CHAPTER III.

Arrival of Charles II.—His reception-Preparations of the English to invade Scotland -Cromwell crosses the Tweed-Appearance of the country-Arrives at Musselburgh -Attacks the Scottish army between Edinburgh and Leith, and repulsed-Purging of the Scottish army-Cromwell retires to Dunbar-Returns to Musselburgh-Moves on Colinton-Scots draw up at Corstorphine-Cromwell returns to MusselburghThe Dunfermline Declaration-Retreat of Cromwell-Battle of Dunbar-Declaration and Warning of the Kirk-Flight of the king from Perth-His capture-Insurrections in the Highlands-Repressed-Proceedings of Cromwell-Conduct of the western army-Defeated by Lambert-Preparations of the Scots for a new campaign -March of Cromwell towards Stirling-Crosses the Forth at the Queensferry-Defeat of Holburn-Death of the young chief of Maclean-Cromwell enters PerthScottish army invades England-Followed by Cromwell-Battle of Worcester-Flight of the king.

*

HAVING arranged with the commissioners, the conditions on which he was to ascend the Scottish throne, Charles, with about five hundred attendants, left Holland on the second of June, in some vessels furnished him by the prince of Orange, and after a boisterous voyage of three weeks, during which he was daily in danger of being captured by English cruizers, arrived in the Moray frith, and disembarked at Garmouth, a small village at the mouth of the Spey, on the twenty-third of that month Before landing, however, the covenant was presented to him for signature by John Livingston, a minister, to which the king readily adhibited his subscription, but which he had no intention of observing longer than suited his purpose. Looking upon the crowns of England and Scotland as his own by hereditary right—a right which he had never forfeited, but from the possession of which the enemies of monarchical government were attempting unjustly to exclude him—he probably considered that the circumstances in which he was placed justified him in pursuing the course he did, in order to obtain possession of his inheritance; yet, as dissimulation is never allowable, it would require no inconsiderable power of casuistry to palliate sufficiently the conduct of Charles on this occasion. The parliament certainly had no right to impose the solemn league and covenant upon him, but having accepted it without reservation, he was not entitled to disregard it altogether, far less to allow it, as he afterwards did, to be burnt in London by the hands of the common executioner.

• Kirkton's History of the Church of Scotland, p. 51.

The news of the king's arrival reached Edinburgh on the twenty sixth of June. The guns of the castle were fired in honour of the event and the inhabitants manifested their joy by bonfires and other demonstrations of popular feeling. The same enthusiasm spread quickly throughout the kingdom, and his majesty was welcomed with warm congratulations as he proceeded on his journey towards Falkland, which had been allotted to him by parliament as the place of his residence. The pleasure he received from these professions of loyalty was, however, not without alloy, being obliged, at the request of the parliament, to dismiss from his presence some of his best friends, both Scots and English, particularly the duke of Hamilton, the earl of Lauderdale, and other “ engagers," who, by an act passed on the fourth of June against " classed delinquents," were debarred from returning to the kingdom, or remaining therein, "without the express warrant of the estates of parliament.' Of the English exiles the duke of Buckingham, Lord Wilmot, and seven gentlemen of the household were allowed to remain with him. In fact, with these exceptions, every person even suspected of being a "malignant," was carefully excluded from the court, and his majesty was thus surrounded by the heads of the covenanters and the clergy. These last scarcely ever left his person, watched his words and motions, and inflicted upon him long harangues, in which he was often reminded of the misfortunes of his family.

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The rulers of the English commonwealth, aware of the negotiations which had been going on between the young king and the Scots commissioners in Holland, became apprehensive of their own stability, should a union take place between the covenanters and the English presbyterians, to support the cause of the king, and they therefore resolved to invade Scotland, and by reducing it to their authority extinguish for ever the hopes of the king and his party. Fairfax was appointed commander-in-chief, and Cromwell lieutenant-general of the army destined for this purpose; but as Fairfax considered the invasion of Scotland as a violation of the solemn league and covenant which he had sworn to observe, he refused, notwithstanding the most urgent entreaties, to accept the command, which was in consequence devolved upon Cromwell.

