presbyterian preacher, taken in the act of exhorting a conventicle, and Mause with her forlorn son Cuddie, who had been apprehended among the audience.

Claverhouse finds the insurgents strongly drawn up. They are summoned to surrender, but fire upon the officer (a nephew of Claverhouse, according to the story) and kill him on the spot. The soldiers then rush to the assault, and the various incidents and fluctuations of the battle are described with clearness and accuracy. The most striking part is the personal encounter between Bothwell and Balfour, or Burley, in which the former falls.

"You are the murdering villain Burley,' said Bothwell, griping his sword firmly, and setting his teeth close-' you escaped me once, but' (he swore an oath too tremendous to be written) thy head is worth its weight of silver, and it shall go home at my saddle-bow, or my saddle shall go home empty for

me.'

·

"Yes,' replied Burley, with stern and gloomy deliberation, 'I am that John Balfour who promised to lay thy head where thou should'st never lift it again; and God do so to me, and more also, if I do not redeem my word.'

"Then a bed of heather, or a thousand marks!' said Bothwell, striking at Burley with his full force.

"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!' answered Balfour as he parried and returned the blow.

"There have seldom met two combatants more equally matched in strength of body, skill in the management of their weapons and horses, determined courage, and unrelenting hostility. After exchanging many desperate blows, each receiving and inflicting several wounds, though of no great consequence, they grappled together as if with the desperate impatience of mortal hate, and Bothwell, seizing his enemy by the shoulder-belt, while the grasp of Balfour was upon his own collar, they came headlong to the ground. The companions of Burley hastened to his assistance, but were repelled by the dragoons, and the battle became again

general. But nothing could withdraw the attention of the combatants from each other, or induce them to unclose the deadly clasp in which they rolled together on the ground, tearing, struggling, and foaming, with the inveteracy of thoroughbred bull-dogs.

had

"Several horses passed over them in the mê ée without the r quitting hold of each other, until the sword-arm of Bothwell was broken by a kick of a charger. He then relinquished his grasp with a deep and suppressed groan, and both combatants started to their feet. Bothwell's right hand dropped helpless by his side, but his left griped to the place where his dagger hung; escaped from the sheath in the struggle and, with a look of mingled rage and despair, he stood totally defenceless, as Balfour, with a laugh of savage joy, flourished his sword aloft, and then passed it through his adversary's body. Bothwell received the thrust without falling-it had only grazed on his ribs. attempted no further defence, but, looking at Burley with a grin of deadly hatred, exclaimed,—' Base peasant churl, thou hast spilt the blood of a line of kings! '

6.6

He

Die, wretch!-die,' said Balfour, redoubling the thrust with better aim; and setting his foot on Bothwell's body as he fell, he a third time transfixed him with his sword.- Die, bloodthirsty dog! die, as thou hast lived '-die. like the beasts that perish-hoping nothing-believing nothing—”

"And FEARING nothing'' said Bothwell, collecting the last effort of respiration to utter these desperate words. and expiring as soon as they were spoken.”— Vol. iii. pp. 61–64.

At length Claverhouse and his party are totally routed and driven from the field.

This is a lively, but exaggerated account of a remarkable skirmish, the only one in which Claverhouse was ever worsted. The relation betwixt him and the Cornet Grahame who was slain, is quite imaginary. The accounts given by Creighton, and by Guild (author of a Latin poem called Bellum Bothuellianum,) state that the body of this officer was brutally mangled after death, by the conquerors, from a belief that it was that of his commander

Claverhouse. A curious detail of the action, which we should be tempted to transcribe had we space, from the manuscript of James Russell, one of the murderers of Archbishop Sharpe, and who was himself present, ascribes the mangling of the corpse of Cornet Grahame, to some indiscreet language which he was reported to have held on the morning of the fight. Both parties, no doubt, made a point of believing their own side of the story, which is always a matter of conscience in such cases.

