Memoirs of the Marquis of Montrose

MEMOIRS

OF THE

MARQUIS OF MONTROSE.

M.DC.XII— M.DC.L.

MEMOIRS

OF THE

MARQUIS OF MONTROSE.

BY

MARK NAPIER

VOLUME SECOND.

" As Truth docs not seek corners it needeth no favour: My
resolution is to carry along fidelity and honour to the grave."
Montrose to the Scotch Parliament, 1641.

EDINBUKGH:

THOMAS G. STEVENSON, 87 PRINCES STREET.

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO.

M.DCCC.LVI.

in J$tati0Jttrs' pall.

THE AUTHOR OF THIS WORK RESERVES TO HIMSELF THE RIGHT
OF TRANSLATION.

MACPHERSON & STME, Printers, 12 St David Street Edinburgh.

CONTENTS

OF

THE SECOND VOLUME.

CHAPTER XX. — Results of the King's Settlement of Scotland in
1641 — His Correspondence with Mont-rose — The Queen's Re-
ception at Burlington — Montrose's Conference with Her there,
and at York — His Counsel Rejected for that of Hamilton —
His Epitaph on the Earl of Newcastle's Dog, Slain by Ha-
milton— Position of Montrose in Scotland — Argyle's attempt
to Entrap Him — The Queen's Correspondence with Him —
His Conference with the Moderator of the Kirk — Outwits
Argyle — Result of the Scotch Convention — The Covenanters
March against the King — Disgrace of the Hamiltons — The
Reverend Robert Baillie's Grace before Meat, Page 369-384

CHAPTER XXI. — Montrose Commissioned by Charles I. to Raise
the Standard in Scotland — Nature of His Scheme — Jealousy
of the Scottish Loyalists — Sets out on His Adventures —
Letters to President Spottiswoode Reporting Progress —
Montrose's Interview with the Marquis of Newcastle at Dur-
ham— Incites the Marquis to give Battle to the Scots — Mon-
trose's Estimate of the Commander-in- Chief for the King in
the North of England — Mrs Piersons, alias Captain Francis
Dalzell — Jealousy of the Earl of Carnwath — Battle of Bow-
denhill — The Family Party of Plotters — Montrose Foiled in
the Attempt to Enter Scotland — His Operations in the North
of England — Siege of Morpeth — Battle of Marston-Moor —
Prince Rupert — Montrose's Desperate Resolve — His Written
Instructions to Lord Ogilvy for the King — Ogilvy Defeated,
Taken Prisoner, and his Dispatches sent by Lord Fairfax to
the Covenanting General — Montrose Disappears, 385-411

CHAPTER XXII. — Montrose Passes into Scotland in Disguise —
Remains Concealed at Tullibelton — Ascertains the State of
Parties in Scotland— Descent of M'Coll Keitach on the West
Coast — His Proceedings — Tidings of His Arrival reach Mon-
trose, who hastens to join Him — Montrose Raises the Stand-

vi CONTENTS.

ard in the Blair of Athole — Is Joined by some" of the Clans
— Determines to Lead them against the Army in the Low
Country — Reasons for not Turning upon Argyle at this time
— Different Armies of the Covenant — Inferior condition of
the Forces under Montrose — Extraordinary Transitions in
his Loyal Career— Marches upon Perth — His Challenge to
Argyle — His Declaration to the Country, Page 412-425

CHAPTER XXIII. — The Battle of Tippermuir— Baillie's Lament
— Proceedings of Montrose in Perth, as Deponed to by the
Civic Authorities — Marches into Angus — Lord Kilpont Mur-
dered by Stewart of Ardvoirlich — Baillie Applauds the Deed,
and Argyle Promotes the Assassin — Argyle Sets a Price on
Montrose7 s Head — Montrose Defeats Burleigh at Aberdeen
— Repulses Argyle and Lothian at Fyvie — Shakes them off
at Strathbogie — Chases Argyle from Dunkeld — Baillie's Apo-
logy for Argyle — He obtains the Approbation of the Com-
mittee of Estates, .... 426-469

CHAPTER XXIV. — The Battle of Inverlochy, and its Antece-
dents, ..... 470-488

CHAPTER XXV. — The Covenanting Parliament Thanks Argyle
— The General Assembly Petitions for Blood — Lord Gordon
Joins Montrose — Seaforth submits, and Signs the Kilcummin
Bond — Death of Lord Graham — Death of Donald Farquhar-
son — Capture of James Lord Graham — Lord Airlie Inva-
lided— Burning of Dunnottar — Montrose Challenges Baillie
in Angus — Storms Dundee — His Brilliant Retreat to the
Hills — Escape of Aboyne and the Master of Napier to Join
Montrose — The Battle of Auldearn and its Antecedents, 489-506

CHAPTER XXVI. — Argyle' s Revenge — His Triumph over Old
Men and Maidens, Matrons, and Young Children — Battle of
Alford — Death of Lord Gordon — His Admiration for Mon-
trose— Battle of Kilsyth, and its Antecedents — General
Baillie's Account of the Battle — Covenanting Commanders —
View 6f the Battle on the Side of the Royalists — Modern
Calumnies, . . . . . . 507-551

CHAPTER XXVII. — Results of the Battle of Kilsyth— Montrose
Encamps at Both well, and Protects Glasgow — Complimentary
Addresses and Offers of Service to Him there — Cruel Treat-
ment of the Imprisoned Loyalists — The Plague of 1645 —
Montrose' s Orders for the Protection of Linlithgow and Edin-
burgh, and the Release of the Prisoners — Lord Graham a
Prisoner in the Castle, Declines the Condition of being Ex-

CONTENTS. vii

changed — Montrose and the Poet Drummoud — President
Spottiswoode Arrives at Both well with a Higher Commission
to Montrose — Aboyne Deserts the Standard, and takes with him
the Northern Horse — Ogilvy's Letter to Aboyne — Allaster
Macdonald Knighted by Montrose — Forsakes the Standard,
and Carries off the Highlanders — Montrose, as Ordered by the
King, Marches to the Borders — Deserted and Betrayed by
the Border Nobles — Spottiswoode' s Letter at Kelso to Digby
— Montrose at Selkirk — The Skeleton of his Army Sur-
prised and Surrounded by Six Thousand Calvalry, under
General David Leslie, at Philiphaugh, Page 552-580

CHAPTER XXVIII. — Montrose Defended from the Calumnies of
his Enemies, and the Blunders and Mistakes of Modern His-
torical Writers — His Conduct contrasted with that of the Co-
venanters— Immediate Results of the Triumph of the Covenant
and the Government of Argyle — the Covenanting Kirk Re-
vels in Blood, ..... 581-604
CHAPTER XXIX. — Montrose and Huntly, . . G05-630
CHAPTER XXX. — The King Places Himself in the Hands of the
Covenanters — Delusive Hopes of being Allowed to Join Mon-
trose — Is compelled to desire Montrose to Disband his
Forces and Quit the Country — Correspondence between the
King and Montrose — Montrose and Middleton — The New
Position of Hamilton — Burnet Controverted — Design to Seize
the Person of Montrose — Frustrated by his Escape in Dis-
guise— Condition of His Family Circle — The Lord Advocate
of the Troubles applies to the King for a Renewal of his
Office — Sings the Twenty-third Psalm, and Dies, 631-651
CHAPTER XXXI. — New Conjunction of Hamilton and Argyle —
Renewed Attempt of Montrose to Unite the Loyalty of the
North — Transmits His Scheme to Henrietta Maria — Her
Cold Reception of it, under Evil Counsels — Her Correspon-
dence with Montrose — Affecting Letter from the King to
Montrose abroad — Hamilton Prevails in Parliament against
Argyle, and with the Queen against Montrose — Argyle Col-
leagues^with Cromwell — Montrose withdraws from the Court
of the Queen — His Letter to the Laird of Keir — De Retz and
Montrose — Letter from Lord Napier with an Account of
Montrose's Reception and Movements Abroad — Hamilton's
Patronage of King Charles — Argyle's Patronage of Crom-
well, . 652-673

viii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXII. — Montrose Corresponds with the Duke of
York, Prince Rupert, the Prince of Wales, and the Chancel-
lor Hyde— Clarendon Corrected— Murder of the King —
Effect upon Montrose— His Letter on the subject to Sir Ed-
ward Hyde, . Page 674-693
CHAPTER XXXIII.— Montrose at the Hague— His Correspon-
dence with Queen Henrietta Maria — A Foul Scandal Re-
futed— Virulent Enmity of the Covenanting Commissioners
— Montrose's Letter to Charles the Second at the Hague —
Royal Letters to Montrose, . . 694-707
CHAPTER XXXIV.— Montrose and the Queen of Hearts, 708-722
CHAPTER XXXV. — Preparations for Montrose's Last Crusade
against the Covenant in Scotland — The Earl of Kinnoul's
Letter to Him from Orkney — Sudden Deaths there of Kin-
noul and the Earl of Morton — Pressure upon Montrose at
Home and Abroad — Dr Wishart to Lord Napier — Montrose
and Seaforth— Ogilvy of Powrie's Letter from Orkney, 723-736
CHAPTER XXXVI.— Defeat and Capture of Montrose, 737-747
CHAPTER XXXVII.— Montrose and Charles the Second, 748-768
CHAPTER XXXVIII. — The Last Days and Doom of Mon-
trose, ...... 769-796

CHAPTER XXXIX.— The Execution— The Retribution— Lady

Napier and the Heart of Montrose — Epitaph, . 797-818

APPENDIX.

I. — Sequel to the Story of Montrose's Heart, . 819-824
II. — Ceremony of Collecting the Remains of Montrose, and
Taking Down His Head from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
on Monday 7th January 1661, . . 825-829

III.— The " True Funerals of Montrose," 1661, . 880-837
IV. — M. Guizot's Contribution from the Archives of

France, ..... 837-839

V.— Jenny Geddes's Recantation, . . 840-841

VI. — Lord Frendraught, Redivivus, , . 841

VII.— Lord Mahon's Theory of Montrose's Last Speech, 842-844
VIII.— The Public Estimate of the Covenant, and of Argyle, in

1661, 844-847

INDEX, . 849

ILLUSTRATIONS,
IN VOLUME SECOND.

1. PORTRAIT OP MONTROSE BY DOBSON, 1644, . Frontispiece.

2. PORTRAIT OP SIR GEORGE STIRLING OF KEIR, BY JAME-

SON, ..... Page 381

3. PORTRAIT OP LADY STIRLING OP KEIR, BY JAMESON, 511

4. PORTRAIT OF ARCHIBALD, SECOND LORD NAPIER, BY JAMESON, 667

5. PORTRAIT OF MONTROSE BY HONTHORST, 1649, . 711

6. PORTRAIT OF ARGYLE, .... 489

7. FACSIMILE OF CROWN AND MOTTO ATTACHED TO MONTROSE'S

PROCLAMATION, 1644, . . . . 425

8. SEAL OF MONTROSE, .... 506

9. FACSIMILE OF THE AUTOGRAPH OF THE QUEEN OP BOHEMIA, 711
10. SEAL OF MONTROSE, .... 747

VOL. II.

MFE OF MONTROSE. 369

CHAPTER XX.

RESULTS OF THE KING'S SETTLEMENT OF SCOTLAND IN 1641 — HIS CORRE-
SPONDENCE WITH MONTROSE — THE QUEEN'S RECEPTION AT BURLING-
TON— MONTROSE'S CONFERENCE WITH HER THERE, AND AT YORK — HIS
COUNSEL REJECTED FOR THAT OF HAMILTON — HIS EPITAPH ON THE
EARL OF NEWCASTLE'S DOG, SLAIN BY HAMILTON — POSITION OF MON-
TROSE IN SCOTLAND — ARGYLE'S ATTEMPT TO ENTRAP HIM — THE QUEEN'S
CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIM — HIS CONFERENCE WITH THE MODERATOR
OF THE KIRK — OUTWITS ARGYLE — RESULT OF THE SCOTCH CONVENTION
— THE COVENANTERS MARCH AGAINST THE KING — DISGRACE OF THE
HAMILTONS — THE REVEREND ROBERT BAILLIE'S GRACE BEFORE MEAT.

THE fact is, Montrose was floored, and his head broken with
his own stick. " King Campbell's" crown was not to be cracked
by a classical couplet. What cared he for Ovid ? His readings
from the book of Jonah were more to the purpose. " And God
be thanked," piped Lord Napier to those who would not dance,
— " God be thanked I see his Majesty there ; I am confident
we shall find the gracious effects of his presence/1 It was
reckoning without his host, and being thankful for small mer-
cies. How Argyle must have chuckled, at this melancholy
crow of the old courtier from " the stage appointed for delin-
quents." And how " auld Durie," and " young Durie," and
brothers Balmerino and Burleigh, Hope and Humbie, et hoc
genus omne, who had been tickled with his joke against " Signior
Puritano," must have winked knowingly at each other, as who
should say, " he had better have taken the clean bill we offered
him." Montrose, too, must have felt giddy as he gathered his
legs again, and gazed at the departing shadow of Scotland's
King.

After a convulsive struggle, Charles had agreed not to name
his own Privy-council, nor to appoint the Officers of State, or

24

370 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Lords of Session, except with the advice of Parliament. The
anticipated result was, that such a Parliament as Scotland
then had, altered the lists which his Majesty presented, accord-
ing to their own pleasure and particular objects. Of course
they sanctioned the re-appointment of Sir Thomas Hope, as his
Majesty's Advocate, for the country s interest. Hamilton had
not a word to say against him now, although on the 27th of
November 1638 he had written to Charles, "The Advocate
should be removed, for he is ill disposed." The poor King
could more easily have removed Arthur's Seat. Then the
" little crooked old soldier, inferior to none but the King of
Sweden," who had so cunningly constructed, and so successfully
led the armies of the Covenant against the Throne, fell with
mercenary tears upon the hand of his injured Sovereign, vowing
" that he would not only never more serve against him, but
that, when his Majesty would require his service, he should
have it, without ever asking what the cause was," — and rose,
Lord Balgony and Earl of Leven. Lord Amond, who was
second in command to Leslie, and, strange to say, also second
in command to Montrose, in the matter of the " Band that was
brunt," had been petted like the prodigal son, by Argyle — to
whom he had peached — and now obtained his reward in the earl-
dom of Callendar. The Dictator and his friend Lord Lindsay
emerged, the one a Marquis, and the other an Earl. Argyle
fought viciously against the King's nomination of Morton for
the seals, or the white staff. But the distracted Monarch, well
knowing the drift of that storm, steadied upon his own deter-
mination to ignore his great rival in Scotland, for either office,
like a drunk man at the prospect of death. His choice of Mor-
ton, however, was not suffered to stand ; so, amid a contention
which made the oaken rafters of the Parliament hall rattle again,
the seals fell next door to the Dictator, in the lap of Loudon.
This last also obtained the barony which he represented through
his wife, erected into an earldom in his own person, with pre-
cedence from 1633. The Treasury was put into commission ;
but Argyle, and his devoted friends Loudon and Lindsay, were
commissioners. Warriston's great ambition was to be Lord
Register. Well that rogue knew how to hoard, cook, and quote
records, and » auld practiques" against the monarchy. Baillie's

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 371

confession of this worthy's imperfect success in the scramble is
naif. His competitor was Durie the younger. " The body of
the well-affected Estates thought that place the just reward of
Mr Johnston's great and very happy labours ; many papers run
against Durie; notwithstanding, by Argyle his means most,
whereat many wondered, Durie got the prize, and Mr Archi-
bald was made content with knighthood and a place in the
Session, and two hundred pounds of pension."1 The Advocate's
second son, our friend " A. B.," was rewarded, for his readings
in Buchanan, by a seat on the Bench beside his brother Craig-
hall, and by conferring upon him the additional dignity of Jus-
tice-General,— " to the indignation of the nobility," says his own
friend Baillie. Clerk Humbie, too, was placed on the Bench,
and knighted to boot. The King's list of the Privy Council was
ruthlessly pruned of his best friends, to make way for such as
Balmerino and Burleigh. Argyle, Lindsay, and Balmerino, were
made Extraordinary Lords of Session ; Mr Alexander Hender-
son, the Kirk's Moderator, obtained the rich gift of the revenue
of the chapel royal. But the inferior clerical factionists were
disappointed as usual ; for Argyle and others seized the richest
spoils of the bishoprics. There was no blood going upon this
occasion, so " thou seditious preacher" wert fain to lick the
platter. Hamilton did not yet accomplish his dukedom. But
he now obtained that which he better deserved — a character
from the Covenanters. They bestowed upon him the highest
grade of that most grinning of honours. On Thursday 30th
September J 641, " The whole house, by their act, in one voice,
does clear the Lord Marquis of Hamilton of all scandals and
disloyalties to his King and country, and declares him to be a
true patriot, and faithful and loyal servant to his Majesty."

Thus, by force, and fear, and fraud, was the deed of gift ac-
complished, and the Kingdom of Scotland transferred to a
designing, avaricious, and, as we shall presently see, a merciless
faction. In all probability this was the crisis at which Mon-

1 He did become Lord Register at last, and shewed the ruling passion strong in
death. When his turn came to be hanged, he horrified the beholders, in pleading
for his life, by the abject intensity of his alarm ; and offered to " do the King
(Charles II.) great service, if he would give him his life, by putting the registers in
good order, and settling the King's prerogatire from old records." — SIR GEORGE
MACKENZIE.

372 LIFE OFMONTROSE.

trose penned the desponding lines,-for his political lucubra-
tions to some « noble Sir" having utterly failed, what had he
now to do but write poetry ?

x Then break afflicted heart, and live not in these days,
When all prove merchants of their faith, none trusts what other says :
For when the Sun doth shine, then shadows do appear ;
But when the Sun doth hide his face, they with the Sun reteir.
Some friends as shadows are, and fortune as the Sun,
They never proffer any help till fortune hath begun ;
But if in any case fortune shall first decay,
Then they, as shadows of the Sun, with fortune pass away." '

But scarcely had our hero time to breathe in his retirement,
or to know that his head was safe on his shoulders, from the
charge of corresponding with his Sovereign, when those auto-
graph letters reached him which we have disclosed in the last
chapter. It was not the ambitious Montrose agitating to force
himself into the counsels of the King. It was the harassed and
cheated Monarch commanding counsel and aid, in these com-
plimentary missives, from the discarded and isolated nobleman.
Matters soon came to a crisis with the Parliament in England.
Upon the 25th of August 164-2, the royal standard was erected
at Nottingham. Two days thereafter, on the 27th of August,
Charles, from that place, wrote again with his own hand to the
hero of " the Plot," as follows : —

" MONTROSE,

" I send Will Murray to Scotland to inform my friends of
the state of my affairs, and to require both their advice and
assistance. You are one whom I have found most faithful, and
in whom I repose greatest trust. Therefore I address him chiefly
to you. You may credit him in what he shall say, both in rela-
tion to my business and to your own ; and you must be content
with words while (until) I be able to act. I will say no more
but that I am your loving friend, " CHARLES ft." 2

i " Sequitur fortunam, ut semper, et odit damnatos."— Jutenal, Sat. x. iv. 73.

The coincidence between Montrose's lines, and a sentence in his letter to the
King, will be observed : « They are flatterers, and therefore cannot be friends ;
they follow your fortune, and love not your person." See before, p. 313.

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 373

Credit him, indeed ! The goblin groom whom the infatuated
Charles sent on this confidential mission, was the tool of Ha-
milton, and the agent of the Kirk.1 Hamilton at this very time
was in Scotland, caballing with Argyle against his royal master.
So suspiciously was the minion regarded by all who yet rallied
round the throne, that the whole gentry of loyal Yorkshire were
about to petition the King to remove him from Court. Hamil-
ton met the danger by volunteering his services to keep Scot-
land in order. He gave the King, says Clarendon, " many
assurances and undertakings that he would at least keep that
people from doing anything that might seem to countenance
the carriage of the Parliament.1' Unfortunately, Charles again
trusted him ; and this ruinous minister was in Scotland, with
special instructions to that effect, when the General Assembly
sat down at St Andrews, on the 27th July 1642. Baillie, in
his account of that Assembly, exults in the aid they received
from him. " The Marquis of Hamilton and Argyle's intimate
familiarity" he says, " kept down the malecontents from any
stirring." The malecontents were Montrose, and about a score
of loyal noblemen and gentlemen, who were simply petitioning
the Privy Council, in the most respectful and conservative terms,
to stand to their loyal pledges, and not to join the Parliament
in arms. We have here Baillie's own assurance, that Hamilton,
at the very time when he was expressly commissioned and
pledged to support, with all his power and energies, such friends
of the King, kept them down, and did so by means of his inti-
mate familiarity with Argyle. Nay, another " Incident" was
invented for the nonce. The life of no human being of that
party was in jeopardy, or threatened. But, upon the occasion
of these loyal and most temperate petitions, " there was a great
rumour raised? says our credulous chronicler, " of a wicked de-
sign upon Argyle's person." This had the desired effect. A
storm of fanatics, flocking from the county of Fife, drove the
good and the loyal away. The King's messenger, with that
letter to Montrose in his pocket, found the chief of the Camp-
bells, and the King's prime minister for Scotland, feasting
together at Hamilton. It was on the 27th November 1638 that

i See before, pp. 136, 272. Also, " Montrose and the Covenanters," vol. ii.
pp. 93,97,99, 100.

374 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Hamilton had written to the King,—" The Earl of Argyle must
be well looked to ; for it fears me he will prove the dangerousest
man in the State." Had he less doubt of that now ! It was in
the same letter that he exclaimed, " I wish my daughters be
never married in Scotland ;" which, his native country, he added,
" I hate next Hell." How had it improved ? Now, in the au-
tumn of 1642, we find him domesticated with Argyle, and cook-
ing a marriage- contract between his own eldest daughter, and
the eldst son of King Campbell ! l Not a whole Bench of Bishop
Burnets could extricate Hamilton from these, which are only a
few of the damning facts of his secret history.

Whatever had been confided to Will Murray by the King,
was of course revealed to Hamilton and Argyle, even before it
reached Montrose. The immediate result was curious. Not-
withstanding the monarchical principles so boldly announced
by our hero, both in and out of Parliament ; notwithstanding
his consequent arraignment as for a capital offence against the
State ; notwithstanding all the bitterness of abuse with which
he had been so recently assailed in that libel, which, in his judi-
cial defence, he declared to be a " rhapsody of forethought vil-
lany," — the leaders of the movement, already preparing a rebel
army in aid of the Parliament, sought him, like another Cincin-
natus in his retirement, and endeavoured to bribe him to be-
come their Lieutenant- General.

" Now that they (the Covenanters) might the better secure
their affairs at home, they labour tooth and nail to draw Mon-
trose, of whom almost only they were afraid, again to their side.
They offer him, of their own accord, the Lieutenant-Generalship
in the army, and whatever else he could desire and they bestow.
He, seeing a mighty storm hovering over the King's head, that
he might give an account of it, whereby it might be timely pre-
vented, undertakes a journey into England, taking the Lord

1 This pregnant fact has been disclosed by the recent publication of an illustrated
Catalogue of the Hamilton papers. No. 191 is thus described : " Contract of mar-
riage betwixt the Marquis of Hamilton on the part of his eldest daughter, Lady Ann ;
and the Marquis of Argyle on the part of his eldest son, the Lord Lorn, when they
should be of age : The marriage portion is an hundred thousand marks ; the yearly
jointure fifteen thousand marks ; and the penalty to him who resiled, thirty-six
thousand marks, all remeid of law excluded j 1641-1642." — Maitland Club Mis-
cellany.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 375

Ogilvy into his counsel and company. At Newcastle he receives
news that the Queen, being newly arrived out of Holland, was
landed at Burlington in Yorkshire. Thither he makes haste,
and relates unto the Queen all things in order." l

Henrietta Maria arrived in Burlington Bay in the month of
February 1643. In a letter, dated 18th February 1643, Baillie
says : " Our heartburnings increase, and with them our dan-
gers ; so much the more as Montrose, Ogilvy, and Aboyne, who
this long while have been very quiet^ are on a sudden to the
King, for what we cannot tell.1" The reception which the Queen
of Charles the First met with, when setting foot at this time
upon the soil of England, must have stirred the deepest indig-
nation even in bosoms less chivalrous than the chief of the
Grahams. She was bombarded, while in her bed-room on the
quay, with cross-bar shot, by Vice-Admiral Batten ; and, adds
Clarendon, " forced out of her bed, some of the shot making
way through her own chamber, and to shelter herself under a
bank in the open fields." 2 Such was the state of matters when
our hero first came into contact with the consort of his Sove-
reign ; and, be it remembered, at the time when he was receiv-
ing letter after letter from the King himself, claiming his coun-
sel and his aid. That counsel he now imparted to her Majesty,
with the truth and energy characteristic of his nature. The
broad question was, how to prevent the " contented people"
from aiding the rebellion in England. Montrose felt assured,
and the result proved how accurate were his anticipations, that
everything was in train for a military combination with the
English Parliament. Even as the King quitted Scotland, the

1 From the English edition of Wishart's Commentaries, published in 1648 at the
Hague, while Montrose was resident there, and in the lifetime of all the parties.

2 Spalding narrates it thus : — " Her Majesty, having mind of no evil, but glad of
rest, now wearied by the sea, is cruelly assaulted ; for these six rebel ships sets
their broadsides to her lodging, batters the house, dings down the roof, or (before)
she wist of herself. Always she gets up out of her naked bed, in her night waly-
coat, bare foot and bare leg, with her maids of honour, (whereof one through plain
fear went stark mad, being ane nobleman of England's dochter),she gets safely out
of the house. Albeit the staues were flisting' about her head, yet courageously she
goes out, they shooting still, and by providence of the Almighty she escapes, and all
her company, except the foresaid maid of honour, and goes to ane den, which the
cannon could not hurt, and on the bare fields she rested, instead of stately lodgings,
cled with curious tapestrie."

376 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

army was revived, if it could ever be said to have been dis-
banded. Its ostensible object and immediate destination was
Ireland. But the whole state of the covenanting councils
clearly indicated that Argyle was to rule its destinies, and that
its leader in the field, instead of being the King's Earl of Le-
ven, was still the old obedient covenanting mercenary, Alex-
ander Leslie. Though in Ireland with their commander, these
forces, our hero foresaw, would be ready to return in support of
the movement, whenever King Campbell gave the nod. That
potentate only paused for a convention of the Estates, and a
General Assembly, the fields, we cannot say bloodless, in which
he was ever courageous and successful.

This critical state of affairs Montrose unfolded to the Queen
at Burlington, from whence her Majesty immediately proceeded
to York. When somewhat recovered from the fatigues of her
journey, and the alarms of that brutal reception, she invited
the Earl to renew his conference with her there. But Hamil-
ton had rushed from Scotland to counteract Montrose, all
other ideas in his mind being absorbed by the one anxiety to
defeat his rival. So manifestly, the instant before, had he been
devoted to the interests of the Covenanters, that Baillie de-
scribes this sudden flight to her Majesty as " Hamil ton's falling
off;" and "the new- acquisition of the Hamiltons" by the Court
party.

Montrose was no match for a practised diplomatist and plau-
sible double-dealer, who had been domesticated with the royal
family from his youth. In vain he urged immediate and ener-
getic action, before the new army of the Covenant was a-foot
in Scotland. " There are many loyal hearts there," he said,
" ready and anxious to rally round the King's standard on Scot-
tish soil ; the support of the royal countenance, and the royal
commission, with such supplies of money and arms as can be
afforded, will crush the cockatrice in its egg ; but there is not a
moment to lose.1'—" No," exclaimed Hamliton, " that stout and
warlike nation is not to be reduced by force of arms, but with
gentleness and courtesies ; civil war is ever to be avoided ; I
deny that there is any danger from the army of Ireland ; and I
undertake and pledge myself to keep Scotland quiet, and in
fealty to the King." The Marquis was believed, and promised

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 377

a dukedom. Montrose was dismissed with courtesy by the
Queen, who announced that the matter must be determined by
his Majesty.

The following anecdote will serve to illustrate the degree^of
respect which our hero entertained towards his successful rival.
A wrangle between two dogs, at the time of this conference,
happened to occur in her Majesty's garden at York. Hamil-
ton, whose stroll in the garden seems to have been disturbed by
the canine collision, drew his sword, and coming behind one of
the combatants, thrust it through the animal's body. Perhaps
the other dog was his own ; but this summary justice appears
to have been administered without even the preliminary ques-
tion to his victim, " Pray tell me, Sir, whose dog are you !"
It was neither Montrose's dog, nor "the Prince's dog at Kew;"
yet, probably, a dog of high degree ;, for it belonged to William
Cavendish, Earl, and at this time created Marquis of Newcastle,
who commanded the royal forces in the north of England, and
with whom we shall presently find our hero in contact. Not
admiring the action, and entertaining the same contempt for
the actor's " continual discourse of battles and fortifications"
that Clarendon did, Montrose, not in the most placid of moods
at the moment, wrote the slaughtered dog's epitaph : —

" Here lies a dog whose quality did plead
Such fatal end from a renowned blade ;
And blame him not that he succumbed now,
E'en Hercules could not combat against two ;
For, whilst he on his foe revenge did take,
He manfully was killed behind his back.
Then say, to eternize the cur that's gone,
He fleshed the maiden sword of HAMILTON, "v,

The uxorious Charles confirmed at Oxford what Henrietta
Maria had decided at York. The Marquis, created Duke of
Hamilton by patent dated at Oxford 12th April 1643, was
pledged once more to suppress the power of Argyle ; to keep

1 The above anecdote rests on the authority of Sir James Balfour, among whose
manuscripts in the Advocates' Library the above pasquil has been preserved, in his
own handwriting, and is entitled by him, — " Some lines, on the killing of the Earl
of Newcastle's dog by the Marquis of Hamilton, in the Queen's garden at York ;
written then by the Earl of Montrose."

378 LIFE OF MONTBOSE.

Scotland— which he had characterised to the King as that
" miserable country," which next Hell he hated— from rising ;
and that no covenanting army should again cross the borders.
Thrice within a few months had the King written to Montrose,
claiming his counsel and his aid. The champion of the Throne
was now for the time bowed off, having dutifully offered the
advice and the aid which certainly he had not presumptuously
volunteered.

An able historian of the Kirk condemns Montrose's advice
to the Queen, as a " feeble effort to save Charles from the de-
gradation that awaited him." The only degradation that befel
Charles was in Scotland, in 1641, when Montrose was a pri-
soner. The absence of physical resources was not feebleness in
Montrose ; nor was the loss of his throne any degradation to
the character of the King. Not informed as to his real history,
or position at the time, polishing a sentence instead of probing
history, Dr Cook then issues his fiat, that this illustrious loyal-
ist's " sentiments respecting the state of the public mind were
well founded ; but the counsel which he gave he had taken no
prudent method to carry into effect : Bold and ardent in his
resolution, and disgusted at the popular faction with which he
had once acted, he was deficient in that calmness and solidity
of judgment which the critical period at which he lived so much
required." These fine words are a cheap mode of writing his-
tory. What was the prudent method which Montrose at this
time could have adopted, and yet omitted 2 How had he failed
in solidity of judgment ? Did Hamilton's calmness save the King
from " degradation?" The great cavalier of his age, — whose
dissertation on Sovereign power Dr Cook had never heard of, —
may be excused if he were not absolutely calm at such a crisis.
Neither was there any want of solidity of judgment in suggest-
ing the royal sanction and commission, for a levy of ten thou-
sand loyalists in arms, as the best Scotch recipe against that
temper of the times which had just been illustrated by Admiral
Batten's cross-bar shot crashing through the bed-chamber of a
weary and way-faring Queen.

The eye of the Vehm Gericht of Scotland was at this time in-
tently fixed on Montrose. He moved in his own kirk-ridden
country with as little security as a traveller among Thugs. The

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 379

abused power which sent him, without a crime, to the castle in
1641, and all but to the scaffold, could have done so with the
same ease in 1643. The private offers, to induce him to be-
come second in command to Leslie, were renewed after it be-
came known that Hamilton had superseded him in the councils
of the Queen. We have the authority of Baillie for the fact,
that this strange temptation emanated from Argyle himself, and
that the clique were mortified at its failure. Taken along with
the information afforded by Wishart, and Guthrie, there is no
mistaking BailhVs meaning in this splenetic sentence, occurring
in a letter written to his cousin, in the month of July 1 643 : —
" Argyle and our nobles, especially since Hamilton's falling off,
would have been content, for the peace of the country, to have
dispensed with that man's (Montrose) bypast demeanours ; but
private ends mislead many : He, Antrim, Huntly, Airlie, Nithes-
dale, and more are ruined in their estates ; public commotions
are their private subsistence.11 It is amusing to find this self-
sufficient chronicler of the Covenant reducing his estimate of
our hero from " that most valorous and happy gentleman,"11 to,
" that man11 ; and accusing him of gaining his livelihood by
public commotions, because he refused their insidious bait.
Baillie does not insinuate that he was a waverer ; he only ac-
cuses him of duplicity. He had thus come into contact with
some of the most respectable emissaries of the Kirk, and these
he kept for a time in play, that he might discover from them-
selves what Hamilton had so peremptorily denied to the Queen
at York, that the determination was, at the ensuing Conven-
tion, to decree an army from Scotland to co-operate with the
Parliamentarians in England. What was the nature of this
command offered to him, he desired to know ? Was it in sup-
port of the King and the throne ? Then of course he had no
objection. But the offer never deceived him for a moment.
How could it, seeing that it emanated from Argyle ? His every
movement at the time proves that it drew him not for an in-
stant from his allegiance. They offered to pay his debts ! Faugh.
Before the meeting of the Convention, in the month of June
1643, which Hamilton had undertaken to control with his new
strawberry-leaved coronet, Montrose wrote to the Queen, assuring
her of the storm brewing in Scotland, and lamenting the rejec-

380 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

tion of his advice at York. That letter we have not recovered,
but here is her Majesty's reply. Her allusions to some rumours
in England that he was wavering in his allegiance, will now be
understood ; and it will be seen that, however Hamilton had
prevailed with her at York, she still claimed and expected from
Montrose the most energetic action in defence of the Monarchy,
and had never doubted his honour.

" COUSIN, — I have received your letter, and learn therefrom
that you consider affairs in Scotland to be in a very bad state,
as regards the interests of the King ; and this owing to my own
neglect of certain propositions submitted to me when I first
arrived. In that I have followed the commands of the King.
But still I am of opinion that, if his Majesty's faithful servants
would only agree among themselves, and not lose time, all the
evil to be dreaded from that quarter, may be prevented. For
my own part, I shall contribute to the utmost of my power.
When the arms that are coming from Denmark, and which I
daily expect, have arrived, you shall haw whatever of them you
require, and every possible assistance from myself, who have al-
ways greatly confided in you. and in the generosity of your cha-
racter. And this confidence, be assured, is not in the least
diminished, although I, no less miserable about these affairs
than yourself, have been given to understand that you have
struck up an alliance with certain persons that might well create
apprehension in my mind. But my trust in you, and the esteem
with which I regard you, are not built upon so slippery a founda-
tion as mere rumour ; nor is it to be shaken by an event, which,
if it be as reported, could only have been occasioned by your
zeal for his Majesty's service. Be assured, moreover, that neither
shall I fail in my promise to you ; and that I am, and ever will
be, your very good friend,

" HENRIETTA MARIA, R."

" York, ce. 31 May" (1643).1

Before this letter could have reached Montrose, he was in the
north with Huntly, during the first days of June, exerting all

1 Original, written in antiquated French, Montrose Charter-room. See the
author's " Memorials of Montrose," vol. ii. p. 77.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 381

his energies to form a loyal coalition in arras with that noble-
man, Airlie, and Marischal. In this he appears only to have
failed through the unsteadiness and caprice of the last men-
tioned Earl, who never rose throughout the troubles above the
capacities of a wayward boy. Our hero had no sooner returned
south from this fruitless expedition, than the poisoned chalice
was again presented to him from Argyle. " When the diet of
the Convention (22d June 1643) drew near," says Guthrie,
" they dispatched Mr Henderson to wait upon the Earl of
Mont-rose for solving of his doubts ; who being advertised by
Sir James Hollo of Mr Henderson's coming the length of Stir-
ling for that end, did meet him at Stirling bridge : They con-
ferred together by the water-side the space of two hours, and
parted fairly, without any accommodation."

At this conference, the celebrated Moderator of the Kirk, a
clerical agitator much superior to his class, was accompanied
by a gentleman who stood in a singular position with regard to
Montrose and Argyle. We have already recorded the marriage
of Lady Dorothea Graham to Sir James Hollo of Duncruib, in
the year 1628, and her untimely death. The laird of Duncruib
married secondly Lady Mary Campbell, the sister of Argyle.
Thus he was brother-in-law both to Csesar and Pompey, as
Clarendon so fancifully characterized Montrose and Argyle.

Our hero took care to secure an unquestionable guarantee
of his own integrity in the companions whom he brought with
himself. His relatives, Lord Napier and Sir George Stirling,
along with Lord Ogilvy, being all together at Keir, he made
partakers of this strange and somewhat picturesque conference
beside the river Forth. Saluting the Moderator of the Kirk
with a respectful frankness, less difficult to assume than if he
had been constrained to address some others of the cloth, he
referred to the late process against " the Plotters," and to his
own consequent seclusion from public affairs. He then begged
to be fully and freely informed of the designs of the Convention,
in reference to the army question ; and especially with what
precise object they now proposed this important military com-
mand for himself, who had so recently been brought under their
highest penal displeasure. Thrown off his guard by the frank-
ness of this address, the reverend diplomatist, to use a contem-

382 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

porary expression, proceeded to " open his pack." He admitted
that an army from Scotland was immediately to cross the Bor-
ders, in aid of " their Brethren in England." This was the
design which Montrose had predicted to her Majesty, and of
which he was now desirous to be assured, from authority which
no plausibility on the part of Hamilton could gainsay. Hen-
derson further complimented him with a high estimate of the
value of his services, declaring how proud he would be to
bring him over, and to negociate the terms of his apostacy !
Montrose had learnt all he came to discover. Turning to his
old friend and relative Sir James Hollo, he took him unawares
with the question, — u Are these offers made to me from the
Convention of Scotland, or are you negotiating privately ?"
Hollo declared his understanding to be, that the Moderator of
the Kirk had the authority of the State. Henderson contra-
dicted this, but said, that certainly he had the confidence of
Government, which would be sure to ratify whatever he con-
cluded. During the wrangle that ensued between these two
emissaries of Argyle, they were bowed off in a very stately man-
ner by Montrose, who closed the conference with this sarcastic
observation, that he could come to no conclusion without the
security of the public faith, especially as the messengers were not
at one on the subject of their powers.1

The result of the Convention, which Hamilton, by his mise-
rable juggling, neither could nor cared to prevent, is well known.
In conjunction with the General Assembly, which sat down
thereafter in August 1643, it gave birth to the two measures
that may be said to have turned the scale against the Monar-
chy. It decreed that army, which, under the command of the
Earl of Leven, once more entered England, as auxiliaries of the
Parliament, on the 15th of January 1644. And that Assembly,
at which, of all the fish in the sea, his Majesty's Advocate,
Hope, was Commissioner, repeated, in a form deprived of the
only creditable feature, its nationality, their Covenant of the
year 1638, under the infamous name of "the Solemn League

" Montisrosanus nihil certi statuere posse se asserit, absque publicd fide, dlssenti-
entibus prcesertim inter se internunciis." The whole scene is graphically described
by Wishart (Cap. II.), probably from Montrose and Napier's account of it.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 383

and Covenant." This was embraced, by its pretended prose-
lytes in England, with all the fervour of puritanical democracy,
in the month of August 1 643, and returned in October follow-
ing, to be rebaptized with the precious tears of covenanting
Scotland. As Montrose watched this rapid fulfilment of his
own predictions, the fruit of Hamilton's magnificent promises
and solemn pledges, his blood boiled within him ; and he became
more and more bound to the desperate resolution of expending
every drop of that blood in defence of the Throne, though he
were left alone in the contest with its destroyers. " The Cove-
nant,11 he said with his dying breath, " The Covenant I took ;
I own it, and adhere to it : Bishops, I care not for them ; I
never intended to advance their interest : But when the King
had granted you all your desires, and you were every one sitting
under his own vine, and under his fig-tree, that then you should
have taken a party in England by the hand, and entered into a
league and covenant with them against the King, was the thing
I judged my duty to oppose to the uttermost. That course of
yours ended not but in the King's death, and overturning the
whole of the Government.11

Charles now ordered a court of inquiry to sit upon the con-
duct of the Hamilton brothers. They had hurried to Oxford,
" to tell,11 says Sir Philip Warwick, " a fair though lamentable
tale.11 They were followed at the heels by the hostile army
which they had promised to prevent. The court of inquiry was
composed of the highest and most unimpeachable functionaries
of the kingdom. The witnesses were Montrose, Kinnoul,
Nithsdale, Aboyne, Ogilvy, and others of the highest minded
noblemen in Scotland. " There appeared," says Clarendon,
" too much cause to conclude that the Duke had not behaved
himself with that loyalty he ought to have done.11 The inquiry
was most deliberate, and conducted with the utmost dignity
and fairness. Lanerick himself, whom the King had made Se-
cretary of State for Scotland in 1641, had applied the privy
seal to the proclamation which called together the very army
now on its march against the King. Charles, though it tore
f his heart-strings, sent his long cherished favourite to Pendennis
Castle, and never pronounced an order for his release. The

384 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

fact outweighs the folio of a Bishop. Lanerick he exiled from
Court, and placed under arrest. The keeper of the King's sig-
net broke his arrest, and immediately joined the covenanting
faction, heart, soul, and seal. " Since he came here," writes
Baillie, then with the Commissioners in London, " he has had
my chamber and bed." " So," he also writes, in ill- disguised
glee, " iheplay is begun — the good Lord give it a happy end—
the Lord be with you — your cousin, Robert Baillie." Thus
closed the year 1643.1

i See the details sifted in " Montrose and the Covenanters,'' vol. ii. c. viii. Baillie's
Letters alone, in many passages, suffice to settle the question of whether Hamilton
was true or false. In reference to his late disgrace, he writes, — " I think all Scots
hearts must pity him, and pray for him, and make for either a speedy rescue of him,
if living, or a severe revenge of him, if dead." We know what Baillie means by
Scots hearts, Scots prayers, and Scots revenge. But did the Scots revenge his
death ?

Tt is painful to read, in Lord Mahon's too flattering extrait of our previous re-
searches to illustrate the character of Montrose, the following paragraphs from so
accomplished an historian : — " The offers which about this time were more for-
mally made to Montrose, were to free him from embarrassment by the discharge
of his debts, and to give him a command in the army second only to Lord Leven's.
It appears that the vague and indecisive answers which Montrose for some time
returned raised a suspicion against him in some of the Scottish Royalists. We
must own ourselves doubtful, (although Mr Napier, in his zeal as a biographer, will
not for an instant harbour such a thought,) whether the ill reception of Montrose
at York did not at first make him waver in his attachment to the King. If so, how-
ever (and we do not express any positive opinion on the subject), his wavering was
neither publicly evinced, nor long continued. By no ocert act, by no authentic de-
claration, can Montrose be shewn to have swerved from his principles of loyalty —
from that better part which he had deliberately chosen, and was destined to seal
with his blood." — Lord Motion's Essay on Montrose.

Here is a sentence, highly polished we admit, the tail of which, like the scorpion,
pierces its head. This oddly supported surmise would make Montrose the meanest,
if not the most insane of men. The only suspicions against him arose at a distance,
and out of ignorant rumours that were immediately dissipated. As for the zeal of
a biographer, the character of Montrose could no more have been extricated, with-
out such zeal, from the " quisquilice volantes et tenti spolia " which had settled on it
throughout two centuries, than the .heights of Alma could have been taken by
smoking a Turkish pipe at them. « Zeal as a biographer" is sometimes of more
value to the truth and justice of history, than the calmness of a critic, or the
polish of an historian.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 385

CHAPTER XXL

MONTROSE COMMISSIONED BY CHARLES I. TO RAISE THE STANDARD IN
SCOTLAND — NATURE OF HIS SCHEME — JEALOUSY OF THE SCOTTISH
LOYALISTS — SETS OUT ON HIS ADVENTURES — LETTERS TO PRESIDENT
8POTTISWOODE REPORTING PROGRESS — MONTROSE'S INTERVIEW WITH
THE MARQUIS OF NEWCASTLE AT DURHAM — INCITES THE MARQUIS TO
GIVE BATTLE TO THE SCOTS — MONTROSE'S ESTIMATE OF THE COM-
MANDER-IN-CHIEF FOR THE KING IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND — MRS
PIERSONS, ALIAS CAPTAIN FRANCIS DALZELL — JEALOUSY OF THE EARL
OF CARNWATH — BATTLE OF BOWDENHILL — THE FAMILY PARTY OF
PLOTTERS — MONTROSE FOILED IN THE ATTEMPT TO ENTER SCOTLAND

HIS OPERATIONS IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND — SIEGE OF MORPETH —

BATTLE OF MARSTON-MOOR — PRINCE RUPERT — MONTROSE'S DESPERATE
RESOLVE — HIS WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS TO LORD OGILVY FOR THE
KING — OGILVY DEFEATED, TAKEN PRISONER, AND HIS DISPATCHES
SENT BY LORD FAIRFAX TO THE COVENANTING GENERAL — MONTROSE
DISAPPEARS.

THE play began, so far as our hero is concerned, by Charles
sending for him at Oxford, and taking his advice when too late.
At least the case was far more desperate now than when Ha-
milton superseded him with the Queen. Still he offered his
sword, and his blood. Still he pledged himself to cast an effec-
tual stumbling-block in the path of this unprincipled raid from
the north, or perish in the attempt. His Majesty, " much encou-
raged," says Wishart, " by the constancy and fearless magnani-
mity of the man,1' now listened with the interest of a last chance
to the details of his scheme. His sine qua non was, to be invested
with a commission, bestowing the royal countenance and au-
thority upon the undertaking, to draw the weight of the cove-
nanting arms from the King upon himself. But the garrisons
and passes of Scotland were in possession of the Covenanters.
He requested therefore an order upon the Marquis of New-
castle, now opposed to Leven in the North of England, for a
detachment of his troops, or at least a sufficient escort of horse

25

386 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

to enable him to cross the borders. Even with these slender
resources, he undertook to reach the Highlands of Scotland,
and to make such head there as would ere long encourage the
loyalists of that kingdom to rally round the standard. He
further proposed that the Earl of Antrim should be commis-
sioned to raise what forces he could in Ireland, and to effect a
descent on the coast of Argyle ; that Denmark should be ap-
plied to for cavalry, and intelligent emissaries employed to pro-
cure arms and warlike stores from abroad.

There was no wildness in this scheme. It was only frus-
trated in the end by the adverse turn of circumstances, upon
the support of which Montrose most unquestionably was en-
titled to rely. To create a powerful diversion in Scotland, to
hold back the " contented people," was all that he undertook
to do at this crisis. He saw, on the instant, that if the mo-
narchy fell, it would be mainly owing to this league and cove-
nant with the Parliamentarians. As instantaneously he con-
ceived the proper counterplot, which was, to give the Cove-
nanters hot work at home. The prowess in arms of the Kirk-
militant, the martial prestige of Argyle, he knew to be a bug-
bear, and a cheat. He proposed to prove this. He proposed
to do battle with the " Solemn League and Covenant," in the
usurped and ruined country where it was hatched. He denied
that there was no loyalty among the people of Scotland. It
was stunned and bewildered. It wanted a rallying point and
a leader. And the spirits which had sunk under the tyranny
of a seditious preachhood, required to be roused and animated
by the standard of the King.

Two conditions he relied upon as certain ; fixed quantities, as
it were, in the calculation. The great loyalists of both countries
were crowding round the King at Oxford. Could he doubt that
the noble refugees fr,om Scotland would support with heart and
hand the standard when there unfurled ? Could he imagine
that instead of doing so, they would all, with a very few honour-
able exceptions, ignore the royal commission in his person,
jealously withhold their aid, and yet more meanly attempt to
counteract his devoted and marvellous exertions ? Then, was it
within the compass of rational speculation to figure such a state
of matters as this ? While the spirit of one man, in one awful

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 387

campaign from the north to the south of Scotland, was sweeping
the armies of the Covenant from the face of the earth, in the
collateral campaign of the King, thus relieved from the north-
ern wolf, the Cavaliers of England could do nothing whatever
to save him from Colonel Cromwell ! In the warrior court, our
hero was slightingly regarded as an adventurer who had yet to
win his spurs. What was the military fame of Montrose when
weighed in the balance of the regal camp at Oxford ? There
the highest blood, the proudest chivalry of England, was arrayed
in defence of the Monarchy. What was the legend of " Graham's
dyke" to all the blood of all the Howards, some of whom might
entertain but vague and hudibrastic ideas of Wallace wight
himself? Which of them ever heard how Montrose and Major
Middleton had won the brig o1 Dee ? Was it within the legiti-
mate bounds of contingency, that while this isolated adventurer
was carrying all before him, never would Victory sound her
trump from the ranks of the Rupert Cavaliers ?

Gay was the Court at Oxford, — proud were its haughty Peers,

Who vaunted high their chivalry, and slighted his with sneers ;

Proud were those knights of England, — a spell in every name

To rouse the soul of loyalty, and rebel hearts to tame ;

What swords flew out at Percy's shout, or high Newcastle's look,

What mounting at the very name of hot Sir Marmaduke !

And it was, * hey a Vavasour ! ' and ' ride for Rupert, ho ! '

The whirlwind upon every spur, and death in every blow ;

And proud their limned lineaments, all eterniz'd alike

With those airs of grace and glory — that were vended by Vandyke !

But out on painted panoplies, and popinjays in steel, —

Shame to Newcastle's heartless head, and Rupert's headless heel ;

Say, how did princely Cavendish fulfil his promise high ?

Did Byron's boast, or Howard's blood, produce one victory ?

Once and again at Newbury, why fell the double blight

On loyal laurels all but lost at EdgeJdlVs doubtful fight ?

No red revenge at Nascby, for the shame at Marston Moor ?

Why on his lonely laurell'd brow the curse of kindred gore ?

As if to make up for deficiency in every other material, the
very highest commission was immediately conferred upon our
hero. He was in fact made Viceroy over his own country.
A commission was actually prepared for the royal signature, in
which he is styled Lieutenant-Governor and Cap tain- General

388 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

of Scotland. With great tact and foresight he declined that
commission. He well knew the withering jealousy even of some
of the most loyal of the Scottish peers. Accordingly, he him-
self suggested that the King s own nephew, Prince Maurice,
must be invested with that supreme command, while he, Mon-
trose, should serve under him as Lieutenant-General in Scot-
land. New commissions were made out in accordance with
these suggestions ; and that bestowed upon our Earl bears date
at Oxford, the first day of February 1644.

All the loyal peers of Scotland were startled by this sudden
elevation of a young nobleman who had nothing but his sword
to offer ; who could have no hold of the domestic affections of
the sovereign ; who was a stranger to his social circle, and had
scarcely been admitted within the circle of the Court ; whose
martial eclat in his own country rested on the covenanting com-
pliment, " Inmctus armis verlis mncitur ,•" and who was chiefly
famed for having imposed the Covenant upon loyal Aberdeen,
at the point of that sword he now offered to Charles. Not one
of them had ever proposed or conceived the daring adventure
his high commission was intended to sanction. Not one of them
ever dreamt of crushing the power of Argyle in Scotland. They
truckled to him, or they fled. Yet of all those whose capaci-
ties were about equal to the planning of a petty intrigue, or
drawing a wavering sword, there was scarcely one who did not
cherish the ridiculous and ruinous feeling that Montrose had
robbed them of their birth-right. It soured the old courtier
Traquair into a miserable and vicious retirement. It caused
the incapable, impracticable Huntly, for ever lurking in the.
caves of Strathnaver, to hug and mumble the old bone of his
" Lieutenancy benorth the Granbean," till every loyal tooth in
his head was worn to the gums. Even Ludovick Lindsay, called
the " loyal Earl of Crawford," who in the previous year had
dealt a blow on Sir William Waller that Clarendon deigned to
signalize, shrunk jealously from a like chivalrous support of the
standard in Scotland, because committed to the hand of a
younger nobleman whose genius he envied, but could not reach.
And so it was with many others of the Scottish nobles who
professed loyalty. Carnwath, Morton, Callendar, Southesk,
Hartfell, Nithsdale, Annandale, Roxburgh, and Home, all in

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 389

various degrees refused to minister to the glory of Montrose,
and left the King to ruin. We say not this in the spirit of
magnifying our hero at the expense of his noble contemporaries.
The accusation is not dictated by what Lord Mahon calls
" zeal as a biographer."' It is the real state of the fact, as we
learn it from Montrose himself. And, indeed, without particu-
larly regarding an element in his fortunes which history almost
entirely overlooks, we can neither understand his position, nor
appreciate his career.

Having attempted to reduce to order the chaos of Scottish
loyalty, with which the King was nearly smothered at Oxford,
by means of a new conservative bond, which proved like the for-
mer a rope of sand, our hero set out on his adventures early in
the month of March 1 644. The title of Marquis had not yet
been conferred upon him ; but he went on his way rejoicing in
that high commission, and bearing instructions from his Majesty
to the Marquis of Newcastle, which he hoped would procure for
him the nucleus of an army. Meanwhile he was accompanied
by the Lords Crawford, Nithsdale, Reay, Ogilvy, and Aboyne ;
the two latter youthful noblemen acting as his Aids-de-Camp.
An insubordinate, heterogeneous band of cavaliers and retain-
ers, with some desultory troops bound for Newcastle's leaguer,
compose4 his present array, and gave eclat to his departure.
The earliest reports of his progress received at Oxford, wero
addressed to his dear friend President Spottiswoode, who had
been the last to take leave of him. On the 15th of March a
Scotch cavalier, who signs himself John Macbrayre, thus writes
from York : —

" MY VERY MUCH BELOVED LORD, — As I know you are ac-
quainted with our present condition here by a more able as a
more honourable pen than this, yet, for satisfaction of my pro-
mise, take this much more. We arrived safe here upon Mon-
day was a seventh night, after eight several removes from the
place where we parted with your Lordship. My Lords of Craw-
ford and Reay, with a strong squadron of our brigade, went oft'
the way to Shrewsbury. The latter of these two lords came
hither from thence yesternight with Colonel Innes, and some

390 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

other officers : The former, I doubt, shall not come here so soon
as we could have wished. This day we are upon our remove
towards Durham ; in which place, and near unto it, my Lord
Marquis his Excellency1 hath had his army quartered now these
ten or twelve days bygone ; and our cursed countrymen theirs in
Sunderland, and some paltry places close by that. They are
said to match him in number, not in goodness, of foot ; but he
triples them in horse, by means whereof they are closed in, as
in a pinfold. Some provision they get by sea^to themselves ;
but their horses keep Lent a great deal better than their mas-
ters ; who, ere long, will have no flesh except thews to break it
upon, either. The country, both here and there, is in a very
good posture, and a great alacrity in all our men to fight. We
are in hopes to get good store of officers here ; but for the other
thing — you know what — how notably we have been abused
somewhere, I will not write."2

Montrose, as here indicated, had thus written from York
two days previously : —

" GOOD PRESIDENT. — At our arrival here, being uncertain of
all business, I directed along Colonel Cochrane to my Lord
Newcastle, to learn the condition of affairs, and inform himself
particularly of what we had to expect ; which necessarily occa-
sioned our stay here for some days : His return to us was, that,
for supplies he could dispense none for the present ; for monies
he had none, neither was he owing my Lord Germane (Jermyn)
any ; for arms and ammunition, he had not to the two parts of

1 William Cavendish, first Earl of Newcastle, had been created Marquis a few
months before.

J Original, in the charter-chest of Mr Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode. It is ad-
dressed " For my very much honoured and singular good friend, Sir Robert Spot-
tiswoode of Dunipace, Knight ; Lord President of Scotland, etc. These, at Oxford ;
Mr Gregory's Chambers, Christ Church ;" and endorsed by the President, « John
Macbrayre, received 29 March 1644, letter to Sir Robert Spottiswoode with news
from the north : York, 15 March."

There is more in the letter, but not of historical importance. I cannot trace the
writer of it ; although seemingly an intimate friend of the President's. He ap-
pears to have considered himself entitled to the reward of a baronetcy, for which
he urges his claim.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 391

his own, but had been so long expecting from beyond sea, that
he was now out of hopes : So these are the terms we stand on.
However, since it is not a non putarem — for we resolved with it,
although we expected better1 — it shall be no matter of dis-
couragement to withhold us from doing our best. To-morrow
we are to go to the army, which is looked daily to fight. But
I hope we shall come in time to bear them witness. Argyle,
upon the rumour of our coming, is returned to Scotland in
haste ; but we intend to make all possible dispatch to follow
him at the heels, in whatever posture we can. So, this is all I
can show you for the present ; but as further occurs, you shall
from time to time know it, from your most affectionate and
faithful friend to serve you, " MONTROSE.

"York, 13th March 1644.

" I much admire my cousin Sir William Fleming's stay, and
am heartily sorry both for the business and himself ; but I know
it's none of his fault.

" Let this, I pray, remember me to all friends ; and I intreat
you will keep particular good intelligence with them all, and
chiefly Mr Porter : 2 For the General,3 be pleased to let him
know still all generals ; and make you fitting use.

" For the Right Worshipful Sir Robert Spottiswoode."

Immediately he followed up his despatch to the Marquis of
Newcastle from York, with a personal interview at Durham.
That commander told him that there was a scarcity of every
thing in his army ; that the Scots had unexpectedly broke in
upon him and spoiled his recruiting ; that they were now quar-
tered within five miles of his camp, and greatly outnumbered
him ; in short, that he could not part with any of his cavalry
without manifest hazard to his whole army. The result of the
King's orders, and his champion's urgency, was, that his Ex-
cellency bestowed an escort of ill conditioned and ill appointed
horse, with two small brass field-pieces, upon the Lieutenant-
General of his Majesty's forces in Scotland.

1 This- is obscurely expressed ; but seems to mean that Montrose had not allowed
himself to be too sanguine of receiving the aid he was empowered to claim.

2 That old and faithful servant of Charles I., Endymion Porter.

3 General Ruthven, afterwards Earl of Brentford, and of Forth in Scotland.

392 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

The nature of Montrose's own commission precluded him
from taking a command under the General at Durham, or any
charge of the tactics which were there holding Leven in check.
He was merely a bird of passage ; or, to compare great things
with small, he paused to see sport, like some critical recorder of
the hunting fields of England, enjoy ing a mount from the master
of the hounds. But it was no idle curiosity that caused him to
linger. His genius at once led him to the conclusion that the
illustrious lord of Bolsover was at a crisis, the energetic seizure
of which was of vital importance. To defeat and scatter the
great army of the Covenant under Leven, would at this time
have been ruin to the government of Argyle. Then, the royal
arms thus victorious in the north of England, would have been
relieved of all pressure from the " contented people," and Mar-
ston-moor have told another tale.

On the 15th of January 1644 Leven had crossed the Tweed.
On the 28th of February he passed the Tyne without opposi-
tion-, i On Saturday the 2d of March he was over the Wear.
On Monday the 4th he entered Sunderland. On Wednesday
the 6th, the Marquis of Newcastle, at this time nearly fourteen
thousand strong, including twelve troops of well-appointed horse
under Sir Charles Lucas, approached within three miles of Leven,
as if to give him battle. The Gustavus Adolphus man, an ugly
customer no doubt, is said to have commanded a larger army,
but not so well provided, and especially inferior in the arm of
cavalry. During the forenoon of the following day, heavy snow
showers were falling, in the midst of which the Marquis drew
up near the enemy on Bowdenhill. Magnificent as was this
tapestry General in all his ways and means, — greatly as he de-
lighted in the pomp and pageantry of martial life, — his was not
the genius to exclaim upon an occasion such as this, " Je tiens
done" His Excellency, it seems, was shy of the intervening
ground, intersected by many enclosures. So, after some feeble
demonstrations, he fell back upon Durham, followed by the
crowing blue-caps. The latter, however, finding little to eat,

" That very day, and these hours, when our army was passing the Tyne, the
28th of February, were we all here (London) fasting and praying ; and, amongst
the rest, / was praying and preaching to the Parliament : Blessed be his name that
gave us at the same hour so gracious an answer." — Baillie.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 393

soon retired in the direction of Newcastle, where they took a
fort at the mouth of the Tyne, having previously possessed
themselves of the castle of Morpeth. Both of these strong-
holds were ere long wrested from them by Montrose, after his
first unsuccessful attempt to enter Scotland. Such was the
position of matters when he joined the royal leaguer at Dur-
ham, about the middle of March 1644.

A sight now greeted his eyes that was worth seeing, had it
not been suggestive of the idea that this military magnate was
only playing at soldiers. At the head of a troop of horse, com-
plete in all its appointments, rode a lady in command of it,
armed to the pearly teeth. She showed like the destroying
angel ; for her cornet carried a black banner, that seemed to
bear the insignia of death. On that sable field was displayed
the ghastly image of a naked man suspended from a gibbet,
with the motto, " I DARE." Gentle reader, this was not " Mrs
Magdalene Carnegie," Countess of Montrose. It was " one
Mrs Piersons, who had the charge of a troop, whom Carnwath
called Ms daughter; which troop was levied on Carn wain's
charges ; and the arms, and prices of the horses, were paid by
my Lord Carnwath ; but the commission, granted by the Earl
of Newcastle for levying of that troop, was granted to Mrs
Piersons, and in her name ; she was designed in her commis-
sion Captain Francis Dalzell? 1

The Earl of Carnwath, who had attached himself in this sin-
gular manner to the leaguer under Newcastle, became bitterly

1 This strange and striking fact is new to history. Our latest researches, among
the archives of Montrose, brought to light for the first time many original deposi-
tions taken before the Committee of Estates, in 1644 and 1645, preparatory to their
processes of forfeiture and excommunication, against Montrose, Crawford, and other
loyalists, in their absence, for being in arms against the armies of the Solemn League
and Covenant. The depositions were taken from Lord Kirkcudbright, Major John
Ei-skine, Major James Leslie, Captain John M'Culloch, the Master of Maderty, the
municipal authorities of Perth, Sir John Graham of Braco, Master William Forrett,
(Montrose's first tutor), and various others of inferior note. These original docu-
ments, which were not known to exist, contain many minute particulars relative to
Montrose's career in arms, of which there is no other record ; and we shall fre-
quently refer to them. We can find no other trace of the gallant lady mentioned
above, who was never heard of before. The incident would have been valuable to
Sir Walter Scott. Carnwath's name was Dalzell, and the lady had assumed his
legendary banner. The quotation is from Major Erskine's deposition.

394 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

jealous when he heard our hero there styled, and treated, by
his own staff, and by all the officers of the camp, as " Lord
Lieutenant-General of the northern expedition." Major John
Erskine, from whose deposition before the inquisitorial com-
mittee of 1644 we derive the above anecdotes, further " de-
pones, that he heard Carnwath say, that there was a letter sent
to him with a commission to be Lieutenant of Clydesdale, by
Montrose, from the King's Majesty ; and the said letter being
delivered to him by Montrose, he (Carnwath) said himself he
refused to read it, but did cast it ~by ; which was the ground of
discord betwixt him and Aboyne." *

The Marquis of Newcastle, at the entreaty of Montrose him-
self, and the loyal nobles who accompanied him, again inarched
from Durham towards Chester, to give battle to the Scots, on
Saturday the 23d of March. On Sunday he drew up at a place
called Hilton, near Bowdenhill, on the north side of the Wear,
two miles and a half from Sunderland. Old Leven disposed his
forces on a hill to the east of the royal army, towards the sea.
All that day they faced each other without moving, although
the word of battle given out for the royalists was " Now or
never ;" while that for the Scots was, " The Lord of Hosts is
with us." The inaction was characteristic of Newcastle. The
battle cry savours of Montrose, and his accurate appreciation
of the importance of the crisis. Indeed, Major John Erskine
also " depones, that the Earl of Montrose, Nithsdale, Aboyne,
and Ogilvy, were at Bowdenhill ; and that he heard the said four
lords allege that the Marquis of Newcastle, and Lieutenant-
General King, were slow ; and that to his best knowledge they
were inciters and stirrers up of the Marquis of Newcastle, and
Lieutenant-General King, to fight against the Scots army at
Bowdenhill/1

It was of no use. In vain was Carnwath's pet troop " joined
to General King's regiment two days before the conflict at

1 The young Viscount, acting as Montrose's aid-de-camp, had probably been the
bearer of the letter to Carnwath, who is chiefly noted in history from having rudely
seized the bridle of the King at Naseby, as Charles was about to charge at the head
of his guards, when, says Clarendon (who attributes the loss of .the battle to the in-
cident), " swearing two or three full-mouthed Scottish oaths, he said, « Will you go
upon your death in an instant ? ' " And so caused the royal guards to wheel in con-
fusion. The barony of Carnwath is in Clydesdale.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 395

Bowdenhill." In vain " the cornet of that troop was black,
and the motto was I dare, and Mrs Piersons rode -always on
the head thereof." Late on Sunday night the cannon opened ;
and parties of musqueteers on either side began a struggle to
drive each other from the intervening hedges. On Monday the
same scene was repeated ; when Newcastle suddenly drew off
towards his old quarters, and thus enabled the Scots to fall
with some effect on his rear. A vigorous charge from Sir
Charles Lucas, inspired, we may assume, by " Captain Francis
Dalzell," compelled Leven to retire ; but he was entitled to all
the glory that field afforded. So ended the two days skirmish
at Bowdenhill, which, more vigorously conducted, would have
saved Marston-moor. But it was other ways destined. The
" gentleman of base birth born in Balveny," was born under a
braver star than the illustrious lord of Welbeck and Bolsover.
The seed of the serving-maid bruised the heel of a Cavendish.
Being a coup manque, the incident has scarcely entered history ;
but Sir Philip Warwick thus shortly notes it : " At a place
called Hilton, a considerable loss befell the Marquis of New-
castle's foot, and he immediately thereupon marched back to
York." It was a false and fatal move.

The assistance which our hero obtained from this inefficient
commander was so slender, — there was so little cohesion in the
scanty force he could collect on the spur of the moment, — that
although he contrived to cross the borders with the semblance
of an army, and to " take in" the town of Dumfries " with
troops of horse, and displayed cornets and trumpets," he was
soon compelled to forego the attempt to carry the war into
Scotland in that manner. The Scots nobles deceived, and the
English militia of the northern counties deserted him, at the
most critical moment. Tidings at the same time reached him,
that his old but most unstable friend Callendar, with whom he
had recently been in confidential correspondence on the subject
of supporting the King, had accepted, almost without the ex-
pression of a scruple, the command of a new army, directed, at
the instigation of Argyle, against Montrose himself on the bor-
ders. This first check must have been a bitter moment to him ;
for he now received, by the hands of a trusty messenger, " a

396 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

well-known token" from his niece the Lady of Keir, with a
pressing invitation to come and take possession of Stirling.1

At this time, the house of Keir was still the scene of many an
anxious consultation amongst his relatives and dearest friends.
These awaited, with breathless expectation, the result of his
success with the King at Oxford, which, they hoped, would ap-
pear in the form of a loyal army at " the bulwark of the north,"
the neighbouring town and castle of Stirling. The venerable
Lord Napier, about seventy years of age, still presided over the
family party of plotters, which included three ladies, who took
the deepest interest in all that concerned the fate of Charles I. ;
namely, Napier's eldest daughter, married to Keir ; her younger
sister Lilias Napier, who had not completed her eighteenth year;
and the Lady Elizabeth Erskine, the same who obtained the
heart of Montrose after his execution. The husband of this
last, the Master of Napier, a youth under age, was burning to
join his uncle ; but he was restrained by the vindictive jealousy
with which the Committee of Estates condescended to watch
this interesting group. But the interest is sadly marred by the
fact, that Montrose's own Countess evinced no sympathy with
his three devoted nieces. Southesk, who once was more loyal
than Montrose, now truckled to the government of Argyle, and
took his daughter along with him.

Montrose himself appears to have considered, as we shall

1 Montrose's college friend, Lord Sinclair, who had been so active in the discre-
ditable employment of breaking open his private repositories, was now in command
of a covenanting regiment quartered in the castle of Stirling, near Keir. His major
was the noted Sir James Turner (the prototype of Sir Dugald Dalgetty), and the
following passage occurs in his memoirs : —

" Meanwhile, my lieutenant-colonel and I had our several consultations with my
Lord Erskine, my Lord Napier, the Master of Napier, the Master of Maderty, and
laird of Keir ; all of them very loyal persons ; with whom we concluded it was fit
to send two, one from them and another from us, to Moutrose, who was then in the
Border, to invite him to come to Stirling, where he should find castle, town, and
regiment at his devotion, and St Johnston (Perth) likewise. And least he might
think we meant not honestly — in regard there had been no good understanding be-
tween him and my Lord Sinclair formerly — his 'niece, the Lady Keir, sent him a
well known token with Harry Stewart, who was the man we sent, and this he re-
ceived. The messenger they sent was young Balloch, Drummond, (Lord Napier's
nephew), then very loyal, whatever he was afterwards. I believe he got not to him.
But Montrose, having a little too soon entered Scotland, met with a ruffle near Dum-
fries, and upon it retired to England."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 397

presently find, that his retreat, even with that remnant of a
force, from Dumfries to Carlisle, was a false move, and that he
ought rather to have pushed on at all hazards to Stirling. Yet
scarcely had he quitted Dumfries when that border town was oc-
cupied for the Covenant by the forces under Callendar, including
Lord Sinclair's regiment, which he had been told would join his
standard at Stirling. Whether it really would have done so,
or whether Callendar himself would have gone over to him at
Dumfries, it is difficult to say. Never did the peerage of Scot-
land shew so contemptible in every respect, and on every side.
Well might the muse of Montrose exclaim, —

" Th.en break, afflicted heart, and live not in these days,
When all prove merchants of their faith, none trusts what other says."

On the 3d of May 1644 the excited Baillie writes : 4> Argyle,
I hope, by this time has gotten order of Huntly, and Callendar
of Montrose." But this most equivocal " Bander" was either
unwilling directly to oppose, or afraid to meet our hero, who
kept watching his movements on the borders, and preventing
his co-operation against Newcastle. To relieve that town, and
harass the rebels in the north of England, was the object to
which Montrose now directed his efforts, with resources some-
what recruited, but still meagre, and miserably precarious. Yet
he created the greatest alarm, by his energetic and masterly
movements, both in the minds of the Covenanters at home, and
of the English commissioners of the Solemn League and Cove-
nant. Disappointed in all his best hopes of military resources
and loyal support, foiled in his attempt to enter Scotland, and
compelled to retreat upon Carlisle, that he should so manage
his semblance of an army as to cause Baillie to write, on the 3 1st
of May, — " Montrose ravages at his pleasure in all Northumber-
land and the Bishoprick," — is no bad illustration of his military
genius, and indomitable energies. Indeed he now undertook,
and successfully, an adventure which is not among the least of
his performances, though it has scarcely been recorded. In
the vicinity of two great armies of the Covenant, Leven's and
Callendar"s, he set himself deliberately to wrest from the Cove-
nanters the strongly garrisoned castle of Morpeth. Some ori-

398 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

ginal documents, hitherto unpublished, enable us to illustrate
that exploit.

In great alarm for the fate of this important stronghold, Sir
William Armyne, and other English commissioners, thus write
to Callendar, evincing that they at least considered him wedded
to their cause : —

"MY LORD,

" We are still desirous to take all opportunities to acquaint
your Lordship with the state of affairs in these parts. The
Earl of Montrose, and the rest of those that lately made an
inroad into Scotland, are now returned into these parts, with
what forces they could get or bring along with them ; and have
joined themselves with Colonel Clavering"s horse and the forces
of Newcastle, with intent to fall jipon Morpeth, where some
well-affected gentlemen of Northumberland have gathered to-
gether some considerable force, with a purpose to raise more,
for the defence of themselves and the country. And we greatly
apprehend that they may be interrupted in it (notwithstanding
Colonel Welden, with his regiment of horse and some few dra-
goons, is gone over to their assistance), unless some more suc-
cour come timely to them ; the rather because the regiment at
Blythe Nook, and the most part of that at Morpeth, is come to
Durham. All which we refer to your Lordship's consideration,
and rest,

" Your Lordship's most humble Servants,

" WILL: ARMYNE. THO: HATCHER.
" Ei: BARWIS. Eos: GOODWIN."

" Sunderland,
" 8th May 1644."

The alarm was not groundless. Montrose had just been
made a Marquis, and seemed bent upon signalizing his eleva-
tion. The new patent is dated at Oxford, 6th May 1644.
Immediately thereafter he commenced the siege of Morpeth
castle with such materials as he could command at the mo-
ment. This fortress, an important support to the army of the
Covenant in the operations against York and Newcastle, Leven
had garrisoned with five hundred men, under the command of

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 399

Lieutenant-Colonel James Somerville of Drum (tenth lord of
that name), whom he had also supplied with artillery, and other
means of placing the castle in a formidable posture of defence.
Our hero, whose head-quarters at this time were at Newcastle,
collecting, for the nonce, a considerable force of English troops
from the garrison there, marched upon Morpeth about the 10th
of May, accompanied by the Earl of Crawford. This was a bold
move, considering the proximity of Leven with the great Scots
army, and that Callendar was hovering on the borders, at the
head of about seven thousand auxiliaries. Moreover, this siege
was undertaken without a single great gun ; and, consequently,
the first attempt failed, with severe loss to the assailants. The
mode of assault was simply by means of scaling ladders, twenty-
four of which had been provided of the requisite length ; each
ladder being carried by six soldiers, accompanied by the forlorn
hope appointed to scale the walls. At day-break, on the first
morning after their march from Newcastle, this daring attempt
was made. But Colonel Somerville, ably seconded by Captain
John M'Culloch, and bravely supported by the garrison, received
the assailants with so hot a fire, and a resistance so resolute
and well sustained, that, although they succeeded in planting
many of their ladders, and even in mounting them, they were
tumbled over and driven back, after a fierce struggle of two
hours, with the loss of one captain, three lieutenants, three
ensigns, six Serjeants, and forty soldiers, left dead under the
walls ; and double that number of officers and men placed hors
de combat by wounds ; while the garrison only lost two Serjeants,
five soldiers, and one drummer, killed, and a few wounded.
Taught prudence by this severe repulse, the new Marquis set
more deliberately to work. That same night, when darkness
favoured the operations, ground was broken within half musket
shot of the walls, a trench cut, and a breastwork thrown up all
round the castle; a mode of beleaguring it which thereafter
brought on various desperate struggles with the garrison, and
some successful encounters with Welden's horse, which Leven
had sent out by way of relieving the place. In the midst of these
attacks in front and rear, Montrose contrived, by means of de-
taching some of his forces, to bring up six pieces of artillery from
Newcastle, which he placed so judiciously, and defended from all

400 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

attacks so obstinately, that in a few days the castle was nearly
reduced to ruins, and a breach accomplished through which it
might be easily stormed. The Marquis then humanely offered
the shattered garrison the alternative of a capitulation. The
white flag at length appeared on the ruins of Morpeth Castle ;
and the gallant Captain M'Culloch, somewhat in ruins himself,
having been severely wounded in the neck by the thrust of a
pike, was deputed by the governor, also suffering from a wound
on his head, to hold a parley with their noble assailant. What
passed between them we are now enabled to record from the
gallant Captain's own deposition, emitted, not many days after
the event, before a committee of Estates in Edinburgh. On the
8th of June 1644, Captain John M'Culloch—

" Declares, that, he being sent out of Morpeth Castle to
parley with Montrose, in the argument used by the said Earl
of Montrose to the deponer, to move him to give up the house,
he said that the deponer need not expect help from the General,
and Scots army about York, because they were surprised by a
sally out of York, and eight thousand men killed to them ; and
that they had more need of men themselves, than to send their
men to them ; that as for Waldoun, he should take order with
Mm ; as he did indeed that night ; l and as for supply from Scot-
land, they need expect none ; for the Marquis of Huntly was
eight thousand men in the fields ; and four thousand men rising
in the Isles ; and that they had sent Lieutenant- Colonel Stew-
art, who was adjutant, to Ireland, to bring over fifteen thousand
men, to be landed either in the west of Scotland or in Cumber-
land ; and as for the Earl of Calendar's approach, we need not
expect help from him ; for he was only engaged to be Lieute-
nant-General within the kingdom of Scotland, and would not
advance to England ; and the reason of his acceptation of that
place was only for saving of his estate; and yet for all that, when
he saw his own time, he was confident he would prove an honest
man.2

" Having questioned the Earl of Montrose the reason of his
incoming to Dumfries, and invasion of this kingdom, the said

* Probably the Colonel Welden mentioned in the foregoing letter, p. 398. Mon-
trose successfully defeated all attacks on his rear.

2 Callendar, in fact, accepted what Montrose had rejected. See before, p. 382.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 401

Earl declared to the deponer that he had assurance from the
Earl of Hartfell of his assistance, and raising of the country in
his favour ; but the said Earl of Hartfell deceived him, having
promised from day to day to draw up his men, and yet did
nothing, but proved the traitor; and further, he said he thought
to have betrayed him, by drawing him to his house.

" And the deponer having ended his discourse with the Earl
of Montrose, the Earl of Crawford came to him and said, that
the Scots army, and soldiers, and the deponer himself, were
blinded upon a specious pretext of religion ; but that Hamilton
and Argyle intended nothing but the ruin of the King and his
posterity; and this was also affirmed by the Earl of Montrose;
and they both affirmed that all this business was plotted by
Duke Hamilton fourteen years ago, and spoke something of
Germany to that effect:1 And declares, that, the deponer op-
posing Crawford in his affections, Sir James Leslie came to
them, and did swear a great oath that the Marquis of Argyle
was absolute King of Scotland ; and that his cousin, General
Leslie, was Prince : And this he declares to be of verity, as he
shall answer to God." 2

The result was, that the goverpor of the castle, after defend-
ing it to extremity, capitulated on these honourable terms ; —
that the officers were to be allowed to march out with their
arms and baggage ; the soldiers in like manner, only bearing
staves instead of their arms ; and all on their parole " never
again to take up arms against the King." These articles being
subscribed, Morpeth Castle was delivered into the hands of the
Marquis towards the end of May, after a severe siege, which
lasted many days, and occasioned more loss to Montrose than
he ever experienced upon any other occasion.3 On the day of

1 Alluding to Lord Reay's impeachment of Hamilton in 1631, which was quashed
by Charles himself, in order to save him. See before, p. 361.

2 Original; Depositions taken before a Committee of Estates at Edinburgh, in the
months of May, June, and July 1644 : Montrose Charter-room.

This same Captain John M'Culloch was executed for high treason, in 1 666, after
the battle of Pentland.

3 Montrose lost in this affair, besides many wounded, one major, three captains,
three lieutenants, four ensigns, and a hundred and eighty soldiers ; and expended
two hundred cannon shot. This on the authority of the governor's son, who wrote
a prolix account of the siege in his " Memorie of the Somervilles."

26

402 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the capitulation he entertained the governor and four of his
captains at dinner within the dilapidated fortress ; and with
the utmost rigour enforced against his English troops, who had
commenced to pillage the soldiers of the garrison, his own hu-
mane stipulations in their favour. He then destroyed what
remained of the fortifications, having no means of holding the
place for the King, and returned in triumph to Newcastle, after
an exploit which, although very slightly noticed by Dr Wishart,
is certainly not among the least of his performances. The cove-
nanting authorities in Edinburgh were much exasperated by the
news ; and within a very few days after the fall of Morpeth, the
governor and his principal officers were rendering an account of
their proceedings to the usual inquisitorial committees there.
Meanwhile the victorious Marquis proceeded to reduce another
smaller but important fortress at the mouth of the Tyne, and
to provision Newcastle, while still holding the faithless Callen-
dar and his seven thousand men in check, and watching his owrr
opportunity to raise the standard in Scotland. Baillie, writing
from London in the month of June 1644, says, " The delay of
Callendar's incoming so long, has given time to the Marquis of
Montrose to make havoc of the northern counties, which will
make the siege of Newcastle the harder."

It was in the midst of these energetic and successful opera-
tions, and while constantly struggling against difficulties cast
in his way by those jealous loyalists who ought to have aided
him to the uttermost, that an event occurred which threw both
York and Newcastle* into the hands of the Solemn League and
Covenant, and hastened the crisis of that career in Scotland,
which has rendered the name of Montrose so famous in the
history of human conflicts. At the close of the month of June,
two peremptory orders, not from his own superior, Prince Mau-
rice, but from "Robert le Dialle" himself, compelled him to
forego all his own plans, and hasten to join the hot-spurred
prince. If Prince Eupert, says Guthrie, " had lingered till
Montrose's arrival, who hastened towards him with the men he
had drawn together in the north of England, he had been much
the stronger ; but, before Montrose could reach him, he engaged
in battle." It was the battle of Marston-moor, fought on the
2d of July 1 644. Rupert and Newcastle dispute the honour of

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 403

having occasioned that fatal defeat. Montrose had already pro-
nounced the latter to be " slow.1' The hero of the English
cavaliers has been accused of being too fast. Between those
opposite qualities they contrived to ruin the King. The selfish,
luxurious Cavendish lost heart with that battle, if he ever had
one, and immediately provided for his own personal safety by
quitting the kingdom. A meaner retirement does not discredit
the peerage of England. In a subsequent reign he contrived to
obtain a dukedom, nobody cares how. Apologetic memoirs were
compiled for him by a great lady, nobody cares who. Perhaps
it was " Captain Francis Dalzell, whom Carnwath called his
daughter." The Lord of Welbeck and Bolsover is now best
remembered by a treatise on horsemanship, a type of himself,
imperial, gorgeous, and useless, which nobody reads, and by
which nobody rides.

The game was up in the north of England, and Montrose
knew it. " Give me a thousand of your horse, and I will cut
my way into the heart of Scotland," he said to Rupert, whom
he joined the day after the great disaster. The fiery prince
stripped him of all the troops he brought, and, to use the noble
adventurer's very words, " left me abandoned." We shall pre-
sently have his own account of the whole affair. Meanwhile,
his high-hearted endurance, his indomitable dispositions, we
are enabled to illustrate by some recently recovered scraps of
his correspondence, both with friends and enemies, at this par-
ticular crisis. The following is to his well-beloved President
Spottiswoode, at Oxford, — the pith lying in the postscript.

" RIGHT WORSHIPFUL AND MOST LOVING FRIEND : We have
been so particular in our information, that I have left myself
nothing to say, excepting that I must still declare unto you,
under my hand, how far T am

" Your most faithful and affectionate

" Friend and Servant,

" MONTROSE."
" Preston, 15 July 1644."

" I pray remember me to all friends, and in particular good
Mr Porter ; and shew from me all that has passed. I hope,

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

with God's grace, you shall hear some good news from us anon.

" Turn the leaf"

" The Marquis of Huntly was once very strong ; and. as I
am certainly informed, above five thousand horse and foot :
But business was unhappily carried ; and they all disbanded as
misfortunately as heretofore, without stroke stricken.1

" Traquair is coying upon the border ; but takes no notice of
me, nor none of the King's party ; and, as I am certainly in-
formed, has solicited for his peace ; and his son (Lord Linton)
has undertaken a regiment with the rebels/' s

The next letter is addressed " For the right honourable the
Lord Fairfax," who commanded at this time for the Parliament
in Yorkshire, having under him his son, Sir Thomas Fairfax,
now just rising into his melancholy distinction. This last had
recently routed and captured, at Selby, Colonel, afterwards
Lord Bellasis, son of Lord Falconbridge, a soldier highly
esteemed among the ranks of the cavaliers. In exchange for
this valuable prisoner, Montrose is here offering a Mr Darly,
whom we find mentioned by Baillie as one of the English com-
missioners to the General Assembly. The ingenuity with which
he enhances the value of his article of exchange, and the grace-
ful lonJwmmie with which he intimates his willingness still to be
considered debtor, and his intention to clear scores with interest
" ere long," is very characteristic : —

"MY LORD : — I received your Lordship's return ; where-
withal you must pardon me not to rest satisfied, since I con-
ceive no such disproportion as your Lordship is pleased to pre-
tend ; Mr Darly being a parliament man, and one that hitherto
has been much employed, and very useful to your party ; and
the other only in the degree of a colonel. But admit the odds :
If your Lordship will dispute it, the difference shall be made up :

1 This refers to the ill-directed and worse than useless rising of Huntly in the
north of Scotland at this time, which sacrificed the gallant Gordon of Haddo. He
was executed, by the Kirk Government, four days after the date of the above letter,
namely, upon the 1 9th of July 1644.

a Original, Spottiswoode Charter-chest. The " information," alluded to in the
letter, if written, has not been discovered. It was probably of the nature of the
Instructions given to Lord Ogilvy, which will be found in another page.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 405

If, otherwise, you will be rather gallantly pleased to make it a
courtesy, a very thankful and acceptable return shall, I hope ere
long, be rendered by, my Lord, your Lordship's very humble
servant,

" MONTROSE." *
" 22 July 1644."

In less than a month after the date of this letter, Fairfax thus
writes to Leven, enclosing Montrose's intercepted dispatches,
which tell a very different tale as to his resources and prospects.
It is remarkable that the writer does not name the distinguished
enemy with whom he had so recently been in communication,
and whose noble friend and aide-de-camp it was who had thus
unfortunately been made prisoner.

" MY LORD : — I did yesternight receive some letters from
Sir John Meldrum, and some of my officers in Lancashire.
They shew that God continues his mercy and favour to our
cause, in giving a defeat to the forces under Sir Marmaduke
Langdale, the Lord Byron, and my Lord Molyneux ; the latter
of which is thought to be slain, or wounded dangerously. The
victory seems to be got upon Thursday last, about Halford.
He conceives the enemy lost about one thousand horse, three
hundred and sixty troopers, besides a colonel of horse, two or
three captains ; and twelve gentlemen of great estates in that
country, and all of them papists, taken prisoners. The Lord
Ogilvy, and Colonel Mintis or Innesf are on their way to Hull.
He conceives Sir John Hurry killed ; Colonel Tillesley also. I
hear by Colonel Schuttilworth, a very gallant young gentleman
who took the Lord Ogilvy, that a thousand pounds is promised
by the Estates of Scotland for reward.3 He hath sent to rne

1 Original, British Museum ; Sloane MSS. That Colonel Bellasis was the subject
of the correspondence, is sufficiently proved by the Instructions to Lord Ogilvy,
at p, 409.

* It was Colonel fnnes, who is mentioned in the letter from John Macbrayr, quoted
before. As for Sir John Hurry, he lived to join the Covenanters ; to be drubbed
back into loyalty by Montrose ; to become his major-general ; and (the highest
honour he attained) to be hanged along with him. Neither was Sir Thomas Tillesley
killed upon this occasion ; he fell when Lord Derby was defeated at Wigan, in
1651.

8 This was Argyle's doing. See before, p. 246,

406 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

to desire your Excellency's favour to procure it for him. I have
herein enclosed some papers found about the Lord Ogilvy.
They are the copies of them ; the originals I keep for some safe
hand. He writes that twelve colours of horse were taken in
the fight. Prince Eupert is drawing all his forces out of Wales,
to make a strong body against us. My son takes care for send-
ing troops with the cloth and money. — I remain, my Lord,
" Your Excellency's most humble Servant,

" FERDINANDO FAIRFAX." l
" York, 15 August 1644."

Along with this letter, very recently recovered, we are also
so fortunate as to be able to produce three documents which
had been enclosed in it for the covenanting commander, being
the copies of the papers to which Lord Fairfax alludes, as
having been found on the person of Lord Ogilvy. They con-
tain, for the information of the unfortunate King, who never
received them, Montrose's own account of the chief causes of
his present failure, which he had written in haste on three
separate scraps of paper. Even his faithful chronicler, Dr
Wishart, seems not to have been aware that the Marquis ven-
tured to commit to writing his instructions to Lord Ogilvy ;
and their re-appearance now, for the first time after the lapse
of more than two centuries, was hardly to have been expected.

" Instructions for the Lord Ogilvy.

1. " Your Lordship is to make the narrative of your repair
to his Majesty ; to make him acquainted, from us, of the whole

1 The following, from Rushworth's Collections, vol. v. p. 745, seems to prove that
Lord Fairfax, in the above letter, had referred indiscriminately to two different
affairs, occurring in Lancashire about the same date : —

" The Lord Ogleby (a Scotch Lord) and Lieutenant-Colonel Huddleston, marching
towards Latham- house, August 15th 1644, with about four hundred horse, fell upon
a party of the Parliament's, under Colonel Doddington, at Kibble-bridge, near Pres-
ton in Lancashire, and had utterly routed them, had not Colonel Shuttlewprth (who
quartered near) come to their assistance, who then charged the Lord Ogleby so
desperately with their united strength, that his troops were broken, his Lordship
and Lieutenant-Colonel Huddleston, and several others, taken prisoners. But of
Doddington's men, twelve only carried away prisoners, and several slain."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 4!>7

track and passages of the occasion of his service touching Scot-
land, and our endeavours in it ; that his Majesty may be truly
informed of our diligence, and that nothing has holden at us :
Nothing has been performed to us, neither in what was pro-
mised nor otherwise.

2. " You are to inform his Majesty of all the particulars that
stumbled his service ; as of the carriage of Hartfell, Annan-
dale, Morton, Roxburgh, and Traquair ; who refused his Ma-
jesty's commission ; and debauched our officers ; doing all that
in them lay to discountenance the service, and all who were
engaged in it.

3. " Your Lordship is seriously to represent the notable mis-
carriages of the Earls of Crawford and Nithsdale ; how often
they crossed the business, and went about to abuse us who
had undertaken it, to the great scandal and prejudice of the
service.1

4. " You are to shew his Majesty the course we have taken,
as the only probable way left for his service, — though very
desperate for ourselves : And let him know, that, if the con-
veniency of his affairs could suffer it, with a very little supply
of force, much might be done, if not all that his Majesty de-
sired : But therein you are to carry yourself according as you
find the condition of affairs when you come there, and press
it less or more.

5. "• Your Lordship will make all your addresses by the Lord

i The Scotch peers, here so unfavourably reported to their Sovereign, are, —

1. James Johnston of Johnston, created Lord Johnston of Loch wood in 1633, and
Earl of Hartfell in 1643. See the lecture read him by Warriston, p. 223. Be-
tween such tuition and much royal favour, he proved treacherous to Montrose,
worse than useless to the King, and yet so little useful to the Covenanters that he
was imprisoned by them for seeming to incline too much to the royal cause.

2. James Murray, second and last Earl of Annandale of that race. 3. William
seventh Earl of Morton. 4. Robert first Earl of Roxburgh. 5. John first Earl
of Traquair, of whom before, p. 323. 6. The " loyal Earl of Crawford ;" whose
honours were usurped by Lord Lindsay of the Byres. 7. Robert, eighth Lord
Maxwell, and first Earl of Nithsdale. Montrose had attempted to organize a
powerful scheme, for recovering Scotland, by means of royal commissions, subor-
dinate to his own, to these and other noblemen in their respective localities ; but
their ruinous jealousy induced them for the most part to reject these commissions
in a disrespectful and disloyal manner ; as we shall immediately find was done by
Lord Carnwath, with regard to Clydesdale.

408 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Digby,— on whom you must seem absolutely to rely,— and so

to the King.1

6. " You are to desire some blank commissions to use upon
occasion ; and represent the injustice done to Haddo, and to
those who have suffered in that kind.2

7. " Your Lordship will inform and ply those about the
King, friends and others, very particularly, touching all that
has passed in the business.

8. " You are to do in this, or further, as occasion may re-
quire, and as your Lordship shall think fit ; and be advised by
Sir William Fleming,3 and Sir Robert Spottiswoode.

9. " You are to call Sir William Fleming as witness still to
that you are to represent to his Majesty.

10. " You are to represent, particularly, our base usage by
these counties.4

11. u Whatever shall befal, your Lordship is to make all
possible haste and dispatch, and to stay for nothing ; but be
sure within a month, or five weeks at furthest, to fall in with
what force, less or more, that possibly you can ; direct two or
three confidential persons before you ; severally, lest some be
intercepted ; that may give us notice how all has gone, and

* George Lord Digby was Secretary of State ; and it was principally with him
that Montrose had arranged his scheme at Oxford.

9 Gordon of Haddo and some others were mercilessly executed at the fiat of
Argyle, upon the 19th of July 1644, because of their rising with Huntly, to whom
Argyle was opposed in the north.

8 Brother to the Earl of Wigton ; and Montrose's cousin. See before, p. 391.

* This refers to the counties in the north of England, wherein, even among pro-
fessing loyalists, Montrose declares he " could not so much as find quartering for
our own person." He had particularly to complain of Sir Richard Graham of Esk ;
who was not a scion of his own house, but had risen, through royal bounty, from
being an obscure retainer of Buckingham, into wealth and distinction, in Cumber-
land. Wishart tells us that he was one whom his Majesty's " mistaken bounty had
raised out of the dunghill, to say no worse, unto the honour of knighthood, and an
estate even to the envy of his neighbours." Wishart's expressions might be thought
too severe ; but we find the very same used by the Earl of Nithsdale, in a letter
dated from Carlisle, 2d May 1 643, in which he speaks of the treacherous disloyalty
of " good Sir Richard Graham, and a number of round-heads in these parts ;" and
adds, that he had become head of the puritans there, " as in acquittal to your Lady
for raising him out of the dunghill." This letter is to the Earl of Antrim, whose
Countess was widow of the favourite, Buckingham. — Orrnond Papers.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 409

what we have to expect, that we may put ourselves in some
frame to be all aloft at once, against your return.

" MONTROSE.'"

n.

t. " You will be pleased to use all means with the Lord
Digby, the Earl of Forth, Master Porter, Master Ashburnham,
and all other friends, for the release of Colonel Bellasis.1

2. " That his Majesty be solicited particularly for Prince
Maurice's repair to Scotland ; and that the Lord Digby be seri-
ously dealt with all ; and all means be used for that effect."

ill.

1. " The possibility of the business, had it been done in time,
evidently does appear by that, at the least, which we have done ;
which shews clearly that his Majesty hath formerly been but
betrayed by those whom he trusted.

2. " With what good reason we did undertake it ; since, if
any point of the capitulation had been observed to us, — as
money, supplies from Newcastle, arms and ammunition from
Denmark, Antrim fallen in the country himself with a thousand
men, and much of that kind, — we could easily have done the
business. Nay, though nothing was held good to us, yet we
could easily have effected it notwithstanding, had either we not
staid at Dumfries, or had we retreated towards Stirling; whereas
we went to Carlisle : And (show) by whose means all that befell.2

3. " That till we were called away by the Prince (Rupert),
by two peremptory orders, from off the Borders, Callendar did
not come in ; nor could not, so long as we had stayed. And
how, when we came to the Prince, his occasions forced him to
make use of the forces we brought alongst with us, and would
not suffer him to supply us with others ; so that we were left
altogether abandoned ; and could not so much as find quarter-
ing for our own person in these counties.

0 J J-

1 See before, p. 404.

a Referring particularly to the manner in which he had been deceived by the
border Earl of Hartfell, as he also complained to Captain M'Culloch.

410 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

4. " Forget not to shew how feasible the business is yet, and
and the reason thereof, if right courses be taken."1

And now Montrose, so recently at the head of an army suffi-
cient to hold Callendar at bay on the borders, to destroy the
castle of Morpeth and the fort of Tyne, and to " make havoc"
in the northern counties, suddenly disappeared, army and all,
as if the earth had opened and swallowed them. No sooner
had he placed these ill-fated dispatches into the hands of Lord
Ogilvy, to whom was also confided the secret of his immediate
plans, than, to the great anxiety of his friends, and somewhat
to the alarm of his enemies, he seemed to vanish. Meanwhile
his noble aid-de-camp, and a few Scottish cavaliers made pri-
soners along with him, were first sent to Hull, and from thence
to the leaguer of old Leven, This last, recovered from the false
alarm which tarnished his ancient fame with an inglorious flight
from the battle-field of Marston-moor, had retraced his steps to
lay siege to Newcastle. No sooner was Montrose withdrawn,
than Callendar — but still " only for saving of his estate" — joined
forces with the covenanting General-in-chief. To their united
strength Newcastle submitted, in the month of October 1 644.
Within its walls were found the Earl of Crawford, who had
commanded in the castle ; Lord Reay, the original impeacher
of Hamilton ; Lord Maxwell, Nithsdale's eldest son ; and the
celebrated chaplain of Montrose. These, along with Lord
Ogilvy, were all consigned to a wretched and squalid incar-
ceration in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, with excommunication,
forfeiture, and death in prospect. Against the far-descended
Earl of Crawford, whose long coveted honours Lord Lindsay of
the Byres was about to assume (as his reward from u the Dic-

1 Montrose's career in Scotland, from September 1644 to September 1645, with-
out aid from the King, or any support, or even fair dealing, from the peers of Scot-
land who professed to be loyal, is the best commentary on this last article. These
very interesting Instructions, so germane to the matter of Montrose's great adven-
ture, have never entered history, and were only recently brought to light. Mr
M'Kinlay of Whitehaven, an intelligent historical antiquary, kindly transmitted to
me a contemporary copy of Lord Fairfax's letter to Leven, with a copy of Montrose's
Instructions annexed. I afterwards discovered a somewhat fuller contemporary copy
of the same, seemingly more accurate, among the MSS. of the Advocates' Library.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 411

tator"), the further indignity was perpetrated, of being con-
ducted on foot, and bare-headed, through the High Street of
Edinburgh to the tolbooth. In that durance vile they remained,
their lives not worth an hour's purchase, until unexpectedly re-
leased by Montrose himself after the battle of Kilsyth. This,
while it affords a striking commentary upon the sadly disap-
pointing demeanour of " the loyal Earl of Crawford," proved a
noble revenge for him whose brighter loyalty he had aided to
neutralize. It was in no acrimonious spirit, in sorrow more than
in anger, that Montrose had thus reported to the King. His
was not the disposition, and certainly it was the reverse of his
interest, to calumniate the loyal peers of Scotland. Nor would
the rising hope of the house of Airlie, the gallant and high-
minded Ogilvy, have condescended to be the bearer of such
tales to his Sovereign, had they not been true. And here may
be said to commence the epoch of unflinching self-sacrifice in
the life of the deserted nobleman who had been constrained to
prefer such bitter complaints. He hints at the only course re-
maining for his Majesty's service, so far as entrusted to him ; a
course from which he will not turn aside, " though very despe-
rate for ourselves." The fearful ruin in which he and all whom
he loved, were ere long involved, seems mirrored in that sen-
tence. That which otherwise might have ranked no higher
than the vain ebullition of a Quixotic spirit, must now strike
the mind as belonging to the sublime in the history of human
achievements. We have only to trace the hero through six
remaining years of his life, — very desperate indeed for himself,
but rendered for ever famous by his sword, and thus glorified
by his pen, —

" As Alexander I will reign,

And I will reign alone ;
My thoughts did evermore disdain

A rival on my throne.
He either fears his fate too much,

Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch

To gain or lose it all."

412 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

CHAPTER XXII.

MONTROSE PASSES INTO SCOTLAND IN DISGUISE — REMAINS CONCEALED AT
TULLIBELTON — ASCERTAINS THE STATE OF PARTIES IN SCOTLAND —
DESCENT OF M'COLL KEITACH ON THE WEST COAST — HIS PROCEEDINGS
— TIDINGS OF HIS ARRIVAL REACH MONTROSE, WHO HASTENS TO JOIN
HIM — MONTROSE RAISES THE STANDARD IN THE BLAIR OF ATHOLE — IS
JOINED BY SOME OF THE CLANS — DETERMINES TO LEAD THEM AGAINST
THE ARMY IN THE LOW COUNTRY — REASONS FOR NOT TURNING UPON
ARGYLE AT THIS TIME — DIFFERENT ARMIES OF THE COVENANT — INFE-
RIOR CONDITION OF THE FORCES UNDER MONTROSE — EXTRAORDINARY
TRANSITIONS IN HIS LOYAL CAREER — MARCHES UPON PERTH — HIS
CHALLENGE TO ARGYLE — HIS DECLARATION TO THE COUNTRY.

IT was on or about the 18th of August 1644, that a retainer
of Sir Richard Graham1 s met some of Levels troopers, as he
supposed, travelling in Cumberland towards the border. The
party consisted of three individuals, one acting as groom,
mounted on a very sorry nag, and leading another which might
well be called a spare horse. The Cumberland man, having
satisfied himself that these were soldiers of the Covenant, told
them in confidence, and by way of apology for his close inspec-
tion, that he was employed to watch the borders, and furnish
intelligence of any royalists passing into Scotland — a spy, in
short, upon the movements of the missing Montrose. Shaking
off this inquisitor, the three travellers soon thereafter encoun-
tered a Scotch soldier who had served under the Marquis of
Newcastle. Passing those in front without notice, this indivi-
dual at once addressed their follower, with great respect, and
by a very imposing title, which the latter did his best to disown.
However, says the contemporary narrator of the anecdote,
" the too officious soldier would not be so put off; but, with a
voice and countenance full of humility and duty, began to cry
out, — ' What ! do I not know my Lord»Marquis of Montrose
well enough ? Go your way, and God be with you wherever you

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 413

go/ When he saw it was in vain to conceal himself from this
man, he gave him a few crowns and sent him away ; nor did the
soldier betray him afterwards."1' l It was in fact Montrose dis-
guised as a groom. But the " quick and piercing grey eye,"
and the " singular grace in riding," could not escape the obser-
vation of the old campaigner.

His two companions, in this most perilous adventure, were
Major, afterwards Sir William Rollo, and Colonel Sibbald.
The former, a brave and excellent soldier, but afflicted with
lameness from his birth, was a younger brother of the laird of
Duncruib, to which last our readers have been already intro-
duced in his double character of brother-in-law to Montrose,
and the same to Argyle. When our hero first addressed him-
self to the Marquis of Newcastle at Durham, he there found
his present companion rejoicing in the title of " Captain Mr
William Rollock, captain of General King^s life-guard of horse."
But the style of that commander being too u slow," even for a
cavalier with a club-foot, the captain was easily induced to
transfer his services, and become " Major with the Earl of
Montrose." 2 His other companion was Colonel Sibbald, the
same whom he once placed in command of Airlie castle, from
whence he was so unceremoniously ejected by the Dictator.

Montrose now hastened onwards through the south of Scot-
land, passing his own homes and territories, in the shires of
Perth and Angus, without disclosing himself to his countess,
his children, or any of his relatives, until he reached the house
of Tullibelton, near the Tay, between Perth and Dunkeld.
" He spared not horse-flesh," says his chaplain, until he at-
tained that comparatively safe quarter, which he did on the
22d of August, after four days hard riding from Carlisle, pro-
videntially without detection. " It may be thought," says his
friend Patrick Gordon of Euthven, " that God Almighty sent
his good angel to lead the way ; for he went, as if a cloud had
environed him, through all his enemies." The place of his
temporary concealment was a country mansion belonging to
his old curator, Patrick Graham of Inchbrakie, the elder.
This distinguished cadet of his house we have already recorded

1 WSshart, who must have had the story from Montrose himself.

2 Original, Deposition of Major John Erskine : Montrose Charter-room.

414 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

in a previous chapter; where he is disclosed, about eighteen
years before this fearful crisis, arranging the ingenuous youth's
cherished library of history and romance, in his then peaceful
and joyous castle of Kincardine, " in my Lord his Lordship's
cabinet;" doubtless one of those so rudely handled by Lord
Sinclair. Inchbrakie's eldest son, Patrick the younger, who
went by the name of " black Pate," had been his companion in
boyhood, and was now selected for his confidant, and most
active aid-de-camp, in this daring and romantic adventure.
The situation of Tullibelton, not far from his own domains to
the south, and his favourite haunt of " ancient Keir," — where
some anxious hearts had long been looking for his advent, —
with that stronghold of loyalty, the braes of Athole, a little to
the north, was the best he could have chosen, both for informa-
tion from all quarters, and for immediate action in either direc-
tion, as the star of his fortune might lead.

Even in this retreat, however, he was obliged to keep himself
closely concealed ; haunting the lonely hills while darkness pre-
vailed, and returning by daylight to hide in a small cottage near
the mansion of his host, or to wander in the wood of Methven,
which lay to the south, between Tullibelton and Perth. Mean-
while he had sent his two travelling companions on a mission,
to acquaint Lord Napier, and the rest of his family circle who
could be trusted, that he had reached the north in safety ; also
to gather intelligence of the present state of parties, ever
changing, and especially as to the strength of Huntly benorth
the Grampians. These returned to him after a few days, with
tidings by no means encouraging. Ruinous fines, imprisonment,
and death, was the certain portion of every honest and active
loyalist that fell into the hands of the Committee of Estates.
That vicious institution was now wielding the whole powers of
the executive, under the military despotism of Argyle ; who,
moreover, was affecting a martial character in proportion to his
political success, and powerful following. Huntly had fled before
him, as Montrose truly said, " without a stroke stricken,11 into
the wilds of Strathnaver, the western portion of Caithness, and
the most inaccessible district of the Highlands. There the chief
of the gay Gordons sought refuge in the deserted house of Lord
y, chief of the Mackays, himself at this time besieged in

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 415

Newcastle along with the Earl of Crawford and other friends
of M ontrose, including his chaplain Dr Wishart. Family cir-
cumstances had aided in placing Huntly's gallant son, Lord
Gordon, under the control of his uncle Argyle, from whom he had
been constrained to accept of a military command ; Haddo was
executed ; Irvine of Drum in exile, and his sons in prison ; in
short, the " barons' reign" in the north was completely broken,
and all the loyal spirits there depressed and discomfited.

Such were the deplorable tidings with which his emissaries
returned to their anxious leader, at the latter end of August
1644. But his heart failed him not, and his spirit soared as
his fortunes seemed to sink. He looked to the Grampians, and
bethought him of the Gael. No chieftain, of the purest breed
that ever wore a badge of brackens, was a better mountaineer
than the Graham. His own romantic estates, and those of the
nobleman who had been to him as a father, had rendered his
boyhood familiar with mountain and flood :

" Each pass, by mountain, lake, and heath,
He knew through Lennox and Menteith ;
Right up Ben Lomond could he press,
And not a sob his toil confess ;
And scarce the doe, though wing'd with fear,
Outstripp'd in speed the mountaineer." '

He well knew, moreover, the history and habits of those inde-
pendent tribes who had obtained the characteristic appellation
of " Redshanks." Disorganized as the clans had become, he
could yet appreciate the value of their combined ardour in such
a cause as the support of their native King, dethroned by an
ungrateful and oppressive subject. Charles was by them re-
garded as the chief of Scotland ; and MacCailinmhor was but
the head of that once inferior race of the Gael, the vast en-
croachments of whose selfish policy had done, and was doing,
so much to destroy the independence of the Highlands. Ac-
cordingly, when Montrose found that the chivalry of the Gor-
dons had utterly failed him, and, by the arts of Argyle, was

i Lord Napier inherited one-fourth of the whole Earldom of the Lennox, with the
fishings, and some of the islands of Loch Lomond ; and also the great barony of
Husky in Menteith.

416 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

even in some measure turned against the Sovereign, his indomi-
table spirit addressed its hopes towards those who were wont
to rise, and rush like their torrents, at the summons of the
cross of fire.

Nor was he long condemned to lead the life of an outlaw. It
was the 18th of August when he disappeared from Carlisle, and
that month had not elapsed ere circumstances occurred which
determined him to be up and doing.

Early in the month of July 1 644, while Montrose was still
lingering in the north of England with Prince Rupert, after the
battle of Marston-moor, Alexander Macdonald, better known
by the corrupted patronymic CoUcitto, effected a descent upon
the west coast of Scotland, at Ardnamurchan. He had gathered
from Ireland and the isles, a small fleet, and about twelve hun-
dred Scoto-Irish, miserably appointed. This was the whole re-
sult of Antrim's promises at York, and negotiations in Ireland.
But Macdonald brought with him the prestige of an herculean
frame, well tried in war, and the stoutest of hearts intensely set
against Argyle, who was at deadly feud with his family. He
was the son of Coll Keitache MacGillespick Macdonald of Co-
lonsay ; Keitache being a word indicating the accomplishment of
using the sword with equal dexterity in either hand. This
quality was inherited by old ColFs more celebrated son, whose
proper name was Allaster, or Alexander MacColl, Keitache,
Macdonald. Moreover, he was a near cousin of the Earl of
Antrim, who had put him up to this mode of at once serving the
King, and avenging his family against the oppressor. Upon
landing, however, he found himself rather in a scrape. Mon-
trose had not entered Scotland. Huntly was not to be heard
of. Seaforth (the Signior Puritano of the Plot), lord of Kin-
tail and chief of the Mackenzies, although a great loyalist, was
at this crisis doing as Callendar had done, — " but only for sav-
ing of his estate." He had most unexpectedly joined the cove-
nanting party of Sutherland and Forbes, instead of preparing
to support the royal standard. This was a severe cross ; for
the power of the Mackenzies prevailed in the north-west of
Scotland, from Ardnamurchan to Strathnaver, and was only
second to that of Argyle. Neither was the name of Allaster

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 417

Macdonald, with all its imposing adjuncts, of itself sufficient to
rouse to action the enthusiastic loyalty of the clans. That was
an achievement reserved for the name and presence of Mon-
trose. Then the wily ruler of Scotland suddenly pounced upon
the invader's little fleet, and left him without a boat in which
to re-embark. Argyle was also commissioned to raise an army
at the expense of the country, and to go in person to crush this
daring adventurer. At a most respectful distance was the am-
bidexter warrior watched, with a far superior force, by the chief
of the Campbells. Foiled and. hemmed in, Macdonald attacked
Argyle's country with the desperate bravery for which he is
celebrated rather than for the higher qualities of a military
leader. He did more, however, than take a few strongholds,
and waste the districts of the enemy. Aware of Montrose^s
high commission, though disappointed in the expectation of
joining him, he tried to rouse the country in his name. To the
covenanting committee of Moray, he sent a charge, command-
ing all subjects capable of bearing arms, within that country,
to rise and follow the King's Lieutenant, Montrose, under the
usual penalty of fire and sword. This was eloquently enforced
by means of a swift messenger bearing the fiery cross ; that is to
say, a cross of wood, every point whereof was seamed and
scathed with fire. When the committee received this signifi-
cant symbol, they passed it on in haste and terror to the com-
mittee of Aberdeen, who staid its further progress, and trans-
mitted the alarming intelligence to head quarters at Edinburgh.
The Argyle government acted with great energy. The national
summons by the fiery cross was turned against the invader ;
and, in name of the Estates, every man between sixteen and
sixty, dwelling on the north side of the Grampians, was com-
manded to convene in arms at Aberdeen, before the end of
August. With Argyle at his heels, or pretending to be so, and
deprived of the means of escaping by sea, Macdonald and his
band seemed in the very jaws of destruction, when fortune un-
expectedly favoured the brave. The following incident we must
give in the words of Patrick Gordon of Ruthven, since he tells
us that it " came from the mouth" of Montrose himself.

"As he (Montrose) was one day in Methven wood, staying
for the night, because there was no safe travelling by day, he

27

418 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

became transported with sadness, grief, and pity, to see his na-
tive country thus brought into miserable bondage and slavery,
- through the turbulent and blind zeal of some preachers, and
now persecuted by the unlawful and ambitious ends of some of
the nobility ; and so far had they already prevailed that the
event was much to be feared, and, by good patriots ever to be
lamented ; and therefore, in a deep grief and unwonted ravish-
ment, he besought the Divine Majesty, with watery eyes and a
sorrowful heart, that his justly kindled indignation might be
appeased, and his mercy extended, the curse removed, and that
it might please Him to make him, Montrose, an humble instru-
ment, therein, to his holy and divine Majesty's greater glory :

" While he was in this thought, lifting up his eyes he beholds
a man coming the way to St Johnston (Perth) with a fiery cross
in his hand. Hastily stepping towards him, he enquired what
the matter meant ? The messenger told him, that Coll Mac-
Gillespick, for so was Alexander Macdonald called by the High-
landers, was entered in Athole with a great army of the Irish,
and threatened to burn the whole country if they did not rise
with him against the Covenant ; and he (the messenger) was
sent to advertise St Johnston, that all the country might be
raised to resist him.1"

This hint, it is added, sufficed to direct Montrose's move-
ments. But a more decisive one reached him about the same
time, according to no less authentic contemporary authority.
Macdonald had announced his condition to him, in a letter
addressed to Carlisle. This, by a happy accident, was brought
to his friend " black Pate," as the best post-man for the occa-
sion ; he who delivered it never dreaming that the object of that
anxious missive was close at hand. Of course it was not sent to
Carlisle.

Our hero hastened to share the fate of those whom he had
been chiefly instrumental in bringing into their present predica-
ment; and the plan he adopted was a stroke of genius. The
loyal clans he knew to be capable of great deeds, when roused
by a skilful application to their peculiar character. His first
step, then, was to take the Highlanders by surprise, and in a
manner that may be called dramatic, so as to communicate the
electric spark to their ardent and romantic dispositions. Ac-

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 419

cordingly, he answered Macdonald's letter as if it had been re-
ceived at Carlisle, and sent him orders to march without delay
upon A thole, where the King's Lieutenant would meet him ere
long. The rendezvous was well chosen. It was the district in
which, as in the braes of Angus, the oppression of Argyle had
been most severely felt, and where a corresponding admiration
of Montrose was cherished. The order was immediately obeyed
with renewed hope and energy. Macdonald made himself mas-
ter of the castle of the Blair of Athole, and maintained himself
in that stronghold, awaiting the event.

But the cancer of the Covenant had extended so far into the
loyalty of the land, that the men of Athole were not ready to
rise with the son of Coll Keitache. Montrose's friend, the loyal
Earl of Athole, unfortunately had died in the month of June
1642 ; and the Stewarts, and also the Robertsons, were in arms
professedly at least for " the country.1' This was under the
pressure of the Argyle government, from which neither Huntly
nor Montrose had as yet been able to relieve them. They had
not much objection to the castle of the Blair being wrested from
the covenanting government. But they looked askance at the
warrior who had performed the feat, and were disposed to treat
him as a foreign invader. So far did this feeling prevail, that
the two little armies, despite their common cause, and so much
of a common origin that they were like Bran and his brother,
were drawn up in battle array on two opposing hills ; and, not-
withstanding the exertions of some of Huntly's men from Bade-
noch to bring them to accord, seemed about to fight, when a
sudden apparition arrested the attention of all.

The imposing figure of a " very pretty man," with a single
attendant, came stalking through the heather, in the garb of old
Gaul, with an air that indicated the habit of commanding. He
at once made his address to the gigantic leader of the forlorn
Irish ; and the wild halleluiahs, and salvos of musketry, with
which the new comer was presently hailed by Macdonald and
his followers, amazed the Athole men on the opposite hill, and
made them stand to their arms. An angel it could not well be,
for he had no wings ; and a chief it was not, for he had no tail.
It required, however, no very close inspection for these High-

420 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

landers to discover their old friend, the Graham, and his cousin
" black Pate ;" this last, indeed, being their especial favourite,
' and so christened by themselves. The two had walked together
some score of miles across the hills from Tullibelton, to raise in
Athole the standard of the Stuarts. The Ion accord was com-
plete. The men of Athole, Stewarts and Robertsons, eight
hundred strong, and Huntly's broken men from Badenoch, about
three hundred, regarded Montrose, with that royal commission
in his hand, as God's vicegerent upon earth. The Scoto-Irish,
consisting of twelve hundred caterans divided into three regi-
ments, with a numerous and most melancholy camp-following
of half-naked, half-starved, women and children, already hailed
in extacies the promised land, when the representative of Ma-
jesty, in their own presence, formally confirmed his commission
as Major-General of all the royal forces in Scotland, to their
beloved commander, who had led them through the wilderness,
and was Moses indeed to them.

Our hero, who piqued himself upon never stirring in the royal
cause without the written commands, and express commission
of his Sovereign, and who would never abate a single iota of the
authority and etiquette of his high credentials, now proceeded
to raise the Standard, with all the pomp and solemnity of which
existing circumstances would admit. The place he selected
was a conspicuous elevation called the Truidh, near the castle
of Blair, and about three quarters of a mile behind the modern
house of Lude. This classic spot, the last Robertson who
was laird of Lude marked by the erection of a small cairn ; and
the knoll is now clothed with a thriving plantation of some
thirty years growth. It overlooks the strath of Athole, all
Glenfender, and part of Glentilt.

Great was the joy with which the royal commission had been
acknowledged. But the wild outcries that saluted the ori-
flamme of a long line of kings, roused echo from an hundred
hills, and startled the deer in Glentilt. Montrose knew the
value of the moment. It would scarcely have become the critical
warrior who once, on the eve of battle, pronounced Cavendish
" slow," himself to have hesitated now. Without a pause, he
cast the royal banner abroad upon the breezes of the Tummel
and the Garry, — suffered not a doubt to cross the minds of his

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 421

followers, or his own, — but, pointing with his pike southwards,
to Loch Tummel and the Tay, gave the joyful word that set
his wild mountaineers in motion, after just such an oration as
we may express in the words of one who has entwined his own
immortality with the hero's, —

*' When bursts Clan Alpine on the foe,

His heart must be like bended bow,

His foot like arrow free."

But why did he not double back into the Highlands, or go
westward into Argyle^s country, to do battle with the King of
the Kirk, who was said to be in hot pursuit of the marauding
Jslesmen ? It was only a few months before that Montrose had
written to President Spottiswoode, how he intended " to make
all possible dispatch to follow him (Argyle) at the heels in what-
ever posture we can." The event, however, proved that he now
better understood the great game he was about to play. He
was encompassed on all hands with well-appointed armies of
the Covenant. Benorth the Grampians, Sutherland, Forbes,
Seaforth, the' Frasers and the Grants, were banded together
against him. Argyle was understood to be following the track
of Macdonald with all his own claymores — a splendid body of
mountain warriors — and a formidable array of militia which the
Estates had authorized him to levy. Then, besouth the Gram-
pians, another great levy had been ordered, by the covenanting
government, to be drawn from Montrose's own districts, of
Perthshire, Angus and the M earns, and also from Fife and
Stirling. That strange mixture of rampant fanaticism and
crest-fallen loyalty, was now congregated in force at Perth, or
St Johnston as it was more frequently called. All these armies,
most advantageously placed so as to environ the " common
enemy," were in arms expressly for the purpose of crushing
Montrose's attempt to raise Scotland against the League and
Covenant. He was not as yet more than two thousand three
hundred strong. Their bosoms were one, but their swords
scarcely a thousand. Rusty battered matchlocks, — to which
the oldest brown- Bess now on her death-bed in Britain would
be a beauty, — were the weapons carried by the Irish. A good
claymore was a luxury. A motley collection of pikes, clubs,

422 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

bows and arrows, shewing like an antiquary's museum, in some
measure supplied the deficiency. But one-third of his little
army was utterly destitute of other weapons than the stories
they picked up on the field of battle ; which seem, by the way,
to be coming into repute again contemporaneously with the
Minie rifle. As for cavalry, he possessed three horses, which
Dr Wishart describes as being omnino strigosos et emaciates —
altogether skin and bone, — probably the very same whose flesh
he had not spared between merry Carlisle and Tullibelton.
Artillery, of course, he had none ; and the amount of ammuni-
tion was discovered to be not more than a single round for all
the muskets they could muster. Money, not a stiver. He knew
better than to hunt Argyle through the Highlands in such a
pickle as this. His turn would come, and the sons of Diarmed
remember it for ever ! He had to take a walk to the Lowlands
to complete his commissariat, to get patterns of army-clothing,
and to fill his military chest. His thoughts at this time were
probably somewhat similar to the strain which Davie Gellatley
chaunted a century later, —

" There's nought in the Highlands but syboes and leeks,
And lang-legged callants gaun wanting the breeks ;
Gaun wanting the breeks, and without hose or shoon,
But we'll all win the breeks when King Jamie comes hame."

A lion beset by the hunters, at a glance he judged where to
make his spring. He lashed his ire for an instant on the Truidh
of Athole, then dashed at the heart of the country. " We must
lick them at Perth before Argyle can come up," — was his tactic.
It was Napoleon's two centuries later. " Follow me to victory,
and you, your wives and babes, shall have arms, ammunition,
meat, money, and clothing," — was his bribe and battle word.

It was rare sport. What a game before him I " I never had
passion on earth,1'— he himself wrote to the Prince of Wales
ere the King was murdered,—44 I never had passion on earth
so great as that to do the King your father service." His life
was like a magic mirror. He who within the last four months
had been altogether aggregated to the English cavaliers ; de-
molishing garrisoned castles in the Bishopric ; charging and
routing the Roundheads with Covering's horse ; now, corre-

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 423

spending with Ferdinando Fairfax for an exchange of noble
English prisoners; anon, curvetting at the side of the fiery
Rupert himself, and teasing and aggravating crest-fallen royalty
with the hopeless demand for sabres, sabres, wherewith to cut
his way through the Covenant, — that same Hotspur of Scot-
land, as if by the wand of an enchanter, was suddenly trans-
formed into a tartan chief, " cled in Highland weed ;" crowing
at the base of Ben-y-Vrackie like the muircock among her
heather ; a target on his shoulder, a pike in his hand ; marching
at the head of an uproarious host of swelling plaids and naked
Redshanks ; pouring down upon the plains of Athole ; burning
through the braes of the Menzieses ; thrilling their pibroch
proudly in Glen Almond ; hanging their bonnets on the horns
of the moon ; and already devouring, in the throat of their
hopes, all the promised luxuries of the glorious, fertile Tay, and
the sad fair city of St Johnston.

Yet he failed not even now to look over his shoulder at King
Campbell. He sent him a retaining fee, or rather a stomach-pill,
which doubtless neither improved the obliquity of vision, nor of
martial gait, with which Gillespick Gruamach was troubled.

" MY LORD : —

" I wonder at your being in arms for defence of rebellion ;
yourself well knowing his Majesty's tenderness not only to the
whole country, whose patron you would pretend to be, but to
your own person in particular. I beseech you, therefore, to
return to your allegiance, and submit yourself, and what be-
longs unto you, as to the grace and protection of your good
King ; who, as he hath hitherto condescended unto all things
asked, though to the exceeding great prejudice of his preroga-
tive, so still you may find him like an indulgent father, ready to
embrace his penitent children in his arms, although he hath been
provoked with unspeakable injuries. But if you shall still con-
tinue obstinate, I call God to witness that, through your own
stubborness, I shall be compelled to endeavour to reduce you
by force. So I rest your friend, if you please,

" MONTROSE." J

1 Possibly the original of this letter is yet preserved in the Charter-room at In-
verary. I find it, without a date, in a rare volume printed at Oxford in 1661, and

424 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

But it was not to Argyle alone that he issued this manifesto
of the integrity of his principles, and his mission. As he never
- attacked a town or a castle without a preliminary summons, and
constitutional warning, — so he never commenced a campaign,
without addressing the public in a declaration of the same kind,
carefully penned by himself. The original draft of that which
he prepared for the present momentous crisis, has been pre-
served in the Napier charter-chest ; and the interesting manu-
script is headed by the royal and loyal insignia, rudely drawn
with the pen, of which a fac-simile is presented below. After
pointing to the f' invincible necessity1' by which " his sacred
Majesty hath been at last constrained to set his service a-foot
here in this kingdom," and to the malice and " desperate ca-
lumnies" with which his enemies " tax his sacred Majesty and
brand his service,"' — the " Declaration of the Eight Honourable
James Marquis of Montrose, his Excellency," goes on to say :

" Wherefore, to justify the duty, and conscience of his Ma-
jesty's service, and satisfy all his faithful and loyal-hearted sub-
jects, I, in his Majesty's name and authority, solemnly declare,
that the ground and intention of his Majesty's service here in
this kingdom, — according to our own solemn and national oath
and covenant,1 — only is for the defence and maintenance of the
true Protestant religion ; his Majesty's just and sacred autho-
rity ; the fundamental laws and privileges of Parliament ; the
peace and freedom of the oppressed and thralled subject ; and
that, in thus far, and no more, doth his Majesty require the
service and assistance of his faithful and loving-hearted sub-
jects ; not wishing them longer to continue in their obedience,
than he persisteth to maintain and adhere to those ends.

" And the farther yet to remove all possibility of scruple, —
lest, whilst from so much duty and conscience I am protesting
for the justice and integrity of his Majesty's service, I myself

entitled " Blood for Blood, or Murthers Revenged : by T. M., Esq." The letter is
there stated to have been sent to Argyle by Montrose, before commencing his vic-
torious career in Scotland. The context is consistent with that date. It has not
been hitherto observed, or re-printed, that I am aware of.

1 Montrose was always careful to distinguish between the Covenant which he
took, and ever adhered to, and the Solemn League and Covenant with the Parlia-
ment of England, which so shamefully followed the King's settlement of Scotland
in 1G4U

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 425

should be unjustly mistaken, as no doubt I have hitherto been
and still am, — I do again most solemnly declare, that, knew I
not perfectly his Majesty's intention to be such, and so real, as
is already expressed, I should never at all have embarked my-
self in this service : Nor, did I but see the least appearance of
his Majesty's change from those resolutions, or any of them,
should I ever continue longer my faithful endeavours in it.
This, I am confident, will prove sufficient against all unjust and
prejudicial malice ; and be able to satisfy all true Christians,
and loyal-hearted subjects and countrymen, who desire to serve
their God, honour their Prince, and enjoy their.own happy peace
and quiet."

" MONTROSE."

426 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE BATTLE OP TIPPERMUIR — BAILLIE's LAMENT — PROCEEDINGS OF MON-
TROSE IN PERTH, AS DEPONED TO BY THE CIVIC AUTHORITIES —
MARCHES INTO ANGUS — LORD KILPONT MURDERED BY STEWART OP
ARDVOIRLICH — BAILLIE APPLAUDS THE DEED, AND ARGYLE PROMOTES
THE ASSASSIN — ARGYLE SETS A PRICE ON MONTROSE's HEAD — MON-
TROSE DEFEATS BURLEIGH AT ABERDEEN — REPULSES ARGYLE AND
LOTHIAN AT FYVIE — SHAKES THEM OFF AT STRATHBOGIE — CHASES
ARGYLE FROM DUNKELD — BAILLIE'S APOLOGY FOR ARGYLE — HE OB-
TAINS THE APPROBATION OF THE COMMITTEE OF ESTATES.

PERTH was not taken by surprise. The noblemen assembled
in arms for its protection, chiefly great proprietors in the ad-
joining districts, were aware of the descent of Macdonald from
Badenoch into Athole, and greatly feared he would not stop
there. Jealous as some of them might be of the elevation of
Montrose, they contemplated with anxiety the probable pro-
ceedings of the son of Coll Keitache, uncontrolled by the pre-
sence of that humane and high-minded nobleman, who was one
of their own order and a neighbouring proprietor. They had
taken the field, indeed, at the command of the Argyle govern-
ment, and were understood to be in arms " for the country.1'
But, sworn to no standard, they considered themselves merely
in a necessary attitude of self-defence, incident to the revolu-
tionary chaos in Scotland, and by no means compromised as
regarded fealty to their Sovereign. So suddenly and secretly
had our hero, by his presence and unquestionable credentials,
added the essential element, of royal authority becomingly and
safely represented, to this otherwise alarming invasion, that the
noblemen at Perth knew not, until the last moment, that they
were on the eve of being summoned to the royal standard by
the Marquis of Montrose in person, in the name of King Charles.
For many weeks King Campbell had been reported close at the
heels of. the marauder, whom the Estates termed " the common

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 427

enemy ; " and already it was matter of surprise that their great
home General, with his very superior forces, had not long ere
this given a good account of Macdonald. But his destruction
seemed now inevitable, with the potentate on his back, and this
army pro aris et focis in front, all ready for him, if he ventured
another day's march to the south.

The army of Perth was commanded in chief by Lord Elcho
(son of the first Earl of Wemyss), colonel of the Fife regiment,
and a sure card for the Covenanters. Lord Murray of Gask,
who about this time succeeded his father, the Earl of Tullibar-
dine, officiated as second in command. These had under them
an imposing militia of countrymen and burghers, variously esti-
mated, by the contemporary journalistSj at six and eight thou-
sand strong. James Lord Drummond, eldest son of the Earl
of Perth, was at the head of from seven to eight hundred horse.
All these troops were completely appointed, and amply supplied
with arms and ammunition, including a good train of artillery.

While the noblemen named were thus holding Perth, a strong
party was stationed in Glen Almond to watch the coming storm.
Young Lord Kilpont, eldest son of the Earl of Menteith, Strath-
ern, and Airth, that distinguished kinsman of Montrose whom
we have had occasion to mention more than once, had been or-
dered by the Committee of Estates to bring into the field his
father's retainers, and those of Napier, Stirling of Keir, and
other " malignants" of the Lennox and Menteith, and to co-
operate with Lord Elcho. Accordingly, this accomplished and
loyal young nobleman, whom we shall presently find in the fangs
of a fiend, had brought together about four hundred followers,
principally bowmen, whom he stationed at the hill of Buchanty
in Glen Almond, where for some days they remained anxiously
on the look out. Along with him was David Drummond, the
Master of Maderty, and Sir John Drummond, a younger son of
the Earl of Perth.

Montrose meanwhile poured down from Athole, the moment
he had succeeded in uniting the Highlanders and the Irish
under the royal banner. Instead of marching on Dunkeld
through the pass of Killiecrankie, he crossed the hills from the
Blair to Loch Tummel, going south-westward to the country
of the Menzieses. When near the castle of Weem, he sent

428 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

forward a trumpeter to proclaim his commission, and to request
provisions, and other aids to his army, in the name of the King.
But this chief being a sworn ally of Argyle, not only was the
royal commission contemned, and all aid refused, but the mes-
senger barely escaped with life. Then the Menzieses dogged
the heels of the royalists, and harassed them greatly as they
were crossing the Tay. Montrose, to satisfy his troops, and to
enforce respect towards the royal standard, ordered fire to be
put to some stooks of corn, and a few of the cottages of this
hostile clan. By the morning of the i)lst of August, however,
he was safely across the Tay with all his men, about two thou-
sand five hundred, and pursuing his course to the Almond. As
they approached that river, young Inchbrakie, who had been
sent in advance with some hundreds of the Athole men to
reconnoitre, descried a large body of men on the hill of Buch-
anty, drawn up as if to oppose their progress. Surrounding
the hill with his Highlanders, he reported in all haste to his
chief, who soon came in contact with some of his most intimate
friends and relatives, in the persons of these apparently hostile
leaders. For such congenial scions of the nobility it sufficed
that Montrose displayed his commission, and explained himself
in terms of that declaration to the country with which our last
chapter concludes. Under these circumstances it was, that
Lord Kilpont, the Master of Maderty, and Sir John Drum-
mond, joined the standard of the King with all their followers ;
thus augmenting the royal army to somewhat more than three
thousand strong.

Having by this means also obtained precise information rela-
tive to the strength and position of the army of Perth, the
King's Lieutenant, after marching a few miles in the direction
of that city, halted his whole array, and encamped for the night
on the moor of Fowlis, where he and his allies took counsel to-
gether, touching their next and most critical move. The result
was, that the march commenced again by break of day ; and
after proceeding a very few miles, they found themselves in pre-
sence of the covenanting army, waiting to do battle with them
on the wide plains of Tippermuir and Cultmalindy, between two
and three miles westward from the city of Perth. This was
about seven o'clock in the morning of Sunday the 1st of Sep-
tember

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 429

The sight must have startled even Montrose. Elcho was of
the fanatic faction, strong in his Fife levies, burgher bullies,
arid fighting preachers. Whatever Grahams and Drummonds
might do, there was no chance of his " coming over." There
was the Kirk-militant in its most combative attitude. From
six to eight thousand foot were extended so as to outflank the
little army of royalists ; and at either extremity of the line was
placed a division of cavalry, each composed of between three
and four hundred horse. In front were nine pieces of artillery,
that " mother of the musket" so dreaded by the claymores.
Their right wing was commanded by Elcho in person ; the left
by Sir James Scott, their most experienced officer ; Tullibardine
took charge of the main battle ; and the cavalry was under Lord
Drummond. Moreover, that army had just been blessed ; a
mode of bespeaking victory which the Czar in our own times
cannot claim as an original idea. The apostles of the Covenant
had christened it " the army of God ;" and in their early devo-
tions that morning, Frederick Carmichael, a Lancaster gun
among them, declared in his sermon, " that if ever God spoke
truth out of his mouth, he promised them in the name of God
a certain victory that day." Montrose addressed himself to the
awful crisis with perfect coolness and great skill. The order of
his march upon Perth that morning we must give in the words
of an Irish officer attached to Macdonald, who transmitted a
dispatch to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, informing him of
their movements, during the progress of this very campaign.
He says, — " Our General-major with the Irish forces," — after
descending from Badenoch to Blair, and being there joined by
Montrose, — " from thence marched to St Johnston, where the
enemy had gathered together eight thousand foot and eight
hundred horse, with nine pieces of cannon, his Majesty ""s army
not having so much as one horse ; for that day the Marquis of
Montrose went on foot himself, with his target and pike ; the
Lord Kilpont commanding the bowmen ; and our General-major
7 of the Irish forces commanding his three regiments."1 Per-
ceiving at once the power of the enemy's position, our hero
drew up his whole army in a line of three deep, in order to ex-
tend his front as far as possible, placing the Irish regiments in

1 Carte'a Ormond Papers.

430 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the centre. These, being only provided with muskets, and the
bayonet as yet unborn, would have been too much exposed to
the cavalry, had they been placed on the flanks. The imme-
diate command of this main body was of course confided to
their gigantic leader, Macdonald. Lord Kilpont and his bow-
men occupied the left flank ; and Montrose, on foot with target
and pike, placed himself, along with young Inchbrakie, at the
head of the Athole men, who were directly opposed to the most
formidable point of the enemy's battle, their left wing, com-
manded by that excellent soldier Sir James Scott. A few simple
instructions were then given by him to his army. In the event
of the Covenanters charging, he ordered the front rank to kneel,
the second to stoop, and the third, in which he had placed the
tallest men, to stand erect ; so that each rank could fire, or use
the pike, freely over the shoulders of those in front. Having
but one round of ammunition, he cautioned them not to throw
it away ; but by reserving it for the very faces of the foe, to
enable the deadly claymore to reap its harvest in the confusion.
Those who happened to be without weapons at all, he reminded
that the battle-field was thickly strewn with the debris of flinty
rocks, as hard as a covenanter's heart, and probably harder than
his head.

Having made these arrangements, he despatched the Master
of Maderty to seek a personal interview with Lord Elcho ; to
put it to him whether the royal commission was not a sufficient
warrant for Montrose in his present proceedings ; and to assure
him that his only desire was to re-establish the King's govern-
ment, and to avoid bloodshed. Elcho, disregarding the flag of
truce, instead of reply, sent the noble bearer to the Perth prison,
in custody of two Forfar lairds, who afforded him the comforting
assurance, that he would be hanged whenever the army of God
had done its work. This was a new spur to Montrose, and
another whet to his claymores. Young Maderty, who came
not back, was his own brother-in-law, married to his youngest
and favourite sister, " the bairn Beatrix." It was now do or
die. The battle commenced by a skirmish with a party of
Lord Drummond\s horse, sent forth to allure the royalists from
their ranks, while the armies were yet beyond musket range.
Montrose, who saw the ruse, restrained the ardour of his men,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 431

and ordered out some of the most active of the Redshanks to
meet the horse, whom they soon drove back in disorder upon
their own foot, and occasioned a visible confusion in their ranks.
Seizing the advantageous moment, our hero took the initiative,
and led his whole array forward to the charge, cheering, howl-
ing, and shrieking after a fashion to which the ears polite of
Perth were but little accustomed. The nerves of the godly
artillery-men, shaken by the immortal music of the Reel of
Howlakin, discharged their great guns with very little idea of
where the cannon-balls would go. On came the mountain speat.
Not a highlander this time regarded the roar of the " musket's
mother,1' more than if it had been the voice of his own. The
cavalry charged ; but the' mountaineers met them fearlessly with
their pikes and Lochaber axes. Then came the stony storm
from many a bare and sinewy arm ; more effective, perhaps, to
create an immediate rout on such an occasion, than a thousand
ill-directed bullets. The very horses could see the stones com-
ing ; and one cutting stroke from the flinty rock caused man
and horse to shrink from encountering a second. Bound they
went at speed ; and Perth beheld Drummond, Elcho, and Tul-
libardine in full flight, as a foretaste of her coming fate.

Meanwhile Macdonald and his Irish rushed close up to the
main battle of the Covenant, delivered their volley, sub ore ;
and then clubbing the musket, dealt death around them, with-
out the loss, it is said, of a single royalist. The issue was doubt-
ful but for a moment ; and that was on the wing where Montrose
had engaged Sir James Scott, who obstinately maintained his
battle, and made a desperate struggle to gain by speed of foot
the advantage of a rising ground. Well was it then for those
who could press up the mountain side, " and not a sob the toil
confess." Montrose and his Redshanks outstripped their com-
petitors like the deer, and came down upon them like the tor-
rent. The rout was now complete. " Although," says the officer
from whom we have already quoted, " the battle continued for
some space, we lost not one man on our side, yet still advanced,
the enemy being three or four to one ; however, God gave us
the day ; the enemy retreating with their backs towards us, that
men might have walked upon the dead corps to the town, being
two long miles from the place where the battle was pitched.

432 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

The chase continued from eight o'clock in the morning till nine
at night. All their cannon, arms, munition, colours, drums,
tents, baggage, — in a word, none of themselves nor baggage
escaped our hands but their horse, and such of the foot as
were taken prisoners within the city."

It was a great stroke, and most extraordinary battle. Not a
score of the Covenanters fell in the actual fight. But the best
contemporary accounts have it, that, in the flight of six or seven
miles from the field of battle, of course in other directions than
into Perth, two thousand of that routed army perished ! So
small was the loss on the other side, as never to have been
reckoned at all. Montrose did his best to stay the carnage.
When the cannon were captured, he nobly interfered to pre-
vent their being turned upon the confused masses of the unre-
sisting fugitives. But he might as well have tried to arrest the
torrent or the tempest, as the fleet-footed Gael pursuing with
the avenging steel. His promise to that army was fulfilled. He
had led them to victory, and there, amid the harvest of death,
they reaped arms, ammunition, money, meat, and clothing.
This well-applied lash a posteriori of the merciless Cove-
nant, extorted a howl from the Kirk-militant that cannot fail
to excite a smile. Our communicative friend Baillie dolefully
describes the royal army as " but a pack of naked runagates,
not three horse among them, few with either swords or mus-
kets." In one of his letters he imputes the disaster to the
" villany of Lord Drummond;" while in another, he assigns
" Elcho's rashness" (with three to one !) as a cause. Certainly
the merit of Montrose in this achievement was not that of
having carried off the palm from a hard- fought field. " Our
enemies," — says the Eeverend John Robertson, one of the mi-
nisters of Perth who had blessed that army, — " Our enemies,
that before the fight were naked, weaponless, ammunitionless,
and cannonless men, and so unable to have laid siege to the
town, by the flight of our friends were clothed, got abundance
of arms, and great plenty of ammunition, with six pieces of
cannon." Speaking of the burghers who first fled into the
town, he says, — " They were all forefainted and lursted with
running ; insomuch that nine or ten died that night in town,
without any wound." Multitudes, he adds, broke open cellars,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 433

in order to hide themselves therein. u The provost came into
one house, amongst many, where there were a number lying
panting, and desired them to rise for their own defence : They
answered, — their hearts were away — they would fight no more
— although they should be killed.1" — " For my Lord Marquis of
Argyle, we knew not if he was come from the Highlands or not."
My Lord Marquis was taking it leisurely, having as little heart
for fighting as the bursting burghers themselves. Baillie^s apo-
logy for his peculiar mode of pursuing, is not a little amusing.
" Perth," he says, " rendered at the first summons ; Argyle,
after he had learned the way whither the miscreants had run,
followed as armed men might; which was, four or five days
journey behind them" ! The hitherto triumphant Scotch fanatics
in London were paralysed. " We spent," again writes Baillie,
" two days or three on the matter of a remonstrance to the
Parliament, of the sins which provoked God to give us this last
stroke : And here we had the most free and strange parley that
ever I heard, about the evident sins of the Assembly, the sins of
the Parliament, the sins of the Army, and the sins of the People"
One sin, however, Baillie himself ere long, as we shall find, took
to his bosom, and was comforted. It was the sin of assassination.

Among the original depositions to which we have already re-
ferred, as having been only recently recovered from the family
archives of our hero, and which had been taken by a committee
of Estates appointed to prepare the processes of forfeiture against
Montrose and his allies, we find those of the Provost, and the
Sheriff-clerk of Perth, and of some others, who could speak to
the conduct of the victor upon this memorable occasion. The
minute and graphic facts which they afford being hitherto un-
known, we shall give them as they were deponed to before the
covenanting committee,

" 31 st January 1645. — EGBERT ARNOTT of Benchells, Provost
of Perth, of the age of fifty-five years, married, being sworn and
interrogated anent the Earl of Montrose his own carriage, and
anent the carriage of those whom he did see with the Earl of
Montrose and the Irish rebels in company, depones,—

u After the Earl of Montrose had summoned the town of

28

434 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Perth to render upon the Sunday — the day of the fight at
Tippermuir — after the fight, in the evening, the Earl and six
hundred of his soldiers, or thereby, entered the town at night,
and remained in the town three or four days. The Earl of
Montrose, at his entry in to the town, took the keys of the port
from the magistrates, at the port where he entered, namely, the
high-gait port. About midnight, young Inchbrakie, called Pa-
trick Graham, came to the deponer's house, and did expostulate
with him, why he kept guards within the town, after the Earl
of Montrose had entered the town : Whereupon the deponer
was forced to discharge the ordinary guard of the town ; and
immediately after, the Earl of Montrose, and his adherents that
were with him, put guards to all the ports. The deponer, pass-
ing by the market-cross of the town, heard a proclamation issued
from the Earl of Montrose, but knows not the terms thereof.1
Upon the Monday, in the afternoon, the Earl of Montrose, and
the rebels that were with him, did imprison, within the kirk of
St Johnston, three or four hundred, or thereby, of the Fife sol-
diers, and other soldiers that were fighting for the country, who
were taken captives after the fight upon the Sunday and Mon-
day ; and that they were kept all night in the kirk, and were
kept in prison and under guard till the Earl and the rebels left
the town; and the rebels took them away as prisoners with
them. The Earl of Montrose behaved himself as chief com-
mander of all the rebels. Upon the Friday after the fight, when
the deponer and certain townsmen went out to bury their dead
men, he found that many slain men had been buried before he
came ; and he saw the number of three or four score slain, lying
unburied upon the fields, all stripped naked of their clothes.

