eck his late declaration, with the history of
his former exploits. He smiled at the malice of his enemies, and said that
they had given. him a more brilliant decoration than the garter with which
he had been honoured by his sovereign. Montrose, by his death, won more
proselytes to the royal cause than he had ever made by his victories. He
was in his thirty-eighth year.[1]

[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 13, 15, 16, 19-22. Wishart, 389. Clar. iii.
353-356. Whitelock, 456. Colonel Hurry, whom the reader has seen
successively serving under the king and the parliament in the civil war;
Spotiswood, the grandson of the archbishop of that name; Sir W. Hay, who
had been forefaulted as a Catholic in 1647; Sibbald, the confidential envoy
of Montrose, and several others, were beheaded. Of the common soldiers,
some were given to different lords to be fishermen or miners, and the rest
enrolled in regiments in the French service.--Balfour, iv. 18, 27, 28, 32,
33, 44.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 21.]

Long before this the commissioners from both parties had met at Breda;
and, on the very day of the opening of the conferences, Charles
had despatched[a] an order to Montrose to proceed according to his
instructions, and to bear in mind that the success of the negotiation
at Breda depended on the success of his arms in Scotland. A month
afterwards[b] he commended in strong terms the loyalty of Lord Napier,
and urged him to repair without delay to the aid of his lieutenant. It is
impossible after this to doubt of his approbation of the attempt; but, when
the news arrived of the action at Corbiesdale, his eyes were opened to the
danger which threatened him; the estates, in the insolence of victory,
might pass an act to exclude him at once from the succession to the
Scottish throne. Acting, therefore, after the unworthy precedent set by
his father respecting the powers given to Glamorgan, he wrote[c] to
the parliament, protesting that the invasion made by Montrose had been
expressly forbidden by him, and begging that they "would do him the justice
to believe that he had not been accessory to it in the least degree;" in
confirmation of which the secretary at the same time assured Argyle that
the king felt no regret for the defeat of a man who had presumed to draw
the sword "without and contrary to the royal command." These letters
arrived[d] too late

[Footnote 1: Carte, iv. 626.]

[Footnote 2: Napier's Montrose, ii. 528. Yet on May 5th the