William was also on this occasion | been born in Holland during the identical with the interest of his father English troubles, and was therefore in law. supposed to be peculiarly qualified for

But the case was one which required his post; but he was, in truth, unfit rapid and vigorous action; and the for that and for every other diplomatic nature of the Batavian institutions situation. Excellent judges of charac made such action almost impossible. ter pronounced him to be the most The Union of Utrecht, rudely formed, shallow, fickle, passionate, presumpamidst the agonies of a revolution, for tuous, and garrulous of men. He the purpose of meeting immediate exi- took no serious notice of the proceedings gencies, had never been deliberately of the refugees till three vessels which revised and perfected in a time of had been equipped for the expedition tranquillity. Every one of the seven to Scotland were safe out of the Zuyder commonwealths which that Union had Zee, till the arms, ammunition, and bound together retained almost all the provisions were on board, and till the rights of sovereignty, and asserted passengers had embarked. Then, inthose rights punctiliously against the stead of applying, as he should have central government. As the federal done, to the States General, who sate authorities had not the means of close to his own door, he sent a mesexacting prompt obedience from the senger to the magistrates of Amsterdam, provincial authorities, so the provin- with a request that the suspected ships cial authorities had not the means of might be detained. The magistrates exacting prompt obedience from the of Amsterdam answered that the municipal authorities. Holland alone entrance of the Zuyder Zee was out contained eighteen cities, each of which of their jurisdiction, and referred him was, for many purposes, an indepen- to the federal government. It was dent state, jealous of all interference notorious that this was a mere excuse, from without. If the rulers of such a and that, if there had been any real city received from the Hague an order wish at the Stadthouse of Amsterdam which was unpleasing to them, they to prevent Argyle from sailing, no either neglected it altogether, or exe- difficulties would have been made. cuted it languidly and tardily. In some Skelton now addressed himself to the town councils, indeed, the influence of States General. They showed every the Prince of Orange was all powerful. disposition to comply with his demand, But unfortunately the place where and, as the case was urgent, departed the British exiles had congregated, from the course which they ordinarily and where their ships had been fitted observed in the transaction of business. out, was the rich and populous Amster- On the same day on which he made dam; and the magistrates of Amsterdam his application to them, an order, drawn were the heads of the faction hostile to in exact conformity with his request, the federal government and to the was despatched to the Admiralty of House of Nassau. The naval admin- Amsterdam. But this order, in conseistration of the United Provinces was quence of some misinformation, did conducted by five distinct boards of not correctly describe the situation of Admiralty. One of those boards sate the ships. They were said to be in at Amsterdam, was partly nominated the Texel. They were in the Vlie. by the authorities of that city, and seems to have been entirely animated by their spirit.

All the endeavours of the federal government to effect what James desired were frustrated by the evasions of the functionaries of Amsterdam, and by the blunders of Colonel Bevil Skelton, who had just arrived at the Hague as envoy from England. Skelton had

The Admiralty of Amsterdam made this error a plea for doing nothing; and, before the error could be rectified, the three ships had sailed.‡

*This is mentioned in his credentials dated

on the 16th of March 168.

+ Bonrepaux to Seignelay, Feb. 4. 1686. April 30. + Avaux Neg. May, May May 10. 1685; Sir Patrick Hume's Narrative; Letter

Departu

from Hol

The last hours which Argyle passed | government or afraid of moving, and on the coast of Holland were refused even to see the son of their of Argyle hours of great anxiety. Near chief. From Dunstaffnage the small land. him lay a Dutch man of war armament proceeded to Campbelltown, whose broadside would in a moment near the southern extremity of the have put an end to his expedition. peninsula of Kintyre. Here the Earl Round his little fleet a boat was row-published a manifesto, drawn up in ing, in which were some persons with Holland, under the direction of the telescopes whom he suspected to be Committee, by James Stewart, a Scotch spies. But no effectual step was taken advocate, whose pen was, a few months for the purpose of detaining him; and later, employed in a very different way. on the afternoon of the second of May In this paper were set forth, with a he stood out to sea before a favourable strength of language sometimes apbreeze. proaching to scurrility, many real and some imaginary grievances. It was hinted that the late King had died by poison. A chief object of the expedition was declared to be the entire suppression, not only of Popery, but of Prelacy, which was termed the most bitter root and offspring of Popery; and all good Scotchmen were exhorted to do valiantly for the cause of their country and of their God.

