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Dorsetshire, lying in a wayside ditch covered with ferns. His beard was prematurely grey, he trembled, and was unable to speak. He had not slept for three nights, and from exhaustion of spirits the gazettes state that he wept and fainted; and those who looked on doubted if this wretched creature could be the once gay and brilliant Monmouth, the favourite son of Charles II. Sir William Portman searched his pockets, and, with his watch, his purse, his diamond George, were found "some raw peas gathered in the rage of hunger."

He was at once made prisoner, and his Order of the Garter was dispatched to King James in token

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of the fact. How, while on his way to London, he wrote an imploring letter to a justly incensed king, and when admitted to the royal presence, fettered with a silken cord, he lay grovelling on the floor, and wet the feet of James with his tears, laying the blame of all on Fergusson, the Scot, acting thus as Argyle would have scorned to do; and how he was doomed to immediate execution, and died by five strokes at the hand of John Ketch, on Tower Hill, belong to the common history of the country.

Sedgemoor was the last pitched battle fought in England.

CHAPTER LXVII.

LAST SIEGE OF EDINBURGH CASTLE, 1689.

ON tidings reaching the Scottish capital of the intended invasion of Britain by William of Orange --for until his success was complete, it was viewed in that light-the whole of the standing forces of Scotland, Guards, horse and foot, were marched south under Lieutenant-General Douglas, to form a junction with those of England, under Lord Feversham, on Salisbury Plain; and the castle of Edinburgh was ordered to be placed on the war establishment. Its governor at this time was George, Duke of Gordon, a noble highly esteemed for his honour and probity. He was a Catholic, yet had procured a dispensation from taking the test oath required by Scottish law, and fulfilled his trust with fidelity during the four stormy years he held it.

His fidelity had been mistrusted by the king, who curtailed his privileges over his vassals in Badenoch, and interfered with his garrison orders. These matters the duke resented so far that he tendered the resignation of his governorship, which James declined to accept; he therefore returned to Edinburgh, determined "to preserve its castle for the king, though the Prince of Orange should obtain possession of every other fortress in the kingdom."

An artillery company, composed principally of Dutchmen, was added to the usual garrison by General Douglas, Master of the Scottish Ordnance, who had free access to the magazines; and the result of this freedom was the embezzlement or removal of a great part of the arms and ammunition to the castle of Stirling, and these, when it

surrendered to the Revolutionary generals, were employed against the garrison of the Duke of Gordon.

On the landing of William in England, the magistrates of Edinburgh, who had been most loud only two years before in their protestations of loyalty to the king as James VII. of Scotland, with singular baseness, were among the first to make similar offers to the invader. The city filled rapidly with west country Whigs, and these maltreated every person of Cavalier principles within the walls. Since his appointment as governor of the castle, the Duke of Gordon had generally resided in the town house of his family, an old edifice, situated at the foot of Blair's Close, on the Castle Hill. Tall, massive, and gloomy, this mansion has a western exposure to the fortress, and its Gothic doorway is still adorned by his arms, surmounted by a large coronet, and supported by two hounds.

There was a dangerous tumult in the city on the night of the 9th of December, and the duke immediately retired into the castle. Prior to this he had visited the house of the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Perth, to invite him into the fortress as the only place of security; but he and other loyal nobles had fled, leaving the streets crowded with armed Presbyterians, who, maddened by fanatic zeal, and inflamed by the wines and ale found in the houses of the Cavaliers, proceeded to pillage and destroy on every hand.

They set on fire the stately mansions of Lord Perth and the Barons of Blairdrummond and Niddry; while a vast mob, armed on all points,

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thus, amid a thousand crimes, was commemorated in Edinburgh the achievement of the Revolution of 1688, and the downfall for ever of the House of Stuart. For three days the city was a chaos of confusion and outrage.

