BOOK XIV.

MAY TO DECEMBER, A.D. 1679.

Outrages of the soldiery—Dissensions among the persecuted—Commotions in the West—Rutherglen declaration—Rising of the Presbyterians—Skirmish at Drumclog—Royal troops retire to Edinburgh—Divisions among the Presbyterians—Arrival of Monmouth—Battle of Bothwell Bridge.

Matters were now fast hastening to a crisis, especially in the west country. The licentiousness of the soldiery increased by indulgence; and after they had, through the accurate intelligence of the incumbents, pillaged every intercommuned or recusant inhabitant worth plundering, especially in the rural districts, their insatiable greed did not spare the conformist part of the community. Money was their great object; and when they could not obtain that, they vented their rage upon the property they could not carry off. In some places, they thrashed out the corn and threw it into the stream, and took the meal and trode it in the dunghill; in others, they set fire to the stacks, and if there were any grain in the garner, cast it into the flames, while they rioted on all the stock or whatever edibles they could lay their hands on. In this indiscriminate pillage, many suffered who made no great pretensions to religion, and who, without that grand counteracting principle, were by no means disposed to take patiently the spoiling of their goods by military ruffians. These, from motives of self-interest, were led to make common cause with the Presbyterians, in defence of their national rights and to avenge their civil oppressions.

The small armed conventicles finding it hazardous to meet in the neighbourhood of the garrisons, withdrew to more retired situations, and assembled in greater numbers, while their discussions involved the general principles of civil liberty, as well as the more isolated question of their right to hear the preaching of the gospel. The constant harassings they met with from the soldiers in going to or coming from the meetings, who being pre-pardoned for whatever outrage they might commit, were restrained by no motive but fear, obliged them to keep as much and as long together as they could. Their little parties gradually approximated each other; and all converging towards one focus, they at length mustered a formidable body; but not all of one mind.

Ministers who wished to pursue moderate measures, laboured under peculiar disadvantages. Some idea may be formed of the mental struggles and outward difficulties of these worthies from the account which Mr Blackadder gives of himself at this time. He ventured to preach at Fala-moor, in Livingston, on the last Sabbath of May this year, which happened to be the day before Drumclog, though neither he nor the people knew of it. His subject led him to speak of defensive arms; but in handling it, it appeared he had by no means given satisfaction. Contrasting their spiritual with their military preparations for their meetings, he proceeded:—“When you come forth with swords in your hands to defend the worship of God, it is well; but whatever you endeavour with your hostile weapons, I would have you trust little to them.” And he exhorted them to put their confidence in God rather than in their own instruments of war.

After sermon, some honest men came to him as they used to do. They were on their way westward, having heard the rumour of their friends combining in arms. He perceived them looking angry and discontented-like. “We fear, sir, you have discouraged the people by not putting them more forward to appear in arms. They needed a word of exhortation and upstirring, and not to cool their zeal as you have done.” “I do not,” said he, “condemn honest endeavours to redress your wrongs; I should be the first in cases where there is clearness to stand up and defend the gospel; but I fear forwardness without deliberation.” Hisconscientious hearers and he, upon some further conference, came to a better understanding; but he adds—“About this time there were several people more froward than godly, prudent, or charitable, who upbraided ministers that they did not press the people more, or preach so and so, according to their mind; but little did they consider, how much ministers were difficulted to give advice therein, perceiving the case so intricate for want of clearness; yet the few who stickled underhand still continued to meddle, so that poor people were put to great uncertainty, and knew not how to behave; their consciences were tortured; their hearts grieved; and their spirits fretted. But the council still furious to suppress their meetings by sending forces from time to time to dissipate them and take prisoners, was the main cause why they went forth in arms; otherwise they would not, if their rulers had not by their violent persecution provoked them to that necessity.

“Though unable from indisposition himself, he hindered none from appearing in arms who were clear and in capacity to assist, although he was much jumbled in his own mind anent that particular; and used to say, both before and after, he did not see a call for rising so clear as he could like. Though he always reverenced the providence of the rising, and approved honest designs, yet his opinion was, that the Lord called for a testimony by suffering rather than outward deliverance.”[119]

119.Mem. of Rev. John Blackadder, p. 229 et seq.

Other equally excellent men considered the question to be, Whether shall we consent to the preaching of the gospel being suppressed altogether, or shall we assert it at the point of the Sword? With regard to civil liberty, there could be no dispute. Where it is concerned, the question comes shortly to this, when tyranny reigns triumphant, “Is there, or is there not, a rational prospect of success in resistance?” But here the question was, Is it our duty with or without a prospect of success, to lift up our testimony against the iniquity of the times? nay, should there be only a prospect of sealing it with our blood? And they hesitated not to reply in the affirmative; and the first rencounter seemed to set the stamp of wisdom to this resolve, but whether more propitiousto the cause of religious liberty has been thought problematical; and of this opinion were the most influential of the persons who directed the operations of the great western meeting.

