f their patron, to confide the issue to the influence of
St. John.

It was, therefore, after high mass had been performed with the greatest
solemnity of which circumstances rendered the ceremony capable, and
after the most repeated and fervent prayers had been offered to Heaven
by the crowded assembly, that preparations were made for appealing
to the direct judgment of Heaven on the mysterious murder of the
unfortunate bonnet maker.

The scene presented that effect of imposing solemnity which the rites
of the Catholic Church are so well qualified to produce. The eastern
window, richly and variously painted, streamed down a torrent of
chequered light upon the high altar. On the bier placed before it were
stretched the mortal remains of the murdered man, his arms folded on his
breast, and his palms joined together, with the fingers pointed upwards,
as if the senseless clay was itself appealing to Heaven for vengeance
against those who had violently divorced the immortal spirit from its
mangled tenement.

Close to the bier was placed the throne which supported Robert of
Scotland and his brother Albany. The Prince sat upon a lower stool,
beside his father--an arrangement which occasioned some observation, as,
Albany's seat being little distinguished from that of the King, the heir
apparent, though of full age, seemed to be degraded beneath his uncle in
the sight of the assembled people of Perth. The bier was so placed as to
leave the view of the body it sustained open to the greater part of the
multitude assembled in the church.

At the head of the bier stood the Knight of Kinfauns, the challenger,
and at the foot the young Earl of Crawford, as representing the
defendant. The evidence of the Duke of Rothsay in expurgation, as it
was termed, of Sir John Ramorny, had exempted him from the necessity of
attendance as a party subjected to the ordeal; and his illness served as
a reason for his remaining at home. His household, including those who,
though immediately in waiting upon Sir John, were accounted the Prince's
domestics, and had not yet received their dismissal, amounted to eight
or ten persons, most of them esteemed men of profligate habits, and who
might therefore be deemed capable, in the riot of a festival evening,
of committing the slaughter of the bonnet maker. They were drawn up in a
row on the left side of the church, and wore a species of white cassock,
resembling the dress of a penitentiary. All eyes being