dismissal; while Major boldly assumes that they must have been conspicuous for their incontinence, or "the good Earl" would never have expelled them; and, improving on this hint, Hume declares that Douglas had solely in view "an eye for religion, and a special care for the pure and sincere worship of God"-though the suspicious admission is made by the same historian, that the Earl did thereby "greatly increase his revenues, and enlarge his dominions."†

From whatever cause, the Sisters of St. Benedict were forced to vacate the Abbey, to make way for a brotherhood of twelve bedesmen and a provost-for whose maintenance its opulent revenues were assigned. A magnificent church was added to the original fabric, also a domicile for the provost: so that the building in 1448 differed essentially from the original edifice, with

"Its massive arches, broad and round,
That rose alternate row on row,
On ponderous columns, short and low,
Built ere the art was known;

By pointed aisle, and shafted stalk,
The arcades of an alley'd walk

To emulate in stone."+

All the additions made to the Abbey of the twelfth century by Earl Douglas were in the Florid Gothic of the fourteenth century; and as, later still, some other portions were added in the Scotch Baronial style, the picturesque ruin, which still overlooks the "Meeting of the Waters" a mile above Dumfries, combines three orders of architecture, though the distinctive features of the primitive Saxon are overlaid or lost.

Lincluden College was made up of buildings that enclosed a spacious court, the east side of which was occupied by the Provost's residence, looking down upon the river Cluden, and by a tall octagon tower; § the south side comprised a choir, with transepts, nave, and side aisles; the north, a refectory and * Extracta e Chronicis, p. 207.

+ History of House of Douglas, p. 114.

Scott's Marmion.

§ The octagon tower, which formed a very prominent and interesting portion of the edifice—the more so, as the royal arms of Scotland were sculptured on its front-suddenly fell, with a tremendous crash, on Sabbath the 16th of February, 1851; and thus one fine feature of the ruins was utterly destroyed.Visitor's Guide to Dumfries, p. 69.

U

dormitory; the western boundary being formed by a high wall, with a general entrance-gate to the interior. At the date of Earl William's visit, the choir especially must have presented a beautiful aspect. Though of small dimensions, the large size of its details, as in the case of Michael Angelo's statues, gave it a colossal effect-a peculiarity shown in the massive corbels and capitals of the vaulting shafts from which the groined arches sprang, in the moulding round the priests' door, in the still bolder crocketing of the public entrance, and in the flamboyant tracery of the windows, all fashioned on strictly geometrical principles. Much of the inner ornamentation ministered to the pride of the family, speaking as it did, in heraldic language, of their rank and achievements; and a gorgeous tomb, with a sculptured effigy in its recess, formed a meet monument for a countess of Galloway, the wife of a Douglas, and the daughter of a king, who, as already noticed, had been laid there not long before, to neighbour in "the narrow house" the dust of Uchtred, the lord of that ancient province.

Here, then, at Lincluden, in the closing month of 1448, Earl William held his court, and took counsel of his brother noblesall "lesser lights," compared with him as the central luminary -and of the freeholders and others who had responded to his summons. How the proud lord demeaned himself when presiding at the meeting, is not recorded; but we can easily conceive that his habitual haughtiness gave place to a courtesy not unknown to the members of his house when mingling with those who readily bowed to their supremacy. The Harleian Collection bears unmistakable witness to the ability and wisdom which signalized the deliberations under his guidance, embodying as it does "the ordinances of war sett doune at Lincludan College, by all the lords, freeholders, and eldest borderers of Scotland, on the 18th of December, 1448, by the commandment of Earl William of Douglasse."

We learn from the document in question, that old statutes were revised, and a number of new rules drawn up, and that the code thus completed prohibited intercommuning with the enemy; enjoined that all men were to keep by their own

*

Billings's Antiquities of Scotland, vol. iv.; in which valuable work views are given of the windows as restored.

respective companies; that they were to answer to their names when the host was arrayed; that all were to fight on foot, except such as got special leave from their chief to be on horseback; that it regulated the conditions of ransom, and prescribed the penalties incurred by desertion and other offences. The eleventh clause runs thus: "Whatever he be that brings a traytor to the warden or his deputy, he shall have his reward, a hundred shillings; and he that puts him away fraudfully shall underlie the pain of death, like as the traitor should have done." The thirteenth clause is in the following terms: "Whoever he be— an host of Englishmen arriving in the country, the bales being burned-that follows not the host on horse or on foot, ever till the Englishmen be passed off Scotland, and that they have sufficient witnesses thereof, all their goods shall be escheat, and their bodies at the warden's will, unless they have lawful excuse for them." Before departing, the presiding Earl, we are told, made all present swear upon the Gospels that they would, within their respective jurisdictions, observe, and cause to be obeyed, all these ordinances, and assist him in carrying them into effect.

