The secret of Montrose’s Cumbernauld band had come to light after November 1640:  nothing worse, at the moment, befell than the burning of the band by the Committee of Estates, to whom Argyll referred the matter.  On May 21, 1641, the Committee was disturbed, for Montrose was collecting evidence as to the words and deeds of Argyll when he used his commission of fire and sword at the Bonny House of Airlie and in other places.  Montrose had spoken of the matter to a preacher, he to another, and the news reached the Committee.  Montrose had learned from a prisoner of Argyll, Stewart the younger of Ladywell, that Argyll had held counsels to discuss the deposition of the king.  Ladywell produced to the Committee his written statement that Argyll had spoken before him of these consultations of lawyers and divines.  He was placed in the castle, and was so worked on that he “cleared” Argyll and confessed that, advised by Montrose, he had reported Argyll’s remarks to the king.  Papers with hints and names in cypher were found in possession of the messenger.

The whole affair is enigmatic; in any case Ladywell was hanged for “leasing-making” (spreading false reports), an offence not previously capital, and Montrose with his friends was imprisoned in the castle.  Doubtless he had meant to accuse Argyll before Parliament of treason.  On July 27, 1641, being arraigned before Parliament, he said, “My resolution is to carry with me fidelity and honour to the grave.”  He lay in prison when the king, vainly hoping for support against the English Parliament, visited Edinburgh (August 14-November 17, 1641).

Charles was now servile to his Scottish Parliament, accepting an Act by which it must consent to his nominations of officers of State.  Hamilton with his brother, Lanark, had courted the alliance and lived in the intimacy of Argyll.  On October 12 Charles told the House “a very strange story.”  On the previous day Hamilton had asked leave to retire from Court, in fear of his enemies.  On the day of the king’s speaking, Hamilton, Argyll, and Lanark had actually retired.  On October 22, from their retreat, the brothers said that they had heard of a conspiracy, by nobles and others in the king’s favour, to cut their throats.  The evidence is very confused and contradictory:  Hamilton and Argyll were said to have collected a force of 5000 men in the town, and, on October 5, such a gathering was denounced in a proclamation.  Charles in vain asked for a public inquiry into the affair before the whole House.  He now raised some of his opponents a step in the peerage:  Argyll became a marquis, and Montrose was released from prison.  On October 28 Charles announced the untoward news of an Irish rising and massacre.  He was, of course, accused of having caused it, and the massacre was in turn the cause of, or pretext for, the shooting and hanging of Irish prisoners—­men and women—­in Scotland during the civil war.  On November 18 he left Scotland for ever.