Hamilton's knowledge, and directly contrary to his express command, gave five of these bloody enemies quarters, and then let them go; this greatly grieved Mr. Hamilton, when he saw some of Babel's brats spared, after the Lord had delivered them to their hands, that they might dash them against the stones. Psal. 137—9—In his own account of this he reckons the sparing of these enemies and the letting them go, to be among their first stepping aside; for which he feared that the Lord would not honour them to do much more for him; and he says, that he was neither for taking favours from, nor giving favours to, the Lord's enemies.'Battle of Bothwell Bridge, p. 9.*

The author therefore has acted in strict conformity with historical truth (whether with propriety we shall hereafter inquire) in representing the covenanters or rather the ultra-covenanters, for those who gained the skirmish fell chiefly under this description, as a fierce and sanguinary set of men, whose zeal and impatience under persecution had destroyed the moral feeling and principle which ought to attend and qualify all acts of retaliation. The large body of Presbyterians, both clergy and people, were far from joining in these extravagances, and when they took up arms to unite them

* The same honest but bigoted and prejudiced historian of the Scottish worthies has, in the Life of John Nesbit, of Hardhill, another champion of the covenanted cause canvassed this delicate point still more closely. It would appear that James Nesbit, at the time of his execution, had testified, among other steps of defection and causes of wrath against the lenity shown to the five captive dragoons.

He was by some thought too severe in his design of killing the prisoners at Drumclog. But in this he was not altogether to blame; for the enemy's word was,-No quarters, and the sufferers were the same; and we find it grieved Mr. Hamilton very much, when he beheld some of them spared, after the Lord had delivered them into their hand. Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Psal. 137— 8.-Yea. Hardbill himself seems to have had clear grounds and motives for this, in one of the above-mentioned steps of defection, with which we shall conclude this

narrative.'

15thly. As there has been rash, envious and carnal executing of justice on his and the church's enemies, so he has also been provoked to reject, cast off, and take the power out of his people's hand, for being so sparing of them, when he brought forth and gave a commission to execute on them that vengeance due unto them, as it is Psal. 149-9. For as justice ought to be executed in such and such away and manner as aforesaid, so it ought to be fully executed without sparing, as is clear from Joshua, 7, 24, &c. For sparing the life of the enemy, and fleeing upon the spoil, 1 Sam. 15. 18, Saul is sharply rebuked, and though he excused himself, yet for that very thing he is rejected from being king. Let the practice of Drumclog be remembered and mourned for. If there was not a deep ignorance, reason might teach this; for what master baying servants and putting them to do his work, would take such a slight at his servants' hands as to do a part of his work, and come and say to the master, that it is not necessary to do the rest, when the not doing of it would be dishonourable to the master, and hurtful to the whole family? Therefore was the wrath of the Lord against his people, insomuch that he abhorred bis inheritance, and biding his face from his people, making them afraid at the shaking of a leaf, and to flee when none pursueth, being a scorn and hissing to the enemies, and fear to some who desire to befriend his cause. And, O! lay to heart and mourn for what has been done to provoke him to anger, in not seeking the truth to execute judgment, and therefore he has not pardoned. Behold! for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. Isa. 50, 1, &c.-Scottish Worthies, p. 439.

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 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 dissentions 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, were 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 were great harmony and unity among the victors of Drumclog, until their spirits were over

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 were 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 expresses 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

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 forthe 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 dissentions are rending 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,

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 atleast, 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 coin. cidences, 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 upon him that he ought to remain. He twice consulted Heaven by earnest prayer, and to the first petition for direc tion 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 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 he felt himself under to execute his laws, to the uttermost, against the rebels. Claverhouse takes Morton under his immediate pro tection, 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