The preparations making in England for the invasion of Scotland, were met with corresponding activity in Scotland, the parliament of which ordered an army of thirty thousand men to be immediately raised to maintain the independence of the country. The nominal command of this army was given to the earl of Leven, who had become old and infirm; but David Leslie his relative, was in reality the commander. The levies went on with considerable rapidity, but before they were assembled Cromwell crossed the Tweed on the twenty-second day of July at the head of sixteen thousand well appointed and high disciplined

INVASION OF SCOTLAND BY CROMWELL.

53

troops. On his march from Berwick to Musselburgh a scene of desolation was presented to the eyes of Cromwell, far surpassing any thing he had ever before witnessed. With the exception of a few old women and children, not a human being was to be seen, and the whole country appeared as one great waste over which the hand of the ruthless destroye. had exercised its ravages. To understand the cause of this it is necessary to mention, that, with the view of depriving the enemy of provisions, instructions had been issued to lay waste the country between Berwick and the capital; to remove or destroy the cattle and provisions, and that the inhabitants should retire to other parts of the kingdom under the severest penalties. To induce them to comply with this ferocious command, appalling statements of the cruelties of Cromwell in Ireland were industriously circulated among the people, and that he had given orders to put all the males between sixteen and sixty to death, to cut off the right hands of all the boys between six and sixteen, and to bore the breasts of all females of age for bearing children, with red-hot irons.* Fortunately for his army Cromwell had provided a fleet in case of exigency, which followed his course along the coast, and supplied him with provisions.

The English general continued his course along the coast till he arrived at Musselburgh, where he established his head-quarters. Here he learnt that the Scots army, consisting of upwards of thirty thousand men, had taken up a strong position between Edinburgh and Leith, and had made a deep entrenchment in front of their lines, along which they had erected several batteries. Cromwell reconnoitered this position, and tried all his art to induce the Scots to come to a general engagement; but as Leslie's plan was to act on the defensive, and thus force Cromwell either to attack him at a considerable disadvantage, or to retreat back into England after his supply of provisions should be exhausted, he kept his army within their entrenchments.

As Cromwell perceived that he would be soon reduced to the alternative of attacking the Scots in their position, or of retracing his steps through the ruined track over which his army had lately passed, he resolved upon an assault, and fixed Monday the twenty-ninth day of July for advancing on the enemy. By a singular coincidence, the king, at the instigation of the earl of Eglinton, but contrary to the wish of his council and the commanders, visited the army that very day. His presence was hailed with shouts of enthusiasm by the soldiers, who indulged in copious libations to the health of their sovereign. The soldiers in consequence neglected their duty, and great confusion prevailed in the camp; but on the approach of Cromwell sufficient order was restored, and they patiently waited his attack. Having selected the centre of the enemy's position, near a spot called the Quarry Holes, about halfway between Edinburgh and Leith, as appearing to him the most favourable

• Whitelock, P.

465.

Balfour, vol. iv. p. SG.

point for commencing the operations of the day, Cromwell led forward his army to the assault; but after a desperate struggle he was repulsed with the loss of two of his cannon. The regiment of Lawers particularly distinguished itself on this occasion, which not only routed a considerable body of Cromwell's foot, but drove a party of artillery from the adjoining hill at St Leonard's chapel, where they had planted some cannon to play on the Scottish position. Under the protection of a large body of horse the English regained their cannon; but they lost a considerable number of men and horses from an incessant fire of musketry kept up by Lawers' men from the hedges and rocks.* Cromwell renewed the attack on the thirty-first, and would probably have carried Leslie's position but for a destructive fire from some batteries near Leith. While skirmishing with the enemy in front of the line, Sir James Hackett, who should have seconded David Leslie, "received a great fright," says Balfour, and was so alarmed that he scampered off at full gallop; but on the third of August he and Colonel Scott, who appears also to have acted a cowardly part, were exculpated by the committee, "yet that (continues Balfour) did little to save their honour amongst honest men, and soldiours of worthe and reputatione."+ Cromwell retired to Musselburgh in the evening, where he was unexpectedly attacked by a body of two thousand horse and five hundred foot, commanded by Major-General Montgomery, son of the earl of Eglinton, and Colonel Strachan, which had been despatched at an early part of the day by a circuitous route to the right, for the purpose of falling on Cromwell's If Balfour is to be credited, this party beat Cromwell "soundlie," and would have defeated his whole army if they had had an additional force of one thousand men; but an English writer informs us, that the Scots suffered severely. According to the first mentioned author the English had five colonels and five hundred men killed, while the latter states the loss of the Scots to have been about a hundred men, and a large number of prisoners. On the following day, Cromwell, probably finding that he had enough of mouths to consume his provisions, without the aid of prisoners, offered to exchange all those he had taken the preceding day, and sent the wounded Scots back to their camp.

