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be taken into custody. A series of transactions followed,―rash and unhappy on the part of the King, but insulting, vindictive, and rebellious, on the side of the Commons.

Charles at last resolved to support his authority by arms; and

A.D.

1642.

the royal standard was erected at Nottingham,-the open signal of discord and civil war throughout the kingdom; both parties being determined to refer the justice of their cause to the decision of the sword.

The military preparations of the Parliament were conducted with ability and vigour. The levies which had been prepared for suppressing the Irish rebellion, were easily induced to support the popular cause. Multitudes flocked to inlist under the Parliament; and such vast quantities of plate were brought to the mint for maintaining the troops, that it could hardly be stowed. The city of London and most of the great corporations of the kingdom declared for the Parliament; which seized all the royal magazines of arms and ammunition: And almost all the seaports, the customs of which yielded a considerable and constant supply, were in the possession of the Commons.

The King encountered more difficulty in preparing for the field. He was attended, indeed, by a splendid train of nobles and a númerous body of landed gentlemen: But their resources for immediate action were inconsiderable. By disposing of the crown jewels, the Queen purchased a cargo of arms and ammunition in Holland; and Charles roused his adherents to arms, with a spirit and an address that surprised both his friends and enemies.

Of these ominous preparations, and the sanguinary contests which followed, the Scots were not unconcerned spectators. They offered to mediate between the contending parties; but without success. The Parliament solicited their assistance; and the King required their neutrality. But though the Scots had been desirous to maintain it, a safe neutrality was no longer politic nor prac-ticable.

As the Covenanters had every thing to fear from the vengeance of the King, should he succeed in crushing the power of his enemies, they resolved to make common cause with the English ParJiament. They were confirmed in this resolution, by the discovery of an alarming conspiracy concerted between the Queen and the Earls of Montrose, Aboyne, Airly, and Nithsdale, that the Mac

donalds in the Isles and the Gordons in the North should take arms and overpower the unprepared Covenanters.

A religious phrensy was mingled with the prevailing passion for civil liberty. Unsatisfied with having accomplished the restoration of Presbytery in their own country, the Scots indulged an ardent passion for propagating that system in England and Ireland. Recollecting the unanimity that had been maintained by means of the covenant, in their opposition to Prelacy, the Scots now proposed that the two nations should enter into an engagement for the extirpation of Popery, Prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, and profaneness; and also for the preservation of the rights and privileges of Parliament and the defence of the King's person and government.

A compact was accordingly framed, well known by the name of the Solemn League and Covenant, with the ultimate view of effecting a religious reformation in England and Ireland, "according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed churches." The Convention of Estates and the General Assembly approved unanimously of this deed; which was transmitted to London, and solemnly ratified by the English Parliament and an assembly of divines at Westminster.

CHAPTER IV.

"Scottish army joins the Parliamentary forces. Battle of Long-MarstonMoor. Civil war in Scotland. Montrose defeats Lords Elcho, Burleigh, and Gordon-pillages Aberdeen-ravages the West Highlands-defeats the Campbells-Baillie and Hurry-and the Covenanters at Kilsyth—is defeated at Ettrick Forest. Ecclesiastical affairs. Trial and execution of

Charles.

DETERMINED that the sword should carry conviction to all incredulous minds, the Scots prepared themselves for military service. A remittance from England of one hundred thousand pounds, enabled them to muster and equip an army of twenty-one thousand men, commanded by the Earl of Leven; and such was their ardour and impatience, that they crossed the Tweed in the depth of winter, during a severe storm, in the expectation of surprising Newcastle before it could be fortified.

Having summoned that town without effect, they passed the

Tyne, and were joined by a Parliamentary army, under Sir Thomas Fairfax. The generals of the combined armies immediately determined to invest the city of York, whither the Marquis of Newcastle, with a royal army, had retired.

Prince Rupert, the King's nephew, hastened, with a considerable force, to the relief of that city. Upon his approach, the Parlia mentary forces raised the siege, and prepared to give battle to the English on Long-Marston-Moor, a large plain about eight miles distant from York. The numbers on each side were nearly equal; and, for the space of a century before, England had not seen at one time fifty thousand men arrayed for battle.

The right wing of the Parliamentary forces was commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax,-it consisted of all his horse and three regiments of Scottish cavalry; the left wing was commanded by the Earl of Manchester and General Cromwell; the main body of the infantry was commanded by the Earl of Leven; and a body of English and Scottish foot, as a reserve, was placed under Lord Fairfax.

The Earl of Newcastle commanded the right wing of the Royal army; Prince Rupert the left; Generals Goring and Porter, with Sir Thomas Lucas, commanded the centre.

1664. Both sides being thus drawn up in battalia, the conflict July 3. began at seven in the morning. Prince Rupert made a desperate charge, disordered the right wing under Fairfax, and quickly routed them. Inspired with the enthusiasm of emulation, the troops under Lucas, Goring, and Porter, overpowered the infantry under the Earl of Leven, and pursued them off the field.

