The insurgents of course entered Glasgow without
resistance, and without Morton having the opportunity, which he so deeply
coveted, of again encountering Claverhouse personally. But, although he
had not an opportunity of wiping away the disgrace which had befallen his
division of the army of the Covenant, the retreat of Claverhouse, and the
possession of Glasgow, tended greatly to animate the insurgent army, and
to increase its numbers. The necessity of appointing new officers, of
organizing new regiments and squadrons, of making them acquainted with at
least the most necessary points of military discipline, were labours,
which, by universal consent, seemed to be devolved upon Henry Morton, and
which he the more readily undertook, because his father had made him
acquainted with the theory of the military art, and because he plainly
saw, that, unless he took this ungracious but absolutely necessary
labour, it was vain to expect any other to engage in it.
In the meanwhile, fortune appeared to favour the enterprise of the
insurgents more than the most sanguine durst have expected. The Privy
Council of Scotland, astonished at the extent of resistance which their
arbitrary measures had provoked, seemed stupified with terror, and
incapable of taking active steps to subdue the resentment which these
measures had excited.
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