time exiled, and put from your livings, cannot say but it was your own fault. But," turning himself to Bothwell, "What should have moved thee, Francis, to take this course, and come in arms against me? Did I ever do thee any wrong? or what cause hadst thou to offend? I wish thee a more quiet spirit, and that thou mayst learn to live as a subject; otherwise thou shalt fall in trouble.

Some attempted to explain more fully the reasons which had induced them to take this violent course with his Majesty. But he interrupted them. "There is no need of words," said he; "weapons have already spoken well enough. I am satisfied, as I think you did not mean harm to my person, to give you all both my hand and my heart; and I will remember nothing that is past, provided you carry yourselves henceforth as becomes men of your places, and behave yourselves as dutiful subjects." Having said so much to vindicate the integrity of his kingly prerogative, he permitted them to rise and kiss his hand. The Earl of Arran was then proclaimed traitor at the Cross of Stirling; the Earls of Montrose and Crawford were put under confinement in the charge of Lord Hamilton; and the king's guard was entirely changed. Afterwards, a formal pardon was grant ed to the lords, who, of course, became James's new counsellors. In a Parliament which was held at Linlithgow on the 4th of December, this remission was confirmed, and at the same time a reversion of their attainders was granted, including that of the late Earl of Gowrie. Along with the lords thus restored, were restored those ministers who had fled from the violence of Arran's government to England...

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Thus ended the Raid of Stirling, an event of immense importance to King James, because it finally rescued him from the evil counsellors who beset his youth, and secured his government upon that good understanding with England, and that general moderation of principle, which were necessary for attracting to his person the affections of the great people whom he was destined to govern. After this, the country seems to have remained for a considerable time in a state of tran quillity, and even happiness, except so far as it was disturbed by the demands of the clergy, which were much too exorbitant to be at once granted, even after their friends had become the chief counsellors around the King. This matter, however, was at length settled in such a way as to make them comparatively peaceful.

The reader, perhaps, may desire to know the final fate of Arran. It was sufficiently in unison with the reckless nature of his life. For two years he lived in perfect seclusion among his friends in the wilder parts of Ayrshire, his style reduced from that of Earl of Arran to his original title of Captain James Stewart, for the peerage was restored to its proper owners, the Hamiltons, immediately after the affair of Stirling. At length, in 1587, the success which his brother met with in impeaching the Master of Gray, induced him to send a letter to the King, charging Maitland, his successor in the King's favour, with high crimes and misdemeanours; which attempt, however, met with no success; for, being ordered to enter into ward at Linlithgow Palace, to wait the result of Maitland's trial, with the prospect of being himself impeached as a sower of sedition, in

case of his charges being disproved, he thought proper to withhold himself from so dangerous an experiment. After this he was obliged to seek a more remote and secure place of refuge, Bewly in Rosshire, where his wife had a few friends, and a small piece of property. In 1596, when the death of Maitland, and an imprudent act on the part of the clergy, seemed to open a new prospect to him, he once more approached the King, with whom he had a long conference at Holyroodhouse. James was still disposed to befriend him; but till a proper op portunity of advancing him should occur, it was thought expedient that he should retire to the strongholds of his friends in Ayrshire. He accordingly re paired, with a small party, towards that district of country. As he was passing the village of Syming ton in Lanarkshire, a friend told him that it would be prudent for him to ride a little less ostentatiously, as James Douglas of Torthorwald, nephew to the late Morton, lived in the immediate neighbourhood, and was still inclined to be avenged of his uncle's death, which Stewart was known to have chiefly promoted. He replied, that he would not leave his road, or assume a disguise, for him, nor for any. of the name of Douglas. But he soon found occasion to repent of his rashness. His words being reported to Torthorwald, that proud: baron immediately took horse, and pursued him with three servants. Stewart was riding through the curious artificial-looking pass of Catslack, which. communicates between Clydesdale and Ayrshire, when, looking back, he espied Torthorwald rid-/ ing after him full speed. He immediately inquir ed the name of the strange place in which he was. Being informed it was Catslack, he hurried on

with evident trepidation, and gave orders to his retainers to follow as fast as they could; for he had received a response from witches in his days of power to beware of a cat, and he now judged from the name of the pass, that the dangerous moment had approached. His retainers, perhaps aware of this, and therefore despairing of any efforts they might make to defend him, abandoned him to his fate. He was immediately overtaken, tumbled from his horse, and killed by the avenging hand of Douglas. His body being then dragged aside, his head was taken off, and carried away by Torthorwald, while the carcass, thrown into a ditch, was left to be eaten up by dogs and swine. His head was fixed upon a spear, and planted on the walls of Torthorwald Castle, in Dumfrieshire, to the fulfilment, as the superstitious of that day failed not to remark, of another witch's prophecy, which promised that his head should be exalted above those of all the men of his time.

No legal cognizance was ever taken of his slaughter. He was esteemed a sort of moral outcast, quite unworthy of the notice of the laws.

It is necessary here to resort to some circumstances connected with the domestic life of James, which have been omitted in order to preserve the political narrative unbroken. In September 1582, when under the restraint of the Ruthven conspirators, he lost his tutor Buchanan. A certain stain seems to lie on the memory of James, at least in the estimation of some writers, for his ne ver having expressed what they think a sufficient degree of reverence for so distinguished a preceptor, and for his having permitted the body of his old master, who died poor, to be buried at the ex

pense of the city of Edinburgh. The gratitude of James to Buchanan, ought, according to these writers, to have been boundless, and should have regarded no check which the manners or the political prejudices of the man might have imposed upon it. Surely, however, those who think so, do not measure James's character by the ordinary standard of human nature. Buchanan, in his relation to James, was not a teacher chosen by a pupil from a preference on the part of the said pupil, but a stern governor and task-master, imposed upon him by a party without regard to his own eventual or probable wishes. James had every abstract reason, from the general circumstances of the case, not to speak of those which depended on the individual character of the master, for beholding him with aversion. It is needless to expatiate on these reasons-the malign feeling which the stoic cherished regarding his mother-his intimacy with all who had fought against the royal familythe nature and origin of the commission he had over his pupil, or his inflexible severity of temper James must have been more than an angel, or less than a man, if he had ever been thoroughly reconciled to such a person. As for the charge regarding Buchanan's poverty and his eleemosynary funeral, that may be best answered by pointing to the list of lucrative offices and endowments which he enjoyed during life, and by reminding the reader that, at the time of his death, James was im confinement, and unable to exhibit any mark of respect for his corpse.

Some light is cast on this matter by James's, own writings. Among the instructions which, he gives to his. son in the Basilicon Doron, he directs,