guise to the Highlands, and restored his from the walls.

But that skilful General

charge to Montrose. The second Standard forbore from giving him the desired opporwas saved by a brave Irish soldier, who, tunity, and Montrose found it necessary to seeing the battle lost, slipped it from its withdraw, leaving the captives to their staff, and wrapped it round his body as a doom. General Middleton, a soldier of shroud, and then forced his way, sword in fortune, was afterwards sent against him hand, through the enemy. with some troops, and the mountain-warfare The victors of Philiphaugh showed no continued, but on a far lesser scale and more mercy to the vanquished. Of the common desultory manner than before. Montrose lost prisoners, many were drawn up in the court- his kinsman and earliest friend, Lord Nayard of Newark Castle, on Yarrow, and shot pier, who had shared in the flight from dead in cold blood, and their bodies inter- Philiphaugh, but who, unable at his adred in haste, and with little ceremony, in a vanced age to sustain such toilsome marchneighbouring spot, still known by the name es, fell sick and died at Fincastle, in Athol. of the Slain-Men's-Lee.' $ 'The ground,' On the other hand, the Marquis obtained thus wrote Sir Walter Scott in 1829, the co-operation of his former antagonist at 'being about twenty years since opened for Aulderne, Sir John Urrey, who, upon some the foundation of a school-house, the bones disgust from the Covenanters, veered back and skulls, which were dug up in great to the Royal cause. quantity, plainly showed the truth of the The termination to this fierce and longcountry tradition.'* The captives of high-protracted mountain-warfare came at last, er rank were carefully reserved, not in com- from the turn of affairs in England. Charles passion, but for the form of a public trial, had no army left to take the field in the and the pageant of a public execution. spring, and passed the winter at Oxford, Thus perished at Edinburgh and at Glas- with no better prospect before him than to gow-Sir William Rollock and Sir William find himself encompassed and beleaguered Nesbit; the Irish officers, O'Kyan and in its walls. Under these circumstances Lauchlin; the Secretary of State, Sir Rob- he adopted the rash, and, as it proved, fatal ert Spottiswoode (for even statesmen and resolution to join the Scottish troops, then judges were not spared); Guthry, son of encamped before Newark, and to trust to the Bishop of Moray; and Murray, brother their sentiments of loyalty and honour. But of the Earl of Tullibardine. Lord Ogilvie even the first hour of his arrival amongst escaped in the disguise of his sister's clothes, them might convince the King that he had and Archibald Primrose was saved (so says leaned upon a broken reed. Sir James the family tradition) by the personal friend- Turner, who was present, thus describes the ship of Argyle.

Scene:

deliver

up

Newark to the Parliament's forces, and

During this time Montrose was returned In the summer (May,1646) he (the King) cast to his first recruiting-ground of Athol, and himself in the Scots' arms at Newark. There did in bitter anguish for the impending fate of Earl Lothian, as President of the Committee, to his friends, applied himself to raise another his eternal reproach, imperiously require his Maarmy for their rescue. The Athol men jesty, before he had either drank, refreshed or reand some few of the Highlanders readily posed himself, to command my Lord Bellasis to joined him; but the leader of the Macdon-James Graham-for so he called Great Montrose alds, Sir Allaster, who had now tasted the -to lay down arms, all which the King stoutly sweets of independent command, found refused, telling him that he who had made him an pleas for remaining absent from the Stand- Earl, had made James Graham a Marquis !'—Meard. Thus also the head of the Gordons, moirs, p. 41. the Marquis of Huntley, who had at last. emerged from his concealment in Suther- The Scottish leaders, with a view of betland and Caithness, showed himself most ter securing the person of their visitor, or, jealous and untoward. In spite of every as they had resolved to consider him, their discouragement, however, the month of captive, immediately marched back with October had not passed ere Montrose ap- him from Newark to Newcastle-on-Tyne, peared at the head of fifteen hundred men where they began their negotiations for sellbefore Glasgow, where Sir Robert Spottis-ing him to the Parliament of England. Ere woode and other of the principal prisoners long the unhappy monarch found himself were then confined. He trusted to be able compelled to send orders for surrendering to strike some blow for their deliverance, the towns and castles which still adhered to by drawing forth David Leslie to action him, and instruct Montrose to disband his forces and retire into France. Montrose,

