ive strength with them. A desperate conflict, still menlie, and before he was aware shott him with ane renowned in tradition, took place at the Dryfle Sands pistoll. Sir James hearing the shott and his man's not far from Lockerby, in which Johnstone, al- words, turning about to see what was past, immethough inferior in numbers, partly by his own con-diatelie Maxwell shott him behind his back with ane duct, partly by the valour of his allies, gained a pistoll chairgit with two poysonit bulletts, at which decisive victory. Lord Maxwell, a tall man, and shott the said Sir James fell from his horse. Maxheavily armed, was struck from his horse in the well not being content therewith, raid about him ane flight, and cruelly slain, after the hand, which he lang tyme, and persued him farder, vowing to use stretched out for quarter, had been severed from his him more cruelly and treacherouslie than he had body. Many of his followers were slain in the bat- done, for which it is known sufficiently what foltle, and many cruelly wounded, especially by slashes lowed."-"A fact," saith Spottiswoode, "detested in the face, which wound was thence termed a by all honest men, and the gentleman's misfortune “Lockerby lick." The Barons of Lag, Closeburn, severely lamented, for he was a man full of wisdom and Drumlanrig, escaped by the fleetness of their and courage."-SPOTTISWOODE, Edition 1677, pp. horses; a circumstance alluded to in the following 467, 504. JOHNSTONI Historia, Ed. Amstæl. pp. 254, ballad. 283, 449. This fatal battle was followed by a long feud, at- Lord Maxwell, the murderer, made his escape to tended with all the circumstances of horror proper France; but having ventured to return to Scotland, to a barbarous age. Johnstone, in his diffuse man- he was apprehended lurking in the wilds of Caithner, describes it thus: "Ab eo die ultro citroque in ness, and brought to trial at Edinburgh. The royal Annandia et Nithia magnis utriusque, regionis jac- authority was now much strengthened by the union turis certatum. Cades, incendia, rapina, et nefanda of the crowns, and James employed it in stanching farinora; liberi in maternis gremiis trucidati, ma- the feuds of the nobility, with a firmness which was rili in conspectu conjugum suarum; incensa ville; no attribute of his general character. But in the best lamentabiles ubique querimonia, et horribiles ar- actions of that monarch, there seems to have been morum fremitus."-JOHNSTONI Historia, Ed. Am- an unfortunate tincture of that meanness, so visible stal. p. 182. on the present occasion. Lord Maxwell was indictJohn, Lord Maxwell, with whose Goodnight theed for the murder of Johnstone; but this was comreader is here presented, was son to him who fell at bined with a charge of fire-raising, which, according the battle of Dryffe Sands, and is said to have early to the ancient Scottish law, if perpetrated by a landavowed the deepest revenge for his father's death. ed man, constituted a species of treason, and inferSuch, indeed, was the fiery and untameable spirit of red forfeiture. Thus the noble purpose of public the man, that neither the threats nor entreaties of justice was sullied by being united with that of enthe King himself could make him lay aside his vin-riching some needy favourite. John, Lord Maxwell, dictive purpose; although Johnstone, the object of his resentment, had not only reconciled himself to the court, but even obtained the wardenry of the Middle Marches, in room of Sir John Carmichael, murdered by the Armstrongs. Lord Maxwell was therefore prohibited to approach the Border counties; and having, in contempt of that mandate, excited new disturbances, he was confined in the castle of Edinburgh. From this fortress, however, he contrived to make his escape; and, having repaired to Dumfries-shire, he sought an amicable interview with Johnstone, under a pretence of a wish to accommodate their differences. Sir Robert Maxwell, of Orchardstane, (mentioned in the Ballad, verse 1,) who was married to a sister of Sir James Johnstone, persuaded his brother-in-law to accede to Maxwell's proposal. The following relation of what followed is taken from an article in Shawfield's MS., mentioned in the introduction to the ballad called Kinmont Willie: was condemned, and beheaded, 21st May, 1613. Sir Gideon Murray, treasurer-depute, had a great share of his forfeiture; but the attainder was afterwards reversed, and the honours and estate were conferred upon the brother of the deceased.-LAING's History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 62.