Volume 2 > Half-Volume 4

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Highlanders and Irish, and by the Firth of Forth
with a strong division of his English army, under
his commissioner the Duke of Hamilton. To meet
this formidable array everything that lay within the
compass of their limited means was prepared by the
Covenanters. Military committees were appointed
for every county, who were to see to the assembling
and training of the militia generally, and to forward
to the army such levies and such supplies as might
be from time to time demanded. Smiths were every-
where put in requisition for the fabrication of
muskets, carbines, pole-axes, Lochaber-axes, and
halberts; magazines to supply the troops were also
provided; and to call them together when occasion
should require beacons were provided, and placed
in every shire. Arms to the amount of 30,000 stand
were provided from Holland, in addition to those of
home manufacture, and a foundry for cannon was
established in the Potter Row, at that time one of
the suburbs, now a street of Edinburgh. Leith, the
port of the capital, was, however, still defenceless;
but, aware that the Duke of Hamilton proposed to
land there with hostile intentions, it was immediately
resolved to put the place in a posture of defence.
The plan of a new fort, the old defences of the town
being in ruins, was laid down by Sir Alexander
Hamilton, who acted as engineer to Leslie; and
several thousands came spontaneously forward to
assist in its erection. Noblemen, gentlemen, and
citizens�men, women, and children�even ladies of
quality�claimed the privilege of assisting in forward-
ing the good work, and in less than a week it was
finished, and the security of Edinburgh was considered
complete. Along the coast of Fife, too, every town
was surrounded with batteries mounted with cannon
carried on shore from the ships; and with the excep-
tion of Inchkeith and Inchcolm, which were some-
how neglected, there was not a resting-place in the
Firth for an enemy till he should win it at the point
of the pike.
In the meantime the Duke of Hamilton, lying in
Yarmouth Roads, was commanded to sail for the
Forth, and by all or any means to "create an awful
diversion." His first sail was no sooner discovered
as a speck in the distant horizon, than the beacons
were in a blaze from the one extremity of the country
to the other, and ere he approached the shores of
Leith they were lined by upwards of 20,000 intrepid
defenders, among whom was his own mother,
mounted on horseback at the head of her vassals,
with a pair of pistols in the holsters before her, with
which she declared she would shoot her son with
her own hand the moment he set a hostile foot on
shore. Hamilton now found that he could do nothing.
The troops on board his fleet did not exceed 5000
men, all raw young peasants, miserably sea-sick, and
many of them labouring under the small-pox. Instead
of attempting hostile operations, he landed his men
upon the islands of Inchkeith and Inchcolm, which
served him for hospitals, and contented himself with
sending into the town-council some more of Charles'
proclamations, which were promised to be laid be-
fore the states, who were expected to meet in a few
days. This, as the measure of their obedience,
Hamilton was for the time obliged to accept. Of
this circumstance, with the strength which they
mustered, he failed not to acquaint his master, ad-
vising him at the same time to negotiate.�We are
not detailing the history of the war, but the part
performed in it by an individual, or we should have
stated that Argyle had been sent to the west, where
he had seized upon the castle of Brodick in Arran,
where the Earl of Antrim was to have first headed
his Irish bands, in consequence of which they were
for a time unable to come forward. The castle of
Dumbarton had also been seized by a master-stroke
of policy, as that of Edinburgh now was by the same
in war. In the afternoon of the 23d of March, Leslie
himself, with a few companies which he had been,
according to his usual custom, training in the outer
courtyard of Holyrood House, some of which he
secretly disposed in closes at the head of the Castle
Hill, approached to the exterior gate of the castle,
where he called a parley with the captain or governor,
demanding to be admitted. This being refused, he
seemed to retire from the gate, when a petard which
he had hung against it burst and laid it open. The
inner gate was instantly assailed with axes, and scal-
ing-ladders were applied to the wall, by which the
Covenanters gained immediate admission; while the
garrison, panic-struck with the sudden explosion and
the vigour of the attack, surrendered without offering
any resistance. The castles of Dalkeith, Douglas,
and Strathaven in Clydesdale, and, in short, all the
castles of the kingdom, with the exception of that
of Carlaverock, were seized in the same manner.
Huntly, who was making dispositions in the north
to side with Charles, had also in the interim been
kidnapped by Montrose, so that he had actually not
the shadow of a party in the whole kingdom. To-
wards the end of May, the king beginning to move
from York, where he had fixed his head-quarters,
towards the north, the army under Leslie was ordered
southward to meet him. The final muster of the
army previous to the march took place on the Links
of Leith, on the 2Oth of May, 1639, when from
12,000 to 16,000 men made their appearance, well
armed in the German fashion, and commanded by
native officers, whom they respected as their natural
superiors, or by their own countrymen celebrated
for their hardihood and that experience in military
affairs which they had acquired abroad. With the
exception of one German trumpeter there was not
a foreigner among them: all were Scotsmen, brought
immediately from the hearths and the altars which it
was the object of the war to defend. The private
men were, for the most part, ploughmen from the
western counties; stout rustics whose bodies were
rendered muscular by healthy exercise, and whose
minds were exalted by the purest feelings of patriot-
ism and religion. It was on this day that they were
properly constituted an army by having the articles
of war read to them. These had been drawn out
by Leslie with the advice of the Tables, after the
model of those of Gustavus Adolphus, and a printed
copy of them was delivered to every individual
soldier. The general himself, at the same time,
took an oath to the estates, acknowledging himself
in all things liable both to civil and ecclesiastical
censure. Leslie had by this time acquired not only
the respect and confidence, but the love, of the whole
community, by the judgment with which all his
measures were taken, and the zeal he displayed in
the cause; a zeal, the sincerity of which was suffi-
ciently attested by the fame of his exploits in Ger-
many, and by the scars which he bore on his person
in consequence of these exploits. He was deformed,
old, and mean in his appearance; but the consum-
mate skill which he displayed, and the piety of his
deportment, rendered him, according to Baillie, who
was along with him, a more popular and respected
general than Scotland had ever enjoyed in the most
warlike and beloved of her kings. With the van of
this army, which was but a small part of the military
array of Scotland at this time, Leslie marched for
the borders on the 21st of May, the main body fol-
lowing him in order. He was abundantly supplied
on his march, and at every successive stage found