59 -- Edinburgh Castle. THE EARL OF ARGYLE
which he received the sentence of death. His
guards in the Castle were doubled, while additional
troops were marched into the city to enforce order.
He despatched a messenger to Charles 11. seeking
mercy, but the warrant had been hastened. At
six in the evening of the 20th December he was
informed that next day at noon he would be conveyed
to the city prison ; but by seven o?clock he
had conceived-like his father-a plan to escape.
. Lady Sophia Lindsay (of Balcarres), wife of his
son Charles, had come to bid him a last farewell ; on
her departure he assumed the disguise and office
of her lackey, and came forth from his prism at
eight, bearing up her long train. A thick fall of
snow and the gloom of the December evening
rendered the attempt successful ; but at the outer
gate the sentinel roughly grasped his arm. In
agitation the earl dropped the train of Lady Sophia,
who, with singular presence of mind, fairly slapped
his face with it, and thereby smearing his features
with half-frozen mud, exclaimed, ?Thou careless
loon ! ??
Laughing at this, the soldier permitted them to
pass. Lady Sophia entered her coach; the earl
sprang on the footboard behind, and was rapidly
driven from the fatal gate. Disguising himself completely,
he left Edinburgh, and reached Holland,
then the focus for all the discontented spirits in
Britaia. Lady Sophia was committed to the
Tolbooth, but was not otherwise punished. After
remaining four years in Holland, he returned, and
attempted a3 insurrection in the. west against
King Jarnes, in unison with that of Monmouth in
England, but was irretrievably defeated at Mu&-
dykes.
Attired like a peasant, disguised by a long beard,
he was discovered and overpowered by three
militiamen, near Paisley. ? Alas, alas, unfortunate
Argyle ! he exclaimed, as they struck him down j
then an officer, Lieutenant Shaw (of the house 01
Greenock), ordered him to be bound hand and fool
and sent to Edinburgh, where, by order of the
Secret Council, he was ignominiously conducted
through the streets with his hands corded behind
him, bareheaded, escorted by the horse guards, and
preceded by the hangman to the Castle, where, foi
a third time, he was thrust into his old chamber.
On the day he was to die he despatched the fol.
lowing note to his son. It is preserved in the
Salton Charter chest :-
? Edr. Castle, 30th June, ?85.
? DEARE JAMES,-hrn to fear God ; it k the only wag
Love and respecl
I am
to make you happie here and herealter.
my wife, and hearken to her advice.
your loving father, ABGY LE
The Lord bless
The last day of his life this unfortunate noble
passed pleasantly and sweetly ; he dined heartily,
and, retiring to a closet, lay down to sleep ere the
fatal hour came. At this time one of the Privy
Council arrived, and insisted on entering. The door
was gently opened, and there lay the great Argyle
in his heavy irons, sleeping the placid sleep of
infancy.
The conscience of the aenegade smote him,?
says Macaulay; ??he turnea kck at heart, ran
out of the Castle, and took tefuge in the dwelling
of a lady who lived hard by. There he flung
himself on a couch, and gave himself up to an
agony of renwrse and shame. His kinswoman,
alarmed by his looks and groans, thought he had
been taken with sudden illness, and begged him to
drink a cup of sack. ?Na, no,? said he, ?it will
do me no good? Sheprayed him to tell what had
disturbed him ? I have been,? he said, ? in hgyle?s
prison 1 have seen him within an hour of eternity
sleeping as sweetlyas ever man did. But as for
m-1,-
At noon on the 30th June, 1685, he was escorted
to the market aoss to be ?beheaded and have
his head affixed to the Tolbooth on a high pin
of iron.? When he saw the old Scottish guillo- .
tine, under the terrible square knife of which his
father, and so many since the days d Morton, had
perished, he saluted it with his lips, saying, ?( It is
the sweetest maiden I have ever kissed.? ?My
lord dies a Protestant !? cried a clergyman aloud
to the assembled t!iousands. Yes,? said the. Earl,
stepping forward, ? and not only a Protestant, but
with a heart-hatred of Popery, Prelacy, and all superstition.?
k e made a brief address to the people,
laid his head between the grooves of the guillotine,
and died with equal courage and composure. His
head was placed on the Tolbooth gable, and his
body was ultimately sent to the burial-place of his
family, Kilmun, on the shore of the Holy Loch in
Argyle.
While this mournful tragedy was being enacted
his countess and family were detained prisoners in
the Castle, wherein daily were placed fresh victims
who were captured in the West. Among these
were Richard Rumbold, a gentleman of Hertfordshire,
who bore a colonel?s commission under
Argyle (and had planted the standard of revolt
on the Castle of Ardkinglass), and Mr. William
Spence, styled his ? servitour.?
Both were treated with temble seventy, especially
Rumbold. In a cart, bareheaded, and heavily
manacled, he was conveyed from the Water Gate
to the Castle, escorted by Graham?s City Guard,
with drums beating, and on the 28th of June he
