[Sidenote: 1653.]
The humiliation of the ecclesiastical system of Scotland, lately so
triumphant, was this day completed by the breaking up of the General
Assembly at the order of Cromwell. The court had met in Edinburgh, and
the moderator, Mr David Dickson, had prayed and begun to call the roll,
when ‘there comes in two lieutenant-colonels of the English forces,
and desired them to be silent, for they had something to speak to
them. So one of the lieutenant-colonels [Cotterell] began to ask them
by what authority they met--if by authority of the late parliament,
or by authority of the commander-in-chief, or if by the authority
of their late king? [Mr David Dickson, the moderator of the former
assembly, ‘said to him: “Sir, you ask by what authority we sit here;
we sit, not as having authority from any power on earth, but as having
power and authority from Jesus Christ; and by him, and for him, and
for the good of his church, do we sit.” Cotterell answered: “You are
to sit no more;” whereby he declared himself, and them that employed
him, enemies to Christ.’--_C. P. H._]... He desired further, that
all the names of the members of the assembly might be given him. The
moderator replied that they could not give them, because they were not
called; but if he would have a little patience till they called the
roll, he should have them. He answered, if it were not longsome, he
should do it. So the moderator began at the presbytery of Argyle, to
examine their commission. Here the English officer replied that that
would prove tedious, so that he could not wait upon it, but desired
them to remove and begone; and if they would not, he had instructions
what to do. [‘He would drag us out of the room.’--_Bail._] Upon this
the moderator protested, in the name of the assembly, that they were
Christ’s court, and that any violence or injury done to them might not
hinder any meeting of theirs when convenient occasion should offer
itself. He desired they might pray a little before they dissolved. The
moderator began prayer; and after he had spoken five or six sentences,
the English officer desired them again to be gone. Notwithstanding, the
moderator went on in prayer, but was forced at length to break off.
So they arose and came forth. [‘When we had entered a protestation of
this unexampled violence, we did rise and follow him; he led us through
the streets a mile out of town, encompassing us with foot-companies of
musketeers and horsemen without; all the people gazing and mourning
as at the saddest spectacle they had ever seen.’--_Bail._] They were
guarded on both hands up the way to the Weigh-house, where they were
carried along to the Port, and thence to the Quarry Holes [Bruntsfield
Links], where they made them to stand. The English required again all
their names; they said they were most willing. So they told all their
names. So the moderator protested again at that place. After their
names were written, they discharged them to meet again, under the pain
of being breakers of the peace.... The English desired them to go
back to Edinburgh and lodge there all night, and be gone before eight
o’clock next day; and discharged that not above two of them should be
seen together.’--_Nic._
‘The day following, by sound of trumpet, we were commanded off the
town, under pain of present imprisonment. Thus our General Assembly,
the glory and strength of our church, is crushed and trod under
foot. Our hearts are sad, our eyes run down with water, we sigh
to God against whom we have sinned, and wait for the help of his
hand.’--_Bail._
The suppression of the supreme church-court was followed (August 4) by
a proclamation at Edinburgh, ‘discharging the ministry to pray for the
king, or to preach anything against the title of England to Scotland.
Mr Robert Lawrie, in his prayer, prayed for the king. When he came
from the pulpit, he was carried to the Castle, but stayed short while,
because an Englishman would be caution that he should answer whenever
he should be called. Notwithstanding, the ministry, finding it a duty
lying on them by the Covenants, continued all of them praying for the
king, and gave their reasons for it to the English commissioners.’--_C.
P. H._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: (SEP.)]
The heat of the summer 1652, and the earliness of the harvest, had not
been attended with such plenty as to produce extraordinary cheapness.
During this summer of 1653, wheat was £1, 5s. sterling per boll, and
the inferior grains about 20s. An excellent crop having been secured,
‘the prices fell strangely, so that from Michaelmas till the end of the
year, oats were at [6s. 8d.] per boll, and wheat [11s. 8d. and 13s.
