Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series - 1819.djvu/165

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
A LEGEND OF MONTROSE.
155

distinctions so unwillingly conferred would be resumed so soon as opportunity offered. The low state of the English Parliament was seen with deep apprehension, and it was concluded, that should Charles triumph by force of arms against his insurgent subjects of England, he would not be long in exacting from the Scotch the vengeance which he might suppose due to those who had set the example of taking up arms against him. Such was the policy of the measure which dictated the sending the auxiliary army into England; and it was avowed in a manifesto explanatory of their reasons for giving this timely and important aid to the English Parliament. The English Parliament, they said, had been already friendly to them, and might be so again; whereas the King, although he had so lately established religion among them according to their desires, had given them no ground to confide in his royal declaration, seeing they had found his promises and actions inconsistent with each other.