and
his successor. [Note: James, Seventh King of Scotland of that name, and
Second according to the numeration of the Kings of England.--J. C.] In
returning from the battle of Pentland Hills, a party of the insurgents
had been attacked in this glen by a small detachment of the King's
troops, and three or four either killed in the skirmish, or shot after
being made prisoners, as rebels taken with arms in their hands. The
peasantry continued to attach to the tombs of those victims of prelacy an
honour which they do not render to more splendid mausoleums; and, when
they point them out to their sons, and narrate the fate of the sufferers,
usually conclude, by exhorting them to be ready, should times call for
it, to resist to the death in the cause of civil and religious liberty,
like their brave forefathers.
"Although I am far from venerating the peculiar tenets asserted by those
who call themselves the followers of those men, and whose intolerance and
narrow-minded bigotry are at least as conspicuous as their devotional
zeal, yet it is without depreciating the memory of those sufferers, many
of whom united the independent sentiments of a Hampden with the suffering
zeal of a Hooper or Latimer. On the other hand, it would be unjust to
forget, that many even of those who had been most active in crushing what
they conceived the rebellious and seditious spirit of those unhappy
wanderers, displayed themselves, when called upon to suffer for their
political and religious opinions, the same daring and devoted zeal,
tinctured, in their case, with chivalrous loyalty, as in the former with
republican enthusiasm.
Pages:
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61