1639

THE SCOTS ON DUNSE LAW.

31

for the numerical deficiency. There was no lack in their camp either of money or provisions. The taxation levied by the Tables had been on the whole cheerfully paid, and the rents of those who refused to take the Covenant had been seized for the use of the defenders of the country. The voluntary contributions of the citizens of Edinburgh did the rest. The 'stout young ploughmen' who had come forth to fight round the banners which bore the rallying cry, "For Christ's Crown and Covenant," were well pleased to satisfy their hunger on the wheaten bread and the legs of lamb which was a dainty world to the most of them.' Not everything, indeed, in this Covenanting army was to the mind of the pious ministers who had left their parishes to fan the flame of zeal

the army.

Discipline of amongst the soldiers. In that army were to be heard the singing of psalms and the fervent accents of prayer; but there was also to be heard the sound of 'swearing and cursing and brawling.'1 If piety was not everywhere to be found in Leslie's camp, there was at least military discipline. The Scottish nobility set an excellent example of subordination. Englishmen who carried messages from Hamilton's fleet to the Covenanting leaders remarked with surprise that highborn nobles sat uncovered in the presence of the dwarfish and deformed man whom they had chosen to be their master in the art of war.2 Baillie, who had come to act as chaplain to the host, was unable to restrain his addescription miration. "Our soldiers," he wrote, "grow in experience of arms, in courage, in favour daily; every one encouraged another, the sight of the nobles and their beloved pastors daily raised their hearts, the good sermons and prayers, morning and even, under the roof of heaven, to which their drums did call them for bells; the remonstrances, very frequent, of the goodness of their cause, of their conduct hitherto by a hand clearly Divine; also Leslie's skill and fortune, made them all so resolute for battle as could be wished. We were feared that emulation among our nobles might have done harm when they should be met in the fields;

Baillie's

of the army.

1 Baillie, i. 212.

2 De Vic to Windebank, May 23, S. P. Dɔm. ccccxxii. 28.

but such was the wisdom and authority of that old, little, crooked soldier, that all, with an incredible submission from the beginning to the end, gave over themselves to be guided by him as if he had been great Solyman. Certainly, the obedience of our nobles to that man's advices was as great as their forbears wont to be to their King's commands; yet that was the man's understanding of our Scots' humour, that gave out, not only to the nobles, but to very mean gentlemen, his directions in a very homely and simple form, as if they had been but the advices of their neighbour and companion; for, as he rightly observed, a difference would be used in commanding soldiers of fortune, and of soldiers volunteers, of which the most part of our camp did stand.” 1

1 Baillie, i. 213.

1639. March 21.

Wentworth advises the postpone. ment of an attack.

CHAPTER LXXXIX.

THE TREATY OF BERWICK.

SOME days before the appearance of the Scottish army on Dunse Law a letter had arrived from Wentworth, entreating that the attack upon Scotland might be postponed for a year, when the English preparations would be more complete. "Fight not," the Lord Deputy had written, "with an imperfectly disciplined and knowing army." Yet Charles, who knew better than Wentworth how impossible it was to keep his army together even through the summer, must have smiled bitterly as he read the well-meant advice. He had, indeed, one hope still before him. He had asked Wentworth to send Scotland. over to the West of Scotland 1,000 men out of his own small Irish army, which now numbered only 3,000 in all,

Wentworth

to come to

1 Wentworth to Vane, May 21, Melbourne MSS. It would be interesting to know whether there is any foundation for the charge against the Covenanters made in this letter:- "The insolence of those Covenanters," wrote Wentworth, "is beyond all modesty or bounds, and, it seems, pride themselves in the justice of their cause and strength of their party. May they be as much mistaken in this latter-as I trust they either are or will be as they are in the former, and they may truly be pronounced the most miserable lost people that ever were in the Christian world. Their admitting of Popish lords into their party will show what their religion is, perchance, to the holy brotherhood in England, and--if that for their hypocritical winking and wringing [?] at their prayers, God have not struck them stone blind-let them see that this is not a war of piety for Christ's sake, but a war of liberty for their own unbridled inordinate lusts and ambitions, such as threw Lucifer forth of heaven, and may, without their repentance, bring these to shake hands with those gainsaying spirits below."

