History Of Scotland Vol. 2 - Part 14

( Originally Published 1909 )

Anne of Denmark—Her Family—Her Coronation—Her Clergy in Favor with the King—Bothwell consults with Magicians—Is imprisoned—Breaks his Word—Attacks Holyrood Palace, but is beaten off—Huntley burns the House of Dunnibirsel, and kills the Earl of Murray—General Dissatisfaction—Bothwell attacks Falkland, but is beaten off—Escape of Wemyss of Logie—Progress of Catholicism—Affair of the Spanish Blanks—Clergy interpose, and urge the King to more severe Prosecution of the Catholics—Bothwell surprises the King, who is obliged to subscribe Articles—The Convention declare they are not binding—Bothwell again discharged the King's Presence—The Catholic Lords are excommunicated, and James is reduced to great Anxiety—Bothwell advances on Edinburgh—He retires before the King—Defeats the Earl of Home—Compelled to retreat to the Borders—Feuds of the Johnstones and Maxwells—Battle of the Dryffe Sands—The Charge of pursuing the Catholic Lords is committed to Argyle—He is defeated at Glenlivet by Huntley and Errol—The King suppresses the Catholic Lords—Bothwell goes abroad, and dies in Misery—Death of Captain James Stewart—The King devolves the Management of his Revenue upon the Ministers called Octavians—They enforce general Retrenchment—Popular Clamor against them—They incur the King's Displeasure, and resign

THE wife with whom King James allied himself appears to have been one of those females whose character is not very strongly marked. Anne of Denmark was fair in complexion, comely, of good aspect, and pleasing manners. She loved festivity and gayety, and was rather an encouragement than a restraint to the king's extravagance. The coldness of his temper prevented his regarding her with uxorious fondness; but he was good natured and civil, and the queen was satisfied with the external show of attention. In her younger days she mixed in the stormy politics of the Scottish court, and her name was to be found in the intrigues of that period. Little credit is due to the scandalous authors who have assailed her character as a private individual; nor has she left such traces in history as call either for much censure or high praise. She was the mother of a fair family, and excited the hopes of James, as well as of his party in England, by speedily making him the father of two sons, Henry and Charles.

The first died early, and was lamented accordingly, though, perhaps, upon no better grounds than was inspired by the disappointment of those hopes usually fixed upon the opening virtues of most princes who have died without enjoying the power to which they were born. Charles, the younger of the princes, was doomed to carry into England that same train of misfortunes which had persecuted the Stuarts since their first accession to the throne of Scotland, and to perish like his grandmother Mary by the blow of a public executioner. A princess Elizabeth was married to the prince palatine, and had her share of misfortunes.

King James and his new spouse were received with all the splendor which the means of the country could achieve. The queen was inaugurated with solemnity; but so low was the order of bishops now held, that the ministry of a Presbyterian clergyman was used upon this ceremony. Nor was the zeal of the clergy altogether satisfied with some points of the ceremonial. Scruples were entertained at the anointing of the queen, as a Jewish ceremonial abrogated by the Christian dispensation. Mr. Robert Bruce, however, a man of great repute among the Scottish clergy, performed the ceremony at the queen's coronation after the ancient form. James and the Presbyterian clergy had never been upon such good terms as they were at present. He was sensible that the order and regularity which prevailed during his absence was in a great measure owing to the anxious care of the clergy to restrain the people within the bounds of law and authority. This inclined James to express himself very favorably on the discipline and doctrine of the Church, and to clear the way, as speedily as could be conveniently done, for recalling those restraints upon the Presbyterian Church which had been imposed by the Earl of Arran in 1584, and of which, though little acted upon, the clergy still highly complained. Accordingly, in the year 1592, a parliament was held, in which the acts of 1584 were explained or re-called, and the discipline of the Presbyterian government, in its general assemblies, synods, presbyteries, and kirk sessions, was fully and amply established. The king and Church of Scotland appeared now to have lived together on a footing of mutual confidence and regard; but the storms of hatred and jealousy, by which this unhappy country was harassed, did not suffer its atmosphere to remain long in serenity.

The Earl of Bothwell, already often mentioned, was the king's near relation, and an example of his lenity, not only on account of James having pardoned the slaughter of Sir William Stewart, and other violences of the like nature; not only on account of his having forgiven the earl for having urged and endeavored to precipitate a war with England; but also from his forgiving Bothwell's participation in the rebellion of the Catholic lords, without having to plead even the excuse of religion.

A matter now occurred in which it was the pleasure of the king to see more guilt than in any of Bothwell's former offences.

The occult arts, as they were called, were then in the highest credit. The mummery of astrologers was mingled with the political counsels of princes; and the belief was universal alike in soothsayers, who could foretell the future, and witches and wizards who could operate strange cures, and inflict as wonderful diseases, by their intelligence with the infernal powers. The king, who was passionately addicted to the searching out and punishing these imaginary crimes, soon discovered that some political intrigues were connected with them, and became much alarmed in con-sequence. Two soothsayers, or wizards rather, above the miserable caste who usually bore that character, had confessed having been the cause, by magical rites, of raising the storm by which the queen's fleet had been driven back to Norway; and that they had also consulted about doing harm to the fleet or person of the king. To which their infernal master had replied, hiding, we may suppose, in the obscurity of a foreign language, a want of power which he was ashamed to acknowledge, Il est homme de Dieu. Thus far the king was flattered; and Agnes Simpson and Richard Graham might have been quietly burned alive without much stir about the matter. Unhappily, they had also to confess that Francis Stewart, earl of Bothwell, had submitted for their consideration certain very suspicious questions concerning the duration of the king's life. Considering that these persons usually practiced the art of poisoning as well as bewitching, King James might be excused for entertaining apprehension from such interrogatories being put to such personages by a daring, turbulent, and ambitious man, possessed of the power to do much mischief, and not likely to want the will to exert it. Bothwell was committed to prison, or as the phrase then went, was put in ward in the castle of Edinburgh. Impatient of restraint, he made his escape by bribing his jailers, and fled to the borders, where he had personal friends and followers of great influence, and where there were always enough of desperate and disorderly men to follow any banner which should lead to bloodshed and to spoil.

The king took measures of severity against his unquiet relation; and as Bothwell still lay under the forfeiture of treason pronounced against him for his association with Huntley, he caused the doom which hitherto only hung over his head in the way of intimidation to be proclaimed, in consideration of these new offences. Upon publication of his sentence of forfeiture, several of Bothwell's friends upon the border forsook him. Buccleuch, who was his son-in-law, had submitted to an order of the king which had sent him abroad for some time, and was thus out of the road of temptation. The Earl of Home, who, as a Catholic, had been Bothwell's friend on former occasions, withdrew from him when he engaged in open rebellion.

