was got far beyond their reach. The regent died the same night of his wound."-History of Scotland, book v. Bothwellhaugh rode straight to Hamilton, where he was received in triumph; for the ashes of the houses in Clydesdale, which had been burned by Murray's army, were yet smoking; and party prejudice, the habits of the age, and the enormity of the provocation, seemed to his kinsmen to justify his deed. After a short abode at Hamilton, this fierce and determined man left Scotland, and served in France, under the patronage of the family of Guise, to whom he was doubtless recommended by having avenged the cause of their niece, queen Mary, upon her ungrateful brother. De Thou has recorded, that an attempt was made to engage him to assassinate Gaspar de Coligni, the famous admiral of France, and the buckler of the Huguenot cause. But the character of Bothwellhaugh was mistaken. He was no mercenary trader in blood, and rejected the offer with contempt and indignation. He had no authority, he said, from Scotland, to commit murders in France; he had avenged his own just quarrel, but he would neither, for price nor prayer, avenge that of another man.―Thuanus, cap. 46. The regent's death happened 23d January, 1569. It is applauded, or stigmatized, by contemporary historians, according to their religious or party prejudices. The triumph of Blackwood is unbounded. He not only extols the pious feat of Bothwellhaugh, "who," he observes, "satisfied, with a single ounce of lead, him, whose sacrilegious avarice had stripped the metropolitan church of St. Andrews of its covering;" but he ascribes it to immediate Divine inspiration, and the escape of Hamilton to little less than the miraculous interference of the Deity.-Jebb, vol. ii, p. 263. With equal injustice it was, by others, made the ground of a general national reflection; for, when Mather urged Berney to assassinate Burleigh, and quoted the examples of Poltrot and Bothwellhaugh, the other conspirators answered, "that neither Poltrot nor Hambleton did attempt their enterpryse, without some reason or consideration to lead them to it: as the one, by hyre, and promise of preferment or rewarde; the other, upon desperate mind of revenge, for a lytle wrong done unto him, as the report goethe, accordinge to the vyle trayterous disposysyon of the hoole natyon of the Scottes."—-—-—-Murdin's State Papers, vol. i, p. 197. WHEN princely Hamilton's abode Ennobled Cadyow's Gothic towers, The song went round, the goblet flow'd, And revel sped the laughing hours. Then, thrilling to the harp's gay sound, So sweetly rung each vaulted wall, And echoed light the dancer's bound, As mirth and music cheered the hall. But Cadyow's towers, in ruins laid, And vaults, by ivy mantled o'er, Thrill to the music of the shade, Or echo Evan's hoarser roar. Yet still, of Cadyow's faded fame, You bid me tell a minstrel tale, And tune my harp, of border frame, On the wild banks of Evandale. For thou, from scenes of courtly pride, From pleasure's lighter scenes, canst turn, Where the rude torrent's brawling course Was shagged with thorn and tangling sloe, The ashler buttress braves its force, And ramparts frown in battled row. 'Tis night: the shade of keep and spire Obscurely dance on Evan's stream, And on the wave the warder's fire Is chequering the moonlight beam. Fades slow their light; the east is gray; The weary warder leaves his tower; Steeds snort; uncoupled stag-hounds bay, And merry hunters quit the bower. The drawbridge falls, they hurry out; Clatters each plank and swinging chain, As, dashing o'er, the jovial rout Úrge the shy steed, and slack the rein. First of his troop, the chief rode on;1 His shouting merrymen throng behind; The steed of princely Hamilton Was fleeter than the mountain wind. From the thick copse the roebucks bound, The startling red deer scuds the plain; For the hoarse bugle's warrior sound Has roused their mountain haunts again. Through the huge oaks of Evandale, Whose limbs a thousand years have worn, What sullen roar comes down the gale, And drowns the hunter's pealing horn? Mightiest of all the beasts of chase, That roam in woody Caledon, Crashing the forest in his race, The mountain bull comes thundering on.3 Fierce, on the hunters' quivered band, He rolls his eye of swarthy glow, Spurns, with black hoof and horn, the sand, And tosses high his mane of snow. Aimed well, the chieftain's lance has flown; Sound, merry huntsmen! sound the pryse!❤ 'Tis noon: against the knotted oak The hunters rest the idle spear; Curls through the trees the slender smoke, Where yeomen dight the woodland cheer. Proudly the chieftain marked his clan, On greenwood lap all careless thrown, That bore the name of Hamilton. Why shares he not our hunter's fare?" to John Eure and his heirs, ancestor to the lord tle, until their ferocity occasioned their being exEure that now is, and for his service done in these tirpated, about forty years ago. Their appearance partes, with market, &c. dated at Lanercost, the was beautiful, being milk white, with black muz20th day of October, anno regis, 34."