History Of Scotland Vol. 2 - Part 9

( Originally Published 1909 )

The Minister's Arrogance—The King disgusted with Business—Arran pretends an Attachment to the Prerogative—The banished Lords—Their Influence with their Vassals, Clans, and Tenantry—Argaty and his Brother tried and executed for holding Correspondence with the Exiles—Information against Mains and Drumquhassel for a similar Crime—Suborned Evidence against the Accused—They are condemned and executed —Arran's Attack on the Immunities claimed by the Church—Privileges of the Kirk—Their extreme Apprehensions of Popery —The Clergy usually in opposition to, and therefore become unpopular with, the King—Arran, haying courted them to no Purpose, resolves to break their Power by a Series of new Regulations—Nature of the political Influence of the Clergy—A Minister is imprisoned for petitioning to be heard on the Part of the Church, and declared Rebel and Outlaw for protesting against the obnoxious Laws-Arran's Ministry begin to desert him and set up for themselves, particularly Maitland the Secretary and the Master of Gray—Arran becomes a Creature of Elizabeth—His Meeting with Hunsdon—ll is Quarrels with the Scottish Nobility, particularly with Lord Maxwell—He engages Lord Maxwell in a Civil War with the Johnston es, in which the former is victorious—Embassy of Wotton—Death of Sir Francis Russell on the Borders—Disgrace of Kerr of Farniherst and of Arran—The exiled Lords return to Scotland, march to Stirling, and obtain Possession of the King's Person—The King abandons Arran, who retires from Court in Disgrace—James receives the associated Nobles into his Favor, and establishes a Government on a moderate and popular Model

THE youth and inexperience of James VI. may at this period be admitted as a sufficient excuse for his giving way to the insidious counsels of a favorite who was unworthy of the trust reposed in him. We learn from the valuable memoirs of Sir James Melville that Arran, who had usurped in his own person, or distributed among his own creatures, all the great offices in the government, used the common arts of those in his situation to discourage the king from attention to the business of the State and deliberations of the council, and to engage him continually in those pursuits of sylvan sport to which he was naturally addicted. The designing favorite also availed himself of his numerous opportunities not only to exclude from the royal counsels Melville and other courtiers whom he could not rely upon as favorers of his schemes, but also to impose upon the young monarch, as unanimous resolutions of his council of State, violent measures which were framed and forwarded by him-self alone. The affectation of extreme zeal in supporting the royal authority, and the unbounded attachment which he pretended to entertain for James's person, were, doubtless, the further apologies by which Arran colored over a course of despotic measures, designed to eradicate whatever influence the banished lords might retain in Scotland, and diminish or destroy the power which the Reformed Church had by various means obtained in the political affairs of-the State. Of these sources of influence so obnoxious to the favorite we are now to give the reader some account.

The banished lords formed a considerable part of the aristocracy of Scotland, which depended for its importance not merely on the consequence and influence which its members possessed, arising from their immediate power and wealth, but also, and more especially, upon the attachment of vassals and kinsfolk, a species of loyalty to their chief which these followers displayed at every personal risk; even when those who might claim it were expelled from their estates and remained banished men in a foreign country. The power of the Scottish nobles became in this mariner, in some respects, indestructible. Thus the unusually severe measures by which James V. had endeavored to destroy the House of Douglas did not prevent that long exiled family from resuming a great part of their feudal power as soon as the death of that monarch permitted them to return to Scotland, when they repossessed themselves of their estates without even awaiting the recall of their forfeiture. Numerous instances during the reign of Queen Mary and the minority of James had fostered the same principle. By far the greater part, if not the whole, of the nobility of Scotland had, at one time or other, and for various causes, been banished from the kingdom, and yet had successively returned to it and reassumed their hereditary influence. While, therefore, their lords were absent on these unpleasant occasions, the vassals retained their faith and attachment unaltered, not only from love, affection, and gratitude, but from a reasonable expectation of the re-turn of their chiefs as an event connected with their own interest. The friends and vassals of exiled nobles preserved the attachment to them in which they had been born and bred, and considered that their adherence during what they regarded as a temporary eclipse was likely to be remunerated when the cloud which obscured the fortunes of their masters should pass away.

From this it followed that the lords exiled on account of the Raid of Ruthven still possessed numerous friends and extensive correspondence in Scotland; and supported as they were by the power of Elizabeth, and residing within the English frontier, were at all times ready to re-enter Scotland with the certainty of being backed by a considerable force. It now became the business of Arran to destroy, if possible, the ramifications by which those exiles, against whom he had procured the doom of treason to be denounced, continued to maintain a correspondence and interest within the Scottish realm. For this purpose he procured denunciations to be made against all such as held correspondence, or, as it was called, traffic, with the exiles, and took all precaution to bring within the range of punishment such persons of inferior rank as should appear to be the correspondents or confidants of the banished lords. In 1584, in order to strike terror on this subject, David Home of Argaty, and Patrick Home, his brother, gentlemen of birth and fortune, were brought to trial for holding communication with the commendator of Dryburgh, who was banished on account of his accession to the Raid of Ruthven. The accused persons were confessedly adherents of the same party, but covered by a generai pardon from being charged as accomplices to that conspiracy. The correspondence for which they were tried consisted of one or two short letters which had no reference whatever to State affairs, but related entirely to some private business left undischarged when the commendator was expelled from Scotland; yet. both the gentlemen were condemned to death, and executed on the afternoon of the same day on which they were tried a severity universally reprobated by common sense and common feeling.

