The Commonwealth. page 4

The parliament, seeing the necessity of having their best general for the impending Scotch war, sent towards the end of April the President Bradshaw frigate, to bring over Cromwell from Ireland, and to leave Ireton, lord Broghill, and the other generals to finish the war by the reduction of Clonmel, Waterford, Limerick, and a few lesser places. But Cromwell would not go till he had witnessed the fall of Clonmel. There Hugh O'Neil, the son of old Owen Roe O'Neil of Ulster, defended the place gallantly with twelve hundred men. The siege lasted from the 28th of March to the 8th of May. Whitelock says, "They found in Clonmel the stoutest enemy this army had met in Ireland, and there never was seen so hot a storm, of so long a continuance, and so gallantly defended, either in Ireland or England." The English troops had made a breach, and endeavoured to carry the town by storm in vain. On the 9th they stormed the breach a second time. "The fierce death-wrestle," says a letter from one of the besiegers, "lasted four hours," and Cromwell's men were driven back with great loss. But the ammunition of the besieged was exhausted, and they stole away in the night. The inhabitants, before this was discovered, sent out and made terms of surrender. On discovering the retreat of the enemy, pursuit was made, and two hundred men killed on the road. Oliver, however, kept his agreement with the inhabitants.

Cromwell had spent about ten months in Ireland, and certainly had reduced the natives to a more general subjection than any general before him in the same time, and had, according to Carlyle, "left a very handsome spell of work done there." If a blood-thirstiness almost unparalleled be "handsome work," history has indeed some very handsome scenes to show; but we are persuaded that Cromwell, had he mingled with his usual prompt action and impressive severity a humane liberality, would have done his work still more rapidly and effectually, and far more like a Christian commander. Ireton, who remained, died in Ireland, November 26th, 1651. This bloody campaign has always been remembered in that country as "The Curse of Cromwell."

The siege of Clonmel finished, Cromwell set sail in the President frigate, and landed at Bristol towards the end of May, where he was received with firing of guns and great acclamations for his exploits in Ireland. On the 31st of the month he approached Hounslow Heath, where he was met by the lord-general Fairfax^ and numbers of other officers and members of parliament, besides crowds of other people. They conducted him to London, and on reaching Hyde Park corner, he was received by the discharge of artillery from colonel Barkstead's regiment, there drawn up; and thus, with increasing crowds and acclamations, he was attended to the Cockpit near St. James's, a house which had been assigned to him, and where his family had been residing for some time. There the lord mayor and aldermen waited on him, to thank him for his services in Ireland. Thence, after some time of rest and refreshment, he appeared in his place in parliament, where he also received the thanks of the house. Some one remarking what crowds went out to see his triumph, Cromwell replied, "But if they had gone to see me hanged, how many more there would have been!"

Charles II., though invited to assume the crown of Scotland, was invited on such terms as would have afforded little hope to a man of much foresight. Those who were to support him were divided into two factions, which could no more mix than fire and water. The covenanters, and the royalists under Montrose, hated each other with a deadly and inextinguishable hatred. So far from mixing, they were sure to come to strife and bloodshed amongst themselves. If the covenanters got the upper hand, as they were pretty certain, he must abandon his most devoted followers, the old royalists and engagers, and take the covenant himself, thus laying down every party and principle that his father had fought for. He must take upon him a harsh and gloomy yoke, which must keep him not only apart from his royalist and episcopalian followers, but from his far more valuable kingdom of England, where the independents and sectaries reigned, and which the Scotch covenanters could not hope to conquer. But Charles was but a poor outcast and wanderer in a world, the princes of which were tired of both him and his cause, and he was, therefore, compelled to make an effort, however hopeless, to recover his dominions by such means as offered. He therefore sent off Montrose to raise troops and material amongst the northern courts, and then to pass over and raise the Highlands, whilst he went to treat with the covenanters at Breda.

