 had sent letters unto the King, professing his fidelity, 
 and most dutiful and ready obedience to his Majesty, 
 nor did the letters contain any thing else. These being 
 stolen away in the night, and copied out by the King's 
 own bed-chamber men, — men most endeared to the 
 King of all the world, — were sent back by them to the 
 Covenanters at Newcastle ; and it was the fashion with 
 those very men to communicate unto the Covenanters, 
 from day to day, the King's most secret councils, of 
 which they themselves only were either authors or par- 
 takers." * According to Sanderson, this treachery had 
 
 " Bishop Burnet, in his Memoirs of the House of Hamilton, asserts 
 that Sir James Mercer " did often vouch hefore many witnesses," that 
 the Covenanters obtained their knowledge of Montrose's correspond- 
 ence with the King, simply by means of Mercer having read the address 
 of .Montrose's letter, as it accidentally fell to the ground. Burnet adds, 
 without quoting authority, that, being threatened by the covenanting com- 
 mittee, " Montrose came, and produced a copy of the letter he said he had 
 written, and craved pardon, and so this matter was passed over." This 
 version is by way of saving the character of Hamilton, nor is the discre- 
 pancy of much consequence to Montrose. But the evidence of Mon- 
 trose's chaplain, so strongly corroborated by others, is to be preferred to 
 Burnet's. Spalding records, " 16+0 — word came here that the King 
 was under some suspicion of his eubicularu :i (bed-chamber men,) that 
 they were revealing, what they heard him say, to the Scots; whilk I be- 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 322 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 been instigated by the Marquis of Hamilton, and Bi- 
 shop Guthrie declares that Montrose himself, " profes- 
 sing to have certain knowledge thereof, affirmed Wil- 
 liam Murray [the creature of Hamilton] was the man 
 who, in October 1640, sent to Newcastle the copies of 
 his letters, which he had written to the King then at 
 York." Baillie's account of the matter is as follows : — 
 " Some of our officers became mal-contents ; what ailed 
 our officers is not yet well known, only Montrose, whose 
 pride long ago was intolerable, and meaning very doubt- 
 ful, ivas found to have intercourse of letters with the 
 King, for which he was accused publicly by the general 
 in the face of the committee. His bed-fellow Drum- 
 mond, his cousin Fleming, his ally Boyd, and too many 
 others, were thought too much to be of his humour. The 
 coolness of the good old general, and the diligence of the 
 preachers, did shortly cast water on this spunk begin- 
 ning untimeously to smoke." 
 
 It was the instant and fearless assertion by Montrose, 
 of his right to hold a private correspondence with his 
 Sovereign, that paralyzed his accusers, and caused them 
 to be, "as many a time from the beginning they had been, 
 at a non-plus." Hamilton may have entertained hopes of 
 ruining Montrose by this disclosure, and certainly the 
 covenanting faction were most desirous of an oppor- 
 tunity to rid themselves for ever of a nobleman whose 
 talents, courage, and independence, were so formidable 
 to them. The occasion at first appeared to favour their 
 object. Leslie's articles of war decreed that " no man 
 shall at his own hand, without warrant of my Lord 
 General, have or keep intelligence with the enemy, by 
 
 lieve was not far by, so long as he keeped the Marquis of Hamilton be- 
 side him." Laud, Secretary Nicholas, and Charles himself, all bear wit- 
 ness to the fact of his Majesty being a prey to this mean faithlessness of 
 his household.
 
 Montrose's conservative bond. fj2,°> 
 
 speech, letters, signs, or any other way, under the pain 
 to be punished as a traitor.' 1 In fact, his Majesty was 
 considered the enemy, and a loyal correspondence with 
 the Sovereign, apart from the faction, was treason by 
 their code. But when Montrose boldly justified the act, 
 it was impossible to gainsay him. For these same 
 articles of war, true to the system of the Covenanters, 
 who never struck a rebellious blow without first pro- 
 claiming God save the King, contained this provision ; 
 "If any man shall open his mouth against the King's Ma- 
 jesty's person, or authority, or shall presume to touch 
 his sacred person, he shall be punished as a traitor !" So 
 the matter ended for the time. 
 
 But the Earl of Argyle was not to be out-manoeuvred 
 by such a character as Montrose. The private bond, 
 which the latter no doubt flattered himself would be the 
 means of saving the country, was also speedily dis- 
 covered, and brought before the Committee at Edin- 
 burgh by Argyle himself. One of the peers who signed 
 it was young Lord Boyd, Montrose's " ally," and the 
 son-in-law of the Earl of Wigton. Lord Boyd died 
 about the 24th year of his age (according to Sir James 
 Balfour in consequence of a " burning fever,") on the 
 19th November 1640. Shortly before his death he had 
 uttered some expressions which made known that such 
 a bond existed. Argyle, with characteristic sagacity, 
 discovered the whole secret. He paid a visit at Cal- 
 lendar, (where Lord Amond had arrived for a time from 
 his command at Newcastle,) nor did he depart without 
 obtaining all the information of which he was in quest. 
 He laid the matter before his subservient Committee at 
 Edinburgh, who immediately summoned Montrose, 
 then in Scotland, and the rest of the noblemen impli- 
 cated, and within their reach, to appear and answer to 
 this new r accusation of treason against the faction of
 
 324 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Rothes, and the government of Argyle. Montrose 
 upon this occasion acted with the same cool intrepidity 
 which he invariably displayed when placed in a danger- 
 ous position with the party anxious to destroy him, and 
 not scrupulous as to the means. He avowed and justi- 
 fied the act. Spalding says, " Montrose produced the 
 bond." Bishop Guthrie's account is, that " they ac- 
 knowledged the bond, and gave their reasons why they 
 had joined in it, all which were rejected by the Com- 
 mittee, and they declared censurable ; and indeed some 
 of the ministers, and other fiery spirits, pressed that 
 their lives might go for it ; but Argyle and his Com- 
 mittee considered that they were too strong a party to 
 middle with that way, especially seeing divers of them, 
 having the commands of regiments in the army, and 
 therefore they consulted to pack up the business, upon 
 a declaration under their hands that they intended no- 
 thing against the public, together with a surrendering 
 of the bond, which the Committee having gotten caused 
 it to be burnt." If the terms of this bond had been at 
 all discreditable to Montrose, or had it contained any 
 intemperate expressions against " the cause," it would 
 have been printed in the shape of a pamphlet, and circu- 
 lated as a means of agitation against him. But their po- 
 licy was to exasperate the public mind by vague and 
 cloudy rumours, to the effect that this was a diabolical 
 plot against the liberties of the country, and against 
 those sacred and loyal principles which the Covenant had 
 promulgated. The covenanting clergy were particu- 
 larly incensed at the idea of a new Covenant of which 
 they were not the agitators, and Guthrie's statement, 
 that these " fiery spirits pressed that their lives might 
 go for it," is well corroborated by the expressions of 
 Baillie, who calls this conservative attempt, which even
 
 Montrose's conservative bond. 325 
 
 the lawless arm of a tyrannical Committee could not 
 reach, " Montrose's damnable band, by which he thought 
 to have sold us to the enemy.'''' I am not aware that a 
 copy of this bond was hitherto known to exist. It is 
 frequently alluded to in history, but the terms of it are 
 no where quoted. Among the manuscripts of Sir James 
 Balfour, however, I have been so fortunate as to discover 
 a transcript, both of the bond, and of the subsequent de- 
 claration mentioned by Guthrie. These shall now be 
 laid before the reader, that he may judge how far the 
 violent expressions of the reverend Covenanter were 
 justified. 
 
 " The copy of the bond subscribed by Montrose and 
 the rest of these noblemen. 
 
 " Whereas we under-subscribers, out of our duty to 
 Religion, King, and Country, were forced to join our- 
 selves in a Covenant for the maintenance and defence 
 of eithers, and every one of other in that behalf. Now 
 finding how that, by the particular and indirect prac- 
 tising of a few, the country, and cause now depending, 
 does so much suffer, do heartily, hereby, bind and oblige 
 ourselves, out of our duty to all these respects above 
 mentioned, but chiefly and namely that Covenant al- 
 ready signed, to wed and study all public ends which 
 may tend to the safety both of Religion, Laws, and 
 Liberties, of this poor kingdom ; and, as we are to make 
 an account before that Great Judge at the last day, that 
 we shall contribute one with another, in a unanimous 
 and joint way, in whatsomever may concern the public, 
 or this cause, to the hazard of our lives, fortunes and 
 estates, neither of us doing, consulting, nor condescend- 
 ing in any point, without the consent and approbation
 
 ^2(j MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of the whole, in so far as they can be conveniently had, 
 and time may allow. And likeas we swear and pro- 
 test by the same oath, that, in so far as may consist 
 with the good and weal of the public, every one of 
 us shall join and adhere to others, [each other] and 
 their interests, against all persons and causes whatso- 
 ever, so what shall be done to one, with reservation 
 foresaid, shall be equally resented and taken as done to 
 the whole number. In witness hereof, &c." 
 
 " The subscribers of the principal bond, and in this 
 order. Marschell, Montrose, Wigton, Kinghorn, 
 Home, Athol, Mar, Perth, Boyd, Galloway, Stormont, 
 Seaforth, Erskine, Kircubrycht, Amond, Drummond, 
 Johnston, Lour, D. Carnegy Master of Lour," 
 
 * 
 
 * " The copy of the declaration subscribed by Montrose and the rest 
 of the noblemen that subscribed the bond." 
 
 " We under-subscribers conceiving that there was some indirect prac- 
 tising against the public, which induced us to enter in a particular bond 
 among ourselves, conceived by us not to be prejudicial to the Covenant ; 
 and because the adversaries of the common cause did hereby build their 
 hopes, that we thereby intended a division, which was and is contrary 
 to our minds and intentions, and also that the committee thought it in- 
 cumbent to them to interpose themselves in the seeming breach, as well 
 to stop the mouths of our common enemies, as to remove all other mis- 
 takings and apparent divisions, therefore we, to free ourselves of all 
 such suspicions, and to testify our sincere affection to the public, declare 
 that what was done by us, in subscribing that bond, was done out of no 
 evil or divisive intentions, or against our national oath; and that the 
 bond should breed no offence to any person to the prejudice of the pub- 
 lic, we have delivered the same, to be disposed upon as may best tend to 
 the public behoof; and that no jealousies, mistakings, or heart-burnings 
 be entertained by us hereafter, but that all and every one of us, joined 
 in the national Covenant, may, according as we are obliged, be knit to- 
 gether as one man, to the maintenance of religion, king, and country, 
 shall eschew all occasions which may give cause of offence to the public. 
 Likeas we are not accessory to any other bonds besides this, according as 
 we have already declared. Subscribed at Edinburgh, 28th of January 1 64 1 . 
 
 " The subscribers of this declaration are these : Mar, Montrose, Wig- 
 ton, Kinghorn, Home, Galloway, Seafort, Erskine, Kilcubright, Drum- 
 mond, Johnston, Lour."— Denmiln MSS. 13. Advocates' Library.
 
 montrose's conservative bond. 327 
 
 Of the Earl of Mar, Baillie, writing in the year that 
 intervened betwixt that of the Covenant and the date 
 of this bond, observes, " Stirling was in the hand of our 
 sure friend the Earl of Mar, so we touched it not," and 
 surely this chronicler must have blushed to look back 
 upon the drivelling fanaticism quoted below,*" when he 
 found Lord Erskine's name too at the " damnable band." 
 The fact is, that there was neither unanimity nor sanity 
 of constitutional or Christian feeling in the original co- 
 venanting fervour, and those who signed this new bond 
 had a better right to call themselves pure Covenanters, 
 than those by whom it was execrated. For the Cove- 
 nant itself breathed the very essence of loyalty, and, had 
 Montrose acquired the power under a loyal bond of his 
 own, and wielded that power in support of the King's 
 authority against a democratic faction, he would only 
 have redeemed the Covenant from the abuse of it by a 
 few, and brought it to the purity of its original profes- 
 sions. Had he succeeded in destroying a cabal of fac- 
 tionists, who were working out their own fortunes be- 
 hind the Covenant, his bond could not have been called 
 a " divisive motion," subversive of the Covenant. But 
 he Jailed, and therein consisted his crime, for the Cove- 
 nant had reduced the country to this, that might was the 
 only right. 
 
 * " While wo were in some piece of perplexity, we were singularly com- 
 forted, that in the very instant of the Marquis's departure (from the As- 
 sembly, 1638,) a very noble youth, of great expectation, my Lord Erskine, 
 craving audience of us, professed with /curs his great grief, that, against 
 the inborn lightqfhis own mind, he had withholden Ids hand from our ( <>- 
 venant, and person from our meetings, besought to pray Christ for him, 
 that his sin might be forgiven him, and entreated humbly we would now 
 admit him to our Covenant and Society. We all embraced him gladly, 
 and admired the timeousness of God's comforts uinl men ies towards us." 
 — Letters (iiid Journals.
 
 328 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 After this vain attempt had exploded, Montrose, up- 
 on whom the whole odium fell, returned to the army 
 at Newcastle, and during the tedious negotiations 
 of the treaty, so disgraceful to Scotland and fatal to 
 Charles, he was occasionally passing betwixt the camp 
 and Scotland, until a new crisis brought him again in- 
 to collision with the omnipotent Directory there, whose 
 audacity rose in proportion to the success of their di- 
 plomacy at London, and the luxurious security of their 
 camp at Newcastle. There was, indeed, a hope to 
 which Montrose still clung, namely, that if Charles 
 would come to Scotland, (as he had long intended, 
 though deterred by the riots in Edinburgh,) to hold the 
 Parliament in person, and would stand firmly by his 
 own prerogatives, treason might yet be crushed. But 
 this hope had been somewhat dampt, and we shall find 
 our hero at the same time turning his anxious thoughts 
 abroad, from his lost country, to distant fields of ho- 
 nour and glory. The following anecdote, which we 
 quote from the original manuscript, occurs in a decla- 
 ration made by Colonel Cochrane, of the Covenanting 
 army, in presence of Argyle, Lord Angus, and Lord 
 Amond, sitting as a committee of the Estates of Scot- 
 land, and labouring to extract materials for a charge of 
 leasing-making on which to try Montrose. 
 
 "At Edinburgh, 29th June 1641, — in presence of the 
 Lord Lieutenant-general (Amond), the Earl of Argyle, 
 and Lord Angus, — Colonel Cochrane being desired to 
 declare in what has past betwixt the Earl of Montrose 
 and him, as well anent the Palsgrave,* as in the other 
 particulars importing or concerning the public. The 
 
 * The Elector Palatine.
 
 COLONEL COCHRANE's DECLARATION. 329 
 
 Colonel declared, that when he was last in Holland the 
 Palsgrave sent for the deponer to the Breill, where he, 
 entering in discourse anent his Highness's own affairs, 
 desired the Colonel to represent his condition to the Es- 
 tates of Scotland, and named some of the Scots noble- 
 men whom he knew, and named the Earl of Montrose 
 as one of whom he had much heard, and desired lie 
 might have the opportunity to speak with him. There- 
 after the deponer coming to Newcastle had not occa- 
 sion to speak with the Earl of Montrose for a reason- 
 able time. The first time they met nothing past 
 betwixt them but general discourse. The next time the 
 Earl told he was desirous to follow the wars abroad, 
 and ivished that things were settled at home that he 
 might employ his talents that way. Whereupon the 
 deponer told the Earl of Montrose the desire the Pals- 
 grave had to meet with him, who willed the deponer to 
 write a letter to the Palsgrave, that he might call the 
 Earl of Montrose to court, where they might meet, 
 which accordingly he did, and within a while there- 
 after, the General (Leslie) taxed the deponer for writ- 
 ing that letter in such a private way, whereunto he 
 answered that he did not apprehend any fault in it ; 
 and so it was passed over at that time.* Thereafter 
 he told the Earl of Montrose that the General had 
 questioned him, and, as he apprehended, the letter was 
 intercepted. The Earl of Montrose answered, that if 
 
 * It was passed over (as Montrose's letter was) because there was 
 nothing to lay hold of. The letter had been intercepted, and this shows 
 the mean arts and jealousy of the party who were trying to < rush Mon- 
 trose. They were terrified (and 6ome had good cause) list Montrose 
 should by any means break through that magic circle which Hamilton, 
 in their favour as well as bis own, had drawn round the King to exclude 
 Montrose, and every other hold and upright adviser.
 
 330 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 he should write any hereafter, he might do it in covert 
 terms, because lie was a man envied, and all means were 
 fried to cross him. After this time, the Earl of Mon- 
 trose and the deponer coming out of Chester with the 
 General, the Earl entered in a discourse of the private 
 bond which was burnt,* and told to the deponer that 
 he had many reasons and grounds for the doing of it ; 
 one whereof was, that he could prove there were some 
 of the prime leaders of the business in the country 
 guilty of high treason in the highest manner* and that 
 they had entered in motions for deposing the King. 
 Whereunto the deponer answered, that these were dis- 
 courses whereof he desired not to hear, and entreated 
 his Lordship not to enter any further in that purpose, 
 but to leave it, and speak of some other subjects ; which 
 he did ; and had no [further] conference with the Earl 
 of Montrose on the like subject, except one night in his 
 own lodgings in Newcastle, the Earl drew the deponer to 
 aside, and said to him, ' think you not but I can prove 
 what I said to you the other day ;' to the which the 
 deponer answered, ' I desire not to hear or speak of 
 such matters, and therefore craves your Lordship's 
 pardon not to go any further on them ;' and so there 
 
 left it."f 
 
 This version of the matter extorted by Argyle, re- 
 presenting his own covenanting Inquisition, and pre- 
 siding in his own case, is probably not the most fa- 
 vourable for Montrose that might have been con- 
 
 " This corroborates Bishop Guthrie's account of the fate of the bond. 
 
 f Original deposition, MS. signed, J. Cocheran. — Argyll, Amond. — Ad- 
 vocates' Library. There is another deposition of Colonel Cochran, among 
 the same MSS. dated 22d February 16t2, (when the persecution of 
 Montrose, Lord Napier, Stirling of Keir,and Stewart of Blackhall, was still 
 going on) in which he adheres to the above, and adds, " that the Earl of 
 Argyle was the man whom he (Montrose) named."
 
 COVENANTING NOTIONS OF TREASON. [Vol 
 
 scientiously given. Yet, even as thus extorted, the anec- 
 dote is characteristic of the loyalty of Montrose, and 
 indicates the impression on his mind of treasonable de- 
 signs in the Argyle faction. The accusation was uttered 
 in company, if not within hearing, of Leslie himself, 
 among whose articles of war we find the excessively 
 loyal provision already quoted, and which, it might be 
 supposed, would have prevented an officer of that army 
 from betraying so much alarm, as Colonel Cocheran 
 appears to have done, when Montrose declared that he 
 had detected high treason. But after that clause in 
 favour of the King's authority, and in the same article, 
 follows immediately, — " lie that shall .speak evil of the 
 cause which we defend, or of the kingdom and coun- 
 try in the defence thereof, or shall use any words ten- 
 ding to the dishonour of the Lord General, he shall be 
 punished with death" Now, the manner in which all 
 such clauses, in the Covenanting statutes and articles 
 of war, were practically interpreted, was this: Any 
 one attempting to establish a treasonable purpose on 
 the part of Argyle, or of the few who, with the aid of 
 his power, now monopolized the government of Scot- 
 land, was closely watched, and detected before his proofs 
 could be irresistibly fortified, and that person, be his 
 station or credit in the country what it might, was im- 
 mediately persecuted, to the extent of liberty and life, 
 as an incendiary, or a bander, or a plotter, or an evil 
 speaker against the cause : On the other hand, treason 
 against the King himself might be darkly spoken by 
 the privileged Covenanters with impunity, notwith- 
 standing the profuse loyalty of their declarations ; 
 such language was in them protected from prosecutions, 
 or impeachment, in the manner above stated, the King 
 being in reality considered " the enemy" so long as he
 
 332 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 retained a remnant of kingly power. It is remarkable 
 that the high-spirited nobility of Scotland should have 
 been so subdued by this system, that, although many 
 of them (witness the signatures to Montrose's bond) 
 were now awake to the dangerous " practisings of a 
 few," Montrose alone was ready to proclaim a traitor, 
 even in the person of the formidable Argyle, when sa- 
 tisfied that he had detected one. All save himself ap- 
 peared to shrink from this bold policy, and thus it 
 happened that he became isolated and devoted amid 
 the storm of the great rebellion, a prey to covenanting 
 hate on the one hand, and, on the other, to the jealousy 
 even of those who were conservatively inclined. 
 
 How easy it was for one of the faction to evade that 
 article of war which made it death for any one to 
 " open his mouth against the King's Majesty's person 
 or authority," we may illustrate by another anecdote, 
 also gathered from contemporary and unpublished ma- 
 nuscripts. The King's authority had been very openly 
 impugned upon the occasion of discussing the propriety 
 of holding the Parliament of 1640, without his pre- 
 sence, or delegated authority. The most loyal reply 
 which that constitutional objection appears to have 
 met with, from the triumphant party with whom Mon- 
 trose disputed the point, was, that it were better sim- 
 ply to sit without the King, than to proceed to depose 
 him, and name another, though, " Parliaments have 
 judged kings." Such was the language which the 
 Scotch factionists, still affecting the most extreme loyal- 
 ty, were using at their own conventions, whispering 
 abroad in private conversations, and teaching their very 
 apt scholars, the democrats of England. 
 
 In a secret letter from Archibald Johnston (when 
 managing, in London, the negociations of 1640-1) to
 
 COVENANTING NOTIONS OF TREASON. 333 
 
 Balmerino, the following sentence occurs : " There 
 is some word here of Sir Thomas Hope's speaking 
 at Newcastle, since our way coming, that the King 
 himself might be cited to the Parliament, as well 
 as the Earl of Strafford ; but Sir Thomas wrote to 
 me what he spoke, and from whom he thinks that 
 calumny comes. Some of us here [the Scotch commis- 
 sioners] strive to shew the King's danger in bring- 
 ing any such things to question, whereby both the re- 
 levancy of such a libel may be quarrelled [disputed,] 
 and his actions called in doubt as the ground there- 
 of."* In other words, this arch traitor is offended at the 
 idea of the King's protecting his crown from treasonable 
 expressions and propositions, and he hints that the at- 
 tempt would only recoil upon himself. Now there is 
 another secret letter, signed A. B., but unquestionably 
 from this same Sir Thomas Hope (the Lord Advocate's 
 second son, who commanded the " College of Justice 
 Troop,") to Archibald Johnston, and dated from Edin- 
 burgh, 7th June 1641, wherein is the following post- 
 script, clearly referring to the incident mentioned in 
 the former letter. " Walter Stewart has craved a par- 
 don for the wrong he did me, and has set down the 
 words, which past betwixt us, under his hand, whereof 
 I have sent the authentic copy to my brother, which 
 ye may have from him, if ye desire to see it."f Among 
 the voluminous collection of manuscripts in the Advo- 
 cates' Library, I have also discovered the original re- 
 
 • The rest of this letter, which is dated 20th April, will be found in 
 the next Chapter. What we have quoted had even escaped the research 
 of Lord Hailes, who made some selections from this Covenanter's cor- 
 respondence, preserved in the Advocates' Library. 
 
 f Neither had Lord Hailes observed this letter, which will he found 
 at the conclusion of next Chapter.
 
 334 M0NTROSI-: AND the covenanters. 
 
 cantation by Walter Stewart, alluded to in Sir Thomas 
 Hope's letter, and shall here give it verbatim. 
 
 " 5 June 1641. In presence of the Lord Balmerino 
 and Edward Edgar, Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart was 
 examined. Who, being interrogated what the words 
 were which he did report to the Sheriff of Teviotdale, 
 that Sir Thomas Hope* had spoken anent the Parlia- 
 ment, deponed that the said Sir Thomas and he being- 
 one day with my Lord General [Leslie] in his dining- 
 room at Newcastle,! and falling in discourse anent the 
 Earl of Strafford, the deponer saying that the Earl of 
 Strafford should only be judged by his peers, being so 
 great a man as he was, and not by the whole Parlia- 
 ment, Sir Thomas replied, — that no subject could be 
 so great [but that] the Parliament might judge 
 him ; for, if credit be given to histories, Parliaments 
 have judged Kings. Whereunto the deponer said 
 [that |] he believed he coidd 7iot make that good. 
 To the which Sir Thomas answered, that it might be 
 made good out of histories. The deponer asked, out 
 of what histories ? To the which Sir Thomas replied, 
 that he would not speak of English histories, but Jbr 
 the Scottish it would be found in Buchanan. The de- 
 poner asked, if it was out of his de Jure Regni ? Sir 
 Thomas replied, he spoke of his History. The deponer 
 answered, he was but a modern writer. Sir Thomas 
 replied, that though Buchanan was so himself, yet no 
 
 * This proves that the letter to Archibald Johnston, signed A. B. was 
 from Sir Thomas Hope. The Sheriff of Teviotdale was Sir William 
 Douglas of Cavers. 
 
 f This indicates that the Sir Thomas Hope meant, is not the Lord 
 Advocate, but his second son, he who commanded Leslie's body guard 
 of lawyers. 
 
 J The words in brackets are supplied conjecturally, the manuscript 
 being destroyed in those places.
 
 COVENANTING NOTIONS OF TREASON. 335 
 
 doubt he had written out of those that wrote before him. 
 The deponer asked, what Kings were they of whom 
 Buchanan wrote that ? To the which Sir Thomas 
 answered, that he did not remember their names for 
 the present, but, to his memory, Kenneth the Second, 
 or Kenneth the Third, was one of them. And so they 
 left discoursing upon that particular. The deponer 
 declares, that none were present at the words speaking 
 but the General alone, and that those were the words, 
 or the like in substance, which the deponer did relate 
 to the Sheriff of Teviotdale, and that he did not speak 
 them out of any ill intention, and declares, that he never 
 heard Sir Thomas speak any other words of this kind 
 at no other time." * 
 
 Now all this, (perhaps a little more) may have been 
 said very innocently by Sir Thomas Hope, as Walter 
 Stewart in this second version of his story asserts, but 
 any thing as suspicious pointed against the de facto 
 King of Scotland, Argyle, would have met with a more 
 elaborate scrutiny, the object of which would have 
 been to ruin, and not to screen the accuser. This 
 conversation, however, even as given, cannot fail to re- 
 mind us of the debate at the opening of the Scotch 
 Parliament of June 1640, and, by a singular coinci- 
 dence, it occurred at the very crisis when the Kind's 
 authority and person began to be mysteriously spoken 
 
 * Original MS. Ad. Lib. The deposition, not upon oath, is signed 
 \V. Stewart. — Balmerino, Edward Edgar. Tins was ;i small committee 
 to dispose of such a matter. We shall have occasion to shew after- 
 wards, that Walter Stewart was easilj frightened into giving any tes- 
 timony, and that, at the time when this declaration was elicited to white- 
 wash Sir Thomas Hope, Walter Stewart had just been seized by the 
 faction, and robbed of a letter he was bearing from the King to Mon- 
 trose.
 
 336 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 against, by the democratic faction in England. We 
 have the fact on no less authority than Clarendon's 
 personal experience. He tell us, in his life, that " when 
 Mr Hyde (meaning himself) sat in the chair in the 
 grand committee of the House for the extirpation of 
 Episcopacy (1641,) all that party made great court to 
 him," — and that at this time he met his intimate repub- 
 lican friend, Harry Martin, " walking between the 
 Parliament House and Westminster in the Church- 
 yard," — when they entered into a political discourse, in 
 which it was the object of the republican to make a 
 convert of his friend. Clarendon defended himself 
 with the arguments of an upright and rational politi- 
 cian, and pressed his friend " to say what he desired, 
 to which, after a little pause, he very roundly an- 
 swered, ' / do not think one man wise enough to govern 
 us all. 1 " Clarendon adds, that this was the first word 
 " he had ever heard any man speak to that purpose," 
 and was greatly shocked at finding such a sentiment 
 abroad, and hearing it from the lips of a gentleman, 
 " possessed of a very great fortune, and having great 
 credit in his country." 
 
 Are we then to assume that, because Montrose had 
 joined the Covenanters, and supported them for a time 
 with the spirit and ardour natural to his disposition, he 
 could not become conscientiously opposed to them in 
 the progress of the movement ? Are we to hold that 
 nothing was passing around him sufficient to give a re- 
 putable character to what has been so vaguely and viru- 
 lently termed his apostacy, namely, his determination 
 to support the King's authority, and his opposition not 
 to the Covenant, but to the dominant Covenanters ? 
 
 Montrose's determined opposition to this career of de- 
 mocracy, as soon as he detected its fatal growth in
 
 COVENANTING NOTIONS OF TREASON. 337 
 
 " the particular practising of a few," was early suspected, 
 and immediately provided against, by the demagogue, 
 Archibald Johnston, who, we shall find, was but too 
 triumphant in his scheme of destroying Montrose's 
 conservative efforts, by bringing him under the lawless 
 tyranny of the Scotch Directory, in 1641, immediately 
 before the King arrived in Scotland. 
 
 In the following chapter shall be disclosed the pri- 
 vate practising of this Archibald Johnston, which we 
 have it in our power to illustrate by some curious ori- 
 ginal manuscripts not hitherto published. 
 
 vol. i.
 
 338 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 A VIEW BEHIND THE CURTAIN OF THE COVENANT. 
 
 Archibald Johnston, — whom Charles I. was com- 
 pelled to honour with knighthood, and a seat on the 
 Scotch Bench, whom Cromwell raised to an English 
 peerage, and whom Charles II. elevated, somewhat 
 higher than a Cromwellian peerage, namely, on a gal- 
 lows at the Cross of Edinburgh, — was the son of a re- 
 spectable merchant of that town. His maternal descent 
 was more distinguished, his mother being Elizabeth or 
 Elspeth Craig, a daughter of the celebrated Sir Thomas 
 Craig of Riccarton. It may be presumed, (though I can 
 find the fact nowhere stated,) that this was the same 
 " Elspa Craig" mentioned by Bishop Guthrie, as one 
 of the matrons with whom his Majesty's advocate was 
 in the habit of meeting secretly, to arrange " the first 
 affront to the book." There is no doubt that Sir Tho- 
 mas Craig's daughter was a keen Covenanter, and it is 
 very probable that her son Archibald, who passed ad- 
 vocate in the memorable year 1633, was an attache of 
 the Lord Advocate's at the commencement of the 
 troubles, as his mother, the godly Elspet, was of that 
 formidable queen of the cause, the old Marchioness of 
 Hamilton. Among Sir James Balfour's manuscripts, 
 preserved in the Advocates' Library, there is an epi- 
 taph which indicates that Archibald Johnston's mother 
 was more universally esteemed, even among Covenan- 
 ters, than himself.
 
 ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON. 339 
 
 Devil swell thee, Death, 
 And hurst thee, like a tun, 
 That took away good Elspet Craig, 
 And left the knave her son. 
 
 This worthy appears to have been very soon singled 
 out, from among his learned brethren, as a fitting in- 
 strument of faction, and Baillie distinguishes him as 
 " the only advocate who in this business is trusted." 
 As soon as " the cause'' commenced, he became its 
 clerk, and was e'er long Secretary of State to the Co- 
 venant. The prominent part he acted in framing that 
 magna charta is well known. The following anecdote, 
 from the manuscript of James Gordon, I have not met 
 with elsewhere. " The penner of all the Covenanters' 
 protestations, and their public papers, mostly, was Mr 
 Archibald Johnston, afterwards Lord Wariston, who is 
 likewise said to have been the chief contriver of the 
 frame of the Covenant, and to this purpose did make 
 use of the History of the Civil Wars of France, whence 
 he took his model for these public papers. This was 
 related to me by him who at that time lent him the 
 three volumes of that history, who is a near relation of 
 his." When the " free Assembly" of 1638 was convok- 
 ed, next to the appointment of Alexander Henderson, 
 as their moderator, that of Archibald Johnston, as their 
 clerk, was felt to be equivalent to transferring the 
 whole spirit of the Tables into the Assembly, and a 
 great struggle was made to gain that point. A most 
 characteristic scene, narrated by Baillie, then occurred. 
 The only records of the kirk in possession of the for- 
 mer clerk of the Assembly, and delivered to Johnston 
 upon his election, were two registers containing the 
 acts of Assembly since 1590. The Moderator said, that 
 the loss of such a treasure was pitiful, and earnestly en-
 
 340 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 treated all to labour in the search for them. His Grace 
 promised to do every thing in his power to recover the 
 lost volumes. Rothes suggested that some of the bishops 
 had stolen them, and should be compelled to disgorge. 
 This scene being exhausted, up rose the new clerk, like 
 one inspired. " After much regretting the irreparable 
 loss of these writs, the new clerk declared, that, by the 
 good providence of God, these books they spake of 
 were come to his hands, which he there produced to all 
 our great joy. Five books in folio," &c. The account 
 in James Gordon's manuscript is, that what Johnston 
 produced were some " imperfect mutilated manuscripts 
 that had been taken or kept by the clerks, or other pri- 
 vate persons." Their authority was anxiously main- 
 tained by the Assembly ; but, although a committee 
 appointed for that purpose gave in nineteen elaborate 
 reasons in support of their authenticity, and, of course, 
 carried, by acclamation, an approval of the same as the 
 true and obligatory records of the kirk in all time com- 
 ing, still the Commissioner, and with good reason, pro- 
 tested against their reception. They certainly came 
 from suspicious hands. * It was a feature of the co- 
 venanting revolution, ever to pretend to be founded, in 
 all its steps however extravagant, upon some ancient 
 constitutional practique alleged to have been infringed. 
 The Revolution of 1638 was called a renewed of the Co- 
 venant, — a pretence which Clarendon so justly charac- 
 
 * There was much mystery about these registers. Baillie says, that 
 " one Winram, depute to Mr Thomas Nicolson, had left them to one 
 Alexander Blair, his successor in office, from whom Mr Johnston had 
 got them." But James Gordon says, — " it is very uncertain if the regis- 
 ters presented were the principals, or if only copies, — but to this day Sir 
 Archibald Johnston of Wariston would never tell how he got them into 
 his hands."
 
 A COVENANTING ANTIQUARY. .'341 
 
 terizes as an " imposition," and Dr Cook as " a piece of 
 disingenuity." We will presently find this same mi- 
 raculous clerk of the Covenant threatening to look over 
 old practiques against the Monarchy, if his Majesty 
 continued to be troublesome in taking cognizance of the 
 approaches of democracy. Archibald Johnston appears 
 to have been particularly fortunate in his discovery of 
 ancient records, which he kept secret for his own con- 
 stitutional purposes. Wodrow has left an anecdote in 
 manuscript, relating to the period of Charles's visit to 
 Scotland in 1641, which Ave may here anticipate. He 
 mentions that some person who was employed by Ar- 
 chibald Johnston's son, to put his father's papers in 
 order, discovered a voluminous diary which had been 
 kept by the demagogue, of his own times. " My in- 
 former finds likewise in that diary that after the 
 treaty, [of London in 1640 and 1641,] when the King- 
 came a little into Scotland, there were many con- 
 ferences among the prime of the Covenanters and the 
 King, at all which Waristoun was. The Scots Lords 
 insisted much that the King would allow them the li- 
 berty of choosing the officers of state in the Parliament. 
 The King was very peremptory against it. They 
 pleaded that it had been anciently allowed by the Kings 
 of Scotland, and alleged the records. The King de- 
 nied there was any such thing, and told them he knew 
 in his father's time any thing with relation to these \\ as 
 lost. After their insisting, the King required to see 
 the records. They told him they were yet extant, 
 though not among the records of the nation. After 
 the King had given his oath that he would not call for 
 them out of his hands, some two or three on the King's 
 side, and as many on the other side, all upon oath, were 
 let into the secret, and the King and they went over to
 
 S42 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Dunfermline, where they were, and discovered by my 
 Lord Waristoun. It seems that King James VI., through 
 the advice of some that were for enslaving the liberty 
 of the subject, and may be to please England, had 
 ordered Hay of Dunfermling, in whose hands then 
 they were, to destroy them. It seems he laid them up 
 in his charter-chest, which was not opened till Waris- 
 toun, upon some civil process, was called to look through 
 his papers, and there found them. The King had them 
 laid before him. It may be supposed that these papers 
 were the plan of many things the covenanting Lords 
 then did, and gave them both courage and light how to 
 act. My informer is in hopes that they are yet to the 
 fore."* 
 
 The same Assembly that, as an essential preliminary 
 to the Movement, elected Archibald Johnston as their 
 clerk, with a salary of 500 merks yearly, still further 
 testified their sense of his services by appointing him, 
 before they rose, Procurator of the Church, with an 
 additional salary of 1000 merks. He may now be 
 considered their Secretary of State, and, by an Act of 
 
 * Wodrow's Analecta. MS. Advocates' Library. What with Ar- 
 chibald Johnston being so rich in smuggled antiquities, and Sir Thomas 
 Hope so deeply read in Buchanan, the Covenanters were mighty strong 
 in precedent against the British monarchy. Cromwell reaped the fruits, 
 however, and Johnston was hanged, after having brought that fate on 
 his betters. His diary is not now to be found, and thereby the world 
 has probably lost a disgusting farrago of perverted history, wild fanati- 
 cism, and cant. Dr Russell makes the following shrewd observations 
 upon Johnston's principles, in regard to the sacred obligation of an 
 oath. " In releasing ministers from their oaths, they acted on a very 
 singular hypothesis, explained by their clerk, Johnston of Wariston, 
 (uncle of Bishop Burnet) namely, that the swearer is neither bound to 
 the meaning of the prescriber of the oath, nor to his own meaning when 
 be takes the oath, but to the reality of the things sworn, as it shall be 
 afterwards interpreted by the competent judges. Johnston had surely 
 mistaken his Church ! " — History of the Church in Scotland, p. 170.
 
 A COVENANTING PATRIOT. 343 
 
 the Parliament of June 1640, be was ordained to attend 
 General Leslie in the camp, to be present on all occa- 
 sions with the war committee, and to superintend what- 
 ever treaties, consultations, or public declarations, might 
 arise. When the treaty at Rippon was removed to 
 London, he was specially added to the number of the 
 Scotch commissioners, for the purpose of watching the 
 interests of the Church. Then it was that his secret 
 correspondence with Balmerino, and a select few of the 
 Committee in Scotland, which we are about to disclose, 
 occurred. It may be necessary, however, in order fully 
 to understand and appreciate some of his allusions, to 
 illustrate, from other sources, his particular objects. 
 
 To effect the destruction of Strafford and Laud — to 
 root out Episcopacy even in England — to reduce the 
 King's authority to a shadow — to trample on the neck 
 of every statesman who dared to impede the revolution- 
 ary movement, were the avowed objects of the Procu- 
 rator of the Kirk. To be Clerk- Register, as the 
 next step in his own political aggrandizement, was his 
 secret object, and therefore his chief aim was to de- 
 prive the King of his prerogative of choosing his own 
 officers of State. And what a deplorable picture of 
 the inconsistency, avarice, and ruffian democracy of 
 the covenanting faction, presented itself, under these 
 auspices, at the treaty of London ! Among the manu- 
 scripts of the Advocates' Library, there is a volume 
 containing contemporary transcripts of the various ne- 
 gotiations and correspondence connected with this 
 treaty. Among other papers is that of the demands, 
 made by the covenanting commissioners, upon England, 
 in satisfaction of their " brotherly assistance." That 
 thev should have demanded three hundred thousand
 
 344 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 pounds, and upwards, for their trouble and expence of 
 invading*, and feeding upon, the sister kingdom, was 
 simply characteristic of the Scottish nation. It was 
 going a little further to attack the King's most precious 
 prerogatives, and deny his right to choose his own 
 councillors and judicial functionaries — or the individu- 
 als who should be about the person of himself, the 
 Queen, and the Prince, — nay, the very place of residence 
 in his own dominions for the royal family. But it is 
 scarcely credible that these representatives of the Co- 
 venant, an institution founded upon the plea of repel- 
 ling interference with national establishments, should 
 so soon have had the effrontery to insist upon the total 
 abolition of Episcopacy in England, and the substitu- 
 tion of their own democratic Presbytery instead ! 
 The long, elaborate, and canting essay, in which this 
 demand is made, betrays, at the same time, a ludicrous 
 consciousness of their own inconsistency, as the follow- 
 ing extracts from this curious document will show. * 
 It is entitled, " Our Commissioners' desires concerning 
 unity in religion, and uniformity of church govern- 
 ment as a special mean for preserving of peace in his 
 Majesty's dominions." After a hypocritical preamble, 
 it goes on to say, — " As we account it no less than 
 usurpation and presumption for one kingdom and 
 church, were it never so mighty and glorious, to give 
 laws and rules of reformation to another free and in- 
 dependent church and kingdom, were it never so mean, 
 civil liberty and conscience being so tender and deli- 
 cate, that they cannot endure to be touched" — there- 
 fore they proceed to disclaim ' any such " arrogance 
 and presumption" on their part towards England. 
 
 * I have not found it quoted elsewhere, or printed among the volu- 
 minous tracts of the period.
 
 COVENANTING REFORMERS. 345 
 
 Having, as they conceive, saved, by this disclaimer, the 
 principle of their own resistance to the canons and ser- 
 vice-book, they proceed to show cause for, nevertheless, 
 imposing their own Genevean forms upon England : — 
 " Yet charity" they say, " yet charity is no presump- 
 tion,'''' — and, accordingly, they maintain it to be their 
 bounden duty, both as Christians and commissioners, 
 to demand that England should become Presbyterian ! 
 They gravely announce, " we love not to be curious 
 in any other commonwealth, or to play the Bishop in 
 another man's diocese," — and yet they add, " in the 
 paradise of nature, the diversity of flowers and herbs 
 are useful, but in the paradise of the Church, different 
 and contrary religions are unpleasant and hurtful ; it 
 is therefore to be wished that there were one Confes- 
 sion of Faith, one form of Catechism, one Directory for 
 the parts and public worship of God, as prayer, pray- 
 ing, administration of the sacrament, &c. and one form 
 of church government in all the churches of his Ma- 
 jesty's dominions." * 
 
 To the prolix reasons added in support of this de- 
 mand, England, verging to its ruin, but not yet a prey 
 to the puritanical party, returned the following answer, 
 which the same contemporary transcriber entitles, " The 
 Peers' answer to our Commissioners' demand concern- 
 
 * Tims, in 1640, completely justifying the principle of Charles's in- 
 terference, in 1636, with the church government of Scotland, and leav- 
 ing the difference betwixt them this: — Charles endeavoured to improve 
 and perfect the system of Episcopacy, which had already, for thirty 
 years, been constitutionally established there. The < lovenanters, — that 
 is to say, certain agitators and factionists who had usurped the functions 
 of government, — maintained it to be their duty to overthrow Episcopacy 
 in England, where it had always been established, and against the sense 
 of the nation to plant Presbytery there, where it had never been admit- 
 ted.
 
 346 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ing unity in religion, and uniformity of church govern- 
 ment." 
 
 " That your proposition, in as much as concerneth 
 a conformity of church government in both kingdoms, 
 is that which were to be wished. But the alterations 
 and innovations of that which is settled by the laws of 
 each kingdom are dangerous. That the government 
 of the Church of England is settled and established by 
 the laws and statutes of the kingdom. That both the 
 Houses of Parliament have now in their consideration 
 all things conducing to the settling and peace of the 
 Church of England, and will do therein that which in 
 their wisdom they shall think fit. That although you 
 may be commanded, by those who sent you, to make 
 this proposition, yet, for ambassadors of any foreign 
 prince, much less for Commissioners, his Majesty's sub- 
 jects, to insist upon any thing that is destructive to the 
 government settled and established by the laws of the 
 kingdom, or to accompany their propositions with dis- 
 courses and arguments in prejudice of the settled go- 
 vernment, is both unusual and unfit. Therefore his 
 Majesty expects, that, according to your many 'profes- 
 sions, and of that which is contained in your own pa- 
 per, you will not intermeddle with the Reformation 
 here in Eno-land, but leave the care thereof to the King- 
 and kingdom. As likewise, that you should not pub- 
 lish nor divulge any discourse by which the subjects 
 of this kingdom should be stirred up against the esta- 
 blished laws of the kingdom, but that you should ac- 
 quiesce with this answer." 
 
 The inconsistency of the Covenanters was no less 
 conspicuously displayed in their administration of jus- 
 tice towards those whom they were pleased to denounce 
 as enemies of the state, and disturbers of the public
 
 COVENANTING JUSTICE. 347 
 
 peace. The prosecution of Balmerino in 1634 was 
 one of the strongest roots of the Covenant, and the fac- 
 tion raised a terrible outcry against Charles for the 
 tyranny and injustice, as they termed it, of this criminal 
 process. Yet in the very outset of their career they esta- 
 blished the most powerful engine of their revolt, name* 
 ly, criminal processes, devoid of every shadow of right, 
 and principle of justice, concocted and matured, per fas 
 et nefas, by their own committees, and brought before 
 their own lawless conventions. The pursuit of " In- 
 cendiaries"' quickly succeeded the hue and cry after 
 Bishops, and the very term incendiary was one of the 
 arts of insurgency to prejudge individuals obnoxious 
 to them, but against whom there was in reality no 
 case. All men of any weight in the country, who 
 would not bow to the Covenant, every servant of the 
 King enjoying place, and not of the faction, were 
 liable to be denounced as incendiaries, their persons de- 
 manded in Scotland, to be tried there, by the covenant- 
 ing Parliament, where the secret influence of Argyle 
 was omnipotent, while, at the same time, the King's 
 prerogative of mercy was excluded, and his prerogative 
 of filling up the vacancies occasioned by such disqua- 
 lifications, demanded as the privilege of that same de- 
 mocratical tribunal. Among the many mischievous 
 acts passed in the Parliament of June 1640, there was 
 one, of whose real object we are informed by Sir James 
 Balfour, at that time (though he afterwards saw reason 
 to change his views) a keen Covenanter. " Seventeenth 
 act against leasing-makers, of whatsomever quality, 
 office, place, or dignity ; this act was made purposely 
 to catch Traquair, the Treasurer; Sii John Hay, 
 Clerk-Register ; Sir Robert Spottiswood, President of 
 the Session; Maxwell, Bishop of Ross ; and others who,
 
 348 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 by r mitring and lying, had done much mischief to the 
 kingdom." These were some of the loaves and fishes 
 the leaders of the Covenant longed for. The ambi- 
 guous Hamilton himself was classed as an incendiary, 
 until his being of the faction in Scotland was more un- 
 equivocally explained to them. But one great object 
 was to protect those who were darkly plotting treason, 
 from impeachment by Montrose. The very endea- 
 vour of that loyal nobleman, to satisfy himself of the 
 treason of Argyle and others, the faction well knew 
 how to turn into a pit for himself, and in that ma- 
 noeuvre we shall find them but too successful. But 
 the quarry whom Archibald Johnston pursued, and 
 with a violence of feeling and expression only to be ac- 
 counted for by the badness of his own heart, was the 
 Earl of Traquair. Independently of his holding the 
 white staff, having been foreman of the jury that con- 
 demned Balmerino, and having occasionally exposed 
 the designs of the " prime Convenanters" to the King, 
 this nobleman appears to have fallen under Johnston's 
 especial displeasure, in consequence of high words that 
 had passed betwixt them, in personal collisions in Eng- 
 land. All these persecutions and animosities, ail his 
 own mistaken policy, and all the rebellion of his Scot- 
 tish subjects, the excellent King was willing to bury 
 under an act of oblivion. The Covenanters pretended 
 to the same desire, but practically they insisted that 
 that act should expressly justify all their proceedings, 
 virtually condemn the King, and especially except such 
 of the King's servants as they selected to make exam- 
 ples of under their monstrous processes. Nay, when 
 Charles, exasperated at their senseless and insatiable 
 democracy, replied, that if they insisted upon except- 
 ing Traquair and others from this act of oblivion, he,
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THU COVENANT. 349 
 
 on his part, would except some of themselves, the faction, 
 conscious upon whom siieh exception ought to fall, ex- 
 claimed against the equivalent as injustice and tyranny ! 
 Let us now turn to the secret correspondence of Mr 
 Archibald Johnston, and observe how he worked the 
 machinery of this revolution. 
 
 The following letter is dated from London, 2d Decem- 
 ber 1640, and addressed, " For my Noble Lord my Lord 
 Balmerino at Newcastle." 
 
 " My Noble Lord, — 1 received your's of the 20th 
 November by the public letter. Ye know all the pa- 
 pers that have past. The King, since the last answer 
 of ours on Monday, seems not well pleased. It may 
 be if that day of before we had not gotten a kiss of 
 the Queen's hand we would not get it in haste. He 
 would have the acts that import the authority of the 
 Parliament suppressed, at the least us to undertake to 
 recommend the same to the Parliament, for the which ye 
 might justly hang us all, beside our perjury and the ruin 
 of the kingdom's liberty. Business [i. e. democracy] 
 makes slow progress here. The Lieutenant, albeit he lies 
 in the Tower, has the King's heart.* The lower House 
 men get liberty to be at the examination of the witnesses, 
 even at the councillors upon oath, who dispute hotly 
 they could not depone against their fellow-councillors 
 for any thing spoken or done in council. Burton and 
 Prynnef on Saturday were brought in with a hundred 
 coaches, and great multitudes of people on horse and 
 foot. The Londoners' petition is not given in yet till 
 a fit opportunity. There is a remonstrance, against 
 
 * Strafford, the persecution of whom bad just commenced 
 f The scurrilous libellers, whose severe and impolitic but not unprovok- 
 ed punishment was now made the handle of agitation.
 
