Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-01-07
THE STORY OF LADY NITH|SDALE.

Everybody has heard of the Tower of
London. The London of to-day has
risen around it from the ashes of the
London of the past; generation after
generation has been forgotten; customs
have changed as completely as fash.
ions, but the tower il now, as of old, an
object of interest that is half of fear,
half of tenderness to sill reading and
thinking minds with human sympathy.
So often has it been described, so often
portrayed upon artists canvas and
gravers' block that even those
who dwell beyond seas know we'll
its square, stoiid outline and an
gular turrets. Its ORATORS Gate 4"
has CAPPED and bristled in many 8
youthful dream, and its blood.stained
Hill" has risen like nightmare upon
the visions of tender students and i'm
questionable lovers of romance. Will
liam the Norman-England' conqueror,
whose grasp closed on her forever-built
those massive walls; set them, like his
soul, upon the fair face of the land his
sword had won, and stamped into it a
very spirit of sorrow and tyranny. A
palace in its early days, when palaces were
raised on prisons and cemented with
blood, it gradually sunk the palace in
the prison, but kept its royal character,
for It was made the prison of the enc
mics of kings and still the sons of kings.
The names of the noble and royal black
en- it's records; saint-like souls in deli
cate bodies, and pampered bodies whose
souls were fit for darker prisons, alike
have passed from beneath its shadow,
have looked their last in hope from its
barred windows. Tragedies. horrors,
suferings, existence and such triumphs
of the spirit over the flesh have illumined
its darkest vaults as bid us, in very
shame, defy the worst man can do,
while God looks on and crowns the vic
tor who endures.
The names of many of the prisoners
in the Tower of London are as familiar
as household words. Taking them with
out regard to order, William Wallace,
the golden-haired hero of Scotland; Sir
Thomas Moore, Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane
Gray, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Earl OF
Essex-a long, long line of brave and
gracious men and women pass before the
mental vision at its very name. Later
on, less distinguished, but as blameIess
sufferers take their places. The un.
settled state of England during the
reign of Charles L, the struggles OF
Charles IL, the fight of James Il. and
the misery in which he involved his
followers, were all seasons of harvest fol-
the Wardens of the tower. The dark
and bloody shadow of that flying figure
which crossed the Thames and left the
Great Seal lying under those sullen
waters in 1886, stretched far across the
future of England, and sank lower upon
his too faithful subjects. Rebellion
followed rebellion, and Scotland saw the
ranks of her best and bravest sadly thin
ned before the crown of the Stuarts rest.
ed firmly and easily upon the thick
heads of the horse of Brunswick. Lovers
of history and romance know well the
tragedies of 1925 and 1745, the dates OF
those two failures, those splendid ground.
less hopes, the hopeless disappointment
when Charles Edward, the son, and
James Ill, the grandson of James H.,
flashed, each in his turn, and vanished.
less nobly, less fearfully, but as sadly IS
Charles /.
It was in the struggle of 1715 that
AOIU NlGuisudio pdss6u Gu0 grim CnTo6n-
old of the tower. He had been "out"
with the gallant Earl of Mar, and shared
his ruin, together with his brother Earls
of Derwentwater, Camwath and Win
ton, and the Lords Warrington, Ken
muir and Marine. All, save the Earl of
Winton, were sentenced to death, and
all efforts to soften or appease the rigor
of their judges appeared useless. Wives
and mothers, sisters and daughters
crowded to the foot of the throne, ap-
pealed with the trembling lips of age,
the beauty of youth, the helpless hands
of infancy, to George L, and appealed in
vain. Orders were sent to dispatch
Derwentwater, Nithisdale and Ken
muir immediately-the others to be
respited for short time, but certainly
to die.