The Master of Napier, and his cousin young Drummond of Balloch, at this time also made a narrow escape. While the Covenanters held their Parliament at St Andrews, Montrose had sent Drummond and Patrick Graham to recruit in Athol, where these two, with seven hundred Athol-men, 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 in Menteith, upon the lands of Lord Napier, (where Argyle had ordered these troops to be quartered,) and many were drowned in the water of Gudy. Those who escaped fled for protection to Argyle himself, who quartered them upon Lord Napier's lands in the Lennox, when Drummond and Inchbrakie had returned to Montrose in the north. The Dictator then went for a time to Ireland, and Napier, hearing of the destruction of his estates, left Montrose in the north, and, in company with Drummond and the Laird of Macnab, passed into Stratherne. There, with a party of not more than fifty men, he took possession of and fortified Montrose's castle of Kincardine, probably intending to organize some protection for his own and Montrose's estates. General Middleton, who had been sent to keep the north of Scotland against Montrose, learning that his nephew had fortified himself in Kincardine, invested it with his whole forces, and battered the walls with artillery 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 hold out longer, and the doom of Napier and his cousin seemed to have arrived, for unquestionably had they been then taken both would have been executed. But these gallant youths had caught the spirit of adventure from their heroic

leader, and they 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 his cousin 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's host, made their escape, and reached Montrose in safety, 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, General Middleton ordered the remaining twelve, of those who had surrendered, to be instantly shot at a post, and the castle to be burnt. Thus fell Montrose's castle of Kincardine, on the 16th of March 1646. As the Reverend David Dickson remarked,— "the work went bonnily on."*

* Their persecution extended beyond the grave. Archibald Lord Napier, a nobleman for true worth and loyalty inferior to none in the land, having, in the year 1645, died in his Majesty's service at Fincastle in Athol, the Committee resolved to raise his bones, and pass a sentence of forfeiture thereupon." Guthrie adds, that they raised 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."

CHAPTER XVIII.

HOW THE COVENANTERS COMPELLED CHARLES THE FIRST TO DRIVE HIS GOOD GENIUS AWAY.

DURING the bloody transactions narrated in last chapter, Montrose was occupied with his fruitless exertions to conciliate the impracticable Huntly. That nobleman had emerged from his lurking-place in Strathnaver, and, since the disaster at Philiphaugh, spoke in lofty terms of what he, Huntly, would now do for the King. But every motion from his Majesty's representative in Scotland, who was entitled, by virtue of that commission, to command what he invariably entreated as a favour, namely, the active co-operation of Huntly against Leslie and Middleton, was disdainfully rejected by the chief of the Gordons. Montrose, who to the impetuous spirit of a warrior added the temper of a philosopher, ceased not in his endeavours to conciliate this unreasonable rival. He sent to him, as those most likely to obtain a hearing, young Irving of Drum, the son-in-law of Huntly, and Lord Reay, whose house had been the asylum of the petted recluse. Their reception was such that Lord Reay, ashamed to return to Montrose, retired in heartless despair to his own home. But the young Laird of Drum returned to report the failure of the mission, and never forsook him to whom he owed his release from the dreary cell in which his gallant brother had died. Montrose then determined to try the effect of a personal expostulation.

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Taking with him only a few attendants, he rode in the night-time to the Bog of Gight, where he arrived early in the morning, and surprised Huntly (who was a little alarmed, and not a little ashamed, at this apparition,) into a private conference. The gentle courteous forbearance of Montrose's manner, and his eloquent expostulation, seemed to effect what hitherto had been tried in vain. When Montrose rode back to his leaguer, it was in the firm belief that Huntly had banished every shade of jealousy from his mind, and would now effectually co-operate. They seemed now," says Dr Wishart," to be perfectly agreed in every thing, in so much 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 fiend of jealousy returned to the Bog of Gight, and its lord and master commenced, on the 14th of April 1646, an independent war, in virtue of his old commission, against the enemies of the King in Scotland. The result was, that Huntly took Aberdeen, and was almost immediately afterwards driven out again by General Middleton. This was the alpha and omega of his emulation of our hero's career, with whom he ever afterwards most pertinaciously avoided an interview.

Such was the distracted state of the King's affairs in Scotland, (where the separate armies of Leslie and Middleton were each far more than a match for the little band that yet rallied round the Standard,) when Charles

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was virtually a prisoner at Oxford. That chrysalis, the Covenant, had been shuffled off by the " Independents," who were already fanning, with their bloody but ephemeral wings, the fortunes of " Old Noll." Five stormy years had passed since. Montrose penned that epistle on the sovereign power, wherein he says," the kingdom shall fall again into the hands of one, who of necessity must, and for reasons of state will, tyrannize over you.' Some awful scenes were yet to be enacted, but the prophecy was rapidly fulfilling. It was upon the 26th of March that Charles wrote to Lord Digby a letter in which he speaks of endeavouring to get to London, being not without hope that I shall be able so to draw either the Presbyterians or the Independents to side with me, for extirpating one or the other, that I shall be really King again. Howsoever, I desire you to assure all my friends, that, if I cannot live as a King, I shall die like a gentleman, without doing that which may make honest men blush for me." Exactly one month afterwards the King made his escape, and by the 5th of May was in the Presbyterian camp. It is interesting to observe that the plan of his escape appears to have been derived from that adopted by Montrose, when he passed into Scotland two years before. Dr Hudson, personating a captain of the Parliament, and Ashburnam, both armed with pistols, were followed by Charles, wearing a Montero cap and carrying a cloak-bag, as Ashburnam's servant. The coincidence is rendered the more striking, that, on their journey, various wandering troopers tried the nerves of his Majesty by entering into inquisitive conversation with him, though none discovered his countenance. When he finally determined to place himself in the hands of the Scots, his mind was full of Montrose, upon whom his whole