 350 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 the Deputy, * from Ireland. The Marquis f and the 
 English:}: seem to agree better nor they did. The Eng- 
 lish complain we give them no help against the De- 
 puty. We wonder that Kinhilt§ comes not up (after 
 he was desired) to shew and to prove what wrongs he 
 and others our countrymen have received from him in 
 Ireland. He should be hasted hither with the proof 
 of all these wrongs, for who can condescend on wit- 
 nesses, or ways of probation, either anent the unlawful 
 oaths in Ireland, || or the Deputy's oppressions. We 
 have not here the roll of those are cited to the Parlia- 
 ment, which ye should send us with the summons ; nei- 
 ther know the rest, only^j whether the Clerk-Register 
 and President be cited, (who have been damnable incen- 
 diaries** even at this time to hinder all agreeance 
 while all others were dealing for it,) and what can be 
 laid to their charge. Ye should be diligent (if it can 
 be gotten done on a sudden) to collect Traquair's mal- 
 versation, either in his late commission, or in his office. 
 Mr Adamff can help you in this. For aught I see, an 
 ye give us not strict directions, we will let Traquair, 
 Clerk-Register, and the President, slip through our 
 fingers, and return to their own places, to over-rule all, 
 
 * Strafford. f Hamilton. 
 
 % By the English, Johnston means the puritanical or democratic party 
 in England. 
 
 § Sir Robert Adair. 
 
 | Strafford in the name of the King imposed an oath of allegiance in 
 Ireland, to counteract the oath of the Covenant in Scotland. This was 
 an unlawful oath, according to Johnston, and the oath of dis-allegiance in 
 Scotland the only lawful one. But, according to his rules for interpret- 
 ing an oath, it was no great matter what was imposed. 
 
 1" This is incoherently expressed, but it seems to mean, " especially we 
 are anxious to know." 
 
 ** They were incendiaries in the degree of the value and desirable na- 
 ture of their offices. 
 ft Hepburn of Humbie.
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. 351 
 
 and God knows if that will' either be to the honour or 
 peace of the kingdom.* Let not this meet me here 
 again. The disputes that arose by the King's ques- 
 tions, and our answers, are ordained to be suppressed, 
 for the English f thought shame that ever the King 
 should have proposed them. Let none retire home as 
 if all were concluded, \ for I profess the King's quar- 
 relling of the Parliament shews what he grants one 
 day he recals the next again. $ The Committee should 
 be desired at home not to cause print the late acts now 
 without the King, seeing he is in the way of publishing 
 them in his own name. I wayte not what to say anent 
 this money which has been so delayed. I know not 
 how, and dare not say but, they mean reality. The 
 Lord direct us all. Your humble Servant, A. J." 
 
 " This letter has lain these two days beside me. 
 The King since has granted the acts. The L. 20,000 
 is sent away. We have renewed the treaty. Give us 
 strict directions anent demanding Traquair and Ba- 
 canquel,\\ (whom the Estates in the narrative of their 
 acts have specified, and in effect condemned with Clerk- 
 Register and President,) to be sent home to prison to 
 suffer justice. A direction of this kind would keep 
 us. in peace amongst ourselves, while some would either 
 
 * It would certainly not have been to the profit of the covenanting 
 faction. 
 
 f Meaning the democratical faction in England. 
 
 \ Alluding to the Scots army. 
 
 § Referring to the King's disclaiming the Scots Parliament of June 
 1640. The King had never granted a right to thai Parliament to pass 
 laws without his concurrence in person, or by a commissioner. 
 
 Balcanquall's most unpardonable offence was his having compiled 
 the large Declaration, at the command of his Majesty, and published in 
 his Majesty's name. That unanswerable appeal, from sedition and hy- 
 pocrisy to loyalty and Christian feeling, contained the truth, and so the 
 Covenanters reviled it.
 
 $52 MONTIiOSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 specify the Marquis, (whom the Parliament has not 
 named as an incendiary, but generally cited upon alter- 
 natives,) or misken [*'; e. mistake the character of] 
 Traquair, who, indeed, is in a far worse condition, for 
 the King and kingdom can never end with honour ex- 
 cept he be in the reverence of the Parliament, as ye were 
 in his. The Lord has his times of retribution''' * 
 
 " 11th April (1641.) My noble Lord. Albeit I 
 wrote on Friday, this is to show you that on that after- 
 noon the English condescended to take in all our pa- 
 pers to the Parliament, but [said] withal that the Par- 
 liament might be irritated. Bristol has persuaded the 
 King also to seek the Parliament's advice anent his 
 answer to our six papers given in to himself, as that 
 anent his residence in Scotland, anent Scots servants 
 about him, anent Council and Session, &c. They gave 
 in, with our paper anent the unity of religion, some 
 refutation of it, but what, they will not let us see. 
 Since God has exonered us by our printing the dan- 
 gers of limited Episcopacy, and the pattern of the dis- 
 cipline of Scotland, and by our urging the Parliament 
 with these reasons for unity of religion, I think it is 
 now over in God's own hand to do for himself as in- 
 deed he begun to caite [manifest] his old Scots way the 
 next day, for on Saturday, in Strafford's process the 
 
 * Referring to Balmerino's trial, on which Traquair sat as foreman of 
 the jury. This malevolent stimulant, applied to Balmerino's more slug- 
 gish passions, or better feelings, accompanied by the cant that follows, is 
 characteristic of Johnston. This letter had not been hitherto noticed, even 
 by Hailes. There is a postscript which shows that the Scotch demagogue 
 was at this time busy in preparing the machinery for the destruction of 
 Laud. " Your Lordship must excuse me to my Lord Maitland, and ful- 
 fil my promise, by telling him what news I write, for I am busy about 
 Canterbewie' s [acczis]ation."
 
 SECRET MACHINEFtY»OF THE COVENANT. !i»3 
 
 over House editing their partial favour to him, more 
 than to the lower House itself, perse wing him for 
 treason, and thereby premonstrating their inclinations 
 to clenge (acquit) him, made on a suddenty all the 
 lower House to shout with a terrible noise, withdraw, 
 withdraw, which many mistook for draw, draw* made 
 the King and Queen, and Lords, presently retire, this 
 being very like our Glasgow Assembly on the Com- 
 missioner's removal. The lower House sat (in the) 
 afternoon — received the witnesses whom the Lords had 
 refused — read their bill of attayndre, by way of act of 
 Parliament, declaring Strafford a traitor, which, after 
 twice reading, they will present on Tuesday to the 
 higher House, whereof many will join to them, and if 
 it stick at the King's refusal, they are to make a de- 
 claration of all to the Commoners of England."! 
 
 Another letter we must quote at some length, as il- 
 lustrating the real spirit of the criminal processes in 
 Scotland, raised in the name of the Covenanting Par- 
 liament under whose lawless persecution we shall pre- 
 sently discover Montrose. 
 
 " My Noble Lord, — Albeit I have written with this 
 same bearer, Merschal, two letters to Humbie, to be 
 sent to your Lordship, yet for fear of delay or miscar- 
 rying, I add the third, to shew your Lordship how the 
 
 * This curious fact I have not found mentioned elsewhere. Bsillie in 
 
 his journal of Strafford's trial, states it thus : — " The Commons <>n both 
 sides of the House rose in a fury with a shout of withdraw ! withdraw ' 
 withdraw ! got all to their feet, on with their hats, cocked their beavers 
 in the King's sight. We all feared it should goto a presenl tumult. 
 They went all away in confusion. Strafford Blipl away to his barge, 
 and to the Tower.glad to he gone, lest he should be torn in pieces. The 
 King went home in silence." 
 f Original MS. Not printed by Hailes. 
 
 vol. i. y-
 
 354 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 King, yesterday, having answered us anent the Council 
 and Session, and professing he would get us money, if 
 the Parliament did not, told us of his intention to come 
 to Scotland if the Parliament would prorogue another 
 month for him, and after that urged us to pass from 
 the act of oblivion, or the reservation therein against 
 incendiaries, or else he would, as he said and swore, 
 reserve as many. He raged when we told our inability 
 to pass from any whom the Parliament had named and 
 caused cite, {especially Traquair, who was protested 
 against even at all the prorogations,) and remembered 
 him of his former grant of the same in the fourth demand 
 anent incendiaries. My Lord, I perceive, from sundry 
 hands, that both this threatening of reservations of us, 
 and this mentioning his intention to keep, himself, the 
 Parliament in Scotland, is a trick of Traquair's, by the 
 advice of some of our own* for to terrify us (what 
 with our own danger by that reservation of process, 
 and the danger of the country by factions at home, 
 which would grow by the King's presence,) to pass from 
 the incendiaries ; and this is but a boast, and albeit it 
 were a reality, (as certainly neither affairs here will 
 permit, neither has the King any inward intention of 
 going to Scotland,) as I wrote to Newcastle my judge- 
 ment freely, in confidence, I would rather he reserved me 
 too, and laid my own feet fast, and more also, before ever 
 so base a thought and so unworthy an act fell out in the 
 hands of any of the committees, as thus to be boasted 
 and dung from the Parliament's pursuit of the incen- 
 diaries named by themselves in their acts, which is not 
 
 * Johnston's information had led him to suspect Montrose as one of 
 the author's of this policy which alarmed him so much. He was mis- 
 taken, however, in the notion that Traquair was in correspondence with 
 Montrose on the suhject, as we shall afterwards find. 
 
 4
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. 355 
 
 a thing within the power of the Committee, let be of 
 ours, and for the which ye might all be censured. I 
 think this their tricks stopping the treaty demonstrates 
 them so really to be incendiaries, as (that) ye should 
 rather renew your strict injunctions for sending them 
 home. If the King intended peace, he would not stand 
 on this, and from which it is likeliest that he intends 
 war ; whether we yielded in that or not war would we 
 have. I think I be one man as sure to be pursued by 
 Traquair ; and so is yourself thought one of those 
 whom the King would reserve on Traquair 's informa- 
 tion, Avho professed to sundry his having challenges of 
 treason against so many of us. My Lord Rothes is 
 certainly one, as Traquair oft has vented himself. 
 Argyle is suspected to be another. Except the fear of 
 your own hazard from Traquair s boasts move you 
 to send us instructions to pass from him, I think nei- 
 ther honour, nor conscience, nor duty can move any, and I 
 believe ye love not to be so boasted. Fye on us, that any 
 of us should be on these devices for to save the honour 
 of an evil instrument, to the prejudice of the honour of 
 the whole kingdom lying under the blame of treason 
 and rebellion except (unless) he be brought to an acknow- 
 ledgment. Command us to be resolved, in this pursuit, 
 against all boasts and threatenings — be diligent with 
 your lawyers. I think the Parliament should, by way 
 of injunction, lay a necessity on Sir Thomas Nicholson 
 to plead that cause for the Commonwwlth. I would 
 request you, with the greatest secrecy that can be, to 
 cause try if all the honours and registers were left in 
 the castle that ever had been in it, or, if any of them he 
 wanting, if Traquair and the Clerk- Register have taken 
 them away. This were a fact of clear treason* in the 
 
 * Very clear treason, truly, that the High Treasurer and ('Ink I
 
 356 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 judgment of all, and I suspect they be guilty of some such 
 thing ; but it wald [i. e. should] be kept close without reveal- 
 ing to any till the very day of his compearance ! I have 
 some grounds to suspect this, as I shall tell you if it please 
 God that we meet. It is thought there is some present 
 plot to break forth here. The Parliament will not rise, 
 for aught we can learn, albeit they be commanded. 
 Yesternight the lower House, after final voicing for- 
 mally their bill of attayndre,* gave it up to the Lords 
 with this declaration, that they would protest against them 
 if they did not give them a speedy and satisfactory answer. 
 The Londoners' bill for justice is given in, — after it 
 the Londoners offer to guard the Parliament with 5000 
 men, if they will, on apprehension of dissolution, come 
 into the Gild-Hall within the city. There is some re- 
 port of the Queen's slipping down to Portsmouth with 
 her plate, and of the King's sudden posting some day 
 
 gister, in times when the castle was continually stormed by insurgents 
 and rebels, should have provided for the safety of what it was their duty 
 to preserve ! And this accusation, too, from Archibald Johnston, a no- 
 torious smuggler of public registers, to serve his own purposes ! The 
 above direction was a mean art, frequently employed by Scotch fac- 
 tionists, to make a case by any means against the obnoxious individual. 
 Lord Napier has left the following anecdote of such an attempt against 
 himself, shortly before the King's coronation visit to Scotland in 1 633. 
 " After all my enemies accusations, that they might leave nothing un- 
 attempted to bring me within the compass of law, I being then in 
 England, the chief officers of state were not ashamed to go to Leith to 
 call the merchants, customers, and searchers before them, to tryif I had 
 done any thing which they might take hold of, but they could find no- 
 thing, only one merchant told them that he had given me two hundred 
 marks Scots for the custome of tobacco. Upon this they triumphed, 
 wrote up to their complices- at court that they had me sure; but after 
 finding it compted for in the books, and discharged by themselves, they 
 gave over all hope to find any thing in that kind to charge me withal." 
 M.S. Napier Charter-chest. 
 + Against Strafford.
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. 357 
 
 to his army, to whom there is some new oath, of abso- 
 lute following him, sent down. The lower House 
 would not condescend that the officers should go down. 
 This day the Parliament is to fall to our demands, and 
 to get us money. God is going on in some hid way 
 for his son's crown. It will break forth. I thank God 
 that keeps my spirit far above all fears, either national 
 or personal. * The Lord direct you to be preparing 
 for a storm. 22d April, (1641,) Your Lordship's real 
 servant, A. J. 
 
 " My Lord Dumfermling has been oft with the King, 
 and is suspected to have been on this plot of the King 
 professing his intention to come to Scotland. 
 
 ' r I send you the copy of our information to some 
 Parliament men, which we read also to the King, but 
 whereat some of our number were mightily offended. 
 I hope they will let you see reason for their standing 
 to it also. I t[rust you] will make as much, of this 
 letter and information, as (that) I may be confident that 
 we shall have no directions from the Committee at all 
 to pass from incendiaries" f 
 
 This was the third letter which Archibald Johnston 
 had written that day, to Balmerino and Adam Hep- 
 burn, full of the most violent malignity against the 
 King, Traquair, Strafford, and other " incendiaries," 
 
 * Yet this letter is deeply imbued with his personal Ji ars, \\ bicb whet 
 the edge of his malignity. A sentence to be hanged never rung upon 
 a more cowardly heart than Wariston's, as we shall find in the sequel. 
 
 f Original MS. This is one of the letters selected by Lord Hailes. Bat 
 the editioiyd it in his collections is most inaccurate, and in some places 
 quite unintelligible. The two last clauses are, in the original, marginal 
 notes. In the Hailes' Collection they are introduced into the body of 
 the letter, and in the middle of a sentem e, so as to divide and destroy 
 the sense.
 
 358 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 urging and insisting that the most intolerant instruc- 
 tions should be sent to the commissioners in London, 
 that is to say, to Johnston himself, who, in these let- 
 ters, admits that the other commissioners were " mighti- 
 ly offended" at some of his measures, and vehemently 
 opposed him in some of his democratical projects. At 
 night, of the same date as the above letter, he wrote 
 another of a like tenor, also to Balmerino, some 
 sentences of which are incoherent with malicious ex- 
 citement. Yet he says, — " God is my witness I have 
 no malice, nor particular end, but only the honour of 
 the kingdom to be preferred to his (Traquair's) point 
 of honour. Command us to be stout — be diligent with 
 your lawyers — prepare your recruits — let not this 
 other trick of their causing the King profess he would 
 come to Scotland himself to settle business — which is 
 a trick of theirs also to terrify us, for fear of faction at 
 home to grow by his presence. The lower House has 
 given up their bill — grows daily stouter — will not rise 
 — will have Strafford's life — are thinking on moneys 
 for us — this in post haste — Lord encourage and direct 
 them. * Your Lordship's humble servant. 22d April 
 (1641) at night." And in the midst of his triumph at 
 the prospect of blood and anarchy, the following blas- 
 phemous postscript occurs, — " Your Lordship will ex- 
 cuse me to my Lord Burley, and shew him that I had 
 no more to write to him ; and remember me to good 
 Mr Hary [Rollock], who, I know, will think with 
 myself, (who was aye said to he blythe at evil news,) 
 that business is going- in God's old way." f 
 
 * The Almighty is here invoked to encourage and direct the demo- 
 crats in England, in their determination to have the blood of Strafford 
 — and to get " moneys for us." 
 
 7 Lord Hiiiles extracted this postscript for his collection, but had
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. ,'j59 
 
 And this was the man who first directed the storm 
 of covenanting persecution against Montrose, because 
 he suspected that nobleman of the unpardonable offence 
 of privately corresponding with the Earl^of Traquair, 
 on the subject of supporting the King in his constitu- 
 tional prerogatives. The Procurator of the Kirk, it 
 seems, might indulge to any extent in a secret corre- 
 spondence, selecting whom he pleased of the^faction as 
 parties to that confidence, and yet be responsible to no 
 one for the most malicious expressions against indivi- 
 duals, and the most inflammatory and treasonable propo- 
 sitions against the King and constitution. Wejmust 
 now quote some other passages from his secret corre- 
 spondence, which indicate this demagogue's suspicions 
 of the conservative party in Scotland, and his desire to 
 overwhelm them in the ruin he so savagely'decreed 
 against Traquair. 
 
 " 20th April. The greatest opposition by the King- 
 is made against the Act of Oblivion, which he will ei- 
 ther have to be universal or none at all, or will reserve 
 as many among us [as] we reserve of those that are 
 cited. The Duke of Lennox, in the higher House, 
 made a large discourse on all these three members. It 
 is easily known from whom it comes, — my Lord r J ra- 
 quair — as he professed once to myself, and another 
 time to Mr Henderson, that he could challenge /he 
 Karl of Rothes of treason ; and he both said once to 
 me, and, as my Lord Hollies knows from others, he 
 said it also to the King, that before he perished, he 
 
 misread or misprinted it thus,—" who was aye said to.be blythe, a* 1 
 did witness." — which destroys both the sense, and Wariston'a character- 
 istic of himself.
 
 S60 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 should mix Heaven and Earth and Hell together.* 
 Some of his friends have told that he has charges of 
 treason against sundry of our number. The King has 
 spoken both to Sey and Pim, and told that he will re- 
 serve as many as we did, or perhaps he would be bet- 
 ter, and only reserve three, for our four called incen- 
 diaries. It is universally surmised that my Lord 
 Rothes is one. Argyle is suspected to be another. It 
 is not known whether Loudon be one. I am thought 
 certainly of the number, and either Sir Thomas Hope, 
 Robert Meldrum, or you, (Hepburn of Humbie.) It is 
 thought that Balmerino is not forgot.f Howsoever, 
 for aught we can conjecture, the accusations come from 
 home. The King says that he will go to the Parlia- 
 ment House, declare their names, show their crimes of 
 treason, ***** letters or papers, and witnesses at 
 home, (who some times * * * ) noblemen witnesses 
 who are no doubt the leaders of your banders \ * * * 
 accusation is like the narrative of their band against 
 some few persons. He says he will not meddle with 
 their persons, but remit them to their own Parliament. 
 But it is hard to believe that any who counsel the 
 
 * This is most maliciously stated. Traquair, a nobleman of high spi- 
 rit and passionate expressions, when goaded to the quick by this re- 
 lentless and irrational democrat, quoted, or made the classical allusion 
 to the line in Virgil, " Mover e si nequeo superos acheronta movebo." 
 This will be explained afterwards in a manuscript of Traquair 's own. 
 
 f Johnston's object was to alarm the whole clique, and thus secure 
 their intolerance. This letter is addressed to " my loving brother, Mr 
 Adam Hepburn of Humbie, or to Mr Robert Meldrum, and after their 
 reading to my Lord Balmerino." He also adds, " shew this letter to 
 General (Leslie), Cassilis, Lindsay, Meldrum, Hope." 
 
 J Lord Hailes read this, " the leaders of your banditti." It clearly refers 
 to Montrose and the noblemen who signed the bond against the " particu- 
 lar and indirect practising of a few." The letters are very difficult to de- 
 cypher, and in some places destroyed.
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. 36l 
 
 King to accuse any of us of treason will not counsel 
 him also to lay us fast, as pledges of the Scots army re- 
 maining quiet. Neither do I see, if any of us be once 
 accused of treason, how the persons accused can go on 
 in the treaty, but should go home, and let your Com- 
 mittee send in their stead whom they please, or do 
 otherwise as they think fit. Those of us who favoured 
 Traquair may sleep sound and fear no danger, but God 
 help them that are counted his enemies for sticking steive 
 by their instructions.* I have made a fair offer for myself 
 that I shall be heartily content to be yoked in one chain 
 with the Earl of Traquair, f and sent to Scotland, and 
 let him accuse me, and me accuse him, and let the in- 
 nocent go free, and the nocent suffer. We have writ- 
 ten information for some Lords, and some of the lower 
 House, and as I have said to them, so I say and write 
 to you from the bottom of my heart, that before the 
 Parliament of Scotland were thus scoffed and boasted 
 from their pursuit of incendiaries, (whom noiv, if ever 
 they may see to be incendiaries, )\ I would rather be con- 
 tent for myself this night to be laid fast in the Gate-house, 
 and let them do with me to-morrow what they pleased. I 
 will say no more, but that it is a shame that any, let be 
 so many of us, should yet be pleading for them, and 
 whereas I was never for their blood, but only for their 
 confession, (to save the King and kingdom's honour,) 
 
 * Which instructions, however, were Wariston's own prompting and 
 insisting upon. 
 
 f There is something ruffian-like in this expression. The hoast was a 
 sate one, for two reasons: [ st, Johnston knew there was n<> chance 
 of being taken at his word. 2d, Even if he had, there was no question 
 how the accusation would have been determined in Scotland. 
 
 J This was Johnston's mode of lashing others into bis Own malevolent 
 feelings; the expressions are not applicable to the very rational pro- 
 position, that, if peace was to he settled lu-twixt the kingdoms, these 
 groundless and lawless processes should be departed from.
 
 36 l 2 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 if we get these recriminations, I think they deserve 
 justice secundum merita. The King mentions only 
 Traquair's name, that if we do insist against him he will 
 make his reservation, but if we will pass from him, he 
 will pursue none. Ye may see it can be no great trea- 
 son, in regard of such a compensation. * If any of us 
 be accused here, ye wold think, what to do with some 
 there, seeing we hear it comes from Montrose, and as 
 I suspect, it is upon the speeches that passed in the 
 [meeting] of Estates, the first of June [1640,] in the 
 dispute whether to prorogate the Parliament, or to sit 
 still notwithstanding of the King and Commissioner's ab- 
 sence, f when Montrose did dispute against Argyle, 
 Rothes, Balmerino, and myself, because some urged 
 that, as long as we had a King, we could not sit with- 
 out him, and it was answered, that to do the less, was 
 more lawful nor (than) to do the greater. There is some 
 word here of Sir Thomas Hope's speaking at Newcastle, 
 since our way coming, that the King himself might be 
 cited to the Parliament, as well as the Earl of Straf- 
 ford," &c. X 
 
 " 9th March. This day the Committee anent Epis- 
 
 • With all his threatenings, Charles I. was but too apt to overlook 
 even high treason, for present though short-lived peace. The treason might 
 be very palpable notwithstanding. 
 
 -f- It is curious that the inaccurate fragment of this letter given in 
 Hailes' Collection stops here, at the word " absence," and leaves out the 
 whole of what follows, and throws so much light upon Montrose's op- 
 position to the party he had joined, in an evil hour. It is impossible 
 that Lord Hailes could have examined these manuscripts himself; he must 
 have employed a very inexperienced transcriber. 
 
 J See ante, p. 333, where this reference to Sir Thomas is illustrated. 
 There is a good deal more of this letter, but chiefly made up of boasting 
 and violent expressions. Johnston waxes very courageous, knowing 
 himself to be perfectly secure, in the King's want of firmness and free 
 will, his own importance to both factions, and the presence of the Scots 
 army at Newcastle.
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. 3()3 
 
 copacy reported to the lower House that they saw the 
 Bishops' civil places in the Parliament, council, &c. to 
 be unlawful, and their sole power of ordination and ju- 
 risdiction, which is intended to be voiced to-morrow, and 
 is hoped to be carried, and for strengthening this, in the 
 afternoon we are to give in our demand, with the rea- 
 sons thereof, for removal of Episcopacy out of all his 
 Majesty's dominions.'" 
 
 " 10th March. My Noble Lord,— These are only to 
 shew you, besides my letter yesterday with merchant 
 post, that this day the whole lower House unanimous- 
 ly, but with four or five contrary voices, has declared 
 that bishops should have no civil places. And then 
 again, that they should have no voice in Parliament. The 
 Earl of Cork has proven some foul points of new against 
 the lieutenant.* There is some commissioners come 
 from Ireland with report f * * * or protestations 
 there against the prelates ; and at night we gave in 
 our large demand for unity in religion and govern- 
 ment, all which coming on the King together, and on 
 a suddainty, you may guess what a mood they would 
 put him in. I wish his confidence of standing out hare 
 no ground from some at home."f We are discharged 
 to give copies out of our long paper against Episco- 
 pacy, but receive the other papers with the order of 
 the lower House. Tell this good news to the honest 
 man and good, Mr Hery4 Truly, I think them worth 
 
 * Strafford. 
 
 t Alluding to Montrose and his conservative friends. 
 
 J Mr Henry Rollock, the minister who took charge of the miracle 
 of Margaret Mitch elson, and who, when desired !>y the spectators t<> 
 pray with her, and speak to her, answered that " he durst aot d<> it, as 
 being no good manners in him to speak while his master was speaking in 
 her." — King' 8 Declaration, p. 227. The manner in which Johnston speaks 
 of the Almighty in these letters is most impious. Referring to the 
 prospect of the Scotch Commissioners, and thearmy, being able t<> leave
 
 364 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 praise and prayer from the kirk of Scotland, solemnly, 
 and the more in regard to the unanimity beyond many's 
 fears," &c. 
 
 " 12th March. If from Newcastle ye [Balmerino] 
 send up any baron with Argyle and Lindsay, whose 
 coming I dare not counsel now till this storm be calm- 
 ed, it will not be politicly nor safely done to send 
 L[aird] of Keir here to strengthen here Traquair's 
 faction and correspondence with Montrose at home ; it 
 were far fitter to send up Sir Thomas Hope, on whom 
 ye may trust,* or, if he be delayed now, I could wish, 
 after our articles are ended, to go down with them to 
 the committees, but really for to help to prepare the 
 processes before the Parliament? &c.f 
 
 " 2d April. I request your Lordship (Balmeri- 
 no) to cause your lawyers be busy for ordering of the 
 processes, both to think on matters t \ on relevancy and 
 on probation. If it be not done, there is none in that 
 committee will be so much blamed, because there is 
 none so much trusted with business of that importance. 
 And, because mercenary advocates are not so dili- 
 
 Englandto keep the Parliament in Scotland, he adds, — " but who knows 
 if God will come in, in the ploy, when we go to_end.'\ Again ; " but the 
 Lord, who doth his own work in his own way, seems to turn the chase, 
 for yesterday, in the over House," &c. 
 
 * This illustrates the narrative of Montrose's bond, namely, " the par- 
 ticular and indirect practising of a few." From Traquair's own account 
 of the matter, to be afterwards laid before the reader, Montrose and he 
 were not in correspondence at this time, though the allegation was made 
 a ground of criminal procedure against them both. 
 
 f This, and many other expressions in Johnston's letters prove that 
 he was the life and soul of the processes against the incendiaries, and 
 that, in effecting what even his most factious coadjutors, far less the 
 country, did not feel so interested in as he wished them to be, he had no 
 hesitation in trampling upon every rule of law, and principle of truth, 
 justice and humanity. 
 
 J i.e. To exert their ingenuity to make a case against the incendia- 
 ries.
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. 365 
 
 gent and studious in public pursuits for the common- 
 wealth as in private processes of well-paying clients, 
 I request your Lordship to pay them before-hand large- 
 ly, and to remember we have to do with a man who 
 will make no conscience, but think it good policy in 
 such a streight, by large buckles (bribes) to lay law- 
 yers bye, and cause their servants reveal all the secret- 
 est articles which are against him. F}'e on them that 
 will not be diligent in this. Were not that / must be 
 one of the primest witnesses in many points laid to his 
 charge, and so cannot be his pursuer, if I were in their 
 case, I would have thought it a notable occasion to caite 
 (manifest) both affection to the cause and country. But, 
 however,* if I can win down, I shall do my utmost to 
 help to prepare fhi?ig's." 
 
 We shall conclude our extracts from the secret let- 
 ters of this disgusting demagogue, by quoting a scene 
 in which he comes in contact with Charles I. It 
 was more than sufficient penance for all the sins, mo- 
 ral and political, ever proved against that Christian 
 monarch, that he should have to endure for a moment 
 the presence and the insolence of Archibald Johnston. 
 
 The following is addressed, — " To my loving brother, 
 Mr Adam Hebrone of Huinbie, or to Mr Robert Mel- 
 drum in his absence." 
 
 " 21st April [1641.] Loving brother, — Since my 
 writing my last with this same bearer, and closing it 
 yesternight, I had occasion this morning to speak with 
 M.,f and after, by his advice, with the King, to whom 
 
 * The force of this " however" is, — 'though it should be contrary to 
 all law, and the most essential principles of justice.' 
 
 f This cypher stands for the Marquis <>/ Hamilton ; and this notice
 
 366 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 I told my mind freely of the dangers and inconveni- 
 ences he might draw himself by discussing his actions, 
 and forcing men for their defence to look over old prac- 
 tiques not so expedient for him,* — exoneravi animam 
 meant to him,f and that for others, because, as for my- 
 self, I told him that I defied all the world that could 
 lay to my charge any treasonable intention against his 
 person and crown, j and renewed my offer to go in 
 chains with any answer to Scotland. His mind seems 
 to be on some project here, shortly to break out. He 
 is certainly put upon this to stick on the act of obli- 
 vion, both for to save Traquair if he grant it, or to en- 
 snare any English whom he apprehends to have had 
 intelligence with us, if he grant it not. Afternoon we 
 met all with him. He read to us a fair answer anent 
 the Council and Session ; and for the rest, told that he 
 had given as fair answers already as he could, and 
 fairer than otherwise he would but pacis causa. § He 
 
 of him is not contradictory of the various anecdotes, and universal sus- 
 picion of bis treasonable double dealing. 
 
 * See ante, p. 333 and p. 362, where the letter, dated 20th April, is 
 quoted, and fully illustrates the meaning of the above. Sir Thomas 
 Hope had just been quoting an old practique from Buchanan, to show- 
 that the King himself might be tried by the Parliament. Archibald 
 Johnston, too, had secret stores of old pracliques, and he had the effron- 
 tery to tell his Majesty, that if, for the protection of his crown, he took 
 notice of the proceedings or expressions of traitors, they would be com- 
 pelled, for their own defence against a charge of high treason, to grub 
 out a case for democracy, and dethrone him altogether. 
 
 f i. e. ' I have unburthened my mind to the King. I have been in- 
 solent to him, and spoken treason, to my heart's content, — I did so for 
 the protection of Argyle, Sir Thomas Hope, and others, — and for my 
 own, I bullied him with a defiance to accuse me of treason, and send 
 me in chains to Scotland, which I knew he dared not attempt, and that 
 I was safe enougli though he had.' 
 
 % Yet in the progress of these events, Charles lost his crown and his 
 head, — and Archibald Johnston sat as a peer in Cromwell's Parliament 
 — and was hanged for high treason. 
 
 § i. e. ' I have yielded, to your insatiable demands against my prero-
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. 36? 
 
 told that he himself would get us much of our money,* 
 and security for the rest, if the Parliament did not 
 presently end our business ; that he had thought on 
 ways how to get it, that they professed our business 
 depended on them, (and some words of that hind, to 
 make us jealous of them.) He told us if the Parlia- 
 ment of Scotland would prorogue themselves to some 
 diet again, which he is confident they will do, he will 
 assuredly go home himself, and settle the business. He 
 has said this, and sworn it too, unto us, except some 
 impediment occur that he knows not of as yet, that 
 he hopes to get his business ended here. Then he 
 fell on the act of oblivion. We read the information 
 which I sent| to you within a letter to Mr Alexander 
 Colvin. He raged at it, and called us Jesuitical ; then 
 he cried and swore, that if we excepted [from the act 
 of oblivion] any, he would except some also ; and this 
 he declared over and over again, and professed his hope 
 that the Parliament would be of the same judgment. 
 We answered in reason from our inability to pass from 
 what the Parliament had appointed, and from his 
 granting of the same already in the treaty, f I must 
 
 gatives, as much as it is possible to yield, and be a King, and, for the sake, 
 of preserving the peace of my Realms, I have yielded more than I ought.' 
 * A lluding to the demand, made by the Scots Commissioners, of L.300,000 
 Sterling, to pay them for invading England. What the King said was 
 probably this. ' Is \tyour money that you are so anxious for ? My Par- 
 liament says that you must depend upon them for it; but if they do not 
 speedily grant it, why, for the sake of peace, I will see what I can do 
 myself. I have no exchequer — my purse is empty — but I have still a 
 little credit left — and have thought on the means. I will get you what 
 I can, and security for the rest — Oh, you shall have your money.' 
 
 f Yet it appears from Johnston's own letters, that it required both en- 
 treaties and threats from himself to the committee in Edinburgh to keep 
 up the virulent feeling and process against Traquair and others called 
 incendiaries.
 
 368 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 tell you my mind of all this business. For aught I 
 can learn from any hand, both this plot of reserving 
 some of us, and this plot of causing the King declare 
 his intention to go home to Scotland, is only to terrify 
 us for to pass from Traquair, and is suspected, — I will 
 say no more, nor accuse any man, — to come from some 
 of our own number with Traquair's advice," &c. * 
 
 The pointed directions given in this secret corre- 
 spondence, to have an eye upon Montrose, and to 
 " think what to do with some" in Scotland, were not 
 thrown away upon the clique in Edinburgh ; and Mr 
 Archibald Johnston had the satisfaction of receiving 
 that letter from Sir Thomas Hope, to which we have 
 elsewhere referred,! and shall now quote from the un- 
 published original. 
 
 " Worthy Brother, 
 " We had many strange business in hand here, this 
 last week. They began at Mr John Graham, minister 
 of Auchterarder, who was called to give an account of 
 some speeches spoken in that presbytery, and gave Mi- 
 Robert Murray for his authority. Mr Robert gave the 
 Earl of Montrose for his, and Montrose declared that 
 he had the same partly from Mr John Stewart of Lady- 
 well, and partly from my Lord Lindsay. Mr John 
 Stewart being sent for and examined, made a terrible 
 calumnious relation of some speeches which he alleged 
 
 * See Chapter XIV. where the letter from the Napier charter-chest 
 is printed, and proves the nature of Montrose's and Lord Napier's advice 
 to the King at this desperate crisis. The rest of Johnston's letter quoted 
 above is chiefly composed of most violent directions to the Committee 
 not to " harbour so base a thought as to be thus threatened and dung 
 from the Parliament's pursuit of incendiaries." 
 
 f See p. 333, where the postscript is quoted.
 
 SECRET MACHINERY OF THE COVENANT. 369 
 
 spoken by the Earl of Argyle at his expedition in 
 Athol, of no less moment than the deposing of the 
 King. He confessed he gave a copy of his relation to 
 the Earl of Montrose, and another to Walter Stewart, 
 {my man,) to be given to the Earl of Traquair. Wal- 
 ter was happily ranconntered, upon Friday, betwixt 
 Cokburn'spath and Haddington, by one was sent ex- 
 pressly to meet him, and conveyed to Balmerino's lodg- 
 ings, at nine o'clock at night, where I was the first man 
 that came in after him, about some other business with 
 my Lord. After he denied he had any more papers 
 than were in his cloth-bag, there was a leather bag 
 found in the pannel of his saddle, wherein was a letter 
 from the King to Montrose, a letter to himself (Stewart) 
 written from Colonel Cochrane at Newcastle, to Lon- 
 don, and a signature of the Chamberlanrie of the Bi- 
 shop of Dunkeld to Mr John Stewart, with a blank for 
 a pension, but not signed by the King's hand. After 
 many shifts, being convinced by some notes under his 
 own hand, which were found in his pocket, (and which 
 with astonishment he swore he thought had not been 
 in the world,) he was brought to promise plain dealing, 
 and deponed, as ye will find in the papers sent to 
 Hum by. But I believe he has not dealt truly in all the 
 points. Specially I doubt the interpretation of A. B. 
 C, by which he says are meant the Banders* and 
 of the viper in the King's bosom, by which he means 
 Canterbury, which / believe not. I will not touch any 
 more of the particulars, because you will find them 
 in the copies of the papers. Mr John Stewart has 
 since confessed his knavery in the general, but has not 
 
 * i. e. Montrose and those who signed the conservative bond. 
 VOL. I. A a
 
 370 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 yet cleared the particulars.* The point for the which 
 Montrose alleges Lindsay's authority is not yet cleared. 
 It was concerning the Dictator, whom he alleges should 
 have been p. e. to have been] Argyle, as he then said 
 positive in his declaration my Lord Lindsay named him. 
 But since he heard Lindsay, he says he believes he did 
 name him, at the least he conceives he meant him, and 
 he refers to his oath [whether he did mean him. I 
 think it shall resolve in nothing, or a very little some- 
 thing. I believe this business shall prove deeper than 
 yet is found, for the Lord it seems will have all these 
 ways brought to light. f I have no other thing, that I re- 
 member for the present, which I know you have not 
 heard, and, the most part of this, if not all, you will have 
 from others. But a good tale twice told is tolerable. 
 I remain, as ever, your real friend to be commanded, 
 Edin'-, 7 June 1641. A. B."| 
 
 * For a good reason, — he had to consider ivhat particulars were most 
 likely to save him from the merciless fangs of an Argyle committee. 
 
 f These two sentences, which at first sight appear to contradict each 
 other, are very characteristic of a covenanting factionist. They mean 
 that the allegation against Argyle would turn out to be no high treason 
 at all, or only a very little high treason, but as for the suspicion against 
 Montrose, that would be verified in the discovery of a deep plot brought 
 to light by the Lord. 
 
 % It is remarkable that this letter, fixing so precisely the fact of 
 intercepting the King's messenger to Montrose, should not have been 
 hitherto observed, not even by Lord Hailes when examining the ma- 
 nuscripts of the Advocates' Library in reference to the history of the 
 period. Wodrow, who has preserved it amongst his voluminous manu- 
 script collections, was not aware that the writer was Sir Thomas Hope. 
 He calls it, (in his index to the volume of his MSS. where it occurs) a 
 letter to Wariston from his brother, probably because it commences, 
 " worthy brother." But Hope and Johnston were brother lawyers and 
 brother factionists. That Sir Thomas Hope of Kerse was the writer of 
 this letter is sufficiently proved before, p. 334.
 
 MR ROBERT MURRAY'S DEPOSITION. 371 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE REASONS OF MONTROSE S CONSERVATIVE BOND, AND THE GROUNDS 
 OF HIS ALARM FOR THE MONARCHY, ILLUSTRATED FROM ORIGINAL 
 MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 We must now shift the scene to Scotland, and de- 
 velope the details of a lawless persecution of Montrose, 
 and other conservative Covenanters there, of which 
 history only affords a partial and inaccurate view. 
 Fortunately it happens, that most of the original pa- 
 pers, relating to the events mentioned in the letter with 
 which our last chapter concludes, have also been pre- 
 served among the manuscripts of the Advocates' Li- 
 brary. They have not hitherto been printed, and his- 
 torians, who slightly notice the extraordinary scenes to 
 which they relate, appear never to have consulted the 
 documents themselves. These shall now be laid before 
 the reader, with the exception only of the antiquated 
 orthography. 
 
 " May 27, 1641. — Mr Robert Murray, minister at 
 Methven, being come to Edinburgh upon Wednesday 
 last, at night, upon other occasions, was called off the 
 streets upon Thursday, the 27th day of May, instant, 
 to compear before the Committee of Estates, and hav- 
 ing appeared before them, was told by their Lordships, 
 that Mr John Graham, minister of Auchterarder, being 
 examined by their Lordships upon the author of his 
 speeches which he spake before the Presbytery of 
 Auchterarder, gave up the said Mr Robert as his au-
 
 372 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 thor. Whereupon Mr Robert posed (questioned) the 
 said Mr John, being present, why he should give him 
 up as author, seeing he was informed by Mr James 
 Forsyth, minister at Monzie, that Mr John had other 
 authors. But the said Mr John refused to condescend 
 upon any other author but the said Mr Robert. 
 Whereupon Mr Robert did desire the Committee to 
 urge Mr John to condescend upon other authors, for 
 he was loath to depone in the business. Whereupon 
 the Earl of Montrose did urge Mr Robert to declare 
 without more business, because he knew that he might 
 soon put it off his hand. Whereupon Mr Robert an- 
 swered, ' then it is your Lordship must take it off rny 
 hand, therefore, my Lord, tell your part, and I shall 
 tell mine.' But my Lord refused, and desired Mr Ro- 
 bert to declare ; and the said Mr Robert being urged of 
 the Lords of the Committee to declare, he desired to see 
 Mr John Graham's declaration, whereof he had made 
 him author. But the Lords of the Committee desired 
 Mr Robert to declare what he spake to Mr John Gra- 
 ham anent the particulars which Mr John was chal- 
 lenged to have spoken in the said Presbytery. Where- 
 upon the said Mr Robert depones, — 
 
 " That Mr John Graham came, upon a Sabbath day 
 at night, in February or March last, (as the deponer 
 remembers,) in his own house, with a commission from 
 Montrose, desiring the deponer to meet with his Lord- 
 ship in Scoon, on Monday at night. The deponer 
 answered, that he would be glad to speak with his Lord- 
 ship, but he was loath to go to Scoon on the Monday. 
 Therefore Mr John and the deponer went to Perth on 
 Monday, and from thence the said Mr John went him- 
 self to the said Earl to meet him coming from Dun- 
 crub, to tell his Lordship that the deponer would meet
 
 MR ROBERT MURRAY'S DEPOSITION. 373 
 
 his Lordship at Perth, or any other place he pleased, 
 but could not go to Scoon that night. And so the said 
 Earl came to Margaret Donaldson's in Perth, where the 
 deponer came to his Lordship, being advertised to come 
 there to his Lordship. At the first meeting with his 
 Lordship, my Lord challenged the deponer for his long 
 absence from him, who excused himself by reason his 
 Lordship was taken up with many others that were in 
 his Lordship's company, and that he was loath to come 
 except to meet his Lordship in private. Thereafter my 
 Lord says to the deponer, ' you were an instrument of 
 bringing me to this cause, I am calumniated, and slan- 
 dered as a backslider in this cause, and am desirous to 
 give you and all honest men satisfaction anent my 
 carriage therein.' The deponer then asked his Lordship 
 why he subscribed the bond that was contrary to the 
 Covenant. The Earl answered, it was not contrary to 
 the Covenant, but for the Covenant. The deponer 
 asked the reason, and why it was done in private, seeing 
 any bond that had been for the Covenant might 
 have been avowed. About this time Mr John Robert- 
 son, minister at Perth, being sent for by the Earl, came 
 in to them, and then the Earl continuing his dis- 
 course in presence of the said Mr John, answered, 
 that they saw some few particular men taking some 
 particular courses contrary to the cause and Covenant, 
 and therefore they behoved to strengthen themselves, 
 for the maintenance of the cause and Covenant by that 
 bond. The deponer answered, ' how does that appear ?' 
 The Earl answered, ' there were some few upon courses 
 for change of the Government, * for there has been a 
 motion for deposing of the King, and next /or, setting 
 tip a Dictator, and, that failing, there was another 
 motion for setting a General within the country, as 
 
 * i. e. The monarchical form of government
 
 374 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 there was one without the country ; this was left, and 
 another course taken for making a triumvirate, one to 
 rule all be-north Forth, and two be-south the Forth.' 
 The deponer answered, ' these things seem very strange, 
 for we have neither heard, thought, nor dreamed of 
 any such thing, and there is no likelihood thereof.' 
 The Earl answered, it was true, and prest the last point, 
 alleging that for doing thereof there was a bond drawn 
 up and offered to be subscribed, for establishing a par- 
 ticular man be-north Forth, by which the subjects were 
 to be obliged in fidelity and fealty, and that the Earl 
 refused to subscribe it, but rather should die or he 
 did it, which he would prove with sixteen as good as 
 himself. The deponer answered, these things were 
 strange, he could not believe them, because they 
 seemed to be very unlikely. The Earl replied, that 
 he might accuse them, but he would not do it, till first 
 he cleared himself at the Parliament and Assembly. 
 The deponer said, ' you are all agreed now in Edin- 
 burgh, and I beseech you may keep unity, for the breach 
 thereof is a mean to do most harm to this cause.' 
 The Earl answered, he should do nothing to prejudice 
 the cause, but maintain the same with life and means. 
 It was asked by the deponer, whether or not, at the 
 meeting of the Parliament in November 1640, it was 
 his Lordship's intention to have the Parliament to sit 
 for reversing the Acts of Parliament made in June last,* 
 or at least to call them in question, that so his Majesty 
 might get a ground to quarrel our Commissioners, 
 anent these acts, who were seeking them to be publish- 
 ed in his Majesty's name. The Earl answered, he de- 
 
 * This was the Parliament in which Archibald Johnston says, that 
 Montrose disputed against the faction, see p. 362. Having been constrain- 
 ed, however, to subscribe the proceedings of that convention, he appears 
 to have considered himself thereby bound to maintain them as law.
 
 MR ROBERT MURRAY'S DEPOSITION. 375 
 
 sired the Parliament to have sitten, but not for that end, 
 but only to have added some to the Committee, because 
 many able men were left out, who might strengthen the 
 Committee if they were at it. And the Earl, being ask- 
 ed again whether or no he had purpose to question 
 these acts, answered, he had not, because he had sub- 
 scribed them, and would maintain them with his blood. 
 The deponer remembered little more of any thing pas- 
 sed that night, but only that the Earl desired the de- 
 poner might go to Scoon that night, who promised to 
 be there to-morrow. On the morrow, being Tuesday, 
 the deponer came to Scoon, and waiting on awhile, in 
 respect the Earl was speaking with the Earl of Athol 
 and Mr John Stewart, some of his friends attending 
 beside, one told the Earl that the deponer was there. 
 So the Earl came himself, and entered on the same dis- 
 course that he and the deponer were on before. The 
 deponer showed that God had put in his heart a just 
 answer thereto. The Earl repeated what he had said 
 the night before anent the change of Government, where- 
 unto the deponer gave this answer, that, ' howsoever I 
 believe not any such motions to have been, yet I think 
 if any such has been, they have been conditional, and 
 not absolute, but only in case of unavoidable extremities, 
 looking to the weal of the country, and government 
 thereof in cases of necessity, and that their practice 
 proves that it was but conditional, if any such was, be- 
 cause that now, when the King is content to go on with 
 them to the treaty, they go on sweetly seeking peace.''* 
 
 * This is to say, the revolutionary party of the Scotch Commission- 
 ers in London, which was the predominant party, required the King to 
 give up all his royal prerogatives, otherwise Archihald Johnston would 
 ferret out " old practiques," as a ground for taking- them. " Dethrone 
 yourself by concessions," was virtually their language, " or we will de-
 
 376 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 The Earl answered, it was not conditional, but absolute, 
 and therefore, he said, ' they are seeking conditions 
 contrary to the Covenant, because we have sworn not 
 to entrench upon the King's prerogative ; likewise they 
 are seeking more than the letter sent to the Earl of 
 Lanerick contains, wherein they had declared they 
 would seek only these articles contained in the said let- 
 ter,* for now they desire that officers of state, council 
 and session, should be chosen by the Parliament.' t 
 Deponer answered, they are all good things, if they 
 could be obtained, and that our folks did not stand upon 
 them as (if) they would break the peace if they did not 
 obtain them, and these things being for the good of the 
 commonweal, licet cuilibet supplicare et mendicare.% 
 The Earl replied, ' they are seeking them absolutely, 
 
 throne you by force. How sweetly they were seeking peace may be seen 
 from the secret correspondence quoted in the last chapter. 
 
 * This refers to the address transmitted to his Majesty (through the 
 Earl of Lanerick, Secretary of State,) from the Covenanting Committee, 
 with the Army at Newcastle, September 8, 1640. It prays, in very hum- 
 ble and loyal terms, 1. That the Acts of the Parliament of June should 
 be ratified by his Majesty. 2. That the strongholds of Scotland should be 
 " furnished, and used for our defence and security." 3. That all Scotch- 
 men " may be free from censure for subscribing the Covenant," &c. 4. 
 " That the common incendiaries, who have been the authors of this com- 
 bustion in his Majesty's dominions, may receive their jusl censure," and 
 the rest of the petition regards the act of oblivion and reparation of 
 losses sustained in the war. How far these demands were exceeded, and 
 this temperate tone departed from, may be seen from Archibald John- 
 ston's correspondence. 
 
 f Montrose, we thus see, felt at the time how deadly was this blow 
 aimed at the Monarchy ; and, after all had passed away, England's most 
 philosophical historian had to record, — " But the most fatal blow given 
 to royal authority, and what in a manner dethroned the Prince, was the 
 article, that no member of the Privy-Council, in whose hands, during 
 the King's absence, the whole administration lay, no officer of state, 
 none of the judges, should be appointed, but by advice and approbation 
 of Parliament." — Hume's Hist. vi. 427. 
 
