Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

cclxxxvi WILLIAM, I'n;ST MAHQULS OF ANNANDALE, 1G7-2-17-21.
tlio superscribiii,^;- and subiciibiiic; of tliu king, instead of countersigning liim-
self as secretary, that he miglit escape tlie odium of the murder and throw it
upon the king.'
The first Lord Ealmorino was secretary of state to King James the Sixth
from tlie year 1598. In the following year lie obtained the signature of the
king to a letter to tlie Pope, asking for a cardinal's hat for a friend, and
praising tlie Pope and the Catholic religion. The letter was placed among
otlier papers waiting tlie royal sigu-manual. In this way the king's signature
was surreptitiously obtained. When the transaction was discovered in IGOS,
the secretary was tried for treason, found guilty, and sentence pronounced
that lie should be beheaded, quartered, and denounced as a traitor. But
the sentence was not carried into execution, and the erring secretary was
afterwards pardoned. It was lucky for Secretary Dalrymple that he had
William as his master rather tlian the implacable James. Burnet says "that
the king's gentleness prevailed ou him to a fault, and that he contented
himself with dismissing the ilaster of Stair from his service."
In the light of these facts, no inference hurtful to the name of King
William can be deduced from tlie circumstance that he superscribed and
sub-initialed liis instructions fur the military execution of the Macdonalds
and others. The form in which these instructions were signed by him
was the usual one in which he authenticated royal warrants and instructions.
Historians who have written since the slaugliter of Glencoe have treated
the subject largely :'.nd gravely. Lord Macaulay, in his great History, pub-
lished in 18rj5, entered into tlie minutest details of the massacre. His
grapliic account of the murder of old Glencoe and the women and children
excites a tlirill of horror at wliat the autlior calls the " bloody butchery."
llis detailed account of the massacre is by far the most exhaustive given by
' Bishop IJuriiefs " H story of His own ^ /;,;,/ j, j(j| Bniiiet fiutlier says tli.it
Time,"' sccuml edition, ISo.'J, vol. iv. pp. 159- tin- " not puiiishiiif; this witli due rigour, w.is
109. the gre.-ilf.it hlot iu this whole roigu."
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