sently give thee pardon!" answered the assassin; and, drawing a poniard, he stabbed the King four or five times to the very heart; then took the body on his back and departed, no man opposing him, and no man knowing what he did with the body. Who this murderer was has never been discovered, nor whether he was really a priest or not. There were three persons, Lord Gray, Stirling of Keir, and one Bothwick a priest, observed to pursue the King closely, and it was supposed that one or other of them did the bloody deed. It is remarkable that Gray was the son of that Sir Patrick, commonly called Cowe Gray, who assisted James II. to despatch Douglas in Stirling Castle. It would be a singular coincidence if the son of this active agent in Douglas's death should have been the actor in that of King James's son. The battle did not last long after the King left the field, the royal party drawing off towards Stirling, and the victors returning to their camp. It was fought upon the 18th June, 1488. Thus died King James the Third, an unwise and unwarlike Prince; although, setting aside the murder of his brother the Earl of Mar, his character is rather that of a weak and avaricious man, than of a cruel and criminal sovereign. His taste for the fine arts would have been becoming in a private person, though it was carried to a pitch which interfered with his duties as a sovereign. He fell, like most of his family, in the flower of his age, being only thirty-six years old. CHAPTER XX. Barton, one of the best mariners in Leith, replied to the proposal by informing the council, that though Sir Andrew had but two vessels, yet they were so well furnished with artillery, and Sir Andrew himself was so brave and skilful, that no two ships in Scotland would be a match for him. James IV. afterwards received Sir Andrew Wood into high favour; and he deserved it by his exploits. In 1490, a squadron of five English vessels came into the Forth, and plundered some Scottish merchantships. Sir Andrew sailed against them with his two ships, the Flower, and the Yellow Carvel, took the five English vessels, and, making their crews and commanders prisoners, presented them to the King at Leith. Henry VII. of England was so much incensed at this defeat, that he sent a stout sea-captain, called Stephen Bull, with three strong ships, equipped on purpose, to take Sir Andrew Wood. They met him near the mouth of the Frith, and fought with the utmost courage on both sides, attending so much to the battle, and so little to any thing else, that they let their ships drift with the tide, so that the action, which began off Saint Abb's Head, ended in the Frith of Tay, At length Stephen Bull and his three ships were taken. Sir Andrew again presented the prisoners to the King, who sent them back to England, with a message to Henry VII. that the Scots could fight by sea as well as land. To return to the Lords who had gained the victory at Sauchie. They took a resolution, which appears an act of daring effrontery. They resolved to try some of the principal persons who had assisted King James III. in the late civil commotion, as if in so doing they had committed treason against James IV. Reign of James IV-Naval Exploits of Sir Andrew Wood-although the last was not, and could not be king, till Trial of Lord Lindsay of the Byres-lovasion of England in behalf of Perkin Warbeck-Treaty with England, and Marriage of James with Margaret, Daughter of Henry VII. THE fate of James III. was not known for some time He had been a patron of naval affairs; and on the great revolt in which he perished, a brave sea officer, Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, had taken the King's side, and was lying in the Frith of Forth, not far distant from the coast where the battle was fought. He had sent ashore his boats, and brought off several wounded men of the King's party, amongst whom it was supposed might be the King himself. Anxious to ascertain this important point, the Lords sent to Sir Andrew Wood to come on shore, and appear before their council. Wood agreed, on condition that two not lemen of distinction, Lords Seton and Fleming, should go on board his ships, and remain there as hostages for his safe return. The brave seaman presented himself before the Council and the young King in the town of Leith. As soon as the Prince saw Sir Andrew, who was a goodly person, and richly dressed, he went towards hin, and said, Sir, are you my father?" "I am not your father," answered Wood, the tears falling from his eyes ; but I was your father's ant while he lived, and shall be so to lawful authority until the day I die." The Lords then asked what men they were who had come out of his ships, and again returned to them on the day of the battle of Sauchie. after his father's death. They determined to begin with Lord David Lindsay of the Byres, a man well acquainted with military matters, but otherwise blunt and ignorant; so they thought it would be no difficult matter to get him to submit himself to the King's pleasure, when they proposed to take a fine in money