acted with what is considered such unrelenting truculence in this war, an idea very generally prevails, that Montrose was too hesitating and too humane a commander; that he even, by permitting his own generous feelings to interfere too often with matters of general policy, protracted the war to a length it would not have reached, had he been every thing which they could have wished him. "A bloody war, a short one," is a maxim which they invariably quote, when alluding to this question; and it is observable that, when they discuss the merits of the various commanders who have at different times led them to battle against the Saxon, they prefer, by many degrees, Alaster MacCol, or the Viscount Dundee, to him whom the Lowland cavaliers have agreed to designate "the great Marquis." But it is perhaps enough to settle this question in favour of Montrose, to remind the reader of what seems to be now a recognised principle in war of all descriptions, that no general who studies to spare the effusion of blood, either in his own army or that of his opponent, will ever be very brilliantly successful. 23

CHAPTER V.

BATTLE OF PHILIPHAUGH.

Bast.-Methinks, your looks are sad, your cheer appall❜d. Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence?

Be not dismay'd; for succour is at hand.

Henry VI. Part I.

THE victory of Kilsyth, the last and greatest Montrose ever gained, gave him for the time possession of the whole of Scotland. As it deprived the opposite party of every thing like an army, so it completely broke up their government. Glencairn and Cassilis now fled over to Ireland; Argyle, Crawford, Lanark, and others, took refuge within the fortified walls of Berwick. Their Parliament, their General Assembly, every organ of their recently monstrous power, at once vanished; and nothing was left behind but this red and triumphant soldier, who, as the deeds he had done were next thing to miraculous, appeared in the eyes of this superstitious people a destroying angel, commissioned by the Supreme Being to lay waste the land.1

"Since the days of William Wallace," says Baillie," or rather since Fergus the Second, [a period of fabulous Scottish history, when the whole government was for a time dissolved, our land was never in the present condition. I confess," he adds at another place, “I am ama

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zed, and cannot see to my mind's satisfaction, the reasons of the Lord's dealing with that land. The sins of all ranks there I know to be great, and the late mercies of God, spiritual and temporal, towards them to have been many; but what means the Lord," adds this daring priest of the Scottish ta bernacle, "so far from the expectation of the most clear-sighted, to humble us so low, and by his immediate hand, I confess I know not.2 This shame," he continues, "will not be put off us for an age. The English contemn us much the more they have sent commissioners to crave Newcastle and Carlisle from us, all our places of garri sons but Berwick."3

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It was the very worst result of Montrose's vic tory over their government, that the English, whose favour they had taken so much pains and used such unjustifiable measures to procure, and upon whom they were so anxious to impose their own favourite system of church-government, took occasion from it to hold them cheap, and even to menace them with a complete discharge from their service; which they were now the better fitted to do, that they had just gained a decided superiority over the king at the battle of Naseby, and were on that account enabled, as they thought, henceforth to cope with the cavaliers single-handed. The Inde pendents, at least, who were at this period the greatest enemies the Scots had to contend with in their endeavours to establish Presbytery in Eng land, entertained these views, and cherished these sentiments, without the least disguise.

The local disasters of the country were not less grievous than the political. The slaughter of K syth had filled the country with lamentation. was even judged so supereminently disastros dir

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affair, that, for the first time such a thing had ever been done in Scotland, the general population went into mourning on account of it. The plague, at the same time, continued to ravage the central district of the kingdom, including the capital and other principal towns. "Never," says Baillie, “ was such a pest seen in Scotland: That it should have trysted made an assignation with the enemy at that time and place, when we had most to do with Leith and Edinburgh, was evidently God's hand.” Montrose remained two days at Kilsyth to refresh his men; and during that interval, the citizens of Glasgow, who had much reason to fear his ven geance, sent two commissioners, Sir Robert Douglas and Mr Archibald Fleming, to propitiate him, by a profession of their submission to the royal uthority, as represented by his person, and to beseech his mercy upon their town, which they inreated him to honour with a visit. After such a ictory as that of Kilsyth, his first motion would ave unquestionably been towards the capital, here, by seizing the seat of government, and urning the artillery of the state, as it were, upon e enemy which had just quitted it, he might be id to have fixed himself in his conquest, almost yond the possibility of eradication. But, as dinburgh was for the present unapproachable, he as obliged to content himself with seizing Glasw; to which town, therefore, he marched on the ird day after the battle.

Previously to his removal from Kilsyth, he ought proper to send Alaster MacCol, with a ong party, into Ayrshire, for the purpose of disrsing the levies which had been there made ainst him by the Earls of Cassillis and Glenrn. At the approach of the major-general,

zed, and cannot see to my mind's satisfaction, the reasons of the Lord's dealing with that land. The sins of all ranks there I know to be great, and the late mercies of God, spiritual and temporal, towards them to have been many; but what means the Lord," adds this daring priest of the Scottish tabernacle, 66 so far from the expectation of the most clear-sighted, to humble us so low, and by his immediate hand, I confess I know not.2

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This shame," he continues," will not be put off us for an age. The English contemn us much the more they have sent commissioners to crave Newcastle and Carlisle from us, all our places of garrisons but Berwick."3

It was the very worst result of Montrose's victory over their government, that the English, whose favour they had taken so much pains and used such unjustifiable measures to procure, and upon whom they were so anxious to impose their own favourite system of church-government, took occasion from it to hold them cheap, and even to menace them with a complete discharge from their service; which they were now the better fitted to do, that they had just gained a decided superiority over the king at the battle of Naseby, and were on that account enabled, as they thought, henceforth to cope with the cavaliers single-handed. The Independents, at least, who were at this period the greatest enemies the Scots had to contend with in their endeavours to establish Presbytery in England, entertained these views, and cherished these sentiments, without the least disguise.

The local disasters of the country were not less grievous than the political. The slaughter of Kilsyth bad filled the country with lamentation. It was even judged so supereminently disastrous an