 % They were sturdy beggars, however.
 
 MR ROBERT MURRAY'S DEPOSITION. 377 
 
 or no peace, in token whereof, the Commissioners had 
 written that their name would stink if they sought them, 
 and the committee had written back, they should not 
 pass from them without their advice. * The depon- 
 er answered, that these might well stand with the con- 
 dition, because if they found they could not obtain them, 
 then they would pass from them. Then the deponer 
 demanded the Earl how he could think that his bond 
 was for the Covenant, since upon the hearing of it 
 the King; had made a halt with the Commissioners of 
 the treaty. The Earl answered, i the King had got 
 knowledge of the bond by some speeches of the late 
 Lord Boyd, which were reported to the Commission- 
 ers, and by them to the English, and so it came to his 
 Majesty's ears.' The Earl was desired to come to his 
 dinner. Then the deponer entreated his Lordship to 
 unity.] The Earl answered, he loved unity, and would 
 clear himself before the Parliament and General As- 
 sembly. The deponer alleged it would hinder the set- 
 tling of the common cause. He answered, he should do 
 it in such a way as could not wrong the public, because 
 he would not make his challenge till the public business 
 were settled, and then he should put it off himself, and 
 lay it on those who had calumniated him.\ The depon- 
 er declares that the Earl of Montrose named the Earl 
 
 * The committee had written back, in terms of Archibald Johnston's 
 secret orders to them, for instructions. 
 
 | By unity, the Covenanters invariably meant, no opposition to the 
 revolutionary Movement. Thus we learn from Baillie's own confessions, 
 that at the commencement of the business, that Covenanter got the 
 better of his conscience, for the sake <>l unity, 
 
 J Thus the too open Montrose had prematurely disclosed his whole 
 plan to a creature of the faction, who took good care to prevent its 
 execution.
 
 37$ MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of Argyle, to be the man who should have the rule over 
 the north, as one of the triumvirate. 
 
 " This conference ended, the Earl went to dinner, 
 and the deponer went to Perth, and that same day- 
 Mr John Graham came to the deponer and said to 
 him, ' My Lord and you was hot.' The deponer an- 
 swered, ' I was not hot, but plain,' and that my Lord 
 had taken all well ; and the deponer, supposing that 
 Mr John had been acquainted by the Earl with the 
 same things that the Earl had spoken, and likewise 
 thinking that he might have overheard the discourse 
 betwixt the Earl and him, did tell * the said Mr John 
 the substance of the conference betwixt the Earl and 
 him, as is before deponed. Further the deponer, being 
 interrogated by the Committee if he remembers the 
 time and persons presenters of the bond about the rul- 
 ing of north Forth, answers, that he remembers not 
 that any thing was spoken anent the time or persons, 
 but only that the Earl said he could prove it by sixteen 
 as good as himself. And being interrogated what the 
 deponer said to Mr David Drummond, and Mr George 
 Mushet, ministers, with whom Mr John Graham affirm- 
 ed the deponer spoke, the deponer answers, that the 
 said Mr David and Mr George having heard that he 
 had spoken with the Earl, asked how he was satisfied. 
 The deponer replied, that he loved not to speak of that 
 purpose, but, that they might know how he was satis- 
 fied, he said, ' I shall tell you the story, and judge you 
 yourselves how I am satisfied? and thereafter related 
 to them the sum of the conference above deponed. 
 
 * It seems an odd reason for repeating the conference to Mr John 
 
 Graham, that he knew it already. Perhaps it was in case he did not know 
 
 it. Graham stated it to his Presbytery, and thus the whole matter 
 
 came before the Committee. 
 
 4
 
 montrose's declaration. 379 
 
 Further the deponer, being interrogated if he knew of 
 any other authors of Mr John's speeches than himself, 
 answered, that he had heard, from Mr James Forsyth, 
 that Mr John had said to Mr James, and Mr John 
 Fyfe, minister at Fowles, that there were five gentle- 
 men and a minister whom Mr John could make his 
 authors of his speeches to the Presbytery, and declares 
 that the names of the gentlemen and ministers were 
 not told to the deponer. 
 
 " This deposition being read to the deponer, he de- 
 clares the same to be of verity. 
 
 " The last of May 1641. This day the foresaid de- 
 position being again read to the deponer, and he having 
 given his oath, declares the same to be true, and of ve- 
 rity in substance and sense, according to his memory, 
 as he shall answer to God. (Signed) Mr Robert Mur- 
 ray. Sr. A. Gibsone, I. P. D." * 
 
 On the same day, Montrose himself was subjected 
 to the interrogatories of this Committee, and his own 
 statements shall now be laid before the reader, from 
 the original manuscript. 
 
 " The Earl of Montrose being desired to shew what 
 had passed betwixt his Lordship and Mr Robert Mur- 
 ray, in the speeches had at Perth and Scoon, in the 
 common business, his Lordship told, that he had said 
 to Mr Robert that he was wronged by the scandal 
 raised upon the bond, which was not against the Co- 
 venant or country. As likewise told Mr Robert that 
 
 * Original MS., indorsed, " 27 May. Mr Robert Murray, his de- 
 position anent the speeches betwixt the Earl of Montrose and him. 
 Sworn and subscribed last May 16+1."
 
 380 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 he was told by a very good hand, that there were in- 
 tentions to make a Dictator, which he did not trust, 
 but, being delivered to his Lordship by so good hands, 
 it was incumbent on him to think upon all the ways 
 to preveen such courses. This was the first reason for 
 subscribing the bond. A second reason was, it was 
 told him there were some bonds offered to be subscrib- 
 ed, some whereof being of different tenors, the inten- 
 tion of all being to tie the subjects in a particular way 
 of subjection to particular persons. A third reason 
 was anent an intention for cantoning the country. And 
 the fourth reason was a discourse which was told 
 his Lordship, whereby it was related that it was in- 
 tended, at the sitting of the Parliament in June last, 
 to depose the King, and, however it was continued 
 (put off) at that time, it would be the first act of the 
 next ensuing session of the Parliament, and that the 
 relator of the discourse told it was resolved by lawyers 
 and divines, that it might be so, and reasons thereof, 
 viz. venditione. desertione, and invasione* Being asked 
 if his Lordship remembered whether or not he spoke 
 any thing of a triumvirate, answers, he remembers not, 
 but that the country was to be divided and cantoned, 
 which were all one, and (that he) could not remember 
 all things, because they had two hours conference on 
 the Monday at night in Perth, and also being at Scoon 
 on the morn thereafter. Confesses that he named the 
 Earl of Argyle sould be [i. e. to be] the man be-north 
 Forth, and that he was the man sould have spoke?i 
 [i. e. who had spoken] of deposing the King. Declares 
 that his Lordship is not the author or inventor of'these 
 things, but that others are his authors, and that he 
 
 * i.e. Selling, deserting, or invading the country.
 
 MONTROSE'S DECLARATION. 381 
 
 would lay it down at the right door. Being question- 
 ed anent the sixteen who were witnesses to it as good 
 as himself, declares his Lordship had said there were 
 some of the particulars to his own hnowledge 3 and that 
 there were ten or twelve others who would bear him 
 witness, and that to them all, some one or other would 
 be gotten to take them off his hand, or prove them. 
 The Committee appointed the Earl of Montrose to show 
 his author. Being desired to do it, the Earl of Mon- 
 trose desired that since the Earl of Argyle was named 
 by him, which he was forced to do, (he) might express 
 his knowledge in this business. The Earl of Argyle 
 answered, that he thought it incumbent to him to clear 
 himself, and would do it [imme]di[ately if] the Com- 
 mittee would appoint him. The Earl of Argyle, by 
 his oath tinreqnired, declared that [he had never] heard 
 of such a matter, and would make it good that [the 
 man] who would say that he was the man spoke of de- 
 posing the King, or] of his knowledge of these bonds, 
 was a liar and a base * * * * * * .f 
 
 " The Earl of Montrose declared that there were 
 four [reasons for the bond he] had spoken of. The 
 first, a Dictator, the second, four bonds, the third, can- 
 toning the country, and tlwfourth, deposing the King.] 
 He was loath to speak of the first, because the author 
 
 f The manuscript is destroyed by damp in those places where I have 
 conjccturally supplied the vacancies. The last epithet applied by Ar- 
 gyle must be left to the imagination of the reader. The contrast be- 
 twixt the coolness and dignity of Montrose, and the violence of Argyle, 
 is characteristic, and reminds us of what Clarendon says of the latter, — 
 " he was a man endued with all the faculties of craft and dissimulation 
 that were necessary to bring great designs to effect, and had, in respect 
 of his estate and authority, a very great interest in Scotland ; yet he had 
 no martial qualities, nor the reputation of more courage than insolent 
 and imperious persons, whilst they meet with no opposition, are used to 
 have."— Hist. v. 92-
 
 882 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 thereof [was not] in this town. That, since there was 
 a necessity, he would declare, but that the author did 
 not speak it 'positive, but only upon [suspicion. De- 
 clares that the Lord Lindsay was the man who told 
 him of the Dictator, and overtopping courses. The cir- 
 cumstance of the discourse was, that when the Roman 
 affairs grew to a low ebb, the Romans thought it fit 
 that all power should be put in one man's person. He 
 will not say that the Lord Lindsay condescended upon 
 the Earl of Argyle's name, but that he condescended on 
 the word Dictator. He cannot condescend upon the time, 
 but that it was before the army crossed Tweed ; and 
 heard not from any others of the making of a Dictator. 
 The four bonds, some of them were in the Earl of Ar- 
 gyle's own name, and some prest by the Earl himself. 
 Some of the Athol people are informers of these bonds 
 [concerning] the deposing the King, and that the Earl 
 of Argyle discoursed thereof before twenty or thirty 
 gentlemen, and that Inchmartin and Garntully were 
 the hearers of the Earl of Argyle make that dis- 
 course, viz., that they were minded, if not at the 
 sitting of the Parliament in June last, to depose the 
 King, that they would do it at the first of the next en- 
 suing Parliament thereafter. The man that told the 
 Earl of Montrose this discourse is Mr John Stewart, 
 son to Mr James Stewart of Ladywell ; and that he 
 was the man who told of the four bonds, whereof two 
 of them were in the Earl of Argyle's own name ; Law- 
 ers, Glenurquhy, and Comrey prest two of them, and 
 Argyle other two of them, when he was upon his voy- 
 age to the north. As for the encantoning of the coun- 
 try, Archibald Campbell was present at the time when 
 there was a commission drawn up for the rule be-north 
 Forth, and, because the Earl of Montrose's interest
 
 momtrose's declaration. 383 
 
 was in those parts, he was not pleased with it,* and 
 therefore it was written over again ; the Earl of Mon- 
 trose's name was put in it, and a new meeting ap- 
 pointed to treat upon it ; and that this was before the 
 Earl of Montrose's voyage to the north in anno [1639?]. 
 Denies, that he knows of any others who sould [be ru- 
 lers over the] rest of the country, nor ever heard any 
 named. 
 
 " After reading of this paper in public, the Earl of 
 Montrose affirmed that the Lord Lindsay named the 
 Earl of Ar gyle to he Dictator, [but that] he did not 
 speak out of spleen to any, but upon respect to the pub- 
 lic, and upon jealousies and suspicions for the public 
 liberty. 
 
 " The Earl of Montrose remits the tenor of the bond 
 to the Earls of Mar and Cassilis, Archibald Campbell, 
 and Mr Adam Hepburn, and, for what his Lordship 
 remembers, the Earl of Argyle was named in it either 
 absolute General, or General Commander, and that the 
 noblemen were to be of his commitee.t Being posed 
 if his Lordship had any other authors, anent the bonds 
 and deposing the King, than Mr John Stewart, de- 
 clared he had none other. Being likewise posed if his 
 
 * That is to say, we presume, that Archibald Campbell was not 
 pleased with it. This Archibald Campbell was brother to Sir James 
 Camphell of Lawers, and a personal friend of Lord Napier's, though the 
 confidential agent of Argyle. 
 
 f This means the bond which Archibald Campbell saw drawn up, 
 and which was afterwards offered to Montrose for signature, when he 
 refused, and said he " rather should die or he did." The minister of 
 Perth, Mr John Robertson, was examined by the Committee upon the 
 12th June 1641. His declaration is substantially the same as Mon- 
 trose's and Mr Robert Murray's. But he adds, — " that the Earl affirmed 
 that the foresaid bond anent the ride be-north Forth was offered to his 
 Lordship to be subscribed by him at Chowsly Wood, before the army 
 crossed Tweed." The army crossed towards the end of August 1640. 
 Argyle at this time was left with an army in Scotland.
 
 384 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Lordship had examined Inchmartin, Garntully, or any- 
 other of the witnesses alleged by Mr John Stewart, his 
 Lordship answered, he had not spoken with any of them 
 on that subject. 
 
 " This which was written anent the Earl of Mon- 
 trose, his Lordship's declaration, was read in my Lord's 
 hearing and presence of the committee. 
 
 " Balmerino, I. P. D."* 
 
 We have seen, from the private correspondence of 
 Archibald Johnston, that the faction were very much 
 alarmed that impeachments would be directed against 
 themselves when the King should hold his Parliament 
 in Scotland, and there is every reason to believe that 
 Argyle had brought about this collision with Montrose, 
 in order to crush any such attempts in the bud. 
 Montrose, aware of his danger, acted with his usual 
 promptitude and spirit. We now take up the thread 
 of the narrative from Bishop Guthrie and Spalding. 
 Guthrie says — " Lest Montrose's enemies should have 
 dealt with Mr John to withdraw and leave him in the 
 hazard, he posted quickly away some gentlemen to Mr 
 John, with whom he came to Edinburgh upon the 30th 
 of May ; and upon the morrow appeared before the 
 Committee, and subscribed a paper- bearing all that 
 Montro.se had affirmed in his name. Whereupon 
 Argyle broke out into a passion, and with great 
 oaths denied the whole and every part thereof, whereat 
 many wondered" Spalding thus narrates the result. 
 " Argyle causes charge Mr John Stewart to compear 
 before the Committee to answer for these speeches, who 
 
 * Original MS. signed by the President, but not by Montrose. It is 
 indorsed " 27 May 1641, Earl of Montrose's declaration anent what 
 passed betwixt his Lordship and Mr Robert Murray."
 
 MONTROSE AND LORD LINDSAY. 385 
 
 indeed obeyed the charge, and compeared, and did abide 
 by the speeches, saying to Argyle, My Lord, I heard 
 you speak these words in Athol, in presence of a great 
 many people, whereof you are in good memory. Argyle 
 answers, saying, while he was in Athol he found the 
 Stewarts there against the subscribing of the Covenant, 
 to whom he said, this covenant was not against the 
 King, but for Religion and Liberties of the kingdom, and 
 if they would not subscribe the same, it might breed 
 themselves both peril and skaith ; for if the body of the 
 country would not go one way, but be divided against 
 themselves, it were an highway to bring in the English- 
 man into the land, to dethrone the King, and bring the 
 nobles under servitude and slavery. This he remem- 
 bered to have said, but denied any further." 
 
 However apt the covenanting committee were to 
 adopt rumours and private conversations as grounds 
 of criminal process against any who opposed them, and 
 although their articles of war made it death to speak 
 against the King or his authority, their inquisitorial 
 rigour seems not for an instant to have been directed 
 against Argyle. No sooner, however, had John Stew- 
 art put his hand to the information he gave Montrose, 
 than he, Stewart, was sent to prison. There we must leave 
 that unfortunate gentleman until we develope another 
 scene in this drama of covenanting justice. 
 
 Lord Lindsay was placed in an awkward predica- 
 ment. Montrose had affirmed that he named the Earl 
 of Argyle as the person who was to be Dictator, and 
 Argyle had volunteered his great oath that all this was a 
 foul calumny. The covenanting committee were per- 
 plexed and annoyed, for Lindsay was a leader of the fac- 
 tion.* Yet Montrose was not to be easily discredited ; 
 
 * This was John tenth Lord Lindsay of Byres. His patent as E irl 
 VOL. I. B b
 
 38G MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 and hitherto he had proved his declaration to be true. 
 It was not for the King's interest that the matter was 
 taken up, but purely for the sake of Argyle, and most 
 probably at his instance. He was to be cleared, there- 
 fore, at all hazards, before his Majesty should arrive 
 in Scotland ; and it remained for Lindsay to extri- 
 cate himself and the faction from the scandal in ques- 
 tion. How this was effected, will be best told by the 
 original manuscripts. 
 
 "4th June 1641. In presence of the Committee. 
 The Lord Lindsay desired to know if the Committee 
 had any thing to speak to his Lordship, because he was 
 to go to Newcastle. Whereupon the question fell in 
 anent the speeches related by the Earl of Montrose, to 
 have been spoken by him concerning a Dictator, whe- 
 ther the Lord Lindsay should answer to that, or if it 
 were such a matter as merits to be agitated. * The 
 Lord Lindsay desired to know what was spoken by 
 the Earl of Montrose which reflected upon him, be- 
 fore any thing was done. Accordingly whereunto the 
 paper was read and delivered to him, that he might 
 consider thereof. After consideration whereof, the 
 Lord Lindsay desired to know whether or not the 
 Earl of Montrose had any more to lay to his charge* 
 The Earl Montrose answered, that this was the sub- 
 stance thereof, and that the Lord Lindsay's discourse 
 
 of Lindsay was made out for him in 1633, but withheld in consequence 
 of his joining the Rothes and Balmerino faction. He obtained it, how- 
 ever, in 164-1, when Charles was reduced to reward his enemies. He 
 also obtained the earldom of Crawford, upon the forfeiture of Ludovick 
 Earl of Crawford, and was designed Earl of Lindsay and Crawford. 
 
 * The committee were not so scrupulous about agitating the matter 
 of Montrose' s conversation. 
 
 f Montrose had made no charge against Lindsay. All that he said 
 was forced from him by the Committee.
 
 MONTROSE AND LORD LINDSAY. 38? 
 
 inferred as much as the Earl of Argyle was the man 
 meant by (him ;) but because, in the circumstance of 
 the discourse, there may be other men concerned whom 
 the Earl Montrose was loath to name, he desired not 
 to speak any further in it. * 
 
 " The Earl of Montrose declared that the Lord Lind- 
 say, [he Montrose] falling with him upon a regret of the 
 course of business in this country, and that some were 
 crying up the Earl of Argyle too much, whereupon the 
 Lord Lindsay answered, that such a man speaking to the 
 same purpose, told that the Romans, when their affairs 
 were at a low ebb, made choice of one to be a Dictator, 
 that the command should be in one man's person, such 
 a man as had following and power, and to Lis Lord- 
 ship's memory the Lord Lindsay named the Earl of 
 Argyle to be the man pointed at, and that the discourse 
 inferred so much ; and withal entreated the Lord ZAnd- 
 say would not think any thing of it, because it was but 
 upon suspicions and jealousies. 
 
 " The Lord Lindsay asked the Earl of Montrose, 
 whether or not he said there was any such intention to 
 make a Dictator, who answered, that he does not say 
 that the Lord Lindsay said it positive, but recitative, 
 or by inference. 
 
 " The Earl Montrose and Lord Lindsay being re- 
 moved, the Earl of Argyle desired to speak, who told, 
 that since his Lordship's name was mentioned in the 
 same, he desired that he might be made clear of any- 
 thing may reflect upon him ; and, next, he thought it 
 fittest that each of the noblemen should set down the 
 discourse (that) passed, and then the Committee might 
 
 * Montrose, however, proceeds in his declaration, probably from hay- 
 ing been urged.
 
 388 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 take the same to consideration, whether these discourses 
 were worthy a further hearing. Which the Committee 
 taking to consideration, found that the same did no 
 ways concern the Earl of Ar gyle, since none of them 
 had said that the Earl of Argyle had any such in- 
 tention, or was accessary to any such motion, and 
 thought the last part most fit ; and therefore the Com- 
 mittee appointed the Earl of Cassilis, Lords Balmerino 
 and Napier, to take before them declarations apart, and 
 to study to accommodate and reconcile their declara- 
 tions, * if possibly they can, and to report to the Com- 
 mittee, that they may take notice of the difference, if any 
 shall be, and to advise whether the matter deserves a 
 further consideration or not, that the public scandal 
 may be removed. 
 
 " Sr A. Gibsone, I. P. D." 
 
 Before the three noblemen named above, Montrose 
 deponed as follows : 
 
 "4th June 1641. The Earl of Montrose declares, that 
 the Lord Lindsay, [he Montrose] falling with him upon 
 a regret of the course of business in this country, and that 
 some were crying up the Earl of Argyle too much, 
 whereupon the Lord Lindsay answered, thatsuch a man, 
 speaking to the same purpose, told that the Romans, 
 when their affairs were at a low ebb, or in distress, 
 they made choice of one to be a Dictator, that the com- 
 mand might be in one man's person, such a one as had 
 command, and power, and following ; and declares, 
 
 * It was probably with this view that Lord Napier's assistance was 
 here required. The committee were obviously much alarmed for Lind- 
 say's position in this matter. Montrose they were thirsting to destroy.
 
 MONTROSE AND LORD LINDSAY. 389 
 
 that, to his best ^memory, the Lord Lindsay named the 
 Earl of Argyle to be the man pointed at ; but howso- 
 ever, the whole drift of the discourse did infer so much, 
 as the Earl of Montrose did conceive the same."* 
 
 Lord Lindsay's declaration appears to have been as 
 follows : 
 
 " 4th June 1641. The Lord Lindsay declares, that 
 at Edinburgh, in a discourse betwixt the Earl of Mon- 
 trose and him, the Earl of Montrose asked how busi- 
 ness went. For answer whereunto, the Lord Lindsay 
 said, he had entered upon no business since he came, 
 nor had not spoke with any particulars since his Lord- 
 ship's coming to Edinburgh ; but did relate some dis- 
 course made to him by some persons, which was in sub- 
 stance as follows. One grief was a regret of the divi- 
 sions and jealousies of this country ; another was that 
 it was a pity that we who are Christian, and have not 
 only our liberties, lands, wives and children, but also 
 our religion in question, cannot agree amongst our- 
 selves, whilst the Romans, who are but Ethnic, when 
 their affairs came in hazard, they would agree among 
 themselves, and so far yield one to another, that they 
 would make one of themselves to be Dictator, to have 
 the sole power over them ; yea, private enemies, when 
 they were employed in public affairs, did lay down their 
 private quarrels, and join in hearty union so long as 
 the public was in question. And declares that neither 
 the man, who made this discourse, named the Earl of 
 Argyle, or any other man \ neither does the deponer re- 
 member that ever he named the Earl of Argyle, or 
 
 * Original MS. Signed, " Montrose.— Cassilis, Balmerino, Naper."
 
 390 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 meant that there was any intention to make the Earl 
 of Argyle or any other, Dictator at all ; and remembers 
 that in a discourse either at that time, or at some other 
 time, the Earl of Montrose asking if the deponer knew 
 that the Earl of Argyle was to have any preferment, 
 answered that he knew not of any, but that there was 
 a great esteem had of him in the country."* 
 
 These declarations are dated the 4th of June, and it 
 will be remembered that Sir Thomes Hope, in his let- 
 ter to Archibald Johnston, dated the 7th, says — " The 
 point for the which Montrose alleges Lindsay's authori- 
 ty is not yet cleared," — yet, of that same date, the fol- 
 lowing judgment on the matter was pronounced by the 
 Committee of Estates (to whom Cassilis, Balmerino, 
 and Napier, had reported the declarations,) as appears 
 by the original manuscript. 
 
 " At Edinburgh. 7th June 164 J. The Committee hav- 
 ing considered the Earl of Montrose, and the Lord 
 Lindsay, their declarations, &c. and having compared 
 them together, find, that as it is possible the Earl of 
 Montrose has mistaken the Lord Lindsay's expression, 
 so they find by the words which the Lord Lindsay re- 
 members, and has set down under his hand, that there 
 was no ground for the said misconception. 
 
 " Sr A. Gibsone, I. P. D."f 
 
 * The above is from what appears to be the original draft of Lindsay's 
 declaration, very much corrected, but not signed by any one. I cannot 
 discover any other. 
 
 f Original MS. It is remarkable that Sir Thomas Hope's conversa- 
 tion at Newcastle, Lord Lindsay's conversation with Montrose, and Ar- 
 gyle's conversation in his tent at the ford of Lyon, all of obvious applica- 
 tion to deposing Charles, were all excused on the same plea, namely, 
 as having been a general discourse not intending the particular appli- 
 cation.
 
 MONTROSE'S PRINCIPLES. 391 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN WHICH MONTROSE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF. 
 
 The original documents contained in the last three 
 chapters were unknown to Clarendon and Hume. Con- 
 sequently these great historians had not the means of 
 protecting Montrose against the calumnies of subse- 
 quent writers, who, in equal ignorance of the details 
 now disclosed, have assumed to his prejudice a very 
 different theory, from what is suggested by these do- 
 cuments, of the motives and circumstances which in- 
 fluenced his defection from the Covenanters. The se- 
 cret correspondence, in 1640-41, betwixt the Procura- 
 tor of the Church, and the clique (for it was no more) 
 of covenanting lords, lairds, and lawyers, who held 
 sway in Edinburgh under the command of Argyle, to- 
 gether with the private records of their inquisitorial 
 examinations, tell thus much of the story so minutely 
 and curiously, and bring so completely under our view 
 the dramatis persona of that hitherto darkling chap- 
 ter of Montrose's career, that instead of weaving a nar- 
 rative from such materials, and consigning the graphic 
 originals to the obscurity of an appendix, I have thought 
 it best to give them verbatim in the text. Indeed it is 
 the principal plan and object, throughout these Illus- 
 trations of Montrose and the Covenanters, to produce 
 the hitherto hidden details and narrative, contained in 
 
 the private records of the Covenanting Government, in 
 vol. i. *
 
 39^ MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 reply to those pages of democrative history in which the 
 alleged unprincipled tergiversation, blood-thirsty policy, 
 and selfish ambition of Montrose, form a prominent and 
 favourite theme. Even so far as we have gone, the do- 
 cuments produced suggest a very different idea of the 
 merits of Montrose's political motives and conduct. 
 They open up and lay bare to a considerable extent the 
 private proceedings, and even the secret springs of ac- 
 tion, which brought on the first scene of that crisis in 
 which it was the object of Montrose to save the mo- 
 narchy, and the object of the dominant party in Scot- 
 land to destroy both that and Montrose, ere they should 
 lose their power. Mr Brodie, in his History of the 
 British Empire, has recorded that Montrose was 
 " bloated with iniquity." This author perils his severe 
 sentence upon his own views, and his own version, of 
 Montrose's early career, and of " the Plot" and " the 
 Incident," mysterious events which grew out of the crisis 
 now illustrated. Other original documents, fully de- 
 veloping the history and secret machinery of those 
 events also, and in like manner telling their own story 
 minutely and graphically, shall be presently disclosed. 
 Here we may pause for a moment upon Montrose's po- 
 sition with the Covenanters in 1641, before producing 
 a very interesting illustration of his principles and ac- 
 complishments, and one in which he will be found to 
 speak nobly for himself against the modern assertion, 
 that, in his first adherence to the Covenant, and subse- 
 quent opposition to the Movement, which made that 
 Covenant its excuse, he had become bloated with ini- 
 quity. 
 
 A few years of great excitement had passed betwixt 
 the commencement of Montrose's covenanting career
 
 MONTROSE'S PRINCIPLES.. ;J9J 
 
 and his present critical position. We have seen how, 
 at the close of the year 1637, he was persuaded, by 
 Rothes and his clerical agitators, to take a public and 
 prominent part against the policy of Laud. In the year 
 1638, we find him conspicuous in the memorable As- 
 sembly which destroyed the hierarchy, and usurped the 
 functions of Government in Scotland. The year 1639 
 discovers Montrose at the head of a convenantinsr force, 
 opposed in arms to the anti-covenanters in Scotland, 
 carried by the military excitement so congenial to his 
 disposition, but, withal, merciful in his use of fire and 
 sword against his loyal countrymen, even to a degree 
 that called forth the murmurs and disapprobation of the 
 most conscientious, civilized, and accomplished of the 
 covenanting clergy. The anti-monarchical propositions 
 pressed in the General Assembly held that same year, 
 immediately after the treaty of Berwick, seem first to 
 have awakened Montrose to the important question, 
 what was to be the limit of this revolution in Scotland, 
 and where the precise point at which covenanting de- 
 mands were to cease, and the spirit of loyalty and 
 obedience to the monarchical government, to revive. 
 Accordingly, in this Assembly, Montrose argued against 
 the new impetus, proposed in the demands that the 
 most important prerogatives of the Crown should be 
 transferred to the Parliament. From the principle of 
 this opposition he never swerved. Archibald John- 
 ston himself tells us that, in the Parliament of 1640, — 
 " Montrose did dispute against Argyle, Rothes, Bal- 
 merino, and myself; because some urged, that, as long 
 as we had a King, we could not sit without him ; and 
 it was answered, that to do the less was mure lawful 
 than to do the greater." In that same year, Montrose
 
 394 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 accompanied the covenanting army across theborders, but 
 with the determination, — as slenderly concealed from 
 the leaders of the Movement as their ultimate objects 
 were from him, — that with his concurrence and consent 
 the Throne should not be assailed. Immediately fol- 
 lowed those corroborations of his worst suspicions, which 
 came to him in the manner disclosed in the manu- 
 scripts containing the details of his conferences with 
 the minister of Methven, and his conversation with the 
 Lord Lindsay. 
 
 This period of Montrose's public career only brings 
 him to the twenty-ninth year of his age, and had the 
 change, which now came o'er the spirit of his dream, 
 no better foundation than the caprice and inconsistency 
 of an ardent youth, even then the circumstances of his 
 early career could not be fairly brought under thecategory 
 of political iniquity. But it is impossible, we think, to 
 peruse the contemporary records now produced, without 
 being persuaded that Montrose was conscientiously jus- 
 tified in all he did, and all he wished to do, for the safety 
 of the Throne, at the crisis in question. It was David 
 Hume who said of him that, — " Something, however, of 
 the vast and unbounded characterized his actions and 
 deportment, and it was merely by an heroic effort of 
 duty that he brought his mind, impatient of superiority, 
 and even of equality, to pay such unlimited submission 
 to the will of his Sovereign." * But had our great 
 historian seen the documents we have quoted, and those 
 we are about to quote, perhaps he would have said that 
 extreme loyalty, and even a romantic idea of monar- 
 chical government, characterized Montrose, and that 
 
 * History of England, vii. 182. 
 3
 
 MONTROSE'S PRINCIPLES. 395 
 
 only by an heroic effort, of what he conceived to be 
 his dnty to his country, was he, for a time, placed in 
 opposition to the measures of the Court. The circum- 
 stances of Montrose's education, hitherto unknown, also 
 afford an explanation, of these different phases of his 
 career, that tends to redeem them from the charge of 
 mere caprice and selfishness. 
 
 With a very few alarmists of the year 1637, zeal for 
 the Covenant had been untainted by one anti-monarchi- 
 cal feeling, and the dismay of such, on discovering 
 their error, may be better understood than described. 
 Of this number was Lord Napier. That excellent 
 and pious nobleman had been reared by his father, 
 the great anti-papistical writer of his day, (who con- 
 sidered his immortal discovery of the Logarithms 
 as nothing in comparison with his exposition of the 
 Apocalypse,) in all due abhorrence of the Pope, and 
 perhaps in more than due dislike of prelatic digni- 
 ty and power,* but at the same time so loyally 
 as to be consigned while yet a youth into the hands of 
 James VI., who, on his deathbed, recommended him to 
 " baby Charles," as one " free of partiality or any fac- 
 tious humour." And accordingly we find that Napier, 
 both before and after the excited period when he too 
 joined in covenant with a masked faction, was busied 
 with his favourite subject, and one which we are now 
 apt to consider as the very antipodes of covenanting 
 politics, namely, " elaborate discourses" to prove the 
 divine right of kings. Montrose, again, was educated 
 
 * See Lord Napier's views on the subject of prelatic power, in his MS. 
 quoted in our Introduction, p. 67. Montrose's opposition had clearly 
 commenced on the same grounds. " Bishops, 1 care not for them. T 
 never intended to advance their interest," — he declared before his death. 
 —See Vol. ii. p. b39.
 
 390 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 under the superintendence of this philosophical and spe- 
 culative nobleman, and, obviously from that source, had 
 deeply imbibed the same exalted, it may be impractica- 
 ble, theories of Monarchy — theories which neither had 
 Montrose, in all his covenanting excitement, ever dreamt 
 of practically impugning. But when Napier and Mon- 
 trose discovered the anti-monarchical and destructive 
 tendency of the Movement, they instantly endeavoured 
 to rectify their false position by, as it proved, the vain 
 and dangerous expedient of a private association in 
 defence of the Throne. Hence arose the few Conser- 
 vatives of 1640-1, by which we mean not the loyalists, 
 who, like Huntly and the memorable barons of the 
 north, were always inimical to the Covenant, nor yet 
 the well-meaning bewildered waverers of the Scotch 
 aristocracy, but those few conscientious patriots, who, 
 having zealously joined in a Covenant teeming with 
 holy and loyal professions, did, when they discovered 
 its practical working, turn from it with disgust, and 
 earnestly struggled to save the King. 
 
 But, on the subject of the political principles by 
 which Montrose was actuated, he shall be allowed to 
 speak for himself. The following letter has never been 
 published or noticed before. Yet, whether well found- 
 ed or not in its uncompromising estimate of the divine 
 right of kings, that letter affords an unequivocal speci- 
 men of lofty principles and generous feelings, historical 
 learning, and classic taste. It appears to have been 
 written during the treaty of London, in 1640-1, at the 
 very period of Archibald Johnston's secret correspon- 
 dence, disclosed in a former chapter.
 
 montrose's principles. 397 
 
 " Noble Sir, 
 
 " In the letter you did me the honour to send me, 
 you move a question in two words, to give a satisfac- 
 tory answer to which requires works and volumes, not 
 letters. Besides, the matter is of so sublime and trans- 
 cendant a nature as is above my reach, and not fit for 
 subjects to meddle with, if it were not to do right to 
 sovereign power, in a time when so much is said and 
 done to the disgrace and derogation of it. Neverthe- 
 less, to obey your desire, I will deliver my opinion, 
 first concerning the nature, essential parts, and practice 
 of the supreme power in government of all sorts. Se- 
 condly, I will shew wherein the strength and weakness 
 thereof consists, and the effects of both. Thirdly, I 
 will answer some arguments and false positions main- 
 tained by the impugners of royal power, and that with- 
 out partiality, and as briefly as I can. 
 
 " Civil societies, so pleasing to Almighty God, can- 
 not subsist without government, nor government with- 
 out a sovereign power, to force obedience to laws and 
 just commands, to dispose and direct private endea- 
 vours to public ends, and to unite and incorporate the 
 several members into one body politic, that with joint 
 endeavours and abilities they may the better advance 
 the public good. This sovereignty is a power over the 
 people, above which power there is none upon earth, 
 whose acts cannot be rescinded by any other, instituted by 
 God, for his glory and the temporal and eternal happiness 
 of men. This is it that is recorded so oft, by the wisdom 
 of antient times, to be sacred and inviolable — the truest 
 image and representation of the power of Almighty God 
 upon earth — not to be bounded, disputed, meddled with 
 at all by subjects, who can never handle it, though 
 never so warily, but it is thereby wounded, and the
 
 398 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 public peace disturbed. Yet it is limited by the laws 
 of God and nature, and some laws of nations, and by 
 the fundamental laws of the country, which are those 
 upon which sovereign power itself resteth, in prejudice 
 of which a King can do nothing, and those also which 
 secure to the good subject his honour, his life, and the 
 property of his goods. This power, (not speaking of 
 those who are Kings in name only, and in effect, but 
 Principes Nobilitatis or Duces Belli, nor of the arbi- 
 trary and despotic power, where one is head and all 
 the rest slaves, but of that which is sovereign over free 
 subjects,) is still one and the same, in points essential, 
 wherever it be, whether in the person of a monarch, or 
 in a few principal men, or in the Estates of the people. 
 The essential points of sovereignty are these : — To 
 make laws, to create principal officers, to make peace 
 and war, to give grace to men condemned by law, and 
 to be the last to whom appellation is made. There be 
 others, too, which are comprehended in those set down, 
 but because majesty doeth not so clearly shine in them 
 they are here omitted. These set down are inalien- 
 able, indivisible, incommunicable, and belong to the 
 sovereign power primitively in all sorts of govern- 
 ments. They cannot subsist in a body composed of 
 individuities ; and if they be divided amongst several 
 bodies, there is no government (as if there were many 
 kings in one kingdom there should be none at all,) for 
 whosoever should have one of these, were able to erase 
 their proceedings who have all the rest ; for the having 
 them negative and prohibitive in that part to him be- 
 longing, might render the acts of all the others invalid, 
 and there would be a superiority to the supreme, and 
 an equality to the sovereign power, which cannot fall 
 
 4
 
 montuose's principles. 399 
 
 in any man's conceit that hath common sense ; in speech 
 it is incongruity, and to attempt it in act is pernicious. 
 
 " Having in some measure expressed the nature of 
 supreme power, it shall be better known by the actual 
 practice of all nations, in all the several sorts of govern- 
 ment, as well Republics as Monarchies. 
 
 " The people of Rome, (who were masters of policy, 
 and war too, and to this day are made patterns of both,) 
 being an Estate popular, did exercise without controul- 
 ment or opposition all the fore-named points essential 
 to supreme power. No law was made but by the 
 people ; and though the Senate did propone and advise 
 a law to be made, it was the people that gave it sanc- 
 tion, and it received the force of law from their com- 
 mand and authority, as may appear by the respective 
 phrases of the propounder, — quod faustum felixque sit, 
 vobis populoque Romano velitis jubeatis. The people 
 used these imperative words, esto sunto ; and if it were 
 refused, the Tribune of the people expressed it with a 
 veto. The propounder or adviser of the law was said 
 rogare legem, and the people jubere legem. The elec- 
 tion of officers was only made by the people, as appears 
 by the ambitious buying and begging of suffrages, so 
 frequent among them upon the occasions. War and 
 peace was ever concluded by them, and never denoun- 
 ced but by their Feciales with commission from them. 
 They, only, gave grace and pardon, and for the last 
 refuge, delinquents, and they who were wronged by 
 the sentence of judges and officers, provocabant ad po- 
 pulism. 
 
 "So it was in Athens, and to this day among the 
 Swissers and Grissons, the Estate of Holland, and 
 all Estates popular. In Venice, which is a pure Aris- 
 tocracy, laws, war, peace, election of officers, pardon
 
 400 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 and appellation are all concluded and done in conciglio 
 maggiore, which consists of principal men who have the 
 sovereignty. As for the pregddi, and conciglio di died, 
 they were but officers and executors of their power, and 
 the Duke is nothing but the idol to whom ceremonies 
 and compliments are addressed, without the least part 
 of sovereignty. So it was in Sparta, so it is in Lucca, 
 Genoa, and Ragusa, and all other Aristocracies, and, 
 indeed, cannot be otherwise without the subversion of 
 the present government. 
 
 " If, then, the lords in Republics have that power 
 essential to sovereignty, by what reason can it be denied 
 to a prince in whose person only and primitively resteth 
 the sovereign power, and from whom all lawful sub- 
 altren power, as from the fountain, is derived ? 
 
 " This power is strong and durable when it is tem- 
 perate, and it is temperate when it is possessed, (with 
 the essential parts foresaid) with moderation, and limita- 
 tion by the laws of God, of nature, and the funda- 
 mental laws of the country. It is weak when it is re- 
 strained of these essential parts, and it is weak also 
 when it is extended beyond the laws whereby it is 
 bounded ; which could never be any time endured by 
 the people of the western part of the world, and by 
 those of Scotland as little as any. For that which 
 Galba said of his Romans is the humour of them all, 
 nee tot am. liberta.em nee totam servitutem pati possunt 
 but a temper of both. Unwise princes endeavour the 
 extension of it, — rebellious and turbulent subjects the 
 restraint. Wise princes use it moderately, but most 
 desire to extend it, and that humour is fomented by 
 advice qf courtiers and bad councillors, who are of a 
 hasty ambition, and cannot abide the slow progress of 
 riches and preferments in a temperate government
 
 MONTROSE*S PRINCIPLES. 401 
 
 They persuade the arbitrary with reflexion on their 
 own ends, knowing that the exercise thereof shall be 
 put upon them, whereby they shall be able quickly to 
 compass their ends, robbing thereby the people of their 
 wealth, the King of the people's love due to him, and 
 of the honour and reputation of wisdom.* The effects 
 of a moderate government are religion, justice, and 
 peace, — flourishing love of the subjects towards their 
 prince in whose hearts he reigns, — durableness and 
 strength against foreign invasions and intestine sedi- 
 tion, — happiness and security to King and people. Theef- 
 fect of a prince's power too far extended is tyranny, from 
 the King if he be ill, if he be good, tyranny or a fear 
 of it from them to whom he hath intrusted the manasr- 
 ing of public affairs. The effect of the royal power re- 
 strained is the oppression and tyranny of subjects — 
 the most fierce, insatiable, and insupportable tyranny 
 in the world — where every man of power oppresseth 
 his neighbour, without any hope of redress from a prince 
 despoiled of his power to punish oppressors. The people 
 under an extended power are miserable, but most miser- 
 able under the restrained power. The effects of the 
 former may be cured by good advice, satiety in the 
 Prince, or fear of infamy, or the pains of writers, or by 
 some event which may bring a prince to the sense of 
 his errors, and when nothing else can do it, seeing the 
 prince is mortal, patience in the subject is a sovereign 
 and dangerless remedy, who in wisdom and duty is ob- 
 liged to tollerate the vices of his prince, as they do 
 storms and tempests, and other natural evils which are 
 
 * When Montrose and Napier were Covenanters, they considered that, 
 in opposing the measures of the Court, they were defending Scotland, 
 not against the encroachments of the Sovereign, hut against the purely 
 selfish designs of Laud and Hamilton. 
 
 VOL. L C C
 
 402 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 compensated with better times succeeding. It had been 
 better for Germany to have endured the encroachments 
 of Ferdinand, and after his death rectified them, before 
 they had made a new election, than to have brought 
 it to desolation, and shed so much Christian blood by 
 unseasonable remedies and opposition. But when a 
 King's lawful power is restrained, the politic body is 
 in such desperate estate that it can neither endure the 
 disease nor the remedy which is force only. For princes 
 lawful power is only restrained by violence, and never 
 repaired but by violence on the other side, which can 
 produce nothing but ruin to prince or people, or rather 
 to both. Patience in the subject is the best remedy 
 against the effects of a prince's power too far ex- 
 tended, but when it is too far restrained, patience, in 
 the prince, is so far from being a remedy that it for- 
 ineth and increaseth the disease, for patience, tract of 
 time, and possession, makes that which was at first rob- 
 bery, by a body that never dies, at last a good title, and 
 so the government comes at last to be changed. To 
 procure a temperate and moderate government, there 
 is much in the King and not a little in the people, for, 
 let a prince never command so well, if there be not a 
 correspondent obedience there is no temper. It is not 
 the people's part, towards that end, to take upon them 
 to limit and circumscribe royal power — it is Jupiter's 
 thunder which never subject handled well yet — not to 
 determine what is due to a prince, what to his people. 
 It requires more than human sufficiency to go so even 
 a way betwixt the Prince's prerogative, and the subjects' 
 privilege, as to content both, or be just in itself, for they 
 can never agree upon the matter, and where it hath 
 been attempted, as in some places it hath, the sword 
 did ever determine the question, which is to be avoided
 
 Montrose's principles. 403 
 
 by all possible means* But there is a fair and justifi- 
 able way for subjects to procure a moderate govern- 
 ment, incumbent to them in duty, which is to endea- 
 vour the security oj 'Religion ana I just Liberties, (the mat- 
 ter on which the exorbitancy of a prince's power doth 
 work) which being secured, his power must needs be 
 temperate and run in the even channel. * But,' it may 
 be demanded, ' how shall the people's just liberties be 
 preserved if they be not known, and how known if they 
 be not determined to be such ?' It is answered, the laws 
 contain them, and the Parliaments (which ever have been 
 the bulwarks of subjects' liberties in monarchies) may 
 advise new laws, against emergent occasions which pre- 
 judge their liberties ; and so leave it to occasion, and 
 not prevent it by foolish haste in Parliaments, which 
 breeds contention, and disturbance to the quiet of the 
 state. And if Parliaments be frequent, and rightly 
 constituted, what favourite councillor or statesman dare 
 misinform or mislead a King to the prejudice of a sub- 
 ject's liberty, knowing he must answer it upon the peril 
 of his head and estate at the next ensuing Parliament,! 
 
 * Even temperate historians have indulged in the gross calumny, that 
 " Montrose was unconscious that humanity is the most distinguished 
 attribute of an heroical character." Malcolm Laing. We believe that 
 Montrose uttered no more than the truth of himself, when he said — in 
 expressions we here anticipate from an unpublished manuscript of his 
 conversation with his clerical murderers on the eve of his execution — 
 " I did all that lay in me to keep my soldiers back from spoiling and 
 plundering the country ; and for bloodshed, if it could have been there- 
 by prevented, I would rather it had all come out of my own veins." Mr 
 Brodie, indeed, in a page so calumniously violent as to discredit history, 
 (Vol. iv.p, 271,) is pleased to speak ofMontrose's " tcrrihlc ccngrtmce on 
 Aberdeen for refusing the Covenant," totally oblivions that his own fa- 
 vourite contemporary authority, Baillie, in reference to the very expedi- 
 tion, says, " the discretion [i. e. humanity] of thai generous and noble 
 youth was but too great." 
 
 f This clause has clearly B reference to the constitution and proceed-
 
 404 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 and that he shall put the King to an hard choice for 
 him, either to abandon him to justice, or by protecting 
 him displease the estates of his kingdom ; and if the 
 King should be so ill advised as to protect him, yet he 
 doth not escape punishment that is branded with a mark 
 of public infamy, declared enemy to the state, and inca- 
 pable of any good amongst them. 
 
 " The perpetual cause of the controversies, between 
 the prince and his subjects, is the ambitious designs of 
 rule in great men, veiled under the specious pretext of 
 Religion and the subjects' Liberties, seconded with the 
 arguments and false positions of seditious preachers, 
 1st, that the King is ordained for the people, and the 
 end is more noble than the mean ; 2d, that the con- 
 stituter is superior to the constituent ; 3d, that the King 
 and people are two contraries, like the two scales of a 
 balance, when the one goes up the other goes down ; 
 4th, that the prince's prerogative, and the people's pri- 
 vilege are incompatible ; 5th, what power is taken from 
 the King is added to the Estates of the people. This 
 is the language of the spirits of division that walk be- 
 twixt the King and his people,* to separate them whom 
 God hath conjoined, (which must not pass without some 
 answer,) to slide upon which sandy grounds these giants, 
 who war against the gods, have builded their Babel. 
 
 " To the 1st: It is true that the true and utmost 
 ends of men's actions (which is the glory of God and 
 
 ings of the lawless conventions of the Scots Parliament in 1639 and 
 1640, when Montrose argued against Argyle, Rothes, Balmerino, and 
 Archibald Johnston, and he seems to point at the favourite Hamilton, 
 whom as well as Argyle, Montrose indicated an intention of impeaching 
 in the Parliament of 1641, in presence of the King himself. 
 
 * It is interesting to observe that these remarkable expressions also 
 occur in Lord Napier's manuscript, quoted in our Introductory Chap- 
 ter, p. 70.
 
 MONTROSE'S PRINCIPLES. 405 
 
 felicity of men) are to be preferred to all means directed 
 thereunto. But there is not that order of dignity among 
 the means themselves, or mid instruments compounded 
 together. If it were so, and a man appointed to keep 
 sheep, or a nobleman to be tutor-in-law to a pupil of 
 meaner quality, the sheep should be preferred to the 
 man, and the pupil to his tutor. To the 2d : He that 
 constituteth so as he still retaineth the power to re- 
 verse his constitution, is superior to the constituted 
 in that respect ; but if his donation and constitution 
 is absolute and without condition, devolving all his 
 power in the person constituted, and his successors, 
 what before was voluntary becomes necessary. It 
 is voluntary to a woman to chuse such an one for her 
 husband, and to a people what king they will at first ; 
 both being once done, neither can the woman nor the 
 people free themselves, from obedience and subjec- 
 tion to the husband and the prince, when they please. 
 To the 3d : In a politic consideration, the King and 
 his people are not two, but one body politic, whereof 
 the King is the head ; and so far are they from contra- 
 riety, and opposite motions, that there is nothing good or 
 ill for the one which is not just so for the other;* if their 
 ends and endeavours be divers, and never so little ec- 
 centric, either that king inclineth to tyranny, or that 
 people to disloyalty, — if they be contrary, it is mere 
 tyranny or mere disloyalty. To the 4th : The King's 
 prerogative and the subjects' privilege are so far from 
 incompatibility, that the one can never stand unless sup- 
 ported by the other. For the Sovereign being strong, 
 and in full possession of his lawful power and preroga- 
 tive, is able to protect his subjects from oppression, 
 and maintain their liberties entire, otherwise, not. On 
 
 * Sec Introductory Chapter, p. 70.
 
