Part 8

After I had laid waste the whole country of Argyle, and brought off provisions, for my army, of what could be found, I received information that Argyle was got together with a considerable army, made up chiefly of his own clan, and vassals and tenants, with others of the rebels that joined him, and that he was at Inverlochy, where he expected the Earl of Seaforth, and the sept of the Frasers, to come up to him with all the forces they could get together. Upon this intelligence I departed out of Argyleshire, and marched through Lorn, Glencow, and Aber, till I came to Lochness, my design being to fall upon Argyle before Seaforth and the Frasers could join him. My march was through inaccessible mountains, where I could have no guides but cow-herds, and they scarce acquainted with a place but six miles from their own habitations. If I had been attacked but with one hundred men in some of these passes, I must have certainly returned back, for it would have been impossible to force my way, most of the passes being so strait that three men could not march abreast. I was willing to let the world see that Argyle was not the man his Highlandmen believed him to be, and that it was possible to beat him in his own Highlands. The difficultest march of all was over the Lochaber mountains, which we at last surmounted, and came upon the back of the enemy when they least expected us, having cut off some scouts we met about four miles from Inverlochy. Our van came within view of them about five o'clock in the afternoon, and we made a halt till our rear was got up, which could not be done till eight at night. The rebels took the alarm and stood to their arms, as well as we, all night, which was moonlight, and very clear. There were some few skirmishes between the rebels and us all the night, and with no loss on our side but one man. By break of day I ordered my men to be ready to fall on upon the first signal, and I understand since, by the prisoners, the rebels did the same. A little after the sun was up, both armies met, and the rebels fought for some time with great bravery, the prime of the Campbells giving the first onset, as men that deserved to fight in a better cause. Our men, having a nobler cause, did wonders, and came immediately to push of pike, and dint of sword, after their first firing. The rebels could not stand it, but, after some resistance at first, began to run, whom we pursued for nine miles together, making a great slaughter, which I would have hindered, if possible, that I might save your Majesty's misled subjects, for well I know your Majesty does not delight in their blood, but in their returning to their duty. There were at least fifteen hundred killed in the battle and the pursuit, among whom there are a great many of the most considerable gentlemen of the name of Campbell, and some of them nearly related to the Earl. I have saved and taken prisoners several of them, that have acknowledged to me their fault and lay all the blame on their Chief. Some gentlemen of the Lowlands, that had behaved themselves bravely in the battle, when they saw all lost, fled into the old castle, and, upon their surrender, I have treated them honourably, and taken their parole never to bear arms against your Majesty.

We have of your Majesty's army about two hundred wounded, but I hope few of them dangerously. I can hear but of four killed, and one whom I cannot name to your Majesty but with grief of mind, Sir Thomas Ogilvy, a son of the Earl of Airly's, of whom I writ to your Majesty in my last. He is not yet dead, but they say he cannot possibly live, and we give him over for dead. Your Majesty had never a truer servant, nor there never was a braver, honester gentleman. For the rest of the particulars of this action, I refer myself to the bearer, Mr. Hay, whom your Majesty knows already, and therefore I need not recommend him.

Now, Sacred Sir, let me humbly intreat your Majesty's pardon if I presume to write you my poor thoughts and opinion about what I heard by a letter I received from my friends in the south, last week, as if your Majesty was entering into a treaty with your rebel Parliament in England. The success of your arms in Scotland does not more rejoice my heart, as that news from England is like to break it. And whatever come of me, I will speak my mind freely to your Majesty, for it is not mine, but your Majesty's interest I seek.

When I had the honour of waiting upon your Majesty last, I told you at full length what I fully understood of the designs of your Rebel subjects in both kingdoms, which I had occasion to know as much as any one whatsoever; being at that time, as they thought, entirely in their interest. Your Majesty may remember how much you said you were convinced I was in the right in my opinion of them. I am sure there is nothing fallen out since to make your Majesty change your judgment in all those things I laid before your Majesty at that time. The more your Majesty grants, the more will be asked; and I have too much reason to know that they will not rest satisfied with less than making your Majesty a King of straw. I hope the news I have received about a treaty may be a mistake, and the rather that the letter wherewith the Queen was pleased to honour me, dated the 30th of December, mentions no such thing. Yet I know not what to make of the intelligence I received, since it comes from Sir Robert Spottiswood, who writes it with a great regret; and it is no wonder, considering no man living is a more true subject to your Majesty than he. Forgive me, Sacred Sovereign, to tell your Majesty that, in my poor opinion, it is unworthy of a King to treat with Rebel subjects, while they have the sword in their hands. And though God forbid I should stint your Majesty's mercy, yet I must declare the horror I am in when I think of a treaty, while your Majesty and they are in the field with two armies, unless they disband, and submit themselves entirely to your Majesty's goodness and pardon.