To spread still further the terror inspired by this execution, a proclamation was made, that whoever should discover and make known any person corresponding on whatsoever subject with the exiled lords should, besides his own pardon, receive an especial reward. In consequence of this invitation and premium to traitors and informers, a man was found base enough to avail himself of this offer, who was generally believed to have added to the meanness of treachery the guilt of perjury. One Hamilton of Eglismachan lodged an information against Malcolm Douglas of Mains, and John Cunningham of Drumquhassel, stating them to have conspired to seize the person of the king at a hunting-match, for the purpose of detaining him in same stronghold until the banished noblemen should enter Scotland with forces and take possession of his person. The accusation was generally considered as a forgery, yet willingly entertained by Arran, because both the accused gentlemen were suspected by him ; and Douglas of Mains, in particular, was regarded as what was called in these times a man of valor and action. To add probability to the accusation of Hamilton, which would otherwise have been supported by only one evidence, being also that of an informer, held suspicious in all countries, Sir James Edmonstone of Duntreath, a person who had lived in great intimacy with the accused parties, was included in the indictment, it being understood that he was to plead guilty to the accusation, and to be remunerated with a pardon on account of his candid confession. To this arrangement the unhappy gentleman, to his great discredit, was, by Arran's threats, induced to consent.

The trial accordingly proceeded; and Sir James Edmonstone pleaded guilty to the indictment of having conspired, with Mains and Drumquhassel, to the plot as expressed in the charge. The scheme, he said, had been originally concocted by the Earl of Angus, and was communicated to him and the other two parties accused by John Home, commonly called Black John. Drumquhassel and Mains were next arraigned for the same criminal intercourse with Angus, and further with having been partakers of the Raid of Ruth ven, an offence which must have been supposed to be incapable of pardon, since, after so many remissions, it was once more revived against the subordinate persons concerned. Drumquhassel's defence does not appear upon the record, but that of Mains was manly and firm: he placed the improbability, nay, impossibility, of such a conspiracy on the part of himself and his companion in misfortune so fully in view, that "all in court," says the historian Spottiswoode, though favorable, in general, to the measures of James, "in their hearts acquitted him. But the doom of the accused had been decided ere the accusation was brought. Cunningham and Douglas were both condemned; and, with a speed which argued terror in the government, were executed in the public street of Edinburgh, before the sun had set, on their day of trial. The informer Hamilton was generally execrated, and lived from that time in fear for his life, endeavoring to protect himself from the vengeance of the friends of the deceased, by keeping constantly near the person of Arran till the hour came, as the reader will hereafter be informed, in which the presence of him, at whose instigation he had committed the foul act, could no longer avail as his protection. These cruel and rigorous proceedings, says the historian we have just quoted, caused such general terror that all familiar society and intercourse of humanity was in a manner disused, no man knowing to whom with safety he could speak his thoughts, or open his mind. But the Scots, fierce by nature, were a people as unable to endure a despotic government, as to bear the foreign yoke, the imposition of which in the former part of their history they had opposed with such obstinacy.

Arran's attacks on the liberties and immunities claimed by the Church were not less violent, and were even more unpopular, than those with which he assailed the civil rights of his fellow-subjects.

The Church of Scotland, it must be remembered, had been founded and perfected in the midst of civil tumults. Its preachers had been accustomed, from the time of Knox downward, to regard themselves less as an ecclesiastic body, sequestered from lay business to teach the doctrines and duties of religion, than as a church militant, called upon to protect themselves and the Christian community over which they presided from the political attacks directed against them, not only by their direct and immediate enemies, the Roman Catholics, whom they regarded with that mixture of hatred, abhorrence, and fear with which the peasants, described by Spenser, looked upon the dead dragon,' but also by the king, ministers, and courtiers, whom they regarded, if not as absolute foes, yet as very cold friends to their spiritual establishment. This suspicion was sufficiently natural on the part of the ministers, when it is recollected that the Scottish aristocracy, though feeling or affecting the most vehement zeal for the doctrines of the reformation, had, in the first place, usurped the lion's share of the spoils of the popish hierarchy, and were now inclined, as the clergy supposed, to abridge the privileges of the Church, whose prerogative constituted all that was left to console an active, energetic, and influential body of . men for the want, not only of opulence, but even of the means of decent subsistence. The preachers claimed for their order, as has been often hinted, the extensive privilege of canvassing public affairs in their sermons, acknowledging no responsibility, at least in the first instance, save to the judicatories of their own body, by whom they were not likely to be condemned for any exercise of their Christian privilege. During the whole of the actual reign of Queen Mary they had been repeatedly placed in direct opposition to the powers that wielded the State, and had even been at variance with the regents who severally succeeded that unfortunate queen, although men of their own persuasion. This constant opposition had become, in a certain degree, a habit; and spreading through so large a body of men, many of whom were doubtless desirous of distinguishing themselves,, and attracting, by the boldness of their doctrine, the admiration of their congregations, there can be little doubt that the extensive privileges which they claimed were liable to frequent abuse. But this was an evil only to be cured by time, which modifies the violence of parties whether in politics or religion, added to much patience and much firmness on the part of the governors. Meanwhile these prerogatives, boldly claimed and acted zealously upon, gave great alarm to the sovereign. King James, although a Protestant in principle, had been bred in such dislike and terror of those more violent individuals among the churchmen, who were termed fanatics, that in his Basilicon Doren he has left it as a legacy to his son rather to trust a savage Highlander, or an outlawed borderer, than a hypocritical puritan.

