As Huntly’s force was considerably reduced by the return of the Highlanders, who had accompanied him, to their own houses, with the booty which they had collected in Aberdeen, and, as he was apprehensive of the immediate return of Middleton from the north, he remained but a short time in Aberdeen. Marching up the north bank of the Dee, he encamped in Cromar; but the sudden appearance of Middleton, who, on hearing of Huntly’s advance on Aberdeen, had retraced his steps and re-crossed the Spey, made him retire into Mar. Middleton, after pursuing him for a short distance, returned to Aberdeen, which he found had suffered severely from Huntly’s visit.
After an ineffectual attempt by Montrose to obtain an interview with Huntly at the bog of Gight, whither he had gone after Middleton’s return to Aberdeen, Montrose resolved to make a tour through the Highlands, in the hope that he would be able, by his personal presence, and by promising suitable rewards, to induce the clans to rise in defence of their sovereign; but with the determination, in case of refusal, to enforce obedience to his commands. This resolution was not taken by Montrose, without the concurrence of some of his best friends, who promised to aid him by every means in their power, in carrying it into effect. In pursuance of his design, Montrose was just about setting out on his proposed journey, when, on the last day of May, a messenger arrived with a letter from the king, requesting him to disband his forces, and to retire, himself, to France, where he would receive “further directions.” After the disastrous battle of Naseby, which was fought on the 14th of June, 1644, between the English royalists and the parliamentary forces, the campaign in England, on the part of the king, “presented little more than the last and feeble struggles of an expiring party.”[353] The king had been enabled, in consequence of the recall of the horse, which had reached Nottingham, on their way to Hereford, under General David Leslie, after the battle of Kilsyth, to drive the parliamentary infantry back from the siege of Hereford; but the surrender of Bristol to the forces of the parliament, on the 10th of September, and the defeat of the royalists at Chester, on the 23d of the same month, completed the ruin of the king’s affairs. Having shut himself up in Oxford, for the last time, in November following, Charles, after the discovery of the secret treaty with the Catholics of Ireland, which had been entered into by the Earl of Glamorgan, endeavoured to negotiate with the English parliament in the expectation that if he could gain either the presbyterians or independents over to his side, by fair promises, he would be enabled to get the upper hand of both.[354] That negotiation, however, not succeeding, another was set on foot, through the medium of Montrevil, the French envoy, with the Scots army before Newark, the leaders of which offered an asylum to the king on certain conditions. At length Charles, undetermined as to the course he should pursue, on hearing of the approach of the parliamentary army, under Fairfax, left Oxford at midnight, on the 27th of April, 1646, in the disguise of a servant, accompanied by Mr. Ashburnham and Dr. Hudson, a clergyman, and, after traversing the neighbouring country, arrived at Southwell on the 5th of May, where he was introduced by Montrevil to the Earl of Leven, the commander of the Scots army, and the officers of his staff. The arrival of the king seemed to surprise the officers very much, although it is generally supposed that they had been made previously aware of his intentions by Hudson, who had preceded him, and they treated him with becoming respect, the commander tendering his bare sword upon his knee;[355] but when Charles, who had retained Leven’s sword, indicated his intention to take the command of the army, by giving orders to the guard, that crafty veteran unhesitatingly thus addressed him:—“I am the older soldier, Sire, your majesty had better leave that office to me.”[356] The king was, in fact, now a prisoner. As soon as the intelligence reached the capital, that the king had retired to the Scots camp, the two parliamentary factions united in accusing the Scots of perfidy, and sent a body of 5,000 horse to watch their motions; but the Scots being desirous to avoid hostilities, raised their camp before Newark, and hastily retired to Newcastle, carrying the king along with them.
On arriving at Newcastle, the king was waited upon by the Earls of Lanark and Callander, and Lord Balmerino, who paid their respects to him. As Callander was understood to be favourably inclined to the king, Lanark and Balmerino were desirous to get rid of him, and accordingly they prevailed upon his majesty to send Callander back to Edinburgh with a letter, which they had induced his majesty to write to the Committee of Estates, expressive of his desire to comply with the wishes of the Scots parliament, and containing instructions to them to order Montrose, Huntly, and Sir Alexander Macdonald to disband their forces. And it was also at the desire of these two noblemen that the king wrote the letter to Montrose already referred to.
