iron shoes, in which condition they were exhibited to the public for three days, and then executed.

Thus James I. restored a considerable degree of tranquillity to the country, which he found in such a distracted state. He made wise laws for regulating the commerce of the nation, both at home and with other states, and strict regulations for the adminisstration of justice betwixt those who had complaints against one another.

the doors of the apartment, so that the keys could not be turned; and they had taken away the bars with which the gates were secured, and had provided planks by way of bridges, on which to cross the ditch which surrounded the monastery. At length, on the 20th February 1437, all was prepared for carrying their treasonable purpose into execution, and Graham came from his hiding-place in the neighbouring mountains, with a party of nigh three hundred men, and entered the gardens of the convent.

But his greatest labour, and that which he found most difficult to accomplish, was to diminish the The King was in his night-gown and slippers. He power of the great nobles, who ruled like so many had passed the evening gayly with the nobles and kings, each on his own territory and estate, and ladies of his court, in reading romances, and in singmade war on the King, or upon one another, when-ing and music, or playing at chess and tables. The ever it was their pleasure to do so. Accordingly, he Earl of Athole, and his son Sir Robert Stewart, who had several of these great persons brought to trial, expected to succeed James on the throne, were and, upon their being found guilty, deprived them of among the last courtiers who retired. At this time their estates. The nobles complained that this was James remained standing before the fire, and condone out of spite against them, and that they were versing gayly with the Queen and her ladies before treated with hardship and injustice; and thus dis- he went to rest. The Highland woman before mencontents were entertained against this good Prince. tioned again demanded permission to speak with the Another cause of offence was, that to maintain jus- King, but was refused, on account of the untimelitice, and support the authority of the throne, it was ness of the hour. All now were ordered to withdraw. found necessary that some taxes for this purpose At this moment there was a noise and clashing should be raised from the subjects; and the Scottish heard, as of men in armour, and the torches in the people being poor, and totally unaccustomed to "ay garden cast up great flashes of light against the winany such contributions, they imputed this odious dows. The King then recollected his deadly enemy, measure to the King's avarice. And thus, though Sir Robert Graham, and guessed that he was coming King James was so well-intentioned a king, and cer- to murder him. He called to the ladies who were left tainly the ablest who had reigned in Scotland since in the chamber to keep the door as well as they could, the days of Robert Bruce, yet both the high and the in order to give him time to escape. He first tried to low murmured against him, which encouraged some get out at the windows, but they were fast barred and wicked men amongst the nobility to conspire his defied his strength. By help of the tongs, which were death. in the chimney, he raised, however, a plank, and let himself down beneath into a narrow vault, used as a common sewer. This had formerly had an opening into the court of the convent, by which he might have made his escape. But all things turned against the unfortunate James; for, two or three days before, he had caused the opening to be built up, because, when he played at ball, the ball used to roll into the vault through that hole.

The chief person in the plot was one Sir Robert Graham, uncle to the Earl of Stratherne. He was bold and ambitious, and highly offended with the King on account of an imprisonment, which he had sustained by the royal command. He drew into the plot the Earl of Athole, an old man of little talent, by promising to make his son Sir Robert Stewart, King of Scotland, in place of James. Others were brought into the conspiracy from different motives. To many of their attendants they pretended they only wished to carry away a lady out of the court. To prepare his scheme, Graham retreated into the remote Highlands, and from thence sent a defiance, renouncing his allegiance to the King, and threatening to put his sovereign to death with his own hand. A price was set upon his head, payable to any one who should deliver him up to justice; but he lay concealed in the wild mountains to prosecute his revenge against James.

her, had it not been for a son of Sir Robert Graham, who said to him, "What would you do to the Queen? She is but a woman-Let us seek the King."

