58 . SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



it may be asked — is the lady, maid, or matron, who would not storm at the loss 

 of her jewels ? 



In 1548, while garrisoned by foreign troops under Sir James Willford, 

 Haddington was beleagured by a numerous Scotch army, assisted by a strong 

 reinforcement of French, under Desse. In this camp, a parHament being 

 suddenly convened for the occasion, consent was obtained for the young queen's 

 marriage with the Dauphin, and authority for conducting her education at the 

 French court. After numerous expedients, alternately employed, baffled, and 

 repeated on both hands, and the execution of many daring exploits on the part 

 of the French commander — in one of which the English governor, Willford, 

 was taken prisoner — the siege terminated by the earl of Rutland marching with 

 a powerful army upon Haddington in the night, and removing the garrison, 

 guns, and ammunition, to Berwick, after having demolished the ramparts, 

 within which the plague had already commenced its ravages. 



A few years later, at the close of the sixteenth century, the town was 

 again reduced to ashes — the effect, it is said, of negligence on the part of a 

 maid-servant. In memory of this a crier perambulates the streets every 

 night at eight o'clock, reminding the inhabitants of the catastrophe by sound of 

 bell, and a warning in rhyme : — 



" Slake your hearth-lights, maids and dames ! 

 Keep your lives, and fear the lavTs ! 

 Twice the fierce and midnight flames. 

 Have wrapt our ancient borough wa's ! 

 Twice the flood has stemmed hei street, 

 And twice the fire ! — but if again 

 That fiood and fire their waes repeat, 

 The third shall leave ye stick nor stane !" 



The principal inundation here alluded to, took place on Christmas-eve, 1358, 

 when villages, houses, and bridges — as well as many individuals, and much cattle, 

 were swept away. The suburb of Nungate was deluged, and greatly, if not 

 entirely, demolished. The same destiny seemed to await the Abbey of Had- 

 dington ; but a nun, says the chronicle, hastily seizing an image of the Virgin, 

 threatened to plunge it into the flood unless her hand interposed to stay the 

 invading torrent, and respect the sanctity of her own shrine and servants. The 

 nun wrestled successfully — the flood, at some mystic sign, retired — and, like 

 the lava-torrents from Vesuvius, so often stemmed at the sight of San-Gennaro's 

 statue, shrunk insensibly into its ancient bed! In October, 1775, the Tyne 

 again rose suddenly to the height of seventeen feet— the effect of a water-spout 

 in Lammermoor— and damaged or destroyed every thing within its course. 



