this occasion, that they made him a handsome present, and had medals struck to perpetuate their gratitude and the honour of their deliverer. In the year 1635, he had charters granted to him, his wife, and son, of the barony of Balgonie,
and other lands in the counties of Fife, Berwick, and Roxburgh. He was at this time serving in Lower Saxony. In the year 1639, when the covenanters were preparing to resist their sovereign in the field, Leslie returned from Sweden, where he had continued after the death of Gustavus in
the service of Christina. "This Leslie," says Spalding, "having conquest from nought wealth and honour, resolved to come home to his native country of Scotland and settle himself beside his chief, the earl of Rothes, as he did indeed, and bought fair lands in Fife; but the earl foreseeing the troubles,
whereof himself was one of the principal beginners, took hold of this Leslie, who was both wise and stout, acquainted him with the plot, and had his advice for the furtherance thereof to his power."
It was a fortunate circumstance for the covenanters, that the oppressions to which they had been subjected, and the persecutions that were evidently preparing for them, were well known on the continent, where thousands of their fellow countrymen had been shedding their blood in the defence of the religion and liberties of their fellow protestants, and excited the deepest interest in their favour. Leslie had undoubtedly been invited home, and he brought a number of his countrymen along with him, who, having periled their lives for the same cause among foreigners, could not reasonably be considered as indifferent to its success among their own countrymen. Half a century had, for the first time since it was a nation, passed over Scotland without any thing like general warfare. The people had, in a great measure, become unaccustomed to its hardships and its dangers, and the chieftains, such as had been abroad excepted, were unacquainted with its practice, and ignorant of its details. This defect, by the return of so many who had been in the wars of Gustavus, was amply supplied. Leslie was, by the committee of estates, appointed to the chief command; many of his fellow adventurers of less celebrity, yet well acquainted with military details and the equipment of an army, were dispersed throughout the country, where they were employed in training the militia, which in those days comprehended every man that was able to bear arms, from the age of sixteen to sixty. By these means, together with a manifesto by the Tables (committees of the four estates assembled at Edinburgh), entitled, "State of the Question, and Reasons for Defensive War," which was circulated so as to meet the eye or the ear of every individual in the nation, the covenanters were in a state of preparation greatly superior to the king, though he had been meditating hostilities long before he declared them. Though now an old man, little in stature, and deformed in person, Leslie was possessed of ceaseless activity, as well as consummate skill; and in both he was powerfully seconded by the zeal of the people in general. Early apprized of the intentions of Charles, he so managed matters as to render them entirely nugatory. It was the intention of the latter, while he advanced with his main force upon his ancient kingdom by the eastern marches, to enter it previously, or at least simultaneously, on the western side, with a body of Highlanders and Irish, and by the Firth of Forth with a strong division of his English army, under his commissioner the duke of Hamilton. To meet this formidable array, every thing that lay within the compass of their limited means, was prepared by the covenanters. Military committees were appointed for every county, who were to see to the assembling and training of the militia generally, and to forward to the army such levies and such supplies, as might be from time to time demanded. Smiths were every where put in requisition for the fabrication of muskets, carbines, pole-axes,
