EORGE, eldest surviving son of the fourth Earl, succeeded to

his claims to the earldom and estates of Huntly. His career formed him of Moray's G ma' hes for a reconciliation, took horse, and was politically 'it very discreditable one. On his father's defeat rode to Queensferry, intending to pass to Dunibersel and arrange and death he fled to the protection of the Duke of Chastelheralt, an amiable meeting between the rival Earls. To his surprise lie whose daughter he had married, but the Duke was obliged to found that a Royal order had been sent interdicting any boats deliver him up, and he was sent to the castle of Dunbar. On thefro

8th of February, 1563, he was convicted of treason, and was - tamed to be executed, but instead was sent back to Dunbar, there to remain until the Queen's pleasure should be known. He was I

have got money, but you see comparatively little proof that they murder of the King. It is certain that he and Bothwell took are making it anew. Trade is not good at St. Quentin at this the lead in the affair, and together they were the first telannouue • moment, but yet on every side there were the tokens of fortunes to Mary its completion. Handy at first supported Both.% ell on

freshly made —of money that had changed hands. his marriage with the Queen, but soon became alienated from him,

If you want to know the statistics of St. Quentin, I must refer and joined the coufe1erate nobles who overthrew him. Ere long, you to Murray's handbook. Any schoolboy knows it was he. however, he qu irrellel with his new friends, and on the 29th of sieged in the Anglo-Burgundian wars, but very few could tell June, 1567, was one of the who, with the Ilamiltons, assembled exactly who attacked or defended it. If you want this information at Dumbarton to devise measures for the restoration of the you must not look to me to supply it. I can only tell you that Queen. In the early part of the succeeding August, however, the walls have been long ago pulled down, and that St. Quentin, we find him proposing, along wi th the Hamiltons, that as a means happily for itself, is neither fortified nor garrisoned. There is an of reconciling all parties Mary should be put to death. He Hotel de Vile to be seen, with a very fine Gothic facade, and an acquiesced in Moray's Regency, and was conciliated by that exquisite peal of bells, which chimes the hours night and day, and nobleman by the prospect of having his daughter in marriage. a cathedral, or rather a collegiate church, which is considered, I He signed the bond in the same year to support the authority of believe, a fine specimen of Gothic architecture, and which would be James VI., and carried the sceptre at the first Parliament of very imposing if it were not for the whitewash with which its

the Regent Moray, December 5, 1567. But he joined the associa- glorious arches and columns are still disfigured. tion in favour of Mary at Hamilton in May, 1568, and went north to raise forces in her service. The news of the battle of Langside only checked him for a moment. He continued with

grele. All the time indeed you stop at St. Quentin anybody Argyll in arms, had reduced all the north to her obedience, and was you meet will talk to you of little else except the g, ele. advancing southwards when he was stopped by orders from Mary Wherever you go you will see traces of the great calamity which (who had another project in hand) to desist from that enter- has recently befallen the country. The monster hail-storm,

