THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
AT EDINBURGH, 1646.

The preceding pages embody, with sufficient fulness and authenticity, the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament and Assembly in the beginning of the year 1645; and it is now our task to revert to contemporary occurrences during the period which intervened betwixt the Assemblies of 1645 and 1646, and which gave a colour and character to these proceedings, and ushered in the latter General Assembly.

Of the occurrences now referred to, by far the most striking and interesting were the military achievements of Montrose, which more immediately operated on the nerves and the policy of the Scottish Conventions in January and February, 1645. In our last sketch, we brought down the notices to the end of January, of that year when Montrose, having devastated Argyleshire, and chased its lord into the Lowlands, bent his steps towards the north, in order to muster the Royalists, and renew his summer aggressions on the dominant Covenanters. He had not, however, proceeded far on his route when he learnt that Argyle had returned to his own country with some Lowland forces, with whom he joined the remnant of his own clan, and had taken up a position at Inverlochie Castle, near Fort William, at the western extremity of the chain of lochs which have recently been connected by the Caledonian Canal. Retracing his steps through the snow-wreathed mountain passes with his wonted celerity, Montrose’s band was once more suddenly and unexpectedly in face of his enemy on the 1st of February, and the outposts partially engaged. Although greatly superior in force to Montrose, and in a position of his own selection, the Lord of Argyle prepared, at the dawn of day next morning, for the coming battle, by securing his own person in a place of safety. The soldiers on both sides had lain all night on their arms; and, when Montrose was in the field, there was little parley to be looked for. Argyle surveyed the contest from the boat in which he had rowed from the shore ere it commenced; and once more the star of Montrose was in the ascendant. The clan Campbell and their allies fought gallantly; but, deserted by their chief, and paralized by the terror of Montrose’s name, fifteen hundred of them were slaughtered before the eyes of their craven lord in the battle and retreat which followed; while this victory was won with the most trivial loss of men on the part of Montrose—among whom was Sir Thomas Ogilvy, of the House of Airlie, one of the most chivalrous adherents of the Royal cause.

Montrose, having thus annihilated Argyle’s power, and tarnished the military and moral influence of that chieftain, proceeded towards the north-east, where the fame of another victory gained him the support of Lord Gordon, and a considerable body of cavalry under his banner. The dismay of the Convention and Assembly, then sitting at Edinburgh, may be gathered from their recorded councils; and although they screwed their courage up while Montrose was traversing the Grampians and the wilds of the Western Highlands, his uniform success, and the increase of his strength, made them tremble for their safety even in the metropolis, though all the castles were in their hands. Baillie, the second in command of their troops in England, and Urry, (both experienced soldiers,) were recalled. These generals for some time manœuvred so as to prevent Montrose from crossing the Tay and Forth; and, as was frequently the case with him, his force was diminished by the retirement of numerous portions of it. With the remnant, however, he attacked the town of Dundee; and, with the irrepressible ardour of his Highland and Irish soldiery, (who had no pay or sustenance save plunder,) it became a scene of devastation, even in the immediate vicinity of Baillie’s army, which was within a mile of the town. Montrose hurriedly recalled his soldiers from the havoc, and effected a retreat northwards, which has been admired as one of the most brilliant of his exploits. In the face of a much superior force and able generals, he effected his retreat without disaster—marching above sixty miles without intermission, and fighting or manœuvring for three days and nights, without rest or refreshment.

The Gordons once more joined Montrose in the north; and Urry being detached to lead the northern Covenanters, and attack him in that quarter, the hostile parties came again into collision at Auldearn, (4th May, 1645,) where Montrose disposed his small band in the most skilful manner, and obtained another victory in that fierce and well fought battle, in which 2,000 of Urry’s troops were cut to pieces. Urry had lost in it about a third part of his soldiers; and being completely disabled and baffled, he was compelled to retreat on Baillie’s main army, and leave Montrose victor of the field. Baillie and Urry still advancing in greater force, Montrose soon again came into contact with them (on the 2d of July) at Alford, where, after a fierce and sanguinary struggle, (in which Lord Gordon was mortally wounded,) the genius of Montrose, and the resistless gallantry of his followers, won the day. They burst through the army of the Covenanters like a living torrent, sweeping everything before them; and thus the most skilful leaders, and some of the best troops of the Covenant, were utterly cut off, or scattered in the north.

