Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/62

 the kingdom. The castle of Kildrummie being threatened by the English forces in the north, Elizabeth, Bruce's queen, and Marjory his daughter, with the other ladies who had there taken refuge, to escape the hardships and dangers of a siege, fled to the sanctuary of St Duthac at Tain in Ross-shire. The earl of Ross violated the sanctuary, and making them prisoners, sent them into England. Certain knights and squires by whom they had been escorted, being taken at the same time, were put to death. The queen and her daughter, though doomed to experience a long captivity, appear to have been invariably treated with becoming respect. Isabella, countess of Buchan, who had signalized her patriotism on the occasion of Robert's coronation, had a fate somewhat different. Feeling repugnant to the infliction of a capital punishment, the English king had recourse to an ingenious expedient by which to satisfy his royal vengeance upon this unfortunate lady. By a particular ordinance she was ordered to be confined in a cage to be constructed in one of the towers of Berwick castle; the cage bearing in shape the resemblance of a crown; and the countess was actually kept in this miserable durance, with little relaxation of its severity, for the remainder of her life. Mary, one of Bruce's sisters, was committed to a similar custody in one of the towers of Roxburgh castle; and Christina, another sister, was confined in a convent.

Lamberton, bishop of St Andrews, and Wisheart bishop of Glasgow, and the abbot of Scone, who had openly assisted and favoured Robert's cause, owed their lives solely to the inviolability of clerical character in those days. Lamberton and the abbot of Scone were committed to close custody in England. Wisheart having been seized in armour, was, in that uncanonical garb, carried a prisoner to the castle of Nottingham, where he is said to have been confined in irons. Edward earnestly solicited the pope to have these rebellious ecclesiastics deposed—a request with which his holiness does not seem to have complied.

The castle of Kildrummie was besieged by the earls of Lancaster and Hereford. Being a place of considerable strength, it might have defied the English army for a length of time; had not the treachery of one of the garrison, who set fire to the magazine of grain and provisions, constrained it to surrender at discretion. Nigel Bruce, by whom the castle had been defended, was carried prisoner to Berwick; where, being tried by a special commission, he was condemned, hanged, and afterwards beheaded. This miserable fate of the king's brother, excited a deep and universal detestation among the Scots towards the unrelenting cruelty of Edward. Christopher Seton, the brother-in-law of Bruce, and Alexander Seton, suffered under a similar sentence, the one at Dumfries, and the other at Newcastle. The earl of Athole, in attempting to make his escape by sea, was discovered and conducted to London; where he underwent the complicated punishment then commonly inflicted on traitors, being hanged till only half dead, beheaded, disemboweled, "and the trunk of his body burnt to ashes before his own face." He was not drawn, that point of punishment being remitted. Edward, we are told, although then grievously sick, endured the pains of his disease with greater patience, after hearing of the capture of the earl of Athole. Simon Frazer of Olivar Castle, the friend and companion in arms of Wallace, being also taken at this time, suffered capitally at London; his head being placed on the point of a lance, was set near to that of his old friend and leader. Along with this brave man, was likewise executed Herbert de Norham. Among so many persons of note, others of inferior distinction did not escape; and Edward might, indeed, be said by his tyranny, to have even now effected that critical though unperceived change in popular feeling, which, only requiring commencement of action and a proper direction, would be, in its progressive energy, equal to the destruction of all his past schemes, and of all his future projects and