THE GRAHAMS OF MONTROSE.—(CONCLUDED.) Al - ARCHING thence on Inverness, but finding
the garrison too In. strong, Montrose turned into the county of Murray, where some of the Gordons at length joined him. He then ravaged Elgin, Collen, and Banff, being accused of great cruelty towards the helpless inhabitants. About this time Montrose lost his eldest son John, Lord Graham, a lad of fifteen, who died of sick- ness caused by the fatigues of these rapid marches. The next son, James, who was studying at Montrose, was seized by the Cove- nanters and carried off to Edinburgh. Montrose, after facing Baillie in Angus (who declined an engagement) ; and Lord Lewis Gordon, who had twice already changed sides in the contest, with- drawing with a large part of the Gordons, determined to retire northwards again, but falling first upon Dundee, while his soldiers were engaged in its plunder, he received news of Baillie being within a mile of the place. Nothing but Montrose's masterly movements saved him from destruction, but he at last effected his escape, after a march of sixty miles, harassed at every step by the enemy. He then sent one of the Gordon brothers to endeavour to recall the clansmen of that name, and was joined at Cardross by Lord Aboyne and some adherents from Carlisle. Baillie had divided his forces, and Montrose selected for attack the column commanded by General Hurry or Urrie, who had already twice changed sides, and was now marching against the Gordons. He overtook Hurry at Elgin, and forced him to retreat on Inverness, where he was reinforced, and retraced his steps against Montrose, Baillie meanwhile advancing to rejoin his lieutenant. Montrose resolved to fight Hurry before the junc- tion, and on May 4, 1645, he defeated him at Auldearn, in Nairneshire. Baillie receiving the fugitives, at first avoided an engagement, but Montrose forced one upon him on the 2nd of July at Alford, and with his usual success. He now resolved to march southwards, and after giving an alarm to Perth, where the Scottish Parliament was assembled, and to Stirling, he crossed the Forth and reached Kilsyth. Hera, on the 15th of August, he was attacked by a Covenanting army of seven thousand men, and gained so decisive a victory that the latter was almost entirely destroyed. He now entered Glasgow. Edinburgh sent com- missioners to implore his clemency, and a special commission from the King appointed him Captain-General and Deputy-Governor of Scotland. He then issued a proclamation for a new Parliament to meet at Glasgow in October, while Argyll, Loudon, Lanark, and others of the Covenanting chiefs fled to Berwick. It must be said in favour of Montrose, that he does not seem to have abused his triumph by excesses against his enemies, but he had materials to deal with more dangerous by far in those who now professed them- selves his adherents. His energies seem to have been paralyzed by these embarrassments, or he despised too much the resources of men like Argyll, not gifted with the brilliant impetuosity of genius, bat who conquered success in the end by perseverance and indo- mitable moral courage. General David Leslie was detached from the Covenanting array in England, and marched rapidly towards the Scottish frontier. Montrose heard of his approach, but as he directed his march from Berwick first towards the Lothians, he imagined that Leslie's intention was to interpose between him and the Highlands, and he encamped on the plain of Philiphaugh, on the banks of the Ettrick, in imagined security. But Leslie had turned back at Gladsmuir, and marching down the valley of the Gela to Melrose, passed there the night of the 12th of September, at less than five miles distance from Montrose, who, owing to the enmity of the country people, was left in entire ignorance of his ap- proach. Early the next morning (September 13, 1645), under cover of a thick mist, Leslie drew out his men, and attacked Montrose's forces on both flanks at the same time. Montrose did everything possible in the emergency to redeem the fatal consequences of the surprise, but his efforts were fruitless, his forces were cut to pieces, and he himself barely escaped from the field. For some little time longer he maintained a guerilla warfare in the north of Scotland, but it never assumed any large proportions. In the following year Charles, who had placed himself in the hands of the Scottish army in England, was compelled by them to issue orders to Montrose to disband his followers, which orders he most reluctantly obeyed on the 30th July, 1646, and with Hurry, who had again changed sides only to share in his former conqueror's fall, he embarked in a small pinnace in disguise, and repaired to Paris. Here he quarrelled with Lord Jermyn and Queen Henrietta Maria's courtiers, was discouraged in his projects by the Queen, strongly dissuaded the acceptance by his niece, Lilies Napier, of a place at Court, on account of the general dis- soluteness, and showed his old haughtiness by refusing an offer by Cardinal Mazarin in March, 1648, of the rank of General of the Scots in France and a Lieutenant-General in the French army, because he considered any rank short of a field-marshal below his just pretensions. He then went through Geneva to Germany, was graciously received by the Emperor Ferdinand at Rragne, • who gave him the coveted baton and the command of
forces to act on the borders of the Spanish Netherlands. He was well received at Copenhagen by the King of Denmark, and thence repaired to Brussels. He had kept up meanwhile a cor- respondence with Scotland, and was constantly meditating another descent on that kingdom, and he is now supposed to have composed his famous love-song, in which he lays down the maxim,— " He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch, To gain or lose it all."