Zealous as Argyle was for what he

The voyage was prosperous. On the sixth the Orkneys were in sight. Argyle very unwisely anchored off Kirkwall, and allowed two of his followers to go on shore there. The Bishop ordered them to be arrested. The refugees proceeded to hold a long and animated debate on this misadventure: for, from the beginning to the end of their expedition, however languid and irresolute their conduct might be, they never in debate wanted spirit or perse-considered as pure religion, he did not verance. Some were for an attack on scruple to practise one rite half Popish Kirkwall. Some were for proceeding and half Pagan. The mysterious without delay to Argyleshire. At last cross of yew, first set on fire, and then the Earl seized some gentlemen who quenched in the blood of a goat, was lived near the coast of the island, and sent forth to summon all the Campbells, proposed to the Bishop an exchange of from sixteen to sixty. The isthmus of prisoners. The Bishop returned no Tarbet was appointed for the place of answer; and the fleet, after losing three gathering. The muster, though small days, sailed away. indeed when compared with what it would have been if the spirit and strength of the clan had been unbroken, was still formidable. The whole force assembled amounted to about eighteen hundred men. Argyle divided his mountaineers into three regiments, and proceeded to appoint officers.

He lands in Scot land

This delay was full of danger. It was speedily known at Edinburgh that the rebel squadron had touched at the Orkneys. Troops were instantly put in motion. When the Earl reached his own province, he found that preparations had been made to repel him. At Dunstaffnage he sent his second son Charles on shore to call the Campbells to arms. But Charles returned with gloomy tidings. The herdsmen and fishermen were indeed ready to rally round Mac Callum More; but, of the heads of the clan, some were in confinement, and others had fled. Those gentlemen who remained at their homes were either well affected to the

from the Admiralty of Amsterdam to the States General, dated June 20. 1685; Memorial of Skelton, delivered to the States General, May 10. 1685.

his fol

The bickerings which had begun in Holland had never been inter- His dismitted during the whole course it with of the expedition: but at Tarbet lowers. they became more violent than ever. The Committee wished to interfere even with the patriarchal dominion of the Earl over the Campbells, and would not allow him to settle the military rank of his kinsmen by his own authority. While these disputatious meddlers tried to wrest from him his power over the Highlands, they carried on their own correspondence with the Lowlands, and

received and sent letters which were | army. He remained with Rumbold in never communicated to the nominal the Highlands. Cochrane and Hume General. Hume and his confederates were at the head of the force which had reserved to themselves the super- sailed to invade the Lowlands. intendence of the stores, and conducted this important part of the administration of war with a laxity hardly to be distinguished from dishonesty, suffered the arms to be spoilt, wasted the provisions, and lived riotously at a time when they ought to have set to all beneath them an example of abstemiousness.

Ayrshire was Cochrane's object: but the coast of Ayrshire was guarded by English frigates; and the adventurers were under the necessity of running up the estuary of the Clyde to Greenock, then a small fishing village consisting of a single row of thatched hovels, now a great and flourishing port, of which the customs amount to more than five The great question was whether the times the whole revenue which the Highlands or the Lowlands should be Stuarts derived from the kingdom of the seat of war. The Earl's first object Scotland. A party of militia lay at was to establish his authority over his Greenock: but Cochrane, who wanted own domains, to drive out the invading provisions, was determined to land. clans which had been poured from Hume objected. Cochrane was perPerthshire into Argyleshire, and to take emptory, and ordered an officer, named possession of the ancient seat of his Elphinstone, to take twenty men in a family at Inverary. He might then boat to the shore. But the wrangling hope to have four or five thousand clay-spirit of the leaders had infected all mores at his command. With such a ranks. Elphinstone answered that he force he would be able to defend that was bound to obey only reasonable wild country against the whole power commands, that he considered this of the kingdom of Scotland, and would command as unreasonable, and, in also have secured an excellent base for short, that he would not go. Major offensive operations. This seems to Fullarton, a brave man, esteemed by have been the wisest course open to him. all parties, but peculiarly attached to Rumbold, who had been trained in an Argyle, undertook to land with only excellent military school, and who, as twelve men, and did so in spite of a an Englishman, might be supposed to fire from the coast. A slight skirmish be an impartial umpire between the followed. The militia fell back. CochScottish factions, did all in his power rane entered Greenock and procured a to strengthen the Earl's hands. But supply of meal, but found no disposiHume and Cochrane were utterly im- tion to insurrection among the people. practicable. Their jealousy of Argyle was, in truth, stronger than their wish for the success of the expedition. They saw that, among his own mountains and lakes, and at the head of an army chiefly composed of his own tribe, he would be able to bear down their opposition, and to exercise the full authority of a General. They muttered that the only men who had the good cause at heart were the Lowlanders, and that the Campbells took up arms neither for liberty nor for the Church of God, but for Mac Callum More alone. Cochrane declared that he would go to Ayrshire if he went by himself, and with nothing but a pitchfork in his hand. Argyle, after long resistance, consented, against his better judgment, to divide his little

