Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/238

584 of Sweden, to furnish him with 6000 men for his intended invasion of Germany, with the view of thus enabling his brother-in-law, the Elector Palatine, to regain his hereditary territories from which he had been driven, the marquis was empowered to raise the stipulated force. These he soon collected, and was on the point of embarking with them himself, when he found that a charge of high treason had been preferred against him by lord Ochiltree, son of that captain James Stewart who had usurped the Hamilton estates and dignities in the time of his grandfather. The king himself was the first to inform the duke of the absurd charge which had been brought against him, and which consisted in the ridiculous assertion, that the marquis intended, in place of proceeding to Germany with the forces he had raised, to employ them in asserting a right to the Scottish crown. Although, in the face of all existing circumstances, it was impossible that any one could be expected to believe that there was any truth in the accusation, yet the marquis insisted that his innocence should be established by a public trial. To this proposal, however, the king not only would not listen, but to show his utter incredulity in the calumny, and his confidence in the marquis's fidelity, he invited him to sleep in the same bed-chamber with him, on the very night on which he had informed him of the charge brought against him by lord Ochiltree. The forgeries of the latter in support of his accusation having been proven, he was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, and thrown into the castle of Blackness, where he remained a captive for twenty years, when he was liberated by one of Cromwell's officers.

On the 16th of July the marquis sailed from Yarmouth roads with his army and forty ships, and arrived in safety at Elsineur on the 27th of the same month. Here he went on shore to wait upon the king of Denmark, and on the 29th sailed again for the Oder, which he reached on the 30th. Here he landed his men, and having previously received a general's commission from the king of Sweden, marched into Silesia, where he performed many important services, took many fortified places, and distinguished himself on all occasions by his bravery and judicious conduct After various turns of fortune, however, and much severe service, during which his army was reduced by the casualties of war, and by the plague, which swept off great numbers of his men, to two incomplete regiments; and, moreover, conceiving himself slighted by the king of Sweden, who, flushed with his successes, forgot that respect towards him with which he had first received him; he wrote to the king, requesting his advice as to his future proceedings, and not neglecting to express the disgust with which Gustavus's ungracious conduct had inspired him. Charles immediately replied " that if he could not be serviceable to the Palatinate he should take the first civil excuse to come home."This he soon afterwards did, still parting, however, on good terms with the Swedish king, who expressed his esteem for him by saying at his departure," in whatever part of the world he were, he would ever look upon him as one of his own." There seems to have been a sort of understanding that the marquis would return to Germany with a new levy of men; but this understanding does not appear to have been very seriously entertained by either party; at all events it never took place. The marquis, on his return to the English court was received with unabated kindness, and again took his place amongst the foremost in the esteem of his sovereign.

In 1633, he accompanied the king to Scotland, when he came down to receive the crown of that kingdom; but from this period until the year 1638, he meddled no further with public affairs.

The troubles, however, of that memorable year again brought him on the stage, and his love for his sovereign, and zeal for his service, induced him to take a more busy and a more prominent part then than he would otherwise