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selves to the insurgents, were received with great jealousy and suspicion by the high-flyers of whom we have spoken. The clergy who had been contented to exercise their ministry by the favour of the government, under what was called the Indulgence, were stigmatized by their opponents as Erastians and will-worshippers, while they, with more appearance of reason, recriminated upon their adversaries that they meant, under pretence of establishing the liberty and independence of the kirk, altogether to disown allegiance to the government. The author of Old Mortality has drawn a lively sketch of their distracted councils and growing divisions, and has introduced several characters of their clergy, on each of whom religious enthusiasm is represented as producing an effect in proportion to its quality, and the capacity upon which it is wrought. It is sincere but formal in the indulged Presbyterian clergyman Poundtext, who is honest, well-meaning, and faithful, but somewhat timorous and attached to his own ease and comfort.

The zeal of Kettledrummle is more boisterous, and he is bold, clamorous, and intractable. In a youth called Mac Briar, of a more elevated and warm imagination, enthusiasm is wild, exalted, eloquent, and impressive; and in Habbakuk Mucklewrath it soars into absolute madness.

We have been at some pains to ascertain that there were such dissensions as are alluded to in the novels, and we think it is but fair to quote the words of those who lived at the period. James Russell has left distinct testimony on this subject.

'On the Sabbath the army convened at Rutherglen with all the ministers, where they controverted about preaching; for these officers that the Lord had honoured to bring the work that length, opposed any that would not be faithful and declare against all the defections of the time, but ministers taking on them to agree there, they preached at three several places; the one party preached against all the defections and encroachments upon the prerogatives of Jesus Christ; Mr. Welch and his party preached up the subjects' allegiance to the magistrate. These things gave great offence on all hands, for such as adhered to the former testimonies found that a step of defection if they should join with it; and those which favoured the king's interest and indulgence were likewise displeased; and that day Mr. Hall, Rathillet, Carmichael, Mr. Smith, was commanded out to Campsie, the militia being rendezvousing there, to scatter them, whether designedly or not we cannot tell; for they were all honest and strangers; however, there began strife and debate through all the army, the one party pleading the Lord's interest, and the other the king's and their own, and cried out against the honest party as factious and seditious.'

Howie of Lochgoin, with whom we have already made the reader acquainted, informs us that there was great harmony and unity among the victors of Drumclog, until their spirits were over

clouded

clouded by the ill news that Mr. Welch, a favourer of the Indulgence, was approaching to join them with a powerful reinforcement. This would have been joyful tidings to any others in a similar situation. But this most extraordinary body of warriors, to whom a trifling polemical difference was of more consequence than the swords of some hundred assistants, were filled with consternation at the news.

'Hitherto they were of one accord, and of one mind, in what concerned the cause and testimony of Jesus Christ, that they were appearing for, in this there was great harmony amongst them; but now, alas! their sweet and pleasing union, concord, and harmony was near an end: for this day in the evening, a sad company of Achans came into the camp, which grievously troubled the Lord's host, viz. Mr. John Welch, who brought with him about 140 horsemen from Carrick, and young Blachan upon their head, about 300 footmen, some corrupt ministers of his own stamp, and Thomas Weir of Greenridge, and a troop of horsemen under him; though justly rejected by the council of war the Tuesday before this. All these were enemies to the true state of the cause that that army was appearing for; and, as faithful Rathillet observes, that now they had one among them, viz. Greenridge, that was guilty of shedding the blood of the saints, and some who were possessing the estates of the godly sufferers, who had not come that length of repentance that Judas came, when he brought back the price of blood and gave it again. Now came on the honest men's sorrow and vexation; for, from the time that Mr. Welch came among them, till they were broken by the enemy, they were vexed with debates, strifes, contentions, prejudices, divisions, confusions, and disorders, and at last the utter overthrow of that once pleasant army; for ever after that there were two parties in that army struggling with each other; the one for truth, the other for defection; like Jacob and Esau struggling in Rebekah's womb. Gen. xxv. 22. There was Mr. Hamilton and the honest party with him, and Mr. Welch with the new incomers, with others who came in afterward; and such as were drawn from the right state of the testimony to their corrupt ways, which made up a new and very corrupt party.'-Howie's Account of the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.