Montrose was strongly suspected of having headed the party who assassinated Dorislaus, a very bad beginning, assassination being the fitting business of thieves, and not of heroes. The fame of Montrose, nevertheless, gave him a good reception in Denmark and other courts, and he is said to have raised an army of twelve thousand men, and embarked these, and much ammunition and artillery, at Gottenburg, under lord Kinnoul, in the autumn. The equinoctial gales appeared to have scattered this force in all directions, dashing several of the ships on the rocks, so that Kinnoul landed in October at Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, with only eighty officers, and about one hundred common men. Montrose followed with five hundred more, and having received the order of the garter from Charles as a token of his favour, he once more raised his banner in the Highlands, bearing on it a painting of the late king decapitated, and the words, 44 Judge and avenge my cause, O Lord!" But the Highlanders had been taught caution by the repeated failures of the royalists, and the chastisements they had received from the stern covenanters; they stood aloof, and in vain did Montrose march through Caithness and Sutherland, calling on the Gaels to rise and defend the king before the covenanters could sell him to the English, as they had done his father. This was a fatal proclamation, for whilst it failed to raise the Highlands, it added to the already deep detestation of him in the Lowlands, where his proclamation was burnt by the common hangman.

The covenanters did not merely burn his proclamation, they despatched a force of four thousand men against him. Colonel Strachan came almost upon him in Corbiesdale, in Rosshire, and calling his men around him under the shelter of the high moorland broom, he informed them that God had given "the rebel and apostate Montrose, and the viperous brood of Satan, the accursed of God and the kirk," into their hands. He gave out a psalm, which they sung, and then he dispersed them in successive companies, the whole not amounting to more than four hundred men, the main army being with David Leslie at Brechin. As soon as Strachan's handful of men came in sight of Montrose's levies, they were attacked by his cavalry, but scarcely were they engaged, when a second, and then a third detachment appeared. On perceiving this, Montrose believed the whole army of Leslie was marching up, and he ordered his infantry to fall back and screen themselves amongst the brushwood. But first his horse, and then the whole of his force was thrown into confusion. His standard-bearer and several of his officers were slain. The foreign mercenaries demanded quarter and received it, the rest made their escape as well as they could. Montrose had his horse killed under him, and though he got another horse, and swam across a rapid river, he was compelled to fly in such haste, that he left behind him the star and garter with which he had been so newly invested, his sword, and his cloak. He once more made for the mountains of Sutherland with Kinnoul, disguised as peasants. Kinnoul soon sank with fatigue, and was left behind and perished. Montrose at length reached the house of Macleod of Assynt, who had formerly served under him; but this base man sold him to i the covenanters for four hundred bolls of meal. This treason was soon avenged by the neighbouring Highlanders, who ravaged the lands of Assynt; but the Scottish parliament recompensed the traitor with twenty thousand pounds Scots, to be raised on the royalties of Caithness and Orkney. These islands, as well as the Isles of Man, Scilly, Jersey, the colony of Virginia, and the islands of the Caribbean Sea, long held out for the royal cause.

Montrose was conveyed down to Edinburgh, where he arrived on the 18th of May; and having been carried through the city in an open cart, bare-headed, and exposed to the insults and execrations of the mob, he was condemned as a traitor, hanged on the 21st of May on a gibbet thirty feet high, and his head was fixed on a spike in the capital, and his limbs sent for exposure in different cities. Such was the ignominious end of the gallant but sanguinary Montrose. But if the conduct of his enemies was ungenerous, what was that of his king? No sooner did Charles hear of his defeat, than fearing that his rising might injure him with the covenanters, he sent to the parliament, protesting that he had never authorised him to draw the sword; nay, that he had done it contrary to the royal commands: so early did this worthless man display the meanness of his character, and put in practice the wretched maxims of the Stuart doctrine of kingcraft.

Charles had now complied with the demands of the Scottish parliament, agreeing to take the covenant, never to tolerate the catholic religion in any part of his dominions, not even in Ireland, where the catholics were a majority; to govern entirely by the authority of parliament, and in religious matters by that of the kirk. Thus did this man, for the sake of regaining the throne of one of his kingdoms, bind himself to destroy the religion of which he was at heart a believer, and to maintain a creed that he abhorred and despised. He landed in June in the Frith of Cromartie, and a court was established for him at Falkland, and nine thousand pounds sterling was allowed for its expenditure monthly.

