The royal army was soon across.  They line up for the general engagement, but hesitate to give battle; they have tested the courage of the Covenanters, and have a dread of results.  Hamilton is awaiting his opportunity.  His intention is to rush the enemy into the river.  He orders a forward movement, but the order fails.  Wherefore does his army hesitate?  Ah, many of the officers have disappeared.  Terror is creeping over the masses like a death chill.  Welch and his friends have left; Weir with his 140 horsemen takes fright and flees; Hamilton loses his head and his cavalry stampedes; the army is thrown into confusion; all is lost.  In the fight only 15 were killed; in the flight 400 were slaughtered.

Monmouth, seeing the panic, ordered a pursuit which resulted in a running butchery, a horrid massacre.  A body of 1,200 surrendered; these were compelled to lie flat on the ground all night.  If in their wounds or achings they moved head or hand, an admonition was delivered from a musket.  A change of posture, then a sharp crack, a whizzing bullet, a bleeding victim, a death struggle, a pallid corpse.

That was a sad Sabbath for the Covenanters.  Defeat, dishonor, and distress turned the day into a painful memory.  The calamity, doubtless, arose out of the compromise of Covenanted principles.  Welch’s wisdom proved to be foolishness; Weir’s strength, weakness; Hamilton’s compliance, defeat.

The sacrifice of truth can never be productive of good.  Loss, sorrow, defeat, and death are in the train of any policy that buries principle.

Points for the class.

1.  How did the Covenanters follow up their victory at Drumclog?

2 What reverse did they suffer?

3 How did they account for it?

4.  What was the growth of their army?

6.  Who introduced confusion into their ranks?

7.  What was the subject of debate?

8.  How did it terminate?

9.  Describe the forces at the battle of Bothwell Bridge.

10.  Describe the battle and its issue.

11.  What lesson may we learn from this defeat?

XXXIV.

The Covenanters’ prisons.—­A.D. 1680.

“They who profess Christ in this generation must suffer much or sin much,” exclaimed one of the Scottish martyrs.  The enemy was in power and every means was employed to compel the Covenanters to abandon their Covenant with God, break relation with Jesus Christ, and thus destroy their testimony.  To accomplish this, the king and his courtiers subjected these inoffensive people to cruelties most shocking.  While they remained steadfast in their Covenant, the violence increased; when any of them relaxed, one step of defection necessitated another, till they stood in the enemy’s camp.  The same process is ever true.