Nevertheless, some persons in court, from dislike to the chancellor, upon whom Bothwell threw the blame of his forfeiture, invited the insurgent earl and his followers to attend at a back passage to the palace of Holyrood, which gave entrance through the Duke of Lennox's stables, and thus obtain the means of seizing upon his majesty's person and the gates of the palace. James Douglas of Spot was engaged in this conspiracy, by the following concurrence of circumstances: His father-in-law, George Home of Spot, had been recently slain by certain borderers of the name of Home and Craw. Sir George Home, nephew to the slain gentleman, conceived that Douglas was at the bottom of this murder, instigated by a jealousy that the deceased in-tended to transfer to his nephew some of the estate which Douglas claimed as husband of his only daughter. On this suspicion three of Douglas's servants were seized upon, imprisoned in Holyrood, and appointed to be examined by torture. Douglas made every exertion to obtain his servants' freedom, either out of regard for them or fear of what they might confess; and finding it impossible to procure their deliverance by entreaty, he thrust himself into this conspiracy that he might liberate them by main force. Both-well appeared at the appointed time, and was admitted; but James Douglas made the plot public prematurely by an at-tempt to break open the prison in which his servants lay. The noise occasioned the discovery that strangers had broken into the palace: the uproar became general; the king betook himself to the defence of a strong tower; and the chancellor, whose life was aimed at, defended himself in his chamber. The citizens of Edinburgh, hearing the tumult, rushed to the palace in arms and drove ont the assailants. Bothwell and his party fled, eight of their number being either taken or slain.

It was subsequently learned that Bothwell had betaken himself to the west part of Scotland, where he was nearly apprehended. Letters were directed to several nobles for pursuing the refractory earl and his followers with fire and sword. But this led unhappily to a new catastrophe.

A report had been spread that the Earl of Murray was seen with Bothwell's party in the night of the tumult, and it was deemed the more probable as Bothwell and he were cousins-german. The king placed in the hands of the Earl of Huntley a commission to bring Murray presently before him. To the tenor of the order there could be no objection; but there was the highest reason for having lodged the commission in other hands.

The houses of Huntley and Murray were mortal enemies. The fatal battle of Corrichie was an event not to be forgotten nor forgiven; and even very lately a Gordon of some consequence in the family had been killed by a shot from one of the houses of the Earl of Murray. Their rivalry for obtaining a predominance in the north was constant and unremitting; and there, probably, was not a more fatal or decided feud through the whole disunited kingdom of Scotland than existed between these two families.

In the present circumstances, Murray, with the most peaceable intentions, so far as can be known, was residing at his house of Dunnibirsel, having with him only Dunbar, the sheriff of Murray, and a small retinue. Huntley, who had crossed the firth with a body of a hundred horse and upward, surrounded the castle, which was not very defensible, with the purpose of executing the arrest enjoined by the king. Murray refused to surrender to his feudal enemy; a shot was fired from the house of Dunnibirsel, by which a Gordon was killed. The Earl of Huntley then forced. the castle by using fire. The situation of the besieged became desperate. "Let me sally forth," said the sheriff, with the devotion of a friend of these days, when friendship was as devoted and disinterested as their hatred was relentless and enduring; "I will be taken for you and slain, and thus you may escape." The gates were thrown open; Dunbar rushed forth and was slain, as he anticipated. But the Marl of Murray did not profit by the sacrifice : the attention of the assailants, now in their most savage mood, was arrested by his superior stature; and the sparkles which had set fire to his streaming locks, and the silk tassels upon his head-piece, enabled the Gordons to trace him in his flight to a cavern on the sea-shore, where Gordon of Buckle inflicted upon the earl a mortal wound. Partly alarmed at what he had done, partly, perhaps, out of native ferocity, Buckie insisted that Huntley should also become a participant of the deed; and the chief with an ill-assured hand struck the dying earl in the face with his dagger. Even in the agony of death, Murray had not forgotten the symmetry of countenance and person which procured him the popular surname of the "bonny" (or handsome) Earl of Murray. With his latest breath he said to Huntley, "You have spoiled a better face than your own."

When this tragedy had been acted, Huntley felt no inclination to return to the king, conscious of the degree in which he had exceeded his commission. He hastened to the castle of Ravensheuch, belonging to Lord Sinclair, who gave him admission with an expression of doubtful welcome. "You are welcome here, my lord," he said; "but should have been more welcome to have ridden past my gates." Huntley proceeded northward in the morning to his own dominions, plainly showing his sense of danger from the act he had committed. In his haste he left upon the field Innes of Invermarkie, one of his followers, a man of some distinction, who was wounded, and unable to accompany his chief in his retreat. Being sent to Edinburgh, where the story had excited general horror, the wounded gentleman was tried and executed.

Nothing could have happened more likely to trouble the king's affairs than this unhappy act of violence. Huntley was a Catholic, who had been lately in rebellion for his league with the king of Spain. Murray was a Protestant, a favorite of the common people, on account of his youth, beauty, and persona] accomplishments, and dear to the Church as the representative of the Regent Murray, who had done so much toward the foundation of the Protestant faith and the Presbyterian system. The outcry against Huntley was universal, and the desire of revenge general. In the north the Lord Forbes, a hereditary enemy of Hunt-ley, hung the bloody shirt of Murray upon a spear, and under this banner levied a band of men to avenge the earl's death. In imitation of a practice before noticed, the picture of the earl's body, having the hair on fire, and mar gled with many wounds, was also publicly shown to excite general resentment. Popular scandal, which is always willing to adopt the grossest calumnies, accused the king of being conscious of the slaughter, and alleged as the cause an ideal jealousy, on James's part, of the bonny earl's supposed favor with the queen.

The bodies of the deceased Murray and Dunbar were brought to Leith; but their friends refused to commit them to the earth until the slaughter should be avenged. The clamor of the metropolis was universal, so that the king, not esteeming it safe to remain in Edinburgh, betook himself to Glasgow, where he held his court; until Huntley, in obedience to the royal charge, surrendered himself a prisoner in the fortress of Blackness. The resentment of this slaughter, which had so strong an effect upon the common people, gave the greatest encouragement to Bothwell in his desperate at-tempts; especially when the people found that Huntley, in-stead of being brought to trial, was dismissed, upon giving security for his appearance to answer for the crime.

