heavy with bodies; murder and plunder devastated the whole
country. In spite of all, the Covenanters were by no means to be dragged
into the churches, and persisted in worshipping God as they thought
right. A body of ferocious Highlanders, turned upon them from the
mountains of their own country, had no greater effect than the English
dragoons under GRAHAME OF CLAVERHOUSE, the most cruel and rapacious of
all their enemies, whose name will ever be cursed through the length and
breadth of Scotland. Archbishop Sharp had ever aided and abetted all
these outrages. But he fell at last; for, when the injuries of the
Scottish people were at their height, he was seen, in his coach-and-six
coming across a moor, by a body of men, headed by one JOHN BALFOUR, who
were waiting for another of their oppressors. Upon this they cried out
that Heaven had delivered him into their hands, and killed him with many
wounds. If ever a man deserved such a death, I think Archbishop Sharp
did.
It made a great noise directly, and the Merry Monarch--strongly suspected
of having goaded the Scottish people on, that he might have an excuse for
a greater army than the Parliament were willing to give him--sent down
his son, the Duke of Monmouth, as commander-in-chief, with instructions
to attack the Scottish rebels, or Whigs as they were called, whenever he
came up with them. Marching with ten thousand men from Edinburgh, he
found them, in number four or five thousand, drawn up at Bothwell Bridge,
by the Clyde. They were soon dispersed; and Monmouth showed a more
humane character towards them, than he had shown towards that Member of
Parliament whose nose he had caused to be slit with a penknife. But the
Duke of Lauderdale was their bitter foe, and sent Claverhouse to finish
them.
As the Duke of York became more and more unpopular, the Duke of Monmouth
became more and more popular. It would have been decent in the latter
not to have voted in favour of the renewed bill for the exclusion of
James from the throne; but he did so, much to the King's amusement, who
used to sit in the House of Lords by the fire, hearing the debates, which
he said were as good as a play. The House of Commons passed the bill by
a large majority, and it was carried up to the House of Lords by LORD
RUSSELL, one of the best of the leaders on the Protestant side. It was
rejected there, chiefly because the bishops helped the King to get rid of
it; and the fear of Catholi
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