" The deponer saw the lairds of Braco and Orchill in St John-
ston, when the Earl and the rebels were there ; and saw them
in the Earl of Montrose'' s gallery. He saw John Stewart of
Innerchanochane, and Donald Robertson, Tutor of Strowan,
with the Earl of Montrose and the rebels, in Perth the time
foresaid. They were there after the fight at Tippermuir, and
behaved themselves as commanders there. When the rebels
entered the town, the whole suburbs, for the most part, were
spoiled and robbed. Mr William Forrett was with the Earl of

1 Probably the same we have given at the conclusion of the previous chapter.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 435

Montrose in St Johnston ;* and Mr William Forrett, as having
commission from the Earl, commanded the magistrates to pay
fifty pounds sterling for Allaster MacdonalcFs use. The magis-
trates got orders to deliver the money to Mr William Forrett,
and Mr William desired the magistrates to deliver the same to
Margaret Donaldson, and he would receive the same from her;2
conform whereunto, the magistrates did deliver the money to
the said Margaret Donaldson ; and Margaret Donaldson as-
sured the deponer that Mr William had got the money from
her.

" The Earl of Montrose, and the rebels that entered the
town with him, forced some inhabitants of the town to give
them great quantities of cloth, to the number of four thousand
merks worth ; and he took some ammunition which pertained
to the Fife soldiers, and was lying in their magazine.

" And all this he depones to be of verity, as he shall answer
to God. Causa sciential, because the deponer was Provost, and
saw and heard as he has deponed. "

This, and all the other depositions of Montrose"s covenanting
enemies, taken before that inimical and unscrupulous tribunal,
a packed committee of Estates, afford the best possible evidence
that the victor had conducted himself with his wonted huma-
nity, under very difficult circumstances. Such order did he
contrive to preserve in the terrified and humbled city, that the
Provost and other inhabitants appear to have been going freely
and securely about the streets, while their conquerors commis-
sion and commands were being proclaimed at the cross. They
have no tales to tell the greedy committee of cruelties or fright-
ful excesses, most likely to have occurred on such an occasion,
and which would all have been directly imputed to Montrose
himself. This appears yet more distinctly from the deposition
of Mr Patrick Maxwell, the sheriff-clerk of Perth, whose nar-

1 The Provost names the town, Perth and St Johnston indiscriminately. It is
interesting to find Montrose's first instructor re-appearing at this time. The Earl
had sent for him, as appears afterwards. See before, p. 18.

2 Margaret Donaldson's house in Perth was Montrose's usual quarters there.
She may have been the Dame Quickly of the town ; but the reason of her interven-
tion between the magistrates and Master William Forrett is not explained. I can-
not find that mine hostess ever got into trouble with the Kirk on the subject.

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

rative forcibly reminds us of the stir created in Edinburgh,
precisely a century later, by the victorious presence of Prince
' Charles Edward.

" On the day of the fight of Tippermuir," he depones, " I
went out to the fields on foot, to see the event of the conflict.
But, being beside the baggage of the Estates' forces, I had not
a perfect mew of the Irish rebels. That night of the conflict, I
heard that the town was to be rendered in the morning, at nine
hours; and in the morning, about eleven hours, I saw the Earl
of Montrose in the town of Perth ; and there came in with the
Earl of Montrose three hundred men, or thereby, to my know-
ledge. The whole ports of the town, and the river likewise,
were guarded by the Earl of Montrose' s forces. The Earl of
Montrose behaved himself, while he was in the town, as Lieu-
tenant-General of the army ; and I was forced, for fear of my
life, — being brought, by David Graham of Gorthie and three
highlanders with him, to the Earl of Montrose, — to write a
general protection for the inhabitants of the town of Perth, and
lands about the same ; wherein the Earl of Montrose caused
design himself, c Marquis of Montrose, Lieutenant-General of
the King's armies in Scotland ; ' and did subscribe the same.
Thereafter the Lord Kilpont gave me the form of a letter, and
compelled me to write several copies thereof, which was of the
strain following, to my memory : —

4 Right Honourable Sir,

' Being here in arms for his Majesty's just, authority and ser-
vice, these are to require you, in his Majesty's name, that you
will repair here, or where I shall be for the time, with all the
force possible you can make, as you will answer to his Majesty,
and for what may ensue.

' So I am your most loving friend,

' MONTROSE.'

Several of these copies were directed to several gentlemen in
the country.

" I saw John Drummond of Belliclone waiting upon the Earl
of Montrose, in the outer room in Margaret Donaldson's house
in Perth ; but cannot affirm the same certainly. I saw Mr James
Henderson of M'Carrastoune within the town of Perth, the time

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 437

when the Earl of Montrose was there ; and did see him in high-
land weed there, upon the Tuesday after the conflict. I saw
Sir John Graham of Braco, and John Graham of Orchill, in the
Earl of Montrose^s lodging in Margaret Donaldsons house in
Perth, on the Tuesday after the conflict ; and heard say that
they brought in the Earl of Montrose's two sons with them.
I saw the Master of Maderty in the foresaid gallery the said
Tuesday ; and I saw him brought into the town, upon the Sun-
day before, as captive, by Bachiltoun, elder, Balmedy, and his
son. I saw Allaster Macdonald, called Coalkittoch, with the
Earl of Montrose, at that same time in St Johnston ; and I
heard the Earl of Montrose speak to him, and design him
4 General- Major.1 I saw Patrick Graham, younger of Inch-
brakie, with the Earl of Montrose, upon the Monday after the
conflict, in Perth, in highland weed. I saw John Graham,
younger of Balgown, in the gallery of Margaret Donaldson's
house, where Montrose lodged, upon the Tuesday foresaid. I
saw Robert Graham of Nethercoirny, in the said gallery, the
day foresaid. I saw James Chisholm of Cromlix in the said
gallery, the said Tuesday. I saw Alexander Inglis, dean of
guild of Perth, upon the Sabbath day, before the conflict, with
ane two-handed sword upon his shoulder, for defence of the
town when the townsmen were of resolution to keep the town ;
and I saw him go with the rest of the magistrates to speak to
Moixtroso, after the town was rendered. I saw Andrew Reid1
go in with the said magistrates to speak with the said Earl of

i Andrew Reid was the wealthiest citizen of Perth at the time, and no doubt was
made to draw his purse-string. He lived to see many changes, and died of an ac-
cident in 1658. In a note of the last century, by the Rev. James Scott, to his tran-
scripts from the Presbytery Register of Perth (At 3. Advocates' Library) I find the
following : —

" When Charles II. was crowned at Scone, Andrew Reid advanced, towards de-
fraying the expenses of the coronation, forty thousand merks, for which the King
gave bond. After Oliver Cromwell had taken possession of Perth, Andrew Reid
presented to him the King's bond, and craved payment. Cromwell replied : * I am
neither heir nor executor to Charles Stuart.' Mr Reid presently answered: f Then
you are a vicious intrOMttter.' Cromwell, turning to one t>f his officers, said that
s-such a bold speech had nevor been nunle to him before."

It may be necessary to explain, that " vicious intromission" is the lcg;il term for
assuming the ni.inagoment of property belonging to another, without authority; and
it renders the intromitter liable for debts.

438 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Montrose. I saw the laird of Lude, Robertson, upon the Wed-
nesday after the conflict, in highland weed, going out at the
South Inch port, at the Earl of Montrose's back, when the port
was opened.

" Being interrogated if he saw Donald Robertson, the Tutor
of Strowan, with the Earl of Montrose in Perth, depones, — I
know not the man ; but I saw ane man, upon the streets of St
Johnston, going in ane furious way ; and when I speired (in-
quired) what he was, they said it was the Tutor of Strowan" *

Another eye-witness, whose narrative on oath of Montrose's
demeanour and following in the conquered city, we find among
these curious papers, is " Sir John Graham of Braco, knight, of
the age of thirty-one years.*" This was the Marquis's cousin-
german, being the eldest son of his curator Sir William, the
late Earl's only brother.2

" I came to St Johnston," says the knight of Braco, — one
who was anxious both to preserve his loyalty and " save his
estate," — " upon Tuesday after the conflict at Tippermuir, with
the Earl of Montrose s two sons? Upon the Thursday thereafter
I went out of St Johnston with the Earl's two sons, and followed
the Earl of Montrose, who had left St Johnston upon the Wed-
nesday before ; and I came to the Earl, before the Earl and the
Irish rebels came to Dundee Law, and abode with the Earl till
the Monday thereafter, or Tuesday in the morning ; at which
time I came off from the Earl without good night*

" When I was coming through the field of Tippermuir, upon

1 The chief of that great and proud clan, the Strowan Robertsons, was at this
time an infant ; and Donald Robertson, his father's brother, being the nearest
agnate, was at the head of the clan as " Tutor of Strowan." Donald was a great
character in his day.

a See before, p. 28. Sir William Graham of Braco, Montrose's uncle and cura-
tor, had survived his brother, the Earl, only a few months ; for his son, Sir John,
served heir to him in 1627.

8 Namely, John, Lord Graham, his eldest son, about fourteen years of age ; and
Lord James (the second Marquis) about eleven. A third son, Robert, being con-
siderably younger, remained with the Marchioness, under the roof of her cautious
and trimming father, the Earl of Southesk. These three boys were the whole of
Montrose's family.

4 Sir John Graham of Braco was now in the attitude of " saving his estate," if
not his life.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 439

the Tuesday after the fight, I saw several slain men upon the
field, to the number of thirty or forty, all stripped naked.

" I saw Allaster Macdonald in the rebels1 army, and heard
the said Allaster named and termed General-Major of the Irish
rebels. I saw John Graham younger of Fintry in the rebels1
army, four miles beyond Cupar of Angus, or thereby, upon
Friday after Tippermuir field ; and upon the Monday I saw
him at Brechin, in the rebels1 army with the Earl of Montrose.
I saw young Bonymone in the rebels1 army, upon the said Fri-
day, in the same field where I saw young Fintry. John Drum-
mond of Belliclone went into St Johnston with me, and alighted
when I alighted. I saw James Mushat younger of that ilk,
upon the Tuesday or Wednesday, in St Johnston, after Tip-
permuir field, upon the long Inch ; the Earl being upon the
Inch at the time. I saw Mr James Henderson of M'Carras-
toun at that same time in the town of St Johnston ; and, as I
remember, in highland clothes. I saw Mr William Hunter of
Balgayes upon his own ground, when the rebels came through
the same; and I heard that the snid Mr William came to com-
plain to the Earl of Montrose for certain sheath (damage) that
the Earl's soldiers had done to his corns. John Graham of
Orchill came to St Johnston with me at the time foresaid ; and
having met and spoken with the Earl of Montrose, he came off
with me, without good-night" l

The picture of Montrose enacting the conqueror in Perth,
which now for the first time enters his biography, from these
contemporary depositions of eye-witnesses, is anything but
painful or savage. It was, indeed, a bloody day that com-
pelled the fair and trembling city to open to him her gates.
But there were no such terrors within as might have been pre-
dicated from the carnage without. Nor does it require any
great effort of imagination to call up, from these materials of
the covenanting Inquisition, scenes illustrative of the doings in
Perth upon that fearful occasion, which the mind would rather
dwell upon than shun. While the neighbouring streams ran

1 John Graham of Orchill, of the age of forty-one years, is also examined ; and
his deposition is just an echo of Braco's. Orchill was one of Montrose's curators.
See before, p. 25.

440 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

red to the Tay, we see her streets only in a blaze with the
variegated panoply of the clans, —

" Fast they coine, fast they come, see how they gather !
Wide waves the eagle's plume blended with heather, "-

the scene diversified, too, with every variety of martial garb,
stripped by the Irish from the yet unbtiried slain. We see the
crest-fallen Provost, laird of Benchells, and him of the two-
handed sword, and the facetious and sturdy Andrew Reid, the
" jingling Geordie" of Perth, who was yet to beard the bloodier
Cromwell, ruefully counting out the good coin into the lap of
Margaret Donaldson, to be by her transferred to our old friend
Master William Forrett. He, too, depones, — " I came in to
the Earl of Montrose, within the town of Perth, upon the
Monday at night, after the fight at Tippermuir, I being sent
for then by the Earl of Montrose ; and I staid in the town of
Perth with the Earl till he departed out of the town ; and
being directed by the Earl to stay about some business there,
I did not see the Earl thereafter till Sunday, when I came to
the Earl at For far-moor : And when I was coming into St
Johnston to the Earl of Montrose, I saw twenty or thirty slain
men, lying upon the wayside, all stripped naked of their clothes."
The still cherished dominie had been instantly summoned, ere'
the slain were cold, to occupy his old post of " purse-maister to
my Lord ; " and to tend his two boys, who arrived next day.
And would the bewildered mind of the old tutor, as he passed
the naked and gory dead by the wayside, not revert to the
happy peaceful times, when he bestrode the brown horse, —
:t Maister William Forrett's naig," — beside the graceful boy
on his white courser, and clad in his " stand of mixed gray
English cloth clothes, and a cloak with pasements"?1 The
boy, whose warrior form he now beheld, " cled in highland
weed," the observed of all observers on the conquered and
crowded Inch of Perth, or passing through its guarded port,
with Lude for his henchman, saluted by the red-shanked sen-
tinels,— Prodigious \ We hear a yell, and a scream, and a smo-

1 See befoi'e, p. 19.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 441

thered groan, in the streets ! But it is only Inchbrakie's piper
struggling convulsively into a pibroch, or glorifying the victory,
in dreadful competition with the piper of Strowan. There is a
rustle and rush of tartans, and a flashing of the eagle's plume,
as if the claymores were charging down the " high-gait " of
Perth ! But it is only " the Tutor of Strowan going in ane
furious way,11 — probably to see the good cloth meted out in
ample measure, or to give directions about securing the pre-
cious store of ammunition left in magazine by the Lord Elcho
for Fife. And yet, it must be confessed, the arm of oppression
was not altogether withheld. Witness that most important
functionary, a metropolitan sheriff-clerk, to whom the sheriff
himself is a mere appendage, rudely seized by David Graham
of Gorthie, brought into the presence of that " viperous brood
of Satan,"" in his gallery at Margaret Donaldson's, and there,
with three armed caterans nt his throat, absolutely " forced, for
fear of his life, to write ane general protection for the inhabitants
of the town of Perth, and lands about the same!" Nay, compelled
to copy that gentle courteous appeal to loyalty, in the very words
which the laughing Lord Kilpont — whose own days, alas ! were
numbered — was pleased to lay before him. The scene of cruelty
and oppression would scarcely have been more complete, had
the clerk been the Dictator, Archibald Campbell himself. Then
how the picture is adorned, and the interest heightened, and the
humanities guaranteed, by the advent of " the Earl of Mon-
trose's two sons," conducted by chiefs of the house of Graham,
and alighting at Margaret Donaldson's door. What though
with speechless wonder these innocent cavaliers had pricked
their way into town, through scattered heaps of grim and
naked corpses, they had tender tales of home to tell, and of
their mother, and of the infant Eobert remaining with the
forlorn wife of Montrose. And how soldiers and citizens would
gaze, and even Strowan stay his furious going, as the noble
boys passed through Perth to their father's quarters.

u But on rode these young horsemen,

With slow and lordly pace,
And none who saw their bearing
Need ask their name or race :

442 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

On rode they to the Forum,

While laurel bows and flowers,
From house-tops and from windows,

Fell on their crests in showers."

And how the great ambidexter warrior, " Major-General of his
Majesty's Irishes," — who doubtless had fallen heir to the dean
of guild's two-handed sword, — how ColJcittoch would delight to
explain to them in what manner it came to pass that the way-
side was cumbered with naked corpses, — " thick as leaves in
Vallombrosa," — and the hoofs of their ponies dyed with human
gore,—

" How thick the dead lay scattered

Under the Porcian height,
How through the gates of Tusculum

Raved the wild stream of flight !"

We have evidence, too, that the fray was followed by a feast.
Ever since the days of the " Dyet of the Burial,11 when through-
out eight mortal weeks of eating " wild meat," and drinking
" Easter ale," the consignment to earth of the last Earl of
Montrose " was accomplished," his illustrious successor seems
to have considered that all great occasions ought, if possible, to
be signalized in the same manner. While the ruins of Morpeth
Castle were yet smoking from his hot assault, he feasted, within
its broken walls, the broken-headed captains whom he had van-
quished. He would now have done the same by Elcho, Tulli-
bardine, and Drummond, had they stayed either for broken heads
or to dine. However, Margaret Donaldson's gallery was not de-
serted, on the Monday and Tuesday after the fight. Grahams,
of Braco, Inchbrakie, Fintry, Orchill, Gorthie, Balgowan, Nether-
Cairnie, Monzie, and Claypots, crowded round the Marquis's
board. The General-Major of the Irish, and the Tutor of
Strowan, doubtless acted as croupiers " in ane furious way."
The Master of Maderty, recovered from a prison, and saved to
his Beatrix, was there. Young Lord Kilpont, endeared to
Montrose, says Wishart, as " a man famous for arts, and arms,
and honesty ; being a good philosopher, a good divine, a good
lawyer, a good soldier, a good subject, and a good man," — sup-
porting his chief, and little dreaming that his own murderer was

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 443

nigh ! And there were Montrose's two schoolboy sons, along
with the dominie of his boyhood, and the curators of his youth,
in the midst of highland chiefs, lowland lairds, and Irish captains,
— and a covenanting minister to say grace ! Yes, unheard-of
barbarity; the Reverend George Halyburton, minister of Perth,
was " urged" to dine with the excommunicated Montrose ; to
eat and drink at his board ; and even to say grace to such a
heathen host as this ; while the words of " the Brethren's"
blessing were scrutinized by " rebels," owning such malignant
patronymics as Ogilvy of Innerquharitie and Stewart of Inner-
channoquhan. 1

The fact is, our hero was ever anxious to shew his consistent
adherence to the first Covenant, and respect for such of its
clergy as came not under his category of " thou seditious
preacher," and did not beat the devil's tattoo upon their pul-
pits. It is remarkable that the first house he entered, on the
day of the battle of Tippermuir, was a minister's manse. There
are, who have this opinion of Montrose and his wars, that he
could not possibly have entered, that morning, the house of the
minister of Tippermuir for any other purpose than to obtain
his scalp. He came, probably after the rout had commenced
and he saw that the day was his own, to ask for the hospitality
of a cup of cold water, which he obtained. A curious tie, in-
deed, characteristic of those disjointed times, subsisted between

1 From the Presbytery records of Perth it appears, that the Reverend Mr George
Halyburton, one of her ministers, got into this sad scrape upon the above occasion,
and was persecuted accordingly. Being arraigned for the backsliding, he was ap-
proved of, in all his former life and conversation, by the Presbytery; but " sharply
censured for his conversing with Montrose during his being in Perth j also for eating
and drinking with him, and saying of grace to his dinner, he being an excommuni-
cated person ; and for receiving of passes from him ; which things Mr George in-
genuously confessed, and declares that he was surprised upon a sudden, and that he
was urged thereto ; for the which he was heartily sorry that he should have given so
great offence." This saved him with the Presbytery of Perth. But the commission
of the Kirk in Edinburgh took it upon them to depose him from the office of the
ministry, as being guilty in terms of his own confession, on the 27th of November
1644. We learn from Guthrie, however, that the affair did not rest here. His
relative, " Dame Margaret Halyburton, Lady of Cowper, came over the Frith, and,
with oaths, vowed to my Lord Balmerino, that unless he caused her cousin to be
I'einstuted, he should never enjoy the favour of the lordship of Cowper." So, " for
saving of his estate," Balmerino got him restored.

444 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

that clergyman and the highland host who were strewing the
waysides with the dead. In the previous year, the widowed
mother of the infant chief of Strowan, — who was a daughter of
Patrick Graham of Inchbrakie the elder, — greatly displeased
her father by contracting a second marriage with Mr Alexander
Balneaves, the minister of Tippermuir. Under no suspicion
whatever of malignancy in his life or conversation, " Mr Alex-
ander Balneaves," says the Presbytery register. " was charged
with having conducted, and conversed \vith, the Earl of Mon-
trose, at his own house, the day of the battle of Tippermuir ;
which he denies, and offers to give in his declaration there-
anent under his own hand, for his clearing."'' They were fain
to let him off easy, however. He was a man of a bold spirit,
and brusque speech, and spoke his mind in a way that made
them wince. They did not even venture to record what he
said. A note of the last century, by the Reverend James Scott,
to his transcripts from this register, preserved in the Advocates'*
Library, gives the true story : " His examination by the Pres-
bytery, in the matter of Montrose, is delivered by tradition
more full than is contained in the register. Montrose had
called at his house, on the morning of the day of the battle.
Mr Balneaves waited on him, and gave him at his desire a
drink of water. When reproved by the brethren for this hos-
pitality, he answered them in expressions more coarse than
what were fit to be recorded in the register. The purport of
his answer was, that, however they might now find fault with
them who had shewn any civility to the Marquis, yet there was
not one of them who, about the time of the battle, durst have
refused to kiss, — in the meanest manner, — the Marquis, if he
had commanded them so to do,"

Montrose had now only two armies to deal with ; that which
held Aberdeen, and the yet more imposing array with which
Argyle was understood to be coming up. He was known to be
very strong in horse ; while our hero could scarcely afford a
mount for his lame friend, but invaluable aid, William Eollo.
So, leaving the Dictator to his own peculiar' mode of pursuing,
he determined to prosecute his campaign northward, through
the (Jarse of Gowrie, and the shires of Angus and the M earns,

LIFE OF MOXTROSE. 445

to the Grampians, on the other side of which he might haply
find himself in a condition to dispose of the army of Aberdeen
as he had done that of Perth. This route was his only chance
of obtaining cavalry. In Angus he was sure of the Earl of
Airlie, with all the horse he could muster; and he was still
looking and longing for the chivalry of the Argyle-ridden Gor-
dons, to rally round the Standard, at least benorth the Cairn-
a- Mount.

Accordingly, on Wednesday 4th September 1644, he marched
out of Perth, and encamped that night about seven miles to the
north-east, near the kirk of Collace. His rear was not incom-
moded by Argyle. Indeed the royal Lieutenant understood his
pursuer so well, that he hesitated not to leave his two boys be-
hind him in Perth, along with Braco, Orchill, and the faithful
Forrett. The latter was required to transact some business
there, and had orders to join the army when he could ; while
those other old friends, distinguished branches of the house of
Graham, were instructed to conduct the children with them to
the camp, the day after their father had marched with part of
his army to Collace.

It was not until the 10th of September that a fine body of
horse, eight hundred strong, came pouring into Perth, com-
manded by the Earl of Lothian in person. This was the ad-
vance of Argyle's army, feeling the way for him ; and, on the
following day, the great man himself entered the desolate city
with the rest of his forces, which, for a whole week, kept stream-
ing through it, and crossing Tay in full cry after "the common
enemy." Small comfort to the mourning maids and crippled
glovers of Perth. The very Kirk was ashamed of her King.
" For my Lord Marquis of Argyle," — bitterly complains the
Reverend John Robertson, in justification of the godly burgh
having succumbed to the arm of flesh, — " we knew not if he
were come from the Highlands or not: And so it proved ; for
the first friends that we saw was the eleventh day after the dis-
mal fight." Although pursuing, he took more time to reach
Perth, after the battle of Tippermuir, than Montrose had occu-
pied in his expedition from Carlisle to Tullibelton, from that to
Athole, and from thence to Perth. But he was working in
another way. In no hurry to attack his quarry in the field, he

446 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

was doing his best to procure his death by assassination. In-
deed, Montrose had narrowly escaped that late at Perth ; for
one villain, at least, mingling with his suit there, was ready to
have done the deed, had a favourable opportunity presented
itself. Argyle it was who organized this system, upon the long
established principle of religious reformation in Scotland. He
had put a price of five thousand marks upon the head of Irvine
of Kingcaussie, who had been out against him with Huntly^s
mismanaged rising in the north. One Forbes, a natural son of
Forbes of Leslie, meeting him by chance on the road, first pis-
tolled his victim, and then beat out his brains, for the sake of
the reward. This he obtained at once, along with a proclama-
tion in his favour, that he had "done good service to the pub-
lic." The murder was perpetrated shortly before the battle of
Tippermuir, on the 7th of August 1644, under the patronage of
Argyle.1 And now, in the month of September, an incident of
a like kind occurred in Montrose^s camp, prompted by the same
evil genius of his country. While pausing at Collace, and just
after he had been again joined by his children, fated in their
tender years to witness such dreadful scenes, he was deprived
of his much loved friend and relative, Lord Kilpont, by the
hand of as cowardly a murderer as ever raised the assassin's
knife against the innocent and unwary. But the crime of
Stewart of Ardvoirlich must be narrated in the words of Mon-
trose^s own chaplain.

" Next morning by break of day (Friday 6th September 1 644),
before the reveilliez, there was a great tumult in the camp ; the
soldiers ran to their arms, and fell to be wild and raging. Mon-
trose, guessing that it was some falling out between the High-
landers and the Irish, thrust himself in among the thickest of
them : There he finds a most horrible murder newly committed ;
for the noble Lord Kilpont lay there basely slain. The mur-
derer was a retainer of his (Kilpont's) own ; one Stewart, whom
he had treated with much friendship and familiarity ; insomuch
that that same night they lay both in a bed. *It is reported
that the base slave had a plot to dispatch Montrose ; and, in
regard of the great power he had with Kilpont, he conceived he
might draw him in to be accessory to the villany : Therefore,

1 Forbes was apprehended and hanged for the murder, after the Restoration.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 447

taking him aside into a private place, he had discovered unto
him his intentions ; which the nobleman highly detested, as was
meet : Whereupon the murderer, fearing he would discover him,
assaulted him unawares, and stabbed him with many wounds,
who little suspected any harm from his friend and creature.
The treacherous assassin, by killing a sentinel, escaped ; none
being able to pursue him, it being so dark that they could
scarce see the ends of their pikes. Some say, the traitor was
hired by the Covenanters to do this ; others, only that he was
promised a reward if he did it. Howsoever it was, this is most
certain, that he is very high in their favour unto this very day ;
and that Argyle immediately advanced him, though he was no
soldier, to great commands in his army. Montrose was very
much troubled with the loss of that nobleman ; his dear friend,
and one that had deserved very well both from the King and
himself; a man famous for arts, and arms, and honesty; being
a good philosopher, a good divine, a good lawyer, a good sol-
dier, a good subject, and a good man. Embracing the breath-
less body, again and again, with sighs and tears, he delivers it
to his sorrowful friends and servants, to be carried to his pa-
rents to receive its funeral obsequies, as became the splendour
of that honourable family." *

This deed of darkness, at once so monstrous and so mean,
was adopted, applauded, and rewarded by Argyle, and the de-
graded Parliament which submitted to his dictation. Nor was
it from the agitating clergy who were ever proclaiming their
Kirkdom " pure," that the people would learn how detestable
was such an act, in the sight of God and man. The Reverend
llobert Baillie, in a letter dated 25th October 1644, thus in-
structs his cousin, the Reverend William Spang, to embalm
it, as a patriotic virtue, in his Historia Motuum : " iCilpont^s
treachery is revenged by his death, justly inflicted?''

i From the original translation of Wishart's Commentaries on the wars of Mon-
trose, printed at the Hague in 1648, while Montrose was residing there. The story
itself is completely verified by the Parliamentary Record of the rescinded acts, pre-
served in the Register House, Edinburgh ; an extract from which will be found in
the Appendix. The murderer went straight to Argyle, by whom he was received
with open arms, rewarded with a military command, and obtained a parliamentary
exoneration and approval of the murder.

448 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

With a mind oppressed by this dreadful shock, Montrose led
his army to the Law of Dundee, beside which he again en-
camped, close to the town, on Friday the 7th of September.
Here he was joined by the Earl of Airlie, a nobleman approach-
ing seventy years of age, yet scarcely yielding in vigour and fire
to his gallant sons, Sir Thomas and Sir David Ogilvy, who ac-
companied him. Their elder brother, Lord Ogilvy, was pining,
in sickness and misery, in the vile tolbooth of Edinburgh ; and
all of his race and name were deeply pledged to avenge the
" bonnie house of Airlie" against the cowardly oppressor.
Having summoned Dundee, which refused to admit him, and
finding it too well prepared to be easily taken by assault,1 the
royal Lieutenant, after pausing at Forfar and Brechin. pressed
on to the Grampians, determined to strike another great blow,
at Aberdeen, before Argyle could come up. Accordingly, he
had reached his old friend the " Brig o1 Dee," and was on the
eve of another battle, about the very time that the Dictator
was entering Perth, by way of pursuing " the miscreants, as
armed men might." This last, however, had not been wanting
in the use of those other resources for defeating an enemy which
were more congenial to his nature. On the 12th of September
there was printed and published at Edinburgh, a proclamation,
offering a reward for the head of Montrose. This disgraceful
state paper, one of the many stains inflicted upon the national
character by the government of Argyle, accuses the King's

1 Alexander, Master of Spynie, who was with Montrose at this time, fell into the
hands of the Covenanters after the battle of Aberdeen, and was made to depone be-
fore a committee of Estates, on 31st January 1645. He depones : " I heard and saw
Mr Peter Wedderburn and Mr John Fletcher, advocates, in discourse with the Earl
of Montrose; and the Earl, seeing them in the fields, sent me to bring them to speak
with him; and when they were come, the Eai'l inquired of them the affection of the
townspeople, and strength of the town of Dundee ; and they answered the Earl, Al-
laster Macdonald being present, that the townspeople were, for the most part, disaf-
fectionate to the Earl, and that they had taken a covenant to stand to their defence
to the last man ; and that the town was made very strong, and that ordnances wero
planted in divers places, especially upon Corbie-hill: Immediately after that dis-
course the Earl of Montrose convened a council of war, where I was present; where,
in respect of the foresaid discourse, it was concluded that the town should not be
stormed, but that they should pass by the town." — Original Depositions, Montrose
Charter-room. This shews how deliberately Montrose prosecuted his plan of the
campaign.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 449

Lieutenant of treason, treachery, murder, popery, and " un-
heard-of cruelties ; *" and after an order to the heralds to excom-
municate him at the market-cross of Edinburgh, — " the Com-
mittee does hereby declare, in name of this kingdom, that who-
ever will take and apprehend the said Earl of Montrose, and
exhibit him alive before the Parliament, or their Committee, — or,
if he should happen to be slain in the taking, shall exhibit his
head, that every such person shall not only be pardoned for their
bygone concurrence in this rebellion, and all other crimes for-
merly committed by them, not being treasonable, but also they
shall have the sum of twenty thousand pounds Scots, delivered
to them in present and ready payment." *

Unfortunately, it was a characteristic even of the most loyal
and trusty of the Claymores, to return, after each victory, to
their mountain homes with the spoil, instead of adhering to
their standard, and following up their success. Montrose had
no means of compelling their stay ; and he might have found
himself without an army at all, had the poor Irish known their
way home. These, of necessity, were now his unfailing adhe-
rents ; for without him, even though led by the great MacColl,
they must have speedily degenerated into a rabble rout of mise-
rable fugitives, hunted to the death, with their starving train
of women and children, like vermin, or beasts of prey. To keep
as he did such an army well in hand, in excellent fighting order,
and so often victorious against the best conditioned troops that
Scotland could send forth, indicates great powers of command,
and mental resources, in their illustrious leader. But he must
have felt sad, as he regarded their forlorn condition, and thought
how few of them were likely to see their native shores again.
Even in the happy days of his college life, his sympathies for
the ever light-hearted miseries of these ragged wanderers, had

1 An original printed copy of this proclamation has only recently been discovered
among the Montrose papers. It bears to have been printed and published, by order
of a committee of Estates, at Edinburgh, on the 12th of September 1644, " by Evan
Tyler, printer to the King's most excellent Majesty" ! The date is the day before
Montrose's victory at Aberdeen; the day after Argyle's entry into Perth, in pursuit
of him; and six days after Argyle's receiving into his sanctuary the murderer of
Lord Kilpont,

29

450 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

been moved by " some poor Irish women at the gate of Braco,nr

and « ane Irish man begging at the gate of Grlammis," — and

not begging in vain.1 The murder of Lord Kilpont, too, had
deprived him of a valuable section of his little army, in those
dejected retainers who accompanied the body of their young
master to the family mausoleum. As a set-off against these
misfortunes, Colonel Nathaniel Gordon, the very beau ideal of a
cavalier, had joined the Standard with thirty well mounted fol-
lowers : Thus, including the Ogilvys, he could now boast of a
cavalry brigade consisting of nearly fifty horsemen. It was,
however, with a diminished force of less than two thousand in
all, and the field-pieces taken at Perth, that he again found
himself in front of a formidable foe, just twelve days after the
battle of Tippermuir.

The northern Covenanters were in considerable force at Aber-
deen. Argyle was by way of conferring upon his nephew, Lord
Gordon, the military command of Scotland benorth the Gram-
pians, superseding the commission with which the King had
invested his father. For Huntly was considered an outlaw,
and enacted the part of one, so far as hiding is concerned,
rather too well. But the gallant hope of his house, who, with
good reason, detested his tyrannical uncle, declined to place
himself at the head of a Lieutenancy controlled by Argyle,
and in which he was expected, instead of commanding, to be
subservient to such covenanting Lords as Forbes, Fraser, and
Burleigh. His youngest brother, Lord Lewis, a gallant, but
wild, unprincipled youth, was too fond of the ploy of command-
ing cavalry, on whatever side, to absent himself from the cove-
nanting leaguer at Aberdeen. He came there with a score of
Huntly's horse ; although, it is said, having received injunctions
from his brother not to be too forward in action against the
royalists. The command in chief had been entrusted to Lord
Burleigh, the father-in-law of Lord Elcho whose star had fallen
at Perth. He was best known as President Burleigh ; being
frequently in the chair of those anomalous secret tribunals, the
covenanting committees, and having for a time also presided
over the Parliament that bade Montrose " go up into the place

1 See before, p. 62.

LIFE OF MONT11OSE. 451

appointed for delinquents." It was now his turn to be made a
greater delinquent of, by Montrose. But he was not alone. A
cluster of that now unhappy order, the peerage of Scotland, was
with him there, by way of " standing for the country ;" but
standing, in fact, for the committee government of Argyle, and
doomed, as usual, to defeat and disgrace. While Lord Marischal
ensconced himself in Dunottar, and refused to shew, Lords Fra-
ser, Forbes, and Frendraught, were acting under President
Burleigh at Aberdeen. Dr Wishart rates his army at two
thousand foot, and five hundred horse, covered by a train of
artillery.1 Elcho's Fife regiment had rallied there. But neither
he nor Tullibardine appeared upon this occasion, having had
enough at Perth to place them in abeyance for a time.

The bridge of Dee was strongly fortified ; and our hero, re-
membering what trouble it cost him before, when on a very dif-
ferent mission, and being well acquainted with the localities,
crossed the Dee higher up, and summoned his covenanting
friend, Sir Thomas Burnet of Leys, in his stately castle of
Crathes, about fifteen miles above Aberdeen. He had too
strong an argument at his back to be denied, and the laird was
a man of sense. " The royal Lieutenant," says Spalding, " him-
self, with guard, supped with the laird of Leys, after he had
summoned him to render his house : He did no harm, but took
some arms and horse, and the promise of some men : Leys of-
fered him five thousand merks of money, which he nobly refused"
The Earl of Airlie and his two sons, Lord Duplin, and the
Master of Spynie, were also of the party at Crathes.2 The
Marquis had left his second son James in his house of Old

1 Patrick Gordon says that Burleigh's army, including the garrison and citizens
of Aberdeen, amounted to three thousand foot, and six hundred horse. Guthrie
estimates Montrose's forces at fifteen hundred foot, and forty -four horse; which are
also the numbers given by Wishart. It is impossible to ascertain the precise num-
bers on either side, at any of these battles, owing to the variation in different con-
temporary accounts. But the great inferiority, generally, of Montrose's army, both
in numbers and appliances, is unquestionable.

a The Master of Spynie's deposition, quoted before. He says that he himself,
« with the Earls of Airlie and Kinnoul," was with Montrose at Crathes. But his
deposition is dated 31st January 1645. On the 5th October 1644, George, second
Earl of Kinnoul, had died at Whitehall; when he who was Lord Duplin at Crathes
on the llth of September 1644, became third Earl of Kinnoul. We shall hear of
him again.

452 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Montrose as he passed through Angus, because of his extreme
youth, and for the sake of his education. Braco and Orchill,
who conducted the interesting boys to these scenes of blood
and horrors, and " came off from Montrose without good night"
at Forfar on the 1 Oth of September, doubtless had their cue to
look after young James Graham, who was placed at school in
Montrose, under the charge of a tutor. We shall hear of him
again. But John Lord Graham, now about fourteen years of
age, unquestionably was still with his father, and attended by
good Master William Forrett. Picturesque must have been
that curious symposium, on the eve of the attack upon Aber-
been, at Crathes, one of the finest old castles in the north of
Scotland, whose sturdy Flemish towers are standing to this
day. Their host, Sir Thomas Burnet, we are told by Spalding
was " ane faithful lover and follower of the house of Huntly,
ane great Covenanter also"

From Crathes, Montrose led his army down the north bank
of the Dee, on Thursday 12th September 1644, until he arrived
at the two-mile cross from Aberdeen, where he took up his po-
sition, in order to summon the town. Early on Friday morning-
he dispatched a flag of truce with the following letter, all writ-
ten with his own hand. It is addressed, " To my loving friends,
the Provost, Bailies, Council, and Burgh of Aberdeen ;" and
runs thus : —

" Loving Friends : —

" Being here for the maintenance of Religion and Liberty,
and his Majesty's just authority and service, these are, in his
Majesty's name, to require you, that, immediately upon the
sight hereof, you render and give up your town, in the behalf of
his Majesty ; otherwise, that all old persons, women, and chil-
dren, do come out and retire themselves ; and that those who
stay expect no quarter.

" I am, as you deserve,

" MONTROSE."

A gentleman, whose name has not transpired, was made the
bearer of this letter, accompanied by a drummer to announce
the flag of truce in due form. It was delivered to the Provost

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 453

in a house at the end of the town, where, with Lord Burleigh
and the other military leaders, he was holding a council of war.
An answer was forthwith penned ; not framed without difficulty,
as is manifest from the various corrections and interlineations
appearing on the face of the original draft. It is addressed,
" For the Right Honourable and Noble Lord, the Earl of Mon-
trose," and dated " Aberdeen, the 13th September 1644, at
eleven o'clock." The most amusing correction occurs in the
subscription, where the words, " your Lordship's faithful friends
to serve you," have been scored out, and, " your Lordship's as
ye low us" substituted.

M Noble Lord :—

" We have received yours, with a gentleman and a drummer,
whereby your Lordship signifies to us that you are for mainte-
nance of Religion, Liberty, and his Majesty's just authority ;
and that we should render our town, otherwise no quarter ex-
cept to old persons, women, and children. We acknowledge
likewise our obligation to maintain the same which your Lord-
ship professeth you are doing; and shall be most willing to
spend the last drop of our blood therein, according to the Cove-
nant^ subscribed and sworn by us. Your Lordship must have
us excused that we will not abandon or render our town so
lightly ; seeing we think that we deserve no censure as being
guilty of the breach of any the aforesaid points ; and specially
of that latter article ; but have been ever known to be most
loyal and dutiful subjects to his Majesty ; and, by God's grace,
shall to our lives' end strive to continue so ; and in the mean
time to be,

" Your Lordship's as ye love us,

u Provost and Bailies of Aberdeen,
" in name of the Burgh." 2

1 The words printed in italics had been substituted for these words, scored out,

" without prejudice of the first and latter Covenant," &c. They had thought it best
not to be too particular.

a These curious and interesting missives are yet preserved in the archives of
Aberdeen. Facsimiles of them are given in the last edition of Spalding's history,
printed for the Spalding Club, 1851.

454 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

While this epistle was in preparation, " they caused," says
Spalding, " the commissioner and drummer to drink hardly ; "
the covenanting forces being all under arms, and ready to march
against the King's banner. The flag of truce was fired on while
quitting the town, and as they passed the Fife regiment. The
commissioner escaped, but the poor drummer was shot. It was
a dastardly act, characteristic of the Covenant ; and dearly did
Aberdeen pay for it. No wonder Montrose was exasperated.
Every flag of truce he had as yet sent forth in the name of the
King, had been treacherously dealt with. Spalding declares,
that, " finding his drummer, against the law of nations, most
inhumanly slain, he grew mad, and became furious and impa-
tient."" It could not yet be said of him, however, quern Deus
vult perdere prius dementat ! He ordered his battle with judg-
ment and skill. Putting his forces in motion as the Covenanters
were marching out of Aberdeen, the armies encountered each
other at a place " between the Crabstane and the Justice-
milns," hard by the town. Protecting either wing with a por-
tion of his small body of horse, which afforded about a score to
each, he entrusted his right to Nathaniel Gordon and James
Hay of Dalgetty. William Rollo had charge of the left. To
make up for the deficiency in cavalry, he cunningly intermingled
with the horsemen his best and most active Irish musketeers,
commanded by Captain Mortimer ; and also some armed with
bows, the weapon of his college sports, and which did good ser-
vice this day. He caused his foot soldiers to distinguish them-
selves by a bunch of oats, stuck in their bonnets ; which must
have brought devastation to more than one harvest field. It
was " MontroseV whimsy." He himself was clad in coat and
trews, like the Irish, with a rip of oats in his bonnet ; but well
mounted, that he might better superintend the operations of
the field. By his side was old Lord Airlie ; while Sir Thomas
and Sir David Ogilvy, and Alexander Ogilvy younger of Inner-
quharity. a beautiful youth of eighteen fresh from college, were
acting on his staff, and ready to lead a charge against any point,
as the turn of battle might require. Nor can it be doubted that
Lord Graham was there too ; for his safest place at this time,
while with the army, would be somewhere near his father.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 455

The battle commenced with the artillery on both sides ; of
which that attached to the covenanting army did the most exe-
cution, being better placed. This enabled the Covenanters to
seize upon a cluster of cottages and garden walls lying between
the combatants. From this post, however, they were speedily
dislodged, by a body of the Irish musketeers, who drove a troop
of lancers before them like sheep. Four hundred of Burleigh's
foot, and a hundred horse, were then ordered out to retrieve
this first check ; and* these, by a skilful detour, contrived to
turn the left flank of the loyalists, and even gained a height in
the rear of Montrose's main battle. Captain Mortimer, seeing
the peril, rushed with his rapid musketeers to hold them in
check ; while Nathaniel Gordon, reporting the danger to Mon-
trose, was ordered to unite all their cavaliers, with another
hundred of the Irish, and storm that position as speedily as
possible ; an order executed so promptly, and with such vigour,
that the covenanting horse were again driven off, and the four
hundred foot soldiers cut to pieces. In this charge young
Innerquharity distinguished himself, and returned with abun-
dance of grinning honour, being run through and through the
thigh with a lance.

Meanwhile, the right wing of the royalists was twice charged
with great gallantry by the Lords Fraser and Frendraught,
commanding another detachment of their foot. But these were
also repulsed with great loss, having received no support from
their cavalry ; while, on the other hand, Colonel Gordon and
Major Rollo, returning on the spur from their brilliant dash in
support of the left, were in time to complete the success which
the right flank had so well commenced, and thus to cry victory
on both wings.

At this time the main battles of the opposing hosts were put
in motion to join. Lord Lewis, at the head of his score of gay
Gordons, was the first to make a showy flourish at the advanc-
ing royalists, which Patrick Gordon, — with whom the wild boy
is a great favourite, even when stealing his mother's jewels, —
describes imposingly, as " charging with pistols, discharging in
ranks, and retiring in caracole." This is like a leaf out of the
Marquis of Newcastle's book on horsemanship ; but was too
" slow""1 for .'i Gordon, — at least for a young one. It was the

456 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

last charge Lord Lewis made that day ; until his horse's tail
was streaming to the Dee, and his nostrils straining for Strath-
' bogie. Emulous of the caracoling Gordons, Sir William Forbes
of Craigievar launched his troop with a will against the main
body of the Irish musketeers ; really intending, as the old song
says, " to ex-tir-pate the vipers ; " who evinced, however, the
coolness and cunning of the primeval serpent. The wary son
of Coll Keitache was not to be caught. At his word of com-
mand, back on either side fell the boys with the rip of oats in
their bonnets, and Craigievar thundered between. It was all
over with the fiery Forbeses. The troop seemed to be swal-
lowed up by the swarming, overlapping musketeers, as if it had
charged down the crater of a volcano. Sir William himself had
his horse killed under him, and Forbes of Largie, brother to the
tutor of Pitsligo, were made prisoners ; but few or none of that
troop ever came again.

The eagle eye of Montrose caught the turning point of the
battle. His handful of horse, having worked marvels for two
hours, were well nigh exhausted. The enemy's cavalry, though
cut up, and driven to a distance, were still in force, and seemed
inclined to rally. The mother of the musket, too, was playing
at long bowls with them, in a manner that sufficed to make a
highlander very uneasy. The never-failing gaiety and humour
of the poor Irish, indeed, evinced itself upon this occasion. A
cannon-ball having taken off the leg of one of the active mus-
keteers who accompanied the horsemen, he was found sepa-
rating the piece of skin by which it was still attached, and
exclaiming with apparent glee, that, as he could no longer fight
on foot, the noble Marquis would be sure to mount him in the
cavalry. In the midst of such incidents, the voice of Montrose
(says Wishart) was heard,—" Come on, claymores — come on,
musketeers — to close quarters, — we do no good at this dis-
tance,— down upon them with your broad- swords, and club
your muskets, — make the cowards pay for their treason, and
their treachery." The Redshanks at Alma were not more re-
sponsive to the call. On came kilts and trews with their Reel
of Howlakin ; and the bonnets of oats, —

" Like reapers descend to the harvest of death" !

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 457

The rush was irresistible, the rout irretrievable, the slaughter
immense. Old Burleigh, who never appeared during the fight
at all, scuttled away across the Don, because headed at the
Dee. He went up into some place of safety, but had very
nearly gone down into a the place appointed for delinquents."
Every man who had a horse was safe. So no covenanting coro-
nets were found among the carrion. A thousand covenanters bit
the dust. Not a score of royalists. Aberdeen was decimated.
Aye, and the aged, and the women, and the babe unborn,
suffered death that day. Is it not all written in the book of
lamentations by Spalding ! But why did Patrick Leslie, the
covenanting Provost, since fight he would, not take time and
pains to save the aged, the women, and the children, as Mon-
trose desired him ? Aberdeen fared, as Sevastopol will fare,
when the allied armies of civilized and chivalrous France and
England take it by assault. The outraged flag of truce was
avenged. The manes of him who accompanied it was appeased.
And the old castle of Crathes is not haunted by a drummer. l

1 The details of the battle I have taken from Patrick Gordon, whose history
affords the most circumstantial of all the contemporary accounts. A few incidents
are preserved in the depositions taken from some of the actors, who soon afterwards
were brought before a committee of the Estates. James Ramsay of Ogill, who ap-
pears to have been a medical man pressed for a time into the service of Montrose,
depones: " I saw the Earl of Airlie with the Irish rebels at Crathes upon Dee; and
saw him at the conflict of Aberdeen, and his two sons, Sir Thomas and Sir David
Ogilvy, also; who all three were upon the fields in action the time of the conflict;
and I left them all with the rebels when I came away: Sir Thomas and Sir David
were at a private meeting at the back of the Law of Dundee with the rebels: I saw
Alexander Ogilvy younger of Innerquharitie, and came in along with him at the
Law of Dundee ; and I saw him in the morning before the conflict at Aberdeen in
the rebels' army; and after I was come off the rebels, the said Alexander being re-
turned to Angus with a wound in his thigh, he sent for me to pans him (dress his
wound), and affirmed to me he had gotten the wound at Aberdeen." Other wit-
nesses mention that the wound was occasioned by the thrust of a lance through the
thigh. We shall have to notice the fate of this interesting boy afterwards. The
president of this committee was Lord Frendraught, one of the peers defeated at
Aberdeen. Sir William Forbes of Craigievar is also examined, and depones : — " I
did see the Earl of Airlie with the Earl of Montrose and the rebels at the conflict
at Aberdeen, riding on horseback on the fields; and as I was brought in prisoner to
the town of Aberdeen, after the conflict, I saw the Earl of Airlie's two sons, Sir
Thomas and Sir David Ogilvy, with the rebels ; and I saw the said Earl and his
two sons several times with the rebels and the Earl of Montrose, and in several

458 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

One month had not elapsed since Montrose left Carlisle in
disguise, "to shew how feasible the business is yet;" and in
that time he had created an army for himself, destroyed two
far superior armies of the Covenant, in two battles within
twelve days of each other, — brought to shame eight noble
houses in Scotland, which had chosen to assume the attitude
of rebellion, — and established the terror of his own name in
the field. Wemyss, Perth, Tullibardine, Burleigh, Huntly,
Forbes, Fraser, and Frendraught, are the Scotch peers who
already, by themselves, or by sons representing them, had
taken the field against their Sovereign, and been shamefully
beaten by his Lieutenant-General, who had not the slightest
assistance from England. But for the defection of the High-
landers returning from Perth with their spoil, he might now
have turned upon the third army of the enemies of the Throne ;
nor is it too much to suppose that such a commander as Argyle
would then have fared no better than his noble compeers. As
it was, Montrose adopted a different tactic, which, though oc-
cupying more time, was crowned with equal success.

To save Aberdeen as much as possible, he lost no time in
ordering his troops out of the town ; though, of course, several
days elapsed before all the Irish companies, and stragglers,
could be choked off their prey. He himself, however, had esta-
blished his head-quarters in the village of Kintore, about ten
miles up the Don, so soon as on the 14th of September, the
very day after the battle. This appears from his own dispatch
to the King, written from that place, and of that date ; and
referred to in his subsequent letter from Inverlochy, where he
says, — The " last dispatch I sent your Majesty was by my
worthy friend, and your Majesty's brave servant, Sir William
Bollock, from Kintore, near Aberdeen, dated the 14th of Sep-
tember last ; wherein I acquainted your Majesty with the good
success of your arms in this kingdom, and of the battles the
justice of your cause has won over your obdurate rebel sub-
places, during my captivity; and they were with the rebels when I came off (made
his escape). I saw Alexander Ogilvy younger of Innerquharitie with the rebels at
the conflict of Aberdeen, in action upon the fields," — Original Depositions, Montrose
Charter-room,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 459

jects."1 The dispatch from Kintore we have not been so for-
tunate as to recover ; but this reference to it implies that the
King was understood to have received it ; and there is no doubt
that the gallant messenger returned to the royal standard in
Scotland, and reported proceedings to Montrose. We have it
also on the authority of Dr Wishart, that Sir William's report
was of a very startling nature ; in consequence of his having
fallen into the hands of Argyle, when returning from Oxford to
the north. The chief incentive, says Montrose'' s chaplain, to
the cruel execution of this distinguished royalist, when made
prisoner at Philiphaugh, was, *c that he would not pollute his
hands with a most abominable murder : For, being sent from
Montrose with an express to the King after the battle of Aber-
deen, he was taken prisoner by the enemy, and was condemned
unto death ; which he had not escaped except, for fear of death,
he had hearkened unto A rgyle, — who most unworthily set a price
upon Montrose's head, and promised great rewards, honours,
and preferments, to whomsoever should bring it in, — and had
taken upon himself to commit that treason which he abhorred
with all his soul : By which shift having his life and liberty given
him, he returned straight to Montrose, and discovered all unto
him ; beseeching him to be more careful of himself ; for not he
only, who heartily detested so high a villany, but many more,
had been offered great matters ; most of whom would use their
best endeavours to dispatch him."

The authority for this accusation, never contradicted by
Argyle, is too direct, and the corroborations too strong, to
admit of a doubt.2

1 Montrose's dispatch from Inverlochy, which will be found in a subsequent page.
Probably it was after the battle of Aberdeen that Major William Rollock, or Rollo,
had been knighted.

2 Would Sir William Rollo have invented such a story for Montrose's ear \ Would
Dr Wishart have given the story to Europe, in Latin and English, the latter version
being published at the Hague while Montrose himself was resident there, if Rollo
had not so reported to the Marquis ? Would Montrose have told such an anecdote
of his friend Rollo, or suffered it to pass, had that friend really not so reported to
him ? Then, is the murderous proposition not a counterpart of the case of Ardvoir-
lich, and his friend and companion, Lord Kilpont ? The rescinded acts of Parlia-
ment prove that that murderer fled directly to Argyle himself ^nd was by him exo-
nerated and rewarded. Moreover, at the very time, Argyle was proclaiming through-
out Scotland a price for the assassination of Montrose.

460 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Argyle and Lothian were now slowly following the " pack of
naked runagates," with a well-appointed army, variously esti-
, mated at two thousand five hundred, or three thousand foot,
and from twelve to fifteen hundred horse. Our hero had nothing
for it at present but to lead this overwhelming force a dance
through those northern districts where he hoped to recruit from
the clans, and also to induce the Gordons to join him with all
their chivalry. Accordingly, marching westward by the Don
to Kildrummie castle, he took up his quarters there until Colonel
Nathaniel Gordon made an excursion to Strathbogie (Huntly
castle), and the Bog of Gicht (Gordon castle), to induce his
clansmen, now that two victories had crowned the royal arms,
to display practically the loyalty of their name and race. But
the miserable abeyance of their chief, and the compulsory ab-
sence of all his gallant sons, had totally paralyzed the gay Gor-
dons, upon whose support Montrose had mainly relied. His
disappointed emissary also brought the intelligence that Argyle
was in full march upon these strongholds of the absent chief,
attended by his enthralled nephews, Lord Gordon and Lord
Lewis, as if they too had taken up arms with a deliberate de-
termination to oppose the royal commission and standard. So
the King^s Lieutenant, who had divested his little army of all
encumbrances, except the miserable camp followers, and had
been constrained to bury in a morass the cannon he had taken
at Perth and Aberdeen, continued his march from Kildrummie
through Strathdon, until he reached the old castle of Rothie-
murchus, on the banks of the Spey, which he there expected to
find the means of crossing. But the men of Moray, — Grants,
Frasers, and others, — commanding the opposite bank of their
torrent, had seized all the boats, and even menaced him with
five thousand enemies. Thus again he found himself between
two armies ; as if the Covenant were hydra-headed. By this
time, the 27th of September, Argyle had established himself in
the stately castles of the lost Huntly ; and was visiting his do-
mains far and wide with the most merciless devastation. It
was, and long had been, his paramount object, utterly to crush
the noble and loyal house of which his own sister was queen ;
and this even while the young heir of it, George Lord Gordon,
was writhing with anguish, and boiling with indignation, at his

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 4-61

uncle's side ; yet compelled to witness the desolation of which
he hardly dared to complain. To allure the oppressor from his
lacerated prey, and to lead him through the mountainous wilds
of Scotland till his cavalry at least should be worn out, was now
the arduous undertaking of Montrose, which he accomplished
with the most brilliant success. By this means, too, his little
army of Redshanks, no less dependent, for its cohesion, upon
constant motion, than the meteor that sweeps the heavens, be-
came as active and wiry as the herds of deer that got no rest,
in their own forests, for these winged warriors ; and thus were
the sinews toughened and tempered that reaped the harvest of
death in victories yet to come. But the scheme demanded the
genius of Montrose. The prestige of his recent victories was
not to be sacrificed ; and his movements must never assume one
feature of inglorious flight. Who would recruit the banner that
was flying in terror from the snake-like crawl of Argyle I Who
would adhere to the standard that was not about to turn upon
the rebel tyrant, and make the desolator desolate ? And so our
hero, like a skilful sportsman, with tender tackle and a monster
fish, worked him up the Don to the Spey, from the Spey to the
Tummel, from that to the Tay, then to the Esk, and round again
to the Dee and the Don, and so round and round the north of
Scotland, till he had him gasping at Fyvie in the month of Oc-
tober, and ere long fairly dished at Inverlochy.

When Montrose was headed atRothiemurchus,he went north-
ward down the Spey, and occupied the forest of Abernethy,
which brought him within twenty miles of the Bog of Gicht,
where Argyle had just reviewed his forces, and found them to
consist of four thousand of all arms, in excellent condition.
Yet he made not the slightest attempt to dislodge the enemy
for whose head he had offered twenty thousand pounds Scots.
Still looking for that noble head in a charger, he rested satisfied
with laying waste the lordships of Huntly. The royal Lieute-
nant, unable to cope with the great power of horse opposed to
him, but anxious to allure his enemy onwards, quitted the pro-
tecting forest, and returning up the Spey to Rothiemurchus, and
from thence proceeding by the head of Strathspey, carried the
only victorious banner of Charles the First, proudly streaming
into Badenoch.

462 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Notwithstanding his iron constitution, and great powers of
endurance, our hero was occasionally visited with severe indis-
position. At college, as we have seen, he had been alarmingly
ill ; and after the indignities and persecution he endured during
the King's settlement of Scotland in 1641, he had become, to
use his own words, " very unwell in my health." It is not sur-
prising, therefore, that after all the excitement and herculean
labour to which his mind and body had been subjected, between
the 18th of August, when he left Carlisle, and towards the end
of September, when he thus passed into Badenoch, we should
hear of his health failing him again. His chaplain tells us, that
after attaining these fastnesses, " for certain days he was very
sick ; which occasioned such immoderate joy to the Covenanters,
that they doubted not to give out that he was dead, and to
ordain a day of public thanksgiving to Almighty God for that
great deliverance : Nor were their Levites, you may be sure,
backward in that employment in their pulpits ; for, as if they
had been of counsel at the decree, and stood by at the execu-
tion, they assured the people that it was as true as the gospel,
that the Lord of Hosts had slain Montrose with his own hands :
But this joy did not last them long ; for he recovered in a short
space ; and, as if he had been risen from the dead, he frightened
his enemies much more than he had done before."

No sooner was he thus unexpectedly restored, than, crossing
the Grampians, he again occupied the Blair of Athole, about
the 4th of October. From thence he detached Allaster Mac-
donald, with a strong division of the Irish, to the western
Highlands, as far as Ardnamurchan, to relieve the garrisons
which had been left in the castles of Mingarry and Langhaline,
and also to recruit for the Standard. Meanwhile, though thus
weakened, he continued that strange and rapid orbit, which
again perforce dragged the lagging candidate for his head round
the north of Scotland (as if that enormous hostile mass of horse
and foot had been his satellite), even while the mountains they
had to traverse were becoming white with the winter snows.

The castle of the Blair of Athole, so pleasantly associated
in the minds of the present generation with the happy pro-
gresses of our own Queen precisely two centuries later, was the
only stronghold in Scotland of which Montrose kept possession,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 4C3

throughout his great campaign in support of the Throne. The
heart of the loyal district whence he derived his best support,
it became the focus of his fiery career, where he recruited his
forces, and kept his prisoners. Lofty as the old pile is still, it
then reared its head more than one story higher, the very star
of Athole ; but shorn of its beams, in the reduction of its ancient
stature, during the civil war of the 18th century. Montrose
was never known — we say it pointedly and emphatically — to
treat a captive with inhumanity, or to put a prisoner of war to
death. He had many opportunities, and extreme provocation
so to retaliate, but never did. His system was, like the knights
of chivalry, to dismiss these encumbrances, so dangerous to a
humane General, on their brittle parole not to serve against the
Sovereign, at least for a time. A few, however, he found it
absolutely necessary to detain, that he might have the means
of proposing exchanges for his own friends who had fallen into
less merciful hands. These he lodged in the castle of Athole,
and appointed John Robertson of Inver, Lude's brother, to be
Captain thereof. Stewart of Sheirglass, whose place lay across
the Garry, directly opposite to Lude, undertook the victualling
department, and supplied both the castle and the royal forces
with the necessary vivers. Two distinguished prisoners, how-
ever, Sir William Forbes of Craigievar, and Forbes of Largie,
Montrose, instead of consigning to the castle of the Blair, as he
well might have done, still retained at the chariot wheels of his
incessant career, treating them with the utmost magnanimity ;
which Craigievar repaid by taking the most favourable oppor-
tunity to abscond.

Having thus organized matters at what may be termed his
head-quarters, again he put his forces in motion, pouring this
time through the pass of Killiecrankie, and onwards by the
braes between Ben-y-Vrackie and the Tummel, leaving Fascally
on his right, and crossing Don-a-vourd, or the hill of the Bard,
until he reached, hard by, the friendly house of William Fer-
gusson of Ballyheukane, wherein he took up his quarters for a
night.1 From this inspiring eminence, which is to the right of
the great highland road, going northward, between the now well
known stages of Moulinarn and Pitlochrie, he could survey the

1 Deposition of Master William Forrett. — Montrose Charter-room.

464 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

vale of the Tummel and the Tay, from Killiecratikie to Dunkeld.
But though he rested beside the " hill of the Bard," no time had
, the heartbroken muse of Mont-rose to dwell on the beautiful and
the picturesque. Onwards was she hurried, only giving out, like
a crazy Jane, or Ophelia among her weedy trophies, occasional
snatches of poetry, in which may be traced the idea predominant
in the mind of the devoted champion of Charles the First,—

" Can little beasts with lions roar,
And little birds with eagles soar ?
Can shallow streams command the seas,
And little ants the humming bees ?
No, no, — no, no,— it is not meet
The head should stoop unto the feet."

From Ballyheukane he pressed on to Angus, where it is to
be hoped, either in his own desolate halls of Old Montrose, or
in the more secure retreat, scarcely less familiar to him, of
Kinnaird castle, where his youthful portrait was yet cherished,
he would find time to see the Marchioness and his two younger
boys, and to put some order to his ruinous affairs. But his
home affections were blighted like his muse. Onward he went,
marching through the Mearns, the young hope of his house, —
destined never to see again his mother or his brothers, or the
homesteads where he parted from them, —still attached to his
father's side, attended by good Master Forrett. Upon the
17th of October he crossed the Dee at the Mills of Drum, to
the great relief of Aberdeen, where another covenanting army
was in nervous expectation of his advent. But a second battle
at the gates of Aberdeen was not his object. He was pursuing
his course northward, and still luring on the leviathan that
should have swallowed him. Spalding declares that he had
destroyed no lands in that country until now, when he wasted
in his progress some of the lands of the most inimical Cove-
nanters, such as Lord Fraser, whom he had defeated at Aber-
deen. But his use of this terrible scourge, characteristic of the
wars of the time, was mercy, law, and order, compared to the
unprovoked and cold-blooded exercise of it by Argyle. When
he crossed Dee on the 1 7th, again he spent a night in Crathes
castle, and exempted, and protected, Sir Thomas Burnet, cer-

LIFE OF MONTKOSE. 465

tainly a most discreet and hospitable opponent, from any inflic-
tion of the kind. He acted with the same grateful and graceful
forbearance towards Grant of Monymusk. " Montrose, upon
Saturday the 19th of October,11 says Spalding, "dined in Mony-
musk with the lady, the laird being absent ; and, upon fair con-
ditions, he spared him at this time." On Sunday the 20th of
October he passed northward to Frendraught, the lordship of
another of the noble captains whom he had beaten at Aberdeen ;
and there certainly he made free with the fattest of his beeves,
and victualled his own army without the slightest compunction.
By Monday the 21st he was established in Huntly's castle of
Strathbogie, which Argyle had occupied about three weeks
before.

And where were Argyle and Lothian now ? Following, but
not pursuing, and generally about eight days behind the royal-
ists, they had marched to the Spey, as our hero was quitting it
for Badenoch, where he became so unwell. But the warrior's
couch was not disturbed by Argyle. Into Badenoch he only
ventured when Montrose was across the Grampians in Athole.
And when the royal banner was streaming from the vale of the
Tummel to the braes of Angus, Argyle was spreading destruc-
tion around the star of Athole. Woe to Lude, and Sheirglass,
and Fascally, and Don-a-Vourd, and Ballyheukane, and every
loyal heart, and hearth, and homestead, as King Campbell burnt
and preyed onwards to Angus, and so northward to Dunnottar
and Aberdeen, with a thousand of his best claymores, some fif-
teen hundred militia of the Estates, and seven troops of horse
commanded by Lothian. Fourteen troops of horse, under
Marischal, joined him at Aberdeen, which he entered on
Thursday the 24th of October, and from thence marched to
Kintore and Inverury the following day.

Were we to indulge in a comparison as crude as Clarendon's,
when he likened Montrose and Argyle to Caesar and Pompey,
we would say, that this " strange coursing," as Baillie called it,
might be compared to Achilles chasing Hector round the walls
of Troy. There is this difference, however : When our Hector
showed fight, our Achilles ran away. We prefer the simile
derived from the greatest of piscatory sportsmen, the mighty
Waltons of the roaring Spey. On followed the monster fish,

SO

466 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

sorely plagued with this red-shanked hook in his nose, till thus
sweeping round from the Spey to the Tummel, the Esk, the
Dee, and the Don, he found himself again approaching his tor-
mentor in Huntly's castle of Strathbogie. With a heart un-
shaken, and a hand as steady as ever, our noble angler sought
a stronger position a little to the north, and reeled up at Fyyie.
Argyle, however, more active and daring upon this occasion
than he ever was before, or again, had passed Strathbogie, and
encamped within two miles of Montrose, ere the latter was well
aware that he had crossed the Grampians. The surprise placed
him in a most critical position ; for his Redshanks, who had
been breathing themselves with continual excursions against
detached parties of the enemy, during their pause at Strath-
bogie, had expended all their ammunition, and had no means
of replacing it ; a fact which had become known to their oppo-
nents, whose leader assumed a more combative attitude in con-
sequence. But our hero, occupying the wooded heights enclo-
sing part of the amphitheatre within which stands that magni-
ficent old pile, Fyvie castle, remained firm as the British at
Inkermann. He was very nearly as much overmatched ; having
but fifty cavaliers to cover his fifteen hundred ammunitionless
soldiers. King Campbell had twelve hundred horse, and the
Earl of Lothian to command them, clearing the way for more
than two thousand foot, rich in all the munitions of war.
Matters looked serious indeed, and Argyle was within an ace
of finding himself famous. A strong body of his best marksmen
had already gained possession of the dykes and ditches about
midway up the rough sides of the eminence occupied by the
royalists. Indeed, Montrose played his only card, when, ad-
dressing himself, with an assumption of unconcern he could not
feel, to a young Irish officer named O'Kyan, whose courage and
activity were well known to him, he said, — u Come, O'Kyan,
what are you about \ Take some of your handiest fellows, drive
those rascals from our defences, and see that we are not mo-
lested by them again." The young Hibernian replied by a rush
at the assailants, for which they afterwards sought revenge by
bringing him to the scaffold. He drove this advance of the
enemy out of their formidable position, headlong down the hill ;
and his gallant company were rewarded by the precious prize

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 467

of many bags of powder. Then it was they exclaimed, with all
the humour characteristic of their nation, — " We must at them
again ; the stingy traitors have left no bullets with the powder ."
Argyle, satisfied for the day, retired behind the Ythan, three
miles further off; still looking for an opportunity, however, to
overwhelm with his clouds of cavalry the little army whose
muskets were empty, and their sabres not half a hundred. But
the pause was fatal to him. Every pewter pot, dish, and flagon,
in and about their present locality of Fyvie, was put into requi-
sition, for the manufacture of slugs and bullets. And, to the
endless mirth of the Irish, in this motley collection were many
of those utensils whose unmentionable name we must shroud
under its classic term ofmatula, — which proved the crowning dis-
grace to Argyle. So, when he again took heart enough to move
up to the royalists, and Lothian found an opportunity of charg-
ing the fifty cavaliers, the Irish gunners, holding by their stir-
rups, met the charge with a volley so well put in, and so unex-
pected withal, that five hundred covenanting troopers turned
and fled, spreading terror and confusion in the ranks behind
them. Montrose then set to work with his skirmishers, along
the line of defences in front ; until Argyle, drawing off his
whole array, retired behind the Ythan, and never came again.
Nothing could exceed the gallantry and gaiety of the poor
Irish. " There," cried one of them, firing over a fence, " there
goes another traitor-knave^s head broken with a pewter," —
matula. So completely crestfallen did Argyle retire, that the
royalists, without difficulty or molestation, raised their camp at
Fyvie, on the morning of the last day of October 1644, and
marched down to Strathbogie. They lost in this critical affair
none that have been recorded ; while the Covenanters were de-
prived of their best officer, Alexander Keith, brother to the
Earl Marischal, who fell when leading the charge of cavalry
that was repulsed by the knights of the matulce.

Argyle, after following with renewed caution to Strathbogie,
and making some feeble demonstrations there, now gave up all
present hope of obtaining Montrose's head, either by fair means
or foul. Lothian's jaded and baffled horse retired into winter
quarters, without another attempt to reap a laurel. But the
wily Dictator, foreseeing that the month of November would

468 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

stagger some of the gallant spirits who had been hitherto ca-
reering with the Standard, offered the temptation of a pass
' and a protection to all who would now forsake it. Montrose,
at a council of war which he held in Strathbogie, announced his
intention of once more marching upon the Spey ; and it is not
surprising that some of his staff, seeing no end to this extraor-
dinary campaign, should now shrink from holding further com-
munion with the wilds and the wolves of Badenoch. Like our
military magnates returning sick or crippled from the Crimea,
Lord Duplin, Colonel Hay, Sir John Drummond, even his old
companion Colonel Sibbald, and other lowland gentlemen, now
made their bow to the King's Lieutenant, on the plea that their
constitutions were unequal to such a march as he again medi-
tated among moors and mountains enveloped in snow. Nathaniel
Gordon also took his departure at this time. But there is every
reason to believe that the seducer was here the dupe ; and that
the gallant cavalier had preconcerted with Montrose to take the
advantage of Argyle's pass, and to exert himself to bring in
Lord Gordon to the Standard ; as indeed ere long he did. But
no considerations could deter the brave old Earl of Airlie, and
his two sons, Sir Thomas and Sir David Ogilvy, from following
Montrose to the end of the world. And the young Lord
Graham, and the faithful Forrett, he kept with him still. For
the dove from the ark might more easily have found a dry spot,
than the young Graham a place of security from the persecution
of the low-minded Estates of Scotland. Craigievar ran off.
" Do you mean to steal away too ?" said Montrose to Forbes of
Largie. " I would rather die than do so," was the answer.
" Then you may go," rejoined the Marquis, " on your parole, to
return when I want you."

Upon Wednesday, 6th of November, the hero marched with
his victorious Redshanks from Strathbogie to the Spey, few
friends, and no enemies, daring to follow him. It was well for
those who felt their constitutions unequal to the adventure, that
they quitted him at Strathbogie. Having passed up Strathspey
into Badenoch, the intelligence soon reached him that Argyle,
now stripped of cavalry, had descended with his remaining forces
from Aberdeen westward to the hallowed ground of A thole,
established himself in Dunkeld, and was there using every effort

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 469

to convert those loyal districts. Montrose, without a moment's
hesitation, again faced the Grampians, about the end of Novem-
ber, bent upon bringing him to battle. In one night he led his
mountain warriors, struggling among rocks and drifted snow,
through wilds untenanted save by the eagles and the deer. He
was within sixteen miles of Argyle before tidings of his ap-
proach had reached that chief ; who, instead of preparing to
receive him, fled to the garrison in Perth, leaving the army he
commanded to shift for itself. From thence he hastened, not
a little crestfallen, to Edinburgh, where, says Spalding, " he got
small thanks for his service against Montrose." Spalding was
mistaken. Man, woman, and child now despised, as they had
always hated him. But the spell of his power was still un-
broken ; for the Kirk yet acknowledged him as holding the
keys. He was sorely put to it, however, to sustain his saintly
dominion. " You heard," writes the Reverend Robert Baillie,
after recording the battle of Aberdeen, — " you heard what fol-
lowed ? That strange coursing, as I remember thrice round about
from Spey to Athole, wherein Argyle and Lothian's soldiers
were tired out.'''' And again says this worthy, groaning over the
miserable failure to his reverend correspondent, — " Whether
through envy, or emulation, or negligence, or inability, Argyle's
army was not relieved as it should ; himself was much grieved ;
so he laid down his commission, which neither Lothian nor
Callender, for any request, would take up." And then he sought,
and obtained, that most grinning of honours, the praise and the
thanks of the same Constitution that thanked Hamilton ! *

1 See before, p. 371. Guthrie says, — "Argyle and Lothian went to Edinburgh
and delivered up their commissions to the Committee of Estates, receiving from
them an act of approbation of their service, which many said they deserved the
better because they had shed no blood." Except by assassination, might have been
added.

470 LIFE OF MONTROSE,

CHAPTER XXIV,

THE BATTLE OF INVERLOCHY, AND ITS ANTECEDENTS.

MONTROSE'S desperate night march from Badenoch to Athole,
although he failed to surprise his arch-enemy at Dunkeld, was
not fruitles's. He was rejoined by. his redoubted Major-Gene-
ral, on their old try sting-ground. Mac Coll brought along with
him John of Moidart, Captain of Clanranald, with five hundred
of that sept. Claymores now came flocking to the invincible
Marquis. Keppoch, from the braes of Lochaber, joined him
with a tail in full plumage. Stewarts of Appin, men of Knoi-
dart, Glengarry, Glenevis, and Glencoe, Camerons from the-
Lochy, and Farquharsons from Braemar, now surrounded the
Standard. Montrose held a council of war, as he uniformly did
ere commencing a campaign, or undertaking any move of im-
portance. The question was, where the scene of their winter
operations was to be laid, it being now the month of Decembery
and no army immediately menacing them in any direction. He
himself was of opinion, or at least suggested, that this was the
proper opportunity to make a descent upon the lowlands, and
to establish their winter quarters in some of the rich districts
nearer the seat of government. But Argyle^s recent ravagesr
while following Montrose in the north, had aggravated the per-
sonal enmity of the clans towards him, and, in fact, sealed the
fate of Diarmed. With troops so disposed, the royal Lieutenant
saw that the best tactic was to lead them where they desired to
go ; and where, indeed, they would be least exposed to attacks
from the enemy^s cavalry. There was justice, too, in visiting
with fire and sword the territories of Argyle, whose people were
all in arms against the throne, and who himself had introduced
that scourge in Scotland, even against the unarmed and unre-
sisting, where no civil war had as yet arisen, and with no better
authority than his own feudal power for the acts of cruelty and
oppression he then perpetrated, in gratifying his personal de-

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 471

sires and enmities. Moreover, to destroy the military power
and prestige of the chief of the Campbells, was, from the very
first, the great object of Montrose, who justly regarded him as
the fountainhead of all the misery and vice that now inundated
Church and State in Scotland.

" But, gentlemen," said our hero, " are you aware of the na-
ture of those regions you propose to traverse in the depth of
winter ? Are the mountain passes practicable at this season \
Shall we find cities where, as hitherto, we may enrich ourselves ?
Shall we even find food to sustain us ?" To these pertinent
questions, Angus MacAilen Duibh, a native of Glencoe, distin-
guished as a highland warrior, made answer with great ala-
crity,— " There is, indeed, nothing like a city, or half a city, in
all the western highlands ; but I know every farm belonging to
MacCailinmhor ; and if tight houses, fat cattle, and clear water
will suffice, you need never want." Montrose hesitated no
longer, but ordered the march, from Athole by Loch Tay, into
the heart of Argyle's paternal domains, for the very next morn-
ing. It cost him the pang of another parting, however, which
the departure of good Master William Forrett must have in-
flicted, although, probably, in consequence of the Marquis's own
arrangements ; as, of course, he would be desirous to spare the
peaceful dominie that terrible campaign about to commence.
Forrett had obeyed the summons of his quondam pupil, when he
came to him through heaps of naked slain, at Perth ; he had been
at the battle of Aberdeen, and seen yet greater horrors there ; he
had followed him, in that "strange coursing1' round and round the
north of Scotland ; witnessed the repulse and disgrace of Argyle
and Lothian at Fyvie ; and then had to undergo the killing
night-march into Athole, across the mountains from Badenoch.
Throughout these desperate adventures, we may imagine how
valuable would be his services in attending the gallant boy of
fourteen, who had gone foot for foot with his victorious father ;
and that the absence of the faithful tutor would be felt as a
misfortune. For the Marquis dared not send the young Graham
home with this long-tried domestic. It would have been de-
livering the hope of his house into the hands of Argyle.1

1 Master William Forrett was immediately imprisoned by the Estates. It is
manifest, however, that he had never drawn a sword, as his life was spared. His

472 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

His highland army, thus re-organized, Montrose marched to
the south-west, descending, as at his first start, upon the coun-
try of the Menzieses, where he took prisoner the laird of Weem,
the chief who had treated his summons upon the former occa-
sion with disloyal indignity. His braes were left smoking. On
they swept to Loch Tay, by both sides of which the clansmen
pursued their fiery course, burning through Breadalbane, the
no less hostile country of Campbell of Glenorchy, and so through
Lorn into Argyle proper, Montrose's energies being now directed
to solve the problem of the " far cry to Lochow." For under
this proverbial expression, the western potentate was wont to
couch his boast and belief, that his great stronghold of Inverary
was not only impregnable, but inaccessible to an enemy. Often
was he heard to declare, that he would rather lose a hundred
thousand crowns than that any mortal, save his own dependants,
should know how to thread the passes leading to his domestic
citadel, or learn how it was possible for an armed force to pene-
trate his intricate dominions, even in the middle of summer.
On the very first alarm of the descent of Montrose upon his
neighbouring dependances, he hastened from Edinburgh to In-
verary. There, in fancied security, he was making arrange-
ments for a great gathering of his serfs, who were commanded
to rendezvous in arms at his castle, when, to his terror, he dis-
covered that Inverary was no more exclusive of the intruding
Montrose than Uunkeld ! The month of December was now
far advanced, and the neighbouring mountains were covered
with snow, when the herdsmen rushed down with the disagree-
able intelligence of " Monsieur Tonson come again." The ubi-
quitous malignant, who, about the end of the previous month,
had repulsed Argyle from Fyvie to Aberdeen, and then chased
him from A thole to Perth and Edinburgh, had already mas-
tered the talisman of his most sacred seclusion, and was at the

deposition before the Committee of Estates is very curt and cautious. He says :
" I went along with the Earl to Aberdeen, and came from thence through the High-
lands, by Badenoch and Athole ; and was with the Earl at the second tour through
Angus to Crathes ; and from thence came about through Badenoch and Athole, till
he came to Loch Tay, where I left the said Earl of Montrose and the Irish rebels,
upon the eleventh day of December last," 1644. Montrose commenced his cam-
paign from Loch Tay into Argyleshire on or about the thirteenth of that month.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 473

very walls of Inverary ! Not a moment longer did King Camp-
bell trust either to his claymores or to his castle. He threw
himself into a fishing-boat, and escaped to Boseneath, leaving
his highland kingdom to the mercy of those " miscreants" whom
he had been by way of pursuing since the month of July. Again
had Montrose offered him the head on which he had set so large
a price, if he could take it. The Standard proudly flowing, the
war-pipe loudly blowing, they marched to the door of Inverary,
and, doubtless, danced the Eeel of Howlakin under those inac-
cessible loop-holes which then served for windows. It was no
object to besiege the castle wherein Argyle was not. But on
the outside Montrose left the most unequivocal marks of having
called. What a lark for young Lord Graham ! The royal
army now systematically destroyed the arch-enemy^s resources,
marching in three divisions, one of which, the most lenient
thong of the scourge, was commanded by the Marquis in per-
son ; another was under his Major-General ; and the Captain
of Clanranald led the third. Thus was traversed, by three se-
parate routes, the whole of these western highlands ; which were
despoiled and wasted, even as Argyle had despoiled and wasted
the braes of Athole, and of Angus, and burnt the " bonnie house
of Air-lie," whose gallant old Earl witnessed the retribution.1

When the Earls of Lothian and Callendar refused to under-
take that command-in-chief, against the " common enemy,"
which Argyle threw up about the end of November 1 644, the
Estates were in the greatest difficulty for a home General.
" Baillie was forced to take it, or it must have lain" This does
not mean our reverend friend. But we quote his lugubrious

* " They ranged," Dr Wishart records, " about all the country, and lay it waste ;
as many as they find in arms going to the rendezvous appointed by their Lord, they
slay, and spare no man that was fit for war : Nor do they give over, till they had
driven all serviceable men out of that territory, or at least into holes known to none
but themselves : Then they fire the villages and cots, and lay them level with the
ground ; in that retaliating Argyle with the same measure he had meted unto
others ; who was the first in all the kingdom that prosecuted his countrymen with
fire and sword : Lastly, they drive their cattle : Nor did they deal more gently
with others who lived in Lorn, and the neighbouring parts that acknowledged Ar-
gyle's power : These things lasted from the 13th of December 1644, to the 28th or
29th of January following." — From the English Edition printed at the Hague, 1648.

474 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

report of the dilemma ; and the General to whom he refers is,
his namesake and cousin, Lieutenant- General William Baillie
of Letham, a natural son of Sir William Baillie of Lamington.
He had learnt the art of war under Gustavus Adolphus, that
great master of so many Scotch mercenaries, who did not much
credit to him, and small service to their native country. But
this Baillie did good service for the Roundheads at Marston-
moor, and to old Leven in the taking of Newcastle ; which last
exploit accomplished, the high command going a begging in
Scotland, was more than urged on Leven's subordinate. His
own words are, — " I was pressed, or rather forced by the per-
suasion of some friends, to give obedience to the Estate, and
undertake the command of the country 's forces, for pursuing its
enemies.'1'' A higher compliment than the universal rejection of
that command, could not have been paid to the royal Lieute-
nant, nor a more severe- sentence passed upon the covenanting
government. The fact is, " the Estate," at this time, really
meant the Marquis of Argyle. Shame to Scotland, especially
to the jealous, selfish, narrow-minded ruck of the peerage, that
it was so, — but so it was. No truer words were ever uttered
than those which Sir James Leslie blurted out with an oath, at
the taking of Morpeth by Montrose, — " that the Marquis of
Argyle was absolute King of Scotland, and that his cousin
General Leslie was Prince." Indeed, Argyle travelled with the
government of Scotland in his pocket, and in such a shape that
he could handle it with as much ease, and as deadly effect, as a
Coitus revolver. Never was there a more powerful weapon in-
vented, to serve such purposes as his, than the government of
Scotland by committees. Wherever he went, whether crawling
in the wake of Montrose, or summoning his serfs at Inverary,
he was accompanied by a small committee of Estates, himself
representing therein the highest order, which he took care to
select in such wise that it would prove not only subservient but
servile. Heaven knows what fine things these officials would
have reported of their patron, had he ever conducted himself
like a man or a Christian. But as it was, even when he shewed
himself without courage in the field, or humanity in the judg-
ment-seat, his own privy-council obtained for him not merely a
parliamentary exoneration, but that seemingly grateful acknow-

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 475

ledgment from the highest tribunal of his country, which is so
disgusting to read, and so melancholy to record. Accordingly,
upon this occasion, he had the effrontery to insist that General
Baillie should still be under Ms orders in the very command
which had been dishonoured in his hands. And, says their
victim, — for from himself we have the story, — " because I would
not consent to receive orders from the Marquis of Argyle, if
casually we should have met together, after I had received com-
mission to command in chief over all the forces within the king-
dom, my Lord seemed to be displeased, and expressed himself
so unto some, that, if he lived, he should remember it ; wherein
his Lordship indeed hath superabundantly been as good as his
word."1

This new commander-in-chief, who, so greatly to his credit,
declined being the mere tool of Argyle, was nevertheless ordered
by the Committee of Estates to consult with him at Roseneath
(where he had taken shelter from the invasion of Montrose) as
to the plan of operations against the royal Lieutenant. But
MacCailinmhor had no idea of instructing this independent
General, with an army at his back, how to traverse Argyleshire
and his neighbouring dependances, or to entertain him at In-
verary castle. It was now the beginning of January 1645 ; and
intelligence had reached him that Montrose, having worked his
will under the walls of Inverary, and throughout Argyle proper,
was bending his course to Lorn and Lochaber, as if on his way
north to challenge the Covenanters under Seaforth. Moreover,
the chief of the Campbells had taken the precaution to recal
from the army in Ireland the laird of Auchinbreck, Sir Duncan
Campbell, a brave man and good soldier, who most willingly
started at the voice of his chief in distress, to avert or avenge
the plague that had fallen on all their houses. Not dreading,
under these circumstances, to return to his own domains, Ar-
gyle procured an order from the Committee of Estates, by
which General Baillie was compelled to transfer to him sixteen
companies of foot, amounting to eleven hundred of the best
trained and seasoned militia of Scotland, being part of Leven's
army, returned from the south. 'Baillie himself was at the same

1 General Baillie's Vindication of himself to the Covenanting Government, 1645 j
printed in Robert Baillie's Letters and Journals.

476 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

time ordered to change his route, with the rest of the army
under his command, and to march from Roseneath to occupy
Perth, where he was to keep open his communication with the
garrison of Aberdeen and the army of Inverness.

It is curious to observe that the military arrangements of the
covenanting government for the campaign of 1645, placed Mon-
trose, in so far as regards besetting armies, in almost precisely
the same position as when he opened the ball at Perth in Sep-
tember 1644. It seemed as if the hydra-heads he had decapi-
tated or crushed, had all reared themselves again. There was,
as before, Argyle, commanding an army of his own claymores
and government militia, " at his heels," as the Eeverend Robert
Baillie is pleased to express it, though it was as the cur is at
the heels of the war-horse. Holding Perth, there was the army
under General Baillie, aided by the Dictator's friend, Lord
Lindsay of the Byres (now Crawford-Lindsay by usurpation) ;
to whom were joined Sir John Hurry, as Major-General, com-
manding the horse.1 At Aberdeen there was a strong garrison,
in communication with the army of Inverness under that future
loyalist the Earl of Seaforth ; while the men of Moray still
shewed a hostile front to the King's Lieutenant, by the banks of
the troubled Spey. Was there a man in Scotland, save Mon-
trose, who either possessed the talents, or would have evinced
the courage, under like circumstances, to commence that dance
of death all over again, and with a higher heart than ever ?

Sir James Balfour, the covenanting Lord Lyon, notes, that
on Saturday 18th January 1645, in the Parliament which had
met on the 7th of that month, — " a letter from the committee
with Argyle, directed to the Parliament, was read in the house,
shewing that the Marquis of Argyle had got a fall, and disjointed
his shoulder, but would be well; that the rebels had fled to Loch-
aber ; and that he (Argyle) would omit no occasion to pursue
them." Another of his servile apologists, Robert Baillie, thus
records Montrose's campaign in the territories of Argyle : —
u The enemy," he says, " turned to Argyle, and came through
it all without opposition ; burnt Inverary ; killed and spoiled
what they pleased : The world believed that Argyle could have
been maintained against the greatest army, as a country inac-

1 Of whom see before, p. 405, note.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 477

cessible: But we see there is no strength or refuge on earth
against the Lord ! The Marquis (of Argyle) did his best to be
revenged ; with an army sufficient, overtook the rogues, in
Lochaber, at Inverlochy" ! This is exquisite. We shall imme-
diately see in what manner, by what superlative exertions, and
with what success, Argyle " overtook the rogues." A finer clan
gathering, indeed, never wielded the claymore, than that which
their unworthy chief had congregated for his own defence. But
never was the sport of catching a Tartar better exemplified,
— never did the lion turn with more tremendous effect upon the
timid yet too presumptuous chase, than when Montrose turned
upon Argyle at Inverlochy.

According to his own simple account to the King, which we
follow, so far as it goes, in preference to any of the contemporary
chroniclers, the royal Lieutenant had obtained intelligence of
his enemy having entered Lochaber, with the view of dogging
his steps as usual, just as he was concluding his great foray
throughout the Dictator's possessions ; and that he was hold-
ing, as his temporary place of refuge, the celebrated castle of
Inverlochy, in Lochaber, about two miles to the north of the
present Fort-William. It was the last of Argyle's intentions
either to face or to overtake Montrose. His object was to fol-
low on the track of the royal army as it marched north, until
haply it should come into collision with the army of Inverness ;
when, unless it happened to be victorious against the greatly
preponderating forces under Seaforth, the western rebels might
hasten their pace, and either secure or claim the victory. If,
on the other hand, Montrose, whose course it was not easy to
predicate, should happen to turn east and south in the direction
of Aberdeen, Angus, or Perth, Argyle would have the way clear
to join forces with Seaforth, and then fall down with overwhelm-
ing effect upon the rear of his dreaded foe engaged in front with
the army of General Baillie, and Sir John Hurry's great power
of horse. The game of war, against fearful odds, was never
more splendidly played than now by the Marquis of Montrose.
A rash tactician would have rushed straight at the army of
Argyle, without disguise. But our hero well knew that such a
move would only drive his opponent into closer proximity with

478 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the northern army. Argyle and Seaforth must be cut off from
each other, and the former taken unawares, to make him fight.
Accordingly, determined to bring him first to book this time,
unless he should happen to find Seaforth further south than he
expected, Montrose marched through Lorn, Glencoe, and Aber,
straight to the head of Lochness, and encamped at Kilcummin
(where now stands Fort Augustus), as nearly as may be at
equal distances between Inverness and Inverlochy. This diffi-
cult and skilful march had placed him thirty miles to the north-
east of Argyle1 s position in Lochaber, and about the same dis-
tance south-west from Seaforth, whose head-quarters were In-
verness and Elgin. Nor was he disturbed by either General,
although he paused for several days at Kilcummin, holding
councils of war; receiving such adherents from the north as
his instructive visit to Argyle had already induced to become
actively loyal ; and, above all, framing and obtaining signatures
to a new oath, or national bond of union. For, always anxious
to place his opposition to Argyle's dominion upon the most con-
stitutional basis, once more he betook himself to the machinery
of a conservative bond, which hitherto had proved so futile in
his hands.

We have rarely seen an ancient document more interesting
to regard than that now referred to, the last sentence of which,
immediately preceding the numerous subscriptions, runs thus,-^-
" In witnes whereof, we have subscryvit thir presents at Killie-
wheimen, the penult dayes of January, the year of God ane thou-
sand, six hundreth, fourtie fyve years." That is to say, on the
29th and 30th of January ; leaving but two days intervening
between the date of the bond and that celebrated battle which
destroyed the clan Campbell for ever, as a sept in arms. The
undeniable sign-manual of Montrose, written as if he meant to
set the rest a copy in large text, leads the way. Close beside
it appears the firm but school-boy hand of " Graham.11 Directly
under the Marquis, signs the good and gallant old Earl of Air-
lie, no symptoms of trepidation in the tall upright limbs of the
elaborate structure of his loyal name. But " Seaforth,11 small
and shy, might have been written by a criminal before judg-
ment. How in the world, and of that date, it came there,
looking so sadly ashamed of itself, shall appear anon. Then,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 479

in tumultuous disorder, placed at every angle, and in every
variety of triumphant flourish, timid scrawl, unintelligible sym-
bol, and illegible pot-hook, are to be read, or not to be read,
the signatures of those cocks of the North, some of whose
hands were more apt at the play of the claymore than the pen
of caligraphy.1

But the royal army was ever on a sliding scale, owing to the
continual drafts from it of those mountaineers who marched off
to their own glens with the spoil from their neighbours. Al-
though now at the head of a fine gathering of the Gael, in which
the men-at-arms were really not outnumbered by chiefs and
pipers, still Montrose could muster little more than fifteen hun-
dred claymores ; and scarcely so many horse as sufficed for a
body-guard to himself and Lord Airlie, and to carry the cla-
rions that saluted the royal standard. But his Redshanks were
in fine condition ; well breathed, by their long foray in the west,
and high-blooded with Argyleshire beef. Neither was any man
deficient in bonnet or plaid ; and we even find it on record, as
will afterwards appear, that the son of Coll Keitache himself
possessed the supernumerary luxuries of a cloak, hat, and
gloves ; which, as a gillie was appointed to the special duty of
carrying them, perhaps the highland warrior knew not how to
wear. What is more to the purpose, this highland host was
now completely equipped. The broadsword and targe ; the
steel pistol ; the long gun ; the longer bow, a weapon never
extinct in the highlands ; the Lochaber axe ; the dirk of Bade-
noch ; and the pike of the low countries. These weapons, and
sufficient ammunition, rendered them independent this time of
flints from the wayside, or pewter from the bed-chambers of
Fyvie castle. Then the chiefs and leaders had set their hands
to a bond, in which they solemnly swear to stand by the Mo-
narchy and each other ; and to yield military obedience to

1 Maclean of Duart, Maclean of Lochbuy, Macdonald of Keppoch, Macdonald
(younger) of Glengarry, the Captain of Clanranald, the Tutor of Strowan, the Tutor
of Lochiel (both of these chiefs being infants), the Macgregor, the Macpherson,
Stewart (younger) of Appin, are the most distinguished highland chiefs who sign
the bond; and appear to have done so at Kilcummin, along with other brae men and
lowland lairds of lesser note. But some distinguished names, of Gordons (including
George Lord Gordon himself), Grants, Mackenzies (including Lord Seaforth), and
even Campbells, were added after the battle of Inverlochy.

480 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" Prince Maurice, his Majesty's nephew and Captain-General
over this whole kingdom ; or James Marquis of Montrose, his
Majesty's Lieutenant- General of the same," — in support of the
Sovereign and his legitimate authority, to the death, against
"this present perverse and infamous faction of desperate rebels
now in fury against him." — " All which, before God and his
angels,. we most solemnly, and from our conscience and just
sense, voluntarily and sincerely vow and promise firmly to
adhere to, and never to swerve from, as we would be reputed
famous men, and Christians, and expect the blessing of Almighty
God in this life, or his eternal happiness hereafter." l

And now, it is said, Ian Lorn Macdonald, the celebrated
bard of Keppoch, brought intelligence that Argyle was dealing
destruction to all the brae country belonging to his chief in
Lochaber, and was even burning through Glenroy, in full pur-
suit of the royal army. Expressing the utmost scepticism as to
the possibility of the chief of the Campbells becoming so very
forward in his movements, Montrose at once ordered that fa-
mous forced march, unsurpassed by anything of the kind in
the annals of military foresight, energy, and endurance. He
had reached his present position, at the head of Lochness, by
what was deemed the only practicable route, namely, through
the valley and by the chain of lakes which now forms the line
of the Caledonian Canal, but was then known as the great glen
of Albin, utterly destitute of canal, or military road, in the days
of Montrose. Thus he had pressed on past the position of Ar-
gyle about thirty miles, and as if only bent upon meeting the
northern Covenanters. But now, his object being to turn round
upon his slippery foe, and take him unawares, he guarded his
former line of march, so as to intercept communication with
Abertarf, where his camp had been, and starting early on Fri-
day the 31 st of January, he faced south, and plunged at once
into the rugged bed of a small stream called the Tarf, which
served them for road, proceeding, by circuitous and unheard-of
ways, to scale the most unfrequented elevation of the Lochaber
mountains, so as to surprise the camp of Argyle on its rear and
flank. No human being had anticipated such a tactic. In the
whole conception and execution it was a stroke of genius ; and,

1 Original^ Montrose Charter-room.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 481

like all great daring, when combined with scientific calculation
and rapid execution, it was crowned with complete success.
Startling the herds of deer where armed men had never yet
been led, and no traveller's footstep was to be found, onwards
toiled those high-liearted warriors through gorge and over
mountain, now crossing the awful ridges of Corryarick, now
plunging into the valley of the rising Spey, now climbing the
wild mountains from Glenroy to the Spean, and staid not until,
having placed the Lochaber mountains behind them, they beheld
from the skirts of Ben Nevis, reposing under the bright moon
of a clear frosty night, the yet bloodless shore of Loch Eil, and
the frowning towers of Inverlochy.

Montrose was first made aware of the vicinity of Argyle's
camp, by coming into collision with the outposts, some of whom
escaping spread the alarm, and sent Argyle himself to his fugi-
tive galley that very night. About five o'clock in the evening
of Saturday the 1 st of February, the van of the royalists were
halted, to wait for the rear, which was unable to close up until
eight o'clock. " By this place of Inverlochy," says the dispatch
afterwards sent to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, " the sea
comes close to it, and that night Argyle embarked himself in his
barge, and there lay till the next morning, sending his orders of
discipline to Auchinbreck, and the rest of his officers there com-
manding the battle.'1 1 He took on board with him his own and
Montrose's brother-in-law, Sir James Hollo, brother of the loyal
Sir William ; the laird of Niddry ; Archibald Sydserf, bailie of
Edinburgh ; and, adds Guthrie, " Mr Mungo Law, minister
thereof, whom he had invited to go along with him, to bear
witness to the wonders he proposed to perform in that expe-
dition." This was, in fact, his travelling committee of Estates ;
and thus had King Campbell well and wisely provided for the
safety, and the flight, of King, Kirk, Lords and Commons of
Scotland, before claymores were crossed on the day that was to
witness the flower of Diarmed " all wede awa'."

1 Orraond Papers. " Argyle," says his apologist Baillie, " having a hurt in his
arm and face, gotten by a casual fall from his horse some weeks before, whereby
he was disabled to use either sword or pistol, was compelled by his friends to go
aboard his barge." His own committee had reported him convalescent at least three
weeks before.

31

482 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Having in this manner enabled his covenanting Majesty to
overtake the rogues, our hero gave him till dawn to whet his
-courage and his claymores ; only sending out skirmishers during
the night, lest the quarry should escape after all. Tt was an
awful pause. Clan Campbell, in full gathering, like an exaspe-
rated hive, numbering, with the government troops, about three
thousand, confronting Keppoch, Clanranald, Glengarry, Locheil,
Maclean, Macpherson, Macgregor, and Strowan, with at least
contingents of their Septs. " These had marched,1" says Patrick
Gordon, " two days through the mountains, in great extremity
of cold, want of victuals, and in necessity of all things ; yet their
great courage and patience did bravely sustain it. Nor ought
their extreme sufferings at that time ever to be forgotten. For
that day they fought, the General himself, and the Earl of Air-
lie, who had staid with him since the battle of St Johnston, —
these two noblemen, I say, had no more to break their fast, be-
fore they went to battle, but a little meal mixed with cold water;
which, out of a hollow dish, they did pick up with their knives
for want of spoons ; and this was these noblemen's best fare.
One may judge what wants the rest of the army must suffer.
The most part of them had not tasted a bit of bread these two
days, marching over high mountains in knee-deep snow, and
wading brooks and rivers up to their girdle."

Humble as was the morning's repast of the two loyal noble-
men, Montrose, with admirable presence of mind, would not
seem to abate one point of military etiquette. As soon as the
morning of Candlemas day, Sunday 2d of February 1645, had
dawned upon the combatants, the standard of King Charles was
saluted, as if on parade, by the clarions of the royal Lieutenant.
Nelson, on the main deck of the Elephant, refused to close his
note to Denmark without the ceremony of a seal. This proud
and formal intimation of the presence of Montrose, and the
Standard, and Cavaliers, reached Argyle in his barge, as he sat
" overtaking the rogues at Inverlochy." Ere the evening of
that day, Clan Campbell was no more. The military power and
prestige of Argyle perished for ever. Montrose shall tell his
own story of the fight. The bard of Keppoch, who watched it
from the neighbouring heights, celebrated this avenging of his

LIFE OF HONT$OSE. 483

desolated Lochaber, in a long Gaelic poem, of which we can
only afford a curt and feeble imitation :-—

Heard ye not ! heard ye not ! how that whirlwind, the Gael, —
To Lochaber swept down from Loch Ness to Loch Eil, —
And the Campbells, to meet them in battle-array,
Like the billow came on, — and were broke like its spray !
Long, long shall our war-song exult in that day.

'Twas the Sabbath that rose, 'twas the Feast of St Bride,
When the rush of the clans shook Ben-Nevis's side ;
I, the Bard of their battles, ascended the height
Where dark Inverlochy o'ershadow'd the fight,
And I saw the Clan-Donnell resistless in might.

Through the land of my fathers the Campbells have come,

The flames of their foray enveloped my home ;

Broad Keppoch in ruin is left to deplore,

And my country is waste from the hill to the shore, —

Be it so ! By St Mary, there's comfort in store !

Though the braes of Lochaber a desert be made,
And Glen Roy may be lost to the plough and the spade,
Though the bones of my kindred, unhonour'd, unurn'd,
Mark the desolate path where the Campbells have burn'd, —
Be it so ! From that foray they never returned!

Fallen race of Diarmed ! disloyal, — untrue,

No harp in the Highlands will sorrow for you ;

But the birds of Loch Eil are wheeling on high,

And the Badenoch wolves hear the Camerons' cry, —

u Come, feast ye ! come feast, where the false-hearted lie !" l

Montrose, ere he had time to rest from that terrible march,
and conflict, thus wrote to Charles the First. And not Wel-
lington, after Waterloo, penned a dispatch of more perfect self-
possession, indicating less of the excitement of mere personal
triumph and vanity, or a higher sense, or deeper feeling, of the
great national object of the contest, which alone can afford an

1 The pibroch or war-song of the Camerons was, " Come to me and I will give
you flesh," — being addressed to the beasts and birds of prey.

For the particulars of Ian Loin's meeting with Montrose at Kilcummin, and also
for a literal translation of the Gaelic of his song, I am indebted to my friend James
Robertson, Esq. ; a lineal descendant of the Tutor of Strowan who led the Atholmeu
upon that occasion.

484 LIFE .OF M ONTROSE.

excuse for the shedding of blood in battle, — than Montrose's
dispatch to his Sovereign, after the battle of Inverlochy : —

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR SACRED MAJESTY : — The last dispatch
I sent your Majesty was by my worthy friend, and your Ma-
jesty's brave servant, Sir William Rollock, from Kintore near
Aberdeen, dated the 14th of September last; wherein I ac-
quainted your Majesty with the good success of your arms in
this kingdom, and of the battles the justice of your cause has
won over your obdurate rebel subjects. Since Sir William
Bollock went, I have traversed all the north of Scotland up to
Argyle's country ; who durst not stay my coming, or I should
have given your Majesty a good account of him ere now. But
at last I have met with him, yesterday, to his cost ; of which
your gracious Majesty be pleased to receive the following par-
ticulars.

" After I had laid waste the whole country of Argyle, and
brought off provisions, for my army, of what could be found, I
received information that Argyle was got together with a con-
siderable army, made up chiefly of his own clan, and vassals
and tenants, with others of the rebels that joined him, and that
he was at Inverlochy, where he expected the Earl of Seaforth,
and the sept of the Frasers, to eome up to him with all the
forces they could get together. Upon this intelligence I de-
parted out of Argyleshire, and marched through Lorn, Glencoe,
and Aber, till I came to Lochness, my design being to fall upon
Argyle before Seaforth and the Frasers could join him.

" My march was through inaccessible mountains, where I
could have no guides but cow-herds, and they scarce acquainted
with a place but six miles from their own habitations.1 If I had
been attacked but with one hundred men in some of these passes,
I must have certainly returned back ; for it would have been
impossible to force my way, most of the passes being so strait
that three men could not march abreast. I was willing to let
the world see that Argyle was not the man his highlandmen
believed him to be, and that it was possible to beat him in his
own Highlands.

1 This would seem to refer to his forced march back upon Inverlochy, from Loch-
ness, across the Lochaber mountains.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 485

" The difficultest march of all was over the Lochaber moun-
tains ; which we at last surmounted, and came upon the back
of the enemy when they least expected us, having cut off some
scouts we met about four miles from Inverlochy. Our van came
within view of them about five o'clock in the afternoon, and we
made a halt till our rear was got up, which could not be done
till eight at night. The rebels took the alarm and stood to
their arms, as well as we, all night, which was moonlight, and
very clear. There were some few skirmishes between the rebels
and us all the night, and with no loss on our side but one man.
By break of day I ordered my men to be ready to fall on, upon
the first signal ; and I understand since, by the prisoners, the
rebels did the same. A little after the sun was up both armies
met, and the rebels fought for some time with great bravery,
the prime of the Campbells giving the first onset, as men that
deserved to fight in a better cause. Our men, having a nobler
cause, did wonders, and came immediately to push of pike, and
dint of sword, after their first firing. The rebels could not
stand it, but, after some resistance at first, began to run ; whom
we pursued for nine miles together, making a great slaughter,
which I would have hindered, if possible, that I might save your
Majesty's misled subjects. For well I know your Majesty does
not delight in their blood, but in their returning to their duty.
There were at least fifteen hundred killed in the battle and the
pursuit ; among whom there are a great many of the most con-
siderable gentlemen of the name of Campbell, and some of them
nearly related to the Earl.1 I have saved, and taken prisoners
several of them, that have acknowledged to me their fault and
lay all the blame on their Chief. Some gentlemen of the Low-
lands, that had behaved themselves bravely in the battle, when
they saw all lost, fled into the old castle, and, upon their surrender,
I have treated them honourably, and taken their parole never

1 Calling Argyle Earl, is obviously a slip of the pen. Patrick Gordon records, —
" In this battle the laird of Auchinbreck was killed, with forty barons of the name
of Campbell ; two and twenty men of quality taken prisoners ; and seventeen hun-
dred killed of the army : In the castle of Inverlochy there were fifty of the Stirling
regiment, with their commanders, that got their lives ; but of two hundred high-
landers, none escaped the Clan Donald fury." The slain equalled in number the
whole of Montrose's army.

486 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

to bear arms against your Majesty." [Here are six or seven lines
that, for the honour of some families, are letter left out than men-

" We have of your Majesty's army about two hundred
wounded, but I hope few of them dangerously. I can hear but
of four killed, and one whom I cannot name to your Majesty
but with grief of mind, Sir Thomas Ogilvy, a son of the Earl of
Airlie, of whom I writ to your Majesty in my last. He is not
yet dead, but they say he cannot possibly live, and we give him
over for dead.2 Your Majesty had never a truer servant, nor
there never was a braver honest er gentleman. For the rest of
the particulars of this action, I refer myself to the bearer, Mr
Hay,3 whom your Majesty knows already, and therefore I need
not recommend him.

" Now, Sacred Sir, let me humbly entreat" your Majesty's
pardon if I presume to write you my poor thoughts and opinion
about what I heard by a letter I received from my friends in
the south, last week, as if your Majesty was entering into a
treaty with your rebel Parliament in England. The success of
your arms in Scotland does not more rejoice my heart, as that
news from England is like to break it. And, whatever come of
me, I will speak my mind freely to your Majesty ; for it is not
mine, but your Majesty's interest I seek.

" When I had the honour of waiting upon your Majesty last,
I told you at full length what I fully understood of the designs
of your rebel subjects in both kingdoms, which I had occasion
to know as much as any one whatsoever, being at that time, as
they thought, entirely in their interest.4 Your Majesty nray
remember how much you said you were convinced I was in the
right in my opinion of them. I am sure there is nothing fallen
out since to make your Majesty change your judgment in all

1 Note interpolated by Dr Welwood. See note at the conclusion of the letter.
Compare the conduct, and sentiments, evinced by Montrose in this letter to his So-
vereign, with the calumny which has entered history against him, as examined be-
fore, Chapter XIX.

2 Sir Thomas Ogilvy died a few days after the battle, and was buried in Athole.

3 Probably Lord Kinnoul's brother, a constant ally of Montrose's, who after-
wards succeeded to the title, and perished from fatigue and hunger in the wilds of
Assint, while accompanying Montrose in his desperate attempt to escape.

* Referring to his interview with the emissaries of Argyle. See before, p. 381.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 487

those things I laid before your Majesty at that time. The more
your Majesty grants, the more will be asked ; and I have too
much reason to know that they will not rest satisfied with less
than making your Majesty a King of straw. I hope the news
I have received about a treaty may be a mistake ; and the
rather, that the letter wherewith the Queen was pleased to
honour me, dated the 30th of December,1 mentions no such
thing. Yet I know not what to make of the intelligence I re-
ceived, since it comes from Sir Eobert Spottiswoode, who writes
it with a great regret. And it is no wonder, considering no
man living is a more true subject to your Majesty than he.
Forgive me, Sacred Sovereign, to tell your Majesty that, in my
poor opinion, it is unworthy of a King to treat with rebel sub-
jects, while they have the sword in their hands. And though
God forbid I should stint your Majesty's mercy, yet I must de-
clare the horror I am in when I think of a treaty, while your
Majesty and they are in the field with two armies ; unless they
disband, and submit themselves entirely to your Majesty's good-
ness and pardon.

" As to the state of affairs in this Kingdom, the bearer will
fully inform your Majesty in every particular. And give me
leave, with all humility, to assure your Majesty that, through
God's blessing, I am in the fairest hopes of reducing this king-
dom to your Majesty's obedience. And, if the measures I have
concerted with your other loyal subjects fail me not, which they
hardly can, I doubt not before the end of this summer I shall
be able to come to your Majesty's assistance with a brave army,
which, backed with the justice of your Majesty's cause, will
make the rebels in England, as well as in Scotland, feel the just
rewards of rebellion. Only give me leave, after I have reduced
this country to your Majesty's obedience, and conquered from
Dan to Beersheba, to say to your Majesty then, as David's Gene-
ral did to his master, ' Come t/iou thyself, lest this country be called
by my name? For in all my actions I aim only at your Ma-

1 This letter has not been recovered. But her Majesty, in a letter to tlie King,
dated from Paris, Gtli January 1645, thus alludes to it : — " I have dispatched an
express into Scotland, to Montrose, to know the condition he is in, and what there
is to be done." See the Works of King Charles, vol. i. p. 2,09, edit. 1766.

488 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

jesty's honour and interest, as becomes one that is to his last
breath, may ifc please your Sacred Majesty, —

u Your Majesty's most humble, most faithful, and
" most obedient Subject and Servant,

" MONTROSE."
" Inverlochy in Lochaber,
February 3d, 1645."1

1 This most interesting and important letter, was obscurely printed by Dr Wei-
wood, in the appendix to his Memoirs, 1699. He says that he derived it from a
manuscript copy in the hand-writing of the Duke of Richmond ; and further he
tells us, by a provoking interpolation, that, " for the honour of some families," he
had omitted six or seven lines. As none, upon that occasion, disgraced themselves but
Argyle, and as his part in the battle is not alluded to elsewhere in the letter, the
paragraph suppressed most probably related to him. In Wodrow's Analecta, this
notice of the letter occurs : —

" I am told, likewise, by Dougalstoun, who has seen the original letter from the
Marquis of Montrose to the King, at Uxbridge treaty, 1645, that the copy published
by Dr Welwood, in his Memoirs, is a vitiated copy, and does not, in several things,
agree with the original in the hands of the family of Montrose. I incline to en-
quire further, and to get the particulars if I can." — Analecta, vol. iv. p. 301.

This, however, is Wodrow's only notice of the letter. The most liberal access
to the Montrose Archives has not enabled me to discover either the original, or a
copy, in possession of the family. Nor has the copy referred to by Dr Welwood
yet been traced. But that he had not vitiated the letter may be safely assumed.
Every sentence of it obviously came from the pen of Montrose ; and its whole nar-
rative is verified, in every particular, by contemporary history. Dr Welwood's
interpolated note, in reference to what he had suppressed, would seem to be the sole
ground for the allegation noted by Wodrow,

That this letter from Montrose caused the King to give up the treaty of Uxbridge,
is a vulgar error of history. On the 1 5th of February he writes to the Queen that
he is hopeless of the treaty. On the 1 9th, after again alluding to the " unreasonable
stubbornness," which made him despair of peace, he adds what seems a reference
to Montrose's letter just received : " Though I leave news to others, yet I cannot
but tell thee, that even now I have received certain intelligence of a great defeat
given to Argyle by Montrose ; who, upon surprise, totally routed those rebels, and
killed fifteen hundred upon the place." On the 5th of March again he writes, —
" Now is come to pass what 1 foresaw, the fruitless end, as to a present peace, of
this treaty."

MARQUIS OF ARGYLL BEHEADED 1661.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 489

CHAPTER XXV.

THE COVENANTING PARLIAMENT THANKS ARGYLE — THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
PETITIONS FOR BLOOD — LORD GORDON JOINS MONTROSE — SEAFORTH
SUBMITS, AND SIGNS THE RILCUMMIN BOND — DEATH OF LORD GRAHAM
— DEATH OF DONALD FARQUHARSON — CAPTURE OF JAMES LORD GRAHAM
— LORD AIRLIE INVALIDED — BURNING OF DUNNOTTAR — MONTROSE
CHALLENGES BAILLIE IN ANGUS — STORMS DUNDEE — HIS BRILLIANT
RETREAT TO THE HILLS — ESCAPE OF ABOYNE AND THE MASTER OF
NAPIER TO JOIN MONTROSE — THE BATTLE OF AULDEARN AND ITS ANTE-
CEDENTS.

THE scene changes. Upon Wednesday the J 2th of February
1645, ten days after the battle of Inverlochy, Argyle presented
himself before the covenanting Parliament in Edinburgh, and a
most melancholy exhibition it was. The contemptuous notice
of it by Bishop Guthrie could only have been dictated by the
prevalent opinion of the rebel Marquis, and the notoriety of his
aversion to all personal risk. He describes him as going directly
to the Parliament, on his arrival in Edinburgh, " having his left
arm tied up in a scarf, as if he had been at bones breaking."
There stood King Campbell, minus Clan Campbell, to tell how
he " overtook the rogues at Inverlochy." What he said they
did not venture to record ; but the grateful reply we shall give
from the original record of the rescinded acts of that Parlia-
ment, which are yet preserved in our public archives to bear
witness against them : —

" The Estates of Parliament, having heard the Marquis of
Argyle give, verbally, ane clear and short account of the pro-
gress of his late expedition against the rebels, and having well
considered the same, — They find, that the Lord Marquis hath
painfully, wisely, and diligently, behaved himself in that charge ;
and therefore that his carriage therein deserveth public thanks
and approbation ; and that himself should be entreated and en-

490 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

couraqed to continue in the service with that forwardness of
affection which in all his actions he hath ever constantly wit-
nessed to Religion and Kingdom."

At the same time, Lord Bal merino, prompted by Argyle,
whose constant tool he was, harangued the General Assembly,
where he declared, " upon Ms honour, the Marquis of Argyle
had not thirty persons killed;" and that the public account of
the battle of Inverlochy was an invention of the malignants !

And now it was that the covenanting Church, in the highest
state of exasperation, began to display her frightful teeth. A
deputation from the Assembly, consisting of their Reverences,
David Dickson, Robert Blair, Andrew Cant, James Guthrie,
and Patrick Gillespie, presented a strong " remonstrance" to
the House, " anent executing of justice on delinquents and ma-
lignants." In particular, and, as they expressed it, " according
to the laudable custom ever used heretofore by the Kirk in
keeping correspondence with the Estate," they urged, in the
name of that most holy Inquisition, the immediate execution of
Ludovick Earl of Crawford, Lord Ogilvy, Dr Wishart, and the
other loyalists who had been suffering a merciless imprisonment
in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. The subservient Parliament,
now presided over by one to whom the proposition would be
most welcome, he who had been allowed to usurp Crawford's
ancient Earldom, nevertheless staid these bloodhounds for the
time. It " commended the zeal and piety" of the Assembly,
but humbly suggested that this was not the most convenient
season for cutting the throats of these loyal noblemen and gen-
tlemen, seeing that Montrose might possibly have the means of
retaliation in his own hands. They amused themselves, how-
ever, with pronouncing against them the doom of forfeiture and
death, and rending their heraldic honours ; the sentence, indeed,
upon which eventually Montrose was put to death without fur-
ther process.

From Inverlochy our hero returned northward, with renewed
hopes of the co-operation of the Gordons, and a determination
to dispose of Seaforth, and then of Generals Baillie and Hurry,
as he had disposed of Elcho, Burleigh, and Argyle. But Sea-
forth was not to be found ! The undulations of the earthquake

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 491

on the other side of the Lochaber mountains had traversed
Loch Ness, and decomposed the army of the Spey. Montrose
carried the victorious banner of the King northward to Inver-
ness, and then east to Elgin in Moray. Where was the high
chief of Kintail, with his great gathering of Mackenzies, Grants,
Frasers and Forbeses, who were to hold the north of Scotland
against " the rebels" from the Ness to the Spey and the Don !
Where was the army of five thousand foot and horse upon which
Argyle had flattered himself he was driving Montrose to his
certain destruction ? The chief of the Mackenzies, too, witnessed
his " forwardness of affection to Religion and Kingdom" by run-
ning away ! Upon the 17th of February 1645, he was holding
a committee at Elgin, with some of the covenanting barons of
the north, when the royal Lieutenant's march upon that town
was announced to them. Seaforth himself gave the word sauve
qui peut. There is something ludicrous in the hurry-scurry with
which all made off; infusing such a panic into the poor towns-
folk, that they too fled with their families and goods ; which, as
Spalding records, " incensed the soldiers worse against the town
than if they had remained and kept their houses." But, he
adds, " the Earl of Seaforth, and the rest of the committeemen,
fled their own ways."

Montrose entered Elgin on the 19th of February, without
having encountered a northern army at all, although driven to
the necessity of leaving his fiery card behind him, wherever he
had called in his progress and found loyalty not at home. It
was his only means of conducting the campaign., under the cir-
cumstances. He was ready to meet any of their forces in the
field. He turned from army to army of the covenant wherever
he could find them. And when that species of resistance evaded
him, he had to support the authority and the strength of the
royal standard by the most peremptory mode of recruiting,
which he prefaced with this proclamation : — " These are ordain-
ing all and whatsoever true subjects that be able for his Ma-
jesty's service, betwixt sixty and sixteen, to repair to our army,
with their best arms, conform to the commission given by his
Majesty to raise his forces within the kingdom of Scotland,
under the pain of burning, And slaying of all and whatsoever

492 .LIFE OF MONTROSE.

disobedient persons." x Having drawn the sword for his Sove-
reign, most assuredly he went to war in his gauntlets, and not
-in a pair of those " fine well-favoured riding-gloves" which be-
decked him in the youthful days of his carpet knighthood. But
as the gratification of private or personal animosities was a mo-
tive infinitely beneath the level of his heroic character, submis-
sion to the Standard, the payment of a sufficient fine, or the
presence of a lady, never failed to mitigate the terrors of his
path. Not many weeks had elapsed since young Lord Gordon
was compelled to witness his uncle1 s lawless and unnecessary
devastation of Huntly^s dominions. Now he was free, and the
protecting banner of his legitimate Sovereign floated proudly
there. He had latterly been waiting the event at the Bog of
Gicht, or Gordon castle, a little to the east of Elgin ; and, says
Spalding, — " being in the Bog, he lept quickly on horse, having
Nathaniel Gordon, with some few others, in his company, and
that same night came to Elgin, saluted Montrose, who made
him heartily welcome, and they sup joyfully together : his brother
Ludovick came also to Montrose, and was graciously received."
Nor was this all. Another distinguished guest joined the joyful
party in Elgin. Lord Seaforth himself ! We should like to
have seen the noble fugitive " saluting ' Montrose." Now at-
tended by a brilliant staff, and with this covenanting com-
mander following meekly and socially in his train, our hero
adjourned from Elgin to more luxurious quarters in Gordon
Castle. The Kilcummin Bond was tabled ; that solemn oath of
conservative union and allegiance, so emphatically expressed,
which we have elsewhere quoted. The Gordons, of course,
signed it con ainore. And Seaforth's name, too, is attached to
the loyal instrument, as if he had shared the glory, with Mon-
trose and Airlie, of the 2d of February 164-5 ! Thus disarmed,
and thus deeply pledged, he was suffered to depart, by his pla-
cable and high-minded conqueror, that he might protect his
own country from the lawless government he had now forsworn.
We shall hear of him again.

It was on the 4th of March that Montrose proceeded with
his new allies to Gordon Castle, where his first severe domestic

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 493

affliction awaited him. Lord Graham, his young constitution
probably overtaxed by the severity of the winter campaign, died,
after a very short illness, in this stately dwelling of the chief of
the Gordons, far from the homesteads of the Grahams. The
gallant boy was buried in the neighbouring kirk of Bellie. As
Lord Gordon and his brother had joined Montrose, and also
Lord Seaforth, it is some consolation to think that the last mo-
ments, and obsequies, of the young nobleman would be well and
suitably attended. Little time had the bereft parent to shed
tears over his tomb. By the 9th of March he was in the neigh-
bourhood of Aberdeen, pursuing his fiery progress south, as if
to challenge Generals Baillie and Hurry. Here a double afflic-
tion followed close upon the former. One of his best captains,
Donald Farquharson, called the pride of Braemar, lost his life
in Aberdeen, through the boyish carelessness of himself and
Nathaniel Gordon. Hurry, ; whose horse were encamped at no
great distance, learning that some of the principal cavaliers
from the camp of Montrose were amusing themselves carelessly
in Aberdeen, came down upon them in person with eight score
of dragoons at his back, and took them completely by surprise.
Colonel Farquharson was ruthlessly killed on the street, while
unsupported, unarmed; and unresisting. Colonel Gordon es-
caped, and was severely lectured by Montrose for the careless-
ness which had cost them so dear. Elated with this exploit,
Hurry, in returning through the town of Montrose, surprised
and carried off James, now Lord Graham, with his tutor, who
were both imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh. At the very
same time, old Lord Airlie became dangerously ill, and had to
be conveyed to Huntly's castle of Strathbogie, with eight hun-
dred of Montrose^s best claymores to attend and protect him
there. Thus, within little more than one week's time, was he
deprived of his two eldest boys, two of his most valuable allies,
and a large portion of the flower of his troops.

Yet onward he went in his fiery course, summoning the coun-
try in the name of the King, and wasting the districts, princi-
pally of those peers who had accepted military commands from
the covenanting government, such as Findlatcr, Forbes, Fraser,
and Marischal, and by whom his earnest and courteous mis-
sives, imploring them to support the Standard, were treated

494 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

with silent disregard. On the 21st of March he burnt the barn-
yards of Dunnottar, while the Earl Marischal himself, his cove-
'nanting lady, and sixteen ministers who had ensconced themselves
in the castle, were witnesses of the conflagration. The burgh
of Stonehaven, the town of Cowie, the shipping, and the whole
lands of Dunnottar were successively consigned to the flames.
Twice had Montrose written to the Earl, to avert that calamity,
and received only verbal insult in reply. Marischal appears to
have been equally regardless of the entreaties of his own people.
Spalding records, that " the people of Stonehaven and Cowie
came out, man and woman, children at their foot, and children
in their arms, crying, howling, and weeping, praying the Earl
for God's cause to save them from this fire, how soon it was
kindled ; but the poor people got no answer, nor knew they
where to go with their children." Marischal would neither
avert the storm by a conference with the Marquis, nor would
he admit his suffering people within the extensive fortifications
which sheltered the sixteen ministers, who doubtless controlled
him. When the young nobleman expressed distress and regret,
at not having yielded in some measure to the fiery summons of
his Sovereign, the Reverend Andrew Cant assured him, that
the conflagration was " a sweet-smelling "incense in the nostrils
of the Lord."

Towards the end of March, our hero, having again passed
the Grampians to the south, lay encamped at Fettercairn,
about seven miles from Brechin, the quarters of Sir John Hurry's
cavalry, amounting to eight hundred horse. General Baillie
was not far off, at the head of three thousand foot, ready to
co-operate. Montrose now commanded a very precarious force,
difficult to estimate, owing to its fluctuating nature, but much
inferior to his well-appointed opponents. His cavalry amounted
only to a few hundreds ; chiefly composed of the Gordon horse,
which the unsteadiness of Lord Lewis, whom Lord Gordon him-
self could not restrain, was continually deteriorating by some
independent adventure, or capricious and petted desertion.
Under all these disadvantages, he never ceased maneuvering
with the utmost skill and daring in the face of his prepon-
derating foe; now routing Hurry's dragoons, in their rash at-
tempt to surprise him ; now offering battle to Baillie, at a

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 495

moment when that cautious General thought it best to decline ;
and ever watching his opportunity to catch either of these great
commanders in a position that would enable him to strike one
of those sledge-hammer blows that failed not to shake the throne
of the Covenant to its very centre. After chasing Hurry across
the Esk to Dundee, he confronted his colleague from the oppo-
site bank of the tsla, which formed a barrier between them.
For several days they continued to glare at each other, to the
amazement and terror of his own country of Angus, and the
Mearns, none knowing which of the two armies they were to
consider as their masters. That pause not suiting the plans or
the temper of Montrose, he sent his adversary a " compliment-
ing challenge," to the effect, that if he would pledge his honour
to fight, he might cross the river, unmolested, with all his forces ;
or, if he preferred doing battle on his own bank, that the royal
standard should be carried across the Isla, under the same con-
ditions. " Tell Montrose," replied the covenanting General,
" that I will fight at my own time and pleasure, and ask no
leave of him.*'1

Shortly afterwards Baillie and Hurry had the Marquis at
advantage ; a peril from which he only extricated himself by
the most consummate skill. Sending his baggage and the least
active of his followers to Brechin, he attacked in person, with a
small portion of his troops, the disloyal town of Dundee, which,
relying on the strength of its garrison and defences, rejected
his summons, as before.1 It was then attacked and stormed by

1 According to the custom of the Covenanters, the trumpeter sent with the sum-
mons was made prisoner. He was subsequently examined by a committee, and
put to death ; notwithstanding his cautious deposition, which affords a glimpse of
Montrose in person : " Edinburgh, 17th April 1645. — John Gordon, servant to the
laird of Rothemay, depones, that eight days before Hurry came to Aberdeen with
a party, or thereby, his master sent him to the Lord Gordon, to desire him to deal
with Montrose for his master's men as he did with his own ; and the Lord Gordon,
after he had spoken with Montrose, gave order to Rothemay to raise his men ;
whereupon the deponer was employed to raise the men ; and accordingly brought
twenty-four men to Montrose, to Inverury, where his men were put in Captain
Innes's company, and the deponer made Lieutenant ; and that he came alongst all
the way to Dundee with the rebels : Depones, that when he was lying with the rest
of Lord Gordon's regiment about Dundee, Montrose came to him, being half sleep-
ing, and said : ' John, you must <jo in with this paper (which was folded) to the Ma-
gistrates of Dundee' ; and with boastings foi-ced him to do the same : Denies he knew

496 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Lord Gordon and Major-General Macdonald, while the Marquis
superintended the operations from the Law of Dundee. The
force engaged was only between six and seven hundred mus-
keteers, and the royal Lieutenants body-guard was somewhat
under two hundred cavaliers. The place was taken, its own
cannon turned against it, houses fired and pillaged, and a for-
mal surrender on the point of being arranged with Lord Gor-
don, when the scouts, who had previously misled Montrose,
brought the intelligence that both of the covenanting Generals
were within one mile of Dundee, at the head of three thousand
foot and eight hundred cavalry. Never was a more critical mo-
ment. One half of the storming party were intoxicated, and all
disorganized. The genius of Montrose saved himself and his
army, and added another wreath to the Standard. Encouraging
all, on the instant he got together even the intoxicated soldiers
out of the town, a remarkable instance of his presence of
mind, and power of command. Dispatching the foot in two
separate bodies, the drunk men being driven in front, he
covered the rear himself with his horse ; and, ere the sun had
gone down, was in full retreat, in regular order, leaving few or
none behind him. Then commenced the chase. Twenty thou-
sand crowns was the price now proclaimed for Montrose^s head.
Hurry and his horse overtook the rear ; but Baillie could not
touch the flank of the Redshanks. Again the invaluable ma-
noauvre of mingling musketeers with his cavalry, was success-
fully practised. While covering the retreat, three of his best
marksmen each emptied a saddle, which effectually cooled the
ardour of pursuit. Thus fighting on the retreat, he approached
the east coast, darkness favouring the fugitives, and paused
about midnight near Arbroath, intending to communicate with
his detachment at Brechin, and then to make for the moun-
tains. The experienced Baillie, however, had taken care to
command all the known routes to the Grampians ; and the

what was in the paper ; and that the Magistrates promised to give him an answer ;
and before they could get the same written, Montrose set upon the town, where-
upon the deponer was committed to the Tolbooth : Depones, he was with the re-
bels in their whole actions, from his entry at Inverury till he came to Dundee ;
howbeit he was not an actor." The unhappy man's fate is thus indicated on the
margin : " 25th April, Guilty"

LIFE OF MON THOSE. 497

banner of Charles the First seemed about to be driven into the
sea. But Montrose, anticipating this obstacle to his direct
march on the Grampians, roused his weary camp from its deadly
inclination to slumber, and pressed them on from Arbroath ;
while Baillie, making himself sure of his prey in the morning
somewhere on the coast, rested for the night about Forfar.
When the day dawned, bitter was his disappointment to find
that the royal army was no longer on the coast. Our hero, by
a most daring manoeuvre, turning from Arbroath to the north-
west, had passed close to his pursuer in the night time, and so
by Kirriemuir to the South Esk, which he crossed at Carriston
castle just as the shades of night deserted them. Here he learnt
that the portion of his forces at Brechin had already made their
way to the hills ; upon which he hastened his march in the same
direction, and gained the fastnesses of the Grampians, through
Glenesk, he and his troops having been on the march, including
the storming of Dundee, during three days, and two sleepless
nights. " I have often," says Dr Wishart, " heard those who
were esteemed the most experienced officers, not in Britain
only, but in France and Germany, prefer this march to his
most celebrated victories."1

The Covenanters, although they gave out that this chase had
annihilated Montrose, made the most formidable preparations
for his re -appearance. Again the hydra reared her heads. Sir
John Hurry, with a force of twelve hundred foot, and a hundred
and sixty horse, was dispatched to the north of the Grampians,
to form a combination with Marischal, Seaforth, Sutherland,
Findla.ter, and other influential Covenanters, who were to tra-
verse the counties of Aberdeen, Moray, and Inverness. Gene-
ral Baillie, with a formidable army, was stationed at Perth ;
from whence he was to make fiery excursions into A thole, and

1 M'Coll Keitache lost his footman upon that occasion. " Edinburgh, 17th April
]{J45. — Donald MacGregor, born in the clachan beside the head of Lochow, De-
pones,— He was footboy to Captain Hugh M'Dougal, and was taken by the rebels
when his master was slain at Imrerlochy ; and has ever been with them since, being
kept by Major-General Macdonald as his footman : Depones, — he was taken after
the burning of Dundee, about six miles therefrom, being carrying his master's hat,
cloak, and a pair of gloves • and that he knows not the gentleman who took him ;
and depones, he was brought alone to Dundee, and none with him." — Original, Mon-
trose Charter room.

32

498 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

at the same time to be ready to join the army of the north, or
to protect the south, as occasion might require. We blush to
record, that into these arrangements the Earl of Seaforth en-
tered without hesitation, although he had so recently declined
facing Montrose in the field, had voluntarily submitted to him,
lived with him in Gordon castle, signed the Kilcummin bond,
and had been dismissed, as a new ally, in the month of March,
by the royal Lieutenant, with whom he was thus preparing to
do battle, in the same districts, in the month of April !

" Then break afflicted heart, and live not in these days,
When all turn merchants of their faith, none trusts what other says."

But our hero's muse was more despairing than his martial
spirit. Not a day was he idle among the Grampians. Lord
Gordon, with those of his cavaliers who had not left the Stan-
dard, immediately proceeded to his own country, for the purpose
of reclaiming his wayward brother, and of raising, if possible, the
whole power of his house. General Macdonald, with a regiment
of the Irish, was sent further into the Highlands to obtain fresh
levies ; while the young laird of Inchbrakie was ordered to
Athole to bring back the brae-men, who had gone home with
spoil. About five hundred foot, and fifty horse, was the whole
force retained by Montrose, who had now scarcely a companion
to cheer him. In this forlorn condition, however, he suddenly
re-crossed the Grampians ; and, in less than a fortnight from the
time when he had taken refuge there, he was again far to the
south of those mountains. " In effect," says Spalding, after at-
tempting to give some idea of his progress at this time, " we
had no certainty where he went, he was so obscure." His ob-
scurity consisted in his constant motion, and rapidity of march
in the most inaccessible quarters. He was occupying the vil-
lage of Crieff in Strathern, close to the leaguer of Baillie, when
that General thought he was on the other side of the Gram-
pians. Again the unfortunate covenanting commander tried to
intercept him, by a night march, with two thousand foot and
five hundred horse. But our hero, sufficiently on the alert,
covered the retreat of his remnant of an army with the few
cavaliers he had ; and, once more sustaining the whole weight
of the enemy's cavalry, repulsed and threw them into disorder.

LIFE OF MONTROSE 499

Then, hurrying onwards, he took possession of the pass of
Strathern, and established himself for the rest of the night near
the head of the Loch. On the following day, about the middle
of April, the royal standard, as if charmed against all mortal
foes, was flaunting far westward among the Braes of Balquhid-
der, and proceeding in the direction of Loch Katrine.

He paused on the southern side of the mountains that over-
look " the varied realms of fair Menteith." But it was not to
visit the favourite haunts of his boyhood, that he had passed
with his brave followers along the shores of Loch Katrine, and
so down to Loch Ard. Intelligence reached him among the
mountains, that he would be joined in this neighbourhood by
the Viscount of Aboyne, Huntly's second son ; and he was ever
anxious to promote a junction with the Gordon chiefs. Aboyne
had made his escape from beleaguered Carlisle, and after a
dangerous adventure, and severe injury to his shoulder from a
fall, reached the Standard, in Menteith, on or about the 19th
of April, accompanied by a few horsemen. In this district, too,
lay the domains of Napier-Rusky, and the Keir. On their
paternal possessions, Montrose's two nephews, the Master of
Napier, and the laird of Keir younger, were hiding and wander-
ing, in search of the hero whose adventures they were most
anxious to share. All the members of these united families, in-
cluding the ladies, had been condemned by the Committee of
Estates, without any process being instituted against them, to
confine themselves, as state prisoners, to their own houses, under
heavy penalties. It was an act of intense meanness on the part
of the Argyle government. No other reason could be assigned
than their domestic relations and feelings towards Montrose ;
whose own boy, with his tutor, was at the same time confined
in Edinburgh castle. Lord Graham was but eleven years of
age. The Master of Napier, married at the early age of seven-
teen to the Lady Elizabeth Erskine, and now the father of several
children, had not yet quite completed his majority. Young Keir
we have only found recorded by Spalding. Napier, certainly,
contrived to escape, and joined his uncle at Cardross, upon
Monday the 21st of April. Their presence must have afforded
Montrose some compensation for the loss of his own sons, and
other friends torn from him by death and captivity. " They

500 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

were," says Spalding, and we may believe him, " all joyful of
each other." Their escape, however, was severely visited upon
'every member of their families at home, as we shall presently
find.

It was now Montrose's turn to pursue. When at Loch Ka-
trine, he learnt that Sir John Hurry, with an overwhelming
force, was threatening Lord Gordon in the north, while Baillie
with another army was burning the district of Athole, even up
to the castle of Blair. So he started from Menteith in pursuit
of him, with but a section of his small army, and almost totally
unprovided with powder and ball. Retracing his steps to Bal-'
quhidder, and thence marching along the side of Loch Tay, he
passed through Athole and Angus, until he came to the Gram-
pians. Then climbing the mountains towards Glenmuick, and
pressing into the heart of Mar, he crossed the Bee near Balmo-
ral, and was at Skene about the end of April. There he paused
for want of ammunition, to procure which Lord Aboyne was
despatched with about eighty horse to Aberdeen. That daring
young nobleman took possession of the town, carefully set his
watches, and then boarded two vessels lying in the harbour, out
of which he took twenty barrels of gunpowder, and returned
with it the same night to his commander. Here, also, Mon-
trose effected a re-union with Lord Gordon, who joined the royal
army on the Dee, with a thousand foot and two hundred horse.
About the same time Macdonald returned with his recruited
division. And now the royalists were ready for battle. Sir
John Hurry, on obtaining intelligence of their approach made
for the Spey, which he crossed with the view of joining the
northern Covenanters. Our hero chased him at the heels from
Elgin to Forres, and from thence onwards in the direction of
Inverness, where Sir John succeeded in his object, and received
a great accession of strength from his junction with the Earls
of Seaforth, Sutherland, and Findlater.

The royal Lieutenant had halted from his pursuit of the re-
bels, late in the evening of Thursday the 8th of May, at the
village of Auldearn, within a few miles of Nairn. During the
night, which was very dark, the rain fell in torrents. Accord-
ing to Patrick Gordon, he was all but caught napping in the

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 501

morning by Flurry, whose sudden acquisition of strength had
not been made known to him. Be this as it may, at least he
was sufficiently awake to take up an admirable position, and
once again to instruct an overwhelming foe in the game of catch-
ing a Tartar. As General Baillie was in his rear, and hastening
to the Spey, he at once made up his mind to accept battle from
Hurry, although under great disadvantages. The temptation
was irresistible. This great combination to devour him, was
commanded by two individuals, both of whom he must have
greatly desired to bring to book. There was the noble chief
of the Mackenzies, who, when the victor marched from Inver-
lochy to meet him, cast his truncheon into the Moray Firth,
and bowed his knee, and swore allegiance to the royal standard.
And now, predominating over that same faithless nobleman,
was the king of weathercocks, Sir John Hurry, who had slaugh-
tered Donald Farquharson on the causeway of Aberdeen, and
kidnapped the hope of the house of Graham. Seaforth really
deserved to be soundly thrashed. And Sir John Hurry, the
recreant knight, had well earned the distinction he now ac-
quired, of being drubbed back into his allegiance by Montrose.
The village of Auldearn stood on an eminence overlooking a
valley ; and several small hills rising behind rendered the view
of it indistinct to those standing at any distance. The front of
the hamlet was covered by a few dikes, answering the purpose
of defences, and a like advantage was derived from the rugged
sides of the ravine. The royal army was very weak. Owing
to the fluctuating quality of the material, the foot had again
dwindled to the usual average of about fifteen hundred ; while
the cavaliers did not much exceed two hundred. These, how-
ever, were chiefly composed of the gay Gordons, and were led
on by the Lords Gordon and Aboyne. On the other side Gene-
ral Hurry commanded in chief. His junction with the army of
the Spey gave him not less than three thousand foot, and from
six to seven hundred horse. His troops, moreover, were of the
best the Estates could send forth. The laird of Lawers, the
only martial chief of clan Campbell left to fight for Argyle, com-
manded his own excellent regiment, and was burning to revenge
Inverlochy. There were, besides, other four regular regiments,
perfectly equipped and well disciplined, namely, Seaforth's and

502 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Sutherland's, Lothian's and London's. The two first named
Earls were there in person. The men of Moray and Aberdeen-
shire, under the lairds of Innes, Kilravock, Boyne, and Birken-
bog, mustered strong as irregulars. Thus, again, was the royal
banner at bay, under fearful odds against honour and the Crown.
Montrose's object being to conceal his weakness, no less than
to seek aid in strength of position, he contrived to obscure
nearly the whole of his forces in the valley, and behind the na-
tural fortifications just mentioned. But the defensive posture
increased the odds against him. The impetuous onset and rush
of his Redshanks had hitherto gained him his battles. But now
he had to appeal to their steadiness and discipline. The lion-
hearted M'Coll, with about four hundred foot, he stationed
among the enclosures, rocks, and brushwood of some broken
ground on the right, opposite the left wing of the enemy ; with
strict injunctions not to be allured from their position, by the
temptation of an attack. To this division he consigned the
royal standard, usually carried before himself. He rightly judged
that the sight of it would draw the whole strength of the attack
upon that impregnable point. The rest of his forces, with the
exception of a few picked musketeers, whom he had placed with
some cannon on the height directly in front of the village, he
carried over to his other wing ; himself taking charge of the foot,
and Lord Gordon commanding the horse. His main battle and
reserve were left to the imagination of the enemy, for on this
occasion he had neither. It must be noted, that he was de-
prived of the assistance of most of the Atholmen, who had re-
cently returned to their own country, in consequence of Gene-
ral Baillie's devastations in that district.

