Edinburgh Castle.] KIRKALDY?S SURRENDER. 49
fourth, under Sir Henry Lee, were somewhere near
St. Cuthbeds church ; while the fifth, under Sir
Thomas?Sutton, was on the line of Princes Street,
and faced King Davids Tower.
All these guns opened simultaneously on Sunday,
the 17th of May, by salvoes; and the shrieks of
the women in the Castle were distinctly heard
in the camp of the Regent and in the city.
The fire was maintained on both sides with unabated
vigour-nor were the arquebuses idle-till
the 23rd, when Sutton?s guns having breached
sieged depended chiefly for water. This great
battery then covered half of the Esplanade
Holinshed mentions another spring, St. Margaret?s
Well, from which Kirkaldy?s men secretly obtained
water till the besiegers poisoned it ! By this time
the survivors were so exhausted by toil and want
of food as to be scarcely able to bear armour, or
work the remaining guns. On the 28th Kirkaldy
requested a parley by beat of drum, and was
lowered over the ruins by ropes in his armour, to
arrange a capitulation ; but Morton would hear
ANCIENT POSTERN hND TURRET NEAR THE QUEEN?S POST.
Davfd?s Tower, the enormous mass, with all its
guns and men, and with a roar as of thunder, came
crashing over the rocks, and masses of it must have
fallen into the loch zoo feet below. The Gate
Tower with the portcullis and Wallace?s Tower,
were battered down by the 24th. The guns of
the queen?s garrison were nearly silenced, now, and
cries of despair were heard. The great square
Peel and the Constable?s Tower, with the curtain
between, armed with brass cannon-dikes of
great antiquity-came crashing down in succession,
and their d&is choked up the still existing drawwells.
Still the garrison did not quite lose
heart, until the besiegers got passession of the
Spur, within which was the well on which the bea
of nothing now save an unconditional surrender,
so the red flag of defiance was pulled down on the
following day. By the Regent?s order the Scottish
companies occupied the breaches, with orders to
exclude all Englishmen. ?The governor delivered
his sword to Sir William Drury on receiving the
?solemn assurance of being restored to his estatc
and liberty at the intercession of Q-ueen Elizabeth
The remnant of his gamson marched into the city
in armour with banners displayed ; there came
forth, with the Lord Home, twelve knights, zoo
soldiers, and ten boys, with several ladies, including
the Countess of Argyle.? The brave commander
was basely delivered up by Drury to the
I vindictive power of the Regent j and he and his
