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

THE SCOTTISH BOllDEIl. 11
parliament, was paving the way for rebuilding the sys-
tem of" hierarchy, they could no longer remain inactive.
Bribed by the delusive promise of Sir Henry Vane, and
Marshall, the parliamentary commissioners, that the
Church of England should be reformed, according to the
word of God, which, they fondly believed, amounted to
an adoption of presbytery, they agreed to send succours
to their brethren of England. Alexander Lesly, who
ought to have ranked among the contettted subjects, ha-
ving been raised by the king to the honours of Earl of
Leven, was, nevertheless, readily induced to accept the
command of this second army. Doubtless, where in-
surrection is not only pardoned, but rewarded, a mo-
narch has little right to expect gratitude for benefits,
which all the world, as well as the receiver, must attri-
bute to fear. Yet something is due to decency ; and
the best apology for Lesly, is his zeal for propagating
presbyterianism in England, the bait which had caught
the whole parliament of Scotland. But, although the
Earl of Leven was commander in chief, David Lesly,
a yet more renowned and active soldier than himself,
was major-general of the cavalry, and, in truth, bore
away the laurels of the expedition.
The words of the following march, which was played
in the van of this presbyterian crusade, were first pub-
lished by Allan Ramsay, in his Evergreen ; and they
breathe the very spirit we might expect. Mr Ritson,
in his collection of Scottish songs, has favoured the pub-