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

SUBMISSION OF EDINBURGH. 40'J
cairn fled to Ireland. The Countess of Loudon, whose husband had acted
a conspicuous part against the King, received Maedonald with great
kindness at Loudon castle, and not only embraced him in her arms, but
entertained him with great splendour and hospitality ; and she even sent
a servant to Montrose to offer her respects to him.*
During Montrose's staj' at Bothwell, where he remained till the fourth
of September, he was waited upon by many of the nobility in person, to
congratulate him upon his recent victory, and to tender their services.
Others sent similar communications by their friends. The Marquis of
Douglas, the Earls of Linlithgow and Annandale, the Lords Seton, Drum-
mond, Fleming, Maderty, Carnegie and Johnston, were among the first
who came forward. Deputations also arrived from the shires of Linlith-
gow, Lanark, Renfrew, and Ayr, and also from the towns of Greenock,
Ayr, and Irvine, to implore forgiveness for past offences, and to give
pledges for their future loyalty. Montrose received them all very gra-
ciously.and relying upon their assurances, granted them an amnesty.
Montrose expected that the city of Edinburgh, which had been the
focus of rebellion, would have followed the example of Glasgow and the
other towns ;
but whether from obstinacy or from the dread of a refusal
of pardon, the authorities did not send commissioners to Montrose, and
it was not until a body of the royalist horse appeared within four miles
of the city, that they resolved to proffer their submission, and to throw
themselves on the mercy of the conqueror. The following interesting
and circumstantial account of Montrose's intentions, \vith regard to the
city, and of the conduct of the inhabitants on this trying occasion, is
given by Dr Wishart, who was at the time in question, a prisoner in the
jail of Edinburgh.
" Montrose's first and principal concern, after tlie victoiy at Kilsyth,
was about his friends in prison. His generous soul was touched with
tlieir miserable condition ; tliey had continued long under the hardships
of a nasty and squalid imprisonment in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and
had been condemned to death for no other alleged crime, but their loyalty
to their sovereign, and were daily expecting the execution of this sen.
tence. He, therefore, dispatched his nephew, Archibald Master of Na-
))ier, and Nathaniel Gordon, with a select body of horse, to Edinburgh,
in order to summon the city to surrender, to secure its obedience and
fidelity, and to set the prisoners at liberty ; but if tbey refused to sub-
mit, then their orders were to attack them with fire and sword. Wlien
they came within four miles of the town, they stopped, not intending to
approach nearer, unless they were obliged by the obstinacy of the citi-
zens ; this they did, both to preserve the city and its inhabitants from
the fury and rapacious insolence of their soldiers, who, considering it as
the chief spring and fomenter of this accursed rebellion, might, in the
traiisports of their rage and furj', be hurried to conunit the greatest cruel-
• (juthrj's Memoirs, p. loA