Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/329

] so gallantly defended, either in Ireland or England." The English troops had made a breach, and endeavoured to carry the town by storm in vain. On the 9th they stormed the breach a second time. "The fierce death-wrestle," says a letter from one of the besiegers, "lasted four hours," and Cromwell's men were driven back with great loss. But the ammunition of the besieged was exhausted, and they stole away in the night. The inhabitants, before this was discovered, sent out and made terms of surrender. On discovering the retreat of the enemy, pursuit was made, and two hundred men killed on the road. Oliver, however, kept his agreement with the inhabitants.

Cromwell had spent about ten months in Ireland, and certainly had reduced the natives to a more general subjection than any general before him in the same time, and had, according to Carlyle, "left a very handsome spell of work done there." If a blood-thirstiness almost imparalleled be "handsome work," history has indeed some very handsome scenes to show; but we are persuaded that Cromwell, had he mingled with his usual prompt action and impressive severity a humane liberality, would have done his work still more rapidly and effectually, and far more like a Christian commander. Ireton, who remained, died in Ireland, November 26th, 1651. This bloody campaign has always been remembered in that country as "The Curse of Cromwell."

The siege of Clonmel finished, Cromwell set sail in the President frigate, and landed at Bristol towards the end of May, where he was received with firing of guns and great acclamations for his exploits in Ireland. On the 31st of the month he approached Hounslow Heath, where he was met by the lord-general Fairfax, and numbers of other officers and members of parliament, besides crowds of other people. They conducted him to London, and on reaching Hyde Park corner, he was received by the discharge of artillery from colonel Barkstead's regiment, there drawn up; and thus, with increasing crowds and acclamations, he was attended to the Cockpit near St. James's, a house which had been assigned to him, and where his family had been residing for some time. There the lord mayor and aldermen waited on him, to thank him for his services in Ireland. Thence, after some time of rest and refreshment, he appeared in his place in parliament, where he also received the thanks of the house. Some one remarking what crowds went out to see his triumph, Cromwell replied, "But if they had gone to see me hanged, how many more there would have been!"

Charles II., though invited to assume the crown of Scotland, was invited on such terms as would have afforded little hope to a man of much foresight. Those who were to support him were divided into two factions, which could no more mix than fire and water. The covenanters, and the royalists under Montrose, hated each other with a deadly and inextinguishable hatred. So far from mixing, they were sure to coma to strife and bloodshed amongst themselves. If the covenanters got the upper hand, as they were pretty certain, he must abandon his most devoted followers, the old royalists and engagers, and take the covenant himself, thus laying down every party and principle that his father had fought for. He must take upon him a harsh and gloomy yoke, which must keep him not only apart from his royalist and episcopalian followers, but from his far more valuable kingdom of England, where the independents and sectaries reigned, and which the Scotch covenanters could not hope to conquer. But Charles was but a poor outcast and wanderer in a world, the princes of which were tired of both him and his cause, and he was, therefore, compelled to make an effort, however hopeless, to recover his dominions by such means as offered. He therefore sent off Montrose to raise troops and material amongst the northern courts, and then to pass over and raise the Highlands, whilst he went to treat with the covenanters at Breda.

Montrose was strongly suspected of having headed the party who assassinated Dorislaus, a very bad beginning, assassination being the fitting business of thieves, and not of heroes. The fame of Montrose, nevertheless, gave him a good reception in Denmark and other courts, and he is said to have raised an army of twelve thousand men, and embarked these, and much ammunition and artillery, at Gottenburg, under lord Kinnoul, in the autumn. The equinoctial gales appeared to have scattered this force in all directions, dashing several of the ships on the rocks, so that Kinnoul landed in October at Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, with only eighty officers, and about one hundred common men. Montrose followed with five hundred more, and having received the order of the garter from Charles as a token of his favour, he once more raised his banner in the Highlands, bearing on it a painting of the late king decapitated, and the words, "Judge and avenge my cause, O Lord!" But the Highlanders had been taught caution by the repeated failures of the royalists, and the chastisements they had received from the stern covenanters; they stood aloof, and in vain did Montrose march through Caithness and Sutherland, calling on the Gaels to rise and defend the king before the covenanters could sell him to the English, as they had done his father. This was a fatal proclamation, for whilst it foiled to raise the Highlands, it added to the already deep detestation of him in the Lowlands, where his proclamation was burnt by the common hangman.

The covenanters did not merely burn his proclamation, they despatched a force of four thousand men against him. Colonel Strachan came almost upon him in Corbiesdale, in Rosshire, and calling his men around him under the shelter of the high moorland broom, he informed them that God had given "the rebel and apostate Montrose, and the viperous brood of Satan, the accursed of God and the kirk," into their hands. He gave out a psalm, which they sung, and then he dispersed them in successive companies, the whole not amounting to more than four hundred men, the main army being with David Leslie at Brechin. Aa soon as Strachan's handful of men came in sight of Montrose's levies, they were attacked by his cavalry, but scarcely were they engaged, when a second, and then a third detachment appeared. On perceiving this, Montrose believed the whole army of Leslie was marching up, and he ordered his infantry to fall back and screen themselves amongst the brushwood. But first his horse, and then the whole of his force was thrown into confusion. His standard-bearer and several of his officers were slain. The foreign mercenaries demanded quarter and received it, the rest made their escape as well as they could. Montrose had his horse killed under him, and though he got another horse,