Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/57

 1581.] THE JESUIT INVASION. 41 things,' he said ; ' I supposed they would have given me a night's leisure to have advised myself with God.' The keeper intimated that it could not be : the scaf- fold was ready, and the officers could not stay. ' I am ready also, I thank God,' he said. He muttered a short prayer, rose and followed the guard down the stairs. At the door of the Tolbooth he encountered the Earl of Arran, who brought him back to his room, and desired him to write his confession and sign it. Having begun his journey he was impatient till it was over. He could not confess again, he said. The min- isters knew all. He was pressed no further. Arran asked for his forgiveness. ' It is no time to reckon quarrels,' he answered ; ' I forgive you and all others.' That there might be no misconception he repeated from before the block to the crowd the real character and extent of his crime, and then added in proud con- sciousness of his general rectitude, ' The King shall lose a good servant to-day ; as I have professed the Evangile now taught in Scotland, so I am content to die in it ; and albeit I have not walked therein as I ought, yet God will be merciful to me, and I bid all good Christians pray for me.' With these Words he prepared for the end. Many remarkable men have atti- tudinized on the scaffold, concealing agitation under a mask of coolness. Morton perfectly simple yielded to the awfulncss of the moment. One of the clergy, Mr Law- son, said a prayer. While he was speaking, ' the Earl lay on gruife on his face before the place of exe-