第10章 A FAIR NECK FOR THE MAIDEN(2)

It was distinctly a determined affair of murder.The loveliness of Jean Livingstone has been so insisted upon in many Scottish ballads, and her conduct before her execution was so saintly, that one cannot help wishing, even now, that she could have escaped the scaffold.But there is no doubt that, incited by the nurse, Janet Murdo, she set about having her husband killed with a rancour which was very grim indeed.

A stanza in one ballad runs:

She has twa weel-made feet;Far better is her hand;She's jimp about the middleAs ony willy wand.''

The reason for Jean's hatred of her husband appears in the dittay against Robert Weir.Forasmuch,'' it runs, translated to modern terms,as whilom Jean Livingstone, Goodwife of Warriston, having conceived a deadly rancour, hatred, and malice against whilom John Kincaid, of Warriston, for the alleged biting of her in the arm, and striking her divers times, the said Jean, in the month of June, One Thousand Six Hundred Years, directed Janet Murdo, her nurse, to the said Robert , to the abbey of Holyroodhouse, where he was for the time, desiring him to come down to Warriston, and speak with her, anent the cruel and unnatural taking away of her said husband's life.

And there you have it.If the allegation against John Kincaid was true it does not seem that he valued his lovely wife as he ought to have done.The striking her divers times'' may have been an exaggeration.It probably was.Jean and her women would want to show there had been provocation.(In a ballad he is accused of having thrown a plate at dinner in her face.) But there is a naivete, a circumstantial air, about thebiting of her in the arm'' which gives it a sort of genuine ring.How one would like to come upon a contemporary writing which would throw light on the character of John Kincaid! Growing sympathy for Jean makes one wish it could be found that Kincaid deserved all he got.

Here and there in the material at hand indications are to be found that the Lady of Warriston had an idea she might not come so badly off on trial.But even if the King's Majesty had been of clement disposition, which he never was, or if her judges had been likely to be moved by her youth and beauty, there was evidence of such premeditation, such fixity of purpose, as would no doubt harden the assize against her.

Robert Weir was in service, as I have said, with Jean Livingstone's father, the Laird of Dunipace.It may have been that he knew Jean before her marriage.He seems, at any rate, to have been extremely willing to stand by her.He was fetched by the nurse several times from Holyrood to Warriston, but failed to have speech with the lady.On the 30th of June, however, the Lady Warriston having sent the nurse for him once again, he did contrive to see Jean in the afternoon, and, according to the dittay,conferred with her, concerning the cruel, unnatural, and abominablemurdering of the said whilom John Kincaid.''

The upshot of the conference was that Weir was secretly led to alaigh'' cellar in the house of Warriston, to await the appointed time for the execution of the murder.

Weir remained in the cellar until midnight.Jean came for him at that hour and led him up into the hall.Thence the pair proceeded to the room in which John Kincaid was lying asleep.It would appear that they took no great pains to be quiet in their progress, for on entering the room they found Kincaid awakened be thair dyn.''

I cannot do better at this point than leave description of the murder as it is given in the dittay against Weir.The editor of Pitcairn's Trials remarks in a footnote to the dittay that the quaintness of the ancient style even aggravates the horror of the scene.'' As, however, the ancient style may aggravate the reader unacquainted with Scots, I shall English it, and give the original rendering in a footnote:

And having entered within the said chamber, perceiving the said whilom John to be wakened out of his sleep by their din, and to pry over his bed-stock, the said Robert came then running to him, and most cruelly, with clenched fists, gave him a deadly and cruel stroke on the jugular vein, wherewith he cast the said whilom John to the ground, from out his bed; and thereafter struck him on his belly with his feet; whereupon he gave a great cry.And the said Robert, fearing the cry should have been heard, he thereafter, most tyrannously and barbarously, with his hand, gripped him by the throat, or weasand, which he held fast a long time, while he strangled him; during the which time the said John Kincaid lay struggling and fighting in the pains of death under him.And so the said whilom John was cruelly murdered and slain by the said Robert.

And haifing enterit within the faid chalmer, perfaving the faid vmqle Johnne to be walknit out of his fleip, be thair dyn, and to preife ouer his bed ftok, the faid Robert cam than rynnand to him, and maift crewallie, with thair faldit neiffis gaif him ane deidlie and crewall straik on the vane-organe, quhairwith he dang the faid vmqle Johnne to the grund, out-ouer his bed; and thaireftir, crewallie ftrak him on bellie with his feit; quhairvpoun he gaif ane grit cry: And the faid Robert, feiring thecry fould haif bene hard, he thaireftir, maift tyrannouflie and barbarouflie, with his hand, grippit him be the thrott or waifen, quhilk he held faft ane lang tyme quhill he wirreit him; during the quhilk tyme, the faid Johnne Kincaid lay ftruggilling and fechting in the panes of daith vnder him.And fa, the faid vmqle Johnne was crewallie murdreit and flaine be the faid Robert.''

It will be seen that Robert Weir evolved a murder technique which, as Pitcairn points out, was to be adopted over two centuries later in Edinburgh at the Westport by Messrs Burke and Hare.