To increase the monarch's early dislike to this party among his subjects, which was constantly kept up by the imprudent, indecent, and impertinent censures of individual preachers, it so chanced that James almost always found the opinions of the popular churchmen in diametrical opposition to his own authority and the measures of his ministers. There was, therefore, an almost continued dissension between the king and the most popular and authoritative part of the clergy, which lasted, with little intermission, during his whole reign, and in which one is sometimes called upon to censure the unreasonable, irreverent, and irritating con-duct of those who ought to have been the messengers of peace, but oftener to admire the courage with which they defended the liberties which had been handed down to them by their predecessors, and the firmness with which they submitted voluntarily to poverty, banishment, and proscription, rather than resign an iota of what they conceived to be their lawful privileges as the servants of Heaven.

At the period which we treat f, the greater part of the clergy were connected by opinion and principle with the lords who were in exile on account of the Raid of Ruthven. Arran had at different times made advances to gain the favor of the Church; but even the occasional advantages which the clergy obtained by means of the minister had been received like the more important benefits which Bothwell had procured for the Church from Queen Mary during the brief time of his guilty prosperity. Both these worthless and wicked men were total disbelievers in public principle or private honor, and, conscious of the total absence of both in their own persons, had hoped by what might be called bribery to secure the attachment of a class of persons who, by principle and profession, were votaries and teachers of religion and morality almost to the verge of bigotry. Their advances were, therefore, spurned in consequence of the hatred inspired by their vices; and the ministers of the Church of Scotland continued not the less their enemies that they had endeavored to secure their goodwill by benefits to their order.

Convinced at last that the Church could not be conciliated by fair means, Arran, having the court at his disposal, determined on carrying through such a series of restrictive laws as should debar the clergy in future from intermeddling with the affairs of State, under the penalty of answering to the temporal jurisdictions, which he hoped to retain under the management of the king, that is, under his own.

For this purpose, in the year 1684, the parliament was declared current, and convened on the 22d of May, in order to confirm the king's declaration respecting the Raid of Ruthven; pronouncing the doom of forfeiture against Angus and others, and the establishment of such a code of regulations as might in future intimidate the ministers of the Church of Scotland from exercising their wonted interference in civil affairs. Unusual pains were taken to prevent any rumors going abroad of the nature or extent of the intended measures. The lords of the articles, to whom was intrusted the concoction of all business to be brought before parliament, were sworn to secrecy concerning the subjects to be submitted to them. All access to the king's person was denied to persons suspected to be hostile to the administration; and under these precautions the following severe laws were passed for the purpose of restraining the privileges of the Church, real and assumed.

The king's authority over all persons, and in all cases whatsoever, was formally confirmed. "The declining his majesty's judgment and that of the council, in whatsoever matter, was," says Spottiswoode, "declared to be treason. The impugning the authority of the three estates, or procuring the innovation or diminution of the power of any of them, was inhibited under the same pain. All jurisdictions and judicatures, spiritual or temporal, not approved of by his highness and the three estates, were discharged, and an ordinance made, that none of whatsoever function, quality, or degree, should presume privately or publicly, in sermons, declamations, or familiar conferences, to utter any false, untrue, or slanderous speeches, to the reproach of his majesty, his council, and proceedings, or to the dishonor, hurt, or prejudice of his highness, his parents, and progenitors, or to meddle with the affairs of his highness and estate, under the pains contained in the acts of parliament made against the makers and reporters of lies." The Church of Scotland was by these sweeping enactments to-tally altered in its constitution and privileges. A change which we must regard in a very different light, if we consider the privileges which they claimed theoretically, or look at their practical effects.

In the first point of view there appears no political wisdom in rendering a body like the clergy, set apart for duties inconsistent with the bustle of active life, the depositaries of a nation's liberty, otherwise than in matters of religious doctrine and conscience. But though such a charge was an anomaly, it was still more essential to the liberties of the nation that a power of reminding the subjects of their rights, and the rulers of their duty, should exist somewhere, than that it should be lodged in those hands which might be theoretically preferred as the most expedient and best.

The Scottish parliament were, indeed, in theory, the natural and proper guardians of the people's freedom; but the institution of the committee, called lords of the articles, who had the previous privilege of arranging and garbing the business which was to come before parliament, prevented the efficacy of the national representatives in their proper sphere. Besides, the warm and precipitate discord of Scottish factions was not of a nature which could abide the cold decision of a parliamentary debate, or be decided by the orderly and peaceful vote of a deliberative assembly. When a party was triumphant they held a parliament of their own, at which those opposed to them took special care not to give attendance; or if a statute was accounted injurious to the subject, they showed their sense of its injustice not by opposing the bill in its progress through parliament, but by disregarding and disobeying it after it had passed into a law. It followed, therefore, that in most cases, as during the administration of Arran, the parliament was formed of persons chosen as being friendly to the prime minister, and under control of a close committee of lords of the articles selected by himself, who were more likely to be the organs of the royal or ministerial pleasure than the means of controlling it.

The voice of the national representation being thus mute, it was highly essential that there should exist somewhere a privilege of reprehension and remonstrance against the in-roads of power upon popular rights; and the Church of Scot-land, from circumstances and habit, had obtained possession of a privilege, the existence of which was of vital importance to the welfare of the community. That this zealous and hardy class of men, little accustomed to carry moderation into their opinions or temper into their debates, should have exercised their right with uniform moderation and judgment, could hardly be expected of so large a body composed of persons so various in temper and talents; but that they uniformly exerted it with courage, and endured with patience and resolution the personal penalties which ensued, must be admitted as a compensation for much petulance and ill-timed interference on the part of the preachers. In a word, this peculiarity in the Scottish constitution resembled a case in architecture, easily conceived, and frequently occurring. An architect would be justly censured, who, in contriving a house, should make a window the ordinary vent for the smoke; but if by any accident the chimney is obstructed, an attempt to shut up some aperture,' because anomalous, must have the effect to stifle the inhabitants. The destruction, therefore, of this privilege of the clergy, though rather of an inconsistent character, considering their sacred function, was a bold step toward the establishment of despotism in Scotland.

