both kingdoms, and of the present invasion of this of England, by those of our nation; and also our judgment of the late pretended Convention, the source and fountain of these treasons and impieties. And we do hereby profess and declare, that we esteem the said pretended Convention to be a presumptuous, illegal, and traitorous meeting, as being designed to excite sedition and rebellion in that kingdom, and a most unjust invasion of this. And as we do utterly disclaim and abhor the same, so do we in like manner all committees, general or particular, flowing from the same, and all acts, ordinances, and decrees made and given therein, and particularly that traitorous and damnable Covenant taken and imposed by the rebels of both kingdoms, which we heartily and unfeignedly detest, and shall never enter into by force, persuasion, or any respect whatsoever, as being a most impious imposition upon men's consciences, to engage them, under false pretence of religion, in treason and rebellion against their Sovereign. And we do further renounce and detest any authority, either of the convention or Parliament, as to the levying of arms, upon any colour whatsoever, without his Majesty's consent. And we do sincerely profess, that we do esteem our countrymen's present taking of arms, and their invading this realm of England, to be an act of high treason and rebellion, and hold ourselves obliged by allegiance, and by the act of pacification, to oppose and withstand the same. Likeas we promise upon our honour, every one of us faithfully to employ our uttermost power and abilities, both with lives and fortunes, to suppress the said rebels now in arms against his Majesty, and his crown of England. In which just cause we do make the like engagement firmly and constantly to adhere to one another, and to all his Ma

jesty's faithful subjects that shall join with us in that endeavour, and in this declaration of our fidelity."

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Such are all the particulars, of Montrose having supplanted Hamilton that can now be gathered. But it was the voice not of Montrose alone, but of the most honourable of the Scottish nobility, that accused the favourite of having brought on the present crisis, by that meanest of political iniquities, selfish doubledealing. And powerfully as the tenacious heart of Charles yet pleaded for his evil genius, the internal conviction, that Hamilton had been " very active in his own preservation," at length so far conquered his affection as to induce him to place his minion, for a time at least, where he could play no double game. At the crisis of the Incident, Hamilton knew well the charges against himself harboured by Montrose and others. All open investigation of such charges he then eschewed, and made common cause with Argyle in smothering the determined voice of constitutional loyalty, by means the most tyrannical and illegal. At this moment, when, in consequence mainly of Hamilton's own policy, the power of administering justice was wrested from the hands of the King, and Scotland was in a state which rendered a judicial trial of his

* Ormonde papers, published by Carte, from the originals. This is obviously Montrose's declaration at Oxford, mentioned by Baillie, and Wishart. The latter says that the two who were most backward to sign it were Traquair and William Murray, and he accuses Traquair throughout of being equally treacherous as Murray to the King, and the royal cause. But Traquair's conduct is susceptible of a much more favourable interpretation than Murray's. The names of both appear at the above declaration, which is also signed by the Earls of Montrose, Kinnoul, Forth, Crawford, Abercorn, and Nithisdale, Lords Ogilvy, Aboyne, and Reay, Sir Robert Spotiswood, Sir Thomas Ogilvy, and a few other gentlemen then at Court.

minister's conduct there totally impracticable, the Duke (according to Baillie and Bishop Burnet) became clamorous for a trial. The King himself, as Burnet admits, felt the utmost anxiety to afford every opportunity for the lost favourite to clear himself. But, says Clarendon, as" in many respects it was not a season to proceed judicially against him, it was thought enough for the present to prevent his doing further mischief, by putting him under a secure restraint; and so he was sent in custody to the castle at Bristol, and from thence to Exeter, and so to the castle at Pendennis in Cornwall, where we shall at the present leave him.”*

* Lanerick fled from his arrest at Oxford, and his conduct tends strongly to confirm the accusations against the brothers. He proceeded instantly to the Parliament of London, and made common cause with the Scotch faction against the King. Baillie writes to Scotland, "Lanerick, the night before he was to be sent to Ludlow Castle, in Wales, came away to Windsor as James Cunningham Robertland's brother's groom. When he comes to Scotland he will tell many tales. Since he came here (London) he has had my chamber and bed." Surely this indicates a good understanding previously betwixt the covenanting faction and the Hamiltons. We learn from Bishop Guthrie the nature of the tales Lanerick told in Scotland. "The Earl of Lanerick being lately come down from the Commissioners at London, appeared, and gave such evidences of his deep sorrow for adhering to the King so long, with such malicious reflections upon his sacred Majesty, that I forbear to express them, as made his conversion to be unfeigned, and so was received to the Covenant, and acted afterwards so vigorously in the cause, that ere long he was preferred to be a ruling elder." Lanerick, be it remembered, is invariably distinguished as honest and loyal compared with the Duke.

CHAPTER IX.

HOW THE KING HONOURED MONTROSE WITH A COMMISSION AND A MARQUISATE, HOW THE KIRK HONOURED HIM WITH EXCOMMUNICATION, AND HOW HE RAISED THE ROYAL STANDARD IN SCOTLAND.

It was in the first month of spring, in the year 1644, that Montrose obtained the royal authority for his devoted adventure against the triumphant career of the Presbyterian dictatorship, eating its way like a cancer to the heart of the monarchy. With a foresight and moderation belying the theories of his thoughtlessness, and boundless ambition, he declined the command in chief, and preferred to place himself under the orders of his Majesty's nephew. Accordingly his commission, dated at Oxford on the 1st day of February 1644, and still preserved in the Montrose charter-chest, bears that he be Lieutenant-General of all his Majesty's forces, raised or to be raised in Scotland, or brought thither from England or elsewhere, that he act under Prince Maurice, who is styled Lieutenant-Governor and CaptainGeneral of Scotland, and receive his orders from the Prince, if present in Scotland, or from his Majesty, but with all the privileges of the commission of Prince Maurice in absence of the latter.

The principal difficulty, which now presented itself to Montrose, was that of reaching in safety the district of Scotland where he hoped to resuscitate and reunite the still existing, though crushed and scattered loyalty of his country. But the King of England was totally unable at this time to bestow upon his most devoted Ge

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neral, in the most vital expedition, even a single regiment or troop, to protect his person across the invaded borders. His commission and his sword were the materials in possession of Montrose, when he pledged himself to do or die. But already had the Earl of Antrim, impelled by the resistless enthusiasm of our hero, and further encouraged by a marquisate from Charles, taken his departure to perform his pledge of descending from the north of Ireland, upon the country of Argyle, with ten thousand of the wild men of Ulster, as early as possible in the month of April. In that month, accordingly, Montrose was on the banks of the Annan in Scotland, with a train of about two hundred horse, including the noblemen and gentlemen of his own party, and with an additional force not exceeding eight hundred foot, and three troops of cavalry, belonging to the militia of the northern counties of England, which he had obtained by his personal entreaties from the Marquis of Newcastle, who with difficulty was prevailed upon to weaken his own forces by affording even this aid to Montrose. But it proved of little avail. Corrupted by Sir Richard Graham, a renegado courtier whose influence prevailed in the north of England, most of the Cumberland and Westmoreland militia very soon left Montrose to his fate, who, under all these disadvantages, contrived to take possession of the town of Dumfries. There, about the middle of April 1644, he endeavoured to raise the royal standard, supported by the Earls of Crawford, Nithisdale, Traquair, Kinnoul, Carnwath, the Lords Aboyne, Ogilvy, Herries, and a few other loyalists of distinction.

Even at this period, when the Covenant, with its monstrous addition of the Solemn League, appeared to be carrying all before it," the grand national move