This meeting, obliged for mutual protection to assume the appearance of an army, were guilty of no acts of hostility, but their formidable front alarmed the soldiers, who reported to the council, with many exaggerations, the frequency and the force of those rendezvouses of rebellion. These produced more severe instructions for the soldiers to act with greater promptness; and thus both sides stood as it were ready prepared for conflict in the mutual apprehensions entertained of each other. At this juncture, the ultra-covenanters were headed by Robert Hamilton, brother to the Laird of Preston, who, whatever might be his abilities for theological controversy, possessed none of the commanding powers necessary for directing the movements of men maddened by oppression, and driven by the denial of every legitimate mode of redress, to the ultimate resort of a brave people—the assertion of their natural rights on the field. Besides being wholly destitute of military talents, his mind was contracted by his associating solely with those who were of his own sentiments, and seemed more anxious to secure the triumph of a party than the great cause for which all were contending.

Uncertain as to the issue of the present commotion, a number of those who composed the general meeting were anxious to publish to the world their “Testimony to the truth and cause which they owned, and against the sins and defections of the times.” This Hamilton urged as what would bind them together, and by explaining their principles, be an inducement for others to join. A majority agreeing, he, along with Mr Thomas Douglas, one of their ministers, was appointed to go to some public place, escorted by a strong party of about eighty armed men, and publish their declaration. The 29th of May, the anniversary of the king’s birth and restoration, was chosen as the most appropriate one for this their solemn act; and the royal burgh of Rutherglen was pitched upon as the place.

Accordingly, when the burghers of this little county-capital were displaying their loyalty, the small party entered in the afternoon,burned the various acts enumerated in their Testimony, then extinguished the bonfires, and affixed upon the cross a copy of “the Declaration and Testimony of some of the true Presbyterian party in Scotland.” It ran thus—“As the Lord hath been pleased to keep and preserve his interest in this land by the testimony of faithful witnesses from the beginning, so some in our days have not been wanting, who, upon the greatest of hazards, have added their testimony to the testimonies of those who have gone before them, and who have suffered imprisonments, finings, forfeitures, banishment, torture, and death, from an evil and perfidious adversary to the church and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the land. Now, we being pursued by the same adversary for our lives, while owning the interest of Christ, according to his word and the National and Solemn League and Covenants, judge it our duty (though unworthy, yet hoping we are true members of the church of Scotland) to add our testimony to those of the worthies who have gone before us in witnessing against all things that have been done publicly on prejudice of his interest from the beginning of the work of reformation, especially from the year 1648 downward to the year 1660; but more particularly those since, as—the act rescissory; the act establishing abjured prelacy; the declaration renouncing the covenants; the Glasgow act, whereby upwards ofthree hundredfaithful ministers were ejected from their churches, because they could not comply with prelacy; the act for imposing an holy anniversary day, to be kept yearly upon the 29th of May, as a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving for the setting up of an usurping power to the destroying the interest of Christ in the land; the act establishing the sacrilegious supremacy; and all the acts of council, warrants, and instructions for indulgence; and all their other sinful and unlawful acts.” In confirmation of this testimony, and to evidence their dislike of the acts testified against, they burned them publicly at the cross of Rutherglen, as their rulers unjustly, perfidiously, and presumptuously burned the sacred covenants. The paper was unsubscribed, but a notandum attached to it announced the readiness of its authors to do so if necessary, and to enlarge and avow it with all their suffering brethren in the land.

Immediately after affixing their declaration, Hamilton and his party retired towards Evandale and Newmills, in the neighbourhood of which Mr Douglas proposed to preach next Lord’s day. The news of this daring defiance spread like wildfire; and being proclaimed so near Glasgow, where the king’s troops lay, was considered by their commanders as a personal insult. James Grahame, Laird of Claverhouse, already notorious as one of the vile tools of the prelates, and active oppressors of his country, having been intrusted with extensive powers by the privy council for suppressing these abhorred conventicles, received new instructions to search out and seize, kill and destroy, all who had any share in the appearance at Rutherglen. Nor did he allow them to remain long an idle letter. Mr John King was to preach at Hamilton on Sabbath. Claverhouse set out with his band on the Saturday, and surprised and took him prisoner, with about fourteen countrymen, chiefly strangers, who had come to hear. Some few escaped and carried tidings to their friends, who formed the design of rescuing their minister. Next day, the meeting was to be held, and they expected to receive a reinforcement from them. Claverhouse, who had also been apprised of the conventicle, resolved to disperse it before returning to Glasgow with his captives.