But the pious Scots were speedily scandalised at the debauched habits of their royal puppet. He had delayed the expedition for some weeks, because he could not tear himself from his mistress, Mrs. Barlow, and now he came surrounded by a very dissipated crew - Buckingham, Wilmot, and others, whom nothing could induce him to part with, though many others were forbid the court.

Whilst these things were taking place in Scotland, in London as active measures were on foot for putting to flight this covenanting king. On the 14th of June the commons again appointed Fairfax commander-in-chief, and Cromwell lieutenant-general. Fairfax, so far from favouring the invasion of Scotland, strongly argued against it, as a breach of the solemn league and covenant. Fairfax's wife is said to have been resolute against his taking up arms any further against the king. She had sufficiently shown her spirit, that of a Vere, of the martial house of Vere, on the king's trial; and now Fairfax, not only thus strongly influenced by his wife, but belonging to the presbyterian party, resigned his command, and retired to his estates in Yorkshire. It was in vain that a deputation, consisting of Cromwell, Lambert, Harrison, Whitelock, and St. John, waited on him at Whitehall, opening their meeting with prayer, Fairfax stood firm, and on the 26th, two days after, the parliament appointed Cromwell commander-in-chief, in place of Fairfax.

Much abuse has been heaped on Cromwell, as acting in all this with hypocrisy, appearing to press Fairfax to go to Scotland, and yet wishing it himself. It would be well if Oliver had no greater sins to answer for. We believe that he had much rather have been prosecuting the complete settlement of Ireland, which country he had evidently quitted with reluctance. But once appointed, he went to work with his accustomed activity. On the 29th, only three days afterwards, he set out from London for the north. He had Lambert as major-general, Whalley as commissary-general, Pride, Overton, Monk, and Hodgson, as colonels of regiments. The Scottish parliament had appointed the old earl of Leven generalissimo, but only nominally so out of honour, for he was now old and infirm. David Leslie was the real commander. The Scottish army was ordered to amount to sixty thousand men, and it was to lay waste all the country betwixt Berwick and Edinburgh, to prevent the English obtaining any supplies. To frighten the country people away from the English army, it was rumoured that every male betwixt sixteen and sixty would have their right hands cut off, and the women's breasts be bored through with red-hot irons.

Cromwell passed the Tweed at Berwick on the 22nd of July, with a force of sixteen thousand men. They found the country desolated and deserted, except by a number of women, who on their knees implored mercy, and were set by the officers to bake and brew for the soldiers. That night the beacon fires of Scotland were lighted, and the English army encamped at Mordington, where they lay three days, and then marched to Dunbar, and thence to Musselburgh. They found the Scotch army under Leslie posted betwixt Edinburgh and Leith, and well defended by batteries and intrenchments. Nothing could induce the wary Scotch commander to quit his vantage ground, and the country afforded no supplies to the English army; but their fleet followed them along the coast, and furnished them with provisions.

For a month Cromwell found it impossible to draw the Scottish general out of his strong position. He sometimes marched up close to his lines to tempt him to come to action, but it was in vain, and he did not think it prudent to attack him in his formidable position, which must have cost him an awful number of men even if he carried it.

The weather being very wet he fell back upon Musselburgh, the enemy then making a sally, and harassing his rear, and wounding General Lambert. Cromwell and the Scottish assembly, as well as Cromwell and general Leslie, who lay in the ground now occupied by the New Town of Edinburgh, have a voluminous correspondence, in which they quote much Scripture, and each declares himself the favoured or justified of heaven. 'The Scots reproached Cromwell and his party with breaking the league and covenant, and Cromwell retorted on them, that though they pretended to covenant and fight against malignants, they had entered into agreement with the head and centre of the malignants himself, which he said he could not understand. Cromwell, leaving a force to invest Dunbar, which was said to suffer extreme famine, being cooped by the English both on land and sea, about the 13th of August shifted his camp to the Pentland Hills to the west of Edinburgh, in order to cut off Leslie's supplies.