A Legend of Montrose Page 3

  CHAPTER I.

  Such as do build their faith upon The holy text of pike and gun, Decide all controversies by Infallible artillery, And prove their doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks.--BUTLER.

  It was during the period of that great and bloody Civil War whichagitated Britain during the seventeenth century, that our tale has itscommencement. Scotland had as yet remained free from the ravages ofintestine war, although its inhabitants were much divided in politicalopinions; and many of them, tired of the control of the Estates ofParliament, and disapproving of the bold measure which they hadadopted, by sending into England a large army to the assistance ofthe Parliament, were determined on their part to embrace the earliestopportunity of declaring for the King, and making such a diversionas should at least compel the recall of General Leslie's army out ofEngland, if it did not recover a great part of Scotland to the King'sallegiance. This plan was chiefly adopted by the northern nobility, whohad resisted with great obstinacy the adoption of the Solemn League andCovenant, and by many of the chiefs of the Highland clans, who conceivedtheir interest and authority to be connected with royalty, who had,besides, a decided aversion to the Presbyterian form of religion, andwho, finally, were in that half savage state of society, in which war isalways more welcome than peace.

  Great commotions were generally expected to arise from these concurrentcauses; and the trade of incursion and depredation, which the ScotchHighlanders at all times exercised upon the Lowlands, began to assume amore steady, avowed, and systematic form, as part of a general militarysystem.

  Those at the head of affairs were not insensible to the peril of themoment, and anxiously made preparations to meet and to repel it. Theyconsidered, however, with satisfaction, that no leader or name ofconsequence had as yet appeared to assemble an army of royalists,or even to direct the efforts of those desultory bands, whom love ofplunder, perhaps, as much as political principle, had hurried intomeasures of hostility. It was generally hoped that the quartering asufficient number of troops in the Lowlands adjacent to the Highlandline, would have the effect of restraining the mountain chieftains;while the power of various barons in the north, who had espoused theCovenant, as, for example, the Earl Mareschal, the great families ofForbes, Leslie, and Irvine, the Grants, and other Presbyterian clans,might counterbalance and bridle, not only the strength of the Ogilviesand other cavaliers of Angus and Kincardine, but even the potent familyof the Gordons, whose extensive authority was only equalled by theirextreme dislike to the Presbyterian model.

  In the West Highlands the ruling party numbered many enemies; but thepower of these disaffected clans was supposed to be broken, and thespirit of their chieftains intimidated, by the predominating influenceof the Marquis of Argyle, upon whom the confidence of the Conventionof Estates was reposed with the utmost security; and whose power inthe Highlands, already exorbitant, had been still farther increasedby concessions extorted from the King at the last pacification. It wasindeed well known that Argyle was a man rather of political enterprisethan personal courage, and better calculated to manage an intrigueof state, than to control the tribes of hostile mountaineers; yet thenumbers of his clan, and the spirit of the gallant gentlemen by whom itwas led, might, it was supposed, atone for the personal deficiencies oftheir chief; and as the Campbells had already severely humbled severalof the neighbouring tribes, it was supposed these would not readilyagain provoke an encounter with a body so powerful.

  Thus having at their command the whole west and south of Scotland,indisputably the richest part of the kingdom,--Fifeshire being in apeculiar manner their own, and possessing many and powerful friends evennorth of the Forth and Tay,--the Scottish Convention of Estates saw nodanger sufficient to induce them to alter the line of policy they hadadopted, or to recall from the assistance of their brethren of theEnglish Parliament that auxiliary army of twenty thousand men, by meansof which accession of strength, the King's party had been reduced to thedefensive, when in full career of triumph and success.

  The causes which moved the Convention of Estates at this time to takesuch an immediate and active interest in the civil war of England, aredetailed in our historians, but may be here shortly recapitulated. Theyhad indeed no new injury or aggression to complain of at the hand of theKing, and the peace which had been made between Charles and his subjectsof Scotland had been carefully observed; but the Scottish rulers werewell aware that this peace had been extorted from the King, as well bythe influence of the parliamentary party in England, as by the terrorof their own arms. It is true, King Charles had since then visited thecapital of his ancient kingdom, had assented to the new organization ofthe church, and had distributed honours and rewards among the leaders ofthe party which had shown themselves most hostile to his interests; butit was suspected that distinctions so unwillingly conferred would beresumed as soon as opportunity offered. The low state of the EnglishParliament was seen in Scotland with deep apprehension; and it wasconcluded, that should Charles triumph by force of arms against hisinsurgent subjects of England, he would not be long in exacting from theScotch the vengeance which he might suppose due to those who had setthe example of taking up arms against him. Such was the policy of themeasure which dictated the sending the auxiliary army into England; andit was avowed in a manifesto explanatory of their reasons for givingthis timely and important aid to the English Parliament. The EnglishParliament, they said, had been already friendly to them, and mightbe so again; whereas the King, although he had so lately establishedreligion among them according to their desires, had given them no groundto confide in his royal declaration, seeing they had found his promisesand actions inconsistent with each other. "Our conscience," theyconcluded, "and God, who is greater than our conscience, beareth usrecord, that we aim altogether at the glory of God, peace of bothnations, and honour of the King, in suppressing and punishing in a legalway, those who are the troublers of Israel, the firebrands of hell, theKorahs, the Balaams, the Doegs, the Rabshakehs, the Hamans, the Tobiahs,the Sanballats of our time, which done, we are satisfied. Neitherhave we begun to use a military expedition to England as a mean forcompassing those our pious ends, until all other means which we couldthink upon have failed us: and this alone is left to us, ULTIMUM ETUNICUM REMEDIUM, the last and only remedy."