On hearing while at Brussels of the execution of Charles, he composed some verses to his memory, commencing, "Great, good, and just ! "in the highest-flown fervour of Royalism. He then joined Prince Charles at the Hague, where that unscrupulous Prince was treating with the chiefs of Scotland for a restoration to that kingdom on the platform of the Covenant. He, however,
at the same time instructed Montrose (who, with other " nants " was under the ban of that party) to attempt an independent Cavalier rising in that kingdom. Montrose repaired accordingly to the Courts of Denmark and Sweden, and receiving from them a few stand of arms and a little money, resolved with these "to put it to the touch." He bought SOW ships, hired some German mercenaries, and with Hurry and some other Royalists set sail for the Orkneys in the beginning of the year 1650. Charles had just before sent him the George and Garter. Two of his vessels with about a third of his force were lost on the voyage, and his levies in the Orkneys were undisciplined and half-hearted, but with 1,200 or 1,400 men at the outside he landed in Caithness and called the people to arms. But the family influence of the Earl of Sutherland prevented his receiving many accessions, and after some desultory marches he fell into an ambuscade laid for him at the pass of Corbiesdale, on the River Kyle, by the Covenanting Colonel Strachs,n, who had been des- patched against him, and on the 27th of April, 1650, his followers were cut to pieces or made prisoners, and he himself only escaped for the moment to be betrayed by Macleod, Laird of Assynt. He could expect no mercy, and certainly merited little at the hauls of the Covenanters, but the treatment he re- ceived seams to have been disgraceful, even considering the usual ungenerous and savage course of procedure at that time in Scotland on both sides. He was carried to Edinburgh, paraded through the streets with every sort of ignominy, and sentenced in Parliament on the 20th of May, defending himself on the occasion with un- wavering courage and ability. He was sentenced to be hanged on a gallows thirty feet high. The sentence was carried out the next day (May 21, 1650), Dr. Wishart's history of his exploits being hung round his neck in derision. So perished the great Scottish Cavalier.