As to the state of affairs in this Kingdom, the bearer will fully inform your Majesty in every particular. And give me leave, with all humility, to assure your Majesty that, through God's blessing, I am in the fairest hopes of reducing this kingdom to your Majesty's obedience. And, if the measures I have concerted with your other loyal subjects fail me not, which they hardly can, I doubt not before the end of this summer I shall be able to come to your Majesty's assistance with a brave army, which, backed with the justice of your Majesty's cause, will make the Rebels in England, as well as in Scotland, feel the just rewards of Rebellion. Only give me leave, after I have reduced this country to your Majesty's obedience, and _conquered from Dan to Beersheba_, to say to your Majesty then, as David's General did to his master, "_Come thou thyself, lest this country be called by my name_." For in all my actions I aim only at your Majesty's honour and interest, as becomes one that is to his last breath, may it please your Sacred Majesty,--

Your Majesty's most humble, most faithful, and most obedient Subject and Servant, MONTROSE.

INVERLOCHY IN LOCHABER, _February 3rd, 1645_.

CHARLES AND HENRIETTA MARIA (1646).

=Source.=--Camden Society's Publications. Vol. lix., p. 45.

NEWCASTLE, _June 10th, 1646_.

DEAR HEART,

These two last weeks I heard not from thee, nor any about thee, which hath made my present condition the more troublesome, but I expect daily the contentment of hearing from thee. Indeed I have need of some comfort, for I never knew what it was to be barbarously baited before, and these five or six days last have much surpassed, in rude pressures against my conscience, all the rest since I came to the Scotch army; for, upon I know not what intelligence from London, nothing must serve but my signing the covenant (the last was, my commanding all my subjects to do it), declaring absolutely, and without reserve, for Presbyterian government, and my receiving the Directory in my family, with an absolute command for the rest of the kingdom; and if I did not all this, then a present agreement must be made with the parliament, without regard of me, for they said that otherways they could not hope for peace or a just war. It is true they gave me many other fair promises in case I did what they desired (and yet for the militia they daily give ground); but I answered them, that what they demanded was absolutely against my conscience, which might be persuaded, but would not be forced by anything they could speak or do. This was the sum of divers debates and papers between us, of which I cannot now give thee an account. At last I made them be content with another message to London, requiring an answer to my former, with an offer to go thither upon honourable and just conditions. Thus all I can do is but delaying of ill, which I shall not be able to do long without assistance from thee. I cannot but again remember thee, that there was never man so alone as I, and therefore very much to be excused for the committing of any error, because I have reason to suspect everything that these advised me, and to distrust mine own single opinion, having no living soul to help me. To conclude, all the comfort I have is in thy love and a clear conscience.

I know the first will not fail me, nor (by the grace of God) the other. Only I desire thy particular help, that I should be as little vexed as may be; for, if thou do not, I care not much for others. I need say no more of this, nor will at this time, but that I am eternally thine.

CHARLES R.

CROMWELL AND LUDLOW (1646).

=Source.=--_The Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow._ Ed. C. H. Firth. Oxford, 1894. Vol. i., pp. 144, 145.

In the meantime I observed that another party was not idle: for, walking one morning with Lieutenant-General Cromwell in Sir Robert Cotton's garden, he inveighed bitterly against them, saying in a familiar way to me, "If thy father were alive, he would let some of them hear what they deserve," adding further "that it was a miserable thing to serve a Parliament, to whom let a man be never so faithful, if one pragmatical fellow amongst them rise up and asperse him, he shall never wipe it off. Whereas," said he, "when one serves under a general, he may do as much service, and yet be free from all blame and envy." This text, together with the comment that his after-actions put upon it, hath since persuaded me that he had already conceived the design of destroying the civil authority, and setting up of himself; and that he took that opportunity to feel my pulse, whether I were a fit instrument to be employed by him to those ends. But having replied to his discourse, that we ought to perform the duty of our stations, and trust God with our honour, power, and all that is dear to us, not permitting any such considerations to discourage us from the prosecution of our duty, I never heard any more from him upon that point.

AN ARMY DEBATE (1647).

=Source.=--_Clarke Papers_, Camden Society's Publications. Vol. i., p. 301. Putney, October 29, 1647.

AT A MEETING OF THE OFFICERS FOR CALLING UPON GOD.

