itelock, 384. Balfour, iii. 388,
389. Carte, Letters, i. 233. Dolphin received a secret instruction not to
dismiss Sir John Chiesley, but to keep him as a hostage, till he knew that
Mr. Rowe, the English agent in Edinburgh, was not detained.--Council Book,
March 2.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 24.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 26.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 2.]

This insult, which, though keenly felt, was tamely borne, might retard, it
could not prevent, the purposes of the Scottish parliament. The earl of
Cassilis, with four new commissioners, was appointed[a] to proceed to
Holland, where Charles, under the protection of his brother-in-law, the
prince of Orange, had resided since the death of his father.[1] His court
consisted at first of the few individuals whom that monarch had placed
around him, and whom he now swore of his privy council. It was soon
augmented by the earl of Lanark, who, on the death of his brother, became
duke of Hamilton, the earl of Lauderdale, and the earl of Callendar,
the chiefs of the Scottish Engagers; these were followed by the ancient
Scottish royalists, Montrose, Kinnoul, and Seaforth, and in a few days
appeared Cassilis, with his colleagues, and three deputies from the church
of Scotland, who brought with them news not likely to insure them a
gracious reception, that 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 hop