THE LA WNMARKET. I75
High Sheet,-two bands of men of war were placed about the Cross, and two above the
Tolbooth. “The first band waited upon the convoy of the Erle of Morton, from the
loodging to the Tolbuith.” The crime for which he was convicted, was a share in the
murder of Darnley, but eighteen other heads of indictment had been drawn up against
him. About six in the evening, he was conveyed back to his lodging in the Old Bank
Close. He supped cheerfully, and on retiring to rest, slept till three in the morning,
when he rose and wrote for some hours, and again returned to his couch. In the
morning, he sent the letters he had written, by some of the ministers, to the King, but
he refused to look at them or listen to their contents, or indeed do anything, but
ranged up and doun the floore of his chamber, clanking with his finger and his thowme.”
The Regent had shown little mercy as a ruler, and he had none to hope for from King
James. On that same day, he was beheaded at the Cross, by the Maiden, with all the
bloody formalities of a traitor’s death, and his head exposed on the highest point of the
Tolbooth.’
In the folIowing year, the same substantial mansion,-alternately prison and palace:
-was aasigned as a residence for Monsieur de la Motte Fenelon, the French ambassador,
who came professedly to mediate between the Eing and hit nobles, and to seek a renewal
of the. ancient league of amity with France. ‘‘ He was lodged in Gourlay’s house, near
the Tolbooth, and had an audience of His Majesty upon the 9th of the said month ” of
January. He remained till the 10th of February, when ‘( having received a satisfactory
answer, with tt great banquet, in Archibald Stewart’s lodgings, in Edinburgh, he took
journey homeward.”‘ The banquet was given at the King’s request, to the great
indignation of the clergy, who had watched with much jealousy ‘(the traffique of Papists,”
Calderwood, vol. iii. p. 557. ’ Ante, p. 86.-“ He was executed about foure houres after noone, upon Fryday, the secund of June. Phairnihmt
stood in a shott over against the scaffold, with his large ruffes, delyting in this spectacle. The Lord Seton and his two
sonnes stood in a staire, aouth-east from the Croce. His bodie lay upon the scaffold till eight houres at even, and therafter
was carried to the Neather Tolbuith, where it was watched. His head waa sett upon a prick, on the highest atone
of the gavel1 of the Tolbuith, toward the publict street”-C&lderwood, vol. iii. p. 575.
It is said that
the Regent Morton borrowed the idea from some foreign country. Halifax, in Yorkshire, h a been oftenest assigned
88 the place of ita invention ; and the generally received tradition is, that the Regent waa himself the first who suffered
by it, On the 3d of April 1566, the Maiden waa used at the execution of T h m s Scot, an accomplice in the murder
of Riezio, when an entry appears in the Town records of 7a paid for conveying it from Blackfriars to the Crosa The
next execution mentioned, is that of Henry Yair, on the 10th of August, when Andrew Gofferaown, smyth,-who, at
the former date, received 5s. for grinding of y’ Maiden,-obtains a similar fee for gvkding of Widow. We are
inclined to infer that the same instrument is spoken of in both cases, and that the fanciful epithet which the old
Scottish guillotine still retains, waa given to it on the former occasion, in allusion to ita then unfleahed and muidas axe,
vide p. 86. It is at any rate obvious from this, that the Maiden was in use before the Earl of Morton waa appointed
Regent.
Maitland remarks @. 181), ‘‘ The Old Tolbooth, in the Bank Close, in the Landmarket, which was rebuilt in the
year 1582, is still standing, on the western aide of the said cloae, with the windows strongly stanchelled; the small
dimensions thereof occasioned ita being laid aside.” We shall show presently the very different character of the original
building, although there still remains the intermediate poeaessor, Alexander Mauchane, already mentioned, unless, as ia
most probable, he occupied the ancient erection as his dwelling. The alluaions already quoted, where the Tolbooth is
mentioned along with this building, seem sufficient to prove that that name was never applied to it, although it
occasionally shared with the Tolbooth the offices of c prison,- purpose that in reality properly belonged to neither.
Moyses stylea it Gourlay‘r House, near Ac Tolbooth,-a true deffiription of it-aa it was within a hundred yards of the
Old Tolbooth or “ Heart of Midlothian.” ‘ Mopes’ Memoirs, pp. 73-77. Archibald Stewart appears to have been a sub&antial citizen, who was Provost of
the city in the year 1578.
The common story told by Dr Jamieaon and other writers, about the Maiden, in entirely apocryphal.
176 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
and especially of U one bearing the manifest badge of Antichrist,” viz., his badge as a
knight of the order of Saint Esprit? They accordingly intimated to their congregations
a day of fasting and prayer on the occasion, which was duly observed, while the Frenchman
was having his farewell repast.
In the year 1588, the King sent Sir James Stewart, brother
of the Earl of Arran, to besiege Lord Maxwell, in the Castle
of Lochmaben, where he was believed to have collected a force
in readiness to co-operate with an expected army from Spain,
against the government. The Castle was rendered on the
faith of safety promised to the garrison by Sir William
Stewart; but the King, who had remained at a prudent distance
from danger, now made his appearance, and with characteristic
perfidy, hanged the most of them before the Castle
gate. He returned to Edinburgh thereafter, bringing with
him the Lord Maxwell, “who was warded in Robert Gourlaye’s
hous, and committed to the custodie of Sir William
Stewart.” Scarcely a week after this, Sir William quarrelled
with the Earl of Bothwell, in the royal presence, where each
gave the other the lie, in language sufficiently characteristic
of the rudeness of manners then prevailing at the Court of Holyrood. They met
a few days afterwards on the High Street, each surrounded by his retainers, when a
battle immediately ensued. Sir William was driven down the street by the superior
numbers of his opponents, and at length retreated into Blackfriars’ Wynd.’ There he
_.stabbed one of his assailants who was pressing most closely on him, but being unable to
recover his sword, he was thrust through the body by Bothwell, and so perished in the
afTray,-an occurrence that excited little notice at that turbulent period, either from
the citizens or the Court, and seems to have involved its perpetrator in no retributive
consequences.
The next occupant of note was Colonel Sempill, a cadet of the ancient family of that
name, and an active agent of the Catholic party, who “came to this countrie, with the
Spanish gold to the Popish Lords.’’ The Earl of Huntly, who had shown himself favourable
to the Spanish emissary, was commanded, under pain of treason, to apprehend him ;
and he also was accordingly warded in Robert Gourlay’s house, seemingly at the same time
with Lord Maxwell. In this case, it proved an insecure prison, for he (( soone after brake
waird and escaped, and that by Huntlie’s moyen and assistance; ’” and on the 20th of May of
the following year, Huntly was himself a prisoner, “wairded in Robert Gourlay’s h ~ u s e , ” ~
from whence he was soon afterwards transferred to Borthwick Castle. But not only was
this ancient civic mansion the abode or prison of a succession of eminent men, during the
troubled years of James the Sixth’s residence in Scotland; we find that the King himself,
in 1593, took refuge in the same substantial retreat, during one of those daring insurrections
of the Earl of Bothwell, that so often put his Majesty’s courage to sore trial, and drove
him to seek the protection of the burgher force of Edinburgh. LL The 3d of Apryle, the
Birrel’s Diary, p. 24. . ’ Calderwood, vol. iv. pp. 678-681. * Ibid, vol. v. p. 65.
YIQNETTE-carved Stone from Old Bank Close, in the collection of A. 0. Ellis, Esq.
