came over from Ireland to recover Kentire, the best country of all the Highlands, out of which they had been driven by the Argile family, who had possessed their country about fifty years. The head of these

was the earl of Antrim, who had married the duke of Buckingham's widow and being a papist, and having a great command in Ulster, was much relied on by the queen. He was the main person in the first rebellion, and was the most engaged in bloodshed of any in the north: yet he continued to correspond with the queen to the great prejudice of the king's affairs. When the marquis of Montrose heard they were in Argileshire, he went to them, and told them, if they would let him lead them, he would carry them into the heart of the kingdom, and procure them better quarters and good pay: so he led them into Perthshire. The Scots had at that time an army in England, and another in Ireland: yet they did not think it necessary to call home any part of either; but despising the Irish, and the Highlanders, they raised a tumultuary army, and put it under the command of some lords noted for want of courage, and of others who wished well to the other side. The marquis of Montrose's men were desperate, and met with little resistance: so that small body of the covenanters army was routed. And here the marquis of Montrose got horses and ammunition, having but three horses before, and powder only for one charge. Then he became considerable and he marched through the northern parts by Aberdeen. The marquis of Huntly was in the king's interests; but would not join with him, 38 though his sons did. Astrology ruined him: he be

lieved the stars, and they deceived him he said

often, that neither the king, nor the Hamiltons, nor Montrose would prosper: he believed he should outlive them all, and escape at last; as it happened in conclusion, as to outliving the others. He was naturally a gallant man: but the stars had so subdued him, that he made a poor figure during the whole course of the wars.

vices given

The marquis of Montrose's success was very mis- Good adchievous, and proved the ruin of the king's affairs: to the king. on which I should not have depended entirely, if I had had this only from the earl of Lauderdale, who was indeed my first author: but it was fully confirmed to me by the lord Hollis, who had gone in with great heat into the beginnings of the war: but he soon saw the ill consequences it already had, and the worse that were like to grow with the progress of it: he had in the beginning of the year fortythree, when he was sent to Oxford with the propositions, taken great pains on all about the king to convince them of the necessity of their yielding in time; since the longer they stood out, the conditions would be harder: and when he was sent by the parliament, in the end of the year forty-four, with other propositions, he and Whitlock entered into secret conferences with the king, of which some account is given by Whitlock in his memoirs. They, with other commissioners that were sent to Oxford, possessed the king, and all that were in great credit with him, with this, that it was absolutely necessary the king should put an end to the war by a treaty : a new party of hot men was springing up, that were plainly for changing the government: they were growing much in the army, but were yet far from carrying any thing in the house: they had gained

But not followed.

much strength this summer: and they might make a great progress by the accidents that another year might produce: they confessed there were many things hard to be digested, that must be done in order to a peace: they asked things that were unreasonable but they were forced to consent to those demands: otherwise they would have lost their credit with the city and the people, who could not be satisfied without a very entire security, and a full satisfaction: but the extremity to which matters might be carried otherwise made it necessary to come to a peace on any terms whatsoever; since no terms could be so bad as the continuance of the war the king must trust them, though they were not at that time disposed to trust him so much as it were to be wished: they said farther, that if a peace should follow, it would be a much easier thing to get any hard laws now moved for to be repealed, 39 than it was now to hinder their being insisted on. With these things Hollis told me that the king and many of his counsellors, who saw how his affairs declined, and with what difficulty they could hope to continue the war another year, were satisfied. The king more particularly began to feel the insolence of the military men, and of those who were daily reproaching him with their services; so that they were become as uneasy to him as those of Westminster had been formerly. But some came in the interval from lord Montrose with such an account of what he had done, of the strength he had, and of his hopes next summer, that the king was by that prevailed on to believe his affairs would mend, and that he might afterwards treat on better terms. This unhappily wrought so far, that the limitations

he put on those he sent to treat at Uxbridge made the whole design miscarry. That raised the spirits of those that were already but too much exasperated. The marquis of Montrose made a great progress the next year: but he laid no lasting foundation, for he did not make himself master of the strong places or passes of the kingdom. After his last and greatest victory at Kilsyth, he was lifted up out of measure. The Macdonalds were every where fierce masters and ravenous plunderers: and the other Highlanders, who did not such military executions, yet were good at robbing: and when they had got as much as they could carry home on their backs, they deserted. The Macdonalds also left him to go and execute their revenge on the Argiles country. The marquis of Montrose thought he was now master, but had no scheme how to fix his conquests: he wasted the estates of his enemies, chiefly the Hamiltons; and went towards the borders of England, though he had but a small force left about him but he thought his name carried terror with it. So he writ to the king, that he had gone over the land from Dan to Beersheba: he prayed the king to come down in these words, Come thou, and take the city, lest I take it, and it be called by my name. This letter was writ, but never sent; for he was routed, and his papers taken, before he had despatched the courier. [In his defeat, he took too much care of himself; for he was never willing to expose himself too much.] When his papers were taken, many letters of the king, and of others at

j Which might have been an inducement for the bishop to give so malicious an account

of the marquis of Montrose's transactions. D.

Oxford, were found, as the earl of Crawford, one appointed to read them, told me; which increased the disgusts but these were not published. Upon this occasion [the marquis of Argile and the preachers shewed a very bloody temper;] many prisoners that had quarters given them were murdered in cold blood and as they sent them to some towns that had been ill used by lord Montrose's army, the people in revenge fell on them, and knocked them on the head. Several persons of quality were con40 demned for being with them: and they were proceeded against both with severity and with indignities. The preachers thundered in their pulpits against all that did the work of the Lord deceitfully; and cried out against all that were for moderate proceedings, as guilty of the blood that had been shed. Thine eye shall not pity, and thou shalt not spare, were often inculcated after every execution: they triumphed with so little decency, that it gave all people very ill impressions of them. But this was not the worst effect of Lord Montrose's expedition. It lost the opportunity at Uxbridge: it alienated the Scots much from the king: it exalted all that were enemies to peace. Now they seemed to have some colour for all those aspersions they had cast on the king, as if he had been in a correspondence with the Irish rebels, when the worst tribe of them had been thus employed by him. His affairs declined totally in England that summer and lord Hollis said to me, all was owing to lord Montrose's unhappy successes.

Antrim's correspond

Upon this occasion I will relate somewhat conence with cerning the earl of Antrim. I had in my hand

the king

and queen.

k Lord Clarendon differs from all this. S.