buse of power to the subversion of
religion, law, or liberty, justified opposition in the people; that it was
for him, by his observance of the covenant, to silence those who doubted
his sincerity; that the evils which had afflicted his family arose out of
the apostasy of his father and grandfather; and that, if he imitated them,
he would find that the controversy between him and God was not ended, but
would be productive of additional calamities. The reader may imagine what
were the feelings of Charles while he listened to the admonitions of the
preacher, and when he swore to perform conditions which his soul abhorred,
and which he knew that on the first opportunity he should break or
elude.[1] But he passed with credit through the

[Footnote 1: See "The forme and order of the Coronation of Charles II., as
it was acted and done at Scoune, the first day of January, 1651." Aberdene,
1651.]

ceremony; the coronation exalted him in the eyes of the people; and each
day brought to him fresh accessions of influence and authority. The
kirk delivered Strachan as a traitor and apostate to the devil; and the
parliament forefaulted his associates, of whom several hastened to make
their peace by a solemn recantation. Deprived of their support, the
Campbells gradually yielded to the superior influence of the Hamiltons.
Vexation, indeed, urged them to reproach the king with inconstancy and
ingratitude; but Charles, while he employed every art to lull the jealousy
of Argyle, steadily pursued his purpose; his friends, by submitting to the
humbling ceremony of public penance, satisfied the severity of the kirk;
and by the repeal[a] of the act of classes, they were released from all
previous forfeitures and disqualifications. In April the king, with Leslie
and Middleton as his lieutenants, took the command of the army, which had
been raised by new levies to twenty thousand men, and, having fortified
the passages of the Forth, awaited on the left bank the motions of the
enemy.[1]

In the mean while Cromwell had obtained[b] possession of the castle of
Edinburgh through the perfidy or the timidity of the governor. Tantallon
had been taken by storm, and Dumbarton had been attempted, but its defences
were too strong to be carried by force,

[Footnote 1: Carte, Letters, ii. 26, 27. Balfour, iv. 240, 268, 281,
301. It appears from this writer that a great number of the colonels of
regiments were royalists or engagers (p. 210, 213). The six b