n up in Holland, under the direction of the Committee,
by James Stewart, a Scotch advocate, whose pen was, a few months later,
employed in a very different way. In this paper were set forth, with a
strength of language sometimes approaching to scurrility, many real and
some imaginary grievances. It was hinted that the late King had died by
poison. A chief object of the expedition was declared to be the entire
suppression, not only of Popery, but of Prelacy, which was termed the
most bitter root and offspring of Popery; and all good Scotchmen were
exhorted to do valiantly for the cause of their country and of their
God.

Zealous as Argyle was for what he considered as pure religion, he
did not scruple to practice one rite half Popish and half Pagan. The
mysterious cross of yew, first set on fire, and then quenched in the
blood of a goat, was sent forth to summon all the Campbells, from
sixteen to sixty. The isthmus of Tarbet was appointed for the place of
gathering. The muster, though small indeed when compared with what
it would have been if the spirit and strength of the clan had been
unbroken, was still formidable. The whole force assembled amounted to
about eighteen hundred men. Argyle divided his mountaineers into three
regiments, and proceeded to appoint officers.

The bickerings which had begun in Holland had never been intermitted
during the whole course of the expedition; but at Tarbet they became
more violent than ever. The Committee wished to interfere even with the
patriarchal dominion of the Earl over the Campbells, and would not allow
him to settle the military rank of his kinsmen by his own authority.
While these disputatious meddlers tried to wrest from him his power
over the Highlands, they carried on their own correspondence with the
Lowlands, and received and sent letters which were never communicated
to the nominal General. Hume and his confederates had reserved to
themselves the superintendence of the Stores, and conducted this
important part of the administration of war with a laxity hardly to be
distinguished from dishonesty, suffered the arms to be spoiled, wasted
the provisions, and lived riotously at a time when they ought to have
set to all beneath them an example of abstemiousness.

The great question was whether the Highlands or the Lowlands should be
the seat of war. The Earl's first object was to establish his authority
over his own domains, to drive out the invading clans which had been