WILLIAM AND MABT.

13

On one occasion Gordon sent to inform the magistrates that he chap.

XIII

was going to fire a salute on account of some news which he hadreceived from Ireland, but that the good town need not bealarmed, for that his guns would not be loaded with ball. Onanother occasion, his drums beat a parley: the white flag washung out: a conference took place; and he gravely informedthe enemy that all his cards had been thumbed to pieces, andbegged them to let him have a few more packs. His friendsestablished a telegraph by means of which they conversed withhim across the lines of sentinels. From a window in the topstory of one of the loftiest of those gigantic houses, a few ofwhich still darken the High Street, a white cloth was hung outwhen all was well, and a black cloth when things went ill. If itwas necessary to give more detailed information, a board washeld up inscribed with capital letters so large that they could,by the help of a telescope, be read on the ramparts of the castle.

Agents laden with letters and fresh provisions managed, invarious disguises and by various shifts, to cross the sheet ofwater which then lay on the north of the fortress and to clamberup the precipitous ascent. The peal of a musket from a parti-cular half moon was the signal which announced to the friendsof the House of Stuart that another of their emissaries had gotsafe up the rock. But at length the supplies were exhausted;and it was necessary to capitulate. Favourable terms werereadily granted: the garrison marched out; and the keys weredelivered up amidst the acclamations of a great multitude ofburghers.*

But the government had far more acrimonious and more Session ofpertinacious enemies in the Parliament House than in the ment atCastle. When the Estates reassembled after their adjourn-burgh,ment, the crown and sceptre of Scotland were displayed with

* Siege of the Castle of Edinburgh, printed for the Bannatync Club;

Lond. Gaz., June^g. 1GS9.