VIL ment, disarmed the soldiers in order to procure his BOOK release. Despair, and the apprehensions of an indiscriminate punishment, increased their numbers; 1666. and after securing the soldiers in the neighbourhood, they surprised Sir James Turner, who remained at Dumfries with a slender guard. He Nov. 15. had no mercy to expect from their rage; on examining his instructions, however, his severities appeared comparatively so mild, that his life was preserved. Their numbers were still inconsiderable, but by the influence of some ejected clergy, they were augmented to two thousand on their - arrival at Lanerk. There they renewed the covenant, after a solemn fast, and in a public declaration professed that their allegiance to the king was undiminished; protested that their recourse to defensive arms was to remove the oppressions under which they suffered, and demanded that their beloved presbytery should be re-established, and their ministers restored. Their commanders were Wallace and Learmont, two obscure officers, for the principal gentlemen were still imprisoned; but the spirit of the country was subdued by oppression; and in a fatiguing march towards the capital, instead of acquiring strength, they were Nov. 27. deserted by half their numbers in a single night.34 Pentland. Rothes, a few days previous to the insurrection, Defeated at had departed for court, and the government re 34 Burnet, 241-57. Law's Memoirs, MS. Advocates' Library. Kirkton's MS. VII. 1666. BOOK mained in the hands of Sharp, whose consternation was extreme. Dalziel, the general, collecting his forces at Glasgow, pursued the whigs, as the insurgents were denominated, who approached within a few miles of the capital. But the gates were secured and protected by cannon; the neighbouring gentlemen were summoned to its defence; the lawyers and principal inhabitants were embodied; and as all egress from the city was prohibit.ed, the whigs were disappointed of the expected aid of their friends. They listened to an insidious cessation of arms, till almost surprised; but the proclamation requiring them to disperse, contained no offer of indemnity or pardon. Their numbers were reduced to eight hundred, dispirited and exhausted by want, disappointment, and fatigue. Nov. 28. On attempting to return by the Pentland hills, they were overtaken by Dalziel, whom they repulsed at first in different attacks; but at sunset their ranks were lost, or broken by the cavalry, and they were overpowered and dispersed. Not above fifty were killed, nor more than an hundred and thirty taken in the pursuit. The rest were preserved by the darkness of the night, by the fatigue of the king's troops, and by the compassion of the gentlemen who composed the cavalry, for their unhappy countrymen whom oppression had rendered mad and desperate, but whose behaviour during the insurrection was inoffensive and mild. The inhabitants in the vicinity were less merciful, and many of the fugitives were intercept- BOOK ed and slain.35 VII: 1666. No sooner were the two archbishops released Execufrom their terror, than the common observation tions. was fully verified, that cowardice and cruelty are seldom disjoined. Whether the public faith is to be observed with rebels, whether they should be tried and punished for treason, after surrendering on assurance of quarter, a question which the victorious party must ever determine, was agitated in vain. The most moderate of the episcopal clergy urged in vain, that an opportunity had now occurred to conciliate the people, by their humane intercession for the lives of the prisoners, and by their interposition to preserve the country from military oppression. But the prelates, who considered revenge as more profitable and useful to their order than clemency, indulged or instigated the most sanguinary revenge. Burnet, archbishop of Glasgow, proposed that such as refused to abjure the covenant, should be indiscriminately exccuted. Sharp, who presided in council, incited the clergy to inform against their parishioners, nor were they unwilling or slow to perform that disgraceful task. Above twenty of the unfortunate prisoners were executed at Edinburgh; ten on the same gibbet, whose heads were placed on the city gates, and their right arms were sent for the same purpose to Lanerk, where the covenant 35 Kirkton's MS. Wodrow, i. 253. Burnet, i. 345.. VII. 1667. BOOK had been subscribed. Thirty-five were executed in the country, at their own doors; and in order to discover the origin of a casual insurrection, some were inhumanly tortured before their death.36 Their lives indeed had been conditionally promised, if they would renounce the covenant. But they died with such exultation, that it was difficult at last to procure executioners: they bestowed such solemn testimonials on the covenant, that their declarations on the scaffold were silenced with drums. Executions became so frequent, that an order arrived from court to prevent the judicial effusion of blood. It was withheld from council by the two archbishops, till the execution of Maccail, a young preacher, whom they had excruciated in order to extort a confession of his associates, or of the conspiracies from which the insurrection was supposed to originate. The common instruments of torture were boots of iron, within which the leg was compressed with wedges. But Maccail endured the torture till his leg was crushed and broken; and expired in ecstasy on the scaffold, exclaiming with a sublime enthusiasm, "Farewel, "thou sun and moon! the world and all its de 66 lights, farewel! Welcome, God my father! wel"come, Christ my redeemer! welcome, glory and "eternal life! welcome, death!" At these rapturous exclamations, uttered in a voice and manner 35 Kirkton's MS, Mackenzie's Works, ii. 218. Wodrow, i. 257-9. Shields' Hind let loose, 186. peculiarly impressive, every eye was suffused with BOOK tears.37 VII 1667, As if public vengeance were not yet satiated, Military military execution was introduced into the West. execution. The severities which Turner had inflicted on the people, were surpassed by Dalziel and Drummond; officers of a brutal character, inured to cruelty in the Russian service. Some were put to the sword, or executed on the highway without a trial; others. were tortured with lighted matches fastened to their fingers, to extort confession; and among the atrocities imputed to Dalziel, a son was executed because he refused to discover his father; and a woman accessory to her husband's escape, was tortured to death.38 The soldiers were indulged in every species of military excess. Rapes, robberies, and murder were committed with impunity, and the prisoners arrested on suspicion were stript and thrust into crowded, contracted, and unwholesome gaols. Instead of imposing penalties, a sufficient number of soldiers were quartered on recusants, to ruin or eat them up in a single night. The clergy, instead of interceding for the people, abetted the crimes of the military with whom they associated; aided or directed their violence; connived at their excesses; and amidst calamities productive of a transient conformity, rejoiced at the golden age which the church enjoyed. The western counties were subjected for seven 37 Kirkton's MS. Naphtalia...38 Id. 67. Burnet, i. 349. › |