Chapter XIX: A.d. 1660-1689 (2)

The resolution of the king to quit the kingdom was hastened after a fruitless attempt at negotiation with the Prince of Orange, by the appearance of an infamous proclamation against Catholics, issued under the signature of the prince, and which, though afterwards disowned by him, was, at the time, believed to be genuine. Having, therefore, made up his mind to follow the queen without delay, the king wrote a letter to the Earl of Feversham, the commander of the forces, intimating his intention, and after thanking him and the army for their loyalty, he informed them that he did not wish them any longer to run the risk of resisting “a foreign army and a poisoned nation.” Shortly after midnight, having disguised himself as a country gentleman, he left the palace, and descending by the back stairs, entered into a hackney coach, which conveyed him to the horse-ferry, whence he crossed the river, into which the king threw the great seal. Having arrived at Emley ferry near Feversham by ten o’clock, he embarked on board the custom-house hoy, but before she could be got ready for sea the king was apprehended, and placed under a strong guard.

When the king’s arrest was first reported in London, the intelligence was not believed; but all uncertainty on the subject was removed by a communication from James himself in the shape of a letter, but without any address, which was put into the hands of Lord Mulgrave by a stranger at the door of the council chamber at Whitehall. A body of about thirty peers and bishops had, on the flight of the king, formed themselves into a council, and had assumed the reins of government, and many of these, on this letter being read, were desirous of taking no notice of it, lest they might, by so doing, displease the prince. Lord Halifax, the chairman, who favoured the prince’s designs, attempted to quash the matter, by adjourning the meeting, but Mulgrave prevailed on the members of the council to remain, and obtained an order to despatch the Earl of Feversham with 200 of the life-guards to protect the person of the king.

On the arrival of Feversham the king resolved to remain in the kingdom, and to return to London, a resolution which he adopted at the urgent entreaty of Lord Winchelsea, whom, on his apprehension, he had appointed lord-lieutenant of Kent. James was not without hopes that the prince would still come to terms, and to ascertain his sentiments he sent Feversham to Windsor to invite the prince to a personal conference in the capital, and to inform him that St. James’s palace would be ready for his reception. The arrival of the earl with such a proposal was exceedingly annoying to William and his adherents, the former of whom, on the supposition that the king had taken a final adieu of the kingdom, had begun to act the part of the sovereign, while the latter were already intriguing for the great offices of the state. Instead of returning an answer to the king’s message, William, on the pretence that Feversham had disbanded the army without orders, and had come to Windsor without a passport, ordered him to be arrested, and committed a prisoner to the round tower, an order which was promptly obeyed.

At Rochester, whence he had despatched Feversham, the king was met by his guards, and thence proceeded to London, which he entered on the 16th of December amidst the acclamations of the citizens, and the ringing of bells, and other popular manifestations of joy, a remarkable proof of the instability and inconstancy of feeling which actuate masses of people under excitement.

As James conceived that the only chance he now had of securing the confidence of his subjects and preserving his crown, consisted in giving some signal proof of his sincerity to act constitutionally, he made the humiliating offer to Lewis and Stamps, two of the city aldermen, to deliver himself up into their hands on receiving an assurance that the civil authorities would guarantee his personal safety, and to remain in custody till parliament should pass such measures as might be considered necessary for securing the religion and liberties of the nation. But Sir Robert Clayton dissuaded the common council from entering into any engagement which the city might possibly be unable to fulfil, and thus a negotiation was dropt, which, if successful, might have placed William in a situation of great embarrassment.[545]

