The Chieftains meanwhile had assembled in close conclave in the great hall of the castle.Among them were the persons of the greatest consequence in the Highlands,some of them attracted by zeal for the royal cause,and many by aversion to that severe and general domination which the Marquis of Argyle,since his rising to such influence in the state,had exercised over his Highland neighbours.That statesman,indeed,though possessed of considerable abilities,and great power,had failings,which rendered him unpopular among the Highland chiefs.The devotion which he professed was of a morose and fanatical character;his ambition appeared to be insatiable,and inferior chiefs complained of his want of bounty and liberality.Add to this,that although a Highlander,and of a family distinguished for valour before and since,Gillespie Grumach [GRUMACH--ill-favored.](which,from an obliquity in his eyes,was the personal distinction he bore in the Highlands,where titles of rank are unknown)was suspected of being a better man in the cabinet than in the field.He and his tribe were particularly obnoxious to the M'Donalds and the M'Leans,two numerous septs,who,though disunited by ancient feuds,agreed in an intense dislike to the Campbells,or,as they were called,the Children of Diarmid.
For some time the assembled Chiefs remained silent,until some one should open the business of the meeting.At length one of the most powerful of them commenced the diet by saying,--"We have been summoned hither,M'Aulay,to consult of weighty matters concerning the King's affairs,and those of the state;and we crave to know by whom they are to be explained to us?"
M'Aulay,whose strength did not lie in oratory,intimated his wish that Lord Menteith should open the business of the council.
With great modesty,and at the same time with spirit,that young lord said,"he wished what he was about to propose had come from some person of better known and more established character.
Since,however,it lay with him to be spokesman,he had to state to the Chiefs assembled,that those who wished to throw off the base yoke which fanaticism had endeavoured to wreath round their necks,had not a moment to lose."The Covenanters,"he said,"after having twice made war upon their sovereign,and having extorted from him every request,reasonable or unreasonable,which they thought proper to demand--after their Chiefs had been loaded with dignities and favours--after having publicly declared,when his Majesty,after a gracious visit to the land of his nativity,was upon his return to England,that he returned a contented king from a contented people,--after all this,and without even the pretext for a national grievance,the same men have,upon doubts and suspicions,equally dishonourable to the King,and groundless in themselves,detached a strong army to assist his rebels in England,in a quarrel with which Scotland had no more to do than she has with the wars in Germany.It was well,"he said,"that the eagerness with which this treasonable purpose was pursued,had blinded the junta who now usurped the government of Scotland to the risk which they were about to incur.The army which they had dispatched to England under old Leven comprehended their veteran soldiers,the strength of those armies which had been levied in Scotland during the two former wars--"
Here Captain Dalgetty endeavoured to rise,for the purpose of explaining how many veteran officers,trained in the German wars,were,to his certain knowledge,in the army of the Earl of Leven.
But Allan M'Aulay holding him down in his seat with one hand,pressed the fore-finger of the other upon his own lips,and,though with some difficulty,prevented his interference.Captain Dalgetty looked upon him with a very scornful and indignant air,by which the other's gravity was in no way moved,and Lord Menteith proceeded without farther interruption.
"The moment,"he said,"was most favourable for all true-hearted and loyal Scotchmen to show,that the reproach their country had lately undergone arose from the selfish ambition of a few turbulent and seditious men,joined to the absurd fanaticism which,disseminated from five hundred pulpits,had spread like a land-flood over the Lowlands of Scotland.He had letters from the Marquis of Huntly in the north,which he should show to the Chiefs separately.That nobleman,equally loyal and powerful was determined to exert his utmost energy in the common cause,and the powerful Earl of Seaforth was prepared to join the same standard.From the Earl of Airly,and the Ogilvies in Angusshire,he had had communications equally decided;and there was no doubt that these,who,with the Hays,Leiths,Burnets,and other loyal gentlemen,would be soon on horseback,would form a body far more than sufficient to overawe the northern Covenanters,who had already experienced their valour in the well-known rout which was popularly termed the Trot of Turiff.
South of Forth and Tay,"he said,"the King had many friends,who,oppressed by enforced oaths,compulsatory levies,heavy taxes,unjustly imposed and unequally levied,by the tyranny of the Committee of Estates,and the inquisitorial insolence of the Presbyterian divines,waited but the waving of the royal banner to take up arms.Douglas,Traquair,Roxburgh,Hume,all friendly to the royal cause,would counterbalance,"he said,"the covenanting interest in the south;and two gentlemen,of name and quality,here present,from the north of England,would answer for the zeal of Cumberland,Westmoreland,and Northumberland.
