The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1911-09-22

ancient fortress. From here james II.
chest in order to save him from a fac
ton of the mobiles who wanted the
control Of the kingdom. Here took
place the treacherous slaughter Of the
two young Douglases, which gave rise
to the lines:
Edinburgh CASTLE. town and tower,
God grant thou sink for sin;
And that even for the black dinous
Earl Douglas gat therein"
The Douglases had come to the cas-
tie by invitation, and were banquet
ing with the king, when suddenly the
BLACK Bulls Head" the signal OF
death. was set on the table. The king
Games H. tried to save the youths.
but Livingstone and Crichton, who
were responsible for the plot, had
them carried to the courtyard and be-
headed.
With the exception of St. Margaret's
chapel and the portion of the castle
in which Queen Mary's rooms are sit
uated, the buildings on the Castle
Rock are subsequent to this period.
All earlier buildings (other than those
time of this siege.
Charles l. slept in the castle on the
night before his coronation as king of
the Scots in Hollywood, and from here
he rode in state down the High street
and the Canongate to the Chapel
Royal On the morning of the cere-
mony. He also held his coronation
banquet in the great hall of the castle.
Besieged by Cromwell.
A few years later the castle was be-
sieged by Cromwell. At the reyolu-
ton of 1858 1t held out for James. But
the tables were turned In 1745, when
the garrison fired on the troops of
Prince Charles Edward. Although
Prince Charlie held state at H%olyrood,
the castle continued to be occupied
by the government troops, and every
now and again the Jacobites were re-
minded of the fact. Not much dam
age was done, but Embedded in the
wall on the Castlehill is one of the
last balls fired from this ancient fort
ress.
The Scottish regalia-the crown.
the sword of state and the scepter-
which were used at the coronation G!
the Scottish kings down to that Of
Charles /. in Holyrood and Charles ii.
at ScOne (the last coronation in Scot
land) are preserved in the castle.
where for many years they were hid
den away until, largely through the
efforts of Sir Walter Scott, they were
discovered.
The Castlehill was long used for
executions. and it has been estimated
that about 1000 persons were burned
here for %witchcraft. Among them we're
several persons of distinction.
At a later date the soil of the Cas-
tlehill was. by a curious legal fiction,
held to be the soil of Nova Scotia.
Those who were created baronets OF
Nova Scotia and who received grants
OF land there had to have "seisin."
but 1t was felt to be a rather big
undertaking to cross the Atlantic for
the purpose. The device adopted
saved this. Between 1925 and 1649
over sixty baronets of Nova Scotia
took "seisin" here of the lands which
had beer granted to them in America.
There Is a tradition (Robert Louis
Stevenson fifty characterizes 1t as "a
silly story Of a subterranean pas
sage between the castle and Holyrood
and Of a piper who volunteered to ex.
plore 1t and never returned. Similar
legends are common in Scotland.
There is said to be a passage between
the abbey and the cliffs at Arbroath:
and a lost piper figures in that story.
too. Secret passages are said to ex-
list between the castle and the cathe-
dral In st. Andrews, and also In con-.
nection with Elgin cathedral.