Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/332

 witness there. With many a sigh and tear, by all that people the oath was made Provost, bailies, council, all, except three men, held up their hands; Mr Zacharias, and Mr John Bell younger, has put to their hands. The College, it is thought, will subscribe, and almost all who refused before."

Though Boyd was henceforth a faithful adherent of this famous bond, lie did not take the same active share with some of his brethren, in the military proceedings by which it was supported. While Baillie and others followed the army, "as the fashion was, with a sword and pair of Dutch pistols at their saddles," he remained at home in the peaceful exercise of his calling, and was content to sympathize in their successes by hearsay. He celebrated the fight at Newburnford, August 28, 1640, by which the Scottish covenanting army gained possession of Newcastle, in a poem of sixteen 8vo. pages, which is written, however, in such a homely style of versification, that we would suppose it to be among the very earliest of his poetical efforts. It opens with a panegyric on the victorious Lesly, and then proceeds to describe the battle.

The pistol bullets were almost as bad as the cannon tails. They—

At last comes the wail for the fallen—

In 1643, he published a more useful work in his "Crosses, Comforts, and Councels, needfull to be considered and carefully to be laid up in the hearts of the Godly, in these boysterous broiles, and bloody times." We also find from the titles of many of his manuscript discourses that, with a diligent and affectionate zeal for the spiritual edification of the people under his charge, he had improved the remarkable events of the time as they successively occurred.

That the reluctance of Mr Zachary to join the Covenanters did not arise from timidity of nature, seems to be proved by an incident which occurred at a later period of his life. After the death of Charles I. it is well known that the Scottish presbyterians made a gallant effort to sustain the royal authority against the triumphant party of independents. They invited home the son of the late king, and rendered him at least the limited monarch of Scotland. Cromwell, having crossed the Tweed with an army, overthrew the Scottish forces at Dunbar, September 3, 1650; and gained possession of the southern portion of the country. Glasgow was, of course, exposed to a visit from this unscrupulous adversary. "Cromwell," says Baillie, "with the whole body of his army, comes peaceably to Glasgow. The magistrates and ministers all fled away; I got to the isle of Cumray, with my Lady Montgomery, but left all my family and goods to Cromwell's courtesy, which indeed was great, for he took such measures with the sol-