ojects.

Thus it was that I came to be concerned in Argyle's unfortunate
expedition--if that can be called unfortunate, which, though in itself a
failure, yet ministered to make the scattered children of the Covenant
again co-operate for the achievement of their common freedom. Doubtless
the expedition was undertaken before the persecuted were sufficiently
ripened to be of any effective service. The Earl counted overmuch on the
spirit which the Persecution had raised; he thought that the weight of
the tyranny had compressed us all into one body. But, alas! it had been
so great, that it had not only bruised, but broken us asunder into many
pieces; and time, and care, and much persuasion, were all requisite to
solder the fragments together.

As the spring advanced, being, in the manner related, engaged in
furthering the purposes of the exiled Covenanters, I prepared, through
the instrumentality of divers friends, many in the West Country to be in
readiness to join the Earl's standard of deliverance. It is not however
to be disguised, that the work went on but slowly, and that the people
heard of the intended descent with something like an actionless
wonderment, in consequence of those by whom it had been planned not
sending forth any declaration of their views and intents. And this
indisposition, especially among the Cameronians, became a settled
reluctance, when, after the Earl had reached Campbelton, he published
that purposeless proclamation, wherein, though the wrongs and woes of
the kingdom were pithily recited, the nature of the redress proposed was
in no manner manifest. It was plain indeed, by many signs, that the
Lord's time was not yet come for the work to thrive.

The divisions in Argyle's councils were greater even than those among
the different orders into which the Covenanters had been long split--the
very Cameronians might have been sooner persuaded to refrain from
insisting on points of doctrine and opinion, at least till the adversary
was overthrown, than those who were with the ill-fated Earl to act with
union among themselves. In a word, all about the expedition was
confusion and perplexity, and the omens and auguries of ruin showed how
much it wanted the favour that is better than the strength of numbers,
or the wisdom of mighty men. But to proceed.

CHAPTER LXXXVII

Sir John Cochrane, one of those who were with Argyle, had, by some
espial of his own, a correspondence with divers of the Co