The numbers who now joined Bothwell encouraged him to a new attempt upon the king's person, which took place upon the 28th of June, 1592, while James was residing at his hunting palace of Falkland. Early in the morning Bothwell appeared at the head of three hundred horse, chiefly, as usual, borderers and broken men; but relying, it was supposed, upon some friends within the palace. The king, however, had enough of faithful followers to make good the donjon, or great tower of the palace. From this, as from a citadel, they maintained a fire which rendered it impossible for the assailants to approach the palace gate; and Bothwell, finding no assistance from within, and that the people of the neighborhood were assembling in great force, was obliged once more to retreat. The king, fortified by the assistance of the men of Fife, gave chase to the assailants in their retreat, and took some of them in the moors, so overcome with sleep as to be unable to prosecute their flight on horseback. Bothwell, therefore, fled once more to the borders, and found harbor either in Scotland or England at his pleasure; for Queen Elizabeth, although she had complimented King James upon his marriage, pursued her ancient policy of maintaining such disorders in Scotland as might keep the king as much as possible under her tutelage. Several persons were prosecuted in consequence of this last attempt of Bothwell, especially one gentleman named Wemyss of Logie, a gentleman of the king's bed-chamber; the means of whose escape rendered his imprisonment remarkable. He had paid his addresses to one of the queen's Danish maids of honor, Margaret Twinlace by name, who, considering her lover's extremity, and his life in danger, pretended a commission from the queen. Obtaining admittance to the prisoner under this pretext, she gave him a ladder of ropes, which afforded him the means of escaping from the window. Logie was pardoned on account of the lady's generosity, who hazarded her reputation for his safety, and they were married.

Shortly afterward an affair broke out which placed in its issue new dissensions between the king and the Church, and bred at the same time much alarm in the country, on account of the machinations of Spain with the Scottish papists which it manifestly implied. The affair had also that mysterious cast which is sure to awaken and excite the feelings of the public. Those of the Catholic persuasion were now of the suffering, and, considering the severity of the penal laws, we may say, the oppressed religion; and the persecution which they underwent had its usual effect in riveting their attachment to their own faith, and kindling the enthusiasm of the missionary priests and Jesuits, who had dedicated themselves to the cause of extending the doctrines of Rome. These zealots, instigated by Spain, and supplied with money from the same source, haunted various parts of Scotland, and were frequently successful in making converts to their religion even among the great and powerful; while, uniting politics with theology, they pressed their converts into a union with Spain, for the purpose of a new invasion of Britain; the principal object of which was to be the relief of the Catholic community. There was one George Ker, brother of the Lord Newbattle, who being called upon to make declaration concerning his faith before the Church, and conscious of having relapsed to the Catholic faith, fled to the small islands in the mouth of the Clyde, called the Cumrays, and took a passage on hoard a vessel bound for Spain.

The minister of Paisley, learning this circumstance, came suddenly with a body of twenty-four armed men, boarded the vessel, took Ker prisoner, and with him seized on a large parcel of letters from seminary priests and Jesuits, together with a number of blanks in the form of missives or letters, containing no writing, but subscribed by the Earl of Huntley, the Earl of Errol, and Patrick Gordon of Auchindoun, Huntley's uncle. These blanks were, in some instances, addressed to the Spanish monarch, and others were drawn up in the form of contracts, signed and sealed. Ker was sent prisoner to Edinburgh. It was Sunday when the mysterious circumstances of the discovery reached the capital. A great tumult arose. The clergy, contrary to their wont, made a short sermon, and the king being then absent at Alloway, the preachers held meetings with the lords of the privy council, and spread the alarm through the country at large, inviting the different presbyteries in the kingdom to send representatives to Edinburgh, to consider what should be done in a case so dangerous to the Church. The engagement of Angus in such a treason was the more strange, as he came of an old Protestant stock, and had been very lately employed in settling some discords between Huntley and the Mackintoshes; and, having succeeded in his errand, was expected immediately in Edinburgh, to report his services to the king. His father was the nephew of the famous Earl of Morton, and a man of sense and talent. His death, according to the apprehension of the vulgar, and even the more learned, was caused by witchcraft; and when he was advised to use some counter spells, to destroy the effect of the sorcery under which he was supposed to labor, he protested he would rather die than do aught to obtain life contrary to the dictates of religion. The relapse of the present earl, the son of a Protestant father, was the more unexpected. He no sooner reached Edinburgh than he was arrested, at the instigation of the ministers, by the provost and bailies of the city.

The king, alarmed at this discovery, hastened to his metropolis, of which the churchmen appeared disposed to take the command. Ker being examined, confessed that Crichton, Gordon, and Abercrombie, three Jesuits, had devised this contrivance of the blanks, as the safest mode for opening a communication between the king of Spain and the Scottish Catholics. They were to be filled up in Spain, with the stipulations of the subscribers; of which the principal was, that the king of Spain should send an army of thirty thousand men to Scotland, half of which were to remain in the kingdom, for the purpose of establishing the ancient faith, or, at least, securing an absolute toleration, while the other fifteen thousand men should invade England.

Angus, being examined upon these matters, denied all knowledge of the blanks, and affirmed his subscription to be a forgery; but he presently afterward showed a sense of his guilt, by making his escape out of the castle of Edinburgh. David Graham of Fintry, who was apprehended on suspicion, corroborated the declaration of Ker, and being found guilty, in terms of his own confession, was presently executed. The king once more marched with an army into the territories of the Catholic lords, who withdrew themselves to the mountains, and lay concealed, while their vassals were obliged to avow their loyalty to the king and firm adhesion to the Protestant faith.

Notwithstanding all which James could do in the way of prudent precaution, his subjects retained a provoking degree of incredulity on the subject of his real desire to subdue the insurgent Catholics. Nothing less than the most extreme degree of rigor could have satisfied the Church; and Queen Elizabeth adopted the same tone, insisting, by her ambassadors, that the utmost severity should be used against persons whose designs were equally dangerous to both kingdoms. In the meantime the queen of England, negligent of no means by which her neighbor could be harassed, and his councils distracted, was pleased, as we have before stated, to take Bothwell under her protection, and receive him and his followers in her kingdom, when obliged to retreat to the borders. This was, in the particular instance, inconsistent with the general policy of Elizabeth, since Bothwell, in the year 1588, had been decidedly averse to the continuance of peace with England, and had then leagued himself with the Catholic lords who were disposed to encourage the Spanish invasion. Being, however, a man of no religious principle of any kind, and finding that the general temper of the people was moved by the ministers against the king, on account of his supposed favor to Catholics, the earl now adopted the popular tone, and alleged the danger of the Protestant cause as a principal reason for pursuing his tumultuary attacks upon the king's person. He had, probably, the most total indifference as to the further consequences of his attempt, providing only it succeeded in raising him to the authority he desired. Neither is it likely he had any enmity against King James's person, which he only wished to be possessed f, as he would have desired to hold a seal, or other symbol of authority, which should give him the pre-eminent command in the government. The annals of Scotland afforded many instances of the same ambitious purpose being successfully pursued by means equally violent. Angus, during the minority of James V., had long exercised the principal authority, by such means as Bothwell now meditated; and the Earl of Morton, and, subsequently, the Earl of Gowrie, had for a time succeeded in similar attempts in the present reign.

