But early on the Saturday morning, the 29 May, they were with several groups of people in the Abbey kirk-yard, not far from the Castle. First, the gates being open, and the drawbridge let down, for receiving lime and stone, and other things necessary for building (for Babylon was almost finished) – first, we say, William Kirkcaldy of Grange, younger, and six people with him, tried, and gaining entrance, asked the porter ‘If my Lord was awake?’ who answered, ‘No’.
While William and the porter talked, Norman Leslie approached with his men; and because there were not many of them, they easily got in. They went to the middle of the courtyard, and immediately John Leslie arrived, rather roughly, and four men with him. The frightened porter would have drawn up the bridge; but John, who was on his way in, leapt in. And while the porter prepared to defend himself, he was knocked on the head, the keys were taken from him, and he was thrown into the ditch; and so the place was seized.
A shout went up: the workmen, more than a hundred of them, ran off the walls and, without being harmed, were sent out of the gate. First, William Kirkcaldy stood guard at the back door, fearing that the fox had escaped. Then the rest went to the gentleman’s rooms, and without hurting anyone, they put more than fifty people out of the gate. The number who did this was only sixteen people. The Cardinal, woken by the shouting, asked from his window, what the noise was about? It was answered that Norman Leslie had taken his Castle. Understanding this, he ran to the back door; but seeing the passage taken, he returned quickly to his room, took his two-handled sword, and made his chambermaid drag chests and other obstacles against the door.
Then John Leslie came to the door, and asked him to open it. The Cardinal asking, ‘Who calls?’ he answers, ‘My name is Leslie.’ He asks again, ‘Is that Norman?’ The other says, ‘No, my name is John.’ ‘I want Norman,’ says the Cardinal ‘for he is my friend.’ ‘Content yourself with such as are here; for you won’t get anyone else.’
Accompanying John there were James Melville, a man well acquainted with Master George Wishart, and Peter Carmichael, a stout gentleman. In the meantime, while they push at the door, the Cardinal hides a box of gold under the coals that were laid in a secret corner. At length he asked, ‘Will you save my life?’ John answered, ‘It may be that we will.’ ‘No,’ says the Cardinal, ‘swear to me by God’s wounds and I will open to you.’ Then John answered, ‘That which was said, is unsaid’; and so cried, ‘Fire, fire,’ (for the door was very sturdy); and so a scuttle of burning coals was brought. Seeing which, the Cardinal or his chambermaid (it is uncertain which), opened the door, and the Cardinal sat down in a chair and cried, ‘I am a priest; I am a priest; you will not kill me.’
John Leslie (according to his former vows) struck him first, once or twice, and so did Peter. But James Melville (a gentle and modest man) seeing them both enraged, drew them aside, and said, ‘This work and judgment of God (although it is secret) ought to be done with greater gravity’; and pointing the sword at him, said, ‘Repent of your former wicked life, but especially the shedding of the blood of that notable instrument of God, Master George Wishart, who although he was consumed by the flame of the fire before men, yet asks for a vengeance upon you, and we are sent from God to revenge it: For here, before my God, I protest, that neither the hatred of your person, the love of your riches, nor the fear of any trouble you could have done to me in particular, moved, nor moves me to strike you; but only because you have been, and remain an obstinate enemy of Christ Jesus and his holy Evangel’. And so he struck him twice or thrice through with a stog sword; and so he fell, never word heard out of his mouth but ‘I am a priest: fie, fie: all is gone.’
[modified version, see Appendix III, p. 438]