The Duke of Gordon, on finding matters in this state, and that the rabble were firing wantonly upon his sentinels, drew up the wooden bridge which crossed the castle moat, supplying its place by a single plank, which could be removed with ease. He requested the Town Council to supply him with 120 more men, and with provisions for three months, in addition to 300 bolls of meal and malt then in store; but only a twentieth part of the biscuit and a fifth part of the beer necessary were

to frustrate the design, and the lieutenant-governor undertook to watch the men. This officer was Colonel John Winram, of Over Liberton and the Inch House, a major of the Scots Foot Guards in 1683, and a descendant of the Winrams of Wiston, in Clydesdale.

At midnight he sent an officer in haste to acquaint the duke that the mutineers were in arms, and that some were in the act of dragging their more loyal comrades from bed. Gordon appeared among them sword in hand, and by his presence and resolute conduct restored order; but next morning he paraded the garrison, administered an oath to the faithful, and forty-four soldiers, who were hopeless malcontents, were marched to the

Edinburgh Castle.]

THE ILLEGAL CONVENTION.

barrier-gate, stripped of their uniforms, and expelled into the city.

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A troop of gentlemen of the Scots Life Guards, together with a few of the Greys, who had declined Thirty-three Highlanders joined him on the 11th to desert to William, and who had reached Scotof November, and these were soon followed by land under the gallant Viscount Dundee, on their forty-five of his own clan, who landed at Leith, arrival in the city supported the spirit of the king's under Francis Gordon, of Midstrath. Discontents party; but the Duke of Hamilton and other friends still continued, and were increased when a Catholic of the Revolution brought in several companies of soldier stabbed a Protestant comrade with his infantry, who were concealed in garrets and cellars, bayonet. or in the suburbs; and the 30th of May saw 6,000 On the 20th of December, the Scottish Privy Cameronians march in from the West. Their

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Council, finding that their army had revolted to the invader, sent a deputation to the duke, requiring him, as a Catholic, to surrender the castle; but he declined, adding, "I am bound only to obey the king."

So the winter passed away, and on the 14th of March, 1689, an illegally-constituted Convention of the Scottish Estates, which was attended by only thirty Whig leaders, did not hesitate to declare "that James VII. had forfeited all title to the throne," thereby making a vacancy, after which they offered it to the Prince of Orange. Immediately upon this there was another revolt in Gordon's garrison, and Lieutenant John Achmuty, who refused to obey his orders, was dismissed.

standards bore an open Bible, and the motto, "For Reformation according to the Word of God." These volunteers rejected all offers of pay or remuneration; and nobly saying, "We have come to serve our country," declined anything but the thanks of the Convention.

Another conspiracy forced the luckless Duke of Gordon to exact a new oath of fidelity from his soldiers, and they swore it solemnly and severally on the Bible, to the chaplain, Mr. Forrester, an officer who distinguished himself greatly during the subsequent siege; but the duke was compelled to eject many of the gunners.

A design which was formed by the friends of William to murder Lord Dundee and Sir George

Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, caused the issue of a proclamation for all strangers to quit the city; and the second refusal of the duke to surrender was the signal for all loyalists to retire. At the head of his forlorn band, consisting of sixty Cavalier troopers Guardsmen and Greys mingled-Dundee, the idol of his party, quitted Edinburgh by the Leith Wynd Port; and through a telescope the Duke of Gordon watched them with anxiety, as they wound past the venerable church of the Holy Trinity, among the cottages and gardens of Moultries Hill, and as they rode westward by the Long Gate, a solitary roadway bordered by fields and farmhouses.

On seeing a soldier waving a standard at the west postern of the castle, Dundee halted his troop, and galloping down the Kirkbrae, dismounted at the base of the steep castle rock, up which he climbed, in his jack-boots, buff coat, and head-piece, and for half an hour he held a conference with the duke. He is said to have advised the latter to leave the castle in charge of Colonel Winram, on whose skill and courage they could depend, and then to share his fortune in the Highlands; but the duke declined, adding that "a soldier could not with honour quit the post assigned him. But whither go you, Dundee ?"

