Reign on James II page 3

Monmouth having consented to take the lead in an invasion, though with much reluctance and many misgivings, a communication was opened with Argyll and the Scottish malcontents. We have seen that Argyll, after his father had been inveigled from his mountains and beheaded, had himself nearly suffered the same fate from James when in Scotland. He had been imprisoned and condemned to death on the most arbitrary grounds, and had only managed to escape in disguise. He had purchased an estate at Leeuwarden, in Friesland, where the great MacCullum More, as he was called by the Highlanders, lived in great seclusion. He was now drawn from it once more to revisit his native country at the head of an invading force. But the views of the refugees were so different, and their means so small, that it was some time before they could agree upon a common plan of action. It was at length arranged that a descent should be made simultaneously on Scotland and England - the Scotch expedition headed by Argyll, that on England by Monmouth. But to maintain a correspondence and a sort of unison, two Englishmen, Ayloffe and Rumbold the maltster, were to accompany the Scots, and two Scotchmen, Fletcher of Saltoun and Ferguson, the English force. Monmouth was sworn not to claim any rank or reward on the success of the enterprise, except such as should be awarded him by a free parliament; and Argyll was compelled, although he had the nominal command of the army, to submit to hold it only as one of a committee of twelve, of whom Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth was to be president.

In fact, Argyll at the outset displayed a fatal want of knowledge of human nature or firmness of resolution, in consenting to accept a command on so impossible a basis. To expect success as a military leader when hampered with the conflicting views of a dozen men of ultra views in religion and politics, and of strong and domineering wills, was the height of folly. Hume, who took the lead in the committee, was a man of enormous conceit, a great talker, and a very dilatory actor. Next to him, was Sir John Cochrane, the second son of lord Dundonald, who was almost equally self- willed and jealous of the power of Argyll. With their republican notions, they endeavoured to impose such restrictions on the power of the earl, as were certain to insure the ruin of the attempt, in which everything must depend on the independent action of a single mind.

We have already Noticed the character of Ferguson, one of the twain selected to accompany Monmouth. Fletcher of Saltoun, the other, was a far different man - a man of high talent, fine taste, and finished education. At the head of a popular senate he would have shone as an orator and statesman; but he had those qualities of lofty pride and headstrong will which made him by no means a desirable officer in an army of adventurers, although his military skill was undoubted. What was worse, from the very first he foreboded no good result from the expedition, and only accompanied it because he would not seem to desert his more sanguine countrymen; but when Wildman and Danvers sent from London very flaming accounts of the ripeness of England for revolt, and said that just two hundred years before the earl of Richmond landed in England with ä mere handful of men, and wrested the crown from Richard, Fletcher coolly replied that there was all the difference betwixt the fifteenth century and the seventeenth.

These men, Wildman and Danvers, represented the country as so prepared to receive Monmouth, that he had only to show his standard for whole counties to flock to it. They promised also six thousand pounds in aid of the preparations. But the fact was, that little or no money came, and James and his ministers were duly informed of the measures of the insurgents, and were at once using every means with the Dutch government to prevent the sailing of the armaments, and taking measures for the defence of the Scotch and English coasts. We may first follow the fortunes of Argyll and his associates, who sailed first. He put out from the coast of Holland on the 2nd of May, and after a prosperous voyage, sighted Kirkwall, in Orkney, on the 6th. There he very unwisely anchored, and suffered his two followers to go on shore to collect intelligence. The object of his armament then became known, and was sure to reach the English government in a little time. The bishop of Orkney boldly ordered the two insurgents to be secured, and refused to give them up. After three days lost in endeavouring to obtain their release, they seized some gentlemen living on the coast, and offered them in exchange- The bißhop paid no regard to their proposal or their menaces, and they were compelled to pursue their voyage.

