No More Learning

The Earl's conduct during the twenty years which followed the
Restoration had been, as he afterwards thought, criminally moderate. He
had, on some occasions, opposed the administration which afflicted
his country: but his opposition had been languid and cautious. His
compliances in ecclesiastical matters had given scandal to rigid
Presbyterians: and so far had he been from showing any inclination
to resistance that, when the Covenanters had been persecuted into
insurrection, he had brought into the field a large body of his
dependents to support the government.

Such had been his political course until the Duke of York came down to
Edinburgh armed with the whole regal authority The despotic viceroy soon
found that he could not expect entire support from Argyle. Since the
most powerful chief in the kingdom could not be gained, it was thought
necessary that he should be destroyed. On grounds so frivolous that even
the spirit of party and the spirit of chicane were ashamed of them, he
was brought to trial for treason, convicted, and sentenced to death. The
partisans of the Stuarts afterwards asserted that it was never meant
to carry this sentence into effect, and that the only object of the
prosecution was to frighten him into ceding his extensive jurisdiction
in the Highlands. Whether James designed, as his enemies suspected, to
commit murder, or only, as his friends affirmed, to commit extortion by
threatening to commit murder, cannot now be ascertained. "I know nothing
of the Scotch law," said Halifax to King Charles; "but this I know, that
we should not hang a dog here on the grounds on which my Lord Argyle has
been sentenced. " [334]

Argyle escaped in disguise to England, and thence passed over to
Friesland. In that secluded province his father had bought a small
estate, as a place of refuge for the family in civil troubles. It was
said, among the Scots that this purchase had been made in consequence of
the predictions of a Celtic seer, to whom it had been revealed that Mac
Callum More would one day be driven forth from the ancient mansion of
his race at Inverary. [335] But it is probable that the politic Marquess
had been warned rather by the signs of the times than by the visions
of any prophet. In Friesland Earl Archibald resided during some time so
quietly that it was not generally known whither he had fled. From
his retreat he carried on a correspondence with his friends in Great
Britain, was a party to the Whig conspiracy, and concerted with the
chiefs of that conspiracy a plan for invading Scotland. [336] This plan
had been dropped upon the detection of the Rye House plot, but became
again the Subject of his thoughts after the demise of the crown.

He had, during his residence on the Continent, reflected much more
deeply on religious questions than in the preceding years of his life.
In one respect the effect of these reflections on his mind had been
pernicious. His partiality for the synodical form of church government
now amounted to bigotry. When he remembered how long he had conformed to
the established worship, he was overwhelmed with shame and remorse, and
showed too many signs of a disposition to atone for his defection
by violence and intolerance. He had however, in no long time, an
opportunity of proving that the fear and love of a higher Power had
nerved him for the most formidable conflicts by which human nature can
be tried.

To his companions in adversity his assistance was of the highest moment.
Though proscribed and a fugitive, he was still, in some sense, the most
powerful subject in the British dominions. In wealth, even before his
attainder, he was probably inferior, not only to the great English
nobles, but to some of the opulent esquires of Kent and Norfolk. But his
patriarchal authority, an authority which no wealth could give and which
no attainder could take away, made him, as a leader of an insurrection,
truly formidable. No southern lord could feel any confidence that, if he
ventured to resist the government, even his own gamekeepers and huntsmen
would stand by him. An Earl of Bedford, an Earl of Devonshire, could not
engage to bring ten men into the field. Mac Callum More, penniless and
deprived of his earldom, might at any moment, raise a serious civil war.
He bad only to show himself on the coast of Lorn; and an army would,
in a few days, gather round him. The force which, in favourable
circumstances, he could bring into the field, amounted to five thousand
fighting, men, devoted to his service accustomed to the use of target
and broadsword, not afraid to encounter regular troops even in the open
plain, and perhaps superior to regular troops in the qualifications
requisite for the defence of wild mountain passes, hidden in mist,
and torn by headlong torrents. What such a force, well directed, could
effect, even against veteran regiments and skilful commanders, was
proved, a few years later, at Killiecrankie.

But, strong as was the claim of Argyle to the confidence of the exiled
Scots, there was a faction among them which regarded him with no
friendly feeling, and which wished to make use of his name and
influence, without entrusting to him any real power. The chief of this
faction was a lowland gentleman, who had been implicated in the Whig
plot, and had with difficulty eluded the vengeance of the court, Sir
Patrick Hume, of Polwarth, in Berwickshire. Great doubt has been thrown
on his integrity, but without sufficient reason. It must, however, be
admitted that he injured his cause by perverseness as much as he could
have done by treachery. He was a man incapable alike of leading and of
following, conceited, captious, and wrongheaded, an endless talker, a
sluggard in action against the enemy and active only against his own
allies. With Hume was closely connected another Scottish exile of great
note, who had many, of the same faults, Sir John Cochrane, second son of
the Earl of Dundonald.