prise. It was in this warfare that Sir Adam Gordon, the Earl's brother, distinguished himself, combining the chivalry of a brave knight with the ferocity of a freebooter. Huntly and Argyll have been a most remarkable occurrence. About two months at last found Moray's power too strong for them, and came to a ago, the storm burst over the district at five o'clock on a convention with him on the 10th of May, 1569. After the murder of Moray Huntly obtained from the Queen the commission of sultry Sunday afternoon. The sky was a dead copper-colour Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, and again raised the for hours. Suddenly a perfect deluge of hail-stones came north in her cause. The Regent Lennox marched against crashing from the clouds. Numbers of people assured me they him, and he was proclaimed a traitor. He joined Lord Claud had seen stones of the size of half a brick, and strange as the Hamilton in the sortie from Edinburgh which ended in the February 23, 1573, when he came to terms statement is, I can believe it, from the injuries of which the traces murder of Lennox, and they two were accused by the actual per- are still visible on roofs and walls. The thunder-claps were in- petrator of having given the order for that crime. Huntly con- cessant, and the peasants crouched under any shelter they could tinned in arms till with the Regent Morton, and joined in the general pacification. ing on each other to confess their sins. The storm only lasted He then retired into the country, and died very suddenly at for about twenty minutes. But when it was over the country Strathbogie in May, 1576. Such a career speaks for itself. He was succeeded by his son George, sixth Earl of Huntly, who was was half ruined. The crops were literally destroyed, so that there then under age. His career, though politically more consistent trees, great trunks were pelted down, and still than his father's, was scarcely less discreditable in other respects side as memorials of the devastation. Houses were unroofed . He became the head of the extreme Catholic party, entered into with the Court of Spain in 1588, and rose in and roads broken up. No life seems to have been lost, as there correspondence rebellion in 1589. The King, however, marching against the rebels, they surrendered, were brought to trial, and repeated acts of treason proved against them. But the King did not allow any sentence to pronounced on them, and after a few months' confinement they were released on the occasion of the Royal marriage. In 1591, when the Earl of Bothwell, then in rebellion, retired into the north,

who were in easy circumstances before the grele are now reduced the King gave Huntly a commission to pursue him and his fol- to absolute want. Nearly half a century ago there occurred a

lowers with fire and sword. Huntly availed himself of this (there similar storm of hail, but its destructiveness is not believed to have are grave reasons to believe with the King's sanction) to destroy a powerful neighbour and rival, the "bonny Earl of Moray," been so great. The rainy weather which succeeded the storm,

followed as it was by the long, hot, summer, has done much to nephew of the Regent, whose great earldom had, as we have seen, restore, the aspect of the country and to erase the traces of the formerly been granted to the Gordons of Handy. From this and

o storm. But still you can scarcely pass a house near St. Quentin other causes, Moray being also a great leader of the Protestant whose roof is not being repaired or has just been repaired.

The party, there had been for some years a deadly feud between the " town itself lay comparatively out of the range of the tempest, but two Earls. But Lord Ochiltree, a Stewart, a firm friend of

towards the North it raged with extraordinary fury. Moray, was at this time exerting himself to bring about an agreement between them, and had so far succeeded that Moray, with a slender retinue, left his northern fortresses and came to his THE GORDONS OF HUNTLY (CONTINUED). mother's castle of Dunibersel, a short distance from the Queensferry. Huntly, his enemy, was then at Court, in constant attendance on the King ; and Ochiltree, who had communicated with him, and iu- m plying that day between Fife and the opposite coast. But little suspicion was aroused, he believed it some measure connec- ted t , and was then going on against Bothwe ll with p the Stewart; resisted till nightfall, when Huntly, collecting the corn stacks or ricks in the neighbouring fields, piled them up against the walls, commanded the house to be set on fire, and compelled its inmates to make a desperate sally that they might escape being burnt alive. In this outbreak the sheriff of Moray was slain, but the young Earl rushed forth, all burned and black- ened, with his long and beautiful tresses on fire, and streaming behind him, threw himself on his assailants, and aided by his great stature and strength, broke through the toils like a lion, says a narrator, and escaped by speed of foot to the sea shore. Here unfortunately his hair and the silken plume of his hel- met blazed through the darkness, and his pursuers, tracking him by the trail of light, ran him into' a cave, where they cruelly murdered him. His mortal wound, it is said, was given by Gor- don of Buchie, who, seeing Huntly drawing back, cursed him as afraid to go as far as his followers, and called on him to stab his fallen enemy with his dagger, and become art and part of the slaughter, as he had been of the conspiracy. Huntly, thus threatened, struck the dying man in the face with his weapon, who, with a bitter smile, upbraided him with " having spoilt a better face than his own." The slaughter caused a great and general outcry. Huntly was summoned to deliver himself up and take his trial, obeyed with alacrity, entered into ward in Blackness Castle, and after a trifling investigation was dismissed and pardoned. It is difficult after this to believe in the modified view of the King's conduct suggested by the ballad,-

" Now out upon ye, Huntly ! and wherefore did ye sae, I bade ye bring him to me, but forbade ye him to slay."

