discharged by the hand of the Major-General commanding.
From the ? Archieologia Scotica ? we cull the
following curious anecdote :-Soon after the death
of Cromwell, the English Council, in 1660, suspecting
General Monk?s fidelity, sent an order
to remove him from the head of their forces in
Scotland. Their ordinary special messenger, who
received it, concealed its nature, and at once began
his march southward, with the army of Scotland, to
accomplish the Restoration.
When the Puritan gunners in the Castle were
ordered to fire a salute in honour of that event, an
old ?saint? of Oliver?s first campaigns bluntly refused
obedience, saying, ?May the devil blaw me
into the air gif I lowse a cannon this day ! If I do,
that the principal
servant of the former met, near the Canongate-
head, his old friend the messenger, whom
he accosted with cordiality. ? How comes it,?
he asked, ?that you go in this direction, and
not, as usual, to the General at Dalkeith??
?Because my despatches are for the Castle.?
With ready wit the servant of Monk suspected that
something was wrong, and proposed they should
have a bottle together. The messenger partook
freely ; the servant purloined the despatch; Monk
Tower on the accusation of ?complying with
Cromwell in the death of Charles I.?
Thus he found himself a captive in the dungeons
under the same hall in which he had feasted the
Protector, and where he could hear the salutes
fired as the remains of his rival Montrose were
laid in the church of St. Giles. He was brought
to trial in the Parliament House, where Middleton,
with fierce exultation, laid before the peers certain
letters written by the Marquis to Cromwell, all
expressive of attachment to him personally and
