SEPTEMBER 207 



not confirmed by the king, who appointed Stewart com- 

 mendator. Cassilis, whom men called the King of 

 Carrick, was not of the temper to brook this sort of thing. 

 ' He was/ runs the Historie, 



' ane particuler manne, and ane werry greidy marine, and cairitt 

 nocht how he gatt land, sa that he culd cum be the samein, 

 and thinking himself gritter than ony king in these quarteris, 

 determined to have the whole benifice.' 



So, having first tried soft means to obtain from Stewart 

 the surrender of the Abbey lands, and failed, he had 

 recourse to cruelty of a blood-curdling sort. 



To read the story aright, with all its horrible reality, 

 one should follow the unhappy commendator's own words, 

 as set forth in his supplication to the Privy Council ; but 

 it is lengthy, and the gist of it is that the earl carried 

 his victim to the 'black vault' in Dunure, one of his 

 many castles, and there caused the cook, the pantryman, 

 and one Sir Thomas Tode. who, it is shrewdly suspected, 

 was none other than his domestic chaplain, to strip 

 Stewart, tie him to a spit, and deliberately roast him 

 into compliance before a huge fire. Richard Bannatyne, 

 in his Memoriales, gives a vivid description of the 

 scene : 



' And that the rost suld not burne, but that it might rost in 

 soppe, they spared not flambing with oyle (Lord luik thou to 

 sic crueltie !).... In that torment they held the poore man, 

 whill that oftymes he cryed for Godis saik to dispatche him ; 

 for he had alsmeikle gold in his awin purse as wald bye poulder 

 (gunpowder) aneugh to schorten his paine.' 



At last, in sheer agony, Stewart consented to sign the 