Part of the Debate on the Agreement of the People, First article, "That the people of England being at this day very unequally distributed by Counties, Cities and Boroughs for the election of their Deputies in Parliament, ought to be more indifferently proportioned according to the number of the inhabitants."

_Col. Rainborough._ Really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he; and therefore truly, Sir, I think it's clear that every man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that Government....

_Commissary Ireton._ Give me leave to tell you, that if you make this the rule I think you must fly for refuge to an absolute natural Right, and you must deny all Civil Right.... For my part I think it is no right at all. I think that no person hath a right to an interest or share in the disposing or determining of the affairs of the Kingdom, and in choosing those that shall determine what laws we shall be ruled by here, no person hath a right to this that hath not a permanent fixed interest in this Kingdom.... We talk of birthright. Truly by birthright there is thus much claim. Men may justly have by birthright, by their very being born in England, that we shall not seclude them out of England, that we shall not refuse to give them air and place and ground and the freedom of the highways and other things, to live amongst us.... That I think is due to a man by birth. But that by a man's being born here he shall have a share in that power that shall dispose of the lands here, and of all things here, I do not think it a sufficient ground. I am sure if we look upon ... that which is most radical and fundamental and which if you take away there is no man hath any land, any goods, any civil interest, that is this; that those that choose the representors for the making of laws by which this state and kingdom are to be governed, are the persons who taken together do comprehend the local interest of this kingdom: that is, the persons in whom all land lies, and those in Corporations in whom all trading lies....

_Rainborough._ Truly, Sir, I am of the same opinion I was; and am resolved to keep it till I know reason why I should not. I do think the main cause why Almighty God gave men reason, it was, that they should make use of that reason. Half a loaf is better than none if a man be an hungry, yet I think there is nothing that God hath given a man that any else can take from him. I do not find anything in the law of God, that a Lord shall choose 20 burgesses and a gentleman but two, and a poor man shall choose none. But I do find that all Englishmen must be subject to English laws, and I do verily believe that there is no man but will say that the foundation of all law lies in the people....

_Ireton._ I wish we may all consider of what right you will challenge, that all people should have right to elections. Is it by the right of nature? By that same right of nature by which you can say one man hath an equal right with another to the choosing of him that shall govern him--by the same right of nature, he hath an equal right in any goods he sees; meat, drink, clothes, to take and use them for his sustenance. He hath a freedom to the land, to exercise it, till it; he hath the same freedom to anything that anyone doth account himself to have any property in.... Since you cannot plead it by anything but the law of nature, I would fain have any man show me their bounds, where you will end, and why you should not take away all property?

_Rainborough._ I wish we were all true hearted, and that we did all carry ourselves with integrity. For my part, I think you do not only yourselves believe that we are inclining to anarchy, but you would make all men believe that. That there is property the Law of God says, else why hath God made that law, "Thou shalt not steal"? If I have no interest in the Kingdom I must suffer by all their laws, be they right or wrong. I am a poor man, therefore I must be oppressed....

_Cromwell._ I know nothing but this, that they that are the most yielding have the greatest reason; but really, Sir, this is not right as it should be. No man says you have a mind to anarchy, but the consequence of this rule tends to anarchy, must end in anarchy, for where is there any bound or limit set, if you take away this limit, that men that have no interest but the interest of breathing, shall have no voice in elections? Therefore I am confident on it that we should not be so hot one with another....

_Rainborough._ I deny that there is property, to a Lord, to a Gentleman, to any man more than another in the Kingdom of England. I would fain know what we have fought for. This is the old law of England, and that which enslaves the people of England, that they should be bound by laws in which they have no voice at all....

_Mr. Sexby._ We have engaged in this Kingdom and ventured our lives, and it was all for this: to recover our birthrights and privileges as Englishmen, and by the arguments used there is none. There are many thousands of us soldiers that have ventured our lives: we have had little property in the Kingdom as to our estates; yet we have had a birthright. It seems now, unless a man hath a fixed estate in this Kingdom, he hath no right in this kingdom. I wonder we were so much deceived. I shall tell you in a word my resolution. I am resolved to give my birthright to none. I do think the poor and meaner of this kingdom have been the means of the preservation of this kingdom....

_Ireton._ For my part, rather than I will make a disturbance to a good Constitution of a kingdom wherein I may live in godliness and honesty and peace and quietness, I will part with a great deal of my birthright. I will part with my own property rather than I will be the man that shall make a disturbance in the Kingdom for my property....

_Rainborough._ But I would fain know what the poor soldier hath fought for all this while? He hath fought to enslave himself, to give power to men of riches, men of estates, to make him a perpetual slave. We do find in all presses that go forth none must be pressed that are freehold men. When these Gentlemen fall out among themselves they shall press the poor scrubs to come and kill them.

