NOTES TO


"THE EXECUTION OF MONTROSE"

"_A traitor sold him to his foes_,"--p. 36.

"The contemporary historian of the Earls of Sutherland records, that
(after the defeat of Invercarron) Montrose and Kinnoul 'wandered up the
river Kyle the whole ensuing night, and the next day, and the third day
also, without any food or sustenance, and at last came within the
country of Assynt. The Earl of Kinnoul, being faint for lack of meat,
and not able to travel any further, was left there among the mountains,
where it was supposed he perished. Montrose had almost famished, but
that he fortuned in his misery to light upon a small cottage in that
wilderness, where he was supplied with some milk and bread.' Not even
the iron frame of Montrose could endure a prolonged existence under such
circumstances. He gave himself up to Macleod of Assynt, a former
adherent, from whom he had reason to expect assistance in consideration
of that circumstance, and, indeed, from the dictates of honourable
feeling and common humanity. As the Argyle faction had sold the King, so
this Highlander rendered his own name infamous by selling the hero to
the Covenanters, for which 'duty to the public' he was rewarded with
four hundred bolls of meal."--NAPIER'S _Life of Montrose_.

"_They brought him to the Watergate_,"--p. 36.

"_Friday, 17th May_.--Act ordaining James Grahame to be brought from the
Watergate on a cart, bareheaded, the hangman in his livery, covered,
riding on the horse that draws the cart--the prisoner to be bound to the