The place where we met was a deep glen, the scroggy sides whereof were
as if rocks, and trees and brambles, with here and there a yellow
primrose and a blue hyacinth between, had been thrown by some wild
architect into many a difficult and fantastical form. Over a ledge of
rock fell the bright waters of the Esk, and in the clear linn the trouts
shuttled from stone and crevice, dreading the persecutions of the
angler, who, in the luxury of his pastime, heedeth not what they may in
their cool element suffer.
It was then the skirt of the afternoon, about the time when the sweet
breathing of flowers and boughs first begins to freshen to the gentle
senses, and the shadows deepen in the cliffs of the rocks and darken
among the bushes. The yellow sunbeams were still bright on the
flickering leaves of a few trees, which here and there raised their
tufty heads above the glen; but in the hollow of the chasm the evening
had commenced, and the sobriety of the fragrant twilight was coming on.
As we assembled one by one, we said little to each other. Some indeed
said nothing, nor even shook hands, but went and seated themselves on
the rocks, round which the limpid waters were swirling with a soft and
pleasant din, as if they solicited tranquillity. For myself, I had come
with the sternest intents, and I neither noticed nor spoke to any one;
but going to the brink of the linn, I sat myself down in a gloomy nook,
and was sullen, that the scene was not better troubled into unison with
the resentful mood of my spirit.
At last Mr Renwick came, and when he had descended into the dell, where
we were gathered together, after speaking a few words of courtesy to
certain of his acquaintance, he went to a place on the shelvy side of
the glen, and took his station between two birch-trees.
"I will be short with you, friends," said he; "for here we are too nigh
unto the adversaries to hazard ourselves in any long debate; and
therefore I will tell you, as a man speaking the honesty that is within
him, I neither can nor do approve of the paper that I understand some
among you desire we should send forth. I have, however, according to
what was exhibited to me in private, brought here a proclamation, such
as those who are most vehement among us wish to propound; but I still
leave it with yourselves to determine whether or not it should be
adopted--entering, as I here do, my caveat as an individual against it.
This paper will cut off all hope of reconciliation--we have already
disowned King Charles, it is true; but this implies, that we are also
resolved to avenge, even unto blood and death, whatsoever injury we may
in our own persons and friends be subjected to suffer. It pledges us to
a war of revenge and extermination; and we have to consider, before we
wage the same, the strength of our adversary--the craft of his
counsellors--and the malice with which their fears and their hatred will
inspire them. For my own part, fellow-sufferers, I do doubt if there be
any warrandice in the Scriptures for such a defiance as this paper
contains, and I would fain entreat you to reflect, whether it be not
better to keep the door of reconciliation open, than to shut it for
ever, as the promulgation of this retaliatory edict will assuredly do."
The earnest manner in which Mr Renwick thus delivered himself had a
powerful effect, and many thought as he did, and several rose and said
that it was not Christian to bar the door on peace, and to shut out even
the chance of contrition on the part of the King and his ministers.
I heard what they said--I listened to what they argued--and I allowed
them to tell that they were willing to agree to more moderate counsels;
but I could abide no more.
"Moderation!--You, Mr Renwick," said I, "counsel moderation--you
recommend the door of peace to be still kept open--you doubt if the
Scriptures warrant us to undertake revenge; and you hope that our
forbearance may work to repentance among our enemies. Mr Renwick, you
have hitherto been a preacher, not a sufferer; with you the resistance
to Charles Stuart's government has been a thing of doctrine--of no more
than doctrine, Mr Renwick--with us it is a consideration of facts. Judge
ye therefore between yourself and us,--I say between yourself and us;
for I ask no other judge to decide, whether we are not, by all the laws
of God and man, justified in avowing, that we mean to do as we are done
by.