The time began to seem auspicious to Bothwell's purpose. The young queen had taken some distaste at the chancellor, which had been fostered by the king's relations, Lennox, Athole, Ochiltree, and others, who were of opinion that the chancellor's influence intercepted the favor which the king would otherwise have shown to his own friends of the name of Stuart. By their connivance Bothwell, with Douglas of Spot and others, the boldest of his followers, forced their way into the royal presence, well provided with pistols and drawn swords. Archbishop Spottiswoode says, that when Bothwell saw the king, he threw himself on his knees and asked forgiveness, and that the king with dignity replied, "Strike, traitor, for you have dishonored me" ; and placing himself in his chair of state, repeated the expression, "Strike, and end thy work, for I desire to live no longer." A worthy citizen of Edinburgh, a faithful journalist of the times, reports James's demeanor in less royal fashion. "The king's majesty," he says, "coming from the back stair with his breeches in his hand, in a fear; howbeit it needed not." By the entreaties of the queen's faction, and the intervention of the English ambassador, the king was persuaded to sign articles of agreement with the insurgents. The first stipulated the pardon of Bothwell for his past offences, and like-wise for his recent violence. The second provided that Lord Home, who, from being the ally of Bothwell, had of late become his bitter foe, should with his friends and kinsmen be banished from the court. The third article stipulated that a parliament should be called in November next. And it was lastly concerted that Earl Bothwell and his followers should be considered as good subjects.

It cannot be denied that in such an emergency the king must have conducted himself both with prudence and spirit to obtain such favorable resolutions, which, though they imposed upon him for the time the necessity of receiving Bothwell with apparent favor, yet left him a prospect of getting free of his turbulent kinsman.

For this purpose James appointed a convention at Stir-ling, in the beginning of September, which was well attended. Bothwell, on his part, had little sagacity to guide his ambition : he appears to have been unequal to the task of securing a superiority in the convention, though it was generally easy for such as were in possession of the king's person to carry that material point. His enemies were predominant there, as appeared from their very first proceedings. The king laid before the convention his agreement with Bothwell; and having narrated the indignities and offences repeatedly practiced against him by that nobleman, he required the opinion of his parliament, that they would take into consideration the conditions which he had been compelled to subscribe, and decide how far he was bound by them in honor or conscience. The reply of the convention was, that the attempt of Bothwell to intrude himself upon the king's presence was in itself treasonable, and that the king was in no respect bound by the articles which had been imposed on him in consequence of that armed intrusion. In respect to Both-well's pardon, they declared it a matter at his majesty's discretion.

The king cannot be said to have abused this victory, when, after having thus obtained liberation from the articles which had been extorted from him, he tendered to the Earl of Bothwell a free pardon, on condition that he should depart from court, and not presume to approach the royal person unless summoned by the king. It was added that the king expected he should retire abroad for some time. Bothwell appeared at first satisfied with the conditions imposed on him; but presently returning to his old practices, he made an appointment with Athole, one of his courtier allies, to meet him at Stirling with all his forces, and disperse the convention. Their meeting was disconcerted by the alacrity of the king's party; and Bothwell, cited to the privy council, and not appearing, was of new denounced a rebel.

In the meantime the affair of the Spanish blanks, and the impunity of the Catholic lords concerned, continued to agitate the minds of the clergy : there was, they thought, an obvious intention on the part of the king to pass slightly over a matter which, when first heard of by Mr. Ker's confession, he had declared beyond the reach of his power to pardon. Since that time Ker had escaped, or, as the ministers supposed, had been permitted to leave prison, and the Catholic nobles were no longer afraid that his testimony would be brought against them. Confident in this hope, and in the lenity which King James was disposed to extend to them, the Catholic Earls of Huntley, Errol, and Angus, appeared suddenly before the king, during a journey to the south, and offered to submit themselves to a fair trial; and James, without causing them to be arrested on the spot, appointed a day for their appearance, and suffered them to depart in freedom. This interview between James and the accused nobles augmented the worst suspicions of the clergy respecting the king's motives, and the utmost anxiety was expressed for the event.

The nobles had accepted a day of trial, and were preparing themselves to appear at the bar, with large bands of their friends and followers, whom they accounted strong enough to protect them.

The ministers expressed the greatest alarm at this conjuncture., and proposed, by their own authority, to levy such bodies of Protestants as might enable the prosecution to proceed. That they might not spare their own exertions on the occasion, they directed the curse of excommunication to be fulminated against the Catholic lords.

A single synod took upon themselves to pronounce this sentence, which carried with it the civil pains of treason against Errol, 'Huntley, and Angus, and also against the Earl of Home, who was a Catholic, though not involved in the Spanish negotiations. The body of the Church seemed determined to take the conduct of this important case into their own management. They demanded of the king that the Church of Scotland should be permitted to appear by her representatives in the character of prosecutor, while they offered that their hearers should supply the place of guards and lictors. The king, by this warm proceeding, was placed in a delicate situation. He had determined to avoid extreme procedure against the Catholic lords, as he was willing to hope that, by toleration and gentle usage, they might be restrained from their dangerous intercourse with foreign powers. On the other hand, while he adopted such policy, it was imputed to him, not without an appearance of reality, that he was indifferent concerning the form of religion which should predominate in Scotland, and was only desirous of the security and augmentation of his own regal power. The misunderstanding between the king and the Church was inflamed by Lord Zouche, the English ambassador, who, having been sent to Scotland for that purpose, privately instigated the ministers to persist in their claims, and more openly importune James to show the utmost severity against the Catholic conspirators.