-JOHNSTONI Historia, p. 493. The lady mentioned in the ballad, was sister to the Marquis of Hamilton, and, according to Johnstone the historian, had little reason to regret being separated from her husband, whose harsh treatment finally occasioned her death. But Johnstone appears not to be altogether untinctured with the prejudices of his clan, and is probably, in this instance, guilty of exaggeration; as the active share taken by the Marquis of Hamilton in favour of Maxwell, is á circumstance inconsistent with such a report. It seems reasonable to believe, that the following ballad must have been written before the death of Lord Maxwell, in 1613; otherwise there would have been some allusion to that event. It must therefore have been composed betwixt 1608 and that period. LORD MAXWELL'S GOODNIGHT. Thus was finally ended, by a salutary example of severity, the "foul debate" betwixt the Maxwells and the Johnstones, in the course of which each fa The simple truth and cause of the treasonable mily lost two chieftains; one dying of a broken murther of umquhile Sir James Johnstoun, of Dun-heart, one in the field of battle, one by assassination, skellie, knight, was as efter followes. To wit, John and one by the sword of the executioner. Lord Maxwell having dealt and useit his best means with some nobilemen and baronnes within the cuntrey, and likeways with sundrie of the name of Maxwell, being refuised of them all to be partakers of so foull ane deed; till at last he unhappily persuaded one Charles Maxwell, one of the brether of Kirkhouse, to be with him, and having made him assuired to be pairtner in that treasonable plot: therefore, taking advantage of the weakness and unabilitie of umquhill Sir Robert Maxwell of Orchyardtoun, knight, presuming that he had power of the said Sir Jaines, being brother-in-law to him, to bring him to anye part he pleased; Maxwell, pretending he had special busines to do with Sir James, hearing he was going from the court of England, so gave out by reasoun he was the king's rebell for the time, for breaking weird out of the castle, of Edinburgh, that he had no other houpes to obtaine the King's favour but be his meanes. So upon this pretence, the said Sir James was moved to meet him at Auchnamhill, near by Arthorstane, without the house of Bent, upon the 6th Aprile, 1608, with one man onlie with him as was with the uther, therselves two onlie and the forsaid Sir Robert Maxwell with them, and their servantes being a little off. The forsaid Charles falls out with opprobrious and malicious speeches to Sit James his servant, William Johnstoune of Gun L @t 3 A. dieu, Madame, my mother dear, But LORD MAXWELL'S GOODNIGHT.* [Lord Byron refers to this ballad, as having suggested the Goodnight in the 1st Canto of Childe Harold. See Life and Works of Byron, vol. viii. --ED.] The reader will perceive, from the Introduction, what connexion the bond, subscribed by Douglas of Drumlanrig, Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, and Grierson of Lagg, had with the death of Lord Maxwell's father. For the satisfaction of those who may be cu rions as to the form of these bonds, I have transcribed a letter of manrent,* from a MS. collection of upwards of twenty deeds of that nature, copied from the originals by the late John Syme, Esq., writer to the signet; for the use of which, with many other favours of a similar nature, I am indebted to Dr. Robert Anderson of Edinburgh. The bond is granted by Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, to Robert Lord Maxwell, father of him who was slain at the battle of the Dryffe Sands. BOND OF MANRENT. Be it kend till all men be thir present lettres, me, Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closburn, to be bundin and oblist, and be the tenor heirof, bindis and oblissis me, be the faith and treuth of my body, in manrent and service to ane nobil and mychty lord, Robert Lord Maxwell, induring all the dayis of my lyfe; and byndis and oblissis me, as said is, to be leil and trew man and servant to the said Robert Lord Maxwell, my master, and sall nowthir heir nor se his skaith, but sall lat the samyn at my utir power, an warn him thereof. And I sall conceill it that the said lord schawis to me, and sall gif him agane the best leill and true counsale that I can, quhen he only askis at me; and that I sall ryde with my kyn, freyndis, servandis, and allies, that wil do for me, or to gang with the said lord; and to do him fauld, trew, and thankful service, and take fauld plane part with the said lord, my maister, in all and sindry his actions, causis, quarrellis, leful and honest, movit, or to be movit, be him, or aganis him, baith in peace and weir, contrair or aganis all thae that leifles or de may. (my allegeance to own soveran ladye the quenis grace, her tutor and governor, allanerly except.) And thir my lettres of manrent, for all the dayis of my life foresaid to indure, all dissimulations, fraud, or gyle, secludit and away put. In witness," &c. The deed is signed at Edinburgh, 3d February, 1542. In the collection, from which this extract is made, there are bonds of a similar nature granted to Lord Maxwell, by Douglas of Drumlanrig. ancestor to the Dukes of Queensberry; by Crichton Lord Sanquhar, ancestor of