I20 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [COrStOrphiie.
fact came to her kcoivledge. Inspired with fury
she repaired at once to the castle of Corstorphine,
and finding that he was drinkiig at a tavern in the
village, sent for him, and they met in the garden
at a tree near the old dovecot, which marked the
spot. A violent altercation ensued between them,
and in the midst of it, she snatched his sword from
his side, ran him through the body and killed him
on the instant. (Fountainhall.)
?The inhabitants of th?e village,? says C. Kirksought
to extenuate it on the plea that Lord Forrester
was intoxicated and furious, that he ran at her
? with his sword, on which she took it from him to
protect herself, and he fell upon it; but this was
known to be false, says Fountainhall. She practised
a deception upon the court by which her sentence
of death was postponed for two months, during
which, notwithstanding the care of her enjoined on
John Wan, Gudeman of the Tolbooth, she escaped
in male apparel but was captured by the Ruthvens
CORSTORPHINE CHURCH.
patrick Sharpe, in his Notes to Kirkton?s ? History,?
? still relate some circumstances of the murder not
recorded by Fountainhall. Mrs. Nimmo, attended
by her maid, had gone from Edinburgh to the
castle of Corstorphine,? and adds that after the
murder ?she took refuge in a garret of the castle,
but was discovered by one of her slippers, which
dropped through a crevice of the floor. It need
scarcely be added, that till lately the inhabitants
of the village were greatly annoyed of a moonlight
night by the appearance of a woman clothed in
white, with a bloody sword in her hand, wandering
and wailing near the pigeon-house.?
Being seized and brought before the Sheriffs of
Edinburgh, she made a confession of her crime, but
next day at Fala MilL On the 12th of November,
1679, she was beheaded at the market cross, when
she appeared on the scaffold in deep mourning,
laying aside a large veil, and baring her neck and
shoulders to the executioner with the utmost
courage.
Though externally a Presbyterian it was said at
the time ?that a dispensation from the Pope to
marry the woman who murdered him was found in
his (Lord Forrester?s) closet, and that his delay in
using it occasioned her fury.? (?< Popery and
Schism,? p. 39.)
Connected with this murder, a circumstance very
characteristic of the age took place. The deceased
peer leaving onIy heirs of his second marriage, who