After Montrose had read this letter he was filled with deep amazement and concern. All those visionary schemes for accomplishing the great object of his ambition, which a few minutes before had floated in his vivid imagination, were now dispelled. He was now placed in one of the most painful and difficult situations it is possible to conceive. He had no doubt that the letter had been extorted from the king, yet he considered that it would neither be prudent nor safe for him to risk the responsibility of disobeying the king’s orders. Besides, were he to attempt to act contrary to these instructions, he might thereby compromise the safety of the king, as his enemies would find it no difficult affair to convince the army that Montrose was acting according to private instructions from the king himself. On the other hand, by instantly disbanding his army, Montrose considered that he would leave the royalists, and all those friends who had shared his dangers, to the mercy of their enemies. In this dilemma, he determined to convene a general meeting of all the principal royalists, to consult as to how he should act—a resolution which showed his good sense, and kind and just feeling towards those who had been induced by his means to risk their lives and fortunes in the cause of the king. Notwithstanding the many slights which had been put upon him by the Marquis of Huntly, Montrose, anxious to preserve a good understanding with him, sent Sir John Hurry and Sir John Innes to Huntly, to invite him to attend the proposed meeting, and that there might be no appearance of dictation on the part of Montrose, the time and place of meeting was left to Huntly’s own choice. But this nobleman answered that he himself had received orders similar to those sent to Montrose, which he was resolved to obey immediately, and, therefore, he declined to attend any meeting on the subject.
In this situation of matters, Montrose considered that his best and wisest course would be to keep his army together till he should receive another communication from the king, in answer to a letter which he sent by a messenger of his own, in which he begged his majesty to acquaint him with the real situation of matters, whether he considered his person safe in the hands of the Covenanters, and if he could be of any farther service to him. Montrose begged also to be informed by the king, if he persevered in his resolution to disband an army which had fought so bravely in his defence, and that at a time when his enemies, in both kingdoms, were still under arms; and if so, he wished to be instructed by his majesty as to the course he should pursue, for the protection and security of the lives and fortunes of those brave men, who had encountered so many dangers, and had spent their blood in his defence, as he could not endure the idea of leaving such loyal subjects to the mercy of their enemies.[357] The king returned an answer[358] to this letter, by the former messenger, Ker, in which he assured him that he no less esteemed his willingness to lay down arms at his command, “for a gallant and real expression” of his zeal and affection to his service than any of his former actions; but he hoped that Montrose had not such a mean opinion of him, that for any particular or worldly respects he would suffer him (Montrose) to be ruined,—that his only reason for sending Montrose out of the country was that he might return with greater glory, and, in the meantime, to have as honourable an employment as he (the king) could confer upon him,—that Ker would tell him the care he had of all Montrose’s friends, and his own, to whom, although he could not promise such conditions as he would have wished, yet they would be such, all things considered, as were most fit for them to accept. “Wherefore,” continues his majesty, “I renew my former directions, of laying down arms, unto you, desiring you to let Huntly, Crawford, Airly, Seaforth, and Ogilvy, know, that want of time hath made me now omit to reiterate my former commands unto you, intending that this shall serve for all; assuring them, and all the rest of my friends, that, whensoever God shall enable me, they shall reap the fruits of their loyalty and affection to my service.”
