Volume 2 > Half-Volume 4

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as in the preceding year, including the broad Low-
land blue bonnet. Their march over the border was,
however, delayed for some weeks for the want of
money and necessaries. "It was found," says Mr.
John Livingston, who accompanied the army in the
capacity of chaplain to the Earl of Cassillis' regi-
ment, "when the whole army was come up, that
there was want of powder and of bread, the biscuit
being spoiled, and of cloth to be huts to the soldiers.
This produced some fear that the expedition might
be delayed for that year. One day when the com-
mittee of estates and general officers and some
ministers were met in the castle of Dunse, and were
at prayer and consulting what to do, an officer of the
guard comes and knocks rudely at the door of the
room where we were, and told there was treachery
discovered; for he, going to a big cellar in the bottom
of the house, seeking for some other thing, had found
a great many barrels of gunpowder, which he appre-
hended was intended to blow us all up. After search
it was found that the powder had been laid in there
the year before, when the army had departed from
Dunse Law, and had been forgotten. Therefore,
having found powder, the Earls of Rothes and
Loudon, Mr. Alexander Henderson and Mr. Archi-
bald Johnston, were sent to Edinburgh, and within
a few days brought as much meal and cloth to the
soldiers by the gift of well-affected people there, as
sufficed the whole army. With the same readiness
that these people had parted with their cloth and
their meal, others parted with their plate, and to such
an extent was this carried, that for many years after-
wards not even a silver spoon was to be met with
in the best houses." "It was very refreshful," adds
Livingston, "to remark that after we came to a
quarter at night, there was nothing to be heard al-
most through the whole army but singing of psalms,
prayer, and reading of the Scriptures by the soldiers
in their several tents; and I was informed there was
much more the year before, when the army lay at
Dunse Law. And indeed, in all our meetings and
consultings, both within doors and in the fields,
always the nearer the beginning there was so much
the more dependence upon God, and more tender-
ness in worship and walking; but through process of
time we still declined more and more."
General Leslie crossed the Tweed on the 20th of
August with his army in three divisions; the College
of Justice's troop of horse, consisting of 160 gentle-
men, under Sir Thomas Hope, riding on the right
wing in order to break the stream for the foot; all of
whom got safely through but one man, who was
drowned. In their march the officers of the Scot-
tish army were greatly embarrassed by a fear of
offending the English nation, with which they had
no quarrel, and with which they knew well they
were not able to contend. With all the difficulties
imposed on him by his situation, however, Leslie
continued his march till the 28th, when he com-
pletely defeated the king's troops, who had been
sent to defend the fords at Newburn. This success
put him in possession of Newcastle, Tynemouth,
Shields, and Durham, together with several large
magazines of provisions, and again reduced Charles
to the last extremity�a crisis which ultimately pro-
duced the treaty of Ripon, afterwards transferred
to London. The king had now, however, the par-
liament of England upon his hands, and was less
occupied with Scottish affairs than formerly. Ten
months elapsed before the English parliament saw
fit to allow the treaty to be concluded, the Scottish
army being all the time quartered in Newcastle, that
they might be at hand to assist, in case of matters
coming to extremities between the king and the lords
of St. Stephen's Chapel. Embarrassed and con-
trolled by his parliament, Charles now attempted to
conciliate the Scots by conceding to them all their
demands; hoping thereby to engage them to take
part with him against the former. With this view
he came himself to Scotland in the month of August,
1641, when, passing through the Scottish army at
Newcastle, he was received with the utmost respect,
and entertained by the general, who was created
Lord Balgonie, and on the nth of October, 1641,
Earl of Leven by patent to him and his heirs what-
soever. In the following year the earl was sent over
to Ireland in command of the forces raised for sup-
pressing the rebellion there. In the next year he
was recalled to take the command of the forces sent
into England to the assistance of the parliament, in
pursuance of the Solemn League and Covenant.
He commanded the left of the centre division of the
parliamentary forces at the battle of Marston Moor,
and was driven out of the field, though the honour
of his own name and that of his country was gal-
lantly sustained by David Leslie, whose valour con-
tributed in a great degree to the victory there ob-
tained. He afterwards, assisted by the Earl of Cal-
lander, took the town of Newcastle by storm; but
treated both the town and the garrison with lenity.
The king having made overtures to the Scottish
generals, Leven sent a copy of them to the parlia-
ment, which in return awarded him a vote of thanks,
accompanied by a present of a piece of plate. He
now laid siege to Harford, but being left by David
Leslie, who had marched with all the horse into
Scotland to oppose Montrose, and the king ap-
proaching in great force, he raised the siege, and
marched northward. He was appointed to com-
mand, at the siege of Newark, an army composed
of both Scottish and English troops, where the king
came to him privately on the 5th day of May, 1646.
He was afterwards one of a hundred officers who on
their knees besought his majesty to accept the pro-
positions offered him by the parliament, and thus be
merciful to himself and to the nation. When the
engagement for the king's rescue was entered into,
the Earl of Leven resigned the command of the army
in disgust, pleading the infirmities of old age. On
the failure of that project he was again restored to
the place he had so honourably filled; but before the
battle of Dunbar he again resigned on account of his
great age, but appeared in the field as a volunteer.
The year following, at a meeting of some noblemen
for concerting measures in behalf of Charles II. at
Eliot in Angus, he was, along with the rest, sur-
prised by a detachment from the garrison of Dundee,
carried to London, and thrown into the Tower. At
the request of Christina, Queen of Sweden, he was
liberated, had his sequestration taken off, and no
fine imposed upon him. He returned to Scotland
in the month of May, 1654, and shortly after went
to Sweden, to thank Christina for the favour she had
done him by interceding with Cromwell on his behalf.
How long he remained in Sweden is not known; but
he died at Balgonie on the 4th of April, 1661, at a
very advanced age. He was buried on the 19th
of the same month in the church of Markinch.
Few men have been more fortunate in life than Alex-
ander Leslie, Earl of Leven. He appears to have
entered upon its duties without fortune and with a
scanty education, and by the force of his talents,
seconded by habits of religion and persevering in-
dustry, raised himself to the highest honours which
society has to confer, both in his own and in foreign
countries. His services were at the time of immense
value to his country, and would have been much
more so, had they not been shackled by the pre-