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graphers, have visited it with ridicule and censure. Marriage, unfortunately, did not "tame the shrew;" nor, after the Restoration, when she became, through her husband's elevation, Duchess of Albemarle, did she in any way comprehend the dignities or discharge the courtesies of her position. Pepys calls her "a plain, homely, and ill-looked dowdy ;" and the story runs that when, on one occasion, a wine-bibber named Troutbecke was dining with Monk, and the latter expressed his surprise that "Nan Hyde" (the Earl of Clarendon's daughter) should have risen to be Duchess of York, Troutbecke replied: "If you will give me another bottle, I will tell you a miracle as great, if not greater; and that is, that our dirty Bess should come to be Duchess of Albemarle."

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On the 16th of December 1653, the Council of Officers, of which Monk was a member, declared Oliver Cromwell Protector of the Commonwealth of England. One of the Protector's first acts was to reward the services of so influential an adherent, while, at the same time, he removed to a distance the popular hero who might become a formidable rival. He resolved to give him the chief command in Scotland, whose unquiet state called for immediate measures of precaution and repression, and yet so to limit his power as to prevent his assertion of a dangerous independence. The soldiers appointed for service in Scotland were accordingly selected from the most fanatical regiments in the army. Monk was a man of exceedingly tolerant views, and detested fanatics; while the fanatics detested, or, at least, suspected Monk. Each was thus a check upon the other, and Cromwell, holding the balance between their conflicting interests,

* The anecdote is told by Pepys in his amusing "Diary," i. 476.

trusted that neither would prove a source of danger to himself or his authority.

CHAPTER IV.-GOVERNOR OF SCOTLAND.

Arrives in Scotland-His Energetic Measures-How he made War-The Laird of Glenorchie-Guizot's summary of Monk's Campaign-His Civil Administration-Tranquillity of the Country-A Council of State appointed-Cromwell's letter-Monk's Royalist Tendencies-Letter from Charles II.-Colonel Overton's Conspiracy-" Honest George "-Death of Cromwell-Monk's Views-His Secrecy.

MONK arrived in Scotland on the 23rd of April 1654. He found that the perils which had gathered there had originated as much in the supineness of the officers of the Commonwealth as in the activity of the enemy. Having made with promptitude and decision the preparations he judged to be needful, and stationed a body of troops to maintain order in the southern districts, he proceeded with the remainder of his army into the Highlands. One division he led in person; he entrusted another to General Morgan; so that he hoped to harass the enemy by attacking him at different points. He ordered each soldier to take with him six days' provision, that they might be able to penetrate into the fastnesses which the Highlanders had hitherto considered inaccessible. Large stores of biscuit and fodder were collected at Leith, St. Johnstown, and Inverness, that his troopers might never be drawn far from their supplies. Of every post capable of being turned into a means of offence he took possession as he advanced. Having arrived one day at the little stronghold-halfmansion, half-fortalice-of Campbell, the Laird of Glen

CAMPAIGN IN THE HIGHLANDS.

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orchie, he found that it had been fitted up to accommodate a small garrison. Nor would the Laird surrender it to Monk. "Well," said the General, "I will not violate hospitality;" and he directed the officers who surrounded him to leave the house immediately. "Now," said Monk, "look to your defence, for we are about to attack." The Laird was supported by many of his friends and retainers, whose claymores immediately sprang from their scabbards, but he judged it best to give way to a man of such evident obstinacy, and consented to receive an English detachment.

I condense from Monsieur Guizot's biography of "Monk," an admirable summary of the campaign in the Highlands:

He

In districts with which he was entirely unacquainted, in the midst of foes lying in ambush at every point of vantage, his watchfulness was so great that he never gave his enemy any chance of a successful movement. ordered his marches by the information he received from trusty spies. He marched only in the morning; reached at noon a point previously determined upon; examined the ground himself; traced out the camp, posted the sentinels, and dispatched parties to forage or reconnoitre the surrounding country. Then, seated on the ground, in the centre of his officers, he freely partook with them of cold meat—a species of provision with which he always took care to be well supplied. In the evening he entertained them at supper, when his table was loaded with every delicacy the neighbourhood afforded. It was thus that he overran the Highlands, and drove Middleton, the Royalist general, from place to place, cutting him off from the districts whence he had hoped to draw his

supplies, and where he had believed no enemy would dare to follow him. Neither party was desirous to force on a battle; Monk, because he felt confident of success without one; Middleton, because he knew himself too weak to accept one. Meanwhile, Cromwell's agents were secretly persuading the Scottish chieftains to submit to his government, and Middleton had the mortification of witnessing the gradual defection of his adherents. At length, he himself was overtaken by General Morgan at Loch Garry, and completely defeated. He fled into the Isle of Skye, and thence contrived to pass into Holland. All Scotland now submitted to the Protector, and Monk having stationed several strong garrisons at suitable points to assist in the regular collection of the revenue, returned to Edinburgh in triumph towards the end of August 1654.

His civil administration was not less successful than

had proved his military progress. He was severe in repressing any defiance of his authority; the Anabaptists were crushed; the Presbyterians forbidden to interfere in civil matters; no Scotch gentleman was allowed to ride a horse above a certain value, to engage in a feud with his enemies, or to exercise arbitrary jurisdiction over his vassals and domestics. But if Monk was severe, he was also just. His own soldiers were compelled to yield implicit obedience to the laws; and Scotland, under his rule, enjoyed a prosperous tranquillity, to which it looked back with wistful eyes during the excesses and disorders that followed the Restoration.

The General's head-quarters were established at Dalkeith, whose stately mansion he had leased from the Earls of Buccleuch. There he was always immersed in work,

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or amusing his scanty leisure with the rural pursuits to which he was addicted; but every person had access to him, and as he was an adept in varying his language and disguising his opinions, every person left him well satisfied, softened by his courtesy, and convinced of his extraordinary judgment.

His influence became so great that it excited the apprehensions of Cromwell, and to reduce within bounds his personal authority, a Council of State was appointed to administer Scotch affairs; Lord Broghill was named President, and the other members were Monk, Desborough, and Colonels Howard, Lockhart, Scroop, and Wetham.* But as the command of the army still remained in his hands, he continued to exercise the real power, and his coadjutors could not but assent to the measures he proposed. It is probable that he found means to convince the Protector of his fidelity, for he was thenceforth left undisturbed in his important office. His partiality to the Stuarts, nevertheless, was generally suspected; and that the suspicion was carried to Cromwell is evident from a characteristic paragraph in one of his letters to his powerful subordinate-a paragraph containing a warning, though humorously worded: "There be who tell me that there is a certain cunning fellow in Scotland, called George Monk, who is said to lie in wait. there to introduce Charles Stuart. I pray you use your diligence to apprehend him, and send him up to me." It is certain that Monk's sagacity foresaw the dissolution of the Commonwealth upon the Protector's decease; but he knew too well the vigour of Cromwell's genius and the energy of his movements to favour any Royalist rising,

* Lingard; compare Ludlow and Clarendon.

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