had better
be frank with me, Mr. Ayloffe. You know that it is in my power to pardon
you." Then, it was rumoured, the captive broke his sullen silence, and
answered, "It may be in your power; but it is not in your nature." He
was executed under his old outlawry before the gate of the Temple, and
died with stoical composure. [353]

In the meantime the vengeance of the conquerors was mercilessly wreaked
on the people of Argyleshire. Many of the Campbells were hanged by Athol
without a trial; and he was with difficulty restrained by the Privy
Council from taking more lives. The country to the extent of thirty
miles round Inverary was wasted. Houses were burned: the stones of mills
were broken to pieces: fruit trees were cut down, and the very roots
seared with fire. The nets and fishing boats, the sole means by which
many inhabitants of the coast subsisted, were destroyed. More than three
hundred rebels and malecontents were transported to the colonies. Many
of them were also Sentenced to mutilation. On a single day the hangman
of Edinburgh cut off the ears of thirty-five prisoners. Several women
were sent across the Atlantic after being first branded in the cheek
with a hot iron. It was even in contemplation to obtain an act of
Parliament proscribing the name of Campbell, as the name of Macgregor
had been proscribed eighty years before. [354]

Argyle's expedition appears to have produced little sensation in the
south of the island. The tidings of his landing reached London just
before the English Parliament met. The King mentioned the news from the
throne; and the Houses assured him that they would stand by him against
every enemy. Nothing more was required of them. Over Scotland they had
no authority; and a war of which the theatre was so distant, and of
which the event might, almost from the first, be easily foreseen,
excited only a languid interest in London.

But, a week before the final dispersion of Argyle's army England was
agitated by the news that a more formidable invader had landed on her
own shores. It had been agreed among the refugees that Monmouth should
sail from Holland six days after the departure of the Scots. He had
deferred his expedition a short time, probably in the hope that most
of the troops in the south of the island would be moved to the north as
soon as war broke out in the Highlands, and that he should find no force
ready to oppose him. When at length he was desirous to proceed, the wind
ha