The Great Marquis was succeeded by his eldest surviving son James, who was restored to the family dignities, and had a new patent of Marquis after the Restoration on the 12th of October, 1660. He had on the 21st of August, 1661, a charter of the Lord- ship of Cowal, forfeited by his family rival the Marquis of Argyll, and-was appointed one of the extraordinary Lords of Session Jilts 25, 1668, but he preferred a private life, and died in February, 1669. He is described as peculiarly amiable in his disposition, awl obtained the epithet of the Good Marquis. He was succeeded by his son James, third Marquis of Montrose. Charles II. appointed him Captain of the Guard and afterwards President of the Council. But he also died prematurely, and without leaving any mark in history, April 25, 1684. He was succeeded by his only son James, fourth Marquis of Montrose, who was left to the guardianship of his mother, joined with some other persons. But on the let of February, 1688, the Marchioness was deprived of this office on pretence of her marriage with Sir John Brace of Kinross, but really, it is said, because King James wished to have the young Marquis brought up a Catholic. He then spent some time in foreign travel. He was too young to take any part in the scenes attendant on the Revolution of '89, and the name and fame of the Grahams were sup- ported during that period by his kinsman, John Graham of Claverhouse, whom James had created Viscount Dundee just
before that event, a man whose real character remains still a matter of warm dispute among historians, but whose training in the persecutions in Scotland of the period succeeding the Restoration must have had an unfavourable effect on his cha- racter, though he may not have been the exceptional monster of cruelty that Presbyterian animosity has represented him. He had many of the characteristics of his kinsman the Great Marquis, and is regarded by the Scotch nation at the present day with much the same curious mixture of detestation and pride. The main line of the Grahams, however, was now on the Revolution side of the struggle, and the name of Montrose was no longer connected with the romance of desperate loyalty. The fourth Marquis grew up singularly handsome and engaging in his manners, but he was a decided Whig ; was appointed High Admiral of Scotland in February, 1705; President of the Council February 28, 1706; was a steady supporter of the Union and the Protestant succession ; and on April 24, 1707, was created Duke of Montrose. He was chosen one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland in 1707, 1708, 1715, 1722, and 1727. He was also appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal February 28, 1709, but
was removed in 1713 by the Tory Ministry. On hearing that Queen Anne was dying, he hastened with other Whig peers to Edinburgh, and there on her death proclaimed George I., who had appointed him one of the Lords of Regency. He then hastened to London to receive the new King, and six days after George landed was created Secretary of State for Scotland in room of the Earl of Mar, and was sworn a Privy Councillor October 4, 1717. In 1716 he was appointed Keeper of the Great Seal in Scotland, bat going into opposition to Walpole was re- moved from that post in April, 1733, and died in London, January 7, 1742. He had made a great addition to his estate by purchas- ing the property of the Duke of Lennox in Scotland. His two elder sons died before him, the eldest in infancy, the second after he had been created a peer of Great Britain (May 23, 1722) as Earl and Baron Graham of Belford in Northumberland, with remainder to his brothers, the next of whom, William, suc- ceeded his father as second Duke of Montrose. He was edu- cated by David Mallet. Under the Jurisdiction Act of 1747 -he was allowed for the sheriffship of Dumbartonshire, 3,0001.; for the regality' of Montrose, 1,0001,; of Menteith, 2001.; of Len- nox, 5781.1.8s. 4d. ; and of Darnley, 3001.; in all, 5,378/. 18s. 4d. He was a man of great personal courage, the following instance of which is told :—On the 12th of July, 1739, he was attacked by two highwaymen near Farnham, one of whom, laying hold of the bridle of his horse, bade him deliver, but was shot by Montrose (then Lord Graham) through the head, and the other, snapping his pistol, made off, but being pursued by Lord Graham, quitted his horse and escaped into a wood. The Duke became an adherent of William Pitt, and the family became thus attached -to the Tory party. He died September 23, 1790, and was suc- ceeded by his son James, third Duke of Montrose, who sat for Richmond in 1780, and for Great Bedwin in 1784 and 1790; was appointed one of the Lords of the Treasury on the constitution of the Pitt Ministry in December, 1783, and Paymaster of the Forces in 1789, and one of the Commissioners of the Indian Board and a Privy Councillor. Ile was appointed Master of the Horse in 1790, and in place of this latter post Lord Justice-General of Scotland in 1795. He was also Lord-Lieutenant of Stirling-shire in 1798, President of the Board of Trade June 10, 1804, and Joint-Postmaster-General (in place of Lord Auckland) July 13 in the same year. He was removed by the Whig Ministry of 1806, but again made Master of the Horse in April, 1807, on the return of the Tories to power, and held it till 1821. He died December 30, 1836, and was succeeded by his son James, fourth and present Duke of Montrose. The family, though it holds a leading position as one of the great houses of Scotland, has not for some taws produced any man in the main line at all on a level, bi point of ability, with the earlier heads.
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