the Earls of Dumfries, and many of his kindred; by Stuart of Castlemilk; by Stuart of Garlies, ancestor of the Earls of Galloway; by Murray of Cockpool, ancestor of the Murrays, Lords Annandale: by Grierson of Lage, Gordon of Lochmaben, and many other of the most ancient and respectable barons in the south-west of Scotland, binding themselves, in the most submissive terms, to become the liegemen and the vassals of the house of Maxwell; a circumstance which must highly excite our idea of the power of that family. Nay, even the rival chieftain, Johnstone of Johnstone, seems at one time to have come under a similar obligation to Maxwell, by a bond, dated 11th February, 1528, in which reference is made to the counter-obligation of the patron, in these words: "Fosasmeikle as the said lord has oblist him to supple, maintene, and defend me, in the peciabill brouking and joysing of all my landis, rentis, &c., and to take my æfald, leill, and trew part, in all my good actionis, causis, and The proper spelling is manred. Thus, in the romance of Florice and Blanchefoure "He wil falle to thi fot, And bicem thi man gif he mot; Hia and then schalt sfunge, 4nd the trew the of his honie." ADIEU, madame, my mother dear, Adieu, fair Robert of Orchardstane! For I may not stay with thee. "Though I hae slain the Lord Johnstone, My noble mind their wrath disdains,- Both night and day I labour'd oft But now I've got what lang I sought, "Adieu! Drumlanrig, false wert aye, And Closeburn in a band!t The Laird of Lag, frae my father that fled, When the Johnston struck aff his hand. They were three brethren in a band Joy may they never see! Their treacherous art, and cowardly heart, Has twined my love and me. "Adieu! Dumfries, my proper place, But and Carlaverock fair! Adieu! my castle of the Thrieve, quarles, leiful and honest, aganes all deedlie, his alledgcance to our soveraigne lord the king allanerly excepted, as at mair length is contained in his lettres of maintenance maid to me thereupon; therefore," &c., he proceeds to bind himself as liegeman to the Maxwell. I cannot dismiss the subject without observing, that, in the dangerous times of Queen Mary, when most of these bonds are dated, many barons, for the sake of maintaining unanimity and good order, may have chosen to enrol themselves among the clients of Lord Maxwell, then Warden of the Border, from which, at a less turbulent period, personal considerations would have deterred them. This fortress is situated in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, upon an island several acres in extent, formed by the river Dee. The walls are very thick and strong, and bear the marks of great antiquity. It was a royal castle; but the keeping of it, agreeable to the feudal practice, was granted by charter, or sometimes by a more temporary and precarious right, to different powerful families, together with lands for their good service in maintaining and defending the place. This office of heritable keeper remained with the Nithesdale family (chief of the Maxwells) till their forfeiture, 1715. The garrison seems to have been victualled upon feudal principles; for each parish in the stewartry was burdened with the yearly payment of a lardner mart cow, i. e. a cow fit for being killed and salted at Martinmas, for winter provisions. The right of levying these cattle was retained by the Nithesdale family, when they sold the castle and estate, in 1704, and they did not cease to exercise it till their attainder.-FOUNTAINHALL'S Decisions, vol. i. p. 688. This same castle of the Thrieve was. A. D. 1451-2, the scene of an outrageous and cruel insult upon the royal authority. The fortress was then held by William VIII, Earl of Douglas, who, in fact, possessed a more unlimited authority over the southern districts of Scotland, than the reigning monarch. The Earl had, on some pretence, seized and imprisoned a baron, called Maclellan, tutor of Bombie, whom he threatened to bring to trial, by his power of hereditary jurisdiction. The uncle of this gentleman, Sir Patrick Gray of Foulis, who commanded the body-guard of James II., obtained from that prince a warrant, requiring from Earl Douglas the body of the prisoner. When Gray appeared, the Earl instantly suspected his errand. "You have not dined, said he, without suffering him to open his commission: "it is ill talking between a full man and a fasting." While Gray was at meat, the unfortunate prisoner was, by Douglas's command, led When the repast was forth to the court yard and beheaded. "Sir Patfinished, the King's letter was presented and opened. rick," says Douglas, leading Gray to the court, "right glad had I been to honour the King's messenger; but you have come too late. Yonder lies your sister's son, without the head; you are welcome to his dead body." Gray, having mounted his horse, turned to the Earl, and expressed his wrath in a deadly oath, that he would requite the injury with Douglas's heart's blood.