Accordingly, upon the Sabbath morning (June 1st), he marched thither, driving the prisoners before him like sheep, bound two and two together. Public worship was begun when the accounts came of his approach. Mr Douglas stopped, prayed a little, then laid the case before the people. All that had arms, willingly offered themselves to defend the assembled company, and prevent their dispersion or capture. They mustered about forty horse and one hundred and fifty or two hundred foot, not one-third of whom had muskets; the rest carried forks and halberts. They were led by Mr (afterwards Colonel) Cleland, who fell nobly at the head of the Cameronian regiment in the battle of Dunkeld, Balfour, Rathillet, John Nisbet of Hardhill, and Mr Hamilton; and although untrained, were resolute and eager for action. They came up with the enemy on a moor “half a mile bewest Drumclog.” They received their first fire resolutely, returned it with effect, and instantly closed hand to hand. The encounterwas short. The soldiers, who probably did not expect such a reception, gave way and fled, leaving about forty killed and wounded, besides a number of prisoners who were disarmed and dismissed. The accounts of this battle which we have, are not very distinct, but from what Russell says, who was present, the chief merit appears to have belonged to Cleland. He drew up a party of foot armed with pikes, who received and broke the attack upon the right of their small party, led on by Clavers himself, who had his horse shot and very narrowly escaped. Of the countrymen, only five or six were killed; and it was the general belief, if they had pursued their advantage without giving the soldiers time to rally, they would have completely annihilated the whole party. But they only pursued them a short way, and returned to the meeting in triumph with their minister.

They could not now separate with safety; they therefore resolved to continue together, and having refreshed themselves, they marched to Hamilton, where they remained all night. Flushed by their success, they determined to proceed to Glasgow to attack the enemy’s head-quarters. Accordingly, on Monday they marched thither—their numbers swelling as they went. Grahame, however, had carried the intelligence of his own disgrace there before them, to lessen which he naturally exaggerated their force; and the troops under Lord Ross were prepared to receive them. The main body was stationed at the cross, all approaches to which were barricaded by carts, wood, and such articles as came readiest. A few men were distributed in the houses adjoining, from the windows of which they could annoy the countrymen as they advanced. The latter entered the town in two divisions—the one under the direction of John Balfour, by the High Street; the other under Hamilton, along the Gallowgate. The men attacked the entrenchments bravely; but after a contest, in which they lost about six or eight killed, and a few wounded, they were obliged to desist; but they retired in good order, and halting at a little distance to the eastward, drew up their small force and offered the soldiers battle upon even ground and equal terms—a challenge the latter did not choose to accept; and they marched back to Hamilton, less disheartened by their failure, than encouragedby the numerous accessions their ranks had received by the way.[120]

120.Wodrow says, Hamilton skulked upon this occasion. “Some question if he looked the soldiers in the face, and say that he stepped into a house at the Gallowgate bridge till the soldiers retired.” Vol. ii. p. 47. I should rather think this inconsistent with the fact of his being chosen so soon after to the chief command—only there is no accounting for the variations of mere animal courage.

The royal troops, after they were withdrawn, sallied forth and vented their dastardly spleen on the dead bodies left in the streets. They would not allow them decent burial; and when some of the townsfolk, under covert of night, took the corpses into their houses and prepared them for interment, the ruffians broke in and sacrilegiously stripped off the dead-clothes, and carried away the linen for sale. Even when at length women were tacitly permitted to perform the last sad rites, they attacked them as they were proceeding to the burial-ground, robbed them of their plaids, cut the mortcloths, and obliged them to leave the coffins in the almshouse, near the High Church, where they remained for several days, till the military were called to other service.

Immediately on receiving intelligence of these transactions, the council met and issued a vehement proclamation, denouncing the insurgents as traitors, whose rebellion was aggravated by “their having formerly tasted of the royal bounty!! and clemency,” whereunto they owed their lives and fortunes, which had been forfeited by their former rebellious practices, under the cloak of religion—the ordinary colour and pretext of rebellion. Their transactions at Rutherglen, &c. were declared to be open, manifest, and horrid rebellion and high treason, for which the actors and their adherents ought to be pursued as professed traitors; and they were called upon to lay down their weapons and surrender their persons within twenty-four hours, to the Earl of Linlithgow, commander-in-chief, or other officer or magistrates, on pain of being holden and proceeded against as incorrigible and desperate traitors, incapable of mercy or pardon; while they were not assured of pardon if they should surrender themselves upon these terms.

Two days after, another proclamation was sent forth, orderingthe militia to hold themselves to act with the regulars, as they should be required by the council, which was quickly followed by a third ordering all the heritors and freeholders to attend the king’s host—those of the western shires excepted. Meanwhile Lord Ross withdrew from Glasgow, and marching eastward was joined by the Earl of Linlithgow at Larbert-moor, whence they sent despatches to the council, entreating them to apply to his majesty for assistance from England. The council wrote to Lauderdale for the required help, and at the same time ordered the forces to cover Edinburgh. On the 7th of June they were cantoned in the vicinity.