While the obnoxious measures were yet depending, the ministers of the Church sent one of their number to the king, with a petition that no act affecting the Church should be permitted to pass through parliament until the brethren should be heard upon its tenor. But mystery and precipitation are the usual attendants of arbitrary resolutions, while those of a different character are uniformly distinguished by calm deliberation and free discussion. Lindsay, the bearer of this moderate petition, was not permitted to approach the king's presence, but was arrested at the gate of the palace, and sent prisoner to the State fortress of Blackness. Another clergyman of Edinburgh, named Pont, who was also a senator of the college of justice, took a protest against the measures understood to be passing through parliament, on the ground that they had been adopted without consent or knowledge of the Church. In reward of what was termed his contumacy, Pont was declared a rebel, degraded from his condition as a judge, and forced to fly into England.

These violent measures raised universal terror. The most learned and conscientious of the clergy saw no remedy, save resigning their charges, of submitting tamely to be deprived of their privileges of freely expressing their sentiments. The ministers of Edinburgh set an example of the sacrifice. They adopted in a body the resolution of voluntary exile; and from the borders of England the devoted band wrote a letter to the provost and magistrates of Edinburgh, declaring that they left their charge, after a long wrestling, with the purpose of reserving themselves for bet-ter times, and of flying for the present from the death with which they were menaced, should they remain, for the purpose of bearing testimony against the iniquitous encroachments on the privileges of their order.

The pulpits in the metropolis being thus silenced, a gloomy discontent overwhelmed all ranks of men, but especially those who had most zealously professed the reformed doctrines; and James himself did not escape the suspicion of being inclined to bring Scotland back to the superstitious yoke of Rome. In many more instances than we have space to notice, the strife was maintained between the Church and the civil power by individual ministers, who plainly saw that by renouncing their claim to interfere in temporal politics they would deprive their doctrine of its savor, and render themselves as insignificant as they were already indigent.

Meantime Arran, the great mover of these perilous innovations in Church and State, neglected not to advance his own interest by means as unjustifiable as those which regulated his general government. The death of Argyle gave him opportunity to seize the office of chancellor. Thus he engrossed offices of rank and authority one after another, without considering that his power, like an ill-constructed building, rested on an imperfect foundation, and that every increase of height must only give it additional insecurity. His inordinate rapacity and vanity gave birth to a report that he meant to lay claim to the throne, which was founded on his having had the affectation to lodge in parliament a deed, on his part formally disclaiming the purpose of insisting on any right competent to him to claim the crown as a successor of Murdach, duke of Albany. The intimating the existence of such a right was considered as high presumption, and in secret could not but be deeply offensive to James himself.

The favorite's overgrown fortunes were thus evidently tottering to a fall; and it was a sure prof that the time was not far distant, when even the individuals who were raised into power by his own recommendations sought to advance themselves by separating their interests from his. He had raised to the office of secretary, John Maitland, the brother of the celebrated Lethington, and possessor of the family talents. This statesman, who afterward rose to great eminence, continued for a certain time to regard Arran as his patron, and therefore ruled his actions by that favorite's inclination; but perceiving that the headlong course which the earl pursued could not lead to permanent greatness or safety, he by degrees drew off from his party, and began to establish a separate interest of his own.

This was the case also with a young man of extraordinary talents, but unhappily of equal duplicity, who began at this time to be distinguished at first as a friend and afterwardas a rival of Arran in the king's favor. This was the Master of Gray, personally handsome, witty, and accomplished in those exercises which gained James's eye and affection, but totally destitute of principle, whether moral or political. He concealed for a long time his private views of entering into competition with the ruling favorite, and seemed, on the contrary, to devote himself to the augmentation of Arran's greatness. This artful and rising young man, having considerable acquaintance with England, is supposed to have first impressed upon Arran the necessity of cultivating the friendship of Elizabeth.

This was, indeed, no easy matter; for the efforts of the English ambassadors had been hitherto systematically and uniformly directed to the destruction of Arran's power, either by secretly undermining it, or by openly accusing him of unfitness to be the minister. But Burleigh, deeply read in the politics of Machiavel, had disapproved of the open dislike avowed by Walsingham to the person of Arran, and held it better and more politic to dissemble with him while he remained in James's favor. Elizabeth, therefore, and her ministers, though entertaining no better opinion of Arran than before, yet were willing to adopt the policy of availing themselves of his present credit, by obtaining such advantages as could be derived from an intimate league with the prime minister of Scotland.

For cementing such an agreement, which, it is probable, neither party had the intention of keeping longer than served their own interest, Arran, with great splendor of attendance, and in capacity of royal lord lieutenant, held a confidential meeting upon the borders with Lord Hunsdon, the relation of Queen Elizabeth. Here Arran is said to have devoted himself to the interests of England, engaging, for the satisfaction of Queen Elizabeth's anxieties concerning the succession to the English crown, to keep the king unmarried for three years, by thwarting and disconcerting any match which might be proposed during that period. On the part of Hunsdon an elusory promise was said to have been made that, the three years being expired, James should be wedded to an unmarried princess of the blood of England, who would then be marriageable, and invested by Elizabeth with the title of second person in the English kingdom. There is little doubt that this was one of those vague proposals by which Elizabeth hoped to stave off James's marriage to an indefinite period, as she had attempted in respect to that of his mother. Upon the whole, the English counsellors deemed Arran far too flighty, vain, and unsettled, to be much relied on; and although apparently engaging to support Arran's interest With James, and avail herself in return of that favorite's good offices, Queen Elizabeth was, in fact, corresponding with those who had Arran's destruction at heart, and was privately determined to assist them by every means in her power.

