which my Lord Argyle has
been sentenced to death." The Earl escaped however to Holland, and lived
peaceably there during the last six years of the reign of Charles.
Monmouth had found the same refuge at the Hague, where a belief in the
king's love and purpose to recall him secured him a kindly reception
from William of Orange. But the accession of James was a death-blow to
the hopes of the Duke, while it stirred the fanaticism of Argyle to a
resolve of wresting Scotland from the rule of a Catholic king. The two
leaders determined to appear in arms in England and the North, and the
two expeditions sailed within a few days of each other. Argyle's attempt
was soon over. His clan of the Campbells rose on the Earl's landing in
Cantyre, but the country had been occupied for the king, and quarrels
among the exiles who accompanied him robbed his effort of every chance
of success. His force scattered without a fight; and Argyle, arrested
in an attempt to escape, was hurried on the 30th of June to a traitor's
death.

[Sidenote: Monmouth's Rising.]

Monmouth for a time found brighter fortune. His popularity in the West
was great, and though the gentry held aloof when he landed at Lyme and
demanded an effective parliamentary government as well as freedom of
worship for Protestant Nonconformists, the farmers and traders of
Devonshire and Dorset flocked to his standard. The clothier-towns of
Somerset were true to the Whig cause, as they had been true to the cause
of the Long Parliament; and on the entrance of the Duke into Taunton the
popular enthusiasm showed itself in the flowers which wreathed every
door, as well as in a train of young girls who presented Monmouth with a
Bible and a flag. His forces now amounted to six thousand men, but
whatever chance of success he might have had was lost by his assumption
of the title of king, his right to which he had pledged himself hitherto
to leave for decision to a free Parliament. The two Houses offered to
support James with their lives and fortunes, and passed a bill of
attainder against the Duke. The gentry, still true to the cause of Mary
and of William, held stubbornly aloof; while the Guards and the
regiments from Tangier hurried to the scene of the revolt and the
militia gathered to the royal standard. Foiled in an attempt on Bristol
and Bath, Monmouth fell back on Bridgewater, and flung himself in the
night of the 6th of July on the king's forces as they lay encamped hard
by on Se