Montrose, if possible, to make what haste he could to join Lord George Digby, son to the Earl of Bristol, and the auxiliary horse sent under his command, whom he would meet not far from the English border. Montrose immediately dispatched those gentlemen north to Huntly and Aboyne, to communicate these instructions to them, imagining that they might be encouraged by the interposition of the king's authority, and the prospect of immediate assistance, to send up their forces without delay, in the vain expectation whereof he had already trifled away too much time in Strathern.

At this time Lord Napier of Merchiston died in Athole. He was the chief of that very ancient family, and not less noble in his personal accomplishments than in his birth and descent; a man of the greatest uprightness and integrity, and of a most happy genius, being, as to his skill in the sciences, equal to his father and grandfather, who were famous all the world over for their knowledge in philosophy and mathematics, and in the doctrine of civil prudence far beyond them. He had long served their majesties, James and Charles, with great fidelity and loyalty, and was much beloved and much trusted by both; having been promoted to the office of treasurer, and exalted to the rank of nobility; and for his loyalty and af fection to the king had been often thrown in prison by the covenanters, and his whole estate

ruined. Montrose, when a child, had revered him as a most indulgent parent; in his youth he advised with him as a most sagacious monitor; when grown up he respected him as his most faithful and trusty friend; and now lamented his death as if he had been his own father. He wrote some very learned dissertations concerning the jus regium, and the rise of the troubles in Britain, which it were to be wished might some time see the light.

CHAP. XVIII.

Montrose marches into Lennox.-Sir William Rollock, Alexander Ogilvy, Sir Philip Nisbet, Colonel O'Kyan, and Major Lachlan, put to death by the covenanters.-Montrose marches into Athole; again attempts a reconciliation with Huntly, but in vain; he surprises him at last into an interview, at which they concert their future operations.

MONTROSE had already spent about three weeks on his march and in Strathern, waiting for Aboyne and his forces from the north country; but now receiving accounts that the rebels were beginning to glut their cruelty with the blood of their prisoners, he was fired with impatience, and would dally no longer; but immediately crossed the Forth, and marched down into Lennox, taking up his quarters upon Sir John Buchanan's estate, a prime covenanter in that country. He expected, that being so near Glasgow, where the covenanters at that time held a committee of estates, they would be thereby terrified from putting any more of their prisoners to death. In this view he marched out his cavalry every day in sight of the city, and they were allowed to plunder the whole country round without opposition; though the committee had a guard of no less than three thousand horse, for

their own and the city's protection; and he had not full three hundred horse, and twelve hundred foot.

Before Montrose had come into Lennox, the covenanters had got some accounts of the animosity and difference that subsisted betwixt him and the Marquis of Huntly, and that Lord Aboyne, with his men, had left him in Braemar, and returned home. Encouraged with this news, they adventured upon the execution of three very brave gentlemen, their prisoners, as a prologue to the bloody tragedies they were afterwards to exhibit. The first of these was Sir William Rollock, of whom mention has been often made in the course of this history, a gentleman of great courage and experience, and from his infancy particularly esteemed by Montrose, to whom he continued constant and faithful to the last. The chief crime they laid to his charge was, that he had not dared. to perpetrate a deed of the most villanous and atrocious nature. For, having been sent by Montrose, after the battle of Aberdeen, with some dispatches to the king, he was apprehended by the enemy, and had undoubtedly been immediately executed but for Argyle's means, who used all his endea vours to engage him to assassinate Montrose; and at length, through the fear of immediate death, and the influence of very high rewards, prevailed on him to undertake that barbarous office, for which, however, he secretly entertained the utmost

abhorrence; and having thereby obtained his life and liberty, he returned straight to Montrose, and disclosed the whole matter to him, entreating him, at the same time, to look more carefully to his own safety; for it was not to be thought, that he was the only person who had been practised upon in this shameful manner, or that others would equally detest the deed, but that several would undoubtedly be found, who, allured with the bait, would use their utmost industry and pains to merit the promised reward.

The second person whom they brought to the scaffold was Alexander Ogilvy, whom we likewise mentioned before, * eldest son to Sir John Ogilvy of Innerquharity, a very ancient family, and not among the least famous in the Scots history. He was yet but a youth, scarce eighteen years of age, but had already displayed a genius for courage and magnanimity far beyond his years. Nor is it easy to conjecture what they could possibly lay to his charge, other than that new and unheard-of kind of treason, a becoming loyalty and obedience to the best of kings. But it seems it was necessary to sacrifice this intrepid young man to gratify the cruelty of Argyle, who was the inveterate and implacable enemy of the name and family of Ogilvy.

The third was Sir Philip Nisbet. Next to his father, he was chief of the ancient family of West

* P. 160.