"Still through sad years, fierce growing Hate
Around his glory gathered:

He could with no dishonour mate,
Nor be by vassal tethered;
To Perth, before his lodging's gate,
The storm rolled undiscovered!

"Then, sudden clang of arms, and roar,
Broke up the Court's gay meeting;
The murderers knocked! all hope was o'er,
The ladies they kept greeting,
Save Catharine Douglas at the door,
Her true heart proudly beating.

"The bolt was gone, by traitor's ta'en-
How could her hands replace it?
An instant-and her arm has lain
Across the door to brace it!

A shriek! the white limb's broke in twain !
Ah! how could woman face it?

"O, Catharine Douglas bears a name
That gives to Death denial,

No murderers' doom of pain and flame
Atones by torture's trial

For Jamie's blood, and Scotland's shame,

While sun can light the Dial!

"But she who through rough staple placed
Her arm so fair and tender,

Hell's memories has half effaced!

Their prayers should all men render
For Catharine Douglas, brave and chaste,
That God His peace may send her."

The younger Henry (V.), who released King James for the heavy ransom paid, was the first husband of that queen who, as a widow, married the wild

Welsh.nan, Owen Tudor, who could scarce speak English, but was the ancestor of those under whose reigns the English language was first spread beyond the seas.

Now leaving the tower so associated with King James, go back along the moat of the Keep, and look at the narrow garden, still bright in summer with flowers, and the blossoms of fruit trees, and keeping to the parapet wall that surrounds it, walk to the Norman gate, where a portcullis still remains in the masonry over the massive archway.

THE NORMAN TOWER AND GATEWAY (p. 93) is, with the exception of the front facing the town, the least altered of any portion. Though prisoners of more importance were confined in other places, they left no such traces as have those who were here detained. It was chiefly during the Cromwellian wars that the chambers above the archway were used as "dungeons. The gate guard could always watch them. The rooms were pleasant enough, when compared to some of the holes into which men were thrust. At Alnwick, for example, close to the gateway is a hole in the ground faced with masonry, which has a narrow orifice at the top, and increases in size as the depth becomes greater, so that the space for prisoners is shaped like a lime-kiln, or like an ancient bell, so that none could escape, and none could see a glimpse of daylight. Again, at Naworth Castle,

the prison, though not so dismal, is at the gate, and there is a communication between it and the rooms of the Lord of the Castle, a circumstance that gave Sir Walter Scott the idea of describing such a dungeon as existing at Inveraray, in his "Legend of Montrose." At Edinburgh Castle, those about to be executed were confined in a room similar to that in the Norman Tower, the portcullis itself when drawn up forming a "grille," or barrier, in the apartment, through which the guard could see the prisoners. The Royalists held in the Norman Tower by the Parliament were allowed to amuse themselves by cutting their names on the walls, and a curious medley of signatures and of coats-of-arms illustrates the dulness endured by the gallant men fresh from the campaigns they so bravely and, it must be added, so badly conducted.

The buildings on the left, after passing the gateway, are those now containing the library, but it will be best first to turn to the left through the narrow passage that leads down to

THE NORTH TERRACE (pp. 85, 95),

chiefly built by Queen Elizabeth. She dwelt in the library-rooms (p. 85), then the Royal dwelling-rooms, looking over towards Eton. She liked to descend and take her exercise, when she could not hunt in the Park, on this fine terrace. Here we may think of her as telling Shakespeare, summoned to her