number of three hundred light axes, all clad in white livery, and black bends thereon, that they might be known for Cochran the Earl of Mar's men: Himself was clad in a riding-pie of black velvet, with a great chain of gold about his neck, to the value of five hundred crowns, and four blowing horns with both the ends of gold and silk, set with precious stone, called a berryl, hanging in the midst. This Cochran had his heumont born before him overgilt with gold; and so were all the rest of his horns, and all his pallions were of fine canvas of silk, and the cords thereof fine twined silk, and the chains upon bis pallions were double overgilt with gold. "This Cochran was so proud in his conceit, that he counted no lords to be marrows to him, therefore he rushed rudely at the kirk door. The council inquired who it was that perturbed them at that time. Sir Robert Douglas, laird of Lochlevin, was keeper of the kirk-door at that time, who inquired who that was that knocked so rudely? And Cochran answered, "This is I, the Earl of Mar." The which news pleased well the lords, because they were ready boun to cause take him, as is afore rehersed. Then the Earl of Angus past hastily to the door, and with him Sir Robert Douglas of Lochlevin, there to receive in the Earl of Mar, and so many of his complices who were there, as they thought good. And the Earl of Angus met with the Earl of Mar, as he came in at the door, and pulled the golden chain from his craig, and said to him, a tow* would set him better. Sir Robert Douglas syne pulled the blowing-horn from him in like manner, and said, "He had been the hunter of mischief over long." This Cochran asked, “My lords, is it mows* or earnest." They answered, and said, it is good earnest, and so thou shalt find: for thou and thy complices have abused our prince this long time; of whom thou shalt have no more credence, but shall have thy reward according to thy good service, as thou hast deserved in times by past; right so the rest of they followers. * Rope. † Jest. "Notwithstanding, the lords held them quiet till they caused certain armed men to pass into the king's pallion, and two or three wise men to pass with them, and give the king fair pleasant words, till they laid hands on all the king's servants, and took them and hanged them before his eyes over the bridge of Lawder. Incontinent they brought forth Cochran, and his hands bound with a tow, who desired them to take one of his own pallion-tows and bind his hands, for he thought shame to have his hands bound with such tow of hemp, like a thief. The lords answered, he was a traitor, he deserved no better; and for despight, they took a hair-tether,* and hanged him over the bridge of Lawder, above the rest of his complices." Pitscottie, p. 78. folio edit.. Note XIV. Against the war had Angus stood, And chafed his royal lord.-P. 183. Angus was an old man when the war against England was resolved upon. He earnestly spoke against that measure from its commencement; and, on the eve of the battle of Flodden, remonstrated so freely upon the impolicy of fighting, that the king said to him, with scorn and indignation, "if he was afraid, he might go home." The Earl burst into tears at this insupportable insult, and retired accordingly, leaving his sons, George, master of Angus, and Sir William, of Glenbervie, to command his followers. They were both slain in the battle, with two hundred gentlemen of the name of Douglas. The aged earl, broken-hearted at the calamities of his house and his country, retired into a religious house, where he died about a year after the field of Flodden. Note XV, Then rest you in Tantallon hold.-P. 183. The ruins of Tantallon Castle occupy a high rock projecting * Halter. into the German Ocean, about two miles east of North Berwick. The building is not seen till a close approach, as there is rising ground betwixt it and the land. The circuit is of large extent, fenced upon three sides by the precipice which overhangs the sea, and on the fourth by a double ditch and very strong outworks. Tantallon was a principal castle of the Douglas family, and when the Earl of Angus was banished, in 1527, it continued to hold out against James V. The king went in person against it, and, for its reduction, borrowed from the castle of Dunbar, then belonging to the Duke of Albany, two great cannons, whose names, as Pitscottie informs us with laudable minuteness, were Thrawn-mouth'd Mow and her Marrow; also, two great botchards, and two moyan, two