Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/332

 Campbell be the Marques of thair just and lauchfull dettis, spaired not at all times as he walked, ather in street or in the feildis abroad, [to call him] “a fals traitour.” Besyde this, his hors and hors graith, and all uther household stuff were poyndit at Dalkeith and at Newbottil and brocht into Edinburgh, and thair comprysit at the Mercat Croce for dett’ (Diary, 140). In order to push his suit with the Protector for payment of the money promised him by acts of the Scottish parliament, Argyll in September 1655 arrived in London. While there he was in November arrested at the suit of Elizabeth Maxwell, widow of the Earl of Dirleton, for debt, connected with the supply of meal to the Scots army in 1644–5 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655–6, p. 7), who, however, was ordered to forbear further prosecution of him or of his bail, and to take her remedy in Scotland (ib. p. 34). For the payment of the moneys promised him by the Scottish parliament Argyll pleaded the engagement of Deane guaranteeing him the payment of his debts, and he did obtain a grant on the excise of wines and strong waters, not to exceed 3,000l. a year, till the whole sum due to him, 12,116l. 13s. 4d., should be paid (ib. 1656–7, p. 107). Possibly Argyll had even more ambitious intentions in his visit to London, but if so he was unsuccessful, and indeed was always regarded by Cromwell with suspicion as a royalist at heart. On the incorporation of the Scottish parliament with that of England, he exerted himself in opposition to the council of state to get Scotsmen returned (Letter of Monck to Thurloe, 30 Sept. 1658, Thurloe State Papers, vii. 584). He himself sat as member for Aberdeenshire.

After the Restoration, Argyll, on 8 July 1660, presented himself in the presence chamber at Whitehall to pay his respects to the king; but on asking for an interview instructions were given by Charles II for his apprehension, and he was committed to the Tower. For once in his life he had acted precipitately, and his rashness was fatal. Early in December he was sent to Edinburgh by sea for trial, on charges of compliance with the usurpation and of treasonable acts committed since 1638. The accusation embraced fourteen counts, the most serious being that of having been accessory to the death of Charles I.; and the trial, which was presided over by his inveterate enemy, the Earl of Middleton, lord high commissioner, continued through March and April. On the main count he was declared guiltless by a large majority ( Own Time, i. 124), but after the evidence had been closed and a complete acquittal seemed probable, a despatch arrived from Monck containing private letters of Argyll showing that he had been ‘hearty and zealous on the side of the usurpation.’ The reading of them, according to Burnet, silenced further debate (ib i. 125); but if they were sent, which is doubtful, as they are not mentioned by any one by Burnet, their exact purport cannot be ascertained, all the record of evidence against him having been destroyed after the trial. According to Burnet he made an attempt to escape out of the castle by pretending illness and endeavouring to pass for his wife, who took his place on the sickbed, but his heart failed as he was about to step into her chair in disguise (ib i. 124). He was beheaded with the maiden at the cross of Edinburgh on 27 May 1661. The serenity with which he met his fate greatly surprised those who had given him credit for abject personal cowardice. While taking his last meal with his friends at twelve o'clock he comported himself with unaffected cheerfulness, and on the scaffold he addressed the crowd with dignified composure in a solemn and temperate speech about half an hour in duration. Cunningham, his physician, told Burnet that on touching his pulse he found it to ‘beat at the usual rate clear and strong,’ and as an evidence that his self-possession was internal and thorough it was noted on opening his body that the partridge he had eaten at dinner had been completely digested (‘Anecdotes of the Marquis of Argyll,’ by the Rev. Robert Wodrow, in Argyll Papers, 1834, p. 12). Among the royalists his bearing on the scaffold caused much perplexity, but they seem to have inclined to the opinion that it disproved his cowardice, but only his hypocrisy. The Earl of Crawford, convinced that Argyll's conduct on the occasion of a duel arranged between them at Musselburgh in August 1648 (see Annals, iii. 395) could only be accounted for by his being ‘naturally a very great coward,’ stoutly contested the proposition of Middleton that Argyll's ‘soul was in hell,’ asserting that such resolution as he showed on the scaffold must have been due to ‘some supernatural assistance; he was sure it was not his natural temper’ ( Own Time, i. 126). The day before his execution Argyll wrote a letter to the king justifying his intentions in all his conduct towards him in regard to the covenant (see copy in History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, i. 54), and his last words on the scaffold were, ‘I am free from any accession by knowledge, contriving, counsel, or any other way to his late majesty's death.’ His body was carried to St. Margaret's Chapel in the