BOOK XXI.

A.D. 1685.

Accession of James VII.—Proceedings of the privy council—Field murders—Northern commission—Indemnity—Outrages in the south—Two women drowned—John Brown, the Christian carrier—Parliament—Argyle’s expedition—Suspected persons sent to Dunotter—Argyle defeated—taken—executed—Colonel Rumbold—Nisbet of Hardhill and other sufferers.

An express which left London on the 2d of February, arrived in Edinburgh on the 6th, bringing intelligence of the king having been struck with an apoplectic fit. On the 10th, early in the morning, the privy council received the news of his death, and at ten o’clock, the authorities proceeded in their robes to the cross, where the Chancellor, “who,” says Fountainhall, “carried his own purse, and weeping,” proclaimed James Duke of Albany, the only undoubted and lawful king of this realm, under the name of James VII. But he had not taken, and never did take, the Scottish coronation oath:—so scrupulous was he with regard to his own conscience in matters of religion. The proclamation, however, which was sent down from London, paid less respect to the consciences of his subjects, who were bound by every sacred and constitutional tie to resist popery and popish rulers. After declaring that his majesty, their only righteous sovereign over all persons and in all causes, held his imperial crown from God alone, thus concluded—“And we—(the lords of his majesty’s privy council, with the concurrence of several others, lords spiritual andtemporal, barons and burgesses of this realm)—hereby give our oaths, with uplifted hands, that we shall bear true and faithful allegiance unto our said sacred Sovereign, James VII., King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith!! &c. and to his lawful heirs and successors; and shall perform all duties, service, and obedience to him, as becomes his faithful, loyal, and dutiful subjects. So help us GOD.” Then followed another, announcing that his majesty continued all the servants of the crown in their offices till he had leisure to send down new commissioners.

Next day the Court of Session met, when the lords not only took the oath of allegiance, and swore the test again themselves, but administered them likewise to all the advocates, clerks, and writers. The king’s speech to his cabinet—-in which he promised to follow the example of his brother in his great clemency and tenderness to his people, to preserve the government in church and state, as by law established; and as he would never depart from the just rights and prerogatives of the crown, so he would never invade any man’s property—was extensively circulated; and the people were desired to believe that the royal papist would promote the Protestant religion, or at least preserve it.

As a practical illustration of his majesty’s professions, the council appointed a committee to inquire into the state of the prisoners in the Canongate jail; and, upon their report, sent two to the justiciary, and fourteen to the plantations, because they would not violate their consciences; and for the same obstinacy, the Dumbarton commission court fined John Napier of Kilmahew in £2000 sterling; John Zuil of Darleith, £1000; John Campbell of Carrick, £1500, for himself and lady; and Isabel Buchanan, £100; and ordered them to be imprisoned till they paid their fines, or gave satisfaction to Queensberry, the lord-treasurer.

At the same time, the work of blood went on in the fields. Captain Bruce surprised (February 19th) six of the wanderers on Lochenket-muir, in Galloway, and ordered four of them to be shot without further inquiry. The other two he carried to Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, at Irongray, who, upon their refusing the abjuration, instantly hanged them upon an oak-tree. One ofthem, a married man, before his execution, was asked if he had any word to send to his wife, answered, “I leave her and my two babes on the Lord and on his promise;—a father to the fatherless, and an husband to the widow is the Lord, in his holy habitation.” Two days after, five were murdered at Kirkconnel; and early next month, other three, in the parish of Kirkpatrick, were despatched in the same summary manner, by the same miserable slave of the prelates.

But the day did not suffice. Like the wild beasts, these monsters prowled about at night, seeking for their prey. On the 28th, about eleven o’clock, p.m., Lieutenant Douglas surrounded the house of Dalwin, and apprehended David Martin. When going away, they perceived a youth, Edward Kyan, concealing himself between the end of one house and the sidewall of another. He was immediately dragged forth; and, without being asked any other question than where he lived, the lieutenant shot him through the head, first with one pistol and then with another; and the soldiers pretending to observe some motion, shot him a third time. Martin underwent a more aggravated death. When the soldiers stripped him of his coat, they made him kneel beside the mangled body of his friend. Six were ordered to present their pieces, when another of the party stept between them and their intended victim, and begged the lieutenant to spare him till next day, alleging they might get some discoveries, to which Douglas consenting, his life was spared; but terror had deprived the poor youth of his reason, who at the same time being struck with palsy, was carried to bed, where he lingered four years, and died. Several women compassionating the sufferer, were cruelly beat and wounded, for displaying the natural sympathy of their sex. After this exploit, Douglas caught one Edward Mackeen, and because he had a flint-stone, perhaps for striking fire in his hiding-place, shot him without other evidence of guilt.

Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, while ranging the country, having surprised Mr Bell of Whiteside, step-son to Viscount Kenmuir, with whom he himself was well acquainted, and other four in company, in the parish of Tongland, Galloway, they surrendered without resistance, upon assurance of having their livesspared; but the wretch murdered them instantly, without even allowing them time to pray; and when Mr Bell earnestly begged only for a quarter of an hour to prepare for death, he refused it with an oath, asking contemptuously, “What the devil! have you not had time enough to prepare since Bothwell?”

While the south suffered severely, the north was not exempted. On the 2d of March, the Earls of Errol and Kintore, and Sir George Monro of Culrain, who had been sent thither commissioners, gave in their report to the council, and have thus themselves recorded the oppressions for which they received the thanks of their worthy employers. On their arrival in Morayshire, their first act was to cause a gallows be erected at Elgin, where the court sat, in order to stimulate the loyalty of the inhabitants. Then they issued orders to the sheriff for summoning all disorderly persons within the shires of Banff, Ross, and Sutherland, to appear before them on a certain day, and forbade any person to leave the district without their license, and all who entered it from the south to produce their papers for examination. At the same time, they graciously “allowed” the heritors and the burghs to meet and make address of what they would offer for the security and the peace of the government; and they “unanimously and voluntarily!” made offer of three months’ supply, signed a bond for securing the peace, and did also swear the test and oath of allegiance, except a few heritors, to whom the lords thought fit not to tender the same at that time, but who appeared willing to take it, and some loyal persons absent on excuses—evidently papists, as these alone among the recusants found any favour.[160]

160.This appears pretty plain from the manner in which Presbyterians were treated and the way their fines were disposed of. The Laird of Grant was fined in £42,000, Scots; the Laird of Brody, £24,000; Laird of Lethin, £40,000; Francis Brody of Miltoun, £10,000; Francis Brody of Windyhills, £3333: 6: 8.; James Brody of Kinlee, £333: 6: 8. These were the sums as reported to the council. In a particular narrative sent Wodrow by “a worthy gentleman in Murray, upon whom the reader may depend for the truth of it,” the sums are rated higher; and it is mentioned besides, that the Laird of Brody—this Brody’s grandfather, which family seems, either from their wealth or worth, or both, to have been peculiarly mulcted—was fined forty-five thousand merks, merely for having a conventicle in his house. Of this plunder, £22,000 were paid to one Colonel Maxwell, a papist; £40,000, Lethin’s fine, were gifted to the Scottish papistical college at Douay, which was compounded for; £30,000 paid to the Earl of Perth. The remainder appears to have been bestowed on the satellites of the party. Gray of Crichy, who adjudged the estate, got the proceeds.—Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 468.

They did very strictly examine all the ministers and elders, with several persons of honour and loyalty, anent the disorderly persons therein, libelled all persons delated, banished some, fined others, and remitted a few to the council. The aged Laird of Fowlis—“a disorderly person not able to travel”!—they imprisoned at Tain, and the younger, at Inverness, in case he refused the bond of peace. They cleansed the country of all “outted” ministers and vagrant preachers; banished four of them for keeping conventicles and refusing to keep the kirk!!—one being an heritor, they fined in ten thousand merks besides!—and sent the five prisoners to Edinburgh. A good many common and very mean people, who were accused and indicted for church disorders, upon inquiry being found to have been formerly punished and since regular, were set free upon finding security for their future good behaviour.

The case of the Laird of Grant, however, deserves especial notice, for the peculiarly unprincipled rapacity displayed by the ravening crew. The decreet against him was founded on his wife’s having confessed two years and a half’s withdrawing from ordinances, his keeping an unlicensed chaplain, hearing “outted” ministers preach and pray several times, which he himself had confessed. To this he answered in a petition to the council, for relief, April 2:—that the parish church was vacant for a year and a half of the time mentioned; and that during the remainder his wife was so unwell, that she was given over by her physicians; and that both before and after the time libelled, she had been a constant hearer. Nor did he or his wife ever hear an “outted” minister either preach or pray, except in the House of Lethin, when his mother-in-law, the Lady Lethin, was on her deathbed, and there were not more than five or six present, who were members of the family, performing the last sacred duties to their dying relative; that Alexander Murray, called his unlicensed chaplain, was never in his service, but was a minister, instituted by BishopMurdo Mackenzie into the kirk of Daviot, who had given up his charge in consequence of bodily infirmity; and he (Grant) was most desirous, and cheerfully offered, to give all the evidences and demonstrations of his loyalty and affection to the government that could be demanded. Yet did his majesty’s high commissioner and the lords of the privy council, find “that the lords commissioners of the district of Moray had proceeded conform to their instructions, in fining the Laird of Grant, and ordained the same to be put to execution, ay and while the said fine be fully satisfied and paid.”

