J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border > Volume 2

8 MINSTRELSY OF
mination, of his predecessor^, Henry VIII. The furi-
ous temper of the Scottish nation first took fire ; and
the brandished footstool of a prostitute * gave the sig-
nal for civil dissension, which ceased not till the church
■was buried under the ruins of the constitution ; till the
nation had stooped to a military despotism ; and the
monarch to the block of the executioner.
The consequence of Charles' hasty and arbitrary mea-
sures was soon evident. The united nobility, gentry,
and clergy of Scotland, entered into theSoLEMN League
AND Covenant, by which memorable deed, they sub-
scribed and swore a national renunciation of the hierar-
chy. The walls of the prelatic Jericho (to use the lan-
guage of the times) were thus levelled with the ground,
and the curse of Hiel, the Bethelite, denounced against
those who should rebuild them. While the clergy thun-
dered, from the pulpits, against the prelatists and ma-
lignants (by which names were distinguished the scat-
tered and heartless adherents of Charles,) the nobility
and gentry, in arms, hurried to oppose the march of
the English army, which now advanced towards their
" " Out, false loon ! wilt thou say the mass at my lug {ear,") was
the well-known exclamation of Margaret Geddes, as she discharged
her missile tripod against the Bishop of Edinburgh, who, in obedience
to the orders of the privy-council, was endeavouring to rehearse the
common prayer. Upon a seat more elevated, the said Margaret had
shortly before done penance, before the congregation, for the sin of
fornication ; such, at least, is the Tory tradition.