of Argyle, steadily pursued his purpose; his friends, by submitting to the
humbling ceremony of public penance, satisfied the severity of the kirk;
and by the repeal[a] of the act of classes, they were released from all
previous forfeitures and disqualifications. In April the king, with Leslie
and Middleton as his lieutenants, took the command of the army, which had
been raised by new levies to twenty thousand men, and, having fortified
the passages of the Forth, awaited on the left bank the motions of the
enemy.[1]

In the mean while Cromwell had obtained[b] possession of the castle of
Edinburgh through the perfidy or the timidity of the governor. Tantallon
had been taken by storm, and Dumbarton had been attempted, but its defences
were too strong to be carried by force,

[Footnote 1: Carte, Letters, ii. 26, 27. Balfour, iv. 240, 268, 281,
301. It appears from this writer that a great number of the colonels of
regiments were royalists or engagers (p. 210, 213). The six brigades
of horse seem to have been divided equally between old Covenanters and
royalists. The seventh was not given to any general, but would be commanded
by Hamilton, as the eldest colonel.--Ib. 299-301. It is therefore plain
that with the king for commander-in-chief the royalists had the complete
ascendancy.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. May 21.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Dec. 19.]

and its garrison too honest to be corrupted with money.[1] In February the
lord general was afflicted[a] with an ague, so ruinous to his health, and
so obstinate in its duration, that in May he obtained permission to return
to England, with the power of disposing, according to his judgment, of the