A far higher character belonged to Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, a man
distinguished by learning and eloquence, distinguished also by
courage, disinterestedness, and public spirit but of an irritable and
impracticable temper. Like many of his most illustrious contemporaries,
Milton for example, Harrington, Marvel, and Sidney, Fletcher had, from
the misgovernment of several successive princes, conceived a strong
aversion to hereditary monarchy. Yet he was no democrat. He was the head
of an ancient Norman house, and was proud of his descent. He was a
fine speaker and a fine writer, and was proud of his intellectual
superiority. Both in his character of gentleman, and in his character
of scholar, he looked down with disdain on the common people, and was
so little disposed to entrust them with political power that he thought
them unfit even to enjoy personal freedom. It is a curious circumstance
that this man, the most honest, fearless, and uncompromising republican
of his time, should have been the author of a plan for reducing a large
part of the working classes of Scotland to slavery. He bore, in truth,
a lively resemblance to those Roman Senators who, while they hated the
name of King, guarded the privileges of their order with inflexible
pride against the encroachments of the multitude, and governed their
bondmen and bondwomen by means of the stocks and the scourge.

Amsterdam was the place where the leading emigrants, Scotch and English,
assembled. Argyle repaired thither from Friesland, Monmouth from
Brabant. It soon appeared that the fugitives had scarcely anything in
common except hatred of James and impatience to return from banishment.
The Scots were jealous of the English, the English of the Scots.
Monmouth's high pretensions were offensive to Argyle, who, proud of
ancient nobility and of a legitimate descent from kings, was by no means
inclined to do homage to the offspring of a vagrant and ignoble love.
But of all the dissensions by which the little band of outlaws was
distracted the most serious was that which arose between Argyle and a
portion of his own followers. Some of the Scottish exiles had, in a long
course of opposition to tyranny, been excited into a morbid state
of understanding and temper, which made the most just and necessary
restraint insupportable to them. They knew that without Argyle they
could do nothing. They ought to have known that, unless they wished to
run headlong to ruin, they must either repose full confidence in their
leader, or relinquish all thoughts of military enterprise. Experience
has fully proved that in war every operation, from the greatest to the
smallest, ought to be under the absolute direction of one mind, and
that every subordinate agent, in his degree, ought to obey implicitly,
strenuously, and with the show of cheerfulness, orders which he
disapproves, or of which the reasons are kept secret from him.
Representative assemblies, public discussions, and all the other checks
by which, in civil affairs, rulers are restrained from abusing power,
are out of place in a camp. Machiavel justly imputed many of the
disasters of Venice and Florence to the jealousy which led those
republics to interfere with every one of their generals. [337] The Dutch
practice of sending to an army deputies, without whose consent no great
blow could be struck, was almost equally pernicious. It is undoubtedly
by no means certain that a captain, who has been entrusted with
dictatorial power in the hour of peril, will quietly surrender that
power in the hour of triumph; and this is one of the many considerations
which ought to make men hesitate long before they resolve to vindicate
public liberty by the sword. But, if they determine to try the chance
of war, they will, if they are wise, entrust to their chief that plenary
authority without which war cannot be well conducted. It is possible
that, if they give him that authority, he may turn out a Cromwell or a
Napoleon. But it is almost certain that, if they withhold from him that
authority, their enterprises will end like the enterprise of Argyle.

Some of the Scottish emigrants, heated with republican enthusiasm,
and utterly destitute of the skill necessary to the conduct of great
affairs, employed all their industry and ingenuity, not in collecting
means for the attack which they were about to make on a formidable
enemy, but in devising restraints on their leader's power and securities
against his ambition. The selfcomplacent stupidity with which they
insisted on Organising an army as if they had been organising a
commonwealth would be incredible if it had not been frankly and even
boastfully recorded by one of themselves. [338]

At length all differences were compromised. It was determined that an
attempt should be forthwith made on the western coast of Scotland, and
that it should be promptly followed by a descent on England.

Argyle was to hold the nominal command in Scotland: but he was placed
under the control of a Committee which reserved to itself all the most
important parts of the military administration. This committee was
empowered to determine where the expedition should land, to appoint
officers, to superintend the levying of troops, to dole out provisions
and ammunition. All that was left to the general was to direct the
evolutions of the army in the field, and he was forced to promise that
even in the field, except in the case of a surprise, he would do nothing
without the assent of a council of war.

Monmouth was to command in England. His soft mind had as usual, taken
an impress from the society which surrounded him. Ambitious hopes, which
had seemed to be extinguished, revived in his bosom. He remembered the
affection with which he had been constantly greeted by the common people
in town and country, and expected that they would now rise by hundreds
of thousands to welcome him. He remembered the good will which the
soldiers had always borne him, and flattered himself that they would
come over to him by regiments. Encouraging messages reached him in quick
succession from London. He was assured that the violence and injustice
with which the elections had been carried on had driven the nation mad,
that the prudence of the leading Whigs had with difficulty prevented a
sanguinary outbreak on the day of the coronation, and that all the great
Lords who had supported the Exclusion Bill were impatient to rally round
him. Wildman, who loved to talk treason in parables, sent to say that
the Earl of Richmond, just two hundred years before, had landed in
England with a handful of men, and had a few days later been crowned, on
the field of Bosworth, with the diadem taken from the head of Richard.
Danvers undertook to raise the City. The Duke was deceived into
the belief that, as soon as he set up his standard, Bedfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Cheshire would rise in arms. [339] He
consequently became eager for the enterprise from which a few weeks
before he had shrunk. His countrymen did not impose on him restrictions
so elaborately absurd as those which the Scotch emigrants had devised.
All that was required of him was to promise that he would not assume the
regal title till his pretensions has been submitted to the judgment of a
free Parliament.

