A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans : with an ...

HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS.
" The whole country now," says Wishart, " resounded Montrose s praise.
His unparalleled magnanimity and bravery, his happiness in devising
his plan of operations, and his quickness in executing them, his unshaken
resolution and intrepidity, even in the greatest dangers, and Ills patience
in bearing tlie severest hardships and fatigues ; his faithfulness and
strict observance of his promises to such as submitted, and his clemency
towards his prisoners ; in short, that heroic virtue wliich displayed itself
in all his actions, was extolled to the skies, and filled the mouths of all
ranks of men, and several poems and panegyrics were wrote upon this
occasion."* It is believed, however, that there was little sincerity in
these professions.
This submission of the people was accelerated by the dispersion of
the covenanting nobility, an event which put a temporary end to the
government which they had established. Argyle, Crawford, Lanark, and
others, sought protection in Berwick, and Glencairn, and Cassillis took
refuge in Ireland.
Montrose might have now marched directly upon, and seized the capi-
tal, where many of his friends were confined as prisoners ; but he considered
it of more importance to march to the west and disperse some
levies which were tliere raising. Accordingly, after refreshing his troops
two days at Kilsyth, he dispatched a strong body under the command of
Macdonald, his major-general, into Ayrshire to suppress a rising under
the Earls of Cassillis and Glencairn; and with the remainder of his army
he proceeded towards Glasgow, m hich he entered amidst the general
acclamations of the citizens. Here Montrose immediately' commenced
an inquiry into the conduct of the leading covenanters of the city, some
of whom he put to death as a terror to others, a circumstance which de-
tracts from the usual clemency of Montrose, but perhaps he considered
it necessary to show an example of rigour among a population on whose
fidelity he probably placed little reliance. JSIontrose remained only a
day in Glasgow, and encamped the following day on Bothwell moor,
about twelve miles from the city. His object in doing so, was to put an
end to some excesses on the part of his Irish and Highland troops, in
which they were beginning to indulge, and which from the precarious
tenure of their services, and his inability to pay them, he could not ven-
ture to control by the severities of martial law.f And as he was ap-
prehensive that some of his men might lurk behind, or visit the city for
the purpose of plunder, he allowed the inhabitants to form a guard
among themselves to protect it. The citizens, in gratitude for the favour
and clemency thus shown tliem, presented Montrose with the sum
of ten thousand merks.
In the meantime, major-general Macdonald arrived in Ayrshire,
where he was received with open arras. The levies which had been
raised in the west quietly dispersed ; and the Earls of Cassillis and Glen-
• Memoirs, p. 174-
Euriiil's Mc inoirs of Ihf Dukes of HaniiHoii, p. 276.