As the Marquis had anticipated, Hurry sent his best troops,
including the regiments of Loudon, Lothian, and Lawers, with
a portion of his cavalry, against the royal standard, and directed
the rest of his men to attack the front of the village, which
points were simultaneously assailed in the most gallant and per-
severing manner. Now it was that Montrose prepared to charge
with the whole weight of his left wing upon the centre of the
Covenanters, while the flower of their troops were occupied, as
he hoped, by Macdonald in his trenches. But he had over-
rated the prudence of that fire-eating isles-man, who, thrown off

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 503

his guard by the taunts of the veterans sent against him, had
emerged from the enclosures with his desultory followers, and
was instantly attacked and nearly surrounded by the enemy's
foot, as well as by the cavalry under Captain Drummond. Upon
this occasion it was that the son of Coll Keitache chiefly dis-
tinguished himself by his undaunted bearing, and great personal
prowess. He was constrained to order his troops to return to
the enclosures ; and this retrograde movement was not effected
without great confusion and loss. As he had been first in ad-
vance, so he was among the very last to seek the garden into
which they were now returning ; and frequently checked, with
his single hand, the advancing enemy, whose pikes and arrows
most severely galled the retreating infantry. The pikemen were
so close upon him, as to fix their spears in his target, which he
cut off with his broadsword in groups, at a stroke. Thus fighting
like a lion in the rear of his troops, he gained the approach to
the garden, accompanied by a few friends who wished him to
enter before them. At this critical moment his sword broke.
Davidson of Ardnacross, his brother-in-law, handed him his own,
and while in the act of doing so, fell mortally wounded. Mac-
donald having entered along with some of the enemy, attacked
them furiously, in order to clear the way for those who were
still struggling without. Meanwhile, another hero, named Ra-
nald, the son of Donald, the son of Angus Mackinnon in Mull,
was keeping the pikemen at bay with his shield on his left arm,
and his gun in his other hand presented at them. Some bow-
men ran past him, letting fly their arrows with deadly effect ;
and one of these archers who, on looking over his shoulder, saw
the pikemen kept at bay by Ranald, suddenly turned his hand
and shot him in the face, the arrow penetrating one cheek and
appearing out at the other. Ranald's dagger was lost, and his
bow useless ; so, throwing away his gun, and stretching out his
shield to save himself from the pikes, the warlike islander at-
tempted to draw his sword, but it would not come ; he tried it
again, and the cross hilt twisted about ; a third time he made
the attempt, using his shield hand to hold the sheath, and suc-
ceeded, but at the expense of five pike wounds in his breast.
In this state he reached the entrance to the garden, closely fol-
lowed by one of the enemy ; but as the latter bowed his head

504 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

under the gate, Macdonald, who had been watching their mo-
tions, with one sweep of his claymore struck it off, " which,"
- says the chronicler, who himself was in the melee, " hit upon
Ranald's houghs ; the head fell in the enclosure, and the body in
the door-way : Ranald lifted up the head, and looking behind
him at the door, saw his companion in arms, who cut away the
arrow that stuck in his cheek, and restored him his speech."
Such were the feats of personal prowess which have rendered
the name of the redoubtable Alastair Mac-Cholla-chiotach, Mhic-
Ghiollesbuig, Mhic-Alastair, Mhic-Eoin Chathanich, even more
famous, in highland tradition and song than that of Montrose
himself.1

This desperate struggle the royal Lieutenant was watching,
with intense interest, from a commanding position hard by.
Some one now whispered in his ear, " Macdonald is utterly
routed." If he had hesitated for an instant, the day must have
been lost ; but, with admirable presence of mind, he called out,
" Macdonald is gaining the victory single-handed ! Come, come,
my Lord Gordon, shall he carry all before him, and leave no
laurels for the house of Huntly 2 Charge!" — And the finest
charge ever made by the chivalry of Strathbogie sprang forth
at the sound of that cheering voice. It was directed against
the main body of Hurry's dragoons, who, after a bloody struggle,
were driven completely off the field. Although Macdonald was
in himself a host, it was well for him then that Montrose and
Lord Gordon came on like a whirlwind from the opposite wing,
where they had been victorious. Driving the remainder of the
rebel horse even through the centre of their foot, they cut down
the best and bravest regiments that stood for the Covenant, who
fell in their ranks. Seventeen of Allaster's officers and veterans
lay wounded within the enclosure, and many of the Gordons
were slain. But the royal standard was safe ; and with this and
the remnant of his troops, the herculean Islesman again rushed
out, and attacked the regiment of Lawers on the opposite flank.
" Many were the warlike deeds," says the chronicler already
quoted, " performed that day by the Macdonalds and the Gor-
dons. Many were the wounds given and received by them ;

1 i. e. Alexander, son of Coll the ambidexter, son of Archibald, son of Coll, son
of Alexander, son of John Cathanach.— Clanranald MS.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 505

insomuch that Montrose said, after the battle, that he himself
witnessed the greatest feats of arms, and the greatest slaughter
he ever knew performed by a couple of men, namely, Nathaniel
Gordon, and Eonald Og Macdonald, son of Allaster, son of
Angus Uaibrach; and likewise by Lord Gordon himself, and
other three."

Twelve hundred of Baillie's foot which Hurry took with him
to Inverness, perished at Auldearn very nearly to a man. Many
more fell besides ; for the royalists, who followed the chase for
miles, gave little quarter ; and the loss of the Covenanters is
variously estimated at from two to three thousand slain. Mungo
Campbell of Lawers, the last warrior chief of the clan, fell,
sword in hand, with his whole regiment, on the spot where they
had routed the left wing under Macdonald. With him died
Sir John and Sir Gideon Murray, and many brave and distin-
guished officers. Sixteen colours, their whole baggage, ammu-
nition, and money, fell into the hands of their enemy. Hurry
himself, the Earls of Seaforth, Sutherland, and Findlater, the
Lairds of Boyne, Innes, Birkenbog, and others, narrowly escaped
with the horse to Inverness. If there was excessive slaughter,
the Argyle faction, as usual, had provoked it.1 The battle-cry
of the Gordons was, " Remember Donald Farquharson and
James Gordon/1 Gordon of Sallagh, the contemporary histo-
rian of the Earls of Sutherland, says, — " The slaughter of James
Gordon of Struders made them take the fewer prisoners, and
give the less quarter.1' The particulars of that murder are re-
corded by Spalding. In a skirmish which had occurred shortly
before, when Montrose was in pursuit of Hurry, James Gordon,
son to George Gordon of Kynie, being severely wounded, was
conveyed to the house of a friend, where he remained to be
cured, with a gentleman named Gordon to nurse him. Major
Sutherland, and the young Laird of Innes, learning this fact,
sent out a party from Elgin, commanded by one Captain Smith,

1 The following " entry in the Bible of Gladstones of Whitelaw," was obligingly
communicated by Mr William Fraser, of the Register House, Edinburgh : —

" Upon the 1 4th of May 1645, my Father Francis Gladstanes being of twentie-
aue years of age, and ane Lieutennent, was, with his brother Captaine James Glad-
stanes, and other nyne sisters-sons of Sir William Douglas of Cavers, Shyriff of
Teviotdale, killed at the battell of Aulderne fought against Montrose."

506 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

who " cruelly murder this young gentleman lying sore wounded,
and left his keeper also for dead : this was thought an odious
deed, barbarous and inhuman, this youth not passing eighteen
years of age, which was well revenged by Montrose at Auld-
earn." No wonder the swords of the Gordons were red that
day.

Immediately after the battle, Montrose addressed this simple
note to Gordon of Buckie, who had been placed in command of
the Bog of Gight, or Gordon castle.

" For my loving friend the Goodman of Buckie.
" LOVING FRIEND : Having directed some of our wounded
men to the Boge, I could not but congratulate our victory yes-
terday unto you, which, by the blessing of God, hath been very
absolute, as you will learn particularly from those who were
present at the battle. So, being confident of your constant
resolution and fidelity, I remain, your loving friend,

" MONTROSE." l
" Aulderne, LOth of May 1645/'

1 Original, in the Charter-chest of Lady Bruce of Stenhouse.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 507

CHAPTER XXVL

ARGYLE'S REVENGE — HIS TRIUMPH OVER OLD MEN AND MAIDENS, MATRONS,
AND YOUNG CHILDREN — BATTLE OF ALFORD — DEATH OF LORD GORDON

— HIS ADMIRATION FOR MONTROSE BATTLE OF KIL6YTH, AND ITS

ANTECEDENTS — GENERAL BAILLIE's ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE — COVE-
NANTING COMMANDERS — VIEW OF THE BATTLE ON THE SIDE OF THE
ROYALISTS — MODERN CALUMNIES.

THE Covenant had no chance against Montrose in the field.
In the cabinet that she- dragon was rampant, and devoured old
men and maidens, matrons, and children of tender age. Still
dreading the consequences of bringing to the scaffold the noble
and loyal prisoners so long confined in the Tolbooth, the Argyle
government meanwhile sought revenge in acts of the meanest
oppression against the family of Montrose. Old Lord Napier,
whose crime was, that he had rejected a dishonourable acquit-
tal, and tender of favour, from one of these miserable state
committees, now felt the weight of their vengeance, in propor-
tion to the success of his illustrious pupil and brother-in-law.
That venerable nobleman, seventy years of age, wrote a letter
of affecting but manly remonstrance, to Lord Balmerino, who
professed to be his friend. " I cannot," he says, " but com-
plain to you, in private, of the hard measure both I and mine
do suffer, beyond my fears, or other men's hopes : Upon all
occasions to be fined, confined, and imprisoned ; my houses and
lands plundered ; my tenants beggared ! As for my penalty \ I
confess it is due by my son's escape ; and I was ready to give
satisfaction for it : But to be clapt up in prison, and by that
means branded with a mark of infamy, as a malefactor, or
enemy to my country, and exposed to the bad conceit and
obloquy of the whole nation, I conceive is a punishment greater,
by many degrees, than the penalty. It is a wound to my honour
and reputation, which men of honour prefer to life or fortune.11
And after some further reasoning, very much thrown away upon

508 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the man he was addressing, he begs to suggest, that any risk
there might be of his joining Montrose in arms, could afford no
excuse to the Estates for this harsh treatment : " For what
benefit," he argues, " can the enemy get, if I were so foolish, by
my company ; being old, and not fit for fighting ; nor yet for
counsel, having no skill or experience in warlike business ? Or
what«prejudice were it to the State, instead of one man of whom
they could make no use, to have Ms estate to maintain twenty,
every one better able to do them service than he ? Not the less
of all this expostulation with your Lordship, as my nolle friend,
I am most willing to give the Estates satisfaction, after the rea-
sonable petition of my son-in-law and my daughters receiveth a
favourable answer : For without them I value not my liberty, and
therefore desire to be spared till then : A t which time I shall
give satisfaction for my fine, upon your Lordship's assurance in
honour, under your hand, that I shall be transported to the
place assigned to them, being a place free from apparent dan-
ger of the plague ; and that I majr have liberty to go to my
lands be-west the brig of Stirling, to give order for labouring
and possessing of them, after all this spoil, and to return to the
place of confinement again (if ye shall not be pleased to grant
full liberty) under the same penalty I was confined before."1

This appeal was not successful. Even after exacting from
him a fine of ten thousand pounds, Scots, Lord Napier was
subjected to a rigorous and solitary confinement ; as also were
the ladies of the family, married and unmarried. Argyle be-
came more vindictive, in consequence of the Master of Napier
having greatly distinguished himself in the recent battle. " At
Auldearn," says Wishart, " the bravery of young Napier shone
forth with signal lustre. His father was the Lord Napier of
Merchiston, his mother the sister of Montrose. Not long be-
fore, he had made his escape to his uncle, from Edinburgh,
without the knowledge even of his father and his own wife. In
this battle he afforded no mean specimen of his early promise,

1 Original draft, in Lord Napier's handwriting, dated 3d June 1645, and en-
titled, « Copia vera of a letter to my Lord Balmerino."— Napier Charter-chest.
Balmerino, although frequently president of these iniquitous committees, and de-
voted to Argyle, had more than once expressed his regret at the tyranny exercised
over this venerable and blameless nobleman.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 509

and displayed the substantial rudiments of a noble nature.
Therefore it was that the Committee of Estates took his father
(a man on the verge of seventy, and than whom a better Scot-
land in this age hath never produced), his wife, a daughter of
the Earl of Mar, his brother-in-law Stirling of Keir (also a most
excellent man, the chief of his race, and one who for his loyalty
had long and severely suffered), his two sisters, the one a very
noble lady married to Keir, the other a young maiden,1 — and
cast them all into a dungeon, from whence they were destined
to be liberated by the Master of Napier himself, under the vic-
torious auspices of his uncle."

Upon the very day of the battle of Auldearn, 9th May 1645,
the Argyle government displayed its energy and manhood, by
issuing an order, that Dame Margaret Napier, lady of Keir,
should be summoned to appear before a committee of Estates
at Edinburgh, on the fifteenth of that same month. Tt was
found expedient, says the order, that this distinguished lady
" be called for to answer for keeping intelligence and corre-
spondence with James Graham, sometime Earl of Montrose, the
time of his late and present rebellion in Scotland." The com-
mittee appointed to examine her, are Lord Burleigh, whom
Montrose defeated at Aberdeen, Sir John Hope of Craighall, a
Lord of Session and the Lord Advocated eldest son, Sir Archi-

1 Lilias Napier, Lord Napier's youngest daughter, had not completed her eighteenth
year at this time. She was born 1 5th Dec. 1 626. The Master, when he made his escape,
had not attained his majority. A covenanting uncle, Robert Napier of Culcreuch,
writing to him in 1 646, to persuade him to desert the royal cause, says : " Return yet
in time, before all time be lost ; and God move and dispose your heart to return ; and
let the first beginnings of your majority in age evidence better resolutions than did the
ending of your minority" He also says: u As your rash and inconsiderate breaking
out at first to join with your uncle, bred great grief and anger to all your well affected
friends, so your continuing since in one course with him has mightily increased,
and daily doth increase, our grief and sorrow." — " Let not, I pray you, the prepos-
terous lore you carry to him any longer blind the eyes of your understanding." —
" Pity yourself — pity your lady — pity your children and posterity — pity your friends
— and pity the crying distresses of your poor tenants, who, by your leaving them,
are become a prey to all." — Original, Napier Charter-chest. This young nobleman,
like the uncle he adored, was only seventeen when married to Lady Elizabeth Ers-
kine, eldest daughter of John eighth Earl of Mar. The marriage contract was signed
in May and June 1641. Lord Napier signs the marriage settlements on the 20th of
July 1641, while imprisoned for " the Plot ; " and one of the witnesses is his jailor,
Colonel Lindsay of Belstane.

510 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

bald Campbell, London's brother, and Sir James Stewart of
Coltness, the covenanting Provost of Edinburgh. On the day
appointed, that lady, arrayed in deep mourning, was presented
before her persecutors, who, if they retained a spark of gentle-
manly feeling, must have felt vastly ashamed of their office.
We are enabled to produce their own private record of the exa-
mination, and shall give it verbatim, as their severest condem-
nation, and the lady's best defence : —

" Dame Margaret Napier, Lady Keir, being called and exa-
mined by warrant, and being first interrogated if she kept any
correspondence with James Graham, late Earl of Montrose, or
his army, — Declares, she kept none : And being interrogated, if
she was in the Keir the time when Lieutenant-General Baillie
passed by, — -Declares, she was there then : Being interrogated,
when John Alexander of Gartmer1 was with her Ladyship, —
Declares, that he was at her house, with her Ladyship, upon
the same Sunday at night 'that her brother went away: De-
clares, that neither John Alexander nor her brother did acquaint
her with her brother's going away : Being interrogated, if she
sent any of her friends, or servants, towards the late Earl of
Montrose's army, — Declares, that hearing, from some of her
husband's tenants, that their lands which lie in the Highlands
were spoiled, she did send one of her domestic servants, called
Donald Dun, up to the said highland rooms, to see if it was so,
and if the said lands were spoiled ;2 and that she gave direction
to the said^Donald to go and ask of any of the officers of the
army, if her brother the Master of Napier were come safe there ;
having heard of his departure the same day before noon : De-
clares, she did not see her brother : Declares, that she gave not
any commission to Donald to desire a convoy to be sent for the
Master's safe convoy ; nor sent any letter, or any other word,
to that effect : Declares, that John Alexander knew nothing of
her sending the said Donald there : Neither did she hear the

1 A son of the Earl of Stirling, and a great friend and companion of the Master
of Napier.

8 Sir George Stirling was at this time more closely confined than his lady, and
unable to attend to his affairs. The term " rooms " was applied particularly to that
species of tenancy which obtained the name of rental-rights, or kindly-tenancy ; a
favoured class of feudal tenants.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 511

said John give the said Donald any direction for staying till the
Master of Napier should come up, and see if he had any word
back again : Neither did the deponer herself give any direction
to the said Donald for staying to bring back any answer : Being
interrogated for what cause she wears mourning weed, — Declares,
she put it on for her cousin-german, the late Earl of Montrose's
son : Declares, she has not heard anything from her brother
since his going out, nor he from her, except as aforesaid." x

On the following day,— " At Edinburgh, 16th May 1645, the
Committee of Estates ordains and commands Dame Margaret
Napier, Lady Keir, to keep confinement within her own lodg-
ing, and not to go furth thereof but by warrant of the Com-
mittee, as she will be answerable on her obedience." As the
plague, however, was now raging in Edinburgh, upon the 22d of
the same month, " the Committee having heard the desire of
Dame Margaret Napier, that she might be enlarged of her con-
finement, in regard of the infection in and about Edinburgh,
ordains her to remove to Merchiston, and to stay and keep con-
finement within the house and yards thereof, until she be re-
leased by the Committee, as she will be answerable." In the
following month, her place of confinement is changed to Lin-
lithgow ; and the order is, " that she shall not go out of her
house in Lithgow, except to kirJc, without warrant of the Com-
mittee, under the pain of ten thousand pounds." At the same
time, her husband was more closely confined in Blackness castle,
near Linlithgow, to which he had been removed from the castle
of Edinburgh ; for, on the 25th of June 1645, " the Committee
of Estates allows the Earl of Lithgow to give the laird of Keir
liberty to walk, with the constable, on the head of the tower of
Blackness, for the benefit of the air" In the previous month,
7th May 1645, we find " a warrant for committing the Master
of Napier's Lady, and his sister (Lilias) close prisoners in the

1 This lady, being the eldest daughter of Archibald first Lord Napier, and Lady
Margaret Graham, was Moutrose's niece, and hence cousin-german to young Lord
Graham, who had recently died at Gordon castle, as mentioned before, p. 493. The
above declaration is from the original record, which, with various others, has found
its way into the Montrose Charter-room. The signature engraved under the lady's
portrait is a facsimile of that attached to her declaration. The question about the
mourning indicates the puerility and meanness of the whole proceeding.

512 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

castle of Edinburgh, with the benefit of a serving- maid. " A
few days thereafter, " the Committee of Estates allows the con-
stable of the castle to give Dame Elizabeth Erskine, and Mis-
tress Lilias Napier, the benefit of the air once or twice in the
day, provided he be with them ; and that none have access or
speech with them, without warrant ; and that, when they go
out, the Lord Napier and laird of Keir be kept close in their
chambers"

Amid these sad indications of the utter ruin and desolation
of his family circle, we search with interest, but in vain, for the
precise condition, at this time, of the wife of Mont rose. Im-
mured in what donjon-keep, aired on what tower top, or coupled
to what cross constable, was the fair " Mistress Magdalene Car-
negie," the happy bride of the boy bridegroom, some fifteen
years before ? If his nieces, married and single, were subjected
to this cruel treatment for his sake, and the same measure of
tyranny meted out to his young boy, now prisoner with his tutor
in the castle of Edinburgh, surely the Marchioness herself had
not eluded the mean vengeance of the Scottish Inquisition ?
In his many " strange coursings," with his flying camp round
the north of Scotland, Montrose frequently traversed his own
county of Angus, or Forfarshire ; and we can scarcely doubt
that upon these occasions he had found opportunities to visit
both his ruined place of Old Montrose, and his father-in-lawns
castle of Kinnaird, the happy scene of his early marriage. In-
deed, we at length find evidence that the Earl of Southesk, who
not many years before paraded in the eyes of Scotland his own
loyalty against the democratic doings of his illustrious son-in-
law, had ventured to hold some domestic converse with the vic-
torious Lieutenant of Charles the First, as he passed and re-
passed, like a meteor, through Angus and the Mearns. But,
when active loyalty and self-sacrifice had become of vital im-
portance to the King, the chief of the Carnegies was ever found,
like Callendar, in the attitude of " saving his estate," while the
royal master to whom he owed so much was losing his crown.
And as for the youngest daughter of his house, the mother of a
long line of Marquises and Dukes of Montrose, rather would
we have discovered her gasping for breath in the lowest dun-
geon, or shivering in the northern blast on the highest prison

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 513

tower, than in such favour with the government of Argyle, in
the year 1645, as these their own inquisitorial records too plainly
indicate : —

" At Edinburgh, the 19th of April 1645, David Earl of South-
esk coinpeared in presence of the Committee of Estates, and
produced Robert Graham, son to the late Earl of Montrose, in
obedience of a command given to him by the Committee in the
north : And being demanded upon what occasion he met with
Montrose, and what passed betwixt them, he made a verbal de-
claration thereof ; which declaration the Lords ordain him to
give in writ under his hand on Monday next ; and exoners
him of the exhibition of the said Robert Graham, and his own
appearance in obedience to the Committee of Brechin : The
Committee ordains the Earl of Southesk to keep Robert Graham,
son to the late Earl of Montrose, till Monday next that he re-
ceive further orders concerning him."

" Edinburgh, 21st April 1645.— The Committee of Estates
having read the declaration given in this day, by the Earl of
Southesk, in obedience of the Committee's ordinance of the
19th of April, ordains the said declaration to be kept in retentis
by the clerk ; and allows the said Earl to repair home for doing
his lawful affairs at his pleasure ; and ordains him to return to
the Committee when he shall be required :

" The Committee of Estates ordains and allows the Earl of
Southesk to deliver Robert Graham, son to the late Earl of
Montrose, to [blank] Carnegie, his mother, to be kept and en-
tertained by her ; and, being delivered to his mother, exoners
the Earl of Southesk of him."1

1 Original Register of the Committee of Estates, Register House, Edinburgh
The Earl of Southesk's declaration, which was ordained to lie in retentis of the
clerk, has not been recovered. The noblemen who, along with inferior representa-
tives of the State, form the sederunt at this inquisition, are, Cassillis, Annandale,
Lothian, and Bishop Burnet's impersonation of loyalty and high-mindedness, Lane-
rick, second Duke of Hamilton. Robert Graham, the youngest of Montrose's three
sons, most probably was born after his father's return from abroad in 1636-7.
His age could not well be more than seven years. His elder brother, James (the
2d Marquis), was only eleven years of age in 1645. Robert is not mentioned by
any of the peerage writers. His mother's Christian name is left blank in the re-
cord, as if the clerk had forgotten it. His father is designed late Earl of Montrose,
of course in reference to his recent forfeiture.

33

5U LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" Mistress Magdalene Carnegie," Marchioness of Montrose,
strange as it may seem, and notwithstanding the eminent ex-
ample of so many illustrious ladies of her family circle, must have
sworn allegiance to " the Brethren." The idea is not admissible
that her youngest born had been thus confided to her keeping
from any remnant of forbearance, or humanity, that yet attached
to the government of Argyle. Lord Napier's unanswerable re-
monstrance to Lord Balmerino, on the 3d of June, only sub-
jected him to a confinement yet more rigorous and cruel,
although he acknowledged his liability to the Estates in ten
thousand pounds of Scots money. " I confess it was due by
my son's escape," he said, " and I was ready to give satisfaction
for it." Indeed that most iniquitous fine was paid by him, as
soon as he could command the money. Had the Marchioness
of Montrose been suspected of bestowing even the sympathy of
a wife upon her heroic husband, a prison would have been her
portion, along with his other suffering relatives, of whom we
shall presently hear again.

Having taught Sir John Hurry this severe lesson, and utterly
destroyed a fourth army of the Covenant, our hero marched in
triumph to Elgin. There he remained for a few days, that his
wounded men might benefit by the medical aid which the town
afforded. His progress and manoeuvres at this time have been
recorded by his devoted chaplain and other contemporary chro-
niclers. But it is still more interesting to mark his course, and
obtain glimpses of himself, by means of various letters and orders
under his own hand, which, until now, were not known to exist.
We have already mentioned, that the stronghold of the Blair
of Athole was carefully kept by him, under the command of
Robertson of Inver, and Stewart of Sheirglass, as a store for
arms, ammunition, and provisions ; but more especially as a
rallying point, and a depot for prisoners. Of these he retained
but a few. His dispositions towards such as he could save from
the claymore in battle, were humane beyond the temper of the
times ; and he would not have retained a single prisoner, had it
not been for the obvious necessity of effecting exchanges, a rule
of civilized warfare which he appears to have well understood.
Twenty-eight days after the battle of Auldearn, we find him

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 515

across the Spey from Elgin, and up that river as far as Inver-
eshie, to the south of the woods of Rothiemurchus. General
Baillie was now watching him from the north bank of the Spey,
with a superior force, yet very shy of coming to close quarters
with the red-handed conqueror of his dashing ally, Sir John
Hurry. But the attention of Montrose was soon attracted by
a circumstance affecting the family circle from which his heart
never swerved, and whose hearts, with the sad exception alluded
to above, never swerved from him. The following we discover
in the original record of the Committee of Estates : —

" Edinburgh, 5th May 1645.— The Committee of Estates
gives power and commission to the Earl of Lanerick, the Lord
Craighall, and James Stewart, or any two of them, the Earl of
Lanerick being one, to examine John Naper, brother to the Lord
Naper, and his wife and boy taken with him : As also, to call
for the Lord Naper ; the Mistress of Naper ; and the Lord
Naper's daughter Lilias ; Riccartoun ; Drummond ; or any other
they think fitting ; and to examine them upon such interroga-
tories as they think expedient, or may arise upon the papers
and letters taken with John Naper, and to report."

This obviously connects with the following interesting letter,
which serves to shew how anxiously the mind of Montrose was
occupied with minute circumstances, amid the turmoil of battle,
and all the awful concomitants of his meteor career with the
standard of his dethroned Sovereign.

" INVER : I received yours, and have directed along ammu-
nition unto you. You will be careful of all that concerns your
charge, until my coming in that country, which I hope shall be
shortly. Also, you will hasten tlie exchange of prisoners ; and
shew Crinnen? that I am informed that there is one Mr Naper,
brother to my Lord Naper, a prisoner with them, against whom
they intend to proceed in a seeming legal way ; which if they do,
let him assure them from me, that I will use the like severity
against some of their prisoners ; and you will acquaint me with
what answer you shall receive from them thereanent. Also, let
me hear from you, with diligence, all such intelligence as you can
learn from the border ; and concerning Lindsay. I rest :

1 Campbell of Crinan, whose brother Colin was a prisoner in the castle of Blair.

516 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" You will shew Crirmen, that if they will exchange Mr Naper,
I shall be content to release another prisoner for him, of a like
quality ; and let me have a speedy and positive answer there-
anent. " MONTROSE."

" Invereshie, 27th May 1645.

" You will deliver these inclosed to those you know.

" For John Roberson of Inver,
now at the Castle of Blair." *

This anxiety for the fate of the brother of his ancient guar-
dian, and dearest friend, doubtless was quickened by a recent
occurrence, highly characteristic of the mode in which the Co-
venanters triumphed in their turn. The laird of Easter-Torrie
had probably been seized while carrying dispatches to or from
Montrose. As it had been decreed high treason to communi-
cate with him, one of his greatest difficulties was to obtain the
necessary intelligence, and to keep up the communication with
his Sovereign. Various expedients were resorted to for this
purpose ; and none but men of great sagacity, nerve, and fide-
lity, were of any use in a service which placed the royal cause,
and their own lives, in imminent peril. Montrose's friend and
follower of whom we have already made mention, Thomas Syd-
serf, or Saint Serf, a son of the ex-Bishop of Galloway, was one
who gloried in risking his neck upon such missions. To him it
is, that the following lines, which occur in " The Covent Garden
Drollery,"" printed in 1672, apply: —

" Once like a pedlar, they have heard thee brag,
How thou didst cheat their sight, and save thy crag,
When to the great Montrose, under pretence
Of godly books, thou brought'st intelligence."

There were others, however, less fortunate in their loyal de-
votion. About the middle of April 1645, immediately after Mon-
trose's retreat from the storming of Dundee, a person in the

1 Original, in the possession of Peter Cunninghame, Esq., Somerset-House, Lon-
don. The Mr Naper mentioned, was John Napier of Easter-Torrie, eldest son of
the Inventor of Logarithms, and his second spouse, Agnes Chisholm of Cromlix.
Lord Napier was the only son of the Baron of Merchiston's first marriage, with
Elizabeth Stirling of Keir.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 517

habit of a common beggar reached him among the mountains,
and delivered a packet containing a letter from his Majesty,
which appears to have been the announcement of his intention
to join Montrose ere long at the Borders, in reply to the royal
Lieutenant's despatch from Inverlochy. The adventurous mes-
senger was James Small, son to the laird of Fotherance, an old
Scotch family in reduced circumstances. The son had for some
time filled a minor post at Court, and now proved his attach-
ment to his royal master, by undertaking this dangerous mis-
sion. Having passed successfully from England to the High-
lands, James Small was now retracing his steps, in the same
humble guise, towards his Sovereign, with letters from Mon-
trose. He arrived at Alloa, and was safe within the bounds of
the loyally inclined family of Mar. But at Elphinston, some
one who had known him in the south betrayed him to the lord
of that name, who was uncle to Balmerino, and a member of the
Committee of Estates. This nobleman sent him, with the letters
found on his person, to the merciless tribunal at Edinburgh ;
and on the day following, which was the 1st of May 1(545, he
was hanged at the cross, by command of the Committee, and to
the great satisfaction of the covenanting clergymen. " By these
letters," says Bishop Guthrie, " the Committee came to know
what they never had thought on, namely, how the King's busi-
ness being so forlorn in England that he could not make head
against his enemies there, his Majesty designed to come with
his army to Scotland, and to join Montrose ; that so this country
being made the seat of war, his enemies might be forced to an
accommodation, to free their land from a burden which it could
not stand under ; the prevention of which design was afterwards
gone about with success." Beyond this cruel fate no more is
known of the royal messenger. His melancholy episode is all
but lost in the great tragedy of the times. Guthrie records
that, at the time when he wrote, this family had fallen into
decay, and the estate had passed from them. But the despe-
rate service he volunteered to his Sovereign proves him to have
been a gentleman of great courage and loyalty — attributes cer-
tainly not characteristic of the clerical faction who decreed his
summary execution. How he met his fate, and who were left
to weep in secret for this humble hero, is all unrecorded. But

518 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

he was the friend of Charles, and of Montrose, — for whom he
died, and with whom he deserves to be remembered.

Now, the letter to Inver quoted above is dated in the same
month that this tragedy was consummated ; and we may well
understand Montrose's anxiety for the fate of a near connexion
of his own, who had been seized with papers in his possession.
The significant hint that a Campbell would be sacrificed to the
manes of a Napier, seems to have saved his life. The sons of
Diarmed had become rare, and even a military unit of the
ruined clan could ill be spared. Accordingly we find, from
their original record, that, on the " 13th of June 1645, the
Committee of Estates ordains the Provost and Bailies of Edin-
burgh to deliver John Naper, prisoner in their Tolbooth, to Sir
Archibald Campbell, to be disposed on by him as he shall think
fit ; whereanent these shall be his warrant."

The seizure of James Small, on his return to the King, was
very detrimental to the scheme of Montrose. In his letter to
Inver of the 27th of May, we may observe two allusions, which
afford a key to his thoughts at this time, and to what he con-
templated as the completion of his desperate but hitherto glo-
rious undertaking. " Be diligent," he tells him, " in sending
me intelligence as to the state of matters on the border ; and
also concerning Lindsay. To the ultimate object and successful
issue of his loyal adventure, " though very desperate for our-
selves," he could now, after four such victories as Perth, Aber-
deen, Inverlochy, and Auldearn, venture to look forward. The
collateral career of the King had been, it is true, in the inverse
ratio to the triumphs of his devoted Lieutenant. A series of
great defeats and losses in England, had placed him at the
verge of ruin. But the crushing blow at Naseby had not yet
occurred. His Majesty's insane trust in the honour and upright
dealing of Argyle and the Kirk-militant's government of Scot-
land, had not yet been manifested, by his placing himself in
their unclean hands. Montrose, following out his original
scheme, to which he had so picturesquely adverted in his letter
from Inverlochy, was fighting his way to the Border, where he
expected to meet his Sovereign in arms, and to proclaim him
King at least in Scotland. It is not true, although a Bishop
wrote it, that the scriptural quotation, which he addressed to

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 5J9

Charles from Inverlochy, was the unmeaning effusion of a cox-
comical mind, inflated by the success at Kilsyth. It was not
written upon the occasion to which Bishop Burnet refers it.
Nor is the old-clothes-man of history justified in saying, that
the letter which contained it, never reached the King, but fell
into the hands of David Leslie, at Philiphaugh. * Burnet did
his best to taint all history with the notion, that the quotation
itself was mere fanfaronade, — a piece of empty vapouring. In-
deed, its pregnant significance, its connection with the history
of the period, the perfect propriety and dignity of the applica-
tion, has never been properly understood or appreciated. Mon-
trose had become thoroughly impressed with the belief, that a
sinister competition was going on, between Hamilton and Ar-
gyle, for sovereign sway in Scotland. This he perceived so early
as in 1640 ; and even then entered his earnest, eloquent, and
indignant protest against such pretensions. " And you great
men,11 he said, " 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, so constantly entertained by our an-
cestors, as to suffer you, with all your policy, to reign over us I
Take heed you be not ./Esop^s dog, and lose the cheese for the
shadow in the well." Accordingly, when, at Inverlochy, he found
himself standing upon the ruins of Argyle's empire, race, and
fame, his first impulse, and act, was to write the intelligence to
his Sovereign, accompanied with an assurance that he, Mon-

i " The Marquis of Moutrose's success was very mischievous, an&prored the ruin
of the King's a/airs." But suppose the King had even gained the battle of Naseby,
on the 14th of June 1645, what effect would " Montrose's success" have had upon
the King's affairs ? Again the Bishop says : " The Marquis of Montrose thought
he was now master, but had no scheme how to fix his conquests." What is here meant
by " fixing conquests" ? His scheme was to destroy the armies of the Covenant in
Scotland, and then join the King in arms at the Border. Again : " He wasted the
estates of his enemies, chiefly the Hamiltons.'' A puerile untruth, the prompting of
which is obvious. When at the Border, adds Burnet, — " He writ to the King that
he had gone over the land from Dan to Beersheba ; he prayed the King to come
down, in these words, « Come thou and take the city, lest I take it, and it be called
by my name.' This letter was writ, but never sent ; for he was routed, and his papers
taken, before he had despatched the courier. In his defeat he took too much care of
hinwff; for he was never willing to expose himself too much." But the letter was
written at Interlochy ; and we have shewn, in the note at the conclusion of last
chapter, good reasons for believing that the King had received it. See 'Burn?Vs
Hiftory of His Own Time, pp. 65-71, Edit. 1833.

520 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

trose, had no object in view but a constitutional support of the
Throne. The scriptural allusion was well chosen. Whatever
might be the sins of David's general, Joab, he was a faithful
soldier to his royal master. " Joab fought against Kabbah of
the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. And J oab
sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Kab-
bah, and have taken the city of waters. Now, therefore, gather
the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city,
and take it ; lest I take the city, and it be called after my
name/' l The announcement from Montrose was, in effect, that,
having destroyed Argyle, he had yet to meet the armies of the
Covenant between him and the Borders ; where, according to
the plan arranged at Oxford, the royal Lieutenant, not con-
quering on his own account, would join the King himself. The
sacred language in which this was compressed, could not fail to
be perfectly understood, and properly appreciated by the accom-
plished and pious monarch to whom it was addressed.

Ten days after the date of his letter to Inver, we discover the
royal Lieutenant encamped further north, having passed down
the Spey, through Rothiemurchus and Abernethy, to Tulloch-
gorum. From thence he again addresses a missive to the Cap-
tain of Blair, sufficiently evincing his own anxiety to restrain his
volatile troops, and especially such of the Irish caterans as had
broke loose from his immediate control.

" INVER : I have ofttimes written to you before, anent the
Irishes who straggled to your country, and for punishing of
them ; and it is only the neglect of my orders which makes them
so insolent. Wherefore these are to will and command you,
that, immediately after sight hereof, you pursue all such Irishes
as can be found in the country, with fire and sword ; and that
you burn of the houses of all those who reset them ; as you will
answer on the contrary at your highest peril. Subscribed at
Tullochgoram, sixth of June 1645. " MONTROSE.

" Receive this sword, and see that it be well kept" 2

1 TI. Sam. xn.

2 Original^ in possession of Lord Mahon. The precious swovd was probably a
trophy of war. Where is it kept now !

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 521

We shall presently find, that Montrose, upon other occasions,
was not quite satisfied with Inverts devotion to his charge, or to
his allegiance ; and the following letter from Lord Glammis to
his brother, a prisoner at Blair, dated four days after the above,
indicates something like tampering on the part of the wily Dic-
tator.

" BROTHER : I think you received my Lord Argyle' s letter
(it was before I met with him), who has done all he can for
your release, as will testify Harry Graham's letter, sent to his
brother,1 and to Inver ; as I shall shew my Lord Montrose by
writing or word. And my Lord Argyle heartily thanks Inver
for your kindly usage, and promises to recompense his good
will with what lies in his power, as he may be assured, upon
continuance of his favour according to his power. For Major
Lesly, he has promised to declare that his release was wrought
long before (by his friends) that you was sent to him by Mon-
trose ; so that he has nothing to do with it, by my former know-
ledge. As for John Forbes of Largie, he was not taken in his
service ; 2 so he will not meddle in his release. But otherwise,
one man for another ; according as I have shewn his Lordship
already, and shall yet. As for Gask, my Lord (Argyle) has
promised to get Mr George Wishart released for him, accord-
ing to my Lord Montrose his desire.3 So I think, brother, your
release may be shortly, if it please God Almighty. If I could
go upon particulars, I think your release might have been al-
ready. But assure your comrades that all shall be, God willing,
at one time. So, remembering my love to all, I rest,
" To you as myself,

" GLAMESSE."
" Perth, the 10th of June 1645.

1 Harry Graham was Montrose's natural brother. At this lime he was in the
power of Argyle, and a prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, having been cap-
tured with Lord Ogi'vy.

2 He was taken at the battle of Aberdeen, and allowed to depart on his parole by
Montrose, until exchanged.

8 This refers to the celebi-ated chaplain of Montrose, who was suffering a most
loathsome confinement in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, along with Ludovick Earl of
Crawford, Lord Ogilvy, and Harry Ontham. Ur Wishart was not exchanged, as we
hhuii find.

522 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" You may receive some tobacco and pipes ; and I am not
content that ye do not send to me, seeing ye have the gover-
nor's warrant for what else you want, or long for, that I can
afford you, or your friends there. Advertise me with the
bearer.

" For Ms brother and friends in Blair Castle, these" x

But we must not from this infer that it was to Argyle and
his friends that the unfortunates in the castle of Blair were in-
debted for humane treatment, and creature comforts. Our
hero, if he had to issue stern commands as regards the unruly
soldier, was not inattentive to the condition of the sick one.
The following pass, granted to a sick Irish soldier, dated about
a fortnight before the battle of Auldearn, proves that the castle
of Blair was an hospital as well as a prison, which we shall pre-
sently find was not the case with the prisons of Argyle :

" Whereas the bearer hereof, Donochy of Celly, he being a
sick soldier, is to go to the castle of Blair, these are therefore
to will and desire all of his Majesty's officers and loving sub-
jects whom this may concern, to suffer the said bearer to pass
quietly, without trouble or molestation, either in body or goods,
he behaving himself as becometh a dutiful subject : These are
requiring the keepers of Blair to see the bearer well used, with
the rest of the sick soldiers that are there. The 26th of April,
1645."

" MONTROSE." 2

But even after his victory at Auldearn, in Moray, our hero
had much to accomplish ere he could hope to arrive in triumph
at Beershela, with no hostile army behind him. Another com-
mander for the Covenant had recently taken the field in the
south, with whom he must measure his strength, ere he could
reach the King. This was his old chum and hunting companion
at college, Lord Lindsay of the Byres, with wThom, in 1640, he
held that conversation on the subject of a Dictatorship which

1 Original, in possession of Henry F. Holt, Esq., London. John, second Earl of
Kinghorn, Lord Lyon and Glammis, was appointed one of the Committee of Estates
in 1644. He was a college companion of Montrose's ; see before, p. 47.

3 Original, in possession of B. Nightingale, Esq., Clare Cottage, London.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 523

brought matters to a crisis. The covenanting Earl, it seems,
had ventured to criticise the abortive campaign of his patron
Argyle, notwithstanding the thanks voted to him by his own
Parliament. And when the Dictator, who had quite enough of
it, could not be induced to resume the military command in
chief, but contented himself with the supreme rule in the cabi-
net, this rebel Earl took his place in the field, with great pre-
tensions, and mighty promises. Hence the anxiety of the royal
Lieutenant to obtain intelligence not only as to the state of
matters on the Border, but of the precise position and condi-
tion of the army of the south, re-organised under Lindsay, to
whom he would by no means concede his usurping title of
Crawford.

There was, however, the experienced General Baillie yet to
be subdued in the north, as well as this new commander on the
south side of the Grampians ; and once more did our hero find
himself between two formidable armies, each outnumbering his
own, whose junction might effect his utter ruin. But his genius
was equal to these endless combinations of the Hydra ; and the
prestige of four great victories, obtained under similar circum-
stances, more than compensated the preponderance of physical
force opposed to him in opposite directions.

About the middle of May, Baillie, according to his own ac-
count of his disastrous campaign, was at Huntly castle, in ac-
tive pursuit of Montrose, with at least two thousand foot, and
two hundred horse including the remnant of Hurry's which had
joined him. The royal Lieutenant was weak at this time ; his
highlanders having as usual gone home with spoil, and his
Major-General, Allaster Macdonald, been dispatched on a mis-
sion to reclaim them. But the Standard was supported by the
Irish, and the Gordon cavaliers. The covenanting General's
apologetic narrative of the fruitless chase, and how Montrose
baffled him, as on a former occasion he had baffled Argyle and
Lothian, is too graphic to be given in other words than his own.

" I marched," says General Baillie, " from Cromar towards
Strathbogie (Huntly castle), where the rebels were arrived the
night before, and General-Major Hurry joined me about a mile
from thence, with about one hundred horse, who had saved
themselves with him at Auldearn. At our approach the rebels

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

drew unto the places of advantage, about the yards and dykes ;
and I stood embattled before them from four o"1 clock at night
until the morrow, judging them to have been about our own
strength. Upon the morrow, so soon as it was day, we found
they were gone towards Balveny. We marched immediately
after them, and came in sight of them about Glenlivet, be-west
Balveny some few miles ; but that night they out-marched us, and
quartered some six leagues from us. On the next day, early,
we found they were dislodged, but could find nobody to inform
us of their march ; yet, by the lying of the grass and heather, we
conjectured they were marched to the wood of Abernethy, on
Spey. Thither I marched, and found them on the entry of Bade-
noch, a very straight country, where, both for inaccessible rocks,
woods, and the interposition of the river, it was impossible for us
to come at them. Here we lay, looking one upon another ; the
enemy having their meal from Ruthven in Badenoch, and flesh
from the country ; whereof we saw none, until for want of meal —
other victuals we had none, the few horsemen professing they
had not eaten in forty-eight hours — I was necessitated to march
northward to Inverness, to be supplied there. Which done, I
returned, crossed at Speymouth in boats, and came to Newton
in Garioch. Here Hurry, pretending indisposition, left me.
There I was informed the rebels had been as far south as Cupar
in Angus ; and were returned to Corgarff upon the head of
Strath'don."

It was while Baillie was thus tracking his movements on the
Spey, that Montrose was corresponding as we have seen with
his captain of the Blair. The popular, indeed we may say the
historical estimate of this consummate commander, that his
military achievements and merit, went no further than the
prompt, energetic, and successful leading of wild caterans from
one desperate encounter to another, is founded upon ignorance
of what he really did, and how severely his genius was inces-
santly taxed. Under greater difficulties than any commander
of his time, or since, ever encountered, he had to supply the
commissariat ; to keep up the necessary communications, and
obtain the intelligence upon which his critical movements de-
pended ; to preserve discipline within his half savage camp, and
to take order with the insubordinate rovers from his ever flue-

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 525

tuating ranks ; to provide for the sick and the wounded ; and
all this while destitute of money or other resources than what
he could gather by the fire and sword of his commission ; then
he had to use that indispensable lever of the royal authority with
which he was invested, upon the proper occasions, and against
the real delinquents, with the martial vigour of a will deeply
pledged to effect its purpose, and at the same time with the dis-
crimination, forbearance, and control, that was to mark the line
betwixt the stern purpose of legitimate authority, and the cruel
licence inseparable from the conduct of all such mortal strife.
And while contending with all these difficulties, amid the wreck
and ruin of his own homesteads, peril and death itself impend-
ing over all who were most dear to him, he had to sustain the
spirit, or restrain the impatience, of his over-taxed followers ;
to rouse the loyal, to reclaim the capricious, and to conciliate
the jealous ; especially of those more influential soi-disant adhe-
rents of the Throne, who from the first moment ought to have
afforded him their cordial, unqualified, and unvarying support,
yet who never ceased to cast obstacles in his way. until they
wrought his ruin, and that of the monarch whose only champion
he was. These, besides many other circumstances which neither
history nor biography can grasp, belong to the details of his
extraordinary career in support of the doomed throne of the
Stuarts, and constitute his real claim to the reputation of a
military genius of the highest order, rather than the rapidity
with which again and again he. rushed to destroy one army ere
it could combine with another against him, or the resistless
energy with which he directed the blow when the hour of battle
came.

No sooner had he shaken off Baillie for the time on the Spey,
than he hastened by forced marches from Badenoch to the
Grampians ; and having learnt that Lindsay had crossed the
Forth, and was lying at the castle of Newtyle, in Montrose's
own shire of Angus, he was on the banks of the water of Isla,
within seven miles of him, before the untried commander had
any idea of his approach. Lindsay, whose hour had not yet
come, was saved this time by an unexpected defection of the
Gordon horse, who hurried back to the north, on some secret
signal, as was conjectured, from the capricious Aboyne, or his

526 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

jealous father. Lord Gordon alone remained constant, evinc-
ing the greatest concern at this unexpected treachery, and at
the same time such resentment, that it was not without difficulty
Montrose prevailed upon him to relinquish the determination of
punishing with death some of the deserters who belonged to his
own following. Instead of reaping the promised victory, the
royal Lieutenant was constrained to return northward with his
scanty army, having despatched before him Lord Gordon him-
self, and Colonel Nathaniel Gordon, to exert their influence in
bringing back the runaways. Macdonald was also recruiting
in the far Highlands, while Montrose, with the remnant of his
troops, took up a strong position at the castle of Corgarff, in
Strathdon, as intimated in General Baillie's narrative.

Meanwhile Lindsay, having exchanged with Baillie a thousand
of his raw levies for as many veterans, sought laurels in a pre-
datory excursion through Athole, which country he entirely de-
solated. Baillie on the other hand, after various military con-
sultations (in the course of which Argyle refused the commis-
sion once more pressed upon him for pursuing Montrose where-
ever he went), was again despatched to the north, where he
ravaged the domains of Huntly, to the very walls of Gordon
castle. But this magnificent stronghold, the glory of the north,
had been put into admirable condition for a siege, by John
Gordon of Buckie, who had a hundred watchmen nightly set to
guard it, and the covenanting General could make no impres-
sion.

It was this posture of affairs that again induced Montrose (to
whom young Huntly had brought back Aboyne and the Gordon
cavaliers) to go in search of Baillie, whom he found advantage-
ously posted near the kirk of Keith in Aberdeenshire, having
his infantry disposed on a rising ground, and his cavalry in pos-
session of a narrow pass that separated the hostile armies.
After some skirmishing between the light horsemen, both parties
remained under arms all night, in expectation of a battle. Early
in the morning, the Marquis, as on a former occasion, sent a
trumpet with his compliments to his antagonist, announcing
that he would be happy to have the honour of engaging him on
the plain. Baillie returned for answer, that he never took his
fighting instructions from the enemy. Montrose then broke up

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 527

his own position, and, as if in full retreat, went south to the
town of Alford on the Don, with the view of enticing his foe
further into the low country, a manoeuvre that perfectly suc-
ceeded. The covenanting General, who had now learnt that
Macdonald was absent with a strong party recruiting in the
Highlands, followed the retreating royalists with the determina-
tion to risk a battle. Intelligence of his approach, within one
mile of Alford, was brought to our chief while in the act of
examining the fords of the Don, at the head of a single troop of
horse. Leaving this detachment to watch the river, he galloped
back alone to order his battle on Alford Hill. His position
there was strengthened by a marsh in his rear, intersected with
ditches and full of pitfalls, while the ground rose in his front so
as to screen part of his troops from the advancing enemy. Dis-
posing of his cavalry on each of the wings, he gave the charge
of the right to those inseparable friends, the heir of Huntly,
and Nathaniel Gordon. Aboyne and Sir William "Bollock com-
manded on the left. The main body, arranged in files of six
deep, he intrusted to Glengary and Lord Napier's nephew, young
Drummond of Balloch, assisted by Quarter-master George
Graham. The reserve he concealed immediately behind the
brow of the hill, and gave the command of it to his own nephew,
the Master of Napier. Montrose himself and the Standard,
attended by a few choice cavaliers, occupied the centre of the
royal battle. Macdonald and young Inchbrakie, with a large
proportion of their respective followers, were absent. Nor had
the Earl of Airlie and his party yet been able to rejoin the
army.

No sooner were these dispositions made, than the troop which
had been left to watch the fords returned on the spur, with the
intelligence, that Baillie had crossed the Don, and was em-
battled in a position possessing similar advantages to the ground
occupied by the royalists. The armies thus confronted were
nearly equal in respect of foot, about two thousand each. The
covenanting cavalry outnumbered Montrose's, being six hun-
dred to two hundred and fifty. They were commanded by the
gallant Earl of Balcarres, who, it is alleged, hurried Baillie into
this battle by the forwardness of his movements. According to
the Clanranald MS., one of the covenanting leaders addressed

528 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the troops in these words : — " The enemy opposed to you are in
the habit of making the first onset ; do not allow them to have
that advantage to-day, — engage them instantly/1 But this
change of tactics was not destined to deprive the royal cham-
pion of his laurels- Judging that their recruits would be un-
nerved by the clang of his trumpets and the shouts of his men,
he no longer hesitated to give the order to advance. On the
instant; Lord Gordon, and his chivalrous friend, launched their
right wing against the three squadrons of Balcarres's horse, who
met the desperate shock of the Gordons with such determina-
tion that, for a time, the contending parties were mingled in a
dense mass, and the result was doubtful. The first who made
a lane for themselves with their swords, were the gallant young
lord himself and Colonel Gordon. Immediately the latter called
out to the swift musketeers who had followed the charge, —
" Throw down your muskets, and hamstring their horses with
your swords, or sheath them in their bellies." Balcarres's
squadrons now fled in confusion ; and while the Gordons pur-
sued them with great slaughter from the field. Montrose brought
his main body against the regiments of the Covenant, who stood
up manfully, but in vain, against the deadly claymore. At this
decisive moment, too, the Master of Napier was ordered up
with the reserve, who no sooner made their appearance than
the rebels gave way at every point, and the battle of Alford was
gained, on the 2d of July 1645.

But dearly was that victory purchased. The covenanters had
brought along with them all the cattle they had driven from
Huntly's domains of Strathbogie and the Enzie. These were
placed within some enclosures, and guarded by two companies
of their infantry during the battle, a sight which greatly incen-
sed Lord Gordon. " Let none doubt," he exclaimed, " that I
will bring Baillie by the throat from the centre of his men." In
a second charge he was nearly as good as his word. But, while
in the act of seizing the General by the sword-belt, a shot
reached him from the enclosures, and the knightly plume of the
too forward heir of Huntly fell to rise no more. In vain did
Montrose in person, alluring these successful musketeers from
behind their entrenchments, cut them in pieces on the plain.
He on whom alone of his gallant and loyal house he could un-

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 529

doubtingly depend, — the youth who was daily redeeming his
kindred from the disheartening jealousy of its absent chief, and
from the wayward caprices of its younger scions — was now lost
for ever to the cause. The mournful silence with which the
melancholy news was at first received by the army, soon burst
into a wild cry of lamentation in the hour of victory. Plunder
was forgotten as his followers crowded round the body of the
young chief. " Nothing,11 adds Wishart, u could have supported
the army under this immense deprivation but the presence of
Montrose, whose safety brought gladness and revived their
drooping spirits. Yet Montrose himself could not restrain his
grief, but mourned bitterly as if for his dearest and only friend.
Grievously he complained that one who was the ornament of the
Scotish nobility, and the boldest asserter of the royal authority
in the north, his best and bosom friend, should be thus cut off
in the flower of his age."

Independently of the loss to the cause, which, indeed, as we
shall find, Lord Gordon's untimely fate left open to ruin, Mon-
trose must have been deeply affected by the death of a most
accomplished young nobleman, only twenty-eight years of age,
who bursting the trammels of his tyrannical uncle, Argyle, had
recently attached himself to the loyal Marquis with an affection
increasing daily into the most enthusiastic admiration. From
Patrick Gordon, who was well acquainted with them both, we
may accept the following, as an authentic and curious por-
trait : —

" The Marquis of Montrose himself, with all or at least the
greater part of the army, did accompany the corpse to the inter-
ment. Nor did he forbear to show himself the chief mourner,
and indeed there was reason for it : For never two of so short
acquaintance did ever love more dearly. There seemed to be a
harmonious sympathy in their natural disposition, so much were
they delighted in a mutual conversation : And in this the Lord
Gordon seemed to go beyond the limits which nature had al-
lowed for his carriage in civil conversation. So real was his
affection, and so great the estimation he had of the other, that,
when they fell into any familiar discourse, it was often remarked
that the ordinary air of his countenance was changed, from a

34

530 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

serious listening, to a certain ravishment or admiration of the
other's witty expressions : And he was often heard in public to
speak sincerely, and confirm it with oaths, that if the fortune of
the present war should prove at any time so dismal that Mon-
trose for safety should be forced to fly unto the mountains, with-
out any army, or any one to assist him, he would live with him
as an outlaw, and would prove as faithful a consort to drive
away his malour, as he was then a helper to the advancement of
his fortune."

It is remarkable how few of the royalists fell at Alford. The
only persons of any distinction who died with Lord Gordon
were Ogilvy of Milton, Mowat of Balwholly, and an Irish Cap-
tain of the name of Dickson. George Douglas (the Earl of
Morton's brother), who bore the Standard, Colonel Nathaniel
Gordon, young Gordon of Gight, Hay of Dalgetty, and some
others of the Gordons were wounded. Nearly the whole of
Baillie's infantry, officers and men, were cut to pieces, he him-
self narrowly escaping with the Earl of Balcarres and the horse.
In his defence to the covenanting Parliament, he asserted that
Montrose out-numbered him in horsemen, and was twice as
strong in infantry. Such a defence was somewhat necessary be-
fore that tribunal. But it affords no evidence that can be placed
against the statement of Dr Wishart and other contemporary
chroniclers. Nor is it of any consequence to the fame of Mon-
trose. That he was generally out-numbered, throughout his
wars, is unquestionable.

On the fourth day after the battle, we trace the victor at
Craigstoun, about thirty miles to the north-east of Aberdeen,
from whence he writes the following very temperate remon-
strance to his captain of the castle of Blair : —

" For John Robertson of Inver, in the castle of the Blair in

Athole.

" JOHN : These are to show you that I marvel much that 1
do not hear more frequently from you, both concerning the pri-
soners, and other things from your place. Therefore these are
to will you, that you be more frequent in relating to me what
is done concerning the enlargement of the prisoners ; and such

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 531

other things as is requisite that I be acquainted with. Which
hoping you shall do, I rest your loving friend,

" MONTROSE."

" Craigtoun, the 6th of July, J 645.

" Ye will hasten to give particular notice and intelligence, through
all the country, of the last happy victory"1

In consequence of the plague which now raged in Edin-
burgh, the covenanting Parliament met at Stirling on the 8th
of July, six days after the battle of Alford. Poor General
Baillie was nearly distracted with the odium cast upon him, and
the inclination of the Kirk-militant to make him answerable for
this constant failure in the field. An act was passed on the
first day of the Parliament, for levying a new army, to consist
of ten thousand foot, and five hundred horse. Baillie threw up
his commission. But the government, which in fact could not
spare so experienced an officer, compelled him to continue, in a
temporary and most anomalous command, until other arrange-
ments could be made. Thus, "to his own great annoyance and
disgust, the whole responsibility was thrown upon him, while a
military committee, consisting of Argyle, and certain noblemen
who submitted to his dictation, as they valued his patronage,
directed and controlled their unhappy military coadjutor. This
new array was appointed to rendezvous at Perth, on the 24th

1 Original, in the possession of H. B. Ray, Esq., London. Craigtoun,frora which
the letter is dated, we take to be the ancient castle of Craigston, in Buchan, belong-
ing to the Urquhart family. Wishart says, that on the evening of the day of the
battle of Alford, Montrose marched to Cluny castle, and from thence to the banks
of the Dee ; and thereafter, because his Major-General, Macdonald, had not re-
joined him, he took up his quarters at Craigston, waiting both for him and for
Aboyne, whom he had just despatched into Buchan, in search of recruits : " Et quia
nondum redierat Makdonaldus, tarn hunc quam ilium expectans, ad Craystoniam
statita habuit." In Constable's edition (1819) of the translation of Wishart, it is
noted to this passage, " Rather Crabston, situated betwixt the Don and Dee, a few
miles from Aberdeen, there being no place of the name of Craigston near the river
Dee." But Wishart does not say that Craigston was on the Dee. Montrose,
whose motions were most rapid, had made a start, after burying Lord Gordon, from
the Dee across the Don into Buchan, on the look out for Aboyne, there. Tho
above letter confirms Wishart. The conjectural note in Constable's edition of
Wishart, is just repeated from Ruddiman's very faulty edition of 1 756, which con-
tains worse blunders than this.

532 LIFE OF MONTKOSE.

of July. There, of that date, the Parliament also assembled,
having been driven from Stirling by the progress of the terrible
pestilence which visited Scotland in the summer and autumn
of 1645.

The royal Lieutenant, disappointed in his expectations of re-
cruiting his army in Buchan, quitted his quarters at Craigston,
recrossed the Don and the Dee, on his way to the Grampians,
and paused not until those mountains were once more behind
him. He had heard of this great army assembling in the south,
and his whole attention was now directed towards Perth, and
the rebel Parliament there assembled, in whose unscrupulous
hands were the lives of those nearest and dearest to him. De-
scending into the Mearns, or Kincardineshire, he encamped at
Fordoun chapel ; and having from thence despatched orders to
Aboyne, to use his utmost exertions to bring a force of cavalry
to the royal army, he continued his march into Angus, or For-
farshire, where at length he was rejoined by his faithful ally
" black Pate," and the men of Athole, and also by his renowned
Major-General, MacColl Keitache. This last had been most
successful on his recruiting excursion through the loyal High-
lands. For with him came Maclean, and seven hundred of his
clan ; the Captain of Clanranald, with five hundred of that sept ;
and, adds Dr Wishart, " Glengarry, — who deserves a singular
commendation for his bravery and steady loyalty to the King,
and his peculiar attachment to Montrose, whom he had never
left from the time of the expedition into Argyleshire, — by hjs
uncles and other friends brought up five hundred more.1'' To
these were added a large body of the Macgregors and Macnabs,
under their respective chieftains, with Macphersons from Bade-
noch, and Farquharsons from Braemar. Between four and five
thousand of the stoutest hearts in the Highlands now supported
the Standard, and Montrose felt that he had conquered cove-
nanting Scotland, if but one other on whom he greatly depended
kept his appointment. But he looked, and longed, and wrote,
in vain for Aboyne. The heir of Huntly and the Gordon chi-
valry were still absent, and Montrose was only provided with
a hundred horse. The consequence was, that he could not put
his plan into execution, of at once attacking the new levies of
the Covenant, now encamped upon the south side of the Earn.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 533

They were already about six thousand strong, independently of
the garrison of Perth, and of four hundred horse, whose special
duty was to protect the Parliament. Still in hopes of being
joined by the cavaliers under Aboyne, Montrose crossed the
Tay at Dunkeld, and, after pausing on the banks of the Almond,
drew near to Perth, and encamped in the wood of Methven,
about the end of July.

Great was the consternation of the fair city, and of the Par-
liament, and not very comfortable the feelings of the protecting
force, when this unwelcome visitor was announced. The panic
was increased, when there appeared, on the following day, a
cloud of cavalry advancing towards the town. Immediately the
gates of Perth were made fast, and not a covenanting trooper
was to be seen. Montrose's stratagem succeeded. Ever fertile
in expedients to aid his defective resources, he had mounted a
hundred musketeers upon the baggage horses, and arranged
these along with his scanty cavalry, in such a manner as to
give them the appearance of a formidable body. Having ac-
complished his object of confining the enemy's horse within the
walls, he turned aside with his cavaliers to Duplin, coolly sur-
veyed the fords of the Earn, and the whole Strath, and for a
time deceived the Covenanters into a belief that he was attended
by a body of cavalry sufficient to keep the whole country in sub-
jection.1 Presently, however, it was discovered that Montrose

1 Malcolm Laing says, " The array must be computed at six thousand with which
Montrose emerged from behind the mountains and insulted Perth." To establish
this assertion, our historian notes, on the authority of Spalding, that there were
three thousand with him at Auldearn ; and then he makes out the computation, on
the authority of Wishart, by adding the number of the clans who now joined the
Standard, and including " Aboyne and Airlie, with twelve hundred foot, and three
hundred horse." We repeat, that no statement at all approaching the truth of the
relative forces in those wars, can diminish Montrose's fame a feather's weight, in
the scale of his actions. But this historian, who pronounces Wishart's account /a-
balous, while his own theories are too independent of facts, ought to be corrected.
Aboyne and Airlie were not with Montrose, when he threatened Perth, otherwise
Perth would have been taken then as it was before. Besides, Mr Laing takes credit
for the full number vaguely stated by Spalding at three thousand ; and then, not only
makes no allowance for the probability of Montrose's numbers at Auldearn being
loosely overstated, but he omits the undoubted fact, that after every victory a great
proportion of Montrose's Highlanders went home. Consequently, when Mr Laing
adds the numbers of the returning clans, as given by Wishart, to the three thousand
stated by Spalding, he reckons no inconsiderable number twice over, and at the same
time adds a large force of cavalry, the absence of which alone saved Perth at that
time.

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

had scarcely a hundred effective horsemen ; and then the cove-
nanting cavalry emerged in such force, that our hero, effecting
an admirable retreat, in which every attack upon his rear was
repulsed, retired towards the hills. In the wood of Methven,
however, some of the soldiers' wives and other females, who
accompanied the Highlanders and Irish in great numbers, had
been left behind ; and when the vacant camp was occupied by
the Covenanters, such of the unfortunate women as fell into
their hands were butchered in cold blood.1 For this act, no
better reason can be assigned than the following incident : —
Just as Montrose had touched the defiles he sought, his pur-
suers charged his rear with three hundred of their best horse-
men, picked for the occasion, who came on boldly with shouts,
and very insulting language. The Marquis, anticipating the ma-
noeuvre, had selected twenty clever Highlanders, of the readiest
and reddest shanks of his biped cavalry, who, moreover, could
bring down a deer at some hundred paces, with a single bullet.
These went quietly forth against the insulting foe, and conceal-
ing their long guns, and creeping the whole way on their hands
and knees through the brushwood, till within shot of the troop-
ers, took each of them a deliberate and separate aim, which
caused some of the flower of the covenanting cavalry to bite
the dust, and threw the rest into such confusion, that these
twenty Redshanks, rushing down from their covert, put the
whole to shameful rout, without the loss of a single man of
themselves. But the unfortunate female stragglers paid the
penalty. Such were the triumphs of the Covenant.

But Montrose only retreated so far as to be secure against
cavalry. The incidents last narrated occurred about the end
of July ; and, accordingly, upon the first of August, we find him
encamped no further north of Perth than Little Dunkeld ; and
issuing orders to regulate the commissariat of his hungry host,
composed of very independent caterers, not likely to neglect their
stomachs even for the sake of the Standard. The following in-
dicates that their great leader was ever careful to keep open his
communication with the castle of Blair, and affords another in-

1 This fact is chronicled by two contemporaries, Dr Wishart and Monteith of
Salmonet. We shall have occasion to note another instance of the inhuman con-
duct of the Covenanters, of a like nature, occurring soon afterwards.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 535

teresting illustration of a military genius whose attention to
particulars, and indefatigable exertions to sustain his army, and
fulfil his mission to the uttermost, would have distinguished him
in the Crimea two centuries later.

" Orders for John Robertson of Inver.

" Whereas we did direct a speedy order for raising of two
hundred cows furth of the country of Athole, and bringing
them to the camp for present supply of the army ; and, to the
effect that the countrymen may bear an equal burden, and that
they may be proportionally stented (taxed), wherethrough every
one may be burdened therewith according to his ability, — These
are therefore to will and command, that, immediately after sight
hereof, you lay a proportionate stent, of the two hundred cows,
upon every one within the country, according to his quality and
condition, that every one may have his share of the burden 4
and that you assure the whole countrymen, that, at the first
convenient occasion, they shall have the same repaid to them

" Given at our camp, at Little Dunkeld, the first day of Au-
gust 1645.

" MONTROSE." 1

Two days afterwards, another order issues from the same
camp, as follows : —

" Orders for John Robertson of Inver.

" These are to will and command you, that, immediately after
sight hereof, you receive Captain Mortimer within the castle of
Blair, and keep him close ; whereanent these shall be to you a
warrant ; as you will answer on the contrary at your highest
peril.

" Given at our Leaguer at Little Dunkeld, the third of Au-
gust 1645.

" MONTROSE." J

1 Printed in the notes to Robert Chambers' History of the Rebellions in Scotland,
from the original in possession of Mr Stewart of Dalguise, in Athole.

> Original, in possession of Henry F. Holt, Esq., London. There was a Captain
Mortimer in Montrosc's army, who came with the levies from Ireland ; but I cannot

536 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

The Covenanters made no attempt to dislodge Montrose
from Dunkeld, where ere long he was joined by those for whom
he had been so anxiously waiting. Aboyne and Colonel Natha-
niel Gordon brought with them only two hundred horse, and a
hundred and twenty musketeers mounted as dragoons upon the
baggage horses. This was far below the expectations of Mon-
trose ; and too surely indicated that the loyal chivalry of the
north was still paralyzed by the lurking jealousy of Huntly.
But those who came were choice cavaliers, and invaluable at
this moment to the Standard. Not less so, and most welcome
to the heart of Montrose, was the old Earl of Airlie, who, at
length restored to health, now also rejoined him. He was at-
tended by his son, Sir David Ogilvy, with a well mounted troop
of eighty gentlemen of that gallant and ever loyal name. Of
these, the most interesting was young Alexander Ogilvy of In-
nerquharity, already mentioned as having been severely wounded
at the battle of Aberdeen.

Thus reinforced, the royal Lieutenant lost no time in dis-
lodging the covenanting Generals from the wood of Methven,
and again driving them to the south of the Earn. As they now
took up an impregnable position at Kilgraston, he meanwhile
employed himself in endeavouring to disperse or intercept the
levies which they were expecting from Fife. On his march to
Kinross, an incident occurred illustrative of the great superio-
rity, in spirit and daring, of the Cavaliers over the Covenanters.
He had sent forward Sir William Rollo and Nathaniel Gordon
with an advanced guard to reconnoitre. While this body of
horse was separated into smaller parties, in order to gather
intelligence in Fife, their two gallant leaders, having only ten
horsemen along with them, suddenly stumbled upon a recruiting
party of the enemy, consisting of two hundred men, chiefly
cavalry. Retreat being out of the question, Gordon, whom Sir

find that he was otherwise than in high favour with Montrose to the end. Patrick
Gordon pays that he was a Scotchman, and one of Allaster Macdonald's captains,
when he first landed at Ardnamurchan. He seems to have been employed in various
confidential missions, and dangerous services. He led the Irish at the battle of Aber-
deen. He did good service with Montrose even after the defeat at Philiphaugh, and
was taken prisoner by Middleton in 1646. The above order probably refers to ano-
ther of the same name. The name of a Captain Mortimer appears in the list of pri-
efmers taken at Montrose's final defeat.

LIFE OF MONTROSE 537

Walter Scott has justly characterised as " one of the bravest
men and best soldiers in Europe,11 and Hollo noways inferior to
him, acted as became them. With their ten cavaliers they
charged the men of Fife, who fled before that daring onset ;
some of them being left on the field, and others in the hands of
their victors.1 After this exploit they rejoined Montrose, who
now determined to cross the Forth, that, by fighting a battle in
that quarter, he might command the south of Scotland, and be
ready to form a junction on the Borders with the King. Since
his recent overthrow at Naseby, Charles himself had no other
hope.

On his way to the Forth, Montrose passed through a country
belonging to Argyle, which was burnt and wasted by the Mac-
leans, in retaliation for the Dictator's ravages among their high-
land homes, now amply avenged. For the magnificent pile of
Castle Campbell, — the name which in a previous century had
been bestowed upon it by act of Parliament, instead of its for-
mer designation " the Castle of Gloom," — was consigned to
the flames, and the picturesque.2 This was retributive justice.
But that such ravages were sometimes independent of Mon-
trose, and, even had they been less justified, were not always to
be prevented by him, is indicated by an interesting circumstance
occurring at this period. The Royalists had passed through
these possessions of Argyle, into the lordship and town of Alloa,
belonging to the Earl of Mar. That nobleman and his son Lord
Erskine, were now decidedly, though not actively, loyal. More-
over, they were in close alliance of blood and affection with Lord
Napier. The Irish under Macdonald, however, barbarously plun-
dered his town and domains, while the Earl with all his family

1 Malcolm Laing, in order to prove his reckless and groundless assertion that Dr
Wishart is a "fabulous writer," says, in reference to the above, and the former feat
of the twenty Highlanders : " In the present expedition he tells of twenty High-
landers who routed three hundred, of twelve horsemen who defeated two hundred
of the Covenanters' horse, killing some and making prisoners of others." This is
very unfairly put. Our historian must have known that the minute detail of the
manner in which the Highland marksmen set to work, is truly characteristic, and
renders the story most probable ; nor, when the conduct of the Fife levies at Tip-
permuir and Kilsyth is remembered, does it appear at all unlikely that such men as
Gordon and Rollo, when brought to bay, should with ten cavaliers rout two hundred
of those levies. Malcolm Laing keeps all these circumstances out of view.

3 See before, p. 253.

538 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

were'residing in his castle of Alloa, and Montrose lay encamped
hard by, in the wood of Tullibody. Nevertheless, the very next
day the Earl invited Montrose, his own son-in-law the Master
of Napier, the Earl of Airlie, and the most distinguished of the
staff of the royal Lieutenant, to dine with him in the castle.
" So,1" adds Bishop Guthrie, " Montrose appointed Macdonald
to march westward with the foot army ; and, bringing his horse
for a guard, himself, and the Earl of Airlie, and many more,
were liberally feasted in the castle of Alloa ; after which, having
notice of the enemy"1 s advancing towards them, they made the
greater haste to overtake their foot ; and being met, and con-
sidering the town of Stirling was consumed by the pestilence,
resolved to pass by it, and so crossed both the Teith and the
Forth, two miles to the northward of it, and from thence
marched on to Kilsyth, where they found the ground so ad-
vantageous for them, as made them resolve to halt there, until
their enemies should come that length, which very shortly fell."
Meanwhile, the army of the Covenant, which had been rein-
forced by three regiments from Fife, and another composed of
the remnant of Argyle's highlanders, continued to follow the
footsteps of Montrose. King Campbell himself was in reality
the commander of that army, and as he passed by Stirling, he,
too, left his mark. He caused the house of Menstrie, belonging
to the Earl of Stirling, and the house of Airthrie, the property
of Graham of Braco, to be laid in ashes, and at the same time
sent an insolent notification to the Earl of Mar, that, when they
returned from destroying Montrose, he might expect the same
fate to his castle of Alloa, for having feasted that u excommu-
nicated traitor." And so saying, the Dictator marched on to
the bridge of Denny, and by that to Hollinbush, where they
encamped, about two miles and a half east from Kilsyth, on the
1 4th of August. Such were the antecedents to the bloodiest,
the most astounding, and the last of Montrose's victories.

According to Bishop Guthrie, and other chroniclers, the Co-
venanters were seven thousand strong, exclusive of their cavalry.
Dr Wishart says six thousand foot, and eight hundred horse ;
and that Montrose's army consisted of four thousand four hun-
dred foot, and five hundred horse ; which, adds an old historian

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 539

of the family of Gordon, " I take to be a pretty exact account
of the number of that army." Unquestionably Montrose was
greatly outnumbered, or Argyle would not have proposed to
give him battle. The joint-stock Company of command for the
Covenant, consisted of Argyle, Tullibardine, Lindsay (called
Crawford), Balcarres, Burleigh, Elcho, and General Baillie,
every one of whom Montrose had signally beaten, with the
exception of his old friend Lord Lindsay of the Byres, whom
as yet he had only frightened. But it seemed as if, having been
severally snapt in detail, they had determined to prove their
strength in a bundle. A curious picture of that battle is pre-
sented to us by the principal actor on one side; namely, in
Baillie's defence, already quoted, to which we shall turn in the
first place.

As day dawned, on the morning of the 15th of August J 645,
Argyle, Burleigh, and some others, proceeded to the General's
tent, when the following dialogue occurred between the latter
and the King of the Kirk and Covenant : —

" Whereabouts are the rebels ?" said Argyle.— " Still at Kil-
syth," replied Baillie. — " Might we not advance nearer them?1"
rejoined the other. — " We are near enough already, if we do
not intend to fight ; and your Lordship knows well how rough
and uneasy a way lies betwixt them and us." — " But," said Ar-
gyle, " we need not keep the highway ; we may march upon
them in a direct line."1' — " Very well," replied the General ; " let
the Earl of Crawford, and the rest of the Committee, be called
in from the next tent."

The result of the conference was, that Baillie directed his
march " through the corns and over the braes," until constrained
to halt a little to the east of Kilsyth, where the ground in front
presented insuperable obstacles to further progress in that direc-
tion, at the same time affording an impregnable position. Here
Baillie " embattled," as he expresses it himself, but was not
permitted to follow the dictates of his own experience. Some
of the controlling nobles suggested that he should rather occupy
the heights to the right, which were understood to separate them
from the yet invisible foe. The General remonstrated. " I do
not conceive" he said, " that ground to be good ; and the re-

540 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

bels, if they will, may possess themselves of it before us.*1 The
committee of nobles ordered the ground to be inspected. This
being done, they adhered to their opinion, upon the assumption
that the Royalists were still retreating westward, and might be
taken in flank from the position proposed. "I liked not the
motion,1' says General Baillie. " I told them if the rebels should
seek to engage us there, I conceived they would have great ad-
vantage over us : Further, if we should beat them to the hill, it
would be unto us no great advantage : But, — as I had said upon
like disputes near unto Methven and the bridge of Earn, — to
us, the loss of the day would be the loss of the Kingdom"

Thus compelled to quit his strong position, the scholar of
Gustavus Adolphus proceeded to change his front to the hill on
the right. Accordingly, an advance of musketeers was de-
spatched in that direction, and Major Halden instructed to
post them in some enclosures which Baillie pointed out. He
himself followed, with Balcarres, and a squadron of cavalry
whom he ordered to support the musketeers of the van. The
various regiments in the rear he directed to face to the right,
turning their flank into their front, and to be ready to face to
their former front at the ground in question. Having put the
best order he could into this unhappy flank movement, he gal-
loped over the brow of the hill to the right, accompanied by the
Lords Lindsay and Burleigh, to view the ground on the other
side and the posture of the enemy.

Beneath them, at some distance, extended a meadow, upon
which and the neighbouring heights Montrose had arranged his
battle. Save to the three anxious and moody commanders who
thus inspected it, a very beautiful sight it must have been, those
gallant clans, and high-blooded cavaliers, clustering around the
only royal standard that was ever worthy of Charles the First.
The meadow was united to part of the ground which the Cove-
nanters were now hastening to occupy, by a glen whose rugged
sides were clothed with underwood. A few rustic gardens, and
cottages, scattered on the hill, and towards the head of the
glen, suggested the points where the struggle was likely to com-
mence. Even as the two nobles, and their attendant General,
took their hasty glance at this exciting prospect, they perceived
a large body of the Redshanks, apparently disbanded and in

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 541

confusion, threading their way, through the bushes and up the
glen, like a herd of mountain cats. Returning on the spur,
these three brought the intelligence to Argyle, who was of
course adhering to the safe side of the hill. The half-distracted
General now caught sight of Major Halden, quitting his posi-
tion, without orders, and leading some musketeers across a field
to a house near the glen where he knew the enemy were falling
up in considerable strength. Having attempted in vain to re-
call him, he advised Argyle and his staff to retire, and ordered
every officer to his post ; while he himself, accompanied by Bal-
carreSj galloped back to the regiments in the rear, which were
too tardy in their movements.

" What am I to do now 2" demanded my Lord Balcarres.1
" Draw up your regiment on the right hand of the Earl of
Lauderdale's," answered the General. He then ordered Lau-
derdale's regiment to face to the right hand, to march to the
foot of the hill, and thereafter to face again as they were.
Colonel Hume he directed to follow their steps, to halt when
they halted, and to keep distance and front with them. " And
what am I to do ?" said an officer, who proved to be Argyle's
Major. " Draw up on Hume's left hand, as you were before,"'
cried the General, and galloped on. But, adds that luckless
commander, " I had not ridden far from him, when, looking
back, I found Hume had left the way I had put him in, and was
gone at a trot, right west, in among the dikes and towards the
enemy." So he returned at speed, and meeting the Adjutant
by the way, ordered Crawford's (Lindsay) regiment to take the
left of Lauderdale's, and those very doubtful resources, the
regiments of Fife, to be posted in reserve. He then hastened
after Colonel Hume, but, ere the General arrived, that regiment,
along with Argyle's (minus the Marquis), and two other regi-
ments, had occupied an enclosure, towards which the royalists
were now advancing in great force, and had already reached the
next dike. The covenanting regiments commenced a distant
and disorderly fire, which Baillie in vain exerted himself to re-
strain. What, precisely, was his own scientific plan for gaining
the battle, is not very manifest. If he understood it himself, it

1 Besides commanding the cavalry, Balcarres, like the other covenanting nobles,
was a Colonel appointed to the regiment which bore his name.

542 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

is clear that no one else did. The result, however, is given by
him distinctly enough, and is highly characteristic of his oppo-
nents. " The Rebels," — as he is pleased to call the loyal clans,
fighting under the royal standard, — " leapt over the dike, and
with down heads fell on, and broke these regiments.'1'1 He adds
that all the officers on the spot behaved well, and that " I saw
none careful to save themselves before the routing of the regi-
ments." By this time nearly beside himself, he spurred his
horse to the crest of the eminence commanding a view of the
field, and there came in contact with his Major-General Hoi-
bourn. This officer directed his attention to a squadron of
cavaliers just gone by, which Baillie, with great na'ivete, says he
supposes to have been that which was on its way to route the
horse under Crawford, after having charged through those com-
manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Murray. .It was in fact old
Airlie, following up his brilliant and decisive charge for God
and the King. Both Generals then clapt spurs to their horses,
and rode back to bring up the reserve. But by this time the
Fife levies were in full flight. So, having done their best to
rally some of the fugitives, they rode off to Stirling, where the
two Generals found most of the noble commanders already safely
lodged within the defences of that town and castle. On the
subject of Argyle's demeanour, during the fight, and the flight,
General Baillie is silent.

We now turn to the view afforded by Dr Wishart, and other
contemporary chroniclers, of Montrose"s side of the battle.

When our hero first encamped in the fields about Kilsyth, he
was doubtful whether to do battle there, or continue his march.
But having learnt that Lanerick (Hamilton's brother) had raised
a large force in Clydesdale against his royal benefactor, and was
within fifteen miles of Kilsyth, while Cassilis, Eglinton, Glen-
cairn, and other covenanting noblemen, were also levying forces
in the west country, he determined to attack Baillie without
delay. This was at the very moment when his agitated oppo-
nents were discussing the idea so fatal to them, that the royal
host was still pressing on westward, and neither intended nor
desired to assail their position at Kilsyth.

Such rapid and unexpected turns, in order to destroy the

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 543

combinations against him by a crushing blow, struck at the
critical moment, against the most formidable point, had been
his invariably successful tactic throughout his marvellous cam-
paign. The unusually forward motions and fighting attitude
which King Campbell's army displayed on the morning of the
15th, indicated a consciousness of numerical superiority suffi-
cient to make them risk a battle, if the royal Lieutenant offered
it instead of retreating westward, as the Covenanters still flat-
tered themselves he was doing. " The very thing I want," ex-
claimed Montrose ; " and as for their numbers, we have the
best position, which is more than half the battle."" He then
busied himself in the most judicious preparations. The recent
fate of Lord Gordon induced him to curb the ardour of Aboyne,
now heir of Huntly, whom he kept in the rear, attended by a
body-guard of twelve cavaliers, while the Huntly horse were led
by Colonel Gordon. The Earl of Airlie placed himself at the
head of a body of horse, chiefly composed of the Ogilvy cava-
liers,— John Ogilvy of Baldavie, who had formerly distinguished
himself as a colonel in the Swedish service, commanding under
him. The great MacColl kept his brave Irish well in hand ;
but the clans were too impatient for action, and most difficult
to restrain, owing to the emulation, and dispute for precedence,
arising between seven hundred of the Macleans, under their
chief, Sir Lachlan Maclean of Duart, and five hundred of the
clan Ranald, under John of Moidart, Captain of Clanranald,
and his impetuous son Donald. These had all been absent
from the last victory, and were now burning to distinguish
themselves as Glengary had done at Alford.

Montrose, too, reconnoitred his formidable foes. He had not
failed to keep an eye upon their movements in pursuit of him,
from Denny, where they crossed the Carron, to Hollinbush,
and so to Kilsyth. An army, variously estimated at from six
to seven thousand infantry, and from eight hundred to a thou-
sand horse, the last which, to all appearance, the Covenant
could muster against him in Scotland, the only barrier remain-
ing between him and his Sovereign, must have impressed his
mind with the crisis of the most important and difficult of all
his herculean labours. The right of this rebel host seemed to
be resting on the high ground to the east of Kilsyth, while their

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

left extended to the heights southward of the town, at the foot
of which may now be traced the line of the Forth and Clyde
canal. Thus threatened with an array capable of surrounding
him, but seemingly too much extended to be strong in the
centre, Montrose concentrated his main battle, under his own
immediate command, at the same time presenting a front of
one wing to the south, and another to the east. Descrying, in
front of his left, some of those cottages and gardens alluded to
in General Baillie's account, his first move was to order Evan
Maclean of Treshnish, called Captain of Kernburg, to advance
quietly with a hundred picked marksmen, to secure that posi-
tion, and to maintain it as one of great importance. These,
perhaps, were the highlanders whom Baillie had observed,
" falling up the glen through the bushes." Treshnish had
scarcely occupied this post, the Hougomont of Kilsyth, when it
was assailed in a desultory manner, probably by some of those
troops whom the unfortunate covenanting General had been ex-
erting himself to embattle and restrain. But this rash advance,
met by a withering fire from the enclosure, first wavered, and
then recoiled in confusion ; followed, however, by their equally
incautious opponents, who never could resist the temptation of
a rush with the claymore, when the long gun was empty. The
incident was critical, and somewhat deranged the plans of Mon-
trose. The Macleans with Treshnish were obviously exposed to
an overwhelming force of cavalry and infantry, now more rapidly
congregating to their destruction. The chief of Duart could no
longer curb the main body of his clan, which broke loose, and
heaved and foamed into the battle like a tempestuous billow.
It was while this storm swept on, that Colonel Hume, disre-
regarding or misapprehending the covenanting General's in-
structions, went off at a rapid pace with his regiment westward,
" among the dikes, and towards the enemy," followed by four
other regiments of the Covenant, named, from their respective
colonels, Argyle's, Lauderdale's, Crawford's (Lindsay), and Bal-
carres's. In fact, they were hurrying to cover; and were not aware,
as Baillie was, of the near approach of the Eedshanks in great
force making for the same point. As the Macleans rushed on,
young Donald of Moidart urged the clan Ranald into a race
with them for precedence, —an emulation not allayed by the

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 545

distant fire which Baillie had endeavoured to restrain, — over-
took the rival clan, broke through their ranks, and Donald
himself was the first of the claymores to leap the enclosure.
The men of Duart, however, and also the MacGregors, were
not far behind ; and thus it was, that, as Baillie in his apolo-
getic lament expresses it, " in the end, the rebels leapt over the
dike, and, with down heads, fell on and broke these regiments."
But the feat thus improvised, was not performed without the
most imminent risk to Montrose of losing the battle. This tu-
multuous burst of Redshanks, jostling and quarrelling with each
other in the race of death, was exposed to an attack of cavalry,
commanded by Balcarres, the Cardigan of the Covenant. They
saw not their danger, but Montrose did. It is remarkable that
Baillie, as would appear from his own account, had paid so little
attention to the cavalry movements, the great feature of the
battle. A thousand horse, under a nobleman who had given
the Gordons such tough work at Alford, were not likely to be
idle at Kilsyth. Among them was a squadron of cuirassiers,
the gleaming of whose breast-plates at a distance is said to have
inspired the Gordons with a stronger disinclination to a charge
than they had ever felt before. Let us rather hope that Aboyne
was sulky, from being kept in the back-ground. The insubor-
dinate advance of the claymores elicited some testy exclama-
tions from the Earl of Airlie. Montrose expressed his anxiety
lest these madcaps should be overwhelmed by the cavalry on
their flank. In vivid language, he urged the Gordon cavaliers
to the rescue. " Behold those rebels,"" he said ; " they are the
same whom you routed at Auldearn and Alford." But the gay
Gordons for once in their lives hung back. Upon which, turn-
ing to the nobleman at his side, our hero thus addressed him, —
" The army looks to you, my Lord Airlie, as the man most
worthy to save those rash highlanders, and to redeem the day :
Teach the hot blood of youth to prize the arm of valour that is
united to an experienced head." Now Lord Airlie was about
fourscore; and, moreover, he had just recovered from a fever.
But he was an Ogilvy, and young Innerquharity himself could not
with more alacrity have responded to the appeal. Surrounded
by the gentlemen of his own name, and well seconded by Colonel
Ogilvy, this brave old county repeatedly charged the cove-

35

546 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

nanting horse with irresistible effect. Driving them back upon
two thousand infantry with whom they were combined, he cre-
' ated a confusion in the ranks of the enemy, that enabled the
Redshanks to reach their goal, and in fact was decisive of the
day. Montrose now gave the signal for a general attack, and
brought his whole troops into play, the Gordons no longer hesi-
tating to take their wonted place in the melee. In the chase of
fourteen miles which ensued, not less, it is said, than six thou-
sand Covenanters paid the forfeit of their lives for their rebel-
lion. Of the royal army, scarcely one hundred were put hors de
combat.1 While most of the covenanting noblemen saved them-
selves, by a timely flight, in the castle of Stirling, Argyle, as
usual, rushed to water, never drawing bridle till he reached the
Forth at Queensferry, where he sought safety in some vessels
lying at anchor in the road of Leith. Nor did the Dictator feel
himself secure, until he had prevailed with them to put to sea.
A cut a posteriori, from the claymore of the exasperated old
Earl, leading the dance at Kilsyth, could not be shunned with
too much activity by that illustrious impersonation of the Reli-
gion and Liberties of Scotland, who had " burnt the bonnie
house of Airlie ;" although for that outrage he had obtained a
parliamentary exoneration, " as also for putting of whatsomever
person or persons to torture or question, or putting of any person
or persons to death." The scatter of the nobles, who, so unfor-
tunately for themselves, had gone " a colonelling," was Hudi-
brastic. They put Argyle ashore at Newcastle. So he did not
sup that night with Generals Baillie and Holbourn, and such of
the gold tufts as took immediate refuge in Stirling Castle. Not
a scratch among that legion of commanders, who left behind
them six thousand of their soldiers slain. As they jostled each
other by the way, we can imagine old Burleigh, an experienced
foot at flying from Montrose, already twitting the unfortunate
General with the utter failure of his elaborate drill on the field
of battle, and all those facings to the right, and to the left, which
ended in this right-about-wheel for dear life. It was during a
hurry-scurry of the kind, after a like disastrous defeat, that a

1 The Ogilvys, as might be expected, suffered most, three gentlemen of the name
being slain. Everything belonging to the covenanting army, as usual, fell into the
hands of the victors.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 54-7

Scotch officer, more coarse than courteous, is said to have ad-
dressed his companion in the flight, — no less than a scientific
commander-in-chief, whose book of evolutions had become the
primer of the British army, — with these ungenerous words :
" Oh ! Davie, Davie, ye donnard fule, whar be a1 your pivots
noo ?"

One famous trait, of Montrose's side of the battle, must be
particularly noticed, not only as characteristic in itself, but
from the extraordinary use that has been made of it by his
modern calumniators. We regret to quote the following from
so useful a compilation as Chambers^ Biographical Dictionary,
But were Biography always to minister after this fashion, as
the handmaid of History, her services would be worse than
useless : —

u A company of cuirassiers drew from Montrose a remark,
that the cowardly rascals durst not face them till they were
cased in iron : ' To shew our contempt of them, let us fight
them in our shirts.' With that he threw off his coat and waist-
coat, tucked up the sleeves of his shirt like a butcher going to
kill cattle, at the same time drawing his sword with ferocious
resolution : The proposal was received with applause : The
cavalry threw off their upper garments, and tucked up their
sleeves : The foot stripped themselves naked even to the feet ; and
in this state were ready to rush upon their opponents, before
they could take up the places assigned to them. The consequence
was, the battle was a mere massacre, a race of fourteen miles, in
which space six thousand men were cut down and slain."

We do not believe that Montrose threw off his " coat and
waistcoat." No contemporary account of that battle says so.
If it was his fashion to wear a light cuirass, he may have dis-
pensed with it on that occasion. But the chances are, he did
not part with his buff coat as a preparative for battle. Neither
do we believe that he tucked up his sleeves " like a butcher
going to kill cattle." And however well exercised, and cunning
of fence he may have been, from the time that his foils were first
" dressed" by the smith at Aberuthven, we doubt his being able
to draw his sword " at the same time" that he was tucking up
his sleeves. And as for the massacre on that day being " the

548 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

consequence" of our hero's four thousand five hundred infantry
having fought stark naked, " even to the feet," we must doubt
a fact which we find nowhere else recorded. The pursuit was
for fourteen miles, through growing corns, up rugged glens, and
.by paths which General Baiilie states to have been " rough and
uneasy to march in."

Ere they joined battle, Montrose, says Dr Wishart, " com-
manded his men, cavalry and infantry, to cast aside their more
troublesome garments, and stripping themselves to the waist of
all clothing but the under vesture, thus, giving the onset in
their glaring white shirts, to rush upon the enemy. He was
obeyed with right good will ; and after this fashion they stood
ready and disencumbered, and determined to conquer or die." l
This passage explains itself. Nor was the instruction, to cast
away the plaids and other fatiguing garments, an extraordinary
one, considering that it was in the middle of August these
mountaineers were about to charge six thousand of their ene-
mies up hill, and to chase them as far as they could.

The whig historian Laing, without proceeding to such extre-
mities of fantastical absurdity, is sufficiently partial and childish
in his meagre account of this great battle. Ignoring altogether
the effect of Montrose's cavalry, which more than shared the
honour of the day, he attributes the victory to " the wild out-
cries, the savage aspect, and the furious onset of the Irish and
Highlanders, who fought almost naked, and which, formidable
to the most regular, were ill sustained by undisciplined troops."
And referring with philanthropic horror to the fact of the fugi-
tive army having been " pursued to the distance of fourteen
miles, with unrelenting rage? he leaves Montrose under the his-
torical condemnation of " this barbarous slaughter of the unre-
sisting infantry."

Why did they not resist ? They had come there to do the same
to the Irish and the Highlanders, if they could. Over any precise

i tl Suis insuper omnibus, equiti juxta ac pediti imperat, ut positis molestioribus
testlbus, ct soils induslis superne amicti, et in albis emicantes, hoatibits insultarent.
Quod cum illi alacres Icetique fecissent, expediti paratique stabant, certi ant cincere
aut morl"

Some contemporary accounts have it, that, so far as the Gordon cavalry were
concerned, Aboyne ordered them to put white shirts over their usual dress, to dis-
tinguish them in the melde.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 549

amount of slaughter, committed by the red-handed pursuers in the
heat of battle, no rational man will say that the laurelled victor
could exercise control. But he was there for the legitimate pur-
pose of destroying that great army of the cruel Covenant; and
he did it. His immediate object was to clear the way between
himself and his hunted Sovereign at the Borders; and he did it.
Was he to allow this innocent " unresisting infantry," to rally
between him and Beersheba? His duty, the only remaining
chance for the Throne, was to smite them hip and thigh in
battle; and he did it. In the month of July 1645, between the
dates of the battles of Alford and Kilsyth, the Reverend Robert
Baillie, then with the committee in England, was continually
urging, that the powerful army which was now utterly destroyed,
should be sent there to strengthen their hands. " There is great
need,1' he writes to the covenanting nobles in Scotland, " that,
with all the speed may be, those six thousand foot we hear of, be
sent up from Scotland, and with them some gracious ministers™
Then he adds, — " Montrose will be cheaper and more easily
defeat here, than he can be there." But Montrose destroyed
them here, that his Sovereign might not be defeated by them
there. And it is to the great discredit of the modern historian
whom we now arraign, that while the obvious tenor of his par-
tial historic page, is to cast that blood upon the hero himself,
and to record him as the barbarous leader of savages, he sup-
presses altogether one of those unquestionable facts, which will
be found to constitute the characteristic distinction between-
the so called cruelty of Montrose, and the genuine cruelty of
the Covenant. Sir William Murray of Blebo, James Arnot,
who was Lord Burleigh^s brother, Colonels Dick and Wallace,
with many others, were made prisoners. Certain death would
have been their portion, had they been taken in arms against
the Covenant. Montrose, as usual, dismissed the above on their
parole. Nor can the fact be questioned, although Malcolm
Laing suppresses it when most germain to the matter. It was
published to the world, by Dr Wishart, in the year following
the event, and during the lifetime of all concerned.

Another historian of Scotland, no less anxious, from consti-
tutional motives, to depreciate Montrose, would persuade us,
that his laurels were worthless, because so easily won. " His

550 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

panegyrists forget," says the Historiographer Royal for Scot-
land, alluding to the battle of Tippermuir, " that the utter
wort/ilessness of the opposite troops bereaves him of all glory in
vanquishing them.1' * Tested by the rapidity and completeness
of the success, the same might be pronounced of all his victories.
But, with such resources as he had, was there no glory in making
the experiment ? Can the man of his times be named, other than
himself, who would have made that experiment, and with the
same success \ But his fame rests not merely on the desperate
bravery of that experiment. He had studied the character of
the Highlander. He had learnt how to handle the fleet-
footed mountaineer. And, in a few days after he had placed
himself at the head of what was only an imperfect Celtic
gathering, he struck a blow at Perth, that is unrivalled by any
thing performed in the adventure for the Stewart dynasty in
the following century. That is a pregnant remark of his to
his Sovereign, in the dispatch from Inverlochy, — " I was willing
to let the world see that Argyle was not the man his Highland-
men believed him to be, and that it was possible to beat Mm in
his own highlands." Long ere the battle of Preston was gained,
in " the forty-five," the Highlander had been well proved. But
Montrose had to derive his hopes of him from such a field as
Harlaw, — where the flower of the Gael, under Donald of the
Isles, fell in bloody and irretrievable defeat before inferior num-
bers of the lowland gentry of Aberdeenshire and the Mearns ;
or Corrichie, — where the Gordons dashed themselves in vain
against the phalanx of the Southern ; or Glenlivet, — where, in.
their mountain fastnesses, and upon their native heather, the
Highlanders of Argyle, at a time when their chief was no cow-
ard, and commanded them in name of the King, were utterly
routed by the rebel lowland cavalry of Huntly and Errol.

Sir Walter Scott, both in his histories and his legend of
Montrose, points out the progress of that revolution, in the
history of the Scots, which gradually transformed the warlike
lowlander, and steel-clad burgher, of a former century, into
country clowns and puffy townsmen, while the mountaineer
retained his weapons, and his invigorating habits, and became
proportionally improved in the exercise of both. But, at the

1 Mr Brodie.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 551

same time, it must not be forgotten, that justly as Montrose
himself appreciated the relative value, in the year 1644, of loyal
caterans from Badenoch, and covenanting troops from Fife, he
had not to carry his recollection so far back even as Glenlivet,
for an instance where the Gael had been disgraced in collision
with the Southern. We have already recorded how, in 1639,
a thousand Highlanders — commanded indeed by " traitor Gun"
— fled like sheep before Montrose himself, (at the head of an
inferior force drawn out of the very lowland districts that fur-
nished the army of Elcho at Perth), and sought safety in the
centre of a morass from a very slight administration of the
" musket's mother."

It was the genius of Montrose, then, which first illustrated
that peculiar chivalry of Scottish loyalty, and gave the impulse
which rendered the rush of the tartan, and the flash of the
claymore, so formidable in the same cause for a century there-
after, and memorable for ever.1

* The following list is in the handwriting of the first Lord Napier ; and now
among the family papers : —

" At the battle of Kilsyth, the whole foot regiments killed and totally routed.
Prisoners taken that day : The laird of Ferney, a colonel for Fife ; Lieutenant-
colonel Wallace ; Lieutenant-colonel Levingston ; Lieutenant-colonel Dick ; [Li-
vingston of] Westquarter ; Sir William Murray; Rout-master Abercromby ; Major
John Moncrieff ; Major Lockhart ; Captain Lad ; Captain Paterson ; Captain Lundy ;
Captain Monteith ; Captain Mercer, son to [Mercer of] Aldy; John Bain Macnab ;
Captain Baillie ; Captain Crawfurd ; Captain Lieutenant Cunningham ; William
Moncrieff of Kindullo ; Cornet Hume ; Lieutenant Johnston ; Stephen Paterson ;
Mr Thomas Kirkaldy ; Mr Frederick Carmichael ; Captain Ruthven ; and sundry
others were had : The laird of Cambo, and many gentlemen killed ; Glenorchy
and Dunbarro."

552 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

CHAPTER XXVII.

RESULTS OF THE BATTLE OF KILSYTH — MONTROSE ENCAMPS AT BOTHWELL,
AND PROTECTS GLASGOW — COMPLIMENTARY ADDRESSES AND OFFERS OF
SERVICE TO HIM THERE— CRUEL TREATMENT OF THE IMPRISONED
LOYALISTS— THE PLAGUE OF 1645 — MONTROSE'S ORDERS FOR THE PRO-
TECTION OF LINL1THGOW AND EDINBURGH, AND THE RELEASE OF THE
PRISONERS — LORD GRAHAM, A PRISONER IN THE CASTLE, DECLINES
THE CONDITION OF BEING EXCHANGED — MONTROSE AND THE POET
DRUMMOND — PRESIDENT SPOTTISWOODE ARRIVES AT BOTHWELL WITH A
HIGHER COMMISSION TO MONTROSE — ABOYNE DESERTS THE STANDARD,
AND TAKES WITH HIM THE NORTHERN HORSE — OGILVY'S LETTER TO
ABOYNE — ALLASTER MACDONALD KNIGHTED BY MONTROSE — FORSAKES
THE STANDARD, AND CARRIES OFF THE HIGHLANDERS — MONTROSE, AS
ORDERED BY THE KING, MARCHES TO THE BORDERS — DESERTED AND BE-
TRAYED BY THE BORDER NOBLES — SPOTTISWOODE'S LETTER AT KELSO
TO DIGBY — MONTROSE AT SELKIRK — THE SKELETON OF HIS ARMY SUR-
PRISED AND SURROUNDED BY SIX THOUSAND CAVALRY, UNDER GENE-
RAL DAVID LESLIE, AT PI1ILIPHAUGH.

HAVING in this complete style disposed of the Hydra, ere long
to be revenged after her kind, Montrose, " of all that ever this
land brought forth, the most cruel and inhuman butcher and
murderer of his nation,*0 1 at once turned his attention to the
protection of the great cities of the kingdom, the rescue, from
durance, and death, of his dear relatives, the security to persons
and property of the lieges, and the general amelioration of the
Kirk-ridden country. Being about to march into Clydesdale,
in search of the Earl of Lanerick and his levies in that quarter,
from his camp at Kilsyth he wrote as follows to the civic autho-
rities of Glasgow, now trembling to her heart's core : —

" ASSURED FRIENDS : Being to repair to those fields, these

1 Chancellor London's address, in pronouncing sentence upon Montrose.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 553

are to call and require you that, immediately after sight hereof,
you command all the people of your town • not to depart from
their own dwellings, but to remain in their own houses ; and
that they make ready all sort of provisions for passing of the
army ; which if they do, they shall be assured to be protected
as good and loyal subjects ; but if they do other ways, they shall
oblige us to proceed against them as rebels, and enemies to his
Majesty's service. Thus expecting your care and diligence
herein, I rest your assured friend,

" MONTROSE." l

Like Seaforth in the north, after the battle of Tnverlochy,
Lanerick in the south, after the battle of Kilsyth, was not to be
found. The brother of Hamilton, with those other arch rebels
Argyle, Loudon, and Lindsay, took refuge in Berwick and New-
castle. Their levies dispersed. Glencairn and Cassilis fled to
Ireland. After remaining two days at Kilsyth, to rest and re-
organize his army, the royal Lieutenant descended into the
valley of the Clyde. There,—

u When fruitful Clydesdale's apple-bowers
Were mellowing in the noon," —

Bellona and Pomona met and shook hands. In the city of
Glasgow the victor was greeted by the acclamations of the po-
pulace, never apt to regard Montrose with that unjust alarm
and horror which partial or careless historians have imputed to
the people of Scotland. Excesses, of course, were committed
by an excited soldiery, flushed with victory. But, true to his
word and his system, their noble commander restrained all such
acts with the salutary authority of the provost-marshal, and
some of the most audacious of these military delinquents were
doomed to death on the spot.2 Even in this hour of uncon-

1 From extracts, autograph of Crawfurd the peerage writer, out of certain MS.
historical memoirs now lost, by James Burns, one of the bailies of Glasgow at the
time of the battle of Kilsyth. Crawford's MS. was printed by Mr Maidment, in his
" Historical Fragments,'' published by Thomas G. Stevenson, Edinburgh, 18 ;2.

2 With regard to this circumstance, recorded by Wishart, some of his modern
translators have done injustice to his hero, by misapprehending the original text,
which is as follows : — •

654 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

trolled triumph, his conduct was eminently humane and con-
servative. He withdrew his army six miles off, indulging the
city with the privilege of their own civic guard, to protect it
from wanton stragglers. He planted the royal banner in the
romantic locality where erst

" St George's cross, o'er Both well hung,

Was waving far and wide,
And from the lofty turret flung
Its crimson blaze on Clyde."

At Both well, complimentary addresses poured in from all
quarters of Scotland, and were presented to him by special
commissioners. Moreover, there came in person to him, to
declare their loyalty and offer their services, the Marquis of
Douglas ; the Earls of Linlithgow, Annandale, and Hartfell ;
the Lords Erskine, Seton, Drummond, Fleming, Maderty, Car-
negie, and Johnston ; Carnwattfs brother Sir John Dalziel ;
Charteris of Amisfield, Towers of Inverleith, Stewart of Rosyth,
and various others, some of whom now made protestations of

" Civitatein in fidem receptam, cum faustis populi acclamationibus ingressus,
milites, in primis, ab injuriis coercuit, et in noxios severe animadvertens, graviiis
peccantes, in aliorum terrorem, capite multarit."

It cannot be doubted that this means his measures of severity against such sol-
diers as had disregai'ded his protection of the town. But the translator, in Rud-
diman's edition of 1 756, has committed a gross blunder, in rendering the passage
thus :—

" He entered this city amidst the general acclamations of the inhabitants, hav-
ing first ordered his men to abstain from all manner of hostilities. He made a
strict scrutiny into the conduct of such as were suspected of rebellion and dis-
loyalty, and to terrify the rest, put the principal incendiaries to death"

There is not a word of this in Wishart. , It falsifies history. Montrose never
instituted scrutiny of the kind. On the contrary, it was ever his habit to take his
subjugated enemies at their own word, and he was always cheated accordingly. Yet
here he is accused, and on the authority of Wishart, of having actually put to death
some of the chief offenders against loyalty! This is the more unpardonable, that
the contemporary translations, though rude, are accurate : — " He received the town
into his protection ; and entering into it with the joyful acclamations of the people,
first of all he restrained his soldiers from plunder, and then, being severe against
the delinquents, for the terror of others he put some of the chiefest incendiaries of
them to death." The only freedom taken by this translator (1648) is in using the
word incendiaries. Wishart does not particularize the offence ; although very pro-
bably it was fire-raising. Yet the blundered translation of 1756 is repeated in
Constable's edition of 1819.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 555

their loyalty because their fears were removed, and others
because fear had seized them. Montrose, thus publicly ac-
knowledged as the King's representative in Scotland, suddenly
found himself the centre of a court. The shires and towns of
Eenfrew and Ayr sent deputations to deprecate offended sove-
reignty, imputing to the agitation of the covenanting clergy all
their sins of rebellion. Montrose accepted their submission,
took their oaths of allegiance, and dismissed them as friends.
But understanding that the fugitive Earls had been raising
forces in the western shires, he despatched his Major- General,
accompanied by young Drummond of Balloch (a nephew of
Lord Napier's), with a strong force, to suppress these levies.
Strange to say, this party found their mission resolving into a
pleasant progress through what now seemed the most loyal dis-
trict in Scotland. And nowhere, says Guthrie, did Montrose's
delegates receive so hearty a welcome as at London Castle.
The Chancellor of course was not at home. But the Baroness,
in her own right, actually took the son of old Coll Keitache in
her arms, honoured the party with a sumptuous entertainment,
and sent her major-domo, John Halden, back with them to
Montrose, to present her humble service to the King's Lieu-
tenant.

While Lord Napier's nephew was thus employed in the west,
his son, the Master, was sent in the opposite direction upon a
yet more important and anxious mission. This was to release
those dearest to him from the prisons of Linlithgovv and Edin-
burgh, and also to take, in the name of King Charles, the capi-
tal of Scotland out of the hands of King Campbell. Before
following this interesting adventure, we must look into the dun-
geons of those loyal lords, knights, and damsels, whom the
ogres of the Kirk had been keeping to devour.

The government of Argyle, not satisfied with restraining the
personal liberty of the noble and influential loyalists who refused
to bow the knee to the League and Covenant, and to dethrone
their Sovereign, subjected them to confinement so rigorous, and
to such squalor carceris, as to render life a burden. That Mon-
trose, whose red star predominated over the field, would retali-
ate in that kind, was never dreaded. But Argyle could not be
so sure, if he proceeded to the extremities which the leaders of

556* LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the covenanting church were continually urging, and brought
these noble sufferers to the scaffold, " in a seeming legal way,"
as Montrose himself expressed it, that the exasperated repre-
sentative of his Sovereign would not fulfil his threat, and " use
the like severity against some of their prisoners."0 For, besides
prisoners of less note, again and again had the hero at his mercy
some of the most distinguished of the covenanting leaders, al-
though he forbore even to retain them as prisoners. Of course
his nature revolted at the very idea of treating cruelly, or even
as delinquents, any ladies of the nobility and gentry whose pos-
sessions he was compelled to visit with fire. But the prisons of
the Covenant were teeming with tragedies, and full of horrors.
The young laird of Drum, along with his brother, Robert Irvine,
and their cousin Alexander Irvine, had been committed to the
tolbooth of Edinburgh. At first they were confined in separate
cells. " This longsome loathsome prison,1' says Spalding, " en-
dured for the first half year.'" They were then permitted to
occupy a chamber together, but no one allowed to visit them ex-
cept in presence of a magistrate. Under this cruel discipline,
Robert, the youngest, died. " This brave young gentleman de-
parted this life within the tolbooth of Edinburgh, upon Tuesday
4th February 16 to, and that same night, being excommunicated,
was buried, betwixt eleven and twelve o'clock, with candle light
in lanterns ; the young laird lying sore sick in the same cham-
ber ; who, upon great moyan (interest) was transported in a
wand-bed (wicker), upon the morn from the tolbooth to the
castle, where he lay sore grieved at the death of his well beloved
brother, borne down by unhappy destiny, and cruel malice of
the Estates : This gallant (the younger) byding so long in pri-
son, and of a high spirit, broke his heart and died ; his father
being confined in Edinburgh, and his mother dwelling in New
Aberdeen, — for the place of Drum was left desolate, — to their
unspeakable grief and sorrow.1'' Romance could not furnish a
deeper tragedy. Lord Ogilvy, a prisoner of war, since his cap-
ture when carrying dispatches from Montrose to the King, was
treated in like manner, and nearly suffered the same fate. He
had married Helen Ogilvy, eldest daughter of the first Lord
Banff; and so, upon the 7th of August J645. — "Unto the Ho-
nourable Estates of Parliament, humbly meaneth Mistress Helen

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 557

Ogilvy, spouse to James Ogilvy," It was the petition of the
wile for the husband she thought dying. " The dangerous and
pitiful estate of my husband," she says, " forceth me, with tears,
to implore your Lordships'' compassion." And thus she tells the
pitiable tale : —

" For first, by his long imprisonment, his body is visibly de-
cayed and pined away, and the strength thereof altogether
abated, so that he is not able of himself to stand or walk : Next,
there is only one boy allowed to attend him, whose father lately
died of the pest (plague), with whom the boy was, shortly before
his decease : Thirdly, the house from whence he was furnished
his meat and drink is infected, and divers persons therein died
of the plague ; and by its visitation of the town of Edinburgh
there are few left, of that sort, who can or will afford him any
entertainment ; and many times he will be forty-eight hours with-
out so much as a cup of cold water ; and which distress is likely
daily to increase, if it shall not please God in his mercy to stay
the devouring pestilence in that town ; whereby he is like to
die for hunger.""

For these reasons the heart-broken wife throws herself at the
feet of him who " burnt the bonnie House of Airlie." And the
Argyle government " ordains the above named James Ogilvy to
be transported from the tolbooth of Edinburgh, where he is
presently incarcerated, to the Isle of Bass, to be kept prisoner
there."1 But ere this order could be fulfilled, a life-restoring
light, as if from a heavenly messenger, streamed through his
prison-bars. Twenty days after the date of that melancholy
petition, Lord Ogilvy, instead of being dead of pestilence or
famine, or constrained to solace himself with longing glances at
the liberty of the solan geese, was actively engaged with the
Marquis of Douglas, in the south of Scotland, raising levies for
King Charles. Such were the vicissitudes of the Troubles.

In like manner, our hero's other friends and relatives had
all been compelled to approach the footstool of King Campbell.
In the month of July, Montrose's ancient guardian presented a
petition to the Parliament at Perth, stating, that " The Lord
Naper has remained prisoner within the castle of Edinburgh,
these many weeks bygone, whereof a long season in close ward,

1 Original, Record of the Committee of Estates : Register House.

558 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

none having access to him, expecting always that orders should
have been given by the said Estates for his releasement, where-
through he is not only in great hazard of his life, through the
infection of the plague of pestilence, — the sickness being now
come within the bounds of the said castle, whereof six persons
are already dead, as a missive letter written by the constable
of the said castle will testify, — but likewise makes him alto-
gether unable to perform that which the said Estates has or-
dained anent the payment of the sum incurred by him through
his son's escape." Two reasons induced the Estates to seem,
at least, to lend a compassionate ear to the petition of this
venerable and blameless nobleman, by ordaining, on the 30th
July 1645, that, under a heavy bond of caution, he should be
allowed " to confine himself within the town of Haddington, or
his own house of Merchiston, or a mile about the same."" l The
one reason was, that, of this very date, Montrose, as already
noticed, had led his flying camp to the gates of Perth, and for
a time kept the covenanting government there in the greatest
alarm. The other, that their victim was unable to command
any money so long as he was thus detained in solitary confine-
ment. On the 6th of August, however, eight days after that
deliverance on his petition, is dated his receipt from the trea-
surer of the Estates, for " the sum of ten thousand pounds
Scots money, incurred by him as cautioner for his son, for
breaking of his confinement." 2 And yet, after the battle of
Kilsyth in that same month, as we shall presently find, Lord
Napier had to be released from the prison of Linlithgow by the
gallant youth whose escape had been so severely visited upon
his aged parent.

At the same time, the three persecuted nieces of Montrose
were released by the Master of Napier, although shortly before
the battle of Kilsyth, as their inquisitorial records indicate,
some shew of lenity had been also extended towards these
noble ladies. But this, too, was on the SOth of July 1645, while
their victorious uncle was knocking at the door of the cove-
nanting Parliament. Of that date, " Lady Elizabeth Erskine,
Mistress of Naper, and Mistress Lilias Naper, daughter to the

1 Original, Record of the Rescinded Acts : Register House.
a Original, Napier Charter-chest.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 559

Lord Naper," are ordained to be removed, from the castle of
Edinburgh, to confinement in the house of John Earl of Mar,
or a mile about the same, the Earl and Lord Erskine to be
their cautioners, for twenty thousand marks each. This appa-
rently humane deliverance, — not fulfilled, for they also were
found in the prison of Linlithgow, — follows upon their own
piteous statement, — " That whereas it hath pleased the Com-
mittee of Estates to commit them to ward within the castle of
Edinburgh, where they have remained in close prison, none having
access to them ; and now, since the infection of the plague of pes-
tilence is not only come to a great height within the city of
Edinburgh, but likewise is come within the bounds of the castle
itself, which hath added great fear to their former comfortless
state ; therefore they humbly desire that their Honors would be
pleased to release them from the said present condition of im-
prisonment, and put them to liberty, now in such a fearful exi-
gence" l And one of these petitioners was a young unmarried
lady, only eighteen years of age ! Lady Stirling of Keir, the
other niece of Montrose, was treated with the same inhuman
severity.

But as these distressed dames and damsels were still strain-
ing their tearful eyes from the top of their prison-towers, and
haply putting that woe-begone question, — " Sister Anne, sister
Anne, see you any one a-coming," — the dust of advancing ca-
valry, the sound of hoofs, the waving of pennons, the glitter of
arms, and the clang of trumpets, brought hope to their hearts.
Sir Robert Sibbald records, in his autobiography, that, " in the
year 1645, the time of the plague, I stayed at Linlithgow, at
James Crawford our cousin's house, till some were infected in
the town ; at which time my parents removed me with them to
the Kipps, till the infection was over: As I went there with my
nurse, we met a troop of Montrose's men, who passed us with-
out doing us any harm." 2 The party they met was commanded
by cavaliers not likely to make war upon women and children ;
which is more than can be said for the Kirk-militant. They had
fallen in with the detachment under the Master of Napier, and

1 Original, MS., Rescinded Acts : Register House.

a MS. in the Auchinleck Library; printed in the Analecta Scotica, vol. i. p. 128,
published by Thomas G. Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1834.

560 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Colonel Gordon, who were fulfilling the following orders issued
by Montrose from his camp at Bothwell, on the fifth day after
the battle of Kilsyth.

" Orders for the Master of Napier and Colonel Nathaniel
41 Gordon.

" James Marquis of Montroso, his Majesty's Lieutenant-
General of the Kingdom of Scotland.

" These be to will and command you, presently after sight
hereof, to take along with you an hundred horsemen and an
hundred dragoons, and repair to the town of Linlithgow, and
cause publish a declaration at the market-cross thereof, and
copies of the same to be spread and divulged in the country :
As also you shall cause publish this his Majesty's indiction of
a Parliament at the said market-cross, after the ordinary and
accustomed manner, and leave copies of both upon the said
market-cross : Likewise you shall direct along a trumpet or
drum, with a commission to the magistrates of the burgh of
Edinburgh, and draw yourselves about the said town of Lin-
lithgow, or betwixt that and Edinburgh, keeping yourselves
free of all places suspected to be spoiled with the infection, as
you will answer on the contrary at your highest peril: And
having executed these former orders, you shall return with all
possible diligence to the army, where it shall* happen the same
to be for the time.

" Given at our Leaguer at Bothwell, the twentieth day of
August 1645.

" MONTROSE." 1

This was a happy mission for the young nobleman. From
the castle of Blackness, and the prison of Linlithgow, he
released his wife, Lady Elizabeth Erskine, to whom he was
devotedly attached, his venerable father, his two sisters, the
Lady of Keir and Lilias Napier, and his brother-in-law, Sir
George Stirling.2 The youth who had escaped from Holyrood

1 Original, Napier Charter -chest.

a These are all specially enumerated by Dr Wishart, as having been released by
the Master of Napier from the prison of Linlithgow upon that occasion. Some of
them were confined in the castle of Blackness, near Linlithgow. It was impossible

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 561

without their knowledge, and for whose truant escape they had
been thus cruelly treated, returned, after the lapse of three
months, at the head of two hundred cavaliers, and delegated
with the authority of a conqueror and a king.

Napier and Nathaniel Gordon, having executed their com-
mission at Linlithgow, approached the capital, and, in terms of
their instructions, halting within four miles of Edinburgh, they
sent a trumpet to summon it in name of the King. The con-
sternation of the civic authorities was unbounded. Expecting
nothing less than destruction to the town from the victor,
whose own person and name had suffered so many indignities
there, and whose dearest friends were at the moment in their
tolbooth, while his eldest son was confined in the citadel, they
cast themselves in an agony of terror upon the merciful inter-
cession of those very prisoners. At a meeting of the town-
council, it was determined to send their humblest submission
by delegates to Montrose. They instantly released from the
tolbooth Ludovick Earl of Crawford, and the Lord Ogilvy,
entreating them to become intercessors for the town. Accord-
ingly these noblemen accompanied the city delegates, and thus
the Master of Napier had not only the pleasure of releasing his
own friends and relatives, but of bringing to his uncle, a few
days after he had set out on his mission, the four friends and
advisers whom of all others Montrose loved, namely, Napier,
Ogilvy, Crawford, and Sir George Stirling of Keir. The dele-
gates made a free and unconditional surrender of the town of
Edinburgh, confessed guilt, deprecated vengeance, implored
pardon, and promised everything in a manner worthy of the
Covenant. They would send, they said, instant levies to recruit
the royal army, but that their miserable town was nearly depo-
pulated by the plague. They were ready, however, to contri-
bute money for that purpose. As for the loyalists confined in
the tolbooth, they were from that moment free ; and the town
would exert its utmost influence to have the citadel delivered
up, and occupied in the name of the King. They had been

he could be mistaken as to the facts, for he was chaplain to Lord Napier, as well as
to Montrose, and was domesticated abroad with Montrose, young Lord Napier, and
Lilias Napier, when he was writing his history.

562 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

drawn, they added, into the crime of rebellion by the craft,
power, and example of a few seditious leaders ; but they will-
ingly pledged themselves never again to hold communion with
rebels, and took with alacrity and pleasure the proffered oath
of allegiance. Montrose (says Dr Wishart) gave them reason
to hope for the royal forgiveness, and exacted nothing but
these promises. Saintserf, in a dedication to Montrose's son,
to be more particularly noticed immediately, thus eulogizes the
great Marquis : " That immortal hero," he says, " your glorious
father, was, to all who knew him, one of the most munificent, as
well as magnificent personages in the world ; which too well ap-
peared when cities, after victories, tendered large sums to be
freed from the present incumbrance of his army : He satisfied
their desires, but refused their money, still saying, that he
could not have their hearts and their purses ; his work was to
vindicate his Master's rights, and restore them to their wonted
happiness.'1 1 The only one of all these pledges fulfilled by the
magistrates of Edinburgh, was the immediate release of the
prisoners in the tolbooth. These, on the return of the dele-
gates, obtained their liberty, and joined Montrose in his camp ;
namely, Lord Reay, young Irvine of Drum (who had been sent
back to his loathsome confinement), Ogilvy of Powry, and Dr
Wishart.

Meanwhile the citadel of Edinburgh was still held for the
Covenant, and therein were lodged, as state prisoners, the boy
Lord Graham and his tutor; and also Harry Graham, Mon-
trose's natural brother. A petition had been presented to the
Estates, in the name- of Lord Graham, wherein he is made to
say, " That, whereas it is not unknown to your Lordships in
what evident danger I live in the castle of Edinburgh, by rea-
son of the pestilence which now rageth there, and in the whole
town ; whereof many are dead within the same house ; and I
being obnox to this hazard, my non-age doth cry to your noble

1 This, no doubt, refers to the occasion of the submission of Glasgow and Edin-
burgh, after the battle of Kilsyth. Montrose never exacted money except when the
circumstances rendered it absolutely necessary; and never but in the spirit of hu-
manity and moderation. Yet compare, with the proofs in our text, Malcolm Laing's
very mean, and very affected, historic page of the period.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 563

clemency ', and humbly begs that your Lordships in your wisdoms
would provide for my delivery from this imminent danger, and
cause transportation to some place of security ; and your Honors'
answer humbly I beseech.11 This petition being read in Parlia-
ment, upon the 7th of August 1645, a few days before the battle
of Kilsyth, the order is, that " James Graham, son to James
Graham sometime Earl of Montrose," shall be " delivered to
the Earl of Dalhousie to le educated ; the Lord Carnegie being
caution for his good carriage and behaviour, under the pain of
forty thousand pounds.11 x

Yet neither had Lord Graham been released in terms of this
deliverance by Parliament. For to himself is addressed, by
Saintserf, that dedication already quoted, which runs thus : —

" The soul of the great Montrose lives eminently in his son ;
which began early to show its vigour, when your Lordship, then
not full twelve years old, was close prisoner, after the battle of
Kilsyth, in Edinburgh castle ; from whence you nobly refused
to be exchanged, lest you should cost your great father the
benefit of a prisoner ; wherein he gladly met your resolution ;
both so conspiring to this glorious action, that neither outdid
the other, though all the world beside.11 2

The historian Laing has taken it upon himself to say, that
" the city of Edinburgh was preserved by a specious clemency,
and a raging pestilence, from the chastisement which his troops
were prepared to inflict.11 If this be history, it is not fact. The
clemency was anxious and sincere. The order to keep the
troops from entering the infected city, was to serve the double
purpose of the sanity of the army and the safety of the capital.
And it was by such an order as the following that his troops
were "prepared to inflict chastisement11 on the Jerusalem of
the Covenant : —

" Whereas we have taken under our protection the town of
Edinburgh, and all the inhabitants and burgesses thereof; these
are therefore to will and command you, and every one of you,

1 Original Record of the rescinded Acts ; Register House.

8 Dedication to James second Marquis of Montrose, of the translation of a French
work, entitled, " Entertainments of the Course, &c., rendered into English by Tho-
mas Saint Serff, gent. : London, 1658." See before, pp. 91, 92.

564 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

that ye noways trouble nor molest any of the said burgesses or
inhabitants in their bodies or goods, as ye will be answerable to
us under all highest pains.

" Given at our Leaguer at the Kirkton of Bothwell, the
twenty-third day of August 1645."

"M ON THOSE."1

And the desolate muse of Montrose still crouched within a
corner of his heart. With the sympathy of genius he now
addressed himself to that seat of the muses, Hawthornden,
where the friend of Ben Johnson was living in retirement,
mourning over the troubles of his native land, and the ruin of
the monarchy. In the year 1638, while the hero of Kilsyth
was yet a covenanter, the more experienced Drummond, whose
loyalty had from the first been " fancy free," wrote that cele-
brated remonstrance entitled Irene, and by which he hoped the
eyes of the nation might be opened to the coming evils. But
the temper of the times restrained him from publishing this
and other constitutional pieces of a like prophetic nature, the
fame of which, however, had gone abroad. If the unhappy
activity of the Marquis, in his early career, had been one cause
of suppressing such loyal lucubrations, he now made amends.
From his camp at Bothwell, 28th August 1 645, he dates a spe-
cial protection, addressed to all his officers and soldiers, " that
none of them trouble or molest Mr William Drummond of Haw-
thornden," or aught belonging to him, — and accompanied by
this note : —

" SIR : We being informed of your good affection to his Ma-
jesty's service, and that you have written some Pieces vindicat-
ing Monarchy from all aspersions, and another named Irene :
These are to desire you to repair to our leaguer, bringing with
you, or sending, such papers ; that we may give order for put-
ting them to the press, to the contentment of all his Majesty's
good subjects.

" MONTROSE."

The poet replies, by alluding to the state of the times which

* Printed from the Balcarres papers in the Analecta Scotica, vol. i. p. 108,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 565

had constrained him to suppress his papers, and adds, — " Now
since, by the mercy of God, in your Excellency's victorious arms,
the Golden Age is returned, — his Majesty's crown re-established,
—the many-headed monster nearly quelled, — if that piece can do
any service at this time, your Excellency, so soon as it can be
transcribed, shall command it either to be buried in oblivion, if
it deserve, or published to the view of the world. So your
Excellency, as you have granted me a protection of my for-
tunes, will be my patron, and protector of my papers; and
deign to accept of him who shall ever continue your Excel-
lency's most humble servant,

" W. DRUMMOND."

Alas ! ere that essay could be transcribed, the iron age had
returned with double rigour, and the Throne was fated to fall.1

While Montrose was at Both well, two messengers from the
King, then at Oxford, appeared in his camp. The one was
Andrew Sandiiands, who had been educated in England, and
was in holy orders. The other was his own much esteemed
friend, President Spottiswoode, now Secretary of State for
Scotland. They arrived about the same time, by different
routes. The President had proceeded through Wales, and
passed over to the Isle of Man, from whence he landed in
Lochaber, came down to A thole, and was conducted by the
natives to the banks of the Clyde.2 He brought with him a
commission from the sovereign, dated Hereford, 25th June
1645, appointing Montrose Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-
General of Scotland, with power to summon parliaments, and to
enjoy all the privileges previously held by Prince Maurice. This
deed was in due form presented by the Secretary under the
Standard, and then proclaimed to the army. The ceremony
took place at a grand review on the 3d of September 1645.
The new Governor of Scotland addressed his soldiers in a short
and affecting speech, extolling their courage and loyalty, and
expressive of the warmth of his feelings towards his gallant

1 Irene, and Drummond's other tracts, were only first published in 1711, in the
folio edition of his works.

* The President, as he himself states in his defence, joined Montrose at Roth-
well on the 1st of September 1645.

566 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

followers. Then directing his praises particularly to Allaster
Macdonald, in presence of the whole army, he conferred upon
him the honour of knighthood, by virtue of the powers of his
new commission. The letters from the King, brought by Spot-
tiswoode and Sandilands, were to the same effect : namely, that
Montrose should immediately form a junction with Home, Box-
burgh, and Traquair, and march with all expedition to the
Tweed.

No sooner was Lord Ogilvy restored to Montrose, and to the
gallant old Earl his father, at Bothwell, than he had been
dispatched to the Borders, with the Marquis of Douglas, to
raise levies, to watch the movements of the enemy, and the
advent of the king. The border Earls, Home and Roxburgh,
had already placed themselves in communication with Mon-
trose, and impressed him with a firm reliance on their loyal
fidelity. In the end they proved mere decoy ducks, disgraced
themselves, and destroyed the King. On the 28th of August,
while still encamped at Bothwell, he thus writes to Ogilvy : —

"-For the Lord Ogilvy.

" MY LORD : I received yours, and desire you have good
intelligence, and make all possible dispatch : For Home and
Roxburgh long for you ; and have sent to me this day for a
party : Hasten to them ; and acquaint me with your opinion of
my advance; and what you are able to do; and where you
think we may best join. I am your humble servant,

" MONTROSE."
"Bothwell, 28 August J645."1

A few days thereafter he again writes as follows, —

" To the right honourable the Marquis of Douglas, and Lord

Ogifay"

" MY LORDS : Understanding, by this gentleman the bearer,
that your Lordships are advanced to the Carlisle way, I hope
you have not taken that course but upon weighty considerations,
and that it will be no impediment for your speedy return, by
Buccleuch, Tweeddale, and the Merse, that we may meet in

f Morton archives.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 567

East Lothian. Your Lordships will use all your best endea-
vours about the Border, for intelligence concerning the enemy ;
and let me hear frequently from you : Which expecting, I am
your Lordships1 humble servant,

" MONTROSE."

" From our leaguer at the Kirkton of
Both well, 2d Sept. 1645."1

And now the fiend of jealousy took possession of Aboyne.
Out of humour since the battle of Alford, where the Ogilvys
outshone the Gordons, and angry because Montrose in his di-
spatches to the King did not bestow upon him more praise than
he deserved, the return of Lord Ogilvy, and his importance with
the Marquis, was too much for Aboyne's unstable loyalty, and
he deserted the standard of his Sovereign when it most required
his support. The departure- of the Gordon cavalry, who, with
the exception of Colonel Nathaniel Gordon, followed their petted
young chief, utterly ruined the cause of Charles in Scotland,
at the culminating point of his great Lieutenant's triumph.
Aboyne's conduct was as a refreshing dew to the withered hopes
of that bane of the House of Huntly, his merciless uncle Argyle.
In vain the loyal Ogilvy, probably commissioned by Montrose,
thus wrote, to reclaim the raking tassel-gentle : —

" MY LORD : Though I know all the baits and enticements
of the world will not be able to make you do any thing unwor-
thy of yourself, yet, my Lord, my constant affection and brother-
hood to yourself, and respect to your old honourable family,
whereunto now you have chiefest interest, inforceth me to pre-
sent to your Lordship, in your honour, that which doth concern
your Lordship, that knowing of it you may be upon your guard.
Argyle leaves no winds unfurled to sow dissension among you,
and draw your Lordship off, and hath ordered a friend of yours
to write to that effect to you and your father, by Provost Leslie
of Aberdeen. Likewise Harry Montgomery hath commissions
to my Lord your father, and your Lordship's self for that end,
and is on his journey. I think he be now northward, having
got my Lord Drummond's fine of ^30,000. Both Drummond

1 Original, Morton archives.

568 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

and your sister1 hath sent me word, desiring I should with all
expedition shew your Lordship, that your Lordship should take
some fit opportunity for taking Montgomery prisoner. As also
that Argyle, notwithstanding of any oaths or promises that he
may seem to make to you, does intend nothing but your dis-
honour ; the utter extirpating of all memory of your old family ;
and, if it could lie on your hands, the ruinating and betraying of
the King's service : And this my Lady Drummond told me be-
fore I came out of prison ; and, since, she sent me commission
to entreat that you will not be ensnared ; for they_are striving
to draw your Lordship off, and others, thinking thereby to turn
every man as desperate as themselves. So they are begging
grace to themselves, but cannot obtain it ; and seeing they see
nothing but inevitable ruin before them, they would engage,
deeply, innocents with them. I know your Lordship's gallantry
to be such that I will not presume to go further than faithfully
to render up my commission to you. When any thing further
worthy your Lordship's knowledge occurs, I shall instantly give
notice thereof. In the interim I continue your Lordship's
humble servant,

" OGILVY."2

Aboyne's defection was the more fatal, and his conduct ap-
pears the more deliberately malicious, seeing that, immediately
before he carried off the cavalry, Montrose, as President Spot-
tiswoode expresses it, " was forced to dismiss his Highlanders
for a season, who would needs return home to look to their own
affairs." His Major-General, instead of using his influence at
this time to keep the Claymores to the Standard, lent his en-
deavours to seduce them. Elated with the renown which Mon-
trose alone had enabled him to acquire, and elevated in the
eyes of his countrymen by the highest grade of knighthood,
which the sword of the Viceroy of Scotland had conferred upon

1 Married to Lord Drummond.

2 This interesting letter I find among the Wodrow manuscripts in the Advo-
cates' Library. It is entitled, " Copy of my Lord Ogilvie's letter to my Lord
Aboyne." The date is not given ; but it must have been written between the 4th
of September 1645, when Aboyne deserted Montrose, and the ensuing 13th of Sep-
tember, when Ogilvy was again made prisoner, at Philiphaugh.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 569

him, in presence of the applauding army, he evinced his grati-
tude by deserting the Standard at the most critical juncture.
This faithless act was not the less mean and ruinous that it was
perpetrated with some show of decency and discipline. The
clansmen as usual applied for the leave they meant to take, of
returning to their homes to deposit their spoil, and chaunt their
victories. Macdonald, at his own earnest desire, and with the
concurrence of the home-sick chiefs, was appointed their cap-
tain-general under Montrose, and pledged himself to bring them
back to the Standard, when required. Never were their ser-
vices more requisite than at that very moment. But Montrose
had no power over his unpaid soldiery. Finding it in vain to
attempt to detain them, he permitted their departure with a
grace which he hoped would encourage them to return. It was,
however, the object of the Macdonalds to wage a particular
war on their own account in the country of Argyle. Old Coll
Keitache was free again with all his sons. Sir Allaster was now
captain of the clans under the Viceroy of Scotland ; and, more-
over, a knight of such renown in the Highlands, that to him
their traditions give the glory of Montrose' s wars. Dr Wishart
declares, that when Macdonald, in a formal oration, returned
thanks to the Lord Governor for his great condescension, and
pledged himself for their speedy return, he had no intention of
ever returning. The event justifies the imputation. From the
moment when Macdonald marched northward with the flower
of the clans, and a picked body-guard for himself of a hundred
and twenty of the Irish, they never met again.

On the 4th of September 1645, Montrose, having, by virtue
of his new commission, sent proclamations to all the great towns
of the kingdom, of a " Parliament indicted to be kept at Glas-
gow upon the twentieth day of October next, for settling re-
ligion and peace, and freeing the oppressed subjects of those
insupportable burdens they have groaned under this time by-
gone,"— broke up his leaguer at the Kirkton of Both well. His
intention was to proceed through the eastern shires, to the
Tweed, in fulfilment of his Majesty 's orders. These were that
he should confidently 'rely upon the co-operation of the border
Earls, Traquair, Home, and Roxburgh, form a junction with
them, and be on the look-out either for the King himself or such

570 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

auxiliaries as he could afford to send him from England. Argyle
was now at Berwick, using all his diplomacy to seduce or alarm
those wavering peers ; and had even put himself in communi-
cation with the ill-conditioned Aboyne, who carried off the
northern horse from the Standard the very day after Montrose
had re-commenced his march, and just when they had arrived
at Calder. That he was influenced in that ruinous act of pique
and temper by the arts of his uncle, seems verified by the letter
from Ogilvy we have now produced. But had every soldier
deserted Montrose at this time, he would have gone alone, to
fulfil those orders of his Sovereign, without which he never
stirred a step in all his campaigns. With but the shadow of
an army he passed Edinburgh ; and marching through the
Lothians, encamped at Cranston-kirk, on Saturday the 6th of
September. His recovered chaplain, Dr Wishart, was appointed
to preach a sermon next day, intended as a day of rest. On
the morning of Sunday, however, Lord Erskine informed him
that General David Leslie, recalled from England by Argyle
with the whole body of the Scotch horse, had already reached
Berwick. Considering the reduced state of the royal army,
Erskine counselled a timely retreat to the north, to reclaim the
claymores. Leslie, in fact, had by this time crossed the Tweed,
and was at Gladsmuir in East Lothian. But Montrose would
not doubt the border Earls, or swerve from his instructions.
He countermanded his chaplain's sermon, and pressed south-
wards through the strath of the Gala, the route on which, as
we learn from his letter already quoted, he had ordered the
Lords Douglas and Ogilvy to meet him. These ever faithful
and loyal noblemen were true to the tryste. They joined his
Excellency on the banks of the Gala, but with levies that ill
supplied the absence of the northern horse. In these straits,
doubtless, it was that Ogilvy wrote his touching appeal to
Aboyne. Their own mission had failed. Home and Roxburgh
had not appeared. Time was when the name of Douglas was a
talisman on the Borders. Now it failed to raise a Pricker
worth a pin. The days of that chivalry were gone. Even the
bold Buccleuch adhered to the Covenant ; or rather the Cove-
nant adhered to him, and all the Scots were defiled. No
longer, —

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 57J

4{ An aged knight, to danger steel'd,

With many a mosstrooper came on,
And azure in a golden field,
The stars and crescent graced his shield,
Without the bend of Murdieston."

No longer, —

" From fair St Mary's silver wave,

From dreary Gamescleuch's dusky height,
His ready lances Thirlstane brave,
Array 'd beneath a banner bright."

The Douglas returned, backed by some degenerate weeds of
mosstroopers that could scarcely ride ; the Warts and Peebles
of those free-booters of old, who once held the Borders in sub-
jection.

Traquair, indeed, that ancient selfish intriguing courtier,
paid his respects to the representative of his Sovereign, as
Montrose passed near his house. He even sent his son, Lord
Linton, to support the Standard with a troop of horse. Dis-
appointed of Home and Roxburgh, the heroic Marquis pursued
his march to Kelso in search of them. There he learnt that,
without having raised a troop, or winding a single blast on their
bugles, these recreant knights had delivered themselves, and
their castles, into the safe keeping of that fortunate soldier,
David Leslie. From those border Earls it was, that Argyle's
General obtained the welcome and unexpected intelligence of
the present utter destitution of the royal army in Scotland.
After having determined, in a council of war, to make for the
Grampians, so as to place himself betwixt Montrose and his
strongholds in the north, Leslie suddenly changed his route,
turned south, and marched down the Gala directly in search of
him. Soon afterwards, sure index of foul weather, a hurried
order from Traquair recalled Lord Linton and his troop from
the Standard.

Montrose encamped near Kelso, before the 10th of Septem-
ber. On that day, Sir Robert Spottiswoode, the King^s Secre-
tary of State for Scotland, wrote to the Secretary in England
Lord Digby, with whom the great scheme of Montrose had
been originally concocted at Oxford. Why he came not with
the long promised auxiliaries was a mystery. Montrose had

572 LIFE OF MONTIIOSE.

performed his promise, and fulfilled his mission. He was now
at Beersheba^ or as the good President more classically phrased
it, " arrived ad Columnas Herculis^ and not an enemy behind
him. Where was Digby ? where was the King ? In this sad
state of expectations disappointed, and hopes deferred, the one
Secretary writes to the other, as follows : —

u MY LORD : We are now arrived ad Columnas Herculis, — to
Tweedside ; dispersed all the King's enemies, within this king-
dom, to several places, some to Ireland, most of them to Ber-
wick ; and had no open enemy more to deal with, if you had
kept David Leslie there, and not suffered him to come in here, to
make head against us of new. It is thought strange here, that
at least you have sent no party after him, ; which we expected
although he should not come at all. You little imagine the
difficulties my Lord Marquis hath here to wrestle with. The
overcoming of the enemy is the least of them ; he hath more to
do with his seeming friends. Since I came to him (wrhich was
but within these ten days, after much toil and hazard), I have
seen much of it. He was forced to dismiss his Highlanders for
a season, who would needs return home to look to their own
affairs. When they were gone, Aboyne took a caprice, and had
away with him the greatest strength he had of horse. Not-
withstanding whereof he resolved to follow his work, and clear
this part of the kingdom (that was only resting,) of the rebels
that had fled to Berwick, and kept a bustling here. Besides,
. he was invited hereunto, by the Earls of Roxburgh and Home ; *
who, when he was within a dozen miles of them, have rendered
their houses and themselves to David Leslie, and are carried in
as prisoners to Berwick. Traquair hath been with him, and
promised more than he hath yet performed. All these were
great disheartenings to any other but to him, whom nothing of
this kind can amaze. With the small forces he hath presently
with him, he is resolved to pursue David Leslie, and not suffer
him to grow stronger. If you loould perform that which you
lately promised? both this kingdom and the north of England

1 This is confirmed by Montrose, in his letter to Ogilvy, supra, p. 567.
a Lord Digby had promised to bring a force of at least fifteen hundred horse
across the Border to Montrose, at this time. It would have saved the King.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 573

might be soon reduced, and considerable assistance sent from
hence to his Majesty. However, nothing will be wanting on our
parts here. These that are together are both loyal and reso-
lute ; only a little encouragement from you (as much to let it
be seen that they are not neglected as for any thing else) would
crown the work speedily. This is all I have for the present,
but that I am your Lordship's most faithful friend,

"Ro. SPOTTISWOODE."

Awaiting an opportunity of transmission, the " good Presi-
dent" put this letter in his pocket. It was his death warrant.
On the third day after its date, the letter was found on his per-
son at Philiphaugh. Well, indeed, might they have " kept
David Leslie there." Clarendon, speaking of the very crisis,
says, " As far as any resolution was fixed in those days, the pur-
pose was to march directly into Scotland, to join with the Mar-
quis of Montrose, who, had, upon the matter, reduced that whole
kingdom." Charles was so ill advised as not immediately to
follow out this scheme, which could easily have been effected at
the time. Under causeless alarm at the movements of Leslie's
cavalry, he was urged to retreat to Newark. General Leslie
was not thinking of the King. He came, says Clarendon, " tired
and weary, with his troops into Rotheram ; and Tie confessed
afterwards, if the King had fallen upon him, as he might easily
have done, he had found him in a very ill fortune to have made
resistance, and had absolutely preserved Montrose^ There can
be little doubt, that this false move, of the remnant of the
King's army, was fatal to him, even after the eleventh hour had
struck. And so, in the midst of his miseries, he.fell into me-
lancholy feasting and hunting, during the Marquis of Worces-
ter's magnificent reception of him at Ragland, leaving the road
clear between David Leslie and Scotland. From this place, on
the day previous to Spottiswoode's letter written at Kelso,
Charles thus apologizes to Montrose : —

" MONTROSE : Not having patience nor time to write in cypher,
I must refer you to Digby for what concerns my business, either
as in relation to you, or these southern parts. I shall only
mention that which I care not, or, to say better, would be sorry

574 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the world did not know, — how much I esteem those real, gene-
rous, indeed useful obligations (and without which, in all proba-
, bility, before this time, I had not been capable to have acknow-
ledged any) * you have put upon me : But I will not so injure
words as to put upon them what they are not capable of; for in
this they can but point at that which otherways must be per-
formed ; so as assurance of what shall be is one of their chief
uses ; and, indeed, it is no small part of my misfortune, though
the more for your glory, that this c shall be' is yet all my song
to you, — and it were inexcusable, if real impossibility were not
the just excuse : Assuring you that nothing shall be omitted, at
present or hereafter, for your assistance, or that may testify me
to be

" Your most assured, faithful, constant friend,

" CHARLES R."
" Ragland, 9th September 1645."2

The day after the date of this letter it was, that Prince Ru-
pert rendered Bristol to the rebels. Charles heard the news at
Ragland, and it broke his heart. On the fifth day after writing,
as above, to i\\Q facile princeps of the cavaliers of Scotland, he
thus wrote to the prince of the English cavaliers, his own
nephew. The contrast is painfully curious : —

" NEPHEW : Though the loss of Bristol be a great blow to
me, yet your surrendering it as you did, is of so much affliction
to me, that it makes me forget not only the consideration of
that place, but is likewise the greatest trial of my constancy
that hath yet befallen me : For what is to be done, after one
who is so near to me as you are, both in blood and friendship,
submits himself to so mean an action ? I give it the easiest
term."1

1 That is, — but for Montrose's unparalleled career in Scotland, and the utter de-
struction of so many covenanting armies there, his Majesty would have been, ere
now, overwhelmed by the additional rebel forces from that country.

