treaty of peace; his power to tyrannize over the public conscience was
waning. Such thoughts racked his brain and wrecked his peace of mind. He
grew sullen, miserable, desperate. It was this passionate and despotic
temperament that carried him into the second war with these Covenanters
whom he so thoroughly hated.

The Covenanters were yet truly loyal to their king. Their loyalty was
high-principled and self-sacrificing, yet at the same time
discriminating. They bound themselves by their Covenant to be true to
their king and their country. The Covenant recognized the king and the
people to be equally under the law of God, subjects of the moral
government of Jesus Christ. While he occupied his rightful place and
exercised legitimate power, they would stand by him till their blood and
treasures were alike exhausted. Such was their oath of loyalty, and it
was kept with sacred care. But they resisted his authority at the point
where he attempted to crush conscience, rule the Church, and usurp the
royal prerogatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is KING OF KINGS. There
they drew the line, and drew it so clear, that all the world might see
it, and the blindest king might pause, consider, and not pass beyond.
There they uttered their solemn protest with the Bible in one hand and
the sword in the other. Such encroachments on their rights and
liberties, and upon the honor and supremacy of Jesus Christ, they met on
the battlefield, when peaceful measures had failed. While these
interests were at stake they counted not their lives dear.

[Illustration: THE MARTYRS' MONUMENT, EDINBURGH.

This monument honors the memory of the martyrs who were executed at the
Grass Market. It stands in Greyfriars' churchyard at the head of a small
plot of ground, where about 100 bodies were at sundry times heaped