sembler as not to be trusted-that while he professed with all solemnity to refer himself wholly to parliament, and depended only upon their wisdom and counsel for the settlement and composing the distractions of the kingdom, he had, at the same time, secret treaties with the Scottish commissioners to embroil the nation in a new war, and destroy the parliament: he therefore moved, in the house of commons, that the affairs of the kingdom should be settled without farther recourse to the king; and, after a debate of a whole day, from morning till late at night, it was resolved, that no more addresses should be made to Charles, or messages received from him, and a declaration, announcing to the public that he had virtually ceased to reign, and detailing the causes which had led to this consummation, was directed to be published.

Internal tranquillity was partially restored to Scotland, during these important transactions in England, by the reduction of the Gordons in the north, and Macdonald in the west. But this was unhappily accompanied by acts of equally sanguinary retaliation upon the Irish, as that which marked the victory of Philiphaugh. When the army returned home, it was immediately reduced to about six thousand men. These chiefly officered by soldiers of fortune, who professed a rigid zeal for the covenant, were sent north, under the command of David Leslie, who successively captured the principal strengths belonging to Huntly, and in accordance with his instructions, spared the lives of the natives; but uniformly did military execution on the Irish auxiliaries. Thence crossing through Badenoch to Kintyre, he surprised the strong passes of the country. Terrified at his approach, Macdonald, placing a garrison at Dunavertie, a castle upon the top of a hill, fled to Isla, where he left his father, Col Kettoch, in the fortress of Duneveg, with two hundred men, and carried the rest of his followers to Ireland; where, some time after, he fell in battle. The house of Dunavertie, although strong, had no water within its walls, but what fell from the clouds, or was supplied from a small streamlet at the foot of the hill, defended by some outworks; these being carried by assault, and a sultry month of July affording no rain, the garrison

was constrained, by thirst, to surrender at discretion, when nearly two hundred were put to death, and the rest were sent to serve in the French wars.*

From Kintyre, the expedition went to Isla, where Duneveg made a more protracted resistance; but the governor being taken prisoner, when he incautiously ventured without the

* Sir James Turner, in his MS. Memoirs, when mentioning the massacre at Dunavertie, after acquitting the earl of Argyle of any share of blame in the transaction, makes the following observations:-" Fourthlie, I have several times spoke to the lieutenant general to save these men's lives, and he always assented to it; and I know of himself, he was unwilling to shed their blood. Fifthlie, Mr. John Nevay, who was appointed by the commission of the kirk to wait on him as his chaplaine, never ceased to tempt him to that bloodshed, yea, and threatened him with the curses befell Saull, for sparing the Amalakites; for with them his theologie taught him to compare the Dunavertie men: and I verilie believe that this prevailed most with David Leslye, who looked upon Nevay as the representative of the kirk of Scotland. Lastlie, there is no doubt but the lieutenant general might legalie enough, without the least transgression of either the custom, practice, or law of warre, or his own commission, have used them as he did; for he was bound by no article to them, they having submitted themselves absolutelie to his discretion. It is true, on the other hand, sunmum jus summa injuria; and in such cases, mercy is the more christian, the more honourable, and the more ordinare way in our warres in Europe. But I really believe, advise him to that act who woll, he hath repented it many times since, and even very soon after the doing it." The saving clause in the last sentence goes, I think, far to exculpate Nevay from the odious imputation of urging Lesly to this cruel act. Salmonet, who apparently confounds forcing the pass of Tarbet with the affair at Dunavertie, suggests an excuse, in the dread Lesly had of a fresh invasion from Ireland. But his instructions seem to have been founded on the treaty between the two kingdoms, formerly noticed; and his ready obedience in other cases, render it rather dubious whether he needed any monitor in this. In his own account of the taking of Lismore, the conditions, he says, were, "That he, the captain, should yield the house, and all that therein wes-that all the Irish should dye, and his own life and Harthill's be spared ;" and adds, with great coolness," so I caused hang twenty-seven Irish." In the same despatch, he says, "Wardhous was reduced without much dispute, wherein were fourteen Irish and a captain, all which I caused to be put to death." And in a letter from Dounebog, June 25th, he gives the following as his opinion of the treatment the islanders should receive: "Because I think hardly this yle, or anie others, can be brought to obedience without totallie ruine of them, I thought it my duetie to desyre your lordship's order by the bearer what you will command me to do therein."-A person who could recommend the total ruin of the isles, as the best mode of effecting their subjugation, cannot be supposed very unwilling to shed blood.