from him, or perhaps confiscate some part of his lands. This they thought would encourage others to submit in like manner; and thus the conspirators proposed to enrich themselves, and to impoverish those who had been their enemies. It was on the 10th May, 1489, that Lord David Lindsay was called upon before the Parliament, then sitting at Edinburgh, to defend himself against a charge of treason, which stated, "that he had come in arms to Sauchie with the King's father against the King himself, and had given the King's father a sword and good horse, counselling him to devour the King's grace here present." Lord Lindsay knew nothing about the forms of law-affairs, but hearing himself repeatedly called upon to answer to this accusation, he started up, and told the nobles of the Parliament they were all villains and traitors themselves, and that he would serv-prove them to be such with his sword. The late King, he said, had been cruelly murdered by villains, who had brought the Prince with them to be a pretext and colour for their enterprise. "And," said the stout old lord, addressing himself personally to the King, who was present in Parliament, "if your Grace's father were still living, I would fight for him to the death, and stand in no awe of these false lurdans-(that is, villains.) Or, if your Grace had a son who should come in arms against you, I would take your part against his abettors, and fight in your cause against them, three men against six. Trust me, that though they cause your Grace to believe ill of me, I will prove in the end more faithful than any of them." "It was I and my brother," said Sir Andrew undauntedly, who were desirous to have bestowed our lives in the King's defence." They then directly demanded of him, whether the King was on board his ships? To which Sir Andrew replied with the same firmness, "He is not on board my vessels. I wish he had been there, as I should have taken care to have kept him safe from the traitors who have murdered him, and whom I trust to see hanged and drawn for their demerits." These were bitter answers; but the Lords were obliged to endure them, without attempting any revenge, for fear the seamen had retaliated upon Fleming and Seton. But when Sir Andrew had returned on board his ship, they sent for the best seamen in the town of Leith, and offered them a reward if they would attack Sir Andrew Wood and his two ships, and ake him prisoner, to answer for his insolent conduct to the council. But Captain The Lord Chancellor, who felt the force of these words, tried to turn off their effect, by saying to the King, that Lord Lindsay was an old-fashioned man, ignorant of legal forms, and not able to speak reverently in his Grace's presence. "But," said he, "he will submit himself to your Grace's pleasure, and you must not be severe with him;" and, turning to the Lord David, he said, "It is best for you to submit to the King's will, and his Grace will be good to you." Now you must know, that the Lord David had a brother named Patrick Lindsay, who was as good a lawyer as Lord Lindsay was a soldier. The two brothers had been long upon bad terms; but when this Mr. Patrick saw the Chancellor's drift, he trod upon his elder brother's foot, to inake him understand that he ought not to follow the advice given him, nor come into the King's will, which would be in fact confessing himself guilty. The Lord David, however, did not understand the hint. On the contrary, as he chanced to have a sore toe, the tread of his brother's foot was painful to him, so that he looked fiercely at him and said, "Thou art too pert to stamp upon my foot-if it were out of the King's presence, I would strike thee upon the face.' But Mr. Patrick, without regarding his brother's causeless anger, fell on his knees before the assembled nobles, and besought that he might have leave to plead for his brother; "for," said he, "I see no man of law will undertake his cause for fear of displeasing the King's Grace; and though, my lord, my brother and I have not been friends for many years, yet my heart will not suffer me to see the native house from which I am descended perish for want of assistance." The King having granted Mr. Patrick Lindsay liberty of speech in his brother's behalf, he began by objecting to the King's sitting in judgment in a case, in which he was himself a party, and had been an actor. "Wherefore," said Mr. Patrick, "we object to his presence to try this cause, in which, being a party, he ought not to be a judge. Therefore we require him, in God's name, to rise and leave the Court, till the question be considered and decided." The Lord Chancellor and the Lords having conversed together, found that this request was reasonable. So the young King was obliged to retire into an inner apartment, which he resented as a species of public affront. Mr. Patrick next endeavoured to procure favour, by entreating the Lords, who were about to hear the to judge it with impartiality, and as they would wish to be dealt with themselves, were they in misfortune, and some party adverse to them