But although James did not succeed in his offer to the city, his return to Whitehall had changed the aspect of affairs, and had placed William in a dilemma from which he could only extricate himself by withdrawing altogether his pretensions to the crown, or by driving his uncle out of it by force. William considered that the most safe and prudent course he could pursue would be to force James to leave the kingdom; but in such a manner as to induce the belief that he did so freely and of his own accord. Accordingly, to excite the king’s alarms, a body of Dutch guards, by order of the prince, marched into Westminster, and, after taking possession of the palace of St. James’s, marched with their matches lighted to Whitehall, of which they also demanded possession. As resistance, owing to the great disparity of numbers, was considered by the king to be unavailing, he, contrary to the opinion of Lord Craven, the commander of his guards, who, though eighty years of age, offered to oppose the invaders, ordered the guards to resign their posts, of which the Dutch took possession. This event took place late on the evening of the 16th of December.[546]

The king now received orders from William to quit Whitehall by ten o’clock next morning, as the latter meant to enter London about noon, and that he should retire to Ham, a house in Surrey belonging to the dowager duchess of Lauderdale, which had been provided for his reception. The king objected to Ham as a residence being uncomfortable, but stated his willingness to return to Rochester. Permission being granted by the prince, James left Whitehall about twelve o’clock noon, after taking an affectionate adieu of his friends, many of whom burst into tears. He embarked on board the royal barge, attended by Viscount Dundee and other noblemen, and descended the river, surrounded by several boats filled with Dutch guards, in presence of an immense concourse of spectators, many of whom witnessed with sorrow the humiliating spectacle.[547]

The king arrived at Rochester the following day from Gravesend, where he had passed the previous night. Having remained four days at Rochester, he, accompanied by two captains in the navy, his natural son the Duke of Berwick, and a domestic, went on board the Eagle fireship, being unable to reach, on account of the unfavourable state of the weather, a fishing smack which had been hired for his reception. On the following morning he went on board the smack, and after a boisterous voyage of two days, arrived at Ambleteuse, in France, on the 25th of December, and joined his wife and child, at the castle of St. Germain’s, on the 28th. Thus ingloriously and sadly ended the reign of the last of the unfortunate and seemingly infatuated royal race of Stuarts.

Considering the crisis at which matters had arrived, the course which the king pursued, of withdrawing from the kingdom, was evidently the most prudent which could be adopted. All his trusty adherents in England were without power or influence, and in Scotland the Duke of Gordon was the only nobleman who openly stood out for the interests of his sovereign. He had been created a duke by Charles II. James had appointed him governor of the castle of Edinburgh, and he had been thereafter made a privy-counsellor and one of the lords of the treasury. Though a firm and conscientious Catholic, he was always opposed to the violent measures of the court, as he was afraid that however well meant, they would turn out ruinous to the king; not indeed that he did not wish to see the professors of the same faith with himself enjoy the same civil privileges as were enjoyed by his Protestant countrymen, but because he was opposed to the exercise of the dispensing power at a time when the least favour shown to the professors of the proscribed faith was denounced as an attempt to introduce popery. The king, influenced by some of his flatterers, received the duke coldly on his appearance at court in March, 1688, and curtailed some of his rights and privileges over the lands of some of his vassals in Badenoch. Even his fidelity appeared to be questioned, by various acts of interference with the affairs of the castle, of which he disapproved. He resented these indignities by tendering his resignation of the various appointments he held from the crown, and demanded permission from the king to retire beyond seas for a time; but James put a negative upon both proposals, and the duke returned to his post at Edinburgh.[548]

