Foremost on the popular side was the young Earl of Montrose: "you will not rest," said Rothes, a more sober leader, "till you be lifted up above the lave in three fathoms of rope." Rothes was a true prophet; but Montrose did not die for the cause that did "his green unknowing youth engage." The Presbyterians now desired yearly General Assemblies (of which James VI.

had unlawfully robbed the Kirk); the enforcement of an old brief-lived system of restrictions (_caveats_) on the bishops; the abolition of the Articles of Perth; and, as always, of the Liturgy.

If he granted all this Charles might have had trouble with the preachers, as James VI.

had of old.

Yet the demands were constitutional; and in Charles's position he would have done well to assent.