Unknown (38 page)

Atholl
and Mar, whose lands had been overrun by the Campbell horde on its
way to Angus, led the chorus of assent.

'Last
night, my friends, Argyll brought to me at Duns, for my signature as
member of the Committee, his new commission therefrom to have
sole authority in all Scotland north of the Forth and Clyde. Argyll
alone...'

He
got no further, in the uproar of dismay and anger.

When
he gained quiet, Montrose went on to describe what he had done, and
the probable consequences. It was time to call a halt, he declared.
'At Argyll's instigation, the Covenant cause is fast becoming not a
cause to free religion but a cause to pull down the King and raise
the Campbell! King Charles has been foolish, ill-advised, obstinate;
but he is still our King and liege lord. Our cause puts itself ever
more in the wrong, in this. And I, for one, will not stand by and
see Charles Stewart replaced by Archibald Campbell!'

‘
Nor
I!'

‘
Nor
I!'

'A
plague on that ill-favoured fox!'

'Fox,
yes. But foxes are cunning. It behoves us not to forget it. Argyll
is a clever man - make no mistake. If he is to be countered, it must
be by shrewd means. And unity amongst the right-minded. He will
divide us if he may. We here are all loyal to the King, however
mistaken he may be. He is
Ard
Righ,
the
High King of Scots - and we, his earls, are the lesser kings. This
has always been our status in this ancient realm, from beyond
history. A status that has its duties. We have the duty to advise,
warn and guide the King, when he is wrong - not to pull him down. Is
that agreed ?'

All
admitted it

Then
I say that we should make a compact. A bond, if you like. To bind
ourselves, each and all, to resist the schemings and savageries of
Argyll, to uphold the true Covenant cause and freedom of worship,
and to maintain the King on his throne, better advised. See you -
the Campbell has his friends and bought men, who will support
his every move. We must prove as united, as ready to act. Others
will adhere to us, later. The Lord Napier sent his fullest support.
But here we have a resounding company to begin the climbing of
Argyll's wings! How say you?'

There
was no dissentient voice in the loud and long acclaim.

They
thereupon thrashed out a statement which would cover their
intentions without specifically naming Argyll or the extreme
left-wing ministers. They proclaimed their loyalty to the King,
their adherence to the National Covenant, and how they had joined
themselves together for the maintenance and defence of freedom. But
that, by the practices of a few, their country was now suffering; so
that now the undersigned bound themselves to hazard, if need be,
their lives, their fortunes and estates, to see that these
objectives were not controverted by any soever; and to act together
in so far as might consist with the good and weal of the realm and
the public interest. All signed.

Copies
were made, and subscribed; and with the ink barely dry, Montrose and
Black Pate, with Almond in company now, were off again, on the long
road back to Berwickshire and the army.

In
the end, it was many days, weeks later, in that deplorable summer,
before Leslie was able to set his force of 23,000 foot and 3000
horse in motion. The delay was not all in the high state of the
Tweed, and the presence of royalist forces patrolling the far bank.
The Committee had decided, sensibly, that proclamations should be
sent before the army, into England, emphasising that this was no
invasion, that the Scots had no quarrel with the English people nor
desire - to make war against them, but that it was only a means of
convincing King Charles and his assembled forces in the North that
they must come to terms with the dissidents on both sides of the
Border.

The
river was still a formidable obstacle for men on foot. To encourage
the doubtful infantry, and to set the right tone for the
proceedings, Montrose himself waded in and across, alone, fully clad
and armed as he was, and then back again. Where such happily
uncomplicated matters were concerned he was in his cheerful clement;
indeed, he had been looking forward to the actual campaigning, as
distinct from the politics thereof, almost more than he would have
admitted. This gesture he made under the eyes of a troop of English
horse which had been watching them at a discreet distance on the
other shore, but prudently vanished once the real crossing began.
Montrose ordered a squadron of cavalry to move into the water and
there to stand, in close order, to act as a breakwater for the
current and had his foot move across, arm in arm, just below them.
All got safely over.

By-passing
Berwick entirely, they headed southwards, unopposed, through
central Northumberland, two regiments of 1000 horse and 1500 foot.
This was very much Montrose's personal force, largely drawn from his
own clan and estates, the cavalry Lowland lairds and their tenants,
the foot mainly hillmen from Strathearn, the Highland Line and the
Lennox, some of the fastest-moving infantry in the land, lightly
armed, fleet of foot. It was an ideal force for the van of a great
army, the horse deployed in depth, ranging the countryside on either
flank, the foot pressing straight ahead, at speed, eating up the
miles, clearing the way but leaving the main force behind to
consolidate.

Not
that a deal of clearing or consolidation proved to be necessary.
Certainly, English videttes from Berwick kept them company and under
observation, but at maximum range and carefully avoiding any clash.
And the local people showed not the slightest concern. Clearly the
Northumbrians accepted the proclamation's terms to the effect that
they were not being invaded. A less rousing Scots affray over the
Border had never been mounted. It was the 20th of August

Montrose
chose a camp-site for the main army at Millfield, ten miles from
Tweed, in the Till valley, and pressed on with his own force another
five miles nearly to Wooler. There they spent an undisturbed night,
with scouts posted over a wide perimeter.