In the meantime, however, it was necessary to pay some apparent attention to his remonstrances, made in the name of his master, on account of the shelter afforded to the exiles of Scotland. Angus and his companions were ordered to London; and there was an affectation on the part of England of restraining their intercourse and their intrigues with their own country.

Arran, confiding in his supposed friendship with England, proceeded in the pursuit of his own interest with the direct and disgusting rapacity which aims only at instant gratification without caring for consequences. The Earl of Athole, the Lord Home, and the Master of Cassilis, great names, and implying both rank and power, were severally imprisoned at his instance, for singular and very tyrannical reasons. The first, because he refused to divorce his wife, a daughter of the deceased Earl of Gowrie, and entail his estate upon Arran. The second, because he declined to convey to the tyrannical minister a portion of the lands of Dirleton. The third, because he had refused to lend Arran money when it was supposed he had some to spare a species of offence which can be comprehended in all stages of society, though, happily for moneyed men, those disposed to be their debtors have seldom the means of avenging themselves for a repulse. Besides the enmity thus excited, Arran, in forwarding certain partial views of his own, awakened a deadly feud on the western borders of Scotland, so important as to assume the character of a civil war.

The county of Dumfries had been long agitated by the disagreement of the ancient and powerful clans of Johnstone and Maxwell, who contended for the supreme influence. Of these the family of Maxwell was by far the richer, the-more numerous, the more powerful, and possessed in the dale of the Nith the more extensive and wealthy territory. The Johnstones, on the contrary, were thorough-paced borderers, living in the fastnesses of Annandale, a country nearly in-accessible, constantly engaged in war and depredation, and possessed of equal readiness to take arms and skill to use them. Their want of numbers or strength was made up by an inveterate love of war and the most determined courage. They were thus enabled to wage war with equal auspices against a feudal enemy more powerful than themselves; and it now suited the Earl of Arran to make them ministers of his vengeance upon the clan of Maxwell, against whose chieftain he harbored a personal cause of complaint. Arran had become desirous to exchange the barony of Kinneil, which he had succeeded to in the manner already mentioned, as a part of the insane Earl of Arran's most unjust forfeiture, for the lands of Maxwellheugh, an ancient possession of the Lord Maxwell. The proposed exchange was declined by Maxwell, who saw no reason to part with his ancient patrimony, and had, perhaps, little confidence in the security of the title by which he was to hold the new acquisition offered to him in lieu of it. Indignant at this opposition to his will and convenience, Arran resolved to avenge himself by stirring up again the Lord Maxwell his hereditary enemies the Johnstones. In order to attain this point, by awakening the ancient rivalry between the houses, he prevailed upon the chief of the Johnstones to accept of the office of provost of Dumfries, now and for years past held by the rival chief. Maxwell, understanding that the citizens had received a letter from the king, directing them to elect Johnstone for the provost, naturally interpreted this as done in scorn of his prior right, and resolved to occupy the town forcibly, and put Johnstone to death in case he at-tempted to stand the election. Changing his purpose, however, he contented himself with obstructing Johnstone's entrance into Dumfries, while he procured himself to be continued in the disputed office. To further his revenge, which had hitherto miscarried, Arran caused Maxwell to be denounced a rebel, for his obstruction of the king's pleasure in the matter of the provostry, and on account of certain border irregularities, of which pretexts were never wanting against the great men, who, like Maxwell, had rule in that disturbed country.

Commission was given to Johnstone to pursue and apprehend his rival; and two bands of mercenary soldiers were despatched to render him assistance in that enterprise. These hired soldiers, as they marched through Crawford Moor to join with their allies the Johnstones, were surrounded, defeated, and slain, or made prisoners by the Maxwells. Johnstone, smarting under this discomfiture, raised his banner, and invaded Nithsdale, burning and taking spoil with the usual border ferocity. Maxwell retaliated; and the clans, so long opposed to each other, having met in pitched battle, Johnstone was defeated and made prisoner an affront which afflicted his proud spirit so severely that he died of grief shortly after he was liberated. The feud' continued violent between the two great families : incursions, depredations, and skirmishes took place on either side, and all through the fault of the unscrupulous minister, who, in his desire to avenge a private grudge against Maxwell, had totally destroyed the peace of the country, where it was his duty as chancellor to see the laws equally administered, and tranquillity preserved among the subjects.

Nor had Arran's individual impolicy been less evident in fomenting this civil war than the neglect of his public duty. In Maxwell he had added to his own personal enemies a powerful and warlike chieftain, the head of a military clan, and situated so near the border that he might make common cause with the Scottish exiles, the incensed clergy-men, and the minister's other enemies. Accordingly Arran was sensible of the danger too late. A convention of the estates was called, money was voted, and levies were set on foot for a royal expedition to suppress Maxwell; but the severe pestilence that broke out in Edinburgh occasioned the delay of the projected expedition.

In the meantime Elizabeth, relying little or nothing on the faith of Arran, who showed himself as devoid of wisdom as he was of popularity, was desirous, if possible, to rest her friendship with Scotland upon a more secure basis than that on which it had been placed by Arran's interview with Hunsdon.

