THE CAMPBELLS.—(CONTINUED.) TIRE Great Marquis had married Lady Margaret Douglas,
daughter of William, second Earl of Morton, and his eldest Son by her, Archibald, became on his father's execution the head of the House of Campbell. He had been carefully educated under his father's superintendence, and sent to travel in France and Italy from 1647 to the close of 1649. When Charles landed in Scotland in 1650 on the invitation of the Marquis of Argyll and the other members of the Committee of Estates, Lord Lorn displayed ultra-Royalist principles, declining to take out a commission as colonel from the Scotch Parliament, and accepting it only from the King himself. He seems at this time to have had little depth of purpose, and to have been actuated simply by the enthusiasm of a young man. He was at the battle of Dunbar, and behaved very gallantly there, and after the battle of Worcester continued in arms in the Highlands for the King, and was excepted by Crom- well from his Act of Grace in April, 1654, he having joined the Earl of Glencairn in his rising in the Highlands in that year with a body of 1,000 men, against his father's wishes and advice. Here
he was associated with the hereditary enemies of his family—the Murrayi, Gordons, and Maedonalds —and although he had a com- mission from Charles II. which gave him the nominal rank of Lieutenant-General of the army, he found his position so uncom- fortable that he drew off his forces, and being pursued by Mac- donald of Glengarry, was compelled to escape with his horse, leatir- big his foot to the vengeance of Glengarry, which he would have wreaked on them but for the interposition of Glencairn. The clansmen, though forced for the time to continue in the service of the latter, deserted in small bodies till none were left in the Royalist camp. Lorn himself took refuge in one of his islands until at length he made terms with the ruling powers. In Novem- ber, 1655, Monk compelled him to find security for his peaceable behaviour to the amount of 5,000/. sterling, and he was closely watched by the Scotch Council, especially by Lord Broghill, who is said to have bribed Lorn's servants into espionage on their master. In the spring of 1657 some intrigues of his were discovered which led to his being committed prisoner to Edinburgh Castle by Monk, and while in this place of restraint, in March, 1658, he suffered a fracture of the head from an accidental blow from a bullet which compelled him to undergo the process of trepanning, and endangered his life for the time. On the Restoration Lorn hastened to London, and was the bearer of a letter from his father to the King, and the generous reception he met with from Charles excited the false hopes which lured the Marquis to his fatal visit to Whitehall. The King himself had no ill-feeling towards the young man, who
seemed to have so little in him of the Presbyterian leaven, but the hereditary enemies of the House could not resist the opportunity of striking a blow at the Campbells, while Middleton, who had succeeded to the headship of the Government in Scotland, counted on the broad acres of Lorn as destined to become his own. Lorn discovered the intrigue, and commenting freely on it in a letter to his friend Lord Duffus, and the letter being intercepted, he was accused by Middleton before the Parliament of Scotland of libelling their proceedings, and on the 24th of June, 1662, that body sent up a representation to the King, with a request that Lora might be sent down for trial at Edinburgh. The King ordered him accordingly to go down, and on the 17th of July he appeared. before the Parliament and made his defence. He was, however, committed to the castle of Edinburgh, a process commenced against him for leasing-making, and on the 26th of August he was condemned and actually sentenced to be beheaded. By the King's express order to Middleton, however, the day of execution was left to the King's pleasure. This was in consequence of the general remonstrance of the English Council, particularly of the Earl of Clarendon, who, actually appalled at this manifestation of the power of clannish animosities and personal rivalry among the Scotch Councillors, is said to have declared that if the sentence were carried out he would betake himself out of the King's dominions as fast as his gout would allow him. Still Lorn was left to endure a long imprisonment until the 4th of Jane, 1663, after the fall of Middle- ton from power.
On the 16th of October he was restored to his grandfather's title of Earl of Argyll, and had a charter of his family pro- perty. He was appointed a Privy Councillor and a Commis- sioner of the Treasury, and although he on one or two occa- sions faintly opposed the proceedings of Lauderdale and the other Ministers of Charles in Scotland, yet he lent himself to nearly all their tyrannical measures, raised 2,000 men to suppress the rising in 1666, was appointed an extraordinary Lord of Session in 1674, in 1675 suppressed a rising of his hereditary enemies in the Isles and adjacent districts, and on the 10th of October, 1678, obtained a commission for three companies to put him in posses- sion of the Isle of Mull, and letters of fire and sword against the- Macleans. A partizan of the measures of the Scotch Cabinet Argyll.
