This splendid demonstration of national spirit and power, seems to have warned Hamilton that his purposes of attack were effectually frustrated, even if he was not paralyzed by the feelings inseparable from a generous nature in such a position. He lingered on in a fruitless series of negotiations with the leaders of the Covenanters, (of which the particulars are too minute for recapitulation here)—his strength frittered away by detaching a portion of his troops, and by the ravages of disease; and he continued in a state of listless distraction and impotence for many weeks, neither attempting anything hostile, nor receiving any aggression from his sagacious antagonists, until he was recalled by his royal master to headquarters, in the camp near Berwick.
It will be recollected that, by the proclamations of 9th and 22d September 1638, the General Assembly was indicted for the 21st of November that year, and the Scottish Parliament to meet on the 16th of May following.[155] The time had now arrived for the assembling of Parliament, to which, in compliance with the proclamation, the Nobles, Barons, and others liable or entitled to serve in the Supreme Legislature convened at Edinburgh, while public affairs were in the attitude of which we have thus given a brief outline—the King’s Commissioner on board a naval armament in Leith Roads, for the subjection of Scotland by force, and the nation mustered in arms to resist him; the Sovereign himself being at the head of a foreign army, (for, as regarded Scotland then, it was a foreign army,) on the eve of invading her territories, and issuing proclamations against the whole nation, as guilty of treason and rebellion. It was under these extraordinary circumstances that Parliament assembled on the 16th of June 1639; and it is necessary to advert to the proceedings which the Estates, thus convoked by royal authority, adopted.
It was surmised by the royalist partisans that the Covenanters would hold a Parliament according to the indiction, and proceed, without either the King or a Commissioner being present, and establish some form of government, more or less anti-monarchical; in this, however, they were mistaken. When his Majesty sent orders to prorogate the Parliament, all agreed that it should be prorogued, after being fenced, to any period his Majesty thought fit; and it was prorogued accordingly, and by subsequent adjournment, till September following. Before separating, however, the Members concurred in granting a very ample commission to General Leslie, as Commander-in-Chief, and appointed Balmerino Governor of Edinburgh Castle. Meanwhile, the Covenanting chiefs omitted no opportunity of appealing to the justice and patriotism of the King, by supplications to himself, and communications to others whom they thought likely to have influence in his councils.
We now turn our attention to that quarter where it appeared probable the main battle would be fought, had not the consciousness of danger in the battle-field, and a sinister and double policy, induced the King to listen to the proposals of peace from his subjects; and it is one of the most honourable traits in the character of the Covenanters, that, however mistaken they might be in some of their views and actions, they ever manifested a desire to avoid the calamities of war, and ever cherished feelings of loyalty to the King, and of submission to his constitutional authority.
As the plans of the King began to be developed by his own march to the Eastern Border, and Hamilton’s expedition to the Forth, the Covenanters concentrated their forces to meet the threatened invasion at all points. On the 18th of May, peremptory orders were given by the Committee of War for general and energetic exertions. The forces which had been organized and disciplined on the Western Borders, under Monro, advanced from Dumfries through Nithsdale, Annandale, Liddisdale, and Teviotdale, towards the Merse, and took up cantonments at Kelso; while the main army (after leaving sufficient force to keep Hamilton in check) marched toward the royal camp, under the command of Alexander Leslie as Generalissimo, and pitched their tents in an entrenched camp at Dunglas, on the confines of East Lothian and Berwickshire—each body being so placed as to interpose an opposing force if the King’s army should attempt to enter Scotland through Berwick or further up the Tweed—and so posted that either portion of the army could presently coalesce with the other at any point of attack by the English. While the opposing armies were thus situated, the King was busied in issuing proclamations, one of which was more mild in its tone than those which preceded it, offering amnesty to all who should relinquish hostilities, but denouncing all who should not do so, and holding out an insidious temptation to the tenantry of Scotland that the estates of their landlords would be forfeited and partitioned among them, but withal forbidding them to come within ten miles of the royal camp, &c. Early in June these proclamations were published along the Border—at Dunse by Arundel, having an armed force along with him, without opposition; but not so at Kelso. Holland was dispatched, on the 3d of June, with 1000 horse and 3000 foot, to Kelso, professedly for a similar purpose, but evidently with the view of attacking and dispersing Monro’s corps of the Covenanters. He “advanced towards them with the horse (leaving the foot three miles behind) to a place called Maxwel-heugh, a height above Kelso; which, when the rebels discovered, they instantly marched out with 150 horse, and (as my Lord Holland sayes) eight or ten thousand foot—five or six thousand there might have been. He thereupon sent a trumpet, commanding them to retreat, according to what they had promised by the proclamation. They asked whose trumpet he was: he said—my Lord Holland’s. Their answer was—he was best to be gone; and so my Lord Holland made his retreat, and waited on his Majesty this night, to give him this account.”[156] We learn, from the same authority, that this untoward result operated strongly on the royal mind. “This morning,” says Vane, in his Letter, “advertisement is brought his Majestie that Lesley, with 12,000 men, is at Cockburnspath—that 5000 will be this night or tomorrow at Dunce—6000 at Kelso; so his Majestie’s opinion is, with many of his Council, to keep himself upon a defensive, and make himself here as fast as he can.” He therefore instructed Hamilton not to act on the offensive, but to leave his fleet in the Forth in as good a posture as he could, and go in person to the royal camp.