-"To horse!" cried the haughty baron; and the messenger of his prince was pursued till within a few miles of Edinburgh Gray, however, had an opportunity of keeping his vow; for, being upon guard in the King's antechamber at Stirling, when James, incensed at the insolence of the Earl, struck him with his dagger, Sir Patrick rushed in, and despatched him with a pole-axe. The castle of Thrieve was the last of the fortresses which held out for the house of Douglas, after their grand rebellion in 1553. James II. writes an account of the exile of this potent family, to Charles VII. of France, 8th July, 1555; and adds, that all their castles [This incident, no doubt, suggested the scene between Archiba'd Bell-the-Cat and Lord Marmion. See Marmion. Canto V. xiv.-Ed] Adieu! Lochmaben's gate sae fair, The Langholm-holm, where birks there be : Adieu! my ladye, and only joy, For, trust me, I may not stay wi' thee. "Lord of the land!"-that ladye said, Unto my brother's stately tower, "Thanks for thy kindness, fair my dame, Then he tuik aff a gay gold ring, Thereat hang signets three; "Hae, tak thee that, mine ain dear thing, Ere I come ower the sea- His life is but a three days' lease, The wind was fair, the ship was clear, And most part of his friends were there, t They drank the wine, they didna spair, THE LADS OF WAMPHRAY. THE reader will find, prefixed to the foregoing ballad, an account of the noted feud betwixt the families of Maxwell and Johnstone. The following song celebrates the skirmish, in 1593, betwixt the Johnstones and Crichtons, which led to the revival of the ancient quarrel betwixt Johnstone and Maxwell, and finally to the battle of Dryffe Sands, in which the latter lost his life. Wamphray is the name of a parish in Annandale. Lethenhall was the abode of Johnstone of Wamphray, and continued to be so till of late years. William Johnstone of Wamphray, called the Galliard, was a noted freebooter. A place near the head of Teviotdale, retains the name of the Galliard's Faulds, (folds,) being a valley where he used to secrete and divide his spoil with his Liddesdale and Eskdale associates. His nom de guerre seems to have been derived from the dance called the Galliard. The word is still used in Scotland, to express an active, gay, dissipated character.§ Willie of the Kirkhill, nephew to the Galliard, and his avenger, was also a noted Border robber. Previous to the battle of Dryffe Sands, so often mentioned, tradition reports, had been yielded to him, "Excepto duntaxat castro de Trefe, per mostros Adeles impræsentiarum obsesso; quod, domino concedente, in brevi obtinere speramus."-PINKERTON'S History. Appendir, vol. i. p. 486.-See PITSCOTTIE'S History, GODSCROFT, &C. Bangisters-The prevailing party. • The ancestor of the present Mr. Maxwell of Broomholm is particularly mentioned in Glenriddel's MS. as having attended his chieftain in his distress, and as having received a grant of lands, in reward of this manifestation of attachment. 1 This seems to have been a favourite epithet in old romances. Thus in Hornchilde, and Maiden Rimuild, Thai sayled ower the flode so gray, In Inglond arrived were thay, Ther him levest ware." Cleveland applies the phrase in a very different manner, in treating of the assembly of Divines at Westminster, 1644:And Selden is a Galliard by himself, And wel might be there's more divines in him, Than in all this their Jewish Sanhedrim." Skelton, in his railing poem against James IV. terms him Sir Sicur Galyard. that Maxwell had offered a ten-pound-land to any of his party who should bring him the head or hand of the Laird of Johnstone. This being reported to his antagonist, he answered, he had not a tenpound-land to offer, but would give a five-merkland to the man who should that day cut off the head or hand of Lord Maxwell. Willie of the Kirkhill, mounted upon a young gray horse, rushed upon the enemy, and earned the reward, by striking down their unfortunate chieftain, and cutting off his right hand. From a pedigree in the appeal case of Sir James Johnstone of Westeraw, claiming the honours and titles of Annandale, it appears that the Johnstones of Wamphray were descended from James, sixth son of the sixth baron of Johnstone. The male line became extinct in 1657. THE LADS OF WAMPHRAY. "TWIXT Girth-head and the Langwood end, Lived the Galliard, and the Galliard's men; But and the lads of Leverhay, That drove the Crichton's gear away. It is the lads of Lethenha', The greatest rogues among them a': They broke the house in at the rigging. The lads of Fingland, and Helbeck-hill, They were never for good, but aye for ill; 'Twixt the Staywood-bush and Langside-hill, They steal'd the broked cow and the branded bull. It is the lads of the Girth-head, The deil's in them for pride and greed; The Galliard to Nithsdale is gane, To steal Sim Crichton's winsome dun, gane, But instead of