 406 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 the other side, a people, enjoying freely their just liber- 
 ties and privileges, maintaineth the prince's honour and 
 prerogative out of the great affection they carry to- 
 wards him, which is the greatest strength against fo- 
 reign invasion, or intestine insurrection, that a prince 
 can possibly be possessed with. To the 5th : It is a 
 mere fallacy, for what is essential to one thing cannot 
 be given to another. The eye may lose its sight, the 
 ear its hearing, but can never be given to the hand, or 
 foot, or any other member ; and as the head of the na- 
 tural body may be deprived of invention, judgment, or 
 memory, and the rest of the members receive no part 
 thereof, so subjects, not being capable of the essential 
 parts of government properly and primitively belong- 
 ing to the Prince, being taken from him, they can never 
 be imparted to them, without change of the [monarchi- 
 cal] government, and the essence and being of the same. 
 When a King is restrained from the lawful use of his 
 power, and subjects can make no use of it, as under a 
 King they cannot, what can follow but a subversion of 
 government, — anarchy and confusion ? 
 
 " Now, to any man that understands these things 
 only, the proceedings of these times may seem strange, 
 and he may expostulate with us thus : ' Noblemen and 
 gentlemen of good quality what do you mean ? Will you 
 teach the people to put down the Lord's anointed, and 
 lay violent hands on his authority to whom both you 
 and they owe subjection, and assistance with your goods, 
 lives, and fortunes, by all the laws of God and man ? 
 Do ye think to stand and domineer over the people, 
 in an aristocratic way, — the people who owe you small 
 or no obligation ? It is you, under your natural prince, 
 that get all employment pregnant of honour or profit, 
 in peace or war. You are the subjects of his libera-
 
 Montrose's principles. 407 
 
 lity ; your houses decayed, either by merit or his grace 
 and favour are repaired, without which you fall in con- 
 tempt ; the people, jealous of their liberty, when ye 
 deserve best, to shelter themselves, will make you 
 shorter by the head, or serve you with an ostracism. 
 If their first act be against kingly power, their next 
 act will be against you ; for if the people be of a fierce 
 nature, they will cut your throats, (as the Switzers did 
 of old), you shall be contemptible, (as some of antient 
 houses are in Holland, their very burgomaster is the bet- 
 ter man ;) your honours — life — fortunes stand at the 
 discretion of a seditious pr each er. And you, ye meaner 
 people of Scotland, who are not capable of a republic, 
 for many grave reasons, why are you induced by spe- 
 cious pretexts, to your own heavy prejudice and detri- 
 ment, to be instruments of other's ambition ? Do ye 
 not know, when the monarchical government is shaken, 
 the great ones strive for the garland with your blood 
 and your fortunes ? whereby you gain nothing, but, in- 
 stead of a race of kings who have governed you two 
 thousand years with peace and justice, and have pre- 
 served your liberties against all domineering nations, 
 shall purchase to yourselves vultures and tigers to reign 
 over your posterity, and yourselves shall endufie all 
 those miseries, massacres, and proscriptions of the tri- 
 umvirate of Rome, — the kingdom fall again into the 
 hands of one, who of necessity must, and for reason of 
 state will, tyrannize over you. For kingdoms acquired 
 by blood and violence are by the same means enter- 
 tained. And you great men, (if any such be among you so 
 blinded with ambition), who aim so high as the crown, 
 do you think we are so far degenerate from the virtue, 
 valour, and fidelity to our true and lawful Sovereign,
 
 408 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 so constantly entertained by our ancestors, as to suffer 
 you, with all your policy, to reign over us ? Take heed 
 you be not iEsop's dog, and lose the cheese for the sha- 
 dow in the well.* And thou seditious preacher, who 
 studies to put the sovereignty in the people's hands for 
 thy own ambitious etids, as being able, by thy wicked 
 eloquence and hypocrisy, to infuse into them what 
 thou pleasest, know this, that this people is more in- 
 capableof sovereignty than any other known : Thou 
 art abused like a pedant by the nimble-witted noble- 
 men, — go, go along with them to shake the present go- 
 vernment,! — not for thy ends to possess the people with 
 it, — but like (as) a cunning tennis-player lets the ball 
 go to the wall, where it cannot stay, that he may take 
 it at the bound with more ease.'t 
 
 " And whereas a durable peace with England (which 
 is the wish and desire of all honest men) is pretended, 
 surely it is a great solecism in us to aim at an end of 
 peace with them, and overthrow the only means for 
 that end. It is the King's Majesty's sovereignty over 
 both that unites us in affection, and is only able to 
 reconcile questions among us when they fall. To en- 
 deavour the dissolution of that bond of our union, is 
 nowise to establish a durable peace, $ but rather to 
 procure enmity and war betwixt bordering nations, 
 where occasions of quarrel are never wanting, nor men 
 ever ready to take hold of them. 
 
 * Montrose was right. Hamilton and Argyle were both sneaking af- 
 ter the crown of Scotland, and both were made " shorter by the head," 
 as well as their King. 
 
 f Meaning tbe monarchical form of government. 
 
 X It Avas Cromwell who " took it at the bound." 
 
 § How tbe democratic portion of the Scotch Commissioners, for the 
 Treaty of London 1640-1, were endeavouring to destroy the prerogatives 
 of the King, has been already illustrated in the chapter of Archibald 
 Johnston's Secret Correspondence.
 
 MONTROSE'S PRINCIPLES. 440 
 
 .. 
 
 Now, Sir, you have my opinion concerning your 
 desire, and that which I esteem truth set down nakedly 
 for your use, not adorned for public view. And if zeal 
 for my Sovereign, and Country, have transported me 
 a little too far, I hope you will excuse the errors pro- 
 ceeding from so good a cause of 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 " Montrose." 
 
 This is a remarkable letter to have been written by 
 one recorded in our modern histories as " destitute of 
 either public or private principle."* If the sentiments of 
 Montrose, at that critical period before the King's visit 
 to Scotland in 1641, were such as are recorded in the 
 foregoing private letter, can it be true that the advice 
 he was constrained to offer secretly to his sovereign 
 was unprincipled, violent, and unpatriotic ? That 
 the letter was written by Montrose, we have on the 
 authority of a transcript (hitherto unpublished and un- 
 noticed) in the handwriting of Wodrow himself, the 
 well known champion of the Church of Scotland. The 
 transcript is not addressed, nor dated, but the tenor 
 
 * MrBrodie. This author, in the preface to his History, has many severe 
 comments upon Mr Hume, for his" predisposition unfavourable to a calm 
 inquiry after truth, and being impatient of that unwearied research, 
 which, never satisfied while any source of information remains unex- 
 plored, or probahility not duly weighed, with unremitting industry softs 
 and collates," — and for allowing " his narrative to he directed by hi- 
 predilections, and overlooking the materials from which it ought to have 
 been constructed." In a corresponding degree, our Historiographer pa- 
 rades his own researches " in the Advocates 9 Library at Edinburgh," &c. 
 &c. Why, then, did Mr Brodie not construct his character of Montrose 
 from such materials as the above letter, and various original manuscripts 
 we have yet to produce, of which Mr Brodie would ^e^'lll to have been 
 in total ignorance, although they were equally open to his researches in 
 the collection of Manuscripts in the Advocates' Library?
 
 410 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 proves that the letter must have been written before the 
 great civil war broke out in 1642, and indeed before 
 Montrose's imprisonment and persecution by the Co- 
 venanters, during the last seven months of the year 1641. 
 The letter is also curiously identified by the fact, that 
 some of the sentences are the very same as some that 
 occur in Lord Napier's manuscripts, now first produced 
 from the Napier charter-chest. Its most probable date 
 is the close of the year 1640, before the conclusion of 
 the Treaty of London, the very period when Montrose 
 and his conservative friends held those private consul- 
 tations, on the state of the times and the perilous posi- 
 tion of the monarchy, which will be disclosed in the 
 following chapter. 

 
 THE CONSERVATIVES OF 1640. 411 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CONSERVATIVES OF 1640. 
 
 Of Montrose's domestic life and habits few or no 
 anecdotes are to be discovered. Indeed it is very plain, 
 from the transactions we have illustrated, that since his 
 return from his youthful travels, he could have enjoyed 
 very little peace and quiet as a private individual.* 
 
 * In the Napier charter-chest there is a deed which bears that, — 
 " We, James Erie of Montrois, Lord Grseme and Mugdok, for the 
 singular and special love and favour quhilk we haiff and bear to 
 Lady Beatrix Graeme, our lawful sister, and for the better advancing 
 of the said Lady Beatrix to ane honorable mareage, according to 
 her rank and dignity," — obliges himself and his heirs to secure to the 
 said Beatrix the sum of twenty thousand marks, for tocher. This con- 
 dition, however, is added: " Providing always, likeas we haiff gcvin 
 and grantit thir presents upon this special provision and condition, and 
 no utherwyse, that, in case it suld bappin the said Lady Beatrix, — as God 
 forbid, — to defyle her body, or join herself in mareage with any person 
 without our special advyse and consent, then and in these cases, or uther 
 of them, thir presents to be null." This deed is signed by Montrose 
 himself, " at Auld Montrois, the 27th day of Merche 1039,"— the very 
 time when he was in all the bustle and excitement of preparing for his 
 march upon Aberdeen. — See before, p. 224. 
 
 The object of her illustrious brother's solicitude, Lady Beatrix, became 
 the wife of David, third Lord Maderty, and fairly won her twenty thou- 
 sand marks. 
 
 The following letter was kindly communicated to me by Miss Graham 
 of Fintry, who is in possession of the original. Its date refers to a sub- 
 sequent period of Montrose's history, but we may give it lure; it is ad- 
 dressed to James Graham of Crago, younger brother of David Graham oi 
 Fintry : 
 
 " Loving Cossing, 
 
 " There be so much amiss, and so many aliases committed, touching my 
 
 directions thereat Old Montrois, (as Roberl Grseme in the same will Bhew 
 
 \ (iii at greater Length,) as 1 must intreal you to take the pains to goe and 
 
 put ane order to them, in such ane way as you shall think mosj f'tt. Foj 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 4] % MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS, 
 
 His associates were principally Lord Napier and his 
 family, including Sir George Stirling of Keir, who 
 was married to Napier's eldest daughter, Montrose's 
 niece. Even in their most domestic moments, how- 
 ever, this family party were deeply engrossed with 
 the troubles of the times, and with their fears for 
 the stability of the monarchy. There were certain 
 supper parties, at " Yule," that is Christmas, 1640, 
 sometimes in Montrose's lodgings in Edinburgh, 
 and sometimes in Lord Napier's house of Merchiston, 
 where the question was anxiously discussed, in what 
 manner the democratic movement could be arrested, 
 and how the King could be persuaded to come to Scot- 
 land in person, to satisfy the Scottish nation in the mat- 
 ter of their Religion and Liberties, to put an end to " the 
 particular and indirect practising of a few," and to the 
 ruinous distractions of the country. There is a panel- 
 led chamber in the old Castle of Merchiston, in high 
 preservation, among the ornaments of whose curiously 
 stuccoed roof is yet to be seen the crown and cypher of 
 King Charles. Here had been held some of those con- 
 servative symposia, of which history has so darkling a 
 conception under the name of " the Plot," a chapter of 
 the times the secret history of which we have now to 
 develope. The names of popular agitation, by which 
 Montrose and his friends were usually designated at the 
 time, were, " the Banders and Plotters," alluding to the 
 
 the particulars I will be sparing, and only remitt you to what you may 
 learn at greater length ; and continue 
 
 " Your very loving Chief, 
 
 " Montrose." 
 
 " 20th October 1642. 
 
 " 1 must earnestly intreat you to contrive that Mackintosh doe not 
 dishonour himself, and wrong us all, by living thus abused with Argyle." 
 
 Mackintosh of that ilk was married to the daughter of David Graham 
 of Fintry. This letter was written shortly before Montrose's interview 
 with the Queen at Newcastle — See Vol. ii. pp. 185-192.
 
 THE CONSERVATIVES OF 1640. 413 
 
 Cumbernanld bond, and to the private meetings of Mon- 
 trose and bis loyal relatives. The object, and result, 
 of this plot appear to have been Charles I.'s memorable, 
 and, as it proved, fatal visit to Scotland in the year 
 1641. Clarendon declares himself unable to fathom 
 " the ground of his Majesty's so positive and unalter- 
 able resolution of going to Scotland" at this time. Nor 
 was Sir Philip Warwick aware of the secret history of 
 that unfortunate progress. " The Scots," says he, in 
 his memoirs, " having been for so many months, and 
 for so ill ends, with so much dishonour, kept in the 
 bowels of this kingdom, and at last dismissed with a 
 brotherly kindness of L. 300,000, which they had 
 scarcely ever seen before, at least as being given or paid 
 by England, new reasons must be found for another 
 journey, for his Majesty to go into Scotland ; and, ac- 
 cordingly, his Majesty went into that kingdom, and 
 made a residence there of about three months and up- 
 wards, which he only spent in confirming all they had 
 done, and in giving titles of honour unto those that had 
 most demerited of him ; amongst whom the Marquis 
 Hamilton was made Duke."* 
 
 * Sir Philip Warwick seems to have entertained no doubt whatever 
 of Hamilton's dishonesty. The following letter, to Aboyne in the north, 
 is a curious illustration of the favourite's double-dealing : 
 
 " My Lord, — Would God I received your letter a few days sooner, and 
 then I would have been the messenger myself; for, not having any hopes 
 qf a party in those quarters, I had sent 3500 of my best men to Berwick, 
 for a present design that is intended by his Majesty. So it will be now 
 some days before those troops return to me. In the interim, if you can- 
 not secure yourself where you are, you shall be welcome to me : but for 
 the sending of any ships to you at this present, / cannot, though shortly 
 it iikii) be \ on see some in those quarters. I dare not write what I would, 
 for fear it should not come safe to your hand : only this, rest assured that 
 it will not be long before his Majesty himself declare himself in that way 
 which will not please the Covenanters; and power he hath to curb their 
 insolencies, if they continue in them. Your part hath been such as you
 
 414 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 It will be remembered that, on the 7th of June 1641, 
 Sir Thomas Hope, under the signature A. B., wrote 
 to Archibald Johnston an account of the seizure of one 
 Walter Stewart, out of the pannel of whose saddle was 
 taken a letter from the King to Montrose. This mes- 
 senger was understood to be coming from the King ; 
 yet such was the state of affairs in Scotland, that a pri- 
 vate hint from Archibald Johnston in London, to Bal- 
 merino in Edinburgh, sufficed to accomplish the way- 
 laying, taking prisoner, and rifling, any one of his Ma- 
 jesty's subjects who might attract the particular notice 
 of these few dominant Covenanters. That party were 
 at the very time professing the most perfect loyalty 
 and obedience to his Majesty. Yet Sir Thomas Hope, 
 who extorted a pardon from this same Walter Stewart 
 for propagating a report that he, Sir Thomas, had ut- 
 tered something derogatory to the King's person and 
 authority, writes privately to Archibald Johnston, what 
 he calls a tale worth telling twice, namely, that, at nine 
 o'clock at night, in Balmerino's lodgings, Stewart hav- 
 ing " denied he had any more papers than were in his 
 cloth-bag, there was a leather bag found in the pannel 
 of his saddle, wherein was a letter from the King to 
 Montrose." The contents of this letter, much as was 
 made of the fact of thus finding it, were never suffered 
 
 may expect that reward which a deserving servant and a loyal suhject 
 justly deserves and merits : what I can contribute thereto, look for it 
 from your Lordship's faithful friend and servant, 
 
 " Leith Road, \th June"'' 1639. " Hamilton." 
 
 Original, MS. Advocates' Library. — I was only aware of this very cu- 
 rious letter (which will not be found in Burnet) after the remarks which 
 it properly illustrates had been sent to press. Compare with p. 255, 261, 
 272, 278, 280, where it will be seen that the King, in May 1639, tells Ha- 
 milton to " uphold my party in the north ;" and yet, on the 4th of June 
 thereafter, Hamilton excuses himself to Aboyne, by pretending that he 
 had not "any hopes of a party in those quarters."
 
 THE CONSERVATIVES OF 1640. 415 
 
 to transpire, and, consequently, we may be certain that 
 they were such as by no arts of democratical miscon- 
 struction could be made a handle of public agitation, 
 either against the King or his loyal adherents. What 
 renders the scene still more singular is, that, Sir Tho- 
 mas Hope was the son of his Majesty's Advocate ; and 
 Balmerino was the very man whom that same Lord 
 Advocate had brought under the King's mercy a few 
 years before. To assist these midnight inquisitors, a 
 third is sent for, one Edward Edgar, who, from a bur- 
 gess and bailie of Edinburgh, had been elevated into 
 a committee-man, and who appears to have been one 
 of those subservient cyphers, the use of which were to 
 give numerical value to such committee digitals as 
 Balmerino and Hope. This upon the present, as upon 
 various other occasions, was the whole representation 
 of the Parliament, Government, Religion, Liberties, 
 Laws, and unanimous covenanting zeal, of Scotland. 
 
 All the arts of intimidation, or persuasion, employed 
 to obtain such information from Walter Stewart as 
 best suited their purpose, it is of course impossible to 
 know. But even in their own secret records of the mat- 
 ter, which shall presently be laid before the reader, une- 
 quivocal symptoms may be detected of the working 
 of such arts upon the weak mind of Walter Stewart, 
 who seems to have unbosomed himself, both of truth 
 and falsehood, under the influence of no slight alarm 
 for his personal safety. After all, however, his infor- 
 mation only amounted to this, that he had been occa- 
 sionally at supper, sometimes in Montrose's house, and 
 sometimes in Napier's, in company with Sir George 
 Stirling and Sir Archibald Stewart, and that he had, 
 upon those occasions, been intrusted with some instruc- 
 tions to Traquair at Court, the object of which was to 
 
 induce the King to come in person to Scotland, and, 
 
 #
 
 416 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 after settling the peace of that kingdom, to bestow 
 some of the offices of state upon Montrose and his 
 friends. Moreover, certain scraps of paper were found 
 in his pockets, scrawled over with enigmatical terms 
 and cyphers, which he declared were the instructions 
 dictated to him, in that mysterious form, by Montrose 
 himself in presence of his friends. 
 
 Upon this ridiculous evidence the few who then 
 governed Scotland, acting under the secret instiga- 
 tion of Archibald Johnston, and at the nod of Argyle, 
 immediately seized Montrose, Napier, Sir George 
 Stirling, . and Sir Archibald Stewart, and, although 
 the separate declarations, of these noblemen and 
 gentlemen, deprived the committee of the slightest 
 pretext for instituting any proceedings against them, 
 they were all sent, in the most public and ignominious 
 manner, as state prisoners, to the Castle of Edinburgh. 
 A violent popular agitation was immediately com- 
 menced against them ; and Montrose in particular, the 
 grand object being his destruction, was held up to pub- 
 lic execration as one guilty of designs so deep and dark, 
 against the liberties of his country, and the lives of her 
 best patriots, as to be left to the imagination to con- 
 ceive, rather than to be plainly uttered. " The Plot- 
 ters" now became a title of more dire and disgraceful 
 import than " the Banders/' The burnt bond itself 
 was raised from its ashes to swell the cry, and the 
 whole mystery of iniquity was confusedly mixed up 
 with the leasing-making of John Stewart of Lacfywell, 
 the unhappy man at this time awaiting his doom for 
 the alleged attempt to bring Argyle himself to the 
 block. 
 
 Malcolm Laing has hitherto obtained credit for 
 having thoroughly sifted the history of these cloudy 
 transactions, and his epitome of them has long past cur-
 
 THE CONSERVATIVES OF 1640. 417 
 
 rent, as containing all the facts and the real state of the 
 case. I shall quote the entire passage, that it may be 
 contrasted with all the secret details with which we 
 are fortunately enabled to illustrate the subject of Mon- 
 trose's defection from " the Cause." 
 
 " The Scots," says Mr Laing, " in consequence of a 
 solemn obligation inserted in their covenant, to abstain 
 from separate, or divisive measures, had hitherto pre- 
 served a degree of union perhaps unexampled, to which 
 they were principally indebted for their past success. 
 But for an opportune discovery that union was almost 
 dissolved. Impatient of a superior, and conscious of 
 military talents unmarked by his countrymen, Montrose 
 was unable to brook the pre-eminence of Argyle in the 
 senate, or of Lesly in the field. His expectations of 
 the supreme command were disappointed ; and, at 
 Berwick, the returning favour of his sovereign had 
 regained a nobleman, originally estranged from the 
 Court by neglect, and detached from the Covenant 
 by secret disgust. His correspondence with Charles 
 was detected during the treaty of Rippon ; and a bond, 
 or counter association, was discovered, to which he had 
 procured the subscription of nineteen peers. The 
 Committee of Estates were averse to division, and dis- 
 posed to rest satisfied with the surrender and formal 
 renunciation of the bond ; conciliatory measures were 
 disappointed by a report, which Montrose had propa- 
 gated, injurious to Argyle. Stewart, commissary or 
 judge of the consistorial court of Dunkeld, was pro- 
 duced as his author, according to whose information, 
 Argyle, in the presence of the Earl of Athol, and eight 
 others his prisoners, declared that the Estates had con- 
 sulted divines and lawyers, and intended to proceed to 
 the deposition of the King. An allegation so little re- 
 concileable with his characteristical prudence was sus-
 
 418 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ceptible of a complete and immediate proof. But the 
 fact was denied by the witnesses present, and retracted 
 by Stewart, who was arraigned and convicted on a 
 train of statutes which were sanguinary then ; and to 
 the alternative of confirming the public report, that he 
 had been induced to retract the charge by an assurance 
 of life, Argyle inhumanly preferred the execution of those 
 iniquitous laws on which Balmerino was condemned. 
 Stewart's information had been secretly transmitted by 
 Montrose to court ; but the messenger, on his return, 
 was intercepted by Argyle. Whether the facility with 
 which the King might assume the command of the 
 army, or acquire an ascendancy by his presence in 
 Parliament, was suggested by Montrose, the discovery 
 of an obscure correspondence in cypher excited a gene- 
 ral alarm. The King, on his arrival in Scotland, had 
 the mortification to find that Montrose and his friends 
 were imprisoned in the Castle, and the detection of the 
 Banders and Plotters had exasperated the prosecution 
 against incendiaries.""* 
 
 Thus tenderly, for Argyle and the Covenanters, and 
 unjustly for " Montrose and his friends," has the his- 
 tory of those transactions been epitomized. We ven- 
 ture to think that there is more of antithesis than of 
 impartial or well informed history in the above impos- 
 ing passage. No doubt the Covenant itself was one 
 monstrous " solemn obligation to abstain from separate 
 and divisive measures." But as for the union it pre- 
 served, that immediately resolved into the secret poli- 
 cy of a few powerful factionists, for their own private 
 ends ; and when Mr Laing says, that " the Commit- 
 tee of Estates were averse from division," he is merely 
 
 * History of Scotland, Vol. i. p. 192. 
 
 /
 
 THE CONSERVATIVES OF 1640- 4*19 
 
 glossing over the fact that Argyle and his subservient 
 agitators would brook no independent, enlightened, or 
 honest patriot in their councils. The terms of Mon- 
 trose's bond, which this author had not seen, would 
 have informed him that it was caused by the divisive 
 measures of the " prime Covenanters" themselves, act- 
 ing against the professed spirit and objects of that 
 anomalous deed of national obligation, out of which 
 they were carving their fortunes to the ruin of their 
 country. Moreover, Mr Laing has assumed the mean- 
 est motives, for Montrose's opposition, which he could 
 not prove, and, in reference to the leasing-making of 
 the unfortunate Commissary, and the whole merits of 
 the case against " the Plotters," he appears to have 
 been totally uninformed in point of fact. The true 
 version of all these matters, which the documents al- 
 ready produced have in some degree elucidated, we 
 proceed still further to develope from original manu- 
 scripts. It will be found that the secret history of 
 the fate of Stewart of Ladywell leaves no stain upon 
 the character of Montrose, but casts a dark shadow 
 upon that of Argyle ; that the evidence extorted 
 from Walter Stewart, in so far as it was made the 
 pretext for sending Montrose and his friends to pri- 
 son, were falsehoods of the most puerile nature, and 
 moreover, were completely refuted, and sifted from 
 the truth, by the separate depositions upon oath of 
 Montrose, Napier, Keir, and Blackball, even before 
 their incarceration ; that, nevertheless, in the pro- 
 secution of their design against Montrose, the co- 
 venanting government proceeded upon the single tes- 
 timony of Walter Stewart, a man neither of honesty nor 
 courage, while they treated with contempt theconcurring 
 testimony of four of the most honourable and highest
 
 420 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 minded men in Scotland. That evidence, carefully 
 kept secret at the time, shall be brought to light in the 
 sequel. Here we intend to lay before the reader, from 
 the Napier charter-chest, the contents of manuscripts 
 illustrative of what passed at those supper parties, and 
 informing us who were the individuals solely answer- 
 able for this conservative plotting. 
 
 The following is from a manuscript in the hand- 
 writing of Lord Napier himself, and which, with his 
 other manuscripts to be produced, has been buried in 
 the archives of his family from that moment to this, 
 while our historians have been ingeniously recording 
 their various versions of " the Plot." 
 
 " The Earl of Montrose, Lord Naper, Sir George 
 Stirling of Keir,* and Sir Archibald Stewart of Black- 
 hall, knights, having occasion to meet often, did then de- 
 plore the hard estate the country was in ; our Religion 
 not secured, and with it our Liberties being in danger, 
 — Laws silenced, — Justice, and the course of Judicato- 
 ries, obstructed, — noblemen and gentlemen put to ex- 
 cessive charges above their abilities, and distracted from 
 their private affairs, — the course of traffic interrupted to 
 the undoing of merchants and tradesmen, — moneyed men 
 paid with faylies and suspensions,! — and, besides these 
 
 * Sir George Stirling, Napier's son-in-law, was a high-spirited baron 
 of ancient descent. His domains in Menteth have been recorded by Sir 
 Walter Scott as " the lofty brow of ancient Keir." Sir Archibald Stew- 
 art of Blackball and Ardgowan was a Lord of Council and Session. Keir's 
 sister, Alary Stirling, was married to Blackball. — Strathallan MS. 
 
 f That this was no fanciful view taken by Montrose and Lord Napier 
 of the state of the country, we may learn from a passage in a letter of 
 Baillie's, so early as the month of April 1638, when that Covenanter, in 
 the very midst of his admiration and excitement on the subject of the 
 movement, exclaims, with the mixture of shrewdness and simplicity cha- 
 racteristic of him, — " our country is at the point of breaking loose, our laws 
 
 1
 
 THE CONSERVATIVES OF 1640. 421 
 
 present evils, fearing worse to follow, — the King's autho- 
 rity being much shaken by the late troubles, — knowing 
 well that the necessary consequences and effects of a 
 weak sovereign power are anarchy and confusion, the 
 tyranny of subjects, the most insatiable and insupport- 
 able tyranny of the world, — without hope of redress 
 from the Prince, curbed and restrained from the law- 
 ful use of his power,— factions and distractions within, 
 — opportunity to enemies abroad, and to ill affected sub- 
 jects at home, to kindle a fire in the state which hardly 
 can be quenched (unless it please the Almighty of his 
 great mercy to prevent it) without the ruin of King, 
 People, and State. * 
 
 " These sensible evils begot in them thoughts of re- 
 medy. The best, they thought, was, that if his Majesty 
 would be pleased to come in person to Scotland, and give 
 his people satisfaction in point of Religion, and^'w.stf Liber- 
 ties, he should thereby settle his own authority, and cure 
 all the distempers and distractions among his subjects. 
 For they assured themselves that the King giving God 
 his due, and the people theirs, they would give Caesar 
 that which was his. While these thoughts and discourses 
 were entertained among them, Lieutenant Walter 
 Stewart came to the town, who was repairing to court 
 about his own business. Whereupon it was thought 
 expedient to employ him to deal with the Duke of Len- 
 nox (being a Stuart, and one that was oft at court they 
 thought, but were deceived, that he was well known to 
 the Duke) to persuade his Majesty's journey to Scotland 
 
 this twelve months have been silenced, divers misregard their creditors, 
 our Highlands are making ready their arms, and some begin to murder 
 their neighbours." 
 
 * This was prophetic. It will be observed that some of the expres- 
 sions in this statement are the same with some used by Montrose in his 
 Letter upon Sovereign Power.
 
 422 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 for the effect foresaid. This was the Lieutenant's em- 
 ployment, and nocht else, although there was some other 
 discourses to that purpose in the bye, as, that it was best 
 his Majesty should keep up the Offices* vacand, till his 
 Majesty had settled the affairs here; and the Lieutenant 
 proponed this difficulty, that our army lay in his way, 
 and that his Majesty could not in honour pass through 
 them ; to which he got this present reply, that our Com- 
 missioners were at London, — if the King did not agree 
 with them, his Majesty would not come at all, — but if 
 he did agree, the army should be his army, and they 
 would all lay down their arms at his feet. There is 
 no man so far from the duty of a good subject, or so 
 void of common sense, as to quarrel this matter. But 
 the manner is mightily impugned, and aggravated by 
 all the means that the malicious libeller can invent. 
 It is bonum, says he, no man so impudent as can deny 
 it ; but it is not bene, and, therefore, " The Plotters," — 
 for with that odious name they design them, — ought to 
 be punished with loss of fame, life, lands, goods and 
 gear, and be incapable of place, honour, or preferment, 
 — a sore sentence any man will think, after the matter 
 be well tried and discussed."! 
 
 The sole object, then, of " the Plot," was to save the 
 monarchy, and the best interests of the country, from 
 that rampant democracy of which they eventually be- 
 came the prey ; and the simple design was to persuade 
 his Majesty to come in person to Scotland, to satisfy 
 the people on the subject of " Religion and Liberties," 
 and then to save the prerogatives of the Crown from 
 the lawless attacks of a grasping faction. For this it 
 
 * The Offices of State. t Napier Charter-chest.
 
 MONTROSE'S ADVICE TO CHARLES I. 423 
 
 was that Montrose and his friends were sent to prison, 
 and persecuted so long. Yet we are told, by the noble 
 author of " Some Memorials of John Hampden," in re- 
 ference to this very imprisonment, — " Montrose had been 
 thrown into confinement, by the Parliament of Scotland, 
 for a complication of proved offences of the highest 
 sort" — such is Lord Nugent's fiat on the subject : 
 " Charles had been corresponding with an unprincipled 
 violent faction in Scotland, — a strange letter from the 
 Earl of Montrose, whose ambitious designs were now 
 generally suspected, had been discovered," — such is 
 Mr Brodie's. But what if this letter, here so con- 
 veniently characterized as " strange," contained the 
 purest and soundest advice, conveyed in the noblest 
 expressions ? Mr Brodie intimates that the disco* 
 very of this strange letter was a cause why the Com- 
 mons of England so vehemently resisted the sudden 
 resolution formed by Charles of visiting Scotland in 
 the year 1641. We know not precisely to what let- 
 ter our historiographer refers, and doubt much if he 
 himself had any precise knowledge on the subject. But 
 are we to believe the simple statement, of the mo- 
 tives and objects of Montrose and his friends, left by 
 Lord Napier in his private notes, or the wild and vio- 
 lent theories of modern party writers ? Was the secret 
 correspondence, of " the Plotters" with their Sovereign, 
 unprincipled, violent, and strange, or did it breathe the 
 very soul of lofty integrity and disinterested patriotism? 
 Let the original draft, also in the handwriting of this 
 Lord Napier, of a letter, — now for the first time brought 
 to light, — and which we may well believe influenced 
 that sudden and hitherto unaccountable determina- 
 tion of Charles, against every remonstrance of the Lords 
 and Commons of England, to place himself in the hands
 
 424 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of his rebel subjects in Scotland,* — the letter which 
 emanated from those family parties with Montrose and 
 Napier, — speak for itself. 
 
 " Sir, — Your antient and native kingdom of Scot- 
 land is in a mighty distemper. It is incumbent to your 
 Majesty to find out the disease, remove the causes, and 
 apply convenient remedies. The disease, in my opinion, 
 is contagious, and may infect the rest of your Majes- 
 ty's dominions.! It is the falling sickness, for they are 
 like to fall from you, and from the obedience due to 
 you, if, by removing the cause, and application of whole- 
 some remedies, it be not speedily prevented. The cause 
 is a fear and apprehension, not without some reason,\ 
 of changes in religion, and that superstitious worship 
 shall be brought in upon it, and therewith all their laws 
 infringed, and their liberties invaded. Free them, Sir, 
 from this fear, as you are free from any such thoughts, 
 and undoubtedly you shall thereby settle that State in a 
 Jirm obedience to your Majesty in all time coming. 
 
 * See Clarendon's history of that period, where he says, " Neither was 
 the ground of his Majesty's so positive and unalterable resolution of 
 going to Scotland sufficiently clear to standers by, wbo thought he might 
 have transacted the business of that kingdom, where he could not rea- 
 sonably expect any great reverence to his person, better at a distance, 
 and that his presence might be more necessary in this." 
 
 -f- This was prophetic, and reminds us of Clarendon's expression, the 
 small cloud in the " north," which expanded to the storm that desolated 
 England. 
 
 X It is worthy of remark, that the philosophic Hume, penetrating 
 through all the mists of passion and prejudice accumulated on the subject 
 through the intervening generations, arrived at the same rational estimate 
 of the matter, and expressed it almost in the same words, that Montrose 
 and Napier had done at the time. " Amidst these dangerous complaints 
 and terrors of religious innovation, the civil and ecclesiastical liberties 
 of the nation were imagined, and with some reason, not to be altogether 
 free from invasion." — Hist. Vol. vi. p. 323.
 
 montrose's advice to charles i. 425 
 
 They have no other end but to preserve their Religion 
 in purity, and their Liberties entire. That they intend 
 the overthrow of monarchical government is a calum- 
 ny.* They are capable of no other, — for many and great 
 reasons, — and ere they will admit another than your 
 Majesty, and," after you, your son, and nearest of your 
 posterity, to sit upon that throne, many thousands of 
 them will spend their dearest blood. You are not like 
 a tree lately planted, which oweth the fall to the first 
 wind. Your ancestors have governed there, without 
 interruption of race, two thousand years, or thereabout, 
 and taken such root as it can never be plucked up by 
 any but yourselves. If any other shall entertain such 
 treasonable thoughts, which I do not believe, certainly 
 they will prove as vain as they are wicked. 
 
 " The remedy of this dangerous disease consisteth 
 only in your Majesty's presence for a space in that 
 kingdom. It is easy to you in person to settle these 
 troubles, and to disperse these mists of apprehension 
 and mistaking, — impossible to any other. If you send 
 down a Commissioner, whate'er he be, he shall neither 
 give nor get contentment, but shall render the disease 
 incurable. The success of your Majesty's affairs, — the 
 security of your authority, — the peace and happiness 
 of your subjects, depend upon your personal presence. 
 The disease is of that kind which is much helped by 
 conceit [imagination], and the presence of the physi- 
 cian. Now is the proper time, and the critical days ; 
 forthe people lovechange, and expect from it much good, 
 — a new heaven and a new earth, — but, being disap- 
 pointed, are as desirous of a re-change to the former 
 
 * This is stated in favour of the Scottish nation generally, not of the 
 covenanting faction.
 
 426 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 estate.* Satisfy them, Sir, in pointof Religion and Li- 
 berties, when you come there, in a loving and free man- 
 ner, that they may see your Majesty had never any other 
 purpose, and doth not intend the least prejudice to either. 
 For religious subjects, and such as enjoy their lawful 
 liberties, obey better, and love more than the godless 
 and servile, who do all out of base fear, which begets 
 hate. Any difference, that may arise upon the acts 
 passed in the last Parliament,! your Majesty's pre- 
 sence, and the advice and endeavours of your faithful 
 servants, will easily accommodate. Let your Majesty be 
 pleased to express your favour, and care of your sub- 
 jects' weal, by giving way to any just motion of their's 
 for relief of the burdens these late troubles have laid 
 upon them, or by granting what else may tend to their 
 good, which your Majesty may do with assurance that 
 therein is included your own. 
 
 " Suffer them not to meddle or dispute of your power ^ 
 — it is an instrument never subjects yet handled well. 
 Let not your authority receive any diminution of that 
 which the law of God and nature, and the fundamen- 
 tal laws of the country alloweth : For then it shall 
 grow contemptible, — and weak and miserable is that 
 people whose prince hath not power sufficient to punish 
 oppression, and to maintain peace and justice. On the 
 other side, aim not at absoluteness : It endangers your 
 
 * This obviously alludes to the false excitement, created by the Cove- 
 nant, beginning- to subside, and the people to find that, after all the de- 
 clamation of their preachers, they were not so well off under the Commit- 
 tee Government of Scotland, as they had been under the King and 
 Council. 
 
 f The illegal convention of June 1640, in which Montrose disputed 
 against the democratic faction. 
 
 + A most important advice, as we shall find, referring to the determi- 
 nation of the covenanting faction to rob the King of his prerogative of 
 dispensing the Offices of. State.
 
 MONTHOSE'S ADVICE TO CHARLES I. 427 
 
 estate, and stirs up troubles : The people of the western 
 parts of the world could never endure it any long time, 
 and they of Scotland less than any.* Hearken not to 
 Rehoboam's councillors, — they are flatterers, and there- 
 fore cannot be friends, — they follow your fortune, and 
 love not your person, — pretend what they will, their 
 hasty ambition and avarice make them persuade an 
 absolute government, that the exercise of the same [may 
 be put up] on them, and then they know how to get 
 wealth, — f 
 
 " Practice, Sir, the temperate government. It fit- 
 teth the humour and disposition of the nation best. It 
 is most strong, most powerful, and most durable of any. 
 It gladdeth the heart of your subjects, and then they 
 erect a throne there for you to reign, — -firmissimum 
 imperium quo obedientes gaudent. Let your last act 
 there be the settling the Offices of State upon men of 
 known integrity and sufficiency.^: Take them not upon 
 
 * Compare with Hamilton's letter, p. 247. 
 
 f There is here a hiatus of about two lines in the manuscript, which 
 appears to have suffered from fire. The blank may he thus supplied from 
 a corresponding passage in the letter of Montrose, given in Chapter 
 XIII. — " robbing thereby the people of their wealthy the King of the peo- 
 ple's love due to him, and of the honour and reputation of wisdom." 
 
 X The Scotch Commissioners of the treaty in London were at this 
 time making the most outrageous and insulting demands upon the 
 King's prerogative and personal freedom. '1 Ley demanded that he 
 and the Prince should frequently reside in Scotland, and that ahout 
 their persons and the Queen's should lie placed such as were not 
 obnoxious to the covenanting faction. In the King's answers, which 
 are exceedingly temperate and dignified, there i-- a coincidence of 
 expression with the above letter. His Majesty most justly observes, 
 that his " goodness and grace towards Ins subjects of Scotland, in plac- 
 ing- of them ahout his own person in places of greatest nearness and 
 trust, hath been such as ought to give lull satisfaction of Ids royal affec- 
 tion towards Ins subjects of Ins native kingdom; and for dispatch of the 
 affairs of Scotland, he hath, and so shall continue to use the service of
 
 428 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 credit, and other men's recommendation, — they prefer 
 men for their own ends, and with respect to themselves. 
 Neither yet take them at hazard, — but upon your own 
 knowledge, which fully reacheth to a great many more 
 than will fill those few places. Let them not be such 
 as are obliged to others than yourself for their prefer- 
 ment, — not factious nor popular, neither such as are 
 much hated, for these are not able to serve you well, 
 and the others are not willing, if it be prejudice to 
 those upon whom they depend. They who are prefer- 
 red, and obliged to your Majesty, will study to behave 
 them well and dutifully in their places, if it were for no 
 other reason yet for this, that they make not your Ma- 
 jesty ashamed of your choice. So shall your Majesty 
 secure your authority for the present, and settle it for 
 the future time, — your journey shall be prosperous, your 
 return glorious, — you shall be followed with the bles- 
 sings of your people, and with that contentment which 
 a virtuous deed reflecteth upon the mind of the doer, — 
 and more true and solid shall your glory be than if you 
 had conquered nations, and subdued a people. — Pax una, 
 triumphis innumeris potior.* 
 
 " Axioms. 
 
 " 1. All novations in Religion, and attempts upon 
 the Laws and Liberties of the subjects, produceth dan- 
 gerous effects. 
 
 " 2. Sovereign power, in the person of one, few, or 
 many, is the sole and only bond of human society. 
 Never was there any company of men governed by reli- 
 gion, nor reason, owing to the diversity of opinions about 
 
 such of that nation as shall be of known sufficiency and integrity.'''' This 
 reply was made in April 1641, after the King had announced his inten. 
 tion of going to Scotland. — Contemporary transcripts of these negotia- 
 tions, Ad. Lib. Wodrow's MS. LXXIII. 
 * One truce is better than a thousand triumphs.
 
 MONTROSE'S ADVICE TO CHARLES I. 429 
 
 both. Nor by love or virtue, most men being wicked 
 and inclined to hate. There must be a coactive power 
 to force obedience to laws and just commandements. 
 To weaken then this power is to dissolve society, over- 
 throw government, and introduce confusion and dis- 
 order. 
 
 " 3. It is made weak when it is restrained too far 
 within, and, it is weak also when it is extended be- 
 yond, the true bounds : (like a strong signet of gold, 
 which may be extended to a great length and breadth, 
 to almost an airy thinness, but thereby is extremely 
 weakened.) It is onlystrongand durable when it is tem- 
 perate. 
 
 " 4. The extent of kingly power is the step next to 
 tyranny, if the prince be bad, — if good, to the tyranny 
 of courtiers, — the restraint to anarchy, (whether he be 
 good or bad,) and the tyranny and oppression of men 
 of power in the kingdom. The tyranny of subjects, — 
 being the most fierce, insatiable, and unsupportable ty- 
 ranny, — procureth that solecism of state, a miserable 
 people under a good and just king. 
 
 " 5. Sovereign power is a sacred thing, — not to be 
 defined, bounded, nor disputed of by subjects, — indeed 
 not to be meddled with at all by them, — they wound 
 it though they touch it never so tenderly. 
 
 "6. Subjects ought only to endeavour the security of 
 their own Laws and Liberties, whereby the sovereign 
 power, without their endeavours, by necessary conse- 
 quence, must run in its own true and natural channel, 
 and keep a temperate course, wherein consisteth the 
 joint happiness of King and subject. If it be short 
 and restrained, it is good for both that it be enlarged 
 till it meet with the subjects liberties and privilege, and 
 there it ought to sist, for that is the true limits of it ;
 
 430 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 and if it be exorbitant, the laws and liberties of the 
 people (which is the subject an exorbitant power works 
 upon) being secured, then there is no matter, use, nor 
 force in that exorbitancy, — and therefore it must needs 
 be temperate. 
 
 " 7. The King and his people make up one body po- 
 litic, whereof he is the head, they are the members, and 
 so near is the relation that nothing is or can be imagin- 
 ed good or ill for the one that is not just so for the 
 other. If their ends and endeavours be never so little 
 diverse, and eccentric, that prince inclineth to tyranny, 
 or that people to disloyalty. 
 
 " These maxims, and others of the like nature not 
 truly understood and practised, is the source of all dis- 
 orders in the State. Arguments drawn from them, and 
 the like, are the best ingredients in a wholesome coun- 
 sel to a King, or to subjects."* 
 
 The coincidences, both in thought and expresion, be- 
 tween this interesting letter, and the speech of Charles 
 when opening the Parliament of Scotland upon this 
 
 * Original MS. Napier charter-chest. This very interesting ma- 
 nuscript is not signed or dated. Unquestionably, however, it is the 
 original draft of a letter to Charles I. all in the hand-writing of the 
 first Lord Napier, and, with the axioms, occupies three sides of a folio 
 sheet. It must have been written before Charles announced to Na- 
 pier his determination to visit Scotland. It is possible, that we here 
 recover the substance of a letter to his Majesty inclosed in one which 
 (as we shall afterwards find) Montrose sent by Walter Stewart to 
 the Duke of Lennox, and that the letter from the King to Montrose, of 
 which Stewart was robbed, had reference to the advice thus offered him. 
 It will be seen that the above contains whole paragraphs identically the 
 same with some in the letter from Montrose on the subject of Sove- 
 reign Power. But whether what we thus discover in Lord Napier's 
 hand-writing be a letter of his own to Charles I. or a draft of Montrose's 
 made by Napier, or their joint composition, we cannot doubt (on com- 
 paring it with all the manuscripts illustrative of this alleged plot,) that it 
 contains the sum and substance of the advice which, upon the few occa- 
 sions of their intercourse, Montrose then offered to his Sovereign.
 
 LETTER FROM CHARLES I. TO NAPIER. 43] 
 
 memorable occasion,* are very remarkable, and tend to 
 confirm the idea that his Majesty had received the let- 
 ter, and that its contents had made a powerful impres- 
 sion on his mind. It would have rendered our evi- 
 dence, of the nature and principles of Montrose and Na- 
 pier's plotting, very complete, could the letter have been 
 discovered which Walter Stewart was brinffinff from 
 Charles to Montrose, on the 4th of June 1641. 
 Another letter, however, from his Majesty to Lord 
 Napier, dated only about a fortnight earlier than the 
 day on which Walter Stewart was seized, had reached 
 its destination in safety, and probably without the 
 knowledge of the tyrannical Committee. This appears 
 from the original, which has been preserved with the 
 other manuscripts in the Napier charter-chest. Let us 
 see then in what dark terms Charles I. " tampered" 
 with this " unprincipled violent faction in Scotland." 
 
 " To our right trusty and well beloved Councillor, the 
 Lord JVaper. 
 
 " Charles. R. 
 
 " Right trusty and well beloved, We greet you well. 
 Having fully resolved to repair unto that our kingdom, 
 for holding of the parliament the 15th of July next, — 
 that we may satisfy our good subjects of our real in- 
 tentions to settle all matters in a peaceable manner, as 
 may most conduce for the weal of our kingdom, — so, 
 having of late written unto our council there to meet 
 and attend at Edinburgh to receive our further direc- 
 tions, we have likewise, out of the former experience 
 
 * The Kind's speech will be found in Rushwoith, Franklin, and in 
 Balfour's Annals.
 
 432 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 we have had of your affection to our service, thought 
 fit to require you to stay constantly there, for giving 
 directions as you shall find necessary for our reception 
 and entertainment, and to attend our further pleasure, 
 as it shall from time to time be imparted unto you ; and 
 in the mean time that you advertise us back with your 
 opinion what you find further requisite for this effect. 
 Wherein expecting your ready care, we bid you fare- 
 well. From our court at Whitehall, the 20th May 
 1641." 
 
 Alas, " the Plotters" were sent to the Castle on the 
 11th of June thereafter, and when Charles arrived in 
 Scotland he was welcomed only by his enemies. He 
 had just been compelled to sign the death-warrant of 
 his greatest statesman in England, and now, the few 
 who struggled to save his honour, and his crown, in 
 Scotland, were prisoners of the same merciless faction. 
 And in that low-minded scramble, among the faction- 
 ists, for place and power, which occurred ere Charles 
 returned, he did "suffer them to meddle with his 
 power," — a host of destructives triumphed over the con- 
 servative sijmposia, and in the following year the very 
 men among whom Charles had distributed honours and 
 offices, with too lavish a hand, and some of whom then 
 bedewed that hand with covenanting tears, raised a re- 
 bel army, and joined the Rebellion in England.
 
 COVENANTING TACTICS. 433 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE CASE AGAINST THE PLOTTERS. 
 
 Though some of our modern historians sneer at the 
 authority of Dr Wishart, while they rely upon contem- 
 poraries infinitely more questionable, that loyal clergy- 
 man was perfectly accurate in saying, that what- 
 ever tales the Covenanters framed to answer their si- 
 nister purposes, they wanted not proper instruments, 
 always at hand, to spread them among the people. The 
 noble author who, in our own times, so sententiously 
 remarks, that prudential motives alone prevented * 
 the Scots from publickly arraigning Montrose, is only 
 right in a sense he did not intend, namely, that the 
 faction having no case, in law or equity, against him 
 whom they found so " very hard to be guided," pru- 
 dently betook themselves to the meanest arts of tyran- 
 nical democracy. The same system of unprincipled agi- 
 
 * Lord Nugent, in his work entitled, " Some Memorials of John 
 Hampden, his Party, and Times," (a characteristic of which is this cha- 
 racter of Montrose, — " whose restless spirit was never stayed by any 
 considerations, from pursuing, by any means of violence and fraud, the 
 destruction of any man who thwarted his objects of intrigue, or obstruc- 
 ted the views of his high-reaching ambition,") — records, as matte. of 
 history, that Montrose " had been thrown into confinement by the 
 Parliament of Scotland, for a complication of proved offences of the 
 highest sort. He had the year before engaged himself in a plot to be- 
 tray the covenanting army, with whom he was serving, because Iil> had 
 failed in an attempt to procure the chief command, and prudential mo- 
 tives alone prevented the Scots from publickly arraigning him for the 
 act."— Vol. h. p. 94. 
 