While the King was in this place of concealment, the conspirators were seeking him through the cenvent, and, at length, came to the room where the ladies were. The Queen and her women endeavoured, as well as they might, to keep the door shut, and one of them, Catherine Douglas, boldly thrust her own arm across the door, instead of the bar, which had been taken away, as I told you. But the brave lady's arm was soon broken, and the traitors rushed into the room with swords and daggers drawn, hurting and throwing down such of the women as opposed The Christmas preceding his murder was appointed them. The poor Queen stood half undressed, shriekby the King for holding a feast at Perth. In his waying aloud, and one of the assassins would have slain to that town he was met by a Highland woman, calling herself a prophetess. She stood by the side of the ferry by which he was about to travel to the north, and cried with a loud voice,-" My Lord the They accordingly commenced a minute search, but King, if you pass this water, you will never return without any success; so they left the apartment, and again alive." The King was struck with this for a sought elsewhere about the monastery. In the mean moment, because he had read in a book that a king while the King turned impatient, and desired the should be slain that year in Scotland; for it often ladies to help him out of the inconvenient lurking happens, that when a remarkable deed is in agita-place. At this unlucky moment the conspirators retion, rumours of it get abroad, and are repeated under turned, one of them having recollected that there was pretence of prophecies; but which are, in truth, only such a vault, and that they had not searched it. And conjectures of that which seems likely to happen. when they tore up the plank, and saw the King There was a knight in the court, on whom the king standing beneath in the vault, one of them called to had conferred the name of the King of Love, to the others, "Sirs, I have found the bride, for whom whom the King said in jest," There is a prophecy we have been seeking all night." Then, first one, that a king shall be killed in Scotland this year; and then another of the villains, brethren of the name now, Sir Alexander, that must concern either you or of Hall, descended into the vault, with daggers drawn, me, since we two are the only kings in Scotland." to have despatched the unfortunate King, who was Other circumstances occurred, which might have standing there in his shirt, without weapons of any prevented the good King's murder, but none of them kind. But James, who was an active and strong were attended to. The King, while at Perth, took man, threw them both down beneath his feet, and up his residence in an abbey of Black-Friars, there struggled to have got a dagger from one or other of being no castle or palace in the town convenient for them, in which his hands were severely cut and his residence; and this made the execution of the mangled. Then Sir Robert Graham himself sprung conspiracy more easy, as his guards were quartered down on the King, who, finding no further defence among the citizens. possible, asked him for mercy, and for leisure to confess his sins to a priest. But Graham replied fiercely, "Thou never hadst mercy on those of thine own blood, nor any one else, therefore thou shalt find no

The day had been spent by the King in sport and feasting, and by the conspirators in preparing for their enterprise. They had destroyed the locks of

Livingston and Crichton to show them mercy, but in vain. They were led out to the court of the Castle, and beheaded without delay. Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, a faithful adherent of their house, shared the same fate.

This barbarous proceeding was as unwise as it was unjust. It did not reduce the power of the Douglasses, but only raised general detestation against those who managed the affairs of James II. A fat, quiet, peaceable person called James the Gross, indolent from habit of body and temper of mind, became Earl of Douglas, which was probably the reason that no public commotion immediately attended on the murder of the two brothers. But this corpulent dignitary lived only two years, and was in his turn succeeded by his son Archibald, who was as active and turbulent as any of his ambitious predecessors, and engaged in various civil broils for the purpose of revenging the death of his kinsmen.

James the Second, in the mean while, came to man's estate, and entered on the management of public affairs. He was a handsome man, but his countenance was marked on one side with a broad red spot, which gained him the surname of James with the fiery face. They might have called him James with the fiery temper, in like manner; for, with many good qualities, he had a hot and impetu ous disposition, of which we shall presently see a remarkable instance.

In the beginning of his administration, James employed the assistance of the Earl of Douglas as lieutenant-general of the kingdom. But that ambitious nobleman was soon disposed to extend his authority to independent power, and the King found it necessary to take from him the dangerous office with which he had intrusted him. Douglas retired to his own castle meditating revenge, whilst the King, on the other hand, looked around for some fitting opportunity of diminishing the power of so formidable a rival.

as a favour, rather than urging as a command, that he would deliver the person of the Tutor of Bomby, as Maclellan was usually entitled, into the hands of his relative, Sir Patrick Gray.

Sir Patrick himself went with the letter to the Castle of Thrieve. Douglas received him just as he had arisen from dinner, and, with much apparent civility, declined to speak with Gray, on the occasion of his coming, until he also had dined, saying, "It was ill talking between a full man and a fasting." But this courtesy was only a pretence to gain time to do a very cruel action. Guessing that Sir Patrick Gray's visit respected the life of Maclellan, he resolved to hasten his death before opening the King's letter. Thus, while he was feasting Sir Patrick, with every appearance of hospitality, he caused his unhappy kinsman to be led out and beheaded in the courtyard of the Castle.