possessed of power. "Proceed and answer to the accusation," said the Chancellor. "You shall have justice at our hands." Then Mr. Patrick brought forward a defence in point of legal form, stating that the summons required that the Lord Lindsay should appear forty days after citation, whereas the forty days were now expired; so that they could not be legally compelled to answer to the accusation until summoned anew. This also was found good law; and Lord David Lindsay, and other persons accused, were dismissed for the time, nor were any proceedings ever resumed against them. Lord David, who had listened to the defences without understanding their meaning, was so delighted with the unexpected consequences of his brother's eloquence, that he broke out into the following rapturous acknowledgment of gratitude :"Verily, brother, you have fine pyett words, (that is, magpie words.) I could not have believed, by Saint Mary, that ye had such words. For this day's labour ye shall have the Mains of Kirk for your day's wage. The King, on his side, threatened Mr. Patrick with a reward of a different kind, saying, "he would set him where he should not see his feet for twelve months." Accordingly, he was as good as his word, sending Mr. Patrick to be prisoner in the dungeon of the Castle of Rothsay, in the island of Bute, where he lay for one year. It is curious to find that the King's authority was so limited in one respect, and so arbitrary in another. For it appears, that he was obliged to comply with Patrick Lindsay's remonstrance, and leave the seat of regal justice, when his jurisdiction was declined as that of a partial judge; whilst, on the other hand, he had the right, or at least the power, to subject the objecting party to a long and rigorous imprisonment, for discharging his duty towards his client. James IV. was not long upon the throne ere his own reflections, and the remonstrances of some of the clergy, made him sensible, that his appearance with the rebel Lords against his father in the field of Sauchie was a very sinful action. He did not consider his own youth, nor the enticements of the Lords, who had obtained possession of his person, as any sufficient excuse for having been, in some degree, accessary to his father's death, by appearing in arms against him. He deeply repented the crime, and, according to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic religion, endeavoured to atone for it by various acts of penance. Among other tokens of repentance, he caused to be made an iron belt, or girdle, which he wore continually under his clothes; and every year of his life he added another link of an ounce or two to the weight of it, as if he desired that his penance should not be relaxed, but rather should increase during all the days of his life. It was perhaps in consequence of these feelings of repentance, that the King not only forgave that part of the nobility which had appeared on his father's side, and abstained from all further prosecution against Lord Lindsay and others, but did all in his power to conciliate their affections, without losing those of the other party. The wealth of his father enabled him to be liberal to the nobles on both sides, and at the same time to maintain a more splendid appearance in his court and royal state than had been practised by any of his predecessors. He was himself expert in all feats of exercise and arms, and encouraged the use of them, and the practice of tilts and tournaments in his presence, in which he often took a share himself. His aut ority, as it was greater than that of any king who had reigned since the time of James I. was employed for the administration of justice, and the protection of every rank of his subjects, so that he was reverenced as well as beloved by all classes of his people. Scotland obtained, under his administration, a greater share of prosperity than she had yet enjoyed. She possessed some share of foreign trade, and the success of i Andrew Wood, together with the king's exertions in building vessels, made the country be respected, as having a considerable naval power. These advantages were greatly increased by the unusually long continuance of the peace, or rather the truce, with England. Henry VII. had succeeded to the crown of England, after a dreadful series of civil strife, and being himself a wise and sagacious monarch, he was desirous to repair, by a long interval of repose and quiet, the great damage which the country had sustained by the wars of York and Lancaster. He was the more disposed to peace with Scotland, that his own title to the throne of England was keenly disputed, and exposed him more than once to the risk of invasion and insurrection. On the most memorable of these occasions, Scotland was for a short time engaged in the quarrel. A certain personage, calling himself the second son of Edward IV., supposed to have been murdered in the Tower of London, laid claim to the crown which Henry VII. wore. On the part of Henry, this pretended Prince was said to be a low-born Fleming, named Perkin Warbeck, trained