 VOL. I. E v
 
 434 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 tation, — indicated by that secret letter in which Archi- 
 bald Johnston is counselled to organize a popular tu- 
 mult against certain bishops, if they dared to shew them- 
 selves in public, — was carried through in their no less 
 cowardly persecution of Montrose. When his conser- 
 vative bond was detected, the public were inflamed 
 without being informed, and Montrose condemned with- 
 out being tried. The bond was burnt, as something 
 too frightful for the public eye or ear, and then it was 
 pronounced, even by the covenanting clergy, to be damn- 
 able. It is to this system that Montrose himself al- 
 ludes in the complaint : " that he was wronged by the 
 scandal raised upon the bond ;" and when, elsewhere, 
 he declared that " he was a man envied, and all means 
 taken to cross him." 
 
 But Lord Nugent would lead us to believe, that the 
 time arrived when the Argyle faction acted more openly 
 in their pursuit of Montrose, who, it seems, was now 
 thrown into confinement by the Parliament of Scot- 
 land, for a complication of proved offences of the high- 
 est sort, and that of such offences he was openly 
 convicted. Where, how, and when the proof of these 
 offences was led, and the open conviction obtained, the 
 biographer of Hampden does not explain. If there be 
 a characteristic more marked than another, of the fac- 
 tion with whom Montrose so nobly and so vainly con- 
 tended, it is this, that in all their proceedings against 
 incendiaries and delinquents, a fair and legal mode of 
 investigation, a public and constitutional form of trial, 
 consistent with the rules of law and the principles of 
 justice, was by them cannily, or as Lord Nugent would 
 say, prudently eschewed. The greatest crime with 
 which Montrose could be charged was his intention of 
 bringing to the light of day the skulking treason which
 
 COVENANTING TACTICS. 135 
 
 circumstances had pressed upon his attention. And even 
 when he tried to ascertain the truth of what had so 
 awakened his suspicions, it was with this "caveat" to his 
 informer, " that he should rather keep himself within 
 bounds than exceed."* Then it was most openly, be- 
 fore his King and country in the assembled Parliament, 
 that Montrose intended first to " clear himself at the 
 Parliament and Assembly," and then to impeach even 
 Argyle (who had raised against him the scandal of 
 having framed a damnable bond) of " high treason in 
 the highest manner." But, as he incautiously told a 
 covenanting agitator, " he should do it in such a way 
 as could not wrong the public, because he would not 
 make his challenge till the public were settled, and then 
 he should put it off himself, and lay it on those who had 
 calumniated him." In other words, he would prove, 
 in the face of day, and by the most constitutional means, 
 that he was no traitor to his King and country, and 
 that Argyle was. Is it for covenanting historians to 
 speak of this as a complication of proved offences of the 
 highest sort ? Contrast, with this head and front of 
 Montrose's offending, the method of " the Patriots," 
 under their great Justiciar Argyle. Archibald John- 
 ston, — who confesses himself to be " one of the primest 
 witnesses" in the very process he is so violently in- 
 stigating, — writing to Balmerino, who was to be one 
 of the primest judges, and who was president of all 
 their inquisitorial committees, — urges ^uch instructions 
 as these : " If any of us be accused here, think what to 
 do with some there, seeing we hear it comes from Mon- 
 trose :" Then, as for Traquair, and the rest of the in- 
 cendiaries, " think on matters" against them,— try if 
 
 * See the manuscripts quoted in the following chapter.
 
 436 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Traquair have removed the Regalia from the Castle,— 
 it is clear treason if he have, — but let the accusation 
 against him be kept close, without revealing to any, 
 until the very day of his compearance, — pay the law- 
 yers largely beforehand, — fye on those who will not be 
 diligent in this, — rest not till Traquair be at the mercy 
 of the Parliament and you, as you were at his, — God 
 is going on in some hid way for his Son's crown, — Lord 
 encourage and direct you ! — Was this not a conspiracy 
 against the Laws and Liberties of the country, and 
 blasphemy besides ? Was there no plotting here, worse 
 than ever entered the imagination of Montrose ? 
 
 Rumours of plots, as a means of keeping the public 
 mind in a constant state of inflammation against those 
 who were to be crushed, was one of the great arts of 
 the covenanting movement, and our histories are still 
 haunted by the murky calumnies that arose out of the 
 system. The principal object of the clique, who worked 
 the Committee of Estates in Edinburgh, when they 
 extorted reiterated declarations and depositions from 
 " the Plotters," was, not to protect and enlighten the 
 community, but to keep themselves in possession of the 
 power they had usurped, by raising phantoms in secret 
 to delude and inflame the people. The abject confession, 
 and cries for mercy, of the wretched John Stewart, en- 
 abled the faction (as we shall find) to imbrue their 
 hands in his blood, under a mockery of the forms of 
 justice. But the high minds, the clear consciences, the 
 indomitable spirits, of Montrose and his fellow pri- 
 soners, were not to be so easily disposed of. They 
 were committed to the Castle, with the most pub- 
 lic parade of the faction. But all the evidence obtained 
 against them, from themselves or others, was extorted
 
 COVENANTING TACTICS. 487 
 
 in secret (by the very persons who had been ordered, 
 by Archibald Johnston, to " think what to do with 
 them,") and ever afterwards kept from public investiga- 
 tion. Then the very pulpits resounded with the alarm of 
 their " wicked plots, desperate, devilish, and new." But 
 in vain the plotters demanded a public trial, and the 
 liberty of the subject. They were to be kept in prison 
 until " this plot of the King coming himself to Scot- 
 land," had terminated in that scramble for place and 
 power, by which the Argyle faction became omnipo- 
 tent, the King dethroned, and the rumour of a plot no 
 longer necessary for the purposes of faction. And during 
 that strict and solitary imprisonment of the purest pa- 
 triots their country then possessed, plot upon plot was 
 shadowed forth from the boiling cauldron of the Com- 
 mittee of Estates. The plot was no longer to impeach 
 Hamilton and Argyle before King and Parliament, — 
 it was now to be " a woful misery, and bloody but- 
 chery,"* — ruffians and cut- throats were to carry off and 
 massacre Hamilton and Argyle, — " the Plot" passed 
 into " the Incident," and for the picture of a parlia- 
 mentary impeachment, by means of suborned witnes- 
 ses, the more horrid phantasma is presented of Mon- 
 trose bursting his prison doors, and leading a baud of 
 midnight murderers. Nor is this a figurative descrip- 
 tion of the rumour. Such was the excited statement 
 of it transmitted by Baillie to his reverend correspond- 
 ent abroad. England, too, who in the meaner arts of de- 
 mocracy, took all her lessons from the " beggarly Scot,"f 
 
 * Baillie's MS. quoted by Mr Brodie, Vol. iii. p. 147. 
 
 f While the committees and agitators in Scotland, under the direc- 
 tions of Archibald Johnston, and the auspices of Argyle and Hamilton, 
 were inflaming the public mind with vague and mysterious rumours of 
 (kspeiate and devilish plots, in whi< h the King was invariably implica-
 
 438 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 became enveloped in this raging ocean of calumny ; and, 
 it appears, when its muddy waters subsided, they had 
 left a foul deposite, even among the collections of the 
 great Clarendon, namely, that Montrose, — the impri- 
 soned Montrose, — .imprisoned for the very purpose of 
 preventing his approach to his Sovereign, and who, so 
 long as Charles was in Scotland, was not suffered to 
 see his own relations, without the knowledge and ex- 
 press sanction of his persecutors, — had been, in person, 
 at the ear of the most refined and christian monarch in 
 the world, whispering councils of assassination, and 
 " frankly offering" to do the deed himself. 
 
 Thus three growths, as it were, of this vicious ca- 
 lumny has entered history. There is first the Plot, by 
 which is meant a secret combination of Montrose with 
 Charles I. and Traquair, to overturn the covenanting 
 constitutions, and to convict Hamilton and Argyle of 
 high treason, by means of false evidence before the 
 Parliament of Scotland. Next comes the Incident, 
 being the phantom of a deeper and more extensively 
 organized scheme, to massacre those Innocents, " in the 
 hour of unsuspecting confidence ;" and, lastly, there is 
 what we must call the Anecdote, (for nowhere, in that 
 form, can the contemporary calumny now be traced, save 
 
 ted, the puritanical party in England, under the leadership of Pym, 
 were industriously working the same machinery, and even attempted to 
 get up the very counterpart of the Scotch Covenant. The principal 
 drift of the agitation about the Plot and Incident in Scotland, was to 
 crush Montrose, and to ruin the King by implicating him in these alleged 
 diabolical attempts. ^Simultaneously, the democrats in England were 
 agitating there with the " Army Plot," the purpose of which systema- 
 tically obscure scandal was to ensure the execution of Strafford, and 
 impress the people with the belief of desperate designs on the part of 
 Charles against the Liberties of the country. Mr Brodie, in his History 
 of the British Empire, Vol. iii. revels, with a congenial spirit, in all this 
 cloudy and calumnious trash.
 
 COVENANTING TACTICS. 439 
 
 in its unfortunate adoption by Clarendon,) in which 
 Montrose is made to offer his services to his sovereign, 
 as an assassin.* 
 
 It will be remembered, that when Sir Thomas Hope 
 so exultingly reports to Archibald Johnston the fact of 
 Walter Stewart's capture, and his examination before 
 Balmerino, Hope and Edgar, on the night of the 4th, 
 or the morning of the 5th of June, he refers, for the 
 particulars of the evidence, to the papers then trans- 
 mitted to his democratic confidant. Among the manu- 
 scripts of the Advocates' Library we find the secret 
 correspondence then passing betwixt the Committee at 
 Edinburgh and the Scotch Commissioners for the Treaty 
 at London in 1641. In a letter dated 23d June of that 
 year, the Committee write : " We have sent your Lord- 
 ships an account of what has past in the examination of 
 such as we have as yet fallen upon, which we entreat 
 your Lordships not to divulge, except to those who treat 
 with you, and the Parliament of England in case of ne- 
 cessity, as we shall be your Lordships' affectionate friends 
 to serve you." This system of secret dealing, so well 
 sustained by the faction, while at the time it confer- 
 red upon the covenanting judicatories the character 
 and the power of a dark inquisitorial tribunal, has mis- 
 led modern historians, less violent and precipitate than 
 Mr Brodie, into much vague and darkling credulity, and 
 to such ill-informed and extravagant conclusions as, — 
 
 * This extraordinary and impossible scandal, left in manuscript by 
 Lord Clarendon, and which has been published to the detriment both 
 of that great historian and Montrose, will be more particularly examined 
 afterwards. Most greedily does Mr Brodie adopt it, and gloat over it, 
 in his interminable execrations of Montrose, " as having projected the 
 assassination of Argyle and the Hamiltons, as well as the massacre of 
 the Covenanters, [what, them all P]in an hour of unsuspecting confi- 
 dence."—^'^, iv. 271.
 
 440 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 " the assassination of Argyle and Hamilton was cha- 
 racteristical of Montrose/'* But we shall now drag to 
 light the original papers which the covenanting faction 
 so carefully kept secret, and which some modern histo- 
 rians, while pluming themselves on their research, have 
 so carefully avoided discovering. We will prove that 
 the " obscure correspondence in cypher," the faction 
 itself had excellent reason to know, was the absurd in- 
 vention of Walter Stewart, with which Montrose had 
 nothing to do ; and that as for the " general alarm," 
 which it is said to have " excited," that was purposely 
 created by the dishonest arts of these Covenanters, who, 
 while they concealed the truth, and all that was illus- 
 trative of it in the depositions they themselves extorted, 
 printed and circulated all that was mystical, inflamma- 
 tory, and false. 
 
 The following, which we give from the original ma- 
 nuscript, will be easily recognised, after the foregoing 
 illustrations. 
 
 " 5th June 1641. In presence of the Lord Balme- 
 rino, Sir Thomas Hope, and Edward Edgar, Lieute- 
 nant-Colonel Walter Stewart was examined. 
 
 " Being interrogated what was his negotiation at 
 his last being in Scotland, declares, that his errand 
 was to get his brother-in-law's hand to a petition. 
 Being asked what was his discourse at Broxmouth with 
 the noblemen who were there, answers, that he spake 
 with the Earl of Montrose a reasonable space, but spoke 
 nothing of any thing except news at court. A paper 
 was found whilst they were in examination, written 
 with the Lieutenant-Colonel's own hand, containing let- 
 ters for names, which he was desired to explain. De- 
 
 * Malcolm Laing.
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 441 
 
 clares, that by the D, in the second line, is understood 
 the Duke of Lennox.* Being asked how he came to 
 write this paper, declares, he got [it] at London. 
 Being interrogated who gave him the purposes con- 
 tained therein, answered, he behoved to have time to 
 recollect his memory. Being inquired anent a letter 
 directed to him by Colonel Cochrane, who was the 
 bearer thereof to him, answers, it was Major Cun- 
 ningham, Major to Dundas's regiment. Being likewise 
 interrogated what was the purpose meant in the letter 
 which was mystical, answered that it was something 
 concerning the Palsgrave, and that it was that if the 
 Earl of Montrose should not be gotten written for by 
 his Majesty to come up, (which is understood by the 
 Jewell,) that the Colonel himself may be written for, 
 and did expone the letter at the foot thereof under his 
 hand. Being examined upon another paper,f written 
 with his own hand, wherein there are the letters M, 
 whereby he declares is meant the Earl of Montrose, by 
 • the letter L, is maant the King's Majesty, by the letter 
 1 , is meant the Earl of Traquair, and by the letter K, 
 
 * This must be the paper alluded to by Sir Thomas Hope, and which he 
 says was taken out of Walter Stewart's pocket. I do not find it among 
 the manuscripts. Spalding, however, says, that among Stewart's other pa- 
 pers " there was a curious obscure piece written after the form follow- 
 ing : ' Tell L, if G and B be disbanded, the Parliament may be holden 
 and A and R may be cut off by A, B, C; and by these means other mat- 
 ters not yet known may take effect, and D and T may effectuate what 
 is desired by the assistance of A, B, C, &c. M relies upon L. K looks 
 for performance of all promised to him in L his name. No officers of 
 the Slate should he chosen, or preferred, but by A, B, C. Let L be in- 
 formed by L) and T, that matters cannot go right till that serpent M, 
 that lies in his bosom, be cut off.'" This obviously is the paper to which 
 Sir Thomas Hope refers in his letter to Archibald Johnston, where he 
 says, " I doubt the interpretation of A, B, (', by which lie says are meant 
 the Banders, and of the viper in the Kings bosom, by which he means 
 Canterbury, which 1 believe not." 
 
 f This appears to have been part of the obscure paper quoted in the 
 previous note. Probably it was found in separate scraps.
 
 442 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS 
 
 is meant the Laird of Keir. The Lieutenant-Colonel 
 being pressed to tell the truth of all the passages have 
 past betwixt him and any others in his negotiation at 
 Court, Newcastle, and in Scotland, declares, that since 
 he is put to it by the public, he will ingenuously con- 
 fess all, that thereby he may give satisfaction to the 
 public, clear his own conscience, and humbly crave par- 
 don for what he has done therein amiss, seeing he did 
 nothing in that, or in any other, out of any intention 
 to wrong the public. 
 
 " After Yule last,* Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackball, 
 (being in Edinburgh with the deponer, and they being en- 
 tered in conference together,) told the deponer that the 
 Earl of Montrose would speak with him. The deponer 
 went to his Lordship, and found him in his own cham- 
 ber, in the Canongate, where, they entering in dis- 
 course, the Earl told the deponer that he, finding some 
 who had their own ends to the public business, therefore 
 thought it fitting that himself, and such as had affec- 
 tion to the King, should run one cofirse, so soon as the 
 King granted Religion and Liberties of the country, 
 against those who would oppose his Majesty, that being 
 granted. Montrose asked the deponer if he would go to 
 Court to acquaint the Duke of Lennox of the said Earl's 
 affection, and affections of others of his mind, and to 
 see if the Duke would join with him, which the de- 
 poner willingly condescended unto,he (Montrose) giving 
 him full assurance that there was nothing intended 
 against the public, but only for the preservation of the 
 Religion and Liberties of the country, whereof Montrose 
 gave him full assurance. The Earl did not name any 
 to be of his mind, but the deponer conceived he meant 
 those who had subscribed the bond. 
 
 * i. e. After Christmas 1640.
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 443 
 
 " They parted at that time, and met thereafter, at which 
 meeting the Earl of Montrose gave the deponer some 
 directions to draw up instructions, which the deponer 
 did write with his own hand, and did shew them to the 
 Earl of Montrose, Lord Napier, Lairds of Keir and Black- 
 hall, at their next meeting. Any thing which was amiss 
 was helped by them at the Lord Napier's house. The 
 substance whereof, — that if the King would be pleased to 
 secure them in their Religion and Liberties,grant them an 
 act of oblivion for all bygones, and do everything which 
 might secure Religion and Liberties of the country, they 
 would stand for the King against all men who will op- 
 pose him, provided that he come down to the Parlia- 
 ment himself, and keep up the offices of state undis- 
 posed of, till his Majesty saw who should deserve them 
 best. * 
 
 " Whereupon the deponer went to court. Declares, 
 that he carried no letters from the Earl of Montrose, 
 neither did he subscribe the instructions lest they should 
 be intercepted. The deponer had directions to the 
 Earl of Traquair to the same purpose, and to impart 
 these instructions to him. The deponer made his ad- 
 dress first to the Earl of Traquair, and told him his 
 instructions, who answered, that, for what concerned 
 the King, he thought these might be easily granted, as 
 well anent the granting the securing of Religion and 
 Liberties, as of his down coming, and keeping up of the 
 Offices of State. The deponer was desired to speak 
 
 * This last clause, — with the exception of the word " provided," which 
 ought to have heen " with the advice," — is a perfectly accurate statement 
 of the high principled ohject of Montrose and his friends. But this would 
 not have afforded the colour of a case against them ; and therefore 
 Walter Stewart, in order to save himself, had to add some falsehoods, 
 importing a more mysterious and selfish dealing with Traquair, against 
 the public.
 
 444 MONTUOSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 with the Duke of Lennox, and Earl of Traquair, to de- 
 sire their concurrence with the Earl of Montrose, and 
 the others of his mind, and to join with them in friend- 
 ship, and to run one way with them. The Duke of 
 Lennox's answer was, that he could do nothing till he 
 spoke with the King, and so never gave any determi- 
 nate answer to the deponer, but did write a letter to 
 the Earl of Montrose, which the deponer brought home, 
 but knows nothing of the tenor, except only there was 
 something in it conceived in favour of the Earl of Tra- 
 quair. The Earl of Traquair gave the same answer 
 anent his joining with the Earl of Montrose. Declares, 
 that the Earl of Traquair, having spoken with the King 
 anent his instructions, related to him that his Majesty 
 was content that Religion should be secured, the act of 
 oblivion be passed, the Offices of State be undisposed of, 
 and his Majesty would come home in person. The 
 deponer declared that the Earl of Montrose recom- 
 mended to him to propose to the Earl of Traquair, that 
 those who had subscribed the bond, whom the deponer 
 names A, B, C, might be employed, and preferred to va- 
 cant places, as they should be found to deserve. Ac- 
 cordingly, the deponer did propose the same to the Earl 
 of Traquair, who had his Majesty's promise that they 
 should be preferred, to his thought as they should de- 
 serve.* Declares, that he asked the Earl of Traquair 
 whether or not he might speak with the Lord Balme- 
 rino in Traquair's particular, who answered, that he 
 might do as he found the Lord Balmerino affected to- 
 wards him. Accordingly, the deponer did ask the 
 Lord Balmerino whether or not his Lordship would 
 protect the Earl of Traquair, and his Lordship an- 
 
 * There can be no doubt that this was a false statement, as will be 
 s een afterwards. The deponer himself altered the terms of it in another 
 
 deposition.
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 445 
 
 swered, these were not words becoming a subject. 
 The depouer next asked if the Lord Balmerino would 
 see him get no wrong. W hereunto the Lord Balme- 
 rino answered, that he wished any wrong that should 
 light upon the Earl of Traquair by his deed might 
 light upon himself,* and that in the Earl of Traquair's 
 own particular he was to do him any service he could, 
 but what he was to be challenged by the Estate that 
 differenced the case, and desired the Lieutenant-Colonel 
 to remember these same words, and he did report the 
 same to the Earl of Traquair, who gave no further di- 
 rection to answer at all. Declares iikewise, that the de- 
 poner hearing the Lord Angus was not well affected to 
 the Earl of Traquair, desired Archibald Stewart to try 
 my Lord's mind in it. Declares also, that the Earl of 
 Traquair desired to know how the town of Glasgow 
 was affected towards him in his particular, when it 
 should occur in a public way. As also the Earl of 
 Traquair desired to know how the Earl Marishall was 
 affected towards him. The like anent Ardincapell. 
 The Earl of Traquair discoursed with the deponer anent 
 the two commissions for demolishing the King's houses, 
 whereupon he set down in his memorandum to get the 
 double of them, but never did it. The Earl of Tra- 
 quair asked the deponer whether or not there was a 
 commission for commanding all men beyond the water 
 of Forth, who answered he knew not, but set it down 
 in his memorandum to seek it out, but never. sought 
 the same. 
 
 The Earl Montrose gave directions to the deponer to 
 
 * As Walter Stewart was making his deposition in presence of 
 Balmerino himself*, it is to lie supposed that the Litter had really used 
 these expressions. They are curious when contrasted with Archibald 
 Johnston's violent and virulent feelings against Traquair expressed to 
 Balmerino himself at this very time. See before, p. 355.
 
 446 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 let it be known that it was not fitting that his Majesty- 
 should come to Scotland before the disbanding of the 
 army, and these words were his own motions, and 
 of none others. The deponer was to shew to the Earl 
 of Traquair, or any others, the Earl Montrose's ge- 
 nerosity in not desiring any thing to be conferred 
 upon him, but as his Majesty shall find him deserve. 
 After coming from court in March last he gave an 
 account of negotiations to the Earl of Montrose, whom 
 he found at Broxmouth, and delivered him the fore- 
 said letter from the Duke of Lennox, and related to 
 him the whole proceedings, as is before related, and 
 left at Newcastle with the Laird of Keir a letter from 
 the Duke of Lennox to the Earl of Montrose, and 
 delivered to the Laird of Keir a double of the paper 
 brought along with him, containing the propositions 
 drawn off their instructions, together with his Majesty's 
 answers thereto, which the Laird of Keir copied and 
 kept. 
 
 " The deponer, at his first being at court, told the 
 Earl of Traquair of the discourses alleged by Mr John 
 Stewart to have been spoken by theEarl of Argyle anent 
 the deposing of the King, and the Earl of Traquair told 
 the deponer it was dangerous to have heard such things, 
 unless they had a good warrant, and asked how Sir 
 Thomas and Mr John could be reconciled anent the 
 bailzerie of Dunkeld. Declares, that the Earl of Tra- 
 quair said that there was no way to keep the deponer 
 from skaith, unless he could get the discourse from Mr 
 John Stewart in writing. That the deponer did write 
 for Sir Thomas and Mr John Stewart to meet him at 
 Stirling, to confer with them in their own business, and 
 in the other particular concerning the Earl of Argyle. 
 Sir Thomas only came, and Mr John did not come in re- 
 spect of his wife's burial, but promised to come to Edin-
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 447 
 
 burgh upon advertisement. The first discourse betwixt 
 them was anent the bailzerie. The deponer next asked 
 Sir Thomas if he remembered a discourse he had told 
 him before concerning Argyle. He said he did, and 
 what he could remember he would put in writing, 
 which was this, that he had heard a discourse, at the 
 ford of Lyon, that it was resolved, by divines and law- 
 yers, that there were three reasons why a King might 
 be deposed, namely, invasio, desertio, venditio ; but that 
 the Earl of Argyle did not t apply it, or speak any 
 thing of our King. Neither did Sir Thomas at that 
 time put it in writing, but did it thereafter in Edin- 
 burgh, and gave it to the deponer, which is the same 
 now found in the deponer's coffers. Thereafter Mr 
 John Stewart coming to Edinburgh, the deponer and 
 he first entered upon the bailzerie. He desired him 
 to leave it off, in respect Sir Thomas had a mind to it, 
 and could not be diverted, but that the deponer, if he 
 could, would procure a factory of the rents ; and there- 
 after did ask him if he did not remember of his words 
 which he had thrice or four times spoken to the de- 
 poner before, which he said he did, and would put 
 them in writing, which he did, and closed it up with 
 a letter directed to the Earl of Traquair, which, when 
 he [the Earl of Traquair] received, he did think it not 
 worth two straws.* 
 
 After the deponer had received the papers, he came to 
 Newcastle on his journey towards London, where he 
 met with the Earl of Montrose, when he, (the Earl) 
 delivered him a letter to the Duke of Lennox, and a 
 recommendation to the Earl of Traquair to see that 
 these things were not altered which were formerly de- 
 termined, but that they should hold, which the deponer 
 
 * The real truth of all these transactions will be found in Lord Tra- 
 quair's manuscript, to be quoted afterwards.
 
 448 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 did accordingly. The deponer declares that he receiv- 
 ed from the Earl of Montrose four hundred merks in 
 white money, but did never receive any more from 
 him, or any others in Scotland ; but did receive from 
 the Earl of Traquair, at his last coming from town, 
 forty odd pieces. * That this money given by the 
 Earl of Montrose was delivered at the first time he 
 went up. The deponer declares that the Karl of Tra- 
 quair delivered to the deponer the letter from the King 
 to the Earl of Montrose, which the deponer put into 
 his saddle, and that he put it there because he thought 
 it should not be seen, nor had no will it should be dis- 
 covered, and that the Earl Traquair said there were 
 many more letters written to others in the King's af- 
 fairs."! 
 
 There is every reason to believe, as we shall shew 
 in the sequel, that all the points in this evidence which 
 could afford a colourable pretext for sending Montrose 
 to prison were false. That the whole was a jumble 
 of truth and falsehood, Walter Stewart himself vir- 
 tually admits in various subsequentdeclarations,through 
 whose modifications and additions this ridiculous evi- 
 dence is moulded, by the same Inquisitors, Balmerino, 
 Hope, and Edgar, into a shape more suited to the pur- 
 
 * See this explained in Traquair's manuscript. 
 
 f Original MS. ; Signed, " W. Stewart. — Balmerino, Sr. Thomas Hop, 
 Edward Edgar." The original declarations and depositions of Walter 
 Stewart are among the manuscripts preserved in the Advocates' Library. 
 But even their industrious collector, Wodrow, had not made himself mas- 
 ter of their contents. There is an index, in his own handwriting, to the 
 papers, by which it appears that he has occasionally misread " Lieut.-Col. 
 Walter Stewart," thus, — " the Servant of Colonel Walter Stewart," and 
 has indexed the depositions as if it had been Walter Stewart's servant 
 who was examined, and not Walter himself. Had Wodrow been at the 
 trouble to decypher two lines of these intricate manuscripts, he must 
 have discovered his error.
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 449 
 
 poses of the Argyle faction. It was agreeable to their 
 desires that Montrose should seem to be detected in a 
 plot with Traquair, for these were the two noble- 
 men who had incurred their most deadly hatred. 
 The mysterious terms, too, in which the correspon- 
 dence appeared, were invaluable, ad captandum vulgtis, 
 in a prosecution the object of which was to be attained 
 in defiance of every enlightened principle of truth, jus- 
 tice, and common sense. But it was not so convenient 
 to have it established, that the letters A, B, C, stood 
 for those who had subscribed the bond, or that these 
 were the parties who were involved in the terrible plot 
 for being preferred to vacant places. To send so 
 many noblemen to prison upon such a charge, was a 
 step for which the faction was not prepared. The 
 charge, however, was rendered more manageable after- 
 wards by declarations which approached nearer to 
 the simple truth, though they still left the evidence of 
 Walter Stewart substantially false. On the 9th of 
 June he was again examined by the same members of 
 the Committee, when he added to, and modified his 
 testimony as follows : 
 
 " Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Stewart declares, that 
 after Yule (Christmas) last, having occasion to visit 
 Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackball in his chamber in 
 Edinburgh, where, they entering in a discourse, ac- 
 cording to the deponer's memory, anent his going 
 to Court, Blackball desired him to speak with the 
 Earl of Montrose, which the deponer yielded to, and 
 went the next night to supper at the Earl of Montrose's 
 lodgings, where were present the said Earl, the Lord 
 Napier, the Laird of Keir, Blackball, the deponer, 
 and Lieutenant-Colonel Sibbald. After supper the 
 
 voi,. i. r f
 
 450 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Lord Napier, the said Earl, Laird of Keir, Blackball, 
 and the deponer, retired into the Earl's bedchamber, 
 where they five entered in a discourse ;" — Stewart here 
 repeats the discourse alleged in his former deposition, 
 namely, that if the King would settle the Religion and 
 Liberties of Scotland, it was right that all who had an 
 affection for his Majesty should support him against his 
 enemies. He then proceeds, — " This was the substance 
 of the discourse the first night, except that the Duke 
 of Lennox and the Earl of Traquair, and their friends, 
 should join in friendship and unity with the saids Earl 
 of Montrose, Lord Napier, Lairds of Keir and Black- 
 hall, to maintain themselves against all those who 
 would oppose the King and them in that business. 
 Denies that ever he remembers there was any bond 
 motioned to be subscribed. 
 
 " At the next meeting, which was within a night 
 thereafter in the Lord Napier's house, where the 
 saids five persons, viz. the Earl of Montrose, Lord 
 Napier, Keir, Blackball, and the deponer were pre- 
 sent, there was a note drawn up to the same purpose, 
 spoken of by them all as of one mind to the same 
 effect, but for the most part dictated by the Earl of 
 Montrose, and written by the deponer* the substance 
 whereof was, that his Majesty should come down to 
 the Parliament, secure Religion and Liberties, and 
 keep up the Offices of State undisposed of. Does 
 not remember where the paper which was written 
 is, but that he thinks it is lost or riven, and that he 
 did not put it in his trunk to his memory. Declares, 
 that by the letters A, B, C, is meant the three before- 
 mentioned, viz. the Earl of Montrose, Lord Napier, 
 and Laird of Keir, and their friends, and that there was 
 
 * Compare with declaration, p. 443.
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 451 
 
 nothing spoken of those who had subscribed the bond, 
 but that the deponer understood them to be included 
 under the name of these three, and their friends. De- 
 clares, that the deponer means by his paper anent the 
 managing of affairs by A, B, C, that the foresaid three, 
 and their friends, should have the rule, but does not 
 remember that any of them desired the deponer to 
 propose so much. 
 
 Being interrogated what the deponer meant by the 
 word serpent in his paper, declares, it is the Marquis 
 of Hamilton, * and that the meaning of these words 
 came from the foresaid four persons, who thought 
 that the Marquis of Hamilton and Earl of Argyle 
 might have strange intentions. Declares, that the in- 
 structions, dictated by the Earl of Montrose in presence 
 of the Lord Napier, Lairds of Keir and Blackball, be- 
 fore-mentioned, were written in a covert way of letters 
 for names, and not in cyphers, and that the paper was 
 a little piece narrow paper. Declares, that the Earl of 
 Traquair carried the heads of his instructions to the 
 King, and got particular answers to them.t The prin- 
 cipal papers being shewn to the deponer, he acknow- 
 ledges them to be the self-same papers mentioned by 
 him, and that they were all written with his own hand, 
 and in testification thereof, he has declared the same 
 upon the back of the said papers, the one whereof is 
 his first instructions given him by the Earl of Mon- 
 trose, Lord Napier, Keir, and Blackball, and the other 
 paper is the paper given by him to the Earl of Tra- 
 quair, and his Majesty's answer reported by the Earl 
 of Traquair to the deponer. And that the meaning 
 of the instructions may be known, the deponer has ex- 
 
 * Sir Thomas Hope, in his letter to A. Johnstone, mentions that W. 
 Stewart at first said it was Land who was so figured, 
 f Contradicted, hoth by the King and Traqnair.
 
 452 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 plained the same under his hand, according to his me- 
 mory." * 
 
 The mystical papers here alluded to are also among 
 these manuscripts ; and as they were made the grounds 
 of the tyrannical and lawless criminal process against 
 Montrose and his friends, which at least answered the 
 purpose of separating these conservative advisers from 
 the King during his presence in Scotland, we now lay 
 the precious documents before the reader. The follow- 
 ing, obviously, is the paper of instructions, containing 
 letters for names, which Stewart alleged (^falsely as we 
 shall find) was written to Montrose's dictation, in pre- 
 sence of Napier, Keir, and Blackhall. 
 
 " How necessary it is that R come down to the Par- 
 liament. To desire that the II be kept up till it be 
 seen who deserves them best. That H be not bestow- 
 ed by the advice of the Elephant, for fear he crush the 
 L. To assure L, that, R and L being granted, he will 
 be powerful to crush the Elephant. Not to let L drink 
 water except he promise not to cast it again. To as- 
 sure D, and T, that except they take Genero by the 
 hand, they will be trod upon and made naked. To 
 assure L, D, T, that G will take him by the hand, and 
 lead him through all difficulties, R and L granted." f 
 
 * Original MS.; signed, " W. Stewart. — Balmerino, Sir Thomas Hop, 
 Edward Edgar;" and dated at Edinburgh, 9th June 1641. 
 
 -f- This is from a contemporary manuscript, not in Stewart's own hand- 
 writing, but containing all his notes and papers copied out upon one 
 long sheet of paper, with marginal notes explaining the terms. I have 
 seen a rare pamphlet, entitled, " Certaine Instructions given by the L. 
 Montrose, L. Nappier, Laerd of Keer and Blackhall. With a true report 
 of the commitee for this new treason, that they had a three-fold design. 
 London, printed in the yeare 1641." I have no doubt that tins was 
 printed from the manuscript quoted in our text, the arrangement, and 
 some apparent mistakes as to the letters, being the same in both. It 
 had been drawn up at the time from Stewart's papers, and sent, by Sir
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 453 
 
 In Walter Stewart's own handwriting appears the 
 following explanation of the above : 
 
 " How necessary it is the King come down to the 
 Parliament. To desire that the Offices of Estate be 
 kept up, till it be seen who deserves them best. That 
 the offices of Estate be not bestowed by the advice of 
 the Marquis of Hamilton, for fear he crush the King. 
 To assure the King, Religion and Liberties granted, he 
 will be powerful to crush the Marquis. Not to acquaint 
 the King with any thing except he promise to keep se- 
 cret. To assure the Duke and Traquair that, except 
 they take the Earl of Montrose by the hand, they will 
 be kept down, both at home and abroad. To assure 
 the King, the Duke, and Traquair, that rny Lord Mon- 
 trose will stand by him through all difficulties, Religion 
 and Liberties being granted. That if the Duke or Tra- 
 quair write, it must be in so general a way as no man 
 can gather any thing by it, and to write to both par- 
 ties, and in their own particular.* I declare that this 
 is the just meaning of the instructions, in so far as my 
 memory serves me. Subscribed and written with rny 
 hand at Edinburgh the 9th of June 1641. — W. Stew- 
 art." 
 
 Upon the same sheet of paper, also in Stewart's own 
 handwriting, are the following propositions, and his 
 Majesty's alleged answers, being that referred to in the 
 depositions. 
 
 " That the Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Barons, be the 
 
 Thomas Hope, to Archibald Johnston in London, who turned it into u 
 most dishonest pamphlet of agitation* 
 
 This last sentence is not in the Committee's copy of Stewart's mysti- 
 cal paper, of which the above is the key, nor in the printed pamphlet.
 
 4*54 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS, 
 
 three Estates of which the Parliament is constituted. 
 That Religion be secured by confirming the acts of the 
 last General Assembly holden at Edinburgh, namely, 
 the act of recission, and every thing necessary there- 
 anent, which may assure his Majesty's subjects that 
 there shall be no novation in Religion in any time 
 hereafter. That an act of pacification and oblivion be 
 passed for securing of the subjects from all question 
 hereafter for ought has been done in these last troubles. 
 That the subjects be governed, in all time, conform to 
 the laws of the kingdom formerly established, and no 
 otherwise. This done, his Majesty's faithful and loyal 
 subjects will maintain his Majesty's honour, person, 
 and royal authority, against all men, and will suffer no 
 other novation in laws, or otherwise, to be introduced. 
 It is requisite his Majesty keep up his Offices of Estate, 
 and others his Majesty's royal favours, to be bestowed 
 upon such as shall best deserve at Parliament and else- 
 where, and that his Majesty be graciously pleased to 
 be present there in person for countenancing his own 
 service, and his loyal and faithful subjects. 
 
 " His Majesty agrees to the first four propositions, 
 and, upon assurance of the performance of the fifth, 
 will use all possible means so to dispose upon his affairs 
 here, as that he may be in person at the Parliament of 
 Scotland ; and in the meantime will keep up all places 
 and Offices of Estate, and other marks of his Majesty's 
 royal favour, of any importance, undisposed of, until 
 such time as he may bestow them upon parties accord- 
 ing to their merit, and deserving at the Parliament. 
 —Whitehall, the 3d of March 1641."* 
 
 * The propositions, and his Majesty's answers, are all in Walter 
 Stewart's own handwriting. They contain the sum and substance of 
 Montrose's plot with Napier and the rest. Stewart declared, and attest- 
 
 3
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 455 
 
 Upon the 10th of June, Walter Stewart was again 
 examined by Balmerino, Hope, and Edgar. " He was 
 questioned upon the word Elephant, contained in his 
 paper of instructions with the letters. Declares, that 
 thereby was meant the Marquis of Hamilton, and all 
 others who would oppose the King, and not rest satis- 
 fied when Religion and Liberty should be granted. De- 
 clares, that the note was drawn up at their directions, 
 and the next night revised, and what was wanting or 
 amiss was mended. Declares, that at his coming back 
 from court the Earl of Montrose was not at Newcastle, 
 and that he desires his former deposition to be helped 
 in that point where he says the Earl of Montrose re- 
 ceived the Duke of Lennox's letter at Newcastle, because 
 he now remembers that he delivered it to the Laird 
 of Keir, to whom he gave a double of the paper brought 
 along with him," &c. 
 
 Upon the 15th of June, " Lieutenant-Colonel Walter 
 Stewart was examined upon oath, who declared that 
 the first words of his first deposition, 5th June instant, 
 may be helped, where he says that his errand was to 
 his brother-in-law, in respect he now declares that he 
 came to give an account of the former instructions, 
 which he had from the Earl of Montrose, Lord Napier, 
 Lairds of Keir and Blackball, and declares, that Black- 
 hall was present, but had little hand in the business. 
 Declares that the deponer had intention to go to court 
 about his own business, and his brother-in-law's busi- 
 ed under his hand, that Traquair carried them to the King and came 
 back andreported the answer to him, Walter Stewart. This, there is every 
 reason to believe, was false testimony, for the sake of pleasing the Com- 
 mittee by further implicating Traquair. The King's answer, if not a 
 pure invention, was probably reported through the Duke of Lennox, 
 and through the Duke also, were conveyed any propositions that were 
 made from " the Plotters" to his Majesty.
 
 4.56 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 ness, which being known to Blackball, he acquainted 
 the rest therewith, who employed him, and gave him 
 instructions and money, conform to his former deposi- 
 tions, whereat he abides as truth, as they are now 
 helped in the margin, and subscribed by the deponer. 
 And further declares, that the instructions written with 
 the deponer's hand, and so acknowledged by his subscrip- 
 tion on thef * * of June instant, were recommended 
 and spoken of by the Earl of Traquair, and written 
 down by the deponer, and that the said paper was 
 written before his last coming from Court in March 
 last ; and that the deponer did shew the same to the 
 Laird of Keir, with whom the deponer left it a night, 
 and received it back again. Declares, that the proposi- 
 tions before-mentioned, beginning with — " That the 
 noblemen, gentlemen, and burghs be the three Estates," 
 &c, and ending with these words, " and his loyal and 
 faithful subjects," — were drawn up by the deponer in the 
 substance thereof, and mended and altered in the form 
 and grammar by the Earl of Traquair, with his own 
 hand in some parts, and in other parts at his direction.^ 
 
 f Manuscript destroyed. 
 
 X Yet the only copy found was that written entirely with Walter 
 Stewart's hand, as quoted above. No question appears to have been 
 put by the committee as to where that copy corrected by Traquair was, 
 or what became of it. We shall find (by a manuscript to be quoted in 
 the chapter of Traquair' s defence) that Traquair declared this account to 
 be absolutely false, so far as he was concerned, and appealed to the fact 
 that, " neither amongst all his papers is there anything found directed 
 to me or from me, but what his own foolish scribblings mention." In 
 the course of his examination Stewart found that, to please the commit- 
 tee, he must implicate as much as possible Traquair and Montrose, and 
 this is to be observed, that of two sets of mystical instructions found on 
 Walter Stewart, he swore that the one was dictated by Montrose, the 
 other by Traquair ; but for the rational propositions, Stewart took those 
 on himself. Now the converse was the truth. All the mystical papers 
 were his own inventions, and the rational propositions contained his 
 verbal commission from Montrose and the rest to Lennox.
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 457 
 
 Declares, that the deponer met with Sir Richard Gra- 
 ham at court, to whom the deponer told that the Earl 
 of Montrose expected a letter to come up to court, who 
 answered that it was not a fit time to the Earl to come 
 to court. Being interrogated what was the meaning 
 of the Earl of Montrose's letter found in the deponer's 
 trunk, declares that by the jewels meant a letter which 
 should have been sent down by the Palsgrave for the 
 Earl's upcoming ; and that the meaning of the other 
 words, ' that the Earl's jewel should come up before 
 the other two letters,' is thereby meant that there were 
 two letters desired to be written by the Duke of Len- 
 nox, one for the Lord Napier's upcoming, and another 
 for the Laird of Keir's upcoming to court, but none of 
 the three, to the deponer's knowledge, were written 
 
 5) # 
 
 The paper of instructions, alluded to in this deposi- 
 tion as having been " recommended and spoken of by 
 the Earl of Traquair," is distinct from the paper of pro- 
 positions to the King, and also from the mystical in- 
 structions alleged to have been dictated by Montrose. 
 In one of the various editions of Walter Stewart's 
 evidence taken down by the Committee, it is stated, 
 that during the progress of his examinations, there 
 was discovered in his trunk, (in addition to the other 
 mystical notes, instructions, and letters alluded to,) a 
 paper, " containing a number of particular instructions 
 and directions in mystical terms, having letters, and 
 ticks, and names of beasts, with other covert expres- 
 sions, for names of persons and purposes." f Walter 
 Stewart declared that these were the instructions which 
 he alleged were recommended by Traquair, and also 
 
 * Original MS.; signed, " W. Stewart.— Sir Thomas Hop, Edward 
 Edgar;" dated 15th June 1641. 
 f Original MS.
 
 458 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 that he had left a copy of this mystical paper, (as well 
 as of the propositions to the King, and his Majesty's 
 answer) with the Laird of Keir, who kept them a night, 
 that he might copy them, and then returned them to 
 the deponer. The instructions, corresponding to the 
 document above described, which I find among the 
 manuscripts, are as follows : 
 
 * " To counsel L his home coming till they hear from 
 D, or D hear from them. To advertise T, with all 
 diligence, how • . . f are pleased with the Tablet, \ 
 and if there be any particulars that they would have 
 the L more special in. That they be not moved with 
 reports of any alteration, or any thing derogate from 
 the Tablet, except they hear from D. That the word 
 moderation be explained to Genero. § That . . 
 strive to let the town of Wigton || know how care- 
 ful T has been to get him satisfaction, as my Lord 
 Roxburgh will bear him witness, and that they may 
 be confident of satisfaction. It is thought most ne- 
 cessary that some . . . who will be least suspected 
 come up, or if that cannot conveniently be, that the 
 bearer return with all possible diligence, and, how- 
 soever, that he come up before. That all means be 
 used for trying the information against the Dromedary, 
 and what further can be found of his carriage with 
 
 * This manuscript of the instructions is not the original which Walter 
 Stewart declared was in his own handwriting, and which I cannot find 
 among the other papers. The above is quoted from the copy made by 
 the Committee at the time, as noticed before (p. 452, note.) Some of the 
 mystical terms are explained, (probably from Walter Stewart's deposi- 
 tions) on the margin of this copy; as we have noted below. 
 
 f " . . . E. Montrose, L. Napier, Keir." 
 
 % " Tablet — propositions to the King, and his Majesty's answers." 
 
 § " Anent Traquair in a letter fra the Duik." 
 
 || " Town of Wigton — E. of Wigton anent his offices in Parliament."
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 459 
 
 JVPDuff, or any other there in these parts wherein 
 Signior Puritano and some of the Redshank'' s friends 
 can best inform and instruct. To assure Signior Pu- 
 ritano that he will get satisfaction anent the ward and 
 marriage he desired, but that now it is not a fit time 
 to do it for him, or any others so disposed as he is. 
 To tell Genero that so soon as Dick comes to the 
 school, who is daily looked for, he will by him hear 
 from L. * To let . . . know how well L takes their 
 care, and in the discretest way to inform yourself of 
 their desires, and particularly if reik aims upwards, f 
 To try the summons against T, and to send up a double 
 thathe may compare them with that which he has gotten, 
 and to assure . . . and all others, that he shall clear 
 himself of all these, as clear as day light. \ That by all 
 means they labour with the Plantations § to let them know, 
 the Tablet being filled up and made good, how much it 
 concerns them to show themselves affectionate (to) L." 
 
 While the examinations of Walter Stewart were in 
 progress, Montrose, Napier, Keir, and Blackball, were 
 
 * " Dromedary — Argyle. M'Duff — Athol. Signior Puritano — E. 
 Seaforth. Redshanks, — M 'Donald. Dick — Sir Richard Graham. School 
 —Court." 
 
 f " If reik aims upwards" is explained, both in the MS. and in the 
 pamphlet, by " if business goes aright" It would appear, however, by 
 a statement of Lord Napier's, to be afterwards quoted, that Walter Stew- 
 art had given this other explanation, namely, " if Keir seeks preferment" 
 
 X Obviously referring to the malicious and savage persecution of 
 Traquair, chiefly instigated by Archibald Johnston. 
 
 § " Plantations, — Commissioners of Parliament." 
 
 All the foregoing explanations are noted, some on the margin, and 
 some above the mystical terms in the manuscript. The rare pamphlet 
 alluded to before (p. 452, note,) has •bviously been hurriedly printed 
 from this very MS., for some of these explanations have been mistaken 
 for interlineations, and printed accordingly, and there are other mistakes 
 in the pamphlet, evidently in consequence of a misreading of the intri- 
 cate MS.
 
 460 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 separately examined, and the facts elicited from them 
 completely contradicted Stewart in various essential 
 points of his evidence. The first declarations taken 
 from Montrose, Napier, and Keir, are not to be found 
 among these manuscripts, but their tenor is already 
 proved from Lord Napier's statement given in last 
 chapter. There is still extant, however, among the 
 Wodrow manuscripts, a declaration of Sir Archibald 
 Stewart of Blackhall, taken before Lord Balmerino, 
 Sir Thomas Hope, and Edward Edgar, on the 7th of 
 June, probably the time when the other three were 
 also first examined. Upon that occasion, and more 
 particularly on the 26th of the same month, Sir Ar- 
 chibald Stewart made the following declaration : 
 
 " The said Sir Archibald declares that the Laird of 
 Keir came, from the Lord Boyd's burial,* to make a 
 visit at his house of Ardgowne, where they entered 
 upon regrets for the case of the country ; and thereafter 
 meeting at Edinburgh they fell upon the same. The 
 first conversation they fell upon was, that they thought 
 his Majesty's coming to Scotland would be the best re- 
 medy for settling Religion and Liberties of the kingdom 
 at the Parliament. The Laird of Keir, finding the de- 
 poner's mind to agree with the Lord Napier, desired 
 the deponer to speak with the Lord Napier, wherein 
 the deponer made difficulty, and being pressed by Keir, 
 the deponer and Keir went to seek Napier, whom they 
 found with the Earl Montrose, in the Earl Montrose's 
 lodging in the Canongate, where when they had come, 
 the deponer made doubt to speak with the Earl of 
 Montrose, being a stranger to him, and loath to enter 
 
 * This fixes the period of these meetings; Lord Boyd died on the 24th 
 Novemher 1640. See p. 323. 
 
 4
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 4(jl 
 
 into particulars with him of this nature, seeing his 
 name at that same time was called ill question for the 
 private bond contraverted. That the deponer was in- 
 duced by the Laird of Keir to enter with them, where 
 they four, with Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Stewart, 
 entered in discourse anent the King's down-coming, as 
 the fittest means for settling of business, which was 
 approven by them all. Thereafter they fell upon dis- 
 course anent the disbanding the armies, which probably 
 might interrupt his Majesty's journey, and could not 
 stand with his Majesty's honour to have the armies on 
 foot and he coining down in a peaceable way for set- 
 tling of all jars and questions ; whereunto they all four 
 agreed, (but does not remember who proposed the same 
 first,) and therefore thought fit to recommend to the said 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart that he might propone the 
 same to the Duke of Lennox, the Earl of Traquair,* 
 and his friends and acquaintance about court, to enter- 
 tain that motion with the King. And they thought it 
 fit his Majesty should be pleased to keep up the Offices 
 of State undisposed of till his own down-coming. And 
 these three particulars they gave to the Lieutenant- 
 
 * In his previous declaration of the 7th of June, Blackhall declared 
 in more general terms, " that the Earl of Traquair, to his memory, was 
 not mentioned then, (at the first meeting) hut that he was named there- 
 after." The faction were extremely anxious to connect this plot spe- 
 cially with Tracpiair, and pressed Blackhall upon this point in his sub- 
 sequent depositions, by which, however, he explained away his former 
 evidence. On the 4th of August, Blackhall being interrogated, " whe- 
 ther or not they gave direction to Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Stewart to 
 impart, recommend, or acquaint the Earl of Tracpiair with their direc- 
 tions.he desires that this may be added,— that at tlie naming of the Earl of 
 Traquair, it was opposed by the Lord Napier, and assented unto by the 
 most part of the rest." The result was, however, we shall find, that 
 Stewart was directed by this conservative party to move his Majesty 
 through Lennox, and not Traquair.
 