The consequence of this ill -advised measure was, that news of the armament was sent to Edinburgh with all speed, and whilst the invading force was beating round the northern capes and headlands, active preparations were made for defence. The whole of the militia, amounting to twenty thousand men, were called out, a third of these, accompanied by three thousand regulars, were marched into the western counties. At Dunstaffnage, Argyll sent his son Charles ashore to summon the Campbells to arms, but he returned with the report that many of the chiefs had fled or were in prison, and the rest afraid to move. At Campbell- town, in Kintire, Argyll published a proclamation, setting forth that he came to suppress popery, prelacy, and Erastianism, and to take the crown from James, whom he accused of persecution of the covenanters, and the poisoning of his brother. He sent across the hills the fiery cross to summon all true men to his standard, and appointed Tarbet as the place of rendezvous. About eighteen hundred men mustered at the call, but any advantage to be derived from this handful of men, was far more than counterbalanced by the pertinacious interference of Cochrane and Hume. They insisted on arranging everything, even the appointment of the officers over Argyll's own clan. They insisted also that the attack should be directed against the Lowlands, though Argyll wisely saw that they had no chance whatever in the open country with their present force. He contended that having first cleared the western Highlands of the national soldiery, they should soon have five or six thousand Highlanders at their command, and might then descend on the Lowlands with effect. Rumbold advocated this prudential course, but all reasoning was lost on Hume and Cochrane, who insolently accused Argyll of wanting only to secure his own territories, and sailed away with part of the troops to the Lowlands. They found the coast, however, well guarded by the English ships, and escaped up the Clyde to Greenock. There they again quarrelled between themselves, and finding the people not at all disposed to join them, they returned to Argyll. But they had learned no wisdom: the earl again proposed to endeavour to secure Inverary - they as firmly opposed it. They therefore fixed on the castle of Ealan Ghierig as their present headquarters, landed their arms and stores, and made an officer named Elphmstone commander of the fort. Argyll and Rumbold now drove back the troops of Athol and prepared to march on Inverary; but from this they were diverted by a call from Hume and Cochrane at the ships, who were about to be attacked by the English fleet. Argyll hastened to them, and proposed to give fight to the English, but was again prevented by these infatuated men. The earl, therefore, in utter despair, passed into Dumbartonshire, and was the very next day followed by the news of the capture of all his ships, and the flight of Elphinstone from Ealan Ghierig, without striking a blow. As a last desperate attempt, Argyll proposed to make a rush on Glasgow and secure a strong footing there; but the very men who had so strongly urged the attempt on the Lowlands, now deserted him in numbers, and on the march nothing but disasters from the insubordination of the little army ensued. They were attacked on all sides by the militia, and when the earl and Ayloffe advised a bold attack on the enemy, Hume and his partisans protested against it. The end of all was, that becoming involved amongst morasses, the army was seized with panic,, and rapidly melted away. The wrong-headed Hume escaped and reached the continent; Cochrane was taken, and soon after Rumbold, major Fullerton, and Argyll himself.

The conduct of Argyll after his capture was distinguished by a calm dignity which showed how superior he was to the factious, pugnacious men who had baffled all his plans. With his arms pinioned behind him, he was led bareheaded through the streets of Edinburgh, from Holyrood to the castle. The royalists thus revelled in revenging on the son the act of his father thirty-five years before, when he caused Montrose to be conducted over the very same ground. The headsman marched before him with his axe, and on reaching his cell in the castle he was put into irons, and informed that his execution would quickly follow. This was the 20th of June; his execution did not take place till the 30th. During the ten days the orders of James were that he should be tried all ways to compel him to confess the full particulars of the invasion, its originators, supporters, and participators. It was understood that James meant that his favourite application of the boots and thumbscrews should be used, but this was not attempted. He was menaced, but his firm refusal to reveal anything that would criminate others, probably convinced his enemies that it was useless, and could only cover them with odium. His former sentence of death was deemed sufficient to supersede any fresh trial, and being brought out to the scaffold, and saying that he died in peace with all men, one of the episcopalian clergymen stepped to the edge of the scaffold and exclaimed to the people, "My lord dies a Protestant." "Yes," said the earl, also going forward, "a Protestant, and cordial hater of popery, prelacy, and all superstition." His head was fixed on the top of the Tolbooth, where that of Montrose had formerly stood.

