Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 6.djvu/93

Rh lated amount to Lithgow. He had, however, some difficulty in rescuing his legacy from the grasp of the Venetian consul; but by sacrificing a part he obtained possession of the remainder, which amounted to nine hundred and forty-two zechins of gold, besides rings and tablets.

Thanking God for his good fortune, he now proceeded, quite at his ease as to money matters, to inspect every thing that was curious in the city. From Cairo he proceeded to Alexandria, where he embarked for Malta. From thence he sailed for Sicily, walked afterwards to Paris, and finally came over to England, where he presented to king James, to queen Anne, and to prince Charles, "certain rare gifts and notable relicks brought from Jordan and Jerusalem."

After remaining in London for about a year, Lithgow's propensity to roving again became too strong to be resisted, and he set out upon a second expedition. He now traversed the Netherlands and Switzerland, and from thence proceeded to Calabria. Here another windfall came in his way, but it was one of a much more questionable nature in point of morality than that which met him at Cairo. Between Saramutza and Castello Franco, he found the dead bodies of two young barons lying in a field, who had just killed each other in a duel. Seeing that they were richly clad, Lithgow, "to speak the truth," as he himself says, searched their pockets, and found two silken purses well filled with Spanish pistoles. These, together with certain rings which they wore on their fingers, he carried off, and appropriated to his own use; and he thus moralizes on the fact. "Well, in the mutability of time there is ay some fortune falleth by accident, whether lawful or not, I will not question. It was now mine that was last theirs; and to save the thing that was not lost, I travelled that day thirty miles further to Terra Nova."

Lithgow now visited Africa, traversing Barbary, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Then, crossing over to Italy, he perambulated Hungary, Germany, and Poland, and finally reached Dantzic, where he embarked for England, and once more arrived in safety in London. He was now an object of curiosity and interest, and, while he remained in England, was frequently admitted to familiar audiences of his majesty, and was at all times a welcome guest at the tables of the first nobility and gentlemen in the kingdom, where he repaid their civilities by relating the story of his adventures.

Lithgow's spirit of adventure and singular restlessness of disposition, however, were still unsubdued; and neither all that he had seen, nor all that he had suffered, could induce him to settle at home. In 1619, he again set out on another roving expedition, but on this occasion he was furnished with letters of recommendation from king James, addressed to "all kings, princes, and dukes." Provided with these documents he proceeded to Ireland. From thence he sailed for France, travelled through Portugal and Spain, and finally arrived at Malaga. Here he was apprehended as a spy, and accused of giving intelligence to some English ships which were then on the Spanish coast, respecting the return of the Plate fleet.

All poor Lithgow's proofs and asseverations of innocence availed him nothing. He was subjected to the most dreadful tortures. His limbs were mangled and crushed, and his body torn and lacerated with tightened cords and other engines of torture. His innocence as a spy was ultimately established to the satisfaction even of his persecutors; but he was then handed over to the Inquisition, which inflicted upon him a fresh series of tortures not less horrible than the first.

Maimed and mutilated, Lithgow was at length liberated by the interference of the English consul and of several English residenters in Malaga, from whom