At

Further south, Argyle had his interests as a Highland chieftain to serve as well as his interests as a Covenanter. Edinburgh he was the wily statesman directing every Argyle in the Southern move of the game, whilst keeping himself studiously Highlands. in the background, and not even taking a place in the Committee of Estates. In the Western Highlands he was the head of the Campbells, eager to push the authority of his family over an ever-widening circle of once independent clans. The character borne by the Campbells in the Highlands was not a good one. Their favourite tactics, it was said, had been to urge their neighbours to resistance against the king of the day, and then to obtain powers from the king to suppress the rebellion to their own profit. Each of the subdued clans was forced to forsake its own organisation, and to merge its very name in that of the Campbells. The opportunity had now come for carrying out this process in the name not of the King but of the Covenant. Very few, if any, of the dwellers in those rugged glens cared for either King or Covenant; but where the influences of Argyle and Huntly met in the very centre of the Highlands, those who feared and detested Argyle were necessarily the partisans of Huntly and, in some sort, of the King.

June 12. Argyle's commission.

The first act of the new Committee of Estates had been to issue to Argyle a commission of fire and sword against the Earl of Athol, the Earl of Airlie, and various Highland clans whom it was determined to reduce to submission. Argyle set out from Inverary on June 18, with a following of 4,000 Highlanders. Athol had but 1,200 to oppose to him. The two forces met near the spot on which Taymouth Castle now stands. Athol was inveigled by a promise of safe return into an interview with Argyle. Argyle tried to win him over by considerations of personal interest. He told him significantly that he had himself claims upon his lands, and that there had been a talk at the late Parliament of deposing the King, from which Athol was probably intended to infer that he might have a difficulty in making out his title to the satisfaction of a new and hostile

June 18. Argyle's raid.

Skene, The Highlanders of Scotland, i. 138.

1640

ARGYLE'S RAVAGES.

167

Government. As Athol did not take the hint, he was seized, as Huntly had been seized the year before, and sent a prisoner to Edinburgh, in defiance of the pledge given by his host.1

capitulates

Argyle pushed on into Angus, the Forfarshire of modern geography. The Earl of Airlie was away with the King, but he July. had fortified his house, leaving it in the keeping of Airlie House Lord Ogilvy, his eldest son. The news that Argyle to Montrose. and his dreaded Highlanders were on the march for the uplands which swell towards the Grampians from broad Strathmore struck terror into the hearts of Covenanter and antiCovenanter. The gentry of Angus and Perthshire called on Montrose to provide a remedy. Montrose, it is true, had been one of those who had signed the terrible commission to Argyle ; 2 but it was well understood that his heart was not with Argyle. He soon gathered the forces of the neighbourhood, obtained from Lord Ogilvy the surrender of the house, and placed in it a small garrison, to hold it for the Committee of Estates. When Argyle arrived it seemed as if nothing remained to be done. The intervention of Montrose, however, goaded him into savage exasperation. He was too shrewd not Argyle's ravages.

to perceive that Montrose's policy of reconciling the King with the nation was thoroughly impracticable, and he had none of those generous instincts which lay at the root of Montrose's error. As Montrose was beyond his reach, he wreaked his vengeance on the property and tenants of the owner of the lands of Airlie. The 'bonnie house' was burnt to the ground. Another house belonging to the Earl of Airlie at Forthar shared the same fate. Plunder went hand in hand with destruction. The wild Highlanders stripped the fields of sheep and cattle, and drove them off to stock the valleys of the Campbells in the West.3

Sir T. Stewart's deposition. Answers to J. Stewart's deposition. Exoneration of Argyle. Napier's Memorials of Montrose, i. 257, 266, ii. -475.

2 Commission, June 12, Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iv. 491.

3

Gordon, iii. 165. Spalding, i. 291. Memorials of Montrose, i. 256, 264, 330, 358. In a letter to Dugald Campbell, of Inverawe (Notes and Queries, 5th ser. ix. 364), Argyle gave the following instructions :-" See

Argyle in the Highlands.

Having done his work on the edge of the Lowlands, Argyle turned his course homewards along the fringe of his own dominions. Braemar and Badenoch felt the terror of his coming. There was plundering and burning and slaying in those distant glens. The Camerons of Lochaber, on the other hand, were treated with special favour. They had grown weary of their dependence on Huntly, and were ready to transfer their allegiance to Argyle.1

For the immediate purposes of war, Scotland was now a realm at unity with itself. This time there was no risk of Condition of repeated diversions in the stricken North. In the Scotland. South the Royalists were few and easily suppressed. The lands and houses of all who opposed the Covenant were taken by force. It was not long before Ruthven on the castled crag of Edinburgh alone upheld the banner of the King.

