ing for support against the English Parliament,
visited Edinburgh (August 14-November 17, 1641).

Charles was now servile to his Scottish Parliament, accepting an Act by
which it must consent to his nominations of officers of State. Hamilton
with his brother, Lanark, had courted the alliance and lived in the
intimacy of Argyll. On October 12 Charles told the House "a very strange
story." On the previous day Hamilton had asked leave to retire from
Court, in fear of his enemies. On the day of the king's speaking,
Hamilton, Argyll, and Lanark had actually retired. On October 22, from
their retreat, the brothers said that they had heard of a conspiracy, by
nobles and others in the king's favour, to cut their throats. The
evidence is very confused and contradictory: Hamilton and Argyll were
said to have collected a force of 5000 men in the town, and, on October
5, such a gathering was denounced in a proclamation. Charles in vain
asked for a public inquiry into the affair before the whole House. He
now raised some of his opponents a step in the peerage: Argyll became a
marquis, and Montrose was released from prison. On October 28 Charles
announced the untoward news of an Irish rising and massacre. He was, of
course, accused of having caused it, and the massacre was in turn the
cause of, or pretext for, the shooting and hanging of Irish prisoners--men
and women--in Scotland during the civil war. On November 18 he left
Scotland for ever.

The events in England of the spring in 1642, the attempted arrest of the
five members (January 4), the retreat of the queen to France, Charles's
retiral to York, indicated civil war, and the king set up his standard at
Nottingham on August 22. The Covenanters had received from Charles all
that they asked; they had no quarrel with him, but they argued that if he
were victorious in England he would use his strength and withdraw his
concessions to Scotland.

Sir Walter Scott "leaves it to casuists to decide whether one contracting
party is justified in breaking a solemn treaty upon the suspicion that in
future contingencies it might be infringed by the other." He suggests
that to the needy nobles and Dugald Dalgettys of the Covenant "the good
pay and free quarters" and "handsome sums" of England were an
irresistible temptation, while the preachers thought they would be
allowed to set up "the golden candlestick" of presbytery in England
('Legend of Montrose,' chapter i.) Of the two