rear.

These rencounters, notwithstanding the expectations of the ministers, and the vaunts of the parliamentary committee of their pretended successes, inspired some of Leslie's officers with a salutary dread of the prowess of Cromwell's veterans. An amusing instance of this feeling is related by Balfour in the case of the earl of W. (he suppresses the name) who "beinng commandit the nixt day (the day after the last mentioned skirmish) in the morning, to marche out one a partey, saw he could not goe one upone service untill he had his bracke faste. The brackefaste was delayed above 4 hours in getting until the L. General being privily advertissed by a secrett frind, that my Lord was peaceably myndit that

• Balfour, vol. iv., p. 88.

+ Ibid, p. 89.

↑ Whitelock.

MOVEMENTS OF CROMWELL.

55

morning, sent him expresse orders not to marche, to save his reputation One this, the gallants of the armey raissed a proverbe, That they wold not goe out one a partey until they gate ther brackefaste.'"*

For several days Cromwell remained inactive in his camp, during which the parliamentary committee subjected the Scots army to a purging operation, which impaired its efficiency, and, perhaps, contributed chiefly to its ruin. As the Solemn League and Covenant was considered by the covenanters as a sacred pledge to God, which no true Christian could refuse to take, they looked upon those who declined to subscribe it as the enemies of religion, with whom it would be criminal in the eye of Heaven to associate. This principle had been acted upon when the duke of Hamilton invaded England, and had led to the utter destruction of his army; but such an instructive lesson was thrown away upon the enthusiasts who usurped the direction of affairs in Scotland at this time, and, accordingly, the ministers preached incessantly against the sinfulness of allowing malignants and the enemies of the covenant to remain in the army, and they denounced the judgments of God upon the land and army if such men were suffered to remain among them. A committee of parliament had been appointed for purging the army, which now entered upon its task; but before the purgation commenced, the king received a hint, equivalent to a command, from the heads of the covenanters to retire to Dunfermline, an order which he obeyed "sore against his own mind," †by taking his departure on Friday the second of August, after spending the short space of two hours at a banquet, which had been provided for him by the city of Edinburgh. No sooner had the king departed than the purging process was commenced, and on the second, third, and fifth days of August, during which the committee held their sittings, no less than eighty officers, all men of unquestionable loyalty, besides a considerable number of common soldiers, were expelled from the army. ‡

In the meantime Cromwell's army began to be in lack of provisions, but it was immediately supplied by some English vessels which arrived at Dunbar, whither Cromwell retired with his army on the fifth of August. Here he found the few inhabitants who had remained in the town in a state of starvation. Touched with commiseration, he generously distributed among them, on his supplies being landed, a considerable quantity of wheat and pease.§

While the ministers were thanking God "for sending the sectarian army (for so they designated the independents) back the way they came, and flinging such a terrror into their hearts, as made them fly when none pursued,"|| Cromwell suddenly re-appeared at Musselburgh, and thus put an end to their thanksgivings

Seeing no hopes of the Scots army leaving its entrenchments, and

• Balfour, vol. iv., p. 87. 2 Balfour, vc, iv., p. 89.

+ Balfour.

Whitelock.

Ibid. p. 483.