they were to be brought from the Tower in separate coaches, there was some dispute in which the axe must go—­old Balmerino cried, “Come, come, put it with me.”  At the bar, he plays with his fingers upon the axe, while he talks to the gentleman-gaoler; and one day somebody coming up to listen, he took up the blade and held it like a fan between their faces.  During the trial, a little boy was near him, but not tall enough to see; he made room for the child and placed him near himself.

When the trial began, the two earls pleaded guilty; Balmerino not guilty, saying he could prove he was not at the taking of the castle of Carlisle, as was laid in the Indictment.  Then the King’s counsel opened, and Serjeant Skinner pronounced the most absurd speech imaginable; and mentioned the Duke of Perth, “who,” said he, “I see by the papers is dead."(1238) Then some witnesses were examined, whom afterwards the old hero shook cordially by the hand.  The Lords withdrew to their House, and returning demanded, of the judges, whether one point not being proved, though all the rest were, the indictment was false? to which they unanimously answered in the negative.  Then the Lord High Steward asked the Peers severally, whether Lord Balmerino @was guilty!  All said, “guilty upon honour,” and then adjourned, the prisoner having begged pardon for giving them so much trouble.  While the lords were withdrawn, the Solicitor-General Murray (brother of the Pretender’s minister)1239) officiously and insolently went up to Lord Balmerino, and asked him, how he could give the Lords so much trouble, when his solicitor had informed him that his plea could be of no use to him?  Balmerino asked the bystanders who this person was! and being told, he said.  “Oh, Mr. Murray!  I am extremely glad to see you; I have been with several of your relations; the good lady, your mother, was of great use to us at Perth.”  Are not you charmed with this speech? how just it was!  As he went away, he said, “They call me Jacobite; I am no more a Jacobite than any that tried me:  but if the Great Mogul had set up his standard, I should have followed it, for I could not starve.”  The worst of his case is, that after the battle of Dumblain, having a company in the Duke of Argyll’s regiment, he deserted with it to the rebels, and has since been pardoned.  Lord Kilmarnock is a Presbyterian, with four earldoms(1240) in him, but so poor since Lord Wilmington’s stopping a pension that my father had given him, that he often wanted a dinner.  Lord Cromartie was receiver of the rents of the King’s second son in Scotland, which, it was understood, he should not account for; and by that means had six hundred a-year from the Government:  Lord Elibank,(1241) a very prating, impertinent Jacobite, was bound for him in nine thousand pounds, for which the Duke is determined to sue him.