PHILIPHAUGH
The results of this crowning victory were soon manifested. Lanark fled
to Berwick; the Western levies melted into air. Glasgow welcomed the
conqueror with open gates and a promise of money. The Lowland lords
came in from every side with greetings and proffers of service. The
shires of Lanark, Renfrew, and Ayr, which had ever been a stronghold
of fanaticism, sent deputations to sue for pardon. Edinburgh followed
the example of Glasgow. The submission of her citizens was indeed
complete and abject. The prisons were thrown open at the first sound
of the victor's trumpet, and the captives implored to intercede for
their jailers. They confessed their sins; they had been misled by
crafty and seditious spirits; henceforward they would be true and
loyal subjects, and would hold no communion with rebels. Men they
could not offer for their King's service, for the pestilence had been
raging in their narrow and crowded streets, but money was freely
promised. All suppliants were graciously received, and bidden not to
despair of the royal pardon.[18]
Montrose had now nobly redeemed his pledge. In six pitched battles
he had swept the armies of the Covenant from off the face of
Scotland. Wherever he had met them, under whatever conditions, he had
out-generalled and out-fought them. From Dan to Beersheba the country,
which twelve short months since had been the hotbed of rebellion, lay
in abject submission at the feet of its defied and insulted sovereign.
And this had been accomplished in the face of every discouragement, of
broken promises, of cold or treacherous allies, without the material
or supplies of a regular army, by the resolution, the courage, and the
skill of a single man. There is nothing like it in the history of war.
And what was to come of it? Already before the battle of Kilsyth the
King had made an effort to join his one victorious general, and had
failed. Would he be more successful now? Digby was sanguine, and with
Digby at his side Charles never lost heart. Rumours came down from the
North of another victory, and this time on the English side of the
Border. In this new dawn of hope the defeat on Rowton Heath faded into
insignificance. Everything was arranged. On September 26th Charles
was at Denbigh with two thousand cavalry, the only force now left
him in the North. On the morrow he would march for Scotland. But on
the morrow came a despatch from Byron at Chester, with intelligence
that changed the whole aspect of affairs. Another battle had indeed
been fought, but not on the English side. A single day, a single hour
almost, had destroyed the harvest of a year's victories. Montrose was
in flight; his army had been cut to pieces; the Covenant was once more
master of Scotland.
As usual jealousy and intrigue had been at work. The Highlanders,
disappointed at being refused the plunder of Glasgow, and seeing no
prospect of further booty, began to murmur. They had fought enough
for King Charles; there was an enemy nearer home with whom they had
not yet settled all accounts. Macdonald's thoughts were also turning
in the same direction. He had just been knighted in the presence of
the whole army by Montrose, who now bore the King's commission as
Captain-General and Viceroy of Scotland, and had been profuse in
expressions of gratitude for what still ranked among the highest
honours in the sovereign's gift. But the thought of the vengeance and
plunder to be won by leading his kinsmen to a fresh raid against the
accursed Campbells was too much for Sir Alaster's loyalty. Before the
end of August he had left the camp with the Highlanders, who had named
him their captain, and most of his Irishmen. He promised indeed to
return when his services were required; but it is doubtful whether his
promise was ever intended to be kept, and it is certain that he and
Montrose never met again. Five hundred of his men refused to follow
him, vowing that not even at their own leader's call would they desert
the general who had led them so often to victory. Aboyne was the next
to go. Ever since the day of Kilsyth he had been out of humour. He
was not treated with sufficient respect in camp; his services had not
been sufficiently represented to the King; it was all Ogilvy now with
Montrose, and the heir of the Gordons would give place to no Ogilvy.
The jealous young fool accordingly called his men out, and rode off
to his own place. Four hundred horse and a large body of foot went
with him. Out of all the gentlemen of his name, Nathaniel Gordon alone
remained faithful. When Montrose broke up his camp at Bothwell and
marched for the Border, his whole following numbered no more than five
hundred Irishmen and less than a hundred troopers.
