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The Lamp of Lothian, Or, The History of Haddington (1844)
The Lamp of Lothian Or The History of Haddington - 1844 Author:James Miller Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: kingdom in a party war. At a tournament on the English borders, Patrick, sixth Earl of Athol, a youth of distinguished accomplishments, overthrew Walter or Willi... more »am Bisset, it not being distinctly ascertained which of the two, the chief of a powerful family, who resided in the neighbourhood of his estate. An ancient animosity existed between them, which was now kindled into rage. The Earl of Athol on his return passed the night at Haddington. The house in which he lodged was set on fire, and he, with several of his followers, were either burned to death or slain in their retreat. It was supposed that the house was fired, that the murder might be concealed. The supposition naturally fell upon the defeated Bisset. The nobility flew to arms, and demanded his life. It was in vain that the king offered to bring the matter to a regular trial. The Comyns and other powerful nobles, headed by Patrick earl of Dunbar and March, excited to vengeance by David de Hastings, who had married the aunt and heir of Athol, would listen to no accommodation. On the other hand Bisset, in order to justify himself, procured sentence of excommunication to be published against the murderers in all the churches of the kingdom. He urged that he was fifty miles distant from Haddington at the time of the murder, and offered to maintain his innocence by single combat; yea, the young queen offered to make oath, " That Bisset had never devised a crime so enormous!" which evidently shewed that he was a royal favourite. This only fanned the flame of the malice of his enemies, which at length prevailed. For three mouths did they secretly seek to slay him, while the king concealed him in retreats inaccessible to their vengeance. As a mark of Bisset's ingratitude, on effecting his escape to England, he sought to embroil ...« less