As soon as it was known abroad that Charles the Second was dead, the
Covenanters who had taken refuge in Holland from the Persecution
assembled to consult what ought then to be done; for the papist James
Stuart, on the death of his brother, had caused himself to be proclaimed
King of Scotland, without taking those oaths by which alone he could be
entitled to assume the Scottish crown.
At the head of this congregation was the Earl of Argyle, who, some years
before, had incurred the aversion of the tyrant to such a degree that,
by certain of those fit tools for any crime, then in dismal abundance
about the court of Holyrood, he had procured his condemnation as a
traitor, and would have brought him to the scaffold, had the Earl not
fortunately effected his escape. And it was resolved by that
congregation that the principal personages then present should form
themselves into a Council, to concert the requisite measures for the
deliverance of their native land; the immediate issue of which was,
that a descent should be made by Argyle among his vassals, in order to
draw together a sufficient host to enable them to wage war against the
Usurper, for so they lawfully and rightly denominated James Stuart.
The first hint that I gleaned of this design was through the means of
Mrs Brownlee. She was invited one afternoon by the gentlewoman of the
Lady Sophia Lindsay, the Earl's daughter-in-law, to view certain
articles of female bravery which had been sent from Holland by his
Lordship to her mistress; and, as her custom was, she, on her return
home, descanted at large of all that she had seen and heard.
The receipt, at that juncture, of such gear from the Earl of Argyle, by
such a Judith of courage and wisdom as the Lady Sophia Lindsay, seemed
to me very remarkable, and I could not but jealouse that there was some
thing about it like the occultation of a graver correspondence. I
therefore began to question Mrs Brownlee how the paraphernalia had come,
and what the Earl, according to the last accounts, was doing; which led
her to expatiate on many things, though vague and desultory, that were
yet in concordance with what I had overheard the Lord Perth say to the
Earl of Aberdeen in the Bishop's house. In the end, I gathered that the
presents were brought over by the skipper of a sloop, one Roderick
Macfarlane, whom I forthwith determined to see, in order to pick from
him what intelligence I could, without being at the time well aware in
what manner the same would prove useful; I felt myself, however, stirred
from within to do so; and I had hitherto, in all that concerned my
avenging vow, obeyed every instinctive impulse.
Accordingly, next morning I went early to the shore of Leith, and soon
found the vessel and Roderick Macfarlane, to whom I addressed myself,
inquiring, as if I intended to go thither, when he was likely to depart
again for Amsterdam.
While I was speaking to him, I observed something in his mien above his
condition; and that his hands were fair and delicate, unlike those of
men inured to maritime labour. He perceived that I was particular in my
inspection, and his countenance became troubled, and he looked as if he
wist not what to do.
"Fear no ill," said I to him; "I am one in the jaws of jeopardy; in
sooth I have no intent to pass into Holland, but only to learn whether
there be any hope that the Earl of Argyle and those with him will try to
help their covenanted brethren at home."
On hearing me speak so openly the countenance of the man brightened, and
after eyeing me with a sharp scrutiny, he invited me to come down into
the body of the bark, where we had some frank communion, his confidence
being won by the plain tale of who I was and what I had endured. The
Lord indeed was pleased, throughout that period of fears and
tribulation, marvellously to endow the persecuted with a singular and
sympathetic instinct, whereby they were enabled at once to discern their
friends; for the dangers and difficulties, to which we were subject in
our intercourse, afforded no time for those testimonies and experiences
that in ordinary occasions are required to open the hearts of men to one
another.
After some general discourse, Roderick Macfarlane told me, that his
vessel, though seemingly only for traffic, had been hired by a certain
Madam Smith, in Amsterdam, and was manned by Highlanders of a degree
above the common, for the purpose of opening a correspondence between
Argyle and his friends in Scotland. Whereupon I proffered myself to
assist in establishing a communication with the heads and leaders of the
Covenanters in the West Country, and particularly with Mr Renwick and
his associates, the Cameronians, who, though grievously scattered and
hunted, were yet able to do great things in the way of conveying
letters, or of intercepting the emissaries and agents of the Privy
Council that might be employed to contravene the Earl's projects.
Thus it was that I came to be concerned in Argyle's unfortunate
expedition--if that can be called unfortunate, which, though in itself a
failure, yet ministered to make the scattered children of the Covenant
again co-operate for the achievement of their common freedom. Doubtless
the expedition was undertaken before the persecuted were sufficiently
ripened to be of any effective service. The Earl counted overmuch on the
spirit which the Persecution had raised; he thought that the weight of
the tyranny had compressed us all into one body. But, alas! it had been
so great, that it had not only bruised, but broken us asunder into many
pieces; and time, and care, and much persuasion, were all requisite to
solder the fragments together.
As the spring advanced, being, in the manner related, engaged in
furthering the purposes of the exiled Covenanters, I prepared, through
the instrumentality of divers friends, many in the West Country to be in
readiness to join the Earl's standard of deliverance. It is not however
to be disguised, that the work went on but slowly, and that the people
heard of the intended descent with something like an actionless
wonderment, in consequence of those by whom it had been planned not
sending forth any declaration of their views and intents. And this
indisposition, especially among the Cameronians, became a settled
reluctance, when, after the Earl had reached Campbelton, he published
that purposeless proclamation, wherein, though the wrongs and woes of
the kingdom were pithily recited, the nature of the redress proposed was
in no manner manifest. It was plain indeed, by many signs, that the
Lord's time was not yet come for the work to thrive.
The divisions in Argyle's councils were greater even than those among
the different orders into which the Covenanters had been long split--the
very Cameronians might have been sooner persuaded to refrain from
insisting on points of doctrine and opinion, at least till the adversary
was overthrown, than those who were with the ill-fated Earl to act with
union among themselves. In a word, all about the expedition was
confusion and perplexity, and the omens and auguries of ruin showed how
much it wanted the favour that is better than the strength of numbers,
or the wisdom of mighty men. But to proceed.