the dun, the blind he has ta'en. Now Simmy, Simmy of the Side, As soon as the Galliard the Crichton saw, "O Simmy, Simmy, now let me gang, "O Simmy, Simmy, now let me gang, And when they cam to the Biddes-burn,* And a burnish'd brand in his hand he gat. LESLY'S MARCH. "But, O my country! how shall memory trace SUCH are the verses, in which a modern bard has painted the desolate state of Scotland, during a period highly unfavourable to poetical composition. Yet the civil and religious wars of the seventeenth century have afforded some subjects for traditionary poetry, and the reader is now to be presented with the ballads of that disastrous era. Some prefatory history may not be unacceptable. whom God had given the spiritual sceptre. The elder Melvine, in a conference with James VI., seized the monarch by the sleeve, and addressing him as God's sillie rassal, told him, "There are two kings, and two kingdomes. There is Christ, and his kingdome, the kirke; whose subject King James the Sixth is, and of whose kingdome he is not a king, nor a head, nor a lord, but a member; and they whom Christ hath called and commanded to watch ower his kirke, and govern his spiritual kingdome, have sufficient authoritie and power from him so to do; which no Christian king, nor prince, should control or discharge, but fortifie and assist; otherwise they are not faithful subjects to Christ."-CALDERWOOD, p. 329. The delegated theocracy, thus sternly claimed, was exercised with equal rigour. The offences in the King's household fell under their unceremonious jurisdiction, and he was formally reminded of his occasional neglect to say grace before and after meat-his repairing to hear the word more rarely than was fitting his profane banning and swearing, and keeping of evil companyand, finally, of his queen's carding, dancing, nightwalking, and such-like profane pastimes.-CALDERWOOD, p. 313. A curse, direct or implied, was formally denounced against every man, horse, and spear, that should assist the king in his quarrel with the Earl of Gowrie; and from the pulpit, the favourites of the listening sovereign were likened to Haman, his wife to Herodias, and he himself to Ahab, to Herod, and to Jeroboam. These effusions of zeal could not be very agreeable to the temper of James; and accordingly, by a course of slow, and often crooked and cunning policy, he laboured to arrange the church government upon a less turbulent and menacing footing. His eyes were naturally turned towards the English hierarchy, which had been modelled by the despotic Henry VIII., into such a form, as to connect indissolubly the interest of the church with that of the regal power. The Reformation, in England, had originated in the arbitrary will of the prince; in Scotland, and in all other countries of Europe, it had commenced among insurgents of the lower ranks. Hence, the deep and essential difference which separated the Huguenots, the Lutherans, the Scottish Presbyterians, and, in fine, all the other reformed churches, from that of England. But James, with a timidity which sometimes supplies the place of prudence, contented himself with gradually imposing upon the Scottish nation a limited and moderate system of Episcopacy, which, while That the Reformation was a good and a glorious it gave to a proportion of the churchmen a seat in work, few will be such slavish bigots as to deny. the council of the nation, induced them to look up But the enemy came, by night, and sowed tares to the sovereign, as the power to whose influence among the wheat; or rather, the foul and rank soil they owed their elevation. In other respects, James. upon which the seed was thrown, pushed forth, to- spared the prejudices of his subjects; no ceremonial gether with the rising crop, a plentiful proportion of ritual was imposed upon their consciences; the leadpestilential weeds. The morals of the reformed ing pastors were reconciled by the prospect of preferclergy were severe; their learning was usually re- ment;** the dress and train of the bishops were spectable, sometimes profound; and their eloquence, plain and decent; the system of tithes was placed though often coarse, was vehement, animated, and upon a moderate and unoppressive footing; and, popular. But they never could forget, that their rise perhaps, on the whole, the Scottish hierarchy conhad been achieved by the degradation, if not the fall tained as few objectionable points as any system of of the crown and hence, a body of men, who, in church government in Europe. Had it subsisted to most countries, have been attached to monarchy, the present day, although its doctrines could not were in Scotland, for nearly two centuries, sometimes have been more pure, nor its morals more exemthe avowed enemies, always the ambitious rivals of plary, than those of the present Kirk of Scotland, their prince. The disciples of Calvin could scarce- yet its degrees of promotion