preparations were made, the President of the Council repeated
with the same stern voice the question, "When and where did you last see
John Balfour of Burley?"

The prisoner, instead of replying to him, turned his eyes to heaven as if
imploring Divine strength, and muttered a few words, of which the last
were distinctly audible, "Thou hast said thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power!"

The Duke of Lauderdale glanced his eye around the council as if to
collect their suffrages, and, judging from their mute signs, gave on his
own part a nod to the executioner, whose mallet instantly descended on
the wedge, and, forcing it between the knee and the iron boot, occasioned
the most exquisite pain, as was evident from the flush which instantly
took place on the brow and on the cheeks of the sufferer. The fellow then
again raised his weapon, and stood prepared to give a second blow.

"Will you yet say," repeated the Duke of Lauderdale, "where and when you
last parted from Balfour of Burley?"

"You have my answer," said the sufferer resolutely, and the second blow
fell. The third and fourth succeeded; but at the fifth, when a larger
wedge had been introduced, the prisoner set up a scream of agony.

Morton, whose blood boiled within him at witnessing such cruelty, could
bear no longer, and, although unarmed and himself in great danger, was
springing forward, when Claverhouse, who observed his emotion, withheld
him by force, laying one hand on his arm and the other on his mouth,
while he whispered, "For God's sake, think where you are!"

This movement, fortunately for him, was observed by no other of the
councillors, whose attention was engaged with the dreadful scene before
them.

"He is gone," said the surgeon--"he has fainted, my Lords, and human
nature can endure no more."

"Release him," said the Duke; and added, turning to Dalzell, "He will
make an old proverb good, for he'll scarce ride to-day, though he has had
his boots on. I suppose we must finish with him?"

"Ay, dispatch his sentence, and have done with him; we have plenty of
drudgery behind."

Strong waters and essences were busily employed to recall the senses of
the unfortunate captive; and, when his first faint gasps intimated a
return of sensation, the Duke pronounced sentence of death upon him, as a
traitor taken in the act of open rebellion, and adjudged him to be
carried from the bar to the common place of execution, and there hanged
by t