Still his heart was as high as ever, nor was his confidence less. The
messenger who had brought his commission as Viceroy of Scotland had
brought also an urgent message to lose no time in advancing to the
Tweed, where the long-desired junction with the King was at last to
be effected. The great Border Earls, Home and Roxburgh, had promised
their co-operation. Traquair had hastened to make his peace with the
stronger power, and his son Linton arrived in Montrose's camp with a
troop of horse to confirm his father's loyalty. Douglas and Ogilvy
were raising the West and Middle Marches, and though the House of
Douglas was but a shadow of that great power which had once bearded
kings upon their throne, it was still a name to conjure with in the
Scottish Lowlands. If his new allies stood firm, all would yet go well
for King Charles.
It was all a delusion. His new allies had never intended from the
first to risk anything for King Charles, and most assuredly would they
risk nothing for his Viceroy. But they were equally resolved to run
no risk for the Covenant, and even in his weakness Montrose was still
a formidable foe. For the present, therefore, it was their cue to be
loyal; but though profuse in their welcome to the King's General, as
he drew down through the Lothians to the Tweed, they kept a watchful
eye for the advancing banner of the Covenant. The news of Kilsyth
and the humiliation of Edinburgh had stirred the Scottish troops
in England to fury. All the horse they could muster, four thousand
strong, was pressing fast northwards under David Leslie, one of the
best cavalry officers of the age. As they streamed across the Border
at Berwick, reinforced by two thousand foot from Newcastle, Home and
Roxburgh surrendered without lifting a hand, and were even accused of
having petitioned for arrest to save them from the possible vengeance
of Montrose.
Montrose was already at Kelso when he learned the news. It was now
impossible for him to advance. Of all his new allies Douglas had alone
proved true. He had joined Montrose on the Gala with such troops as he
had been able to raise; but, with the exception of his own personal
friends and the gentlemen of his House, they were mostly raw clowns
unused to arms and scarce able to manage their horses. Nor, such as
they were, could they be trusted. Even the voice of a Douglas could
hardly persuade his tenants to fight for a cause and under a leader
whom they both feared and hated. The success of the King signified, in
their eyes, the destruction of their religion; the success of Montrose
signified a carnival of murder, lust, and rapine for the wild Irish
savages whom he led to the destruction of his country. This feeling
had been carefully fostered by the Covenanters, till the simple
peasants of the Lowlands heard the name of Montrose with the same
feelings of terror and hatred that forty years later were inspired
among their sons by the name of Dundee. On the eastern Border it was
plain that there was no hope; but something might yet be done in the
West which had promised so much but a short while since. Montrose
broke up his camp at Kelso, and, striking off on a north-westerly
course, came on the evening of September 12th to Selkirk.
It had been Leslie's design to make straight for the Forth to bar his
enemy's retreat to the Highlands. But on his way through the Lothians
he heard how weak that enemy was. It was commonly believed that the
traitor was Traquair, a belief that receives some support from the
fact that he about this time recalled his son from the Royalist camp.
Through whatever channel the news came it at once changed Leslie's
plans. He turned abruptly south and marched rapidly down Gala Water to
meet Montrose.
The main body of the Royalists was encamped on Philiphaugh, a long
and level meadow on the left bank of the Ettrick, immediately below
its junction with the Yarrow. Behind rose the hills; in front ran
the river; at the western end the ground sloped upwards to a wooded
declivity known as Harehead-shaw. This strong position had been still
further secured by some trenches hastily thrown up on either flank.
Here lay the Irish infantry, with the country levies horse and foot,
less than two thousand strong in all. But by some strange infatuation
Montrose had fixed his own quarters in the town on the opposite bank
of the river with the best part of the horse and all his principal
captains. His little army was thus divided in half, and his men
separated from their officers, at the moment when the bravest and most
skilful foe he had yet encountered was creeping on him through the
darkness at the head of a force more than four times his strength.