To this the gallant Grahame replied, poetically and pensively, "Wherever the shade of Montrose may direct me."

After exhorting the duke to defend the castle to the last extremity, he departed, and Gordon continued to watch the glittering accoutrements of his troopers as they proceeded westward

"The trumpets were blown,

The kettledrums clashed, and the horsemen rode on; Till by Ravelston cliffs and on Clermistonlee Died away the wild war-notes of bonnie Dundee." The moment the latter was fairly gone, the Cameronian drums beat to arms, and the troops of the Duke of Hamilton, emerging from their places of concealment, mustered for immediate service. The Earls of Lothian and Tweeddale appeared before the castle gate in the name of the Estates, requiring the duke to leave it within fourand-twenty hours under the charge of the senior Protestant officer, and offering a year's pay to every soldier who would desert from him.

"My lords," replied the duke courteously, "it is inconsistent with my honour to give up this castle without the express orders of my royal master, James VII."

The castle was therefore summoned again, but with great formality, by sound of trumpet, and by heralds and pursuivants in their tabards, and the duke was proclaimed a traitor.

"Gentlemen," said he, laughingly, as he gave some gold to the pursuivants to drink the health of James, "I would advise you not to proclaim men traitors who wear the king's coat till they have turned it."

All persons were now forbidden, under the most severe penalties, to correspond with him or his garrison; and the Convention ordered Colonel the Earl of Leven to block up the castle with the Cameronians. To these were added 300 Highlanders, under the Marquis of Argyle. The former were the followers and adherents of Richard Cameron, a zealous preacher and martyr of the Church of Scotland, a native of Falkland, who was slain at the head of his men in a conflict with the Grey Dragoons, at Airsmoss, in July, 1680. Out of this body of men there were formed in one day, and in a few hours, two battalions which still exist-the 25th, or old Edinburgh Regiment, and the 26th, or Cameronians—their first service being the blockade of the castle; while a Scots brigade, consisting of three regiments, which had been long in the Dutch service, and had accompanied William to England, was on the march for Scotland under Lieutenant-General Hugh Mackay, of Scoury, to assist in the reduction of the fortress.

The duke harangued his slender garrison after the heralds had retired, and concluded thus:"Soldiers! you behold the dangers we are about to encounter; for my own part, I shall not be frightened from the duty I owe to God and my lawful prince. The brave and loyal will stay with me; the false or cowardly may depart, and shall receive their arrears of pay."

On this two gunners stepped from the ranks, and, requiring their discharges, were dismissed. Next day, a lieutenant, the master gunner, the surgeon, the sutler, two sergeants, two drummers, and seventy-four rank and file, demanded their discharges. Accordingly, they were stripped of their uniforms and expelled. Then the gates were shut, and the preparations for a desperate resistance made. Two loyal gentleman, Sir James Grant, of Dalvey, and Gordon, of Edintore, contrived to give a supply of provisions to the duke, who wrote to King James to the effect that unless he was relieved the castle could not possibly hold out beyond the month of June.

The strength and situation of the castle of Edinburgh are so well known as scarcely to require much description. Its steep and precipitous rock covers a space of eleven acres, and is separated from the old city by the esplanade, a level space, 510 feet in length, by 300 in breadth, and 274 feet in height. On this area stood the ancient

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spur; and its site has witnessed many a severe conflict, and many a revolting execution, by the axe or stake, for heresy, treason, and sorcery. The aspect of the castle from the eastward was almost the same in 1688 that it is at the present time; its chief defence being the great half-moon battery built in the reign of James VI.

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a vast quantity of woolpacks to make breastworks. Forming a junction with the Cameronian battalions, the Argyle Highlanders, and all the trained bands of the city, he commenced more effective operations for reducing the duke and the few. brave fellows who adhered to him.