About this time, rumours of Argyle’s intended invasion having reached the council, they published what they called the king’s act of indemnity to all below the rank of heritors and burgesses; but all who were capable of paying a fine being excepted, it was considered as a just “demonstration of Our innate clemency, which also has shined in the whole line of our royal race;” and as it declared “Our resolution to imitate our said dearest royal brother,” the Presbyterians anticipated that they would reap little advantage from such a boon. Nor were they mistaken; or if they had been so, the council would soon have undeceived them; for on the 10th, they gifted to the Laird of Pitlochie, one hundred of the prisoners “who were willing to go to the plantations,” only excluding such as were able to be fined—“all heritors who had above £100, Scots, rents.”

Nor did the wanton massacre in the fields intermit. Subalterns intrusted with the power of life and death abused it, as might have been expected; and the most valuable of the Scottish peasantry were destroyed by a licentious soldiery, who delighted to indulge in riot with the worst; but now their outrages deplorably increased, especially those in the south and west, where a Cornet Douglas and a Lieutenant Murray eminently distinguished themselves in this cowardly warfare. Claverhouse went still farther, and endeavoured to ruin the peace of mind, as well as plunder the estates and torture the bodies, of the sufferers. On the 10th of March, he parcelled out Annandale and Nithsdale into a number of divisions, of about six or eight miles square. He then assembled the whole inhabitants, men and women, old and young,belonging to each of them in one place, and made them swear the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, and afterwards promise that they would renounce their hopes of heaven, if ever they repented of what they had done! If any one refused, he was carried to a little distance from the rest, a napkin tied over his face, and blank cartridge fired over his head. Having thus suffered the terror of death, he was once more offered his life upon taking the test and becoming bound to inform against all disloyal persons. Few were able to withstand so trying a compulsitor. But perhaps the most heartless trait in his conduct, was his treatment of the children. Those above six and under ten years of age were collected together, and a party of soldiers being drawn out before them, they were bid pray, for they were going to be shot; and when the terrified creatures answered—“Sir, we cannot pray,” they were told they would be let free if they would tell where they saw men with guns in their houses, and if they got any meat or drink there.

Among the villanous apostates who associated with the wanderers, on purpose to betray them, was Andrew Watson, who got acquainted with many of their hiding-places throughout Galloway and Nithsdale, and among others of a cave near Ingliston, which had been a secret and secure retreat to many for several years. He gave information of it. In consequence, Colonel James Douglas and Lieutenant Livingstone surprised five lurking within it; among whom was a brother of the proprietor of the estate, John Gibson. He was first taken out; and being permitted to pray, he went through his devotional exercises with a cheerfulness that astonished his murderers, and greatly encouraged his sister, who through the compassion of some of the soldiers, had got admission to him, telling her that was the joyfulest day he had ever had in the world; and his mother also being allowed to speak with him, he begged her not to give way to grief, but to bless the Lord upon his account, who had made him both willing and ready to suffer for his cause. The rest were then despatched, without being allowed formally to pray. They lie buried in Glencairn churchyard. Another wretch of the same description, an Alexander Ferguson of Kilkerran, informed against John Semple, oneof the excellent of the earth, who led a quiet and peaceable life, nor had ever carried arms or had been connected with any disturbance, only he came not to church to hear the Episcopal minister, and did sometimes relieve the poor. A party at midnight, guided by the informer, came to his house, and after seeing them shoot the good man, while attempting to escape at a window, the miscreant went with the murderers to the barns of Bargeny, and caroused with them till next night.

Towards the end of this month, three women—Margaret Maclauchlin, a widow about sixty-three years of age; Margaret Wilson, aged eighteen; and Agnes Wilson, aged thirteen—were brought to trial before the commission court, composed of the Laird of Lag, Colonel David Graham, sheriff, Major Windham, Captain Strachan, and Provost Cultrain, indicted for rebellion, Bothwell Bridge, Airs-moss, and being present at twenty conventicles. The absurdity of the charges carried their own refutation. But this was not sufficient, there was no proof produced; but they refused to swear the abjuration-oath, and were therefore condemned to be drowned. On the last day of April, the council, when the subject was laid before them, suspended the execution of the sentence for an indefinite time, and recommended to the secretaries to procure a complete remission; but the voice of mercy, though uttered by the council on behalf of helpless females, could not be listened to. The only argument that had any effect was money; and the afflicted father was allowed to purchase, with nearly the whole of his worldly substance, the life of his youngest daughter. Windram guarded the others to the place of execution, where an immense number of spectators assembled to witness the unusual sight. The old woman’s stake was fixed much further in the sands than her companion’s, and thus was first despatched. When the water was overflowing her, one of the persecutors asked her what she thought of that sight? She answered, “What do I see? Christ and his members wrestling there. Think you we are the sufferers? No! it is Christ in us; for he sends none a warfare on their own charges.” She then sung the 25th Psalm from the 7th verse, and read the 8th chapter of the Romans, and then prayed. While engaged inprayer, the water covered her. She was then dragged out by Windram’s orders, and when sufficiently recovered to speak, was asked if she would pray for the king. She answered, she wished the salvation of all men, and the damnation of none. “Dear Margaret,” urged a bystander, deeply affected, “Dear Margaret, say—God save the king; say—God save the king!” She replied with great composure—“God save him if he will; it is his salvation I desire!” on which, it is said, Lag bellowed out—“Damned bitch! we do not want such prayers:—tender the oaths to her;” which she refused, and was immediately thrust under the water.