It is not surprising that Montrose should have been ignorant of
Leslie's change of route when we remember that he was in the midst
of a population bitterly hostile to himself and his cause. But that
his own scouts should have suffered so large a force to advance
unobserved within a mile of his lines is indeed inexplicable. If it
be true, as one account reports, that they were mostly Traquair's
tenants employed on this service as familiar with the country, the
explanation is found. Wishart confesses that Montrose, whose custom
had always hitherto been to post his own sentinels and give his own
orders to his scouts, on this night left the duty to his officers,
being busy with despatches for the King. The duty may have been
negligently performed; the quarter from which Leslie was advancing may
have been inefficiently patrolled, or even left altogether open. The
night was dark and the morning misty. But even had the mist been thick
as that which shrouded the "last, dim, weird battle of the west," it
is not in the course of nature for four thousand horsemen and two
thousand foot to draw within a mile without signifying their approach
to the most careless ears. It is hard not to believe that there were
some men abroad on the morning of the 13th, either in Selkirk or on
Philiphaugh, who were aware of Leslie's advance. No excuse will serve
to acquit Montrose and his officers of grave negligence; but only
treachery can make intelligible the extraordinary and overwhelming
suddenness of Leslie's attack.[19]
Montrose had passed most of the night over his despatches and in
consultation with his council, Crawford, Airlie, and Napier,--for
the old man was not so unfit for fighting that he could not strike
one blow for the King. From time to time reports were brought to him
that all was well. At dawn his scouts came in swearing that they had
scoured the country far and wide, and that there was not an enemy
within ten miles. The day broke dark and chill, and the mist still lay
heavy on the river-banks when Leslie, at the head of his troopers,
burst in upon Philiphaugh. He had reached Melrose on the previous
evening. Only six miles of country, patrolled, if Montrose's scouts
spoke truth, in every direction, separated the two armies during
the night. Before dawn he was on the march for Selkirk. A countryman
guided him to a ford by which he crossed the Ettrick a mile below the
town. As the soldiers of the royal army were getting leisurely under
arms for an early parade the enemy was in their midst.
A scout came galloping into Selkirk with the news as Montrose sat
at breakfast. Leaping into the saddle he dashed through the river,
followed by his officers and a few score of troopers. Many of his
cavalry never came into action at all. When he reached the ground
his left wing was already broken; the raw Borderers had fled at the
first sound of Leslie's trumpets. On the right the Irish stood firm.
For these poor Ishmaelites there was no hope but in victory, and with
their backs to the wood they fought like men to the last. So fiery was
Montrose's charge that twice, at the head of one hundred and fifty
horsemen, he drove back the whole strength of Leslie's squadrons. The
gallant Airlie and his son, Napier and the young Master, Crawford and
Douglas and Nathaniel Gordon, fought like paladins at their General's
side. It was of no avail. A force that had been detached to cross the
river above Selkirk broke in upon the right wing from the rear. Man
after man the Irish were falling in their ranks; horse after horse
broke riderless from those desperate charges. But still Montrose
fought on, as though determined to die on the field he could not save.
Then his friends urged retreat. The cause was not lost, they said, for
a single repulse. Gathering the survivors round him for a last effort,
he cut his way out through the press, and, followed by about fifty
horsemen, galloped off the field. Both the standards were saved. All
else was lost.
About one hundred Irishmen still remained alive. They threw down
their arms and asked for quarter. It was granted them; but for their
wretched wives and children and the unarmed rabble of the camp there
was no mercy. The horrid scene in Methven Wood was acted again, and
they were slaughtered with every circumstance of the most inhuman
brutality.[20] Nor was the bitterness of death past even for those who
had trusted to Leslie's honour. On the morning after the battle they
were brought out into the courtyard of Newark Castle and shot down in
cold blood. On the march to Glasgow many prisoners were taken. Those
of rank were reserved for trial. Eighty women and children, who had
escaped the shambles at Philiphaugh, and were found wandering naked
and half-starved among the hills, were flung in batches from the
bridge at Linlithgow.
