that he will forgive me for dallying with him so long." As he spoke he wept, and the greater part of those who heard him, including the moderator, were also unable to refrain from tears. His example was followed by some others; and when all their subscriptions had been taken down, Hen derson did not fail to bid the assembled multitude admire the evident encouragement which God was giving them, in thus bringing them new accessions of strength, at the very moment of all others when they might have expected defections. There was one other encouraging circumstance. At the departure of the commissioner, the Earl of Argyle (till recently Lord Lorn) remained behind, and openly expressed his intention of now joining their bands. The accession of so powerful and so sagacious a nobleman-considered the most powerful subject in the kingdom-was looked upon as im mensely favourable to them; and many, moreover, had an idea, that his remaining behind the rest of the council, was a sort of oblique hint that they did not want the approbation of government.

In short, the tide of feeling being this night at the highest, it was judiciously resolved by the leading men to put two questions to vote, " Were they, or were they not, to continue sitting after the withdrawal of the royal countenance?" and, "Were they, or were they not, possessed of power to impeach and try the bishops ?"—both of which were carried in the affirmative before they parted by an almost exceptionless majority.

The commissioner next morning discharged the meeting of the Assembly, by public proclamation at the Cross, under the pain of treason; but his edict was immediately answered with a protest by the Earl of Rothes. He then retired to

Edinburgh, where he exerted himself to fortify the castle in the king's behalf. This place of strength was found, at this critical era, to be garrisoned by only a few men, whose whole arms were one musket, and that not fit for use. He purchased the command of it from its hereditary keeper, the Earl of Mar, and having insinuated about forty sure men into it, without alarming the Covenanters, he intrusted the command to a stout old ca valier of the name of Ruthven, who had just returned, covered with distinction, from the wars' of Gustavus Adolphus. When the leading Covenanters at Glasgow heard of what had thus been done in their absence, they dispatched a committee to the capital, to counteract the proceedings of the marquis; and resolved to make as quick work as possible with the bishops, that they might all return to the point which seemed to have been selected for the commencement of the war.

The first twelve sittings after the retirement of the commissioner, were employed in constructing and deliberating upon the indictments of the bishops, and in finding reasons for declaring all the Episcopalian forms, which had been introduced during the two late reigns, null and void. There being no party to oppose them, they, of course, found little difficulty in establishing their charges, or in making it appear that these charges were sufficient to demand the punishment which they were inclined to award. The crimes and ecclesiastical irregularities alleged against the bishops were in general very trivial, but it was absolutely necessary that they should be deposed.1 A sort of "delenda est Carthago" had gone forth against them. There seems to have been less difficulty found in abolishing the Episcopalian religion. Eve

ry atom and portion of it had been notoriously introduced by illegal means; and to discharge it altogether, it was only necessary to declare, that the six General Assemblies, which had taken place since the commencement of the century, and by which it had been imposed, were, as all the world knew they were, totally illegal. The Scottish church was thus, by one act, restored to the pure Presbyterian system which had flourished in the first age of the Reformation.

Thursday, the 13th of December, being the twentieth session of this most remarkable Assembly, was appointed for the ultimate pronouncing of sentence against the bishops. There is something awfully appropriate to the occasion in the text which the moderator chose for his sermon that forenoon, (Psalm cx. 1;)" The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool;"5 and it may easily be conceived, that the sermon had no small effect upon the minds of the multitude who heard it, previously excited, as they had been, by all impulses of soul and sense, against the devoted objects of its magnificent and impressive eloquence. Henderson then pronounced, with the solemn and terror-striking manner peculiar to him, the sentence of the Assembly, which declared the two archbishops and six of the bishops excommunicated, four bishops deposed, and two suspended from ecclesiastical functions, till such time as they should regain admission to the church by conforming to its rules. The Episcopal office, to which the epithet of " pretended" was ostentatiously affixed, was at the same time declared to be for ever abrogated.

On the 20th of December, after having deposed

and excommunicated a great number of other clergymen who had displayed an attachment to Episcopacy, and after having appointed another meeting at Edinburgh on the ensuing 15th of July, the Assembly rose in triumph. "We have now," said Henderson, "cast down the walls of Jericho ; let him that rebuildeth them beware of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite."

CHAPTER VIII.

COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES.

Pronounce your thoughts: are they still fixt
To hold it out, and fight it to the last?

Or are your hearts subdued at length, and wrought,
By time and ill success, to a submission?

ADDISON.

THE open disregard of the royal authority, shown in the Glasgow Assembly, might almost be accepted as a declaration of war against the king. It was at least an avowal, on the part of the malcontents, that they were determined to have their own way, even at the risk of the royal vengeance. Yet, whatever cause Charles might have to complain of their disobedience, they certainly did not proceed to extremities without once more holding out terms of reconciliation. They sent, by Mr George Winram of Libbertoun, a supplication, petitioning for redress of their grievances, and a sanction of their late Assembly, which he had only to accept, in order to restore them to the condition of loyal and willing subjects. On this being read to him, however, by the Marquis of Hamilton, now returned to London, the inflexible monarch remarked, with bitter contempt, "Now they have broken my head, they would put on my