Tales of a Grandfather,' second series, seeing that the command was plainly an extorted one, at first hesitated; but when it

vol. i,, p. 284, ed. 1829.

was renewed, and when he found that his other counsels. On the other hand, howrefusal might endanger the Royal Person, ever, it seems not improbable that, as Clahe prepared to obey. To settle the terms, rendon alleges, Montrose may have shown he held a conference with General Middle- at Paris a too haughty consciousness of his ton in the open air, near the river Isla, each own great exploits. To make them more with only a single attendant to hold his fully and generally known, his chaplain, Dr. horse. It was agreed (Middleton granting George Wishart, published in 1647 a narrafar milder terms than the Convention of Es- tive of them in the Latin language, with the tates approved) that the Earl of Airlie and title De Rebus sub imperio Illustrissimi other friends and followers of Montrose Jacobi Montis-Rosarum Marchionis praeshould retain their lives and property, just clare gestis, Commentarius*. -an eloquent as if they had not engaged with him, while work, but not free from large amplificahe and Sir John Urrey were to be allowed tions. only safe transportation beyond the sea.

Whatever the cause, and whosoever's the

On the 30th of July, accordingly, Mon- fault, it is certain that the various proposals trose having assembled at Rattray the me- which from time to time Montrose made to lancholy remains of his army, dismissed the Queen for attempting the deliverance of them in the King's name, and affectionately his Royal Master, were coldly received, bade them farewell. Their sorrow was and ere long laid aside. Nor could Mondeep and sincere. Some fell on their knees, trose, on any other point, approve the course and with tears besought that they might fol- of conduct pursued at Paris. A project low him wherever he went. Here, too, he parted from his constant friend, the brave old Earl of Airlie, who left him only at his own request, and who had to mourn the loss of a gallant son in the Royal causeSir Thomas Ogilvie, slain at Inverlochy.

being on foot to obtain for his niece, Lilias Napier, some place at Court, he writes thus (July 26, 1647), to Stirling of Kier :

As for that which you spoke long ago concerning Lilias, I have been thinking, but to no purThe Marquis, accompanied by Sir John pose, for there is neither Scotsman nor woman Urrey and a few others, next repaired to and virtue, chiefly a woman, suffer themselves to welcome that way, neither would any of honour his house at Old Montrose, and held him-live in so lewd and worthless a place.' self ready for embarkation. But he would

not trust the good faith of the Committee of It is not clear, however, from this passage Estates so far as to enter the vessel which, to which Count Montrose refers-whether according to the treaty, they were bound to to the Court of Anne of Austria or to that of provide. He hired on his own account a Henrietta Maria. small pinnace belonging to Bergen, in Nor- During the stay of Montrose at Paris, he way; and when it had already put out to met with many tokens of respect from the sea, joined it secretly in a fly-boat. On this most eminent French statesmen. Cardinal occasion, and during the voyage, he was de Retz, in a remarkable passage of his disguised as the servant of the Reverend Memoirs, speaks of him as the only man James Wood, one of his chaplains-thus who had ever reminded him of the heroes leaving Scotland as he had entered it, in a described by Plutarch-a strong expression menial dress. from the friend of Turenne and Condé !

