Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/284

 26 4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43- fear and fury, swore that the priests at Holyrood should be hanged, and ' idolatry ' be no more suffered. Mary Stuart being on a visit at Lundy in Fife, the Laird ' a grave antient man with a white head and a white beard ' led his seven sons before her, all tall and stalwart men. They knelt together at her feet. ' The house/ the laird said, ' was hers and all that was in it, and he and his boys would serve her truly till death ; ' ' but he prayed that while she remained no mass should be said there.' She asked why. He said it was ' worse than the mickle de'il.' 1 Remonstrance did not rest in words. A priest in Edinburgh, taking courage from the reports which were in the air, said mass at Easter at a private house. He was denounced, caught, hurried before the town magistrates, and having confessed, was fastened hand and foot to the market cross. There from two o'clock in the afternoon till six he stood exposed, while 'ten thousand eggs ' were broken upon his face and body ; and the hungry mob howled round his feet and threatened to dash his brains out with their clubs as soon as he was taken down. The Provost, who had gone con- tentedly home to supper, was obliged to return with the city guard to bring him off in safety ; and the miserable wretch pasted with slime and filth was carried senseless tumult, and the Queen offended sore with the Duke. This tale is told by the Earl of Athol. Whatsoever is most secret among you is sooner at this Queen's ears than some would think it. I would your doing better, or many of your tattling tongues shorter.' Randolph to Throgmorton, March 31 : Scotch MSS. Rolls Home. 1 Randolph to Cecil, March 27: MS. Ibid.