who could exult in the recollection of such wanton unsparing waste of life as in the rout at Kilsyth, or applaud the humanity of Montrose at Aberdeen. That chief, as suddenly humbled as he had been excessively exalted, passed through the country where, two days before, he had marched as lord paramount, attended by a few horse, and with a more rapid flight, sought to regain the fastnesses of the mountains, nor stopped till he had reached the recesses of Athole. The marquis of Douglas, lords Crawford, Erskine, Fleming and Napier, were equally fortunate in making their escape; but lords Hartfield, Drummond, and Ogilvy, Sirs Robert Spotswood, A. Leslie, William Rollock, Philip Nisbet, William Murray, brother to the lord Tullibardin, Ogilvy of Innerquharity, Nathaniel Gordon, Andrew Guthrie, son to the bishop of Moray, and two Irish colonels, Okean and Laghlin, were made prisoners, and sent to the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling, to stand trial.*

* The defeat at Philiphaugh has been usually treated as Montrose's misfortune, but had he been the hero his admirers wish to represent him, it was a misfortune that could not possibly have happened. He was great only when opposed to such soldiers as the raw Lowland levies were; no sooner were trained men brought against him, than he was ruined by the most egregious of blunders into which a military leader can fall, that of allowing himself to be surprised by an enemy who he knew was in the neighbourhood. That he was totally inexcusable upon every principle of good generalship, is plain from Sir Robert Spotswood's letters to lord Digby, written by him before the battle of Philiphaugh, and found in his pocket when he was made prisoner. "My Lord, we are now arrived, ad columnas Herculis to Tweedside, dispersed all the king's enemies within the kingdom to several places, some to Ireland, most of them to Berwick, and had no open enemy more to deal with, if you had kept David Leslie there, and not suffered him to come in here to make head against us of new. It is thought strange here, that at least you have sent no party after him, which we expected, although he should not come at all. You little imagine the difficulties my lord marquis hath here to wrestle with; the overcoming of the enemy is the least of them: he hath more to do with his own seeming friends since I came to him-which was but within these ten days, after much toil and hazard-I have seen much of it. He was forced to dismiss his Highlanders for a season, who would needs return home to look to their own affairs. When they were gone, Aboyne took a caprice, and had away with the greatest strength he had of horse; notwithstanding whereof, he resolved to follow his work, and clear this part of the kingdom, that was only resting of the rebels that had fled to Berwick, and kept a bustling here. Besides, he was invited hereunto by the

Leslie, after this victory, brought his army to Lothian, where the two Irish officers were tried by martial law, and executed. Thence he accompanied the committee of estates to Glasgow, where they, in conjunction with the committee of the church, deliberated on the measures necessary for ensuring the internal peace of the kingdom, and completing the reduction of Montrose. The committee, as a mark of gratitude, voted fifty thousand merks and a gold chain to Leslie, and 25,000 merks to Middleton. They then proceeded to the trial of some of the prisoners taken at Philiphaugh, Sir William Rollock, who had accompanied Montrose from England, and who was specially excepted from the general offer of amnesty made by the parliament at Perth, Sir Philip Nisbet, and Ogilvy of Innerquharity, who were found guilty of rebellion against the state, and executed at Glasgow. The fate of the others was deferred till the meeting of parliament.

Shorn of his beams, Montrose, with some difficulty, was able to raise about four hundred men in Athole, with whom he marched; but the Highlanders, however attached to a fortunate plunderer, showed little disposition to join a defeated captain-general. He acquired no great addition to his forces, and Huntly, who had left his concealment, did not encourage the appearance of a superior in his districts, especially one whose former faithlessness he had not forgotten, and whose previous insults had been aggravated by his succeeding neglect, as he

earls of Roxburgh and Home, who, when he was within a dozen miles of them, have rendered their houses and themselves to David Leslie, and are carried in as prisoners to Berwick. Traquair hath been with him, and promised more nor he hath yet performed. All these were great disheartenings to any other but to him whom nothing of this kind can amaze. With the small forces he has presently with him, he is resolved to pursue David Leslie, and not to suffer him to grow stronger. If you would perform that which you lately promised, both this kingdom and the north of England might be soon reduced, and considerable assistance sent from hence to his majesty. However, nothing will be wanting on our parts here; those that are together, are both loyal and resolute, only a little encouragement from you-as much to let it be seen that they are not neglected, as for any thing else—would crown the work speedily. This is all I have for the present, but that I am your lordship's most faithful friend. Ro. Spotiswood."

