Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/216

 196 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 58 King without more subterfuge, to avow openly that she intended to support him, and to threaten once more that if Maitland and Grange did not submit, she would send a force to compel them. Engineers came from Berwick to survey the Castle, and reported that it could be taken with no great diffi- culty ; but it was thought that the recognition and the menace would be sufficient, and that Maitland, when he found Elizabeth serious, would surrender. Being supplied with funds to pay soldiers, Morton was able to establish a close blockade. The Castle guns did little harm. The garrison was short of water. The men had been provided in part from a well at the foot of the cliff ; but Morton poisoned it, and they were re- duced to the two springs inside the fortifications, which yielded but a scanty supply. There were in all inside the Castle a hundred and ninety-two persons, of whom thirty- two were women and thirteen were boys. The Gordons, Hamiltons, Kerrs, Scots, Setons, were all away in their own counties, waiting for the turn of events. Grange, Maitland, Hume, Sir Robert Melville, and the Bishop of Dunkeld, held on at Edinburgh with as small a number of followers as were thought suffi- cient for the defence. Maitland was so ill that, ' when the cannon were fired, he was carried down into the vaults below St David's Tower, because he could not abide the shot.' J If the rest of Scotland could be brought to terms and the rest of Scotland was simply Advices out of Scotland, Febru'.n-y 10 : MSS. Scoflfuid.