 462 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Colonel by instructions in word* at the Earl of Mon- 
 trose's house, to be proposed to the Duke, the Earl of 
 Traquair, and other friends and acquaintances at court, 
 with express provision,that Religion and Liberties should 
 not be prejudiced. Declares, that he was a consulter 
 and adviser of the first of these instructions, namely, 
 anent his Majesty's down-coming-, and was only an au- 
 ditor and assenter to the other two articles of the in- 
 structions. Declares, that they four met thereafter at 
 the Lord Napier's house, with the said Lieutenant-Co- 
 lonel Stewart, where these same instructions were 
 repeated by the said Lieutenant Colonel, who had the 
 paper in his hand, in character ways, as the Lieutenant- 
 Colonel told the deponer. Declares, that the said Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel did write a letter from court to the 
 deponer, showing him under the terms of things, and 
 his own down-coming, that he was hopeful his Majesty 
 would come down, and that the Offices would be kept 
 up.f Also declares, that before the Lieutenant-Colonel 
 went to court, the Laird of Keir, the deponer, and the 
 
 * This contradicted Walter Stewart ; therefore, on the 4th of August, 
 " Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackhall being brought down from the Castle 
 of Edinburgh, was demanded upon the first interrogatory anent the in- 
 structions given to Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Stewart, and whether 
 they were given by word, or writ, whether or not they were read in 
 their presence, whether or not they were helped and dictated by them, 
 and who were present, and whether or not the paper did contain charac- 
 ters, letters, or not, — answered, that to all the interrogatories he could 
 answer, no otherwise than as is in his former depositions, whereunto he 
 adhered, except only he craved the word instructions to be helped, and 
 called motions recommended ; and that he remembers he did see a paper 
 in Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart's hand, which was rowed [rolled] up, but 
 does not remember the quantity of k, and declares that the Earl of Mon- 
 trose, Lord Napier, Stirling of Keir, and himself were all present at both 
 the meetings mentioned in his former depositions." — Original MS. 
 
 j That is to say, that Walter Stewart indicated his Majesty's coming 
 to Scotland, under the covert term, his own coming, and the offices of 
 state he called things.
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 463 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel, agreed amongst themselves, that, if 
 he did write any to them, it would be under these terms 
 of things and his own down-coining. Denies, that he 
 ever heard any thing more of Walter Stewart's nego- 
 tiation, or did see any of his papers, neither did ever, 
 after their meeting at the Lord Napier's house, meet 
 with the Earl of Montrose, or Laird of Keir, till they 
 met at Edinburgh in the beginning of June instant, 
 when the Laird of Keir desired the deponer to dine 
 with him ; and, thereafter, met with the Earl of Mon- 
 trose, Lord Napier, and Laird of Keir, at supper, after 
 the deponer had made his first deposition,* to whom 
 he told what he had deponed. Declares that at their 
 first meeting, either in the Earl Montrose's house, or in 
 the Lord Napier's, they all promised secrecy. And also 
 depones, that the bond and reasons of the bond, which 
 was the indirect practising of a few, were spoken of in 
 the Earl of Montrose's house at supper, but denies that 
 any of these few were particularly named. Declares, 
 that he received a letter from the said Lieutenant-Co- 
 lonel, dated at Glasgow, under the former dark terms, 
 and to the same purpose, with some remembrance of 
 commendations from the Duke of Lennox, and Earl of 
 Traquair, and a request to speak to the Commissioners 
 of Parliament, with the sheriffdom of Renfrew and 
 Dumbartane, in favour of the Earl of Traquair, and, 
 namely, Ardincaple." f 
 
 This account, it will be observed, differs in some es- 
 sential particulars from that of Walter Stewart. The 
 
 * Which is dated 7th June 1641. It was on the 11th of that month 
 that .Montrose and his friends were sent to the castle. 
 
 -f- Original manuscript; signed, " Sr A. S. Blackhall, — Balmerino, Sr. 
 Thomas Hop, Edward Edgar," and dated at Ednr. 26 June 1041 .
 
 464 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 nature of the meetings, and the general tenor of the in- 
 structions with which Stewart was entrusted to carry 
 to court, for the information of his Majesty and benefit 
 of the country, are here confirmed. But, according to 
 Sir Archibald Stewart, these instructions were all ga- 
 thered from the conversations at the meetings, and not 
 dictated by Montrose, or revised and read after having 
 been written out before the whole party. Neither 
 were the mystical terms suggested by Montrose, or the 
 rest, but had (as is very obvious) sprung from the fan- 
 ciful and weak invention of Walter Stewart himself in 
 private. Another particular, of greater moment, stands 
 quite uncorroborated by Sir Archibald Stewart, namely, 
 that Montrose instructed Walter Stewart to propose to 
 the Earl ofTraquair, that A, B, C, meaning Montrose, 
 Napier, and Keir, should be preferred, if found deserving, 
 to the vacant Offices of State. Walter Stewart had also 
 declared that he was commissioned, at these meetings, 
 to propose to the Duke of Lennox and Traquair a strict 
 confederacy with Montrose, Napier, Keir, Blackhall, 
 and others of their sentiments, for the benefit of the 
 King and the distracted country. But, in reference to 
 this point, I find among the manuscripts a separate de- 
 claration, holograph of Sir Archibald Stewart, to the 
 following effect : 
 
 " Edinburgh, 29th June. I undersubscriber deny that 
 ever Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart heard any such article, 
 or instruction, for drawing a bond with the Duke of 
 Lennox, and his noble friends, for their safety. But 
 I acknowledge it was motioned, if I remember well, by 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, or some of the company, 
 to Napier and me, who did repel and refuse the same 
 upon any terms, as a dangerous act in these days, and 
 so never recommended to him by us, or any of us, in
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 465 
 
 my judgement. I questioned the Earl of Montrose upon 
 the same, immediately after my first examination, who 
 assured me he did never hear of such a motion till 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, in the passing, came to 
 Newcastle, and pressed his Lordship with (for ?) an 
 answer, if his Lordship would join in the foresaid bond, 
 which (answer) was delivered in these terms to (the) 
 Lieutenant-Colonel : — * That bonds were now of so 
 dangerous consequence that his Lordship would not 
 join in any, which, if the Duke of Lennox should move 
 (it,) at his coming to Scotland, he would declare to 
 himself.' " " Sr A. S. Blackball." 
 
 Walter Stewart being thus positively contradict- 
 ed, was, on the last day of June, again brought 
 before the Inquisitors, when " he declares that he did 
 not motion a bond to be made with the Duke, and his 
 noble friends, but that he had instructions to speak with 
 the Duke and Traquair for joining in friendship with 
 these three, viz. the Earl of Montrose, Lord Napier, and 
 Laird of Keir, and their friends ; and being confronted 
 with Blackball, depones, as is before written, and Black- 
 hall affirms in his presence as is set down in Blackhall's 
 former depositions. Declares, that when he came back 
 from court, the Earl of Montrose and the deponer en- 
 tering in a discourse anent a solid friendship to be be- 
 twixt the Duke of Lennox and his noble friends, and 
 the Earl of Montrose and those who were joined with 
 him, and their friends, the Earl said that any tie of 
 friendship of that kind will be best gotten done when 
 the Duke should come to Scotland." * 
 
 Walter Stewart was also positively contradicted by 
 Sir George Stirling. 
 
 * Orig. MS. Signed, " W. Stewart— Balmerino, I. P. D." 
 VOL. I. G g
 
 466 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 " The Laird of Keir being interrogated anent the 
 instructions given to Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Stew- 
 art, whether by word or writ, whether read to them, 
 and eiked or helped by their advice, as in the interro- 
 gatories, declares that he knows no more than is in his 
 former deposition, and declares he neither saw paper 
 or ink, neither did they write any, nor did any write 
 at their direction. The paper of the 3d of March at 
 Whitehall 1641 being shown to the said Laird of Keir, 
 and he being asked whether or not Walter Stewart did 
 shew him this paper, or the like, and left the same with 
 him, answered, that he did see this paper, or the like, 
 whereof he did take the copy, without interrogating him 
 from whom he had the same, or by whose mediation these 
 were proponed to the King, and his Majesty's answers 
 received ; but conceives it was by the Duke, in regard 
 their former desire was to have his address to the Duke. 
 The first little paper, bearing Walter Stewart's instruc- 
 tions, being shewn to the deponer, he denies ever he 
 did see that paper before, or that he knows any thing 
 of the particulars thereof. Being likewise demanded, 
 if he had heard any thing of a bond to have been sub- 
 scribed by the Duke and his friends, declared he had 
 heard that it was spoken of to the Earl of Montrose, 
 but that he never heard it spoken to himself by any, 
 neither did speak of any such purpose to any person. 
 And being interrogated upon the paper which Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Walter Stewart brought from Court with 
 him, beginning ' to speak with the General anent L. C. 
 Stewart,' and ending at the articles anent the planta- 
 tions, * which paper being shown to the deponer, and 
 
 * This corresponds with the conclusion of the mystical paper quoted 
 supra, p. 458, but not with the beginning ; which indicates that the ori- 
 ginal in Walter Stewart's handwriting had contained something con-
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 467 
 
 being interrogated whether or not he had ever seen the 
 said paper, or taken a copy thereof, declares that, so 
 far as he remembers, he never did see it, or take a copy 
 thereof." * 
 
 Upon comparing the terms of their respective depo- 
 sitions, it is impossible not to be convinced that Black- 
 hall and Keir deponed truly, and that Walter Stewart's 
 deposition was false ; f and of this we will be tho- 
 roughly persuaded when we come in the sequel to con- 
 sider other unpublished manuscripts which we have 
 yet to produce. If the covenanting government of 
 Scotland had been actuated by principles of ho- 
 nour, honesty, and common sense, not to say pa- 
 triotism, Walter Stewart's deposition (which proved 
 nothing criminal against Montrose and his friends, 
 even had it been all true,) would, upon a comparison of 
 the statements of Montrose, Napier, Keir, and Black- 
 hall, have been rejected with contempt. Although 
 Walter Stewart's depositions were not finally arranged 
 
 cerning his own affairs, that is not given in the copy from which the 
 pamphlet of agitation appears to have been printed. Walter Stewart 
 declared that this mystical paper emanated from Traquair, and the 
 Committee copy, and the pamphlet, title it, " Instructions from the Earl 
 of Traquair to L.-Colonel Stewart." Possibly the commencement of the 
 paper was not found to agree with this title. 
 
 * Original MS., dated at Edinburgh, 5th August 1641, and signed, 
 " George Sterling. — Balmerino, I. P. D." 
 
 T Keir's deposition is in some degree tested by this, that he admits 
 having seen, and taken a copy of the " tablet" and King's answers. 
 Now, if, as Walter Stewart deponed, he had also seen and copied the 
 mystical instructions, he would have admitted that fact too. On the 
 other hand, if a fear of the consequences had led him to deny, falsely, 
 he would in all probability have denied having seen and copied any of 
 the papers. But Keir was a gentleman of high spirit and unblemished 
 honour, while Walter Stewart, even by admission of the faction, (wit- 
 ness Sir Thomas Hope's secret letter) was a pitiful poltroon.
 
 468 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS* 
 
 and sworn to until the 18th of June,* and although 
 the declarations of the noblemen and gentlemen, whom, 
 that evidence touched, afforded the strongest reason to 
 believe that it was just as little trustworthy, as, in any 
 disinterested and legal view of the matter, it was con- 
 sequential to the country, they were all sent, on the 
 11th of June, in a public and ignominious manner, to 
 the Castle of Edinburgh as state prisoners, and branded 
 with the name of " the Plotters."f 
 
 After the thieves had bound the true men, Argyle 
 and his faction breathed more freely, and the bloody 
 interlude occurred, whose illustration will require a 
 separate chapter. 
 
 * Of that date an amended edition " being drawn off the former de- 
 positions, was appointed to be shown to the deponer, and he have liberty 
 to collate the same, and advise thereupon, which was done accordingly, 
 and the deponer appearing in presence of tbe Committee, was solemnly 
 sworn thereupon, who affirmed the same to be true, as he would answer 
 to God."— Orig. MS. 
 
 f History casts no light upon this important chapter of Montrose's 
 life. How faulty is Bishop Burnet's record of it may now be seen. " At 
 this time there was a gentleman seized at Broxmouth, with letters to my 
 Lord Montrose, which discovered a new correspondence of his with the 
 Court for my Lord Traquair's preservation ; and with this the story of 
 the bond, signed the former year at Cumbernauld, broke out; upon 
 which he and some of his friends were committed close prisoners to the 
 Castle of Edinburgh, and called Plotters. * * * Things in Scotland 
 took presently a settlement, and those who were called Plotters and 
 Banders, after examination, and a delivering up of their bond, which was 
 burnt by the hand of the common hangman, were set at liberty, after 
 some time of further restraint.'' — Hist, of the Hamiltons, pp.* 184, 186.
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE PLOT. 469 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HOW DICTATOR CAMPBELL ADMINISTERED INJUSTICE, AND DID NOT 
 TEMPER IT WITH MERCV. 
 
 When Montrose and his friends were sent to the 
 Castle, both they and the community at large were 
 kept in total ignorance of the details of the evidence that 
 had been obtained against them. The " private practis- 
 ing" of the covenanting faction had also deprived Mon- 
 trose's contemporary biographer of the means of expos- 
 ing, in detail, proceedings of which we have already 
 disclosed enough to prove that Dr Wishart was, never- 
 theless, perfectly well founded in the following general 
 observations which occur in the opening chapter of his 
 celebrated History : " They (the Covenanters) seriously 
 consult how they should take Montrose out of the way, 
 whose heroic spirit, being fixed on high and honourable, 
 however difficult achievements, they could not endure. 
 To make their way, therefore, into so villainous an act, 
 by the assistance of some courtiers * whom with gifts 
 and promises they had corrupted, they understood that 
 the King had written letters to Montrose, and that 
 they were quilted in the saddle of the bearer, one Stew- 
 art belonging to the Earl of Traquair. The bearer 
 
 • This is very likely. Hamilton's creature, that worthless intriguer 
 William Murray, of the Bed-chamber, was the nephew of that same Rev. 
 Robert Murray with whose deposition thin fracas commenced.
 
 470 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 i 
 
 was scarce entered the borders of Scotland when they 
 apprehended him, rip his saddle, and find the letters. 
 There was nothing at all written in them which did 
 not become the best of Kings to command, the best of 
 subjects to obey. Nevertheless, these most exact craft- 
 masters in the arts of lying and slandering, set about 
 horrible and tragical reports, by their apt ministers, that 
 at last all the King's plots with Montrose, for the over- 
 throw of Religion, and the ruin of the Kingdom, were 
 found out and discovered. Nor yet durst they afford 
 him a public trial, but, on a sudden, when he suspected 
 nothing, thrust him, with Napier Lord of Merchiston, 
 and Stirling of Keir, Knight, two both of his near kin- 
 dred and intimate familiars, into the Castle of Edin- 
 burgh." * But Lord Nugent, as if more enlightened 
 upon this dark passage of Montrose's life, tells us that 
 " Montrose had incited one Stewart to accuse Argyle, 
 Hamilton, and Rothes, of a treasonable intent to depose 
 Charles. On the proceedings, Stewart, ill-qualified^to 
 be the agent of so bold an intriguer as Montrose, con- 
 fessed his crime. Nothing then remained for Montrose 
 but to denounce Stewart as having been suborned by 
 Argyle to forge his confession, and thus, embroiling 
 the charge, he left his wretched accomplice in the di- 
 lemma of a capital accusation of leasing-making against 
 one at least of the noblemen, and to be consequently 
 put to an ignominious death." t 
 
 Wherever the noble author may have obtained this 
 history of the matter, we venture to say, and proceed 
 to prove, that not a syllable of it is consistent with 
 what actually occurred. 
 
 * Translation (printed in the year 1648) of Wishart's Latin History, 
 C. i. 
 
 f Memorials of Hampden, Vol. ii. p. 95.
 
 JOHN STEWART'S LETTER TO ARGYLE. 471 
 
 Bishop Guthrie narrates, that after John Stewart was 
 committed to prison, " my Lord Balmerino and my 
 Lord Durie being; sent from the Committee to the Cas- 
 tie to examine him, they did try another way with him, 
 and dealt with him that he would rather take a tache 
 upon himself than let Argyle lie under such a blunder ;" 
 and he adds that " both being profound men they knew 
 well what arguments to use for that effect ;" and, accord- 
 ingly persuaded Stewart to write a letter to the Earl of 
 Argyle, " wherein he cleared him of those speeches, 
 and acknowledged that himself had forged them out of 
 malice against his Lordship." This contemporary chro- 
 nicler, rejected by covenanting authors, is, though not 
 always accurate in his details, nevertheless substantially 
 confirmed, in what we have quoted, by the manuscripts 
 we now bring to light. The following is from the ori- 
 ginal letter written by John Stewart to Argyle, with 
 the deliverance upon it by the President of the Com- 
 mittee of Estates. 
 
 '• For the Right Honourable and Noble Lord, the 
 Earl of Argyle, these. 
 
 " Right Honourable and Noble Lord, 
 " In respect it hath pleased your Lordship to admit 
 of my former, I have therefore taken boldness by these 
 to beg that favour from your Lordship to admit me to 
 your Lordship's presence, before I be further heard in 
 public, hoping to give your Lordship satisfaction, pro- 
 mising to conceal nothing that I know to your Lord- 
 ship's prejudice and harm, or of the public's. Considering 
 your Lordship's generous disposition, I will hope for 
 no less than that you will requite evil with good, which 
 will contribute more for your Lordship's honour and
 
 472 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 credit, nor (than) my wreck will do for your Lordship's 
 wealth, or my shame for your praise. Expecting a 
 favourable answer from your Lordship's goodness, 
 rests— Your Lordship's most undeserved 
 
 Jo. Stewart." 
 " 5 June 1641. Produced in presence of the Com- 
 mittee to the Earl of Argyle, who will not read it, but 
 gave it to me to be read in public. After reading 
 whereof, the Earl of Argyle refused to speak with him 
 apart or alone,, but was content the Committee should 
 appoint some to be present before whom he was content 
 to hear Mr John. The Committee appoint the Lord 
 Balmerino, Sir Thomas Hope, and Edward Edgar, to 
 be present with the Earl of Argyle to speak with Mr 
 John." 
 
 " Sr A. Gibsone, I. P. D." 
 
 It appears from the above, that a previous letter of 
 recantation had been received by Argyle, and thus far 
 the statement of Bishop Guthrie is confirmed. That the 
 deputation appointed to wait upon the prisoner did so 
 on the following evening, and that, notwithstanding all 
 this preliminary negotiation, the terms of Stewart's 
 confession could not be satisfactorily arranged upon 
 that occasion, also appears to be proved by another 
 original manuscript, of which the contents are as fol- 
 lows. 
 
 " Mr John Stewart's Petition and Confession present- 
 ed to the Committee of Estates, produced 7th June 
 1641. 
 
 " My Lords, and others of the Committee of Estates.
 
 JOHN STEWART'S CONFESSIONS. 473 
 
 First, I beg your Lordships' pardon, especially those 
 who were yester night here, in that I could not give 
 them greater satisfaction at that present, in respect of 
 the infirmity and weakness of my body and spirit, and 
 likewise being dashed (abashed) with such a number. 
 And therefore for satisfaction, now I declare, 
 
 " First, I being desired by the Earls of Montrose, 
 and Athol, present at Scoon, to try what bonds were 
 pressed, either by the Earl of Argyle himself, or his 
 friends, or subscribed to him in Athol or elsewhere ; 
 secondly, to try what presumptions there might be had 
 that he was the acquirer of his late commission him- 
 self, and how he carried himself therein ; thirdly, what 
 presumptions might be had that he did aspire for su- 
 premacy above his equals, with that caveat given me 
 by Montrose that I should rather keep me within 
 bounds nor {than) exceed; yet, notwithstanding, by that 
 odious paper, I have abused his Lordship's, and Athol's, 
 trust in me, wronged the Earl of Argyle, and discre- 
 dited myself, conceiving all things with a prejudicat 
 opinion and unjust malice against the Earl of Argyle, 
 wresting all things to sinister senses, contrary either 
 to his Lordship's words or actions, for which doings 
 I crave his Lordship's mercy, and pleads only now 
 guilty, beseeching his Lordship to have compassion 
 upon my wretched estate ; being only desirous to have 
 pleasured the receiver thereby, imagining never to have 
 been brought to answer for them thereafter, as now I 
 am, to my great grief and late repentance. And how- 
 soever I have condescended upon a number of witnesses, 
 upon weak grounds of some of their discourses, as will 
 be found after trial, I declare there is never one of 
 them accessory to this my malicious and calumnious 
 pamphlet and paper, nor had hand therein, except
 
 474 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 that I offered once the sight of it to Athol, who desired 
 me to do it so that I would be answerable for it, and 
 gave him only that part in writing which concerned 
 himself ; whose answer I never received yet, nor gave 
 the copy to no man except to Montrose himself. Having 
 repented me of my doings I burnt the scroll, and would 
 have fain come off, and had it back again, but could 
 not, in respect of his Lordship being without the coun- 
 try, till now that I hope it be for God's glory, and the 
 union of all this nation, to stand for the defence of his 
 cause, wherein he hath such a provident hand. As for 
 these speeches, alleged by me to have been spoken by 
 Argyle at the ford of Lyon, I confess that now having 
 thought better upon them, his speeches were general, 
 of all Kings ; howsoever, by my foresaid prejudicat 
 opinion of his Lordship's actions, I applied them to the 
 present, wrested them to my own meaning, and vented 
 them after that kind. Beseeching your Lordships, for 
 the reasons foresaid, that what further your Lordships 
 are to interrogate me upon, that I may answer them 
 by writ, as not being able, in respect of my weakness, 
 either to stand or gang (walk,) as this bearer can wit- 
 ness. Further, I desire that if either the Laird of Bal- 
 birny, or Alexander Brody of Lathem, be in the town, 
 that they may have warrant to come to me, whereby I 
 may impart to them somewhat of my worldly affairs, 
 and if none of them be here, that some other friends 
 may be admitted ; and your Lordship's answer I hum- 
 bly crave. " Jo. Stewart." 
 
 It appears from Sir Thomas Hope's letter, that this 
 confession did not satisfy the Committee. " Mr John 
 Stewart (he says) has since confessed his knavery in 
 the general, but has not yet cleared the particulars," —
 
 JOHN STEWART'S CONFESSIONS. 475 
 
 and Hope's letter is dated on the 7th of June, the date 
 of the production of that confession and petition before 
 the Committee. Some days afterwards, however, this 
 unhappy man " cleared the particulars," for, among 
 the same manuscripts, is the following original deposi- 
 tion : — 
 
 " 10th June 1641. In presence of the Lord Bal- 
 merino, Sir Thomas Hope, and Edward Edgar, Mr John 
 Stewart was examined upon oath. 
 
 " The said Mr John being solemnly sworn to declare 
 the truth, confesses that there were none other acces- 
 sory to the making up of that discourse, which the de- 
 poner deponed before the Lords of the Committee 
 against the Earl of Argyle. And declares that the 
 Earl of Argyle having spoken of Kings in general, and 
 cases wherein it is thought Kings might be deposed, 
 the deponer did take the words as spoken of our King ; 
 and, out of his malicious desire of revenge the deponer 
 confesses he added these words, ' that the first thine* the 
 Parliament would have begun upon was to depose the 
 King ;' and sicklike added these words, ' and howsoever 
 they had continued the doing of it at this time, yet he 
 feared it should be the first thing they would fall upon 
 at the next session,' — or, * it will be the first thing will be 
 begun at in the next session,' — and declares that the Earl 
 of Argyle's words were only these in general, viz. ' that 
 there was a discourse at the Parliament of the reasons 
 and cases of deposing of Kings in general,' which the 
 deponer did apply to our King, and the present time, in 
 manner contained in his deposition* before the Commit- 
 tee, last (day of) May 1641. And siclike declares, that the 
 Earls of Montrose and Athol desired the deponer to in- 
 
 * This deposition I cannot discover among the other MSS.
 
 476 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 quire what bonds were either prest or taken by the Earls 
 of Argyle or his friends, and to try how he carried him- 
 self in his late commission in Athol and elsewhere, 
 and sicklike to collect what presumptions there might 
 be that he aspired to higher superiority, or some such 
 words above his equals, with that caveat by Montrose 
 that the deponer should rather keep himself within 
 bounds than exceed. According whereunto the deponer 
 went and gathered every presumption, and every clatter, 
 which the deponer vented. And sicklike the deponer 
 declares, that when the deponer told the former discourse 
 to the Earl of Montrose, (as is contained in his deposi- 
 tion of the last of May,) * in presence of the Earl of 
 Athol, the said Earl did object nothing to the contrary, 
 but did require the deponer to give him a copy of 
 those words, to compare it with his own memory, which 
 the deponer did within a few days thereafter. The 
 deponer being interrogated what was the reasons of his 
 malice against the Earl of Argyle, which moved the 
 deponer to forge such malicious calumnies against him, 
 declares that the Earl of Argyle, in all the particulars 
 of his own, was his very good friend, before the com- 
 mission granted to the Earl of Argyle against Athol 
 by the Committee of Estates, and that all the reasons 
 the deponer had were in execution of the said commis- 
 sion, and especially for sending of the deponer and 
 his complices to Edinburgh, and refusing to take cau- 
 tion of them in Athol, and in refusing the deponer 
 liberty to go to his own house by the way, and for 
 some speeches spoken by Archibald Campbell against 
 the Earl of Athol, whereby he sould have said j- that 
 
 * This date confirms Guthrie's statement that Stewart was brought to 
 Edinburgh on the 30th of May. 
 t i. e. Did say.
 
 john Stewart's confessions. 477 
 
 if the said Archibald had eight days time, he would get 
 as much against the Earl of Athol as might endanger 
 his life and estate, which the Earl of Argyle had in his 
 pocket." * 
 
 Now it was on the day following that on which the 
 above deposition of John Stewart was emitted, that 
 Montrose and his friends were taken by surprise, and 
 sent with public ignominy to the castle. Yet so far 
 was that evidence from fortifying the wretched trash 
 previously extorted from Walter Stewart, that it only 
 tended to confirm the fact of Montrose and his friends 
 being innocent of the shadow of a public crime. The 
 miserable state of body and mind to which John Stewart 
 had been reduced, and his terror at the prospect of his 
 fate, cannot be doubted after the documents now pro- 
 duced. Had he, under these circumstances, cast all the 
 odium of his alleged false testimony (as Lord Nugent 
 and Mr Brodie have done) upon Montrose, had he ac- 
 cused that nobleman of instigating him to raise a ca- 
 lumny against Argyle, for factious purposes, however 
 eagerly such a declaration would have been seized and 
 acted upon by Argyle, and his subservient Committee, 
 most unquestionably it would have been totally unwor- 
 thy of credit. But, in his utmost misery, John Stewart 
 said nothing of the kind. His confessions absolutely 
 refute the assertion that Montrose incited or suborned 
 him to accuse Argyle. Taking those confessions as 
 they stand, (though clearly Montrose is not to be 
 judged by them, f ) no more is brought out than that 
 
 •Original M.S. signed "John Stewart. — Balmerino, Thomas Hop, 
 Edward Edgar." 
 
 f Montrose's own account of the matter will be given in a subse- 
 quent chapter, from the original manuscript.
 
 478 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Stewart reported high treason to Montrose, who re- 
 quired his informer to obtain the substantial proofs. 
 But Montrose accompanied his instructions with this 
 caveat, that Stewart, in collecting the proofs should 
 rather keep within bounds than exceed, an injunction 
 the very reverse of an attempt or desire to adduce 
 false evidence. Stewart had put all that he knew, 
 or pretended to know, of the treasonable speeches and 
 designs of Argyle, in writing, which he so communi- 
 cated both to Montrose and Athol. From all this in- 
 formation, and also from the conversation of Lord Lind- 
 say, as well as the Argyle bond which had been offered 
 to Montrose himself for signature, he had become satis- 
 fied that Argyle was a traitor in the disguise of a pa- 
 triot, — was, in fact, that character his own father had 
 predicated of him, and all subsequent history has prov- 
 ed him to have been. Montrose appears to have en- 
 tertained some idea, though probably not very determi- 
 nate, of impeaching Argyle, and others of the faction, 
 in a constitutional form before the King and Scots Par- 
 liament of 1641 ; a measure by which Montrose would 
 have given every just and equitable advantage to the 
 accused, and taken every risk of failure upon himself. 
 The power and factious talents of the anti-monarchical 
 party were too many for this loyal nobleman, and the pre- 
 mature declaration of his suspicions, extorted by the Ar- 
 gyle committee, left Montrose no other alternative than 
 to send for his informer, and make him declare before 
 that tribunal, and face to face with Argyle himself, the 
 treasonable circumstances he, Stewart, had reported and 
 put in writing. Stewart did so at once, but afterwards 
 recanted under the circumstances, and to the extent we 
 have seen. 
 
 As there was yet no case, either upon the depositions
 
 DEMEANOUR OF THE PLOTTERS. 479 
 
 of Walter, or the confessions of John Stewart, against 
 " the Plotters," that could bear the light of day, and as 
 the honourable parties themselves had all declared in 
 terms that distinctly separated what was true in Wal- 
 ter Stewart's secret evidence from his falsehoods, and 
 mystical absurdities, it became the object of the faction 
 to involve Montrose, and the rest, at least in the sem- 
 blance of contradictions, by perpetual and vexatious ex- 
 aminations, instituted, contrary to every principle of 
 justice, for the purpose of causing the accused to cri- 
 minate themselves. Montrose and Keir vainly endea- 
 voured to % frustrate this worse than factious proceeding, 
 by a spirited determination to answer no more inter- 
 rogatories in private, but to demand a speedy and pub- 
 lic trial. Napier, with equal firmness, and more inge- 
 nuity, contrived to avoid what the Committee called 
 contumacy, but without compromising either himself or 
 his friends. On the 21st of June, Balmerino and some 
 others had been with Montrose in the castle, but found 
 a different spirit to deal with than in the wretched John 
 Stewart, who at this time was fearfully awaiting the 
 result of his own pusillanimity. The mind of Montrose 
 shone forth amid these trying circumstances. His spi- 
 rit was indomitable, but ever displayed itself in the 
 calm and dignified demeanour, nay, in the elegant lan- 
 guage, of a perfect gentleman, who would have graced 
 any age of civilized freedom. Balmerino's mission 
 having failed, an order was sent to bring Montrose be- 
 fore the Committee, and even from the secret record of 
 his enemies shall we now illustrate his demeanour. 
 
 The following is from the original manuscript signed 
 by the President of the Committee. 
 
 " At Edinburgh, 22d June 164-1. The Committee
 
 480 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 gave warrant to the Constable of the Castle to bring 
 down the Earl of Montrose, and directed the Earl of 
 Sutherland to attend his Lordship from the Castle, in 
 coach, to the Committee; who going there returned with 
 this answer : — 
 
 " ' My Lord, — I am most heartily willing, in all 
 humble obedience, to attend your Lordship, according 
 to the Committee's commandment towards me, and their 
 pleasures to your Lordship. But, as I do conceive, 
 this appears to be grounded upon some discourse which 
 did pass betwixt me and some appointed here yester- 
 day for that end, wherein it seems there are some mis- 
 takes ; for I, being required to declare myself upon 
 some articles whereon I was to be questioned, answer- 
 ed, that seeing it was for matters that harmed the pub- 
 lic I was questioned, I did conceive, in my humble opi- 
 nion, (with all respect,) the more public my trial were, 
 the further should it tend to the satisfaction and con- 
 tentment thereof, — that, as the scandal was notorious, 
 and national, so likewise should the expiation be, 
 one way or another. This is all I either have to 
 say or can answer ; and lest it should consume too 
 much time to the public, (which may be much better 
 employed,) since all but shews a misunderstanding, I 
 must humbly intreat your Lordship to represent this 
 much, together with all the humble obedience that can 
 be performed by your servant.' " * 
 
 This mission having also failed, the Committee or- 
 dained the provost and bailies to go in their name, and 
 charge the constable of the Castle to render Montrose 
 to them, and to bring him down to the Committee un- 
 der a sure guard. This, adds Spalding, " they did, be- 
 
 * Original MS., signed " Craighall, LP. D." 
 3
 
 MONTROSE AND THE COMMITTEE. 481 
 
 ing about four hundred men." The same chronicler re- 
 cords that, to the Committee's interrogatories, Montrose 
 " would give no answer, nor solution, saying, he would 
 answer in Parliament before his Peers, and was no more 
 obliged." But let us again bring to light, the best evi- 
 dence in favour of Montrose, namely, that of his ene- 
 mies, as afforded by their original draft of the pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 " At Edinburgh, 23d June 1641. The Earl of Mon- 
 trose being appointed to appear before the Committee, 
 was brought down, who being desired to answer to some 
 interrogatories, which he shunned in a fair way of dis- 
 course, but would not say positively he would refuse 
 to answer. The Committee appointed him to declare 
 in direct terms, yea or not, who, being thereafter call- 
 ed, still put off with generals, and would not con- 
 descend, at least expressly yea or not, and still adher- 
 ed to his paper before written. The Committee de- 
 clared they would take his answer for a denial, which 
 being intimated to his Lordship, and one of the inter- 
 rogatories asked, he continued still in his former refus- 
 al, which the Committee taking to their consideration, 
 after the asking of opinions of all the noblemen, and 
 considerable gentlemen, and others present, they all 
 found that the Earl of Montrose is hereby disobedient 
 and contumacious to the Committee, in refusing to an- 
 swer to their interrogatories, which they desired the 
 President yet again to intimate to the said Earl, that 
 if he pleased he might yet recall his former denial, and 
 obey the Committee, since he is so obliged by oath, sub- 
 scription, and act of Parliament. This was intimated, 
 and still the said Earl continued in his former denial."* 
 
 * Original MS. signed " CraighaH, I. P. D." 
 VOL. I. II h
 
 482 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 How the Committee disposed of their contumacious 
 prisoner, after this scene, the manuscript does not in- 
 form us ; but from Spalding we learn that, " finding 
 no contentment, they sent him back again to the Castle 
 of Edinburgh, there to remain ; but Stephen Boyd, 
 Captain thereof, was discharged from being Captain, and 
 another captain called [Colonel Lindsay]* put in his place, 
 because he suffered Montrose to have conference with 
 the rest. Always they want that comfort now, and are 
 now strictly keeped, so that each one of them had a 
 page to wait upon him, and none suffered to go in nor 
 out, but by permission, to speak with any of them. This 
 was thought strict dealing, there being of Montrose's 
 opinion, called banders, about nineteen noblemen, link- 
 ed together against the committee government, sup- 
 pose f good Covenanters otherwise." 
 
 The same manuscript, which has preserved to us the 
 details of Montrose's demeanour upon this occasion, 
 proceeds thus to record that of Napier and Keir. 
 
 " The Lord Napier (on the 21st June,) being first 
 desired by the Lord Balmerino, Wedderburn, Sir Tho- 
 mas Hope, and Edward Edgar, to answer to some inter- 
 rogatories, he affirmed he could answer no more than 
 what he had done by his former depositions, whereupon 
 the Committee did send for him, who appearing, did an- 
 swer ingenuously, as in his depositions of the date of 
 these presents, 23d June 1641. 
 
 * This blank in Spalding is supplied from the letters of Baillie, who 
 says, that on "Wednesday, 11th August (1641,) Colonel Lindsay being 
 sick, he got warrant to put in his place, for charge of the Castle, any 
 for whom he would be answerable. He named Stephen Boyd, his pre- 
 decessor, whom the Committee, for his too great respect for his prisoners, 
 [i. e. The Plotters,] had shifted of that charge." 
 -f- i. e. Notwithstanding they were.
 
 KEIR AND THE COMMITTEE. 483 
 
 ' The Laird of Keir being likewise desired, the said 
 21st June, did refuse to answer to any interrogatories, 
 and being called this 23d June, before the whole Com- 
 mittee, was interrogated whether he would answer to 
 the said interrogatories, who answered, that he had 
 answered already, and put the same in writing, where- 
 unto he adhered, and since the matter for which he was 
 called in question was concerning the public, he desir- 
 ed he might be tried publicMij, and therefore desired to 
 be spared. The President oft prest him to tell whether 
 he would answer, yea or not, whereunto he still re- 
 plied, that as oft as the President would demand him, 
 he would as oft desire to be excused. The Committee 
 after voting, found that he ought to answer, and not 
 to stand to a refusal, and therefore appointed the Presi- 
 dent yet again to require ; which being accordingly 
 done, he still refused to answer. The President told 
 him that the Committee would declare him obstinate 
 and contumacious, whose answer was, that he should 
 be content they should add that to tiie rest, and cen- 
 sure him for altogether, if he, in any of his carriage or 
 expressions, has misbehaved himself, for the which 
 he ought or should be declared obstinate and contuma- 
 cious."* 
 
 Lord Napier's deposition of the 23d of June is not 
 to be found among the manuscripts of the Advocates' 
 Library. Fortunately, however, we are not left in doubt 
 as to the nature of his " ingenuous answering;" for in the 
 charter-chest of his family, notes of it, in his own hand- 
 
 * Original MS. signed " Craighall, I. P. D.," and endorsed, " E. Mon- 
 trose, L. Napier, Laird of Keir, anent their carriage in the answering 
 to interrogatories, "21st and 23d June 1641."
 
 484 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 writing-, are still preserved, which afford a most graphic 
 account of his examination, and also of the method of 
 the Committee in such investigations. As Napier's 
 character for probity, and peaceful anti-factious disposi- 
 tions, was well known in both kingdoms, it was a clog 
 upon the virulent pursuit of Montrose and Traquair, 
 that their case had become identified with this noble- 
 man's, against whom it was scarcely possible to engen- 
 der the popular excitement, and blind animosity, that 
 was to come in place of legal evidence against the others. 
 Accordingly the inquisitors were anxious, by all means, 
 to shake off Napier, and the manner in which they en- 
 deavoured to do so could not be better described than 
 in his own words, which we quote from the original 
 manuscript. 
 
 " 23d June 1641. I was sent for out of the Castle 
 by the Committee, and when I came there, Craighall * 
 being Preses, and, looking upon a paper he had in his 
 hand, said to me, he had some interrogatories to pose 
 me on. To which I answered, that he need not inter- 
 rogate me, for, as I told the Lord Balmerino, and the 
 rest that were with him the day before in the Castle, 
 I had deponed all I knew, freely and ingenuously, and, 
 therefore, I desired him to compare them with his in- 
 terrogatories, and if any of them was answered by my 
 depositions, it was well, and if any of them was not satis- 
 fied there, I could not do it, for I had deponed all I knew. 
 And that not pleasing him, I asked him, if he would 
 have me depone that I knew not ? But he would needs 
 read his interrogatories, and still I urged to read my 
 depositions for answer. At last he says, that Keir's 
 
 * Sir John Hope of Craighall, the Lord Advocate's eldest son.
 
 NAPIER AND THE COMMITTEE. 485 
 
 depositions and mine did not agree, in so far as I said 
 I had not seen the instructions, but only heard Keir 
 tell them to me. To which I answered, ' that is 
 no material difference ; since he made me know them 
 by relation, I remember not that circumstance of shew- 
 ing them ; but I rather trust his memory than my own, 
 who, apparently trusting his relation, and taking a short 
 view, might forget that circumstance.' Then they were 
 given me to read, with the King's answers upon them. * 
 ' These,' said I, ' are your own desires, and herein 
 the public receives no prejudice.' But Humbie f did 
 read them, and because they did run upon generalities, 
 as laws and former laws, without making exceptions 
 of the laws of the last Parliament,^ he would insinuate 
 that we cared not for these. To which I answered, 
 ' that is an ill commentary, — we were not to enter 
 particular conditions with the King, but did touch 
 the generals, leaving particulars to those who were em- 
 ployed about the treaty.' Then I was desired to look 
 upon Walter Stewart's notes in a long small piece of 
 paper, and was demanded if I saw (had seen) them. 
 I said, no. Then they were read, and I was posed what 
 was meant by, &c, and, &c, || and the Elephant, and 
 Dromedary, and the Serpent in the bosom. I said I 
 knew nothing of these hieroglyphics, that they were 
 Walter's own notes. But then I was demanded if I knew 
 the purpose was expressed under these notes. I said 
 I knew not what they meant. They told me then that 
 
 * See them quoted from the Original Manuscript, p. 45-t. 
 
 f Sir Adam Hepburn, one of Archibald Johnston's confidential cor- 
 respondents. 
 
 J The Parliament of June 1G40, which virtually overturned the mo- 
 narchical government in Scotland. 
 
 || Instead of repeating all the mystical terms in this MS., Lord Nil- 
 pier writes," &c."
 
 486 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 the Elephant was my Lord Hamilton, who was the 
 serpent in the bosom, and that he had strange ambi- 
 tious designs. I answered, that there was never any 
 such purpose among us ; for I was resolved to answer 
 to all that was demanded, and not in my depositions, 
 with a No, as indeed I knew not what they meant.* 
 Then I was asked if we three did not take an oath of 
 secrecy before we went to the Castle. I answered we 
 never took one oath or other. Then they read, in the 
 paper, of one Signior Puritano. I demanded who that 
 was ? They told me it was my Lord Seaforth, where- 
 upon I fell a laughing, and said he was slandered, and 
 they fell in a great laughter. Then they posed me 
 concerning Wigton. I answered that I had never 
 seen Wigton since, nor knew nothing of it. Then I 
 was asked concerning the keeping up of the Offices of 
 Estate. I referred them to my deposition upon that 
 point, which was read, and then I said we all did 
 think the King would not be so simple as to dispose of 
 them till he came hither, and when he came I did think 
 it would be his last act. Then a paper, which came 
 from Traquair, was shewn me, which I said I knew 
 not, and so said they too. t So whatever they de- 
 manded of me which was not in my depositions, I re- 
 solved to answer, with a negative. Only one thing they 
 
 * From Lord Napier's scrupulous accuracy, upon which he prided 
 himself, we understand this to mean, that, instead of refusing to an- 
 swer, as Montrose and Keir did, he would answer negative where he 
 could, but without entering into explanations, additions, or qualifications. 
 This he calls " negative answers without discourse," which, however, he 
 was only induced to add to his previous depositions, in order to " avoid 
 contumacy." 
 
 f Yet we shall find that this mystical dealing with Traquair was 
 made the ground of the libel against Napier, as well as the rest.
 
 NAPIER AND THE COMMITTEE. 487 
 
 posed me, concerning the dissolving the army, the an- 
 swer was so fair as I resolved to satisfy them, and said, 
 * truly, my Lord, your question has brought something 
 to my mind which I omitted in my depositions ; I re- 
 member Walter Stewart said that the King could not 
 with honour come home, the army being lying in his 
 way, to which it was answered, that we had our Com- 
 missioners at London, if the treaty did not take ef- 
 fect, the King would not come home at all, and if it 
 took effect, then the army would either dissolve, or they 
 would be his army, and lay down their arms at his 
 feet, so that would be no impediment.' 
 
 " Then I was removed, and a long consultation was 
 had concerning me. At length I was called in, and 
 there, in great pomp of words, and with large com- 
 mendations of me in the course of my life, this sentence 
 was pronounced, that the Committee had ordained me 
 to havejree liberty, and to repair to my own house, to 
 do my lawful business, and an act read whereby I was 
 obliged to answer them when they should call for me. 
 To which I replied, that I knew that sentence proceed- 
 ed from their favour to me, but truly in very deed it 
 was no favour, but the doubling of a disgrace, first to 
 send me to the Castle as a traitor to God and my coun- 
 try, in the view of all the people, and then, by way of 
 favour, to let me go, which, if I did accept, was a certain 
 though a tacit confession of guiltiness. It was answer- 
 ed, that it was not only favour, but out of considera- 
 tion, that I was less guilty than the rest. To which 
 I said that I knew I was as guilty as any of the rest, 
 and they knew nothing which they did not impart to 
 me, and had my approbation. At which words they 
 cried all out that I was much deceived. Then I was 
 earnestly desired not to contemn the Committee's sen-
 
 488 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 tence, but accept of it. To which I said, that the Commit- 
 tee might command me to hazard my life and means to do 
 them service, but this was my honour, which I esteem- 
 ed dearer than either of the other two. For if my re- 
 leasement were not got by means of my innocency, 
 after trial, and not by favour, I could not avoid impu- 
 tation ; all the world would think that I had taken 
 a way by (separate from) Montrose and Keir, and de- 
 poned something to their prejudice, which procured 
 this special favour to myself ; and therefore entreated 
 them not to put a double indignity upon me, whom 
 they esteemed less guilty, when, as yet, they had put 
 but a single upon them. Whereupon I was removed, 
 and there followed me my Lord Yester, Ould Durie, * 
 and Archibald Campbell, who, for two hours I think, 
 plied me with arguments to accept and obey the Com- 
 mittee's pleasure. Not being able to persuade me, 
 the Committee gave warrant to receive me in again to 
 the Castle, to be advised for a night. So I retired, and 
 two or three of them followed me to the door, and by 
 the cloak stayed me there, but all in vain. 
 
 " So, for any thing I can gather, the great fault they 
 
 * Whether the scene recorded by Lord Napier was before or after the 
 extraordinary abduction of this " Ould Durie," as he was taking the 
 air on Leith sands, does not appear. It is worthy of remark, however, 
 that Lord Traquair, the nobleman whom the Committee of Estates af- 
 fected to believe, was at the bottom of this plot, is the same to whom 
 Christie's Will thus addresses himself in the well known ballad, — 
 
 Oh, mony a time, my Lord, he said, 
 
 I've stoun the horse frae the sleeping loun ; 
 
 But for you I'll steal a beast as braid, 
 
 For I'll steal Lord Durie frae Edinburgh toun. 
 
 Oh, mony a time, my Lord, he said, 
 
 I've stoun a kiss frae a sleeping wench ; 
 But for you I'll do as kittle a deed, 
 
 For I'll steal an aidd lurdane aff the bench.
 
 NAPIER AND THE COMMITTEE. 489 
 
 think to find is, that there was practising with Tra- 
 quair, an incendiary. Admitting, but not grant- 
 ing, that it were so, it ought to be considered to what 
 end that dealing was, to wit, to bring hither the King, 
 to give his people satisfaction, to settle his own autho- 
 rity, and cure the distempers of the State ; and if that 
 end was for the good of the State, the means, Traquair, 
 (called but not yet declared an incendiary,) was no such 
 sinister one as deserves imprisonment. As for any 
 thing that reflects upon Argyle, it is his own fault that 
 urged so ; neither are particular acts of * * * * to be 
 accounted prejudices to the public, unless the one as 
 well as the ojher be esteemed so. * By Walter Stew- 
 art's notes they think there is some practice against the 
 Marquis,f and think to draw us in that of which we 
 know nothing, if any be ; and certainly that suspicion 
 has got us, all his friendship, to be our enemies. 
 
 " My negative answers without discourse, to all not 
 comprehended in my depositions, did well agree to that 
 I said, that I had already deponed all I knew. But I 
 was loath to do so,| till, after long fensing, they would 
 needs read interrogatories, and I behoved to hear them. 
 It avoided contumacy, and I could wish my Lord Mon- 
 trose and Keir did the like, for once only, and never 
 answer more, negative nor affirmative. For by their 
 not answering they (the Committee) think their inten- 
 tion is to put off till a Parliament, though they do not 
 appeal. But if they press us to any more answering, 
 
 * This sentence is obscure, and there is one word of it illegible in the 
 manuscript. 
 
 f The Marquis of Hamilton. This false alarm on the part of Hamil- 
 ton and Argyle resolved into " the Incident," to be considered after- 
 wards. 
 
 J i. c. To answer at all.
 
 490 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 it is but to ensnare and entangle us in contradictions, 
 and it is not fit we do it." * 
 
 When it was found that no more could be made of 
 John Stewart's " weakness of body and spirit," Argyle 
 determined to put him to death.f The Parliament met 
 on the 15th of July, when letters from the King were 
 read, announcing that he could not be in Scotland until 
 the following month. It was the law that the courts 
 of justice should not sit during the meeting of Parlia- 
 ment. It was the will of the de facto King of Scot- 
 land, that Stewart should be disposed of before the King, 
 dejure, arrived, and, accordingly, he obtained a Parlia- 
 mentary dispensation from this rule. 
 
 Argyle, and his dark familiar, Archibald Johnston, 
 with the hearts of hares,£ possessed the savage nature 
 of wolves, and the cunning of foxes. " Whereas," said 
 Johnston in his secret correspondence with Balmerino, 
 " I was never for their blood, but only for their confes- 
 sion, if we get these recriminations I think they deserve 
 justice, secundum merita" § On Tuesday, the 20th of 
 July 1641, Argyle stood up in his place in Parliament, 
 and solemnly protested, that the matter of Mr John 
 
 * Original MS. in Lord Napier's handwriting. — Napier Charter-chest. 
 