-Stowe's zles, horns, and hoofs. The bulls are described Annals, p. 210. This grant, like that of Henry, by ancient authors, as having white manes; but must have been dangerous to the receiver. those of latter days had lost that peculiarity, perhaps by intermixture with the tame breed.' 2. There is a nun in Dryburgh bower.- P. 404. The circumstance of the nun, "who never saw In detailing the death of the regent Murray, the day," is not entirely imaginary. About fifty which is made the subject of the following ballad, years ago, an unfortunate female wanderer took it would be injustice to my reader to use other up her residence in a dark vault, among the ruins words than those of Dr. Robertson, whose account of Dryburgh-abbey, which, during the day, she of that memorable event forms a beautiful piece of never quitted. When night fell, she issued from historical painting. this miserable habitation, and went to the house "Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was the person of Mr. Haliburton, of Newmains, the editor's who committed this barbarous action. He had great-grandfather, or to that of Mr. Erskine, of been condemned to death soon after the battle of Shielfield, two gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Langside, as we have already related, and owed From their charity she obtained such necessaries his life to the regent's clemency. But part of his as she could be prevailed upon to accept. At estate had been bestowed upon one of the regent's twelve, each night, she lighted her candle, and favourites,† who siezed his house, and turned out returned to her vault; assuring her friendly neigh- his wife, naked, in a cold night, into the open bours that, during her absence, her habitation was fields, where, before next morning, she became arranged by a spirit, to whom she gave the un-furiously mad. This injury made a deeper imcouth name of Fatlips; describing him as a little pression on him than the benefit he had received, man, wearing heavy iron shoes, with which he and from that moment he vowed to be revenged of trampled the clay floor of the vault, to dispel the the regent. Party rage strengthened and inflamed damps. This circumstance caused her to be re- his private resentment. His kinsmen, the Hamil garded, by the well-informed, with compassion, as tons, applauded the enterprise. The maxims of deranged in her understanding; and by the vulgar, that age justified the most desperate course he with some degree of terror. The cause of her could take to obtain vengeance. He followed the adopting this extraordinary mode of life she would regent for some time, and watched for an oppor never explain. It was, however, believed to have tunity to strike the blow. He resolved, at last, to been occasioned by a vow, that, during the absence wait till his enemy should arrive at Linlithgow, of a man, to whom she was attached, she would through which he was to pass, in his way from never look upon the sun. Her lover never re- Stirling to Edinburgh. He took his stand in a turned. He fell during the civil war of 1745-6, wooden gallery, which had a window towards the and she never more would behold the light of day. street; spread a feather-bed on the floor, to hinder The vault, or rather dungeon, in which this un- the noise of his feet from being heard; hung up a fortunate woman lived and died, passes still by black cloth behind him, that his shadow might not the name of the supernatural being, with which be observed from without; and, after all this preits gloom was tenanted by her disturbed imagina-paration, calmly expected the regent's approach, tion, and few of the neighbouring peasants dare who had lodged, during the night, in a house not enter it by night. far distant. Some indistinct information of the danger which threatened him had been conveyed to the regent, and he paid so much regard to it, that he resolved to return by the same gate through which he had entered, and to fetch a compass round the town. But, as the crowd about the gate was great, and he himself unacquainted with fear, he proceeded directly along the street; and the throng of people obliging him to move very slowly, gave the assassin time to take so true an aim, that he shot him, with a single bullet, through the lower part of his belly, and killed the horse of a gentleman, who rode on his other side. His followers instantly endeavoured to break into the house whence the blow had come; but they found the door strongly barricaded, and, before it could be which stood ready for him at a back-passage, and forced open, Hamilton had mounted a fleet horse,§ CADYOW CASTLE. ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HON. LADY ANNE HAMILTON. THE ruins of Cadyow, or Cadzow castle, the ancient baronial residence of the family of Hamilton, are situated upon the precipitous banks of the river Evan, about two miles above its junction with the Clyde. It was dismantled in the conclusion of the civil wars, during the reign of the unfortunate Mary, to whose cause the house of Hamilton devoted themselves with a generous zeal, which occasioned their temporary obscurity, and, very nearly, their total ruin. The situation of the ruins, embosomed in wood, darkened by ivy and creep ing shrubs, and overhanging the brawling torrent, is romantic in the highest degree. In the immediate vicinity of Cadyow is a grove of immense oaks, the remains of the Caledonian forest, which anciently extended through the south of Scotland, from the Eastern to the Atlantic Ocean. Some of these trees measure twenty-five feet, and upwards, in circumference, and the state of decay, in which they now appear, shows, that they may have wit-of St. Andrews, a natural brother of the duke of Chatelnessed the rites of the druids. The whole scenery herault, and uncle to Bothwellhaugh. This, among many is included in the magnificent and extensive park wellhaugh received from his clan in effecting his purpose. other circumstances, seems to evince the aid which Both of the duke of Hamilton. There was long preservd in this forest the breed of the Scottish wild cat-broath. and are still to be seen at Chillingham castle in Northum They were formerly kept in the park at Drumlanrig, berland. For their nature and ferocity, see Notes. This was sir James Ballenden, lord-justice-elerk whose shameful and inhuman rapacity occasioned the catastrophe in the text.-Spottiswoode. which it was attached was the property of the archbishop This projecting gallery is still shown. The house to The gift of lord John Hamilton, commendator of Ar was got far beyond their reach. The regent died the same night of his wound."-History of Scotland, book v. Bothwellhaugh rode straight to Hamilton, where he was received in triumph; for the ashes of the houses in Clydesdale, which had been burned by Murray's army, were yet smoking; and party prejudice, the habits of the age, and the enormity of the provocation, seemed to his kinsmen to justify his deed. After a short abode at Hamilton, this fierce and determined man left Scotland, and served in France, under the patronage of the family of Guise, to whom he was doubtless recommended by having avenged the cause of their niece, queen Mary, upon her ungrateful brother. De Thou has recorded, that an attempt was made to engage him to assassinate Gaspar de Coligni, the famous admiral of France, and the buckler of the Huguenot cause. But the character of Bothwellhaugh was mistaken. He was no mercenary trader in blood, and rejected the offer with contempt and indignation. He had no authority, he said, from Scotland, to commit murders in France; he had avenged his own just quarrel, but he would neither, for price nor prayer, avenge that of another man.-Thuanus, cap. 46. The regent's death happened 23d January, 1569. It is applauded, or stigmatized, by contemporary historians, according to their religious or party prejudices. The triumph of Blackwood is unbounded. He not only extols the pious feat of Bothwellhaugh, "who," he observes, "satisfied, with a single ounce of lead, him, whose sacrilegious avarice had stripped the metropolitan church of St. Andrews of its covering;" but he ascribes it to immediate Divine inspiration, and the escape of Hamilton to little less than the miraculous interference of the Deity.-Jebb, vol. ii, p. 263. With equal injustice it was, by others, made the ground of a general national reflection; for, when Mather urged Berney to assassinate Burleigh, and quoted the examples of Poltrot and Bothwellhaugh, the other conspirators answered, "that neither Poltrot nor Hambleton did attempt their enterpryse, without some reason or consideration to lead them to it: as the one, by hyre, and promise of preferment or rewarde; the other, upon desperate mind of revenge, for a lytle wrong done unto him, as the report goethe, accordinge to the vyle trayterous disposysyon of the hoole natyon of the Scottes."-Murdin's State Papers, vol. i, p. 197. WHEN princely Hamilton's abode Ennobled Cadyow's Gothic towers, The song went round, the goblet flow'd, And revel sped the laughing hours. Then, thrilling to the harp's gay sound, So sweetly rung each vaulted wall, And echoed light the dancer's bound, As mirth and music cheered the hall. But Cadyow's towers, in ruins laid, And vaults, by ivy mantled o'er, Thrill to the music of the shade, Or echo Evan's hoarser roar. Yet still, of Cadyow's faded fame, You bid me tell a minstrel tale, And tune my harp, of border frame, On the wild banks of Evandale. For thou, from scenes of courtly pride, From pleasure's lighter scenes, canst turn, 'Tis night: the shade of keep and spire Obscurely dance on Evan's stream, And on the wave the warder's fire Is chequering the moonlight beam. The weary warder leaves his tower; Urge the shy steed, and slack the rein. His shouting merrymen throng behind; The steed of princely Hamilton Was fleeter than the mountain wind. From the thick copse the roebucks bound, The startling red deer scuds the plain; For the hoarse bugle's warrior sound Has roused their mountain haunts again. Through the huge oaks of Evandale, Whose limbs a thousand years have worn, What sullen roar comes down the gale, And drowns the hunter's pealing horn? The mountain bull comes thundering on." Aimed well, the chieftain's lance has flown; Sound, merry huntsmen! sound the pryse!