Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/433

 1571.] THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 419 the Prince secured to his brother's heirs. His last and foulest crime had been the murder of Murray, which was perpetrated by his kinsman, and traced in its contrivance to himself, his nephews, and Mary Stuart's household. There was but one gaoler in Scotland whose bolts neither bribe nor intrigue could undo ; and to that dark keeping Lennox hastened to consign him. He begged hard for a brief respite, if only that he might have some form of trial ; but the Regent knew that if he waited till a post could reach London and return from it, his hands would be tied by the Queen of England. The notoriety of his guilt was held to be sufficient proof against him, and an Act of a so-called Parliament an ade- quate sentence. He was sent the way of his predecessor by the wild justice of revenge. Beton had been stabbed in his own room, dangled out of a window of his castle, and salted in the dungeon of the Sea Tower. Hamilton was hanged at Stirling five days after his capture; some not unlettered hand writing upon the gibbet Cresce diu, felix arbor, semperque vireto : Oh utinam semper talia poma feras. 1 .Elizabeth forgave easily an execution which her weakness would have allowed her to prevent. She congratulated Lennox on his success, and she recom- mended him to keep Dumbarton as surely as it had been bravely won. 2 Long may'st thou grow and thrive, thou bounteous tree, To bear for aye such fruits as this we see. 2 Elizabeth to Lennox, April 22 : MSS. Scotland.