Next
day was equally uneventful. Riders from Leslie informed that the
King's Berwick army of about 5000 was retiring fast down the coast
towards Newcastle, definitely not concerned with giving fight at
this stage. Orders were to press on to the Tyne, west of Newcastle,
and there halt

That
they did, without interference, avoiding all centres of population
such as Wooler and Alnwick and Morpeth. Driving fast, Montrose
reached the Tyne at Newburn, some five miles upstream from
Newcastie, in three more days, and there had to wait for another
three while the main army came up - acting now as wary bait for
Leslie's trap.

But
the mouse would not nibble. The Lord Conway was the King's
Major-General at Newcastle, a cautious individual with a
restive and ill-assorted force which, he complained, was only
fit for Bedlam and the Bridewell. Probably he was wise to hold back.
Strafford was his senior officer, based at York, and he made no move
to advance to his subordinate's aid, declaring that the King himself
had left

London
on the day the Scots crossed Tweed, to take personal command, so
that, meantime, a holding action was advisable.

Montrose,
at Newbum, learned off this swiftly; for the English Puritans,
Presbyterians and dissenters generally, conceiving the Scots cause
their own, were quick at sending information. The Graham was no less
swift at passing it back to Leslie, with his own comments. The last
thing they wanted was for King Charles to be personally involved. So
long as he was not there, they could make use of the fiction that
they were not in arms against their monarch, but against his
advisers. But if he led his forces in person any attack thereon must
rank as treason, and would gravely tie the Scots' hands. Montrose
advised an immediate assault on Conway before the King could put in
an appearance. Moreover, spies in Newcastle reported that the
townspeople were mainly of dissenting mind, and also smarting from
the outrages of Conway's unruly soldiery. He suggested letters be
sent to the Mayor and local leaders declaring that the city would be
left unharmed if co-operation with the Scots was forthcoming.

It
was. Newcastle gave Conway notice to quit; and that sensible man,
deciding that King Charles was the best man to direct his own
strategy, commenced a retiral on York. However, Montrose now
commanded both sides of the Tyne, astride the fords at Newburn; and
Leslie, coming up with his cannon, was able to cut Conway's line of
retreat in the most dramatic fashion by sustained artillery-fire.
There was no real opposition. The English cavalry fled headlong for
Durham, abandoning the foot - which turned and raced back to
unwelcoming Newcastle in complete disorder, abruptly a horde of
refugees instead of an army. It was all quite shameful. There were
one or two local scuffles, but nothing worth calling even a
skirmish. Total casualties on the royal side amounted to less than
sixty; on the Scots side they did not reach a dozen. Yet this was
the main part of the King's army, destroyed almost without a blow.

Charles
reached York, and stayed there. He had little hope of raising
another army, meantime. The Short Parliament had refused to
finance this one - hence its quality; and certainly it would not
finance another. The tide of Puritanism was rising. There was
ever-growing disaffection in the South, with even parliamentary
demands for the abolition of episcopacy. Charles was obstinate
and no craven, but even he could not fail to read the signs. With
die Scots beginning to settle in at Newcastle, most evidently for a
long stay, he called for negotiations with his loyal Scots subjects.

The
Second Bishops' War had ended even more swiftly and ingloriously
than the first.

From
Newcastle James Graham wrote a letter to Charles Stewart at York. It
was written in sympathy and loyal duty, assuring the King that, like
himself, the great majority of the Scots people were loyal, and that
if His Majesty would finally dispose of the bishops' question and
accept the Covenant, he would find that he had no more devoted
subjects. It was a simple letter, the gesture of a warm-hearted
man to one to whom he owed allegiance and who was bound to be in a
sorely distressed state of mind.

It
was, in effect, to change the course of history.

16

I
n
N
ovember,
still with the army of occupation in
England,
Montrose received a summons to attend a meeting of the Committee of
the Estates, in Edinburgh. He was nothing loth, for Newcastle had
its limitations as a wintering place for a Scots nobleman. Perhaps,
however, he should have perceived some significance in the fact that
Almond, the second-in-command, and two colonels of regiments,
Kinghorne and the Marischal, travelled with him 'for consultation'.

At
all events, when they reached the capital, it was to discover that
Montrose was called to appear
before
the
Committee, not on it - and the others with him. Not only that,
but all the remaining signatories of the Cumbernauld Bond were here
likewise - with the exception of Lord Boyd, who was dead, and whose
demise was partly responsible for their presence here. Taken
suddenly ill, on his death-bed Boyd had remembered his copy of the
Bond, and had given it to a trusted servitor to burn; but the
trusted servitor had served other masters. The Bond was now in the
Committee's hands — and, no doubt, a facsimile in Argyll's.