up by the Dutchess of Burgundy to play the part which he now assumed. It is not, perhaps, even yet certain whether he was the real person he called himself, or an impostor. In 1496, he came to Scotland at the head of a gallant train of foreigners, and accompanied by about fifteen hundred men, and made the greatest offers to James 1V. provided he would assist him in his claims against England. James does not appear to have doubted the adventurer's pretensions to the character which he assumed; he received him with favour and distinction, conferred on him the hand of Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntly, the most beautiful woman in Scotland, and disposed himself to lend him assistance to ascend the English throne. The Scottish King with this view entered Northumberland, and invited the people of that warlike county to join the ranks of the supposed Prince. But the Northumbrians paid no attention to this invitation, and when the adventurer besought James to spare the country, the Scottish monarch answered with a sneer, that it was very kind of him to interfere in the same manner you may now see a good farmer in behalf of a people that did not seem at all disposed to acknowledge him. The English in 1497 revenged this inroad by an invasion of Berwickshire, in which they took a small castle, called Ayton. No other mischief was done on either side, for James gave up the cause of Perkin Warbeck, satisfied either that he had no right to the throne, or that he had not a hold on the affections of any considerable party sufficient to make such a right good. The adventurer, abandoned by James, made afterward an attempt to invade England from Cornwall, and being made prisoner, was executed at Tyburn. His wife, who had faithfully attended him through all his misfortunes, fell into the hands of Henry VII., who assigned her a pension, and recommended her to the protection of his Queen. She was commonly called, from her grace and beauty, the White Rose of Scotland. and his wife riding to church. There were shows prepared to receive them, all in the romantic taste of the age. Thus they found in their way a tent pitched, out of which came a knight armed at all points, with a lady bearing his bugle-horn. Suddenly another knight came up, and took away the lady. Then the first knight followed him, and challenged him to fight. They drew swords accordingly, and fought before the King and Queen for their amusement, till the one struck the sword out of the other's hands, and then the King commanded the battle to cease. In this representation all was sport except the blows, and these were serious enough. Many other military spectacles were exhibited, tilts and tournaments in particular. James, calling himself The Savage Knight, appeared in a wild dress, accompanied by the fierce chiefs from the Borders and Highlands, who fought with each other till several were wounded and slain in these ferocious entertainments. It is said the King was not very sorry to see himself thus rid of these turbulent leaders, whose feuds and depredations contributed so often to the public disturbance. After this short war had been made up by a truce of seven years, Henry's wisdom was employed in converting that truce into a stable and lasting peace, which might, for a length of time at least, unite two nations, whose mutual interest it was to remain friends, although unhappy circumstances had so long made them enemies. The grounds of the inveterate The sports on the occasion of the Queen's marhostility between England and Scotland had been riage, and indeed the whole festivities of King James's that unhappy claim of supremacy set up by Edward reign, and the style of living at his court, showed I., and persevered in by all his successors. This was that the Scots, in his time, were a wealthier and a a right which England would not abandon, and to more elegant people than they had formerly been. which the Scots, by so many instances of determined James IV. was renowned among foreign nations for resistance, had shown they would never submit. the splendour of his court, and for the honourable For more than a hundred years there had been no reception which he gave to strangers who visited his regular treaty of peace betwixt England and Scot-kingdom. And we shall see in the next chapter, that land, except for the few years which succeeded the his leisure was not entirely bestowed on sport and treaty of Northampton. During this long period, the pastime, but that he also made wise laws for the kindred nations had been either engaged in the most benefit of the kingdom. inveterate wars, or reposing themselves under the protection of short and doubtful truces. The wisdom of Henry VII. endeavoured to find a remedy for such great evils, by trying what the effects of gentle and friendly influence would avail, where the extremity of force had been employed without effect. The King of England agreed to give his dughter Margaret, a beautiful and accomplished princess, to James IV. in marriage. He offered to endow her with an ample