infamous companions to an inner room.
The well-known historical incident which was thus announced shallreceive but brief comment here. There is no question at all as to thefact that Sharp was unlawfully killed, that he was cruelly slain,without trial and without judicial condemnation, by a party ofCovenanters. Nothing justifies illegal killing. The justice of evenlegal killing is still an unsettled question, but one which does notconcern us just now. We make no attempt to defend the deed of thosemen. It is not probable that any average Christian, whether in favourof the Covenanters or against them, would justify the killing of an oldman by illegal means, however strongly he might hold the opinion thatthe old man deserved to die. In order to form an unprejudiced opinionon this subject recourse must be had to facts. The following arebriefly the facts of the case.
A merchant named William Carmichael, formerly a bailie of Edinburgh, wasone of Sharp's favourites, and one of his numerous commissioners forsuppressing conventicles in Fife. He was a licentious profligate,greedy of money, and capable of undertaking any job, however vile. Thisman's enormities were at last so unbearable that he became an object ofgeneral detestation, and his excessive exactions had ruined so manyrespectable lairds, owners, and tenants, that at last nine of these (whohad been outlawed, interdicted the common intercourse of society, andhunted like wild beasts on the mountains) resolved, since all otheravenues of redressing their unjust sufferings were denied them, to takethe law into their own hands and personally chastise Carmichael.Accordingly, hearing that the commissioner was hunting on the moors inthe neighbourhood of Cupar, they rode off in search of him. They failedto find him, and were about to disperse, when a boy brought intelligencethat the coach of Archbishop Sharp was approaching.
Baffled in their previous search, and smarting under the sense of theirintolerable wrongs, the party regarded this as a providentialdeliverance of their arch-enemy into their hands. Here was the chiefcause of all their woes, the man who, more almost than any other, hadbeen instrumental in the persecution and ruin of many families, in thetorture and death of innumerable innocent men and women, and thebanishment of some of their nearest and dearest to perpetual exile onthe plantations, where they were treated as slaves. They leaped at thesudden and unexpected opportunity. They reasoned that what had beendone in the past, and was being done at the time, would continue to bedone in the future, for there was no symptom of improvement, but ratherof increasing severity in the Government and ecclesiastics. Overtakingthe coach, which contained the Prelate and his daughter, they stoppedit, made Archbishop Sharp step out, and slew him there on Magus Moor.
It was a dark unwarrantable deed, but it was unpremeditated, andnecessarily unknown, at first, to any but the perpetrators, so that itwould be inexcusably unfair to saddle it upon the great body of theCovenanters, who, as far as we can ascertain from their writings andopinions, condemned it, although, naturally, they could not but feelrelieved to think that one of their chief persecutors was for evermorepowerless for further evil, and _some_ of them refused to admit that thedeed was murder. They justified it by the case of Phinehas. A betterapology lies in the text, "oppression maketh a wise man mad."
This event had the effect, apparently, of causing the Council to forgetour friends Black and Ramblin' Peter for a time, for they were left inthe Tolbooth for about three weeks after that, whereat Andrew was muchpleased, for it gave his maimed limb time to recover. As Peter remarkedgravely, "it's an ill wund that blaws naebody guid!"
A robust and earnest nation cannot be subdued by persecution. The morethe Council tyrannised over and trampled upon the liberties of thepeople of Scotland, the more resolutely did the leal-hearted and braveamong them resist the oppressors. It is ever thus. It ever _should_ bethus; for while an individual man has a perfect right, if he chooses, tosubmit to tyranny on his own account, he has no right to stand tamely byand see gross oppression and cruelty exercised towards his family, andneighbours, and country. At least, if he does so, he earns for himselfthe character of an unpatriotic poltroon. True patriotism consists in areadiness to sacrifice one's-self to the national well-being. As far asthings temporal are concerned, the records of the Scottish Covenantersprove incontestably that those long-tried men and women submitted withunexampled patience for full eight-and-twenty years to the spoiling oftheir goods and the ruin of their prospects; but when it came to be aquestion of submission to the capricious will of the King or loyalty toJesus Christ, thousands of them chose the latter alternative, and manyhundreds sealed their testimony with their blood.
