When the lords and commons assembled at Edinburgh, the bishop of that diocese, who officiated as chaplain to the convention, prayed for the restoration of king James.
The first dispute turned upon the choice of a president.

The friends of the late king set up the marquis of Athol in opposition to the duke of Hamilton; but this last was elected by a considerable majority; and a good number of the other party, finding their cause the weakest, deserted it from that moment.

The earls of Lothian and Tweedale were sent as deputies, to require the duke of Gordon, in the name of the estates, to quit the castle in four-and-twenty hours, and leave the charge of it to the protestant officer next in command.

The duke, though in himself irresolute, was animated by Dundee to demand such conditions as the convention would not grant.

The negociation proving ineffectual, the states ordered the heralds, in all their formalities, to summon him to surrender the castle immediately, on pain of incurring the penalties of high treason; and he refusing to obey their mandate, was proclaimed a traitor.