2 This letter is from the original now in possession of the family ; but it could
scarcely have reached Montrose before the rout at Philiphaugh, (which happened
only six days after its date), if it ever reached him at all. The context seems to
say that it had been intrusted to Lord Digby, whose futile attempt to bring succour
to Montrose was not made until David Leslie had performed his feat.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 575

As for Digby, he never shewed. The great cavalier of Scot-
land, we may say of the age, had not missed a point in his own
game. King and Cavaliers in England had lost every move in
theirs. It was now, indeed, as regards Montrose, " very despe-
rate for ourselves." Still lingering on the Borders, looking and
longing for the promised aid, with the doomed remnant of his
Irish he marched first to Jedburgh, and then to Selkirk. Thus
baffled at Beersheba, and losing all hopes of the King or Digby,
he was now on the move, as Wishart informs us, to recruit in
the western counties. But the Presidents letter, of the 10th,
intimates that he was " determined to pursue"1 David Leslie.
In that case, Montrose himself, for the first time, was in the
predicament of catching a Tartar. He neither knew of Leslie's
great strength, nor his tiger-like approach.

It was early on the morning of the 13th of September 1645,
that he suffered himself to be surprised at Selkirk. Wishart
admits that over night his hero entrusted to others a duty it
was his usual practice to take upon himself ; namely, the placing
his horse patroles in the proper quarters, and the selecting and
sending off in every direction, scouts upon whose activity and
fidelity he could perfectly rely. Yet never was his personal
superintendence of the machinery of his camp more requisite
than now. David Leslie, the best soldier that ever degraded
the character under the Covenant, was close upon him, with
from five to six thousand of the flower of the Scottish cavalry
from England.1 Montrose had lost both the Highlanders and
the Gordons, the very staple of his army. The Ogilvys were
only a force sufficient for his body-guard. His Irish infantry
were not more, at the highest estimate, than seven hundred
strong ; and his recent levies in the south were a mob of clowns,
who scarcely knew how to manage their horses. Of all this the

1 Rushworth gives the following account of the force sent from England against
Montrose : " The Scots army in England hearing of these great successes of Mon-
trose at home, raised their siege from before Hereford, and dispatched Lieutenant-
General David Leslie, with most of their horse for Scotland. The 6th of Septem-
ber, Leslie passed the Tweed, and in Scotland mustered nine regiments of horse,
two regiments of Dragoons, and eight hundred foot, which were taken out of the
garrison of Newcastle, and other forces rallied in that kingdom. Montrose had
instructions from the King to march towards the Tweed, to be ready there to join
with a party of horse which should be sent him out of England." — Vol. vi. p. 231.

576 LIFE OF HONTROSE.

fortunate Leslie was well informed. The weather too conspired
against Montrose. The face of the country for miles around
,was enveloped in a dense fog. Moreover, the inhabitants of
those southern districts were too much under the influence of
the Covenant to busy themselves in bringing intelligence to the
King's Lieutenant. To the captains of his horse he entrusted
the duty of placing sentinels, and sending forth the scouts. His
infantry he established on the left bank of the Ettrick, on the
plain of Philiphaugh, supported by the Harehead-wood, which
he fondly deemed a sufficient protection from a sudden infall of
cavalry. He himself, with the best of his own cavalry, took up
his quarters in the village on the other side of the river. There,
in council with his noble friends, Napier, Airlie, and Crawford,
he was occupied during most of the night, framing dispatches
to the King, which were to be sent by break of day in charge .of
a trusty messenger.1 During the night, uncertain rumours were
brought to him, of the enemy, which he transmitted from time
to time to the officers of his guard. As often the reply came
back, that all was well. When day dawned, scouts were again
sent out. They returned declaring that they had searched the
country far and wide, examined every road and by-path, and
" rashly wished damnation to themselves, if an enemy were
within ten miles." Montrose went to breakfast.

Shrouded like a thunderbolt in the surrounding gloom, Leslie
lay quartered that night within four miles of Selkirk. Before
the dawn could pierce the fog that so greatly favoured him, he
was within half a mile of Philiphaugh, his approach being totally
unknown to Montrose. When the first intelligence reached him,
he flung himself on horseback, and, with a confused attendance
chiefly of nobles and gentlemen, instantly gallopped across the
river to the scene of action, where the complete disorganization
of his leaguer indicated the fatal effect of his temporary absence.
Not an officer was in his place ; scarcely a Pricker mounted ;
when the clang of Leslie's trumpets broke through the gloom,
and the right wing of the Royalists was at the same moment
sustaining the overwhelming mass of his iron brigades, in full

1 Wishart. Bishop Guthrie records that it was about midnight, before the morn-
ing of the surprise, that Traquair " privately called away his son, the Lord Linton,
and his troop, without giving any notice thereof to Montrose."

LIFE OF MONTROSE 577

career. There, too, fought Montrose's chivalry, about a hun-
dred and twenty noblemen and knights. The borderers never
came into action. Twice were the rebels repulsed with some
loss. But Montrose never had a chance. Two thousand of
Leslie's horse, by an easy detour across the river, came upon
the rear of the devoted band, already sustaining the shock of
nearly double that number in front. The struggle of the
royalists was only for life. A few hundreds of the gallant Irish
behaved with their accustomed bravery. But they were com-
pletely surrounded by masses of cavalry. Having gained some
trifling entrenchment, they were about to sell their lives dearly,
when promised quarter if they would throw down their arms.
They did so, and stood defenceless prisoners. Montrose him-
self and about thirty cavaliers, continued a hand to hand con-
flict with the surrounding enemy. He had given up all hope of
escape, and fought as one who meant to die rather than yield.
But the friends around him, especially the Marquis of Douglas
and Sir John Dalziel, implored him to make an effort for his
liberty, and to live for better fortune. At last, while the enemy
were distracted by their desire to plunder the baggage, Mon-
trose, and the friends immediately beside him, cut their way in
a desperate charge, and went off followed by a party of the
rebel horse. This pursuit only served to dignify the flight of
the hero of his country and age. Captain Bruce, and two cor-
nets, each bearing a standard, led the party ambitious of his
capture. The Marquis faced them in a charge which cost some
of the pursuers their lives, and routed the rest, with the excep-
tion of Captain Bruce and the two standard-bearers, whom our
hero chained even to the wheels of his flying chariot.

The battle of Philiphaugh ! It was no more a battle than it
was a wedding. Battles have been fought and gained against
desperate odds. But six thousand cavalry, or five thousand,
surrounding five, or seven, hundred infantry, and a few score of
horse, left the Royalists no more chance than was afforded to
the Janizaries in our own times. In recording the bloody day
of Philiphaugh, we may speak of a surprise, a rout, a capture,
a massacre, but never of a battle.

" Upon Philiphaugh he lost," says Sir Walter Soott, " the

37

578 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

fruit of six splendid victories." l We deny the fact. He lost,
indeed, the popular prestige of perpetual success. But even
-that prestige he did not lose until it had become useless to his
country, and without value to himself. Nor is it that species
of eclat that should be called " the fruit " of his victories. By
each one of them he had absolutely destroyed a great army of
the Covenant. He had " conquered from Dan to Beersheba."
He had destroyed the military sway of Argyle and his clan in
arms for ever. He had not only arrested the most power-
ful hostile pressure of covenanting Scotland, — from before the
battle of Marston Moor until after the hopeless defeat at
Naseby, and the surrender of Bristol, — but he had annihilated
the resources which created that pressure. This, properly, was
the fruit of his victories. And it was a kind of fruit that can
only be considered lost in the sense of having been rendered
unavailing to the grand object of saving the Throne, and the
King, by the unhappy monarch's own martial career having
proceeded in an inverse ratio, up to the very hour when he
ought to have met his laurelled Lieutenant on the Tweed. Mon-
trose was in the act of retreating from the Border, because
Charles had failed to respond to the call, " Come thou and take
the city." He had fulfilled his own mission, but in vain. Had
he repulsed the ten to one against him at Philiphaugh, killed
Leslie with his own hand, and flitted with that skeleton of an
army in useless triumph to the Highlands, the proper " fruit of
his victories" would still have been as blighted as when he cut
his way with a few cavaliers from the field of Philiphaugh.

Burnet says, he took care of himself " too much." Pity, the
Bishop was not there to see. The cavaliers that, by dint of
hand to hand fighting, made their way from the field along with
him, were, the Marquis of Douglas, who, as Earl of Angus, was
the travelling companion of his youth ; Lord Napier, though
he had said of himself, to Lord Balmerino, that he was " ould
and not fit for fighting"; the Master of Napier; young Drum-
mond of Balloch, Napier's nephew; the Lords Erskine and
Fleming; Sir John Dalziel, Carnwath's brother; and a few
others of minor distinction. Successfully repulsing their pur-
suers, as already stated, they went up Yarrow, and across the

1 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 579

Minch-moor, overtaking in their progress a body of their own
horsemen who had quitted the field sooner. Sixteen miles from
the scene of this sad disaster, our hero, to whom such flight
was a novelty, first drew bridle. It was at that quaint old man-
sion of Traquair"s near Peebles, some of the identical pepper-
boxes of which we verily believe to be star-gazing yet. There
was no pepper in them then, however. It was an awkward fore-
noon's call. No Scotch statesman, except Hamilton, ever pos-
sessed the confidence of Charles the First in a higher degree
than John Stewart of Traquair, whom he ennobled and en-
riched. Charles was repaid with petty selfish intrigues, and
plausible, but ruinously trimming measures, in that nobleman's
conduct of the affairs of Scotland at the commencement of the
troubles. We have seen how Traquair was insulted and per-
secuted by the covenanting clique, railed at by Rothes, and
howled at by Warriston. What was he doing now 2 Desert-
ing the King at his utmost need, and labouring to earn a dis-
graceful covenanting character for himself at the foot of King
Campbell's throne ! Wishart's anecdote, published in the life-
time of all the parties, sanctioned by Montrose, and corro-
borated by the meanest of documents under Traquair's own
hand, is not to be doubted. Very likely, had our hero called
in the attitude of a victor, as he did upon the sturdy plain-
spoken minister of Tippermuir, who gave him a drink of water,
the fallen Earl would not have hesitated, had he been required,
to kiss the Marquis, — if we may use that modified version of
Mass John of Tippermuir's unrecordable phrase, — " in the
meanest manner." What really happened Dr Wishart tells us :
44 And as he went by the Earl of Traquair's castle, — by whose
dishonesty he did not yet know that he had been betrayed, — he
sent one before him, to call forth the Earl and his son, that he
might speak with them : But his servants bring word that they
were both from home : Notwithstanding, there are gentlemen
of credit that testify they were both within : Nor did that gal-
lant courtier only bid the rebels joy of their victory ; but was
not ashamed to tell abroad, — not without profuse and ill-
becoming laughter, — that Montrose and the King's forces in
Scotland were at last totally routed ; his own daughter, the

580 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Countess of Queensberry, as far as modestly she might, blaming
him for it.1

Both of the royal standards were saved, and ere long restored
to Montrose. William Hay, brother to the Earl of Kinnoul,
carried that assigned to the horse. Having escaped in a dif-
ferent direction, he crossed the border, and lay concealed for a
time in England. When the storm had swept past, he tra-
velled in disguise to the north of Scotland, and had the pleasure
of restoring his charge to Montrose in person. The standard
of the infantry was saved by a brave Irish soldier, who, with
great presence of mind, stript it from the staff, and wrapt it
round his body. That same night he brought it to Montrose,
who appointed him one of his body guard, and meanwhile con-
signed it to his keeping. But ere we follow our hero further in
his not inglorious flight, we must bestow a melancholy chapter
upon the cruel fate of some of the most noble and best beloved
of his companions in arms, and compeers in true-hearted loyalty.

1 The following petition, dated 26th December 1646, which we find in the
original MS. Record of the Rescinded Acts, now preserved in the General Register
House, Edinburgh, will suffice to prove that Wishart had not calumniated Tra-
quair : —

" The humble petition of John Earl of Traquair, humbly sheweth, that, as I am
heartily sorry that any thing should have escaped me, which should have made me
liable to your displeasure, so have I made it this long time bypast my greatest earthly
study to recover your good opinions : And, having satisfied the Church, and the
Committee of Estates, my humble suit is, to be received in your Honors' favour, as
one who is, and shall be always, most willing to sacrifice life and fortune, to testify
and approve myself, in the sight of God and man, a faithful Covenanter, and true
patriot : And your Honor's answer I humbly await.

" TRAQUAIR."

The covenanting authorities receive him with open arms ; exonerate him from
all past offences ; and re-admit him to all his privileges.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 581

CHAPTER XXVIII.

MONTROSE DEFENDED FROM THE CALUMNIES OF HIS ENEMIES, AND THE
BLUNDERS AND MISTAKES OF MODERN HISTORICAL WRITERS — HIS CON-
DUCT CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF THE COVENANTERS — IMMEDIATE
RESULTS OF THE TRIUMPH OF THE COVENANT, AND THE GOVERNMENT
OF ARGYLE — THE COVENANTING KIRK REVELS IN BLOOD.

NOT a few in Scotland still cherish, almost as an article of
their faith, the idea of covenanting holiness, and the correspond-
ing vulgar error, that Montrose was " the most cruel and in-
human butcher of his country." Others, not quite so irra-
tional, are inclined to dismiss a vexed question, which they are
not prepared to discuss, by referring all such atrocities to the
temper and habits of the times. These affect a philosophical
impartiality, by assuming an equal balance of cruelty between
Montrose and the Covenanters. It is the duty of his biographer
to enquire whether that balance be a fair one.

The notorious Lauderdale, Clarendon informs us, was asked,
" what foul offence the Marquis of Montrose had ever com-
mitted, that should hinder those to make a conjunction with
him?" That " prime Covenanter" replied, upon the slaughter
committed by him in his wars, particularly at Inverlochy. The
other, probably Clarendon himself, after referring to the ruth-
less character of the war on both sides, put the question,
whether " Montrose had ever caused any man to die in cold
blood, or after the battle was ended ? since what was done in it
flagrante was more to be imputed to the fierceness of his sol-
diers, than to his want of humanity." The answer of one of
his bitterest enemies exonerates Montrose : " The Earl con-
fessed that he did not know he was guilty of any but what was
done in the field."

At Tippermuir, where the battle-word of the Covenanters was,

582 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" Jesus, and no quarter," l Montrose would not allow the cap-
tured cannon to be turned against the disordered masses of the
'flying foe. In his letter to the King from Tnverlochy, he speaks
regretfully of " a great slaughter, which I would have hindered
if possible ; for well I know your Majesty does not delight in
their blood, but in their returning to their duty." Even as to
" gentlemen of the name of Campbell," he says, — " I have saved,
and taken prisoners, several of them, that have acknowledged
to me their fault, and lay all the blame on their chief:" And,
— u Some gentlemen of the lowlands that had behaved them-
selves bravely in the battle, when they saw all lost, fled into the
old castle, and upon their surrender I have treated them ho-
nourably, arid taken their parole never to bear arms against
your Majesty." Such was the disposition, and invariable con-
duct, which enabled him to reply to his accusers with his latest
breath, — " Disorders in an army cannot be prevented ; but they
were no sooner known than punished : Never was any man's
blood spilt but in battle ; and even then, many thousand lives
have I preserved" When a soldier of the Covenant, he was con-
demned, by the covenanting clergy, for his " lenity in sparing
the enemy's houses ;" — " the discretion of that generous and
noble youth was but too great" And not all the laborious malice
of the blood-stained sect against which he subsequently warred,,
has been able to produce one single instance of inhumanity, or
even harshness, that can attach itself to the character of Mon-
trose. Could as much be said even for England's Nelson ?

But the untiring calumny has told. Hasty concessions have
been made to its mere pertinacity, by writers of another stamp,
unwilling or unable to institute the research which such calum-
nies had long rendered necessary. Even Sir Walter Scott
seemed inclined to compromise the matter with the calumnious
Covenant, when he so loosely conceded, in his History of Scot-
land, that " some of Montrose's actions arose more from the
dictates of private revenge than became his nobler qualities."
Which of his actions ? Were that proved of any of his actions,
all his " nobler qualities" would become more than suspect. The
crude compilation of an " Historical Essay," too hurriedly ex-

1 From a rare pamphlet of the occurrences of the war, including the battle of
Tippermuir, printed in 1644> immediately after the event.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 583

tracted from researches not its own, betrayed that accomplished
historian Lord Mahon into an assertion which he certainly did
not derive from the source he had more freely used than atten-
tively studied : — " For the cruelties" his Lordship is pleased to
say, " that are alleged in Montrose s conduct , they can neither be
denied nor defended." Cruelties that cannot be denied, cannot
be defended. But can cruelties that are only " alleged," not be
denied ? A luxurious historian's disinclination to severe research
upon every collateral point, combined with a desire to seem
master of all, has disfigured Hallam's History of England with
this reckless, unmeaning sentence, that, by " the Scots Presby-
terian army? Montrose was " abhorred, and very justly, for his
cruelties and treacheries, above all men living" ! Was this set
down " to give the world assurance of a villain " ?

But when we find Malcolm Laing, the Tacitus of Dunedin,
the historical antiquary par excellence of the Advocates1 Library,
in full possession of a wilderness of documents exculpatory of
Montrose, — when we find this explorer of his native archives
preferring to write the hero down an assassin, and parading his
own pompous dogma, that " Montrose was unconscious that
humanity is the most distinguished attribute of an heroical
character," we are constrained to say, that the integrity of his-
tory has been sacrificed to a personal political bias.

This is not the spirit in which we are dealing with the Cove-
nanters. We have hitherto alleged, and mean further to allege,
nothing against them that is not substantiated by evidence
which no rational mind can reject.

The Reverend Robert Baillie, — under whose own hand we
have it that he considered the assassination of Lord Kilpont by
his brutal familiar, to have been "justly inflicted," — referring
to Philiphaugh, says, — " The Lord made these men so mad, as
to stay for our army's coming to them in a plain field : Above
a thousand were buried in the place ; whereof scarcely fifteen
were ours." This does not mean a thousand men at arms.
Wishart reckons the Irish infantry then remaining with Mon-
trose, at five hundred. Guthrie states them at seven hundred.
But neither include in that reckoning the wretched and multi-
tudinous camp following. Patrick Gordon, in like manner,

584 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

speaking only of the effective infantry, says there were " about
five hundred Irish." The desultory array of the southern levies
never came into action, but shifted for themselves on the first
alarm.

The Irish who met their fate so bravely, were the same men
that in many a fair field had signally defeated, and put to the
sword, the best Scotch the government of Argyle could send
against them. They had proved themselves able to out-ma-
noauvre the Covenanters, out-walk them, out-race them, and out-
fight them. Tippermuir, Aberdeen, Fyvie, Inverlochie, Dundee,
Auldearn, Alford, and Kilsyth bear witness. The illustrious
commanders whom Montrose defeated, Argyle, Lothian, El-
cho, Tullibardine, Drummond, Burleigh, Fraser, Frendraught,
Seaforth, Forbes, Balcarres, and Lindsay of the Byres, the
Generals, Hurry, Baillie, and Holbourn, could well have proved
the fact. No quarter, in battle, did the Kirk-militant owe the
ruthless Redshanks. No measure of hip-and -thigh work could
be too much to quit scores between them. Had five, or ten, of
Leslie"^ steel-clad troopers, hewn down, in remorseless chase,
each individual of that deserted and betrayed remnant of the
royal army, it could only have been said, that the dreaded Irish,
always contending against superior numbers, were at length
hopelessly out-numbered, and the Covenanters bloodily revenged.
But many of these courageous men, and their helpless fami-
lies, were murdered. Certain acts of unmitigated cruelty, illus-
trate the affair of Philiphaugh, for which the covenanting
leaders are responsible, and not their soldiers : —

" Montrose's foot," says Dr Guthiie, " so soon as the horse
were gone, drew to a little fold, which they maintained until
Stewart the Adjutant procured quarter for them, from David
Leslie : Whereupon they delivered up their arms, and came
forth to a plain field, as they were directed : But then did the
Church-men quarrel (complain) that quarter should be given to
such wretches as they ; and declared it to be an act of most sin-
ful impiety to spare them ; wherein divers of the noblemen com-
plied with the clergy : And so they found out a distinction
whereby to bring David Leslie off ; and this it was, that quarter
was only meant to Stewart the Adjutant himself, but not to his
company : After which, having delivered the Adjutant to

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 585

Middleton, to be his prisoner, the army was let loose upon
them, and cut them all in pieces/'1

Malcolm Laing treats this circumstantial narrative as if
Guthrie had " transcribed" it " from Wishart, the partial his-
torian of Montrose, a writer less attached ,to veracity than
studious to frame and adorn a panegyrical romance." We
hasten to redeem truer and juster records than Laing's from
such an imputation ; more especially since we find so distin-
guished an author as Lord Mahon, simply misled, we suspect,
by an historian to whom he had too implicitly trusted, loosely
and vaguely characterising the Commentarius of Wishart, as
" an eloquent work, but not free from large amplifications"

Familiar with the public events and secret history of his own
times, the Reverend Dr Henry Guthrie had no need to trans-
cribe from his contemporary, the Reverend Dr George Wishart.
Their narratives are different, but corroborate each other. The
chaplain of Montrose states it thus : " But the foot, who could
have little security by flight, fighting a good while stoutly and
resolutely, at last, upon quarter asked and given for their lives,
threw down their arms, and yielded themselves prisoners :
Every one of whom being naked and unarmed, without any re-
gard to quarter given. Leslie caused to be inhumanly butchered :
The stain of which perfidious cruelty, by which he hath so
filthily blurred his honour, — if any he got in foreign service, —
he shall never be able to wipe away." These well informed
contemporaries are not transcribing from each other. A third,
Patrick Gordon, refers to the same event, when he says, —

i This account is so circumstantial, that doubtless it had been obtained from
some of those present. Notwithstanding the exception made in favour of Stewart
the Adjutant, he was about to be executed by the home authorities, a few weeks
afterwards, when he made his escape, and joined Montrose. Patrick Gordon's
version, less minute, varies in this respect, that, according to him, the disarmed
victims were carried on to Linlithgow, and there destroyed by being cast over the
bridge, along with the women and children. If there was a committee (as was
usual), of covenanting nobles and ministers with Leslie at Philiphaugh, the dis-
armed prisoners would certainly suffer there. But if the committee only joined
him on his way to Glasgow through West Lothian, probably the chief massacre had
been staid until they reached Linlithgow. Some of these disarmed prisoners are
said to have been destroyed in the court-yard of Newark castle. See Minstrelsy of
the Scottish Border, where Sir Walter Scott refers to his ocular inspection of the
bones discovered at " Slainman's Lea."

586 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" Thus letting the horsemen go, they fell upon three hundred
of the Irish who had stood together ; whereof having killed two
hundred and fifty the rest render their arms, upon promise of
safe quarter ; but it was not kept" This last chronicler then
adds a fearfully circumstantial account of the fate of those un-
fortunates who attended the baggage :—

" With the whole baggage and stuff, which was exceeding
rich, there remained none but boys, cooks, and a rabble of ras-
cals, and women with their children in their arms : All those,
without commiseration, were cut in pieces ; whereof there were
three hundred women, that, being natives of Ireland, were the
married wives of the Irish : There were many big with child,
yet none of them were spared ; all were cut in pieces, with such
savage and inhuman cruelty, as neither Turk nor Scythian was
ever heard to have done the like : For they ript up the bellies
of the women with their swords ; till the fruit of their womb,
some in the embryo, some perfectly formed, some crawling for
life, and some ready for birth, fall down upon the ground, wel-
tering in the gory blood of their mangled mothers. Oh ! irn-
piety ; oh ! horrible cruelty, which Heaven doubtless will revenge
before this bloody, unjust, and unlawful war be brought to an
end." i

The same story is told by Wishart, though less minutely.
" As for those," he says, " that escaped out of the battle, the
enemy pursued them no further, being busy in plundering the
carriages, where they made a lamentable slaughter of women,
pedees, and cookboys : No pity was shewn to sex nor age ; they
went to pot altogether.1"1 And with these wholesale atrocities
(not, as in the case of Montrose's soldiers at Aberdeen, when
the town was stormed after treachery to a flag of truce, a few
individual instances of cruelty to women and children, which
Montrose did his best to restrain) the General, and the com-
mittee of that army identified themselves, by what followed.
In a chapter subsequent to that in which he narrates the scene
at Philiphaugh, Wishart thus records the miserable fate of
some of the stragglers who were brought in to General Leslie,
on his march through the Lothians to Glasgow. These poor
prisoners, " being gathered together, were, by order from the

1 The context proves this to have been written at the time.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 587

rebel Lords, thrown headlong from off a high bridge ; and the
men, together with their wives and sucking children, drowned
in the river beneath ; and if any chanced to swim towards the
side, they were beaten off with pikes and staves, and thrust
down again into the water." x

" Salmonet and Guthrie," says Malcolm Laing, " were
ashamed to transcribe the story from Wishart of the prisoners
thrown alive into the Tweed : The fact is, that from Berwick to
Peebles there was not a single bridge on the Tweed ; and
Father Hay (MS. Advocates1 Library) is obliged to tranfer the
scene to Linlithgow bridge, above forty miles from the field of
battle." And by means of this notable mare's nest, he hopes
to have fastened a circumstantial falsehood upon a clergyman
who certainly published the story without contradiction in the
face of those whom the modern historian assumes to have been
thereby stupidly calumniated.

Laing, however, had failed to consult the original Latin text
of the reverend author whose veracity he so magisterially im-
pugns. Wishart, in the passage in question, is not recording
what occurred on the field of Philiphaugh. Neither does he
speak of any bridge on the Tweed. Father Hay had not
" transferred the scene." Patrick Gordon, whose version is less
circumstantial, obviously refers to the same story when he says,
— " The fifty that remained," — over those who died defending
themselves at Philiphaugh, — " were murdered by the way, at
Lithgow."* Another more precise testimony, which may also be
considered contemporary, seems to remove all doubt as to the
main fact. Sir George Mackenzie, nine years of age when it
occurred, thus refers to the event, with additional circum-
stances, as being in his time notorious and uncontroverted : —

"And our accusers should remember, that these women were
executed for higher crimes than the following Montrose^s camp,
for which four-score women and children were drowned ; being
all, in one day, thrown over the bridge at Linlithgow by the
Covenanters ; and six more at Elgin by the same faction ; all
without sentence or the least formality of law." 5

1 Contemporary translation, 1648.

a Works, vol. ii. p. 348 ; " Vindication of K. Charles II.'s Government." Sir
George here refers to the judicial condemnation, and execution, of two women, de-

588 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Linlithgow was in the line of Leslie's march. Straggling
prisoners were continually brought in to him, on the route. He
was attended by a working committee of Estates ; and by some
of those " gracious ministers " whom their colleague Baillie so
earnestly bespoke as attendants on the army. The picture is
awfully darkened by the fact that the Bible was perverted to
enforce such deeds of blood. " Thine eye shall not pity, and
thou shalt not spare," — and, " what meaneth then this bleating
of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen," — were the
sacred texts by which, upon this and other occasions, the cove-
nanting preachers diverted, from defenceless prisoners, the rude
mercies of soldiers already weary of slaughter.1

Colonel CTRyan, and Major Lachlin, two distinguished lead-
ers of the Irish, greatly endeared to Montrose by their gallantry
and fidelity, had conducted the only stand that was made by
the infantry at Philiphaugh. Having rendered themselves pri-
soners of war, under the circumstances narrated by Guthrie,
they were reserved from the massacre inflicted on their soldiers.
But this was only to suffer a more ignominious death. They
were transmitted forthwith to Edinburgh, and hanged on the
Castle hill, without the pretence of a trial.

termined resetters of the murderers of Archbishop Sharpe, and who were offered
pardon on the most lenient terms, which they doggedly rejected.

1 The passage, in the original Latin text, is as follows : " Captivorum vero, nullo
sexus, ant setatis discrimine, atrocissima ceedes jam, non dubidfama, divulgata est :
captos nimirum ab agrestibus plerosque immanem in modum trucidatos ; alios
(quorum et immitissimi illi homines miserti fuerant) in unum coactos, decreto
conjuratorum procerum, ab edlto ponte prsecipitatos, et sublabentibus aquis im-
mersos, una viros, matresque, et ab uberibus pendentes infantulos : emergentes
vero, fustibus acceptos, et denuo deturbatos in aquas."

Here, it will be observed, the name of no river is mentioned ; and, in the
contemporary translation of 1648, the text is accurately rendered, "thrown head-
long from off a high bridge." But in Ruddiman's translation of 1 756, (which we
have already convicted of a great liberty) the words are added,—" and drowned
in the riter Tweed " ! Neither was this gross blunder corrected in Constable's edi-
tion of 1819. And hence Sir Walter Scott (Border Minstrelsy) rashly concedes to
Laing that Wishart has committed a blunder in specifying the Tweed; but he
ingeniously suggests that some bridge over the neighbouring Ettrick or Yarrow
miyht have been meant. From all this it is apparent that neither had read the
original Latin text, or even the contemporary translation. Nor do they seem to
have been aware of the independent and unquestionable testimony afforded by
Patrick Gordon and Sir George Mackenzie.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 589

But men of higher mark had fallen into their hands, with
whom they did not venture to deal thus summarily. Unfortu-
nately, after having extricated themselves from the fatal field,
the Earl of Hartfell, the Lords Drummond and Ogilvy, Sir
Robert Spottiswoode, Sir William Bollo, Sir Philip Nisbet, Sir
Alexander Leslie of Auchintoul, William Murray brother to
the Earl of Tullibardine, Alexander Ogilvy younger of Inner-
quharity, Colonel Nathaniel Gordon, Captain Andrew Guthrie,
son to the Bishop of Moray, all missed their way, and being
taken by the country people, were delivered into the hands of
their enemies. This was a rich harvest for the Covenant. Be-
fore the end of September David Leslie had conducted his
army through West Lothian to Glasgow, where committees, of
the Estates and of the Kirk, sat in judgment upon these dis-
tinguished prisoners. The Estates were disinclined to take
their lives. The Moderator was deputed to urge their execu-
tion in the name of the Kirk, and that overture was not to be
denied. Ten, upon what principle of selection it is useless to
inquire, were marked for death, to be inflicted at a more con-
venient season. These were, Hartfell, Ogilvy, Spottiswoode,
Rollo, Nisbet, Nathaniel Gordon, Alexander Ogilvy, William
Murray, Andrew Guthrie, and Stewart, the Irish Adjutant who
had been specially admitted to quarter. Both committees then
adjourned until the following month, when they again assembled
at Glasgow, on the 20th of October, being the time and place
announced by Montrose, for the Parliament he had been com-
missioned to summon in the name of the King.

On that day, says Robert Burns, (the Glasgow bailie whom
we have already quoted), " The committee of Estates sat down
at Glasgow: They sat in the tolbooth hall, when the three
prisoners were condemned for treason : Sir William Rollo suf-
fered first, a large scaffold being erected above the cross, and
was beheaded at four afternoon, 21st October: On the mor-
row, the 22d, Sir Philip Nisbet, and Ogilvy of Innerquharity, a
lovely young youth, suffered : They were all three beheaded." l

1 See before, p. 457, note. The original record in the Register House confirms
the Glasgow bailie (who presided at the execution) as to the dates. In the print of
Guthrie's MS. the dates assigned are the 28th and 29th. Guthrie says of young
Ogilvy, that he was " a boy of scarce eighteen years of age, lately come from the

590 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

A pause now occurred in this murderous work. The Parlia-
ment was shrinking. Some alarm was also created, as we
.shall presently .find, by the approach of M ontrose to Glasgow,
at the head of new forces. That merciless dealing with a mere
boy, young Innerquharity, and with men of such character as
his fellow sufferers, Sir William Rollo, and Sir Philip Nisbet,
left the covenanting Peers of Scotland, indeed, without an in-
telligible argument on which to decline proceeding to the same
extremity against the rest of their distinguished prisoners ; such
as the Lords Hartfell and Ogilvy, President Spottiswoode, young
Murray of Tullibardine, and Colonel Nathaniel Gordon. Still
they shrank from the sea of blood into which they had been so
suddenly plunged, and many of them would fain have drawn
back. The Reverend Robert Baillie, — whose own opinion was
that this sort of work ought to have been commenced so early
as by Montrose when reducing Aberdeen to the Covenant, —
seems to have had some misgivings, that his appetite might
again be baulked. Writing to his reverend friend Spang, on
the 17th October 1645, a few days before the executions in
Glasgow, he says : " It is thought, Johnston (Hartfell) Ogilvy,
Sir John Hay, Spottiswoode, and divers other prisoners, will lose
their heads ; that once some justice may be done on some, for
example ; albeit to this day no man in England has been exe-
cuted for bearing arms against the Parliament." This clergy-
man, in fact, was expressing his wishes, and really would have
had no objection if every prisoner in their power had been so
dealt with. But it required the utmost exertions of the Kirk
to bring the Parliament up to the high-blood mark of that
merciless tide. It was indeed quite true, that the enormity of
executing prisoners of war, more especially such as had been pro-
mised life, was without example in England. It was peculiar to
that religious sect among the Scotch clergy, at this time unfor-

schools ; and upon that occasion it was that Mr David Dickson (a minister) said
* the work goes bonnily on ' ; which passed afterwards into a proverb." Patrick
Gordon also says : " At Glasgow they put to death Innerquharity, a brave and
hopeful young gentleman, of eighteen years of age only." The personal beauty
of this interesting youth is pointedly referred to by Wishart ; and his cruel fate
justly attributed to Argyle's enmity to the Ogilvys. See before, p. 246, Argyle's
letter to the father of this innocent victim.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 591

tunately in the ascendant, whose delight was to search the
Scriptures for impressive and eloquent death-warrants.

They had a difficult case to deal with, in that of President
Spottiswoode. The manner in which he had long filled the
chief judgment-seat in Scotland, had left no other feeling to-
wards him, in the minds of the helpless and bewildered people
of Scotland, than veneration and pity. Then the circumstances
of his capture, so innocently told by himself, were such as to
excite sympathy in his favour, and indignation against his de-
stroyers. " For clearing," he says, " the generality of that part
of my deposition, bearing that I was taken with my sword in my
hand, the manner of it was this : By the time that I came from
the town of Selkirk down to Philiphaugh, the fight was begun,
wherein I was never engaged, and the flight taken, in the which
I was carried along with the throng, having nothing but a cane
in my hand : But, being upon a borrowed nag that was not able
to bring me off, and being pursued close by some troopers with
their drawn swords, seeing no means to get free of them, I then
drew my sword to keep them off, if possibly I might, until I had
obtained quarter of them ; which I did, and in that posture was
taken." This, his own statement, is found among his family
papers. In the Cumbernauld papers has been preserved an
" Information for Sir Robert Spottiswoode," being the legal
argument vainly used to save his life. There we find, that " he
had been taken prisoner in the field of Philiphaugh, by an officer
of the Earl of Lanerick's, of whom he had first quarter given
him, and thereafter was brought to the Earl himself, who ratified
the same by his humane and courteous carriage to him, whereby
he had reason to think himself secured of his life." And that
telling circumstance which the conscious Baillie adverted to in
his correspondence, is also thus enforced : " This unhappy war
amongst us being occasioned principally out of respect to the
English Parliament, it would seem that their example should be
a strong inducement to use the same moderation towards our
prisoners which they do towards theirs ; and it cannot be in-
stanced that ever any prisoner, during these wars in England,
have been drawn in question of his life, for siding with either
party." The " good President," aware that the Scriptures
were perverted to bear against all such arguments of civilized

592 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

humanity, failed not to appeal to the sacred volume too.
" Scripture," he urged, and urged in vain, " itself confirmeth
this law and practice (of quarter) most clearly, 2d Kings,
chap. 6 ; where, the Syrians being stricken blind, and brought
captives by Elisha to the King of Israel within Samaria, the
King inquires at the Prophet whether he should smite them or
not ? who answered negativd, — •' Thou shalt not smite them :
wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with
thy sword and thy bow I Set bread before them, that they may
eat and drink, and go to their master.' Therefore, far less is it
lawful to kill them whom thou hast gotten into thy power by
such a stratagem."

The Parliament met at St Andrews on the 26th of November
1645. The state prisoners, their lives trembling in the balance,
were all removed to the castle there. Mr Robert Blair, minis-
ter of St Andrews, opened the session with a lecture on the
hundred and first psalm, the last verse of which is, — " I will
early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all
wicked doers from the city of the Lord." On the same day,
immediately after calling the roll, " Sir Archibald Johnston,"
says the Lord Lyon, " had a long harangue to the House, en-
treating them to unity amongst themselves, to lay all private
respects and interest aside ; and to do justice on delinquents and
malignants; showing that their delaying formerly had provoked
God's two great servants against them, the sword and pesti-
lence, which had ploughed up the land with deep furrows : He
showed that the massacre of Kilsyth was never to be forgotten ;
and that God, who was the just Judge of the world, would not
but judge righteously, and keep in remembrance that sea of
innocent blood, which lay before his throne crying for ven-
geance on these blood-thirsty rebels, the butchers of so many
innocent souls." * And, in order to ensure the " unity amongst
themselves " which he desiderated, the same eloquent speaker
urged a strict scrutiny into the sentiments of the members of
that House, which he compared to " Noah's ark, which had in
it both foul and clean creatures."

Upon the 4th of December the noblemen and gentlemen in

1 The " innocent souls " here alluded to are those of the army of the Covenant
who fell at Kilsyth in the fight and flight. Montrose never put a prisoner to death.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 593

the castle of St Andrews petitioned, " that they may be pro-
ceeded against not by a committee, but that they may be judged
either by their peers, the Justice-General, or before the whole
Parliament." In this just and constitutional petition, disre-
garded of course, they earnestly objected to the interference of
the Procurator of the Kirk, who had already violently prejudged
their case.

Upon the 5th of December, there was read, " Unto the Ho-
nourable and High Court of Parliament, the humble remon-
strance of the Commission of the General Assembly" It com-
mences thus : —

" Your Honours are not ignorant how often we have expressed
our earnest desires unto you, for justice to be execute against those,
from whose treacherous designs, and bloody practices, hath
issued that flood of calamities which hath overflowed the face
of the land, threatening all the inhabitants thereof with ruin,
and swallowing many thousands in destruction : Neither can it
escape your Lordships, how displeasing unto the Supreme Judge of
the world, how dangerous unto yourselves, how grievous unto
the hearts of the Lord's people, and how advantageous unto the
enemy, your former delays have been.""

This blasphemous cry for the blood of men so little worthy of
death as Lord Ogilvy, Sir Robert Spottiswoode, and the rest,
is enforced on the part of the Assembly of the Kirk, " as the
servants of the living God," and in 'the name of the " Searcher
of hearts ;" who, it is added, " knoweth that we bow our knees
daily before the throne of grace for removal of the sword ! "

This " Remonstrance""1 of the Assembly was backed by four
petitions, from the Synods and provincial assemblies of Merse
and Teviotdale, Fife, Dumfries, and Galloway, " read in audience
of the Parliament," on the same day. That from the southern
Synod, which had been convened for the purpose at Jedburgh
on the 24th of October 1645, is signed " Mr James Guthrie,
Moderator, at the command of the Synod." He must not be
mistaken for that other clergyman of the same surname, whose
manuscript we have so often quoted. The Reverend James
Guthrie was hanged, as an incorrigible traitor, at the Restora-
tion. Wodrow records him as a martyr. Malcolm Laing tries
to dignify his exit. But he had been mainly instrumental in

38

594 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

acquiring for the scaffold of the Covenant its characteristic ap-
pellation of " shambles :" He had personally insulted Charles II. :
He had excommunicated his representative : He was doing his
utmost endeavours to subvert the restored dynasty, and to keep
alive the agitation against established government : And let none
grudge that man a gallows to himself, who was one of the chief
promoters of such earnest appeals against mercy as what here
follows : —

" We need not," says the petition from Jedburgh, " lay be-
fore your Honours what the Lord calls for at your hands, in the
point of justice ; nor what you owe unto the many thousands of
his people, whose blood is as water spilt upon the ground.11
And then it presses the suit of blood, as " the common and de-
liberate motions of the Assemblies of the Lord's servants, after
they have supplicated himself for direction, and searched for
truth in his own word, which presseth the administration of jus-
tice, with much vehemence and perspicuity : We are therefore
confident that your hearts will not faint, nor your hands fail,
until you have cut off the horns of the ivicked, and made enemies
bear the just reward of their violence and cruelty.1"

The Synod of Galloway speaks in plainer language. Calling
themselves " watchmen of this Kirk,*' they remind the Parlia-
ment, that the chief cause of the suffering of Scotland from the
plague, and the sword, " is the sparing of Incendiaries, and Ma-
lignants, put in your hands : And now it hath pleased God, be-
yond men's expectation, to put again in your power divers of
these pernicious instruments, yet to prove your zeal to justice,
and to the safety of your mother Kirk, and Kingdom." There-
fore, laying especial stress upon the disgrace brought on the
Kirk-militant, in the field of battle, which they call " the shame
of our Nation, the like whereof hath not befallen this kingdom
for many ages," — they " crave most earnestly that the sword of
justice may be impartially drawn against those persons now in
bonds"

The provincial assembly of Fife, was, of course, no less ear-
nest in this behalf. But these worthies seemed fearful of throw-
ing a doubt upon the intentions of the Parliament. They re-
mind the Estates, how often their ministers urged the men of
Fife to take the field against Montrose, and that u neither were

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 595

the people slow or backward, but very ready upon all occasions,
albeit the Lord, in his just displeasure, did withhold the desired
success" And then follows this modest and considerate ap-
peal : — " Far be it from us to seem to prescribe to your Ho-
nours : But we trust it will not be thought unbecoming our
place and calling, humbly and earnestly to supplicate, that, as
we have heard your zealous purpose of executing justice upon
these bloody men whom God hath put in your hands, so just and
laudable a resolution may speedily be put in execution"1

It is not to the credit of Lord Lindsay of the Byres, whom
they had dubbed Crawford, and who presided over that Parlia-
ment, that he answered thus : —

" That the Parliament took their modest petitions and season-
able remonstrances very kindly, and rendered them hearty
thanks, and willed them to be confident that with all alacrity
and diligence they would go about and proceed in answering
the expectation of all their reasonable desires, as they might
themselves perceive in their procedure thithertills : And withal
he entreated them, in the name of the House, that they would
be earnest with God, to implore and beg his blessing to assist
and encourage them to the performance of what they demanded :
He showed them also, that the House had appointed two of
each estate to draw an answer to them in writing, and their
petitions and remonstrances to be record to posterity '."2

Accordingly, upon the 26th of December, " there is read in
audience of the Parliament, and remitted to the several bodies,"
the reply of the Estates to the petitions of the Kirk. To the
shame of our senatorial ancestors be it said, that addressing
the Assemblies of the Kirk, they " do thankfully acknowledge
their great care, prudence, and faithfulness in all ; especially in
moving so seasonably these desires contained in the remonstrance
now presented." They further assure them, " for their satis-

1 These petitions, (the originals,) were all recently discovered by the author
among the Montrose papers, and are fully printed in " Memorials of Montrose,"
edited for the Maitland Club, 1850. See vol. ii. p. 245, et infra. They were not
known to exist. Balfour has merely recorded the fact of the presentation gene-
rally of such petitions, from the provincial assemblies of Fife, Dumfries, Merse and
Teviotdale, and Galloway. They had all found their way into the Montrose Ar-
chives, except the petition from Dumfries, which is not forthcoming.

3 Original, Montrose Charter-room. See Memorials of Montrose.

596 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

faction in so just and pious desires" that all shall be complied
with ; and, " for the better performing of all this do desire the
ministers' fervent prayers to God,""1 &c.

Ignorant savages, performing their religious rites while prepar-
ing to dine upon their enemies, were less reprehensible than these
loudly professing Christians. We learn from Balfour, that on
the very same day, 26th December 1645, " The House ordains
the Irish prisoners taken at and after Philiphaugh, in all the
prisons of the kingdom, especially in the prisons of Selkirk,
Jedburgh, Glasgow, Dumbarton, and Perth, to be executed with-
out any assize or process^ conform to the treaty betwixt both
kingdoms passed in act." These were only the gleanings of that
glorious harvest day of the Covenant. There was no treaty
between the kingdoms that touched the case. That was a
miserable subterfuge. A flimsy phraseology by which conscious
cruelty sought to cloak a cowardly crime.

We have now to record the fate of their more distinguished
victims. Lord Ogilvy, Sir Robert Spottiswoode, Nathaniel
Gordon, William Murray, and Andrew Guthrie, maintained
their innocence, and pleaded, moreover, that they had been
taken on quarter asked and granted. After a debate of three
hours their defences were repelled ; and, upon the J 6th of Janu-
ary 1646, they were, by a plurality of votes, condemned to be
beheaded at the cross of St Andrews, on the following Tuesday.
The Argyle-ridden peers of Scotland felt their consciences not
a little taxed upon this occasion. Some of them, as we learn
from Balfour, timidly expressed the pang, and thereby only ren-
dered more conspicuous their own degraded condition. " The
Earls of Dunfermline, Cassilis, Lanerick, and Carnwath, were
not clear anent the point of quarter." Eglinton, Glencairn,
Kirighorn, Dunfermline, and Buccleuch, gave their votes for
perpetual imprisonment, instead of death to young William
Murray. Eglinton, Cassilis, Dunfermline, and Carnwath voted
for the same measure of mercy to the venerable President.

Hartfell and Ogilvy both narrowly escaped the block. For
the blood of Ogilvy, Argyle thirsted. But the rival faction of
Hamilton were inclined to save him, and, it is said, were privy
to his escape. On the pretext that he was ill, and through the

1 Original., Montrose Charter-room. See Memorials of Montrose.

LIFE OF MONTKOSE. 5ft 7

interest of his relatives Lanerick and Lindsay, his wife, mother,
and sister were permitted to visit him in prison. The guards
respectfully withdrew from the chamber. Ogilvy dressed him-
self in the clothes of his sister, who put on his nightcap and
took his place in bed. At eight o'clock at night the ladies were
heard taking leave, in an agony of grief. The guards ushered
them out by torch-light, and Ogilvy reached the horses pro-
vided for him. It took the whole power of the Hamilton party
to save these noble ladies from the wrath of Argyle. A thou-
sand pounds sterling was offered, in vain, for Ogilvy, dead or
alive. The Earl of Hartfell, on the other hand, was obnoxious
to the Hamiltons ; and it is said that, in opposition to that
party, Argyle obtained a pardon for him, — a species of merciful
retaliation in which King Campbell did not often indulge.

On the 17th of January, " The Earl of Tullibardine humbly
petitions the House that they would be pleased to pardon his
brother William Murray's life, in respect, as he averred on his
honour, that he was not compos mentis, as also within age. The
House, after debate, refuses his petition, and ordains their sen-
tence to stand." Yet Tullibardine, on the day when sentence
was pronounced upon his young brother, simply absented him-
self. They were all ordered for execution on the 20th, with the
exception of Murray, respited for two days that he might be
examined in consequence of Tullibardine1 s again offering for him
the pleas of insanity and minority. Shame and remorse, or
the intercession of the youth's mother and sisters, may have
occasioned this late and miserable attempt to save his brother.
Guthrie declares that Tullibardine, in the first instance, urged
on the doom of his brother with the rest. Wishart records the
same fact against him. The covenanting Earl must have known
that these pleas were hopeless. William Murray was indeed
not nineteen. But Alexander Ogilvy, whom they had recently
butchered at Glasgow, was a twelvemonth younger. The plea
of insanity was a useless fiction. On the scaffold this youth
astonished the spectators with his magnanimous bearing. To-
wards the end of his address he elevated his voice, and uttered
these words : — u I trust, my countrymen, that you will consider
that the house of Tullibardino, and the family of Murray, arc

598 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

more honoured than disgraced this day. It adds honour to an
ancient race, that its scion, without a stain on his character,
and in the prime of his youth, should, readily and cheerfully,
render up his life for the sake of such a King, the father of his
people, and the munificent patron of my family in particular.
Let not my venerated mother, nor my dearest sisters, nor my
kindred and friends, weep for the untimely end of one whom
death thus honours : Pray for me, and fare ye well.'" Two days
before this execution, Colonel Nathaniel Gordon, Captain An-
drew Guthrie, and Sir Robert Spottiswoode, perished, with
equal constancy, on the same scaffold. The two soldiers de-
meaned themselves in a manner worthy of their gallantry
through life, and of the cause in which they died. In the exit
of the latter there was something so saint-like as to seem a
type of the death of his Sovereign. The crimes libelled against
him with unparalleled effrontery were, the having " purchased
by pretended ways," the office of Secretary of State, without
the consent of Parliament, and, as such, having docqueted
Montrosens Commission, and carried it to him in person, by
command of his Sovereign. In short, he had succeeded Lane-
rick as Secretary of State. Two words comprehend the offences
for which he died, — integrity and loyalty. He appreciated and
dearly loved Montrose, as that letter to Lord Digby from Kelso
sufficiently proves. Dated on the 19th of January 1646, the
eve of his execution, from St Andrews Castle, the last letter he
ever wrote, was addressed " For the Lord Marquis of Montrose
his Excellence."

" MY NOBLE LORD : You will be pleased to accept this last
tribute of my service. This people having condemned me to die
for my loyalty to his Majesty, and the respect I am known to
carry towards your Excellence, which, I believe, hath been the
greater cause, of the two, of my undoing. Always,1 I hope, by
the assistance of God's grace, to do more good to the King's
cause, and to the advancement of the service your Excellence

1 Ahcays, in antiquated Scotch, signifies but. Montrose uses the same phraseo-
logy in some of his letters.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 599

hath in hand, by my death, than perhaps otherwise I could have
done, being living. For notwithstanding all the rubs and dis-
couragements I perceive your Excellence hath had of late, I
trust you will not be disheartened to go on, and crown that
work you did so gloriously begin, and had achieved so happily
if you had not been deserted in the nick. In the end God will
surely set up again his own anointed, and, as I have been
confident from the beginning, make your Excellence a prime
instrument of it. One thing I must humbly recommend to your
Excellence, that, as you have done always hitherto, so you will
continue by fair and gentle carriage to gain the peopled affection
to their Prince, rather than to imitate the barbarous inhumanity
of your adversaries, although they give your Excellence too great
provocations to follow their example.

" Now for my last request. In hope that the poor service I
could do hath been acceptable to your Excellence, let me be
bold to recommend the care of my orphans to you ; that when
God shall be pleased to settle his Majesty in peace, your Excel-
lence will be a remembrancer to him in their behalf; as also in
behalf of my brother's house, that hath been, and is, mightily
oppressed for the same respect. Thus, being forced to part
with your Excellence, as I lived, so I die, your Excellency's
most humble and faithful servant,

" Ro. SPOTTISWOODE." *

The calm and Christian spirit of this affecting letter, be-
tokens a mind at peace even with his murderers, and shows that
the bitterness of death had already passed from him. Notwith-
standing the usual attempts of the covenanting clergy, who
haunted him on the scaffold, he preserved to the last the dig-
nity of a hero and the temper of a saint. Nor was the heroic
Marquis unmindful of his dying appeal. Saintserf, in the dedi-
cation to the second Marquis formerly quoted, records this fact :
" Nay, his inexpressibly malicious enemies found that Mon-
trose's mercy transcended their malice. When those brave
persons, after quarter given, were butchered at St Andrews, he
refused to retaliate on the prisoners in his power, saying, their

1 Spottiswoode Papers.

600 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

barbarity was to him no example, and if the meanest corporal
in his army should give quarter to their General, it should be
strictly and religiously observed." Dr Wishart refers to the
same fact, and declares that Montrose was advised to retaliate
upon some within his power. - But he rejected the proposition
in these noble words : " Let them set a price upon our heads ;
let them employ assassins to destroy us ; let them break faith,
and be as wicked as they can ; yet shall that never induce us to
forsake the brighter paths of virtue, or to rival them in deeds
of barbarous cruelty.11

When Sir Robert Spottiswoode joined Montrose at Both-
well, he had also brought along with him a royal proclamation,
dated "at our Court at Welbeck, 17 August 1645," the se-
cond day after the victory at Kilsyth, the superscription being
in the autograph of Charles. It is entitled " A proclamation
of grace and pardon to all such as shall submit to his Majesty's
mercy, and return to their allegiance." Doubtless it had been
procured by the royal Lieutenant, in correspondence with the
Secretary for Scotland, to strengthen his hands there, upon
those principles of humane policy that were congenial to their
natures. This proclamation had been forthwith issued ; for the
original, which appears to have fallen into the hands of the
enemy at Philiphaugh, is endorsed in a contemporary hand,
" His Majesty's proclamation emitted ly. James Graham" After
an affecting narrative, and exposition of the state of the case,
particularly referring to the specious pretexts by which the
people had been abused and seduced, the royal clemency is thus
earnestly tendered : —

u We do, out of our grace and goodness, tender them our
free pardon, hereby publishing and declaring, that all our sub-
jects, of what estate, degree, and condition whatsoever, without
exception, that shall within ten days after the publication of this
proclamation submit to our mercy, and return to their alle-
giance for suppressing this rebellion, shall receive our free and
gracious pardon for all offences committed or done, in or by the
prosecuting, promoting, assisting, or countenancing this rebel-
lion, or which have any relation thereunto : And we shall
receive their persons and estates into our protection ; which,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 601

on the word of a King, we will effectually make good unto
them." l

After his last great victory, when, for a brief space, Scotland
may be said to have been at the feet of Montrose, instead of
instituting inquisitorial and merciless tribunals, or erecting
shambles for the slaughter of prisoners of war, he did that
which the Kirk immediately magnified into a crime no less
heinous, when their lurid star too soon emerged again. Gentle
reader, he was guilty of instituting a new record, which, while
it brought into his precarious Exchequer some revenue, by
means of an equitable system of fees, or fines, had the imme-
diate effect of staying the ravages of civil war, relieving the
public mind from all terror, and enabling the peaceably disposed
to return in safety to their homes, and to possess their lands,
and property, in comparative security and comfort. Among
his papers taken at Philiphaugh was found Montrose's " prin-
cipal book of protections and passes." The record was imper-
fect, having, as the Covenanters themselves note, " half a side
riven away from the principal book of the protections." There
remained the nominal record of upwards of four hundred pro-
tections and passes, which had been signed by the royal Lieu-
tenant, during the period between the battle of Kilsyth and the
disaster at Philiphaugh, barely one month. The readiness and
the confidence, with which wealthy and poor, the nobles as well
as the serfs of the land, had instantly flocked to the humane
victor, acknowledged his supremacy, and sought the protection
of his sign manual, at once enraged and alarmed the rabid
covenanting preachers, when the fact became disclosed to them
by the discovery of the record itself. Beside the town councils
of the various burghs, — Peers, Baronets, Knights, and Lairds,
of the most distinguished and influential in Scotland, figure in
its crowded columns. The clerical reign of terror had actually
ceased for a season, and a violent check been given to the

1 Original, Hamilton archives. Most probably the document is found in that
noble historical collection, because of its having come into the hands of Lanerick
(the 2d Duke), at Philiphaugh, when the Secretary Spottiswoode became his pri-
soner. It is one of the documents of which his Grace the late Duke of Hamilton
ordered accurate transcripts to be furnished to the author, when compiling " Me-
morials of Montrose," for the Maitland Club ; which sec, vol. 55. p. 318.

602 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

grinding wheels of their Juggernaut car, by the momentary in-
trusion of a spoke of humanity. When that was as suddenly
.withdrawn, the Synods of the Kirk it was, that instantly set
themselves to redeem and punish the backslidings. Of cruel or
harsh conduct, they had not a single instance to parade against
Montrose. But " the excommunicated traitor, and bloody
butcher" was doubly dyed in the guilt of inducing the accept-
ance, from the faithful, of capitulations, protections, and passes !
The Synods of Merse and Tweeddale, Lothian and Fife, met
in their respective divans, and passed a code of laws on the
subject. The tocsin of fanaticism was sounded from the trea-
cherous shores of the Solway, to the craziest nook of Fife.

" We consider," says Merse and Tweeddale, " every protec-
tion taken from James Graham, or any of his accomplices, by
any who has sworn and subscribed the Solemn League and
Covenant, to be unlawful, and contrary to that covenant." —
" We conceive," says Lothian, " that the best way of discover-
ing the evil of capitulations, passes, and protections, is to show
how destructive they are to the national covenant, to the So-
lemn League and Covenant, to the declarations, remonstrances,
and supplications, for executing of justice against malignants and
delinquents ; and to all acts of Ecclesiastical Judicatories" —
" Concerning passes accepted from James Graham," says Fife,
with that known damnable clause, we judge them unlawful, be-
cause the accepting thereof implies not only a tacit acknow-
ledgment of the lawfulness of the usurped power and authority
of the excommunicated rebel, but also that the persons accepters
are rebels, and that our League and Covenant is an horrid and
unnatural rebellion : Concerning protections, we judge them
simply unlawful, in regard they are taken by those who were
not under the power of the enemy," &c. And upon this and
such like anathema maranatha, follows their penal code, in order
" to bring delinquents to condign punishment ;" and even such
as have been guilty of "falling into indifferent neutrality."1

1 Originals, communicated by Mr John Mackinlay of Whitehaven ; along with
" Double of James Graham his principal book of Protections," being the copy made
for the Kirk of the original record which had been taken at Philiphaugh. See the
author's " Memorials of Montrose," printed for the Maitland Club, vol. ii. pp. 320,
325.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 603

General David Leslie, even when himself sickened with the
cold-blooded murders he was induced to superintend as a con-
queror, and which obtained for him the more characteristic
sobriquet of " the Executioner," was disgusted at the clerical
pressure under which he had to proceed in that savage course.
Accompanied by the Marquis of Argyle, he marched against
Sir Allaster Macdonald, now carrying on a predatory war of
his own in the western isles. The once famous Major-General
of Montrose was soon driven from thence into Ireland, where
ere long he fell obscurely in some unrecorded provincial quarrel.
His poor followers whom he had left behind him in the fort of
Dunavertie, were soon reduced to that species of capitulation
which best suited the tactics of Argyle, and against which the
Synods of the Covenant enacted no laws, — the capitulation that
was only made to be broken. " Having surrendered their arms,"
says Guthrie, " the Marquis of Argyle and a bloody preacher,
Mr John Nevoy, prevailed with him to break his word ; and so
the army was let loose upon them, and killed them all without
mercy ; whereat David Leslie seemed to have some inward
check : For, while the Marquis and he, with Mr Nevoy, were
walking over the ankles in blood, he turned about and said :
4 Now, Mass John, have you not for once gotten your fill of
blood f This was reported by many that heard it."1

1 Sir James Turner was present at Dunavertie ; and that iron mercenary soldier,
after narrating in his Memoirs (p. 46.) the inhuman proceedings, thus comments
upon the share of responsibility attaching to Argyle, the nod of whose head, or the
turn of whose thumb, was, unquestionably, then and there all potent to slay or to
save : —

" Here it will be fit to make a stop till this cruel action be canvassed. First, the
Lieutenant-General was two days irresolute what to do. The Marquis of Argyle
was accused, at his arraignment, of this murder, and I was examined as a witness.
I deponed that which was true, that I never heard him advise the Lieutenant-Gene-
ral to it. What he did in private I know not. Secondly, Argyle was but a Colonel
there, and so had no power to do it of himself. Thirdly, though he had advised
him to it, it was no capital crime ; for counsel is no command. Fourthly, I had
several times spoke to the Lieutenant-General to save these men's lives, and he al-
ways assented to it ; and I know of himself he was unwilling to shed their blood.
Fifthly, Mr John Nave (or Nevoy), who was appointed by the commissioners of
the Kirk to wait on him as his chaplain, nerer ceased to tempt him to that bloodshed ;
yea, and threatened him with the curses befel Saul for sparing the Amalekites ; for
with them his theology taught him to compare the Dunavertie men. And I verily

604 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

We can now appreciate the full force of the Reverend Robert
Baillie's instruction, that the Scotch auxiliaries should be ac-
companied by some " gracious ministers." We can now esti-
mate the beauty of holiness that consecrated the battle-word of
the Covenanters, — u Jesus, and no quarter" ! While the facts
we have recorded in this melancholy chapter, are all proved by
contemporary evidence, amply corroborated, no facts whatever,
to sustain the idea of equivalent cruelties in the conduct of Mon-
trose, have even been stated against him, by his bitterest con-
temporary enemies. The last covenanting manifesto issued to
pervert the people on the subject, is the reply of the Kirk to the
Declaration which, in the name of the King, Montrose put forth
upon the occasion of his final and fatal attempt in Scotland.
In the violent tissue of malice and falsehood with which Mon-
trose's proclamation was met, a reply signed, and probably
composed by the Kirk's prime minister, Archibald Johnston,
the Marquis is only accused of apostacy, malignancy, and murder
by battle. That all was therein said against him that could be
said, cannot be doubted. For such is the temper of the railing,
that the illustrious object of it is thus designed, — " That
viperous brood of Satan, James Graham, whom the Estates of
Parliament have long since declared traitor, the Church hath
delivered into the hands of the Devil, and the Nation doth gene-
rally detest and abhor." Upon this our constitutional historians,
Brodie and Hallam, have founded their estimate of Montrose.

believe that this prevailed most with David Leslie, who looked upon Nave as the
representative of the Kirk of Scotland."

Of this Nave, or Nevoy, Wodrow pronounces, — " This excellent man was the Earl
of London's minister, and very much valued by his Lordship"

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 605

CHAPTER XXIX.

MONTROSE AND HUNTLY.

IT was sunset when Montrose and his fugitive cavaliers, after
the fruitless call on Traquair, reached the town of Peebles,
where they rested for a few hours. By break of day, they had
crossed the Clyde. Here the old Earl of Airlie joined them,
along with Ludovick Earl of Crawford, but unfortunately, not
Lord Ogilvy. They had extricated themselves by another road,
and brought along with them two hundred horse. Montrose
never lost heart. On the fourth day after his discomfiture, we
trace him, by the following order to the bailie of Athole, at the
hill of Buchanty, in Glenalmond, the spot where, exactly one
twelvemonth before, he had been joined by Lord Kilpont : —

" Orders for John Stewart of Sheir glass, and the rest of the
country of Athole."''

" James Marquis of Montrose, his Majesty's Lieutenant,
and Governor- General of the Kingdom of Scotland : —

" Whereas we did direct a former order unto you, for appre-
hending all such straggling Irish as you shall find within your
country, and sending them home to the army : These be there-
fore again to will and command you, that, immediately after
sight hereof, you take and apprehend all such straggling Irish
as you shall find within your country, and send them fast bound
to the army, with a guard, except such as have our warrant ;
as you will answer on the contrary at your highest peril.

" Given at our camp at Buchanty, the 19th day of Septem-
ber, 1645.

" MONTROSE." l

1 Original, in possession of B, Nightingale, Esq.

606 LIFE OF MONTKOSE.

Better would it have fared with the poor Irish, had every
straggler been brought to his camp in terms of that stringent
order. Having thus rapidly re-established his camp in Perth-
shire, with the name and semblance of an army, this only ener-
getic and devoted commander for King Charles, proceeded to
his recruiting ground in Athole, issuing orders by the way as if
nothing had interrupted his course of victory. On the 2d of
October we discover him encamped in Strathearn, whence he
issues the following order, addressed —

" For John Robertson of Inver, Captain of the castle of Blair
of Athole ;" and dated " Comrie, 2d October 1645."

" Whereas you did receive former orders from us, for causing
of Alexander and Neil Stewarts, brothers to John Stewart of
Innerchanochane, restore and deliver back such goods as they
did take from Captain Rattray : These are therefore to will and
command you, that, immediately after sight hereof, you put the
said orders to execution, and that you take particular notice to
see the said goods restored, as you will answer on the contrary.

" MONTROSE."

" You will receive from this bearer three-hundred, three-
score ball ; and, as occasion shall offer, your necessities shall be
supplied. Meanwhile you will be doing what you can ; and
be extremely careful of the prisoners; especially of Archibald
Campbell."1

The point of this last injunction is obvious. Most of his
dearest friends, and best allies, were again in the hands of the
covenanting government. The few prisoners he had retained,
were now invaluable to him, for exchanges. But, alas ! his best
card was one that rejoiced in the name of Archibald Campbell.
Another resource to which he still anxiously looked, was more
to the purpose, could he have commanded it. From Comrie he
hastened to Athole, and there recruited his infantry to the ex-
tent of at least four hundred good claymores. But he was
paralyzed for want of cavalry. How few would have served his
purpose, was proved by what he achieved with some hundreds

1 Original, in possession of Henry Porter, Esq., London.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 607

of the Gordon and Ogilvy cavaliers. Clouds of cavalry were
thrown away in England, while the most brilliant game of war
ever played for a throne, was checkmated, starved, in Scotland,
for want of a trifle of that support, which was leading all to
ruin elsewhere. In vain had he besieged the ear of Rupert in
person, with this demand, ere he started on his northern expe-
dition. In vain had he appealed to the King, and pressed the
same on Newcastle. Nor had he ever ceased urging his suit
for a brigade or two of horse from England, in his letters to
Lord Digby, who admits the fact, and feebly acceded when too
late. They not only never sent him any aid, but cast not a
stone in the path of David Leslie, on his way to overwhelm him.
u Montrose," writes Digby to Sir Edward Hyde, " in all his
letters had seemed much to resent the neglect of him, in not send-
ing him a supply of horse ; assuring, that with the help of but
a thousand, he could carry through his work."1

Now, alas, the immediate necessity for such aid was nearer
home. He had to snatch his dearest friends, some of the very
flower of the Scottish nation, from the jaws of the Covenant.
Unquestionably Huntly, even yet, could have enabled him to do
so. The Gordons to a man, nay the whole loyalty of the north,
would have followed their chief, had he at this crisis, cordially
placed himself, not to say under the banner of Montrose, but
under the standard of his Sovereign, supported by that victori-
ous nobleman who had so well earned his paramount commis-
sion, of Governor-General of Scotland. Well might he lament
the death of Lord Gordon. That left the Standard defence-
less on the Border ; for George Gordon would never have de-
serted it. That deprived Montrose of the power of -acting now.
During his twelvemonth's career of astounding victories, Huntly,
devoured like Traquair by spleen and jealousy, lay motionless
and hid in Lord Rae's country when his loyal services were most
essential. After the crowning victory of Kilsyth, however, he
ventured to emerge, and returned to Gordon castle. So did the
Huntly horse, at his bidding. Nothing could be more mise-
rable, more useless, or more mean, than the feeble demon-

1 Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 199.

608 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

strations which the chief of the Gordons at this time made, of
taking the field himself ! What he did, or tried to do, is not
worth tracing. Yet with earnest hope, and longing heart,
Montrose now looked to his rising, as the wrecked and storm-
beaten mariner looks to the breaking cloud. Letters and emis-
saries were anxiously dispatched, at least to reclaim Aboyne.
4 1 cannot over-awe these blood-thirsty tribunals, I cannot save
our friends without cavalry,1 — was the heartrending plea. From
Blair Athole he rushed with his claymores across the Gram-
pians to the country of the Gordons. Young Drummond of
Balloch had preceded him, as a special messenger to Huntly.
By the 7th of October he was as far north as Drumminor,
(Castle Forbes), in Aberdeenshire. There Aboyne, accompa-
nied by young Balloch, at the head of a gallant array of fifteen
hundred foot, and three hundred horse, at length joined him.
The heir of Huntly greeted his illustrious commander, whom
he had " deserted in the nick," with fine speeches from his
father, anything but sincere, and with promises of faithful adhe-
rence on the part of himself, and his wilder brother Lord Lewis,
destined to be immediately broken. Wishart's narrative is
completely corroborated by the following letter, from Montrose
to Huntly, only recently recovered from the Gordon archives.
The extreme anxiety of the royal Lieutenant, to secure the
co-operation of this doting nobleman, is visible in every line,
and expression. But surely the hero of a hundred fights could
not suppress a smile of bitter irony as he wrote his " con-
gratulation" to Huntly on his "happy arrival;" meaning, the
having at length emerged from his place of hiding, and ventured
once more to appear at Gordon castle !

" For my nolle Lord the Marquis of Huntly.
" NOBLE LORD : After my congratulations of your Lordship's
happy arrival, I must acknowledge all your noble and affection-
ate expressions, concerning his Majesty's service, told me by
your son, and Balloch ; as also your Lordship^s favourable re-
spects to myself, and the course you wish to be taken in busi-
ness for hereafter : For what hath formerly passed, I hope
those two have satisfied your Lordship in it : And, for times to

LIFE OF MONTROSE. G09

come, I am absolutely resolved to observe the way you pro-
pose ; and in every thing, upon my honour, to witness myself as
your son, and faithful servant, MONTROSE,"

" Drumminor, 7th October 1645."1

This was a rash and injudicious letter ; evidently penned in
an unreflecting moment of excited feelings, and great anxiety
suddenly relieved. Montrose held the King's commission, as
Governor of Scotland, with power to call a Parliament. Ac-
cordingly, he had summoned it to meet at Glasgow on the
20th of October, about a fortnight after the date of the above.
His immediate object was to support that summons still ; and
the many dear and valuable lives now at stake was an addi-
tional and most powerful incentive to keep the appointment.
He had with himself a strong body of the men of Athole. The
Lords Airlie and Erskine were recruiting, in their respective
districts, between him and the Forth. Lord Lewis Gordon
was to join immediately with an additional power of the Gordon
cavalry. Everything seemed to promise that he would be able
instantly to descend upon Glasgow with an army of foot and
horse sufficient to drive the forces of the Covenant before him,
and to hold his Parliament on the 20th.

Another circumstance incited him to this vigorous move
without a moment's delay. David Leslie, taking it for granted
that Montrose was placed entirely hors de combat, had divided
his forces. His Major-General, Middleton, had been dispatched
to keep the Gordons in check, and he was now encamped at
Turriff. A rapid descent upon Leslie, weakened by this sepa-
ration, had every prospect of being crowned with the success
which hitherto attended Montrose in all his similar manoeuvres.
To defeat the victor of Philiphaugh at the gates of Glasgow,
would have instantly restored the prestige of the royal arms,
and have enabled the Governor of Scotland to meet his own
Parliament there. Could there be a doubt that this was the
game to play ? Huntly, whose military capacity was defunct,
and whose loyalty was rotten to the heart's core, put his veto

1 Original ; in possession of the Duke of Richmond. See note at the end of
this chapter.

89

610 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

upon the scheme. The enemy, forsooth, had entered his do-
mains, and Middleton must be disposed of, in the first instance.
This view of the campaign was, certainly, the most simple.
Moreover, it promised to place Huntly himself at the head of
the military operations. For the staple of the royal army
would be his own followers ; and Montrose, by that thoughtless
letter, had in a manner placed himself, while benorth the Gram-
pians, at the disposal of the northern Marquis, even as a dutiful
son. Yet it was impossible for him to act in conformity with
what he had so rashly written. He called a council of war,
and brought Aboyne to consent to a forced march across the
Grampians, and through Angus, upon David Leslie at Glasgow.
" Aboyne," — says Patrick Gordon, the contemporary historian
and apologist of the family, — " who had been bred up a courtier,
desists from the motion, (to turn northward against Middle-
ton,) and is content to comply with Montrose : But Lord
Lewis, being of another strain, whose forward and free disposi-
tion had not learnt the court way of temporizing, told the
General, roundly, that it was most necessary to put Middleton
first to a point ; which if he did not, he would get few to follow
him south." A whelp that stole his mother's jewels ! The boy
deserted Montrose on the spot ; carrying with him a large sec-
tion of that ticklish cavalry, over which his very wildness had
acquired ascendency. Aboyne inclined, himself, to adhere to
Montrose, did so for another day^s march, arid then followed
his younger brother. Doubtless both were influenced by instruc-
tions from their father. The result was, that Montrose, ere he
reached the Grampians, found himself almost entirely destitute
of the indispensable arm of cavalry. Hence we discover him,
so late as the 23d of October, no further advanced, in his
approach to the seat of government, than the Castleton of Brae-
mar, still to the north of those barrier mountains. Some of
his dearest friends had been executed at Glasgow, as we have
seen, on the 20th and 21st, the very days he ought to have been
opening his Parliament there. The following note, dated
" Castleton of Braemar, 23d October 1645," indicates that the
sad news had not as yet reached him ; and whatever may have
been the trifle of good news which he acknowledges from Tnver,

LIFE OFJMONTROSE. 611

it was destined immediately to be overcast. As for his hopes
of being rejoined by the stupidly ungrateful son of Coll Keitache,
that great swordsman never shewed again.

" INVER : I am glad of this good news. I am advanced this
length, and am, God willing, to be this night in Glenshee.1
Wherefore you will, immediately after sight hereof, convene the
whole countrymen, and direct them to meet me towards Dun-
held with all possible diligence. And let me be advertised what
you can hear of Sir Alexander Macdonald, or where lie is ; and
of all occurrences in the country, or what else intelligence you
can learn. We rest, MoNTROSE."2

Two days afterwards, however, he was so far to the south of
Glenshee and Dunkeld, as Loch Earn. Another missive to
Inver, dated " Lochearn, 25th October 1 645," betrays an altered
tone, and great anxiety.

" ASSURED FRIEND : I have often willed you to keep those
you have in hold, in terms of prisoners. Always (but), for some
particular causes which you shall know hereafter, these are to
will and desire you, that, as you tender his Majesty's service,
my respect and favour, and all and whatsoever concernments,
you, upon sight hereof, put those your prisoners in most strict
fermance, without the least either manner or season of freedom
whatsoever ; all sort of pretences laid aside ; which most assu-
redly expecting, I am your loving friend MONTROSE.

" You will, by all mea'ns, be careful that all the country
people come out ; that none of them be suffered to stay, by no
means, at home ; and if any straggle back, that strict notice be
taken with them." 3

By this time Montrose had learnt the fate, and, as regarded
some, the still impending fate, of his dear friends at Glasgow,
and the more summary dealing at Edinburgh with his brave
officers, Colonel O'Kyan, and Major Lachlin. The alarm occa-
sioned by his approach, seems to have been one reason for a
pause in these inhuman proceedings. But he was now power-
less to save the rest. He could only muster twelve hundred

1 A tolerable day's march, from the north to the south of the Grampians
* Printed in the appendix of notes to Mr Chambers' History of the Rebellions
in Scotland, from the original in possession of Mr Stewart of Dalguise.
3 Original, in possession of Henry F. Holt, Esq., London.

612 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

foot, and three hundred horse. Middleton, not caring to waste
his strength against the Gordons in their own country, hastened
to join forces with Leslie. Huntly had ruined all once more ;
and our hero was constrained to retrace his toilsome steps to
the north, and to commence anew his never ending exertions to
reclaim the chief of the Gordons.

Another circumstance greatly aggravated the present failure.
In Perthshire, Montrose was joined by Captain Thomas Ogilvy,
younger of Powrie, and Captain Thomas Nisbet, bearing dis-
patches from the King. These were to inform him that Lord
Digby had just been dispatched to meet him on the Border,
with fifteen hundred horse. Instantly he sent on the same
messengers northward to Huntly, in hopes that the Gordons
would not fail to meet him now. Meanwhile, with an adroit
display of his slender forces, he hovered about Glasgow, which
was not a little alarmed at his approach. But the Gordons
came not ; and, unable to reach the Border without the aid of
their cavalry, he suddenly hurried back to the north, once more
to try the influence of his own presence.

It was not until the 1 5th of October 1645, that Charles the
First at length determined to send a force in support of Mon-
trose. Lord Digby was appointed to command it. Under him
were Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Sir Richard Hutton, high she-
riff of Yorkshire, the Scotch Earls of Carnwath and Nithisdale,
with fifteen hundred horse. The King could ill spare them at
the time. Before the 26th of that month, while Montrose was
approaching Glasgow, and looking for the Gordons, Digby had
actually reached Dumfries, with the greater proportion of his
cavalry. But he had sustained a severe defeat by the way,
when Sir Richard Hutton was killed. He had also lost his
baggage and papers, which fell into the hands of the rebels. At
Dumfries, says Clarendon, " neither receiving directions which
way to march, nor where Montrose was, and less knowing how
to retire without falling into the hands of the Scottish army
upon the Borders, — in the highest despair, that Lord, Sir Mar-
maduke Langdale, the two Earls, and most of the other officers,
embarked for the Isle, of Man, and shortly after for Ireland, all
the troops being left by them to shift for themselves. Thus,
those fifteen hundred horse which marched northward, within

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 613

very few days were brought to nothing, and the generalship of
Lord Digby to an end." Of such stuff were composed the best
English generals of the ruined Monarch.

Meanwhile Charles lingered for tidings at Newark, only
guarded by eight hundred cavalry, and some dispirited infantry
under Lord Gerrard. But not a gleam of good fortune or com-
fort was vouchsafed to him. When the miserable news of
Digby's flight arrived, he had no other resource left for his
personal safety, than to steal, by night marches, to Worcester
or Oxford. Before he was able to quit Newark, the severest
pang was inflicted upon his generous and affectionate heart, by
the mutinous conduct of his nephews Rupert and Maurice.
Clarendon, who minutely describes this melancholy scene, very
discreditable to the princes, adds, that it " so provoked his
Majesty, that, with greater indignation than he was ever seen
possessed with, he commanded them to depart from his pre-
sence, and to come no more into it ; and this with such circum-
stances in his looks and gesture, as well as words, that they
appeared no less confounded, and departed the room, ashamed
of what they had done."

When we consider the circumstances here shortly noticed,
the following letter becomes doubly interesting. By this time
Charles knew from Montrose himself, in a letter to Digby which
the King opened, that he was no longer victorious. His hopes
of ever meeting with him again (as indeed he never did) must
have been very slender : But he the more intensely felt what he
owed to that gallant spirit, though all had proved in vain, assu-
redly from no fault of his. Crushed as he was at Philiphaugh,
he never dreamt of a retreat to the Isle of Man, or Ireland.
Where now were Newcastle and Digby, and what had they ever
done ? At the very time when the poor King ordered his sis-
ter's sons from his presence, and was oppressed with toil and
anxiety, on the night of the 3d of November, he thus wrote to
Montrose :

" MONTROSE : As it hath been none of my least afflictions,
nor misfortunes, that you have had hitherto no assistance from
me, so I conjure you to believe that nothing but impossibility
hath been the cause of it : Witness my coming hither (not

614 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

without some difficulty), being only for that end : And, when I
saw that could not do, the parting with fifteen hundred horse,
under the command of Digby, to send unto you : And though
the success (which I have here ever since expected, and that
with some inconvenience to my other affairs) hath not been
according to my wishes, yet that, nor nothing else, shall dis-
courage me from seeking and laying hold upon all occasions to
assist you ; it being the least part of that kindness I owe you,
for the eminent fidelity and generosity you have showed in my
service : And be assured that your less prosperous fortune is so
far from lessening my estimation of you, that it will rather cause
my affection to kythe the cleerlier1 to you : For, by the grace of
God, no hardness of condition shall ever make me shake in my
friendship towards you, in despite of all the specious shows of'
cunning, base propositions ; against which, if there were nothing
else, your letter to Digby, of the 24th of September, which I
have opened and read, is to me a sufficient antidote.2 I will
now say no more, but that, upon all occasions and in all for-
tunes, you shall ever find me your most assured, faithful, con-
stant friend,

" CHARLES R.
"Newark, 3d November 1645.

" For the present state of my affairs, I refer you to Jack Ash-
ournham.'''1 3

It was early in November 1645, that Montrose returned
northwards, from his fruitless demonstration at Glasgow. In
his progress a melancholy episode occurred, which must have
deepened the shadows on his retrograde path; the death,
namely, of his Marchioness. Crushed as their home affections,

i i. e. Manifest itself the more clearly.

a This letter, not recovered, must have contained Montrose's account of his
disaster at Philiphaugh, its causes, and how he proposed to remedy it.

8 This letter had remained unnoticed among the Montrose archives, until re-
covered by the author. Clarendon mentions, that one circumstance, in the muti-
nous behaviour of the Princes and Lord Gerrard at Newark, was their offering to
denounce the absent Digby as a traitor. Probably Montrose had been included in
their jealousy and insults at the time, which would account for the excited expres-
sions in the King's letter.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 615

and domestic comfort, had been, it is consolatory to think, that,
even at this stormy and desperate crisis, he was able to witness
the peaceful grave close over the bride of his boyhood. " In No-
vember 1645," — records James Burns, the Glasgow bailie already
quoted, — " Montrose1 s lady died : He came and buried her at
Montrose ; and was pursued back again (to the north) by
Lieutenant- General Middleton." It is all unknown " how lovedi
how lived, how died she." Only six months had she survived,
beyond the date of that judicial consignment, by the committee
of Estates, of her infant son Robert, to her own care and cus-
tody. And singular it is, that no other notice of her death
than this very brief one, is anywhere to be found. Wishart,
Guthrie, Balfour, Baillie, and the Gordon chroniclers, have all
failed to record it. Doubtless when our hero broke up his camp
near Glasgow, and hurried northward, he would pass through
his own domains, and Middleton would be on his track. Nor
can the simple, unassuming testimony of one who was a magis-
trate of Glasgow at the time, be well doubted, with regard to
the main fact.1

No sooner had Montrose passed into Athole, from the grave
of his early love, than he found that his oldest friend, Lord
Napier, had just breathed his last at Fincastle, on the Garry.
His death is so particularly recorded, both by Wishart and
Guthrie, as to render more remarkable their silence regarding
the death of the Marchioness of Montrose. The eloquent tri-
bute of Montrose^s chaplain, we have already had occasion to
quote. Bishop Guthrie narrates it thus : —

u Montrose returned again with his army to Athole, where
he received the sad news of the death of Archibald Lord Napier,
his brother-in-law, whom he had left sick at Fincastle : That
nobleman was so very old, that he could not have marched with
them ; yet, in respect of his great wisdom and experience, he
might have been very useful in his councils : Montrose took
care that his funeral in the kirk of Blair, should be performed
with due solemnities.1'2

1 See before, p. 553, note.

8 Their persecution of him extended beyond the grave. " Archibald Lord
Napier," says Guthrie in another page, " a nobleman for true worth and loyalty
inferior to none in the land, having, in the year 1045, died in his Majesty's f<eu-

616 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Most probably the fatigue and distress at Philiphaugh, had
hastened the death of this long persecuted and blameless noble-
man. But there is reason to believe, that when the Marquis
left his ancient Mentor on his death- bed, he had the consola-
tion to know that he was fondly nursed by his eldest daughter,
Montrose's niece, Lady Stirling of Keir. About the very date
of Lord Napier's death, the committee of Estates thus re-
commence their persecutions of Sir George and Lady Stirling :

" 21st November 1645 : The Committee ordains the Provost
and Bailies of St Andrews, to commit to prison within their
tolbooth, the person of the laird of Keir, and to keep him there
till they receive further orders.

" The Committee allows the laird of Keir to the 10th of
December next, for bringing his wife from the rebels, in whose
company she now is, unto St Andrews."1

We next discover our hero at Kilmahog, near Callender in
Menteith, en route for Athole, and issuing orders which indicate
the indomitable heart with which he breasted the adverse cur-
rent of his fate. Dating from " Kilmahog, 9th November 1645,"
he thus addresses the captain of the Blair of Athole.

" INVER : Having a purpose to take a settled and solid course
through the whole Kingdom, for levies in his Majesty's service ;
and being to repair to the country of Athole for that effect, —
lest the country should be prejudged, either through our stay
above a night or two, or in furnishings and provisions, — These
be therefore to will and command you, that immediately after
sight hereof, you convene all the countrymen of Athole, to keep
a rendezvous at the Blair of Athole, upon Friday next, the
fourteenth of this instant, by nine o'clock in the morning ; that
we may take a settled and solid course, by their own sights and
advices, for a competent and proportional number to be kept

vice at Fincastle in Athole, the Committee resolved to raise his bones, and pass a
sentence of forfeiture thereupon." He adds, that they instituted a process against
the young Lord Napier to that effect, but were satisfied by the payment of 5000
merks. Their object was " to get moneys for us." See before, p. 14, Wishart's
account of him ; and p. 33G, the Committee's own estimate of the nobleman
whose bones they proposed to raise.

1 Original Record, Register House. Yet so quiet was the laird of Keir, while
ever loyal as the ceaseless persecution of him proves, that he never joined Mon-
trose in arms, although a young man and married to his niece.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 617

upon service : Wherein you are to use exact diligence ; that we
be not obliged to stay over a night or two, nor the country
troubled with furnishings and provisions. So we rest,

" MONTROSE." 1

Yet everything was running counter to him. Ogilvy of
Powrie, and Captain Nisbet, who had been sent north to
Huntly with the dispatches from the King, at this time re-
joined him in Athole. These reported, that their mission, and
themselves, had been treated even with disrespect by the chief
of the Gordons. Montrose, whose temper was as indomitable
as his spirit, then sent to him Sir John Dalziel, brother of tha
Earl of Carnwath. The missive with which he was charged,
of course was not so congratulatory, and filial, as the former
somewhat sanguine greeting. But the provocation will be un-
derstood from the foregoing narrative, and surely the tone is
not to be condemned.

" I hope," — says the letter, as we find it in a contemporary
authority already referred to, — " I need not inculcate to your
remembrance the danger the King and Kingdom at present are
in ; and the misery that hangs over his, and all faithful sub-
jects1 heads : Blame me not, my Lord, if I can lay the fault on
none but yourself and son ; first, for hindering the supplies
which the King sent ; and next, for the loss of those gallant
and faithful men lately with so much cruelty butchered. Yet,
nevertheless, since things past cannot be recalled, I beseech
you to recollect yourself for the future; and if you will not
assist, yet at least grant the favour of a conference to the
King's Governor, MONTROSE." 2

Dr Wishart tells us that many of Huntly's dependents, and
gallant following, were disgusted with the disloyal conduct of
their chief. " Nor did some of them," he says, " fear to pro-
fess openly, that they would yield their duty and service to
Montrose, if Huntly should stand out in his humour : And they

1 Original, in possession of the author.

2 This letter is quoted in the text of " Blood for Blood," printed in 1661. See
before, p. 423, note. The date has not been preserved in the old volume, but, obvi-
ously, the reference in the letter is to the failure of Digby's expedition, and the
executions at Glasgow. The compiler of "Blood for Blood" appears to have
acquired some of the Gordon papers relative to Montrose. See afterwards.

618 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

were as good as their words. But he, refusing the advice of his
friends, resolved, whatever came of it, to run counter to Mon-
trose ; nor did Montrose ever propose anything, though ever so
just, or honourable, or advantageous, which he would not cross
or reject."

This severe statement seems amply corroborated by another
original document, also quoted, but without signatures, in
" Blood for Blood ;" where it is entitled, " The Gordons to Mon-
trose."

" MY LORD : We need not, we hope, seek to ingratiate our-
selves into your Excellence's favour, by informing you of our
hearts. 'Tis true, we have not, with that readiness as befitted
us, waited on you, according to your expectation, with our
swords in our hands, which, if we had, knowing our dependance
on the Marquis of Huntly, we had been ruined. For hitherto
we still hoped his integrity, but now with grief are enforced to
let your Honour know the contrary. For Huntly is your back
friend ; and, both by his example and private directions, hath
withheld us all ; forbidding, even with threats, all with whom
he hath power, to have anything to do with your Lordship, or
to assist you either with their power or counsel. This we thought
fit to signify unto you, desiring still to continue in your good
favour, as your faithful friends and servants."

The mission of Sir John Dalziel proving of as little avail as
the former, our hero determined to seek Huntly in person.
The difficulty was to catch him. He had so conducted himself
throughout the whole of the campaign, that now he would
rather have faced the evil-one than Montrose. He declined to
"grant the favour of a conference to the King's Governor.17
Wishart says that, " Huntly being pricked in his conscience,
was always as afraid of Montrose's presence as of a pest-house."
Nevertheless the chief of the Grahams determined to make his
point good. In the month of December 1645, the winter being
unusually severe, he struggled with his scanty army through
half- frozen torrents, and deep drifted snow among the moun-
tains, from the braes of A thole, through Angus, over the Gram-
pians, and so northward to the country of the ill guided Gor-
dons, intending to visit their chief unawares at Huntly castle.
The latter hurriedly shifted his quarters to Gordon castle, to

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 619

avoid him. Our hero, leaving his followers encamped in Strath-
bogie, and only attended by a slender body guard of cavaliers,
started in the night time for the mouth of the Spey, and fairly
run that slippery loyalist to his remotest cover, " The Bog o'
Gicht." There he arrived early in the morning, and surprised
Huntly (who was a little alarmed at the apparition) into a
private conference. The gentle courteous forbearance of Mon-
trose's manner, and his eloquent expostulation, seemed to effect
what hitherto had been tried in vain. When the royal Lieu-
tenant rode back to his own camp, it was in the firm belief that
his rival would now cordially co-operate. " They seemed^now,"
says Wishart, "to be perfectly agreed in everything; insomuch
that Lord Aboyne, and his brother Lewis, wished damnation to
themselves if they did not from thenceforth continue firm and
constant in their fidelity and attachment to Montrose all their
lives; and all the Gordons were joyous beyond measure, and
hailed their lord and chieftain as if they had recovered him
from the dead." But scarcely had the sound of the departing
footsteps of Montrose's charger died away, than the black dog
returned to Gordon Castle.

Huntly was now by way of commencing great operations, as
the King's Lieutenant be-north the Grampians. Had he done
anything at all, even at the eleventh hour, his insubordination,
to the paramount commission and claims of Montrose, might
have been forgiven. The hero himself displayed every disposi-
tion to do so. But so feeble, and useless, were Huntly's efforts,
that they are not to be recognised in history at all. He crossed
the Spey at Gordon castle, and was greatly pluming himself on
his warlike attempts against some rebel strongholds in Moray-
shire. Montrose kept watching him, complimenting him, smooth-
ing him, and biting his nails all the while. For well he knew,
that, even yet, one active step in the right direction was of vital
importance to the King. All his missives to him at this time
are addressed, " For my noble Lord, the Marquis of Huntly,
his Majesty's Lieutenant of these northern parts." He had
actually mustered under the Gordon banner fourteen hundred
foot and six hundred horse, when the Governor of Scotland could
only count, under the standard proper, eight hundred foot, and
two hundred horse. Montrose's plan was instantly to combine

b'20 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

forces, to seize Inverness, bring Seaforth to his senses, and then,
having restored the whole confidence and loyalty of the north,
to descend by a rapid movement upon General Middleton, whom
the Estates had commissioned with a new army ; General David
Leslie having been sent back with his oppressive and unruly
troopers to look after " moneys for us" in England. Seeing all
that had come and gone, the opinion of Montrose ought to have
commanded entire confidence and instant obedience. Huntly,
only bent upon asserting the independence of his feudal follow-
ing, and ghost of a Lieutenancy, which commission he never
adorned with a laurel in its youngest days, wasted the most
precious time and energies before the insignificant place of
Lethin. This was a castle belonging to the laird of Brodie,
into which that covenanter had thrown himself, with some of
his friends and followers, when Huntly took the field, at the
close of the year 1645. Meanwhile our hero kept hovering
between the Spey and the Findhorn, fevered with anxiety and
disgust, but constantly in correspondence with his perverse rival,
appearing greatly to defer to him, and ever looking for some vigor-
ous combination, as the fruit of this irksome diplomacy. When
the father was absolutely in hiding, and the sons playing fast and
loose with the Standard, he could ever and anon accomplish a
victory with the fitful aid of their cavalry. But now. Huntly him-
self once more ruffling on his own dunghill, a great retrieving
blow was not to be struck without his co-operation. Montrose
was at Kinnermony, a place on the Spey, when he appears to
have been favoured, (which very rarely happened) with a letter
from Huntly, then laying siege to the house of Lethin in Moray,
and somewhat alarmed at rumours of active hostility on the
part of Seaforth, and the approach of Middleton's army. He
seems at the same time to have reported some results, of course
in the most favourable terms, of his own new career in arms, to
the hero of Tippermuir, Aberdeen, Inverlochy, Auldearn, Alford,
and Kilsyth ; who surely could not suppress a smile when re-
plying as follows, in a letter dated " Kinnermony, 23d December
1645:"

" I received your Lordship's, and do congratulate your good
beginnings, which I hope shall make a leading case to you, in all
those parts. As for what your Lordship remembers of Seaforth,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 621

it will be a very void attempt if he intend it : For, though I
were not most assured of Macdonald. yet, — you being before
him, — he shall find me enough alone, behind his hand : Neither
do I think, though he were able, he would ever be found guilty
of so much resolution.1 I hear nothing of any enemy ; but look
hourly for advertisements, from all hands : At which time you
shall receive a more full account, from your Lordship's most
humble servant."

In less than a week afterwards, namely on the 29th December
1645, he again writes to Huntly from Advie, (a district of the
Grants, on the banks of the Spey) the following news, which
appears to have had little foundation in fact : —

" I had, yesternight, some advertisements from the south, in
which the Prince of Wales1 s victory is fully confirmed ; and
another related for certain, which has been gained by those of
Newark, wherein David Leslie was soundly swinged, and come
off with but nine horse, and fled to Newcastle. The Lords
Livingston, Montgomery, and Sinclair, are taken, and to be
brought to their parliament, for some plot they had for the
King. I hope, by all appearance, you shall have Seaforth very
cheap : For one Colonel Hay, who was in my company, desired
leave of me to go down to Moray, to see some of his friends
there ; and was like to have been snapt by the garrison of Inver-
ness ; but Seaforth, as they say, took his protection? I have
heard nothing from the man himself; but what is in it your
Lordship will have better occasion to learn, and make your own
use : Which is all for the present can be told your Lordship,
by your humble servant."

(On the margin.) " There are ten thousand men a-coming
from Ireland, to be landed at Chester, over whom my Lord
Herbert is General : And, they say, thereafter they will send
some here, which I pray God they do."

Two days afterwards he writes to Huntly from " Ballacastle,

1 Montrose was fully justified in this severe comment upon Seaforth. See be-
fore, p. 491.

» That is to say, Montrose had furnished his officer with a protecting pass, the
potency of which had been bowed to by Seaforth ; who was still, however, by way
of being in arms for the Covenant. This Colonel Hay was not Kinnoul's brother
formerly mentioned. There were several officers of that name in Montrose's
army.

622 LIFE OP MONTROSE.

31st December 1645," the old name for Castle Grant, as fol-
lows :

" Being advertised, by the laird of Glengarry, that he has
given your Lordship assurance that Seaforth will come in, and
join for his Majesty's service, and that we should be sparing
with his interests,1 and have no need to advance against him, I
must by these entreat to know from your Lordship what is in it.
Withal I have directed one to Glengarry to know what are his
grounds for giving your Lordship so much assurance. And.
meantime, I wish to know your Lordship's judgment anent the
delay. For if Seaforth be really come in, it shall hold us in
much time and pains. If not, he is not able to stand our
advance. But, if he be willing, it is better he come in at the slap
to us, than that we should go over the dike to him. So, wishing
your Lordship all happiness and good fortune, I am your Lord-
ship's most humble servant."

(On the margin.) " My Lord, during your Lordship's ab-
sence, I gave an order to Credells, for seizing of that house
which is now in his custody ; and if you shall be pleased to con-
tinue him in it, I dare promise he will deserve the trust, and
merit your favour."

Ten days afterwards, in a letter dated "Strathspey, 10th
January 1646," he evinces his impatience " really to fall to
work," in this pithy note : —

" It being necessary we should now take the opportunity of
the season, and employ the time that so favourably offereth unto
us, I have directed this bearer to acquaint your Lordship with
my thoughts of the business, and to know your Lordship's own
opinion. For it concerns us now really to fall to work. I am
your Lordship's most humble servant."

On the second day after the above, he writes from the same
place :—

" My last, and those gentlemen I directed to attend your
Lordship,2 have expressed my thoughts so fully, that I have
nothing to add. As for that particular of Colonel Hay, there
is little to be built on that confidence ; for he is a well meaning
man, and thinks every one should be as honest as himself. He

1 i. e. Not severe upon his possessions.

3 Those gentlemen were, Colonel Stewart, and Towers of Inverleith.

LIFE OF MONTROSE

desired, indeed, leave of me (in regard he claims great interest
in Seaforth) to use his own endeavours, in an indirect way, and
that he would work wonders. But I find no effect earthly from
it ; which must make us the rather hold to our old grounds.
Which is all for the time can be told your Lordship by your
Lordship's most humble servant."

By the 25th of January Montrose had shifted his own camp
from the strath of the Spey to Kylochy, a place nearer Inver-
ness, in the strath of the Findhorn. From thence, of that date,
he thus acknowledges receipt of a letter from Huntly : —

" I received your Lordship's, and do heartily thank you for
the hopes you give me of the Lord Ogilvy's liberty ; which does
confirm me in the expectations I had, that something would be
done thereaway; which I believe will occasion the enemy's
march thither.1 As for Seaforth, Glengarry is very confident
that he will prove right. But few days will now put it to the
proof, whether so or otherwise. Meanwhile, having no further
to trouble your Lordship withal, I am your Lordship's most
humble servant."

Montrose's next letter, dated on the 1st of February from the
same place, indicates the jealousy with which Huntly asserted
what he considered his own proper following, and how completely
he paralyzed the military movements of the great General, whom
he treated as a subordinate.

" Being told by Colonel Stewart, that it was your Lordship's
desire, that I should leave those of the name of Grant to go
alongst with you, I would not suffer one of them, at my parting
thence, to come with me hither. But now, understanding they

1 Lord Ogilvy had made his escape on the 5th of January 1646 ; though in great
danger of being retaken, as appears from the original MS. Record in the Register
House: — "8th January 1646: Ordinance anent James Ogilvy his escape: The
Estates of Parliament being certified, from the Commission for the processes, of
the escape of James Ogilvy, late Lord Ogilvy, out of the Castle of St Andrews,
where he was incarcerated, they approve the orders already emitted thereanent by
the Commission for the processes, and do hereby make offer, and give assurance of
the real payment, of one thousand pounds Sterling, to be paid to any who shall
bring in the said James Ogilvy, dead or alive, to the Estates of Parliament: And
ordains public proclamation hereof by open proclamation, after sound of trumpet,
at the market cross of St Andrews."

This immense reward emanated from the bitterness of Argyle against the
Ogilvys ; but had not the desired effect.

624 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

keep most of them all their homes, and having likewise but few
with me here for the present, I thought good to acquaint your
Lordship with the expediency that I should call hither only a
few of them that are at home, who otherwise would be useful to
neither of us. And, how soon my folks are a little better con-
vened, your Lordship shall still have them upon the least adver-
tisement. For I am so little curious of numbers, that I desire
none but for necessity. For more is but superfluous, and a
trouble ; So, longing to know of your Lordship's welfare, and
good occurrences, I am your Lordship's most humble ser-
vant.'7

Five days afterwards, from the same place, he writes : —
" The laird of Glengarry came to me lately, and showed me,
that all those highlanders had a general rendezvous with the
Earl of Seaforth, the 29th of this last bypast, for joining them-
selves to his Majesty's service ; where he was also to find him-
self. So, having gone, he tells me the meeting did not hold ;
but that my Lord Seaforth is busily gathering, and making all
the dispatch he can. Whereof I am heartily glad, for it shall
save us much time and trouble. Upon the directing of my last
to your Lordship, I wrote also to Grant for some of his men.
But since the receipt of your Lordship's return, — wherewithal
I am heartily satisfied, — I have sent him contrary orders, and
willed that all his men should repair to your Lordship, and that
I would not have one of them to come to me at this diet. So
they can pretend nothing that way. Having no further for the
present to trouble your Lordship withal, I am your Lordship's
most humble and faithful servant."

And again, on the 18th of February, still dating from Ky-
lochy, —

" Since my last I have received no further occurrence ; only,
the list of prisoners, taken at this last fight, was lost by the
carrier, by the way. But I am certainly informed, by those
who come from thence, that there are sixteen or twenty taken ;
amongst whom, James Stewart, that murdered Lord Kilpont, is
one ; and one Makondochy of the Reau, Argyle^s great cham-
pion, another. I hear also for certain, but not by any express,
that the Lord Ogilvy is joined with them, and Macdonald also,
and that they are all presently towards Glasgow. As further

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 62o

comes to my knowledge, your Lordship shall receive it from
your Lordship's most humble servant."

The particulars here communicated did not all prove true.
In the month of February 1646, Montrose had sent Patrick
Graham younger of Inchbrakie, and John Drummond, younger
of Balloch, to recruit in Athole. These two, having mustered
seven hundred of the claymores of that country, pursued and
attacked a body of about twelve hundred in arms for Argyle,
and defeated them in a style worthy of their military school.
The .battle occurred upon the lands of Lord Napier in Men-
teith, where Argyle had ordered these troops, chiefly the col-
lected remnants of his clan, to be quartered, and many were
drowned in the water of Gudy. But the fate of the murderer
of Lord Kilpont does not seem to be known. Certainly he did
not fall into the hands of Montrose ; who surely would have
made that an exception to his rule of never hanging a prisoner
of war. Those who escaped fled for protection to Argyle him-
self; who quartered them upon Lord Napier's lands in the
Lennox, when Drummond and Inchbrakie rejoined Montrose.

This last gleam of good fortune shed upon the arms of Mon-
trose, on the 13th of February 1646, was a brilliant affair, but
led to no results. It proved, however, what might have been
done by vigorous combinations, had Huntly permitted. While
corresponding with him as above, Montrose was at the same
time anxiously looking for intelligence from Athole. On the
8th of February, five days before Inchbrakie's victory, he thus
writes from Kylochy to his captain of the Blair, who appears to
have been a most unsatisfactory correspondent.

" INVER : As I wrote to you formerly, whereunto I have re-
ceived no answer, albeit I have long expected and oft required
it, I cannot sufficiently admire (wonder) what can be the reason
wherefore I have not heard from you this long time bypast ;
having sent you so frequent advertisements, and you having
daily occasions. Always (but) I will say no more, until I hear
from you what can be the occasion thereof. Wherefore, these
are to will and require you, that immediately after sight hereof,
you will advertise me with all possible diligence. I rest,

" MONTROSE."
40

626 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

On the same day, Montrose's secretary, Master James Ken-
nedy, also writes to Inver as follows : —

" SIR : I cannot but advertise you that I have not seen the
Marquis of Montrose so discontent, since ever I knew him, as
he is presently with yours, and others, negligence in Athole, in
not acquainting him, these six weeks bypast, with the state and
condition of matters there, albeit he hath written to you often
formerly. Wherefore, you will do well for yourselves to post
back an express bearer, with all possible diligence ; and to ac-
quaint him with all occurrents in your country, or elsewhere ;
and to write your own excuse for so long delaying :

" As for occurrents here, we be in good hopes that Seaforth,
Sir James Macdonald, and Macleod, shall join to the King's
service with all their forces, in all haste. For they have given
all the assurances, both by word and writ, that can be asked.
They are to have a rendezvous of all their forces on Wednesday
next, in Ross, within fourteen miles of this country, and there-
after to come along to my Lord Marquis. The Marquis of
Huntly doth still lie besieging the house of Lethin in Moray,
which we be confident he shall gain this week.1 The enemy's
forces lie still at Aberdeen, not exceeding eight hundred foot,
and three hundred horse.2 The young laird of Drum hath
beaten up one of their quarters near by the town of Aberdeen,
and killed and taken prisoners about an hundred horsemen ;
gotten all their horses and arms. Some of the Marquis of
Huntly's forces and Harthill, with divers others, have, at seve-

1 Dr Wishart says, that Huntly remained ten weeks before Lethin, lost some
of his best men, and " was forced with dishonour to raise the siege, when he was
never the nearer." Patrick Gordon, whose laboured attempts to excuse his chief
are as flimsy and weak as they were natural, asserts that Huntly took Lethin, after
this long siege. The contemporary dispute itself shows that the affair had not
been very decisive ; nor is the fact worth the trouble of investigation. Patrick
Gordon admits that Huntly left the place as he found it, on the proprietor's enter-
ing caution for his loyalty. The useless exertion only served as Huntly 's excuse
for having paralyzed Montrose. It saved Inverness and Middleton, threw the
King into the hands of his murderers, and brought Huntly's own head to the
shambles of the Covenant, very soon afterwards.

» This was part of Middleton's army under Colonels Montgomery and Barclay.
Middleton himself had gone in pursuit of that portion of Montrose's army which
had just defeated the remnant of Argyle's people on Lord Napier's lands in Men-
teith.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 627

ral occasions, cut off another hundred horsemen to them ;* which
is all 1 can write for the present.

" There was much expected of your country of Athole, this
time bypast. But it is like to prove as an hoar-frost to lowp
(leap) in the air again. I wish your people may disappoint the
common opinion of all men here.2 And thus, my service remem-
bered to the laird of Inchbrakie, to the Tutor of Strowan, your
brother Kincragie, and yourself, I shall still remain your affec-
tionate friend and servant, MASTER J. KENNEDY."13

Still intent upon taking Inverness, which would have been to
command the north of Scotland, and settle the qucestio vexata
of Seaforth's loyalty, Montrose shifted his camp from the Find-
horn to Petty, on the coast between Inverness and Campbel-
town. Aboyne was a little further off, at Elgin, from whence
he had dispatched a verbal message to our hero, which occa-
sioned the following letter from Montrose, dated " Petty, 15th
March 1646 f-

" MY LORD : Having received, yesternight, a desire from your
Lordship, by Alexander Gordon, son to Arnadoul, that I should
advance and join with you to fight the enemy , who were presently
on their march, and the gentleman being hardly able to make
your Lordship's intention be comprehended, in regard you
favoured the business with no letter, I have desired the bearer
hereof, Sir John Hurry, to wait upon your Lordship, that I
may be more fully informed of the course. Your Lordship
knows it is three or four months since I desired the same, very
earnestly, by Colonel Stuart and Captain Towers, whom I directed
to my Lord your father for the same end. Neither is there any
thing in the world / so much passion. Wherefore, my earnest

1 The Covenanters had their revenge more solito. In the following year, when
Huntly was betrayed by the clan Cameron, young Leith of Harthill commanded a
party which fought gallantly to rescue him. The youth, however, was surrounded
by the Camerons, in a defile, made prisoner, and taken to Edinburgh, where he
was executed in the month of October 1 647. Patrick Gordon says he was " a
youth of twenty years, or little more ; but of such admirable valour, courage, and
dexterity in arms, that he was, amongst his enemies, the most redoubted man
that followed Huntly at that time."

8 Inchbrakie's victory, which occurred a few days after the date of Kennedy's
letter, probably served to do so.

3 Original, in possession of Henry F. Holt, Esquire, London.

628 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

desire to your Lordship is, that you will be pleased to let me
know your strength, and what forces you can assure me of ; as
^likewise the certain diet which your Lordship is, undoubtedly, to
hold ; and that your Lordship would be particular in it that I
may be informed from your own hand ; assuring your Lordship
that you shall be fully satisfied, in all points, by your Lord-
ship's very humble servant MONTROSE."

It was cool in the young nobleman, who had " deserted him
in the nick" at Philiphaugh, to send an incomprehensible ver-
bal message of the kind to Montrose. It was cooler still to
send such a written reply, to the above sensible and anxious
letter, as left the matter no less unintelligible than it was before.
Upon the original of Montrose's autograph letter, there is noted,
in a contemporary hand, probably that of Aboyne's secretary,
the words, " turn over ;" and on the blank page we find, —
" My Lord Aboynes answer to the former letter"

"MY LORD : The truth is, I several times have heard there
was much suspicion of scruple betwixt your Lordship and my
father, anent the present carriage of his Majesty's service ;
which made me, lest it might perhaps have reached even to your
Lordship, send that gentleman towards your Lordship ; both to
assure your Lordship of our willingness, and also of my earnest
desire to kiss your hands in these parts; where I may, as for-
merly, wait upon you. As for Colonel Stewart, and Towers*
message, the paper is scarcely able to carry that satisfaction
which I wish to give of it. I therefore leave it till meeting.
Our strength, I make no question, is sufficiently known to your
Lordship ; and, I dare say, shall be strong enough for all the
enemy we hear of yet in these parts ; and I hope no good fellow
will be wanting, hath ever showed his face in the business. Our
general rendezvous is to be in Mar, upon the 19th of this in-
stant. However, I shall be here to-morrow all day expecting
your Lordship's commands ; and likewise send to the other side
of the river, that they may, as far as they can, apply themselves
to your Lordship's diet. (The rest of the letter concerned not this
purpose.) Subscribitur, Your Excellency's most affectionate and
humble servant, ABOYNE."

" Elgin, 15 March, at 5 o'clock at night."

Nevertheless, we should like to have seen the rest of the let-

LIFE OF MONT11OSE. 629

ter. It could not be much less to the purpose than what has
been preserved. The paper must have blushed when Aboyne
wrote, of waiting upon Montrose u as formerly," and about every
good fellow, " who hath ever shown face in this cause." His
telling the royal Lieutenant, — (in reply to an earnest request to
know his strength precisely) " our strength, I make no ques-
tion, is sufficiently known to your Lordship," is perhaps un-
matched in the annals of cool mystification ; and as for the
44 enemy in these parts," whom he treated so lightly, General
Middleton was on the eve of joining the forces he had left be-
north the Grampians, with eight hundred foot, and six hundred
horse attending himself; which combination gave the Covenant
" in these parts," eighteen hundred foot, and eleven hundred
horse.

After Inchbrakie's exploit in Menteith, young Lord Napier,
hearing of the wasting of his extensive possessions in that dis-
trict, and the Lennox, quitted his beloved uncle to look after
his own people. In company with his cousin young Balloch,
and the laird of Macnab, he descended into Strathearn, occu-
pied Montrose's castle of Kincardine with about fifty men, and
fortified the same as well as he could ; intending to organize
some protection for his own and his uncle's estates. General
Middleton invested the place in person, with that large section
of his forces, and battered the walls with cannon brought from
Stirling castle. For fourteen days the castle was held out by
this brave little band, who were then reduced to extremity from
their well having failed them. It was impossible to do more,
and the doom of Napier and his cousin seemed to be sealed.
Unquestionably if taken both would have been put to death.
But these gallant youths contrived a plan to break through the
enemy, who surrounded the castle on all sides. Lord Napier
was attended by a page of the name of John Graham, well
acquainted with the localities of Kincardine, who undertook to
be their guide in the perilous attempt. When the moon had
disappeared and darkness favoured them, Napier and young
Balloch issued from the castle, at a small postern, where they
found the faithful page waiting for them with three horses. The
whole party instantly mounted, and, passing quietly through the
enemy'fc host, made their escape, and reached Montrose in safety,

630 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

in the north. On the morning after their escape the castle was
surrendered on capitulation, and thirty-five of the besieged were
sent to the tolbooth of Edinburgh. But to satisfy the justice
of the Covenant, which, as we have seen, condemned capitula-
tions, General Middleton ordered the remaining twelve, of those
who had surrendered, to be shot at a post, and the castle to be
burnt.

Thus fell, on the 16th of March 1646, the finest of Mon-
trose's ancient homesteads, where the happy days of his youth
had been spent, and where the feudal funeral of his father was
so imposingly " accomplished." Aboyne's letter to him is dated
on the evening of the very same night that Napier and his
cousin accomplished their perilous escape.

The Earl of Seaforth, (that riddle of a loyalist) Lord Reay,
Sir James Macdonald of the Isles, Maclean, Glengarry, the
Captain of Clanranald, the Tutor of Strowan, and several other
cocks of the north, were now all so ready to form a combina-
tion under Montrose's royal banner, that he was on the point
of organizing them independently of the chief of the Gordons,
and of uniting them by another such " damnable band" as pre-
ceded the battle of Inverlochy, when a letter from his ruined
Sovereign sheathed the sword of the hero, rung the knell of
Huntly, and closed the case for the Crown.1

1 Montrose's correspondence with Huntly and Aboyne, given in this chapter,
was unknown to history, and has not previously entered the biography of our
hero. The letters, which have been preserved, though hitherto disregarded, among
the Gordon Archives, were placed at the author's disposal, by the kindness and
liberality of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, subsequent to the publication of the
former edition of the Life and Times of Montrose. They were brought to light
and printed for the first time in 1850, among the vast collection of historical docu-
ments, edited by the author for the Maitland Club, under the title of " Memorials
of Montrose, and his Times." The antiquated orthography, there strictly pre-
served, has not been retained in our quotations in the text.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 631

CHAPTER XXX.

THE KING PLACES HIMSELF IN THE HANDS OF THE COVENANTERS — DELU-
SIVE HOPES OF BEING ALLOWED TO JOIN MONTROSE — IS COMPELLED
TO DESIRE MONTROSE TO DISBAND HIS FORCES AND QUIT THE COUNTRY
— CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE KING AND MONTROSE— MONTROSE
AND MIDDLETON — THE NEW POSITION OF HAMILTON — BURNET CONTRO-
VERTED— DESIGN TO SEIZE THE PERSON OF MONTROSE — FRUSTRATED
BY HIS ESCAPE IN DISGUISE — CONDITION OF HIS FAMILY CIRCLE — THE
LORD ADVOCATE OF THE TROUBLES APPLIES TO THE KING FOR A RE-
NEWAL OF HIS OFFICE — SINGS THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM, AND DIES.

THE failure of the French agent's crude attempt to effect,
after the eleventh hour, a safe retreat for the King of England,
is well known. That feeble negotiation was based upon the
assumption that the prevalent faction in Scotland was not
utterly destitute of integrity. How completely does the result
justify the clear-minded Montrose, in what he wrote from In-
verlochy, — " Though God forbid I should stint your Majesty's
mercy, yet I must declare the horror I am in, when I think of a
treaty while your Majesty and they are in the field with two
armies, unless they disband and submit themselves entirely to
your Majesty's goodness and pardon.'1 Matters were still worse
now ; yet Charles was not sufficiently awakened to the fact that,
so far as his own safety was concerned, there was nothing to
choose between Leven and Cromwell. That Scotch Earl, of
Charles's own creation against his will, was as usual a military
puppet in the hands of an attendant committee of the Argyle
government. There is a melancholy memorandum among the
Evelyn papers, endorsed by Secretary Nicholas, — " A note writ-
ten with the King's own pen concerning his going to the Scots,"
— which proves how little he understood, even in the month of
April 1646, the true nature of the Covenanters, or the exact
position of Montrose. This was the dream of his expiring

632 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

hopes : — " Freedom in conscience and honour ; and security for
all those that shall come with me ; and, in case I shall not agree
with them, that I may be set down at such of my garrisons as
I shall name to them ; which condition I hope not to put them
to ; for I shall not differ with them about ecclesiastical busi-
nesses, which they shall make out to me not to be against my
conscience ; and for other matters I expect no difference ; and
in case there be, I am content to be judged by the two Queens :
And, before I take my journey, I must send to the Marquis of
Montrose, to advertise him upon what conditions I come to the
Scots1 army, that he may be admitted forthwith into our conjunc-
tion, and instantly march up to us"

In conformity with this view of his own case, the hunted
Monarch addressed the following letter to Montrose, dated 18th
April 1646, which he sent in cypher, through Secretary Nicho-
las, to M. Montreuil, the foreign agent in this miserable nego-
tiation, who was instructed to use his discretion as to trans-
mitting it. Of course the useless missive was never sent.
Doubtless had all the ifs in it been fulfilled, the peace-making
would have been perfect. Doubtless the King would have been
safe, and History unstained by the sale of him, had Montrose
been allowed to " march up to us." The result of his marching
up to him was unfortunately settled in the previous month of
September. Through the blood of his countrymen, and his
kindred, of his enemies and his dearest friends, — through the
ashes of the glorious scenery of his native districts, and the
happy homesteads of his recent youth, — had he not marched
up " from Dan to Beersheba," — in vain ? Was the doomed
Throne, and King, to be saved, by loyalty always marching
downwards, from the very first, in every possible direction, ex-
cept in the one fiery line of Montrose ? Never was vision wilder,
than that memorandum, and this letter : —

" MONTROSE : Having, upon the engagement of the French
King, and Queen Regent, made an agreement to join with my
Scots subjects now before Newark, and being resolved upon the
first opportunity to put myself into that army, — they being
reciprocally engaged, by the intervention of Mons. de Mon-
treuil, the said King's Resident now in the said army, to join
with me and my forces, and to assist me in the procuring a

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 633

happy peace, — I have thought it necessary to acquaint you
herewith (being here so close begirt as without much hazard
and difficulty I cannot suddenly break from hence to come to
them), desiring you, if you shall find, by the said de Montreuil,
that my Scots army have really declared for me, and that you
be satisfied by him that there is by them not only an amnestia
of all that hath been done by you, and those who have adhered
unto me, but very hearty, sincere, friendly and honourable resolu-
tions in them, for whatsoever concerns your person and party,
— that then you take them by the hand, and use all possible dili-
gence to unite your forces with theirs for the advancement of
my service, as if I were there in person : And I doubt not but
you, being joined, will be able to relieve me here, in case I shall
not find any possible means to come to you, which shall be still
endeavoured with all earnestness by yours, CHARLES R.v l

When, however, Montreuil had failed, and was even caution
ing the King against the very measure he had attempted to
negotiate, Leven or Cromwell was the only choice left. Upon
the 27th of April, Charles made his escape* and reached the
camp of the Covenanters on the 5th of May. Sir James Turner,
who was present, affords this graphic view of the melancholy
scene : —

" In the summer of 1646, the King^s fate driving him on to
his near approaching end, he cast himself in the Scots1 arms at
Newark. There did Earl Lothian, as President of the Com-
mittee, to his eternal reproach, imperiously require his Majesty
(before he had either drunk, refreshed, or reposed himself), to
command my Lord Bellasis to deliver up Newark to the Par-
liament's forces ; to sign the Covenant ; and to command James
Graham, — for so he called Great Montrose, — to lay down arms ;
all which the king stoutly refused, telling him, that he who had
made him an Earl, had made James Graham a Marquis"

But Charles was ere long compelled, by the traitors whom he
had so rashly trusted, to forego his champion. While Mon-
trose was still exerting all his energies to overcome the jealousy
of Huntly, and to rouse the well-affected in Scotland, on the
last day of May 1646, the following letter from the awakened

1 Clarendon Papers, vol. ii. p. 224. Endowed, " A copy by Mr Edgman."

634 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

King, dated "Newcastle, May 19, 1646," reached him on the
banks of the Spey.

" MONTROSE, — I am in such a condition as is much fitter for
relation than writing ; wherefore I refer you to this trusty
bearer, Robin Car, for the reasons and manner of my coming to
this army : As also, what my treatment hath been since I came, and
my resolutions upon my whole business. This shall, therefore,
only give you positive commands, and tell you real truths, leav-
ing the why of ah1 to this bearer. You must disband your
forces, and go into France, where you shall receive my further
directions. This at first may justly startle you ; but I assure
you that if, for the present, I should offer to do more for you, I
could not do so much, and that you shall always find me your
most assured, constant, real, and faithful friend, CHARLES R." l
No doubt the Lieutenant-Governor of Scotland was startled ;
and " Robin Car" would have little wherewith to reassure him.
The King was now a prisoner in the hands of the covenanting
General, who was in the leading strings of Argyle, his Chan-
cellor Loudon, Lothian, Lindsay, Balmerino, and Johnston of
Warriston, all of them long familiar with treason, and mortal
enemies of Montrose. The reply which he wrote on the second
day after Robin Car reached him, is dated " Strathspey, 2d
June 1646," and now for the first time enters his biography.

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR SACRED MAJESTY : I received your
MajestyX by this bearer Lieutenant-Colonel Ker, carrying
your Majesty's being at Newcastle : Together with your Ma-
jesty's pleasure for disbanding of all forces : And, my own repair
abroad.

" For the first, I shall not presume to canvass ; but humbly
acquiesce in your Majesty's resolutions.

" As for that of present disbanding, I am likewise, in all humi-
lity, to render obedience ; as never having had, nor having, any
thing earthly before my eyes, but your Majesty's service ; as all
my carriages have hitherto, and shall at this time witness : Only,
I must humbly beg your Majesty to be pleased consider, that
there is nothing remembered concerning the immunity of those
who have been upon your service : that all deeds in their pre-

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 635

judice be reduced, and those of them who stay at home enjoy
their lives and properties without being questioned ; for such
as go abroad that they have all freedom of transport ; and also
that all prisoners be released ; so that no characters of what has
happened remain. For, when all is done that we can, I am
much afraid that it shall trouble both those there with your
Majesty, and all your servants here, to quit these parts:

" And as for my own leaving this Kingdom, I shall, in all
humility and obedience, endeavour to perform your Majesty's
command ; wishing, — rather than any should make pretext of
me, — never to see it again with mine eyes ; willing, as well by
passion as action, to witness myself your Majesty's most humble,
and most faithful, subject and servant, MONTROSE."

" Strathspey, 2d June 1646." [Endorsed} "Received, 13th
June 1646."1

Aware that this letter would be seen by those at whose inso-
lent requisition Charles had thus dismissed his noblest and only
efficient adherent, and having the worst opinion of their faith,
Montrose, as we learn both from Wishart and Guthrie, wrote
privately by a separate messenger, entreating his Majesty to let
him know the degree of compulsion under which he was acting,
and assuring him that he would devote himself a willing sacrifice
to whatever his royal master really required of him. After dis-
patching these missives, immediately he descended with his little
army from the Spey across the Grampians to Glenshee, from

whence, 10th June 1646, is dated the following significant note

\

1 Original, Hamilton Archives.

In the author's "Montrose and the Covenanters," published in 1838, he had
noted, vol. ii. p. 499 : " Wishart says that the first letter from the King to Mon-
trose was delivered to him * pridie Kal. JuniiJ i.e. the last day of May. The
letters themselves were only first printed, in the appendix to the translation of
Wishart, edited by Mr Adams m 1720. It is a great pity that Montrose's part of
the correspondence is not discovered. Nor am I aware that it is known where the
King's original letters now are." Subsequently, however, the author discovered
the whole of them, with many other papers illustrative of the career of Montrose,
among the archives of the Montrose family, to which, from time to time they must
have accidentally returned. Montrose's reply to the King was only recently reco-
vered from the Hamilton Archives, and first pi'iuted for the Maitland Club, 1850,
in the author's "Memorials of Montrose," vol. ii. p. 278; in which volume the
whole correspondence is printed, with illustrative notes.

636 LIFE OF MONTKOSE.

to Donald Robertson, " Tutor of Strowan," whom he had com-
missioned as Lieutenant-Colonel of a foot regiment of Athole :

" ASSURED FRIEND : Being informed that you have presently
all your regiment in readiness at an head, these are therefore to
will you, immediately after sight hereof, to repair to us with all
possible diligence ; till when I remit all other particulars, and
continue your assured friend, MONTROSE." l

Not long afterwards, he received the following from his sove.
reign, dated "Newcastle, 15th June 1646:"

" MONTROSE : 1 assure you that I no less esteem your willing-
ness to lay down arms at my command, for a gallant and real
expression of your zeal and affection to my service, than any of
your former actions. But I hope that you cannot have so mean
an opinion of me, that for any particular or worldly respects I
could suffer you to be ruined. No, — I avow that it is one of the
greatest and truest marks of my present miseries that I cannot
recompense you according to your deserts, but, on the contrary,
must yet suffer a cloud of the misfortunes of the times to hang
over you. Wherefore I must interpret those expressions, in
your letter, concerning yourself, to have only relation to your
own generosity. For you cannot but know that they are con-
trary to my unalterable resolutions, which, I assure you, I neither
conceal nor mince; for there is no man who ever heard me
speak of you that is ignorant that the reason which makes me
at this time send you out of the country is, that you may return
home with the greater glory, and, in the mean time, to have as
honourable an employment as I can put upon you. This trusty
bearer, Robin Car, will tell you the care I have had of all your
friends, and mine ; to whom albeit I cannot promise such con-
ditions as I would, yet they will be such as, all things con-
sidered, are most fit for them to accept. Wherefore I renew
my former directions, of laying down arms unto you ; desiring
you to let Huntly, Crawford. Airlie, Seaforth,2 and Ogilvy know
that want of time hath made me now omit to reiterate my for-

1 Original, Strowan Charter-chest ; communicated by James Robertson, Esq.,
Sheriff-Substitute of Orkney, a near cadet of Strowan. See " Memorials of Mon-
trose," vol. ii. p. 281, note.

3 Seaforth, at least, did not deserve to find his name in such a list, or his con-
duct under such a category. But the King was ever ignorant of particulars, the
main source of his ruin.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 637

mer commands to them, intending that this shall serve for all,
assuring them, and all the rest of my friends, that, whensoever
God shall enable me, they shall reap the fruits of their loyalty
and affection to my service. So I rest your most assured, con-
stant, real, faithful friend, CHARLES R."

Besides these royal letters, the Marquis received from the
leaders of the faction into whose hands the King had con-
signed himself, certain written conditions of surrender, to
which, says Wishart, he made answer, " that as he had taken
up arms under the commission, and by the desire of his Majesty,
he would receive conditions for laying them down from no mor-
tal but the King himself." This spirited reply produced more
peremptory orders in the name of the King, who at the same
time wrote, privately, the following letter, dated " Newcastle,
16th July 1646: "—

" MONTROSE : The most sensible part of my many misfortunes
is to see my friends in distress, and not to be able to help them.1
And of this kind you are the chief. Wherefore, according to
that real freedom and friendship which is between us, as I cannot
absolutely command you to accept of unhandsome conditions, so
I must tell you that I believe your refusal will put you in a far
worse estate than your compliance will. This is the reason that
I have told this bearer, Robin Car, and the commissioners here,
that I have commanded you to accept of Middletorfs conditions,
which really I judge to be your best course, according to this
present time. For if this opportunity be let slip, you must not
expect any more treaties. In which case you must either con-
quer all Scotland, or be inevitably ruined. That you may make
the clearer judgment what to do, I have sent you here enclosed
the chancellor's answers to your demands. Whereupon, if you
find it fit to accept, you may justly say / have commanded you ;
and if you take another course, you cannot expect that I can
publicly avow you in it, until I shall be able — which God knows
how soon that will be — to stand upon my own feet, but, on the
contrary, seem to be not well satisfied with your refusal, which
I find clearly will bring all this army upon you : And then I shall

A good commentary on Montrose's letter to the King in 1640: "Weak and
miserable is that people whose Prince hath not power sufficient to punish oppres-
sion, and to maintain peace and justice." See before, p. 312.

638 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

be in a very sad condition, such as I shall rather leave to your
judgment than seek to express. However, you shall always
find me to be your most assured, real, constant, faithful, friend,

" CHARLES R."

" P.S. — Whatsoever you may otherwise hear, this is truly my
sense, which I have ventured freely unto you without a cypher,
because I conceive this to [be] coup de partie"

It is asserted by Bishop Burnet, in his apologetic Memoirs
for the Hamiltons, that Montrose owed his own preservation,
and that of his friends, as well as the permission he now ob-
tained to depart out of the Kingdom, to the benevolent exer-
tions of the Duke of Hamilton, who, he says, used all his influ-
ence to that effect with Middleton. This, adds the Bishop,
was " a very unexampled and sublime exercise of his virtue." Not
sooner than the end of April 1 646, a few days before Charles
placed himself in the hands of Leven and his committee, had
the Duke of Hamilton been released from the Mount, in Corn-
wall. Nothing whatever had occurred to restore him to the
royal confidence, or to cause the unhappy Monarch to doubt
the truth of that impeachment, of his integrity in the affairs
of Scotland, which not Montrose alone, but other high-minded
nobles had unhesitatingly preferred, and of which Charles had
become absolutely convinced against his will. Indeed, the
covenanting zeal of the fugitive Lanerick, ever since that event,
added strong confirmation, if such had been wanting, of the
sinister alliance of these favoured brothers, who had been ever
nearest the Throne, with its worst enemies in Scotland. Ac-
cordingly, Hamilton was restored to freedom, not by the return-
ing favour of his master, but by the army of the Parliament,
when they took the fortress in which he was confined. Then,
indeed, the unhappy King had as little power to dispense with
him, as to retain the victor of Kilsyth. Burnetts account of
their first reunion is amusing. " In July the Duke came to
Newcastle, to wait on his Majesty ; and when he first kissed the
King^s hand, his Majesty and he blushed at once? If this simul-
taneous expression of inward feeling actually occurred, — and
the Bishop was not there to see, — the one must have coloured
from indignation, and the other from shame. But, he adds,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 639

" as the Duke was retiring back with a little confusion, into the
crowd that was in the room, the King asked if he was afraid
to come near him ? Upon which he came to the King, and
they entered into a large conversation together, wherein his
Majesty expressed the sense he had of his long sufferings, in
terms so full of affection, that he not only brake through all his
resentments, but set a new edge again upon his old affection and
duty." And, if we are to believe Burnet, Charles then told the
Duke, only now released by the intervention of the rebels, that
he had ever believed him innocent of the principal charges made
against him, and " that his restraint was extorted from him
much against his heart." Most true it is, that Charles sent
Hamilton to Pendennis, " much against his heart." That he
did so against his will, or against his belief, or ever said so after-
wards, credat Judceus.

The proof, however, is unquestionable, that the conditions now
offered to Montrose, through a capitulation with Middleton, are
in no degree to be attributed to the " unexampled and sublime
virtue" of his double-dealing, and deservedly disgraced rival.
It was not until the 17th of July 1646, that Hamilton was
again in presence of his Sovereign. But from the letters we
have produced it appears, that, in the previous months of May
and June, Charles had already assured the Marquis, in the most
solemn terms of unaltered affection, that he was to obtain ho-
nourable conditions. Moreover, upon the day previous to that
when the liberated covenanter Hamilton again entered the pre-
sence chamber, Charles the First wrote that letter, dated from
Newcastle on the 16th of July, which so unequivocally imports,
that the terms with Middleton, were arranged before the Duke
had been again introduced to the councils of his now dethroned
and captive benefactor.

Immediately on receipt of the letter last quoted, the Ex-
Governor of Scotland, as we must now call him, arranged the
terms of a cessation of arms, and the necessary conditions of
safety for the devoted royalists, with that extremely fortunate,
but never distinguished General, who at this time commanded
in chief for the Covenant in Scotland. It was well for our hero
and his friends, that this soldier of the Covenant was neither

6'40 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

imbued with the vicious dispositions, nor influenced by the un-
principled designs of those whom he had so long served, and
upon the ruins of whose reign of terror he was destined, at no
distant period, to attain his extraordinary elevation, — the very
position which would in all probability have been occupied by
Montrose himself, had he saved his own life abroad.

" His name was Major Middleton,
That manned the brig o' Dee."1

They met accordingly, after the romantic fashion in which
our hero seems always to have conducted such conferences.
Under the canopy of heaven, and on a plain by a river's side,
Scot led a haugh, they conferred together for two hours, each
with but a single attendant to hold his horse. It was by the
water of Isla, the same across which Montrose sent his compli-
menting challenge to Baillie, who so discreetly declined it. The
conditions which Middleton offered, and Montrose accepted,
were, that the Marquis himself, Ludovick Earl of Crawford,
and Sir John Hurry, were to be excluded from all pardon or
favour, except safe transportation beyond sea, in a vessel pro-
vided by the Estates, upon condition of their setting sail before
the first of September. Graham of Gorthie was to be restored
from forfeiture only in so far as regarded his person, because
his estate had been given to Balcarres. All the rest of Mon-
trose's friends and followers, forfeited or not, were to retain
their lives and estates, in all respects as if they had not engaged
with him. The Committee of the Kirk, greatly enraged at these
comparatively humane conditions, declared them to be contrary
to the Covenant. To mark their dissent, upon the 27th of July
they thundered their excommunications against the Earl of
Airlie, the Grahams of Gorthie and Inchbrakie, Sir Allaster
Macdonald, Stuart the Irish Adjutant, the Tutor of Strowan,
and the bailie of A thole, John Stewart of Sheirglass. But
Middleton, to his great credit be it recorded, adhered to the
conditions.

Montrose assembled the melancholy remains of his army, and
of his staff, at Rattray, in Perthshire, on the 30th of July 1646,

1 See before, pp. 211, 216. Middleton's first important position was, being
second in command to David Leslie at Philiphaugh.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. G41

where he bade them farewell, and dismissed them in the name
of the King. His heart must have been wrung when thus part-
ing with those who had shared with him so many glories, toils,
and dangers ; and the few remaining who had followed him from
the first to the last hour of his terrible campaigns, and were
willing to follow him still, could not but feel the deepest sorrow
and anxiety. Some fell on their knees, and with tears entreated
that they might go with him wherever he went. Glorious old
Airlie, at Montrose's own request, now returned home ; and each
of the hero's friends went a several way to put order to his in-
volved affairs. A solitary man was the chief of the Grahams.
Not eighteen months had passed since he had wept over the
grave of his gallant boy. In how short a time had the battle,
the fatigues of the field, the assassin's knife, and the murderous
axe of the Covenant, dashed nearly every gem from the shining
circle of his friends. His great possessions were desolated, and
transferred ; his stately castles dilapidated, or utterly destroyed ;
his ancient barony of Mugdock had been made over to Argyle.
With a heart bleeding, but a spirit unbroken, and a fame un-
tarnished, he now bent his course to his pillaged house of Old
Montrose, to prepare for his exile. And the only companion
of his way, at this moment, was, of all men in the world, the
tearing dragoon who had slaughtered the pride of Braemar,
and made captives of Lord Graham and his pedagogue, Sir
John Hurry, whom he had overthrown in mortal conflict at
Auldearn !

That, down to the very hour of his departure, he was acting
under the written commands, and consoled by the unqualified
approbation of his Sovereign, will be seen from this other letter,
dated " Newcastle, 2lst August 1646," probably the answer to
his own report to the King of his final proceedings.

" MONTROSE : —

" In all kinds of fortunes you find a way more and more to
oblige me ; and it is none of my least misfortunes, that all this
time I can only return to you verbal repayment. But I assure
you, that the world shall see that the real expressions of my
friendship to you shall be an infallible sign of my change of
fortune. As for your desires, they are all so just, that I shall

41

642 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

endeavour what I can to have them all satisfied ; not without
hope to give you contentment in most of them ; the particulars
whereof you will receive an account by this bearer, Robin Car ;
to whom referring you, I rest your most assured, real, faithful,
constant friend, CHARLES E.

" Defer your going beyond seas as long as you may, without
breaking your word."

The order in the postscript may have been meant as a favour,
but was a most dangerous suggestion. Montrose soon discovered,
what indeed he had from the first anticipated, that it was the
design of the Covenanters to break faith with him, and either
to seize him in Scotland, on the pretext that he had allowed
the time for his departure to expire, or to reach their prey by
means of some English men of war, stationed for that purpose
off the mouth of the Esk. The vessel promised by the Estates
did not make its appearance in the harbour of Montrose until
the last day of August, the utmost limit of his pretended secu-
rity. The commander of the vessel declared doggedly, that he
could not be ready to put to sea for several days. The sailors
had been carefully selected of the same stamp, sullen and morose.

" Oh ! cruel was the Captain, and cruel was the Crew." '

Montrose at once detected in all this, the horns of the Covenant,
the cloven foot of Argyle. So, with his usual energetic and ad-
venturous spirit, he provided for his own safety. In the harbour
of Stonehaven he discovered a small pinnace belonging to Ber-
gen in Norway, the master of which was easily bribed to be
ready by the day appointed. Thither he sent Sir John Hurry,
young Drummond of Balloch, Henry Graham, John Spottis-
woode (the nephew of the President), John Lilly, and Patrick
Melville, both officers of courage and experience, his celebrated
chaplain Dr Wishart, David Guthrie, whom the Doctor calls a
very brave and gallant gentleman, Pardus Lasound (a French-
man, who had been Lord Gordon's servant, and ever since his
death retained by Montrose), a German boy of the name of

1 A free translation of Wishart's description of them : " Navarchus, non modo
iynotus, sed et conjuratorum propuynator rudis, ac pertinax ; nautce, militesque ejus-
dem, farina homines, infusi, morosi, ac minabundi."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 643

llodolph, distinguished for his fidelity and honesty, with several
trusty domestic servants. These set sail for Norway on the 3d
of September. That same evening, Montrose, compelled to dis-
guise himself in a coarse habit, as the servant of the Reverend
James Wood, a very worthy clergyman who was his sole com-
panion, reached, by means of a small boat, a wherry that lay at
anchor without the port of Montrose. Thus he escaped, says
Wishart, " in the year of our Lord 1646, and the thirty- fourth
of his age." l

Ere we follow our hero abroad, and return with him to his
doom, we shall here glance at the ruins he left behind him, his
shivered household gods.

Lord Graham, about thirteen years of age, his father was
obliged to leave at the mercy of the government. While the
Marquis was yet abroad, that most fantastical as well as tyran-
nical of all democracies, the dominant Kirk, having no pretext
for putting the boy to death, paid the House of Graham the
compliment of treating him as if the fate of the Kingdom, or of

1 Burnet labours to establish Hamilton in the lofty position, of having at this
time sated Montrose, at the request of the King ; and also, in that of a much injured
man, thus returning good for evil. The Bishop asserts, that as the King could
command no ressel, Hamilton's influence with Middleton, and with the Committee
of Estates, was essential to procure for Montrose both the conditions of safety, and
the means of fulfilling them. The short answer to him is this. 1. That Hamilton
was a man maliciously or unjustly injured by Montrose, is an assertion against
conclusive evidence. Montrose was but one of many witnesses, in the high Court
of Inquiry which compelled the ICinfs unwilling conriction ; and although long and
deeply attached to Hamilton, and having no tie whatever to Montrose, Charles sent
his favourite to prison upon that evidence, and necer reversed the sentence. 2.
There is not a vestige of evidence, other than Burnet's own hearsay gossip, that
Montrose was at all beholden to Hamilton, for his escape from Scotland. 3. The
letters in our text are contradictory of the assertion. 4. It is not improbable that
the King desired Hamilton to use his influence with the Covenanters that the sti-
pulations with Middleton should be observed. But, whatever pretence Hamilton
may have made, or there be made for him, of his having successfully clone so, the
fact remains, that Montrose was not sated in that manner. If Hamilton really
was in conjunction at all with the Committee of Estates in that matter, of which
there is no evidence, then what must be said is, that Montrose, notwithstanding
the guarantee of his Majesty's letters, and Middleton's stipulations, was compelled,
for his life, to make his escape in disguise, from Hamilton and the Committee of
Estates. See Burnet's Memoirs of the Hamiltons, ad ann. 1646.

LIFE OF MONTROSK.

the Covenant, depended upon his training. In the manuscript
minutes of the General Assembly, the following characteristic
entry appears : —

" Edinburgh, 4th December 1 648.— The Commission of As-
sembly recommends the education of James Graham, son to
James Graham, some time Earl of Montrose, to the masters of
the universities of St Andrews or Glasgow, or of the college of
the new town of Aberdeen, or either of them that his tutors and
friends shall think fit to send him to ; recommending also to the
said masters, and to the ministers of these towns respective, to
take special inspection of the education of the said youth, and to
try the qualification, affection, and conversation of any governor
that shall be with him."

His younger son, Lord Robert, of whom we can discover no
more than that he survived to witness the Restoration, and
whom death, as we have seen, had deprived of the guardianship
of his mother, was probably left in charge of his successfully
trimming grandfather, the Earl of Southesk.

Next in Montrose's affections, and more domesticated with
him than his own sons, was his nephew, Archibald, second Lord
Napier. It was their fortune to be for a time still more closely
united. On the 31st of May 1646, the very day on which was
delivered into the hands of Montrose the King's first letter re-
quiring him to lay down his arms, was written that letter, already
quoted, in which the young Lord's covenanting and puritanical
uncle, the laird of Bowhopple, Culcreuch, and Drumquhannie,
so earnestly and eloquently entreats him, not to allow " the
preposterous love you carry to him (Montrose) any longer blind
the eyes of your understanding, nor miscarry you." He then
enters upon a long catalogue of direful consequences, " the sad
effects which your preposterous love in following your uncle will
produce." He sets before him the picture of " your lady and
children reduced to extreme want, whereof they already feel the
beginning ; your whole estate being already so cantoned, divided,
and taken up, that neither have they their necessary maintenance
off it, neither payeth it any of your fathers debts, neither shall
your sister (Lilias) have anything to maintain her." And the
desiderated desertion, by the young nobleman, of his heroic idol,
he thus strives to reconcile with his loyalty, — " Now, at this

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

present time, by the King's incoming to us, by his recalling his
commissions formerly granted to your uncle, and by the com-
manding the laying down of arms, it is high time for you to
resolve not to adhere any more to your uncle^s courses and
ways." l

Being included in the capitulation with Middleton, Lord
Napier remained for a short time in Scotland, to settle his
affairs, when his uncle the Marquis quitted it. The Committee
of Estates, besides doing what they pleased with all his baronies,
benorth and besouth the Forth, compelled Lord Napier to pay
two thousand pounds sterling, in name of fine for his escape
from Holyrood. Yet his father had already paid about nine
hundred pounds sterling for that same offence ; and a debt of
eight hundred pounds sterling, due to him by the covenanting
government, was refused to be taken into account. Beggared
at all hands, the young Lord was allowed to retain his title, to
remain in Scotland if he pleased, and the bones of his revered
father were reluctantly suffered to rest in the kirk of Blair, in-
stead of being dug up to undergo forfeiture, — a savage process
which had actually been instituted. But he elected to follow his
loyal uncle abroad, instead of attaching himself to his cove-
nanting uncle at home, whose letter of the 31st of May made
no impression. In the following month, writing from Cluny in
Athole, of date 28th July 1646, six days after Montrose's meet-
ing with Middleton to arrange the capitulation, Napier thua
addresses his captive Sovereign, Charles the First : —

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR SACRED MAJESTY :

" Now since it is free for your Majesty's servants, in this
kingdom, to live at home or repair abroad at their pleasure, I
have taken the boldness, before my departure, humbly to show
your Majesty the passionate desire I have to do you service ;
which I have hitherto preferred to all sublunary things ; and
shall study hereafter, when the blessed occasion of serving your
Majesty again in this kingdom shall offer, to give greater testi-
mony of my respects to it. Meanwhile, if your Majesty have
any commandments to lay upon me, I should think it the great-
est happiness to be employed, that he could be capable of who

1 See before, p. 509, not*.

646 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

shall inviolably be your Majesty's most faithful, loyal, and obe-
dient subject and servant, NAPIER." 1

He was at this time little more than of age, although married
and the father of five children. To save a remnant of his estates,
it was arranged that his wife, Lady Elizabeth Erskine, should
remain in Scotland with the children, while the young Lord,
having signed a commission to her and her father the Earl of
Mar, dated 2d March 1647, joined Montrose in Paris. Having
thus made his election, he was favoured by the liberality of tho
covenanting government, now in an unusually good humour,
with their judicial permit to look at his exiled uncle abroad,
provided he cut Mm : —

" Edinburgh, 23d October 1646 : The Committee of Estates
declares that the Lord Napier his accidentally meeting with the
late Earl of Montrose, his uncle, abroad out of the country,
shall not infer a contravention of his act, provided he converse
not wifli the said late Earl."