 -j- " The Earl of Argyle, and the Committee, consulted Sir Thomas 
 Hope, and other lawyers, upon the question, whether, seeing Mr John 
 had assoilzied his Lordship of those speeches, and under his hand had 
 took upon himself the guilt of forging them, it was fit that he should 
 suffer, or, on the other part, be pardoned and preferred. The resolution 
 was, that, if Mr John were spared, all men would think that he bad been 
 bribed to make that recantation, and that, therefore, it was necessary for 
 Argyle' s vindication, that he should suffer." — Bishop Guthrie. 
 
 % Witness the life of Argyle, and the death of Wariston. 
 
 § i. e. According to their deserts. In Lord Hades' collections, these 
 Latin words had been misread for " rather than mercy? which, how- 
 ever, conveys Johnston's actual meaning.
 
 FATE OF JOHN STEWART. 491 
 
 Stewart's trial concerned not his, Argyle's, credit and ho- 
 nour alone, but that of the whole House ; in the face of 
 the public he declared that he did not bear malice 
 against any man's person, but what the sequel of this 
 affair might prove he remitted to the wise consideration 
 of the House ; lest, however, it should be thought that 
 the judges favoured him in any thing, he humbly de- 
 sired that the House would be pleased to appoint some 
 of their number to be assessors to the Justice-Deputes, 
 that by their help and advice, these things might be 
 decided by law. Accordingly, Lord Balcomey,* Lord 
 Elphinston, Rigg of Ederney, and John Seinple (pro- 
 vost of Dumbartane, a most violent factionist,) were ap- 
 pointed to assist the judges. Lord Elphinston petitioned 
 the House * that his conscience would not suffer him 
 to sit as judge to Mr John Stewart, in respect he him- 
 self was within degrees descended to my Lord Argyle ; 
 the House ordains the said Lord Elphinston and his 
 colleagues' assessors to proceed and do justice.'"! 
 
 And yet before this farce occurred, an act and decree, 
 dated 6th July 1641, had been passed by the Committee 
 of Estates, by which the doom of John Stewart was 
 sealed. The Committee had already entered into the 
 whole merits of the case, expressly exonerated Argyle, 
 and, declaring that all Stewart's informations were ma- 
 licious lies, remitted him to be tried accordingly. 
 
 Once again were the old statutes against leasing- 
 making recapitulated in a libel of Sir Thomas Hope's, 
 — the statutes which had been so scorned and rejected 
 
 * Sir James Learmonth, a Lord of Session, of whom Nicol, in his 
 MS. Diary, says that he was a man " very painful in his office," and that 
 he died suddenly in Ids seat on the Bench, 1G57, " winch was esteemed 
 to be a national judgment." 
 
 f Balfour's Journal of the Pari. 1641.
 
 492 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 of the faction — the memorable crime for which Balrnc- 
 rino had, according to them, been so unjustly tried, so 
 unfairly found guilty, so inhumanly condemned, and so 
 tyrannically pardoned. The principal charge against 
 Stewart was that of asserting and spreading abroad, by 
 information given to Montrose and others, the alleged 
 discourse of the Earl of Argyle in his tent at the ford 
 m of Lyon. The other charges consisted of the allega- 
 tions as to the nature of the private bonds pressed upon 
 the lieges by Argyle. All this, which constituted a 
 very doubtful charge of leasing-making, under the 
 Statutes, was worked up into a long and intempe- 
 rate libel, interlarded with many opprobrious epi- 
 thets. The evidence chiefly relied upon was the con- 
 fession, by various letters and depositions, of the un- 
 happy man himself, whose pleas, feebly urged, against 
 the particular application of the statutes to his 
 case, and the jurisdiction of the Committee by whose 
 act and decree he was remitted for trial, were all re- 
 pelled. He was again brought to make out the case 
 against himself by a confession, in general terms, at the 
 bar. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty, 
 and John Stewart was condemned to have his head 
 struck from his body, on the following Wednesday, be- 
 ing the 28th July 1641.* The clergyman who attended 
 him in his last moments was Mr Henry Guthrie, mi- 
 nister of Stirling, afterwards Bishop of Dunkeld, the 
 sameto whose contemporary memoirs we have frequently 
 referred. This clergyman states, upon the authority 
 of Stewart, that the confessions were extorted by the 
 delegates of the Committee, who tempted him with 
 promises of life, and even of preferment ; " and," adds 
 
 * Orig. MS. Records of Justiciary.
 
 FATE OF JOHN STEWART. 493 
 
 this ear and eye-witness, " it was observed that at his 
 dying he had not that courage which is ordinary to 
 gallant men at their deaths ; the reason whereof was 
 construed to be an inward discontent for bearing false- 
 witness against himself, when he found that the course, 
 whereby he thought to have rescued himself from suf- 
 ferings, proved the reason of it. This made him queru- 
 lous against himself, as being the cause of his own 
 death ; and it was publickly talked that he expressed so 
 much to divers friends, especially to Henry Guthrie, 
 minister of Stirling, of whom he made choice to be as- 
 sisting to him in his preparation for death, and who for 
 that end was with him alone in the prison, the day be- 
 fore his death, from three o'clock in the afternoon till 
 eight, and the morrow, being the day whereon he died, 
 from ten o'clock in the morning till three in the after- 
 noon, that he went to the scaffold, where also at his 
 earnest desire, Mr Guthrie waited upon him, and left 
 him not until he received the blow." 
 
 The covenanting chronicler, Baillie, particularly 
 evinces upon this occasion his aptitude to take refuge 
 from the dictates of his own conscience, in the vague- 
 ness of extravagant assertion, and the determined dog- 
 gedness of fanatical calumny. Wild and contradictory 
 as his epistolary allusions to this catastrophe are, we 
 must here notice them particularly, for they seem to 
 be the root of all the modern misconceptions and railing 
 against Montrose on the subject. " Mr John Stewart," 
 he says, " was condemned to die by an old act of Par- 
 liament. He supplicated the Parliament for mitigation 
 of his censure. It is true that none ever died for trans- 
 gressing that act, and Balmerino being condemned for 
 an alleged transgression was thought to have got great 
 wrong, nnd the preparative may prove very dangerous.
 
 494 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Whereupon some of the justices were very scrupulous 
 to pronounce sentence." Thus far Baillie's conscience, 
 — let us hear how the Covenanter smothered it : " Yet 
 Mr John was stirring for the life of Argyle, Hamil- 
 ton, Rothes, and, by consequence, at the overthrow 
 of our treaty of the peace and welfare of the whole isle. 
 It was therefore thought necessary to make an example, 
 so much the more as his friends, for whose pleasure his 
 lies were invented,* were giving out that all was but 
 collusion betwixt him and Argyle, who undoubtedly 
 would purchase him a free remission. These tales made 
 Mr John be remitted to the judges, who would nor 
 could not dispense with his execution." Now in the 
 original records of Justiciary, where the proceedings 
 against this unhappy man are to be found, we can- 
 not discover that he was tried for, or charged with an 
 attempt against any nobleman but Argyle. Yet Baillie, 
 to enhance the necessity of the case, thrusts in Hamil- 
 ton and Rothes, and the peace and security of the whole 
 isle, but gradually loses himself in the vagueness of 
 covenanting calumny, until it appears that " tales of 
 collusion made Mr John be remitted" for execution. 
 Then mark the progress of the calumny against Mon- 
 trose. John Stewart's " friends" are the parties upon 
 whom Baillie casts his blood. " It is very likely," says 
 Mr Brodie, " that the punishment never would have been 
 inflicted, had it not been for the pertinacious wickedness 
 of Montrose, who privately circulated \ that the con- 
 
 * This vague accusation seems to be founded on John Stewart's mi- 
 serable expressions, — " beseeching'his Lordship to have compassion up- 
 on my wretched estate, being only desirous to have pleasured the re- 
 ceiver thereby." 
 
 + What meaning did our historiographer attach to his own expres- 
 sions, " pertinacious wickedness," and " privately circulated ?" If 
 Montrose, hearing that John Stewart had recanted, under the secret 
 
 3
 
 FATE OF JOHN STEWART. 495 
 
 fessions of Stewart had been procured by the undue 
 practices of Argyle." And then comes the biographer 
 of Hampden, leaning upon modern historians whom he 
 never tested, and quoting records he never saw, and, 
 with a more desperate and triumphant plunge into the 
 mud of political calumny, pronounces for history — " no- 
 thing then remained for Montrose, but to denounce 
 Stewart, as having been suborned to forge this confes- 
 sion, and thus embroiling the charge, he left his wretch- 
 ed accomplice" &c. 
 
 Malcolm Laing appears to have glanced at the col- 
 influence of the Argyle Committee, really said to any of his friends, 
 that he suspected collusion, this would not have been " pertinacious 
 wickedness," but the rash expression of a very natural surmise. Then 
 Lord Nugent's re-revised version of the matter, wherein he figures 
 Montrose denouncing Stewart, as having been suborned to forge, is still 
 more extraordinary. Let us turn from these historians to facts and 
 dates. John Stewart was induced to " clear the particulars" early 
 in June. His confessions were private, and when, after Stewart's 
 execution, Montrose petitioned Parliament for copies of those confes- 
 sions, to prepare for his own trial, they were denied to him. The 
 day after Stewart made his principal confession, Montrose was sent 
 to solitary confinement. About the 23d of that month, the consta- 
 ble of the castle was dismissed, for suffering Montrose to see and 
 speak to Napier and Keir. Upon the 21st of July, the new constable 
 applied to Parliament to know if he might so far relax the confinement 
 of Montrose, and the rest, as to receive petitions from them to the Par- 
 liament, to be delivered to their friends. A majority of the House allowed 
 this. On the same day a petition was received, in this manner, from Mon- 
 trose, praying to be allowed to confer with Napier and Keir in pre- 
 sence of the constable. This was refused. On the 28th of July, John 
 Stewart was executed. On the following day another petition from 
 Montrose, to be allowed to confer witli Napier and Keir, was refused. 
 On the 30th, the constable was authorized to allow Montrose to con- 
 fer, in his presence, with so many friends, and no more, as could be 
 commanded. When and how was it, then, that the " pertinacious 
 wickedness" of Montrose, made the sentence to be put into execution 
 against Stewart, either by " privately circulating" or " denouncing," 
 that his confession was suborned by Argyle ?
 
 496 MONTROSE AND. THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 lection of original manuscripts from which we have ex- 
 tracted the various documents relating to the trial of 
 John Stewart, but the notice of them, in that author's his- 
 tory of Scotland, indicates that he had done this so hastily, 
 and partially, as only to be misled,* Alluding to Bishop 
 Guthrie's too probable statement, he says, in the passage 
 referred to below, " were we to believe the royalists, Lord 
 Balmerino and Gibson of Dury tampered with Stewart 
 to retract the charge, f and when persuaded to do so 
 by an assurance of life and preferment, he was tried 
 and executed at the instance of Argyle. Such odious 
 and complicated treachery, which has been too hastily 
 credited, is disproved by the original depositions before 
 the Committee of Estates ; which, fortunately for the 
 memory of Argyle, are still extant." But it is far from 
 being fortunate for the memory of Argyle that these 
 manuscripts were preserved, as this historian must have 
 seen had he taken the trouble to decypher them, and 
 even his meagre abstract, of some of their contents, 
 tends to condemn the object of his justification. Mr 
 Laing only quotes the few lines of John Stewart's 
 
 * The manuscripts alluded to are bound together in a confused mass. 
 V. 65, Wodrow's papers, Advoc. Lib. The depositions, &c. are volumi- 
 nous and intricate, some of them much defaced, and all of them difficult 
 to decypher. Mr Brodie in his history, (iii. 148. note,) simply refers to 
 the volume in support of his own and Baillie's statements, of which, how* 
 ever, these manuscripts contain a complete refutation. Perhaps our 
 historian only referred to this volume of manuscripts through Malcolm 
 Laing's reference, (Hist, of Scotland, Vol. i.p. 500, note,)as Lord Nugent 
 has referred to it through Mr Brodie, and in this most inaccurate form, — 
 " Woodrow , s MS. Letters, in the Advocates' Library, as quoted by Mr 
 Brodie." — Mem. of Hampden, Vol. ii. p. 96. 
 
 t We now know from Lord Napier's notes that they tampered with 
 him. That the same clique had been privately with John Stewart in 
 prison we have also proved ; and when we see their method with Napier, 
 it is not difficult to believe Guthrie as to their management of so wretch- 
 ed a creature as Stewart. 
 
 4
 
 
 THE CASE FOR ARGYLE. 497 
 
 recantation, where he, Stewart, states the interpola- 
 tion of which he accused himself, and in which he 
 draws the distinction betwixt a discourse of Kings 
 in general, and the King in particular. Now, adds Mr 
 Laing, — " that this confession was strictly true appears 
 from Sir Thomas Stewart's original declaration," — al- 
 luding to a more cautious version of the matter, as refer- 
 ring to Kings in general, which Sir Thomas declared he 
 wrote out for Walter Stewart. * But so hurriedly, in 
 his anxiety to controvert " the royalists," had our 
 historian examined the matter, as not to perceive that, 
 in reference to the character of Argyle, the assumption 
 of the truth of John Stewart's recantation is equally 
 dangerous as to suppose that it was fictitious. If Sir 
 Thomas Stewart's attestation proves that John Stew- 
 art's confession was " strictly true," what does it 
 prove of Argyle's declaration ? That nobleman, 
 with passionate oaths, " denied the whole and every 
 part thereof, whereat mamj wondered." Nor is this 
 a mis-statement or mistake on the part of Bishop 
 Guthrie. Although John Stewart was condemned 
 upon the confessions obtained from him, and although, 
 — when at his trial he desired to adduce certain 
 witnesses in support of his information as to the trea- 
 sonable bonds, — he was peremptorily met with his own 
 plea of guilty, yet Argyle thought it necessary to prove 
 that the recantation as it stood was still essentially 
 false. He produced certain depositions, of his own 
 clansmen and followers, who were about him at the 
 ford of Lyon, — those " supple fellows, with their plaids, 
 targes, and dorlachs," — in order to prove that not one 
 
 * Sir Thomas Stewart's (younger of Grantully) share in these trans- 
 actions will be disclosed in the chapter of Traquair's defence. 
 VOL. I. I i
 
 498 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 word of a discourse, in reference to what passed at the 
 Parliament in June 1640, about deposing Kings in 
 particular or in general, had occurred in his tent. These 
 depositions upon oath are among the same collection 
 of manuscripts from which we have extracted so much, 
 and this evidence is strangely opposed to the details 
 of that very plea of guilty upon which John Stewart 
 was condemned. Upon the 14th of June 1641, in 
 presence of the usual conclave, Lord Balmerino, Sir 
 Thomas Hope, and Edward Edgar, and after being 
 confronted with, and hearing John Stewart, — 
 
 1. " The Laird of Glenurqulnj declares that he staid 
 within the Earl of Argyle's tent all the while, from the 
 Earl of Athol, and the gentlemen of Athol, their entry 
 in the tent, until the time that they as prisoners were 
 delivered to those who were appointed to have the 
 charge of them, whereof himself was one ; and went 
 no far way out of the same till they were taken to 
 Ballach, and till he received three or four of the pri- 
 soners in his custody. And further, the deponer de- 
 clares, that he remembers he sat in the tent hard by the 
 saids two Earls, and heard the discourse that passed 
 publickly betwixt the Earl of Argyle and the Atholmen, 
 all which, as the deponer remembers, tended to the 
 doing of their duty in the public business of the king- 
 dom, and depones that he does not remember that he 
 heard the said Earl of Argyle discourse anent the pro- 
 rogation of the Parliament, neither had his Lordship 
 any speeches at all anent the deposing of Kings in ge- 
 neral or particular •, and this the deponer declares to be 
 of truth, upon oath, being solemnly sworn in presence 
 of the said Mr John Stewart." 
 
 %. " Mongo Campbell, fiar of Lawers, depones upon 
 oath, that he was in the Earl of Argyle his Lordship's
 
 THE CASE FOR ARGYLE. 499 
 
 tent, when the Earl of Athol and gentlemen of Athol 
 came there ; and staid there all the time, except (whereof 
 he does not fully remember) he went out and came in 
 presently again, and that he did hear all the discourse 
 passed betwixt the said Earls and others ; and declares, 
 he remembers not of any discourse had by the Earl of 
 Argyle anent the prorogation of the Parliament, or of 
 the reasons' or ground for deposing of Kings in ge- 
 neral or particular, as witness these presents sworn 
 and subscribed in presence foresaid." 
 
 3. " Alexander Menzies of Weeme, being sworn 
 solemnly, deponed, that he was in the Earl of Argyle's 
 tent when the Earl of Athol and gentlemen of Athol 
 that were prisoners, came there ; and that the deponer 
 staid there until they condescended on the sending out 
 of the fourth man, * and the chusing of the Captain ; 
 and does not remember that the Earl of Argyle dis- 
 coursed to them anent the deposing of Kings in gene- 
 ral or particular, or of prorogation of the Parliament, 
 whilst the deponer was there, as witness these sub- 
 scribed in presence foresaid." 
 
 4. " Sir Duncan Campbell, of Auchinbreck, (on the 
 15th of June,) being examined upon oath, declares, that 
 he had the charge of the guard the day that the Earl 
 of Athol came to the ford of Lyon, which occasioned 
 him to conduct the Earl of Athol and rest of the pri- 
 soners to the Earl of Argyle's tent, where, for the 
 most part, he remained all the while the Athol-men were 
 within the same, except at such times as his charge did 
 draw him out, and so was still coming in and out, 
 
 * This must allude to that notable illustration and evidence of the 
 covenanting unanimity of feeling throughout Scotland, winch consisted 
 in the conscription of every fourth man to serve in arms for the Co- 
 venant.
 
 500 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 and declares he heard the discourses anent their obedi- 
 ence in coming there ; as also in sending out their fourth 
 man, and such things concerning the public ; and 
 declares he heard nothing either of the prorogation 
 of the Parliament, or of the reasons why Kings might 
 be deposed either in general or particular, as witness 
 these subscribed with the deponer's hand."* 
 
 This negative evidence, of those who did not hear, 
 or did not remember, — even were it of a less suspicious 
 character than, under the circumstances, Argyle's fol- 
 lowing can be admitted to be, — is not of the same value 
 as the positive evidence of those who did hear. There 
 is not only the unvarying declarations of John Stewart, 
 and the written statement of Sir Thomas Stewart, that 
 some such conversation occurred, but it was reported 
 to Montrose in presence of the Earl of Athol, who 
 seems to have admitted the conversation.! Nor is this 
 all. Montrose in his declaration also refers to Ogilvy 
 of Inchmartin, as having heard the words. I have 
 not been able to discover Inchmartin's first declaration, 
 but that he had been examined, and that his declara- 
 tion was not to the same effect as the evidence of Ar- 
 gyle's followers, is manifest from his answers to some 
 additional interrogatories that had been put to him in 
 writing. From the original manuscript of these ques- 
 tions and answers it appears that he was interrogated, 
 — " if ever he heard of that discourse which he alleges 
 the Earl of Argyle spoke at the ford of Lyon, before 
 that time, and when and of whom ?" To which Inch- 
 martin replies, — " I never heard of it before that time at 
 the ford of Lyon, by any man." 
 
 . * From the original M.S. subscribed by the parties respectively, and 
 by Bal merino, Sir Thomas Hope, and Edward Edgar, 
 f See p. 476. 
 
 3
 
 THE CASE FOR ARGYLE. 501 
 
 • 
 
 It is impossible to peruse the manuscripts we have 
 quoted, without being satisfied that Argyle attempted 
 to support what he knew to be false. That John 
 Stewart had been guilty of exaggeration, by asserting 
 the express and particular application of what the wily 
 Earl had put in more guarded terms, is possible. But 
 Stewart never could have imagined the insane project 
 of entirely inventing a conversation, as having pas- 
 sed in a crowd of witnesses, naming the particular men 
 who had heard it, had the fact been that not one word 
 of the kind ever passed. The hopeless scheme of ruin- 
 ing, by a falsehood utterly baseless, and certain of de- 
 tection, the most powerful, the most vindictive, and 
 one of the most able men in the kingdom, could never 
 have entered a human brain. This circumstance, 
 moreover, renders Argyle's defence incredible, name- 
 ly, that John Stewart wrote to him, on the 5th of 
 June, the letter we have quoted, and which, in the 
 most abject terms of broken-hearted terror, offers a 
 complete recantation. Now, upon the 7th and the 
 10th of the same month, we have the confessions 
 he promised, and both contain the modified version 
 of the discourse, as applied to Kings in general, to 
 which he also adhered on his trial. Is it possible, 
 under the circumstances, that John Stewart would have 
 still adhered to so much, nay, the essential part of his 
 falsehood, supposing the fact to have been that nothing 
 was said of Kings in general or particular ? On the 
 other hand, the idea of some such discourse having pas- 
 sed, is powerfully corroborated by its alleged relation 
 to that debate in the Scots Parliament of June 1640 ; 
 a debate which (as we now know, from the admission 
 contained in Archibald Johnston's secret letter,) Argyle 
 and the faction had maintained against the King's in-
 
 502 MONTKOSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 • 
 
 terest, to an extent which they themselves felt conscious 
 inferred high treason. And this, too, must be taken 
 along with it, that out of this same debate, — the mut- 
 tering of a storm that uprooted the throne, — grew that 
 innocent conversation of Sir Thomas Hope's, at New- 
 castle, about Kings in general, to which Lord Lind- 
 say's general discourse of the blessing of a Dictator- 
 ship, and the high estimation in which the Earl of 
 Argyle was held, forms another curious pendant. 
 
 So much for the discourse which Sir Thomas Hope, 
 in his libel, calls " the last great lie at the ford of Lyon 
 anent the deposing of the King." With regard to the 
 preliminary charges, " the lies upon the three bonds," 
 Argyle also considered it incumbent upon him to ad- 
 duce some proof exculpatory of himself in addition to 
 John Stewart's plea of guilty. 
 
 " 15th June 1641. The Earl of Argyle produced six 
 bonds, one whereof by the feuars and tenants of Bade- 
 noch, for payment of their duties ; another for doing 
 their duty in the public ; a third by the men of the 
 Brae of Mar and others, for doing their duty in the pub- 
 lic ; a fourth by the baron of Broachly and others anent 
 the public ; a fifth of the Lord Ogilvy's friends anent 
 the public; and a sixth of the men of Athol and 
 others for doing their duty in the public ; whereof two 
 of them are acknowledged by Mr John Stewart to be 
 the bonds mentioned by him in his deposition last May 
 1641."* 
 
 Now this proves at least the extensive dealing of the 
 Earl of Argyle in bonds, pressed upon the lieges in 
 support of " the cause," which cause considered his 
 
 * Original MS. signed Sir A. Gibsone, I. P. IX
 
 THE CASE FOR ARGYLE. 503 
 
 Majesty as " the enemy ;" and it is easy to under- 
 stand how deep and dangerous might be the treason- 
 able design and effect of such bonds from the Earl of 
 Argyle, without that nobleman's constitutional caution 
 having so far forsaken him, as to allow such designs to 
 appear very expressly on the face of the bonds. 
 
 Thomas Menzies, son to the Laird of Weeme, was al- 
 so examined on the subject of the bond said to have 
 been shewn to his father, and he " declares that there 
 was a copy of a bond shewn by Glenlyon, which was 
 for maintenance of the Religion, Laws, and Liberties 
 of the Kingdom : and declares he never saw any bond 
 wherein the Earl of Argyle is named without relation 
 to the public, neither is he assured whether the Earl 
 of Argyle's name was in it or not, but he thinks it 
 was." But what better right had the Earl of Argyle 
 to be " pressing" such bonds without the knowledge 
 of Montrose, and the conservative noblemen, than 
 Montrose had to get up his bond, for the mainte- 
 nance of the Religion, Laws, Liberties and Throne 
 of the kingdom, without the knowledge of Argyle 
 and his faction ? The Committee, however, on the 
 production of these Argyle bonds, pronounce, at Ar- 
 gyle's express desire, a decree, dated 17th June 1641, 
 approving of them all? and finding " the taking of 
 them to be good service to the public, and ordains an 
 act to be granted to the said Earl thereupon."* 
 
 How completely is the ground of Montrose's bond, 
 " the private and indirect practising of a few," justified 
 
 * The bonds themselves I cannot discover among these manuscripts ; 
 but their dates are mentioned in the act and instrument of approval, as 
 being all of 2d and 3d July 1610, that is, shortly before Montrose got up 
 his conservativ e bond at Cumbernauld.
 
 504 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 by the secret machinery of the Movement. In Scot- 
 land, the mysteriously signified will of the snake in the 
 grass — the false " Gillespie Grumach," was the only 
 law. Upon his nod depended the life or death of 
 John Stewart. ' It is,' said his wretched victim, ' upon 
 the act and decree of the Committee of Estates that I 
 am now pursued before the justices ; but the Parlia- 
 ment has solemnly agreed to conclude no business until 
 the King is present. The act of the Committee, there- 
 fore, stands unratified by Parliament — postpone the 
 conclusion of my process, or the pronouncing sentence 
 vintil the close of the Parliament — have mercy on me, 
 and spare me at least till the King arrives.' * The 
 plea in law or in mercy was equally vain, under his 
 Dictatorship, who could have reduced the Covenant it- 
 self to tinder by a stamp of his cloven foot. This mo- 
 mentous Parliament bowed to his dictation, and the 
 church and her savage Procurator quailed to his bursts 
 of passion, j- Under the control only of that power, 
 Archibald Johnston himself ruled the destinies of the 
 Monarchy. It is a prevalent historical mistake to sup- 
 pose that the present excitement was, to use Mr Bro- 
 die's phrase, " a grand national movement." It is 
 no less a fallacy to assume that the Scotch Commis- 
 sioners for the treaty in London were of one heart and 
 mind in that storm which assailed the devoted Charles. 
 
 * From the original Record of his trial, it would appear that the 
 unhappy man had no counsel. No " Prelocutoris in defence" are men - 
 tioned in his case. 
 
 f Argyle's power in the Scotch Parliament is continually indicated 
 by Baillie. " July 16, 1641, Mr Archibald Johnston required that some of 
 the ministers, Commissioners of the General Assembly, might have 
 place for hearing. That motion was rejected by Argyle with storm, as 
 making way for churchmen's voicing in Parliament."
 
 THE TYRANNY OF SUBJECTS. 505 
 
 A distinguished and critical writer has said that " when 
 the Scotch Commissioners were consulted on the pro- 
 priety of the King's journey to Edinburgh, they deli- 
 vered an oracular response. * It was desireable,' they 
 said, * but the time might be made convenient :' — too 
 subtle to press that which their English friends did 
 not wish, and too prudent to refrain from the chance 
 of partaking of those royal favours which they were 
 sensible were ready to be showered on them." * But 
 the true key to their demeanour is to be found in the 
 secret machinations of the Procurator of the covenant- 
 ing Church. The first rumour of the King's intention 
 to go to Scotland had given him great alarm, and his let- 
 ters are full of violent scoffing on the subject. When he 
 found that the King had indeed so determined, his object 
 was to turn that scheme to account. Johnston knew 
 that if any thing impeded the movement, if such an 
 irresistible impulse were not now given to the machi- 
 nery against the Throne as would enable him to say, 
 " I think it is now over in God's own hand to do for 
 himself," then his, this impious demagogue's, occupa- 
 tion was gone. He was aware that the royal visit in- 
 volved the ruin of the faction, or would crown its tri- 
 umph, according to circumstances. If Montrose, and 
 every determined and upright adviser who might in- 
 fluence the King, could be kept from him during his 
 presence in Scotland, the faction would triumph even 
 upon that point of the treaty which now formed the 
 death-struggle betwixt Monarchy and Democracy, 
 namely, whether the King or the Argyle-ridden Par- 
 liament should appoint the Officers of State and judi- 
 cial functionaries there. But so far was this from 
 being a national feeling, that its agitation appears 
 
 * D' Israeli's Commentaries, A ol. iv. p, 367.
 
 506 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 to have centred in Archibald Johnston, without whose 
 nearly frantic exertions, the Scotch Commissioners would 
 not have insisted upon that demand, nor the Commit- 
 tee of Estates instructed them to do so. The secret 
 history of this matter is capable of some curious illus- 
 trations. 
 
 On the very day that the Committee of Estates com- 
 menced their agitation against Montrose, by calling 
 " off the streets" Mr Robert Murray to depone before 
 them, one of the Commissioners in London wrote in 
 these terms to Montrose's nephew, Keir : — " There are 
 some of Montrose's small unfriends who have written 
 here that he has gone to Scotland to make new divi- 
 sion, and to make a faction for the King against his 
 home-coming. This I know to be a calumny ; yet I 
 thought good to acquaint you with it, that both of you 
 might make your own uses of it." * Montrose had 
 gone to Scotland, not indeed to create division or make 
 a faction in opposition to the professed principles of the 
 Covenant, but with an intense perception of the crisis, 
 and in extreme alarm at the private and indirect prac- 
 tising of a few. Conversing with a clerical agita- 
 tor, Montrose at once put his finger on the measure 
 by which the practice of democracy was to be distin- 
 guished from the professions of the Covenant. " They 
 are seeking," he said, " conditions contrary to the Co- 
 venant ; because we have sworn not to entrench upon 
 the King's prerogative — now, they desire that Officers 
 of State, Council and Session, should be chosen by the 
 Parliament." When, to this, Murray replied that these 
 " are all good things if they could be obtained," Mon- 
 trose declared that the Commissioners themselves had 
 
 * Original MS. Letter from William Drummond of Riccartoun, to 
 his cousin, Sir George Stirling of Keir, dated 27th May 1641.
 
 THE TYRANNY OF SUBJECTS. 507 
 
 written that " their name would stink if they sought 
 them," and that the Committee had written back orders 
 to press the demand. Now it was one and the same 
 individual who kept up the agitation on the subject both 
 among the Commissioners and the Committee. Archi- 
 bald Johnston, in a letter dated the 3d of March 1641, 
 which we had not quoted before, thus informs Balme- 
 rino: — " The Sheriff-clerk and Riccartoun this day with 
 great heat, hath disputed against our seeking the King's 
 chusing the Councillors and Sessioners by advice of the 
 Estates, alleging that our first instructions therefore 
 were taken away by that instruction sent up with Mait- 
 land, for seeing honest men provided to places of State 
 and Session, &c. Lord Rothes, Loudon, and myself 
 steivly byde by it, and shewed there was neither any 
 contrariety, nor, albeit there were, could we but obey 
 the first, which was subscribed by both quorums, and 
 declared unrepealable by any one of the quorums. 
 So that changing only some few words we have forced 
 them to keep the article."* It is the cousin and corre- 
 
 * Original MS. Advocates' Library. This letter bad been so ill tran- 
 scribed for Lord Hailes, as utterly to destroy the sense of it in his collec- 
 tion. We have now given very nearly the whole of a correspondence of 
 which that great historical antiquary had published some fragments, but 
 so inaccurately as to be quite unworthy of his subsequent fame. It is 
 material to know this, for the fragments of Johnston's letters are refer- 
 red to by Mr Hallam and other distinguished English authors, under the 
 title " Dalrymple's Memorials of James and Charles I." In the letter last 
 quoted, for, " the Sheriff-clerk, and Iticcarton" Hailes has given, " and B. 
 Swinton.* For, " the King's chusing the council and session by advice 
 of the Estates" Hailes reads, " advice of our oath" There is a passage 
 in the same letter, printed thus : " Look what warrand ye would send to 
 prevent inconvenients that may arise by our [i. e. the covenanting com- 
 missioners] over much taking on with the Papists." — On testing this un- 
 accountable information, (which ought to have attracted more notice 
 than it has done) by the original MS., I find it runs thus : " Look what 
 warrand ye would send to prevent inconvenients that may arise by our
 
 508 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 spondent of Keir, William Drummond of Riccartoun, 
 who is here alluded to, and we thus find that he and 
 others of the Scotch Commissioners were vehemently 
 opposed to the revolutionary measures. In like manner 
 it was the demagogue who kept up the agitation against 
 incendiaries and plotters, and he actually urges the 
 King's visit to Scotland as areason why the act of oblivion 
 should not be suffered to extend to them, and why the cri- 
 minal processes should be pressed forwards by fair means 
 or foul. The faction pretended that it was in fulfilment of 
 their loyal wishes that the King had come, and they load- 
 ed him, on his arrival, with their canting caresses. Yet, 
 " some amongst us,"says Johnston, "would terrify us with 
 this project of the King's own presence, as able in Scot- 
 land to reverse all that is done except the Acts of the As- 
 sembly, and to gain such a party in Scotland as to put 
 honest men in hazard. God forgive them puts such 
 hopes in the King's head. Albeit in reality I do not, 
 nor others more understanding do, believe that the 
 King has any intention, for all that is said, to go in 
 person to Scotland, let us again be enjoined, and show 
 your firm resolution, the rather to follow forth the 
 incendiaries for these very motions to the King, and 
 stops to the treaty ; * * * and I will profess plainly, 
 that before ever I condescend to the passing by of these 
 incendiaries now, till the Parliament determine, I shall 
 rather consent to the King's reserving a thousand of our 
 number. Haste up your answer to us, and show this 
 and my former letter to General, (Leslie,) Cassillis, 
 Lindsay, and R. Meldrum. Be sure this letter meet me 
 not again, and tell them the news or read it to them." * 
 
 over much taking on us. The Papists, the Lieutenant, Arundell, and 
 Berkshire, have made some faction in the lower House," &c. 
 * Origiual MS. Seep. 365, where the commencement of this letter,
 
 PIOUS MOTIVES OF THE KING. 509 
 
 Now this was not the fair working even of the covenant- 
 ing Constitution. It was the private and indirect prac- 
 tising of a few, for their own ends, and by means that 
 involved the downfal of the monarchy, precisely as 
 Montrose complained. We find, moreover, a curious 
 letter from the Scotch Commissioners to the Committee 
 in Edinburgh, which places the conduct of the faction 
 in a most extraordinary point of view, and we have 
 prefixed it to this volume, that the reader may be still 
 better enabled to form his judgment of the secret ma- 
 chinations of the Procurator of the Church in 1641. 
 
 Let us turn from him to one who, however defi- 
 cient in some of the essentials of the kingly character, 
 was a gentleman and a Christian. 
 
 In the very interesting charter-room, of that orna- 
 ment of the north, F} r vie Castle — a scene of Mon- 
 trose's bravery and Argyle's disgrace, — we find a do- 
 cument which cannot be regarded without emotion. 
 It is the original manuscript, with interlineations by 
 the King himself, of the Instructions he framed 
 for the Earls of Dunfermline and Loudon, to pre- 
 sent at the meeting of the Scotch Parliament in 
 1641. It was on the 20th of May that Charles an- 
 nounced his intention to Napier in the letter we have 
 given. About ten days afterwards he had written to 
 Montrose the letter found in Walter Stewart's saddle, 
 where, most probably, it had not been secreted at the 
 desire of the King, or any friend of his. Before the 
 30th of June, however, the date of the Instructions to 
 which we allude, his Majesty had become aware of the 
 imprisonment of Montrose, and his friends, and was also 
 vaguely informed of the falsehoods by which Walter 
 
 dated 21st April 1641, is given. There is a clerical mistake in the 9th 
 line of p. 366, viz, "any answer" ought to be "any accuser.''
 
 510 MONTROSE AND THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Stewart seemed to implicate the King himself in some 
 anomalous and unintelligible charge of treason. In 
 these Instructions, which will be found appended to 
 this volume, may be traced the desire of Charles 
 to sooth his excited country, to conciliate his rebel- 
 lious subjects, to " satisfy them in point of Reli- 
 gion and Liberties, in a loving and free manner; to 
 express his favour, and care of his subjects' weal, by 
 giving way to any just motion of theirs for relief 
 of the burdens the late troubles had laid upon them, 
 and by granting what else might tend to their 
 good." And they also speak of his anxiety to save his 
 friends, (whose only crime was, that they loved him, and 
 gave such advice,) from the " tyranny of subjects, the 
 most fierce, insatiable, and insupportable tyranny in 
 the world," and to save his royal prerogative, " an in- 
 strument never subjects yet handled well," from the 
 grasp of an unprincipled democracy. 
 
 Mr D'Israeli remarks, that after the execution of 
 Strafford, in May 1641, Charles' personal distresses, and 
 the confusion in his councils, were such that he could 
 not endure to be near Westminster, where one of his 
 bed-chamber said, that nothing made the King more 
 anxious to remove from his court and his council than 
 that variety of intelligence, which at every minute was 
 brought to him, and on which every one gave the most 
 contrary opinions, and the most alarming comments. 
 Now we cannot agree that, in this state of mind of the 
 unhappy Charles, it is at all plausible to infer that a 
 sudden and secret impulse of his own, — a quixotic 
 adventure in quest of a mysterious document cal- 
 led the " Saville forgery," — had determined his rapid 
 journey. But we believe the simple fact, as stated 
 by Lord Napier, (in other manuscripts of his we have 
 yet to disclose,) when, in reference to the plot, he ex-
 
 PIOUS MOTIVES OF THE KING. 511 
 
 ultingly admits that " this private way (of advising the 
 King) has been in some degree a means to further his 
 Majesty's presence." And we may well understand how 
 the precepts of high principle, and true patriotism, and 
 devoted loyalty, conveyed in the language of those 
 eloquent letters, would sink into the aching heart of 
 Charles, as he turned from the bloody scaffold of 
 Strafford, to that voice of promise from his native land. 
 Mr Brodie may tell us that his journey was a " dark 
 project to strengthen an unprincipled violent faction in 
 Scotland," — meaning the faction that would have saved 
 the King, — and he may speak of the King's " atrocious 
 deliberations" with Montrose, when there, — Montrose 
 who was in solitary prison all the while. Lord Nugent 
 may record for history that " the object of the King's 
 going northward was to further a double intrigue, with 
 the English officers, and the Scotch Covenanters, — that 
 his motive was a treacherous one, and that, foiled in 
 his attempt to bring up the English soldiers to London, 
 he wished to join them on their own ground, and put 
 himself at their head." We believe, rather, it was from 
 the advice of Montrose, and Napier, that Charles 
 derived the impulse to visit Scotland at this time, and 
 that he hastened thither, with the desire of his subjects' 
 weal in his heart, and that noble sentiment on his lips, — 
 
 . Pax una, triumphis 
 
 Innumeris potior. 
 
 But, ere long, that hope departed from the sinking 
 Monarch. He " looked for Peace, but no good came, 
 and for a time of health, and behold troubles ! Oh that 
 I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring 
 men, that I might leave my people, and go fftmi them, 
 for they be an Assembly of treacherous men." 
 
 END OF VOLUME FIRST.
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 AND 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Note I. p. 13 — Bishop Burnet's Letters in the Napier charter -chest. 
 The history of the very curious letter from Bishop Burnet, now 
 first published in our introductory chapter, being among the Napier 
 papers, is this : Archibald the second Lord Napier, Montrose's ne- 
 phew, and devoted companion-in-arms, was, eventually, succeeded 
 in the honours of Napier by his second daughter, Margaret. This 
 lady was married to John Brisbane, Esq. whose epitaph, in St 
 George's Chapel at Windsor, refers shortly to his many distinguish- 
 ed public services. " Here lies the body of John Brisbane, Es- 
 quire, who served King Cliarles the Second in many honourable em- 
 ployments, and died Envoy Extraordinary for Portugal in the year 
 168 4, aged 46 years." He was a friend and patron of the Bishop, 
 and, when Burnet wrote to him the abject letter which thus came 
 to be preserved in the Napier cliarter-chest, Brisbane held the office 
 of Secretary to the Admiralty. It is curious to compare the style 
 of the letter in question with the following*, written by Burnet to 
 the Baroness Napier in her widowhood, and when he, Brisbane's 
 " poor melancholy friend," had attained the courtly distinction and 
 state influence of his latter days. The sufferings of the Napier fa- 
 mily in the cause of royalty were more handsomely acknowledged 
 than compensated after the Restoration, and Lady Napier had not 
 the means of supporting her rank without assistance from govern- 
 ment. The following letter to her from Bishop Burnet, of which 
 the original is in the Napier charter-chest, appears to have been in 
 consequence of some statement of her claims made through the 
 Bishop. 
 
 VOL. 1. * k k
 
 514 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 " Madam, 
 
 " I wish I could as effectually serve your ladyship, and 
 your son, as I am sure I will endeavour it with my utmost force. I 
 must freely tell you that I am afraid all your ancient pretensions, 
 how just soever, will not be of great use to you, for since those 
 princes, upon whom they lay more immediately, thought themselves 
 so little bound to satisfy them, I cannot flatter your hopes so far as 
 to desire you to think that these will signify very much now ; nor 
 can I think that Mr Brisbane's memory will be very much consider- 
 ed by those who never knew him. It must be your'own worth, and 
 the dignity of that noble family which you now represent, that must 
 be your chief pretension. And I do assure you, that, when the re- 
 venue of Scotland comes to be settled, I shall employ all the skill 
 and credit that I have in the world, to procure that for you which 
 may be worthy of you. But the less this is known, I will be the 
 more able to serve you. I have restored your papers to Mrs Ers- 
 kine, and I beg you will believe that I have so great and tender a 
 regard to Mr Brisbane's memory, and such an high esteem of you, 
 that I will always look out for every opportunity by which I may 
 witness how much I am, Madam, your Ladyship's most humble and 
 most obedient servant, " G. Burnet." 
 
 " Whitehall, the 25th of February." 
 
 Her ladyship had a pension of L. 200 from Charles II., which 
 was continued to her by James VII. and by Queen Anne, but it 
 does not appear from the family papers that she experienced the 
 bounty of William and Mary. She had been disturbed, in her pos- 
 session of some property within the court of the Palace of Holyrood- 
 house, by the officers of the Crown, in the year 1688, and obtained 
 a royal letter to protect her right, in the narrative of which it is 
 stated : " That as the estate belonging to the said family was se- 
 questrated, and their goods plundered, so their writs and evidents 
 were seized upon by the rage and fury of the rebels during the late 
 usurpation, and were great sufferers for their constant loyalty and 
 firm adherence to the true interests of the Crown." The Baroness 
 of Napier presented to the College of Edinburgh the original and 
 very beautiful portrait of her great-grandfather, the Inventor of 
 Logarithms, which was engraved for his Memoirs published in 
 1834.
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 515 
 
 Note II. pp. 8 — 23 — 29. — Archibald first Lord Napier's Corre- 
 spondence with James VI. 
 
 I had intended to have given, in this note, some original docu- 
 ments from the MSS. of the Advocates' Library, illustrative of Lord 
 Napier's connection with the court, and of the estimation in which he 
 was held, that being of importance to the character of Montrose, who 
 was guided throughout the whole of his political career by the advice 
 of his brother-in-law and tutor. But there has been recently printed, 
 and presented to the Abbotsford Club by John Hope, Esq. Dean of 
 Faculty, "State Papers and Miscellaneous Correspondence of Thomas 
 Earl of Melrose," and for several of the documents to which I allude, 
 I need only now refer the reader to the index of that magnificent col- 
 lection, especially in reference to Napier's appointment to the office of 
 Justice-Clerk, which he held for a short period before he was raised 
 to the peerage. But the following letter from him to James VI. 
 has not been printed. 
 
 " To the King's most excellent Majesty," 
 
 " Most Sacred Sovereign, 
 
 " Being by your Majesty's favour admitted in the place of Justice- 
 Clerk, I think it my duty to give your Majesty information of the 
 estate of it at my entry. I find great confusion and disorder in the 
 place, and, next, many principal parts of that office exerced by com- 
 missions, and by other judges not competent, through former negli- 
 gence, whereby that judicature, where the chief point of your Ma- 
 jesty's sovereign power ought to be exerced, has now lost much of 
 the antient power and dignity. For the disorder, it may be much 
 amended by my care, which shall not be wanting. The other losses 
 or abuses will require your Majesty's special directions to the coun- 
 cil, by your Majesty's letter, requiring them to see all matters be- 
 longing to that judicature returned again to it, to be handled there 
 as ought to be, and as was wont to be. The particulars (if so it 
 please your Majesty) to be reformed, for avoiding your Majesty's 
 trouble I have sent up to James Douglas, that, when your Majesty 
 shall be pleased to write to the council for this purpose, he may 
 show your Majesty these articles, and receive your Majesty's direc- 
 tion, either conform to them, or otherwise, as your Majesty, in your 
 great wisdom, shall think expedient, to which I most humbly sub- 
 mit myself, with most ready mind to perform your Majesty's plea-
 
 616 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 sure in that or any thing else, as I am bound far more than I am 
 able to express. So humbly craving your Majesty's pardon for my 
 boldness and praying Almighty God to bless your Majesty with a 
 long and happy life, and all other his good blessings, I take my 
 leave. 
 
 " Your Majesty's humble and obedient subject and servant, 
 
 " Archibald Napjbr." 
 
 " Edinburgh, llth December 1623." 
 
 The following letter, which affords an interesting historical illus- 
 tration, is addressed to the same monarch, and has not been printed- 
 
 " To the King's most excellent Majesty," 
 
 " Most Sacred Sovereign," 
 
 " There is come down, a little before the rising of the session, a 
 signature under your Majesty's hand, of almost all the chapellanries, 
 prebendaries, altarages, and other small church livings within this 
 kingdom mortified to the Chupel Royal. I, only, have seen and 
 perused it. The Lord Treasurer, and Commissioners of your Ma- 
 jesty's rents, have not yet seen it ; and before the twentieth of this 
 month they are not to meet because of the vacation. Therefore I 
 have taken the boldness humbly to intreat of your Majesty not 
 to urge the passing of that signature before the council day, which 
 shall be on the twentieth of August instant, at what time the Com- 
 missioners of your Majesty's rents will meet and consider of your Ma- 
 jesty's disadvantage, and other inconvenients that shall ensue, if any 
 be : For I doubt not but your Majesty shall be earnestly solicited 
 for that purpose, the pretext being so fair, and your Majesty's incli- 
 nation so pious. To provide for the chapel royal, in a large and 
 ample measure, is a good work, and worthy of the care of so gracious 
 a Prince ; but to do it by this mortification of all the chapellanries, 
 almost, in Scotland, whereby most of your Majesty's greatest sub- 
 ject's rights shall be questioned, and your Majesty's own liberality 
 to poor students, or ministers, all utterly restrained in this kind, 
 I know not if, after true information, your Majesty will think it fit, 
 especially when it may be done by mortification of a part of them, 
 in a large measure. So humbly craving pardon for this boldness, 
 which my duty enforces, I take my leave, praying eternal God long 
 to preserve your Majesty in all happiness over us. 
 
 " Your Majesty's true and humble servant, 
 
 " Edinburgh, \st August 1623." "Archibald Naper."
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 517 
 
 This Lord Napier's manuscripts in the Napier charter-chest also 
 afford a curious portraiture of James VI., drawn from the life, for 
 Napier was a gentleman of his privy-chamber for seventeen years. 
 " No living man/' says Napier, " had the art to know men more 
 perfectly than he ; yet still importunity prevailed with him against 
 his own choice — for it was his manner to give way to strong op- 
 position, or his favourite's intreaties, yet never to give over his pur- 
 pose, but at another time to work it by means of a contrary faction." 
 Thus when Sir Gideon Murray left by his death the place of Trea- 
 surer-Depute vacant, his Majesty determined that with this office 
 the long and faithful services of Napier should be rewarded : " Every 
 man who had power put in for his friend, without respect of his 
 sufficiency or ability, but no man could be proposed against Avhom 
 his Majesty did not take some exception ; which being perceived 
 by the late Marquis of Hamilton, [father of the faithless Marquis,] 
 a wise nobleman, in whom there was no virtue wanting, befitting 
 his place and quality, and judging that the King had made some 
 secret election in his own mind, desired to know who it was. His 
 Majesty having named me, the Marquis did not only approve his 
 Majesty's judgment, but also procured a warrant for my admission, 
 wisely covering thereby the repulse he got for his friend." Lord 
 Napier adds, that " from the King's own mouth, who knew the cus- 
 tom of the court, and could never endure to be robbed, of his thanks, 
 the whole carriage of that business was delivered unto me, together 
 with a command to me to serve him faithfully, not to be factious, 
 nor to comply with any to his prejudice, or the country's, or to 
 wrong any private man for favour of another." At the same time 
 James wrote to the Earl of Mar that letter (see p. 39, note,) in 
 which he declares Napier to be " free of partiality, or any factious 
 humour." 
 
 But Lord Napier was no sycophant, and never hesitated to give the 
 most fearless advice, both to James VI. and Charles I., upon the 
 most delicate subjects. The following, which is from the original 
 draft in his Lordship's handwriting, will afford another illustration 
 of the fact. The tenor proves it to have been advice to James VJ. 
 on the subject of the propriety of carrying the sentence of death 
 into execution upon the favorite Somerset, whom James eventually 
 pardoned. Those who are curious as to the historical problem of 
 the guilt of that unhappy nobleman, and of the King's participa- 
 tion therein, will read this with considerable interest. It seems to 
 prove that the writer had not the slightest idea of James being
 
 518 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 in any way implicated in the matter, and was not even quite satis- . 
 fied that Somerset himself was guilty. 
 