These ‘conditions,’ which consisted of several articles, and in the drawing up of which the king probably had no concern, were far from satisfactory to Montrose, who refused to accede to them. He even refused to treat with the Covenanters, and sent back the messenger to the king to notify to him, that as he had acted under his majesty’s commission, he would admit of no conditions for laying down his arms, or disbanding his army, which did not come directly from the king himself; but that if his majesty imposed conditions upon him, he would accept of them with the most implicit submission. The king, who had no alternative but to adopt these conditions as his own, put his name to them and sent back the messenger with them, with fresh instructions to Montrose to disband his army forthwith under the pain of high treason. Besides Ker, the king despatched another trusty messenger to Montrose with a private letter[359] urging him to accept of the conditions offered, as in the event of his refusal to break up his army, his majesty might be placed “in a very sad condition,” such as he would rather leave Montrose to guess at than seek himself to express. From this expression, it would appear that Charles already began to entertain some apprehensions about his personal safety. These commands of the king were too peremptory to be any longer withstood, and as Montrose had been informed that several of the leading royalists, particularly the Marquis of Huntly, Lord Aboyne, and the Earl of Seaforth, were negotiating with the Estates in their own behalf, and that Huntly and Aboyne had even offered to compel Montrose to lay down his arms in compliance with the orders of the king, he immediately resolved to disband his army.
As Middleton had been intrusted by the Committee of Estates with ample powers to negotiate with the royalists, and to see the conditions offered to Montrose implemented by him in case of acceptance, a cessation of arms was agreed upon between Montrose and Middleton; and in order to discuss the conditions, a conference was held between them on the 22d day of July, on a meadow, near the river Isla, in Angus, where they “conferred for the space of two hours, there being none near them but one man for each of them to hold his horse.”[360] The conditions agreed upon were these, that with the exception of Montrose himself, the Earl of Crawford, Sir Alexander Macdonald, and Sir John Hurry, all those who had taken up arms against the Covenanters would be pardoned on making their submission, and that Montrose, Crawford, Hurry, and Graham of Gorthy, should transport themselves beyond seas, before the last day of August, in a ship to be provided by the Estates. This arrangement was ratified by the committee of Estates, but the committee of the kirk exclaimed against it, and petitioned the Committee of Estates not to sanction it.
Preparatory to disbanding his army, Montrose appointed it to rendezvous at Rattray, in the neighbourhood of Coupar-Angus, at which place, on the 30th of July, he discharged his men, after addressing them with feeling and animation. After giving them due praise for their faithful services and good behaviour, he told them his orders, and bade them farewell, an event no less sorrowful to the whole army than to himself; and, notwithstanding that he used his utmost endeavours to raise their drooping spirits, and encourage them with the flattering prospect of a speedy and desirable peace, and assured them that he contributed to the king’s safety and interest by his present ready submission, no less than he had formerly done by his military attempts; yet they concluded, that a period was that day put to the king’s authority, which would expire with the dissolution of their army, for disbanding which, they were all convinced the orders had been extorted from the king, or granted by him on purpose to evite a greater and more immediate evil. And, upon whatever favourable conditions their own safety might be provided for, yet they lamented their fate, and would much rather have undergone the greatest fatigue and hardships than be obliged to remain inactive and idle spectators of the miseries and calamities befalling their dearest sovereign. Neither were their generous souls a little concerned for the unworthy and disgraceful opinion which foreign nations and after ages could not fail to conceive of the Scots, as universally dipt in rebellion, and guilty of defection from the best of kings. Their sorrow was likewise considerably augmented by the thoughts of being separated from their brave and successful general, who was now obliged to enter into a kind of banishment, to the irreparable loss of the king, the country, themselves, and all good men, at a time when they never had greater occasion for his services: And falling down upon their knees, with tears in their eyes, they obtested him, that seeing the king’s safety and interest required his immediate departure from the kingdom, he would take them along with him to whatever corner of the world he would retire, professing their readiness to live, to fight, nay, if it so please God, even to die under his command. And not a few of them had privately determined, though at the evident risk of their lives and fortunes, to follow him without his knowledge, and even against his inclination, and to offer him their service in a foreign land, which they could not any longer afford him in their own distressed native country.[361]
Such is the account of the affecting farewell between Montrose and the few remaining brave and adventurous men who had shared with him all the dangers and vicissitudes of the battle-field, as related by a warm partisan of fallen royalty; yet there is no reason for supposing that he has given an exaggerated view of the feelings of the warlike and devoted band at parting, under existing circumstances, with their beloved commander who had so often led them to victory, and whose banishment from his native country they regarded as the death-blow to their hopes.