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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I

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Rothesay might be baptised in Protestant form, The queen only replied by placing the child in his arms. Then the aged minister knelt down, and prayed long and fervently for his happiness and prosperity, an event which so touched the tender Mary that she burst into tears; however, the prince was baptised according to the Roman ritual at Stirling on the 5th of December. The birth of a son produced little change in Damley?s licentious life. He perished as history records ; and on Bothwell?s flight after Carberry, and Mary?s captivity in Lochleven, the Regent Moray resolved by force or fraud to get all the fortresses into his possession. Sir James Balfour, a minion of Bothwell?s-the keeper of the famous silver casket containing the pretended letters and sonnets of Mary-surrendered that of Edinburgh, bribed by lands and money as he marched out, and the celebrated Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange was appointed governor in his place. That night the fated Regent Moray entered with his friends, and slept in the same little apartment wherein, a year before, his sister had been delivered of the infant now proclaimed as James VI. ; but instead of keepin& his promise to Balfour, Moray treacherously made him a prisoner of state in the Castle of St. Andrews. CHAPTER VI. EDIXBURGH C A S T L E - ( C O ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ) . The Siege of 157yThe City Bombarded from the Castle-Elizabeth?s Spy-Drury?s Dispositions for the Siege-Execution of Kirkaldy -Repair of the Roins-Execution of Morton-Visit of Charles I.-Procession to Holyrood-Coronation of Charles 1.-The Struggle against Episcopacy-Siege of 16p-The Spectre Drummer-Besieged by Cromwell-Under the Protector-The Restoration-The Argyles -The Accession of James VIJ -Sentence of the Earl of Argyl-His clever Escape-Imprisoned four years latu-The Last Sleep oC Argyle-His Death-Torture of Covenanters-Proclamation of William and Mary-lle Siege of 168g-Interview between Gordoe and Dundee-The Castle invested-Brilliant Defence-Capitulation of the Duke of Gordon-The Spectre of Ckverhouse. J MARY escaped from Lochleven on the and of May, 1568, and after her defeat fled to England, the last country in Europe, as events showed, wherein she should have sought refuge or hospitality. After the assassination of the Regent Moray, to his successor, the Regent Morton, fell the task of subduing all who lingered in arms for the exiled queen ; and so well did he succeed in this, that, save the eleven acres covered by the Castle rock of Edinburgh, which was held for three years by Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange with a garrison resolute as himself, the whole country was now under his rule. Kirkaldy, whose services in France and elsewhere had won him the high reputation of being ? the bravest soldier in Europe,? left nothing undone, amid the unsettled state of affairs, to strengthen his .post. He raised and trained soldiers without opposition, seized all the provisions that were brought into Leith, and garrisoned St. Giles?s church, into the open spire of which he swung up cannon to keep the citizens in awe. This was on the 28th of March, 1571. After the Duke of Chatelherault, with his Hamiltons-all queen?s men -marched in on the 1st of May, the gables of the church were loopholed for arquebuses. Immediate means were taken to defend the town against the Regent. Troops crowded into it; others were niustered for its protection, and this state of affairs continued for fully three years, during which Kirkaldy baffled the efforts of four successive Regents, till Morton was fain to seek aid from Elizabeth, to wrench from her helpless refugee the last strength that remained to her ; and most readily did the English queen agree thereto. A truce which had been made between ?Morton and Kirkaldy expired on the 1st of January, 1573, and as the church bells tolled six in the morning, the Castle guns, among which were two &?-pounders, French battardes, and English? culverins? or 18- pounders (according to the :? Memoirs ofKirkaldy?), opened on the city in the dark. It was then full of adherents of James VI., so Kirkaldy cared not where his shot fell, after the warning gun had been previously discharged, that all loyal subjects of the queen should retire. As the ?grey winter dawn stole in, over spire and pointed roof, the cannonade was chiefly directed from the eastern curtain against the new Fisli Market ; the baikets in which were beaten so high in the air, that for days after their contents were seen scattered on the tops of the highest houses. In one place a single shot killed five persons and wounded twenty others. Selecting a night when the wind was high and blowing eastward, Kirkaldy made a sally, and set on fire all the thatched houses in West Port and Castle Wynd, cannonading the while the unfortunates who strove to quench the flames that rolled away towards the east. In March Kirkaldy resolutely declined to come to terms with Morton, though earnestly besought to do so by Henry Killigrew, who came ostensibly as an English envoy, but in
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