When the dinner was over, Gray presented the King's letter, which Douglas received, and read over with every testimony of profound respect. He then thanked Sir Patrick for the trouble he had taken in bringing him so gracious a letter from his sovereign, especially considering he was not at present on good terms with his Majesty. "And," he added, King's demand shall instantly be granted, the rather for your sake." The Earl then took Sir Patrick by the hand, and led him to the castle-yard, where the body of Maclellan was still lying.

the

Sir Patrick," said he, as his servants removed the bloody cloth which covered the body, "you have come a little too late-there lies your sister's sonbut he wants the head-the body is, however, at your service."

"My lord," said Gray, suppressing his indignation, "if you have taken his head, you may dispose of the body as you will."

But, when he had mounted his horse, which he instantly called for, his resentment broke out, in spite of the dangerous situation in which he was placed: "My lord," said he, "if I live, you shall bitterly pay for this day's work.".

So saying, he turned his horse and galloped off.

"To horse, and chase him!" said Douglas; and if Gray had not been well mounted, he would, in all probability, have shared the fate of his nephew. He was closely pursued till near Edinburgh, a space of fifty or sixty miles.

Douglas was not long of showing his total contempt of the King's authority, and his power of acting for himself.-One of his friends and followers, named Auchinleck, had been slain by the Lord Colville. The criminal certainly deserved punishment, but it ought to have been inflicted by the regular magistrates of the Crown, not by the arbitrary pleasure of a private baron, however great and powerful. Douglas, however, took up the matter as a wrong Besides these daring and open instances of condone to himself, and revenged it by his own authori-tempt of the King's authority, Douglas entered into ty. He marched a large body of his forces against such alliances as plainly showed his determination the Lord Colville, stormed his castle, and put every to destroy entirely the royal government. He formed person within it to death. The King was unable to a league with the Earl of Crawford, called Earl Bearavenge this insult to his authority. die, who had great power in the counties of Angus, Perth, and Kincardine, and with the Earl of Ross, who possessed extensive and almost royal authority in the north of Scotland, by which these three powerful Earls agreed that they should take each other's part in every quarrel, and against every man, the King himself not excepted.

In like manner, Douglas connived at and encouraged some of his followers at Annandale to ravage and plunder the lands of Sir John Herries, a person of that country, eminently attached to the King. Herries, a man of high spirit and considerable power, retaliated, by wasting the lands of those who had thus injured him. He was defeated and made prisoner by Douglas, who caused him to be executed, although the King sent a positive order, enjoining him to forbear any injury to Herries's person.

But a still more flagrant breach of law, and violation of all respect to the King's authority, happened in the case of Maclellan, the guardian of the young Lord of Bomby, ancestor of the Earls of Kircudbright. This was one of the few men of consequence in Galloway, who, defying the threats of the Earl of Dougs, had refused to join with him against the King. The Earl, incensed at his opposition, suddenly assaulted his castle, made him prisoner, and carried

o the strong castle of Thrieve, in Galloway, ated on an island in the river Dee. The King took a particular interest in Maclellan's fate, the ather that he was petitioned to interfere in his favour by Sir Patrick Gray, the commander of the royal guard, a gentleman much in James's confidence, and constantly attending on his person, and who was Malellan's near relative, being his uncle on the mother's side. In order to prevent Maclellan from sharing the fate of Colville and Herries, the King wrote a letter to the Earl of Douglas, entreating

James then plainly saw that some strong measure must be taken, yet it was not easy to determine what was to be done. The league between the three Earls enabled them, if open war was attempted, to assemble a force superior to that of the crown. The King, therefore, dissembled his resentment, and, under pretext of desiring an amicable conference and reconciliation, requested Douglas to come to the royal court at Stirling. Douglas hesitated to accept of this invitation, and, before he actually did so, he demanded and obtained a protection, or safe-conduct, under the Great Seal, pledging the King's promise that he should be permitted to come to the court and to return in safety. And the Earl was more confirmed in his purpose of waiting on the King, because he was given to understand that the Chancellor Crichton had retired from court in some disgrace, so that he thought himself secure from the plots of that great enemy of his family.

