Besides all other exactions, the parliamentary fines which had hung so long suspended over the heads of the gentry, were ordered to be levied with the utmost rigour from all who would not take the oath of supremacy and subscribe the declaration; but to those who would, the one-half was remitted, as had been proposed the preceding year. This fine, like the rest, was collected by troopers, whose charges, like those of modern lawyers, were always as much and frequently more than the original debt. The only consolation the sufferers had, was, that their plunder did not go to enrich those who were the authors of the robbery. Neither Middleton’s party, who imposed, nor Lauderdale’s, who uplifted, the mulct, were allowed to pocket a farthing of the proceeds, which were ultimately applied to support that worst and most dangerous instrument of tyranny—a standing body of household troops.
Sharpe, who assuredly was the cause of much of his country’s calamity, and who was often execrated as almost the origin of the whole, has usually got the credit of this arrangement. It is well known that, although an imperious, he was by no means a fearless, character, and it is therefore not unlikely he may have been the author of these precautionary measures which the country viewed with so much detestation. At any rate, about the time that he was in London, the affair was matured, and two regiments of foot and six troops of horse were ordered to be raised, of which Thomas Dalziel of Binns—a rude soldier who had once owned the covenant, and afterwards improved his manners in the Russian service—was appointed Lieutenant-General, with William Drummond, Lord Madderty’s brother, who had gone through the same course of education as Major-General. The troops of horse were disposed of among the nobility. This army was to be maintained from the fines, of whose application the General was to give an account; but from the manner in which they were collected, and the character of the gatherers, the public was little benefited by this revenue, and the maintenance of the troops fell eventually upon the common exchequer.
Reinforced by these mercenaries, the council more strictly enjoined, by a fresh proclamation, (October 11,) submission to the acts of parliament against separation and resistance to ecclesiastical authority, requiring masters to oblige their servants, landlords their tenants, and magistrates the inhabitants of the several burghs, to attend diligently at the parish churches and partake regularly of the ordinances; and no one was to be retained as a servant, kept as a tenant, or suffered to dwell as a citizen, after the parish priest intimated his disobedience. Mandates so wantonly oppressive, which, without any rational object, were calculated to create crime by leading either to a violation of the consciences of the lieges or the laws of the land, seem to carry on their face an incitement to insurrection; and when the manner in which they were put in execution, among a sturdy peasantry, is remembered, it is truly astonishing that they did not excite a spirit of insubordination, general and deadly, and in truth produce those very outrages of which the calumniated Presbyterians were falsely accused. Many were driven from their homes and utterly ruined, who, merely from political motives, or from a desire to see something like decency in their clergymen, or from an aversion to have ministers forced upon them whom they did not like, had opposed the curates and subjected themselves to the fines; others, men of respectable rank in life who themselves had conformed, saw their estates ruined and their families dispersed, because some one, over whom they could have no possible control, would not attend the wretched sermonizing of a worthless parson, or take the sacrament from his polluted hands; besides those who, from a love to the truth and a sincere reverence for their tenets, deemed it a point of duty to withdraw from the ministration of men who neither understood nor preached the first principles of the gospel. Yet, notwithstanding all these terrible encroachments upon their liberty and property, notwithstanding these authorized violations of all that was dear or sacred to them as men or as Christians, they had suffered, they had complained, but they had not rebelled, when an incidental circumstance led to an insurrection, in perfect conformity with the spirit, and even authorized by the letter, of the ancient Scottish constitution before it was destroyed at the Restoration, which hardly deserves the name of rebellion.
Mr Allan of Barscob, and three other of these unfortunate fugitives who had been forced by want from their places of retreat among the mountains or mosses of Galloway, had ventured, November 13th, to the Clachan of Dalry to procure some provisions. Upon the high road, a little from that place, they accidentally met some soldiers driving a few neighbours before them, to compel them to thresh out a poor man’s corn for the payment of his church fines. They naturally sympathized with the sufferers, but passed on. While seated, however, at breakfast in the village, they were informed that the soldiers had seized the old man in his house—stripped him naked—and were threatening to place him on a redhot gridiron because he could not produce the money. Leaving their meal unfinished, immediately they repaired to the spot; and finding the poor man bound, desired the soldiers to let him alone. The soldiers in return demanded how they dared to challenge them, and drew their swords. A scuffle ensued, in which one of the others discharged a pistol and wounded a corporal with some pieces of a tobacco pipe—the only ball they had among them when the military surrendered themselves prisoners, and the man was liberated.[[47]]
[47]. Sir James Turner says, that the corporal affirmed he was shot, “because he refus’d to sign the covenant.” The corporal himself, in a petition to the privy council, says, “ten pieces of tobacco pipes were, by the surgeon’s care, taken out of his bodie.” Turner’s Memoirs, p. 148. Kirkton’s Hist. note, p. 230.—Sir James in his account of the transactions which took place after his seizure, and till the battle of Pentland Hills, is frequently inaccurate, as might be expected, both from his situation, which prevented distinct information except about what he saw, and his prejudices and interest which led him to pervert even that. Some instances will be given afterwards in which he is palpably, if not designedly, at fault.