remained down to the arrival of James, Duke of York, in Scotland in 1681. James appeared disposed to conciliate the head of the Campbells, who in return promised his warm adhesion to the Duke unless the Protestant faith were struck at. What induced his sudden interest for that religion we do not know. When Par-
liament assembled on the 13th of August Argyll bore the Crown, and people thought of the fate of his father, who had placed it on the head of Charles at Scone. Two Acts were proposed in this Parliament,—one for confirming the laws against Popery, the other making it high treason to propose any alteration in the succes- sion to the throne. Argyll supported both propositions, the latter so warmly as to elicit expressions of gratitude from James, and the- Act passed on the promise of Charles and James to grant what- ever security for the Protestant faith the Parliament might require. But when this security was brought forward, it was turned into a test of passive obedience for the security of
the throne. To the originally proposed declaration on the part of all persons in office of their, adherence to the Protes- tant faith were added a recognition of the supremacy, a dis- avowal of the Covenant, and an obligation never to assemble to deliberate on ecclesiastical or civil affairs without the King's permission, never to rise in arms without his authority, nor other- wise to endeavour an alteration in Government, in Church, and in State. The oath was to be received under the penalty of confis- cation, and sworn according to its literal acceptation by all persons in civil, military, or ecclesiastical offices, the King's legitimate brothers or sons alone excepted. Argyll on this deplored the frequency of religious oaths, yet opposed the exception of the Royal family—and said that at least it should be confined to the Duke of , York—and when James rose to resist this motion Argyll drew the conclusion that the exception was pernicious to the Protestant faith, and his words were observed to make a deep impression on • James. The Test, which passed by seven votes, was such a mass of inconsistencies and self-contradictions, from having been brought forward with one purpose and converted to another, that it was impossible for any man in his senses to subscribe it bond fide, but Argyll, on being called upon to do so, and being implored privately by the Bishop of Edinburgh not to ruin an ancient family by his refusal, took it as a Privy Councillor on the 3rd of November, with the following explanation :—" I have considered the Test, and I am very desirous to give obedience as far as I can. I am confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory oaths, and I think no man can explain it except for himself. Accordingly, I take it as far as it is consistent with itself and the Protestant religion. And I do declare that I mean not to bind up myself in any station, and in a lawful way to wish and to endeavour any alteration I think to the advantage of Church and State, nor repugnant to the Protestant religion and my loyalty, and this I understand as a part of my oath." The explanation was ap- parently accepted, and he resumed his seat on Apices in- vitation; but a general explanation of the Test was brought forward the same day in the Council, on which Argyll de. dined to vote. The next day he was called on to renew his oath as a Commissioner of the Treasury, and on his referring to his former explanation he was called on to produce and subscribe that as well as the Test, but refused too so, fearing the paper might be used against him. On this he was at once dis- placed from the Privy Council, a complaint was sent up to the King against him, and he was committed prisoner to Edinburgh Castle. An accusation of leasing-making, perjury, and treason was preferred against him. He was arraigned at the bar of the Justiciary Court on the 12th of December. He was defended by the celebrated advocate Lockhart, whose services had been denied him until it was found that he would refuse to plead unless they were conceded. The judges were divided as to the relevancy of the charges, and the Earl of Queensberry, who presided, declining to g'ive his casting vote on either side, Lord Nairn, a, superannuated judge, was called in, and by his vote the relevancy was affirmed on the 13th of December, and Argyll was placed on his trial. He declined to challenge the jurors or examine the witnesses as useless, under the evident predetermination to effect his conviction. Seven of the eleven peers and four commoners who constituted the jury were Privy Councillors and personal enemies of Argyll, and the chancellor or foreman was the Marquis of Montrose, the grandson of the old enemy of Argyll's father. So it is no wonder that Argyll was found guilty of treason and leasing- making, though acquitted of perjury. It was afterwards said that the sentence of death pronounced against him was only intended as a means of extorting from him the surrender of his heritable jurisdictions and a portion of his estates, but everything seeming to forebode his actual execution, on the 20th of December he made his escape from the Castle disguised as a page holding the train of his step-daughter, Lady Sophia Lindsay. He made his way from one hiding-place to another into England, where he was concealed at first in Derbyshire, and afterwards came up to London, where he remained until it was thought advisable for him to seek a safer retreat in Holland, his father having purchased a small estate in Friesland as a place of refuge for the family in case of personal danger. It is said that a note was brought to King Charles during Argyll's stay in Lon- don informing him of the place of the Earl's concealment, but though the King had not moral courage to interpose to save his early friend from his personal enemies, yet, as he had no individual dislike to Argyll, he answered, " Pooh I pooh ! hunt a hunted part- ridge?—for shame !"