During their encampment about Hamilton, the insurgents received considerable accessions. Captain John Paton of Meadowhead, arrived with a body of horse from Fenwick, Newmills, and Galston; Mr John Welsh brought a considerable number from Carrick;[121]and a considerable number of others assembled from various quarters without any leaders, or at least without any whose names are recorded. The whole party when at their highest, never exceeded four thousand permanent, though they varied considerably at different times owing to the numbers who came and went away again, when they perceived the confusion that reigned, from a total want of training, and of officers to train the men, scarcely one among them having ever been in the army, which was wofully increased by the melancholy dissensions and bitter disputations by which they were agitated; for no person of influence, either gentlemen or men of property, came among them.

121.When they entered Glasgow, they removed the heads of their friends which were stuck up in and about that city.

The first palpable difference was about a declaration emitted at Rutherglen, which several considered as not sufficiently explicit, yet were willing to adhere to it; as considering the shortness of the time and the hurry in which those who drew it up necessarily were, required that some allowance should be made; and it contained, in sufficiently plain terms, the grand objects for which they contended—redress of their grievances, and correction of the abuses in the affairs of church and state. The others insistedthat an enumeration of the sins and defections of the times should be inserted at length, and the indulgence especially witnessed against.

These ranged in two parties; the former,i. e.the moderate, were guided by the Laird of Kaitloch, Mr John Welsh, Mr David Hume, and some other ministers; the latter,i. e.the ultras, by Mr Robert Hamilton, with Mr Thomas Douglas, Donald Cargill, and the great majority of the younger brethren in the ministry. At the first meeting, after some warm discussion, the following sketch was agreed to:—

“We who are here providentially convened in our own defence, for preventing and removing the mistakes and misapprehensions of all, especially of those whom we wish to be and hope are friends, do declare our present purposes and endeavours to be only in vindication and defence of the true reformed religion in its professions and doctrine, as we stand obliged thereunto by our ‘National and Solemn League and Covenants,’ and that solemn ‘Acknowledgment of sins,’ and ‘Engagement to duties,’ made and taken in the year 1648, declaring against popery, prelacy, erastianism, and all things depending thereupon.” This did not give general satisfaction; and the few days they were allowed to be together, while the enemy were gathering around them, which they ought to have employed in assiduously improving their discipline, and in military exercises, they wasted in theological tilting and polemical skirmishes among themselves, about matters which, even after a victory, it would have been as well to have made the subject of forbearance, but which in their then situation could answer no other purpose than that of paralysing an effort, whose only chance of success depended on the united, vigorous, and unremitted direction of all their energies and resources, mental and physical, to one grand end.

That those who had been nurtured in the wilds, and borne for eighteen years the brunt of the persecution, and whose intercourse had been chiefly confined to their fellow-sufferers, should have been keen, contracted, and irritable, was what was naturally to have been expected; and yet, from the accounts we have of these disputes, those who assumed the name of moderates appear tohave been mainly to blame by their unyielding contendings for milder principles and softer proceedings. As they then stood, to talk of moderation was to invite disaster. They had been declared rebels, and when they drew the sword, no hope remained but what its point could purchase. To attempt soothing their opponents by honeyed words was like hushing the hungry tiger with a song. The moderate party objected to the clause “All things depending thereupon,” and desired it to be erased as too closely pointing out the indulgence at a time when every bone of contention should be taken away from the Presbyterians that might tempt them to bite and devour one another. The ultras urged that the expressions were general; and, in their opinion, erastianism was as directly abjured by their church as prelacy, and that the indulgence was a fruit of erastianism.[122]Contentions grew hot and love waxed cold.

122.The doctrine of Erastus, a German divine, who asserted that the pastoral office was only persuasive, like that of the professorship of any other science; that the communion was free to all, and that a minister could only dissuade, but not prohibit, a vicious character from participating in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper; and that the punishment of all ecclesiastical offences, as well as the support of all ecclesiastical institutions, belonged to the civil magistrate, upon the principle that they who paid servants had a right to demand their service in the manner they thought most proper, and to dismiss them if they disobeyed their orders.

