Keir, Kyneff, and Sauchie took the road for Linlithgow, but Borthwick rode on direct to Berwick--as the king's private signet, when transmitted to Henry VII., would be the best assurance that the King of Scotland was slain. Had the admiral arrived fifteen minutes sooner, he might have saved James's life, and spared Scotland the disgrace of one more historical atrocity. The house in which this cruel regicide occurred is still in existence, and is yet named _Beaton's Milne_, and the traditionary account of the murder preserved by the inhabitants of the _town_ or hamlet, closely resembles that given in history, and reverently the good people still lower their voices, when pointing to the corner where their king was murdered. In 1667, as a date shows, the house of Gawain Beaton had been somewhat modernized; but it yet bears the aspect of antiquity and strength. It stands about one hundred and fifty feet eastward of the road from Stirling to Glasgow; and though thatched, is yet as snug a little dwelling as when Gawain attended the _happer_ and Mysie's spinning-wheel birred by its ingle in the days of the unhappy king, James III. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE HOUSE OF THE BARTONS. "Do men love thee? Art thou so bound To men, that how thy name will sound, Will vex thee lying underground."--TENNYSON. The insurgent lords had marched from Linlithgow to Leith, but had not as yet obtained possession of the capital or its fortress which the provost and governor maintained against them. They had established themselves in the seaport, and the house of the late Sir Andrew Barton was assigned to the young Duke of Rothesay and his suite. It was the 18th of June. The sun was as bright, the sky as blue, and the atmosphere as pure, as they ever are in that delightful month. The broad Forth, with its anchorage full of crayers, pincks, and caravels; its green isles and winding bays--the surf-beaten rocks and fertile promontories of Fife, with the fertile shores of Lothian were glowing in sunny light. The seaport was still, perhaps, in its infancy, though Sir Andrew Wood, Sir Andrew Barton, Sir Alexander Mathieson, and Sir William Merrimonth, all brave knights, who received their spurs on their own decks, and who had fought their way at sea as merchant-skippers, had given to the burgh a wealth and importance such as no port in the kingdom had hitherto known; and though its wynds, alleys, and closes were quaint, small, and irregular, with all their gable-ends towards the street, though the shore was encumbered by boats, anchors, kailyards, and gardens, where _now_ broad moles of stone bulwark in the river; and though its pier was of wood, without either lighthouse or martello tower, the stately argosies and gay caravels of these fighting merchant-traders, and of many others, gave a gay aspect to the harbour; though, as usual still, at this season, it was the least busy time, for the Baltic ships had not returned.