text:  It is impossible now to obliterate the darkest page of Scottish history which we owe to the vindictive cruelty of the Covenanters--a party venal in principle pusillanimous in action and more than dastardly in their revenge; but we can peruse it with the less disgust since that very savage spirit which planned the woful scenes connected with the final tragedy of Montrose has served to exhibit to the world in all time to come the character of the martyred nobleman in by far its loftiest light