Though Argyle was raising up enemies to give him trouble at some future day, his position was, for the immediate present, Argyle and one of commanding strength. His rival Montrose Montrose. had one fatal weakness. The corner-stone of his policy was the chance that Charles would at last be frank and consistent. In reality, Charles was wavering from day to day. Before the end of June Hamilton had won him over to another attempt to conciliate Scotland. On the 27th LouLiberation doun was set free and despatched with instructions of Loudoun. which were vague enough in themselves, but which seem to have been explained to mean that Charles would now bind himself to carry out the Treaty of Berwick after the Scottish interpretation; and that, although he refused to acknowledge

June 27.

and mission

how ye can cast off the iron gates and windows, and take down the roof; and if ye find it will be longsome, ye shall fire it well, that so it may be destroyed. But you need not let know that ye have directions from me to fire it; only ye may say that ye have warrant to demolish it, and that to make the work short ye will fire it." This keeping back his own part in the matter is quite in character. I have not inserted Gordon's story about Argyle's expulsion of Lady Ogilvy from Forthar when near her lying-in, as it is stated in a letter from Patrick Drummond of Sept. 12 (S. P. Dom.) that Argyle accused Montrose of having suffered the lady to escape, which is inconsistent with Gordon's account.

1 Gordon, iii. 163.

1640

WAR IMPENDING.

169

the validity of Acts passed during the late session, he would promise not to interpose his veto upon those for the establishment of the Presbyterian Constitution, if they were presented to him in a regular manner. On the other hand, Loudoun was

to do his best to prevail with his countrymen 'that the King's authority should not be entrenched upon nor diminished.' 1

As he passed through Durham, Loudoun gave out freely that he was bringing peace to Scotland. When he arrived in

July. Loudoun

announces

that he is

bringing

peace.

Edinburgh he found that the terms which he brought would no longer give satisfaction. The question

which had come to an issue since he had been thrust into the Tower was whether or no the Parliament had the right of making laws in defiance of the King. On this the leaders declared themselves to have no intention his negotia of giving way.3 During the first week in July, whilst Monro was harrying Strathbogie and Argyle was harrying Angus, Leslie was gathering the nucleus of an army, and preparing for the invasion of England.

Failure of

tion.

July 4. Coat-and

conduct

money

again.

A Scottish army could support itself, at least for a time, on taxes levied by the orders of the National Government, eked out by voluntary contributions and the confiscated property of the opponents of the Covenant. Charles had none of these resources. The commissions of array were now supported by fresh orders for the collection of coat-and-conduct money, and on July 5 the AttorneyGeneral was directed to prosecute the Lord Mayor and sheriffs for their neglect in the collection of this money. Some relief, indeed, had been obtained before the end of June by an advance made by the farmers of the customs of more than 44,000l., and other loans obtained from officials and men of position had raised the sum obtained in this way to little less than 60,000l. But the necessities of

July 5. Prosecution of the Lord

Mayor and sheriffs.

Instructions and Memorandum, June 26. Lanark to the Lords, June 26, Burnet, 170. Compare Giustinian to the Doge, July Ven. Transcripts, R.O.

2 Duncan to Windebank, July 9, S. P. Dom. cccclix. 61.

3 The Lords, &c., to Lanark, July 7, Burnet, 172.

4 Account of Loans, June 23, Breviates of the receipt.

13'

the army were too great to be permanently supplied thus, and if England was to be defended recourse must be had to one or other of those extraordinary measures which had been so often talked of.

Proposed

The first plan attempted appears to have been suggested by Hamilton.1 For some years the King had derived profit from a percentage upon the coinage of Spanish bullion, which he afterwards transported to Dunkirk. This bullion was now seized in the Tower, to the amount of 130,000l., on promise of repayment six months later.

seizure of bullion at the Tower.

July 6. Protest of the Merchant Adventurers.

Such a blow startled every merchant in the City. Those who had money or stocks in foreign cities dreaded reprisals, which would put an end to commerce. The great Company of the Merchant Adventurers took the lead in protesting. They sent a deputation to call Strafford's attention to the mischiefs which were certain to result. Strafford told them bluntly that it was the fault of the City of London that the King had been brought to such a pass. The remonstrances of the merchants, however, were too well founded to be thus dealt with. The Council was told that if the King's faith were broken so flagrantly, all the profits which both he and his subjects had derived from making England the bullion-mart of Europe, would come to an end. At last a compromise was arrived at. The merchants agreed to lend the King 40,000l. on the security of the farmers of the customs, a security which they justly considered to be better than his own.2

More than this was needed, and it was now proposed to

The Spanish ambassadors give this as a rumour (Velada, Malvezzi, and Cardenas to the Cardinal Infant, July Brussels MSS. Sec. Esp.

18

28'

cclxxxv. fol. 32), but it is borne out by Strafford's disclaimer of having been the originator of the idea.

2 Rushw. iii. 1216. Straf. Trial, 589. Montreuil's despatches, July 19 Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15,995, fol. 97, 99. Salvetti's News-Letter, July

16

26'

Giustinian to the Doge, July

17 9 27

Ven. Transcripts, R. O.

ΙΟ

20