trating what they regarded as the factious designs of extreme Covenanting leaders. His conduct in England, too, had been questionable. It was accidentally discov- ered that he had been communicating with the king; and when the Parliament assembled (November, 1640), he was cited to appear before a committee. The affair of the Cumbernauld Bond, discovered by the ingenuity of Argyle, was brought up; but Montrose defended his conduct and that of his colleagues, and nothing came of it, though some fiery spirits among the clergy, says Guthrie, " pressed that their lives might go for it." In the following June, Montrose and some others were ac- cused of plotting against Argyle, and were confined in Edinburgh Castle, where they remained till the begin- ning of 1642, ^vhen they were set at liberty in return for the concessions which Charles had made his Scottish subjects. Although they had frequently been exam- ined, nothing definite had been proved against them. The accusation that Montrose had proposed to the king to assassinate Argyle is not historically substantiated, and is intrinsically improbable. During the next year or two Montrose kept aloof, at least outwardly, from public aifairs, and became alienated from the Covenanters. He went to York to wait on the king some time in 1643, but failed to meet him. He finallj' joined the queen, but did not secure any open alliance with the king; the Cov- enanters all this time trying to win him over to their side again. The civil war which had broken out in r^ngland determined Charles and his advisers to crush the Presbyterian leaders in Scotland, who were abetting the efforts of the English Parliamentarians. In the spring of 1644 Montrose finally entered into the king's service, and was raised to the rank of marquis. He left Oxford, where he had been residing with his sovereign, and proceeded to Scotland to raise the Koyalists in the North. The battle of Marston Moor for a moment par- alyzed him, but his resolution speedUy returned. He threw himself into the Highlands, and, after skulking about the hills for some time in disguise, met at Blair- Athol some Irish auxiliaries and a body of Highlanders, who had forced their way thither from the Western Isles in hopes of joining him, and with these enforce- ments he marched south, fell suddenly (September 1) on the Covenanting army commanded by lord Elcho at Tippermuir, near Perth, and gained a complete victory. Not a single Royalist was slain. After a three-days' stay at Perth, he set out for the North, defeated a force of Covenanters under lord Burleigh at Aberdeen (Septem- ber 13), and took possession of the city, which was abandoned for four days to all the horrors of war. The approach of Argyle, at the head of 4000 men, compelled Montrose, whose forces were far inferior in numbers and discipline, to retreat into the wilds of Badenoch, whence he recrossed the Grampians, and suddenly appeared in Angus, where he wasted the estates of more than one Covenanting nobleman. With fresh supplies, he then once more returned to Aberdeenshire, with the vieAv of raising the Gordons ; narrowly escaped defeat at Fyvie in the end of October, and again withdrew into the fast- nesses of the mountains. Argyle, baffled in all his at- tempts to capture or crush Montrose, returned to Edin- burgh and threw up his commission. His opponent, receiving large accessions from the Highland clans, planned a winter campaign, marched south^vestward into the country of the Campbells, devastated it fright- fully, drove Argyle himself from his castle at Inverar}', and then wheeled north, intending to attack Inverness, where the Covenanters were posted in strong force un- der the earl of Seaforth. The "Estates" at Edinburgh were greatly alarmed, and, raising a fresh army, placed it under the command of general Baillie, a natural son of Sir William Baillie of Lamington. After consulting with Argyle, it was arranged that he should proceed by way of Perth, and take jNIontrose in front, while Argyle should rally his vast array of vassals and attack him in the rear. The Royalist leader was in the great glen of Albin— the basin of the Caledonian Canal— on his way
MONTROSE
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