But on this point they found Sir Dugald unexpectedly obstinate.

He had engaged with the King for a certain term, and, till that was expired, his principles would not permit any shadow of changing.

The Covenanters, again, understood no such nice distinction, and he was in the utmost danger of falling a martyr, not to this or that political principle, but merely to his own strict ideas of a military enlistment.

Fortunately, his friends discovered, by computation, that there remained but a fortnight to elapse of the engagement he had formed, and to which, though certain it was never to be renewed, no power on earth could make him false.

With some difficulty they procured a reprieve for this short space, after which they found him perfectly willing to come under any engagements they chose to dictate.