ace, or rather truce, had been signed at Berwick, by which
Charles had consented that a parliament should assemble in August in
Edinburgh, though, as he insisted that the fourteen Scottish bishops
should be present at its sittings, wise men shook their heads, and
prophesied that no good could come of the measure. Their fears were soon
justified. Riots broke out in the capital, and Aboyne, Huntly's son,
narrowly escaped violence; the people refused to allow the army to be
disbanded or the fortresses to be dismantled, as had been stipulated by
the peace, till the king had fulfilled the promise made by Hamilton at
the assembly at Glasgow of abolishing the bishops.

This he showed no signs of doing, but merely desired a number of the
leading covenanters to appear before him. Six only obeyed, at the risk,
some thought, of imprisonment or death, but neither Rothes nor Montrose,
who headed them, was given to think of peril to themselves.

The old covenanter seems to have told Charles some plain truths, and the
king in return forgot the courtesy which so distinguished him, and
retorted that Rothes was a liar. No man was present when Montrose was
summoned to confer with the king, and neither he nor Charles ever let
fall a word upon the subject; but after that day his friends noted that
he was no longer as bitter as before against his sovereign, nor so
entirely convinced that the covenanters were right in their acts. Yet,
whatever his feelings may have been, he strongly opposed the king's
desire of filling the bishops' vacant places with inferior clergy at the
meeting of Parliament, and, as might have been expected, the assembly
was prorogued, leaving matters precisely as they were.

* * * * *

After this the Scotch took on themselves the management of their own
affairs, and a Committee of Estates was formed, to which was entrusted
absolute power both in state and army. Leslie was one of this committee;
Montrose was another, and immediately he set about raising troops from
his own lands, and carried out the plan of campaign that had been agreed
on by attacking Airlie castle. On its surrender he garrisoned it with a
few men, and went away; but shortly after Argyll arrived, turned out the
garrison, and burned the castle, at the same time accusing Montrose of
treason to the covenant in having spared it. But the Committee of
Estates declared Montrose 'to have done his duty as a true soldier of
the co