Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/549

I57L] THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 535 Morton, singed and scorched, grimed with smoke, and half dressed, came out and surrendered to his kinsman Buccleuch. So far the success had been brilliant. The Regent and the leading noblemen were prisoners, and they had now only to make off as they had come, before the soldiers in the castle were roused. The fighting had made hot blood. Lord Claud Hamilton owed Morton a grudge for Drury's invasion, and attempted to stab him ; and Buccleuch, to save his life, called off some of his men, and putting Morton in the midst of them, made his way down the street to the gate. The party, which was small already, was thus divided, and when Huntly would have followed with the rest, there was a difficulty in collecting them. Border thieves, if useful in some aspects of them, had their disadvantages. A town seemingly at their mercy was too much for their habits to resist. The stables were filled with the finest horses in Scotland. The lives of the freebooters of Hawick and Jedburgh depended often on the fleetness of their steeds, and such a chance as the present might never return. Thus having, as they supposed, secured their prisoners, they dispersed in search of plunder, Morton's resistance had already cost too much time and created too much disturbance. The recall bugle was. sounded impatiently, but the men were too busy to at- tend to it ; and by this time the town was awake, the- guard had turned out in the castle, and parties of armed men came streaming into the market-place from every wynd and alley. Further delay was impossible.