fortune, and on that alliance was to be founded a close league of friendship between England and Scotland, the Kings obliging themselves to assist each other against all the rest of the world. Unfortunately for both countries, but particularly so for Scotland, this peace, designed to be perpetual, did not last above ten years. Yet the good policy of Henry VII. bore fruit after a hundred years had past away; and in consequence of the marriage of James IV. and the Princess Margaret, an end was put to all future national wars, by their great-grandson, James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, becoming King of the whole island of Great Britain. The claim of Supremacy, asserted by England, is not mentioned in this treaty, which was signed 4th January, 1502; but as the monarchs treated with each other on equal terms, that claim, which had cost such oceans of Scottish and English blood, must be considered as having been virtually abandoned. This important marriage was celebrated with great pomp. The Earl of Surrey, a gallant English nobleman, had the charge to conduct the Princess Margaret to her new kingdom of Scotland. The King came to meet her at Newbattle Abbey, within six miles of Edinburgh. He was gallantly dressed in a jacket of crimson velvet, bordered with cloth of gold, and had hanging at his back his lure, as it is called, an implement which is used in hawking. He was distinguished by his strength and agility, leaping on his horse without putting his toe in the stirrup, and always riding full gallop, follow who could. When he was about to enter Edinburgh with his new bride, he wished her to ride behind him, and made a gentleman mount to see whether his horse would carry double. But as his spirited charger had never been broken for that purpose, the King got up before his bride on her palfrey, which was quieter, and so they rode through the town of Edinburgh in procession, CHAPTER XXI. The DURING the season of tranquillity which followed the marriage of James and Margaret, we find that the King, with his Parliament, enacted many good laws for the improvement of the country. Highlands and Islands were particularly attended to, because, as one of the acts of Parliament expressed it, they had become almost savage for want of justices and sheriffs. Magistrates were therefore appointed, and laws made for the government of these wild and unruly people. Another most important act of Parliament permitted the King, and his nobles and barons, to let their land, not only for military services, but for a payment in money or in grain; a regulation which tended to introduce quiet peaceful farmers into lands occupied, but left uncultivated, by tenants of a military character. Regulations also took place for attendance on Parliament, and the representation of the different orders of society in that assembly. The possessors of lands were likewise called on to plant wood, and make enclosures, fish-ponds, and other improve ments. All these regulations show, that the King entertained a sincere wish to benefit his subjects, and entertained liberal views of the mode of accomplishing that object. But the unfortunate country of Scotland was destined never to remain any long time in a state of peace or improvement, and accordingly, towards the end of James's reign, events occurred which brought on a defeat still more calamitous than any which the kingdom had yet received. While Henry VII., the father-in-law of James, continued to live, his wisdom made him very attentive to preserve the peace which had been established betwixt the two countries, and to remove all the petty causes of quarrel which arose from time to time. But when this wise and cautious monarch died, he was succeeded by his son, Henry VIII., a prince of a bold, haughty, and furious disposition, impatient of control or contradiction, and rather desirous of war than willing to make any concessions for the sake of peace. James IV. and he resembled each other, perhaps, too nearly in temper, to admit of their continuing intimate friends. The military disposition of Henry chiefly directed him to an enterprise against France, and the King of France, on his part, desired much to renew the old alliance with Scotland, in order that the apprehension of an invasion from the Scottish frontiers, might induce Henry to abandon his scheme of at-hearts, I am a little wounded, but not slain; I will tacking France. He knew, that the splendour in which King James lived had exhausted the treasures which his father had left behind him, and he concluded that the readiest way to make him a friend, was to supply him with sums of money, which he could not otherwise have raised. Gold was also freely distributed among the councillors and favourites of the Scottish King. This liberality showed to great advantage, when compared with the very opposite conduct of the King of England, who delayed even to pay a legacy, which had been left by Henry his father to his sister the Queen of Scotland. Other circumstances of a different kind tended to create disagreements between