[Robert Mylne's Manuscript.]

Mitchell, that designed to Murder Dr. Sharp,
Arch Bishop of St. Andrews, his Ghost.
1678.

And are you, mighty men, come out indeed,

To kill a flie, or break a bruised reed;

The chiefest Churchmen, Statesmen, Laweers too,
Contrived to act, in law which cannot doe.

It seems your French trade, Sir,' is at a stance,

Pray, do not cheat the honest King of France;

Or does the King misdout Achitophel? 2

When he's come doun, you'll see to hang himsell.

8

He laitly tript, and now must make an mends. [=amends

He hath drawn blood, and slain a louse! God sain's!

Ane sacrifice to please my Lord of Loudon; 3

Indeed a laimer sure could not be found one,

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But now it's said by many, and made good,

My Ladye's given to flesh, my Lord to blood.
In the old cause your father led the van,"

But you'll break up the rear of Lady Ann,

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1 Robert Mylne's Original Note. "Duke Lauderdale." [See our pp. 90 to 93. "A satyr on John, Duke of Lauderdale: By the Earl of Aboyne," begins,

The Scepter and Crown, with gospell and gown,

Are now turn'd all to confusion,

The Hector of State is the rascall we hate,

And his Plots we will treat in derision."]

'Dryden's attribution of this cognomen to Shaftesbury was not until November, 1681. It is here applied to another, apparently to Lauderdale.

4

3 Mylne's Note. ""Rt. of Loudon." [Earl of Loudon ? James was second.] Mylne's Note. "Dutchess Lauderdale." ["Bonnie Besse." See our previous page 90, and a Scottish "Litany," beginning, "From a King without money, and a Court full of w's." With her husband, John Maitland, she is alluded to in the second verse," From this huffing Hector and his Queen of Love," etc.; the third is devoted wholly to her, and Sharp comes into the fourth.

From old Noll's лou to govern our land

From her bastards innumerable as the sea-sand,
From her pyking our pockets by way of a band,
Libera nos, Domine.

From ane Archbishop graft on ane Puritan stock,
From the Declaration built on ane Covenant dock,
From opposite Oaths that would cause a man choak,
Libera nos, Domine.]

We give a portrait sketch of the Duchess on a later page.

Mylne's Note. "Chancellor Rothes." [Hated by the Covenanters after he left them. His wife inclined towards them, and he often gave her warning, "The Kite is abroad, take care of your chicks," by which she saved the preachers. But this note seems to be misplaced, for probably the text refers grammatically to Lauderdale's father, John Maitland. second Lord Thirlestane.] Mylne's Note. "Lady Anne Lister, sister to the Duke, whom he led through the countrie in men's clothes."

Dr. George Hickes's pamphlet on Mitchell is entitled "Ravillac Redivivus, being a Narrative of the late Tryal of Mr. James Michel, a Conventicle-preacher, who was executed the 18th of January last, [1673,] for an attempt which he made on the sacred person of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. 1678." This work had the honour of being reprinted in vol. viii. pp. 510-550 of Lord Somers's Tracts, 1812, edited by Walter Scott. It is marked with the prejudices of the partizan, no doubt; but, after making fair allowances for these, we can perceive clearly the unwholesome and bitter character of the

1 Mylne's Note. " Dr. Sharp, and his brother Sir William." James's brother, Sir William, was at this time "the King's cash-keeper," and unable to pay more than a small part of the pay to Claverhouse for his troops.

2 This refers to the condemnation of James Mitchell, after having obtained an unwritten promise of safeguard.

3 Mylne's Note. "Sir George Mackenzie, the King's Advocate, and honour of his Nation." [He deserves grateful remembrance for having founded the Advocates Library, Edinburgh. He also wrote well. Gilbert Burnet, with his usual

injustice, calls him "a slight and superficial man."]

4 Mylne's Note, "By Mars is meant Dundie, who was thought to be too familiar with [Mackenzie] his Ladie." [An utterly gratuitous calumny. Far on in our present volume we return to the gallant Claverhouse, John Graham, afterwards Viscount Dundee.]

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Through" is here Scotticè for thoroughly.

6 Old Scottish for Atheists. Robert Mylne's Note explains it: "Dr. Irvine and Samuel Cheislie, Appothecar."

7 Lauderdale's Chaplain. Dr. George Hickes (afterwards Dean of Worcester), published an account of the Mitchell case, in Ravillac Redivivus, 1678. The execution of this Mitchell (to whom had been made a promise that his life was to be spared, if he would confess and name his accomplices,) was referred to among the taunts addressed to Sharp, at the butchery on Magus-Muir. James Mitchell was executed on January 18th, 1678: ten years after his attempt at murder.