"And, Mr Renwick, you will call to mind, that in this sore controversy,
the cause of debate came not from us. We were peaceable Christians,
enjoying the shade of the vine and fig-tree of the Gospel, planted by
the care and cherished by the blood of our forefathers, protected by the
laws, and gladdened in our protection by the oaths and the covenants
which the King had sworn to maintain. The presbyterian freedom of
worship was our property,--we were in possession and enjoyment, no man
could call our right to it in question,--the King had vowed, as a
condition before he was allowed to receive the crown, that he would
preserve it. Yet, for more than twenty years, there has been a most
cruel, fraudulent, and outrageous endeavour instituted, and carried on,
to deprive us of that freedom and birthright. We were asking no new
thing from Government, we were taking no step to disturb Government, we
were in peace with all men, when Government, with the principles of a
robber and the cruelty of a tyrant, demanded of us to surrender those
immunities of conscience which our fathers had earned and defended; to
deny the Gospel as it is written in the Evangelists, and to accept the
commentary of Charles Stuart, a man who has had no respect to the most
solemn oaths, and of James Sharp, the apostate of St Andrews, whose
crimes provoked a deed, that but for their crimson hue, no man could
have doubted to call a most foul murder. The King and his crew, Mr
Renwick, are, to the indubitable judgment of all just men, the causers
and the aggressors in the existing difference between his subjects and
him. In so far, therefore, if blame there be, it lieth not with us nor
in our cause.
"But, sir, not content with attempting to wrest from us our inherited
freedom of religious worship, Charles Stuart and his abettors have
pursued the courageous constancy with which we have defended the same,
with more animosity than they ever did any crime. I speak not to you, Mr
Renwick, of your own outcast condition,--perhaps you delight in the
perils of martyrdom; I speak not to those around us, who, in their
persons, their substance, and their families, have endured the torture,
poverty, and irremediable dishonour,--they may be meek and hallowed men,
willing to endure. But I call to mind what I am and was myself. I think
of my quiet home,--it is all ashes. I remember my brave first-born,--he
was slain at Bothwell-brigg. Why need I speak of my honest brother; the
waves of the ocean, commissioned by our persecutors, have triumphed over
him in the cold seas of the Orkneys; and as for my wife, what was she to
you? Ye cannot be greatly disturbed that she is in her grave. No, ye are
quiet, calm, and prudent persons; it would be a most indiscreet thing of
you, you who have suffered no wrong yourselves, to stir on her account;
and then how unreasonable I should be, were I to speak of two fair and
innocent maidens.--It is weak of me to weep, though they were my
daughters. O men and Christians, brothers, fathers! but ye are content
to bear with such wrongs, and I alone of all here may go to the gates of
the cities, and try to discover which of the martyred heads mouldering
there belongs to a son or a friend. Nor is it of any account whether the
bones of those who were so dear to us, be exposed with the remains of
malefactors, or laid in the sacred grave. To the dead all places are
alike; and to the slave what signifies who is master. Let us therefore
forget the past,--let us keep open the door of reconciliation,--smother
all the wrongs we have endured, and kiss the proud foot of the trampler.
We have our lives; we have been spared; the merciless blood-hounds have
not yet reached us. Let us therefore be humble and thankful, and cry to
Charles Stuart, O King live for ever!--for he has but cast us into a
fiery furnace and a lion's den.
"In truth, friends, Mr Renwick is quite right. This feeling of
indignation against our oppressors is a most imprudent thing. If we
desire to enjoy our own contempt, and to deserve the derision of men,
and to merit the abhorrence of Heaven, let us yield ourselves to all
that Charles Stuart and his sect require. We can do nothing better,
nothing so meritorious, nothing by which we can so reasonably hope for
punishment here and condemnation hereafter. But if there is one man at
this meeting,--I am speaking not of shapes and forms, but of
feelings,--if there is one here that feels as men were wont to feel, he
will draw his sword, and say with me, Woe to the house of Stuart! Woe to
the oppressors! Blood for blood! Judge and avenge our cause, O Lord!"