So much for the eloquence of the godly laird of Bowhopple.

That Napier's young unmarried sister would be left destitute,
was an argument not without foundation. In the original record
of the covenanting Parliament, there is minuted a petition, of
date 13th December 1645, from " Mrs Lilias Naper, daughter
lawful to umquhile (late) Archibald Lord Naper." As she was
born on the 15th of December 1626, at the date of this petition
she had not completed her nineteenth year. The petition, pro-
bably drawn for her by her uncle Bowhopple, narrates, that the
late Lord had portioned her suitably ; but " now, since his de-
cease, being destitute of parents, having nothing to look for
but that sum for the advancement of my fortune, when it shall
please God the same shall offer, and in the mean time nothing
but the interest and profit thereof to maintain me, and hearing
that your Lordships be about to dispone my father's estate for
the use of the public" — therefore this young creature, — who had
already suffered solitary and dangerous imprisonment, long pro-
tracted, because of being the loyal and loving niece of Montrose,
— prays them to take her very hard case into consideration.
The petition was read in Parliament, and remitted to the

1 Original, Hamilton Archives,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 647

" committee for money." Meanwhile it was agreed to afford
her a pittance of aliment. This occurred not long after her
uncle's defeat at Philiphaugh. Matters were not mended now.
But in prison, or out of prison, tochered or penniless, Lilias
Napier never wavered in her devotion to the Monarchy and
Montrose. Two months after his departure, she was residing
either at the Keir, or the neighbouring town of Stirling ; her
brother-in-law, Sir George Stirling, having by this time also
quitted the country. In a letter, dated on the 6th of November
164-6, from Stirling, she thus writes to him (by the opportunity
of some other loyalists departing into exile), in a strain melan-
choly enough, but indicative of a spirit that was neither to be
imprisoned, starved, nor Bowhoppled, out of its severely tried
loyalty.

" DEAR BROTHER : — Though I be glad of so frequent occa-
sions, yet I am sorry they are with suck bearers ; for if business
had not gone miserably here, there would a been more ado with
these honest men, who now are forced to leave their own
country. I need say no more, since I know by them you will
be informed particularly; nor have I any contentment to write it;
yet, for your satisfaction, I shall acquaint you of what passes
hereafter, and constantly shall be your most affectionate sister,
and humble servant, LILIAS NAPIER."

" I have sent away the letter to Powrie. Margaret Graham
presents her humble service to you.

" For my dear brother, the laird of Keir, these." J

Sir George Stirling of Keir took refuge in Holland — departed
into exile ; and, as they appear to have had no family,2 probably
the Lady of the Keir, whose love for Montrose was equally
" preposterous" as her brother's, accompanied her husband.
The following letter, to Sir George in his exile, is from Lady
Napier's brother, John Lord Erskine, who became ninth Earl

1 Original, Keir Charter-chest.

Ere long we discover this young lady, not twenty years of age at the date of the
above letter, living in Holland with her brothers, Lord Napier, and Keir, and their
faithful chaplain, Dr Wishart.

* Spalding mentions " the laird of Keir younger" as having joined Montrose at
the same time that young Napier made his escape to his uncle. See before, p. 499.
But I suspect Spalding had committed some mistake ; as I can discover no other
trace of Sir George Stirling having had a son, or any family.

648 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

of Mar in 1654. It is dated from Stirling, 16th December
1647.

fc' HONOURABLE SIR : I confess the letter I received from you,
upon your servants return from Holland, was so great a com-
pliment, as I know not how to answer it so well as by silence :
And yet I shall never doubt your respect to me, that honours
and esteems you as I do. I am still desirous to know your
welfare, — the best news I can hear from thence. Neither have
I any to send you from this place, but that their Commissioners
are going on with the late Lord Napier's forfeiture, and sueing
hard to have that fine which I was surety for him in, at the
Parliament at Perth. It is but a little sum of 40,000 marks !
whereof 20,000 pounds is assigned to the advocates, for the
service done the State ! By this, Sir, you will perceive that
matters are not much changed here since you went away. But,
let these things go as they will, I am unchangeably, Sir, your
most faithful cousin, ERSKINE.

" The unfortunate Marquis of Huntly is taken. How the
Commissioners will dispose of him, God knows." *

In the month of March following, Huntly, who had slowly,
and somewhat elaborately, worked out his own destruction, was
executed at the merciless nod of Argyle, his own brother-in-law,
— as Ogilvy had warned Aboyne. Huntly's affectionate family
chronicler, Patrick Gordon, says that Argyle refused to save
him, although " his (Huntly's) sister, my Lady Marchioness of
Douglas, with his three daughters, of Drummond, Seaton, and
Haddington, went to the Marquis of Argyle on their knees, and
begged the life of their father, — but all in vain."

Another striking picture, in that crowded dance of death
which the Troubles unfolded in Scotland, was the more lei-
surely and pleasant exit of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, no
insignificant member of the dramatis personce, his Majesty's
Advocate for his own interest. Having consummated his great
exertions for the Covenanters, by representing Charles the First
in that Assembly of the Kirk which produced the Solemn League
and Covenant, — an Assembly wherein " the Moderator and Ar-
did so always overawe his Grace, that he made us not great

1 Original, Keir Charter-chest.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 649

trouble," — and wherein he proved " so wise, and so well dealt
with by his two sons, that he resolved to say nothing to the
Church, or Country's prejudice," — that ancient jurisconsult was
thrown by, upon the weedy shore of anarchy, as a thing com-
pletely used up. When the King delivered himself into their
hands at Newcastle, the man whom he had the greatest reason
to detest and dread, Sir Archibald Johnstone of Warriston, was
put forward for the place of King's Advocate. The excuse was,
the senility and weakness of the old incumbent. Sir Thomas
Hope, the most active promoter of the Scots army that crossed
the border and overthrew the Monarchy at Marston-moor, and
the most ardent agitator of those male and female crusades
against Episcopacy, that were conducted on the outrageous
assumption of that form of the Church being " contrary to God's
word, and unlawful in itself" — could have no very strong hold
of the affections of Charles the First. Not a little surprised
must the ruined Monarch have been, by the very simplicity of
effrontery displayed in the following letter, addressed to him
from such a quarter, when he was in the hands of those who
were about to sell his blood for money.

" MOST SACRED SOVEREIGN: The sad and sorrowful times
which has intervened, since my letter to your Majesty of 19th
August 1 643, in which I gave your Majesty an account of my
most humble and faithful service in that Commission, wherewith
I was honoured and trusted by your Majesty, to the General
Assembly, has made me dumb and speechless till now. And
albeit occasion of great- grief did press me, at the spoiling and
captiving of my son Sir Alexander, your Majesty's servant, —
whose faithfulness to your Majesty was, and is, free of all
blame, — yet trusting to your Majesty's goodness, and waiting
for a time when the Lord should be pleased to free your Ma-
jesty of all those troubles and tempests wherein your Majesty
was then involved, I did neither supplicate for my son's release,
nor importune your Majesty for the allowance due to me as your
Majesty's Commissioner to the foresaid Assembly. But now
since it hath pleased the Lord in his great mercy to open a door
to peace, by your Majesty's happy approach to this your Ma-
jesty's native kingdom, I humbly expect that your Majesty,

650 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

after trial of my son's behaviour, will give order for redress of
his sufferings.

" And because I hear that some, taking occasion of my age,
and opinion of my weakness, have been suitors for my place. —
albeit, blessed be God, the vigour both of my body and spirit is
such as is sufficient to undergo my charge, — yet, if so be your
Majesty's pleasure to have one adjoined to me, without preju-
dice to me induring my life, I humbly expect your Majesty will
be pleased to hear my humble opinion anent the person ; seeing,
by my gift ratified in Parliament, I am made sole and only Ad-
vocate to your Majesty, and to your Majesty's dearest son, the
Prince, induring my lifetime. And if your Majesty allow me
herein, I shall import my opinion to my Lord Chancellor (Lou-
don), who will acquaint your Majesty therewith. So, humbly
praying the Almighty God to multiply his best blessings upon
your Majesty's royal person, kingdoms, and estate, I humbly
kiss your Majesty's sacred hand, and rests, — your sacred Ma-
jesty's most humble subject and servitor,

" SIR THOMAS HOPE.

" Edinburgh, 23d June 1646."1

He had forgotten to consult the prophetic tags of his left
boot, ere writing that letter.2 While he was thus boasting of
" the vigour both of my body and spirit," — blessing God and wor-
shipping Mammon to the end, — the prime minister, of the first
whig, was at the old gentleman's elbow. Grinning Death was
shaking his hour-glass over his shoulder. He was dead as his
own " Practiques" are now, by the month of October thereafter!
In a letter dated " Craighall, October 1646," Sir John Hope,
the Advocate's son and heir, speaking very solemnly and affec-
tionately of his father's death after five days illness, declares,
that " all who were about him heard an old Simeon with praises
in his mouth and joy in his heart : This morning he called for
me, and, although extremely weak, he himself desired me to
join with him, — took up the 23d psalm, and sung it out to the
end, distinctly and feelingly : I have made a mighty loss ; and,
I trow, this land doth share with me also." 3

1 Original, Wodrow MS. Collections, vol. Ixvii. No. 57. Advocates' Library.

' See before, p. 82.

8 Original, Charter-chest of Bruce of Arnot.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 651

The loss to " this land1' was more than compensated by the
immediate accession of Sir Archibald Johnstone of Warriston ;
who, as Lord Advocate, now reigned, — and sold the King, — in
the stead of Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall.1

1 There is a prefatory notice of this celebrated lawyer, attached to the print of
his Diary edited for the Bannatyne Club in 1 643, by its accomplished President,
Mr Thomas Thomson ; but it is by no means worthy of the literary reputation of
that great legal and historical antiquary. After a few hasty and ill considered
comments upon the character of Charles the First's Lord Advocate, he says : " A
collection of the letters of this distinguished person would, probably, afford addi-
tional illustrations of his own character, as well as of the momentous events of
his own time ; very few of these are at present known to exist." Probably they
would. We have now produced one, tolerably characteristic, from the manuscript
room of the Advocates' Librai'y. But was the grave and profound editor laughing
in his sleeve, when he wrote of Sir Thomas Hope's " veneration for the ancient
Monarchy, and his anxiety for its preservation, — his grateful affection for the
person of the King, and his anxious regards for his welfare ?" And this appended
to a Diai'y where, inter alia, we find such a private comment, by the King's own
Advocate, upon the success of his Majesty's arms at Inverlochy, as this, — "God
be merciful to us ! The Lord be merciful to this poor Kirk, and Kingdom, for this
is a sad and heavy stroke ! " Their " old Simeon" would have burnt his wig for
joy, had the above character of him been in any degree deserved. Then how
does he record the battle of Marston-moor ? " This day was the battle at York
betwixt Prince Rupert for the King, and the General of the Scots' army, the Earl
of Leven, assisted with Sir Thomas Fairfax and Lord Manchester ; where our army,
by the blessing of God, was victorious, and Prince Rupert defeated ! " Sir Thomas
Hope, and his numerous family of thriving sons, owed all their advancement and
success to Charles the First, and requited him shamefully. The great official him-
self, after exulting in every defeat of the Crown, that brought his royal benefactor
nearer and nearer to the scaffold whereon he was murdered, gave up the ghost
while in the act of asking the helpless Monarch for more favours!

652 LIFE OF MOttTROSE.

CHAPTER XXXI.

NEW CONJUNCTION OF HAMILTON AND ARGYLE — RENEWED ATTEMPT OF
MONTROSE TO UNITE THE LOYALTY OF THE NORTH — TRANSMITS HIS
SCHEME TO HENRIETTA MARIA — HER COLD RECEPTION OF IT, UNDER
EVIL COUNSELS — HER CORRESPONDENCE WITH MONTROSE — AFFECTING
LETTER FROM THE KING TO MONTROSE ABROAD — HAMILTON PREVAILS
IN PARLIAMENT AGAINST ARGYLE, AND WITH THE QUEEN AGAINST
MONTROSE — ARGYLE COLLEAGUES WITH CROMWELL — MONTROSE WITH-
DRAWS FROM THE COURT OF THE QUEEN — HIS LETTER TO THE LAIRD

OF KEIR — DE RETZ AND MONTROSE — LETTER FROM LORD NAPIER, WITH
AN ACCOUNT OF MONTROSE'S RECEPTION AND MOVEMENTS ABROAD —
HAMILTON'S PATRONAGE OF KING CHARLES — ARGYLE'S PATRONAGE OF
CROMWELL.

MONTROSE was not deceived as to the present condition of
the King. That this strangely renewed conjunction of Hamil-
ton and Argyle could be productive of no good, he had the best
reason to believe. Nor did his Majesty's prospects appear to be
brightened by the fact, that, on the death of Sir Thomas Hope,
the person whom he was constrained to receive as his Advocate,
was the vindictive and savage minion of the Kirk. Indeed the
faction now openly declared, that the only condition, on which
they could secure even his personal safety, was that he should
" take the Covenant," whether against his conscience or not,
and sacrifice " James Graham" at the altar of their envy and
hate. Under these circumstances, before quitting the country,
Montrose exerted himself to organize a northern combination,
or Engagement (as such bonds were then termed), to save his
Sovereign. He had been given to understand that Charles
intended to employ him in the capacity of Ambassador-Extra-
ordinary at Paris, where, under the directions of Henrietta
Maria, he should endeavour to move the foreign powers to
come to the rescue of the British Monarchy. Preparatory to
this mission he had been most active, after his army was dis-

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 653

banded, in ascertaining what force the loyal chiefs in the north
of Scotland could bring into the field, if supported by the coun-
tenance of the Queen of England, the Prince of Wales, and their
foreign allies. Probably he had found means of communicating
this design to the King, which would account for the expres-
sions in his Majesty ""s letter of the 21st of August : " Montrose,
in all kinds of fortune you find a way more and more to oblige
me. Delay your going as long as you can, without breaking
your word." Certain it is, that, shortly before he made his
escape to Norway, he had dispatched his friend, Lord Crawford,
with written proposals, to be submitted to the Queen and her
counsellors at Paris. Crawford, accordingly, set out in the first
place for Ireland, to communicate with the Marquis of Antrim,
and from thence proceeded to France, where he arrived with his
instructions so early as the month of October 1646.

Unfortunately, at this time Henrietta Maria was almost en-
tirely guided by the advice of her favourite, Lord Jermyn, a
vicious courtier, who conceived a great jealousy of Montrose,
when he understood that he was on his way to France. The
nature of his mission was already known to Jermyn through
Ashburnham, who had joined the councils of her Majesty when
driven from his royal master soon after their unfortunate journey
to Newark. The Queen's favourite, therefore, took all occasions
of detracting from the merits of the King's champion, and sel-
fishly laboured to counteract any scheme, however loyal, which
seemed to interfere with his own influence. No one ought to
have been welcomed with greater cordiality at the court of
Henrietta than the Marquis of Montrose. Yet his approach
to Paris is mentioned by Jermyn, in a letter to the King, as
coldly as possible, and only from the necessity of reporting the
arrival of Lord Crawford, with the propositions already men-
tioned. It appears from the correspondence, preserved among
the Clarendon papers, that while the Queen's Presbyterian ad-
visers so unfeelingly urged Charles to sacrifice his conscience to
the Covenant, Lords Jermyn and Colepepper, on the 19th of
October 1646, thus write :— " The Earl of Crawford came
hither six days since from Scotland, by the way of Ireland.
His business is to propose to the Queen, in the name of Mon-
trose (whom we expect here every day) and himself, and many

654 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

noblemen and gentlemen of the Highlands 01 Scotland, a de-
sign to raise for your service an army of thirty thousand men,
with which he proposes to reduce Scotland this winter entirely
under your obedience ; and from thence to march into England
(he nameth London itself) and to do as much. He hath showed
her Majesty a list of all the persons of quality that are to be
the heads of these men ; and of the numbers which they are to
bring, armed with a fusee, sword, and target ; and affirms that
they will all engage themselves accordingly, if the Queen and
Prince shall encourage them so to do. Their quarrel is to be,
to free your Majesty from imprisonment. For they take you
to be under restraint, and no better than a prisoner." The
letter goes on, in a cold depreciating tone, to mention the sup-
port required by Montrose in money and Irish troops ; and
then they say : " We only from them make this relation to you,
to whom we leave the judgment, as better understanding the
condition and power of Scotland, and the probability of the de-
sign than we do." It is added, however, that the Queen had
already despatched an express to the Highlands in her own
name ; and that another had gone in name of Prince Charles,
desiring these loyal noblemen and gentlemen, " to respite their
reasons a little, until she may more particularly hear from you,
and know in what condition your person and affairs are. The
Lord Crawford seems to fear nothing but that they will be
tampered with, to be taken off with great offers, before they
shall be encouraged from hence.'"1

It is singular that in the Queen's letter to his Majesty of the
very same date, Montrose's Engagement is only cursorily men-
tioned, and he himself neither named nor alluded to, though
expected in Paris every day. All that she says on the subject

1 A list of the forces is given in the letter, and it is added, " My Lord Brentford
has seen the list, and says he knows all, the persons, and that he believes they are
able to make good the numbers mentioned in the paper." " The Marquis of An-
trim, in name of Clandonnell, 2000 men ; Maclean, 2000 ; Macranald, 1 300 ; Mac-
leod of Harris, 1000 ; Sir James Macdonnell, 2000 ; Earl of Seaforth, 2000 ; the
Lord Rea, 1200 ; the country of Athol and Badenoch, 3000 ; Clangregor, and Far-
quharson, 1200 ; Grant, 1000 ; Clanchattan and Strathern men, 1000 ; the Marquis
of Huntly, 1500 ; the Earl of Airly, 400 ; the Earl of Airth, 700 ; Macniell of Bara,
500; Glengarry, 500; the Earl of Nithisdale. 1000 ; the Marquis of Montrose, 1000;
the Lord Dalkeith, 100 horse. Total, 23,400."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 655

is, — " My Lord Crawford is arrived, who brings me very great
offers on the part of your adherents in Scotland ; with respect
to which I shall take all necessary steps." This reserve is the
more remarkable, that, in the same letter, she says, — u I have
received no letters from you this week, which makes me very
uneasy, as we hear from London that the Scots are resolved to
deliver you into the hands of the Parliament."1

The King's reply to these heartless letters does not appear.
That every possible aid and encouragement ought to have been
given to the warlike chiefs who were willing to attempt his
rescue, was soon made manifest. Instead of which the Queen
had already written to the Highlands an order nearly equiva-
lent to declining their services ! On the 2d of January there-
after, Charles writes : — " Dear Heart, — I must tell thee, that
now I am declared what I have really been ever since I came to
this army, which is a prisoner. For the governor told me some
four days since, that he was commanded to secure me, lest I
should make an escape ; the difference being only this, that
heretofore my escape was easy enough, but now it is most diffi-
cult, if not impossible" Shortly afterwards the villanous trans-
action was concluded, which, when announced to the deserted
Monarch, caused him to exclaim, " Then am I bought and sold"
Hamilton's conduct upon this occasion was in keeping with the
whole tenor of his life. Having done much to cause and nothing
to avert the disgraceful result, he and his brother Lanerick, at
the eleventh hour, protested against the sale of the King. But
he received thirty thousand pounds as his own share of the
price ; to Argyle an equal share was allotted ; Sir Archibald
Johnston, " His Majesty's Advocate," received three thousand ;
fifteen thousand were set aside for " Argyle's friends ;" while
the zealots of the clergy were rewarded in proportion to their
zeal.

After Charles knew his fate, and a few days before he was
delivered into the hands of the commissioners sent by the Par-
liament, he thus wrote to Montrose, from " Newcastle, January
2 1st, 1647:"—

1 Clarendon Papers, vol. ii. p. 271.

656 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" MONTROSE : Having no cypher with you, I think not fit to
write but what I care not though all the world read it. First,
then, I congratulate your coming to the Low Countries, hoping
before this that ye are safely arrived at Paris. Next, I refer
you to this trusty bearer for the knowledge of my present con-
dition, which is such, as all the directions I am able to give you
is to desire you to dispose of yourself as my wife shall advise
you ; knowing that she truly esteems your worth ; for she is
mine, and I am your most assured, real, faithful, constant friend,

" CHARLES R." »

Charles had been misinformed as to Montrose^s progress.
At the date of the above letter he was at Hamburgh. He had
reached Bergen in Norway, the port to which the vessel be-
longed, some time in September. From thence he journeyed to
Christiana, and soon afterwards embarked for Denmark. His
immediate object was to obtain an audience of Christian V., the
maternal uncle and most friendly ally of his royal master. But
when he arrived in Denmark he learnt that the King was in
Germany. So he again embarked, and crossing the Baltic,
passed through Holstein, and established himself at Hamburgh.
There he remained for some time, anxiously expecting tidings
of the fate of Charles, and the result of his own negociation with
the Queen.

It is remarkable that, although Henrietta Maria, so early as
the month of October, had received Montrose's propositions, and
immediately thereafter had transmitted a despatch to Scotland
for the purpose of checking the ardour of the loyal chiefs, her first
letter to Montrose himself, should have been dated so late as
the 5th of February following, and appear to treat his proposals
as if they were most welcome. She writes from Paris, on the
5th of February, 1647 :—

" COUSIN : I am very happy to have this opportunity of writing
to you in the mean time, until I can furnish you with more
ample despatches, regarding the proposition submitted to me by
my Lord Crawford on your part, and that of several good ser-
vants of his Majesty in the Highlands of Scotland, of which I
approve extremely ; and, as I hold it to be of great importance

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room. .

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 657

to the service of his Majesty, I shall do all that I can to further
it, and labour therein with all my power. This letter is merely
to tell you generally of what you shall be more particularly in-
formed by myself in the ensuing week ; and also to assure you,
that I shall never be contented until I am able to prove, by
deeds, the estimation in which I hold yourself, and the services
you have rendered to the King, so that you may be satisfied that
I am truly your very good and affectionate cousin and friend,

" HENRIETTA MARIA."1

Meanwhile, the Marquis himself had communicated with her
Majesty. For, on the 12th of February, she again writes to
him, — " I have received your letters, one that came by the
Sound, and the other with Major Car, and am extremely re-
joiced to learn the condition you are in, the rebels having spread
a report that you had been defeated.2 I wish I could give you
as good an account of the state of affairs in England. I have
commanded Jermyn to write to you more fully, and this bearer
to tell you, moreover, what I cannot venture to commit to
writing. Therefore, referring you to them, I conclude with the
assurance that I am so deeply impressed with the faithful and
great services you have rendered to the King, that I shall al-
ways have your interests as much at heart, and more so, than
my own. Believe this, I entreat of you, and that I am," &c.

While our hero was entertained by these fine words, for it
does not appear that he got any instructions whatever from
Jermyn on the subject of the northern Engagement, the intelli-
gence reached him that the King had been sold to the Parlia-
ment. He then quitted Hamburgh, and was on his way through
Flanders to Paris, when met by Ashburnham, bearing the follow-
ing letter to him from the Queen, dated Paris, March 15 :—

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room. All the Queen's letters are written in
French. See " Memorials of Montrose," where the whole series is printed, as
written, in order of their dates.

a This seems to mean a report that he had been driven out of Scotland in conse-
quence of the defeat of his troops. But so far was this from being the case, that,
when Montrose was desired to lay down his arms, he was on the point of becoming
again most formidable to the Covenanters. This they well knew. Baillie, in a let-
ter dated 26th June, 1 646, says, — " We are afraid Montrose and Antrim lay not
down arms j and if the King escape to them, it will be a woful case."

42

658 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" The moment," she says, " that I was apprized of your arrival
in Holland, I became anxious to assure you, by this letter, of
the continuance of my estimation of the services which you have
rendered to his Majesty. I feel assured you will go on in that
course whenever you can ; your own deeds afford a testimony
that is not to be doubted ; on the other hand, I hope you will
believe that there is nothing within my power I would not do to
shew my gratitude to you. 1 have charged Ashburnham to speak
to you more particularly of something for the service of the King.
Eeferring you to him, in whom you may place the most implicit
reliance, I conclude with repeating the assurance, that I am
very sincerely, Cousin, your affectionate cousin and constant
friend, HENRIETTA MARIA."

The truth is, Lord Jermyn had already defeated Montrose's
scheme, and counteracted whatever inclination the Queen her-
self might have had to entertain it. And while he thus averted
any application of her finances in which he was not to partici-
pate,1 he also endeavoured to exclude from her court and pre-
sence the distinguished character now on his way thither. Ac-
cordingly, the " something," with which Ashburnham was charged
for his ear, proved to be a proposition that he should return
forthwith to Scotland, without seeing her Majesty, and there re-
new the war, entirely upon his own credit and resources ! And
this, too, after the Queen (as appears by Jermyn's letter to
Charles) had herself given the Highland chiefs reason to believe
that their loyal services were not particularly required.

To AshburnhanVs discouraging message Montrose replied, that
he was on his way to Paris by the command of his Majesty, and
must fulfil his mission ; that he had no means of renewing the
war in Scotland without the countenance and aid of the Queen,

1 The manner in which the thoughtless Queen dissipated her slender resources
and hurt her credit, is indicated by the following note, written by Secretary Nicho-
las to Clarendon, 8th March 1647, the very time that Montrose was on his way to
Paris : " I hear that the Queen hath lately made a marriage between two of her
French servants ; which, it is said, hath cost her two thousand pistoles. For she
gave a bed, and furniture for a chamber, and six suits of cloaths to the bride, be-
sides plate and other presents. I hear she hath received all or most of her money,
but pays not her servants. Keep this to yourself." — Clarendon State Papers,
vol. h\ p. 344.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 659

who appeared to be unable to assist him ; that the loyalty of
his northern friends had been much depressed by the order to
lay down their arms ; that Huntly himself had been lately over-
powered, and the ardour for the cause in those quarters required
a new stimulus ; that when he reached Paris, and had paid his
respects to her Majesty, he should feel proud of any service put
upon him by her, however dangerous and hopeless it might be ;
but felt assured that he would not find it to be her opinion that
he should disregard his Majesty's commands, — which were, to
proceed to the French capital and receive his instructions from
herself. Ashburnham had then the effrontery to affect concern
for the Marquis's personal safety ; and entreated him to return
and make his peace with the Covenanters, court their friend-
ship, and thereby preserve himself and friends for better times.
" No one," replied Montrose, " has shown himself more forward
in the King's behalf than I have. But I would not obey the
King himself, if he told me to do that which would be disho-
nourable to me and prejudicial to him."

When Montrose arrived in Paris, he went directly to the
Queen, and endeavoured to persuade her of the absolute neces-
sity of using every possible means of raising an army at home
and abroad, to rescue her husband. But his eloquent appeal
was as fruitless upon this occasion as it had been at a former
crisis in the fate of Charles. They had not met since his advice
had been rejected at York, in 1642, and all had proved as he
then predicted. Nay, Argyle had sold the King's life for money,
and Hamilton shared the spoil ! " The Queen answered him,"
says Dr Wishart, " with a heavy heart, but without explaining
herself sufficiently : For, when she was allowed to follow her
own inclinations, she was greatly disposed to encourage and
advance this noble person, who, of all the King's subjects, had
done him the most valuable service : But being deluded by the
artifices of her courtiers, who vaunted of the power and riches
of the Presbyterians, sometimes in a cajoling and at other times
in a menacing manner, she was forced into opposite measures,
and perplexed Montrose with various and contradictory senti-
ments."

Montrose had also been led to expect, from Charles's letters,
that on his arrival at Paris he would receive from the Queen

660 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

not only full and explicit instructions, upon which he could im-
mediately act, but also his credentials, as Ambassador-Extra-
ordinary. He was told at Paris, however, that there were no
directions or credentials for him there ; although Ashburnham
informed him privately, that he himself had been sent to apprize
her Majesty of the King's intentions to that effect, and had done
so accordingly. But " Lord Jermyn, by his address and interest
at court, got everything rejected that tended to lessen his power
or obstruct his profit.11

Meanwhile Charles the First, now approaching the termina-
tion of his sufferings, was so strictly confined and closely watched
by his present keepers, that he had no means of communicating
with any of his friends. Perhaps this was the bitterest moment
of our hero's life, when he found himself again rejected by the
Queen of England, and forgotten as it seemed by the King him-
self, after all his labours and sacrifices, and while still devoted
to save him. The noble and significant romance of his affection
is illustrated by this interesting fact, not hitherto known, that
in the midst of his fruitless endeavours at Paris, some time be-
tween the months of March-and June 1647, he had sent Charles
a sword, which the King received. From the end of January to
the beginning of June, Charles had been rigorously confined at
Holdenby, in the county of Northampton. But on the 3d. of
the latter month a new crisis occurred. " One Joyce," a mad-
man whom the times had transmuted from a tailor into a cornet,
at the head of a body of horse, seized the sacred person of his
Majesty, and transferred him from the Parliament to Cromwell
and his partisans. In his progress to Hampton Court, where
the army for a time mocked him with the insignia of monarchy,
he had passed through Newmarket, from whence he found an
opportunity of writing this most affecting and probably his last
letter to Montrose. It is dated " Newmarket, 19th June 1 647."

" MONTROSE : When ye shall truly know my present condi-
tion, ye will rather wonder that I have received and answered
yours, than that this bearer, the last time, went empty from
me. But not being confident of the safe delivery of this, nor
having any cipher with you, I think not fit to write freely unto
you. Therefore, I desire you to take directions from my wife

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 661

what ye are to do : And be confident that no time, place, or
condition, shall make me other than your most assured, real,
faithful, constant friend, CHARLES R.

" / thank you for the sword ye sent me. Commend me to all
my friends that are with you." l

As Charles was suffered to keep his old state at Hampton
Court, and permitted to engage in devotion with his own chap-
lains, and even to see his children, this deceitful lull, in the hur-
ricane of his fortunes, brought some comfort even to himself,
and caused an impression to go abroad that his complete resto-
ration was about to be effected. Montrose had heard of this
changed condition of the Monarch, but entertained no sanguine
hopes as to the result, as will appear from his allusion to it in
the following letter, addressed to his exiled nephew, the laird
of Keir. It is addressed* " For the right worshipful Sir George
Stirling of Keir, In Holland ;" and is dated " near Paris, 26th
July 1647."

" MON FRERE : I received yours, and am very glad of your
welfare, being in some trouble on contrary conjectures ; not
hearing hitherto from yourself, or of the receipt of the Que^en
and Prince's letters ; or from any other hand concerning your
being in those parts : For Balloch spoke nothing at all to me.
As for your business there, I am afraid you find it longsome :
But if matters stand with the King as we are made to understand,
or if it please God they go well with myself any other where, I
hope you shall not need to think upon yourself, but leave me to
do it. As for that which you spoke long ago concerning Lilias,2
1 have been thinking, but to no purpose : For there is neither
Scots man nor woman welcome that way : Neither would any of
honour and virtue, chiefly a woman, suffer themselves to live in

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room. Does this sword exist ? See before, p. 580.

2 His niece, Lilias Napier. Probably this refers to some proposal to find a place
for her at court. It is to be feared that Montrose's severe expressions refer to the
court of Henrietta Maria, and the state of society in Paris. Compare this, and also
the King's reiterated commands to Montrose, to apply for instructions to the Queen,
with the narratives of Clarendon and Burnet, the one depreciatory, the other scan-
dalous, and both false, as regards Montrose. See the two next chapters. Lilias
Napier ultimately resided with her brother Lord Napier and Dr Wishart, ia
Holland.

662 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

so lewd and worthless a place. So you may satisfy that person,
and divert her thoughts resolutely from it. Wishing you all
happiness, I am your faithfullest and affectionate brother,

" MONTROSE." l

In this letter, it will be observed he alludes to some prospects
of his own abroad, if the King should no longer require his ser-
vices. Indignant at his reception by Henrietta Maria, and dis-
gusted with the petty intrigues of her advisers, he was now
keeping aloof from her Court. But, while slighted and dispa-
raged by the vicious minion, and silly retainers of the Queen,
the eyes of France were upon him. The celebrated Cardinal
De Retz, then coadjutor to the Archbishop of Paris, became
attached to him during his residence there ; and even in the
full flow of that entertaining melange of history, politics, wit,
and debauchery, entitled his memoirs, he pauses with dignity
on the name of Montrose, and portrays him with the hand of a
master. This celebrated churchman had introduced the hero to
Mazarine, and was the medium of some attempt to engage the
Marquis in the service of France, by offers of the most distin-
guished commands. But Montrose, owing to causes that will
appear in the sequel, suddenly broke off the negotiation, and
went to Germany; for which reason he seems to have been
slighted by the great minister, on his casual return to Paris.
The ardent De Eetz resented what he considered a disrespect
to his noble friend, and narrates it as one of several circum-
stances that had placed himself in opposition to the minister of
France. Then it is that the friend of Conde and Turenne takes
occasion to exclaim, — " Le Comte de Montross, Ecossois, et
chef de la maison de Graham, le seul homme du monde qui
m'ait jamais rapelle Fidee de certains heros que Ton ne voit
plus que dans les vies de Plutarque, avoit soutenir le parti du
Roi d^Angleterre dans son pai's, avec une grandeur d'ame qui
n'en avoit point de pareille en ce siecle."

In the month of November 1647, Charles was again induced
to seek safety in flight, as some ominous circumstances had
occurred to dissipate the semblance of freedom and security he
had lately enjoyed. The result was that he placed himself still

1 Original, Keir Charter-chest.

LIFE OF MONTROSE 663

more within the power of his enemies, by his ill-judged retreat
to the Isle of Wight. Shortly afterwards, Cromwell proposed,
to a secret council of the army, the trial and judgment of their
Sovereign as a tyrant and traitor to the State. Montrose had
long been satisfied, that betwixt the saints of Cromwell and the
saints of Argyle, however they might quarrel over the spoils of
the constitution, there was no broader distinction than what
Salmasius is somewhere said to have thus expressed, — that the
Presbyterians held down the King while the Independents cut
his throat. It was, therefore, with disgust and alarm he learnt,
that the championship for Charles was now to be taken up by
the weak and vicious government of Scotland, who sent their
commissioners to the Isle of Wight, to treat with his Majesty
in the name of that Covenant which the Independents had de-
clared in the House of Commons to be " an almanack out of
date." Hamilton, who had signally failed in every military
command, who had never been successful in the management of
his Majesty's civil affairs, and who in all his transactions had
exposed himself to the suspicion of treason, — Argyle, who in
every expedition had brought disgrace upon himself personally,
and in political questions had ever proved himself to be (in the
words of his father) a " man of craft, subtlety, and falsehood,"
— these two were now competitors for the honour of raising the
Monarchy they had pulled down, and saving the King they had
sold. But they differed as to the principle upon which they were
to take up arms. Argyle proposed, as the sole cause of quarrel,
that Presbyterian government had not been established in Eng-
land in terms of the Solemn League and Covenant, although
Episcopacy had been actually abolished. His rival, while he
admitted this to be the chief cause of the war, proposed the
special reason that the King was unjustly detained prisoner,
contrary to the promises given to the Scots at Newcastle.
Hamilton appealed to the covenanting Parliament ; Argyle to
the Assembly of the Kirk. These tribunals now came into
violent collision. As the influence of the former at this time
prevailed, they voted, on the 3d of May 1648, an army of thirty
thousand foot and six thousand horse, and nominated Hamilton
to the chief command. Thus discomfited, King Campbell, for
once in the minority of a covenanting Parliament, but still

664 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

faithfully supported by his Majesty's Advocate, Sir Archibald
Johnstone, put himself into secret communication with Oliver
Cromwell, and invited him to espouse the cause of the Kirk, in
opposition to the more loyal movement of the other faction.

Shortly before these transactions, the Scottish commissioners,
in their new character of champions for the Throne against the
democrats of England, opened a communication with the Queen
and the Prince of Wales, to obtain their sanction and aid in
furtherance of Hamilton's " Engagement." Sir William Fle-
ming, an undoubted loyalist, brother to the Earl of Wigton,
and nearly related to Montrose, became, from some accident or
other, the bearer of their propositions to Paris. Hence our
Marquis soon heard of the treaty, and did not fail to give his
unreserved opinion to the Queen on the subject. He truly re-
presented the tainted sources whence this proffered aid arose,
and that no safety to the King, or honour to the country, was
likely to proceed from that anomalous alliance, so tyrannically
based upon such a charter as the Solemn League and Covenant.
Besides, that army must be committed either to the leading of
Hamilton or Argyle, whose names, as commanders, were only
coupled with defeat and disgrace. Nor was there one person
among the leaders of the present movement that had not been
notoriously connected with the ruin of the royal cause.

Once again our hero submitted his conservative views to
Queen Henrietta Maria, at Paris, early in the spring of 1648.
Once again he found himself competing in her Majesty's ca-
binet with the counsels of Hamilton. Their respective careers,
since last they met in such rivalry, ought to have left the Duke
in a minority of one. But the Jermyn influence was paramount
in her counsels. That influence was hostile to the personal suc-
cess of Montrose. And hence it came, that Queen Henrietta
Maria was impelled to cast the fate of her husband, and his
kingdoms, upon a sickly Presbyterian faction in Scotland, which
had neither the vigour of covenanting vice, nor the security of
Christian integrity. Under these circumstances it was that
Montrose, casting aside all his brilliant prospects in France,
suddenly quitted Paris about the end of March 1648, and
sought the Emperor of Germany. There a Field-marshal's
baton awaited him. And this he thought now the most likely

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 665

means of promoting the protection of his Sovereign, and the
restoration of the Monarchy.

%
Such was the state of affairs, and the position of our hero,

when Lord Napier wrote the following letter to his lady in
Scotland, who then little dreamt that in a few fleeting months
she was to procure, at the risk of her own life, the heart of
their adored Montrose, from his mutilated body buried under
the common gibbet, within sight of her dwelling. It is dated
" Brussels, 14th June 1648."

" MY DEAREST HEART : I did forbear these two months to
write unto you, till I should hear from my Lord Montrose,
that I might have done it for good and all. But fearing that
may take some time, I resolved to give you an account of all
my Lord's proceedings, and the reasons which did invite me to
come to this place.

" Montrose then (as you did hear1) was in treaty with the
French, who, in my opinion, did offer him very honourable con-
ditions, which were these : — First, that he should be General to
the Scots in France, and Lieutenant-General to the royal army,
when he joined with them, commanding all Mareschals of the
Field. As likewise to be Captain of the Gens-d'armes, with
twelve thousand crowns a-year of pension, besides his pay; and
assurance the next year to be Mareschal of France, and Cap-
tain of the King^s own guard, which is a place bought and sold
at a hundred and fifty thousand crowns. But these two last
places were not insert amongst his other conditions, only pro-
mised him by the Cardinal Mazarine. But the others were all
articles of their capitulation, which I did see in writing, and
used all the inducements and persuasions I could to make him
embrace them. He seemed to hearken unto me, which caused
me at that time to show you that I hoped shortly to acquaint
you with things of more certainty, and to better purpose, than
I had done formerly. But while I was thus in hope and daily
expectation of his present agreement with them, he did receive
advertisements from Germany, that he would be welcome to

> It is to be regretted that no more of this interesting correspondence has been
discovered.

666 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the Emperor. Upon which he took occasion to send for me,
and began to quarrel with the conditions were offered him, and
said that any employment below a Mareschal of France was
inferior to him ; and that the French had become enemies to
our King, and did labour still to foment the differences betwixt
him and his subjects (that he might not be capable to assist
the Spaniard, whom they thought he was extremely inclined to
favour), and that if he did engage with them he would be forced
to connive and wink at his Prince's ruin ; and for these reasons
he would let the treaty desert, and go into Germany, where he
would be honourably appointed. Which sudden resolution did
extremely trouble and astonish me. I was very desirous he
should settle in France, and did use again all the arguments I
could to make him embrace such profitable conditions : As, if
he had been once in charge, I am confident, in a very short
time he should have been one of the most considerable strangers
in Europe. For, believe it, they had a huge esteem of him.
Some eminent persons there came to see him, who refused to
make the first visit to the Embassadors Extraordinary of Den-
mark and Sweden ; yet did not stand to salute him first, with
all the respect that could be imagined.1

" But to the purpose. He, seeing me a little ill satisfied with
the course he was going to take, did begin to dispute the mat-
ter with me, and, I confess, convinced me so with reason, that I
rested content, and was desirous he should execute his resolution
with all imaginable speed ; and did agree that I should stay at
my exercises in Paris till the end of the month, and go often to
court, make visits, and ever in public places, at comedies, and
such things, still letting the word go that my uncle was gone to
the country for his health. Which was always believed so long
as they saw me. For it was ever said that Montrose and his
nephew were like the Pope and the Church, who would be inse-
parable.2 Whereas if I had gone away with him, and left my

1 It is manifest from this account that Montrose had his Sovereign's interests at
heart rather than his own. Compare this with Clarendon's depreciatory and most
unjust statement of Montrose's proceedings, quoted in the next chapter.

3 Compare this explanation, of Montrose's quitting Paris and France at this
time, with the scandalous calumny recorded by Burnet, of which we shall dispose
in a subsequent chapter.

Eng*tyRBeIlEdmr from the originally Jameson inthe possession of th

/&*}&> vy

flp

d

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 667

exercises abruptly, in the middle of the month, his course would
have been presently discovered. For how soon I had been missed,
they would instantly have judged me to be gone somewhere with
him. Then search had been made everywhere ; and if he had
been taken going to any of the house of Austria, who were their
enemies, you may think they would have staid him, which might
have been dangerous both to his person, credit, and fortune.
So there was no way, to keep his course close, but for me to
stay behind him at my exercises, (as I had done for a long time
before), till I should hear he were out of all hazard. Which I
did, according to all the instructions he gave me.

" The first letter I received from him was dated from Geneva.
So when I perceived he was out of French ground, I resolved
to come here to Flanders, where I might have freedom of cor-
respondence with him ; as also liberty to go to him when it
pleased him to send for me, which I could not do conveniently
in France. For I was afraid, how soon his course should chance
to be discovered, that they might seek assurance of me and
others not to engage with their enemy, which is ordinary in
such cases. Yet would I never have given them any ; but
thought best to prevene it. And besides, I had been at so
great a charge, for a month after his way-going, with staying
at Court, and keeping of a coach there, which I hired, and
coming back to Paris, and living at a greater rate than I did
formerly (all which was his desire, yet did consume much
moneys), and fearing to be short, that I did resolve rather to
come here and live privately, than to live in a more inferior
way in France than I had done formerly. So these gentlemen
which belonged to my Lord, hearing of my intention, would, by
any means, go along. And we went all together to Haver-de-
grace, where we took ship for Middleburgh, and from thence
came here, where we are daily expecting Montrose's commands.
Which, how soon I receive them, you shall be advertised by
him who entreats you to believe that he shall study most care-
fully to conserve the quality, he has hitherto inviolably kept, of
continuing, — My dearest life, only yours, NAPIER.""

Postscript.
u MY HEART : I received letters from you that came by

668 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

France, wherein you desire to know if I have taken on any
debt in France, as my friends did conceive. This answer I do
yet give you, that my fortune nor no friend shall ever be
troubled with the charge of anything I did spend there. At
my parting from France, there went in my company above
fifteen that did belong to my Lord Montrose. Amongst which
was Mons. Hay, KinnouFs brother, and several others of good
quality. We were forced to lie long at Rouen and Haver, for
passage ; so that our journey to Brussels was above a thousand
francs. And now we have been near six weeks in it, which has
consumed both rny moneys and theirs. But we expect letters
from Montrose shortly, and bills of exchange ; till which time
we intend to go out of this place. And ere I be very trouble-
some to you, I shall live upon one meal a-day. I have been
most civilly used in this town by many of good quality ; and
was the last day invited by the Jesuits to their college, where I
received handsome entertainment. After long discourse, they
told me that, if I liked, the King of Spain should maintain me.
But I shewed them that I would not live by any King of Chris-
tendom's charity. They said it was no charity, for many of
eminent places received allowance from him. I told them, if I
did him service^ what he bestowed upon me then I might justly
take ; but to be a burden to him otherwise, I would never do it.
But I know their main end was to try if they could persuade
me to turn Catholic. But I shall, God willing, resist all their
assaults, as well as their fellows who plied me so hard in Paris.
Another reason why I would remove from this town is, that I
received advertisement, both from Paris and the Court of St
Germains, that it was resolved the Prince of Wales should go
to Scotland, and had already received his pass from the Arch-
duke Leopold to go by Brussels to Holland, where he was to
take ship. So, hearing of the Prince's coming here, and know-
ing the undeserved favourable opinion he had of me, which he
often and publicly professed, made me fear he should desire me
to go with him to Scotland. Which you know I could not do,
for I was not assured that they would keep truth* And to refuse
the Prince, who is my master, and to whom I am so infinitely
obliged, would give ground to some of my uncle's unfriends to
say, hereafter, that I refused to hazard with the Prince, or take

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 669

one fortune with him. So I resolve to shift myself timeously
from this place, and shun such a business, that would give
enemies advantage. But if it were not for my credit,1 which
would suffer by my coming to Scotland, and though I were not
commanded by the Prince, I would go six times as far else-
where, through all dangers imaginable, only to see you. I con-
fess I have satisfaction in nothing whilst we live at such dis-
tance. For though I should enjoy all those things which others
do esteem felicities, yet, if I do not enjoy your company, they
are rather crosses than pleasures to me ; and I should be more
contented to live with you meanly, in the deserts of Arabia,
than without you in the most fruitful place in the world, plen-
tifully, and with all the delights it could afford. You may pos-
sibly think these compliments, as you showed me once before,
when I wrote kindly to you. But, Grod knows, they flow from
a real and ingenuous heart. And if it had not been for waiting
on Montrose (which I hope I shall have no reason to repent,
for he hath sworn often to prefer my weal to Ms own), I might
before this time have settled somewhere. For, just before my
parting from Paris, I received letters from some friends at
Madrid in Spain, that, if I pleased, I should have a commission
for a regiment, and ten pistoles of levy-moneys for every man.
Which was a good condition, for I could have gained at least
forty thousand merks upon the levying of those men. But I
hope my uncle will provide no worse for me. The reason why
I am so impatient to engage is, to have your company. For I
am sure you will not refuse to come to me when you hear I am
able honourably to maintain you. I pray you do not show this
letter except to very confident friends ; and that which is written
after my subscription to none. Lord be with you.

" Be pleased, dear Heart, to let me have one thing which I
did almost forget — your picture, in the breadth of a sixpence, —
without a case, for they may be had better and handsomer here,
— and I will wear it upon a ribbon under my doublet, so long as
it, or I, lasts.

" I cannot express how much I am obliged to Sir Patrick
Drummond and his lady, at Camphire. The particulars you
shall know with the first occasion.

* His covenanting uncle, Bowhopple, aud other relations, had become caution for
him when he was permitted to go into exile.

670 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" Send your picture as I desire it. The other 'is so big as I
cannot wear it about me. Montrose, at Ms way-going, gave me
his picture, which I caused put in a gold case of the same big-
ness I desire your's." l

It was in the beginning of April 1648, that Montrose quitted
France, and travelled through Switzerland, Tyrol, Bavaria, and
Austria. Not finding the Emperor at Vienna, he followed him
to Prague, where his Imperial Majesty received him most gra-
ciously, bestowed upon him the baton of a Field-marshal of the
Empire, and honoured him with every mark of consideration.2
The object of the Marquis was not his own aggrandizement in
foreign service, but to save Charles the First. Hence he had
rejected the brilliant offers of France ; and the reasons by which
he satisfied his nephew were, that he intended to make interest
with Ferdinand to be commissioned to raise some independent
regiments, and to be employed in those quarters from whence
he could most readily and effectually assist his own King. His
negotiation was completely successful. He was invested with
the command, immediately under the Emperor himself, of levies
to be raised on the borders of Flanders. At the same time he

1 Original, Napier Charter-chest. Unfortunately no more of Lord Napier's cor-
respondence with his lady, and none of his correspondence with Montrose, has been
discovered. This is the more to be regretted, from the interesting and communi-
cative style of that in the text. There are few domestic letters of the period so
long ; and still fewer that combine such curious and affecting touches of domestic
interest, with minute historical information, regarding so conspicuous a character
as Montrose. The letter happens to supply precisely those details of the great
Marquis's reception and movements abroad, during the interval betwixt his depar-
ture from Scotland and the murder of Charles L, that are not to be met with, or
have been falsely recorded elsewhere. While Clarendon was so meanly and inac-
curately portraying Montrose at this time, as to subject the historian to the charge
of wilful misrepresentation ; and Burnet, still later, was weaving his calumnious
gossip on the subject, the simple and affecting truth lay hid in the Napier Charter-
chest, lost for two centuries. Unfortunately there has not been preserved with the
letter that precious picture of the hero " in the breadth of a sixpence." The fate
of it is unknown. One most remarkable feature, in this strong ebullition of domestic
affection, is, that the young father makes no allusion to his five children, who were
with Lady Napier in Scotland.

2 This patent, conferred upon Montrose by the Emperor Ferdinand III., is dated
at the Castle of Lintz, on the Danube, 12th * * * 1648. Original, Montrose Char-
ter-chest. The month is torn off, but it was probably June or July. It mentions
Montrose's " famous 1'epute and experience in war."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 671

obtained from him letters of recommendation to his brother
Leopold, Archduke of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Nether-
lands. Thus accredited, in order to avoid the hostile armies in
his way, he proceeded by a circuitous route to Flanders. From
Vienna he went by Presburg to Hungary, and so through Prussia
to Dantzic, where he embarked for Denmark, and spent some
time with his Danish Majesty. He was received at that court,
and wherever he paused on his journey, as a person of the high-
est distinction. From thence he passed into Jutland, where he
embarked for Groningen in Friesland, and next proceeded to
Brussels. But the Archduke had retired to Tournay, not long
after the defeat inflicted upon him at Lens by the Prince of
Conde. Montrose remained with Leopold until the latter re-
turned to Brussels, when he accompanied him thither, and so
rejoined Lord Napier and his other friends in that town. This
was towards the end of the year 1648.

Meanwhile the royal cause, in the hands of Hamilton and
Argyle, had become involved in the treachery, ruin, and dis-
grace, which from the first had been predicted. In the month
of July, while Montrose was with the Emperor of Germany,
Hamilton invaded England, at the head of the finest martial
array that Scotland had yet sent forth. The fate of this army
is well known. Upon the 17th of August, Cromwell and Lam-
bert arrested its progress near Preston in Lancashire ; and the
only resistance they met with was from the gallant cavalier, Sir
Marmaduke Langdale, the same who once attempted to join
Montrose, but was destined to serve under a very different
Scottish commander. Baillie, the old covenanting General, at
the head of a large portion of the scattered forces, surrendered
to Cromwell, and caused his troops to lay down arms without
striking a blow. He had been previously deserted by Hamil-
ton, who, with all his cavalry, sought safety in flight, having
scarcely paused to see the enemy. Some of his dragoons also
quitted him, and joined another section of the army under
Monro, who was not in the field, and now hurried to Scotland.
The Duke himself was made prisoner, at the head of a body of
horse with which Montrose would have cut his way to the
Tweed. And so ambiguously did this unhappy nobleman, —
who, Clarendon tells us, " was full of continual discourse of

672 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

battles under the king of Sweden," — give up himself and his
comrades, that it became a matter of dispute whether he had
surrendered to the country troops, to the Lord Gray of Groby,
or to some of Lambert's colonels sent to capitulate with him.
That numerous and well-appointed army proved, under his
command, infinitely less terrible than the few ill-armed caterans
with whom his rival first descended from the mountains. Thus
ended Hamilton's championship, taken up at the eleventh hour,
in behalf of his ruined master. For this miserable attempt,
engendered betwixt emulation of Montrose and competition
with Argyle, and feebly nursed into momentary animation by
an equivocal affection for his Sovereign, he soon paid that for-
feit upon which his character as a loyalist now mainly depends.
Nor did his brother Lanerick sustain the royal cause in Scot-
land,— to which, while nobly sustained by Montrose, he had
been so decidedly and actively hostile, — with more credit to
himself or benefit to the King. On the capture of his brother,
he became commander- in-chief of the army of " the Engage-
ment,"" and being joined by Monro, was still at the head of five
or six thousand foot, chiefly veterans, and upwards of four thou-
sand horse, all well appointed. To these was opposed Argyle,
who, on the news of the rout at Preston, had raised a rabble
host, chiefly composed of his own retainers and west-country
fanatics, and amounting to little more than six hundred foot
and one hundred horsemen. With this force, trusting to the
imbecility of the Hamiltons, and the fame of his own General,
David Leslie, he attempted to keep the country for Cromwell.
Nor was he much mistaken. Although surprised in Stirling by
Monro, and obliged to ride eighteen miles for his life,1 which he
did as usual without fighting, he afterwards contrived to effect
by diplomacy what he could not accomplish by arms. Lanerick
entered into a capitulation, and agreed to disband his army, to
the disgust and indignation of the loyal portion of it, who loudly
and vehemently deplored the absence of the only champion of
the King. "Oh Montrose! Montrose!" — they exclaimed, —
" now we feel what it is to have lost you !" 2

1 He went to dine at the Earl of Mar's that day, — doubtless a most unwelcome
guest, — but took to flight " while the meat was setting on the table." — Guthrie.
a Wiahart.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 673

Argyle, while thus triumphant after his kind, invited Crom-
well into Scotland. There the Dictator received the future
Protector with every mark of respect and esteem. He not only
entertained him in the Castle of Edinburgh publicly, with regal
pomp and magnificence, but they held private meetings at Lady
Home's, in the Canongate, whose house became an object of
mysterious curiosity, from the general report at the time that
the design to execute the King was there first discussed and
approved. These events happened in the autumn of 1648.1

1 See Monteith's History of the Troubles, for Argyle's reception of Cromwell in
Edinburgh. He did the honours of Cromwell's banquet in the Castle, received the
guests, and acknowledged the Usurper with salutes from the great guns.

Guthrie also says, — " The Marquis of Argyle conducted Cromwell and Lambert
to Edinburgh, with their army, where they kept their head-quarters at the Lady
Home's house in the Canongate." — " While Cromwell remained in the Canongate,
those that haunted him most were, besides the Marquis of Argyle, Loudon the
Chancellor, the Earl of Lothian, the Lords Arbuthnot, Elcho, and Burleigh ; and of
ministers, Mr David Dickson, Mr Robert Blair, and Mr James Guthrie. What
passed among them came not to be known infallibly ; but it was talked very loud,
that he did communicate to them his design in reference to the King, and had their
assent thereto."

43

674 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

CHAPTEE XXXII.

MONTROSE CORRESPONDS WITH THE DUKE OF YORK, PRINCE RUPERT, THE
PRINCE OF WALES, AND THE CHANCELLOR HYDE — CLARENDON COR-
RECTED— MURDER OF THE KING — EFFECT UPON MONTROSE — HIS LET-
TER ON THE SUBJECT TO SIR EDWARD HYDE.

FIELD-MARSHAL MONTROSE, as we may now call him, had
nevertheless by this time really entered that last phase of his
existence which he himself so quaintly characterised, by anti-
cipation, as his passions. In fact, only twenty months of mortal
existence now remained to him. Humanly speaking, as he was
in the prime of life, and endowed with great bodily vigour, he
might have prolonged its term abroad, for many years, in the
enjoyment of the most distinguished eclat. But one absorbing
passion ministered to his destiny. Charles the First was yet in
life. The Hamiltons, professing to save him as soon as their
rival was dismissed, had, at the very outset of their adventure,
and under the most promising circumstances, only accelerated
his ruin. The hero, who had good reason to know how much
he himself could have accomplished with the same appliances,
was still burning for action. But Henrietta Maria, under the
vicious influence of her minion, had rejected the scheme of his
last " Engagement," — that splendid re-union of the claymores
of the north, in ridiculous emulation of which, Duke Hamilton
subsequently undertook, with his ample resources in the south,
that which nature had not fitted him for performing. From
the counsels of the Queen, — to which Charles had so pointedly
referred him, — and from the court and policy of France, Mon-
trose now expected nothing, and turned in disgust. We trace
the high-minded sentiment in his letter to Keir, in the letter of

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 675

his nephew to Lady Napier, and in his subsequent correspon-
dence with Prince Rupert. He was sorely galled by the reflec-
tion, that in his own country, where he had sustained the cause
of the King in a manner for which De Retz could find no other
parallel than the heroes of Plutarch, the semblance of a violent
struggle to save the King should be going on with immense ap-
pliances, and be crushed for want of a competent leader, while
the victor of Kilsyth was pronounced unworthy to serve his
Sovereign. If better might not be, he had secured a brilliant
position at the Imperial Court. Still he could not tear himself
from the adventure in which his whole soul was absorbed ; the
preservation, namely, of his own King, and the restoration of
the Monarchy. So he returned to Brussels intent upon gaining
the confidence of other members of the family of Charles the
First, and their united credentials for the renewal of active
operations, under his leadership. For, alas ! he found that the
fair words of Henrietta Maria never came to practical good for
the rescue of her forsaken husband.

He rejoined his nephew Lord Napier at Brussels, in the au-
tumn of 1648 ; and lost no time in addressing renewed offers of
loyal service, to the King's sons, and more especially to his gal-
lant but unlucky nephew Prince Rupert. We have been fortu-
nate in recovering nearly the whole of this interesting corre-
spondence, which has not hitherto entered his biography. His
great achievements in Scotland, under difficulties that to all
others seemed insuperable, — the story of which had ere this
been admirably and truthfully told to Europe, by Dr Wishart
in his Commentarius^ added to the fact of King Charles having
sent the hero of it abroad with the highest credentials, well
entitled him to approach that monarch's family without reserve,
on such a subject as the saving of his Throne and his life. Yet
the stately etiquette, the courtly tact, the chivalresque style, so
carefully maintained in all his addresses to royalty, combined
with the absence of any appearance of pluming himself, or pre-
suming upon what he had done, is extremely characteristic of
the accomplished nobleman who, says Bishop Burnett (in no
complimentary humour, however), was " stately to affectation."
It indicates that his fiery and desolating career, with that flying

1 The first edition of which was published towards the close of the year 1647.

676 LIFE OF MONTHOSE.

camp of his in Scotland, had not unfitted him for shining in the
silken courts and cabinets of royal diplomacy.

It is curious and interesting to find him at this time in cor-
respondence with so late a generation of the Stewart dynasty
as James II., with whom it was destined to fall for ever. The
proper champion of that monarch was a younger scion of Mon-
trose^s house, the great and glorious Dundee. Yet the young
James Duke of York was personally acquainted with the great-
est of the Grahams. We find him writing to Montrose as fol-
lows, in reply to an offer of loyal service, and a report of his
reception by the Emperor, a communication we have not been
able to recover. The Duke's letter is dated from the Hague,
llth September 1648. There at the same time were also resi-
dent the Prince of Wales, his Chancellor Sir Edward Hyde,
Prince Rupert, and that celebrated sister of Charles the First,
Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia. With all of these distinguished
personages, our hero now commenced an anxious correspon-
dence, to be presently laid before the reader, and which con-
tinued until he was hurried to his doom among savages in
Scotland : —

" MY LORD MARQUIS OF MONTROSE : I should have written
to you by the same person who brought me your letter, if I had
seen him afterwards, and given you many thanks, as I do now
by Sir William Drummond, for the kind offer you made me of
your friendship and service, which I assure you I value very
much. I am extremely glad to hear your merits are so well
understood abroad, as to have procured you such honours from
the Emperor, now that there is not a possibility of rewarding
them at home. Whenever there shall be, you must not doubt
of receiving it from the King ; nor of my particular endeavours
to deserve of you those professions you make me. I rest your
affectionate friend, YORKE." l

But Montrose's chief hope at this crisis was Prince Rupert ;
with whom his only previous communication occurred at the

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room. This, with many other letters of the royal
family to Montrose, which now for the first time enter his biography, was only re-
cently found among the Montrose archives. The history of their preservation and
recovery is given in the preface to the author's " Memorials of Montrose," vol. 11.
p. xxvii., printed for the Maitland Club, 1850.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 677

inauspicious moment of the Prince's retreat from Marston-
rnoor. Much had happened to both since then ; but all the
laurels that had been gained, were heaped on the brow of the
neglected Scottish cavalier. The magnificent and complimen-
tary manner of this interchange of courtesies, and loyal specu-
lations, between " that viperous brood of Satan, James Graham,
whom the Church hath delivered into the hands of the Devil,"
and a Robert le Diablo"1 himself, tends to elevate our ideas of
the satanic character and manners. Montrose7 s letter is dated
44 Brussels, 7th September 1648," and addressed, " For his
Highness Prince Kupert,"

44 SIR : Your Highness may justly think strange, what should
embolden me to this freedom ; never having done myself the
honour to have used the like heretofore, nor being favoured
with your commands now to do it. But when your Highness
shall be pleased to know, that I was ever a silent admirer of
you, and a passionate affecter of your person, and all your ways,
you will be pleased to allow me recourse to your goodness and
generosity : And the rather, that your Highness sees I am for
the present at such distance with all interests, as no end but
naked respect can now prompt me to it : Which, if your High-
ness shall do me the honour to take in good part, and command
me to continue, 1 shall hope it will not wrong the King your
uncle's service, nor what may touch your Highness, both in
relation to those and these parts ; in either of which I should
presume to be able to do you some small services. So, hoping
your Highness will pardon this boldness, and take it from the
true fountain, I shall only say, that I desire to be ever, Sir,
your Highness's most humble, faithful, affectionate servant,

41 MONTROSE." l

1 Accurate transcripts of this, and the other letters from Montrose to Prince Ru-
pert, were very kindly and liberally communicated to the author, when editing the
" Memorials of Montrose," by the gentleman who possesses the originals, Mr Bent-
ley, the publisher of Mr Eliot Warburton's " Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the
Cavaliers," 1849. Through the friendly introduction of that elegant author, whose
sad untimely fate not long afterwards was a loss to letters, and can never cease to
be lamented, these transcripts, with the permission to publish them, were presented
by Mr Bentley to the author of this biography. Most of the letters from Montrose
were printed by Mr Warburton, in his last and very interesting work. The whole
series are now before the readei', in fortunate conjunction with the Prince's letter*
(o Mont rose, the originals of which the author found among the Monti-ose archives.

678 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

To this, Prince Rupert replied as follows, dating from the
Hague, 20th September 1648 :—

14 MY LORD : In your letter I found a civility I was so glad
of, that I will, by the best service my power can, gain the con-
tinuance of it. I beseech you, my Lord, let me hold it from
your favour only till I shall be able to let your Lordship see I
have sought an occasion to serve you. The noble kindness I
see your Lordship still preserves for the King, makes me much
to covet that we may be happy to serve him together. To com-
pass which, with regard to your person and affection, I shall
study ; and remain your Lordship's most faithful friend to serve
you, RUPERT."

Our hero, whose ulterior object could not suffer the corre-
spondence to languish, thus renews his courteous assault upon
his Highness Prince Rupert, from Brussels, 7th October 1 648 :

" SIR : Your Highnesses noble' and generous expressions, does
not only give me, a subject, most humbly to acknowledge such
gallant civilities, but also emboldens me (grounded upon your
Highnesses allowance) to presume to entertain myself with the
honour and happiness of so much wished favour ; humbly en-
treating your Highness to do me the justice to believe, that, as
it was still my secret and most predominant passion to witness
myself the faithfulest of all your servants, either in order to his
Majesty's affairs (in which I may appear so very little useful),
or that of your Highnesses own particular, so shall it be still my
greatest ambition, without affectation at all,1 for your Highnesses
worth and merit, and the strong inclinations I harbour to serve
it, to avow myself ever, against all oppositions, Sir, your High-
ness's most humble, faithful, affectionate servant, MONTROSE."

To which, on the 13th of the same month, " Le Diablo"
returns this salute : —

" MY LORD : I have received a second testimony of your
kindness to me ; which, I shall again assure you, is most wel-
come to me : And, though your Lordship as yet has no com-

1 It must be admitted there was some touch of affectation in the preceding pa-
renthesis ; though redeemed by its sarcastic bitterness.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 679

mands l for me, yet, whenever you have an occasion fit to bo
served in, I shall appear very real.

" Your Lordship's most faithful friend to serve you,

" RUPERT."

In a subsequent communication (not recovered), the indefa-
tigable Marquis appears to have pressed his suit for a personal
and secret conference with the Prince, who again writes to him
as follows, dating this time, " From aboard the Admiral, 17th
of November 1648:"—

" MY LORD : I am sorry that this employment will not give
me leave to stir from it, .else I should have been extremely will-
ing to have met with your Lordship somewhere, and conferred
with you about his Majesty's affairs. The bearer hereof can
more fully tell your Lordship how ready I shall be to join with
you in anything which may advance that service in which you
showed so much reality and forwardness. I shall therefore only
trouble you with an assurance of my service to you, which shall
not be wanting in your Lordship's most faithful friend to serve
you, RUPERT." 2

On the 3d of December 1 648, Montrose again writes to him,
the messenger being his old enemy, but now devoted follower,
Major-General Sir John Hurry ! In this letter our hero comes
more decidedly and explicitly to the point :—

" SIR : I had the honour to receive your Highness's by Sir
John Urrey, and was informed by him, likewise, of all your
Highness committed to him to deliver : To which I could not
have failed to have made an instant return, but that I was still
upon my dispatch, with these slow gamesters here, to have
waited upon your Highness myself : Which finding draw to a
little more length than I could have imagined, I am constrained
humbly to crave your Highness's pardon to be resolved of your
commands in this way. I must confess, as your Highness has
perhaps heard, that it is my resolution to return for the Impe-
rial Court (though I never intended it without being resolved
first to receive your commands, as the person's in the world

1 The Prince at first had written the word " demands," but corrected it to " com-
mands."

3 Prince Rupert had just entered upon his new functions of an Admiral, in which
he displayed great ability and daring, but as usual with no useful results. See Mr
Warburtou's " Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers."

680 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

shall have greatest influence upon all my services), in regard
there is nothing of honour amongst the stuff here, and that I
am not found useful for his Majesty's service in the way of home.
Always (but) if your Highness shall wish me to engage, or find
a fair way for it, or be to lay your rest at any stake? I entreat
your Highness to believe that I have still so much invincible
loyalty to his Majesty, and passionate respect to your own
person, that I will abandon all fortunes and advantages in the
world, and rather hazard to sink by you nor (than) save myself
aside of all others. Wherefore let your Highness be pleased I
may receive your commands freely by your return,2 and I will
study to forego all, and dispose upon myself in everything ac-
cordingly. I have made bold to do it in this way, because I
wish not, if your Highness be pleased to think it fit, that any
should know what passes until I have first the honour to wait
on yourself, which shall undoubtedly be instantly after the
return : At which time I hope to let your Highness see all is
not yet gone, but that we may have a handsome pull for it ; and
a probable one ; and either win it, or be sure to lose it fairly.
The pressingness of time makes me use this freedom, to which
I shall add nothing but a begging of your Highnesses pardon,
with a solemn vow that I am, Sir, your Highnesses most humble,
faithful, affectionate servant, MONTROSE."

On Sunday night, 6th December 1648, the Prince replies as
follows : —

" MY LORD : I have received yours of the 3d of December
by this same bearer. Truly, Sir, I shall be glad to undertake
any service with you which you shall be pleased to propose.
For which reason, and having both the same ends, the King's
service, I must wish infinitely to see and confer with your Lord-
ship about it. If I had not this heavy tie upon me, your Lord-
ship should not be troubled further than with safety I could
come to you. But now, whilst I am severing the goats from
the sheep, I dare not absent myself without hazarding all our

1 This somewhat obscure expression probably means, to venture all at a stroke.
We shall find that idea repeated several times in Montrose's letters, in more explicit
terms ; and it is interesting to observe, that the same is the burden of a famous
verse in his celebrated ballad, —

*' He either fears his fate too much, or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch, to gain or lose it all."

a Meaning, the return of the messenger with the reply.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 681

hopes here.1 Therefore I hope you will pardon the trouble which
you will receive. I am your Lordship1 s most faithful friend and
servant, RUPERT."

On the eve of waiting upon the Prince in person, Montrose
was prevented by circumstances which he thus reports from
Brussels, 14th December 1648: —

" SIR : According to your commands by your Highnesses re-
turn, I was immediately to have found the way to have waited
on you, but did receive a letter, just at the same time, from one
Mr Mowbray, who pretends to have orders for me from his
Majesty, and to be on the way (together with some others)
with them. Wherefore, supposing it might be very fit for your
ends that I should smell them out ere I did attend you, and
withal that they should have no pretext to work upon, — as I
know they would be very apt unto, — I have been bold to hazard
some very few days upon your Highnesses patience ; of which I
thought fit to give you notice, that you should not conceive me
slackened of the invincible desire I have vowed ever to retain to
serve you : And though it will but oblige a four or five days
delay, I hope it may advance much more in other kinds. Mean-
while I shall make bold to trouble your Highness no further,
but only crave your favour to tell you this truth, that I am as
much as any person alive, Sir, your Highnesses most passionate
servant, MONTROSE."

Some light is thrown upon the character of this provoking
impediment, by the following minute in the handwriting of
Chancellor Hyde, who was in attendance, at the Hague, upon
the Prince of Wales : —

" 5th December 1648 : Mr Moicbray came to visit me in the
morning1; and, after some salutations, told me that he came lately
out of Scotland, where he had been during these late troubles ;
and that he had brought advices to the Prince from the Earl of
LanericJc^ who continued his devotion to his Highness, and had
never submitted to the agreement made at Stirling, but kept in
the north, where he would be ready to serve the Prince any way
he proposed ; and to that purpose had expressed a willingness

1 This was a very gi'aceful compliment to Montrose. Prince Rupert was at this
time re-organising his mutinous fleet, which he did with greater judgment and suc-
cess than he fought the battle of Marston-moor.

682 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

to join with my Lord Marquis of Montrose, and all the King's
party ; and that he would be so far from contesting about com-
mand, that he would be a Serjeant under Montrose" l

Good from Lanerick ! who added, however, that he wished it
to be concealed from Lauderdale. The next letter, from the
same Collections, obviously refers to the subject, but has no
date : Montrose's well-founded suspicions had been awakened.

" SIR : If those people who pretend his Majesty's order for
me, and are to be directed hither, as they profess, by the Prince,
be parted when this comes to your Highnesses hands, I shall not
fail to attend you with all possible speed : Otherwise, if they be
not, your Highness would be pleased, in an indirect way, to dis-
pose it so as they may immediately be sent along. For it will
concern much, that we know how their designs are composed,
and upon what string they touch ; that, when I have the honour
to wait on your Highness, we may with the more clearness cast
our moulds, and know how to keep the better consort with their
tune : So that it will be much time gained, although it may seem
to retard it : Since notwithstanding I were with your Highness
now, before you could resolve anything it were necessary to find
out their mine, that you might the better know how to labour
yours : And, until then, the less they know of my faithful
respects to your Highness, or intentions towards his Majesty's
service, it will be much the better : For the more necessity they
stand in of men, and the less certainty to have them, will still
afford us the more freedom, and greater square to work. As
for the present difficulties of your Highnesses shipping, you need
not doubt it ; for there will be many ways found for their enter-
tainment, that they may be still kept in call : And since there
be so handsome and probable grounds for a clear and gallant
design, if the measures be rightly taken, I should be infinitely
sorry that your Highness should be induced to hazard your own
person, or those little rests, upon any desperate thrust. For,
while you are safe, we shall find twenty ways to state2 ourselves,
and give them the half of the fear. But if anything else did

1 Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 460.

3 Mr Eliot Warburton conjectures "state" here to mean "reinstate." See
" Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers," vol. iii. p. 269. It was a common expression
of the period, signifying to establish a position.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 683

behappen, I should esteem myself the most unfortunate person
in the world, both for his Majesty's interest and your own per-
son. Always (but) I will submit myself to your Highness's
better judgment, and entreat you a-pardon this freedom, which
only proceeds from the entire and perfect respect of, Sir, your
faithfulest and affectionate servant, MONTROSE."

Rupert, now busy with his fleet, a new phase of his career,
which has been so well and amply illustrated by the lamented
Eliot Warburton, replies in haste, simply dating " Wednesday
night."

"My LORD : I shall, with all the care I can, contribute to
that means which may with most convenience bring me the
good fortune of conferring with your Lordship ; retaining a
very great esteem of the favour your Lordship hath expressed
to me ; and shall not, by any want of care, fail to prevent any
ill use that may be made of the knowledge of it, by such as aro
ready for such offices ; and I doubt, as your Lordship doth,
there are some such to be taken heed of. I pray my Lord be con-
fident I will be very earnest in labouring to deserve your favour,
which I much desire may be continued, as I do to shorten the
time of meeting you. I am your Lordship's most faithful friend
and servant, RUPERT."

It is doubtful whether the projected conference between these
two great characters ever took place. The ambitious and dis-
reputable Lauderdale, virulently set against Montrose, had paid
a flying visit to the Hague, where he arrogantly boasted that he
would restore the King through the Hamilton faction. Having
fired this mine, the rebel Earl, who was said at the time to
" haunt Lanerick like a fury," hastened back to Scotland in
furtherance of that vicious intrigue. Rupert, meanwhile, was
on the move to Ireland with his fleet. Accordingly, of date
8th January 1649, again Montrose addresses him: —

u SIR : Being informed, since your Highnesses parting, that
some new impostures are like to delude our sense, and give a
total foil to all hopes of recovery, I thought fit to direct back
this bearer to receive your Highnesses commands, and to impart
unto you what is not so fit to be hazarded to paper ; since this
appears the stroke for the party, and probable conjuncture whose
use, or misserving, shall either gain or lose the whole. But be as

684 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

it will, all shall serve to confirm me still the further, Sir, your
Highnesses most loving servant, MONTROSE."

Montrose had not as yet addressed himself to the Prince of
Wales, who was now at the Hague under the care and coun-
selship of his Chancellor, Sir Edward Hyde. For reasons of
his own, the Marquis had forborne at present from any offer of
his services in that quarter. But there were others, it seems,
whose impatience prompted them to do that for Montrose, and
without his consent or knowledge, which he was not yet pre-
pared to do for himself. Accordingly, in a letter dated from
the Plague, 20th January 1649, the Prince of Wales thus writes
to him : —

" MY: LORD : I thank you for the continuance of your affec-
tion, of which I have received a good account by this bearer.
It would be long to reply in writing to all particulars mentioned
by him. Therefore I have appointed the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer to meet you in any place you shall appoint, and by him
you shall understand my mind upon the whole. I need not tell
you there must be great secrecy in this business. Be assured I
am, and will always be, my Lord, your most affectionate friend,

" CHARLES P." l

Pleased, but somewhat startled by this unexpected address,
the loyal object of it replied as follows, from Brussels, on the
28th of the same month : —

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HIGHNESS : I received your High-
nesses, wherewith you were pleased to honour me. As for my
humble and loyal affection to your Highnesses service, I hope
there can be no fate, nor fatal misinformations, can ever put it
to a peradventure in your Highnesses thoughts : Otherwise I
should think what I have done, and suffered, and am yet able
to act for your Highnesses service, had rencontred a very hard
fate. For what your Highness is pleased to mention touching
that young mans expression to you, / gave him no warrant to
trouble your Highness with such like : But he was prompted by
the impatience of others. Yet there can be nothing said but I
am most ready to own it, wherein the least point of your High-
nesses service can be concerned ; and I have, according to your
Highnesses command, appointed with your Chancellor of Ex-

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. G85

chequer where to meet. Till when, I shall only beg your High-
ness to believe that, as / never had passion upon earth so strong
as that to do the King your father service, so shall it be my study,
if your Highness command me, to show it redoubled for the
recovery of you ; and that I shall never have friend, end, nor
enemy, but as your pleasure, and the advancement of your ser-
vice shall require. Wherein, if your Highness shall but vouch-
safe a little faith unto your loyal servants, and stand at guard
with others, your affairs can soon be whole. So, humbly expect-
ing your Highnesses further commands, with all the secrecy your
Highness imposes, I am, Sir, your Highnesses most humble,
faithful, constant, zealous servant, MONTROSE." l

Of the same date as the Prince's letter to Montrose, his
Chancellor had also thus written to him from the Hague : —

" MY LORD : The Prince hath vouchsafed to trust me with
some overtures he hath lately received from your Lordship, and
hath given me a private command to wait on your Lordship, in
any place and at any time you please to appoint. If I were
enough known to your Lordship, you would believe me to be
very glad of this employment, and to have the opportunity of
kissing the hands of a person that hath acted so glorious a part
in the world. I shall very greedily wait your summons, and
attend you accordingly. Only, give me leave to inform your
Lordship, being a stranger to the present transactions and de-
signs, that there is now so great jealousy of a treaty betwixt his
Highness and your Lordship, and your countrymen are so scat-
tered over all the neighbouring towns, that it will not be possible
for you to be in these parts without discovery ; and in this con-
juncture the highest secrecy is absolutely necessary. And if I,
who have the honour not to be gracious with your enemies,
should be seen at Antwerp or Brussels, inquisitive men, by long
suspecting, will conclude somewhat at this time should not be
believed. Therefore I humbly refer it to your Lordship, whe-
ther you will not believe Breda, Bergen -op-zome, or Gythren-
berg, a fit place to be attended.

i Printed in the Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 470. This letter distinctly
proves that Montrose was here offering his services, not to Charles II., but to the
Prince of Wales ; and that the loyal offer was no volunteer on his part. The cor-
respondence completely contradicts Clarendon's history, which is very unjust to
Montrose, as will be shewn in a subsequent page.

686 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" Your Lordship has the full disposal of, my Lord, your Lord-
ship's most humble and most obedient servant,

" EDWARD HYDE." 1

And of the same date as his reply to the Prince of Wales,
28th January 1 649, two days before the murder of the King in
England, Montrose thus replies to the Chancellor : —

" MY LORD: According to his Highnesses commands, and
the desire of yours, I have been minding the most convenient
place to wait upon you. Since you find difficulties in their
lengths, and all being considered, I suppose that Sevenbergen
will be by much of best conveniency for you, and greatest pri-
vacy to the business ; although it carries me the furthest length.
For Bergen, Gertruydenberg, Breda, and all those places, are so
full of (my) countrymen, as we cannot be anywhere undiscovered.
Wherefore you will be pleased expect me at Sevenbergen, ere
you shall be the length. Till when, I trouble (you) with no
further, but only express the satisfaction I have that his High-
ness has pitched so well as on yourself ; of whose deservings and
approved loyalty I have often had so much character as I can-
not but be encouraged to hope for the better effects, and profess
how really I am, my Lord, your most affectionate friend and
servant, MONTROSE." 2

It was very hard upon the high-minded Montrose, whom
Clarendon himself records as the man of the " clearest spirit
and honour" among all the King's advisers, to be thus com-
pelled to stoop to the level of the mean and miserable double
policy, which so utterly failed as it deserved to do. Clarendon,
too, was quite aware of this fatal vice in the counsels of the
young King. In a letter to Lord Jermyn, dated 31 st March 1 649,
soon after the accession of Charles II., he writes : " I am very far
from having any prejudice to the nation (Scotland). It is evident
the poison and rancour there lies within a little compass, and is
contracted within the breast of a few men, who, no doubt, were
as consenting to the parricide as Cromwell or Ireton. If a full
and clear encouragement were given to all the loyal party there,
instead of application to the others, I am persuaded Scotland
would in a short time be in a good posture of obedience."3

1 Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 467. 3 Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p, 469.
3 Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 474.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 687

But this acute and sensible view is directly opposed to the po-
licy of a letter which Clarendon himself had drafted, in the name
of Lord Brentford, for the purpose of conveying to Montrose,
shortly before the King's death, the sentiments of the Prince of
Wales relative to certain offers of loyal service which, it was
assumed, the Marquis had volunteered, and volunteered rashly
and inopportunely, to the heir of the fallen throne of England.
The letter to which we now allude is entitled, — " The Earl of
Brentford to the Marquis of Montrose," and described as, " A
rough draft by Sir Edward Hyde." This missive, written in a
formal and disheartening style, conveys a declinature, in the
name of the Prince of Wales, of those services, as being for the
time not advantageous to the King's affairs. This rough draft
bears date 18th January 1649.1 Manifestly it was never sent;
being quite inconsistent with the Prince's own holograph letter,
dated just two days later, which we have given above. Nor had
that gallant old soldier Brentford, who greatly admired Mon-
trose, conceived the discouraging letter. It was a rough draft
by Clarendon, which had missed fire. He, too, was jealous of the
approaches to the rising sun by this alarming champion of the
Throne ; and hence we find his great history, or rather that
which his editors have given us in his name, disfigured by an
extraordinary and most contradictory melange of depreciation
and laudation of the character of Montrose. But yet more
startling are the following passages from Clarendon's history,
when compared with the correspondence we have now disclosed.
Referring to the crisis so far illustrated, the great Chancellor
narrates it thus : —

" Montrose was then a man of eclat, had many servants, and
more officers, who had served under him and came away with
him, all whom he expected the Queen should enable him to
maintain with some lustre, by a liberal assignation of monies.
On the other hand, the Queen was in straits enough, and never
open-handed, and use<i to pay the best services with receiving
them graciously, and looking kindly upon those who did them.
And her graces were still more towards those who were like to
do services, than to those who had done them. So that, after
a long attendance, and some overtures made by him to Cardinal

1 Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 466'.

688 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Mazarine, to raise an army for the service of that King, which
he did not think were received with that regard his great name
deserved, the Marquis left France, and made a journey into
Germany to the Emperor's court, desiring to see armies till he
could come to command them ; and was returned to Brussels
about the time that the Prince came back into Holland with
the fleet ; and lay there very privately, as incognito, for some
time, till he heard of the murder of the late King.1 Then he sent
to the King, with the tender of his service, and to know, if his
Majesty thought his attendance upon him might bring any
prejudice to his Majesty ; and if so, that he would send over
the Chancellor of the Exchequer to Sevenbergh, a town in
Flanders, where he was at present to expect him, and had
matters to communicate to him of much importance to his
Majesty's service. Whether he did this out of modesty, that
he might first know his Majesty's pleasure, or out of some
vanity that was predominant in him, that he might seem to
come to the King (after the coldness he had met at Paris) by
a kind of treaty, the King commanded the Chancellor presently
to go to him, and, if he could without exasperating him, which
he had no mind to do; wished he might be persuaded rather for
some time to suspend his coming to the Hague than presently
to appear there : which was an injunction very disagreeable to
the Chancellor; who in his judgment believed his Majesty should
bid him very welcome, and prefer him before any other of that
nation in his esteem."

This last Jesuitical sentence is not a little inconsistent with
the spirit of the whole passage, and the essentially mean cha-
racter insinuated of Montrose. But the account of his proceed-
ings is so grossly contrary to fact as to shake severely the credit
of Clarendon. Was this great historian, too, one whom some
petty pique, or envious feeling towards an illustrious compeer,
could induce to write unfaithfully, even where strong natural

1 The whole of this depreciatory account meets with a complete antidote in the
letter from Montrose's nephew to Lady Napier ; against which Clarendon's narra-
tive cannot stand, especially when we find that the rest of his details, regarding
Montrose's first tender of his loyal services to Charles TL, are convicted of the
grossest inaccuracy, by production of the correspondence itself. Why did Claren-
don suppress the fact, that the Emperor invited Montrose, and made him a Field-
marshal ? See before, pp. 665, 666.

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

prejudices, or political enmity, were not in the case ? Or was
Clarendon in his cups when he recorded, in the face of Mon-
trose''s letter to the Prince, and his own correspondence with the
Marquis (all derived from the collection intended to vouch his
history), that the correspondence in question arose out of an
unwelcome and importunate offer of service to the new King,
which his Chancellor was commissioned to avert ? When the
correspondence itself is perused, what becomes of that sentence
in Clarendon : — " Whether Montrose did this out of modesty,
and that he might first know his Majesty s pleasure, or out of
some vanity that was predominant in Mm, that he might seem to
come to the King, after the coldness he had met at Paris, by a
kind of treaty, the King commanded the Chancellor to go to
him." Clarendon, while he wrote, was actually in possession of
Montrose's reply, not to the King, but to the Prince of Wales,
in which the Marquis pointedly protects himself against the
possible, though surely very harmless, imputation of a too im-
portunate loyalty. Knowing that the King^s life was in the
most imminent danger, having his Majesty's own assurance in
private letters that he wished and intended him to be his prin-
cipal negotiator abroad, being expressly referred by his Sove-
reign to the Queen for instructions, and having just returned
from his anxious and successful negotiations with Austria and
Denmark, surely the nobleman who, single-handed as regards
any co-operation of other nobles professing loyalty, had swept
the armies of the Covenant from the face of Scotland, was not
only entitled, but necessarily impelled to report himself, his
proceedings, and his plans, to the exiled family of Charles I.
When these circumstances are considered, and when we peruse
the letters, now recovered, which the Marquis received at this
time from the various members of that unhappy family, how
little and how ridiculous appears the blundered narrative of
Clarendon, with his depreciatory see-saw between the modesty
and the vanity of Montrose. And why, with Montrose1 s letter
to the Prince of Wales before him, did the historical statesman
not give his heroic coadjutor the benefit of that pointed remark
of his, which proves that he was at this time urged upon his
fate by the " impatience of others" and that not always communi-
cated to himself?

44

690 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Nor, we grieve to say, was Clarendon's faulty record without
a personal motive. He himself tells us, that, at the gloomy crisis
when the Crown descended to Charles II., and the young King
was all but destitute of able, loyal, and honest advisers, he, his
Chancellor, became " weary of the company he was in, and the
business." Hence, he confesses, Lord Cottington's quiet intrigue,
to effect their joint embassy to Spain, was eagerly embraced by
him. At the very time of his conferences with the self-devoted
Montrose, who had hoped to find in the Chancellor a constant
and untiring coadjutor, that great statesman was secretly ca-
balling with Cottington to escape from the troubled stage. And
he is not ashamed to record, that "he was very scrupulous that
the King might not suspect that he was weary of his attendance,
or that anybody else might believe that he withdrew himself from
waiting longer upon so desperate a fortune." When this plot
was ripe for announcement, all murmured. " Only,1' adds the
confessing historian, " the Scots were very glad of it, — Montrose
excepted, — believing that when the Chancellor was gone, their
beloved Covenant would not be so irreverently mentioned, and
that the King would be wrought upon to withdraw all counte-
nance and favour from the Marquis of Montrose ; and the Mar-
quis himself looked upon it as a deserting him, and complying
with the other party : and from that time, though they lived
with civility towards each other, he withdrew very much of his
confidence which he had formerly reposed in him." x And most
deservedly so, even by his own showing. While the Chancellor
thus sought safety in a luxurious flight, the days of the unflinch-
ing loyalist, of the " clear spirit," — of " the man of the clearest
honour, courage, and affection to the King's service," — were
numbered. About twelve months after this separation, we find
Clarendon writing to Henrietta Maria, from Madrid, — " How
his Majesty intends to dispose of his own person we know not ;
and if he be inclined for Scotland, we presume this monstrous
proceeding with the brave Marquis of Montrose,- — who, without
doubt, was a person of as great honour, and as exemplary integrity
and loyalty, as ever that nation bred, — will make his Majesty as
jealous for his own security as the weight of such an argument
requires him to be." 2

1 History of the Rebellion, vol. vi. p. 113 ; one of the suppressed passages.

» Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 544. The Chancellor, in reality, entertained

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 691

The fact of the King's death appears to have been announced
to Montrose by the Prince of Wales^s Chancellor, whom he was
just preparing to meet at an obscure village near the Hague.
On the 15th February 1649, he is sufficiently composed to write
to the Chancellor on the subject as follows : —

" MY LORD : I am so surprised with the sad relation of your's,
that I know not how to express it. For the griefs that astonish
speak more, with their silence, than those that can complain.
And although we could never justly look for other but such a
tragic effect, yet the horridness of the thing doth bring along
too much of wonder not to be admired,1 — never enough com-
plained of. I pray God Almighty that our young Master, the
King, may make his right use, every way ; and, in particular,
that rogues and traitors may not now begin to abuse his trusts
as they have done his Father's, to ruin him that is all our hopes
that are left, and lay all in the dust at once. Their coming at
this conjuncture can carry no better things. Their impudence
I must confess is great, nay^ intolerable ; and it concerns all
such of you who are able, and faithful unto his Majesty, to
make him aware, that at least he may shun their villainy. It
will be no more time now to dally. For if affection and love to
the justice and virtue of that cause be not incitements great
enough, anger and so just revenge, methinks, should wing us
on. Always, being afraid rather to spoil my thoughts than ex-

the highest admiration For Montrose. The derogatory and inaccurate account of
him, as found in Clarendon's history, above commented upon, is immediately fol-
lowed by a paragraph in a very different tone, and which reads even incoherently
with what precedes it. Speaking of the conflicting parties at the Hague, he places
Montrose at the head of the most honest : " There was also the Marquis of Mon-
trose, with more of the nobility, as the Earls of Seaforth and Kinnoul, and others
who adhered to Montrose, and believed his clear spirit to be most like to advance
the King's service." Clarendon also corresponded from the Hague with Sir Edward
Nicholas. In " Advertisements," or news transmitted by the latter to the Marquis
of Ormond in Ireland, occurs the following, which had been addressed (doubtless by
Clarendon) to Sir Edward Nicholas from the Hague, 16th March 1649 : — " It is Hit
opinion and wishes of all men, that his Majesty (Charles II.) Would employ Montrose,
as the roan of the clearest honour, courage, and affection to his service." Clarendon
set out on his selfish travels in the month of May 1 649. It must always be remem-
bered, that he did not publish his own historical collections, and that he has been
most roughly dealt with by his modern editors.

1 i. e. To be confounded by. See Spottiswoode's letter, p. 572, where he uses th«
word amaze in the same sense.

692 LIFE OF MONTROSE:

press them, I shall not trouble you further, in this temper I am
in, but only say that I am yours, MONTROSE." i

We have brought the correspondence of Montrose, with the
royal family, down to a date only two days prior to the 30th of
January 1649, when the murder of Charles the First was per-
petrated in England. The Marquis was about to leave Brussels
for the Hague, intending to hold a conference somewhere in the
neighbourhood with Chancellor Hyde, when the news reached
Brussels that the King was no more. The shock suddenly im-
parted to his high-strung heart had well nigh killed Montrose
on the spot. His chaplain, Dr Wishart, who had joined him
in that city, and was at his side when he received the dreadful
news, relates that he fainted, and fell down in the midst of his
attendants, all his limbs becoming rigid, as if life had left him.2
When restored to his senses, he broke out into the most pas-
sionate expressions of grief, declaring that life would henceforth
be a burden to him. The worthy divine succeeded in rousing
him from this state of despair, by the argument, that it was the
duty of all good subjects to avenge so foul a murder, and to de-
vote their lives to the restoration of the young King. " It is
indeed," exclaimed Montrose, " and, therefore, I swear before
God, angels, and men, that I will dedicate the remainder of my
life to avenging the death of the royal martyr, and re-establish-
ing his son upon his father's throne." But he shut himself up
in a retired apartment for two days, during which he refused to
see his most intimate friends. . On the third day Dr Wishart
was admitted. Montrose was still brooding over his vow, which

1 This letter is unknown to most readers. No notice of it is to be met with in
history. It has been lost sight of in the Appendix to the second volume of the Cla-
rendon State Papers ; three valuable, but very unwieldy folios, ill printed, and mi-
serably edited. There, however, it has been preserved. The Marquis refers, with
just indignation and horror, to the fact, that some of the most notorious ringleaders
of the faction in Scotland, to whose very door might be traced the blood of the King,
had the effrontery now to thrust themselves forward, and with fatal success, as the
loyal counsellors of his son, and supporters of the Monarchy.

8 In fact, the sudden shock had thrown Montrose into a fit. The scene is mi-
nutely described by Dr Wishart (who fortunately was with him at the time), in the
second part of his Commentarius, which has never been printed, nor even accurately
translated. See note to Montrose's poetry, in the Appendix.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 693

the chaplain found written on a small piece of paper beside him
in the chamber, in this metrical form : —

" GREAT, GOOD, and JUST, could I but rate
My grief with thy too rigid fate,
I'd weep the world in such a strain
As it should deluge once again :
But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies
More from Briareus' hands, than Argus' eyes,
I'll sing thine obsequies with trumpet sounds,
And write thine epitaph hi blood and wounds." 1

1 Thus most elegantly translated into Latin by Dr Wishart ; although " Carole!"
is an imperfect and feeble rendering of " Great, Good, and Just," without intro-
ducing the King's name at all.

" Carole ! si possem lacrymis aequare dolorem,

Ipse meum fatumque tuum, tua funera, flerem

Ut tellus nitidis rursum stagnaret ab undis :

Sanguis at ille tuus quum vocem ad sidera tollat,

Atque inunus Briarei mage quam Argi-lumina poscat,

Exequias celebrabo tuas clangore tubarum,

Et tumulo inscribam profuse sanguine carmen."

694 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

MONTROSE AT THE HAGUE — HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH QUEEN HENRIETTA
MARIA — A FOUL SCANDAL REFUTED — VIRULENT ENMITY OF THE COVE-
NANTING COMMISSIONERS — MONTROSE's LETTER TO CHARLES THE
SECOND AT THE HAGUE — ROYAL LETTERS TO MONTROSE.

YET more interesting must have been Montrose's letter to
the widowed queen. That he had written, we only learn from
her reply :

" To my Cousin, the Marquis of Montr ose."

"Paris, LOth March 1649.

" COUSIN : Having received your letter, by Pooley, and the
assurances it conveys of your extending to the King, my son,
that affection which you have always manifested in the service
of the late King, my husband, — the murder committed on whose
person ought to rouse all his servants into a passionate inclina-
tion to seek every means of avenging a death so abominably
perpetrated, — and as I am persuaded you would be well pleased
to find the occasion, and will omit nothing on your part to
further it, let me intreat you, then, to unite with all your coun-
trymen, who entertain a just indignation against that murder,
and to forget all former differences. I can give you no better
advice than this ; and, Cousin, believe me to be, as truly I am,
and shall ever remain, your very good and affectionate cousin
and friend, HENRIETTA MARIA, B."1

To unite with all who really regarded as he did the murder
of the King, was advice which Montrose needed not. To unite
with those party leaders in Scotland who virtually, if not lite-
rally, had brought him to the block, was simply impossible. The
Queen's advice argues either unpardonable inattention, or dis-
ingenuous levity. In a letter to the Marquis of Ormond, dated
* Original (French), Moiitrose Charter-room. Memorials of Montrose,

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 695

30th of March 1649, Lord Byron reports the state of parties at
the Hague, as follows :

" I came to the Hague about ten days since, where, not long
before, the Earl of Lanerick, now Duke Hamilton, was arrived.
There I found likewise the Marquis of Montrose, the Earls of
Lauderdale, Callendar, and Seaforth, the Lords St Clair and
Napier, and old William Murray. These, though all of one
nation, are subdivided into four several factions. The Marquis
of Montrose, with the Lords St Clair and Napier, are very ear-
nest for the King's going into Ireland. All the rest oppose it,
though in several ways. I find Duke Hamilton very moderate,
and certainly he would be much more were it not for the violence
of Lauderdale, who haunts him like a fury. Callendar and Sea-
forth have a faction apart ; * and so hath William Murray,
employed here by Argyle."

This refers to the period when the covenanting Commission-
ers were daily expected from Scotland to treat with Charles II.
Among the advices from the Hague, received by Sir Edward
Nicholas doubtless from his correspondent there Sir Edward
Hyde, and forwarded to the Marquis of Ormond, occurs the
following, of the same date as the above extract : " The Com-
missioners, that have been so long expected by some from
Scotland are not yet come, and we look for no greater matter
from thence. These Lords that are here already, Lanerick and
Lauderdale (who were fain to fly for their moderation) abating
not an ace of their damned Covenant in all their discourses ; and
why we should be so fond as to expect any thing but mischief
from the rest I know not. The Marquis of Montrose is like-
wise here, and of clean another temper, abhorring even the
most moderate party of his countrymen ; and it is the opinion
and wishes of all men, that his Majesty would employ him, as
the man of the clearest honour, courage, and affection to his ser-
vice." Unquestionably Montrose was right in his estimate of
the Scotch councillors who represented these different shades of
covenanting politics. The worst of them, too, now affected to

i Callendar and Seaforth had always " a faction apart ;" that is to say, ever loyally
inclined, yet ever acting disloyally, but " only for saving of their estates." See before,
pp. 400, 492. William Murray, too, was from the first the tool of Argyle, as well as
of Hamilton. See before, p. 373.

696 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

talk of " the cruel murder of our master, and the horrid reso-
lutions taken at London for the destruction both of Religion
and Monarchy." But Montrose well knew, and refused to veil
the fact, that the loyally-professing Covenant was the stalking
horse to that atrocious deed, and but as the manure to the
growth of the Independents.

It was towards the end of the month of March 1649, that
the Scotch commissioners arrived at the Hague. They proved
to be the creatures of Argyle. The spokesman on the part of
the Parliament was the Earl of Cassilis, and for the Kirk there
appeared the Reverend Robert Baillie. Their two first propo-
sitions, says the correspondent of Sir Edward Nicholas, were,
" that his Majesty should abandon the Marquis of Montrose, as
a man unworthy to cohie near his person, or into the society of
any good men, because he is excommunicated by their Kirk. The
other, that his Majesty would take the Covenant, and put him-
self into the arms (so they term it) of the Parliament and Kirk
of Scotland. And by these you may easily imagine the civility
of the subsequent ; and I need not tell you what cold reception
they have found here."

Unite with them ! In the hearts of these Scotch Commis-
sioners the deadliest passions were intensely set against Mon-
trose. Lauderdale and Lanerick (now Hamilton) professing to
be the juste milieu, made common cause against the nobleman
who had disgraced them all in the field, and who they were well
aware would speak his mind fearlessly to the young King. Ac-
cordingly, in their first address to his Majesty at the Hague,
dated 9th April J 649, they seem occupied with the one absorb-
ing idea of crushing "James Graham." Remove from your
presence and Court, they say, all excommunicated persons,
" especially James Graham, late Earl of Montrose ; being a man
most justly, if any, cast out of the Church of God? — " upon
whose head lies more innocent blood than for many years has
done on the head of any, — the most bloody murderer in our na-
tion : We hope for so much mercy from our God, that his gra-
cious spirit shall .incline your Majesty's heart to give us just
satisfaction in all our necessary desires, that the cordial union
of your Majesty with your people, so much longed for on all
hands, may with all speed be fully accomplished; and that this

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 697

cursed man, whose scandalous carriage, pernicious counsels, and
contagious company, cannot fail, so long as he remains in his
obstinate impenitency, to dishonour and pollute all places of his
familiar access, and to provoke the anger of the most high God
against the same, — may not be permitted by your Majesty to
stand any longer in the entry of our hopes," &C.1

Well might Sir Edward Hyde cross-question the infuriated
Lauderdale as to what all this meant.2 For common sense re-
jected the idea that the loyal General of a victorious army,
even where a King was at war with his own subjects, was to be
regarded as a murderer, and guilty in proportion to the amount
of blood shed in battle. Nor did this insane language, the
essence of spite vented by a party who themselves had degraded
the capital of Scotland to a slaughter house, meet with one re-
sponsive chord in a Christian breast. Upon the 22d of April
1649 Queen Henrietta Maria again wrote to Montrose as fol-
lows :

" To my Cousin, the Marquis of Montrose"

" Paris, 22d April 1649.

" COUSIN : I have received your letter. Never did I harbour
a doubt that all will be performed on your part that can possi-
bly promote the interest of the King. Your past actions are a
sufficient guarantee. Would it were in my power to convince
you of the reality of my gratitude ; and believe me, when that
time comes, I will rather prove it by deeds than words. I
entreat you to rest assured of this, and to believe Cousin, that
1 am, with the greatest possible sincerity, your very good and
affectionate Cousin, HENRIETTA MARIA, R."

Fine words from a starving Queen to the doomed Montrose.
Not without their value, however, although her Majesty was
unconscious thereof. They prove that to be a scandalous
untruth which Bishop Burnet recorded for history, upon the
authority of Lady Susanna Hamilton.3 If, immediately before

1 See this precious effusion in the Clarendon State Papers, vol. in. p. Ixxxvi. ;
also in Baillie's letters and journals, vol. iii. p. 512. It is signed by the Earl of
Cassilis, George Wynram of Liberton, the Reverend Robert Baillie, Professor of
Divinity in Glasgow (who used to call Montrose " that most valorous and happy
gentleman "), and the Reverend James Wood, Professor of Divinity in St Andrews.

8 See before, p. 581.

5 The daughter of Hamilton, and the daughter-in'law of CasviHs.

698 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Montrose's reception by the Emperor in Germany, Queen Hen-
rietta addressed him in terms of respect, admiration, and affec-
tion, and if immediately after his return she addressed him in
precisely the same terms, — all in autograph letters, — is it pos-
sible that he was exiled to Germany from Paris, by her Ma-
jesty's commands, because he had insulted her in the grossest
manner ?

The Bishop shall tell his own story ; more especially since a
great historian in these our times has issued his fiat, that Bishop
Burnet, " though often misled by prejudice and passion, was,
emphatically, an honest man." ] We think it not impossible,
however, that the emphasis has been laid on the wrong word.

" The Queen-mother hated him (Montrose) mortally : For
when he came over from Scotland to Paris, upon the King's
requiring him to lay down his arms, she received him with such
extraordinary favour as his services seemed to deserve, and gave
him a large supply in money and in jewels, considering the
straits to which she was then reduced. But she heard that he
had talked very indecently of her favours to him ; which she herself
told the Lady Susanna Hamilton, a daughter of Duke Hamilton,
from whom I had it. So she sent him word to leave Paris, and
she would see him no more. He wandered about the Courts of
Germany, but was not esteemed so much as he thought he de-
served." 2

What does this mean ? Did the Bishop really intend it to be
understood in the sense of other favours than the money and
jewels of which he speaks 2 The fact we believe to be, that
Burnet had no great faith in his own anecdote, but cared little
how gross an interpretation might be put upon it. Not record-
ing it in the spirit of truth, he had no motive for avoiding ambi-
guity of language. Accordingly, modern retailers of his gossip
have adopted it in the worst sense. Mr Heneage Jesse, in his
Memoirs of the Court of England, refers to it as one of the
most authentic grounds upon which the fair fame of the Queen
of Charles I. has been doubted. Without seeming to observe
the improbability of her Majesty having afforded any such
evidence against herself, even to Lady Susanna Hamilton, this

1 Macaulay's History of England, vol. ii. p. 177; 2d Edition.
a History of his Own Times, vol. i. p. 89 ; Edit. 1823.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 6i)9

author, after alluding to the money and jewels, adds, — " Mon-
trose, says Burnet, afterwards repaid her kindness by boasting
of other favours she had conferred upon him.'''

We have produced evidence sufficient to satisfy any rational
mind, that if Montrose, — whom Burnet himself characterises as
" stately to affectation," — received at this time any pecuniary
aid at all from Henrietta Maria, with Jermyn at her elbow, — a
circumstance of the least possible probability, — it must have been
on public grounds alone, and applied to public purposes. But
that the luxurious, extravagant, and pre-occupied Queen, while
lending a listless ear to the last imploring accents of her for-
saken husband,1 was at the same time emptying her coffers, and
even her caskets, into the treasury of his isolated champion, credat
Judceus. Without " hating him mortally," Henrietta, we sus-
pect, would not have sacrificed a pearl of price to save Mon-
trose- from being hanged ; nor, without having altogether lost
her conjugal affection, a diamond tiara to have enabled her
husband to secure his personal safety abroad. As for the out-
rageous calumny, that the hero of Inverlochy and Kilsyth,
honoured as he was with those confidential letters from the
King which we have been able to produce, wherein his Majesty
so repeatedly and affectionately refers him to his beloved Queen,
would have taken the very occasion either to wrong him, or to
insult her, at the moment, too, that he was writing to their
eldest son the impassioned declaration, — " I never had passion
on earth so strong as that to do the King your father service,"
— surely that is an accusation which we may now safely leave
to the judgment of all candid readers, despite the evidence of
Susanna and her mitred Elder.

But to return to the struggle at the Hague. Notwithstand-
ing the violent assertion of John sixth Earl of Cassilis, and the
rest, that James first Marquis of Montrose was a " cursed
man," of " scandalous carriage, pernicious counsels, and conta-
gious company," — nay, so contagious as " to dishonour and
pollute all places of his familiar access," — Charles the Second,
ready as he was to buy his restoration at any price, declined to

1 The correspondence preserved among the Clarendon State Papers, a collection
not sufficiently sifted by historians, affords testimony too ample of the melancholy fact.

700 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

adopt that view of his character. He did what that imperso-
nation of law and equity, a Scotch Judge, considers the first
and fairest preliminary towards the clearing of all disputes. He
allowed the petitions of the Covenanting Commissioners to be
" seen and answered" by the opposite party. Did this merely
engender a case of Scotch flyghting ? Did Montrose simply
revenge himself by returning railing for railing? No. His
powerful and healthy phillipic in reply was founded upon facts
too notorious at the time, and which have long become histori-
cal. But he scarcely deigns to notice at all the froth and fury
of personal invective with which he had been assailed. We pre-
sent entire to the reader of his biography, the constitutional
advice which he penned in 1649 at the command of his young
Sovereign, as we did that elicited from him in 1640.1

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR SACRED MAJESTY : Having received
a paper whereby I was made to understand that it was your
Majesty's pleasure that I should return my humble opinion
upon it, I have made bold, in obedience to your Majesty's com-
mands, humbly to deliver my thoughts, as the shortness of the
present time will suffer.

" First : Whereas those who call themselves ' Commissioners
of the Church of Scotland,1 desire a satisfactory answer in rea-
son to their first paper, according to your Majesty's promise :
Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, is not, without destroy-
ing your own authority and honour, to acknowledge any such
capable either of giving or receiving satisfaction, in the interest
of your Majesty's service ; they being directed only from pre-
tended Judicatories, unlawfully convocated, and unlawfully pro-
ceeding, contrary to the right of Monarchy, fundamental right
of that Kingdom, and all your Majesty's just and necessary
interests. But since your Majesty is of your goodness pleased,
— the more to exonerate yourself, and convince the world of the
violence and injury of their proceedings, — to deign them so
much patience and study as to hear and answer them upon
their whole desires, I shall humbly submit unto your Majesty's
pleasure, and only reflect upon their first article, viz. Desiring
your Majesty would give them assurance, under your hand and

i See before, Chapter XV., p. 280.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 701

seal, of your approbation of their National Covenant, subscribed
(as they say) by your Majesty's royal Grandfather, and approved
and enjoined by your royal Father, of blessed memory :

" Whereunto though I should humbly wish your Majesty
might be pleased to give them satisfaction, — (in regard of the
times, and the small influence that it can have against your
Majesty's affairs elsewhere, and that you should not seem even
in appearance to contradict the actions of your royal predeces-
sors,)— yet, that your Majesty may not be abused, and that you
may see that there is nothing but fard in that which may seem
fairest of all their proceedings,1 I conceive myself obliged in
duty and ho'nour to undervalue all their malice, and truly to in-
form your Majesty in what you are, and may be, so much con-
cerned.

" It is true that National Covenant did pass under colour of
the King your Grandfather's authority. But it never can be
shewn that he did himself subscribe it, or that any Act of
Council ever passed authorizing the same : But the King being
at that time in his nonage, some of the factious leading minis-
ters pretending that there were many of quality popishly
affected, both about Court and in the Country, desired an oath
to be pressed, wherein is no bond nor league of mutual defence,
but a bare negative confession, only to have been a touchstone
whereby all such as were popish might be decyphered : As wit-
nesseth the thing itself, which only disclaims the exorbitancies
and abuses of the Roman Hierarchy, without condemning the
primitive times, or ancient discipline from the beginning of all
Christian churches ; intending it only for that present exigency,
as they conceived it ; but never dreamt of making it pass as
any thing national, or to be a snare or stumbling-block to all
posterity. And as for the King, your Majesty's royal Father,
his assent thereunto, — who knew so well the grounds and pre-
cognitas of all the design, — how it was (I shall not say further)

1 This quaint Scotch phrase was hardly to have been expected in a statesman's
letter to a king. But it is most expressive of the shallow meretricious pretensions
to loyalty now put forth by the Argyle, and Hamilton or rather Lauderdale factions.
Fard here signifies the false daubing on a harlot's cheek. Old Zacharie Boyd says,
" The fairest are but farded like the face of Jezebel ;" and Zacharie was, once at
least, a courtier of Montrose's friend, and Charles's aunt, the Queen of Bohemia, as
we shall have occasion to notice afterwards.

702 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

procured from him, all the world knows. Yet when the Earl
of Traquair did sign it in his Majesty's name, as Commissioner
in that present Parliament, he declared (as is still upon record)
-that, in case of ignorance, inadvertence, or any thing against
law, or prejudicial to his Majesty's right or royal authority, all
to be null and of no eifect. But what sad effects this religious
pretence has produced since, and how dangerous a principle it
is to all authority and government, I shall humbly leave it to
your Majesty to consider. Yet if (upon what is before men-
tioned, and that it reaches no further than the kingdom of
Scotland, and because that many are harmlessly inveigled in it
who otherwise mean rightly enough for your Majesty's service)
your Majesty should be pleased to seem to dispense with it, —
it would not appear amiss for the times.

" As for that of their Solemn League (which they always strive
to twist alongst with the other), it is so full of injustice, violence,
and rebellion, that, in my humble opinion, it were your Ma-
jesty's shame and ruin ever to give ear to it ; it being nothing
but a condemning of your royal Father's memory ; joining all
your Dominions in rebellion, by your own consent, against you ;
and in effect a very formal putting hand on yourself. And when
they demand your Majesty's consent to all Acts for establishing
their League in all your other kingdoms, it is the same thing as
if they should desire to undo you by your own leave and favour.

" They would also force your Majesty to quit the form of
service and worship in your own family. And yet they made it
a ground of rebellion against your royal Father, that they out
imagined he intended to meddle with them in the like kind.

" And whereas they say, that, by granting all their extrava-
gant desires, your Majesty would not gain the hearts of Scot*
land alone, but all others of your other Dominions,- — it is most
evident, and known to all the world, that your Majesty would
lose irrevocably the hearts and services of all your party within
the three Kingdoms ; besides what would touch your conscience,
honour, and memory, before God, the world, and all posterity.
For have they not still totally declined the royal party in all
your Kingdoms ? Juggled with all other sectaries ? And is it
not their downright tenet, that they must rather receive all
than malianants, — those who profess the King ? As witnesseth

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 70S

their late calling in of Cromwell,1 and all of that nature. Withal
they still insist upon their desires, without ever showing the
least reason for them ; or what they will do to evidence their
thankfulness and loyalty ; or what assurances they will give
upon it.

u Whereas they promise to continue the same faithfulness
unto your Majesty as they have done to your royal Father ; it
appears they do not at all dissemble on this point. Their sell-
ing of him to his enemies, their instructions to their Commis-
sioners, and all their public and private carriages with his
murderers, doth sufficiently declare it ; as particularly the eighth
article of their Instructions, wherein it is said that a King, or
Civil Magistrate,2 is as punishable by the laws as the meanest
of his subjects.

"As for their pretence in proclaiming your Majesty King, it
is the greatest argument can be given of their disloyalty. For
while your Majesty is the hereditary and undoubted Heir of that
Kingdom, — by the uninterrupted succession of so many of your
royal progenitors, — in place of declaring your right, they ques-
tion it, or rather, would make it null, by turning your hereditary
right to a conditional election of ans and ifs, which may seem
to suit with any person else as well as your Majesty.

" As for what they so often reiterate to your Majesty, of
your hand and seal, for promoting of their Solemn League and
Covenant throughout your Dominions, — they make use of this
still, like Achilles' lance, to wound your Majesty and heal them-
selves.

" And further, they desire that your Majesty would consent
and agree that all matters civil should be determined by the
Parliament, and all matters ecclesiastical by the Assembly ; by

i " Sir Archibald Johnston, in February last (1649), viz. 27th of the same, being
arguing against Sir John Brown anent the Scots last going into England, and the
English, with Cromwell and Lambert, their here coming at the Whigamore raid,
confessed publicly in open parliament, — although by him formerly denied and man*
sworn, — that they came into Scotland with consent. Whereupon Sir John desired the
clerk to mark that as an essential point, now confessed in open parliament." — Bal*
four's Annals.

8 The term civil magistrate is here used not in the ordinary sense, but in the
sense of any representative of supreme or sovereign power acting in that capacity.
See before, p. 281.

704 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

which your Majesty does clearly see they resolve that you should
signify nothing ; and yet they are not ashamed to say that those
desires are so just and necessary for securing the religion and
peace of that kingdom, that they cannot subsist without them ;
even as if your Majesty's government, or the name of a King,
were contrary to peace and religion ! And still they say that
they will contribute their utmost endeavours for your Majesty's
re-establishment ; but still it is with those provisos of ' lawful
means,' and ' according to the League and Covenant ;' so as all
that is, but to grant the antecedent and always deny the con-
clusion.

" And whereas your Majesty is pleased to press them, — If
they have any proposition to make to your Majesty, towards
your recovery of your right of England, and bringing the mur-
derers of your royal Father to justice ? They say, they have
sufficiently answered it ; although they have never named the
same ! Still aiming to make a stand, having nothing to say, they
are forced to play the sceptic in place of better argument.

" And besides all this, they have been the fountain and origin
of all the rebellions, both among themselves and all others in
your Majesty's Dominions. And after they had received all full
satisfaction, in order to their whole desires both touching
Church and State, within their own nation, they entered Eng-
land with a strong army, and there joined themselves to the
rebel party in that Kingdom, persecuted the King your royal
Father, till in a kind they had reduced him to deliver himself
up into their hands. And then, contrary to all duty, gratitude,
faith, and hospitality, they sold him over into the hands of his
merciless enemies ! Complotted his death ! x Connived at his mur-
der ! 2 And have been the only rigid and restless instruments of
all his saddest fates. Of all which past horrid misdemeanours
they are so little ashamed, that they make it their only busi-
ness now to preserve their conquest by the same means by
which they at first acquired it ; murdering those of your best

1 It is mentioned by various contemporary chroniclers, that when Cromwell was
staying with Argyle in the Lady Home's house in the Canongate, the proposition of
putting the King to death was privately discussed and agreed to there. See p. 673.

3 The chief instruction from Scotland to the Commissioners in London, shortly
before the King's execution, was, not to offend the Estates by excusing the King's
conduct in any attempt they might make to save his life.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 705

subjects, while they pretend to treat with your Majesty's self;1
and persecuting all those by arms whom they think to be affected
to you ; and being in league and all strictest correspondence
with the murderers of your royal Father ; and making all vigor-
ous and hostile preparations against what they fear may be so
justly attempted by your Majesty against them ; heaping lies
and calumnies upon your Majesty's person, party, and cause, to
make you still the more hateful to themselves, distrusted by
your own, and contemned by strangers, the more to disenable
your Majesty against them, and fortify themselves the further
for your ruin.

u Against all which, in my humble opinion, I know no other
remedy (since the disease is so far gone that lent physics cannot
at all operate) — than that contraries should be quickly applied ;
and that your Majesty should be pleased resolutely to trust the
justice of your cause to God and better fortunes ; and use all
vigorous and active ways, as the only probable human means
that is left to redeem you. In the way of which (according to
your Majesty's commands) I shall, I hope, be much more able,
than in this, to witness unto you with how much zeal and faith-
fulness I am your most Sacred Majesty's most humble, faithful,
and obedient Servant, MONTROSE."

"Read in Council May 21st, 1649."*

The King determined, or seemed to determine, to adopt these
counsels, the reasoning of which was irresistible, and to seek his
fortune in Ireland, instead of in covenanting Scotland. He de-
clined, meanwhile at least, the insolent terms of the Commis-
sioners of the Kirk, and set out from the Hague to visit the
Queen Mother in France, after having invested Montrose with
a new commission as Lieutenant-Governor of Scotland, and

i At the very time when the Commissioners were on their way to the Hague,
22d March 1 649, the Marquis of Huntly was executed in Scotland, for no reason
except his loyalty. A copy of his last speech is preserved among the Wigton papers.
He pathetically alludes to the fact, that he had done too little in the cause for which
he suffered.

» Original draft, Montrose Charter-room, entitled, " My opinion to his Majesty
upon the desires of the Scots Commissioners at the Hague." On that day twelve-
month, 21st May 1650, Montrose was hanged in Edinburgh.

45

706 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

comraander-in-chief of all the royal forces there. On his way
to France, he paused first at Breda, and then at Brussels. The
loyal Marquis attended him to both places ; but when Charles
left Brussels for St Germains, he returned for a short time to
the Hague, preparatory to setting out on the important and
anxious mission to the northern courts with which the King
had entrusted him. For he had now received the express com-
mands of his Sovereign to raise what foreign forces he could,
under his high commission of plenipotentiary from the King of
England, and then to form a junction with the loyalists in
Scotland as speedily as possible. Among his family archives is
yet preserved the original diploma, dated at Brussels, 6th July
1 649, addressed to all foreign states, investing him with the
most ample powers as Embassador-Extraordinary. In addi-
tion to all this, the King, while they were at Breda together,
encouraged him with the following assurance in writing : —

" MONTROSE : Whereas the necessity of my affairs has obliged
me to renew your former trusts and commissions concerning the
kingdom of Scotland : The more to encourage you unto my ser-
vice, and render you confident of my resolutions, both touching
myself and you, I have thought fit by these to signify to you,
that I will not determine anything touching the affairs of that
kingdom, without having your advice thereupon. As also, I
will not do anything that shall be prejudicial to your commis-
sion. CHARLES R."
" Breda, June 22d, 1649."1

On the following day, the young Duke of York congratulates
him thus : —

" MY LORD : I give you many thanks for your kind expres-
sions towards me in yours from Brussels ; and am very glad the
King, my brother, has found an occasion of employing you ;
being confident you have a heart full of zeal and affection to-
wards his service. I shall be glad to hear often from you ;

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 707

especially when you will give me an occasion of making good
to you my resolution of being always your affectionate friend,

" JAMES.

" St Germains, July 23d, 1649.
" My Lord, you must be kind to Harry May for my sake" l

Of the very same date, Henrietta Maria thus writes to him
from Paris : —

" To my Cousin^ the Marquis of Montrose.
" COUSIN : I have received two letters from you at the same
time ; one by my Lord Andover, of an old date, the other by
Ayton ; and in both of them I find proofs of your continued
affection for me ; which I accept with great satisfaction, having
an esteem for you that never can be diminished, but which I shall
always retain, whatever fortune befal me ; and I must exact the
same sentiments from yourself towards me, since, Cousin, I am
(pray believe me), and shall ever faithfully remain, your good
and affectionate cousin and friend, HENRIETTA MARIA R."
" Paris, 23d July 1649.'"2

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room.

a Original (French), Montrose Charter-room. This letter affords further demon-
strative evidence against the scandal retailed by Bishop Burnet. See Memorials
of Montrose for the original in French.

708 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

MONTROSE AND THE QUEEN OF HEARTS.

YET more precious to the accomplished mind of Montrose,
as an antidote against the savage invective of the covenanting
faction at the Hague, was the friendship of the most interesting
of the great personages of the Troubles, Elizabeth Queen of
Bohemia. She was the mother of those Gracchi, the Princes
Rupert and Maurice. The misfortunes, and domestic calami-
ties, with which Heaven visited the only sister of Charles the
First, are matters of history. In an age of scandal, no breath
of it fell upon the beautiful and witty Princess, who so well de-
served the fond title bestowed upon her in Holland, — u The
Queen of Hearts." And if more were required to meet the
calumny that Montrose had been banished from Paris, as hav-
ing forfeited all pretensions to be considered a gentleman, — we
have the fact, that, at the very crisis, he is discovered on terms
of domestic sociality with the high-minded, high-spirited, high-
principled widow of the Elector Palatine, and her brilliant
daughters. At the time when alleged to have " talked very
indecently of the Queen's favours to him," we find him indeed
dwelling aloof from Paris and St Germains ; but there, in re-
reference to the very society he is thus accused of having out-
raged, inditing to Keir the moral hint for the benefit of his
niece Lilias Napier, — " neither would any of honour and virtue,
chiefly a woman, suffer themselves to live in so lewd and worth-
less a place." That this was not Satan reproving sin, we may
rest assured, since immediately thereafter he is established at
the Hague on the most flattering and familiar terms with the
Queen of Bohemia.

After the demise of the dethroned Elector, and the previous
severe affliction of the tragic death of her eldest son by drown-

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

ing, this royal lady had been chiefly resident in the Low Coun-
tries, educating her four daughters, who were the admiration of
the world, and watching the progress of those troubles in Great
Britain, wherein her two heroic younger sons were enacting so
conspicuous a part. Her daughters were remarkable for grace,
beauty, and accomplishments. Of the three eldest, including
the correspondent of Descartes, and the pupil of Honthorst, it
passed into a saying, that " the first was the most learned, the
second the greatest artist, and the third the most accomplished
lady in Europe."

In this congenial society it was, that the fearful burst of im-
passioned grief, with which Montrose received the intimation of
the murder of his Sovereign, subsided into the calm but deadly
purpose to do or die for the son. At the Hague, in 1649r first
was read, by many bright and tearful eyes, we do not say the
poetry, but that passion of his neglected muse, — " Great, Good,
and Just," — that overflowing lava of the hero's heart, which for
two centuries has remained burning amid the cultured regions
of poesy. It superseded for the time a gentler theme, the Queen
of Hearts herself, of whom her attached Sir Henry Wotton so
sweetly sung, in the lyric commencing, —

** You meaner beauties of the night,

Which poorly satisfy our eyes,
More by your number than your light,
You common people of the skies,
What are you when the sun doth rise ? "

and who extracted no mean poetry from that rude but eloquent
old minstrel Zacharie Boyd, when, by his " Balme of Comfortes
for the Queene of Bohemia," he sought, both in prose and verse,
to sooth her soul, troubled with the sound of the rushing waters
that overwhelmed her darling son, Prince Frederick.

" Here bubbling waters, seas of sorrows, dash ;
Here waves, here winds, which make the clouds to clash ;
Here fevers, fires, here fickle vanities,
Combined are to bring calamities
To mortal man, — not sparing young or old, —
Whose life is like unto a tale that's told !

Now, happy he, who, free from all distress.
Rests in the Heavens, far from this wilderness."

710 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Elizabeth Stuart was always surrounded by the Muses, even
amid the desolation of monarchies. Music, painting, and poetry,
were the never-failing resources of this severely chastened yet
cheerful Queen. Even at this agitated and gloomy crisis, we
find the crushed violet of royalty playfully inviting Montrose to
renew his college reminiscences, in a match at archery with her-
self and his devoted adherent the Earl of Kinnoul. One espe-
cial favourite among her household was Gerard Honthorst, a
great artist in the greatest age of art. Bubens himself used to
pause before his night-pieces, which obtained for him in Italy
the name whereby high art best recognizes Honthorst, — " Ghe-
rardo dalle notte.^ But the proudest characteristic of his career
is having been the instructor, in painting and design, of the
Queen herself, and her wonderful daughters, of whom the Prin-
cess Sophia obtained a niche among the distinguished artists of
the seventeenth century. And not the least of the important
productions of Gherardo's pencil, is the heroic portrait of Mon-
trose, painted at this time for the Queen of Hearts.

It was in the month of February 1649, immediately after the
death of Charles the First, that the Marquis hastened from
Brussels to the Hague, to sustain the cause of the fallen mo-
narchy, and to meet face to face his calumnious enemies. There
he remained until the following month of June, when, as we
have seen, he accompanied his Majesty on the way to France,
as far as Breda and Brussels. During the interval, Honthorst
painted his portrait at the Hague, and signed and dated a work
of which he had reason to be proud. The most amiable and
accomplished of Princesses would watch the pencil of their
favourite master, as it traced the lineaments of their beau ideal
of a cavalier and a Christian knight. That the great artist, too,
felt his subject, we may read in the impressive and simple dig-
nity of the Otranto figure ; — the whole composition breathing the
very spirit of his metrical vow, which so intensely expressed his
recent agony. This noble portrait, now happily recovered,
though long lost to the world, may be considered the frontis-
piece to that epoch of his life which he himself characterised as
his " Passions." Well has it been lately described by an ac-
complished pen, in a finished and fitting tribute to the memory
of the hero, by the lineal representative of that Lord Napier of

FROM THE ORIGINAL IN POSSESSION OF THE RIGHT HOBBLE FOX MAULE

LIFE OF MONTKOSE. 711

whom " it was ever said that Montrose and his nephew were
like the Pope and the Church, who would be inseparable :" —

" The figure appears clad in black armour, significant of the
profound but menacing grief of the warlike mourner for his
martyred King : The right hand grasps the baton of the Em-
pire ; the left rests on a helmet overshadowed by funeral plumes ;
and a back-ground of sombre scenery, illuminated by a single
gleam, supports the dignity of the composition, and marks the
genius of Gherardo." l

While attending Charles II. at Breda and Brussels, the fol-
lowing doubtless most welcome letters reached Montrose, from
" the Queen of Hearts :"— -

u MY LORD : — I have desired Sir Edward Herbert to let you
know how by great chance I have found that the Prince of
Orange will again extremely press the King to grant the Com-
missioners' desires, and so ruin him through your sides. I give
you this warning of it, that you may be provided to hinder it.
I have had a huge dispute with Beverwert about it. For God's
sake leave not the (King2) as long as he is at Breda; for with-
out question there is nothing that will be omitted to ruin you
and your friends, and so the King at last. It is so late as I can
say no more ; only believe me ever your most constant affec-
tionate friend,

" The Hague, this 24th of June" (1649).
" I give you many thanks for your picture. I have hung it
in ray cabinet to fright away ' the Bretlwrn? Tell my High-

1 See Eraser's Magazine for June 1851, article reviewing the author's " Memo-
rials of Montrose and his Times." This graceful little essay, replete with interest
and sparkling with point, is perhaps one of the most original and finished sketches
of the kind that ever enriched the pages of a magazine. A more expanded compo-
sition from the same pen could not fail to rank high among the works of " Noble
Authors."

See, in the Appendix, an account of Honthorst's portrait of Montrose, whence
the engraving which illustrates this volume.

2 Her Majesty had omitted this essential word in the hurry of writing.

712 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

lander that ' the Brethern* do not forget to lie ; for they say his
countrymen will also join with them. I pray commend me to
him.*' i

And again, in the following month, her Majesty writes : —
" MY LORD : T have received yours by my Lord of Kinnoul.
I hope these news I send by Broughton will help to persuade
the King to make haste to go for Ireland ; for one Inglesbie, a
captain of CromwelFs regiment, who is come upon Monday last
from London, and his brother, told him how that Cromwell, — I
mean that arch rebel, — had received news how their ships, being
before Kinsale, are all taken or sunk, to the number of nine of
them. They sought to have corrupted the captain of the fort
at Kinsale, for sixty thousand pounds, to have delivered it to
them ; which he advertising Rupert of, by his counsel he conti-
nued the treaty, and so got them all in, and has sunk or taken
nine at least. And Tnglesbie saith that they are all up again in
Scotland ; that the English rebel Parliament can get no soldier
to go for Ireland ; but it is thought they will send their army
for Scotland ; without doubt to help ' the Brethern"1 there. I
wish ' Jamie Grwme'"2 amongst them with all his followers. But
till there be taken a better resolution than I hear my Lord Jer-
myn desires. I do not desire you should quit Brussels while there

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room. The picture alluded to in the postscript is,
doubtless, that by Honthorst, which is signed, and dated 1649. See Appendix.
" The Brethern" was the title assumed by the zealots of the Covenant, and which
their English brethren soon learnt to apply to them in derisive contempt. " My
Highlander" probably means Seaforth. With regard to " Beverwert," the follow-
ing occurs in a letter from William Spang at the Hague to his cousin Principal
Baillie, dated 9th March 1649. " My next purpose was to find out whereto the
Prince of Orange was inclined. For this purpose I went to two of the States-Ge-
neral, of whose intimacy with the Prince's counsels all men did speak. I found
them not only declaring their own judgment for the King's going to Scotland, and
embracing the Covenant, but that that also was the Prince's mind. From thence
I went to sundry others, and from none did I get surer information than from the
Lord of Beverwerd, governor of Bergen, natural son to Prince Maurice, a nobleman
truly pious, and of a public spirit, resolute to employ his credit for religion, and of
high account with the Prince, in whose counsels he has chief influence." — Baillie's
Letters, iii. 73. The Queen of Bohemia had a better sense of the true interests of
religion than either Spang, Beverwert, or the Prince of Orange.

2 A playful allusion to the untitled designation bestowed upon the loyal Marquis
by the Covenanters. A vein of arch humour pervades these interesting letters,
indicating how cheerful a disposition, and how light a heart, had been overlaid by
the heaviest hand of fate.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 713

is danger of change.- I hear Jermyn has orders to get your
commission for Hamilton ! * If that be true, sure they are all
mad, or worse. I write this freely to you ; wherefore I pray
you burn this, for I do not desire to have it seen.2 You may
well know why. This bearer will tell you all the story of the
Antelope, which has a little nettled these men. I pray God
you may read this, for I have scribbled it in great haste. I
hope that you will be able to read this truth, that I am ever
constantly your most affectionate ELIZABETH."

" The Hague, this 3d of July 1649.

" I had thought to have sent Broughton to the King with
these news ; but hearing he had them already, I stayed him ;
and this bearer, Mr Carey, going to Brussels, I give him this.
I can add nothing but my wishes that you may persuade the
King for his good. I pray tell my Highlander I hope yet that
his people will have another bout.

" This 4th of July." 3

While our hero was with the King on his way to St Ger-
mains, receiving those high commissions and fatal commands, *
the Queen of Bohemia had quitted the Hague for her favourite
summer retreat on the Rhine, the palace of Rhenen, where the
Electress was wont to indulge her fondness for hawking, hunt-
ing, and archery. From thence she still kept up her corre-
spondence with the cavalier after her own heart.

" MY LORD : This bearer has desired me to recommend him
to you, that he may be a gentleman of the company of your
guards. His name is Bushel, and he has served the King, my
dear brother, as captain. His uncle served me long as master
of my horse ; and his cousin german was my page, and killed in
these wars with Rupert ; besides, his eldest brother has done

i The second Duke, who figures in this biography as Lanerick. His brother was
put to death in the previous month of March, about six weeks after the King.

a Montrose had disobeyed the injunction.

8 Original, Montrose Charter-room. The Queen of Bohemia corresponded with
the Earl of Seaforth, chief of the Mackenzies, whose loyalty, though somewhat of
the loosest and the latest, and never active, was now admitted even by Montrose,
whom he joined at the Hague. Probably her Majesty alludes to this " high chief
of Kintail" under the designation of" my Highlander."

714 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the King very good service. I tell you all this, that the gen-
tleman may find your favour the more upon his own deserving.
I believe this letter will not come so speedily to your hands that
I should tell you how we pass our time here. But that is soon
said, for all is but walking abroad and shooting, which now I have
renewed myself in. I will only entreat you to be confident, that
nobody is more truly than I am your most constant affectionate
friend, ELIZABETH."

" From Rhenen, this 1-lltk of August" (1649). l

The Marquis had communicated to the Electress at Bhenen
the commissions and written instructions with which the King
her nephew had honoured him at Brussels, and he received the
following reply, dated just three days after the above.

"MY LORD : I return you your letters, with my thanks for
them. I pray God keep the King in his constancy to you and
his other true friends and servants. But till he be gone from
where he is, I shall be in pain. While you stay in this country,
it will be a great charity in you to let me know the news you
receive ; for here is none to be had, the place being very barren
of all news. We have nothing to do but to walk and shoot. I
am grown a good archer, to shoot with my Lord Kinnoul. If
your office will suffer it, I hope you will come and help us to
shoot.2 Howsoever, I conjure you be confident you have no

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room. The double date indicates the old and the
new style, a difference which created no little confusion of dates, in those days, when
the new, or Gregorian correction of the calendar (being ten days in advance of the
old or Julian style), was only adopted by Catholic States. Hence the day of the
month is sometimes given according to the old style, sometimes according to the
new, and sometimes under both. This requires close inspection, in matters of pre-
cise chronology ; a circumstance not always attended to. The Gregorian correc-
tion, which occurred in the year 1 582, also established the commencement of the
year upon the first of January. In Scotland, however, the 25th of March continued
to be new year's day until James VI. changed it to the first of January, by an Act
of Council in 1600. And the 25th of March continued to be considered new year's
day in England until so late as 1752, when the new or Gregorian style was adopted
by Act of Parliament. Hence also the double mode, which frequently occurs, of
indicating the year, as for example 1649-50. This difference, too, requires close
attention in chronology.

a See before, p. 44.

LIFE OF MONTROSE 715

friend esteems you more than doth she that is your most con-
stant affectionate friend, ELIZABETH."
" Rhenen, this 4-14th of August" (1649). l

Although the devoted champion of the monarchy had now little
leisure to bestow upon archery, even with the Queen of Hearts
and her attractive daughters, it is to be hoped that he did find
time to accept the invitation for a day or two, as it was not
until the end of August that he set out upon his mission to the
northern courts. Kinnoul, moreover, was one of his principal
commanders in the expedition that was now being organized
against the enemies of the throne in Scotland. At the meeting
prompted by the Queen of Bohemia would be discussed topics
of the deepest interest, and doubtless it was one of politics as
well as pleasure. Yet, haply, the silver arrow of St Andrews,
type of his college days, would be remembered, now when his
days were numbered, in that shooting party at the palace of the
Rhine. The Queen of the Palatinate and her daughters, with
Montrose, Kinnoul, and Napier (who was inseparable from his
uncle at this time), would constitute a party composed of the
cream of royalty, and the pink of cavaliers. Soon thereafter
he set out for Hamburgh, the first stage of his mission, accom-
panied by Lord Napier. At the same time Kinnoul undertook
to land in Orkney, and establish the rendezvous there, with the
few troops that were ready.

While this last mentioned gallant nobleman engaged heart
and soul in the cause with Montrose, and exposed himself to
every peril by sea and land, there was another of greater power
and resources, to whom the hero now looked for the active co-
operation that was of vital consequence to his new Engagement.
The murder of the King had so far brought the uncertain Sea-
forth to his senses, that he never, subsequently, either did or
said any thing disloyal. Nothing, indeed, could be more satis-
factory and promising than his present demeanour and expres-
sions to Montrose, of whose brilliant circle of adherents at the
Hague he was the most imposing personage. But the fearful
crisis required deeds not words ; and deeds of the most decisive
and prominent character were requisite to eraze from the shield

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room.

716 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

of the " high chief of Kintail," the tache which his conduct after
the battle of Inverlochy had cast upon it ; not to speak of the
whole tenor of his too cautious course, which so justly provoked
' that comment from Montrose, — " neither do I think, though
he were able, he would ever be found guilty of so much resolu-
tion."1

Whatever hopes he might have of that nobleman now, he
failed not to express himself as if they were of the highest. The
great Mackenzie following, whose tendency was ever to support
the Throne, was now considered thoroughly loyal, and the coast
of Kintail the most friendly shore for the adventure of Mon-
trose. But still the one thing was wanting ; — the presence at
their head of the noble chief himself, to prepare for and pro-
claim the advent of the heroic Governor of Scotland. In vain
the more energetic brother, Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardin,
partially raised the clan. He could not dub himself Tutor of
the clan, for their chief was not a minor. The desultory rising,
which he effected in the north at the commencement of this
year, was soon suppressed. While Montrose was rushing on
his fate in Scotland, Seaforth was clinging to his now loyal but
safe position beside the exiled King. On the eve (after some
vexatious delays) of quitting the Hague for Hamburgh, not
many months before the consummation of his own fate, Mon-
trose thus writes to Seaforth : —

" MY LORD : I am joyed you are well, though sorry you are
still in that place ; for your presence where you know would do
much good, since you see affairs go so equally, and on such a
level. Always (but) I hope these will find you going, and my
best wishes shall accompany you along. I am just now setting
out, and intend to recover these delays by the best dispatch I
can. As I am able you shall receive my accounts, with this,
that I shall ever be, my Lord, your Lordship's cousin and faith-
ful servant, MONTROSE."

" Hague, 15th August 1649."2

1 See before, pp. 621, 622.

9 Original, first printed from the Seaforth Archives, along with other letters from
Montrose to that nobleman, in the Appendix to Constable's Edition, 1819, of the
translation of Wishart's Commentarius.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 717

Immediately after he had parted company with her, the
Queen of Bohemia thus again writes to the Marquis : —

" MY LORD : This gentleman, called Burton, desires this to
you, that I will recommend him to your favour, to wait upon
you into Scotland, and that when you come there he may have
some charge. He has money in his purse, and desires no other
thing but employment, having served the King my brother. I
hope I shall have better fortune in this recommendation than in
that of Bushel ; for Fox assures me he knows him, and I write
this at his request. It is most cruel hot weather since you
went. There is no news ; only the King is still at St Germains,
but constant to his resolutions for Ireland, and for all his friends.
For all that, / would he were well gone from there. The French
King is at Paris ; and I still here, who conjure you to believe
this truth, that you have no friend living that wisheth you more
happiness than doth your most constant affectionate friend,

" ELIZABETH."

" Rhenen, this 2d September, 0. S." (1649.)

" N.B. — When I write to you next, because letters may be
taken, I shall not put all my name to them, but this cypher, E.
I pray, my Lord, commend me to my Lord Napier. Assure
him I wish him all happiness."1

And after his arrival at Hamburgh, from whence he had re-
ported progress to her Majesty, she replies as follows : —

" MY LORD : I am very glad to see, by yours of the 4-1 4th
of last month, that you are safely arrived at Hamburgh. I
give you many thanks for your favours to Major Brierton at my
request. The business in Ireland is not so bad as it was re-
ported at first, but too ill for the King's affairs. Ormond has
lost no towns, nor Cromwell done any thing. But from England
they keep the affairs of that kingdom so in a cloud as we hear
nothing of certainty ; which I hope is a good sign that the
King's affairs there go better than they would have known.
They went for Jersey upon Monday was se'ennight. My Lady

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room.

718 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Herbert writes to me, that, if he find no impediment of the Par-
liament ships, he will go to Ireland ; otherwise, he will stay at
Jersey for a sure passage. Culpepper is gone for Muscovy.
The spices and aquamtce will burn him quickly up.1 My Lord
Jermyn is coming hither, it is said, to take order about the
jewels. Others think it is to meet with Duke Hamilton, Lather-
dale, and your other friends, to have new Commissioners sent to
the King from the godly brethern, to cross wicked Jamie Graemes
proceedings. But I am assured, from a good hand, that it will
do no good, the King continuing still most constant to his prin-
ciples as you left him. The Duke of York is with him. I have
heard nothing of Rupert since you went from France. They
say he is at sea. The States of Holland have desired the States-
General to give audience to Strikland, as a public Minister from
a free state ; but they have refused it. 1 am here since Friday
was fortnight. The Princess of Orange is also returned, who is
in great fear that my Lord Jermyn's coming is to bring the
Queen hither ; which I wish heartily, to see how she shall be
troubled to make her court where she doth not love very well.
This is all I have to say to you at this time ; only, I conjure you
to be confident, that, without all compliment, I am ever your
most affectionate constant friend, E."

" The Hague, this 2d October" (1649).

And three days thereafter she thus writes again : —

" MY LORD : This bearer gives me the opportunity of send-
ing these for you. The good Lord Brainford is come, and left
the King and the Duke of York very well at Jersey. He as-
sures me he is constant to his principles. By this bearer you
will know all the particulars. I find good old Brainford very
constant to you.2 He confirms that I writ to you by my last,
about the Lord Jermyn's coming, who is not yet arrived, but

1 Clarendon says : " The Lord Colepepper, and Mr Long, the Prince's secretary,
were trusted by the Queen (Henrietta) to keep the Prince steady and fast to that
dependence (upon the Presbyterian party) ; and his Highness was enjoined to be
entirely advised by them, though all the other Lords about him were of another
mind, and the Prince himself not inclined that way."

a The Earl of Brentford and Forth. See before, p. 391 .

