hat his footsteps might
not be heard on the ground floor, fastened a racehorse ready saddled and
bridled in the garden, hollowed out the upper part of the little gate
which led to the open country so that he could pass through it at a
gallop, armed himself with a loaded arquebuse, and shut himself up in the
room.

All these preparations had been made, one imagines, because Murray was to
spend the following day in Linlithgow. But, secret as they were, they
were to be rendered useless, for the regent's friends warned him that it
would not be safe for him to pass through the town, which belonged almost
wholly to the Hamiltons, and advised him to go by it. However, Murray
was courageous, and, accustomed not to give way before a real danger, he
did nothing but laugh at a peril which he looked upon as imaginary, and
boldly followed his first plan, which was not to go out of his way.
Consequently, as the street into which the Archbishop of St. Andrews'
balcony looked was on his road, he entered upon it, not going rapidly and
preceded by guards who would open up a passage for him, as his friends
still counselled, but advancing at a foot's pace, delayed as he was by
the great crowd which was blocking up the streets to see him. Arrived in
front of the balcony, as if chance had been in tune with the murderer,
the crush became so great that Murray was obliged to halt for a moment:
this rest gave Bothwellhaugh time to adjust himself for a steady shot.
He leaned his arquebuse on the balcony, and, having taken aim with the
necessary leisure and coolness, fired. Bothwellhaugh had put such a
charge into the arquebuse, that the ball, having passed through the
regent's heart, killed the horse of a gentleman on his right. Murray
fell directly, saying, "My God! I am killed."

As they had seen from which window the shot was fired, the persons in the
regent's train had immediately thrown themselves against the great door
of the house which looked on to the street, and had smashed it in; but
they only arrived in time to see Bothwellhaugh fly through the little
garden gate on the horse he had got ready: they immediately remounted the
horses they had left in the street, and, passing through the house,
pursued him. Bothwellhaugh had a good horse and the lead of his enemies;
and yet, four of them, pistol in hand, were so well mounted that they
were beginning to gain upon him. Then Bothwellhaugh; seeing that whip and
spur were not enough, dre