Thus fairly engaged, to retreat was as dangerous as to proceed. They knew they would be denounced as rebels and subjected to dreadful reprisals. A party of their friends at Balmaclellan, when they heard of the affair, knowing they too would be involved, seized and disarmed sixteen soldiers who were quartered there, one, who made resistance, being killed; and the whole country taking the alarm, their numbers soon swelled to about fifty horse tolerably mounted, and, perhaps, double that number of foot, miserably armed with pitchforks, scythes, cudgels, and a few pikes, and swords. Turner’s forces were scattered over the country, they therefore, without allowing them time to collect, marched direct to Dumfries, where, on the morning of the 15th, they surprised him, who having only heard some indistinct account of the scuffle, was preparing to go and chastise the culprits. The horse went straight up to head-quarters—the foot remaining without the town; and when Sir James appeared at the window, Nielson of Corsack told him, if he would quietly surrender he should receive no harm, with which he complied; and that gentleman preserved him from personal injury, which some of the party seemed anxious to inflict.[[48]]
[48]. “While they were speaking, the Commander comes up, and seizing Turner presented a pistol or carabine to have shot him, but Corsack interfered, saying,” “you shall as soon kill me for I have given him quarters.” Crichton’s Life of Blackadder, p. 139.
The person who assumed the command was one Andrew Gray, said to be an Edinburgh merchant whom no body knew, but whose authority all obeyed without inquiry, so totally were they unprepared for any regular rising, and as little was he qualified for the situation into which he had thrust himself. They seized the General’s papers and trunks, but found little money; himself they brought away in his night-gown and slippers, and placing him upon a little pony carried him to the cross, where, with much formality, they drank the king’s health to evince their loyalty—a ceremony which some of their friends thought they might as well have omitted, and for which they received neither credit nor thanks. They then carried him back to his lodgings, and ordered him to make ready and go with them. That night they rested at Glencairn. Here they were alarmed by a report of the approach of the Earl of Annandale and Lord Drumlanrig, and set off hurriedly, carrying their prisoner with them under a strong guard. Next night they reached Carsphairn where they remained; and here their redoubtable Captain Gray left them, not without violent suspicions of having carried a considerable sum of money along with him: yet more probably he retired from fear or a sense of his own utter incapacity,[[49]] but the numbers increased, and a kind of committee consisting of Maclellan of Barscob, Nielson of Corsack, and Mr Alexander Robertson, a preacher, succeeded to the command.
[49]. This was on the Friday. On the Monday following he was found by Colonel Wallace near Machline in a situation very unlike that of a person possessed of much money. “About that house I saw two men, one whereof I perceived was Andrew Gray. He was in so uncouth a posture, with such a beggar-like habit, and looking with such an abashed countenance, I was astonished and could not speak for a long time. Always he forbids me to be afraid. He tells me the Lord had favoured them with good success in that attempt upon Dumfries; and that, howbeit, after the business was done, many came and owned it that never appeared before, when it was but to be hazarded upon: yet all or most of these gentlemen and countrymen had left it and gone to their houses, as if there had been no more ado: whereupon he had left them to look to his own safety, being in a very insecure condition then, having been the chief actor in the business.” Wallace’s Narrative of the Rising at Pentland, p. 391.
Some days before the scuffle at Dalry, Rothes had taken his departure for London, and the chief cares of the government devolved upon the primate, as president of the council—thus called upon to discharge an important political duty at a very delicate conjuncture. One of the bailies of Dumfries who had witnessed the seizure of Turner, immediately proceeded to Edinburgh with information of the rising; and the members of council, who never calculated upon resistance, were surprised and alarmed beyond measure. Next day, they sent off an express to the king with the unpleasant intelligence, who, passing the Commissioner upon the road, furnished his majesty with very unexpected news to salute him with on his arrival. They ordered General Dalziel to march on the following day with as many men as he could muster to the west country, to establish his head-quarters at Glasgow, and thence to proceed to wherever his presence might be most urgently required—the various noblemen of those most interested in these districts, were, at the same time, required to use their every exertion to preserve the peace, and to receive and assist his majesty’s forces—the guards of the town of Edinburgh were doubled, and the names of all strangers ordered to be registered. These measures, the most obvious and requisite, met of course the king’s approval, but a proposal to enforce the subscription of the declaration respecting the covenant upon the heritors of the southern and western shires, was postponed by his desire as unnecessarily exasperating an evil of which they did not yet know the extent. More effectually to protect the capital, the companies of the train-bands were ordered to be filled up by citizens who would willingly take the oath of allegiance, and further promise to maintain his majesty’s authority with their lives and fortunes; such as would not, to be disarmed and their persons secured.