and when the prince of Orange was professing the strongest attachment to his father-in-law, Monmouth, Argyle, and other English and Scottish fugitives in Holland, were suffered, under his secret protection, to provide themselves privately with necessaries, and to form the plan of an invasion, in hopes of rousing to arms the dissatisfied part of the two kingdoms. Argyle, who was first ready, sailed for Scotland with three vessels, carrying arms and ammunition; and, soon after his arrival in the Highlands, he found himself at the head of two thousand men. But the king's authority was too firmly established in Scotland to be shaken by such a force. Early made sensible of this, Argyle was afraid to venture into the Low Country; where, if he had been able to keep the field, he might have met with support from the covenanters. At any rate, he ought to have hazarded the attempt, before the ardour of his adherents had leisure to cool, or his well-wishers time to discern his danger, instead of waiting for an accession of strength among his mountains. But his situation, it must be owned, was at all times discouraging. Government, apprised of his intended invasion, had ordered all the considerable gentry of his clan to be thrown into prison. The whole militia of the kingdom, to the number of twenty-two thousand men, were soon under arms; and a third part of them, with all the regular forces, were now on their march to oppose him. The marquis of Athol pressed him on one side; lord Charles Murray on the other; the duke of Gordon hung upon his rear; the earl of Dumbarton met him in front. His arms and ammunition were seized, and his provisions cut off. In this desperate extremity, he endeavoured to force his way into the disaffected part of the western countries. He accordingly crossed the river Levan, and afterward the Clyde; but no person shewed either courage or inclination to join 9. Id. Ibid. him. His followers, who had suffered all the hardships of famine and fatigue, gradually deserted; and he himself being made prisoner, was carried to Edinburgh, and immedi ately executed on a former iniquitous sentence1o. Two English gentlemen excepted, his adherents, by dispersing themselves, escaped punishment. Meanwhile the duke of Monmouth, according to agreement, had landed in the west of England; and so great was his popularity, that although accompanied only by about four-score persons, the number of his adherents soon increased to five thousand. At the head of these, who were chiefly of the lower class, he entered Taunton; where he was received with such extraordinary expressions of joy, that he issued a declaration asserting the legitimacy of his birth, and assumed the title of king. From Taunton he marched to Bridgewater, where he was received with equal affection, and proclaimed king by the magistrates, with all the formalities of their office. His followers hourly increased; and he was obliged every day, for want of arms, to dismiss great numbers who crowded to his standard. He only, perhaps, needed conduct and abilities to have overturned his uncle's throne. Conscious of his want of these, as well as of resources, the nobility and gentry kept at a distance. He had no man of talents or courage, to advise with in the closet, or to assist him in the field. Lord Gray, his general of horse, and whom he had the weakness to continue in command, was to his own knowledge a coward; and he himself, though personally brave, allowed the expectation of the people to languish, without attempting any bold enterprise". Notwithstanding this imprudent caution, and the news of Argyle's miscarriage, Monmouth's followers continued to adhere to him, after all his hopes of success had failed, and when he had even thoughts of providing for his own safety 11. Burnet. Kennet. Ralph. by 10. Burnet. Wodrow. Hume. by flight. Roused to action by such warm attachment, and encouraged by the prospect of seizing an unexpected advantage, he attacked the king's forces, under the earl JULY 5. of Feversham, at Sedgemoor, near Bridgewater; and had it not been for his own misconduct, and the cow. ardice of lord Gray, he might have gained a decisive victory. Though Gray and the cavalry fled in the beginning of the action, the undisciplined infantry gallantly maintained the combat for three hours; and the duke himself, beside his errors in generalship, quitted the field too early for an adventurer contending for a crown'2. About fourteen hundred of the rebels were killed in the battle and pursuit, and nearly an equal number made prisoners. Monmouth himself, with a single attendant, escaped to a considerable distance from the scene of action; but his horse at length failing him, he was reduced to the necessity of travelling on foot, and changed clothes with a peasant, in order to conceal himself from his pursuers. In that humble disguise, he was found lying in the bottom of a ditch, covered with weeds. He had in his pocket some green peas, which had been his only food for several days; and his spirits being exhausted with hunger and fatigue, he burst into tears, and behaved otherwise in a manner unworthy of his character. Even on his arrival in London, allured by the fond hope of life, he was induced to make the meanest submissions, in order to procure a pardon'3: though he might have been sensible, from the greatness of his own offences, and the king's unfeeling disposition, that he could expect no mercy. After that hope failed him, he behaved with becoming dignity; and discovered great firmness and composure at his execution, though accompanied with many horrid circum stances'4. Had 12. Burnet. book iv. 13. Id. Ibid. See also James II. 1685. 