Baillie gives an account of this same affair, varying but little from Lord Holland’s. After stating that the Scotch troops willingly stood at the required distance from the King’s encampment, in order to shew that they did not meditate any invasion of England, and mentioning the proclamation at Dunse, he adds:—“The like was intended at Kelso; but there Monro, Fleming, and Erskine, presenting themselves in battle array, made Holland, with some thousand foot and horse, with their show alone, to retire in haste in a shamefull disorder. It is thought Holland’s commission was to cut off all he met in opposition to him; but his soldiers that day was a great deal more nimble in their legs than arms, except their cavilliers, whose right arms were no less weary in whipping, than their heels in jading their horses. We were informed that, to repair that disgrace, Holland was commanded to return with far more forces to execute his former commission; wherupon our Generall raises his camp from Dunglass, advertises his troops at Kelso to march towards him. Both of them met together that night at Dunse, and there they sat down on the head of their fair Law.”[157] He continues—“This our march did much affray the English camp. Dunse Law was in their sight within six or seven miles; for they lay in pavilions some two miles above Berwick, on the other side of the Tweed, in a fair plain along the river. The King himself, beholding us through a prospect, conjectured us to be about 16,000 or 18,000 men. We were, indeed, above twelve; but at once we were above twenty-four. We might have doubled that number, but we had none there from the one full half of Scotland—not a man beyond Tay—few from Lothian, Fife, Edinburgh, the Merse; for they were waiting on the ships or employed in carriages; the south behoved to observe the border about Carlisle; and the west, the Irish shore; albeit that was needless.”
Baillie states the English army at that time to have been only about 16,000, “and these not of the stoutest.” “One night,” says he, “a false alarm being in our camp, when our drums began to beat, and our matches on the hill to shine through the darkness, there arose such a fray in the English camp, that very many betook them to their heels, expecting from us a present invasion; yea, had not our wise and valorous Prince, with his General Arundel, done diligence to encourage and to find out the grundless vanity of the fray, there had bein a greater flight than with honour could have been gotten stayed.”
Although anxious to compress, as much as possible, these illustrative historical details, we cannot resist gratifying ourselves, and, we trust, our readers, by giving Baillie’s most graphical, though quaint, description of the Scottish camp on Dunse Law. It affords a more lively impression of the character, the manners, and the spirit of those times, than any modern description could possibly convey; and as this was, perhaps, the last great national demonstration of “Scotland’s might and Scotland’s right” which her a___ls afford, we must be forgiven for recording it in these pages, in connection with the history of the Presbyterian Church.
“It would have done you good,” says the reverend patriot, “to have cast your eyes athort our brave and rich hills, as oft as I did, with greater contentment and joy; for I was there among the rest, being chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our shire, who came late with Lord Eglinton. I furnished to half a dozen of good fellows, muskets and pikes, and to my boy a broad sword. I carried myself, as the fashion was, a sword, and a couple of Dutch pistols at my saddle; but I promise, for the offence of no man except a robber in the way; for it was our part alone to pray and preach for the encouragement of our countrymen, which I did to my power most chearfully.
“Our hill was garnished on the top, towards the south and east, with our mounted cannon, well near to the number of forty, great and small. Our regiment lay on the sides of the hill, almost round about. The place was not ample in circle; a pretty round, rising in a declivity, without steepness, to the height of a bow-shot; on the top somewhat plain; about a quarter of a mile in length, and as much in breadth, as I remember, capable of tents for 40,000 men. The Crowners lay in canvas lodges, high and wide; their captains about them in lesser ones; the soldiers about, all in huts of timber, covered with divot or straw. Our Crowners for the most part were noblemen; Rothes, Lindsay, Sinclair, had among them two full regiments at least from Fife; Balcarras a horse-troop; Loudon, Montgomery, Erskine, Boyd, Fleming, Kircudbright, Dalhousie, Yester, Eglinton, Cassils, and others, either with a whole or half regiments. Montrose’s regiment was above 1500 men in the castle of Edinburgh; himself was expected; but what detained him ye shall hear at once.