There were also hopes that Richelieu might be grateful enough for the non-interference, as to help Charles Louis to the command of the army of Wiemar, and the Palatinate, and the young man set forth in haste to profit by the favour he expected. He had, however, taken no passport, so as soon as he entered France, he was captured, and carried to Moulins. There Richelieu, who had no notion of setting up a German in either capacity, accused him of intending to seize a town in Alsace, and imprisoned him at Vincennes. His three younger brothers, Maurice, Edward, and Philip, were all at school at Paris. Elizabeth was very uneasy, but she obtained the return of the younger boys without difficulty, though the Elector Palatine was detained on the accusation of having intended to seize the places conquered by Bernhard in Alsace and claimed by the French. On King Charles's remonstrance, the youth was permitted to be at large in the English ambassador's family, on giving his parole not to leave the kingdom, or head the army of Weimer, and in August he was released.

All the original actors of the war had passed away, and it had lasted twenty-one years. As a war between Germans for German interests it was over, and Ferdinand III. assembled a Diet at Ratisbon early in 1640, in which he hoped to unite the whole Empire in a national resistance to France and Sweden. He did not entirely succeed, for there was still a party who would hold out as long as there was any hope of aid from without, and Frederick William, the new Elector of Brandenburg, a much abler man than his father, organised an opposition, though only eighteen years old. But on the whole the Empire might henceforth be considered as one body, and though the weary war lasted eight years longer, it was not so much between German Protestant and German Catholic, as France fighting for Alsace and Lorraine, Sweden for Pomerania against the House of Austria in Spain, and Germany. The large element of Scottish soldiery was likewise drawn off, having carried their military training to the cause of the Covenant in their own country.

Of the subsidiary wars of France and Spain in Savoy and Italy, nothing is here said, as they had little or no influence on English politics.

CAMEO
XXVI.

Diet at Ratisbon.

1640.

CAMBO XXVII.

The two Parties.

BRITAIN, which had been tranquil for nearly a century, while the nations around her had been rent by wars of religion, was to have her share of the strife. Catholicity and its opponents were here likewise to struggle for the mastery, though in general with less bitterness than on the Continent, since English Catholicism was not, like Romanism, blindly and conscientiously intolerant.

The first blow was struck by one who was to become a noted champion on the side contrary to that which he began by espousing, James Graham, Earl of Montrose. He was born in 1612, his mother being Lady Lilias Ruthven, a sister of that Earl of Gowrie, who gave name to the strange conspiracy against James I. He succeeded early to his title, was married, after the fashion of noble wards, while a mere boy, and at twenty was a widower, and the father of three sons. He was sent to travel abroad, especially in Italy, and returned after several years, so highly cultivated and brilliant a gentleman, that when he appeared at Court, the Marquis of Hamilton and the other gentlemen, who dreaded lest the King should throw himself into the arms of another Buckingham, held him aloof, influenced Charles to receive him coolly, and then increased his mortification by neglect.

Going back to Scotland, his national feelings were at once enlisted against English dictation, and thus he was one of the foremost in promoting the Covenant, and in the General Assembly of Glasgow. The refusal of Aberdeen to accept the Covenant was greatly resented, and was held to be partly the work of the Gordons, whose chief, the Marquis of Huntly, was devoted to the King. The Scots who had returned from Germany were collected into a little army of 3,000 or 4,000 men, who were put under the command of Montrose, with

Alexander Leslie, an experienced old officer, as his lieutenant. In February, 1639, Montrose heard that the few Aberdeenshire men favourable to the Covenant were to meet at Turriff in Banffshire; and that the Gordons meant to assemble in force to disperse them. He thereupon took with him nearly 200 men across moorland paths, over the Grampians, descended into Turriff, and placed himself in ambush behind the kirkyard wall. Down came the Gordons, under Huntly himself, their hats adorned with red ribbons, 2,000 strong, out leaped the Covenanters, and Huntly knew not how to act, for though Lieutenant of the North by the King's appointment, the Scottish Government would not seal his commission, and he was besides instructed to abstain from any acts of aggression, until the King's forces should be ready to enter Scotland.

So he could only lead off his 2,000 Gordons from the delighted Covenanters. The rebels now mustered in force, 9,000 strong, each wearing a blue ribbon, and marched into Aberdeen, all in excellent discipline and order, with five banners before them, one of which bore the motto "For Religion, the Covenant and the Country." The Bishop, the clergy, and all who were resolved against the Covenant, fled from the city; and the Covenanting ministers preached to their hearts' content in the pulpits from which they had been excluded, and had the satisfaction of preventing the observance of Good Friday—a heavy fine was required from the citizens, but they were not otherwise plundered, and provisions were paid for. A considerable present of French crowns was moreover sent to the Covenanting chiefs from the crown of France, Richelieu thus paying off his score against the English for assisting the Rochellois. Only when Hamilton had returned, had the King laid the matter before his Privy Council. The Archbishop strongly advised that no warlike measures should be used in a matter of conscience. Wentworth wrote his advice that strong garrisons should be placed in Edinburgh Castle, and the other Royal fortresses, and the Scots saddled with their maintenance, but Charles's dignity had been offended, and he felt the contempt for his authority shown at Glasgow too strongly not to resolve on reducing the rebels. But the army, as an institution did not exist as yet. The King had his Yeomen of the Guard and Gentlemen Pensioners, that was all—the feudal machinery was supposed to continue, also the militia, to which each parish, at the summons of the High Sheriff through the Justices of the Peace, was bound to contribute men in proportion to the inhabitants, but on the few occasions, since the Wars of the Roses, when this method had been tried, the results had been such as Shakespeare showed in Falstaff's ragged regiment. The well-fed and able-bodied bought themselves off, and the Captains sent to collect men, preferred bribes to efficiency. Even with the Armada of 1588 in the Channel, hardly a respectable regiment could be levied. There was likewise the usual lack of money, which Charles tried to supply by calling on the Bishops, Judges and other non-combatants to give money instead of personal service. A consider

CAMEO XXVII.