It was determined that two Englishmen, Ayloffe and Rumbold, should
accompany Argyle to Scotland, and that Fletcher should go with Monmouth
to England. Fletcher, from the beginning, had augured ill of the
enterprise: but his chivalrous spirit would not suffer him to decline
a risk which his friends seemed eager to encounter. When Grey repeated
with approbation what Wildman had said about Richmond and Richard, the
well read and thoughtful Scot justly remarked that there was a great
difference between the fifteenth century and the seventeenth. Richmond
was assured of the support of barons, each of whom could bring an army
of feudal retainers into the field; and Richard had not one regiment of
regular soldiers. [340]

The exiles were able to raise, partly from their own resources and
partly from the contributions of well wishers in Holland, a sum
sufficient for the two expeditions. Very little was obtained from
London. Six thousand pounds had been expected thence. But instead of the
money came excuses from Wildman, which ought to have opened the eyes
of all who were not wilfully blind. The Duke made up the deficiency by
pawning his own jewels and those of Lady Wentworth. Arms, ammunition,
and provisions were bought, and several ships which lay at Amsterdam
were freighted. [341]

It is remarkable that the most illustrious and the most grossly injured
man among the British exiles stood far aloof from these rash counsels.
John Locke hated tyranny and persecution as a philosopher; but his
intellect and his temper preserved him from the violence of a partisan.
He had lived on confidential terms with Shaftesbury, and had thus
incurred the displeasure of the court. Locke's prudence had, however,
been such that it would have been to little purpose to bring him even
before the corrupt and partial tribunals of that age. In one point,
however, he was vulnerable. He was a student of Christ Church in the
University of Oxford. It was determined to drive from that celebrated
college the greatest man of whom it could ever boast. But this was not
easy. Locke had, at Oxford, abstained from expressing any opinion on the
politics of the day. Spies had been set about him. Doctors of Divinity
and Masters of Arts had not been ashamed to perform the vilest of all
offices, that of watching the lips of a companion in order to report
his words to his ruin. The conversation in the hall had been purposely
turned to irritating topics, to the Exclusion Bill, and to the character
of the Earl of Shaftesbury, but in vain. Locke neither broke out nor
dissembled, but maintained such steady silence and composure as forced
the tools of power to own with vexation that never man was so complete
a master of his tongue and of his passions. When it was found that
treachery could do nothing, arbitrary power was used. After vainly
trying to inveigle Locke into a fault, the government resolved to punish
him without one. Orders came from Whitehall that he should be ejected;
and those orders the Dean and Canons made haste to obey.

Locke was travelling on the Continent for his health when he learned
that he had been deprived of his home and of his bread without a trial
or even a notice. The injustice with which he had been treated would
have excused him if he had resorted to violent methods of redress. But
he was not to be blinded by personal resentment he augured no good from
the schemes of those who had assembled at Amsterdam; and he quietly
repaired to Utrecht, where, while his partners in misfortune were
planning their own destruction, he employed himself in writing his
celebrated letter on Toleration. [342]

The English government was early apprised that something was in
agitation among the outlaws. An invasion of England seems not to have
been at first expected; but it was apprehended that Argyle would shortly
appear in arms among his clansmen. A proclamation was accordingly issued
directing that Scotland should be put into a state of defence. The
militia was ordered to be in readiness. All the clans hostile to the
name of Campbell were set in motion. John Murray, Marquess of Athol, was
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Argyleshire, and, at the head of a great
body of his followers, occupied the castle of Inverary. Some suspected
persons were arrested. Others were compelled to give hostages. Ships of
war were sent to cruise near the isle of Bute; and part of the army of
Ireland was moved to the coast of Ulster. [343]

While these preparations were making in Scotland, James called into his
closet Arnold Van Citters, who had long resided in England as Ambassador
from the United Provinces, and Everard Van Dykvelt, who, after the death
of Charles, had been sent by the State General on a special mission of
condolence and congratulation. The King said that he had received
from unquestionable sources intelligence of designs which were forming
against the throne by his banished subjects in Holland. Some of the
exiles were cutthroats, whom nothing but the special providence of God
had prevented from committing a foul murder; and among them was the
owner of the spot which had been fixed for the butchery. "Of all men
living," said the King, "Argyle has the greatest means of annoying
me; and of all places Holland is that whence a blow may be best aimed
against me. " The Dutch envoys assured his Majesty that what he had
said should instantly be communicated to the government which they
represented, and expressed their full confidence that every exertion
would be made to satisfy him. [344]

They were justified in expressing this confidence. Both the Prince of
Orange and the States General, were, at this time, most desirous that
the hospitality of their country should not be abused for purposes of
which the English government could justly complain. James had lately
held language which encouraged the hope that he would not patiently
submit to the ascendancy of France. It seemed probable that he would
consent to form a close alliance with the United Provinces and the House
of Austria. There was, therefore, at the Hague, an extreme anxiety to
avoid all that could give him offence. The personal interest of William
was also on this occasion identical with the interest of his father in
law.

