's power, wealth,
people, Covenant, honor, and high relation to God, entrusted to his
keeping.

The coronation took place in the dead of winter. The country was gowned
like a bride in white. But the white on this occasion was not the emblem
of purity; rather was it the pallor of icy death. The rigorous storms
seemed to prophesy of trouble; the very winds were rehearsing a dirge to
be plaintively sung over mountains and moors in the coming years.

A large assembly of Covenanters met at Scone for the crowning of the new
king. There was much enthusiasm, yet beneath it all there flowed a deep
undercurrent of doubt and fear. Rev. Robert Douglas preached the
coronation sermon. The king listened to deep, penetrating, practical
words from the Book of God. The Solemn League and Covenant was read. He
gave his assent to it with an overflow of vehemence. Archibald Campbell,
the Marquis of Argyle, a prominent Covenanter and statesman, then took
the crown in both hands, and, lifting it above the prince with great
solemnity, placed it upon his head, accompanying the act with an
appropriate exhortation. While the oath of office was being
administered, the prince kneeled in apparent humility, and lifted up his
right hand in a solemn appeal to God. At this point he uttered the awful
vow in the presence of the people: "By the Eternal and Almighty God, who
liveth and reigneth forever, I shall observe and keep all that is
contained in this oath." He also said: "I will have no enemies, but the
enemies of the Covenant--no friends, but the friends of the Covenant."
Thus King Charles II. became a radical Covenanter by profession and
protestation in the most solemn manner. Time proved his guilty
duplicity.

The English Parliament, after the execution of Charles I., had passed an
act making it treason to proclaim this prince king. The Covenanters,
having thus elevated Charles to the throne, must now settle accounts
with England on the battlefield.

[Illustration: ARCHBISHOP SHARP

James Sharp was a young Covenanted minister in 1661, but withdrew from
the Covenanters and became a persecutor of the most virulent type. The
land could not bear his cruelties. He lost his life at the hands of a
few men, who had been goaded into desperation by his atrocities. He was
slain while driving across Magus moor in 1679.]

Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland with a strong force, determined to
unseat Charles. The Covenanters rallied in defence of their king.