66
About this time a strange story went abroad
concerning the spectre of Dundee ; the terrible
yet handsome Claverhouse, in his flowing wig and
glittering breastplate, appearing to bis friend the
Earl of Balcarres, then a prisoner in the Castle, and
awaiting tidings of the first battle with keen anxiety.
.\bout daybreak on the morning when Killiecrankie
was fought and lost by the Williamites, the
spectre of Dundee is said to have come to Bal-
OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
?After this??(says C. K. Sharpe, in a note to
? Law?s Memorials I), ? it moved towards the
mantelpiece, remained there for a short time in a
leaning posture, and thed walked out of the
? chamber without uttering one word. Lord Balcarres,
in great surprise, though not suspecting that what
he saw WAS an. apparition, called out ?repeatedly on
his friend to stop, but received no answer, and
subsequently learned that at the very moment the
[Edinburgh Castle.?
CHAPTER vIr.
EDINBURGH CASTLE ( G O Z C ~ ~ ~ ) .
The Torture of Neville Payne-Jacobite Plots-Entombing the Regalia-Project for Surprising the Foitress-Right of Sanctuary Abolished-
Lord Drummond?s Plot-Some Jacobite Prisoners-? Rebel Ladies?-James Macgregor-The Castle Vaults-Attempts nt Escape-Fears
as to the Destruction of the Crown, Sword, and Sceptre-Crown-room opened in ~;rg+-Again in 7817, and the Regalia brought forth-Mons
Meg-General Description of the whole Castle.
AMONG the many unfortunates who have pined as
prisoners of state in the Castle, few suffered more
than Henry Neville Payne, an English gentleman,
who was accused of being a Jacobite conspirator.
About the time of the battle of the Boyne, when
the Earl of Annandale, Lord ROSS, Sir Robert
hlontgomerie of Skelmorlie, Robert Fergusson
? the plotter,? and others, were forming a scheme
in Scotland for the restoration of King James,
Payne had been sent there in connection with
it, but was discovered in Dumfriesshire, seized,
and sent to Edinburgh. Lockhart, the Solicitor-
General for Scotland, who happened to be in
London, coolly wrote to the Earl of Melville,
Secretary of State at Edinburgh, saying, ? that there
was no doubt that he (Payne) knew as much as
would hang a thousand; but except you put him
to the torture, he will shame you all. Pray you, put
him in such hands as will have no pity on him!?*
The Council, however, had anticipated these
amiable instructions, and Payne had borne torture
to extremity, by boot and thumbscrews, without
confessing anything. On the loth of December,
under express instruction signed by King William,
and countersigned by Lord Melville, the process
was to be repeated; and this was done in the
presence of the Earl of Crawford, ?with all the
seventy,? he reported, ? that was consistent with
humanity, even unto that pitch that we could not
preserve life and have gone further, but without the
least success. He was so manly and resolute under
his sufferings that such of the Council as were not
Melville?s Coiiespondence.
acquainted with the evidence, were brangled, and
began to give him charity that he might be innocent.
It was surprising that flesh and blood could, without
fainting, endure the heavy penance he was in for
two hours.? This unfortunate Englishman, in his
maimed and shattered condition, was now thrown
into a vault of the Castle, where none had access
to him save a doctor. Again and again it was represented
to the ?I humane and pious King William?
that to keep Payne in prison Id without trial was contrary
to law;? but notwithstanding repeated petitions
for trial and mercy, in defiance of the Bill of
Rights, William allowed him to languish from year
to year for ten years ; until, on the 4th of February,
1701, he was liberated, in broken health, poverty,
and premature old age, without the security for
reappearance, which was customary in such cases.
Many plots were formed by the Jacobites-one
about 1695, by Fraser of Beaufort (the future
Lovat), and another in 1703, to surprise the
Castle, as being deemed the key to the whole
kingdom-but without success ; and soon after the
Union, in 1707, its walls witnessed that which was
deemed ?I the last act of that national tragedy,? the
entombing of thz regalia, which, by the Treaty,
? are never more to be used, but kept constantly
in the Castle of Edinburgh.?
In presence of Colonel Stuart, the constable ; Sir
James Mackenzie, Clerk of the Treasury ; William
Wilson, Deputy-Clerk of Session-the crown,
sceptre, sword of state, and Treasurer?s rod, were
solemnly deposited in their usual receptacle, the
crown-room, on the 26th of March. ?Animated
by the sam- glow of patriotism that fired the
