"'Away with the murderers! hang them over the battlements!'
"'But, my lord, some trial may be fitting,' answered Balveny.
"'To what purpose?' answered Douglas. 'I have taken them red-hand; my authority will stretch to instant execution. Yet stay: have we not some Jedwood men in our troop?'
"'Plenty of Turnbulls, Rutherfords, Ainslies, and so forth,' said Balveny.
"'Call me an inquest of these together; they are all good men and true, save a little shifting for their living. Do you see to the execution of these felons, while I hold a court in the great hall, and we'll try whether the jury or the provost-martial shall do their work first: we will have
Jedwood justice—hang in haste, and try at leisure.'"
He that invented the "maiden" first hanselled it.—Scotch.
This was the Regent Morton, who was the first man beheaded by an instrument of his own invention, called the "maiden." His enemies thought it was
"Sport
To see the engineer hoist by his own petard;"
and even those who pitied him felt that "no law was juster than that the artificers of death should perish by their own art."[705]