  Leaving it to casuists to determine whether one contracting party isjustified in breaking a solemn treaty, upon the suspicion that, incertain future contingencies, it might be infringed by the other, weshall proceed to mention two other circumstances that had at least equalinfluence with the Scottish rulers and nation, with any doubts whichthey entertained of the King's good faith.

  The first of these was the nature and condition of their army; headed bya poor and discontented nobility, under whom it was officered chieflyby Scottish soldiers of fortune, who had served in the German wars untilthey had lost almost all distinction of political principle, and evenof country, in the adoption of the mercenary faith, that a soldier'sprincipal duty was fidelity to the state or sovereign from whom hereceived his pay, without respect either to the justice of the quarrel,or to their own connexion with either of the contending parties. To menof this stamp, Grotius applies the severe character--NULLUM VITAE GENUSET IMPROBIUS, QUAM EORUM, QUI SINE CAUSAE RESPECTU MERCEDE CONDUCTI,MILITANT. To these mercenary soldiers, as well as to the needy gentrywith whom they were mixed in command, and who easily imbibed the sameopinions, the success of the late short invasion of England in 1641 wasa sufficient reason for renewing so profitable an experiment. The goodpay and free quarters of England had made a feeling impression upon therecollection of these military adventurers, and the prospect of againlevying eight hundred and fifty pounds a-day, came in place of allarguments, whether of state or of morality.

  Another cause inflamed the minds of the nation at large, no less thanthe tempting prospect of the wealth of England animated the soldiery.So much had been written and said on either side concerning the formof church government, that it had become a matter o
f infinitely moreconsequence in the eyes of the multitude than the doctrines ofthat gospel which both churches had embraced. The Prelatists andPresbyterians of the more violent kind became as illiberal as thePapists, and would scarcely allow the possibility of salvation beyondthe pale of their respective churches. It was in vain remarked tothese zealots, that had the Author of our holy religion considered anypeculiar form of church government as essential to salvation, it wouldhave been revealed with the same precision as under the Old Testamentdispensation. Both parties continued as violent as if they could havepleaded the distinct commands of Heaven to justify their intolerance,Laud, in the days of his domination, had fired the train, by attemptingto impose upon the Scottish people church ceremonies foreign to theirhabits and opinions. The success with which this had been resisted, andthe Presbyterian model substituted in its place, had endeared the latterto the nation, as the cause in which they had triumphed. The SolemnLeague and Covenant, adopted with such zeal by the greater part of thekingdom, and by them forced, at the sword's point, upon the others, borein its bosom, as its principal object, the establishing the doctrine anddiscipline of the Presbyterian church, and the putting down all errorand heresy; and having attained for their own country an establishmentof this golden candlestick, the Scots became liberally and fraternallyanxious to erect the same in England. This they conceived might beeasily attained by lending to the Parliament the effectual assistance ofthe Scottish forces. The Presbyterians, a numerous and powerful party inthe English Parliament, had hitherto taken the lead in opposition to theKing; while the Independents and other sectaries, who afterwards, underCromwell, resumed the power of the sword, and overset the Presbyterianmodel both in Scotland and England, were as yet contented to lurk underthe shelter of the wealthier and more powerful party. The prospectof bringing to a uniformity the kingdoms of England and Scotland indiscipline and worship, seemed therefore as fair as it was desirable.

  The celebrated Sir Henry Vane, one of the commissioners who negotiatedthe alliance betwixt England and Scotland, saw the influence which thisbait had upon the spirits of those with whom he dealt; and althoughhimself a violent Independent, he contrived at once to gratify andto elude the eager desires of the Presbyterians, by qualifying theobligation to reform the Church of England, as a change to be executed"according to the word of God, and the best reformed churches." Deceivedby their own eagerness, themselves entertaining no doubts on the JUSDIVINUM of their own ecclesiastical establishments, and not holdingit possible such doubts could be adopted by others, the Conventionof Estates and the Kirk of Scotland conceived, that such expressionsnecessarily inferred the establishment of Presbytery; nor were theyundeceived, until, when their help was no longer needful, the sectariesgave them to understand, that the phrase might be as well applied toIndependency, or any other mode of worship, which those who were at thehead of affairs at the time might consider as agreeable "to the wordof God, and the practice of the reformed churches." Neither were theoutwitted Scottish less astonished to find, that the designs of theEnglish sectaries struck against the monarchial constitution of Britain,it having been their intention to reduce the power of the King, but byno means to abrogate the office. They fared, however, in this respect,like rash physicians, who commence by over-physicking a patient, untilhe is reduced to a state of weakness, from which cordials are afterwardsunable to recover him.

  But these events were still in the womb of futurity. As yet the ScottishParliament held their engagement with England consistent with justice,prudence, and piety, and their military undertaking seemed to succeed totheir very wish. The junction of the Scottish army with those of Fairfaxand Manchester, enabled the Parliamentary forces to besiege York, and tofight the desperate action of Long-Marston Moor, in which Prince Rupertand the Marquis of Newcastle were defeated. The Scottish auxiliaries,indeed, had less of the glory of this victory than their countrymencould desire. David Leslie, with their cavalry, fought bravely, and tothem, as well as to Cromwell's brigade of Independents, the honour ofthe day belonged; but the old Earl of Leven, the covenanting general,was driven out of the field by the impetuous charge of Prince Rupert,and was thirty miles distant, in full flight towards Scotland, when hewas overtaken by the news that his party had gained a complete victory.

  The absence of these auxiliary troops, upon this crusade for theestablishment of Presbyterianism in England, had considerably diminishedthe power of the Convention of Estates in Scotland, and had given riseto those agitations among the anti-covenanters, which we have noticed atthe beginning of this chapter.