bosom of Belhaven, the Earl Marischal, after having
opposed the Union in all its stages, refused to be
present at this degrading ceremony, and was represented
by his proxy, Wilson, the Clerk of Session,
who took a long protest descriptive of the regalia,
and declaring that they should remain within the
said crown-room, and -never be removed from it
without due intimation being made to the Earl
Marischal. A copy of this protest, beautifully illuminated,
was then deposited with the regalia, a
linen cloth was spread over the whole, and the
great oak chest was secured by three ponderous
locks; and there for a hundred and ten years,
amid silence, obscurity, and dust, lay the crown
that had sparkled on the brows of Bruce, on those
of the gallant Jameses, and on Mary?s auburn hair
-the symbols of Scotland?s elder days, for which
so many myriads of the loyal, the brave, and the
noble, had laid down their lives on the battle-field
-neglected and forgotten.?
Just four months after this obnoxious ceremony,
and while the spirit of antagonism to it rose high in
the land, a gentleman, with only thirty men, undertook
to surprise the fortress, which had in it now a
party of but thirty-five British soldiers, to guard the
equivalent money, ~400,000, and a great quantity
of Scottish specie, which had been called in to be
coined anew. In the memoirs of Kerr of Kerrsland
we are told that the leader of this projected surprise
was to appear with his thirty followers, all well
armed, at noon, on the esplanade, which at that
hour was the chief lounge of gay and fashionable
people. Among these they were to mingle, but
drawing as near to the barrier gate as possible.
While affecting to inquire for a friend in the Castle,
the leader was to shoot the sentinel ; the report of
his pistol was to he the signal on which his men
were to draw their swords, and secure the bridge,
when a hundred men who were to be concealed in
a cellar near were to join them, tear down the
Union Jack, and hoist the Colours of James VIII.
in its place. The originator of this daring scheme
-whose name never transpired-having commu.
nicated it to the well-known intriguer, Kerr of
Kerrsland, while advising him to defer it till the
chevalier, then expected, was off the coast, he
secretly gave information to the Government, which,
Burnbank was a very debauched character, who is
frequently mentioned in Penicuick?s satirical poems,
to put it in a state of defence ; but the great magazine
of arms, the cannon, stores, and 495 barrels of
powder, which had been placed there in 1706, had
all been removed to England. ?But,? says a
writer, this was only in the spirit of centralisation,
which has since been brought to such perfection.?
In 1708, before the departure of the fleet of
Admiral de Fourbin with that expedition which the
appearance of Byng?s squadron caused to fail, a
plan of the Castle had been laid, at Versailles,
before a board of experienced engineer officers,
who unanimously concluded that, with his troops,
cannon, and mortars, M. de Gace would carry the
place in a few hours. A false attack was to be
made on the westward, while three battalions were
to storm the outworks on the east, work their
way under the half-moon, and carry the citadel.
Two Protestant bishops were then to have crowned
the prince in St. Giles?s church as James VIII.
?I The equivalent from England being there,? says
an officer of the expedition, ?would have been a
great supply to us for raising men (having about
400 officers with us who had served in the wars
in Italy), and above 100 chests in money.?
Had M. de Gace actually appeared before the
fortress, its capture would not have cost him much
trouble, as Kerrsland tells us that there were not
then four rounds of powder in it for the batteries !
On the 14th of December, 1714 the Castle was:
by a decree of the Court of Session, deprived of
its ancient ecclesiastical right of sanctuary, derived
from and retained since the monastic institution
of David I., in I 128. Campbell of Burnbank, the
storekeeper, being under caption at the instance of
a creditor, was arrested by a messenger-at-arms,
on which Colonel Stuart, the governor, remembering
the right of sanctuary, released Campbell, expelled
the official, and closed the barriers. Upon
this the creditor petitioned the court, asserting that
the right of sanctuary was lost. In reply it was
asserted that the Castle was not disfranchised, and
that the Castle of Edinburgh, having anciently
been rmtrurn pueZZarum, kas originally a religious
house, as well as the abbey of Holyrood.? But
the Court decided that it had no privilege of
sanctuary ?to hinder the king?s letters, and ordained
Colonel Stuart to deliver Burnbank to a messenger.?
organised among the Hays, Keiths, and Murrays, and was employed by ?Nicoll Muschat of ill
On tidings of this, the Earl of Leven, governor When the seventies exercised by George I. upon
