108 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

™ AP - enemies suspected, to commit murder, or only, as his friends1685. affirmed, to commit extortion by threatening to commitmurder, cannot now be ascertained. “I know nothing of theScotch law,” said Halifax to King Charles; “but this I know,that we should not hang a dog here on the grounds on whichmy Lord Argyle has been sentenced.”*

Argyle escaped in disguise to England, and thence passedover to Friesland. In that secluded province his father hadbought a small estate, as a place of refuge for the family incivil troubles. It was said, among the Scots, that this purchasehad been made in consequence of the predictions of a Celticseer, to whom it had been revealed that Mac Callum Morewould one day be driven forth from the ancient mansion ofhis race at Inverary.** But it is probable that the politicMarquess had been warned rather by the signs of the timesthan by the visions of any prophet. In Friesland Earl Archi-bald resided during some time so quietly that it was notgenerally known whither he had fled. From his retreat hecarried on a correspondence with his friends in Great Britain,was a party to the Whig conspiracy, and concerted with thechiefs of that conspiracy a plan for invading Scotland.*** Thisplan had been dropped upon the detection of the Rye HousePlot, but became again the subject of his thoughts after thedemise of the crown.

He had, during his residence on the Continent, reflectedmuch more deeply on religious questions than in the prece-ding years of his life. In one respect the effect of these re-flections on his mind had been pernicious. His partiality forthe synodical form of church government now amounted to

' Proceedings against Argyle in the Collection of State Trials; Burnet,i. 521.; A true and plain Account of the Discoveries made in Scotland,1684; The Scotch Mist cleared; Sir George Mackenzie’s Vindication; LordFountainhall’s Chronological Notes.

** Information of Robert Smith in the App. to Sprat’s True Account.

*** True and plain Account of the Discoveries made in Scotland.