and he entreated them not to make any resistance to lawful authority. But these ardent Christians could not bear the thought of losing their friend. ‘Promise us,’ they said to the governor, ‘promise us to bring him back safe and sound.’ The officer only replied by taking away his prisoner. On the summit of huge rocks which rise perpendicularly from the sea, and whose base is ceaselessly washed by the waves, stood at that time the castle whose picturesque remains serve still as a beacon to the mariner. It was within the walls of this feudal stronghold that Hamilton was taken and confined. [Sidenote: HAMILTON IN THE CASTLE.] The last day of February at length arrived, the day fixed by the archbishop for the solemn assembly at which sentence was to be pronounced. The prelate, followed by a large number of bishops, abbots, doctors, heads of religious orders, and the twelve commissioners, entered the cathedral--a building some centuries old, which was to be cast down in a day by a word of Knox, and whose magnificent ruins still astonish the traveller.[101] Beatoun sat on the bench of the inquisitorial court, and all the ecclesiastical judges took their places round him. Among these was observed Patrick Hepburn, prior of St. Andrews, son of the earl of Bothwell, a worthless and dissolute man, who had eleven illegitimate children, and who gloried in bringing distress and dishonor into families. This veteran of immorality--who ought to have been on the culprit’s seat, but whose pride was greater even than his licentiousness--took his place with a shameless countenance on the judges’ bench. Not far from him was David Beatoun, abbot of Arbroath, an ambitious young man, who was already coveting his uncle’s dignity, and who, as if to prepare himself for a long work of persecution, vigorously pressed on the condemnation of Patrick. In the midst of these hypocrites and fanatics sat one man in a state of agitation and distress--the prior of the Dominicans, Alexander Campbell--with his countenance gloomy and fallen. A great crowd of canons, priests, monks, nobles, citizens, and the common people, filled the church; some of them greedy for the spectacle which was to be presented to them, others sympathizing with Hamilton. ‘I was myself present,’ said Alesius, ‘a spectator of that tragedy.’[102]