Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/213

 1570.] THE RISING OF THE NORTH. ty*, the garden gate in the lane, a second was waiting a mile distant, and any one who rode down the street in the direction of Edinburgh would have to pass within three yards of the assassin's hiding-place. The secret had not been kept with entire fidelity. Some one, it was not known who, came to Murray's bedside before he rose, told him that Bothwellhaugh was lying in wait for him, and named the house where he would be found. 1 But Murray was the perpetual object of con- spiracies. He received similar warnings probably on half the days on which he went abroad. He had made up his mind to danger as part of his position, and he had ceased to heed it. He had no leisure to think about himself, and whether he lived or died was not of vital moment to him. He paid just sufficient attention to the warning to propose to leave the town by the opposite gate ; but when he came out and mounted his horse, he found his guard drawn up and the street not easily passable in that direction, and he thought too little about the matter to disturb them. It was said that he would have started at a gallop. But the people were all out to look at him. To have ridden fast through the crowd would have been dangerous, and so at a foot's pace he passed in front of Bothwell- haugh. To miss him so was impossible. The shot was fired he put his hand to his side and said that he was wounded ; but he was able to alight, and leaning on Lord Sempell he returned to the house 1 Huusdon to Cecil, January 26 : MSS. Harder. Compare CALDEK- WOOD and BUCHANAN.