History of the Fife Pitcairns

LORD ROBERT PITCAIRN. 95
Kinross, who presented them to Lord Morton, and they
are still preserved at Dalmahoy near Edinburgh. The
castle itself is now a ruin : —
" Naked stand the melancholy walls,
Lash'd by the wintry tempests, cold and bleak,
That whistle mournful through the empty halls,
And piecemeal crumble down the tow'rs to dust."
The Queen's beauty and the gentleness of her manners
were fresh in the memory of all, and her errors were almost
obliterated by the severity of the punishment that followed,
though even her own agent in England had written to her
before her marriage that "if she married that man, she
would lose the favour of God, her own reputation, and the
hearts of all England, Ireland, and Scotland." Notwith-
standing this, her beauty, her grace of manner, her gener-
osity of temper and warmth of affection, her sensibility
and gaiety, her womanly tears and manlike courage, the
flashes of poetry that broke from her at every intense
moment of her life, flung a spell over friend or foe which
only deepened with the lapse of years. Even to Knollys,
the sternest Puritan of his day, she seemed in her captivity
to be " a notable woman." When the Queen escaped from
Lochleven Castle, multitudes rushed to arms, but owing
to the Regent Murray's promptitude (who had returned from
exile during her captivity), and the rashness of her own
army, she was defeated at the battle of Langside, on the
13th of May, and fled to Carlisle, after having ridden ninety
miles, and crossed the Solway in a small boat.
Bothwell was then tried for the murder of Darnley ;
and the Tolbooth of Edinburgh was the place appointed
for the trial, before the Earl of Argyll, hereditary Lord High
Justice, and four assessors — Robert Pitcairn, Commendator
of Dunfermline ; the Lord Lindsay ; Mr James MacGill, and
Mr Henry Balnaves.
The Regent Murray then advanced charges of murder
and adultery against Mary, which she refused either to
answer, or to abdicate in favour of her son.
After Queen Mary's surrender at Carberry Hill, 15th