Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters

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Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters Page 91

by John Galt


  CHAPTER XC

  The true and faithful of the West, by the event recorded in theforegoing chapter, being so instructed with respect to their own powerand numbers, stood in no reverence of any force that the remnants of theTyrant's sect and faction could afford to send against them. I thereforeresolved to return to Edinburgh; for the longing of my grandfather'sspirit to see the current and course of public events flowing from theirfountain-head, was upon me, and I had not yet so satisfied the yearningsof justice as to be able to look again on the ashes of my house and thetomb of Sarah Lochrig and her daughters. Accordingly, soon after theturn of the year I went thither, where I found all things in uncertaintyand commotion.

  Claverhouse, or, as he was now titled, Lord Dundee, with that scorn ofpublic opinion and defect of all principle, save only a canine fidelity,a dog's love, to his papistical master, domineered with his dragoons, asif he himself had been regnant monarch of Scotland; and it was plain andprobable, that unless he was soon bridled, he would speedily act uponthe wider stage of the kingdom the same Mahound-like part that he hadplayed in the prenticeship of his cruelties of the shire of Ayr. Theperil, indeed, from his courage and activity, was made to me veryevident, by a conversation that I had with one David Middleton, who hadcome from England on some business of the Jacobites there, in connectionwith Dundee.

  Providence led me to fall in with this person one morning, as we werestanding among a crowd of other onlookers, seeing Claverhouse reviewinghis men in the front court of Holyrood-house. I happened to remark, forin sooth it must be so owned, that the Viscount had a brave though aproud look, and that his voice had the manliness of one ordained tocommand.

  "Yes," replied David Middleton, "he is a born soldier, and if the Kingis to be restored, he is the man that will do it. When his Majesty wasat Rochester, before going to France, I was there with my master, andbeing called in to mend the fire, I heard Dundee and my Lord, then withthe King, discoursing concerning the royal affairs.

  "'The question,' said Lord Dundee to his Majesty, 'is, whether you shallstay in England or go to France? My opinion, sir, is, that you shouldstay in England, make your stand here, and summon your subjects to yourallegiance. 'Tis true, you have disbanded your army, but give me leave,and I will undertake to get ten thousand men of it together, and marchthrough all England with your standard at their head, and drive theDutch before you;' and," added David Middleton, "let him have time, andI doubt not, that, even without the King's leave, he will do as much."

  Whether the man in this did brag of a knowledge that he had not, thestory seemed so likely, that it could scarcely be questioned; so Iconsulted with my faithful friend and companion, Quintin Fullarton, andother men of weight among the Cameronians; and we agreed, that those ofthe societies who were scattered along the borders to intercept thecorrespondence between the English and Scottish Jacobites, should becalled into Edinburgh to daunt the rampageous insolence of Claverhouse.

  This was done accordingly; and from the day that they began to appear inthe streets, the bravery of those who were with him seemed to slacken.But still he carried himself as boldly as ever, and persuaded the Dukeof Gordon, then governor of the castle, not to surrender, nor obey anymandate from the Convention of the States, by whom, in that interregnum,the rule of the kingdom was exercised. Still, however, the Cameronianswere coming in, and their numbers became so manifest, that the dragoonswere backward to show themselves. But their commander affected not tovalue us, till one day a singular thing took place, which, in itsissues, ended the overawing influence of his presence in Edinburgh.

  I happened to be standing with Quintin Fullarton, and some four or fiveother Cameronians, at an entry-mouth forenent the Canongate-cross, whenClaverhouse, and that tool of tyranny, Sir George Mackenzie theadvocate, were coming up from the palace; and as they passed, theViscount looked hard at me, and said to Sir George,--

  "I have somewhere seen that doure cur before."

  Sir George turned round also to look, and I said,--

  "It's true, Claverhouse--we met at Drumclog;" and I touched my arm thathe had wounded there, adding, "and the blood shed that day has not yetbeen paid for."

  At these words he made a rush upon me with his sword, but my friendswere nimbler with theirs; and Sir George Mackenzie interposing, drew himoff, and they went away together.

  The affair, however, ended not here. Sir George, with the subtlety of alawyer, tried to turn it to some account, and making a great ado of it,as a design to assassinate Lord Dundee and himself, tried to get theConvention to order all strangers to remove from the town. This,however, was refused; so that Claverhouse, seeing how the spirit of thetimes was going among the members, and the boldness with which thepresbyterians and the Covenanters were daily bearding his arrogance,withdrew with his dragoons from the city and made for Stirling.

  In this retreat from Edinburgh he blew the trumpet of civil war; but inless than two hours from the signal, a regiment of eight hundredCameronians was arrayed in the High-street. The son of Argyle, who hadtaken his seat in the Convention as a peer, soon after gathered threehundred of the Campbells, and the safety of Scotland now seemed to besecured by the arrival of Mackay with three Scotch regiments, then inthe Dutch service, and which the Prince of Orange had brought with himto Torbay.

  By the retreat of Claverhouse the Jacobite party in Edinburgh were sodisheartened, and any endeavour which they afterwards made to rally wasso crazed with consternation, that it was plain the sceptre had departedfrom their master. The capacity as well as the power for any effectualaction was indeed evidently taken from them, and the ploughshare wasdriven over the ruins of their cause on the ever-memorable eleventh dayof April, when William and Mary were proclaimed King and Queen.

  But though thus the oppressor was cast down from his throne, and thoughthus, in Scotland, the chief agents in the work of deliverance were theoutlawed Cameronians, as instructed by me, the victory could not becomplete, nor the trophies hung up in the hall, while the Tyrantpossessed an instrument of such edge and temper as Claverhouse. As formyself, I felt that while the homicide lived the debt of justice and ofblood due to my martyred family could never be satisfied; and I heard ofhis passing from Stirling into the Highlands, and the wonders he wasworking for the Jacobite cause there, as if nothing had yet beenachieved toward the fulfilment of my avenging vow.

 

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