ever, at this time, triumphant. Monmouth was obliged to abscond; Russell was apprehended, tried, and executed, principally through the endence of his associate lord Howard, who was an unprincipled wretch. Essex was imprisoned, and either cut his own throat, or had it cut by assassins, history has never determined which. Sydney was executed, and Howard subjected to a fine of forty thousand pounds sterling. Many other persons of inferior note were executed for this plot Jerviswood fell into the hands of the Scottish administration, and was most illegally and iniquitously put to death. Fletcher too was eagerly sought after, and, had he been apprehended, would certainly have shared the same fate. He, however, escaped again to the continent, where he devoted his time to the study of public law, and for sometime seems to have had little correspondence with his native country.
In the beginning of the year 1685, when James VII. acceded to the throne of Britain, Fletcher came to the Hague, where were assembled Monmouth, Argyle, Melville, Polworth, Torwoodlie, Mr James Stuart, lord Stair, and many other gentlemen, both Scottish and English, when the unfortunate expeditions of Argyle and Monmouth were concerted. It does not appear, however, that Fletcher was a leader among these gentlemen. His temper was of the most stern and unaccommodating character, and he was bent upon setting up a commonwealth in Scotland, or at least a monarchy so limited as to bear very little resemblance to a kingdom. He had drunk deep of the spirit of ancient Greece, with which the greater part of his associates, patriots though they were, had no great acquaintance, and he had a consciousness of his own superiority that could not go well down with those feudal chieftains, who supposed that their birth alone entitled them to precedency in council, as well as to command in the field. His own country was certainly dearer to him than any other, and in it he was likely to put forth his energies with the greatest effect; yet from his dissatisfaction with their plans of operation, he did not embark with his countrymen, but with the duke of Monmouth, in whom, if successful, he expected less obstruction to his republican views. Fletcher was certainly at the outset warmly attached to Monmouth's scheme of landing in England, though he subsequently wished it to be laid aside; and he afterwards told Burnet, that Monmouth, though a weak young man, was sensible of the imprudence of his adventure, but that he was pushed on to it against his own sense and reason, and was piqued upon the point of honour in hazarding his person with his friends. He accordingly landed at Lynn, in Dorsetshire, on the 11th of June, 1685, with about an hundred followers, of whom the subject of this memoir was one of the most distinguished. Crowds of people soon flocked to join the standard of Monmouth, and, had he been qualified for such affairs as that he had now undertaken, the revolution of 1688 might perhaps have been anticipated. He, however, possessed no such qualifications, nor did those on whom he had principally depended. Lord Gray, to whom he had given the command of the horse, was sent out with a small party to disperse a detachment of militia that had been assembled to oppose him. The militia retreated before the troops of Monmouth, who stood firm ; but Gray, their general, fled, carrying back to his camp the news of a defeat, which was in a short time contradicted by the return of the troops in good order. Monmouth had intended to join Fletcher along with Gray in the command of his cavalry, and the Scottish patriot certainly would not have fled, so long as one man stood by him; but unfortunately, at the very time when Gray was out on the service in which he so completely disgraced his character, Fletcher was sent out in an other direction, in which he was scarcely less unfortunate, having, in a personal quarrel about a horse which he had too hastily laid hold of for his own use, killed the mayor of
