venant,' and the accusation fell to the ground.

Montrose, however, though entirely cleared of the charge, was not slow
to read the signs of the times. He saw that the covenanters were no
longer content with guarding their own liberties of church and state,
but desired to set at naught the king's authority, perhaps even to
depose him. So he and certain of his friends, Mar, Almond, and Erskine
among them, formed a bond by which they swore to uphold the old covenant
which they had signed in 1638, 'to the hazard of their lives, fortunes,
and estates, against the particular perhaps indirect practising of a
few.' This was the covenant to which Montrose held all his life, and
for which he was hanged beside the city cross.

* * * * *

Having as he hoped taken measures to checkmate Argyll, Montrose joined
the army, which had now swelled to twenty-five thousand men, was the
first to cross the Tweed at Coldstream, and marched straight on
Newcastle. The town surrendered without firing a shot, and Montrose sent
a letter to the king again professing his loyalty. When later he was
imprisoned on a charge of treason to the covenant in so doing, he
answered that his conscience was clear in the matter, and that it was no
more than they had all declared in the covenant, which no man could
deny. But soon another storm was raised on account of the famous bond
which he and his friends had made a short time before they were put in
prison, and the clamour was so great that even his own party was
alarmed, and gave it up to be burned by the hangman.

* * * * *

Montrose's next object was to induce the king to come to Edinburgh in
order to persuade the Scotch that he was ready to keep his word, and to
grant the country the religious and civil liberties demanded by the
covenant. Charles came, and was gracious and charming as he knew how to
be, even going to the Presbyterian service, which he hated. This pleased
everyone, and hopes ran high; but the quarrel was too grave to be
soothed by a few soft words spoken or a few titles given. Plots and
rumours of plots were rife in Edinburgh, and the king was forced to
employ not the men he wished, but the men whom the Parliament desired.
In November he returned to England, first promising that he would never
take into his service Montrose, who had just been released after five
months spent in prison, where he had been thrown with the rest of