The Sun.
London, England, 1830-06-23 00:00:00

EXECUTION OF THE REGENT MORTON.

It is remarked by historians that Morton,
with the credulity of that age, had an anxious
recollection of an ancient prophecy, which de-
clared " that the bloody heart should fall by the
mouth of Arran." This the Regent interpreted
to mean the downfall of the Douglases, designed
as was usual in such vaticinations by their well-
known cognizance, and that by means of an
Earl of Arran. This, it is said, was the reason

for pressing the unfortunate family of Hamilton,
who were the legitimate proprietors of that title,
almost to their total destruction. When, there-
fore, he heard that the Earldom of Arran was
conferred upon his accuser Stewart, he replied,
with a surprised and desponding expression," Is
it even so ? then I know what I must expect.".
When Morton was brought to his trial at
Edinburgh, large bodies of men were drawn up
in different parts of the city to overawe the
friends of the accused. The records of the trial
are lost, but there is evidence that the assize
consisted in many instances of the Earl's per-
sonal enemies; and that, although he challenged
them on that score, his remonstrances were not
attended to. His servants were also put to the
torture in no common manner; for Arran
thought it necessary, after the Earl's execution,
to sue out an immunity for the violence to
which they had been subjected.
When Morton heard the indictment read he
did not show surprise or emotion ; but when the
verdict of the jury brought him in guilty of con,.
cealing, or being art and part in the murder of
Henry Darnley, he repeated, with conaiderable
vehemence, " Art and part ! art and part ! God
knows it is not so."

In his conference with the clergy he more
fully explained what he meant by this explanation.
He confessed to them that upon his (Morton's)
return from England after his exile, for accession
to Rizzio's death, the Earl of Bothwell had
proposed to him, both personally and through
the medium of his kinsman Archibald Douglas,
to be concerned -in the death of Darnley,
assuring him it was a deed which had the Queen's
approbation. Morton stated that he replied to
this proposal, " that having so lately been re-7
leased from a state of exile, he would not be
implicated in such an important matter unless
Bothwell would produce to him the Queen's
sign-manual in warrant of the deed."—" The
Earl of Bothwell," he said, " promised to pro-
duce him such an assurance, but never did so,
and therefore he remained a stranger to the
conspiracy ; excepting that he knew generally
that such an action was meditated by Bothwell
and others."

The condemned Earl was naturally asked by
his reverend visitors why, having become privy
to so horrible a conspiracy, he did not take mea-
sures for unfolding the plot and preventing he
execution. "To whom," replied the Earl;
" should I have made the discovery ? If to the
Queen, she was herself at the bottom of the
deadly plot ; if to Lethington, or, to other
Statesmen of the time, they were accomplices to
the execution ; if to Darnley, he was a creature
of so weak and fickle a temper, that he would
have communicated it to his wife, and in any
case I should have been inevitably ruined." Thus
far the apology seems reasonable, though it gives
us a horrible idea of the Court and Councils of
Scotland at the time.

But Morton had less to answer when his
ghostly assistants demanded of him why he con,.
tinned to show friendship and favour to Archi-
bald Douglas, who had acted on this occasion as
the confidant of Bothwell, and was generally
averred to have been personally present at the
murder, and whom, notwithstanding, he created
a Judge of the Court of Session ? Nor was
any satisfaotory reply, which could be consistent
with Morton's pretended abhorrence of the
tragedy of the Kirk of Field, ever returned to
this question.—Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cy-
clopcedia.