27. Montrose's Rising.—-Meanwhile in the north Montrose made one more effort for the king. With a small army of foreigners which he had gathered on the Continent he landed in Orkney, and from thence passed over to Scotland early in 1650. But his followers were dispersed by a detachment from the Covenanting army. He himself wandered for a while in the Highlands, but was at last taken prisoner, brought to Edinburgh, and hanged there without a trial. He was lying under sentence of death for treason, which had been passed against him five years before, when he first took up arms for the King.
28. Arrival of Charles.-—But while the Estates were thus dealing with the leaders of the Malignants, they were busy on their own account treating for the return of Charles. They looked on him as their lawful King, and they were ready to be faithful to him if he would sign the Covenant and promise to submit to the dictates of the Assembly. These promises he made, and, before he landed, he signed the Covenant, in July, 1650, while the courtiers whom he had brought with him were nearly all sent away as being either Malignants or Engagers.
29. Cromwell's Conquest.—-No sooner did the news of these doings reach London than Cromwell was sent northward with a large army to put a stop to them. The old hatred of England was rekindled by this invasion, and numbers of recruits flocked round the banner of the Covenant. The army thus brought together was made up of good soldiers who made no pretences to piety, and of would-be saints who knew nothing of fighting. But the saints drove from their ranks all whom they suspected of lukewarmness in the cause and therefore looked on as sinners, and thus weeded out their best soldiers. Those who were left were put under the command of Leslie, and the King was not suffered to go out with the host. They took up a strong position on the hills south of the Firth of Forth, and for some time Cromwell tried in vain to bring them to a battle, but at last Leslie was persuaded against his better judgment to go down into the plain and meet the enemy. A battle was fought near Dunbar, September 3, in which the Scots were thoroughly beaten.
30. The Coronation. —-Meanwhile Charles was in Dunfermline, in old times the royal city, under care so strict and watchful that it was very much like imprisonment. The life which he led there was so distasteful to him that he made his escape, in hopes of joining the northern chiefs. But their plans were badly laid. He found no one to meet him as he had expected, and he was pursued and brought back by his former guardians. According to the ancient custom, Charles was crowned at Scone by the hands of the Marquess of Argyle.
31. Battle of Worcester.—-While Cromwell was busy in Scotland the Scots army marched into England. This time they took the King with them. But Cromwell hastened after them, came up with them at Worcester, and defeated them there, September 3, 1651, exactly a year after his victory at Dunbar. This was the last battle fought in the Civil War. The Scots had been the first to take up the sword, and they were the last to lay it down. Charles, after wandering about for some time in danger, and in want, escaped to the Continent. Meanwhile General Monk, who had been left in Scotland with an army of five thousand men, was reducing the country to subjection. The public records deposited in Stirling Castle were sent to the Tower of London. The Regalia, the Honours of Scotland as they were called, the Crown, the Sword, and the Sceptre, had been taken to Dunnottar, one of the strong fortresses in Scotland, which stood on a ledge of rock overhanging the sea. The Castle made a gallant resistance, but was at last obliged to yield, but the Honours were not found in it. They had been taken secretly from the Castle by Mrs. Granger, the wife of the minister of the parish. She rode through the camp with the Crown on her lap hidden in a bundle of lint, and the sceptre in her hand in the guise of a distaff, with the flax she was spinning wound round it. She and her husband buried the Honours under the floor of the church, and they kept their secret so well that no one knew what had become of them.
32. Union with England.—Cromwell, now Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, set to work to carry out Edward the First's idea of a legislative union of England and Scotland. This Union was ratified by the Council, in 1654. It was then settled that Scotland should be represented by thirty members in the English Parliament. Free-trade was established between the two countries. Great changes were also made in the Church Government. The Assembly was closed, and the power of the Church-courts was done away with. The country was divided into five districts, and the care of providing ministers to the different parishes was laid upon a certain number of ministers to be chosen from these districts. In order to improve the state of the people, all feudal dues were taken away. A fixed rent in money was substituted for all the services and restrictions to which the land had hitherto been liable. The Highlands were kept in order by the founding of garrisoned Forts.
33. Glencairn's Expedition.—Once only was the peace and order thus well established broken in favour of the Stewarts. A rising was made in the Highlands by William Cunningham, Lord Glencairn, who acted under a commission from Charles. More than five thousand men gathered round him. They were dispersed by a detachment of Monk's troops under General Morgan at Loch Garry before they had come down from the Highlands.
34. The Restoration.—The Protector, whose conquest had made Scotland prosperous, died September 3, 1658. His son Richard succeeded him in office, but he was not strong enough to keep order, as his father had done. A time of great confusion followed, which ended in the recall and Restoration of Charles. This was chiefly the work of General Monk. He was Commander of the Army in Scotland, during the Protectorate. Some time after Cromwell's death he called together a Convention of the Representatives of the Counties. Whether they knew of his intention of restoring Charles or not is not certain. But they aided him with a large sum of money. In November, 1659, he set out with the army for London, and in about six months' time Charles returned in triumph to England. In Scotland, where Charles had been already crowned, his return was celebrated with great rejoicings by the people, who hoped that he would uphold the Covenant which he had signed. Before long, they found out how much they had been mistaken. In the very first English Parliament, an Act was passed which took from Scotland the privilege of free-trade with England, which she had enjoyed under Cromwell. This was the Navigation Act, by which the exporting and importing of merchandise into England, or any of her colonies, was forbidden to any but English vessels.
35. Episcopacy Re-established.—John Middleton, a soldier of fortune, who had been taken prisoner at Worcester, and who had afterwards taken an active part in Glencairn's expedition, was now made Earl of Middleton, and was sent to Scotland as Commissioner. When the Estates met, an Act called the Act Rescissory was passed. By this Act, all the Acts passed since 1633 were cut out of the Statutes; nearly all the concessions wrung from Charles the First were recalled. The causes of dispute between the King and the people were thus restored to the state in which they had been before the great struggle began. In this same year Episcopacy was re-established by the Estates, and the Covenant was publicly burned by the hangman. As there was but one of the old bishops still alive, three new ones were consecrated in England. James Sharp was the Primate. He had gone up to London to plead the cause of the Covenant and of Presbyters; he came back an Archbishop, and was thenceforward foremost in persecuting the cause he had deserted.
36. Fate of Argyle and of Guthrie.—The government of Scotland was entrusted to a Privy Council. Its authority was supported by a standing lifeguard, the troop that former kings had often asked for in vain. To this Council were entrusted the supreme powers of the Estates during the intervals between the Sessions. An Act of Indemnity was promised, but before it was passed several persons suffered death. Two of those who thus fell were specially distinguished. The one was Argyle, whose great power made him a dangerous rival to the King. He was treacherously seized in London, whither he had gone to pay his court to Charles. He was sent down to Edinburgh, where he was tried for treason, found guilty, and beheaded, May 27, 1661. But the victim who was most regretted and whose fate called forth the most pity was James Guthrie, a noted divine, the leader of the extreme party among the Covenanters. This party, who were called the Remonstrants, had prepared a Remonstrance to be presented to the King directly after his return, praying that no form of worship but their own might be suffered within the realm. This remonstrance was drawn up by Guthrie. It was never presented, and those who had projected it were put in prison. Guthrie was now brought to trial on a charge of spreading abroad sedition and treason against the Government. He refused any legal defence, and avowed and justified all that he had done. He was found guilty and beheaded. He was looked on by the Covenanters as a martyr for his faith, and his last words were treasured up with special veneration.