Morton, set at liberty by the victorious Covenanters, is induced to join their cause and accept of a command in their levy; as well by the arguments of Burley, and a deep sense of the injustice with which the insurgents have been treated by Government, as by natural indignation at the unworthy and cruel treatment which he had himself experienced. But, although he adopts this decisive step, yet it is without participating in the narrow-minded fanaticism and bitter rancour with which most of the persecuted party regarded the prelatists, and not without an express stipulation, that, as he joined a cause supported by men in open war, so he expected it was to be carried on according to the laws of civilized nations. If we look to the history of these times, we shall find reason to believe that the Covenanters had not learned mercy in the school of persecution. It was perhaps not to be expected from a people proscribed and persecuted, having their spirits embittered by the most severe personal sufferings. But that the temper of the victors of Drumclog was cruel and sanguinary, is too evident

from the report of their historian, Mr Howie, of Lochgoin; a character scarcely less interesting or peculiar than Old Mortality, and who, not many years since, collected, with great assiduity, both from manuscripts and traditions, all that could be recovered concerning the champions of the Covenant. In his History of the Rising at Bothwellbridge, and the preceding skirmish of Drumclog, he records the opinions of Mr Robert Hamilton, who commanded the Whigs upon the latter occasion, concerning the propriety and legality of giving quarter to a vanquished enemy.

"Mr Hamilton discovered a great deal of bravery and valour, both in the conflict with and pursuit of the enemy; but when he and some others were pursuing the enemy, others flew too greedily upon the spoil, small as it was, instead of pursuing the victory; and some, without Mr Hamilton's knowledge, and directly contrary to his express command, gave five of these bloody enemies quarters, and then let them go; this greatly grieved Mr Hamilton, when he saw some of Babel's brats spared, after the Lord had delivered them to their hands, that they might dash them against the stones.-PSA L. cxxxvii. 9. In his own account of this, he reckons the sparing of these enemies, and the letting them go, to be among their first stepping aside; for which he feared that the Lord would not honour them to do much more for him; and he says, that he was neither for taking favours from, nor giving favours to, the Lord's enemies."-Battle of Bothwell Bridge, p. 9.

1 The same honest but bigoted and prejudiced historian of the Scottish Worthies has, in the Life of John Nesbit, of Hardhill, another champion of the covenanted cause, canvassed this delicate point more closely. It would appear that James Nesbit, at the time of his execution, had testified, among other steps of defection and causes of wrath, against the lenity shown to the five captive dragoons. "He was by some thought 100 severe in his design of killing the prisoners at Drumelog. But in this he was not altogether to blame; for the enemy's word was-No quarters-and the sufferers were the same; and we find it grieved Mr Hamilton very much, when he be VOL. XIX.

D

The author therefore has acted in strict conformity with historical truth (whether with propriety we shall hereafter enquire) in representing the Covenanters, or rather the ultra-Covenanters, for those who gained the skirmish fell chiefly under this description, as a fierce and sanguinary set of men, whose zeal and impatience under persecution had destroyed the moral feeling and principle which ought to attend and qualify all acts of retaliation. The large body of Presbyterians, both clergy and people, were far from joining in these extrava

held some of them spared, after the Lord had delivered them into their hand. Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Psal, exxxvii. 8. Yea, Hardhill himself seems to have had clear grounds and motives for this, in one of the above-mentioned steps of defection, with which we shall conclude this narrative."

"15thly. As there has been rash, envious, and carnal executing of justice on his and the church's enemies, so he has also been provoked to reject, cast off, and take the power out of his people's hand, for being so sparing of them, when he brought forth and gave a commission to execute on them that vengeance due unto them, as it is Psal. cxix. 9. For as justice ought to be executed in such and such a way and manner as aforesaid, so it ought to be fully executed without sparing, as is clear from Joshua, vii. 24, &c. For sparing the life of the enemy, and fleeing upon the spoil, 1 Sam. xv. 18, Saul is sharply rebuked, and though he excused himself, yet for that very thing he is rejected from being king. Let the practice of Drumclog be remembered and mourned for. If there was not a deep ignorance, reason might teach this; for what master having servants and putting them to do his work, would take such a slight at his servants' hands as to do a part of his work, and come and say to the master, that it is not necessary to do the rest, when the not doing of it would be disho nourable to the master, and hurtful to the whole family? Therefore was the wrath of the Lord against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his inheritance, and hiding his face from his people, making them afraid at the shaking of a leaf, and to flee when none pursueth, being a scorn and hissing to enemies, and fear to some who desire to befriend his cause. And, O! lay to heart and mourn for what has been done to provoke him to anger, in not seeking the truth to execute judgment, and therefore he has not pardoned. Behold! for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. Isa, l. 1. &c.”—Scottish Worthies, p. 439.