Sir James Johnstone of Wester-raw, another hypocritical turncoat who had sworn the covenants and was now a zealous apostle of Episcopacy, evinced his ardour in the cause, by ordering the corpse of one of the wanderers who had died in the house of Widow Hislop, to be dug out of his grave and exposed. The house they pillaged and pulled down, and turned the widow and her children to the fields. Her son had been previously murdered by Wester-raw, to whom Claverhouse had brought him; yet while procuring his death, the latter seemed to have some compunctious visitations, for he said to his associates, ere the deed was perpetrated, “The blood of this poor man be upon you, Wester-raw—I am free of it.”

The christian Carrier shot by Claverhouse anno 1685.Vide page529Edinr. Hugh Paton, Carver & Gilder to the Queen 1842.

May-day morning was dewed this year with the blood of John Brown, in Priestfield, a carrier to his employment, distinguished by the honourable title, or, as they called it, nicknamed, “The Christian Carrier.” Having performed Airs-moss between five and six o’clock—fearless of danger, for he was blameless in life—he had gone out to cast peats in the field. While thus engaged, he was suddenly surrounded by Claverhouse with three troops of horse, and brought back to his humble dwelling. After the usual questions, Claverhouse said to him—“Go to your prayers, for you shall immediately die.” He did so; but when praying, the impatient assassin thrice interrupted him, saying—“I gave you time to pray, and ye’re begun to preach.” John turning calmly round upon his knees, replied—“Sir, you know neither the nature of preaching nor praying, that calls this preaching,”and then continued without confusion. When he had ended, Claverhouse said, “Take good-night of your wife and children.” She was standing weeping, with an infant in her arms, and another child of his first wife beside her. He came near and said, “Now, Marian, the day is come that I told you would come when I first spoke to you of marrying me.”—“Indeed, John,” she replied, “I can willingly part with you.”—“Then,” answered he, “that’s all that I desire. I have no more to do but die. I have been in case to meet with death for many years.” He kissed his wife and bairns, and wished purchased and promised blessings to be multiplied upon them. When he had finished, Claverhouse ordered six of his men to fire, which they did; and the most part of the bullets striking, splintered his skull, and scattered his brains upon the ground.[161]“What thinkest thou now of thy husband, woman?” asked Claverhouse. “I ever thought much good of him,” she replied; “and as much now as ever.”—“It were but justice to lay thee beside him,” said the murderer.—“If ye were permitted,” answered the new made widow, “I doubt not but your cruelty would go that length:—but how will ye make answer for this morning’s work?”—“To man,” said he, “I can be answerable; and as for God I will take him in my own hand,” and mounting his horse, marched off with his troop. The poor woman, left with the corpse of her husband lying before her, set the bairns upon the ground, and gathered his brains, and tied up his head, and straighted his body, and covered him with her plaid, and sat down and wept; it being a very desert place, where never victual grew, and far from neighbours. Claverhouse afterwards repeatedly confessed, that he never could altogether forget Brown’s prayer.

161.Wodrow says the men refused, and Claverhouse pistolled the good man with his own hand.

Amid these bloody scenes, a parliament was convoked, April 28, to confirm the despotism by which they were enacted, for so subservient had those assemblies now become, that, like the parliaments of Paris, they met only to register the royal edicts. The Duke of Queensberry was the commissioner. In his first messageto his first high court, James frankly told them that his main design was to give them an opportunity not only “of showing their duty to Us in the same loyal manner as they had done to Our late dearest brother, but likewise of being patterns to others in their exemplary compliance with Our desires as they had most eminently been in times past, to a degree never to be forgotten by Us; but also of protecting religion against fanatical contrivances, murderers, and assassins, and to take care that such conspirators might meet their just deservings.”