Rumbold, who was severely wounded, was hurried to execution, lest he should by death escape from his punishment. He displayed the same undaunted courage as in the field, protested solemnly against having ever intended to assassinate the king and duke. He declared himself an advocate for a limited monarchy, but did not believe that "Providence had sent a few men, ready booted and spurred, into the world to ride millions ready bridled and saddled to be ridden by them." If he had as many lives, he said, as he had hairs on his head, he would give them for the cause he had engaged in. Argyll, in his last hours, bore the highest testimony to the worth, sound sense, and courage of Rumbold. As for Ayloffe, he was sent up to London, and examined in the presence of James, who bade him confess freely all that he knew, saying, "You had better be frank with me, Mr. Ayloffe: you know that it is in my power to pardon you." Ayloffe was the nephew, by marriage, of Clarendon, and therefore cousin to the present lords Clarendon and Rochester, and some thought he might be pardoned; but Ayloffe knew the king's disposition too well, and bluntly replied, "Yes, it is in your power, but not in your nature." Cochrane condescended to make disclosures, and obtained his pardon.

This invasion being crushed, the vengeance of the government was let loose upon the*unfortunate clan Campbell. The marquis of Athol, the hereditary enemy of Argyll, was only restrained by the privy council, powerful intercession being made, from hanging Charles Campbell, the earl's son, whilst suffering from a raging fever, at the door of his father's castle of Inverary. He did hang numbers of the Campbells, and laid waste the country for thirty miles round, cutting down the fruit trees, treading down the green corn, burning the houses, and destroying the boats and fishing nets of the people, their chief means of livelihood. More than three hundred wretched Highlanders were handed over to Scott of Pitlochy and other planters as slaves in New Jersey and the West Indies. Thirty-five prisoners had each an ear cut off by the hangman in one day, and numbers of women were burnt on the cheek or the shoulder, for refusing to admit James to be the rightful king, and were shipped across the Atlantic.

On the 30th of May, nearly a month after the sailing of Argyll, Monmouth left the Texel. His squadron consisted of a frigate of thirty-two guns, called the Helderenbergh, and three small tenders, a fourth tender having been declined by the Dutch. He was attended by about eighty officers, and a hundred and fifty men of different degrees, fugitives from England and Scotland. With such a force he proposed to conquer the crown of England. All the fine promises of money by Wildman and Danvers had ended in smoke, and he had only been able, chiefly through the revenues of lady Henrietta Wentworth, to supply himself with arms and stores for a small body of cavalry and infantry. The voyage was long and tedious, the weather was stormy, and the channel abounded with the royal cruisers. On the morning of the 11th of June his little fleet appeared off the port of Lyme, in Dorsetshire. It was a beautiful day, and the little town lay in a profound summer repose, the inhabitants watching in wonder the approach of the four foreign-looking vessels, and little dreaming what freight of calamity they were bringing them. The custom house officers went on board, and to the alarm of the people did not return; but after a time a number of boats were seen putting off from the ships, and a little band of men in military costume landed from them. They were Monmouth, the lord Grey, Fletcher of Saltoun, Ferguson, Wade, and Buyse, an officer who had served in the army of the elector of Brandenburg. Monmouth, on setting his foot on shore, kneeled down and returned thanks to God for having brought them through the perils of the sea, and prayed for His blessing on their enterprise. He then led his little knot of followers into the town, where he set up his standard in the market-place, and issued a proclamation which had been drawn up by Ferguson in his most fiery and acrimonious terms.

In this proclamation James was declared to be a tyrant and usurper, the whole bent of whose life had been and was to destroy the constitution and the protestant religion. He was declared to have barbarously poisoned the late king, who had perilled his very crown in his defence, and therefore Monmouth, as the son of the murdered king, vowed to pursue the fratricide to the death. On James was still further heaped the burning of London, the origin of the popish plot, the confederacy with France against the protestant states of Holland, the murder of Sir Edmondbury, Godfrey, of lord Essex in the Tower, and the subornation of witnesses to swear away the lives of the patriots. In fact, almost every crime which had or had not been committed during the late reign was charged to the account of this monster prince. Monmouth, on his part, did not pretend to lay claim to the crown, but to leave that to the decision of a free parliament; but he engaged that all penal laws on account of religion should be abolished; the violated charters should be restored; parliaments should be held annually, and no longer be dissolvable at the will of a tyrannic prince. The only army should be the militia, which should be commanded by the sheriffs, who, in their turn, should be elected by the freeholders of the county. In short, the whole constitution should be so established in its freedom, that it should never more be in the power of a single man to subvert the rights of the people.