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 7J9

we look for him every day. I hope you have heard, before this
comes to your hand, of Cromwell's being defeated before (blank).
Though the rebels at London seek to conceal it all they can, yet
it comes from all parts. A French Lieutenant of d'Ouchant's
regiment heard of it at Plymouth, which makes me the more
believe it. I hope the next week will make it more true. Young
Boswell has wrote it to Sir William Boswell from Edinburgh ;
where, he says also, that those that govern there make shew to
wish to have their King ; but yet he sees no disposition in them
to lessen their conditions to him. I shall not fail to let Mr
Leith know all that I hear of Jermyn's negociating here ; for,
be confident that I am ever your most constant affectionate
friend, E."

u The Hague, this 5-15th of October" (1649).

" Our friend the Princess of Zolern has won her process for
the Marquisate of Berg. The Denmark Ambassador is going
away, having concluded a league betwixt his master and the
States, who gave the King a good considerable sum of money.
I wish you part of it, if not all."

During the remainder of this year, and the commencement
of the following, while Montrose was with the King of Den-
mark, and the Queen of Sweden, organizing his fatal descent
upon Scotland, this charming and cheery genius of the Rhenen
never relaxed her correspondence with him, occasionally receiv-
ing letters from himself, none of which, unfortunately, have
been discovered. We shall conclude this chapter with what
remains of these interesting and characteristic autographs,
now happily preserved among the archives of the hero's
family.

" MY LORD : Yesterday I received a letter from Paris, that
Rupert was gone out of Kinsale, and passed by St Malo, three
weeks ago, with six good ships. He set Choque ashore there,
his surgeon, who wrote this to Paris, and that he was to go to
the King at Jersey, where he hoped within a few days to meet
Rupert. But some say that he was gone towards the Straits,
to meet some ships of the merchants of London ; but most be-

720 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

lieve him now at Jersey, whither Sir Edward Herbert, and Sir
Philip Musgrave, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale,* are gone to
meet him. If Windrum l comes at the same time, it will be a
joyful sight, as you guess. Without question the King will go
with Rupert's ships. But whither, God knows ; for I cannot
assure you, since many letters say all goes ill in Ireland. Crom-
well's money prevails much there, for Wexford was betrayed to
him. There be many glad, and some sorry, that Rupert is out.
My niece2 is still of our side constantly, as I desired Mr
Leith to write to you. But I assure you there is nothing left
undone to hinder your proceedings. I hope God will prosper
you in spite of them; which shall ever be the wishes and
prayers of your most constant affectionate friend, E."

"The Hague, this 19-29th of November" (1649.)

" MY LORD : I have received yours of the fourth of Novem-
ber this last week ; and the next day, by Sir William Fleming,
one from the King of the same date from Jersey ; who assures
me he is not changed in his affections nor designs, which he
will show to the world very suddenly. Robert le Diable* is
about Scilly with seven good ships. His man Cheque was very
well received ; which made the Squeaker very sad, and all that
tribe there. Harry May was not there ; nor the godly Win-
drum ; I hope he will find visage de bois when he comes. I wish
your express quickly here. The King has not heard from you
since his being at Jersey. I doubt not but you have seen by
this the proclamation against Morton and Kinnoul,4 and all
the adherents of ' that detestable Uoody murderer and excommu-
nicated traitor, James Grceme? The Turks never called the
Christians so. Yet they are civil to the King in it ; for they
do it not in his name, and name him but once in it. I think
they would not take his name in vain, — as they have done God's
so often, — to show how faithful and dutiful subjects they are to
him ; which the King has good reason to take well, especially

1 Wynram of Libberton, one of the Covenanting Commissioners, about this
time made a Lord of Session, and dispatched by Argyle to counteract Montrose.

2 The Princess of Orange. 3 Her son, Prince Rupert.

* But by this time, little more than three months after the archery at Rhenen,
Morton and Kinnoul were both dead in Orkney ! See afterwards.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 721

this being done upon Windrum's sending (being sent) to him.
There has been many Synods held at Dort and at Rotterdam.
Now there is one at Amsterdam, where the great-tongued Lord
is, and high-nosed. But my cousin, silly man, keeps here, and
knows nothing of all this, — no more than I know that I am ever
your most constant affectionate friend, E."

" The Hague, this 9th of December" (1649.)
" Old Brainford will chide you, that you should mistrust his
constancy to you. He says he is now too old to be a knave,
having been honest ever.1 I am confident he is very real. I
hope my next shall tell you very good news.

" MY LORD : This bearer's dispatch to you, by honest old
Brainford, gives me occasion to write to you. You will find
by his letters what he desires. I assure you he is still very fast
to you, I must tell you what I hear by my Lord (blanks let-
ter, who is now at Nimeguen with the Prince of Orange, that
Count Henry of Nassau is come hither from Denmark, and doth
much lessen your proceedings there, saying that you have no
men nor ships, nor free quarter in Denmark nor Holstein, nor
at Hamburgh any, but only some few officers. I hope he doth
it out of policy, to do your business, that the Scots may be sur-
prised by you. But when I see him I will know what he saith.
The King my nephew is yet at Jersey. As soon as Harry
Seymour returns from Ireland, he will be gone either to Ire-
land, or, if it be not fit for him, to your parts. This I am told.
As for Ireland, they tell so many lies as I dare believe no-
thing. Since Kupert was at Cape St Vincent, on the coast of
Portugal, I have not heard from him. But upon those four
ships he has taken, and others by the French, there be many
merchants of London bankrupts, as I am informed. Colonels
Banfield and Penrudoch are both prisoners in the Tower. Upon
their taking, my Lady Carlisle is close prisoner again. Pen-
rudoch, they say, has been racked. All Banfield's letters and
cyphers are taken. My Cousin here begins to speak very

1 Montrose's old friend, the Earl of Brentford and Forth, died in Dundee, upon
the 2d of February 1651. He was "honest ever," but did the King no service
withal.

46

722 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

favourably of you ; which is a sign you are not in an ill condi-
tion. I pray God send you better; and safety in Scotland.
Believe me ever your most constant affectionate friend,

" ELIZABETH.1'

" The Hague, this 7th of January" (1650.)
" I write so, I fear you cannot well read this letter ; but I
write it in haste."

The above is probably the last letter which this interesting
and royal lady wrote to Montrose. The foreboding prayer for
his " safety in Scotland" is striking. About four months after
its date his mangled limbs were distributed among the chief
cities of his native country. But many a tear for him would
be shed by " the Queen of Hearts," and those peerless Prin-
cesses of the Palatinate.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 723

CHAPTER XXXV.

PREPARATIONS FOR MONTROSE'S LAST CRUSADE AGAINST THE COVENANT IN

SCOTLAND — THE EARL OF KINNOUL'S LETTER TO HIM FROM ORKNEY

SUDDEN DEATHS THERE OF KINNOUL AND THE EARL OF MORTON —
PRESSURE UPON MONTROSE AT HOME AND ABROAD — DR. WISHART TO
LORD NAPIER — MONTROSE AND SEAFORTH — OGILVY OF POWRIE'S LET-
TER FROM ORKNEY.

THE Syrens of the Rhenen had no desire to seduce from their
loyal duties the distinguished Scottish cavaliers who frequented
that fascinating palace. Their hearts were one, on the subject
then agitating Europe ; and however the scene might be en-
livened by hunting, hawking, and archery, the fate of England's
King doubtless would occupy their thoughts, and monopolize
the discourse. To restore a fallen monarch was an undertaking
of the highest emprise ; and so, after a brief enjoyment of this
brilliant society, each of these lordly knights, loosed from the
silken leash of the Queen of Hearts, went a several way on that
high adventure boon.

Montrose, and his nephew Lord Napier, proceeded to Ham-
burgh, where the latter was installed in charge of some difficult
negotiations with that independent town, while the Marquis,
after a short pause there, continued his progress northward, to
negotiate in person with the King of Denmark, and another of
his great admirers, Christina Queen of Sweden. The Earl of
Kinnoul, upon whom he had conferred the command of the first
division of his desultory forces, was instructed to effect a land-
ing in Orkney as soon as possible, with such troops as could be
collected, and to establish a rendezvous there for the rest of the
army. The Earl accomplished his mission some time in the
month of September, with great skill and daring. After run-

724 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

ning considerable risks at sea, both from the elements and the
enemy, which, with the true spirit of a proper commander, is
scarcely noticed by him in his dispatches, he reports progress
to his military chief at Hamburgh, by the following interesting
letter :—

" MY VERY NOBLE LORD : Your Lordship's good fortune has
so much influence upon those that have the honour to obey
your commands, that I dare promise myself as good success in
the business, as your Lordship shall see how happy we have
been hitherto.

" After a tedious stormy one-and-twenty days sea-journey,
we cast anchor at Kirkwall ; where I found, by boatmen that
came from the town, that my uncle Morton was at a house of
his own, some sixteen miles from this place.1 Being very con-
fident of his loyalty, I ventured to land ; and, without reposing,
I took horse and went in all haste to him, having left orders to
our men to land in the night, which was punctually obeyed. I
found my Lord more zealous to the obedience of the King's
commands, and your Lordship's, than I thought possible a per-
son of his fortune in this place of the world could be ; insomuch,
that, after I was bold to call us five hundred, he wished them
heartily thousands, and gave me all assurances that so soon as
we would show ourselves to be in a capacity to reduce the
country, he would not fail to be assistant to us in life and for-
tune : Which being impossible for us to compass, I was forced
(by my Lord's desire) to send a party from this to his house of
Birsay,2 requiring a positive answer, and active assistance ;

1 The islands of Orkney and Zetland, with all their jurisdictions, were held by
wadset from the Crown, granted by Charles I. to William 7th Earl of Morton, in
1643 ; which Earl died in Orkney in the month of March 1649, (according to Bal-
four), and was succeeded by his son Robert 8th Earl of Morton, referred to above.
His sister, Lady Agnes Douglas, was married to George 2d Earl of Kinnoul, and
became the mother of George 3d Earl of Kinnoul, the writer of the above letter.
The rights of the Morton family to these islands were reduced in a litigation with
the Crown after the Restoration. Lady Isabel Douglas, another sister of the Earl
of Morton mentioned in Kinnoul's letter, became the wife of Montrose's son, the
second Marquis.

2 " In September this year, 1649, George Earl of Kinnoul, with eighty command-
ers, and about a hundred Danes and strangers, arrived in Orkney ; they gave them-
selves out for the fore-runners of James Graham's army of strangers ; they took

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 725

which was so heartily condescended to, that I shall humbly de-
sire your Excellence to consider him as the chiefest instrument,
next to your Lordship, of the King's service. I am confident
of your approbation anent my procedure ; since it was the sense
of those that affect the King's service, and honour your Lord-
ship most.

" My uncle, my Lord of Morton, was pleased to think he was
neglected ; in that the commissions for stating this country were
not immediately conferred on him by your Lordship. Where-
upon, having all assurance of his Lordship's reality, I waived
my own interest so much, that I resigned all power of my com-
missions to him, which he was pleased to accept of before the
gentlemen of this country, who were convocated for the receiv-
ing of his commands, and your Excellence's : Which were so
cheerfully embraced, that unanimously they did condescend to
a posture of war for our present defence, to consist of four hun-
dred men, presently to be levied, which is sufficient to maintain
this place against all that dare call themselves Committees.

" I hope your Lordship shall find this resignation conduce so
much to that advantage of the King's service, that I shall have
no blame from you ; but, on the contrary, I could neither have
been answerable to my allegiance, nor your Lordship, if I had
refused it ; having assurance under my Lord his hand and seal
to be re-possessed in my commissions so soon as your Lordship
shall think fit the regiment shall wait on you in Scotland.

" For my part, I esteem it the greatest advantage under the
sun, that I have this occasion of testifying my respect to your
Lordship. This action has given the rebels such a blow that I
will take it on my salvation, if you fall upon them at this nick of
their distemper, you shall find assistance beyond all expectation,
and that sufficient to effectuate your intentions. Your Lord-
ship is gaped after with that expectation that the Jews look after
their Messiah. And certainly your presence will restore your
groaning country to its liberties, and the King to his rights.

" God Almighty has not only blessed us thus by land,1 but

the castle of Blrsay in Orkney, and garrisoned it ; they brought arms and ammu-
nition with them for a thousand men ; and immediately entered to levy and press
soldiers." — Balfour's Annals.

1 Some modern writers, record that prior to Kinnoul's landing, a division of

726 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

has made those we were to expect disservice from, our friends.
For, the next day after we landed, there anchored a ship of
eighteen guns in another road of this same island ; the captain
no sooner understood the reality of our intentions, and your
orders, but very gallantly delivered the rebel arms unto us, and
declared ship and all to be at your commands. Your Lordship
knows best how to gratify so generous an act, which has made
me to give him assurance of your kindness, and him to think
himself happy in the expectation of it.

" I shall humbly entreat your Lordship to send my Lord an
absolute commission for these islands ; and that you would re-
cal such commissions as his Lordship conceives to be to his pre-
judice ; as George Drummond's, whose father is my Lord's ene-
my, and is gone to the south to shun engaging in this business.
My uncle has proved so cordial, and so active, that his doings
are beyond the limits of being satisfied with words. I am con-
fident you will find it fit to befriend him in all his particulars.

" For me, if your Lordship will do me the honour to believe
that there is nothing able to alter my esteem of you, I shall be
encouraged to serve you faithfully, and shall be still happy in
being the most passionate of your servants.

" KlNNOUL."

" Kirkwall."1

But, ere Montrose could reach Orkney, this " most passion-
ate of his servants" was no more. And, strange to say, the
Earl of Morton had also breathed his last a few days before the
death of his nephew ! Gordon of Sallagh, the historian of the
Sutherlands, records the fact of Kinnoul having reached Orkney
with his troops, in the month of September 1649, and then he
adds : " Presently thereafter the Earl of Morton died, and,

Montrose's troops had been lost in attempting to reach Orkney. But this is a mis-
take. The first severe disaster of the kind occurred immediately before Montrose
himself landed. See afterwards.

1 Original, Wodrow MSS. vol. Ixvii. No. 93 ; Advocates' Library. The writer of
this letter was George Hay, (called William by mistake at p. 580), third Earl of
Kinnoul, whom the peerage writers, and all other modern notices of the family,
state to have died in 1677. But it was the fifth Lord Kinnoul who died in that
year ; as the melancholy events unfolded in our text prove beyond all doubt. We
are happy to be able to restore two links in that noble genealogy.

LIFE OF MONTROSE 727

within few days, Kinnoul died also, at Kirk wall in Orkney, unto
whom his brother succeeded."1 On this ill-fated expedition,
from the safe landing of which the gallant nobleman had au-
gured too favourably, he was attended by a Welsh officer yclept
Captain John Gwynne, whose curious but meagre MS. Memoirs
were edited by Sir Walter Scott in 1822. This loyalist gives
some account of the various perils of the voyage, and eulogizes
the intrepid conduct of their noble leader. He makes no men-
tion of the death of Morton, but records that of Kinnoul, as
having occurred soon after his arrival in Orkney, which he
reached in the month of September. " About two months
after," he says, " the Earl of Kinnoul fell sick at Birsay, the
Earl of Morton's house, and there died of a pleurisy ; whose loss
was very much lamented, as he was truly honourable and per-
fectly loyal."2 On the other hand, Sir James Balfour, in his
Annals, while he omits all mention of the death of Kinnoul,
thus strangely accounts for that of his uncle : " The 1 2th day
of November this year, Robert Douglas, Earl of Morton, de-
parted this life, of a displeasure conceived at Ms nephew, George
Earl of Kinnoul, at the castle of Kirkwall in Orkney, 1649."
The Lord Lyon's gossip, as to the cause of Morton's death,
which his nephew's letter suffices to refute, doubtless originated
in some confused version of the circumstances under which the
uncle and nephew had arranged the delicate question of the

1 The " Monsieur Hay, Kinnoul's brother," mentioned by Lord Napier in his
letter from Brussels to Lady Napier in the previous year. See before, p. 668.

3 This passage, in Gwynue's MS., had greatly puzzled Sir Walter Scott, who thus
comments, in a note : —

" The author is here at singular variance with the Scottish genealogists. William
(George ?) third Earl of Kinnoul is by them represented as having succeeded his
father in 1644. It is agreed on all hands that he was a loyalist and joined Montrose.
But far from representing him as dead in 1050, the date of Montrose's last and
fatal expedition, he is stated to have escaped from the castle of Edinburgh in 1654,
and having instantly joined Middleton, — in which case Gwynne must again have
met with him, — there to have been taken by the English in the braes of Angus, and
finally to have died in 1677. See Wood's Peerage of Scotland, article KINNOUL."

Sir Walter ought rather to have said that the Scottish genealogists were at sin-
gular variance with the author he was editing. Gwynne was actually with Kin-
noul, when he died in Orkney, in the month of November 1649. The Earl's bro-
ther, who succeeded him, died a few months thereafter, in the tragic manner we
shall presently have to record. As already noted, two stiches, of that noble genea-
logy, have been dropped by the Peerage knitters.

728 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

chief command in Orkney. But it is remarkable that the very
striking fact of KinnouFs dying immediately after Morton was
not noted by Sir James Balfour.

This accumulation of unlocked for misfortune created sad
confusion at the rendezvous in Orkney. Montrose's presence
there was still unavoidably delayed. But, from every quarter,
both royalty and loyalty were impelling him upon his fate. All,
as poor Kinnoul wrote, " gaped after him with that expectation
that the Jews look after their Messiah." He has been some-
what rashly characterised, even by one whose genius greatly
ministered to the hero's fame, as a " rash enthusiast." 1 That
he was, par excellence, the enthusiast of the cause for which he
suffered, is praise we would not seek to deprive him of. In his
last expedition, the forlorn hope of England's Monarchy, he was
indeed self-devoted. But even in reference to that ill-fated at-
tempt, it were mere ignorance to regard him as a rash or wrong-
headed Quixote, only fit to figure in the romance of history,
under the flattering portraiture of friendly genius. Among the
Ormond papers there is a document entitled " Proceeding of
the Marquis of Montrose," in which his progress is traced (for
the information of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) through the
northern courts of Europe, from the month of August 1 649 to
the eve of his descent upon Scotland, in the spring of the fol-
lowing year. During this period he may be said to have lived
with crowned heads. The King of Denmark, the Queen of
Sweden, the King of Poland, the Dukes and Electors of the
Empire, Friesland, Courland, Brunswick, Zell and Hanover,
vied with each other in doing honour to Montrose, and exciting
his exertions by their receptions, concessions, and promises.
And, says the same contemporary report, " his Imperial Ma-
jesty did heartily express his long desire to give all assistance
possible to his Majesty of Great Britain ; and all the Princes of
the Empire were as well affected. The Emperor demanded a
meeting at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and did give full power to
Piccolomini to treat with them concerning the same ; the effects
whereof followed according to Montrose's heart's desire, and
will ere long be fully known, to the astonishment of the rebels."

Not to speak of the reiterated commands of his own Sovereign,

1 Sir Walter Scott. History of Scotland.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 729

at the very moment when so insanely treating with his worst
enemies, — a fatally decisive feature in the crisis to which we
must devote a separate chapter, — the pressure from home, by
letters and by missions, was ceaseless and distracting, during
the whole period of his northern negotiations, and the organizing
of his doomed army. From the Ormond correspondent we also
learn, that, about the end of the year 1 649, a ship was dispatched
from Orkney to Denmark, bringing " Sir James Douglas, my
Lord of Morton's brother, and one Major Melvin, with many
gentlemen of quality from all places of the kingdom, who, in
the name of the whole kingdom, did intreat and press Montrose,
earnestly, to go to Scotland, and not stay for all his men (who
might follow), for his own presence was able to do the business,
and would undoubtedly bring twenty thousand together for the
King's service ; all men being weary and impatient to live any
longer under that bondage, pressing down their estates, their
persons, and their consciences."

Nor can there be a doubt that this was the real temper,
generally speaking, of the people of Scotland ; and that the
dethroned King's unprincipled treaty at Breda, with the able
and indefatigable but worthless clique of the worn-out Cove-
nant, alone prevented the public feeling in favour of Montrose's
rescuing the Monarchy, from obtaining the ascendant. " The
people of Scotland,*' writes the excellent Sir Edward Nicholas
to the Marquis of Ormond, in the month of April 1 650, — " the
people of Scotland are, for certain, extremely well affected to
the King, and rightly disposed to join with the Marquis of
Montrose, as soon as he shall appear in that kingdom in any
good posture able to secure their rising : But some, without
reason, apprehend that the report of the now approaching
treaty will make those of the better sort forbear to appear for
him, until they shall see the issue of this treaty." And well
knew that cunning clique how to work their ends with such a
Prince as Charles the Second. " The Commissioners," notes
Sir James Balfour, u had a warrant with them, under the great
seal of Scotland, to borrow three hundred thousand pounds, to
give the King, if so it were he and they accorded ; otherwise, to
give him no money at all"

730 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Meanwhile the ever devoted, and by this time famous chap-
lain of our hero, Dr Wishart, thus reports from Holland, to
his patron's nephew at Hamburgh, the condition of affairs, so
far as his ken could penetrate. This characteristic letter is the
only one from that celebrated and accomplished loyalist we re-
member to have met with. At this time the quondam minister
of St Andrews, and future Bishop of Edinburgh, was attached
as chaplain to a Scotch regiment in the service of Holland.

" For my Lord Napier, at Hamburgh?

" MY LORD : I have little or nothing to write that is worthy
of the pains, excepting only to praise Almighty God, and con-
gratulate with you these gracious hopes which we are persuaded
to conceive from your negotiations in these places. Oh, the God
of armies, and giver of victory, bless the same to the end. Yet
could I not suffer the opportunity of such a bearer escape me,
that I should not at least testify my good will and zeal towards
your Lordship, at least wise by this paper visit. Our great
ones, Duke Hamilton, Lauderdale, Dunfermline, Callendar, Sin-
clair, &c., are all at the Hague, and at the present so darned
that we hear but little of their din.1 It is thought that their
new bond had so small acceptance in Scotland that they almost-
repent the moving of it. All their present hopes are of Won-
drum's treaty,2 and offers to the King, which they magnify as
very great, glorious, and advantageous to his Majesty, seeing
he may by them get present possession of that whole kingdom,
at so easy a rate as the forsaking of one man, who, as a bloody
excommunicated rebel, is so odious to all men, that the King
cannot be so demented, and bewitched, as to prefer him to the
present enjoyment of the affections and services of a whole
nation of most true and loyal subjects. Such are the charms,
whereby these old wizards go about still to fascinate the world,
abroad and at home. And yet the two last named professed as
much good will to my Lord of Montrose as can be wished, and

i i. e. So hide themselves, that we hear little about them.

a " Mr George Winrame of Libertone, one of the Senators of the College of Jus-
tice, who was sent to Jersey to the King, in November 1649, with letters from the
Committee of Estates, came home in a waighter, and arrived at Leith, on Saturday
the 2d of February 1650."— Balfour.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 731

do openly swear and avouch that they had never any art or
part in that foresaid bond. Brentford, I believe, not only would
be glad of employment with his Excellence, but is very much
grieved that he thinks himself slighted and neglected by him.
Sir William Fleming came this way from Jersey, and went
straight to Scotland. I pray God all be sound that way. I
have not been so happy as to see Mr Aytoun, who hath been
this long time in these provinces. But I doubt not that he hath
given full information, of all that he can, to his Excellence, by
his own pen. My Colonel had been upon his journey before
now, but that the Prince of Orange took him with his Highness
in a progress that he is making towards Guelderland. I know
he will make the speediest return that may be. News from
Ireland are still so various, uncertain, and contradictory, that
I neither can nor dare command my pen to write any thing.
Last week we had no letters at all from London, and by the
latest we were informed that no man living landed in any place
of England, from Ireland, who was not searched to the very
skin, — clothes, and shoes, and boots, and all, ript up for letters.
Whereby it came to pass, that they have no more certainty of
affairs from thence, at London, than we have.

" The Lorrainer's forces have been this three weeks close
upon the skirts and borders of the lands belonging to the
Estates. It is said that Lamboy is not far from them with his
army ; that Lorrain is thanked off by the Spaniard, and taken
on by the Emperor, who is thought to have a purpose to de-
mand of the Estates United such Imperial towns as they detain
and possess from him. The Estates do not take the alarm very
hot, only they have sent some troops and companies to strengthen
their garrisons toward these quarters. Nay, the provincial Estates
of Holland will needs (in spite of any opposition of the Estates-
General, and his Highness) casheer ane 109 companies of foot,
all of strange nations, French, English, and Scots, and most
part of the cavalry, and reduce yet more those that remain.
It is thought all this is intended to clip his Highnesses wings,
and that they are stirred up to it by the English rebels, who
promise them, upon a call, more men than they shall stand in
need of. Certain it is that there is strait correspondence and
good intelligence betwixt them. If your Lordship and noble

732 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

company be in good estate, and will comfort me with the know-
ledge of the same, I shall at this time demand no more from
thence, but, fervently praying for the same, shall rest, my Lord,
your Lordship's most humble and devoted chaplain,

" G. WISEHEART."
" Shiedame, 1st January 1650." A

And Seaforth was now urging, and " advising" Montrose, to
pursue that perilous path upon which the chief of the Macken-
zies did not choose to peril himself. The devoted Marquis thus
writes to him from Copenhagen, on the 27th of October 1649 :

" MY LORD : Though I have written many times to you, which
seem not to have come to your hands, and only received some
two of yours, yet I cannot but tell you how glad I am at the
informations I receive of your noble and resolute carriages con-
cerning his Majesty ; and your kind ones towards your friends ;
which, I assure you, has procured you so much respect amongst
all honourable people, as is not to be exchanged for a world.
For what friendship you have been pleased to do me the honour
to witness, though it can be no more than I ever promised to
myself, I will make you the faithfullest return my life can do.
And, if it please God I lose it not very suddenly, I shall be sure
not to die in your debt. Meanwhile, I humbly entreat you be
confident, that wherever I be, or whatever occasions I may have
to correspond with you, or not, I can never forget what 1 owe
you ; but shall ever, in all fortunes, places, and times, be faith-
fully, and as effectually as it may please God I can, my Lord,
your Lordship's most faithful cousin and servant, MONTROSE.

" I am using your advice, and setting forth in the way that is
possible; and I shall make you the best account that it shall
please God to give me leave."

A curious letter this. Did Montrose intend the sarcasm
with which it seems replete ? Could Seaforth read it without
wincing ? He whose power and influence in the north of Scot-
land once enabled him to hold together there a great army
against the King, — though he never ventured to face the royal
Lieutenant, — now, in his own brightest hour of loyalty, still

* Original, Napier Charter-chest.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 733

turned a deaf ear to that anxious suggestion, — " your presence,
where you know, would do much good, since you see affairs go
so equally, and on such a level." Apparently Montrose now
despaired of the chief of the Mackenzies resorting in person to
his own country, arid raising his people en masse, to co-operate
with the King's Lieutenant there. So he was fain to content
himself with thanking the high chief of Kintail for fair words,
and imaginary benefits, while always looking forward to his
more active co-operation, and meanwhile petting him, as if re-
claiming a froward child. It must have been a sad and irritat-
ing reflection, that his own herculean labours had all proved
vain, through the impracticable jealousy, or selfish timidity, of
those upon whose cordial aid he had every right to calculate ;
but which was ever so unnaturally withheld, or inefficiently be-
stowed.1 There is no quality in his own character more to be
admired, than the indomitable temper with which he met those
unlocked for crosses, and struggled to remove them by the con-
stant courtesy of his patient appeals. Witness the correspond-
ence with his old rival Huntly, who had now passed from the
agitated scene, — " made shorter by the head," as Montrose
himself phrased it, in his prophecy of 1640, now becoming so
rapidly fulfilled.2 Witness his correspondence with the mercu-
rial Aboyne, whose desertion of him " in the nick," brought all
to ruin at Philiphaugh. He, too, was gone ; and Lord Lewis,
the graceless, useless boy, that stole his mother's jewels, had
become Marquis of Huntly.3 And, finally, witness his corre-
spondence with Seaforth, who had once, as a vanquished enemy,
graced the wheels of his victorious chariot, then broke his
pledge, and then again "came in at the slap" to Montrose,
about to " go over the dike to him." 4 On the 15th of December
1649, he thus writes in the same strain of equivocal compliment,
and not very intelligible gratitude, dating from Gottenburg in
Sweden, —

1 See before, p. 407. « See before, p. 288.

s Aboyne died heart-broken abroad, shortly after the murder of the King. It
was said at the time that Argyle decreed the death of Huntly, in order that Lord
Lewis, his most manageable tool of all his nephews, might become the head of the
House.

* See before, p. 622.

734 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" For my nolle Lord the Earl of Seaforth :"

" MY LORD : I am sorry I have not had so many occasions
as I would to express unto you the joy I have of all your
honourable and friendly carriages, concerning both public and
private ; which, I assure your Lordship, is no less contentment
to your friends, and satisfaction to all honest men, (even those
who know you not), than it is happiness for yourself. I pray
God give joy to pursue so virtuous and honourable a track ;
and be sure I shall be no longer happy than I be not thankful
for the noble obligations I owe you.1 I am so pressed, — being
to set sail to-morrow for Scotland, — that I can say little more ;
only, I must give your Lordship a thousand thanks for your
favours and kindness to your servant Mr James Wood,2 which
I humbly entreat you continue ; and I will not fail, if I have
life, to cause return what you are pleased to do to any of your
servants. I will say no more, but that I shall live, or die, my
Lord, your Lordship's most faithful cousin and servant,

" MONTROSE."

" I hear our cousin Charters has gone to the King, which has
made me not write unto him."

But the hero's fate was not quite so near consummation as
the above letter would indicate. After it was written, he learnt
that dispatches were on the way to him from his Sovereign ;
and, ever anxious to walk entirely by the royal will, he deferred
his intended passage to Orkney until he should know what that
will was.3 Under existing circumstances at Breda, it ought to
have been a timely intimation, that the covenanting Commis-
sioners were coming to terms, inconsistent with the safety of
Montrose. But Charles the Second, whose good nature was ut-
terly devoid of principle, willed that the hero's star should set in

1 They would have cut no great figure on paper.

a Probably the " worthy clergyman " of that name, whose servant, as Wishart
informs us, Montrose personated when he escaped to Norway in 1646. See before,
p. 643. There was another clergyman of the same name who was a zealot of the
Covenant.

3 The mistake occurs in Hume's history, that Montrose hurried his descent upon
Scotland lest the King should countermand him.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 735

blood. Even at this crisis, when the vocation of his champion
was gone, the King sent him the most pressing commands not to
relax his armed intervention. To enforce the appeal, he added
that highest incentive to nobility in England, the order of the
Garter ! Meanwhile the most urgent appeals from Orkney
continued to hasten his advent. The Earls of Kinnoul and
Morton, so recently his chief reliance in that quarter, had dis-
appeared like bubbles from the surface of the troubled waters.
Anon, another Earl of Kinnoul is awaiting him there, and ano-
ther of his gallant Aides-de-camp hailing him from the stormy
Orcades ! The following letter is from Colonel Thomas Ogilvy
of Powrie, the same who had been his trusty emissary to Huntly
in a former campaign : l

" MY LORD : In my last letter to your Lordship I forgot to
show your Lordship concerning my Lord Marishal and Lieu-
tenant-General Middleton,2 who truly, — if faith and truth be in
men, — are very loyal to his Majesty's service, and that without
any interest (as they profess themselves) either of Hamiltoun or
Argathelaine factions, or any other whatsoever, but merely what
concerns his Majesty's happiness and service. Wherefore let
me humbly beg at your Lordship's hands, that your Lordship
will be pleased to entreat them both, fairly and kindly, to adhere
to their loyal opinions. This will conduce much for your Lord-
ship's interest and advantage. Your Lordship knows how safe
and fitting a garrison Dunnotter is, for keeping of ammunition
and artillery. And believe me, if your Lordship desire this
fairly and kindly, you will get it. As for Middleton, he is so
far considerable, that if your Lordship will be pleased to make
use of him, whom indeed you will find willing enough to accept
it, he can take off the most part of all their horse to go along
with him any way that he pleases to command them, but chiefly
in the King's service.

" My Lord, your Lordship will pardon me to be a little free ;
for my earnest wishes for the weal of his Majesty's service, and
my respect to your Lordship's self, are past all compliment.
Your Lordship has been pleased to give some commissions
which truly have been very detestable to very loyal men, and

1 See before, p. 612, 617. 'See before, p. G4G.

736 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

have proved highly disadvantageous to the advancement of your
Lordship's intentions. The particulars I will refer to meeting
with your Lordship, which truly your Lordship will find too, too
clear. My Lord, since my coming to Orkney, likewise, I am
sorry to see authority, and commissions, to be put in some
young hands who truly have not wit to govern themselves,
let alone to advance the weal of his Majesty's service. And,
indeed, if this Lord Kinnoul had not come over with that
last recruit, their folly had broke the very small beginnings of
his Majesty's service.

" If your Lordship shall stay any time from us, — which God
forbid you should, — either send over some man to command in
chief, or else send a commission to my Lord Kinnoul to do it
here, and that all who are here shall not presume but to obey
him. Else truly your Lordship will find an evil managed busi-
ness here. My Lord, I will be very loath to be a spectator to
any thing that may prejudice the King's service ; and, in truth,
my affection to the weal of it has made me thus free with your
Lordship at this time. I shall never fail to approve myself as
ever [forw] the King's interest, [torn] to your Lordship's self in
particular, to death. Your Lordship's obedient and faithful
servant to serve you, " THOMAS OGILVY."

"Kirkwall, 3d March 1650."1

The writer of this letter, too, and the new Earl of Kinnoul
referred to therein, and he to whom it was written, were all
dead and gone, ere the lapse of many weeks from its date ! Then
as for that regarding Middleton, a suggestion so characteristic
of those faithless and chaotic times, was it not he who played
second in command to David Leslie at Philiphaugh ; who re-
duced Montrose's ancient homestead of Kincardine to a heap of
ruins ; who " shot at a post," twelve of the gallant men who
presumed to hold it for King Charles ; and who commanded the
army of the Covenant in the north, which, (combined with the
obdurate folly of Huntly), paralyzed the hero's last struggle to
save at least the life of the King ?

1 Original, Wodrow's MSS. vol. Ixvii. No. 94. Advocates' Library.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 737

CHAPTER XXXVI.

DEFEAT AND CAPTURE OF MONTROSE.

As Argyle had already cast his lot with Cromwell (a peer of
whose parliament ere long he became), his covert policy was to
prevent the advent of Charles to Scotland. But the feeling of
the oppressed people in favour of the Monarchy was roused to
something like vitality by the murder of the King. Even Ar-
gyle, at this crisis, durst not identify himself with the regicides.
He contrived, however, so to work the treaty of Breda as to
prevent that unconditional restoration of the King in Scotland,
which alone could plant the Throne firmly there, and array the
whole country against Cromwell. Some prospect of that alarmed
not a little the coming man, who meanwhile had enough to do
with Ireland ; and the services of Argyle in the neighbouring
kingdom proved invaluable to his usurpation. The terms in-
sisted upon, that Charles must become King through the Cove-
nant, and give up Montrose to the mercy of his enemies, would
so obviously reduce the King under the slavery of that tyranni-
cal charter of " the practising of a few,"" — a charter, moreover,
as the Marquis so earnestly reminded him, that was defiled
with the price at least of his father's blood, — could not fail
to create the obstacles, and the delay, which Argyle intended,
and Cromwell's present position required. Charles recklessly
insured the ultimate success of that nefarious policy, by be-
taking himself to the weak and vicious double game which even-
tually destroyed his present hopes, and his character for ever.
In the manner we shall have to illustrate more particularly, he
impelled Montrose, under the highest commissions, and incen-
tives of honour, that a King could bestow, to collect an army of
foreigners, and therewith to enter Scotland. This, indeed, was
not for the purpose of the conquest, or hostile invasion of that

47

738 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

country, but of affording at once a touchstone and a protection
to its latent loyalty. All were to be encouraged to support the
standard of their King. But that standard, while it proclaimed
no war against the Covenant of 1637, was to supersede the So-
lemn League and Covenant, under whose regime the late King
had perished. The enemy whom it was to chase from the king-
dom, or to bring to battle, were all those from whom the power
of Argyle and the Kirk still extorted adherence to that oriflamme
of misrule and murder. The Monarchy re-established in Scot-
land upon this principle of Montrose1 s armed intervention, the
clerical reign of terror was to cease, — a consummation devoutly
prayed for by the groaning people, — and indemnity to be ex-
tended to all, with the exception of such as had involved them-
selves in the unpardonable atrocity of the King^s death,

Expressly and unequivocally Charles had commissioned, com-
manded, and impelled his devoted General to this effect. Ac-
cordingly, the famous Declaration with which Montrose ushered
his advent in the name of the King, really and truly expressed
the royal will. Treating and repudiating the Solemn League
and Covenant of 1644? as a blood-stained abomination, the royal
Lieutenant characterises the climax of its crimes, in nearly the
same words he had previously written to his Sovereign, but yet
more eloquent and impassioned ; his perfect approbation of which
the King had already marked by an immediate renewal to Mon-
trose of all his high commissions. " Casting himself in their
hands," — says the Declaration, referring to the fate of the royal
martyr, — "they, contrary to all faith and paction, trust of friends,
duty of subjects, laws of hospitality, nature, nations, divine and
human, for which there hath never been precedent, nor can ever
be a follower, most infamously, and beyond all imaginable ex-
pression of invincible baseness, to the blush of Christians, and
abomination of mankind, sold their Sovereign over to their mer-
ciless fellow traitors to be destroyed ; with whom how they have
complotted his destruction, their secret intercourses, both before,
in the time, and since this horrid murder, do too evidently de-
clare." x In this uncompromising anathema, Montrose, dealing
with an unquestionable fact perpetrated in the eyes of scandal-
ized Europe, avoided mere personalities, but left all whom the

1 Original draft of the Declaration, Napier Charter-chest.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 739

cap fitted to wear it. The loyal manifesto, published at home
and abroad, of course brought down upon him the most furious
invective of personal abuse that the savage vocabulary of the
Kirk's lawyer, Warriston, could produce. The Governor of
Scotland's proclamation was felt to exclude from the grace of
Charles the Second all against whom the guilt of selling Charles
the First could be distinctly traced ; and caused Argyle and his
myrmidons to quiver with rage, and quake with apprehension.

It also proclaimed, however, just as Montrose had previously
advised the King, that, in so far as his royal father had recog-
nised and ratified the Covenant of 1637, and its legitimate ob-
jects, he himself was willing to do the same, " in order to their
peace," whenever his hereditary right was unconditionally ad-
mitted in Scotland. And then it is added, that " his Majesty
is willing to pardon every one (excepting such who, upon dear
evidences, shall be found guilty of that most damnable fact of
murder of his father) who, upon sight or knowledge hereof do
immediately, or upon the first possible conveniency, abandon
these rebels, and rise and join themselves with us and our forces
in this present service." But the parenthetical exception in-
stantly placed him again at war to the knife with the most
desperate, the most able, and still dominant faction in Scotland.

A well principled, high-minded, and high-spirited Prince, taking
his stand unequivocally upon the policy which Montrose advised,
and of which Charles had declared his approbation and accept-
ance, and admitting none other to his counsels, would soon have-
obtained the support of the oppressed people, and of the most
worthy and influential ef the ruined nobility and barons of Scot-
land. That policy, however, would have driven from the realm
such agitators as Argyle, Lauderdale, Lothian, Cassilis, John-
ston of Warriston, and some others, the whole tenor of whose
public conduct, especially in reference to selling the late King,
must necessarily have drawn upon them the most limited storm
of retribution that could possibly have satisfied such restora-
tion.

But Charles the Second brought a weak and vacillating pur-
pose, a narrow and clouded mind, and a thoroughly selfish heart,
to bear upon this vital crisis of his affairs. Jlence the struggle
at Breda, the dubious mystification of which arrested in a pos-

740 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

ture of painful and suspicious uncertainty the growing desire of
Scotland to rise and free itself from the fetters of the Kirk, and
the inclination of the northern powers sincerely and energeti-
cally to aid. Having on his right, Lauderdale, playing his pup-
pet Hamilton (who had recently declared he was willing to serve
" as a corporal under Montrose," but whom Lauderdale " haunted
like a fury"), and on his left, Lothian, the devoted representative
and brother-in-arms of Argyle, — Charles wrangled and treated
with them all, and at the same time secretly instructed and
urged Montrose to settle the matter with his sword. Had the
hero been allowed to negotiate at the foreign courts, and to
make his descent upon Scotland, as he himself so earnestly ad-
vised, under the universal understanding that the King would
tolerate no other counsels, accept of no other terms, and play
no other game, not only would foreign aid have been accorded
more unequivocally, but the royal Lieutenant would have found
immediate support in Scotland even from those who were among
the first to assist the Argyle government in effecting his destruc-
tion. Sutherland would have combined with Seaforth at once
to place him in undisputed possession of the north of Scotland.
As it was, Seaforth, formerly opposed to the royal banner under
Montrose, now professed his loyalty, and withheld his presence.
Sutherland, whom a trifle would have turned the other way, —
as it would have turned David Leslie, afterwards created Lord
Newark by Charles II., or Middleton, also ennobled by him, —
arrayed the vassalage of the north against the King^s Lieute-
nant. And the King himself, even before he knew the precise
condition of Montrose in Scotland,1 justified all this backward-
ness, uncertainty, and confusion among the loyal, or the loyally
inclined, by falling, like the weak victim of a vicious intrigue,
into the meretricious arms, and scarlet lap of the Kirk, " and,
saying he would not consent, — consented."

1 Hume is wrong in saying, — " What chiefly determined Charles to comply (at
Breda), was the account brought Urn of the fate of Montrose, who, with all the cir-
cumstances of rage and contumely, had been put to death by his zealous country-
men."— Hist. vii. 176. Now, Charles himself communicates the conclusion of the
treaty in a letter, which indeed never reached Montrose, but the terms of which
prove that the King did not then know even that his General had been defeated ;
which event occurried at Corbiesdale upon Saturday 27th April (old style) 1650.
See after, pp. 756, 757, note.

LIFE OF MONTKOSE. 741

The last Earl of Kinnoul who arrived in Orkney under orders
from Montrose, did not reach his destination so successfully as
his gallant brother. Upon the 19th of February 1650, prior to
the date of Powrie's letter to the Marquis, Sir James Stewart
of Coltness, Provost of Edinburgh, thus reports, in a letter for
the information of those in England : —

" There are more men landed this week in Orkney islands,
from Montrose ; but the greatest part of his men and vessels
are spoiled and lost ; for, of twelve hundred he shipped from
the seaside, near Gottenburg, there are no more than two hun-
dred landed in Scotland. For when they had sailed about two
leagues from the shore, they were shattered by sticking in the
ice ; many died, others after got ashore and deserted, and they
were much broken. There came only two ships, with two hun-
dred soldiers and their officers ; twelve brass field-pieces, and
some small number of arms, with a parcel of ammunition.
Montrose himself is yet at Gottenburg, with some Scotch,
English, and Dutch officers, waiting to see if he can get any
monies for them ; if not, they will desert him."

At the same time, in confirmation of the above, Sir John
Chiesly transmits " a list of the forces and ammunition that
were shipped by Montrose for Scotland, most of which was de-
stroyed and spoiled."

« Imprimis, twelve hundred soldiers ; officers for two regi-
ments ; thirteen frigates fraught ; two vessels for convoys ;
twelve brass guns ; the King's foot colours for one regiment ;
the King's standard and colours ; Montrose's standard and
colours ; provisions for about a month ; commissions for the
officers.

" The King's standard was of black damask, with three pair
of hands folded in each other ; and on each side of them, three
hands and naked arms, out of a clond, with swords drawn. The
King's standard of foot was of black taffeta, with a man's head
in the middle, bleeding, as if cut off from a body. Montrose's
standard was of white damask, with a lion rampant on the top
of a rock, with another steep rock on the other side of a river.
The King's standard of horse had this motto, — Quos pietas, vir-
///s, et honos fecit amicos. Tho King's standard of foot had this

742 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

motto, — Deo, et metricians armis. Montrose's standard had this
motto, — Nil medium" x

Yet the hero's heart was high as ever. Immediately after
the date of Powrie's letter, he made his appearance in Orkney.
With as little delay as possible he was on the mainland. The
following papers, only recently brought to light from the ar-
chives of his family, betray no uncertainty of purpose, or alarm
for the result, although anything but sanguine of a friendly re-
ception on the northern coast of Scotland.

" Orders for General-Major Sir John Hurry.'1''
" You are presently after the sight hereof, to take a part of
my company of Guard, with four companies of my life regiment,
commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel George Drummond, together
with other four companies of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Stewart's
squadron, and immediately to emboat yourself, with what arms
and ammunition doth belong, and set with this evening tide for
the coast of Caithness ; choosing the most convenient place for
landing as occasion shall serve ; and if, according to your intel-
ligence, you find not your landing opposed, nor no forces mak-
ing in a body against you, you are to march directly to the Ord,
and those narrow passes betwixt Caithness and Sutherland, for
preventing the enemy's entry, and reducing such of the country
people as shall offer to rise ; according to your own best discre-
tion, and the rule of war in the like cases. But if you shall
find, according to your certain intelligence, that all the country
of Caithness are in arms to resist you, and oppose the landing
in a real way of opposition or defence, then and in that case
you are not to hazard to force it, but to set for Stranaver, and
there to attempt your landing, as with most safety and conve-
niency you can. Where if you should also find too much diffi-

1 Papers quoted by Sir James Balfour in his Annals. Although we find no allu-
sion to this ruinous disaster either in Montrose's own letters, or in those of his cor-
respondents that have been recovered, there is little reason to doubt that such had
occurred. In the contemporary continuation of Wishart's history, it is stated, —
" I told you a little before of Montrose's whole strength, which did accompany him
from Germany, whereof two ships, with near upon a third part, were sent before,
but by storm of weather, which is both frequent and dangerous amongst those north-
ern islands, they were lost, with all the men and arms ; nothing saved."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 743

culty, as by appearance there cannot, you are to apply a little
higher, betwixt that and Kintail, which places are all for the
King, and there make your descent ; and use your best discre-
tion in everything as occurs. In all which cases you are still to
send us frequent advertisements, as falls out ; and observe punc-
tually the premises at your highest peril. Given under our hand
from shipboard, near the island of Flotta, this 9th day of April
J650. MONTROSE.

" Postscript. In regard of the shortness, and pressingness
of the time, you are to chose five hundred of those that you
conceive ablest and fittest of my life-regiment, and Lieutenant-
Colonel Henry Stewart's squadron, without looking to the equal
proportion of either ; as also my company of guards, and such
of the volunteer gentlemen and officers as are ready. Given ut
supra"

The result of these orders was, that Sir John Hurry effected
his landing on the coast of Caithness without loss, seized upon
the castle of Dunbeath belonging to Sir John Sinclair, and hav-
ing established a small garrison there, joined Montrose in time
to share in his disaster, and to accompany his former con-
queror, and present commander, to the scaffold.

Meanwhile the Marquis himself landed in Caithness a few
days after the date of the above orders, as we learn from this
letter, dated " Thurso, 14th of April 1650."

" For the Gentlemen and Heritors of the Sheriffdom of Caithness,

" GENTLEMEN : Your not appearing to us, after our arrival
in this place, so timely as we expected, hath necessitated us
(the conveniency of his Majesty's affairs requiring our removal
from this part) to leave behind us some certain persons belong-
ing to us, by whom we have thought good to communicate unto
you such things as we judge most necessary to be done by you
at this time, in order to the establishing and carrying on of his
Majesty's just service in these parts, and the peace and happi-
ness of every one of yourselves. For which end we have parti-
cularly commanded them to offer unto you, in our name, an oath
of fidelity and allegiance, to be subscribed by all and every one

744 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

of you, to his sacred Majesty ; as it hath been already cordially
done by those of the gentry and ministers of Orkney. As we
, expect your cheerful performance hereof, and ready concurrence
with us in the prosecution of that trust his Majesty has again
reposed in us, so we shall make it evidently appear unto you,
that they could not have pitched upon any who should more
firmly and constantly protect and defend you, in all your just
rights and concernments, than your very affectionate friend,

" MONTROSE."

There is a melancholy interest in tracing, by means of these
original documents, the doomed martyr of the cause of good
and humane government, asserting, as he best could, his royal
commission as Governor of Scotland, up to the very moment of
his own destruction. Finding the gentlemen and heritors of
Caithness so ominously silent to his call, he passed the Ord
into Sutherland without opposition, but with his slender forces
weakened by the necessity of leaving a garrison and recruiting
parties in his rear. His orders, indeed, spoke of guards, life-
regiments, and squadrons, as if the royal standard were waving
above all the appliances of a great army, and the King's Lieu-
tenant could reckon his foot by thousands, and his horse by
hundreds. But his squadrons had yet to be mounted, and his
guards were but the nucleus of an army he hoped to gather as
he went. They proved insufficient to guard either his life or
their own. The consummation was not long delayed. Desti-
tute of cavalry, and with only a few hundreds of foot soldiers,
composed of Germans and Orkney-men, and a small band of
cavaliers, his personal friends, he reached the confines of Eoss-
shire, in the vain hope of meeting Seaforth's brother, Pluscar-
din, at the head of the Mackenzies. But the loyalty of the
country was utterly paralyzed by the King's proceedings at
Breda, and the insidious representations of the covenanting
Commissioners in whose hands he had placed himself. No
dispatches, and no tidings either of foes or friends, could now
reach his isolated and deserted General. The strategy of the
covenanting commanders who were sent to oppose him, reflects
the greatest credit on their military sagacity. It was Philip-
haugh over again ; with this difference, that Montrose had not

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 745

even the number of horsemen with him that might have secured
his retreat. He had just reached a place called Corbiesdale,
near the pass of Invercarron, and the river Oikel, when he fell
into an ambuscade very adroitly planned, and was instantly
overwhelmed by an irresistible force of cavalry under Colonel
Strachan, followed up by the greatly superior forces of David
Leslie, General Holbourn, and the Earl of Sutherland. The
unwarlike and undisciplined Orkney-men made but little resist-
ance. The foreign troops stood more sturdily to their arms,
and suffered in proportion. They seemed to have no better
idea of defending themselves against cavalry than hurriedly
seeking such imperfect shelter as the locality afforded. The
whole of this little army was destroyed in the space of two
hours ; slaughtered on the spot, drowned in the river, or made
prisoners, with scarcely any loss on the side of the victors.
Montrose, and the gallant officers who rallied round him, fought
desperately, but it was for life. By his side were killed his
devoted friend Thomas Ogilvy of Powrie, young Menzies of
Pitfoddels, who died obstinately defending the royal standard,
John Douglas, youngest son of the Earl of Morton, and about
a dozen other gallant officers. The Viscount Frendraught was
severely wounded, fighting side by side with the Marquis, who
also received several wounds, and his horse was killed under
him, At this critical moment he was generously remounted by
Frendraught, who intreated him to save his own life, while that
gallant nobleman yielded himself a prisoner to his uncle, the
Earl of Sutherland, from whom he felt assured of quarter, and
who accordingly sent him to Dunrobin.1 Sir John Hurry, and
many distinguished officers, fell into the hands of the enemy.
Montrose himself, accompanied by the Earl of Kinnoul, and
two gentlemen of the name of Sinclair, made his way, with ex-
treme difficulty, from the ill-fated and bloody field.

Wounded as he was, Montrose would not place himself in
the hands of enemies who thirsted for his blood, without a
struggle for life. Compelled almost immediately to abandon
his horse, he had the presence of mind to change habits with
the first peasant he met. The contemporary historian of tho
Earls of Sutherland records that Montrose and Kinnoul, who

1 Frendraught was a reclaimed foe. See before, p. 455.

746 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

accompanied him in his flight, " wandered up that river (Oikel)
the whole ensuing night and the next day, and the third day
also, without any food or sustenance, and at last came within
the country of Assint. The Earl of Kinnoul being faint for
lack of meat, and not able to travel any further, was left there
among the mountains, where it was supposed he perished.1
James Graham had almost famished, but that he fortuned in
his misery to light upon a small cottage in that wilderness,
where he was supplied with some milk and bread." Another
contemporary asserts that he suffered such extremity of hunger,
while wandering among the hills of Assint, that he was reduced
to eat a piece of a glove. Such was the condition of the noble-
man who so recently had been the honoured guest of the Empe-
ror of Germany, the King of Denmark, the Queen of Sweden,
and the " Queen of Hearts." Not even the iron frame of Mon-
trose could long have sustained existence under such circum-
stances. He was on the point of perishing, like poor Kinnoul,
when he fell into the hands of M'Leod of Assint, a man the
stamp of whose mind is indicated by the fact, that he refused to
save the life of the hero of his age and country, and had the
meanness to accept of four hundred bolls of ineal as a reward
for taking him alive.

The seal which we find attached to some of the last private
letters written by Montrose, and of which we are enabled to
present the reader with a fac-simile, bears a significant and
characteristic device. The Lion of England is represented
crouching on the pinnacle of a precipice, in act to spring across
a deep ravine, to another precipice beyond. The motto is NIL
MEDIUM,— the " win or lose it all" of his wild ballad. We have

1 There can be little doubt that he did so, as he was never heard of again. Lord
Frendraught, whom the covenanting Government imprisoned, is said to have
starved himself to death in prison, rather than abide the result. In Whitelock's
Memorials the following entries occur :

" 17th May 1650 : Letters that Montrose was taken two or three days after the
fight, sixteen miles from the place of the engagement, in disguise, and sorely
woiinded.

« 25th May 1650 : Letters from Edinburgh that the Lord Frendraught, of Mon-
trose's party, after his defeat, for vexation starved himself ; and that the Lord
Kinnoul was also starved."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 747

seen that this same device and motto he had adopted for his
own particular standard. That he was wont to write the fatal
sentiment to Prince Rupert, — that in his troubadour vein he
sung it to an imaginary mistress, — that he bore it on his banner,
and had it engraved for his signet, — all shows how deeply it
was graven on the hero's heart. The trammelled Lion, tripped
by the treaty of Breda, missed its spring, and fell in the yawn-
ing gulph.

isrn,

MEDIVM

748 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

MONTHOSE AND CHARLES THE SECOND.

BISHOP BURNET and Mr Brodie have settled between them,
that Montrose was a coward, and no General. It was their
mode of giving the coup de grace to his fame.1 We do not feel
much interested to refute them. In the foregoing pages, ample
materials have been afforded for candid judgment, whether, in
the days of chivalry, the Peacock and the Ladies would have
disowned him ; or whether, in our own age, military authorities
must arrive at the conclusion that the hero of Perth, Aberdeen,
Dundee, Fyvie, Inverary, Inverlochy, Auldearn, Alford, and
Kilsyth, he who defeated in six fair stricken fields, against long
odds, those noble commanders, Argyle, Lothian, Elcho, Bur-
leigh, Tullibardine, Balcarres, Crawford (Lindsay), and those
gallant Generals, Baillie, Hurry, and Holbourn, was a military
incapable, because of having suffered himself to be surprised
(carelessly enough, no doubt,) under the deserted banner of his
Sovereign, by an overwhelming force of cavalry, at Philiphaugh,
and Corbiesdale. If a coward, he contrived constantly to ex-
hibit phases a Dunois might have envied ; and if destitute of
military capacity, he nevertheless fulfilled a military mission,
and accomplished a career in arms, of which a Wellington might
be proud. The marvel then is all the greater. Prone as his
nature was to arms, even those four productions, — his letter on
Sovereign power, in 1640, his letter of advice to Charles the

1 " Montrose in his defeat took too much care of himself ; for he was never will-
ing to expose himself too much." — Burnefs Own Time, See before, pp. .93, 519.

" Montrose never seems to have been qualified for any combined operations on
an extensive scale."

" His military genius was no longer triumphant than when opposed to unskilful
commanders." — Brod ie's British Empire, vol. iv. pp. 268, 272.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 749

First, in 1641, his dispatch after the battle of Inverlochy, and
his letter to Charles the Second at the Hague, — suffice to prove
that he was influenced by principles, reflections, and aspirations,
of a higher quality than the ambition of mere military repute.
He himself would have smiled with placid indifference at the
prospect of receiving no justice, as a military commander, at
the hands of Burnet of His Own Time, and Brodie of the British
Empire.

But did he die uttering, with all the emphasis and eloquence
of truth, a useless falsehood ? So, in the face of Parliament
and his country, Argyle declared, as soon as the object of that
mean and monstrous calumny was numbered with those who
tell no tales.1 Ere we follow the hero to his doom, it shall be
refuted.

Montrose was on the eve of his destruction in Scotland, when
Charles signed the treaty of Breda. The consummation of that
disreputable policy, against which he had warned the King in
vain, occurred when the fact could no longer be announced to
him by his Sovereign. Hence the anxiety with which their
wounded and exhausted victim questioned his merciless judges,
when brought before them for instant doom, as to whether the
King had actually concluded a treaty, and acknowledged the
covenanting Parliament. The affirmation of his question, vouch-
safed with savage glee by the Argyle government, only tended
to nerve his great heart, and elevate his lofty demeanour. In
his last moments, he addressed a tribunal, — from whose
cathedra, at that awful scene, no word was uttered worthy of
a judge, a gentleman, or a Christian, — with the same dignified
and respectful etiquette as if the Sovereign had been present.
But respect for himself, in which no crisis of his life ever caused
him to fail, equally impelled him to maintain the patriotic loyalty
of his position, and to repel the malicious calumny that his ad-
vent had lawlessly disturbed the peace of his country, and that
he had invaded the kingdom without the authority, and con-
trary to the wishes, and even commands of the King. ': As for
my coming in at this time," he said, " it was by Ms Majesty's
commands, in order to the accelerating the treaty betwixt him

1 See before, p. 248.

750 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

and you ; Ms Majesty knowing, that whenever he had ended with
you, I was ready to retire upon his call : I may justly say, that
never subject acted upon more honourable ground's, nor by so law-
ful a power i as I did in this service."

None who heard those words from the dying lips of such a
character as Montrose, could have had any doubt of their truth.
It will be seen in the sequel, that Argyle and his myrmidons
possessed the best means of information on the subject. But
we hasten in the first instance to place the fact beyond all doubt,
by evidence that cannot be questioned.

We have already recorded the letter which Charles wrote to
Montrose in the month of June 1649.1 At that time was
renewed his former commission, as Governor of Scotland and
Commander-in-chief of all his Majesty's forces therein ; and this
was done for the express purpose of his taking up arms, in the
name of Charles the Second, against the adherents of the So-
lemn League and Covenant. Moreover, the King at the same
time invested him with a separate and special commission, as his
plenipotentiary to the northern powers of Europe, also for the
express purpose of obtaining the sinews of war, and raising a
foreign force, wherewith to descend upon Scotland, as he did.
The originals of all these high commissions are yet preserved
among the archives of his family.

While Charles was still at StGermains,and his plenipotentiary
executing his special commands at Hamburgh, he dispatched to
him this anxious missive :

" MY LORD : I intreat you to go on vigorously, and with your
wonted courage and care, in the prosecution of those trusts I
have committed to you, and not to be startled with any reports
you may hear, as if I were otherwise inclined to the Presbyterians
than when I left you.2 I assure you I am still upon the same
principle I was, and depend as much as ever upon your under-
taking, and endeavours for my service, being fully resolved to
assist and support you therein to the uttermost of my power, as

1 See before, p. 706.

8 Montrose had accompanied the King, on his way to St Germains from the
Hague, as far as Brussels. See before, p. 706.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 751

you shall find in effect when you shall desire any thing to be
done by your affectionate friend, CHARLES R."

" St Germains, the 19th of September, 1649."1

Thus impelled, Montrose, leaving his nephew Lord Napier
in charge at Hamburgh, proceeded, as already mentioned, to
Denmark and Sweden. So flattering and promising was his
reception, that it seems he had written to Queen Henrietta,
reporting progress in high spirits. The Queen had placed her-
self in the hands of Jermyn, who, from mere petty personal
jealousy, was ever adverse to the success of Montrose. Yet in
the following letter we find no suggestion from her Majesty (as
in a former one2) of the propriety of his coalition with the pres-
byterian party, to whose destructive and degrading policy she
had so unnaturally attached herself; and not a hint that, for his
own safety, he had better abate his energy in the dangerous and
isolated course which his Sovereign was urging him to pursue :

" COUSIN : I have received one of your letters dated from
Denmark. It affords me great pleasure to learn that you are
in a condition to be of service to the King my son. Believe me,
there is no one more deeply interested than I am, or whose
wishes are more for your happiness and success ; and that (in-
dependently of the King's interests) for the sake of yourself;
my attachment to you being such, that I can never divest my-
self of it, whatever may befal you. I entertain too grateful a
remembrance of the services which you rendered to the late
King, my husband, ever to fail in these expressions, as I implore
you to believe. That I have many enemies, active in their en-
deavours to create a breach between me and my friends, I well
know.3 I feel assured, however, that you will place no credit in
any such reports concerning me, but give me that share in your
confidence which I deserve ; and that my conduct will convince
you with what sincerity I am your very good and affectionate
friend, HENRIETTA MARIA K"

" Paris, the 1st of December 1649." 4

* Original, Montrose Charter-room. a See before, p. 694.
8 Was Lady Susanna Hamilton one of them ? See before, p 698.

* Original, Montrose Charter-room. See Memorials of Montrose, for the original
French.

752 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

In the following month, the King, about to consign himself
to the covenanting Commissioners at Breda, thus again wrote
to Montrose: —

" MY LORD OF MONTROSE : My public letter having expressed
all that I have of business to say to you, I shall only add a word
by this to assure you, that I will never fail in the effects of that
friendship I have promised, and which your zeal to my service
hath so eminently deserved ; and that nothing can happen to
me shall make me consent to any thing to your prejudice. I
conjure you, therefore, not to take alarm at any reports or
messages from others; but to depend upon my kindness; and to
proceed in your business with your usual courage and alacrity ;
which I am sure will bring great advantage to my affairs, and
much honour to yourself. I wish you all good success in it, and
shall ever remain your affectionate friend, CHARLES R."

" Jersey, 12th-22d January, 1649-50." 1

This private letter was accompanied with copies both of the
address of the covenanting Parliament, inviting the King to
Scotland upon their own dictatorial terms, and of his Majesty's
too gracious answer ; and also another royal missive, called his
public letter of " Instructions," superscribed by Charles, in
which he says, referring to the approaching treaty of Breda, —
" We have appointed a speedy time and place for their Com-
missioners to attend us ; and to the end you may not apprehend
that we intend, either by anything contained in those letters,
or by the treaty we expect, to give the least impediment to your
proceedings, we think fit to let you know, that, as we conceive
that your preparations have been one effectual motive that hath
induced them to make the said address to us, so your vigorous
proceeding will be a good means to bring them to such modera-
tion in the said treaty, as probably may produce an agreement,
and a present union of that whole nation in our service. We
assure you, therefore, that we will not, before or during the
treaty, do anything contrary to that power and authority which

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room. The double date, both as to the month and
the year, indicates the correction of the kalendar referred to before, p. 714, note.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 753

we have given you ly our commission, nor consent to anything
that may bring the least degree of diminution to it."

His Majesty proceeds to assure Montrose that his honour
shall be carefully guarded, and his interests provided for ; and
then, — in reference to the Marquis's former advice, that the
dethroned King should pursue an unequivocal policy, consistent
with the standing of Monarchy, and not acknowledge any com-
mission emanating from unconstitutional and lawless conven-
tions,— Charles, in this same missive, which he terms in the
other " my public letter," adds, — " In the mean time, we think
fit to declare to you that we have called them a ' Committee of
Estates,1 only in order to a treaty, and for no other end what-
ever." This faithless and discreditable document concludes
with the anxiously reiterated injunction, — " We require and
authorise you, therefore, to proceed vigorously and effectually in
your undertaking, and to act in all things in order to it as you
shall judge most necessary for the support thereof, and for our
service in that way ; wherein, we doubt not but all our loyal
and well affected subjects of Scotland will cordially and effec-
tually join with you ; and, by that addition of strength, either
dispose those that are otherwise minded, to make reasonable
demands to us in the treaty, or be able to force them to it by
arms, in case of their obstinate refusal. To which end we
authorise you to communicate and publish this our letter to all
such persons as you shall think fit."

Along with these surely unequivocal, and irresistible, com-
mands and entreaties, bearing date only three months prior to
his destruction in Ross-shire, yet another royal missive was de-
livered to Montrose, evincing still more emphatically his Sove-
reign's perfect approbation and earnest desire. It was a packet
containing the George and riband of the Garter, conferred upon
the heroic nobleman in terms the most flattering that a King
could express. A suitable letter also accompanied this ever
coveted honour, which concludes with these words :

" We are most assured, that, as you have hitherto, with sin-
gular courage, conduct, and fidelity, served us, so you will still
do the same as becomes a Knight and Companion of so noble
an Order. Given at our Court in the Castle Elizabeth, in our

48

754 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

island of Jersey, this 1 2th day of January, in the first year of
our reign, 1649."1

The emissary entrusted with these important dispatches, was
Harry May, already mentioned, who appears to have been
attached to the household of the young Duke of York, then
with the King and his mother at Jersey.2 He had not taken
his departure that instant the dispatches were written, as the
date of the following letter from his Koyal Highness to Mon-
trose indicates : —

" MY LORD : I would not let this gentleman, Harry May, go
to you without writing to you. This bearer will give you a
very good account of news, and of all the business that is here,
and he will assure you how much I ever am your Lordship's
most affectionate friend, JAMES."

"Jersey, 16th-26th January 1650." s

That these dispatches reached Montrose, there can be no
doubt. The badge of the Garter, along with the royal letter
that accompanied this decking of the hero for sacrifice, was
found concealed under a tree in the line of his flight from the
fatal field. 4 By the same messenger he had received a letter

1 Originals, Montrose Charter-room. Here the date is given according to the
Julian or old style. In the Gregorian, or new style, it would then have been writ-
ten 22d January 1650 ; or, if given in both, thus, — 12th-22d January 1 649-50. It
will be observed, therefore, that the date of the letter with the George, is the same
day of the month and year, as those of the foregoing private and public letters
from Jersey. As Montrose lost, or was deprived of the whole of his papers, and
also the George, when defeated and captured, they must have been recovered by
the family in after years ; the originals being now preserved among its archives,
along with the George and Riband.

a See before, p. 707.

8 Original, Montrose Charter-room. Here both styles are given as regards the
day of the month, and the new style only, as regards the year. According to the
old style, 1650 would not be written until the 25th of March. See Memorials of
Montrose for a facsimile of the above autograph letter.

4 Balfour (iv. p. 36.) records : "James Graham's broad seal, and the order of the
Garter, produced to the Parliament this day (31st May 1650) ; they were found in
the north, under a tree hid : Item, a letter from his Majesty King Charles the
Second to James Graham, when he sent him the order of the Garter, produced in
Parliament, and read." This must have been the letter quoted in our text.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 755

from Seaforth (which that reclaimed but cautious county seems
to have thrown after his former conqueror for luck, like an old
shoe), to which he thus replies, after having passed from Got-
ten burg to Orkney, hastened by the irresistible impulse of those
missives from his royal master.1

" For the Earl of Seaforth"

" MY LORD : I received your Lordship's by Mr May, who
has confirmed me in the knowledge of all your noble arid friendly
carriages ; for which, believe, I will serve you with my life, all
the days it shall please God to lend me it. I am going to the main-
land ; and have no more leisure but to assure you I shall tender
your friends, and interests,2 as my own life ; and shall live, or
die, my Lord, your cousin and faithful friend and servant,

" MONTROSE."

" Kirkwall in Orkney, 26th March 1650." 3

Whether this grateful acknowledgment, of fair words, was
prompted by diplomatic tact, or moribund sentiment, of which
affecting traces appear in the letter, we need not pause to en-
quire. The evidence is conclusive, that Montrose made his
descent upon Scotland, not only as the commissioned General
of his Sovereign, but urged and compelled by commands which he
could neither avoid nor evade, and which enabled him to tell his
murderers, with the most perfect truth, — " I may justly say,

1 There can be no doubt that Montrose had been apprised of the advent of Mr
May, with all these dispatches, and that he had waited at Gottenburg in Sweden to
receive them, ere he passed over to Orkney. For in the information transmitted
to the Marquis of Ormond, occurs the following speculation as to Montrose's
whereabouts.

" No doubt he is parted (for Orkney) long ere now, if the advertisement he has
got of an express coming from his Majesty to him have not stayed him. For
Colonel Johnston [his loyal opponent at the Bridge of Dee, see before, p. 211] writes
that he waited at Gottenburg the coming of that express, who I believe is at him
long ere now." This information bears date, 20th-30th January 1649-50. Set
Carte's Ormond Papers.

Had David Hume seen the evidence in our text, he would never have recorded
for history, that Montrose " hastened his enterprize, lest the King's agreement with
the Scots should make him revoke his commission.'*

» Meaning, Seaforth's estates, and clan-gathering and following, which he ex-
pected to join the Standard, in Kintail.

8 Original, Seaforth archives ; first printed in the Appendix to Constable's edi-
tion of Wishart, 1819.

756 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

that never subject acted upon more honourable grounds ; nor
by so lawful a power, as I did in this service."" No other mis-
sives, no other commands, than what we have now laid before
-our readers, could ever have reached Montrose. Indeed, there
is evidence, that not many days before his ruin, no change what-
ever had taken place in the temper of his Sovereign. Lord
Napier, anxious to join his beloved uncle in the desperate ad-
venture upon which he was thus hurried by the King, but
unwilling to leave his charge at Hamburgh without orders, had
written to his Majesty for leave to join. Probably his uncle
had stationed him at Hamburgh, until the success or security
of his expedition, misgivings of which seem to have crossed
his own mind, was less doubtful. The King's autograph letter
to this interesting and unfortunate young nobleman, is yet pre-
served in the Napier charter-chest :

"For the Lord Napier"

" MY LORD NAPIER : As I have ever been confident of your
great affection to my service, so I am much confirmed in the
opinion of it, by the letter I lately received from you. I pray
continue your assistance to the Marquis of Montrose, which your
being with him will much the more enable you to do ; and there-
fore I am well pleased with your repair to him, and very sensible
of your good endeavours for my service, which I shall ever ac-
knowledge as your very affectionate friend, CHARLES R."
"Breda, the 15th of April 1650/'

Before Lord Napier could avail himself of this permission,
his illustrious relative, wounded, half famished, and fevered,
was being paraded from the extreme north of Scotland to the
shambles of the Covenant in Edinburgh. Just as that savage
triumph commenced, Charles signed the treaty at Breda, sub-
mitting to the degrading conditions of the covenanting Commis-
sioners, under the useless reservation of some of the more strin-
gent points for determination by the covenanting Parliament.
In other words, for determination by King Campbell, " the
whole and absolute power of Scotland being, at that time, con-
fessedly vested in the Marquis of Argyle." l By this time the

* Clarendon. See note at the end of the chaptei'.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 757

King knew that Montrose had landed in Orkney, star and
garter and all, but was not yet informed of his having reached
the mainland ; far less, that the said star and garter was hidden
under a tree in Ross-shire; or, according to our Historio-
grapher-royal's ingenious though somewhat apocryphal version,
— " cloak, star, and garter swimming down a river, which
enabled his pursuers to ascertain the course he had taken." 1
No change of circumstances in the condition of Montrose had
been reported to him, since the recent date of Harry May's
mission, bearing those urgent instructions, and inciting honors.
Charles signed the treaty at Breda on the 3d-13th of May 1 650.
New official instructions which he then entrusted to a second
emissary from Breda, Sir William Fleming, bear the very same
date, and commence with this command : " You shall with all
speed repair to Orkney, or to the place of Scotland where the
Marquis of Montrose now is, and shall deliver him our letters,
public and private.*' These were the letters in which he in-
forms his Lieutenant of the consummation of his intrigue with
the Covenant, and desires him to lay down his arms ; which, for
all he knew, might at that moment have been crowned with
success.2 The tone of Fleming's instructions is apologetic and
complimentary. To the flimsy excuses and explanations of the
unhappy Monarch, this assurance is added :

44 But you shall assure the Marquis of Montrose that we hope,
upon good grounds, that we shall be able, in a little time, to
make his peace in Scotland, and to restore him to his honours
and estate ; and that we shall shortly have an honourable em-
ployment for him in our service, against the rebels in England ;
and that, in the mean time, we desire him to be fully assured
that we will provide for his honourable subsistence, and to that
end desire him to advertise us by you, to what place he will re-

1 Mr Brodie.

» Mr Brodie (iv. p. 272) says : " No sooner did the news of Montrose's defeat
reach Charles, than, as the only means by which he could recover his Crowns, he
agreed to the terms proposed by the Scottish Commissioners, and accompanied
them to Scotland." Charles signed the treaty at Breda, and agreed to accompany
the covenanting Commissioners to Scotland, and to sacrifice Montrose, on the 3d of
May 1650, old style. Montrose was not defeated until the 27th of April 1650, old
style.

758 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

pair, that we may adjust our correspondence with Mm, and make
a seasonable provision for his supply."

This gracious promise of probable safety and subsistence,
" in a little time," vouchsafed to his latest blue riband, his be-
decked General, whom he had so recently entreated to " pro-
ceed vigorously and effectually in your undertaking," — so re-
cently assured, that " all our loyal and well affected subjects of
Scotland will cordially and effectually join with you," — and that,
" we will not do any thing contrary to that power and authority
which we have given you by our commission, nor consent to any
thing that may bring the least degree of diminution to it ;" and
that, " nothing that can happen to me shall make me consent
to any thing to your prejudice," — would be ludicrous in the ex-
treme, were the subject not so melancholy, and the result so
tragical. The " clear-minded" Montrose was spared the bitter
jest, of having to compare the dispatches brought to him, from
his royal patron by Harry May, and by William Fleming.
The latter never reached him. Probably had he received them
while yet free to come and go, he would have smiled at the idea
of ever having more to do with such " honourable employment
in our service," or " adjusting our correspondence." Sir Wil-
liam was also intrusted with the following autograph letter,
dated two days after the signing of the treaty, and the " In-
structions ;" which letter, with the rest, is, for obvious reasons,
found among the archives of the family of Fleming, and not of
Montrose :x

" MY LORD OF MONTROSE : I have sent this bearer, Sir Wil-
liam Fleming, expressly to you, to inform you of the state of my

1 See p. 731, where Sir William Fleming is mentioned somewhat doubtingly by
Dr Wishart in his letter to Lord Napier. He was second son of Montrose's cousin-
german, John 2d Earl of Wigton ; and now occupied the equivocal position of car-
rying dispatches from the covenanting Commissioners, and the King, to the Argyle
government, while at the same time intrusted with dispatches to Montrose which
that government could not be intended to read.

See " Royal Letters from the Archives of the Earls of Wigton," ably edited for
the Maitland Club by James Dennistoun, Esq. of Dennistoun, whose recent un-
timely death has deprived historical antiquities, and the history of art, of one of
their most efficient and accomplished devotees.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 759

affairs, and to acquaint you with the reasons that have induced
me to an agreement with my subjects of Scotland. I have like-
wise commanded him to let you know how necessary it is for
my affairs that you lay down arms according to my public letter.
You have given me so many testimonies of your affection to me,
and zeal to my service, that you cannot reasonably doubt of my
real intention to provide for your interests, and restitution, with
my utmost care ; and though I may not be able to effect it for
the present, yet I do not despair of doing it in a little time, nor
of having an occasion to employ you more honourably, and more-
advantageously, than in your present design ; in the mean time I
shall be careful to provide a subsistence for you, and have ac-
cordingly sent order to Cochrane, to pay ten thousand rix-
dollars to Sir Patrick Drummond to your use ; which I am con-
fident he will immediately pay, having the money in his hands ;
to which I will make such further addition as shall be necessary.
I pray give credit to what Sir William Fleming shall say to you
from me, and then you will be fully assured that I am your very
affectionate friend, CHARLES R."

" Breda, 3d-l3th of May 1650."

" My public letter," referred to in this complimentary, con-
solatory, and affectionate epistle, our readers will find in the
note below.1

» " CHARLES K."

" Right trusty aud right entirely beloved cousin, we greet you well.

" It has pleased Almighty God to give such a blessing to this treaty at Breda,
that thereby a right understanding, and a full agreement, is settled between us and
our subjects of our ancient kingdom of Scotland. Our will and pleasure therefore
is, and we hereby require and command you, not only to forbear all further acts of
hostility against any of our subjects of that kingdom, but also, immediately upon,
the receipt of these our letters, to lay down arms, and to disband, and withdraw
yourself and your forces out of the same. And because the cannon, arms and am-
munition, which you received at Gottenburg, may be of great use to our further
service, we thei'efore require and command you to leave the same in Orkney, if
they be yet there ; but if they be transported into Scotland, then to deliver the
same to the Sheriff of the county where you are, or some other safe person, by in-
ventory, to remain there for our service, and till we shall give further order for the
disposing thereof ; and for so doing this shall be your warrant. Given at Breda,
the 5th-l5th of May 1650."

" To our right trusty and right entirely beloved cousin, James Marquis of Mon-
trose." — Originals, Dennistoun's Wigton Papers.

760 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

The King, however, had more last words for Sir William
Fleming. As if to render it certain that these commands should
not be in time to enable Montr ose to secure his retreat, or save
his life, the emissary is delayed for further and contradictory
instructions. It is not until the 8th— 18th of May, that Charles
superscribes an address, — " To our trusty and well beloved the
President and other members of Parliament of our Kingdom of
Scotland, or to their Committee,1'1 — in which he informs them of
" having now given satisfaction to your Commissioners, and laid,
as we hope and desire, the foundation of a happy agreement,
and perfect understanding between you and us for the time to
come." And having so premised, he thus informs them of his
commands to Montrose :

" We have given order for the disbanding of those forces
lately come from Orkney, and all who have joined with them,
and for their present withdrawing out of the kingdom : And
because it much imports both us and the safety of the kingdom
that our command therein should be punctually and immediately
obeyed and executed, and that nothing will probably more con-
duce thereunto than that a necessary provision be made for tho
security of all those that intend to go away, in their passage
out of Scotland after they have laid down arms, and their stay
there until they can go, and some reasonable and fit conditions
for the rest, — we therefore recommend very particularly unto you,
to cause such conditions to be made for them, as shall be rea-
sonable and necessary to free the kingdom immediately from these
troops, according to our positive and express order in that be-
half. Given at Breda the Sth-18th day of May 1650, in the
second year of our reign."

It was an ungrateful, an unkingly, and a murderous act, to
sign, under any compulsion, the death-warrant of Strafford.
But the act was not more discreditable to a monarch, and
scarcely so mean, as this. If Montrose was already in Scotland,
with a weak and desultory following, as the King's address as-
sumes, on the first breath of that desertion going forth, the
loyal demonstration in arms would become like the mist before
the mountain breeze, or the snow under the noon-day sun. And
its royally commissioned leader, unnamed and unnoticed in the
royal manifesto, and long marked for destruction by Argyle and

LIFE OF MONTROSE 761

the Kirk, — where was the security for him ? That heartless
omission of his name might even be disingenuously pleaded
(and Charles was dealing with those applied to whom disinge-
nuous is a gentle term) in justification of having put him to
death, as the necessarily exceptional case, and implied reserva-
tion. When Charles affixed his superscription to that manifesto,
the act was equivalent to signing the death-warrant of the noble-
man who had lost all but his honour for both Kings ; and for
whose personal safety, at least, as a sine qua non, — a preliminary
to be emphatically placed beyond all doubt or question, — this
king was more deeply pledged than ever king was pledged to
a subject before.

But ready as he was, at a moment's warning, to sacrifice his
solitary champion, he yet feared to lose all hold of what might
prove his best game after all. Fleming not yet parted from
Breda, Charles on the 9th-19th of May writes his last letter to
Montrose :

" MY LORD MONTROSE : This bearer, William Fleming, hav-
ing many things to say to you from me, and he being better able
to deliver them to you by word of mouth than I can by letter,
I have given him full instructions to acquaint you with all the
particulars of the treaty. I shall desire you, therefore, to give
full credit to him ; and to me, that I am and ever will be, your
most affectionate friend, CHARLES R."'1

But had he not already, in his letters of the 5th-15th of May,
public and private, written his ultimatum to Montrose ? By no
means. Without recalling any of the former missives, he places
these fresh instructions, also dated 9th-19th of May, in the hands
of Fleming :

" 1. You shall deliver my letter to my Lord Montrose, and
assure him of the continuance of my favour and affection to him.

" 2. If you find that the prevailing party now in Scotland
are not satisfied with the concessions I have granted to them,
then Montrose is not to lay down arms ; or if you find that those
people do only treat with me to make Montrose to lay down
arms, and that then they may do what they please.

1 Original, Wigton Papers.

762 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" 3. In case my friends in Scotland do not think fit that
Montrose lay down arms, then as many as can may repair to him.

" 4. You shall see if Montrose have a considerable number
of men ; and if he have, you must use your best endeavour to
get them not to be disbanded ; in which you are to advise with
William Murray,1 and whom you shall think fit : But if Mon-
trose be weak, then he should disband ; for it will do me more
harm for a small body to keep together, than it can do me good :
Howsoever, though they are disbanded, there must be care had
that they may not be lost, but entertained in other troops!" 2

Thus doubly, trebly armed, with the triumph of a vicious fac-
tion, the ruin of a desolate kingdom, and the dishonour of a
dethroned King, Sir William Fleming departed from Breda to
Edinburgh. His pass, signed by Charles II., from the Low
Countries and back, " for our particular affairs," is dated
10th-20th of May 1650.3 When he reached his destination
Montrose was in life, which is all that can be said. But he
arrived in perfect time to save him, had his safety depended on
justice and honour. King Campbell was in possession, through
Lothian and Sir William Fleming, of the treaty and whole pro-
ceedings at Breda, and consequently of such conditions as the
King had made for the personal safety of Montrose, some days
before his vengeance was glutted on the noblest of his foes.
Nor, considering that the emissary between Breda and the
covenanting government was so closely connected by the ties
both of blood and friendship with the captive hero, and was so
fully informed of all his commissions, and of all his relations
with the King, can a doubt remain, that Argyle was just as
well informed of all that ought to have saved Montrose, as was
Sir William Fleming 24 In the full knowledge, we say, of the
stipulation for his safety by the treaty of Breda, and of the
King's correspondence with him, with a perfect conviction of

1 The creature of Argyle, and the Kirk ! See before, p. 373.

3 Original, Wigton Papers.

3 Original, Wigton Papers.

* Mr Brodie says (iv. 273), and says accurately, — " The English Parliament had
been perfectly informed of all these negotiations" at Breda. Lothian, the close ally,
and quondam brother-in-arms, of Argyle, was at Breda, and in constant correspon-
dence with him. Fleming landed at Leith on or before 18th May (old style) 1650,
three days before Montrose was executed, — Whitelock, Carte., Perfect Diurnal, &c.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 763

the truth of his dying words, — u and for my coining in at this
time, it was by his Majesty's just commands, his Majesty
knowing, that whenever he had ended with you, I was ready to
retire upon his call,"— Argyle hanged Montrose, without even
the form of a trial, or permitting him to produce a single paper.
The foul deed would bear not a moment's previous consideration.
And a meaner letter, or one more false, was never penned than
that which he wrote, the day after the crime was perpetrated,
to Lothian at Breda, for the ear of the scarcely less guilty King.

" I am much in your Lordship's debt," — writes the evil genius
of Scotland, commencing with affected indifference somewhat
wide of the subject nearest his heart, — " for I had many long
letters from your Lordship without return ; and yet I hope your
Lordship will censure me favourably if I make not amends at
this time ; for we fail not in our ordinary way of long sitting,
and, it being now late, I confess I am weary : For all last night
my wife was crying ; who, blessed be God, is safely brought to
bed of a daughter, whose birth-day is remarkable, in the tragic
end of James Graham at this Cross. He was warned to be sparing
in speaking to the King's disadvantage, or else he had done it.1
For, before the Parliament, in his own justification, he said he
had several commissions from the King for all he did ; yea, he
had particular orders, and that lately,2 for coming to the main-
land of Scotland. He got some resolution, after he came here,
how to go out of this world ; but nothing at all how to enter
into another ; not so much as once humbling himself to pray at
all on the scaffold ;3 nor saying anything on it that he had not
repeated many times before, when the ministers were with him."4

This characteristic epistle, from the " man of craft, subtlety,
and falsehood," — as his own father characterised him to Charles
the First, and of whom Clarendon has recorded that " honesty

i A gross falsehood, as will appear in the next chapter.

* Obviously referring to the dispatches brought by Harry May, along with the
order of the Garter, which were the last he received.

3 Another gross falsehood, as will presently be shewn.

4 This is true enough ; his unanswerable defence when hurried before the Par-
liament, without his papers, or permission to recover them, was repeated to the
ministers who persecuted him in prison ; and what he said to the ministers, he
repeated on the scaffold. For Argyle's letter, see Mr Sharpe's edition of Kirkton,
p. 124.

764- LIFE OF MONTROSE.

and courage" were qualities omitted in his composition,1 — bears
the stamp of such a character on the face of it. Montrose's
highly accredited position, in relation to his Sovereign, was no-
torious over Europe. It was distinctly implied, if not expressly
stated, in the treaty of Breda. And if more private details could
have been of any consequence to the justification of Montrose,
or to Argyle's intentions with regard to him, there was his
friend and relation, Sir William Fleming, in possession of the
latest and most important, and in communication with, and in
the power of, Argyle and his government, at the very moment.
And why, — if his own eloquent assertion, of his constitutional
position and conduct, was to be answered by abusive scepticism,
and even perverted into a calumny against Charles, — was the
hero indecently hurried to death, without a trial to clear the
fact, or a day allowed him to recover a single document, or to
obtain one word of confirmation or grace from the King ?

Having thus, through Lothian, afforded a significant hint to
the ex-monarch, that he must either abstain from his proffered
throne in Scotland (a consummation devoutly wished for by
Argyle), or submit to the fact being assumed, and tacitly ac-
knowledged by himself, in the face of a universal knowledge
and belief to the contrary, that Montrose had been hanged, not
for high treason against King Campbell and the Covenant, but
against King Charles and the Monarchy, — the master spirit in
Scotland now struck another, and more audacious stroke. On
the fourth day after the death of Montrose, the following scene
occurred in Argyle's Parliament, as noted at the time by Sir
James Balfour : —

" Saturday, 25th May 1650 : A letter from the King's Ma-
jesty to the Parliament, dated from Breda, 12th May 1650,
showing, that he was heartily sorry that James Graham had
invaded this kingdom, and how he had discharged him from
doing the same ; and earnestly desires the Estates of Parlia-
ment to do himself that justice as not to believe that he was
accessory to the said invasion in the least degree, — read.

" Also a double (copy) of his Majesty's letter to James
Graham, dated 15th of May 1650, commanding him to lay

1 See before, p. 158.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 765

down arms, and secure all the ammunition under his charge, —
read in the House.

" The House remits to the committee of dispatches to answer
his Majesty's letter to the Parliament.

" The Marquis of Argyle reported to the House, that himself
had a letter from the Secretary, the Earl of Lothian, which
showed him that his Majesty was no ways sorry that James
Graham was defeated, in respect, as he said, he had made that
invasion without, and contrary to his command."1

This " enormous lying" astounded the rafters of the grand
Parliament Hall of Edinburgh, in perfect time for the echo to
reach Breda before Charles quitted it for Scotland. It was a
tough morsel to swallow, — unless the lie was his own. But swal-
low it he did, wrapped in both the Covenants, which Argyle
crammed down his convulsed throat, ere permitting him to land
at the mouth of the Spey, or set his foot on Scottish ground.
Heartless and unprincipled as Charles the Second was, that ho
could have said to Lothian, or have written to the Parliament,
that which Sir James Balfour records as from himself, is utterly
incredible. Even placing no reliance, at such a crisis, upon his
gratitude or his honour, there was the fact, that he had con-
signed into the hands of Sir William Fleming, beyond his
power of recal, at least seven documents, public and private,
partly autograph, and all under his own signature, any one of
which would have sufficed to convict him of the meanest and
most ungrateful falsehood that mortal could have uttered.

We doubt, too, if it be possible. The date, 12th May J650
(even assuming it to be the old style, or 12th-22d), was but two
days later than the date of Sir William Fleming's pass from
Breda, dated 10th-20th of the same month. At this last date,
the dispatches prove that the King was ignorant of the defeat,
or of the position of Montrose. Then " the double" of the orders
to Montrose bearing date 15th May 1650, which Sir James Bal-
four notes as having been read in the House at the same time,
must be that which we have given from the original, in the note
to a previous page. Fleming only arrived a week before that
scene in Parliament, and no other messenger appears to have

1 Original MS., in Sir James Balfour's own hand, Advocate*' Library ; published
by Messrs Haig of the Library, 1825.

766 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

brought dispatches from Breda between that date and the 25th
of May, the date of Argyle^s statement in the House.

And we are asked to believe that Charles had emphatically
announced what would have been equivalent to Montrose^s
death-warrant, if yet in life, or to the royal confirmation of his
sentence, if already executed, about a fortnight before he wrote
(still at Breda) the following letter of condolence to his cham-
pion^s young successor, whom the covenanting convention, now
acknowledged by the King as a Parliament, would not acknow-
ledge for a peer, although their Sovereign did !

" For the Marquis of Montr ose.

" MY LORD OF MONTROSE : Though your father is unfortu-
nately lost, contrary to my expectation, yet I assure you I shall
have the same care for you as if he were still living, and as able
to serve me as ever ; and shall provide for your subsistence with
that affection you have reason to expect from

" Your affectionate friend,

" CHARLES B."
"June the 8th, 1650."1

Utterly irreconcilable as is this letter with the idea that the
writer of it had, immediately before, expressed his extreme
satisfaction, to Argyle and his government, at the most exciting
event of the day, it is couched in terms that sufficiently indicate
his royal determination to accept of the crown of Scotland
from any hands, and upon any conditions. Argyle, by that
martyrdom, had played his best card to deter the rival King in
vain. Notwithstanding the gross hint, Charles set out for
Scotland, and was anchored at the mouth of the Spey on Sun-
day the 23d (old style) of June 1650, about a month after the
death of his heroic General. While yet at sea, his rival played
the last card. New instructions, steeped in the very gall of the
Covenant, arrested him on his voyage. It is said that these
staggered him for a moment. But he had suffered himself to
be made accessory after the fact to murder, and the prospect
of perjury had lost its terrors. John Livingston, one of the

1 Original, Montrose Charter-room. This important letter was unknown until
first printed in the author's previous edition of the Life of Montrose.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 767

most rabid of the covenanting preachers who now had him in
their toils, dating from on board of ship at the mouth of the
Spey, on Sunday the 23d of June, thus writes to a congenial
spirit : " About ten or eleven o'clock we came to anchor, after
much tossing ; all the particulars mentioned in your last letters
are holpen ; the King hath granted all desired, and this day hath
sworn and subscribed the two Covenants in the words of your
last declaration, and with assurance to renew the same at Edin-
burgh, when desired."1

The covenanting Government arranged all the stages of his
Majesty's progress from the north, and determined that he
should not escape the most unpleasant associations. " The House
ordains that his Majesty should come from Aberdeen to Dun-
otter ; from thence to Kinnaird, the Earl of Southesk's house ;
thence to Dundee ; from it to St Andrews ; and then to his
own house at Falkland."2 At Aberdeen, being lodged in a
merchant's house near the town port, one of the limbs of the
glorious Marquis, elevated in terms of the sentence, greeted his
gaze in the morning. At Kinnaird, the scene of Montrose's
youthful wooing and nuptials, and where the boy bridegroom's
portrait was still preserved, the King might also see his orphan
boys, who appear to have been at this time under the charge of
their grandfather, the ever safe Southesk. Charles the Second
entered the capital in triumph, when the shambles of the Cove-
nant were in full bloom, and the gutters of Dunedin running red
with the blood of the noblest, the best, and bravest of his loyal
subjects. And conspicuous above all the ensigns of his welcome,
and the mural decorations which hailed his deservedly luckless
and miserable progress through the great street of the city,
was the gory head of that nobleman whom he had so recently
decorated with the order of the Garter, and who, but the year
before, had written to him, — " As I never had passion upon

1 See the « Personal History of King Charles the Second," by the Rev. C. J.
Lyon, M.A. Cantab., Incumbent of St Andrew's Episcopal Chapel, St Andrews,
published by T. G. Stevenson, 1851. The fullest, and most authentic, account of
the scandalous transaction, between the Argyle government and Charles II., will
be found in the Introduction to Mr Lyon's valuable history.

1 Balfour.

768 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

earth so strong as that to do the King^ your father service, so
shall it be my study, if your Highness command me, to show it
redoubled for the recovery of you ; and I shall never have friend,
end, nor enemy, but as your pleasure, and the advancement of
your service, shall require." l

1 The records of the Presbytery of St Andrews (of which some extracts were
printed for the Abbotsford Club) alone suffice to prove the foundation, the extent,
and the character, of the reign of King Campbell. The " having drunk drinks to
James Graham ;" or sung a loyal song in his praise ; or (in the case of a minister),
the not having " spoken enough for our deliverance from James Graham ;" or, worse
than all, the having "spoken rashly of the Marquis of Argyle" — are the heinous
offences against Kirk and State recorded in these Presbyterial books, as having
met with condign punishment. Notwithstanding the severity of his wars, and the
popular distress and irritation of necessity created by civil war, the evils of which
the common sense of the people was not inclined to impute to him personally, the
popularity of such a character as Montrose, more especially when contrasted with
Argyle's, was only kept under by the meanest and grossest tyranny of the Kirk.
It occasionally manifested itself, however. Nicoll narrates, in his Diary, that " an
honest man in Glasgow, called John Bryson," hearing a proclamation in which, as
usual, Montrose was styled " traitor and excommunicated rebel," called out that he
was " as honest a nobleman as was in this kingdom." He was immediately ordered
before the Committee of Estates, who condemned him to be " cast into the thieves'-
hole, wherein he lay in great misery by the space of many weeks." Nicoll has also
some amusing notes, explaining that his own occasional use of abusive epithets against
Montrose, was not an expression of his own opinion, but a conforming for the time,
out of sheer terror.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 769

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE LAST DAYS AND DOOM OF MONTROSE.

THE particulars of the death of the Marquis of Montrose
constitute one of the most deplorable chapters in the history of
human brutality. And there is no brutality like human bru-
tality. The horror is heightened by the fact, that this outrage
upon Christianity and civilization in Scotland, where civilization
had made some progress, and Christianity was very loudly pro-
fessed, must be imputed to the ministers of religion. The crime
was accomplished by means of the irresistible pressure of the
Kirk, under the pharisaical dominion of the Marquis of Argyle,
upon the weaker fragment of Scotland's severed constitution.
A deed which scandalized Europe, was, by its clerical authors
and abettors, impressed upon their bewildered serfs as a pious
and religious act, — a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour ascend-
ing unto the God of justice. Montrose was Agag, and Argyle
Samuel.

The tragedy must be minutely unfolded, but by no narrative
of ours. To prove each particular of this indictment against
covenanting Scotland, some ear and eye witness shall be called
into court, some authentic contemporary record produced, and
the humbling tale be told in the very words of those by whom
the facts were seen, heard, and written down at the time.

For the sake of Scotland, however, be it said, that there was
no national desire to sacrifice Montrose. There was not the
least " pressure from without," upon the clerical government of
Argyle. That the Scotch, or, as Hallam has it, " the Scotch
army," had learnt to abhor him, even after all the tyrannical
prompting of the rampant Kirk, is a falsehood of the covenant-
ing faction, which has been suffered to grow (as that faction
contemplated) into a vulgar error of history. But there was

49

770 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

an intense desire, attendant upon " the particular and indirect
practising of a few,"1 to create and perpetuate that belief.
From the first moment of his high principled defection, their
object was to crush the warrior statesman, who, in the cabinet,
had detected and turned against their selfish and destructive
policy, and overwhelmed them with shame and terror in the
field. Once again in their power, his blood must atone for his
" treachery," and his " butchery," without a moment's delay, or
a morsel of mercy.

Whitelock, in his Memorials, records: "17th May 1650 ;
letters (in London) that Montrose was taken two or three days
after the fight, sixteen miles from the place of the engagement,
disguised and sorely wounded?"1

Again, on the day before the execution, the same chronicler
notes, — " 20th May 1650; letters from Berwick, that, in Scot-
land, Montrose was sentenced to be quartered, and prepara-
tions for his execution, before they heard from their King, or
he from them, lest he should intercede for Kis pardon.'"'1

Feebly a voice of mercy sounded from la belle France, herself
not yet demoralised by scenes, the prototypes of which were
now instructing her in the British isles. Did Henrietta Maria,
did her minion Jermyn, exert themselves upon this occasion ?
Alas ! the counsels that were so backward to save the life of
Charles, were not likely to be on the alert to stay the massacre
of Montrose. The Cardinal de Retz, whose eulogy of the hero
has become famous, he it was who generously urged the Regency
of France to supplicate the Velim Gericht of Scotland. Among
the Montrose Archives is now preserved the original of a royal
letter, in French, from Louis XIV., and the Regency, written
at Compeigne on the JOth (new style) of June 1650, and ad-
dressed to the Parliament of Scotland. It bears the signature
of Louis, the minor king, and also that of De Lomenie. But
the crime had been consummated for more than a week, ere
this useless missive, to their " Tres cliers et grands amis" was
signed.

" Having learnt," says the melancholy appeal, " that his Ex-
cellence, the Marquis of Montrose, was taken prisoner in the
1 See before, p. 269 ; the Conservative Bond, signed at Cumbernauld.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 771

battle he fought in Scotland, and considering that this misfor-
tune has befallen him by the fate of war, while fulfilling the
commission of our very dear and well beloved brother and
cousin, the King of Great Britain, and that his conduct, upon
all occasions, has been characterised by great prudence, honour,
and virtue, and that he is well deserving of our esteem and af-
fection ; and, moreover, having also taken into our considera-
tion the very humble petition in his favour, presented unto us
by his Excellence the Bishop of Corinth, coadjutor in the arch-
bishoprick of our good city of Paris,1 We find ourselves im-
pelled to write these to you, acting under the advice of the
Queen Regent, our most honoured lady and mother, to entreat
you to set at liberty his said Excellence the Marquis of Mon-
trose, and suffer not that he should be subjected to any mal-
treatment whatever. We flatter ourselves, that this our re-
commendation, which most affectionately we offer, will not be
disregarded ; and that you yourselves will be inclined to prefer
mercy to the rigor of law, under which it cannot be said that he
has fallen, seeing he hath done no more than devote himself, in
a most generous spirit, to his paramount duty in fulfilling the
commands of the King, his sovereign lord, and yours, who will
be mindful some day of this favour shewn to one of his servants.
In his behalf we have expressly dispatched this nobleman, who
will assure you of our affection, and whom you will credit in
whatever he says in our name, and from whom you will learn,
that this our appeal in favour of his said Excellence, the Mar-
quis of Montrose, is made with the same heart-felt sincerity that
we pray Almighty God to preserve you, our very dear and illus-
trious friends, in his high and holy keeping.""2

The very day after the date of this unavailing remonstrance,
the news arrived in Paris that Montrose was no more. Abra-
ham Cowley, the poet, was then private secretary to Jermyn,
ere very long created Earl of St Albans. The following occurs
in a letter from Cowley to Henry Bennet, afterwards Earl of
Arlington, dated Paris, llth June 1650 :

1 The Cardinal de Retz.

2 Original (in French), Montrose Charter-room. See Memorials of Montrose
for the original French, vol. ii. p. 451.

772 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" This day news is come, that, at Edinburgh, they have hanged,
drawn, and quartered, the Lord Montrose, in a cruel and bar-
barous manner. The particulars I know not yet. Some say,
he was first hanged, then beheaded, and then quartered. If
this be true, as I fear it is, it is a great and most unseasonable
misfortune. And, though I doubted no more of his death, after
his being taken, than of his being beaten after I heard of his
landing, yet I thought that either he would not have fallen alive
into their hands, or that even in that case they would have con-
tented themselves, in this conjuncture, with the revenge of
simply putting him to death, without such extraordinary circum-
stances of cruelty. I am confounded with the thoughts of it."1

But Cowley knew not all the horrors. General David Leslie
had instructions, which he was well fitted to fulfil, to parade his
noble prisoner from be-north the Beauly firth, to be -south the
Forth, as if he were some savage beast of prey, or noxious ver-
min, that had been caught in a trap. Among the mob attend-
ing this barbarian triumph was the Eeverend James Fraser, a
clergyman attached to the family of Lovat. He tells us, that
for thirty years his grandfather was " major domo" to Simon
eighth Lord Lovat, who died in 1633. Hence the grandson
became chaplain to that nobleman's successor. By some sad
perversity and misguidance, the gallant clan Fraser had been
generally opposed in arms along with Seaforth and the Mac-
kenzies to the royal standard. Their chaplain, therefore, was
not necessarily predisposed in favour of Montrose. But he
came into contact with him at a time when every Christian feel-
ing must have revolted at the conduct of his captors. From a
chronicle compiled by this reverend gentleman, which still re-
mains in manuscript, we derive the following graphic account of
the condition, treatment, and demeanour of the noble captive,
while being dragged from the place where he was taken, to the
tolbooth of Edinburgh. The minute details are to be found no
where else :2 —

1 See Miscellanea Aulica, printed in 1702 ; p. 138.

a The present possessor of this curious and valuable manuscript history, is Mr
John Thomson of Liverpool, who most obligingly transmitted it to the author when
editing the Memorials of Montrose for the Maitland Club. The period of the

LIFE OF MONTROSE 773

The Reverend James Frasers Account of the conducting Montr ose
captive to Edinburgh.

" We are now to set down the fatal preludium and parade,
of one of the noblest and gallantest generals this age saw in
Britain ; whose unexampled achievements might frame a his-
tory. Were its volume far bigger than mine, it would yet be
disproportionate to the due praise of this matchless hero.

" May 4th, 1650, he was taken ; and the fourth day after,
delivered to David Leslie, at Tain, Strachan having run south
to have his reward of blood from the State ; which did not a
little gall Leslie to see an upstart rival risen to honour and to
have so great success : A vanity !

" Montrose, being now in the custody of his mortal enemies,
from whom he could expect no favour, yet expressed a singular
constancy ; and, in a manner, a carelessness of his own condition.
He was conveyed with a guard over the river Conan, towards
Beauly. Crossing that river they refreshed them at Lovat ;
such scurvy base indignities put all along upon him as reached
the height of reproach and scorn. Which confirms the poet's
dixi and ditte : —

11 Nescia mens hominum fati, sortisque futurae,
Et servare modum, rebus sublata secundis."1

" But now I set down that which I was myself eye-witness of.

" The 7th of May, 1650, at Lovat, he sat upon a little shelty
horse, without a saddle, but a quilt of rags and straw, and
pieces of ropes for stirups ; his feet fastened under the horse's
belly with a tether ; a bit halter for a bridle ; a ragged old dark

Reverend James Fraser's life embraces the times both of Montrose and Dundee.

Eventually he became Episcopal clergyman at Wardlaw, and was alive in the early

part of the eighteenth century.

1 From the tenth Book of the ^Eneid. But for the comparison with Turnus, the

whole passage might be applied to the retributive fate of Argyle : —
" Oh mortals ! blind in fate, who never know
To bear high fortune, or endure the low,
The time shall come, when Turnus, but in vain,
Shall wish untouched the trophies of the slain,
Shall wish the fatal belt were far away,
And curse the dire remembrance of that day."

774 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

reddish plaid ; a montrer (montero) cap, called magirky,1 on his
head ; a musketeer on each side, and his fellow prisoners on
foot after him.

" Thus conducted through the country, near Inverness, under
the road to Muirtown, where he desired to alight, he called for
a draught of water, being then in the first crisis of a high fever.
And here the crowd from the town came forth to gaze. The
two ministers, Mr John Annand, wait here upon him to com-
fort him ; the latter of which the Marquis was well acquainted
with.2 At the end of the bridge, stepping forward, an old wo-
man, Margaret MacGeorge, exclaimed and brauted, saying, —
c Montrose look above ; view these ruinous houses of mine, which
you occasioned to be burnt down when you besieged Inverness.13
Yet he never altered his countenance ; but, with a majesty and
state beseeming him, kept a countenance high.

" At the cross, a table covered. The Magistrates treat him
with wine, which he would not taste, but allayed with water.
The stately prisoners, his officers, stood under a forestair, and
drank heartily. I remarked Colonel Hurry, a robust, tall,
stately fellow, with a long cut on his cheek.4 All the way
through the streets Montrose never lowered his aspect. The
provost, Duncan Forbes, taking leave of him at the town's end,
said, — ' My Lord, I am sorry for your circumstances.' He re-
plied,— i I am sorry for being the object of your pity? The Mar-
quis was convoyed that night to Castle Stewart, where he
lodged.

" From Castle Stewart, the Marquis is convoyed through
Moray. By the way, some loyal gentlemen wait upon his Ex-
cellency, most avowedly, and with grieved hearts : Such as, the
Laird of Culbin, Kinnaird ; old provost Tulloch, in Narden ;

1 The words in italics are given as they seem to be written. The MS. is in some
places very difficult to decypher.

8 Only one of them is named in the MS.

3 This is the proper type of the so-called popular feeling, and whole case against
Montrose.

4 This portrait, affording so admirable a subject for the historical painter, is veri-
fied by Sir James Turner, who mentions, that when Hamilton's army of " the En-
gagement" was routed, " among others, Colonel Urrey got a dangerous shot on the
left side of his head, whereof, though he was afterwards taken prisoner, he reco-
vered."— Memoirs, p. 65. It was Major- General Sir John Hurry !

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 775

Tannochy, Tulloch ; Captain Thomas Mackenzie, Pluscarden ;
the laird of Cookstoun ; and old Mr Thomas Fullerton, his
acquaintance at college. He was overjoyed to see these about
him ; and they were his guard forward to Forces, where the
Marquis was treated ; and thence, afternoon, convoyed to Elgin
city, where all these loyal gentlemen waited on him, and diverted
him all the time, with allowance of the General (David Leslie).

" In the morning, Mr Alexander Symons, parson of Duffus,
waited on him at Elgin, being college acquaintance with the
Marquis; four years his condisciple at St Andrews. This
cheered him wonderfully, as the parson often told me. Thence
they convoyed him all the way to the river Spey, and a crowd
of loyalists flocked about him unchallenged. Crossing Spey,
they lodged all night at Keith; and next day, May 12th, being
the Sabbath, the Marquis heard sermon there. A tent was set
up in the fields for him, in which he lay. The minister, Master
William Kinanmond, altering his ordinary, chose for his theme
and text, the words of Samuel the prophet to A gag, the king of
the Amalekites, coming before him delicately : ' And Samuel
said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy
mother be childless among women," &c. This unnatural, mer-
ciless man, so rated, reviled, and reflected upon the Marquis,
in such invective, virulent, malicious manner, that some of the
hearers, who were even of the swaying side, condemned him.
Montrose, patiently hearing him a long time, and he insisting
still, said, — ' Rail on, Ra (?) ;' * and so turned his back to him
in the tent. But all honest men hated Kinanmond for this ever
after. Montrose desired to stay in the fields all night, lying
upon straw in the tent till morning.

" Monday after, they march through the Mearns, south. By
the way, the Marquis came to his father-in-law's house, the
Earl of Southesk, where he visited two of his own children.2
But neither at meeting or at parting could any change of his
former countenance be seen, or the least expression heard, which
was not suitable to the greatness of his spirit, and the fame of
his former actions, worth, and valour. In transit^ his Excel-
lency staid one night at Dundee ; and it is memorable, that,

1 Illegible in the MS. Query, Rabsh-tkh ! contracted.
* See note in the Appendix as to Montrose's sons.

776 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

though this town suffered more loss by his army than any else
in the kingdom, yet were they so far from insulting over him,
that the whole town expressed a great deal of sorrow for his
condition ; and furnished him with clothes and all other things
suitable to his place, birth, and person.1

" At Leith he was received by the Magistrates of Edinburgh ;
and thence convoyed up to the city, by the water-gait2 of the
Abbey ; and with him all the prisoners of quality on foot,
about forty persons. But, according to the sentence of the
Parliament, the Marquis himself had the favour to be mounted
on a cart horse.

" Having ended this part of his journey, in as much state as
in triumphs is accustomed to be, he was met at the end of the
Oanongait, under the Netherbovv, by some other officers, and
the executioner, hangman, in a livery coat, into whose hands he
was delivered. There was framed for him a high seat in fashion
of a chariot, upon each side of which was holes : Through these
a cord being drawn, crossing his breast and arms, bound him
fast in that mock chair. The executioner then took off the
Marquises hat, and put on him (the executioner) his own bon-
net ; and, this chariot being drawn with four horses,3 mounted
on the first, and solemnly drives along towards the Tolbooth.

" By this conduct was confirmed and fulfilled Thomas Rytli-
mers prophecy, never understood till now : ' Visa la fin, on an
outer tree, green, shall ly many be seen? &c. ' Visa la fin? — look
to the end, — is Montrose, or Graham's motto ; and this cart
was made of green ouler, or alder, timber ; which happened to
be brought in newly cut to the market-place, and there sold.4

1 There is a story, told in the " Memorie of the Somervilles," that Montrose being
lodged at the house of the laird of Grange, not far from Dundee, the good lady had
planned his escape, by means of dressing him in her own clothes ; and that the ruse
had very nearly been successful. Some doubt is thrown upon this anecdote, though
circumstantially told, by the entire omission of it, in the minute account in our text ;
nor is it elsewhere mentioned.

8 That is to say, the gaitt or way, leading from the sea to the Abbey of Holyrood
House.

3 Other contemporary accounts mention but one horse attached to the cart ; the
City records, however, to be afterwards quoted, confirm Fraser's statement.

4 Amse la fin, is the motto of the Cassilis family. In the reign of Robert III.,
the widow of Sir James Kennedy married Sir William Graham of Kincardine, Mon-
trose's ancestor. The Montrose motto is N'oublie. The reverend chronicler's illus-

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 777

" The vast crowd, assembled to gaze upon this noble peer,
who before wished to see this spectacle, and wished him all
vengeance and misfortune, could not now restrain tears.
Wringing their hands, they began to be shaken with the first
shew of his tragedy. Then, being incarcerated in the Tolbooth,
he was so closely shut up that none of his dearest friends were
suffered to come nigh him. Being now in the mercy of his im-
placable foes, not satisfied with his calamities, they reviled him
with all possible spite ; objecting to him, his former condition
and present misery ; pronouncing heavy judgments against him ;
and, being asked why they, could not other ways be satisfied but
by so ignominiously handling of him, replied, that they knew no
other way to humble him, and bring him home to God/'

Still preserved at Cumbernauld, the scene of Montrose's ill-
fated conservative bond, and found along with those royal letters
and instructions by which we have been enabled to clear him
from the imputation of an unauthorised invasion of Scotland,
is the following minute relation, by another eye-witness, of his
reception in Edinburgh, and his progress to the Tolbooth.

" A note of the several passages concerning Montrose Ms carriage
after he was brought prisoner to Edinburgh.

" The Parliament being informed that Montrose was appre-
hended, and fearing lest his countenance and carriage might
gain him some favour among the people, thought fit to give out
their sentence against him before he came to Edinburgh ; and

tration is not very accurate. Not in the prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer, but in
those of " Sibylla and Eltraine," occurs the following : —
" The sadled horse shall be seen

Tied to a tree greene,

And with Aviso, la fine

In a boge shall be borne,

Syne twa ships in a shield

That day shall foote the field,

To the Antelopes beild,

And fetch him beforne."

Without pretending to interpret this mystery, we may remark, that " ships in a
shield" is descriptive of the bearings of Aryyle. See Collection of Ancient Scottish
Prophecies, reprinted for the Bannatyne Club, 1833.

778 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

therefore, upon the 17th of May (Friday), in the morning, they
appointed a committee to prepare and give in their opinion, what
was fittest to be done with him ; who that same forenoon gave in
their report in writing, which was approven, thus :

" That how soon he should come to the town, he should be
met at the port by the Magistrates and hangman; that he
should be tied with cords upon a cart, bare-headed ; that the
hangman should ride upon the horse, covered, before him, and
so carry him through the town ; that he should be hanged on a
gibbet at the Cross of Edinburgh till he died, and his history,
and declaration, hanged about his neck ; and hang three hours
thereafter in the view of the people ; thereafter, he should be
headed and quartered ; his head to be fixed at the prison house
of Edinburgh ; and his legs and arms to be fixed at the ports of
the towns of Stirling, Glasgow, Perth, and Aberdeen ; and, if
he repented, that the bulk of his body should be buried, by
pioneers, in the Greyfriars ; if not, to be buried in the Burgh-
moor. It is not unworthy of remark, that the new Earl of Rox-
burgh, and Mr Chiesly, who was knighted at the Isle of Wight,
and got a pension, which he presently enjoys, for his offers of
service to the late King, were two of the committee who projected
this sentence. The reason of his being tied to the cart was in
hope that the people would have stoned him, and that he might
not be able by his hands to save his face." 1

" Upon the 18th day,2 about four in the afternoon, he was
brought in at the Water-gate, where he was met by the Ma-

1 This account of the sentence, with the precise date of its ratification, is confirmed
by the notes of the Lord Lyon, Sir James Balfour, preserved in the Advocates' Li-
brary. But Sir James has not recorded the names of the committee, which of course
was both secret and select. The rapidity with which they produced that elaborate
and ingenious sentence, argues that they alone sat upon it who were most apt to a
task evidently fulfilled con amore. The composition bears the stamp of Johnston of
Warriston, who by this time had ceased to be Lord Advocate, having obtained the
office of Lord Clerk Register, the great object of his ambition ; and in virtue of
which the bon louche fell to him, of reading the sentence to Montrose. " The new"
Earl of Roxbui'gh mentioned above was Sir William Drummond, youngest son of
the Earl of Perth. He succeeded to the Earldom of Roxburgh, through his mother,
by the special destination of that title ; and in that same month of May, had been
served heir thereto, and so became second Earl of Roxburgh. It is not easy to un-
derstand why he took such a part against Montrose, as the Drummonds were gene-
rally loyal, and some of them adherents of Montrose.

2 Saturday, 18th May (old style) 1650.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 779

gistrates, the guards, and the hangman ; the rest of the pri-
soners, being tied two and two, going before him l How soon
he came within the port, the Magistrates shewed him that
order. When he had read it, he perceived the cart and the
hangman. He said he would go willingly to it ; he was only
sorry that, through him, his master, whose commission he carried,
should be dishonoured. Then, going cheerfully on the cart, he,
being uncovered, was by the hangman tied thereto by ropes ;
and the hangman rode, covered, upon the horse that drew the
cart.2 Thus was he led to prison. In all the way, there ap-
peared in him such majesty, courage, modesty, and even some-
what more than natural, that those common women who had
lost their husbands and children in his wars, and who were
hired to stone him, were, upon the sight of him, so astonished
and moved that their intended curse turned into tears and
prayers ; so that, the next day, all the ministers preached
against them for not stoning and reviling him.

" It is remarkable, that, of the many thousand beholders, only
Lady Jean Gordon, Countess of Haddington, did publicly insult
and laugh at him ; which being perceived by a gentleman in the
street, he cried up to her, that it became her better to sit upon
the cart for her adulteries.3

" The Lord Lorn, and his new Lady, were also sitting in a
balcony, joyful spectators ; and the cart being stopt when it
came before the lodging where the Chancellor, Argyle, and
Warriston, sat, — that they might have time to insult, — he,
suspecting the business, turned his face towards them ; where-
upon they presently crept in at the windows : Which being
perceived by an Englishman, he cried up, it was no wonder
they started aside at his look, for they durst not look him in
the face these seven years bygone ! 4

1 The prisoners treated in this inhuman manner were of the highest distinc-
tion ; such as Sir John Hurry, Colonel Gray, young Charteris, young Spottiswoode,
&c. &c.

a There were certainly three horses attached to the cart, if not four, as will appear
afterwards ; the hangman, in official costume, was mounted on the leading horse,
and one of his men appears to have been placed on the shaft of the cart.

8 This Countess of Haddington was the niece of Argyle, and the third daughter
of that Marquis of Huntly whom Argyle had lately put to death.

4 Argyle's eldest son had been married on the Monday previous to Lady Mary

780 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

" After he was loosed from the cart, he gave the hangman
gold, saying, — c Fellow, there is drink-money, for driving the
cart/ i

" It was past seven o'clock at night before he was entered
into the tolbooth; and immediately the Parliament met, and
sent some of their own number, and some ministers., to examine
him : But he refused to answer any thing to them, until he
should know in what terms they stood with the King : Which
being reported to the Parliament, they delayed proceedings
against him till Monday ; and allowed their commissioners to
tell him that the King and they were agreed. He desired that
night to be at rest ; for he was wearied with a longsome jour-
ney ; and, he said, — ' the compliment they had put upon him
that day, was something tedious."1 " 2

A very interesting state paper, recently communicated from
the Archives of France, by M. Guizot, affords a valuable con-
firmation of the details now laid before our readers from the
Wigton manuscript. The French Resident in Edinburgh, M.
de Graymond, was at this time corresponding with his chief, on
the all engrossing subject of the advent of the dethroned King
of England to the capital of Scotland. Cardinal Mazarin,
whose recent brilliant offers to the champion of Charles the
First, we have recorded in a previous chapter,3 then ruled the
destinies of France. M. de Graymond, in a long letter of poli-
tical news (of which we translate only the passages relating to
our subject), thus writes from Edinburgh to the Cardinal, on

Stewart, eldest daughter of that Earl of Moray from the balcony of whose house
(still existing) in the Canongate, the marriage party were now enjoying the spectacle.
The anecdote is confirmed by the next document.

1 Many a time had Montrose bestowed " drink-money," when he little expected
to have to do it with his own hand upon such an occasion. See before, p. 54.

3 This original document was found by the late Mr Dennistoun, among the
Wigton papers at Cumberuauld house, and printed for the Maitland Club in the
collection mentioned previously, p. 758, note. It is obviously the original of a tract
printed in the year of Montrose's execution, and now extremely scarce, entitled,
" A true and perfect relation of the most remarkable passages and speeches at and
before the death of his Excellence James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, &c., faith-
fully collected by an eye-witness in Edinburgh, as they happened upon the 18th
20th, and 21st of May 1650 ; printed 1650."

8 See before, p. 665.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 781

Wednesday the 23d of May 1650, the day after the execution
of Montrose : —

M . de Gray monads Report to Cardinal Mazarin, of Montrose s
Progress through Edinburgh to the Tolbooth.

" The rumour on Thursday was, that the King of England
had arrived at Aberdeen ; and, on Friday, that he was at Dun-
otter. This is not confirmed, but assuredly he will be here
immediately.

" Saturday last Montrose arrived in this town, which went
forth in arms to receive him, about half a mile out of town.
When he reached the port of the Canongate, which is a faux-
1>ourg, or rather a separate town, the Magistrates ordered him
to ascend a villainous little cart, driven by the hangman, who
was seated on the shaft. Without betraying the slightest emo-
tion, he enquired if their instructions were to compel him to do
so. They answered in the affirmative, and that such were the
orders of the Parliament. ' Oh,' he said immediately, ' if that
be the way they mean to treat us, let us mount.''

" He was paraded the whole length of the Canongate, and
through the town, to the prison, fast bound upon a seat attached
to the cart, and his head uncovered. Regarding the spectators
on either side of him with a majestic air, a smile of disdain on
his countenance bore witness that ho gloried in his sufferings.
So remarkable was this, that we may say of him, deliberata morte
ferocior. Few were there, present, that did not sympathize ; or
who forbore to express, by their murmurs, and mournful aspira-
tions, how their hearts were touched by the nobility of his bear-
ing, amid such a complication of miseries.

" He was surrounded by those guarding him ; and it has
occasioned much talk since, that the procession was made to halt
in front of the Earl of Moray s house, where, among other spec-
tators, was the Marquis of Ar gyle, who contemplated his enemy
from a window, the blinds of which were partly closed.

" Yesterday morning (Tuesday), as also on Sunday, the ap-
pointed ministers of religion prayed for his conversion, in their
sermons, and for the salvation of his soul. Others of them
visited him in prison, to impress upon him how he had broken

782 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

the covenant which he had subscribed ; for so they put it, urg-
ing him to repentance. He cast the accusation back upon them ;
asserting that they now took his life for no other reason than
that he had maintained the principles of the Covenant, in terms
of his oath.

" After this interview, he was conducted into the presence of
the Parliament, where sentence was pronounced upon him to
this effect : That he was to be hanged ; his head set upon the
top of the prison ; his legs and arms to be sent to the principal
towns of the Kingdom, to be there exposed to public view ; the
rest of his body to be treated as garbage, if he died impenitent ;
otherwise, to be buried in the cemetery ; a sentence in the exe-
cution of which they were occupied yesterday for several hours.

" He neither affirmed nor denied that he had an express
commission from the King of Great Britain, to invade this
Kingdom at the present time.1 Nor, as I understand, did he
say that the Duke of Hamilton had been competing with him,
as some allege,2 for the commission he held, of commander-m-
chief of the forces in Scotland. He preferred confining himself
to general expressions, indicating that his undertaking was for
the weal and the honour of his Sovereign, and not without that
Sovereign's approbation.

" Your Eminence must pardon me, if I have suffered myself
to be somewhat carried in this long narration. But the figure
of Montrose — his quality of Marquis — a peer of the Realm — a
General commanding in chief — so recently created a Knight of
the Garter — the extraordinary mode of his execution, with all
the concomitants — unprecedented in Scotland — struck me as
affording matter for profound reflection." 3

1 M. de Graymond was not well informed here. Montrose repeatedly and pointedly
asserted his royal credentials, as Argyle mentions to Lothian ; but with that high-
mindedness which characterised him, he forbore as much as possible from seeming
to impute blame to his Sovereign (who had manifestly sacrificed him), or from being
personal to him. Argyle's mean accusation to Lothian was the very reverse of the
truth ; see before, p. 763.

3 See before, the Queen of Bohemia's letter to Montrose, p. 713.

3 From the original in the "Archives des Affaires Etrangeres de France? most
obligingly communicated to the author by M. Guizot. See note in the Appendix.

Mr Brodie (Hist. iv. 269) says : " We must not rashly credit the enemies of
Argyle, when they assert that, seated at a window, he feasted his eyes on the humi-
liation of his enemy." M. Guizot, by his disoovery of M. de Graymond's interesting

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 783

Exactly one hour before the procession arrived at the tol-
booth, Parliament, specially convened, was assembled in their
great hall, the Scottish Inquisition being rendered yet more
awful by the glare of many torches. The intention was to order
the wounded and way-worn prisoner, at once into their presence,
to receive his doom. Argyle and Warriston must have passed
rapidly from Lord Moray's balcony, to confront him in their
more conspicuous places in Parliament. We now quote the
record of the Lord Lyon : —

"Saturday, 18th May 1650: James Graham entered Edin-
burgh, according to the ordinance of Parliament of the 17th of
May, with twenty-three prisoners, all commanders, and Sir John
Hurry his General- Major, and were all of them committed pri-
soners to the tolbooth of Edinburgh :

" The House met this same day, likewise by a special ordi-
nance, at 6 o'clock at night, and sent Robert Lord Burleigh,
Sir James Hope of Hopetoun, George Porterfield of Glasgow,
Mr James Durham, and Mr James Hamilton, ministers, to
James Graham, to ask at him if he had any thing to say ; and
to show him that he was to repair to the House to receive his
sentence. They used some interrogatories, and brought his
answers in writing.1

" The House delays the execution2 of James Graham's sen-
tence till Monday at ten hours, the 20th. The House ordains
Lord Burleigh; Sir James Hope; George Porterfield; Sir Archi-
bald Johnston, Clerk Register; Sir Thomas Nicolson, King's
Advocate; Sir James Stewart, Provost of Edinburgh; to examine
James Graham on some points anent Duke Hamilton and others :3

state paper, has added another confirmation to a contemporary anecdote, which
there was never any reason to doubt, and which was also more particularly re-
corded, in the Wigton manuscript, by an eye-witness, and printed in a tract that
same year.

1 No trace of this document has been discovered.

2 A mistake for the reading of the sentence ; the execution of it was postponed
until the following day.

8 This refers to Lanerick, the second Duke of Hamilton ; who, notwithstanding
his disreputable covenanting antecedents, was understood to be a competitor for the
commission with which Montrose had been recently invested by Charles II. After
joining the Covenanters in Scotland, he had debased himself, as a very efficient

784 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

And, because he was desirous to understand of them, formerly,
how it stood betwixt the King and them, the Parliament or-
dained them to show him the truth, that their commissioners
and the King^s Majesty were agreed, and that his Majesty was
coming here to this country."

Thus closed the last Saturday of Montrose's existence. Sun-
day, of course, was no day of rest for him. While he lasted,
he was the property of the ravens of the Covenant. We again
quote the words of the Wigton manuscript : —

" The next day, being Sunday (19th May), he was constantly
attended by ministers and Parliament men, who still pursued
him with threatenings ; but they got no advantage of him. He
told them, — if they thought they had affronted him the day be-
fore, by carrying him in a cart, they were much mistaken, for
he thought it the most honourable and joyful journey that ever
he made ; God having all the while most comfortably manifested
his presence to him, and furnished him with resolution to over-
look the reproaches of men, and to behold him for whose cause
he suffered."

This account of his persecution, by the ministers of covenant-
ing religion, we are enabled amply to corroborate by their own
testimony. Ten o'clock on Monday morning was the hour ap- .
pointed for his undergoing the scene of receiving sentence in the
Parliament hall; a scene so trying, that, when over, we may
say the bitterness of death had passed. All his energies of body
and mind were requisite to meet it. He had been " sorely
wounded" in the fray. He had been famished in the wilder-
ness. The last of his dearest friends and companions was now
the food of beasts of prey in some solitary spot there, where
they had parted for ever. Poor Kinnoul ! But Montrose was
reserved for suffering more intense. We have seen him seated
on a quilt of rags, in the squalid garb of a vagrant, his legs tied
under the belly of a miserable highland pony ; pleading for a
draught of water, " being then in the first crisis of a high fever ;"

tool for Argyle ; whose ulterior object, however, would not allow of the stars of
Hamilton or Lauderdale rising, as that of Montrose fell. See before, pp. 384, 713.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 785

reposing his wounded and fevered frame at night on a truss of
straw in the fields ; preached and railed at by a rabid minister,
insulting him with the story of Agag ; tortured with that last
glimpse of his weeping boys, at the scene of his early love ; and,
finally, submitted with elaborate and exhausting indignity to
the gaze of his bitterest enemies, through that city which he had
saved from destruction when its authorities were at his feet.
Well might he desire " that night to be at rest, for he was
wearied with a longsome journey, and the compliment they had
put upon him that day was something tedious." But rest was
not permitted to him, even for the few hours within which ho
had to make his peace with Heaven. At eight o'clock on Mon-
day morning, a time so precious to him for thought and repose,
before confronting his judges two hours later, the ministers were
flocking round him again. The following private record we
found among the manuscripts of the Advocates1 Library. It is
all in the autograph of, and signed by, the Reverend Robert
Wodrow, the well known apologist of the covenanting enor-
mities, a worthy of whom we shall have more to say, when we
come to record the history of the great DUNDEE.

The Reverend Patrick Simson s Testimony ', as preserved by tJte
Reverend Robert Wodrow.

" This same time, Mr Patrick Simson told me he was allowed
to go in with the ministers that went in to confer with the Mar-
quis of Montrose the day before his death, and was present at
the time of their conference. His memory is so good, that
although it be now sixty years and more since it was, I can en-
tirely depend upon his relation, even as to the very words ; and
I set it down here, as I wrote it from his mouth, and read it
over to him.1' 1

" In the year 1650, the 20th of May, being Monday, the
morning about eight of the clock, before the Marquis got his
sentence, several ministers, Mr James Guthrie,2 Mr James
Durham, Mr Robert Trail, minister at Edinburgh, and, if my

1 Patrick Simson was minister of Renfrew, born in 1628, and died in 1715. At
one time he was Moderator of the Assembly.
2 See before, p. 593.

50

786* LIFE OF MONTROSE.

author be not forgetful, Mr Mungo Law, appointed by the Com-
mission of the Great Assembly, went into the tolbooth of Edin-
burgh, where Montrose was. His room was kept by Lieutenant-
Colonel Wallace. Being forfeited and excommunicated, they
only termed him Sir, and gave him none of his titles. Mr James
Guthrie began, and told Montrose that there were several things
might mar his light, in this affair they were come to him about,
which he would do well to lay to heart, and he would hint at them
before they came to the main point. 1st, Somewhat of his na-
tural temper, which was aspiring and lofty, or to that purpose.
2dly, His personal vices, which were too notorious. My author
tells me he meant his being given to women.1 3dly, the taking
a commission from the King to fight against his country, and
raise a civil war within our bowels. Montrose's direct answer
to this my relator hath forgot. 4thly, His taking Irish and
Popish rebels, and cut-throats, by the hand, to make up of
against his own countrymen. 5thly, The spoil and ravage his
men made through the country, also the much blood shed by
his cruel followers. Montrose heard him patiently till he had
done, and then resumed all ,the particulars, and discoursed on
them handsomely, as he could well do, intermixing many Latin
apothegms, only my author thought his way and expression a
little too airy and volage, — not so much suiting the gravity of
a nobleman.2 He granted that God had made men of several
tempers and dispositions, — some slow and dull, others more
sprightly and active, — and, if the Lord should withhold light on
that account, he confessed he was one of those that love to
have praise for virtuous actions. As for his personal vices, he
did not deny but he had many ; but if the Lord should with-

1 We may rest assured that had any thing of the kind been known, it would
have been particularly noted and libelled against Montrose, and cast up to him in
his dying moments. The conjectural general calumny (probably a failure in the
old covenanting minister's memory), expressed in the gross phrase of a gross sect,
is sufficiently met by the fact, that with no particular scandal was Montrose ever
charged, or upbraided, even by the unscrupulous enemies whose voluminous ac-
cusations against him were a tissue of puerile falsehoods. See before, p. 339.

8 One of the ministers evinced his own Christian manners upon that occa-
sion, by telling Montrose that " he was a faggot of hell, and he saw him burning
already.' ' — Saintserf.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 787

hold light upon that account, it might reach unto the greatest
of saints, who wanted not their faults and failings. One of the
ministers, here interrupting him, said, he was not to compare
himself with the Scripture saints. He answered, ' I make no
comparison of myself with them, I only speak of the argument/
As to the taking of those- men to be his soldiers, who were
Irish Papists, &c., he said it was no wonder that the King
should take any of his subjects who would help him, when those
who should have been his best subjects, deserted and opposed
him : ' We see,1 said he, ' what a company David took to defend
him in the time of his strait.' There were some volitations, to
and fro, upon that practice of David, which are forgot. As to
his men's spoiling and plundering the country, he answered, —
they know that soldiers who wanted pay could not be restrained
from spoilzie, nor kept under such strict discipline as other re-
gular forces ; but he did all that lay in him to keep them back
from it ; and for bloodshed, if it could have been thereby pre-
vented, he would rather it had all come out of his own veins.

" Then falling on the main business, they charged him with
breach of Covenant. To which he answered, ' The Covenant
which I took I own it and adhere to it. Bishops^ I care not for
them. I never intended to advance their interest. But when the
King had granted you all your desires, and you were every
one sitting under his vine and under his fig tree, — that then
you should have taken a party in England by the hand, and en-
tered into a League and Covenant with them against the King,
was the thing I judged my duty to oppose to the yondmost.'
In the progress of their discoursing, which my author hath for-
got, the Marquis added, ' that course of theirs ended not but
in the King's death, and overturning the whole of the Govern-
ment.' When one of the ministers answered, ' that was a sec-
tarian party that rose up and carried things beyond the true
and first intent of them,' — he said only, in reply, ' Error is in-
finite? After other discourses, when they were risen and upon
their feet to go away, Mr Guthrie said, — l As we were appointed
by the Commission of the General Assembly to confer with you,
to bring you, if it could be obtained, to some sense of your guilt,
so we had, if we had found you penitent, power from the same
Commission, to release you from that sentence of exconmiunica-

788 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

tion under which you lie. But now since we find it far other-
wise with you, and that you maintain your former course, and
all these things for which that sentence passed upon you, we
must, with sad hearts, leave you under the same, unto the judg-
ment of the great God, having the fearful apprehension, that
what is bound on earth , God will bind in Heaven. To which he
replied, 4 1 am very sorry that any actions of mine have been
offensive to the Church of Scotland, and I would, with all my
heart, be reconciled with the same. But since I cannot obtain
it on any other terms, — unless I call that my sin which I ac-
count to have been my duty, — I cannot, for all the reason and
conscience in the world.1 This last expression is somewhat
short ; but my author tells me he remembers it distinctly, and
the Marquis had those very words, neither more nor less. This
is an exact copy of what I took from Mr Simson's mouth, Sep-
tember 29th, 1710.

" Ro. WODROW."

" He tells me further, that on Friday, or Saturday,1 Mr
David Dickson was with Montrose, but gained no ground on
him ; that the Parliament would allow him no knife nor weapon
in the room with him, lest he should have done harm to him-
self. When he heard this, he said to his keeper : ' You need
not be at so much pains ; before I was taken, I had a prospect
of this cruel treatment, and if my conscience would have allowed
me, I could have dispatched myself.'

" After the ministers had gone away, and he had been a little
Ms alone, my author being in the outer room with Colonel Wal-
lace, he took his breakfast, a little bread dipt in ale. He de-
sired leave to have a barber to shave him, which was refused
him ; my author thinks, on the former reason. When Colonel
Wallace told him, from the persons sent to, he could not have

1 It must have been Saturday, and the days following, as appears from the mi-
nutes of the Assembly of the Kirk : " Edinburgh, 18th May 1650. The Commis-
sion of the General Assembly doth appoint Messrs David Dickson, James Durham,
James Guthrie, Robert Trail, Hugh Mackael, to attend upon James Graham when
he is entered in ward, and upon the scaffold, and deal with him to bring him to re-
pentance, with power to them to release him from excommunication, if so be he
shall subscribe the declaration condescended upon by the Commission, containing an
acknowledgment of heinous and gross offences • otherwise that they should not relax
him.11

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 789

that favour, my author heard him say, — ' / would not think but
they would have allowed that to a dog?

" This same day (Monday, 15th May) between ten and
twelve, he was called to the bar, and got his sentence, — to be
hanged and quartered, his head to remain at Edinburgh, one
quarter to Glasgow, another to Aberdeen, &c. When he got
notice that this was to be his sentence, either in the prison or
when coming from the bar, he said, — ' It becomes them rather to
be hangmen than me to be hanged" He expected and desired to
be headed."

From the Reverend Robert Trail's MS. Diary.

" When the Marquis of Montrose was brought into the Par-
liament-hall to receive his sentence, / was present, with some
others of the ministers of the town, and heard his sentence read
unto him, he being in the pannel, and commanded to kneel on
his knees while it was a reading, which he did, but very unwill-
ingly. After it had been fully read, he answered, — * That, ac-
cording to our Scots proverb, a messenger should neither be
headed nor hanged? My Lord Loudon, being then President of
the Parliament, replied very well, that it was he, and such as
he, that were a great snare to Princes, and drew them to give
such bloody commissions.1 After that he was carried back to

1 Argyle and his government knew perfectly that Montrose could plead the
King's commission for every step he had taken. See before, p. 762. They felt
conscious that the fact deprived them of every pretext for putting Montrose to
death. Hence they neither proposed to their victim to produce the credentials he
alleged, nor would they have suffered him to recover a single document. Yet after
his death, Argyle, in his letter to Lothian, pretends to treat with scepticism the
fact, known to Europe, that Montrose was acting under the commissions and in-
structions of his Sovereign. Some ten years afterwards, when his retributive fate
overtook Argyle, a' count in his indictment (and one very ill founded in law, con-
sidering how Charles II. homologated the act), was, that, when wielding the supreme
power in Scotland, he had put the royal Lieutenant to death, and with unexampled
barbarity. Argyle's reply in defence is miserably weak. He says that he declined
to tote (a fact not proved) on the question of affirming the committee's sentence j and
with regard to Montrose's credentials, this extraordinary plea is put in : " And as
to the aggravations of the said murder, the said Marquis being his Majesty's com-
missioner for the time, — it is no way a relevant circumstance to aggravate the
same, except it had been libelled that the said commission had been shown to the Par-
liament ; which nobody can affirm ; but, on the contrary, the said Parliament con-

790 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

prison. The commission of the Kirk, then sitting, did appoint
Mr James Hamilton, Mr Robert Baillie, Mr Mungo Law, and
, me, to go and visit him in the prison. For he being some years
before excommunicated, none except his nearest relations might
converse with him.1 But by a warrant from the Kirk, we staid
a while with him about his souTs condition. But we found him
continuing in his old pride, and taking very ill what was spoken
to him, saying, — ' I pray you, gentlemen, let me die in peace? It
was answered, that he might die in true peace, being reconciled
to the Lord, and to Ms KirJc. He went aside to a corner of the
chamber, and there spoke a little time with Mr Robert Baillie
alone ; and thereafter we left him. Mr Baillie, at our coming
out of the Tolbooth, told us, that what he spoke to him was
only concerning some of his personal sins in his conversation,
but nothing concerning the things for which he was condemned.2
We returned to the Commission, and did shew unto them what
had passed amongst us. They, seeing that for the present he
was not desiring relaxation from his censure of excommunica-
tion, did appoint Mr Mungo Law, and me, to attend on the
morrow upon the scaffold, at the time of his execution, that in
case he should desire to be relaxed from his excommunication,
we should be allowed to give it unto him in the name of the

ceived they h&djust reason to presume that there could be no such commission for
his coming against them at that time ; because his Majesty, after the murder of his
royal father, very graciously had admitted their gracious application to him."
Indictment against Argyle, and his Answers, "printed for the satisfaction of all
those that desire to know the truth, 1661."

For the same class of readers, probably, was printed the account of Argyle in
Wood's edition of Douglas's Peerage, where, in the face of all history and records,
it is actually asserted (though not by Douglas} that the one indignant reclaimer, and
dissentient voice, against the murders both of Huntly and Montrose, was Argyle !!
Argyle made no such defence for himself.

1 This refers to the rule of "excommunications" merely; none of Montrose's rela-
tions were with him in prison, or on the scaffold. There is no evidence that his father-
in-law, Southesk (who alone of his near male relations was in the country), came near
him.

3 The Reverend Robert Baillie (whom we have so often quoted) here seems to
give himself the airs of a father-confessor to Montrose ! We may be assured that
the conversation thus reserved, must have been some general expressions of a Chris-
tian mind, that would only have testified in favour of his Christian condition. It is
remarkable, that among the voluminous letters and journals of Baillie, there is not
a word on the subject of the capture or murder of Montrose.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 791

Kirk, and to pray, with him and for him, that what is loosed on
earth, might be loosed in Heaven" *

Sir James Balf OUT'S note of the scene in Parliament.

" Monday, 20th May 1650: The Parliament met about ten
o'clock ; and immediately after the down-sitting, James Graham
was brought before them by the Magistrates of Edinburgh, and
ascended the place of delinquents. After the Lord Chancellor
had spoken to him, and in a large discourse declared the pro-
gress of all his rebellions, he shewed him that the House gave
him leave to speak for himself: Which he did in a long discourse,
with all reverence to the Parliament, as he said, since the King
and their Commissioners were accorded. He pleaded his own
innocency ; by calling all his own depredations, murders, and
bloodshed, only diversion of the Scots nation from interrupting
the course of his Majesty's affairs in England ; and as for his
last invasion from Orkney, — from which, said he, he moved not
one foot but by his Majesty's special direction and command, —
that he called an accelerating of the treaty betwixt his Majesty
and this nation.2 To him the Lord Chancellor (Loudon) replied,
punctually proving him, by his acts of hostility, to be a person
most infamous, perjured, treacherous, and, of all that ever this
land brought forth, the most cruel and inhuman butcher of his
country ; and one whose boundless pride and ambition had lost
the father, and by his wicked counsels had done what in him lay
to destroy the son likewise. He made no reply, but was com-
manded to sit down on his knees, and receive his sentence, which
he did. Archibald Johnston, the Clerk Register, read it ; and the
Dempster gave the doom : And immediately arising from off his
knees, without speaking one word, he was removed thence to
the prison. He behaved himself all this time in the House with
a great deal of courage and modesty, unmoved and undaunted,
as appeared ; only, he sighed two several times, and rolled his
eyes alongst all the corners of the House, and at the reading of
the sentence, he lifted up his face,3 without any word speaking.

1 These poor fanatics held strange doctrines. See before, p. 783.

8 A characterising of his own wars in which, as we have shewn, he was perfectly
justified, as Sir James Balfour himself could hardly fail to know.

• Doubtless to confront Warriston, who would read the sentence with great unc-
tion. See before, p. 592.

792 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

He presented himself in a suit of black cloth, and a scarlet coat
to his knee, trimmed with silver galouns, lined with crimson
tafta ; on his head a bever hat and silver band. He looked
-somewhat pale, lank-faced, and hairy" 1

From this last portrait, stamped with individuality, and re-
plete with pathos, Burke might have illustrated the sublime.
They were all drawn by close but not friendly observers, and
betray involuntary admiration. There is admiration in the
complaint that his nature was " aspiring and lofty." Their
bitter denouncing of the sins which they declared were about
to consign his soul to perdition, is unwittingly absorbed in their
contemplation of the manner he " discoursed on them handsomely,
as he could well do, intermingling many latin apothegms."2 And
yet a greater triumph for his temper and indomitable spirit, is
the having diverted their gloomy and pharisaical homilies, on
death and coming judgment, into an envious criticism of " his
way and expression — a little too airy and volage — not so much
suiting the gravity of a nobleman ! "

An hour later, however, when in presence of the Parliament,
his manner is no longer volage. Just nine years before, he had
stood in that same " place of delinquents," a prisoner of the
same faction, then anxious to prevent his meeting with Charles
the First. Now it was Charles the Second whose advent was
expected, and Montrose must be hurried to his doom. On the
former occasion he told them, — " My resolution is to carry along
fidelity and honour to the grave." He had kept his word. How
many of his compeers had failed in theirs ! He stood before
them now, with his bloody, seared, and solitary laurels, his
hopes destroyed, and his worst predictions fulfilled. To save

i Original MS. autograph of Sir James Balfour, Advocates' Library. The -scarce
contemporary tract describes his dress yet more minutely : —

" He came into the House apparelled in a very rich suit, thick overlaid with costly
lace, and over it a scarlet rochet ; and on his head a beaver hat with a very rich hat-
band upon it ; with carnation silk stockings, garters, and roses ; with other habili-
ments suitable ; all which he had caused to be made for him immediately upon his
coming to Edinburgh, as if he had been going rather about some festival, than tra-
gical affair."

