are the only individuals whose names have been preserved; but the influence of the leaders had raised a body of three hundred Highlanders, without whose assistance it would have been difficult to have effected their designs.

Whilst Graham thus matured his sanguinary purpose in the Highlands, the Earl of Athole and his grandson, Stewart, who was chamberlain to the king, and a great favourite with James, continued at court, eagerly watching the most favourable moment to carry it into execution. Christmas ap

proached, and the monarch determined to keep the festival at Perth-a resolution which the conspirators heard with satisfaction, as it facilitated their designs, by bringing their victim to the confines of the Highlands. They accordingly resolved that the murder should be perpetrated at this sacred season; and, having completed their preparations, awaited the arrival of the king, who soon after set out on his progress to the North. As he was about to pass the Forth, surrounded by his nobles, a Highland spae-wife, or prophetess, suddenly started from the crowd, and, addressing the monarch, implored him to desist from his journey, adding, "that if he crossed that water, he would never return alive." James was struck by the boldness and solemnity in the manner of the ancient sybil, and, reining up his horse for a moment, commanded a knight who rode beside him to inquire into her meaning. But, whether from carelessness or treachery, the commission was hurriedly executed; the courtier pronounced her either mad or intoxicated, and the king, giving

orders to proceed, crossed the fatal river, and rode on to Perth. On his arrival there he took up his residence in the monastery of the Dominicans, which was situated at some little distance from the town, but, from its ample dimensions, was fitted to contain the whole royal retinue. The court is said to have been unusually splendid: the days were spent in hunting, in tournaments, and martial games; the masque, the dance, the harp, and the song, occupied the night: and Athole and Stewart, communicating with Graham, had matured their plans, and fixed the hour for the murder, whilst their unconscious victim believed that every discontent had been forgotten, and gave himself up to unrestrained enjoyment. It was on the night between the 20th and 21st of February that they resolved to consummate their atrocious purpose. On that evening the king had been unusually gay, and the revels were kept up to a late hour. James even jested about a prophecy which had foretold that a king should be slain that year; and, being engaged in a game of chess with a young knight whom, from his singular beauty, he was accustomed to call the King of Love, warned him, playfully, to look well to himself, as they two were the only kings in the land.

During these pastimes, Stewart, whose office of chamberlain facilitated his treachery, by giving him immediate access to the royal apartments, had removed the bolts and destroyed the locks of the king's bed-chamber, and also of the outer apartment beyond it, which communicated with the passage. He had likewise placed wooden boards

across the moat which surrounded the monastery, over which the conspirators might pass without alarming the warder; and he anxiously awaited the moment when the king should retire to rest. At this moment, when James was still engaged at chess, Christopher Chambers, one of the conspirators, seized with a sudden fit of remorse, approached the monarch, intending to warn him of his danger; but, unable to press through the crowd which filled the presence-chamber, he was compelled to desist. It was now past midnight, and the monarch expressed his wish that the revels should break up a resolution which Athole heard with secret satisfaction, for he knew that Graham was now near, and only waited for the signal that the palace was at rest. But at this moment, when James had called for the parting cup, and the company were dispersing, a last effort was made to save him. The faithful Highland sybil, who interrupted his progress at the Forth, had followed the court to Perth, and, in an agony of grief and emotion, presented herself once more at the door of the presence-chamber, loudly demanding to see the king. James was informed of her wishes; and on the decision of the moment his fate seemed to hang. Had he admitted her, it was not yet too late to have defeated the purposes of his enemies; but, after hesitating for a moment, he bade her return and tell her errand in the morning; and she was forced to leave the monastery, observing, mournfully, that they would never meet again.

The king by this time had undressed himself, Athole and Stewart, the chamberlain, who were the last to leave the apartment, had retired,

a

and James stood in his night gown, gaily talking with the queen and her ladies of the bed-chamber, when the noise of a clang of weapons, and sudden glare of torches in the outer court, threw them into alarm. It was then, for the first time, that a suspicion of treason, and a dread that it might be the traitor Graham, darted into his mind; and, whilst the queen and her women flew to secure the door of the apartment, James anxiously examined the windows, which, to his dismay, he found were secured by iron bolts of such strength as to make escape impossible. It was discovered at the same moment, that the locks of the door were removed; and, convinced beyond a doubt, that his destruction was intended, the king, as a last resource, seized the tongs, which stood in the fire-place, and, forcibly wrenching up one of the boards of the floor, let himself down into a small vault situated beneath the bed-chamber, dropping the plank again, which fitted into its original place, and thus completely concealed him. During this, a feeble attempt to barricade the door was made by the queen; and one of the ladies, a daughter of the house of Douglas, with heroic resolution thurst her arm into the iron staple from which the bolt had been removed. But the fragile impediment was soon snapped by the brutal violence opposed to it, and the next moment the conspirators, having slain one of the royal pages whom they met in the passage, burst into the apartment, brandishing their naked weapons, and calling loudly for the king. They had even the brutality to wound the princess, who, paralyzed with horror, stood rooted to the floor, clad only

in her kirtle, with her hair loosely streaming over her shoulders.* A son of Graham, however, upbraiding them with their cowardice, and perceiving that the king had escaped, commanded them to leave the women and search the chamber. So effectually, however, had James concealed himself, that their labour was vain; and, suspecting that the victim whom they sought was concealed elsewhere, they extended their scrutiny to the outer chambers, and afterwards dispersed themselves over the remoter parts of the monastery.

There appeared, therefore, a probability that James would still escape; and, in the agony of the moment, he joyfully recollected that the vault where he was now hid had a communication with the outer court by means of a drain large enough to admit his body: but, on examining it, the aperture had been built up, because the tennis balls had frequently been lost in it; and this last hope was cut off.

The alarm, however, had now spread from the monastery to the town; the nobles who were quartered there, having risen in arms, were hastening to the spot; and, although Graham had secured the outer court by his Highlanders, they could not long have withstood the numbers which would have mustered against them. The concealment where the king lay had as yet completely eluded the utmost search of the conspirators; and, as rescue was near, it seemed likely that, had he remained quiet for a very short interval, he must have escaped. But he was ruined by his impatience. Hearing no stir, and imagining that his *Contemporary account published by Pinkerton, Hist. vol. i. p. 468.