The natural effect of this career of victory was a considerable accession to his standard, both of Highlanders and of non-Covenanters in the Lowlands, who had hitherto been borne down by the high-handed power of the Church and Estates, combined against the Royalists of that kingdom; and there was something too, it must be confessed, in the daring, and the devotedness of Montrose to his Sovereign—in his grappling with and surmounting all disadvantages—and in the fame of his uninterrupted triumphs—which was calculated to awaken the martial spirit of Scotland, that we have seen even in later times awakened from the slumber of peace, and shining forth in brightest lustre on the fields of Spain and Belgium.

Notwithstanding the successes which had attended the arms of the Parliaments in England, these successes of Montrose excited the greatest consternation in the councils of those who at that time ruled Scotland. New levies of troops were ordered to the number of 10,000; and the Convention of Estates was driven from Edinburgh by a pestilence, which added to the other horrors of the year 1645 in Scotland. They removed their sittings, in the month of July, first to Stirling, afterwards to Perth—assembled around them all the forces they could muster under the command of Baillie—and sent all the western Lords of the Covenant to their respective shires to quicken new levies.[332]

Montrose, with ranks more crowded and better appointed than heretofore, descended from the mountains, and passing by the Convention and the troops at Perth, whom he treated with scorn, advanced southward with rapidity. Approaching the northern shore of the Forth, through Kinross-shire, he consigned Castle Campbell (belonging to Argyle) to the flames. He thence proceeded westward, marking his progress by similar acts of vengeance; and crossing the river Forth at a ford some miles above Stirling—the castle of which he had no means of assailing—he then bent his course in a westerly direction for the purpose of dispersing the new levies in the south-western counties, and of advancing to the aid of his royal master in England. When he had advanced as far as Kilsyth, he learned, on the 15th of August, that Baillie, who had decamped from Perth, and taken the shorter route by Stirling Bridge, was advancing towards him. That able commander, knowing full well the spirit of Montrose and of his troops, would have avoided a general engagement, but was overruled by Argyle and other nobles, forming a Committee of the Estates, who urged on the attack. Montrose was advantageously posted, and eager for the fight; his men stripped to their shirts; and thus prepared “to do or die.” The Covenanters, ere yet they were fully formed, began the attack on an outpost; upon which Montrose, seeing and snatching the favourable moment, poured down his daring followers to the combat, to which they rushed in close columns with a wild shout that appalled their antagonists, whose ranks they pierced, and whom they dispersed and slaughtered with scarcely a shew of resistance, for the space of more than ten miles. Four or five thousand of the Covenanters were slain on the field and in the flight; and the only semblance of an army which the Covenanters had on foot in Scotland was thus utterly routed and dissipated. On this, as on former occasions, Argyle sought personal safety in a barque on the Frith of Forth, at the nearest point to the scene of action.

The capital surrendered on his advance, and there, as well as elsewhere, he liberated a number of the King’s friends who were in captivity; and so many persons of rank and consideration joined his standard, that he called a Parliament to be held in Glasgow in the King’s name. For the time, he was the conqueror of Scotland, save only its few castles; but even if he had possessed the means of reducing them, that formed no part of his scheme, which was to reach and join the Royal standard in England. Meanwhile, the leading men of the Convention and others fled for concealment in all directions; and, for a brief space, the power of the Covenanters was completely broken. But, from the very nature of Montrose’s armaments all along, they were liable to frequent mutations. Destitute of what have been emphatically termed “the sinews of war”—the funds for regularly maintaining his followers in the field—they ever and anon, as volunteers, retired to their homes, to the harvesting, and other pursuits, without leave asked or given; and even after the triumphant Battle of Kilsyth, when he had thus become master of Scotland, and might then have trodden the Covenanters under foot, his forces melted away, until it was diminished nearly to the condition in which it had been when he traversed the wilds of Atholl and Badenoch.