On November 26, 1593, the king, with sound policy, referred matters to the convention of estates, who came to this formal agreement : That the three earls of Huntley, Angus and Errol should be exempted from all further inquiry on account of their correspondence with Spain; that the first day of February should be fixed as a day before which they should either renounce the errors of popery, or remove out of the kingdom; that they should signify their choice against the first of January. But by the moderate measures which he pursued the king made no impression upon any party. The Catholic earls continued their communication with Spain, and their measures to support each other; the Church and anxious Protestants remained as jealous as ever of the king's sincerity; Zouche, the English ambassador, continued to worry James with remonstrances on the part of Elizabeth; and Bothwell, under the almost avowed protection of the queen of England, prepared new aggressions upon his sovereign.

On the second of April, 1594, this restless earl, at the head of about four hundred horsemen, arrived at Leith, at three in the morning, in the expectation of forming a junction with Athole and others, who favored him, and who were levying forces in the north, with the intention of moving upon the same point. The king, hearing of this alarming incident, went in person to the church, the day being Sunday; and having but few nobility and gentry in attendance upon him he reminded his lieges of the congregation of their duty to protect their sovereign, and requested them to consider whether the superiority of Bothwell and his borderers, men given to theft and robbery, was consistent with the safety of their families and property. The preacher did not fail to throw in a word of advice on so tempting an occasion. "God," he said, "would raise up against the king more Bothwells than one, and each a worse enemy than he, if James did not show the same zeal in the cause of Heaven (meaning against the popish lords), which he now exhibited in his own private quarrel." He gave, however, his sanction to the congregation arming and following their sovereign. The sermon was no sooner over than Bothwell learned that the king with a strong body of infantry, consisting of the citizens of Edinburgh, and a party of cavalry, composed of such noblemen and gentlemen as were at present attending the court, was moving against him. He drew up his cavalry upon an eminence called the Hawkhill, near Regal Rig; and from thence, on the king's approach, he held south-eastward around the hill called Arthur's Seat, as if about to return to Dalkeith. He made this retreat slowly and in good order, followed and observed by the Lord Home, who commanded the king's cavalry. James himself, apprehensive that it was the purpose of Bothwell to make a circuit around Arthur's Seat, and attack Edinburgh upon the southern side, returned from Leith, and, marching through Edinburgh, drew up his forces on the Borough Moor, to be ready to receive the enemy, should he approach in that direction.

Home, in the meantime, pressed upon Bothwell's retreat with such incautious vehemence that Bothwell, indulging his antipathy to him as a personal enemy, charged him so suddenly with a superior body of horse as compelled Home to fly. The skirmish took place near Woolmet; and Home's discomfited cavalry ran back in confusion upon the body of infantry commanded by the king. Here again occurs a difference between the courtly Archbishop Spottiswoode and the journalist Birrel. The former says, that on beholding the rout of the royal cavalry, those around the king conjured him to return into the town, which he refused, saying, "He would never quit the field to a traitor." Birrel plainly says, "The king's majesty fled himself upon beholding the chase." His infantry stood firm, however; nor was Bothwell in a condition to attack them. His own horse had fallen in the chase, and he was severely bruised. A retreat to Dalkeith, and from thence to the borders, was the necessary consequence of his inability to obtain a complete victory. After escaping this danger, which was sufficiently imminent, the king sent ambassadors to Elizabeth, to complain of the conduct of her envoy Zouche, and of the reception and shelter which Bothwell met with on the English border, where he had not only occupied fortresses belonging to the queen, but had also received a considerable sum of money, with which he had hired soldiers, both English and Scottish, for his last treasonable attempt. The ambassadors had commission to promise a severe prosecution of the popish lords, in case they should not embrace the terms of submission which had been offered to them.

The queen promised fairly, and henceforth seems to have discontinued the encouragement which she had previously given to Bothwell.

Meantime, in 1593, the violence of feudal quarrels, which so nearly approached the presence of the king, spread blood and devastation through every part of the country. The deadly feud already noticed between the Johnstones and the Maxwells broke forth again in this year, with the violence of the most savage times. When we last mentioned this dispute, Maxwell, then in arms against the king, had obtained a superiority over Johnstone, James's lieutenant, who was made prisoner, and died of grief. Maxwell, after several changes of fortune, had been in his turn received into court favor, and enjoyed the office of warden of the western marches. The Laird of Johnstone, on the contrary, had given King James much offence, by uniting with Bothwell in some of his unlawful attempts, and affording him the assistance of individuals of his clan. For this he had been declared a rebel; and being imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh had broken out of it on the 4th of last June. Such was the situation of the two chiefs with. respect to the government; in relation to each other they had, by as formal a league of pacification as could be devised, put an end to the feudal quarrel which had so long subsisted between their houses. In consequence of this recent alliance, the John-stones, therefore, according to their way of thinking, es-teemed that Lord Maxwell's promotion to the wardenry inferred a mutual compact, that while they on their part should do nothing to injure or harm one of their new ally's clan, Maxwell, on the other hand, should overlook what loss other families might sustain through the depredations of the Johnstones. Thus fortified, as they conceived themselves, by their alliance with Maxwell, the Johnstones made their inroads upon the low country of Nithsdale with more fury than ever, and drove large preys of cattle from the estates of the Crichtons, the Douglases, the Griersons, Kirkpatricks, and other families of distinction in that neighborhood.

Those who had sustained injury by their incursions to a very considerable amount repaired to Maxwell to request his interference as warden. They found that he entertained their complaints coldly, and that his disinclination again to awaken the old feud with the Johnstones rendered him remiss in executing his duty to the country. The Lords Sanquhar, Drumlanrigg, and others interested, finding him thus indifferent, proposed to him that they would agree to grant him bonds of man-rent, and engage to follow him in his quarrels, provided he would effectually protect them by discharging his duty as warden, and thereby suppressing the power of the Johnstones. This temptation, which promised to place him at the head of many warlike and powerful families, and thus greatly increase what the Scots nobles called "his following," was irresistible; and Lord Maxwell, with the gentlemen of Nithsdale, entered into a bond in the terms proposed. Johnstone, obtaining information of this Ieague, which seemed to be formed for his destruction and that of his clan, demanded an explanation from his ancient foe and recent ally. Maxwell at first denied the existence of the bond in question, and then explained it by the plausible apology of the public service, and the necessity of doing his duty as warden without respect of persons. Johnstone was not to be satisfied by these reasons, and the chieftains stood once more on terms of defiance.

