with castles. Grievously they oppressed the miserable people of the land with their castle works. When the castles were made, they filled them with devils and evil men; and then they seized every one who was supposed to have any property-man and woman, both by night and by day, and put them in prison for their gold and silver, and punished them with such inexpressible torments as none of the martyrs ever suffered. They hung them by the feet, and smoked them with foul smoke; and they hung them by the thumbs or by the head, and hung fire to their feet. They put knotted cords about their heads, and twisted them till they pierced to the brains. They put some in dungeons, where were adders, and snakes, and toads, and so tormented them. Others they placed in a crucet house, that is in a chest which was short, and narrow, and shallow, and they put in sharp stones, and pressed people in them till all their limbs were broken. In many of the castles were things very horrible and lateful these were sachantages,' that were as much as two or three men could lift and they were so contrived that the man was fastened to a beam, with sharp iron about his throat or neck, that he could neither sit, nor lie down, nor sleep, but was always compelled to support that weight. Many they tormented with hunger. I cannot tell all the sufferings and all the torments which the wretched people bore during the nineteen years of Stephen's reign. They laid tributes upon the towns, and when the wretched people had no more to give, they

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ravaged and burnt all the towns,-so that you might go a long day's journey, and not find a man dwelling in the town, or the land tilled.— Then was corn, and flesh, and cheese, and butter dear."

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Most of our readers are acquainted with the interior of a castle, and the character of a baronial lord of this period, from the pages of Ivanhoe so far from the picture of Front de Boeuf and his dwelling being overdrawn, it really does not, by a long way, equal reality of this, indeed, Sir Walter Scott has assured us, by appending a note of the Earl of Cassilis' cruelty to a living man.' This, however, happened, not during the darker period of our country's history, but in the reign of Elizabeth. It may be objected to, in the introduction of the narrative, that it really occurred in Scotland; but it is a perfect picture of the state of society in England in the Age of Castles.

"Master Allan Stewart, friend to Captain James Stewart, of Cardonall, by means of the queen's corrupted court, obtained the Abbey of Crossraguel. The said earl, thinking himself greater than any king in these quarters, determined to have that whole benefice (as he hath divers others) to pay at his pleasure; and because he could not find sic security as his insatiable appetite required, this shift was devised: the said Mr. Allan being in company with the Laird of Bargany, (also a Kennedy,) was, by the earl and his friends, enticed to leave the safeguard which he had with the laird, and come and make good cheer with the said earl.

The simplicity of the imprudent man was suddenly abused; and so he passed his time with them certain days, which he did in Maybole with Thomas Kennedie, uncle to the said earl: after which the said Mr. Allan passed, with quiet company, to visit the place and bounds of Crossraguel [his abbacy,] of which the said earl being surely advertised, determined to put in practice the tyranny which long before he had conceived. And so, as king of the country, apprehended the said Mr. Allan, and carried him to the house of Denure, where for a season he was honourably treated (gif a prisone can think any entertainment pleasing ;) but after that certain days were spent, and that the earl could not obtain the feus of Crossraguel according to his awin appetite, he determined to prove gif a collation could work that which neither dinner nor supper could do for a long time. And so the said Mr. Allan was carried to a secret chamber: with him passed the honourable earl, his worshipful brother, and such as were appointed to be servants at that banquet. In the chamber there was a grit iron chimlay, under it a fire; other provision was not seen. The first course was lord abbot,' (said the earl,) it will please you confess here, that with your own consent you remain in my company, because ye durst not commit yourself to the hands of others.' The abbot answered, Would you, my lord, that I should make manifest a lie for your pleasure? The truth is, my lord, it is against my will that I am here; neither yet have I any pleasure, in

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your company.' 'But ye shall remain with me neverthless, at this time,' said the earl. 'I am not able to resist your will and pleasure,' said the abbot, 'in this place. Ye must obey me, then,' said the earl,—and with that there were presented to him certain letters to subscribe, amongst which there was a five years' tack, and a nineteen years' tack, and a charter of feu of all the lands of Crossraguel, with all the clauses necessary for the earl to hasten him to hell.— For gif adultery, sacrilege, oppression, barbarous cruelty, and theft, heaped upon theft, deserve hell, the great King of Carrick can no more escape hell for ever, than the imprudent abbot escaped the fire for a season, as follows.

"After that the earl spied repugnance, and saw that he could not come to his purpose by fair means, he commanded his cooks to prepare the banquet and so first they flayed the sheep, that is, they took off the abbot's cloathes even to his skin, and next they bound him to the chimney-his legs to the one end, and his arms to the other; and so they began to beet [i.e.feed] the fire sometimes to his buttocks, sometimes to his legs, sometimes to his shoulders and arms; and that the roast might not burn, but that it might rest in soppe, they spared not flambing with oil, (basting as a cook bastes roasted meat;) Lord, look thou to sic cruelty! And that the crying of the miserable man should not be heard, they closed his mouth that his voice might be stopped. It may be suspected that some partisan of the King's [Darnley's] murder was there. In that torment they

held the poor man, till that often he cried for God's sake to despatch him; for he had as meikle gold in his awin purse as would buy powder enough to shorten his pain. The famous King of Carrick and his cooks perceiving the roast to be eneuch, commanded it to be tane fra the fire, and the earl himself began the grace in this manner :- Benedicite, Jesus Maria, you are the most obstinate man that ever I saw; gif I had known that ye had been so stubborn, I would not for a thousand crowns have handled you so; I never did so to man before you.' And yet he returned to the same practice within two days, and ceased not till that he obtained his formost purpose, that is, that he had got all his pieces subscryvit alsweill as ane half-roasted hand could do it. The earl thinking himself sure enough so long as he had the half-roasted abbot in his awin keeping, and yet being ashamed of his presence by reason of his former cruelty, left the place of Denure in the hands of certain of his servants, and the half-roasted abbot to be kept there as prisoner. The Laird of Bargany, out of whose company the said abbot had been enticed, understanding, (not the extremity,) but the retaining of the man, sent to the court, and raised letters of deliverance of the person of the man according to the order, which being disobeyed, the said earl for his contempt was denounced rebel, and put to the horne. But yet hope was there none, neither to the afflicted to be delivered, neither yet to the purchaser [i. e. procurer] of the letters to obtain any comfort thereby, for