At another meeting—for their meetings and debates were endless—it was proposed that a day should be set aside for fasting and humiliation. Alas! it turned out to be a day of strife and confusion. In their confession of sins, the moderates were now for generals, the ultras for particulars, and enumerated—1st, The universal rioting throughout the land on the king’s return in 1660, the many public abuses then committed, and the frequent profaning of the Lord’s name. 2d, The establishing and complying with prelacy. 3d, Neglecting a public testimony against the tyrannical hierarchy, and against defacing the Lord’s glorious work and overturning the right government of his house. 4th, The sin of taking unlawful bonds. 5th, The paying cess; and, 6th, Complying with abjured erastianism:—ministers appearing at the court of usurping rulers, and there accepting from them warrantsand instructions, founded upon that sacrilegious supremacy to admit them to, and regulate them in, the exercise of their ministry; their leading blindfold along with them many of the godly in that abjured course; their indulgence becoming a public sin and snare both to themselves and others.

The moderates would not consent to the enumeration, though it is not easy to imagine upon what grounds men who contended for the supreme headship of Christ in his church could consistently oppose it. No fast was kept; and, if we may be allowed to judge from a communication between the heads of the parties, perhaps it was as well that it was not. Mr Hamilton sent a message to the ministers of the moderate side to preach against the indulgence, otherwise he and a number of the officers would not come to hear them. Mr Rae, one of the ministers, returned for answer—“That he had been wrestling against erastianism in the magistrate for many years, and he would never truckle to the worst kind of erastianism in the common people; that he would receive no instruction from him nor any of them as to the subject and matter of his sermons; and wished he might mind what belonged to him, and not go beyond his sphere and station.”

Differing so widely respecting the testimony they were to bear to the cause, as little could they agree with regard to their manifesto to the nation. In a meeting of their officers,[123]the ultras proposed that the Rutherglen declaration should be adopted as the basis; the moderates, that the king’s authority should be expressly acknowledged, in terms of the 3d article of the Solemn League and Covenant, in which they swore “to defend the king’s majesty’s person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdom, that the world may bear witness with our consciences of our loyalty, and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his majesty’s just power and greatness.” To this the others answered—that, as they had not urged any positive declaration against him, although he had in fact declared war against his people; and all the oppression, cruelty, and persecution in Scotland of which they complained, and forthe redress of which they were now in arms, were carried on in his name—they could not consistently with their previous declarations, nor with the covenants which bound the whole land, first to God and then to one another; and then to the king only in defence of the true religion, which he had actually overturned by setting up prelacy, ruined the covenanted work of reformation and the liberties of the nation, persecuted to death the supporters of both, and broken the conditions of government sworn to at his coronation, on which his right and their allegiance were founded.

123.This is styled indiscriminately, a meeting of officers or a council of war.

The ultras were right in the abstract; and had they known how to mould it to practical purposes, they might have anticipated, as they certainly prepared the way for, the Revolution of 1688; that sound, practical exposition of the principles which the others missed, by contending for what is utterly impossible under the present constitution of human nature:—uniformity in a religious creed and civil liberty to be held together in a nation, composed of reasoning beings, susceptible of different views of the same truths, and allowed to exercise their reasoning powers. I am strongly inclined to believe, however, that much personal feeling mixed up in the controversy, and that the moderates allowed themselves to be led astray by an especial opposition to Robert Hamilton; and by showing this too openly, united to that politico-religious demagogue the honest and upright party, who were induced to suspect some lurking trimming policy in the measures of the moderates, because they appeared to them to encourage an accommodation with the enemy upon a compromise of principle. The others carried their doctrine of submission to the civil government to a length unwarrantable in free countries; and Scotland ought to have been a free country. There are reciprocal duties between the people and their rulers; and it is against one of the first principles of our nature, to assert that either of the parties have a right to violate their obligations, merely because they happen to have the means of so doing.

While these disputes were distracting the Presbyterians in Scotland, intrigue and emulation were dividing the councils of their enemies in London. The wretched Charles found that licentiousness was not the road to happiness, and that concubinagedid not tend to promote domestic felicity. With the struggles of panders for domination over the poor heartless thing, that revelled amid the gaudy trappings of royalty, I do not intend to pollute my pages; it is sufficient to say, that his favourite bastard, whom he had decorated with the title of Duke of Buccleuch and Monmouth, gained the perilous and to him fatal eminence of commander-in-chief of his forces in Scotland. The temper of this young man was amiable; and, unlike the Stuarts, he both wished and endeavoured to promote the welfare of the people and adhere to moderate and salutary councils; but these dispositions rendered him obnoxious to those who ruled the councils of his father. The Duke of York, by his imperious, severe, and obstinate temper, had long held Charles in bondage, and prevented the exercise of any humane feeling towards the Scottish insurgents, which, however transient, he on some occasions appeared to possess; and Lauderdale, instigated and supported by the clergy of Scotland, preferred pursuing a line of conduct which recommended him to them rather than what accorded either with the circumstances of the times or the real stability of the throne.