Both clans upon this prepared for war with the solemnity of separate nations. The Johnstones, far inferior in numbers, summoned to their aid the Scots of Eskdale and Teviotdale. Five hundred of this clan came, not led by the chieftain, who was then abroad by the king's command, but by Sir Gideon Murray of Elibank, to whom he had intrusted the management of his affairs, and who bore upon this occasion Buccleuch's banner. The Elliots of Liddisdale, the Grahams of the debatable land, and other western borderers, came also to Johnstone's assistance; sharing general habits of depredation, and unwilling to give free passage to the warden's jurisdiction.

Maxwell, on the other hand, levied a powerful army, consisting not only of his own numerous followers, but of all the families and clans which we have mentioned as having engaged in the bond. They entered Annandale with displayed banner and the avowed intention of destroying the houses of Lochwood and Lockerbie, strong castles belonging to the Laird of Johnstone. Maxwell had besieged the latter fortress when the Johnstones came upon him, and, profiting by some advantage obtained by their prickers or skirmishers, charged Maxwell's main body suddenly, and totally defeated them. Maxwell, it is said, had his hand cut off, and was struck from his horse before he was slain; and tradition avers that he received the last deadly blow from the hand of a female, daughter of the late Lord Johnstone, who had died his prisoner.

The king was much affected by this fatal violence; but the state of his affairs did not permit him to avenge it in person, nor were there any who had power enough to accomplish such an object by royal commission. Johnstone, therefore, remained unpunished; and was shortly after him-self appointed warden of the west marches: this was in 1596. The unhappy tale may be concluded by saying, that on the 6th of April, 1608, he was treacherously murdered at a meeting with Lord Maxwell, the son of him who was slain at the battle of Dryffe Sands, who took this dishonorable but not infrequent mode of revenging his father's death. Polity was now grown more strong; and the murderer, being apprehended, was beheaded at the cross of Edinburgh; and thus terminated the long feud between the Johnstones and Maxwells, having cost each house the lives of two chieftains. The battle of Dryffe Sands has a claim to be noticed, as the terminating action of that long series which had been fought upon the border during so many centuries. The fate of the Lord Maxwell was much lamented : "he was a nobleman," says Spottiswoode, "of great spirit, courteous, humane, and more learned than men of his rank usually are; but aspiring and ambitious of rule. His fall was lamented by many; he being considered as one who did little wrong to any one excepting to himself."

In the year 1594, the momentous affair of the Catholic lords was brought to a head. Huntley, Angus, and Errol, confident in the numbers of their followers, and the inaccessible nature of their country, had rejected with scorn the alternative of the king to change their religion or retire into exile. They renewed their correspondence with Spain ; from which court they received a considerable sum of money to enable them to take the field.

The king, now for his own sake, as well as to redeem the pledges which he had repeatedly given to the Protestant party, saw the necessity of acting with vigor : this was the more difficult, as he was in great distress for money, the expenses of a royal baptism (though the cause may appear inadequate) having recently exhausted the coffers of the king. He held a convention on the 8th of June, 1594, to obtain their counsel in so important a case. The accusation of the Catholic lords being read, the authenticity of the Spanish blanks was proved, and a sentence of high treason, in its most rigorous form, pronounced against the Earls of Huntley, of Angus, and of Errol. Thus, at length, the Protestants were gratified, and the Catholic lords subjected to a doom of forfeiture : but the manner of enforcing it was a consideration of more difficulty. Queen Elizabeth, though she had remonstrated so much against the indulgence shown to these popish lords, and although their de-sign was as much directed against her as against James, refused to contribute anything to the expense of suppressing three powerful peers, in the remote provinces, the only place in which they possessed extensive interest, and where it was equally difficult to introduce troops or subsist them when in the field. It was evident that the king could not creditably go himself upon an expedition unprovided with the most ordinary means of expense. It remained only possible to induce some nobleman to act as his representative upon the occasion. No one was thought more suitable for the office than the young Earl of Argyle, both from the situation of his estates and the number of Highlanders whom, by his authority and their natural love of spoil, he was sure to draw to his standard. He was propitiated with a promise of Huntley's rights and possessions in Lochaber, which stood forfeited to the crown, and lay peculiarly convenient for augmentation of the Earl of Argyle's family possessions and feudal power. The young earl had spirit and ambition, and did not decline the trust reposed in him. Lord Forbes, the hereditary enemy of Huntley, was united in the same commission.

Meantime the Catholic lords used their utmost influence to provide the means of defence. They sought out connections with such disaffected courtiers as they hoped might assist their cause; and under this hope formed a conspiracy to seize the person of the king, who was to be confined in the fortress of Blackness, the commander of which they had corrupted. The ministry of the Earl of Bothwell was to be used upon this occasion. This versatile and turbulent man had been already an accomplice of the Catholic lords in the year 1588; but in his later incursions had stated the immunities and impunity afforded them as a principal cause of his being in arms. In his last proclamation, distributed at the Raid of Leith, the Catholic lords were designed as enemies "to the true religion, and friendship of both crowns, and the practicers for inbringing of strangers; a company of lewd, pernicious persons crept into the state, to the high contempt of God and dishonor of the king, who authorized mass in several of the countries, permitted seminary priests to travel with impunity, and labored for bringing in the cruel Spaniard." Yet now he felt himself at liberty to throw off all regard to the true religion, as he formerly styled it, and engaged with those whose object it was to subvert it, undertaking to assist them in their plot against the king's person and liberty.

The activity of James's measures, however, prevented the plot being carried into effect. Argyle, by means of his own extensive jurisdictions and clanship, and by the prospect of plunder which his enterprise afforded, drew together six or seven thousand Highlanders, including the Clan of Maclean and others from the western islands. Of this army of mountaineers, fifteen hundred men carried firearms, and the rest were armed, after the Highland fashion, with bows and arrows, two-handed swords, Lochaber axes, and partisans. The purpose of Argyle, their commander, was to descend from the hills upon Huntley's principal castle, then called Strathbogie, with the purpose of occupying that fortress, and also of joininz his force to those which the Lord Forbes was raising in Aberdeenshire.

The suddenness of the attack permitted Huntley no time to receive aid from the Earl of Angus, whose forces lay at a considerable distance. The Earl of Errol, who was his nearer neighbor, joined him upon the alarm of the danger with two or three hundred of the clan of Hay, of which he was chief. The smallness of their number was made up by their character, which was that of gentlemen, with their personal followers, men of high birth and ready courage; all serving on horseback, and well mounted and armed. Hunt-ley himself assembled about a thousand men, who were chiefly gentlemen of the name of Gordon, and provided and armed like those of Hay. He had, however, a train of six field-pieces, to the use of which the Highlanders were unaccustomed. These were under the management of an expert soldier named Captain Ker, by birth a borderer, but for many years a follower of Huntley, in whose service, during the civil wars of Queen Mary's reign, he had been distinguished by his military skill as well as by his cruelty. The expected encounter came thus to resemble that of Harlow, where the force of the ancient Gael had been tried in mortal contest with that of the low-country Saxons.