The life of Montrose in his banishment Cardinal Mazarin made anxious endeavours was the usual life of exiles-an ever-new to enlist for France a chief of so much succession of schemes and projects for re-fame, offering that he should be Generał to turn, confident predictions of success, and the Scots in France, and Lieutenant-General eager applications for aid-all ending alike to the French army whenever he joined it, in that hope deferred which maketh the with a promise of other places and pensions heart sick. Surely no Highland steep hereafter. But Montrose thought any rank which the hero had ever climbed was so below that of Field-Marshal inferior to his toilsome as that ascent of the stranger's merit and renown; and above all, he was stairs!

unwilling to enter into any engagement which might clash with his service (whenever it might be called for) to his own KingHaving accordingly refused the offer, he in

The inscription on the tomb of Dr. G. Wishart (who became Bishop of Edinburgh after the Restoration) in Holyrood Chapel, concludes with Gestaque Mont-Rosei Latio celebrata cothurno, Quantula, proh, tanti sunt monumenta viri !'

these lines:

March, 1648, quitted Paris, and proceeded)
through Geneva into Germany. At Prague
he saw the Emperor Ferdinand, who re-
ceived him most graciously, granted him the
patent of a Field-Marshal of the Empire,
and also appointed him to the command
(immediately under the Emperor himself)
of levies to be raised on the borders of the
Spanish Netherlands. To avoid the hostile
armies then in the field, the Marquis took
his further route circuitously through Dant-
zic and Copenhagen, where he was honour-
ably entertained by his Danish Majesty, and
from whence he repaired by Groningen to
Brussels.

This

He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,

Who puts it not unto the touch
To win or lose it all.

But if thou wilt be constant then,
And faithful of thy word,
I'll make thee famous by my pen,
And glorious by my sword.

I'll serve thee in such noble ways
Was never heard before;

I'll dress and crown thee all with bays,
And love thee evermore.'

We had promised that we would confine ourselves to these three stanzas, yet we cannot forhear the pleasure of transcribing one more, which appears to us fraught with singular beauty and feeling :

The golden laws of love shall be
Upon this pillar hung-
A simple heart, a single eye,
A true and constant tongue;
Let no man for more love pretend
Than he has heart in store,
True love begun shall never end-
Love one, and love no more!'

But, whatever his wanderings, whatever his vicissitudes, Montrose never lost sight of his first object-another attempt whenever possible to restore the Royal cause in Scotland. There is still extant in the Montrose Charter-Chest his Key for secret correspondence with his friends at home, bearing the date of this very year, 1648. paper gives covert names to be used instead of the real ones, and is still remarkable, as showing Montrose's view of several characters. For his own he adopts, not unaptly, We are much surprised how Mr. Napier the French phrase Venture Faire. The can think-or expect any reader of taste to Earl of Lanerick becomes Peter-a-Packs (a think with him that these fine stanzas are juggler). The Earl of Roxburgh, whom only a political allegory, and denote MonMontrose suspected of double dealing with trose's love for his Royal Master, and his David Leslie, is designated The Fox; David anxiety to save him from evil counsellors!" Leslie himself is called The Executioner, (Life, &c., p. 426.) Such a notion_may, from his cruelties after the day of Philip- we think, be consigned to the same Limbo haugh. The Marquis of Huntley is called with that of the Italian commentators who The Moor-game, from his having lurked so in Dante's impassioned allusions to his longlong in the northern hills. The Water-Fowl lost Beatrice can see nothing but a personimight have seemed a tempting nick-name fication of school-theology! for the Marquis of Argyle; but Montrose is content with Ruling Elder, or the Merchant of Middleburgh.

It was about this period in his life that Montrose appears to have composed his 'Love Song' to some fair one whose name is not now recorded. This piece of poetry, first published in 1711, is of great length and very unequal merit; we shall only quote from it three stanzas, which Mrs. Arkwright has set to music with her usual exquisite taste and skill:

There is another song which we earnestly commend to Mrs. Arkwright's attention; it is not certainly known to be Montrose's, nor does Mr. Napier notice it; indeed it has been ascribed to Mr. Graham of Gartmore. 'But Sir Walter Scott,' says the last editor of the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,"* told me he believed these verses to have been the composition of a nobler Grahamthe Great Marquis of Montrose.' We cannot tell on what proof Sir Walter relied, but the resemblance in style and manner appears to us very strong. Of this, however, our readers shall judge for themselves :

'But if fond love thy heart can gain,
I never broke a vow,

No maiden lays her skaith to me—
I never loved but
you.

For you alone I ride the ring,
For you I wear the blue;

For you alone I strive to sing.
Oh, tell me how to woo!

