here should instantly be a new election of officers, into
which office none should hereafter be admitted who had, in their phrase,
touched of that which was accursed, or temporized more or less with the
heresies and corruptions of the times. While such was the demand of the
Cameronians, they vociferated loudly, that those who were not with them
were against them,--that it was no time to relinquish the substantial
part of the covenanted testimony of the Church, if they expected a
blessing on their arms and their cause; and that, in their eyes, a
lukewarm Presbyterian was little better than a Prelatist, an
Anti-Covenanter, and a Nullifidian.

The parties accused repelled the charge of criminal compliance and
defection from the truth with scorn and indignation, and charged their
accusers with breach of faith, as well as with wrong-headed and
extravagant zeal in introducing such divisions into an army, the joint
strength of which could not, by the most sanguine, be judged more than
sufficient to face their enemies. Poundtext, and one or two others, made
some faint efforts to stem the increasing fury of the factious,
exclaiming to those of the other party, in the words of the
Patriarch,--"Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee,
and between thy herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we be brethren." No
pacific overture could possibly obtain audience. It was in vain that
even Burley himself, when he saw the dissension proceed to such ruinous
lengths, exerted 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