For this purpose she chose to enter into a new negotiation, founded on the habits and character of James himself. The reports of Walsingham may be supposed to have produced some effect in favor of the Scottish monarch, at least so far as to make it appear politic to study his disposition more closely, and gain the personal favor less of his ministers than of the king himself. The queen selected for this purpose an envoy to reside at the Scottish court, singularly well adapted to further her views, whether he should find the Scottish prince of that character, at once solid and ingenious, which Walsingham ascribed to him, or whether James should be found, according to common repute, influenced by the silly habit of favoritism and overweening attachment to juvenile sports. This envoy was called Wotton. He was sent, according to the Master of Gray, not to tease his majesty with politics, or troublesome and thorny matters of business, but to partake with him in the honest pastimes of hunting, hawking, and riding, and entertain him with friendly and merry discourses; having been a great traveller, and seen various courts.

Above all, Wotton was recommended by Gray as a sincere friend and favorer of his majesty's title and succession to the throne of England.

Under this gay and gilded exterior, which was calculated to advance him in the opinion of James, the English envoy added the dangerous qualities of an experienced spy and bold intriguer ; and had from his mistress the delicate charge of combining together and bringing to union all the discontented spirits whom he should find willing to engage in opposition to Arran. The moment the experienced Melville set his eyes upon the new envoy of England at the Scottish court, he recognized the person of a young man whom he had known at Paris acting the part of a spy in the disguise of an Irish page, and forming the channel through which some treacherous proposals were made to the constable of France for the surprisal of Calais. This important discovery he communicated to James; leaving it to the king to judge how Wotton's former occupation agreed with the character of a frank, jovial, light-hearted sportsman, assigned to him by the Master of Gray. Although James was thus warned of Wotton's real character, he could not resist being captivated with his accomplishments in hunting and hawking and other sylvan pastimes, and admitted him far more into his society than was either prudent or proper.

The matter of State on which Wotton was chiefly directed to insist was one of the utmost importance to both parts of Britain, being the formation of a league, offensive and defensive, among all Protestant sovereigns, to counterbalance that which had been formed between the pope, the Spanish king, the brethren of the House of Guise, and other Catholic princes, having for its object the extirpation of the reformed religion. Such a league was assented to with great formality by the king in parliament, being offensive and defensive in all matters which should affect the cause of religion. In return for his brotherly zeal, Elizabeth settled on James the solid benefit of a pension of four thousand pounds sterling, which was highly acceptable to the Scottish sovereign, whose revenue was in a most dilapidated condition. When this ostensible purpose of his embassy was accomplished, it was supposed that Sir Edward Wotton, the envoy extraordinary, would have returned to the English court; but he had yet a deeper and darker intrigue to conduct, in the destruction of the power of the favorite Arran.

This had been considerably shaken : Gray and Maitland, though they had risen under his favor, as we have seen, were secretly his enemies : the king was in some late instances known to express himself dissatisfied with his violence; and a misfortune had of late happened on the border of a character which endangered the peace between the kingdoms, which, if not directly imputable to his agency, was yet such as he was considered liable to be made responsible for.

Sir John Foster, warden of the eastern marches of England, had held one of the usual meetings of truce with Sir Thomas Kerr of Farniherst, warden of the middle marches of Scotland, when a question of dispute arose concerning the satisfaction claimed for certain cattle said to have been stolen out of Scotland : the dispute waxed warm; and each warden being surrounded by the usual number of armed borderers delinquents who found their own account in war and disturbance they came very soon from words to blows. The Scottish poured a volley of their firearms upon the English, by which Sir Francis Russell, eldest son of the Earl of Bed-ford, was mortally wounded, and died, bequeathing to the fatal spot, which is on the farm of Auldton Burn, and exactly on the march between England and Scotland, the name of Russell's Cairn.

Queen Elizabeth was highly offended when she received this information; and although such accidents were frequent, considering the inflammable temper of the clans who usually attended on these occasions, it was her pleasure in this case to impute the death of Russell to the special malice of Farniherst, instigated by his patron Arran to take such violent measures for breaking the peace with England. There is no possibility of judging with certainty what might or might not be true respecting a person of Arran's rash and fickle temper. But considering that he had been so lately courting the friendship of Elizabeth, as essential to his own interest, it seems improbable that he should suddenly break it off in so violent a manner ; and it is much more likely that Elizabeth, perceiving his credit at James's court beginning to fail, availed herself of this pretext of assisting to over-throw it entirely, with the hope of filling up his place in James's counsels by men upon whose principles she could better rely than on a favorite intoxicated with his undeserved advancement and devoid at once of faith and of sagacity. The remonstrance of his allies, skilfully enforced by the art of Wotton, had, no doubt, considerable effect upon James. He appointed Sir Thomas Kerr to enter into ward, that is, to remain a prisoner on parole in the town of Aberdeen, and commanded Arran to restrain himself to his mansion of Kinneil. Farniherst died in his imprisonment; for, being a man of a haughty spirit, and conscious of having rendered many services to Mary in her distresses, he resented the usage which he received from the son of his old mistress, and is said to have died of mortification.

Other agents were strangely intermingled in the dark intrigues.

About this time a judicial proceeding took place of a very peculiar character, which indicated the boldness with which the Scottish ministers pursued their criminal intrigues, their contempt of public opinion, and their reliance upon the extreme docility of King James.

It has been already mentioned that when Morton was accused of the murder of Darnley, on the last day of December, 1580, his cousin, Archibald Douglas, titular parson of Glasgow, was involved in the same charge; nay, a great part of the accusation against Morton rested upon his having favored and preferred this Archibald Douglas, although by the testimony of those persons who suffered for the murder Archibald had been himself present at the deed, and although by Morton's own confession the same person had proposed the crime to him on the part of Bothwell, and urged him to take part in the execution. Being thus involved in the alleged guilt of his patron Morton, even more deeply than the earl himself, Douglas was deprived of his office of a judge of the Court of Session, which he held by the favor of the late regent, and was obliged to fly to England. He was subjected to a doom of forfeiture in the month of November, 1581; and the king made repeated demands to Elizabeth that he should be delivered up to him for trial and execution.

