Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/100

123 his disposition, and made them wish for the subversion of his power. Seraple had married Mary Livingston, one of queen Mary's maids of honour, and had received along with her, in a present from his royal mistress, the lands of Beltrees, which Morton now proposed to reassume as crown lands, which, it was alleged, were unalicnable. Semple, on hearing of this design, was reported to have exclaimed, that if he lost his lands he should lose his head also; on which Morton had him apprehended and put to the torture, under which, as most men will do, he confessed whatever they thought fit to charge him with, and was condemned to be executed, but was pardoned upon the scaffold. His uncle Adam Whitford was also tortured respecting the same plot; but though they mangled his body most cruelly, he utterly denied that he knew of any such thing. The firm denial of the uncle gained of course entire credit, while the confession of the nephew was ridiculed as the effect of weakness and fear. Irritated with the reproaches which were now pretty liberally heaped upon him, Morion conceived the idea of heightening his reputation by demitting, or offering to demit his office into the hands of the king, who was now in his twelfth year. He accordingly, on the 12th day of September, 1577, proposed his resignation to his majesty, who, by the advice of Athole and Argyle, accepted it: and it was shortly after declared to the people of Edinburgh by the Lyon King 1 at Arms, assisted by twelve heralds, and accompanied by a round from the castle guns. Morton, taken at his word, seems to have retired to Lochleven in a kind of pet, but speedily contrived to regain that power by force which he had apparently laid down of his free will. Having possessed himself of the castle and garrison of Stirling, he dexterously contrived to engross the same or at least equal power to what he possessed as regent; nor had he learned to temper it with any more of moderation. He brought the parliament that had been summoned to meet at Edinburgh, to Stirling ; and he carried every thing in it his own way. He also narrowly escaped kindling another civil war; yet he still meditated the ruin of the Hamiltons, and the enriching of himself and his faction by their estates. The earl of Arran had been for a number of years insane, and confined in the castle of Draffan. But his brother, lord John Hamilton, acted as the administrator of his estates, and Claud was commendator of Paisley; both the brothers had been excepted from the amnesty granted at Perth, as being concerned in the murder of the king and the regent Murray, and Morton had now formed a scheme to involve them in a criminal sentence on that account, and to seize upon their estates. Informed of the plot, the brothers got happily out of the way, but their castles were seized; and because that of Hamilton had not been given up at the first summons, the garrison were marched to Stirling as felons, and the commander hanged for his fidelity. Still, however, Arran, being insane, was guiltless, but he was made answerable for his servants, and because they had not yielded to the summons of the king, he was convicted of treason and his estates forfeited. In the same spirit of justice and humanity, Morton apprehended a schoolmaster of the name of Turnbull, and a notary of the name of Scott, who had written, in conjunction, a satire upon some parts of his character and conduct, brought them to Stirling, where they were convicted of slandering "ane of the king's councillors, and hanged for their pains." The violent dealing of the wicked almost invariably returns upon their own heads, and so in a short time did that of Morton; for while he was still meditating mischief, he was ir.ost unexpectedly accused by the king's new favourite, captain Stewart, of being an accomplice in the murder of the king's father. He was instantly committed to the castle of Edinburgh, thence carried to Dumbarton, and thence back to Edinburgh, where he was brought to trial on the 1st of June, 1581. Previously to his removal from