591
advice from different statesmen, and above all from that atrocious character,
the Duke of Lauderdale. At the same time, all parties looked back upon recent
distraction with a strong recollection of their fanaticism and their fooleries.
At this time, Graham, the provost of Glasgow, and Spreull, the town-clerk,
were imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh for their misdeeds at that
epoch (u). Gillespie, the president of the college of Glasgow, was also im-
prisoned about the same time, for his familiarity with the usurper (v). It was
resolved by the ruling powers at London, to re-establish episcopacy, which had
been suppressed amidst the late violences with so many marks of disdain and
hatred. The clergy resolved generally not to submit without a struggle. Lord
Middleton, who was sent down to rule this unhappy land, opened his concert
on too high a key.
The fermentation of such principles produced an insurrection at Dairy in
Ayrshire in 1666, and it extended to Dumfries, where the insurgents took
Sir James Turner prisoner, a busy man, but an incapable officer, whose
soldiers were disarmed. General Dalziel was now ordered to Glasgow, with
the king's troops under his command. At Ochiltree, the insurgents formed
themselves into a rebellious troop, with Colonel Wallace at their head.
When they inarched to Lanark on their way to Edinburgh, they formed a
body of 3000 fighting men ; but Dalziel remained in Glasgow at his ease, who
conceived that as they wanted motives of cohesion, they would melt away
without his interposition. They marched forward, however, and Dalziel fol-
lowed them closely. They diminished every day, while no one joined them
from Edinburgh or its vicinity, and they encountered winter weather,
Wallace, their leader, conducted them into the Pentland hills on their way to
Biggar, and Dalziel now encountered and dispersed them, though they ex-
hibited some vigour. Neither punishment nor lenity had any effect on
enthusiasts, who neither admitted the legality of the government, nor acknow-
ledged the sovereignty of the king.
During the year 1667, the western counties of Lanarkshire, Renfrew,
Ayr, and others, were kept in subjection by military execution. The effect
of a general pardon was tried in Stirling, though without much success. The
appearance of quiet was produced ; but the refractoriness of the enthusiasts
refused to execute the bonds of submission and of quiet. The covenanters
(u) Wodrow, i. 10.
(y) Id. Whether this "be the same Gillespie who was ridiculed by Milton does not appear. In
Wodrow's Appendix there is a long list of ministers in the synod of Glasgow and Ayr that were
nonconformists to the established authority. App., 74.