To return to the novelist, of whom we had well nigh lost sight in examining the authenticity of his historical representations. We have to notice, that he engages the insurgent presbyterians in the siege of his imaginary castle of Tillietudlem, defended against them by old Major Bellenden, to whom Lady Margaret Bellenden commits that charge by the solemn symbol of delivering into his hands her father's gold-headed staff, with full power,' as she exa3 presses it, to kill, slay, and damage all those who should assail the same, as freely as she could have done herself.' The garrison is strengthened by the arrival of Lord Evandale, and by a party of dragoons left there by Claverhouse in his retreat from Drumclog Thus prepared, they resolved to stand a siege; the incidents of

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which are told with great minuteness, according to the custom of this author, who gives much of his attention (perhaps too much) to military description. At length, after some changes of fortune, Lord Evandale is made prisoner in a sally, and on the point of being executed by the more violent party of the insurgents. The more moderate leaders unite with Morton in opposing this cruel resolution, and liberate Evandale upon conditions, one of which is the surrender of the castle, the other, his promise to forward their remonstrance and petition to the Council, petitioning for a redress of those grievances which had occasioned the insurrection.

This incident is not in any respect strained. From the principles expressed in former quotations, it seems that the Cameronian part of the insurgents had resolved to refuse quarter to their prisoners. It appears, from the joint testimony of Creighton and Guild, countenanced by a passage in Blacader's Manuscript Memoirs, that they set up in the centre of their camp at Hamilton, a gallows of unusual size and extraordinary construction, furnished with hooks and halters for executing many criminals at once; and it was avowed that this machine was constructed for the service of the malignants: nor was this an empty threat, for they actually did put to death, in cold blood, one Watson, a butcher in Glasgow, whose crime was that of bearing arms for the government. This execution gave great displeasure to that portion of their own friends whom they were pleased to call Erastians, as appears from Russell's Memoirs, already quoted.

The deliverance of Lord Evandale occasions an open breach betwixt Morton, the hero of the novel, and his father's friend Burley, who considered himself as specially injured in the transaction. While these dissensions are reuding asunder the insurgent army, the Duke of Monmouth, at the head of that of Charles II., advances towards them, like the kite in the fable, hovering over the pugnacious frog and mouse, and ready to pounce on both. Morton goes as an envoy to the Duke, who seems inclined to hear him with indulgence, but is prevented by the stern influence of Claverhouse and General Dalzell. In this last point, the author has cruelly falsified history, for he has represented Dalzell as present at the battle of Bothwell Bridge; whereas that old and bloody man,' as Wodrow calls him, was not at the said battle, but at Edinburgh, and only joined the army a day or two afterwards. He also exhibits the said Dalzell as wearing boots, which it appears from the authority of Creighton the old general never wore. We know little the author can say for himself to excuse these sophistications, and, therefore, may charitably suggest that he was writing a romance, and not a history. But he has done strict justice to the facts of history in representing Monmouth as anxious to prevent bloodshed,

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both before and after the engagement, and as overpowered by the fiercer spirits around him when willing to offer favourable terms to the insurgents.