As those who had been wounded by gunshot suffered greatly from the want of medical attendance, the duke secretly sent a soldier into the city, when he prevailed on a Dr. English to join the garrison; but when about to enter the postern his courage failed him, and sliding down the rocks he

In the "Journal of the Siege," the resources and strength of the garrison are given thus :-"Men: One governor, the duke; one lieut.-governor, Colonel Winram; one ensign, Winchester; four sergeants (one sick), sixty privates, and twenty gentleman volunteers. Brass cannon: One forty-two-withdrew. Soon after, however, the duke was pounder, one thirty-six ditto, four twenty-four ditto, joined by his own family physician. one eighteen ditto, two twelve ditto, one fourteen- His guns briskly cannonaded the western inch mortar, and seventeen bombs. Iron cannon: parallels on the 31st of March, and for several Several twelve, sixteen, and twenty-four-pounders, nights the operations of the working parties were and light field-pieces ;" but "no gunners, no sur-retarded by shot and shell. Gordon of Midstrath geon, no carpenter, no engineers, and-no money!" Sixty barrels of powder, each half empty.

The garrison had formerly consisted of three strong companies—the governor's, the lieutenant's, and ensign's-now these were reduced by defection to two small divisions of thirty files. Gordon of Midstrath commanded the first, and Ensign Winchester the second. The principal posts were the upper and lower guard-houses and the west postern, the only point where the castle rock is accessible. Every night a guard was mounted, consisting of one captain, two sergeants, two corporals, and forty musketeers; consequently the duties of the forlorn band, now isolated on that lofty rock, were most arduous.

The castle was fully invested on the 18th by the Earl of Leven, who, though he had acquired some experience in the service of the Elector of Brandenburg, did not acquit himself so well as his grandfather, old Marshal Leslie, did, when besieging the same fortress in the wars of Charles I. From the western gate of Edinburgh to St. Cuthbert's Church, a distance of nearly a mile, he dug a useless line of circumvallation, which was performed so ignorantly that, according to a Cavalier writer, had not the Duke of Gordon been merciful, a great slaughter might have ensued. The earl placed strong pickets at the Weigh House on the castle hill, and at each flank of the trenches.

On the night of the 19th the battlements were all aflame with bonfires and blazing tar-barrels, while all the guns were discharged thrice round in honour of King James's safe arrival in Ireland. Leven continued the blockade without success until the 25th, when General Mackay arrived with the three regiments of the Scots Brigade, each consisting of twelve companies, a train of cannon, and

made a sally, cut a passage through the trench guards, and returned in safety, with a quantity of straw, as wadding for the cannon. General Mackay now formed a battery of eighteen-pounders at an old ruined tower on the Highrigs; another of twenty-four-pounders he opposed to the royal lodging, in which James VI. was born, and the gun-ports of the half-moon. On the 3rd of April, the duke, discovering that the ancient tower of Coates, the seat of Sir John Byres, of that ilk, was filled with soldiers, he cannonaded it from the Mortar Battery, beat down the outer wall, and did considerable execution; and that night he was joined by the young Laird of Killyhuntly with a few volunteers.

On the following day, as the remains of the Lord President, Sir George Lockhart, who had been assassinated by Chiesly of Dalry, were to be committed to the grave in the Greyfriars churchyard, a total cessation of hostilities was granted by beat of drum. In the castle provisions now were becoming very scarce. The duke depended chiefly on a few loyal citizens, who at great personal risk brought some occasionally to the postern in the night; but the trench-guards soon shut up that solitary avenue.

Fresh troops, under Lieutenant-Generals Sir John Lanier and James Douglas, of Queensberry, now arrived, with a battering and howitzer train, under Captain Brown, to co-operate with Leven and Mackay. Among these new forces were the Royal Scots Dragoons (the Greys), Lord Colchester's Cuirassiers, now 5th Dragoon Guards, and the Princess Anne of Denmark's Dragoons, now 4th Hussars, and against such forces the resistance of the duke was hopeless.

The batteries were armed anew, and a third was

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