Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/558

538 538 DUNDEE h, capable of rising to an independent view of affairs, and wrs unable to overcome his dutiful obedience to superior orders. Although he had had experience of the most disaffected portions of the country, there is but one record of his having interfered to prevent the accustomed irritating measures. He declared decisively against the proposal to let loose the Highland marauders upon the south of Scotland. In June 1684 he was again at his old employment the inspection of the southern shires ; and in August, after the ambuscade of Enterkine-hill, he was commissioned as second in command of the forces in Ayr and Clydesdale to search out the rebels and report to head-quarters. By this time he Avas in possession of Dudhope, having on the 10th of June married Lady Jean, daughter of Lord Cochrane. As constable of Dundee it is recorded to his honour that he re commended to the Privy Council the remission of extreme punishment in the case of many petty offences. He issued from his retirement to take part in a commission of lieutenancy which perambulated as a criminal court the southern districts, and in the end of the year he was again in the same region on the occasion of the disturbances in the town of Kirkcudbright. Shortly after the death of Charles II. (6th February 1685), Graham, through the jealous efforts of Queensberry, incurred a temporary disgrace by his deposition from the office of privy councillor ; but in May he was reinstalled, although it is to be observed that his commission of justiciary which had expired was not renewed. In May 1685 he was ordered with his cavalry to guard the borders, and to scour the south-west in search of rebels. By Act of Privy Council, a certificate was required by all persons over sixteen years of age to free them from the hazard of attack from Government officials. Without that they were at once liable to be called upon oath to abjure the declaration of Renwick, which was alleged to be treasonable. While on this mission he pursued and over took two men John Brown, and a nephew whom he calls John Brownen. Brown, having refused the abjuration oath, was shot dead. The order was within the authorized power of Graham. Until 1688 there is little more of note in his career. In 1686 he was promoted to the rank of major-general, and had added to his position of constable the not incon siderable dignity of provost of Dundee. He appears, however, in the Privy Council in 1688 opposing the pro posal that Lieutenant-General Douglas should have com mand of the whole army which had been ordered to England to aid the falling dynasty. A week or two after his departure with the army his fascinating influence had made itself felt upon James II., and .amid the hurry of events he was created viscount of Dundee on 12th November 1688. From York he went to Salisbury, where he advised James to sterner measures than the feeble-hearted monarch had the courage to adopt. Throughout the vexed journeyings of the king, Dundee is found accompanying or following him, endeavouring in vain to prompt him to make his stand in England and fight rather than flee from the invader. At last James announced his resolve, with the promise that he would send from France an appointment in favour of Dundee to command the troops in Scotland, and arrangements were entered into for communication with the voluntary exile. Dundee returned to Scotland in anticipation of the meeting of the Convention, and at once exerted himself to increase the waning resolution of the duke of Gordon with regard to holding Edinburgh Castle for the exiled king. He had conceived the idea of forming a rival Convention at Stirling to sit in the name of James II., but the hesitancy of his associates rendered the design futile, and it was given up. Dundee, however, boldly appeared at the first meeting of Convention on 16th March 1686, and disclosed a plot which he declared he had discovered against his own life, but the matter after some inquiry was departed from. On the 18th of March, despising the fears of his promised allies, he left Edinburgh at the head of a company of fifty dragoons, who were strongly attached to his person. He was not long gone ere the news was brought to the alarmed Convention that he had been seen clambering up the west side of the castle rock and holding conference with the duke of Gordon. In excitement and confusion order after order was despatched in reference to the fugitive, and the Conven tion sat with locked doors to prevent communication with traitors without. Dundee retired to Dudhope. On the 30th of March he was publicly denounced as a traitor, and in the latter half of April attempts were made to secure him at Dudhope, and the residence in Glen Ogilvy to which he had retired. But the secrecy and speed of his move ments outwitted his pursuers, and he retreated to the north. His career presents strange peculiarities. It was only in 1678 that he had returned to Scotland from abroad. Yet in the short period of intervening years he had, despite the opposition of his superiors in rank, risen from the post of captain, and the social status of a small Scotch laird, to positions as a soldier and statesman and the favourite of his sovereigns, of the greatest dignity, influence, and wealth. Yet it was in this period that he committed those acts on account of which his memory is loaded with reproach. When the ruling dynasty changed, and he who had so often been commissioned to quell insurrection had himself become an outlaw and a rebel, he supported the cause of his exiled monarch with such skill and valour that his name and death are recorded as heroic. On his march into the Highlands he commenced among the chieftains the diplomatic policy in which he excelled. General Hugh Mackay was now in the field against him, and what was simply a Highland chase began. Mackay started with a body of cavalry, marched to the north, and having refused reinforcements from the untrained peasantry of Aberdeenshire, pushed the pursuit further and further to the west. Elgin, and latterly Inverness, were occupied by the Government troops. Dundee had in the meantime been scouring the country from Perth, which on the llth of May he had plundered, to the wilds of Lochaber, to which he had latterly retired. The clans were assembled by the 28th of May, and on the 29th the castle of Ruthven, near Kingussie, was seized. The army of Dundee was now much superior in numbers to that of Mackay, and the prudent general beat a hasty retreat. Having received reinforcements, however, he again advanced northward, and in Strathdon, in the early part of June, it seemed likely that the opposing forces would meet. But the Highland warriors, laden with plunder, were returning homewards, and the army of Dundee was melting away. The outlawed leader again retired, and Mackay conceived his mission at an end. Ho proceeded westward, and, having garrisoned Inverness, marched to the south. Throughout the, whole of the campaign Dundee was indefatigable in his exertions with the Highland chiefs and his communications with his exiled king. To the day of his death he believed that formidable succour for his cause was about to arrive from Ireland and France. Ho justly considered himself at the head of the Stewart interest in Scotland, and his despatches form a record of the little incidents of the campaign, strangely combined with a revelation of the designs of the statesman. It mattered little to him that on the 24th of July a price of 20,000 had been placed upon his head. The clans had begun to reassemble, and he was now in command of a considerable force. Mackay, who had visited Edinburgh to report events, re-