MONTROSE 



MONTYON PRIZES 



295 



Canal, when he heard that Argyll was following 

 him. He instantly turned on his pursuer and 

 surprised and utterly routed him at Inverlochy, 

 2d February 1645. fifteen hundred of the Camp- 

 hells were slain, only four of Montrose's men. 

 He then resumed his march northward, but did 

 not venture to assault Inverness, his wild moun- 

 taineers being admirably fitted for rapid irregular 

 warfare, hut not for the slow work of beleaguer- 

 ment. So, directing his course eastward, he 

 passed with fire and sword through Moray and 

 Aberdeenshire. Baillie and Hurry, nis lieutenant, 

 were at Brechin, but Mont rose by a dexterous 

 movement eluded them, captured and pillaged 

 Dundee (3d April), and escaped safely into the 

 Grampians. On 4th May lie routed Hurrv at 

 Auldeam, near Nairn, and on 2<1 July inflicted 

 a still more disastrous defeat on Baillie himself at 

 Alford in Aberdeenshire. ' Before the end of the 

 summer.' he sent word to Charles, ' I shall be in 

 a position to come to your Majesty's aid with 

 a brave army ; ' and towards the end of the month 

 lie marched southward with upwards of 5000 men. 

 He was followed by Baillie, who picked up reinforce- 

 ments by the way, and who on 15th August again 

 risked a l>attle at Kilsyth, but was defeated with 

 frightful loss, 6000 of the Covenanters being slain. 

 This, the last and most signal of Montrose's six 

 splendid victories, seemed to lay Scotland at his feet, 

 but the clansmen slipped away home to secure tlieir 

 Ixioty, and Aboyne withdrew with all his cavalry. 

 Still, with 500" horse and 1000 infantry, he had 

 entered the Border country, when, on 1 3th Septem- 

 lier, he was surprised and hopelessly routed by 6000 

 troopers under David Leslie at Philiphaugh, near 

 Selkirk. Escaping to Athole, he again endeavoured, 

 but vainly, to raise the Highlands ; and on 3d Sep- 

 tember 1646 he sailed for Norway, whence he pro- 

 ceeded to Paris, ( Jermany. and the Low Countries. 



Here it was that news reached him of Charles I.'s 

 execution, whereat he swoonet', and then reviving, 

 ' swore liefore God, angels, and men to dedicate 

 the remainder of his life to the avenging the death 

 of the martyr.' So, on behalf of Charles II., he 

 undertook a fresh invasion of Scotland, and from 

 Orkney passed over to Caithness, his little army 

 almost annihilated by shipwreck. Neither gentry 

 nor commons would join him ; but he pushed on 

 to the loirders of Ross-shire, where, at Inver- 

 charron, his dispirited remnant was cut to pieces 

 by Strachan's cavalry, 27th April 1650. He lied 

 into the wilds of Sutherland, and was nearly 

 starved to death, when he fell into the hands of 

 Maeleod of Assynt, who sold him to Leslie. He 

 was conveyed with all possible contumely to Edin- 

 burgh, where, dressed like a gallant bridegroom, 

 lie was hanged in the Grassmarket on a lofty 

 gallows, 21st May 1650. Eleven years afterwards 

 liis mangled remains were collected from the four 

 airts, and buried in St (liles's, where a stately 

 monument was reared to him in 1888. He left 

 a son, James, the 'good Marquis' (c. 1631-69), 

 whose grandson in 1707 was created Duke of 

 Montrose. 



Montrose's few poems, all burning with passion- 

 ate loyalty, are little known, save the one famous 

 stanza commencing, ' He either fears his fate too 

 much.' That has the right ring, one would think ; 

 and yet its ascription to Montrose is doubtful, 

 tir-t put forward in Watson's Collection of Scots 

 I'm ma (1711). There are four portraits of Mon- 

 t rose by Jameson ( 1629 and 1640 ), Dobson ( 1644 ), 

 and Honthorst ( 1649). Of the inner man the finest 

 estimate is Mr Gardiner's : ' When once he had 

 chosen his side, he was sure to bear himself a.'; 

 & Paladin of old romance. If he made any cause 

 his own, it was not with the reasoned, calculation 

 vi a. statesman, but with the fond enthusiasm of 



a lover. When he transferred his affections from 

 the Covenant to the king, it was as Romeo trans- 

 ferred his affections from Rosaline to Juliet. He 

 fought for neither King nor Covenant, but for that 

 ideal of his own which he followed as Covenanter 

 or Royalist. He went ever straight to the mark, 

 impatient to shake off the schemes of worldly-wise 

 politicians and the plots of interested intriguers. 

