his stern and deep voice, commanding silence and
obedience to discipline. The spirit of insubordination had gone forth,
and it seemed as if the exhortation of Habakkuk Mucklewrath had
communicated a part of his frenzy to all who heard him. The wiser, or
more timid part of the assembly, were already withdrawing themselves
from the field, and giving up their cause as lost. Others were
moderating a harmonious call, as they somewhat improperly termed it, to
new officers, and dismissing those formerly chosen, and that with a
tumult and clamour worthy of the deficiency of good sense and good order
implied in the whole transaction. It was at this moment when Morton
arrived in the field and joined the army, in total confusion, and on the
point of dissolving itself. His arrival occasioned loud exclamations of
applause on the one side, and of imprecation on the other.

"What means this ruinous disorder at such a moment?" he exclaimed to
Burley, who, exhausted with his vain exertions to restore order, was now
leaning on his sword, and regarding the confusion with an eye of resolute
despair.

"It means," he replied, "that God has delivered us into the hands of our
enemies."

"Not so," answered Morton, with a voice and gesture which compelled many
to listen; "it is not God who deserts us, it is we who desert him, and
dishonour ourselves by disgracing and betraying the cause of freedom and
religion.--Hear me," he exclaimed, springing to the pulpit which
Mucklewrath had been compelled to evacuate by actual exhaustion--"I bring
from the enemy an offer to treat, if you incline to lay down your arms. I
can assure you the means of making an honourable defence, if you are of
more manly tempers. The time flies fast on. Let us resolve either for
peace or war; and let it not be said of us in future days, that six
thousand Scottish men in arms had neither courage to stand their ground
and fight it out, nor prudence to treat for peace, nor even the coward's
wisdom to retreat in good time and with safety. What signifies
quarrelling on minute points of church-discipline, when the whole edifice
is threatened with total destruction? O, remember, my brethren, that the
last and worst evil which God brought upon the people whom he had once
chosen--the last and worst punishment of their blindness and hardness of
heart, was the bloody dissensions which rent asunder their city, even
when the enemy were thundering at its gates!"

Some of the audience