Temper of

nation.

In fact, the state of public feeling in Scotland was not such as the exiles, misled by the infatua- the Scotch tion common in all ages to exiles, had supposed it to be. The government was, indeed, hateful and hated. But the malecontents were divided into parties which were almost as hostile to one another as to their rulers; nor was any of those parties eager to join the invaders. Many thought that the insurrection had no chance of success. The spirit of many had been effectually broken by long and cruel oppression. There was, indeed, a class of enthusiasts who were little in the habit of calculating chances, and whom oppression had not tamed but maddened. But these men saw

The

little difference between Argyle and vious. That a man should venture to James. Their wrath had been heated urge such reasons was sufficient evito such a temperature that what every dence that he was not one of the body else would have called boiling faithful. If the divine blessing were zeal seemed to them Laodicean luke- withheld, little would be effected by warmness. The Earl's past life had crafty politicians, by veteran captains, been stained by what they regarded as by cases of arms from Holland, or by the vilest apostasy. The very High-regiments of unregenerate Celts from landers whom he now summoned to the mountains of Lorn. If, on the extirpate Prelacy he had a few years other hand, the Lord's time were before summoned to defend it. And indeed come, He could still, as of old, were slaves who knew nothing and cause the foolish things of the world to cared nothing about religion, who were confound the wise, and could save ready to fight for synodical govern- alike by many and by few. ment, for Episcopacy, for Popery, just broadswords of Athol and the bayonets as Mac Callum More might be pleased of Claverhouse would be put to rout by to command, fit allies for the people of weapons as insignificant as the sling of God? The manifesto, indecent and David or the pitcher of Gideon.* intolerant as was its tone, was, in the Cochrane, having found it impossible view of these fanatics, a cowardly and to raise the population on the south of worldly performance. A settlement the Clyde, rejoined Argyle, who was in such as Argyle would have made, such the island of Bute. The Earl now as was afterwards made by a mightier again_proposed to make an attempt and happier deliverer, seemed to them upon Inverary. Again he encountered not worth a struggle. They wanted a pertinacious opposition. The seamen not only freedom of conscience for sided with Hume and Cochrane. The themselves, but absolute dominion over Highlanders were absolutely at the the consciences of others; not only the command of their chieftain. There Presbyterian doctrine, polity, and wor- was reason to fear that the two parties ship, but the Covenant in its utmost would come to blows; and the dread rigour. Nothing would content them of such a disaster induced the Combut that every end for which civil mittee to make some concession. The society exists should be sacrificed to castle of Ealan Ghierig, situated at the the ascendency of a theological system. mouth of Loch Riddan, was selected to One who believed no form of Church be the chief place of arms. The miligovernment to be worth a breach of tary stores were disembarked there. Christian charity, and who recom- The squadron was moored close to the mended comprehension and toleration, walls in a place where it was protected was, in their phrase, halting between by rocks and shallows such as, it was Jehovah and Baal. One who con- thought, no frigate could pass. Outdemned such acts as the murder of works were thrown up. A battery was Cardinal Beatoun and Archbishop planted with some small guns taken Sharpe fell into the same sin for which from the ships. The command of the Saul had been rejected from being fort was most unwisely given to ElKing over Israel. All the rules by phinstone, who had already proved which, among civilised and Christian himself much more disposed to argue men, the horrors of war are mitigated, with his commanders than to fight the were abominations in the sight of the enemy. Lord. Quarter was to be neither taken nor given. A Malay running a muck, a mad dog pursued by a crowd, were the models to be imitated by warriors fighting in just self-defence. To reasons such as guide the conduct of statesmen and generals the minds of these zealots were absolutely imper