But the case was one which required rapid and vigorous action; and the
nature of the Batavian institutions made such action almost impossible.
The Union of Utrecht, rudely formed, amidst the agonies of a revolution,
for the purpose of meeting immediate exigencies, had never been
deliberately revised and perfected in a time of tranquillity. Every one
of the seven commonwealths which that Union had bound together retained
almost all the rights of sovereignty, and asserted those rights
punctiliously against the central government. As the federal authorities
had not the means of exacting prompt obedience from the provincial
authorities, so the provincial authorities had not the means of exacting
prompt obedience from the municipal authorities. Holland alone contained
eighteen cities, each of which was, for many purposes, an independent
state, jealous of all interference from without. If the rulers of such a
city received from the Hague an order which was unpleasing to them, they
either neglected it altogether, or executed it languidly and tardily.
In some town councils, indeed, the influence of the Prince of Orange was
all powerful. But unfortunately the place where the British exiles had
congregated, and where their ships had been fitted out, was the rich and
populous Amsterdam; and the magistrates of Amsterdam were the heads
of the faction hostile to the federal government and to the House of
Nassau. The naval administration of the United Provinces was conducted
by five distinct boards of Admiralty. One of those boards sate at
Amsterdam, was partly nominated by the authorities of that city, and
seems to have been entirely animated by their spirit.

All the endeavours of the federal government to effect what James
desired were frustrated by the evasions of the functionaries of
Amsterdam, and by the blunders of Colonel Bevil Skelton, who had just
arrived at the Hague as envoy from England. Skelton had been born in
Holland during the English troubles, and was therefore supposed to be
peculiarly qualified for his post; [345] but he was, in truth, unfit for
that and for every other diplomatic situation. Excellent judges of
character pronounced him to be the most shallow, fickle, passionate,
presumptuous, and garrulous of men. [346] He took no serious notice
of the proceedings of the refugees till three vessels which had been
equipped for the expedition to Scotland were safe out of the Zuyder Zee,
till the arms, ammunition, and provisions were on board, and till the
passengers had embarked. Then, instead of applying, as he should have
done, to the States General, who sate close to his own door, he sent
a messenger to the magistrates of Amsterdam, with a request that the
suspected ships might be detained. The magistrates of Amsterdam answered
that the entrance of the Zuyder Zee was out of their jurisdiction, and
referred him to the federal government. It was notorious that this was a
mere excuse, and that, if there had been any real wish at the Stadthouse
of Amsterdam to prevent Argyle from sailing, no difficulties would have
been made. Skelton now addressed himself to the States General. They
showed every disposition to comply with his demand, and, as the case was
urgent, departed from the course which they ordinarily observed in
the transaction of business. On the same day on which he made his
application to them, an order, drawn in exact conformity with his
request, was despatched to the Admiralty of Amsterdam. But this order,
in consequence of some misinformation, did not correctly describe the
situation of the ships. They were said to be in the Texel. They were in
the Vlie. The Admiralty of Amsterdam made this error a plea for doing
nothing; and, before the error could be rectified, the three ships had
sailed. [347]

The last hours which Argyle passed on the coast of Holland were hours of
great anxiety. Near him lay a Dutch man of war whose broadside would
in a moment have put an end to his expedition. Round his little fleet
a boat was rowing, in which were some persons with telescopes whom he
suspected to be spies. But no effectual step was taken for the purpose
of detaining him; and on the afternoon of the second of May he stood out
to sea before a favourable breeze.

The voyage was prosperous. On the sixth the Orkneys were in sight.
Argyle very unwisely anchored off Kirkwall, and allowed two of his
followers to go on shore there. The Bishop ordered them to be arrested.
The refugees proceeded to hold a long and animated debate on this
misadventure: for, from the beginning to the end of their expedition,
however languid and irresolute their conduct might be, they never
in debate wanted spirit or perseverance. Some were for an attack on
Kirkwall. Some were for proceeding without delay to Argyleshire. At last
the Earl seized some gentlemen who lived near the coast of the island,
and proposed to the Bishop an exchange of prisoners. The Bishop returned
no answer; and the fleet, after losing three days, sailed away.

This delay was full of danger. It was speedily known at Edinburgh that
the rebel squadron had touched at the Orkneys. Troops were instantly
put in motion. When the Earl reached his own province, he found that
preparations had been made to repel him. At Dunstaffnage he sent his
second son Charles on Shore to call the Campbells to arms. But Charles
returned with gloomy tidings. The herdsmen and fishermen were indeed
ready to rally round Mac Callum More; but, of the heads of the clan,
some were in confinement, and others had fled. Those gentlemen who
remained at their homes were either well affected to the government or
afraid of moving, and refused even to see the son of their chief. From
Dunstaffnage the small armament proceeded to Campbelltown, near the
southern extremity of the peninsula of Kintyre. Here the Earl published
a manifesto, drawn up in Holland, under the direction of the Committee,
by James Stewart, a Scotch advocate, whose pen was, a few months later,
employed in a very different way. In this paper were set forth, with a
strength of language sometimes approaching to scurrility, many real and
some imaginary grievances. It was hinted that the late King had died by
poison. A chief object of the expedition was declared to be the entire
suppression, not only of Popery, but of Prelacy, which was termed the
most bitter root and offspring of Popery; and all good Scotchmen were
exhorted to do valiantly for the cause of their country and of their
God.

