from a wish to gratify the most lawless ambition. The rudeness of the age, therefore, which cannot be pleaded in the cases of Ravilliac and Damiens, may be held as an apology for the tortures which the Scottish regicides suffered; and though the best feelings of humanity, as regulated by philosophy, and enlightened by the precepts of a pure and rational religion, naturally prompt us to lessen, as much as possible, the sufferings of condemned criminals, it is right, to a certain extent, that a more marked expression of public abhorrence should be awarded to the regicide. For, if he be justly accounted infamous by his fellow men who is a traitor to his country, how much more infamous is he who dares to shed the blood of his sovereign, who is Pater Patriae, the father of his country? With respect to Graham, notwithstanding the tortures he endured, he was long remembered by the Scots with abhorrence in a popular rhyme of the country: "Sir Robert Graham, Who slew our King, Such is the account furnished by a contemporary writer of this melancholy history, of which it may be said, in the quaint versicle of an old poet "My hand and pen have tried to write, A wofull tale to tell : My pen it cannot halfe indite Alace! how it befell. This account differs very much from that gene VOL. I. E rally given by our historians. The original MS., in the antiquated and perplexing phraseology of the period, is printed in the Appendix to the first volume of Pinkerton's History of Scotland; and that writer has followed it in his History. The original MS., translated by one John Shirley from the original Latin in 1440, was found by Mr Pin`kerton in the possession of a Mr Jackson of Clement's Lane, Lombard Street, London. It had formerly belonged to Mr Thoresby of Leeds, the eminent antiquarian, and is noticed by Bishop Nicolson, in his Historical Libraries, chap. iii., as in his possession. It concludes in the following quaint manner. "And thus nowe here endethe this most pitevous cronicle, of th' oribill dethe of the Kyng of Scottes, translated oute of Latyne into oure moders Englishe tong, bi youre symple subjet John Shirley, in his laste age, after his symple understondyng, whiche he recommendethe to your supportacione and correccione, as that youre gentelnese vowchethe safe for his excuce, &c." John Shirley describes himself as youre humble servytoure John Shirley, att the full nobill, honorable and renouned cité of London, so as feblesse wold suffice, in his grete and last age, the oure lord a thousand foure hundrethe fourty." yere of THE DEATH OF JAMES III. OF SCOTLAND. CHAPTER I. As wha wad, in a stormy blast, SIR DAVID LINDSAY. THE circumstances which led to the untimely fate of James III., mark in a peculiar manner the age in which he lived. The aristocracy, fierce and powerful, utterly disregarded the authority of their sovereign, and viewed the reigning prince as a mere machine, on whose shoulders the government ostensibly rested, but who depended on them alone for co-operation and support. James, on the |