Monmouth’s instructions were in accordance with the wishes of the prelatic rulers—forbidding him to negotiate with the rebels, whom he was to extirpate, not to reconcile. On the 18th of June, he arrived at Edinburgh, and was admitted a privy councillor. Next day, he proceeded to assume the command of the army, which lay within two miles of the Kirk of Shotts, and, having been reinforced by some troops from England, amounted to ten thousand men. A letter from the king immediately followed his Grace, thanking the council for their diligence in endeavouring to meet the emergency, and informing them that it was his royal will and pleasure “that they should prosecute the rebels with fire and sword, and all other extremities of war, and particularly requiring them to use their utmost endeavours in getting the best intelligence of all such as were engaged in this unnatural rebellion, being fully resolved to bring the ringleaders among them to condign punishment suitable to their notorious and insolent conduct; likewise putting them in mind that all care and diligence be used for discovering the murderers of the late Archbishopof St Andrews, by all the severity that law would allow, and punishing with all rigour the actors or accessaries to that horrid murder, their resettors or abettors;” thus anticipating, or rather authorising, the subsequent watchword, which became the warrant for unrelenting and indiscriminate massacre.

The council, in reply, expressed the universal joy which this gracious communication had created among them, and extolled that royal wisdom which had given such just measures and directions for suppressing the insurrection and securing his own government, together with their religion, lives, and properties, which would all undoubtedly have been endangered by the frequency of similar attempts that would have ensued, if the present insolent rebels, who now disturbed the kingdom, had been ordered to be spared or gently dealt with; thus, in like manner, anticipating the cruelties in which they afterwards rioted. A copy of the king’s letter was immediately forwarded to Monmouth for his guidance.

The moderate friends of the Whigs in Edinburgh also sent instructions to them, respecting the course they thought they should pursue, especially warning them against being led astray by the hotheaded party among them; advising them to send propositions to the Duke, narrating the oppressions they had endured, and cheerfully professing their fidelity to the king, for whom they were ready to sacrifice every thing they held most dear, excepting only their religion and liberty; and, above all, to avoid fighting, except with seen advantage by surprisal or ambuscade—to keep close together, sending scouts out in all directions, and particularly not to be too secure upon the Sabbath day; while they kept up close intercourse with their friends throughout the country, and endeavoured to induce them to join the army in defence of the grand principles held not only by themselves, but by a great sympathizing body throughout England.

A wholesome advice, unfortunately tendered in vain! Multitudes who came to the camp, when they perceived the distractions that prevailed, left it despairing of any happy issue, and not only weakened the troops by their desertion, but prevented many who were coming, or preparing to come, from joining sodiscordant an assemblage. This again caused accusations and recriminations, each side upbraiding the other for being the occasion of such mischief and visible hindrance to the good cause, destroyed all cordial co-operation, and prevented the discipline of the troops; so that, when the king’s forces approached, they presented the melancholy appearance of a disjointed rabble of countrymen, whose numbers did not exceed six thousand men. The necessity of naming officers who had had some experience in warlike affairs was pressing, and the leaders met for this purpose on the 21st; but, after a stormy discussion, not on the military merits of the men, but on the question, whether any should be intrusted with command who had owned the indulgence? Mr Hamilton and a number of his supporters withdrew in anger from the meeting, without having come to any determination. A few of the temperate who remained, drew up a respectful supplication to Monmouth, stating their grievances, and requesting liberty, under safe conduct, for a few of their number to state their grievances, that they might obtain through his favour some speedy and effectual redress.

Battle of Bothwell Bridge.Vide page374.Edinr. Hugh Paton, Carver & Gilder, to the Queen, 1842.

Next day, the armies were within sight of each other. The king’s troops spread upon Bothwell-moor, with their advanced guard in the town; the Whigs stationed along Hamilton-moor, on the south side of the river Clyde, with their advanced guard at the bridge—an old narrow structure, the only pass by which they were assailable. Early that morning, Mr David Hume, Mr Fergusson of Caitloch, and Mr John Welsh went in disguise to Monmouth’s head-quarters. On passing, they were politely saluted by Claverhouse and had ready access to his Grace. When introduced, they stated their demands, which were—that they might be allowed the free exercise of their religion, and suffered to attend the ordinances dispensed by Presbyterian ministers without molestation; that a free Parliament and General Assembly might be called to settle the affairs of church and state; and an indemnity offered to all who were or had been in arms. The Duke, who heard them with great attention, replied that the king had given him no instructions respecting these matters; he therefore could not say any thing about them, only he assured the delegates hewould lay their requests before his majesty, and as he thought them reasonable, had no doubt they would be granted; but in the meanwhile, he could enter into no terms till they laid down their arms and threw themselves entirely upon the royal mercy. He then dismissed them, and gave them half an hour to return him an answer from their friends whether they would consent to his proposal. At the same time, he issued orders to put the troops in motion.