Zealous as Argyle was for what he considered as pure religion, he
did not scruple to practice one rite half Popish and half Pagan. The
mysterious cross of yew, first set on fire, and then quenched in the
blood of a goat, was sent forth to summon all the Campbells, from
sixteen to sixty. The isthmus of Tarbet was appointed for the place of
gathering. The muster, though small indeed when compared with what
it would have been if the spirit and strength of the clan had been
unbroken, was still formidable. The whole force assembled amounted to
about eighteen hundred men. Argyle divided his mountaineers into three
regiments, and proceeded to appoint officers.

The bickerings which had begun in Holland had never been intermitted
during the whole course of the expedition; but at Tarbet they became
more violent than ever. The Committee wished to interfere even with the
patriarchal dominion of the Earl over the Campbells, and would not allow
him to settle the military rank of his kinsmen by his own authority.
While these disputatious meddlers tried to wrest from him his power
over the Highlands, they carried on their own correspondence with the
Lowlands, and received and sent letters which were never communicated
to the nominal General. Hume and his confederates had reserved to
themselves the superintendence of the Stores, and conducted this
important part of the administration of war with a laxity hardly to be
distinguished from dishonesty, suffered the arms to be spoiled, wasted
the provisions, and lived riotously at a time when they ought to have
set to all beneath them an example of abstemiousness.

The great question was whether the Highlands or the Lowlands should be
the seat of war. The Earl's first object was to establish his authority
over his own domains, to drive out the invading clans which had been
poured from Perthshire into Argyleshire, and to take possession of the
ancient seat of his family at Inverary. He might then hope to have four
or five thousand claymores at his command. With such a force he would be
able to defend that wild country against the whole power of the kingdom
of Scotland, and would also have secured an excellent base for offensive
operations. This seems to have been the wisest course open to him.
Rumbold, who had been trained in an excellent military school, and who,
as an Englishman, might be supposed to be an impartial umpire between
the Scottish factions, did all in his power to strengthen the Earl's
hands. But Hume and Cochrane were utterly impracticable. Their jealousy
of Argyle was, in truth, stronger than their wish for the success of the
expedition. They saw that, among his own mountains and lakes, and at the
head of an army chiefly composed of his own tribe, he would be able
to bear down their opposition, and to exercise the full authority of a
General.
They muttered that the only men who had the good cause at heart
were the Lowlanders, and that the Campbells took up arms neither for
liberty nor for the Church of God, but for Mac Callum More alone.

Cochrane declared that he would go to Ayrshire if he went by himself,
and with nothing but a pitchfork in his hand. Argyle, after long
resistance, consented, against his better judgment, to divide his little
army. He remained with Rumbold in the Highlands. Cochrane and Hume were
at the head of the force which sailed to invade the Lowlands.

Ayrshire was Cochrane's object: but the coast of Ayrshire was guarded
by English frigates; and the adventurers were under the necessity of
running up the estuary of the Clyde to Greenock, then a small fishing
village consisting of a single row of thatched hovels, now a great and
flourishing port, of which the customs amount to more than five
times the whole revenue which the Stuarts derived from the kingdom of
Scotland. A party of militia lay at Greenock: but Cochrane, who
wanted provisions, was determined to land. Hume objected. Cochrane was
peremptory, and ordered an officer, named Elphinstone, to take twenty
men in a boat to the shore. But the wrangling spirit of the leaders had
infected all ranks. Elphinstone answered that he was bound to obey only
reasonable commands, that he considered this command as unreasonable,
and, in short, that he would not go. Major Fullarton, a brave man,
esteemed by all parties, but peculiarly attached to Argyle, undertook to
land with only twelve men, and did so in spite of a fire from the coast.
A slight skirmish followed. The militia fell back. Cochrane entered
Greenock and procured a supply of meal, but found no disposition to
insurrection among the people.

