The principal among the Northern nobles who entered into this engagement were the Earls of Seaforth and Sutherland, Lord Lovat, the Rosses, Munroes, Grant of Grant, Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Innes, the Sheriff of Moray, Kilravock, Cumming of Altyre, and the Tutor of Duffus. These, with their followers under command of the Earl of Seaforth, who was appointed General of the Covenanters north of the Spey, marched to Morayshire, where they met the Royalists on the northern banks of the river ready to oppose their advance. [On May 14, 1639, 4000 men met at Elgin under the command of the Earl of Seaforth, and the gentlemen following, viz.: The Master of Lovat, the Master of Ray, George, brother to the Earl of Sutherland, Sir James Sinclare of Murkle, Laird of Grant, Young Kilravock, Sheriff of Murray, Laird of Innes, Tutor of Duffus, Hugh Rose of Achnacloich, John Munro of Lemlare, etc. They encamped at Speyside, to keep the Gordons and their friends from entering Murray; and they remained encamped till the pacification, which was signed June 18, was proclaimed, and intimated to them about June 22. - "Shaw's MS. History of Kilravock."] An arrangement was here come to between Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine, Seaforth's brother, on behalf of the Covenanters, and a representative from the Gordons for their opponents, that the latter should recross to the south side of the Spey, and that the Highlanders should return home. About the same time Seaforth received a despatch from Montrose, then at Aberdeen and fighting for the Covenant, intimating the pacification entered into on the 20th of June between the King and his subjects at Berwick, and requesting Seaforth to disband his army - an order which was at once obeyed. Shortly after, however, Montrose dissociated himself from the Covenanters, joined the King's side and raised the Royal standard. The Earl of Seaforth soon after this was suspected of lukewarmness for the Covenant. In 1640 the King arrived at York on his way north to reduce the Covenanting Scots, after they had resolved to invade England, and, as a precautionary measure, to imprison or expel all suspected Royalists from the army. Among the suspects are found the Earl of Seaforth, Lord Reay, and several others, who were taken before the Assembly, kept in ward at Edinburgh for two months; and in 1641, on the King's arrival in Scotland, the Earl of Traquair, who had been summoned before Parliament as an opponent to the Lords of the Covenant succeeded in persuading the Earls of Montrose, Wigton, Athole, Hume, and Seaforth (who had meanwhile escaped), and several other influential chiefs, to join in a bond against the Covenanters.