Never, perhaps, was the indomitable energy of Montrose more signally
manifested than at this tremendous crisis. Within four days after he
had spurred in headlong flight over Minchmoor he was busy in Athole
issuing orders and raising fresh levies for the King, as though the
rout at Philiphaugh had been but an evil dream. The Napiers were still
with him, and Airlie and Crawford with a few troopers. If Macdonald
would bring his men back, if the Gordons could once more be stirred
to action, the royal banner would soon wave over a fresh army in
Scotland. And for a time things promised well. Macdonald, indeed, gave
no sign; but the trusty Atholemen rose to the call, and with these
Montrose hurried over the Grampians into the Gordons' country. Aboyne
seemed to have shaken off his ill-humour, and joined him with a large
muster of horse and foot. The enemy was divided. Middleton with the
bulk of the cavalry lay at Turriff, watching Huntly who had again
begun to show some signs of life; Leslie was still at Glasgow. It was
to Glasgow that Montrose's hopes pointed; for there lay not only his
most dangerous enemy but some of his dearest friends: the gallant
Ogilvy, the good Spottiswoode, Nathaniel Gordon, and others, prisoners
under sentence of an ignominious death. It were shame not to strike a
blow for those who had never failed him. Duty, too, called him south
as well as friendship. Glasgow lay between him and the Borders, and
still, as ever, it was on the Borders that he looked for the King.
Within less than a month Montrose, at the head of a stronger force
than he had led into defeat at Philiphaugh, was once more on the march
for the South.
It was a fatal move. Had he crushed Middleton first, he would have
relieved Huntly from a present danger, and might have fixed the
Gordons to his side. Now it was but the old story again. Aboyne was
ordered by his father to return, and did not choose to disobey him.
It is vain to speculate on Huntly's motives. Whether he acted from a
sense of self-preservation, or from sheer jealousy of Montrose, he
acted a part unworthy of the man who had once fearlessly professed
his loyalty in the face of his enemies and was hereafter to seal it
with his life. Montrose had now no choice but to leave the prisoners
in Glasgow to their fate. Had he known that Digby was then actually at
Dumfries with the long-promised reinforcements, he might have pushed
on at all hazards, and shortened the story of his life by a chapter.
But he never learned the news of Charles's desperate effort to keep
faith with him till long after it had failed. With a heavy heart he
turned back to the shelter of the friendly mountains, and Digby, a
bolder general in council than in the field, took refuge in the Isle
of Man.
The clouds were now gathering fast round Montrose. As he re-entered
Athole word was brought to him of his wife's death. To us she is but
the shadow of a name, nor is there reason to suppose that she had ever
shared her husband's feelings or shown any sympathy with his career.
But she was the bride of his youth, the mother of the gallant boy who
had fought at his side and who had been already snatched from him by
an untimely fate. At the risk of his life he saw her buried in the
town of Montrose, and was hunted back into Athole from the grave-side
by Middleton's troopers. There a fresh sorrow awaited him. During his
absence the aged Napier, worn out with the long struggle, had breathed
his last, and was now carried to his well-earned rest in the church of
Blair. The new year brought little comfort, though an interview with
Huntly seemed for the moment likely to bear fruit. In the invigorating
presence of Montrose the chief of the Gordons swore to hesitate no
longer, and his sons, in Wishart's vigorous words, "wished damnation
to themselves" if they were not true men for the future. If the Powers
of Darkness took them at their word they were assuredly damned. The
Gordons were indeed summoned to arms, and some languid operations
commenced; but no arguments, no supplications even on Montrose's part,
could induce Huntly to co-operate with him. Meanwhile, his friends
met the fate from which he was powerless to save them. The Irish
officers who had been brought alive from Philiphaugh had already been
hanged without a trial in Edinburgh. Sir William Rollo, Sir Philip
Nisbet, and young Ogilvy of Innerquharity, a handsome boy not eighteen
years old, were beheaded at Glasgow.[21] Nathaniel Gordon, Alexander
Guthrie, and William Murray now suffered the same fate at St. Andrews.
Staunch Covenanter as he was, Tullibardine could not win his brother's
life--even after a respite on the plea of insanity. Sir Robert
Spottiswoode was the next victim. He had never borne arms against the
Covenant, and had only a cane in his hand when taken prisoner in the
flight from Philiphaugh; but as the King's Secretary for Scotland he
had signed Montrose's commission, and he was the son of an Archbishop.
