Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/347

Rh oft' his whole army. Yielding to the importunities of this committee, he rashly descended from his commanding position, and was signally defeated on the 3rd of September, 1650. Upwards of three thousand men were left dead on the field, ten thousand were taken prisoners, two hundred colours, fifteen thousand stand of arms, with all the baggage and artillery, fell into the hands of the English. Leslie, with the wreck of his army, retired upon Stirling, and again made such dispositions for defending that important line of defence as Cromwell found himself unable to force. Here he was joined by Charles, who himself assumed the command of the army, having the duke of Hamilton and Leslie for his lieutenants. In this capacity Leslie accompanied the king to Worcester, where, on the 3rd of September, 1651, Cromwell completely routed the royal army. Leslie was intercepted in his retreat through Yorkshire, and committed to the tower of London, where he remained till the Restoration in the year 1660. By Cromwell's act of grace he was fined in four thousand pounds in the year 1654. After the Restoration he was created, in consideration of his services and sufferings in the royal cause, lord Newark, by patent dated the 31st of August, 1661, to him and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, with a pension of five hundred pounds per annum. His lordship, however, does not seem to have been without enemies, as the following letter from the king, assuring him of his unabated confidence, sufficiently implies: "Although we have on all occasions, both abroad and since our happy return, declared ourself fully satisfied with your conduct and loyalty in our service, and although in consideration of the same, we have given you the title and honour of a lord; yet, seeing we are told, that malice and slander do not give over to persecute you, we have thought fit to give you this further testimony, and to declare under our hand, that while you was the lieutenant-general of our army, you did, both in England and. Scotland, behave yourself with as much conduct, resolution, and honesty as was possible or could be expected from a person in that trust: and as we told you, so we again repeat it, that if we had occasion to levy an army fit for ourself to command, we would not fail to give you an employment in it fit for your quality." His lordship died in the year 1682. He married Jean, daughter of Sir John York, by whom he had a son, David, who succeeded him as lord Newark, and three daughters ; the eldest of whom, Elizabeth, was married to Archibald Kennedy of Cullean, and was mother to Susanna, the celebrated countess of Eglintoune.

LESLEY,, of , a capuchin friar, of the earlier part of the seventeenth century. The introduction of this individual, as an illustrious Scotsman, and the manner in which we intend to treat the events of his life, require some explanation. John Benedict Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo, published in Italian the life and marvellous adventures of his friend George Lesley, a Scotsman of rank, who had been miraculously converted to the Roman catholic faith. A work on so pleasing a subject did not remain long in obscurity; it was translated into French, in which language it was published at Rouen in 1660, at Paris in 1682, and again at Rouen in 1700. In 1673 it was dramatized at Rome, and the decent inhabitants of Monymusk, a remote hamlet in Aberdeenshire, were clothed in names suited for an audience in the imperial city; such as Lurcanio a Calvinist clergyman, the parish minister of Monymusk; Forcina, his servant; Theophilus, an old cottager ; besides an angel, Pluto, and Beelzebub, in the form of Calvin. The work, even in its primitive form, is a pure