The Calendar of Scottish Crime. ory from undeserved obloquy is due to Mr. Robert Pitcairn. Lady Glamis was the daughter of the Master of Angus, and granddaughter of the famous earl " Bell-the-Cat." Archibald Douglas, sixth Earl of Angus, was brothergerman to Lady Glamis, and, it will be re membered, had married Margaret of Eng land, Queen-Dowager of Scotland, within eleven months of the death of her husband, James IV., at Flodden. Nevertheless, as soon as James V. had escaped from the cus tody of Angus in 1528, he swore in his wrath against the Douglases that not one of that house should find refuge in Scotland while he lived. Parliament met on Septem ber feiture 4 ofofthe Angus, same his year, uncle, and and decreed his brother. the forLady Glamis, a true Douglas, regardless of her own safety, afforded help and shelter to her outlawed relatives, and, four years later, her lands and goods were forfeited on ac count of her intercommuning with them — "our souerane lordis Rebellis." This was not enough. Her husband, Lord Glamis, had died in December, 1527, and she had married subsequently Archibald Campbell of Skipnish, second son of the Earl of Argyle. An assize was summoned in 1531 to try her on a charge of having de stroyed her first husband per intoxicationem — that is, by deadly drugs and enchanted potions. But the trial never took place, owing to the difficulty of finding any gentle men willing to serve on the assize of such a beautiful and deservedly respected lady. The lairds of Ardoch, Braco, Fingask, Abernethy, Pitferran, Lawers, Carnock, Moncreiff, Anstnither, Lord Ruthven, Lord Oliphant, and many others, were fined for absenting themselves from the jury. Therefore this preposterous charge failed,-— for lack, it may be assumed, of a vestige of foundation. But Lady Glamis's great beauty, her youth and illustrious descent, availed her nothing: she had committed the unpardon able offence of being born a Douglas, and
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the King was implacable. A new charge was trumped up against her, upon which, six years later, in 1537, she was tried before Justiciar General Argyle and an assize of fifteen jurors, comprising the Earls of Atholl, Buchan, and Cassilis, the Lords Maxwell and Sempill, Home of Cowdenknowes, Maclellan of Bombie, and other persons of good stand ing. We have seen above how Chief Justice Argyle dealt with his brother-in-law Cassilis : he did not prove so lenient a judge when his sister-in-law, Lady Glamis, was arraigned before him. According to one historian, the origin of this new prosecution was as fol lows: Lady Glamis had been exposed for some years to the amorous importunity of William Lyon, a relative of her first husband. This creature, exasperated by her resolute rejection of his addresses, at length resolved on vengeance, and secretly denounced her to the Government as having plotted with one John Lyon, an aged priest, to poison the King. The informer, it is said, afterwards confessed his guilt, fled from Scotland, and died in great misery in Flanders. But whether this traitorous lover ever really ex isted, or was invented to screen the dastardly rancor of a more illustrious individual, it is certain that on July 17, 1537, Lady Glamis was arrainged on the double charge of con spiring and " imagining " (a fine elastic phrase) the death of the King by poison, and of trea sonable intercourse with her brother, the outlawed Earl of Angus. Witnesses, undoubt edly suborned, gave such evidence as, if it were accepted at all, could not but lead to a conviction. Lady Glamis made a spirited defence at the bar, which so moved the assize that they sent two of their number to the King to represent to him that, although the charges had been proved on the oaths of wit nesses, and according to the law of evidence the prisoner deserved death, yet they craved for a respite, to afford time to inquire into the character of the said witnesses, whether they were honest men or bribed knaves. The King declined to interfere, returning