Thus protected, as he thought, against personal danger, Douglas came to Stirling in the end of February 1452, where he found the King lodged in the Castle of that town, which was and is situated upon a rock rising abruptly from the plain, at the upper

end of the town, and only accessible by one gate, strength of the Castle defied all their efforts, and which is strongly defended. The numerous follow- after this bravado, the Douglasses dispersed themers of Douglas were quartered in the town, but the selves to assemble a still larger body of forces. Earl himself was admitted into the Castle. One of So many great barons were engaged in alliance his nearest confidants, and most powerful allies, with the house of Douglas, that it is said to have was James Hamilton of Cadyow, the head of the been a question in the King's mind, whether he great house of Hamilton. This gentleman pressed should abide the conflict, or fly to France, and forward to follow Douglas, as he entered the gate. leave the throne to the Earl. At this moment of But Livingston, who was in the Castle with the extreme need, James found a trusty counsellor in his King, struck Hamilton, who was his near relation, cousin-german, Kennedy, Archbishop of St. Anupon the face; and when Hamilton, greatly in-drews, one of the wisest men of his time. The Archcensed, rushed on him, sword in hand, he repulsed bishop showed his advice in a sort of emblem or him with a long lance, till the gates were shut parable. He gave the King a bunch of arrows tied against him. Sir James Hamilton was very angry together with a thong of leather, and asked him to at this usage at the time, but afterwards knew that break them. The King said it was beyond his Livingston acted a friendly part, in excluding him strength. "That may be the case, bound together from the danger into which Douglas was throwing as they are," replied the Archbishop, "but if you undo the strap and take the arrows one by one, you may easily break them all in succession. And thus, my Liege, you ought in wisdom to deal with the insurgent nobility. If you attack them while they are united in one mind and purpose, they will be too strong for you; but if you can, by dealing with them separately, prevail on them to abandon their union, you may as easily master them one after the other, as you can break the arrows if you take each singly."

himself.

The King received Douglas kindly, and, after some amicable expostulation with him upon his late conduct, all seemed friendship and cordiality betwixt James and his too powerful subject. Supper was presented at seven o'clock, and after it was over, the King led Douglas into the recess of a window in the apartment, where he came on the subject of the Earl's bond with Ross and Crawford, and exhorted him to give it up, as inconsistent with his allegiance Acting upon this principle, the King made private and the quiet of the kingdom. Douglas declined to representations to several of the nobility, to whom relinquish the treaty which he had formed. The his agents found access, showing them that the reKing urged him more imperiously, and the Earl re-bellion of the Douglasses would, if successful, render turned a haughty and positive refusal, upbraiding the that family superior to all others in Scotland, and King, at the same time, with mal-administration of sink the rest of the Peers into men of little consethe public affairs. Then the King burst into a ragequence. Large gifts of lands, treasures, and hoat his obstinacy, and exclaimed, "By Heaven, my lord, if you will not break the league, this shall." So saying, he wounded the Eari in the breast with his dagger. Sir Patrick Gray, who had sworn revenge on Douglas for the execution of Maclellan, then struck him on the head with a battle-axe, and others of the King's retinue showed their zeal by wounding the dead body. The corpse did not receive any Christian burial. At least, about forty years since, a skeleton was found buried in the garden, just below the fatal window, which was, with much probability, conjectured to be the remains of the Earl of Douglas, who died thus strangely and unhappily by the hand of his sovereign.

This was a wicked and cruel action on the King's part, bad if it were done in hasty passion, and yet worse if James meditated the possibility of this violence from the beginning, and had determined to use force if Douglas should not yield to persuasion. The Earl had deserved punishment, perhaps even that of death, for many crimes against the state; but the King ought not to have slain him without form of trial, and in his own chamber, after decoying him there under assurance that his person should be safe. Yet this assassination, like that of the Red Comyn at Dumfries, turned to the good of Scotland; for God, my dearest child, who is often pleased to bring good out of the follies, and even the crimes of men, rendered the death of Comyn the road to the freedom of Scotland, and that of Douglas the cause of the downfall of the Douglas family, which had become too powerful for the peace of the kingdom.

The scene, however, opened very differently from the manner in which it was to end. There were in the town of Stirling four brethren of the murdered Douglas, who had come to wait on him to court. Upon hearing that their elder brother had died in the manner I have told you, they immediately acknowledged James, the eldest of the four, as his successor in the earldom. They then hastened each to the county where he had interest, for they were all great lords, and collecting their friends and vassals, they returned to Stirling, dragging the safe-conduct, or passport, which had been granted to the Earl of Douglas, at the tail of a serving-man, in order to show their contempt for the King. They then, with the sound of five hundred horns and trumpets, proclaimed King James a false and perjured man. Af terwards they pillaged the town of Sterling, and, not thinking that enough, they sent back Hamilton of Cadyow to burn it to the ground. But the

nours, were liberally promised to those who, in this moment of extremity, should desert the Douglasses and join the King's party. These large promises, and the secret dread of the great predominance of the Douglas family, drew to the King's side many, that had hitherto wavered betwixt their allegiance and their fear of the Earl.

