Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/548

 534 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 56. country. Half a dozen of them were sent forward to Queen's Ferry to keep the passage, and on the evening of the 3rd of September, the two border leaders, with Huntly, Lord Claud Hamilton, and 120 troopers, rode quietly out of the gate. They took the Jedworth road to prevent suspicion. Dusk fell as they cleared the suburbs, and they swept round to the right, galloped rapidly through the darkness, and by three in the morning were within a mile of Stirling. Here they dismounted and left their horses, l lest the clattering of hoofs upon the paved road' should be heard by the guard. Stealing silently on, they crept, ' by a secret passage/ through the wall, and made their way undis- covered to the market- cross at the head of the town. It was now between four and five in the morning, and day was breaking. The King was in the castle beyond their reach, but the noblemen were lodged in the houses round the market-place. They had exact in- formation of the place where each of them would be found, and Lennox, Argyle, Glencairn, Sutherland, Cassilis, and Eglinton were taken one by one out of their beds without a blow being struck. They were less successful with Morton, who, hearing the disturbance, had time to barricade his door, and with a party of his servants held out desperately till the house was set on fire. It was one of those high, narrow buildings so common in Scotch towns. As the flames spread up- wards the poor women and children in the upper stories leapt from the windows and were killed upon the pave- ment. At length, when the roof began to fall in,