Indignation of the people. His advice was not followed, and on his return to Scotland he signed the national covenant, and a few months after attended the famous assembly which met at Glasgow, November, 1638, and declared publicly his approbation of its proceedings. When hostilities at length broke out between Charles and the Scottish nation in 1639, Argyll raised his vassals and espoused the popular cause. In 1640, he marched to the north at the head of five thousand men, and compelled the inhabitants of Badenoch, Athol, and Mar, to submit to the authority of the parliament. Then marching eastward into Angus he demolished Airlie and Forthar, the castles of the earl of Airlie, who had fled on hearing of his approach. Next year when Charles visited Scotland, with the view of gaining over the covenanters, he raised Argyll to the rank of marquis, and made every effort to conciliate his powerful subject. When Charles took up arms against the English parliament, Argyll, who was now the recognized leader of the covenanters, induced the Scottish council to make repeated offers of mediation; but these proposals having been rejected by the king, the Scots at length resolved to send an army to the assistance of the parliament. From this time onward Argyll took a prominent part in the civil war; and when, after the battle of Marston Moor, Montrose took the field in behalf of the king, and collected a considerable body of Highlanders to his standard, the marquis was appointed commander-in-chief of the covenanting army. His talents, however, were not of a warlike kind, and he met with a bloody defeat at Inverlochy, 1st February, 1645—the most signal disaster that ever befell the race of Diarmid. His estates were so completely wasted by the devastating inroads of Montrose and Colkitto, that a sum of money was voted by the parliament for the support of his family, and a collection was ordered to be made throughout all the churches for the relief of his plundered clansmen. Argyll took no direct part in the negotiations between the Scottish army and the parliament respecting the disposal of the king's person; but he opposed the engagement entered into by the duke of Hamilton, and other presbyterian royalists, for the purpose of restoring the royal cause; and after the defeat of the engagers at Preston, Argyll, Warriston, and the other leaders of the covenanting party seized the reins of government. The execution of Charles completely alienated this party, and indeed the whole Scottish nation, from the English republicans; and they immediately proclaimed Prince Charles, the eldest son of the deceased monarch, king of Scotland in his father's stead. At his coronation on the 1st of January, 1651, Argyll placed the crown on the young monarch's head. So great was the influence of the marquis at this juncture, that Charles, though secretly fearing and hating him, promised to confer upon him a dukedom, and made a proposal to marry his daughter, which the wary chief prudently declined. After the defeat of the Scots at Dunbar and Worcester, Argyll, amid almost universal despair, strove to raise the depressed spirits of his fellow-nobles, and mustered his clan with the view of resisting the victorious forces of the Commonwealth, but without effect; and a reluctant submission was at last extorted from him by Major-general Dean, who unexpectedly arrived at Inverary by sea, and surprised the marquis while confined to his castle by sickness. On the death of Cromwell, Argyll was elected by the county of Aberdeen a member of Richard's parliament, and showed great zeal in promoting the interests of the exiled monarch. At the Restoration he repaired to London, for the purpose of congratulating the king; but on his arrival at Whitehall, he was immediately arrested and committed to the Tower. He was shortly after sent down to Scotland and tried on fourteen different charges, extending over all the transactions which had taken place in Scotland since 1638. The trial was conducted by Middleton, the royal commissioner, with a total disregard, not merely of justice, but of common decency. The unanswerable defence of the accused peer compelled the parliament, though filled with his enemies, to exculpate him from all the charges in his indictment except that of compliance with Cromwell's usurpation. Even on this point the evidence was defective, and his acquittal seemed certain; but after the case was closed, a number of private letters which Argyll had written to Monk, were laid before the court by a messenger, whom that treacherous villain had sent down from London with all haste, on learning the scantiness of the proof against his former friend. On evidence thus basely obtained and illegally brought forward, the old nobleman was found guilty and condemned to be beheaded. This sentence was executed on the 27th of May, 1661. The marquis displayed great calmness and dignity during the closing scene. "I could die like a Roman," he said; "but I choose rather to die like a Christian." The character of Argyll was not free from defects; but he was a true patriot, a staunch presbyterian, and a statesman of great sagacity, experience, and consummate address. His vast influence and ambition made him equally dreaded and hated by the neighbouring chiefs; but he was almost adored by his own clan, and his memory is still held in high veneration by the Scottish presbyterians.
Campbell, Archibald, ninth earl, was the eldest son of the preceding. He received an excellent education under the eye of his father, and travelled for three years on the continent. On his return he took the opposite side from his father, and, attaching himself to the royal cause, fought for Charles II. at the disastrous battle of Dunbar. Even after the final defeat of the Scottish army at Worcester, he still continued in arms, and in 1654 joined the earl of Glencairn with a strong body of his clan; and, in his zeal for the interests of the king, consented to serve against the English parliament along with the Macdonalds, and other hereditary enemies of his house. After all hope of resistance was extinguished. Lord Lorn submitted to Monk, who treated him with great severity, and even committed him to prison in 1657, where he lay till the Restoration. In return for his services, Charles remitted his father's forfeiture, and bestowed upon him the family estates and the ancient earldom, to the great disappointment of the greedy and unscrupulous Middleton, who expected to be enriched by the spoils of the man whom he had hunted to death. In 1662, the earl was condemned to death by the Scottish parliament, because in a private letter which Middleton intercepted, he had complained of the calumnies of his enemies; but the king at once interposed, and saved his life. For twenty years he continued to give a moderate though steady support to the government, and even to some extent countenanced their persecution of the covenanters—a part of his conduct which he afterwards bitterly bewailed. In 1681 the Scottish parliament, at the instance of the duke of York—afterwards James VII.—enacted the notorious test of passive obedience, which was so absurd and self-contradictory, that even eighty of the episcopal ministers refused to take it, and were in consequence ejected from their livings. Argyll was prepared to resign his office of privy councillor rather than subscribe this test; but, at the request of the duke, he at length complied, subjoining the explanation, that he took it so far as it was consistent with itself and the protestant religion. James had previously been made aware that this explanation was to be given by the earl, and had apparently received it with great satisfaction. He had perceived, however, that he could not rely on the support of Argyll in his flagitious designs against the religion and liberties of the country, and therefore resolved to avail himself of this opportunity to destroy him. The earl was accordingly apprehended and brought to trial for treason and leasing-making, found guilty, and condemned to death on the 18th October, 1681. On the evening of the 20th, however, he made his escape from the castle of Edinburgh, in the disguise of a page holding up the train of his stepdaughter, Lady Sophia Lindsay; and, in spite of a keen pursuit, made his way to London, and thence passed over to Holland. Sentence of attainder was immediately pronounced against him, his estate was confiscated, his arms were reversed and torn, and a large reward was offered for his head.
Argyll remained in Holland, living in obscurity, until 1685, where, in company with other exiles, he planned an invasion of Scotland, simultaneously with the descent of Monmouth on the southern coast of England. They set sail from Amsterdam on the 2nd of May; but on reaching his own country, Argyll found that ample preparations had been made against his attack, and that even his own clan were disheartened, and unable to afford him adequate assistance. The covenanters cherished a deep grudge against Argyll on account of the support which he had formerly given to the persecuting government, and refused to unite with him. His ships were captured by some royal frigates, his military stores fell into the hands of the enemy, provisions failed, and the Highlanders deserted by hundreds. In this extremity, Argyll, in compliance with the urgent advice of his associates, quitted the Highlands, and marched towards Glasgow. But his guides mistook their way during the night, and led the troops into a morass. All order and subordination ceased, the diminished and disheartened