When the commissioners reported the Duke’s demand, that they should lay down their arms previous to terms being offered, Mr Hamilton, who had now assumed the command, laughed at it, and said, “Aye! and hang next.” No answer was therefore returned. As soon as the half hour’s truce expired, Lord Livingston advanced at the head of the foot-guards with the cannon to force the bridge. He was firmly received by a small determined band under Ure of Shargarton and Major Learmont, who drove them back twice, and would even have taken the cannon had they been properly supported, but their ammunition failed; and when they sent to the commander for a fresh supply, or a reinforcement of men better provided, they received orders to retire upon the main body, which, having no other alternative, they did, and with heavy hearts left their vantage ground, and with it every chance of success.[124]The royal army then passed the bridge, and drew up upon the bank with their artillery in front, to which the patriots had nothing to oppose but one field-piece and two large uncouth unmounted muskets; yet did they force Lord Livingston to halt, till the cannon having been opened upon the left, threw the undisciplined horse of the countrymen into disorder, and the route immediately became universal.[125]

124.The honour of this defence is claimed by Russell for Hackston of Rathillet, who also had a command; but it is universally allowed that the nominal General, Hamilton, was among the first to flee.

125.Although we may lament the dreadful and bloody years which followed this victory, and hold up to merited execration the persecuting prelates, yet, perhaps, the descendants of the persecuted have reason to bless God that the ultra-covenanters did not gain that day. It would have given the chief power into the hands of Robert Hamilton, who commanded upon that occasion; and what use he would have made of it may be fairly conjectured from the following vindication of his conduct in murdering in cold blood a prisoner after the battle of Drumclog. It is contained in a letter from him addressed to “the anti-popish, anti-prelatic, anti-sectarian, true Presbyterian remnant of the church of Scotland,” dated December 7, 1685:—“As for that accusation they bring against me of killing the poor man (as they call him) at Drumclog, I may easily guess that my accusers can be no other but some of the house of Saul or Shemei, or some such risen again to espouse that poor gentleman’s (Saul) his quarrel against honest Samuel, for his offering to kill that poor man,Agag, after the king’s giving him quarters. But I being called to command that day, gave out the word that no quarter should be given; and returning from pursuing Claverhouse, one or two of these fellows were standing in the midst of our friends, and some were debating for quarters, some against it. None could blame me to decide the controversy; and I bless the Lord for it to this day!! There were five more that, without my knowledge, got quarters, who were brought to me after we were a mile from the place as having got quarters—which I reckoned among the first steppings aside; and seeing that spirit amongst us at that time, I then told it to some that were with me (to my best remembrance it was honest old John Nisbet) that I feared the Lord would not honour us to do much for him. I shall only say this—I desire to bless his holy name that, since ever he helped me to set my face to his work, I never had nor would take a favour from enemies, either on right or left hand, and desired to give as few.”—Faithful Contendings, p. 201 et seq.

Few fell in the fight, but the pursuit was cruel and bloody; upwards of four hundred were cut down, and twelve hundred who were on the moor, were forced to surrender at discretion. The slaughter would have been greater had not Monmouth, in spite of the advice of some of the other Generals, ordered the vanquished to be spared, when the yeomanry cavalry especially were executing cruel vengeance on the unresisting fugitives. Among the prisoners were Messrs King and Kid, ministers, who were, however, only preserved by his humanity from military violence, that they might afterwards satiate the cruelty of their clerical enemies by a more disgraceful execution, if dying in any manner for the cause of truth can be called disgraceful. The treatment of the captives by the inferior officers, to whose charge they were committed, was unnecessarily vindictive and severe. They were stripped nearly naked, and made to lie flat on the ground, nor suffered to change their position; and when some of them ventured to raise themselves to implore a draught of water, they were instantly shot. They were afterwards tied two and two and driven to Edinburgh, to be placed at the council’s disposal.

Nor was the cruelty confined to those taken in battle, numbers of unarmed men, who were merely coming to hear sermon at the camp, were murdered on the road by the soldiery; and one atrocious case stands painfully conspicuous. Arthur Inglis of Cambusnethan, while quietly reading his bible in a furrow, was observed by a party who were patrolling the country in search of delinquents, and being actually discovered in this treasonable fact, one of the soldiers fired at the traitor; but missing, the good man startled a little, looked round for a moment, and then, without appearing to be alarmed, resumed his reading, when another of the miscreants, by order of his viler commander, clave his skull, and left him dead on the spot! The numbers who were thus wantonly massacred, are variously stated; but if we take the lowest, two hundred—considering the then state of the population—it shows, in sufficiently strong colours, a barbarous waste of life, and the danger of committing such extravagant powers into the hands of an unbridled soldiery.

