r a fate which now seemed inevitable. Great intercession had been
made for the ill-fated prisoner, by his kinsman, James, sixth Duke of
Hamilton, and husband of the celebrated beauty, Miss Gunning; but the
friendly efforts of that nobleman were thought rather to have "hurried
him to the block."[381] When a report reached him that one of the
prisoners would be spared, Lord Kilmarnock had desired, with the utmost
nobleness of soul, that Cromartie should be preferred to himself.
Balmerino lamented that he had not been taken with Lord Lovat; "for
then," he remarked, "we might have been sacrificed, and these two brave
men have been spared." But these regrets were unavailing, and Lord
Kilmarnock and his friend prepared to meet their doom.

Mr. Foster, on conversing with Lord Kilmarnock, found him humbled, but
not crushed by his misfortunes; contrite for a life characterized by
many errors, but trustful of the Infinite mercy, to which we fondly turn
from the stern justice of unforgiving man. And the reverend gentleman on
whom the solemn responsibility of preparing a soul for judgment was
devolved, appears to have discharged his task with a due sense of its
delicacy, with fidelity and kindness.

Having introduced himself to Lord Kilmarnock with the premises that his
Lordship would allow him to deal freely with him; that he did not expect
to be flattered, nor to have the malignity of his crimes disguised or
softened;--Mr. Foster told him, "that in his opinion, the wound of his
mind, occasioned by his private and public vices, must be probed and
searched to the bottom, before it could be capable of receiving a
remedy." "If he disapproved of this plan," Mr. Foster thought "he could
be of no use to him, and therefore declined attendance." To this Lord
Kilmarnock replied that, "whilst he thought it was not Mr. Foster's
province to interfere in things remote from his office, yet it was now
no time to prevaricate with him, nor to play the hypocrite with God,
before whose tribunal he should shortly appear."

This point being settled, the minister of the Gospel deemed it necessary
to persuade the Earl, that he was not to be amused with vain delusive
hopes of a reprieve; that he must view his sentence as inevitable;
otherwise that his mind might be distracted between hope and fear; and
that true temper of penitence which alone could recommend him to Divine
mercy would be unattainable.

The unfortunate Earl touchingly answered, that in