When at last the question arose, "Shall we consent to the free preachingof the Gospel being suppressed altogether, or shall we assert our rightsat the point of the sword?" there also arose very considerabledifference of opinion among the Covenanters. Many of those who held thepeace-at-almost-any-price principle, counselled submission. Others,such as Richard Cameron, Donald Cargill, and Thomas Douglas, whobelieved in the right of self-defence, and in such a text as "smite ascorner and the simple will beware," advocated the use of carnal weaponsfor _protection alone_, although, when driven to desperation, they werecompelled to go further. Some of the ejected ministers, such asBlackadder and Welsh, professed to be undecided on this point, and leantto a more or less submissive course.
Matters were now hastening to a crisis. A lawless Government had forceda law-abiding people into the appearance, though not the reality, ofrebellion. The bands of armed men who assembled at conventicles becameso numerous as to have the appearance of an army. The council,exasperated and alarmed, sent forth more troops to disperse and suppressthese, though they had been guilty of no act of positive hostility.
At this crisis, Cargill and his friends, the "ultra-Covenanters," asthey were styled, resolved to publish to the world their "Testimony tothe cause and truth which they defended, and against the sins anddefections of the times." They chose the 29th of May for this purpose,that being the anniversary of the King's birth and restoration. Led byRobert Hamilton, a small party of them rode into the royal burgh ofRutherglen; and there, after burning various tyrannical Acts--as theiradversaries had previously burnt the Covenants--they nailed to the crossa copy of what is now known as the Declaration of Rutherglen, in whichall their grievances were set forth.
The news of this daring act spread like wildfire, and the notoriousGraham of Claverhouse was sent to seize, kill, and destroy, all who tookany part in this business. How Claverhouse went with his disciplineddragoons, seized John King, chaplain to Lord Cardross, with aboutfourteen other prisoners, in passing through Hamilton, tied them incouples, drove them before the troops like sheep, attacked theCovenanters at Drumclog, received a thorough defeat from theundisciplined "rebels," who freed the prisoners, and sent the dragoonsback completely routed to Glasgow, is matter of history.
While these stirring events were going on, our friend Andrew Black andRamblin' Peter were languishing in the unsavoury shades of the TolboothPrison.
One forenoon Andrew was awakened from an uneasy slumber. They bade himrise. His arms were bound with a rope, and he was led up the Canongatetowards the well-remembered Council Chamber, in company with Ramblin'Peter, who, owing to his size and youth, was not bound, but merely heldin the grasp of one of the guards.
At the mouth of one of the numerous closes which lead down to theCowgate and other parts of the old town stood Will Wallace, QuentinDick, David Spence, and Jock Bruce, each armed with a heavy blackthorn.Bruce had been warned by a friendly turnkey of what was pending--hencetheir opportune presence.
As soon as the prison party was opposite the close, the rescue partymade a united rush--and the united rush of four such strapping fellowswas worth seeing. So thought the crowd, and cheered. So thought notthe City Guard, four of whom went down like ninepins. Black's bondswere cut and himself hurried down the close almost before the guard hadrecovered from the surprise. No doubt that guard was composed of bravemen; but when they met two such lions in the mouth of the close asWallace and Quentin--for these tw
o turned at bay--they paused andlevelled their pikes. Turning these aside like lightning the lionsfelled their two foremost adversaries. The two who followed them met asimilar fate. Thinking that four were sufficient to block the entry, atleast for a few moments, our heroes turned, unlionlike, and fled at apace that soon left the enemy far behind.
This delay had given time to Black and his other friends to make goodtheir retreat. Meanwhile Ramblin' Peter, taking advantage of theconfusion, wrenched himself suddenly free from the guard who held him,and vanished down another close. The rescue having been effected, theparty purposely scattered. Black's leg, however, prevented him fromrunning fast. He therefore thought it best to double round a corner,and dash into a doorway, trusting to having been unobserved. In this,however, he was mistaken. His enemies, indeed, saw him not, butRamblin' Peter chanced to see him while at
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