The first blow.

1639.

CAMEO XXVII.

The Trot

of Turriff. 1639.

able sum was thus collected, and the nobles and gentry were summoned
according to their tenures. Charles thought the former hatred of
Englishman against Scot would have prevailed; but the old days of
galloping about in full armour as a lively sport had passed away; those
who had a taste for fighting could get enough in Germany; and the
others had begun to consider about the cause in which they were called
from home. And the Puritan spirit sympathised with the Scots. Some
—those indeed only a few-hated the English Prayer-book in any form
at all—and others, who loved much of it, but were used to lax practices,
were in their first spirit of opposition to the improvements made by
Laud, and had heard that the Scottish Prayer-book went further than
their own.
There was a general impression that they were to be used
to force Popery on the Scots, and then that the Scots' would be used to
force Popery on them. Even the loyal Churchmen were, many of them,
annoyed at Hamilton's management of the affair, and it was very slowly
that an unwilling, disorderly army was collected at York.

Meantime the Covenanting army was continually gathering strength, and the Marquis of Huntly felt obliged to come to terms with them. He met Montrose for the purpose, each bringing eleven followers, and he there offered to sign the original Covenant, and to bind himself to maintain the laws and liberties of the state. This answer Montrose carried back to Aberdeen, and an invitation was sent to the Marquis to come into the city, a safe conduct being signed by Montrose and others. After two or three days, Huntly found that he was watched and guarded, and appealing to Montrose, discovered that he was indeed a captive, and as such was taken to Edinburgh, where Leslie had seized the castle. It is not known how far Montrose was a consenting party to this breach of faith, but the Gordons never forgave him for it, nor trusted him when they were fighting in the same cause. Huntly's son, Lord Aboyne, took his place by the King's command, and Hamilton, who was with a squadron of ships in the Firth of Forth, was ordered to supply him with reinforcements, but would not do so—only giving him four brass cannon, and a few officers, especially Colonel Gunn, a Caithness man, who had served in Germany.

With these, the Gordons made an attack on the Covenanters on the 13th of May, once again at Turriff. The first shots of the civil war were there fired, the first blood shed, two Covenanters dying and one Gordon, before the rebels ran off, so fast that the fight was called “the Trot of Turriff." Young Lord Lewis Gordon, the next brother, a mere boy at school, living at Strathbogie with his grandmother, was so delighted at the news, that he scaled the walls and ran away to the hills, whence he came back with a troop of 1,000 Highlanders, wearing their dress, with bagpipes playing in the van. Thus he joined his brother, and they marched towards the great castle of Dunottar, but durst not besiege it. The Aberdeen loyalists triumphed for the moment, and even tied blue ribbons round their dogs' necks in derision of the Covenanters, but Montrose marched back again to attack the Gordons,

and as his troops passed through Aberdeen, the poor dogs suffered for their adornment. Dogs were playing a certain part in the movement, for in contempt, black dogs with white legs or breasts were called Bishops! The Highlanders hastened to their fastnesses, and Montrose began besieging them. He came back, however, towards Edinburgh, on hearing that Aboyne had marched in that direction, and there was an encounter at Stonehaven, wherein the Highlanders for the first time heard the roar of the muskets' mother, as they termed cannon. It excited their superstitious terror to such a degree that almost the whole of them ran off headlong back to their mountains.

The more regular force, for a whole day held the Brig of Dee, a high, steep narrow bridge of seven arches, but the Covenanters pretended to march up the stream to a ford, the Gordons hurried to guard it, leaving only fifty men to protect the bridge, and these were easily overpowered. It was suspected that the removal of the forces was partly due to treachery on Gunn's part.

Charles had advanced to York. Archbishop Spottiswoode had given him two pieces of advice, not to have Scotchmen in his army, nor among his personal attendants, and to attempt no conciliation. Charles, however, though sure that his counsels were betrayed, could not believe any individual Scot capable of such an act, and he kept them about him as before, thus exciting a good deal of jealousy. However, he required of every noble who accompanied him an oath of personal allegiance, binding them to oppose all seditions, conspiracies and covenants against him, even if they came veiled under pretence of religion.

Two Puritans, Fiennes, Lord Say, and Fulk Greville, Lord Brooke, refused the oath, saying, "that being ignorant of the laws of Scotland, they could not undertake to say that the Covenanters were rebels, or the war against them just." Charles, in much anger, put them under arrest, but consulting his lawyers found there was no legal ground for proceeding against them, and therefore released them. The Earl of Essex, a grave, melancholy man, who had never recovered the disaster of his youth, was Lieutenant-General of the army, the Earl of Holland commander of the cavalry, the Marquis of Hamilton of the fleet, with Sir John Pennington to supply naval knowledge. It was said that of all the men taken on board, 5,oco in number, there were not 200 who knew how to fire a musket, which was some excuse for the small help afforded to Aboyne.

The Scottish army mustered on the links at Leith, with Leslie as their commander, a little crooked old man, scarcely able to read or write, but to whose military experience all the gentlemen gave way; almost all the Colonels, or as the Scots called them, Crowners, were noblemen, the officers lairds, the staple of the army stout farmers, or peasants armed with muskets, pikes, or broadswords. Argyll kept a body of his Highlanders in the rear, for the Lowlanders had no affection for such company, nor would they have submitted to the discipline of

CAMEO XXVII.

Advance of
Charles.

1639.