Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/169 ture
malefactors after they had been condemned to death, but the king
responded by sending Gordon on 11 Sept. a reprieve till the
second Friday of November. Gordon about this time made an
ineffectual effort to escape. On 3 Nov. Charles extended the
reprieve for a month, and a fortnight later again wrote ordering
Gordon to be examined by torture. This command was immediately
obeyed, but Gordon on being brought to the council chamber, 23
Nov., either ‘through fear or distraction, roared out like a
bull, and cried and struck about him so that the hangman and his
man durst scarce lay hands on him,’ and at last fell down in a
swoon. On recovering he named several of the royalists as among
the plotters, as some thought from madness or out of design. The
Earl of Aberdeen, then chancellor, however, befriended him, and
he was remitted to the care of the physicians. For greater
quietness they sent him to the castle of Edinburgh. On 13 Dec.
his case was again befo