JAMES THE SECOND.

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ployed in a very different way. In this paper were set forth, chap.with a strength of language sometimes approaching to scur- 168 5.rility, many real and some imaginary grievances. It washinted that the late King had died by poison. A chief objectof the expedition was declared to be the entire suppression,not only of Popery, but of Prelacy, which was termed themost bitter root and offspring of Popery; and all good Scotch-men were exhorted to do valiantly for the cause of theircountry and of their God.

Zealous as Argyle was for what he considered as purereligion, he did not scruple to practise one rite half Popishand half Pagan. The mysterious cross of yew, first set onfire, and then quenched in the blood of a goat, was sent forthto summon all the Campbells, from sixteen to sixty. Theisthmus of Tarbet was appointed for the place of gathering.

The muster, though small indeed when compared with whatit would have been if the spirit and strength of the clan hadbeen unbroken, was still formidable. The whole force as-sembled amounted to about eighteen hundred men. Argyledivided his mountaineers into three regiments, and proceededto appoint officers.

The bickerings which had begun in Holland had never His <us-been intermitted during the whole course of the expedition: wiiThisbut at Tarbet they became more violent than ever. The Com- J,”™"mittee wished to interfere even with the patriarchal dominionof the Earl over the Campbells, and would not allow him tosettle the military rank of his kinsmen by his own authority.

While these disputatious meddlers tried to wrest from him hispower over the Highlands, they carried on their own cor-respondence with the Lowlands, and received and sent letterswhich were never communicated to the nominal General.

Hume and his confederates had reserved to themselves thesuperintendence of the stores, and conducted this importantpart of the administration of war with a laxity hardly to be