was confirmed by an express from Scotland. Sharp 1666. was then at the head of the government: so he managed this little war, and gave all the orders and directions in it. Dalziel was commanded to draw all the force they had together, which lay then dispersed in quarters. When that was done, he marched westward. A great many ran to the rebels, who came to be called whigs. At Lanarick, in Cliddisdale, they had a solemn fast day, in which, after much praying, they renewed the covenant, and set out their manifesto: in which they denied that they rose against the king; they complained of the oppression under which they had groaned; they desired that episcopacy might be put down, and that presbytery, and the covenant, might be set up, and their ministers restored again to them; and then they promised, that they would be in all other things the king's most obedient subjects. The Earl of Argile raised fifteen hundred men, and wrote to the council that he was ready to march upon order. Sharp thought, that if he came into the country, either he or his men would certainly join with the rebels: so he sent him no order at all. But he was at the charge of keeping his men together to no purpose. Sharp was all the while in a dreadful consternation, and wrote dismal letters to court, praying that the forces which lay in the north of England might be ordered down: for, he wrote, they were surrounded with the rebels, and did not know what was become of the king's forces. He 235 also moved, that the council would go and shut themselves up in the castle of Edenburgh. But that was opposed by the rest of the board, as an abandoning of the town, and the betraying an unbe

1666. coming fear, which might very much encourage the rebels, and such as intended to go over to them. Orders were given out for raising the country: but there was no militia yet formed. In the mean while Dalziel followed the rebels as close as he could. He published a proclamation of pardon, as he was ordered, to all that should in twenty-four hours' time return to their houses, and declared all that continued any longer in arms rebels. He found the country was so well affected towards them, that he could get no sort of intelligence, but what his own parties brought into him. The whigs marched towards Edenburgh, and came within two miles of the town. But finding neither town nor country declare for them, and that all the hopes their leaders had given them proved false, they lost heart. From being once above two thousand, they were now come to be not above eight or nine hundred. So they resolved to return back to the west, where they knew the people were of their side; and where they could more easily disperse themselves, and get either into England or Ireland. The ministers were very busy in all those counties, plying people of rank not to forsake their brethren in this extremity. And they had got a company of about three or fourscore gentlemen together, who were marching towards them, when they heard of their defeat: and upon that they The defeat dispersed themselves. The rebels thought to have marched back by the way of Pentland hill. They were not much concerned for the few horses they had. And they knew that Dalziel, whose horse was fatigued with a fortnight's constant march, could not follow them. And if they had gained but one night more in their march, they had got out of his reach.

given the rebels at Pentland

hill.

1666.

But on the twenty-eighth of November, about an
hour before sun-set, he came up to them. They
were posted on the top of a hill: so he engaged with
a great disadvantage. They, finding they could not
get off, stopt their march. Their ministers did all
they could by preaching and praying to infuse cou-
rage into them: and they sung the seventy-fourth
and the seventy-eighth Psalms. And so they turned
on the king's forces. They received the first charge
that was given by the troop of guards very resolutely,
and put them in disorder. But that was all the ac-
tion; for immediately they lost all order, and ran
for their lives. It was now dark: about forty were
killed on the spot, and a hundred and thirty were
taken. The rest were favoured by the darkness of
the night, and the weariness of the king's troops, 236
that were not in case to pursue them, and had no
great heart to it: for they were a poor harmless
company of men", become mad by oppression: and
they had taken nothing during all the time they
had been together, but what had been freely given
them by the country people. The rebellion was
broken with the loss of only five on the king's side.
The general came next day into Edenburgh with his
prisoners.

ceedings a

The two archbishops were now delivered out of Severe proall their fears: and the common observation, that gainst the prisoners. cruelty and cowardice go together, was too visibly verified on this occasion. Lord Rothes came down full of rage: and that (sic) being inflamed by the two archbishops, he resolved to proceed with the utmost severity against the prisoners. Burnet advised the hanging of all those who would not renounce the 2 A fair historian! S.

1666. covenant, and promise to conform to the laws for the future: but that was thought too severe. Yet he was sent up to London, to procure of the king an instruction, that they should tender the declaration renouncing the covenant to all who were thought disaffected; and proceed against those who refused that, as against seditious persons. The best of the episcopal clergy set upon the bishops, to lay hold on this opportunity for regaining the affections of the country, by becoming intercessors for the prisoners and for the country, that was like to be quartered on and eat up for the favour they had expressed to them. Many of the bishops went into this, and particularly Wishart of Edenburgh, though a rough man, and sharpened by ill usage. Yet upon this occasion he expressed a very christian temper, such as became one who had felt what the rigours of a prison had been; for he sent every day very liberal supplies to the prisoners: which was indeed done by the whole town in so bountiful a manner, that many of them, who being shut up had neither air nor exercise, were in greater danger by their plenty, than they had been by all their unhappy campaign. But Sharp could not be mollified. On the contrary, he encouraged the ministers in the disaffected counties to bring in all the informations they could gather, both against the prisoners, and against all those who had been among them, that they might be sought for, and proceeded against. Most of those got over to Ireland. But the ministers in those parts acted so ill a part, so unbecoming their characters, that the aversion of the country to them was increased to all possible degrees: they looked on a (See above, p. 143)

them now as wolves, and not as shepherds.

It was 1666.

a moving sight, to see ten of the prisoners hanged upon one gibbet at Edenburgh: thirty-five more were sent to their countries, and hanged up before 237 their own doors; their ministers all the while using them hardly, and declaring them damned for their rebellion. They might all have saved their lives, if they would have renounced the covenant: so they were really a sort of martyrs for it. They did all at their death give their testimony, according to their phrase, to the covenant, and to all that had been done pursuant to it: and they expressed great joy in their sufferings. Most of them were but mean and inconsiderable men in all respects: yet even these were firm and inflexible in their persuasions. Many of them escaped, notwithstanding the great search was made for them. Guthry, the chief of their preachers, was hid in my mother's house, who was bred to her brother Waristoun's principles, and could never be moved from them: he died next spring. One Maccail, that was only a probationer preacher, and who had been chaplain in sir James Steward's house, had gone from Edenburgh to them. It was believed, he was sent by the party in town, and that he knew their correspondents. So he was put to the torture, which in Scotland they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between these and the leg. The common torture was only to drive these in the calf of the leg but I have been told they were sometimes driven upon the shin bone. He bore the torture with great constancy: and either he could say nothing, or he had the firmness not to discover those b Decent term. S.