and ?married Henry Stuart Lord Methven, on
finding that the former was about to seize her
dower-lands, fled, with her third husband and all
his vassals, to the Castle of Edinburgh, and, joining
her son, prepared to resist to the last; but Earl
Archibald only laughed when he heard of it ; and,
displaying his banner, invested the fortress at the
head of his own vassals and those of the Crown.
Margaret found that she dared not disobey, and
her soldiers capitulated.
Bathed in tears, on her knees, at the outer gate,
quailing under the grim eye of one who was so
recently her husband, at his command she placed
the keys ?? in the hands of her son, then a tall and
handsome yodth, imploring pardon for &er husband,
for his brother Sir James Stuart, and lastly for
herself. Angus smiled scornfully beneath his barred
helmet at her constrained submission, and haughtily
directed the Lord Methven and others to be imprisoned
in the towers from which they had so
lately defied him.?
In 1528, James, at last, by a midnight flight with
only two attendants, escaped the Douglas thrall,
and fled to Falkland Palace, after which event, with
a decision beyond his years, he proceeded to assert
his own authority, and summoned the estates to
meet him at Stirling. The Douglases were declared
outlaws and traitors, whereupon Angus and
all the barons of his name fled to England.
On the death of James V., in 1542, the Regent
Arran thoroughly repaired the Castle, and appointed
governor Sir James Hamilton of Stanehouse, a gallant
soldier, who proved worthy of the trust reposed
in him when, in 1544, Henry VIII., exasperated at
the Scots for declining to fulfil a treaty, made by an
English faction, affiancing the young Queen Mary
to his only son Edward, sent the Earl of Hertford
with an army, and zoo sail under Dudley Lord
PIsle to the Forth, with orders, so characteristic of
a ferociouk despot, ? to put all to fire and sword ; to
burn Edinburgh, raze, deface, and sack it ; to beat
down and overthrow the Castle ; to sack Holyrood
and as many towns and villages as he could; to
sack Leith, burn, and subvert it, and all the rest ;
putting man, woman, and child, to fire and sword,
without exception.?*
Hertford suddenly landed with 10,000 men near
an old fortalice, called the Castle of Wardie, on
the beach that bordered a desolate moor of the
same name, and seized Leith and Newhaven.
Cardinal Beaton and the Regent Arran lay in the
vicinity with an army. The former proposed battle,
but the latter, an irresolute man, declined, and -
Tytla.
retired in the night towards Linlithgow with his
hastily levied troops.
Lord Evers, with 4,000 horse, had now joined
the English from Berwick, and Hertford arrogantly
demanded the instant surrender of the infant
queen ; and being informe4 that the nation would
perish to a man rather than submit to terms so
ignominious, he advanced against Edinburgh, from
whence came the Provost, Sir Adam Otterburn, to
make terms, if possible ; but Hertford would have
nothing save an unconditional surrender of life and
property, together with the little queen, then at
Stirling.
? Then,? said the Provost, ? ?twere better that
the city should stand on its defence!? He
galloped back to put himself at the head of the
citizens, who were in arms under the Blue Blanket.
The English, after being repulsed with loss at the
Leith Wynd Port, entered by the Water Gate,
advanced up the Canongate to the Nether Bow
Port, which they blew open by dint of artillery, and
a terrible slaughter of the citizens ensued. All resisted
manfully. Among others was one named
David Halkerston of Halkerston, who defended
the wynd that for ?300 years bore his name, and
perished there sword in hand. Spreading through
the city like a flood, the English fired it in eight
places, and as the High Street was then encumbered
with heavy fronts of ornamented timber that erst had
grown in the forest of Drumsheugh, the smoke of
the blazing mansions actually drove the invaders
out to ravage the adjacent country, prior to which
they met with a terrible repulse in an attempt
to attack the Castle. Four days Hertford toiled
before it, till he had 500 men killed, an incredible
number wounded, and some of his guns dismounted
by the fire of the garrison. Led by Stanehouse,
the Scots made a sortie, scoured the Castle hill,
and carried off Hertford?s guns, among which
were some that they had lost at Flodden. The
English then retreated, leaving Edinburgh nearly
one mass of blackened ruin, and the whole country
burned and wasted for seven miles around it
When, three years after, the same unscrupulous
leader, as Duke of Somerset, won that disastrous
battle at Pinkie-a field that made 360 women of
Edinburgh widows, and where the united shout
raised by the victors as they came storming over
Edrnondston Edge was long remembered-stanehouse
was again summoned to surrender; but
though menaced by 26,000 of the English, he
maintained his charge till the retreat of Somerset
Instead of reconciling the Scots to an alliance
with England-in those days a measure alike
unsafe and unpalatable-all this strengthened the
