s to a place of safety. Monk appeared
before it; and having made a breach, gave a general assault. He carried
the town; and following the example and instructions of Cromwell, put
all the inhabitants to the sword, in order to strike a general terror
into the kingdom. Warned by this example, Aberdeen, St. Andrew's,
Inverness, and other towns and forts, yielded of their own accord to
the enemy. Argyle made his submissions to the English commonwealth;
and excepting a few royalists, who remained some time in the mountains,
under the earl of Glencairn, Lord Balcarras, and General Middleton,
that kingdom, which had hitherto, through all ages, by means of its
situation, poverty, and valor, maintained its independence, was reduced
to total subjection.

The English parliament sent Sir Harry Vane, St. John, and other
commissioners to settle Scotland. These men, who possessed little of the
true spirit of liberty, knew how to maintain the appearance of it; and
they required the voluntary consent of all the counties and towns of
this conquered kingdom, before they would unite them into the same
commonwealth with England. The clergy protested; because, they said,
this incorporating union would draw along with it a subordination of the
church to the state in the things of Christ.[*] English judges, joined
to some Scottish, were appointed to determine all causes; justice was
strictly administered; order and peace maintained; and the Scots, freed
from the tyranny of the ecclesiastics, were not much dissatisfied with
the present government.[**] [25] The prudent conduct of Monk, a man who
possessed a capacity for the arts both of peace and war, served much to
reconcile the minds of men, and to allay their prejudices.

{1652.} By the total reduction and pacification of the British
dominions, the parliament had leisure to look abroad, and to exert their
vigor in foreign enterprises. The Dutch were the first that felt the
weight of their arms.

During the life of Frederic Henry, prince of Orange, the Dutch republic
had maintained a neutrality in the civil wars of England, and had never
interposed, except by her good offices, between the contending parties.
When William, who had married an English princess, succeeded to his
father's commands and authority,[***] the states, both before and
after the execution of the late king, were accused of taking steps more
favorable to the royal cause, and of betraying a great prejudice against
that of