blow for his crown which was to lead the brave marquis to the scaffold.
The deaths of Hamilton and Huntly had preceded the death of Montrose by
a few weeks: a few more weeks and Charles was in Scotland, a crowned
king in name, virtually a prisoner. Within little more than a year the
fight at Dunbar, and the "crowning mercy" of Worcester, had bitterly
taught him how futile was all the humiliation he had undergone.

It will be enough to briefly recall the main incidents of the years
which intervened between the battle of Worcester and the Restoration.
After the establishment of the Protectorate an Act of Indemnity was
passed for the Scottish people. From this certain classes were excepted.
All of the House of Hamilton, for instance, and some other persons of
note, including Lauderdale: all who had joined the Engagement, or who
had not joined in the protestation against it: all who had sat in
Parliament or on the Committee of Estates after the coronation of
Charles at Scone: all who had borne arms at the battle of Worcester.
From this proscribed list, however, Argyle managed to extricate
himself. He had fortified himself at Inverary, and summoned a meeting of
the Estates to which the chiefs of the Royalist party had been bidden.
To conquer him in his own stronghold would have been difficult, perhaps
impossible, to English soldiers unused to such warfare. Cromwell wisely
preferred to negotiate, and Argyle was not hard to bring to terms. He
bound himself to live at peace with the Government, and to use his best
endeavours to persuade others to do so. In return he was to be left
unmolested in the free enjoyment of his estates, and in the exercise of
religion according to his conscience.

The politicians were now silenced; but a noisier and more troublesome
body had still to be reckoned with. In July, 1653, the General Assembly
was closed, and Resolutioners and Remonstrants were sent to the right