Oh, tell me how to woo thee, love;
Oh, tell me how to woo!'

this fatal intelligence produced in many minds. We are half inclined to doubt and cavil when told, on whatever high authority, that some persons fell into convulsions, or sank into such a melancholy as attended them to the grave; while others, as is reported, suddenly fell down dead. Montrose himself, as his chaplain assures us, swooned away at the news, and was confined to his chamber for two days. He then came forth with some lines of poetry, still preserved, in which a vigorous thought is seen to struggle through a rugged versification, and of which the three first words-GREAT, GOOD, AND JUST-denote his opinion of his murdered sovereign.

With such feelings strong in his mind, Montrose immediately tendered his allegiance to Charles II., and in the course of the next month joined the young King at the Hague. Ere long commissioners also arrived at that place from Scotland, acknowReverting from the subject of these songs, ledging the right of succession, and offering and rejecting, as we must, Mr. Napier's ex- to call his Majesty to the throne; but on planation of the former, we will take the very hard conditions-requiring him to opportunity of dealing with another expla- adopt both the Covenants-to put down any nation on a different matter by Bishop Bur- other form of religion-and to banish from net, which seems to us equally groundless, his presence all Malignants—by which term and far less innocent. The Bishop states, in a passage of his History which was suppressed in the former editions, but which has been more recently made public :

they meant the true Royalists, and amongst whom they especially named Montrose: Charles, in the extremity to which his fortunes were reduced, would not refuse, nor yet, where such sacrifices were demanded, The Queen mother (Henrietta Maria) hated would he accept, these propositions. He Montrose mortally; she heard resolved to keep the commissioners in play : that he had talked very indecently of her favours proceeded first to Brussels, and thence to to him, which she herself told the Lady Susan Paris, on the plea of consulting the Queen Hamilton, a daughter of Duke Hamilton, from

whom I had it. So she sent him word to leave Mother-and meanwhile gave private inParis (in March, 1648), and she would see him structions to Montrose to raise what forces no more. He (then) wandered about the Courts he could abroad, and with them attempt a of Germany. Oxf. Ed., i., p. 97.

It might be sufficient, in refutation of this story, to allege the devoted loyalty and the chivalrous temper of Montrose. But it is decisively disproved by the tenor of the Queen's own letters to the Marquis of a later date, as still preserved in the family Charter-Chest. Thus, on the 22d July, 1649, her Majesty writes :

landing in Scotland. His object, which certainly showed no nice sense of political integrity, was, if Montrose should succeed, to profit by that success-or, if Montrose should fail, then to disavow him, and conclude his own treaty with the Covenanting chiefs.

Whatever may be thought of the part of Charles in these transactions, Montrose's at least was straightforward, plain, and clear. He had counselled the King to reject at once I receive (your assurance) with great satisfac- these ignominious terms. He had taken no tion, having that esteem for you which can never diminish, but which I shall cherish for you in share in the underhand negotiations which whatever fortune may befall me, and must claim ensued. He had looked to his Royal Masfrom you a reciprocal esteem for myself.' ter, and to his Royal Master alone. But when he received that Master's command Montrose was at Brussels when the exe- to try a descent on Scotland, he displayed cution of King Charles was made known to the ready obedience which every subject him. In this age of less keen political con- ought, and the dauntless energy which only tentions, and we may add of more languid a hero could. He immediately repaired to political attachments, we can scarcely credit the Courts of Denmark and Sweden, from the extremity of grief and anguish which both of which, but chiefly from Queen

Christina-an admirer of romantic enter-remote as they were, and slightly disturbed prises and adventurous characters-he re- as they had been, from the civil wars which ceived much encouragement, with a few wasted the main land, they appeared both stand of arms and a little money. With this unwarlike and unwilling. The whole force he hired some ships and enlisted some German mercenaries; while the fame of his exploits drew around him not a few of the exiled Royalists, as Sir John Urrey, and, above all, the Scots.