At this important conference, also, the system of signalling the approach of an enemy by balefires was brought to a perfection unknown before. It was enacted that nine beacons should be erected in Nithsdale on the following eminences, and fired in time of need: Wardlaw, Rachochtoun, Barloch, Pittara, Malow, Corsincon, Corswel, Dowlback, and Watchfell; and that other eleven should be kept ready in Annandale-on Gallowhill, Kinnelknock, Blois, Browanhill, Barrow Skenton, Dryfesdale, Quitsoun, Cowdens, Balehill, Penchathill, and Trailtrow. It was also arranged that on the Sheriff of Nithsdale, and the Stewards of Annandale and Kirkcudbright, should devolve the responsibility of employing proper persons to erect, maintain, and fire the beacons.* When the whole of them, in a winter's night, threw their ruddy glare on high, the effect must have

Introduction to Nicholson and Burns's History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, p. 59.

The names are incorrectly given in the book from which we have quoted. We should probably read Tynron-Doon for Rachochtoun; Brownmuirhill and Barr (in Hoddam) for Browanhill and Barrow; Quhytwind, or Whitewoollen, (at Lockerbie) for Quitsoun; and Pendiclehill (in Tinwald) for Penchathill.

been grand as well as startling; and hundreds of households must have been protected from pillage, and thousands of lives been saved, by the timely alarm thus communicated. No doubt, Dumfries sometimes owed its safety to the arousing flame seen streaming up from Wardlaw hill on the Solway, and responded to by the friendly light on Corsincon.

It is whilst thus employed, as a local legislator, that we like best to look upon the eighth Earl of Douglas. Pity it is that we can rarely view him so beneficially employed. Had he attended more to such matters, and less to the promptings of lawless ambition, he would not have provoked the violent and premature death that awaited him, and his memory would have been held in more honour by his countrymen.

CHAPTER XV.

CUMBERLAND RAVAGED BY THE SCOTS-THE DOUGLAS RAID-THE ENGLISH PREPARE ΤΟ MAKE REPRISALS A LARGE SOUTHERN ARMY ENTERS DUMFRIESSHIRE, AND ENCAMPS ON THE BANKS OF THE SARK-BATTLE OF THE SARK, AND UTTER ROUT OF THE ENGLISH-INCREASING AUDACITY OF DOUGLAS HIS IMPOSING JOURNEY TO ROME-OPPRESSIVE CONDUCT OF HIS SUBORDINATES-A FINE LEVIED ON HIS CHIEF REPRESENTATIVETHE ROYAL COMMISSIONER TRIES TO EXACT THE FINE IN NITHSDALE BY FORCE, AND IS COMPELLED TO RETREAT-KING JAMES ENFORCES HIS AUTHORITY IN THE DISTRICT DOUGLAS, IN RETURNING HOMEWARDS, HEARS OF THE ROYAL VISIT TO HIS DOMAINS, VOWS VENGEANCE, BUT POLITICALLY SMOTHERS HIS RESENTMENT HE RECEIVES THE KING'S FORGIVENESS ENTERS INTO A TREASONABLE ALLIANCE WITH OTHER LORDS INSTANCES OF THE EARL'S CRUELTY AND TYRANNY HE IS DECOYED TO STIRLING CASTLE, CARESSED AND FETED BY KING JAMES, AND THEN BASELY STABBED BY THE ENRAGED MONARCH, BECAUSE HE REFUSES TO BREAK THE REBELLIOUS BOND INTO WHICH HE HAD ENTERED -JAMES, NINTH EARL OF DOUGLAS, REBELS AGAINST THE KING-SOME OF THE DUMFRIESSHIRE BARONS TAKE ARMS AGAINST DOUGLAS - HIS THOROUGH DEFEAT AT THE BATTLE OF ARKINHOLM -HE AND ALBANY ENTER INTO AN ALLIANCE WITH KING HENRY OF ENGLAND, AND INVADE DUMFRIESSHIRE AT THE HEAD OF AN ENGLISH ARMY- THE INVADERS ARE ROUTED AT LOCHMABEN, AND DOUGLAS IS MADE PRISONER FALL OF THE HOUSE OF DOUGLAS.

AFTER the burning of Alnwick, a truce for seven years was agreed upon between the two kingdoms; but, owing to the commotions in both, resulting from the weakness of their respective Governments, it was soon broken, the English in this instance being the aggressors. A large body of them, under the command of the younger Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland, made an incursion into Annandale, burning several villages, and carrying off all the goods they could lay hands upon. Luckily, Douglas was not far distant from the post of duty and danger. Falling upon the retiring Southrons, he made them accelerate their retreat, and yield up all the spoil with which they were burdened. So far, so well; but Douglas, for reasons of his own, wished to widen the area of the war-field,