es like the Rev. James Guthrie, to the Orkney
islands. But the Resolutioners, on the other hand, were no less eager to
stop the use of the liturgy in Charles's own household, and to persecute
every sort of Catholic, Dissenter, Sectary, and Quaker in Scotland.
Meanwhile Argyll, in debt, despised on all sides, and yet dreaded, was
holding a great open-air Communion meeting of Protesters at Paisley, in
the heart of the wildest Covenanting region (May 27, 1660). He was still
dangerous; he was trying to make himself trusted by the Protesters, who
were opposed to Charles. It may be doubted if any great potentate in
Scotland except the Marquis wished to revive the constitutional triumphs
of Argyll's party in the last Parliament of Charles I. Charles now named
his Privy Council and Ministers without waiting for parliamentary
assent--though his first Parliament would have assented to anything. He
chose only his late supporters: Glencairn who raised his standard in
1653; Rothes, a humorous and not a cruel voluptuary; and, as Secretary
for Scotland in London, Lauderdale, who had urged him to take the
Covenant, and who for twenty years was to be his buffoon, his favourite,
and his wavering and unscrupulous adviser. Among these greedy and
treacherous profligates there would, had he survived, have been no place
for Montrose.

In defiance of warnings from omens, second-sighted men, and sensible men,
Argyll left the safe sanctuary of his mountains and sea-straits, and
betook himself to London, "a fey man." Most of his past was covered by
an Act of Indemnity, but not his doings in 1653. He was arrested before
he saw the king's face (July 8, 1660), and lay in the Tower till, in
December, he was taken to be tried for treason in Scotland.

Sharp's friends were anxious to interfere in favour of establishing
Presbyterianism in England; he told them that the hope was vain; he
repeatedly asked for leave to return home, and, while an English preacher
assured Charles that the rout of Worcester had been God's vengeance for
his taking of the Covenant, Sharp (June 25) told his Resolutioners that
"the Protesters' doom is dight."

Administration in Scotland was intrusted to the Committee of Estates whom
Monk (1650) had captured at Alyth, and with them Glencairn, as
Chancellor, entered Edinburgh on August 22. Next day, while the
Committee was busy, James Guthrie and some Protester preachers met, and,
in the old way, drew up a "supplication.