Argyll was of course attainted, and his estates confiscated. In Holland he attached himself to the little band of exiles
from England and Scotland, swollen by the explosion of the Rye House Plot, which watched anxiously the course of events, and of whom the Duke of Monmouth beeame after a time the acknowledged head. Argyll carried on an active corre- spondence with Scotland, and seems to have devoted much time to serious thought and religious studies. By degrees the old Cove- nanting leaven, which had evidently begun to work in him before his ruin, showed its effects more and more decidedly. He became at last a strong advocate of the Presbyterian form of discipline, and bewailed his former compliances and activity against that body. Still he never embraced these views in the intense form in which they were hell by a section of the Presbyterians known as Cameronians, the rude and somewhat savage prototypes of the present Free-Church party. On receiving the news of the death of Charles II. Argyll came from Friesland to Rotterdam to con- sult with the Scotch exiles, and at a meeting at Amsterdam on the 17th of April, 1685, it was resolved that two expeditions should be made—one under Monmouth to England, and the other under Argyll to Scotland. Unfortunately the distrust of Argyll still exic‘ting amongst many of the Presbyterians led to the appoint- ment of a committee, without whose advice and concurrence he was prohibited from doing anything, and this division of authority proved fatal to the expedition. The little Scotch expedition set sail on the 28th of April in three ships, but Argyll's secretary and physician landing at Kirkwall were seized by the Bishop and sent prisoners to Edinburgh, the Government thus gaining accurate knowledge of the progress of the expedition. They next steered to Argyll's country, and his son landed and sent round the fiery cross to gather the clansmen, but with indifferent success, all the influence of the rival families being exerted against him. Being pursued by a frigate, they put into a creek and landed their arms and stores at an old castle, but the Marquis of Atholl marching against them, they were obliged to sail off, leaving only a garrison of 100 men in the castle, and these on being attacked fled and aban- doned all the stores to the enemy. The Highlanders not rising in their favour, and the Presbyterians holding aloof from Argyll, he resolved to march into the Lowlands and make a dash at Glasgow. But it was a disunited little band of fugitives rather than invaders which crossed the Leven water three miles above Dumbarton on the 16th of June. Sir Patrick Hume and Sir John Cochrane headed one party, while Argyll at the head of his few remaining clansmen—most deserted when the supplies were cut off—with Ayloff and Rumbold, two brave English exiles, were the chiefs of the other. Attempting a night march they wandered into a moss, and in the morning were so scattered that not more than 500 were together. They then divided their forces, Hume and Cochrane crossing the Clyde with about 160 men, and after gallantly repulsing Lord Row were obliged to disperse. Argyll, who refused to accompany them, despatched Sir Duncan Campbell and two others to endeavour once more to raise his own country, and himself asked a temporary asylum at the house of an old servant, who peremptorily refused it. He then crossed the Clyde, accompanied by only one companion, was stopped, and after a short struggle made prisoner by a party of militia under the command of a man of the name of Riddell, and though they showed some concern when they found who was their prisoner,
they could not resist the reward offered for his apprehension, and handed him over to the Government. Such was the ab- horrence in which in consequence the name of Riddell was held
by the Campbells, that Macaulay states that within living memory it was unsafe for a Riddell to attend a fair in Argyllshire
without assuming a false name. From the moment of his apprehen- sion Argyll, who had displayed little determination during the course of his ill-fated campaign, seemed to assume all the heredi- tary passive courage and calm fortitude in adverse circumstances which had distinguished his father. He was not tried again, but the old sentence of 1681 against him was carried into effect, and on the 30th of June he was executed, dying with great calmness and constancy, even while on the scaffold taking out a little ruler from his pocket and measuring the block. He slept as peacefully as his father immediately before his death, and it is of him, and not of the Marquis, that we should have said that this incident has been commemorated on canvas as well as by the historian's pen. He displayed strong religious convictions during his last days, and there can be little doubt that his character, though it would never have possessed the breadth and strength
of his great father's, was rapidly developing, under the influ- ence of greater conversance with men and principles, into some- thing very different from that of the shallow enthusiast who would only draw his sword under the direct authority of the Stuart Sing.
Previous page