4d.].’--_Lam._
* * * * *
The Trembling Exies--that is, ague--was this year ‘exceeding frequent
through all parts of this nation, in such condition as was never seen
before ... the smallpox also, whereof many people, both old and young,
perished.’--_Nic._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: DEC.]
[Sidenote: 1653.]
The gallant resistance made to the English by the loyal forces under
Lord Kenmure, in the north of Scotland, was heard of with much
interest by Charles II. and his little court at Paris. Amongst other
adherents of royalty assembled there, was a Welsh gentleman of about
twenty-three years of age, styled Captain Wogan, who, entering in mere
boyhood into the service of the parliament under General Ireton, had
been converted by the king’s death, and since distinguished himself in
the loyal movements made in Ireland under the Marquis of Ormond. Wogan
was one of those ardent spirits whom Montrose would have been delighted
to associate in his enterprises. He now planned an expedition of a most
extraordinary nature. He proposed nothing less than to march, with such
as would join him, through the length of England and Lowland Scotland,
in order to take part in the guerrilla war going on in the Highlands.
Clarendon tells how reluctant the young king was to sanction so mad an
undertaking; but at length he was induced to give it his countenance.
Captain Wogan accordingly landed with a few companions at Dover, and,
proceeding to London, there went about engaging associates and making
needful preparations, without attracting the notice of the republican
government. The men and horses being rendezvoused at Barnet, Wogan
commenced his march for the north with an armed troop, which passed
everywhere as if it were a part of the regular army. By easy journeys,
but keeping as much as possible out of common roads, they reached
Durham, and thence advanced into Scotland by Peebles. It appears that
one of their first adventures in Scotland was to pass through a fair in
open day.[165] Monk, hearing on a Sunday of their having been on the
preceding night at Peebles, caused parties from Linlithgow, Stirling,
and Glasgow to keep a look-out; but the people of the country did not
help the English soldiery with intelligence, and this net was spread in
vain.[166] Wogan succeeded in conducting his troop in perfect safety
into the Highlands.
[Sidenote: 1653.]
This gallant little party met a cordial reception, and immediately
entered with the greatest activity into the war of skirmishes and
surprises which was then going on. The chief of the Camerons, the
gallant Evan Dhu, hailed in Wogan a kindred spirit, and joined in
some of his enterprises.[167] No garrison within many miles of the
Highland frontier was secure from their inroads. Their united names
became a terror to the English. But one winter month of Highland
campaigning formed the entire career of Wogan. A lieutenant’s party
of the veteran regiment known as the _Brazen Wall_, left the garrison
at Drummond one day, to recover some sheep which had been carried away
by the Highlanders. It became enclosed unawares in a superior force
of the enemy, of which Wogan and his troop formed part. The Brazen
Walls got off with a severe loss; but Wogan had received a wound in
the shoulder from a tuck. It was such an affair as a good surgeon
and a week of quiet might have healed--the circumstances of the poor
youth made it mortal in a few days, to the great grief of all who knew
him.[168] He was buried with military honours, and amidst the greatest
demonstrations of Highland sorrow, in the churchyard of Kenmore[169]
(about February 1, 1654). ‘Great indignation was there,’ says Heath,
‘against Robinson, the surgeon that dressed him, for his neglect of
him, the Earl of Athole having threatened to kill him; so dearly was
this hero beloved by that nation.’ The hope of this English author
‘that some grateful muse should sing his achievements,’ has not as yet
been realised; but the readers of _Waverley_ will remember how the
author represents his hero as gloating over Flora M‘Ivor’s verses _To
an Oak-tree said to mark the Grave of Captain Wogan_:
‘Emblem of England’s ancient faith,
Full proudly may thy branches wave,
Where loyalty lies low in death,
And valour fills a timeless grave.
* * * * *
Thy death-hour heard no kindred wail,
No holy knell thy requiem rung,
Thy mourners were the plaided Gael,
Thy dirge the clamorous pibroch sung.
Yet who, in Fortune’s summer tide,
To waste life’s longest term away,
Would change that glorious dawn of thine,
Though darkened ere its noontide day?’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1654.