VIII BOOK mation to discover the assassins, the whole body of fanatics was implicated in the crime. Field and 1679. armed conventicles were declared to be treason. The people who attended were indirectly ordered to be put to the sword; and when the military were employed to execute this sanguinary procla mation, it was not difficult to predict the insurrection that ensued. The conventicles which persecution alone had created, united into larger masses, and from the very means employed to suppress them, acquired the formidable appearance of a regular army, and of a camp, to which none, except from the near vicinity, repaired unarmed. Parties continued, during the week, in arms, agitated by the murderers of Sharp, who had secretly joined them, and impelled by their preachers to something May 29. more than defence. A party of fourscore appeared at Rutherglen, on the anniversary of the restoration; they burnt the statutes and acts of council restoring episcopacy, and proclaimed an unsubscribed declaration as their solemn testimony against the defection of the times. A prudent government might have dissembled the insult, or deferred the punishment for a few days, till their zeal had subsided, and their conventicle was dispersed. A violent government is incapable either of reflection or delay. Graham of Claverhouse, afterwards the celebrated viscount Dundee, was instructed to seize, or on their resistance, to extirJune 1. pate the rebels by the sword. Next Sunday he dis VIII. 1679. covered and attacked their conventicle on Loudoun BOOK hill. His dragoons were defeated with loss by a detachment of undisciplined peasants, and he was almost intercepted himself by the gallant Cleland who was killed at the Revolution, in the defence of Dunkeld. Elated perhaps with success, and afraid to disperse or to return to their homes, they advanced to Glasgow, where they were repulsed at first; but while their numbers were still inconsiderable and easily dissipated, the town was evacuated, and the whole country was abandoned, as if to permit the insurrection to increase. The privy council, so vigilant and prompt to strike while the people were tranquil, recalled its forces to the capital when the people were unwarily betrayed into an insurrection; and amidst the most vigorous preparations throughout the rest of Scotland, a severe administration appeared solicitous only to justify and to enrich itself by the growing magnitude of the revolt 15. rection ac The insurrection, because it was naturally anti- The insurcipated or predicted, has been represented as ac- cidental. tually instigated by the popular leaders in the English parliament. From the measures pursued in Scotland, commotions, however accidental, were certainly not unexpected 16; but the popular 15 Wodrow's MSS. vol. xliii. 4to. vol. iv. 8vo. Hist. ii. 44. App. 41. Crawford's MS. Hist. ii. 145. 16 Such seems to be the foundation of a passage in Algernon Sidney's Letters, p. 37; from which some have inferred that VOL. IV. H VIII. 1679. BOOK leaders had already been introduced into office; the opponents of Lauderdale, by whose means only they could actuate the covenanters, had returned to court, encouraged by a change of administration, to renew their complaints; no commanders nor officers were provided; no persons of rank or influence appeared in arms, and the insurgents were joined by none but the intercommuned, whom the government had reduced to a vagrant and persecuted life of despair. Hamilton and the Scottish lords humanely offered to dispel the insurrection without arms or the effusion of blood, if the sufferings of the people were alleviated, and their oppressors removed. Essex, Halifax, Sunderland, and Temple, endeavoured to procure the removal of Lauderdale; Russel and Shaftesbury, to introduce their friends. into the administration of Scotland; but the king was inflexible, notwithstanding their ur gent entreaties, and they concurred in his choice of a general in Monmouth, his favourite son. Military aid or assistance from England was opposed and prevented by Essex and Shaftesbury; apprehensive, as has since appeared, that a standing army might again be raised 17; but the most ample powers were conferred on Monmouth, to the insurrection was not accidental. See, however, p. 48 of his Letters, edit. 1772. 17 See in Dalrymple's Memoirs, i. 264, 314, Essex's Letter to the King. VIII. 1679. negotiate or fight. Such instructions were the BOOK more alarming to Lauderdale, lest a rebellion ascribed to the violence of his government might be appeased by lenity, if time or an opportunity were given to reclaim the insurgents. When the council had adjourned, he demanded privately of the king if he intended to follow the footsteps of his father to the scaffold; represented that the commotions, if prolonged and encouraged by treaty, might soon extend to the two kingdoms; excused his silence in council, by the insinuation of a crafty favourite, "Were not your enemies at "the board?" and persuaded Charles that his son, whom he scrupled not to entrust with arms, might connive with the insurgents, if permitted to negotiate. The instructions were secretly altered into a positive injunction, which was to be opened in the field, not to treat with the rebels, but to attack them wheresoever they might be found 18. at Bothwell The militia and regular troops were collected at Suppression by Edinburgh, before Monmouth's arrival; and he Monmouth advanced against the insurgents at the head of ten bridge. thousand men. The whigs, as the covenanters were denominated, remained at Bothwell bridge, in the neighbourhood of Hamilton, to dispute the passage of the Clyde. Their numbers never exceeded four thousand, divided among themselves 18 Burnet, ii. 268. North's Examen. 81. BOCK by religious disputes 19. The original insurgents VIII. 1679. proposed to condemn the indulgence from which they had separated; the moderate presbyterians refused to accede to the declaration at Rutherglen, or to renounce their allegiance; and the grounds of their recourse to arms were not yet adjusted when Monmouth appeared. The latter sent to negotiate with Monmouth, who, according to his instructions, refused to treat; required them to surrender at discretion within an hour, and promised on their submission to intercede with the king. But the fanatics were neither prepared to June 22. fight, nor disposed to submit. The bridge was obstinately defended by Hackston of Rathillat, who was ordered, when his ammunition was expended, to retire to the main body, by Hamilton, a preacher who had assumed the command. Monmouth's forces were attacked neither while they passed, nor when they formed beyond the bridge. On the first discharge of artillery, the covenanters were deserted by their ghostly commanders, and overthrown by the disorder produced among their undisciplined horse. Four hundred were killed in the field. A body of twelve hundred surrendered at discretion, and were preserved from massacre by the humanity of Monmouth. Rejecting the 19 Wodrow's MS. vol. xliii. 8vo. Hist. ii. 55. Burnet, ii. 269. At first they were represented at eight, but were afterwards reduced to five thousand in the reports to the privy council. |