Among these, the most distinguished was the Earl of Angus, who, although himself a Douglas, being a younger branch of that family, joined on this memorable occasion with the King against his kinsman, and gave rise to the saying, that "the Red Douglas (such was the complexion of the Angus family) had put down the Black."

The great family of Gordon also declaring for the King, their chief, the Earl of Huntly, collected an army in the north, and marched south as far as Brechin to support the royal authority. Here he was encountered by the Earl of Crawford, who had taken arms for the Douglas party, according to the fatal bond which had cost the Earl William his life. One of chief the leaders in Crawford's army was John Colasse of Bonnymoon, (or Balnamoon,) who commanded a gallant body of men, armed with bills and battle-axes, on which the Earl greatly relied. But before the action, this John Colasse had asked Crawford to grant him certain lands, that lay convenient for him, and near his house, which the Earl refused to do. Collasse, incensed at the refusal, took an opportunity, when the battle was at the closest, to withdraw from the conflict; upon which Crawford's men who had been on the point of gaining the victory, lost heart, and were defeated. Other battles were fought in different parts of Scotland between the Douglasses and their allies, and those noblemen and gentlemen who favoured the King. Much blood was spilt, and great mischief done to the country. Among other instances of the desolation of these civil wars, the Earl of Huntly burned one half of the town of Elgin, being that part which inclined to the Douglasses, while he left standing the opposite part of the same street, which was inhabited by citizens attached to his own family. Hence the proverb when a thing is imperfectly finished, that it is "Half done, as Elgin was burned." Famine and pestilence came to add to the desolation of the country, wasted by a civil war, which occasioned skirmishes, conflagrations, and slaughters, almost in every province of Scotland.

The royal party at length began to gain ground; for the present Earl of Douglas seems to have been

a man of less action and decision than was usual with those of his name and family. The Earl of Crawford was one of those who first deserted him, and applied to the King for forgiveness and restoration to favour. The King, though he had many subjects of complaint against this powerful lord, and notwithstanding he had made a vow to destroy the Earl's Castle of Finhaven, and to make the highest stone the lowest, nevertheless granted him a full pardon, and made him a visit to Finhaven, where he accomplished his vow, by getting to the top of the battlements and throwing a small stone, which was lying loose there, down into the moat; thus, in one sense, making the highest stone in the house the lowest, though not by the demolition of the place. By this clemency the minds of the hostile nobles were conciliated, and many began to enter into terms of subm ssion.

But the power of the Douglasses remained unbroken, and it was so great that there was little hope that the struggle would be ended without a desperate battle. At length such an event seemed near approaching. The Earls of Orkney and Angus, acting for the King, had besieged Abercorn, a strong castle on the Frith of Forth, belonging to the Earl of Douglas, Douglas collected the whole strength which his family and allies could raise, amounting, it is said, to nearly forty thousand men, with which he advanced to raise the siege. The King, on the other hand, having assembled the whole forces of the north of Scotland, advanced to meet Douglas at the head of an army somewhat superior in numbers to that of the Earl, but inferior in military discipline. Thus every thing seemed to render a combat inevitable, the issue of which must have shown whether James Stewart or James Douglas was to wear the Crown of Scotland. The small river of Carron divided the two armies.

But the intrigues of the Archbishop of St. Andrews had made a powerful impression upon many of the nobles who acted with Douglas, and there was a party among his followers, who obeyed him more from fear than affection. Others, seeing a certain degree of uncertainty in Douglas's resolutions, and a want of decision in his actions, began to doubt whether he was a leader fit to conduct so perilous an enterprise. Amongst these last was Sir James Hamilton of Cadyow, already mentioned, who commanded in Dougias's army three hundred horse, and as many infantry, all men of tried discipline and courage. The Archbishop Kennedy was Hamilton's kinsman, and took advantage of their relationship to send a secret messenger to inform him that the King was well disposed to pardon his rebellion, and to show him great favour, provided that he would at that critical moment renounce the cause of Douglas, and return to the King's obedience. These arguments made considerable impression on Hamilton, who, nevertheless, having been long the friend and follower of the Earl of Douglas, was loath to desert his old friend in such an extremity.

