returned to the commission, and did show unto them what had passed
amongst us. They, seeing that for the present he was not desiring
relaxation from his censure of excommunication, did appoint Mr. Mungo
Law and me to attend on the morrow on the scaffold, at the time of his
execution, that, in case he should desire to be relaxed from his
excommunication, we should be allowed to give it unto him in the name of
the kirk, and to pray with him, and for him, _that what is loosed on
earth might be loosed in heaven_." But this pious intention, which may
appear somewhat strange to the modern Calvinist, when the prevailing
theories of the kirk regarding the efficacy of absolution are
considered, was not destined to be fulfilled. Mr. Traill goes on to say,
"But he did not at all desire to be relaxed from his excommunication in
the name of the kirk, _yea, did not look towards that place on the
scaffold where we stood_; only he drew apart some of the magistrates,
and spake a while with them, and then went up the ladder, in his red
scarlet cassock, in a very stately manner."

"_And he climbed the lofty ladder
As it were the path to heaven_,"--p. 43.

"He was very earnest that he might have the liberty to keep on his hat;
it was denied: he requested he might have the privilege to keep his
cloak about him--neither could that be granted. Then, with a most
undaunted courage, he went up to the top of that prodigious
gibbet."--"The whole people gave a general groan; and it was very
observable, that even those who, at his first appearance, had bitterly
inveighed against him, could not now abstain from tears."--_Montrose
Redivivus_.