might have afforded ly avoid a tendency to democracy, and the republi- greater encouragement to learning, and objects of can form of church government was sometimes laudable ambition to those who might dedicate hinted at, as no unfit model for the state; at least, themselves to its service. But the precipitate bithe kirkmen laboured to impress upon their follow-gotry of the unfortunate Charles I. was a blow to ers and hearers the fundamental principle, that the church should be solely governed by those, unto *The Biddes burn, where the skirmish took place betwixt the Johnstones and their pursuers, is a rivulet which takes its course among the mountains on the confines of Nithesdale and Annandule. + Law-A conical hill. Thole-Endure. Episcopacy in Scotland, from which it never perfectly recovered. fountain whence all these Babylonish streams issue unto us."-See their manifesto on entering England, in 1640. ** Many of the preachers, who had been loudest in the cause of presbytery, were induced to accept of bishoprics. Such was, for example, William Cooper, who was created Bishop of Galloway. lower extremities to be composed of glass; hence, on his court advancement, the following epigram was composed: 5 Ricklaw-holm is a place upon the Evan water, which falls This recreant Mass John was a hypochondriac, and conceived his into the Annan, below Mollat. Wamphray-gate was in those days an alehouse. Of this the Covenanters were so sensible, as to trace (what they called) the Antichristian hierarchy, with its idolatry, superetition, and human inventions," to the prelacy of England, the Aureus, heu! fragilem confregit malleus urram.” * This part of the system was perfected in the reign of Charles L. It has frequently happened, that the virtues of the individual, at least their excesses, (if, indeed, there can be an excess in virtue,) have been fatal to the prince. Never was this more fully exemplified than in the history of Charles I. His zeal for religion, his family affection, the spirit with which he defended his supposed rights, while they do honour to the man, were the fatal shelves upon which the monarchy was wrecked. Impatient to accomplish the total revolution, which his father's cautious timidity had left incomplete, Charles endeavoured at once to introduce into Scotland the church government, and to renew, in England, the temporal domination, of his predecessor, Henry VIII. The furious temper of the Scottish nation first took fire; and the brandished footstool of a prostitute gave the signal for civil dissension, which ceased not till the church was buried under the ruins of the constitution; till the nation had stooped to a military despotism; and the monarch to the block of the exe rationer. 1640. The consequence of Charles's hasty and arbitrary measures was soon evident. The united nobility, gentry, and clergy of Scotland, entered into the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, by which memorable deed, they subscribed and swore a national renunciation of the hierarchy. The walls of the prelatic Jericho (to use the language of the times) were thus levelled with the ground, and the curse of Hiel, the Bethelite, denounced against those who should rebuild them. While the clergy thuncered, from the pulpits, against the prelatists and malignants, (by which names were distinguished the scattered and heartless adherents of Charles,) the nobility and gentry, in arms, hurried to oppose the march of the English army, which now advanced towards their Borders. At the head of their defensive forces they placed Alexander Lesly, who, with many of his best officers, had been trained to war under the great Gustavus Adolphus. They soon assembled an army of 26,000 men, whose camp, upon Dunse-Law, is thus described by an eyewitness. Mr. Baillie acknowledges, that "it was an agreeable feast to his eyes to survey the place; it is a round hill, about a Scots mile in circle, rising, with very little declivity, to the height of a bow-shot, and the head somewhat plain, and near a quarter of a mile in length and breadth; on the top it was garnished with near forty field-pieces, pointed towards the east and south. The colonels, who were mostly noblemen, as Rothes, Cassilis, Eglington, Dalhousie, Lindsay, Lowdon, Boyd, Sinclair, Balcarras, Flemyng, Kirkcudbright, Erskine, Montgomery, Yester, &c., lay in large tents at the head of their respective regiments; their captains, who generally were barons, or chief gentlemen, lay around them: next to these were the lieutenants, who were generally old veterans, and had served in that, or a higher station, over sea; and the common soldiers lay outmost, all in huts of timber, covered with divot, or straw. Every company, which, according to the first plan, did consist of two hundred men, had their colours flying at the captain's tent door, with the Scots arms upon them, and this motto, in golden letters, FOR CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.' Against this army, so well arrayed and disciplined, and whose natural hardihood was edged and exalted by a high opinion of their sacred cause, Charles marched at the head of a large force, but divided by the emulation of the commanders, and enervated by cisuse of arms. A faintness of spirit pervaded the royal army, and the King stooped to a treaty with his Scottish subjects. This treaty was soon broken; and, in the following year, Dunse-law, again presented the same edifying spectacle of a Presbyterian army. But the Scots were not contented with remaining there. They passed the Tweed; and the "Out, false loon! wilt thou say the mass at my lug (ear]?" was the well-known exclamation of Margaret Geddes, as she discharged her missile tripod against the Bishop of Edinburgh, who, in obedience to the orders of the privy council, was endeavouring to rehearse the common prayer. Upon a seat more elevated, the said Margaret had shortly before done penance before the congregation, for the sin of fornication; such, at least, is the Tory edition. English troops, in a skirmish at Newcastle, showed either more disaffection, or cowardice, than had at any former period disgraced their national character. This war was concluded by the treaty of Rippon; in consequence of which, and of Charles's concessions, made during his subsequent visit to his native country, the Scottish parliament congratulated him on departing "a contented king from a contented people.". If such content ever existed, it was of short duration. The storm, which had been soothed to temporary rest in Scotland, burst forth in England with treble violence. The popular clamour accused Charles, or his ministers, of fetching into Britain the religion of Rome, and the policy of Constantinople. The Scots felt most keenly the first, and the English the second, of these aggressions. Accordingly, when the civil war of England broke forth, the Scots nation, for a time, regarded it in neutrality, though not with indifference. But, when the success of a Prelatic monarch, against a Presbyterian parliament, was paving the way for rebuilding the system of hierarchy, they could no longer remain inactive. Bribed by the delusive promise of Sir Henry Vane, and Marshall, the parliamentary commissioners, that the Church of England should be "reformed, according to the word of God," which, they fondly believed, amounted to an adoption of presbytery, they agreed to send succours to their brethren of England. Alexander Lesly, who ought to have ranked among the contented subjects, having been raised by the King to the honours of Earl of Leven, was, nevertheless, readily induced to accept the cominand of this second army. Doubtless, where insurrection is not only pardoned, but rewarded, a monarch has little right to expect gratitude for benefits, which all the world, as well as the receiver, must attribute to fear. Yet something is due to decency; and the best apology for Lesly, is his zeal for propagating Presbyterianism in England, the bait which had caught the whole parliament of Scotland. But, although the Earl of Leven was commander-in-chief, David Lesly, a yet more renowned and active soldier than himself, was majorgeneral of the cavalry, and, in truth, bore away the laurels of the expedition. The words of the following march, which was played in the van of this Presbyterian crusade, were first published by Allan Ramsay in his Evergreen; and they breathe the very spirit we might expect. Mr. Ritson, in his collection of Scottish songs, has favoured the public with the music-which seems to have been adapted to the bagpipes. The hatred of the old Presbyterians to the organ was apparently invincible. It is here vilified with the name of a "chest-full of whistles," as the Episcopal Chapel at Glasgow was, by the vulgar, opprobriously termed the Whistling Kirk. Yet, such is the revolution of sentiment upon this, as upon more important points, that reports have lately been current, of a plan to introduce this noble instrument into presbyterian congregations.† The share which Lesly's army bore in the action of Marston Moor, has been exalted, or depressed, as writers were attached to the English or Scottish nations, to the Presbyterian or Independent factions. Mr. Laing concludes with laudable impartiality, that the victory was equally due to Cromwell's. iron brigade of disciplined Independents, and to three regiments of Lesly's horse."-Vol. i. p. 244. LESLY'S MARCH. MARCH! march! Why the devil do ye na march? Stand to your arms, my lads, Fight in good order; ་་ Front about, ye musketeers all, [An attempt to introduce the organ into one of the churches of Glasgow was made since the above was written-and, as might have been expected, from the choice of the West of Scotland for such an experiment, wholly failed. The Presbytery forthwith silenced the instrument.-ED.] |