Morton, after having, as is incumbent on him as the hero of the tale, done prodigious things to turn the scale of fortune, is at last compelled to betake himself to flight, accompanied by the faithful Cuddie, the companion of his distress. They arrive at a lone farmhouse occupied by a party of the retreating Whigs, with their preachers. As unfortunately, these happened to be of the wilder cast of Cameronians, who regarded Morton as an apostate at least, if not a traitor, they prepared, after consulting among themselves, to put him to death; his unexpected arrival among them being considered as a sufficient proof that such was the will of Providence. These unfortunate men were, indeed, too apt to consider such coincidences, joined to the earnest conviction impressed upon their own minds by long dwelling upon ideas of vengeance, to be an immediate warrant from Heaven to shed the blood of others. In Russell's narrative we find John Balfour (the Burley of the romance) assuring the party which were assembled on the morning of Bishop Sharpe's murder, that the Lord had some great service for him, since, when he was on the point of flying to the Highlands, he felt it was borne in upon him that he ought to remain. He twice consulted Heaven by earnest prayer, and to the first petition for direction obtained the response, and on the second the more decisive command, Go! Have I not sent thee?' James Russell himself conceived that he had received a special mandate upon this memorable occasion.

Morton is rescued from his impending fate by the arrival of his old acquaintance Claverhouse, who was following the pursuit wsuit with a body of horsemen, and, surrounding the house, put to death, without mercy, all who had taken refuge within it. This com mander is represented as sitting quietly down to his supper, while his soldiers led out and shot two or three prisoners who had survived the fray. He treats the horror which Morton expresses at his cruelty with military non-chalance, and expresses, in bold and ardent language, his attachment to his sovereign, and the obligation be felt himself under to execute his laws, to the uttermost, against the rebels. Claverhouse takes Morton under his immediate protection, in consideration of the favour he had conferred on Lord Evandale, and, carrying him to Edinburgh, procures the doom of death, which he had incurred for being found in arms against the government, to be exchanged for a sentence of banishment. But he witnesses the dreadful examination by torture imposed upon one of his late companions. The scene is described in language which seems almost borrowed from the records of those horrible pro

ceedings,

ceedings, and, with many other incidents, true in fact, though mingled with a fictitious narrative, ought to make every Scotchman thank God that he has been born a century and a half later than such atrocities were perpetrated under the sanction of law. The accused person sustains the torture with that firmness which most of the sufferers manifested, few of whom, excepting Donald Cargil the preacher, who is said by Fountainhall to have behaved very timorously, lost their fortitude even under these dreadful inflictions. Cuddie Headrigg, whose zeal was by no means torture-proof, after as many evasions as were likely from his rank and country, for Scotch country-people are celebrated for giving indirect answers to plain questions, is at length brought to confess his error, drink the king's health, recant his whiggish principles, and accept a free pardon. The scene of his examination is characteristic, but we have not room for its insertion.

Morton receives a second communication from his old friend Burley, stating that he possessed unbounded influence over the fortune of Edith Bellenden, to whom he knew Morton's attachment, and would exercise it in his favour in case of his perseverance in the Presbyterian cause. The reason given for this unexpected change of conduct is Burley's having witnessed Morton's gallant behaviour at Bothwell Bridge. But we consider the motive as inadequate, and the incident as improbable. Morton being on ship-board when he receives the letter, has no opportunity to take any step in consequence of it.

Of the remaining events we must give a brief and very general summary, After an absence of some years, Morton returns to his native country, and finds that the house of Tillietudlem has been saved from that disgrace which Cato was so anxious to avoid : it had not stood secure nor flourished in a civil war: by the loss of a deed of importance, which Burley for his own ends had se creted, the possession of the inheritance had passed to Basil Oliphant, the heir male of the family; and Lady Margaret Bellenden, with her grand-daughter, had found a retreat in a small cottage of Lord Evandale, whose steady friendship had long delayed their ruin. Morton arrives in this humble abode; and the projected marriage of Lord Evandale with Miss Bellenden, to which she reluctantly assents, in consequence of her persuasion that her first lover has long been dead, and which he generously presses, for the purpose of placing the fortunes of Lady Margaret Bellenden and her niece beyond that risk to which she was just about to expose himself,-for his old commander, Dundee, was to strike another stroke for his exiled king,-is prevented, by Edith's discovery that Morton still existed.

Such of the events as may be necessary to the mere developement

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