The speeches of the Commissioner and Chancellor echoed the letter, and inveighed against the persecuted Presbyterians, as wretches of such monstrous principles and practices, as past ages never heard, nor those to come will hardly believe, whose extirpation his majesty asked, as no more rebels against their king, than enemies of mankind. The address followed in a strain of adulation and abject baseness, clearly evincing the absence of every right-hearted man from the meeting. “We can assure your majesty,” said they, “that the subjects of this your majesty’s ancient kingdom, are so desirous to exceed all their predecessors in extraordinary marks of affection and obedience, that, God be praised! the only way to be popular with us is to be eminently loyal;” “and therefore your majesty may expect that we will think your commands sacred as your person, and that your inclination will prevent our debates.”

Their first act was “an act ratifying and confirming all the acts and statutes formerly passed for the security, liberty, and freedom of the true church of God and the Protestant religion.” Their next, an offer of their lives and fortunes to the king, accompanied by a declaration of their abhorrence and detestation, not only of the authors and actors of all preceding rebellions against the sovereign, but likewise all principles and positions which are contrary or derogatory to the king’s sacred, supreme, sovereign, absolute power and authority, which none, whether persons or collective bodies, can participate of any manner of way, or upon any pretext, but in dependance on him, and by commission from him. All persons summoned as witnesses against frequenters of conventicles, who refused to answer, were to be reputed guilty of thesame crimes as the persons accused—to administer or receive the covenants, or even to write in their defence, was declared treason. Field preachers were already subjected to confiscation or death. Hearing was now made liable to the same punishment, which was also extended to preachers in house conventicles, expounding the Scriptures, or even worshipping God in a private house. If there were more than five persons, in addition to the family, present, it was to be considered as an house-conventicle; but if any were listening outside, it was to be reputed a field-conventicle, for which the whole congregation, with the preacher, were to suffer death. At the same time, the test was extended, with exemptions only favourable to the papists. Then, as a final winding up of this scene of iniquity, followed the forfeiture of Sir John Cochrane, Sir Patrick Home, Lord Melville, Pringle of Torwoodlee, Stuart of Cultness, Fletcher of Saltoun, and several other gentlemen, implicated in the late conspiracy with Cessnock and his son, whose estates, together with those of Argyle, Douchal, and Jarvieswood, were annexed for ever to the crown; while to preserve their own estates from a similar fate, the act of entail was passed, professing to secure the estates of the nobles, but in fact enabling them to evade the just claims of their creditors.

Meanwhile the Scottish exiles, reduced to despair, resolved to attempt the liberation of their native land, with which they had never ceased to hold a secret correspondence; and after many meetings in Holland, an expedition set sail on the 2d of May, of which Argyle was elected General, and the expense supplied by Mrs Smith, a rich sugar baker’s widow, at Amsterdam; but accounts of his preparations had been sent to the government, and measures were taken to frustrate his object before his arrival, which were increased on the council’s receiving notice from the Bishop of Orkney, that the Earl had touched there on his passage. The strengths in Argyleshire were ordered to be dismantled, and the sons of the chiefs to be sent as hostages to Edinburgh; and all the non-conformist prisoners, about two hundred and fifty, were, on May 18th, hurried off under night from the jails of Edinburgh and Canongate, and sent across the Firth in open boats to Burntisland, and confined for two daysand nights in two small rooms, where they had no space almost to lie down, and no place to retire to. Nor had they any provisions, and only a few were allowed to purchase a little bread and water.

When it was imagined hunger and fatigue would have worn out their powers of endurance, liberty was offered them on condition of swearing the oaths of allegiance and supremacy; but many who could have taken the first refused the last as blasphemous. To acknowledge a papist as the head of Christ’s church, was what they durst not do. About forty complied and were released, the rest were driven like cattle to Dunotter Castle—an old, ruinous building, in the county of Kincardine, situated on an almost insulated perpendicular rock, 150 feet above the level of the sea, where they were received by George Keith of Whiteridge, sheriff-depute of Mearns, and thrust into a dark vault, with only one small window towards the sea, and full of mire ancle deep. They had no provision but what they were forced to purchase, at a dear rate and of the worst quality, from the governor’s brother. Even their water was brought in small quantities, though their keepers would sometimes pour whole barrels into the cavern to increase their discomfort. Means of cleanliness they had none, and the smell of the place became so noxious, for it was a warm summer, that several of them died; and it was considered little less than miraculous that any survived.