Notwithstanding the bad treatment he had received, the duke, true to his trust, determined to preserve the castle of Edinburgh for the king, although the Prince of Orange should obtain possession of every other fortress in the kingdom. He requested the privy council to lay in a quantity of provisions and ammunition, but this demand was but partially attended to, for though the garrison consisted only of 120 men, there was not a sufficiency of materials for a three months’ siege. The duke shut himself up in the castle, and invited the Earl of Perth, the chancellor, to join him; but the earl declined the offer, and, in attempting to make his escape to the continent, was seized near the Bass, in the Frith of Forth, by some seamen from Kirkcaldy, under a warrant from the magistrates of that burgh, and committed to Stirling castle, where he remained a close prisoner for nearly four years.[549] A few days after the duke had retired to the castle, an attempt was made by some of the prince’s adherents to corrupt the fidelity of the garrison, by circulating a false report that the duke meant to make the whole garrison, who were chiefly Protestants, swear to maintain the Catholic religion. A mutiny was on the eve of breaking out, but it was detected by the vigilance of some officers. The duke, thereupon, drew out the garrison, assured them that the report in question was wholly unfounded, and informed them that all he required of them was to take the oath of allegiance to the king, which was immediately done by the greater part of the garrison. Those who refused were at once dismissed. To supply the deficiency thus made, the duke sent notice to Francis Gordon of Midstrath to bring up from the north 45 of the best and most resolute men he could find on his lands; but, on their arrival at Leith, a hue and cry was raised that the duke was bringing down Papists and Highlanders to overawe the Protestants. To calm the minds of the people, the duke ordered these men to return home.[550]

As soon as the news of the arrival of the Prince of Orange in London, and the departure of the king, was received in Edinburgh, an immense concourse of persons, “of all sorts, degrees, and persuasions,” who “could (says Balcarras) scrape so much together” to defray their expenses, went up to London, influenced by motives of interest or patriotism. The Prince of Orange took the wise expedient of obtaining all the legal sanction which, before the assembling of a parliament, could be given to his assumption of the administration of affairs in England; obtaining the concurrence of many of the spiritual and temporal peers, and of a meeting composed of some members who had sat in the House of Commons during the reign of Charles II., as also of the Lord-Mayor of London, and 50 of the common council. He now adopted the same expedient as to Scotland, and taking advantage of the great influx into the capital of noblemen and gentlemen from that country, he convened them together. A meeting was accordingly held at Whitehall, at which 30 noblemen and 80 gentlemen attended. The Duke of Hamilton, who aimed at the chief direction of affairs in Scotland, was chosen president. At this meeting a motion was made by the duke that a convention of the estates should be called as early as possible, and that an address should be presented to the prince to take upon him the direction of affairs in Scotland in the meantime; but this motion was unexpectedly opposed by the Earl of Arran, the duke’s eldest son, who proposed that the king should be invited back on condition that he should call a free parliament for securing the civil and religious liberties of Scotland. This proposition threw the assembly into confusion, and a short adjournment took place, but on resuming their seats, the earl’s motion was warmly opposed by Sir Patrick Hume, and as none of the members offered to second it, the motion was consequently lost, and the duke’s being put to the vote, was carried.

A convention of the estates, called by circular letters from the prince, was accordingly appointed to be held at Edinburgh, on the 14th of March, 1689, and the supporters of the prince, as well as the adherents of the king, prepared to depart home to attend the ensuing election. But the prince managed to detain them till he should be declared king, that as many as might feel inclined might seal their new-born loyalty by kissing his hand; but William had to experience the mortification of a refusal even from some of those whom he had ranked amongst his warmest friends. The Earl of Balcarras and Viscount Dundee, the former of whom had, as before mentioned, been invested by the king with the civil, the latter with the military administration of affairs in Scotland, were the first of either party who arrived in Scotland, but not until the end of February, when the elections were about to commence. On their arrival at Edinburgh they found the Duke of Gordon, who had hitherto refused to deliver up the castle, though tempted by the most alluring offers from the prince, about to capitulate, but they dissuaded him from this step, on the ground that the king’s cause was not hopeless, and that the retention of such an important fortress was of the utmost importance.