together with any troops which Antrim might be able to raise. In this way Charles hoped to place Leslie between two fires. Wentworth's reply, directed to Vane, dashed the cup from Charles's lips. "I confess," wrote the Lord Deputy, "my May 30. desire is His Majesty should not provoke them as Wentworth yet; rather to lie still on the border till towards the pleads for delay. end of August, entrenching his army the whilst, and continually exercising his men to gain them the knowledge of their profession. . . There is more need of a Fabius amongst us than of a Marcellus."

As for himself, Wentworth declared that he was ready to obey orders, whatever they might be ; but he wished it to be known that to send soldiers out of Ireland would be to court disaster. Antrim was in no condition to move, and the whole of his own small force was needed where it was. "There are," continued Wentworth,

The whole province of Con

66 100,000 at least of the Scottish nation on this side; and whether their inclination be with the Covenanters you may well suspect. naught is as yet unsettled, and impossible that people can take delight in the fulfilling the services of the Crown in that plantation ;-nay, that it can be indeed effected without some discontentments and grumblings in the parties interested. Be yourself the judge whether we ought to expect other, when he that loseth least is to have a full fourth of all his lands taken from him for the King." Similar plantations, he added, were on foot in Munster with the like results. Last winter 'the beggarly desperate natives' had fallen into a very wicked course of burning the Englishmen's houses' in several counties; and though most of them had been taken and executed, excesses of the same kind were to be feared the moment that the pressure of the army was withdrawn.

Wentworth's

offer.

If, however, Wentworth could not land in Scotland, he was ready to make the Scots think that he meant to do so. He had already half his army stationed at Carrickfergus. If it was thought desirable, he would lead the remainder in person to the same station. In one month he could be joined by all the men who were subject to military service in Ulster, and could collect all the shipping, so as to make the

1639

WENTWORTH'S OFFER.

35

Scots think that he purposed to effect a crossing. "By which means," he explained, "I shall raise such a rattle as may occasion, perchance, them to rest the less; howbeit it will not in the conclusion have with it that dangerous sting which the rattle-serpents we hear of in Virginia are reported to carry with them in their tails."1

As it was still possible that even this threat of invasion might not be sufficient to keep the Scots from invading England, Wentworth had yet one more suggestion to make. "If," he wrote, "their present strength be in any proportion equal to his Majesty's forces, methinks it were good, by quietness and show of treaty, to amuse them and spin out this summer as much as possibly may be, so wasting them à petit feu, and dissolving them through their own wants, distastes, and discontentments among themselves.”2

Charles is unable to accept it.

The last suggestion was well suited to make an impression on Charles's mind. Yet even if he had wished to adopt it, it was out of his power to adopt it as a whole. Wentworth wished him to treat whilst his army kept guard upon the Borders. Charles knew perfectly well that he could not keep his army long enough together to make a fictitious negotiation of any value at all. If he did not treat in earnest, it would soon be too late to treat at all. Even whilst he could keep his army together he had nothing to oppose to the combination of military discipline and national and religious enthusiasm which formed the strength of the Scottish army. Brave as his English followers individually were, Leslie, if he had chosen to attack them in their bivouac at the Birks, would have driven them like England. chaff before the wind. If Charles should make up his mind to treat he would find the Scots ready to meet him half-way. There were shrewd heads in the Scottish camp, who knew better than to court a perilous victory. They were now contending with Charles. If English soldiers were driven in headlong rout, and if the tramp of a Scottish army were heard on English soil, it might very well be that they would 1 Wentworth's knowledge of rattlesnakes was evidently not great. 2 Wentworth to Vane, May 30, Melbourne. MSS.

June 6. The Scots shrink from

invading