Douglas was a man of that species of talents which suited the time; able, intriguing, bold, and audacious, unscrupulous enough to act with any party in any kingdom, and shrewd enough to take the full advantage of any circumstance which might occur in his favor. During his banishment in England he had intimately connected himself with Elizabeth's minister, Randolph, and others, whom she considered as most proper to maintain the oblique and indirect connections which lier policy disposed her to entertain with the various malcontents in Scotland. The intrigues of the Master of Gray were closely connected with the same class of ministers; and it appears that be held, in consequence, an intimate intercourse with the banished Archibald Douglas. When Arran's influence at court began to fail, an act was passed under the great seal, releasing Douglas from the decree of forfeiture pronounced against him as both accessory and principal in Darnley's murder: it contained the extraordinary clause, that if, notwithstanding, Douglas on a fair trial should be found guilty of accession to the king's murder, the act of rehabilitation should lose its force. Under this species of assurance, limited as it was, Douglas had the audacity to return to his native country. For decency's sake he was subjected to a trial, which appears to have been in every respect collusive, and so managed as to insure the escape of the prisoner : it was so conducted as to place his fate in the hands of jurymen selected by the prisoner him-self; others who were cited, having refused to attend, were supplied from a list summoned by an order of the king produced by the accused, and consisting, as far as can now be discovered, of jurors fully disposed for his acquittal; by jurymen thus packed, having the Master of Gray as their chancellor, in May, 1586, he was acquitted of the crime. It also occurred, as a singular feature on the trial, that the confusion of Morton, who stated that Douglas, now accused, had been the person through whom Bothwell communicated with him upon the deed, was withdrawn from the record, and could not be produced against the accused. Thus collusively acquitted from an accession to the murder of the king's father, of which he was unquestionably guilty, Archibald Douglas continued to be a favorite channel of communication between the English intriguers in Scotland and Gray, and other favorers of their interest at James's court : and he appears shortly after this narrow escape from a trial for the crime of which he was certainly guilty, the murder, namely, of the king's father, to have been designed as ambassador for England. Unquestionably the object of this most indecent proceeding was to insure to the Master of Gray a safe, secret, and subtile agent, with whom he might communicate with his friends in England upon the measures to be adopted for accomplishing the downfall of Arran. A singular letter of Thomas Randolph, the most active agent in these dark and iniquitous transactions, is still preserved :l it is written in a strain of drollery not uncharacteristic of wicked men, who often concert and carry on their villanies in a tone of jest which renders them, perhaps, more indifferent in their own eyes than if they used the ordinary language of common life. He seems to consider Douglas as not quite re-stored in character, as we may infer from his tone of salutation, in which he addresses him as domine non adhuc sacrosanete: he talks of the Carrs as probably fled to the hills, in consequence of Elizabeth's resentment for the death of Russell, and alludes to tumults shortly to ensue in Scot-land. "Look to your own person," he proceeds, "that you bring it shortly sacro-sanctified into England. Beware of the crafts of the Arranses, and hatred of the Carrs; for hereupon dependeth the state of your welfare, sanctification, or reprobation." He proceeds, alluding possibly to some libel or attack upon himself as well as Douglas : "As notable a peece of knavery hath been of late wrote agaynst my sanctitie in esse, and yours in propinquo, as any cunninge knave in Scotland could ever have wrought." The concluding paragraph of this remarkable letter not only affords peculiar evidence of James's ruling taste, but serves to show that the means by which Randolph studied to gratify them were transmitted through hands so imperfectly cleansed from his father's blood: "I have sent the kynge two hunting men, verie good and skilfull, with one footman, that can hoop, hollow, and crye, that all the trees in Fawkland will quake for fear: pray the kynge's majestie to be mercifull to poor bucks; but let him spare and look well to himself." Within a few weeks Douglas, replaced in the secular possession of the benefice of Glasgow, which was, probably, great part of the sacro-sanctification alluded to by Randolph, was sent to England as the ordinary ambassador of King James; and there can be little doubt that to him and to the Master of Gray are to be imputed not only the fall of Arran, which was in itself a deliverance to Scotland, but the death of Queen Mary, which was accelerated by their nefarious intrigues.

Arran was soon relieved from his confinement on account of Russell's death; but cannot have been restored to the confidence of his sovereign, since intrigues were now carried forward almost openly for the object of removing him from power. With this view Sir Edward Wotton held secret communication with Maitland, Gray, and other counsellors in Scotland hostile to Arran's interest, and no less with Angus and the other exiles, on account of the Raid of Ruthven, whom he encouraged to approach once more to the border to unite with Lord Maxwell, the capital enemy of Arran; and then advancing into the interior, to achieve by force of arms a purpose which was scarcely now likely to be seriously opposed, so numerous were the enemies of the favorite, and so far had he declined in his master's opinion. For the same reason, the exiles of Ruthven, laying aside consideration of the ancient feud between the Hamiltons and Douglases, resolved to make one cause with Lords John and Claud Hamilton, disinherited by the oppression of Morton, and enter Scotland in the same company with them.