❤ 'Tis noon: against the knotted oak The hunters rest the idle spear; Curls through the trees the slender smoke, Where yeomen dight the woodland cheer. Proudly the chieftain marked his clan, On greenwood lap all careless thrown, That bore the name of Hamilton. Why shares he not our hunter's fare?" "At merry feast, or buxom chase, No more the warrior shalt thou see. "Few suns have set, since Woodhouselee4 Saw Bothwellhaugh's bright goblets foam, When to his hearths, in social glee, The war-worn soldier turned him home. "There, wan from her maternal throes, His Margaret, beautiful and mild, Sate in her bower, a pallid rose, And peaceful nursed her new-born child. "O change accurst! past are those days; False Murray's ruthless spoilers came, And, for the hearth's domestic blaze, Ascends destruetion's volumed flame. "What sheeted phantom wanders wild, Where mountain Eske thro' woodland flows, Her arms enfold a shadowy child! Oh is it she, the pallid rose? "The wildered traveller sees her glide, And hears her feeble voice with awe; 'Revenge,' she cries, on Murray's pride! And wo for injured Bothwellhaugh!'" He ceased; and cries of rage and grief Burst mingling from the kindred band, And half arose the kindling chief, And half unsheathed his Arran brand. But who, o'er bush, o'er stream, and rock, Rides headlong, with resistless speed, Whose bloody poniard's frantic stroke Drives to the leap his jaded steed 75 Whose cheek is pale, whose eye-balls glare, As one some visioned sight that saw, Whose hands are bloody, loose his hair? 'Tis he! 'tis he! 'tis Bothwellhaugh! From gory selle,* and reeling steed, Sprung the fierce horseman with a bound, And, reeking from the recent deed, He dashed his carbine on the ground. Sternly he spoke: ""Tis sweet to hear, In good green-wood, the bugle blown; But sweeter to revenge's ear, To drink a tyrant's dying groan. "Your slaughtered quarry proudly trod, At dawning morn, o'er dale and down, But prouder base-born Murray rode Through old Linlithgow's crowded town. "From the wild border's humbled side, In haughty triumph marched he,6 While Knox relaxed his bigot pride, And smiled, the traitorous pomp to see. "But can stern Power, with all his vaunt, Or Pomp, with all her courtly glare, The settled heart of Vengeance daunt, Or change the purpose of Despair? "With hackbut bent,† my secret stand,7 Dark as the purposed deed, I chose, And marked, where, mingling in his band, Trooped Scottish pikes and English bows. "Dark Morton, girt with many a spear,8 Murder's foul minion, led the van; And clashed their broadswords in the rear, The wild Macfarlane's plaided clan.9 "Glencairn and stout Parkhead were nigh, Obsequious at their regent's rein, 10 And haggard Lindsay's iron eye, That saw fair Mary weep in vain.11 "Mid pennoned spears, a steely grove, Proud Murray's plumage floated high; So close the minions crowded nigh. 12 Beware of injured Bothwellhaugh!' The wolf, by whom his infant fell! "But dearer to my injured eye, To see in dust proud Murray roll; And mine was ten times trebled joy, To hear him groan his felon soul. "My Margaret's spectre glided near; With pride her bleeding victim saw; And shrieked in his death-deafened ear, Remember injured Bothwellhaugh!” "Then speed thee, noble Chatelrault! Spread to the wind thy bannered tree! Each warrior bend his Clydesdale bow! Murray is fallen, and Scotland free!" Vaults every warrior to his steed; Loud bugles join their wild acclaim,"Murray is fallen and Scotland freed! Couch, Arran! couch thy spear of flame!" But, see! the minstrel vision fails, The glimmering spears are seen no more; The shouts of war die on the gales, Or sink in Evan's lonely roar. For the loud bugle, pealing high, The blackbird whistles down the vale, And sunk in ivied ruins lie The bannered towers of Evandale. For chiefs intent on bloody deed, And Vengeance shouting o'er the sain, Lo! high-born Beauty rules the steed, Or graceful guides the silken rein. And long may Peace and Pleasure own The maids, who list the minstrel's tale; Nor e'er a ruder guest be known On the fair banks of Evandale! NOTES. 1. First of his troop, the chief rode on.-P. 407. The head of the family of Hamilton, at this pe riod, was James, earl of Arran, duke of Chatelberault in France, and first peer of the Scottish realm. In 1569, he was appointed by queen Mary, ber lieutenant-general in Scotland, under the singular Selle-Saddle. A word used by Spencer, and other title of her adopted father. ancient authors. + Hackbut bent-Gun cooked 2. The mountain bull comes thundering on.