The elections commenced. The inhabitants of the southern and western counties (for every Protestant, without distinction, was allowed to vote), alarmed for the extinction of their religious liberties, and excited by the recollection of the wrongs they and their forefathers had suffered, gave their suffrages to the popular candidate, and the adherents of the king soon perceived that the chances were against him. Yet, when the convention met, a respectable minority seemed, notwithstanding, to be in favour of the king, but they had neither the courage nor address to oppose the popular current. To overawe, as is supposed, the friends of the king, or to prevent the convention from being overawed by the troops in the castle, the Duke of Hamilton and his friends, a few days before the meeting of the convention, introduced a considerable number of armed men into Edinburgh, some of whom were concealed in cellars and houses, ready to act as occasion might require. The first trial of strength between the two parties took place on the election of a president. To the Duke of Hamilton the adherents of the king opposed the Marquis of Athole, who, in consequence of being slighted by the prince, had promised his support to the royal party; but the duke was elected by a considerable majority. This vote sealed the fate of the Tory party, and many who had hitherto wavered in their allegiance now openly abandoned the cause of James. The consequence was, that within a few days, the number of the adherents of the king was greatly reduced.

The first act of the convention was to send the Earls of Tweeddale and Leven, with an order to the Duke of Gordon to deliver up the castle within twenty-four hours. The duke, overcome by the smooth and insinuating behaviour of Tweeddale, reluctantly yielded, and promised to surrender the castle next morning at ten o’clock. When this answer was brought to the convention, Balcarras and Dundee were alarmed, and immediately despatched a confidential servant to the duke reminding him of his promise to hold out, and imploring him not to give way. The duke wavered, but on obtaining a writing which he required under the hands of these noblemen that the retention of the castle was absolutely necessary for the success of the king’s affairs, and being visited the following morning by Lord Dundee, who impressed on him the importance of holding out, he resolved to break with the convention. To prepare matters in the north he despatched thither the Earl of Dunfermline, his brother-in-law, to whom he granted a written commission, authorising him to raise his friends and vassals in support of the king.[551]

In consequence of the refusal of the duke to deliver up the castle, he was, by order of the convention, summoned by the heralds at the gate of the castle to surrender, and a proclamation was read at the same time prohibiting all persons from having any communication with him, and promising a reward of six months’ pay to the Protestants in the garrison who should seize him and deliver him and the castle up to the convention. The duke addressed the heralds from within the gate, and told them, that he kept the castle by commission from their common master, and would defend it to the last extremity; and after handing them some guineas, which he requested they would spend in drinking the king’s health, and the healths of all his loyal subjects, he facetiously advised them not to proclaim men traitors with the king’s coats on their backs till they had turned them. Upon the departure of the heralds, the duke drew out the garrison and gave them their option, either to remain in the castle and share with him the dangers that awaited them, or to depart. Upwards of a third of the garrison took advantage of the permission to depart, and left the castle on that and the following day.[552]

As the king’s friends saw that any efforts they could make in the convention would be quite unavailing, they agreed at a private meeting which they held on the 17th of March, to repair to Stirling and there hold a convention by themselves. This resolution was adopted agreeably to the wish of the king himself, who had sent a written authority, dated from Ireland, empowering the Archbishop of St. Andrews, the Earl of Balcarras, and Viscount Dundee, to call a meeting of the estates at Stirling. Balcarras and Dundee received an assurance from the Marquis of Athole, who, ever since the cold reception he had met with from William, had been wonderfully loyal, that he would accompany them, and a similar promise was obtained from the Earl of Mar, governor of Stirling castle. Athole, however, began to waver, a circumstance which deferred the departure of the king’s friends.

Here it may not be improper to notice a circumstance which probably had its weight in the deliberations preceding the departure of Dundee. On the morning of 16th March, just as Lord Dundee was on the point of going to the convention, he was waited upon by James Binnie, a dyer, who informed him that he had overheard a conversation the day before among some persons of their intention of murdering him and Sir George Mackenzie, and Binnie offered, if a warrant were granted him, to apprehend them. Dundee immediately went to the convention and applied for protection, but they refused to act in the matter, and passed to the order of the day. Whether this affair was the device of the Whig party, as has been supposed, to get quit of two individuals particularly obnoxious to them, there are no means of ascertaining; but when the circumstances of the times, and the opinions then held by many of the people are considered, the design of assassinating them is far from improbable.[553]

