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52 closely invested, and when the latter was invested, and there were no hopes of safety, a lady of high rank asked and obtained permission of the besiegers to see a friend of hers in the Dubberton Castle, and on her return brought away the regalia with her concealed under her gown. When the castle was taken, the English were disappointed at not finding the regalia, and though several persons connected with this plot were persecuted and imprisoned, they kept the secret well, and the regalia was kept buried under the pulpit of a church. When Charles II. came to the throne they gave out the secret and were handsomely rewarded for the safety of the regalia. At the time of the Union (1707) they were put in a large chest and kept in a room in the castle and locked up. For a hundred and ten years they were never seen by any one, and were supposed to have been lost, or taken away to England. At last in 1818, several persons (Sir W. Scott among others) got a commission to see whether they were really lost. The room was searched, the chest was broken open, and they found the regalia to the immense joy of the people. The populace all round the hill who were awaiting the result of the search shouted out with joy. The Scotch are deservedly proud of these emblems of their unconquered independence, the regalia of a long line of kings, beginning with the victor of Bannockburn.

Thence we went to another room in the castle which was the audience-chamber of the Queen of Scots, when she removed from Holyrood to the Castle, and by its