Each party was confident of success. The Lowland men were of opinion that the multitude of Argyle's tumultuary forces would be ill matched with their own completely equipped and high-spirited cavaliers; and the Highlanders entertained no idea that an army could be embodied in the low countries before whom their own fiery courage would give way.

Huntley used the politic precaution to lay the country waste, to render the support of Argyle and his army a matter of difficulty ; but as the want of provisions equally affected the subsistence of his own levies, he found himself compelled to risk an action, which perhaps he would have otherwise willingly avoided. Argyle, having now arrived at the head of Strathdon, sent a herald to Huntley and Errol to announce that he came as the king's lieutenant, and to charge them to withdraw their forces, and give him open passage to the castle of Strathbogie. Huntley replied that, since such was his purpose, he would himself be porter, and welcome him upon the road to his castle, as courtesy required. He then convened his own people, and exhorted them to defend them-selves for the glory of God and the liberty of their consciences. He protested, that although the king was animated against him by the instigation of his enemies, he loved and reverenced him with such true devotion that even in the best cause he would never lift a weapon against him. But now, since they were exposed to a barbarous enemy, who had neither fear of God nor obedience to the king, nor the most ordinary habits of civilization, he exhorted his followers to act valiantly, as men who, if vanquished, must be subject to the pleasure of the most savage conquerors.

The armies met in a district called Glenlivet, at a place named Belrinnes. Argyle's numerous army were stationed on the side of a mountain, which, far from being easily accessible by horsemen, had so steep an ascent in front that even footmen could hardly keep their feet upon it. Nevertheless, Captain Ker, who was appointed to survey the ground, reported to the earls that a brisk attack upon their barbarous enemy would quickly disperse men, who, like the Highlanders, had no knowledge of war as practiced by civilized people. Huntley then arranged his men in this manner: Errol was appointed to lead the van, accompanied by Sir Partick Gordon of Auchindoun. Huntley himself commanded the rearguard, designed for their support, with a strong body of cavalry.

Errol, with his vanguard, began to ascend the hill in the very front of the Highland line of battle; and between the roughness of the heather and steepness of the ascent his horsemen were compelled to advance at a very slow pace. But, masked for a time under cover of the movement of the vanguard, four pieces of artillery had been brought into a position to annoy Argyle's line of battle, without the possibility of the Highlanders observing it. The sudden discharge of this battery spread dismay through the Highlanders, who were unaccustomed either to the noise of the cannon or to the operation of shot so far beyond the range of the missiles with which they were acquainted. Some fled, all were confused, and Errol, with the Hays, continued to advance uninterrupted. The ascent, however, became so steep, that to make their way directly upward was almost impossible : the horsemen were compelled to wheel to the right and form a column, which, in order to gain the hill by an oblique movement, obliged them to expose their flank to the enemy. The Highlanders perceived this advantage, and showered on them a tremendous volley of bullets and arrows, hurting many horse and men. The Hays were, however, valiantly seconded by Huntley, who, coming up to their aid, made so fierce an attack upon the centre of Argyle's army, where his standard was displayed, that the banner was borne down, and Campbell of Lochinzell and his brother slain in its defence. When the horsemen attained the more even ground, where their horses could gallop, the resistance of the Highlanders, who had no lances to defend them from the shock, became impossible. They were hurried down the opposite side of the hill on which they had been drawn up, and their pursuers mingled with them, doing much execution. The chief of Maclean alone, a man of uncommon strength and courage, dressed in a shirt of mail, and armed with a double-edged battle-axe, defied the efforts of the assailants for some time, but was at length compelled to flight. The battle lasted for about two hours. Argyle himself was forced off the field, weeping with anger and shame, and imploring his men to return to the charge. The loss of the vanquished was not great; for the roughness of the ground, which rendered the victory difficult, made the pursuit impossible. Little quarter, however, was given to the Highlanders, which is chiefly imputed to the difference of language between the victors and vanquished. The battle of Glenlivet, chiefly remarkable as being fought between the two races which divided Scotland, took place upon the third day of October, 1594. Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchindoun, an uncle of Huntley, was slain, with only twelve others, on the side of the victors. Huntley had his own horse killed under him, and many of his followers were wounded and dismounted. Argyle lost some chiefs and men of note, and about seven hundred common soldiers. The issue of the battle was fortunate for the country, which would have been pitifully plundered had the victory remained with the barbarous Highlanders.

The Lord Forbes, with an army hastily assembled of such clans as were hostile to the Gordons, put himself in motion to form a junction with Argyle, and persuade him to resume his enterprise. But a gentleman of the name of Irvine being, in the darkness of the night, slain by the shot of a pistol, the accident spread such general distrust in an army composed of various clans, among whom there lurked reasons of feud, that the host dispersed itself, and could not be again assembled.

James VI. was disturbed, in the hour of midnight, at Dundee, to which he had then advanced, by news of the defeat of Argyle, and the victory of Huntley and Errol. He showed that he felt the force of the emergency, by the energy with which he prepared to meet it. Animated with an unusual spirit of promptitude, he hastened, by pawning the crown jewels, to raise a sum of money sufficient to support a small army, with which he marched into Aberdeen-shire against the Catholic lords. The king was there joined by various clans, the feudal enemies of Huntley and Errol. But either weakened by the effects of their own victory, or faithful to the principles of loyalty expressed by Huntley on the eve of the battle of Glenlivet, the Catholic earls offered no opposition. The king marched through the country, casting down and dismantling the fortresses of Strathbogie and Glaimis, and returned home with the honor of having suppressed, by his personal exertions, a threatening and triumphant rebellion. He left behind him the Duke of Lennox, who, under the title of lieutenant, hanged many of the poorer sort, and inflicted heavy fines upon the wealthier persons who had borne arms under Huntley and Errol.