 " Suppose this man guilty of the crime that he is charged with, 
 yet it is neither for the King's honour nor profit to destroy him" 
 
 " All the honour that is to be got that way is by opinion of jus- 
 tice ; for clemency, the virtue whereby Princes approach nearest to 
 God, has no part in this course. And what praise is due to extre- 
 mity of justice ? the best part thereof, example, and the most pro- 
 fitable, being already, by the death of four, * sufficiently establish- 
 ed. The King's gracious and temperate manner in cases of like 
 nature, ever in justice to remember mercy, without prejudice of 
 either, being nothing like to the proceedings of this, settles an opi- 
 nion in the people's hearts that private designs, private hate, private 
 satisfaction, give motion to this violent course, and that justice is pre- 
 tended only. If he be guilty, he remains not without punishment 
 in his own person that has it in fame, and is cast from a great for- 
 tune, and the King's supreme favour, into contempt and disgrace, 
 carrying with him the conscience of a crime, and a deserved punish- 
 ment, though he have life, land, and liberty. If it be not for the 
 King's honour, it is not for his profit ; for matters of profit are the 
 aims of private endeavours, — Princes have them, or may have them, 
 with ease ; but a good fame is their gain, and to be purchased at 
 any rate ; and where, in any consultation of theirs, profit comes to 
 oppose itself to honour, it is reason that honour should carry it. 
 But what profit is to be expected that way ? His estate is not suf- 
 ficient to help the King's affairs, and if it be applied to that use it 
 will be thought to be the cause of his death. It may be said, that 
 so the fortunes of others may be raised, and the King furnished with 
 means to bestow. But when men shall see that the revenue of three 
 kingdoms, the impositions and subsidies from the people, cannot 
 serve the excess of these largesses, but that justice must be strain- 
 ed also, to make the rich guilty in order to furnish matter to that 
 itching humour of bestowing, — the profit will not in any sort counter- 
 value the loss. For there will be nothing but a general fear and 
 bad opinion of the King, which shall lose the kingdom of the peo- 
 ple's hearts, the next degree to the loss of that over their bodies 
 and goods ; for that Prince that will make men afraid hath reason 
 to fear them again. It is a maxim of government that favours and 
 
 * Sir Jervis Elvis, (Lieutenant of the Tower,) Franklin, Weston, and Mrs Tur- 
 ner, were all executed for the murder of Overbury.
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ,519 
 
 graces ought to be bestowed at several times — punishments and exe- 
 cutions at once. If his Majesty give way to the execution of these 
 two noble persons, * after so long a pause, men will think that these 
 executions will never end, since neither time nor satisfied justice 
 can mitigate the rigor ; and that he is framing a precedent and a 
 reason, by the rigor used to one in so great favour with him, and 
 his countryman, t whereby he may be excused to use the noblemen 
 and gentlemen of England with the like or greater rigor upon oc- 
 casion. The noblemen, and these of great trust and place about 
 him, will never more, after this man's destruction, trust to his good- 
 ness, his favour, or their own merit, but will seek to strengthen 
 themselves with friendship, (a way much neglected by this man,) 
 and will secretly league, and bind themselves together, against the 
 King's power, whereby he shall not only not be able to punish them 
 if they deserve, but also he shall find great difficulty to manage any 
 business to his mind that concerns any of them, so that he shall 
 govern precario, upon courtesy. 
 
 " Since, therefore, it is neither for the King's honour, nor his 
 profit to use him with extremity being guilty, when there is no- 
 thing but presumption against him, % which may fall upon the most 
 innocent, it is far less profitable or honourable for his Majesty to 
 suffer such extreme persecution, or to deny him the ordinary favours, 
 and means to clear himself, that are granted to men in like case, or 
 to expose him and his life to the search of his enemies, or to give 
 them liberty to shift their accusations, and seek new and forged 
 crimes, when the old will not serve their turns ; these are infallible 
 arguments and demonstrations to the world that justice is but pre- 
 tended, and the overthrow of the person, per fas et ncfas, by right 
 or wrong, intended. In the course that is kept his Majesty's ho- 
 nour suffers extremely, for the people at first admired the King's 
 justice — detested the person of the malefactor ; but now the note is 
 
 " Somerset and his Countess. 
 
 "(• The favourite, Somerset, was Robert Carre, a Scotchman. 
 
 J Contrast Lord Napier's view of the case with the following passage in Hume : 
 " All the accomplices in Ovcrbury's murder received the punishment due to their 
 crimes; but the King bestowed a pardon on the principals, Somerset anil the 
 Countess. It must be confessed that James' fortitude had been highly laudable 
 had he persisted in his first intention of consigning over to severe justice all the 
 criminals; but let us beware of blaming him too harshly, if, on the approach of 
 the fatal hour, he scrupled to deliver into the hands of the executioner persons 
 whom he had once favoured with his most tender affections." — Hist. Vol. vi, p. 78. 
 But the above pleading of Lord Napier, and not want of fortitude in the Ki 
 may have saved Somerset.
 
 520 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 changed, — for as they are called the beast with the many heads, 
 and the many eyes, some whereof are so sharp-sighted as they can 
 pierce into the private causes of things through the veils and pre- 
 texts, so it is impossible to abuse them any long time, for never 
 was any thing so cunning as could deceive them all, neither did 
 ever the general and constant voice of a people deceive any man. 
 This voice speaketh ill of the proceedings and carriage of this busi- 
 ness, — they are attentive to the event ; if it fallout as most feareth, 
 that beautiful face of the King's honour, that made all the world in 
 love with it, shall be defaced with an irreparable blemish — the love 
 due tc him lost — fear settled — his security impaired. But the end 
 crowns the work. Never prince had a fairer opportunity to procure 
 mortal fame of a perfect justiciar, and a merciful father ; this is the 
 point of time,^— if this occasion slip there is no other hold, — all 
 that he can do afterwards is to small purpose, for, invisum sernel 
 principem seu bene facta sen male facta premunt. If he use cle- 
 mency, as he has satisfied justice in this great example, he shall be 
 beloved, honoured, secured, and like God in this that mercy is 
 the last work. But, if he use not clemency, it will appear that 
 justice, which should be, like the Lesbian rule, a constant and di- 
 rect square to his actions, has been, like a leaden rule, wrested and 
 turned to the will and passion of the workman ; and all that, 
 is builded thereby shall prove ruinous, and like enough, if God do, 
 not prevent, to fall and endanger him, which God avert." * 
 
 The following original bond will also gratify the curious reader. 
 
 •' Be it known to all men — that whereas Archibald Lord Naper 
 is to procure me to be employed in furnishing his Majesty of con- 
 fections of all sorts, during his Majesty's abode in Scotland, and 
 has covenanted and agreed with me to that effect, at the rates and 
 prices following : — To wit, all natural dry confections at 6s. 4d. per 
 pound ; the pastes and preserves at 3s. 4d. per pound ; and 
 Savoy amber, Savoy pistache amber, and Savoy fennell amber, 
 at 13s. 4d. per pound, one sort with another ; and several sorts 
 of ordinary confects at Is. 6d, per pound, as in the indenture 
 
 * " To soften the rigour of their (Somerset and the Countess) fate, after some 
 years' imprisonment he (James) restored them to their liberty, and conferred on 
 them a pension, with which they retired, and languished out old age in infamy 
 and obscurity. Their guilty loves were turned into the most deadly hatred ; and 
 they passed many years together in the same house without any intercourse or cor- 
 respondence with each other." — Hume, vi. 78.
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 521 
 
 made betwixt us of the date, the 12th day of September, anno 
 Domini 1628, is contained. Notwithstanding, for the benefit I 
 am to reap for the said employment, I am content to be bound, 
 and by these presents do bind myself, my heirs, executors, and as- 
 signees, that I shall seek no more from the said Lord Naper, but 
 that I, my heirs, and assignees, shall rest satisfied and contented 
 with 4s. 6d. per pound for natural dried of all sorts ; and with 
 2s. 6d. for the pound of pastes and preserves ; and for Savoy amber, 
 Savoy pistache amber, and Savoy fennell amber, 10s. per pound ; 
 and for pound of ordinary confects, Is. 2d.; and that of these con- 
 fections as shall be spent for his Majesty's own use only, and for such 
 confections as shall be vended by me for the use of the country, I 
 oblige me and my foresaids, that what price I shall receive above 
 5s. for the naturals, 3s. for the pastes and preserves, and for Savoy 
 amber, Savoy pistache amber, and Savoy fennell amber, above 10s. 
 per pound, and for the ordinary confects above Is. 2d. the pound, 
 shall be equally shared betwixt me and any the Lord Naper shall 
 appoint. In witness whereof, I have subscribed these presents with 
 my hand, before these witnesses, Archibald Campbell, brother to 
 Sir James Campbell of Lawers, Alexander Naper, brother to the 
 said Lord Naper, and Alexander Naper, burgess of Edinburgh. At 
 Westminster the 12th day of September 1628." 
 
 This is obviously the contract referred to in our note to p. 53, 
 and of which Lord Napier says, — " Then said I, I acquainted the 
 King, — as indeed I did, and his Majesty remembered it, — with the 
 manner and matter of this bargain." On the back of the bond is 
 noted : — " 24 Deer. 1620. I have this day received this back bond 
 from the Lord Naper to be delivered up to his Majesty." 
 
 Note III. pp. 90-102, — Charles 1. and the Scotch Parliament 1633. 
 Dr Cook, in his History of the Church of Scotland, and when 
 narrating the proceedings of the Scotch Parliament 1633, at which 
 Charles I. presided in person, has the following remarks : " The 
 Kin" took into his own hand a list of the members, and marked 
 their votes. The majority was hostile to the Court, and Charle3 
 could not fail to know, from the paper which he held, that this was 
 the case. The clerk of Parliament, however, whose office it was to 
 announce the decision, scandalously affirmed, that the act as pre- 
 sented was approved, and when Rothes denied this, the King, in- 
 stead of acting with the dignity and honour which might have been 
 expected even from the humblest individual, gave his sanction to
 
 522 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 the falsehood of the clerk, and maintained that as it was a capital 
 crime to corrupt the records of Parliament, they who accused another 
 of doing so must, if they failed in establishing the charge, be sub- 
 jected to the punishment of death. It was too hazardous for the 
 Lords to support an accusation which the whole royal influence would 
 be exerted to suppress ; and the act which had been really rejected 
 was held to be confirmed by the Estates. But the effect of the 
 mean and indecent exertion of the prerogative by which this was 
 accomplished, the King could not be prevented." — Vol. ii. p. 340. 
 
 If it were conceivable that, under the circumstances of the Par- 
 liament 1633, the clerk-register would have ventured on the des- 
 perate expedient of making a false return of the votes, in the pre- 
 sence of the very men who had that instant voted, and that the King, 
 with the real state of the vote in his hand, would have insisted on 
 the false one, what could " the whole royal influence," (by which 
 Dr Cook must mean the King's frown, and threats, on the spot,) 
 have availed against an accusation, the witnesses in support of which 
 were all present — all factiously and fiercely arrayed against the 
 King — and moreover, ex hypothesi, constituted a " majority hostile 
 to the court !" Let us examine, then, the note of authorities, by 
 which Dr Cook supports the assertions in his text. 
 
 " Burnet, in his History of his own Times, Vol. i. p. 25, 26, has 
 given a full account of the two acts, and of the conduct of the King ; 
 and, although in the Large Declaration the charge is represented as 
 a calumny, the anxiety shown to refute it proves that it was gene- 
 rally believed, and had deeply impressed the public mind. Row 
 MS. History, p. 250-252, mentions the King's marking those who 
 voted, adding, « the negative votes were thought by some, to equal 
 the affirmative.' He also mentions that the King quarrelled the 
 member who challenged the report of the register. Franklyn's An- 
 nals, p. 435, and Collier, Vol. ii. p. 755. Rushworth's Collections, 
 Vol. ii. p. 183. Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 18." 
 
 It is most remarkable, that, with the exception of Burnet, whose 
 version we shall presently consider, all the authorities, which ap- 
 pear so formidable in Dr Cook's note, will be found, on examination, 
 to redargue his text. The Large Declaration referred to contains 
 the King's own indignant refutation of the calumny in the follow- 
 ing words : " But scarcely were we well returned into England, 
 when the discontent of these men resolved itself into a plain sedi- 
 tion : For then they had the impudence to give it out that voices 
 were bought and packed in the late Parliament, nay, that the voices
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 523 
 
 were not truly numbered, but that some acts were passed without 
 plurality of suffrages ; a calumny so foul and black as that they 
 themselves did know it to be most false : For had there been the 
 least suspicion of truth in it, they might have made trial thereof by 
 surveying their own papers, and the papers of many hundreds pre- 
 sent, who took notes of the number of voices, which were given either 
 by assenting to, or disassenting from, the several acts read and pro- 
 posed ; by which papers if they had found but the weakest ground, 
 for this their strong but false report, we have no reason to think 
 that either their mercy or modesty was such that they would have 
 forborne the calling of the Clerk of our Register in question for it ; 
 it being, as our Chancellor's office to ask the voices, so our Clerk of 
 Register's office to take them and record them, and according to his 
 own, and his clerks' notes who assist him, to pronounce the act pas- 
 sed or stopt : In which it is impossible he should deal but with sin- 
 cerity, for else the notes taken by most of the auditors, being a pre- 
 sent and powerful conviction of his false dealing, must presently 
 transmit him to highest censure and punishment." 
 
 It is not easy to understand by what process of reasoning Dr Cook 
 had brought himself to take this most natural, and unanswerable 
 statement, as evidence against the King ; or how he makes out 
 that " the anxiety shown to refute the charge, proves that it was ge- 
 nerally believed, and had deeply impressed the public mind !" The 
 King was aware that his throne was attacked by the calumnious 
 whisperings and secret machinations of a powerful democratic fac- 
 tion in Scotland ; therefore he published this unanswerable defence, 
 for the benefit of the public, as well as for his own ; and to cast it 
 aside, as Dr Cook has done, (while he takes as unquestionable the 
 posthumous calumny of Burnet,) or to adopt it as proving the charge 
 to have been true, indicates an opinion formed upon no just or scien- 
 tific consideration of the evidence. But let us see if Dr Cook's 
 other authorities bear him out. 1. The entire passage from Row's 
 M S. is as follows : " But the negative votes were thought by some 
 to have equalled the affirmative ; and a worthy gentleman stood 
 up and quarrelled the Clerk-Register for not marking the votes 
 rightly. But the King, who also had marked them himself, com- 
 manded the gentleman to be silent, or else upon the peril of his 
 life make that good which he had spoken ; whereupon the gentle- 
 man sat down and was silent." — Row's MS. Advocates' Library. An 
 on dit in the chronicle of a factious Scotch clergyman of the times 
 is not the most trustworthy evidence, in such a matter, against the
 
 524 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 King. But, taking the evidence as it stands, it manifestly neither 
 redargues the King's declaration, nor supports Dr Cook's text. 2. 
 Franklyn says : " The passing of the act concerning ecclesiastical 
 habits did much perplex the dissenting Lords, and others, which oc- 
 casioned some of them to divulge a scandalous libel reflecting upon 
 his Majesty," &c. In what respect does this aid Dr Cook's text ? 
 3. Collier says : " The passing this statute was regretted by the Pres- 
 byterians, who were afraid the English surplice might be forced 
 upon them," — but not one word does he say of the alleged fraud of the 
 Clerk-register and the King. Rushworlh — the partial Rushworth 
 —though also quoted by Dr Cook, has not a word to countenance 
 the calumny,- but, after naming the dissentient Lords, says : " The 
 passing of the act concerning ecclesiastical habits did much per- 
 plex the dissenting Lords and others, which occasioned some of them 
 to divulge in writing a paper reflecting upon his Majesty, adjudg- 
 ed afterwards to be a libel, wherein was contained this reflection, 
 how grievous a thing it was for a King in that place, by making of 
 the subjects votes, to overawe his Parliament, and that the same 
 was a breach of privilege, &c." This was the Balmerino petition, 
 secretly circulated after the King had returned to England. Thus 
 we have shown, that, with the exception of Burnet, all the autho- 
 rities relied upon by Dr Cook actually disprove his case, and cor- 
 roborate the statement of the King in his declaration. It only re- 
 mains to consider Burnet's account of the matter, which, indeed, is 
 the tainted source of this calumny against Charles I. 
 
 The Bishop, in a well known passage of his posthumous history, 
 (p. 37, Oxford edit. 1823,) after a most partial account, unfavour- 
 able to the King, of the proceedings in the Parliament 1633, adds, 
 — " Almost the whole Commons voted in the negative, so that the 
 act was indeed rejected by the majority, which the King knew, for 
 he had called for a list of the numbers, and with his own pen had 
 marked every man's vote ; yet the clerk of register, who gathers 
 and declares the votes, said it was carried in the affirmative. The 
 Earl of Rothes affirmed it went for the negative. So the Kin«; said 
 the clerk of register's declaration must be held good, unless the Earl 
 of Rothes would go to the bar, and accuse him of falsifying the re- 
 cord of Parliament, which was capital ; and in that case, if he should 
 fail in the proof, he was liable to the same punishment ; so he would 
 not venture on that. Thus the act was published, though in truth 
 it was rejected." 
 
 Burnet does not mention the unquestionable fact, publicly declar-
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 525 
 
 ed by the King himself, that " many hundreds present took notes 
 of the number of voices," and, again, that there were " notes taken 
 by most of the auditors." In his partial and malicious Avay he gives 
 it as if the King only had been thus checking the clerk-register ; 
 and, consequently, historians have laid much stress upon this fact, 
 against the King. But the truth is that the King only did what all 
 the rest were doing, in consequence of a keen and close contest, and 
 what would now appear a strange proceeding on the part of his Ma- 
 jesty was then a very natural act. Burnet's version of the matter 
 is ridiculous on the face of it, and although Dr Cook adopts it as 
 probatio probata, to the entire exclusion of the authority of the Large 
 Declaration, we must venture to think that Burnet cannot for a mo- 
 ment stand the test of that explanation from the King, promulgat- 
 ed when the parties were alive. Then all the contemporary autho- 
 rities, even of the King's enemies, contradict Burnet. Compare him 
 with Row, Rushworth, and W hitelock, all of whom Dr Cook has so 
 strangely quoted in support of Burnet ! But there is another re- 
 cord which convicts the Bishop, and which, unhappily, Dr Cook 
 had omitted to consult, namely, the state trial of Balmerino. Bur- 
 net, in the sequel of the passage we have quoted, connects the Bal- 
 merino petition, (the seditious libel framed by Haig,) with the al- 
 leged falsifying of the vote in Parliament, which dishonest act of 
 tyranny he states to have been a principal ground of that petition. 
 Now the petition itself is printed in that record. It commences 
 with a pretended humble remonstrance that his Majesty had not 
 heard the " reasons of the opinions of a number of your supplicants 
 in voting about these acts," and that he had put notes against their 
 names, &c, and then it goes on to say, that " they that have been 
 of contrary mind to a resolution carried by the plurality of votes have 
 never hitherto been censured by a prince of so much justice and 
 goodness as your Majesty." Thus even that notorious paper,— 
 which Haig confessed that he had " made out of some collections, 
 which he had gathered upon some conferences which he had with 
 sundry persons the time of the Parliament," — and in which, had there 
 been a shadow of truth in the subsequently whispered calumny, 
 that calumny would have been most prominent, — affords not a hint 
 of the kind, but absolutely states, as a matter not disputed or doubt- 
 ed, that the acts in question were " carried by the plurality of votes." 
 That Dr Cook had not consulted this record appears from the fact, 
 that throughout his most mistaken version of the matter he continu- 
 ally speaks of the author of the libel as being " Ilayne, his Majesty's
 
 526 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 solicitor, a zealous friend to the liberties of the kingdom," whereas 
 the state-trial would have made him intimately acquainted with Mr 
 William Haig, of whom the factious Rothes himself, in that same 
 trial, gave upon oath this character, that " of him he had ever sus- 
 picion, because he has ever been busy upon such idle and foolish toys," 
 — as this same Balmerino petition ! 
 
 The record of the trial also proves that Bishop Burnet's state- 
 ment, namely, — " Much pains was taken to have a jury ; in which so 
 great partiality appeared that, when the Lord Balmerinoch was up- 
 on his challenges, and excepted to the Earl of Dunfrise for his hav- 
 ing said that if he were of his jury, though he were as innocent as 
 St Paul, he would find him guilty, some of the judges said, that 
 was only a rash word ; yet the King's Advocate allowed the chal- 
 lenge if proved, which was done," — is most malicious and untrue. 
 The record of the trial bears, " It is alleged against the Earl of 
 Dumfreis that he cannot be received upon the assize, because he has 
 given out his prejudiced opinion against the pannel, affirming, be- 
 fore any probation led, that the pannel is guilty of the dittay ; which 
 the pannel referred to his Lordship's oath, alleging that in law a de- 
 clinator is only to be proven against ane assizer by his oath ; and 
 farder affirms, that the said William Earl of Dumfreis has been so- 
 licited and dealt with by prayer to find the pannel guilty of the dit- 
 tay, which being referred to the said Earl his oath, he denied any 
 such matter, that he either gave out speeches of the pannel's guilti- 
 ness, or that he was solicited or dealt with, by prayer or otherwise ; 
 the justice admits him, in respect of his declaration." The disposal 
 of all the other challenges, exposing the factious nature of the op- 
 position, and the perfect impartiality of the trial, will be found in 
 the same record, (Cobbett, Vol. iii. p. 690,) which, it is most remark- 
 able, our historians seem not to have been at the pains to compare 
 with Burnet's insidious account. Even Mr DTsraeli in his Com- 
 mentaries, (Vol. iii. p. 205,) appears to give up the point against 
 Charles, and is contented to refer to Mr Brodie ! 
 
 Note IV. pp. 151, 224, 230, 257.— Account of the Manuscripts of 
 James Gordon, and Patrick Gordon. 
 
 In the Library of the King's College, Aberdeen, (in referring to 
 which I must acknowledge the kind assistance, in my research- 
 es, I there met with from its excellent librarian, an accomplish- 
 ed antiquary, the Reverend Mr Taylor,) I was permitted to consult
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 527 
 
 and make extracts from a manuscript, the history of which is in- 
 scribed upon it, as follows : 
 
 " Written on the first leaf of the manuscript, in Mr T. Ruddi- 
 man's handwriting, from which this copy was taken in the years 
 1788 and 1789. 
 
 " History of Scots affairs from the year 1637 to the year 1641, 
 in five books, but the first wanting, and probably never written, 
 being designed only as an introduction to the rest. 
 
 " This was written either as is supposed by the famous Robert 
 Gordon of Straloch, or by James Gordon, parson of Rothiemay, his 
 son." 
 
 That this MS. History, however, was not compiled by Robert 
 Gordon of Straloch himself is manifest by that extract we have 
 quoted from it, (see p. 230,) in which the writer, after enumerating 
 Straloch among the Commissioners sent by Huntly to Montrose, 
 adds that he, the writer, was " myself in company with the Com- 
 missioners from Huntly." This is most likely to have been James 
 Gordon, Straloch's son. It is known that this James Gordon suc- 
 ceeded Mr Alexander Innes as parson at Rothiemay, and there is 
 a passage in the manuscript history obviously referring to the fact : 
 " Mr Alexander Innes, minister at Rothiemay, was brother-in-law 
 to Mr John Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, — that was enough ; but he re- 
 fused to take the Covenant, and anno 1639, had gone to Berwick to 
 the King ; therefore, July 1st, he was turned out of his place, and 
 in the following years exposed to many more sufferings, yet happier 
 therein than Mr John Forbes, that his church the very next year, 
 1641, was planted with another whom himself had named, and to 
 whose entry he gave his express consent ; one who was willing to 
 observe to Mr Alexander Innes the common rule of equity of quod 
 libi Jieri von vis — and one who, in the following years, upon that 
 self-same very account which had turned out Mr Alexander Innes, 
 did run the hazard, oftener than once, of being turned out of that 
 place, as well as his predecessor had been." 
 
 Another evidence, that James Gordon was the author, is derived 
 from a very rare printed fragment, (for the use of which, and also 
 for introductions to the various gentlemen who enabled me to inspect 
 the MS. of the King's College, and the Records of Aberdeen, I 
 am indebted to the kindness of Joseph Robertson, Esq.) being the 
 Introduction to " Memoirs of Scottish affairs from 1624 to 1651," 
 which were never published or completed, a work projected, and so 
 far composed, by an industrious and somewhat learned person, of
 
 528 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 the name of James Man, who published an edition of Buchanan's 
 History, and was chaplain and overseer of the Charity Work-House 
 of Aberdeen. The fragment in question contains some curious de- 
 tails regarding the original MS. sources from which the subsequent 
 history was to be derived, and, inter alia, the author says, " The 
 MSS., which a late author of the history of the Gordons gives out 
 for Straloch's, were all written by his son James, as I am assured 
 by the proprietor, James Gordon of Techmuric, the author's grand- 
 eon, who has promised to communicate such of them as are in his 
 possession. The most valuable one seems to be that which treats 
 of the rise of the civil war, and which there is hope of recovering 
 after it had run the risk of being lost." Further, it appears from a 
 manuscript in the Advocates' Library, (in two volumes folio, very 
 inaccurately titled on the back, " Straloch's Manuscript," and fre- 
 quently referred to under that title,) which is in the hand-writing 
 of this James Man, that he had afterwards obtained James Gordon's 
 MS. of which he speaks in his printed fragment. For on compar- 
 ing various extracts from the Advocates' BIS., with that in King's 
 College, Aberdeen, I found them to be precisely the same. Man's 
 manuscript, however, is the more valuable of the two, for, besides 
 containing the whole of James Gordon's history that the King's 
 College MS. contains, it has in addition copious illustrative ex- 
 tracts from other sources, chiefly MS. some of which have been 
 printed since, while others have been lost. That which is titled 
 *' Straloch's Manuscript," therefore, in the Advocates' Library, 
 ought to have been called Man's Manuscript, being obviously his 
 compilation for a projected history of the period, or an illustrated 
 edition of James Gordon's MS. History. Before the extracts he 
 has derived from the latter, Man prefixes the initials "J. G." To 
 other extracts he has prefixed the initials " P. G." of which, on 
 turning to the rare printed fragment, we find the following expla- 
 nation : 
 
 " Another of my authors is Patrick Gordon, an high cavalier \ 
 brother to Sir Alexander, son to Sir Thomas, and grandson to John 
 Gordon of Clunie." Man then proceeds to give the title of this MS. 
 as I have quoted it in the note to p. 257 of this volume, and after 
 referring to Patrick Gordon's attachment to Huntly and his sons, 
 adds this account of the MS. in question : " Though it be his pro- 
 fessed design to vindicate his chief from the imputation cast upon 
 him by the author of the first narration, as he calls him, — meaning, I 
 suppose, Dr Wishart, who writes the life of Montrose, — and though
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 529 
 
 the respective friends of Hamilton and Montrose speak not over fa- 
 vourably of Huntly's conduct, yet he fails not to do justice to Mon- 
 trose's merit, every where extolling him as a hero, and giving a bet- 
 ter account of his progress, and fuller in several particulars, than 
 any thing that has hitherto appeared in print. Hamilton's conduct 
 in the beginning he represents as treacherous, but seems doubtful 
 as to the future part of it." 
 
 James Gordon's original MS. has been again lost sight of, but 
 the separate transcripts at Aberdeen, and in Man's MS. supply its 
 place. Of Patrick Gordon's MS., however, I have not been able 
 to discover that either the original or a transcript is known to ex- 
 ist. Hence those extracts, marked " P. G." in what is inaccurate- 
 ly called the Straloch MS. in the Advocates' Library, and of which 
 We have thus afforded the explanation, are the more valuable, from 
 being all that has been preserved of this contemporary chronicler, 
 the loss of whose history of Montrose's progress is much to be re- 
 gretted. 
 
 Note V. p. 200. — The Large Declaration. Margaret Mitchelson. 
 
 Many of Dr Balcanqual's original MSS. of the Large Declaration, 
 which he compiled under the sanction of Charles I., are preserved in 
 the Advocates' Library. No statement or argument of those excited 
 and pamphleteering times will bear a closer examination than this 
 manifesto of the King's, the unanswerable truth of which greatly en- 
 raged the Covenanters. Mr Brodie adopts their vituperation of it, 
 and imitates the tone. Speaking of the Rev. Robert Baillie, he 
 says, " The Large Declaration this writer pronounces ' an unex- 
 ampled manifesto, heaping up a rabble of the foulest calumnies that 
 ever were put into any one discourse that he had read.' Hence 
 (adds Mr Brodie) little reliance can be placed on it ; and / suspect 
 that the story of Mitchelson, the prophetess, is one of the forgeries of 
 Balcanqual, Ross, and others. Burnet gives no authority, and Bail- 
 lie and others never allude to it." Hist. Vol. ii. p. 502. But, we 
 may ask, could it have entered into the head of Balcanqual, Ross, 
 " and others" to forge and publish a story of the very day, the al- 
 leged witnesses being the public itself! Mr Brodie does not reflect 
 that the allegation to the public of a fact as being notorious to that 
 public, cannot well be a forgery. 
 
 But we can afford, in corroboration of the account given in the 
 King's Declaration, a contemporary authority both from the loyal and 
 
 vol. i. l1
 
 530 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 the covenanting side of the question. The following is from James 
 Gordon's MS. 
 
 " About these times (1638) likewise arose the she prophetess, a 
 maid called Mitchelson, the daughter of a minister, whom some al- 
 lege to have been subject to fits of distraction. Her father left her 
 an orphan in her younger years. She was acquainted with the 
 Scripture, and much taken with the Covenant, and in her fits spoke 
 much to its advantage, and much ill to its opposers that would or at 
 least that she wished to befal them. Great numbers of all ranks of 
 people were her daily hearers, and many of the devouter sex. The 
 women prayed and wept with joy and wonder to hear her speak. 
 When her fits came upon her she was ordinarily thrown upon a 
 down bed, and there, prostrate with her face downwards, spoke such 
 words as were for a while carefully taken down from her mouth by 
 such as were skilful in brachygraphy. She had intermissions of her 
 discourses for days or weeks, and before she began to speak it was 
 made known through Edinburgh. Mr Harry Rollock, who often 
 came to see her, said that he thought it not good manners to speak 
 whilst her master was speaking, and that he acknowledged her mas- 
 ter's voice in her. Some misconstrued her to be suborned by the 
 Covenanters, and at least tbat she had nothing that savoured of a 
 rapture, but only of memory, and that still she knew what she spoke, 
 and being interrupted in her discourse answered pertinently to the 
 purpose. Her language signified little. She spoke of Christ, and 
 called him ' Covenanting Jesus' — that the covenant was approved 
 from Heaven — that the King's covenant was Sathan's invention — > 
 that the covenant should prosper, but the adherents to the King's 
 covenant should be confounded ; and much other stuff of this nature, 
 which savoured at best but of senseless simplicity. The Earl of 
 Airth, — upon a time, getting a paper of her prophecies which was in- 
 scribed, ' that such a day and such a year Mrs Mitchelson awoke and 
 gloriously spoke/ in place of the word gloriously, which he blotted 
 out, wrote over it the word goukedly, or foolishly, — was so much 
 detested for a while amongst the superstitious admirers of the maid, 
 that he had like to have run the fate of one of the bishops by a 
 charge with stones upon the street. But this blazing star quickly 
 vanished, and her prophecies were never printed, nor was she any 
 more taken notice of after a little while's reiteration of holy tauto- 
 logical nonsense, and impertinent repetitions of Scripture sentences, 
 mixed with some new phrases that were not Scripture language."
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 531 
 
 The other authority is a contemporary MS. in the Advocates' Li- 
 brary, entitled, " A True Relation of the Bishops in introducing of 
 the Service Book," &c. and in which occurs the following passage : 
 
 " Margaret Mitchelson's gracious raptures. 
 
 " About this time also, in Edinburgh, one Margaret Mitchelson, 
 a good religious damsel, being somewhat troubled in spirit, fell into 
 a trance, and was so ravished with heavenly and divine speeches and 
 praises to Christ, that her bodily senses almost failed her ; and in the 
 time of those raptures, which took her often, and sometimes keeped 
 her long, she might take no meat nor drink, nor did nothing but 
 bursted out in admirable divine speeches, expressing her love and 
 joy in Christ, and her assurance of blessedness in him, as the like 
 speeches never proceeded of flesh and blood ; many of the nobility 
 and ministry, and well-affected Christians, thronging to hear her, 
 being wonderfully moved with her speeches." 
 
 Note VI. p. 234. — Town- Council Books of Aberdeen. 
 
 The following extracts, from the Town-Council books of Aber- 
 deen, prove that Montrose exercised no unnecessary tyranny or 
 harshness towards the town when occupying it for the Covenanters. 
 Nor can I find any entry in those records at all corroborative of the 
 accusation of cruelty brought against Montrose, by modern writers. 
 I must acknowledge my obligation to Mr Hardy, the town-clerk 
 of Aberdeen, for the facilities afforded me there, of inspecting and 
 making extracts from these original records. 
 
 " 25th March 1G39. — The quhilk day, in respect that Doctor 
 William Johnston, and George Morison, who were directed com- 
 missioners from this burgh to the Earl of Montrose, upon the 
 20th day of March instant, with Mr Robert Gordon of Straloch, 
 and Doctor William Gordon, commissioners likewise to his Lordship 
 from the Marquis of Huntly, did receive a delaying answer at that 
 time from the said Earl of Montrose to such propositions as they 
 did remonstrate to his Lordship. Therefore the provost, bailies, 
 and council, think it expedient to direct the same commissioners of 
 new again to the said Earl of Montrose, and to propone to his Lord- 
 ship, and others of the nobility there present with him, the articles 
 following, and to crave their answer thereupon ; of the quhilk ar- 
 ticles the tenor follows :
 
 532 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 " It is desired by the town of Aberdeen, that they may have as- 
 surance that no hostility be used against them ; nor none of their 
 magistrates, ministers, nor others their inhabitants, be forced in 
 their consciences, nor wronged in their bodies or goods ; and that 
 their town be left in peace, as they are content to give a peaceable 
 entry to the nobility and their army. Item, that the town be not 
 urged to receive nor harbour more people nor they may conveniently 
 ease. Item, if any particular persons give any offence, that it be re- 
 paired in private, but (without) reflecting upon the public peace. 
 And the town promise a peaceable entry and issue, and such accom- 
 modation as they can afford during the abode of the nobility there ; 
 subscribed by the provost and bailies, and by the Marquis of Hunt- 
 ly as consenter, the 25th day of March 1639." 
 
 " 28th March 1639. The quhilk day the whole town, both free 
 and unfree, being convened in the Tolbooth by the drum, Mr 
 Alexander Jaffray, provost, shewed and declared to them the ar- 
 ticles mentioned in the act immediately before written, quhilk the 
 magistrates and council had sent with their commissioners to the 
 Earl of Montrose, and remanent nobility of the Covenant, approach- 
 ing towards this burgh with their army ; and withal the provost 
 shewed the answers quhilk our commissioners had received in writ- 
 ing to the said articles, of the quhilk answer the tenor follows : 
 
 " The Earl of Montrose did express that his intended voyage for 
 Aberdeen is only for performing the appointment of the late Gene- 
 ral Assembly, according as it hath been done in other places, and in 
 no way to do the smallest wrong or injury to any, (as perhaps is 
 supposed,) nor use the meanest violence, except in so far as his 
 Lordship and his Lordship's followers shall be necessitated for their 
 own safety, and their cause. In respect of the quhilk diligence used 
 by the magistrates and council in directing commissioners to the 
 said Earl of Montrose, and of the said Earl his answer foresaid 
 given to the saids commissioners, the town declared that they are 
 content to receive the noblemen and their followers, and to harbour 
 them after the most commodious manner they can, and desires the 
 magistrates to give order, ilk bailie through his own quarter, for 
 that effect, and for furnishing competent lodgings unto them such 
 as the town can afford." 
 
 " Memorandum, on Saturday the penult day of March 1639, the 
 Earl of Montrose, General of the Army, accompanied with Earl 
 Marischal, the Earl of Kinghorn, General Leslie, the Lord Coupar, 
 the Lord Elcho, the Lord Fraser, the Master of Forbes, and many
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 533 
 
 Barons of Angus, Mearns, Mar, and Buchan, come to the town of 
 Aberdeen with their army of horse and foot, where they entered and 
 marched through the town to the links, and there they pitched their 
 camp, being accounted six thousand men, sat at their council of war, and 
 thereafter the Earls of Marischal and Montrose, General Leslie, and 
 the greatest part of the army marched that day from the links to 
 Inverury, leaving behind them the Earl of Kinghorn, with eighteen 
 hundred men, to lie in the town till their back-coming ; and before 
 they marched out of the links the noblemen sent for our provost and 
 bailies, and charged them to fill up and cast in our trenches in all 
 possible diligence, and to enter to work for that effect on Monday 
 next, and to continue thereat till all the trenches were filled up 
 again, under the pain of plundering and rasing our town, quhilk 
 was accordingly obeyed." 
 
 Note VII. p. 312. — Anecdotes of Ar gyle. 
 
 Bishop Guthrie records that, in the year 1640, Argyle persisted 
 in destroying the house of Airly, (with whom he was at personal 
 feud,) although Montrose had put a garrison into it, under command 
 of Colonel Sibbald, and had written to Argyle to that effect. James 
 Gordon in his MS. has this account : 
 
 " I have seen some memorials, of the proceedings of these times, 
 which do refer the demolishing of Airly Castle to this expedition, 
 though I made mention of it the last year (1639.) Sure it is that in 
 anno 1639 it was burnt by Argyle ; therefore what more he did 
 there at this time I cannot peremptorily determine. This far is cer- 
 tain that (if you abstract from the time) Montrose with a party was 
 the first who besieged Airly, and left the prosecution of it to Ar- 
 gyle, who at the demolishing thereof is said to have shewed himself 
 so extremely earnest, that he was seen taking a hammer in his hand, 
 and knocking down the hewed work of the doors and windows till 
 he did sweat for heat at his work. There was likewise another 
 dwelling, belonging to Airly's eldest son, the Lord Ogilvy, called 
 Forthar, where his lady sojourned for the time. This house, though 
 no strength, behoved to be slighted ; and although the Lady Ogilvy, 
 being great with child at the time, asked licence of Argyle to stay 
 in her own house till she were brought to bed, that could not be ob- 
 tained, but Argyle causes expel her, who knew not whither to go. 
 The Lady Drum, Dame Marion Douglas, who lived at that time at 
 Kelly, hearing tell what extremity her grandchild, the Lady Ogilvy, 
 was reduced to, did send a commissioner to Argyle, to whom the said
 
 534 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 Lady Drum was a kinswoman, requesting that with his licence she 
 might admit into her house her own grandchild, the Lady Ogilvy, 
 who at that time was near her delivery ; but Argyle would give no 
 licence. This occasioned the Lady Drum to fetch the Lady Ogilvy 
 to her house of Kelly, and to keep her there upon all hazard that 
 might follow. Yet, though Argyle would not consent thereunto, he 
 had no face to quarrel afterwards with this generous matron upon 
 that account, she being universally known to have been as eminent- 
 ly virtuous and religious as any lady in her time. At such time as 
 Argyle was making havoc of Airly's lands, he was not forgetful to 
 remember old quarrels to Sir John Ogilvy of Craig, cousin to Airly. 
 Wherefore he directs one Sergeant Campbell to Sir John Ogilvy 's 
 house, and gives him warrant to slight it. The Sergeant coming 
 thither found a sick gentleman there, and some servants ; and look- 
 ing upon the house with a full survey, returned without doing any 
 thing, telling Argyle what he had seen, and that Sir John Ogilvy's 
 house was no strength at all, and therefore he conceived that it fell 
 not within his order to cast it down. Argyle fell in some chafe with 
 the Sergeant, telling him that it was his part to have obeyed his 
 orders, and instantly commanded him back again, and caused him 
 deface and spoil the house. At the Sergeant's parting with him 
 Argyle was remarked by such as were near to have turned away from 
 Sergeant Campbell with some disdain, repeating the Latin political 
 maxim abscindantur qui nos perturbant [_let them who trouble us be 
 cut off, J a maxim which many thought that he practised accurately, 
 which he did upon the account of the proverb consequential there- 
 unto, and which is the reason of the former, which Argyle was re- 
 marked to have likewise often in his mouth, as a chief aphorism, 
 and well observed by statesmen, — quod mortui uon mordent," [the 
 dead do not bite.] 
 
 Note VIII. p. 509. — Archibald Johnston's double dealing. 
 
 " heller from the Commissioners at London, to the General, and 
 Committees at Edinburgh and Newcastle. 
 
 " Right Hon ble , 
 
 " Amongst our others received from your 
 Lordships, we did also receive one direct to his Majesty, the 
 first part whereof, expressing your earnest desires for his Majesty's 
 coming to Scotland, was very acceptable to him, and his Majesty 
 did declare that he continues constant in that resolution to come
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 535 
 
 down. We did likewise present your thanks unto the Queen yes- 
 terday, who declared her propension and readiness to intercede with 
 the King, that there might be a right understanding betwixt him 
 and his subjects of Scotland ; and that the long-continued corre- 
 spondence betwixt France and Scotland, and the good offices which 
 many of that kingdom have done to her father, is a reason she ac- 
 knowledges to move her Majesty to do all the respect and kindness 
 she can do to that nation. 
 
 " There are dayly arguments and reasons given in, in his Majes- 
 ty's name, that the act of oblivion may be general, without reserva- 
 tion or exception of any person whomsoever, which we do always 
 oppose. Yet we cannot but shew your Lordships, that you have laid 
 a very hard and difficult charge upon us, in commanding us to main- 
 tain that none cited to the Parliament can be passed from, but that 
 the act of oblivion be general for all men and all faults upon the 
 one side, and that the noblemen, and considerable gentlemen who 
 have adhered to the King, shall be under the lash and hazard of the 
 Parliament's censure. But we are resolved closely to adhere to 
 your directions and instructions, and maintain them with the best 
 reasons we can. 
 
 " We have, and shall with all instancy urge the removing of 
 the Incendiaries from the King and Court ; and we did yesterday 
 make use of the information sent to us, concerning the discovery 
 of the Earl of Traquair's plots, as an argument to the English 
 Commissioners, and the Committee of both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, (who did then convene with us,) to move them to intercede 
 with the King that he might be removed from his Majesty, and 
 from Court, and sent home to abide his trial, which we shall still 
 press, whether the same be obtained or not ; and shall make the best 
 use tve can of any further informations or discovery your Lordships 
 shall be pleased to send us. The King denies his knowledge of these 
 plots betwixt the Earls of Montrose and Traquair : and we heard 
 that Traquair doth likewise pertinaciously deny that wherewith he 
 is charged. But it is not likely that Lieutenant-Colonel Walter 
 Stewart, his relation to the Earl of Traquair being considered, would, 
 to his prejudice, have invented them, and we hope that God, who 
 has begun to discover these mischievous plots, will at last bring the 
 same to light. 
 
 " Mr Archibald Johnston is to take journey from hence one of 
 these two days ; nor could the condition of our affairs and treaty 
 spare him sooner. The debates we have about the act of oblivion
 
 536 ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 and articles of trade, and the Lower House is so much taken up with 
 the discovert) of plots here, and removing of Episcopacy, that it hath 
 foreslowed the close of thfi treaty, which we shall press with all 
 possible diligence, and shall, immediately after we come to a con- 
 clusion, send down three of our number, according to your Lord- 
 ships' direction. Remitting your Lordships more particular infor- 
 mation of all particulars to Mr Archibald Johnston his relation, 
 We remain, 
 
 " Your Lordships' affectionate friends and servants, — 
 
 " Subscribed by all the Commissioners." 
 " London, 16th June 1641." 
 
 [MS. Vol. of contemporary transcripts of the negotiations at this 
 treaty. — Advoc. Lib.] 
 
 Thus Archibald Johnston, as one of the Commissioners, complain- 
 ed of the very instructions which, as a private and indirect prac- 
 tiser, he had passionately demanded from the Committee ! 
 
 Note IX. p. 510. — The King's Instructions to Dunfermline and 
 
 Loudon. 
 
 " Charles R. 
 
 " 1. To show that it is our royal intention to go to Scotland to hold 
 the Parliament in our own person, and that the real end of our go- 
 ing is to remove all distractions, and to establish a firm and durable 
 peace in Church and State, — that we may be so cordially reconciled 
 to all our native subjects, as they may be assured of our royal pro- 
 tection, and pay to us the tribute of true affection, and dutiful obe- 
 dience, and shall not hearken to any divisive motion, or misinfor- 
 mation, which may in any sort breed discord, or be a hinderance of 
 a happy and durable peace. 
 
 " 2. You shall make known to them that it is our royal resolution 
 to establish the Religion, and Church Government of Scotland, ac- 
 cording to the acts of the late Assembly, without intention of change 
 or alteration thereof, at any time hereafter. 
 
 " 3. To show that we intend that such churches, and stipends of 
 ministers, as have not been taken into consideration of the former 
 commissions, shall yet, in a new commission, be considered, — that 
 the tythes of these paroches may be settled according to the order 
 which was formerly taken, and that the ministers' stipends may be 
 augmented.
 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 53? 
 
 " 4. Concerning the presentations of ministers to the kirks where* 
 of we are patron, we intend to take such order by the advice of the 
 General Assembly, and our Council, as men of best gifts, and quali- 
 fications, may be presented to these churches. 
 
 " 5. To show that we intend to grant some supply, out of the rents 
 of the late bishops, to the colleges, which are the seminaries of learn- 
 ing, the better to enable them to breed men of such virtue and en- 
 dowments, as may be fit for the service both of Church and State. 
 
 " 6. Concerning; the Government civil, you shall declare that it is 
 our royal resolution to govern our people according to the funda- 
 mental laws of that kingdom, and to minister justice equally to all 
 men, and that all matters ecclesiastic be judged by the General As- 
 semblies, and other subordinate assemblies of the church, and that 
 all matters civil shall be judged by the Parliament, and other in- 
 ferior Courts of Justice established by the laws of that kingdom. 
 
 " 7- To show that we shall ratify the treaty of peace in the Par- 
 liament of England before our parting from hence, and shall like- 
 wise ratify the same in the Parliament of Scotland at the next Ses- 
 sion thereof. 
 
 " 8. Seeing we conceive that there is nothing which can conduce 
 more for establishing our authority, and procure the obedience of 
 our subjects more, than the administration of justice, to show that 
 we intend, at our being in Scotland, to command the Council and 
 Session, and other Courts of Justice, to be patent, and to proceed 
 in the administration of justice. 
 
 " 9. As concerning the selection and appointing of our Officers of 
 State, Counsellors, and Sessioners, we desire you to be most care- 
 ful and earnest in endeavouring all ye can, and using of your best 
 means, to make the articles that we already drew up upon that pro- 
 position to be condescended unto, and accepted, as fittest for our 
 honour, and the just satisfaction of our subjects. 
 
 " 10- We having most clearly expressed our former resolution to 
 establish a durable peace, in the Church and State, in that our an- 
 cient and native kingdom of Scotland, and for that effect to be pre- 
 sent at the Parliament shortly to hold there, and being most desir- 
 ous to prevent all impediments that may cross or hinder cordial 
 unity, so really intended by us with our native subjects, we earnest- 
 ly recommend to your care, that the Earl of Traquair, making hum- 
 ble submission to us and the Parliament, you try the minds of 
 the Committee, and deal effectually with them to intercede with 
 the Parliament, to accept of his humble suhmission, and the same 
 VOL. I. to in
 
 538 ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 being accepted and recorded, that no further sentence of Parlia- 
 ment pass against him. 
 
 "11. And that all others cited to the Parliament who shall not 
 he found guilty of some great and extraordinary crime, but have 
 only left the country, [£. e. " the cause,"] and adhered to us, be past 
 from. 
 
 " 12. That you deal with the Committees to be content themselves, 
 and to intercede with the Parliament, that the keepers of Treeve, 
 Dunbartane, and Edinburgh, maybe remitted, and restored to their 
 estates in this Parliament, seeing all is now to take a peaceable close. 
 
 " 13. Although the fountain of justice is not to be stopt, nor the 
 legislative power, which is in us and our Parliament, to be re- 
 strained, yet seeing all things conceived to be necessary for the 
 peace of the church and kingdom, after full debate, and upon ma- 
 ture deliberation, are agreed unto, special care will be had that no 
 new thing be urged which may be derogatory to our regal power, 
 honour, or benefit. 
 
 " 14. If the necessity of important affairs shall happen to detain 
 us here, so as we cannot keep punctually the day appointed for the 
 meeting of the Parliament there, that they would either prorogate 
 the Parliament for a fortnight [interlined, in the King's hand, 
 moneth,'} or, if they be unwilling to have it adjourned, that they 
 may for the space of one moneth [filled up in the King's hand,] sit 
 still for preparing and ripening of business to the Parliament, but 
 make no determinations till our coming there. 
 
 " C. R. s ' 
 " Whitehall, the 30th of June 1641." 
 
 There can be no doubt that the original MS. in the Fyvie char- 
 ter-room, of the above Instructions, is that which was given by 
 Charles the First to the Earl of Dunfermline and Lord Loudon, 
 to be by them laid before the Scotch Parliament, which met on 
 the 15th July 1641 . Fyvie Castle was the seat of the Earls of Dun- 
 fermline, who were Lords of Fyvie and Urquhart. It has passed into 
 the Aberdeen family ; and I am greatly indebted to the kindness of 
 its present hospitable owner, William Gordon, Esq. of Fyvie, who 
 permitted me to transcribe the above, and other interesting docu- 
 ments in the charter-room of the Castle. 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN STARK, 
 OID A5SEMRT.Y CLOSE, EDINBURGH. 
 
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