Lord Ogilvy only escaped through the courage of his sister, who,
with his wife and mother, had been permitted to visit him in prison.
She took her brother's place in bed, while he passed out through the
guards in her clothes. Argyll was furious at the escape of one of the
hated House of Airlie, and all the influence of the Hamiltons was
needed to save the brave woman from his anger.
Yet still Montrose, hoping against hope, struggled on. All his
relatives and friends were dead, in prison, or in exile. His lands had
been laid waste, his castles burned to the ground. Only his sword was
left that he could call his own. But he had drawn that sword at his
King's command, and only at his King's command would he sheath it.
And now that command was given. Charles had fled in disguise from
Oxford to the Scottish camp. He seems to have persuaded himself that
he would be welcomed as an ally by men who were growing weary of a
struggle now fast shaping itself to issues they had never dreamed
of and for which they would assuredly have never fought. He found
himself insulted as a prisoner. On the very day of his arrival he was
imperiously requested by Lothian, as President of the Committee, to
command James Graham to lay down his arms. "He who made you an Earl,"
was the spirited answer, "made James Graham a Marquis." But the time
for such spirit was past. On May 19th Charles wrote from Newcastle
directing Montrose to disband his forces, to leave Scotland, and
to await further instructions in France. "This may at first justly
startle you," wrote the unhappy King; "but I assure you that if for
the present I should offer to do more for you, I could not do so
much." Montrose replied that he should not presume to question his
Majesty's commands, but obey them in all humility. Only he would
venture to remind the King that something was due to those who had
endured and risked so much for him, and that some measures should be
taken for securing their lives and properties when no longer allowed
arms to defend them. The King bade him accept the terms offered him.
"The most sensible part of my misfortunes," he wrote, "is to see my
friends in distress, and not to be able to help them. And of this
kind you are the chief. Wherefore, according to that real freedom and
friendship which is between us, as I cannot absolutely command you to
accept of unhandsome conditions, so I must tell you that I believe
your refusal will put you in a far worse estate than your compliance
will." If Montrose refused he was warned that he must do so on his own
responsibility. The King could no longer avow him.
The terms were better than might have been expected. Middleton, who
conducted the negotiations, had no wish to press too hard on a brave
enemy. All Montrose's followers were to go free in life and lands,
save one whose estates had been already made prize of and could
not be reclaimed. Three men only were excepted. Montrose himself,
Crawford, and Hurry (who had changed sides again after his defeat at
Auldearn) were to leave the kingdom by the first of September in a
vessel provided by the Estates. After that day their lives would be
forfeit. The terms were accepted. At Rattray in Perthshire, on July
30th, Montrose called round him for the last time the survivors of
that devoted band which he had led so often to victory, and had found
so faithful in defeat. In the King's name he bade them farewell, and
released them from the King's service. Many implored with tears to be
allowed to share his fortunes whatever they might be, and swore on
their knees to follow him to the world's end. But he would not suffer
them to risk their hard-won pardon. He reminded them that they were
serving their King still by obeying him, and withdrew with a few
chosen followers to the bare and battered halls of Old Montrose to
prepare for his departure.
The danger was not yet past. The Covenanters were furious when they
learned Middleton's easy terms; and Montrose soon found that, though
they could not openly repudiate them, they were bent on annulling them
by secret treachery. If he was found on Scottish soil after the first
day of September his life would not be worth an hour's purchase. The
ship provided for his voyage did not come into the port of Montrose
till the last day of August, and her captain, a morose Covenanter,
swore that he could not be ready to sail for another week. The exiles
were not unprepared. Arrangements had been made for their transport
with a Norwegian skipper lying off Stonehaven. On the morning of
September 3rd he took his passengers on board and weighed anchor. In
the evening the Marquis, in disguise and with a single companion,
slipped into a wherry in the port of Montrose and rejoined his friends
on the open sea. A few days later they were all safely landed at
Bergen.