But be this as it may, Dundee resolved to remain as short as possible in a place where he might be every moment exposed to the dagger of the assassin; and, accordingly, he and his friends fixed on Monday the 18th of March for their departure for Stirling. With the exception of Dundee, they all assembled at the appointed place of rendezvous in the city at the hour which had been fixed; but as the Marquis of Athole, who had promised to accompany them and to protect them on their arrival at Stirling with a body of his vassals, wished them to postpone their departure till the following day; they consented to remain, and were in the act of dispersing and proceeding to the convention when Dundee made his appearance. Such an unexpected resolution greatly surprised him, but he told Balcarras, that whatever were the views of his friends, he would not remain another day in Edinburgh. Balcarras remonstrated with him, and represented, that his departure would give the alarm to their enemies, who would not fail to take advantage of the discovery; but he replied, that as he had a select body of between forty and fifty troopers ready mounted and prepared to start, he would not remain any longer within the city, but would clear the walls with his party and wait without for such friends as might choose to join him. Dundee accordingly left the city at the head of his troopers, to go, as he is said to have emphatically replied to a friend who put the question to him, wherever the spirit of Montrose should direct. After passing the Nether Bow port, he turned to the left down Leith Wynd, and after clearing the suburbs of the Calton, he faced to the west, and proceeded along the line of road known at the time by the name of the Lang-gate, and which now forms the splendid terrace of Princes’ street. On arriving opposite the castle, Dundee ordered his men to halt, and alighting from his horse, he clambered up the steep precipice on the west side of that fortress, and from the bottom of the wall held a conference with the Duke of Gordon, who stood in an adjoining postern gate immediately above. No account has been preserved of the nature of the conversation which passed between these two devoted adherents of the king, but it is understood that the viscount entreated the duke to hold out the castle as long as he could, and that he would endeavour to raise the siege as soon as he had collected sufficient forces.[554]

The convention despatched a Major Bunting with a party of horse in pursuit, but although he overtook Dundee, he had not the courage to attack him, alarmed by a threat with which, it is said, Dundee menaced him, that he would send him (Bunting) back to the convention, in a pair of blankets, did he dare to molest him.[555] Dundee crossed Stirling bridge the second day of his departure, and proceeded to his residence of Dudhope, near Dundee, to ruminate over the events which had just passed, and to concoct his plans, under the new and extraordinary circumstances in which he was placed, for the restoration of James.

FOOTNOTES:

[520] “I believe there was never accident in the world altered the disposition of a people more than that (the king’s return) did the Scottish nation. Sober men observed, it not only inebriat but really intoxicate, and made people not only drunk but frantick; men did not think they could handsomely express their joy except they turned brutes for debauch, rebels, and pugeants; yea, many a sober man was tempted to exceed, lest he should be condemned as unnatural, disloyal, and unsensible. Most of the nobility, and many of the gentry, and hungry old souldiers, flew to London, just as the vulture does to the carcase. And though many of them were bare enough, they made no bones to give 15 of the 100 of exchange.”--Kirkton, p. 65.

[521] _State Trials_, vol. v., 1369-1508.--Kirkton, 100-4.

[522] Strafford’s _Letters_, vol. ii. pp. 187-290.

[523] This is the veritable instrument devised by the Regent Morton, and by which were beheaded the Marquis and Earl of Argyle, “and many more of the noblest blood of Scotland.”

[524] Kirkton, pp. 143, 166.

[525] “A rumour went that there was a witch-wife named Muddock who had promised to the M’Lains, that, so long as she lived, the Earle of Argile should not enter Mull; and indeed many of the people imputed the rise of that great storme under her paction with the devil, how true I cannot assert.”--Law’s _Memorials_, p. 83.

[526] Note to Kirkton by Sharpe, p. 391.

[527] Law’s _Memorials_, pp. 80, 1, 2, 3, 94, 159.