• This characteristic trait is exemplified in some of his writings we have produced.
See his letter to the King, p. 313. •

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 793

his Country, he had warred with and conquered the oppressive
and cruel Covenant, in vain :

" Oh Patria ! et rapti nequicquam ex hoste Penates?"

But his port was as lofty, his soul unshaken as ever. The
facile princeps of heroic nobility in Scotland, the commander of
the greatest fame, the statesman of the " clearest mind," and
the brightest honour, now stood before that degraded remnant
of his own Order, about to treat him as carrion. Yet we must
congratulate those few, — only eleven peers present, including
Argyle, — hopelessly subjugated to the will of the Dictator, that
they were not called upon to dispose of their prisoner after the
fashion of more primitive and less responsible savages.

He had been suffered to array himself as became his condi-
tion. He affected no indifference to the proprieties of his rank
and his cause. The puerility of covenanting malice had ex-
hausted itself in the vain endeavour to extinguish his nobility,
by depriving him of its outward attributes. As the Parliament
now sat in the name of the King, to have continued the grovel-
ling farce of degrading him through his garb, would have been
an insult too gross to the Sovereign and to the House. Agag
coming delicately before Israel, when Samuel hewed him in pieces,
was the scene they now fancied. Clad bravely as beseemed him,
still " he looked somewhat pale, lank-faced, and hairy." The use
of a razor had been refused. Can we wonder, considering all that
had come and gone since last he stood there, that " he sighed
two several times, and rolled his eyes alongst all the corners of
the House 2" And nothing less than sublime is that other trait
noted by the same close and fascinated observer: — " At the
reading of the sentence, he lifted up his face, without any word
speaking ! "

But why, if he meant his notes for history, did Sir James
Balfour discredit himself by that feeble and false record of the
heroes defence ? The address he actually delivered, was, under
all the overwhelming circumstances, scarcely to have been ex-
pected from human nature. It could not have been more per-
fect, had the wounded, exhausted, and tormented nobleman, been
permitted to repose, for months previously, in his chamber and

794 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

been still.1 Too terse' and dignified to be interrupted, even by
the low-minded London, it yet missed no single point of his
case, and must have thrilled the hearts of those who trembled
as he reasoned. Though scarcely left for a moment to his own
reflections, he yet delivered a speech, in reply to a torrent of
intemperate abuse, whose argument, structure, and language,
were worthy of his reputation as a statesman, a scholar, a hero,
and a Christian.

MontrosJs Speech to the Parliament before receiving Sentence :
from the Wigton Manuscript.

" Upon Monday forenoon he was brought before the Parlia-
ment : And after that the Chancellor had snivelled out a long
premeditated discourse, of his miscarriages against the first
Covenant, and the league Covenant, his invasion and joining
with the Irish rebels, and blood-guiltiness, and that now God
had brought him to his just punishment, — he desired to know
if he might be allowed to speak ; which being granted, he
said : —

" l Since you have declared to me that you have agreed with
the King, I look upon you as if his Majesty were sitting amongst

1 The Major or Captain of the Town Guard was that notorious character Major
Weir, executed for many horrible crimes in the reign of Charles the Second. At
this period, however, his reputation was saintly, a character then easily acquired
by the unprincipled ; see before, p. 87. His conduct to Montrose is thus described
in a rare work, entitled " Ramllac Redimvus ;" from the second edition of which,
printed in 1 682, we quote the following :

" The barbarous villain treated the heroic Marquis of Montrose with all imagin-
able insolence and inhumanity when he lay in prison ; keeping him in a room in
which was no other light than that of a candle, and his lighted tobacco, which he
continually smoked with him, though the Marquis had an aversion to the smell of
it above any thing in the world. Nay, he would even disturb him in his devotions,
making his very calamities an argument that God as well as man had forsaken him ;
and calling him dog, atheist, traitor, apostate, excommunicated wretch, and many
more such intolerable names."

The Wigton manuscript says : — " His friends were not suffered to come near
him ; and a guard was kept in the chamber beside him, so that he had no time or
place for his private devotions, but in their hearing ; yet it is acknowledged by
them all that he rested as kindly those nights, except sometimes when at prayers,
as ever they themselves did."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 795

you ; and in that relation I appear with this reverence, — bare-
headed :

" ' My care has been always to walk as became a good Chris-
tian, and loyal subject. I did engage in the first Covenant, and
was faithful to it. When I perceived some private persons,
under colour of religion, intend to wring the authority from
the King, and to seize on it for themselves, it was thought fit,
for the clearing of honest men, that a bond should be sub-
scribed, wherein the security of religion was sufficiently pro-
vided for.1 For the League, I thank God I was never in it ; and
so could not break it. How far Religion has been advanced by
it, and what sad consequences followed on it, these poor dis-
tressed Kingdoms can witness. When his late Majesty had,
by the blessing of God, almost subdued those rebels that rose
against him in England, and that a faction of this Kingdom
went in to the assistance of the rebels, his Majesty gave commis-
sion to me to come into this Kingdom, to make a diversion of
those forces which were going from this against him. I acknow-
ledged the command was most just, and I conceived myself bound
in conscience and duty to obey it.

" " What my carriage was in this country, many of you may
bear witness. Disorders in arms cannot be prevented ; but they
were no sooner known than punished. Never was any man's
blood spilt but in battle ; and even then, many thousand lives have
I preserved. And I dare here avow, in the presence of God,
that never a hair of Scotsman's head, that I could save, fell to
the ground. And as I came in upon his Majesty's warrant, so,
upon his letters, did I lay aside all interests, and retire :

" ' And as for my coming at this time, it was by his Majesty's
just commands, in order to the accelerating the treaty betwixt
him and you ; his Majesty knowing, that, whenever he had ended
with you, I was ready to retire upon his call. I may say, that
never subject acted upon more honourable grounds, nor by so
lawful a power, as I did in these services :

" ' And therefore I desire you to lay aside prejudice ; and
consider me as a Christian, in relation to the justice of the quar-
rel ; as a subject, in relation to my royal master's command ;

1 The Cumbernauld Bond, signed by eighteen peers besides Montrose. See be-
fore, p. 269.

796 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

and as your neighbour, in relation to the many of your lives I
have preserved in battle : And be not too rash ; but let me be
judged by the laws of God, the laws of nature and nations, and
the laws of this land :

" ' If otherwise, — / do here appeal from you, to the righteous
Judge of the world, who one day must be your Judge and mine, and
who always gives out righteous judgments?

" This he delivered with such a gravity and possessedness as
was admirable. After this the Chancellor commanded the sen-
tence to be read ; which he heard with a solid and unmoved
countenance ; and having then desired to speak, the Chancellor
stopped him,1 and commanded he should be presently removed :
" He was no sooner carried back to prison, but the ministers
with their fresh assaults invade him, aggravating the terror of
the sentence, whereby to affright him. He said he was much
beholden to the Parliament for the honour they put on him ;
4 for,' says he, ' I think it a greater honour to have my head
standing on the ports of this town, for this quarrel, than to have
my picture in the King's bed-chamber : I am beholden to you,
that, lest my loyalty should be forgotten, ye have appointed five
of the most eminent towns to bear witness of it to posterity.1 "

The brutal sentence went forth — the solemn appeal was en-
tered. And that his country might never forget it, with a com-
mand of mind scarcely to be paralleled, he framed it in words
that have fixed themselves on the history of Scotland like the
blister on the forehead Of Cain. Once again his desolate muse
poured forth the lava strain that criticism shrinks from touch-
ing. She lives in that dying prayer, —

" LET THEM BESTOW ON EVERY AIRT8 A LIMB,

THEN OPEN ALL MY VEINS, THAT I MAY SWIM

To THEE, MY MAKER, IN THAT CRIMSON LAKE, —

THEN PLACE MY PAR-BOIL'D HEAD UPON A STAKE,

SCATTER MY ASHES — STREW THEM IN THE AIR, —

LORD ! SINCE THOU KNOWEST WHERE ALL THESE ATOMS ARE,

I'M HOPEFUL THOU'LT RECOVER ONCE MY DUST,

AND CONFIDENT THOU'LT RAISE ME WITH THE JUST."

i Sir James Balfour had omitted to note this circumstance.
1 Airtt point of the compass.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 797

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE EXECUTION — THE RETRIBUTION — LADY NAPIER AND THE HEART OF
MONTROSE— EPITAPH.

SIR JAMES STEWART of Coltness, devoted to the government
of Argyle, was Provost of Edinburgh ; and upon him devolved
the duty of superintending the preparations for Montrose's
execution, and seeing that triumph accomplished. It is said
that he ventured to remonstrate against the details. But he
had conspicuously attached himself to the covenanting regime,
and this was not a time when he could draw back. His remon-
strance, indeed, was feeble, if it went no further than what his
friendly family chronicler records. " Sir James," he says, " had
nothing of insolence, or bloody cruelty in his disposition. The
Marquis Argyle pursued, or prosecuted, the unfortunate Mon-
trose with too keen resentments : ' What need? said Sir James,
' of so muck butchery and dismembering ? Has not heading, and
publicly affixing the head, been thought sufficient for the most
atrocious state crimes hitherto 2 We are embroiled, and have
taken sides ; but to insult too much over the misled, is un-
manly? Yet there was no remedy. Argyle pushed the ven-
geance of Church and State against Montrose. But Sir James
his conduct was on the side of humanity." x

Be this as it may, he had to do his work, and that speedily
and thoroughly. Orders were issued to the city workmen to
labour throughout the whole of the night of Friday the 1 7th,
to have the machinery of death erected at the Cross before the
arrival next day of the prisoner, whose instant execution was at
first contemplated. The Provost dare not abate an inch of the
gallows, or a nail of the scaffold ; nor shall we, in laying before

1 Genealogy of the Stewarts of Allanton and Coltness, drawn up by Sir Archi-
bald Stewart Denham of Westshiels (who was born in 1683, and died in 1773) ; and
ably edited for the Muitland Club in 1842, by Mr Dennistoun of Dennistoun.

798 LIFE OF MQNTROSE.

our readers the items of cost to the city, which may be termed
the butcher's bill.

In the accounts for the week commencing Monday 13th May
1 650, and the week following, there are entered, of course in
Scots money, —

" Paid by John Forster, by order of the Bailies, for seven torches to the
Lords of the Parliament that night (Saturday 18th) James Graham was
brought in to the tolbooth,i . . . £440

" Item, paid by John Forster for charges disbursed by him with
the officers attending at the foot of the Canongate, and for
taking the horses to draw the cart, . . 1 10 0

"/tern, paid to William Barrone for his cart, and three horses,*
for carrying of James Graham from the water-gate to the
tolbooth, conform to order of Council, . . 300

u Item, to Allan Robisone,3 and his men, for driving of the cart,

and leading of the horses up the High Street, . 1160

" Item, to David Sands, wright, for making a seat upon the cart
in form of a chair, for James Graham to sit upon, and for
other charges that day during their onwaiting at the water-
gate, . . . .300

" Item, for 100 flooring nails for flooring the cart with deals, and

to make the seat, . . . . 0 13 4

"Item, given by order of the Bailies to the master wright his
men, who were commanded to work all night, for making of a
high new gallows, and a double ladder, in haste for the exe-
cution, . . . . . 1 16 0

" Item, for 12 single garrone, and 6 double flooring nails, for

making the said high gallows, and ladder foresaid, . 140

*' Item, to a sledder for carrying out some lime to the south loch,
for bigging up the stone work there, to hold in the water, by
order of Council,4 . . . 0160

" Item, paid to David Sands, wright, and others, for making of a

large scaffold, for the said execution, . . 6 13 4

1 Parliament was specially convened that night to receive him, and sat late.
a This seems to account for the four horses mentioned by the Rev. James Fraser,
including the cart horse upon which their noble prisoner arrived.

3 This gives us the name of the hangman, who wept as he cast Montrose from the
ladder.

4 The south, or Burgh-moor loch, was drained in the last century, and now forms
those pleasant meadows to the south of the city, which are still the object of further
improvements. The public gallows, under which Montrose's dismembered body
was thrust, stood on the south-east verge of it ; and, probably, the place had to be
cleared of water. A sledder means the driver of a low cart.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 799

" Item, paid to the wrights for making of a high new gallows, and

double ladder, by direction, for that execution, . 6 13 4

" Item, for 200 single, and 60 double flooring nails, for making

the scaffold, ' . . . . 2 10 8

" Item, for 30 single garrone nails thereto, « . 0 15 0

*' Item, to the wrights and workmen for upsetting the said gallows

upon the scaffold, by a galbert, from the length thereof,1 110 0

" Item, bought by John Forster 12 fathom of tows (ropes) for

setting the galbert on foot, . . . 100

"Item, paid to the workmen for bearing of the deals, puncheons,
ladder, galbert, &c., to and from the Cross for the execution
foresaid, . ... . . . 6 13 4

" Item, paid by John Forster for 16 empty wine puncheons, bought
by order of the Bailies, for enlarging of the scaffold, at 24s.
the piece, to be kept for executions, . . 19 4 0

" Item, paid by him, by order foresaid, to 6 workmen appointed

to attend the whole day upon the execution, . 140

" Item, for a half-hundred plencheor nails for making of four
boxes, to put the legs and arms into, for sending away to
places appointed by the Parliament, . . 060

" Item, to 6 workmen that carried the corps of James Graham,

and buried the same in the Burgh-moor, . . 200

u Item, to the executioner his men for making the grave, and for

a new shovel bought for that use, . . 280

" Item, to David Sands, wright, for taking down the high gal-
lows, and for altering the scaffold for another execution, and
setting the scaffold in the same place,3 . . 368

" Item, to the workmen, for attending, and helping to alter it, 0180

" Item, for 100 flooring nails to the wrights for that purpose, 088

*' Item, paid to two men that went up to the west end of the new

tolbooth, for up-putting of James Graham's head, . 140

" Item, for 2 load of sand to that same execution, 0 8 0"

The iron work of the gallows formed a separate charge, as
appears from the following items of the account disbursed to
"John Tweedy, town smith," and dated 17th May 1650:—

" Item, a gallows, made new to James Graham, 4 great cleeks, and 4 great
nook bands, being four stone and eight pounds weight, at 3 Ib. 4s. the
stone, . £14 8 0

" Item, more, for 80 great nails to the bands of the said gallows, 400
" Item, more, for the said gallows, four great staples, . 0 16 0"

1 The gallows, being thirty feet high, required machinery to set it up.
a Sir John Hurry, and Montrose's other comrades in arms, executed soon after-
rards, were favoured with decapitation by the Scotch guillotine, called The Maiden.

\\

800 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Two other items, of a later date, must be specially noted, as
relating to the romantic incident, we shall presently have to
record, of the abstraction of the hero's heart from beneath the
felons1 gibbet : —

u 27th May 1650: Item, to the Lockman's (hangman) men for covering of
James Graham's grave, in the Burgh-moor, over again, and for making
of it much deeper, . . . . £1 16 0

" 5th June 1650 : Item, made a great trinket prick for James

Graham's head,1 . . . . 1 16 0"

On the morning of Tuesday the 21st of May 1650, Montrose
was " delicately" adjusting his head for the public exhibition of
it which was to last for ten years. Those flowing auburn locks,
cherished as the type of his loyalty, now dishevelled, and pro-
bably matted with the blood of his wounds, he was in the act
of combing out and arranging, when a sullen moody man broke
in upon him with the impertinent reproof, — " Why is James
Graham so careful of his locks ?" " My head," replied the hero,
" is yet my own ; I will arrange it to my taste ; to-night, when
it will be yours, treat it as you please." 2

His attention was arrested by drums and trumpets resound-

1 Nicoll, in his Diary, mentions, that, " because it was rumoured among the
people that James Graham's friends secretly intended to convoy his head off the
prick whereon it was set, on the tolbooth of Edinburgh, therefore, within six days
after his execution, there was a new cross prick appointed of iron, to cross the
former prick whereon his head was fixed, which was speedily done, that his head
should not be removed." This was in consequence of the previous abstraction of
the heart ; and the item in the text confirms Nicoll. These unexplored Accounts
of the City of Edinburgh are replete with minute and curious information. They
are now being properly cared for, and arranged, under the superintendence of Mr
Adam, the city accountant, to whom the author is much indebted for ready access,
and intelligent aid, in searching them.

9 The additional precaution for securing it on the tolbooth was not in vain. In
a rare work, entitled, " Binning's Light to the Art of Gunnery," printed in 1676, it
is stated : — " In the year 1650 I was in the Castle of Edinburgh : One remarkable
instance I had, in shooting at that mirror of his time, for loyalty and gallantry,
James Marquis of Montrose his head, standing on the pinnacle of the tolbooth of
Edinburgh ; but Providence had ordered that head to be taken down with more
honour. I admired of its abiding ; for the ball took the stone joining to the stone
whereon it stood, which stone fell down, and killed a drummer, and a soldier or
two, on their march between the Luckenbooths and the church ; and there remained,
till by his Majesty it was ordered to be taken down and buried (1661), with such
honour as was due to it."

LIFE OF MONTROSE 801

ing through the town. Perhaps his own verse recurred to
him, —

" I'll sound no trumpet as I wont,
Nor march by tuck of drum," —

but he betrayed no symptoms of such regret ; and when told
that it was to call the soldiers and citizens to arms, because the
Parliament dreaded a rising of the malignants to rescue him, — -
" What," he said, " am I still a terror to them ? Let them look
to themselves, my ghost will haunt them." The bitterness of
death had indeed passed, and now he made him boon for the
proudest of his triumphs, and the greatest of his victories.
Those fearful preparations, recorded by the city treasurer in the
matter of fact manner we have disclosed, had produced a suit-
able stage for this grandest of all the field-days of the Kirk.
Their contemporary sport of hunting out, torturing, and burn-
ing alive, confused and half-witted old crones, for the clerical
crime of witchcraft, was stupid and tiresome by comparison.1
Then, and for months thereafter, the Cross of Edinburgh be-
came the theatrical booth of the Covenant ; only, instead of
" veluti in speculum" the motto was, " Jesus and no quarter" 2

Sir Walter Scott has recorded, that u the Marquis of Mon-
trose walked on foot from the prison to the GrassmarJcet, the
common place of execution for the basest felons, where a gib-
bet of extraordinary height, with a scaffold covered with black
cloth, were erected." 3 This is a mistake, which it seems strange

i On Monday 20th May 1 650, immediately after Montrose had been sent back
to the Tolbooth, after receiving sentence, the Lord Lyon notes the business of the
House as follows : —

" The House, this afternoon, appoints two Committees : —

«1. For witches.

" 2. For examining prisoners."

a " After Montrose's death, the scaffold which was set up at the Cross for the
mangling of his body, was, contrary to all former custom, kept unremoved near two
months, for the execution of the Scots officers who were taken with him, and other
worthy men who had embarked in the same cause : So that it became all covered
with blood and gore, and was called * The Ministers' Altar? — of whom it was sar-
castically observed, upon this occasion, ' that they delighted not in unbloody sacri-
fices.' "—Skinner's Ecclesiastical History, p. 417. See before, pp. 582-604.

8 History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 481. In the former edition of the Life and Times
of Montrose, the author being more occupied with the why of Montrose's execution
than the where, followed this high authority without further consideration. Lord

51

LIFE OF MONTROSE.

that Sir Walter should have committed. Montrose was put to
death in the market-place of Edinburgh, beside the ancient
Cross (now removed) on the south side of the High Street,
about midway between the tolbooth (also now removed) situated
towards the Castle, and the Tron Kirk in the direction of Holy-
rood House. Thus, in walking to the scaffold, he had to pro-
ceed down the High Street, eastward, and not, as Sir Walter
supposed, in the opposite direction. That quid-nunc of his day,
John Nicoll, regarded the scene with intense interest, and has
left us this vivid portrait, and description both of the opening
and close of the tragedy : —

" In his down-going from the tolbooth to the place of execu-
tion, he was very richly clad in fine scarlet, laid over with rich
silver lace ; his hat in his hand ; his bands and cuffs exceeding
rich ; his delicate white gloves on his hands ; his stockings of
incarnate silk ; his shoes, with their ribbons, on his feet ; and
sa rks (embroidered linen) provided for him, with pearling (lace)
about, above ten pounds the elne. All these were provided for
him by his friends ; and a pretty cassock put on upon him, upon
the scaffold, wherein he was hanged. To be short, nothing was
here deficient to honour his poor carcase, more beseeming a
bridegroom than a criminal going to the gallow^s :

" He hung full three hours ; thereafter cut down, falling upon
Ms face ; none to countenance him but the executioner and his
men ; his head, two legs, and two arms, taken from his body
with an axe, and sent away and affixed at the places foresaid ;
his body cast into a little short chest, and taken to the Burgh-
moor, and buried there among malefactors."

Thus, with ill-disguised sympathy, wrote the worthy notary-
public, whose Diary, however, was kept in great subjection at
the time by the tyrannical regime he lived to see overthrown :
" Such," he says, " were the orders of Parliament and Commit-
tee^ and prohibitions of the Kirk, that none durst speak in favour

Mahon has adopted the mistake somewhat conspicuously. Sir Walter was mistaken
also in supposing that the Grassmarket was then a place for public executions ; it
did not become so till about the time of the Restoration. As some of the contem-
porary accounts speak of Montrose being executed at the market-place, meaning the
Cross of Edinburgh, Sir Walter had hastily concluded that this meant the Grass-
market at the foot of the Castle-rock.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 03

of Montrose for fear of censure and punishment." But even
the most zealous organs of that government were somewhat
carried by the Christian triumph of their victim, over their own
inventive malice. " Mr Robert Trail," says a contemporary,
" and Mr Mungo Law were two such venemous preachers, as
no man that knows them can mention their names without de-
testation." l The characteristic here alluded to, and of which
we have a fair example in the sermon of Master Kinnanmond
in Montrose's tent, obtained for these worthies the high dis-
tinction of following him to the scaffold, on the part of the Kirk.
Vandyke could not have pourtrayed the hero in prouder linea-
ments, than the sudden impulse of admiration caused Trail
himself thus to report his demeanour, to his own credit and his
Church's discomfiture : —

" But he did not at all desire to be released from excommu-
nication in the name of the Kirk ; yea, did not look towards that
place in the scaffold where we stood ; only, he drew apart some
of the Magistrates, and spaJce a while with them ; and then went
up the ladder, in his red scarlet cassock, in a very stately man-
ner^ and never spoke a word ; but when the executioner was
putting the cord about his neck, he looked down to the people
upon the scaffold, and asked, — "How long shall I hang here?"
When my colleague and I saw him casten over the ladder, we
returned to the Commission, and related the matter as it was."

We find it mentioned in the Wigton manuscript, that " an
Englishman," disgusted with the scene before Lord Moray's
balcony, did what few Scotchman dared at that time to have
done ; namely, vent his indignation aloud, and against some of
the most distinguished of the spectators. It appears that the
Government in England had their " own correspondent" in
Edinburgh at the time, nor is it at all unlikely to have been
that same Englishman. For the Covenant, and all its mean
and cruel ways, had fallen into the greatest contempt with the
triumphant party of Cromwell. In the British Museum is yet
preserved the following letter, written on the very day of Mon-

4

1 " The Continuation of Montrose's Historic ;" being a Supplement to a transla-
tion of Dr Wishart's Commentarius, published in 1G52 under the title of " Montrose
Redivivus."

804- LIFE OF MONTROSE.

trose^s death, and, as the context proves, even during the very
time the scene of his execution was proceeding. It bears no
signature ; nor is it addressed, having been probably enclosed.
Uut it is dated " Edinburgh, May 21st, 1650," and endorsed as
we here title it : — 1

" Relation from Edinburgh concerning the hanging ofMontrose,
May 21rf, 1650."

" What with the early going away of the post, and what with
the hubbub we are in, — Montrose being now on the scaffold, — I
must cut short : —

" Saturday, he was brought into the town, sitting tied with a
rope upon a high chair, upon a cart ; the hangman having be-
fore taken off his hat, and riding before him with his bonnet on.
Several have been with him. He saith, for personal offences he
hath deserved all this ; but justifies his cause.2 He caused a
new suit to be made for himself; and came yesterday into the
Parliament House with a scarlet rochet, and suit of pure cloth
all laid with rich lace, a beaver and rich hat-band, and scarlet
silk stockings. The Chancellor made a large speech to him ;
discovering how much formerly he was for the Covenant, and
how he hath since broke it. He desired to know whether he
might be free to answer ? And being admitted, he told them
his cause was good ; and that he had not only a commission,
but particular orders* for what he had done, from his Majesty,

1 It is contained in a volume of original manuscripts presented to the British
Museum, August 6th 1802, by Nicolas Vansittart, Esq., Secretary to the Treasury.
It bears some indications of having been in the hands of printers, and probably is
the transcript for a printed news broad-sheet or pamphlet of the day. Whitelock, in
his Memorials, seems to refer to it, when, on the 27th May 1650, he notes : — " From
Edinburgh, the particulars of the execution of Montrose." The short account which
he subjoins agrees very closely with the manuscript in the British Museum.

J This Christian sentiment pervades the whole of Montrose's dying discourses ;
but has sometimes been misunderstood, or perverted to his disadvantage. Conti-
nually taunted with the fact of excommunication, as excluding him from God's
mercies, his reply was, that, as a man, subject to the infirmities of human nature,
he would not justify himself to God ; but, in relation to his public conduct as a
Scotchman, he admitted no guilt, and was ready to justify every act of his life.

3 Argyle expressly states so, in his letter to Lothian. M. de Graymond had been
misinformed on that point. See the orders themselves, p. 753.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 805

which he was engaged to be a servant to : and they also had
professed to comply: and upon that account, however they
dealt with him, yet he would own them to be a true Parliament.
And he further told them, that, if they would take away his
life, the world knew he regarded it not ; that it was a debt that
must once be paid ; and that he was willing, and did much re-
joice, that he must go the same way his master did ; and it was
the joy of his heart, not only to do, but to suffer for him.

" His sentence was, to be hanged upon a gallows thirty feet
high, three hours, at Edinburgh Cross ; to have his head strucken
off, and hanged upon Edinburgh Tolbooth, and his arms and legs
to be hanged up in other public towns in the kingdom, as Glas-
gow, &c., and his body to be buried at the common burying-
place, in case excommunication from the Kirk was taken off;
or else to be buried where those are buried that were hanged.

" All the time, while the sentence was given, and also when
he was executed, he seemed no way to be altered, or his spirit
moved ; but his speech was full of composure, and his carriage
as sweet as ever I saw a man in all my days. When they bid
him kneel, he told them he would ; he was willing to observe
any posture that might manifest his obedience, especially to
them who were so near conjunction with his master.1 It is
absolutely believed that he hath overcome more men by his
death, in Scotland, than he would have done if he had lived.
For I never saw a more sweeter carriage in a man in all my
life.

" I should write more largely if I had time ; but Tie is just now
a turning off from the ladder : but his countenance changes not.
But the rest, that came in with him a Saturday, are in great
fears.

" The King is expected daily. The Parliament and Kirk do
conceive, that, if he doth not speedily come in, his ground of
coming was rather upon Montrose^s score, than his agreement
with them. The event of these things will suddenly be known.
They are forthwith a raising men, and have chosen their officers
already. They do intend to make up their army 25,000 ; but
are fearful too publicly to appear, for fear they should encourage
the English army to march. There are several gentlemen come

1 Trail says he knelt " very unwillingly ;" see before, p. 789.

806 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

from England. Amongst the rest, one Major Weldon, brother
to the Governor of Plymouth, speaks very highly for King and
Covenant. I have not time to tell you how much the Scots are
encouraged by the backwardness of the English army not march-
ing northward. But I shall say no more, but rests, really yours."

We now resume the story as told by the Chaplain of Lovat.

The Reverend James Frasers Account, continued.

" The fatal day being come, designed to put a period to all
his troubles, there was erected in the middle of the market-
place, 'twixt the Cross and Trone, a large four-square scaffold,
breast high, in the midst of which was planted a gibbet of thirty
feet height. He was convoyed by the Bailies out of the jail,
clothed in a scarlet cloak richly shammaded with golden lace.
He stept along the streets with so great state, and there ap-
peared in his countenance so much beauty, majesty, and gra-
vity, as amazed the beholders : And many of his enemies did
acknowledge him to be the bravest subject in the world ; and
in him a gallantry that graced all the crowd, — more beseeming
a monarch than a mere peer. And in this posture he stept up
to the scaffold ; where, all his friends and well-willers being de-
barred from coming near, they caused a young boy to sit upon
the scaffold by him, designed for that purpose, who wrote his
last speech in Irachography,1 as follows. The young man's name
was Mr Bobert Gordon, Cluny, my cammarad, son to Sir Robert
Gordon of Gordonstoun ; from whom I got the same, thus :

" Montrose his speech upon the scaffold.

" I am sorry if this manner of my end be scandalous to any
good Christian here. Doth it not often happen to the righteous
according to the way of the unrighteous ? Doth not sometimes
a just man perish in his righteousness, and a wicked man pros-

1 Short hand. All the contemporary accounts mention the fact, with the exception
of the boy's name, which I have found nowhere else than in Mr Fraser's account.
It furnishes another decisive answer to a very crude idea of that distinguished his-
torian, Lord Mahon ; who greatly erred in his hasty theory, that would deprive
Montrose, in the face of all contemporary history, and evidence of friends and foes,
of this his last, noblest, and most beautiful composition. See Appendix for a cor-
rection of Lord Mahon's mistake.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 807

per in his wickedness and malice ? They who know me, should
not disesteem me for this. Many greater than I have been dealt
with in this kind. But I must not say but that all God's judg-
ments are just. And this measure, for my private sins, I
acknowledge to be just with God. I wholly submit myself to
Him. But, in regard of man, I may say they are but instru-
ments. God forgive them; and I forgive them. They have
oppressed the poor, and violently perverted judgment and jus-
tice. But He that is higher than they will reward them. What
I did in this kingdom was in obedience to the most just commands
of my Sovereign : And in his defence, in the day of his distress,
against those who rose up against him. I acknowledge nothing ;
but fear God and honour the King, according to the command-
ments of God, and the just laws of Nature and Nations. And
I have not sinned against man, but against God ; and with Him
there is mercy, which is the ground of my drawing near unto
Him. It is objected against me by many, even good people,
that I am under the censure of ike Church. This is not my
fault, seeing it is only for doing my duty, by obeying my Prince's
most just commands, for Religion, his sacred person, and autho-
rity. Yet I am sorry they did excommunicate me : And, in
that which is according to God's laws, without wronging my
conscience or allegiance, I desire to be relaxed. If they will not
do it, I appeal to God, who is the righteous Judge of the world,
and who must, and will I hope, be my Judge and Saviour. It
is spoken of me that I would blame the King.1 God forbid. For
the late King, he lived a Saint, and died a Martyr. I pray God
I may end as he did. If ever I would wish my soul in another
man's stead, it should be in his. For his Majesty now living, never
any people, I believe, might be more happy in a King. His
commands to me were most just ; and / obeyed them. He deals
justly with all men. I pray God he be so dealt withal, that he
be not betrayed under trust as his fatlwr was. I desire not to be
mistaken ; as if my carriage at this time, in relation to your
ways, were stubborn. I do but follow the light of my conscience;
my rule ; which is seconded by the working of the Spirit of God

» This is clearly an allusion to the warning, of which Argyle so meanly and falsely
boasts in his letter to Lothian, p. 763. But Montrose disdained to impute that ltl>iw
to his Sovereign which, most unquestionably, he deserved.

808 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

that is within me. I thank Him I go to Heaven with joy the
way he paved for me. If He enable me against the fear of
death, and furnish me with courage and confidence to embrace
it even in its most ugly shape, let God be glorified in my end,
though it were in my damnation. Yet I say not this out of any
fear or mistrust ; but out of my duty to God, and love to His
people. I have no more to say, but that I desire your charity
and prayers. And I shall pray for you all.1 I leave my soul to
God, my service to my Prince, my good-will to my friends, my
love and charity to you all. And thus briefly I have exonerated
my conscience.'

" The ministers, because he was under the sentence of ex-
communication, would not pray for him, and even on the scaf-
fold were very bitter against him. Being desired to pray apart,
he said, — ' I have already poured out my soul before the Lord,
who knows my heart, and into whose hand I have committed my
spirit, and he hath been pleased to return to me a full assurance
of peace in Jesus Christ my Redeemer; and therefore, if you
will not join with me in prayer, my reiterating it again will be
but scandalous to you, and me/ So, closing his eyes and hold-
ing up his hands, he stood a good space with his inward devout
ejaculations, being perceived to be mightily moved all the while.
When he had done, he called for the executioner, and gave him
four pieces of gold ; who, weeping, took his book and declara-
tion, and other printed papers which he had published in his
life, and being all tied in a string, hanged them together about
his neck, when he said, — * I love this more than my badge of
being Knight of the Garter, which his Sacred Majesty was
pleased to make me : Nay, more my honour than a chain of
gold.' 2 Then his arms being tied, he asked the officers if they
had any more dishonour, as they conceived it, to put upon him 2
— he was ready to receive and accept of the same. And so,
with an undaunted courage and gravity, in spite of all their
affronts, uncivil and barbarous usage, he went up to the top of

1 Compare with Argyle's fanatical and false account, in his letter to Lothian,
p. 763.

2 Both General David Leslie and Colonel Strachan were invested, by Govern-
ment, with massy gold chains, for their respective victories at Philiphaugh and
Corbiesdale.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 809

that prodigious gibbet, where, having freely pardoned the exe-
cutioner, he desired him that, at the uplifting of his hands, he
should tumble him over; which was accordingly done by the
weeping hangman, who with his most honest tears seemed to
revile the cruelty of his countrymen ; which may serve for a
test of the rebellious and diabolical spirit of that malicious
Consistory. After three hours he was taken down, and had
his head cut off, which was fixed on the iron pin, west end of
the Tolbooth ; his quarters sent to be placed and set up in the
several cities ; and the rest of his mortal parts buried under the
gallows.

" I saw his arm upon the Justice-port of Aberdeen ; another
upon the South-port of Dundee ; his head upon the Tolbooth of
Edinburgh : Also, / saw it taken down, and — Argyles head put
up in the place of it?

We must not fail to note, that good " Maister William For-
rett," the faithful and persecuted Dominie of Montrose, and of
his boys, survived to mourn over the sad catastrophe, but not to
witness the retribution. He died while that great sorrow was
yet heavy on his heart.1

James second Marquis of Montrose, not seventeen years of
age when his father perished, had either made his escape, or
been permitted to take refuge in Holland, from the tuition of
the Kirk.2 His cousin, Lord Napier, was there in exile too.
We shall hear more of them both, in our introductory chapter
to the LIFE OF DUNDEE ; a history to come, which forms

i The Commissary Record of Testaments throws some light upon the extraction
of Montrose's earliest instructor, and affords touching evidence of his enduring de-
votion to the House of Graham, and to those who had been the most faithful adhe-
rents of his beloved pupil and patron. He is therein designed " Maister William
Forrett, son to umquhill (deceased) James Forrett of Borrowfield ;" and is stated
to have died in the month of February 1652. The Inventory of his gear proves
that this old Dominie had lent money to " David Graham of Fintry, Sir Robert
Graham of Morphie (curators of Montrose), and others, Grahams, conform to their
bond, the sum of £2500, with interest." And, in his testament, dated at Edinburgh
last day of October 1651, he leaves, — " Item, to Sir Robert Spottiswoode, his three sons,
the sum of £1000, when it is gotten in, being 500 merks to ilk ane of them." See
before, pp. 18,440,471,599.

9 See before, p. 644.

810 LIFE OF MOXTROSE.

indeed the proper sequel to that of Montrose. His niece, Lady
Stirling of Keir, — she who once sent to him " a well known
token,"1 when their hopes were high for the rescue of Charles,
and the Throne, — along with her sister Lilias Napier, her hus-
band Sir George, and their faithful chaplain Dr Wishart, were
also in exile. It seems most probable that the whole of this
interesting and stricken group were in company together, in
Holland, when the destruction of Montrose was consummated.2
The Stirlings had no family, and Lilias Napier remained un-
married.

But what of their sister-in-law, the Lady Elizabeth Erskine,
Lady Napier ; she who had suffered such severe persecution and
imprisonment, along with the rest, for devotion to Montrose ?
Lady Napier, it seems, had not been able to fulfil the ardent
wish of her exiled husband, who wrote to her some three years
before, — " I should be more contented to live with you meanly
in the deserts of Arabia, than, without you, in the most fruitful
place in the world, plentifully, and with all the delights it could
afford." But they had five young children, — their father him-
self only twenty-six years of age in 1650, — and Lady Napier
judged, doubtless wisely, that her paramount duty was, to re-
main in the old dilapidated castle of Merchiston, and to reside
upon their ruined and sequestrated barony, in order to save what
she could for the family. The incident we are about to narrate
redeems her from all imputation of being less devoted to the
cause of Montrose, than his other nieces and nephews in exile.
No friend or relation was permitted to be with the hero in his
last moments. Few indeed were there remaining to have per-
formed the sad office. But to this bereft and sorrowing Lady,
it can scarcely be doubted, the dying nobleman was indebted
for the embroidered linen, " with pearling about," and the
" stockings of incarnate silk ;" and the bunches of ribbons on

1 See before, p. 396, note.

3 In the Napier Charter-chest is a bond for a thousand merks, borrowed by
" Archibald Lord Napier, and Mrs Lilias Napier, our sister, from Mr James
Weems, lawful son of Dr Ludovick Weems," — and made payable " thirty days
after that this our bond shall be shown and intimated to Lady Elizabeth Erskine,
Lady Napier." This melancholy document is dated " Shiedam in Holland, 7- 17th
of October, 1652 ;" and witnessed by " Dr George Wiseheart, minister of the Scots
congregation there, and writer thereof."

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 811

his feet. Thus we have realized the romance of Flora M'lvor.
And the Lady of the well known token, and the spirited Lilias,
who had written so indignantly to Keir, before joining him in
his exile, — " If business had not gone miserably here, there
would a been more ado with these honest men, who now are
forced to leave their own country," — would envy their sister in
Scotland, her sad and dangerous share in that awful tragedy.
How many unrecorded incidents, of deepest interest, must have
composed their romance of real life. The exasperated Loudon,
safely swelling in that mock judgment-seat, might denounce the
hero who had defeated and destroyed his clan, as " the most cruel
and inhuman butcher of his country." Hallam may condescend
to play parrot to the calumny of a virulent faction, and reck-
lessly record him as "abhorred, and very justly T But those
three noble and irreproachable Ladies, with whom we may in-
clude the " Queen of Hearts," and her peerless daughters, re-
spected, admired, and loved to the last, the accomplished and
devoted Christian Knight, who penned this stanza, —

' ' The golden laws of Love shall be

Upon those pillars hung ;
A single heart, a simple eye,

A true and constant tongue :
Let no man for more love pretend

Than he has hearts in store,
True love begun will never end, —

Love one, and love no more."

The stockings of incarnate silk are still in possession of the
present Lord Napier ; and, with the other reliques, have been
possessed by his ancestors since the time of Montrose's death.
They are made of unspun silk ; and are knitted, not woven.
Their original flesh or rose colour has long faded away, except
in some of the folds, where that dye is still visible. They are
of a glossy texture, not at all worn, and the shape indicates
strength of limb, and a small foot. There is other dye, how-
ever, upon them than the " incarnate." The upper part of
both stockings, which must have reached above the knees, seems
as if saturated with blood, the dark stains of which diminish in

812 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

streaks towards the ankle. On one of the stockings a streak
extends to the instep. The fact of hewing off the limbs with
an axe, when the stockings (which the executioner, whose per-
quisite they were, would take care not to cut,) were pushed
down below the knees by the operator, sufficiently accounts for
these appearances. The stockings must have been purchased
from the executioner by Lady Napier, who in all probability
had provided them.

Another relique, yet more interesting, accompanies the stock-
ings. It is a piece of the finest linen, very ancient, about three
feet square, tasselled at the corners like a pall, and trimmed all
round with a border of antique lace ; the " pearling^ above ten
pounds the elne," of which citizen Nicoll speaks in his Diary !
This sheet appears to have contained something that had marked
it, especially towards the centre, with stains and blotches of
various hues, all now faded in different degrees. It has been
called, in the Napier family, Montrose^s handkerchief, stained
with his blood. But it is too large for that piece of dress, and
he used no other signal than his hand. The following history,
we think, accounts for this sad memorial, and the appearance
it presents.

The extensive plain of fertile pastures, to the south of the
city of Edinburgh, now surrounded by venerable trees, and so
well known by the name of " The Meadows," was, in the days of
Montrose, occupied by the " Burgh-moor Loch ;" called also the
South Loch, relatively to the basin on the other side of the
castle, called the North Loch, at present the site of the Kail-
way, and Princess Street Gardens. The South Loch was only
drained in the last century, by the enterprize of Hope of E/an-
keillor, and hence is sometimes called Hope Park. At the
south-west extremity of the Burgh-moor, beyond the Loch,
stands the ancient castle of Merchiston. In nearly a direct
line from it eastward, little more than half-a-mile, was situated
the usual place of execution for the worst criminals. It was
the Golgotha of the capital ; and there, under the gibbet, to
mingle with the dust and decaying bones of many generations
of common felons, was thrust the mutilated body of one of
Scotland's greatest worthies. In the city accounts, we find an

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 813

item, of the same date as Montrose's execution, which might
whet the appetite of an Afrit :

" Item, to George Meine, sledder, for carrying of redd (rubbish) and cover-
ing of some foul graves in the Burgh-moor, not being well covered
before at the first, the earth being worn off them, . £1 4 0" '

This entry follows immediately after the item already quoted
of thirty-six shillings " to the Locksman's (hangman) men for
covering of James Graham's grave in the Burgh-moor over again,
and making it much deeper" Unquestionably it was broken
into very soon after interment. One contemporary account
says, that the body of Montrose, being carried to the Burgh-
moor, " was thrown into a hole, where afterwards it was digged
up by night, and the linen, in which it was folded, stolen away"2
Lamont, in his Diary, comes nearer the fact : " For his body,"
says that contemporary, " it was carried out and buried in the
Burgh-moor, a place where malefactors are interred : it is re-
ported by some, that it was taken up again that very same
night, and carried to some other place by his friends."

But Thomas Sydserf, or Saintserf, (son of the Bishop of
Galloway), whom we have already mentioned as one of the
most trusty and adventurous emissaries of Montrose, has given
us the particulars, so as to leave no doubt on the subject.
When the Restoration turned the tables on Argyle, Saintserf
became the editor of a most popular vehicle of daily news, the
" Mercurius Caledonius" In his journal of Monday, January 7th,
1661, he minutely records that gorgeous pageant ordered by
King and Parliament, for redeeming the scattered remains of
Montrose to hallowed ground. After describing the pomp and
circumstance of this public holiday, he adds, that they " went
to the place, where, having chanced directly, — however, possibly,
persons might have been present able to demonstrate, — on the
same (the body of Montrose), as evidently appeared by the
coffin, which had been formerly broke a purpose, by some of his
friends, in that place nigh his chest, whence they stole his heart,

1 Vast numbers of the poor of Edinburgh, cut off by the great plague of 1G45,
were buried in the Burgh-moor.
9 « Montrose Reditiws," 1652.

814 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

embalmed it in the costliest manner, and so reserves it." Then
follows an account of the ceremony of taking down the head
from its ten-years1 communion with the gory pinnacle of the
Tolbooth. Upon the 1 1th of May following, occurred the sequel,
another yet more magnificent and chivalrous pageant, also
ordered and paid for by Government, for the re-interinent of
the collected remains of Montrose, in the vault of his grand-
father, the Viceroy of Scotland, within the cathedral church of
St Giles. There were they then laid, amid the applauding
shouts of the populace, the repeated volleys of the train-bands,
who lined the streets, and the roar of cannon from the Castle.
Another minute account of this grand ceremonial was published
at the time, in a separate pamphlet entitled " The true Funerals"'
of Montrose. The authorship is not doubtful. In the heraldic
procession are recorded " Two secretaries, Master William Ord,
and Master Thomas Sydserf; " and there is strong reason for
suspecting, that the " adventurous spirits" referred to in the
paragraphs we are about to quote from that history of the
pageant, were the two secretaries above named, whose daring
adventure had entitled them to that honourable post in the
pageant.

" All that belonged to the body of this great hero was care-
fully re-collected ; only Ms heart, which, two days after the mur-
der, in spite of the traitors, was, by conveyance of some adven-
turous spirits, appointed by that noble and honourable lady, the
Lady Napier, taken out, and embalmed in the most costly man-
ner by that skilful chirurgeon and apothecary, Mr James Cal-
lender ; then put in a rich box of gold, and sent, by the same
noble Lady, to the now Lord Marquis, who was then in Flanders.
The solemnities being ended, the Lord Commissioner, with the
nobility and barons, had a most sumptuous supper and banquet
at the Marquis of Montrose's house, with concerts of all sorts of
music." 1

The accuracy of this relation is placed beyond question by
the fact, that it was immediately published, and in the hands
of the very Marquis mentioned therein, and to whom, when in
Flanders, the gold box containing the precious relique had been

* Saintserf 's « Relation," 1661.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 815

sent, as there stated, by Lady Napier, whose ill-fated husband
had died abroad early in the previous year.

And who was the Lord High Commissioner, then wielding
regal power, and surrounded by regal state in Scotland, whom
James, second Marquis of Montrose, feasted so sumptuously
that night 2

" His name was Major Middleton,
That mann'd the Brig o' Dee." »

We have thus accounted for the fine linen, trimmed with
lace, and all " tricked with bloody gules," still preserved among
the archives of the Napier family. In all probability, it had
been wrapped round the dismembered trunk, when thrown into
that vile hole, and carried off along with the bleeding heart by
those " adventurous spirits," appointed by Lady Napier. But,
with absolute certainty, we have traced the gold box, with its
precious contents, from Lady Napier to Montrose^s son. There
is no hint in the published relation presented to the young Mar-
quis, that it was not still possessed by him of that date, namely,
the commencement of the year 1661. It is not so easy, however,
to determine when or how such a relique came to be lost to the
family, who unquestionably do not possess it now. Here its
history becomes obscured ; and it is much to be regretted that
the enthusiastic Saintserf had not been more minute in his re-
lation, as to whether the second Marquis then actually had it
with him in Scotland, or had left it behind him in Flanders or
Holland, or had lost it somehow while in exile during the
Usurpation. Neither can we trace the fate of that precious
miniature of Montrose, " in the breadth of ane sixpence,"
which, as Lord Napier wrote to his Lady, was bestowed upon
him in 1648 by his affectionate uncle. Sir John Scot of Scot-
starvet, in his meagre and careless chronicle of Scots states-
men, after recording the fate of the first Lord Napier, adds
this anecdote of the second, — " And the son fled out of the
country, who, being rolled of all his money in his way towards
Paris, still lives there, and his lands are forfeited." But Hol-
land was the country of his exile, where he died at the com-
mencement of the year 1660. It is not impossible, although

8 See before, p. 217.

816 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

Saintserf has made no mention of such loss, that upon the occa-
sion alluded to by Scotstarvet, both the miniature and the heart
may have fallen into sacrilegious hands.

Be this as it may, some time in the last century, the great-
grandfather of the writer of these pages1 recovered, in Holland,
what that nobleman never doubted was the identical embalmed
heart of his great uncle, the loyal martyr, still contained in the
original cases wherein Lady Napier had caused it to be enshrined.
The identification, we presume, must have been convincing ; for,
whether this was actually the same that Lady Napier had so pre-
served,— the very dust of that heart which once beat so ardently,
in a breast glowing with generous emotions and the noblest
ambition, — it was undoubtingly believed so to be by the intelli-
gent and accomplished nobleman who chanced to obtain it, and
who cherished it accordingly. All the circumstances of this extra-
ordinary history, of the supposed recovery, and subsequent loss,
of the embalmed Heart of Montrose, are too well narrated and
authenticated, by the letter which forms the first number of the
Appendix to this volume, to require further illustration. We
are there told how it chanced to pass into far distant climes,
which the hero himself never visited ; and where, on the silver
urn in which it then came to be deposited, some record of his
fate was engraved in Tamil and Telugoo, — strange tongues of
which Montrose's scholarship had never dreamt. But yet more
congenial to the romance of his own dispositions is the fact,
that over his sad story, thus recorded, a heart as heroic, — of
one as unfortunate in his high aims, though not so illustrious in
the page of history, — had throbbed with the sympathy and emu-
lation of the brave. Yes — not the least worthy offering to the
memory of the Christian hero, insulted by the grovelling malice
of covenanting zeal, is that latest recollection of the Indian chief,
who, " when he heard that he was to be executed immediately,
alluded to the story of the urn, and expressed a hope to some of
his attendants, that those who admired his conduct would pre-
serve his heart in the same manner as the European warrior's
heart had been preserved in the silver urn." Relieved upon the

1 Francis fifth Lord Napier, great-grandson of the lady who procured the heart,
nd great-great-grandfather of the present Lord Napier.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 817

dark ground of Scotish fanaticism, let that dying aspiration be
preserved of the untutored Indian, generous and heroic in his
emotions as he whose death-song the bard of Wyoming records :

" 4 And I could weep,'— the Oneyda chief

His descant wildly thus begun,
4 But that I may not stain with grief
The death-song of my father's son.' "

No stone or inscription was ever placed, to mark the cloistered
spot within the Cathedral of St Giles to which the remains of
Montrose were redeemed in 1661. It is said that a suitable
epitaph was intended ; and various rude efforts in verse were
made at the time to record the memorable event. We have
attempted another here, the sentiment of which, at least, can-
not now be gainsaid, in the face of those voluminous and un-
questionable contemporary documents, condemnatory of the
Covenant throughout all its history, from which we have so
thoroughly illustrated the LIFE AND DEATH OF THE GREATEST
OF THE GRAHAMS.

From yon grim tower, where long, in ghastly state,
His head proclaim'd how holiness can hate ;
From gory pinnacles, where, blench'd and riven,
Ten years his sever'd limbs insulted Heaven ;
From the vile hole, by malice dug, beneath
The felon's gibbet, on the blasted heath,
Redeem'd to hallow'd ground, too long denied,
Here let the martyr's mangled bones abide.

His country blush'd, and clos'd the cloister'd tomb,
But rais'd no record of the hero's doom ;
Blush'd, but forbore to mark a nation's shame
With sculptur'd memories of the murder'd Graham ;
The warrior's couch, 'mid pious pageants spread,
But left the stone unletter'd at his head :
Vain the dark aisle 1 the silent tablet vain !
Still to his country cleaves the curse of Cain, —
Still cries his blood, from out the very dust
Of Scotland's sinful soil, — * Remember me they must.'

52

818 LIFE OF MONTROSE.

But, though the shame must Scotland bear through Time,

Ye bastard Priesthood, answer for the crime I

Preachers, not Pastors, redolent of blood,

Who cried, * Sweet Jesu,' in your murderous mood, —

Self- seeking — Christ - caressing — canting crew,

That, from the Book of Life, death-warrants drew,

Obscur'd the fount of Truth, and left the trace

Of gory fingers on the page of Grace : —

This was thy horrid handiwork, though still

Sublime he soar'd above your savage will,

Rons'd his great soul to glorify its flight,

And foil'd j;he adder of his foeman's spite : —

This was thy horrid handiwork, the while

He of the craven heart, the false Argyle,

Sent for our sins, his Country's sorest rod,

Still doom'd his victims in the name of God,

Denounc'd true Christians as the Saviour's foes,

And gorg'd his Ravens with the GREAT MONTROSE.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 819

APPENDIX,

i.

SEQUEL TO THE STORY OF MONTROSE's HEART.

[The writer of the following very interesting letter, was the Right Honourable Sir
Alexander Johngton of Carnsalloch, in Dumfriesshire, now deceased. His mother was
the Honourable Hester Napier, daughter of Francis fifth Lord Napier, and great-great
grandaughter of the Lady of the heart. Her husband, Sir Alexander's father, was
Samuel Johnston Esq., of the Carnsalloch family, in the civil service of India. This
letter on the subject of Montrose's heart, which Sir Alexander addressed to his daugh-
ters, was transmitted by him to the author, for publication in his first biography of
Montrose, published in 1838. Sir Alexander became highly distinguished for the pa-
triotic spirit and judicial abilities which he displayed as Chief-Commissioner, and Chief-
Justice of Ceylon. He enjoyed many years of retirement, spent alternately in London
and at his estate in Scotland. His death, a few years since, deprived letters of an
accomplished and liberal patron.]

"19, Great Cumberland Place,
1st July 1836.

" MY DEAR DAUGHTERS,

" I have great pleasure, at your request, in putting down upon
paper, for your amusement, all the circumstances, — as well those which
I have heard from my grandmother, Lad\* Napier, and my mother, as
those which I can myself recollect, — relative to the story of the Heart
of the Marquis of Montrose, and the silver urn which is represented as
standing upon a table before her, in the portrait of the wife of the second
Lord Napier, which we have in our drawing-room.

" My mother was, as you know, the only surviving daughter, at
the time of his death, of Francis the fifth Lord Napier of Merchiston.
Owing to this circumstance, she was a particular favourite of his, and
was educated by him with the greatest care at Merchiston. The room
in which she and her brothers, when children, used to say their lessons
to him, was situated in that part of the tower of Merchiston in which
John Napier had made all his mathematical discoveries, and in which,
when she was a child, there were still a few of his books and instru-
ments, and some of the diagrams he had drawn upon the walls. In
this room were also four family portraits ; one of John Napier, the
Inventor of Logarithms ; one of the first Marquis of Montrose, who

820 APPENDIX.

was executed at Edinburgh in 1650 ; one of Lady Margaret Graham,
who was the Marquis's sister, and married to John Napier's son,
Archibald the first Lord Napier ; and one of Lady Elizabeth Erskine,
daughter of John eighth Earl of Mar, and who was married to the
Marquis's nephew, Archibald second Lord Napier.1

" My mother's father, by way of amusing her after her lessons were
over, used frequently to relate to her, all the remarkable events which
are connected with the history of the four persons represented in these
portraits ; and perceiving that she was particularly interested in the
subject, to dwell at length upon the history of the urn containing the
heart of Montrose, as represented in the portrait of the wife of the
second Lord Napier.

*' He related to her the following circumstances concerning it. He
said, that the first Marquis of Montrose, being extremely partial to
his nephew, the second Lord Napier, and his wife, had always promis-
ed at his death to leave his' heart to the latter, as a mark of the affec-
tion which he felt towards her, for the unremitting kindness which she
had shown to him in all the different vicissitudes of his life and fortune ;
that, on the Marquis's execution, a confidential friend of her own, em-
ployed by Lady Napier, succeeded in obtaining for her the heart of
the Marquis ; that she, after it had been embalmed by her desire, en-
closed it in a little steel case, made of the blade of Montrose's sword,
placed this case in a gold filagree box, which had been given to John
Napier, the Inventor of the Logarithms, by a Doge of Venice, while
he was on his travels in Italy,2 and deposited this box in a large silver

1 The portraits mentioned by Sir Alexander are still in possession of Lord Napier,
with the exception of that of Montrose, which I cannot trace. A great proportion of
the Napier properties were sold after the death of the fifth Lord, and the family por-
traits became dilapidated and dispersed.

2 In the proceedings of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1835, I find it stated by Sir
Alexander Johnston, in his capacity of Chairman of the Committee of Corespondence,
and Vice-President of that society, and when giving a history of their Transactions,
that, — " It appeared by John Napier's [the mathematician] papers, that he had, from
the information he obtained during his travels, adopted the opinion, that numerals had
first been discovered by the College of Madura, and that they had been introduced from
India by the Arabs into Spain, and other parts of Europe. Lord Napier [Sir Alexander's
grandfather, who meant to have written a life of the great Napier,] was anxious to
examine the sources from whence John Napier had derived his information on this sub-
ject, and when he himself was abroad visited Venice," &c. I was not in possession of
this fact, so interesting to science, when writing the History of the Logarithms in the
Memoirs of Napier. Sir Alexander Johnston told me that these papers of the great
Napier came into the possession of his, Sir Alexander's mother, and were most un-
fortunately destroyed, with some curious papers of her own, by fire. He also told me
that his grandfather, Lord Napier, had satisfied himself of the fact of John Napier hav-
ing been at Venice.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 821

urn, which had been presented some years before by the Marquis to
her husband, Lord Napier ; that it had been Lady Napier's first in-
tention to keep the gold box containing Montrose's heart in the silver
urn upon a little table near her bed-side, and that she had the portrait
of herself, of which the one in the drawing-room is a copy, painted at
that time ; but that she had subsequently altered her intention, and
transmitted the gold box, with Montrose's heart in it, to the young Mar-
quis of Montrose, who was then abroad with her husband, Lord Napier,
in exile ; that, for some reason or another, the gold box and heart had
been lost sight of by both families, that of Montrose and that of Napier,
for some time, until an intimate friend of his the fifth Lord Napier, a
gentleman of Guelderland, recognized, in the collection of a collector of
curiosities in Holland, the identical gold filagree box with the steel
case, and procured it for him, when he was in that country ; but that
he never could trace what had become of the large silver urn.1

" In the latter part of the life of her father, my mother was his con-
stant companion ; and was, as a young woman of sixteen, proceeding
with him and her mother to France, when he was suddenly taken ill at
Lewis, in Sussex, and died of the gout. Two days before his deathr
finding himself very weak, and believing at the time that there was
little or no chance of his recovery, he told my mother that, owing to
a great part of his family property having been forfeited at the time
of Cromwell's usurpation, and to the unexpected expense he had been
at in plans for carrying the Caledonian Canal into effect, he was much

1 In illustration of this part of Sir Alexander's letter, it may be mentioned , that in the
Napier charter- chest, there is a deed of gift of £3000 from Charles II. to the Lady
Napier who obtained the heart, dated in 1662, soon after the death of her husband in
exile. The King states,—" The Lady Napier, and the now Lord Napier, her son, have
been great sufferers during the late commotions raised in Scotland, from the first begin-
ning thereof, both by plundering their goods, and long exile, and did constantly adhere
to us beyond seas, where their sufferings were also very great." This indicates that after
Montrose's execution Lady Napier had joined her husband, Montrose 'B nephew, who
being particularly excepted from all acts of grace and pardon both by the Covenanters
in 1 650, and by Cromwell, in 1 654, could never come home, and died at Delfshaven in
Holland, in the spring of 1660, before the Restoration. Lady Napier may herself have
been the bearer of the heart to young Montrose. She had returned before her husband's
death, however, (for the sake of their five children,) and in 1656 is reduced to petition
" His Highness the Lord Protector, showing that the ordinance of pardon and grace to
the people of Scotland nameth no provision for the maintenance of her and her children,
as the wives of other forfeited persons have." Upon this petition she receives £100
out of the rents of the Napier estates, and is again reduced to petition in 165H, when
the same sum yearly is granted to her by an order signed by Monk. The second Mar-
quis of Montrose must have returned from Flanders before 1654, for in that year he was
with the army of Royalists in the North of Scotland ; and in 1659 he was imprisoned
by the Parliament. But there \vis » pirty in Holland with whom he might well leavo
his father's heart.

822 APPENDIX.

afraid that Mercliiston would be sold after his death, and that he would
have nothing to leave to her ; but that, however, as she had always
taken an interest in the story of the heart of Montrose, he would give
'her in his lifetime, which he then did in the presence of her mother,
the gold filagree box containing it ; and trusted that it would be valu-
able to her, as the only token of his affection which he might be able
to leave her ; and that it might hereafter remind her of the many
happy hours which he had spent in instructing her while a child in the
tower of Merchiston, and that, whatever vicissitudes of fortune might
befal her, it might always afford her the satisfaction of being able to
show that she was descended from persons wrho were distinguished in
the history of Scotland, by their piety, their science, their courage,
and their patriotism.

" After my mother's marriage, and when I was about five years old,
she, my father, and myself, were on the way to India, in the fleet
commanded by Commodore Johnston, when it was attacked off the
Cape de Verde Islands, by the French squadron, under Suffrein. One
of the French frigates engaged the Indiaman in which we were, and
my father, with our captain's permission, took command of four of the
quarter-deck guns. My mother refused to go below, but remained
on the quarter-deck with me at her side, declaring that no wife ought
to quit her husband in a moment of such peril, and that we should
both share my father's fate. A shot from the frigate struck one of
these guns, killed two of the men, and with the splinters which it tore
off the deck, knocked my father down, wounded my mother severely
in the arm, and bruised the muscles of my right hand so severely,
that, as you know, it is even now difficult for me at times to write,
or even to hold a pen. My mother held me during the action with
one hand, and with the other hand she held a large thick velvet re-
ticule, in which she, conceiving that if the frigate captured the India-
man the French crew would plunder the ship, had placed some of
the things which she valued the most, including the pictures of her
father and mother, and the gold filagree case containing the heart of
Montrose. It was supposed that the splinter must have first struck
the reticule, which hung loose in her hand, for, to her great distress
the gold filagree box, which was in it, was shattered to pieces, but the
steel case had resisted the blow. The frigate that attacked us was cal-
led off, and next day Commodore Johnston and Sir John M'Pherson,
who was with him in the flag-ship, came on board of the Indiaman
a*id complimented my father and mother in the highest terms for the
encouragement which they had given the crew of their ship.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 823

" When in India, at Madura, my mother found a celebrated native
goldsmith, who, partly from the fragments she had saved, and partly
from her description, made as beautiful a gold filagree box as the
one that had been destroyed. She caused him also to make for her
a silver urn, like that in the picture, and to engrave on the outside
of it, in Tamil and Telugoo, the two languages most generally un-
derstood throughout the southern peninsula of India, a short account
of the most remarkable events of Montrose's life, and of the circum-
stances of his death. In this urn my mother enclosed the gold fila-
gree box containing the case with Montrose's heart, also two fragments
of the former filagree box, and a certificate, signed by the gentleman
of Guelderland, explaining the various circumstances which, in his
and my grandfather's opinion, unquestionably proved it to contain the
heart of Montrose. The urn was placed upon an ebony table that stood
in the drawing-room of the house at Madura,1 which is now my pro-
perty, and which I intend for a Hindu College. My mother's anxiety
about it gave rise to a report amongst the natives of the country that
it was a talisman, and that whoever possessed it could never be wound-
ed in battle or taken prisoner. Owing to this report it was stolen
from her, and for some time it was not known what had become of it.
At last she learnt that it had been offered for sale to a powerful chiefr
who had purchased it for a large sum of money.

" My father was in the habit of sending me every year, during the
hunting and shooting season, to stay with some one of the native
chiefs who lived in the neighbourhood of Madura, for four months
at a time, in order to acquire the various languages, and to practise
the native gymnastic exercises. One day while I was hunting with
the chief who was said to have purchased the urn, my horse was at-
tacked by a wild hog, which we were pursuing, but I succeeded in
wounding it so severely with my hunting pike, that the chief soon
afterwards overtook and killed it. He was pleased with my conduct
upon this occasion, and asked, before all his attendants, in what man-
ner I would wish him to show his respect and regard for me. I said,
if the report was really true, that he had bought the silver urn which
belonged to my mother, he would do me a great favour by restoring
it ; and to induce him to do so, I explained to him all the circum-
stances connected with it. He replied that it was quite true that he
had purchased it for a large sum, without knowing that it had been
stolen from my mother, and he immediately added, that one brave

1 For a description of the manner in which this building was laid out, with a view to
its becoming a College, see Journal of the Royal Aniatio Society, Vol. ii. App. p. xii.

824 APPENDIX.

man should always attend to the wishes of another brave man, what-
ever his religion or his nation might be ; that he therefore considered
it his duty to fulfil the wishes of the brave man whose heart was in
the urn, and whose wish it was that his heart should be kept by his
descendants ; and, for that reason, he would willingly restore it to my
mother. Next day, after presenting me with six of his finest dogs,
and two of his best matchlocks, he dismissed me with the urn in my
possession, and with a present from himself to my mother of a gold
dress, and some shawls, accompanied by a letter, expressing his great
regret that he had innocently been the cause of her distress by pur-
chasing the urn, which he assured her he would not have done had he
known that it had been stolen from her.

" This was the native chief so celebrated throughout the Southern
Peninsula of India, who, thirty or forty years ago, rebelled against
the authority of his supposed sovereign, the Nabob of Arcot, and who,
after behaving with the most undaunted courage, was conquered by a
detachment of English troops, and executed with many members of
his family, as is fully described in the first volume of Major Welsh's
Military Reminiscences. When, in 1807, I visited the site of this
chiefs former capital, and the scenes of my early sports in the
Southern Peninsula of India, there were still two of his old servants
alive, who used to have charge of his hunting dogs when I was with
him. When they heard who I was, they came to me as I was tra-
velling through the woods of their former master, and gave me a very
detailed account of his last adventures, and of the fortitude with which
he had met his death, telling me, among other anecdotes of him, that
when he heard that he was to be executed immediately, he alluded to
the story of the urn, and expressed a hope to some of his attendants,
that those who admired his conduct would preserve his heart in the
same manner as the European warrior's heart had been preserved in
the silver urn.

" My father and mother returned to Europe in 1792, and being in
France when the revolutionary Government required all persons to
give up their plate, and gold and silver ornaments, my mother en-
trusted the silver urn, with Montrose's heart, to an Englishwoman of
the name of Knowles, at Boulogne, who promised to secrete it until it
could be sent safely to England. This person having died shortly
afterwards, neither my mother or father in their lifetime, nor I myself
since their death, have ever been able to trace the urn, although every
exertion has been made by me for the purpose ; and although, within
the last few years, I have received from the French Government the

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 825

value of the plate and jewels which my father and mother had been
compelled to give up to the municipality of Calais, in 1792. To the
last hour of her life my mother deeply regretted this loss, and in July
1819, a few days before her death, expressed to me her wishes with
regard to the urn, if it should ever be recovered by me.

" As I frequently opened the urn, the new filagree box, and the
steel case, after the native chief returned them to my mother, I will
give you, from my own recollection, some account of the appearance
of the fragments of the old filagree box, and of the steel case and its
contents.

" The steel case was of the size and shape of an egg. It was open-
ed by pressing down a little knob, as is done in opening a watch-case.
Inside was a little parcel, supposed to contain all that remained of
Montrose's heart, wrapped up in a piece of coarse cloth, and done over
with a substance like glue. The gold filagree case was similar in
workmanship to the ancient Venetian work in gold which you have
frequently seen, particularly to that of the gilt worked vases in which
the Venetian flasks at Warwick Castle are enclosed. I have none of
the fragments : they were always kept along with the writings on the
subject within the silver urn. My grandfather never had a doubt that
the steel case contained the heart of Montrose.

" Believe me to be, my dear daughters,

" Your most affectionate father,

" ALEXANDER JOHNSTON."

II.

CEREMONY OF COLLECTING THE REMAINS OF MONTROSE, AND TAKING DOWN
HIS HEAD FROM THE TOLBOOTH OF EDINBURGH, ON MONDAY 7TH
JANUARY 1661.

The first Parliament of the Restoration in Scotland was ridden in
the greatest state possible, Middleton representing Majesty, on the
1st day of January (old style) 1661. Nothing could exceed the pomp
and circumstance attending the Viceroy, or the popular enthusiasm
with which he was hailed. The following extracts are from the
14 Mercurius Caledonius" edited by Saintserf, and published at the
time : —

826 APPENDIX.

" Friday, January 4th, 1661 : The Parliament sat again, where
having first settled some small debates touching commissions, they re-
solved an honourable reparation for that horrid and monstrous bar-
barity fixed on royal authority, in the person of the great Marquis of
Montrose, his Majesty's Captain General, and Lord High Commis-
sioner; namely, that his body, (together with that of the Baron of
Dalgetty, murdered on the same account, and buried in the same
place) head, and other his divided and scattered members, may be
gathered together and interred with all honour imaginable."

" Monday, January 7th, 1661 : This day, in obedience to the order
of Parliament, this city was alarmed with drums, and nine trumpets,
to go in their best equipage and arms for transporting the dismembered
bodies of his Excellency the Lord Marquis of Montrose, and that re-
nowned gentleman Sir William Hay of Dalgetty, murdered both, for
their prowess and transcending loyalty to King and country ; whose
bodies, to their glory, and their enemies' shame, had been ignominiously
thrust in the earth, under the public gibbet, half a mile from town.
That of the Lord Marquis was indeed intended for ignominy to his
high name ; but that of the other was ambitiously coveted by himself,
as the greatest honour he could have, to ingrave nigh his great patron;
which doubtless proceeded from a faith typical of a more glorious
one.

" The ceremony was thus performed : The Lord Marquis of Mon-
trose, with his friends of the name of Graham, the whole nobility and
gentry, with Provost,1 Bailies and Council, together with four com-
panies of the trained bands of the city, went to the place, where, having
chanced directly (however possibly persons might have been present
able to demonstrate)2 on the same trunk, as evidently appeared by the
coffin, which had been formerly broke on purpose by some of his friends
in that place nigh his chest, whence they stole his heart, embalmed it in
the costliest manner, and so reserves it : As also by the trunk itself,
found without the skull and limbs, distracted in the four chief towns
of the nation ; but these, through the industry and respect of friends
carried to the martyr, are soon to welcome the rest.

" That other of Sir William Hay of Dalgetty, was as surely plucked
forth, lying next to that of his Excellency.

1 Sir Robert Murray. His predecessor, Sir James Stewart, along with his cousin Sir
John Chiesly (see before, pp. 741, 778,) had come to grief, being now state prisoners ;
and both narrowly escaped death.

a Doubtless there were ; and possibly Saintserf himself.

LIFE OF MONTROSK. 827

" The noble Lord Marquis and his friends took care that these ruins
were decently wrapt in the finest linen ; so did likewise the friends of
the other ; and so incoffined suitable to their respective dignities.

;< The trunk of his Excellency, thus coffined, was covered with a
large and rich black velvet cloth, taken up, and from thence carried
by the noble Earls of Mar,1 Athole,2 Linlithgow,3 Seaforth,4 Hartfell,5
and others of these honourable families ; the Lord Marquis himself,
his brother Lord Robert,6 and Sir John Colquhoun,7 nephew to the
deceased Lord Marquis, supporting the head of the coffin ; and all un-
der a very large pall, or canopy, supported by the noble Viscount of

1 This was not John eighth Earl of Mar, the father of Lady Napier, the Lady of the
Heart (who died in 1654) ; but his son, John ninth Earl, who obtained a charter of the
Earldom in the lifetime of his father. See his fanatical exhibition before the General
Assembly of 1648, noted at p. 270. See alio before, p. 537.

* John Murray, second Earl of Athole, son of Montrose's loyal associate, whom
Argyle oppressed in 1640, and who died in 1642. See before, p. 257.

8 George third Earl of Linlithgow, the game who, in 1645, was so submissive to the
Covenant, as to receive orders as the jailor of the loyal Sir George Stirling of Keir, in
the castle of Blackness. See before, p. 511.

4 Kenneth Earl of Seaforth, son of him so frequently recorded in our text as playing
fast and loose with his loyalty, but who died in the very odour of loyalty, in 1651. See
before, p. 732.

5 John second Earl of Hartfell, son of him whom Montrose reported not very favour-
ably to Charles I. in 1644 and who died in 1653. See before, p. 407.

6 This renders it most probable, that in 1661, the only sons of Montrose in life were
James the second Marquis, and his younger brother Robert. Of this last the genealogi-
cal writers make no mention, and he is not recorded in the peerage ; but see before,
p. 513, and note, for the interesting evidence of his existence. When writing that note,
we supposed that the discovery of this Robert completed the record of Montrose's chil-
dren ; namely, three sons, John, James, and Robert. Very recently however, Mr Wil-
liam Fraser of the Register House, the extent and accuracy of whose researches in
family history render his aid as valuable as it is readily accorded, communicated the fol-
lowing extract from the Baptismal Register of Montrose : —

" 1638, January 8th, James Earl of Monjrose, Father : David Grahame, son : James
Lord Carnegie, Sir Alexander Falconer of Halkertoun, witnesses."

This David, of whom, and of Robert, no more is known, had probably died young,
before 1661. He had been named after hia grandfather, the first Earl of Southesk.
Lord Carnegie, who witnesses, was his uncle ; and Sir Alexander Falconer (of whom
see before p. 68,) was cousin-german to Montrose's Marchioness. The two soniwhom
Montrose was allowed to see at Kinnaird, when being conducted to his doom, (p. 775.)
must have been Robert and David, if the second Marquis was in Flanders at the time.
See before, p. 814.

7 Sir John Colquhoun of Luss. By this time his too notorious father had gone to his
account ; and we must hope, was " loosed in Heaven," by some more efficacious process
tlian tho Kirk having " loosed him on Earth," (p. 7.(>l.) See before, pp. 14, 15, 75, 85).

APPENDIX.

Stormont,1 tlie Lords Strathnaver,2 Fleming,3 Drurulanrig,4 Ram-
say,5 Maderty,6 and Rollo.7

" Being accompanied with a body of horse, of nobility and gentry,
to the number of two hundred, rallied in decent order by the Viscount
of Kenmure,8 they came to the place where the head stood, under
which they set the coffin of the trunk, on a scaffold made for that pur-
pose, till the Lord Napier,9 the barons of Morphie, Inchbrakie, Orchill,
and Gorthie,10 and several other noble gentlemen placed on a scaffold

1 James Murray, second Earl of Annandale, who in 1642 succeeded as third Viscount
Stormont, in terms of the limitations of that title. He was married to Lady Elizabeth
Carnegie, the sister of Montrose's Marchioness.

8 George Lord Strathnaver ; eldest son of John, thirteenth Earl of Sutherland, who
was mainly instrumental in the destruction of Montrose at Corbiesdale, by then holding
the north for Argyle. See before pp. 43, 740.

3 John Lord Fleming, who succeeded his father as fourth Earl of Wigton in 1665.
He was nephew to Sir William Fleming, mentioned before, p. 762 ; and among his family
archives at Cumbernauld are found the contemporary account of the death of Mon-
trose, and the other Wigton papers quoted in our text.

* William Douglas, who succeeded his father as third Earl of Queensberry in 1671 ;
and was created Marquis in 1682, and Duke of Queensberry in 1684.

6 George Lord Ramsay, who became second Earl of Dalhousie in 1674. His mother
was the eldest sister of Montrose's Marchioness ; and he was married to Montrose's
cousin Lady Ann Fleming.

6 David, third Lord Maderty, married to Montrose's youngest sister, " The bairn
Beatrix. " See before, pp. 7, 89, 430, 442.

7 James, second Lord Rollo ; married, first, Montrose's sister Lady Dorothea Graham,
and, second, Argyle's sister, Lady Mary Campbell. The presence of this staunch ad-
herent of Argyle and his faction, holding the canopy, in 1661, over the then honoured
remains of Montrose, affords a curious commentary on the politics of the times, and the
calumnies against Montrose. This Lord Rollo was literally in the same boat with
Argyle, during the battle of Inverlochy ; but he took care not to be in the same boat
with him now. See before, pp. 35, 381, 481.

8 Robert Gordon, fourth Viscount Kenmure ; he died without issue in 1663.

9 Archibald, third Lord Napier, (a minor) and the son of Montrose's nephew. In
the Napier charter-chest is a deed of gift of £3000, dated (blank) day of (blank) 1662,
in favour of his mother, the Lady Napier who obtained Montrose's heart, in which Charles
II. states : " To our certain knowledge, the Lady Napier, and the now Lord Napier her
son, have been very great sufferers during the late commotions raised in Scotland, from
the first beginning thereof, both by plundering their goods, and long exile, and did con-
stantly adhere to us beyond seas, where their sufferings were also very great, all which
they have cheerfully endured for their duty to our dearest father and us ; to give them
some recompense for their fidelity and loss," the King wills and requires his High Com-
missioner in Scotland, Middleton, to pay to Lady Napier and her son the sum of £ 3000,
sterling. The narrative of this deed implies that Lady Napier and the young Lord
had both been in exile ; in which case probably her Ladyship had carried Montrose's
heart to Flanders herself, to deliver to the young Montrose.

10 These were all Grahams, chiefs of branches of Montrose. See before, pp. 22, 25, 51 ,
64, 68, 420, 436. The Inchbrakie mentioned is " Black Pate," Montrose's sole com-
panion, when he first joined the Claymores in Athole. Graham of Gorthie was he who

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 829

next to the head — and that on the top of the town's tolbooth, six
stories high — with sound of trumpet, discharge of many cannon from
the^Castle, and the honest people's loud and joyful acclamation, all was
joined, and crowned with the crown of a Marquis, conveyed with all
honours befitting such an action, to the Abbey Church of Holy rood-
House, a place of burial frequent to our Kings, there to continue in
state, until the noble Lord his son be ready for the more magnificent
solemnization of his funerals."

" From Tuesday 8th January, to Wednesday 16th January 1661.

" Before I proceed to this week's intelligence, take along the last
week's omissions, occasioned by a cheerful celebrating of our happy
Restoration. That whereas it was mentioned, the funerals of the late
great Marquis of Montrose was to be remitted to his noble son, is a
mistake : For our dread Sovereign, who wants not bounty to the
meanest of his servants, hath likewise gratitude to his best ; and there-
fore, amongst other signal tokens of his favour, he halh appointed the
solemnity of his funerals at his Majesty's own expense ; and to be ac-
companied by the Lord High Commissioner, the whole Peers, and all
the Members of Parliament, when he and they shall think expedient.1

" Aberdeen, the 1st of March, 1661 : The dismembered arm of the
Great Montrose, which, upon his Majesty's first arrival in Scotland,
was by these honest citizens decently interred in the burial-place of the
Marquis of Huntly, with great solemnity raised, and put into a box
covered with crimson velvet embroidered, carried by Henry Graham,
son to the Baron of Morphie, bareheaded ; the Lord Provost, Bailies, and
Town Council, accompanied with the Members of the University, and
clarions of trumpets, their train-bands, to the number of five hundred in
gallant array, conducted it through the city ; and after they had in
triumph carried it three times about the Cross, with infinite vollies of
shot, and great acclamations of the people, it was delivered to the
Magistrates, who with great grandeur received it at the Town-house,
where it is placed amongst their most precious Records, till such time
as orders come to bring it to the body.2

lifted the head from off " the iron prick" on the pinnacle of the Tolbooth, and kissed it
as he took it down. The coronet of a Marquis was then placed upon it. Gorthie died
that same night ! Go<Ts judgment, said the covenanting zealots ! but why only so visited
upon Graham of Gorthie, they did not explain. Gorthie's son adopted for his crest the
crowned skull between two hands, and for motto, Sepulto viresco. See before, p. 46.

1 The remains lay in state in the Abbey of Holyrood House until Saturday llth May
1661, when the grand pageant of the public funeral took place.

2 There can be no doubt, however, that this arm occupied, for a time at least, the

830 APPENDIX.

III.

THE " TRUE FUNERALS OF MONTROSE," 1661.

The collected remains of Montrose lay in state, in the Abbey Church
of Holyrood House, from Monday 7th January, to Saturday llth May,
1661. Of this latter date, the public ceremony of his " True Fune-
rals " was performed, and with a splendour and fulness of heraldic
pomp only equalled by that of the coronation of Charles I. in 1633.
Montrose's devoted adherent Saintserf, chief secretary to the pageant,
failed not to record it in a rare pamphlet of the day, entitled, " A Re-
lation of the True Funerals of the Great Lord Marquesse of Montrose,
His Majesty's Lord High Commissioner, and Captain General of his
forces in Scotland : with that of the renowned Knight, Sir William
Hay of Dalgetty." After some preliminary remarks moralizing upon
the change of times, and the retributive justice of Providence, he tells
us : —

" The particulars of the honourable ceremonies will, in true and ex-
quisite heraldry, display the several dignities he had, either as a Peer of
the land, or charged with his Majesty's service : So, in a proportionable
manner, we shall show the honour done to the memory of that re-
nowned Colonel, Sir William Hay of Dalgetty, who, suffering martyr-
dom with him in the same cause ; ambitioned his funeral under the
same infamous gibbet ; prophetically, certainly, that he might partici-
pate with him the same honour at his first bodily resurrection. This
his request was easily assented to by these monstrous leeches, whose
greatest glory was to be drunk and riot in the blood of the most faith-
ful subjects. Nay, even some of those whose profession should have
preached mercy, belched out, that the good work went bonnily on, —
when the scaffold, or rather shambles, at the Cross of Edinburgh, for
the space of six weeks, was daily smoking with the blood of the most
valiant and loyal subjects.

" But we proceed to the funeral pomp, hoping that these glorious
martyrs are praising and glorifying God, while we are amusing our-
selves in this scambling transitory following description.

pinnacle of the gateway to which it had been consigned in terms of the sentence ; for
the Rev. James Fraser says, (p. 809.) " I saw his arm upon the Justice-port of Aber-
deen." Charles II. had seen it there too, (p. 767,) after which shock to his royal nerves
it was, most probably, that the good citizens of that loyal town had been so bold as to
take it down and bury it.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 831

" From the Abbey Church of Holyrood House to that of St Giles
in the High Town, the funeral pomp was as follows : —

" Two Conductors, in mourning, with black staves.

" Twenty-five Poor, in gowns and hoods ; the first of which went
alone, next to the Conductors, carrying a gumpheon ; the other twenty-
four following, two and two, carrying the arms of the House on long
staves.

" An open trumpet, clothed in rich livery of the Marquis's colours,
carrying his arms on his banner.

" Sir Harry Graham, in complete armour, on horseback, carrying
on the point of a lance the colours of the House : This noble gentle-
man accompanied his Excellence in all his good and bad fortunes, both
at home and abroad.1

" Servants of friends, in mourning, two and two.

" The great Pincel, with his arms, carried by John Graham of
Douchrie, a renowned Highland Hector, and one who stuck peremp-
torily to the present Marquis of Montrose, in the last expedition under
his Grace the Lord Commissioner : He is best known by the title of
Tetrarch of Aberfoil.

11 The great Standard in colours, with his arms, carried by Thomas
Graham of Potento ; a hopeful cadet of the ancient family of Clarisse.

" A horse of war, with great saddle and pistols, led by two lacqueys
in livery.

" The defunct's servants, two and two, in mourning.

" A horse in state, with a rich footmantle, two lacqueys in rich
livery, and his Parliament badges.

" Four close trumpets in mourning, carrying the defunct's arms on
their banners.

" The great Gumpheon of black taffety, carried on the point of a
lance by William Graham younger of Duntroon, another sprightful
cadet of the House of Clarisse.

" The great Pincel of mourning, carried by George Graham younger
of Cairnie, who, from his first entry to manhood, accompanied his chief
in the wars.

" The defunct's friends, two and two, in mourning.

" The great mourning Banner, carried by George Graham of Inch-
brakie, younger, whose youth-head only excused him from running
the risks of his father.

" The Spurs, carried on the point of a lance by Walter Graham,

1 This was Montrose's natural brother, who narrowly escaped the disaster of Corbies-
dale, having been left behind in charge, at Kirkwall in Orkney.

832 APPENDIX.

elder, of Duntroon, a most honest royalist, and highly commended for
his hospitality.

" The Gauntlets, carried by George Graham of Drums, on the
point of a lance, a worthy person, well becoming his name.

" The Head-piece, carried by Mungo Graham of Gorthie, on the
point of a lance ; whose father had sometimes the honour to carry his
Majesty's standard under his Excellence ; his great sufferings and for-
feiture is enough to speak his actions and honesty.1

" The Corslet, carried by George Graham of Monzie, on the point
of a lance ; a brave young gentleman, whose father fell in his Majesty's
service under the defunct.

" A Banner, all in mourning, carried by John Graham of Balgowan,
who likewise hazarded both life and fortune with his chief.

" The Lord Provost, Bailies, and Burgesses of Edinburgh, two and
two, all in deep mourning.

" The Burgesses, Members of Parliament, in mourning, two and
two.

" The Barons, Members of Parliament, two and two, in mourning.

" The Nobles in mourning, two and two.

" Next followed the eight branches. First, his Mother's House.

" Halyburton, Lord Dirleton, carried by William Halyburton of
Buttergask.

" Douglas, Earl of Angus, carried by Sir Robert Douglas of Blacker-
ston, a most worthy person, and great sufferer for his constant adhe-
rence to his Majesty's interest.

" Stewart, Lord Meihven, carried by Stewart, Sheriff of Bute. It is
to no purpose to commend their loyalty, or to doubt of it, when the
relations of their predecessors to his Majesty's predecessors is consi-
dered.

" Ruihmn of Gowrie, carried by William Ruthven, Baron of Gair-
nes, a gentleman of clear repute and honesty, suitable to his noble and
valiant cousin the Earl of Forth and Brentford.

" Next, on the father's side.

" Keith, EarlofMarischal, carried by Colonel George Keith, brother
to the said Earl, a noble gentleman, whose behavour in his Majesty's
service discovered him a worthy inheritor of his illustrious progenitors.

" Fleming, Earl of Wigton, carried by Sir Robert Fleming, son to
the said Earl, a gallant soul, carried out for his King and country's

1 Mungo Graham was the son of that Graham of Gorthie, who took down the head
of Montrose from the spike on the Tolbooth, and died that same night. See before,
p. 46.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 833

service, as were all his family ; witness his noble uncle Sir William
Fleming.

" Drummondj Earl of Perth, carried by Sir James Drummond of
Machany, one whose fidelity to King and country was never brought
in question.

" Graham, Marquis of Montrose, by James Graham, Baron of
Orchill, whose life and fortune never caused him scruple to advance
the royal interest.

" The Arms of the defunct in mourning, carried by James Graham
of Bucklevy, son to the Baron of Fintrie, a gentleman whom nothing
could ever startle from his Majesty's service ; and that he was a
favourite of the deceased, and accompanied his son in the late Highland
war, is sufficient to speak his praises.

" A Horse in close mourning, led by two lacqueys in mourning.
" Four close trumpets in mourning, with the defunct's arms on their
banners.

" Six Pursuivants in mourning, with their coats displayed, two and
two.

" Six Heralds with their coats, as follows : —

" The first carrying an antique shield, with the defunct's arms on
it : The second carrying his crest : The third his sword : The fourth
his targe : The fifth the scroll and motto : The sixth his helmet.

" Two Secretaries, Master William Ord, and Master Thomas
Saintserf.

" Then Doctor Middleton (Physician) and his chaplain (Master
John Laing).

" His Parliament Robes, carried by James Graham of Killearn, a
gentleman whose merit, besides his birth, procured this noble employ-
ment.

" The General's baton, by Robert Graham, elder of Cairnie, a brave
and bold gentleman, who, from the beginning of his chiefs enterprises,
never abandoned him, and one whose fortune endured all the mischiefs
of fire and devastation.

" The Order of the Garter, carried by Patrick Graham, baron of
Inchbrakie, elder, a person most eminent for his services upon all oc-
casions, and the only companion of the defunct when he went first to
Athol, and published his Majesty's commission.

" The Marquis's Crown, carried by Sir Robert Graham of Morphie,
younger, a noble person, no less renowned for his affection to royalty,
than for his kindness and hospitality amongst his neighbour gentry,
" The Purse, carried by David Graham of Fintrie : This noble $jen-

53

834 APPENDIX.

tleman's predecessor was the son of the Lord Graham, then head of
the house of Montrose, who, upon a second marriage on King James
the First his sister, begat the first baron of Fintrie, which, in a male
line, hath continued to this baron ; and, as their birth was high, so
their qualifications hath in every respect been great ; for in all ages
since their rise, nothing unbecoming loyal subjects, or persons of
honour, could be laid to their charge, and he who possesseth it now
can claim as large a share as any of his ancestors.

" Next before the corps went Sir Alexander Durham, Lyon King
of Arms, with his Majesty's coat displayed, carrying in Jris hand the
defunct's coat of honour.

" The Corps was carried by fourteen Earls, viz. —

" The Earls of Mar, Morton, Eglinton, Caithness, Wintoun, Lin-
lithgow, Home, Tullibardine, Roxburgh, Seaforth, Callendar, Annan-
dale, Dundee, Aboyn.

" The pall above the corps was likewise sustained by twelve noble-
men, viz., the Viscounts of Stormont, Arbuthnot, Kingston, the Lords
Strathnaver, Kilmaurs, Montgomery, Coldinghame, Fleming, Gask,
Drumlanrig, Sinclair, Macdonald.

" Gentlemen appointed for relieving of those who carried the coffin

under the pall.

11 Earls sons ; Sir John Keith, Knight Marshal ; Robert Gordon ;
Alexander Livingstoun ; Sir David Ogilvy ; the barons of Pitcurr ;
Powrie-Fotheringhame ; Cromlix ; Abercairnie ; Ludwharne ; Den-
holm ; Mackintosh ; Balmedie ; Glorat ; Colquhoun ; Braco ; Craigie ;
Morphie ; Bandoch, elder and younger ; and the ingenious baron of
Minorgan ; and John Graham of Craigie, who likewise accompanied
the Lord Marquis in his travels in France and Italy.

" Next to the Corps went the Marquis of Montrose, and his brother,1
as chief mourners, in hoods and long robes carried up by two pages,
with a gentlemen bare-headed on every side.

" Next to them followed nine of the nearest in blood, three and three,
in hoods and long robes, carried up by pages ; viz. —

" The Marquis of Douglass ; the Earls of Marischal, Wigton,
Southesk, Lords of Drummond, Maderty, Napier, Rollo, and baron of
Luss,2 nephew to the defunct.

" Next to the deep mourners went my Lord Commissioner, his Grace,
in an open coach and six horses, all in deep mourning ; six gentlemen

1 This brother was the Lord Robert Graham. See before, p. 827.
* This was the son of the infamous laird of Luss, who by this time had gone to his
account. See before, p. 88, note.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 835

of quality going on every side of the coach in deep mourning, bare-
headed.

" The Corps of Sir William Hay of Dalgetty followed in this order.

" Captain George Hay, son to Sir John Hay, late Clerk Register,
carried the standard of honour. William Ferguson of Badyfarrow
the gumpheon. Master John Hay the pinsel of honour. Alexander
Hay the spurs and sword of honour. Master Harie Hay the croslet.
Master Andrew Hay the gauntlets.

" Next followed his four branches : Hay, — House of Errol, carried
by Alexander Hay. Lesly, — House of Bonwhoyn, by George Lesly
of Chapleton. Forbes, — of the House of Forbes, by Forbes of Lesly.
Hay, — of Dalgetty, by Robert Hay of Park.

" Two close trumpets in mourning.

" Then the corpse garnished with scutcheous and epitaphs, attended
by the Earl of Errol, Lord High Constable of Scotland ; the Earls of
Buchan, Tweedale, Dumfries, Kinghorn; the Viscount of Frendraught ;*
the Lords Rae, Fraser, Forrester ; Master Robert Hay of Dronlaw ;
George Hay of Kininmonth ; with a multitude of the name of Hay,

and other relations.

i

" As the good town of Edinburgh was never wanting to the cele-
bration of loyal solemnities, so they appeared highly magnificent in
this ; for their trained bands in gallant order, ranged both sides of the
street betwixt the two churches ; and, as the corpse of the great Mon-
trose was laying in the grave of his grandfather, who was Viceroy,
they did nothing but fire excellent vollies of shot, which was answered
with thundering of cannon from the castle ; the same was done to the
baron of Dalgetty as he was interring by his general's side. There
was two things remarkable ; the one, — that, before the beginning of the
solemnity, there was nothing but stormy rains, but the corpses no
sooner came out, but fair weather, with the countenance of the sun,
appeared, and continued till all was finished, and then the clouds re-
turned to their frowns, and the storm begun afresh : The other, — it was
observed, that the friends of both the deceased had wedding counte-
nances, and their enemies were howling in dark corners like howlets.
Some say that there was then a kind of collective body, or sort of spiri-
tual judicatory in town, that would not be present at the funeral, lest
the bones of both should bleed. 2

" Never funeral pomp was celebrated with so great jollity ; neither

1 See afterwards as to Lord Frendraught, p. 841.

9 The General Assembly was then sitting, very crestfallen.

836 APPENDIX.

was it any wonder, since we now enjoy a King, Laws, Liberty, Re-
ligion, which was the only cause that the deceased did so bravely fight
' for. And who would not be good subjects, since there is so great
honour paid to their memories ? while we see traitors for their villany
have their carcases raised and hung upon gibbets, as was the late
Cromwell and others.

" All that belonged to the body of this great hero was carefully re-
collected,— only his heart, which, two days after the murder, in spite
of the traitors, was, by the conveyance of some adventurous spirits ap-
pointed by that noble and honourable lady, the Lady Napier, taken
out and embalmed in the most costly manner by that skilful chirurgeon
and apothecary Mr James Callendar, then put in a rich box of gold,
and sent by the same noble lady to the now Lord Marquis, who was
then in Flanders.

" The solemnities being ended, the Lord Commissioner, with the
nobility and barons, had a most sumptuous supper and banquet at the
Marquis of Montrose's house, with concerts of all sort of music." l

1 On that memorable Monday, 20th May 1650, when the Earl of Loudon, Argyle 's
Chancellor, addressed Montrose in a speech as brutal as the sentence it prefaced, there
were present (and none present raised a dissentient voice) one Marquis, five Earls, and
five Barons ; only eleven peers in all. Of these Lord Torphichen was under age, or
only just of age ; for he had been objected to, as being a minor, in the previous month
of March, by the Earl of Cassillis. On the day when his sentence was read to Montrose,
the sederunt of Peers is thus noted by Sir James Balfour : —

" Noblemen present in the House this day.

" Lord Chancellor (Loudon) President.
" Marquis of Argyle. " Lord Torphichen.

E. of Eglinton. Lord Balmerino.

E. of Roxburgh. Lord Burleigh.

E. of Buccleuch. Lord Forrester.

E. of Tweeddale. Lord Balcarres."

Of these, Argyle, Burleigh, and Balcarres had been signally defeated by Montrose in
battle. Loudon and Balmerino, were the devoted tools of Argyle from the first. The
rest of that sederunt, swayed as they were by petty considerations of private interests,
must have been mightily ashamed of themselves.

On the 1 1th of May 1661, when their inhuman sentence was so emphatically condemned,
no less than forty four peers, exclusive of the young Montrose, are specially named, as
taking a prominent part in the pageant, besides others not named, who attended as
mourners. A notable commentary on the times is, that Roxburgh (" The new Earl of
Roxburgh," see before, p. 778), who had aided in concocting the sentence against Mon-
trose, and was present when it was read, is one of the fourteen Earls who were the bear-
ers to hallowed ground of the fragments of that body he had decreed to be dismem-
bered, and treated as garbage. Tweeddale^ and Forrester ', two of the scanty sederunt
that sentenced Montrose, are also named in the pageant of his " True Funerals." For-
rester, (who married the first Lord Forrester's daughter, and so got the title,) was a
younger son of that Lieutenant General Baillie whom Montrose so signally defeated
both at Alford and Kilsyth ; and the fate of this so far fortunate youth, was to be mur-
dered, with his own sword, by a woman who was executed therefor.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 837

Saintserf's very minute description of the personal appearance "of
Montrose, with some account of his youthful travels, and education
abroad, follows this record of the pageantry of his " True Funerals ;"
but we have already quoted in the foregoing biography (pp. 91, 92,)
what is most interesting of the circumstances thus preserved by his
faithful adherent. We have little doubt, that the " eye-witness" who
so minutely related the whole circumstances of Montrose'a martyrdom,
printed in a pamphlet of that same year, 1650, (see before, p. 789,
note,) was also the author of the " Continuation of Montrose's Historic,"
having the whole of that same "Relation" appended thereto, pub-
lished in 1652, under the title of Montrose Redivivus ; and was this
same Thomas Saintserf. The " Relation" of Montrose's death, ap-
pears to have formed part of the materials for Dr Wishart's second
part of his latin Commentarius. Of this second part, in latin, a per-
fect manuscript, carefully collated by Wodrow, is preserved in the
Advocates' Library, Although re-translated into English, in several
editions of Wishart, it has never been printed from the latin MS.,
which Dr Wishart had not quite completed. An accurate print of
the whole of that unquestionably great performance, is a desideratum
which some of our literary clubs ought to supply.

In " Montrose Redivivus," also, there is preserved a minute de-
scription of Montrose, being very nearly a repetition of the portrai-
ture given in the " True Funerals." This, too, has been already
quoted in the foregoing biography, p. 92, note ; where the date of
"Montrose's Redivivus" is erroneously printed 1661, instead of 1652.
It was reprinted however, in 1660, under the new title of " The com-
plete History of the Wars in Scotland, under the conduct of the illus-
trious and truly valiant James Marquis of Montrose."

IV.

M. aUlZOT's CONTRIBUTION FROM THE ARCHIVES OF FRANCE.

M. Guizot, in a note to his recent work on Cromwell, refers to a
letter, preserved in the Archives of France, written by the French
Resident at Edinburgh to Cardinal Mazarin, upon the occasion of the
death of Montrose. This evidence M. Guizot justly considers to have
placed beyond doubt the disputed fact of the savage procession to the
Tolbooth having been made to pause before the mansion of the Earl
of Moray, that Argylc might from thence safely inspect his prisoner.

838 APPENDIX.

The author's application to be favoured with a copy of that interesting
document, hitherto unknown to the chroniclers and historians of Scot-
land, was honoured by M. Guizot with immediate attention. In a
very frank and kind letter, wherein he terms Montrose, " Get heroique
personnage, le plus grand des Cavaliers" M. Guizot adds : —

" Je vous envoye, selon votre desir, une copie complete et exacte
de la lettre ecrite Ie31-21 Mai, 1650, par Mons.de Gray mond, Resident
de France a Edinbourg, au Cardinal Mazarin. Cette copie a ete faite
sur 1'original meme de la lettre ; et j'ai indiquS en marge le No. du
Registre de nos Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, ou elle se trouve.
Vous y relirez la phrase que j'en ai citee, en note, sur le Marquis
d'Argyle.

" Recevez, Monsieur, avec mes remercieraens, 1'assurance de ma
consideration tres distinguee.

" GUIZOT."
" Paris, 25 Mai 1854."

We here extract so much of the transcript of the letter from M.
Graymond to Cardinal Mazarin, transmitted by M. Guizot, as we
have translated before at p. 781.

" Le bruit couroit Jeudy, que le Roy d'Angleterre etoit arrive a
Aberdin ; et, Vendredy, qu'il etoit a Dunotyr, — l'un et 1'autre sans
aucun fondement. Je ne crois pas neansmoins qu'il tarde plus long
temps."

" Montrose arriva Samedy dernier en cette ville, qui marcha en
armes pour le Devoir, et les officiers prisoniers, a demi mil d'ici :
Quand il fut arrive a la porte du Caniguet, qui et au fauxbourg, ou
plutost une-autre ville, les Echevins lui commanderent de monter sur
une mechante cherrette, conduitte par le boureau, qui etoit sur le timon.
II leur demanda, sans temoigner d'emotion, si 1'on le vouloit contraindre
d'etre mene en tel arroy ? Us luy repondirent que ouy, et qu'ainsy por-
toient les orders du Parlement, — * Montons y done,' dit il alors, ' puis-
qu'on nous veut traitter de la sorted II passa tout le long du Caniguet,
et de la ville, jusques a la prison, teste nue, lie sur un selle attachee a
la charrette, regardant de coste et d'autre, les spectateurs, avec une
contenance majestueuse et un sousris desdaigneux, qui tesmoignoit
qu'il tenoit a gloire ses souffrances : si bien, qu'on pouvoit dire de luy,
deliberata morte ferocior. II n'y en avoit gueres qui n'eussent pitie
de luy ; et qui ne temoignassent par leur Tielas, et leur murmiire, les

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 839

sentiments qu'ils avoient de la generosite, qui paroissoit sur son visage,
non obstant tant de malheurs.

" Plusieurs prirent garde ; et en out bien discount depuis, qu'on Jit
halte vis d vis la maison du Conte de Moray, oil £toit, entre autres,
M. le Marquis d'Argile, qui consideroit son ennemi par une fenestre
entreouverte.

" Hier matin, comme aussy dimanche, de ministres, qui ont ces
jours cy prie Dieu (dans leur presches) pour sa conversion, et le salut
de son ame ; et autres 1'allerent visiter dans la prison, pour luy
montrer comme il avoit forfait centre le Covenant lequel il avoit sou-
scrit, comme ils luy firent voir, et 1'exciterent & repentance. II les
accusa de la mesme faute, et tascha de leur prouver qu'il ne mouroit
que pour 1'avoir voulu maintenir de tout son pouvoir, et comme il y
etoit oblige. Apres cela, on le conduisit au Parlement, ou il receut sa
sentence ; qui porte : Qu'il sera pendu ; sa teste mise sur la faiste de
la prison ; ses bras et jambes envoiers aux villes principalles de ce
Royaume, pour y estre exposer a la veue de tout le monde ; et le reste
de son corps jette a la voirie, s'il meurt impenitent ; si non, enterre,
dans la cimetiere : Ce que Ton executera aujourdhuy dans quelques
heures.

" II n'a pas ny assure, ny denie, qu'il eut expresse commission du
Roy de la G. Bretagne d'envahir ce Royaume en ce temps ; ny n'a
dit, comme je croy, que le Due d' Hamilton avoit este en competition
avec luy pour la mesme commission qu'il avoit, de General des forces
de 1'Ecosse, comme quelques uns alleguent : ains, a montre en termes
generaux que tout ce qu'il avoit enterpris etoit pour le bien et 1'honeur
de son Roy, et non sans son aveu.

" Je demande, tres bumblement, pardon a votre Eminence si je me
suis un peu trop laisse emporter dans cette longue narration. Mais la
personne de Montrose — ses qualitez de Marquis — de Pair du Royaume
— de General d'armee— -et celle de Chevalier de la Jarreticre — qui luy
avoit este tout nouvellement donnee — 1'estrangete de sa mort, et de
toutes les circonstances d'icelle — non jamais pratiquees en Ecosse —
m'ont semble meriter quelque particuliere reflexion."

On tbe margin of tbe transcript sent to the author, there is noted
in M. Guizot's own hand : " Archives des affaires ctrangc'res de
France : Ncgociations avec 1'Angleterre, 1'Ecosse, et 1'Irlande : Sup-
plement: Registre 49, No. 155."

840 APPENDIX.

V.

JENNY GEDDES'S RECANTATION.

We had not, it seems, at p. 134, done all the justice to the Jenny
Lind of the Covenant which she deserves. In his notes on Kirkton,
Mr Sharpe says — " From the continuation of Baker's Chronicle, we
learn that she survived the Restoration." From a yet more unques-
tionable source, we have since ascertained that she also survived her
covenanting principles, abdicated her stool, and burnt it ! A falling off
from the Covenant of its original supporters was not so uncommon as
the violent denunciations of Montrose's " treachery" and " treason,"
would seem to imply. In a very rare pamphlet, printed in Edinburgh,
1661, entitled, " Edinburgh's Joy for his Majestie's Coronation in
England," which records the details of the exuberantly mirthful cele-
bration in Edinburgh of that happy event, two distinguished characters
are specially noted. The one is Lord Clermont, the hopeful heir of
" Major Middleton, who mann'd the Brig o' Dee," by this time Lord
High Commissioner. The other is that virago, then restored to her
senses, who, in 1637, threw her stool at the Dean's head in the
church. On the 3d of April 1661, the Lord Commissioner and his
Lady gave a banquet, a concert, a bonfire, and a ball, at Holyrood
House, where, inter alia, " After dinner the young Lords and Ladies
came out and danced all sorts of country dances and reels ; and none
busier than the young Lord Clermont, son to the Lord Commissioner,
who was so ravished with joy, that, if he had not been restrained, he
had thrown rings, chains, jewels, and all that was precious about him
into the fire."

The Lord Provost and Magistrates headed no less extravagant re-
vels in the upper town. To make up for their butcher's bill of 1650,
a representative of Bacchus at the Cross, " did bestride a hogshead of
the most gracious claret;" and instead of the blood of the best and
bravest, which erst inundated the covenanting shambles on that very
spot, " streams of claret gushed from the conduits." Then was the
most " glorious summer " of the Cockburns of old.

" But amongst all our bontadoes and caprices, that of the immortal
Janet Geddis, Princess of the Trone Adventurers, was most pleasant :
For she was not only content to assemble all her creels, baskets, creepies,
farms, and other ingredients that composed the shop of her sallads,
radishes, turnips, carrots, spinnage, cabbage, with all other sort of pot

LIFE OF MOXTROSE. 841

merchandize that belongs to the garden, but even her weather [sic]
chair of state, where she used to dispense justice to the rest of her
langkail vassals, were all very orderly burnt, she herself countenan-
cing the action with a high-flown claret and vermilion majesty."

VI.

LORD FRENDRAUGHT, REDEVIVUS.

A report of the day, that Lord Frendraught had committed suicide
in prison, as noted by Whitelock (see before, p. 746, note], was thus
made history of, in the most approved style, by Malcolm Laing, vol. iii.
p. 422. " His friend, Lord Frendraught, to prevent the public ven-
geance, preferred a Roman death." But of date more than ten years
after his " Roman death," we find in the Mercurius Caledonius of
Saintserf : —

" Friday the 25th of January 1661 : This same day, the Lord Vis-
count Frendraught took his place in the House, and had the oath ad-
ministered to him. This is the Lord who, upon that fatal day when
the Marquis of Montrose was defeated, and hearing his Excellency
was dismounted, came instantly and found him out, and put a con-
straint upon the Lord Montrose, much against his will, to make use
of his horse : For, as he rightly urged, the preservation of his person
was keeping life in the Cause ; which, without doubt it would have
done, if unfortunately he had not been betrayed three days after. But
the result of this brave action of the Viscount's, was the occasion of
eight or nine dangerous wounds he received for his gallantry." Ac-
cordingly, we find Lord Frendraught attending Montrose's " True
Funerals," in 1661. See before, p. 835.

The late Duke of York, at a levee, received a gallant relative of
the author's, with the brusque, unprefaced, and quite unexpected ex-
clamation,— " But the man's not dead !" The approaching centurion
was to have been preferred to a death vacancy ; the death had been
erroneously reported, however, as the Duke only that moment had
discovered. " Please your Royal Highness," was the ready reply,
under rather difficult circumstances, — u Some other man may die."
We doubt if Malcolm Laing could have backed out so cleverly.

842 APPENDIX.

VII.

LORD MAHON'S THEORY OF MONTROSE'S LAST SPEECH.

Lord Mahon introduces into his " Historical Essay" on Montrose,
p. 190, our quotation of Traill's MS. Diary, relating to the execution
of Montrose, and adds the following foot-note : —

" It is remarkable that Mr Napier, who inserts this passage from
Mr Trail's * Diary/ also inserts (without in either case expressing any
doubt) an ' admirable speech,' addressed by Montrose to those around
him on the scaffold, as ' taken in short-hand by one appointed for that
purpose, and as circulated at the time/ Surely Mr Napier must have
overlooked the phrase in Mr Trail's account, that ' Montrose never
spoke a word.' This witness was standing close by, J and could have
no imaginable motive for suppressing in his private Diary the fact that
Montrose had made a speech. On the other hand, there is an evident
reason why the Royalist party at Edinburgh should devise and circulate
some last words of the hero as honourable and advantageous to their
cause; and, accordingly, on examining the speech itself, several ex-
pressions appear drawn up with that view ; as when Montrose is made
to say, — * For his Majesty now living, never people, I believe, might
be more happy in a King ! His commands to me were most just : In
nothing that he promiseth will he fail.' This speech, if publicly circu-
lated at the time by the Royalists (perhaps in a broadside or printed
sheet) might be, without further enquiry (!) admitted by Sir James
Balfour in his notes."

This is rather a mischievous mare's nest, discovered as it is by a very
distinguished historian. Of course we inserted, without the expression
of a doubt, that which had never raised a doubt during the lapse of
two centuries from the date of the event until now. Neither history
nor biography could be written on other terms. Trail does not say
" Montrose never spoke a word" on the scaffold. In that passage,
which Lord Mahon found in our former biography of Montrose, Trail
says, that their victim did speak aside with the Magistrates, but would
not even so much as look towards that corner of the scaffold where
Trail and his coadjutor stood. But he adds, that Montrose ascended
that ladder, of thirty feet in height, wrapped in his scarlet rochet, " in
a very stately manner, and never spoke a word," — except that, when
he attained the summit, he asked how long he was to hang there. The
mistake is palpable. Montrose's dying composition, however, is too

1 Trail says the very contrary. See before, p. 803, and Arcliaologifi. Scotica, vol. iv.
part 2, p. 223.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 843

valuable to his biography, not to maintain it a little more in detail,
against a contradictor so very respectable as Lord Mahon.

1. From the date of Montrose's death, to that of Lord Mahon' s
" Essay," the idea of such an ex post facto forgery, had never occurred
to a human being. If it be not a mare's nest, it is a great historical
discovery.

2. Sir James Balfour (never friendly, and not always fair, in his
notices of Montrose), inserted the speech in his journal, under the date
of Montrose's execution. He was the last man in the world to have
done so " without further enquiry," as Lord Mahon loosely surmises.
And had the strange and unexpected fact really occurred, of Montrose,
who so nobly justified himself before the Parliament, offering no ad-
dress of the kind to those nearest him on the scaffold (for of course he
was not allowed to address the people), Sir James Balfour would have
been among the very first to know that fact, and to note it.

3. John Nicoll, the notary-public, in like manner enters the speech,
also at large, in his Diary of that date ; and his version agrees with
the Lord Lyon's.

4. Argyle refers to the speech in his letter to Lothian.

5. Among the Wigton Papers there is a contemporary manuscript
of the same, agreeing with all the other records of it, and which was
immediately printed, published, and widely circulated, both at home and
abroad, without the whisper of a contradition from any quarter, until
Lord Mahon impugned it in the nineteenth century. This contem-
porary print mentions, that a boy was placed on the scaffold to note
in short-hand what fell from Montrose, who probably had written it
out beforehand.

6. Lord Mahon expresses surprise that the biographer of Montrose
should not, in 1840, have rejected as a forgery, this " admirable speech,"
as " taken in short-hand by one appointed for that purpose, and as cir-
culated at the time." Since Lord Mahon wrote that hasty note, we
have discovered the additional contemporary evidence of the Reverend
James Fraser, and can now give the name of the youth who was placed
for that purpose on the scaffold. " All his friends and well-willers,"
says the chaplain of Lovat, " being debarred from coming near, they
caused a young boy to sit upon the scaffold by him, designed for that
purpose, who wrote his last speech in brachography, as follows : The
young man's name was Mr Robert Gordon, Cluny, my cammarad, son
to Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonston \from whom I got the same, thus."
Fraser then inserts the speech, agreeing almost verbatim with the ver-
sions of Balfour, Nicoll, the Wigton MS., and the contemporary print.

844 APPENDIX.

7. The internal evidence, which Lord Mahon quotes in support of
his most original theory, affords very interesting evidence of the authen-
ticity of the speech. Argyle, in a private letter to Lothian, (only made
puhlic of late years, see before, p. 763,) tells this falsehood, — " He
was warned to be sparing in speaking to the King's disadvantage, or
else he had done it." Montrose had seen through this miserable tactic,
and he met it with those words, — which Lord Mahon's recent acquain-
tance with the subject was too crude to enable him quite to under-
stand,— " It is spoken of me, that I should blame the King. God for-
bid. For the late king, he lived a Saint, and died a Martyr. I pray
God I may end as he did. If ever I would wish my soul in another
man's stead, it should be in his. For his Majesty now living, never
any people, I believe, might be more happy in a King. His com-
mands to me were most just ; and I obeyed them. He deals justly
with all men.1 I pray God he be so dealt withal, that he be not be-
trayed under trust, as his father was." Thus ended Argyle's hopes
that Montrose would have abused or accused Charles the Second, on
the scaffold. Had this been an ex post facto forgery, it would have
been at once detected by Argyle.

What! Is a hasty stroke of Lord Mahon's pen (though it had
written a history of the world) in a Quarterly Review two centuries
after the event, to deprive Montrose of his last words and dying speech,
the finest thing of the kind, and the best authenticated, on historical
record ? Go to.

VIII.

THE PUBLIC ESTIMATE OF THE COVENANT, AND OF ARGYLE, IN 1661.

It is a curious and provoking fact, that, amid the voluminous letters
and journals of the Reverend Robert Baillie, to whose fanatical and prag-
matical dicta on the subject of Montrose we have had occasion so fre-
quently to refer, not a scrap is to be found on the subject of his last
defeat and death. Yet the uninterrupted series of those valuable, ab-
surd, and amusing papers, printed under the auspices of an excellent

1 This is the Reverend James Eraser's version. The Wigton MS., (which Lord Ma-
hon quotes from our former biography) has it, — " in nothing that he promises, will he
fail, he deals justly with all men." Slight verbal discrepancies, which occur in the dif-
ferent versions, also militate against Lord Mahon's idea of a deliberate forgery by " the
Royalist party," — who, of course, would have been exposed on the instant.

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 845

editor (of such recondite sources of Scottish history), Mr David Laing,
includes the year 1661. In the year of Montrose's death, however,
1650, Baillie has not failed to put us in possession of his estimate of
the character of Argyle. Few could be blind to the fact, that Argyle
was working for himself, against the King, and ripening to become a
peer in Cromwell's Parliament ; being all he could make of it, until he
ripened into a pear of another tree. So, writes Baillie on the 18th of
November 1650, to his reverend brother David Dickson, " If my Lord
Argyle at this strait should desert the King, and verify the too com-
mon surmises of many, which I trust shall be found most false, and
shortly shall be refuted by his deeds, I think, and many more with
me of the best I speak with, that it would be a fearful sin in him,
which God will revenge : That man my heart has loved till now, I
hope he shall give me cause to continue."

Upon this passage, Mr David Laing somewhat innocently notes, —
" Baillie's fears were unfounded, as the Marquis of Argyle was the
person who crowned Charles the Second at Scone" ! So he did, on
the 1st of January 1651. But he crammed both Covenants down his
throat with one hand, while he crowned him with the other ; conceiv-
ing, in fact, that he thereby crowned himself; as indeed he would,
had it not been for Cromwell. That travestie of a coronation by Ar-
gyle, was like driving a man's hat over his eyes, while garotting him.
If the act suffices to satisfy Baillie's editor of the patriotic disinterest-
edness of Argyle, it did not satisfy Baillie himself. Observe how he
handles " that man my heart has loved till now," — in 1661. Imme-
diately after his execution in that year, Baillie thus writes to his old
correspondent, Spang : " Argyle long to me was the best and most
excellent man our State of a long time had enjoyed. But, his com-
pliance with the English, and Remonstrators, took my heart off him
these eight years. Yet I mourned for his death, and still pray to God
for his family. His two sons are good youths, and were ever loyal.'1
So much for a " prime Covenanter's" estimate of the King of the Co-
venanters I

The following interesting letter, not hitherto printed, was recently
discovered by Mr T. G. Stevenson in the collection of the late Mr
Robert Pit-cairn, and has since been acquired by Marmaduke Constable
Maxwell, Esq. of Terregles. It is addressed to that gentleman's col-
lateral ancestor, Robert Maxwell, who succeeded his father as second
Earl of Nitnsdale in 1646, and died unmarried in 1667. The writer
of the letter is Sir William Compton, highly distinguished as a soldier
in the civil war. In 1661 he was a privy councillor, and Master of the

846 APPENDIX.

Ordnance; and in 1662 was appointed one of the Commissioners for
Tangiers. Sir William was third son of Spencer Earl of Northampton,
and died suddenly in 1663, at the early age of thirty-nine. The fol-
lowing curious notice of his death occurs in Pepys' Diary : —

" 19th October 1663. Waked with a very high wind, and said to
my wife, — * I pray God I hear not of the death of any great person
this high wind,'- — fearing that the Queen might be dead. So up ; and
going by coach with Sir W. Batten and Sir J. Minnes to St James's,
they tell me that Sir W. Compton, — who it is true had been a little
sickly for a week or a fortnight, but was very well upon Friday at
night last at the Tangier Committee with us, — was dead ; died yes-
terday ; at which I am most exceedingly surprised, he ]being, and so
all the world saying that he was, one of the worthiest men, and best
officers of State now in England ; and so in my conscience he was : of
the best temper, valour, ability of mind, integrity, worth, fine person,
and diligence, of any one man he hath left behind him in the three
kingdoms ; and yet not forty years old, or if so that is all. I find the
sober men of the Court troubled for him ; and yet not so as to hinder
or lessen their mirth ; talking, laughing, and eating ; drinking, and
doing everything else, just as if there was no such thing."

Sir William Compton, in the following letter, refers to the burning
of the Covenant, which Evelyn thus records in his Diary : " 22d May
1661. The Scotch Covenant was burnt by the common hangman in
divers places in London. Oh prodigious change ! " But Sir William
had inadvertently dated his letter 3d of May 1661 ; an error which
Nithsdale corrected by putting his pen through the word May, and
writing June, at the same time noting that he had received the letter
on the 12th of June 1661.

" To the Right Hon^ the Earl of Nithsdale, — These.

" MY LORD,

" Since my last, the Parliament passed a vote for burning the Co-
venant by the hand of the hangman. Some were troubled at it here,
but not many. We are now upon a bill for repealing the act by which
the Bishops were excluded from sitting in Parliament. The House
have voted the King a voluntary and free benevolence. Ships are in
preparing ; but it is not yet known who will be the person that shall
go to fetch the Queen from Portugal. My Lord of Peterborough is to
go Governor of a town in Barbary, in the mouth of the straight called
Tangier, which the Portugals put into the King's hands. The Lords
that came lately from your Parliament solicited hard the withdrawing

LIFE OF MONTROSE. 847

the English out of the forts in Scotland. I suppose their suit will be
granted ; but Leith will be continued for a while ; we shall not be so
civil as to leave the forts standing when the forces are to be withdrawn.
We have reports here that the Marquis of Argyle asserted the Cove-
nant, and his own innocence, much at his death. They were well
coupled, and equally to be esteemed ; for his innocence, I believe, had
the greatest share in promoting the evils the other brought us into.
I shall sometimes, when I have any new matter, trouble you with a
letter ; but at present, having no more, I take my leave, and rest,
" Your Lordship's very humble servant,

" WM COMPTON."
June 3. 1661.

We have thus called the best witnesses, to speak to the character
of Argyle ; namely, a " prime Covenanter" and a " prime Cavalier."
And so, together exeunt the Covenant and " King Campbell." The
Monarchy was restored, — the manes of Montrose appeased ; and with
a repetition of his own graphic symbol attached to his proclamation
(p. 425) in the name of King Charles, we conclude, —

INDEX.

" A. £." Signature to secret correspondence of Sir Thomas Hope of Kerse,
307, 309.

Abbey and Palace of Holyroodhouse, scene there between the Lord Advo-
cate and the Bishop of Brechin, 161. Interview there between Montrose
and Hamilton, 96.

Aber, Montrose's account of his march through, 484.

Aberdeen, Montrose's portrait painted at, 1, 68. — See Portraits. Montrose
made burgess of, 68. Its loyalty under Huntly, from the commencement
of the Troubles, 145. Montrose's expedition to induce it to sign the Co-
nant; account of that expedition ; amount of its success, 149-151. En-
tered by Montrose with the army of the Covenant ; conduct and result of
that first invasion of Aberdeen, 176-189. Again invaded for the Cove-
nant by Montrose, who treats it with lenity, 199, 200. Stormed by the
covenanting army under Montrose, after the battle of the Dee, and saved
from destruction by him, contrary to his orders, 206-215. Stormed by the
royal army under Montrose after the battle of Aberdeen ; Spalding's ac-
count of its sufferings upon that occasion ; measures adopted by Montrose
to relieve and save it, 457-459.

Provost and Bailies of, their correspondence with Montrose un-
der a flag of truce before the battle of Aberdeen, 452, 453 ; the flag of
truce fired on when quitting the town, and the drummer attending it shot ;
consequent exasperation of the royalists, and massacre of the town's people
after the battle, 454-457.

Reception of Charles II. at, 767.

Abernethy, forest of, on the Spey, occupied by Montrose with his army, 461.

Abertarf, at the head of Loch Ness, Montrose encamps there before turning
upon Argyle at Inverlochy, 480.

Aberuthven, the church of, between Perth and Auchterarder ; contains the
ancient mausoleum of the Montrose family ; the father and mother of Mon-
trose there interred, 6, 27. A barony of the Montrose family, 8. The
smithy there a resort of Montrose in his boyhood, 9, 10.

Aboyne, Viscount, Huntly's second son, accompanies his father in a confer-
ence with Montrose, 182. Heads the Huntly following in the north after
the capture of his father, and elder brother, by Montrose, 191. Goes to
the King at Newcastle, to obtain assistance ; his favourable reception
crossed by Hamilton, who checkmates him with u Traitor Gun," 195, 196.
Enters the Road of Aberdeen with three ships, to commence hostilities
against Montrose, 201. History of his collision in arms with Montrose at
this time ; defeated at the battle of the Bridge of Dee, 202-212. Assaulted
in Edinburgh for his loyalty, by a tumult of women, 219. Accompanies
Montrose to meet the Queen at Burlington, 375. One of the witnesses

54

850 INDEX.

before the Court of Inquiry at Oxford into the conduct of Hamilton in
Scotland, 383. Acts as aid-de-camp to Montrose under his first commis-
sion to raise the standard in Scotland, 389. At the battle of Bowdenhill,
394. Resents Carnwath's contumacy towards Montrose, 394. Escapes
from the Castle of Carlisle and again joins Montrose, 499. His gallant
feat of arms at Aberdeen, to procure ammunition for the royal army, 500.
Leads the Gordon Cavaliers, with his brother Lord Gordon, at the battle
of Auldearn, 501. Their gallant charge decisive of that victory, 504. His
absence from the standard after that battle detrimental to the plans of
Montrose, 532, 533 — note. Rejoins Montrose, 536. His doubtful con-
duct at the battle of Kilsyth, 545. His capricious desertion of the standard
at Calder effects the ruin of Montrose and the royal army ; Ogilvy?s letter
of remonstrance to him, 567, 568, 570, 572. Rejoins, and again deserts
Montrose, 608, 610. His subsequent extraordinary and capricious conduct,
619, 627-629. Dies of a broken heart abroad, soon after the murder of
the King, 733.

Abscindantur qui nos perturlant, an aphorism of Argyle's, 248.

Acherley, the historian, his calumny against Montrose, examined, 359 ; also
Appendix to vol. i., No. V. p. Iv.

Aclieson, Sir Archibald, 108, 109.

Age, Montrose's, how ascertained, 1, 2.

Agriculture in Scotland at the close of the sixteenth century, 41, 42, note.

Airlie, James, eighth Lord Ogilvy, and first Earl of Airlie, fortifies Airlie
Castle against the Covenanters, and joins the King, in 1640, 243. Joins
the standard at Dundee, after the battle of Tippermuir, 448. With Mon-
trose at Crathes on the eve of the battle of Aberdeen, 451. His faithful
adherence to the standard, 468, 473. His breakfast with Montrose imme-
diately before the onset at Inverlochy, 482. His dangerous illness after

, that battle separates him from the standard, 493. Rejoins before the battle
of Kilsyth, 536. With Montrose at Alloa Castle, 538. His brilliant and
decisive charge at the battle of Kilsyth, 542, 545, 546. His safety provided
for at Montrose's cessation of arms and treaty with Middleton ; but excom-
municated by the Kirk, 640, 641.

Airlie, Castle of, taken possession of by Montrose for the Covenant, 243-245.
Maliciously destroyed by Argyle, 245-247.

Airth, William Graham, Earl of, 54. See Graham.

the floating moss beside, 63.

Aithie, the laird of, 159.

Airthrie, Sir John Graham of Braco's house of, burnt by Argyle, 538.

Albin, great glen of, Montrose's march through it before turning upon In-
lochy, 480.

Alexander the Great, Montrose's references to, 60, 61.

Alexander, John, of Gartmer, 510, note.

Alford, battle of, 527-530.

Alloa, lordship and town of, 537. Castle of, Montrose feasted there before
the battle of Kilsyth, 538.

INDEX.

Almond, glen of, Montrose joined by Lord ^ilpont there before the battle
of Tippermuir, 427, 428. Montrose encamped there after his escape from
Philiphaugh, 605.

Almond, Lord, joins in the conservative bond at Cumbernauld, 270, note. His
evidence before the Committee on the " Incident," Appendix, rol. i.
p. Ixiii. Created Earl of Callendar, 370.— See Callendar.

Angus, William Douglas, tenth Earl of, his engagement in support of
James VI., 3.

Archibald Douglas, Earl of, (eldest son of first Marquis of Douglas),

travels with Montrose in their youth, 94.

County of, Montrose's following therein, 166, 199.

• Braes of, Argyle's descent upon, and havoc committed by him, 245-

248. His tyrannical commission against, and cruel exercise of it, 251-253.

Annandale, James Murray, Earl of, Montrose complains of him to the King,
407. Joins Montrose after the battle of Kilsyth, 554.

James Johnstone, Earl of. — See HartfelL

Antoninus, wall of, called " Graham's Dyke," 2, 387.

Antrim, Earl and Marquis of, his feeble co-operation with Montrose, 379, 386,
409, 416, 654, note, 657, note.

Appin, Stewarts of, join Montrose before the battle of Inverlochy, 470.

Arbroath, Montrose's brilliant retreat upon, and midnight march, 496, 497.

Arbuihnot, Sir Robert (1st Viscount), 68.

Archers, Scots Guard of France, historical mistake that Montrose command-
ed it in his youth, 94, 95, note, 168.

a body of, commanded by Lord Kilpont at the battle of Tippermuir,

429, 430.

Archery, a favourite pastime of Montrose, 10, 44-48, Montrose invited to
join in, by the Queen of Bohemia at the Palace of Rhenen, 714, 715.

Ardnamurchan, the Irish under Macdonald land there, 416.

Ardvoirlich, James Stewart of, a familiar retainer of Lord Kilpont's, with
whom he joins Montrose on the eve of the battle of Tippermuir ; his base
assassination of that young nobleman, after having shared his bed with him ;
the murderer flies to Argyle, who protects and rewards him ; the murder
justified and applauded by the Reverend Robert Baillie, 446, 447, note.
The murderer's own version of his crime, and relative exoneration by a
Committee of Estates, ratified by the Argyle Parliament, 459, note;
Appendix, vol. i. No. VI. Notice of the murderer by Montrose, in a letter
to Huntly, 624.

Argenis and Poliarchus, Barclay's, 58, 59.

Argyle, Marquis of, his first assumption of leadership in the covenanting As-
sembly ; his personal appearance, 157. Severe character of him by Claren-
don ; his character emphatically impressed upon Charles I. by his own
father ; the Rev. R. Baillie puzzled as to his intentions, 158, 248, note.
The Kirk adopts him as their leader, although not a member of Assembly,
159. Overawes the King's Advocate, Sir Thomas Hope, in the General
Assembly, 232. Leads the democratic movement in the Parliament of

852 INDEX.

1640, 234. Meets with opposition from Montrose, who disputes against
him, 235, 236, 241. Prefers commanding the general Committee of
Estates, and possessing the entree, to being formally nominated a member,
238. Obtains command of an army to " take order," with the loyalists in
the shires of Perth, Stirling, and Angus ; Baillie's account of his pecu-
liar duty in arms, 243. Terror occasioned by the excesses of his high-
landers, 244. His cruel proceedings against the House of Airlie ; his
threatening letter to Sir John Ogilvy of Inverquharity ; destroys " the
bonnie house of Airlie ;" his inhuman conduct to Lady Ogilvy at Forthar,
246, 247. His murderous aphorisms, 248. Impeaches Montrose before
the war committee for his humanity in dealing with the House of Airlie,
249. His commission of fire and sword, 251. His Parliamentary exonera-
tion for his conduct under that commission, and for putting persons to tor-
ture and to death, 249-253. His various plans for usurping sovereign
power in Scotland, 254-257. His mode of taking order with the loyal
Stewarts of Athole, 258. Entraps the Earl of Athole, 259. Treasonable
proceedings at Taymouth, or Balloch Castle, 260, 261. His bond for the
Dictatorship, rejected with scorn by Montrose, 263, 264. Discovers Mon-
trose's conservative bond signed by nineteen Peers at Cumbernauld ; con-
sequent proceedings, 273, 274. Endeavours to bring Montrose under the
old statutes of leasing-making ; scene between them before a covenanting
committee subservient to Argyle, 301-304. His mode of obtaining a re-
cantation from Stewart of Ladywell, 306, 307. Succeeds in having Mon-
trose committed as a State prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh, 324, 325.
-His merciless conduct to Stewart of Ladywell, 325-330. His insolent speech
to the King in the Scotch Parliament of 1641, 353. Triumph of his fac-
tion ; is made a Marquis, 369, 370. Covets the Seals ; opposes the King's
election of Morton ; appointed a Commissioner of the Treasury ; regulates
the distribution of offices at this time, 370, 371. Cabals with Hamilton ;
draft of a marriage -contract between his eldest son and Hamilton's eldest
daughter, 373, 374. His attempt to seduce Montrose, 379-382. Accom-
panies the Scotch army across the border ; returns to Scotland upon the
rumour of Montrose's commission, 391 ; instigates the army under Callen-
dar to oppose him, 395. Professes to keep the north of Scotland against
Huntly, 397. Correct estimate of his power in Scotland by Sir James
Leslie, 401. Obtains a commission to command in chief against MacColl
Keitache's invasion of the Western Highlands ; seizes the invader's flotilla
and follows him at a distance, 417. The first shock to Argyle's nerves ad-
ministered by Montrose, 423. Commands the army in pursuit of Mon-
trose ; his cautious mode of pursuing, 444, 445. Holds out premiums for
assassination ; instance of the murder of Irvine of Kingcaussie, 446. Oc-
casions the assassination of Lord Kilpont, and harbours and rewards the
murderer, 446, 447, Appendix, vol. i. No. VI. Offers a reward of twenty
thousand pounds Scots for the head of Montrose, 448, 449. Endeavours
to bribe Sir William Rollo to assassinate Montrose, 459. Commands an
overwhelming force in pursuit of Montrose ; his mode of pursuit, 460, 461.

INDEX. 853

His devastations in the north when following the track of Montrose, 465 .
Montrose works him ; baffled, defeated, and disgraced, along with Lothian,
by Montrose at Fyvie, 466-469. Chased from Dunkeld to Perth and
Edinburgh by Montrose ; obtains an act of approbation from the cove-
nanting Parliament, 469. Hastens from Edinburgh to Inverary, which he
deems inapproachable by an enemy ; flies in terror from his stronghold on
the first intimation of the approach of Montrose, 472, 473. Throws up
the command of the army against Montrose, but controls General Baillie,
who is compelled to accept the command, 473, 474. Argyle's power in
Scotland, and by what means worked, 474, 475. His preparations to be
revenged against Montrose for his, invasion of the Western Highlands,
475, 476. His peculiar mode of " overtaking the rogues ;" catching a
Tartar ; battle of Inverlochy ; cowardly conduct of Argyle, and destruc-
tion of his clan, 477-488. His melancholy exhibition thereafter before the
Parliament, which thanks and exonerates him, 489. False account of his
loss in the battle given to the General Assembly, 490. Meanness of his
government in oppressing the family and near relatives of Montrose, in-
cluding the ladies, 507-516, 558, 559, 616. Cruel execution of the King's
messenger, Small of Fotherance, 517. Argyle tampers with Montrose's
keeper of the Castle of Blair, 521. Burns the Earl of Stirling's house of
Menstrie, and sends an insolent message to the Earl of Mar, 538. Is chief
of the joint-stock company of commanders at Kilsyth ; his part in that
battle, and flight from the field, 539-547. His malicious enmity to the
House of Huntly, 567, 568. His cold-blooded cruelties at Dunavertie, in
company with London's minister, 603, 604. Presses the Solemn League
and Covenant to the extent of insisting for Presbyterian government in
England, 663. Remits the cause of the Kirk to Cromwell ; takes up arms
for him, invites him to Scotland, and receives him in the Castle of Edin-
burgh with regal honours, 664, 672, 673. Plays the game for Cromwell
at the treaty with Charles II. at Breda, 737. Gross falsehoods in his letter
to Lothian announcing the execution of Montrose, 763, 764, 765, 766, 789
note. Presbyterial pains and penalties for having u spoken rashly of the
Marquis of Argyle," 768, note. Contemplates Montrose tied to a cart, 781,
782, note. Gluts his revenge against Montrose, 797. His Pharisaical as-
sumption of sanctity, and talse pretexts of religion and liberty, Appendix,
vol. i. p. liv.

Arlington, Henry Bennet, Earl of, Cowley's letter to, 771, 772.

Army, of the Covenanters, well organised by Alexander Leslie ; its fantasti-
cal composition, in connexion with the covenanting clergy ; the Reverend
Robert Baillie's account of its dissolute character, 193, note ; 197, note,
549, 584, 603, 604.

Armyne, Sir William, 398.

Arnott, Robert, of Benchells, Provost of Perth, his evidence before the com-
mittee relative to Montrose's proceedings there, after the battle
muir, 433-435.

854 INDEX.

Arnott, James, Lord Burleigh's brother, taken prisoner at Kilsyth, arid dis-
missed on his parole by Montrose, 549.

Dr., attends Montrose in his sickness at college, 38, 39.

Arradoul, Gordon of, his indignation at " Traitor Gun," 212.

Articles, the five, of Perth, Episcopal imparity of Church government esta-
blished thereby in Scotland by King James, with the acquiescence of the
people, 139.

Ashburnham, John, groom of the bed-chamber to Charles I., 409, 653.

Assassination, of Lord Kilpont, 446, 447, Appendix, vol. i. No. VI.

Historical calumny against Montrose on the subject, 358-363,

366, Appendix, vol. i. No. V.

Argyle's promotion of it, 446, 447-449, 459, Appendix, vol. i.

No. VI.

Assembly, General, of 1638, Hamilton Commissioner, 147. The marked
feature and characteristic of that Assembly the contradiction between its
professions and its practice, 153, 154. Underhand packing of the Assembly
by secret directions from the Tables, 154, 155. Violent scene between
Montrose and his father-in-law, Southesk, 155. Dissolved by the Com-
missioner, 156. Sits nevertheless, under the avowed leadership of Argyle,
though not a member of the Assembly, 157, 159. Tyrannical and lawless
proceedings against the Bishops ; disregard of the first principles of evi-
dence and justice, 160, note, 161, 162.

General, of 1639, Traquair Commissioner ; further impulse to the

democratic movement, 221, 222, 223. Pronounces Episcopacy *o be gene-
rally unlawful and contrary to God's word, 224, 225.

General, of 1643, Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, Commissioner ;

decrees the invading army of 1644, and gives birth to the " Solemn League
and Covenant," 382.

General, petitions for blood, 490, 593. Emissaries of, haunt Mon-
trose in his last moments, 786, 788 note, 790, 796, 803.

General, nicknamed u Good wife that wears the breeches," in re-
lation to Argyle's Parliament, Appendix, vol. i. p. Ixxix.

Assint, M'Leod of, betrays Montrose, his reward, 746.

AtJiole, John Murray, Earl of, opposes Argyle in arms at the ford of Lyon,
257. Falls into a snare of Argyle's, and is made prisoner, 258, 259. His
life threatened at Balloch Castle (Taymouth), where he hears treasonable
discourses of Argyle, 260, 261. One of Montrose's informers against
Argyle, 275, 330. One of the Peers who signed the conservative bond at
Cumbernauld, 270, note. His untimely death, 419.

the Blair of, and Castle, Montrose meets Allaster Macdonald there,

establishes his head-quarters there, and raises the standard, 419, 420;
Montrose keeps his prisoners of war and sick soldiers there, and his com-
munication with it open, 462, 463, 522, 530, 535, 605, 606, 611, 616, 625,
626. Sends a sword to be preserved there, 520.

Auchinbreck, Sir Duncan Campbell of, commands Argyle's body-guard in

INDEX. 855

his raid upon the braes of Athole and Angus, 257. Argyle recalls him from
Ireland to command his Highlanders, 475. Commands for Argyle at In-
verlochy, 481. Dies sword in hand at the head of Clan- Campbell, 485,
note.

Auchterarder, Presbytery of, the storm against Montrose arises there, 300,
301.

Auldbar, Lyon of, Kinghorn's brother, 165.

Auldearn, battle of, 500-506.

Bachiltoun, laird of, the Master of Maderty taken prisoner by him before the
battle of Tippermuir, 437.

Badenoch, men of, join Montrose, 420.

country of, oppressed by Argyle, 250, note. Occupied by Mon-
trose, 461. His dangerous illness there, 462. His night march from, upon
Dunkeld, 468, 469, 472, note.

Baillie, the Reverend Robert, his description of the Marquis of Hamilton's
hypocritical demeanour in his progress from Dalkeith to Edinburgh, 99.
His characteristics of the " pitiful schism" that gave rise to the Covenant
in Scotland, 129, 131, 132, 133. His characteristics of Hamilton, 147.
His account of how the u Tables" packed the General Assembly of 1638.
154, 155. His own character, 127, 156. His contradictory characteristics
of Argyle, 158, 159, 243, 433, 469. His final condemnation of Argyle, 845.
His characteristics of the Lord Advocate, Sir Thomas Hope, 232. His
conscience and his conduct at variance in the persecution of the Scotch
Bishops and condemnation of Episcopacy, 160, 161, note, 225. His con-
tradictory characteristics of Montrose, 188, 189, 198, 200, 205, note, 21.'!,
269, 272, 379, 697, note. Unfairly accuses Huntly of cowardice, 167, 188,
and Aboyne of insolence, 219. His justification of popular violence, 132,
133, 135,219. His justification of assassination, 447. Expresses admira-
tion of Charles I., 220, note. His lamentation after the battle of Tipper-
muir, and mode of accounting for the victory, 432, 433. His characteris-
tics of the covenanting movement, 223, 225, note, 703, note, 729. His
violence against Montrose's conservative bond, and false characteristic of
it, 269, 340, 341, 342, note. Takes the field with the Kirk militant ; de-
scription of himself, under u the holy text of pike and gun," 193, note.
His account of the camp of " the army of God," 197, note. His charac-
teristics of General Alexander Leslie (Leven) 176, 177, 197, note, 272.
His cordial reception of Lanerick (2d D. of Hamilton) on his joining the
covenanting faction, 384. His account of Montrose's carrying fire and sword
through the territories of Argyle ; and how Argyle " overtook the rogues
at Inverlochy," 476, 477. Converses aside with Montrose in the Tolbooth
on the eve of his execution ; silence of his voluminous manuscripts on the
subject of Montrose's capture, sentence, and death, remarkable, 790, imt<-.
844.

Lieutenant-General William of Letham, constrained to accept the

command in chief of the covenanting forces in Scotland, after the

856 INDEX.

of Argyle at Fyvie and Duukeld, 475. Complains of the tyrannical Dicta-
torship of Argyle, 475. Ordered to occupy Perth, in conjunction with the
cavalry under Hurry, 476. Confronts Montrose in the county of Angus,
but declines his challenge, 495. Foiled in pursuit of Montrose after the
storming of Dundee, 496, 497. Again foiled and repulsed by Montrose
in Strathern, 498. Burns the district of At hole up to the castle of the Blair,
500. Again confronts Montrose on the banks of the Spey, after the battle
of Auldearn, 515. His own account of his unsuccessful pursuit of Mon-
trose in the north, 523, 524. Turned upon by Montrose at the Kirk of
Keith, but again declines his challenge, 526. Follows Montrose to the
Don, and is defeated, and his army utterly destroyed by the Marquis at
Alford, 527, 528. Throws up his commission, but his resignation refused,
and his command placed under a military committee headed by Argyle,
531. Occupies Perth with a new army, to defend the Parliament; again
baffled and repulsed by Montrose, 531-534, 536. Encamps at Hollinbush,
near Kilsyth, 538. His own account of his defeat, and the destruction of
his new army at Kilsyth, 539-542. Makes his escape to Stirling Castle,
546. How his younger son became Lord Forrester, 836.

Bairdrell, Montrose's barony of, 8.

Balcanqual, Dr Walter, Dean of Durham, compiles under the instructions
of Charles I. " the King's Large Declaration," 151.

Balcarres, Sir David Lindsay of, his learning and his hospitality ; his house
a Scottish Bracebridge Hall ; Montrose spends his Christmas holidays
there, 51, 52. Created Lord Lindsay of Balcarres at the Coronation of
Charles I. in Scotland, 74.

Alexander Lindsay, second Lord of, and first Earl of, commands

the covenanting cavalry at the battle of Alford ; his gallant conduct there ;
defeated by the Gordon cavalry, 527, 528. One of the joint-stock com-
pany of command at the battle of Kilsyth, 539. His activity on that oc-
casion, 541, 544. His cavalry defeated by Lord Airlie and the Ogilvy
cavaliers, 545, 546. One of the ten Scotch Peers who countenanced by
their presence the Chancellor Loudon in pronouncing sentence against
Montrose, 836.

Baldovie, Ogilvy of, commands under Airlie the Ogilvy cavaliers at the
battle of Kilsyth, 543, 545.

