Montrose, by his death, won more
proselytes to the royal cause than he had ever made by his victories. He
was in his thirty-eighth year.[1]
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 13, 15, 16, 19-22. Wishart, 389. Clar. iii.
353-356. Whitelock, 456. Colonel Hurry, whom the reader has seen
successively serving under the king and the parliament in the civil war;
Spotiswood, the grandson of the archbishop of that name; Sir W. Hay, who
had been forefaulted as a Catholic in 1647; Sibbald, the confidential envoy
of Montrose, and several others, were beheaded. Of the common soldiers,
some were given to different lords to be fishermen or miners, and the rest
enrolled in regiments in the French service.--Balfour, iv. 18, 27, 28, 32,
33, 44.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 21.]
Long before this the commissioners from both parties had met at Breda;
and, on the very day of the opening of the conferences, Charles
had despatched[a] an order to Montrose to proceed according to his
instructions, and to bear in mind that the success of the negotiation
at Breda depended on the success of his arms in Scotland. A month
afterwards[b] he commended in strong terms the loyalty of Lord Napier,
and urged him to repair without delay to the aid of his lieutenant.
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