to him an intimation that he was to be made
prisoner, and advised him to lose no time in
assuming the defensive. On this he sent his uncle,
the ?fambus Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld,
to remonstrate with the archbishop, Arran, and
others present, ? to caution them against violence,
and to inform them that if they had anything to
allege against him he would be judged by the laws
of the realm, and not by men who were his avowed
enemies.? Meanwhile he put on his armour, and
drew up his spearmen in close array near the
Nether-Bow Port-the Temple Bar of Edinburgh
-a gate strongly fortified by double towers.
When the Bishop of Dunkeld entered the archbishop?s
house in the Blackfriars Wynd he found
all present armed, and resolved on the most desperate
measures. Even the archbishop wore a coat
of mail, covered by his ecclesiastical costume, and
in the dispute that ensued he concluded a vehement
speech by striking his breast, and asseverating-??
There is no remedy ! The Earl of Angus
must go to prison. Upon my conscience I cannot
help it 1 ?
As he struck his breast the armour rattled.
? How now, my lord ? ? said the Bishop of Dunkeld
; ? I think your conscience clatters! We
are priests, and to bear arms or armour is not
consistent with our profession.?
The archbishop explained ? that he had merely
provided for his own safety in these days of continued
turmoil, when no man could leave his house
but at the hazard of his life.?
Numbers of citizens and others had now joined
Angus, who was exceedingly popular, and the people
handed weapons from the windows to all his followers
who required them. He barricaded all the
entrances to the steep wynds and closes leading from
the High Street to the Cowgate, and took post
himself near the head of the Blackfriars Wynd.
Sir James Hamilton of Finnart came rushing upward
at the head of the Hamiltons to attack the
Douglases. Angus, who knew him, ordered the
latter to spare him if possible, but he was onc
of the first who perished in the fierce and bloody
fray that ensued, and involved the whole city in
universal uproar.
?A Hamilton ! a
Hamilton ! Through ! Through ! ? such were the
adverse cries.
The many windows of the lofty and gable-ended
houses of the High Street were crowded with the
excited faces of spectators ; the clash of swords and
crash of pikes, the shouts, yells, and execration:
of the combatants as they closed in fierce conflict
added to the general consternation, and killed and
?A Douglas ! a Douglas !?
vounded began to cumber the causeway in every
iirection.
The Hamiltons gave way, and, sword in hand,
he exasperated Angus drove them headlong down
be Blackfriars Wynd, killing them on every hand.
r?he Earl of Arran and a kinsman hewed a passage
)ut of the m t e , and fled down an alley on the north
iide of the High Street. At the foot they found
I collier?s horse, and, throwing the burden off the
tnimal, both mounted it, though in armour, swam
t across the loch to the other side, and escaped
tmong the fields, where now Princes Street stands.
Many Douglases perished in the skirmish, which
was long remembered as ?? Cleanse the Causeway.?
3f the Hamiltons eighty were slain on the spot,
including Sir Patrick son of the first Lord Hamilton,
and the Master of Montgomery, according to
Hawthornden. The archbishop fled to the adjacent
Blackfriars church for sanctcary, but the
Douglases dragged him from behind the altar,
rent his episcopal habit from his back, and would ?
have slain him had not the Bishop of Dunkeld
interfered; and he was permitted to fly afoot to
Linlithgow, sixteen miles distant.
Towards the termination of the fight 800 border
troopers, under the Prior of Coldingham (Angus?s
brother), came galloping hi, and finding the gates
and wickets closed, they beat them in with hammers;
but by that time the fray was over.
This was but a specimen of the misrule that
pervaded the whole realm till the arrival of the
Regent Albany, when the Parliament at Edinburgh
named four peers as guardians of the young king
and his infant brother, permitting the queen to name
other four. On this being adjusted, the Duke of
Albany and these peers in their robes of state,
attended by esquires and pages, proceeded to the
Castle, at the gate of which they were received by
a singular tableau of an imposing description.
The bamers were thrown open, and on the
summit of the flight of forty steps which then gave
access to them, stood the beautiful queen of that
heroic king who fell at Flodden, holding by the
hand the little James V., while a pace or two
behind her stood a noble lady, supporting in her
arms his infant brother. With real or affected
sweetness of manner she asked their errand.
? Madam,? replied the royal duke, ? we come
by the authority of Parliament to receive at your
hands our sovereign and his brother.??
Margaret Tudor stepped back a pace, and
ordered the portcullis to be lowered, and as the
grating descended slowly between her and the four
delegates, she said :-
? I hold this Castle by gift from my late husband,