-P. 407. "In Caledonia olim frequens erat sylvestris ani dam bos, nunc vero rarior, qui colore candidissimo, jubam densam et demissam instar leonis gestat, truculentus ac ferus, ab humano genere abhorrens, ut quæcunque homines vel manibus contrectaverint, vel halitu perflaverint, ab iis multos post dies omnino abstinuerint. Ad hoc tanta audacia huic bovi indita erat, ut non solum irritatus equites furenter prosterneret, sed ne tantillum lacessitus omnes promiscue homines cornibus, ac ungulis peteret; ac canum, qui apud nos ferocissimi sunt, impetus plane contemneret. Ejus carnes cartilaginose sed saporis suavissimi. Erat is olim per illam vastissimam Caledoniæ sylvam frequens, sed humana ingluvie jam assumptus tribus tantum locis est reliquus, Strivilingii, Cumbernaldiæ, et Kincarniæ."-Leslæus, Scotiæ Descriptio, p. 13. 3. Stern Claud replied, with darkening face 9. The wild Macfarlane's plaided clan.-P. 408. This clan of Lennox highlanders were attached to the regent Murray. Holinshead, speaking of the bat (Gray Pasley's haughty lord was he.)-P. 407. Lord Claud Hamilton, second son of the duke of Chatelherault, and commendator of the abbey of Paisley, acted a distinguished part during the troubles of queen Mary's reign, and remained un-tle of Langside, says, "In this batayle the valialterably attached to the cause of that unfortunate princess. He led the van of her army at the fatal battle of Langside, and was one of the commanders at the Raid of Stirling, which had so nearly given He was complete success to the queen's faction. ancestor to the present marquis of Abercorn. 4. Few suns have set, since Woodhouselee.-P. 408. This barony, stretching along the banks of the Esk, near Auchendinny, belonged to Bothwellhaugh, in right of his wife. The ruins of the mansion, from whence she was expelled in the brutal manner which occasioned her death, are still to be seen in a hollow glen beside the river. Popular report tenants them with the restless ghost of the lady Bothwellhaugh; whom, however, it confounds with lady Anne Bothwell, whose Lament is so popular. This spectre is so tenacious of her rights, that, a part of the stones of the ancient edifice having been employed in building or repairing the present Woodhouselee, she has deemed it a part of her privilege to haunt that house also; and, even of very late years, has excited considerable disturbance and terror among and so were turned to flight." Calderwood's MS. the domestics. This is a more remarkable vindi- apud Keith, page 480. Melville mentions the cation of the rights of ghosts, as the present Wood-flight of the vanguard, but states it to have been houselee, which gives his title to the honourable commanded by Morton, and composed chiefly of Alexander Fraser Tytler, a senator of the college commoners of the barony of Renfrew. of justice, is situated on the slope of the Pentland hills, distant at least four miles from her proper abode. She always appears in white, and with a child in her arms. ance of an hieland gentleman, named Macfarlane, The lord Murray's death took place shortly after an expedition to the borders; which is thus commemorated by the author of his elegy. "So having stablischt all thing in this sort, To Liddisdail! again he did resort, Throw Ewisdail, Eskdail, and all the daills rode he, Whair na prince lay thir hundred yeiris before, 7. With hackbut bent, my secret stand.-P. 408. The carabine, with which the regent was shot, is preserved at Hamilton palace. It is a brass piece, of a middling length, very small in the bore, and, what is rather extraordinary, appears to have been rifled or indented in the barrel. It had a matchlock, for which a modern firelock has been injudiciously substituted. 8. Dark Morton, girt with many a spear.-P. 408. Of this noted person it is enough to say, that he was active in the murder of David Rizzio, and at least privy to that of Darnley. 10. Glencairn and stout Parkhead were nigh, Obsequious at their regent's rein.-P. 408. The earl of Glencairn was a steady adherent of the regent. George Douglas, of Parkhead, was a natural brother of the earl of Morton: his horse was killed by the same ball by which Murray fell. 11. And haggard Lindsay's iron eye, That saw fair Mary weep in vain.-P. 408. Lord Lindesay, of the Byres, was the most ferocious and brutal of the regent's faction; and, as such, was employed to extort Mary's signature to the deed of resignation, presented to her in Lochleven castle. He discharged his commission with the most savage rigour; and it is even said, that when the weeping captive, in the act of signing, averted her eyes from the fatal deed, he pinched her arm with the grasp of his iron glove. 12. Scarce could his trampling charger move, |
Conseguir este libro impreso
0 Reseñas Las reseñas no se verifican, pero Google comprueba si hay contenido falso y lo retira una vez identificado Escribir reseña |