Within a few days, the governor removed about forty of the men to another low small cell, scarcely less disagreeable, as the only light or air they had was through a small crevice in the wall, near which they used to lie down by turns, that they might breathe a little fresh air. Shortly after, the governor’s lady having visited these miserable abodes, prevailed upon her husband to separate the prisoners; and the females were removed from the large vault into two more comfortable smaller apartments. The men, however, continued to suffer the utmost misery in the large vault, and a contagious disorder having broken out among them, many died. The survivors, reduced to desperation, endeavoured to escape, and having got out one night by the window, were creepingalong the hazardous precipice, when an alarm was given by some women—most probably the soldiers’ wives—who were washing near the rock. Immediately the guards were called, the gates shut, and the hue and cry raised, and fifteen were intercepted; yet twenty-five had got off before the alarm was given. Those who were retaken, were most inhumanly tortured. They were laid upon their backs upon a form, their hands bound down to the foot of the form, and a burning match put between every finger—“six soldiers attending by turns to blow the matches,” and keep them in flame—and this was continued for three hours without intermission by the governor’s orders! Several died under this torture, and those who survived were disabled for life. About July, in consequence of representations to the council, the prisoners were brought south, and the Earls Marishal, Errol, Kintore, Panmure, and the Lord President of the Court of Session, empowered to call them before them, and banish such as would not take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, to his majesty’s plantations—the men having their ears cut off, the women their cheeks branded—with certification that such as should return to the kingdom should incur the pain of death.

Unfortunately for the success of Argyle’s expedition, while the Scottish government were fully apprised of its approach, adverse winds and untoward circumstances retarded its progress; so that when the Earl arrived, he found he had been anticipated by the measures of the council; and where he expected willing vassals, he met only heartless or deceitful adherents; but the worst symptom was the insubordination of his officers, especially Sir Patrick Home and Sir John Cochrane, who disputed when they ought to have obeyed, and argued when they should have acted. In such circumstances, after landing, he lost instead of gathering strength as he advanced, while the ships and military stores he left behind in the Castle of Ellengreg, fell, together with it, into the hands of some English frigates, which arrived on the coast. He published two proclamations, but they produced no effect, and unhappily were even counteracted from quarters whence, if he had not received decided support, it was not too much to have expected a friendly neutrality.

The wanderers, although they were favourable to Argyle, unfortunately could not embark with him, upon account of the too promiscuous admittance of persons to trust in that party, and because they could not espouse his declaration as the state of their quarrel. But they published another declaration at Sanquhar, May 28, 1685, against the usurpation of a bloody papist advancing himself to the throne, as the height of confederacy with an idolater, forbidden by the law of God and contrary to the law of the land.

Thwarted at every step, and prevented from following his own brave resolution, and giving the enemy battle, Argyle was at last, either by treachery or mistake, landed in a morass, where his baggage and horse were swamped, and universal confusion ensuing, his little band, which had with difficulty been collected and kept together, despersed during the night. Argyle himself, forced to withdraw, was retiring in the disguise of a peasant, when he was attacked in crossing the Cart at Inchannon (June 17th) by two of the militia, with whom he grappled, and would have overcome, had not five more arrived and wounded and secured him. When falling, he had exclaimed—“Alas! unfortunate Argyle,” which first discovered him to his captors, who appeared deeply concerned at his seizure, but durst not let him go. He was immediately carried to Edinburgh, where the marked ignominy with which he was treated, bore strong testimony to the high estimation in which the illustrious prisoner was held. By an especial order of the council, dated June 20th, he was conducted through the Water-gate, and carried up the main streets to the Castle, with his hands bound and his head bare, preceded by the hangman, and surrounded by Captain Graham’s guards; and there he was safely lodged in irons. In the privy council, it was debated whether he should be tried for his present rebellion or executed upon his former sentence. The most iniquitous proposition of the two prevailed, in which the king of course concurred, only he suggested the propriety of the Earl’s being tortured before he was executed, in order to try if any information could be elicited respecting those who had assisted or who were acquainted with the expedition. His openness upon his examination prevented his persecutors incurring the infamy which the royal mandate implied,and he was ordered to prepare for execution next day after the receipt of the royal letter.

The interval he spent with a cheerful tranquillity, which soothed his afflicted relatives and amazed his political antagonists. Being accustomed to sleep a little after dinner, on his last solemn day he retired to his closet, and laid himself down on bed, and for about a quarter of an hour slept as sweetly as ever he did. At this moment an officer of state came to inquire for him. Being informed that he was asleep and desired not to be disturbed, the officer, who doubted the story, insisted upon being admitted to his lordship. He was admitted accordingly, but instantly rushed from the apartment to a friend’s house on the Castle Hill, and threw himself on a bed in great agony of mind. When asked by the lady of the house if he was unwell or would take a glass of sack—“No! no!” replied he; “I have been at Argyle, and saw him sleeping as pleasantly as ever a man did, within an hour of eternity; but as for me——.”