England and Scotland. James had been extremely desirous to increase the strength of his kingdom by sea, and its commerce; and Scotland presenting a great extent of sea-coast, and numerous harbours, had at this time a considerable trade. The royal navy, besides one vessel called the great Michael, supposed to be the largest in the world, consisted, it is said, of sixteen ships of war. He, therefore, paid particular attention to naval affairs. It chanced that one John Barton, a Scottish mariner, had been captured by the Portuguese, as far back as the year 1476. As the King of Portugal refused to make any amends, James granted the family of Barton letters of reprisals, that is, warrants empowering them to take all Portuguese vessels which should come in their way, until their loss was made up. These were three brothers, all daring men, but especially the eldest, whose name was Andrew Barton. He had two strong ships, the larger called the Lion, the other the Jenny Pirwen, with which, it would appear, he cruised in the British Channel, stopping not only Portuguese vessels, but also English ships bound for Portugal. Complaints being made to King Henry, he fitted out two vessels, which were filled with chosen men, and placed under the command of Lord Thomas Howard and Sir Edward Howard, both sons to the Earl of Surrey. They found Barton and his vessels cruising in the Downs, being guided to the place by the captain of a merchant vessel whom Barton had plundered on the preceding day. On approaching the enemy, the noble brothers showed no ensign of war, but put up a willow wand on their mast, as being the emblem of a trading vessel. But when the Scotsman attempted to make them bring to, the English threw out their flags and pennons, and fired a broadside of their ordnance. Barton then knew that he was engaged with the King of England's ships of Far from being dismayed at this, he engaged boldly, and, distinguished by his rich dress and bright armour, appeared on his deck with a whistle of gold about his neck, suspended by a chain of the same precious metal, and encouraged his men to fight valiantly. The fight was very obstinate. If we niay believe a ballad of the time, Barton's ship was furnished with a peculiar contrivance, suspending large weights, or beams, from his yard-arms, to be dropped down upon the enemy when they should come alongside. To make use of this contrivance, it was necessary that a person should ascend the mainmast, or, in naval language, go aloft. As the English apprehended much mischief from the conseof this manoeuvre, Howard had stationed a Yorkshire gentleman, named Hustler, the best archer in the ship, with strict injunctions to shoot every one who should attempt to go aloft to let fall the beams of Barton's vessel. Two men were successively killed in the attempt, and Andrew Barton himself, confiding in the strong armour which he wore, began to ascend the mast. Lord Thomas Howard called out to the archer to shoot true, on peril of his life. "Were I to die for it," said Hustler, war. "I have but two arrows left." The first which he shot bounded from Barton's armour without hurting him. As the Scottish mariner raised his arm to climb higher, the archer took aim where the armour afforded him no protection, and wounded him mortally through the right arm-pit. Barton descended from the mast. Fight on," he said, "my brave but rest awhile, and then rise and fight again mean time, stand fast by Saint Andrew's Cross,' meaning the Scottish flag, or ensign. He encouraged his men with his whistle, while the breath of life remained. At length, the whistle was heard no longer, and the Howards, boarding the Scottish vessel, found that her daring captain was dead. They carried the Lion into the Thames, and it is remarkable that Barton's ship became the second wan-of-war in the English navy. When the Kings wanted to equip a fleet, they hired or pressed into their service, merchant vessels, and put soldiers on board of them. The ship called the Great Henry was the first built by the King as his own property,this captured vessel was the second. James IV. was highly incensed at this insult, as he termed it, on the flag of Scotland, and sent a herald to demand satisfaction. The King of England justified his conduct on the ground of Barton's being a pirate,-a charge which James could not justly deny but he remained not the less heated and incensed against his brother-in-law. Another misfortune aggravated his resentment. While Henry VII. was yet alive, Sir Robert Ker of Fairnyherst, chief of one branch of the clan of Ker, an officer of James's household, and a favourite of that monarch, held the office of Warden on the Middle Marches of Scotland. In exercising this office with rather unusual strictness, he had given. offence to some of the more turbulent English Borderers, who resolved to assassinate him. Three of these, namely, Heron, called the Bastard, because a natural brother of Heron of Ford, with Starhed and Lilburn, surrounded the Scottish Warden, at a meeting upon a day of truce, and killed him with their lances. Henry VII., with the pacific policy which marked his proceedings towards Scotland, agreed to surrender the guilty persons.