way, and
men's courage rose to the point of _speaking_ about resistance. The
deputies returned at ten at night; Charles, they said, was inexorable
and stuck to his conditions. To cause a delay, a new set of deputies
were sent forth at a very late hour, and went out by the West Bow _in a
hackney coach_.

[Illustration: 'Och no! she be relieved']

To gain time, and then steal another march on Cope, was even more
important to the Prince than to his enemies. There were weak points in
the wall that might be attacked. The chief gate of the city, the
Netherbow, lay midway up the High Street, dividing the real borough of
Edinburgh from the Canongate; on each side of this gate the wall
descended sharply down hill, running along Leith Wynd on the north side
and St. Mary's Wynd on the south. The houses of the latter--Edinburgh
houses numbering their ten or twelve stories--were actually built on to
the wall. By entering one of these, active and determined men might
clear the wall by a fire of musketry from the upper windows, and then
make an escalade. Another weak point was at the foot of Leith Wynd,
where the wall met the Norloch. About midnight Locheil and five hundred
of his men started to make a night attack. They were guided by Mr.
Murray of Broughton (the Prince's secretary, afterwards a traitor), who
had been a student in Edinburgh and knew the town well. To avoid chance
shots from the guns of the Castle, they made a wide circle round the
town, but so still was the night that across the city they could hear
the watches called in the distant fortress. Swift and silent as Red
Indians, the Highlanders marched in the shadow cast by the high, dark
houses of the suburbs without arousing the sleeping inmates. They could
see cannons on the walls, but no sentinels were visible. They determined
to try fraud before resorting to force. Twenty Camerons placed
themselves in hiding on each side of the gate, sixty stood in the dark
recess of the Wynd, the rest were at the bottom of the slope. One of the
number, disguised as the servant of an English officer of dragoons,
knocked loudly at the gate, demanding admission. The watch refused to
open and threatened to fire. So this stratagem was not successful.
Already the dawn was beginning to break, and a council was held among
the leaders of the band in low hurried whispers. They were deliberating
whether they should not retreat, when all at once a heavy rumbling
noise from within the city br