The time was now come when Bothwell's ferocity, cunning, and versatility, could avail him no longer. His last change to the popish and Spanish faction had offended Queen Elizabeth beyond forgiveness, nor was there any mercy to be looked for at the hand of his natural sovereign, whom he had so often and grievously offended. Unable to obtain shelter in Scotland, where the king caused him to be diligently sought after, and obtaining no harbor, as formerly, upon the English borders, he fled to France. Here also James's resentment followed him, and demanded of Henry IV. that he should be delivered up to punishment, or at least banished from France. The generous Henry answered that he would give no encouragement to a person so obnoxious to his ally, but that he could not refuse a miserable exile the free air of his kingdom. Even this retreat Bothwell forfeited by his turbulent temper, which induced him to transgress that wise monarch's edict against sending challenges. Banished from France, Bothwell went successively to Spain and Naples, and purchased his bread meanly and miserably by abjuring the Protestant religion. His principal possessions were bestowed upon Scott of Buccleuch and Ker of Cessford, in return, as may be supposed, for their having given up his friendship and alliance at a time when their adhesion might have been dangerous to the state.

King James, placable and easy to be entreated in favor of other offenders, would never listen to any petition in favor of this arch-traitor; he died at Naples, in poverty and infamy. Such was the end of unprincipled ambition, which, supported only by reckless courage, had disturbed the state by so many conspiracies. About this time also fate finished the career of another guilty votary of unscrupulous ambition.

Captain James Stewart, for some time prime minister and chosen favorite of the king, expelled from court, as we have already stated, at the Raid of Stirling, in 1585, had never since made his appearance there; but at this time the death of the wise and excellent Chancellor Maitland took place. This great statesman had been for some time in a species of disgrace with King James, from the dislike which Queen Anne had expressed toward him, for no better reason, probably, than that he was the favorite of her husband. James, however, retained his affection for him, and honored his memory with an epitaph couched in tolerable poetry. Captain James Stewart, although, indeed, he was neither beloved nor befriended by any who were not as profligate as himself, had always conceived this statesman, who was his successor as chancellor, to be his greatest enemy. He appeared at court accordingly, in hopes that the king's favor might again prefer him to the same eminent situation, now vacant by the demise of Maitland. The king received him so well as to induce him to lend belief to a soothsayer, who had told him that his head should presently stand higher than ever. But the general alarm and disgust was so great at the reappearance of this ill-omened and wicked man, that he was counselled in all haste to withdraw himself from court and return to his place of residence in Ayrshire, where he had been permitted to remain unnoticed and in obscurity. As he rode back to his dwelling, by the way of Symington, with only one or two attend ants, he was cautioned not to travel openly through the country, for fear of the vengeance of the Douglases, to whom he had given mortal offence, as the author of Morton's impeachment and death. Stewart answered, with his usual rash courage, that the Douglas lived not for fear of whom he would screen himself or quit his road. One of those tale-bearers, who are always at hand where mischief is to be disseminated, carried this expression to Douglas of Torthorwold, a near relation of the Regent Morton, who conceiving himself defied, presently got upon horseback, with three or four followers, and pursuing Stewart, overtook him in a pass of the mountains called the Gale-slack, ran him through with his lance, and cut off his head, which he set upon his castle of Torthorwald, and thus in one sense realized the prophecy of the soothsayer, by placing it higher than it had yet been raised. The body of this man, once so proud and powerful, is said to have been neglected in the waste road until it was mangled by swine.

Neither did Torthorwald, who had been, unlawfully on his part, the means of executing deserved vengeance on this wicked man, escape without his reward. It was not very long after. this bloody exploit, when he was accidentally met in the street of Edinburgh by Sir William Stewart, the nephew of the deceased, who, in revenge of his uncle's death, drew his sword without speaking a word, and passed it through Torthorwald's body, who fell dead on the spot, thus making good the expression of Scripture, that "mischief shall hunt the violent man."

The death of Lord Chancellor Maitland threw the king's affairs in a great measure into his own hands. As is usual in a disturbed state, the principal difficulty lay in the finances, which were reduced to a very low ebb. The aid of Elizabeth was applied for in vain. She had promised her assistance when the king should seriously set himself to destroy the force of the Catholic lords. But, economical even in her youthful years, the queen had reached that period of life when the love of money becomes a passion, nor was it possible for James to extract any assistance from her. This induced him to apply to a better resource than all the treasures of England could have afforded him. He resolved manfully, by practicing strict economy, to render his own revenue equal to his own wants; and for that purpose determined it should be collected with more accuracy, and expended with more frugality. For this purpose, he made a remarkable change in his administration, equivalent to what in a private case is called executing a deed of trust, transferring to others the management of the grantor's own estate.

James committed the care of his finances to eight persons belonging to the profession of the law, upon whom the whole duty of receipt and expenditure, settling accounts, and expediting grants, in a word, every article of national expense, should be devolved; so that the whole duties of the exchequer were destined to be performed through the means of these eight persons, or at least of a quorum of five of them. The king, conscious of his own facility of temper, bound himself upon the word of a prince that he would not subscribe any letter or deed of gift unless it was previously approved by this board, who were, from their number, termed the Octavians : he agreed, also, not to add to the number of these eight comptrollers; and that in case of a vacancy in their number by death that it should not be filled up without the consent of the survivors. The eight commissioners, on their side, made oath that, next to God and a good conscience, they should in all things respect his majesty's weal and honor, and the advancement of his revenue; and neither for tenderness of blood, advantage to themselves, nor awe or fear of any one, agree to the disposition of any part of the patrimony of the crown: also, that they would not give their consent to any proposed measure separately, but would deliberate and act together as a body, holding their meetings in exchequer, and five being a quorum.

This singular devolution of these general powers was such an unusual trust that it was generally said that the king had resigned his royal authority to commissioners of no high rank, and had not left himself the means either of cherishing the attachment of his subjects, or of rewarding their services by the slightest boon from government. This clamor was especially raised by the greedy courtiers, to whom the king's facility of disposition had afforded undue opportunities of enriching themselves under the ordinary system. The Octavians used the trust reposed in thorn with as much moderation, perhaps, as could possibly have been expected; and by their knowledge of business, and the exercise of a rigid economy, they brought the affairs into much better order than they had ever been during James's reign.

It would have been too much, however, to have expected that men intrusted with so much power were altogether to abstain from using it to their personal advantage. The authority of the Octavians over all the officers of state entitled them to call them to the closest accounting; and as few of them were prepared for rendering such a strict reckoning, several chose to resign lucrative situations, which were filled up by the Octavians out of their own number. In this manner a great popular clamor was excited against the new managers, much increased by the clergy, who were not satisfied with the soundness of doctrine entertained by some of the Octavians. The king himself also became tired of the restraint under which he lay; and after enduring public odium, and, finally, the displeasure of their sovereign, from the 12th of January, 1595, the Octavians resigned their commission into his majesty's hands in the parliament, in 1596.