The popular voice loudly accused James of complicity in the crime, and among other reasons for the act was that hinted at in the ballad, -

" He was a braw gallant, and he played at the glove,

And the bonny Earl of Moray, 0 he was the Queen's love !"

It appeared afterwards, however, that the death of Moray formed only part of a series of political murders planned de- liberately, under a signed bond, as we have already mentioned in our account of the Campbells.

Huntly now renewed his correspondence with Spain, on which account he was summoned to surrender in January, 1593, and on his refusal denounced as a rebel on the 8th of February. On the 17th of October, with the Earls of Erroll and Angus, he appeared in the King's presence, and offered to submit to a legal trial. This was conceded, and it was declared on the 26th of November that the three Earls should be absolved from their treasonable proceedings, on recanting their " Popish errors before the 1st of February, on penalty of leaving the kingdom." But they refused to accede to the conditions, and Huntly and Erroll raised forces, and defeated the Earl of Argyll at Glenlivet on the 8rd of October, 1594. The King advancing against them, however, their forces were scattered, their estates were overrun, and they had to leave the kingdom. In 1596 Huntly returned from abroad, and on the 13th of August was received by the King at Falkland. He now professed a willingness to embrace Protestantism, and was solemnly admitted into the Kirk in May, 1597. He was thereupon restored to all his honours, had a grant of the dissolved abbey of Dunfermline, and was created Marquis of Huntly on the 17th of April, 1599. In 1606 he was again accused of giving encouragement to Roman Catholics, summoned before the General Assembly, and not obeying the summons, sentence of excommunication was pro- nounced against him. He was committed to Stirling Castle in 1609, but liberated in 1610, on engaging to subscribe the Confession of Faith. In 1616, having prohibited his tenants from attending the services of particular ministers, he was committed prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh, but by the Chancellor's warrant set at liberty after three days' confinement. He then went to Court, and was absolved from his excommunication by the Archbishop of Canterbury in July. This act was deeply resented by the Scottish clergy, who were with difficulty pacified by the King, and they compelled the Marquis to address a petition to the Assembly, acknowledging his errors, promising to educate his children in the Reformed faith, and asking for a new abso- lution, which was accordingly solemnly pronounced. In 1630 the Earl of Moray obtained an order from King Charles that the Marquis should give up the heritable sheriffship of Inverness to him for 5,0001. The same year retribution fell on the Marquis for the slaughter of Moray in the death of his second son, the Viscount of Melgum, who was burnt in the house of Frendraught, as was said, designedly. Crichton of Frendraught's lands were therefore harried by the Gordon's, and the Marquis, being sum- moned before the Council for abetting these outrages, was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, December, 1635. After some weeks' confinement he was allowed to remove to his house in the Canongate, where falling into a decline, and being desirous to go home, he was removed in a bed in his chariot, but got no farther than Dundee, where he died, June 13, 1636, and was buried at Elgin. He had charters of Kynnedar and Spynie, December 8, 1586 ; of the house and gardens of the Grey Friars of Aberdeen, July 29, 1587; of the barony of Delny, December 10, 1591; of Auchin- doun and Keithmoir, in Banffshire, July 26, 1607 ; of Ballor- mie, in the shire of Elgin, December 19, 1616 ; of the fortalice of Balveny, March 4, 1618 ; of the lordship of Badzenauch, February 21, 1622 ; and of the barony of North Melgaul, in Forfarshire, on the last day of the same month. He married Lady Henrietta Stewart, eldest daughter of Esmd, Duke of Lennox. She was obliged to leave Scotland, on account of her religion, in June, 1611, and died in France, September 2, 1612, having had a large family by the Marquis. Their second son, John Gordon, was created Viscount of Melgum and Lord Aboyne in 1627, and was burnt to death, as we have already said, in October, 1630. He is said to have lost his life through going to awaken another Gordon, who was in attend- ance on him. They made their way to a window and cried fop help, but none being afforded, they implored the mercy of God for their sins, clasped each