He was, of course, accused of having caused it, and the massacre was in turn the cause of, or pretext for, the shooting and hanging of Irish prisoners--men and women--in Scotland during the civil war.

On November 18 he left Scotland for ever.
The events in England of the spring in 1642, the attempted arrest of the five members (January 4), the retreat of the queen to France, Charles's retiral to York, indicated civil war, and the king set up his standard at Nottingham on August 22.

The Covenanters had received from Charles all that they asked; they had no quarrel with him, but they argued that if he were victorious in England he would use his strength and withdraw his concessions to Scotland.
Sir Walter Scott "leaves it to casuists to decide whether one contracting party is justified in breaking a solemn treaty upon the suspicion that in future contingencies it might be infringed by the other." He suggests that to the needy nobles and Dugald Dalgettys of the Covenant "the good pay and free quarters" and "handsome sums" of England were an irresistible temptation, while the preachers thought they would be allowed to set up "the golden candlestick" of presbytery in England ('Legend of Montrose,' chapter i.) Of the two the preachers were the more grievously disappointed.
A General Assembly of July-August 1642 was, as usual, concerned with politics, for politics and religion were inextricably intermixed.

The Assembly appointed a Standing Commission to represent it, and the powers of the Commission were of so high a strain that "to some it is terrible already," says the Covenanting letter-writer Baillie.

A letter from the Kirk was carried to the English Parliament which acquiesced in the abolition of Episcopacy.