But the palm of victory, thus almost obtained, was unexpectedly snatched from the Royalists; for Cromwell, with his Iron Brigade, having routed the troops under the Earl of Newcastle, made a fu rious attack upon the Prince's rear; and being joined by Sir Thomas Fairfax with a body of troops which he had rallied, they attacked the scattered divisions of the Royalists, who had separated in the ardour of pursuit; and, after an engagement of three hours, completely defeated them.

The Earl of Leven, after the defeat of his troops, believing the battle to be irretrievably lost, fled northward forty miles from the scene of action. He was overtaken about noon the ensuing day, by a messenger with a despatch. "What news?" said the General, as he received the letter. "All is safe, may it please your Excel

lency: The Parliament has gained a great victory!" "Would to God I had died on the field of battle!” replied the General, and instantly set off to rejoin the army.*

The loss of this battle, and the dissentions which it occasioned among the officers of the Royal army, were disastrous to the cause of Charles in the North of England. The city of York and the town of Newcastle were quickly reduced; a body of Royalists was defeated in Westmoreland; and the Northern counties were subdued and occupied by the Parliamentary forces.

But the war was suddenly rekindled in Scotland by James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, a nobleman of a bold spirit, but of a versatile genius. Indignant at the disgrace of his late imprisonment by the Covenanters, and ambitious of military renown, he readily entered into the desperate enterprise of restoring the King's authority in Scotland by force of arms, or at least of raising such commotions as should oblige the Covenanters to recall their forces from England.

He erected the royal standard at Dumfries, under circumstances very inauspicious. The few troops which he had been able to collect were mutinous, and indisposed to second the daring courage of their leader. His ardent spirit, however, became impatient for action. With two attendants only, he lurked in Stratherne, in the disguise of a groom, until he received intelligence of the approach of two thousand auxiliaries, which had landed in Argyllshire. He unexpectedly joined them in Atholl, in the garb of a mountaineer.

As Argyll was in full pursuit of the Irish, and Lord Elcho was stationed at Perth with an army of six thousand Covenanters, Montrose, with characteristic promptitude, gave battle to the latter at Tippermuir, and killed or wounded two thousand of them. He availed himself of his advantage, by seizing Perth, where he found abundance of ammunition and necessaries. Being joined by some noblemen with their vassals, he abandoned Perth as untenable, and retired northward, in expectation of being reinforced by the Gordons.

Lord Burleigh and Lewis Gordon, with two thousand seven hundred men, opposed his advance at the river Dee; but having

Manuscript history of the baronial house of Somerville, quoted in Sir Walter Scott's "Rokeby," p. 11-20.

crossed the stream a little above, at a ford, he bore down with fury on the flanks of his enemies, and put them to an ignominious flight. The defenceless citizens of Aberdeen, who had declared for the covenant, were treated with great cruelty by the merciless victor. During five days, his troops pillaged the town and slaughtered the inhabitants; whose dead bodies lay unburied in the streets, until the appearance of Argyll with a superior force. Montrose made a precipitate retreat towards the river Spey.

There he was unexpectedly opposed by the whole force of the Gordons: But his daring spirit delighted in perilous undertakings. He buried his artillery in a moss, and fled to the mountains; and succeeded, by a series of skilful evolutions, to elude the vigilance of his pursuers. His personal enmity to Argyll induced him to gratify a sanguinary revenge on the innocent clan of the Campbells.

In the depth of winter, he penetrated, by paths deemed impassable, into the recesses of Argyllshire; and, disregarding the dictates of humanity and the generosity of a brave soldier, he indulged in all the destructive fury of a savage war. Argyll, Lorn, Breadalbane, and to the confines of Lochaber, presented a uniform scene of merciless devastation.

Argyll hastened to defend his countrymen; and having collected his scattered clan, he advanced to Inverlochy, and assumed an attitude of defiance. His watchful enemy suddenly reappeared and routed the Campbells, of whom fifteen hundred were left dead upon the field of battle. The Highlanders then joined the conqueror in considerable numbers. He again retired to the North; and being reinforced by the Grants and Gordons, he treated all as enemies who refused or declined to aid the Royal cause. Elgin, Cullen, and Banff, were pillaged, and Stonehaven was consigned to the flames.

An uninterrupted series of splendid achievements succeeded these ravages. Though Montrose was opposed at the Tay by Generals Baillie and Hurry, who had been recalled from England with six regiments of horse and foot, he stormed and pillaged Dundee, which was partially burned. He then retired again to the North. To prevent his escape, Baillie and Hurry divided their forces: The former ravaged Atholl, in retaliation for the cruelties of Montrose, and to deter that active leader from making another attempt on the West; the latter, reinforced by the garrison of In

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