In fact, the state of public feeling in Scotland was not such as the
exiles, misled by the infatuation common in all ages to exiles, had
supposed it to be. The government was, indeed, hateful and hated. But
the malecontents were divided into parties which were almost as hostile
to one another as to their rulers; nor was any of those parties eager to
join the invaders. Many thought that the insurrection had no chance
of success. The spirit of many had been effectually broken by long and
cruel oppression. There was, indeed, a class of enthusiasts who were
little in the habit of calculating chances, and whom oppression had not
tamed but maddened. But these men saw little difference between Argyle
and James. Their wrath had been heated to such a temperature that what
everybody else would have called boiling zeal seemed to them Laodicean
lukewarmness. The Earl's past life had been stained by what they
regarded as the vilest apostasy. The very Highlanders whom he now
summoned to extirpate Prelacy he had a few years before summoned to
defend it. And were slaves who knew nothing and cared nothing about
religion, who were ready to fight for synodical government, for
Episcopacy, for Popery, just as Mac Callum More might be pleased to
command, fit allies for the people of God? The manifesto, indecent
and intolerant as was its tone, was, in the view of these fanatics, a
cowardly and worldly performance. A settlement such as Argyle would have
made, such as was afterwards made by a mightier and happier deliverer,
seemed to them not worth a struggle. They wanted not only freedom of
conscience for themselves, but absolute dominion over the consciences of
others; not only the Presbyterian doctrine, polity, and worship, but the
Covenant in its utmost rigour. Nothing would content them but that
every end for which civil society exists should be sacrificed to the
ascendency of a theological system. One who believed no form of
church government to be worth a breach of Christian charity, and who
recommended comprehension and toleration, was in their phrase, halting
between Jehovah and Baal. One who condemned such acts as the murder of
Cardinal Beatoun and Archbishop Sharpe fell into the same sin for which
Saul had been rejected from being King over Israel. All the rules,
by which, among civilised and Christian men, the horrors of war are
mitigated, were abominations in the sight of the Lord. Quarter was to be
neither taken nor given. A Malay running a muck, a mad dog pursued by
a crowd, were the models to be imitated by warriors fighting in just
self-defence. To reasons such as guide the conduct of statesmen and
generals the minds of these zealots were absolutely impervious. That a
man should venture to urge such reasons was sufficient evidence that
he was not one of the faithful. If the divine blessing were withheld,
little would be effected by crafty politicians, by veteran captains, by
cases of arms from Holland, or by regiments of unregenerate Celts from
the mountains of Lorn. If, on the other hand, the Lord's time were
indeed come, he could still, as of old, cause the foolish things of the
world to confound the wise, and could save alike by many and by few.
The broadswords of Athol and the bayonets of Claverhouse would be put to
rout by weapons as insignificant as the sling of David or the pitcher of
Gideon. [348]

Cochrane, having found it impossible to raise the population on the
south of the Clyde, rejoined Argyle, who was in the island of Bute.
The Earl now again proposed to make an attempt upon Inverary. Again he
encountered a pertinacious opposition. The seamen sided with Hume
and Cochrane. The Highlanders were absolutely at the command of their
chieftain. There was reason to fear that the two parties would come to
blows; and the dread of such a disaster induced the Committee to make
some concession. The castle of Ealan Ghierig, situated at the mouth of
Loch Riddan, was selected to be the chief place of arms. The military
stores were disembarked there. The squadron was moored close to the
walls in a place where it was protected by rocks and shallows such
as, it was thought, no frigate could pass. Outworks were thrown up.
A battery was planted with some small guns taken from the ships. The
command of the fort was most unwisely given to Elphinstone, who had
already proved himself much more disposed to argue with his commanders
than to fight the enemy.

And now, during a few hours, there was some show of vigour. Rumbold took
the castle of Ardkinglass. The Earl skirmished successfully with Athol's
troops, and was about to advance on Inverary, when alarming news from
the ships and factions in the Committee forced him to turn back. The
King's frigates had come nearer to Ealan Ghierig than had been thought
possible. The Lowland gentlemen positively refused to advance further
into the Highlands. Argyle hastened back to Ealan Ghierig. There he
proposed to make an attack on the frigates. His ships, indeed, were ill
fitted for such an encounter. But they would have been supported by
a flotilla of thirty large fishing boats, each well manned with armed
Highlanders. The Committee, however, refused to listen to this plan, and
effectually counteracted it by raising a mutiny among the sailors.

All was now confusion and despondency. The provisions had been so ill
managed by the Committee that there was no longer food for the troops.
The Highlanders consequently deserted by hundreds; and the Earl,
brokenhearted by his misfortunes, yielded to the urgency of those who
still pertinaciously insisted that he should march into the Lowlands.

The little army therefore hastened to the shore of Loch Long, passed
that inlet by night in boats, and landed in Dumbartonshire. Hither, on
the following morning, came news that the frigates had forced a passage,
that all the Earl's ships had been taken, and that Elphinstone had fled
from Ealan Ghierig without a blow, leaving the castle and stores to the
enemy.

All that remained was to invade the Lowlands under every disadvantage.
Argyle resolved to make a bold push for Glasgow. But, as soon as this
resolution was announced, the very men, who had, up to that moment,
been urging him to hasten into the low country, took fright, argued,
remonstrated, and when argument and remonstrance proved vain, laid a
scheme for seizing the boats, making their own escape, and leaving
their General and his clansmen to conquer or perish unaided. This scheme
failed; and the poltroons who had formed it were compelled to share with
braver men the risks of the last venture.

During the march through the country which lies between Loch Long and
Loch Lomond, the insurgents were constantly infested by parties
of militia. Some skirmishes took place, in which the Earl had the
advantage; but the bands which he repelled, falling back before him,
spread the tidings of his approach, and, soon after he had crossed the
river Leven, he found a strong body of regular and irregular troops
prepared to encounter him.

He was for giving battle. Ayloffe was of the same opinion. Hume, on the
other hand, declared that to fight would be madness. He saw one regiment
in scarlet. More might be behind. To attack such a force was to rush on
certain death The best course was to remain quiet till night, and then
to give the enemy the slip.

A sharp altercation followed, which was with difficulty quieted by the
mediation of Rumbold. It was now evening. The hostile armies encamped at
no great distance from each other. The Earl ventured to propose a night
attack, and was again overruled.