double falcons, and four quarter falcons;' for the safe guiding and redelivery of which, three lords were laid in pawn at Dunbar. Yet, notwithstanding all this apparatus, James was forced to raise the siege, and only afterwards obtained possession of Tantallon by treaty with the governor, Simeon Panango. When the Earl of Angus returned from banishment, upon the death of James, he again obtained possession of Tantallon, and it actually afforded refuge to an English ambassador, under circumstances similar to those described in the text. This was no other than the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler, who resided there for some time under Angus's protection, after the failure of his negotiation for matching the infant Mary with Edward VI. He says, that though this place was poorly furnished, it was of such strength as might warrant him against the malice of his enemies, and that he now thought himself out of danger.* There is a military tradition, that the old Scotch March was meant to express the words, * The very curious State Papers of this able negotiator, are shortly to be published by Mr. Clifford, with some Notes, by the author of Marmion. Ding down Tantallon, Mak a brig to the Bass. Tantallon was at length "dung down" and ruined by the Covenanters; its lord, the Marquis of Douglas, being a favourer of the royal cause. The castle and barony were sold in the beginning of the eighteenth century to President Daylrymple of North Berwick, by the then Marquis of Douglas. Note XVI. Their motto on his blade.-P. 183. A very ancient sword, in possession of Lord Douglas, bears, among a great deal of flourishing, two hands pointing to a heart, which is placed betwixt them, and the date 1829, being the year in which Bruce charged the Good Lord Douglas to carry his heart to the Holy Land: The following lines (the first couplet of which is quoted by Godscroft as a popular saying in his time) are inscribed around the emblem: So mony guid as of ye Dovglas beine, I will ye charge, efter yat I depart, I do protest in tyne of al my ringe, Ye lyk subject had never ony keing. This curious and valuable relique was nearly lost during the civil war of 1745-6, being carried away from Douglas-Castle by some of those in arms for Prince Charles. But great interest having been made by the Duke of Douglas among the chief partisans of Stuart, it was at length restored. It resembles a Highland claymore, of the usual size, is of an excellent temper, and admirably poised. Note XVII. Martin Swart.-P. 189. The name of this German general is preserved by that of the field of battle, which is called, after him, Swart-moor. There were songs about him long current in England.-See dissertation prefixed to Ritson's Ancient Songs, 1792, page Ixi. Note XVIII. Perchance some form was unobserved; Perchance in point of faith he swerved.-P. 190. It was early necessary for those who felt themselves obliged to believe in the divine judgment being enunciated in the trial by duel, to find salvos for the strange and obviously precarious chances of the combat. Various curious evasive shifts used by those who took up an unrighteous quarrel, were supposed sufficient to convert it into a just one. Thus, in the romance of "Amys and Amelion," the one brother-in-arms, fighting for the other, disguised in his armour, swears that he did not commit the crime of which the Steward, his antagonist, truly, though maliciously, accused him whom he represented. Brantome tells a story of an Italian, who entered the lists upon an unjust quarrel, but, to make his cause good, fled from his enemy at the first onset. "Turn, coward!" exclaimed his antagonist; "Thou liest," said the Italian, "coward am I none; and in this quarrel will I fight to the death, but my first cause of combat was unjust, and I abandon it." "Je vous laisse a penser,” adds Brantome, s'il n'y a pas de l'abus la." Elsewhere he says, very sensibly, upon the confidence which those who had a righteous cause entertained of victory; "Un autre abus y avoit-il, que ceux qui avoient un juste sujet de querelle, et qu'on les faisoit jurer avant entrer au camp, pensoient estre aussitost vainqueurs, voire s'en assuroient-ils du tout, mesmes, que leurs confesseurs, parrains et confidants leurs en respondoient tout-a-fait, comme si Dieu leur en eust donne une patente; et ne regardant point a d'autres fautes passees, et que Dieu en garde la punition a ce coup la pour plus grande, despiteuse, et exemplaire." Discours sur les Duels, |