ought him into public notice by inducing the king to put
him at the head of the troops sent to repress a rising of the extreme
Covenanters which broke out at this moment in the western counties of
Scotland. Monmouth showed courage in routing the insurgents at Bothwell
Brig on the Clyde as well as judgement in the mercy he extended to them
after their defeat; and on his return Shaftesbury pressed the king to
give him the command of the Guards, which would have put the only
military force possessed by the Crown in Monmouth's hands.

[Sidenote: Shaftesbury's Second Dismissal.]

Sunderland, Halifax, and Essex, on the other hand--for Temple took less
and less part in public affairs--were not only steadily opposed to
Shaftesbury's project, but saw themselves marked out for ruin in the
event of its success. They had advised the dissolution of the last
Parliament; and the Earl's anger had vented itself in threats that the
advisers of the dissolution should pay for it with their heads. The
danger came home to them when a sudden illness of the king and the
absence of James made Monmouth's accession a possible contingency. The
three ministers at once induced Charles to recall the Duke of York; and
though he withdrew to Scotland on the king's recovery Charles deprived
Monmouth of his charge as Captain-General of the Forces and ordered him
like James to leave the realm. Left alone in his cause by the opposition
of his colleagues, Shaftesbury threw himself more and more on the
support of the Plot. The prosecution of its victims was pushed
recklessly on. Three Catholics were hanged in London. Eight priests were
put to death in the country. Pursuivants and informers spread terror
through every Catholic household. He counted on the reassembling of the
Parliament to bring all this terror to bear upon the king. But Charles
had already marked the breach which the Earl's policy had made in the
ranks of the Country party. He saw that Shaftesbury was unsupported by
any of his colleagues save Russell. To Temple, Essex, or Halifax, it
seemed possible to bring about the succession of Mary without any
violent revolution; but to set aside the rights not only of James but of
his Protestant children and even of the Prince of Orange was to ensure a
civil war. It was with their full support therefore that Charles in
October 1679 deprived Shaftesbury of his post of Lord President of the
Council.

[Sidenote: Shaftesbury's struggle.]

The dismissal w