Yet terrible as these military executions were, they were mild and merciful compared with the legal atrocities which followed. As after Pentland no faith was kept with the prisoners, who were treated—as men who fail in struggling for their rights always are—more like wild, noxious animals than fellow-creatures of the human form; a lesson to patriots and to the oppressed when they rise against their tyrants:—better perish on the high places of the field than submit to languish out a few mournful years beneath the tender mercies of the victors. While being driven to the capital, the captive patriots were exposed to every indignity the ingenious malignity of their persecutors could invent, especially being made, as they passed along, a gazing-stock to the crowd, who taunted them with such questions, as—where is your prophet Welsh who told you ye should win the day? where are your covenants that were never to fail? or such sarcasms, as—aye! this is your testimony—this is standing up for the gude auld cause! see if it will stand up for you! When they arrived in the capital, the council ordered the magistrates to place them in the Greyfriar’s churchyard, with a sufficient number of sentinels over them, to guard them night and day; especially during the night, they were tobe rigorously watched to prevent escape; and such was their determination to enforce vigilance, that the officers were ordered to keep exact rolls of the sentinels, and if any of the prisoners were amissing, they were to throw dice and answer body for body. For nearly five months were the greater part of the sufferers kept in this open space, without any covering from the rain or shelter from the tempest. During the day, they generally stood, but had not even the miserable privilege of a short walk. During night, the cold damp ground was their bed, without a covering; and if any attempted to rise, for whatever purpose, the sentinels had orders to fire upon them. With great difficulty did any of their friends obtain permission to visit them, or bring them provisions, and these were chiefly females, who were exposed to the grossest insults from the guards; and not infrequently were the provisions they carried destroyed, and the water spilt, before either could reach the starving prisoners; for the government allowance which the Duke of Monmouth procured for them, was, besides being of the worst quality, very scanty. Nor did the inhumanity of the ruffian soldiery allow them to retain money or any article they could pilfer from them, even their shoes, stockings, and upper garments were carried off; and when blankets or any bedclothes were brought, they were immediately seized as lawful plunder.

Before Monmouth left Scotland, he procured the liberation of some hundreds, upon their subscribing a bond, enacting themselves in the books of the privy council not to take up arms without or against his majesty’s authority; and had also obtained for a few of them the stinted favour of wretched huts, to be erected as the winter approached. The bond became another cause of unhappy difference and alienation among the sufferers themselves. Those who refused amounted to about four hundred, and much interest was made to procure their deliverance, especially by some who thought they might sign the bond without sin, endeavouring to persuade them to submit, as it did not involve the sacrifice of any of those principles for which they had taken arms. The others, however, more consistently, viewed their subscribing the bond as an admission that their previous rising hadbeen criminal, and therefore persisted in their refusal. The hardships they had so long endured, and their mutual exhortations, heightened and strengthened their scruples, till they became absolutely impenetrable to whatever could be urged upon the subject, nor would listen either to entreaty or argument. Yet upwards of an hundred contrived to effect an escape; some by the purchased connivance of the guards, some by climbing the walls at the hazard of their lives, others by changing their clothes, and some in women’s apparel.

The remnant who remained firm, were doomed to slavery in the plantations; and their fate, had earth terminated their hopes, was melancholy; but viewed as that of those who through much tribulation must enter the kingdom, was enviable—inexpressibly enviable! when compared with that of their oppressors, who unwittingly sent them by the shortest road to heaven.[126]Their numbers, estimated at about two hundred and fifty-seven, were to be transported to Barbadoes and sold for slaves. Mr Blackadder thus narrates the tragical story:—“The prisoners were all shipped in Leith roads (15th November) in an English captain’s vessel, to be carried to America. He was a profane, cruel wretch, and used them barbarously, stewing them up between decks, where they could not get up their heads, except to sit or lean, and robbing them of many things their friends had sent them for their relief. They never were in such strait and pinch, particularly through scorching drowth, as they were allowed little or no drink and pent up together, till many of them fainted and were almost suffocated. This was in Leith roads, besides what straits they would readily endure in the custody of such a cruel wretch. In this grievous plight, these captives were carried away in much anguish of spirit, pinched bodies, and disquieted consciences, (at least those who had taken the bond.[127]) They were tossed at seawith great tempest of weather for three weeks, till at last their ship cast anchor, to ride awhile among the Orkney Isles, till the storm might calm. But after casting anchor, the ship did drive with great violence upon a rugged shore about the isles, and struck about ten at night on a rock. The cruel captain saw the hazard all were in, and that they might have escaped as some did; yet, as I heard, he would not open the hatches to let the poor prisoners fend for themselves. He with his seamen made their escape by a mast laid over between the ship and the rock ashore. Some leapt on the rock.

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