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472 returned to Argyleshire, the greater part of his troops being sent to the main body in England.

In this campaign the king felt himself just as little able to contend with his people, as in that of the previous year; and by making concessions similar to those he had formerly made, and, as the event showed, with the same insincerity, he obtained another pacification at Rippon, in the month of October, 1640. Montrose, who had been disgusted with the covenanters, and gained over by the king, now began to form a party of loyalists in Scotland, preferring to be the head of an association of that nature, however dangerous the place, to a second or third situation in the insurgent councils. His designs were accidentally discovered, while he was along with the army, and he was put under arrest. To ruin Argyle, who was the object of his aversion, Montrose now reported, that at the Ford of Lyon he had said that the covenanters had consulted both lawyers and divines anent deposing the king, and had gotten resolution, that it might be done in three cases—desertion, invasion, and vendition, and that they had resolved, at the last sitting of parliament, to accomplish that object next session. For this malicious falsehood Montrose referred to a Mr John Stuart, commissary of Dunkeld, who upon being questioned retracted the accusation which he owned he had uttered out of pure malice, to be revenged upon Argyle. Stuart was, of course, prosecuted before the justiciary for leasing-making, and, though he professed the deepest repentance for his crime, was executed. The king, though he had made an agreement with his Scottish subjects, was getting every day upon worse terms with the English, and in the summer of 1641, came to Scotland with the view of engaging the affections of that kingdom to enable him to oppose the parliament with the more effect. On this occasion his majesty displayed great condescension; he appointed Henderson to be one of his chaplains, attended divine service without either service-book or ceremonies, and was liberal of his favours to all the leading covenanters. Argyle was on this occasion particularly attended to, together with the marquis of Hamilton, and his brother Lanark, both of whom had become reconciled to the covenanters, and admitted to their full share of power. Montrose, in the meantime, was under confinement, but was indefatigable in his attempts to ruin those whom he supposed to stand between him and the object of his ambition, the supreme direction of public affairs. For the accomplishment of this darling purpose, he proposed nothing less than the assassination of the earls of Argyle and Lanark, with the marquis of Hamilton. Finding that the king regarded his proposals with horror, he conceived the gentler design of arresting these nobles during the night, after being called upon pretence of speaking with him in his bed-chamber, when they might be delivered to a body of soldiers prepared under the earl of Crawford, who was to carry them on board a vessel in Leith Roads, or to assassinate them if they made any resistance ; but, at all events, detain them, till his majesty had gained a sufficient ascendancy in the country to try, condemn, and execute them under colour of law. Colonel Cochrane was to have marched with his regiment from Musselburgh to overawe the city of Edinburgh: a vigorous attempt was at the same time to have been made by Montrose to obtain possession of the castle, which, it was supposed, would have been the full consummation of their purpose. In aid of this plot, an attempt was made to obtain a declaration for the king from the English army, and the catholics of Ireland were to have made a rising, which they actually attempted on the same day, all evidently undertaken in concert for the promotion of the royal cause but all of which had the contrary effect. Some one, invited to take a part in the plot against Argyle and the Hamiltons, communicated it to colonel Hurry, who communicated it to general Leslie, and he lost not a moment in warning the persons more immediately con-