The Earl left the Castle, accompanied by a few friends; and while waiting in the laigh council-house, wrote a farewell letter to his Countess. “Dear Heart,—As God is of himself unchangeable, so he hath been always good and gracious to me, and no place alters it; only I acknowledge I am sometimes less capable of a due sense of it. But now, above all my life, I thank God I am sensible of his presence with me, with great assurance of his favour through Jesus Christ, and I doubt not will continue till I be in glory. Forgive me all my faults; and now comfort thyself in Him in whom only true comfort is to be found. The Lord be with thee, bless thee, and comfort thee. My dearest—adieu.” He also wrote the following to his daughter-in-law, Lady Sophia Lindsay:—“My dear Lady Sophia,—What shall I say in this great day of the Lord, wherein, in the midst of a cloud, I find a fair sunshine? I can wish no more for you, but that the Lord may comfort you and shine upon you, as he doth upon me, and give you the same sense of his love in staying in the world, as I have in going out of it. Adieu.Argyle.—P.S. My blessing to dear Earl Balcarras. The Lord touch his heart and incline him to his fear.”

He was accompanied to the scaffold by Mr Annand, dean of Edinburgh, appointed by the council, and Mr Laurence Charteris, named by himself. Before they left the council-house, the Earl pleasantly asked Mr Annand, “If he thought the Pope was that antichrist the Scripture speaks of?” He answered, “Yes, my lord, the Protestant churches hold so.”—“But what think you?” asked the Earl.—“I think so too,” replied Mr Annand.—“Then,” said the Earl, “be sure you instruct the people so.” When they had mounted the scaffold, Mr Charteris exhorted him if there were any sin unrepented of to lay it open before God, who is ready to forgive all penitent sinners. The Earl regretted, as the chief, that he had set too little time apart to wrestle with God in private, in behalf of his work and interest, and for his own poor soul; also that he did not worship God in his family so much as he ought to have done; likewise his public failings. Here Mr Annand interrupted him; but without taking notice of the interruption, he lamented that he did not improve the three years’ respite the Lord had given him, so much for his glory and the advancement of his work, as he might have done in his station; and he looked on his death as a just punishment from God, though undeserved at the hands of men, and added, “I would have thought as little to have appeared in this place some time of day after this manner, as many of you who are now satiating your eyes in beholding me; but the Lord in his divine wisdom hath ordered it otherwise, and I am so far from repining and carping at his dispensations towards me, that I bless his name and desire to give him endless praise and thanks for the same.” The clergymen then prayed, after which the Earl fell down on his knees, and having his face covered and his hands clasped together, prayed in silence for a considerable time. Upon rising, he delivered a speech he had previously composed, expressive of his cheerful submission to the divine will, and his willingness to forgive all men, even his enemies. “Afflictions,” he said, “are not only foretold, but promised to Christians. We are neither to despise nor faint under them; nor are we by fraudulent pusillanimous compliance in wicked courses to bring sin upon ourselves. Faint hearts are ordinarily false hearts, choosing sin rather than suffering—ashort life with eternal death, before temporal death and a crown of glory.” “I know many like Hazael go to excesses they never thought they were capable of.” He then prayed God to send peace and truth to these three kingdoms; to continue and increase the glorious light of the gospel, and restrain a spirit of profaneness, atheism, oppression, popery, and persecution; and was about to conclude, when it was suggested to him that he had said nothing about the royal family; he added, “this remembers me that before the justices, at my trial about the test, I said that at my death I would pray that there might never want one of the royal family to be a defender of the true, ancient, apostolic, Catholic, and Protestant faith, which I now do; and may God enlighten and forgive all of them that are either hid in error or have shrunk from the profession of the truth; and in all events, I pray God may provide for the security of his church, and that antichrist nor the gates of hell may never prevail against it.”

When he had ended, he turned to the south side of the scaffold, and said, “Gentlemen, I pray you do not misconstruct my behaviour this day. I freely forgive all men their wrongs and injuries done against me, as I desire to be forgiven of God.” Mr Annand repeated these words louder to the people. The Earl then went to the north side of the scaffold, and had the same or like expressions. Mr Annand again repeated them, adding, “This nobleman dies a Protestant;” on which Argyle stepped forward again, and said, “I die not only a Protestant, but with a heart hatred of popery, prelacy, and all superstition whatsomever.” Returning to the middle of the scaffold, he embraced and took leave of his friends, delivering to Lord Maitland some tokens to be given to his lady and children; then he stript himself of his upper garments, which he also gave to his friends, and kneeling, embraced the instrument of death, saying, “It was the sweetest maiden he ever kissed, it being a mean to finish his sin and misery, and his inlet to glory, for which he longed.” Having prayed a little in silence, he said aloud three times—“Lord Jesus receive me into thy glory;” and lifting up his hand, the sign agreed upon, the executioner let the knife of the maiden fall, and his head was severed from his body.