[528] “But when this goodly army retreated homeward, you would have thought by their baggage they had been at the sack of a besieged city; and, therefore, when they passed Stirling bridge every man drew his sword to show the world they hade returned conquerors from their enemies’ land; but they might as well have showen the pots, pans, girdles, shoes taken off country men’s feet, and other bodily and household furniture with which they were burdened; and among all, none purchast so well as the two earles Airly and Strathmore, chiefly the last, who sent home the money, not in purses, but in bags and great quantities.”--Kirkton, pp. 390-1.

[529] _Scots Acts_, 1681, c. vi.

[530] “He was lying a prisoner in Edinburgh castle in daily expectation of the order arriving for his execution, when woman’s wit intervened to save him, and he owed his life to the affection of his favourite step-daughter, the sprightly Lady Sophia, who, about eight o’clock in the evening of Tuesday, the 20th of December, 1681, effected his escape in the following manner, as related to Lady Anne Lindsay, by her father, Earl James, Lady Sophia’s nephew:--‘Having obtained permission to pay him a visit of one half-hour, she contrived to bring as her page a tall, awkward, country clown, with a fair wig procured for the occasion, who had apparently been engaged in a fray, having his head tied up. On entering she made them immediately change clothes; they did so, and, on the expiration of the half-hour, she, in a flood of tears, bade farewell to her supposed father, and walked out of the prison with the most perfect dignity, and with a slow pace. The sentinel at the drawbridge, a sly Highlander, eyed her father hard, but her presence of mind did not desert her, she twitched her train of embroidery, carried in those days by the page, out of his hand, and, dropping it in the mud, “Varlet,” cried she, in a fury, dashing it across his face, “take that--and that too,” adding a box on the ear, “for knowing no better how to carry your lady’s garment.” Her ill-treatment of him, and the dirt with which she had besmeared his face, so confounded the sentinel, that he let them pass the drawbridge unquestioned.’ Having passed through all the guards, attended by a gentleman from the castle, Lady Sophia entered her carriage, which was in waiting for her; ‘the Earl,’ says a contemporary annalist, ‘steps up on the hinder part of her coach as her lackey, and, coming forgainst the weighhouse, slips off and shifts for himself.’”--_Lives of the Lindsays_, vol. ii. p. 147.

[531] Hume’s _Narrative_, pp. 5-9.

[532] Hume’s _Nar._, p. 15. Wellwood App., p. 323.

[533] Hume’s _Nar._, pp. 9, 12-14, 15-18.

[534] Hume’s _Narrative_, pp. 46-56. _Gazette_, 2044.

[535] He was attacked by two troopers who were ignorant of his quality, till the exclamation “Unfortunate Argyle,” uttered as he fell, betrayed him. “The clan of the Riddells,” says Dr. Burns, editor of Wodrow, “have taken the honour, or the disgrace of having furnished one of these two militiamen. A person of this name from Lochwinnoch, within forty years ago, had gone to the Balloch fair, near Dumbarton, in the capacity of a horse-dealer. The Campbells from Argyleshire heard his hated name, which called up to their imaginations one of the principal murderers of their chief, and they were preparing themselves for a feudal clan battle, when the companions of the Lowlander interposed and prevented bloodshed by a cunning device or _ruse de guerre_, transforming his name from _Riddell_ to _Ridet_.”--“The spot where Argyle was taken [commonly said to have been near Inchinnan in Renfrewshire] is marked out by a stone, which passes among the country-people by the name of ‘Argyle’s Stone.’” _Hist._ &c., tom. iv. p. 297.

[536] Hume’s _Narrative_, pp. 56-67. Wodrow, vol. ii. pp. 533-537. _Gazette_, 2045.

[537] Fountainhall, p. 1177.

[538] Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 624, App. 187, 192, 194, 195. Fountainhall, _State Trials_, vol. x. p. 785, vol. xi. p. 1179. Balcarras’s Account, p. 3.

[539] D’Avaux.

[540] Dalrymple, pp. 200-210.

