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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
Volume 1 Page 56
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