ys Rothes, their leader, the chief of the House of Leslie
(the family of Norman Leslie, the slayer of Cardinal Beaton). Now a
"band" of this kind could not, by old Scots law, be legally made; such
bands, like those for the murder of Riccio and of Darnley, and for many
other enterprises, were not smiled upon by the law. But, in 1581, as we
saw, James VI. had signed a covenant against popery; its tenor was
imitated in that of 1638, and there was added "a general band for the
maintenance of true religion" (Presbyterianism) "_and of the King's
person_." That part of the band was scarcely kept when the Covenanting
army surrendered Charles to the English. They had vowed, in their band,
to "stand to the defence of our dread Sovereign the King's Majesty, his
person and authority." They kept this vow by hanging men who held the
king's commission. The words as to defending the king's authority were
followed by "in the defence and preservation of the aforesaid true
religion." This appears to mean that only a presbyterian king is to be
defended. In any case the preachers assumed the right to interpret the
Covenant, which finally led to the conquest of Scotland by Cromwell. As
the Covenant was made between God and the Covenanters, on ancient Hebrew
precedent it was declared to be binding on all succeeding generations.
Had Scotland resisted tyranny without this would-be biblical pettifogging
Covenant, her condition would have been the more gracious. The signing
of the band began at Edinburgh in Greyfriars' Churchyard on February 28,
1638.

This Covenant was a most potent instrument for the day, but the fruits
thereof were blood and tears and desolation: for fifty-one years common-
sense did not come to her own again. In 1689 the Covenant was silently
dropped, when the Kirk was restored.

This two-edged insatiable sword was drawn: great multitudes signed with
enthusiasm, and they who would not sign were, of course, persecuted. As
they said, "it looked not like a thing approved of God, which was begun
and carried on with fury and madness, and obtruded on people with
threatenings, tearing of clothes, and drawing of blood." Resistance to
the king--if need were, armed resistance--was necessary, was laudable,
but the terms of the Covenant were, in the highest degree impolitic and
unstatesmanlike. The country was handed over to the preachers; the
Scots, as their great leader Argyll was to discover, were "distracted men
in dis