-Lilburn was given up to King James, and died in captivity; Starhed escaped for a time, by flying into the interior parts of England; the Bastard Heron caused it to be rumoured that he was dead of the plague, and made himself be transported in a coffin, so that he passed unsuspected through the party sent to arrest him, and skulked on the Borders, waiting for a quarrel between the kingdoms. Henry VII., anxious to satisfy James, arrested his legitimate brother, and Herod of Ford was delivered up instead of the Bastard. But when Henry VIII. and James were about to disagree, both the Bastard Heron and Starhed began to show themselves more publicly. Starhed was soon disposed of, for Sir Andrew, commonly called Dand Ker, the son of the murdered Sir Robert, sent two of his dependants, called Tait, to accomplish his vengeance upon the English Borderer. They surprised and put him to death accordingly, and brought his head to their patron, who exposed it publicly at the Cross of Edinburgh, exulting in the revenge he had taken. But the Bastard Heron continued to rove about the Border, and James IV. made the public appearance of this criminal a subject of complaint against Henry VIII., who perhaps was not justly responsible for it. Great While James was thus on bad terms with his brother-in-law, France left no measures unattempted which could attach Scotland to her side. sums of money were sent to secure the good-will of those courtiers in whom James most confided. The Queen of France, a young and beautiful princess, flattered James's taste for romantic gallantry, by calling herself his mistress and lady-love, and conjuring him to march three miles upon English ground for her sake. She sent him, at the same time, a ring from her own finger; and her intercession was so powerful, that James thought he could not in honour dispense with her request. This fantastical spirit of chivalry was his own ruin, and very nearly that of the kingdom also. At length in June or July, 1513, Henry VIII. sailed to France with a gallant army, where he formed the siege of Terouenne. James IV. now took a decided step. He sent over his principal herald to the camp of King Henry before Terouenne, summoning him in haughty terms to abstain from aggressions against James's ally, the King of France, and upbraiding him, at the same time, with the death of Barton, the impunity of the Bastard Heron, and all the subjects of quarrel which had occurred since the death of Henry VII. Henry VIII. answered this letter, which he justly considered as a declaration of war, with equal bitterness, treating the King of Scots as a perjured man, because he was about to break the peace which he had solemnly sworn to observe. His summons he rejected with scorn. "The King of Scot land was not," he said, "of sufficient importance to determine the quarrel between England and France.' The Scottish herald returned with this message, but not in time to find his master alive. James had not awaited the return of his embassy to commence hostilities. Lord Home, his Lord High Chamberlain, had made an incursion into England with an army of about three or four thousand men. They collected great booty; but marching carelessly and without order, fell into an ambush of the English Borderers, concealed among the tall broom, by which Millfield plain, near Wooler, was then covered. The Scots sustained a total defeat, and lost near a third of their numbers in slain and wounded. This was a bad commencement of the war. Mean while James, contrary to the advice of his wisest counsellors, determined to invade England with a royal army. The Parliament were unwilling to go into the King's measures. The tranquillity of the country, ever since the peace with England, was recollected, and as the impolitic claim of the supremacy seemed to be abandoned, little remained to stir up the old animosity between the kingdoms. The King, however, was personally so much liked, that he obtained the consent of the Parliament to this fatal and unjust war; and orders were given to assemble all the array of the kingdom of Scotland upon the Borough-moor of Edinburgh, a wide common, in the midst of which the royal standard was displayed from a large stone, or fragment of rock, called the Hare-stone. Various measures were even in this extremity resorted to for preventing the war. One or two of them seemed to have been founded on a knowledge that the King's temper was tinged with a superstitious melancholy, partly arising from constitutiona! habits, partly from the remorse which he always entertained for his accession to his father's death. It was to these feelings that the following scene was doubtless addressed : As the King was at his devotions in the church of Linlithgow, a figure, dressed in an azure-coloured robe, girt with a girdle, or sash of linen, having sandals on his feet, with long yellow hair, and a grave commanding countenance, suddenly appeared