14. Touched with pity, or unmanned by terror, at the noble presence of Monmouth, and the part he was to perform, the executioner struck him three Had James used his victory with moderation; this fortunate suppression of a rebellion in the beginning of his reign. would have tended much to strengthen his authority; but the cruelty with which it was prosecuted, and the delusive prospects which it opened for his zeal to popery and unlimited power, proved the chief cause of his ruin. Such arbitrary principles had the court infused into its servants, that the earl of Feversham, immediately after the battle of Sedgemoor, and while the soldiers were yet fatigued with slaughter, ordered above twenty of the insurgents to be hanged, without any form of trial. But this instance of illegal severity was forgotten in the superior inhumanity of colonel Kirk, whose military executions were attended with circumstances of wanton cruelty and barbarity. On his first entry into Bridgewater, he not only hanged nineteen prisoners without the least inquiry into the nature of their guilt, but ordered a certain number to be executed while he and his company should drink the king's health; and observing their feet to quiver, in the agonies of death, the commanded the drums to beat and the trumpets to sound, saying he would give them music to their dancing's! times without effect; and then threw aside the axe, declaring that he was unable to finish the bloody office. The sheriff obliged him to renew the attempt, and the duke's head was at last severed from his body. 15. Burnet. Kennet. Ralph.-One story, commonly told of Kirk, is memorable in the history of human treachery and barbarity. A beautiful young maiden, bathed in tears, threw herself at his feet, and pleaded for the life of her brother. The brutal tyrant, inflamed with desire, but not softened into pity, promised to grant her request, provided she would yield to his wishes. She reluctantly complied with the cruel request, without reflecting that the wretch who could make it was unworthy of credit or confidence. But she had soon reason to know it. After passing the night with him, the wanton and perfidious savage shewed her in the morning, from the bed-room window, that beloved brother, for whom she had sacrificed her innocence, hanging on a gibbet, which he had secretly ordered to be erected for the purpose! Rage, indignation, and despair took at once possession of her soul, and deprived her forever of her senses. Even Even the inhumanities of Kirk were exceeded by the violence of lord chief justice Jefferys; who shewed the astonished nation, that the rigours of law may equal, if not exceed, the ravages of military tyranny. A special commission being issued to this man, whose disposition was brutal and arbitrary, and who had already given several specimens of his character, he set out, accompanied by four other judges, with a savage joy, as to a full harvest of death. He opened his commission first at Winchester, whence he proceeded to Dorchester, Exeter, Taunton, and Wells, carrying every where along with him terror and consternation. The juries, struck with his menaces, gave their verdict with hurry and precipitation; so that many innocent persons are supposed to have suffered. About five hundred prisoners were tried and condemned, in all of these two hundred and fifty were executed: the rest were transported, condemned to cruel whippings, or permitted, as is said, to purchase their pardon of the tyrannical and prostituted chief-justice1. NOV. 9. As if desirous to take upon himself the odium of these severe executions, the king rewarded the inhumanity of Jefferys with a peerage and the office of chancellor, and he took care, on the meeting of parliament, more fully to open the eyes of the nation, and to realize all those apprehensions which had excited the violence of the exclusionists. He plainly told the two houses, that the militia, in which the nation trusted, having been found, during the late rebellion, altogether insufficient for the safety of government, he had increased the regular forces to double their former number; and he demanded a fresh supply for the support of this additional force. He also took notice, that he had dispensed with the test act, in favour of some 16. Ibid. What rendered these severities less excusable, was, that most of the prisoners were persons of low condition, who could never have disturbed the tranquility of government. Burnet, book iv. Roman |