Dated, near to Kelso, Sept. 10th, 1645.

had never, in any of his despatches, represented the services of the house of Gordon in a favourable light to his majesty, nor procured for their chiefs any share in these honours which their followers had so mainly contributed to procure for himself. Disappointed in his attempts to obtain any assistance from Huntly, he returned by Braemar into Athole, and thence marched into Lennox, where he quartered for some time on the lands of the Buchanans, and hovered about Glasgow, till the execution of his three friends gave him warning to withdraw to a safer neighbourhood. While in the west, he made several attempts to persuade Sir Alexander Macdonald, his own knight, to join him; but the fascination of his name had fled, and he found him equally unwilling to serve under a leader, in whose dangers and defeats he might share, but who was too proudly selfish to endure a partner in his power or his fame. He also despatched messengers to Huntly with magnificent promises in the king's name, of the assistance which was approaching, and entreating him to exert himself in his royal master's cause. But when he retreated from Lennox back to Athole, he found his messenger returned, and his hopes from that quarter at an end, for the marquis had heard of Digby's defeat, and remained inflexible in his resolution of acknowledging no superior, and of allowing his clan to serve under no other commander than himself. Montrose was therefore constrained to wander during the winter, with a feeble and despicable band, in the remote wilds, watched by Middleton, who was appointed by the committee of estates, to prevent him from again becoming formidable; while general Leslie, with the rest of the troops, returned to England, and joined the Scottish army under Leven, who were engaged in the siege of Newark-upon-Trent.

THE

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

Book IX.

FIERCE as were the conflicts between the parties in the field, the contentions for superiority between a different set of combatants were scarcely less vehement at Westminster. The assembly of divines, when they could not obtain the sanction of the parliament to the divine right of presbytery as a whole, claimed the power of the keys for the eldership or presbytery, as at least jure divino. They had voted, "That the keys of the kingdom of heaven were committed to the officers of the church, by virtue whereof, they have power respectively to retain and remit sins, to shut the kingdom of heaven against the impenitent, both by word and censures, and to open it to the penitent by absolution; and to prevent the profanation of the holy sacrament, by notorious and obstinate offenders, the said officers are to proceed by admonition, suspension from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper for a season, and by excommunication from the church, according to the nature of the crime and the demerit of the person." The independents claimed for every particular congregation a similar power, and of judging with respect to the cases in which it should be exercised; but excommunication in Scotland was attended with severe civil penalties, and was capable of being rendered as terrible an engine of oppression as the high commission court. This power the presbyterian ministers were inflexible in demanding, and, at the same time, were equally resolute in refusing toleration to any sect which did not acknowledge it. Every congregation and every meeting, however small, was to

be under the inspection, and subject to the rule of the presbytery within whose bounds it lay. The political leaders, or erastians, resisted this, and Selden contended, that excommunications, as civil punishments, were unknown till two hundred years after Christ, when they were introduced by the popes, Victor and Zephronius, who first began to use them in their private quarrels, and so far from being jure divino, they were evidently human inventions borrowed from the practice of the heathen. Whitelock insisted, that every member of a Christian congregation had a right to partake of the Lord's Supper, that if deemed unworthy, he might be warned against coming to the sacred table, but if he chose to come, no pastor had a Scriptural power to refuse him admittance. "Some have said," he continued, "that it is the duty of a shepherd, when he sees a sheep feeding upon that which will do him hurt, to chase him away from that pasture, and they apply this to suspending those from the sacrament, who they fear, by eating and drinking unworthily, may eat and drink their own damnation. But it ought to be observed, that it is not receiving the sacrament, but the unworthiness of the receiver that brings destruction, and this cannot be within the judgment of any but the person himself, who alone can examine his own heart, and as a punishment for evil conduct, where the temporal sword is sufficient, there will be no need for this new discipline." Influenced by these arguments, the parliament, although they did not deem it prudent wholly to reject the ordinance for excommunication, as the complaint had been general, that ministers were obliged in the then unsettled state of the church, to allow worthy and unworthy communicants to mingle without discrimination, yet unwilling to concede an authority, which might be wantonly employed by the ecclesiastical rulers, to blast the reputation, or invade the comfort of those with whom they were displeased, they required the assembly to specify in writing, what degrees of knowledge in the Christian religion, were necessary to qualify persons for the communion, and what sorts of scandal deserved suspension, or excommunication, which were accordingly enumerated, and inserted in the ordinance; but to prevent an abuse even of this, an appeal was permitted to the civil power. In adopting the form of presbytery, as the basis of an estab