notice of your agreement in the Covenant and propositions, they will be setting forward without doubt."[372] On the 6th of September we read of a consultation about the Scotch Covenant, and the advance of moneys, and of letters sent to hasten forward their preparations. The northern rulers stipulated that the war should be carried on for the sake of the Covenant; and bleeding England, accepting help on such terms, and agreeing to pay expenses, the journalists waited eagerly for tidings of the advancing troops. Baillie, in his manse at Kilwinnin, writing a news-letter which would make some columns in the _Times_, informed his reverend dear cousin, Mr. William Spang, about a fortnight after the newspaper had circulated rumours of Scotch preparations, that so soon as the Covenant was signed by any considerable number in England, and a certain amount of money remitted to Scotland, he and his friends would turn to God by fasting and prayer, and promote the levy of 32,000 foot and 4,000 horse. This number far exceeded what had been stipulated for in the treaty; but no doubt the exaggeration was simply owing to the heated zeal of the honest news-writer. In the same quaint and lively pages, which, while they reflect passing events, also indicate what the Scotch thought of their own proceedings and of the condition of the English, we find Baillie saying, "Surely it was a great act of faith in God, and huge courage and unheard-of compassion, that moved our nation to hazard their own peace and venture their lives and all, for to save a people so irrecoverably ruined both in their own and in all the world's eyes." In December, writing from Worcester House, in the Strand--a mansion which had been fitted up by Parliament for the Commissioners with furniture taken out of the King's wardrobe--the same writer alludes to the undecisive conduct of the English war, adding, "they may tig tag on this way this twelvemonth. Yet if God send not in our army quickly, and give it not some notable success, this people are likely to faint; but it is the hope of all the godly, it is the confidence and public prayers of all the good ministers here, that God will honour the Scots to be their saviours." "All things are expected from God and the Scots."[373] [Sidenote: _Treaty with the Scotch._] [Sidenote: 1643, November.]