Stories of the Scottish Border — Chapter 46 The Death of Montrose
*The Death of Montrose* During the imprisonment of King Charles I. , at a time when active war on his behalf might do the unhappy monarch more harm than good, the gallant Montrose had retired to France.
His bright military fame, his courteous manners, and manly bearing made him friends everywhere, and when he visited Germany the Emperor conferred on him the rank of Marshal.
Hearing of the execution of Charles I. , Montrose at once placed himself at the disposal of Charles II.
, now a fugitive in Holland.
This prince named him Captain General of Scotland, and the daring hero set out for the Orkney Islands with about five hundred paid soldiers, mostly adventurous Germans and Dutchmen.
Only a reckless spirit like Montrose would have undertaken so wild a commission.
Scotland was heartily sick of war, and learnt with consternation of the arrival of this firebrand.
Lesly was sent forward with four thousand men to attack Montrose's five hundred!
Colonel Strachan led the advanced guard, which fell unexpectedly upon the invading army, and, after a brief, fierce struggle, totally defeated it.
Montrose, disguised as a peasant, entrusted his life to one he believed to be his friend, M'Leod, Laird of Assaint.
But this unworthy man betrayed him to his bitterest enemy, General Lesly.
Thus, at last, this brilliant commander was in the hands of the bitter Covenanters, into whose hearts his brilliant victories had once spread such terror.
Their treatment of him is a black stain upon their memory.
For days he was led about in the peasant's disguise, which he had put on; he was carted through the streets of Edinburgh, accompanied by such insults that the populace cried shame upon his captors.
When tried before the Scottish Parliament for treason, he made a most eloquent defence, one of the most notable of his assertions being that he had never stained his victories by slaughtering his foes in cold blood after the battle.
In this he was far above his enemies, who had disgraced their victory of Philiphaugh by many an execution, and who were now bent upon taking the life of Montrose himself.
The sentence against him was probably decided before his defence had been heard; it ran thus:-- "That James Graham should next day be carried to Edinburgh cross and there hanged on a gibbet 30 feet high for the space of three hours; then to be taken down, his head to be struck off on a scaffold and affixed to the prison; his arms and legs to be stuck up on the four chief towns of the Kingdom, his body to be buried in the place set aside for common criminals."
To this sentence the great Marquis haughtily replied that he would rather have his head so placed than his picture in the King's bedchamber, and that he wished he had limbs enough to be dispersed into all the cities of Christendom, to prove his dying attachment to his king.
And in the one evening of life that still remained to him, this accomplished and fearless nobleman employed his time in turning these loyal sentiments into verse.
Despite the fact that he triumphed undaunted over all the mean inventions of their malice, his enemies persisted to the end.
The executioner tied mockingly round his neck the book that had been published describing his victories; Montrose thanked him, saying that he wore it with more pride than he had ever worn the garter of honour.
He uttered a short prayer; then asking them what more indignities they had prepared for him, he patiently and with unbroken spirit yielded his life to the hangman, at the too early age of thirty-eight.
Whatever opinions we may have as to the rights and wrongs of the quarrel, this brutal killing of a gallant soldier and accomplished gentleman can only rank as a hideous blot upon all concerned in it.
Every insult hurled at Montrose has returned in the verdict of time with redoubled force against the malice of those who stooped to such vindictiveness.
The execution of a soldier who has violated no rule of war is at any time a thing that revolts the human conscience, and a sentence hoarse with the vile taunts of its utterers has so far lost all semblance of justice that it is needless to argue upon it.
In the verdict of history, the great Marquis of Montrose, whether right or wrong in his political views, lived and died like a man of honour.
The ballad of the "Gallant Grahams," written about this time, reflects very sincerely and touchingly the devotion and affection surrounding the great Marquis, accompanied by the very Scottish feeling that in addition to his own personal power and genius, he was also the head of the great Border family of Grahams.
*THE GALLANT GRAHAMS*
Now, fare thee well, sweet Ennerdale!
[#] Baith kith and countrie I bid adieu;
For I maun away, and I may not stay, To some uncouth land which I never knew.
[#] A corruption of Endrickdale.
The principal and most ancient possessions of the Montrose family lie along the water of Endrick, in Dumbartonshire.
To wear the blue I think it best, Of all the colours that I see;
And I'll wear it for the gallant Grahams, That are banished from their countrie.
I have no gold, I have no land, I have no pearl nor precious stane;
But I wald sell my silken snood, To see the gallant Grahams come hame.
In Wallace days, when they began, Sir John the Graham[#] did bear the gree Through all the lands of Scotland wide: He was lord of the south countrie.
[#] The faithful friend and adherent of the immortal Wallace slain at the battle of Falkirk.
And so was seen full many a time;
For the summer flowers did never spring, But every Graham, in armour bright, Would then appear before the king.
They were all drest in armour sheen, Upon the pleasant banks of Tay;
Before a king they might be seen, These gallant Grahams in their array.
At the Goukhead our camp we set, Our leaguer down there for to lay;
And, in the bonny summer light, We rode our white horse and our gray.
Our false commander sold our king, Unto his deadly enemie, Who was the traitor, Cromwell, then;
So I care not what they do with me.
They have betray'd our noble prince, And banished him from his royal crown;'
But the gallant Grahams have ta'en in hand For to command those traitors down.
In Glen-Prosen[#] we rendezvous'd, March'd to Glenshie by night and day.
And took the town of Aberdeen, And met the Campbells in their array.
[#] Glen-Prosen is in Angusshire, usually called Forfarshire.
The Glenshee road, over the Grampians, is the highest road in Great Britain.
Five thousand men, in armour strong, Did meet the gallant Grahams that day At Inverlochie, where war began, And scarce two thousand men were they.
Gallant Montrose, that chieftan bold, Courageous in the best degree, Did for the king fight well that day;-- The Lord preserve his majestie!
Then woe to Strachan, and Ilacket baith!
And, Lesly, ill death may thou die!
For ye have betray'd the gallant Grahams, Who aye were true to majestie.
And the Laird of Assaint has seized Montrose, And had him into Edinburgh town;
And frae his body taken the head, And quarter'd him upon a trone, And Huntly's[#] gone the self-same way, And our noble king is also gone;
He suffer'd death for our nation, Our mourning tears can ne'er be done.
[#] The Marquis of Huntly, one of the few Scottish nobles who never wavered in his devotion to King Charles I. , was beheaded by the sentence of the Parliament of Scotland.
But our brave young king is now come home, King Charles the Second in degree;
The Lord send peace into his time, And God preserve his majestie!
The ballad-writer's reference to the "coming home" of Charles II.
probably means his signing of the Covenant and placing himself entirely at the mercy of the violent bigots who had killed his most faithful servant, Montrose.
To this was Charles reduced by the desperate nature of his fortunes.
But this course of action entirely severed the Scottish Covenanters from the English Puritans, and admirers of the gallant Montrose can take a grim pleasure in the fact that his arch-enemy, General Lesly, was most disastrously defeated by Cromwell at the battle of Dunbar.
*Chapter XLVII*
