been so long complained of, and profiting by the impression which the
successful resistance of the Scots had made, were in no haste to forward
the treaty; go that it was not finished till the month of August, 1641.
The Scottish army all this time received their stipulated daily pay, and the
parliament further gratified them with what they called a brotherly assistance,
the sum of three hundred thousand pounds, as a compensation for the losses they
had sustained in the war, of which eighty thousand pounds was paid down as a
first instalment. The king, so long as he had the smallest hope of managing
the English parliament, was in as little haste as any body to wind up the negotiations, and, in the meantime, was exerting all his king-craft to corrupt the commissioners. Montrose, we have seen, he had already gained. Rothes, whose attachment to the covenant lay also in disgust and hatred of the opposite
party, was likewise gained, by the promise of a rich marriage, and a lucrative
situation near the king's person. A fever, however, cut him off, and saved him
from disgracing himself in the manner he had intended. Aware that he was
not able to subdue the English parliament, Charles, amidst all his intriguing,
gave up every thing to the Scots, and announced his intention of meeting with
his parliament in Edinburgh by the month of August. This parliament had sat
down on the 19th of November, 1640, and having re-appointed the committee,
adjourned till the 14th of January, 1641 ; when it again met, re-appointed the committee, and adjourned till the thirteenth of April. The committee had no sooner sat down, than the Cumbernauld bond was brought before them. It had been all this while kept a secret, though the general conversation of those who were engaged in it had excited strong suspicions of some such thing being in existence. The first notice of this bond seems to have dropped from lord Boyd on his death-bed; but the full discovery was made by the lord Almond to the earl of Argyle, who reported it to the committee of parliament. The committee then cited before them Montrose, and so many of the bonders as happened to be at home at the time—who acknowledged the bond, and attempted to justify it, though by no means to the satisfaction of the committee, many of
the members of which were eager to proceed capitally against the offenders. Motives the most mercenary and mean, however, distracted their deliberations, and impeded the course of even-handed justice; the bond was delivered up and
burned; the parties declared in writing that no evil was intended; and the matter was hushed.
At a meeting of the committee, May 26th, probably as a set off against the Cumbernauld bond, Mr John Graham, minister at Auchterarder, was challenged for a speech uttered by him to the prejudice of the duke of Argyle. He acknowledged the speech, and gave for his authority Mr Robert Murray, minister of Methven, who, being present, gave for his author the earl of Montrose. Montrose condescended on the speech, the time, and the place. The place was in Argyle's own tent, at the ford of Lyon; the time, when the earl of Athol and eight other gentlemen were there made prisoners ; the speech was to this effect—that they [the parliament] had consulted both lawyers arid divines anent deposing the king, and were resolved that it might be done in three cases:—1st, Desertion—2d, Invasion—3d, Vendition; adding, that they thought to have done it at the last sit- ting of parliament, and would do it at the next. For this speech Montrose gave for witness John Stuart, commissary of Dunkeld, one of the gentlemen who were present in the tent; and undertook to produce him, which he did four days afterward. Stuart, before the committee, subscribed a paper bearing all that Montrose had said in his name, and was sent by the committee to the castle. In the castle he signed another paper, wherein he cleared Argyle, owned that he himself had forged the speech out of malice against his lordship; and that by