Since it was determined not to fight, nothing was left but to take the
step which Hume had recommended. There was a chance that, by decamping
secretly, and hastening all night across heaths and morasses, the Earl
might gain many miles on the enemy, and might reach Glasgow without
further obstruction. The watch fires were left burning; and the march
began. And now disaster followed disaster fast. The guides mistook the
track across the moors, and led the army into boggy ground. Military
order could not be preserved by undisciplined and disheartened soldiers
under a dark sky, and on a treacherous and uneven soil. Panic after
panic spread through the broken ranks. Every sight and sound was thought
to indicate the approach of pursuers. Some of the officers contributed
to spread the terror which it was their duty to calm. The army had
become a mob; and the mob melted fast away. Great numbers fled under
cover of the night. Rumbold and a few other brave men whom no danger
could have scared lost their way, and were unable to rejoin the main
body. When the day broke, only five hundred fugitives, wearied and
dispirited, assembled at Kilpatrick.

All thought of prosecuting the war was at an end: and it was plain
that the chiefs of the expedition would have sufficient difficulty
in escaping with their lives. They fled in different directions. Hume
reached the Continent in safety. Cochrane was taken and sent up to
London. Argyle hoped to find a secure asylum under the roof of one
of his old servants who lived near Kilpatrick. But this hope was
disappointed; and he was forced to cross the Clyde. He assumed the dress
of a peasant and pretended to be the guide of Major Fullarton, whose
courageous fidelity was proof to all danger. The friends journeyed
together through Renfrewshire as far as Inchinnan. At that place the
Black Cart and the White Cart, two streams which now flow through
prosperous towns, and turn the wheels of many factories, but which then
held their quiet course through moors and sheepwalks, mingle before they
join the Clyde. The only ford by which the travellers could cross was
guarded by a party of militia. Some questions were asked. Fullarton
tried to draw suspicion on himself, in order that his companion might
escape unnoticed. But the minds of the questioners misgave them that the
guide was not the rude clown that he seemed. They laid hands on him.
He broke loose and sprang into the water, but was instantly chased. He
stood at bay for a short time against five assailants. But he had no
arms except his pocket pistols, and they were so wet, in consequence of
his plunge, that they would not go off. He was struck to the ground with
a broadsword, and secured.

He owned himself to be the Earl of Argyle, probably in the hope that his
great name would excite the awe and pity of those who had seized him.
And indeed they were much moved. For they were plain Scotchmen of humble
rank, and, though in arms for the crown, probably cherished a preference
for the Calvinistic church government and worship, and had been
accustomed to reverence their captive as the head of an illustrious
house and as a champion of the Protestant religion But, though they
were evidently touched, and though some of them even wept, they were not
disposed to relinquish a large reward and to incur the vengeance of
an implacable government. They therefore conveyed their prisoner
to Renfrew. The man who bore the chief part in the arrest was named
Riddell. On this account the whole race of Riddells was, during more
than a century, held in abhorrence by the great tribe of Campbell.
Within living memory, when a Riddell visited a fair in Argyleshire, he
found it necessary to assume a false name.

And now commenced the brightest part of Argyle's career. His enterprise
had hitherto brought on him nothing but reproach and derision. His great
error was that he did not resolutely refuse to accept the name without
the power of a general. Had he remained quietly at his retreat in
Friesland, he would in a few years have been recalled with honour to
his country, and would have been conspicuous among the ornaments and
the props of constitutional monarchy. Had he conducted his expedition
according to his own views, and carried with him no followers but such
as were prepared implicitly to obey all his orders, he might possibly
have effected something great. For what he wanted as a captain seems to
have been, not courage, nor activity, nor skill, but simply authority.
He should have known that of all wants this is the most fatal.
Armies have triumphed under leaders who possessed no very eminent
qualifications. But what army commanded by a debating club ever escaped
discomfiture and disgrace?

The great calamity which had fallen on Argyle had this advantage, that
it enabled him to show, by proofs not to be mistaken, what manner of
man he was. From the day when he quitted. Friesland to the day when his
followers separated at Kilpatrick, he had never been a free agent. He
had borne the responsibility of a long series of measures which his
judgment disapproved. Now at length he stood alone. Captivity had
restored to him the noblest kind of liberty, the liberty of governing
himself in all his words and actions according to his own sense of the
right and of the becoming. From that moment he became as one inspired
with new wisdom and virtue. His intellect seemed to be strengthened and
concentrated, his moral character to be at once elevated and softened.
The insolence of the conquerors spared nothing that could try the temper
of a man proud of ancient nobility and of patriarchal dominion. The
prisoner was dragged through Edinburgh in triumph. He walked on
foot, bareheaded, up the whole length of that stately street which,
overshadowed by dark and gigantic piles of stone, leads from Holyrood
House to the Castle. Before him marched the hangman, bearing the ghastly
instrument which was to be used at the quartering block. The victorious
party had not forgotten that, thirty-five years before this time, the
father of Argyle had been at the head of the faction which put Montrose
to death. Before that event the houses of Graham and Campbell had borne
no love to each other; and they had ever since been at deadly feud. Care
was taken that the prisoner should pass through the same gate and the
same streets through which Montrose had been led to the same doom. [349]
When the Earl reached the Castle his legs were put in irons, and he was
informed that he had but a few days to live. It had been determined not
to bring him to trial for his recent offence, but to put him to death
under the sentence pronounced against him several years before, a
sentence so flagitiously unjust that the most servile and obdurate
lawyers of that bad age could not speak of it without shame.