castle, the garrison surrendered, upon condition of having their lives spared—a condition which was granted, the besiegers themselves being in want of provisions. The officers were permitted to disperse upon parole, and the common men were given to Henry Sinclair, a lieutenant colonel in the French service. The other refractory islands submitted without much farther resistance.

*

* Grand Indictment of the marquis of Argyle, with Defences, 1661. Sir James Turner's Memoirs, MS. Thurlow's State Papers, vol. i. p. 89, 92. Salmonet, p. 254.

THE

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

Book X.

RUMOURS of the bad treatment of the king-of his being wantonly hurried from one place of confinement to another of his being secretly assassinated-of his destruction being determined by the army of sectaries, were industriously spread by those who styled themselves his friends, in Scotland; and they had in some measure answered their purpose, by irritating the passions of the nation against the English parliament, and interesting the popular feelings on the side of fallen royalty.

Hamilton, who had a strong personal attachment to Charles, which the ungrateful conduct of that monarch had not been able to subdue, was now engaged, in consequence of his repeated earnest entreaties, in preparing for war in support of the prerogative, by exciting and keeping alive the returning sentiments of affection towards him, produced by these daily reports. Representing the misfortunes of the king as the crimes of the sectaries, and not the consequences of his own misconduct, he depicted his imprisonment as a reproach on the loyalty of Scottishmen who had deserted him in the hour of distress; but whose honour required that they should wipe away the infamy of so base a charge, by a grand universal attempt for his rescue. The duke himself would have been inclined to moderate measures; but the men with whom he acted were violent, headstrong, and rash, and his own earliest prepossessions were in favour of the most unlimited claims of the king; his judgment told him, and he had repeatedly told Charles, that he was convinced they were wrong,

yet he supported them; and, yielding to the impulse of his friendship, his weakness, which in private life might have been harmless if not amiable, was productive of cruel and accumulated ills to his country. He had spread reports of the king's anxious and sincere desire to conciliate the Scots by any concession; and Traquair, on his return, confidently asserted, that his majesty had given full and entire satisfaction to the commissioners-by such means, the nation, who were dissatisfied with the English independents, were prepared to receive with open arms the agreement of the king to the covenant, and to rise as one man to effect his deliverance.

*

Suspicions, however, began to be entertained, as all who arrived from the commissioners, while liberal in their general protestations, would not name any of the particular concessions. The ministers first sounded the alarm, and all the pulpits echoed with warnings against healing the wounds of the people deceitfully. And when the commissioners came back in February, they found that their suspicions were well grounded. The concessions were unsatisfactory, and the engagements on the part of the chancellor and Lauderdale, so different from what had been expected, that their friends, ashamed and grieved, were loudest in their exclamations against them. The committee of estates, and the commission of the kirk, met in Edinburgh, to receive these communications; and the chancellor, the day after their arrival, repeated to the committee the proceedings of their commissioners:" He told them, that after their arrival in London, they delivered the message with which they were intrusted to the king, having first acquainted the two houses. He received it courteously, and informed them that he had been carried away by the army from Holmby against his will; but that the army allowed him greater liberty, and made more flattering promises; but that from their behaviour, he did not expect very punctual performance. They then besought him, with all humility and earnestness, to give just satisfaction to the desires of the par

* Baillie, vol. ii. p. 280. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 70. Rushworth, p. 982. † He was displeased because neither Cromwell nor Ireton were disposed to kiss his hand! Clarendon.