before him. He paid little or no reverence to the royal preto the desk at which the King Another story, not so well authenticated, says, that a proclamation was heard at the Market-cross of Edinburgh, at the dead of night, summoning the King, by his name and titles, and many of his nobles and principal leaders, to appear before the tribunal of Pluto within the space of forty days. This also has the appearance of a stratagem, invented to deter the King from his expedition. But neither these artifices, nor the advice and entreaty of Margaret, the Queen of Scotland, could deter James from his unhappy expedition. He was so well beloved, that he soon assembled a great army, and placing himself at their head, he entered England near the castle of Twisell, on the 22d August, 1513. He speedily possessed himself of the border fortresses of Norham, Wark, Etall, Ford, and others of less note, and collected a great spoil. Instead, however, of advancing with his army upon the country of England, which lay defenceless before him, the King is said to have trifled away his time, in an intercourse of gallantry with Lady Heron of Ford, a beautiful woman, who contrived to divert him from the prosecution of his expedition until the approach of an English army. While James lay thus idle on the frontier, the Earl of Surrey, that same noble and gallant knight who had formerly escorted Queen Margaret to Scotland, now advanced at the head of an army of twenty-six thousand men. The Earl was joined by his son Thomas, the Lord High Admiral, with a large body of soldiers who had been disembarked at Newcastle. As the warlike inhabitants of the northern counties gathered fast to Surrey's standard, so, on the other hand, the Scots began to return home in great numbers, because, though, according to the feudal laws, each man had brought with him provisions for forty days, these being now nearly expended, a scarcity began to be felt in James's host. Others went home to place their booty in safety. Surrey, feeling himself the stronger party, became desirous to provoke the Scottish King to fight. He therefore sent James a message, defying him to battle; and the Lord Thomas Howard, at the same time, added a message, that as King James had often complained of the death of Andrew Barton, he, Lord Thomas, by whom that deed was done, was now ready to maintain it with his sword in the front of the fight. James returned for answer, that to meet the English in battle was so much his wish, that had the message of the Earl found him at Edinburgh, he would have laid aside all other business to have met him on a pitched field. But the Scottish nobles entertained a very different opinion from the King. They held a council, at which Lord Patrick Lindsay was made president, or chancellor. This was the same person who, in the beginning of the King's reign, had pleaded so well for his brother, to whose titles and estate he afterward succeeded. He opened the discussion by telling the council a parable of a rich merchant, who would needs go to play at dice with a common hazarder, or sharper, and stake a rose-noble of gold against a crooked halfpenny. You, my lords," he sence, but pressing up on it with his arms, and your King, whom I compare to a precious rosesaid, "will be as unwise as the merchant, if you risk was seated, leaned addressed him. This singular looking personage noble, against the English general, who is but an old declared that "his Mother laid her commands on crooked churl, lying in a chariot. Though the EngJames to forbear the journey which he purposed, see- lish lose the day, they lose nothing but this old churl ing that neither he, nor any who went with him, and a parcel of mechanics; whereas so many of would thrive in the undertaking." He also cautioned our common people have gone home, that few are the King against frequenting the society of women, left with us but the prime of our nobility." He and using their counsel; "if thou dost," said he, therefore gave it as his advice, that the King should "thou shalt be confounded and brought to shame.' withdraw from the army, for safety of his person, These words spoken, the messenger escaped from and that some brave nobleman should be named by among the courtiers so suddenly, that he seemed to the council, to command in the action. The council disappear. There seems no doubt, that this person agreed to recommend this plan to the King. had been dressed up to represent Saint John, called in Scripture the adopted son of the Virgin Mary. The Roman Catholics believed in the possibility of the souls of departed saints and apostles appearing on earth, and many impostures are recorded in history of the same sort with that I have just told you. But James, who desired to gain fame by his own skill and prowess, suddenly broke in on the council, and told them, with much heat, that they should not put such a disgrace upon him. "I will fight with the English," he said, "though you had all sworn the contrary, Ye may shame yourselves by flight, but you shall not shame me; and as for Lord Patrick |