In autumn, 1585, Arran became aware of the intended invasion, and appointed a levy of the array of Scotland to join the king at the castle of Crawford on the 22d day of October, in order to meet and repel it. But the statesmen whom he himself had introduced into power now openly deserted his falling authority : Gray and Maitland, who were concerned in Wotton's intrigue, prevented the summonses from being circulated or attended to. The banished lords hastened to prevent the king's levies, and assembled a body of about a thousand men at the town of Linton, where they were joined by Maxwell with seven or eight hundred horse and three hundred infantry a force almost equal to the united strength which his new associates could muster. They immediately set in motion toward Stirling, where the king and Arran lay, proclaiming the said earl and Colonel William Stewart abusers of the king's favor, for whose removal from the public councils and for the preserving of peace with England they declared themselves to be in arms.

The Earl of Bothwell and others hastened to join with them. Indeed, the avowal of such motives was so generally accepted that before they reached St. Ninian's their numbers were increased to nearly ten thousand men in arms. In the meantime the alarm at Stirling was great. Wotton, the English ambassador, who had been so busy in all these intrigues, thought it safe to withdraw from Scotland with-out taking farewell, when he perceived an explosion unavoidable. Some imputed this unusually precipitate departure to his having trafficked in some scheme for the delivery of the king's person into the hands of the discontented nobles; others supposed he was unwilling to be within the power of Arran when he should find himself overreached. He himself imputed his haste to his mistress's resentment of the delay in delivering up Farniherst, which is the least probable cause which could have been assigned, since a mortal malady had already arrested that unfortunate chief.

Arran, cooped up in Stirling, made some pretence of de-fending himself, although such had been his supineness or the treachery of those whom he had intrusted with the charge of affairs at this crisis, that neither arms, men, nor provisions were in readiness for the emergency. The night passed in fruitless debates. Ere the break of day a cry arose that the town was taken. The invaders, having obtained entrance by the connivance of some friends, were, in fact, in possession of the town. Arran fled; and having the key of Stirling Bridge about his person, was enabled to make his escape, locking the gates behind him fo prevent pursuit. James remained in Stirling Castle with some courtiers about his person, but without garrison or provisions.

Deserted by his favorite, he opened a communication with the armed lords, and it appears they soon came to understand each other. The lords protested that their approach in that warlike manner was not meant to put any compulsion upon the king, but merely to obtain permission to reside on their estates, and to serve their country. James, on his part, manifested much moderation : he had never liked, he said, the violence of Arran; and was content to admit the noble-men to his presence and favor, provided he was assured of safety to those who had been his friends and active in his service.

Moderation being promised, on the part of the victorious insurgents, the king received the armed petitioners with a considerable degree of dignity. To Lord Hamilton, who, in precedence of blood, was the first to offer his homage, he replied, "My lord, I never before saw you; and I must confess, of all that are here, you have been most wronged, having been a faithful servant to the queen, my mother, during my minority, and subject to ill usage, when I under-stood not matters as I now do.-Others of you," he said, looking to the lords concerned in the Raid of Ruthven, "cannot but say that you have had your deserts, and suffered no more than your misdemeanors merited. For thee, Francis," he continued, addressing the Earl of Bothwell, who had joined the invaders since their entrance into Scotland, "what could move thee to come in arms against a sovereign who never offended thee? I wish thee a more quiet spirit and knowledge how to live as a subject, as otherwise thou wilt fall into much trouble." This Earl of Bothwell, whom James so apostrophized, was Francis Stewart, grandson of King James V., by his natural son, and, consequently, a cousin-german of the reigning monarch. The estates and honors of Bothwell and lordship of Liddisdale had been conferred upon him after the forfeiture of the infamous James Hepburn; but it seems as if the very title was doomed to infect those who bore it with a strain of in-ordinate and turbulent ambition. For this nobleman be-came a principal source of disorder during King James's reign, as he who had formerly borne the title was the pest and shame of Queen Mary's, so that the speech addressed to him by the king at the Raid of Stirling seemed, in some degree, prophetic.

The king's cordial reception of the lords seemed the preface to an amicable settlement. Some changes were made in order to give offices to the new-comers. Arran, deprived of his titles and offices, was suffered to reside in neglect and safety among his kinsmen, in the district of Kyle, where he lived obscurely, under his original name of Captain James Stewart. The contempt indicated by this neglect shows that there was no longer any reason to dread his influence over the king's mind, and that his hour of favor had passed away.

The blood of only one individual stained this remarkable revolution; and its effusion was lamented by no one. The slain man was Hamilton of Eglismachan, the person upon whose information Douglas of Mains and Cunningham of Drumquhassel were condemned and executed. Johnstone of Westerkirk, a brave and determined borderer, had made a vow to avenge the death of Mains, who had been his fellow-soldier. At his approach to Stirling in the van of the insurgent forces, as soon as he could set eyes upon Hamilton, he rushed to attack him. The informer, who had long lived in terror of such a fate, fled into the king's park, where he was followed and slain by the self-elected avenger of blood. Another incident, occasioned, it would seem, by remorse of conscience, threw light upon the undeserved fate of these two innocent gentlemen. Edmonstone of Duntreath, as the reader will remember, had been brought to trial along with them in the capacity of an associate, and had pleaded guilty, alleging that the plot for seizing the king's person had been concerted by himself and the gentlemen accused, on the instigation of Black John Home, a follower of the Earl of Angus. This confession, on the part of a supposed associate, was urged against Argaty and Drumquhassel. This same Edmonstone now came forward before the privy council, voluntarily and unsummoned, to acknowledge that his former confession was a tissue of falsehoods, which he had been compelled to utter by the menaces of James Stewart, the late earl of Arran. This contradiction of his former testimony was, probably, brought forward to obtain favor, or immunity, at least, from the Earl of Angus, whose name had been introduced as the original instigator of the conspiracy imputed to Mains and Drumquhassel.