The misfortunes and death of this excellent nobleman did not destroy the cause for which he suffered. The universal sympathy they excited, from the diffusion of his speech, which was widely circulated, aided by concurring circumstances, accelerated rather than retarded the event of his country’s liberation. His vassals, however, were cruelly treated by Atholl and Breadalbane. Upwards of twenty of the name of Campbell were put to death, and more than fifty sent to the plantations. Their houses were pulled down, their mill-stones broken, the woods burned, and the whole shire of Argyle cruelly ravaged for thirty miles round Inverary; his estate was given to strangers, his children scattered, his creditors defrauded, and his brother, Lord Neil Campbell, forced to go as an exile to America.

Besides Argyle, very few of any note suffered upon this occasion. These were—Colonel Rumbold, known by the name of the maltster, who underwent a form of a trial; but being severely wounded, lest he should have disappointed their revenge, the council had prescribed the mode of his death the day before,[162]according to which he was taken from the bar to the scaffold, supported by two officers, and preceded by the hangman with his hat on. When he attempted to explain his principles, the drums beat, at which he shook his head and said, “Will they not suffer a dying man to speak his last words to the people?” And even when praying for the extirpation of popery, prelacy, and other superstitions, the drums again drowned his voice. He then silently breathed out his soul to God, and giving the signal, the executioner turned him off. Ere yet dead, his heart was torn from his bosom, and exhibited, while still palpitating on the point of a bayonet, to the people by the hangman, who bawled out—“Here is the heart of a bloody murderer and traitor,” and threw it disdainfully into the fire. His quarters were distributed through the country and his head fixed on an high pole at the West Port of Edinburgh.

162.When before the council, he expressed his joy in suffering for such a cause, on which one of the gang called him “a confounded villain.” He sedately replied, “I am at peace with God through Jesus Christ; to men I have done no wrong—what, then, can confound me?”

Some time after, Mr Thomas Archer, a popular preacher, now in the last stage of a decay. Having been wounded severely, much interest was made to obtain his liberation, as he was evidently dying; even the Duke of Queensberry’s own son entreated his father for his life, without effect. Nothing would satisfy the rulers but his blood. A plan had been laid for his escape out of prison, but he would not consent, saying, that since he could not serve his Master in any other manner, he thought it his duty not to decline a testimony for him and for his truth by a public death on the scaffold. He was several times interrupted when addressing the spectators, but enough was heard to evince that he died steady to his principles, rejoicing in hope, and anticipating deliverance for the church, notwithstanding the then threatened visitation of popery. “I will bring them to Babylon, and there will I deliver them,” would, he believed, be accomplished in their case. He sung the latter part of the 73d Psalm, and prayed. Before being turned off, he said—“Fear of death does not fright or trouble me; I bless the Lord for my lot,” and submitted with cheerfulness to the hands of the executioner. He was about thirty-two years of age, of uncommon abilities, and very learned.

Ayloffe was sent to London and examined by James in person. He was related to the royal family, and the king pressed him to make discoveries. “You know,” said the tyrant, “it is in my power to save you.”—“Yes,” replied Ayloffe, “but it is not in your nature.” He was hanged accordingly.

Sir W. Denholm of Westshiels, Mr James Stuart, and Mr Gilbert Elliot, were condemned in absence, and ordered to be executed when apprehended; the Earl of Loudon, Dalrymple of Stair, Fletcher of Saltoun, with a number of other gentlemen of rank and fortune, were forfeited, whose only crimes were their estates, and the charges their having honestly fulfilled their duties as public men.

Of the prisoners at Leith, many of whom had been brought back from Dunotter, about seventy-two were ordered for banishment; but in the greatness of their humane condescension, the council came to Leith and sat in the tolbooth to re-examine them, when such as made some moderate compliances, a few who weresickly, and others who had friends, got free; for government were now beginning to relax in their severities, in contemplation of extending the same or greater freedom to the Roman Catholics; but a number who still unyieldingly adhered to their tenets, were given as a present to the Laird of Pitlochie, and shipped by him for his plantations in New Jersey.[163]They, however, had scarcely left land, when a malignant fever broke out, especially among those who had been confined in Dunotter. Most of the crew also died, as did Pitlochie and his lady; yet, notwithstanding, the captain and some other hardened wretches would not suffer the persecuted exiles to worship God in peace, but when they heard them engaged in their devotions, threw down great planks of wood in order to annoy them. After their arrival, Pitlochie’s son-in-law claimed the prisoners as his property, but the governor remitted the case to a jury, who immediately freed them. The greater part retired to New England, where they were kindly received; and many of them settled in the colony. Others returned to their native country at the Revolution.

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