Balfour, Sir James, of Denmylne, Lyon-king-at-arms to Charles I., his note
of the death of Lady Dorothea Graham, 36. Notes Montrose as " absent"
from the coronation pageant of Charles I. in June 1633, but not as " infra
cetatem" 72. His remarkable silence on the fate of Lady Katherine Graham,
79. Arranges the pageant of the coronation in Scotland ; anecdote of the
King's friendly familiarity with him, 120. His remarkable note of his own
observation of the commencement of anarchy in 1641, contrasted with his
unfair calumnious record of the conservative proceedings of Montrose, 341,
note. His unfair note of Montrose's speech, and subsequent petition in
1641 to the Parliament, 347, note, 351. Omits to note Lord Napier's
ppeech to the Parliament in 1641, in presence of the King, 353. His full

INDEX. 857

and affecting record of the King's demeanour in the Scotch Parliament
when insulted and betrayed by Hamilton in the false rumour of the " In-
cident," 360, 361, note, Appendix, vol. i. Ixii-lxix, and notes. His note of
Montrose's pasquil against Hamilton, 377. His note of Argyle's extraor-
dinary assertion in Parliament after the execution of Montrose, 765. His
full and graphic account of Montrose's demeanour and appearance before
the Parliament when receiving sentence, 791, 792. His record of Mon-
trose's last speech and dying words, 843.

JBalfour, Sir Andrew, sends trouts and milk to Montrose's during his illness
at College, 39.

Michael, of Randerstane, a companion of Montrose at College, 43.

the laird of, younger, Argyle's letter to, Appendix, vol. i., liv.

Balgowan, Graham of. — See Graham.

Balloch, Drummond of. — See Drummond.

Castle (now Tay mouth), Argyle kidnaps Athole there, 259. Op-
pressive proceedings of Argyle there ; treasonable demonstrations of his
following there, 260, note, 261.

BullyheuTcane, Fergusson of, in Athole, Montrose quarters there, 463, 464.

Balmedy, laird of, the Master of Maderty taken prisoner by him before the
battle of Tippermuir, 437.

Balmerino, John Elphinston, second Lord, capitally convicted in 1634, of
seditious leasing-making against the Sovereign, but pardoned by the King ;
his ingratitude pointedly referred to by Charles I., in his " Large Declara-
tion," 125, 126. Renews, in 1637, his secret seditious machinations, 130.
Curious examples of his and his clique's mode of secretly promoting reli-
gion and liberty, 131, 143. Plan of the covenanting movement concocted
at his lodgings, 135, 136. An old stalking-horse of sedition and anarchy,
235, note. Montrose disputes against him in the Parliament of 1640, on
the question of ignoring the King, 236. His secret correspondence in
1641 with Johnston of Warriston, 293, 294, note, 348, 349. President of
Argyle's secret working committee, 307, 308, 327, 342, note. Charles I.
constrained to promote him, 371. Prompted by Argyle to inform the Ge-
neral Assembly falsely as to the battle of Inverlochy, 490.

Balmoral, Montrose there in pursuit of Sir John Hurry, before the battle of
Auldearn, 500.

Balneaves, the Rev. Alexander, minister of Tippermuir ; arraigned by his
Presbytery for having conversed with Montrose on the day of the battle ;
his defence ; his contemptuous and unrecordable reply to his Presbytery,
443, 444.

Balveny, mentioned by Spalding as the birth-place of General Alexander
Leslie (Leven) ; Spalding corrected by James Man, 173, note. Montrose
there with his army, 524.

Balwhidder, braes of, Montrose there with his army, 499, 500.

BalwJiolly, Mowat of, killed at the battle of Alford, 530.

Bara, Macneill of, 654, note.

Bass, isle of, Lord Ogilvy incarcerated there by the Argyle government, 557.

858 INDEX.

Batten, Admiral, his brutal attack on the Queen, 375.

Beaton, Cardinal, the example of his murder inculcated by the Trullas of the

Covenant, 133.
, Bell, the Rev. John, creates a riot in Glasgow, 132.

Bellasis, Colonel, Montrose urges an exchange for him, 404, 409.

Berwick, treaty of, 215. Not the occasion of Montrose's loyalty, 220-226.

Beverwert, Governor of Bergen, Queen of Bohemia disputes with him against
granting the covenanting commissioners' demands, 711, 712, note.

Birsay, palace and castle of in Orkney, occupied for Montrose by Kinnoul,
724, note. Sudden deaths there of Kinnoul and Morton, 726, 727, and
notes.

Birkenbog, laird of, 502, 505.

Bishops, Scotch, disgraceful means by which their destruction was effected,
128, 129, 131, 133, 160, note.

Montrose always opposed to their predominance in the State, and to

Episcopacy in Scotland, 787.

their estimation of Montrose, 56.

Bishopton, Brisbane of, 53.

Blackball, Sir Archibald Stewart of, one of the four conservative " plotters,"
295, 297, note, 317, 319, 351, 353, 367.

Blackness, Castle of, Montrose's relatives imprisoned there, 511.

Blackwood, Harry, head of the stables at Kincardine Castle, 8, 9, 10, 31.

Blair, the Rev. Robert, his merciless doctrine from the pulpit, 592. Peti-
tions for blood, 490. Attends Cromwell in Scotland, 673, note.

Castle of the, in Athole ; Montrose's rendezvous ; raises the standard

there ; the depot of his sick soldiers and prisoners, 419, 420, 462, 463, 520,
521, 606, 611, 616.

Kirk of, Lord Napier buried there, 615.

Blebo, Sir William Murray of, taken prisoner by Montrose at the battle of
Kilsyth, and dismissed on his parole, 549.

Bbjtliwood, Sir George Elphinstone of, his house in Glasgow occupied by
Montrose when Lord Graham, 18.

Bohemia, Queen of, 708.— See Elizabeth.

Bog, of Gicht, the, (Gordon Castle), 182, 460, 492, 506. Death of John Lord
Graham there, 492. Montrose surprises Huntly there, 619.

Bond, Montrose's conservative, signed at Cumbernauld, 269, note, 270. Dis-
covered by Argyle, and burnt by his committee, 273, 274, 277. The ghost
of it raised again ; violent and calumnious characterising of its tenor by
Sir James Balfour and the Rev. Robert Baillie, 269, 341, note. Balme-
rino remonstrates with his own clique in support of the truth of Montrose's
defence of it, 342, note. A contemporary copy of the Bond itself only re-
cently recovered, and now produced, 269, note.

the Kilcummin, 478, 479, 492.

Borderers, their degenerate condition and conduct at the rout of Philiphaugh,
570, 571, 576.

INDEX. 859

Boswcll, the younger, in Edinburgh, referred to by the Queen of Bohemia,
719.

Boihwell, Montrose encamped there after the battle of Kilsyth, 554-569.

Bow, and bowstrings, 9, 10, 21, 430, 479.— See Archery.

Bowdenhill, battle of, between Newcastle and Leven ; Montrose there on his
way to Scotland ; pronounces Newcastle " slow" upon that momentous
occasion ; strange spectacle there of a female captain at the head of a
troop of Newcastle's horse, 392, 393, note, 394, 395.

Bowhopple, Napier of. — See Napier.

Boyd, Lord, eulogized by William Lithgow, 74. Discloses the Cumbernauld
Bond to Argyle ; his death, 272, 273.

Boyne, laird of, 502, 505.

Braco, Graham of. — See Graham.

Braemar, the Farquharsons of, 470. — See Farquharson.

Breadalbane, Montrose burns the district of, 472.

Brecldn, Bishop of, secret letter to Johnston of Warriston recommending a
riot and assault upon his person if he appeared on the street, 131. Scene
between him and the Lord- Advocate, 161.

Town of, 7, 495.

Breda, treaty of, Charles II.'s vicious and double policy in the conduct of;
Hume and Brodie's historical mistake corrected, 740, note, 757, note, 759-
762. The King's disingenuous conduct in his private instructions regard-
ing Montrose's continuing in arms, dated after the treaty of Breda had
been signed, but before the King had learnt that Montrose was defeated
and captured, 761, 762.

Brentford, Earl of Forth and, 391, 687, 718, 721, note.

Brethern, Queen of Bohemia's playful and sarcastic allusions to the name as-
sumed by the covenanting zealots, 711, 712, note, 718.

Broachly, the baron of, 258, note.

Brodie, George, Esq. Advocate (Historiographer Royal for Scotland), his ac-
count of the Covenant in Scotland ; his admiration of it ; his exceptions to
it, 141, 142. His prejudiced and violent misapprehension of the history,
character, and capacities of Montrose, 359, 748, note; Appendix, vol. i.
pp. lix. Ix. His statement that the news of Montrose's final defeat caused
Charles II. to agree to the treaty of Breda, refuted by documents under
the King's own hand, 757, note, 759, note, 760, 761, 762.

Bruce, of Carnock, 36.

Captain, taken prisoner by Montrose at the rout of Philiphaugh, 577.

Brunswick, Duke of, his reception of Montrose, 728.

Buchanan, George, strangely characterised by Mr Macaulay, 39. Signi-
ficantly quoted by Sir Thomas Hope of Kerse, 267.

Buckle, the Goodman of (Gordon), note from Montrose to, after the battle
of Auldearn, 506. Holds Gordon Castle for Montrose, 526.

fiurnet, Bishop, his characteristics of Montrose as playing the u part of a
hero too much," and as taking " too much care of himself," 93, 519, note,
748, note. A foul scandal against Montro:<<.', and Queen IIcnriott;\ Maria.

860 INDEX.

founded on a false passage in Burnet's history of his own time, refuted by
the Queen's letters, of date both before and after the scandal alleged, 656,
657, 697, 698, 699, 707. Mr Macaulay's emphatic imprimatur on Bur-
net's honesty, 698.

Burnet, Sir Thomas of Leys, 170, 451, 464, 465.

Bums, James, a Glasgow bailie, his contemporary MS. chronicle, 553, note.
His record of the death and funeral of the Marchioness of Montrose, 615.

Caithness, county of, Montrose lands there with foreign troops, under the
commission and injunctions of Charles II., 742, 743. The gentlemen and
heritors of, withhold their aid ; Montrose's letter to them, 743, 744.

Earl of, one of the fourteen Earls who carried the coffin with the

remains of Montrose to the tomb at his public funeral, 834.

Calder, Sir James Sandilands of, 4, 5.

Callendar, Lord Almond, created Earl of, 370. A fast and loose loyalist, 388.
Accepts of the command of an army against Montrose, 395, 397, 398. His
patriotism characterised by Montrose, as being u only for saving of his
estate," 400, 410. Positively refuses the military command resigned by
Argyle, 469. One of the fourteen Earls who carried the coffin with the
remains of Montrose to the tomb at his public funeral, 834.

Cambo, the laird of, killed at the battle of Kilsyth, 551.

Cameron, the Tutor of Lochiel, signs the Kilcummin Bond, and heads the
sept at the battle of Inverlochy, 479, note.

Camerons, at the gathering for the invasion of Argyle's country, 470. Their
pibroch or war song addressed to the beasts and birds of prey, 483, note.

Camerarius, Joachim, his Living Library, enumerated among Montrose's
books in his boyhood, 22, 23.

Campbell, Archibald, Marquis of Argyle.— See Argyle.

Sir Archibald, brother to Sir James Campbell of Lawers, and uncle

to Loudon, 255, 256, note, 260, 336, 518.

Mungo, younger of Lawers, with Argyle at Taymouth, 257. Killed

at the battle of Auldearn, 505.

Sir Duncan, of Auchinbreck, with Argyle at Taymouth, 257.

Killed at the battle of Inverlochy, 481, 485, note.

of Crinan, a hint from Montrose to, 515, 518.

Colin, brother to Crinan, 515.

Lady Mary, a sister of Argyle, 381.

Castle, burned by the Macleans under Montrose, 253, 537.

Cannon, portable, invented by Colonel Alexander Hamilton, and called
" dear Sandie's stoups," 152, 174, 180, 210.

Canongate, of Edinburgh, scene there between Montrose and Argyle, 779,
781, 782, note.

Cant, the Rev. Andrew, one of the " three Apostles of the Covenant," who
accompanied Montrose in his first imposition of the Covenant upon Aber-
deen, 136, 148, 149. His report of Hamilton's double dealing, corrobora-
tive of Montrose's report of the same, 97. His cruelty, 490.

INDEX. 861

Capercailzie, price of in Scotland, at the time of the funeral of Montrose's
father, 26.

Car, Robin, the bearer of the letters from Charles I. to Montrose, requiring
him to lay down his arms in support of the Monarchy, 634, 636, 637, 642.

Carlippis, the German valet of Montrose's brother-in-law, Colquhoun of
Luss ; reputed to be " ane necromancer ;" his part in the diabolical seduc-
tion, and abduction, of Montrose's sister Lady Katherine Graham, 77, 79,
80, 83, 84, 85, 89.

Carlisle, town of, Montrose retreats upon it from Dumfries, on the failure of
his first attempt to raise the standard in Scotland ; condemns his own move
as a false one, 397, 409. Montrose rides from thence in disguise to the
Perthshire highlands in four days, and takes Perth within ten days there-
after, 413, 418, 428.

Lady, her imprisonment : referred to in a letter from the Queen of

Bohemia to Montrose, 721.

Carmichael, the Rev. Frederick, a covenanting zealot, blesses the army of
Perth, and prophecies victory for it before joining battle on Tippermuir, 429.
Taken prisoner at the battle of Kilsyth, 5t51, note.

Carnegie, Lord, Montrose's brother-in-law, his election at the General As-
sembly of 1638, in Glasgow, violently opposed by Montrose, 154, 155.
Joins Montrose in his first armed expedition to enforce the Covenant at
Aberdeen, 180.— See Southesk.

Lady Magdalene, Marchioness of Montrose ; her early marriage to

Montrose, 65-71. Has four sons, John, James, Robert, and David, 65,
513, corrected by note in Appendix to vol. ii. p. 827. Evidence of her
being submissive to the Argyle government, and not devoted to her hus-
band, 512, 513, 514. Her death; buried at Montrose; the Marquis at-
tends her funeral, 614, 615.
Lady Marjory, sister to the Marchioness of Montrose, 68.

David, Master of Lour (2d Earl of Northesk), subscribes the Cum-

bernauld Bond, 270, note.

Carnwath, Robert, 2d Earl of, with the royal army in the north of England,
under the Marquis of Newcastle ; his reputed daughter commands a troop
of horse there ; and is commissioned under the name of " Captain Francis
Dalzell," 393. His jealous and disloyal rejection of a commission to be
Lord-Lieutenant of Clydesdale, brought to him by Montrose from the
King, 394, note.

Cassilis, John, 6th Earl of, a creature of Argyle's, 220, 513, note, 542, 553.
One of the Commissioners to the Hague ; his virulent abuse of Montrose to
Charles II., 696, 699.
Castleton of Braemar, Montrose there with troops, 610, 611.

Cavaliers, the English, their high pretensions at the Court at Oxford ; never

victorious, 387, 578.

Chambers, Robert, his History of the Civil War under Montrosa, 535, note,
611, note. His assertion that Montrose, while a close prisoner in the Castle
of Edinburgh, " proposed to Charles I., in a letter, a plan for having

862 INDEX.

Argyle, Hamilton, and Lanerick, assassinated," examined, traced to its
source, and refuted, 358-363, Appendix, to vol. i. pp. Ix-lxix.
Charles the First, bis precept for installing Montrose in his father's baronies ;
remits the feudal casualties of ward and marriage to Montrose, 24, 25.
His mandates relative to the trial of Colquhoun of Luss for the seduction
of Montrose's sister, 75, 76. His coronation in Scotland, 72, 119, 120.
Commencement of his troubles there, 121-126. Influenced by Hamilton
to receive young Montrose ungraciously at Court, 94, 95. The factious
humour and dishonesty of his Scottish courtiers and counsellors the founda-
tion of his troubles and ruin, 102-105. Graphic scenes between and Lord
Napier, illustrative of Scottish factionists, 106-111. Gross fraud and for-
gery committed by some of the Scottish nobles ; even to stealing the
King's superscription, and falsifying his hand, and the royal precepts, 115,
116. Lord Napier's character of him, 103, 106, 117, 118, 119. His pro-
gress to Scotland in 1633, and factious reception, 119-126. His just in-
dignation at the factious disloyalty of Argyle and other covenanting noble-
men, after the treaty of Berwick, 220. His first interview with Montrose
as a statesman ; not the occasion of gaining him over, 224, 226, 227, 228,
229, 236. Summons Montrose to Court, who writes his reasons for de-
clining, 228. Induced by the advice of Montrose and Napier to come to
Scotland in 1641, to settle the kingdom in person, and to " satisfy the
people in point of Religion and Liberties in a loving and free manner,"
instead of sending a Commissioner ; his letter to Montrose announcing
his advent, and his speech to the Scotch Parliament, both an echo of that
advice, 311-313, 316, 350. His letter to Argyle, disclaiming intentions
factiously and calumniously imputed to him, 314. His arrival in Scotland,
348. Finds himself powerless in the hands of an unscrupulous faction, and
his best friends in prison ; Argyle's Jesuitical and insolent reception of him,
349-353. Extraordinary scene before the King and Parliament, upon
" the stage appointed for delinquents ;" the King's kindly and melancholy
recognition of an old and faithful servant, 353-355. His anxiety to save
the lives of his friends in prison, 357. His forlorn and miserable condition
in the hands of the Argyle faction ; his agitation and grief at being desert-
ed and insulted by Hamilton, 355, note, 356, 360, 361, note, 363, Appendix
to vol. i. pp. Ixvii., Ixviii., Ixxv., Ixxvi. His progress to Scotland ends in
the complete triumph of the Argyle faction, 357, 369-371. His letters to
Montrose from England after his return ; his high estimation of his con-
duct and character conclusive against the modern calumny that Montrose
had insulted him when in Scotland with a proposition to assassinate the
leaders of the disloyal faction, 366, 372. Raises the standard at Notting-
ham, 372. His infatuated trust in Will Murray of the Bed-chamber, and
reliance upon Hamilton, 373, 376, 377, 379. Ruinous result, 382, 383.
Orders a Court of Inquiry, composed of the highest English functionaries,
to sit upon the conduct of Hamilton and Lanerick ; overwhelming evidence
of the highest minded of the Scotch nobles against them ; the English
Commission decides accordingly ; Hamilton disgraced, and sent to Pen-

INDEX. 863

dennis; Lanerick placed under arrest, but escapes, and immediately joins
the Argyle faction, and becomes Secretary of State under that government,
383, 384. The King's military court at Oxford ; he sends for Montrose
and commissions him to raise the standard in Scotland, 385-387. Ruined
by the defeat at Marston-moor, and deserted by his General, Newcastle,
402, 403. Receives dispatches from Montrose, informing him of the ex-
traordinary success of his arms in Scotland, 458, 459, 484-488, note. Sends
messengers to Montrose, with the higher commission to him of Captain-
General, and Lieutenant Governor of Scotland, 565. Fails to meet his
victorious General at the Border, or to send him auxiliary forces from
England, 571, 572, 575. His melancholy letter to Montrose from Rag-
land, 573. His distress and indignation at the surrendering of Bristol by
Prince Rupert, 574. Opens a letter from Montrose to Digby (absent),
and is made aware of the disaster at Philiphaugh ; his melancholy and
affecting letter from Newark to Montrose on that occasion, 613, 614. His
own invariable disasters render Montrose's victories fruitless, 387, 575, 578.
Seeks a refuge in the covenanting army ; his delusion as to Montrose being
allowed to join forces with that faction ; his letter to Montrose under that
delusion, 631, 632, 633. His reply to the insolent manner in which Lo-
thian undeceived him, 633. Is compelled to order Montrose to lay down
arms and go abroad ; correspondence between them to that effect, 634-643.
Is strangely reminded that he has still a Lord Advocate in Scotland, 649,
650. -Heartlessly neglected by his Queen, 653-655. His commissions and
affecting letters to Montrose abroad ; thanks Montrose for sending him a
sword, 656, 660, 651. Argyle binds him and sells him for money, 655,
703, 704, 738, 807. Cromwell cuts his throat, and takes his crown, 686,
691-694, 704, 705, 738.

Charles the Second, his correspondence, as Prince of Wales, with Montrose ;
a gross perversion, or blunder, of Clarendon's on the subject detected,
684-690. Receives petitions as King, from the covenanting Commissioners
at the Hague, 695, 696, 697, note. Disgusted with their outrageous abuse
of Montrose, whom he consults notwithstanding, and commands his an-
swer and his advice in writing, 699-705. Rejects the violent counsels of
the Commissioners, and invests Montrose with a new commission as Gover-
nor of Scotland, and Commander-in-chief; proceeds to join the Queen-
Mother at St Germains, accompanied by Montrose; his letter to Mon-
trose, along with his commissions and instructions, pledging himself to be
counselled by him in the affairs of Scotland, 705, 706. His treaty with the
Argyle and Lauderdale factions at Breda ; his disreputable and ruinous
double-dealing with those Commissioners, 737, 739, 740, 747. His bye-
play with Montrose closely examined, and illustrated by his own written
instructions and autograph letters, now first fully produced, 748-762. His
mean compromise of the interest and safety of the Commander-in-chief,
whom he had so peremptorily instructed to make his descent on Scotland,
760, 761. His latest instructions, even after the treaty of Breda, and
when (unknown to him) Montrose was a prisoner, and about to be exe-

864 INDEX.

cuted, that, in a certain event, he was not to lay down his arms, but to
augment his forces, 761, 762. Said to have written a letter to the Argyle
Parliament, after the murder of Montrose, directly contrary to the fact,
764. Reported by Argyle to that Parliament as having expressed to Lothian
at Breda his satisfaction at the fate of Montrose, and as having emphatically
disowned and repudiated his invasion of Scotland, all directly contrary to
the fact, as proved by his own autograph letters, and official instructions,
public and private, 765. His meagre letter of condolence to the son of the
murdered Montrose, 766. Compelled by Argyle to swallow both the
Covenants ; his progress from the Spey to Edinburgh ; greeted at Aber-
deen with the sight of a mangled limb of Montrose, and at Edinburgh with
his gory head, 767, 768, 845.

Chiesly, Sir John, his report to England of the disasters attending Montrose's
last expedition to Scotland, 741, 742.

Christmas and New-year 1629, Montrose spends a merry one at Balcarres,
51. His Christmas ploy and party twelve years afterwards, 295/318, 319.

Clans, the loyal, estimate of their various contingents in arms, 654, note.

Clarendon, his character of Argyle ; his account of the estimation in which
Argyle was held by his own father, 157, 158. False anecdote found in his
manuscripts, and published by his original editors for history, that Montrose,
in 1641, made an offer to Charles the First to assassinate Hamilton and
Argyle with his own hand, 359, 360. Not aware at the time that Mon-
trose at that crisis was Argyle's state prisoner, and closely confined in
the Castle of Edinburgh, 361. Confusion in Clarendon's manuscripts of
the subject, 362. His own subsequent correction, of the false and calum-
nious anecdote, overlooked by his editors, and suppressed in the publica-
tion of his history, 362. He himself ascertains the truth from conversing
•with Montrose and Charles the First, and characterises the cloudy rumours
of the period as " senseless fears," 363. The false anecdote, published in
the original print of his manuscripts, still retained in the text by his modern
editors as history, and the truth hid in the appendix, 362, 363. His ad-
miration for, and character of Montrose, utterly at variance with the calum-
nious anecdote, 362, note, 688, 690, 691, note. His pique against Mon-
trose, 690. Character of Hamilton, 101.

Cluny, Mr Robert Gordon of, son to Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun,
the youth appointed by Montrose's friends to sit near him on the scaffold,
and note his last words in Bracliography, 806, note.

Cochrane, Colonel John, his loyal nerves severely tried by Montrose, 276,
277, note. His interview with Charles the First, in 1641, described by
the King himself; conclusive against the modern historical calumny found-
ed thereon by Malcolm Laing against Montrose, Appendix to vol. i.,
pp. Iviii, note, Ixii, Ixiii, Ixiv, note.

Colepepper, Lord, the Queen of Bohemia's arch allusion to him, in a letter'to
Montrose, 718, note.

Coll, Keitache (the ambi-dexter, or left-handed,), the father of Montrose's
Major- General, oppressed by Argyle, 416, 504, note.

INDEX. 865

Colquhoun, laird of Luss, murdered in 1592, by his brother, 14.
John, beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh in 1592, for the mur-
der of his brother the laird of Luss, 14, 15.
Sir Alexander of Luss, father of the infamous Sir John, 14.

Sir John of Luss, married to Lady Lilias Graham, Montrose's

eldest sister, 14. Narrative of the criminal process against him for his
villanous seduction and abduction of his wife's young sister, Lady Katherine
Graham, while under his guardianship, 75-84. Outlawed, along with his
necromantic valet Carlippis, for not appearing, 85. Reappears in Scot-
land sixteen years thereafter, humbly acknowledges the purity and supre-
macy of the Kirk militant, and is tenderly dealt with by the Argyle govern-
ment, 85-87. Remarkable silence of the contemporary journalists as to
his crime, 79. Lost, sight of by genealogical historians, who confound him
with his son, 80. Doubts as to the period of his death, 88, note.

Sir John of Luss (son of the former), recorded as the nephew of

Montrose, at the pageant of his public funeral, 827, note, 834, note.

ofBalvie, brother to Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, 86.

of Glens, brother to Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, 86.

Robert, of Balernich, 87.

Colvill, Lord, of Culross, recommends a falconer to Montrose at College, 48.

Committees, the vicious government of Scotland by means of secret and pack-
ed, 137, 138, 237, 238, 308, 322, note, 325, 333-338, 367, 474, 481, 778,
note, Appendix, to vol. i. pp. Ixvii, Ixviii.

Compton, Sir William, his estimate of Argyle as a patriot ; his death and
character, 846, 847.

Cook, Dr., the historian of the Church of Scotland ; his severe comment upon
the liturgy riots in Scotland destroys his apology for them, 131. His
severe condemnation of the disingenuous composition of the Covenant de-
stroys his apology for it, 140, 141.

Couper, Lord, accompanies Montrose in his expedition against Huntly ; signs
along with him a relaxation in favour of Papists, in the matter of sub-
scribing the Covenant, 182-184.

Covenant, Scotch, its scheme ; its dishonest pretensions and mob imposition,
138-145.

Solemn League and, its birth and parentage, 381, 382. Deter-
mined opposition to it by Montrose, who draws the distinction between
that and the first Covenant, 383, 702, 787, 795, Appendix to vol. i. p. 1.

Covenanting Government and zealots. — See Cruelty.

Con-ley, Abraham, the poet, his letter expressing horror at the murder of
Montrose, 771, 772.

Craig, Elspet, the mother of Johnston of Warriston, her epitaph, 130.

Craighall, Lord, the Advocate's eldest son, 232, 509, 515, 650.

the Lord Advocate ordered to confine himself to his own house

of, 232.

Craigievar, Sir William Forbes of, his desperate charge upon the Redshanks,

866 INDEX.

at the battle of Aberdeen ; taken prisoner, 456. Breaks his parole and
absconds, 463, 468.

Craigston, in Buchan, Montrose there, 531, note.

Cranston, John, second Lord, reported by Hamilton to Charles I., as one of
the first and keenest agitators of the Covenant, 99.

Crathes, the castle of, Montrose there with his staff on the eve of the battle
of Aberdeen, 451, note, 452. Again visited by Montrose, 464, 465.

Crawford, Ludovick, " the loyal Earl of;" sometimes forgot his loyalty, 407r
note, 389. With Montrose at the siege of Morpeth Castle, 399, 401. De-
fends Newcastle ; taken prisoner there ; his treatment by the covenanting
faction in Edinburgh ; released from the Tolbooth, and his life saved by
Montrose, 410, 411, 561. A flaw detected in Lord Lindsay's life of him,
Appendix to vol. i. p. Ixii.

Cromwell, his advent prophesied by Montrose, 288. Graphic portrait of him
by Sir Philip Warwick, 290. His reception in Edinburgh by Argyle, 673r
note. His game played for him in Scotland by Argyle, 737.

Cruelty, in Montrose's conduct and character, a vulgar error, and myth in
history ; founded upon factious abuse and calumny ; contradiction of it
elicited from one of his most abusive enemies, 285, 313, 581, 582, 696, 697,
769. The reverse of it proved by the testimony of the Kirk militant, 200,
201, 206, 207, 213, 214, 215. And by authentic records of his boyhood,
43, 55, 61, 62, 63, Appendix to vol. i. p. Iviii. And of his conduct when
in arms for the King, 432, 436, 441, 452, 463, 468, 485, 549, 582, 599,
600. His own indignant and dying defence against the calumny, 795, 807.
The calumny inconsiderately and loosely adopted by modern historical
writers ; magniloquently asserted by Laing, 583, Appendix to vol. i. p. Iviii.
Emphatically echoed by Hallam, 583. Hurriedly adopted by Lord Mahon,
58. Evaded by Sir Walter Scott, 582, Appendix to vol. i. p. Ixxi. Aptly
illustrated by an old woman at Inverness, 774.

in Argyle's conduct and character, not a myth in history, but a fact

substantially proved, 158, 244, 246, 247, 248, 250, 252, 253, 260, 327,
330, 447, note, 449, note, 511, 512, 514, 558, 557, 559, 563, 589, 598, 603,
note, 763, 769, 781, 789, note, 797, 847, Appendix to vol. i. p. Ixxviii.

. of the zealots among the covenanting clergy, under the leadership of

Johnston of Warriston, and the headship of Argyle, 200, 214, 215, 274,
294, note, 348, 349, 444, 447, 490, 582, 584, 585, note, 586-590, 592-604,
769-775, 783-785, 791, 800, 801, note, 803.

Cumbernauld, Montrose's Conservative Bond signed at, 269, note, 270, 795.

Dalhousie, William, first Earl of, appointed by the Argyle government, be-
fore the battle of Kilsyth, to take charge of, and educate, the young Lord
Graham, whom they had seized and imprisoned, 563.

Dalzell, Captain Francis, " one Mrs Piersons who had the charge of a troop,
whom Carnwath called his daughter," 393, note.

Sir John, brother to the Earl of Carnwath, with Montrose at Philip-

INDEX. 867

haugh, 578. His unsuccessful mission to Huntly, 617, 618. — See Carn-
watli.

Darly, Mr, a prisoner offered by Montrose in exchange for Colonel Bellasis,
404, 409.

Darsy, the seat of Archbishop Spottiswoode, Montrose's visits there from
College, 51, 56.

Davidson, of Ardnacross, brother-in-law to MacColl Keitache, killed at the
battle of Auldearn, 503.

De Retz, Cardinal, his admiration for Montrose, and eulogy of him, 61, 662.
Interposes, through the French Regency, to save the life of Montrose,
770, 771.

Declaration, issued by Montrose, upon raising the standard in Scotland
against the Solemn League and Covenant, 424, 425. His Declaration
upon landing in Scotland under the instructions and commands of Charles
H., 738.

Dee, battle of the bridge of, gained by Montrose for the Covenant, 207-215.

Delinquents, a prejudicial term applied by the Argyle faction to all who were
processed for their loyalty ; a stage in the Parliament House on which they
were ordered to stand while examined ; Montrose and his friends treated
as such, 338, 348, 354, 451, 457.

Denbigh, Basil Fielding, Earl of, Burnet's account of his having travelled
with Montrose, 93, 94.

Denholm, B.aron of, one of the " gentlemen appointed for relieving" the four-
teen Earls who carried the remains of Montrose at his public funeral, 834.

Denmark, Montrose's distinguished reception at the Court of, 671, 723.

Dennistoun, James, Esq. of Dennistoun, 758, note, 780, note.

Dickson, the Rev. David, one of the " three Apostles of the Covenant," 96,
130, 148. Petitions for blood, 490. Attends Cromwell in Scotland, 673,
note. One of Montrose's tormentors in prison, 788.

Dictator, cabal to create Argyle, over Scotland ; detected and opposed by
Montrose, 263, 264, note, 265-269, note, 303, 305, 306.

Digby, George, Lord, Secretary of State to Charles I. at Oxford : Montrose
arranges with him the plan of carrying the war into Scotland, 408, note.
Fails in his engagement to send auxiliaries from England to Montrose, or
to be of the slightest use to him in the greatest straights ; Sir Robert
Spottiswoode's letter of remonstrance to him, 572. His feeble and un-
successful attempt when too late, 573, 574, note, 575, 612, 613, 614.

D"1 Israeli, examination of his treatment of the assassination calumny against
Montrose, Appendix to vol. i. p. Ixx.

Dobson, William, Sergeant-painter to Charles I. ; his portrait of Montrose
at Oxford, 279, note.— See Portraits.

Donaldson, Margaret, Montrose's landlady in the town of Perth ; he holds
his head-quarters in her house after the battle of Tippermuir, 435, note.

Donavourd (the hill of the bard), in Athole, Montrose there with his army,
463, 464, 465.

868 INDEX.

Douglas, William, first Marquis of, joins Montrose after the battle of Kil?yth,
554. Montrose's letter to, 566. Escapes with Montrose from Philip-
haugh, 577, 578.

James, second Marquis of, enumerated among the " nine of the

nearest in blood" who followed the remains of Montrose at his public
funeral, 834.

Sir William, of Cavers, Sheriff of Teviotdale, had eleven sisters-
sons killed at the battle of Auldearn, 505, note.

Marian, the Lady of Drum, her spirited defiance of the atrocious

tyranny of Argyle, 247, 248.

Drum. — See Irvine.

Drumfad, Montrose's pic-nic there with his sisters, 53.

Drumlanrig, Lord, one of the twelve noblemen supporting the pall at Mon-
trose's public funeral, 834.

Drumminor (Castle Forbes), Aboyne rejoins Montrose there for the first time
after " deserting him in the nick," 608.

Drummond, Lord (3d Earl of Perth), one of Montrose's council of nobles in
his covenanting raid against Aberdeen, 199. Montrose's bed-fellow; com-
plains with him of the vicious and exclusive cabal of the Argyle clique,
272, 337. Nevertheless commands the covenanting horse at Tippermuir
against Montrose, where he does little but run away, 430, 431. Never-
theless joins Montrose after the battle of Kilsyth, 554. Fined £30,000 by
the Argyle government, and now decidedly opposed to Argyle, 567, 568.
Enumerated among the " nine of the nearest of blood" who followed the
remains of Montrose at his public funeral, 834.

David, the Master of and 3d Lord Maderty; married to Mon-
trose's sister, " the bairn Beatrix," 89, 90. Joins Montrose from Perth,
before the battle of Tippermuir, 428. Sent with a flag of truce to Lord
Elcho before the battle ; made prisoner ; his narrow escape, 430, 437, 442.
Enumerated among the " nine of the nearest of blood" who followed the
remains of Montrose at his public funeral, 834.

Sir John, of Logiealmond (4th son of the 2d Earl of Perth), joins

Montrose at the hill of Buchanty before the battle of Tippermuir, 427,
428.

Sir Patrick, 66.

of Balloch, nephew of Archibald 1st Lord Napier, 396, note.

With Montrose in his escape from Philiphaugh, 578. Sent as a special
messenger to reclaim Huntly, 608. Along with Graham of Inchbrakie,
defeats the remnant of Argyle's highland army quartered on Lord Napier's
lands in Menteith, 625. Along with his cousin, Archibald, 2d Lord Napier,
fortifies and holds Montrose's castle of Kincardine against Middleton, until
reduced from want of water ; their adventurous escape, and fate of the
castle, 629, 630. Escapes to Norway with other attendants on Montrose,
642,
William, of Hawthornden, the poet, surmise that Montrose's

INDEX. 869

essay on Sovereign Power was probably addressed to him, 290 note. Pro-
tected after the battle of Kilsyth by Montrose, who proposes to print his
loyal pieces ; their correspondence on the subject, 564, 565, note.

Drummond, John, of Belliclone, attending Montrose in Perth, 436, 439.

of Machanie, in Strathearn, 37, 51.

Dudhope, Sir John Scrymgeour of, Constable of Dundee (1st Viscount Dud-
hope), a loyalist opposed to Montrose when a covenanter, 165. His
house of Dudhope frequented by Montrose when at College, 51. 63.

Dumbarton, Presbytery of, its compromise with necromancy, seduction, and
incest, 86, 87.

Dumfries, entered by Montrose in his first attempt to raise the standard in
Scotland, 395, 396, note. Its cruel Synod petitions Parliament for blood,
593, 595, note.

Dun, Donald, confidential messenger of the lady of Keir, 510.

Dunavertie, fort of, murderous proceedings there of Argyle and his chaplain,
603, note.

Dunbarro, laird of, killed at Kilsyth, 551, note.

Duncan, James, factor at Mugdock, letter to from Montrose's valet, 31, 32.

Duncruib, Sir Andrew Rollo of (Lord Rollo), 35.— See Rollo.

Dundaff, Montrose's barony of, 8.

Dundee, John Scrymgeour, 1st Earl of, and 3d Viscount Dudhope, one of
the fourteen Earls who carried the remains of Montrose at his public
funeral, 834. — See Dudhope.

town of, Montrose furnished therefrom with butt arrows and wine for

the archers at St Andrews College, 47, 48. Summoned by Montrose with-
out success, 448. His second summons of it, 495, note. Stormed by him ;
his celebrated retreat therefrom, "49 5-497. Humane and honourable con-
duct of, to Montrose in his last extremity, 775, 776.

Dundonald, William Cochrane, 1st Earl of, 278, note.

Dunfermline, Earl of, 219, 596.

Dunglas, house of, frequented by Montrose in his College days, 51.

Dunkeld, town of, Argyle chased from by Montrose, 468, 469.

Little, Montrose encamped there, 535.

Dunkenny, L'Ainy of, 32.

Dunnottar, castle of, sixteen covenanting ministers witness a bonfire there-
from, 494.

Dunsc, the bond of Argyle's Dictatorship offered to Montrose for signature
there, 263, 264.

Duplin, Viscount (1st Earl of Kinnoul), 74.

Viscount (3d Earl of Kinnoul), with Montrose at Crathes before the

battle of Aberdeen, 451, note, 468.

Durham, town of, Montrose's interview with the Marquis of Newcastle there,
391.

the Rev. James, one of Montrose's tormentors in prison, 785.

/)//m, Gibson of, elder (" Auld Durie"), urges Lord Napier to accept of a
dishonourable indemnity, 336.

870 INDEX.

Durie, Gibson of, younger, 338. Competes successfully against Johnston
of Warriston for the place of Lord Register, 370, 371.

'Edinburgh, town of, Montrose's youthful appearance there as a carpet knight,
53-55. At the feet of Montrose, 561. Montrose in the fangs of, 781, 797.
Combat at the Salt Trone of, between Montrose's father and Sir James
Sandilands, and cause thereof, 4, 5.

Eglinton, Hugh Montgomery, 7th Earl of, his merciful votes in an unmerci-
ful Parliament, 596. One of the eleven Peers present at the reading of
Montrose's sentence, 836, note. One of the fourteen Earls who carried
his remains at his public funeral, 834.

ElcJio, Lord (1st Earl ofWemyss), defeated by Montrose at the battle of
Tippermuir, 427-431. Again defeated by him at the battle of Kilsyth,
539.

Elgin, town of, Montrose scatters Seaforth and his committee there, and takes
it without resistance, 491.

ElpJiinstone, Sir George, of Blythwood, 18.

Episcopacy, fanatical and irrational condemnation of the principle, 221, 224,
225.

Erskine, Lord (9th Earl of Mar), fanatical and characteristic scene in the
General Assembly of 1638, upon his joining the Covenanters, 270, note.
Subscribes Montrose's conservative bond at Cumbernauld, 270. Pays
homage to Montrose after the battle of Kilsyth, 554. Offers good counsel
to Montrose, 570. Escapes with Montrose from Philiphaugh, 578. Re-
cruits for him thereafter, 609. One of the fourteen Earls who carried the
remains of Montrose at his public funeral, 834.

of Dun, Montrose supports his commission in the General Assembly

of 1638; violent scene upon that occasion, 154, 155.

Master William, his funeral attended by Montrose, 56.

Lady Elizabeth, eldest daughter of John 8th Earl of Mar; married

to the Master of Napier ; imprisoned by the Argyle government, 490, 509,
note, 511, 512. Cruel treatment of her, 558, 559. Released by her hus-
band after the battle of Kilsyth, 559, 560. Letter to her from her husband
in exile, 665. Her bereft condition at the time of Montrose's execution ;
most probably the purveyor of his dress for the scaffold, 810, 811. Obtains
his heart after his death, and has it embalmed, 812, 813, 814, 815.

Faction, petty, Charles I. a prey to, from the commencement of his reign,
in regard to the affairs of Scotland, 103, 105, 117. Dishonest and criminal
conduct of Scotch counsellors of the highest rank and position ; extraordi-
nary scene at the Scotch Council-board, 112-116. Growth of the tithe
agitation, and of the factious opposition to Charles I. at his coronation in
Scotland, arising from the petty and interested faction of needy Scotch
nobles, 118-124. Origin of the covenanting faction in the same source,
125, 126. Grossly exemplified in the criminal processes got up against
the Scotch Bishops, 131, 132, 136, 141, 143, 144, 153,160, 161, note. The

INDEX. 871

vicious system detected and protested against by Montrose, 156, 262-266,
269, note, 272, 337. His eloquent reference to it in his letter on Sovereign
Power, 286-289 ; and in his letter of advice to the King, 313 ; and in his
remonstrance to the country after the battle of Kilsyth, Appendix to vol. i.
pp. xlviii, xlix. Results in the cruel and unprincipled domination of
Argyle, 248, 253, 256, 260, 330, 336, 352, 355, 373, 673, note, 768, note,
797, 847.

Fanaticism, 134, note, 141, 270, note, 300, 429, 433, 549, 593, 650, 775, 787,
788, note.

Farquarson, Donald, " the pride of Braemar," joins Montrose ; his death,
470, 493, 505.

Findlater, James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of, 167, 497. Defeated at Auldearn, 505.

Flodden, death there of the first Earl of Montrose, 3.

Fleming, Lord (3d Earl of Wigton), one of the twelve noblemen who carried
the pall at Montrose's public funeral, 834.

Malcolm, brother to 2d Earl of Wigton, and cousin-german to

Montrose, 53.

Sir William, second son to 2d Earl of Wigton, 408. Carries dis-
patches from Charles II. at Breda to the Argyle government ; disreputable
character of his instructions, 757, 758, note, 761, 762, note, 764, 765.

Sir Robert, son of 3d Earl of Wigton.

Forbes, Lord, 74, 450, 451. Defeated by Montrose at Aberdeen, 458.

Sir William, of Craigievar, his gallant charge of the Irish musketeers

at the battle of Aberdeen ; his troop annihilated, and himself made pri-
soner, 456. Handsomely treated by Montrose ; takes advantage of it, and
makes his escape, 463, 468. His deposition before a Committee of Estates,
457, note.

of Largie, brother to the tutor of Pitsligo ; made prisoner along with

Craigievar ; disdains to make his escape, and is dismissed by Montrose on
his parole, 456, 468, 521.

a natural son of Forbes of Lesly ; murders Irvine of Kingcaussie at

the instigation of Argyle ; hanged therefor, 446, note.

House of, 835.

Forrester, Lord, 835, 836, note.

Forrett, Master William, Montrose's first pedagogue ; his careful attention to
his pupil's affairs, 18, 19, 21, 22, 29. Touching evidence of Montrose'a
enduring affection for him, in sending for him to Perth after his victory at
Tippermuir ; acts as purse-master to Montrose there, and takes charge of
his children, when brought to Perth, 434, 435, note, 438, 440, 443, 445, 452.
Accompanies Montrose in his " strange coursing," and severe campaign
round and round the north of Scotland ; undergoes the desperate night
march from Badenoch to Athole ; parts with Montrose and young Lord
Graham there, 469, 470, 471. Imprisoned by the Estates; his deposition
before the committee, 471, 472, note. His death, his parentage, his will,
809, not*.

Fn.wvell, a barony of Montrose, 8.

872 INDEX.

Fotheringhame, of Powrie, one of the twenty-one Earls sons, and lesser barons,
appointed to assist the fourteen Earls who carried the remains of Montrose
at his public funeral, 834.

'Foveran, Turing of, one of the loyal northern barons, 197.

Fraser, Andrew, 2d Lord, joins Montrose, 176, 181, for the covenant, 176.
Defeated by him at Aberdeen, 421, 450, 451, 455, 458. Attends the
public funeral of Montrose and Hay of Dalgetty, 835.

Rev. James, chaplain to Lord Lovat, his manuscript history of the

Troubles ; his account as an eye-witness, of Montrose's treatment and
bearing when carried prisoner from the north of Scotland to his execution
in Edinburgh, 772-777. His record of Montrose's last words and dying
speech, 806-808, 843. An eye-witness to the removal, in 1661, of Mon-
trose's head from the Tolbooth, and of the replacing it with the head of
Argyle, 809.

Frendrauglit, 1st Viscount, opposed to Montrose in the north, and defeated
by him at Aberdeen, 455. Subsequently joins Montrose, and is with him
at the scene of his last defeat ; severely wounded there ; his generous con-
duct, 745. Laing's history corrected as to Frendraught's having u died a
Roman death" in prison, 841.

Fullarton, an honest man, among the Scotch courtiers of Charles I., 114.

Fullerton, one of the Montrose baronies, 8.

Galloway, Synod of, petitions Parliament for blood, 594.

Garscube, house of, in Dumbartonshire, a seat of Montrose's, 16, 28, 31, note.

Garter, order of, conferred upon Montrose by Charles II. ; found concealed

under a tree in the line of his flight, 753, 754, note.
Gartmer, John Alexander of, a son of the Earl of Stirling, 510.
Gask, Lord Murray of (4th Earl of Tullibardine), routed with Lord Elcho

by Montrose at Tippermuir, 427, 429, 431.— See Tullibardine.

Lord, one of the twelve noblemen who sustained the pall at Montrose's

public funeral, 834.

Oliphant of, a prisoner to Montrose in the Castle of Blair ; Argyle

promises to get him exchanged for Montrose's chaplain, the Rev. George
Wishart, 521.

Geddes, Jenny, the genius and proper type of the Scottish Covenant, 134,
141. Her recantation, 840.

Glammis, Lord (2d Earl of Kinghorn) his letter to his brother, a prisoner of
Montrose's in the Castle of Blair, 521. — See Kinghorn.

Castle in Forfarshire, frequented by Montrose in his college days,

47, note, 450.

Glasgow, Montrose under private tuition there preparatory for college, 18-21.
Four hundred merks for building the College there and the Library sub-
scribed by Montrose, 71. Protected by Montrose after the battle of Kil-
syth, 552, 553. Occupied by General David Leslie and the Argyle govern-
ment after the route of Philiphaugh ; cruel proceedings there, and execu-

INDEX. 873

tion of distinguished loyalists, interrupted by the approach of Montrose
with recruited forces, 589, 590, 611, 612.

Glenalmond, Montrose's march through, before the battle of Tippermuir, 423,
427. Montrose encamped there immediately after the rout of Philiphaugh,
605.

Glencairn, William, 9th Earl of, a waverer, deserts Aboyne and the royal
cause in the nick, 202, note. Escapes to Ireland after the battle of Kil-
syth, 553.

Glengarry, younger of, joins Montrose before the battle of Inverlochy, 470,
479, note. Commands the main body of Montrose's army at the battle of
Alford, 527. His constant and efficient support of the royal standard,
532. References to him by Montrose in his correspondence with Huntly,
622, 623, 624, 630. His force in the field, 532, 654, note.

Glenorquie, Campbell of, contributes a great hynd to the feast at the funeral
of Montrose's father, 26.

Glorat, baron of, attends the public funeral of Montrose, 834.

Gordon, George, Lord, distinguished with his father Huntly in the service of
France, 168. Compelled to witness the devastation of his father's do-
mains by his uncle Argyle, 460, 461. Breaks away from Argyle, and joins
Montrose after the battle of Inverlochy, 492. Commands the cavaliers at
the battle of Auldearn ; his gallant and successful charge at the signal of
Montrose, 501, 504. His death at the battle of Alford ; Montrose's grief;
their love for each other, 528, 529, 530.

Lord Lewis, 191, 199, 202, 450, 455, 456, 494, 610, 733, note.

Sir Robert, of Gordonstoun, his son placed on the scaffold to take

short-hand notes of Montrose's last speech, 806.

Robert, 4th Viscount Kenmure, 828, note.

of Haddo, 201, 203. Mercilessly executed at the fiat of Argyle,

408, note.

Colonel Nathaniel, his gallant support of and constant adherence to

Montrose, 450, 455, 460, 468, 493. Distinguishes himself particularly at
the battle of Auldearn, 505 ; and of Alford, where he is wounded, 527,
528, 530. Adheres to Montrose when Aboyne deserts him, 567. Taken
prisoner at Philiphaugh, 589. Beheaded at St Andrews with other dis-
tinguished loyalists taken at Philiphaugh, 596.

Robert, one of the gentlemen appointed to relieve the pall-bearers at

Montrose's public funeral, 834.

James, parson of Rothiemay, his contemporary manuscript history of

the Troubles quoted, 166, 168, 183, 185, 194, 199. His testimony to the
humane proceedings of Montrose when in arms for the Covenant, 187, 204,
205, 214, 215. His account of the constitution of the Argyle committee
government of Scotland, 237. His account of Argyle's oppressive and
cruel proceedings at the castles of Airlie and Forthar, 247, 248, 250, note.

Patrick, of Ruthven, his contemporary manuscript history of the

Troubles, entitled, " Britain's Distemper," quoted in reference to " Traitor
dun," 196, 204, 212; and in reference to the battle of Aberdeen, 457,

INDEX.

note. Account of the death of Lord Gordon, and of his admiration for Mon-
trose, 529, 530; of the cruelties perpetrated by the covenanting commander
after the rout of Philiphaugh, 585, note, 586, note, 587.
Gordon, Sir George, of Gight, one of the loyal barons of the north, 197. His

castle besieged by Montrose, and successfully defended, 201.
James of Struders, son to George Gordon of Rynie, the cruel mur-
der of him excites the Gordons to revenge, at the battle of Auldearn, 505,
506.

of Buckie, letter to him from Montrose, after the battle of Auldearn,

506.

Mr Robert, Cluny, son to Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, at-
tends Montrose on the scaffold, to note his last speech, 806, 843.

Castle, called the Bog of Gicht, proceedings of Argyle there, 460,

461. Occupied by Montrose after the battle of Inverlochy ; Lord Gordon
with him there, 492. Death of Lord Graham there, 493.
Gowrie, William, 1st Earl of, Montrose's maternal grandfather ; his head ex-
posed on the pinnacle of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, 5, 6.
2d Earl of, Montrose's maternal uncle, the hero of the Gowrie con-
spiracy, 5, 6.
Graham, origin of the name, 2, 3. Earls and Marquises of. — See Montrose.

Lady Lilias, Montrose's eldest sister, married to Sir John Colqu-

houn of Luss, 7, 14, 31, 35, 53, 76.

Lady Margaret, Montrose's second sister, married to Archibald,

first Lord Napier, 7, 11, 29, 30, 35. Her character by her husband, 13.

Lady Dorothea, Montrose's third sister, married to Sir James

Rollo of Duneruib, 7, 30, 35, 53. Her death, 35.

Lady Katherine, Montrose's fourth sister, her melancholy fate, 7,

15, 19, 53, 75-89.

Lady Beatrix, Montrose's youngest sister, called " Bairn Beatrix,"

7, 8, 11,89,90.

John, Lord, Montrose's eldest son, joins his father at Perth after

the battle of Tippermuir, 438, note. With his father through all his cam-
paign, including the battle of Inverlochy, 452, 468, 471, 473, 478. His
death at Gordon Castle, and burial in the kirk of Bellie, 493.

Lord James, Montrose's second son (2d Marquis of Montrose),

joins his father at Perth, 438, note. Left at School in Montrose before the
battle of Aberdeen ; carried off from thence with his tutor, by General
Hurry, after the death of his eldest brother Lord Graham, 452, 493. A
prisoner in the Castle of Edinburgh at the time of the battle of Kilsyth ;
petitions to be removed from the infection of the pestilence ; but refuses to
be exchanged, 562, 563. Special charge of his education undertaken by
the General Assembly of the Kirk, 643, 644. In Flanders before the death
of his father, whose heart embalmed, and in a rich box of gold, is sent to
him there by Lady Napier, 814, 821, note, 836. Entertains the Lord Com-
. missioner and the nobility, at a sumptuous supper and banquet, after the

INDEX. 875

public funeral of his father, 814, 836. Letter of condolence on the mur-
der of his father from Charles II., 766.

Graham, Lord Robert, Montrose's third son ; his grandfather the Earl of
Southesk ordained to produce him before a Committee of Estates ; there-
after ordained to deliver him into the custody of his mother the Marchioness,
513, note. Attends the public funeral of his father, 827, note.

Lord David, Montrose's fourth and youngest son, recent discovery

of his existence, 827, note, 834.

William, Earl of Strathern, Airth and Monteith.— See Monteith.

John of Hallyards, a Lord of Session ; his tragic fate ; revenge at-
tempted by Montrose's father, 4, 5.

Sir William of Braco, Montrose's paternal uncle and curator, 25, 28.

Sir John of Braco, his deposition after the battle of Tippermuir,

438, note.

John of Orchill, Montrose's curator, 25, 39, 51. Joins him at

Perth after the battle of Tippermuir ; his deposition, 434, 439, note. One
of those who took down the head of Montrose from the Tolbooth, 828.
Facsimile of his signature to Montrose's domestic accounts, 64.

James of Orchill, 833.

Sir Robert of Morphie, Montrose's curator, 25, 53. Montrose

staying with him on the eve of his marriage ; pays for Montrose's portrait
by Jameson, 67, 68. Facsimile of his signature, 64. Assists to bear the
pall at Montrose's public funeral, 834.

Sir Robert, younger of Morphie, carries the Marquis's crown at

the public funeral, 833.

Sir William of Claverhouse (great-grandfather of Dundee), Mon-

trose's curator, 25, 29, 30, 53. Facsimile of his signature, 64.

David, of Fintry, Montrose's curator, 25. Sends a hawk to Mon-

trose at College, 43, 48, 51. Carries the purse at Montrose's public
funeral, 833.

John, younger of Fintry, with Montrose at Perth after the battle

of Tippermuir, 439, 442.

. James, of Bucklevy (Fintry's son), carries Montrose's arms at his

public funeral, 833.

Patrick, of Inchbrakie, elder, Montrose's curator, 21, 22, 25.

the younger, called " Black Pate," Montrose's companion in join-
ing the highlanders before raising the standard in Athole, 414. At the
head of the Athole men at the battle of Tippermuir, 428, 430. With Mon-
trose in Perth " in highland weed," 437. Defeats the remnant of Argyle's
army in Menteith, 625. Carries the Order of the Garter at Montrose's
public funeral, 833.

George, of Inchbrakie, the younger, carries the great mourning

banner at Montrose's public funeral, 831.

John, of Balgowan, Montrose's curator, 25, 26,51. Presents a

hawk to Montrose at College, 48.

John, younger of Balgowan, with Montrose in Perth after the

876 INDEX.

battle of Tippermuir, 437, 442. Carries a mourning banner at Montrose's
public funeral, 832 .

Graham, David, of Gorthie, with Montrose in Perth after the battle o. Tip-
permuir ; compels the Sheriff-clerk, for fear of his life, to write in the name
of Montrose, " a general protection for the inhabitants of the town of
Perth, and lands about the same," 436. Lifts the head of Montrose from
off the pinnacle of the Tolbooth, at the ceremony of taking it down, kisses
it and dies that night, 828, note.

Mungo, of Gorthie (son of the former), his archer's medal attached

to the silver arrow at St Andrews, and displaying a crest relative to the
above incident, 46. Carries the head-piece at Montrose's public funeral,
832.

Sir Harry, Montrose's natural brother, 521, note, 562, 642. Carries

tho colours of the House at Montrose's public funeral, 831, note.

Walter, elder of Duntroon, carries the Spurs at Montrose's public

funeral, 831, 832.

William, younger of Duntroon, carries the Great Gumpheon at

Montrose's public funeral, 831.

— John, of Douchrie, " a renowned highland Hector," carries the
great Pincel at Montrose's public funeral, 831.

Robert, elder of Carnie, carries the General's baton at Montrose's

public funeral, 833.

George, younger of Carnie, carries the great Pincel of mourning

at Montrose's public funeral, 831.

George, of Drums, carries the Gauntlets at Montrose's public

funeral, 832.

George, of Monzie, carries the Corslet at Montrose's public funeral,

832.
Thomas, of Potento, carries the Great Standard in Colours at

Montrose's public funeral, 831.

James, of Killearn, carries the Robes at Montrose's public funeral,

833.
John, of Craigie, a companion of Montrose in his youthful travels,

and assists to carry his Coffin at his public funeral, 834.
" The ingenious baron of Minorgan," assists to carry Montrose's

Coffin at Moutrose's public funeral, 834.

Willy and Mungo, pages to Montrose in his youth, 19.

Mr James, Montrose's " domestic servitour," 10. His letter to the

factor at Mugdock about Montrose's boots, shoes, and gloves, 31, 342.
Rev. John, minister of Auchterarder, storm raised by him, 300,

301.
James, messenger-at-arms, puts Sir John Colquhoun of Luss and

his necromantic valet Carlippis to the horn, 84, 85.
Grant, the clan opposed to the royal standard in the north, 421. The chief

of, and some of his men, join Montrose subsequent to the disaster at

Philiphaugh, 623, 624.

INDEX. 877

Grant, Castle, called Ballacastle, Montrose there, 621, 622.

Graymond, M. de, the French resident in Edinburgh, his official report to
Cardinal Mazarine of the circumstances of Montrose's execution, 781, 782,
note, 838, 839.

Greek, a grammar, purchased for Montrose, 29.

Gregorian, the new style or correction of the Kalendar, ten days in advance
of the old or Julian style ; necessary to attend to in the reading of old
dates, 714, note, 754, note.

Growder, John, in Glassinserd, one of Stewart of Ardvoirlich's accomplices
in the murder of Lord Kilpont, Appendix, vol. i. p. Ixxviii.

Guizot, M., his valuable contribution to the Memoirs of Montrose from the
Archives of France, 780, 782, note, 837, 838, 839.

Gun, called " Traitor Gun," a creature of Hamilton's ; his conduct under
Aboyne ; his good fortune, 196, 204, note, 212, 215, 216.

Guthrie, Captain Andrew, son to the Bishop of Moray, taken prisoner at
Philiphaugh, his death, 589, 596, 598.

Rev. James, petitions the Parliament for blood, as Moderator of the

Southern Synod ; very justly hanged himself, 593, 594. Attends Crom-
well in Edinburgh, 673, note. One of Montrose's tormentors in prison ;
his categorical accusations categorically answered by Montrose ; his un-
christian announcement to Montrose on leaving him in possession of the
argument, 785, 786, 787, 788, note.

Rev. Henry, his precise evidence as to the duplicity and double-
dealing of Hamilton ; misunderstood by D'Israeli, 97, note, 98. His ac-
count of Montrose's first opposition to the covenanting government ; and
of the vulgar misapprehensions of it, 221, 222, 224. Mistaken correction
of his contemporary authority by Lord Mahon, 222, note. His account of
the renewed agitation in Edinburgh after the pacification of Berwick, 218.
Of the cruel conduct of the covenanting leaders after their success at
Philiphaugh, 585. Of the cordial reception of Cromwell in Edinburgh
by Argyle and his clerical staff, 673, note.

Gwynne, Captain John, his memoirs edited by Sir Walter Scott ; accom-
panies Kinnoul to Orkney, and records his death there, 727, note. Calls
loyalty his mistress, Appendix, vol. i. p. xxxii.v

Hague, the, Montrose there after the murder of the King ; the various poli-
tical parties there, 695, 710. His portrait painted there, 710, 711.

Hailes, Lord, his very inaccurate and defective print from Warriston's letters,
229, note, 236, note, 294, 309.

Haldane of Gleneagles, 53.

Halkerton, Falconer of, Sir Alexander, 68, 827.

Hamilton, James, Marquis of (1st Duke), portrait and character of by Sir
Philip Warwick, 98, 191. By the Rev. Robert Baillie, 99, 147. By
Clarendon and Charles I., 101. His duplicity and political double-dealing
minutely examined and fully illustrated, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 147, 156, 157,
169, 170, 171, 175, 176, note, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 215, 216, 272,

878 INDEX.

288, 373, 376, 382. Montrose's opinion of and contempt for him, 97,
286, 288, 377, 401, Appendix, vol. i. p. xlvi. His ungrateful conduct to
Charles L, in 1641, at the settlement of Scotland, 356, 360, 361, note.
English commission of inquiry into his conduct as Prime Minister for Scot-
land ; reluctantly but deservedly disgraced, and put under restraint, by
Charles I., who never recals that sentence, 383, 384. Released from his
confinement by the deadly enemies of the King ; Bishop Burnet's account
of his presentation to the King, when in the hands of those who sold him,
and his " unexampled and sublime" conduct to Montrose on that occasion,
638, 639. His renewed conjuction with Argyle, 652. Competes with him
for the honour of attempting to save the King whom they had both sold
for money, 655, 663. Miserable result of the malign conjunction, and of
Hamilton's " Engagement," 671, 672. His death, 713, note. His sobriquet,
Appendix, vol. i. p. Ixxix.

Hamilton, 2d Duke of, 695. — See Lanerick.

Marchioness of, commands the godly matrons and serving-maids

militant, 100, 1 94, note.

Alexander, General of Artillery to the Covenanters ; " Dear Sandie's

stoups," 152, note, 174.

Hanover, Elector of, his reception of Montrose, 728.

Hartfelli Earl of, taken prisoner at Philiphaugh ; marked for doom, 589, 590,
Saved by Argyle. — See Johnstone.

Hay, Kinnoul's brother, 580, 668.— See Kinnoul.

Sir William of Dalgetty, his public funeral attended by many of the

name, 830, 835.

Henderson, Rev. Alexander, his unsuccessful attempt to seduce Montrose,
381, 382, note.

Herbert, Sir Edward, 711.

Highlanders, their support of the royal cause roused by Montrose, 415, 416,
420, 421, 423, 440, 450, 451, 470, 479, note, 654, note. Their predatory
and independent habits ruinous to the cause in which they were victorious,
449, 572. Their alarm for " the musket's mother," 204, 205, note.

Holbourn, the covenanting General, 542, 546, 745.

Home, James, 3d Earl of, signs the conservative bond at Cumbernauld, 270,
note. Induces Montrose, by promising co-operation, to linger on the bor-
der, and then sells him to David Leslie, 566, 571, 572. One of the four-
teen Earls who carry the remains of Montrose at his public funeral, 834.

Hope, Sir Thomas, of Craighall, Lord Advocate, Montrose's early acquaintance
with him, 29, 30, 50. His extraordinary character ; worships God and
mammon ; his strange superstitions, 80, 81, 82. His prosecution of Col-
quhoun of Luss for seduction, incest, and necromancy, 83, 84. Rebuked
by the Bishop of Brechin, 161, 162. Hamilton, in a letter from Scotland,
advises the King to remove him from his office, 171, note, 370. Pharisaical
scene with Rothes, 230, 231. The King warned against him by the Earl
of Airth, 233. Ordered to confine himself to Craighall, 232. Received
into favour again, and ordered to attend the prorogation of the Scotch

INDEX. 879

Parliament, 234. Commissioner at the General Assembly which gave birth
to the Solemn League and Covenant, 382, 383. A puppet in the hands
of his own sons and Argyle, 232. His ruling passion strong in death, 649,
650, 651, note.

Hope, Sir John, of Craighall, the Lord Advocate's eldest son, extraordinary
committee scene under his presidency, 333-336. Commands his father,
232. His account of his father's death, 650.

Sir Thomas, of Kerse, the Lord Advocate's second son, a violent and

underhand agitator against the monarchy, 130, 266, 267, 309, note, 320,
321, 327, Appendix, vol. i. pp. Ixvii, Ixviii. Commands the College of
Justice troop and his father, 232, 266. Made Justice- General in 1641,
" to the indignation of the nobility," 371.

— — Sir Alexander, the younger son of the Lord Advocate, royal carver ex-
traordinary, 266, note, 649.

Houbraken, his engraving of Montrose. — See Portraits.

Hunibie, Sir Adam, Hepburn of, clerk to the covenanting committees, 236,
note, 256, note, 320, 322, note, 334, 371.

Hume, Colonel, 541.

Cornet, 551, note.

Hungarian, poet, makes verses to Montrose at College, 38.

Huntly, George Gordon, Earl of, his pure and negative loyalty, 145, 168,
169, 177, 183-187, note. His jealousy of Montrose, impractibility, .and
worse than uselessness to the royal cause, 388, 404, 450, 460, 572, 607,

r 608, 610, 617, 618, 619, 620-628. His death, 648, 705, note.

Hunter, Mr William, of Balgayes, 439.

Hurry, Sir John, 405, note. Turns from the royal cause to the covenanting
rebels, and commands their cavalry, 476. Carries off James Lord Graham
and his tutor from Montrose, 493. His unsuccessful pursuit of Montrose
after the storming of Dundee, 496. Combines with Seaforth to destroy
Montrose, 497, 501. Defeated by Montrose at Auldearn, and his army de-
stroyed, 502-506. Joins General Baiilie with about an hundred horse, 523 ;
but soon quits him, 523. Eventually joins Montrose, and becomes at-
tached and faithful to him, 641, 642, 679. Acts as his Major-General on
his last landing in Scotland ; his orders from Montrose, 742, 743. Taken
prisoner at Corbiesdale, 745. Graphic description of his appearance as a
prisoner along with Montrose by the Rev. James Fraser, 774, note. Be-
headed, 799, note.

Inchbrakie.—See Graham.

Inglis, Alexander, Dean of Guild of Perth, his two-handed sword fails to

save Perth, 437.
Innes, Colonel, 405, note.

laird of, 502, 505.

Innerchannoqunan, John Stewart of, 434, 443, 606.

Inver, John Robertson of, Montrose's Captain of the Castle of Blair of

Athole, 463. Various official orders to him from Montrose about the ex-

880 INDEX.

change of prisoners, the keeping them safe, &c., 515, 520, 522, 530, 585,
606, 611. Montrose dissatisfied with his conduct, 525, 626. A sword
consigned to his keeping by Montrose, 520.

Inverary, Montrose marches up to the door of it in search of Argyle, and not
finding him at home carries fire and sword through his possessions, 472,
473, 484.

Inverleitli, Towers of, joins Montrose after the battle of Kilsyth, 554, 622, 627.

Inverlochy, the battle of, and its antecedents, 470-488.

Inverquharity. — See Ogilvy.

Irene, Druminond of Hawthornden's, Montrose proposes to publish, 564.

Irish, under Alexander Macdonald of Colonsay, land on the west coast of Scot-
land, 416. Montrose places himself at then* head, and unites them with
the men of Athole, 420. Their gallantry and gaiety, 431, 456, 466, 467,
584. Cruel, indiscriminate, and cold-blooded massacre of them, under
the regime of the kirk-militant, 534, 585, 586, 587, 588, 596. Stragglers
from the army, Montrose's anxiety to save the country from the excesses
of, 520, 605. "

wanderers, Montrose's charity to when at College, 62.

Irvine of Drum, cruel oppression of the family for their loyalty, 415, 556, 562.

James, Sixth of Scotland, effect of his death, 103. Ifis establishment of the
Church in Scotland overturned, 221.

Jameson, George, portrait of Montrose painted by. — See Portraits.

Jermyn, Lord, the minion of Queen Henrietta Maria, 390, 653, 658, 664,
674, 771.

Johnston, James, Lord (1st Earl of Hartfell), letter to him from Johnston of
Warriston, 229, note. Montrose complains of him to the King, 407, note.
Attends Montrose after the battle of Kilsyth, with his son Lord Johnston,
554. Taken prisoner at Philiphaugh, 589. His narrow escape from the
shambles of the covenant, 590, 596, 597.

James, 2d Earl of Hartfell (created Earl of Annandale), one of

five Earls who carried the body of Montrose from his grave under the gal-
lows to lie in state, 827 (where called John by mistake).

Archibald, of Warriston, the minion of the covenanting kirk, and

prime minister of Argyle, in all their cruel and oppressive ways, 130, 131,
139, 162, 218, 300, 337. His excitement and delight at the prospect of
Strafford's death, and getting " money for us," 294, note. Congenial let-
ter to him from Sir Thomas Hope of Kerse, 307, 308, 309, note. The
Lord Advocate's hand in preparing the nefarious mock process against
Montrose, 345, 348, 349, 368. His reward at the King's settlement of
Scotland in 1641, 370, 371, note. His address to the Parliament at St
Andrews in 1645, urging the indiscriminate execution of all the loyalists
who had fallen into their hands, and a tyrannical " scrutiny into the sen-
timents of the members of that House," 592. Obtains the office of Lord
Advocate on the death of Sir Thomas Hope, 651 Becomes Lord Regis-
ter, 371, note, 791. Surveys Montrose tied to the cart from Lord Moray's

INDEX. 881

balcony along with Argyle, 779, note, 781. One of the committee appoint-
ed to examine Montrose in the Tolbooth, 783. Reads Montrose's sentence
to him in the Parliament, 791. His interview with Montrose on the morn-
ing of the Marquis's execution, 800. His offer to Charles II. when plead-
ing abjectly for his own life, 371, note. His connection with Cromwell de-
tected, 703, note.

Johnston, Sir Alexander of Carnsalloch, his letter to his daughters, being a
sequel to the story of Montrose's heart, 819-825.

Colonel, son of the Provost of Aberdeen, his gallant defence of the

bridge of Dee, 208, 209, 211. Denounces Colonel Guri as a traitor be-
fore the King, 215.

Lieutenant, taken prisoner at Kilsyth, 551, note.

Kalendar, Gregorian correction of, 714, note, 754, note.

Keir, house of, Montrose there, 381. — See Stirling.

Keitache, Coll, Macdonald of Colonsay, 416. — See Macdonald.

Keith, Alexander, brother to Earl Marischal, killed at Fyvie, 467.

Keppoch. — See Macdonald.

Kilmahog, Montrose there, 616.

Kilcummin (Fort Augustus), Montrose's clan-gathering there, and bond of
loyalty before the battle of Inverlochy, 478, 479, note, 492.

Killearn, house of, frequented by Montrose when at College, 51. — See
Graham.

Killiecrankie, pass of, Montrose leads his army through it, 463.

Kilmaurs, Lord, supports the pall at the public funeral of Montrose, 834.

Kilpont, Lord, joins Montrose before the battle of Tippermuir, 427, 428.
Commands the bowmen, 429. Actively assisting Montrose in Perth, 436,
442. Assassinated by Stewart of Ardvoirlich at the Kirk of Collace, 446,
447, note, Appendix, vol. i. pp. Ixxvii, Ixxviii. Reference to the murder
in a letter from Montrose to Huntly, 624.

Kihyth, battle of, 538-547. Note of prisoners taken there, 551.

Kinanmond, the Rev. William, his brutality to Montrose, 775.

Kincardine, Montrose's castle of in Strathearn, 15, 16. Gathering of the
Grahams there, at the funeral of Montrose's father, which is " accomplish-
ed" in one month and nineteen days, 25-27, 28. Besieged and destroyed
by Middleton, 629, 630.

King, General, Montrose pronounces him " slow," 394.

Kinycausie, Irvine of, murdered at the instigation of Argyle, 446.

Kinghorn, John, 2d Earl of, a companion of Montrose at College, 47, note, 49.
With Montrose in the north supporting the covenant, 165, 180, 184, 243.
Signs Montrose's conservative bond at Cumbernauld, 270, note.

Kingston, Viscount, supports the pall at the public funeral of Montrose, 834.

Kininvie, laird of, said to be the father of the first Earl of Leven, 173, note.

Kinnaird Castle, Montrose's courtship and honey-moon there, 65, 66, 69, 70.
His youthful portrait recently discovered there, 68. — See Portraits.
Charles II. there, 767.— See Southesk.

56

882 INDEX.

Kinmrmony, on the Spey, Montrose there, 620.

Kinnoul, George, 1st Earl of (Lord Chancellor Hay), 54, 74, 112, 113, 114,
115, 119, 120, note.

George, 2d Earl of, 451, note.

George, 3d Earl of, 451, note, 468. His archery with the Queen

of Bohemia and Montrose, 714. His letter to Montrose reporting his suc-
cessful landing in Orkney, 723, 724, note. His sudden .death there, 726,
note, 727, note.

4th Earl of, travels with Lord Napier from France to Brussels to

join Montrose, 668. Succeeds his brother, and lands in Orkney, 735, 736.
Accompanies Montrose in his flight from Corbiesdale, and perishes in the
wilderness, 745, 746. Probably the bearer of Montrose's dispatch from
Inverlochy to the King, 486, note.

Kintail. — See Mackenzie.

Kylochy, Montrose there, 623, 624, 625.

Lachlin, Major, a distinguished leader of the Irish under Montrose ; his cruel
execution, 588.

Laing, Malcolm, the historian, controverted, 359, 533, note, 537, note, 548,
563, 583, 585, 587, 588, note, Appendix, vol. i. pp. Ivii-lix, Ixiv. note.

Laniby, Mr John, Montrose's purse master at College, 32, 340.

Lanerick, William, Earl of (2d Duke of Hamilton), Sir Philip Warwick's
favourable character of him contrasted with that of his brother the Mar-
quis of Hamilton ; Montrose's opinion to the same effect, 98, 99. Charles I.
compliments him at the expense of his brother, 101. His factious and un-
grateful conduct to the King, in his connexion with the Argyle govern-
ment; makes his escape from Court, immediately joins the Covenanters,
acts as their Secretary of State, and is active upon their oppressive com-
mittees, 383, 384, 513, note, 515, 552, 553, 638. Calumnious rumour that
Montrose proposed to assassinate him not hinted at by Lanerick himself
in his version of the " Incident," 360, 361, note, Appendix, vol. i. pp. Ixi,
note, Ixxii, note. Lanerick's equivocal message to the King relative to his
brother the Marquis of Hamilton, Appendix, vol. i. p. Ixxvi, note. Presi-
dent Spottiswoode brought to him a prisoner from the field of Philiphaugh,
where he had obtained quarter ; Lanerick " ratified the same by his
humane and courteous carriage ;" nevertheless makes no stand to save his
life, but merely expresses himself, in his vote in Parliament, as " not clear
anent the point of quarter," and does not join the minority (Eglinton,
Cassilis, Dumfermline, and Carnwath), in their vote for mercy, 591, 596.
Joins Lindsay in furthering the escape of Ogilvy, 597. His feeble re-
sumption of loyalty, and miserable failure in the demonstration of it, 672,
674. Declares his willingness to serve under Montrose even in the rank
of a serjeant, but wishes the sentiment to be concealed from Lauderdale,
681, 682. Succeeds to the Dukedom on the death of his brother ; allusion
to him in a letter from the Queen of Bohemia to Montrose, 713, note. His
position among the factionists at the Hague ; Lauderdale " haunts him

INDEX. 883

like a fury," 695, 730, 740. See also 782, 783, note. His sobriquet, Ap-
pendix, vol. i. p. Ixxix.

LangTialine, Castle of, in the western highlands, taken by Allaster Macdonald
on his first landing with the Irish, 462.

Laud, Archbishop, 104, 321.

Lauderdale, Earl of (1st Duke), originally a keen and virulent covenanter, 161,
note. His contest with Montrose for supreme power after the murder of
Charles I., 695, 696, 730, 740. His unwilling testimony against the truth
of the abuse of Montrose as a " butcher" and a " murderer," 581.

Law, Rev. Mungo, a zealot of the covenant, and one of Argyle's staff, 481.
One of Montrose's tormentors in prison, 786, 790.

Lawers, laird of, his present of game at the funeral of Montrose's father, 26.

Lennox, the, Montrose's earliest and happiest associations connected there-
with, 415.

Leslie, Alexander, Field-Marshal (1st Earl of Leven), brought from Germany
by Rothes to command the Kirk-militant in Scotland ; his foreign reputa-
tion as a mercenary; his extraction, 173, note. His activity and ability in
his new service, 174. His portrait drawn by the Rev. Robert Baillie, 176,
177. Accompanies Montrose to Aberdeen, 176, 179. His successful opera-
tions against the monarchy, 267, 270, 272. How rewarded by the monarch ;
his maudlin gratitude, 370. His rampant ingratitude, 382, 392. Re-
pulses Newcastle at Bowdenhill, 394, 395. Loses cast at the battle of
Marston-moor, 177. Takes Newcastle in conjunction with Callendar after
the recal of Montrose, 402, 410. Letter to him from Lord Fairfax, en-
closing intercepted dispatches from Montrose to the King, 405, 406.

David (1st Lord Newark), surprises Montrose at Philiphaugh, and

destroys the remnant of his army, 576, 577. Disgraces himself by his
cruelty, 584-589, 603, note. His conduct to Montrose a captive, 773-775.
His sobriquet, Appendix, vol. i. p. Ixxix.

Sir James, his expression of opinion at the siege of Morpeth, 40.

Patrick, Provost of Aberdeen, 148, note.

Leven, Earl of. — See Leslie.

Lindsay, Lord of the Byres, a College companion of Montrose, 49, 50. A
prime covenanter, and devoted to Argyle, 264-266, note, 304-306, note.
His rewards, 370, 410. Opposed to Montrose in arms, 525, 526. And
with what success, 539 .

Sir David of Balcarres, his hospitable house visited by Montrose

from College ; the New-year's morning drink, 51. — See Balcarres.

Lord, his Lives sf the Lindsays, 51, note. His mistaken idea, that

the factious pretence of a plot, " the Incident," was really " the joint con-
coction of Montrose and Crawford," Appendix, vol. i. p. Ixxii.

LinlitJigow, George, 3d Earl of, 511, 827, note.

bridge, horrible cruelties committed there by the covenanting

leaders after the rout at Philiphaugh ; Wishart's true statement of that
incident misrepresented and confused by bad translators, and carol ess
historians, 586, 687, 588, note.

884 INDEX.

Lithgow, William, the traveller and poet, Montrose's patronage of his works,

57, 58. Lauds Montrose in verse to Charles I., 74.

, Loclidber mountains, Montrose's greatest difficulty in his forced march upon
Inverlochy, 485.

Lockhart, Major, taken prisoner at Kilsyth, 551, note.

Lorn* Archibald, Lord (Marquis of Argyle), his personal appearance, 157. —
See Argyle and Portraits.

Archibald Lord (Earl of Argyle, and son of the Marquis), conspicuous

with his bride in Lord Moray's balcony, enjoying the spectacle of Mon-
trose tied to the cart, 779, note.

Lothian, William, 3d Earl of, commands the cavalry of Argyle's army op-
posed to Montrose, 445. Baffled, repulsed, and tired out by Montrose,
465, 466, 467, 469. Retires into winter quarters, throws up his commis-
sion, and refuses to resume the command ; thanked for doing nothing, 469.
Severely reproved by Charles I., 633. Extraordinary report to Argyle
after the execution of Montrose, 765.

London, the covenanting Chancellor, his first factions position, 123. A prime
covenanter, 135, 136, 137, 219, 673, note. His reward, 370. His rabid
abuse of Montrose when pronouncing sentence, 791, 794, 796.

Lour, Lord (1st Earl of Northesk), signs Montrose's conservative bond at
Cumbernauld, 270, note.

Master of. — See Carnegie.

Ludwharne, baron of, one of the supporters of the pall at Montrose's public
funeral, 834.

Lundy, Captain, taken prisoner at Kilsyth, 551, note.

Luss. — See Colquhoun.

Lyon, King-at-arms. — See Balfour.

of Auldbar, 165.

the Rev. C. J., his history of St Andrews, 45, note, His Personal His-
tory of King Charles the Second, 767, note.

Maal, Doctor, attends Montrose during his illness at College, 38, 39.

Mac Alien Duibh, of Glencoe, his report to Montrose of the state of Argyle's
country, 471.

Macaulay, Mr, his History of England ; his revolting account of the landed
youth of England " who witnessed the Revolution," contrasted with the
education and youthful habits of Montrose at an earlier period in Scotland,
33, 35. His extraordinary theory, that " the dwellings and food," of
Scotsmen of the greatest fame and genius, " were as wretched as those of
the Icelanders of our time," as specially instanced by the examples of
Buchanan and Napier, compared with the actual facts, 39-42, note.

Macculloch, Captain John, his conference with Montrose at the rendering of
Morpeth Castle, 399, 400, 401, note.

Macdonald, Coll, of Colonsay, 416.

MacColl Keitache, son of the former, his landing in Scotland to

join Montrose ; his flotilla destroyed by Argyle ; his proceedings in Scot-

INDEX. 885

land before his junction with Montrose, who joins him in Athole, and pre-
sents him with his commission as Major-General from the King, 416-420.
Commands the brigade of Irish at the battle of Tippermuir, 429-431. Fifty
pounds sterling exacted for his special use from the Magistrates of Perth
by Montrose, 435. In Perth with Montrose, 437, 442. Annihilates
Craigievar's troop in their charge of the Irish brigade, 456. Recruits suc-
cessfully for Montrose before the battle of Inverlochy, 462, 470. His gilly,
carrying his hat, cloak, and gloves, taken prisoner on the retreat from
Dundee, 497, note. His extraordinary personal prowess at the battle of
Auldearn, 502-505. Again recruits successfully for Montrose, 532. Knight-
ed by Montrose under the royal banner after the battle of Kilsyth ; his
shameful desertion of Montrose immediately thereafter ; his miserable end,
566, 568, 569, 572, 603, 611.

Macdonald of Glengarry. — See Glengarry.

Sir James, of the Isles, 621, 624, 626, 630, 654, note.

of Keppoch, joins Montrose before the battle of Inverlochy, 470.

Signs the bond at Kilcummin, 479, note.

Ian Lorn, the bard of Keppoch, brings intelligence to Montrose

of Argyle's movements before the battle of Inverlochy ; celebrates the vic-
tory in a gaelic poem ; free translation of some of the verses, 480, 482, 483.

Macgregor, the, at the battle of Inverlochy, 479, note, 482. Strength of the
clan, 654, note.

Mackenzie, chief of Kintail. — See Seaforih.

M^Laucldane, the Rev. Archibald, his trouble about the family of Luss, 87,
88.

Maclean, Sir Lachlan, of Duart at the battle of Inverlochy, 479, note, 482.
With seven hundred of his clan at the battle of Kilsyth ; their rivalry there
with the clan Ranald, 543, 544. Strength of the clan, 654, note.

of Lochbuy, at the battle of Inverlochy, 479, note.

of Treshnish, at the battle of Kilsyth, 544.

Macleod of Harris, strength of the clan, 654, note.

Macneill of Bara, strength of the clan, 654, note.

Macranald, strength of the clan, 654, note.

Macplierson, the, at the battle of Inverlochy, 479, note, 482.

Maderty, David, the Master of (3d Lord Muderty), Montrose's brother-in-
law, 34, 90, 427, 428, 430, 437, 828, note, 834. "

Magistrates of Aberdeen, Montrose's correspondence with them before the
battle of Aberdeen, 452, 453.

of Edinburgh, their complete and abject submission to Montrose

after the battle of Kilsyth, 561, 562. Their ample revenge soon after, 776,
797, 800.

of Inverness, their reception of Montrose as a prisoner ; his re-
ply when u in the first crisis of a high fever," to the Provost Duncan For-
bes, 774.

Mahon, Lord (Earl Stanhope), his mistaken correction of Bishop Guthrie,
222, note. His doubt as to the integrity and loyalty of Montrose, after

886 INDEX.

having offered his services to the King and Queen ; value of that doubt
tested by the same sentence in which it occurs ; further tested by the
Queen's letter to Montrose, and by his active exertions in support of the
royal cause at the very time, 380, 381, 384. His rash reliance on Laing,
and adoption of the calumny that cruelty was a characteristic of Montrose,
583, 585. His objection to the theory that Montrose's ballad to an ima-
ginary mistress is imbued with covert allusions to his devoted loyalty, consi-
dered, Appendix, vol. i. pp. xxxi-xxxiii. His novel and derogatory theory,
that Montrose's last words and dying speech were an ex post facto fabrication
of " the loyalist party," critically examined and disproved of, 806, note,
842-844.

Makondochy, of the Reau, mentioned by Montrose in a letter to Huntly, as
" Argyle's great champion," 624.

Man, James, his collections for a history of Scotch affairs, 173, note.

Mar, John, seventh Earl of, 12, 109, note. — See Erskine.

eighth Earl of, 256, 262, 270, 304, 509.

Maria, Jean do, instructive letters of, relative to the nationality of the liturgy
riots in Scotland, 143, 144.

Marischal, Earl, joined with Montrose in imposing the covenant on loyal
Aberdeen, 149, 179, 198, 199, 202, 203, 213. Urges Montrose to burn
Aberdeen who declines, temporises, and eventually saves the town, 214, 215.
His loyal co-operation courted by Montrose ; his feeble and capricious con-
duct and character, 381 . Joins Argyle with fourteen troops of horse against
Montrose at Fyvie, 465, 467. Treats with disrespect a summons in the
name of the King from Montrose at Dunnotar, and brings destruction upon
his possessions and his people, whom he makes no effort to save, 494.

Marston-moor, battle of, 402, 403.

Matula, a classical name for the crowning disgrace of Argyle at Fyvie, 467.

Maurice, Prince, appointed Commander-in-Chief in Scotland for the King,
at the express desire of Montrose in preference to himself, 387, 388.

Maxwell, Lord, 410.— See Nithsdale.

Patrick, Sheriff-clerk of Perth, comes to grief, 435-438.

Marmaduke Constable, Esq. of Terregles, 845.

Mazarine, Cardinal, his brilliant offers to Montrose at Paris, and why de-
clined, 665, 666. Letter to him from the French Resident in Edinburgh,
describing the procession of Montrose as a prisoner through Edinburgh to
the Tolbooth, 781, 782.

Merchixton, John Napier of, the inventor of the Logarithms, Mr Macaulay's
idea of his dwelling and his food, 39-42.

Middleton, Major (1st Earl of), an officer under Montrose at the battle of
the Dee ; his extrordinary fortunes, 211, 216, 217. Major-General under
David Leslie, 609, 612, 615. Destroys Montrose's castle of Kincardine;
cruelty to the brave garrison, 630. His capitulation with Montrose, 639,
640. The dawn of his useless and discreditable loyalty, 735, 736. Be-
comes Viceroy of Scotland, and presides over the pageant of the public
funeral of Montrose, 834, 836, 840.

INDEX. 887

Moncrieff Qi Kindullo, taken prisoner at Kilsyth, 551, note.

Major John, taken prisoner at the battle of Kilsyth, 551, note.

Moncur, Thomas of Shilhill, 63.

Monteith (or Menteith), William Graham, 7th Earl of, a scion of Montrose;
also served heir to the Earldom of Strathern, and created Earl of Airth in
compensation for the King's reduction of the hitter title; Justice-General
of Scotland, President of the Privy Council, and an Extraordinary Lord of
Session ; Montrose goes in state to visit him from College, 54, 55. Letter
to him from Charles I., ordering a criminal prosecution against the laird
of Luss, for seduction, incest, and necromancy, 75, 76. Severe character
of him found in the manuscript of Archibald first Lord Napier ; brought
to shame at the Council-board in Scotland, for a falsehood and a forgery,
114, 115. Falls under the displeasure of the King, and is deprived of his
high offices ; restored to the royal favour, and in correspondence with the
King ; his report of Montrose to Charles I. after the treaty of Berwick,
226, 227.

Montrose, 1st Earl of, death at Flodden, 3.

. 2d Earl of, death at Pinkie, 3.

3d Earl of, substantial evidence of his loyalty, 3.

• 4th Earl of, exploit of his youth, 4. State of his family ; his do-
mestic life; his death and burial, 6-11, 14-17, 24-27.

James, 1st Marquis of, his birth, genealogy, and parentage, 1-11.

Early in the saddle, and initiated in the cunning of fence, 9, 10. False
anecdote of his infancy refuted, 6. Death of his mother, and marriage of
his two eldest sisters during his childhood, 6, 11, 14. The haunts and
habitations of his boyhood, 15-17. The history of his boyhood and educa-
tion now first discovered, 18-64. His private tuition in Glasgow ; details
of his domestic establishment there, 18-21. His first sword, 21. His first
pedagogue, 18, 19. His library; his early attachment to Sir Walter
Raleigh's History of the World, 21-23. First notice of him by Charles the
First, 24. Death of his father, 25. One month and nineteen days occu-
pied in accomplishing the burial of his father, 25. l Congregation of his
friends, and the funeral feast at Kincardine upon that occasion, 25-27.
His entry at St Andrews College, 28, 29. Entry to his family possessions,
29, 30. His valet's solicitude about his boots and shoes, 81. His new
purse-master and pedagogue at College, 32. Minute details of his Col-
lege life and boyish habits, 33-64. His dangerous illness at College, and
its successful treatment, 38, 39, 43. His devotion to archery ; his archer's
medal, 43-45, 47. His other sports ut College, 48. His hunting, hawk-
ing, and treatment of his horse ; his hunting and College companions, 48,
49, 50. Frequents Cupar races, 50. His i-arly acquaintance with the
Lord Advocate of the Troubles, 29, 50. His early patronage of the muses,
37, 38, 57, 58. His liberality to a poor foreign scholar, 61. To a boy
with a sore head, 43. To a dwarf begging from him at his chamber door,

• At p. 25, for " nineteen days," rrad " one month and nineteen day*.'*

888 INDEX.

55. To the poor -wandering Irish ; to a poor old man and his wife beg-
ging from him at his chamber ; to a dumb woman ; to some poor soldiers
begging from him on the road, 62, Appendix, to vol. i.-p. Iviii. His never
failing charities while at College, 61, 62. The country mansions where he
spent his holidays ; his New-year's morning drink at Balcarres, 51. His
Christmas ploys, and fetes champetres with his sisters and friends, 52, 53.
He dights him in array, and pays his respects to the Lord Chancellor, and
Lord Justice-General, 54, 55. His visits to the Archbishop, 56. His con-
tributions to the relief of gentlemen damaged by the flowing of their moss
in Stirlingshire, 63. His love of flowers, 62, 63. His early acquaintance
with Dr Wishart, 70.

Montrose, his books and his studies, 22, 23, 56, 57, 58. Introduced to the
ancient languages through the works of Xenophon, Seneca, Buchanan,
and Barclay ; his study of Plutarch's Lives, and emulation of those heroes ;
verses written by him upon his copies of Lucan, Cesar's Commentaries,
and Quintus Curtius, 60, 61. His contributions in aid of the building and
library of the College of Glasgow, 71.

• his early marriage while at College ; Kinnaird Castle ; " Mrs

Magdalene Carnegie ;" the courtship, 65, 66. Interrupts his studies but
not his sports ; his portrait painted at Aberdeen by Jameson ; enthusiastic
reception of the young Benedict there ; is made a burgess on the occasion,
67, 68. The marriage-contract ; the bride's father undertakes to sustain
the young couple at Kinnaird for three years, 70, 71. The marriage, the
minstrels, and the honey-moon, 69, 70. Birth of his sons, 71, 513, note,
compare with, and correct by, p. 827, note.

• Attains majority about the time of the coronation of Charles I. in

Scotland ; not presented, nor present at the pageant, 71, 72. Pointed
notice of him by the laureate of the Coronation, 73, 74. About to travel,
74, 75. Why absent from the coronation ; particulars of the diabolical
seduction of his young sister by Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, and the cri-
minal process against him, 75-90.

abroad on his travels, 91-94. His return and cold reception at

the Court of Charles I., occasioned by the jealous and artful double-deal-
ing of the favourite, 94, 95, note. The anecdote illustrated and verified,
94-101. Not engaged in the secret organizing of the riots and the Cove-
nant, 126. How brought in to the turbulent party, 127, 128, 135-139.
His first activity in the cause against Huntly and Aberdeen ; his expedi-
tion and proceedings there, attended by the three apostles of the Covenant ;
amount of his success in that mission, 147-153. Violent scene in the Ge-
neral Assembly of 1 638, between Montrose and his father-in-law Southesk ;
the Assembly terrified ; Montrose too honest for their councils, 154-156.
Not connected with the secret machinery of the faction, but careless as to
the fate of the Bishops, and opposed to their preponderance in the State,
162, 163, 787. Another political collision with his father-in -law, 164, 165.
The first raid of TurrefF, 166-168. His first expedition against the loyalty
of the north with an army ; in the leading-strings of Alexander Leslie as

INDEX. 889

his adjutant, 172-176. His " whimsie" of the blue ribbon, 177, 178. Oc-
cupies Aberdeen with his array, 178, 179. His humanity to the town, 180.
His forbearance with the papists, 183, 184. Leads Huntly captive to
Edinburgh, and by what means, 185-189.

Montrose, his second campaign in arms against Aberdeen ; the second raid,
or trot of Turreff; the Barons reign, 197, 198. His campaign in the north
against Aboyne, resulting in the final subjugation of Aberdeen after the
battle of the Bridge of Dee, 199-212. Saves the town from destruction ;
being his first offence against the Covenant, 213-215. Retires to his own
home on the announcement of the treaty of Berwick.

his position immediately after the pacification ; one of the few

covenanting nobles who obey the King's summons to a conference, 219,
220. Opposed to the extreme measures of the ultra Covenanters in the
Parliament of 1639, and argues against them ; the vulgar idea, that this
was in consequence of his having been gained over by the King at Ber-
wick, expressed by a writing affixed to his chamber door, 221-223. Pri-
vate report of his political position to the King from the Earl of Monteith,
226. Summoned to Court, declines, and states his reasons in a letter to
the King, 227, 228. Again argues against Argyle, and the leading dema-
gogues in the Parliament of 1640 ; scene there and result, 234-237.

his first conservative stand in opposition to the ultra covenanters ;

necessarily in a false position, 240-243. His temperate proceedings against
Airlie Castle, counteracted by the tyrannical and cruel proceedings of
Argyle, 244-253. His conservative principles thoroughly roused and
alarmed, in a conversation with Lord Lindsay of the Byres. His conser-
vative bond at Cumbernauld, 254-270. Writes a letter to the King, as-
suring him of his loyalty ; discovered by the Argyle faction ; owns the
letter, maintains his right to correspond with the Sovereign, and silences
the faction for the time, 272, note, 273. His bond at Cumbernauld disco-
vered by Argyle ; produced and avowed by Montrose ; burnt by the
Argyle committee, 273, 274.

his political position and projects after the burning of his bond ;

open and rash promulgation of his opposition to Argyle, and intention to
impeach him and Hamilton, 274-279, 299. His letter to a friend at this time,
being an essay on Sovereign Power, and arguments against the " far de-
signs" of the leaders of the movement ; does not maintain the divine right
of hereditary monarchy to do wrong, 280-292. His conservative plot for
the settlement of Scotland ; meetings of the family party of plotters ;
Stewart of Ladywell his accidental emissary; his letter of advice, urging
the Kin" to come to Scotland ; the conservative plot countermined by
Argyle, who puts Stewart of Ladywell to death, and arrests Montrose and
his family party ; confined as a state prisoner in the Castle of Edinburgh,
293-330.

his condition and that of the conservative party, on the King's ar-
rival in Edinburgh ; the King by consequence in the hands of the Argyle
faction ; firm and dignified demeanour of Montrose when interrogated by

890 INDEX.

the Parliament as a delinquent; refuses to criminate himself, and declines all
concession, 331, 332. Petitions in vain for a public trial by his peers, 345,
348. Again the Parliament attempts to intimidate him ; his stately ap-
pearance, dauntless bearing, and ncble speech ; declares his resolution to
carry along with him " fidelity and honour to the grave ;" repeatedly de-
•clines all concession, and demands a trial, 345, 346-348. Mean attempts
to obtain materials for a process against him by breaking open his private
repositories; the ghost of the "damnable band;" only result a brittum
fulmen, and cry of shame from the public, 338-343, notes. The King's
anxiety for his fate, and exertions to save him, 357. Modern calumny,
that he proposed to the King the assassination of Argyle, Hamilton, and
Lanerick, thoroughly refuted ; by the silence of all his contemporary ene-
mies ; by the absence of any such charge in the voluminous libel prepared
at the time against him ; by the absence of all allusions to it in Lanerick's
own account of the " Incident ;" by the ignorance of Argyle and Hamil-
ton that any such accusation existed against. Montrose ; and by the letters
of the King to him, immediately after the alleged diabolical proposal, ex-
tolling him for his generosity and pre-eminent honour, 358-368, and
Appendix to Vol. I. pp. Iv.-lxxvi. Inconsistent frivolities of the libel
against him, 363-365. Termination of his imprisonment, through the
concessions of the King ; impotent conclusion of the process ; his indignant
and classical protest, 367, 368.

Montrose, his retirement at home for a season, after the settlement of Scot-
land in 1641 ; interrupted by a letter from the King claiming his advice
and assistance, on raising the standard at Nottingham, 372. Crossed and
foiled by Hamilton, in his energetic counsels to the Queen at Burlington,
and Oxford, 373-376. His contempt for Hamilton expressed in a pasquil
written at Oxford, 377. Argyle endeavours to gain him over, by repeated
offers of high command, and payment of his debts ; Montrose neither de-
ceived nor seduced thereby, 374, 379. The Queen's letter to him, ex-
pressing undiminished confidence in his loyalty, 380. Exerts himself to
form a loyal coalition in arms with Huntly, Airlie, and Marischal ; failure
of his scheme through the caprice of the last, 381. The Moderator of the
Kirk commissioned to seduce him ; Montrose improves the opportunity to
elicit the fact, which had been denied by Hamilton, that the new army of
the Covenant was to aid the rebellion in England ; bows off the emissaries
of Argyle, 381, 382. Watches the convention in Scotland which decreed
the auxiliary army, and gave birth to the Solemn League and Covenant ;
impeaches the Hamiltons to the King, and gives evidence, along with
other loyal Scotch nobles, before the English commission of Inquiry, which
results in the disgrace and restraint of the favourite and his brother, 383,
384.

. Prime Minister for Scotland ; his scheme, to do battle with the

Solemn League and Covenant there, acceded to by the King ; rational
grounds for the undertaking, 385, 386. Commissioned as Lieutenant-
Governor, and Captain- General in Scotland ; declines that highest com-

INDEX. 891

mission, and suggests the less invidious one of Lieutenant- General under
Prince Maurice, who is invested with the former ; ruinous jealousy of the
soi-disant loyal peers of Scotland notwithstanding ; he attempts to
strengthen his position by a new conservative bond at Oxford, 388, 389.
Sets out on his expedition to Scotland ; dispatches from him to Sir Robert
Spottiswoode ; disappointed in his expectations of assistance from the Mar-
quis of Newcastle, commanding for the King in the north of England,
390, 391. Urges that General to take the initiative against Leven at
Bowdenhill ; Newcastle is worsted, and Montrose pronounces him to be
44 slow," 393, 394. Fails in his attempt to enter Scotland with an army,
and retires from Dumfries to Carlisle ; causes of the failure, 395, 396, note.
His brilliant successes in the north of England ; saves Newcastle for the
time ; lays siege to and takes Morpeth castle ; his conference there with
Captain M'Culloch, 397-401. His humane and hospitable conduct to the
garrison ; takes another fortress at the mouth of the Tyne, 402. Sum-
moned from his successful career by Prince Rupert, who is defeated at
Marston-moor before Montrose reaches him, 402, 403. His correspon-
dence with Sir Robert Spottiswoode and Lord Fairfax, 403, 404. Sends
particular dispatches to the King, with special complaints against the
Scotch nobles professing loyalty, who were bound to have aided the ex-
pedition ; his dispatches intercepted, and Lord Ogilvy made prisoner ; ex-
presses his own determination to persevere unaided in a desperate attempt
to carry the war into Scotland ; suddenly quits the remnant of his English
forces, and disappears, 405-411.

Montrose escapes in disguise to Scotland ; his adventures on the road ;
reaches the highlands of Perthshire, and conceals himself at Tullibeltane ;
ascertains the hopeless subjugation of Scotland, 412-415. Obtains tidings
of the landing of MacColl Keitache, and his Irish ; immediately joins him
at Blair Athole, unites the Athole men, and raises the royal standard,
416-420. Imperfect condition of his little army, 421, 422. Addresses a
cartel to Argyle, issues a loyal proclamation, and instantly rushes at the
army of Perth, to prevent its junction with that of Argyle, 423-425. His
first victory at Tippermuir ; takes Perth, 426-433. Refuses to allow the
captured cannon to be turned against the mass of fugitives, 432. New
and authentic particulars of his proceedings in the town of Perth ; his pro-
tection of the town ; sends for his young sons, and his old pedagogue ; his
feast after the fray ; compels a covenanting minister to pronounce a bless-
ing ; characteristic anecdote of a very free minister of the period, 439-444.
His triumph turned into mourning by the assassination of Lord Kilpont,
446, 447.

antecedents of his second victory, at Aberdeen ; his symposium at

Crathes with the laird of Leys, on the eve of the battle, 448-451, note. His
correspondence with the Magistrates of Alu-rilri-n before the fight ; offers
terms of surrender, or otherwise, that "all old persons, women, and chil-
dren," quit the town, and those who remain expect no quarter ; the Ma-
gistrates' rejection of the terms, 452, 45I>. His ll:ig of truce tired <>n when

892 INDEX.

quitting the town, and the drummer killed ; Montrose exasperated ; his
preparations for battle, 454. The battle, and victory ; Aberdeen taken by
storm ; excesses of the soldiers, 455, 456, 457, note. Does his best to save
the town ; sends a dispatch to the King by Sir William Hollo, who falls
into the hands of Argyle ; attempt to engage Hollo to assassinate Montrose,
458, 459, note.

Montrose, antecedents of his success at Fyvie in repulsing the superior forces
of Argyle and Lothian, 460-466. Account of that success, and the com-
plete discomfiture of the army of the Estates under Argyle, 466-469.

antecedents of his victory at Inverlochy ; invades Argyle's coun-
try up to the door of Inverary, and desolates his hostile dominions, 470-

477. His highland gathering at Kilcummin, and bond uniting the clans,

478, 479. Battle of Inverlochy ; Montrose's dispatches to the King, 480-
488, note. His progress through the north of Scotland after the destruc-
tion of clan Campbell ; joined by Lord Gordon ; death of Lord Graham,
and capture of Lord James, 490-493. Burns the barn-yards of Dunnot-
tar, and the Earl Marischal's possessions, for his disregard of the royal
summons, 494. Storms Dundee ; and escapes from the united forces of
Baillie and Hurry, by a wonderful exertion, 495-497. Antecedents of his
victory at Auldearn ; the battle ; discomfits Hurry, and destroys his army,
499-506. His anxiety about the safety of his friends, and the exchange of
prisoners, 514-518. His anxiety to protect the country from the strag-
glers of his army ; sends a sword to be carefully kept in the castle of Blair,
520. Leads General Baillie a dance through the north of Scotland ;
shakes him off at the Spey, and recrosses the Grampians in search of Lord
Lindsay of the Byres ; baffled in this plan by the capricious defection of
the Gordon horse, 523-526. Returns northward to Huntly's country, re-
claims the Gordons, and commences his pursuit of Baillie ; they meet at
Alford on the Don ; the battle ; discomfits Baillie, and destroys his army ;
death of Lord Gordon ; how Montrose mourned for him, 527-531. His
proceedings in the north after the victory ; again retarded by the caprice
of the Gordons, 521, 532 ; crosses the Tay at Dunkeld, and shews a bold
front to the great army of the covenant now assembled at Perth, 533, 534.
His attention to the commissariat, 535. Succeeds in again recruiting his
forces, and determines to carry the war to the capital ; burns Castle Camp-
bell on his way to the Forth ; dines with the Earl of Mar at Alloa ; and
prepares to sup on the covenanters at Kilsyth, 535-538. The battle ;
again discomfits Argyle and his joint stock company of commanders, and
destroys the greatest and the last army of the covenant in Scotland, 539-
551.

his proceedings in the south after the battle of Kilsyth ; his hu-
mane and conservative conduct at the culminating point of his victorious
career ; protects Glasgow, Linlithgow, and Edinburgh ; takes measures for
the immediate release from their prisons of his loyal relatives and friends ;
Scotland at his feet, 552-563. Protects Drummond of Hawthornden, and
proposes to publish his loyal works, 564, 565. Receives dispatches from

INDEX. 893

the King by Sir Robert Spottiswoode, with a new commission as Lieute-
nant-Governor and Captain-General of Scotland, and orders to form a
junction with Home, Roxburgh, and Traquair, and march to the Tweed,
565, 566. Confers knighthood on his Major-General, who thereafter im-
mediately deserts him with the highlanders, and a chosen band of the Irish,
569, 570. Deserted by Aboyne, who carries off the cavalry, 567, 568,
572. His exertions to recruit on the border ; degeneracy of the border-
ers, 566, 567, 570, 571. Disgracefully sold by the border nobles, Home,
Roxburgh, and Traquair, 571, 572. Late and fruitless efforts of the King
and Lord Digby to join forces with him, 573-575, 612-614. His rash
proceedings when thus left destitute of forces ; caught napping ; Philip-
haugh, 575-580.

Montrose, his energetic and unremitting exertions to restore the royal cause,
immediately after the disaster at Philiphaugh ; his anxious but fruitless
endeavours to rescue his gallant friends, 605-616. Buries his wife, and
his guardian Lord Napier, 615. Writes a severe letter to Huntly, for not
aiding him to save the loyal, 617. Surprises Huntly into a personal con-
ference at Gordon castle ; his long and forbearing correspondence with
Huntly, to obtain his effectual co-operation, 618-624. The last gleam of
success upon his arms, 625. Incoherent message from Aboyne ; Mon-
trose's reply to him, expressing his u passion" to " fight the enemy," 627,
628. His castle of Kincardine destroyed by Middleton ; narrow escape of
his nephew Lord Napier, 629, 630.

his loyal efforts rendered abortive by the King placing himself in

the hands of the Kirk-militant ; his correspondence with the King ; sheaths
his sword as commanded, capitulates with Middleton, and closes the case
for the Crown, 631-643. His noble and self-devoted letter to the King,
recently recovered from the Hamilton archives, 634, 635, note. Not in-
debted to the Duke of Hamilton for his safety, as alleged by Burnet, 638,
639. Compelled to escape to Norway in disguise, notwithstanding the
capitulation, 642-643. Unhappy state of his family circle at this crisis,
643-648.

his exertions abroad to restore the King ; commissioned by the

King to treat for him abroad, and ordered to confide in the Queen at
Paris ; his best exertions rendered abortive by the heartless Queen's devo-
tion to Jermyn, 652-660. Receives an affecting letter, and probably the
last, from Charles, who thanks Montrose for a sword he had sent him,
660, 661. His melancholy and affectionate letter to Sir George Stirling
of Keir, 661, note, 662. Again crossed in his counsels to the Queen by
Jermyn and Hamilton ; retires in disgust to Germany, where the Empe-
ror confers upon him a Field-Marshal's baton, 664. Brilliant offers to him
from Cardinal Mazarine ; his reasons for declining them, and retiring to
Germany ; parting instructions to his nephew Lord Napier, in Paris ; pre-
sents his picture to him at parting " in the breadth of a sixpence," 665-
670. His progress through the northern courts ; rejoins his nephew at
Brussels, C74, 675. His correspondence with the young Duke of York,

894 INDEX.

arid Prince Rupert, 676-683. Letter to him from the Prince of Wales ;
his explanatory and loyal letter in reply, 684, 685. Letters between Mon-
trose and the Prince's Chancellor, Hyde, affording a direct contradiction
to the history of that correspondence, as published from his manuscripts by
the editors of Clarendon's history, 685-690. Receives the intelligence of
the murder of Charles the First, when about to meet the Chancellor ;
alarming effect of the shock upon his system ; his beautiful letter on the
occasion to the Chancellor, 691-692, note. His metrical vow, 693. An-
swer from the Queen to his letter of condolence, and renewed offer of his
loyal services, 694.

Montrose at the Hague, with various leaders of different factions, contending
for ascendancy in the counsels of Charles the Second, 695. Letters to
him from Henrietta Maria at this crisis, completely refuting a gross calum-
ny recorded for history by Bishop Burnet, 696-699, 707. His energetic
and noble letter of counsel to Charles II., written at the King's command ;
Charles assents to his counsel, and renews all his highest commissions, as
a negotiator abroad, and Commander-in-chief in Scotland, 700-707.

his proceedings under his commissions from Charles the Second ;

intimacy with the Queen of Bohemia ; her letters to him, 708-722. Pro-
ceeds to Hamburgh with Lord Napier, having instructed Lord Kinnoul to
effect a landing in Orkney ; Kinnoul reports progress to him, 723-726.
Urged from all quarters to hasten his expedition to Scotland, in the midst
of adverse fortune, 727-731. His correspondence with Seaforth at this
crisis, 732, 733, 734. Letter to him from Orkney, from Ogilvy of Powrie,
735, 736.

sets sail for Scotland, under the pressure of the King's urgent instruc-
tions, and the public impatience, bad fortune still attending him, 737-741.
His orders to Sir John Hurry ; his address to the gentlemen and heritors
of the sheriffdom of Caithness, 742-744. His defeat and capture, 744-747.

his reiterated and peremptory instructions from the King, to land

in Scotland with the foreign troops, fully displayed and illustrated, 748-768.

his last days and doom, illustrated from various minute accounts

by ear and eye-witnesses, friends and foes, 769-793. His impressive speech
to the Parliament before receiving sentence ; his metrical prayer thereaf-
ter, 794-796.

particulars of his execution ; the butcher's bill, 797-809. Theft

of his heart, for Lady Napier, who causes it to be embalmed, and sends it
in a gold box to his son, the 2d Marquis, in Flanders, 810-814. Sequel
to the story of his heart, 816, 819-825. Epitaph, 817, 818.

particulars of the public funeral decreed to his remains, at the Re-
storation, 825-837.

the humanity of his character and conduct as a victorious General

proved, and contrasted with the proofs of the inhumanity, and barbarous
conduct of those who calumniated him as a " bloody murderer," 581-604.

his poetry ; critical examination and authentication of, 6.0, 377,

464, 693, 796, Appendix, vol. i. pp. xxvii.-xliv.

INDEX. 895

Montrose, his portraits, critical examination and authentication of. — See

Portraits.
James, 2d Marquis. See Graham.

Marchioness of. — See Carneyie.

Old, the place of, 16, 63, 64, 89, 340.

Moray, Earl of, scene with Montrose as a prisoner, in front of his house in
the Canongate, 779, note, 781.

Morpetli, castle of, taken by Montrose, 399-402.

Morrice- dancers, violers, minstrels, and jugglers, patronized by Montrose in
his youth, 52, 69.

Morton, William, 7th Earl of, High Treasurer of Scotland ; curious detec-
tion of him in a gross fraud and forgery against the King, along with the
Earl of Monteith, 112, 113, 114, 115. Named Chancellor by the King at
the settlement of Scotland in 1641 ; the appointment violently opposed,
and frustrated by his son-in-law Argyle, 370. His death in Orkney, 724,
note.

Robert, 8th Earl of, induced by his nephew Kinnoul to join Mon-
trose in his last effort for the monarchy, 724, note. His sudden death
in Orkney, at this crisis, a few months after the death of his father, and
a few days before that of his nephew Kinnoul, 726, 727, and notes.

William, 9th Earl of, one of the fourteen Earls appointed to carry

the remains of Montrose at his public funeral, 834.

Muydock, Montrose's castle of, 8, 16.

Muirtou-n, Montrose a prisoner there, calls for a draught of water, being

" in the first crisis of a high fever," 774.
Murray, William, brother to the Earl of Tullibardine, taken prisoner at

Philiphaugh ; his cruel execution and heroic conduct, 589, 597, 598.
William (1st Earl of Dysart), son of the minister of Dysart in Fife,

and Groom of the Bed-chamber to Charles I. ; a traitor to his master, a

creature of Hamilton's, and a secret agent of the Kirk, 136, 272, note, 372,

373, 695, Appendix, vol. i. pp. Ixii-lxvii, and notes.
the Rev. Robert, minister of Methven in Perth, uncle to William

Murray of the bed-chamber, a clerical agitator for the Covenant, and an

instrument in persuading Montrose to join the agitation, 136, 262, 263,

264, note, 298-302.

Napier, of Merchiston, the inventor of Logarithms, strange idea of Mr Mac-
aulay's about his dwelling and his food, corrected, 39-42.

Archibald, 1st Lord, Montrose's brother-in-law, guardian, and coun-
sellor, 11-14, 25. Adopts into his family Montrose's sister Lady Dorothea ;
her marriage from thence, 35, 36. His manuscripts illustrative of the poli-
tical state of Scotland at the commencement of the reign of Charles the
First, 102-104. Traces the rise of the Troubles in Scotland from the dis-
honesty and deceptive proceedings and counsels of those Scotchmen of the
greatest trust and credit about the young King in regard to the affairs of
Scotland, 105, 106. Particular examples afforded by him; details of his

896 INDEX.

conversations with the King, in reference to the false arid factious pro-
ceedings of Scottish counsellors scrambling for place and power, 106-111,
116, 117. An extraordinary plot of falsehood and forgery perpetrated by
the Earl of Monteith, President of the Council and Lord Justice-General,
the Earl of Morton, Lord High Treasurer, and Sir George Hay (1st Earl
of Kinnoul), Lord Chancellor, detected by Lord Napier, and exposed by
him at the Council-Board, 112-115. His opinion as to the policy of the
King in the revocation of Tithes, 118. Heylin's history of the same, in
his Life of Laud, derived from conversations with Lord Napier, 95, note,
119. Deputed by the King to act as Commissioner at the Scotch Par-
liament in 1 640, in the absence and upon the order of the Commissioner
- Traquair ; refuses to take the throne to prorogue Parliament, except in
precise terms of his commission, 233, 234. His narrative of the precise
nature and object of his conservative plot with Montrose, Keir, and Black-
hall, 295-297, note. Joins Montrose in writing a letter of advice to the
King about the settlement of Scotland, 314. Arrested, and sent as a
state prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh, along with Montrose, Keir, and
Blackball, by the Argyle government, 325. His own account of his exa-
mination by a Committee of the Estates, and of their urgent desire that he
would accept of an acquittal from them upon dishonourable terms, 333,
836, note. His account of the scene in the Parliament of Scotland after
the arrival of the King in 1641, when ordered before Parliament, and made
to stand upon u the stage appointed for delinquents ;" his speech upon
that occasion ; affecting incident of the King's recognition of him, 353,
355. Deprived by the Argyle government of his seat at the Council
Board, which he had filled for twenty-six years, 12, 270, 271. His release
from prison without a trial ; his remonstrance against the tyrannical in-
justice of the proceedings, 367, 368. Accompanies Montrose in his con-
ference with the Moderator of the Kirk on the banks of the Forth near
Keir, 381. Ordered by the Committee of Estates to confine himself and
his family as state prisoners in his own house, within the precincts of Holy-
roodhouse, under heavy penalties ; incurs the penalty by the escape of his
son the Master to join his uncle Montrose, 499, 500, 510. His affecting
letter of complaint to Lord Balmerino, on the subject of the tyrannical
proceedings against him ; his anxiety for his family and his oppressed
tenants, 507, 508. Again confined in the Castle of Edinburgh, and sepa-
rated from his family, 512. Removed to the Castle of Blackness ; released
by his son the Master, under the orders of Montrose, after the battle of
Kilsyth, 560, note, 561. Escapes with Montrose from the field of Philip-
haugh, 578. Reaches Fincastle on the Garry, where he dies, and is buried
by Montrose in the Kirk of Blair, 615, 616. His character by Wishart ;
Montrose's love for him, 14. Montrose's " Remonstrance," or justification
of his whole proceedings to the country recently discovered in Lord Napier's
handwriting, Appendix, vol. i. pp. xliv-liii. Note in his handwriting of
prisoners taken at the battle of Kilsyth, 551, note. His bones threatened
by the Argyle government to extort money, 615, note.

INDEX. 897

Napier, Archibald, 2d Lord (as Master of Napier), married at the age of
seventeen to Lady Elizabeth Erskine, 499. Breaks away from the con-
finement ordered by the Committee of Estates, and joins his uncle Mon-
trose, 499, 508, 509, note, 510, 511. Signally distinguished at the battle
of Auldearn, 508. Commands the reserve of Montrose's army at the battle
of Alford, 527, 528. Commands the cavalry under the orders of Montrose
to take in Linlithgow and Edinburgh after the battle of Kilsyth ; releases
his father, his wife, his sisters, his brother-in-law, and other friends, from
the various prisons into which they had been cast by the Argyle govern-
ment, 558, 559, 560, 561, 562. Escapes with Montrose from the field of
Philiphaugh, 578. (As Lord Napier), fortifies Montrose's castle of Kin-
cardine, and defends it with a garrison of fifty men against the army of
General Middleton for fourteen days ; his adventurous escape with Drum-
mond of Balloch, when the garrison were reduced to extremity, 629, 630.
Included in Middleton's capitulation with Montrose when ordered by the
King to disband his army ; his loyal letter to Charles the First upon that oc-
casion ; restrictions by the Committee of Estates upon his conversing with
Montrose abroad, 644, 645, 646. Interesting letter from him to Lady
Napier, giving an account of Montrose's estimation and proceedings abroad,
665-670. With Montrose at Brussels, 675. At the Hague, 695. The
Queen of Bohemia's affectionate notice of him in a letter to Montrose, 717.
Placed at Hamburgh by Montrose to superintend the negotiations there,
723. Letter to him from Montrose's chaplain, Wishart, 730, 732. Ap-
plies to Charles the Second for leave to join Montrose in the descent upon
Scotland ; the King's letter to him in reply ; remains abroad in conse-
quence of the sudden destruction of his uncle, 756. Notices of his subse-
quent condition in exile, and his death, 809, 810, note, 815.

Archibald, 3d Lord Napier, assists in taking down the head of his

granduncle Montrose from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh ; attends his public
funeral, 828, note, 834.

Francis, 5th Lord Napier, recovers the heart of Montrose, 816, note,

819.

Francis, 9th Lord Napier, his historical Essay on Montrose, 710, 711,

note, Appendix, vol. i. xix.

Robert, of Bowhopple, Culcreuch, and Drurnquhannie, brother of

Archibald, 1st Lord Napier; a puritanical covenanter ; earnestly endea-
vours to persuade his nephew Lord Napier to forsake Montrose, 509, note,
644, 645.

John, of Easter-Torrie, brother of Archibald, 1st Lord Napier, seized

with papers for Montrose ; anxiety to effect the exchange of a prisoner for
him, and to save his life, 515, 516, note.

Lady, wife of 1st Lord. — See Graham.

Lady, wife of 2d Lord.— See Erskine.

Margaret, Lady Stirling of Keir, eldest daughter of 1st Lord, her

devotion to her uncle Montrose ; sends a u well known token to him,"
396, note. Imprisoned on account of her brother's escape to join Mon-

57

898 INDEX.

trose ; called before a Committee of Estates to answer for keeping intelli-
gence and correspondence with Montrose ; her examination and declara-
. tion, 509, 510. Harshly treated as a state prisoner, 511, 512, 559. Re-
leased by her brother after the battle of Kilsyth, 560. With her father
Lord Napier in the north at the time of his death ; ordered home by the
Committee of Estates, 616. In exile in Holland, 647, 810.

Napier, Lilias, youngest daughter of 1st Lord, cruel treatment of her by the
Argyle government, for her adherence to, and correspondence with her uncle
Montrose, 509, note, 512, 515, 646. Affecting letter from her to her
brother-in-law Keir, 647. In exile in Holland, 810, note.

Hester, daughter of Francis, 5th Lord, obtains from her father the

embalmed heart of Montrose, inclosed in a steel case and gold box ; strange
adventures of the relic, narrated in a letter by her son, Sir Alexander
Johnston, 819-825.

Nevoy, Rev. Mr John, one of Argyle's cardinals ; his red stockings, 603, note.

Newcastle, Marquis of, fails to aid Montrose, or to be of any service to the
King ; a mere tapestry commander ; declared by Montrose to be " slow ;"
loses the battle of Marston-moor, and exit, 390, note, 391, 392, 394, 395,
402, 403.

town of, taken by the Covenanters ; treatment of the noble de-
fenders, 410, 411.

Nisbet, Sir Philip, captured at Philiphaugh ; executed, 589.

Captain Thomas, brings dispatches from the King to Montrose, 612.

Sent by Montrose to Huntly, 617.

Nitlisdale, Robert, 1st Earl of, one of the witnesses against Hamilton at the
English Court of Inquiry, 383. Joins Montrose in his first adventure
against the Solemn League and Covenant, 389, 394. Complained of to
the King by Montrose, 407, note.

Robert, 2d Earl of, letter to him from Sir William Compton, 845,

846.— See Maxwell.

Norway, Montrose constrained to make his escape in disguise to, notwith-
standing the capitulation, 643, 656.

Nugent, Lord, his Life of Hampden, contains a slavish adoption, without
knowledge or investigation, of the most outrageous calumnies against Mon-
trose, 362, note, Appendix to vol. i. p. Ix, note.

Ogilvy, James, Lord, his untoward courtship (when Master of Airlie) of
Montrose's future bride, 66. How dealt with by Montrose for the rendering
the castle of Airlie to the covenanting government, 243, 244, 245. Mon-
trose's companion in his first attempts to save the Monarchy, 375, 381,
383, 389, 394. Taken prisoner when carrying dispatches from Montrose
to the King, 405-411. His sufferings in prison, 556, 557. Released by
the Master of Napier after the battle of Kilsyth ; rejoins Montrose, 559.
Orders to him from Montrose, 566. His letter of remonstrance to reclaim
Aboyne, 567. Taken prisoner at Philiphaugh, 589. His narrow escape
from the shambles of the Covenant, 590, 593, 596, 597. A thousand

INDEX. 899

pounds ski-liny ottered by the Argyle government for his apprehension,
u dead or alive," 623, note. Included in Montrose's capitulation with
Middleton by desire of the King, 636, 640.

Ogilmj, Sir Thomas, second son of 1st Earl of Airlie, joins Montrose, 448.
At the battle of Aberdeen, 454, 457. Killed at the battle of Inverlochy ;
Montrose's character of him, 486, note.

— Sir David, third son of 1st Earl of Airlie, joins Montrose, 448. At
the battle of Aberdeen, 454, 457. At the battle of Kilsyth, 536, 542, 545.
At Montrose's public funeral, 834.

Sir John, first Baronet of Innerquharity, significant letter to him

from Argyle, 246, note.

Alexander of Innerquharity, eldest son of the first Baronet, joins

Montrose from College, 454. Severely wounded at the battle of Aber-
deen, 457, note. Rejoins Montrose when cured ; at the battle of Kilsyth,
536, 545. Taken prisoner at Philiphaugh, and sacrificed on the shambles
of the covenant, 589, note.

of Banff (1st Lord Banff), one of the loyal Barons of the north, 166,

167, 197, 198, 201, 556.

of Powrie, Colonel Thomas, released from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh

after the battle of Kilsyth, 562. Carries dispatches from the King to Mon-
trose, 612. His mission from Montrose to Huntly, 617. His letter to
Montrose from Orkney, 735. Killed at Corbiesdale by the side of Mon-
trose, 745.

Helen, Lady, inhuman treatment of her by Argyle at Forthar, 247.

Her pathetic petition in behalf of Lord Ogilvy, a prisoner, 557. Assists in
affecting his escape from the Tolbooth on the night before the day appoint-
ecWor his execution, 597.

Sir John, of Craig, his house destroyed by Argyle ; cruel conduct

and murderous aphorisms of Argyle upon that occasion, 248.

Sir Patrick, of Inchmartin, 258, 275.

of Milton, killed at the battle of Alford, 530.

O'Kyan, Colonel, a distinguished leader of the Irish under Montrose, his ex-
ploit at Fyvie ; his cruel execution, 466, 588.

Oldmixon, a " vile writer," his History of the Stuarts ; his slovenly calumny
against Montrose, 359, Appendix to vol. i. pp. Ivi. Ivii.

Orange, Prince of, brother-in-law to Charles II., his support of the cove-
nanting Commissioners at the Hague, referred to by the Queen of Bohemia
in a letter to Montrose, 711, 721. Referred to by Baillie's correspondent,
Spang, 712, note.

Princess of, referred to by the Queen of Bohemia, as being in the in-
terests of Montrose, 718, 720.

Order of the Garter, sent by Charles II. to Montrose ; its fate, 753, 754, note.

Orkney, dispatches from, to Montrose, 724, note, 735. Sudden death tlu-iv
of Montrose's chief supports at this crisis, the Earls of Morton and Kin-
noul, within a few days of each other, 726, 727,. and notes. Disastrous
expedition there of the 4th Earl of Kinnoul, 741. Montrose urged to

•()00 INDEX.

land there, and hurried to his ruin, 725, 729, 736. He lands there, and
hastens from thence to the mainland, 742, 743.

Qrmond, Marquis of, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, report to him of the pro-
ceedings of Montrose, and the battle of Tipperruuir, from an eye-witness,
429. Report to him of the proceedings of Montrose before his last expe-
dition to Scotland, and of the feeling of the people towards him, 728, 729.

Parliament, Scots, its servile submission to the Kirk, 221, 253, 337, 338, 370,

447, note, 593, 595, 596. Exhibition of it in a different humour, 825-

837.
Peers of Scotland, counsellors of Charles the First, their dishonest factions

ruinous to the King from the commencement of his reign, 102, 103, 105,

106-117.
. - their degraded state under the regime of Argyle, 270, note, 273, 278,

340, 370, 379, 395, 400, 401, 426, 451, 467,474, 489, 492, 494, 513, 546,

554, 559, 570, 579, 580, 796.

- the professedly loyal ruin the King from their jealousy of the elevation
of Montrose, 388, 389, 402, 407, 567, 572, 610, 617, 618, 620, 622, 627,
648.

Perth, Earl of, 259.— See Drumtnond.

-- town of, taken by Montrose ; his humane conduct there, 426-444.

Peterborough, Lord, 846.

Pitcurr, baron of, at Montrose's public funeral, 834.

Pitsligo, the Lady of, her zealous reception of the covenanting Montrose at

Aberdeen, 149.

Pluscardin, Mackenzie of, 716, 744, 775*
Plutarch, Montrose's early study of, 60, 61.
Poetry, Montrose's tendency to express his most agitated feelings in, 372,

464, 692, 693, 796. Verses written by him on his copies of the classic

authors, 37, 60. — See also Appendix, vol. i. pp. xxvii-xliv.
Porter, Endymion, 391, note, 409.
Portraits and prints of Montrose, critically examined, authenticated, and re-

deemed from the blunder of Houbraken, Appendix, vol. i. pp. i-xxii.
-- of some of Montrose's family circle, Appendix, vol. i. pp. xxii-xxv.

- -- of the Marquis of Argyle, Appendix, vol. i. p. xxiv.
Power, Sovereign, Montrose's doctrine of, 280-289, 291, 312.

- Churchmen's in state affairs, Montrose strongly and continually op-
posed to, 126, 162, 163, 787, Appendix, vol. i. p. xlv, xlvi, xlvii, xlix.

Protection, to Drummond of Hawthornden, from Montrose, 564, 565. To
the town of Edinburgh, 563. To the town of Glasgow, 552, 553. To the
town of Perth, 436.

- Montrose's book of, 601 .

granted to captives in battle, cruel breach of, by the covenanting
commanders and the Argyle government, 584, 585, 586, 587, 588, 591,
592, 596. Never broken by Montrose, 463, 485, 581, 582, 606, 611, 705.

INDEX. 901

Queen of England, Henrietta Maria, her lodgings on the quay at Burlin«Hon
bombarded by Admiral Batten, and herself driven into the fields, 375.
Montrose's first and fruitless interview with her : the counsels of Hamilton
preferred, 375-378. Writes to Montrose still bespeaking his counsel and
loyal aid, 380. Montrose referred to her instructions by the King when
in the hands of the covenanters, 656. Montrose's energetic counsel and
proposals to her coolly received and disregarded, owing to her devotion to
Jermyn, 654, 655, 656, note, 657, 658. Montrose's fruitless interview with
her in Paris, 659, 660, 661, note, 662, 664. A foul scandal of Burnet's
respecting the Queen and Montrose, refuted by her own letters to him. —
See Burnet. Her letter to Montrose after the murder of the King, 694.

of Bohemia, Elizabeth Stuart, called " the Queen of Hearts," her

interesting correspondence with and strong affection for Montrose, 708-
722.

of Sweden, Christina, aids Montrose in his last expedition to Scot-
land, 719, 723, 728.

Raleigh, Sir Walter, his History of the World, the earliest study of Mon-
trose, 21, 22, 23. Coincidence between his verses written on his own
death and those by Montrose, Appendix, vol. i. p. xxx.

Remonstrance of the Kirk to the Parliament, against showing mercy to pri-
soners of war, 593.

of Montrose to his country, written after the battle of Kilsyth,

in defence of his whole proceedings, Appendix, vol. i. pp. xliv-liii.

Rhenen, the Queen of Bohemia's palace on the Rhine, Montrose invited to
join her in archery there with Lord Kinnoul, 714, 715, 717, 723.

Robertson, the clan join Montrose in Athole, 420.

Donald, tutor of Strowan, graphic description of him in Perth,

438, note. Letter from Montrose to him, 636.

Rev. John of Perth, his lamentations over the battle of Tipper-

muir, 432, 433, 445.

of Inver. — See Inver.

Robisone, Allan, the hangman who officiated at the execution of Montrose,
779, 780, 781, 798, 803, 809.

Rollo, Sir Andrew, of Duncruib, 1st Lord Rollo, 35.

Sir James, married first to Montrose's sister, Lady Dorothea Graham,

35, 36. Married second to Lady Mary Campbell, the sister of Argyle,
of whom he becomes an adherent and emissary, 381, 382. With Argyle
in his boat during the battle of Inverlochy, 481.

Sir William, the faithful adherent of Montrose, 413. Sent by Mon-
trose with dispatches to the King after the battle of Aberdeen, 458, 484.
Falls into the hands of Argyle, who labours to engage him to assassinate
Montrose, 459, note. Taken prisoner at Philiphaugh and sacrificed on the
shambles of the Covenant, 589, note.

Rupert, his summons to Montrose before the battle of Marston-moor, 402.
Renders no assistance to Montrose, but deprives him of his troops, 409.

902 INDEX.

Correspondence between, and Montrose, 676-683. Referred to in his
mother the Queen of Bohemia's letters to Montrose, 712, 713, 718, 719,
720, 721. Called " Robert le Diable," 720. Falls under the displeasure
- of the King his uncle, 574, 613.

Saint Andrews, Archbishop of, visited by Montrose from College, 56.

College, Montrose educated there. — See Montrose.

Parliament meets there ; triumph of faction and fanaticism over

justice and mercy, 592-599.

Saintserf, Thomas, son of the Bishop of Galloway, his account of Montrose
on his travels in his youth ; his description of Montrose's personal appear-
ance, 91, 92, note, 837. His devotion to himL516. His character of him,
34, 35, note, 562, 563.

Sandilands, Sir James, of Calder, 4, 5.

Scone Abbey, Montrose with a party of conservative friends there ; watched
by some of the covenanting ministers, 298, 299, 300. Charles II. crowned
there by Argyle, 845.

Seafortli, George, 2d Earl of, signs Montrose's conservative bond at Cum-
bernauld, 270. Falls off from his loyalty, and commands the covenanting
forces in the north against Montrose, 476, 477. Declines facing Montrose
after the battle of Inverlochy, 491. Comes into Montrose at Elgin, sub-
mits to his authority, and signs the Kilcummin bond in support of the
monarchy ; allowed to depart by Montrose, 492. Again falls off from his
loyalty, breaks his bond, and joins forces with Sir John Hurry against Mon-
trose, 500, 501. Defeated at the battle of Auldearn, and narrowly escapes,
505. Equivocal condition of his returning loyalty speculated upon by
Montrose, 620, 621, note, 622, 623, 624, 630, 636, note. At the Hague
after the murder of Charles I., forming a " faction apart" with Callendar,'
695. Probably referred to by the Queen of Bohemia in her correspondence
with Montrose, as " my Highlander," 713, note. At length joins Mon-
trose in loyalty, but not in peril ; Montrose compliments and encourages
him, 716. Urges Montrose upon his fate, which he neither exerts himself
to avert, nor proposes to share. Montrose continues to encourage and
compliment him to the last in vain, 732, 733, 734. His sobriquet, Appen-
dix, vol. i. p. Ixxx.
Seton of Pitmedden, a loyal northern baron, 197. His death at the battle of

the bridge of Dee, 211.
Sirnson, the Rev. Patrick, his account of the besetting of Montrose in prison

by the cruel zealots of the Covenant, 785-789.

Sinclair, John, 6th Lord, a college companion of Montrose, 49, 50. Exe-
cutes a disreputable commission for the Argyle government, of which he
lives to be ashamed, 339, 340. Would be loyal if he dared, 396, note, 397.
Decidedly loyal after the murder of the King, and when of no use, 695.
Does not join Montrose in his last expedition, but lives to support the pall
at his public funeral, thereby proving his unquestionable loyalty at the
Restoration, 834.

INDEX. 903

Small, James, of Fotherance, a messenger from the King to Montrose, cruelly
executed by the Argyle government, 517, 518.

Southesk, David Carnegie, 1st Earl of, Montrose's father-in-law, 65, 66. En-
gages to maintain the young couple with himself in Kinnaird Castle for the
first three years of their marriage, 70, 71. Violent political contest be-
tween Southesk and Montrose in the General Assembly of 1638, which
" grew so hot that it terrified the whole Assembly," 155. Opposed as a
feeble loyalist to Montrose when an energetic covenanter, 164, 165. Bows
to the storm, and becomes subservient to the Argyle government, 512, 513,
775.

SpottiswooJe, Sir Robert, President of the Court of Session, and second son
of the Archbishop of St Andrews, 56. Letter to him from John Macbrayre,
reporting the progress of Montrose's first expedition as Commander-in-
Chief for the King in Scotland, 389, 390. Letter to him from Montrose
upon the same occasion, 390, 391. Arrives at the camp of Montrose after
the battle of Kilsyth, bearing a commission to him as Governor of Scot-
land, 565. His letter of remonstrance to Lord Digby, detailing the diffi-
culties with which Montrose was contending, 572, 573. Taken prisoner
at Philiphaugh, on quarter asked and given ; brought as a prisoner before
the Earl of Lanerick (2d Duke of Hamilton), who seems to ratify the
same ; his scriptural argument against the perversion of scripture on which
he was condemned to die, 591, 592. The inhumane and blasphemous cry
for his blood from the Assembly of the Kirk, under the leadership of John-
ston of Warriston, 592, 593-596. His last letter to Montrose ; his death,
598, 599.

younger of Darsy, brought to Edinburgh along with Montrose

for execution, 779, note, 799, note.

three sons of Sir Robert, a bequest to them by Master William

Forrett, Montrose's first pedagogne, 809, note.

Standard, royal, the raising of it by Montrose on the Truidh of Athole, 420.

Stewart, Sir Archibald, of Blackball and Ardgowan, a Lord of Council and
Session, one of Montrose's family party of conservative plotters, 295, 317,
333, 336. Sent as a state prisoner to the Castle by the Argyle govern-
ment, 325. Appears on " the stage appointed for delinquents," before the
King and Parliament, 352, 354. Remonstrates against the injustice of the
proceedings, 367.

Sir Thomas, of Grandtully, 258, 260, note.

John, younger of Ladywell, Commissary of Dunkeld, the first sacri-
fice on the shambles of the Covenant ; history of his fate, 258, 260, note,
275, 303, 304, 306-309, 325-330.

Lieutenant-Colonel Walter, history of his connexion with Montrose's

family party of conservative plotters ; his character and perjuries, 260, note,
266, 267, 296, 297, 307-309, 317, 318, 320, 321, 322, note, 324, 335, 364,
365, 366.

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry, mentioned by Montrose in his last orders,

742.

904 INDEX.

Stewart, James, the assassin of Lord Kilpont. — See Ardvoirlich.

Stirling, Sir James, of Keir, 1 1 .

• — Sir George of Keir, one of Montrose's family party of conservative

plotters, 295, 307, 317, 319, 320, 321. Sent as a state prisoner to the
Castle, 325, 336. Appears on " the stage appointed for delinquents" be-
fore the King and Parliament, 353, 354, 357. Indignant remonstrance at
the injustice of the proceedings, 367 368. Again imprisoned on account
of the escape of the Master of Napier to join Montrose, 509, 511. Re-
leased by the Master of Napier after the battle of Kilsyth, 560, note.
Again imprisoned after Montrose's disaster at Philiphaugh ; ordained to
" bring his wife from the rebels, in whose company she now is, unto St
Andrews," 616, note. Allowed to retire to Holland; Montrose's affec-
tionate letter to him there, 661, 662, 810.

Lady of Keir. — See Napier.

Younger of Keir, son of Sir George, mentioned by Spalding, pro-
bably a mistake, 499, 810.

Stormont, David Murray, 1st Viscount, his contribution of game at the
funeral of Montrose's father, 26.

Mungo, 2d Viscount, signs Montrose's conservative bond at Cuni-

bernauld, 270. Montrose visits him at Scone, 298.

David, 3d Viscount, supports the pall at Montrose's public funeral,

834.

Sutherland, John, 13th Earl of, entered at the College of St Andrews the
same day with Montrose ; one of his companions there, 43, 49. Upon a
different footing with him in after life, 332. The chief instrument of Mon-
trose's ruin upon the occasion of his defeat and capture in Sutherland, 740,
744, 745.

Traquair, John Stewart, 1st Earl of, 110. Commissioner to the General Assem-
bly of 1639 ; his proceedings there not satisfactory to the King, 221, 223,
225,227. Violent denunciation of him by Rothes, 231. Falsely accused of
plotting with Montrose against the State, 308, 314. His own defence
against the accusation, 317, 318, 323, 324, 335. His loyalty falls into
abeyance, 388, 404. Montrose complains of him to the King, 407. His
disgraceful desertion of the royal cause 'on the eve of the disaster at Philip-
haugh, 572, 576, note, 579. His abject submission to the Covenant, 580,
note.

Tullibardine, James Murray, 4th Earl of, commands under Elcho for the
covenant at the battle of Tippermuir ; defeated by Montrose, 427, 429,
431. One of the joint-stock commanders under Argyle at the battle of
Kilsyth ; again defeated by Montrose, 539, 546. Sacrifices his only brother
and heir on the shambles of the Covenant for his loyalty, 590, 597, 598.
Proves his own unquestionable loyalty at the Restoration, by being one of
the fourteen Earls who carried the remains of Montrose at his public
funeral, 834.

INDEX. 905

Udny of Udny, a loyal northern baron, 197.
Urquharts of Cromarty, Crombie, and Craigston, 197, 631, note.
Uxbridge, treaty of, not broken off by the King in consequence of the suc-
cess of Montrose, 488, note.

Vandyke, portraits of Montrose erroneously attributed to him. — See Portraita.

Veracity, the total disregard of, on the part of the Scots nobility, and others
counselling Charles the First in the affairs of Scotland, ruinous to him
throughout his reign, 96-98, note, 99, 102, 105, 107, 108, 111, 115, 11 G.
191, 193, 194, 322, note, 373, 374, note, 383, 763, 765.

Warlurton, Eliot, his " Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers," 677,
note.

Weem Castle (Castle Menzies), and laird thereof, 427, 428, 472.

Weldon, Colonel, 398, 400, 806.

Wigton, John, 2d Earl of, one of Montrose's curators, 25, 26. Montrose's
conservative bond subscribed at his house of Cumbernauld, 270, note. — See
Fleming.

original papers edited by Mr Dennistoun for the Maitland Club,

758, note, 780, note.

Wishart, Dr George (Bishop of Edinburgh), originally one of the ministers
of St Andrews ; Montrose's early acquaintance with him there, 70. Taken
prisoner in Newcastle, and consigned by the Argyle government to a squa-
lid incarceration in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, 410. Released in conse-
quence of the submission of Edinburgh after the battle of Kilsyth, 562.
Escapes to Norway with Montrose, after the capitulation with Middleton,
642, 643. Becomes chaplain to a Scotch regiment in the service of Hol-
land ; his letter tov Lord Napier, 730-732. His Commentarius on the
public life and military achievements of Montrose, accused of want of ve-
racity by Malcolm Laing founding upon blunders of his own ; the false
estimate of Wishart's great and truthful work rashly and vaguely adopted
by Lord Mahon, 533, note, 537, note, 585, note, 586, 587, 588, note. No-
tice of him in exile, after the death of Montrose, in family with Lord Na-
pier and his sisters, and acting as minister of the Scots congregation at
Shiedain in Holland, 810, note. His tomb in Holyrood, as Bishop of Edin-
burgh ; reference to his classic Commentarius inscribed thereon, 70.

Wynram of Liberton, a zealous covenanting commissioner ; humourous refe-
rences to him by the Queen of Bohemia, in her letters to Montrose, 720,
note, 721.

Xcnophon, his History in Latin, an early study of Montrose's, 22, 60.
York, James Duke of, 718. His letters to Montrose, 676, 706, 707, 754.

58

906

ADDENDA.

[Since the preceding sheets went to press, the following original document, under
Montrose's hand, has been discovered among the Southesk Papers, in addition to the
promissory-note of the same date, already referred to, vol. i. p. 71. It seems worthy of
being added to his biography, as a coincidence of his affection for the locality of his
earliest tuition, although his College life was at St Andrews and not at Glasgow] : —

John Graham, Chamberlain of our Barony of Mugdoc, you shall
give and deliver to the Moderators of the College of Glasgow, the sum
of four hundred merks Scots money, which we out of favour have
gifted to the help of the new fabrick of the said College, and the same
shall be allowed to you in the account of our rent for the Martinmas
term 1632, upon sight of these presents, and ticket of their receipt
thereof: These subscribed at Edinburgh, 19th October 1632.

MONTBOIB.

MACPHEESON Si SYMB, Printers, 12 St David Street Edinburgh.

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

DA Napier, Mark

803 Memoirs of the Marquis of

.7 Mont rose

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