32 Craigiuillar and its Environs. 



having been charged with conspiracy against their 

 brother, James IIL, the Duke was apprehended and 

 lodged in the Castle of Edinburgh, but he managed to 

 escape to a sloop which waited for him in the Forth to 

 take him to France. The Earl of Mar, however, was 

 less fortunate, and was imprisoned in Craigmillar. 

 Unlike King James, Albany and Mar were active and 

 warlike, displaying much of the chivalrous spirit of 

 their ancestors, and thus they became endeared to the 

 people. Pitscottie, in his description of their different 

 characters, says of James that he was "a man that 

 loved solitariness, and desired never to hear of warre." 

 On the other hand. Mar, he says, was " ain faire lustie 

 man of ain great and weill proportioned stature, weill 

 faced, and comillie in his behaviour, who was nothing 

 but nobilitie." Whether it was really a fact that the 

 conspiracy against the King was contemplated, or 

 whether it was only an idle report got up to frighten 

 James, and make him suspicious and jealous of his 

 brother, is uncertain. Some writers affirm that Mar 

 was privately beheaded, while others assert that he 

 was asked to choose his own mode of death, which 



