[Footnote 1: Bles, 1934.]
[Footnote 2: A stanza in one ballad runs:]
[Footnote 3: "And haifing enterit within the faid chalmer, perfaving the faid
vmqle Johnne to be walknit out of his fleip, be thair dyn, and to preife
ouer his bed ftok, the faid Robert cam than rynnand to him, and maift
crewallie, with thair faldit neiffis gaif him ane deidlie and crewall
straik on the vane-organe, quhairwith he dang the faid vmqle Johnne
to the grund, out-ouer his bed; and thaireftir, crewallie ftrak him on
bellie with his feit; quhairvpoun he gaif ane grit cry: And the faid
Robert, feiring the cry fould haif bene hard, he thaireftir, maift
tyrannouflie and barbarouflie, with his hand, grippit him be the thrott
or waifen, quhilk he held faft ane lang tyme quhill he wirreit him;
during the quhilk tyme, the faid Johnne Kincaid lay ftruggilling and
fechting in the panes of daith vnder him. And fa, the faid vmqle Johnne
was crewallie murdreit and flaine be the faid Robert."]
[Footnote 4: Men convicted of certain crimes were also subject to the same form
of execution adulterating and uttering base coins (Alan Napier, cutler
in Glasgow, was strangled and burned at the stake in December 1602)
sorcery, witchcraft, incantation, poisoning (Bailie Paterson suffered a
like fate in December 1607). For bestiality John Jack was strangled on
the Castle Hill (September 1605), and the innocent animal participator
in his crime burned with him.]
[Footnote 5: The Memorial is fully entitled: A Worthy and Notable Memorial of
the Great Work of Mercy which God wrought in the Conversion of Jean
Livingstone Lady Warristoun, who was apprehended for the Vile and
Horrible Murder of her own Husband, John Kincaid, committed on
Tuesday, July 1, 1600, for which she was execute on Saturday following;
Containing an Account of her Obstinacy, Earnest Repentance, and her
Turning to God; of the Odd Speeches she used during her Imprisonment; of
her Great and Marvellous Constancy; and of her Behaviour and Manner
of Death: Observed by One who was both a Seer and Hearer of what was
spoken.]
[Footnote 6: A 'row' is a wheel. This is one of the very few instances on
which the terrible and vicious punishment of 'breaking on a wheel' was
employed in Scotland. Jean Livingstone's accomplice was, according to
Birrell's Diary, broken on a cartwheel, with the coulter of a plough
in the hand of the hangman. The exotic method of execution suggests
experiment by King Jamie.]
[Footnote 7: Hutchinson, 1930.]
[Footnote 8: Edinburgh, W. Green and Son, Ltd., 1930.]
[Footnote 9: Antony Weldon, The Court and Character of King James (1651).]
[Footnote 10: Fisher Unwin, 1925.]
[Footnote 11: State Trials (Cobbett's edition).]
[Footnote 12: Antony Weldon.]
[Footnote 13: State Trials.]
[Footnote 14: Probably started by Michael Sparke ("Scintilla") in Truth Brought
to Light (1651).]
[Footnote 15: Sabatini, The Minion.]
[Footnote 16: According to one account. The Newgate Calendar (London 1773) gives
Mrs Duncomb's age as eighty and that of the maid Betty as sixty.]
[Footnote 17: One account says it was Sarah Malcolm who entered via the gutter
and window. Borrow, however, in his Celebrated Trials, quotes Mrs
Oliphant's evidence in court on this point.]
[Footnote 18: Or Kerrol--the name varies in different accounts of the crime.]
[Footnote 19: Peter Buck, a prisoner.]
[Footnote 20: Born 1711, Durham, according to The Newgate Calendar.]
[Footnote 21: This confession, however, varies in several particulars with that
contained in A Paper delivered by Sarah Malcolm on the Night before
her Execution to the Rev. Mr Piddington, and published by Him (London,
1733).]
[Footnote 22: In Mr Piddington's paper the supposed appointment is for "3 or 4
o'clock at the Pewter Platter, Holbourn Bridge."]
[Footnote 23: One Bridgewater.]
[Footnote 24: On more than one hand the crime is ascribed to Sarah's desire to
secure one of the Alexanders in marriage.]
[Footnote 25: It was once done by the parish priest. (Stowe's Survey of London,
p. 195, fourth edition, 1618.)]
[Footnote 26: The bequest of Dove appears to have provided for a further pious
admonition to the condemned while on the way to execution. It was
delivered by the sexton of St Sepulchre's from the steps of that church,
a halt being made by the procession for the purpose. This admonition,
however, was in fair prose.]
[Footnote 27: Thanks to my friend Billy Bennett, of music-hall fame, for his hint
for the chapter title.]
[Footnote 28: Sophie Dawes, Queen of Chantilly (John Lane, 1912).]
[Footnote 29: Lacenaire, the notorious murderer-robber in a biting song, written
in prison, expressed the popular opinion regarding Louis-Philippe's
share in the Feucheres-Conde affair. The song, called Petition d'un
voleur a un roi son voisin, has this final stanza:
"Sire, oserais-je reclamer?
Mais ecoutez-moi sans colere:
Le voeu que je vais exprimer
Pourrait bien, ma foi, vous deplaire.
Je suis fourbe, avare, mechant,
Ladre, impitoyable, rapace;
J'ai fait se pendre mon parent:
Sire, cedez-moi votre place."]
[Footnote 30: Or, simply, kermes--a pharmaceutical composition, containing
antimony and sodium sulphates and oxide of antimony--formerly used as an
expectorant.]