 Nature had marked him for a life of meteoric 

 splendour, to confound and astonish a world, and 

 to leave l>ehind him an inspiration and a name 

 which would outlast the ruins of his hopes.' 



See the Latin Memoirs by his chaplain, Dr AVishart 

 ( A ni-t . 1647 ; partial English translation, 1 7 ">'i ; complete 

 trana. by Murdoch and Morland Simpson, 1KU3 ; ; Mark 

 Napier's Memoirs of Montrose ( 1838 ; 4th ed. 1856 ) ; 

 Lady Violet Greville's Montrote (1886) ; and Mr S. R. 

 Gardiner's History of England, Great Civil War, and 

 llixturii of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. 



Montserrat (Lat. Mons Serratus, so named 

 from its saw-like outline), a mountain of Catalonia, 

 in north-east Spain, 30 miles NW. of Barcelona. 

 Its height is 4055 feet ; and ' its outline,' says Ford, 

 'is most fantastic, consisting of cones.pyramids, 

 buttresses, ninepins, sugar- loaves. ' The pious 

 Catalonians aver that it was thus shattered at the 

 Crucifixion. Every rift and gorge is tilled with 

 box-trees, ivy, and other evergreens. From the 

 topmost height the eye wanders over all Catalonia, 

 The mountain, however, owes its celebrity to the 

 Benedictine abbey built half-way up it, with its 

 wonder-working image of the Virgin, and to the 

 thirteen hermitages formerly perched like eajjles' 

 nests on almost inaccessible pinnacles. In 1811 

 the French, under Suchet, plundered the abbey, 

 burned the library, shot the hermits, and hanged 

 the monks (who had given shelter to their emi- 

 grant brethren at the Revolution). The place 

 suffered still more in 1827, when it became the 

 stronghold of the Carlist insurrection. 



>lonlscrr;it. one of the Lesser Antilles, 

 belonging to Britain, lies 27 miles SW. of Antigua. 

 It is about 11 miles in length, 7 in breadth, and 

 has an area of 32 sq. m. The surface is very 

 mountainous (3000 feet), and heavily timbered. 

 Sugar and limes and lime-juice are the principal 

 products. The island, governed by a president and 

 a legislative council, is the healthiest in the West 

 Indies. The imports average nearly 25,000, and 

 the exports 21,100. The island was discovered in 

 1493, and colonised by the British in 1632. It has 

 remained in their hands ever since, except for two 

 short intervals ( 1664-68 and 1782-84), when it was 

 in the possession of France. Pop. (1881) 10,083; 

 (1891) 11,762, of whom about 1500 were at Ply- 

 mouth, the chief town. 



Mont St Michel. See ST MICHEL. 



Mont} Oil Prizes, rewards for signal instances 

 of disinterested goodness discovered throughout 

 the year, awarded by the French Academy, accord- 

 ing to the will of Jean-Baptiste-Robert Auger, 

 Baron de Montyon (1733-1820), who l>equeathed 

 120,000 to public hospitals, and the remainder of 

 his fortune to g^ve sums of money to poor patients 

 on leaving Paris hospitals, and to found the prizes 

 since connected with his name. Already in 1782 

 he had originated the prize of virtue, but on his 

 return to France in 1815 he arranged the scheme 

 in its final form. The Academy of Sciences awards 

 annually a prize of 10,000 francs to the individual 

 who hag discovered the means of making any 

 mechanical occupation more healthy, another of 

 equal value for improvements in medicine and 

 surgery ; while the Forty themselves award the 

 prize of virtue, and another to the writer of the 

 work likely to have the greatest beneficial influence 

 on morality both alike of 10,000 francs a year. 



