BOTHWELLHAUGH. — DEATH OF THE REGENT MURRAY. 145 



the scene is still brought immediately before us in the mind's eye. Murray, who 

 knew how to avail himself of the important means which the battle of Langside 

 had placed at his disposal, showed great moderation in the exercise of his 

 authority as regent. To many who had been doomed to death after the 

 battle, and had their lands confiscated, his clemency was manifested by a 

 well-timed pardon. Of this number was Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, who, 

 with many others of his name and family, had been made prisoner. But 

 although his life was spared, a separate property on which his wife resided 

 had been given to one of the regent's favourites. The newly invested barbarian, 

 in his eagerness to take possession, expelled the unhappy wife from her chamber, 

 where she had not yet recovered from the perils of childbed. Driven from her 

 own threshold, half naked, and under the greatly aggravating circumstances of 

 a tempestuous night ; her delicate frame and critical state of health — the personal 

 insult to which she had been exposed — the shock inflicted upon her wounded 

 pride and female delicacy, and ^vith no prospect of relief or rescue, threw 

 her into such an agony of despair, that before morning she was a confirmed 

 maniac* 



Informed of this inhuman outrage— inflicted at a time when its imoffending 

 object had a double claim on the protection and sympathy of our common natiure 

 — and having been brought up in a school which inculcated revenge as a virtue 

 and a duty, Hamilton vowed destruction on the author, and took his measures 

 accordingly. Wherever the regent moved, he hovered in his wake— watching 

 the fatal moment when he might avenge his own wrongs and those of the faction 

 goading him on. At length, being at Stirhng on his way to the capital, the 

 regent had to pass through Linlithgow — a circumstance which Hamilton resolved 

 to take advantage of for the perpetration of his unhallowed purpose. Having 

 laid his plans with great secresy and precision, he continued to haunt the spot, 

 and waiting impatiently for his unconscious victim, took his station in a house, 

 from the gallery or outer apartment of which he could command a fuU 

 view of the procession. The wall behind he had hung with black cloth, 

 and the floor covered wth feather mattresses, so that neither sound nor shadow 



• With liair dishevelled to the breeze. But ruthless hearts were in her bower ; 



Beneath yon leaBess tree, _ Above, an angry sky; 



There oft belated pilgrim sees To soothe the anguish of that hour 



The ' rose of Woodhouselee !' No friendly voice was nigh ! 



And blighted on its mother's breast. The midnight winds around her rave, 



And bathed with many a tear, And freeze the falling tear — 



She strives to sing her babe to rest, She shrieked— she kissed her babe — then gave 



And dreams of succour near. Her bosom for its bier!— Jl/5. 



P P 