other in their arms, and thus perished. George, his eldest brother, succeeded as second Marquis of Huntly. He had a company of yeas d'arnzes in the French service in 1624, carrying over with him from Scotland a party of gallant young gentlemen, well appointed. He was created Viscount of Aboyne, April 20, 1632, during his father's life-time, the title on his succeed- ing to the Marquisate to devolve on his second son, James, and his heirs male. He was in France when his father died, but returned to Scotland in the October of the same year. He raised forces for the King against the Covenanters in 1639, but Montrose marching against him he submitted, and (as was alleged) through a breach of faith on the part of some of the Cove- nanting chiefs was sent prisoner in April, with his son, Lord Gordon, to the castle of Edinburgh ; but they were released in June following. Having received a commission from the King, Huntly again took the field in 1644, and was excommunicated. Argyll advancing against him he retreated into Strathmaver, and remained there inactive, and holding off from Montrose's enterprise, partly through jealousy, partly through distrust of that leader. These considerations induced him to take a very inefficient part in that celebrated struggle, the Gordon; alternately joining and deserting Montrose, and the Marquis's sons being at variance among themselves as to their policy. However, Huntly continued in arms on his own account after the defeat of Mont- rose, and refused to lay them down when the King, in 1646, being in the hauds of the Scotch Covenanting army in England, commanded him to do so. He was excepted from pardon by the Parliament, March 7, 1647, was taken prisoner the same year at Strathmaver, and sent to the castle and tolbooth at Edinburgh. After he had remained in prison from December, 1647, he was tried, March 16, 1619, and condemned to be beheaded at the market cross of Edinburgh, which sentence was carried into execution on the 22nd of March, notwithstanding Huntly being married to the sister of the Marquis of Argyll. We are imperfectly acquainted with the fresh causes which led to this execution under the former act of attainder after so long an inter- val of time. It is not improbable that Huntly had engaged in some negotiations with respect to the impending expedition of Montrose, and that the detection of these led to his being proceeded against, or it may have been the intention of the Covenanters, at the moment of their inviting over the King of Scots, to indi- cate their abhorrence of the party with which the Royal House had been hitherto connected, and so remove a reproach cast on them by the English Parliament. If so, Huntly may have been a vic- tim to the self-consciousness of the Scotch Covenanting chiefs that they were being false to their own principles. Argyll's authority, we know, was at this crisis very much weakened, owing to jealousy of his connection with Cromwell and the Independent party in England, and he dared not stir in anymatter in opposition to the tide of popular feeling in Scotland, which had been greatly excited by the execution of Charles in England without the assent of the Scottish nation, of which he was also King. The Marquis of Huntly had five sons. George, Lord Gordon, the eldest, served in Alsace and Lorraine in his youth, joined Montrose in his adven- turous campaign, and was killed at the battle of Alford, July 2, 1645, unmarried. James, second son, Viscount of Aboyne, was defeated by Montrose, then a Covenanter, at the bridge of Dee, June 19, 1639, and escaped by sea to England. Being summoned

before the Council in 1643 to answer for his negotiations with the Earl of Antrim, and not appearing, he was forfeited and declared a traitor. He attended Montrose in his first unsuccessful expedition to Dumfries in 1644, but was obliged to retreat to Carlisle, of which place Montrose made him governor. He was excommunicated by the General Assembly on the 24th of April in that year, made his way from Carlisle to Montrose in April, 1645, and continued with him till September, 1645, when he left him for the north with his troop of horse, just before the battle of Philiphaugh. He was excepted from pardon in 1648, made his escape to France, and died at Paris a few days after the news arrived there of the execution of Charles I. in 1649—the family say through grief at the event, which the reader may believe or not. Lord Lewis Gordon, third son of the Marquis of Huntly, succeeded his father as third Marquis. The fourth son, Charles, became Earl of Aboyne, and is the ancestor of the present Marquis of Huntly.