the parliament, at the petition of the kirk, had sent to the scaffold[b] the old marquess of Huntley, forfaulted for his adhesion to the royal cause in the year 1645.  All professed to have in view the same object—­the restoration of the young king; but all were divided and alienated from each other by civil and religious bigotry.  By the commissioners, the Engagers, and by both, Montrose and his friends, were shunned as traitors to their country, and sinners excommunicated by the kirk.  Charles was perplexed by the conflicting opinions of these several advisers.  Both the commissioners and Engagers, hostile as they were to each

[Footnote 1:  Whatever may have been the policy of Argyle, he most certainly promoted this mission, and “overswayed the opposition to it by his reason, authority, and diligence,”—­Baillie, ii. 353.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1649.  March 17.] [Sidenote a:  A.D. 1649.  March 26.]

other, represented his taking of the covenant as an essential condition; while Montrose and his English counsellors contended that it would exasperate the Independents, offend the friends of episcopacy, and cut off all hope of aid from the Catholics, who could not be expected to hazard their lives in support of a prince sworn to extirpate their religion.[1]

While the question was yet in debate, an event happened to hasten the departure of Charles from the Hague.  Dr. Dorislaus, a native of Holland, but formerly a professor of Gresham College, and recently employed to draw the charge against the king, arrived as envoy from the parliament to the States.[a] That very evening, while he sat at supper in the inn, six gentlemen with drawn swords entered the room, dragged him from his chair, and murdered him on the floor.[2] Though the assassins were suffered to escape, it was soon known that they were Scotsmen, most of them followers of Montrose; and Charles, anticipating the demand of justice from the English parliament, gave his final answer to the commissioners, that he was, and always had been, ready to provide for the security of their religion, the union between the kingdoms, and the internal peace and prosperity of Scotland; but that their other demands were irreconcilable with his conscience, his liberty, and his honour.[b] They

[Footnote 1:  Clar. iii. 287-292.  Baillie, ii. 333.  Carte, Letters, i. 238-263.  In addition to the covenant, the commissioners required the banishment of Montrose, from which they were induced to recede, and the limitation of the king’s followers to one hundred persons.—­Carte, Letters, i. 264, 265, 266, 268, 271.]

[Footnote 2:  Clarendon, iii. 293.  Whitelock, 401.  Journals, May 10.  The parliament settled two hundred pounds per annum on the son, and gave five hundred pounds to each of the daughters of Dorislaus.—­Ib.  May 16.  Two hundred and fifty pounds was given towards his funeral.—­Council Book, May 11.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1649.  May 3.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1649.  May 19.]