one till the April of the following year, being evidently in
irons all the time, his close connection with Argyle rendering his
imprisonment {202} extra rigorous.[16] He was taken out of irons on
the 25th of that month, but it was not till the 24th of July that he
was ordered to appear before the Council and required to take an oath
to answer all the questions put to him. He refused and protested, and
was tortured in the boot, but, spite of the awful agony, remained
"obstinate and disingenuous," whereupon the Privy Council "resolved to
use all methods necessary to bring the said Mr William Spence to a true
and ingenuous confession, and for expiscating the truth in so important
a matter, do recommend to General Dalziel forthwith to call for the
said Mr William Spence from the Magistrates of Edinburgh, and to cause
such of His Majesty's forces, officers, and soldiers, as shall be found
most trusty, to watch the said Mr William Spence by turns, and not to
suffer him to sleep by night or by day, and for that end to use all
effectual means for keeping him awake."[17] The "effectual means" were
"pricking,"[18] and the intention was to induce raving, so that in his
{203} delirium the brave prisoner might perhaps reveal his secrets.
The torture was continued for eight or nine nights, but Mr Spence did
not rave, and tired his tormentors out. It was next resolved to try
the "thumbkins" on him, and, indeed, Spence seems to have been one of
the first regular prisoners to suffer this new Muscovy torture,[19] for
the Act of Council authorising the use of "the new invention and engine
called the thumbkins" was passed only a fortnight before; but the
sanguine expectations of the Lords were not fulfilled in the present
case, for though he sank under the agonising torment, he would not
yield. Ten days later he was again threatened with the boot, and
having meanwhile understood from his friends that the Government
practically knew already all he could tell them, he promised to make a
free and ingenuous confession on certain conditions--namely, that no
new questions should be put to him, that he should not be obliged to be
a witness against any person, and that he himself should be pardoned.
Unfortunately, by a sheer accident in disclosing the meaning of some of
the ciphers used in Argyle's correspondence, he put the Council {204}
on the track of the cipher[20] which expressed the name of his
fellow-prisoner, the famous Carstares, who, h