James Mitchell and Major Weir.

149

faction opposed to Episcopacy in Scotland. Those who dreaded the return of Popery were themselves the slaves of worse superstition than the priests they contemned. James Mitchell's companion in fanatical spiritual-exercises, and wrestlings of prayer, had been the notorious Major Weir, who was ultimately burnt as a wizard, after making confession of having committed incredible crimes. These were probably the conceits of the same morbid madness which had caused him to believe himself to be the possessor of supernatural power. Nevertheless, the hypocritical assumption of superior sanctity, and the tyrannical control exerted as an Ultra-Protestant Grand Inquisitor by this "shining light" of Presbyterian infallibility, afford an unpleasant example of the men, Covenanters and other schismatics, whom Lauderdale was expected to keep in order, and who resisted the intrusion of English bishops. While suspected of indulging in the Black-art, Major Weir still ruled supreme as a severe religionist, and in daily walks from his house at the WestBow of Edinburgh' was surrounded by a bevy of feminine worshippers. In a scarce poem entitled "The Presbyterian Pope" the shrieking sisterhood of the earlier time is thus described :

Wi' bibles and psalm-books they cant,

As ilka ane of them were sanct,

With holy keckle, pegh, and pant,

And greet and grain, [i.e. weeping and groaning]

That every jolly Bow-head plant

Gaes now to them:

Repeating lectures, sermons, graces,
Telling soul-exercise and cases,
And making sic Wast-country faces,
That I sair fear

That we may a' resign our places
If they thrang here.

The murder of Archbishop Sharp, unsuccessfully attempted by James Mitchell, was accomplished with additional barbarity by the men who claimed religious affinity with the abortive assassin.

As

Sir Walter Scott wrote, "The great stain will always remain that Sharp deserted and probably betrayed a cause which his brethren entrusted to him, and abused to his own purposes a mission which he ought not to have undertaken, but with the determination of maintaining its principal object." This is probably the absolute truth, so far as at this later day it can be traced.2

1 The residence of Major Weir continued to bear an evil reputation until the time of its destruction, fifty-one years ago. A representation of it forms the frontispiece of "The Family Library" volume of Demonology and Witchcraft, 1830.

It is not necessary here to enter fully into extenuation of James Sharp's culpability. Principal Tulloch wrote in mitigation of censure (see the North British Review, No. 92, June, 1867). Everything that tells against the Archbishop is given by John Hill Burton in his History of Scotland, vol. vii., but his prejudices against the Churchmen are sufficient to warp his judgement.

[Luttrell Collection, III. 119.]

The Manner of the Barbarous Murther of

James,

Late Lord Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews, Primate and Metropolitan of all Scotland, And one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council of that Kingdom; May 3, 1679.

W

Hen Rome, by Godfrey's Death, had proudly shown
The greatest Horror could by Man be done;

Hell stood amaz'd a while, and blusht to see

It self out done by Romish cruelty:

At length, Grim Lucifer the Silence broke,
And to his Imps in furious tone he spoke :
See yonder reeking Murder! Come let's sit
In strong debate, and strive to rival it;
Or else, as Novices, to Rome we'll go,
And send the Pope to Mount our Throne below.
In hot dispute, the black Cabal had spent

A little Time, when with a full Consent
It was resolv'd: Ten Furies, who exprest
A greater Love to Blood than all the rest,
Should with as many Scottish Ruffians joyn
To act on Pious SHARP this damn'd Design;
For who, that knows that Murder, can (indeed)
Think it by any here on Earth decreed?
When every Horrid Circumstance does tell
It could be Plotted no where but in Hell:
Though some sad Mortals do delight in Blood,
They could not be thus Wicked, if they wou'd.
For what Infernal could enhance the Guilt,
More than in this, A Prelate's Blood was Spilt!
Whose sacred function was enough to quell
The thoughts of Vengeance in an Infidell.
But yet nor this, nor's Silver colour'd Hairs,
His Learning, Piety, his Daughter's Pray'rs,

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[In White-letter, with a large copper-plate engraving, 9 x 6 inches (which illustration the Editor hopes to give as a Frontispiece for the Second Division of Bagford Ballads). J. S. perhaps =J. Smith and B. H. Benjamin Harris. Date, soon after May 3rd, 1679.j

=

The sketch here given represents the murder, as it is sculptured on the monument of Dr. Sharp at St. Andrews.

The Town Records, of 6th September, 1725, tell of the parish church "having been broken into, and the Bishop's tomb [partially] destroyed, Council agree to advertise for the discovery of the perpetrators." (C. J. Lyon's History of St. Andrews, 1843, ii. 96.) We add a portrait sketch of Sharp, after Sir Peter Lely.