Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/101

Dumbarton, the estate and title of the Earl of Arran, which he had so iniquitously caused to be forfeited, were bestowed upon captain Stewart, his accuser; who, at the same time that he was invested with the estate and title, received a commission to bring up the ex-regent from Dumbarton to Edinburgh, which he did at the head of one thousand men. When the commission was shown to Morton, struck with the title, he inquired who he was, not having heard of his exaltation. Being told, he exclaimed, "then I know what I have to expect." The jury that sat upon his trial was composed of his avowed enemies, and though he challenged the earl of Argyle and lord Seton as prejudiced against him, they were allowed to sit on his assize. Of the nature of the proof adduced against him we know nothing, as our historians have not mentioned it, and the records of the court respecting it have either been destroyed or lost. He was, however, pronounced guilty of concealing, and guilty art and part in the king's murder. "Art and part," he exclaimed twice, with considerable agitation, and striking the ground violently with a small walking-stick, "God knows it is not so." He heard, however, the sentence with perfect composure. In the interval between his trial and execution, he felt, he said, a serenity of mind to which he had long been a stranger. Resigning himself to his fate, he supped cheerfully and slept calmly for a considerable part of the night. He was next morning visited by several of the ministers, and an interesting account of the conference which John Dury and Walter Balcanquhal had with him, has been preserved. Respecting the crime for which he was condemned, he confessed, that after his return from England, whither he had fled for the slaughter of Rizzio, he met Bothwell at Whittingham, who informed him of the conspiracy against the king, and solicited him to become an accomplice, as the queen anxiously wished his death. He at first refused to have any thing to do with it, but after repeated conferences, in which he was always urged with the queen's pleasure, he required a warrant under her hand, authorizing the deed, which never having received, he never consented to have any hand in the transaction. On being reminded that his own confessions justified his sentence; he answered, that according to the strict letter of the law, he was liable to punishment, but it was impossible for him to have revealed the plot, for to whom could he have done so? "To the queen? she was the author of it. To the king's father? he was sic a bairn that there was nothing told him but he would tell to her again; and the two most powerful noblemen in the kingdom, Bothwell and Huntly, were the perpetrators. I foreknew, indeed, and concealed it," added he, "but it was because I durst not reveal it to any creature for my life. But as to being art and part in the commission of the crime, I call God to witness that I am entirely innocent." He was executed by an instrument called the maiden, which he himself had introduced into Scotland, on the 3d of June, 1581. On the scaffold he was calm, his voice and his countenance continuing unaltered; and after some little time spent in devotion, he suffered death with the intrepidity th.it became a Douglas. His head was placed on the public gaol, and his body, atter lying till sunset on the scaffold, covered with a beggarly cloak, was carried by common porters to the usual burying place of criminals. "Never was there seen," says Spottiswoode, "a more notable example of fortune's mutability, than in the earl of Morton. He who a few years before had been reverenced by all men, and feared as a king, was now at his end forsaken by all, and made the very scorn of fortune, to teach men how little stability there is in honour, wealth, friendship, and the rest of these worldly things that men do so much admire. In one thing he was nevertheless most happy, that he died truly penitent, with that courage and resignation which became a truly great man and a good Christian, and in the full assurance of a blessed immortality."