in the
royal army. But the

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. April 25.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. April 27.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. April 30.]

fidelity of the laird was not proof against temptation; he sold[a] the
king's lieutenant for four hundred bolls of meal; and Argyle and his
associates, almost frantic with joy, passed an act to regulate the
ignominious treatment to which their captive should be subjected, the
form of the judgment to be pronounced, and the manner of his subsequent
execution. When Montrose reached[b] the capital, he found the magistrates
in their robes waiting to receive him. First the royal officers,
twenty-three in number, were ranged in two files, and ordered to walk
forward manacled and bareheaded; next came the hangman with his bonnet on
his head, dressed in the livery of his office, and mounted on his horse
that drew a vehicle of new form devised for the occasion; and then on this
vehicle was seen Montrose himself, seated on a lofty form, and pinioned,
and uncovered. The procession paraded slowly through the city from the
Watergate to the common jail, whilst the streets resounded with shouts of
triumph, and with every expression of hatred which religious or political
fanaticism could inspire.[1]

From his enemies Montrose could expect no mercy; but his death was
hastened, that the king might not have time to intercede in his favour. The
following day, a Sunday, was indeed given to prayer; but on the next the
work of vengeance was resumed, and the captive was summoned[c] before
the parliament. His features, pale and haggard, showed the fatigue and
privations which he had endured; but his dress was

[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, i. 345. Balfour, iii. 432, 439; iv. 8-13.
Whitelock, 435, 452, 453, 454, 455. Clarendon, iii. 348-353. Laing, iii.
443. The neighbouring clans ravaged the lands of Assynt to revenge the
fate of Montrose, and the parliament granted in return to Macleod twenty
thousand pounds Scots out of the fines to be levied on the royalists in
Caithness and Orkney.--Balf. iv. 52, 56.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 17.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. May 18.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 20.]

splendid, his mien fearless, his language calm, firm, and dignified. To the
chancellor, who, in a tone of bitterness and reprobation, enumerated the
offences with which he was charged, he replied, that since the king had
condescended to treat with them as estates, it became not a subject to
dispute their