416 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 55. pily deadened the sound. They collected on the foot of the slope, and thence an easy and silent climb over thick grass brought them to the bottom of the wall. To draw the ladders after them and raise them in their places was the work of a few more minutes, and a moment after, as dawn was breaking, the astonished sentinels saw three figures looming large through the fog on the battlements above their heads. Ramsay was the first to enter : with a shout of ' God and the King ! '
- A Darnley, a Darnley ! ' he leapt down upon the half-
awakened soldiers and struck them to the ground. The wall was carelessly built where no danger was antici- pated. A breach was easily made through it, and be- fore the garrison were out of their beds, the whole party had entered and Wallace's Tower and its guns were in their hands. The place was now at their mercy. The inhabited houses were in a hollow im- mediately at their feet ; a few soldiers, half naked and blinded by the mist, attempted a short resistance. Three were killed, and some others wounded ; but when they found that their cannon were taken and turned upon them, they threw down their arms to their unknown enemy who seemed to have dropped upon them from the clouds. Fleming made his way to the water-gate by the staircase which was the usual ap- proach. The tide was in, he sprang into a boat and went off into Argyleshire. Archbishop Hamilton was less fortunate. Disturbed out of his sleep, he had put on a steel cap, and was struggling into a coat of mail, when Crawford's men were upon him. He was taken,