_Cromwell._ I confess I am most dissatisfied with that I heard Mr. Sexby speak of any man here, because it did savour so much of will. But I desire that all of us may decline that, and if we meet here really to agree to that which is for the safety of the Kingdom, let us not spend so much time in such debates as these are. If we think to bring it to an issue this way I know our debates are endless, and I think if you do desire to bring this to a result it were well if we may but resolve upon a Committee. I say it again, if I cannot be satisfied to go so far as these Gentlemen ... I shall freely and willingly withdraw myself, and I hope to do it in such manner that the Army shall see that I shall by my withdrawing satisfy the interest of the Army, the public interest of the Kingdom, and those ends these men aim at.

THE AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE (1647).

=Source.=--British Museum Pamphlets. E. 412.21.

AN AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE FOR A FIRM AND PRESENT PEACE UPON GROUNDS OF COMMON RIGHT.

Having by our late labours and hazards made it appear to the world at how high a rate we value our just freedom, and God having so far owned our cause as to deliver the enemies thereof into our hands, we do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other to take the best care we can for the future to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition and the chargeable remedy of another war; for, it cannot be imagined that so many of our countrymen would have opposed us in this quarrel if they had understood their own good, so may we safely promise to ourselves that, when our common rights and liberties shall be cleared, their endeavours will be disappointed that seek to make themselves our masters.

Since, therefore, our former oppressions and scarce-yet-ended troubles have been occasioned, either by want of frequent national meetings in Council, or by rendering those meetings ineffectual, we are fully agreed and resolved to provide that hereafter our representatives be neither left to an uncertainty for the time nor made useless to the ends for which they are intended.

In order whereunto we declare:--

I.

That the people of England, being at this day very unequally distributed by Counties, Cities, and Boroughs, ought to be more indifferently proportioned according to the number of the inhabitants; the circumstances whereof for number, place, and manner are to be set down before the end of this present Parliament.

II.

That, to prevent the many inconveniences apparently arising from the long continuance of the same persons in authority, this present Parliament be dissolved upon the last day of September which shall be in the year of our Lord, 1648.

III.

That the people do, of course, choose themselves a Parliament once in two years, viz. upon the first Thursday in every 2d March, after the manner as shall be prescribed before this present Parliament end, to begin to sit upon the first Thursday in April following, at Westminster or such other place as shall be appointed from time to time by the preceding Representatives, and to continue till the last day of September then next ensuing, and no longer.

IV.

That the power of this, and all future Representatives of this Nation, is inferior only to theirs who choose them, and doth extend, without the consent or concurrence of any other person or persons, to the enacting, altering, and repealing of laws, to the erecting and abolishing of offices and courts, to the appointing, removing, and calling to account magistrates and officers of all degrees, to the making war and peace, to the treating with foreign States, and, generally, to whatsoever is not expressly or impliedly reserved by the represented to themselves.

Which are as followeth.

1. That matters of religion and the ways of God's worship are not at all entrusted by us to any human power, because therein we cannot remit or exceed a tittle of what our consciences dictate to be the mind of God without wilful sin: nevertheless the public way of instructing the nation (so it be not compulsive) is referred to their discretion.

2. That the matter of impresting and constraining any of us to serve in the wars is against our freedom; and therefore we do not allow it in our Representatives; the rather, because money (the sinews of war), being always at their disposal, they can never want numbers of men apt enough to engage in any just cause.

3. That after the dissolution of this present Parliament, no person be at any time questioned for anything said or done in reference to the late public differences, otherwise than in execution of the judgments of the present Representatives or House of Commons.

4. That in all laws made or to be made every person may be bound alike, and that no tenure, estate, charter, degree, birth, or place do confer any exemption from the ordinary course of legal proceedings whereunto others are subjected.

5. That as the laws ought to be equal, so they must be good, and not evidently destructive to the safety and well-being of the people.

These things we declare to be our native rights, and therefore are agreed and resolved to maintain them with our utmost possibilities against all opposition whatsoever; being compelled thereunto not only by the examples of our ancestors, whose blood was often spent in vain for the recovery of their freedoms, suffering themselves through fraudulent accommodations to be still deluded of the fruit of their victories, but also by our own woeful experience, who, having long expected and dearly earned the establishment of these certain rules of government, are yet made to depend for the settlement of our peace and freedom upon him that intended our bondage and brought a cruel war upon us.

THE SENTENCE ON THE KING (1648-49).

(EXCERPT.)

=Source.=--Rushworth. Vol. vi., p. 1419.