BOOK their instigation, to prevent the danger of an in VII. 1666. Insurrec West. surrection during the Dutch wars. ›2 The presbyterians had endeavoured hitherto to tion in the disarm the resentment of government by submission; but their submission had furnished an additional pretext to prolong their miseries, and to justify those coercive measures to which such prompt, and unexpected obedience was given. Turner, in his third expedition, which continued upwards of seven months, had spread desolation and despair through the West. Many families were dispersed and scattered over the kingdom. Numbers, both of the gentry and peasants, were driven from their habitations, to lurk for concealment in morasses and mountains.33 The presbyterians perceived that their ruin was determined, and their sufferings had already risen to such an unhappy extreme, that no consideration but the improbability of success, could prevent their resistance. It is said that their clergy were encouraged to resist, by the confusion and dismay which the récent fire of London was expected to create. Their own account is more simple and correct. Nov. 13. An indigent old man, unable to discharge the fines of the church, was bound and extended on the ground, to be conveyed to prison; but the peasants, moved with sudden indignation at this cruel treat 32 Wodrow, 184-6-9-9224-37. App. 86. Burnet, i, 308, Naphtali. Hind let loose, 184. 33 Burnet, i. 341. Wodrow, i. 241-83. VII. 1666. ment, disarmed the soldiers in order to procure his BOOK release. Despair, and the apprehensions of an indiscriminate punishment, increased their numbers; 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.3+ Pentland. Rothes, a few days previous to the insurrection, Defeated at had departed for court, and the government re Burnet, 241-57. Law's Memoirs, MS. Advocates' BOOK VII. حا 1066. mained in the hands of Sharp, whose consterna. tion 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 prohibited, 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 Execu from 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 ab jure the covenant, should be indiscriminately executed. 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 unfortu nate 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 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 lights, farewel! Welcome, God my father! wel66 come, Christ my redeemer! welcome, glory and "eternal life! welcome, death!" At these rap turous 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.. |