[541] Balcarras, p. 9.

[542] Idem, p. 19.

[543] Barillon.

[544] James’ _Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 222. &c. Burnet, vol. iii. p. 316.

[545] _James_ (_Memoirs_), vol. ii. p. 271.--_Great Britain’s Just Complaint_, p. 8.

[546] “A day or two after his return, Earl Colin (of Balcarras) and his friend Dundee waited on his Majesty. Colin had been in town but three or four days, which he had employed in endeavours to unite his Majesty’s friends in his interest. ‘He was received affectionately,’ says his son, ‘but observed that there were none with the king but some of the gentlemen of his bed-chamber.’ L---- came in, one of the generals of his army disbanded about a fortnight before. He informed the king that most of his generals and colonels of his guards had assembled that morning upon observing the universal joy of the city upon his return; that the result of their meeting was to appoint him to tell his Majesty that still much was in their power to serve and defend him; that most part of the army disbanded was either in London or near it; and that, if he would order them to beat their drums, they were confident twenty thousand men could be got together before the end of next day.--‘My lord,’ says the king, ‘I know you to be my friend, sincere and honourable; the men who sent you are not so, and I expect nothing from them.’--He then said it was a fine day--he would take a walk. None attended him but Colin and Lord Dundee. When he was in the Mall, he stopped and looked at them, and asked how they came to be with him, when all the world had forsaken him and gone to the Prince of Orange? Colin said their fidelity to so good a master would ever be the same; they had nothing to do with the Prince of Orange,--Lord Dundee made the strongest professions of duty;--‘Will you two, as gentlemen, say you have still attachment to me?’--‘Sir, we do.’--‘Will you give me your hands upon it, as men of honour?’ they did so,--‘Well, I see you are the men I always took you to be; you shall know all my intentions. I can no longer remain here but as a cypher, or be a prisoner to the Prince of Orange, and you know there is but a small distance between the prisons and the graves of kings; therefore I go for France immediately; when there, you shall have my instructions,--you, Lord Balcarres, shall have a commission to manage my civil affairs, and you, Lord Dundee, to command my troops in Scotland.’”--_Lives of the Lindsays_, vol. ii. pp. 161, 162.

[547] _James_, vol. ii. pp. 265-267.

[548] Gordon’s _Hist. of the Family of Gordon_, vol. ii. pp. 585, 586.

[549] Balcarras, p. 29.

[550] Gordon’s _Hist. of the Family of Gordon_, vol. ii. pp. 587, 588.

[551] Balcarras, pp. 41-2. Gordon’s _Hist. of the Family of Gordon_, p. 592.

[552] Gordon’s _Hist. of the Family of Gordon_, pp. 593-4.

[553] Balcarras, p. 24.--_Minutes of Convention_, 16th March.

[554] It is to this interview that Sir Walter Scott alludes in his well-known and stirring ballad of “Bonnie Dundee.”

--“The Gordon has asked of him whither he goes?
‘Wherever shall guide me the soul of Montrose!
Your grace in short space shall have tidings of me,
Or that low lies the bonnet of Bonnie Dundee!

‘There’s lands beyond Pentland, and hills beyond Forth,
If there’s lords in the South-land, there’s chiefs in the North,
And wild dunnie-wassels three thousand times three,
Will cry hoigh! for the bonnet of Bonnie Dundee?

‘Away to the hills, to the woods, to the rocks--
Ere I own an usurper I’ll couch with the fox;
So, tremble, false Whigs, though triumphant ye be,
For ye’ve not seen the last of my bonnet or me!’

He waved his proud arm and the trumpets were blown,
The kettle-drums clashed, and the horsemen rode on,
Till by Ravelston craigs and on Clermiston-lea
Died away the wild war-note of Bonnie Dundee.

--‘Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,
Come saddle my horses and call up my men,
Fling all your gates open and let me go free,
For it’s up with the bonnets of Bonnie Dundee!’”

[555] _Life of Dundee._