The tenderest affections succeeded these most mournful emotions in Hamilton’s heart. He was drawing near to the moment of heart-rending separations: but his thoughts, though turning heavenward, were not turned away from his home at Kincavil. He had cherished the hope of becoming a father; and some time afterwards his wife gave birth to a daughter who was named Issobel. She lived at court in later years, and received on more than one occasion tokens of the royal favor.[122] Hamilton, who had always felt the tenderest respect for his mother, did not forget her at the stake, but commended her to the love of his friends.[123] After his wife and his mother, he was mindful of his native place. ‘O God,’ said he, ‘open the eyes of my fellow-citizens, that they may know the truth!’ [Sidenote: HAMILTON’S DEATH.] While the martyr’s heart was thus overflowing with love, several of the wretches who stood round him aggravated his sufferings. A baker took an armful of straw and threw it into the fire to increase its intensity; at the same moment a gust of wind from the sea quickened the flames, which rose above the stake. The chain round Patrick’s body was red-hot, and had by this time almost burnt him in two.[124] One of the bystanders, probably a friend of the Gospel, cried to him, ‘If thou still holdest true the doctrine for which thou diest, make us a sign.’ Two fingers of his hand were consumed; stretching out his arm, he raised the other three, and held them motionless in sign of his faith.[125] The torment had lasted from noon, and it was now nearly six o’clock. Hamilton was burnt over a slow fire.[126] In the midst of the tumult he was heard uttering this cry, ‘O God, how long shall darkness cover this realm, how long wilt thou permit the tyranny of men to triumph?’ The end was drawing nigh. The martyr’s arm began to fail: his three fingers fell. He said, ‘Lord Jesus! receive my spirit.’ His head drooped, his body sank down, and the flames completed their ravage and reduced it to ashes.