Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/329

 Campbell hundred of the Campbells, including their leader, and five hundred duniwassels being either massacred or driven into the lake and drowned. Sailing down the lake, Argyll then proceeded to Edinburgh, arriving on 12 Feb., when, says Guthry, ‘he went straight to the parliament, having his left arm in a sling as if he had been at bones-breaking.’ The day previous Montrose had been declared guilty of high treason, but his victorious career was continued until, by his great triumph at Kilsyth on 15 Aug., all Scotland was for a time at his mercy. Baillie, the nominal commander of the covenanters, afterwards affirmed the real cause of the disaster to have been the unwarrantable interference of the committee of estates, the chief member of which was Argyll. From the battle Argyll escaped on horseback to Queensferry, where he got on board ship and sailed down the Firth to Newcastle. This has been attributed to panic, but may be sufficiently accounted for by a desire to be in communication with the Earl of Leven and his strong force of covenanters in England. Shortly afterwards Argyll was in Berwickshire endeavouring to counteract the negotiations of Montrose with the border lords. The victorious career of Montrose was terminated on 12 Sept. at Philliphaugh. Argyll, although again supreme in Scotland, had suffered almost as severely from the contest as Montrose. The flower of his clan had been slain either in cold blood during Montrose's terrible winter raid, or in the struggle at Inverlochy; the glens had been stripped of their cattle; the produce of the fields had been carried away or wasted by the Irish and highland marauders. Such was the terrible destitution that prevailed, that a collection for the relief of the people of Argyll was ordered to be made throughout all the churches in Scotland; and on 1 Jan. 1646–7 the parliament ordained 10,000l. to be paid to the marquis for subsistence, and 30,000l. for the relief of the shire (Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vi. part i. pp. 643, 675). After the flight of the king to the Scots army, Argyll was sent in May 1646 to treat with him at Newcastle. He was, Charles wrote to the queen, ‘very civil and cunning’ (Charles I in 1646, Camden Society, p. 49). Writing on 10 June Charles says: ‘Argyll went yesterday to London with great profession of doing me service there; his errand (as is pretended) is only to chasten down and moderate the demands that are coming to me from thence’ (ib. 47). The professions of Argyll, as interpreted by Charles, were to a certain extent carried out in his speech on 25 June in the Painted Chamber before the committee of the lords and commons, in which he deprecated the persecution of ‘peaceable men who cannot through scruple of conscience come up in all things to the common rule,’ but he was careful to add that the personal regard for the king in Scotland ‘hath never made them forget that common rule, “The safety of the people is the supreme law”’ (The Lord Marques of Argyle's Speech, London, printed for Laurence Chapman, 27 June 1646). Argyll did all that he thought could be done for the king with safety, and although admitting that the ultimatum was in certain respects too stringent, he impressed upon him the necessity of accepting it as inevitable. All along Argyll had supported joint action on the part of the two parliaments as the only safe course both for the cause of the king and the people. He was therefore entirely opposed to the secret treaty concluded by the Scots, by which the king bound himself to confirm the covenant, on condition that an army was sent into England to help in his restoration. On news reaching Scotland that the Scotch army sent into England under the Duke of Hamilton had been routed by Cromwell at Preston, the western covenanters, to the number of seven thousand, gathered under Leslie, earl of Leven, and marched towards Edinburgh. On his way to join them, Argyll, with a body of highlanders, was surprised by the Earl of Lanark while dining with the Earl of Mar at Stirling, but galloping across Stirling bridge he reached North Queensferry, and crossed the Firth in a small boat to Edinburgh, where the ‘Whigamores,’ as they were afterwards called, had already arrived. The incursion known as the ‘Whigamore Raid’ dealt the final blow to the cause of the king. At Edinburgh a new committee of estates was formed with Argyll at its head. Cromwell, who had been for some time in communication with Argyll, was met by him on the borders, and invited to the capital, which he entered in procession, accompanied by the civil authorities, on 4 Oct. As a condition of his friendship Cromwell demanded of the committee of estates that no person accessory to the ‘engagement’ should ‘be employed in any public place or trust whatsoever’ (, Cromwell, letter lxxvii.), and in accordance with the pledge of the committee to that effect, Argyll, at the ensuing meeting of the parliament in January, brought forward a motion against the ‘Engagers,’ whom he classed under five heads, the act passed against them being thus known as the ‘Act of Classes’ (, Annals of Scotland, iii. 377). On 7 Oct. Cromwell was entertained by the committee at a sumptuous banquet in the castle, and the same evening