On the next morning after this secret conference, the King sent a herald to the camp of Douglas, charging him to disperse his followers, on pain that he and his accomplices should be proclaimed traitors, but at the same time promising forgiveness and rewards to all who should leave the rebellious standard of Douglas. Douglas made a mock of this summons; and sounding his trumpets, and placing his men in order, marched stoutly forward to encounter the King's army, who on their side left their camp, and came forward with displayed banners, as if to instant battle. It seems, however, that the message of the herald had made some impression on the followers of Douglas, and perhaps on the Earl himself, by rendering him doubtful of their adherence. He saw, or thought he saw, that his troops were discouraged, and Ted them back into his camp, hoping to inspire them with more confidence and zeal. But the movement had a different effect; for no sooner had the Earl returned to his tent, than Sir James Hamilton came to expostulate with him, and to require him to say, whether he meant to fight or not, assuring him that every delay was in favour of the King, and that

the longer the Earl put off the day of battle, the fewer men he would have to fight it with. Douglas answered contemptuously to Hamilton, that "if he was afraid to stay, he was welcome to go home." Hamilton took the Earl at his word, and leaving the camp of Douglas, went over to the King that very night. The example was so generally followed, that the army of Douglas seemed suddenly to disband itself, and in the morning the Earl had not a hundred men left in his silent and deserted camp, excepting his own immediate followers. He was obliged to fly into Annandale, where his brothers and followers sustained a severe defeat from the Scots and other Borderers, near a place called Arkinholme. One of the Earl's brothers fell in the battle, another was wounded and made prisoner, and immediately executed. The third escaped into England, where the Earl also found a retreat. Thus the power of this great and predominant family, which seemed to stand so fair for possessing the crown, fell at length without a struggle; and their greatness, which had been founded upon the loyalty and bravery of the Good Lord James, was destroyed by the rebellious and wavering conduct of the last Earl.

The unfortunate nobleman remained nearly twenty years a banished man in England, and was almost forgotten in his own country until the subsequent reign, when, in 1484, he was defeated and made prisoner, in a small excursion which he had attempted to make upon the frontiers of Annandale. He surrendered to a brother of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, who, in the Earl's better days, had been his own vassal, and who shed tears at seeing his old master in such a lamentable situation. He even proposed to set him at liberty, and fly with him into England; but Douglas rejected this offer. "I am tired," he said, "of exile; and as there is a reward offered by the King for my head, had rather it were conferred on you, who were always faithful to me while I was faithful to myself, than on any one else." Kirkpatrick, however, acted kindly and generously. He secured the Earl in some secret abode, and did not deliver him up to the King until he had a promise of his life. Douglas was then ordained to be put into the Abbey of Lindores, to which sentence he submitted calmly, only using a popular proverb, "He that cannot do better must be a monk." He lived in that convent four years afterwards, and with him, as the last of his family, expired the principal branch of these tremendous Earls of Douglas.

Other Scottish families arose upon their ruins, in consequence of the distribution made of their immense forfeited estates, to those who had assisted the King in suppressing their power. Amongst these the Earl of Angus, who, although kinsman to the Earl of Douglas, had sided with the King, received by far the greater share, to an amount, indeed, which enabled the family, as we shall see, to pursue the same ambitious course as that of their kinsfolk of the elder branch, although they neither rose to such high elevation, nor sunk into the same irreparable ruin which was the lot of the original family.

Hamilton also rose into power on the fall of the Douglas. His opportune desertion of his kinsman at Abercorn was accounted good service, and was rewarded with large grants of land, and at last with the hand of the King's eldest daughter in marriage.

Sir David Scott of Kirkurd and Buccleuch obtained also great gifts of land for his clan's service and his own, at the battle of Arkinholme, and began that course of greatness which raised his family to the ducal dignity,

Such, my dear child, is the course of the world, in which the downfall of one great man or family is the means of advancing others, as a falling tree throws its seed upon the ground, and causes young plants to arise in its room.

The English did not make much war upon Scotland during this reign, being engaged at home with their dreadful civil wars of York and Lancaster. For the same reason, perhaps, the Scots had the advantage in the battle of Sark, and in two other actions.

Relieved from the rivalship of the Douglas and from