CHAPTER III
Adventures in Spain—Serves in Hungary against the Turks—Returns to Scotland at the Revolution—Reforms in the Scottish Parliament—Saltoun restored—Darien.
As soon as Fletcher gained the deck of the Helderenberg the master sailed for Spain, carrying with him one John Kerridge, a pilot who had been pressed into Monmouth’s service for the purpose of steering the vessel to Bristol. As soon as they reached Bilboa, Fletcher, the master, and this unfortunate Kerridge were all seized and put in prison; and soon afterwards the English Minister at Madrid requested the Spanish Government to send Fletcher to England. If he had been sent to England his fate would not have long remained doubtful; but, by some strange chance, he escaped. The Earl Marischal’s account of what Fletcher told him of his adventures at this period is as follows:—
One morning he was sitting at the window of his prison, when a ‘venerable person’ appeared, and made signs that he had something to tell him. Fletcher somehow found an open door, at which he was met by the ‘venerable person,’ who led him past the sentinels, who, strange to say, were all fast asleep. As soon as he was outside the prison, his deliverer, who was a perfect stranger, disappeared before he had time to thank him. Thereafter, in disguise, he wandered through Spain, where, as soon as he thought himself out of danger, he spent some time in studying in the conventual libraries, and buying rare and curious books.
‘He made,’ says Lord Buchan, ‘several very narrow escapes of being detected and seized in the course of his peregrinations through Spain, particularly in the neighbourhood of a town (the name of which Lord Marshall had forgotten) where he intended to have passed the night; but in the skirts of a wood a few miles distant from thence, upon entering a road to the right, he was warned by a woman of a very respectable appearance to take the left-hand road, as there would be danger in the other direction. Upon his arrival he found the citizens alarmed by the news of a robbery and murder on the road against which he had been cautioned.’
We next find him serving under the Duke of Lorraine in Hungary against the Turks, whom he calls ‘the common enemy of Christendom.’ Here he is said to have distinguished himself by his gallantry and military talents; but now events were happening elsewhere which soon led to his return from exile. The Revolution was rapidly approaching. James was losing ground in Scotland as well as in England; and when the Scottish Parliament, at which the apostate Earl of Murray was Lord High Commissioner, met in April 1686, the King’s letter, artfully framed for the purpose of inducing the Estates to tolerate the Roman Catholics, contained not only the offer of free trade with England, but also the promise of a ‘full and ample indemnity for all crimes committed against our royal person and authority.’ It is possible that if the Scottish Parliament had yielded to the wishes of the King this indemnity might have been granted, and Fletcher might have returned to Scotland. But it was soon found that even the Episcopalians would not submit to the royal wishes; and the Parliament replied that they could only do as much for the relief of the Roman Catholics as their consciences would permit. Then followed the assertion of the dispensing power, the declarations of indulgence, and the series of events which brought about the Revolution.
On the 2nd of October 1688, the very eve of his downfall, the King granted a general pardon; but from that pardon several persons were specially excepted by name, and among these were Burnet, Ferguson the Plotter, Titus Oates, and Fletcher of Saltoun. By that time, however, Fletcher was at the Hague, whence he accompanied the Prince of Orange to England.
He did not linger in the south, but made his way as soon as possible to Scotland.
Lord Buchan errs in saying that Fletcher was a member of the Convention of Estates which met at Edinburgh in March 1689. The members for Haddingtonshire were Sir Robert Sinclair of Stevenston and Adam Cockburn of Ormiston; but Fletcher was already taking an active part in public affairs. He had come back from the Continent with his Whig principles deepening into Republicanism, with his mind full of projects for the welfare of Scotland, and with a fixed opinion that the power of the Crown ought to be diminished.