But neither the ignominious procession up the High Street, nor the near
view of death, had power to disturb the gentle and majestic patience of
Argyle. His fortitude was tried by a still more severe test. A paper of
interrogatories was laid before him by order of the Privy Council. He
replied to those questions to which he could reply without danger to
any of his friends, and refused to say more. He was told that unless he
returned fuller answers he should be put to the torture. James, who was
doubtless sorry that he could not feast his own eyes with the sight of
Argyle in the boots, sent down to Edinburgh positive orders that nothing
should be omitted which could wring out of the traitor information
against all who had been concerned in the treason. But menaces were
vain. With torments and death in immediate prospect Mac Callum More
thought far less of himself than of his poor clansmen. "I was busy this
day," he wrote from his cell, "treating for them, and in some hopes. But
this evening orders came that I must die upon Monday or Tuesday; and I
am to be put to the torture if I answer not all questions upon oath. Yet
I hope God shall support me. "

The torture was not inflicted. Perhaps the magnanimity of the victim had
moved the conquerors to unwonted compassion. He himself remarked that at
first they had been very harsh to him, but that they soon began to treat
him with respect and kindness. God, he said, had melted their hearts. It
is certain that he did not, to save himself from the utmost cruelty of
his enemies, betray any of his friends. On the last morning of his life
he wrote these words: "I have named none to their disadvantage. I thank
God he hath supported me wonderfully! "

He composed his own epitaph, a short poem, full of meaning and spirit,
simple and forcible in style, and not contemptible in versification. In
this little piece he complained that, though his enemies had repeatedly
decreed his death, his friends had been still more cruel. A comment on
these expressions is to be found in a letter which he addressed to a
lady residing in Holland. She had furnished him with a large sum
of money for his expedition, and he thought her entitled to a full
explanation of the causes which had led to his failure. He acquitted his
coadjutors of treachery, but described their folly, their ignorance,
and their factious perverseness, in terms which their own testimony has
since proved to have been richly deserved. He afterwards doubted whether
he had not used language too severe to become a dying Christian, and,
in a separate paper, begged his friend to suppress what he had said of
these men "Only this I must acknowledge," he mildly added; "they were
not governable. "

Most of his few remaining hours were passed in devotion, and in
affectionate intercourse with some members of his family. He professed
no repentance on account of his last enterprise, but bewailed, with
great emotion, his former compliance in spiritual things with the
pleasure of the government He had, he said, been justly punished. One
who had so long been guilty of cowardice and dissimulation was not
worthy to be the instrument of salvation to the State and Church. Yet
the cause, he frequently repeated, was the cause of God, and would
assuredly triumph. "I do not," he said, "take on myself to be a prophet.
But I have a strong impression on my spirit, that deliverance will come
very suddenly. " It is not strange that some zealous Presbyterians should
have laid up his saying in their hearts, and should, at a later period,
have attributed it to divine inspiration.

So effectually had religious faith and hope, co-operating with natural
courage and equanimity, composed his spirits, that, on the very day on
which he was to die, he dined with appetite, conversed with gaiety at
table, and, after his last meal, lay down, as he was wont, to take a
short slumber, in order that his body and mind might be in full vigour
when he should mount the scaffold. At this time one of the Lords of the
Council, who had probably been bred a Presbyterian, and had been seduced
by interest to join in oppressing the Church of which he had once been
a member, came to the Castle with a message from his brethren, and
demanded admittance to the Earl. It was answered that the Earl was
asleep. The Privy Councillor thought that this was a subterfuge, and
insisted on entering. The door of the cell was softly opened; and there
lay Argyle, on the bed, sleeping, in his irons, the placid sleep of
infancy. The conscience of the renegade smote him. He turned away sick
at heart, ran out of the Castle, and took refuge in the dwelling of a
lady of his family who lived hard by. There he flung himself on a couch,
and gave himself up to an agony of remorse and shame. His kinswoman,
alarmed by his looks and groans, thought that he had been taken with
sudden illness, and begged him to drink a cup of sack. "No, no," he
said; "that will do me no good. " She prayed him to tell her what had
disturbed him. "I have been," he said, "in Argyle's prison. I have seen
him within an hour of eternity, sleeping as sweetly as ever man did. But
as for me -------"

And now the Earl had risen from his bed, and had prepared himself for
what was yet to be endured. He was first brought down the High Street
to the Council House, where he was to remain during the short interval
which was still to elapse before the execution. During that interval
he asked for pen and ink, and wrote to his wife: "Dear heart, God is
unchangeable: He hath always been good and gracious to me: and no place
alters it. 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 and
comfort thee, my dearest. Adieu. "

It was now time to leave the Council House. The divines who attended the
prisoner were not of his own persuasion; but he listened to them with
civility, and exhorted them to caution their flocks against those
doctrines which all Protestant churches unite in condemning. He mounted
the scaffold, where the rude old guillotine of Scotland, called the
Maiden, awaited him, and addressed the people in a speech, tinctured
with the peculiar phraseology of his sect, but breathing the spirit
of serene piety. His enemies, he said, he forgave, as he hoped to be
forgiven.