of Montrose, though motley and ill-compact, was very far from numerous, not exceeding, with every addition, twelve or fourteen hundred men. Still, however, resolved to try his fortune, he embarked, and once more We need scarcely perhaps pause to men- set foot on the continent of Scotland at neartion that while the Marquis was still at the ly its furthest point, on the coast of CaithHague, Dorislaus, an agent of the Parlia- ness. Here he called the people to arms, ment in that country, was basely murdered and unfurled three standards, two for the by several Scottish gentlemen in exile, most King and one for himself. The first of the of them, as Clarendon states, retainers of Royal banners was of black, and represented Montrose. In more modern times Montrose the bleeding head of Charles I. on the block, himself has been suspected of participation in that crime; a charge for which there is no evidence, and against which, as we conceive, there is every presumption.

with the inscription, JUDGE AND AVENGE MY CAUSE, O LORD! The second bore the Royal Arms, and the motto, QUOS PIETAS VIRTUS ET HONOR FECIT AMICOS. And on Montrose's own banner appeared the words,

According to Hume, Montrose, after he had left the Hague, 'hastened his enterprise, NIL MEDIUM. lest the King's agreement with the Scots. Montrose had expected the people of should make him revoke his commission.' Caithness and Sutherland to join his standBut the papers in the Montrose Charter-ard, but found that for the most part they Chest prove that the Marquis had not the fled at his approach. Like the Orkneymen, smallest reason to expect any revocation. they had hitherto taken little share and felt On the 12th of January, 1650, Charles sent small concern in the civil wars, and the him the George and Riband of the Garter, greatest of their feudal chiefs, the Earl of with letters patent, couched in terms of the Sutherland, was now on the side of the rulhighest praise. On the same day his Ma- ing powers; besides which, they might rejesty writes,-'I conjure you not to take member the former excesses of Montrose's alarm at any reports or messages from army, or dread the unwonted aspect of forothers, but to depend upon my kindness, eign troops. Still undaunted, the Marquis and to proceed in your business with your pursued his march along the eastern coast. usual courage and alacrity.' And, on the He passed by the range of hills in sight of 16th of April, when Montrose was already Dunrobin Castle, which was garrisoned for in Scotland, and the King at Breda, coming the Earl of Sutherland, but avoided any to a treaty with the Covenanters, he uses nearer approach, though a few of his soldiers, these words to Lord Napier, who had re- who incautiously came within range of the mained at Hamburgh to enlist more troops, castle guns, were made prisoners. From 'I pray continue your assistance to the Mar- thence, passing with his forces up Strathquis of Montrose.' fleet, he turned into the interior of the Thus it was that early in the year 1650-country. His progress in these desert realmost immediately, it would seem, after re-gions has been well described in a MS. Meceiving the King's orders of the 12th of moir on the District of Assynt, drawn up by January-Montrose set sail from Gotten- Mr. George Taylor, of Golspire, from still burg, and steered to the Orkneys. Even subsisting records and traditions. We owe at the outset of his enterprise he sustained the communication of this interesting docuno slight disaster, since two of his vessels, ment, from which we shall make several with about one-third of his force on board, perished by shipwreck. At the Orkneys he levied a few hundred of the islanders; but,

extracts, to the courtesy of the Duke of Sutherland, and to the friendship of his brother, Lord Francis Egerton, whom now we are happy to hail as Earl of Ellesmere:

* On December 15, 1649, Montrose wrote to The beautiful Highland valley of the Fleet,' Lord Seaforth from Gottenburg, as being to sett says Mr. Taylor, being then destitute of roads, sayle to-morrow for Scotland; but he appears to the picturesque and formidable appearance of a have postponed his voyage on purpose probably to

await the King's final commands. See Montrose's great body of armed men winding along its steep letters to Lord Seaforth in the Appendix (p. 441) sides, and the difficulty of marching through nar to the translation of Dr. Wishart's narrative, pub-row defiles and over rocky passes, made a deep lished in 1810, under the title of Memoirs of the impression on the inhabitants, who, for a long Marquis of Montrose.' period afterwards, talked extravagantly of the