And now, during a few hours, there was some show of vigour. Rumbold

I

have exaggerated the absurdity and ferocity *If any person is inclined to suspect that of these men, I would advise him to read two books, which will convince him that I have rather softened than overcharged the portrait, the Hind Let Loose, and Faithful Contendings Displayed.

During the march through the country which lies between Loch Long and Loch Lomond, the insurgents were constantly infested by parties of militia. Some skirmishes took place, in which the Earl had the advantage; but the bands which he repelled, falling back before him, spread the tidings of his approach, and, soon after he had crossed the river Leven, he found a strong body of regular and irregular troops prepared to encounter him.

took the castle of Ardkinglass. The had formed it were compelled to share Earl skirmished successfully with with braver men the risks of the last Athol's troops, and was about to venture. advance on Inverary, when alarming news from the ships and factions in the Committee forced him to turn back. The King's frigates had come nearer to Ealan Ghierig than had been thought possible. The Lowland gentlemen positively refused to advance further into the Highlands. Argyle hastened back to Ealan Ghierig. There he proposed to make an attack on the frigates. His ships, indeed, were ill fitted for such an encounter. But they would have been supported by a flotilla of thirty large fishing boats, each well manned with armed Highlanders. The Committee, however, refused to listen to this plan, and effectually counteracted it by raising a mutiny among the sailors.

All was now confusion and despondency. The provisions had been so ill managed by the Committee that there was no longer food for the troops. The Highlanders consequently deserted by hundreds; and the Earl, brokenhearted by his misfortunes, yielded to the urgency of those who still pertinaciously insisted that he should march into the Lowlands.

The little army therefore hastened to the shore of Loch Long, passed that inlet by night in boats, and landed in Dumbartonshire. Hither, on the following morning, came news that the frigates had forced a passage, that all the Earl's ships had been taken, and that Elphinstone had fled from Ealan Ghierig without a blow, leaving the castle and stores to the enemy.

He was for giving battle. Ayloffe was of the same opinion. Hume, on the other hand, declared that to fight would be madness. He saw one regiment in scarlet. More might be behind. To attack such a force was to rush on certain death. The best course was to remain quiet till night, and then to give the enemy the slip.

A sharp altercation followed, which was with difficulty quieted by the mediation of Rumbold. It was now evening. The hostile armies encamped at no great distance from each other. The Earl ventured to propose a night attack, and was again overruled.

Argyle's

Since it was determined not to fight, nothing was left but to take the step which Hume had recom- forces dismended. There was a chance persed. that, by decaniping secretly, and hastening all night across heaths and morasses, the Earl might gain many miles on the enemy, and might reach Glasgow without further obstruction. The watch fires were left burning; and the march began. And now disaster followed disaster fast. The guides mistook the track across the moors, and led the army into boggy ground. Military order could

All that remained was to invade the Lowlands under every disadvantage. Argyle resolved to make a bold push for Glasgow. But, as soon as this re-not be preserved by undisciplined and solution was announced, the very men, who had, up to that moment, been urging him to hasten into the low country, took fright, argued, remonstrated, and, when argument and remonstrance proved vain, laid a scheme for seizing the boats, making their own escape, and leaving their General and his clansmen to conquer or perish unaided. This scheme failed; and the poltroons who

disheartened soldiers under a dark sky, and on a treacherous and uneven soil. Panic after panic spread through the broken ranks. Every sight and sound was thought to indicate the approach of pursuers. Some of the officers contributed to spread the terror which it was their duty to calm. The army had be come a mob; and the mob melted fast away. Great numbers fled under cover