These impressive proceedings did not terminate till nine o’clock in the evening; but the next day copies of the Covenant were laid open through the city and signed, with very few exceptions, by all the people. They were transmitted through all the provincial towns and parishes; and, unless, by a few at St Andrew’s, Aberdeen, and Glasgow, the Covenant was hailed with mingled emotions of devotion and patriotism, such as, perhaps, never either before or since pervaded any nation with such simultaneous unanimity. Its spirit spread far and wide over the land like fire over its heath-clad hills, penetrating the shadows which brooded in the firmament; and, as the fiery cross was wont to be the signal for array in feudal strife, it summoned the sons of the hill and the dale to prepare their swords, should these be needed, for combat in a holier cause—subduing, with unexampled power, the hereditary feuds of hostile clans, and combining the whole nation into one mighty phalanx of incalculable energy. It is unnecessary, in this place, to trace all the turnings and windings of the tortuous policy by which, after this decisive demonstration of physical, as well as of moral strength, King Charles and his abettors endeavoured, for some months, to break down this great combination. Every variety of intrigue, and every artifice for procrastination, was employed to divide the Covenanters, and quell the spirit which had thus been evoked by his arbitrary proceedings; and the duplicity of Charles, in holding forth terms of accommodation, while he was preparing to crush Scotland by force of arms, is a fact fully demonstrated by many documents of unquestionable authenticity, which leaves one of the deepest stains that still rest on the memory of that misguided and unfortunate monarch. On one occasion when the Marquis of Hamilton came from Court, on a pretended amicable mission as the King’s Commissioner, he was received at his entrance by 60,000 of his Majesty’s Scottish subjects, including nearly all the nobility, gentry, and 600 clergymen, in a body, whose line extended from Musselburgh to the outskirts of the Metropolis; presenting a spectacle which moved the Commissioner even to tears, and drew from him a wish, that his monarch had but witnessed such a host of his subjects, seeking only the enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties.