I 9 8 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 verse split through both halves, insomuch that there were 
 the Old-Light Burghers and the New-Light Burghers, the 
 Old-Light Antiburghers, and the New-Light Antiburghers. 
 Each protested in a general way against Popery and 
 Prelacy, but was very vehement against the three quarters 
 of what had once been itself, reserving its special anathe- 
 mas for that from which it had just separated. 1 
 
 A deal of curious matter about the disputes among the 
 Scots Protestants in France will be found in M. Michel's 
 second volume. It was in reference to their contentious- 
 ness that Andrew Rivet, a native of Poitou, himself a 
 pretty eager controversialist, used an expression which 
 has come into household use in the shape of the prcefervi- 
 dum ingenium Scotomm, a slight variation of the original. 2 
 
 I propose now to leave the religious bodies themselves, 
 and glance at a topic which will bring up the nature of 
 the places in which they worshipped. Architecture, 
 especially if it be of stone, is the most enduring memorial 
 of the social conditions of any country. The buildings 
 scattered over the surface of Scotland attest to this day 
 
 1 The Scots are called a priest - ridden people, yet their most 
 esteemed jests are against the clergy, and the vehemence of the 
 native sectarianism. Perhaps this is one of the benefits of competi- 
 tion. When I name the late Alexander Stewart Logan, the Sheriff 
 of Forfar, I will recall a sad remembrance of many a hearty laugh. 
 He was a man of strange grotesque genius, and held a large social 
 place ; yet he has left no mark behind him, save in the genial pages 
 of Dr John Brown. Logan had good opportunities of picking up 
 such stories, as he was the son of a Relief minister. One of them I 
 remember, a very curious example of how far down sectarianism can 
 go. Some boys were rioting in a Burgher church whether Old or 
 New Light not known. The person in charge of the building having 
 seized one of them, a shrill youthful cry comes from a corner " Hit 
 him hard hit him hard ; his father's an ^w/z'-burgher ! " 
 
 2 After alluding to the acridness of the Scots controversies, Rivetus 
 says, "Id praeterea observandum est, siquse durissimis persecutionum 
 temporibus a Scotis et Anglis nonnullis temere scripta fuerunt, ea 
 posse imputari non tam religioni quam nationum illarum, Scoticanse 
 prsesertim fervido ingenio et ad audendum prompto ; quod tantum 
 valde mitigatum fuisse accensa veritatis evangelicae luce, ex eo constat 
 quod ex centum quinque regibus suis, usque ad Mariam, tres exaut- 
 orarant, quinque expulerunt, et triginta duos necarunt." ' Riveti 
 Jesuita Vapulans,' ch. xiii. 14. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 199 
 
 with extraordinary precision the long severance from 
 England and attachment to France. We have seen that 
 when the Normans came to Scotland, they left their mark 
 there, as they did everywhere, in feudal castles, bearing 
 special types of the architecture of the period at which 
 they penetrated so far northwards. These are just like 
 the English castles of the same period. The churches, 
 too, built before and during the war of independence, are 
 the brethren of the English-Norman, and first pointed. 
 The existing remains, as well as the local histories, show 
 that the war and the poverty it caused throughout the 
 land brought castle and church building to a stop for 
 many a year, and when it was resumed, it diverged towards 
 the example of France. For instance, among those re- 
 mains of church architecture in Scotland which have not 
 been adulterated by bad restorations, there are no in- 
 stances of the Tudor, third pointed, or perpendicular style, 
 so prevalent everywhere in England. This style came 
 into use in England in the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century, and continued until it was gradually absorbed by 
 the revival of the classical forms. It has been called oc- 
 casionally the Tudor or the Elizabethan style ; but these 
 names were applied to it rather in its application to civil 
 than to ecclesiastical buildings. Mr Rickman gave it the 
 name of perpendicular, from the propensity of all the 
 lines, whether those of pillars or of mullions, to go straight 
 up and meet some arch or transom, instead of spreading 
 themselves in the easy floral forms of the preceding age. 
 It has also been called the third pointed, because the two 
 epochs which preceded had got the name of the first and 
 second pointed; and it is sometimes called depressed, 
 because the favourite form of arch adapted to it has the 
 ogee shape, as if it were the old pointed arch pressed 
 down at the apex. Lastly, it is called the degenerate 
 Gothic ; but people sometimes object to the applicability 
 of the term, when they remember that Henry VII.'s 
 Chapel, the hall of Christ Church, and many of the orna 
 ments both of Oxford and Cambridge, have been built 
 after this style. It will make the exclusion of this style 
 from Scotland more distinct, to mention the one building 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Withdrawn 
 
.- 
 
BY 
 
 JOHN-HILL 
 URTON H 
 
 C L M, L-L-D 
 
 AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF 
 SCOTLAND THE BOOK HUNTER* 
 THE REICN OF QbEE-V.Ahfttf 
 ETC, 
 
 WILLIAM BL-ACKWOOD: 
 
 SONS : EDINBURGH 
 LONDON S&*& MDCCCC 
 
a 
 
 : ,-' , V 1 : 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE growth of this volume is similar to that of 
 its predecessor, ' The Book - Hunter,' which was 
 received with unexpected favour. 
 
 The Author had at various times, through peri- 
 odical literature and otherwise, offered some sug- 
 gestions on the existence and character of certain 
 unexplored recesses in historical literature. He 
 found himself backed by friendly advisers in the 
 opinion that it would be worth while to go over the 
 ground more systematically, bring his suggestions 
 to clearer conclusions, and see how far they could 
 be assorted in systematic groups. The project was 
 rendered all the more attractive by the new light 
 thrown into corners previously obscure by the noble 
 collection of documents issued under the direction 
 of the Master of the Rolls in this country, and the 
 investigations of accomplished archaeologists abroad. 
 The Author found that the result could neither be 
 reached in so brief a time nor packed in so small 
 
 b 
 
VI ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 a compass as he expected, since new vistas, ever 
 opening up, lured him further on. The book thus 
 greatly changed its nature after the title had 
 been announced. But although the first part, 
 given up to an account of ' The Ancient League 
 with France/ is passed before ' The Scot Abroad ' 
 strictly commences, yet the title is not so illogical 
 as it may seem, since the whole book refers to the 
 relations of Scotland and Scotsmen with foreign 
 countries. 
 
 To go abroad merely for the purpose of dealing 
 with one's countrymen dispersed in foreign lands, 
 may appear as egregious an instance of nationality 
 as any of those which the Author has hunted up 
 for the amusement of his reader. He pleads as his 
 excuse that, having devoted the time at his disposal 
 to the reconstruction, from the beginning, of the 
 History of Scotland in its present received shape, 
 he has been tempted to leave from time to time the 
 beaten road, and follow up the nearest openings 
 into districts where he could wander at large, free 
 from the responsibilities for exhaustive complete- 
 ness which attend on history-making. He will be 
 glad if the good-natured reader takes his offering 
 in the same spirit, and treats it as a holiday ram- 
 ble through some secluded scenes in history and 
 literature. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE WITH FRANCE. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Charlemagne and Achaius question settled The War of 
 Independence The established quarrel with Scotland and 
 England Its consequence in the League with France 
 Wallace's share in the transaction The old treaties Social 
 life in France during the Hundred Years' War The Con- 
 stable Buchan The battles of Bauge, Crevant, and Verneuil 
 The establishment of the Scots Guard Some of their 
 feats, ....... 1-40 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 Personal anecdotes of the Scots immigrants The Wolf of 
 Badenoch's son The Albany and Darnley Stewarts The 
 Hamiltons and Douglases Investment of the Scotch Duke 
 of Touraine Notices of Scotsmen settled in France, and the 
 families founded by them The settlement of the Scots com- 
 pared with that of the Normans, . . . 41-73 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The other side of the reciprocity Contrast between the Scot 
 in France and Le Francais en Ecosse An ambassador 
 snubbed French chevaliers treated to a Border raid The 
 Admiral Vienne's expedition, and how it fared with him and 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 his followers The gladiatorial spectacle on the Inch of 
 Perth Ferdinand of Spain's dealings with Scotland Rule 
 of Albany, and its results A story of ecclesiastical patron- 
 age The foreign friar of Tongueland The slaughter of La 
 Bastie, ....... 74-105 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The birth of Queen Mary French writers on her life and 
 character Her influence on the fate of Europe Catherine 
 of Medici Their strife Mary's bequest to Philip The ap- 
 parent supremacy of the Old League The underworkings 
 that were destroying it French government in Scotland 
 Reaction Recent revelations The Reformation in Scot- 
 land, and how it came about The winding-up, . 106-160 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Relics of the League in Scots habits and practices The law 
 The Bonnet Vert and the Dyvour's Habit The States-Gen- 
 eral and the Three Estates The Huguenots and the Cove- 
 nanters Religious architecture The chateau and the castle 
 The Eguimene and the Hogmanay The Fetes des Foux 
 and the Daft Days French education and manners, 161-223 
 
 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Justice to Ireland and her monks John Duns The Scotists 
 and the Thomists Hector Boece and the fabulous histories 
 Buchanan Thomas Dempster Specimens of the ardent 
 nationality of Scots authors The effect of this on Scotland's 
 position in history John Knox and his followers The 
 writers on the other side Ecclesiastical squabbles A 
 ramble among miscellaneous authors Scotsmen in for- 
 eign universities Jurists Medical men The Aberdeen 
 school, ... . 227-314 
 
CONTEXTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SOLDIER. 
 
 The Dugald Dalgettys The divisions at home carried out 
 abroad Scotsmen on both sides of the Thirty Years' War 
 Monro Grey Hepburn The Leslies The Jacobite refu- 
 geesThe Keith family The Earl Marischal The Field- 
 Marshal The Seven Years' War and Frederick the Great 
 Scotsmen in Russian adventures Patrick Gordon in search 
 of employment His eminence in the Russian service Peter 
 the Great Admiral Greig, .... 315*377 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE STATESMAN. 
 
 Reputations, living and dead Gustavus Adolphus's Secretary- 
 at-War Sir William Lockhart Lord Stair John Law 
 William Paterson, ..... 378-435 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ARTIST. 
 
 Glimpses of early art George Jamesone and his contempor- 
 aries Aikman Hamilton Allan Ramsay Martin Jacob 
 More Runciman Sir Robert Strange Early architects 
 James Gibbs, ...... 436-477 
 
 INDEX, ....... 478 
 
THE 
 
 ANCIENT LEAGUE WITH FRANCE 
 

 A SCOTS GUARD. 
 
THE 
 
 ANCIENT LEAGUE WITH FRANCE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CHARLEMAGNE AND ACHAIUS QUESTION SETTLED THE WAR OF 
 INDEPENDENCE THE ESTABLISHED QUARREL WITH SCOTLAND AND 
 ENGLAND ITS CONSEQUENCE IN THE LEAGUE WITH FRANCE 
 WALLACE'S SHARE IN THE TRANSACTION THE OLD TREATIES 
 SOCIAL LIFE IN FRANCE DURING THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR THE 
 CONSTABLE BUCHAN THE BATTLES OF BAUGE, CREVANT, AND 
 VERNEUIL THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SCOTS GUARD SOME OF 
 
 THEIR FEATS. 
 
 I HAVE long thought that the story of the old League 
 between France and Scotland is so significant of national 
 character, is so fruitful in romantic personal incident, and 
 held so powerful an influence on the destinies of Europe, 
 that an account of it could not fail of interest in the 
 hands of any one content merely to tell the facts and 
 briefly explain the political conditions out of which they 
 arose. Its own proper interest is so deep and true as to 
 gain rather than lose when its history is stripped of the 
 remote antiquity and other fabulous decorations by which 
 enthusiastic national historians have attempted to en- 
 hance it. We are told how the Emperor Charlemagne, 
 having resolved to establish a vast system of national or 
 imperial education, looked around for suitable professors 
 
 A 
 
2 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 to teach in his universities ; and perceiving Scotland to 
 be the most learned of nations, and the most likely to 
 supply him with t\\f-. r.oraoiodity he desired, he forthwith 
 entered into a league with Achaius, the then ruling mon- 
 arch of tljcat. 'ancient kingdom. Such is the account of 
 the origin of the League with France, as told by Boece 
 and our other fabulous chroniclers, and courteously ac- 
 cepted on the side of France by Mezeray and his breth- 
 ren, who seem gladly to welcome so valuable a piece of 
 authentic information. No doubt one finds, on minute 
 inquiry, that, contemporary with the reign of the Charle- 
 magne of France and the Kaiser Karl of the Germans, 
 there flourished a chief or a king, if you will called Eochy 
 or Auchy, holding sway over some considerable portion 
 of the Celtic people of the west, and probably living in a 
 sort of kraal built of mud and wattles. But that the 
 Emperor ever knew of his existence is not very probable ; 
 and instead of receiving an embassy from Charlemagne 
 as a contemporary monarch seeking the friendship of an 
 honoured and powerful fellow-sovereign, Eochy doubtless 
 owed it to his own insignificance, and his distance from 
 the centre of European power, that he was not called 
 upon to acknowledge the supreme authority of him who 
 had resumed the empire of the world. 
 
 In reality, it spoils the interest and significance of the 
 alliance to attempt to trace it further back than those 
 political conditions which, four hundred years later, gave 
 it efficient purpose. These were the war of independence 
 against the dominion of England, and the contemporary 
 claims of the English kings on the succession to the 
 throne of France. These concurring sources of contest 
 rendered the League the most natural thing in the world. 
 It enabled the kings of the house of Valois to fight their 
 battle on British ground without sending an army there ; 
 it provided to the Scots, whenever they could safely leave 
 their homes, an opportunity for striking a blow at the 
 enemy and oppressor of their land. 
 
 To see the influence of this adjustment, not only on 
 the nations immediately concerned, but on Europe at 
 large, let us look a little more closely into details. Tak- 
 
EARLY SCOTLAND. 3 
 
 ing any old-established state, with a fixed natural boundary 
 and distinct institutions of its own, it is difficult to realise 
 in the mind the same area of territory and its people at 
 a time when neither the boundaries nor the institutions 
 existed. Our natural indolence makes us lean on these 
 specialties as a means of obtaining clearness at an easy 
 price to the intellect; and rather than leave them and 
 grope at the truth, we carry them back step by step, until 
 they have gone infinite ages beyond their real beginning. 
 There is retribution for this as for other instances where 
 indolent reliance supersedes independent judgment. 
 Those of our historians who have had too much honesty 
 to go headlong into the accepted fables of their prede- 
 cessors, have had cruel difficulties in identifying ancient 
 Scotland. At one time they find the territories of some 
 Saxon king stretching to the Tay ; at another, the King 
 of Scots reigns to the Humber, or farther. It would 
 have saved them a world of trouble and anxiety to come 
 at once to the conclusion that Scotland was nowhere 
 that the separate kingdom marked off against England 
 by a distinct boundary on the physical globe, as well as 
 by a moral boundary of undying hatred, did not then 
 exist. 
 
 A common language stretched along from north to 
 south, varying perhaps in its substance and tone by im- 
 perceptible degrees in the ears of the travelling stranger, 
 as the language of each of the two countries now does. 
 Unfortunately, this simple view brings us to the verge of 
 a perilous controversy. There are some topics which 
 the temper and reason of the human race seem not to 
 have been made strong enough to encounter, so invari- 
 ably do these break down when the topics in question 
 are started. Of such is the question, To which of the 
 great classes of European languages did that of the 
 people called Picts belong? The contest, like a duel 
 with revolvers over a table, has been rendered more 
 awful by the narrowness of the field of battle, since some 
 time ago the world possessed just one word, or piece of 
 a word, said to be Pictish, and now one of the most 
 accomplished antiquarians of our day has added another. 
 
4 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Keeping clear of this scene of peril, let us content our- 
 selves with the obvious fact, that at an early age the 
 eastern and northern parts of what now is Scotland were 
 peopled by a race of very pure Teutonic blood and 
 tongue. They formed a portion of that brotherhood of 
 Saxon states, among which the amalgamations and split- 
 tings, and the drifting-in of fresh swarms among old 
 settlers, make so complex and confused a web of Anglo- 
 Saxon history. It would happen, in these gains and 
 losses of territory, that some ambitious Bretwalda of the 
 south would extend his dominion or his influence far 
 northward ; and from such incidents the pedants of the 
 feudal law, who could not look beyond their own forms 
 and nomenclature into the conditions of an age when 
 there was neither feudality nor a Scotland to be feudal- 
 ised, invented a feudal superiority in the Saxon kings over 
 the kingdom of Scotland. 
 
 The conquest of the south, of course, changed its 
 position towards the north. England became Nor- 
 manised, while Scotland not only retained her old Teu- 
 tonic character, but became a place of refuge for the 
 Saxon fugitives. The remnants of Harold's family the 
 old royal race of England came among the other fugi- 
 tives to Scotland, and took up their position there as an 
 exiled court awaiting their restoration, and looking to 
 their brethren of Scotland to aid them in effecting it. At 
 the head of these princely exiles was Edward the ^Ethel- 
 ing. His sister, the renowned St Margaret, married 
 Malcolm the King of the Scots, who thus became more 
 than ever the hope of the Saxon party. The names of 
 their children have a thoroughly Anglo-Saxon sound: 
 Edgar, the eldest, who succeeded to the throne; Edward, 
 named after his maternal relation the Confessor; Edmond, 
 and Ethelred. King Malcolm, in his marriage, is not to 
 be altogether viewed as having, with chivalrous generosity, 
 made a home for a persecuted princess in the only way 
 in which such an arrangement could be decorously ac- 
 complished. He had hopes of solid results from the 
 brilliant connection, and made a bold effort to render 
 them good by an invasion of England ; for there can be 
 
THE NORMANS IN SCOTLAND. 5 
 
 little doubt that Harding is right when he says of that 
 fierce raid into Cumberland which ended in the battle of 
 the Standard, that " King Malcolm of Scotland warred 
 in England for his wife's right, pretending that she was 
 right heir of England." 
 
 During the interval of two hundred years between their 
 invasion of England and their invasion of Scotland, 
 the Normans had been gradually extending their social 
 influence northward. As the flower of chivalry and 
 the leaders of fashion they were personally popular in 
 Scotland, where many of them became favourites at 
 court, and formed rich matrimonial alliances. It is pos- 
 sible that the wise men of the day may have deemed it a 
 good policy to plant in the country offshoots of that 
 mighty race who seemed destined to rule mankind wher- 
 ever they went ; but if they thought that they would thus 
 establish a Norman aristocracy, who in time would have 
 a patriotic interest in the soil, and protect it from the 
 designs of the aggrandising kings of England, their policy 
 in the course of events turned out to be a failure. 
 
 In the meantime the country saw chiefly the bright 
 side of the Norman character ; for it is observable that 
 the settlers had not so deeply rooted themselves as to 
 cover the land with those castles which are everywhere 
 the most remarkable and enduring memorials of their 
 presence. Fortresses, no doubt, existed before their day, 
 but these were generally mounds or ramparts, within 
 which people inhabited open dwellings of wood, turf, or 
 wattles. The Norman was the first to plant the feudal 
 castle a building comprising within its four thick stone 
 walls a rich man's dwelling, a fortress, and a prison, signi- 
 fying that he who built it intended to consume the fruit 
 of the soil, to make war upon his enemies, and to ad- 
 minister his own justice among the people. The castles 
 scattered over Europe not only show how far the Nor- 
 mans have penetrated, as the shingle on the beach marks 
 the height of the tide; but their various architectural 
 types indicate, like those of fossils in geology, the histori- 
 cal period of deposit. The annalists tell us how, after 
 William's arrival, England was covered with Norman 
 
6 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 strongholds ; and that country is rich in remains of the 
 earliest type of castle the great square block, destitute 
 of the later adjunct of flanking works, and the round 
 arch, marking the lingering predominance of Roman 
 forms. If there ever were castles of this sort in Scotland, 
 they were at least so rare that no specimen now remains 
 at least I can find none after diligent search. On the 
 other hand, of the later and richer type of feudal architec- 
 ture the pointed Gothic buildings with outworks, pecu- 
 liar to the reigns of the Edwards there are many fine 
 specimens. The same phenomena may be seen in Ire- 
 land and Wales. Over all three countries the tide of 
 Norman conquest had rolled; and though in Scotland 
 the tide was driven back, it left these characteristic relics 
 behind. 
 
 Luckily for England, and for the liberties of the world, 
 there were elements of national strength which in the end 
 worked the tyranny of Norman rule out of the constitu- 
 tion. Of the misery which the Saxon people had to 
 endure under the earliest Plantagenet monarchs we have 
 scanty traces, for such things are not with safety com- 
 mitted to writing ; but what we have is sufficiently ex- 
 pressive. Perhaps the following, taken from that sober 
 unobtrusive narrative, the * Saxon Chronicle,' may suffice 
 for this occasion : 
 
 " They cruelly oppressed the wretched men of the land 
 with castle-works. When the castles were made, they 
 filled them with devils and evil men. Then took they 
 those men that they imagined had any property, both by 
 night and by day, peasant men and women, and put 
 them in prison for their gold and silver, and tortured 
 them with unutterable torture, for never were martyrs 
 so tortured as they were. They hanged them up by the 
 feet, and smoked them with foul smoke; they hanged 
 them by the thumbs, or by the head, and hung fires on 
 their feet ; they put knotted strings about their heads, and 
 writhed them so that it went to the brain. They put 
 them in dungeons in which were adders and snakes and 
 toads, and killed them so. Some they put in a ' crucet 
 hus ' that is, in a chest that was short and narrow and 
 
THE NORMANS IN ENGLAND. 7 
 
 shallow and put sharp stones therein, and pressed the 
 man therein, so that they brake all his limbs. In many 
 of the castles were (instruments called) a ' loathly and 
 grim ; ' these were neck-bonds, of which two or three men 
 had enough to bear one. It was so made, that is (it was) 
 fastened to a beam ; and they put a sharp iron about the 
 man's throat and his neck, so that he could not in any 
 direction sit, or lie, or sleep, but must bear all that iron. 
 Many thousands they killed with hunger. I neither can 
 nor may tell all the wounds or all the tortures which they 
 inflicted on wretched men in this land ; and that lasted 
 the nineteen winters while Stephen was king, and ever it 
 was worse and worse. They laid imposts on the towns 
 continually, and called it ' censerie.' When the wretched 
 men had no more to give, they robbed and burned all the 
 towns, so that thou mightest well go all a day's journey 
 and thou shouldst never find a man sitting in a town, or 
 the land tilled. Then was corn dear, and flesh, and cheese, 
 and butter ; for there was none in the land. Wretched 
 men died of hunger ; some went seeking alms who at one 
 while were rich men ; some fled out of the land." l 
 
 This is set down to the reign of Stephen, just about 
 the time of the battle of the Standard, and about half-way 
 between the conquest of England and the war of resistance 
 in Scotland. Seeing this going on more or less for two 
 hundred years, it is not wonderful that the Scots, contin- 
 uing and flourishing under their old Saxon institutions, 
 were grimly resolved to fight to the death against such a 
 rule. The representative of this national feeling was the 
 renowned William Wallace. Of him so much old romance 
 and modern nonsense has been uttered, that cautious 
 people are apt to shun his name in history, as, like Arthur, 
 Merlin, Roland, and Odin, that of a mythical person not 
 susceptible of articulate identification. But few historical 
 figures come out so distinctly and grandly when stripped 
 of the theatrical properties. He was a skilful and brave 
 general, an accomplished politician, and a public man of 
 unstained faith and undying zeal. 
 
 ' 'Saxon Chronicle:' Record Edition, ii. 230, 231. 
 
8 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Nor is it at all necessary, in vindicating his fame, 
 utterly to blacken those who would not co-operate with 
 him. The Normans, who had acquired recent wealth 
 and rank in Scotland, were not zealous in standing up 
 for the independence of the people of the country and 
 their protection from Norman tyranny how could they 
 be expected to be so? One name among them has been 
 consigned to eminent historical infamy, and for centuries 
 has borne the burden of the ardent hatred of all true- 
 hearted Scots the elder Baliol. I remember our being 
 taught at school carefully to avoid confounding his name 
 with another specially dedicated to infamy the Belial 
 of Scripture. It is lucky for those who thus lie under 
 historical ban that they are generally beyond the con- 
 dition of suffering, either in body or spirit, from the 
 execrations heaped upon their memory. And if we should 
 say that even the fame of the departed has a right to be 
 protected from injustice to receive due praise if its 
 owner has done service to mankind, and at least quiet 
 oblivion if he has done no harm a more easy consola- 
 tion for the injustice done comes in the reflection that, 
 under the same name, the demon of the historians is a 
 different being from the harmless commonplace man who 
 owned the name in the flesh. So this Baliol, while in 
 history he stands forth as the foul betrayer of his country's 
 independence as traitor to the vile allegiance he had 
 sold himself to as guilty of every political crime which 
 historical magniloquence can express was, in the flesh, 
 a very ordinary sort of man, who, in agreeing to do 
 homage for a territory to the monarch who had preferred 
 him to it, acted on much the same principle as the holder 
 of a snug office at the present day who sides with the 
 statesman who has appointed him to it. And if he was 
 at one time, under sore temptation, guilty of tampering 
 with his allegiance, he did the best he could afterwards 
 to put matters right. Looking to the social and political 
 conditions of him and his class, it would be difficult to 
 find a proposition that would have seemed more pre- 
 posterous to them than that they should sacrifice the 
 prospects of a good fief for the preservation either of a 
 
THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 9 
 
 separate nationality or the liberties of a truculent, self- 
 willed people. The Bruces themselves belonged to the 
 same set ; but ere the grandson of the original claimant 
 gained his great victory, the lapse of a quarter of a cen- 
 tury of animosity may have nourished a sense of national- 
 ity towards the people for whom he fought; and even if 
 he was, after all, only the Norman adventurer, who saw a 
 grand career of ambition as the leader of a people who 
 would not be enslaved, he fairly won the crown he wore. 
 
 The battle of Bannockburn, in being the conclusive 
 act which relieved Scotland from the domination of the 
 English King, became also the crisis at which France and 
 Scotland became united in fast friendship. This friend- 
 ship had been growing during the war of independence, 
 but it could exist as a permanent European institution 
 only after that was over. And at this point arises one of 
 those occasions for rendering history distinct by unravel- 
 ling minor confusions, which sometimes bring those who 
 do the work of unravelling under suspicion as lovers of 
 paradox. We shall all the more clearly understand the 
 nature and tendency of the alliance by starting with the 
 fact that, before a thorough external union with France, 
 Scotland cast forth certain French characteristics which 
 had found their way into the elements of her political and 
 social condition. The rule of the Normans was the rule 
 of a race who had made themselves French ; however 
 rapidly, among a kindred Teutonic people, they were 
 returning to their old Norse character. Of the Norman 
 families which had established themselves in the country, 
 Scotland retained but a small minority after the war of 
 independence, for the obvious reason that the great 
 majority had cast their lots with their natural leader, the 
 King of England. The topographical antiquary, tracing 
 the history of the early ownership of estates in Scotland, 
 sees the change expressed with a distinctness plainer than 
 any historical narrative. The early charters are rich in 
 such a courtly Norman nomenclature as De Quincey, De 
 Vere, De Vipont, D'Umfraville, Mortimer, and De Coucy. 
 When order is restored, and the lands are again recorded 
 as having lords, there are Johnstons, Bells, Armstrongs, 
 
10 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Scots, Kerrs, Browns, and suchlike, telling at once of 
 their native Saxon origin. The loss of their estates, 
 indeed, was a substantial grievance to the Norman 
 holders, who would not relinquish them without a 
 struggle j and in their effort to get them back again, 
 under Edward Baliol, whom they had set up as King 
 of Scotland for that purpose, they were very nearly suc- 
 cessful in crushing the newly-bought independence of the 
 land. 
 
 Thus the extinction of the English rule had at first the 
 effect of removing French elements out of Scotland. In 
 England, the language of France, being the language of 
 the Court, became that of the law, in which it has left to 
 our own day some motley relics, remaining imbedded in 
 it like grotesque organic remains. If, along with the 
 influx of Normans, their language may have at one time 
 been creeping into legal practice in Scotland, the efforts 
 of the Edwards to enforce the English forms of law 
 throughout the country made their technicalities especi- 
 ally odious. All the way from the Border to the High- 
 land line, the people, high and low, came to speak in 
 very pure Teutonic ; for it is curious that the language of 
 the Lowland Scots has not received the slightest tinge 
 from close contact with the Celtic. Whatever it may 
 have been among the common people, the literary lan- 
 guage of England became afflicted with Gallicisms ; and 
 so it came to pass that Barbour sang the liberation of his 
 country from the English kings in purer English, accord- 
 ing to the canon of the present day, than his contem- 
 porary Chaucer, whose more finished verses are not so 
 easily read by Englishmen as those of the Aberdonian. 
 England in the end outgrew these French elements, but 
 Scotland cast them forth at once. And we shall find 
 that, however close became the intimacy of the two 
 nations, and however powerful the influence of the greater 
 on the destinies of the less, the symptoms of that influence 
 were ever external and superficial it never penetrated to 
 the national heart. After the expulsion of the English 
 or, more properly, of the Normans from the north, it 
 becomes a key-note in French history that England is to 
 
WALLACE. 1 1 
 
 be fought from Scotland ; while, on the English side of 
 European history, the response is that everything must be 
 right on the Border before it will be prudent to send an 
 expedition to the Continent. 
 
 When we have a clear hold on those great national 
 conditions of which the League was an inevitable result, 
 it is of less moment to know the minute particulars about 
 the dates and tenor of the treaties, and the statesmen who 
 negotiated them. But these too have their interest. The 
 first name practically connected with them is Wallace's ; 
 and there is some reason, besides his renown as a warrior, 
 and an organiser and governor of his fellow-men, to award 
 to him the reputation of a successful diplomatist. The 
 legendary chroniclers, such as Blind Harry the minstrel, 
 tell us that he frequented France ; that he became a 
 respected friend and a favoured counsellor of the French 
 monarch ; that he performed valorous feats on French 
 soil, and that he chased pirates on French waters. These 
 stories have been discredited by the grave, to whom it 
 did not commend them that one of his feats was the 
 hunting and slaying of a lion in Guienne. But there is 
 an odd tenacity of life in the fundamentals of even the 
 most flagrant legends about the Scottish hero. Few 
 names have been so saturated with nonsense in prose 
 and verse ; and the saturation seems to be ceaseless, 
 having developed a formidable access in our own very 
 times. Yet when we come to documents and other close 
 quarters, we generally realise in some shape or other 
 almost all the leading events of his wonderful legendary 
 career. The statements of the graver of the old Scots 
 historians are sufficient to convince the man who has 
 worked hardest of all in clearing up the history of the 
 League, that he was received at the French Court. 1 For 
 those of narrower faith there is one little scrap of what 
 lawyers call real evidence, worth more than all the narra- 
 tives of the chroniclers. When Wallace was apprehended 
 and taken to London for trial, after the fashion of dealing 
 
 1 "II se refugia en France, ou il fut honorablement accueilli et 
 traite par le Roi. "Michel, Les Ecossais en France, i. 46. 
 
12 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 with other criminals he was searched, and the articles in 
 his possession duly removed and inventoried. Among 
 these were letters of safe-conduct from King Philip his 
 French passport, in short ; a valuable piece of evidence, 
 had any been needed, of practices hostile to the King of 
 England. 1 That he should, at the Court of Philip, have 
 forgotten the great cause to which he was devoted, is an 
 inadmissible supposition ; and he is at least as likely as 
 any one to have suggested that the common interest of 
 France and Scotland lay in enmity towards England. 
 
 But we find more distinct traces of Wallace having 
 dealt with France through a diplomatic agent. When 
 he held the office of Governor of Scotland, like every 
 other man in power he required conformity in those who 
 worked with him; and when they would not conform, 
 displaced them. If he needed an excuse for strong 
 measures, he had it in the urgency of the question at 
 issue the preservation of the national independence. 
 Accordingly, he drove out the primate who leaned to the 
 Norman side, and got William Lamberton, a partisan of 
 the national independence, elected Archbishop of St 
 Andrews. Certain articles presented against this arch- 
 bishop to his ecclesiastical superior, the Pope, by King 
 Edward, bear that 
 
 "Being thus made bishop, Lamberton continued at 
 the Court of France with other the great men of Scotland, 
 the King's enemies, labouring continually to do all the 
 harm and injury in his power against his liege lord, until 
 the peace was finally concluded between France and 
 England. And after the conclusion of such treaty, he, 
 Lamberton, by letters -patent under his seal, urged and 
 excited the prelates, earls, barons, and all the common- 
 alty of Scotland (these being the King's enemies), to 
 carry on the war vigorously until the bishop and the 
 other lords in France could return to Scotland. . . . 
 Moreover, the bishop addressed his special letters, sealed 
 
 1 Palgrave, 'Documents and Records illustrating the History of 
 Scotland, and the Transactions between the Crowns of Scotland and 
 England, ' cxcv. 
 
NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE. 13 
 
 with his seal, to the traitor Wallace, and prayed that, for 
 the love of him the bishop, he, Wallace, would do all 
 possible hurt and damage to the King of England. And 
 Lamberton also wrote to his officers in Scotland to em- 
 ploy a portion of his own provision for the sustenance of 
 Wallace." 1 
 
 Soon afterwards Scotland was too effectually subdued 
 to hold independent diplomatic relations abroad. In a 
 curious way, however, the thread of the negotiations so 
 begun may be traced through the intervening confusions, 
 until the whole was resumed when France and Scotland 
 could speak to each other both as separate indepen- 
 dent kingdoms, and both having deep cause of enmity 
 against England. 2 In the meantime, between Philip of 
 France and Edward of England there was enacted a 
 series of feudal pedantries which were the farce to the 
 tragedy going on in Scotland, Edward reversing his posi- 
 tion, and acting the truculent vassal. Both affairs arose 
 out of those curious conditions of the feudal system 
 which made monarchs do homage to each other for the 
 sake of little additions to their available territories. Thus 
 had the King of the Scots done homage at Windsor for 
 the fief of Huntingdon and several other benefices held 
 within the kingdom of England; and so, when the 
 opportunity came, the King of England called this 
 homage -doing king his vassal. In like manner, Ed- 
 ward himself acknowledged the feudal superiority of the 
 King of France in respect to his Continental possessions. 
 So it came to pass that, as some English sailors com- 
 mitted acts of piracy against French subjects, Philip of 
 France called on Edward of England to come to Paris 
 and do homage, and stand trial for misconduct as a 
 disobedient vassal to his liege lord, just as Edward him- 
 self had called on Baliol to come to Windsor. But the 
 
 1 Palgrave, clxv. 
 
 a In one of the monkish chronicles (Lanercost, 182) it is narrated 
 that, when Edward had penetrated, in 1296, as far as Aberdeen, he 
 there found emissaries from Philip of France, with letters to Baliol 
 and to many leading men of Scotland. 
 
14 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 total disproportion between the demand and the power 
 to enforce it made the summons of the French King 
 ridiculous. It would have been a sight to behold the 
 countenance of the fierce and determined long-legged 
 Edward when he received it. The foolish bravado 
 brought on the first English war in France, making way 
 for those which followed it. The French were too glad 
 to get out of the affair by the treaty of 1303 ; but, hard 
 pressed as they then were, they tried to keep true faith 
 with their friends of Scotland. Somewhat to the surprise 
 of Edward, they introduced the Scots, their good allies, 
 as a party to the negotiations ; and when Edward said 
 that if there ever were an alliance of Scotland and 
 France his vassal Baliol had freely resigned it, the French 
 told him that Baliol, being then a prisoner of war, was no 
 free agent, and could renounce nothing for the kingdom 
 of Scotland. This time, however, the support of France 
 availed nothing, for Scotland was speedily afterwards 
 blotted for a time out of the list of independent nations. 
 It is under the year 1326 twelve years after the 
 battle of Bannockburn that in Rymer's great book of 
 treaties we read the first articulate treaty between France 
 and Scotland. There the French monarchs came under 
 obligation to those of Scotland, " in good faith as loyal 
 allies, whenever they shall have occasion for aid and 
 advice, in time of peace or war, against the King of Eng- 
 land and his subjects." On the part of the Scots kings 
 it is stipulated that they shall be bound " to make war 
 upon the kingdom of England with all their force, when- 
 soever war is waged between us and the King of Eng- 
 land." In 1371, when the alliance was solemnly re- 
 newed, a hundred thousand gold nobles were advanced 
 to Scotland on curious and shrewd conditions. The 
 money was to be employed for the ransom of King David 
 from custody in England. Should, however, the Pope be 
 pleased to absolve the Scots Government of that debt, 
 then the gold nobles were to be employed in making war 
 against England. When proffers were made to France for 
 a'separate truce, not including Scotland, they were gallantly 
 rejected. On the other hand, when Scotland was sorely 
 
STATE OF FRANCE. 15 
 
 tempted by the Emperor Maximilian, and by other poten- 
 tates from time to time, to desert her ally France, she 
 refused. It endeared the alliance to both nations to 
 sanctify it with the mellowness of extreme antiquity, and 
 references to its existence since the days of Charlemagne 
 find their way even at an early period into the formal 
 diplomatic documents. 
 
 There are two sides in the history of an alliance as in 
 that of a war. Of the history of the ancient League, how- 
 ever, the first chapter belongs almost entirely to France. 
 Some Scotsmen went thither and influenced the political 
 condition of the country long before France impressed 
 the policy of Scotland. It will clear the way for what 
 follows, to take a glance at the social condition of the 
 land to which the Scots refugees flocked, after their 
 country had established itself in hostile independence of 
 the Plantagenet kings. In later times people have been 
 accustomed to seek the politics of France in Paris, giv- 
 ing little heed to the provinces ; but at the accession of 
 the house of Valois, the contrast between the eminence 
 of the one and the insignificance of the other was still 
 greater. 
 
 Paris was at that time, indeed, as much beyond any 
 other European capital in extent, in noble buildings, 
 and in luxurious living, as it is now beyond the second- 
 ary towns of France. The fruitfulness of the reigning 
 family provided it with a little mob of native royalties, 
 who made it so attractive that not only did all the great 
 feudatories of the Crown flock thither, but even indepen- 
 dent monarchs preferred playing the courtier there to 
 reigning in their own dingy capitals. One finds the kings 
 of Navarre, of Sicily, and of Bohemia perpetually in the 
 way, and turning up upon the surface of history when 
 anything notable occurs in the French Court ; they could 
 not tear themselves from the attractions of the place. 
 
 The populousness and luxurious living of Paris are 
 attested in a not pleasant or dignified fashion by the 
 large number of butchers necessary to supply the city. 
 They formed, when combined, a sort of small army; 
 large enough, however, to be estimated by the thousand. 
 
16 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 They were often used as a powerful but a dangerous 
 political engine. By bullying bravado and violence they 
 held a sort of corporate power when almost everything 
 else of the kind had been annihilated. This power they 
 used according to their nature. It was they who did the 
 professional part of the business when the prisons were 
 broken open by the Burgundian party, and the throats 
 of the prisoners cut, making a scene in the year 1418 
 which was exactly repeated in the year 1792. 
 
 The allusion to these brutes brings one naturally from 
 the concentration of luxury, wealth, and rank in Paris, to 
 the horrible abyss by which it was all surrounded. It is 
 difficult to conceive the wretchedness and degradation of 
 France at that time still more difficult, when it is fully 
 realised, to understand by what steps the great nation of 
 Henry IV. and Louis XIV. the still greater nation of 
 later times arose to such a height of lustre and triumph. 
 Whatever other elements were at work in the long event- 
 ful regeneration, it may surely be permitted to our national 
 pride to count that the infusion of Scottish blood into the 
 veins, as it were, of the country, must have had some 
 share in the change. 
 
 There was at that time throughout the land neither 
 sturdy independence nor affectionate, trusting dependence. 
 Everything was thoroughly wrong. The great showed 
 their superiority only in acts of injustice, insult, and 
 cruelty ; the poor were servile and abject in subjection, 
 and brutal, treacherous, and ungrateful when the iron rule 
 was for a moment evaded. A sort of mortifying process 
 was killing all the elements of independent constitutional 
 action one by one, and approaching the heart. The ju- 
 risdictions and privileges which the municipalities had 
 inherited from the Roman Empire were crushed out. 
 The lower feudatories were absorbed one by one, and 
 the higher followed. By a curious fatality it fell to the 
 family of Valois to unite the characteristic defects of a 
 centralised despotism with those of an oligarchy. The 
 great provinces came gradually one by one into the hands 
 of the King ; but instead of being united to the Crown 
 so as to make a compact and symmetrical empire, they 
 
STATE OF FRANCE. I/ 
 
 were given to the princes of the blood and their de- 
 scendants. 
 
 Hence arose a class of nobles or territorial aristocracy, 
 who formed a separate caste, looking down upon and 
 bearing enmity to all owners of territory who were not 
 of the blood - royal. Such were the lords of Burgundy, 
 Orleans, Anjou, Bourbon, Berri, La Marche, and a crowd 
 of others. The tendency of things was towards not only 
 a divine right in the Crown to govern, but a divine right 
 in the blood-royal to possess all things. The law was 
 gradually withdrawing its protection from those who were 
 not either themselves of the royal stock, or protected in 
 a sort of clientage by one of the princes of the blood. 
 Men in the highest places who did not belong to the 
 sacred race might be pitched from their chairs of state 
 to the dungeon or the scaffold, with that reckless celer- 
 ity which characterises the loss of influence in Eastern 
 despotisms. 
 
 One of the few men in that disastrous period who was 
 enabled to afford to France some of the services of a real 
 statesman was the Sieur de Montagu. He had been 
 raised to influence under Charles V., and became Comp- 
 troller of Finances under his mad successor, Charles VI. 
 He was a little, smooth-spoken, inoffensive man, who had 
 the art of making friends ; and few positions would have 
 appeared in any tolerably well-governed state more firm 
 and unassailable than his. He had two brothers invested 
 with rich bishoprics, one of them also holding civil office, 
 and rising to be Chancellor of France \ while his daughters 
 were married into the first families among the nobles of 
 France below the rank of royalty. 
 
 Of course he had not neglected the opportunity which 
 a supervisance of the wretched and ruined finances of the 
 nation afforded him for enlarging and consolidating his 
 own fortunes. He had enormous wealth to fall back 
 upon should he ever be driven from office. In too fatal 
 a reliance on the security of his position, he made an im- 
 prudent display of his worldly goods, on the occasion of 
 the advancement of one of his brothers from the shabby- 
 ish bishopric of Poitiers to the brilliant see of Paris. Mon- 
 
 B 
 
1 8 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 tagu resolved to give an entertainment, and to do the 
 thing in style. The company who were invited and who 
 attended proved at once his greatness and his popularity. 
 The list of distinguished guests would dazzle the eyes 
 of the most fashionable penny-a-liner of the ' Morning 
 Post.' It included the King and Queen of France, the 
 King of Navarre, and the royal dukes in a bundle. They 
 were feasted from a service of gold and silver such as, 
 it was significantly remarked, none of their own palaces 
 could produce. 
 
 The magnificence of an entertainment is not always so 
 exceedingly satisfactory to the entertained as the confid- 
 ing landlord expects it to be. On this occasion one of 
 the guests John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy took 
 offence at the profuse magnificence which surrounded him, 
 and argued himself into the conclusion that it would more 
 aptly become his own palace than the hotel of the parvenu. 
 
 A few days afterwards, when Montagu was decorously 
 walking to morning mass with one of his bishop brothers, 
 Pierre des Essarts the Prevot of Paris crossed his path 
 and laid a hand on his shoulder. The great statesman, 
 highly indignant at such a familiarity, cried out, " Ribaud, 
 es-tu si hardi que de me toucher ? " but Essarts had a 
 warrant, and in fact the affair was serious. Montagu was 
 arrested and thrown into a dungeon in the Petit Chat- 
 elet The next step was to get up a feasible accusation 
 against him. Doubtless his methods of amassing money, 
 like those of every other statesman of the day, would not 
 stand a very severe scrutiny ; but proceedings in this 
 direction would be slow, petty, and inconclusive ; and as 
 any chance might turn the tables in the victim's favour, 
 it was necessary to get up something more astounding, 
 odious, and conclusive. He was therefore charged with 
 sorcery and magic ; and, to bring the accusation to a def- 
 inite and practical conclusion, it was alleged that by these 
 illegal arts he had produced the King's insanity. He was 
 put to the torture, and after giving his tormentors hard 
 work, he confessed whatever they pleased. The instru- 
 ments being removed, he retracted, and appealed to his 
 dislocated wrists and wrenches of the body, ending in 
 
STATE OF FRANCE. 19 
 
 hernia, as the real causes of his confession. But he was 
 in hands where his wealth, not the punishment of a guilty 
 man, was wanted. 
 
 The affair had to be got over before the King should 
 have a lucid interval ; so the tortured mangled body was 
 relieved of its miseries by the headsman's axe. The 
 King, when the lucid interval came, was indignant at the 
 usage his faithful servant had received : but there was no 
 remedy. John the Fearless was not the man to loose his 
 grip on what he had touched, and, unless the head could 
 also have been restored to its old owner, how was resto- 
 ration to be made of the estates ? 
 
 It is one of the most significant marks of a Providence 
 overruling the affairs of man, that such acts are calculated, 
 in some shape or other, to retaliate on their doers. When 
 the princes of the blood established practices of cruelty 
 and perfidy, they were unable absolutely to exempt them- 
 selves, and establish as an unfailing rule that the con- 
 sequent calamities should be restricted entirely to inferior 
 persons. The Dukes of Burgundy and of Orleans, the 
 King's nearest relations, were rivals for that supreme 
 power which somebody or other must wield in the name 
 of the madman. The former took a short way of settling 
 the question. Orleans was murdered in the streets of 
 Paris by the direction of Burgundy. The clergy and the 
 savants of the day were called upon to applaud the deed 
 as a wholesome act of tyrannicide. The opportunity was 
 a good one for propitiating clerical influences. It was 
 the time when rival popes were bidding for support, and 
 stretching points with each other; so, what the one 
 scrupled at, the other was delighted to oblige with. The 
 sinuosities of the discussion on the slaughter of Orleans, 
 influenced as they were by the duplex action of the Pope- 
 dom and the oscillations of the two contending civil 
 parties, would make an amusing history of ups and 
 clowns. To-day a consistory applauds the act as a ser- 
 vice to God and the King next a synod brings the con- 
 sistory to task for maintaining a doctrine so revolting ; 
 and, anon, a higher authority justifies the consistory and 
 rebukes the synod. 
 
20 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 This affair caused great uneasiness throughout the 
 whole privileged class of royal scions. Attacking and 
 killing one of their own number in the open street was 
 treating him no better than a common seigneur, or even 
 a roturier. The Duke of Burgundy should not have 
 acted so by one of themselves it was an ungentlemanly 
 thing. Upon the other hand, were he to be subjected to 
 legal responsibility for what he had done, this would in- 
 volve the admission that the royal class could be liable 
 to the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals an alter- 
 native too horrible and preposterous to be indulged in 
 for a moment. Altogether the question was indeed in 
 a fix. 
 
 The end illustrated the spirit expressed in the Psalms, 
 " Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their 
 days." The death of their leader did not immediately 
 ruin the Orleanists, who continued the struggle under his 
 relation the Count of Armagnac. Year after year went 
 on the ceaseless contest, each up and down alternately, 
 while their wild struggle crushed and ruined every sur- 
 rounding object they came in contact with. Nor when 
 Henry V. was thundering at the gate could they hear the 
 warning voice of conquest over the horrid din of their 
 own quarrels, or relax their hold of each other to turn an 
 arm against the invader. 
 
 To be sure, they met and tried to come to an under- 
 standing. One meeting was held on an island in a small 
 lake with a barrier across it, so that but few could be 
 assembled on either side, and these few could not touch 
 each other. The results of this meeting were not very 
 satisfactory, but the next was more conclusive. It was 
 held on the long bridge of Montereau, where the Yonne 
 meets the Seine. A complex barrier was erected to 
 obviate treachery. The Orleanists, however, had the 
 last handling of it, and the Duke of Burgundy, with the 
 small body of attendants admitted on the bridge, found 
 themselves somehow face to face with the Orleanists, 
 while a bar clicked behind them and cut off their com- 
 munication. John the Fearless made the best of things, 
 clapped his greatest enemy, Tanguy du Chatel, on the 
 
STATE OF FRANCE. 21 
 
 shoulder, and called him a good guarantee for his safety. 
 As he knelt to the young Dauphin, the hilt of his sword 
 incommoded him, and he touched it to move it aside. 
 Those who surrounded him, waiting the first good oppor- 
 tunity for their work, pretended that they believed he 
 was drawing his sword, and immediately hacked him to 
 pieces. Comines drew from this incident the moral that 
 rival kings and great heads of parties should not attempt 
 to hold personal interviews. The temptation on such 
 occasions to settle all old scores by a single coup, he 
 counted too great for ordinary flesh and blood. 
 
 While such was the nature of things at the top of the 
 social tree, to convey an impression of the wretchedness 
 and degradation at its other extremity is beyond the 
 power of general terms. The details themselves make 
 the reader at last callous with their weary monotony of 
 torture, starvation, and slaughter. The stories told to 
 inflame the sans-culottes of the Revolution how that a 
 feudal lord coming home from the chase would rip up 
 the venires of a couple of serfs, and warm his feet in their 
 reeking vitals such things were no exaggeration of the 
 reality, and, indeed, no imagination could exaggerate it. 
 From the frequency with which whole districts are ren- 
 dered pestilential by the thousands of dead, starved, or 
 slaughtered, one wonders how the land kept up its popu- 
 lation, and how the scanty remnant of inhabitants had 
 heart to renew the race, and bring into the world fresh 
 victims of such horrors. When Henry V. came over to 
 make his conquest, his captains excited curiosity at first, 
 until they knew better the habits of the country, by ab- 
 staining from an established practice both of Orleanists 
 and Burgundians, which required that when any peasant 
 had been caught, and compelled to act as guide, to bury 
 the dead, or perform any enforced services, he should, 
 when no longer of use, be stripped of any clothing worth 
 removing, and then be hung up by the heels before a fire, 
 where, whether with the refinement of basting or not, he 
 was roasted until he gave the clue to any hoard of silver 
 pieces he might have saved, or until he died, if he could 
 or would give no such clue. 
 
22 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 The English victories in the Hundred Years' War, which 
 seem so astounding, are but natural results to those who 
 are in the habit of contemplating, through contemporary 
 documents, the abjectness of the French peasantry or 
 villeinage of the period. The great masses brought into 
 the field were so far from being trained to war, either as 
 soldiers of the crown or followers of their seigneurs, that 
 they were denied the use of arms, unless when marshalled 
 in an army. The English bow and bill men were, on 
 the other hand, sturdy knaves, well fed, free within cer- 
 tain limits, and expert at handling their weapons. In 
 fact, between them and their Norman masters, after the 
 lapse of centuries, a sort of surly compact had been 
 formed as between those who knew each other to be 
 sterling stuff, for they were kindred in character, and had 
 both sprung from the same hardy Scandinavian stock. 
 The English bow and bill men were nearly as good as 
 mailed men-at-arms ; and one of these fully equipped and 
 mounted was among a crowd of serfs like a ship of war 
 in a fleet of fishing-boats he could go about unharmed, 
 slaughtering all he could come at, until he became tired. 
 So little of common cause was there between them, that 
 the French men-at-arms on some provocation would set 
 to slaughtering among their starving crowd of followers, 
 or would let the enemy do so without taking umbrage. 
 The Captal of Buch gained great honour by a bloody 
 attack on a large body of the Jacques, who were doing 
 no creditable work, certainly, yet it was on his own side. 
 In their great battles with the English invaders, the 
 French men-at-arms were nearly as much occupied in 
 chastising their own serfs as in fighting with the enemy ; 
 and at Agincourt the leaders would not condescend to 
 act at the head of their men, but formed themselves into 
 a separate battel, apart from the great mass, who became 
 consequently a chaotic crowd, not only useless but detri- 
 mental. According to a very offensive practice of those 
 chivalrous times, the chances of safety to a vanquished 
 foe depended on what he was likely to fetch in ransom : 
 in some instances a rich or royal captive was in danger 
 from a contest among his captors for the monopoly of his 
 
THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 23 
 
 capture and the corresponding ransom-money. Alas for 
 the poor French serf ! there was little chance of making 
 anything of him; nor, in the distracted state of the 
 country, was he worth preserving as a slave. He was 
 put to the most valuable use when his carcass manured 
 the ground on which he fell. 
 
 So much for the social condition of the French people 
 during the early part of the Hundred Years' War with the 
 English kings. To the political condition of France as 
 a nation, and one of the European community, perhaps 
 the best key may be found in the remark of Sismondi, 
 that the contest was not in its origin a national one 
 between France and England. It was a question of 
 disputed succession, in which the competitors for the 
 crown were the only persons ostensibly interested. The 
 nobles took their side according to their calculations, 
 founded on interest or connection, as the smaller 
 European princes have done in the great wars of later 
 times. As to the serfage, if they thought at all, the 
 tendency of their thoughts would probably be that they 
 could not be more miserable than they were, whoever was 
 their king ; and we may be pretty sure that they did not 
 attempt to solve the question about the prevalence of the 
 old Salic code within the soil of France. In fact, the 
 invaders, accustomed to treat their neighbours at home 
 as fellow-beings, were, as we have seen, kinder to the 
 poor peasantry than their armed countrymen. But a 
 conquering class or race will ever become insolent and 
 exasperating ; and, after a time, the oppression and 
 insolence of the invaders sent the healthy blood of 
 patriotism to the heart of the people, where it aroused 
 that cohesive natural energy which swept the enemy from 
 the land, and made France the great empire it became. 
 
 With the Scots, on the other hand, the war, though 
 waged on French soil, was national from the beginning. 
 It was thus the fortune of their allies to secure a body of 
 men-at-arms who were not only brave men and thoroughly 
 trained soldiers, but who brought with them still higher 
 qualities in that steadfast faith which had been hardened 
 on the anvil of a war for national freedom. Nominally 
 
24 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 entering the French service as mercenary troops, there 
 never were soldiers less amenable to the reproachful 
 application of that term. Of all the various elements 
 which a French army then contained among the Italian 
 and German hirelings among native men-at-arms who 
 had been fighting but the other day against their existing 
 leader and cause, and might in a few days do so again 
 among the wretched serfage who were driven into the field 
 and did not even know what side they were on, among 
 all these, the Scots alone had a cause at heart. France 
 was the field on which they could meet and strike the 
 Norman invaders who had dealt so much oppression on 
 their paternal soil, and had run up so long an account of 
 injuries and cruelties ere they were driven forth. The 
 feeling, no doubt, was an unamiable one, according to 
 modern ethics. It came to nothing that can be expressed 
 in gentler language than the Scot's undying hatred of his 
 neighbour to the south of the Tweed. The many terrible 
 incidents in the long war of Scottish independence testify 
 the sincerity of this hatred. But as motives went in those 
 days, it was among the most sterling and honest going, 
 and served to provide the French kings with a body of 
 men hardy and resolute, steady and true ; and possessing 
 so specially these qualities, that even Louis XI. perhaps 
 of all monarchs whose character is well known to the 
 world the most unconfiding and most sceptical of any- 
 thing like simple faith and honesty was content, amid 
 all his shifting slippery policy and his suspicions and pre- 
 cautions, to rely implicitly on the faith of his Scots Guard. 
 The English army had been twelve years in occupation. 
 Agincourt had been fought, the infant heir of the house 
 of Lancaster had been proclaimed at Paris with the quiet 
 decorum that attends the doings of a strong government, 
 when Scotland resolved to act. In 1424, John Stewart, 
 Earl of Buchan, arrived in France with a small army of 
 his fellow-countrymen. Accounts of the numbers under 
 his command vary from 5000 to 7000. This seems but 
 a small affair in the history of invasions, but, looking at 
 the conditions under which it was accomplished, it will 
 turn out to be a rather marvellous achievement. It is 
 
THE SCOTS AUXILIARIES. 25 
 
 only necessary to look at the map of Europe to see that 
 from whichever side of our island the Scots attempted to 
 approach France, they must pass through the narrow seas 
 in which England even then professed to have a naval 
 superiority. A steamer now plies from Leith to Dunkirk 
 for the benefit of those who prefer economy and a sea 
 voyage to a railway journey ; but from the union of the 
 crowns down to the establishment of that vessel a year or 
 two ago, the idea of going from Scotland to France other- 
 wise than through England would have been scouted. 
 The method of transferring troops, too, in that period, 
 was by galleys, rowed by galley-slaves, little better than 
 mere rafts for sea-going purposes, and ever requiring in 
 foul weather to hug the shore. Scotland could not have 
 afforded vessels to transport this force ; it was taken in 
 hand by France, Castile and Aragon offering, as we are 
 told, to assist with forty vessels. 
 
 Henry V. of England, then ruling in France, naturally 
 felt the seriousness of an infusion of such fresh blood into 
 the distracted and ruined country ; and he instructed his 
 brother, the Duke of Bedford, acting as viceroy, to put on 
 the screw at all the English seaports, and do whatever the 
 old traditional prerogatives of the Crown, in purveying 
 vessels and seamen, was capable of doing, in order that 
 a force might be raised to intercept the Scots expedition. 
 Bedford lost the opportunity, however. The Scots troops 
 debarked at La Rochelle, and, passing towards the valley 
 of the Loire, encamped at Chatillon. 
 
 These rough northern foreigners were not received by 
 the natives without invidious criticism. Two or three 
 instances occur in which the simple parsimony of the 
 commissariat of the Scots camp has astonished the people 
 of more luxurious countries. But it became a second 
 nature with the wandering man-at-arms to bear enforced 
 starvation at one time, and compensate it by superfluous 
 indulgence at another. The Scots probably took their 
 opportunity in a country which, desolated though it was 
 by warfare, was a Garden of Eden after their own desolate 
 bogs, and they earned for themselves the designation of 
 sacs a vin et mangeurs de moutons. 
 
26 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 But an opportunity occurred for wiping off such a 
 reproach. The Scots and some French, all under the 
 command of Buchan, approached the old town of Bauge. 
 in Anjou, on one side of the stream of the Cauanon, 
 while Clarence and the great English host were encamped 
 on the other. The Scots, just in time to save themselves, 
 discovered their danger. The English were crossing the 
 river by a narrow bridge when Buchan came up and 
 fought the portion of the army which had crossed over. 
 As M. Michel remarks, it was the same tactic that enabled 
 Wallace to defeat Surrey and Cressingham at Stirling it 
 might also be described as a seizing of the opportunity 
 that was afterwards so signally missed at Flodden. Then 
 took place one of those hand-to-hand conflicts, in which 
 the highest-spirited and best-mounted knights of the age 
 encountered in a mingled turmoil of general battle and 
 single combat. The great host meanwhile struggled over, 
 and was attacked in detail. It was a victory attended, 
 from its peculiar conditions, with more than the average 
 slaughter of the conquered. In the words of Monstrelet, 
 " The Duke of Clarence, the Earl of Kyme (?), the Lord 
 Roos, Marshal of England, and, in general, the flower of 
 the chivalry and esquiredom, were left dead on the field, 
 with two or three thousand fighting men." 
 
 Henry V. was naturally provoked by a defeat that so 
 strongly resembled those he had been accustomed to 
 inflict ; and his anger, sharpened by grief for the death of 
 his brother, tempted him into one of those unworthy acts 
 which great conquerors sometimes commit when thwarted 
 by defeat. He had then in his possession the young King 
 of the Scots, James I. With his consent, or in his name, 
 an instruction was issued to the Scots army no longer to 
 fight in the cause of France against England. Buchan 
 protested that the orders of a monarch not at freedom 
 were of no avail. Henry then thought fit to treat the 
 Scots as rebels, not entitled to the courtesies of war. To 
 make the case more clear, he took his captive to France. 
 James was in the English camp when Melun was taken, 
 and therefore Henry hanged twenty Scotsmen found 
 among the garrison. On the surrendering of Meaux, too, 
 
THE SCOTS AUXILIARIES. 2/ 
 
 there were especially excluded from the conditions of the 
 capitulation all the Welsh, Irish, and Scotch as if all 
 these were alike rebels. 
 
 It is generally said that Buchan got the baton of High 
 Constable of France as a reward for the victory of Bauge', 
 though Monstrelet speaks of him as Constable when he 
 fought it. At all events, he held this high office an 
 office so very high that his poor countrymen at home 
 cannot have easily seen to the top of it. We are told 
 that, in Court precedence, it ranked next after the blood- 
 royal ; that an insult to the holder of it, being equivalent 
 to one on royalty itself, was similarly punished ; and that 
 he was the highest military authority in the kingdom, 
 having at his disposal all its warlike resources the 
 commander-in-chief, in short. Moreri, who tells us this, 
 also, to be sure, tells us that when a king of England 
 dies, the lord mayor of London acts as interim king until 
 another is fairly settled on the throne; but it is to be 
 presumed that Moreri had a better knowledge of the 
 practices on the banks of the Seine than of those on the 
 banks of the Thames. In this country we are familiar 
 with the title chiefly through the great names coupled 
 with it the Constable de Luxemburg, the Constable 
 Montmorenci, Du Guesclin, and the terrible Bourbon. 
 Among such names, to stumble on the Constable Buchan 
 sounds quite homely, as we say in Scotland. The con- 
 stabulary was considered too formidable an office to be 
 always full, and seems to have been reserved for emer- 
 gencies, like the Roman dictatorship ; and that hour of 
 emergency and of destitution of native spirit must have 
 been dark indeed, when its highest dignity, and also the 
 custody of the honour of the nation, were together con- 
 ferred upon a stranger. The dignity was balanced by 
 princely domains and castles stretching over the territory 
 between Avranches and Chartres. These the new-comer 
 seems to have almost taken into his own hand, for the 
 French authorities speak of his putting himself in pos- 
 session of the castle at Chartres after the battle of Baugd 
 
 After that battle Buchan was joined by his father-in- 
 law, Archibald Earl of Douglas, who brought with him a 
 
28 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 reinforcement of four or five thousand Scots. Douglas, 
 among other honours and substantial rewards, was in- 
 vested with the great dukedom of Touraine. There was 
 almost a rivalry in the royal munificence to the two 
 leaders, and their followers were not forgotten, as we 
 shall afterwards see ; but they left on bloody battle-fields 
 a record that their honours and emoluments were well 
 paid for, and but briefly enjoyed. Though Bauge had 
 taught the wholesome doctrine to the French that their 
 enemies were not unconquerable, and had put the house 
 of Valois in sufficient heart to renew the struggle, it was 
 yet uphill work. In the battle of Crevant in 1424 the 
 Scots were the chief sufferers. In one brief sentence 
 Monstrelet testifies to their devotedness, and narrates 
 their fate : " The English and Burgundians won the day 
 and the field ; the greater part of the Scots, amounting to 
 three thousand, who were in the front ranks, were either 
 killed or taken." 1 
 
 The remnant of the Scots auxiliaries, though thus 
 thinned and weakened, bore the chief weight of the 
 bloody battle of Verneuil a year afterwards. 2 This is one 
 of the many battles in which defeat has been attributed 
 to misunderstandings and mistakes among allies, for there 
 were there men of three nations on one side French 
 Lombards, and Scots. Wherever the blame lay, the 
 penalty was paid by the Scots, of whom all but a few 
 lay dead where they fought. It has been said that their 
 fate was of their own seeking, for, on meeting face to face 
 with their mortal enemies of England, they sent Bedford 
 a message that they would neither spare nor be spared 
 neither give nor take quarter. 8 Buchan, the High 
 
 1 ' Monstrelet, ' by Johns, vi. 48. 
 
 2 Sismondi says of the marshalling of the French army, "Les 
 Ecossais, qui faisoient le nerf de leur armee." xiii. 34. 
 
 8 " Un ecrivain contemporain, se faisant 1'echo d'un bruit repandu 
 a 1'epoque, signale la fierte ecossaise comme la principale cause du 
 desastre de Verneuil, qu'il considere comme un evenement heureux 
 pour la France: 'Les Ecossais,' dit-il, ' sont d'habitude ardents et 
 solides au combat, mais temeraires et fiers a 1'exces. ' Puis, apres un 
 recit sommaire de cette journee, il continue ainsi ' C'etait un spec- 
 
THE POLITICAL SITUATION. 29 
 
 Constable, and Douglas, the Duke of Touraine, were 
 found among the dead. They had not given their lives 
 an utterly vain sacrifice to the cause of their adoption. 
 Though Verneuil is counted among the English victories, 
 it had no resemblance to the sweeping triumphs of Crecy, 
 Poitiers, and Agincourt. It was so tough an affair, and 
 was so near to the defeat of Bedford and Salisbury, that 
 they became really alarmed about the stability of the su- 
 premacy of the house of Lancaster in France. 
 
 We cannot rightly estimate the influence over the des- 
 tinies of Europe of the events which severed Scotland from 
 England and allied her to France, without remembering 
 that it was long the aim of every powerful European mon- 
 arch to follow the example of Charlemagne, and restore 
 the Roman Empire. People have been so much occupied 
 in discussing the religious hierarchy bequeathed to the 
 world by the old Empire, that they seem to have for- 
 gotten how much of its political organisation remained 
 to influence mankind. Roman institutions, in fact, live 
 and influence our everyday habits and customs, and many 
 of our greatest political organisations have their root in 
 the established practice of the Empire. It is there, for 
 instance, that we shall find how, in European diplomacy 
 and international law, there are rules obeyed by nations, 
 obligations performed by them, and rights exacted by 
 them, without any paramount authority to enforce obedi- 
 ence. The paramount authority existed once in the 
 person of the Emperor of the world ; and though it has 
 departed, the practices and traditions which kept the 
 various states of Europe together have remained in force, 
 
 tacle affreux a contempler que celui des monceaux de cadavres 
 entasses et presses sur ce champ de bataille, la surtout oil la lutte 
 avail eu lieu avec les Ecossais ; car pas un d'eux ne fut epargne a 
 litre de caplif. .... La cause de cet acharnemenl et de ce 
 carnage sans merci fut la fierte des Ecossais : avant 1'engagement, le 
 Due de Bedford leur ayant envoye demander quelles seraient les 
 conditions du combat, ils repondirent qu'ils ne voulaient pas, ce 
 jour-la, faire de prisonniers aux Anglais, ni que les Anglais leur en 
 fissent ; reponse qui, en allumant centre eux la fureur de 1'ennemi, 
 les fit exterminer.'" Michel, i. 148, quoting from Meyer, 'Annales 
 Rerum Belgicarum.' 
 
3O THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 and have been worked by " the great powers," who may 
 be said to hold the functions of the old Empire in a sort 
 of commission. It is observable that at the present day 
 the established rules of diplomacy have scarcely extended 
 beyond the bounds of the old Empire, except by includ- 
 ing Russia; but though the greater part of the Russian 
 territory was beyond the pale, there is no Court in Europe 
 where the traditions of the Empire are so religiously 
 maintained as in that of Russia where, indeed, the 
 ambition which made the monarchs of the middle ages 
 aim at the restoration of the empire of the world is be- 
 lieved still to guide the policy of the house of Romanoff. 
 We cannot get the oriental nations to accept of our 
 system of diplomacy, except by sheer force. An am- 
 bassador they count an intruder and a spy, and they 
 preserve no treaty which they can break. Even in the 
 American States, where diplomacy and international law 
 are studied more than anywhere else, it seems impracti- 
 cable to apply those old traditional rules called the laws 
 of war and peace, which have kept Europe together. 
 
 The municipalities which have so deeply influenced the 
 history of Europe are a section of the institutions of the 
 Empire. There are towns whose existing governments 
 were given to them by the Caesars ; and it was a signal 
 testimony to the vitality of these institutions, that in the 
 late reconsolidation of Italy they formed the means of 
 dovetailing together the fragments which had been so 
 long separated. In some countries the Justinian collections 
 are the only absolute authorities in the law in all they 
 have more or less a place. In England even, for all the 
 abuse it has met with from the common-lawyers, the civil 
 law has an acknowledged place in Equity, the Ecclesias- 
 tical courts, and the Admiralty jurisdiction; and large 
 masses of it have, surreptitiously and under false names, 
 been brought into the sacred precinct of the common law 
 itself. It would be difficult to say of the laws which 
 adjust rights and obligations between man and man in 
 England, whether one would find a greater quantity in 
 the Statutes at large than in the Pandects. 
 
 The political machinery of the imperial system, though 
 
THE POLITICAL SITUATION. 3 1 
 
 broken into fragments, remained in its several parts so 
 compact and serviceable for centuries as to be available 
 for consolidating the power of Napoleon. It may easily 
 be understood, then, how readily it would serve any 
 monarch of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, who felt 
 strong enough to use it. Hence these monarchs were 
 not merely excited by vague notions of influence and con- 
 quest with indefinite results, but saw a distinct, recognised 
 office, supreme among worldly monarchies in dignity and 
 power, which had been held of old, and might be aspired 
 to again, as a legitimate object of ambition. The double- 
 eagle in the achievement, figurative of the conjoined em- 
 pires of the East and of the West, indicates powers which 
 -have some time or other aspired at the empire of the 
 world at renewing the conditions under which Cassar 
 could decree "that all the world should be taxed." 
 
 It is curious to see how the newly-grown feudal system, 
 with its fictions and pedantries its rights of property and 
 possession, for instance, as separated from its rights of 
 superiority aided the influence of the imperial organ- 
 isation in the hands of clever and vigilant princes. A 
 troublesome territory would be handed over by a great 
 king to some smaller neighbour, who, nearer the spot, 
 was better able to govern it, and who, if it were not handed 
 over to him, might take it. He came under obligation to 
 do homage for it to the giver, but the practical result of 
 this obligation would depend on subsequent events. If 
 generation after generation of his house were gradually 
 acquiring such fiefs, they might soon possess a power 
 .sufficient to defy the feudal superior. On the other hand, 
 the practice of doing homage for a part of their posses- 
 sions might taint a decaying house with the sense of in- 
 feriority, and bring them in at last for homage for the 
 whole. When Edward I. summoned Baliol to come to 
 Windsor and give account of his conduct, and when that 
 same Edward was himself cited by Philip of France to 
 kneel before him and answer for certain piracies com- 
 mitted by Englishmen, the feudal formalities were the 
 same, but behind them were certain realities which made 
 the two affairs very different. Thus Europe presented to 
 
32 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 the able and ambitious among her monarchs two kinds of 
 apparatus of aggrandisement. In the one, a vassal house, 
 gaining fief after fief, would work its way to the vitals of 
 a monarchy, and extinguish its life ; in the other, a great 
 power would crush one by one its smaller neighbours, by 
 gradually enlarging the prerogative of the lord paramount. 
 
 Whoever would wish to see this sort of game played 
 with the most exquisite skill and the most curious turns 
 of luck, should study closely the history of the absorption 
 of Burgundy into France. In our own country the play 
 was more abrupt and rough. It was handled with a brute 
 force, which succeeded in Ireland and Wales, but drove 
 Scotland to effective resistance. The significance of this 
 resistance was not limited to this island. The Normans 
 were then bearing it with a high hand over all the nations of 
 Europe. If the Empire was to be restored, he who should 
 be chief among the Norman rulers would be the man to 
 restore it. Had Henry V. been King of all Britain, it 
 would have been the most natural of effects to such a 
 cause that he should also have been undisputed King 
 of France ; and with such a combination of powers in his 
 hand, what was to prevent him from being the successor 
 of Charlemagne? The battle of Bannockburn was the 
 ostensible blow which broke this chain of events. It was 
 not the only interruption which Norman aggrandisement 
 had then to encounter. Only twelve years earlier than 
 Bannockburn, the Flemings had gained a popular victory 
 over the chivalry of France at Courtrai ; within a year after 
 the defeat of Edward, the Swiss bought their independ- 
 ence in the terrible battle of Morgarten. The coincidence 
 is not purely incidental. The three battles were types of a 
 general revulsion against Norman aggrandisement arising 
 in the hearts of the oppressed in various parts of Europe. 
 
 As part of an empire which included France and Scot- 
 land, with whatever else so much power might enable its 
 owner to take, it is hard to say how it would have fared 
 with the liberties of England, governed perhaps from Paris 
 rather than London; and some have thought that the 
 enjoyers of these liberties owe a debt to the victors at 
 Bannockburn. 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD. 33 
 
 Everybody has heard of the famous Scots Guard of 
 France. The same authorities that carry back the League 
 to the days of Charlemagne, make him the founder of this 
 force. It is a pity that we have no distinct account of its 
 origin, and can only infer from historical probabilities that 
 Claude Fauchet is right in saying that it was formed out 
 of that remnant of the Scots who survived the slaughter at 
 Verneuil, and did not desire to return home. 1 If Charles 
 VII. was not the founder of the Guard, it is pretty certain 
 that he adjusted its organisation as a permanent institu- 
 tion of the French Court. This easy, lucky monarch was 
 so thoroughly the parent of the Scots Guard, that they 
 wept for him in a demonstrative manner, which induced 
 an old chronicler to say 
 
 " Et les Escossoys hault crioient 
 Par forme de gemissement. " 
 
 The Scots Guard consisted of one hundred gens cTarmes 
 and two hundred archers. They had a captain who was 
 a high officer of state. The first captain of the Guard who 
 appears in history and probably the first person who 
 held the office was John Stewart, lord of Aubignd, the 
 founder of a great Scots house in France, of which more 
 hereafter. By a chivalrous courtesy the appointment 
 to this high office was confided to the King of Scots. 
 This was an arrangement, however, that could not last. 
 As the two nations changed their relative position, and 
 the Guard began to become Scots only in name, it be- 
 came not only out of the question that the captain should 
 be appointed by a foreign government, but impolitic that 
 he should be a foreigner. It is curious to notice a small 
 ingenious policy to avoid offence to the haughty foreigners 
 in the removal of the command from the Scots. The 
 first captain of the Guard who was a native Frenchman, 
 was the Count of Montgomery, who, for his patrimonial 
 name, which corresponded with that of an old Scots family, 
 passed for a man of Scots descent. It was thought prudent 
 that his son should succeed him ; but the selection was 
 
 1 ' Origines des Dignitez et Magistrats de France, ' p. 39. 
 C 
 
34 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 not fortunate, for he was the same Montgomery who hit 
 King Henry II. at the jousts in honour of his daughter 
 Elizabeth's marriage to Philip II., and so made Mary 
 Stewart Queen of France. 
 
 According to the old courtly creed of France, the 
 privileges of the Scots Guard had an eminence that par- 
 took of sacredness. Twenty-four of them were told off 
 as the special protectors of the royal person. They took 
 charge of the keys of the chamber where the King slept, 
 and the oratory where he paid his devotions. When, on 
 a solemn progress, he entered a walled town, the keys 
 were committed to the custody of the captain of the 
 Guard. They guarded his boat as he crossed a ferry, 
 and were essential to the support of his litter when he 
 was carried. On ordinary occasions two of them stood 
 behind him ; but in affairs of great ceremony the recep- 
 tion of embassies, the conferring high honours, the touch- 
 ing for the king's evil, and the like six of them stood 
 near the throne, three on either side. It was deemed a 
 marked honour to them that the silk fringe with which 
 their halberts were decorated was white the royal colour 
 of France. 
 
 There is something melancholy beyond description in 
 contemplating the condition of a country, the vital treas- 
 ures of which had to be confided to the fidelity and bra- 
 very of hireling strangers. If there was a fault in the 
 affair, however, it was not with the Scots : they were true 
 to their trust, and paid faith with faith. 
 
 On their side of the bargain, too, there is something 
 touching in the picture of a hardy high-spirited race 
 robbed of their proper field of exertion at home, and 
 driven to a foreign land, there to bestow the enterprising 
 energy that might have made their own illustrious ; and 
 serving a foreign master with the single-minded fidelity 
 that had been nourished within them by the love of their 
 own land and kindred. But it must be admitted that their 
 hospitable patrons made their exile mighty comfortable. 
 When the lank youth left behind him the house of his 
 ancestors, standing up grey, cold, and bare, on the bleak 
 moorland, it was not to pass into hard sordid exile, but 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD. 35 
 
 rather to exult in the prospect of a land of promise or 
 El Dorado : and faithfully was the promise kept ; for the 
 profuse hospitality and lavish generosity of France to her 
 guests is a thing hardly to be elsewhere paralleled in his- 
 tory. It was but just that it should all be requited with 
 sound fidelity and ardent devotion. 
 
 The trust which Louis XI. reposed in the Guard has 
 been already referred to. It was not their blame that 
 he took their assistance in grubbing up the roots of all 
 the political institutions which checked or modified the 
 supreme authority of the Crown. If we were to suppose, 
 indeed, that they passed beyond the routine of duty to 
 think of the political results of the affairs in which they 
 were engaged, they would find a good many partisans in 
 the present day, had they adopted the designs of their 
 crafty master as their own, and backed them as the 
 soundest policy for the future of France and of Europe at 
 large ; for Louis XI. is by no means championless. 
 
 In one of the most amusing of all the chronicles ever 
 written that of Comines the Scots Guard figure fre- 
 quently, and always creditably. Louis, who was reputed 
 to trust no other creatures of human make, appears to 
 have placed entire reliance on them. They saved him at 
 a crisis of great peril in his renowned attack, along with 
 the Duke of Burgundy, on the city of Liege. Both poten- 
 tates were deeply plotting the one to bring, the Burgun- 
 dian territories directly under the crown of France, the 
 other to change his dukedom for a kingdom, which might 
 in the end comprise France itself. Both were of one 
 mind, for the time, in deadly malice and murderous pro- 
 jects against the industrious burghers of the city. By a 
 concurrence of events which broke through the fine tex- 
 ture of his subtle policy, Louis found himself in the hands 
 of his fierce rival ; for he was within the lines of Bur- 
 gundy's army, with no other resource or protection appa- 
 rently but his Scots Guard. There was to be a storming 
 of Liege, which was anticipated by the citizens breaking 
 out and attacking the camp of the Duke. In the con- 
 fusion of such an affair at such a juncture, it is easy to 
 suppose that Louis could not know friends from enemies, 
 
36 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 and had reason to believe the enemies to be far the more 
 prevalent of the two. Comines gives this distinct and 
 homely narrative of what he saw of the affair, for he was 
 present : 
 
 " I, and two gentlemen more of his bedchamber, lay 
 that night in the Duke of Burgundy's chamber (which was 
 very small), and above us there were twelve archers upon 
 the guard, all of 'em in their clothes, and playing at dice. 
 His main guard was at a good distance, and towards the 
 gate of the town ; in short, the master of the house where 
 the Duke was quartered, having drawn out a good party 
 of the Ltigeois, came so suddenly upon the Duke, we had 
 scarce time to put on his back and breast plate and clap 
 a steel cap upon his head. As soon as we had done it, 
 we ran down the stairs into the street ; but we found our 
 archers engaged with the enemy, and much ado they had 
 to defend the doors and the windows against 'em. In the 
 street there was a terrible noise and uproar, some crying 
 out, ' God bless the King ! ' others, ' God bless the Duke 
 of Burgundy ! ' and others, ' God bless the King, and kill, 
 kill ! ' It was some time before our archers and we could 
 beat the enemy from the doors and get out of the house. 
 We knew not in what condition the King was, nor whether 
 he was for or against us, which put us into a great con- 
 sternation. As soon as we were got into the street, by 
 the help of two or three torches we discovered some few 
 of our men, and could perceive people fighting round 
 about us ; but the action there lasted not long, for the 
 soldiers from all parts came in thronging to the Duke's 
 quarter. The Duke's landlord was the first man of the 
 enemy's side that was killed (who died not presently, for 
 I heard him speak), and with him his whole party (at least 
 the greatest part of them) were cut in pieces. 
 
 " The King was also assaulted after the same manner 
 by his landlord, who entered his house, but was slain by 
 the Scotch Guard. These Scotch troops behaved them- 
 selves valiantly, maintained their ground, would not stir 
 one step from the King, and were very nimble with their 
 bows and arrows, with which, it is said, they wounded and 
 killed more of the Burgundians than of the enemy. Those 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD. 37 
 
 who were appointed made their sally at the gate, but they 
 found a strong guard to oppose them, which gave 'em a 
 warm reception and presently repulsed 'em, they not being 
 so good soldiers as the others. As soon as these people 
 were repulsed, the King and Duke met, and had a confer- 
 ence together. Seeing several lie dead about them, they 
 were afraid their loss had been greater than really it proved 
 to be ; for upon examination they found they had not lost 
 many men, though several were wounded ; and without 
 dispute, if they had not stopped at those two places, and 
 especially at the barn (where they met with some small 
 opposition), but had followed their guides, they had killed 
 both the King and the Duke of Burgundy, and in prob- 
 ability would have defeated the rest of the army. Each 
 of these princes retired to his quarters greatly astonished 
 at the boldness of the attempt ; and immediately a council 
 of war was called to consult what measures were to be 
 taken the next morning in relation to the assault, which 
 had been resolved upon before. The King was in great 
 perplexity, as fearing that if the Duke took not the town 
 by storm, the inconvenience would fall upon him, and he 
 should either be kept still in restraint, or made an abso- 
 lute prisoner, for the Duke could not think himself secure 
 against a war with France if he should suffer him to de- 
 part. By this mutual distrust of each other one may 
 clearly observe the miserable condition of these two 
 princes, who could not by any means confide in one 
 another, though they had made a firm peace not a fort- 
 night before, and had sworn solemnly to preserve it." J 
 
 French historians are tolerably unanimous in their tes- 
 timony that the Guard were faithful fellows. As a small 
 select body of men. highly endowed with rank and remun- 
 eration, they were naturally the prize-holders of a consider- 
 able body of their countrymen, who in the army of France 
 strove to prove themselves worthy of reception into the 
 chosen band. Thus the Scots in the French army carried 
 the spirit of the service beyond the mere number selected 
 as the Guard; and there was among them a fellow-feeling, 
 
 1 'Memohs of Philip de Comines,' book ii. chap. 12. 
 
38 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 mixed with a devotion to the Crown of France, of a kind 
 which there is no good term for in English, while it is but 
 faintly expressed by the French esprit de corps. A few of 
 the facts in the history of the Scots troops employed by 
 France bring it closer home than any generalisation can ; 
 for instance, after other incidents of a like character, M. 
 Michel quotes from D'Auton's Chronicle, how, in a con- 
 test with the Spaniards in Calabria, in 1503, the banner- 
 bearer, William Turnbull, was found dead with the staff 
 in his arms and the flag gripped in his teeth, with a little 
 cluster of his countrymen round him, killed at their posts, 
 " et si un Ecossais etait mort d'un cote, un Espagnol ou 
 deux Tetaient de 1'autre." The moral drawn from this 
 incident by the old chronicler is, that the expression long 
 proverbial in France, " Fier comme un Ecossais," was 
 because the Scots "aimaient mieux 'mourir pour hon- 
 neur garder, que vivre en honte, reprochez de tache 
 de lascheteV" 
 
 When the two British kingdoms merged towards each 
 other in the sixteenth century, the native element was 
 gradually thinned out of the Scots Guard. When Scotland 
 became part of an empire which called France the natu- 
 ral enemy, it seemed unreasonable that her sons should 
 expect to retain a sort of supremacy in the French army. 
 But there are no bounds to human unreasonableness when 
 profitable offices are coming and going, and many of 
 our countrymen during the seventeenth century were loud 
 in their wrath and lamentation about the abstraction of 
 their national privileges in France. Some Scotsmen, still 
 in the Guard in the year 1611, had a quarrel with the 
 French captain, De Montespan, and brought their com- 
 plaint before King James. As French soldiers appealing 
 to a foreign monarch, they were very naturally dismissed. 
 Of course they now complained at home still more loudly, 
 and their cause was taken up by some great men. The 
 French behaved in the matter with much courtesy. The 
 men dismissed for a breach of discipline could not be 
 replaced at the instigation of a foreign Court, but the 
 Government would fill their places with other Scotsmen 
 duly recommended. So lately as the year 1642, demands 
 
THE SCOTS GUARD. 39 
 
 were made on the French Government to renew the 
 ancient League and restore the " privileges " of the Scots 
 in France, including the monopoly of the appointments 
 in the Guard. But though made in the name of King 
 Charles I. by the Scots Privy Council, these demands 
 were, like many of the other transactions of the day, 
 rather made in hostility to the King than in obedience to 
 his commands. Louis XIV. gave a brief and effective 
 answer to them. He said that he would renew the 
 League only on the condition that the Scots should cease 
 to act as the ally of England, either by giving obedience 
 to the King of that country, " or under pretext of religion, 
 without express permission from the King, their master " 
 a pretty accurate diplomatic description of the position 
 of the Covenanting force. 1 
 
 Down to the time when all the pomps and vanities of 
 the French Crown were swept away along with its sub- 
 stantial power, the Scots Guard existed as pageant of the 
 Court of France. In that immense conglomerate of all 
 kinds of useful and useless knowledge, the ' Dictionnaire 
 de Trevoux,' it is set forth that "la premiere compagnie 
 des gardes du corps de nos rois " is still called " La Garde 
 Ecossaise," though there was not then (1730) a single 
 Scotsman in it. Still there were preserved among the 
 young Court lackeys, who kept up the part of the sur- 
 vivors of the Hundred Years' War, some of the old 
 formalities. Among these, when the Clerc du Guet 
 challenged the guard who had seen the palace gate 
 closed, " il repond en Ecossois, I am hire c'est a dire, 
 me voila ; " and the lexicographer informs us that, in the 
 mouths of the Frenchmen, totally unacquainted with the 
 barbarous tongue in which the regimental orders had 
 been originally devised, the answer always sounded, " Ai 
 am hire." 
 
 In some luxurious libraries may be found a gorgeous 
 volume in old morocco, heavily decorated with symbols 
 of royalty, bearing on its engraved title-page that it is 
 
 1 See ' Papers relative to the Royal Guard of Scottish Archers in 
 France : ' Maitland Club, 1835. 
 
40 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 " Le Sacre de Louis XV., Roy de France et de Navarre, 
 dans 1'Eglise de Reims, le Dimanche, xxv. Octobre, 
 MDCCXXII." After a poetical inauguration, giving assur- 
 ance of the piety, the justice, the firmness, the devotion 
 to his people, of the new King, and the orthodoxy, 
 loyalty, and continued peace that were to be the lot of 
 France, with many other predictions, wide of the truth 
 that came to pass, there come a series of large pictures, 
 representing the various stages of the coronation, and 
 these are followed by full-dress and full-length portraits 
 of the various high officers who figured on the solemn 
 occasion. Among these we have the Capitain des Gardes 
 Ecossois in full state uniform. This has anything but a 
 military aspect; it is the single-breasted broad-flapped 
 coat of the time, heavily embroidered, a short mantle, 
 and a black cap, with a double white plume. The six 
 guards are also represented in a draped portrait. It is 
 far more picturesque than that of their captain, yet in its 
 white satin, gold embroidery, and fictitious mail, it con- 
 veys much less of the character of the soldier than of 
 the Court attendant, as will be seen by the inventorial 
 description given below. 1 In the original engraving, by 
 the way, the artist has thrown an air of absorbed devoted- 
 ness into the very handsome countenance drawn by him, 
 which is at variance, in some measure, with the tone of 
 the attitude and costume, as pertaining to a mere figure 
 in a state pageant. 
 
 1 " Un habit de satin blanc ; par dessus une cotte d'armes en 
 broderie d'or. Sur le corselet, les armes de France, surmontees 
 d'un soleil, avec le devise : le tout brode en cartisanne d'or sur un 
 fond de trait d'argent, formant des mailles ; les manches et basques 
 de la cotte d'armes brodees en or, sur un fond blanc ; un chapeau 
 blanc, garni d'un bouquet de plumes blanches a deux rangs ; la par- 
 tuisannea la main." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 PERSONAL ANECDOTES OF THE SCOTS IMMIGRANTS THE WOLF OF 
 
 BADENOCH'S SON THE ALBANY AND DARNLEY STEWARTS THE 
 
 HAMILTONS AND DOUGLASES INVESTMENT OF THE SCOTCH DUKE 
 OF TOURAINE NOTICES OF SCOTSMEN SETTLED IN FRANCE, AND 
 THE FAMILIES FOUNDED BY THEM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE SCOTS 
 COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE NORMANS. 
 
 THE arrival of the Scots auxiliaries, the battles in which 
 they were engaged, and the formation of the Scots Guard 
 from the remnant, make an episode in history which I 
 have thought it best to keep by itself. There were 
 constant migrations, however, of Scotsmen to France, 
 from the commencement of the Hundred Years' War 
 downwards, and I now propose to give a few character- 
 istics of the men who went thither, of the reception they 
 met with, and of the destinies of their descendants. 
 
 King Robert III. had a younger brother Alexander, 
 who was made lieutenant of the northern part of the 
 kingdom. His royal birth and breeding were insufficient 
 to control the temptation of using his opportunities to 
 collect a Highland following, and setting them to their 
 natural work, which was mischief. He became, of course, 
 the terror of all the well-disposed within the district he 
 was set to rule over, and they complimented him with 
 the title of "The" Wolf of Badenoch." He set his eye 
 on some lands on the Spey belonging to the Bishop of 
 Moray, and sent a few hundreds of his gallow-glasses to 
 take possession. The bishop had recourse to his own 
 peculiar artillery, and excommunicated the Wolf. One 
 would have thought this mattered little ; but besides 
 being the wolf beyond the Grampians, Alexander Stewart 
 was prince and courtier at Holyrood, where the condi- 
 
42 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 tion of excommunication carried with it many social 
 inconveniences, not to speak of the insolence of the 
 prelate, who dared to cast such a slur on a man of his 
 condition. He therefore, to give the bishop a foretaste 
 of what might follow, sent down a few handy lads to the 
 plains of Moray, where they burnt the choir of the church 
 of Forres and the house of the archdeacon. As this had 
 not the desired effect, he collected a larger force of 
 ruffians, and, descending on the Lowland like an ava- 
 lanche, fell on the episcopal city of Elgin and burned its 
 noble cathedral. This was going rather too far. The 
 Wolf had not only to disgorge, but to propitiate the 
 Church with gifts, and do penance until the Pope set 
 him right by absolution. His ashes repose in the Cathe- 
 dral of Dunkeld, where may be seen his recumbent 
 effigy, with arms folded, in serene peace looking to 
 another world, while, in a Gothic inscription, the forgiv- 
 ing Church records that here lies Alexander Stewart, 
 Lord of Buchan and Badenoch, of good memory. 
 
 This worthy had a favourite illegitimate son, also called 
 Alexander. He, as was natural, followed his father's 
 footsteps, and collected a troop of bare-legged ruffians, 
 who reived and ravaged far and near. The Lindsays, 
 Ogilvies, and other gentlemen of Angus, resolved to put a 
 stop to this, and collected a body of men-at-arms and 
 Lowland bowmen, a sort of force which held the High- 
 land caterans in utter scorn as a set of rabble to be swept 
 before them. The Wolf cub, however, alighted on the 
 tactic which, in later times, made a Highland force 
 terrible a concentrated rush on the enemy. This the 
 small body of Lowlanders caught on the rugged banks 
 of the Isla, and they were at once swept away, mail-clad 
 horsemen and all, before the horde of savages they had 
 despised. A little incident in this battle is thus described 
 by a bard who might have been present, and probably 
 had it from an eyewitness. Sir David Lyndsay, trying to 
 make head against the torrent as a mounted man-at-arms, 
 had trodden several of the Highlanders down, and had 
 one of them pinned to the earth with his long lance. 
 Thereupon, in the words of old Wyntoun 
 
THE WOLF CUB. 43 
 
 " That man held fast his own sword 
 Into his nieve, and up thrawing 
 He pressed him, not again standing 
 That he was pressed to the earth ; 
 And with a swake there of his sword, 
 Through the stirrup-leather and the boot 
 Three ply or four, above the foot, 
 He struck the Lyndsay to the bone. 
 That man no stroke gave but that one, 
 For there he died. " i 
 
 Nestling in a valley close to the mountain-range where 
 the father and son held rather a roving commission than 
 a right either of property or government, stood the castle 
 of Kildrummy. As its ruins still attest, it was not one of 
 those grim, gaunt, starved-looking square towers which 
 the impoverished nobility of Scotland were fain to hide 
 themselves in, but a vast and beautiful Gothic fortress 
 erected in the time of the great war of independence, 
 probably by the English. This desirable residence the 
 youth set his eye on ; so with his Highland host he 
 stormed and took it. It belonged to the widowed 
 Countess of Mar. The country was not so absolutely 
 without any nominal law that territory could be acquired 
 in this way; at all events, it was prudent to have the 
 military title of conquest fortified by some civil formal- 
 ities to prevent future cavilling. The victor, therefore, 
 married the widow, obtaining from her a conveyance of 
 her property to himself and his heirs. 
 
 Some formalist having probably put him up to the 
 notion that the transaction, as it stood, was still open to 
 question, a second deed bears record how that the hus- 
 band resigned the whole property back to the wife, and 
 in token thereof approached the castle, and humbly 
 placed the key in her hand, telling her to take possession 
 
 1 Scott could not but see the value of such an incident in heroic 
 narrative, and accordingly, in the ' Lord of the Isles, ' he brings it in 
 at the death of Colonsay's fierce lord : 
 
 " Nailed to the earth, the mountaineer 
 
 Yet wreathed him up against the spear, 
 
 And swr:jg his broadsword round ; 
 
 Stirrup, steel boot, and cuish gave way 
 
 Beneath that blow's tremendous sway." 
 
44 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 of the castle, the furniture therein, and the title-deeds of 
 the domain ; whereupon she gave the whole back to be 
 enjoyed by her husband and the heirs of the marriage. 
 Still again the dread of the red-tapism of the day haunted 
 the prudent marauder, and a scene occurred which must 
 have been exceedingly amusing to all concerned. In 
 presence of the Bishop of Ross and of the feudatories of 
 the domain, assembled in general council in the fields 
 beyond the walls of the castle of Kildrummy, the Count- 
 ess again executed an investiture of her husband in all 
 her estates and properties, especially including those of 
 which she was unjustly deprived, a gift which opened up 
 indefinite fields of enterprise to so active a husband. 
 The deed is so profuse in its attestations of the perfect 
 freedom and absence of all restraint and intimidation 
 wherewith the Countess acted, that one's suspicion would 
 naturally be raised even without a knowledge of the 
 antecedents. 
 
 Such was the career of one who afterwards made a 
 brilliant figure at the Court of France. His reception 
 there, or rather the position he took up, is recorded in 
 his homely rhymes by the contemporary Wyntoun ; and 
 as M. Michel adopts his account, so may we. Here it 
 is, with the spelling a little modernised, as in the preced- 
 ing passage from the same rather wordy chronicle : 
 
 " The Earl of Mar passed in France, 
 In his delight and his pleasance, 
 With a noble company 
 Well arrayed and daintily, 
 Knights and squires great gentlemen, 
 Sixty or more full numbered there, 
 Men of council and of virtue, 
 Of his court and retinue. 
 In Paris he held a royal state 
 At the Syngne, knowen the Tynny Plate, 1 
 All the time that he was there 
 Biding, twelve weeks full and mare, 
 Door and gate both gart he 
 Aye stand open, that men might se (so) 
 Enter all time at their pleasance 
 Til eat or drink, or sing or dance." 
 
 1 M. Michel calls it Plat d'Etain. 
 
SCOTS MEN-AT-ARMS. 45 
 
 The Earl of Mar for he was now firmly established in 
 that dignified position took part with some companions- 
 at-arms of the best blood in Scotland, at the battle of 
 Liege, fought on the i4th of September 1407 : it was one 
 of the contests in which the Duke of Burgundy had to 
 back the Prince-Bishop against the powerful corporation 
 of that almost sovereign city. M. Michel cites an old 
 French chronicler, a good pendant to Wyntoun, who, 
 after Messieurs Guillaume Hay, and Jacques Scringour, 
 and Helis de Guenemont, expands concerning the feats of 
 other heroes, whose names, slightly disguised, will readily 
 be recognised by their countrymen. 
 
 " Sire Alexandra en son droit nom 
 De Commech, qui ot cuer entier, 
 Ce jour y fut fait chevalier, 
 Et Messire Andrieu Stievart 
 Fu chevalier de belle part. 
 De Hay sire Guillebert 
 Fut ce jour en armes appert, 
 Com bon et hardi combattant. 
 Sire Jehan de Sidrelant 
 Doy bien en honneur mettre en compte* 
 Car il est fiz d'un noble conte. 
 Sire Alexandre d'lervin, 
 Qui le cuer ot humble et benin, 
 En ce jour monstra hardie chiere; 
 Et cil qui porta la baniere 
 Du conte qui est tant prisiez 
 Ce fu sire Jehan de Miniez. " 
 
 Here are many familiar Scots names, some of them, it 
 is true, a little disguised. Guenemont is Kinninmond, the 
 name of a good old stock sometime decayed, and now, 
 it is believed, unrepresented in Scotland, though it is sup- 
 posed to be alive both in Sweden and France. Sidrelant 
 is Sutherland, and Miniez Menzies, the laird of that terri- 
 tory which bears the queer-sounding name of Pitfoddles. 
 De Commech is puzzling, but M. Michel boldly trans- 
 poses it into Keith. Alexandre d'lervin, who represents 
 the true knight of chivalry a lamb at home, a lion in the 
 field is the same who gets like praise in the rude Scots 
 ballad which details so accurately the great battle of 
 Harlaw: 
 
46 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 " Gude Sir Alexander Irvine, 
 
 The much-renowned Laird of Drum, 
 
 Nane in his days was better seen, 
 
 When they were sembled all and some, 
 To praise him we should not be dumb, 
 
 For valour, wit, and worthyness, 
 To end his days he there did come, 
 
 Whose ransome is remeediless. " 
 
 The same companions-at-arms, indeed, who fought with 
 him in Flanders, followed Mar to victory in the great 
 battle of Harlaw. The Continental campaign had there- 
 fore a great influence on British history. There, doubt- 
 less, the Scots knights obtained that consciousness of the 
 prowess of trained, mail-clad men-at-arms, which prompt- 
 ed them with confidence and success to fight a host 
 many times as large as their own. That critical day 
 brought to an end what our common historians call the 
 Rebellion of Donald of the Isles. The question it really 
 decided was, whether the representative of the Norse 
 race, which had founded an empire in the islands and 
 western Highlands, should continue to be an indepen- 
 dent monarch, ruling Scotland as far as the Forth, and 
 perhaps as far as the English border. 
 
 Here the roistering leader of ragamuffins, coming 
 home with his foreign experience, became a mighty 
 general and sage statesman ; and like many others who 
 pass from disreputable into creditable and profitable 
 courses, he achieved the suppression of those who, while 
 he was sowing his wild oats, were his companions and 
 tools. 1 
 
 Most conspicuous and illustrious among the emigrants 
 to France were those who belonged to the royal race of 
 Stewart : and here let me offer an explanatory protest for 
 
 1 It is curious to find the demure Fordun from his quiet cell, in 
 dog Latin gently referring to the indiscretions of this hero's youth, 
 as in contrast with the honoured decorum of his other years, thus 
 In juventute erat multum indomitus et diictor catervanorum that is 
 to say, of caterans or Highland thieves. But afterwards in virum 
 alterum mutatus placenter trans monies quasi totum aquilonem guber- 
 nabat. 
 
THE CONSTABLE BUCHAN. 47 
 
 spelling the name in this unfashionable manner. It is 
 the old Scots spelling, the other namely, Stuart hav- 
 ing been gradually adopted in deference to the infir- 
 mity of the French language, which is deficient in that 
 sinewy letter a half-breed between vowel and conso- 
 nant which we call W. This innovation stands in the 
 personal nomenclature of our day, a trivial but distinct 
 relic of the influence of French manners and habits 
 over our ancestors. 
 
 For all their illustrious birth, these Stewarts went forth 
 like the others, wandering unfortunates, with no hold 
 upon the world but that which their heads and hands, 
 and perhaps the lustre of their descent, gave them, and 
 in the end they rooted themselves as landed Lords and 
 Princes. John Stewart, Earl of Buchan, the High Con- 
 stable, whose deeds and fate have been already recorded, 
 was a son of the Regent Albany, and grandson of King 
 Robert II. Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, a brother 
 of James III., cuts a rather ugly figure in the history of 
 his own country. He set up as king, calling himself Alex- 
 ander IV., and agreed to do homage and acknowledge 
 the old supremacy of England if Edward IV. would assist 
 him, and make his nominal title a reality. After a rather 
 adventurous life he went over to France. His antece- 
 dents did not in the least prejudice the tolerant heart of 
 Louis XL against him ; on the contrary, he was a man 
 very much after that monarch's own heart. He acquired 
 great lordships in France, and thoroughly assimilated 
 himself to the Continental system. He married Anne de 
 la Tour, daughter of the Count of Auvergne and Bou- 
 logne, of a half-princely family, which became afterwards 
 conspicuous by producing Marshal Turenne, and at a 
 later period the eccentric grenadier, Latour d' Auvergne, 
 who, in homage to republican principles, would not leave 
 the subaltern ranks in Napoleon's army, and became 
 more conspicuous by remaining there than many who 
 escaped from that level to acquire wealth and power. 
 
 The sister of Anne de la Tour married Lorenzo de 
 Medici, Duke of Urbino. From this connection Albany 
 was the uncle of Catherine de Medici, the renowned 
 
48 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Queen of France, and, in fact, was that nearest relation, 
 who, as folks used to say in this country, "gave her 
 away " to Henry II. On this occasion he got a cardinal's 
 hat for Philip de la Chambre, his mother's son by a 
 second marriage. He lived thoroughly in the midst of 
 the Continental royalties of the day, and had the sort of 
 repute among them that may be acquired by a man of 
 great influence and connection, whose capacity has never 
 been tried by any piece of critical business a repute that 
 comes to persons in a certain position by a sort of process 
 of gravitation. Brave he seems to have been, like all his 
 race, and he sometimes held even important commands. 
 He accompanied his friend, Francis I., in his unfortunate 
 raid into Italy in 1525, and was fortunately and honour- 
 ably clear of that bad business, the battle of Pavia, by 
 being then in command of a detachment sent against 
 Naples. His son, a thorough Frenchman, became after- 
 wards regent of Scotland ; but though he acted in the way 
 of legitimate business, he was not, as we shall find, a much 
 better friend to his country than his father had been. 
 Well scolded as they have been through all legitimate 
 history, it has been the fortune of M. Michel to show 
 that to the Albanys Scotland owes a boon which would 
 have gone far to retrieve their character a century ago 
 the use of and taste for French wines. This specialty as a 
 national taste is not even yet dead ; for every Englishman 
 who gets at good tables in Scotland, remarks on the pref- 
 erence for the French wines over those of Spain and Por- 
 tugal, although, until the other day, the duties, which in 
 old Scotland had been greatly in their favour, were rather 
 against the French. The following details about the 
 commerce of the Scots in France seem interesting. 
 
 " During his residence in France, the Duke of Albany 
 occupied himself actively, as it would appear, in favour 
 of the Scotch merchants trading in our country, all the 
 more that they were undoubtedly commissioned by the 
 nobility. His efforts were crowned with success; and 
 Francis I. gave at Amboise, in the month of May 1518, 
 an order to free these foreigners from the dues to which 
 foreign merchandise was subjected at Dieppe, the usual 
 
WINE TRADE. 49 
 
 place of their disembarkation ; which, however, did not 
 prevent fresh demands on the part of Scotland some years 
 after. 
 
 "What commodities could the Scotch bring to our 
 country ? 
 
 " Probably the same which they sent to Flanders, and 
 of which we have a list in the great book of Andrew 
 Halyburton, one of the first merchants of his time, who 
 filled the high office of Conservator of the Privileges of 
 the Scottish Nation in the Low Countries or, as we 
 should now say, Scottish Consul at Middleburg. There 
 was, in the first place, salmon, which came even to the 
 inland towns, such as Reims, where a municipal order of 
 1380 regulated the sale of it; then herrings, cod, and 
 other fish, for the common people ; lastly, wool, leather, 
 and skins. 
 
 "Afterwards this catalogue increased so much that 
 a rhymer of the seventeenth century could say to a 
 courtier 
 
 ' Tury, vous quittez done la cour, 
 Pour vous jeter dans le negoce : 
 Ce n'est plus celui de 1' amour, 
 Mais celui d'Espagne ou d'Escosse.' 
 
 Spain and Scotland, it seems, were the countries in which 
 commerce was most lucrative, as there also seems reason 
 to believe that the Spaniards and the Scotch were the 
 foreigners best known in France, when we find another 
 poet make an actor say 
 
 'Je passe quand je veux, bien que je sois Fran9ais, 
 Tantot pour Espagnol, tantot pour Escossois. ' 
 
 " In exchange for the goods which they brought us, the 
 Scotch received from us the products of a more advanced 
 civilisation, not only by regular commerce, but by dip- 
 lomacy, the agents of which, as it seems, had the privi- 
 lege of bringing in goods free of tax. On the 8th May 
 1586, Henry III. wrote to M. de Chateauneuf, his am- 
 bassador at the Court of Elizabeth : ' I beg of you also to 
 mention to her the depredation which some of her sub- 
 jects have committed near Dieppe on a Scotch vessel, 
 
 D 
 
50 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 which was returning to Scotland, in which there were, to 
 the value of sixteen hundred crowns, wines, silken cloths, 
 sugar, spices, and other things which the said Sire Esneval 
 had caused to be purchased, and was having carried for 
 his use into Scotland, by one of his people named Captain 
 James. They had the cruelty to remove the sails of the 
 said vessel, and to leave it and also another Scotch vessel 
 at the mercy of the wind and sea ; but God helped them 
 so much that they were thrown upon the coast by the 
 reflux of the tide there, where they were known and suc- 
 coured.' 
 
 " The place occupied by wines in this enumeration of 
 goods destined for Scotland shows the importance of the 
 consumption of them by our allies in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. Even in the thirteenth, Henri d'Andeli describes 
 the Scotch and some other Northern nations as drinking 
 abundantly of the wines of La Rochelle ; and in the 
 following century Froissart shows us their ships coming 
 into the port of Bordeaux to load with wine, at the risk 
 of being captured in going out of the river, as happened 
 under rather singular circumstances related by Cleirac, 
 who supposes the master of a Scotch vessel, laden with 
 wine for Calais, in connivance with Turkish pirates. A 
 letter of James IV. to the first president of the parliament 
 of Bordeaux recommending to him the affair of his sub- 
 ject George Wallace, master of the ship Volant, seized 
 for theft imputed to Robert Gardiner and Duncan 
 Campbell tells us that in 1518 the Scotch continued 
 to come in quest of our wines, and did not always behave 
 themselves in an exemplary manner. 
 
 "We know by President de Thou, that in his time, 
 towards the end of the sixteenth century, Scotch wine- 
 merchants came annually to Bordeaux; and we have a 
 decree of the Council of State of the $d June 1604, 
 granting indemnification of 18,000 livres to John Anderson 
 and John Williamson, Scotch merchants, from whom they 
 had confiscated two hundred tuns of wine at Havre." * 
 
 The Darnley branch of the Stewarts had a destiny in 
 
 1 Michel, i. 357'36i. 
 
THE DARNLEY STEWARTS. 51 
 
 France which belongs to European history. Sir John 
 Stewart of Darnley was one of Buchan's heroes, and 
 fought at Baugd and Crevant, where he was wounded 
 and taken. He was exchanged for the Earl of Suffolk's 
 brother, Lord Pole. He was rewarded with the lands 
 and lordships of Aubigny, Concressault, and Evereux, 
 with the privilege of quartering the arms of France on his 
 achievement. In 1427 he visited his own poor country 
 in great state, with no less a function than that of 
 ambassador from the Court of France. His mission 
 was to negotiate a marriage between Louis the Dauphin 
 and Margaret of Scotland. A year afterwards he and his 
 brother were both killed in battle before Orleans, and 
 were laid together in the cathedral of that memorable 
 city. John Stewart's representatives merged all their 
 other titles in that of Lennox, which his marriage brought 
 to the family. The fifth in descent from him, Matthew 
 Earl of Lennox, who succeeded to the title in 1526, 
 served under the French banner in the Italian wars, and 
 though he hardly reached historic fame, is recorded in 
 the books of genealogy as that respectable personage " a 
 distinguished officer." Coming to Scotland in all his 
 foreign finery, he made love to Mary of Guise, the widow 
 of James V., a pursuit in which, by the oddest of all 
 coincidents, he was the rival of the father of that Bothwell 
 who settled all questions of small family differences by 
 blowing his son into the air. This Lennox achieved, as 
 every one knows, a more fruitful alliance with royalty 
 through a daughter of Margaret, the sister of Henry 
 VIII. 
 
 Returning to Sir Alexander Stewart, we find that his 
 second son, John, founded a great house in France. The 
 titles of John's son and representative, Bernard, were, 
 " Viceroy of Naples, Constable of Sicily and Jerusalem, 
 Duke of Terra Nova, Marquis of Girace and Squillazo, 
 Count of Beaumont, D'Arcy, and Venassac, Lord of 
 Aubigny, and Governor of Melun." 1 He commanded 
 the army of Charles VIII. which invaded Naples, and 
 
 1 Douglas's 'Peerage,' ii. 93. 
 
52 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 gained the victory of Seminara, an achievement which 
 Sismondi thus describes : 
 
 " D'Aubigny, who commanded in Calabria, resolved to 
 arrest the progress which King Ferdinand was making in 
 his territories, seconded by Gonzalvo of Cordova ; and 
 although he could not collect more than 400 mounted 
 men-at-arms, twice the number of light cavalry, and a 
 small body of Swiss infantry, he crossed the river between 
 Terra Nova and Seminara before the enemy, and attacked 
 them on the opposite bank, although their number was at 
 least three times as great as his. The Calabrians, who had 
 forced Ferdinand and Gonzalvo to accept the battle, did 
 not wait for the first attack, but fled as soon as they saw 
 the French advance. Ferdinand would have been taken 
 had not John of Altavilla given him his horse, at the 
 sacrifice of his own life : he was killed shortly after. 
 Gonzalvo, Hugh of Cordova, Emmanuel Benavides, Peter 
 de la Paz, Spanish captains who all, at a later period, 
 became famous at the expense of the French, would have 
 been taken prisoners the following night in Seminara, if 
 D'Aubigny, who was enfeebled by the Calabrian fevers, 
 and sick all the time during which he was fighting, had 
 been able to attack that town immediately. The gates 
 were opened to him the next day." * 
 
 Seven years later he was overpowered by numbers, and 
 had to capitulate on the same spot; so that there is 
 occasional confusion in history about the battle of Semin- 
 ara, which is sometimes spoken of as a victory by, and 
 sometimes as a defeat of, the French. Between these 
 two conflicts there were many gallant feats of which he 
 was the hero ; and he was as renowned for gentleness as 
 for bravery. He was the companion of Bayard, and his 
 rival in fame as a chivalrous soldier. 2 He died at Cor- 
 storphine, near Edinburgh. One of the recumbent stone 
 figures in the picturesque little Gothic church of that 
 village is reputed by tradition to represent the great Lord 
 
 1 Sismondi, ' Hist, des Frar^ois, ' ch. xxvi. 
 
 f " Le Sire d'Aubigny dont la loyaute etoit celebree dans tout le 
 royaume de Naples." Sismondi, ch. xxix. 
 
DUCHY OF TOURAINE GIVEN TO DOUGLAS. 53 
 
 of Aubigny, Marischal of France ; but heraldry does not 
 confirm this. 
 
 Next to the royal family of Scotland in France were the 
 houses of Hamilton and of Douglas, who at times almost 
 rivalled them at home. The French dukedom of Chatel- 
 herault is a name almost as familiar in history as the 
 home title of the Hamiltons. By the side of the Scottish 
 Constable of France rode a countryman scarcely less 
 powerful the lord of the vast province of Touraine, 
 which had been conferred on the gallant Douglas. It 
 may interest some people to read an official contempor- 
 ary account of the pomps and ceremonies, as also of the 
 state of public feeling, which accompanied the investiture 
 of the territory in its new lord. It is clear from this 
 document that the people of Touraine took with signal 
 equanimity the appointment of a foreigner from a distant 
 land to rule over them. 
 
 " Four days after the date of the letters -patent, the 
 news of the change which they celebrated reached Tours. 
 Several ecclesiastics, burghers, and inhabitants assembled 
 in alarm in the presence of Jehan Simon, lieutenant of 
 the Bailli of Touraine, William d'Avaugour, and charged 
 Jehan Sain tier, one of their representatives, and Jehan 
 Gamier, King's Sergeant, to go to Bourges, to William 
 de Luce, Bishop of Maillezais, and to the Bailli, to learn 
 whether the King intended to give and had actually given 
 the Duchy of Touraine to the Earl of Douglas, of the 
 country of Scotland ; and, if it was true, to beg of them 
 to advise the said churchmen, burgesses, and inhabitants, 
 what course they ought to pursue, and what was to be 
 done in the circumstances, for the honour and advantage 
 of this town of Tours and country of Touraine. 
 
 " The which Jehan Saintier and Gamier brought back 
 for answer, that the said nobles above mentioned said to 
 them that it was true that the King has given the said 
 Duchy of Touraine to the said Earl of Douglas, and that 
 they should not be at all alarmed at it, and that the people 
 of the said Tours and country of Touraine will be very 
 gently and peaceably governed; and that before the said 
 Earl of Douglas shall have, or shall go to take possession 
 
54 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 of, the said Duchy, the King will send letters to the said 
 churchmen, burgesses, and inhabitants, and each of his 
 officers commissioned to make over to him the said pos- 
 session, and that my Lord Chancellor and the said Bailli 
 would in a short time be in the said town, the which 
 would tell them at greater length what they had to do in 
 the circumstances, and the causes by which the King had 
 been moved to give him the said Duchy ; and also the 
 said Saintier and Gamier brought the copy of the letter 
 of gift of the said Duchy to the said Earl. 
 
 "As soon as they knew at Tours that the King had 
 given the Earl of Douglas the Duchy of Touraine, and 
 that the new Duke was preparing to set out to take pos- 
 session of it, they assembled at the Hotel de Ville to 
 consider whether they would go to meet this stranger, 
 and whether they would make him the customary pres- 
 ents, which consisted of six pipes, that is twelve barrels, 
 of wine, six measures of oats, fifty sheep, four fat oxen, 
 and a hundred pounds of wax in torches. 
 
 " They deputed two churchmen and four of the most 
 considerable citizens to go to Loches to compliment the 
 Duke in name of the town, ad they formed a company 
 of mounted burghers to go to meet him. Having found 
 him at a certain distance from the town, it accom- 
 panied him till his arrival at Tours, into which he made 
 his entry on the 7th of May, by the gate of Notre Dame 
 la Riche. There he was received by the four represen- 
 tatives of the town, and by all the burgesses, in arms. 
 Martin d'Argouges, principal representative, spoke on 
 presenting him the keys, and begged of him to maintain 
 the inhabitants in their privileges, franchises, and liber- 
 ties. The Duke promised, and the representatives took 
 note of his consent, by three notaries, whom they had 
 brought for the purpose. The Duke having then taken 
 the keys, restored them immediately to the first represen- 
 tative. Then he entered the town, where he was received 
 by the people with acclamation. The streets were hung 
 with tapestry and strewed with flowers. He went straight 
 to the cathedral, at the great door of which he found the 
 archbishop and all the canons in canonicals. The dean 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 55 
 
 presented to him a surplice, an amice, and a breviary. 
 The Duke, having taken the oaths at his hands, was 
 received as a canon, and installed in the choir in pres- 
 ence of Louis of Bourbon, Count of Vendome, grand 
 chamberlain of France ; of John of Bourbon, his brother, 
 Prince of Carency; of Francis of Grigneux; and of 
 several other noblemen. Next day he went to the 
 church of St Martin, where he was similarly received as 
 honorary canon. After these ceremonies he established 
 his cousin, Adam Douglas, governor of the town and 
 castle of Tours, according to his letters of the 27th May. 
 The inhabitants, after deliberation by their representa- 
 tives, made a present to the new governor of two pipes of 
 wine and a measure of oats." l 
 
 So ends the history of the public inauguration of 
 Douglas in his Duchy of Touraine, the extent of which 
 one may see by looking at any old map of France in 
 Provinces. Another ceremony, however, awaited him 
 ere long. He paid for his honours with his gallant blood. 
 He and the Constable Buchan were laid down together 
 in one grave in the chancel of the cathedral church of 
 Tours, the capital of his domain. 
 
 Passing from the great houses which were royal, or 
 nearly so, the researches of M. Michel have brought out 
 a vast number of Scotsmen of the more obscure families, 
 whose condition was materially improved, to say the least 
 of it, by migration to La Belle France. Conspicuous for 
 his good fortune among those who had reason to lament 
 the kindly King Charles VII., was Nicholas Chambers, 
 e'cuyer d'ecurie du roi, who, in 1444, obtained the seig- 
 neury of Guerche, in Touraine, the district of the 
 Douglases. Then follow certain Coninglants, Coigans, 
 Coningans, Cogingands, and Conyghans, clustered to- 
 gether as variations on Cunningham ; to these are set 
 down certain gallant achievements, escapes, and fatalities, 
 but nothing very specific for the genealogist, until one of 
 them is run to earth in acquiring the lands of Arcenay, in 
 
 1 Extrait des Deliberations Municipals de la Ville de Tours- 
 Michel, i. 139. 
 
56 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Burgundy, by union with the heiress, Martha of Louvois. 
 After this the family is traced through many distinguished 
 members to the first Revolution, when it disappears ; but 
 it reappeared, it seems, in 1814, and is supposed still to 
 exist. 
 
 In tracing the alliances of the Lords of Arcenay, another 
 Scots family of like origin turns up in the marriage of one 
 of them to Marguerite de Humes, daughter of Jean de 
 Humes, Seigneur de Cherisy. This Jean's mother was 
 the daughter of a Guillaume Stuart, supposed to be of 
 Scots origin ; and his grandmother, before her marriage 
 to his grandfather Humes, had been the widow of a 
 George de Ramsay, " probablement Ecossais lui-meme," 
 as M. Michel says. 
 
 Next come the Quinemonts or Kinninmonds, also 
 established in Burgundy and Touraine. Their estate in 
 Touraine alone may stand as a sample of the lists, long 
 to tediousness, of the domains attached to the names 
 of Scots families by the French heralds. They were 
 Seigneurs "de Saint-Senoch, de la Roche-Aymer, de 
 Varennes, des Cantelleries, de Bauge, de la Guenerie, de 
 la Houssiere, de Vauguerin, de Paviers," &c. 
 
 Next in order comes La Famille Gohory. To them 
 L'Hermite-Souliers dedicates a chapter of his * History of 
 the Nobility of Touraine,' wherein he derives them from 
 the Gori of Florence ; but M. Michel triumphantly 
 restores them to their true distinction as Scots Gorrys 
 or Gowries. 1 Among the noble houses of Touraine, 
 follows that of Helye Preston de la Roche Preston, 
 married to Dame Eleanor Desquartes, eminent in its 
 
 1 Perhaps Goreeus may be a variation of the same name, but this 
 is merely a guess. Johannes Gorseus, a celebrated physician in 
 Paris, left a posthumous work, published at Frankfort in 1578, 
 called ' Definitionum Medicarum Libri xxiiii.' It is in the form of 
 a dictionary, the heads under which each matter is treated having 
 the peculiarity of being in Greek. It professes to deal with all 
 knowledge connected with medicine, but medicine at that time 
 was discursive over all nature ; and, in fact, the book which 
 is a bulky folio may be considered one of the earliest scientific 
 cyclopaedias. 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. $? 
 
 own province from its nobility, and illustrious as the 
 stock of the great Descartes. It is questioned whether 
 the husband was a son of Edward Preston, who took to 
 wife Pregente d'Erian, or of Laurent Preston, married to 
 another daughter of the same house. These Erians seem 
 to have had a decided partiality for the bonny Scots, 
 since the widow of Edward Preston married the Seigneur 
 of Ponceau and La Menegauderie, who, having been an 
 archer of the Scots Guard under the name of De Glais, 
 is with reasonable probability supposed to have been a 
 Douglas from Scotland ; while another daughter is allied 
 to the Seigneur de la Guenaudiere, named Maurigon, 
 supposed to be a form of Morrison. There are still 
 among other branches of the D'Erian race "plusieurs 
 alliances avec des gentilshommes Ecossais de la garde 
 du roi." One falls to Guillaume Dromont or Drummond, 
 another to Guillaume le Vincton the nearest approach 
 which French spelling and pronunciation can make to 
 Swinton, though one might think it more akin to Living- 
 ston. Another is destined to Henri de Crafort or Crau- 
 furd, Sieur de Longchamp et de la Voyerie. 
 
 Passing from the husbands of the D'Erians, the next 
 Scot endowed by marriage is Andre* Gray, a name that 
 speaks for itself. There are two noble archers of the 
 Guard called Bourtic probably they were Bourties, the 
 difference being a clerical error rather than a corruption ; 
 and these are followed by a group of distinguished 
 Livingstons converted into Levistons. 
 
 Passing into Champagne, we have the coats armorial 
 and some genealogical particulars of the houses of Berey, 
 D'Handresson, Locart, Tournebulle, and Montcrif the 
 origin of these is obvious. The last was probably an 
 ancestor of that Moncriif who shines so brilliantly among 
 the wits of the Grimm and Diderot school one of the 
 forty immortals of the Academy, and a popular dramatist. 
 The next name does not so obviously belong to us Val- 
 Dampierre and one can only take M. Michel's word for 
 it. It may perhaps be resolved into its familiar original 
 by a process such as that applied to its owner's neighbour 
 as a great territorial lord in the land of vineyards namely, 
 
58 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 the Sieur Devillengon. When we go back a step to 
 Vullengon, and then to Villamson, something not un- 
 familiar dawns upon us, and at last we are landed in the 
 homely surname of Williamson very respectable in many 
 instances, but distinguished among ourselves by no greater 
 celebrity than that of poor Peter Williamson, who was 
 kidnapped and sold as a slave in the plantations, whence 
 he escaped to tell his adventures to the world. 
 
 It is quite delightful to see how this ordinary plant 
 flourishes and blooms in Champagne. According to tra- 
 ditions of the family, collected by La Chenaye-Desbois, 
 Thomas Williamson, second of the name, archer of the 
 Guard in the reign of Charles VIII., was allied to the 
 royal house of Stewart. This may be true, but it was a 
 current mot among the French of old that every Scotsman 
 was cousin to the king. Whatever they may have been, 
 however, the Williamsons or D'Oillengons, with many ter- 
 ritorial branches, clustered round "les terres de Saint- 
 German-Langot, de Lonlai-le-Tesson, et de la Nocherie." 
 They preserved their highly characteristic native motto, 
 "Venture and win," which had, no doubt, been their 
 guiding principle from generation to generation. Their 
 blazon, too, is ambitious, and strange to behold: a 
 double-headed eagle, like the Austrian, grasping in its 
 claws something like a small beer -barrel ; in scientific 
 language a spread eagle argent, membered and beaked, 
 poised on a casquet of the same, hooped argent 
 
 It would be easy to cull similar particulars about the 
 house of Maxuel; Herisson or Henryson, metamorphosing 
 itself into D' Arson ; Doddes or Dods ; Estud from Stud, 
 a name now scarcely known among us; the De Lisles, 
 viscounts of Fussy, who are identified with our northern 
 Leslies; Vaucoys, which is identified with Vauxe or 
 Vans ; Lawson, which turns itself into De Lauzun ; 
 D'Espences or Spences, who further decorate their simple 
 native surnames with the territorial titles, De Nettancourt, 
 de Bettancourt, de Vroil and de Villiers-le-Sec, de 
 Launoy-Renault, de Pomblain, de Ville Franche, de St 
 Sever, and many others. Surely the Spences, left behind 
 in cloudy, sterile Scotland, ploughing sour moorlands, or 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 59 
 
 drawing meagre profits from the retail counter behind the 
 half-door of the burgh town, would have found it hard to 
 recognise their foreign cousins fluttering thus among the 
 brilliant noblesse of sunny France. 
 
 The changes, indeed, which our harsh, angular sur- 
 names undergo to suit them to the lazy liquid flow of the 
 French utterance, are such as to give tough and tantalising 
 work to the genealogical investigator ; and it is difficult 
 to appreciate the industry which M. Michel has bestowed 
 in the excavation of separate families and names from the 
 great mass of French genealogical history. We all know 
 the lubricity of the French language at this day in the 
 matter of names, and how difficult it is to recognise the 
 syllables of one's own name even where it is read off from 
 one's own visiting-card, if the reader be a Frenchman. 
 Such a name as Halliday is easily reclaimable, even 
 though its owner may flame in the territorial patronymic 
 of Vicomte de Pontaudemer. Folcart and Le Clerk are 
 resolvable into Flockhart and Clerk. In deriving D'Ang- 
 lars from Inglis, however, as others have done, M. Michel 
 acknowledges that the circuit is considerable, if not im- 
 practicable : " La distance nous parait trop grande pour 
 qu'un rapprochement soit possible." The name of Wil- 
 liam Stuyers, too, puts him at defiance, although in an 
 old writ he is mentioned as an officer of the Guard, and 
 designed a "natif du royaume d'Escosse." Sinson is, 
 without much stretching, traced to Simpson. The name 
 Blair appears in its native simplicity, only attaching itself 
 to the titles Fayolles and L'Estrange, in preference to the 
 territorial titles of Pittendriech or Balthayock enjoyed 
 by the most eminent members of the house in Scotland. 
 Wauchop transposes itself into Vaucop and Vulcob. Per- 
 haps, however, the respectable but not dignified name of 
 Monypenny owes the greatest obligation to change of 
 climate. Even in its own original shape, when trans- 
 ferred to a country where it does not signify a large store 
 of copper coinage, it floats down the mellifluous flood of 
 the noblesse quite naturally in company with the territo- 
 rial titles of Varennes and Concressant ; but when altered 
 into Menypeny, it might return home, as indeed it did, 
 
6O THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 in the possession of a French ambassador, without risk 
 of detection. The change is but slight, and shows how 
 much may be accomplished by the mere alteration of a 
 letter in removing vulgar and sordid associations. 
 
 Another remarkable type of the Scots emigrant families 
 is that of Blackwood. It suffers little more by transfer- 
 ence than the necessary remedy for the want of the w, in 
 which it partakes with the royal house of Stewart. The 
 French Blackwoods were of the later Scots emigrants 
 fleeing from the Reformation, and their rewards in the 
 country of their adoption were rather from offices than 
 from lands. It would be difficult to find the distinction 
 between the territorial aristocracy and the noblesse of the 
 Robe better exemplified than in comparing the fortunes 
 of the Blackwoods with those of the other families just 
 spoken of. Adam Blackwood, the head of the house, 
 held a judicial office which gave him the title of Conseiller 
 au siege de Poitiers. His grandfather fell at Flodden. 
 His father had been killed in the wars of Henry VIII., 
 probably at Pinkie, when he was ten years old, and his 
 mother died soon after, a widow broken hearted. The 
 boy, tended by relations whose religion gave them more 
 influence in other countries than at home, was sent early 
 abroad. He became a thorough Frenchman, studying 
 at Paris, and spending his days at Poitiers. He was a 
 champion of the old Church and the divine right of 
 kings, and wrote with the controversial vehemence of the 
 age against the opinions promulgated by Buchanan in his 
 ' De Jure Regni apud Scotos.' But that for which he 
 chiefly claims remembrance is his ' Martyre de la Royne 
 d'Escosse, Douairiere de France,' &c., with an account of 
 the "mensonges, calomnies, et faulses accusations dressees 
 centre ceste tresvertueuse, trescatholique et tresillustre 
 princesse." It is most easily to be found in the reprint 
 of tracts on Queen Mary, by Jebb. Blackwood hit the 
 key-note of that kind of chivalrous rejection of sublunary 
 testimony, and deification of the accused, which have 
 characterised the subsequent vindicators of Queen Mary's 
 innocence ; and there is in his resolute singleness of pur- 
 pose, and energy of championship, the charm which, 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 6 1 
 
 when one can forget the facts, pervades the writings of 
 this class. Blackwood married Catherine Courtinier, 
 daughter of the Procureur du Roi of Poitiers. She bore 
 to him four sons and seven daughters a progeny so ab- 
 normal in France, that it induces M. Michel to express 
 admiration at his continuing the pursuit of letters, " malgre' 
 ses devoirs de magistral, d'e'poux, et de pere." He pub- 
 lished a collection of pious meditations in prose and 
 verse, of which M. Michel tells us that, paying a visit to 
 London, where he was presented at Court, King James 
 showed him a copy of his ' Meditations ' in the royal 
 library. One of Blackwood's sons became a judge at 
 Poitiers. His son-in-law, George Crichton, was professor 
 of Greek "au colle'ge de France." His brother Henry 
 taught philosophy in the University of Paris ; another 
 brother, George, "fit un chemin assez brillant dans 
 1'eglise de France." 
 
 This was a method of enrichment which could not give 
 a territorial hold to a family ; and whether it was from a 
 distaste towards acquisitions which could not be made 
 hereditary, or to difficulties in the way of a foreigner 
 rising in the Church, it is observable that the ecclesiastical 
 is the department in which the Scots took the least portion 
 of the good things going in France. Yet some of them 
 drew considerable temporal prizes in the profession which 
 deals with our eternal destiny. A certain priest named 
 John Kirkmichael, or Carmichael, seems to have had an 
 eventful history, of which but the outline remains. As he 
 is said to have escaped from the carnage of Verneuil, it 
 is to be presumed that he fought there, and was not in 
 orders. But he afterwards became Bishop of Orleans, 
 and is known in French ecclesiastical history as Jean de 
 St Michel. It is a question whether it is he who estab- 
 lished in his cathedral church the messe bcossaise for his 
 countrymen slain at Verneuil. The great Cardinal Beaton, 
 Bishop of Mirepaux, was an ecclesiastical prince in France, 
 whence great portion of his lustre was reflected on his 
 own poor country. His nephew James, a far worthier 
 man, had a different career, spending his old age in peace 
 among his French endowments, instead of coming home 
 
62 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 to fall in the wild contests of his native land. He was 
 employed as Queen Mary's ambassador in France, and 
 continued ever faithful to her cause. He saw, as the 
 shadow of the change of rule and religion in his own 
 country, a like change come over the fortunes of the Scot 
 in France. His countrymen were now no longer adven- 
 turers seeking the region best fitted for pushing their for- 
 tunes, but poor refugees seeking bread or a place of 
 hiding and refuge. Yet a gleam of patriotic feeling came 
 over the old man when he heard from his retirement that 
 the son of his old mistress heretic though he was had 
 succeeded to the broad empire of Britain ; and he caused 
 fire on the occasion certain feux de joie at St Jean de 
 Lateran. 
 
 Several of the Kennedys, predominant among the 
 hard-fighting clans near the Border, obtained distinctions 
 in France, where the sharp contour of their name was 
 smoothened into Cenedy. Thomas de Houston is pleased 
 to accept from Louis XI. the seigneury of Torcy in Brie, 
 in place of the ch&tellenie of Gournay, which he resigns. 
 Robert Pittilloch, a Dundee man, seems to have first 
 entered the service in the humblest rank, and to have 
 worked his way up to be captain of the Guard, and to 
 enjoy the nickname of Petit Roi de Gascogne, along with 
 a more substantial reward in the lordships of Sauveterre. 
 One could go on at great length with such an enumera- 
 tion, but it is apt to be tiresome. This is not intended 
 as a work of reference or a compendium of useful know- 
 ledge, and I must refer the reader who, either for histori- 
 cal or genealogical purposes, wishes to find all that is 
 known about the settlements of the Scots families in 
 France, to go to M. Michel's book. 
 
 The names and titles thus casually brought together, 
 will serve to show how thoroughly reviving France was 
 impregnated with good Scots blood. The thorough 
 French aristocratic ton characterising the numerous ter- 
 ritorial titles enjoyed by the adventurers, may strike one 
 who meets the whole affair for the first time as mightily 
 resembling the flimsy titles by which men of pretension 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 63 
 
 beyond their caste try to pass themselves off for some- 
 bodies. But everything about these Scots was real and 
 substantial, in as far as the fortunes they achieved were 
 the fruit of their courage and counsel, their energy and 
 learning. The terrible slaughter among the French aris- 
 tocracy in the English battles made vacancies which 
 came aptly to hand for the benefit of the enterprising 
 strangers, and of course they could not do otherwise 
 than adopt the custom of the country, with its complex 
 system of territorial titles, in which men's proper names 
 got swamped and buried, in so far that half-a-dozen 
 Frenchmen, all brothers born of the same father and 
 mother, will be commemorated under names totally 
 distinct. 
 
 It was during the Hundred Years' War that this colony, 
 as it might almost be termed, of Scots settled in France. 
 The affair bears a striking resemblance to the influx of 
 Northmen, or Normans, five hundred years earlier, with 
 this grand distinction, that these came as enemies and 
 depredators, seizing upon their prey, while the Scots 
 came as friends and champions, to be thankfully re- 
 warded. The great similarity of the two migrations is 
 in the readiness with which both sets of men settled 
 down, assimilating themselves with the people. The 
 assimilation, however, was not that of slave or follower 
 in the land of adoption not even that of equal, but 
 partook of leadership and guidance. Both were received 
 as a sort of aristocracy by race and caste ; and hence it 
 came to be a common practice for those who were at a 
 loss for a pedigree to find their way to some adventurous 
 Scot, and stop there, just as both in France and England 
 it was sufficient to say that one's ancestors came in with 
 the Normans. 
 
 Colbert, who has left his mark on history as the most 
 powerful of financiers, when he became great, got the 
 genealogists to trace his family back to the Scots, as 
 many a man in England, on rising to distinction, has 
 spanned over intervening obscurities and attached his 
 pedigree to a follower of the Norman. The inscription, 
 
64 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 indeed, on his Scottish ancestor's tomb will be found in 
 Moreri 
 
 " En Escosse j'eus le berceau, 
 
 Et Rheims m'a donne le tombeau." 
 
 Moliere professed Scots descent, to cover, as the in- 
 vidious maintained, the vulgarity of the sound of his 
 paternal name of Poquelin. A mystery worth clearing 
 up surrounds a suggestion sometimes made about the 
 great Sully, that he professed relationship with the 
 Beatons of Scotland to bring him rank. What makes 
 such hints appear rather invidious is, that he claimed 
 for his own family of Bethune a lustre which could get 
 no aid from Scotland. He arrogated descent for it from 
 the house of Austria, and specifically warned the public 
 against the supposition that he meant the existing im- 
 perial house of Hapsburg, whose ancestors were but 
 private gentlemen a century or two ago his ancestors 
 were of the old reigning house. There seems, however, 
 to have been some hitch in his pedigree ; for, in the 
 notes to the common editions of his memoirs, allusion 
 is made to a process "unjustly" disputing his right to 
 bear the name of Bethune, in which a writer on his side 
 mentions his connection with the Beatons of Scotland ; l 
 and M. Michel cites from a standard genealogical and 
 heraldic authority the dictum that the Bethunes were of 
 Scottish origin. 2 So little, by the way, did Sully know 
 
 1 Memoirs, book vi. 
 
 2 "Bethun, originaire d'Ecosse, mais etabli en France: ecartele, 
 au I et 4 d'argent, a la fasce de gueules, accompagnee de trois macles 
 de meme ; au 2 et 3 d'or, au chevron de sable, charge en chef d'une 
 hure de sanglier d'argent. " From Saint Allais, ' Armorial General 
 des Families Nobles de France' (Michel, ii. 136). To the accom- 
 plished herald there will be much suggestive both in the identities and 
 the marks of difference between this blazon and that of the head of the 
 Scots family of Beaton : " Quarterly, I and 4 azure, a fesse between 
 three mascles or ; 2 and 3 argent, on a chevron sable an otter's head 
 erased of the first." Nisbet's 'Heraldry,' i. 210. The mascle, by 
 the way, is supposed to be a peculiarly French symbol, being taken 
 from a kind of flint found in Bretagne. Nisbet remarks that it had 
 been sometimes mistaken for the lozenge. 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 65 
 
 of the geographical relations of the archbishop, that he 
 speaks of his diocese of Glasgow as a place in Ireland. 
 
 To return to the comparison with the Normans. Sir 
 Francis Palgrave set all his learning to work with sedu- 
 lous diligence to find out some of the antecedents, in 
 their own northern land, of the illustrious houses of 
 Normandy and England, but without success ; all was 
 utter darkness, as if one had passed from the unsetting 
 sun into the arctic winter. The failure was more in- 
 structive than many a success. It showed emphatically 
 how those brilliant adventurers, the Frenchest of the 
 French, had cast their chrysalis when they spread their 
 wings in the new land of their adoption. And some- 
 what similar it seems to have been with our Scots, who 
 at once take their place with all proper national charac- 
 teristics in the fastidious aristocracy of the most polished 
 people in the world, preserving no traces of the influence 
 of their native bogs and heaths and hard upbringing, and 
 equally hard uncouth phraseology. 
 
 On one point, however, the Scots must have differed 
 from their Scandinavian prototypes they must have 
 owned to pedigrees, whether fairly obtained or not. The 
 specialty of the Northmen, on the other hand, at the com- 
 mencement of their career, appears to have been to abjure 
 pedigree with all its vanities, and start as a new race in 
 competition with the old worn-out aristocratic Roman 
 world. The old world professed to despise the rough 
 barbarians of the new; but these gave scorn for scorn, 
 and stood absolutely on their strength, their daring, and 
 their marvellous capacity to govern men. It is among 
 the most singular of social and historical caprices, that 
 the highest source to which, in common estimation, a 
 family can be traced, is that which is sure to come to a 
 stop at no very distant date. Of families not Norman it 
 may be difficult to trace any pedigree beyond the era of 
 the Norman migrations; but of all Norman houses we 
 know that the pedigree stops there absolutely and on 
 principle. The illimitable superiority assumed over the 
 rugged adventurers by the great families of the old world 
 seems not to have rested so much on the specific pedigree 
 
66 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 of each, as on the fact that they were of the old world 
 that their roots were in the Roman empire that they 
 belonged to civilisation. But so utterly had the historical 
 conditions here referred to been inverted in popular opin- 
 ion, that it was usual to speak of the house of Hanover as 
 in some way inferior to the Stewarts, who, in reality, were 
 mere mushrooms beside the descendants of the Guelphs. 
 
 It would be too heavy a responsibility for the most 
 patriotic among us to guarantee the unexceptionable re- 
 spectability and good conduct of all those countrymen of 
 ours who built up their fortunes under the auspices of our 
 munificent ally. It would be especially perilous to guar- 
 antee that they all held that social position at home which 
 they asserted and maintained abroad. All the world 
 knows how difficult it is to adjust the equivalents of rank 
 between nations, and to transfer any person from one 
 social hierarchy into his exact place in another. There 
 are specialties social, hereditary, and official, to be dealt 
 with, some of them having nothing equivalent in the other 
 hierarchy, some with the same name, but a totally dif- 
 ferent meaning, others fictitious or casual in the one, 
 while they have a fixed, distinctive, even legal meaning in 
 the other. To interpret, but far oftener to confuse, these 
 difficult and distracting elements of identification, there 
 are the variations in etiquette, in domestic usage, in cos- 
 tume, in physical condition and appearance, which would 
 all teach towards a certain conclusion were men omnis- 
 cient and infallible, but lead rather to distraction and 
 blunder in the present state of our faculties. It was one 
 of Hajji Baba's sage observations, that in England the 
 great personages were stuck on the backs of the carriages, 
 while their slaves or followers were shut inside to prevent 
 their escape. How many people, supposing that, in a 
 solemn, bearded, turbaned, and robed Oriental, they have 
 had the honour of an interview with some one of princely 
 rank, have been disgusted with the discovery that they have 
 been doing the honours of society to a barber or a cook ! 
 
 There are some Eastern titles of mysterious grandeur 
 which are yet far from impressing the auditor with any 
 sense of dignity in their mere sound as, for instance, 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 6? 
 
 Baboo, Fudky, Maulvee, and the like. There is the 
 great Sakibobo, too, of tropical Africa ; how would his 
 title sound at a presentation ? and how can we translate 
 it into English? To come to Europe, what notion of 
 feudal greatness do we imbibe by hearing of the Captal of 
 Buch, the Vidam of Amiens, the Ban of Croatia, and the 
 Stavost of Olxstern? To come nearer home still, what 
 can Garter or Lyon make of the Captain of Clanranald, 
 the Knight of Kerry, The O'Grady, and The O'Donoghue? 
 Is it not on record that a great Highland potentate, hav- 
 ing in Paris presented a card bearing that he was Le 
 Chef de Clandonochie, was put in communication with 
 the chief of the culinary department of the hotel where 
 he visited ? Even some of the best established and most 
 respectable titles have difficulty in franking themselves 
 through all parts of the country. Has not an Archbishop 
 of York been suspected of imposture on presenting his 
 cheque on a Scotch bank with the signature of Eborac ? 
 and have not his countrymen had their revenge on the 
 Scots Judges and their wives, when Mrs Home travelled 
 in charge of Lord Kames, and Lord Auchinleck retired 
 with Mrs Boswell? We may see, in the totally different 
 uses of the same term, how subtle a thing titles are. The 
 Sheriff of Mecca, the Sheriff of London, and the Sheriff of 
 Lanarkshire, are three totally different sorts of personage, 
 and would be troubled how to act if they were to change 
 places with each other for a while. It is said to depend 
 on niceties in its use whether the Persian Mirza expresses 
 a Prince or a mere Mister. But, after all, where can we 
 go for a greater social puzzle within the compass of three 
 letters than in our own Sir, which is at once the distinctive 
 form of addressing royalty, the exclusive title of knight- 
 ship, the common term which every man gives another in 
 distant polite communication, and an especial form of ex- 
 pressing haughty contempt, when communications are not 
 intended to be polite ? 
 
 There being thus, in fact, in titles of all sorts, consider- 
 able room to come and go upon, it is probable that the 
 Scots adventurers made* the best of the very considerable 
 number of rather empty titles scattered over their barren 
 
68 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 acres. An instance of their assumption has been recorded 
 as a flagrancy. A certain Monteith of obscure origin 
 having got access to Richelieu, the Cardinal asked him 
 which family of Monteiths he belonged to. As the story 
 goes, remembering that his father was a fisherman on the 
 Forth, he said he was " Monteith de Salmonnet ; " and 
 the anecdote is verified by the existence of a solid folio 
 volume, first printed in French and afterwards translated 
 into English, being a history of the civil wars of Britain in 
 the seventeenth century, by Robert Monteith de Salmonet 
 a title as emphatic and distinct as that of the proudest 
 De Chateau Rouge or De la Tremouille. But even this 
 audacious case is not entirely beyond vindication. The 
 right to a cast of a net was a feudal privilege or servitude 
 inheritable by the head of the family, like any seignorial 
 right ; and, in a country where people spoke of the suc- 
 cession to the hereditary gardenership of the lordship of 
 Monteith, it was not necessarily an act of flagrant im- 
 position to make something dignified out of the piscatory 
 privilege. 
 
 The history of almost every man's rise in the world con- 
 sists of a succession of graspings and holdings of posi- 
 tions taken up timidly and uncertainly, and made by 
 degrees secure and durable. In the development of this 
 tendency, it will be the policy of the immigrant to find, 
 for any social title of a dubious or fugitive character 
 which he may enjoy in his own country, some seeming 
 equivalent, but of fixed character and established value, 
 in the land of his adoption. Scotland, with its mixed 
 and indefinite nomenclature of ranks, would thus afford 
 good opportunities for the ingenuous youth transferring 
 himself from his dubious home-rank into something more 
 specific in the symmetrical and scientifically adjusted 
 Court precedency of France. The practice of the Lairds 
 and Goodmen of presenting themselves by the territorial 
 names of their estates, with or without their family pat- 
 ronymics, gave an opportunity for rendering the posses- 
 sion something equivalent to the French De and the 
 German Von. The families that had lost their estates 
 adhered to the old title with the mournful pride of de- 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 69 
 
 posed monarchs. If these had often the sympathy of 
 their peculiar world with them, yet no one could, with a 
 shadow of justice, blame the actual possessors of the solid 
 acres for also claiming the honours attached to them. 
 John Law of Lauriston, who ruled France for a few 
 months with the capricious haughtiness of an Eastern 
 despot, among the many strange chances which led to his 
 giddy elevation, owed much to that which gave uniform- 
 ity and consistency to the others namely, that, although 
 he was an Edinburgh tradesman, his possession of a small 
 estate, happily named, in the neighbourhood of his busi- 
 ness, enabled him to take rank in the noblesse. History 
 affords one very flagrant case of the potent uses of the 
 territorial Of. In Galloway there long existed a worshipful 
 family called the Murrays of Broughton. They were not 
 ennobled by a peerage, but belonged to the opulent and 
 proud class of territorial aristocracy who often do not con- 
 sider the peerage any distinction, and so they were thor- 
 oughly entitled to consider themselves within the category 
 of noble in France and Germany. There happened also to 
 be a small croft or paddock on the wayside between Noble- 
 house and Dumfries called Broughton, and its owner, some 
 say its tenant only, being named Murray, took on himself 
 very naturally and fairly the style and title of Murray of 
 Broughton. Having found his uses in this title, he left it 
 dedicated to perpetual infamy ; for he it was who, having 
 incited poor Prince Charles Edward to the Scottish ex- 
 pedition, and by his zeal obtained the office of " Secretary 
 to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales," afterwards 
 used the information he had thus obtained to buy his 
 own personal safety, by bringing his companions in re- 
 bellion to the block. So thoroughly had his notoriety 
 impressed on the contemporary mind the notion of his 
 representing the old Galwegian house of Murray of 
 Broughton, that it is believed even by local antiquaries. 
 It will not do too rigidly to sift the pretensions by which 
 men, young, poor, obscure, and struggling, have sought 
 notice in early life, and found their way to honours and pos- 
 sessions which they have worthily and honourably enjoyed. 
 Imagination is strong and criticism weak in matters of 
 
7<D THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 genealogy ; and doubtless many of the adventurers who 
 planned and built their fortunes in France, as fully be- 
 lieved themselves cadets of the noblest family bearing 
 their name, as if they had carried with them the certifi- 
 cate of the Lyon Office. 
 
 Whatever social position the Scottish adventurer might 
 assume, there is little doubt that his claim to be some- 
 body would be pretty substantially maintained by the 
 proud reserve which naturally belongs to his race. We 
 can, in fact, see at the present day the qualities which 
 made the fortunes of these men. These qualities are now 
 exercised in another sphere in England, in the colonies, 
 and especially in our Indian empire, where Scotsmen are 
 continually rising from obscurity into eminence. On 
 the brow of the industrious crofter on the slopes of the 
 Grampians we may yet see the well-becoming pride and 
 self-respecting gravity that, in the fifteenth century, took 
 the honours and distinctions of France as a natural right. 
 Whence comes his pride ? He has no rank he is poor 
 and he is no representative of an illustrious house. No, 
 but he is founding a house. He rises up early, and late 
 takes rest, that his son may go to college and be a gen- 
 tleman ; and when he reads contemporary history in the 
 public press, he knows that the grandfather of the emi- 
 nent law lord, or of the great party leader, or of the illustri- 
 ous Eastern conqueror, whose name fills the ear of fame, 
 laboured like himself in the fields close at hand. 
 
 It may be surely counted not without significance 
 among ethnical phenomena, that though France has all 
 along shown in her language the predominance of the 
 Latin race, three infusions of northern blood had been 
 successively poured into the country ; first, the Franks 
 next, the Normans and lastly, the Scots. It seems not 
 unreasonable that these helped to communicate to the 
 vivacity and impetuosity of the original race those quali- 
 ties of enterprise and endurance which were needed to 
 make up the illustrious history of France. The more, 
 however, that the standard of national character was 
 raised by the new element, the more would it revolt at a 
 continued accession of foreign blood. A country, the 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 71 
 
 highest distinctions and offices of which were given by the 
 despotic monarch to strangers, to enable him to keep 
 down the native people, could not be sound at heart; 
 and one hails it as the appearance of a healthy tone of 
 nationality when murmurs arise against the aggrandising 
 strangers. 
 
 It was not, indeed, in human nature, either that the 
 French should not murmur at the distinctions and sub- 
 stantial rewards bestowed on the strangers, or that they 
 themselves should not become domineering and exacting. 
 M. Michel quotes some very suggestive murmurs of the 
 time, in which it is questioned whether the slaughter of 
 the Scots at Verneuil was not to be set down as a piece 
 of good fortune to France in breaking the power of a set 
 of masters likely to be more formidable even than the 
 English. 1 But of some of the characteristic blemishes of 
 a mercenary foreign force the Scots were free. They did 
 not go to France to act the mendicant or marauder, but 
 to be teachers and leaders; and the evil of their presence 
 was not that their wretchedness made them a nuisance, 
 but that their ambition and haughtiness made them a 
 reproach to the native French. Hence there were occa- 
 sional disagreeables and bickerings between the favoured 
 foreigners and the natives, especially when these began 
 to gain heart and recover from the abjectness they lay 
 under during the great war. The following is a little 
 incident connected with these affairs so very like the 
 beginning of ' Quentin Durward,' that it surely must have 
 been running in Scott's mind when he framed the events 
 of that romance : 
 
 1 "Cet echec tourna a Tavantage de la France; car tels etaient 
 et 1'orgueil des Ecossais et le mepris dans lequel ils tenaient les 
 Franais, que s'ils fussent sortis vainqueurs de cette lutte, ils eussent 
 complete d'egorger toute la noblesse de 1'Anjou, de la Touraine, du 
 Berry, et des provinces voisines, pour s'emparer eux-memes de leurs 
 maisons, de leurs femmes, de tous leurs biens les plus precieux ; 
 ce qui, certainement, ne leur cut pas etc bien difficile, une fois vain- 
 queurs des Anglais, comme ils 1'avaient espere. " Contemporary 
 Chronicle in Meyer, ' Annales Rerum Belgicarum/ quoted in Michel, 
 i. 149. 
 
72 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 " Michael Hamilton, who had a share in the affair, re- 
 lates that in Holy Week of the year 1429, he and several 
 of his companions-in-arms were lodged in a village named 
 Vallet, not far from Clisson, and threatened by the Bre- 
 tons, who held the country in considerable number. A 
 spy sent to report on the Scots having fallen into their 
 hands, they made him inform them, and then hanged 
 him. They then took to flight, but not without leaving 
 some of their people in the power of the peasants. 
 Amongst the prisoners was Hamilton, the weight of 
 whose cuirass had prevented his flight ; he was brought 
 to Clisson and hanged by the very hand of the son of the 
 spy, eager to avenge his father. From the moment that 
 he had seen himself taken he had invoked St Catherine, 
 and made a vow to go to thank her in her chapel of 
 Fierbois, if she would preserve him from death. He was 
 successful ; for he, having been hanged, on the following 
 night the curate of the town heard a voice which told him 
 to go and save Hamilton. 
 
 " He paid little attention to it, and it was only on a re- 
 iterated order that he made up his mind to bid one of his 
 parishioners go to the gibbet and look whether the wretch 
 was dead or not. After having turned him again and 
 again, the messenger, to assure himself fully, bared the 
 right foot of the culprit, and pricked the little toe in such 
 a manner as to make a large wound, from whence blood 
 sprang. Feeling himself wounded, Hamilton drew up 
 his leg and moved. At this sight, terror took possession 
 of the messenger ; he fled, and in all haste bore to the 
 curate an account of what had passed. He perceiving in 
 the whole affair an interposition from on high, related the 
 facts to the people who were present ; then having arrayed 
 himself and his clergy in sacerdotal vestments, they went 
 in procession to the place of execution, and cut down 
 Hamilton. All this passed in the presence of him who 
 had hanged him : furious at seeing that his victim was on 
 the point of escaping him, he struck him on the ear with 
 a sword, and gave him a great wound an act of barbar- 
 ity which is not to be commended. 
 
 " Then Hamilton is laid upon a horse and taken to a 
 
SCOTS FAMILIES IN FRANCE. 73 
 
 house and given into care ; soon after the Abbess of the 
 Regrippiere, having heard of what had taken place, sent in 
 quest of our Scot to have him treated in her convent : he 
 is taken there; and as he was ignorant of French, the 
 charitable lady gives him a fellow-countryman for his 
 sick-nurse. He had just related his adventures to him 
 when a voice reminded him that he had a vow to fulfil. 
 Unable then to walk, he waited a fortnight, then set off 
 for Fierbois, but not without finding by the way compan- 
 ions, with whom he remained some days to recover his 
 strength. In this history, as in another of the year 1423, 
 in which we find Scots in Berry hanging eight poor 
 peasants to revenge themselves for having been robbed 
 not far from there, and as also in the history of Captain 
 Boyce Glauny, I see the faithful picture of the miseries 
 which, during the Hundred Years' War, desolated our 
 central provinces, become the prey of undisciplined 
 hordes; but I find also that the Scots figure there in 
 great numbers." 1 
 
 1 Michel,!. 163-165. 
 
74 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RECIPROCITY CONTRAST BETWEEN THE 
 SCOT IN FRANCE AND LE FRANAIS EN ECOSSE AN AMBASSADOR 
 
 SNUBBED FRENCH CHEVALIERS TREATED TO A BORDER RAID THE 
 ADMIRAL VIENNE'S EXPEDITION, AND HOW IT FARED WITH HIM 
 AND HIS FOLLOWERS THE GLADIATORIAL SPECTACLE ON THE INCH 
 OF PERTH FERDINAND OF SPAIN'S DEALINGS WITH SCOTLAND 
 
 RULE OF ALBANY, AND ITS RESULTS A STORY OF ECCLESIASTI- 
 CAL PATRONAGE THE FOREIGN FRIAR OF TONGUELAND THE 
 SLAUGHTER OF LA BASTIE. 
 
 BEFORE coming to the later history of the League, let us 
 take a glance at the reciprocity from the other side, and 
 having seen what a good thing our wandering Scots made 
 of it in France, see how the French got on in Scotland. 
 We must prepare for differences which are not unlike 
 some that we now see in ordinary social life. Suppose 
 the common case of two friends, each having an indepen- 
 dent position, and each useful to the other, but, from 
 specialties in his private affairs, the one keeps a dinner- 
 giving house, the other does not. It need not necessarily 
 follow that the one is the other's inferior or dependant 
 he who goes to dinner perhaps thinks he is giving more 
 favour and honour than he receives ; but the conditions 
 on which the friends will meet each other in their respec- 
 tive dwelling-houses will take a decided colour from the 
 distinction. In the one house all will be joviality and 
 social enjoyment in the other, hard business, not per- 
 haps altogether of the most agreeable kind. For centu- 
 ries the French could expect no enjoyment in Scotland. 
 The country was, on the whole, not poorer than then 
 own perhaps not quite so poor but there was no luxu- 
 
THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND. 75 
 
 rious class in it ; all was rough, hard, and ungenial. Some 
 of them had to come over on embassies and warlike ex- 
 peditions, but they would as soon have sought Kamt- 
 chatka or Iceland, as a place wherein to pitch their taber- 
 nacle and pursue their fortune. 
 
 Many a Scot had sought his fortune in France; and 
 names familiar to us now on shop-signs and in street- 
 directories had been found among the dead at Poitiers, 
 before we have authentic account of any Frenchmen 
 having ventured across the sea to visit the sterile territory 
 of their allies. Froissart makes a story out of the failure 
 of the first attempt to send a French ambassador here. 
 The person selected for the duty was the Lord of Bour- 
 nezel, or Bournaseau, whose genealogy is disentangled 
 by M. Michel in a learned note. He was accredited 
 by Charles V. in the year 1379, and was commanded 
 to keep such state as might become the representative 
 of his august master. 
 
 Bournezel set off to embark at Sluys, and there had to 
 wait fifteen days for a favourable wind. The ambassador 
 thought there was no better way of beguiling the time 
 than a recitation among the Plat Deutsch of the splen- 
 dours which he was bound in the way of public duty to 
 exhibit in the sphere of his mission. Accordingly, " dur- 
 ing this time he lived magnificently ; and gold and silver 
 plate were in such profusion in his apartments as if he 
 had been a prince. He had also music to announce his 
 dinner, and caused to be carried before him a sword in 
 a scabbard richly blazoned with his arms in gold and 
 silver. His servants paid well for everything. Many of 
 the townspeople were much astonished at the great state 
 this knight lived in at home, which he also maintained 
 when he went abroad." 
 
 This premature display of his diplomatic glories brought 
 him into a difficulty highly characteristic of one of the 
 political specialties of France at that period. It was the 
 time already spoken of when the nobles of the blood- 
 royal were arrogating to themselves alone certain prerog- 
 atives and ceremonials distinguishing them from the rest 
 of the territorial aristocracy, however high these might 
 
76 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 be. The Duke of Bretagne and the Count of Flanders, 
 who were near at hand, took umbrage at the grand doings 
 of Bournezel, and sent for him through the bailiff of 
 Sluys. That officer, after the manner of executive func- 
 tionaries who find themselves sufficiently backed, made 
 his mission as offensive as possible, and, tapping Bour- 
 nezel on the shoulder, intimated that he was wanted. 
 
 The great men had intended only to rebuke him for 
 playing a part above his commission, bat the indiscretion 
 of their messenger gave Bournezel a hold which he kept 
 and used sagaciously. When he found the princes who 
 had sent for him lounging at a window looking into the 
 gardens, he fell on his knees and acknowledged himself 
 the prisoner of the Count of Flanders. To take prisoner 
 an ambassador, and the ambassador of a crowned king, 
 the feudal lord of the captor, was one of the heaviest of 
 offences, both against the law of nations and the spirit of 
 chivalry. The Earl was not the less enraged that he felt 
 himself caught ; and after retorting with, " How, rascal, 
 do you dare to call yourself my prisoner, when I have 
 only sent to speak with you ? " he composed himself to 
 the delivery of the rebuke he had been preparing in this 
 fashion : "It is by such talkers and jesters of the Parlia- 
 ment of Paris and of the King's chamber as you, that the 
 kingdom is governed ; and you manage the King as you 
 please, to do good or evil according to your wills : there 
 is not a prince of the blood, however great he may be, if 
 he incur your hatred, who will be listened to ; but such 
 fellows shall yet be hanged until the gibbets be full of 
 them." Bournezel carried this pleasant announcement 
 and the whole transaction to the throne, and the King 
 took his part, saying to those around, " He has kept his 
 ground well : I would not for twenty thousand francs it 
 had not so happened." 
 
 The embassy to Scotland was thus for the time frus- 
 trated. It was said that there were English cruisers at 
 hand to intercept the ambassador, and that he himself 
 had no great heart for a sojourn in the wild unknown 
 northern land. Possibly the fifteen days' lording it at 
 Sluys may have broken in rather inconveniently on his 
 
THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND. // 
 
 outfit ; but the most likely cause of the defeat of the first 
 French embassy to our shores was, the necessity felt by 
 Bournezel to right himself at once at Court, and turn the 
 flank of his formidable enemies ; and Froissart says, the 
 Earl of Flanders lay under the royal displeasure for hav- 
 ing, in his vain vaunting, defeated so important a project 
 as the mission to the Scots. 
 
 A few years afterwards our country received a visit, less 
 august, it is true, than the intended embassy, but far 
 more interesting. In 1384, negotiations were exchanged 
 near the town of Boulogne for a permanent peace between 
 England and France. The French demanded concessions 
 of territory which could not be yielded, and a permanent 
 peace, founded on a final settlement of pending claims, 
 was impossible. A truce even was at that time, however, 
 a very important conclusion to conflict ; it sometimes 
 lasted for years, being in reality a peace under protest 
 that each party reserved certain claims to be kept in view 
 when war should again break out. Such a truce was 
 adjusted between England on the one side and France on 
 the other conditional on the accession of her allies Spain 
 and Scotland. France kept faith magnanimously, in ever 
 refusing to negotiate a separate peace or truce for herself; 
 but, as the way is with the more powerful of two partners, 
 she was apt to take for granted that Scotland would go 
 with her, and that the affair was virtually finished by her 
 own accession to terms. 
 
 It happened that in this instance the Duke of Burgundy 
 took it on him to deal with Scotland. He had, however, 
 just at that moment, a rather important piece of business, 
 deeply interesting to himself, on hand. By the death of 
 the Earl of Flanders he succeeded to that fair domain 
 an event which vastly influenced the subsequent fate of 
 Europe. So busy was he in adjusting the affairs of his 
 mccession, that it was said he entirely overlooked the 
 small matter of the notification of the truce to Scotland. 
 Meanwhile, there was a body of men-at-arms in the 
 French service at Sluys thrown out of employment by the 
 truce with England, and, like other workmen in a like 
 position, desirous of a job. They knew that the truce 
 
78 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 had not yet penetrated to Scotland, and thought a journey 
 thither, long and dangerous as it was, might be a pro- 
 mising speculation. There were about thirty of them, and 
 Froissart gives a head-roll of those whose names he remem- 
 bered, beginning with Sir Geoffry de Charny, Sir John de 
 Plaissy, Sir Hugh de Boulon, and so on. They dared 
 not attempt, in face of the English war-ships, to land at 
 a southern harbour, but reached the small seaport called 
 by Froissart Monstres, and not unaptly supposed by 
 certain sage commentators to be Montrose, since the 
 adventurers rode on to Dundee and thence to Perth. 
 
 They were received with a deal of rough hospitality, 
 and much commended for the knightly spirit that induced 
 them to cross the wide ocean to try their lances against 
 the common enemy, England. Two of them were selected 
 to pass on to Edinburgh, and explain their purpose at the 
 Court of Holyrood. Here they met two of their country- 
 men on a mission which boded no good to their enter- 
 prise. These were ambassadors from France, come at 
 last to notify the truce. It was at once accepted by the 
 peaceable King Robert, but the Scots lords around him 
 were grieved in heart at the prospect that these fine fel- 
 lows should come so far and return without having any 
 sport of that highly flavoured kind which the Border wars 
 afforded. The truce they held had been adjusted not by 
 Scotland but by France ; and here, as if to contradict its 
 sanction, were Frenchmen themselves offering to treat it 
 as naught. 
 
 There was, however, a far stronger reason for over- 
 looking it. Just before it was completed, but when it 
 was known to be inevitable, the Earls of Northumberland 
 and Nottingham suddenly and secretly drew together two 
 thousand men-at-arms and six thousand bowmen, with 
 which they broke into Scotland, and swept the country 
 as far as Edinburgh with more than the usual ferocity of 
 a Border raid ; for they made it to the Scots as if the 
 devil had come among them, having great wrath, for he 
 knew that his time was short. It was said, even, that the 
 French ambassadors sent to Scotland to announce the 
 truce, had been detained in London to allow time for 
 
THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND. 79 
 
 this raid coming off effectively. " To say the truth," says 
 Froissart, mildly censorious, " the lords of England who 
 had been at the conference at Bolinghen, had not acted 
 very honourably when they had consented to order their 
 men to march to Scotland and burn the country, knowing 
 that the truce would speedily be concluded : and the best 
 excuse they could make was, that it was the French and 
 not they who were to signify such truce to the Scots." 
 
 Smarting from this inroad, the Scots lords, and especi- 
 ally the Douglases and others on the Border, were in no 
 humour to coincide with their peaceful King. They 
 desired to talk the matter over with the representatives 
 of the adventurers in some quiet place; and, for rea- 
 sons which were doubtless sufficient to themselves, 
 they selected for this purpose the Church of St Giles 
 in Edinburgh. The conference was highly satisfactory to 
 the adventurers, who spurred back to Perth to impart the 
 secret intelligence, that though the King had accepted 
 the truce, the lords were no party to it, but would im- 
 mediately prepare an expedition to avenge Nottingham's 
 and Northumberland's raid. This was joyful intelligence, 
 though in its character rather surprising to followers of 
 the French Court. A force was rapidly collected, and 
 in a very few days the adventurers were called to join it 
 in the Douglases' lands. 
 
 So far Froissart. This affair is not, so far as I remem- 
 ber, mentioned in detail by any of our own annalists 
 writing before the publication of his Chronicles. Every- 
 thing, however, is there set forth so minutely, and with 
 so distinct and accurate a reference to actual conditions 
 in all the details, that few things in history can be less 
 open to doubt. We come to a statement inviting ques- 
 tion, when he says that the force collected so suddenly 
 by the Scots lords contained fifteen thousand mounted 
 men ; nor can we be quite reconciled to the statement 
 though their steeds were the small mountain horses called 
 hackneys. The force, however, was sufficient for its 
 work. It found the English border trusting to the truce, 
 and as little prepared for invasion as Nottingham and 
 Northumberland had found Scotland. 
 
80 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 The first object was the land of the Percys, which the 
 Scots, in the laconic language of the chronicler, " pillaged 
 and burnt." And so they went onwards ; and where 
 peasants had been peacefully tilling the land or tending 
 their cattle amid the comforts of rude industry, there the 
 desolating host passed the crops were trampled down 
 their owners left dead in the ashes of their smoking huts 
 and a few widows and children, fleeing for safety and 
 food, were all of animal life left upon the scene. 
 
 The part taken in it by his countrymen was exactly 
 after Froissart's own heart, since they were not carrying 
 out any of the political movements of the day, nor were 
 they even actuated by an ambition of conquest, but were 
 led by the sheer fun of the thing and the knightly spirit 
 of adventure to partake in this wild raid. To the Scots 
 it was a substantial affair, for they came back heavy- 
 handed, with droves and flocks driven before them pos- 
 sibly some of them recovered their own. 
 
 The King had nothing to say in his vindication touch- 
 ing this little affair, save that it had occurred without his 
 permission, or even knowledge. The Scots lords, in fact, 
 were not the only persons who had broken that truce. 
 It included the Duke of Burgundy and his enemies, the 
 Low Country towns ; yet his feudatory, the Lord Destour- 
 nay, taking advantage of the defenceless condition of 
 Oudenarde during peace, took it by a clever stratagem. 
 The Duke of Burgundy, when appealed to, advised Des- 
 tournay to abandon his capture ; but Destournay was 
 wilful : he had conquered the city, and the city was his 
 so there was no help for it, since the communities were 
 not strong enough to enforce their rights, and Burgundy 
 would only demand them on paper. What occasioned 
 the raid of the Scots and French to be passed over, how- 
 ever, was that the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, 
 who had the chief authority over the English councils, as 
 well as the command over the available force, was taken 
 up with his own schemes on the crown of Castile, and 
 not inclined to find work for the military force of the 
 country elsewhere. The truce, therefore, was cordially 
 ratified ; bygones were counted bygones ; and the French 
 
THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND. 8 1 
 
 adventurers bade a kindly farewell to their brethren-in- 
 arms, and crossed the seas homewards. 
 
 Driven from their course, and landing at the Brille, 
 they narrowly escaped hanging at the hands of the boorish 
 cultivators of the swamp ; and after adventures which 
 would make good raw materials for several novels, they 
 reached Paris. 
 
 There they explained to their own Court how they 
 found that the great enemy of France had, at the opposite 
 extremity of his dominions, a nest of fighting fiends, who 
 wanted only their help in munitions of war to enable them 
 to rush on the vital parts of his dominions with all the 
 fell ferocity of men falling on their bitterest feudal enemy. 
 Thus could France, having under consideration the cost 
 and peril of galleying an invading army across the Straits, 
 by money and management, do far more damage to the 
 enemy than any French invading expedition was likely to 
 accomplish. 
 
 In an hour which did not prove propitious to France, 
 a resolution was adopted to invade England at both ends. 
 Even before the truce was at an end, the forges of Ren- 
 ault and Picardy were hard at work making battle-axes ; 
 and all along the coast, from Harfleur to Sluys, there was 
 busy baking of biscuits and purveyance of provender. 
 Early in spring an expedition of a thousand men-at-arms, 
 with their followers, put to sea under John of Vienne, the 
 Admiral of France, and arrived at Leith, making a voyage 
 which must have been signally prosperous, if we may 
 judge by the insignificance of the chief casualty on record 
 concerning it. In those days, as in the present, it ap- 
 pears that adventurous young gentlemen on shipboard 
 were apt to attempt feats for which their land training 
 did not adapt them in nautical phrase, " to swing on all 
 top-ropes." A hopeful youth chose to perform such a 
 feat in his armour, and with the most natural of all re- 
 sults. " The knight was young and active, and, to show 
 his agility, he mounted aloft by the ropes of his ship, 
 completely armed ; but his feet slipping he fell into the 
 sea, and the weight of his armour, which sank him in- 
 stantly, deprived him of any assistance, for the ship 
 
 F 
 
82 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 was soon at a distance from the place where he had 
 fallen." 
 
 The expedition soon found itself to be a mistake. In 
 fact, to send fighting men to Scotland was just to supply 
 the country with that commodity in which it supera- 
 bounded. The great problem was how to find food for the 
 stalwart sons of the soil, and arms to put into their hands 
 when fighting was necessary. A percentage of the cost 
 and labour of the expedition, had it been spent in send- 
 ing money or munitions of war, would have done better 
 service. The scene before the adventurers was in lamen- 
 table contrast to all that custom had made familiar to 
 them. There were none of the comfortable chateaux, 
 the abundant markets, the carpets, down beds, and rich 
 hangings which gladdened their expeditions to the Low 
 Countries, whether they went as friends or foes. Nor 
 was the same place for them in Scotland, which the Scots 
 so readily found in France, where a docile submissive 
 peasantry only wanted vigorous and adventurous masters. 
 
 "The lords and their men," says Froissart, "lodged 
 themselves as well as they could in Edinburgh, and those 
 who could not lodge there were quartered in the different 
 villages thereabout. Edinburgh, notwithstanding that it is 
 the residence of the King, and is the Paris of Scotland, is 
 not such a town as Tournay and Valenciennes, for there 
 are not in the whole town four thousand houses. Several 
 of the French lords were therefore obliged to take up 
 their lodgings in the neighbouring villages, and at Dun- 
 fermline, Kelso, Dunbar, Dalkeith, and in other towns." 
 When they had exhausted the provender brought with 
 them, these children of luxury had to endure the miseries 
 of sordid living, and even the pinch of hunger. They 
 tried to console themselves with the reflection that they 
 had, at all events, an opportunity of experiencing a phase 
 of life which their parents had endeavoured theoretically 
 to impress upon them, in precepts to be thankful to the 
 Deity for the good things they enjoyed, but which might 
 not always be theirs in a transitory world. They had 
 been warned by the first little band of adventurers that 
 Scotland was not rich; yet the intense poverty of the 
 
THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND. 83 
 
 country whence so many daring adventurers had gone 
 over to ruffle it with the flower of European chivalry, 
 astonished and appalled them. Of the extreme and 
 special nature of the poverty of Scotland, the great war 
 against the English invaders was the cause. It has been 
 estimated, indeed, by those devoted to such questions, 
 that Scotland did not recover fully from the ruin caused 
 by that conflict until the Union made her secure against 
 her ambitious neighbour. It was the crisis referred to 
 in that pathetic ditty, the earliest specimen of our lyrical 
 poetry, when 
 
 " Away was sonse of ale and bread, 
 
 Of wine and wax, of gaming and glee ; 
 
 Our gold was changed into lead ; 
 Cryst borne into virginity, 
 
 Succour poor Scotland and remede, 
 That stad is in perplexity." 
 
 The alliance between the two powers was not so un- 
 equal in the fourteenth as it became in the sixteenth 
 century. On the map of Europe the absolute dominions 
 to which the house of Valois succeeded occupied but a 
 small space in comparison with the kingdom of Francis I. 
 Scotland, on the other hand, had a respectable position 
 among the European powers. It was larger than many of 
 them ; and although the contest with England was bring- 
 ing it to beggary, it had still the repute of recent wealth 
 and prosperity. Not a long period had passed since 
 Berwick-upon-Tweed, the capital, took rank with Ghent, 
 Rotterdam, and the other great cities of the Low Coun- 
 tries, and was almost the rival of London in mercantile 
 enterprise. Stately edifices, baronial and ecclesiastical, 
 still stood, testifying to a people equal in wealth to the 
 English when they were built, though they were doomed 
 to fall into decay and be succeeded by sordid hovels, when 
 the weight of a long war against a powerful and oppressive 
 empire had impoverished the people. Before the French 
 came over and made acquaintance with their allies at 
 home, that poverty had set its desolating mark all over 
 the land, and the French saw and felt it. 
 
84 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 The poverty of the Scots proceeded from a cause of which 
 they need not have been ashamed ; yet, with the reserve 
 and pride ever peculiar to them, they hated that it should 
 be seen by their allies, and when these showed any indi- 
 cations of contempt or derision, the natives were stung to 
 madness. Froissart renders very picturesquely the com- 
 mon talk about the strangers, thus : " What devil has 
 brought them here ? or, who has sent for them ? Cannot 
 we carry on our wars with England without their assist- 
 ance ? We shall never do any good as long as they are 
 with us. Let them be told to go back again, for we are 
 sufficient in Scotland to fight our own battles, and need 
 not their aid. We neither understand their language nor 
 they ours, so that we cannot converse together. They 
 will very soon cut up and destroy all we have in this 
 country, and will do more harm if we allow them to re- 
 main among us than the English could in battle. If the 
 English do burn our houses, what great matter is it to us ? 
 We can rebuild them at little cost, for we require only 
 three days to do so, so that we but have five or six poles, 
 with boughs to cover them." 
 
 The French knights, accustomed to abject submission 
 among their own peasantry, were unable to comprehend 
 the fierce independence of the Scots common people, 
 and were ever irritating them into bloody reprisals. A 
 short sentence of Froissart's conveys a world of meaning 
 on this specialty : " Besides, whenever their servants went 
 out to forage, they were indeed permitted to load their 
 horses with as much as they could pack up and carry, 
 but they were waylaid on their return, and villanously 
 beaten, robbed, and sometimes slain, insomuch that no 
 varlet dare go out foraging for fear of death. In one 
 month the French lost upwards of a hundred varlets; 
 for when three or four went out foraging, not one re- 
 turned, in such a hideous manner were they treated." 
 As we have seen, a not unusual incident of purveying in 
 France was, that the husbandman was hung up by the 
 heels and roasted before his own fire until he disgorged 
 his property. The Scots peasantry had a decided pre- 
 judice against such a process, and, being accustomed to 
 
THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND. 85 
 
 defend themselves from all oppression, resisted even that 
 of their allies, to the extreme astonishment and wrath of 
 those magnificent gentlemen. 
 
 There is a sweet unconsciousness in Froissart's indig- 
 nant denunciation of the robbing of the purveyors, which 
 meant the pillaged peasantry recovering their own goods. 
 But the chronicler was of a thorough knightly nature, and 
 deemed the peasantry of a country good for nothing but 
 to be used up. Hence, in his wrath, he says : " In Scot- 
 land you will never find a man of worth ; they are like 
 savages, who wish not to be acquainted with any one, 
 and are too envious of the good fortune of others, and 
 suspicious of losing anything themselves, for their country 
 is very poor. When the English make inroads thither, as 
 they have very frequently done, they order their provisions, 
 if they wish to live, to follow close at their backs ; for 
 nothing is to be had in that country without great diffi- 
 culty. There is neither iron to shoe horses, nor leather 
 to make harness, saddles, or bridles; all these things 
 come ready-made from Flanders by sea; and should 
 these fail, there is none to be had in the country." What 
 a magnificent contrast to such a picture is the present 
 relative condition of Scotland and the Low Countries ! 
 and yet these have not suffered any awful reverse of for- 
 tune they have merely abided in stagnant respectability. 
 
 It must be remembered, in estimating the chronicler's 
 pungent remarks upon our poor ancestors, that he was 
 not only a worshipper of rank and wealth, but thoroughly 
 English in his partialities, magnifying the feats in arms 
 of the great enemies of his own country. The records of 
 the Scots Parliament of 1395 curiously confirm the infer- 
 ence from his narrative, that the French were oppressive 
 purveyors, and otherwise unobservant of the people's 
 rights. An indenture, as it is termed the terms of a 
 sort of compact with the strangers appears among 
 the records, conspicuous among their other Latin and 
 vernacular contents as being set forth in French, in 
 courtesy, of course, to the strangers. It expressly lays 
 down that no goods of any kind shall be taken by force, 
 under pain of death, and none shall be received without 
 
86 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 being duly paid for the dealers having free access to 
 come and go. There are regulations, too, for suppressing 
 broils by competent authority, and especially for settling 
 questions between persons of unequal degrees ; a remedy 
 for the practice of the French, who left the settlement 
 entirely with the superior. 
 
 This document is one of many showing that, in Scot- 
 land, there were arrangements for protecting the personal 
 freedom of the humbler classes, and their rights of pro- 
 perty, the fulness of which is little known, because the 
 like did not exist in other countries, and those who have 
 written philosophical treatises on the feudal system, or 
 on the progress of Europe from barbarism to civilisation, 
 have generally lumped all the countries of Europe to- 
 gether. The sense of personal freedom seems to have 
 been rather stronger in Scotland than in England; it 
 was such as evidently to astound the French knights. 
 At the end of the affair, Froissart expresses this surprise 
 in his usual simple and expressive way. After a second 
 or third complaint of the unreasonable condition that 
 his countrymen should pay for the victuals they con- 
 sumed, he goes on, "The Scots said the French had 
 done them more mischief than the English ; " and when 
 asked in what manner, they replied, " By riding through 
 the corn, oats, and barley on their march, which they 
 trod under foot, not condescending to follow the roads, 
 for which damage they would have a recompense before 
 they left Scotland, and they should neither find vessel 
 nor mariner who would dare to put to sea without their 
 permission." 
 
 Of the military events in the short war following the 
 arrival of the French, an outline will be found in the 
 ordinary histories ; but it was attended by some con- 
 ditions which curiously bring out the specialties of the 
 two nations so oddly allied. One propitiatory gift the 
 strangers had brought with them, which was far more 
 highly appreciated than their own presence ; this was a 
 thousand stand of accoutrements for men-at-arms. They 
 were of the highest excellence, being selected out of the 
 store kept in the Castle of Beaute for the use of the 
 
THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND. 87 
 
 Parisians. When these were distributed among the Scots 
 knights, who were but poorly equipped, the chronicler, as 
 if he had been speaking of the prizes at a Christmas-tree, 
 tells how those who were successful and got them were 
 greatly delighted. 
 
 The Scots did their part in their own way : they brought 
 together thirty thousand men, a force that drained the 
 country of its available manhood. But England had at 
 that time nothing to divert her arms elsewhere, and the 
 policy adopted was to send northwards a force sufficient 
 to crush Scotland for ever. It consisted of seven thou- 
 sand mounted men-at-arms, and sixty thousand bow and 
 bill men a force three or four times as large as the 
 armies that gained the memorable English victories in 
 France. Of these, Agincourt was still to come off, but 
 Crecy and Poitiers were over, along with many other 
 affairs that might have taught the French a lesson. The 
 Scots, too, had suffered two great defeats Neville's Cross 
 and Halidon Hill since their great national triumph. 
 The impression made on each country by their experi- 
 ences brought out their distinct national characteristics. 
 The French knights were all ardour and impatience ; they 
 clamoured to be at the enemy without ascertaining the 
 amount or character of his force. The wretched internal 
 wars of their own country had taught them to look on the 
 battle-field as the arena of distinction in personal conflict, 
 rather than the great tribunal in which the fate of nations 
 was to be decided, and communities come forth freed or 
 enslaved. 
 
 To the Scots, on the other hand, the affair was one of 
 national life or death, and they would run no risks for 
 distinction's sake. Picturesque accounts have often been 
 repeated of a scene where Douglas, or some other Scots 
 leader, brought the Admiral to an elevated spot whence 
 he could see and estimate the mighty host of England ; 
 but the most picturesque of all the accounts is the original 
 by Froissart, of which the others are parodies. The 
 point in national tactics brought out by this incident is 
 the singular recklessness with which the French must 
 have been accustomed to do battle. In total ignorance 
 
88 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 of the force he was to oppose, and not seeking to know 
 aught concerning it, the Frenchman's voice was still for 
 war. When made to see with his own eyes what he had 
 to encounter, he was as reluctant as his companions to 
 risk the issue of a battle, but not so fertile in expedients 
 for carrying on the war effectively without one. 
 
 The policy adopted was to clear the country before the 
 English army as it advanced, and carry everything port- 
 able and valuable within the recesses of the mountain- 
 ranges, whither the inhabitants not fit for military service 
 had gone with their effects. A desert being thus opened 
 for the progress of the invaders, they were left to wander in 
 it unmolested, while the Scots army went in the opposite 
 direction, and crossed the Border southwards. Thus the 
 English army found Scotland empty the Scots army 
 found England full. The one wore itself out in a fruitless 
 march, part of it straggling, it was said, as far as Aber- 
 deen, and returned thinned and starving, while the other 
 was only embarrassed by the burden of its plunder. 
 Much destruction there was, doubtless, on both sides, 
 but it fell heaviest where there was most to destroy, and 
 gratified at last in some measure the French, who " said 
 among themselves they had burned in the bishoprics of 
 Durham and Carlisle more than the value of all the towns 
 in the kingdom of Scotland." 
 
 But havoc does not make wealth, and whether or not 
 the Scots knew better from experience how to profit by 
 such opportunities, the French, when they returned north- 
 ward, were starving. Their object now was to get out of 
 the country as fast as they could. Froissart, with a touch 
 of dry humour, explains that their allies had no objection 
 to speed the exit of the poorer knights, but resolved to 
 hold the richer and more respectable in a sort of pawn for 
 the damage which the expedition had inflicted on the 
 common people. The Admiral asked his good friends 
 the Lords Douglas and Moray to put a stop to those 
 demands ; but these good knights were unable to accom- 
 modate their brethren in this little matter, and the 
 Admiral was obliged to give effectual pledges from his 
 Government for the payment of the creditors. 
 
THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND. 89 
 
 There is something in all this that seems utterly un- 
 chivalrous and even ungenerous ; but it had been well for 
 France had Froissart been able to tell a like story of her 
 peasantry. It merely shows us that our countrymen of 
 that day were of those who " know their rights, and, 
 knowing, dared maintain them ; " and was but a demon- 
 stration on a humbler, and, if you will, more sordid shape, 
 of the same spirit that had swept away the Anglo-Norman 
 invaders. The very first act which their chronicler records 
 concerning his knightly friends, after he has exhausted 
 his wrath against the hard and mercenary Scot, is thor- 
 oughly suggestive. Some of the knights tried other fields 
 of adventure, " but the greater number returned to France, 
 and were so poor they knew not how to remount them- 
 selves, especially those from Burgundy, Champagne, Bar, 
 and Lorraine, who seized the labouring horses wherever they 
 found them in the fields" so impatient were they to regain 
 their freedom of action. 
 
 So ended this affair, with the aspect of evil auspices for 
 the alliance. The adventurers returned " cursing Scot- 
 land, and the hour they had set foot there. They said 
 they had never suffered so much in any expedition, and 
 wished the King of France would make a truce with the 
 English for two or three years, and then march to Scot- 
 land and utterly destroy it ; for never had they seen such 
 wicked people, nor such ignorant hypocrites and traitors." 
 But the impulsive denunciation of the disappointed ad- 
 venturers was signally obliterated in the history of the 
 next half- century. Ere many more years had passed over 
 them, that day of awful trial was coming when France had 
 to lean on the strong arm of her early ally; and, in fact, 
 some of the denouncers lived to see adventurers from the 
 sordid land of their contempt and hatred command- 
 ing the armies of France, and owning her broad lord- 
 ships. It was just after the return of Vienne's expedi- 
 tion that the remarkable absorption of Scotsmen into 
 the aristocracy of France, already spoken of, began to 
 set in. 
 
 This episode of the French expedition to Scotland, 
 small though its place is in the annals of Europe, yet 
 
go THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 merits the consideration of the thoughtful historian, as 
 affording a significant example of the real causes of the 
 misery and degradation of France at that time, and the 
 wonderful victories of the English kings. Chivalry, 
 courage, the love of enterprise, high spirit in all forms, 
 abounded to superfluity among the knightly orders, but 
 received no solid support from below. The mounted 
 steel-clad knights of the period, in the highest physical 
 condition, afraid of nothing on the earth or beyond it, 
 and burning for triumph and fame, could perform miracu- 
 lous feats of strength and daring; but all passed off in 
 wasted effort and vain rivalry, when there was wanting 
 the bold peasantry, who, with their buff jerkins, and their 
 bills and bows, or short Scottish spears, were the real 
 force by which realms were held or gained. 
 
 An affair occurred in Scotland in the year 1396, which 
 is not naturally associated with the French alliance. It 
 has usually been spoken of, indeed, as a phenomenon of 
 pure Scottish barbarism. But M. Michel, in looking at 
 it from the French side, suggests some considerations 
 which may possibly give help in the solution of a mystery. 
 The affair referred to is that great battle or tournament 
 on the North Inch of Perth, where opposite Highland 
 factions, called the Clan Quhele and Clan Chattan, were 
 pitted against each other, thirty to thirty an affair, the 
 darker colours of which are lighted up by the eccentric 
 movements of the Gow Chrom, or bandy-legged smith of 
 Perth, who took the place of a defaulter in one of the 
 ranks, to prevent the spectacle of the day from being 
 spoilt. That such a contest should have been organised 
 to take place in the presence of the King and Court, under 
 solemnities and regulations like some important ordeal, 
 has driven historical speculators to discover what deep 
 policy for the pacification or subjugation of the High- 
 lands lay behind it. The feature that gives it a place 
 in M. Michel's book is the briefest possible notification, 
 taken from one of the chroniclers, that a large number 
 of Frenchmen and other strangers were present at the 
 spectacle. 
 
 This draws us back from the mysterious arcana of 
 
CONFLICT ON THE NORTH INCH. 91 
 
 political intrigue to find a mere showy pageant, got up to 
 enliven the hours of idle mirth an act, in short, of royal 
 hospitality a show cunningly adapted to the tastes of the 
 age, yet having withal the freshness of originality, being a 
 renaissance kind of combination of the gladiatorial con- 
 flict of the Roman circus with the tournament of chivalry. 
 The Highlanders were, in fact, the human raw material 
 which a King of Scots could in that day employ, so far as 
 their nature suited, for the use or the amusement of his 
 guests. Them, and them only among his subjects, could 
 he use as the Empire used the Transalpine barbarian 
 " butchered to make a Roman holiday." The treatment 
 of the Celt is the blot on that period of our history. 
 Never in later times has the Red Indian or Australian 
 native been more the hunted wild beast to the emigrant 
 settler than the Highlander was to his neighbour the Low- 
 lander. True, he was not easily got at, and, when reached, 
 he was found to have tusks. They were a people never 
 permitted to be at rest from external assault; yet such 
 was their nature that, instead of being pressed by a 
 common cause into compact union, they were divided 
 into communities that hated each other almost more 
 bitterly than they did the common enemy. 
 
 This internal animosity has suggested that the King 
 wanted two factions to exterminate each other as it were 
 symbolically, and accept the result of a combat between 
 two bodies of chosen champions, as if there had been an 
 actual stricken field, with all the able-bodied men on both 
 sides engaged in it. It was quite safe to calculate that 
 when the representatives of the two contending factions 
 were set face to face on the greensward, they would fly at 
 each other's throats, and afford in an abundant manner to 
 the spectators whatever delectation might arise from an 
 intensely bloody struggle. But, on the other hand, to 
 expect the Highlanders to be fools enough to accept 
 this sort of symbolical extinction of their quarrel was 
 too preposterous a conclusion for any practical states- 
 man to adopt. They had no notion of leaving import- 
 ant issues to the event of single combat, or any of 
 the other capricious rules of chivalry, but slew their 
 
92 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 enemies where they could, and preferred doing so secret- 
 ly, and without risk to themselves, when that was 
 practicable. 
 
 Meanwhile, as the centuries followed each other, 
 changes came over the condition of the European nations 
 and their position towards each other, as over all human 
 things. Scotland was gradually recovering from prostra- 
 tion, and England was shaken by the Wars of the Roses, 
 to the dire calamities of which it was some offset that they 
 enfeebled the Crown of England for mischief, whether 
 against its neighbours or its own people. In the balance 
 of Europe in the reign of Henry VII., England was 
 counted with Spain and Scotland with France. Both the 
 British countries were in some measure subsidiary and 
 protected states, Scotland being nearly as powerful as her 
 neighbour. Her hold on France, indeed, was something 
 like an incorporation, while the relation of Spain to Eng- 
 land was suspicious and fidgety. The sagacious and 
 grasping Ferdinand looked with respect and sympathy to 
 a prince so like himself as Henry VII. ; but he would 
 have fain had a more securely-seated father-in-law for his 
 daughter. He had an ambassador in Scotland who had 
 two alternative jobs on hand either to get the influence 
 of Scotland over France to operate in his favour, or to 
 detach these sworn friends and make a powerful European 
 alliance, including Spain, England, and Scotland. Fer- 
 dinand, indeed, was not very sure whether, if he could 
 not unite with both, Scotland might not be the more valu- 
 able friend. The intrigues, as historians term it, at the 
 Court of James IV., are highly amusing, and have a 
 special liveliness imparted to them by both monarchs 
 playing the card they called " Him of York," being the 
 Perkin Warbeck, who professed to be, and made many 
 people believe him to be, the younger of the princes 
 reputed to have been murdered in the Tower. Ferdinand 
 regretted that he had not a daughter to give to James, 
 and instructed his ambassador to try whether it would be 
 practicable to pass off one of his natural children as a 
 legitimate daughter of the house of Castile ; but he was 
 told that such a trick would be a very dangerous one, for 
 
ROYAL POLITICS. 93 
 
 the Scots were a proud people, and fierce in their resent- 
 ment of slights and injuries. 1 
 
 To watch in history the action and counteraction of 
 opposing forces which have developed some grand result, 
 yet by a slight and not improbable impulse the other way 
 might have borne towards an opposite conclusion equally 
 momentous, is an interesting task, with something in it 
 of the excitement of the chase. In pursuing the traces 
 which brought Scotland back to her English kindred, and 
 saved her from a permanent annexation to France, the 
 arrival of John Duke of Albany in Scotland, in 1515, is a 
 critical turning-point. Already had the seed of the union 
 with England been planted when James IV. got for a 
 wife the daughter of Henry VII. It would serve pleas- 
 antly to lighten up and relieve a hard and selfish reputa- 
 tion, if one could figure this King, in the depths of his 
 own heart, assuring himself of having entered in the books 
 of fate a stroke of policy that at some date, however dis- 
 tant, was destined to appease the long bloody contest of 
 two rival nations, and unite them into a compact and 
 mighty empire. The prospects of such a consummation 
 were at first anything but encouraging. The old love 
 broke in, counteracting prudential policy ; and, indeed, 
 never did besotted lover abandon himself to wilder folly 
 than James IV., when, at the bidding of Anne of France 
 as the lady of his chivalrous worship, he resolved to be 
 her true knight, and take three steps into English ground. 
 When a chivalrous freak, backed by a few political irrita- 
 tions scarce less important, strewed the moor of Flodden 
 with the flower of the land, it was time for Scotland to 
 think over the rationality of this distant alliance, which 
 deepened and perpetuated her feud with her close neigh- 
 bour of kindred blood. Well for him, the good, easy. 
 
 1 There is an immense deal of new light thrown on the relations 
 of Spain, England, France, and Scotland during the reign of Henry 
 VII. in the 'Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers,' 
 printed by Mr Bergwroth, from the archives of Simancas, for the 
 series of papers and chronicles issued under the auspices of the Master 
 of the Rolls. 
 
94 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 frank, chivalrous monarch, that he was buried in the ruin 
 he had made, and saw not the misery of a desolated 
 nation. Of the totally alien object for which all the mis- 
 chief had been done, there was immediate evidence in 
 various shapes. One curious little item of it is brought 
 out by certain researches of M. Michel, which have also 
 a significant bearing on the conflict between the secular 
 and the papal power in the disposal of benefices. 
 
 The Pope, Julius II., was anxious to gain over to his 
 interest Mathew Lang, bishop of Gorz, and secretary to 
 the Emperor Maximilian. The bishop was consequently 
 called to Rome and blessed by the vision of a cardinal's 
 hat, and the papal influence towards the first high pro- 
 motion that might open. The archbishopric of Bourges 
 became vacant. The chapter elected one of our old 
 friends of the Scots emigrant families, Guillaume de 
 Monypeny, brother of the Lord of Concressault ; but the 
 King, Louis XII., at first stood out for Brillac, bishop of 
 Orleans, resisted by the chapter. The bishop of Gorz 
 then came forward with a force sufficient to sweep away 
 both candidates. He was favoured of the Pope : his own 
 master, Maximilian, desired for his secretary this foreign 
 benefice, which would cost himself nothing ; and Louis 
 found somehow that the bishop was as much his own 
 humble servant as the Emperor's. 
 
 No effect of causes sufficient seemed in this world more 
 assured than that Mathew Lang, bishop of Gorz, should 
 also be archbishop of Bourges ; but the fortune of war 
 rendered it before his collation less important to have the 
 bishop of Gorz in the archiepiscopate than another person. 
 The King laid his hand again on the chapter, and required 
 them to postulate one whose name and condition must 
 have seemed somewhat strange to them Andrew Forrnan, 
 bishop of Moray, in the north of Scotland. There are 
 reasons for all things. Forman was ambassador from 
 Scotland to France, and thus had opportunities of private 
 communication with James IV. and Louis XII. This 
 latter, in a letter to the chapter of Bourges, explains his 
 signal obligations to Forman for having seconded the 
 allurements of the Queen, and instigated the King of 
 
AN ECCLESIASTICAL JOB. 95 
 
 Scots to make war against England, explaining how iceluy 
 Roy (TEscosse Jest ouvertement declare vouloir tenir nostre 
 party etfaire la guerre actuellement contre le Roy cT Angleterre. 
 Lest the chapter should doubt the accuracy of this state- 
 ment of the services performed to France by Forman, 
 the King sent them le double des lectres que le diet Roy 
 d?Escosse nous a escriptes, et aussy de la defiance qu'il a faite 
 au diet Roy d 1 Angleterre. 
 
 The King pleaded hard with the chapter to postulate 
 Forman, representing that they could not find a better 
 means of securing his own countenance and protection. 
 The Scotsman backed this royal appeal by a persuasive 
 letter, which he signed Andre, Arcevesque de Bourges et 
 Evesque de Morray. Influence was brought to bear on 
 the Pope himself, and he declared his leaning in favour 
 of Forman. The members of the chapter, who had been 
 knocked about past endurance in the affair of the arch- 
 bishopric from first to last, threatened resistance and 
 martyrdom ; but the pressure of the powers combined 
 against them brought them to reason, and Forman 
 entered Bourges in archiepiscopal triumph. 
 
 But the ups and downs of the affair were as yet by no 
 means at an end. That great pontiff, who never forgot 
 that the head of the Church was a temporal prince, Leo 
 X., had just ascended the throne, and found that it would 
 be convenient to have this archbishopric of Bourges for 
 his nephew, Cardinal Abo. By good luck the see of 
 St Andrews, the primacy of Scotland, was then vacant, 
 and was given as an equivalent for the French dignity. 
 Such a promotion was a symbolically appropriate reward 
 for the services of Forman ; his predecessor fell at 
 Flodden, and thus, in his services to the King of France, 
 he had made a vacancy for himself. He kept for some 
 time in his pocket, afraid to show it, the Pope's bull 
 appointing him Archbishop of St Andrews and Primate 
 of Scotland. 
 
 This was a direct act of interference contrary to law 
 and custom, since the function of the Pope was only to 
 collate or confirm, as ecclesiastical superior, the choice 
 made by the local authorities. These had their favourite 
 
9$ THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 for the appointment, Prior Hepburn, who showed his 
 earnestness in his own cause by taking and holding the 
 Castle of St Andrews. A contest of mingled ecclesiasti- 
 cal and civil elements, too complex to be disentangled, 
 followed ; but in the end Forman triumphed, having on 
 his side the efforts of the King of France and his servant 
 Albany, with the Pope's sense of justice. The rewards 
 of this highly endowed divine were the measure alike of 
 his services to France and of his injuries to Scotland. 
 He held, by the way, in commendam, a benefice in 
 England ; and as he had a good deal of diplomatic 
 business with Henry VIII. , it may not uncharitably be 
 supposed that he sought to feather his hat with English 
 as well as French plumage. It was in the midst of these 
 affairs, which were bringing out the dangerous and dis- 
 astrous elements in the French alliance, that Albany 
 arrived. 
 
 We have seen how Albany's father, the younger brother 
 of James III., lived in France, getting lordships there, 
 and how the son became a thorough naturalised French- 
 man. There are men who, when they shift their place 
 and function, can assimilate themselves to the changed 
 elements around them who can find themselves sur- 
 rounded by unwonted customs and ways, and yet accept 
 the condition that the men who follow these are pursuing 
 the normal character of their being, and must be left to 
 do so in peace, otherwise harm will come of it ; and in 
 this faculty consists the instinct which enables men to 
 govern populations trained in a different school from their 
 own. Albany did not possess this faculty. He appears to 
 have been ignorant of the language of Scotland, and to 
 have thought or rather felt that, wherever he was, all should 
 be the same as in the midst of Italian and French court- 
 iers; and if it were not so, something was wrong, and 
 should be put right. It was then the commencement of 
 a very luxurious age in France an age of rich and showy 
 costumes, of curls, perfumes, cosmetics, and pet spaniels 
 and Albany was the leader of fashion in all such things. 
 It is needless to say how powerfully all this contrasted 
 with rough Scotland what a shocking set of barbarians 
 
 
REGENT ALBANY. 97 
 
 he found himself thrown among how contemptible to 
 the rugged Scots nobles was the effeminate oriental 
 luxury of the little court he imported from Paris, shifted 
 northwards as some wealthy luxurious sportsman takes a 
 detachment from his stable, kennel, and servants' hall, to 
 a bothy in the Highlands. 
 
 He arrived, however, in a sort of sunshine. At that 
 calamitous moment the nearest relation of the infant king, 
 a practised statesman, was heartily welcome. He brought 
 a small rather brilliant fleet with him, which was dignified 
 by his high office as Admiral of Frances he brought also 
 some money and valuable trifles, which were not unaccept- 
 able. Wood, in his ' Peerage,' tells us that " The peers 
 and chiefs crowded to his presence : his exotic elegance 
 of manners, his condescension, affability, and courtesy of 
 demeanour, won all hearts." If so, these were not long 
 retained. He came, indeed, just before some tangible 
 object was wanted against which to direct the first sulky 
 feelings of the country towards France; and he served 
 the purpose exactly, for his own handiwork was the cause 
 of that feeling. In a new treaty between France and 
 England, in which he bore a great if not the chief part, 
 Scotland was for the first time treated as a needy and 
 troublesome hanger-on of France. Instead of the old 
 courtesy, which made Scotland, nominally at least, an 
 independent party to the treaty, it was made directly by 
 France, but Scotland was comprehended in it, with a 
 warning that if there were any of the old raids across the 
 Border, giving trouble as they had so often done, the 
 Scots should forfeit their part in the treaty. This patron- 
 age during good behaviour roused the old pride, and was 
 one of many symptoms that Albany had come to them 
 less as the representative of their own independent line 
 of kings, than as the administrator of a distant province 
 of the French empire. The humiliation was all the more 
 bitter from the deep resentments that burned in the 
 people's hearts after the defeat of Flodden ; and it was 
 with difficulty that the Estates brought themselves to say 
 that, though Scotland believed herself able single-handed 
 to avenge her losses, yet, out of respect for the old friend- 
 
 G 
 
98 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 ship of France, the country would consent to peace with 
 England. 
 
 Setting to work after the manner of one possessed of 
 the same supreme authority as the King of France, 
 Albany began his government with an air of rigour, 
 insomuch that the common historians speak of him as 
 having resolved to suppress the turbulent spirit of the 
 age, and assert the supremacy of law and order. He 
 thus incurred the reputation of a grasping tyrant. The 
 infant brother of the King died suddenly ; his mother said 
 Albany had poisoned the child, and people shuddered for 
 his brother, now standing alone between the Regent and 
 the throne, and talked ominously of the manner in which 
 Richard III. of England was popularly believed to have 
 achieved the crown by murdering his nephews. It is 
 from this period that we may date the rise of a really 
 English party in Scotland a party who feared the designs 
 of the French, and who thought that, after having for 
 two hundred years maintained her independence, Scotland 
 might with fair honour be combined with the country 
 nearest to her and likest in blood, should the succes- 
 sion to both fall to one prince, and that it would be judi- 
 cious to adjust the royal alliances in such a manner as to 
 bring that to pass. 
 
 Such thoughts were in the meantime somewhat coun- 
 teracted by the light-headed doings of her who was the 
 nation's present tie to England the Queen -Dowager. 
 Her grotesque and flagrant love-affairs are an amusing 
 episode, especially to those who love the flavour of ancient 
 scandal. But more serious agencies came in force, and 
 any gracious thoughts that had turned themselves towards 
 England were met in the teeth by the insults and injuries 
 which her savage brother, Henry VIII., continued to pile 
 upon the country. 
 
 Up to this point I have not observed any instances of 
 offices of emolument in Scotland given to Frenchmen, 
 and the fuss made about one instance of the kind leads 
 to the supposition that they must have been rare. Dun- 
 bar the poet, who was in priest's orders, was exceedingly 
 clamorous, in prose and in verse in the serious and in 
 
REGENT ALBANY. 99 
 
 the comic vein for preferment. Perhaps he was the 
 kind of person whom it is as difficult to prefer in the 
 Church as it was to make either Swift or Sydney Smith a 
 bishop. His indignation was greatly roused by the ap- 
 pointment of a foreigner whom he deemed beset by his 
 own special failings, but in far greater intensity, to the 
 abbacy of Tongueland ; and he committed his griefs to a 
 satirical poem, called 'The fenyet Freir of Tungland.' 
 The object of this poem has been set down by historians as 
 an Italian, but M. Michel indicates him as a countryman 
 of his own, by the name of Jean Damien. He is called 
 a charlatan, quack, and mountebank, and might, perhaps, 
 with equal accuracy, be called a devotee of natural science, 
 who speculated ingeniously and experimented boldly. 
 He was in search of the philosopher's stone, and believed 
 himself to be so close on its discovery that he ventured to 
 embark the money of King James IV., and such other 
 persons as participated in his own faith, in the adventure 
 to realise the discovery, and saturate all the partners with 
 riches indefinite. 
 
 It might be a fair question whether the stranger's science 
 is so obsolete as the social tone of the literature in which 
 he is attacked, since Dunbar's satirical poem, among 
 other hints that the precedents of the adventurer unfitted 
 him for the higher offices in the Christian ministry, in- 
 sinuates that he had committed several murders ; and 
 although the charge is made in a sort of rough jocularity, 
 the force of it does not by any means rest on its absurdity 
 and incredibility. He was accused of a mad project for 
 extracting gold from the Wanlockhead Hills in Dumfries- 
 shire, which cannot be utterly scorned in the present day, 
 since gold has actually been extracted from them, though 
 the process has not returned twenty shillings to the pound. 
 This curious creature completed his absurdities by the 
 construction of a pair of wings, with which he was to take 
 a delightful aerial excursion to his native country. He 
 proved his sincerity by starting in full feather from Stir- 
 ling Castle. In such affairs it is, as Madame du Deffand 
 said about that walk taken by St Denis round Paris with 
 his own head for a burden, le premier pas qui coute. The 
 
100 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 poor adventurer tumbled at once, and was picked up with 
 a broken thigh-bone. Such is the only Frenchman who 
 became conspicuous before Albany's time as holding rank 
 and office in Scotland. 
 
 Albany had not long rubbed on with the Scots Estates 
 when he found that he really must go to Paris ; and as 
 there seems to have been no business concerning Scot- 
 land that he could transact there, an uncontrollable yearn- 
 ing to be once more in his own gay world is the only 
 motive one can find for his trip. The Estates of Scotland 
 were in a surly humour, and not much inclined to allow 
 him his holidays. They appointed a council of regency 
 to act for him. He, however, as if he knew nothing 
 about the constitutional arrangements in Scotland, ap- 
 pointed a sort of representative, who cannot have known 
 more about the condition and constitution of Scotland 
 than his constituent, though he had been one of the illus- 
 trious guests present at the marriage of James IV. 
 
 He is named, in the chronicle called Pitscottie's, 
 " Monsieur Tilliebattie," but his full name was Antoine 
 d'Arces de la Bastie, and he had been nicknamed or dis- 
 tinguished, as the case might be, as the Chevalier Blanc, 
 or White Knight, like the celebrated Joannes Corvinus, 
 the knight of Wallachia, whose son became King of Hun- 
 gary. M. Michel calls him the " chevalresque et brillant 
 La Bastie, chez qui le guerrier et Vhomme d'etat etaient 
 encore superieurs au champion des tournois" He was a 
 sort of fanatic for the old principle of chivalry, then be- 
 ginning to disappear before the breath of free inquiry, and 
 the active useful pursuits it was inspiring. M. Michel 
 quotes from a contemporary writer, who describes him as 
 perambulating Spain, Portugal, England, and France, and 
 proclaiming himself ready to meet all comers of sufficient 
 rank, not merely to break a lance in chivalrous courtesy, 
 but a combattre a Poutrance an affair which even at that 
 time was too important to be entered on as a frolic, or 
 to pass an idle hour, but really required some serious 
 justification. No one, it is said, accepted the challenge 
 but the cousin of James IV. of Scotland, who is said to 
 have been conquered, but not killed, as from the nature 
 
SLAUGHTER OF LA BASTIE. IO1 
 
 of the challenge he should have been; but this story 
 seems to be a mistake by tile , contemporary,, ' ancl M. 
 Michel merely quotes it without committing himself. 
 
 Such was the person left by the Regent as^is veprescji- 
 tative, though apparently with no spec ; fic office cr'pcv/ers 
 acknowledged by the constitution of Scotland. Research 
 may perhaps afford new light to clear up the affair; but at 
 present the only acknowledgment of his existence bearing 
 anything like an official character, are entries in the Scots 
 treasurer's accounts referred to by M. Michel, one of them 
 authorising a payment of fifteen shillings to a messenger 
 to the warden of the middle march, " with my lord gover- 
 nor's letters delivered by Monsr. Labawte ; " another pay- 
 ment to his servant for summoning certain barons and 
 gentlemen to repair to Edinburgh ; and a payment of 
 twenty shillings for a service of more import, thus entered, 
 " Item, deliverit be Monsieur Lawbatez to Johne Lang- 
 landis, letters of our sovereign lords to summon and warn 
 all the thieves and broken men out of Tweeddale and 
 Eskdale in their own country quhilk letters were pro- 
 claimed at market-cross of Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Jed- 
 wood." 
 
 This proclamation seems to have been the deadly in- 
 sult which sealed his fate. The Borders had hardly yet 
 lost their character of an independent district, which 
 might have merged into something like a German mar- 
 gravate. There had been always some family holding a 
 preponderating and almost regal power there. At this 
 time it was the Homes or Humes, a rough set, with their 
 hands deeply dipped in blood, who little dreamed that 
 their name would be known all over Europe by the fame 
 of a fat philosopher sitting writing in a peaceful library 
 with a goosequill, and totally innocent of the death of a 
 fellow-being. It was one of Albany's rigorous measures 
 to get the leaders of this clan brought to justice, or, in 
 other words, executed. This was a thing to be avenged ; 
 and since La Bastie was taking on himself the responsi- 
 bilities of Albany, it was thought as well that he should 
 not evade this portion of them. 
 
 To lure him within their reach, a sort of mock fight 
 
IO2 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 was got up by the Borderers in the shape of the siege of 
 one of their peel towers. ' Away went La Bastie in all his 
 bravery, 'dreaming, simple' soul, as if he were in Picardy 
 or Tourer- e', that' the mete name of royalty would at once 
 secuie' p'eace and 'submission. His eye, practised in 
 scenes of danger, at once saw murder in the gaze of 
 those he had ventured among, and he set spurs to his 
 good horse, hoping to reach his headquarters in the 
 strong castle of Dunbar. The poor fellow, however, 
 ignorant of the country, and entirely unaided, was over- 
 taken in a bog. It is said that he tried cajoling, threats, . 
 and appeals to honour and chivalrous feeling. As well 
 speak to a herd of hungry wolves as to those grim minis- 
 ters of vengeance ! The Laird of Wedderburn, a Home, 
 enjoyed the distinction of riding with the Frenchman's 
 head, tied by its perfumed tresses at his saddle-bow, into 
 the town of Dunse, where the trophy was nailed to the 
 market -cross. As old Pitscottie has it, "his enemies 
 came upon him, and slew and murdered him very un- 
 honestly, and cutted off his head, and carried it with 
 them ; and it was said that he had long hair platt over 
 his neck, whilk David Home of Wedderburn twust to 
 his saddle-bow, and keeped it." 
 
 This affair brought Scotland into difficulties both with 
 England and France. Henry VIII. professed himself 
 displeased that a French adventurer should have been 
 set up as ruler in his nephew's kingdom ; and Francis I., 
 who had just mounted the throne of France, demanded 
 vengeance on the murderers of his distinguished subject, 
 with whose chivalrous spirit he had a congenial sym- 
 pathy. There is an exceedingly curious and suggestive 
 correspondence between France and Scotland at the 
 commencement of M. Teulet's volumes. 1 It closely 
 resembles the papers that might be returned to Parlia- 
 ment by our Indian Government on the negotiations with 
 
 1 ' Relations Politiques de la France et de 1'Espagne avec 1'Ecosse 
 au xv. siecle : papiers d'etat, pieces, et documents inedits ou peu 
 connus tires des bibliotheques et des archives de France,' public par 
 Alexandre Teulet, archiviste aux archives de 1'empire, i. 9-16. 
 
SLAUGHTER OF LA BASTIE. 103 
 
 some wily Affghan or Scinde chief, in which reparation is 
 demanded for outrages on a British subject. There is 
 much fussy desire to comply with the demands of the 
 great power, but ever a difficulty, real or pretended, in 
 getting anything done. 
 
 Proclamations and other denunciatory documents were 
 issued in the loudest and angriest terms against the 
 traitors and foul murderers of the representative of the 
 illustrious ally of Scotland. Francis was told that a great 
 army was organised to march to the Borders, and utterly 
 annihilate the criminals and their faction ; and to give 
 the expedition all the more thorough an aspect of serious 
 business, it was accompanied by actual artillery a new 
 device in the art of war but little known up to that time 
 in Scotland. But when this powerful host arrived at the 
 country of the Homes, the lords had fled to England. 
 What more could be done? The correspondence con- 
 cludes with a suggestion close on sarcasm, if not intended 
 for it, that Francis had better demand the criminals from 
 Henry VIII. It is not necessary, however, to suppose 
 that trjere was absolute perfidy in all this. It may have 
 been then in Scotland as probably it often is in the East, 
 that the difficulty in punishing a set of powerful culprits 
 has a better foundation in their capacity for self-defence 
 than the government is inclined to acknowledge. 
 
 But Francis was not in a condition to press the matter 
 so far as to risk a quarrel with an old friend. Evil days, 
 indeed, were coming to both kingdoms, and they were 
 knit together again by the ties of a common adversity. 
 Albany gave great provocation to Henry VIII. by joining 
 in, if he did not organise, a project by which France, the 
 northern powers, and Scotland were to unite for the 
 restoration of the house of York in England through 
 its representative, Reginald de la Pole. The wrath of 
 Henry fell heavily on the land, and appeal after appeal 
 was made to Francis for assistance. But his hands were 
 full. He had to keep up three great armies one in 
 Italy, another in Picardy, and a third in Guienne and 
 was in great alarm for the safety of his own frontiers. 
 He sent first M. le Charron, and then M. de Langeac, 
 
104 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 as his ambassadors, with supremely kind and sympathis- 
 ing messages, recommending Scotland to keep up heart 
 until better days should come, but he could give no 
 material assistance. Driven to extremes, the Scots repre- 
 sented that they had been offered peace with England on 
 the condition of abandoning the French alliance. They 
 had sternly refused this humiliating condition ; but they 
 now put it to France, whether, being quite unable to give 
 them assistance, she would resign, for a time at least, her 
 claims to the exclusive friendship of the Scots, and let 
 them make peace with England. But Francis was in the 
 climax of his adversity. The great battle of Pavia had 
 just been fought. The Scots were asked if it was a time 
 to desert steady old friends when their King was defeated 
 and a captive in the enemy's hands ? The chivalry which 
 ruled the diplomacy of that day prevailed, and the request 
 was withdrawn. The two nations, in externals, became 
 faster friends than ever. 1 
 
 In 1537 there was a gallant wedding, when James V. 
 went to bring home Madeleine of France. He received 
 special royal honours, not known before to have been 
 conferred on foreigners. According to the documents 
 given by M. Teulet, the officers charged with the tradi- 
 tions of state precedents grumbled about this prince of a 
 northern island, who knew no civilised language, receiv- 
 ing honours which had heretofore been deemed sacred to 
 the royal blood of France, the Parliament being specially 
 aggrieved by having to walk in procession in their scar- 
 let robes, carrying their mantles and velvet caps. The 
 national policy that held by this marriage would have 
 had but a frail tenure, for poor Madeleine soon drooped 
 and died. She had said, as a girl, that she wanted to be 
 a queen, be the realm she ruled what it might ; and so 
 she had a brief experience this word seems preferable 
 to enjoyment of the throne of cold uncomfortable Scot- 
 land. There was speedily another wedding, bearing in 
 the direction of the French alliance, for that was still 
 uppermost with the governing powers, whatever it might 
 
 1 Teulet, 'Relations Politiques,' i. 43-55. 
 
SCOTLAND AND HER ROYAL ALLIANCES. 105 
 
 be with the English and Protestant party, daily acquiring 
 strength among the district leaders, nobles or lairds. It may 
 have seemed to these, that when the queen was no longer 
 a daughter of France, but a young lady, the child of one 
 feudatory and the widow of another, with no better claim 
 to share the throne than her beautiful face, there was no 
 further danger from France. But the young queen was a 
 Guise one of that wonderful race who seemed advancing 
 onwards to a destiny of which it was not easy to fix the 
 probable limits. Scotland, by her royal alliances, might 
 now be said to have hold of England with one hand and 
 France with the other. The question came to be, which 
 would pull hardest? 
 
io6 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BIRTH OF QUEEN MARY FRENCH WRITERS ON HER LIFE AND 
 CHARACTER HER INFLUENCE ON THE FATE OF EUROPE CATH- 
 ERINE OF MEDICI THEIR STRIFE MARY'S BEQUEST TO PHILIP 
 THE APPARENT SUPREMACY OF THE OLD LEAGUE THE UNDER- 
 WORKINGS THAT WERE DESTROYING IT FRENCH GOVERNMENT IN 
 SCOTLAND REACTION RECENT REVELATIONS THE REFORMATION 
 IN SCOTLAND, AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT THE WINDING-UP. 
 
 ON the 7th of December in the year 1542 was born the 
 infant afterwards renowned over the world as Mary 
 Queen of Scots. The heir to the throne of England 
 was a boy five years older Edward, the son of her grand- 
 uncle, Henry VIII. They were in the degree of what 
 is called first and second cousins. Nothing seemed so 
 rational as that these two should be united, and so heal 
 the wounds of two bleeding countries. It was indeed so 
 extremely reasonable, that Henry VIII., to prevent any 
 possibility of its falling through, resolved to effect it at 
 once by force the most dangerous of all means for 
 accomplishing any object with the Scots. He demanded 
 the personal custody of the royal child ; and when this 
 was refused, he restored the old claims of superiority, and 
 sent an army to fetch her. Here again history is over- 
 loaded with the cruel feats of one exterminating army 
 following on the heels of another, and all set to their 
 bloody work because their passionate tyrant had resolved 
 to cut the child out of the very heart of her people. He 
 had almost accomplished his object, and Scotland seemed 
 but a step from annexation, when, on the i6th of June 
 1548, strange sails were seen in the Firth of Forth, and, 
 to the joy of high and low, the Sieur d'Esse*, a tried 
 
QUEEN MARY. IO/ 
 
 soldier, landed with a small army in the pay of France, 
 accompanied by a field-train of unusual strength for the 
 times. These men were of all nations soldiers by trade, 
 and ready to fight for any paymaster. They were well ac- 
 customed, of course, to all sort of scenes of ruffianism; but 
 they had yet to know, and they did so with some twinges 
 of revulsion, the ferocity imparted to those who fight for 
 their homes against the invader. When the mercenaries 
 took prisoners from the English, they were of course ready 
 to sell them, by way of ransom, to the highest bidder 
 friend or enemy. The highest bidders were in many 
 instances the Scots, who thus invested their scant supply 
 of money that they might have the gratification of putting 
 the hated invaders to death. These were symptoms of 
 a spirit that snapped at once all the ties of diplomacy and 
 royal alliances. The great object now was how to render 
 Henry's object impossible. This was done by spiriting 
 the royal infant off to France a feat skilfully and gallantly 
 accomplished with the assistance of the French vessels. 
 
 We now approach the time when the destinies of Europe 
 depended on the character and actions of three women 
 a sort of three Fates who spun and cut the threads of 
 nations. These were Catherine of Medici, Queen Eliza- 
 beth, and Mary of Scotland. It is with the last that we 
 have chiefly to do here. The story of the alliance be- 
 tween France and Scotland had reached its climax when 
 both had the same queen. Her influence on the two 
 nations is not alone historical : it has affected the tenor 
 of French literature, and the eye with which it has re- 
 garded Scotland; and in this respect the position of the 
 two countries towards each other can be exemplified 
 among the people of our own generation. 
 
 French authors have indeed lately thrown themselves, 
 with their natural impetuosity, on the great problems of 
 Mary's character and actions. 1 And though we claim 
 
 1 Besides Mignet's beyond any question the best Life of Queen 
 Mary and also, besides, the works of Teulet and Michel, a con- 
 siderable portion of which applies to her, we have, 
 
 ' Etudes sur W. Shakspeare, Marie Stuart, et L' Aretin Le Drame, 
 
IO8 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 credit for more coolness and historical impartiality than 
 our neighbours, yet it may be that those qualities which 
 we count defects in them, enable them to take a more 
 genial and natural view of such a nature as hers. With 
 nothing but our plain black and white to paint with, we 
 are unable to impart to our picture the rich blending of 
 hues which harmonises the light with the shade, and im- 
 parts a general richness to the tone of the composition 
 throughout. It will require a hardish course of reading 
 in the Causes Cdlebres, the Me'moires, and the recent 
 school of French novels, to give a native of this country 
 a conception of the assimilation of French people's 
 
 le Moeur, et la Religion au xvi. Siecle,'par M. Chasles-Philarete, 
 1854. 
 
 * Marie Stuart et Catherine de Medicis, etude historique sur les 
 Relations de la France et de 1'Ecosse,' 1858. 
 
 ' Histoire de Marie Stuart, ' par J. M. Dargaud. 
 
 'Les Crimes Celebres,' par Alexandre Dumas Marie Stuart. 
 
 ' The Life of Mary Stuart, ' by Marie Louis Alphonse Prat dc 
 Lamartine. 
 
 'Marie Stuart et le Comte de Both well,' par L. Wiesener, Pro- 
 fesseur d' Histoire a Lycee Louis-le-Grande, 1863. 
 
 * Lettres de Marie Stuart, publiees avec summaires, traductions, 
 notes, et fac-simile,' par Jean Baptiste Alexandre Theodore Teulet. 
 
 The last is intended as a supplement to the collection by Prince 
 Labanoff, with which my reader either is or is not acquainted. This 
 venerable member of the select circle of Russian grandees, claiming 
 descent from the pristine Rurik, stands conspicuous as a living illus- 
 tration of the fascinations of our northern Cleopatra. It is related 
 among the triumphs of Ninon de 1'Enclos, that she had lovers among 
 the contemporaries of her grandchildren, one of them, according to a 
 questionable legend, turning out to be an actual descendant in that 
 degree. But the fascinations of Mary present to us a far more potent 
 testimony in a living lover, who loves and must love on, as some of 
 the sentimental songs say, down into the third century after that in 
 which the object of his passion breathed the breath of life. The 
 Prince has spent a great portion of a long life in the functions of a 
 knight-errant, vindicating the spotless honour of the lady of his love. 
 If it has not been his lot to put the spear in rest against the caitiff 
 maligners, or to knock on the shield hung outside the gate of the 
 castle where the object of his vows lies captive, he has performed the 
 drearier, if less dangerous, task of ransacking every library in the 
 world for evidence of the innocence of his peerless lady, and has pub- 
 blished the result of his labours in seven dense octavo volumes. They 
 are a curious and valuable collection, but rather dryish on the whole ; 
 
QUEEN MARY. 1 09 
 
 thoughts to such a topic to let one see how thoroughly, 
 and almost devoutly, they would relish the story of her 
 beauty, her wit, her lively vitality, her marvellous capacity 
 for fathoming the human heart, her equally marvellous 
 power of allurement, and her perfect good sense, good 
 taste, and good humour. And indeed these qualities were 
 rather enhanced than blotted by the one prevailing weak- 
 ness a submission to the empire of the master- passion 
 so entire, that under its relentless rule no duty to God or 
 man was powerful enough in restraint ; and if such a 
 thing as the life of a wretched poltroon calling himself 
 husband stood in the way, why, let it go. When we 
 convince ourselves, as in the story of Chatelar, that the 
 
 and though the price of the volumes is considerable, I have little 
 doubt that they have been paid for by many more people than they 
 been read by. The Prince's labours were not directed to the end of 
 discovering the truth that was already fixed and indubitable as divine 
 truth ; he sought in his humble devotion only to collect and record 
 the documents calculated to illustrate it, and bring it home in its full 
 lustre to careless or obdurate hearts. Accordingly, he rejected from 
 his collection as spurious, and in a manner blasphemous, those docu- 
 ments which, in the view of the impartial, throw doubt on the purity 
 of his bright particular star. M. Teulet observes, with a sort of dry 
 sarcasm, "C'est Ik sans doute une conviction aussi sincere que re- 
 spectable ; malheureusement tout le monde ne la partage pas ; " and he 
 remarks very justly, that to those acquainted with the Prince Labanoff 
 it is quite unnecessary to explain that he is a complete stranger to 
 the volume issued to the world for the purpose of completing his col- 
 lection. 
 
 There is, in fact, a sort of Quixotism in M. Teulet himself, and one 
 cannot help being amused by the enthusiasm for historical accuracy, 
 which has set the one collector and editor to dog the steps, as it were, 
 of the other, and supply his rejections and omissions, in order that 
 the world may know die real truths. There is no getting off with a 
 fond hallucination, or a well-pleaded one-sided theory, while there 
 are archaeological detectives to track our steps in this fashion. The 
 two editors are not only honest, but disinterested, each in his own 
 peculiar way. To the affluent and distinguished Prince, the cost of 
 printing seven volumes for an unappreciating public would be a trifling 
 addition to the sacrifices made by him in his laborious search over the 
 world for their contents. It is questionable whether his sacrifice is 
 nearly so great as that of the distinguished archaeologist ; since any 
 man, master of the abilities and industry embarked on the supple- 
 mental volume, might surely, had he desired it, have found a more 
 profitable and a more distinguished method of employing them. 
 
110 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 resources of the siren's fascinations are drawn upon to 
 awaken wild hopeless love in a poor youth until he is 
 driven frantic, and rushes into such scrapes that he must 
 be killed out of the way, we get angry and use hard 
 words, instead of looking at the affair in a purely artistic 
 aspect. 1 Hence one set of our writers will have it that 
 she was a meek and injured angel, the other that she was 
 a remorseless and cruel demon. 
 
 Unless Mr Froude is to be counted an exception, 
 our writers have made coarse work of this delicate his- 
 torical morsel. We cannot enter into the spirit of that 
 long, patient, noble supplice we have not a word for it 
 in our own language which dignifies guilt. Once be- 
 lieving in what we call the guilt, we cast the unclean 
 thing away, and will give it no place in our heart. It 
 is very difficult for us, indeed, to understand how lightly 
 murder would lie on a conscience trained under the 
 shadow of Catherine of Medici, and how consistently a 
 laxness about it might coexist with beauty, gentleness, 
 and kindness. The ethics, indeed, which ruled that 
 Court were deeper and more devilish than anything of 
 native-born French origin. They were Italian the 
 
 1 There is something, too, in the intense silliness of Chatelar's con- 
 duct which our insular natures cannot away with, and so scarce any 
 one has raised a voice against his cruel death. It is a pity that the 
 process against him has been lost, were it only to remove curious 
 doubts as to the portion of the royal premises in which he was hidden. 
 If we adopt a very plain-spoken statement in a letter from Randolph 
 to Cecil, the poor youth's account of the place he went to, and his 
 reason for going to it, is so gross an outrage at once on the dignity of 
 history and the ideal purity of romance, that one cannot wonder at 
 both having passed it by in ignominious silence (see Von Raumer's 
 ' Contributions to Modern History, ' p. 22). It is, by the way, a 
 misapprehension to suppose that Chatelar's position was so humble 
 as to make his aspirations, had he conducted himself decorously, an 
 utter misconception and a symptom of insanity. He was a youth of 
 birth and condition otherwise Brantome would not have spoken of 
 him as he does and related to the chivalrous Bayard. No doubt, 
 an alliance with one in whom the destinies of Europe were so heavily 
 involved, would have been a mightily presumptuous expectation for 
 him to form. But he was in the position in which a lift in the world 
 by marriage with a supernumerary daughter of some secondary royal 
 family might not have seemed utterly preposterous. 
 
QUEEN MARY. Ill 
 
 views which the Borgias practised, and Machiavelli 
 taught. Among the small states of their native growth 
 they might be used for the slaughtering of half a village, 
 or the poisoning-off of a family : imported to the mighty 
 kingdom of France, their fruit expanded into the great 
 battue of St Bartholomew's Day. The Florentine's pre- 
 cepts were intended for the private use of the Medici 
 family; and there was something so self - contradictory 
 in their publication to the world, that he was supposed 
 to be in jest, like Swift with his advice to servants ; for 
 it is the ruling spirit of all such policy that it is personal 
 to the owner, hidden within the dark recesses of his own 
 breast, and concealed for use against the scrutiny of the 
 keenest adversary. There was no better place of con- 
 cealment for it than behind youth, beauty, genial court- 
 esy, and gaiety of heart. 
 
 In addition to a more genial appreciation of the nature 
 of the heroine, the French were placed in a better posi- 
 tion to see the whole expanse of the stage on which she 
 acted. Our own historians, dealing with but a corner of 
 the world, are not prepared duly to estimate the expan- 
 sive scene which Mary's peculiar position opened up. I 
 propose, in a few words, before winding up the " Ancient 
 League," to sketch the chief conditions of which she was 
 in the several steps of her career the centre. 1 
 
 1 Along with their tact in appreciating the spirit of their heroine, 
 the more ambitious of these French authors are sometimes amusingly 
 inaccurate in minute matters of fact. M. Chasles opens thus : " II y 
 a un nom qui semble destine a servir d'anneau brillant et douloureux 
 entre la civilisation du Midi et le rude esprit du Nord pendant le xvi* 
 siecle. Ce nom e'clatant et voile de pleurs est le plus tragique des 
 temps modernes ; tragique surtout par 1'obscurite equivoque et le bruit 
 confus de ses fautes, de ses talents, et de ses angoisses ! Jamais on 
 ne pourra rever de roman plus pathetique que le sien : c'est une femme 
 voluptueuse, gaie comme le soleil de France, passionnee comme le ciel 
 d'ltalie ; faible et forte ; entouree d'hommes sauvages, qui poignardent 
 son ministre dans ses bras. Captive dans un donjon humide et mal- 
 sain, elle, habituee a toutes les recherches ; elle brave du fond de ce 
 cachot Elisabeth vieillie dans le despotisme ; enfin elle tend au bourreau 
 sa tete royale et catholique, qui n'a pas plie devant sa rivale." 
 
 This is no doubt well turned, but the turning-point about the death 
 of Rizzio is inaccurate. He was not stabbed in her arms he was not 
 
112 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 It was not alone her queenly rank, her extraordinary 
 beauty, and her mental gifts, even accompanied as these 
 were by the more potent gift of an irresistible seductive- 
 ness, that gave her the influence she held over her age, 
 as the manner in which these fine court cards were 
 played. They happened to be in the hand, or rather in 
 the several hands, of a house which counted within its 
 own family circle a group of the most accomplished, 
 daring, and successful political gamesters of the day. 
 
 killed in her presence ; she did not know of his death till some time 
 after the deed. In fact, her conduct during the interval between his 
 removal and her knowledge of his fate furnishes some of the most 
 significant conjectures about her concern in the tragedy next to come 
 off. 
 
 The mistakes in the book of another Frenchman, M. Dargaud, are 
 the more amusing from his almost chivalrous efforts to be quite 
 accurate. He tells us that he explored the collections, the museums, 
 the ancient portraits, the rare engravings, the traditions, the ballads, 
 the lakes, the sea and its shores, the mountains and plains, the fields 
 of battle, the palaces, the prisons, all the ruins, all the sites, and all 
 the innumerable traces of the past the enumeration is the author's 
 own, not a travesty of it. He then explains how lifeless all history 
 is without topography ; and thus, with much simplicity, sets the reader 
 on the watch to find whether his own topography is quite accurate. 
 We begin with Mary, a happy child in the island of Inch Mahome, 
 in the Lake of Menteith. That she enjoyed the national ballads and 
 legends, and listened with delight to the pibroch, ' ' sorte de melodic 
 guerriere executee sur le cornemuse," is a statement which it would 
 be difficult to disprove were it worth while ; but the author, when he 
 describes her bounding over the rocks at early dawn, is at once con- 
 tradicted by the fact that the island is a bit of meadow as flat as a 
 carpet. There is no doubt a great contrast, especially in these days 
 of tile-draining, between the fruitful plains of the Lowlands and the 
 Highland Grampians. But the author's vivid picture of Queen Mary's 
 enjoyment of the contrast in the northern tour ending in the battle of 
 Corrichie is utterly thrown away, since in the course of that journey 
 the country she passed over is an almost continuous tract of bleak, 
 low, uniform acclivities. 
 
 This author tells us of peculiarities in the habits of John Knox 
 which, had they been known to his biographer, Dr M 'Crie, would 
 have changed the tone of his book, and, indeed, have slightly per- 
 plexed that grave and earnest biographer. It seems that the great 
 preacher frequented the Pentland Mountains, where " tous les soirs 
 tres tard, il s'endonnait au bruit d'une cascade de la montagne. La 
 chute harmonieuse et monotone de cette grande nappe d'eau pouvait 
 seule calmer 1 agitation formidable de ses pensees" (p. 193). There 
 
QUEEN MARY. 113 
 
 The fortune which made Mary the daughter of a Guise, 
 put a character on the events of the time. Had she been 
 the daughter of her father's first wife, poor gentle Madeleine 
 of Valois, whatever destinies might have awaited her, it 
 is not likely that they would have been so high. It was 
 not the greatness of her mother's family, but its character- 
 istic of being a pushing rising family, that gave her name 
 its wide influence. During that period and for some time 
 later so late, indeed, as the construction of the Prussian 
 
 is something exceedingly comical in the idea of Knox thus posed. If 
 the practice could be established, it might add to the renown of the 
 only waterfall on the Pentlands the much-infested Habbie's Howe. 
 But there is evidently some confusion in the author's mind between 
 our great Reformer and Brian, the Celtic seer in the * Lady of the 
 Lake:' 
 
 " Couched on a shelve beneath its brink, 
 Close where the thundering torrents sink, 
 Rocking beneath their headlong sway, 
 And drizzled by the ceaseless spray, 
 'Midst groan of rock and roar of stream, 
 The wizard waits prophetic dream." 
 
 M. Dargaud derived some valuable ideas from the "statuette du 
 docteur " which he saw in the High Street a well-known piece of 
 rude carving by some ambitious mason, who intended to symbolise 
 Moses. A picture in Holyrood is pronounced to be the veritable 
 "docteur imperieux et terrible de 1'idee nouvelle ; " and doubtless, 
 among the rubbish of odds and ends collected in Holyrood, there is a 
 picture which it is the rule of the house to call a portrait of Knox, 
 though every observing onlooker, seeing the compasses in the hand, 
 pronounces it to be the portrait of an architect or a geometrist. 
 
 But M. Dargaud met with wonders in Edinburgh denied to the 
 eyes and ears of the common herd even of tourists. He gives a 
 succinct account of the manner in which Darnley was put to death 
 before the house of the Kirk-o'- Field was blown up to conceal the 
 deed. This account is carefully culled from the traditions which he 
 collected "au pied de 1'eglise expiatoire batie sur ce funebre lieu." 
 This statement suggests uneasy suspicions as to the stories that may 
 be palmed off by guides upon confiding tourists. Monstrous false- 
 hoods are told by the whole class ; and it is a signal exemplification 
 of their resolution utterly to abandon their sense and discretion along 
 with their work, that holiday tourists should take instructions in the 
 most abstruse portions of archaeology from the most ignorant of the 
 human race. The " rises " which this class of public instructors take 
 out of their victims are in the general case extravagant enough. Yet 
 the guide who so far fathomed the French historian's appetite and 
 discretion as to show him the expiatory church on the scene of the 
 
 H 
 
114 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 kingdom the regal duchies which fell into the hands of 
 clever ambitious families had a way of expanding into 
 kingdoms and empires. The King of France represented 
 but a Duke of Paris, and the Czar a Duke of Mus- 
 covia. It seemed clear to contemporaries that the Guises 
 of Lorraine were to aggrandise themselves into a royal 
 house. They fell by their too eagerly grasping at a 
 great crown, and the ambition that o'erleaps its sell. 
 Their aim was to rule over France, if not farther; and how 
 
 death of Darnley, must have been an honour to his profession. M. 
 Dargaud is an inveterate hunter after traditions, and finds them in the 
 most unpromising ground. Thus, he found among the cottars of the 
 counties of York, Derby, Northampton, and Stafford, a well-preserved 
 description of Queen Mary riding along, surrounded by her maids of 
 honour, and followed by the ferocious dragoons of Elizabeth. He 
 might about as well go to the coast of Kent and gather an account of 
 the appearance and costume of Julius Caesar on the occasion of his 
 celebrated landing in Britain. 
 
 On matters of historical opinion every man is free. M. Dargaud 
 looked with mysterious awe in Hamilton Palace on the identical 
 hackbut with which Bothwellhaugh shot the Regent Murray. Hav- 
 ing also seen this weapon, I take it, notwithstanding an inscription 
 on it engraved in brass by some eminent maker of door-plates, to 
 have been constructed by some Brummagem rifle -manufacturer about 
 the period of the American War, or perhaps a little later. There is 
 a curious harmony between this author's notions about the assailant's 
 weapon and the defence of the assailed. The Regent Murray, it 
 seems, would not have been pierced by Bothwellhaugh's bullet, if he 
 had had the precaution to put on the ' ' souple et impenetrable cotte 
 de mailles," the work of Henry Wynd, the celebrated armourer of 
 Perth. This coat of mail must be about as imaginary an article as a 
 sermon by the celebrated hypocrite Tartuffe, or a cameo from the 
 collection of the Count of Monte Christo. If we are to have history 
 founded on such materials, it were well to put the right tradition in 
 the right place. So when we have Queen Mary at Hamilton with 
 her followers, after her escape from Loch Leven, displeased with 
 their inactivity, she resolves to rouse them by one of those " symboles 
 familiers au genie des peuples du Nord." Accordingly, she sets be- 
 fore the assembled barons a dish prepared by her own royal hands. 
 The cover is lifted, and behold a pair of spurs ! Universal applause 
 and enthusiasm follow the war-cry is sounded, and all leap to the 
 saddle to conquer or die for their Queen. Everybody is familiar with 
 this, as a Border legend of the method which the goodwife took to 
 remind her husband of an empty larder. There is a certain licence, 
 perhaps, to be permitted to an author of rhetorical and popular ten- 
 dencies, who is speaking of a foreign country, and is apt to get in- 
 
QUEEN MARY. 115 
 
 near they were to accomplishing that object we can only 
 now judge by looking back on that age by the light of the 
 present, in which the experiment which was then made, 
 but failed, has been successful. 
 
 What the Buonaparte dynasty has done for itself, was 
 in fact pretty nearly anticipated by the dynasty of Guise. 
 It is extremely interesting to compare, at the two extremes 
 of such a stretch of time, conditions so unlike in their 
 
 veigled between the real and the ideal. There are other little inac- 
 curacies which some of the author's friends will no doubt consider 
 ornaments, in as far as they exemplify a sort of scorn of minute 
 accuracy in the matters of foreign countries, which, in French litera- 
 ture, is something like the inability of great people to remember the 
 personal histories and genealogical connections of their inferiors. 
 Hence French literature seems to cultivate a sort of imbecility in 
 foreign nomenclature be it applicable to institutions, persons, or 
 places. There is a rather preposterous instance of this assumptive 
 inaptness in M. Dargaud, when he gives us his brilliant description 
 of the marriage of Mary and Darnley, where the Queen is served by 
 "les Comtes Athoil, Sewer, Morton, Caver, et Crawford." One 
 might attribute the appearance of the Earls Sewer and Caver to 
 extremely careless correction of the press ; but there is something 
 about the tone of the passage tending to leave it doubtful whether its 
 author had so read his authorities as to be aware that on that occa- 
 sion Athoil performed the part of sewer, and Morton of carver. 
 There are surely not many British readers of French books who 
 would suppose that a mattre (Thdtel is a personage like the Master 
 of Ravenswood, or that a chef de cuisine indicates the chief of some 
 Gallic clan. It will not disturb this author's equanimity, that he has 
 made mistakes of this kind, should they come to his knowledge. But 
 there are other points coming in contact with French literature, on 
 which even so ambitious a writer as M. Dargaud might be expected 
 to take the trouble of being precise. Doubtless the pretty lines begin- 
 ning 
 
 " Adieu, plaisant pays de France, 
 
 O ma patrie 
 
 La plus cheVie," 
 
 were long attributed to Queen Mary, and cited as critical evidence of 
 the impossibility of her having written other things so far lower both 
 in morality and genius. But a French writer ought to have known 
 that the piece was written by Meunier de Querlon, a clever miscel- 
 laneous author of the middle of the last century. 
 
 I feel some regret in yielding to a malicious temptation, in noticing 
 these trifling inaccuracies in a book which has much interest, and 
 also a deal of historical truth, as distinct from mere accuracy in 
 detail. 
 
Il6 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 mere external and incidental characteristics, yet possessing 
 so much unity in their real essence. There was the same 
 restlessness and fickleness among all classes of the French 
 people, the same vibration between anarchy and abject 
 submission, the same insane determination to drive the 
 one principle uppermost for the time to its most relent- 
 less conclusions; and, what is more to the point, the 
 same thirsting for a leader brave, strong, relentless, and 
 successful. Since the tide turned against Francis I. 
 since the date of the battle of Pavia, we may say the 
 French were losing conceit of the house of Valois. They 
 did not satisfy the national craving for brilliancy and suc- 
 cess, for the satisfaction of which Frenchmen will at once 
 cheerfully abandon their liberties. France, indeed, was 
 waning in the eyes of Europe before the rising influence 
 of Spain and England, the great representatives of the two 
 contending forces of the age. She thus continued in im- 
 minent peril of revolution, until Henry IV. gave the crown 
 the lustre of heroism. Immediately afterwards Richelieu 
 handed over a well-drilled territory to Louis XIV., by 
 whose brilliant career of victories and unjust aggrandise- 
 ments the lease was effectually renewed, and the Revolu- 
 tion postponed. 
 
 Le Balafre', or the Scarred, the head of the Guises, had 
 in the period of weakness and despondency performed the 
 one redeeming achivement which was glorious to his coun- 
 trymen, in the capture of Calais from the English. He 
 was the most popular man of his day, and he knew how 
 by a subtle diplomacy to make that as well as every 
 other element of his strength tell. There can be no 
 doubt that he was the supreme guiding spirit in that bold 
 movement by which the precious infant was spirited out of 
 Scotland, and carried far beyond the reach of Henry VIII., 
 and the influence of his plans for uniting England and 
 Scotland under his son and her. The next great step 
 was her marriage with the Dauphin. Fortune favoured 
 them mightily at one stroke, when Montgomery poked out 
 the eye of Henry II. in the tilt-yard. A member of the 
 house of Guise was now Queen of France. It does not 
 seem probable that then they looked to sovereignty in 
 
QUEEN MARY. II? 
 
 France. They were but increasing their power by every 
 feasible means that offered, and the displacement of their 
 niece's husband was not to be so denned. Indeed it is not 
 likely that the Balafre' himself ever thought of the throne 
 of France. It was on his more unscrupulous and restless 
 son that that consummation of their power seems to have 
 dawned. 
 
 To the world in general it seemed as if all this fabric of 
 power had toppled down at once with the death of the 
 poor feeble King of France. Queen of France and Queen 
 of Scotland the two things were as far apart in power 
 and brilliancy as the palace from the cottage, and the 
 latter now only remained. To these restless and am- 
 bitious spirits, however, the game was by no means up. 
 The court card was still in their hands to be played again ; 
 and though they lost the fortune that seemed secured, 
 there were others even greater within the range of possi- 
 bilities. No time was lost before their busy brains were 
 at work devising a new alliance. The several available 
 monarchs and heirs to thrones were scrutinised. Den- 
 mark and some of the smaller German states were lightly 
 passed over by an eye that looked ever upwards, and at last 
 rested on the supreme pinnacle of European power the 
 Spanish empire. It was there that whatever France lost 
 had been gained. It was the empire whose monarch 
 boasted that the sun never set on his dominions. As his 
 ambassador Don Ferdinand de Mandosa put it, "God 
 was supreme in heaven, but the King of Spain was su- 
 preme on earth." He had brought under his feet the 
 independent states of Spain, snatched Portugal, ruled the 
 greater part of Italy; and though the Dutch were then 
 working out their independence, they were, in the eye of 
 Spain and the greater part of Europe, merely a handful of 
 rebels struggling in a swamp, and earning for themselves 
 condign punishment. He crushed the Moors, and in the 
 conflict afterwards crowned at Lepanto he had proved 
 himself the champion and protector of Christendom 
 against the domineering Turk. 
 
 To preserve a full impression of the mighty position of 
 Spain under Philip II., it is necessary to remember that 
 
Il8 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 the revival of the Empire was the aim of every great Con- 
 tinental power. Spain seemed marching on to this high 
 destiny. France was thrown out in the misfortunes of 
 Francis I. Germany, though nominally in possession of 
 the Caesarship, had not throughout her scattered states 
 concentrated power to give it vitality. The greatness of 
 England was of another kind a fresh growth, totally 
 apart from the remains of the imperial system, and sup- 
 ported by the separate vitality of its energetic, free, in- 
 dustrious people. Thus the Spanish monarch had no 
 effective rival in the ambitious course which he was slowly, 
 but cunningly and resolutely, pursuing; and when he 
 finally succeeded, his would be a greater empire than ever 
 Roman eagle soared above : for had there not been found 
 a new world on the other side of the Atlantic the yet 
 undeveloped empire called " the Indies " ? 
 
 What a position, then, for these ambitious princes of 
 Lorraine, could they get their niece, with her possession 
 of Scotland and her claims to the succession of England, 
 made Queen of Spain ! With such sources of influence 
 in their hands, it would go hard but that the head of the 
 house of Lorraine ruled in France, be it as Mayor of the 
 Palace, as deputy of the Emperor of Europe, or as actual 
 King. And then there was the Empire itself to look for- 
 ward to. 
 
 It is significant of the reach of their ambition that the 
 great Duke, when, as head of the League, he was more 
 powerful than any contemporary monarch except the 
 King of Spain, had it spoken of that he was a descend- 
 ant of Charlemagne. The pedigree was not very accu- 
 rate, but it was as good as that which served the turn 
 of the Lorraine Hapsburgs. The spirit of his policy is 
 reflected in the 'Argenis' of Barclay, who was a keen 
 observer, and designed to leave behind him in his book 
 a closer view of the inner intricacies of the statecraft of 
 the age than the common histories afforded. He wanted 
 to do the difficult duty of speaking to posterity without 
 letting his own generation hear what he said, and so he 
 wove his revelations into a ponderous allegory. In his 
 Lycogenes, however, the great Duke was at once recog- 
 
QUEEN MARY. 119 
 
 nised. His talk is exactly that of his position and views. 
 He is not himself a king, but is at the head of a kingly 
 family. So, when a relation, in the course of some flatter- 
 ing talk, rails against monarchs, Lycogenes rebukes him: 
 None should govern but those of kingly race ; but they 
 should not be absolutely hereditary ; there should be a 
 choice, and the best man among them should get each 
 vacant throne precisely the doctrine to suit his position 
 and views. 1 It has often been maintained that he was 
 not sincere in the Popish fanaticism which he professed. 
 He knew, however, that the Pontificate and the Empire 
 were necessary to each other, as the two orbs of one 
 system Pope and Emperor being as natural a conjunc- 
 tion as Church and King. 
 
 Accordingly a marriage was projected, and all but con- 
 cluded, with Don Carlos, the heir to the Spanish crown. 
 The project suited admirably with the ambitious notions 
 of Philip II. In fact, like the Guises on the death of 
 King Francis, he had just lost by death the hold he had 
 on England through his marriage with Henry VIII.'s 
 daughter, Mary ; and here was another available in its 
 place ; for with all the Roman Catholics there was no 
 doubt that Queen Mary of Scotland was the true heiress 
 of the throne of England, and that the overthrow of 
 Elizabeth the usurper was to be brought about by Provi- 
 dence in its own good time, with such judicious aid from 
 the sword as Philip was able and very willing to supply. 
 
 There was a dark and subtle spirit, however, which in 
 close quarters might come to be more powerful than the 
 Guises or the King of Spain either, dead against the 
 match. This was our friend Catherine of Medici, the 
 mother-in-law of Mary. The motives of this terrible 
 woman have been an enigma to historians. And yet 
 
 1 ' ' Timerat Lycogenes invidiam, quod ab suo nepote oppugnaretur 
 jus regium. Nam et hoc inutile suis cceptis facinus erat, qui non 
 delete sed habere sibi regnum optaert. Aliud commodius visum : 
 quandoquidem ille sermo incideiat arguere gentium ritum, quas uni 
 se stirpi in hereditatem permiserant, cseterasque extollere post singu- 
 lorum obitum regum in comitia et suffragia euntes." ' Argenis,' lib. i. 
 ch. 15. 
 
120 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 there is a view of them simple enough, which tallies 
 pretty well with the facts of history : it is, that she had 
 no scruples of any kind, and let nothing stand between 
 her and her object. If lies could accomplish her object, 
 tell them ; if life were in the way, out with it, by bullet, 
 steel, or poison, as may be most convenient, considering 
 time and purpose. Her policy was an engine to be kept 
 going, though nothing but human blood should be avail- 
 able for working it ; and as to the nature of her policy, 
 it was not that of despotism or of liberty, of the Church 
 of Rome or of freedom of conscience, but the enjoyment 
 of self-centred power. It seems to add a new shade to 
 one of the darkest pictures of human wickedness, to say 
 that the author of the Massacre of St Bartholomew had 
 no fanaticism or religious zeal in her; but so it was. 
 As to Philip, he was a thorough bigot, who consoled 
 himself on his deathbed by reflecting on the numbers 
 he had put to death, and the quantity of human agony 
 he had inflicted for the sake of the Church ; but as to his 
 rival in bloodshed and cruelty, she would have become 
 a Huguenot or a Mohammedan could it have served her 
 purpose. At a celebrated conference at Bayonne, on 
 the frontier, whither she went professedly to meet her 
 daughter, she met also with the Duke of Alva and other 
 historic personages. It was a general opinion that there, 
 in dark conclave, a league was formed for the extirpation 
 of the Protestants, of which Catherine honestly observed 
 her part on St Bartholomew's Day. But in their recently 
 published state papers the French Government have 
 given the world a full and particular account of the 
 sayings and doings at this conference, and represent to 
 us Catherine cool and politic, sarcastic almost, at the 
 fiery enthusiasm of Spain, and absolutely charged with a 
 secret partiality towards the Huguenots. 1 
 
 She had no love for Mary Stewart. The day on which 
 she, the mother of the king, had to give precedence to 
 the young beauty who had become reigning queen, 
 stamped its mark on her black heart. Mary stung the 
 
 1 *Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de Granville,' ix. 319. 
 
QUEEN MARY. 121 
 
 dowager occasionally with her sarcastic tongue; for few 
 were better adepts at that dangerous accomplishment 
 which torments and makes enemies. For all its illus- 
 trious history, the house of Medici was an anomaly among 
 the feudalities, from having founded its wealth and power 
 on commerce instead of rapine, and it lay open to sneers 
 as not legitimately regal ; hence Mary called her mother- 
 in-law the fille de Marchand a sneer which Catherine 
 committed to her dangerous and retentive memory. She 
 was pretty freely accused, indeed, of having shortened her 
 son's life, because she thought she would have more power 
 were he out of the way ; and no doubt she was quite cap- 
 able of the deed. The only thing in which she showed 
 any of the confiding weakness of mankind was in being 
 a devotee of astrology and divination ; but these, if they 
 were supernatural, yet were agencies put in the power of 
 man which she might turn to her own immediate purpose, 
 and which were therefore far more to be respected than 
 the religion which belonged to another world, in which 
 she could not command obedience. 
 
 Well, Catherine was against the Spanish match, for the 
 obvious reason that it would render the power of the Lor- 
 raine Guises preponderant over that of herself and her 
 sons. She was indefatigable in carrying her point. M. 
 Che'ruel has published some of her letters on the affair to 
 the Bishop of Limoges, the French ambassador in Spain. 
 Strange documents they are, subtle almost to unintelligi- 
 bility, full of ingenious suggestion and eager pleading, 
 with a shadowy half-hidden under-current of menace. It 
 was difficult to bring very powerful arguments to bear 
 against an arrangement so advantageous to both the 
 parties concerned. She tried to make out that it would 
 be extremely detrimental to the Catholic cause, because, 
 if her hand were weakened by the aggrandisement of the 
 Guises, it would be the Huguenot King of Navarre, and 
 not she, who would really obtain the chief influence in 
 France. She endeavoured to work through King Philip's 
 confessor and several of his confidential advisers. Her 
 daughter was Philip's third wife to her the most plausible 
 arguments were addressed. 
 
122 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 It was proposed that Don Carlos, instead of having 
 Mary, should be married to the younger sister of his step- 
 mother, the Queen of Spain. Thus that Queen would 
 have a sister with her, and her position would be strength- 
 ened by an alliance with the heir to the throne, on whom 
 her own personal claim as his stepmother would be but 
 small. Catherine even endeavoured to move Queen Eliza- 
 beth to her ends by presenting to her a prospect, no doubt 
 sufficiently alarming, both for the cause of Protestantism 
 and her own personal interest. But how Elizabeth could 
 have acted in the matter save through the influence of 
 Murray, afterwards the Regent, on his sister, is not very 
 clear. The match, however, was defeated. People so 
 unscrupulous as Catherine are very successful in accom- 
 plishing their ends. She had in her employment a 
 countryman of her own, one Bianci, or Blanc, as the 
 French annalists call him, an expert confectioner, who 
 got the title of Queen Catherine's poisoner that being 
 the function by which he was reputed to gain his liv- 
 ing. A powerful effect would be produced on the mind 
 by such a thought passing over it as " Well, if I push 
 her to the wall, that woman will poison me." From 
 whatever cause, however, she had her way on this oc- 
 casion, and one of the most brilliant of the dreams of 
 ambition was dispersed. 
 
 So ends the first act ; but the tragedy in which the 
 King of Spain, the Lorraine Guises, and Queen Mary, 
 continue to be the chief characters, is not yet acted out. 
 The first casualty is among the Guises. Mary has not 
 long endured her dreary banishment to her own kingdom, 
 when a despatch arrives telling her how the brave Balafre 
 has been murdered by the fanatic Poltrot. The blow is 
 a severe one. The uncle and niece had an abundant 
 fund of common sympathies. Both were princely, not 
 alone by descent and conventional rank, but by the 
 original stamp of the Deity, which had given them 
 majesty and beauty in externals, balanced by bravery, 
 wit, geniality, and high spirit as their intellectual and 
 moral inheritance. She was proud of the great warrior 
 and the wise statesman who had guided her youthful 
 
QUEEN MARY. 123 
 
 steps to greatness, and he was proud to be the parent 
 and instructor of the most fascinating princess of her age. 
 
 It was just after his death that the dark days of Mary 
 came upon her. Her maternal house still kept up a close 
 intercourse with her, but personally their relation had wid- 
 ened. They were cousins now, not uncle and niece, and 
 their intercourse was rather diplomatic than affectionate. 
 
 Upwards of twenty years have passed, and preparation 
 is made for the chamber of execution at Fotheringay, yet 
 still the chief persons in the drama are the same. A 
 whisper arises and passes over Europe, Is a King of 
 France, a descendant of Saint Louis, a grandson of the 
 great Francis, going to permit his sister-in law, who wore 
 the crown, and yet bears the title of a Dowager Queen 
 of France, to be put to death like a felon ? Certainly 
 not. There is a certain Monsieur Bellievre accredited to 
 the Court of Elizabeth, for the purpose of bringing her 
 to reason, and stopping any attempt at violence. He 
 seems to have acted in some degree like the consul who 
 quoted Bynkershook and Puffendorf and Grotius, and 
 proved from Vatel, &c. ; and in the text of the inviola- 
 bility of princes, he quoted Cicero, and referred to Mark 
 Antony, Mutius Scaevola, and Porsenna with such apt 
 diplomatic scholarship, that De Thou thought his speeches 
 to Elizabeth, as reported by the speaker, worthy of being 
 incorporated in full in his great History. But in reality 
 Bellievre had a wondrously difficult part to perform, and 
 his big classic talk was all intended to blazon over and 
 hide his real helplessness. 
 
 Had the King of France determined to act ? that was 
 the critical question. He had come to no such determi- 
 nation; or rather he had determined, if such a term is 
 appropriate, not to act, and Elizabeth knew it. His object 
 in the embassy was to hide his real abandonment of his 
 sister-in-law from the eye of Europe. The ambassador, 
 however, had personally too much chivalry for such a 
 task. When he was done with his classical citations, at 
 a long personal interview he at last distinctly threatened 
 Elizabeth, should she persist, with the vengeance of 
 the French Government. The virago fired up at this ; 
 
124 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 she put it sharply to Bellievre, had he the authority of 
 the King her brother to hold such language to her ? Yes, 
 he had, expressly. Well, she must have a copy of this, 
 under the ambassador's own hand. If Bellievre gave 
 her the genuine instructions communicated to him, they 
 would be found but faintly to warrant his brave words 
 of defiance ; for after some rather unchivalric proposals 
 for adjusting the affair without the necessity of a behead- 
 ing, they contain a vague sort of threat of resentment if 
 they be not adopted. 1 
 
 Elizabeth, after the tragedy was over, wrote a jeering 
 letter to King Henry about this threat, showing how 
 lightly she esteemed it if not, indeed, showing that there 
 was a common understanding between them on the point. 
 After the execution, which was supposed to take every- 
 body by surprise, the next question was, whether the 
 King of France would avenge it. M. Che'ruel, who has 
 the inner history of the French part of the affair ready to 
 his hand, says the country was filled with cries of venge- 
 ance. He selects as the key-note of this sentiment the 
 words in which it was echoed by 1'Ecossais Blackwood : 
 " Le Roi, parent et beau-frere de cette dame, laissera-t-il 
 son meurtre impuni ? il ne souffrira jamais que cette tache 
 deshonore son tres illustre nom, ni que telle infamie tombe 
 sur le royaume de France." 2 
 
 But he was just going, with his own hands, to drop a 
 darker blot on his illustrious name. M. Che'ruel notices 
 the significant little fact, that when Renaud de Beaurne, 
 Archbishop of Bourges, preached a funeral sermon on 
 Queen Mary, in which he called her relations, the Guises, 
 foudres de guerre^ or thunderbolts of war, he was required 
 to suppress this expression when he published the sermon. 
 The question between the Guises and the house of Valois 
 was coming to an issue; within a few months after the 
 execution of Mary, the first war of barricades was fought 
 
 1 " Si la Reine d'Angleterre ne les met en aucune consideration, 
 mais veut faire proceder a 1'execution de si rigoureux et si extra- 
 ordinaire jugement, il ne se pourra qu'il ne s'en ressente comme de 
 chose qui 1'offense fort particulierement. " Cheruel, 165. 
 
 * Quoted, Cheruel, p. 171. 
 
QUEEN MARY. 125 
 
 on the streets of Paris ; a month or two later the Duke of 
 Guise was murdered in the King's audience-chamber, and 
 the family broken. Henry's lukewarmness to Queen 
 Mary had its practical explanation he was not going to 
 commit himself against a powerful monarch like Eliza- 
 beth, either to frustrate or to avenge the fate of a member 
 of the detested family doomed by him to destruction. 
 
 The drama is not yet entirely played out. A great 
 scene remains before the curtain drops, in which Spain 
 has to play a part j it has been dictated by the departed 
 enchantress, and is the last, as it is the grandest, instance 
 of her power. The history of this affair, as now pretty 
 well filled up by the documents printed by the French- 
 men, is extremely curious, both for the minuteness of the 
 particulars, and the vastness of the historical events on 
 which they bear. It will be remembered that, in her 
 latter days, Queen Mary rested her hopes on the King of 
 Spain, feeling that, unless her cousins the Guises were 
 successful, she need expect nothing from France, and 
 conscious, at the same time, that countenance and help 
 from Spain would be the most powerful means of accom- 
 plishing their success. Accordingly, with marvellous per- 
 severance and adroitness, she kept up a close correspon- 
 dence during her imprisonment with Philip II., and every 
 new document discovered renders it clearer than ever that 
 it was at her instigation chiefly that Philip undertook the 
 invasion of England. 
 
 Mary left behind her a last will, which Ritson the 
 antiquary said he saw, blotted with her tears, in the 
 Scottish College at Paris. It was, like her ostensible 
 acts, a monument of kindness and generosity, performed 
 with a mournful dignity becoming her rank and her mis- 
 fortunes. All who had been kind and faithful to her, 
 high and low, were gratified by bequests, which were 
 precious relics, more dear than the riches she could no 
 longer bestow. She had, however, issued another will 
 of a more important character, which, with her other 
 papers, was seized at Chartley. This will contained such 
 strange and ominous matter that it was deemed wise at 
 once to burn it ; and lest there should be any doubt that 
 
126 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 it was effectually destroyed, or any suspicion that its pur- 
 port had gone abroad, Elizabeth burnt it with her own 
 hands. It gave its warning it showed the enemy it 
 should go no further on its mischievous path ; so thought 
 Cecil and his mistress. But they had to deal with one 
 not easily baffled in the accomplishment of her fixed de- 
 signs. She confided her testamentary bequests verbally to 
 two different persons, on whose fidelity she could rely. 
 
 Her executor was the King of Spain. The nature of 
 these bequests had not been entirely concealed. James 
 himself, in his lubberly schoolboy-like complaints about 
 his mother, showed that he knew about them. They now 
 make their appearance in the shape of a statement of the 
 reception which the King of Spain gave to the testamen- 
 tary injunctions. If we are to suppose which we are at 
 liberty to do that they were utter falsehoods, invented 
 by the persons who pretended to be accredited to the 
 King of Spain, there is, at all events, this much of fact in 
 the whole affair, that the King of Spain believed them to 
 be genuine, and acted on them fully and emphatically. 
 It is the record of his so acting that we now possess. 
 
 Gorion, Queen Mary's French physician, was one of 
 the recipients of this deposit. He was commissioned to 
 convey to the King of Spain her desire that he would 
 pay certain debts and legacies, and distribute pensions 
 and other rewards among her more faithful adherents. 
 As to the debts and the smaller recompenses of services, 
 the Queen appealed to his religious feeling, on the ground 
 that to leave the world without the prospect of these 
 things being paid, pressed heavily on her conscience. 
 The sums of money absolutely named in these requests 
 were considerable; and in asking that the pensions of the 
 English Catholics, including the Earl of Westmoreland, 
 Lord Paget, Charles Arundel, Charles Paget, Throckmor- 
 ton, and Morgan, might be continued, she evidently drew 
 upon a liberal hand. Philip appears not only to have unhes- 
 itatingly met the larger and ostensible demands thus made 
 on him, but with a religious zeal to have sought out the 
 more obscure objects of Mary's goodwill, that he might 
 rigidly perform her injunctions to the utmost farthing. 
 
QUEEN MARY. 127 
 
 One great injunction still remained it was that, not- 
 withstanding her death, he would not abandon his enter- 
 prise on England an enterprise devised in the cause of 
 God, and worthy of a true Catholic king. This bequest 
 also, as all the world knows, the King of Spain did his 
 best to carry into effect. There were some little sub- 
 sidiary services to be performed by him when he had 
 accomplished it. Mary's account with the world had a 
 debtor as well as a creditor side. If the King of Spain 
 could reward friends, it was also hoped that he would be 
 in a position to punish enemies : her last request, there- 
 fore, was, that when once master of England, he would 
 not forget how she had been treated by Cecil, Leicester, 
 Secretary Walsingham, Lord Huntington, Sir Amyas 
 Paulet, and Wade, the clever Secretary of the Council, 
 who had discovered the designs of Spain by putting the 
 fragments of a torn letter together. 
 
 While the French physician bore to the King of Spain 
 what might be termed the burdens and obligations of the 
 testament, it was commissioned to other messengers 
 being the Queen's two faithful attendants, Elizabeth Curie 
 and Jane Kennedy to intimate what may be called the 
 beneficial portion, which was no less than the bequeath- 
 ing to the King of Spain the crowns of Scotland and Eng- 
 land, in the event of her son James continuing obstinate 
 in his heresy. It is with almost ludicrous gravity that 
 M. Teulet says, " Philippe II. accepta sans he'siter les 
 charges d'une succession qui lui offrait des eventualites 
 si avantageuses." Advantageous eventualities indeed 
 but, as they proved to the executor, calamitous realities. 
 
 Within eighteen months after the death of Mary, the 
 Armada was in the Channel. It was the last grand ex- 
 plosion of the ancient crusading chivalry, an expedition 
 to restore the Catholic Church to its supremacy, and at 
 the same time to carry out the dying wish and avenge the 
 wrongs of an injured woman and a holy martyr. The 
 great actual drama is now completed, and it is wonderful 
 with what a close contiguity in time its long-suspended 
 issues complete themselves. Early in the year 1587 
 Queen Mary is executed ; in the summer of the ensuing 
 
128 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 year the Armada comes forth and is destroyed. That 
 winter the Duke of Guise is murdered and his family 
 crushed ; and again, before another year passes, the per- 
 fidious perpetrator of the deed, Henry III., is murdered 
 by a Popish fanatic, who thus clears the throne for the 
 tolerant monarch who did more than any other for the 
 real greatness of France. 
 
 From this great epoch history starts afresh with new 
 actors, who are to bring out a new development of events. 
 The mighty empire of Spain from that period collapses 
 like the bankrupt estate of an over-sanguine trader, who 
 has risked all his capital on some great adventure ending 
 in shipwreck. A powerful little colony of industrious 
 Protestants rises up where her yoke has been thrown off 
 in Holland. France is no longer in the hand of the 
 Guise or of the Medici, but is ruled by one who, if he 
 dare not be Protestant, will at all events be tolerant, and in 
 the balance of the European powers, Protestantism, if not 
 predominant, is at least made secure. In the great recast- 
 ing of the position of the European powers, Scotland's 
 relations to France and England respectively have under- 
 gone a revolution. Let us take a glance backwards, then, 
 and sketch the events which bring our own special story 
 that of the Ancient League to its natural conclusion. 
 
 The firm footing of Protestantism in the north of 
 Europe, and the fusion of England and Scotland, must 
 have seemed among the most unlikely of human events, 
 on that loth of July 1559, when Henry II. died of the 
 wound he got in a tournament, and his son Francis suc- 
 ceeded him, with Mary of Scotland for queen. Elizabeth 
 had not been quite eight months on the throne of Eng- 
 land. She had kept her leaning towards Protestantism 
 it was little more than a leaning so close, that foreign 
 nations seem for some time to have known nothing of it 
 Philip II., the widower of her Popish sister Mary, had no 
 conception of the change that was coming. He could 
 see nothing in the general state of Europe, except the 
 symptoms that things were righting themselves again, after 
 the partial storm of the Reformation, and settling quietly 
 under the wings of the Popedom. He looked on Eng- 
 
QUEEN MARY. 129 
 
 land, next to his own dear Spain and the Netherlands, as 
 the most Catholic kingdom in Europe. He wished the 
 English crown to have been entailed on him in case of 
 his surviving his wife. He thought it strange and rather 
 unreasonable that this should not have been done ; but 
 he took the personal disappointment with magnanimity, 
 intimating that he would still take a paternal interest in 
 his late wife's dominions. He was prepared, if duty re- 
 quired him, to marry Elizabeth on a dispensation from 
 the Pope, and was astonished beyond measure when he 
 heard that a hint of the possible distinction in store for 
 her had not been received by the eccentric young Queen 
 with the grateful deference which it should have com- 
 manded. But it was long before he could permit himself 
 to doubt that her kingdom would stand by him for the 
 Popedom, against the lax notions which the monarchs of 
 France had allowed to arise in the Gallican Church. In 
 the calculations of the Continental powers, the prospect 
 of England continuing at the command of Philip and the 
 Court of Rome was a thing so probable, that, in the nego- 
 tiations for the great treaty of Chateau Cambresis, France, 
 when called on to give back Calais to England, had the 
 face to plead as a reason for declining, at least deferring 
 this sacrifice, the probability that this fortress might thus 
 be put at the command of the King of Spain, and help 
 him to invade France from his Flemish dominions. 
 
 Some of the most picturesque movements of the dip- 
 lomacy of the day wind round the affair of Calais. France, 
 ^having got it, was determined to keep it. Elizabeth and 
 her advisers were determined to get it back by any means 
 short of capture, but that was just short of the only means 
 by which it was to be had. Elizabeth pleaded, rather 
 ludicrously, that the English people considered it so essen- 
 tial a possession of the English crown that they would not 
 submit to its loss. It was maintained rather more reason- 
 ably on the other hand, that, as part of the soil of France, 
 it would be a dangerous offence to the French people to 
 give it up. The argument more to the point on the 
 present occasion, however, was one that carried keen 
 alarm to Elizabeth's Court. It was thus briefly put by 
 
 i 
 
I3O THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 the French to the English commissioners at Chateau 
 Cambresis : " Put the case that Calais was to be re- 
 delivered, and that we did owe such debts to the Crown 
 of England, to whom shall we deliver Calais ? to whom 
 shall we pay the debts ? Is not the Queen of Scots true 
 Queen of England? Shall we deliver Calais and those 
 debts to another, and thereby prejudice the rights of the 
 Queen of Scotland and the Dauphin, her husband ? " l 
 
 When such words could be spoken while the young 
 couple were waiting for the death of a man in the prime 
 of life to succeed to the throne of France, it was to be 
 expected, when the succession suddenly opened to them, 
 that there would be more audacious pretensions still. 
 The affair was no empty bravado, such as the pretensions 
 of the Tudors to the throne of France had come to be. 
 With Roman Catholics at home as well as abroad, Mary 
 was the heiress to the throne of England. A large por- 
 tion of England was still Romanist, and it was not yet 
 known what effect Elizabeth's Reformation tendencies 
 might have on the popular mind. The pretensions of the 
 young couple to the throne of England were not the less 
 ominous that they were made in coinage and heraldry, in 
 a very quiet way, and as a matter of course. The English 
 ambassador observed it all, reporting home in angry let- 
 ters to his angrier mistress. It came to the climax of 
 insult when he had either to abstain from the good things 
 at state banquets, or eat off platters on which the arms of 
 England were quartered with those of France and Scot- 
 land. 2 
 
 1 Stevenson, ' Calendar of State Papers (Foreign), 2d March 
 
 1559-' 
 
 2 The quartering was noticed by Throckmorton on a memorable 
 occasion the tournament in which Henry II. received his fatal 
 wound. ' ' When the Dauphin's band began the jousts, two heralds 
 which came before the band were Scots, fair, set out with the King 
 and Queen Dauphin's arms, with a scutcheon of England, set forth to 
 the show, as all the world might easily perceive ; the same being em- 
 broidered with purple velvet, and set out with armoury upon their 
 breasts, backs, and sleeves. 
 
 "The 29th, the bands of the Prince of Conde, of the Dukes of 
 Longueville and Buillon, ran against the challengers, at which tri- 
 
FRENCH AGGRESSION. 131 
 
 Few things in the uncertain future of the destinies of 
 nations had ever approached nearer to a certainty than the 
 steadfastness at that juncture of the Old League between 
 Scotland and France ; and yet within it elements of polit- 
 ical decomposition were at work, which might bring it 
 dr.wn with a crash, as a fair building consumed by dry rot 
 is in a condition to fall to pieces, and is most likely to do 
 so when it is most relied on and put to most trying use. 
 Two hundred years had changed the France which re- 
 ceived Buchan's detachment as the rescuers and guardians 
 of the land. By the acquisition of Burgundy, Brittany, 
 Maine, Anjou, Guienne, and other fiefs, the territories 
 absolutely ruled by the house of Valois had increased 
 some fourfold. Scotland had improved in wealth, yet the 
 relative proportions of the two countries had vastly altered. 
 
 umph were the Pope's Nuncio, the Ambassador of Venice, and the 
 writer, in a place appointed by the Constable. The Ambassador of 
 Portugal was there, not in their company, but stood in a house right 
 over against them, which was of his own provision. 
 
 "The 30th, the Prince of Nevers, called Count d'Eu, came to the 
 tilt with his band ; no other ambassador besides himself was there to 
 see them run. Whereat it happened that the King, after running a 
 good many courses well and fair, meeting with young M. de Lorges, 
 Captain of the Scottish Guard, received at his hand such a counter- 
 buff as, first lighting on the King's head and taking away the pan- 
 nage (whereupon there was a great plume of feathers), which was 
 fastened to his headpiece with iron, did break his staff ; and with the 
 rest of the staff hitting the King's face, gave him such a counterbuff 
 as he drove a splinter right over his eye on the right side, the force of 
 which stroke was so vehement, and the pain so great, that he was 
 much astonished, and had great ado to keep himself on horseback, 
 and his horse also did somewhat yield. Whereupon, with all expe- 
 dition, he was unarmed in the field, even against the place where 
 Throckmorton stood, as he could discern. The hurt seemed not to 
 be great, whereby he judges that he is but in little danger. Marry, 
 he saw a splint taken out of a good bigness. Nothing else was done 
 to him upon the field, but he noted him to be very weak, and to have 
 the sense of all his limbs almost benumbed ; for being carried away 
 as he lay along, nothing covered but his face, he moved neither hand 
 nor foot, but lay as one amazed. Whether there were any more 
 splints entered in (as in such cases it happens), it was not known. 
 There was marvellous great lamentation and weeping, both of men 
 and women, for him. Thus God makes Himself known, that in the 
 very midst of these triumphs suffers this heaviness to happen. " 
 
132 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Their diplomatic relations had changed, at least on the 
 French side, in the assumption of a protecting and patron- 
 ising nomenclature. There was offence to Scotland even 
 in the marshalling of arms that had enraged England, 
 since the lion occupied the subsidiary quarterings on the 
 royal shield, as indicating a territorial possession, instead 
 of being charged on a pale or some honourable ordinary, 
 as a merely personal difference derived from a matri- 
 monial alliance. 
 
 But the mere assumption of superiority was not all, in 
 fact, the assumption was concealed as well as such a thing 
 could be, under decorous externals, beneath which there 
 were designs to accomplish something far more effective 
 than a magnanimous protectorship. 
 
 The papers revealed to the world by M. Teulet show 
 that from the time when the heiress to the crown of Scot- 
 land came into the possession of her ambitious kinsfolk, 
 they were laying plans for governing Scotland in Paris, 
 and annexing the country to the throne of France. Dated 
 in the year 1552 is a "Declaration" or Memorandum of 
 the Parliament of Paris on the adjustment of the govern- 
 ment of Scotland. 1 In this document one can see, under 
 official formalities, the symptoms of an almost irritable 
 impatience to get the nominal government vested in the 
 young Queen, in order that the real government might be 
 administered by her kinsfolk. She had then entered on 
 her twelfth year. That she ought to take the sovereignty 
 into her own hands is a proposition reached by two steps, 
 which may be denned as a long and a short. The long 
 step reaches the position, that when twelve years old she 
 would be entitled to govern a proposition fortified by 
 a curiously tortuous application of precedents from the 
 sovereignty of France, to which male heirs only could 
 succeed. A Roman maxim which imports that a day 
 begun is to be counted in law as completed, is then 
 brought up, and it is shown that in proper logical consist- 
 
 1 ' Declaration du Parlement de Paris sur le Gouvernement de 
 1'Ecosse,' Teulet, 8vo ed., i. 274. 
 
FRENCH AGGRESSION. 133 
 
 ency the maxim should apply to a year. Along with the 
 technical argument came two of a wider and more states- 
 manlike character, which are, however, signally open to 
 the charge of being inconsistent with each other. The 
 one was, that the Deity, in consideration of the heavy 
 responsibilities devolved on them, had endowed young 
 royal personages with precocious capacities ; the other 
 was, that, however youthful a sovereign may be, there are 
 always at hand wise and clever persons to govern the 
 realm and this, in fact, pointed to the real object. The 
 document was no doubt drawn up by the persons who 
 were ready to take the responsibility of governing Scotland 
 on themselves. 1 
 
 A plan was, however, found for accomplishing the de- 
 sired end more simple and practical than the devices of 
 the civilians and feudalists. The Governor of Scotland 
 was the head of the house of Hamilton, who held that 
 office as next in hereditary succession to the crown if the 
 young Queen should die. This office was taken from 
 him, and he was compensated for the loss by the Duke- 
 dom of Chatelherault. Mary of Guise became Regent 
 of Scotland, under the direction of her brothers, the great 
 Duke and the great Cardinal. 
 
 The Scots lords now saw sights calculated, as the 
 Persians say, to open the eyes of astonishment. A clever 
 French statesman, M. d'Osel, was sent over as the ad- 
 viser of the Regent, to be her Prime Minister, and enable 
 her to rule Scotland after the model of France. A step 
 was taken to get at the high office of Chancellor by ap- 
 pointing Monsieur de Rubay to be Vice-Chancellor, with 
 possession of the Great Seal. The office of Comptroller 
 of the Treasury was dealt with more boldly, and put into 
 the hands of M. Villemore. At Eyemouth, near the east 
 
 1 " II y a done grande difference entre la tutelle d'un prive* et le 
 gouvernement d'un royaulme ; mesmement que les rois, en quelque 
 aage qu'ilz soient, sont accompagnes de princes, grands seigneurs, et 
 gens de grand S9avoir et experience, par le conseil desquelz ilz ont 
 administre les royaulmes." Teulet, 8vo ed., i. 277. 
 
134 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 border, a great fortress was erected, on the new plans of 
 fortification, to confront the English fortress of Berwick, 
 and a Frenchman was appointed its governor. The 
 Regent cast an eye on the strongholds of the great lords, 
 determining to fill them with garrisons more obedient 
 to the Crown than their existing occupants. When she 
 began with Tantallon, which, by its situation and strength, 
 would be a desirable acquisition, the Earl of Angus, with 
 epigrammatic point worthy of her own nation, said his 
 house was at her service, but assuredly he should remain 
 governor, for no other could hold it so well. 
 
 Suspicious surveys and inventories were made of pro- 
 perty, and it was declared, almost more to the amaze- 
 ment than to the indignation of the country, that a tax 
 was to be levied for the support of a standing army. 
 Now the feudal array, which by old custom could be 
 called by the sovereign, each freeholder contributing to 
 it so many men-at-arms for a short period, was the only 
 military force known in Scotland, and any attempt to 
 create a royal army in any other shape was always re- 
 ceived with the most nervous jealousy. On this occa- 
 sion three hundred of the chief persons interested as- 
 sembled in the church of Holyrood and declared re- 
 sistance. 
 
 There were ugly stories afloat about attempts, on the 
 occasion of the Queen's marriage, to juggle with the 
 official nomenclature which represented the independence 
 of Scotland as a sovereignty. It was requested that the 
 crown and other "honours," as they were termed, might 
 be sent to Paris ; but there was suspicion about the use 
 these might be put to such as crowning the Dauphin, 
 perhaps and the request was refused. It was said that 
 Mary had been required to sign a deed importing her 
 husband's absolute right to the crown on survivorship ; 
 and, whether true or not, belief in such a story had its 
 influence. It is certain that an expression which after- 
 wards gave a deal of trouble was then used in conferring 
 on the Dauphin the "crown matrimonial." It was stated 
 by the Lords of the Congregation in Scotland to have 
 been an invention of the Guises, who had some hidden 
 
DIFFICULTIES WITH FRANCE. 135 
 
 meaning in it. 1 When the question of its meaning after- 
 wards came up in the refusal of the crown matrimonial 
 to Darnley, it was explained that it would pervert the line 
 of succession that the crown matrimonial meant the 
 sovereignty in the survivor and the survivor's heirs, 
 whether descendants of Queen Mary or of another wife. 
 In this sense, the arrangement was equivalent to the 
 kind of entail which Philip thought it so unreasonable 
 that he did not get of the crown of England. 
 
 The state papers of France at that time speak of Scot- 
 land as of a highly favoured dependency. An act of the 
 French Government, which externally was one of grace 
 and free - hearted generosity, did not mend matters. 
 There had been many acts of naturalisation in favour 
 of Scotsmen, and now, by one sweep of hospitality, the 
 whole nation was naturalised. The privilege was a large 
 one, for France, by her droit tfaubame, was conspicuously 
 inhospitable to unprivileged foreigners ; but the phrase- 
 ology of the document made its object too plain, and 
 some comments referring to the practice of the Roman 
 empire in admitting the inhabitants of distant provinces 
 to a limited citizenship did not improve its effect. 2 
 
 When the eight commissioners sent from Scotland to 
 assist at the marriage were on their way home, a special 
 epidemic seemed to break out among them, which killed 
 four out of the eight at Dieppe, and their death was as 
 naturally attributed to poison as the disappearance of 
 watches in a London mob is attributed to pocket-picking; 
 it was maintained that they knew some facts about the 
 affairs of the marriage which it was desirable that they 
 should not have an opportunity of communicating to the 
 Scots Estates. 
 
 These facts fitting in with the method of the Regent's 
 government in Scotland, resistance and war came at last. 
 
 1 Teulet, ii. 10: "Honoris causa diademate matrimonial! ornare: 
 ad rem, quse exemplum apud historicos scripteres nusquam habet, 
 novato usu vocabili quo nobis oculos perstringerent." 
 
 ^ The letters were addressed "a tous les habitans du.dit royaume 
 d'Escosse subjectz de nostre filz Roy-Dauphin et nostre fille son 
 espouse. " 
 
136 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 The Regent, finding at the commencement that she might 
 have the worst of it, accepted in a very frank manner of 
 a treaty, which she broke on the first opportunity, and 
 with a rapidity which had in it a sort of deliberateness, 
 since it showed that she did not yield reluctantly to 
 sore temptation, but acted on deliberate design. This 
 united those who were otherwise shy of each other, and 
 a war, the events of which are well known in history, 
 broke forth against Popery and French influence. 
 
 The great turning-point in the destinies of the British 
 empire had now come, and to bring it on with the tide 
 depended on the skill of the English Government. The 
 wounds of Henry's tyrannous invasions were still fresh. 
 How narrowly England escaped the wrong tack is shown in 
 the later revelations from the State Paper Office, which set 
 forth a plan for declaring and enforcing the old feudal 
 claim of superiority over Scotland. So was that poor 
 country pulled on the other side. But, fortunately, the 
 new Queen of England had advisers about her who could 
 read the tenor of old experience, and see that force was 
 not the way to make good the precious opportunity. 
 Indeed it behoved them to be rid of their own fears 
 before they bullied others. England was in imminent 
 danger. France had grand designs of annexation and 
 empire ; Spain was relaxing her friendly grasp ; and if 
 these two Popish powers, with Scotland at their service, 
 fell on England, where would Elizabeth's throne be ? The 
 instructions to the English commissioners at the great 
 treaty of Chateau Cambresis might have given comfort 
 to the Scots, had they known the anxiety of their power- 
 ful enemy for peace with them. "We think the peace 
 with Scotland of as great moment for us as that with 
 France, and rather of greater; so, as to be plain with 
 you, if either there should not be a peace there fully con- 
 cluded betwixt us and Scotland, we see not but it were as 
 good to leave the matter in suspense with the French as 
 to conclude with them, and to have no other assurance 
 of the French but a bare comprehension of Scotland." 
 The French, it seems, were ready in their haughty man- 
 ner to stipulate for Scotland, but Cecil knew the temper 
 
TURNING TO ENGLAND. 137 
 
 of his neighbours too well to be content with such an 
 assurance. The instructions come back to the topic, 
 and press it on the commissioners : " And for our satis- 
 faction beside the matter of Calais, nothing in all this 
 conclusion with the French may in surety satisfy us, if 
 we have not peace with Scotland : and so we will that 
 ye shall plainly inform our said good brother's commis- 
 sioners, and that with speed." l 
 
 The Queen reminds her trusty counsellors that they, 
 " not ignorant of the state of our realm having been much 
 weakened of late with sickness, death, and loss by wars, 
 can very well consider how unmeet it is for us to con- 
 tinue in these manner of wars, if we may be otherwise 
 provided of a peace like to continue ; and how fit it is 
 and necessary to have peace." The commissioners are 
 directed at great length to bully powerfully for the res- 
 toration of Calais. But the real dangers visible, and the 
 acute hungering for peace, squeeze out a brief and agonis- 
 ing permission to sacrifice everything for peace : " We do 
 give you authority at the very last end, being as loath 
 thereunto as may be desired, rather than continue these 
 wars, to make the peace as you best and most honourably 
 may, and as the difficulty of the time may serve, so that 
 we may have certainly peace with Scotland, with reser- 
 vation of our claims as well to Calais as to all other 
 our titles, pensions, and arrearages heretofore due by 
 France." 2 
 
 The negotiation of the treaty was attended by some 
 incidents, ludicrous in themselves, and far beneath the 
 dignity of history, yet curious as indicative of that stub- 
 born pride which bore up the Scots in all their difficulties 
 and calamities. Where was the treaty to be negotiated? 
 Of course, England, the greater power, was not to go to 
 Scotland ; but, on the other hand, Scotland refused so 
 far to acknowledge a superiority as to step over the 
 border into England. On the i2th of May 1559, Bishop 
 Tunstall writes to say, that they had extreme difficulty in 
 
 1 'Calendar of State Papers (Foreign), 1558-59,' p. 151. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 139. 
 
138 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 being absolutely certain of neutral ground, and " our first 
 meeting was in the midst of the river between us both ; 
 for the Scots do regard their honour as much as any other 
 king doth ; " and he rather naturally adds, that he will 
 not fail to be at the next meeting, " God granting him 
 health." 1 
 
 In some inexplicable manner the Scots seem to have 
 pulled too strong in the matter of the meeting-place for 
 their diplomatic opponents, for on the 5th of January the 
 Earl of Northumberland makes this ludicrous complaint 
 to Cecil : " They were ready to meet the Scottish com- 
 missioners on the first day, on the bounders that are in 
 the mid-stream; but they claimed customs, and caused 
 the messengers to go to and fro so often, that they forced 
 the English commissioners to come over the water into 
 Scottish ground, or else would not have met at all." 2 
 
 Peace being established, the next step was the dissolu- 
 tion of the old French League and a fusion of interests 
 with England. We have now, thanks to the documents 
 published by Mr Stevenson, a minute insight into the 
 difficult and perilous course of hints and promises and 
 bargains which constitute the diplomacy of this revolu- 
 tion. The gradual unfolding of the mysteries is exceed- 
 ingly curious, and so exciting as to carry a reader with 
 ease over the six hundred pages already issued, and 
 make him long for the rest. The general picture left in 
 the mind is a vision of the cluster of sagacious men who 
 surrounded the young Queen's throne, discovering in the 
 condition of Scotland a tower of strength which had only 
 to be honestly occupied in that hour of peril, but baffled 
 and paralysed by the perfidy and caprices of their mistress. 
 She wanted them to do everything, but to do it on their 
 own responsibility without any authority from her ; and, 
 indeed, with the certainty that at any moment, when it 
 suited her policy or caprice, she would assert that they 
 acted the part of rebels and traitors, and " untop " them, 
 to use a favourite expression of hers, without remorse. 
 Cecil was provoked almost beyond endurance and proper 
 
 1 Calendar, p. 251. 2 Ibid., p. 300. 
 
TURNING TO ENGLAND. 139 
 
 respect to his royal mistress, when he found that a few 
 thousand pounds would do the business, yet could not 
 get them. 1 Hints, indeed, were thrown out that it would 
 be good service in her advisers to invest some of their 
 own cash in the adventure ; but their patriotism was not 
 strong enough to induce them to part with what under no 
 circumstances would be repaid, while it suspended over 
 their heads a charge of treason. 
 
 There was one feature, indeed, in the affair, which the 
 Queen intensely disliked. It had a very ugly resemblance 
 to the backing of subjects in rebellion against their sover- 
 eign a kind of proceeding against which she had funda- 
 mentally rooted objections. She tried in vain to get the 
 matter put into the shape of a war of succession, in which 
 she could advocate the cause which she might acknow- 
 ledge as the rightful sovereign's. The heir of the house 
 of Hamilton, who, as the descendant of James II., was 
 next heir to the crown, had many allurements thrown in 
 his way to start as king ; but he was unequal to the occa- 
 sion. Murray afterwards the Regent was spoken to, 
 and it is pretty clear that that sagacious and cautious 
 statesman, had he chosen to run risks before his sister's 
 
 1 " The man is poor and cannot travail in these matters without 
 charges, wherein he must be relieved by the Queen if these proceed- 
 ings go forwards and so must as many as be principal doers have 
 relief. They be all poor, and necessity will force them to leave off 
 when all they have is spent, and you know in all practices money 
 must be one part." P. 401. 
 
 Knox, who knew very well how to wield the arm of the flesh, 
 writes to Crofts on 3Oth July 1559: " Not only must the Queen and 
 her council have respect that soldiers must be laid in garrison among 
 us, and that men and ships must be in constant readiness if we be 
 assailed, but also that some respect must be had to some of the 
 nobility, who are not able to sustain such households as now in the 
 beginnings of these troubles are requisite. For the practice of the 
 Queen Regent is to stir up enemies against every nobleman particu- 
 larly, even in the parts where he remaineth." P. 431. On the 29th 
 of September Sadler and Crofts write to Cecil that certain leaders 
 cannot keep their men together unless they get pecuniary relief, and 
 how "four or five thousand pounds would be well spent in their 
 cause, and save the Queen men ; for how near it would touch Eng- 
 land if the French had the upper hand of Scotland they refer to her 
 wisdom." 
 
140 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 return, might have had a chance of gaining a crown 
 about equivalent to his chance of retaining a head to 
 wear it on. 
 
 Among the somewhat clumsy projects for giving un- 
 acknowledged assistance to the Protestant and English 
 party in Scotland was to get a body of English soldiers 
 induced to cross the Border, and then to proclaim them 
 rebels for breaking the peace with France and Scotland 
 rebels who must needs fight where they were, since 
 they could not return to England. One cheap and 
 rather effective method of stirring up the Scots was to 
 ply them with news of the bloody intentions of France ; 
 and, so far as intentions went, they could not well be too 
 highly coloured. 1 
 
 Kirkaldy of Grange, who afterwards cut some figure 
 in politics, is revealed in these papers as one of the most 
 active and ingenious agents in the national revolution. 
 His hand appears before the conclusion of the treaty of 
 Chateau Cambresis. The Earl of Northumberland wrote, 
 on nth February 1559, to Queen Elizabeth, that "one 
 William Kirkaldy, a Scotchman, came to his brother to 
 Norham and entered into communication for abstinence 
 of wars, to the intent that peace might follow." Three 
 months afterwards, when matters had practically advanced 
 a step or two, we find him writing to Sir Henry Percy that 
 the Protestant gentry, after the Queen Regent, Mary of 
 Guise, had played them false, " have gathered themselves 
 together, and have pulled down all the friaries within 
 their bounds." " Herefore," he continues, " I pray you 
 let me understand what will be your mistress's part, if we 
 desire to be joined in friendship with her ; for I assure 
 
 1 Throckmorton writes from France to Cecil : "The news touch- 
 ing Scotland are come to the Court, whereupon it is said that the 
 King minds forthwith, under colour to suppress the Protestant 
 preachers, to send thither a number of men. . . . It is discoursed 
 here that all sects of religion, as they call it, shall be utterly sub- 
 verted, and that the French King minds to use all extremity against 
 the Protestants immediately after the triumph. It will not be amiss 
 to do the Protestants in Scotland to understand that there is meant 
 tuter destruction to their houses, that they may provide for the worst, 
 and make themselves strong." P. 301. 
 
TURNING TO ENGLAND. 14! 
 
 you there was never a better time to get our friendship 
 nor at this time; therefore make labours, and lose no 
 time when it is offered." 1 Two months afterwards, when 
 the rising against French influence was in still better 
 shape, he wrote to Cecil intelligence thus rendered : " At 
 present they dare not make the matter known to many, 
 for fear of sudden disclosing the secrecy of their pur- 
 pose ; for the Queen Regent already suspects that there 
 is some intelligence with England in this case, insomuch 
 that she has spoken openly that there is a servant sent 
 from the Earl of Northumberland to the Earl of Argyle 
 and the Prior. Also some of their number are poor, and 
 corruption by money is feared, but in the end they fear 
 them not. If these latter were removed from their coun- 
 cil, they would not be much weaker, as the hearts of the 
 whole barons and commonalty are so bent to this action, 
 and so influenced against France, that if any of the no- 
 bility would decline of which they see no appearance 
 they could not withdraw their friends nor servants from 
 the professing of Christ and the maintaining of the liberty 
 of their country." 2 
 
 Co-operating with Kirkaldy was a more potent spirit 
 the great John Knox, who had just returned from tasting 
 the tender mercies of France as a galley-slave. In July, 
 while Cecil had still no others but Kirkaldy and Knox 
 committed to him, he wrote an extremely cautious letter 
 to Sir Henry Percy, observing that it was misliked that 
 no better personages had opened themselves than these 
 two, being private persons; though Knox had got to 
 himself a position of no small credit. Of him it is said, 
 " He desireth, in his letter to me, to have licence to come 
 hitherward, wherein it is ordered that he should thus use 
 it. ... For his coming hitherward, it may be permitted 
 to him, so as it be used with secrecy and his name 
 altered; for otherwise the sequel will be fruitless, yea, 
 very hurtful. Ye may appoint him to come to my house, 
 called Burley, near Stamford (where I mean to be about 
 the 24th or 25th inst.) If he come, changing his name, 
 
 1 Calendar, p. 278. 2 Ibid., p. 385. 
 
142 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 he may be directed not to come through Stamford, but 
 on the back side. If his chance should be to come 
 before my coming thither, he may have this paper in- 
 cluded, whereby he shall be there used to his conten- 
 tation." l 
 
 It would have been of questionable safety to himself 
 and his friends had Knox ventured upwards of three 
 hundred miles into England to negotiate, having to 
 return again to Scotland, The first embassy, however, 
 was conducted by him. We have his powers in eleven 
 articles of a very distinct and practical kind, without too 
 much admixture of religion. In the most comprehensive 
 and emphatic of them he is authorised to say for his 
 countrymen "That they and their posterity will bind 
 themselves to be enemies to the enemies and friends to 
 the friends of the English, if they thoroughly agree in 
 this league; and that they will never contract with France 
 without the consent of the English, so as to be united 
 with them in one body, so that neither can make war 
 nor peace without the consent of the other." 2 
 
 With credentials of this momentous import in his 
 pocket, Knox touched English ground by taking boat to 
 Holy Island, where Crofts picked him up, taking him for 
 secret conference to Berwick, whence his entertainer 
 wrote to Cecil, giving as much of the matter as he could 
 trust to a despatch, and observing that it could not be 
 carried out "without charges and, peradventure, cum 
 sudore et sanguine; therefore the matter requires good 
 deliberation, and what aid to be given, and what charges, 
 and when to spend and when to spare." 3 
 
 It confers a touch of humour on these grave and mo- 
 mentous proceedings, that Queen Elizabeth at that time 
 hated Knox personally in her own hearty manner. He 
 had written his * First Blast of the Trumpet against the 
 Monstrous Regiment of Women ; ' and though he pro- 
 fessed to let fly his shafts at Popish women only, yet, as 
 
 " Many a shaft at random sent, 
 Finds mark the archer little meant," 
 
 1 Calendar, p. 371. * Ibid., p. 431. 8 Ibid., p. 446. 
 
TURNING TO ENGLAND. 143 
 
 some ot his left their barbs sticking deep in the most 
 sensitive parts of the Protestant Queen's public and 
 private character. Her wise men had much ado to get 
 her to receive his advances with patience ; but his power 
 was great, and he must be put up with. When his name 
 comes up in their secret correspondence, Throckmorton 
 says to Cecil " Though Knokes the preacher did here- 
 tofore unadvisedly and fondly put his hand to the book, 
 yet, since he is now, in Scotland, in as great credit as 
 ever man was there with such as may be able to serve 
 the Queen's turn, it were well done not to use him other- 
 wise than for the advancement of her service." l 
 
 It will be worth while even to be domestically civil, 
 and so Throckmorton again writes to the purport that 
 "the wife of Knokes the preacher and her mother are 
 at Paris, who shortly depart into England. They have 
 made means to apply to him for letters in their favour, 
 which he has promised to send by them to Mr Secretary. 
 The Queen should consider what Knokes is able to do 
 in Scotland, which is very much all the turmoil there 
 being by him stirred up as it is. His former faults should 
 be forgotten, and no means used to annoy him for the 
 same, but that his wife should perceive, before she depart 
 into Scotland, that there is no stomach borne to her hus- 
 band therefore, but that he may have good hope rather 
 to look for favour and friendship at her hands than other- 
 wise, which may work somewhat to good purpose." 2 A 
 humble follower of Knox, called Sandy Whylowe or 
 Whitlaw, taking credentials from Throckmorton to Cecil, 
 is represented as one " who has done and may do good 
 service to the Queen;" and the sealed document he 
 carried with him contained this double admonition : 
 "This bearer is very religious, and therefore you must 
 let him see as little sin in England as you may. He 
 seemeth to me very willing to work what he can that 
 Scotland may forsake utterly the French amity and be 
 united to England. Sir, in these services and occa- 
 sions, to preserve you from farther inconveniences, the 
 
 1 Calendar, p. 306. * Ibid., p. 310. 
 
144 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Queen's purse must be open, for fair words will not 
 serve." 1 
 
 It was on the 4th of July that, in an extremely cau- 
 tious and yet somewhat decided tone, English assistance 
 was promised, Cecil telling Percy that he may assure 
 Kirkaldy "that, rather than that Scotland should be 
 oppressed with a foreign nation, and deprived of the 
 ancient liberties, and the nobility thereof (and especially 
 such as seek to maintain the truth of the Christian re- 
 ligion) be expelled, the authority of England would 
 adventure with power to aid that realm against any such 
 foreign invasion wherein upon farther certainty ' under- 
 stand' thence, there may be showed in plain manner 
 more particularly of this offer." 2 
 
 The almost simultaneous arrival of an English and a 
 French force in Scotland, and the contest that followed, 
 are well known in history. Two treaties, one called the 
 treaty of Berwick, between the Scots Protestants and 
 Elizabeth the other the treaty of Edinburgh, between 
 France and England, ended all. Queen Mary's friends 
 considered that she had been betrayed in this pacifica- 
 tion, because her claim to the English throne was aban- 
 doned, and Elizabeth made secure ; but there were others 
 who thought it well that a mere personal claim, pregnant 
 with endless strife and bloodshed, should be expunged. 
 
 The 24th of August 1560 was a wonderful day for 
 Scotland. It dawned on the Romish hierarchy, still 
 nominally and legally entire, with all its dignities and 
 wealth. Ere eve the whole had been cast down, and to 
 adhere to that Church was a crime. The Acts of Parlia- 
 ment making " the Reformation " passed on that day in 
 an " Act for abolishing the Pope and his usurped author- 
 ity." They had to pass through the necessary routine, 
 and were not therefore quite unexpected. Still there is a 
 suddenness in the carrying of the Reformation in Scot- 
 land which arises from this, that it was a declaration of 
 triumph over enemies, and these not domestic but foreign 
 the French, with whom the Scots had been in close and 
 
 1 Calendar, p. 340. 2 Ibid. r p. 359. 
 
TURNING TO ENGLAND. 145 
 
 devoted alliance for more than two hundred years. It is 
 a common mistake to say, that while in other countries 
 the Reformation was partly a secular and partly a re- 
 ligious movement, in Scotland it was wholly religious. 
 On the contrary, it was probably in no other country so 
 thoroughly secular and political in the hearts and objects 
 of those who carried it, though no doubt they subsidised 
 religious influences to aid them. Since the recon- 
 struction of the Popedom in its old completeness had 
 become the great mission of the Guises, Popery became 
 irretrievably mixed up with arbitrary power and the 
 annexing designs of France. The great prelates were 
 becoming French courtiers. Increasing in wealth and 
 power, they imported from their allies practices of tyr- 
 anny and cruelty at which the Scots nature revolted. 
 The Church, a vast, compact corporation, ever getting 
 and never giving up, was eating away the territorial 
 wealth of the temporal barons to enrich the haughty pre- 
 lates. From the same cause there crept in a social deg- 
 radation humiliating to the landed gentry in this shape, 
 that the poorer among them were content to let their 
 daughters become companions to the affluent dignitaries; 
 and although an attempt was made to give a kind of 
 established character to the connection, especially in the 
 rank allowed to the offspring, yet it could not be made 
 the same as honest wedlock. 
 
 When, therefore, there was seen arising in the land a 
 set of divines who maintained that these haughty prelates 
 were wolves who had broken into the fold, and should be 
 immediately deprived of their ill-gotten spoil, the barons 
 immediately said, " That's the religion for us ! " Among 
 the Protestant clergy there was, no doubt, a deep fund of 
 religious zeal, supported by austere purity of life, and it 
 might be possible to pick out one or two of their lay 
 allies participating in some measure in these qualities ; 
 but, generally speaking, a set of men wilder and rougher, 
 and more devoted to immediate gross and secular objects, 
 than the " Lords of the Congregation," is not easily to be 
 found in history. When the affair was finished, and Knox 
 and his brethren, having waited in meek expectation for 
 
 K 
 
146 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 some time, reminded their active coadjutors that what 
 had been taken from the false Church belonged to the 
 true, the Lords of the Congregation laughed in their 
 faces, and told them they were under the hallucination 
 of "fond imaginations." 
 
 Knox could only scold them, and that he did with his 
 own peculiar heartiness and emphasis. So, when his cele- 
 brated ' Book of Discipline ' did not go down with them, 
 he came out with, " Others, perceiving their carnal 
 liberty and worldly commodity somewhat to be impaired, 
 thereby grudged, insomuch that the name of the ' Book 
 of Discipline' became odious unto them. Everything 
 that impugned to their corrupt affections was called, in 
 their mockage, ' devote imaginations.' The cause we 
 have before declared. Some were licentious ; some had 
 greedily gripped to the possessions of the Kirk; and 
 others thought that they would not lack their part of 
 Christ's coat yea, and that before that ever he was 
 hanged, as by the preachers they were oft rebuked. . . . 
 Assuredly some of us have wondered how men that pro- 
 fess godliness could, of so long continuance, hear the 
 threatenings of God against thieves and against their 
 houses, and knowing themselves guilty in such things as 
 were openly rebuked, and that they never had remorse of 
 conscience, neither yet intended to restore any things of 
 that which long they had stolen and reft." 1 
 
 Queen Mary always evaded any acknowledgment of 
 the treaty which left Elizabeth's title undisputed, and of 
 the Reformation statute. Her policy about the statute, 
 indeed, developed a quiet profundity of duplicity, which 
 makes a beautiful antithesis to the noisy brazen mendac- 
 ity of the other Queen. Mary solemnly engaged not to 
 interfere with the religion established by law. Almost 
 every one knew what she meant, and that when the time 
 suited she would hold that an Act of Parliament which 
 had not the royal assent was no law. Yet it would have 
 been impolitic to push the point by requiring her assent 
 to the Act, since an ultimate refusal might make it more 
 
 1 History, ii. 128, 129. 
 
TURNING TO ENGLAND. 147 
 
 unsatisfactory than it was. Her policy, however, after- 
 wards cut both ways ; for the treaty and the Act were 
 productive of highly important political effects, being 
 brought up as precedents to the effect that the Estates 
 of Parliament could enter on treaties and pass laws with- 
 out the consent of the Crown. When Murray came 
 into power, he thought it judicious to fortify the Act by 
 another. 
 
 To us who look back upon the time with the advantage 
 of having seen the plot worked out, it becomes clear at 
 this juncture that the French alliance is gone for ever, 
 and England and Scotland are to be one. But between 
 the return of Queen Mary and the death of Elizabeth 
 there was a deal of hard critical work to be gone through 
 in Scotland, and much of it was connected with the 
 efforts of France to renew the old friendship. 
 
 Of the labours of Queen Elizabeth's emissaries in Scot- 
 land Throckmorton, Walsingham, Sadler, and Randolph 
 we have full accounts which have been well ransacked 
 and instructively commented on. But the no less inter- 
 esting negotiations of the French emissaries in Scotland 
 have hitherto been little studied ; nor, indeed, could they 
 easily have been so until they were gradually brought 
 forth from their hiding-places in foreign libraries and 
 public offices by the zeal of the archaeologists of France, 
 They are not less interesting from the glimpses which 
 they afford of the designs of France, than from the pic- 
 turesque descriptions which they contain of events which 
 it is profitable to see from as many sides as possible, and 
 which certainly often acquire a new shape and character 
 when seen through the eyes of the accomplished and 
 acute foreigner employed to report on them to the 
 Guises or Catherine of Medici. 
 
 The most remarkable in accomplishments and wisdom 
 of these French ambassadors, Michel de Castelnau de 
 Mauvissiere, was alike conscious of the importance of 
 the Scottish alliance and of the almost hopelessness of 
 recovering it. After a lively description of the miseries 
 of the country when tortured in the terrible wars and 
 plunderings of Morton, he says, " Je suis et serais tou- 
 
148 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 jours d'opinion qu'il n'y a nulle alliance au monde que la 
 France doive avoir plus chere que celle de ce petit pays 
 d'Ecosse." 1 
 
 Castelnau was one of the really great men whose 
 eminent labours, wasted on tough and hopeless materials, 
 can only be estimated by close inspection. As M. Che'r- 
 uel well observes, we will find more of the true spirit of 
 the actions of the day, and the men engaged in them, in 
 his letters and memoirs, than almost anywhere else. He 
 was one of those statesmen whose fate it is to struggle for 
 great ends, which their masters, the heads of the govern- 
 ment, will not back through with the necessary energy. 
 As M. Che'ruel says, he had in the interests of France to 
 fight Elizabeth in Scotland, and Philip of Spain in the 
 Netherlands. His memoirs show that he beheld with a 
 grave sorrow, partaking of despondency, the exterminat- 
 ing spirit and bloody deeds of both the parties, the 
 League and the Huguenots, who each struggled in his 
 own country, not merely for existence, but for mastery ; 
 and his experience of this rude contest gives an air of 
 practical wisdom and staid sagacity to his remarks on our 
 own quarrels, which, fierce as they were, hold altogether 
 a smaller space in the world's history than the contem- 
 poraneous quarrels of the French. Hence he narrates 
 some of the most marvellous incidents of Scottish his- 
 tory with a quiet distinctness, which, instead of sub- 
 duing, rather tends to give power and emphasis to the 
 narrative, when it is felt throughout that it is by an 
 onlooker deeply grounded in a practical knowledge of 
 similar events. 
 
 He it was who came to Britain charged by Catherine 
 of Medici with two matrimonial missions whether they 
 were sincere or sarcastic, let him tell who can. In the 
 one, she proposed to the austere Elizabeth an alliance 
 with Charles IX. of France, then a boy of thirteen. 
 Whether Catherine knew it or not, the virago had that 
 peculiar weakness when anything matrimonial was pro- 
 posed, that she would play with the suggestion as long 
 
 1 Chlrud, p. in. 
 
LATTER DAYS. 149 
 
 as it would keep alive without serious discussion. She 
 remarked cleverly enough to Castelnau, that the King 
 of France was both too great and too little a match for 
 her too great in his power, too little in his youth. But 
 she did not let the affair drop for some time, writing 
 herself to Catherine, and otherwise bandying it about in 
 a manner sometimes bordering on, but never transgress- 
 ing, the serious. 
 
 His other matrimonial commission was to offer Mary 
 the Duke of Anjou as a husband. It was not very well 
 received, and he observed in the beautiful widow the 
 haughty and restless spirit of her uncle the Cardinal. 
 She was angry, he thought, with the Court of the French 
 Regent, for having come between her and the match 
 with Don Carlos. While it was in her mind to make 
 an ambitious match, she would have none but a truly 
 great one, and she freely spoke of Don Carlos's younger 
 brother, who was subsequently offered to her, as the 
 selfish fortune - seeking beauties in fashionable novels 
 speak of detrimental second sons. To drop from the 
 heir of the Spanish empire to a prince with neither do- 
 minions nor prospects, was not a destiny to which she 
 could reconcile herself. 
 
 Yet it was while Mary was dealing in this way with a 
 second offer of the same kind, that the acute diplomatist 
 saw growing in her bosom an attachment for a far more 
 obscure youth, whom his mother the Countess of Lennox 
 had brought up very oddly, having taught him from his 
 youth to dance and play on the lute. The man of the 
 world was puzzled somewhat by this phenomenon, and 
 looked for an explanation of it to a cause deemed in his 
 day, among sensible men, a very practical one he 
 thought that there was some influence d ' enchantements 
 artificiels in the passion of Mary for Darnley. Of the 
 sad and tragic events which followed he was a careful 
 observer, and in some respects indeed he was an actor in 
 them, having frequently to attempt the vain task of the 
 peacemaker. 
 
 La Mothe Fenelon, an ancestor of the great bishop, 
 is another French diplomatist whose papers contain 
 
I$0 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 interesting vestiges of the history of the period. He it 
 was who was received, after the Massacre of St Barthol- 
 omew, at the Court of Elizabeth with a solemn and 
 ominous gloom, which had more effect on him than all 
 the virago's furious scoldings. He was a personal friend 
 of Queen Mary, holding a kindly intercourse with her 
 in her captivity. It was from him that she commissioned 
 the costly foreign tissues which she employed in her 
 renowned needlework; and he performed for her many 
 other little services. Some of the letters relating to such 
 matters are a refreshing contrast with the formidable 
 documents among which they are scattered. 
 
 Casual mention of Castelnau and Fe'nelon may be 
 found in our ordinary histories. In these the reader will 
 probably look in vain for anything whatever about Charles 
 de Prunele', Baron of Esneval and Vidame of Normandy. 
 Yet he was sent to Scotland on a mission so critical, that, 
 as far as externals go, the subsequent fate and history of 
 the British empire might be said to turn on its results. 
 He was sent over to Scotland in the critical year 1585, 
 to make a last effort to continue the ancient alliance of 
 Scotland and France. Were it merely as the parting 
 scene between two old national friends, the last effort to 
 keep up the friendship of France would have its interest. 
 But in reality it was a mission of real practical importance, 
 since it put the question to issue, as lawyers say, which 
 was to fix the destinies of Scotland, and in a great meas- 
 ure those of England. That such a mission should pass 
 unnoticed by historians, and wait for centuries to be 
 spoken of, is one of the illustrations of the truth that the 
 tendency of history is not fully seen by contemporaries ; 
 the importance of many events has to be fixed by the 
 posterity which sees the development, and can proportion 
 to each other the relative importance of the several parts. 
 
 The instructions to D' Esneval urge on him with reit- 
 erated emphasis the support, or rather the restoration, of 
 "Pantienne amytie', alliance et voisinance qui ont toujours 
 estd entre la France et PEscosse." The tone of the docu- 
 ment partakes somewhat of the patronising spirit which 
 had characterised the French treatment of her ally for 
 
LATTER DAYS. 151 
 
 some half- a -century. The ambassador is not merely 
 accredited to a sovereign prince ; he has to do with the 
 people too, as if he were sent from a superior authority 
 entitled to adjust their relations to each other; and he 
 is directed to use his influence to bring the people to 
 obedience, and a proper sense of their duty to their 
 sovereign. 
 
 This effort was made at a juncture when the French 
 Government could not afford to quarrel with England, 
 and was in mortal terror of the Guises at home. It came 
 upon King James at that ticklish time when his mother 
 was in imminent danger, and yet when there were 
 strengthening in his favour the chances that, if he be- 
 haved well, and committed no piece of folly, he would 
 some day be King of England. In the whole affair, as 
 in all others, he behaved like an exaggeration of a heart- 
 less, greedy, grasping schoolboy, snatching at whatever 
 he could get without caring for consequences. He had 
 half-authorised emissaries at the Courts of France and 
 Spain, and at several other places Romanists who could 
 not obtain actual diplomatic credentials, and whose acts 
 he could disavow if he thought fit ; nor was it all to his 
 inconvenience that these zealous men were apt to go far 
 beyond the bounds of his dubious verbal instructions, 
 since that gave him the better excuse for repudiating 
 their proceedings when it was necessary. 
 
 Not a year before the mission of D'Esneval, the Lord 
 Seton, the ardent, uncompromising supporter of Mary 
 and Catholicism, appeared at the French Court, com- 
 missioned, as he maintained, by the actual ruling power 
 in Scotland, to ask certain aids and concessions from 
 France. He pleaded that the old League should be 
 restored, and that France, like an honest, faithful ally, 
 should rescue the Scottish Queen from her captivity. 
 Among other stipulations were the restoration of the 
 Scottish Guard to the full enjoyment of those privileges 
 in France which they had bought with their blood, the 
 payment by France of a body of Scotsmen serving in 
 Scotland a very unreasonable -looking proposal and 
 certain privileges of trading. 
 
152 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 These proposals were coldly received ; all that Henry 
 III. would give to the juvenile Solomon was a pension of 
 twenty thousand livres, which M. Cheruel, who has seen 
 the brevet granting it, supposes was very ill paid. This 
 embassy, whatever was the authority for it, took place a 
 year before D'Esneval's to Scotland. There had been 
 great changes in the meantime, which, if they rendered 
 Mary's condition more dangerous, had increased the 
 chance of her son's succession to the throne of England. 
 The same series of events the fall of Arran, namely, and 
 the league with England alarmed the Court of France, 
 by pointing to the total extinction of the French alliance ; 
 and it was hence that D'Esneval was sent to offer as much 
 of the rejected Scottish demands as France could afford 
 to give. 
 
 It will be of course remarked that, in all these matters, 
 there were longer heads at work than those of the youth- 
 ful King; but the instincts of his selfish, narrow heart 
 taught him to co-operate in them. He could, if he had 
 thought fit, have broken through all the diplomatic tram- 
 mels surrounding him, and struck a blow for his mother's 
 life. He had no conscientious principle to restrain him 
 from such an act, though he had a strong dislike for 
 Popery on the ground on which he hated Presbyterianism 
 because it interfered with the will of kings. His ruling 
 principle was well enough expressed in his remarks to 
 Courcelles interim ambassador in the absence of D'Es- 
 neval that he liked his mother well enough, but she had 
 threatened, if he did not conform with her religious views, 
 that he should have nothing but the lordship of Darnley 
 like his father that she must drink the ale she had 
 brewed that her restless machinations had nearly cost 
 him his crown and he wished she would meddle with 
 nothing but prayer and serving God. The chief figure 
 in this group of selfishness, meanness, and cruelty, has to 
 be supplied in Queen Elizabeth seizing and committing 
 to the dungeon an unfortunate who had fled to her for 
 protection grudging her the expense of suitable clothing 
 and food in her captivity insulting her religion want- 
 ing to get somebody to assassinate her; and at length, 
 
LATTER DAYS. 153 
 
 when the wished-for death could not be brought about 
 without the forms of law, pretending that she desired it 
 not, and endeavouring to throw on others the blame of 
 the deed. 
 
 And yet how wonderfully has all this, which seems so 
 foul and unseemly in romance, tended to one of the most 
 wonderful and blessed of historical developments ! Let 
 us suppose King James, under the generous impulse of 
 youthful heroism, drawing the sword in his mother's cause, 
 and France, with chivalrous devotion, sending her armies 
 to avert insult and cruelty from one who had sat as a 
 queen on the throne of St Louis. Let us imagine Queen 
 Elizabeth, endowed with the natural instincts and impulses 
 of her sex, kindly disposed to a persecuted sister, and, in 
 obedience to the impulses of her heart, marrying, and 
 leaving a progeny behind her. Had the dark annals of 
 the age been thus brightened, the glorious history of 
 British power and progress would have remained un- 
 written at least in its present shape. With how much 
 longer waiting through what series of events the two 
 kingdoms would have fulfilled their natural destiny and 
 come together, are speculations in the world of the unreal 
 which can receive no definite answer. We only know 
 that, however it might have otherwise come to pass, the 
 beneficent conclusion arose out of acts of baseness, self- 
 ishness, and cruelty, as a tree grows from decay and 
 putrescence. 
 
 It is fortunate, after all, that those who like to see a 
 little of the good that is in the world can pass over that 
 fermentation of the evil passions and selfish propensities, 
 and look back upon the long, stern, honest struggle for 
 independence which was the real operative cause of the 
 desired result. Had it been otherwise, Scotland may 
 read the fate she would have had in Ireland. The Scots 
 repaid the oppressors in the bloody retaliation of the three 
 hundred years' war the Irish are still taking it out. A 
 sort of general balance of victories and defeats of in- 
 juries and retaliations put the two enemies in a position 
 for bargaining, which they did with surly suspicion at 
 first, with cordiality when they came better to know each 
 
154 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 other as friends. Their amity was recorded in a state 
 paper such as no other part of the world can show a 
 fusion, by mutual consent, between two nations, the one 
 six or eight times as powerful and populous as the other, 
 with no other inequality save the placing of the centre of 
 government in that spot within the larger of the two to 
 which it would naturally have gravitated. 
 
 There are some less reasonable ethnological theories 
 afloat in the world, than that we may to some extent 
 attribute to this long struggle the national characteristics 
 which make the Scots appear a dry, hard, stern, un- 
 amiable, practical people, with little capacity for cheer- 
 ful enjoyments or susceptibility to the lighter and more 
 transient excitements. Perhaps the original nature of 
 the people, and the work they had to do, may have 
 reacted on each other, leaving these characteristics deep- 
 ened and hardened in the end. That the people had a 
 nature susceptible to the deeper enthusiasm, the char- 
 acter of the struggle itself sufficiently tells. And in the 
 tragedies and bereavements that it caused, the devotion 
 it demanded, and the deep love for home and country 
 to which it testified, we may, perhaps, attribute a certain 
 sweetness and plaintive tenderness in the lyrical literature 
 of the country, a vein of gentleness and beauty running 
 through her rugged nature, like the lovely agates which 
 nestle in the hollows of the black trap-rocks, or the purple 
 amethysts that sparkle in her granite corries. 
 
 So came the kindly old French alliance to its natural 
 conclusion. It was nominally re-established in a friend- 
 ship between King James and Henry IV., who established 
 a special company of Scots gens d'armes, and afterwards 
 there were some curious dealings between Cardinal Rich- 
 elieu and the Covenanters ; but these were casual affairs 
 having no influence on national destinies. The story of 
 the alliance is now an old one, but it leaves a mellow 
 tinge upon the long annals of medieval brutality and 
 violence. Scotland at last became reconciled to that 
 great relation which, let us suppose, in the usual misun- 
 derstanding which creates the quarrels in the romances, 
 had treated her as an alien enemy. But while the recon- 
 
ITS HISTORIANS. 155 
 
 ciliation has been long consolidated, and has proved as 
 natural a national adjustment as the restoration of an 
 exiled child is a natural family adjustment, there is still a 
 pleasing sentiment in recalling the friends found in the 
 wide world when kindred were unkind; and the hospi- 
 table doors opened to our wandering countrymen among 
 those who stood at the head of European civilisation in 
 the middle ages, must ever remain a memorable record 
 of the generosity of the patrons, and of the merits of those 
 who so well requited their generosity by faithful and 
 powerful services. 1 
 
 It is a significant token of the enduring interest of this 
 episode in history, that, besides lighter memorials, to 
 many of which I have referred, two eminent French 
 archaeologists have bestowed what must have been a large 
 portion of the labour of their days to the production each 
 of a great book after his own kind, bearing on the old 
 relations between France and Scotland. 2 To the volumes 
 
 1 M. Cheruel (p. 175) puts the sentiment of the conclusion very 
 effectively : " L'Ecosse s'est de plus en plus identified avec 1'Angle- 
 terre, et, il faut bien le reconnaltre, toutes deux y ont gagne. L'Ecoss? 
 a re9u, en compensation de 1'independance nationale, une puissattie 
 impulsion : Industrie, sciences, litterature, philosophic, tout y a pros- 
 pere. Une sage regularite, une observation patiente et ingenieuse, 
 une probite proverbiale, ont remplace' la loyaute un peu sauvage, le 
 fanatisme puritain, la fougue indisciplinee des anciens Ecossais. De 
 son cote" 1'Angleterre a conquis la securite : tranquille dans son fie, 
 elle a pu porter au loin son activite" guerriere et commerciale. Une 
 alliance de moins pour la France, une province de plus pour 1'Angle- 
 terre, voil le re"sultat d'une politique tour k tour faible ou passionnee, 
 fanatique ou indifferente. " In strict propriety, the import of these 
 remarks should have suggested the metamorphosis of 1'Angleterre into 
 Grande Bretagne before their conclusion ; but where there is so much 
 that is honest and generous in sentiment, it would be invidious to criti- 
 cise the nomenclature too closely. 
 
 2 ' Relations Politiques de la France et de 1'Espagne avec 1'Ecosse 
 au xvi e Siecle Papiers d'e'tat, Pieces, et Documents inedits ou peu 
 connus, tires des Bibliotheques et des Archives de France. Public's 
 par Alexandre Teulet, Archiviste aux Archives de 1'Empire.' Nou- 
 velle edition, 5 vols. Paris Renouard : Edinburgh Williams & 
 Norgate. 
 
 'Les Ecossais en France Les Fran$ais en Ecosse.' Par Fran- 
 cisque Michel, Correspondant de 1'Institut de France, &c. &c. 2 
 vols. London : Triibner & Co. 
 
156 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 which contain the record of this attachment, something 
 more is due than the mere recognition of their literary 
 merits they deserve at the hands of our countrymen an 
 affectionate recognition as national memorials. The 
 quantity of curious and interesting matter contained in 
 them, but for the special zeal of the two men who have 
 thus come forward, might have remained still buried 
 under archaeological rubbish might have remained so 
 for ever, even until oblivion overtook them. 
 
 Setting before one on the library table the two volumes 
 of M. Michel, and the five of M. Teulet, is a good deal 
 like receiving one guest in full court costume, prepared to 
 meet distinguished company, while another comes to you 
 in his lounging home vestment of serge, with slippers and 
 smoking-cap, as if he had just stepped across the way 
 from the scene of his laborious researches. There is 
 throughout M. Michel's two brilliant-looking volumes the 
 testimony to an extent of dreary reading and searching 
 which would stimulate compassion, were it not that he who 
 would be the victim, were that the proper feeling in which 
 he should be approached, evidently exults and glories, 
 and is really happy, in the conditions which those who 
 know no better would set down as his hardships. There 
 are some who, when they run the eye over arrtis and 
 other formal documents, over pedigrees, local chronicles 
 telling trifles, title-deeds, and suchlike writings, carry with 
 them a general impression of the political or social lesson 
 taught by them, and discard from recollection all the 
 details from which any such impression has been derived. 
 M. Michel is of another kind ; he has that sort of fond- 
 ness for his work which induces him to show you it in 
 all stages, from the rude block to the finished piece of 
 art, so far as it is finished. You are entered in all the 
 secrets of his workshop you participate in all his dis- 
 appointments and difficulties as well as his successes. 
 The research which has had no available result is still 
 reported, in order that you may see how useless it has 
 been. One who has not much sympathy with this kind of 
 literature, would yet not desire to speak profanely of it, 
 since some consider it the only perfect method of writing 
 
ITS HISTORIANS. 157 
 
 books on subjects connected with history or archaeology. 
 The " citation of authorities," in fact, is deemed, in this 
 department of intellectual labour, something equivalent to 
 records of experiments in natural science, and to demon- 
 strations in geometrical science. Those whose sympathy 
 is with the exhibition rather of results than of the means 
 of reaching them, have not that high respect for footnotes 
 filled with accurate transcripts of book-titles which is due 
 to the high authorities by whom the practice has been long 
 sanctioned. They can afford it, however, the sort of dis- 
 tant unsympathising admiration which people bestow on 
 accomplishments for which they have no turn or sympathy 
 as for those of the juggler, the acrobat, and the ac- 
 countant. M. Michel's way of citing the books he refers 
 to, is, indeed, to all appearance, a miracle of perfection 
 in this kind of work. Sometimes he is at the trouble of 
 denoting where the passage stands in more than one, or 
 even in every, edition of the work. He gives chapter or 
 section as well as page and volume. In old books counted 
 not by the page but the leaf, he will tell you which side 
 he desires you to look at, right or left ; and where, as is 
 the way in some densely printed old folios, in addition to 
 the arrangement of the pages by numeration, divisions on 
 each page are separated by the letters A B C, he tells 
 you which of these letters stands sentry on the paragraph 
 he refers to. There is, at all events, a very meritorious 
 kind of literary honesty in all this, and however disinclined 
 to follow it, no one has a right to object to it. And after 
 all, a man who has gone through so much hard forbidding 
 reading as M. Michel has, is surely entitled to let us know 
 something about the dreary wastes and rugged wilder- 
 nesses through which he has sojourned all for the pur- 
 pose of laying before his readers his two gay attractive- 
 looking volumes. Towards his foreign reading, I in the 
 general instance lift the hat of respect, acknowledging, 
 without professing critically to test, its high merits. Upon 
 the diligent manner in which he has, in our own less luxu- 
 riant field of inquiry among Scots authorities, turned over 
 every stone to see what is under it, one can speak with 
 more distinct assurance. Take one instance. The young 
 
158 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Earl of Haddington, the son of that crafty old statesman 
 called Tarn o' the Cowgate, who scraped together a for- 
 tune in public office under James VI., was studying in 
 France, when he met and fell in love with the beautiful 
 Mademoiselle de Chatillon, granddaughter of the Ad- 
 miral Coligny. When only nineteen years old he went 
 back to France, married her, and brought her home. He 
 died within a year, however; and the Countess, a rich, 
 beautiful widow, returned to her friends. She was, of 
 course, beset by admirers, and in reference to these, M. 
 Michel has turned up a curious passage in 'Les His- 
 toriettes de Tallemant des Rdaux/ which, if true, shows 
 the persevering zeal with which our Queen, Henrietta 
 Maria, seized every opportunity to promote the cause of 
 her religion. The Countess being Huguenot, and of a 
 very Huguenot family, the Queen was eager that she should 
 be married to a Roman Catholic, and selected the son of 
 her friend Lady Arundel. The dominion over her affec- 
 tions was, however, held by "un jeime Ecossois nomme 
 Esbron, neveu du Colonel Esbron." The name is French 
 for the Chevalier Hepburn, one of the most renowned 
 soldiers in the French service in the early part of the 
 seventeenth century. The mamma Chatillon was dead 
 against either connection. She got a fright by hearing 
 that her daughter had been carried off to the Tenebres, 
 or the services of Easter-week which inaugurate Good- 
 Friday ; she consequently gave her a maternal box on 
 the ear, carried her off, and, to keep her out of harm's 
 way, forthwith married her to the Count de la Suze, tout 
 borgne, tout ivrogne, et tout indettk qrfil etoit. 
 
 M. Michel's purpose is not with this desirable husband, 
 nor with his wife after she ceases to be connected with 
 Scotland, but with the young Hepburn who comes cas- 
 ually across the scene. Following in his track entirely, 
 the next quarter where, after appearing in the * Histo- 
 riettes,' he turns up, is Durie's ' Decisions of the Court 
 of Session.' This is by no means one of the books which 
 every well-informed man is presumed to know. So tough- 
 ly is it stuffed with the technicalities and involutions of 
 old Scots law, and so confused and involved is every 
 
ITS HISTORIANS. 159 
 
 sentence of it by the natural haziness of its author, that 
 probably no living English writer would dare to meddle 
 with it No Scotsman would, unless he be a lawyer nor, 
 indeed, would any lawyer, unless of a very old school 
 welcome the appearance of the grim folio. In citing from 
 it the decision of Hepburn contra Hepburn, i4th March 
 1639, even the courageous M. Michel subjoins: "Si j'ai 
 bien compris le texte de cet arrtt congu dans une langue 
 particuliere." This peculiar arret begins as follows : 
 "The brethren and sisters of umquhile Colonel Sir John 
 Hepburn having submitted all questions and rights which 
 they might pretend to the goods, gear, and means of the 
 said umquhile Sir John, to the laird Wauchton and some 
 other friends, wherein the submitters were bound and did 
 refer to the said friends to determine what proportion of 
 the said goods should be given to George Hepburn, the 
 son of the eldest brother to the said Sir John, which 
 George was then in France at the time of the making of 
 the said submission and bond, and did not subscribe the 
 same, nor none taking the burden for him; upon the 
 which submission, the said friends had given their decreet 
 arbitral. The living brethren and sisters of the said Sir 
 John being confirmed executors to him, pursue one Bea- 
 ton, factor in Paris, for payment of 20,000 pounds ad- 
 debted by him to the said umquhile Sir John, who, sus- 
 pending upon double poinding," &c. 
 
 Perhaps enough has been said to exemplify the daunt- 
 less nature of M. Michel's researches. It is impossible 
 to withhold admiration from such achievements, and I 
 know that, in some quarters, they are deemed the highest 
 to which the human intellect can aspire. But I confess 
 that, to my own taste, the results of M. Teulet's labours 
 are more acceptable. True, he does not profess to give the 
 world an original book. He comes forward as the mere 
 transcriber and editor of certain documents. But in the 
 gathering of these documents from different quarters, 
 through all the difficulties of various languages and alpha- 
 bets, in their arrangement so as to bring out momentous 
 historical truths in their due series, and in the helps he 
 has afforded to those who consult his volumes, he has 
 
l6o THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 shown a skill and scholarship which deserve to be ranked 
 with the higher attainments of science. Reference has 
 already been made to his volume on Queen Mary. 
 Among not the least valued of the contents of any good 
 historical library, will be six octavo volumes containing 
 the correspondence of La Mothe Fe'ne'lon. and the other 
 French ambassadors to England and Scotland during the 
 latter years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, for which the world 
 is indebted to M. Teulet's researches. The book at pres- 
 ent especially referred to is a reprint, with some additions, 
 of the papers at least all that are worth having which 
 were previously an exclusive luxury of the Bannatyne Club, 
 having been printed in three quarto volumes, as a gift to 
 their brethren, by certain liberal members of that Club. 
 These papers go into the special aifairs of this country as 
 connected with France and Spain from the beginning of 
 our disputes with our old ally down to the accession of 
 James VI. In the hands of the first historian who has the 
 fortune to make ample use of them, these documents will 
 disperse the secluded and parochial atmosphere that hangs 
 about the history of Scotland, and show how the fate of 
 Europe in general turned upon the pivot of the destinies 
 of our country. It is here that, along with many minor 
 secrets, we have revealed to us that narrow escape made 
 by the cause of Protestantism, when the project on the 
 cards was the union of the widowed Queen Mary to the 
 heir of Spain, and those political combinations already 
 referred to as centring round the interests and the fate 
 of the Queen of Scots, which led to the more signal and 
 renowned escape realised in the defeat of the Armada. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 RELICS OF THE LEAGUE IN SCOTS HABITS AND PRACTICES THE LAW 
 THE BONNET VF.RT AND THE DYVOUR'S HABIT THE STATES- 
 GENERAL AND THE THREE ESTATES THE HUGUENOTS AND THE 
 COVENANTERS RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE THE CHATEAU AND 
 THE CASTLE THE EGUIMENE AND THE HOGMANAY THE FETES 
 DBS FOUX AND THE DAFT DAYS FRENCH EDUCATION AND 
 MANNERS. 
 
 THE long and close connection with France could not fail 
 to leave some specialties in the constitution and social con- 
 dition of Scotland. A glance at these may prove curious, 
 and may also be instructive as showing how far a political 
 alliance with a nation essentially differing in character 
 will go, in changing the fundamental nature of a people. 
 
 However much the infusion of Scots blood into her 
 veins may have affected the inner life of France, in ex- 
 ternals the great central territory, the inheritor of Roman 
 civilisation, was naturally the teacher the rude northern 
 land the pupil. France thus infused into Scotland her 
 own institutions, which, being those of the Roman Empire, 
 as practised throughout the Christian nations of the Con- 
 tinent, made Scotsmen free of those elements of social 
 communion of that comitas gentium from which Eng- 
 land excluded herself in sulky pride. This is visible, or 
 rather audible, at the present day, in the Greek and Latin 
 of the Scotsmen of the old school, who can make them- 
 selves understood all over the world ; while the English 
 pronunciation, differing from that of the nations which 
 have preserved the chief deposits of the classic languages 
 in their own, must as assuredly differ from the way in 
 which these were originally spoken. 
 
 L 
 
1 62 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 The Englishman disdained the universal Justinian juris- 
 prudence, and would be a law unto himself, which he 
 called, with an affectation of humility, "The Common 
 Law." It is full, no doubt, of patches taken out of the 
 ' Corpus Juris,' but, far from their source being acknow- 
 ledged, the civilians are never spoken of by the common- 
 lawyers but to be railed at and denounced ; and when 
 great drafts on the Roman system were found absolutely 
 necessary to keep the machine of justice in motion, these 
 were entirely elbowed out of the way by common law, 
 and had to form themselves into a separate machinery of 
 their own called Equity. 
 
 Scotland, on the other hand, received implicitly from 
 her leader in civilisation the great body of the civil law, as 
 collected and arranged by the most laborious of all la- 
 bouring editors, Denis Godefroi. There came over also 
 an exact facsimile of the French system of public prosecu- 
 tion for crime, from the great state officer at the head of 
 the system to the Procureurs du Roi. It is still in full 
 practice, and eminently useful ; but it is an arrangement 
 that, to be entirely beneficial, needs to be surrounded by 
 constitutional safeguards; and though there has been 
 much pressure of late to establish it in England, one can- 
 not be surprised that it was looked askance at while the 
 great struggles for fixing the constitution were in progress. 
 
 Saying that Scotland took from France the civil law 
 entire, supersedes all particulars as to the similarity of the 
 forms of the administration of justice in the two countries, 
 unless one were writing an extensive work dedicated to 
 the comparative anatomy of the civil law as exemplified 
 in both. In such a pursuit the closest parallel might 
 be found in books without any resemblance whatever in 
 practice. It was long an almost necessary qualification 
 for the bar in Scotland, that one had studied the civil law 
 abroad. There are, perhaps, lawyers old enough to re- 
 member when the saying of some Continental civilian of 
 the sixteenth or seventeenth century, Viglius Zuichemus, 
 Rittershusius, Puffendorf, Noodt, Voet, and the like, 
 might be cited just as aptly as a decision a few years old, 
 in some case about a breach of warranty in the insurance 
 
INFLUENCE OF MANNERS. 163 
 
 of a vessel, or the import of a contract for the sale of 
 goods in a bonded warehouse. 
 
 Such things are typical of the sort of law that the 
 French alliance brought to Scotland. It was all words and 
 scholarship not reality. Of the Code and the Pandects, 
 and of the hundred and fifty thousand volumes calculated 
 to be about the sum total of the commentaries on them, 
 all the intricacies and wanderings were more or less law 
 in Scotland ; but at the same time, with so tremendous a 
 mass of written law, there was very little real and practical 
 law. The Roman law, in fact, from its exceeding sym- 
 metry and minute logical organisation, has proved ex- 
 tremely ductile and accommodating. Whether or not it 
 be because it grew in a republic and was perfected in a 
 despotism, it has been practically found that it suits ad- 
 mirably for either. It has just three grades : an emperor 
 over all ; the free citizens ; and the slaves, who are dis- 
 posed of as property. In a country like Scotland, where 
 there was neither an absolute emperor nor slavery in the 
 old Roman sense, and where feudal institutions broke in 
 upon the symmetry of the analytical adjustments of the 
 civilians, there was room for a great deal of freedom ; and 
 the fact is, that the Scots, being fond of it and unruly, got 
 rather more freedom under the law of the despotic Roman 
 Empire than the English achieved by that laborious struc- 
 ture, their Common Law. 
 
 In other respects it is curious to observe with what 
 nicety, when they were about it, our lawyers would adopt 
 some small specialty of practice from France. Before 
 leaving the department of jurisprudence, let me mention 
 just one little example of this. Long before England had 
 an insolvency statute there existed in Scotland the " ces- 
 sio," or cession to his creditors of all his worldly means 
 by a prosecuted and persecuted debtor, who in return 
 obtained a protection from further personal pursuit. By 
 an old regulation, put into shape in an Act of Sederunt, 
 or rule of court, in the year 1606, dyvours or debitors, 
 when they obtained this protection, had "to caus mak 
 and buy ane hatt or bonnet of yellow coloure," to be worn 
 " in all tyme thairefter, swa lang as they remane and abide 
 
164 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 dyvoris ; with speciall provision and ordinance, if at ony 
 tyme or place efter the publication of the said dyvoris 
 at the said mercat-croce, ony person or personis declarit 
 dyvoris beis fundin wantand the foresaid hatt or bonnet 
 of yellow colour, toties it sail be lawful to the baillies of 
 Edinburgh, or ony of his creditoris, to tak and apprehend 
 the said dyvor," &c. This cap was called the dyvour's 
 habit, and may be traced in use after the middle of last 
 century. 
 
 In France there was the " cession " a pretty exact 
 parallel to the Scots cessio. There, too, a special head- 
 covering was worn by the privileged debtor to distinguish 
 him from those who either were not in debt, or, being so, 
 had no special protection from the inflictions of their 
 creditors. There was, however, a difference, as if to 
 rebut the charge of slavish imitation : in Scotland, as we 
 have seen, it was a yellow cap ; in France, whence the 
 example was taken, the cap was green. 1 
 
 Since the Union, legislation for Scotland has been 
 adapted to the old practice of the English Parliament ; 
 anything derived by the old Scots Parliament from French 
 practice cannot, therefore, be spoken of as an existing 
 influence of France, yet this is the place in which a word 
 or two may be most appropriately said about it. 
 
 The Parliament of Scotland, when it came to an end at 
 the Union, differed in constitution from that of England, 
 having three estates the nobles, the county members, 
 and the representatives of the municipal corporations 
 all sitting together in one nouse. This came from the old 
 practice of the States-General of France ; but so little 
 
 1 "Le bonnet vert est le marque de ceux qui ont fait cession. 
 L'usage du bonnet vert n'a & introduit en France par aucunes or- 
 donnances, mais par les arrets des cours superieures, notamment par 
 celui du parlement du 26 juin 1582 en forme de reglement : cet arret 
 ordonne que ceux que seront admis au benefice de cession, apres avoir 
 justifie la perte de leurs biens sans fraude, seront tenus de porter le 
 bonnet vert : et que s'ils sont trouves ne 1'ayant pas, ils seront deboutes 
 du benefice de la cession, et permis a leur creanciers de les empris 
 onner." Denisart, 'Collection de Decisions Nouvelles,' voce Bonnet 
 vert. 
 
 1 
 
INFLUENCE OF MANNERS. 165 
 
 could the shape thus given to the institution affect the 
 condition of the community, that had the shape of the 
 English Parliament been substituted for that of the French 
 States-General, the country could not have been freer than 
 it was. In fact, there arose this mighty difference between 
 the French institution and its Scots offspring, that the 
 parent died, while its progeny lived. 
 
 The practice of the long-forgotten States-General of 
 France was an object of rather anxious inquiry at the re- 
 assembling of that body in 1789, after they had been 
 some four centuries and a half in a state of adjournment 
 or dissolution. The investigations thus occasioned brought 
 out many peculiarities which were in practical observance 
 in Scotland down to the Union. All the world has read 
 of that awful crisis arising out of the question whether the 
 Estates should vote collectively or separately. Had the 
 question remained within the bounds of reason and regu- 
 lation, instead of being virtually at the issue of the sword, 
 much instructive precedent would have been obtained for 
 its settlement by an examination of the proceedings of 
 that Parliament of Scotland which adjusted the Union 
 an exciting matter also, yet, to the credit of our country, 
 discussed with perfect order, and obedience to rules of 
 practice which, derived from the custom of the old States- 
 General of France, were rendered pliant and adaptable by 
 such a long series of practical adaptations as the country 
 of their nativity was not permitted to witness. 1 
 
 1 "The riding of the Parliament," as it was called the procession 
 with which a session opened and closed was a great state ceremony, 
 with many minute and strict traditional details which it behoved Lyon 
 King-at-Arms to be minutely acquainted with. I do not know how 
 far a comparison of these with the formalities of the old French 
 States- General might reward research. The only attempt to repre- 
 sent the ceremonial of the Scots Parliament I have ever met with is 
 in a French book, the beautiful 'Atlas Historique' of Guendeville 
 (II. No. 56) ; we have here the procession and the sitting, and each 
 figure with robes, insignia, and appropriate gesture separately articu- 
 lated. There is enough of special costume and other characteristics 
 to let one see that, although not taken from life, the picture was done 
 at the direction of one acquainted with the reality. Though published 
 in the year 1718, eleven years after the Parliament of Scotland had 
 
1 66 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 There was a very distinct adaptation of another French 
 institution of later origin, when the Court of Session was 
 established in 1533. Before that year, the king's justices 
 administered the law somewhat as in England, but there 
 was an appeal to Parliament ; and as that body did its 
 judicial work by committees, these became virtually the 
 supreme courts of the realm. Their proceedings, under 
 the title of ' The Acts of the Lords Auditors of Causes 
 and Complaints,' may be purchased from the Govern- 
 ment, with the other volumes issued by the Record Com- 
 mission. The Court of Session, established to supersede 
 this kind of tribunal, was exactly a French parliament a 
 body exercising appellate judicial functions, along with a 
 few others of a legislative character. These were few in 
 this country, but in France they became sufficiently exten- 
 sive to render the assembling of the proper Parliament of 
 the land the States-General unnecessary for all regal 
 purposes. 
 
 Let us turn now to the Universities. It was undoubt- 
 edly the influence of France that stamped on those of 
 Scotland the form and character of their Continental 
 parentage, so accurately that to this day they supply the 
 best living specimens from which we may study the struc- 
 ture of the medieval university. The University of King's 
 College in Aberdeen was constructed on the model of 
 that of Paris, the metropolitan of the universities of the 
 world, whose usages were the authority in all questions of 
 form and practice. 1 There the founder of King's College, 
 
 ceased to exist, it must have been made up from materials some forty 
 years earlier, since we have "les archevesques " and "les evesques. 
 The bulk of the procession is made up of "le commissaires des 
 contez, et de bourgs, et des villes. " The national emblems, besides 
 the heraldic lion, are a gigantic thistle surmounted by an armed 
 Pallas, who has quietly deposited on her knee ' ' le chapeau de la 
 liberte" the same Phrygian nightcap which subsequently had so 
 horrible a renown in France. 
 
 1 In 1634, when Charles I. noted Presbyterian innovations in 
 King's College, and expressed a desire "for re-establishing of this 
 university in her jurisdiction, conservation, and privileges, according 
 to her ancient rights granted thereanent," application was directed to 
 be made to ' ' the rector and University of Paris for a just and perfect 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 167 
 
 Bishop Elphinston, had taught for many years ; so had 
 the first principal, Hector Boece, of whom hereafter. The 
 transition from the Paris to the Aberdeen of that day 
 must have been a descent not to be estimated by the 
 present relative condition of the two places; and one 
 cannot be surprised to find Hector saying that he was 
 seduced northwards by gifts and promises. Yet it is 
 probable that we would find fewer actual living remnants 
 of the old institution in Paris itself, than in this northern 
 offspring and its brother universities in Scotland. 
 
 In these the forms, the nomenclature, and the usages 
 of the middle ages are still preserved, though some of 
 them have naturally changed their character with the 
 shifting of the times. Each of them has still its chancel- 
 lor, and sometimes a high state dignitary accepts of the 
 office. It was of old a very significant one, for it was the 
 link which allied the semi-republican institutions of the 
 universities to the hierarchy of St Peter. The bishop 
 was almost invariably the chancellor, unless the university 
 were subordinated to some great monastic institution, the 
 head of which became the chancellor so in Paris the 
 Prior of St Genevieve held this high office. In ' the 
 Scottish universities the usual Continental arrangement 
 seems to have been adopted prior to the Reformation 
 as a matter of course, the bishop was the chancellor. 
 
 But while the institution was thus connected through 
 a high dignitary with the Romish hierarchy, it possessed, 
 as a great literary community with peculiar privileges, its 
 own great officer electively chosen for the preservation of 
 those privileges. It had its Rector, who, like the chief 
 magistrate of a municipal corporation, but infinitely above 
 him in the more illustrious character of the functions 
 for which his constituents were incorporated, stood forth 
 as the head of his republic, and its protector from the 
 invasions either of the subtle churchmen or the grasp- 
 
 written double of the rights and privileges of that University of Paris, 
 for the better clearing and setting in good order the rights and privi- 
 leges belonging to this University of Aberdeen." ' Fasti Aberdon- 
 enses,' p. 400. 
 
1 68 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 ing barons. The rector, indeed, was the concentration of 
 that peculiar commonwealth which the constitution of 
 the ancient university prescribed. Sir William Hamilton 
 has shown pretty clearly that, in its original acceptation, 
 the word Universitas was applied, not to the compre- 
 hensiveness of the studies, but to that of the local and 
 personal expansion of the institution. The university 
 despised the bounds of provinces, and even nations, and 
 was a place where ardent minds from all parts of the 
 world met to study together, and impart to each other 
 the influence of collective intellect working in combina- 
 tion and competition. The constitution of the Rector- 
 ship was calculated to provide for the protection of this 
 universality, for the election was managed by the Pro- 
 curators or Proctors of the Nations, or geographical 
 clusters into which the students were divided, generally 
 for the purpose of neutralising the naturally superior 
 influence of the home students, and keeping up the 
 cosmopolitan character imparted to the system by its 
 enlightened founders. Hence in Paris the nations were 
 France, Picardy, and England, afterwards changed to 
 Germany, in which Scotland was included. Glasgow is 
 still divided into four nations : the Natio Glottiana, or 
 Clydesdale, taken from the name given to the Clyde by 
 Tacitus. In the Natio Laudoniana were originally in- 
 cluded the rest of Scotland, but it was found expedient to 
 place the English and the colonists within it ; while Al- 
 bania, intended to include Britain south of the Forth, has 
 been made rather inaptly the nation of the foreigners. 
 Rothesay, the fourth nation, includes the extreme west of 
 Scotland, and Ireland. In Aberdeen there is a like divi- 
 sion into Marenses, or inhabitants of Mar, the central or 
 metropolitan district; Angusiani, or men of Angus, which, 
 however, includes the whole world south of the Gram- 
 pians; while the northern districts are partitioned into 
 Buchanenses and Moravienses, the people of Buchan and 
 Moray. 
 
 The Procurators of the Nations were, in the University 
 of Paris, those high authorities to whom, as far separated 
 from all sublunary influences, King Henry of England 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 169 
 
 proposed, in the twelfth century, to refer his disputes 
 with the Papal power. In England they are represented 
 at the present day by the formidable Proctor, who is a 
 terror to evil-doers without being any praise or protection 
 to them that do well. But it may safely be said that the 
 ingenious youths who in Glasgow and Aberdeen go 
 through the annual ceremony, as procurators nationum, 
 of tendering the votes of the nations in the election of 
 a rector, more legitimately represent those procurators 
 of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, who maintained 
 the rights of their respective nations in the great intel- 
 lectual republic called a Universitas. The discovery, 
 indeed, of this latent power, long hidden, like some 
 palaeozoic fossil, under the pedagogical innovations of 
 modern days which tended to make the self-governing 
 institution a school ruled by masters created astonish- 
 ment in all quarters, even in those who found themselves 
 in possession of the privilege. In Aberdeen especially, 
 when some mischievous antiquary maintained that, by 
 the charter of the younger college, the election of a lord 
 rector lay with the students themselves, the announce- 
 ment was received with derision by a discerning public, 
 and with a severe frown, as a sort of seditious libel en- 
 ticing the youth to rebellion, by the indignant professors. 
 But it turned out to be absolutely true, however astound- 
 ing it might be to those who are unacquainted with the 
 early history of universities, and think that everything 
 ancient must have been tyrannical and hierarchical. The 
 students made a sort of saturnalia of their fugitive power, 
 while the professors looked on as one may see a solemn 
 mastiff contemplate the gambols of a litter of privileged 
 spaniel pups. 
 
 Those who are logically the very worst distributors of 
 patronage or honours sometimes turn out to be the best, 
 because, distrusting their own capacity to judge correctly, 
 they fix their choice so high up in the hierarchy of merit 
 as to be beyond cavil. Hence the catalogue of Lord 
 Rectors soars far above respectability and appropriate- 
 ness : it is brilliant. From Burke to Bulwer Lytton and 
 Macaulay, they have, with a few exceptions, been men of 
 
I/O THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 the first intellectual rank. What is a still more remark- 
 able result than that they should often have been men 
 of genius, there is scarcely an instance of a lord rector 
 having been a clamorous quack or a canting fanatic. 
 
 In Edinburgh there was no such relic of the ancient 
 university commonwealth, and the students had instinc- 
 tively supplied the want by affiliating their voluntary 
 societies, and choosing a distinguished man to be the 
 president of the aggregate group. The constitution of 
 the College of Edinburgh, indeed, was not matured until 
 after the old constitution of the universities had suffered 
 a reaction, and, far from any new ones being constructed 
 on the old model, the earlier universities with difficulty 
 preserved their own constitutions. It is a tribute to the 
 worth of these, that their example has been followed in 
 the late readjustments in Edinburgh. 
 
 That principle of internal self-action and independence 
 of the contemporary constituted powers, of which the 
 rectorship and some other relics remain to us at this day, 
 is one of the most remarkable, and in many respects 
 admirable, features in the history of the middle ages. It 
 is involved in mysteries and contradictions which one 
 would be glad to see unravelled by skilful and full in- 
 quiry. Adapted to the service of pure knowledge, and 
 investing her with absolute prerogatives, the system was 
 yet one of the creatures of that Romish hierarchy, which 
 at the same time thought by other efforts to circumscribe 
 human inquiry, and make it the servant of her own am- 
 bitious efforts. 
 
 It may help us in some measure to the solution of the 
 phenomenon to remember that, however dim the light 
 of the Church may have shone, it was yet the represent- 
 ative of the intellectual power, and was in that capacity 
 carrying on a war with brute force. Catholicism was the 
 great rival and controller of the feudal strength and 
 tyranny of the age. As intellect and knowledge were 
 the weapons with which the blind colossus was to be 
 attacked, it was believed that the intellectual arsenals 
 could not be too extensive or complete that intellect 
 could not be too richly cultivated. Like many combat- 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 17 1 
 
 ants, the churchmen perhaps forgot future results in the 
 desire of immediate victory, and were for the moment 
 blind to the effect so nervously apprehended by their 
 successors, that the light thus brought in by them would 
 illuminate the dark corners of their own ecclesiastical 
 system, and lead the way to its fall. Perhaps such hardy 
 intellects as Abelard or Aquinas may have anticipated 
 such a result from the stimulus given by them to intel- 
 lectual inquiry, and may not have deeply lamented the 
 prospect. 
 
 But however it came about whether in the blindness 
 of all, or the far-sightedness of some the Church, from 
 the thirteenth to pretty far on in the fifteenth century, 
 encouraged learning with a noble reliance and a zealous 
 energy which it would ill become the present age to de- 
 spise or forget. And even if it should all have proceeded 
 from a blind confidence that the Church placed on a 
 rock was unassailable, and that mere human wisdom, 
 even trained to the utmost of its powers, was, after all, 
 to be nothing but her handmaiden, let us respect this 
 unconscious simplicity which enabled the educational 
 institutions to be placed in so high and trusted a 
 position. 
 
 The Church supplied something then, indeed, which 
 we search after in vain in the present day, and which we 
 shall only achieve by some great strides in academic 
 organisation, capable of supplying from within what was 
 then supplied from without. What was thus supplied 
 was no less than that cosmopolitan nature, which made 
 the university not merely parochial, or merely national, 
 but universal, as its name denoted. The temporal prince 
 might endow the academy with lands and riches, and 
 might confer upon its members honourable and lucrative 
 privileges ; but it was to the head of the one indivisible 
 Church that the power belonged of franking it all over 
 Christendom, and establishing throughout the civilised 
 world a freemasonry of intellect which made all the 
 universities, as it were, one great corporation of the 
 learned men of the world. 
 
 It must be admitted that we have here one of those 
 
1/2 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 practical difficulties which form the necessary price of 
 the freedom of Protestantism. When a great portion of 
 Europe was no longer attached to Rome, the peculiar 
 centralisation of the educational systems was broken up. 
 The old universities, indeed, retained their ancient privi- 
 leges in a traditional, if not a practically legal shape, 
 carrying through Lutheranism and Calvinism the char- 
 acteristics of the abjured Romanism, yet carrying them 
 unscathed, since they were protected from injury and 
 insult by the enlightened object for which they were 
 established and endowed. When, however, in Protes- 
 tant countries, the old universities became poor, or when 
 a change of condition demanded the foundation of a new 
 university, it was difficult to restore anything so simple 
 and grand as that old community of privileges which 
 made the member of one university a citizen of all others, 
 according to his rank, whether he were laureated in Paris 
 or Bologna, Upsala or St Andrews. 
 
 The English universities, by their great wealth and 
 political influence, were able to stand alone, neither giv- 
 ing nor taking. Their Scottish contemporaries, unable to 
 fight a like battle, have had reason to complain of their 
 ungenerous isolation ; and as children of the same parent- 
 age, and differing only from their southern neighbours in 
 not having so much worldly prosperity, it is natural that 
 they should look back with a sigh, which even orthodox 
 Presbyterianism cannot suppress, to the time when the 
 universal mental sway of Rome, however offensive it 
 might be in its own insolent supremacy, yet exercised 
 that high privilege of supereminent greatness to level 
 secondary inequalities, and place those whom it favoured 
 beyond the reach of conventional humiliations. 
 
 Besides that great officer the rector, we have in Scot- 
 land a Censor too ; but for all the grandeur of his etymo- 
 logical ancestry in Roman history, he is but a small 
 officer in stature sometimes, as well as dignity. He 
 calls over the catalogue or roll of names, marking those 
 absent a duty quite in keeping with that enumerating 
 function of the Roman officer, which has left to us the 
 word census as a numbering of the people. 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 1/3 
 
 So lately as the eighteenth century, when the monastic 
 or collegiate system which has now so totally disappeared 
 from the Scottish universities yet lingered about them, 
 the censor was a more important, or at least more labori- 
 ous officer, and, oddly enough, he corresponded in some 
 measure with the character into which, in England, the 
 proctor had so strangely deviated. In a regulation 
 adopted in Glasgow in 1725, it is provided "that all 
 students be obliged, after the bells ring, immediately to 
 repair to their classes, and to keep within them, and a 
 censor be appointed to every class, to attend from the 
 ringing of the bells till the several masters come to their 
 classes, and observe any, either of his own class or of any 
 other, who shall be found walking in the courts during 
 the above time, or standing on the stairs, or looking out 
 at the windows, or making noise." l This has something 
 of the mere schoolroom characteristic of our modern 
 university discipline ; but this other paragraph, from the 
 same set of regulations, is indicative both of more mature 
 vices among the precocious youth of Glasgow, and a 
 more inquisitorial corrective organisation : 
 
 " That for keeping order without the College, a censor 
 be appointed to observe any who shall be in the streets 
 before the bells ring, and to go now and then to the 
 billiard-tables, and to the other gaming-places, to observe 
 if any be playing at the times when they ought to be in 
 their chambers ; and that this censor be taken from the 
 poor scholars of the several classes alternately, as they 
 shall be thought most fit for that office, and that some 
 reward be thought of for their pains." 2 In the fierce 
 street-conflicts to which we may have occasion to refer, 
 the poor censors had a more perilous service. 
 
 In the universities of central Europe, and that of Paris, 
 their parent, the censor was a very important person ; yet 
 he was the subordinate of one far greater in power and 
 influence, the Regent or monarch of a department." 8 
 
 1 'Munimenta Univ. Glasguensis, ' ii. 429. * Ibicl., 425. 
 
 3 In the words of the writers of the 'Trevoux,' so full of know 
 ledge about such matters, " Un regent est dans sa classe comme un 
 
THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 The regents still exist in more than their original po- 
 tency; for they are that essential invigorating element 
 of the university of the present day, without which it 
 would not exist. Of old, when every magister was en- 
 titled to teach in the university, the regents were persons 
 selected from among them, with the powers of govern- 
 ment as separate from the capacity and function of in- 
 structing; at present, in so far as the university is a 
 school, the regent is a schoolmaster and therefore an 
 essential element of the establishment. The term Regent, 
 like most of the other university distinctions, was origin- 
 ally of Parisian nomenclature, and there might be brought 
 up a good deal of learning bearing on its signification as 
 distinct from that of the word Professor now so dese- 
 crated in its use that we are most familiar with it in con- 
 nection with dancing-schools, jugglers' booths, and veter- 
 inary surgeries. The regency, as a university distinction 
 conferred as a reward of capacities shown within the 
 arena of the university, and judged of according to its 
 republican principles, seems to have lingered in a rather 
 confused shape in our Scottish universities, and to have 
 gradually ingrafted itself on the patronage of the profes- 
 sorships. So in reference to Glasgow, immediately after 
 the Revolution, when there was a vacancy or two from 
 Episcopalians declining to take the obligation to ac- 
 knowledge the new Church Establishment, there appears 
 the following notice : 
 
 "January 2, 1691. There had never been so solemn 
 and numerous an appearance of disputants for a regent's 
 place as was for fourteen days before this, nine candidates 
 disputing; and in all their disputes and other exercises 
 they all behaved themselves so well, as that the Faculty 
 judged there was not one of them but gave such specimens 
 of their learning as might deserve the place, which occa- 
 sioned so great difficulty in the choice that the Faculty, 
 choosing a leet of some of them who seemed most to 
 excel and be fittest, did determine the same by lot, 
 
 souverain ; il cree des charges de censeurs comme il lui plait, il les 
 donne a qui il veut, et il les abolit quand il le juge a propos." 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 175 
 
 which the Faculty did solemnly go about, and the lot 
 fell upon Mr John Law, who thereupon was this day 
 established regent" 1 
 
 The term Regent became obsolete in other universities, 
 
 1 ' Munimenta, ' iii. 596. Sir William Hamilton explains the 
 position of the regents with a lucid precision which makes his state- 
 ment correspond precisely with the documentary stores here referred 
 to. "In the original constitution of Oxford, " he says, "as in that 
 of all the older universities of the Parisian model, the business of in- 
 struction was not confided to a special body of privileged professors. 
 The university was governed, the university was taught, by the 
 graduates at large. Professor, master, doctor, were originally syn- 
 onymous. Every graduate had an equal right of teaching publicly 
 in the university the subjects competent to his faculty and to the rank 
 of his degree ; nay, every graduate incurred the obligation of teach- 
 ing publicly, for a certain period, the subjects of his faculty for 
 such was the condition involved in the grant of the degree itself. 
 The bachelor or imperfect graduate, partly as an exercise towards 
 the higher honour, and useful to himself, partly as a performance 
 due for the degree obtained, and of advantage to others, was bound 
 to read under a master or doctor in his faculty a course of lectures ; 
 and the master, doctor, or perfect graduate was in like manner, after 
 his promotion, obliged immediately to commence (incipere), and to 
 continue for a certain period publicly to teach (regere) some at least 
 of the subjects appertaining to his faculty. As, however, it was only 
 necessary for the university to enforce this obligation of public teach- 
 ing, compulsory on all graduates during the term of their necessary 
 regency, if there did not come forward a competent number of volun- 
 tary regents to execute this function ; and as the schools belonging to 
 the several faculties, and in which alone all public or ordinary in- 
 struction could be delivered, were frequently inadequate to accom- 
 modate the multitude of the incepters, it came to pass that in these 
 universities the original period of necessary regency was once and 
 again abbreviated, and even a dispensation from actual teaching 
 during its continuance commonly allowed. At the same time, as the 
 university only accomplished the end of its existence through its 
 regeiiiS, they alone were allowed to enjoy full privileges in its 
 legislature and government ; they alone partook of its beneficia and 
 sporlula. In Paris the non-regent graduates were only assembled 
 on rare and extraordinary occasions : in Oxford the regents consti- 
 tuted the house of congregation, which, among other exclusive pre- 
 rogatives, was anciently the initiatory assembly through which it 
 behoved that every measure should pass before it could be admitted 
 to the house of convocation, composed indifferently of all regents 
 and non-regents resident in the university." 'Dissertations,' pp. 
 39i 392. 
 
THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 while it continued by usage to be applied to a certain 
 class of professors in those of Scotland. Along with 
 other purely academic titles and functions, it fell in Eng- 
 land before the rising ascendancy of the heads and other 
 officers of the collegiate institutions colleges, halls, inns, 
 and entries. So, in the same way, evaporated the Facul- 
 ties and their Deans, still conspicuous in Scottish aca- 
 demic nomenclature. In both quarters they were derived 
 from the all-fruitful nursery of the Parisian university. 
 But Scotland kept and cherished what she obtained from 
 a friend and ally ; England despised and forgot the 
 example of an alien and hostile people. The Decanus 
 seems to have been a captain or leader of ten a sort of 
 tithing-man; and Ducange speaks of him as a superin- 
 tendent of ten monks. He afterwards came into general 
 employment as a sort of chairman and leader. 
 
 The Doyens of all sorts, lay and ecclesiastical, were a 
 marked feature of ancient France, as they still are of 
 Scotland, where there is a large body of lay deans, from 
 the lawyer, selected for his eminence at the bar, who 
 presides over the Faculty of Advocates, down to "my 
 feyther the deacon," who has gathered behind a " half- 
 door " the gear that is to make his son a capitalist and a 
 magistrate. Among the Scottish universities the deans 
 of faculty are still nearly as familiar a title as they were 
 at Paris or Bologna. 
 
 Their exemption from the authority of the ordinary 
 legal or correctional tribunals was one of the remarkable 
 features of the ancient universities, and the relics of it 
 which have come down almost to the present day in 
 Scotland are very curious. The university was a state in 
 itself, where the administrators of the ordinary authority 
 of the realm had no more power than in a neighbouring 
 independent republic. So jealously was this authority 
 watched and fenced, that usually when the dispute lay 
 between the liegemen of the university and those of the 
 state between gown and town the university haughtily 
 arrogated the authority over both. To be sure, it was 
 very much the practice of the age to adjust rights and 
 privileges by balancing one against another by letting 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 1/7 
 
 them fight out, as it were, every question in a general 
 contest, and produce a sort of rude justice by the antag- 
 onism and balance of forces, just as in some oriental 
 states at this day the strangers of each nation have the 
 privilege of living under their native laws; a method 
 which, by pitting privilege against privilege, and letting 
 the stronger bear down the weaker, saves the central 
 government much disagreeable and difficult work in the 
 adjustment of rights and duties. 
 
 So, in the middle ages, we had the ecclesiastical com- 
 peting with the baronial interests, and the burghal or 
 corporate with both. Nay, in these last there was a 
 subdivision of interests, various corporations of craftsmen 
 being subject to the authority of their own syndics, 
 deans, or mayors, and entitled to free themselves from 
 any interference in many of their affairs by the burghal 
 or even the royal courts. Ecclesiastical law fought with 
 civil law, and chancery carried on a ceaseless undermin- 
 ing contest with common law ; while over Europe there 
 were inexhaustible varieties of palatinates, margravates, 
 regalities, and the like, enjoying their own separate privi- 
 leges and systems of jurisprudence. But over this Babel 
 of authorities, so complexly established in France that 
 Voltaire likened it to a traveller changing laws as often 
 as he changed horses, what is conspicuous is the hom- 
 age paid by all the other exclusive privileges to those of 
 the universities, and the separation of these grand institu- 
 tions by an impassable line of venerated privileges from 
 the rest of the vulgar world. Thus, the State conceded 
 freely to literature those high privileges for which the 
 Church in vain contended, from the slaughter of Becket 
 to the fall of Wolsey. In a very few only of the states 
 nearest to the centre of spiritual dominion could an ex- 
 clusive ecclesiastical jurisdiction extending to matters 
 both spiritual and temporal be asserted ; and France, 
 which acknowledged the isolated authority of the uni- 
 versities, bade a stern defiance to the claims of the 
 Popedom. 
 
 It can hardly be said that, invested with these high 
 powers, the universities bore their honours meekly. Re- 
 in 
 
178 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 spected as they were, they were felt to be invariably a 
 serious element of turbulence, and a source of instability 
 to the government of the cities in which they were. In 
 the affairs of the League, the Fronde, and in the various 
 other contests which, in former days as in the present, 
 have kept up a perpetual succession of conflicts in tur- 
 bulent Paris, the position to be taken by the students 
 was extremely momentous, but was not easily to be cal- 
 culated upon ; for these gentry imbibed a great amount 
 both of restlessness and capriciousness along with their 
 cherished prerogatives. During the centuries in which a 
 common spirit pervaded the whole academic body, the 
 fame of a particular university, or of some celebrated 
 teacher in it, had a concentrating action over the whole 
 civilised world, which drew a certain proportion of the 
 youth of all Europe towards the common vortex. Hence, 
 when we know that there were frequently assembled from 
 one to ten thousand young men, adventurous and high- 
 spirited, contemptuous of the condition of the ordinary 
 citizen, and bound together by common objects and 
 high exclusive privileges well armed, and in posses- 
 sion of edifices fortified according to the method of the 
 day we hardly require to read history to believe how 
 formidable such bodies must have proved. 
 
 Although the Scottish universities never boasted of the 
 vast concourse of young men of all peoples, nations, and 
 languages, which sometimes flocked to the Continental 
 schools, and thus, with their great privileges created a 
 formidable imperium in imperio yet naturally there has 
 existed more or less of a standing feud between the citi- 
 zen class and the student class. Their records show 
 repeated contests by the authorities of universities, 
 against an inveterate propensity in the students to wear 
 arms, and to use them. The weapons prohibited by the 
 laws of King's College, Aberdeen, are so varied and pe- 
 culiar that one need not attempt to convert them into 
 modern nomenclature, but must be content to derive, 
 from the terms in which they are denounced, a general 
 notion how formidable a person a student putting the 
 law at defiance must have been. The list reminds one 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 179 
 
 of Strada's celebrated account of the armature of the 
 Spanish Armada. 1 
 
 As to the rights of exclusive university jurisdiction 
 which made the turbulent students of old so formidable, 
 the universities of Scotland were not strong enough to 
 retain so much of them as their English neighbours have 
 preserved. There are curious notices, however, here and 
 there, of efforts to maintain them. In Glasgow, in the 
 year 1670, a sudden and singularly bold attempt appears 
 to have been made for their revival, a court of justiciary 
 being held by the university, and a student put on trial 
 on a charge of murder. The weighty matter is thus in- 
 troduced : " Anent the indytment given in by John 
 Gumming, wryter in Glasgow, elected to be Procurator- 
 Fiscal of the said university; and Andrew Wright, cor- 
 doner in Glasgow, neirest of kin to umquhile Janet 
 Wright, servetrix to Patrick Wilson, younger, gairdner 
 there, killed by the shot of ane gun, or murdered within 
 the said Patrick his dwelling-house, upon the first day of 
 August instant, against Robert Bartoun, son lawful of 
 John Bartoun, gairdner in the said burgh, and student in 
 the said university, for being guilty of the said horrible 
 crime upon the said umquhile Janet." 2 
 
 A jury was impannelled to try the question. The 
 whole affair bears a suspicious aspect of being precon- 
 certed to enable the accused to plead the benefit of ac- 
 quittal ; for no objection is taken on his part to the com- 
 petency of the singular tribunal before which he is to be 
 tried for his life ; on the contrary, he highly approves of 
 them as his judges, and in the end is pronounced not 
 guilty. 
 
 Half a century later, in the year 1721, the ' Glasgow 
 
 1 " Gladios pugiones sicas machseras rhomphseas acinaces fustes, 
 prsesertim si prseferrati vel plumbati siut, veruta missilia tela sclopos 
 tormenta bombardas balistas, ac anna ulla bellica nemo discipulus 
 gestato." ' Fasti Aberdonenses, ' 242. The Glasgow list is less for- 
 midable : "Nemo gladium pugionem tormenta bellica aut alind 
 quodvis armorum et telorum genus gestet ; sed apud prefecture 
 omnia deponat." 'Instituta,' 49. 
 
 a 'Glasgow Records,' ii. 341. 
 
180 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Records ' bear that, "The faculty, being informed that 
 some of the magistrates of Glasgow, and particularly 
 Bailie Robert Alexander, has examined two of the 
 members of the university viz., William Clark and 
 James Macaulay, students in the Greek class for certain 
 crimes laid to their charge some time upon the month 
 of February last, and proceeded to sentence against these 
 students, contrary to and in prejudice of the university 
 and haill members, do therefore appoint Mr Gershom 
 Carmichael, &c., to repair to the said magistrates of 
 Glasgow, and particularly Bailie Alexander, and demand 
 the cancelling of the said sentence, and protest against 
 the said practice of the said bailie, or any of the mag- 
 istrates for their said practice, and for remeid of law as 
 accords." l 
 
 It was the principle, not the persons the protection 
 of their privileges, not the impunity of their students 
 that instigated the faculty on this occasion, since in their 
 next minute they are found visiting William Clark and 
 James Macaulay with punishment for heavy youthful 
 offences. 
 
 Cesar Egasse du Boulay, commonly called Bulaeus, in 
 the vast labyrinth of documents running through six folios 
 which he was pleased to call a History of the University 
 of Paris, has much to say here and there about the Bur- 
 sus and the Bursarius the bursary and its holder. The 
 word comes from the same origin, indicative of connec- 
 tion with money, as the French " bourse " and our own 
 " purse." The term has various meanings in ecclesiasti- 
 cal history, but in the universities it referred to endow- 
 ments or scholarships. In nothing, perhaps, is the old 
 spirit of the university the spirit of opening the fountain 
 of knowledge to all who are worthy of it and desire it 
 more conspicuous than in the bursary system which has 
 existed in Scotland, and especially in that northern insti- 
 tution formed on the Parisian model, and its neighbour. 
 These foundations, some of them of ancient date unless 
 some recent change has crossed them are open to gen- 
 
 1 ' Glasgow Records,' p. 422. 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. l8l 
 
 eral competition, and those who gain them obtain what 
 carries them through the curriculum of the university, and 
 supplies them during the course with an annual surplus, 
 less or more. When I remember the competition for bur- 
 saries, the door was open to all comers. It was curious 
 to see at the long tables the variety in the tone and char- 
 acter of the intellectual gladiators, each trying his strength 
 against the rest long, red-haired Highlanders, who felt 
 trousers and shoes an infringement on the liberty of the 
 subject square-built Lowland farmers flaxen-haired Or- 
 cadians and pale citizen's sons, vibrating between schol- 
 arship and the tailor's board or the shoemaker's last. There 
 was nothing to prevent a Bosjesman, a Hottentot, or a 
 Sioux Indian from trying his fortune in that true republic 
 of letters. Grim and silent they sat for many an hour of 
 the day, rendering into Latin an English essay, and 
 dropped away one by one, depositing the evidence of 
 success or failure as the case might be. There was an 
 instruction that each should write his name on his thesis, 
 but write nothing behind the name, so that it might be 
 cut off and numbered to tally with the thesis a pre- 
 caution to make sure that the judges who decided on the 
 merits of each performance should be ignorant of its 
 author's name. 1 
 
 1 There are, besides these competitive bursaries, others endowed for 
 students of specific names or qualities. Some Highland endowments 
 of this kind are curious. Thus the Laird of Macintosh, who begins 
 in the true regal style, " We, Lachlan Macintosh of that ilk," and 
 who calls himself the Chief and Principall of the Clan Chattan 
 probably using the term which he thought would be the most likely 
 to make his supremacy intelligible to university dignitaries dispenses 
 to the King's College two thousand merks, "for maintaining hopeful 
 students thereat." He reserves, however, a dynastic control over 
 the endowment, making it conducive to the clan discipline and the 
 support of the hierarchy surrounding the chief. It was a condition 
 that the beneficiary should be presented "by the lairds of Macintosh 
 successively in all time coming ; that a youth of the name of Mac- 
 intosh or of Clan Chattan shall be preferred to those of any other 
 name," &c. 'Fasti, '206. This document is titled in the records, 
 "Macintosh's Mortification," according to a peculiar technical ap- 
 plication of that expression in Scotland, to the perpetuity of posses- 
 sion which in England is termed mortmain. 
 
1 82 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 The employment in the universities of a dead language 
 as the means of communication was not only a natural 
 arrangement for teaching the familiar use of that lan- 
 guage, but it was also evidently courted as a token of 
 isolation from the illiterate, and a means of free com- 
 munication throughout the learned, world. In Scotland, 
 as perhaps in some other small countries, such as Hol- 
 land, the Latin remained as the language of literature after 
 the great nations England, France, Germany, Italy, and 
 Spain, were making a vernacular literature for themselves. 
 In the seventeenth century the Scot had not been recon- 
 ciled to the acceptance of the English tongue as his 
 own ; nor, indeed, could he employ it either gracefully 
 or accurately. On the other hand, he felt the provincial- 
 ism of the Lowland Scottish tongue, the ridicule attached 
 to its use in books which happened to cross the Border, 
 and the narrowness of the field it afforded to literary 
 ambition. 
 
 The records just cited afford some amusing instances 
 of the anxious zeal with which any lapse into the vernac- 
 ular tongue was prevented, and conversation among the 
 students was rendered as uneasy and unpleasant as pos- 
 sible. In the visitorial regulations of King's College, 
 Aberdeen, in 1546, it is provided that the attendant boys 
 the gyps, if we may so call them shall be expert in the 
 use of Latin, lest they should give occasion to the mas- 
 ters or students to have recourse to the vernacular tongue. 1 
 If Aberdeen supplied a considerable number of waiting- 
 boys thus accomplished, the stranger wandering to that 
 far northern region, in the seventeenth century, might 
 have been as much astonished as the man in ' Ignoramus/ 
 who tested the state of education in Paris by finding that 
 even the dirty boys in the streets were taught French. 
 It would, after all, have perhaps been more difficult to 
 find waiting-boys who could speak English. The term 
 by which they are described is a curious indication of 
 the French habits and traditions of the northern uni- 
 
 1 " Ne dent occasionem magistris et studentibus lingua vernacula, 
 uti." 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES. 183 
 
 versities : they are spoken of as gardones a word of 
 obvious origin to any one who has been in a French 
 hotel. 
 
 The object of these regulations seems to have been not 
 so much to teach the Latin as to discountenance the ver- 
 nacular language of the country. In some instances the 
 language of France is admitted; and here the parallel 
 with the parent University of Paris is lost, by the neces- 
 sity that the language could not there have the privilege 
 of a foreign tongue. The reason for the exception in 
 favour of this modern language was the ancient French 
 League. 1 
 
 It would be easy to note several other relics of French 
 university phraseology which still cling round the usages 
 of our humble institutions in Scotland. The Lauration is 
 still preserved as the apt and classical term for the cere- 
 mony of admission to a degree ; and even Dr Johnson, 
 little as he respected any Scottish form, especially when 
 it competed with the legitimate institutions of England, 
 has given in his dictionary the word Laureation, with this 
 interpretation attached thereto : " It denotes in the Scot- 
 tish universities the act or state of having degrees con- 
 ferred, as they have in some of them a flowery crown, in 
 imitation of laurel among the ancients." 
 
 Elsewhere we are honoured in the same work with a 
 more brief but still a distinctive notice. Among the de- 
 finitions of " Humanity," after " the nature of man," 
 " humankind," and " benevolence," we have " Philology 
 grammatical studies ; in Scotland, humaniores litcrcz" 
 The term is still as fresh at Aberdeen as when Maimbourg 
 spoke of Calvin making his humanities at the College of 
 La Mark. The " Professor of Humanity " has his place 
 in the almanacs and other official lists as if there were 
 nothing antiquated or peculiar in the term, though jocu- 
 lar people have been known to state to unsophisticated 
 Cockneys and other simple persons, that the object of the 
 
 1 " Sermo omnium et singulorum ubique Latinus, Grsecus, aut 
 Hebraeus esto : propter antiquum inter Scotos et Gallos foedus Gal- 
 licum nostra addit fundatio." ' Fasti Aberd.,' 241. 
 
1 84 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 chair is to inculcate on the young mind the virtue of exer- 
 cising humanity towards the lower animals ; and it is be- 
 lieved that more than one stranger has conveyed away, in 
 the title of this professorship, a standing illustration of the 
 elaborate kindness exercised towards the lower animals in 
 the United Kingdom, and in Scotland especially. 
 
 Accuracy is tested by the smallest particulars. To find 
 if it is in a gazetteer, you look up your own parish in a 
 book of genealogy, you search for your own respectable 
 relations. Having noticed a parallel with .Parisian prac- 
 tice in the higher dignitaries of the northern universities, 
 I propose to go to the humblest grade the fresh new- 
 comer and find it as distinct there as anywhere. During 
 the first year of attendance, the student in Aberdeen is 
 called a Bejeant ; three hundred years ago he was called 
 in Paris a Bejaune. He frequently comes up in the pages 
 of Bulaeus. Thus, in the year 1314, a statute of the 
 university is passed on the supplication of a number of 
 the inexperienced youths, qui vulgo Bejauni appellebantur. 
 Their complaint is an old and oft-repeated tale, common 
 to freshmen, greenhorns, griffins, or by whatever name 
 the inexperienced, when alighting among old stagers, are 
 recognised. The statute of the Universitas states that a 
 variety of predatory personages fall on the newly arrived 
 bejaune, demanding a bejaunica, or gratuity, to celebrate 
 a jocundus adventus ; that when it is refused, they have 
 recourse to insults and blows ; that there is brawling and 
 bloodshed in the matter, and thus the discipline and 
 studies of the university are disturbed by the pestiferous 
 disease. It is thence prohibited to give any bejaunica, 
 except to the bejaune's companions living in the house 
 with him, whom he may entertain if he pleases ; and if 
 any efforts are made by others to impose on him, he is 
 solemnly enjoined to give secret information to the pro- 
 curators and the deans of the faculties. 1 
 
 1 'Hist. Univ. Paris,' iv. 266. The etymology attributed to the 
 word bejaune is rather curious. It is said to mean "yellow neb" bc 
 jaunem allusion to the physical peculiarity of unfledged and inex- 
 perienced birds, to whose condition those who have just passed from 
 the function of robbing their nests to the discipline of a university are 
 
THE HUGUENOT AND COVENANTER. 185 
 
 We have elsewhere come across a few specialties about 
 the connection of the old Church with France. Many 
 changes, known to every one, intercepted the descent to 
 modern times of any peculiarities that can through this 
 channel be traced to France. I do not think, however, 
 that sufficient emphasis has hitherto been given to the 
 influence which the French Huguenots had on Presby- 
 terianism in Scotland. The system, both in its doctrines 
 and its forms, was brought over ready-made, and the root 
 of it is still to be found in the Synodicon, or ' The Acts, 
 Decisions, Decrees, and Canons of those famous National 
 Councils of the Reformed Churches in France/ gathered 
 together through the diligent zeal of the English Non- 
 conformist John Quick. Passing over, as unsuitable for 
 discussion here, the larger matters of coincidence or of 
 special difference, advisedly adopted by those who ad- 
 justed the Continental model for use in Scotland, some of 
 the trifling details may be aptly referred to as evidence of 
 accuracy in the adaptation. "The Moderator" is to this 
 day the head of every Presbyterian ecclesiastical body in 
 Scotland. There is the Moderator of the presbytery, the 
 Moderator of the synod, and the great temporal head of 
 the Church for the time being, " the Very Reverend the 
 
 supposed to have an obvious resemblance. " Ce mot," says the 
 ' Trevoux,' " a etc dit par corruption de bee jaune, par metaphore de 
 oisons et autres oiseaux niais qui ont le bee jaune ce qu'on a ap- 
 plique aux apprentis en tous les arts et sciences rudis tiro imper- 
 itus. " Yet in the same dictionary there are such explanations about 
 the use of the words begayer, to stutter, and begayement^ stuttering, as 
 might have furnished another origin. " Les enfans," we are told, 
 "begayent en apprenant a parler. Ceux qui ont la langue grasse 
 begayent toute leur vie. Quand un homme a bu beaucoup il com- 
 mence a begayer" But it is used also figuratively: " Des choses 
 qu'on a peine d'expliquer, ou de faire entendre Ce commentateur 
 n'a fait que begayer en voulant expliquer 1'Apocalypse. " The gene- 
 alogy of the word is, unfortunately, rather perplexed than cleared up 
 by Ducange carrying it into Germany. He tells us that Beanus 
 means a new student who has just come to the academy, and cites the 
 statutes of the University of Vienna, like that of Paris prohibiting all 
 persons from cheating or overcharging the new-comers, who are 
 called Beani, or assailing them with other injuries or contumelies. 
 Lambecius, in the ' Epistolse Obscurorum,' finds Beanus in an acros- 
 tic " Beanus Est Animal Nesciens Uitam Studiosorum." 
 
1 86 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Moderator of the General Assembly." The term has 
 scarcely a native tone. It was of old use in specialties in 
 the Gallican Church. There was, for instance, a Mode- 
 rateur of the celebrated Oratory in Paris ; but after the 
 Reformation the name came to be almost exclusively ap- 
 plied to the presidents of the Huguenots' ecclesiastical 
 courts or assemblages. 1 So, too, the form in which any 
 legislative measure is initiated in the General Assembly is 
 "an overture" a term still more expressive of foreign 
 origin. It is used as foreign terms are in our tongue, and 
 made a verb of, without consideration for its native struc- 
 ture ; and so a motion is made in a presbytery " to over- 
 ture " the General Assembly. This is the direct descen- 
 dant of the solemn " ceuverture J> by which important 
 pieces of business were opened in the Parliament of Paris 
 and other august bodies. 2 The term has had an odd 
 history, having split, and divided in two opposite direc- 
 tions the one attaching itself to ecclesiastical business 
 entirely, the other to the initial steps of certain theatrical 
 performances. 
 
 I think it is to its source among these Huguenots, 
 chiefly the children of the fiery south of France, that we 
 must attribute some puzzling inconsistencies in the reli- 
 gious history of Scotland, and among them an intolerance 
 and ferocity in profession and language which were not 
 carried into practice, because they were inconsistent with 
 the nature of the people. Scarcely any religious body 
 has lifted up more intolerant testimonies than the Cove- 
 nanters, yet it would be difficult to point to any other large 
 communion save the Church of England with fewer 
 stains of blood upon it than Presbyterianism in Scotland. 
 Had the Huguenots ever possessed the opportunity for 
 vengeance enjoyed by " the wild Whigs of the West " at 
 
 1 " Ce mot est plus Latin que Frar^ois, pour signifier le president 
 d'un assemble. II etoit surtout en usage par les Reformez de 
 France, pour signifier le president de leurs synodes. Us elisoient le 
 moderateur a la pluralite des voix." ' Diet, de Trevoux.' 
 
 2 Whoever wants to know all about it may read a thick quarto, 
 called ' Les Owertvres des Parlements faictes par les Roys de France 
 tenant pour Lict de Justice, &c.,' par Lovys d'Orleans 1612. 
 
THE HUGUENOT AND COVENANTER. 1 8? 
 
 the Revolution, they would have made an anti-Bartho- 
 lomew of it. There is an old homely metaphor applied 
 to men with sharp tongues or pens but soft hearts, that 
 with them " the bark is worse than the bite." It has been 
 much so with Presbyterianism in Scotland. 1 There is 
 hardly a more liberal ecclesiastical body to be found any- 
 where than the United Presbyterian Church. Yet on 
 coming forth it lifted its testimony against what it called 
 " the almost boundless toleration " which was vexing its 
 righteous heart, and rendering the Established Church a 
 hissing and a reproach. 
 
 It is conspicuous among strange historical contradic- 
 tions, that in the country supposed to be the least earnest 
 and the most apt to take all things with an easy, light 
 epicureanism, intolerance should have broken forth in so 
 many and so powerful shapes as to seem a nature of the 
 people. At one period aristocracy and government are 
 intolerant of the poor and of liberty at another, the pop- 
 ulace are intolerant of rank and order. At one period 
 the Church is domineering and persecuting at another, 
 it is trodden under bloody feet, and religion with it. The 
 philosophers of the Encyclopedia themselves were intol- 
 erant of seriousness and religion ; and any one admitted 
 within their circle who happened to retain a turn for de- 
 votion, had to slink secretly to his place of worship like a 
 dram-drinker to his tavern. 
 
 It is the intolerance on both sides that communicates 
 so much of the horrible to the French wars of religion. 
 The Huguenots were not less bloody and ferocious than 
 their opponents. Of liberty of conscience they had not 
 the faintest notion. Of internal intolerance " discipline," 
 
 1 Witness the doctrine thus announced in the ' Cloud of Witnesses ' 
 as something so palpably evident that even a reasonable opponent 
 cannot reject it as a basis of discussion : " It is acknowledged by all 
 rational royalists that it is lawful for any private person to kill an 
 usurper or a tyrant sine titulo, and to kill Irish rebels and Tories, or 
 the like, and to kill bears and wolves, and catch devouring beasts, 
 because the good of his action doth not only redound to the person 
 himself, but to the whole commonwealth, and the person acting 
 incurs the danger himself alone." 
 
1 88 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 as it was termed or compulsory conformity with their 
 own special sectarian rules, they had a far larger share 
 than the Church of Rome. They held the internal rule 
 all the more severely the more they were persecuted, for 
 it is incident to persecuted bodies to be more relentless 
 among each other than the prosperous. A persecuted 
 Church is like an army passing through an enemy's 
 country, in which difference from the opinion of the 
 leaders is mutiny and desertion. The Edict of Nantes 
 was not an act of toleration it was a compulsory paci- 
 fication between two hostile forces, each ready when the 
 opportunity came to fly at the other's throat. To keep 
 them from doing so, each was assigned its own place, 
 with barriers between them. The Huguenots had their 
 own fortified towns, their own municipalities, their own 
 universities ; and, what is so difficult to comprehend as 
 a working machinery, their own courts of justice. The 
 "Revocation" was, no doubt, a crime and a folly, but 
 it was an act which the sufferers in it would have done 
 had they got an opportunity. 
 
 There was something, indeed, in the profession of the 
 new Church more tyrannical than that of the old. The 
 Papal hierarchy drew a line between its own function, 
 which was spiritual, and that of the State, which was 
 temporal a line, doubtless, not always observed. The 
 Church of Calvin, however, as enacted for a short time 
 on its small stage of Geneva, professed to rule everything. 
 It was a theocracy dictating to all men the rule of the 
 Deity as to their daily life and conversation through His 
 ministers. Hence the domineering propensities of the 
 church courts of Scotland, which have made so many 
 people angry, are but a poor and ineffectual mimicry of 
 the iron rule of Calvin and Farel. Knox, the fiercest 
 and hottest of their Scots followers, though in the spirit 
 of party he vindicated many a rough act, was not a man 
 of blood. It was not in his nature to have tracked like 
 a detective a controversial opponent through obscure 
 acrimonious criticisms hidden in corners, to have lured 
 their writer within his reach, and then to have put him to 
 death. Thus were there many things done which the 
 
THE HUGUENOT AND COVENANTER. 189 
 
 Scots followers of the school, though themselves incapable 
 of committing, had yet, with a sort of heroic devotion to 
 their party, to vindicate in others a practice which has 
 brought on them much undeserved odium. 1 
 
 Knox brought over with him the words, perhaps in 
 some measure the thoughts, of his cruel teachers, but not 
 their natures. His cry was, that "the idolatrous priest 
 shall be slain at the altar," but he did not bring the 
 threat to the test of practice. It is one of the most 
 curious instances of human frailty and inconsistency, that 
 he afterwards professed bitterly to repent of his modera- 
 tion, mentioning, as an aggravation of his offence, that 
 he had credit with many who would have enforced God's 
 judgments had he urged them to the task, but he held 
 back, and so had from the bottom of his heart to ask 
 God's pardon that he did not do what in him lay to 
 suppress the idol from the beginning. He would have 
 found the sort of work he referred to, however, more 
 difficult to accomplish than he supposed. The elements 
 he had to deal with were far more worldly and selfish 
 than the fiery zeal he had witnessed in the south. Away 
 from that furnace into which he had gone hardened by 
 persecution, he chafed furiously against the Laodicean 
 latitudinarianism of his lay followers, who flung his ' Book 
 of Discipline' back with contempt, and poured out the 
 vials of his wrath copiously on those rags of Popish 
 mummeries which Elizabeth permitted to hang round 
 the Reformation in England. 
 
 It is pretty clear that he and others of the fiery spirits 
 
 1 It is difficult to estimate the extent of heroic generosity which 
 must have actuated an amiable and accomplished divine of the present 
 day in prevailing on himself to say of the burning of Servetus : " Ac- 
 cording to modern opinions, such a sentence was too severe; but 
 when it is remembered that only a few years have passed since, in 
 the most enlightened countries in Christendom, it was deemed proper 
 to inflict capital punishment for such offences as forgery and robbery 
 to a small amount, it will not, perhaps, appear so surprising that 
 pious and earnest men three centuries ago should have thought it 
 right to deal in the same way with an offence greatly more wicked 
 in itself and more injurious to society than any act of dishonesty how- 
 ever great." 'Enc. Brit.', article "Calvin." 
 
I9O THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 of the age liked France, where they found themselves 
 among hearts full of the zeal that was lacking at home. 
 It was somewhat the same on the other side ; so, as the 
 valorous supporters of either cause found fields of battle 
 in the French wars, the hot controversialists found there 
 also a congenial arena of strife. Some of the Popish 
 refugees let fly from the safe distance of French soil a 
 few pungent arrows, which they dared not have shot 
 nearer home, and they did not hesitate to make the 
 powerful John Knox their peculiar aim. Among these 
 John Hamilton, a restless and versatile priest not to 
 be confounded with his namesake the Archbishop in a 
 general volley against the reformers at large, states with 
 much succinctness, and less than the usual indecorum, a 
 favourite charge of that day against Knox. 1 
 
 In literature as well as religion Hamilton affected the 
 part of the conservative, who stood on old assured stand- 
 
 1 "A facile traictaise, contenand first ane infallible reul to discerne 
 trew from fals religion ; nixt a declaration of the nature, numbre, 
 vertew, and effects of the sacraments, togiddir with certain prayers of 
 devotion, be Maister Jhone Hamilton, Doctor in Theologie at Lovan. 
 Imprinted be Laurence Kellam. 
 
 " The first autheurs of thir neu sectes war of this qualitie, to wit, 
 Martin Luther, a privat monk in Germanic : Zuinglius, a particular 
 preist in Sweisseland : Caluin, a privat chanoine of Noyon in France : 
 Beze, a prieur of Longemean, besyde Paris, vvha sauld his priorie 
 tuyse and tuike Candida a mans wyf with him to Geneue. Knox, 
 a renegat prest of Haddintoun, in Scotland, vvha was excomunicat 
 for having ado with the mother and the daughter in ane killoggy, and 
 theireftir was banisit for the assisting to the murthere of the Cardinal 
 Beton in the castel of Saint Andres ; and his predecessor, Paul 
 Methuen, a privat baxter in Dundie : and Willie Harlay, a tailzour 
 in Edinbourg : sik lyk the first autheurs of al vther particular sectes 
 erectit within thir three or four scoir zearis, war priuat men, vvha 
 maed apostacie frem the Catholik, Apostolik, and Romane Kirk, and 
 forgit new opinions in religion." 
 
 Had Hamilton waited a little, he would have had a far stronger 
 case against Paul Methven than his humble origin. He became a 
 sadly fallen star, and the story of his lapse, which blazes in Knox's 
 history and the Protestant works of the day, is significant in a way 
 different from the usual influence of scandals, in making the impartial 
 reader feel that, where so tremendous a fuss was made about the sin 
 of one man, there must have been a remarkable amount of moral 
 purity, unless in the supposition of a hypocrisy too great for belief. 
 
THE HUGUENOT AND COVENANTER. 191 
 
 ards. But like many others assuming that character, 
 he made his protest against the movement onwards more 
 emphatic by going backwards. In his controversial tracts, 
 such as his * Catalogue of ane hundret and sixty -seven 
 heresies, lies, and calumnies, teachet and practicit by the 
 ministers of Calvin's sect,' after exhausting his polemical 
 rage, he girds himself anew for frantic attacks on the 
 innovations brought by Knox and others from the English 
 idiom of the day, and in scolding them for "knapping 
 saddrone," as he chose to call their use of a southern 
 idiom, he used a form of expression which seems to have 
 become obsolete in his own country. A gentler oppo- 
 nent of Knox, Nynian Winzet, twits him with the southern 
 affectation of his style, calling it " quaint inglis." The 
 whirlwind of the Reformation seems to have stirred the 
 vernacular languages of the day. Luther's Bible makes 
 an epoch in the formation of the German language, and 
 Pasquier, no partisan of Calvin, admits the great debt to 
 him of the French language. 1 
 
 Hamilton, by the way, was a man violent in his actions 
 as well as his words, and had his right place in the midst 
 of the contests of the League. The student of history is 
 probably acquainted with an erudite work on the mon- 
 archy of ancient Persia, by a certain Barnabas Brissonius. 
 The student of jurisprudence, digging to the roots of the 
 civil law, as practised throughout Europe, is likely to be 
 still more familiar with the great folio dictionary of law 
 terms a work of overpowering erudition, which bears 
 the same name on its ample title-page. To few who 
 turn the teeming pages of the laborious student, does it 
 occur that he is the same President Brisson whose stir- 
 ring life and terrible death are conspicuous even in the 
 bloody annals of the League ! When they had chased 
 Henry IV. and his Court from Paris in 1591, they made 
 Brisson first president of their Parliament. No one 
 knows exactly how it came to pass, whether he really 
 
 1 " Auquel nostre langue Fran9oise est grandement redevable pour 
 Vavoir enrichee d'une infinite de beaux traicts." ' Recherches de la 
 France,' 769. 
 
192 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 attempted to sell the cause of the League, or was un- 
 justly suspected, but he came under the denunciation of 
 the Council of Ten a committee of public safety which 
 might have made the model for that other which worked 
 two hundred years later. He got the popular nickname 
 of Barabbas, and became a doomed man. When the 
 Burger Guard were called out to line the streets for the 
 capture of several traitors to the cause, Brisson, who was 
 one of them, had to be dragged from a sick-bed. Con- 
 spicuous among the clerical orators of the League who 
 lashed the fanatic mob to fury by street orations against 
 the heretics, was John Hamilton, the curate of Saint 
 Come. He was equally conspicuous, armed from head 
 to heel, in the processions of the Leaguers ; and in this 
 form it was that he dragged Brisson from his bed. The 
 poor scholar put in a touching plea for life, which he 
 might as well have told to the elements he was just 
 finishing a new book might he not be allowed to com- 
 plete it? No. They hanged him from a beam in the 
 council chamber. 
 
 Even in those wild days, when it must have been hard 
 for any man to get ahead of his neighbours, Hamilton 
 became a character. In his humble sphere of a parish 
 priest he made himself conspicuous in French history by 
 the noisy ferocity of his zeal for the old religion and the 
 audacity of his acts. He managed to escape when the 
 Duke of Mayenne hanged the others concerned in the 
 death of Brisson, but he turned up when Henry IV. 
 abjured the Reformation. An act so likely to lead to 
 peaceable results was not to Hamilton's taste, and he put 
 himself at the head of a party of desperadoes, who were 
 to attack the grand procession, in which the monarch 
 was to reconcile himself to the Church, and take peace- 
 ful possession of the hearts of the Parisian mob. Hamil- 
 ton was unable, however, to get a sufficient force even 
 to disturb the general peace and joy of the occasion. 
 Whether or not his doings on that occasion reminded 
 people of his precedents, sentence was afterwards passed 
 on him to be broken on the wheel for the affair of 
 Brisson. He wisely permitted the sentence to be ex- 
 
THE HUGUENOT AND COVENANTER. 193 
 
 ecuted on his effigy, and sought refuge under the genial 
 shadow of Philip II. in his Flemish dominions. He 
 afterwards visited his native country, where the powerful 
 influence of his relations of the Haddington family seems 
 both to have protected him and kept him quiet. 
 
 David Chambers, in his book upon the departed glory 
 of his country, repeats Hamilton's scandal against Knox, 
 couched in Latin a form which would only give it more 
 publicity in those days. 1 There is a little volume called 
 ' Mr Nicol Burne's Disputation,' which, although a rarity 
 hunted after by collectors, and therefore in common 
 estimation worthless for literary purposes, will be found 
 by any adventurous reader to contain some rather curious 
 matter, and among them certain particulars regarding 
 John Knox not to be found in the biographical diction- 
 aries. 2 The book is a Parisian publication, and will be 
 
 1 "Clam a monasterio profugit, et ad clomum paternam regressus, 
 cum noverca, vivo adhuc patre rem habuit Camerarii de Scotorum 
 fortitudine, " p. 276. See also Reynolds's ' Calvino-turcismus,' p. 
 260, and the quotations from Laing and others in Appendix GGG to 
 M'Crie's ' Life of Knox. ' 
 
 2 Passing over a preliminary passage rather more indecorous, I 
 offer with some hesitation the following specimen : 
 
 ' ' Heauing laid asyd al feir of the panis of hel, and regarding na 
 thing the honestie of the varld, as ane bund sklaue of the Deuil, 
 being kendillit vith ane inquenshibil lust and ambition, He durst be 
 sua bauld to interpryse the sute of Mariage vith the maist honorabil 
 ladie my ladie Fleming, my lord Dukes eldest dochter, to the end 
 that his seid being of the blude Royal, and gydit be thair fatheris 
 spirit, micht haue aspyrit to the croun. And becaus he receauit ane 
 refusal, it is notoriouslie knauin hou deadlie he hated the hail hous 
 of the Hamiltonis, albeit being deceauit be him traittorouslie it vas 
 the cheif vpsettar and protector of his hseresie : And this maist honest 
 refusal could nather stench his lust nor ambition, bot a lytil eftir he 
 did perseu to haue allyance vith the honorabil hous of Ochiltrie of 
 the kingis M. auin blude, Rydand thair vith ane gret court on ane 
 trim gelding, nocht lyk ane prophet or ane auld decrepit preist as he 
 vas, bot lyk as he had bene ane of the blude Royal, vith his bendis 
 of taffetie feschnit vith Goldin ringis and precious stanes : And as is 
 planelie reportit in the cuntrey, be sorcerie and vitchcraft did sua 
 allure that puir gentil voman, that sho could not leue vithout him : 
 quhilk appeiris to be of gret probabilitie, sho being ane Damosel of 
 Nobil blud, And he ane auld decrepit creatur of maist bais degrie of 
 onie that could be found in the cuntrey : Sua that sik ane nobil hous 
 
 N 
 
194 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 seen, like Hamilton's, to have had a struggle with the 
 difficulties of the foreign press. 
 
 It is possible that some respectable Protestants may be 
 so little acquainted with the fashion of polemical contro- 
 versy in the sixteenth century, as to be shocked by the 
 passages concerning Knox to which I have referred. 
 But there is no occasion for their losing a particle of 
 their faith in their particular saint. These things were 
 matters of routine ; controversy was not complete without 
 them. It was as necessary to accuse the adversary of 
 some monstrous crime, as in later times it was to charge 
 him with stupidity, dishonesty, and imbecile malevolence. 
 Moreover, they have the comfort of knowing that the 
 malignant Papists by no means had it all their own way. 
 Among the champions on the other side, we cannot call 
 up a more appropriate one than Knox's own son-in-law, 
 famous Mr John Welch. He lived much in France, and 
 was thoroughly at home among the fierce Huguenots, for 
 whom, indeed, he held a pike in the defence of St Jean 
 d'Angely. There is a story, believed by his followers, 
 
 could not haue degenerat sua far, except lohann kmnox had inter- 
 posed the pouar of his Maister the Deuil, quha as he transfiguris him 
 self sumtymes in ane Angel of licht : sua he causit lohann kmnox 
 appeir ane of the maist nobil and lustie men that could be found in 
 the varld : Bot not to offend zour earis langar vith the filthie ab- 
 hominationis of Schir lohann kmnox, and to returne to tha thingis 
 quhilk ar common to the sect of the Protestaons, lyk as S. lohne 
 descryuis the Antichrist to haue ane blasphemous mouth aganis god, 
 his sanctis, and halie tabernacle quhilk is his kirk Catholik, Euin 
 sua the blasphemeis ar maist horribil quhilk thir gvishopperis and 
 maist noysum serpentis the sonis of Martin Lauter speuis out of thair 
 venemous mouthis, maist impudentlie defending the sam, as gif 
 thay var headdis and articlis of healthsum doctrine." 'The Dis- 
 pvtation concerning the Controversit Headdis of Religion, haldin in 
 the Realme of Scotland, the zeir of God ane thousand, fyue hundreth 
 fourscoir zeiris. Betuix. The prsetendit Ministeris of the deformed 
 Kirk in Scotland. And, Nicol Burne Professor of philosophic in S. 
 Leonardis college, in the Citie of Sanctandrois, brocht vp from his 
 tender cage in the peruerfit sect of the Caluinistis, and nou be ane 
 special grace of God, ane membre of the halie and Catholik kirk. 
 Dedicat to his Souerane the kingis M. of Scotland, King lames the 
 Saxt. Imprented at Parise the first day of October 1581.' Pp. 
 143, 144- 
 
THE HUGUENOT AND COVENANTER. 195 
 
 and strangely enough also by M. Michel, to the effect 
 that Louis XIII. was mightily charmed by the earnest 
 boldness wherewith he preached the truth. He was not 
 content with ministering to his own people, but made 
 aggressive attempts on the great enemy Popery, with 
 results so little to his satisfaction, that he concluded the 
 devil to have entered into the hearts of the people and 
 hardened them against the truth, notwithstanding its 
 plentiful outpouring. A Protestant even can imagine 
 this outpouring to have been unsavoury to those on 
 whom it fell, without any intervention of the devil, by 
 a peep into his ' Popery Anatomised.' If there are some 
 passages from the other side that one might hesitate to 
 publish, there are many here that one dare not publish 
 the compositors would not set them up. Hence the two 
 sides are pitted against each other unfairly, the one 
 having, as it were, a hand tied. It is one of those pro- 
 voking books in which, if some one in a mixed company 
 begins to read a grotesque and pithy passage, he finds 
 himself brought to a sudden stop, probably with a red 
 face, and then takes a leap onward, but with no better 
 success for instance, in the little biographical notices by 
 which he makes out the Pope to be Antichrist. 
 
 " Steven VI. He caused to take out of the grave the 
 carcass of Formosus, who had mansworn himself, and 
 spoils it of the pontifical habit, and commands it be 
 buried again to the burial of the laicks, cuts off two of 
 his fingers and casts them into the Tyber, and abrogates 
 his decreets, and decreed that the ordnance of Formosus 
 should be void, whilk is a point of Donatism, as Sigebert, 
 a monk, noteth. But Romanus I. and Theodosius II., 
 Popes, his successors, they allow Formosus, and abrogate 
 the acts of Stephanus ; and so did John X. by a council 
 of seventy-four bishops, restored the acts of Formosus to 
 the full, and abrogated the acts of Stephanus and con- 
 demned them. Yet, for all this, Sergius III. having 
 casten down Christopher I. out of his papal seat, after- 
 wards did cast him in prison, where he died, and so 
 obtained the Satanical seat by the help of Marosia his 
 harlot ; he causes to take out the body of Formosus, 
 
196 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 which had lyen eighteen years in the grave, degrades it 
 from the pontifical honour, cuts off the three fingers 
 which Stephanus VI. had left, and with them casts the 
 carcass in the river Tyber, and abrogates his acts, and 
 ordained anew them that was ordained by Formosus (?), 
 whilk is a point of Donatism. And this most filthy " 
 
 Here come a set of naughty words which cause a 
 sudden stop. Try again. 
 
 "Sextus IV., that vile and beastly monster. Wesselus 
 Groningensis, in his 'Treatise of the Pope's Pardons,' 
 writes of him that he permitted the whole family of 
 Cardinal Lucia " 
 
 Stop again. 
 
 " Benedictus IX. He was so skilled in devilish arts of 
 magic, that before he was made Pope, in the woods he 
 called upon these evil spirits, and by his devilry [here 
 the reader, being on his guard, may get on by slipping 
 over a word or two], obtains the Popedom, and makes 
 his former companions magicians, and his most familiar 
 councillors. But he fearing himself, sold the Popedom 
 unto his fellow-magician, called Joannes Gratianus, who 
 was afterwards called Gregory VI., for ^1500. Platin 
 saith, that by the judgement of God he is damned for the 
 selling of his Popedom. So after he is deposed, he is 
 suffocate by the devil in the woods, and so he perisheth. 
 Of whom it is reported, that after his death he was 
 seen monstrously to appear to a certain hermit, in his 
 body like a bear, in his head and tail like an ass," &c. 
 
 One cannot help admiring the sagacity of the hermit 
 who recognised the deceased pontiff in this sort of mas- 
 querade. It is possible to read in peace a full page about 
 the great Hildebrand, how he poisoned his six prede- 
 cessors, "that he was a notable magician, that when it 
 pleased him he would shake his sleeves and sparks of fire 
 would come out, whereby he deceived the minds of the 
 simple. Of whom Cardinal Benno reports, that coming 
 to Rome at a time he left his book of magical and 
 devilish arts behind him through forgetfulness, and, 
 remembering himself, he sends two of his most faithful 
 servants about it, charging them straitly that they opened 
 
THE HUGUENOT AND COVENANTER. 197 
 
 not the book. But they, the more they were forbidden, 
 were the more curious, and so opening the book and 
 reading it, behold, the angels of Satan appeared to them 
 in such a multitude, that scarcely could the two young 
 men remain in their wits." 
 
 Proceed we now to " John, whom some call the 
 thirteenth of that name. He is such a monster, that I 
 know not if ever the earth did bear a greater, who had 
 sold himself to all sorts of licentiousness " (skip a word or 
 two). " Luitprandus, in lib. 6, declares that, of his cardi- 
 nals, of some he cuts out their tongues ; of some he cuts 
 off their hands ; of some their noses ; of some " 
 
 Pulled up again ; and so the book is stowed away in a 
 corner of the library, carefully selected as out of reach of 
 the children. 1 
 
 Among the preachers whom we sent to France, there 
 were many who not only did battle with the common 
 enemy, but fought among themselves. This feature seems 
 to have surprised the French Huguenots, who gave im- 
 plicit submission to their clerical masters. These Scots 
 clergy, in fact, carried with them that disputatious prag- 
 matic spirit of their native land, a climax of which is fur- 
 nished by the Secession Church, while yet a small obscure 
 body. The question of administering a burgher's oath after 
 the Porteous Mob split it in two, and then it got a trans- 
 
 1 The author of these flowers of rhetoric was something closer to a 
 canonised saint than appears quite consistent with sound Protestant- 
 ism. A brother rummager has given me the following extract from 
 the Wodrow MSS. in the University of Glasgow : "One night Mr 
 Welch was watching and praying in his own garden, at Air, very late. 
 Some freinds wer waiting upon him in his house, and they beginning 
 to weary upon his long stay, one of them chanced to open a window 
 towards the place wher he walked, and saw clearly a strange light 
 surround him, and heard him speak strange words about his spirituall 
 joy. And tho' these appearances of light may seem strange, and to 
 many may savour of enthusiasme and delusion, yet ther are not a feu 
 creditable instances of them with extraordinary persons, and extra- 
 ordinary cases. " Wodrow's ' Life of Mr John Welch, ' written in 
 1724. This would give an iconographer a very good hint for a 
 nimbus. To many this will be a far sounder certificate of sancti- 
 fication than the Acts of the Holy College, or the Records of the 
 Bollandists. 
 
IQS THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 verse split through both halves, insomuch that there were 
 the Old-Light Burghers and the New-Light Burghers, the 
 Old-Light Antiburghers, and the New-Light Antiburghers. 
 Each protested in a general way against Popery and 
 Prelacy, but was very vehement against the three quarters 
 of what had once been itself, reserving its special anathe- 
 mas for that from which it had just separated. 1 
 
 A deal of curious matter about the disputes among the 
 Scots Protestants in France will be found in M. Michel's 
 second volume. It was in reference to their contentious- 
 ness that Andrew Rivet, a native of Poitou, himself a 
 pretty eager controversialist, used an expression which 
 has come into household use in the shape of &\z prafervi- 
 dum ingenium Scotorum, a slight variation of the original. 2 
 
 I propose now to leave the religious bodies themselves, 
 and glance at a topic which will bring up the nature of 
 the places in which they worshipped. Architecture, 
 especially if it be of stone, is the most enduring memorial 
 of the social conditions of any country. The buildings 
 scattered over the surface of Scotland attest to this day 
 
 1 The Scots are called a priest - ridden people, yet their most 
 esteemed jests are against the clergy, and the vehemence of the 
 native sectarianism. Perhaps this is one of the benefits of competi- 
 tion. When I name the late Alexander Stewart Logan, the Sheriff 
 of Forfar, I will recall a sad remembrance of many a hearty laugh. 
 He was a man of strange grotesque genius, and held a large social 
 
 place ; yet he has left no mark behind him, save in the genial pages 
 of Dr John Brown. Logan had good opportunities of picking up 
 such stories, as he was the son of a Relief minister. One of them I 
 
 remember, a very curious example of how far down sectarianism can 
 go. Some boys were rioting in a Burgher church whether Old or 
 New Light not known. The person in charge of the building having 
 seized one of them, a shrill youthful cry comes from a corner " Hit 
 him hard hit him hard ; his father's an Anti-burgher ! " 
 
 2 After alluding to the acridness of the Scots controversies, Rivetus 
 says, "Id prseterea observandum est, siquse durissimis persecutionum 
 temporibus a Scotis et Anglis nonnullis temere scripta fuerunt, ea 
 posse imputari non tarn religioni quam nationum illarum, Scoticanae 
 prgesertim fervido ingenio et ad audendum prompto ; quod tantum 
 valde mitigatum fuisse accensa veritatis evangelicse luce, ex eo constat 
 quod ex centum quinque regibus suis, usque ad Mariam, tres exaut- 
 orarant, quinque expulerunt, et triginta duos necarunt." ' Riveti 
 Jesuita Vapulans,' ch. xiii. 14. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 199 
 
 with extraordinary precision the long severance from 
 England and attachment to France. We have seen that 
 when the Normans came to Scotland, they left their mark 
 there, as they did everywhere, in feudal castles, bearing 
 special types of the architecture of the period at which 
 they penetrated so far northwards. These are just like 
 the English castles of the same period. The churches, 
 too, built before and during the war of independence, are 
 the brethren of the English-Norman, and first pointed. 
 The existing remains, as well as the local histories, show 
 that the war and the poverty it caused throughout the 
 land brought castle and church building to a stop for 
 many a year, and when it was resumed, it diverged towards 
 the example of France. For instance, among those re- 
 mains of church architecture in Scotland which have not 
 been adulterated by bad restorations, there are no in- 
 stances of the Tudor, third pointed, or perpendicular style, 
 so prevalent everywhere in England. This style came 
 into use in England in the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century, and continued until it was gradually absorbed by 
 the revival of the classical forms. It has been called oc- 
 casionally the Tudor or the Elizabethan style ; but these 
 names were applied to it rather in its application to civil 
 than to ecclesiastical buildings. Mr Rickman gave it the 
 name of perpendicular, from the propensity of all the 
 lines, whether those of pillars or of mullions, to go straight 
 up and meet some arch or transom, instead of spreading 
 themselves in the easy floral forms of the preceding age. 
 It has also been called the third pointed, because the two 
 epochs which preceded had got the name of the first and 
 second pointed ; and it is sometimes called depressed, 
 because the favourite form of arch adapted to it has the 
 ogee shape, as if it were the old pointed arch pressed 
 down at the apex. Lastly, it is called the degenerate 
 Gothic ; but people sometimes object to the applicability 
 of the term, when they remember that Henry VII.'s 
 Chapel, the hall of Christ Church, and many of the orna 
 ments both of Oxford and Cambridge, have been built 
 after this style. It will make the exclusion of this style 
 from Scotland more distinct, to mention the one building 
 
20O THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 that most nearly approaches to it, the church of Melrose 
 Abbey. But even here the dominant feature of the style 
 the depressed arch, as it is called by archaeologists, the 
 four-centred arch, as it is termed in architects' offices is 
 not to be found. At the time when it came into use in 
 England, we here evidently adopted the contemporary 
 style of France, called the flamboyant, from the flame-like 
 shape and character of its details, especially conspicuous 
 in the compartments of the windows when a bright even- 
 ing sunshine passes through them. 
 
 In the baronial or military branch of architecture, the 
 influence of the alliance was still more emphatic. The 
 poverty of their employers compelled Scots masons to go 
 back to the beginning, and produce the mere square block, 
 such as the Normans had raised two centuries earlier. 
 Hence strangers have found puzzling anachronisms in 
 Scots architecture ; and in such instances as Borthwick, 
 Elphinston, Niddrie, and Broughty, have only been con- 
 vinced that they were not looking on ancient Norman 
 work, when, on close examination, they have seen none 
 of the round pillars, ribbed arches, and cheveron or dog- 
 tooth decorations which mark the transition between the 
 classic and the Gothic. 
 
 The natural development of castle - building is into 
 flanking works. The owner or other person responsible 
 for the defence wants something beyond the mere wall- 
 plate, with the enemy outside and himself inside. He 
 desires outworks, that he may protract the enemy's 
 approach, and assail him, when he has come up, upon 
 both sides as well as in front. When he has built his 
 first flanking works, he wants to protect these works in 
 the same way and so the affair has gone on, from those 
 noble round towers which the architects of the Edwards 
 clustered round the square tower of earlier days, to the 
 long ranges of bastions and redans which covered miles 
 of land under the constructive genius of Vauban and 
 Coehorn. 
 
 The Scots laird was too poor to build the flanking 
 round towers of his English neighbours, but he found a 
 cheap substitute for them, which does credit to his in- 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 2OI 
 
 genuity. He perched projecting crenelations or bastions 
 on the top corners of his tower. If he could afford one 
 at each of the four corners, it was well ; if not, he put up 
 two at opposite angles of the square, so that each could 
 rake two sides of it. 
 
 Meanwhile in France the practice was adopted of top- 
 ping the flanking round towers with conical roofs, giving 
 their form an approach to that of the steeple; any bastions 
 or other petty flanking structures that were wanted were 
 topped in the same manner. This has given a peculiar 
 airy richness to French chateau architecture which every 
 traveller notices, both in France and the countries where 
 French taste or influence has predominated. The Scots 
 laird, when he grew rich, enlarged his bastion, and topped 
 it after the French manner. As he grew still richer, he 
 built flanking towers of the same character. So at last 
 his castle, from the original grim square block, sprouted 
 up into a fanciful coronet of lofty crow-stepped gables, 
 high chimneys, and turret-tops, such as we see in Glammis, 
 Pinkie, Fyvie, Midmar, and a hundred other specimens. 
 Indeed two, and perhaps the two finest of those I have 
 named Fyvie and Pinkie were built by Seton, Earl of 
 Dunfermline, who came to Scotland, after a foreign edu- 
 cation, full of French law and French tastes. 1 Heriot's 
 Hospital, in Edinburgh, is a daring and beautiful at- 
 tempt to bring the architecture which had thus irregu- 
 larly grown, into system and symmetry. There has been 
 much random discussion about its architect, who certainly 
 deserves not to be forgotten. It is generally said to have 
 
 1 The family historian, who says ' ' he was well versed in mathe- 
 matics, and had great skill in architecture," describes his solemn 
 inauguration to his profession in the bonnet quarre of the French 
 bar : ' ' Shortly after that he came to Scotland, he made his public 
 lesson of the law before King James the VI., the Senators of the 
 College of Justice, and advocates present in the Chapel Royal of 
 Holyroodhouse, in his lawer goun and four-nooked cap, as lawers 
 use to pass their tryalls in the universities abroad, to the great ap- 
 plause of the King and all present." Also, " He acquired the lands 
 of Pinkie, where he built ane noble house, brave stone dykes about 
 the garden and orchard, with other commendable policies about it." 
 Kingston's Continuation of 'Maitland's House of Seyton.' 
 
202 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 been designed by Inigo Jones, because it is so like the 
 Castle of Friedriksborg, which he undoubtedly designed; 
 and again, it is said that Friedriksborg was certainly the 
 work of Jones, because it is so like Heriot's Hospital. 
 When we get out of this circle, we find that the architect 
 was William Aytoun of Inchdairnie, a namesake and an- 
 cestor of our own lyrical poet, so justly loved and lauded. 
 
 It is a social specialty of Scotland, that castles after 
 the French fashion were built there long after private 
 dwellings had ceased to be fortresses in England. The 
 wide stretch of area, the broad hospitable doorways, and 
 the cheerful oriel windows of the Tudor architecture pre- 
 valent in England, spoke of a country where the law was 
 strong enough to put down private warfare. Though 
 richly decorated externally, however, every passage into the 
 Scots mansions by door or window was dark and intricate. 
 A Tudor oriel or bow window would have been as absurd 
 a thing there as in the embrasure of a fortress the inmates 
 would have been in constant risk of being fired at through 
 it by their neighbours and hereditary enemies. Down 
 nearly to the Union the Scotsman's house was his castle, 
 not metaphorically or by fiction of law, but by strength of 
 building. It was almost the same in street architecture, 
 where the houses were lofty, inaccessible, and easily forti- 
 fied. And to this day, in the larger towns of Scotland, 
 house is piled above house in a manner which makes Edin- 
 burgh as anomalous to the Englishman as Paris ; where 
 the Scot, on the other hand, is surprised to find a close 
 parallel to one of the special practices of his own country. 
 
 I now propose to bestow a few pages on the examina- 
 tion of a less solemn, but, in its own way, curious and 
 emphatic relic of the French connection. In Scotland, 
 as in France, the day of chief mark in the winter festi- 
 vals is the first day of the year, while in England it is 
 Christmas. Scotland too, following the example of France, 
 adopted the ist of January as the beginning of the year 
 early in the seventeenth century ; while in England the 
 25th of March was the beginning of the year down to the 
 year 1753. Neither of these, however, is the point to 
 which I wish to draw special attention. 
 
THE EGUIMEN AND HOGMANAY. 203 
 
 The eve that ushers in the new year is called in Scot- 
 land Hogmanay Night. The young folks then go about 
 soliciting gifts, with a rhyme in their mouths, of which the 
 most accepted form is 
 
 " Hogmanay, 
 Trollollay, 
 Give us of your white bread, and none of your grey. " 
 
 An amount of austere learning, which it is painful to con- 
 template, has been exhausted in a vain search after the 
 parentage of these words. Attempts have naturally been 
 made to trace the first to the Greek word which charac- 
 terises the virtues of the saints ; but no further help could 
 be found in that quarter, for the most daring etymologists 
 could find nothing in it to serve as pedigree for the sec- 
 ond word. All the fertile resources of Celtic etymology 
 were next let in by the coincidence between the first word 
 and the name which Lucian says the Celts gave to their 
 Hercules namely, Ogmios and this gives the etymolo- 
 gist the rare privilege of getting into that magnificent Irish 
 literary system, the Ogham alphabet and the Ogham in- 
 scriptions, of which it is the delightful peculiarity that 
 you can read in them anything you please. Without 
 considerable perversion, however, the Celts could make 
 nothing of the second word, which was readily seized on 
 by the northern antiquaries as having something to do 
 with those beings, of no good repute, known as Trolls. 
 But, indeed, all that has been discovered savouring of 
 the reality in this direction is a memorandum of Torfaeus 
 regarding the old heathen festival of mid-winter called Jol 
 merged by the Christians into Christmas : it is, by the 
 way, in Scotland now called Yule. The day which divides 
 the winter, he tells us, is by one old chronicler called 
 Haukunott, and by another called Hekunott. With a 
 candour, however, which affords alike a good example 
 and a striking contrast to our own archaeologists, he says 
 he is totally ignorant both of the etymology and the rea- 
 son of the term. 1 
 
 1 " Cujus ut etymon ita et rationem ignore, neque enim alibi legisse 
 memini." ' Historia Rerum Norvagicorum,' ii. 215. 
 
204 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Not having courage enough for etymological warfare, 
 I feel much satisfaction in shifting the responsibility, as 
 official people say, and landing it in France, whence we 
 seem to have imported the term, and the curious customs 
 that cluster round it. In two numbers of the French 
 paper ' L'lllustration/ I happen to have seen a repre- 
 sentation of children going about on New Year's Eve, 
 demanding their eguimene, as it is in some districts, 
 while in others it is eguinene, or eguilane. The word 
 had a sort of rattling accompaniment not unlike our own 
 thus, " Eguimene', rollet follet, Tiri liri ; " and as an 
 equivalent to some petitory lines, which with us generally 
 terminate with, " Oh, give us our hogmanay ! " there were 
 verses, of which the following is a specimen : 
 
 .*' Le fils du roi s'en va chasser, 
 Le fils du roi s'en va chasser, 
 
 Dans la foret d'Hongrie ; 
 Ah donnez-nous la guillanee, 
 Monseignieur, je vous prie." 1 
 
 There is in the writings of Frenchmen of learning, in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a free-and-easy 
 dealing with contemporary matters of common life, rarely 
 to be found among the Scots authors of the period, 
 scarcely to be found at all among the English. It would 
 seem as if our insulars were afraid of their scholarship 
 being questioned if they descended to common things. 
 It gives a charm to the books of even the driest old 
 French writers, that they speak with freedom of national 
 and provincial customs, and thus keep up their history. 
 While there are abundant notices of the corresponding 
 festival in France, as I shall presently show, the only 
 notice behind the present century, which I can find, of 
 the Hogmanay, is in that collection of ribaldry called 
 'Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed,' which will 
 
 1 The date of these numbers of ' L' Illustration ' is, as far as I 
 remember, 1850. I regret that I cannot now lay hands on them. 
 The passage was, however, quoted by me in an article in the ' North 
 British Review' for Feb. 1856, in which I took occasion to notice 
 the coincidence of the terms. What follows about the French festival 
 has turned up in the course of subsequent miscellaneous reading. 
 
THE EGUIMENfi AND HOGMANAY. 205 
 
 not carry us further back than the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century. In this passage the etymology is very 
 summarily disposed of in two different ways : 
 
 " It is ordinary among some plebeians in the south of 
 Scotland to go about from door to door, on New Year's 
 Eve, crying ' Hogmana ! ' a corrupted word from the 
 Greek hagia mene, which signifies the holy month. John 
 Dickson, holding forth against this custom once in a 
 sermon at Kelso, says, 'Sirs, do you know what Hog- 
 mana signifies? It's the devil be in the house that's 
 the meaning of its Hebrew original.'" Of the French 
 equivalent I shall have presently to say how far it is 
 traced back in practice. Its oldest use in literature, so 
 far as I am aware, is in Rabelais. While the original 
 might be a little hard on the gentle reader, it is always 
 audacious and generally useless to attempt to explain in 
 one's own terms what Rabelais means, and one is best 
 sheltered by taking the ordinary translation. The eleventh 
 chapter of the second book opens thus : 
 
 "Then began Kissbreech in manner as folio weth : ' My 
 lord, it is true that a good woman of my house carried 
 eggs to the market to sell.' ' Be covered, Kissbreech,' 
 said Pantagruel. 'Thanks to you, my lord,' said the 
 Lord Kissbreech; 'but to the purpose. There passed 
 betwixt the two tropics the sum of three pence towards 
 the zenith, and a halfpenny, forasmuch as the Riphcean 
 Mountains had been that year oppressed with a great 
 sterility of counterfeit gudgeons, and shows without sub- 
 stance, by means of the babbling tattle and fond fibs, sedi- 
 tiously raised between the gibble-gabblers and Accursian 
 gibberish-mongers, for the rebellion of the Switzers, who 
 had assembled themselves to the full number of the bum- 
 bees, and myrmidons, to go a-handsel-getting at the first 
 day of the New Year, at that very time when they give 
 brewis to the oxen, and deliver the key of the coles to the 
 country girls, for serving in of the oats to the dogs.' " 1 
 
 1 In the original, " Au nombre de bombies pour aller a 1'aguillan- 
 neuf le premier tru de Tan. " There is here a subsidiary etymologi- 
 cal difficulty in the "bombies." I take it one may search French 
 dictionaries in vain for the meaning of this word. The translator of 
 
206 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 The words here translated u to go a-handsel-getting" are 
 aller a f aguillan-neuf. Here the translator, Sir Thomas 
 Urquhart, has not actually hit the point, though he has 
 come close to it. The aguillan-neuf belonged to the old 
 year, just as the new was coming ; the handsel-day belongs 
 to the New Year itself. It is still in full practice in Scot- 
 land as a day of largess. Though there is a natural vigi- 
 lance on the part of the beneficiaries, which saves institu- 
 tions of this kind from falling to decay, yet the handsel, 
 which was an old custom in England, has fallen into 
 disuse, having been superseded by that great institution 
 the Box-day. In Scotland, both of the old taxative terms 
 are observed ; but as the tax-payer will only give once, it 
 has been necessary to make a division, so that youth 
 takes the one and maturity the other. We shall see that 
 the term is of ancient use in the ecclesiastical records of 
 France, and its etymology and import were critically dis- 
 cussed by French authors as far back as the seventeenth 
 century. It will be seen that in these discussions, and in 
 the older extracts from ecclesiastical records, the Scots 
 word Hogmanay is approached from all points, although 
 there is in no instance a parallel to it letter by letter. 
 
 The most significant French comment I have found 
 my way to, is that of Menage in his great etymological 
 dictionary. All the world knows him to have been a 
 master of learned gossip, and the very man to pour 
 curious light on such a topic. Under the word Haguign- 
 etes he quotes information furnished by M. de Grande- 
 mesnil, who says he remembers in his youth that, in 
 Rouen, the word was pronounced hoguignetes^ and gives 
 his own theory of the reason for the variation ; and he 
 
 Rabelais, Sir Thomas Urquhart, having the privilege of being an 
 Aberdeen-awa man, was familiar with the bum-bee as the equivalent 
 of the English humble-bee. He may even have "herreit a bum- 
 bee's byke." But before admitting that his translation is true, one 
 would require some information from France, since Rabelais did not 
 go to Aberdeenshire for a term, just that it might suit a north-country 
 laird. There is a confusion here, reminding one of a juvenile class 
 in natural history, where to the question, " Where do bees get their 
 wax?" the answer comes, " From their ears." 
 
THE EGUIMENE AND HOGMANAY. 207 
 
 gives a specimen of the way in which he remembers the 
 boys in his own quarter singing it as they solicited their 
 New Year's Eve gifts : 
 
 *' Si vous veniez a la depense, 
 A la expense de chez nous, 
 Vous mangeriez de bons choux, 
 On vous serviroit du rost 
 
 Hoquinano." 
 
 Menage is further informed by his correspondent that, 
 in Bayeux and Les Vez, the pronunciation is hoguign- 
 ames, and then gives a specimen of the way in which he 
 had himself heard it sung in the streets, when practising 
 as an advocate before the Parliament of Rouen. He had 
 very little practice, by the way, being apt, as in the present 
 instance, to occupy himself with matters not relevant to 
 the case before him. The specimen he gives is 
 
 *' Donnez-moi mes Haguignetes, 
 Dans un panier que voici 
 Je 1'achetai samedi 
 D'un bon homme de dehors, 
 Mais il est encore a payer 
 
 Haguinelo." 
 
 Menage records his correspondent's theory of the origin 
 of the word, without either impugning or adopting it. 
 The root is hoc in anno in this year as inferring a hint 
 that it is still time before the year expires to do a small 
 act of generosity to the suppliant, so that the giver may 
 pass into the new year with the benefit of his gratitude. 1 
 
 1 "A Rouen ils disoient en ma jounesse non pas Haguignetes, mais 
 Hoguignetes ; et peut-etre a-l-on dit Haguignetes, pour eviter 1'equi- 
 voque de la signification obscene que les Picards donnent au mot de 
 Hoguigner. Ce mot de Hoguignetes venoit de hoc in anno: car 
 c'est un present que Ton demande au dernier jour de 1'annee, Don- 
 nez-moi quelque chose hoc in anno : encore une fois cette annee." 
 
 A traditional rumour appears to have existed that the ceremony 
 came from France, and those who desired to find etymology for that 
 view derived the lines from 
 
 " L'homme est n 
 Trois Rois la." 
 
 The writer of an oppressively learned paper in the second volume of 
 the 'Transactions of the Antiquaries' Society of Scotland,' "On the 
 
2O8 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Court de Gebelin, in his ' Monde Primitif,' quotes a 
 portion of Menage's information, and gives as his own 
 derivation a gui ran neuf. This brings us to the border 
 of a vast theory which Cotgrave, in that dictionary so 
 useful to all readers of old French books, thus distinctly 
 announces : 
 
 "Au GUY- L'AN- NEUF. The voice of country people 
 begging small presents or New Year's gifts on Christmas. 
 An ancient tearm of rejoicing derived from the Druides, 
 who were wont the first of January to goe unto the 
 woods, where, having sacrificed and banqueted together, 
 they gathered mistletow, esteeming it excellent to make 
 beasts fruitful, and most soveraigne against all poyson." 
 
 The earliest assertions I happen to have noticed of 
 this theory belong to the middle of the seventeenth 
 century. 1 We have now got back among the Druids, 
 
 Cry of the Maskers at Christmas or Yule" which, by the way, is 
 not the correct time gets deep into Norse lore ; and in reference to 
 the rumour of a French origin, says, "Had it been in such general 
 use as has been pretended, some vestige of it would have been pre- 
 served to the present age ; or at least it would have been mentioned 
 by some of the French historians or antiquaries, as Mezerai, Menage, 
 or Pasquier. But these writers, as well as every other whom I have 
 had occasion to consult, are totally silent as to this usage." It is 
 rash in any one positively to pronounce on what may not be found 
 in a book, lest some other searcher may be more fortunate ; but a 
 writer is surely specially unlucky who singles out, as in naming 
 Menage, the very author who gives us a quantity of curious informa- 
 tion on a topic, for the purpose of telling that he is "totally silent 
 on it. " In Mezerai one would not expect to find anything about it ; 
 yet, as if to confound this learned author, Mezerai does go out of 
 his way to speak of the grotesque ceremonies accompanying the 
 Eguimene, to be presently noticed. I am inclined to concur in 
 Pasquier's silence, having rummaged his ' Recherches de la France ' 
 the book of all others from which I expected most without 
 rinding anything on this topic. 
 
 1 Du Chesne, 'Antiquitez' (164), under the description of Dreux, 
 supposed to have been the Rome or metropolis of the Druids. It is 
 more fully developed a few years afterwards by Borel. " Aguilanleu 
 au guy Can neuf, cri retenu en certaines villes de France, depuis les 
 Druides, qui alloyent couper le guy de chesne avec une serpe d'or en 
 faisant un divinite. Les enfans crient Aguilanneu a Dreux et autres 
 lieux, au premier jour de 1'an pour demander les estrennes, selon Du 
 Chesne en ses Antiq. de France. Et Ovide confirme 1'antiquite de 
 
THE EGUIMENE AND HOGMANAY. 209 
 
 and therefore at an end both of common sense and 
 common honesty, for it is the fatal effect of any literary 
 dealing with this mysterious fraternity to render some 
 men reckless and mendacious who otherwise are found 
 to be cautious and truthful. This phenomenon might be 
 worthy the investigation of psychologists; in the mean- 
 time, I am content to attribute it to that awe and rever- 
 ence accorded by general consent to a set of people of 
 whom so little is known, if they be not almost altogether 
 creatures of imagination. The investigator who lands 
 his difficulties among them is at once relieved by a sort 
 of supernatural influence, which enables him at once 
 to subdue all the impediments which he would in vain 
 have offered battle to by honest investigation and fair 
 induction. So corruptive is this influence that the com- 
 pilers of the Trevoux Dictionary, in general so cool and 
 sagacious, have at once abandoned themselves to it on 
 coming alphabetically to the heading Aguillanneuf, and 
 have, with a minute precision worthy of a Court news- 
 man, given an account of Druidical processions and 
 other ceremonies, for which there is no more authority 
 in any authentic shape than there is for the occurrences 
 narrated in the tales of the Thousand and One Nights. 1 
 To this place of refuge in the sacred groves of the 
 
 cette coustoume, lors qu'il dit, ' Ad viscum Druydae, Druydse cla- 
 mare solebant.'" ' Tresor de Recherches et Antiquitez Gauloises 
 est Francises, 1655.' 
 
 1 "AGUILLANNEUF, s.m. Vieux mot qu'on crioit autrefois le 
 premier jour de Janvier, en signe de rejouissance. Ce mot vient d'une 
 ancienne superstition des Druides. Les Pretres alloient, au mois de 
 Decembre, qu'on appeloit sacre, cueillir le gui du chene en grande 
 ceremonie. Cela se faisoit avec beaucoup de solennite. Les devins 
 marchoient les premiers, chantant des hymnes, en 1'honneur de leurs 
 divinites. Ensuite venoit un heraut, le caducee en main ; apres lui 
 suivoient trois Druides de front, portant les choses necessaires pour le 
 sacrifice. Enfin, paroissoit le chef, ou le Prince des Druides, accom- 
 pagne de tout le peuple. Le chef des Druides montoit sur le chene, 
 & coupoit le gui avec une faucille d'or. Les autres Druides le rece- 
 voient, & au premier jour de 1'an on le distribuoit au peuple, comme 
 une chose sainte, apres 1'avoir beni, & consacre, en criant, Ati gui, 
 Van netif, pour annoncer une annee nouvelle. On fait encore ce cri 
 
 O 
 
2IO THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Druids the French archaeologists have found their way 
 through a narrow enough path. It is all along of " guy " 
 or "gui," meaning mistletoe; which we are told by one 
 of the most credulous of authors, Pliny junior, that the 
 Druids cut with a golden sickle. With the French writers 
 who believe in the Druidical connection, it is unfortun- 
 ately necessary to be sceptical about everything, and 
 especially about their spelling of the New Year's Day 
 festival itself. 
 
 It is refreshing to pass from such company into that of 
 the accurate Charpentier, who, in his supplement to Du- 
 cange, with something like a gentle sneer, refers to the 
 authorities just cited for an account of the Druidical 
 antiquity of the ceremony, and contents himself with 
 quoting the earliest authentic records in which it is 
 mentioned. Thus, he finds that in Boissiere, in Poitou, 
 a vigil was held with lamps and lanterns in the year 1480, 
 and the bachelors of the parish collected an aguillanneuj 
 to defray the cost of the affair. He mentions some in- 
 stances still earlier, and gives the various readings of 
 Aguilloneu, Aguillenneu, Guillenlieu, Haguirenleux, and 
 Haguimenlo. 
 
 A word now about some other practices about the 
 New Year, which I cannot help believing to be faded 
 relics of the French connection. On Hogmanay Night 
 it is customary for the young folks to wear masks and 
 offer petty dramatic surprises. The height of this sort 
 of effort is to get into a friend's house, without recog- 
 nition, in personation of some very astounding character 
 far away from the position of the youth who assumes it ; 
 
 en Picardie, ou on ajoute, Plantez, plantez, pour souhaiter une annee 
 abondante & fertile. Dela est venu le nom d'un fauxbourg de Lyon, 
 qu'on nomme encore a present la Guillottire. En Bourgogne, a 
 Dreux, & autres lieux, les enfans crient, Aguilannatf, pour de- 
 mander leurs etrennes. 
 
 "On donna depuis le nom de Aguilanneuf a une quete qui se 
 faisoit le premier jour de I'an, dans quelques dioceses pour les cierges 
 de 1'eglise. Elle se faisoit par des jeunes gens de Tun & de 1'autre 
 sexe. Les Synodes ont aboli cette quete, a cause de la licence & du 
 scandale dont elle etoit accompagnee. " 
 
THE EGUIMENfi AND HOGMANAY. 211 
 
 but this is a feat rarely accomplished. 1 Those who thus 
 go a-masking on New Year's Eve, or Hogmanay Night are 
 called guisards or guizers. There is very little on record 
 about their mummeries, but we shall presently see that 
 those of their French teachers were an important and 
 formidable affair. 2 
 
 While the children thus went a-mumming, it became 
 the practice of their fathers and other male seniors to 
 take to drinking at the close of the year with a zeal and 
 devotedness reminding one of those ancient rites dedi- 
 cated to Saturn, from which the practice is said to have 
 arisen. When any man belonging to what are called 
 " the working classes " has a slight touch of dissipation 
 in his temperament, the passing of the New Year is always 
 a serious ordeal. It may chance to send him off into the 
 whirl of eternal dram-drinking, and it seldom fails to start 
 him on a career from which he is not easily recovered. 
 It is usual to call this time of peril " the daft days." 3 
 
 1 For the fullest account of these saturnalia, reference may be 
 made to the conclusion of Chambers's ' Book of Days. ' 
 
 2 Of anything I have heard of the theatrical literature of our 
 Scotch guisards, there is little but sheer common city vulgarity, and 
 little worth noting even for its grotesqueness. An ingenious friend 
 remembers in his youth the beginning of a sort of Hogmanay drama, 
 in which there enter three boys, as appropriately armed and cos- 
 tumed as a village can afford, and commence a trialogue, thus : 
 
 i. " I am Bol Bendo who are you?" 
 z. " I am here, the King of France, 
 
 Come for a battle to advance." 
 3. "I am here, the King of Spain, 
 
 Come for a battle to maintain." 
 
 In any country with less schooling and history-reading than Scotland, 
 there might be something significant in the place where this mum- 
 mery was noted being in the same parish with "Little France," so 
 called from a tradition that Queen Mary's French attendants lived 
 there in a small colony, at a time when the great contest between 
 France and Spain was the latest important chapter in history. 
 
 3 The temptations of the season, and their influence, are capitally 
 recorded in the following lyric of the late Robert Gilfillan of 
 Leith : 
 
 " I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in, 
 I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ; 
 It's what wi' the brandy, an' what wi' the gin, 
 I 've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! 
 
212 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 Our old allies, if they had not so much steady business- 
 like drinking, were, however, in some other respects, still 
 dafter in their Fetes des Foux. 
 
 Of these strange affairs it is difficult to give anything 
 like a distinct conception. We cannot easily, in the 
 Britain of the present day, enter into the solemn earnest- 
 ness with which the wildest ribaldry and buffoonery were 
 systematised as a direct burlesque not only of the high- 
 est solemnities of the old Church, but the most sacred 
 mysteries of Christianity. There was in many places a 
 traditional right to perform these fantasies within the 
 
 Our Yule friends they met, and a gay stoup we drank ; 
 The bicker gaed round, and the pint-stoup did clank ; 
 But that was a' naething, as shortly ye'll fin" 
 I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! 
 
 Our auld timmer clock, wi* thorl an' string, 
 Had scarce shawn the hour whilk the new year did bring, 
 Whan friends an' acquantance cam' tirl at the pin 
 An' I've aye been fou sin' the year cam" in ! 
 
 My auld aunty Tibbie cam' ben for her cap, 
 Wi' scone in her hand, an* cheese in her lap, 
 An' drank c A gude New Year to kith an' to kin ' 
 Sae I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! 
 
 My strong brither Sandy cam* in frae the south 
 There's some ken his mettle, but nane ken his drouth ! 
 I brought out the bottle losh ! how he did grin ! 
 I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! 
 
 Wi' feasting at night, an' wi' drinking at morn, 
 Wi' here ' Tak' a kaulker,' an' there T Tak' a horn,' 
 I've gatten baith doited, an' donnert, an' blin' 
 For I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! 
 
 I sent for the doctor, and bade him sit down ; 
 He felt at my hand, an' he straiket my crown ! 
 He ordered a bottle but it turned out gin ! 
 Sae I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! 
 
 The Sunday bell rang, an' I thought it as weel 
 To slip into the kirk, to steer clear o' the deil ; 
 But the chiel at the plate fand a groat left behin' 
 Sae I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! 
 
 'Tis Candlemas time, and the wee birds o' spring 
 Are chirming an" chirping as if they wad sing ; 
 While here I sit bousing 'tis really a sin ! 
 I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! 
 
 The last breath o' winter is soughing awa', 
 An' sune down the valley the primrose will blaw ; 
 A douce sober life I maun really begin, 
 For I've aye been fou sin' the year cam' in ! ' 
 
THE EGUIMENE AND HOGMANAY. 213 
 
 churches, and even in their choirs ; and the more blas- 
 phemous and brutal the exhibition was, the more was 
 a sort of antithetic holiness attached to it. 1 The only 
 necessary limit to the licence of the occasion was, that 
 what was selected for ludicrous travesty must be some- 
 thing either in the Bible itself, or in the solemnities of 
 the Church. 
 
 If advantage were taken of the excellent opportunity to 
 make the foul fiend or the great traitor excessively ridic- 
 ulous or offensive, it was, of course, a service to religion. 2 
 The animals mentioned in Scripture had their share in 
 these ceremonies, and, according to some of the cen- 
 sorious, behaved themselves more discreetly than their 
 human abettors. The whale which gave a lodging to 
 Jonah, and the herd of swine which the evil spirit had 
 entered into, were of course largely available for the 
 objects of these entertainments. Balaam's ass had in 
 some places a special festival of his own. The whole 
 ceremonies attending it, with the ribald hymns and 
 choruses, the processions and the costumes, are described 
 at length by Ducange, under the head "Festus Asin- 
 orum ; " and the description is almost as motley a con- 
 trast to his solemn comments on feudal usages and 
 medieval dignities, as the scene itself must have been 
 
 1 "Mais encore quelles folies? telles, en verite, qu'elles seroient 
 incroyables, si nous n'avions les eveques et les docteurs de ce tems- 
 1& pour temoins, qui disent que c'etoient d'horribles abominations, 
 des actions honteuses et criminelles, melees par un infinite de fola- 
 treries et d'insolences, car il est vrai que si tous les diables de 1'enfer 
 avoient & fonder une fete dans nos eglises, ils ne pourraient pas 
 ordonner autrement que ce qui se faisoit alors." Jean Beleth, cited 
 by Du Tilliot, 'Memoires pour servir a 1'Histoire de la Fete des 
 Foux, 1751,' p. 19. In the same book (p. 51), Gerson, the French 
 Thomas-a-Kempis, is referred to as saying, " qu'on avoit preche de 
 son terns, que cette fete des foux etoit autant approuvee de Dieu, 
 que la fete de la Conception de le Vierge Marie." 
 
 2 " Nee prsetermissus ipse Judas marsupii sollicitus custos. Per- 
 quam graphice illic quoque sustinebat ejus personam valentissemus 
 rusticanus, truci vultu, elato supercilio, torvo aspectu, flammantibus, 
 oculis, frendenti ore, gressu prsecipiti, gestu feroci, aliisque multis 
 truculentiae signis, quibus se quandoque prodit nefarie subdola pro- 
 ditorum indoles. " Neurei Querela ad Gassendum, ibid., p. 38. 
 
214 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 in the great Gothic churches where it was enacted. The 
 " innocents " that is to say, the children of the district 
 had their share in these mummeries, and no doubt 
 enjoyed it. Their function was to pay off old scores 
 with Herod, their great enemy ; and when the whole of 
 the " innocents " of a large town were let loose among 
 the reliquaries, missals, paintings, and imagery of a cath- 
 edral, they were likely to leave some emphatic mark of 
 their presence. 1 
 
 Among the strange shapes taken by these exhibitions, 
 one is signally inexplicable as a feature of Catholicism 
 the exhibition of the Merefolle. It was, in fact, a travesty 
 of the Virgin and Child, throwing, on her whom the Ro- 
 manists are charged with venerating too much, a scur- 
 rility which even the most vehement Calvinists would 
 scarce approve. In some places, round the title of the 
 Mere folle there seems to have clustered a sort of body 
 of revellers like the Calves' Head Club. They had 
 banners, images, and paintings of the Mere folle, and 
 various properties solemnly grotesque, which may be 
 found represented in the curious plates of Du Tilliot, 
 who also gives their macaronic poems, and the docu- 
 ments, in mockery of state papers and ecclesiastical 
 edicts, contained in their muniments. 2 
 
 In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there were 
 many ecclesiastical denunciations of these practices. 
 The following is the tenor of one of the most ample 
 and descriptive of these documents an ordinance by 
 the Synod of Angers against the Aguillanneuf and its 
 concomitants: "Whereas the mortal enemy of mankind 
 
 1 " La fete des innocens ou la fete des enfans. . . . Mais cette 
 fete meritait bien mieux d'etre appelle la f tie du diable, a cause des 
 insolences effroiables et des scandales horribles, et des turpitudes ex- 
 ecrables qui s'y faisoient." Baptiste Thiers, ' Traite des Jeux,' &c. f 
 p. 441. 
 
 - For instance, ' Acte de reception de Henri de Bourbon, Prince 
 de Conde premier prince du sang, en la compagnie de la Mere-folle 
 de Dijon, 1'an 1626.' It begins, " Les superlatifs, mirelifiques, et 
 scientifiques Loppinans de 1'infanterie Dijonnoise, Regens d'Apollo 
 et des Muses." 
 
THE EGUIMENfi AND HOGMANAY. 215 
 
 tries always with his usual cunning to suggest to the 
 minds of men, under the appearance of some good, things 
 of which the fine and holy beginnings change afterwards 
 into sad and wicked effects : Among the rest this instance 
 is not to be despised, that by virtue of a certain custom 
 of antiquity observed in some places in our age, princi- 
 pally in the parishes which are under the Deans of Craon 
 and of Cand, the day of the Feast of the Circumcision of 
 our Lord, which is the first day of the year, and others 
 following, the young people of the said parishes, belong- 
 ing to both sexes, go to the churches and houses, begging 
 certain alms which they call Aquilanneuf, the proceeds 
 of which they promise to spend on a candle in honour 
 of Our Lady, or of the patron of their parish. 
 
 " Herein we are assured that under cover of some little 
 good much scandal is committed. For, besides that of 
 the said proceeds and other things accruing from the 
 said begging, not a tenth part is spent in the honour of 
 the Church, but consumed almost entirely in banquets, 
 drunkenness, and other debauches, one amongst them, 
 whom they call their Pallet, under this name takes the lib- 
 erty, as do also those who accompany him, to do and say 
 in the church, and other places, things which cannot 
 decently be uttered, written, or listened to, even often 
 addressing themselves with great insolence to the priest 
 at the altar, and imitating, by divers monkey-tricks, the 
 holy ceremonies of the Mass and other observances of 
 the Church ; and under colour of the said Aquilanneuf, 
 seize and take from the houses which they enter what- 
 ever seems good to them, of which people dare not 
 complain and cannot prevent, because they carry sticks 
 and offensive arms. And besides the above, there are 
 a variety of other scandals. This having come to our 
 knowledge by the remonstrances and complaints which 
 have been made to us by certain ecclesiastics and 
 others, we desiring, in the duty of our charge, to remedy 
 such disorders, considering that our Lord severely, and 
 with blows of a whip, drove from the Temple those who 
 in it sold and bought things necessary for the sacrifices 
 (how much less should they commit such wickednesses 
 
2l6 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 as those !), reproaching them, that of the house of prayer 
 they had made a den of thieves. 
 
 "Following His example, urged by His Holy Spirit, 
 and by the authority which it has pleased Him to give 
 us, we very positively forbid all persons, whether male or 
 female, and of whatever quality or condition they may 
 be, under pain of excommunication, to perform hence- 
 forth the said begging of the Aquilanneuf in the church, 
 or in the manner above mentioned, or to make any 
 assembly for this purpose of more than two or three 
 persons at most, who, in performing it, shall be accom- 
 panied by one of the Procureurs de Fabrique, or by some 
 other person of full age, not choosing that otherwise they 
 shall perform the said begging, and under engagement to 
 spend in wax for the service of the Church all the pro- 
 ceeds which shall accrue from it, not retaining nor spend- 
 ing a single farthing for any other purpose. We com- 
 mand and enjoin all rectors and curates of churches and 
 parishes, and others having care of souls in this diocese, 
 under pain of suspension a divinis for a month, and of 
 greater penalties in future if this fails, that they neither 
 have, nor permit, nor suffer such things to be done in their 
 said parishes, otherwise than we have declared above." 1 
 
 In defiance of repeated clerical denouncements, these 
 practices retained so strong a hold, that a certain 
 Mathurin de Neure, who wrote a very angry Latin letter 
 about them to Gassendi, already referred to, described 
 the following as a scene to be witnessed in the middle of 
 the seventeenth century : 
 
 " Neither the priests nor the guardians go to the choir 
 that day. The lay brothers, the porters, the scullions, 
 the gardeners, the cooks and kitcheners, occupy their 
 places in the church, and say that they perform the office 
 suitable for such a festival, when they play at being fools 
 and madmen, which indeed they really are. They dress 
 themselves up in sacerdotal ornaments, if they can find 
 them, but all torn, and turned outside in. They hold in 
 their hands books upside down and absurdly, in which 
 
 1 Du Tilliot, pp. 68, 69. 
 
THE EGUIMENE AND HOGMANAY. 2 1/ 
 
 they pretend to read with spectacles, from which they 
 extract the glasses, substituting in their places orange- 
 peel, which makes them look more hideous and frightful 
 than one could believe without seeing them, particularly 
 after they have blown the censers which they hold in their 
 hands, which they do in derision, and made the ashes fly 
 in their faces and cover each other's heads with them. 
 In this guise they sing neither the usual psalms, nor hymns, 
 nor the Mass; but they mutter certain confused words, and 
 utter cries as foolish, as disagreeable, and as discordant 
 as those of a herd of grunting pigs, so that brute beasts 
 might perform the office of that day as well as they do. 
 It would be better, indeed, to bring brute beasts into the 
 churches to praise their Creator after their manner; it 
 would certainly be a more holy custom than to permit 
 such sort of persons to be there, who mock God by try- 
 ing to sing His praises, and are more senseless and fool- 
 ish than the most foolish and senseless animals." 1 
 
 A certain ' Lettre Circulaire de la Faculte" de Paris,' of 
 the fifteenth century, in which the Fetes des Foux are 
 discussed, gives the following mildly philosophic rationale 
 of them : " Our predecessors, who were great people, 
 permitted this feast ; let us live like them, and do as they 
 did. We do not do all these things seriously, but only 
 for play, and to divert ourselves, according to the old 
 custom ; in order that folly, which is natural to us, and 
 which seems born with us, should escape and run away 
 thereby at least once each year. Wine-barrels would burst 
 if the bung or sluice were not sometimes opened to give 
 them air. And we are old vessels, ill-bound barrels, 
 which the wine of wisdom would burst if we were to let 
 it boil constantly by incessantly addicting ourselves to 
 devotion. We must give it some air and relaxation, for 
 fear that it should be lost and spilt to no profit. It is for 
 that that we give some days to games and buffooneries, 
 that we may afterwards return with more joy and fervour 
 to the study and exercises of religion." 2 
 
 1 Querela ad Gassendum, cited in Du Tilliot. 
 
 2 Cited in Du Tilliot, p. 51. 
 
21 8 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 It is evident, however, that practices at once so offen- 
 sively antagonistic to the prevailing sentiments of their 
 times, and so obstinately retentive of life, must have had 
 deeper roots than any such mild philosophy could nourish. 
 Some seek for them in the Roman saturnalia, others in 
 the heathenism of the northern nations. Both supposi- 
 tions are mere guess-work, and the field appears to be 
 open to the first thoroughly industrious inquirer. When 
 it is undertaken, there will naturally be associated with 
 it those relics of sculptural ribaldry, a sort of antithesis to 
 all religious solemnity and reverence, to be found in the 
 decorations of old ecclesiastical buildings. There is 
 reason to believe that the relics of the stone caricatures, 
 numerous as they are, are but a small percentage of the 
 examples in the same spirit uttered by medieval art. 
 Several of the ecclesiastical writs, denouncing the ribald 
 ceremonies above referred to, are moved with equal 
 indignation by indecent decorations in sculpture, paint- 
 ing, and tapestry. 1 It is quite natural, in the course of 
 
 1 In the statutes of the Synod of Angers (1678), an ordinance on 
 reverent behaviour denounces, in the churches, ' ' tapisseries qui 
 representent quelquefois des choses si indecentes et si deshonnetes, 
 qu'elles ne sembleroient pas meme assez modestes pour une salle de 
 bal, ou un theatre de comedie." In a manual of ceremonials it is 
 laid down that, " II faudra bien se donner garde qu'il n'y ait rien de 
 profane ou d'indecent dans le peinture, ou dans le broderie qui sera 
 sur ces tapisseries. . . . Sur tout on n'y mettra aucune image, si 
 ce n'est des saints ou des souverains pontifs." Passages cited by 
 Thiers, ' Traite,' pp. 473, 474. The title of this book is, ' Traite des 
 Jeux et des Divertissemens qui peuvent etre permis, ou qui doivent 
 etre defendus aux Chretiens selon les Regies de 1'Eglise et le senti- 
 ment des Peres, par M. Jean Baptiste Thiers, Docteur in Theologie, 
 et Cure de Champroud : Paris, 1686.' The book must be rare, as 
 it cost me a hard run to get a sight of it. It was not to be found in 
 any library I had access to in Scotland, nor in the British Museum. 
 An Edinburgh dealer, who sometimes remembers that his books are 
 literature as well as merchandise, recollected that it had passed 
 through his hands ; and I thus traced it to the London Library in 
 St James's Square, from which it was liberally lent to me. The 
 author wrote other books on out-of-the-way matters, one of them a 
 history of periwigs. There is much curious matter in his quotations, 
 but he is a dry, stupid writer, and is addicted to carelessness and 
 
 inaccuracies privileges to which stupidity has no title, though it 
 often usurps them. Du Tilliot corrects some 
 
 some of his blunders. 
 
THE EGUIMENfi AND HOGMANAY. 219 
 
 things, that the offensive paintings and tapestry should 
 disappear, while a portion of the sculpture remained. 
 
 I have enlarged on the French source of our New- 
 Year's-Day rites because the matter seems to be curious, 
 and the connection is peculiarly distinct. There are 
 perhaps other features on the face of our national man- 
 ners that might be traced to the same home, though 
 with less certainty. Some have attributed the propensity 
 in Scotland to indulge in territorial titles to the French 
 connection. There was a long contest with the lairds to 
 make them sign with the Christian and surname, instead 
 of the name of the estate ; and it was only accomplished 
 by an Act rendering the territorial signature naught. The 
 name of the estate still lingers in some districts, as a more 
 courteous way of addressing its owner in familiar talk than 
 by his own name ; and in the same places formal com- 
 munications are made to him by both names, with the 
 "of" between them, like the "de" of France and the 
 " von " of Germany. This is a matter in which the rights 
 of women are stronger than those of men ; for whereas, 
 among brothers, the eldest, as proprietor, is the only one 
 who can fitly take the name of the estate, it is common 
 for elderly unmarried daughters of lairds to take the title 
 of the estate which may belong to their brothers, or even 
 to their nephews or grand-nephews. 
 
 It was natural that the Scots gentry, after the Union, 
 proud and sensitive as they were, should keep up the 
 foreign connection. So far as they differed from their 
 English neighbours in home language and manners, they 
 were provincial. A Continental tinge, on the other hand, 
 removed the homespun characteristics, and perhaps gave 
 them a touch of superiority. The five French Protestant 
 universities Montauban, Sedan, Montpelier, Nismes, and 
 Saumur were frequented by them till the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes. The Protestants then flocked to 
 Leyden, which sent many of them back as scholars and 
 accomplished gentlemen. The foreign tone has been 
 often observed by strangers in Scotland, and was thus 
 especially noted by Defoe : " There was a consort of 
 musick when I was at Stirling, where the ladies from the 
 
220 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 neighbourhood made a very good appearance. The 
 young gentlemen in everything imitate the French, and 
 have a hauteur which makes good the French saying 
 l jter comme un Ecossais. ' Their education being in France, 
 and the title of Laird like Marquis in France being 
 their general appellation, gives them these French 
 airs. 371 
 
 Any one well acquainted with the Scotland of that 
 period will see in this, not that the Scots, as a people, 
 had imbibed French manners, but that Defoe had met 
 with many who had been themselves educated abroad, or 
 had picked up their tone from assimilation to relations 
 who had so acquired foreign manners. Here, as in all 
 things, the influence of the French connection was super- 
 ficial and incidental; and in nothing is this more dis- 
 tinctly perceptible than in the scraps of French preserved 
 in the language of Scotland. As I have already remarked, 
 it is of a purer Teutonic tone than the English, which 
 took a tinge of French from the Norman influence. 
 There are many good stories of Scotsmen wandering in 
 Holland, or the Scandinavian countries, finding them- 
 selves direly perplexed for a medium of communication 
 with the people, until, in their despair, they tried the 
 broadest of broad " Buchan," and found that successful. 
 
 There are no such anecdotes of Scotsmen getting 
 through in France by the aid of their peculiar dialect. 
 The French terms, encased as it were in the common 
 tongue of Scotland, are thoroughly exotic, and have been 
 brought into it to express the special articles to which the 
 foreigners applied them like cheroots, mullagatawny, 
 chatny, and suchlike terms, at the present day brought 
 over with oriental articles of luxury. There is something 
 transcendentally Scotch about a haggis ; and Burns, in 
 his stalwart lines, has proclaimed its nationality in a 
 
 1 ' A Journey through Scotland, in Familiar Letters from a Gen- 
 tleman here to his Friend Abroad,' by the author of the 'Journey 
 through England,' p. 198. This book was so much altered in the 
 subsequent editions which are the easiest to be had that it has 
 become a mere statistical compilation rather than a book of travels. 
 
THE EGUIMEN AND HOGMANAY. 221 
 
 defiant spirit, as if he had a misgiving that it might be 
 questioned : 
 
 "Is there that owre his French ragout, 
 Or olio that wad staw a sow, 
 Or fricassee wad mak her spew 
 
 \Vi' perfect scunner, 
 Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view 
 On sic a dinner ? 
 
 Poor devil ! see him owre his trash, 
 
 As feckless as a wither'd rash, 
 
 His spindle-shank a guid whip-lash, 
 
 His nieve a nit ; 
 Through bloody flood or field to dash, 
 
 Oh, how unfit ! 
 
 But mark the rustic, haggis-fed, 
 
 The trembling earth resounds his tread ; 
 
 Clap in his walie nieve a blade, 
 
 He'll mak it whissle ; 
 An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned, 
 
 Like taps o' thrissle. 
 
 Ye powers wha mak mankind your care, 
 An' dish them out their bill o' fare, 
 Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware 
 
 That jaups in luggies ; 
 But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer, 
 
 Gie her a Haggis ! " 
 
 Yet there can be no question that this potent pudding, 
 which I have heard likened to a boiled bagpipe, is the 
 lineal descendant of the French hachis, which Cotgrave 
 interprets as " a sliced gallimaufry, or minced meat." 
 
 Our hodge-podge is a gift from the same quarter. A 
 term resembling it is in use in English law : but there is 
 no resisting Cotgrave's " hochepot ; a hotch-pot, a galli- 
 maufry, a confused mingle-mangle of divers things jum- 
 bled or put together." 1 A special delicacy from the 
 
 1 Oddly enough, this dish also is not without its sacred poet, ve- 
 hemently protesting its Scotchness : 
 
 " O leeze me on the canny Scotch, 
 Wha first contrived, without a botch, 
 To mak the gusty, good Hotch-Potch, 
 That fills the \vame sae brawly : 
 There's carrots intill't, and neaps intill't, 
 There's cybies intill't, and leeks intill't, 
 There's pease, and beans, and beets intill't, 
 That soom through ither sae brawly. 
 
222 THE ANCIENT LEAGUE. 
 
 poultry-yard is known by the very Scotch-like name of 
 howtowdy; and this is a special gift from the land of 
 cocks, being no other than the hutaudeau, which Cotgrave 
 says is " a cockerell, or big cock chick." In Burns's inven- 
 tory of the contents of Grose's museum, we have 
 
 " Parritch-pats an' auld saut-backets 
 Afore the Flood. " 
 
 The French mounseer, and English loon, 
 When they come daunderin' through our town. 
 Wi' smirks an' smacks they gulp it down. 
 
 An' lick their lips fu' brawly : 
 For there's carrots intill't, and neaps intill't, 
 And cybies intill't, and leeks intill't, 
 There's mutton, and lamb, and beef intill't, 
 
 That maks it sup sae brawly. 
 
 And Irish Pat, when he comes here, 
 To lay his lugs in our good cheer, 
 He shools his cutty wi' unco steer, 
 
 And clears his cogue fu' brawly : 
 For there's carrots intill't, and neaps intill't, 
 There's pease, and beans, and beets intill't, 
 And a' good gusty meats intill't, 
 
 That grease his gab fu' brawly. 
 
 A dainty Dame she cam' our way, 
 An' sma' soup meagre she wad hae : 
 ' Wi' your fat broth I cannot away, 
 
 It maks me scunner fu' brawly : 
 For there's carrots intill't, and neaps intill't, 
 There's cybies intill't, and leeks intili't, 
 And filthy, greasy meats intill't, 
 
 That turn my stamach sae brawly * 
 
 She gat her soup : It was unco trash, 
 And little better than poor dish-wash ; 
 'Twad gie a man the ivater-brash 
 
 To sup sic dirt sae brawly : 
 Nae carrots intill't, nor neaps intill't, 
 Nae cybies intill't, nor leeks intill't, 
 Nor nae good gusty meats intill't, 
 
 To line the ribs fu' brawly. 
 
 Then here's to ilka kindly Scot ; 
 
 Wi' mony good broths he boils his pot, 
 
 But rare hotch-potch beats a' the lot, 
 
 It smells and smacks sae brawly : 
 For there's carrots intill't, and neaps intill't, 
 There's pease, and beans, and beets intill't, 
 And hearty, wholesome meats intill't, 
 
 That stech the kite sae brawly." 
 
 Tliese lines are taken from a privately printed collection of poems 
 written by my late accomplished and venerable friend, Archibald 
 Bell, the Sheriff of Ayrshire ; and I think some of those who merely 
 knew him as a man of business will be a little surprised, if not scan- 
 dalised, to know that he was capable of such an effusion. 
 
THE EGUIMENE AND HOGMANAY. 223 
 
 The saut-backct, or salt-cellar, is from the French bacquet, 
 just as our old term for a dinner-plate, an ashet, is from 
 assiette, and basnatis, or small bowls, from bassinet. Among 
 Grose's accomplishments as an antiquary, 
 
 " The knife that nickel Abel's craig 
 
 He'll prove you fully, 
 It was a faulding jocteleg, 
 
 Orlang-kail gully." 
 
 The origin of this word jocteleg was long a puzzle, until 
 Lord Hailes solved it by attesting the existence of a large 
 knife with the maker's name on it, "Jacques de Liege." 
 
 The ancient allies have left among us a more formid- 
 able memorial in the " bastle-house," or " bastle-tower," 
 generally the name given to the small fortresses built for 
 their protection by the inhabitants of small towns or ham- 
 lets near the Border. 
 
 A considerable number of such coincidences may be 
 found, but I shall content myself with one as a last word. 
 I hope the novels of John Gait, and their descriptions of 
 Scotch life true, warm, and genial, like the pictures of 
 David Teniers are not yet forgotten. One of the best 
 of them, 'The Ayrshire Legatees/ gives us the adventures 
 of a country clergyman and his wife, who have gone to 
 London to secure a large inheritance unexpectedly open- 
 ing to them by the death of a rich relation. Among the 
 many types of civilised comfort which Mrs Pringle left 
 behind her when she sojourned in that "ausome place," 
 she informed her favourite gossip, who was fortunate 
 enough to be within reach of the luxuries of the nearest 
 "burgh toon," that "there wasna a jigot o' mutton to be 
 had within the four wa's o' Lunnon." It might, perhaps, 
 have consoled her for the ridicule bestowed by her city 
 friends on her barbarous method of applying for that 
 universal commodity, a leg of mutton, had she remem- 
 bered that her own special term for it was a bequest by 
 the politest nation in the world, and was the way in which 
 the French courtiers of Queen Mary would give their 
 orders in the victualling-shops of Edinburgh. 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD 
 

THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 
 
 JUSTICE TO IRELAND AND HER MONKS JOHN DUNS THE SCOTISTS 
 AND THE THOMISTS HECTOR BOECE AND THE FABULOUS HISTORIES 
 BUCHANAN THOMAS DEMPSTER SPECIMENS OF THE ARDENT 
 NATIONALITY OF SCOTS AUTHORS THE EFFECT OF THIS ON SCOT- 
 
 LAND'S POSITION IN HISTORY JOHN KNOX AND HIS FOLLOWERS 
 THE WRITERS ON THE OTHER SIDE ECCLESIASTICAL SQUABBLES 
 A RAMBLE AMONG MISCELLANEOUS AUTHORS SCOTSMEN IN 
 
 FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES JURISTS MEDICAL MEN THE ABERDEEN 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 A COMMON mistake, against which Ireland protests with 
 justice, but not always with success, induces me, before 
 entering on the history of the Scots who distinguished 
 themselves abroad, to give some preliminary explana- 
 tions. In the earlier centuries of our era, every Scot or 
 Scotus whom we meet with, either in political or literary 
 history, was an Irishman. For some time the term in- 
 cluded both Irishmen and natives of North Britain, but it 
 was not probably until the thirteenth century that the 
 word Scot or Scotsman was exclusively used in its present 
 sense. There are reasons for this as for all other such 
 phenomena, and when dug up and examined, they pre- 
 sent themselves in the shape of causes naturally adapted 
 to produce such effects. 
 
228 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 It is well known that the inhabitants of the south-west- 
 ern Highlands are of Irish descent. It was in the year 
 502 that a chief or prince called Fergus Mor Mac Earca, 
 at the head of a band of followers, emigrated from the 
 district in northern Ireland, generally spoken of as the 
 Irish Dalriada. The Venerable Bede, striking the key- 
 note to the tone in which his countrymen afterwards 
 spoke of "the mere Irish," called these emigrants "im- 
 pudent Irish vagabonds;" at least his expression may 
 admit of a more opprobrious, but it cannot of a milder 
 interpretation. 1 They founded in Argyleshire a colony, 
 which, as it expanded, took the permanent name of 
 Dalriada. It happened that about fifty years after this 
 migration, at a great public meeting of princes, ecclesi- 
 astical dignitaries, great bards, and other eminences of 
 various kinds, the Abbot of Burrow attended, bringing 
 with him his friend and connection, a son of Aodh, King 
 of Connaught. There was a " difficulty " at the time 
 between Aodh and Dermot M'Kerval, lord of the 
 southern Hy Nial, who was at that time the Ardriagh, or 
 President of the Kings of Ireland. The Abbot of Dur- 
 row expected that his sanctity would prove a protection 
 to his young friend, even among these enemies; but it 
 did not, and the son of Aodh was put to death. This, 
 of course, cried for vengeance, and the King of Con- 
 naught, bringing a host against the Ardriagh, defeated 
 him at the battle of Culdruihm. 
 
 The Ardriagh, in his wrath at the Abbot of Durrow for 
 the share he took in this punishment, got him excom- 
 municated by the clergy of the district, and managed to 
 make Ireland too hot for him. Now this affair became 
 of mighty importance, in as far as the Abbot of Durrow 
 was no other than Columba, the founder of lona, the con- 
 verter of the Picts, and the apostle of the north. It was 
 the wrath of the Ardriagh that drove him to his mission 
 and his subsequent triumphs. He got lona from his rela- 
 tion the chief of the Dalriads of Scotland, and there founded 
 the seat of learning and piety that became so renowned 
 
 1 "Impudentes grassatores Hiberni." Historia, i. 14. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 229 
 
 The Dalriads, though a small colony, had the advantage 
 from the beginning that they were Christians, and in 
 some respects civilised, in the midst of a people who, 
 as heathens and barbarians, were vastly their inferiors. 
 They now had the advantage of being the centre whence 
 Christianity spread over North Britain. New immigrants 
 joined them, and they became a great Celtic race ; it is 
 easy to realise the importance of that state which had 
 lona for its ecclesiastical capital. 
 
 There was never any nearer approach to a monarch of 
 all Ireland than the Ardriagh, whose superiority over the 
 others was of a very limited and fugitive kind. The 
 country was divided into a number of monarchies or 
 chiefships, ever shifting in extent and power, and per- 
 petually quarrelling with each other. The Dalriada on 
 this side of the water, sometimes called Alba, appears 
 to have become more powerful than any one of them, 
 and to have exercised a high influence in Ireland ; and 
 its king at last became so powerful and ambitious, that 
 he formed the design of subduing the petty kings of 
 Ireland, and ruling there supreme. When the term Scot 
 was used for an Irishman, it was extended to Dalriada, 
 and there came thus to be Albanian Scots as well as the 
 Hibernian. We thus have the term legitimately trans- 
 ferred to Scotland, and no more was necessary but acci- 
 dent and custom to make it in the course of ages lose its 
 original hold and take its place there. 
 
 There are persons who have heard of Lord Moira the 
 general, and Lord Moira the statesman, who are yet 
 utterly ignorant of the battle of Moyra or Magrath, as it 
 was spelt of old, fought in the district which holds this 
 title in the year 637. It was to Ireland what Bannock- 
 burn was to Scotland the defeat of a powerful invader. 
 The invader was Eochaidh Buidhe, King of Alba, or the 
 Scots Dalriada, who brought with him a vast host, not 
 only of his own Celtic people, but of Picts and Saxons 
 over whom his influence extended. The battle went on, 
 it is said, for seven days, and in the end the invaders 
 were defeated. This was one of the great historical 
 battles for centuries afterwards, but the English invasions 
 
230 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 blotted out its significance in Irish history. It was im- 
 portant enough, however, to be celebrated in a great 
 epic poem, which has lately come to light under the 
 auspices of the Irish Archaeological Society. 1 
 
 1 ' The Banquet of Dun-Na N-Gedth, and the Battle of Magh- 
 Rath ; an ancient Historical Tale.' Edited by John O'Donoven, 
 1842. There was, it appears, a prophecy by Columba, a century 
 earlier, that such a battle was to be, and the bard surrounds it with 
 many other marvels. What made Congal Claen, King of Ulster, 
 incite the King of Alba to the invasion, was the following series of 
 events : 
 
 Domhnall, or Donald, the lineal descendant of Nial of the Nine 
 Hostages, King of Erin, gave a grand banquet to all his royal rela- 
 tions, and all the princes of the land, in celebration of his accession 
 to the throne, and the completion of his palace. An extensive forag- 
 ing was carried on around to provide goose eggs, which, it seems, 
 were to be the standing delicacy of the banquet. The emissaries 
 found a considerable nest of the commodity in the possession of an 
 old woman, and carried them off, although she told them that they 
 were the property of a saint "namely, Bishop Ere of Slaine ; and 
 his custom is to remain immersed in the Boyne up to his two armpits, 
 from morning till evening, having his Psalter before him on the 
 strand, constantly engaged in prayer ; and his dinner every evening, 
 on returning home, is an egg and a half and three sprigs of the 
 cresses of the Boyne." The purveyors, however, who seem to have 
 had no more veneration for the Boyne Water than many of their 
 countrymen at the present day, desolated the saint's larder. When 
 he returned and found himself eggless, he had recourse to the usual 
 weapons of his order. In the words of the chronicle, ' ' The righteous 
 man then became wroth, " and ' ' he cursed the banquet as bitterly 
 as he was able to curse it." 
 
 This affair, following upon the back of Columba's old prophecy, 
 brought matters to an alarming crisis. The outward and visible 
 portents through which the curse began to work have a certain wild 
 and eldrich picturesqueness. Thus, for instance : 
 
 " As the king's people were afterwards at the assembly, they saw 
 a couple approaching them namely, a woman and a man. Larger 
 than the summit of a rock on a mountain was each member of their 
 members ; sharper than a shaving-knife the edge of their shins ; their 
 heels and hams in front of them. Should a sackful of apples be 
 thrown upon their heads, no one of them would fall to the ground, 
 but would stick on the points of the strong bristly hair which grew 
 out of their heads. Blacker than the coal, or darker than the smoke, 
 was each of their members ; whiter than snow their eyes. A lock 
 of the lower beard was carried round the back of the head, and a 
 lock of the upper beard descended so as to cover the knees. The 
 woman had whiskers, but the man was without whiskers. They 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 2$ I 
 
 This affair is referred to here merely to render distinct 
 how part of Scotland was virtually a very eminent and 
 influential portion of the Irish community of nations, so 
 that it is by no means wonderful that a term applied to 
 the people of the one should travel to those of the other. 
 So long did the term Scot remain common to both 
 countries, that in the Chronicle of Marianus Scotus, who 
 died immediately before the beginning of the year noo, 
 when he speaks of himself mentioning, for instance, that 
 he had to leave his native country on account of religious 
 
 carried a tub between them, which was full of goose-eggs. In this 
 plight they saluted the king. * What is that ? ' said the king. ' It is 
 plain,' said they, ' the men of Erin are making a banquet for thee, 
 and each brings what he can to that banquet ; and our mite is the 
 quantity of eggs we are carrying. ' '' I am thankful for it, ' said the 
 king. They were conducted into the palace, and a dinner sufficient 
 for a hundred was given to them of meat and ale. This did not con- 
 tent them. On asking for more, however, they were informed by 
 Casciabhach the butler that they should have nothing more till the 
 men of Erin had feasted ; so they told him that the banquet was 
 doomed to be a banquet of strife ; for they were ' the people of in- 
 fernus,'and thereupon they 'rushed out and vanished into nothing.'" 
 Thus driven to extremities, King Donald did his best. He re- 
 solved that the twelve chief saints, called the Twelve Apostles of 
 Ireland, should partake of the feast before it was touched by the 
 kings and nobles, and leave on it the type of their sanctity. The 
 twelve came, each with a hundred hungry followers ; but all was of 
 no avail, on account of a little incident that preceded and counter- 
 acted their mission. Congal Claen, King of Ulster, King Donald's 
 foster-son, had, according to a not uncommon weakness of the flesh, 
 taken a private peep at the good things in store for the banquet before 
 the revered guests arrived. As will happen, too, in such cases, he 
 could not entirely resist the tempting sight. " He laid his eye upon 
 the goose-eggs he saw there, for he marvelled at them, and he ate 
 a part of one of them, and took a drink after it. " This decided the 
 destiny of Congal and of Ireland. The first alarming symptom of 
 its approach was, that at the banquet he did not occupy the place 
 proper to his rank. When all were seated, and the banquet begun, 
 the curse manifested itself in an appalling phenomenon. "Meat 
 and drink were afterwards distributed to them, until they became 
 inebriated and cheerful ; and a goose-egg was brought on a silver 
 dish before every king in the house ; and when the dish and the egg 
 were placed before Congal Claen, the silver dish was transformed 
 into a %vooden one, and the goose-egg into the egg of a red-feathered 
 hen. " 
 
232 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 troubles he leaves it doubtful whether that country is 
 Ireland or Scotland. There is a page in his Chronicle 
 in which he refers to several Scots. There was Helias 
 the Scot, who died on the 2d of the ides of April, in the 
 year 1042. Next year there was Annuchudus, a monk 
 of Fulda, over whose grave, where a lamp burned, he, 
 Marianus, a Scot, himself a monk in the same monastery, 
 had day by day, for ten years, taken his part in the per- 
 formance of mass. In the same page is told an event 
 to which literature has given a grander significance than 
 it could have had in history the death of Duncan, and 
 the accession of Macbeth ; and the place where this 
 occurred is called Scotia. 1 
 
 Since, then, Ireland and the western Highlands were 
 inhabited by the same people, known by the same name, 
 why count every distinguished Scot down to the eleventh 
 century as an Irishman? Giving justice, and nothing 
 but justice, to Ireland, should not the Highlands have 
 their share ? In lona the Albanian branch of the Scots 
 were rearing an institution as great as the most illustrious 
 of the native monastic colleges, and likely to compete 
 with them as a centre for the radiation of religion and 
 civilisation over the world. The light in Albania, however, 
 was extinguished. Just when Ireland was distributing 
 her most illustrious missionaries over the continent, the 
 Northmen had completed the subjugation of the Alban- 
 ian Scots, and all but suppressed, if they did not entirely 
 suppress, Christianity among the people. Albania be- 
 came a Norse kingdom in which the Celts were serfs. 
 We are thus saved the trouble of dividing the great 
 names with an equitable appropriation. Ireland kept 
 them all until the inhabitants of the Scotland of later 
 times made a world of enterprise and fame for themselves. 
 
 Probably from its utter antithesis to modern practical 
 associations, one of the most picturesque chapters in the 
 history of the world is that of Christianity and Roman 
 
 1 Marianus 's record of the affair is in these words : " Donchad Rex 
 Scotise occiditur a duce suo, Magfinloech successit in regnum ejus." 
 Marianus, apud Pistorii ' Rerum a Germanis gestarum Annales,' 451. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 233 
 
 civilisation finding a refuge at the back of the world as it 
 were, during the convulsions which followed the break- 
 ing-up of the Empire, and then coming forth to enlighten 
 continental Europe. From this illustrious position have 
 fallen the family of our poor relations to what they now 
 are, our burden and dragdom, which we speak of as 
 infesting us with poverty, crime, and all kinds of degrada- 
 tion. It is difficult to realise the typical Irish immigrant, 
 with his sinister animal features, and his clothing a thatch 
 of glutinous rags, as the lineal representative of the 
 stately scholar who went forth from the lettered seclusion 
 of his monastic college to carry the light of its learning 
 and the authority of the Church into a barbarous world. 
 
 There is more chance of the Highlands having been 
 the birthplace of any of the very earliest distinguished 
 Scots than of those subsequent to the Norse invasions. 
 Adamnan, for instance, the biographer of Columba, and 
 the author of a curious account of the Holy Land, a man 
 of the seventh century, might, from the ordinary features 
 of his life, have been born near lona, had it not been 
 shown by that inexorable scholar Dr Reeves that he was 
 born in Ireland, and was the son of Ronan, a chief or 
 prince occupying the territory of Tirhugh, in Donegal, 
 whose pedigree can be traced step by step to the royal 
 family of Nial. 1 
 
 The great historian Marianus, already referred to, was 
 undoubtedly an Irishman. Sedulius, the poet, always 
 spoken of as a Scot, was, I doubt not, also an Irishman. 
 He is a person of considerable mark in literature as the 
 author of the earliest hymn-book, and the founder of the 
 peculiar kind of Latinity of the choral worship of the Ro- 
 man Church, though he did not depart quite so far from 
 classical models. 2 It is necessary also to surrender to 
 
 1 Edition of Adamnan's Columba, p. xl. 
 
 3 Sedulius is, so far as I know, to be counted in military phrase 
 "unattached." Trittenhem, the author of the very oldest biograph- 
 ical dictionary, says he flourished in the year 430, and that he was a 
 pupil of Hildebert, " Scotorum Archiepiscopus." Bayle drops a 
 doubt on this antiquity by mentioning a second Scots Sedulius of the 
 
234 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Ireland the fame of John Scotus, or Erigena, the eminent 
 divine of the ninth century, whose fame reached a high 
 point of eminence in heterodoxy, when, in the middle of 
 the eleventh century, his treatise on the Eucharist was 
 condemned to the fire by the council of Rome. We may 
 also abandon the illustrious geometrician John Holybush, 
 or Joannes de Sacrobosco, leaving England and Ireland 
 to fight, as they have done, for the possession of his 
 birthplace. 
 
 Other celebrated missionary monks, as St Kilian of 
 Wurzburg, and St Gall of that ilk, are identified as sons 
 of Erin. So was the elder Marianus, who founded the 
 great Monastery of St James, at Ratisbon, which has left 
 us those fine specimens of Norman stone-work, in the 
 Kirche des Schotten-Klosters. From this great establish- 
 ment ramified a whole network of others, filled with 
 zealous Irish anchorites. The fact is, that those of the 
 monk and eremite were not ways of life in which the 
 Lowland Scot, given more to practice than to dream- 
 ing, excelled, and the preponderance of monachism lay 
 decidedly with Ireland, whose race it seems to have 
 suited. Yet the establishment of Ratisbon became after- 
 wards appropriated to British Scotland. It went over 
 just as the name did. The niceties of the etymological 
 process which brought it home to Ireland were too much 
 for the Germans. The Scots built it, and the Scots 
 should have it, and who could be counted Scots save 
 the inhabitants of Scotland ? These naturally, of course, 
 
 eighth, and a third of the ninth century, with whom he is confounded. 
 Here is a specimen of his hymns. It rings well, and reminds one 
 of Heber's " From Greenland's icy mountains." 
 
 " A soils ortus cardine 
 Ad usque terras limitem, 
 Christum canamus principem, 
 Natum Maria Virgine. 
 
 Beatus Autor seculi 
 Servile corpus induit, 
 Ut carne carnem liberans, 
 Ne perderet quos condidit." 
 
 The initial of each quatrain makes a kind of acrostic, following the 
 letters of the alphabet. The author was hard pressed at K and Y. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 235 
 
 acquiesced in so beneficial a conclusion. But there was 
 not the slightest tinge of duplicity in their doing so. 
 From the fifteenth century down to the other day, every 
 Scotsman devoutly believed that the whole fabric of 
 renown raised by the Scots of Ireland belonged to his 
 own nation ; and not only was there no question about 
 the matter among themselves, but it would have been 
 dangerous for any other person to express a doubt of it 1 
 
 When we come to proved facts, however, it becomes 
 needless to seek for Scotsmen, in the common sense of 
 the term, seeking and obtaining eminence abroad until 
 the period of that unhappy struggle which destroyed their 
 home. Thus we are ever, as the leading influence of all 
 the specialties of the career of our countrymen, led back 
 to the old story of the determination of the Norman kings 
 of England to take Scotland, and the still more absolute 
 determination of the people that their country should not 
 be taken. Among a people never allowed any rest from 
 the contest for bare existence, there was neither time nor 
 opportunity to cultivate the soil on which literature and 
 art would grow ; and those who desired those conditions 
 of wealth and security essential to the development and 
 maturity of their studies, had to go elsewhere. 
 
 Having cheerfully resigned Scot Erigena to Ireland, I 
 stand up for the retention of a more illustrious name, 
 sometimes confounded with his, John Duns Scotus. 
 Early Continental writers seem never to have doubted 
 his Scottish origin ; and Rabelais, to clench one of those 
 monstrous propositions which make one wonder how he 
 escaped the stake, says in profane scorn, " Et celle est 
 1'opinion de Maistre Jehan d'Ecosse." Moreri assigns 
 him to us with a brief distinctness, which leaves nothing 
 to be doubted: " Dit Scot," says this impartial judge of 
 international claims, " parce qu'il etait natif d'Ecosse." 
 
 1 See a spirited history of the Ratisbon establishment in the article 
 " Scottish Religious Houses Abroad " in the * Edinburgh Review ' for 
 January 1864 an article which induces one to regret that the right 
 reverend gentleman to whom it is attributed has not favoured the 
 public with more elucidations of the history of the early Church. 
 
236 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Nor is the wide grasp of his capacities less emphatically 
 attested by him who undertook to measure all human 
 merits, and give to each illustrious name its proper meed 
 of fame : " Avoit un marveilleuse facilite a comprendre 
 toutes choses," is his character of Duns Scotus. 
 
 The great intellectual gladiators of the day received 
 names descriptive of their predominating characteristics, 
 just as favourites of the ring have been designated at the 
 present day. If it were right to apply such a term to ex- 
 pressions which formed the watchword of literary hosts in 
 the great intellectual contests of the middle ages, they 
 might, for the sake of brevity, be called nicknames. 
 There was the Seraphic doctor, the Divine doctor, the 
 Acute doctor, the Most Orderly doctor, the Irrefragable 
 doctor, the Solemn doctor, and the Solid doctor. Ac- 
 cording to Moreri, Duns monopolised two characteristics. 
 He was the Subtle doctor, in honour of his acuteness in 
 dealing with metaphysical subtleties; and he was the doctor 
 trh resolutif, from the hardihood with which he advanced 
 bold and original opinions, and resolved them without 
 the aid of authority, and independently of the established 
 methods of reasoning. 
 
 We may laugh as we will at these schoolmen and their 
 systems. We may admit, if you please, the sarcastic ety- 
 mology which derives the English word dunce from the 
 fellow-countryman of whom we are now speaking. But 
 those who led the intellect of mankind for centuries were 
 great among men overtopping the wide mob of their 
 brethren in intellectual stature. We have no absolute 
 criterion of greatness among us we can but be measured 
 by our relation to each other. There may be some ab- 
 stract standard, comprehensible to us when we have 
 shaken off this mortal coil, by which Julius Caesar, 
 Napoleon, Aristotle, and Shakespeare, shall appear very 
 small men ; but in this parochial world of ours they are 
 great by comparative eminence. 
 
 Had it been the lot of us of the present day to have 
 lived as highly educated men of the fifteenth century, we 
 would have seen two great names looming large in their 
 distant altitude Thomas Aquinas, the leader of the 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR 237 
 
 Thomists, and John Duns Scotus, the leader of the 
 Scotists and would have been obliged to enrol ourselves 
 with the one or the other ; for that man was, in the intel- 
 lectual wars, a mere straggler, a poor wanderer, unpro- 
 tected by a leader, and unowned by fellow-combatants, 
 who did not fight beneath the banner of one or other of 
 these illustrious leaders. If we drag down from their 
 eminence, as great in their day and place, all those 
 whose thoughts and actions do not concur with our own 
 views of what is good and true, we shall soon empty the 
 biographical dictionaries. It is the smallest of pedantries 
 to deny the strength and capacity of the conspicuous men 
 of other times or places, because there is something we 
 know that they did not know. To detract from the lustre 
 of Aquinas and Scotus because they were not acquainted 
 with the electric telegraph and photography, were uncon- 
 scious of statistics, and never thought of the difference 
 between a metallic and a paper currency, is about as 
 rational as to deny the generalship of Hannibal or Caesar, 
 because they had no Congreve rockets or Shrapnel shells. 
 But it is not fair to consider the mental influence of the 
 great rivals as a thing utterly departed, and belonging 
 only to the history of dead controversies. In some shape 
 or other, Nominalism and Realism still divide between 
 them the empire of thought. They go to the root 
 of the German division into subjective and objective 
 elements. It is true that the * In quatuor Sententiarum 
 libros Questiones subtilissimae ' are not to be found in 
 every circulating library, and are not so extensively read 
 as the latest productions of the prevailing popular divine. 
 But they are perused by those who teach the teachers 
 of the people ; and from his inner judgment-seat Duns 
 Scotus still holds sway over the intellect of men, even 
 in this active, conceited, and adventurous age. Could 
 it be maintained that no one opinion promulgated by him 
 is now believed, yet his thoughts are the stages by which 
 we have reached our present position. He who ruled 
 one-half of the intellectual world for centuries, necessarily 
 gave their shape and consistency, not only to the views 
 of those who implicitly followed him, but to those of the 
 
238 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 later thinkers who superseded him ; for there is nothing 
 that more eminently moulds the character of opinions, 
 than the nature of those which they supersede. 
 
 But unfortunately we are not, in this nineteenth cen- 
 tury, beyond the practical grasp of the great schoolman's 
 intellectual tyranny. The question of the Immaculate 
 Conception has just resounded again throughout Roman 
 Catholic Europe ; and those conclusions have been again 
 triumphantly asserted, which, in the year 1307, were 
 triumphantly carried by Duns Scotus in the University 
 of Paris. He demolished, on that occasion, two hundred 
 of the knottiest syllogisms of his adversaries, resolving 
 them, as a bystander said, as easily as Samson unloosed 
 the bands of Delilah. His proposition was made a funda- 
 mental law of the great university, and no man dared 
 enter the door without acknowledging its truth. This 
 is getting on delicate ground. One would find his steps 
 still more perilously placed were he to trace other great 
 theological questions in the writings of Duns Scotus. It 
 is sufficient to say, that in questions of liberty and neces- 
 sity of election and reprobation controversialists of the 
 present day may there find controversial weapons; and in 
 so elementary a work as Sir James Mackintosh's ' Disser- 
 tation on the History of Ethical Philosophy/ the opinions 
 of the great Scottish schoolman on these subjects are 
 weighed and examined, not as curious relics of a dark 
 age, but as the authorised enunciations of a master whose 
 authority yet lives and influences the thoughts of men. 
 And indeed, on such matters, who can say that we have 
 made progress, and have passed beyond the range of the 
 schoolmen, as the chemists have passed beyond that of the 
 alchemists ? 
 
 A reputation such as this man's is not a trifle to be 
 thrown away. There has been no country too great to 
 have proudly recorded such a name in the list of her sons. 
 He began the series of learned Scotsmen who became 
 eminent abroad. He studied at Oxford, while those 
 events which alienated his countrymen from England were 
 yet incomplete. He left Oxford in 1307 just after 
 Bruce had raised the standard. He went to the Uni- 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 239 
 
 versity of Paris, the chief school where aspiring Scotsmen 
 were thenceforward to seek scholarship and fame. After 
 a short and brilliant career as a lecturer there, he was 
 directed by his superior he belonged to the Franciscan 
 order to found the University of Cologne. There he 
 soon afterwards died ; and his tomb is still shown to the 
 visitors of the ecclesiastical city. There is a legend 
 spoken of as if it were a malicious invention of his ene- 
 mies that he was buried alive ; and that on his grave 
 being subsequently opened, the traces were distinct of 
 the desperate efforts which he had made to get out of 
 his coffin. 
 
 It would be easy to set forth a long array of his 
 countrymen both among his pupils and his impugners 
 ranked, in short, on either side in the great mental war 
 of the times, were one content with mere names without 
 knowing any significant events or specialties of character by 
 which they can be realised and identified. If we take 
 all the eminences which our biographers have manufac- 
 tured or have made prey of from other countries, we 
 shall have all our own at least. M'Kenzie, in his 'Lives 
 and Characters of the most eminent Writers of the Scots 
 Nation,' gives a long account of John Bassol, a country- 
 man of Duns', and his favoured pupil. Such a person 
 lived, was a pupil of Duns Scotus, wrote commentaries 
 on the 'Sentences,' and earned for himself the title of 
 Doctor Ordonatissimus ; but I am aware of no evidence 
 that he was a Scotsman. The most celebrated of the 
 immediate pupils of Duns Scotus, if those may be called 
 pupils who in some measure controverted the doctrines 
 of their master, were Occam and Bradwardine, both 
 Englishmen. One Scotsman at least, however, became 
 distinguished in Paris as a scholastic writer, John Mair, 
 or Major, chiefly known as the author of a history of 
 Great Britain, but who also wrote on the ' Sentences.' 
 He was a doctor of the Sorbonne, and his style has been 
 sarcastically spoken of as Sorbonnic. Buchanan stands 
 under the accusation of having been educated and fed 
 by his bounty, and of having, when he became illustri- 
 ous, satirised his benefactor as one whose greatness was 
 
240 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 nowhere but in his name, Solo cognomine Major. The 
 expression of apparent contempt, however, is of Major's 
 own selecting; he employs it as a jest which may be 
 safely uttered of himself by one whose fame was so 
 secure as his. And indeed a general notion that all who 
 wrote on scholastic divinity were to be deemed foolish 
 men, could alone have brought people to look on such 
 an author with feelings other than respectful. His small 
 history is full of very valuable matter. He was a bold 
 thinker on subjects both political and ecclesiastical, and 
 from the Sorbonne he wrote in favour of the limitation of 
 the papal power. 
 
 This book is a history not of Scotland alone, but of 
 Britain, including England and Scotland. As the author 
 requires to give a distinct narrative of the history of each, 
 he goes on, period after period, conceding with a becom- 
 ing courtesy at each change the precedence to England 
 as the stranger. An English writer of the same period 
 professing to tell the history of Britain, would have given 
 its tone from England, making the affairs of Scotland 
 a sort of provincial matter, even if he did not insist on 
 the feudal superiority. Mair, speaking from the smaller 
 country, could not take this tone, but he is true to his 
 nationality in giving more of the emphasis and bearing 
 of his narrative to Scotland than to England. So it was 
 that the decorous schoolman, trained in the formal ways 
 of the brethren of the Sorbonne, showed his nationality 
 in a less obtrusive way than some others of his country- 
 men whom we shall presently make acquaintance with. 
 
 By the law of association we are thus brought from the 
 schoolmen to the historians, who have a still more sig- 
 nificant place in the specialties of the influence of the 
 Scottish mind abroad, since they carried with them not 
 only their own specific learning and genius, but were the 
 interpreters and representatives of the nation whose glories 
 they recorded. 
 
 Hector Boece, professor of the College of Montacute, 
 published his History of Scotland at Paris in the year 
 1526. This exuberant narrative thus burst forth on the 
 world four years later than the decorous and colourless 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 241 
 
 work of Major. It is observable, too, that it came just 
 nine years after the not less renowned British history of 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth issued from the same great fountain 
 of the fashionable literature of the day. Wondrous as the 
 story told by the Scot may seem to modern readers, it 
 contrasted favourably with the incoherent marvels of the 
 Welshman with the wearisomely grotesque prophecies 
 of Merlin the story of the dragons which shook the 
 foundation of the tower, and the dancing giants, which, 
 after capering away on the Curragh of Kildare, were con- 
 solidated on Salisbury Plain, where they are known by 
 the name of Stonehenge. In the artistic consistency of 
 his narrative, too, there is something far more reasonable 
 than the egregious Irish legends long afterwards collected 
 by Dr Keating. Boece does not attempt, like them, to 
 get across the Flood, whether by hiding the Firbolg in the 
 Ark or giving him a boat of his own. He adheres to the 
 simple story established by the monks before him how 
 Gathelus, a prince of Greece, left that country in an unfor- 
 tunate family difference with his father, Miol, and seeking 
 refuge in Egypt, there married Scota, the daughter of that 
 same Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea. Wan- 
 dering through Europe by the great peninsula, where on 
 the way they founded Portugal so named as the port of 
 Gathelus they reached Scotland, bringing with them the 
 fatal stone yet to be seen in Westminster. Their descend- 
 ant, Fergus, " father of a hundred kings," founded the 
 monarchy of Scotland. Boece had two veracious author- 
 ities to whom he referred in all matters hard of belief; 
 they were named Veremund and Campbell : and never 
 did unsuccessful efforts by detectives to find the referees 
 of any noted rogue approach in diligence and duration 
 the search after these respectable authors. 
 
 So it came to pass that Boece has been one of the 
 most successful of impostors. He took the world by a 
 kind of calm insolence essential to great success in the 
 function called humbugging. He found in the arid 
 pages of his predecessors the raw outline of a fabulous 
 history of Scotland, and he filled it up with so much life 
 and character that the world could not help believing in 
 
 Q 
 
242 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 it. Even the sarcastic Erasmus put faith in Boece, and 
 Paulus Jovius thought him equally eloquent and erudite. 
 He abounded, no doubt, in the supernatural, but it was in 
 the manner suited to the age. To its aptness there is 
 this supreme testimony, that Shakespeare wove the threads 
 of his weird narrative into the tragedy of ' Macbeth.' His 
 influence on our history has been wonderful. As we shall 
 see, Buchanan adopted his luxurious pictures, chastening 
 the language in which they were narrated, and adapting 
 them by an occasional twist to the exemplification of his 
 own political and ecclesiastical doctrines. This fictitious 
 history found its way into all foreign works of historical 
 reference, when the fictitious histories of other nations 
 had been curtailed, and it came to be the fashion that 
 Scotland was looked on as the most ancient of the 
 European nations, carrying the dynasty of her kings, and 
 a connected series of political events, far before the birth 
 of Christ. 1 
 
 After Boece the next obvious step is to the illustrious 
 name of Buchanan, whose works, issuing in numerous 
 editions from the presses of France and Holland, were in 
 
 1 A second edition of Boece's ' Scotorum Historise a prima gentis 
 origine, cum aliarum et rerum et gentium illustratione non vulgari, 
 libri xix.,' appeared at Paris in 1572. This is the completed edition, 
 and the proper one for literary purposes, but the collector generally 
 affects the other as the princeps^ and also for the device on its title- 
 page of the pressman at work on the screw-press of the day. The 
 book was translated, or, more properly speaking, paraphrased, into 
 excellent idiomatic Scots vernacular, by Archdeacon Bellenden. In 
 this shape the ' Hystory and Croniklis of Scotland ' was published in 
 Edinburgh ten years after the original appeared in Paris. The two 
 Latin editions are in the market, and to be had at moderate prices ; 
 but the first edition of the vernacular version has, by constant read- 
 ing, been gradually worn down to some half-dozen of copies, re- 
 ligiously preserved in distinguished libraries. A metrical version of 
 Boece's book, identified as the work of a William Stewart, a descend- 
 ant of our old friend the Wolf of Badenoch, lay dormant until it was 
 resuscitated among the chronicles and memorials issued by the Master 
 of the Rolls. The editing of the ' Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland ' 
 was one of the labours of poor Turnbull, whose devotion to pursuits 
 generally considered so harmless was sadly disturbed by a determina- 
 tion to drag him into living contests. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 243 
 
 every library. 1 He studied at Paris, and became a pro- 
 fessor of the College of St Barbe. He resided in France 
 during several of his early years of obscurity and study, 
 as the tutor and companion of a fellow-countryman, the 
 young Earl of Cassilis. The flattering attentions of James 
 V., whom he met in Paris, whither the Scottish monarch 
 had gone to bring home his bride, Magdalene of France, 
 induced him to return to his native country. But he had 
 accustomed himself to intellectual luxuries such as Scot- 
 land could not then effectually furnish, and he soon went 
 back to the Continent. He was fifty-five years of age 
 before he again resided in Scotland. He was for several 
 years Professor of "the humanities" in the College of 
 Guienne, at Bordeaux, where he had for his pupil the 
 essayist Montaigne, who spoke Latin as the language of 
 his childhood, and afterwards learned his native tongue 
 as an accomplishment. 
 
 Here Buchanan was the neighbour and friend of the 
 elder Scaliger, who was fifteen years older than himself; 
 and saw Joseph Justus, destined to the throne of European 
 scholarship, a child in his father's house at Agin. The 
 younger Scaliger was probably not uninfluenced by his 
 childish recollections of his father's friend, when he 
 maintained Buchanan's superiority over all the poets of 
 the age who wrote in Latin. Buchanan appears to have 
 remained longer at Bordeaux than in any other place; 
 but the vagrant habits of his class took him, after a few 
 years, to Paris, and thence from place to place in France, 
 
 1 M. Che'ruel, in his clever book ' Marie Stuart et Catherine de 
 Medicis,' is found perturbed in spirit because, having searched every 
 accessible edition of Buchanan's Poems, he has been unable to find 
 the beautiful epigram on Queen Mary beginning 
 
 "Nympha Caledonise, quae nunc feliciter orae 
 Missa per inn timer es sceptra tueris avos " 
 
 Let him try again. To be sure, it is in an unlikely corner, and the 
 cleverest person trying to get at it by diving here and there may miss 
 it for ever. But it were sin to hint to M. Cheruel or any other person 
 where to find it, so much intellectual benefit will he derive by reading 
 honestly through the whole of Buchanan's Poems, not omitting the 
 Psalms. 
 
244 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 where his biographers with difficulty trace him by the 
 offices held by him in the universities. 
 
 He was about forty years old when he appeared to 
 have finally established himself in life as a professor in 
 the newly founded University of Coimbra, in Portugal. 
 He had then as his fellow-professor his brother, Patrick 
 Buchanan, unknown to fame. The state which is gener- 
 ally reputed to be among the most restless in Europe 
 offered to the two Buchanans, and several other scholars 
 who accompanied them, a retreat from the conflicts then 
 shaking the other European nations. But the tranquillity 
 of Portugal seems to have been more inimical to the body 
 of men who went to constitute the university than the 
 turbulence of other places. Buchanan was subjected to 
 inquisitorial coercion to an extent not precisely ascertained, 
 though there is no reason to believe that he was under 
 any of the horrible tortures always associated with the 
 word Inquisition. Yet, were we to accept a belief popu- 
 larly entertained, the Inquisition had inflicted on him a 
 punishment as potent as it was original, in compelling 
 him to write his renowned translation of the Psalms. 
 
 We know little of his true position in Portugal, save 
 that he was actually there, occupied in his translation, 
 and that in leaving the country he considered that he had 
 accomplished an escape. He afterwards sojourned in the 
 family of the Marshal de Brissac (le beau Brissac), one of 
 the last of those great French captains who held their 
 batons as sceptres, and stood on a rank with princes. 
 The young Prince Henry said that, if he were not the 
 Dauphin of France, he would choose to be the Duke de 
 Brissac; and when the king desired promotion in the 
 army for a favourite, he had to put his request to Brissac 
 like one gentleman to another. 
 
 The Scottish historian must have seen much to teach 
 him real history under such a roof. Yet it is not easy to 
 suppose that so close a contact with a formidable op- 
 ponent of the Huguenots, and a colleague of the Guises, 
 could have been very gratifying to Buchanan's Protestant 
 predilections. Such was the varied and stirring life led 
 by this great man before he devoted his services to his 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 245 
 
 own country ; and we cannot doubt that in those days, 
 when no newspaper's " own correspondent " made people 
 familiar with the daily proceedings in distant courts and 
 camps, the wide practical insight into human affairs thus 
 acquired by him must have given him a great superiority 
 to the world of provincial statesmen in which he found 
 himself. 
 
 It has sometimes been regretted that Buchanan did not 
 give his great powers to the beautifying of his own lan- 
 guage ; but the regret is useless. If he was to speak to 
 an audience worth collecting, it must be in Latin. It is 
 a question whether the language of his youth was Gaelic 
 or Scots. It is equally dubious whether we have a fair 
 specimen of his Saxon style in 'Ane Detectioun of the 
 Doingis of Marie Quene of Scottis twitching the Murther 
 of hir Husband.' It is certain, however, that had he at- 
 tempted to appeal to an English audience in what he had 
 at his command of the language of the Anglo-Saxon race, 
 he would have been received with ridicule, instead of the 
 homage he achieved in the language of the learned 
 world. 
 
 A free access to this great medium for the exchange of 
 thought was indeed one of the compensating benefits 
 which the Scots derived from the contest with England. 
 The exclusion of the Scots scholars from English ground 
 only prompted their aspiring spirits to seek a wider arena 
 of distinction, and they found it in securing to themselves 
 as an audience the learned men of all the world. When 
 there arose two distinct languages, an English and a 
 Scottish, the latter afforded a far too limited intellectual 
 dominion to satisfy the ambition of Scottish men of let- 
 ters. Hence they had recourse to Latin ; and Buchanan, 
 as the first among them in the use of this language, was 
 at the same time the first of Latin narrators throughout 
 the world since the days of Tacitus. It is not correct 
 to speak of the Latin as a dead language among Scots 
 scholars. They did not, perhaps, treat it with the strict 
 accuracy which English scholarship had attained; that 
 would, indeed, have been to treat it as a dead language, 
 which cannot move. Buchanan, Bellenden, and Johnston 
 
246 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 had their provincialisms and peculiarities, as Livy the 
 Paduan, and Sallust the Sabine had; and in the same 
 manner they could afford to have them, since, instead of 
 adjusting their sentences to the precedents laid down for 
 them by the sentences of other authors not like-minded 
 with themselves or living under the same mental condi- 
 tions, they drew, in their own way, on the resources of the 
 language used by them, adapted it to the purposes of a 
 new order of society, and made it the vehicle of original 
 and striking thoughts. 1 
 
 The Scotsmen who wrote much, and had a large foreign 
 correspondence, overcame the great barrier to the free use 
 of a foreign tongue by actually thinking in Latin. We 
 find it manifest that they did so, by the greater freedom 
 with which they are found to write when they abandon the 
 vernacular and adopt the ancient tongue. One may find 
 them, in their familiar epistles to each other, running into 
 Latin as a relief, just as any one when speaking a foreign 
 tongue rests for a moment on a sentence of his own. 
 True, they were not so familiar with the language in which 
 they composed as those to whom the colloquial language 
 is also that of literature ; but were the authors of Rome 
 in any better position ? Have we any reason to suppose 
 that the plebs spoke in the streets of Rome in that form of 
 speech with which our youth try to be familiar through 
 the exercises in their grammars ? Can we, indeed, believe 
 that literary Latin could ever be a common colloquial 
 
 1 I remember Professor Pillans telling how he had once spoken to 
 Person about Buchanan, and found, much to his surprise and a little 
 to his indignation, that the. arch-critic had never heard of such a name 
 in letters. It would not do, however, to take credit for ignorance 
 about one whose works came through the classic presses of Stephens 
 and Wetsten, and whose text was sifted and purified of casual inac- 
 curacies by the skilled eye of Burmann, not to speak of the like 
 homage paid to him by Ruddiman, a mere Scotsman. So Person 
 condescended to take a glance. It was very brief. His instincts at 
 once led him to the unpardonable crime, and roaring out, " Ugh ! a 
 false quantity ! " he flung the little Wetsten from him as if it had stung 
 him. It is said that Lord North, sound asleep during one of Burke's 
 philippics on him, started awake when the orator used a false quan- 
 tity in the word vectigal. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 247 
 
 tongue, or anything more to the Roman historian than 
 it became to the Scottish the language in which he 
 marched, with solemn stride, through great events, an- 
 nouncing the moral as he went in well-poised sentences ? 
 
 There are not, perhaps, above three or four other names 
 holding so proud a place in the homage of his country- 
 men as Buchanan's. His, indeed, is the only one among 
 the learned names in Scottish literature which has got a 
 place in the familiar memory of the people, unless we may 
 except the wizard Michael Scott, whose memory can 
 scarcely be said to stand in good esteem. The traditional 
 fame of Buchanan, though kindly, is grotesque. He is 
 the parent of a multitude of witty and proverbial sayings 
 a sort of Lokman or ^Esop ; but a still better type of 
 him may be found in the Eulen-spiegel or Owl-glass of 
 the Germans. Among his other services he caused a 
 reformation in the prevailing dramatic literature, which 
 would have been of more mark than it retains at the 
 present day, had it not been immediately obliterated by 
 greater changes. He had a mastery over the Greek lan- 
 guage very uncommon in that age, especially in Britain ; 
 and this, co-operating with his versatile power of Latin 
 versification, enabled him to charm the reading world of 
 the day with delightful translations of the choice works 
 of the Greek dramatists. Spreading over Europe in the 
 common language of the educated world, these would 
 have superseded the remnants of the old religious mys- 
 teries, had not a greater change been at hand, in the rise, 
 in England, Spain, and ultimately in France, of a vernac- 
 ular dramatic literature, which, in its sturdy home vitality, 
 was to outgrow all foreign exotics. 
 
 His rich genial mind was coated with a sort of crust of 
 austerity. It was not in his nature to be a fanatic, but 
 he took to the Presbyterian side as the opponent of royal 
 prerogative and a vainglorious hierarchy. He was much 
 about courts and royal personages so close was his con- 
 tact with them, that he was reproached with the personal 
 chastisements which, after the manner of ordinary peda- 
 gogues, he had inflicted on the royal stripling committed 
 to his charge but his nature assimilated very little to the 
 
248 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 courtier's. He was full, indeed, of the proud conscious- 
 ness more rife in the days of Erasmus and the Scaligers 
 than in later times that an intellectual supremacy like 
 his was something to which the compliments and distinc- 
 tions at the disposal of princes could add no lustre. 
 
 Like all men who are great masters of their matter and 
 their pen, he could adjust the nature of institutions and 
 the tenor of history to his preconceived notions. When 
 there is one able to take rude inconsecutive events, and 
 half-formed institutions still liable to the action of caprice 
 and accident, and to present these in a complete sym- 
 metrical form, with a prevailing theory or cohesive law 
 throughout, sufficient to explain all their phenomena, it 
 is difficult to contradict his conclusions. The tone of 
 Buchanan's mind was in everything to level factitious 
 and social distinctions and overruling individual powers. 
 Hence, by manipulating the incoherent history and half- 
 formed institutions of his country, he made out a powerful 
 case for fixed popular rights vested in the people of Scot- 
 land, and the spirit diffused by his writings had a visible 
 influence in helping on the great popular conflict of the 
 ensuing century. The luxurious and portly narrative of 
 Boece afforded him materials which he could cut down 
 into anything he liked ; and when he produced out of it 
 a fluent symmetrical history, it was fashioned after his 
 own taste. The long array of supernumerary kings was 
 especially adapted to his purpose. Where no authentic 
 records could be brought to check him, the most fluent 
 and polished narrator, the best historical artist, of course 
 had the ear of the world ; and it was useless to contradict 
 what Buchanan said about them, until these kings were 
 knocked off the historical stage in a bundle. Each of 
 them had his moral. If he misbehaved and turned tyrant, 
 he came to grief and ignominy; if he were liberal, en- 
 lightened, and just, he was equally certain to come to 
 glory and success : it was all as infallible as the fates in 
 the Minerva Press novels and the good-boy books. 
 
 His celebrated History thus exhibited to the world two 
 grand features : one was the story of an ancient nation, 
 going back into the very roots of the world's history, and 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 249 
 
 passing onwards century after century in continuous lustre 
 and honour, until an envious neighbour, far humbler in 
 historic fame, but better endowed with the rude elements 
 of power more populous and more rich endeavours by 
 sheer force and cruelty to tread down and extirpate the 
 ancient nation. The next story is that of triumph, when 
 the high spirit, nourished by centuries of glorious recol- 
 lections, arose in its true majesty, and cast back the 
 gigantic oppressor crushed and bleeding into his own den. 
 The use of Buchanan's works as text-books gave thus 
 a vitality to the teaching of the Latin language in Scot- 
 land which it could not easily achieve in other countries. 
 Taught to consider his Latinity equal to that of any of the 
 ancient classics, the schoolboys of a naturally patriotic 
 race could read in him the stirring story of their country's 
 foul wrongs and glorious retribution. Another thing made 
 his works useful in education. In his version of the 
 Psalms, he supplied the demand for something of a reli- 
 gious tone to modify the mythological tendency of classic 
 poetry. In the intellects of those who were so taught, 
 something else, too, was modified the lumbering vernac- 
 ular version of the same sacred lyrics which the young 
 scholar would hear aggravated by every form of disson- 
 ance in his parish church on Sunday. 1 
 
 1 It was a fine intellectual feast to find the late Dr Melvin of Aber- 
 deen exercising his first "faction," or form, on Buchanan's Psalms, 
 though perhaps a stranger, ignorant of all he had trained his favourite 
 pupils to, might have said the feast was made of meats too strong for 
 the youthful company assembled round it. With subtle ease he could 
 show how it was that each collocative idiomatic term and curious 
 felicity of expression was truly in the spirit of the old Roman litera- 
 ture, though it was no servile mimicry or exact imitation of any pre- 
 cedent. True, the poet sometimes tripped, but did not Homer take 
 a nap, and was it not the specialty of high and secure genius to be 
 careless ? There was that flagrant instance where Buchanan, not only 
 forgetting that he was repeating the prayer of so improper a per- 
 son as the goddess of love, but losing hold of the first principle of 
 the Christian faith, began the 4th Psalm with a line from the tenth 
 
 " O pater ! O hominum divumque seterna potestas ! " 
 
 But would Buchanan have for a moment contemplated theft in the 
 case, any more than the millionaire who takes a better hat than his 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 The position of Scotland among eminent nations was 
 now safe. No foreign writer spoke about history or poli- 
 tics at large without giving a large place to our country, 
 and paying due respect to her eminences. Still, however, 
 her own sons were not inclined to leave the world unre- 
 minded of her claims, and there is throughout all their 
 literature a sort of fidgety anxiety to keep her distinctions 
 continually in view, which might argue a misgiving about 
 their own sufficiency to support themselves. It was all 
 along the same old influence that of the English claims 
 and quarrel. Scotland, the poor relation, was braving it 
 to the world against the rich oppressor, and fighting for a 
 
 own from the lobby table ? It was an instance of the negligence of 
 supreme genius the line was running in his head, and he thought he 
 had composed it. The coincidents of this kind, called parallel passages, 
 are among the accepted curiosities of literature. Some have taken 
 in this way even from themselves, and none oftener than Virgil. 
 
 I believe there is a considerable number of men now in middle life, 
 who, if they were to recall their earliest impulse towards the emula- 
 tion and intellectual enthusiasm which has brought them to eminence, 
 would carry it back to the teaching of Melvin. I was delighted the 
 other day to see justice done to the great powers of Dr Melvin, by a 
 distinguished pupil of his, Professor Masson, who says : "Melvin, it 
 is now the deliberate conviction of many besides myself, was at the 
 head of the Scottish Latinity of his day. How he had attained to his 
 consummate mastery in the Latin tongue and literature how, indeed, 
 amid the rough and hasty conditions of Scottish intellectual life, there 
 could be bred a Latin scholar of his supreme type at all is somewhat 
 of a mystery." ' Macmillan's Magazine' for January 1864. 
 
 But Melvin's scholarship arose neither from ambition to rise by it 
 nor from a peculiar call to the dry analysis of a dead language. He 
 was a man of bright active intellect and fine taste, and that he should 
 have come to use, as the tool of his intellectual activity, the language 
 of Rome instead of that of his own country, was probably incidental ; 
 possibly it may have been from a remnant of the shyness of competing 
 in the language of England with Englishmen, which lingered long in 
 Scotland, especially with those whose oppoitunities of mingling with 
 the world happened to be limited. However it was, Melvin, like the 
 great master he revered, made for himself an intellectual home in the 
 language of Rome, and became as familiar with everything written 
 by Roman writers, or about them, as the old frequenter of a town is 
 with the houses and the stones he passes daily. His edition of 
 ' Horace for every Day in the Year ' was merely a variety of the con- 
 ditions under which he kept up constant companionship with an old 
 ever-welcome friend. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 251 
 
 position as great as his. But that it had a patriotic spirit 
 at its foundation, the tone of these Scots authors might 
 be termed arrogant assumption ; and it must be admitted 
 that, on some occasions, the patriotic enthusiasm was 
 overdone. 
 
 Among these patriotic historians, Lesley, the good 
 Bishop of Ross, had his History of Scotland printed for 
 him in Rome in 1578, and another edition followed a 
 century afterwards. Though, like Boece's work, it was 
 translated, yet, printed abroad, and written in the Latin 
 tongue, it appealed rather to the general scholarship of 
 Europe than to the author's own country. 
 
 There is a Scotsman named Robert Johnston of whom 
 little is known beyond two facts. He was one of George 
 Heriot's executors, and exerted himself bravely to get the 
 old jeweller's bequest and project for the maintenance of 
 a hospital carried into effect. The other fact known of 
 him is, that he wrote a History of Britain from the year 
 1572 to the year 1628, in which his own country holds 
 a fully more prominent place than " that part of Great 
 Britain called England." It rendered the position of his 
 native country all the more important, that from it as a 
 centre he took a general survey of human affairs. He 
 published a portion of his book during his lifetime, but 
 the completed edition came forth from the press of Rave- 
 steyn of Amsterdam in 1655. 1 Our old friend Monteith 
 of Salmonet did not fail to dedicate the territorial title he 
 had so ingeniously achieved to the glory of his country. 
 The title-page of his book is indeed a very fair display of 
 the spirit which actuated his literary countrymen. He is 
 on the same cavalier side of the great question which 
 Clarendon held, but that does not hinder him from bring- 
 ing the English historian to task for injustice to the weight 
 and merits of Scotland thus : " The History of the 
 Troubles of Great Britain, containing a particular account 
 
 1 ' Historia Rerum Britannicarum ; ut et multarum Gallicarum, 
 Belgicarum, & Germanicarum, tarn Politicarum quam Ecclesiastica- 
 rum, ab anno 1572 ad annum 1628. Auctore Roberto Johnstono, 
 Scoto Britanno.' 
 
252 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 of the most remarkable passages in Scotland, from the 
 year 1633 to 1650, with an exact relation of the wars 
 carried on, and the battles fought, by the Marquis of 
 Montrose (all which are omitted in the Earl of Clar- 
 endon's History) ; also a full account of all the transac- 
 tions in England during that time : written in French by 
 Robert Monteith of Salmonet." The same specialty of 
 giving mark and emphasis to the particular affairs of Scot- 
 land characterises a book still later in literature the 
 ' History of Great Britain from the Revolution of 1688 
 to the Accession of George I.,' by Alexander Cunning- 
 ham. Little is known of the author, except that he was 
 a Scot by birth, and the representative of Britain at the 
 Venetian republic. He wrote his book in Latin, and a 
 translation of it was printed in London in two quartos. 
 
 The same tone of feeling can be traced through smaller 
 channels of literature. In 1579, a David Chalmers or 
 Chambers published in Paris an abridged history of the 
 kings of France, England, and Scotland, in chronological 
 order. He also brings in the successive popes and em- 
 perors ; but a stranger to the European history of the 
 time would come away from the little book with a decided 
 impression that Scotland was the most important among 
 the powers with which it deals ; and to keep her claims 
 all the more fully in view, there is an express discourse 
 about the Ancient League. 1 This David Chambers had 
 to do with affairs less innocent than the exaltation of his 
 country. He was a fast friend of Bothwell, and though 
 
 1 ' Histoire Abbregee de tous les Roys de France, Angleterre, et 
 Escosse, mise en ordre par forme d 'harmonic : contenant aussi vn 
 brief discours de 1'ancienne alliance, et mutuel secours entre la 
 France et 1'Escosse. Plus, 1'epitome de 1'histoire Romaine des Papes 
 et Empereurs y est adiouste, et celle d'iceux roys augmentee selon la 
 mesme methode. Dedie au treschrestien Roy de France et de Pol- 
 ongne, Henry III. Le tout recueilli et mis en lumiere, auec la 
 recerche tant des singularitez plus remarquables concernant 1'estat 
 d'Escosse : que de la succession des femmes aux biens, et gouuerne- 
 ment des Empires et Royaumes. Par David Chambre, Escossois, 
 conseiller en la cour de Parlement & Edinbourg, ville capitale d'Es- 
 cosse. A Paris, chez Robert Coulombel, rue S. lean de Latran, a 
 1'enseigne d'Alde, 1579. Auec priuilege du Roy.' 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 253 
 
 a judge of the Court of Session, he was much more likely 
 to break the laws than justly to enforce them. When 
 placards were set up about the murderers of Darnley, and 
 the voices which the widowed Queen would not hear 
 denounced the murderers, the name of Chambers was 
 among the foremost. 
 
 Of nearly the same period, and not to be confounded 
 with this man, is another David Chambers, who lived a 
 quieter life so quiet, indeed, that there is nothing to 
 identify him, save what may be inferred from a book 
 which he wrote on the bravery, the learning, and the 
 piety which distinguished his countrymen before they 
 lapsed into the prevailing heresy. 1 His mind seems to 
 have been coloured with the stoicisms and asceticisms of 
 the Spartan and Roman heroic periods, and he enlarges 
 on the temperate and hardy habits of his countrymen 
 how their mothers do not, as in other lands, give their 
 infants to be fostered by others how their clothing is 
 systematically limited to what decorum requires, and they 
 eat and drink not for luxury, but for strength and warlike 
 spirit. One can find the district to which he belongs, by 
 the weight of his eulogiums gravitating as it were to 
 Aberdeen. 2 His account of the university there is rather 
 flagrant. He multiplies the two colleges into six, and 
 gives a swollen account of King's College, just as a speci- 
 men of their character, and not as constituting, along 
 with the meagre shell of the other, the whole of the 
 university edifices of the place. He makes his four 
 supernumerary colleges out of the classes for medicine, 
 law (of which he has two, canon and civil), and divinity. 
 This book is a sort of small calendar of the saints special 
 to the Church in Scotland, and contains some curious 
 biographical matter about them : of course all those of 
 Irish birth are duly claimed. 
 
 1 ' Davidis Camerarii Scoti de Scotorum Fortitudine, Doctrina, et 
 Pietate, ac de Ortu et Progressu Hseresis in regnis Scotise et Anglise. ' 
 
 8 "Civitas duplex est, situs amoenitate ac aeris salubritate nulli 
 secunda. Episcopatu Celebris, salmonum captura uberrima, portu 
 navali peropportuna, magna civium frequentia nobilis, inter duos 
 fluvios navigabiles Donam et Devam posita." P. 56. 
 
254 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 A certain George Conoeus, or Cone, a Scot, published 
 at Rome a small book, on the condition of his Roman 
 Catholic brethren undergoing persecution in Scotland. 1 
 The tenor of his story is the lustre and eminence of his 
 native land while it adhered to the old faith, and to this 
 text he preaches on the lives and triumphs of Erigena, 
 Marianus, and many of the others already referred to. 
 He mentions many of his countrymen, eminent members 
 of his own Church abroad, who perhaps had interesting 
 histories if one knew a little more than this author's brief 
 reference to them such are Georgius Mortimerus, For- 
 besii Fratres, Rogerus Lyndessius, Gulielmus Mordocus, 
 &c. Most of these had undergone some hardship for 
 the truth ; and of Gulielmus Jonstonus it is said that he 
 was poisoned by the heretics in his native land. He tells, 
 per contra, how some of these heretics were punished, by 
 burning or otherwise, for the abominable opinions enter- 
 tained by them, and how they were nevertheless called 
 martyrs by their benighted fellow-heretics. And here he 
 brings in certainly one of the oddest ideas that one-sided 
 ingenuity ever brought to its aid in polemical contest : 
 there never is any grand work of the Deity but the enemy 
 of mankind imitates it, and so the holy and purifying in- 
 stitution of martyrdom being founded, the devil forthwith 
 sets to and gets up a spurious imitation of it. 
 
 James Laing, or Langius, another of the vehement Scots 
 controversialists on the same side, devotes the concen- 
 trated power of his wrath on Luther, Calvin, and the 
 Continental reformers. He looks across occasionally, 
 however, to his old home, from which he was a refugee, 
 and in the middle of a few bitter enough execrations 
 against those who have the upper hand, he laments the 
 departed glory of his country with a kind of fervid grief. 2 
 
 1 ' Georgii Conoei de Duplici Statu Religionis apud Scotos libri 
 duo, ad illustrissimum Principem Franciscum, S.R.E. Card. Bar- 
 berinum, Magnae Britanniae Protectorem Romae. Typis Vaticanis, 
 MDCXXVIII. Superiorum permissu.' See about Cone farther on, 
 in a quotation from Sir Thomas Urquhart, page 273. 
 
 2 " Scotia . . . viros gloria rei militarse insignes, pietate vitae 
 et omni fere disciplinarum genere caeteris gentibus praestantes nutrivit." 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 255 
 
 I hope Sir Thomas Urquhart requires no introduction 
 to the reader as a genial and accomplished writer, how- 
 ever much his dealings with Rabelais in the capacity of 
 translator may have twisted both his method of thought 
 and his style of writing into a circuitous kind of eccen- 
 tricity. His books are saturated throughout with nation- 
 ality, and the spirit in which he wrote is transparent enough 
 in this short passage. 
 
 He says that when, in passing through France, Spain, 
 and Italy, " for speaking some of these languages with the 
 liveliness of the country accent, they would have had him 
 pass for a native, he plainly told them, without making 
 bones thereof, that truly he thought he had as much 
 honour by his own country, which did countervalue the 
 riches and fertility of those nations by the valour, learning, 
 and honesty wherein it did parallel, if not surpass them ; 
 which assertion of his was with pregnant reasons so well 
 backed by him, that he was not much gainsaid therein by 
 any in all those kingdoms." This spirited passage is to 
 be found in his ' Discovery of a most exquisite Jewel, 
 more precious than diamonds enchased in gold' the 
 work which contains his notices of Crichton. In his 
 ' Logopandecteision ' we find him repeating his pregnant 
 reasons, and affording examples of his method of backing 
 them : 
 
 "Since ever I understood anything, knowing that the 
 welfare of the body of a government consisteth in the 
 entireness of its noble parts, I always endeavoured to 
 employ the best of my brain and heart towards the 
 furtherance of the honour of that country unto which I 
 did owe my birth. In prosecuting whereof, as the heart 
 is primum vivens, so was it my heart which, in my younger 
 years, before my braines were ripened for eminent under- 
 
 ' De Vita et Moribus atque Rebus Gestis Haereticorum nostri tern- 
 poris, authore Jacobo Laingeo, Scoto, Doctore Sorbonico.' He was 
 then paying court to King James, who was coquetting with the Rom- 
 anists ; and along with the usual praise for wisdom and learning, 
 which the young Solomon got nearly as much of as he wanted, Laing 
 goes out of the usual path to compliment him on his beauty his 
 "pulchritude." 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 takings, gave me courage for adventuring in a forrain 
 climat, thrice to enter the lists gainst men of three several 
 nations, to vindicate my native country from the calum- 
 nies wherewith they had aspersed it." 
 
 He was, of course, victorious and magnanimous. 
 
 It was from the hands of Sir Thomas Urquhart that 
 the world accepted of an idol which, after a period of 
 worship, it cast down, but so hastily, as it was discovered, 
 that it had to be again set up, but rather in surly justice 
 than the old devout admiration. It was that strange 
 flighty turgidness of style which Urquhart had caught by 
 working so much on Rabelais, that for a time eclipsed 
 his hero in the public estimation. The word went forth 
 that the whole affair was a piece of nonsense. I refer to 
 that James Crichton who is commonly called " the Ad- 
 mirable," although the title admirabilis conferred on him 
 by the University of Paris is better translated by his 
 biographer Urquhart in the term wonderful. He came 
 of a remarkable race, who at that time promised, like the 
 Douglases in earlier, and the Campbells in later days, to 
 overshadow Scotland. Near the capital, their power and 
 magnificence are still attested by the ruins of Crichton 
 Castle, so expressively described in * Marmion.' James 
 Crichton came of a branch established beside the Loch 
 of Cluny, on the eastern verge of the Perthshire High- 
 lands ; another detachment of the family, posted at Fren- 
 draught, in Aberdeenshire, continued a deadly struggle 
 for supremacy with the Gordons, until, in the mysterious 
 tragedy known as "the burning of Frendraught," they 
 dug the grave of their own fortunes. 
 
 The supposition entertained for a brief period, that 
 Crichton was a merely mythical personage, has been so 
 thoroughly dispersed by Mr Fraser Tytler, backed by 
 other inquirers, that the doubts about his existence, and 
 even about the extent of his accomplishments, have 
 dropped out of literature ; and the biographical diction- 
 aries restore the champion to his old place. Of course, 
 every one is free to deny that any of his achievements as 
 a scholastic disputant, a mime, or a swordsman, were 
 gained in a sphere of exertion worthy of a great man. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 257 
 
 But it may be said of these, as of the writings which 
 created the scholastic philosophy, that they were great 
 deeds in their day, and that he who performed them best 
 was greatest among his fellows. We cannot doubt the 
 wonderful and totally unrivalled feats of the Scottish wan- 
 derer, since they were attested by contemporaries whose 
 praises were quite spontaneous, and who had no preju- 
 dices or partialities to be gratified by his elevation. To 
 hold that in going from place to place challenging in a 
 public manner all who ventured to dispute with him, he 
 showed arrogance and ostentation, is to overlook a promi- 
 nent feature of the times. The publication of a pamphlet 
 announcing bold opinions which challenge controversy, 
 is not more arrogant at the present day, than the post- 
 ing of theses challenging a disputation on the gate of a 
 university, was counted to be in the sixteenth century. 
 Robert Reid, a Scotsman, and an ancestor of Thomas 
 the Metaphysician, collected and published the theses he 
 had maintained among the Continental universities. The 
 practice has been rendered memorable by the theses 
 plastered by Luther on the gates of Nuremberg Church. 
 No doubt we can now see how open such a practice was 
 to ridicule ; and indeed it came under the wild lash of 
 Rabelais, who laughed at things centuries before they 
 became ridiculous to other people. For a purpose which 
 will presently appear, I quote the history of PantagruePs 
 challenges, written a few years before those of Crichton : 
 " Thereupon in all the Carrefours that is, throughout 
 all the four quarters, streets, and corners of the city he 
 set up conclusions to the number of nine thousand seven 
 hundred and sixty-foure, in all manner of learning, touch- 
 ing in them the hardest doubts that are in any science. 
 And first of all, in the Fodder Street, he held dispute 
 against all the regents or fellowes of colledges, artists or 
 masters of arts, and oratours, and did so gallantly, that he 
 overthrew them and set them all upon their tailes. He 
 went afterwards to the Sorbonne, where he maintained 
 argument against all the theologians or divines, for the 
 space of six weeks, from four o'clock in the morning 
 until six in the evening, except an interval of two hours 
 
 R 
 
258 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 to refresh themselves and take their repast. And at this 
 were present the greater part of the lords of the court, 
 the masters of requests, presidents, counsellors ; those of 
 the accompts, secretaries, advocates, and others ; as also 
 the sheriffs of the said town, with the physicians and pro- 
 fessors of the canon law. Among which it is to be re- 
 marked, that the greater part were stubborn jades, and in 
 their opinions obstinate : but he took such course with 
 them, that for all their ergo's and fallacies, he put their 
 backs to the wall, gravelled them in the deepest questions, 
 and made it visibly appear to the world that, compared 
 with him, they were but monkies, and a knot of muffled 
 calves. Whereupon every body began to keep a bustling 
 noise and talk of his so marvellous knowledge, through 
 all degrees of persons in both sexes, even to the very 
 laundresses, brokers, roast-meat sellers, penknife makers, 
 and others, who, when he passed along the street, would 
 say, 'That is he,' in which he took delight, as Demos- 
 thenes, the prince of Greek orators, did, when an old 
 crouching wife, pointing at him with her fingers, said, 
 'That is the man.'" 
 
 Now, observe, this passage is quoted from the transla- 
 tion of Rabelais made by that Sir Thomas Urquhart of 
 Cromarty, who gives us the most full and picturesque 
 account of Crichton. When, therefore, he describes, in 
 the following terms, the manner in which his hero con- 
 ducted himself on the same spot, one cannot help believ- 
 ing that he must have had Rabelais's ridicule in view; 
 and it is difficult to escape the impression that, through 
 all his laudations, we can see his tongue in his cheek. 
 Sir Thomas tells us : 
 
 " To so great a height and vast extent of praise did the 
 never-too-much-extolled reputation of the seraphic wit of 
 that exirnious man attaine, for his commanding to be 
 affixed programmes on all the gates of the schools, halls, 
 and colleges of that famous university, as also on all the 
 chief pillars and posts standing before the houses of the 
 most renowned men for literature, resident within the 
 precincts of the walls and suburbs of that most populous 
 and magnificent city, inviting them all (or any whoever 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 259 
 
 else versed in any kind of scholastick faculty) to prepare, 
 at nine o'clock in the morning, of such a day, month, and 
 year, as by computation came to be just six weeks after 
 the date of the affixes, to the common school at the 
 College of Navarre, where (at the prefixed term) he 
 should (God willing) be ready to answer to what should 
 be propounded to him concerning any science, liberal 
 art, discipline, or faculty, practical or theoretic, not ex- 
 cluding the theological or jurisprudential habits, though 
 grounded but upon the testimonies of God and man ; and 
 that in any of these twelve languages Hebrew, Syriack, 
 Arabeck, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, 
 Dutch, Flemish, and Slavonian, in either verse or prose, 
 at the discretion of the disputant; which high enterprise 
 and hardy undertaking, by way of challenge to the 
 learnedest men in the world, damped the wits of many 
 able scholars to consider, whether it was the attempt of a 
 fanatick spirit, or lofty design of a well-poised judgment ; 
 yet, after a few days' inquiry concerning him, when infor- 
 mation was got of his incomparable endowments, all the 
 choicest and most profound philosophers, mathematicians, 
 naturalists, mediciners, alchymists, apothecaries, surgeons, 
 doctors of both civil and canon law, and divines, both for 
 controversies and positive doctrine, together with the 
 primest gramarians, rhetoricians, logicians, and others, 
 professors of arts and disciplines at Paris, plyed their 
 studys in their private cells, for the space of a month, 
 exceeding hard, and with huge paines and labour set all 
 their brain es awork how to contrive the knottiest argu- 
 ments and most difficult questions could be devised, 
 thereby to puzzle him in the resolving of them, meander 
 him in his answers, put him out of his medium, and drive 
 him to a nonplus." 1 
 
 This passage will serve a purpose as much in the man- 
 ner of the saying as in what is said, since it was written 
 by a Scotsman who wandered through many of the Con- 
 
 1 Urquhart's 'Jewel,' p. 66. Among the hero's linguistic accom- 
 plishments, Gaelic, which must have been talked at his own door, 
 does not appear. 
 
260 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 tinental nations, and who indeed appears to have aimed 
 at a reputation very like that of his hero. Sir Thomas 
 Urquhart of Cromarty gives us some idea of his familiarity 
 with Continental nations, in the account of his library 
 what a delightful library it must have been! to be 
 found in his ' Logopandecteision.' " There were not," 
 he says, "three works therein which were not of mine 
 own purchase, and all of them together, in the order 
 wherein I had ranked them, compiled like to a complete 
 nosegay of flowers which, in my travels, I had gathered 
 out of the gardens of sixteen several kingdoms." We 
 shall yet again have to meet with its owner and his vivid 
 nationality. In the meantime I call up another figure. 
 
 The climax of preposterous nationalism, and, I fear I 
 must say, of insolent mendacity, was reached by the pen 
 of Thomas Dempster. He was evidently a man cut out 
 for extremes. His contemporaries bear an almost fright- 
 ened-looking testimony to his size and strength, and the 
 marks of ferocity stamped upon his dusky visage. 1 One 
 of the events of his varied life at once introduces us to 
 a man who would not stand upon trifles. Once, in the 
 course of his Continental wanderings, he found himself 
 in possession of power as sub-principal, it has been 
 said, of the College of Beauvais, in the University of Paris. 
 Taking umbrage at one of the students for fighting a 
 duel one of the enjoyments of life which Dempster 
 desired to monopolise to himself he caused the young 
 gentleman's points to be untrussed, and proceeded to 
 exercise discipline in the primitive dorsal fashion. The 
 aggrieved youth had powerful relations, and an armed 
 attack was made on the college to avenge his insults. 
 But Dempster armed his students and fortified the col- 
 lege walls so effectively, that he was enabled not only to 
 hold his post, but to capture some of his assailants and 
 
 1 "Cseterum (inquit Matthaeus Peregrinus Italus) fuit Dempsterus, 
 vir corpore et animo egregius : altitude illi supra mediocrum vulgaris 
 hominis magnitudinem : coma subnigrior, et cuti color non longe 
 dispar : caput magnum, ac totius corporis habitus plane regius ; robur 
 et ferocitas quibus vel prsestantissimum militem praestare posset, reque 
 ipsa saepius se talem exhibuit." Camerarius, p. 45. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 26 1 
 
 commit them as prisoners to the belfry. It appears, 
 however, that, like many other bold actions, this was 
 more immediately successful than strictly legal; and 
 certain ugly demonstrations in the court of the Chatelain 
 suggested to Dempster the necessity of retreating to some 
 other establishment in the vast literary republic of which 
 he was a distinguished ornament welcome wherever he 
 appeared. 
 
 His experience in the scholar life of the age was ample 
 and varied. He imbibed a tinge of the Anglican system 
 at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Besides serving and 
 commanding in different colleges at Paris, he held office 
 at Louvain, Rome, Douay, Tournay, Navarre, Toulouse, 
 Montpelier, Pisa, and Bologna. A man who has per- 
 formed important functions in all these places may well 
 be called a citizen of the world. At the same time, his 
 connections with them were generally of a kind not likely 
 to pass from the memory of those who came in contact 
 with him. He was a sort of roving Bentley, who, not 
 contented with sitting down surrounded by the hostility 
 of nearly all the members of one university, went about 
 like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might attack and 
 insult, and left behind him wherever he went the open 
 wounds of his sword, or of his scarcely less direful pen, 
 scattered thickly around him. He was one of those who, 
 as Anthony Arnauld said of himself, are to expect tran- 
 quillity only in a removal from that sublunary world in 
 which, like pieces of clockwork wound up, they are 
 doomed to a ceaseless motion during their vitality. He 
 wrote some minor works pretty powerfully tinged with 
 nationality. 1 His great triumph was, however, the bio- 
 graphical dictionary, which he was pleased to call a 
 literary history of Scotland. 2 
 
 1 Their titles are sufficient to indicate an uncompromising and ex- 
 alting national vindicator. Take, for instance, ' Scotia illustrior, sieu 
 Mendicabula repressa, ' published at Leyden in 1620, and 'Asserti 
 Scotiae cives sui, Sanctus Bonifacies rationibus IX., Joannes Duns 
 rationibus XII.,' published at Bologna in 1623. 
 
 8 ' Thomae Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum sive 
 de Scriptoribus Scotis.' It was reprinted by the Bannatyne Club. 
 
262 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Such an array of illustrious names was probably never 
 elsewhere attributed to one nation. He not only sweeps 
 in the whole flock of Irish saints, but makes a general 
 raid on the Bollandists, and carries off all the names 
 that suit his fancy. He not only was not fastidious 
 about the evidence of their Scottish birth, but would 
 have found it hard to prove, in many instances, that 
 they ever had existence ; and perhaps, in the choice of 
 fabulous names, he had the better chance of evading 
 detection, since there was no other country to which 
 they could be revindicated. Following the course of 
 the alphabet, his first names are St Abel, St Adam, St 
 Adamnan, St Adalbertus, St Adelmus, St Aidanus, St 
 Adalgisus, and St Antbodus ; and some hundred or so 
 of such exotic names have we to encounter ere we come 
 to such as Alexander Alesius, Alexander Abernethasus, 
 and Robertus Aitonus. There are, besides the doubtful 
 and fabulous names, some that notoriously belong to our 
 neighbours as the venerable Bede, St Bruno, Bcethius 
 the Roman moralist, and Macrobius being tempted in 
 this last case probably by the home sound of the first 
 syllable, which, however, he knew very well to be Greek. 
 Take him away from his nationalities, and Dempster pre- 
 sented himself as a great scholar digging to the heart of 
 many difficult parts of learning. It must indeed have 
 been difficult for Italian scholars to refuse assent to 
 anything said about his own country by the first writer 
 of the age on the history and antiquities of theirs by 
 the author of the * Calendarium Romanum ' and the 
 ' Etruria Regalis,' and the editor of the Roman Anti- 
 quities of Rosinus. 
 
 The rather audacious but always real and scholar-like 
 vauntings of Dempster were subsequently vulgarised and 
 caricatured by a blundering blockhead, "George Mac- 
 kenzie, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians 
 in Edinburgh." He burdened literature, with three por- 
 tentous folios, which he called ' The Lives and Characters 
 of the most Eminent Writers of the Scots Nation, with an 
 abstract and catalogue of their works, their various edi- 
 tions, and the judgment of the learned concerning them.' 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 263 
 
 His method of filling his pages is not uncommon, though 
 few have carried it to so extravagant an excellence. He 
 gets his hand on a monk, supposed to have such-and- 
 such a name, supposed to be born at such a date, and 
 supposed to be a native of Scotland an identification 
 utterly vague and unsatisfactory. He manages, however, 
 to keep it down to the solid earth by attaching to it a 
 long history of monachism and the several monastic 
 orders, injudiciously plagiarised from the commonest 
 authors who had previously dealt with that matter. In 
 his life of James Bassantin, professor in the University of 
 Paris in the early part of the sixteenth century, and a 
 great mathematician and astronomer according to the 
 light of his times, it is pleasant enough to find the bio- 
 grapher, in much reverence and amazement, repeating 
 Sir James Melville's story of his astrological predictions 
 about Queen Mary's journey into England. 1 But he be- 
 
 1 ' ' This puttis me in remembrance of a taill that my brother Sir 
 Robert tald me the tym that he wes busyest dealing betwen the twa 
 quenis, to interteny ther frendschip, and draw on ther meting at a 
 part besyd York callit . Ane Bassentin, a Scottis man, that 
 
 had bean trauelit, and was learnit in hich scyences, cam to him and 
 said : 'Gud gentilman, I hear sa gud report of yow that I loue yow 
 hartly, and therefore can not forbear to schaw yow how that all your 
 vprycht dealing and your honest trauell wilbe in vain, wher ye beleue 
 to obtean a weall for our Quen at the Quen of Englandis handis. Ye 
 bot tyn your tym ; for first they will neuer meit togither, and nyst 
 ther will neuer be bot discembling and secret hattreut for a whyll, and 
 at length captyuite and vtter wrak for our Quen be England.' 
 
 " My brother's answer again was, that he lyked not to heir of sic 
 deuelisch newes, nor yet wald he credit them in any sort as false 
 vngodly and vnlawfull for Christiens to medle them with. Bassentin 
 answerit again : ' Gud Master Meluill, tak not that hard oppinion of 
 me. I am a Christien of your religion, and feares God, and purposes 
 neuer to cast my self in any of the vnlawfull artis that ye mean of, 
 bot sa far as Melanthon, wha was a godly theologue, has declaired 
 and wreten anent the naturell scyences, that ar laufull and daily red 
 in dyuers Christien vniversites ; in the quhilkis, as in all vther artis, 
 God geues to some les, to some mair and clearer knawlege then till 
 vthers ; be the quhilk knawledge I haue also that at lenth, that the 
 kingdome of England sail of rycht fall to the crown of Scotland, and 
 that ther ar some born at this instant that sail bruk landis and heri- 
 tages in England. Bot alace it will coist many ther lyues, and many 
 bludy battailes wilbe fochten first or it tak an satteled effect ; and 
 
264 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 comes intolerable when, after announcing the branches 
 of exact science in which Bassantin wrote, he proceeds as 
 if taking credit for moderation : " We shall only take 
 notice of the rise and progress of astronomy, in which our 
 author exceeded all the mathematicians of his age." One 
 of his great efforts he calls ' The Life of Clement, the 
 First Founder of the University of Paris,' of whom he 
 says, It is certain " that he was born and had his educa- 
 tion in Scotland" a statement altogether about as true 
 as any of the tales of the ' Thousand and one Nights.' 
 But we could take all such romancing in good part, like 
 that of Boece and his brethren, were it not that it brings 
 you to, " During his residence at the Court of France 
 he was engaged in two controversies the one concerning 
 images, and the other about Arianism ; " and so he gives 
 us the history of the Iconoclast and Arian controversies. 
 He goes not beyond reasonable bounds, perhaps, in giv- 
 ing an account of the Council of Basle as appropriate to 
 the Abbot of Dundrennan, who was the Scots representa- 
 tive there. But the same cannot be said for his gravely 
 incorporating the fabulous Boetian history of this country, 
 although he seems to take credit for giving it only once, 
 saying, " Since I am to give an account of several authors 
 that have written the history of our nation, that I may 
 avoid needless repetitions, I shall here give the reader 
 an abridgment of our history from the first foundation 
 of our monarchy," &c. Towards the conclusion of his 
 third volume there is an announcement of a rather men- 
 acing tendency, but containing the comforting elements 
 of futurity and uncertainty. He says : "I designed, in 
 the account of this learned linguist's life, to have inserted 
 a dissertation on the origin, progress, and different dia- 
 lects of the most ancient and useful languages ; but this 
 volume having already swelled to a sufficient bulk, and 
 many persons of quality and learning urging the publi- 
 cation of it, I am forced to delay it till an opportunity 
 
 be my knawlege,' said he, 'the Spainiartis wilbe helpers, and will 
 tak a part to themselues for ther labours, quhilk they wilbe laith to 
 leaue again." 'Sir James Melville's Memoirs,' pp. 202, 203. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 265 
 
 offers in the fourth volume." The world is under some 
 obligation to these persons of quality and learning, as 
 well as to whatever accidents may have concurred to 
 stifle that fourth volume. 
 
 Let us amuse ourselves with one specimen one is 
 quite enough of the manner in which Dr George Mac- 
 kenzie dresses up a Scottish celebrity. The instance, 
 James Bonaventura Hepburn, was born, it appears at his 
 father's rectory of Oldham stocks in Haddingtonshire, in 
 1573. He entered a monastery of the Minims or Ere- 
 mites in Avignon, and became librarian of the oriental 
 books and manuscripts of the Vatican. " He could have 
 travelled," says Mackenzie, " over the whole earth, and 
 spoke to each nation in their own language." Yes, and 
 if the biographer's whole story were true, in a good many 
 more languages than ever were listened to on earth. His 
 chief performance was the ' Golden Branch/ which Mac- 
 kenzie says he saw. His description is full enough, and 
 becomes tedious; so the concluding portion of his 
 enumeration of the seventy-two languages in which the 
 Virgin's praises are sung may suffice : 
 
 " The fourth column contains the Chaldaick, the 
 Palaestin, the Cananaan, the Persian, the African, the 
 Arabick, the Indian, the Turkish, the Rabinical, the 
 German-Rabinical, the Galilean, the Spanish-Rabinical, 
 the Afro - Rabinical, the Hebrao - Arabick, the Syro- 
 Hebraick, the Mystical. 
 
 " In the fifth column are the Seraphic, the Supercelestial, 
 the Angelical, the Enochean, the Punick, the Hebrew, 
 the Samaritan, the Mosaick, the Judaeo-Samaritan, the 
 Idumsean, the Halo-Rabinick, the Brachman, the Adam- 
 aean, the Solomonick, the Noachick alphabets. 
 
 " Our author was so expert in all these languages, so as 
 to be able to write in each of them. 
 
 " Now, these are all the languages (and they are the 
 most of the known habitable world) in which our author 
 has given us a specimen of his knowledge, and which 
 evidently demonstrates that he was not only the greatest 
 linguist of his own age, but of any age that has been 
 since the creation of the world ; and may be reckoned 
 
266 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 amongst those prodigies of mankind that seem to go 
 beyond the ordinary limits of nature. Dempster says 
 that he is mentioned with great honour by Vincentius 
 Blancus, a noble Venetian, in his ' Book of Letters ; ' 
 and, as we have already observed, he is highly com- 
 mended by that learned Doctor of the Canon Law, James 
 Gaffarel, in his book of ' Unheard-of Curiosities/ published 
 in Latin at Hamburg, anno 1676." 
 
 Something answering to the ' Book of Letters/ by the 
 noble Venetian, does exist ; it seems to be a commentary 
 on the letters upon the handle of a knife which had 
 belonged to St Peter no doubt a valuable relic preserved 
 in some religious house. I profess no further acquaint- 
 ance with this work no doubt very curious in its way 
 except the finding of its title in the catalogue of the British 
 Museum. 1 The other source of information, Gaffarel's 
 * Unheard-of Curiosities/ may be said, on the other hand, 
 to belong to popular literature. It is a favourite with 
 all admirers of the kind of credulousness that becomes 
 picturesque by its sheer excess. It is to be found in 
 many languages, and some of its admirers do not regret 
 that English is among them. I suspect, however, none 
 of them have found in it anything about James Bonaven- 
 tura Hepburn. It may, perhaps, be to the point that 
 Gaffarel refers several times to Heurneus, a name which 
 represents a certain learned Otho van Heurn of Utrecht. 
 
 Now, though the whole character might seem an 
 impudent fabrication, there really was such a person as 
 this James Hepburn. He published a small Hebrew 
 Lexicon, which, for aught that I know to the contrary, 
 may have its merits. As to the truth of the assertion 
 that he published anything containing a piece of fine 
 writing in each of the seventy-two languages referred to 
 which was, perhaps, within the capacity of the intellec- 
 tual digestive powers of Mackenzie's contemporaries 
 at the present day let any one who pleases try if he can 
 swallow it. 
 
 1 ' Parere intorno alii caratteri che sono sopra il manico del coltello 
 di S. Pietro. By Vincent Bianci. Venice, 4to, 1620.' 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 267 
 
 But, in fact, down to the period when they began to com- 
 pete with their English fellow-citizens in vernacular liter- 
 ature, Scottish authors, even if their proper labours were 
 not historical, seem as if they could scarcely avoid some 
 boastful reference to " the ancient nation." Take up, for 
 instance, a stolid quarto on the philosophy of medicine, 
 by William Davidson. 1 There is a world of wandering 
 theories and analogies taken from astrology, alchymy, 
 necromancy, and all the imaginative sciences now ex- 
 ploded ; and, in exemplification of some of the recondite 
 principles laid down in the more than 600 preceding 
 pages, we have a scientific adjustment a sort of horo- 
 scope of the course of events which placed the ancient 
 race of the kings of Scotland on the throne of England, 
 where they have their proper place as the representatives of 
 his brave countrymen. Thomas Bell, a scholar who no 
 doubt belonged to the old fighting Border clan of that 
 name, wrote a text-book in Latin on the institutions of 
 the old Romans. 2 When expounding the nature of their 
 warlike operations, he thinks it proper to give the young 
 student an opportunity of knowing the victorious career 
 of the most ancient and illustrious nation in the world 
 his own ; which, not content with its victories over England, 
 has carried the terror of its arms into every land ; like 
 old Rome herself, casting down the tyrant and succouring 
 the oppressed. 3 
 
 1 ' Commentariorum in sublimis Philosophi et incomparabilis viri 
 Petri Severini Dani Ideam Medicinse Philosophies prope diem pro- 
 diturorum Prodromus, &c., opere et studio Wilhelmi Davissoni, 
 nobilis Scoti. Hagse comitis, 1660.' I can find nowhere an account 
 of the Petrus Severinus to whom Davidson is content to be com- 
 mentator, nor can I find the book mentioned in any catalogue or 
 bibliography. A reprint of it is bound up with my copy of David- 
 son's commentary, containing an intimation by its printer that the 
 Basle and Erfurt editions are so rare that they can hardly be bought 
 at any price. The commentary is nearly four times as large as the 
 book commented on. 
 
 2 ' Roma restituta sive Antiquitatum Romanorum compendium 
 absolutum ex optimis authoribus in usum studiosse juventutis collec- 
 tum. A Thomo Bell, Philologo, Edinburg, Scoto. 1672.' 
 
 3 " Scotorum regnum omnium totius terrarum orbis longe antiquis- 
 
268 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Any one who has pottered among old Continental 
 works of reference historical, geographical, biographical, 
 and the like will have noticed how large and respectable 
 a place Scotland, with all her counties, towns, institutions, 
 and celebrities, holds in them. This may be in some 
 measure accounted for by the fervent perseverance with 
 which our countrymen have beaten into the European 
 mind the importance of their mother country; but it 
 also, perhaps, owes something to the vigilance with which 
 Scots scholars have looked after the fame of their country 
 when they found such works in preparation. A sight of 
 that wonderful book, Bleau's Atlas, is enough to convince 
 any one of the wide and catholic spirit of the Dutch men 
 of letters in the seventeenth century, while it also shows 
 that they looked for support to a large community who 
 filled their libraries with costly books. The * Theatrum 
 Scotiae ' fills one of Bleau's great folios, except a little bit 
 at the end conceded to Ireland. It is in the Dutchman's 
 maps that country gentlemen look for the condition of their 
 estates in the seventeenth century, and local antiquaries 
 hunt out topographical changes. Many a space now 
 covered with thickly-peopled streets was then bare moor- 
 land; and at the same time, what one is less likely to 
 expect, many a mountain district is strewed with names 
 now forgotten, because, as sheep-walks or deer-forests, 
 they are emptied of the inhabitants whose dwelling-places 
 were grouped into separate hamlets and granges. 
 
 This volume is the result of a conjunction of fortunate 
 accidents. Robert Pont, renowned in the ecclesiastical 
 politics of the sixteenth century, had a son, Timothy, 
 smitten with a sacred rage for topography. He spent 
 his days wandering over his native country, taking notes 
 and measurements, which, aided by such science as the 
 
 simum. . . . Bellum ubique victoriam undique querens illustrem 
 armorum gloriam foris, per Angliam, Hiberniam, Belgium, German- 
 iam, totum septentrionem, Italiam, Galliam, Hispaniam, Libyam, 
 Cretam, Rhodum, Syriam, Borussiam, late circumtulit, sibi gloriam 
 et honorem, sociis spem opem victoriam salutem commodum adferens 
 hostibus terrorem damnum ignominium. " P. 214. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 269 
 
 age afforded, he projected into maps. Those labours, 
 which anticipate the wants of after generations, are of 
 course neglected in their own, if their authors be not even 
 despised and spitefully entreated as monomaniacs. Font's 
 maps would have been annihilated by the various forms 
 of enmity to which anything committed to paper is liable, 
 if they had not found a protector in Sir John Scott. He 
 is best remembered by the alliterative title of a very sar- 
 castic little book, known as ' Scott of Scotstarvet's Stag- 
 gering State of Scots Statesmen ; ' but in his own day he 
 was known over the learned world for better things, and 
 he held a close correspondence with the first scholars 
 of the time. He opened communications between the 
 Dutch publisher and Sir Robert Gordon of Straloch, who, 
 with the assistance of his son James, a clergyman, dressed 
 up the topographical drafts of Pont into engraved maps, 
 and accompanied them with a due proportion of Latin 
 letterpress, descriptive and historical. 
 
 It has been noticed that Bayle is very full and accurate 
 in all matters relating to Scotsmen and their country. 
 We get readily at the secret of this in a passage of a 
 letter by the Earl of Perth, who was Chancellor of Scot- 
 land, and had to take flight at the Revolution, accom- 
 plishing his escape with better success than his brother 
 chancellor, Jeffreys. " There is a bookseller in this town 
 a genteel, well-bred man, who keeps his coach, &c. 
 He's both very learned and a mighty virtuoso : he is 
 causing make a Dictionnaire Historique, like that of 
 Moreri's, but it will be incomparably finer. One Monsieur 
 Baile works hard to have it fine and true. This Mr Baile 
 is a most knowing man ; both he and Leers, who is the 
 bookseller, are my friends, and would fain oblige me by 
 giving an account of my family and those of my nearest 
 relations. I hope you will give me a short one of my 
 Lord ErrolPs, and get my Lord Keith to do as much for 
 him, and it will enrich the book, and do us no dishonour. 
 Pray let this be done, and sent over with the first Scotch 
 fleet, directed for me, either by Mr Thomas Graham, 
 factor, or by Mr Pan ton, by them to be given to Dr 
 Carny, in the West Wagen Street at Rotterdam. Fail 
 
2/0 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 not in this." 1 So, like many a work that has immortal- 
 ised its author, the great dictionary was the project of a 
 publisher who knew where to find " a good hand " for his 
 special work. To him fame has been especially unjust, 
 for his name has dropped out of the biographical diction- 
 aries, and in bibliography people are told that the more 
 valuable editions of Bayle are those of Prosper Marchand 
 of Rotterdam and Brandmuller of Basle. 
 
 In quarters, however, where there is no reason to sup- 
 pose that the hand of a Scot has actually interfered, it is 
 easy to notice the influence of the determined and per- 
 severing nationality. Moreri, Hoffman, Lamartiniere, 
 and the other encyclopedists, are very respectful to Scot- 
 land, and make way for all relevant matters which concern 
 that nation. In Hoffman's four ponderous Latin folios 
 you will find all the monarchs, from Fergus downwards 
 including some forty or fifty who never existed all 
 chronicled as duly as the Roman emperors. 
 
 Among the tiny volumes published by the Elzeviers 
 a series called the * Respublicae ' are separate accounts 
 of the various nations of the earth. They are much 
 coveted by collectors when they can be had complete 
 and uniform in old red or blue morocco. In these there 
 is a portion meted to Scotland, in which the full lustre of 
 the ancient kingdom is reflected implicitly from Boece 
 and Buchanan. On the title-page of the * Descriptio 
 Scotiae' there is an emblematic figure a hard-featured 
 trooper, with buff- coat, steel hat, and broadsword an 
 accurate representation, doubtless, of the Scottish soldier 
 of the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 There came, during the early part of last century, from 
 the French presses, a set of very pleasant books called 
 'Delices.' They might be termed guide-books to the 
 various countries they treated of; but they were both 
 more discursive and more complete than modern guide- 
 books, giving a good deal of history along with such 
 physical geography as their period possessed. Among 
 these are 'Les Delices de la Grand Bretagne et de 
 
 1 'Letters of James, Earl of Perth,' p. 15. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 2/1 
 
 Tlrlande/ in eight volumes, of which Scotland has two. 
 These are filled with pictures of towns and public build- 
 ings, being in a great measure transcripts, much improved 
 in accuracy of perspective and otherwise, of a set of gaunt 
 clumsy engravings made by a Dutchman called Captain 
 John Slezer. The Frenchman makes some shrewd re- 
 marks among others, that the wind is so unceasing with 
 us that we deserve to be called Le Royaume des Vents. 
 He politely adopts the compliments paid by Boece, 
 Camerarius, and others to the temperance and hardy 
 virtues of their countrymen, but is a little doubtful about 
 the wonderful antiquity of the kingdom. 
 
 And now since this train of printed gossip started with 
 the fabulous historians, it may not be unapt to introduce 
 the man who first broke up their romances, and examined 
 with something like a critical and scientific spirit the 
 foundations of our history ; for he comes within the 
 scope of our tattle as a wanderer in foreign parts. This 
 was Father Innes, of the Scots College in Paris, whose 
 * Critical Essay on the Early Inhabitants of Scotland ' was 
 published in 1729. Father Innes lived at a time when 
 the law and public opinion in Scotland rendered it unsafe 
 for people of his profession and religion to be conspicuous, 
 and his sceptical inquiries into the early history of Scot- 
 land, published in English, were not likely to attract much 
 attention among his fellow - priests in France. Hence, 
 until very lately, there were no accessible means of know- 
 ing where he was born, or when he died. Mr Grub, the 
 author of the erudite ' Ecclesiastical History of Scotland/ 
 a curious investigator in all matters connected with that 
 and kindred topics, has done good service by tracking 
 the uneventful tenor of Father Innes's life. He was the 
 son of a northern laird, born in Aberdeenshire in the year 
 1662, and he died in the Scots College in 1744. The 
 rest is soon told. 
 
 "In 1677, Thomas Innes, then fifteen years of age, was 
 sent to Paris, and pursued his studies at the College of 
 Navarre. He entered the Scots College on the i2th of 
 January 1681, but still attended the College of Navarre. 
 On the 26th of May 1684, ne received the clerical tonsure, 
 
2/2 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 and, on the loth March 1691, was promoted to the priest- 
 hood. After this he went to Notre-Dame des Vertues, 
 a seminary of the Oratorians, near Paris, where he con- 
 tinued for two or three months. Returning to the Scots 
 College in 1692, he assisted the Principal, his elder 
 brother Lewis, in arranging the records of the Church of 
 Glasgow, which had been deposited partly in that College, 
 partly in the Carthusian Monastery at Paris, by Arch- 
 bishop James Beaton. In 1694 he took the degree of 
 Master of Arts in the University of Paris, and, in the 
 following year, was matriculated in the German nation. 
 
 " After officiating as a priest for two years in the parish 
 of Magnay, in the diocese of Paris, he came again to the 
 Scots College in 1697. In the spring of 1698 he returned 
 to his native country, and officiated for three years at 
 Inveravon as a priest of the Scottish Mission. The 
 church at Inveravon was the prebend of the Chancellor 
 of the diocese of Murray, and he alludes to the circum- 
 stance, and to his three years' residence in that parish, in 
 his dissertation on the reception of the use of Sarum by 
 the Church of Scotland. He again went to Paris in 
 October 1701, and became Prefect of Studies in the Scots 
 College, and mission agent." 
 
 In the year 1724 he came to Scotland, when he was met 
 by Wodrow, the historian of the Covenanters, when both 
 were making researches in the Advocates' Library in op- 
 posite directions. The two men, following to a certain 
 extent the same pursuit, must have felt utterly alien to 
 each other. Wodrow, a thoroughly homespun western 
 Whig of the most rigid order, went no farther back than 
 the two or three generations of the Scottish clergy im- 
 mediately behind his own, and looked on all things 
 beyond the ecclesiastical circle of the western Presby- 
 terians as idle and unprofitable vanity, unworthy of his 
 research. The Jacobite priest, on the other hand, saw 
 nothing genuine or worthy of a good man's reflections 
 save in the records of the past, and lived only in the hope 
 that all the existing fabric of heresy and innovation would, 
 after its brief hour of usurpation was fulfilled, fall again to 
 pieces, and open up the good old ways. Each did service 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 2/3 
 
 in his own way. The Covenanter was a prejudiced, but, 
 in a great measure, a trustworthy narrator of things within 
 the scope of his narrow inquiries ; the priest of the Scots 
 College at Paris was far better occupied in the past than 
 the present, and bequeathed to us a noble monument of 
 historical criticism, while his brethren were busily em- 
 ployed in plots and conspiracies to plunge the nation in 
 a civil war. Wodrow, though he had few sympathies 
 with a Romish priest, looked on the scholar with a kindly 
 feeling, and records in his note-book thus, " He is not 
 engaged in politics, as far as can be guessed ; and is a 
 monkish, bookish person, who meddles with nothing but 
 literature." 
 
 This scene recalls the ecclesiastical contests which 
 brought Scotsmen much in contact with foreigners, since 
 the conspicuous men of each party had in turn to take 
 refuge abroad. We have seen something already of the 
 tone and temper of the controversy. I propose now to 
 look a little to the literature of the disputants, prefacing 
 what I have to say with a general remark by Urquhart, 
 containing a good deal of the spirit in which his country- 
 men, while maintaining their respective sides in the great 
 dispute, could not entirely forget that they were " brother 
 Scots," and must stand up for the dear old country. 
 
 " Here nevertheless it is to be understood, that neither 
 these dispersedly-preferred Scots were all of one and the 
 same religion, nor yet any one of them a Presbyterian. 
 Some of them were, and are as yet, Popish prelates, such 
 as the Bishop of Vezon, and Chalmers, Bishop of Neems, 
 and Signer Georgio Con (who wrote likewise some books 
 in Latin) was by his intimacy with Pope Urban's nephew 
 Don Francesco Don Antonio, and Don Tadseo Barbarini, 
 and for his endeavouring to advance the Catholico-Ponti- 
 fical interest in Great Britain, to have been dignified with 
 a cardinal's hat, which (by all appearance) immediately 
 after his departure from London, he would have obtained 
 as soon as he had come to Rome, had death not pre- 
 vented him by the way in the city of Genua : but had he 
 returned to this island with it, I doubt it would have 
 proved ere now as fatal to him, as another suchlike cap 
 
 s 
 
2/4 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 in Queen Mary's time had done to his compatriot Car- 
 dinal Betoun. 
 
 " By this as it is perceivable that all Scots are not 
 Presbyterians, nor yet all Scots Papists, so would not I 
 have the reputation of any learned man of the Scottish 
 nation to be buried in oblivion, because of his being of 
 this or this, or that or yon, or of that other religion ; no 
 more than if we should cease to give learning and moral 
 virtues their due, in the behalf of pregnant and good 
 spirits born and bred in several climates ; which to with- 
 hold from them (whether Poriscians, Heteroscians, or 
 Amphiscians), would prove very absurd to the humane 
 ingenuity or ingenuous humanity of a true cosmopolite." 
 
 Foremost among the champions of the new faith stands, 
 of course, the name of John Knox, and though his fame 
 rests in general on other grounds, he was no mean repre- 
 sentative of the scholarship of Scotland in other lands. 
 His first acquaintance with the French was neither of his 
 own seeking nor to his own edification and enjoyment. 
 He was seized in the midst of the piratical band who held 
 the Castle of St Andrews, after the murder of Beaton, and 
 had to endure penal slavery in the galleys. The observa- 
 tions of the great Reformer on the life and manners by 
 which he was surrounded, if he had favoured the world 
 with them, must have been eminently curious and instruc- 
 tive. We can imagine such experiences preparing him 
 with examples of life and conversation which would 
 enable the Scottish preacher to startle his French and 
 Swiss congregations. It is a pity, too, that, for the sake 
 of knowing the extent to which man can injure and 
 degrade his fellow-man, we should not have had some 
 account of his own treatment from so intelligent a galley- 
 slave. The condition of such a being is something which 
 the improvements in prison discipline, and the unrevenge- 
 ful spirit of the present age, preclude us from realising. 
 We can only darkly guess at its horrors, by considering the 
 structure and other conditions of a galley. There were 
 other persons in it, of course, besides the slaves who 
 pulled the oars if not passengers of more or less rank, 
 at all events persons in command and these might be 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 275 
 
 expected for their own sakes to preserve a little decorum 
 and cleanness; but they inhabited raised galleries com- 
 pletely partitioned off, so that the rowers' benches were 
 unseen. They were separated from the living machinery 
 and its horrors, as the saloon of a steam- vessel is, at this 
 day, from the danger and filth of the machinery and the 
 furnace. Each galley-slave was secured by a chain nailed 
 to the deck, and there he remained, night and day, sur- 
 rounded by such conditions as the human animal is sub- 
 ject to when he has neither freedom to serve himself, nor 
 the services of others. A storm, with its dangers and 
 drenching, was sometimes welcome as a cleanser; but 
 most welcome of all must have been the approach of the 
 death which was to release the worn-out body from the 
 tyranny of his fellow-man, before he pitched it into the 
 sea. Who knows how much of the acerbity of Knox's 
 temperament may have been caught by him in that 
 dreadful ordeal ! 
 
 How he got his liberty is a mystery but he was in 
 the galleys altogether for nineteen months. The readi- 
 ness with which he undertook his foreign ministrations is 
 one of the incidents creditable to the general scholarship 
 of the Scots at that period. For reading of the narrative 
 kind, there is none more delightful to be found anywhere 
 than Knox's ' History of his own Times.' It is a racy, 
 vigorous narrative, crowded with pictures in rich and 
 powerful colouring like a gallery of historical paintings 
 by Rubens. What chiefly, however, fascinates the reader, 
 is the unrivalled potency of its vituperative rhetoric. His 
 scolding is sublime and awful. But throughout there is 
 a sort of noble fairness in it. Of course, all who with- 
 stood him and called forth his wrath were in some form 
 or other knaves and ruffians. How could it be otherwise 
 with those who had set themselves against him, the 
 Deity's representative on earth the head of the theoc- 
 racy ! But he was not given to the practice so common 
 in his day of assassinating reputations by those vile im- 
 putations, the touch of which leaves a taint which all the 
 perfumes of Arabia are insufficient to sweeten out. The 
 tenor of his wrath was ever for a fair stand-up fight ; and 
 
276 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 in his wordy battles he was a champion few would care 
 to join issue with. 
 
 But his History has many other things in it besides the 
 brawling of an angry priest. He was a great statesman 
 in his way a one-sided one, no doubt, without breadth 
 of view or sympathies, but endowed with one of the 
 statesman's next prime qualities, a sagacity in penetrating 
 the policy and designs of his enemies that looked like 
 inspiration. Its extent is perhaps better known now 
 than it was even by his contemporaries, from the light 
 which the excavation of state papers has thrown on the 
 vast designs of the Papal powers of his day, for crushing 
 the new and formidable heresy. From the skilful organi- 
 sation of the Huguenots, and their ramification of corre- 
 spondence everywhere, he was fully instructed in facts, 
 and his sagacity enabled him to see the spirit that influ- 
 enced them. He knew the imminent peril of himself 
 and his friends from these great combinations, and knew 
 that his own amiable and lovely mistress was deep in all 
 their intricacies, and as hard and resolute in carrying their 
 designs to a conclusion as the sternest despot in beard 
 and mail. When he speaks about these things with his 
 own peculiar uncompromising vehemence, his words might 
 seem the ravings of a monomaniac, were it not that we 
 know them to have been founded on menacing facts. 
 
 He is one of the most accurate and honest of narrators. 
 His honesty, indeed, proceeded from a source which put 
 it far above the impartiality which a modern historian 
 may assume upon principle it had an absolutism in it, 
 for it proceeded of his own infallibility. He was right in 
 all his actions, and therefore courted an inspection of 
 them. The opinion of the world was nothing after his 
 conduct had passed with approval the greatest of human 
 ordeals, his own appreciation. His dialogues with Queen 
 Mary have the stamp of thorough truth. In fact, they 
 show that he had the worst of the contest, though he does 
 not himself see that, his mind being entirely absorbed in 
 the one great object, the uprooting of her idolatry from 
 her heart. He probably fought at disadvantage. Mary 
 had but slight command over her native tongue until 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 277 
 
 some years afterwards. Knox was master of French, and 
 it was likely that the conversation was conducted in that 
 language. But however nearly the two might be thus on 
 a par in command of the language, they had learned it in 
 widely different schools. Knox's experience of it be- 
 sides the galleys had been in discussions with Huguenot 
 divines, or disputes with Popish enemies. One must 
 needs believe that his opponent was thoroughly accom- 
 plished in the Court speech. By the help of Brantome 
 and Ronsard, this was acquiring that subtle finesse which 
 would enable the accomplished beauty, with gentle dex- 
 terity, to inflict mortal wounds without appearing to 
 strike. 
 
 There is a sort of magnanimity sometimes in his can- 
 dour, since it brings him in for the support of very ques- 
 tionable acts, to which he could easily have given the 
 go-by. He was not in that ugly affair, Rizzio's murder ; 
 and if he knew that it was to come off, he might have 
 shaken his head and kept silence with a good grace. But 
 this was not his way with those who were on his own side. 
 So, in his History, he has some moralising, in which it is 
 pretty easy to see that he laments the sad fate of those 
 who have to live away from their native country, for no 
 other reason than the good service they have done to it 
 by putting the Italian to death. But fearing that he has 
 not made his meaning quite distinct enough, he raises his 
 voice, saying: "And, to lett the world understand in 
 plane terms what we meane, that great abusar of this 
 commoun-wealth, that pultron and vyle knave Davie, was 
 justlie punished, the nynt of Merch, in the year of God 
 iMVc threescore fyve, for abusing of the commoun-wealth, 
 and for his other villany, which we list not to express, by 
 the counsall and handis of James Dowglas, Erie of Mor- 
 ton, Patrik Lord Lyndesay, and the Lord Ruthven, with 
 otheris assistaris in thare cumpany, who all, for thare just 
 act, and most worthy of all praise, ar now unworthely 
 left of thare brethrein, and suffer the bitterness of banishe- 
 ment and exyle. But this is our hope in the mercyes of our 
 God, that this same blynd generatioun, whither it will or 
 nott, shalbe compelled to see that he will have respect to 
 
2/8 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 thame that ar injustlye persewed ; that he will apardoun 
 thare formar offenses ; that he will restore thame to the 
 libertie of thare country and common-wealth agane ; and 
 that he will punish (in dispyte of man) the head and the 
 taill, that now trubles the just, and manteanes impietie. 
 The head is knawin : the taill hes two branches ; the tem- 
 porall Lordis that manteane hir abhominationis, and hir 
 flattering counsallouris, blasphemous Balfour, now called 
 Clerk of Register, Sinclair Deane of Restalrige and Bis- 
 chope of Brechin, blynd of ane eie in the body, but of 
 baithe in his soule, upoun whome God schortlie after took 
 vengeance; (John) Leslye, preastis gett, Abbot of Lon- 
 dorse and Bischope of Ross, Symon Preastoun of Craig- 
 myllare, a right epicureane, whose end wilbe, or it be 
 long, according to thare warkis. Butt now to returne to 
 our history e." 1 
 
 The immediate colleague of Knox, John Craig he 
 whose denunciatory sermons afterwards frightened King 
 James from his propriety underwent, before he became 
 a minister in Edinburgh, adventures which seem to have 
 been still more marvellous and perilous than those of his 
 leader. It is said, though the story is rather improbable, 
 that he was converted by a perusal of a copy of Calvin's 
 Institutes in the library of the Dominicans of Bologna, 
 among whom he held an office of high trust. The legend 
 proceeds to say that he avowed his opinions, and was con- 
 
 1 Works, Laing's edition, i. 235, 236. It is an instructive fact 
 that, of a man so powerful in his day as Knox, and so popular 
 through subsequent generations, Scotland has preserved no remem- 
 brance, either in painting or sculpture. It shows, too, in a very 
 striking shape, how entirely the great scholars and teachers of the 
 age were driven to the Continent for the more affluent adjuncts of art 
 and literature, that the only portrait of the Scottish Reformer having 
 any claim to authenticity, is the small cut in the work of his friend, 
 Theodore Beza ' Icones Virorum Doctrina simul et Pietate Illus- 
 trium,' of Joannes Cnoxvs. It is the prototype of the well-known 
 portrait which shows a thin hard face, high cheek-bones, with a long 
 wiry beard a Geneva cap on the head, and a high - shouldered 
 Geneva gown. It is necessary for the very fallible race of book- 
 collectors to keep these characteristics in remembrance, since, in the 
 French edition of Beza, the portrait of some other man has been sub- 
 stituted for that of Knox. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 279 
 
 demned to death at Rome, but that he was released by a 
 general breaking-open of the prisons on the death of Pope 
 Paul IV. The next act of the drama finds him in the 
 hands of a band of robbers, one of whom recognising him, 
 and remembering to have been helped by him when a 
 destitute wanderer at Bologna, induces his companions to 
 aid instead of robbing the wanderer. Compelled to seek 
 refuge in Geneva, he was on his way thither, passing in 
 disguise through bypaths; and hunger and prostration 
 having overtaken him, he had sat down patiently to await 
 the end, when a dog approached him and laid a piece of 
 money at his feet. Such were the stories believed of the 
 minister of Edinburgh, who had been so long a wanderer 
 from home, and had so entirely forgotten his native lan- 
 guage, that he required to preach in Latin to a select 
 audience in the Magdalen Chapel in the Cowgate, until he 
 found time to acquire a sufficient knowledge of his native 
 tongue. 
 
 Alexander Ales, some four years older than Knox, has 
 an authentic history as strange and eventful as almost any 
 that even the shifting age of the Reformation can show. 
 He was among the earlier preachers against the Romish 
 hierarchy, and after being three times imprisoned he es- 
 caped to England in 1534, and thence to Germany. He 
 came back to England, carrying with him an introduction 
 from Melanchthon to Cranmer. He was much liked both 
 by the Archbishop and by Cromwell, and even advanced so 
 far as to get within the favour of Henry VIII. a danger- 
 ous position, apt to wax from pleasant warmth into deadly 
 heat. Seeing the approach of his patron Cromwell's fall, 
 and disliking the Act of Supremacy and some other eccle- 
 siastical measures of that wild reign, he fled to Germany 
 again. In a document to be presently noticed, he gives 
 the following account of his flight : 
 
 "When I could not bear these with a good conscience, 
 nor could my profession allow me to dissemble them (for 
 I was filling the office of the ordinary reader in the cele- 
 brated University of Cambridge by the King's orders), I 
 came to the Court, and asked for my dismissal by means 
 of Crumwell. But he retained me for about three years 
 
280 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 with empty hopes, until it was decreed and confirmed by 
 law that married priests should be separated from their 
 wives and punished at the King's pleasure. But before 
 this law was published, the Bishop of Canterbury sent 
 Lord Pachet [Paget] from Lambeth to me ajt London. 
 (I understand that he afterwards attained a high position 
 in the Court of your sister, Queen Mary.) He directed 
 me to call upon the Archbishop early in the morning. 
 When I -called upon him, ' Happy man that you are/ said 
 he, ' you can escape ! I wish that I might do the same ; 
 truly my see would be no hindrance to me. You must 
 make haste to escape before the island is blocked up, 
 unless you are willing to sign the decree, as I have, com- 
 pelled by fear. I repent of what I have done. And if I 
 had known that my only punishment would have been de- 
 position from the archbishopric (as I hear that my Lord 
 Latimer is deposed), of a truth I would not have sub- 
 scribed. I am grieved, however, that you have been 
 deprived of your salary for three years by Crumwell ; that 
 you have no funds for your travelling expenses, and that 
 I have no ready money. Nor dare I mention this to my 
 friends, lest the King should become aware that warning 
 had been given by me for you to escape, and that I have 
 provided you with the means of travelling. I give you, 
 however, this ring as a token of my friendship. It once 
 belonged to Thomas Wolsey, and it was presented to me 
 by the King when he gave me the archbishopric.' 
 
 " When I heard what the Bishop had to say, I imme- 
 diately caused my property to be sold, and I concealed 
 myself in the house of a German sailor until the ship was 
 ready, in which I embarked, dressed as a soldier, along 
 with other German troops, that I might not be detected. 
 When I had escaped a company of searchers, I wrote to 
 Crumwell (although he had not behaved well towards me), 
 and warned him of the danger in which he stood at that 
 time, and about certain other matters. For this I can 
 vouch the testimony of John Ales, Gregory, and the 
 Secretary, and Pachet himself. But Christopher Mount 
 said that Crumwell did not dare to speak to me when I 
 was going away and soliciting my dismissal, nor could he 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 28 1 
 
 venture to give me anything, lest he should be accused to 
 the King, but that he would send the sum that he owed 
 me into Germany." 
 
 He became Professor of Theology at Frankfurt-on-the- 
 Oder, but getting up a great quarrel there, he found it 
 convenient to go to Leipzig, refusing to take a chair 
 offered to him at Konigsberg. He was active in the 
 great ecclesiastical council at Naumburg, and other simi- 
 lar affairs. His pen had its own share in the business of 
 his busy life ; and the titles of his various theological and 
 polemical works, about thirty in all, would fill a good 
 many pages. Instead of enumerating them, however, I 
 shall ask attention to a small fragment from his pen, lately 
 brought to light, relating to certain momentous occur- 
 rences which passed under his eyes. 
 
 English history has the privilege of possessing an event 
 which may stand as a fair rival to the murder of Darnley 
 in tragic mystery the execution of Anne Boleyn. Mr 
 Froude got access to the Baga de Secretis itself, that 
 secret depository of proceedings against royal personages, 
 the keys of which are guarded by the Lord Chancellor 
 and the Attorney-General ; but he there found only ma- 
 terials for strengthening and deepening the mystery, and 
 left it to the alternative either that the vain beauty was 
 guilty of the horrible crimes laid to her charge, or that 
 some sixty or seventy English gentlemen of high repute 
 conspired to slander her character and put her to death. 
 Ales saw at least a part of this tragedy. On the accession 
 of Queen Elizabeth, he wrote to her a full account of it. 
 He said he had been admonished in a vision that it lay 
 upon him to write the history of the tragedy of the death 
 of the Queen's most holy mother, to illustrate the glory of 
 God and afford consolation to the godly. Whether he 
 ever wrote a book of this kind or not, it has not appeared 
 to the world, and we must accept with thankfulness some- 
 thing that may be called an epitome of its contents, sent 
 for the Queen's immediate satisfaction. He sets down, 
 in the first place, with great distinctness, his own view of 
 the cause of the tragedy : 
 
 " I am persuaded that the true and chief cause of the 
 
282 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 hatred, the treachery, and the false accusations laid to the 
 charge of that most holy Queen, your most pious mother, 
 was this, that she persuaded the King to send an embassy 
 into Germany to the Princes who had embraced the Gos- 
 pel. If other arguments of the truth of this were wanting, 
 a single one would be sufficient namely, that before the 
 embassy had returned, the Queen had been executed. 
 
 "On account of this embassy, the Emperor Charles 
 (who formerly had been so hostile to your most serene 
 father, with whom he had a suit before the Pope and the 
 Papal Legate in England, Campegio, on account of his 
 aunt, Queen Catherine, whom the King had divorced, 
 and because he had married your mother, and honoured 
 her with the regal crown) most grievously threatened the 
 Princes of Germany who were associated in the defence 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 " It was chiefly on account of this embassy that he pre- 
 pared for hostilities, and invoked the aid of the Pope, 
 King Ferdinand, the nobles of Italy, Spain, Hungary, 
 Bohemia, Lower Germany, and other nations. 
 
 " On account of this embassy all the Bishops who were 
 opposed to the purer doctrine of the Gospel and adhered 
 to the Roman Pontiff, entered into a conspiracy against 
 your mother." 
 
 To those who have often regretted that there was no 
 one present to sketch the secondary adjuncts when any 
 great act in the historical drama is passing, the following 
 record of minute particulars will have its due value : 
 
 " At this time I was in attendance upon Crumwell at 
 the Court, soliciting the payment of a stipend awarded to 
 me by the most serene King. I was known to the Evan- 
 gelical Bishops, whom your most holy mother had ap- 
 pointed from among those schoolmasters who favoured 
 the purer doctrine of the Gospel, and to whom she had 
 intrusted the care of it. I was also upon intimate terms 
 with the Archbishop of Canterbury and Latimer, to whom 
 your most holy mother was in the habit of confessing 
 when she went to the Lord's Table. He it was for whom 
 she sent when she was in prison and knew that she should 
 shortly die. Although this most holy Queen, your very 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 283 
 
 pious mother, had never spoken with me, nor had I ever 
 received ought from any one in her name, nor do I ever 
 expect any such thing (for all royal Courts have hitherto 
 been opposed to me), yet in consequence of what I 
 had shortly before heard respecting as well her modesty, 
 prudence, and gravity, as her desire to promote the pure 
 doctrine of the Gospel and her kindness to the poor, from 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Latimer, and even 
 from Crumwell himself, I was deeply grieved in my heart 
 at that tragedy about to be enacted by the Emperor, the 
 Pope, and the other enemies of the Gospel, whose inten- 
 tion it was, along with her, to bury true religion in England, 
 and thus to restore impiety and idolatry. 
 
 " Never shall I forget the sorrow which I felt when I 
 saw the most serene Queen, your most religious mother, 
 carrying you, still a little baby, in her arms, and entreat- 
 ing the most serene King, your father, in Greenwich 
 Palace, from the open window of which he was looking 
 into the courtyard, when she brought you to him. 
 
 " I did not perfectly understand what had been going 
 on, but the faces and gestures of the speakers plainly 
 showed that the King was angry, although he could con- 
 ceal his anger wonderfully well. Yet from the protracted 
 conference of the Council (for whom the crowd was wait- 
 ing until it was quite dark, expecting that they would 
 return to London), it was most obvious to every one that 
 some deep and difficult question was being discussed. 
 
 "Nor was this opinion incorrect. Scarcely had we 
 crossed the river Thames and reached London, when 
 the cannon thundered out, by which we understood that 
 some persons of high rank had been committed to prison 
 within the Tower of London. For such is the custom 
 when any of the nobility of the realm are conveyed to 
 that fortress, which is commonly called the Tower of 
 London, there to be imprisoned. 
 
 " Those who were present (of whom, by God's mercy, 
 many are still alive, and have now returned into England 
 from banishment) well know how deep was the grief of all 
 the godly, how loud the joy of the hypocrites, the enemies 
 of the Gospel, when the report spread in the morning thai 
 
284 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 the Queen had been thrown in the Tower. They will 
 remember the tears and lamentations of the faithful who 
 were lamenting over the snare laid for the Queen, and 
 the boastful triumphing of the foes of the true doctrine. 
 I remained a sorrowful man at home, waiting for the re- 
 sult ; for it was easy to perceive that, in the event of the 
 Queen's death, a change of religion was inevitable. 
 
 " I take to witness Christ, who shall judge the quick 
 and the dead, that I am about to speak the truth. On 
 the day upon which the Queen was beheaded, at sunrise, 
 between two and three o'clock, there was revealed to me 
 (whether I was asleep or awake I know not) the Queen's 
 neck, after her head had been cut off, and this so plainly 
 that I could count the nerves, the veins, and the arteries. 
 
 "Terrified by this dream or vision, I immediately arose, 
 and crossing the river Thames I came to Lambeth (this is 
 the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury's palace), and I 
 entered the garden in which he was walking. 
 
 "When the Archbishop saw me he inquired why I had 
 come so early, for the clock had not yet struck four. I 
 answered that I had been horrified in my sleep, and I told 
 him the whole occurrence. He continued in silent wonder 
 for a while, and at length broke out into these words, ' Do 
 not you know what is to happen to-day?' and when I 
 answered that I had remained at home since the date of 
 the Queen's imprisonment, and knew nothing of what was 
 going on, the Archbishop then raised his eyes to heaven 
 and said, l She who has been the Queen of England upon 
 earth will to-day become a Queen in heaven.' So great 
 was his grief that he could say nothing more, and then he 
 burst into tears. 
 
 " Terrified at this announcement, I returned to London 
 sorrowing. Although my lodging was not far distant from 
 the place of execution, yet I could not become an eye- 
 witness of the butchery of such an illustrious lady, and of 
 the exalted personages who were beheaded along with her. 
 
 "Those persons, however, who were present (one of 
 whom was my landlord), and others, told me at noon, 
 that the Earl of Wiltshire (the Queen's father) had been 
 commanded to be an assessor along with the judges, in 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 285 
 
 order that his daughter might be the more confounded, 
 and that her grief might be the deeper. Yet she stood 
 undismayed ; nor did she ever exhibit any token of im- 
 patience, or grief, or cowardice. 
 
 " The Queen was accused of having danced in the bed- 
 room with the gentlemen of the King's chamber \curn 
 cubiculariis regis], and of having kissed her brother, Lord 
 Rochfort. When she made no answer to these accusa- 
 tions, the King's syndic or proctor, Master Polwarck, 
 produced certain letters, and bawled out that she could 
 not deny she had written to her brother, informing him 
 that she was pregnant. Still she continued silent. 
 
 "When the sentence of death was pronounced, the 
 Queen raised her eyes to heaven, nor did she condescend 
 to look at her judges, but went to the place of execution. 
 Kneeling down, she asked that time for prayer should be 
 granted her. When she had ceased praying, she herself 
 arranged her hair, covered her eyes, and commanded the 
 executioner to strike. 
 
 " The Queen exhibited such constancy, patience, and 
 faith towards God, that all the spectators, even her ene- 
 mies, and those persons who previously had rejoiced at 
 her misfortune out of their hatred to the doctrine of the 
 religion which she had introduced into England, testified 
 and proclaimed her innocence and chastity." 
 
 He then narrates the conversation at table, which would 
 require more comment than can be here afforded to ren- 
 der it distinct. Then 
 
 "While the guests were thus talking at table in my 
 hearing, it so happened that a servant of CrumwelPs 
 came from the Court, and sitting down at the table, asked 
 the landlord to let him have something to eat, for he was 
 exceedingly hungry. 
 
 " In the meantime, while the food was being got ready, 
 the other guests asked him what were his news ? Where 
 was the King ? What was he doing ? Was he sorry for 
 the Queen ? He answered by asking why should he be 
 sorry for her? As she had already betrayed him in 
 secrecy, so now was he openly insulting her. For just 
 as she, while the King was oppressed with the heavy 
 
286 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 cares of state, was enjoying herself with others, so he, 
 when the Queen was being beheaded, was enjoying him- 
 self with another woman. 
 
 " While all were astonished, and ordered him to hold 
 his tongue, for he was saying what no one would believe, 
 and that he would bring himself into peril if others heard 
 him talking thus, he answered, ' You yourselves will 
 speedily hear from other persons the truth of what I 
 have been saying.' 
 
 " The landlord, who was a servant of Crumwell's, hear- 
 ing this, said, 'It is not fitting for us to dispute about 
 such affairs. If they are true they will be no secret. And 
 when I go to Court I will inquire carefully into these 
 matters.' 
 
 " The person, however, who had first spoken, answered 
 that he had the King's orders that none but the councillors 
 and secretaries should be admitted, and that the gate of 
 the country-house should be kept shut in which the King 
 had secluded himself. 
 
 "Some days afterwards, when the landlord returned 
 from the Court, before any one asked him a question, he 
 called out with a loud voice, ' I have news to tell you.' 
 The guests anxiously waited to know what he had to say ; 
 whereupon he added, that within a few days the King 
 would be betrothed, and shortly afterwards would be 
 married, but without any state, in the presence of the 
 councillors only ; for he wished to delay the coronation 
 of his new spouse until he should see whether she would 
 give birth to a boy. 
 
 "The issue of events proved that this was the truth, 
 for the Lady Jane was crowned Queen when she was upon 
 the eve of the confinement in which she died. 
 
 " The birth of a son gave immense satisfaction to the 
 King. But as he was afraid that he himself would not 
 live so long as to see the child grown up, he removed out 
 of the way all those persons of whom he was apprehensive, 
 lest, upon his death, they should seize the crown." l 
 
 11 Calender of State Papers (Foreign), 1558-1559,' No. 1303. 
 The public are under obligation to Mr Joseph Stevenson not only 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 287 
 
 So much for the exiled Scottish clergyman's account of 
 what he saw in the shifting Court of Henry VIII. 
 
 The early Reformers, and the leaders of the predom- 
 inant ecclesiastical party in Scotland for a considerable 
 period after the Reformation, were eminently learned. 
 The example of a foreign education was set to them by 
 their political head, the Regent Murray, who studied in 
 Paris under the renowned Peter Raraus. 
 
 Something of John Welch, Knox's son-in-law, we have 
 seen already. Alexander Arbuthnot, Principal of King's 
 College in Aberdeen, and an ecclesiastical leader of emi- 
 nence in the reign of King James, studied under Cuja- 
 cius at Bourges. Erskine of Dun, one of the early lay 
 leaders of the Reformation, studied under Melanchthon 
 at Wittenberg, and passed over to Denmark. Here we 
 are told that he attended the lectures of John Maccabeus, 
 a Scotsman, of whom we would know scarcely anything, 
 had he not been excavated by the labours of the inde- 
 fatigable Dr M'Crie, who makes out that he was a Mac- 
 alpine who changed his name, and served with credit as 
 a professor in the University of Copenhagen. Andrew 
 Melville, not less known to fame from his place in ecclesi- 
 astical history than from the excellent biography of him 
 by Dr M'Crie, studied at Paris, and went afterwards to 
 Poitiers, where he became regent in the College of St 
 Marceau. He succeeded Knox in the friendship of Beza, 
 and was so sedulously the disciple of the venerable scholar, 
 that his enemies called him Beza's ape. Several of the 
 succeeding leaders of the Scottish Church, such as Boyd 
 of Trochrig, Thomas Smeton, Robert Baillie, Alexander 
 Henderson, and William Spang, had intimate relations 
 with Continental scholars. Baillie published his folio on 
 Scriptural and Classical Chronology at Amsterdam. 1 Con- 
 cerning Spang, it is necessary to lift up a protestation, 
 
 for finding this document, but for translating a large portion of it into 
 English. 
 
 1 ' Opens Historic! et Chronologici Libri duo, in quibus historia 
 sacra et profana compendiose deducitur ex ipsis fontibus, a Creatione 
 Mundi ad Constantinum Magnum, &c. Per D. Robertum Ballium, 
 1668.' 
 
288 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 since a great historian of our age, who is rather fond of 
 wakening with a rattling peal of thunder any contem- 
 porary whom he finds napping, has endeavoured to deprive 
 him of existence, suggesting that he is altogether a mistake 
 for Strang. 1 But Spang was the respected name of a very 
 considerable scholar and an acute observer, as any one will 
 find who chooses to peruse his ' Rerum nuper in Regno 
 Scoticse Gestarum Historia/ &c., published at Dantzic in 
 1641, of which the present writer has the privilege to 
 possess a tall clean copy bound in vellum. 
 
 The Covenanting contest was doubtless inimical to 
 learning, but there was more of it among the Covenanters 
 themselves than they generally get credit for. The letters 
 of Samuel Rutherford have a hold on the affections of 
 two classes of people : the one, those like-minded with 
 himself, who enjoy the excessive luxuriance of his meta- 
 phorical piety, and the free-and-easy way in which he 
 claps on the shoulder and takes a chat with the exist- 
 ences most sacred in the thoughts of Christian people ; 
 the other class are those who are in search of the scan- 
 dals of Puritanic literature, for the purpose of holding 
 them up to odium or ridicule. In this way Rutherford 
 was very valuable to the compiler, whoever he was, of 
 the * Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed, or, The 
 Folly of their Teaching Discovered;' and he was not 
 unacceptable to the late Mr Buckle, who would have 
 
 1 Perhaps the fine Roman hand in which this doubt is raised can 
 be recognised : ' ' As in this museum manuscript, otherwise of good 
 authority, the name of the principal correspondent is not ' Spang, ' 
 but ' Strang/ and we learn elsewhere that Baillie wrote the miser- 
 ablest hand, a question arises whether Strang be not once for all the 
 real name, and Spang from the first a mere false reading, which has 
 now become inveterate? Strang, equivalent to Strong, is still a 
 common name in those parts of Scotland. Spang which is a Scot- 
 tish verb, signifying leap violently, leap distractedly, as an imprisoned 
 terrified kangaroo might leap we never heard of as a Christian 
 person's surname before. 'The reverend Mr Leap -distractedly,'' 
 labouring in that dense element of Campvere, in Holland ? We will 
 hope not, if there be a ray of hope ! The Bannatyne Club, now in a 
 manner responsible, is able to decide." Article on "Baillie the 
 Covenanter," 'Westminster Review ' April 1842. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 289 
 
 thought such writings as his less amazing if he had been 
 more accustomed to them. Rutherford, no doubt, was 
 an ardent fanatic, but this did not prevent him from being 
 a scholar, known abroad by his work on Armenianism, 
 which was carefully re-edited at Utrecht. 1 His familiars 
 might have questioned whether the author of the 'Examen' 
 would have rested peacefully in his grave had he known 
 that his Dutch editor dedicated the book to so heterodox 
 a person as that female Crichton, the celebrated Anna 
 Maria Schurmann. 
 
 The Dutch seem to have taken a strong liking to him. 
 He was offered a professor's chair at Harderwyck, which 
 he declined ; and afterwards his brother, Captain James 
 Rutherford, garrisoned with the Scotch Dutch contingent 
 at Grave, was sent over to press him to accept the Pro- 
 fessorship of Divinity at Utrecht, vacant in 1651 by the 
 death of the celebrated Dematius, or Charles de Maets. 
 His reasoning for declining foreign employment is ex- 
 pressed in his own peculiar way in one of his letters, in 
 which he urges a brother clergyman to follow his example : 
 " Let me entreat you to be far from the thoughts of 
 leaving this land. I see it and find it, that the Lord hath 
 covered the whole land with a cloud in His anger ; but 
 though I have been tempted to the like, I had rather be 
 in Scotland beside angry Jesus Christ, than in any Eden 
 or garden in the earth." And here I am reminded of 
 the illogicality of discoursing under the title of the Scot 
 abroad, concerning a Scotsman who would not go abroad. 
 My excuse is, that his fame and his works travelled afar, 
 and created a desire for his presence. 
 
 1 'Examen Arminianismi conscriptum et discipulis dictatum a 
 doctissimo clarissimoque viro D. Samuele Rhetorforte, S.S. TheoL 
 in Academia Scotiae Sanctandreanl Doctore et Professore, 1668.' 
 The transformation of his name into Rhetorfortis, though not an 
 equivalent in translation, is not so perplexing as many of the classify - 
 ings which tease one so much in following up the names of that 
 period. Another Scotsman, for instance, is known in the world of 
 letters as Theagrius. His name was David Hume, and he wrote 
 a history of the house of Douglas. But how connect Hume with 
 Theagrius ? He was the laird of a piece of ground called Godscroft, 
 or God's field. 
 
 T 
 
29O THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 John Brown of Wamphray was a voluminous writer on 
 religion and theology. His books may still be picked 
 up, sorely thumbed and stained, and odorous of peat-reek, 
 after the fashion of seventeenth-century religious literature 
 in Scotland. Whoever would know thoroughly the his- 
 tory of the time, must follow for information on the steps 
 of those who have read such books with the relish of 
 devotees ; for how shall we know the nature of a people 
 unless we trace their religious influences to the very 
 fountain-heads ? Perhaps the most animated of his works 
 is the quarto, in which he lifts his testimony against the 
 Quakers, proving that they are on the highway to pagan- 
 ism. He is known through foreign printing-presses as 
 Joannes Broun, Scoto-Britannus. He died minister of 
 the Scots Church at Amsterdam, some years before the 
 Revolution, and was zealous against Erastianism a 
 favourite enemy of the Scottish Presbyterian pulpit 
 attacking it even within the native stronghold of the 
 Dutch vernacular, and dragging it into the light of the 
 language of learning for just condemnation. 1 
 
 There was, in fact, a little nest of Covenanting refugee 
 clergy at Rotterdam, whose mouths Charles II. had in- 
 fluence enough in Holland to stop. Two of them 
 M'Ward, a great correspondent of Baillie's, and John 
 Nevay, the author of a Latin paraphrase of the Song of 
 Solomon were considerable scholars, and as such es- 
 teemed among the scholarly Dutch. But King Charles 
 would not probably have repented of the Act which put 
 them to silence, if he had read M< Ward's lamentation 
 over the event, meekly though it is expressed " Oh ! 
 when I remember that burning and shining light, worthy 
 and warm Mr Livingstone, who used to preach as within 
 the sight of Christ and the glory to be revealed ; acute 
 and distinct Nevay; judicious and neat Sympson; fervent, 
 
 1 ' Libri duo. In priori, Wolzogium in libellis duobus de inter- 
 prete scripturarum causam orthodoxam prodidisse demonstratur. 
 In posteriori, Lambert! Velthusii Sententia Libertino Erastiana, in 
 libello vernaculo de idolatria et superstitione nuper proposita, 
 detegitur et confutatur. Authore Joanne Broun, Scoto Britanno, 
 V.D.M., Amstelodami, 1660.' 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 29 1 
 
 serious, and zealous Trail. When I remember, I say, that 
 all these great luminaries are now set," &C. 1 
 
 A Robert Douglas served as chaplain to the Scots troops 
 in the army of Gustavus Adolphus. The tradition of his 
 birth is one of the most romantic on record. He was 
 esteemed to be a son of Mary Queen of Scots and George 
 Douglas her admirer, born during her captivity in Loch- 
 leven Castle. The Swedish warrior was said to have had 
 a high esteem for him, saying he was fit to be a prime 
 minister as well as an ecclesiastical leader ; nay, that he 
 would trust his army in the hands of Robert Douglas : 
 but these testimonials are vouched for only by Wodrow, 
 who thought there was nothing beyond the capacity of 
 "a great state preacher," as he calls Douglas a term 
 very expressively applicable to a class of men whose ser- 
 mons shook thrones and sent armies to battle. 
 
 All these spiritual heroes were on the side of Calvinism. 
 The old Church, however, was not entirely without testi- 
 fiers. Hamilton, Chambers, Cone, Laing, Dempster, and 
 Burne, have already stepped across the stage, and we 
 have seen in some measure how Knox fared at the hands 
 of some of these. One of his chief controversial op- 
 ponents was Ninian Winzeat or Wingate, Abbot of the 
 Scots Monastery of St James, at Ratisbon, already re- 
 ferred to. To this office he was driven by losing one 
 that sounds lowly enough beside it that of parish school- 
 master in Linlithgow. But he seemed to carry with him 
 regrets for his severance from that, "his kindly town," 
 and a lively sense of the importance of the functions 
 there fulfilled by him, judging " the teaching of the youth- 
 head in virtue and science, next after the authority with 
 the ministers of justice, under it and after the angelical 
 office of godly pastors, to obtain the third principal place 
 most commodious and necessary to the Kirk of God." 
 Winzeat was the author of the ' Flagellum Sectariorum/ 
 and of a precious tract called * The Last Blast of the 
 Trompet of Godis Worde aganis the vsurpit auctoritie of 
 
 1 'The History of the Scottish Church, Rotterdam,' by the Rev. 
 William Steven, M.A., p. 54. 
 
2Q2 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Johne Knox, and his Caluiniane Brether.' This, of 
 course, was not a kind of production to be published 
 with impunity in the sixteenth century, in a place where 
 the object of the attack was supreme in power; and it 
 completed that measure of Winzeat's iniquity which com- 
 pelled him to seek safety and find promotion abroad. 
 
 Another opponent figures in Knoxian literature as 
 Tyrie the Jesuit. Little is known of him but the fact 
 that he belonged to the great Society of Jesus, unless we 
 accept also as a fact the statement of his friend George 
 Cone, whom we have already met with, that his accom- 
 plishments exhausted all human knowledge. His tone is 
 moderate, and in his gentleness he administers some hard 
 hits. He possessed the vantage-ground which the early 
 defenders of Catholicism held, in the fact that most of 
 their opponents were converts, and he knew how to touch 
 this chink in his antagonists' armour. 
 
 Had they not been dealt with otherwise, Blackwood 
 and the worthy Bishop Leslie might have been brought 
 in here as champions of the old Church. Another Scots- 
 man of the same family name, George Leslie, enjoyed 
 a more astounding but less substantial fame than the 
 bishop's as a champion of Catholicism. John Benedict 
 Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo, wrote his life and 
 marvellous adventures under the name of the " Scottish 
 Capuchin" II Cappucchine Scozzese; who, returning 
 to his native towers at Monymusk, there executed mirac- 
 ulous conversions, for the particulars of which we refer, as 
 official people say, to the document itself. It was trans- 
 lated into several languages, dramatised, and acted ; and 
 an abridgment of it by Lord Hailes, written with his 
 usual dry succinctness, is to be found among his bio- 
 graphical tracts. 
 
 The shortness of the period during which Episcopacy 
 was the Establishment in Scotland after the Reformation, 
 afforded few opportunities for its clerical members con- 
 necting themselves with foreign countries, before the 
 period when Scotland became less conspicuous for the 
 migration of her sons. Yet the Episcopal Church showed 
 the Continent more than one eminent ecclesiastic. Pat- 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 293 
 
 rick Adamson, a man highly unpopular in ecclesiastical 
 politics, in his latter days wrote some clever Latin poems 
 at Bourges, to beguile his time while in hiding from the 
 slaughterers of St Bartholomew. Dr John Forbes, of 
 Corse, whose 'Tractatus de Simonia,' and other works, 
 in two portly folios, are an element in every complete 
 theological library, left his paternal acres in Aberdeen- 
 shire, and for some years wandered among the univer- 
 sities of France, Germany, and Holland, passing so far 
 north as Upsala. He married at Middelburg a Dutch 
 wife, bearing the name of Soete Roose Boom, which, 
 being translated, means, it appears, Sweet Rose Tree. 
 
 Spottiswood, the historian-archbishop, adapted himself 
 so much to the customs of Paris, that he was under the 
 accusation of having there attended Mass. The good 
 Bishop Leighton lived long enough in France to speak 
 like a Frenchman. Burnet, who belongs more to litera- 
 ture and history than to theology, had more to do than 
 he desired with the other side of the Channel. He is 
 not the only man whom Scotland sent, with the advan- 
 tages of foreign intercourse and training, to get prefer- 
 ment in the English Church. One very eminent instance 
 may be taken. Patrick Young (Patricius Junius), the 
 great Biblical critic, who introduced the Alexandrian 
 version of the Bible to the learned world, lived much 
 in Paris, and corresponded with fellow-labourers in Hol- 
 land and Germany. 
 
 As these sketches profess to be entirely free from the 
 despotism of systematic arrangement, and licensed to 
 wander at their own sweet will, I feel that I should 
 compromise the privileges claimed for them were I to 
 continue to arrange them, as the last groups have been, 
 under religious or professional denominations. Let us, 
 then, before running into any more classifications, take 
 a brief ramble into the republic of letters. First, I shall 
 call up Florence Wilson, or Florentius Volusinus, who 
 commemorates with pleasant pensiveness his early child- 
 hood on the banks of the Lossie, while he writes on the 
 consolations of philosophy in the old cathedral town of 
 Carpentras, of which he is as much a denizen as if his 
 
294 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 ancestors had lived there for many generations. A 
 learned and accurate scholar, who has done much to 
 clear pathways through the jungles of this kind of litera- 
 ture, gives the following pleasant account of some of the 
 steps upwards in Wilson's career : 
 
 " He prosecuted his studies in the University of Paris, 
 and was there employed in the capacity of tutor to a son of 
 Cardinal Wolsey's brother. Such an appointment might 
 have led to much higher honour and emolument ; but the 
 death of the cardinal, which took place in the year 1530, 
 compelled him to search for new employment. Another 
 cardinal, Jean de Lorraine, encouraged him in the pur- 
 suit of learning by assigning to him an annual pension, 
 of which, however, the amount was probably small, nor 
 does it appear to have been punctually paid. He like- 
 wise obtained the favour of Jean du Bellay, Bishop of 
 Paris; and in the year 1534, when that prelate was em- 
 ployed on an embassy to Rome, Wilson was included in 
 his train, and had proceeded as far as Avignon, when he 
 was arrested by a malady which compelled him to re- 
 linquish his engagement. In addition to his bodily ail- 
 ments, he had now to complain of the exhausted state of 
 his purse ; and thus he was again left to seek a new path 
 of preferment. From two of his letters which have been 
 preserved in the Cotton Library, we learn that he had 
 visited London, and was personally acquainted with 
 several persons of distinction. One of these letters, 
 written in his native language, is somewhat mutilated 
 by fire, and is without the superscription; it seems, 
 however, to have been addressed to Thomas Cromwell, 
 subsequently Earl of Essex, and is chiefly occupied with 
 details of ecclesiastical proceedings in Paris. In the 
 other, written in Latin and addressed to Dr Starkey, he 
 sends his salutations to Cromwell, then Secretary of 
 State, as well as to Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford; 
 and the famous Bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner, 
 is there mentioned as one particularly interested in the 
 writer. Both letters are undated; but, from internal 
 evidence, this last appears to have been written in the 
 year 1535. He alludes to his having been in London 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 295 
 
 during the preceding summer ; and he reminds his cor- 
 respondent Starkey, that while they were walking in the 
 garden of Antonius Bonvisius, he recommended the city 
 of Carpentras, in the south of France, as a place where 
 he might find a pleasant retreat. As he was anxious to 
 visit Italy, he did not at that time feel inclined to avail 
 himself of this suggestion ; but after he had proceeded 
 as far as Lyons, where he met his friend Bonvisius, and 
 was still doubtful whither he should direct his course, he 
 resolved that he would at least take Carpentras in his 
 route. When he arrived at Avignon, he received infor- 
 mation that the bishop of the diocese was anxious to find 
 some person properly qualified to teach the public school 
 of Carpentras. This prelate was the celebrated Cardinal 
 Sadoleto, who was himself distinguished for his Latinity; 
 a qualification which had recommended him to the office 
 of Apostolical Secretary under two successive pontiffs. 
 Wilson lost no time in proceeding to the episcopal resi- 
 dence, where he experienced a very gracious reception. 
 The cardinal was one evening engaged in his studies, 
 when a servant announced that a stranger, wearing a 
 gown, requested permission to wait upon him. The 
 wayfaring scholar was admitted without delay; and on 
 being questioned as to his country, his profession, and 
 the occasion of his visit, he answered with so much 
 modesty of sentiment and propriety of expression, that 
 Sadoleto was immediately impressed with a most favour- 
 able opinion of his character and attainments. His nice 
 ear was gratified with Wilson's classical Latinity; nor 
 was he a little surprised on learning that his visitor was 
 a native of a country so wild and remote as Scotland. 
 At an early hour of the following morning, having sent 
 for one of the chief magistrates of the city, together with 
 another functionary apparently concerned in the manage- 
 ment of the school, he communicated to them his strong 
 prepossessions in favour of this candidate. He had re- 
 quested his nephew, Paolo Sadoleto, to inquire in Italy 
 for a person duly qualified to undertake the charge of the 
 school ; but he was now persuaded that he could scarcely 
 expect to find in an Italian the same modesty, prudence, 
 
296 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 and propriety of address and demeanour. Being invited 
 to dine at the cardinal's with the chief magistrates and 
 other guests, he conducted himself with so much de- 
 corum, and displayed so much knowledge, as well as 
 modesty, in the discussion of some questions of natural 
 philosophy, that the patrons of the school thought it 
 unnecessary to seek any other evidence of his qualifi- 
 cations. The magistrates immediately took him aside, 
 and he was appointed master of Carpentras school, with 
 an annual salary of seventy crowns. When we estimate 
 the comparative value of money, this may be considered 
 as no despicable sum ; and it may be supposed that he 
 was entitled to some additional emolument arising from 
 fees. Sadoleto was much gratified to find that he was 
 qualified to initiate his pupils in the Greek language." x 
 
 How pleasant it would be if we could trace a few others 
 in this way, and see the steps by which they mounted 
 upwards ! There was a James Martin, who was professor 
 at Rome and Turin, and remembered his far-off Scots 
 home among the wooded valleys of Dunkeld, as Wilson 
 remembered his in Morayshire who would perhaps have 
 afforded as distinctive a narrative had we now any memo- 
 rial of him beyond his book professing to clear up physio- 
 logical difficulties which still puzzle the learned. 2 
 
 William Hegate and Robert Balfour were simulta- 
 neously professors at Bordeaux ; and it is of them that 
 Vinetus is supposed to write to Buchanan when he says, 
 " This school is rarely without a Scotsman ; it has two at 
 
 1 Irving's ' Lives of Scotish Writers,' i. 24-28. There is a great 
 question, by the way, on which I shall not venture to enter as a com- 
 batant whether we should say Scottish or Scotch. A third method 
 is Scots ; and I fear my own principles are so loose that all three 
 forms may be found in these pages. The learned author just quoted 
 took up his testimony upon a different form from any of these 
 Scotish, with one t ; and from some little knowledge of him, I be- 
 lieve he would have suffered martyrdom in the cruelest form that 
 the genius of torture could devise, rather than assent to the double t 
 or the ch. 
 
 2 ' Jacobi Martini Scoti Dunkeldensis Philosophise Professoris pub- 
 lici in Academia Taurinensi de Prima Simplicium et Concretorum 
 Corporum Generatione Disputatio.' 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 297 
 
 present one of whom is professor of philosophy, the other 
 of the Greek language and mathematics : both are good, 
 honest, and learned men, and enjoy the favourable 
 opinion of their auditors." The same university was 
 for some time the theatre of the celebrity of John Cam- 
 eron, whose life, as written by Bayle, affords us an excel- 
 lent specimen of the vagrant Scottish scholar, filling 
 successively a chair in half the universities of western 
 Europe. The great sceptic records the astonishment 
 of the French, who found in this youth, raw from Glas- 
 gow, " que dans un age si peu avancd, il pariait en Grec 
 sur le champ avec la meme facilite', et avec la meme 
 purete', que d'autres font en Latin." Sir Robert Ayton, 
 whose monument is in Westminster Abbey, wrote many 
 of his sweet poems in France, and frequented several of 
 the German courts. David Panther whose 'Literse 
 Regum Scotorum ' were thought worthy of publication 
 at a period comparatively late, on account of the excel- 
 lence of their Latinity was a wanderer abroad, and 
 acquired a knowledge of foreign countries which marked 
 him out as a proper representative of the Crown of Scot- 
 land at the French Court. 
 
 It would be unpardonable to omit William Bellenden, 
 of whose life scarcely anything is known, save that he 
 spent the greater part of his days in Paris, where he is 
 spoken of as an advocate, and a professor of humanity. 
 His works are remarkable for their pure Latinity and 
 their searching analytical criticism of the indications 
 of ancient life and government afforded by the classical 
 writers, and especially by Cicero. A set of his tracts, 
 clustered together under the title of ' De Statu, 7 was re- 
 edited by Samuel Parr, with a Latin preface in his usual 
 style, bristling with Greek quotations, and allusions to 
 Foxius and Northius. The chief object of the publication 
 was to show how largely Conyers Middleton, in his * Life 
 of Cicero,' was indebted to Bellenden. 
 
 Every one is familiar with the ' Argenis ' of Barclay. 
 Many have been tempted by the aspect of the compact 
 Elzevier in the book-stalls to transfer it to their library. 
 Few, however, notwithstanding the eulogium of Cowper, 
 
298 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 have had intrepidity enough to read this dense little 
 romance. Prose works of fiction have never had a strong 
 popular vitality. The 'Telemaque' has lived under the 
 protection of the birch as a useful schoolbook ; and, by 
 the way, in its turnings of historical allegory it has more 
 analogy to the 'Argenis' than any other book I could 
 point to. It remains to be seen whether Scott is to 
 retain his fame on higher sanctions, but the fate of his 
 predecessors is unpromising. Richardson, over whose 
 melting pages our grandmothers cried their eyes dry 
 and feverish, is now voted a bore. Even Fielding and 
 Smollett, though respected as wit and humorist, are 
 rather shunned ; and the ' Mysteries of Udolpho ' no 
 longer draw the evening circle nearer to the fire, their 
 hearts beating with the terror of mysterious sounds in 
 dark corners. It requires some reading to inform one 
 that the world was once mad about 'Artimenes, or the 
 Grand Cyrus.' Hence we can form little notion of the 
 popularity to which the ' ArgemV was entitled as a ro- 
 mance. But it has its merits of another kind worth 
 looking into. The hints it gives about the designs of 
 the Guises have been already referred to. 1 The strange 
 complexity and rather tiresome absence of all touches of 
 nature in the narrative arise from the peculiarity and dif- 
 ficulty of the task which the author had set before himself. 
 He resolved to leave a transcript of his insight into the 
 secret politics of the time without saying anything which 
 could be taken hold of as dangerous criticism and reve- 
 lation. Accordingly, he told a long story as far apart 
 from ordinary or even possible human events as possible. 
 And yet in his characters the critic has gradually worked 
 out Henry III. of France, Henry IV. and his father of 
 Navarre, Philip II. of Spain, Queen Elizabeth, the Guises 
 including the Duke of Mayenne and their follower Vil- 
 leroi, Bethlehem Gabor prince of Transylvania, Cardinal 
 Barberini, who became Pope Urban VIII. , John Calvin, 
 and many minor political celebrities. Still many people 
 prefer his secondary work, called the * Satyricon Euphor- 
 
 1 See ante, p, 118. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 299 
 
 mionis/ on account of its curious notices of the condition 
 of Britain. 
 
 A question here arises, Was Barclay a Scot? One's 
 conscience might easily be set at rest by the brief state- 
 ment in the Life prefixed to the best edition of his 
 works, that he was born at Aberdeen. 1 My own belief 
 is that he was born while his parents sojourned in 
 France. He came, however, of an Aberdeenshire family, 
 the same whose old fortalice of Towie enabled the Rus- 
 sian general to take the name of Barclay de Tolly. 
 
 The father of the author of ' Argenis,' William Barclay, 
 was born in Aberdeenshire, in the year 1546. After 
 sitting at the feet of Cujacius, and learning from Don- 
 nellus and Contius, he became professor of civil law in 
 the University of Pontamousson in Lorraine. He wrote 
 some jurisprudential works, chiefly with a political ten- 
 dency, and might have been cited among the opponents 
 of Buchanan. 
 
 William Barclay and his contemporary Peter Ayrault 
 had each a contest with the Jesuits, which has associated 
 them with each other in the amusing pages of Menage. 
 It was the practice of the Society of Jesus to look out for 
 young men of high ability and absorb them out of the 
 world into their own order to fight as spiritual soldiers, 
 with a grasp on their absolute devotedness stronger even 
 than that which held the priesthood at large ; for while 
 these had no wife and offspring to divide their affections, 
 the youth enlisted in the army of Loyola were children so 
 obtained and trained as to be ignorant of their ancestry, 
 their parentage, and the very existence of their family. 
 It was the policy on which the Egyptian Government 
 embodied the Mamelukes. It was thus that Peter 
 Ayrault lost his son Rend He made all Europe ring 
 with his lamentations. As the Lieutenant-Criminel of 
 Angers, he was notorious for the severe discharge of his 
 duties, but he stretched them to their utmost against the 
 Jesuit brethren in vain. He used every engine which 
 
 1 "Natus est Aberdoniae ex antiquissima Scotorum familia." 
 Leyden edition, 1664. 
 
300 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 connection, political influence, and sympathy with his wild 
 grief could move, but all was naught. He published 
 a book for helping the youth, should he alight on it, to 
 find his father, to whom he was implored to reveal 
 himself and return. He executed a public document 
 of paternal disownment. Everything was in vain ; and 
 whether his offspring was dragging out a life of miserable 
 drudgery, or was high in fame and power as an illustrious 
 member of his powerful order, the father never knew, 
 though the industry of subsequent biographers revealed 
 the story of Rene's life, and found it to be a rather com- 
 monplace one. 1 
 
 Barclay's affair with the Jesuits was the antithesis of 
 this. They wanted his son John, but the father put them 
 at defiance. After both toil and danger, he was just suc- 
 cessful in keeping the author of the ' Argenis ' for the ordi- 
 nary world. The stories, however, were parallel in showing 
 the great power of the new Order. Barclay was driven 
 from his lucrative office in Lorraine, where the Duke, 
 who had warmly befriended him, became either afraid or 
 unwilling to back him against his powerful enemies. A 
 time of retribution was recorded, though the sufferers did 
 not see it. The wrongs of the father bereaved, and of 
 the father oppressed, went forth together into the world 
 of letters, and had their weight in that accumulating 
 storm of fear and hatred which crushed the Order. 
 
 The elder Barclay naturally suggests to us a special 
 class of authors, the jurists. Some of them have already 
 been spoken of for their labours in other spheres. As a 
 practical lawyer, Robert Reid, the second President of 
 the Court of Session, was enabled to adjust the procedure 
 in that tribunal to the foreign model on which it was 
 founded, by much sojourning among the Italian and 
 French lawyers. He was a patron of letters, and de- 
 
 1 It is curious to observe how, in the byways of literature as in 
 those of social life, some slight chain of connection is found between 
 persons and events naturally distinct and disconnected. Ayrault 
 was a pupil of the Barnaby Brisson whose fate has been mentioned 
 in connection with the adventures of another Scotsman. See ante, 
 p. 192. 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 3<D1 
 
 sired to infuse new intellectual blood into his country, 
 by inducing eminent foreign scholars to reside in Scot- 
 land. He brought with him from France, and placed as 
 a monk in the retired monastery of Kinloss, Ferrerius the 
 Piedmontese, who continued Boece's History. 
 
 Among his contemporaries several Scotsmen held the 
 chairs of jurisprudence in the Continental universities. 
 Edward Henryson, who wrote a tract ' De Jurisdictione,' 
 preserved in Meerman's * Thesaurus/ and who was em- 
 ployed in editing and consolidating the Scottish Acts in 
 the reign of James VI., was for some time a professor of 
 civil law at Bourges. Peter Bissat was professor of canon 
 law in Bologna, and wrote some works, jurisprudential 
 and literary, with which I profess no acquaintance be- 
 yond the titles attributed to them in works of reference. 
 William Wellwood, of a family afterwards distinguished 
 in literature, and in many other paths to eminence, pub- 
 lished at Porto Ferrara a work on International Law, as 
 connected with ocean rights one of the books which 
 helped Grotius to frame his great system. He published 
 at Leyden, before the end of the sixteenth century, a 
 parallel between the French and the Roman law. Henry 
 Scrimgeour, of the house of Dudhope, gained a high 
 fame among Continental civilians by his Greek version 
 of the ' Constitutions Novelise ' : he lived the greater 
 part of his days at Augsburg and Geneva. Sir Thomas 
 Craig, the great feudalist, though he lived a good deal 
 in Scotland, drew the resources of his work from his 
 intercourse with the Continental jurists, the next genera- 
 tion of whom referred to it as an authority. 
 
 Sir John Skene, a lawyer at the height of his fame 
 about the turning of the seventeenth into the eighteenth 
 century, performed a more enlightened task than that of 
 the commentators or the civilians. He was the first in 
 any systematic way to collect the Acts of Parliament and 
 other native laws of his own country. But he had been 
 a considerable wanderer in most parts of Europe, and 
 recalled the reminiscences of his foreign experiences 
 evidently with enjoyment. In a passage in his Dictionary 
 of Law Terms, which I remember reading long ago, but 
 
3O2 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 cannot now find, he refers, as an example of something 
 he has to say, to the great Alpine horn on which the 
 Swiss shepherds seem to have performed in his day, as 
 every traveller there knows that they do in this ; and in 
 reference to the customs of pedlars, he refers to his ex- 
 perience in Poland. Sir James Melville wanted to take 
 Skene as his legal adviser when he went to adjust the 
 terms of the marriage of King James with Anne of 
 Denmark, saying of him "that he was best acquainted 
 with the condition of the Germans, and could mak them 
 lang harangues in Latin, and was a gude true stout man 
 lyk a Dutch man." 1 Were this an exhaustive catalogue 
 of the Scottish jurists, it would be necessary to include 
 in it the eccentric Mark Alexander Boyd, the friend of 
 Cujacius, who found himself, although a Protestant, fight- 
 ing against his own friends. Drummond of Hawthornden, 
 too, studied civil law at Bourges, with the intention of 
 practising on his return ; but Themis was not the muse in 
 whose train he was destined to march. 2 
 
 1 Memoirs, p. 366. 
 
 2 I am loath entirely to pass over one of Sir Thomas Urquhart's 
 favourites ; but he comes up in such a questionable shape that I must 
 shove him into a note, lest he should render the rest of the company 
 questionable by his companionship. 
 
 "There was another, called Doctor Seaton not a doctor of 
 divinity, but one that had his degrees at Padua, and was doctor 
 utriusque juris ; for whose pregnancy of wit, and vast skill in all 
 the mysteries of the civil and canon laws, being accounted one of the 
 ablest men that ever breathed, he was most heartily desired by Pope 
 Urbane the Eighth to stay at Rome ; and, the better to encourage 
 him thereto, made him chief professor of the Sapience (a colledge in 
 Rome so called), where, although he lived a pretty while with great 
 honour and reputation, yet at last (as he was a proud man), falling 
 at some odds with il collegia Romano, the supreamest seat of the 
 Jesuites, and that wherein the general of that numerous society hath 
 his constant residence, he had the courage to adventure coping with 
 them where they were strongest, and in matter of any kind of learn- 
 ing to give defiance to their greatest scholars ; which he did do with 
 such a height of spirit, and in such a lofty and bravashing humour, 
 that (although there was never yet that ecclesiastical incorporation 
 wherein there was so great universality of literature or multiplicity 
 of learned men) he nevertheless, misregarding what estimation they 
 were in with others, and totally reposing on the stock or basis of his 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 303 
 
 Having got again into the groove of "the departments," 
 medicine should have its share. The well-earned renown 
 of Scotland as a medical school belongs to that later 
 period when she was enabled to keep her distinguished 
 sons at home. If one were very anxious to catch at 
 
 own knowledge, openly gave it out, that if those Teatinos (his choler 
 not suffering him to give them their own name of Jesuites) would 
 offer any longer to continue in vexing him with their frivolous chat 
 and captious argumentations, to the impugning of his opinions (and 
 yet in matters of religion they were both of one and the same faith), 
 he would (like a Hercules amongst so many myrmidons) fall in with- 
 in the very midst of them, so besquatter them on all sides, and, with 
 the granads of his invincible arguments, put the braines of all and 
 each of them in such a fire, that they should never be able (pump as 
 ihey would) to find in all the celluls thereof one drop of either reason 
 or learning wherewith to quench it. 
 
 " This unequal undertaking of one against so many, whereof some 
 were greater courtiers with his Papal Holiness then he, shortened 
 his abode at Rome ; and thereafter did him so much prejudice in his 
 travels through Italy and France, that when at any time he became 
 scarce of money (to which exigent his prodigality often brought him), 
 he could not, as before, expect an ayuda de costa (as they call it) or 
 viaticum from any prince of the territories through which he was to 
 pass, because the channels of their liberality were stopped by the 
 rancour and hatred of his conventual adversaries. 
 
 ' ' When, nevertheless, he was at the lowest ebb of his fortune, his 
 learning, and incomparable facility in expressing anything with all 
 the choicest ornaments of, and incident varieties to, the perfection of 
 the Latin elocution, raised him to the dignity of being possessed with 
 the chair of Lipsius, and professing humanity (in Italy called buone 
 letere] in the famous University of Lovan : yet (like Mercury) unapt 
 to fix long in any one place, deserting Lovan, he repaired to Paris, 
 where he was held in exceeding great reputation for his good parts, 
 and so universally beloved that both laicks and churchmen, courtiers 
 and scholars, gentlemen and merchants, and almost all manner of 
 people willing to learn some new thing or other (for, as says Aristotle, 
 every one is desirous of knowledge), were ambitious of the enjoy- 
 ment of his company, and ravished with his conversation. For 
 besides that the matter of his discourse was strong, sententious, and 
 witty, he spoke Latin as if he had been another Livy or Salustius ; 
 nor, had he been a native of all the three countryes of France, Italy, 
 and Germany, could he have exprest himself (as still he did when 
 he had occasion) with more selected variety of words, nimbler volu- 
 bility of utterance, or greater dexterity for tone, phrase, and accent 
 in all the three languages thereto belonging. 
 
 ' ' I have seen him circled about at the Louvre with a ring of 
 
304 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 names, we might claim one of the early lords of the 
 fantastic science, which was the medical science of its 
 day, in "the wondrous Michael Scott." But within the 
 period of more authentic biography, if not of more legiti- 
 mate science, we are not unrepresented abroad in this 
 department. Duncan Liddel, the son of a respectable 
 citizen in Aberdeen, where he was born in the middle of 
 the sixteenth century, ambitious for a wider field than 
 his native town afforded, took his staff in his hand and 
 wandered to Frankfurt- on -the -Oder, where he found a 
 friend and guide in his countryman, John Craig, profes- 
 sor of logic and mathematics. After trials of his fortune 
 in several places, he became professor of physic in the 
 University of Helmstadt, where he was revered as the 
 founder and maintainer of a distinguished medical school. 
 His professional works had a great European reputation 
 in their day. Henry Blackwood, the brother of the vin- 
 dicator of Queen Mary, was dean of the faculty of 
 medicine in the University of Paris. Peter Lowe, who 
 
 French lords and gentlemen, who hearkned to his discourse with so 
 great attention, that none of them, so long as he was pleased to speak, 
 would offer to interrupt him ; to the end that the pearles falling from 
 his mouth might be the more orderly congested in the several 
 treasures of their judgements : the ablest advocates, barristers, or 
 counsellors at law of all the parlement of Paris, even amongst those 
 that did usually plead en la chambre doree, did many times visit him 
 at his house, to get his advice in hard debatable points. He came 
 also to that sublime pitch of good diction even in the French tongue, 
 that there having past, by vertue of a frequent intercourse, several 
 missives in that idiom betwixt him and le sieur de Balzak, who by 
 the quaintest romancealists of France, and daintiest complementers 
 of all its lushious youth, was almost uncontrollably esteemed in 
 eloquence to have surpassed Ciceron ; the straine of Seaton's letters 
 was so high, the fancy so pure, the words so well connected, and the 
 cadence so just, that Balzak (infinitely taken with its fluent yet con- 
 cise oratory), to do him the honour that was truly due to him, most 
 lovingly presented him with a golden pen, in acknowledgment of 
 Seaton's excelling him both in rhetorick and the art of perswa- 
 sion ; which gift proceeding from so great an orator, and for a su- 
 pereminency in that faculty wherein himself, without contradic- 
 tion, was held the chiefest of this and all former ages that ever 
 were born in the French nation, could not chuse but be accounted 
 honourable." 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 305 
 
 wrote a book no less comprehensive than 'The whole 
 Course of Chirurgie' in 1597, styled himself "Arellian 
 Doctor in the Faculty of Chirurgie in Paris," and became 
 physician in ordinary to Henry IV. A life of Marc 
 Duncan, who was a practising physician at Saumur, will 
 be found in Moreri. He obtained so high a professional 
 reputation that King James I. of England endeavoured 
 to bring him to St James's, but he had married and 
 settled himself in France. He wrote a pamphlet, taking 
 the bold and merciful view of the celebrated persecution 
 of Urban Grandier, the events connected with which 
 came under his immediate notice but he is chiefly re- 
 membered as the author of the ' Institutiones Logicse.' 
 He was Principal of the University of Saumur. Another 
 multifariously endowed Scottish physician, Walter Donald- 
 son, an Aberdonian, is commemorated at length by Bayle. 
 In the University of Sedan he was professor of physics, 
 ethics, and Greek. Dr Pitcairn, now better known as a 
 sarcastic Jacobite author than as a scientific physician, 
 was a professor in Leyden before he took up his residence 
 in Edinburgh. 
 
 Patrick Anderson, a physician, born some time after 
 the middle of the sixteenth century, acted a part very 
 similar in externals to that of a quack vendor of pills in 
 the nineteenth. He advertised as a sovereign remedy for 
 all ills his angelic grains or pills. It may be pleaded in 
 his defence, however, that his advertisement was in the 
 form of a Latin exposition. It was probably not very 
 extensively read in its own day, and is now so rare that a 
 copy of it is worth much more than its weight in gold. 1 
 He professed to bring the art of compounding these pills 
 from Venice. Probably no patent medicine in this coun- 
 try has lived so long. Its vitality is connected with im- 
 portant constitutional adjustments. In consequence of 
 the formidable protestations by the House of Commons 
 against monopolies, the Act of 1623 was passed for abol- 
 ishing them. This Act, by reserving the power to grant 
 
 1 ' Grana Angelica, hoc est pilularum hujus nominis insignis 
 utilitas,' &c. 1635. 
 
 U 
 
306 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 for fourteen years a monopoly to inventors, founded the 
 law of patents. Now Anderson had got a patent for his 
 pills before the passing of the Act, and it was not liable 
 to the abbreviation. It still, I presume, exists. I re- 
 member an old " land " in the High Street of Edinburgh, 
 dedicated to the sale of " Anderson's Pills," a popular 
 medicine in the early part of the present century. There 
 was a portrait of Anderson on the wall, which must have 
 been durably painted on hard materials, for after it was 
 neglected it required several years of the east winds and 
 drifting showers of Edinburgh to obliterate it ; and many 
 persons may still remember how odd it was to see a por- 
 trait of a man with a high forehead and peaked beard, in 
 the costume of the age of Shakespeare, and not unlike the 
 usual portraits of him, staring out like a family portrait in 
 a dining room, from the grey cold walls of the High Street. 
 I happen to know that, some twenty years ago, the pro- 
 perty in " Anderson's Pills " was litigated in the Court of 
 Session as a question of hereditary succession under an 
 entail. By the law of Scotland, the privilege of making 
 them would descend like landed property or any heredi- 
 tary dignity. 1 
 
 One of the Barclays was a physician, and appears to 
 have lived about half his life abroad. The editor of 
 one of his little medical tracts says he had it "from a 
 sober person of good note, to whom the gentleman who 
 had it out of Lipsius's mouth told it," how that great 
 scholar said, " if he were dying he knew no person on 
 earth he would leave his pen to but the Doctor." This 
 Barclay, influenced by devotion to scientific truth, was so 
 disloyal as to publish a tract on the many beneficent in- 
 fluences of tobacco, though the weed had been solemnly 
 condemned by his monarch in his celebrated ' Counter- 
 blast.' Barclay tells us, in his ' Nepenthes, or Virtues of 
 Tobacco/ that " it hath certain melifluous delicacy which 
 deliteth the senses and spirits of man with a mindful 
 oblivion, in so much that it maketh and induceth the for- 
 
 1 During the printing of this, and before final correction, I have 
 noticed a fresh advertisement of " Anderson's Pills." 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 307 
 
 getting of all sorrows and miseries. There is such hos- 
 tilitie between it and melancholic, that it is the only 
 medicament in the world ordained by nature to entertain 
 good companie." And in the climax of his laudation he 
 says epigrammatically, " I durst be bold to say that to- 
 bacco is the mercure of vegetals, and mercure is the 
 tobacco of minerals." He was one of the earliest of scien- 
 tific Scotchmen who ventured to tell his science in the 
 vernacular language. He wrote poems and literary criti- 
 cism, but these works he would not trust to the rude 
 medium of his native tongue, so they are conserved in 
 Latin. His poems may be found in that collection of 
 which it is said of Samuel Johnson, that although he knew 
 it to be of Scotland, he admitted that it would be a credit 
 to the scholarship of any country the ' Delicise Poetarum 
 Scotorum.' 
 
 This Barclay, like the rest of his name, including the 
 apologist and the pugilist, was of Aberdeen, and so was 
 the Davidson whose patriotic ebullitions, rising up in the 
 midst of his alchymy and astrology, have been already 
 spoken of. He calls himself " nobilis Scotus," but had 
 he been of any worshipful family he would have had local 
 celebrity, which he has not. He says that he began his 
 great book on philosophical medicine when enjoying a 
 peaceful and rather important position as Curator of the 
 Jardin des Plantes of Paris, while he held the title of 
 Physician to the King of France. He tells how he con- 
 tinued at his work while tossed about in voyages on the 
 German Ocean and the Baltic and the Euxine, the Elbe, 
 the Oder, the Bug, and the Dniester, through the roar of 
 cannon, the tumult of advancing and retreating armies, 
 and all the miseries, dangers, and difficulties of war, until 
 he again found patronage and a peaceful retreat with 
 John Casimir, the King of Poland. Among professional 
 criticisms on his works it is noted that he denies the 
 existence of the plica polonaica, a horrible and incurable 
 disease, in which the blood passes out through the hair 
 acting as small ducts ; and his testimony is considered 
 the more valuable that he lived in Poland and Russia, 
 where the malady is reported to prevail. Of him and 
 
308 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 another native of the same district Sir Thomas Urquhart 
 says 
 
 "The excellency of Doctor William Davidson in al- 
 chymy above all the men now living in the world, whereof 
 by his wonderful experiments he giveth daily proof, al- 
 though his learned books published in the Latin tongue 
 did not evidence it, meriteth well to have his name re- 
 corded in this place j and after him, Dr Leeth (though in 
 time before him), designed in Paris, where he lived, by the 
 name of Letu ; who, as in the practice and theory of 
 medicine he excelled all the doctors of France, so in tes- 
 timony of the approbation he had for his exquisiteness in 
 that faculty, he left behind him the greatest estate of any 
 of that profession then ; as the vast means possessed by 
 his sons and daughters there as yet can testify." 
 
 Having thus got somehow among Aberdonians, it occurs 
 that a good way of winding up this chapter with some 
 kind of completeness would be to settle down on the dis- 
 trict to which these belong, and offer something approach- 
 ing to a full enumeration of the more remarkable of those 
 born in or connected with it who represented their coun- 
 try in foreign lands. And here aptly enough comes up 
 the name of one who, like Barclay, was a physician, a 
 poet, and an Aberdonian Arthur Johnston. His literary 
 characteristics have a curious parallel with those of Au- 
 sonius, who was a physician of Bordeaux. Both seem to 
 have turned aside from the ordinary topics of heroic or 
 lyric poetry to indulge in genial reminiscences of the men 
 or the places they were personally interested in. Among 
 Johnston's epigrams, as he called them, though many of 
 them stray out of that term in its strict sense, one dwells 
 on the delights of his own dear paternal home of Caskie- 
 ben, on the banks of the little river Urie or Urius. Here 
 he notices a phenomenon which doubtless enlivened many 
 an evening ramble, that at the time of equinox the domain 
 is touched by the shadow of the hill of Benochie the 
 same hill that is commemorated in the beautiful Scotch 
 song 
 
 " I wish I were where Gadie rins, 
 At the back o' Benochie." 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 309 
 
 His reputation is said to have budded at Rome, and 
 his poems touch on friendships with many Continental 
 celebrities. He did much injury to his own fame by his 
 most elaborate work, which was the fruit of a preposterous 
 ambition. George Eglisham, an Englishman, wrote a 
 book to show that Buchanan was an overpraised man, 
 especially as to his version of the Psalms; and for the 
 purpose of proving his case he showed how he could do 
 the thing better by giving a specimen of his own handi- 
 work in the translation of the io4th Psalm. A contro- 
 versy arose, in which Johnston, with others, poured abun- 
 dance of contumely on Eglisham's effort. But while ex- 
 posing another's incapacity for such a flight, he discovered 
 his own ; and actually set about not merely a specimen, 
 as Eglisham had given but a complete rival version to 
 Buchanan's Psalms. Here, of course, there was no op- 
 portunity for awarding distinctive merits to the two efforts, 
 and pronouncing how far each was " good of its kind." 
 Johnston challenged Buchanan upon every line, otherwise 
 he had no excuse for offering to the world a different one. 
 Each was in a manner chained to the other, and the 
 stronger would prevail throughout. But in the very 
 method in which he set about his work he acknowledged 
 the presence of a master ; for while Buchanan revels with 
 a sort of luxurious ease in all varieties of measure, as if 
 each came to him in companionship with the tone and 
 tenor of the special psalm, Johnston nailed himself down 
 to the hexameter and pentameter couplet. There was an 
 exception the ngih Psalm in which he ran over the 
 gamut of Latin metre, as if to show that he could do so. 
 But he is not without his champions. The Dutch are 
 said to have preferred him to Buchanan. Hebrew schol- 
 ars say he is a more faithful translator, showing great skill 
 in expressing Biblical conditions without departing from 
 the course of pure Latinity ; and it is easy to see that his 
 work has a more quiet devotional air than the other, re- 
 minding one less of a heathen classic. 
 
 But Johnston's fame was afterwards irretrievably injured 
 in the house of his friends by an attempt to lift him far 
 above his master. This was the doing of a citizen of 
 
3IO THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 London, Mr Auditor Benson, who strove to get into a 
 little niche in the temple of Fame by spending money on 
 the printing of grand editions of great authors. By the 
 bad advice of that William Lauder who charged Milton 
 with plagiarism, and forged passages in confirmation of 
 the charge, Benson sent forth no less than three fine 
 editions of Johnston's Ps-alms, accompanied by Lauder's 
 eulogistic proclamations, which far overshot their mark. 
 A long tedious controversy then broke out, and the whole 
 affair brought a shot from the ' Dunciad,' which, in the 
 opinion of the polite world, extinguished Johnston's fame 
 for ever, though aiming at Benson's taste : 
 
 " On two unequal crutches propt he came, 
 Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's name. " 
 
 It is an awful testimony to the despotic power of ruling 
 geniuses, that though a man may have filled a high place 
 in the serviceable literature of his age, and reaped solid 
 rewards in the shape of wealth and honour, yet more than 
 for anything of his own doing he is remembered by pos- 
 terity through some sting from Dryden or Butler. 
 
 "There was an ancient sage philosopher 
 Who had read Alexander Ross over ; " 
 
 and many a sage philosopher has spent his time to less 
 profit. Ross's ' View of all Religions in the World ' is full 
 of matter. It carries the reader over a vast tract of diver- 
 sified knowledge, without leading him through the dreary 
 wastes of discussion to which divines are often addicted ; 
 and the book has a strong claim on collectors, by its 
 quaint biographies and portraits of illustrious fanatics. 
 
 Ross was the neighbour of Arthur Johnston, but long 
 after both were dead their names became associated as 
 fellow-instruments in the perverse machinations of William 
 Lauder. Ross was the author of the l Christiados/ which 
 may safely be pronounced one of the queerest books ever 
 brought into existence. 1 By a marvellous ingenuity he 
 strings together on a new sequence nearly every line that 
 
 1 'Virgilii Evangelisantis Christiados libri xiii., in quibus omnia 
 quse de Domino nostro Jesu Christo in utroque testamento vel dicta 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 311 
 
 Virgil wrote, adapting it sometimes with the change of a 
 word sometimes with no change at all to what may be 
 termed a poetical exposition of Christianity. One could 
 easily suppose that if Virgil has devotees as Horace has, 
 the jingle of this ringing of the changes might drive such 
 a one to insanity. When Lauder brought his charges of 
 plagiarism against Milton, he put Ross forward as one of 
 the pillaged authors ; and certainly in his opening there 
 is a ludicrous incidental similarity to that of ' Paradise 
 Regained.' 1 
 
 From the same root as Arthur came another poet, 
 John Johnston, who, after studying at Aberdeen, is found 
 successively in the universities of Helmstadt and Ros- 
 tock. Gilbert Jack born, says the complimentary Fre- 
 her, in Aberdeen, a place illustrious for the capture of 
 salmon 2 taught philosophy at Herborn and Helmstadt, 
 and became professor of philosophy at the University 
 of Leyden, where he gave forth some disquisitions on 
 physics and metaphysics. John Vaus, whose works on 
 grammar are published by Ascensius, describes the diffi- 
 culties of his journey to Paris to correct the press. 8 Of 
 Robert Baron we do not know even so much, but some 
 of his works on philosophy and divinity were published 
 abroad, and all of them were in the hands of foreign 
 scholars. James Gregory, the discoverer of the reflect- 
 ing telescope, has only to be named : he is qualified for 
 reception into the present company by living at Padua. 
 
 vel prsedicta sunt, altisona Divina Maronis tuba suavissime decantan- 
 tur, inflante Alexandro Rosaso. 
 
 Arma virumque Maro cecinit, nos acta Deumquc, 
 Cedant anna viri, dum loquor acta Dei. 
 
 Roterodami, 1653. 
 
 1 " Die ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena 
 Carmen, et ^Egypto egressus per inhospita saxa 
 Perque domos Arabum vacuas et inania regna 
 Deduxi Abramidas ; at nnnc horrentia Christ! 
 Acta Deumque cano, coeli qui primus ab oris 
 Virginis in laetse gremium descendit," &c. 
 8 In the ' Theatrum Clarorum Virorum. ' 
 
 8 See all that is known of him in Innes's * Sketches of Early 
 Scotch History,' p. 270. 
 
312 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 where he published his quarto on that troublesome ad- 
 justment, the quadrature of the circle. He was married to 
 the daughter of a David Anderson, called, from the multi- 
 plicity of his petty accomplishments, "Davy-do-a'-things ;" 
 and this Davy was a cousin of Alexander Anderson, an- 
 other Aberdonian, who was professor of mathematics in 
 Paris, and the author of a multitude of works on algebra 
 and the other exact sciences which have excited the keen 
 interest of adepts. Of him the unfailing translator of Ra- 
 belais says that he "was, for his abilities in the mathe- 
 matical sciences, accounted the profoundlyest principled 
 of any man of his time : in his studies he plyed hardest 
 the equations of algebra, the speculations of the irrational 
 lines, the proportions of regular bodies, and sections of 
 the cone ; for though he was excellently well skilled in the 
 theory of the planets and astronomy, the opticks, catop- 
 tricks, dioptricks, the orthographical, stereographical and 
 schemographical projections ; in cosmography, geogra- 
 phy, trigonometry, and geodesic ; in the staticks, musick, 
 and all other parts or pendicles, sciences, faculties, or arts 
 of or belonging to the disciplines mathematical in gene- 
 ral, or any portion thereof in its essence or dependances : 
 yet taking delight to pry into the greatest difficulties, to 
 soar where others could not reach, and (like another Ar- 
 chimedes) to work wonders by geometry and the secrets 
 of numbers ; and having a body too weak to sustain the 
 vehement intensiveness of so high a spirit, he dyed young, 
 with that respect nevertheless to succeeding ages, that he 
 left behind him a posthumary book, intitled 'Andersoni 
 Opera/ wherein men versed in the subject of the things 
 therein contained will reap great delight and satisfaction." 
 Among the plethoric volumes which slumber in decor- 
 ous old libraries may sometimes be found the bulky 
 Greek grammar of a certain Alexander Scot. 1 We only 
 know personally of him that he wrote certain other 
 books ; that he was an Aberdonian, and that he held a 
 
 1 ' Universa Grammatica Grseca, ex diversis Auctoribus, per 
 Alexandrum Scot, Scotum, J. U. D. Nunc ejusdem auctoris fecunda 
 cura facta politior, et locis necessariis non paucis, auctior. Lugduni, 
 1614.' 
 
THE SCHOLAR AND THE AUTHOR. 313 
 
 judicial office of some kind or other at Carpentras. His 
 grammar, lying like some helmless hulk on the great sea 
 of literature, might probably, on a week or two's careful 
 and exclusive study, give forth some value to the modern 
 inquirer. In its day the book had at least so much 
 vitality as to be brought up on the side of Reuchlin in 
 the controversies about the Erasmian innovations on the 
 pronunciation of the Greek. 
 
 Under associations other than topographical we have 
 already come in contact with several names connected 
 with Aberdeen as Bishop Elphinstone, Hector Boece, 
 Bishop Leslie, Alexander Arbuthnot, Father Innes, 
 Thomas Dempster, the two Chamberses, George Cone 
 and James Laing, Sir John Skene, the Barclays, Gordon 
 of Straloch, the theological Forbeses, and the physicians 
 Duncan Liddel and Walter Donaldson. To go centuries 
 further back to one whose literary fame is entirely of a 
 home cast : John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, the 
 author of the heroic poem called ' The Bruce,' went at 
 least three times to France, for so many times had he 
 letters of safe-conduct to pass through England thither, 
 and one of these declares his purpose to be study. 
 
 Let me conclude this chapter with another patriotic 
 chronicler of his times, not unlike him, though writing in 
 prose, and coming down to that more fortunate era when 
 his patriotism could include England. 
 
 The Burnets, like the Barclays, were a branching 
 family, with many members of more or less distinction, 
 but rooted in this district. Thomas, a physician, the 
 brother of the bishop, wrote medical books, which passed 
 through several Continental presses; but whether he 
 went himself into other lands, or stayed at home, is not 
 known. The bishop's eldest son studied at Leyden, and 
 became Governor of Massachusetts. He had a younger 
 son in some measure eminent in literature ; but whether 
 he qualified for a place here by crossing the Channel I 
 am unable to say. It is of more consequence that a man 
 of such mark as the bishop himself had a good deal to do 
 abroad. Some of his wanderings were on business, and 
 that of a not agreeable kind ; but some of them were for 
 
314 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 enjoyment. His 'Tour in Switzerland, Italy, and Ger- 
 many,' now little known, is a very amusing book, full of 
 sagacious observation. It had the honour rarely con- 
 ferred then on an English book of travels of being 
 translated into German. 1 He was a very distinguished 
 man, and yet somehow his name is seldom mentioned 
 without a slight smile of derision. This cannot be 
 caused by falsities in the foundations of his fame, for 
 they were thoroughly sound. He was steady and brave 
 as a politician, and narrowly escaped the thumbkin 
 or the boots. He was a clear and vivid historian. I 
 have the bad taste to think him a better writer than 
 Clarendon, preferring his distinct unaffected story to the 
 weighty woolsack magniloquence of the chancellor's 
 stately sentences. Of his works on divinity, one at 
 least, the ' Treatise on the Thirty-nine Articles,' has 
 become a standard book. He was a mighty pulpit 
 orator ; and his audience, instead of contemplating with 
 nervous anxiety the increase of the pile of leaves on the 
 left-hand side of the cushion and their corresponding de- 
 crease on the right, felt as if they had lost something 
 when his longest sermon was finished. The world in 
 general is not afflicted with the cynicism that made 
 Paley say of a friend, that he knew nothing against him 
 except that he was a popular preacher ; on the contrary, 
 such an adept is often raised to an elevation too high 
 and giddy for the ordinary understanding to bear steadily. 
 How, then, with all his claims on admiration, has Burnet 
 been somewhat under sneer? It is because he was a 
 meddler in matters that he had no call to interfere with, 
 and incontinent of tongue a gossip and tattler, whose 
 talk filled with dismay the hard, dry, serious persons 
 engaged in games in which fortune and life were the 
 stakes. The world has a desperate prejudice against 
 men of this stamp. Had he been very profligate, or a 
 tyrant, or a traitor, it would have been more easy to 
 assimilate him to the dignity of history. 
 
 1 'Des beruhmten Englischen Theolog., D. Gilbeiti Burnets, 
 durch die Schweiz, Italien, &c., Reise. Leipzig, 1688.' 
 
3*5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SOLDIER. 
 
 THE DUGALD DALGETTYS THE DIVISIONS AT HOME CARRIED OUT 
 ABROAD SCOTSMEN ON BOTH SIDES OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 
 MONRO GREY HEPBURN THE LESLIES THE JACOBITE REFU- 
 GEESTHE KEITH FAMILY THE EARL MARISCHAL THE FIELD- 
 MARSHAL THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR AND FREDERICK THE GREAT- 
 SCOTSMEN IN RUSSIAN ADVENTURES PATRICK GORDON IN SEARCH 
 OF EMPLOYMENT HIS EMINENCE IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE PETER 
 THE GREAT ADMIRAL GREIG. 
 
 THESE chapters are not arranged on any principle of pre- 
 cedence or order among the classes of men who figure in 
 them. We had a good deal of soldiering in the first 
 part of the volume; and now having had an interval of 
 literature, it may be as well to get back to the field, were 
 it only to be rid of the dust of the book-shelves. 
 
 The greater and far the more important portion of the 
 military services of Scotsmen in foreign countries belongs 
 to the history of the Old League, so that this chapter is 
 much shortened by what has been already said. We 
 have seen how in that contest the Scots troops were 
 purified of the taint that attaches to absolutely mercenary 
 soldiers, because they were fighting the sworn enemy of 
 their country on foreign soil. Their successors, who con- 
 tinued to swarm into other countries, could scarcely 
 claim so high a place in the scale of motives ; but even 
 they stood in a higher place than absolute mercenaries, 
 like the Italian condottieri, who were trained to the 
 trade of serving any master who paid them, and killing 
 any persons they were paid to kill, without any question 
 
316 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 as to the religion or the nationality of either side, or the 
 question at issue between them. The Scots generally 
 enjoyed the respectability of being engaged in their own 
 quarrel. The union of the crowns could not entirely 
 obliterate the old feuds, and the contests between the 
 Cavaliers and their opponents were in Scotland tinged 
 by the influence of the old feud with England and the 
 friendship with France. In the next political epoch the 
 Jacobites represented the French party, and the Hanover- 
 ians the English. 
 
 From those who went into foreign battle-fields under 
 such influences the dignity of the old ardent nationality 
 had departed. They were fighting for a party, not for a 
 country, and carried abroad with them the unseemly 
 characteristics of civil strife. Sir Thomas Urquhart, the 
 most delightfully sanguine of authors, is fain to derive 
 consolation from this peculiarity it helps him to the 
 conclusion that the Scots are an unconquered people ; 
 for wherever, in any great battle in the Thirty Years' 
 War, they are beaten on one side, they must, for that 
 very reason, have been victorious on the other. 
 
 It scarcely reconciles one to this theory to recall the 
 powerful picture presented in Scott's Dugald Dalgetty. 
 It is not from an uninstructed or inaccurate hand, for 
 Scott's fictions contain fuller revelations on many fea- 
 tures in the career of his own country than the histories 
 of the gravest and dreariest of her investigators. Severity 
 towards his countrymen is not a charge that can with 
 any sincerity be brought against him ; but if he had his 
 allegiance to nationality, he had also his allegiance to art 
 to give effect to. He had to make a picture he made 
 it without positive departure from the truth; but still 
 Dugald who is not without his virtues either is taken 
 from a rather extreme type of the Scots trooper of the 
 Thirty Years' War. 
 
 I am not, therefore, inclined to accede to the truth 
 and justice of the denunciation put into the mouth of the 
 young Earl of Menteith, when he says, "Shame on the 
 pack of these mercenary swordsmen ! They have made 
 the name of Scot throughout all Europe equivalent to 
 
THE SOLDIER. 317 
 
 that of a pitiful mercenary, who knows neither honour 
 nor principle but his month's pay; who transfers his 
 allegiance from standard to standard at the pleasure of 
 fortune and the highest bidder; and to whose insati- 
 able thirst for plunder and warm quarters we owe much 
 of that civil dissension which is now turning our swords 
 against our own bowels." 
 
 Sir James Turner, it is true, speaks of having imbibed 
 a touch of this spirit in foreign warfare. But even he, 
 though somewhat notorious as a rough-handed and un- 
 scrupulous leader, alludes to it, with regret and penitence, 
 as an error of his youth. " I had swallowed," he says, 
 " without chewing, in Germanic, a very dangerous maxime 
 which militarie men there too much follow, which was, 
 that soe we serve our master honestlie, it is no matter 
 what master we serve." 1 But no vestiges of such lax 
 morality will be found in the ' Expeditions ' of old Robert 
 Monro, whence Scott drew his materials for the character 
 and habits of the Rittmaster. Other defects it has in 
 abundance. The title-page, beginning with " Monro, his 
 expedition with the worthy Scots regiment (called M'Keyes 
 regiment) levied in August 1626 by Sir Ronald M'Key, 
 Lord Rhees, colonel for his Majesty's service of Den- 
 mark, &c. &c.," is of itself a piece of tough and tedious 
 reading. The confusion, ambiguity, and verbose pro- 
 lixity of the narrative, involve the reader in immediate 
 hopelessness, and keep him in perpetual doubt of the 
 period, the persons, and the part of the world to which 
 his attention is called. Far from being the production 
 of an illiterate soldier who despises learning, it is satu- 
 rated in a mass of irrelevant erudition. But it affords fine 
 clear glimpses here and there of the character and habits 
 of the Scottish cavalier of fortune ; and on these Scott 
 has seized with his usual practical sagacity. " Sir," says 
 
 1 ' Memoirs of his own Life and Times,' p. 14. Turner was the 
 author of a very learned book, full of curious information on the 
 antiquities of the art of war and the practice of his own day, called 
 ' Pallas Armata Military Essays of the ancient Grecian, Roman, 
 and Modern Art of War,' written in the years 1670 and 1671, by Sir 
 James Turner, Knight. 
 
318 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 our friend Dugald, "I have been made to stand guard 
 eight hours, being from twelve at noon to eight o'clock of 
 the night, at the palace, armed with back and breast, 
 headpiece and bracelets, being iron to the teeth, in a 
 bitter frost, and the ice was as hard as ever was flint." 
 These words are taken precisely from Monro, with a 
 material alteration to heighten the picture for northern 
 readers, after the example of the Greenland missionary 
 in his description of the place of torment. Instead of a 
 "bitter frost," Monro says "in a hot summer-day, till I 
 was aweary of my life ; " and oddly enough adds, " which 
 ever after made me the more strict in punishing those 
 under my command." So wholesome, we suppose, had 
 he found the lesson. 
 
 But while there are such resemblances and identities 
 as this, we shall search in vain through Monro's prolixi- 
 ties for the greedy and mercenary spirit which is made 
 to inspire the talk of the otherwise single-minded and 
 honourable soldado^ as if it were the current slang of his 
 trade, which he could not help mechanically imbibing. 
 Monro has a thorough, and perhaps a rather ludicrous, 
 sense of the worth of himself and his comrades. He 
 speaks of " my Lord Spynie being present with his regi- 
 ment, consisting of brave and valorous officers, being all 
 worthy cavaliers of noble descent and of good families, 
 having action, valour, and breeding answerable to their 
 charges : they were desirous to gain honour and credit 
 against a powerful enemy with whom they were engaged." 
 " It is the property of our nation," he says, " an army 
 being near, in time of alarm to be in readiness before 
 any other nation." And when Stralsund obtains Sir 
 Alexander Leslie for a governor, instead of luxuriating, 
 after Dalgetty's manner, in a contemplation of that for- 
 tunate soldier's privileges and allowances, he enlarges on 
 the special blessing bestowed on the community in hav- 
 ing obtained a Scotsman for their ruler: "And what a 
 blessing it was to get a good, wise, virtuous, and valiant 
 governor in time of their greatest trouble ; which shows 
 that we are governed by a power above us." And so, 
 becoming more eloquent by degrees on the good fortune 
 
THE SOLDIER. 319 
 
 of Stralsund and the merits of his countrymen, he con- 
 cludes : " It faring then with Stralsund as with Sara : she 
 became fruitful when she could not believe it, and they 
 became flourishing, having gotten a Scots governor to 
 protect them, whom they looked not for, which was a 
 good omen unto them to get a governor of the nation 
 that was never conquered ; which made them the only 
 town in Germany free as yet from the imperial yoke by 
 the valour of our nation, which defended their city in 
 their greatest danger." 
 
 But there are better things even than this nationality 
 in Monro's unreadable book. The sentiments following 
 appear to be just and commendable, and in every way 
 honourable to the heart and head of the person uttering 
 them : 
 
 "Continency is a virtue very necessary for a soldier, 
 for abstaining from many inordinate appetites that follow 
 his profession, that he may the better suffer hunger, cold, 
 thirst, nakedness, travel, toyl, heat, and what else, patient- 
 ly, never mutinying for any defect, for it is the greatest 
 victory we can attain unto, to overcome ourselves and our 
 appetites." 
 
 " It is also very necessary, at such service, if we have 
 time, that we be careful to bring off our comrades' bodies 
 killed on service, that died honourably before their ene- 
 mies, to be laid in the bed of honour, in burying their 
 bodies as becomes Christians. We are also tied in duty 
 to our comrades that were with us in danger, if either they 
 be wounded or mutilated, to care for their safeties so far 
 as lieth in our power. And we must not prefer the safety 
 of our own bodies to the public weal of our comrades or 
 countrymen dead or living, but we ought, with the hazard 
 of our own lives, to bring off the dead and hurt." 
 
 The contest which ended in the independence of the 
 United Provinces saw Scot contending with Scot, and 
 fighting out in the Dutch marshes the bitter animosities 
 which desolated their own mountain homes. The Scots 
 in the service of the States were formed into a separate 
 body, known in their own country as the Dutch Regi- 
 ments, and in Holland as the Scottish Brigade. In the 
 
32O THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 curious annals of the house of Seton there is an account 
 of the adventures of George Lord Seton, who, an enthusi- 
 astic follower of Queen Mary, was found by the Govern- 
 ment of the States endeavouring to seduce the Scottish 
 troops over to the side of Spain and the Queen of Scots. 
 "The rebellous States of Holland," says the indignant 
 family historian, "did imprison and condemn the said 
 George to ride the cannon ; " and he only escaped a 
 worse fate through the earnest intervention of his country- 
 men, who would not see a kindly Scot sacrificed to for- 
 eign vengeance, however readily they would themselves 
 have cut him down in fair contest. In this Scottish 
 corps, a short time before the Revolution, there were, 
 if we may believe an anecdote which rests chiefly on 
 tradition, two rival claimants for promotion, of totally 
 opposite genius and character, whose rivalry was extin- 
 guished in a memorable contest John Grahame of 
 Claverhouse, and Mackay of Scourie, the leader of the 
 Revolution army at the battle of Killiecrankie. Mackay, 
 though he showed himself so far inferior to his opponent 
 in the genius of war, was a man of remarkable attain- 
 ments in the organisation of warfare. We owe to him 
 one of the greatest improvements of modern warfare 
 the fixed bayonet, which enabled the soldier to charge 
 immediately after fire, instead of waiting to be cut down 
 in the attempt to screw the blade upon the barrel. 
 
 The cause of the Elector Palatine the husband of 
 the daughter of King James attracted the national sym- 
 pathies of the Scots. In 1620, a considerable body of 
 adventurers, recruited to that service by Sir Andrew Grey, 
 found their way to Bohemia through marvellous difficul- 
 ties. But the cause to which they had devoted them- 
 selves was abandoned by its head, and they found them- 
 selves in the forlorn and alarming position of an army 
 without a leader, and, what was worse, without a pay- 
 master. Their position, in its difficulties, was not unlike 
 that of the Ten Thousand. But while the Greeks were 
 so totally alien in personal and national habits from the 
 oriental tribes whose territories they required to pierce, 
 that an amalgamation with them was not to be antici- 
 
THE SOLDIER. 321 
 
 pated, Sir Andrew Grey's contingent, mixing with mer- 
 cenary soldiers of all countries, would undoubtedly have 
 been individually absorbed into corps belonging to other 
 nations, but for their peculiar nationality, which kept 
 them together as a separate body. They served for some 
 time under the banners of Mansfeldt, then assisted the 
 Dutch against Spinola, and passed into the hands of 
 the King of Denmark. 
 
 They at last found their true master in Gustavus Adol- 
 phus, who knew their qualities well, and made full use 
 of them in building up the great fabric of his fame. 
 Mr Grant enumerates thirteen regiments of Scottish in- 
 fantry in his service ; and many other corps in his great 
 army, where the pikemen were Swedes, English, or Ger- 
 mans, had Scottish officers. The great events of later 
 warfare have not eclipsed the brilliant achievements of 
 this host, or rendered less wonderful the stride in effec- 
 tive discipline accomplished under the command of the 
 King of Sweden. And if we are not to concentrate the 
 glory, as well of every dashing enterprise as of the great 
 advancement in discipline and strategy, entirely upon 
 the crowned leader of this wonderful army, Scotland is 
 entitled to a large perhaps the chief share in its aggre- 
 gate fame. 1 
 
 " The misfortune," says Colonel Mitchell in his ' Life 
 of Wallenstein,' "which befell a detachment of seven 
 hundred Scotch soldiers, under the command of Colonel 
 Robert Monro, deserves to be recorded, as it shows what 
 courage and resolution can effect even in situations that 
 appear hopeless." While on their way to join the Swed- 
 ish army they were shipwrecked. Managing to get ashore 
 on rafts, they found that they were eighty miles from the 
 Swedish outposts, and on the island of Rugen, all the 
 fortresses of which were in the hands of Imperialists. 
 
 1 Those who desire a separate narrative of the services of the Scots 
 under Hepburn, Hamilton, Turner, Lumsden, Forbes, Ruthven, 
 Grant, the Leslies, the Lindsays, and the other innumerable Scottish 
 leaders who served the Lion of the North, must read the zealous and 
 affectionate narrative given by Mr Grant in his ' Memoirs and Ad- 
 ventures of Sir John Hepburn. ' 
 
 X 
 
322 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 They had landed their arms, but they had no ammuni- 
 tion; and, as Monro remarks, "the enemy being near, 
 our resolution behoved to be short." He managed to find 
 an old dismantled castle, which seems to have been left 
 in the hands of its feudal owner, found to be a secret 
 partisan of Gustavus. For some powder and shot, if he 
 could furnish it, Monro offered to clear away the Im- 
 perialists. Getting into the old castle secretly, the Scots 
 pounced, in the middle of the night, on the Imperialists, 
 prepared for attack from without, but not from within ; 
 and as the nature and quantity of the force so unex- 
 pectedly appearing could not be estimated, the usual 
 effect of a panic followed, and Monro performed his 
 promise of clearing off the Imperialists. When the island 
 was deserted by them, he managed to hold it against 
 all comers, and it was a very valuable acquisition to the 
 side of the Swedes. He made good the post till relieved 
 by his countryman, Sir John Hepburn, and then both 
 were in a position to act with effect. 1 
 
 Hepburn blockaded Colberg. The great Montecuculi 
 was sent to relieve the place, and it was important that 
 he should be stopped on his way. Monro, with some 
 companies of Scottish infantry, found a defensible post 
 in Schevelin, on the Rega". Montecuculi, with his large 
 force, haughtily called on them to capitulate, and not 
 interrupt his passage. Monro, inspired with an epigram- 
 matic spirit, answered that he did not find the word 
 " capitulation " in his instructions. The Scots defended 
 the place bitterly. They were obliged to burn the town ; 
 but they held the castle until the exasperated Italian 
 abandoned the attack and retired. Thus, in Colonel 
 Mitchell's words, "the future rival of Turenne, having 
 lost both time and men before an old ruinous castle, 
 was unable to relieve Colberg, which surrendered shortly 
 after." 
 
 Their gallant efforts were not always so fortunate. 
 A thousand of them served with an equal number of 
 Swedes in the defence of New Brandenburg. With a 
 
 1 See Harte's ' History of Gustavus Adolphus, ' i. 232. 
 
THE SOLDIER. 323 
 
 wall in ruins, a moat nearly filled up, and only a couple 
 of falconets, or two-pounders, as their whole artillery, 
 they were surrounded by Tilly's army, provided with a 
 perfect battering-train. An accidental blunder made 
 them deem it their duty to hold out. Instructions to 
 capitulate on terms had been transmitted, and mis- 
 carried. It cost Tilly a long contest and two thousand 
 men, and he took payment in the slaughter of the gar- 
 rison. Colonel Mitchell, to whose investigations our 
 knowledge of this incident is owing, tells us that " in the 
 old town records, which give an afflicting account of the 
 cruelty exercised towards the citizens, a Scotch nobleman, 
 called Earl Lintz [Lindsay?], is mentioned as having de- 
 fended his post long after all other resistance had ceased. " 
 " This nine days' defence," he says, " of an old rampart 
 without artillery, proves how much determined soldiers 
 can effect behind stone walls ; and is exceedingly valu- 
 able in an age that has seen first-rate fortresses, fully 
 armed, surrender before any part of the works had been 
 injured often, indeed, at the very first summons." 
 
 In no way, perhaps, can a better general idea of the im- 
 portance of the Scottish troops in the wars of Gustavus be 
 formed than by a perusal of the * Memoirs of a Cavalier/ 
 attributed in the critical world by a sort of acclamation 
 to De Foe. Some have maintained, to be sure, that it 
 must have been printed off from the actual diary or 
 memorandum-book of an English gentleman volunteer. 
 But as evidence that it has been corrected by a descrip- 
 tive pen, one little particular will be sufficient. Ignorant 
 ot the provincial character of the force which entered 
 England under Leslie, before the treaty of Berwick, as 
 Lowland Scottish Covenanters, the author, under the 
 supposition that they were Highlanders, gives a very 
 picturesque description of them, drawn from the experi- 
 ence of the march to Preston in 1715. This alone is suf- 
 ficient to show that, if the narrative be taken from the 
 memoranda of one who actually served, it has been 
 decorated for the press ; and where was then the pen 
 save De Foe's that could have given it so searching and 
 specific an individuality ? 
 
324 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 The Scottish contingent holds the first place through- 
 out the narrative, and the presumption that it was per- 
 fected by De Foe probably from the rude journal of 
 some soldier unskilled in letters does not incline me to 
 question the justice of the merit assigned to our country- 
 men. De Foe was not their friend ; he was a thorough 
 "true-born Englishman;" and when we read his distinct 
 and animated account of the services of the Scots, we 
 must presume that he is communicating the actual state- 
 ments contained in the journal of an English cavalier; or, 
 in the supposition of the narrative being purely invent- 
 ive, that its ingenious author constructed it out of such 
 materials as would be capable, from their substantial 
 truthfulness, of standing the test of investigation. The 
 Castle of Marienburg, for instance, is to be attacked. It 
 stands on a steep rock, with strong outworks, and the 
 garrison is large and well found. The cavalier, when 
 describing its capture, says : " The Scots were chosen 
 out to make this attack, and the King was an eyewitness 
 of their gallantry. In this action Sir John [Hepburn] 
 was not commanded out, but Sir James Ramsay led 
 them on : but I observed that most of the Scotch officers 
 in the other regiments prepared to serve as volunteers, 
 for the honour of their countrymen, and Sir John Hep- 
 burn led them on. I was resolved to see this piece of 
 service, and therefore joined myself to the volunteers. 
 We were armed with partisans, and each man two pistols 
 at our belt. It was a piece of service that seemed per- 
 fectly desperate : the advantage of the hill ; the precipice 
 we were to mount ; the height of the bastion ; the resolute 
 courage and number of the garrison, who from a complete 
 covert made a terrible fire upon us, all joined to make 
 the action hopeless. But the fury of the Scots mus- 
 keteers was not to be abated by any difficulties : they 
 mounted the hill, scaled the works like madmen 
 running upon the enemy's pikes ; and after two hours' 
 desperate fight, in the middle of fire and smoke, took it 
 by storm, and put all the garrison to the sword." The 
 cavalier tells us that he was, on Sir James Ramsay being 
 disabled, intrusted with the command of 200 Scots, " all 
 
THE SOLDIER. 325 
 
 that were left of a gallant regiment of 2000 Scots which 
 the King brought out of Sweden with him under that 
 brave colonel." Along with the remaining 200 there 
 were thirty officers, who, having lost their men, " served 
 as reformadoes with the regiment." They were in the 
 town of Oppenheim, which they were instructed to hold, 
 while Gustavus and Hepburn attacked the castle garri- 
 soned by 800 Spaniards. The cavalier says that the 
 reformadoes came running to him, saying that they 
 believed, if he would give them leave, they could enter 
 the castle by a surprise, and take it sword in hand. " I 
 told them I durst not give them orders, my commission 
 being only to keep and defend the town ; but they being 
 very importunate, I told them they were volunteers and 
 might do what they pleased, that I would lend them fifty 
 men, and draw up the rest to second them or bring them 
 off as I saw occasion, so as I might not hazard the town. 
 This was as much as they desired. They sallied im- 
 mediately, and in a trice the volunteers scaled the port, 
 cut in pieces the guard, and burst open the gate, at 
 which the fifty entered." "The Spaniards were knocked 
 down by the Scots before they knew what the matter 
 was ; and the King and Sir John Hepburn, advancing to 
 storm, were surprised when, instead of resistance, they 
 saw the Spaniards throwing themselves over the wall to 
 avoid the fury of the Scots." Even the iron rigidity of 
 Gustavus must unbend to so brilliant a disregard of 
 discipline. His reception of the successful storming- 
 party is told briefly enough, but with much character. 
 * The King came on and entered on foot. I received 
 him at the head of the Scots reformadoes, who all 
 saluted him with their pikes. The King gave them his 
 hat, and, turning about * Brave Scots, brave Scots,' 
 says he, smiling, ' you were too quick for me.' " He had 
 a speedy opportunity, according to the cavalier, of seeing 
 the mettle of these restless spirits in the attack on Creutz- 
 nach. "The first party," says the cavalier, "were not 
 able to make anything of it ; the garrison fought with so 
 much fury that many of the volunteer gentlemen being 
 wounded, and some killed, the rest were beaten off with 
 
326 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 loss." The King was displeased, and ordered the assault 
 to be renewed. It was now the turn of the reformado 
 Scots volunteers. " Our Scots officers," says the cavalier 
 expressively, " not being used to be beaten, advanced im- 
 mediately," and the work was accomplished. 
 
 They were not so satisfactory in the execution of some 
 of the work which Gustavus wanted done, and the 
 national pride came out occasionally in a way which so 
 rigid a disciplinarian did not like. At the siege of 
 Frankfort he ordered Monro one evening to construct 
 a mining line of approach before morning. The General 
 kept his men at work as well as he could, but Gustavus 
 was much displeased at the scant progress they had 
 made, and forgetting his usual caution in such matters, 
 he gave utterance to a general remark that " the Scots, 
 however excellent in the open field, were too lazy and 
 too proud to work, even in cases of the utmost extrem- 
 ity, which abated more than one-half of their military 
 merit." 1 
 
 The army of Gustavus sent back to Scotland many 
 a military commander trained and instructed to bear a 
 share in the wars that were to desolate Britain. Among 
 these were the two Leslies Alexander, who led the 
 Covenanting troops to the English border ; and the far 
 more skilful David Leslie, Lord Newark, who divided 
 with Cromwell the fame of victory at Marston Moor. 
 The distance by which Scotsmen were in that age severed 
 from each other in opinion and party, is forcibly recalled 
 by the recollection that the name of Leslie was nearly 
 as memorable in the Imperial camp as in that of the 
 Swede. Near the hill of Benochie stands the ruined 
 Castle of Balquhain a stern, simple, square block, as 
 destitute of decoration or architectural peculiarity as any 
 stone boulder on the adjoining moor. A cadet of the 
 Leslies of Balquhain became a Count of the Empire, and 
 Imperial ambassador to Constantinople. The service 
 which proved the foundation of his eminent fortunes is 
 not one to be dwelt on with satisfaction. His name is 
 
 1 Harte, i. 283. 
 
THE SOLDIER. 327 
 
 too well known in connection with the death of Wallen- 
 stein. His son James, who succeeded to his hereditary 
 honours and his lordship of Neustadt, gained a worthier 
 fame in the defence of Vienna against the Turks. 
 
 I here, before stepping onwards to a later period, offer 
 an enumeration of Scotsmen in the German wars by the 
 loquacious Sir Thomas Urquhart. It is not liable, by 
 the way, to the reproach of his usual wandering profuse- 
 ness of language its leading defect, on the other hand, 
 is its too great resemblance to a muster-roll. It is after 
 he has been enlarging on the older services of his country- 
 men that he winds up : 
 
 " Nor did their succession so far degenerate from the 
 race of so worthy progenitors, but that even of late 
 (although before the intestine garboyles of this island) 
 several of them have for their fidelity, valour, and gallan- 
 try, been exceedingly renowned over all France, Spaine, 
 the Venetian territories, Pole, Muscovy, the Low-coun- 
 tryes, Swedland, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, and 
 other states and kingdoms; as may appear by General 
 Rutherford, my Lord General Sir James Spence of Wor- 
 miston, afterwards by the Swedish king created Earl of 
 Orcholm; Sir Patrick Ruthven, governor of Ulme, 
 general of an army of High-Germans, and afterwards 
 Earl of Forth and Branford ; Sir Alexander Leslie, gover- 
 nor of the cities along the Baltick coast, field-marshal 
 over the army in Westphalia, and afterwards intitled 
 Scoticani faderis supremus dux ; General James King, 
 afterwards made Lord Ythen; Colonel David Leslie, 
 commander of a regiment of horse over the Dutch, and 
 afterwards in these our domestic wars advanced to be 
 lieutenant-general of both horse and foot; Major-General 
 Thomas Ker ; Sir David Drummond, general- major, and 
 governor of Statin in Pomerania; Sir George Douglas, 
 colonel, and afterwards employed in embassies betwixt 
 the sovereigns of Britain and Swedland ; Colonel George 
 Lindsay, Earl of Craford; Colonel Lord Forbes; Colonel 
 Lord Saint Colme ; Colonel Lodowick Leslie, and in the 
 late troubles at home, governor of Berwick and Tinmouth- 
 sheels ; Colonel Sir James Ramsey, governor of Hanaw ; 
 
328 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Colonel Alexander Ramsey, governor of Crafzenach, and 
 quartermaster-general to the Duke of Wymar; Colonel 
 William Baillie, afterwards in these our intestine broils 
 promoved to the charge of lieutenant-general ; another 
 Colonel Ramsey besides any of the former two, whose 
 name I cannot hit upon; Sir James Lumsden, colonel 
 in Germany, and afterwards governor of Newcastle, and 
 general-major in the Scottish wars ; Sir George Cunning- 
 ham, Sir John Ruthven, Sir John Hamilton, Sir John 
 Meldrum, Sir Arthur Forbes, Sir Frederick Hamilton, 
 Sir James Hamilton, Sir Francis Ruthven, Sir John 
 Innes, Sir William Balantine ; and several other knights, 
 all colonels of horse or foot in the Swedish wars. 
 
 " As likewise by Colonel Alexander Hamilton, agnamed 
 Dear Sandy, who afterwards in Scotland was made General 
 of the Artillery, for that in some measure he had exerced 
 the same charge in Dutchland, under the command of 
 Marquis James Hamilton, whose generalship over six 
 thousand English in the Swedish service I had almost 
 forgot, by Colonel Robert Cunningham ; " but I must 
 really spare the reader two-thirds of this portentous list, 
 and skip for him to the conclusion. " Colonel Alexander 
 Cunningham, Colonel Finess Forbes, Colonel David 
 Edinton, Colonel Sandilands, Colonel Walter Leckie, 
 and divers others Scottish colonels, what of horse and 
 foot (many whereof, within a short space thereafter, 
 attained to be general persons) under the command of 
 Gustavus the Csesaromastix, who confided so much in 
 the valour, loyalty, and discretion of the Scottish nation, 
 and they reciprocally in the gallantry, affection, and 
 magnanimity of him, that immediately after the battle 
 at Leipsich, in one place, and at one time, he had six- 
 and- thirty Scottish colonels about him; whereof some 
 did command a whole brigade of horse, some a brigade 
 composed of two regiments, half horse, half foot ; and 
 others a brigade made up of foot only, without horse : 
 some again had the command of a regiment of horse 
 only, without foot : some of a regiment of horse alone, 
 without more ; and others of a regiment of dragoons : 
 the half of the names of which colonels are not here 
 
THE SOLDIER. 329 
 
 inserted, though they were men of notable prowess, and 
 in martial achievements of most exquisite dexterity; 
 whose regiments were commonly distinguished by the 
 diversity of nations of which they are severally com- 
 posed ; many regiments of English, Scots, Danes, Sweds, 
 Fins, Liflanders, Laplanders, High -Dutch, and other 
 nations serving in that confederate war of Germany under 
 the command of Scottish colonels." 
 
 It were idle to follow up the history of the Jacobite 
 refugees, driven out by the Revolution of 1688, after what 
 Aytoun has said for them both in prose and song. I shall 
 therefore take a step onwards to the period of those later 
 civil contests in which the older among us have felt 
 something like a practical interest, not so much from 
 zeal in the cause of either side, as from actual intercourse 
 with persons in whom that zeal had once burned with 
 expectations of practical result. There are no more 
 delightful recollections to be called up than those of the 
 departing spirit of Jacobitism, exhibited in the talk of 
 old people who had led many years of quiet peaceful 
 life cherishing the recollections of their youth. The air 
 and tone of thorough gentlefolks belonged to them, 
 softened down by a tinge of the sadness borne by those 
 who "have seen better days." For if they had not 
 absolutely felt the fall from affluence to poverty, nor 
 remembered the sudden flight from the dear old tower 
 of their fathers to seek a distant home, yet in their child- 
 hood these things were so vividly remembered as domestic 
 specialties that they left something like the impression of 
 realities. It is from this that the romance of ' Waverley/ 
 when it burst on the world, shot a thrill through many a 
 heart in Scotland, such as people elsewhere cannot have 
 experienced or conceived such as genius alone is incap- 
 able of achieving. 
 
 Of " the Jacobite relics " among us no other is prob- 
 ably so remarkable as the ruined Castle of Dunnottar. 
 To the sea-borne traveller it is the most conspicuous 
 stronghold along the east coast, for it is higher perched 
 and more extensive than its rival Tantallon. Crowning 
 a bluff peninsula which drops to the sea in precipices of 
 
330 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 ragged conglomerate, its indented and scattered outline 
 is more like the ruin of a town or a national fortress than 
 of a private dwelling-place. No other feudal castle in 
 Scotland, indeed, appears to have covered so wide a 
 space of ground, or to have been capable of receiving 
 within the cincture of its defences so large a garrison. 
 Generally the remains of Scottish strongholds have a lean 
 and gaunt aspect, as if their strength depended on the 
 narrow front to be defended rather than on the numerous 
 garrison; but here there are vestiges of a widespread 
 magnificence, more beseeming a royal than a baronial 
 establishment. And perhaps the effect of the scene is 
 rather heightened by a certain air of modernness in the 
 buildings. They do not entirely belong to a past historic 
 period, severed by intervening centuries from our sym- 
 pathies. There doubtless is the old square keep, the 
 relic of the primitive age of baronial architecture, frown- 
 ing in austere gloom over all. But among the ruins 
 scattered around we see the traces of modern comfort 
 and social habits. The deserted mansion-house is com- 
 bined with the ruined fortalice, and tells us not only ot 
 ancient feudal power decayed, but of modern wealth and 
 hospitable profusion suddenly stopped. Comparing it 
 with anything that may be seen in England, it thus 
 eloquently informs the traveller that he is in a country 
 where the traces of civil tumult are more recent, and 
 where the passing over them of centuries has not entirely 
 softened down the traces of conflict, as in the halls 
 devastated by the Wars of the Roses, with the mellow- 
 ness of antiquity. Yet the ruin speaks to us from a 
 period sufficiently remote to keep clear of the living 
 political excitements of this age. Very nearly a century 
 and a half have now passed since the chimneys ceased 
 to smoke, and the whole busy world of life deserted that 
 vast range of edifices. 
 
 The impression natural to such a scene is deepened 
 and strengthened when we associate it with the career, 
 spent so far away, and in scenes so different, of the two 
 young men who were the last to lord it within those 
 wasted walls. When George I. ascended the throne, the 
 
THE SOLDIER. 331 
 
 head of the house of Keith, and the inheritor of the title 
 of Earl Marischal, was a young man of two-and-twenty, 
 and his brother James, afterwards Frederick the Great's 
 Field - Marshal, was some three years younger. They 
 were nearly related to Mar, the leader of the insurrection, 
 and were sharers in the official proscription which created 
 so many enemies to the new dynasty. The Earl was 
 deprived of his commission, and, returning home to 
 Dunnottar, to wait events in his own stronghold, he 
 met his brother James, who was going southwards to 
 seek service under the new king. The news which the 
 Earl had to tell about himself were not propitious to such 
 an object, and the brothers returned to Scotland together. 
 Nothing was more natural than that they should join in 
 the outbreak ; and whatever may be said of their cousin 
 Mar, and of other veteran politicians who had deliberately 
 offered their services to the Hanoverian before they dis- 
 covered that their allegiance was due elsewhere, it would 
 be as unjust to attribute selfish motives as it would be 
 unreasonable to attach serious political convictions to the 
 conduct of the two young men who, in the impulse of the 
 moment, threw themselves into the cause of their kindred. 
 
 When ruin fell alike on their adopted cause and their 
 own fortunes, it is pleasant to contemplate the manly 
 resoluteness with which the two young men set them- 
 selves to the creation of their own fortunes, without cast- 
 ing back an enervating thought to the sure fortune and 
 the brilliant prosperity that had departed from them. 
 Each of them made for himself a place in history, and 
 achieved a fortune far above the home respectability, 
 affluence, and rank from which calamity had driven 
 them. There are considerable materials for the history of 
 the public life of both. A fragment of an autobiography 
 left behind by the younger will enable the biographer 
 to trace him through the period of his early struggles 
 down nearly to the point at which he is taken up by fame, 
 and his personal adventures become a part of European 
 history. 
 
 On the dispersal of the Jacobite army at Perth, the 
 two brothers wandered to the Western Isles with the 
 
332 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Clanranald Highlanders. After remaining for some 
 months in hiding, they were removed by a French ves- 
 sel, "and, after a very pleasant passage, arrived the i2th 
 May, new style, at St Paul de Leon, in Brittany," and 
 thence went to Paris. Their prospects at first were dim 
 enough. "I lived/' says James, "most of that time in 
 selling horse- furniture, and other things of that nature 
 which an officer commonly carries with him ; and though 
 I had relations enough in Paris who could have supplied 
 me, and who would have done it with pleasure, yet I was 
 then either so bashful, or so vain, that I would not own 
 the want I was in." Next year he "thought it high time, 
 being about twenty years old," that he should have some 
 distinct position in the world. In 1718 the Spanish war 
 opened a prospect to him, of which he confesses that he 
 did not take immediate advantage, because "I was then," 
 he says, " too much in love to think of quitting Paris ; 
 and though shame and my friends forced me to take some 
 steps towards it, yet I managed it so slowly that I set 
 out only in the end of that year; and had not my mistress 
 and I quarrelled, and that other affairs came to concern 
 me more than the conquest of Sicily did, it is probable I 
 had lost many years of my time to very little purpose 
 so much was I taken up with my passion." This is the sole 
 faint tinge of romance in the career of Marshal Keith ; 
 the rest of it is all hard work and successful ambition. 
 
 His desire to take service in Spain suited precisely the 
 views of Cardinal Alberoni, who had quarrelled with Eng- 
 land, and projected an expedition to Britain in aid of the 
 Stewarts. Through the Duke of Ormond, the leader of 
 the exiled Jacobites, the two Keiths were sent on a secret 
 mission to Madrid. They arrived together at Palamos, 
 on the coast of Catalonia. The authorities received 
 them at first with surly suspicion, which, suddenly thaw- 
 ing, was converted into a mysterious courtesy and re- 
 spectfulness, little less embarrassing. Thus, at Barce- 
 lona, having sent to request of Prince Pio, the captain- 
 general of the province, that they might be exempt from 
 the usual examination at the ports, they were surprised 
 presently to see "a coach with six mules," carrying the 
 
THE SOLDIER. 333 
 
 prince's livery, arrive at the door of their inn, containing 
 a personage whose respect for the two strangers was more 
 deep and profound than all they had yet encountered. 
 
 The mystery was speedily explained. The Cardinal 
 had imparted to the captain-general the confidential in- 
 formation that the Chevalier de St George or the King 
 of England, as he was of course termed was likely to 
 pass incognito through Catalonia ; and when two hand- 
 some, noble-looking young Scotsmen entered the territory 
 with high credentials, and no ostensible title or function, 
 who could they be but the exiled monarch and his con- 
 fidential attendant? The discovery of his mistake, of 
 course, made the captain-general feel a little ridiculous. " I 
 believe," says Keith, "he was sorry to have given himself 
 so much trouble about us when he knew who we were; yet 
 he received us very civilly, though with some embarras." 
 
 The two young men were intrusted with eighteen 
 thousand crowns by the Cardinal, who engaged to put at 
 their disposal six companies of foot. The elder brother 
 remained in Spain, and sailed with the expedition when 
 it was completed, while the younger undertook to visit 
 the Jacobite exiles dispersed through France, and make 
 arrangements for their secretly leaving the country and 
 joining the expedition, a delicate and difficult duty, 
 which was fraught with extreme risk, at a time when 
 France and Spain were at war, and when, consequently, the 
 young diplomatist must have carried everywhere with him 
 the evidence that he was in correspondence with the enemy. 
 
 James Keith at last left Havre with his Jacobite friends 
 in a small vessel, which narrowly escaped the English 
 fleet, and he found his brother with the Spanish troops at 
 Stornoway. Their attempt led to the incident in history 
 called the battle of Glenshiel. The project was acutely 
 conceived. It was intended that, while Ormond landed 
 with a large expedition in England, the little body of 
 Spaniards and Scottish Jacobites should march through 
 the glens and surprise Inverness ; but an unexpected 
 attack by Wightman, with a superior force, on the borders 
 of the wild Loch Duich, crushed the attempt at its open- 
 ing. The battle was not in itself decisive ; and had there 
 
334 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 been ulterior hopes for the Jacobites, they might have 
 defended the narrow gorge running through a range of 
 the loftiest and most precipitous mountains in Scotland ; 
 but news had come of the failure of Ormond's expedition, 
 and after a consultation the Spaniards surrendered as 
 prisoners of war, " and everybody else took the road he 
 liked best" "As I was then," says James Keith, "sick of a 
 fever, I was forced to lurk some months in the mountains; 
 and in the beginning of September, having got a ship, I 
 embarked at Peterhead, and four days after landed in 
 Holland at the Texel, and from thence, with the Earl 
 Marischal, went to the Hague, to know if the Marquis 
 Beretti Landi, then the King's minister at that Court, had 
 any orders for us ; and his advice being that we should 
 return with all haste to Spain, we set out next day by 
 the way of Liege, to shun the Imperial Netherlands, and 
 enter France by Sedan, judging that route to be the 
 least suspected." 
 
 But this proved a miscalculation. On their arrival at 
 Sedan, the town-major, finding them without credentials 
 or passports, ordered them to be carried to prison, 
 "which," says Keith, "was executed with the greatest 
 exactitude." They had just time to destroy their com- 
 missions from the King of Spain, which might have 
 brought them to the gallows as spies, when they were 
 searched. The only available document found on them 
 appears to have been a complimentary and familiar letter 
 from the Princess of Conti, which bore so strong a testi- 
 mony to their rank and favour at Court that they were 
 at once liberated. They returned to Spain, to find the 
 Cardinal prostrate and powerless. This event affected 
 them in a manner curiously illustrative of the Cardinal's 
 suspicious policy. The commissions, as we have seen, 
 had been destroyed, and no record of them could be 
 found in the proper office; "the reason of which was, 
 that the Cardinal kept always by him a certain number of 
 commissions already signed by the King, and filled them 
 up himself without acquainting the minister of war, for 
 those whom he did not wish should be seen publicly." 
 
 For a few years James Keith led a wandering, restless 
 
THE SOLDIER. 335 
 
 life. He " knew nobody, and was known to none ; " and 
 admits that he was for some time glad of a seat at the 
 table of a certain Admiral Cammock. He discovered 
 that, as a heretic, he could never hope for promotion in 
 Spain; but when the war with Britain broke out in 1725, 
 he obtained temporary employment, conscious at the 
 same time that he owed it entirely to " the mere necessity 
 to be revenged on the English." 
 
 He was immediately connected with a piece of service, 
 of which his account is interesting, as it shows how nar- 
 rowly we escaped losing Gibraltar by such a chance blow 
 as that by which it was originally acquired. Troops were 
 gradually marched to St Roque, within a league of the 
 fortress, until the number of all classes there concentrated 
 was 20,000. Keith thought that, had their commander 
 been more enterprising or less formal, the place might 
 have been seized; but the Count de las Torres would 
 take no fortress otherwise than in a legitimate manner by 
 a practicable breach. 
 
 The garrison was but 1000 strong, "and the service of 
 the place was so negligently observed, that very often the 
 guard of the port was not above a dozen men. They 
 allowed our soldiers to come into the town in what num- 
 bers they pleased, without ever searching them for hidden 
 arms ; and at less than 400 yards from the place there 
 are sandbanks, where a thousand men may lie concealed, 
 and which they then had not the precaution to make re- 
 connoitre in the morning." "How easy," continues the 
 young soldier, "would it have been to have rendered 
 ourselves master of the gate (for sometimes we had above 
 two hundred soldiers and forty or fifty officers at a time 
 in the place), and then have made our grenadiers, hid 
 among the sandbanks, advance ! " 
 
 The formality of the old general was by no means 
 justified by the effective precision of his arrangements. 
 The army was all assembled, and the trenches should 
 have been opened ; " but very misfortunately," as Keith 
 says, "we had no cannon." So soon as the artillery was 
 brought up, Admiral Wager arrived with his fleet, and the 
 fortress was saved to Britain. 
 
336 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Finding no scope for his ambition under so sickly a 
 government, the young man offered his services to Russia, 
 where they were accepted with the readiness of a govern- 
 ment which had had experience of the value of Scottish 
 heads and hands. He arrived in time to witness the 
 strange scene of intrigue, political restlessness, and bar- 
 baric extravagance which opened on the death of Peter 
 the Great, who, as Keith says, "loved more to employ 
 his money in ships and regiments than sumptuous build- 
 ings, and who was always content with his lodging when 
 he could see his fleet from his window." The young Scot 
 looked about him with an observant eye, and his few dry 
 notices of passing scenes would be valuable to a historian 
 of Russia. He remained three weeks at Cronstadt before 
 proceeding to Moscow to have an audience of the Em- 
 peror. But "the Emperor was not then in that city, 
 having gone some days before a-hunting," and he did not 
 return for three weeks. Even in this little statement there 
 was much significance. The young monarch was in the 
 hands of the Dolgorouskis, who, to serve their ends and 
 seduce him from state affairs, kept him in the field until 
 they literally hunted him to death and lost their prize. 
 His marriage with a Dolgorouski daughter was in the 
 meantime their great object; " and that the affectionate 
 councils of Count Osterman might not obstruct their 
 private interest, they kept the Emperor hunting most of 
 that summer and harvest at a distance from Moscow and 
 Count Osterman ; and having carried their whole family 
 along with him, they used all possible methods to hasten 
 the projected match, which, soon after the Emperor's 
 return, was publicly declared, to the grief of the greatest 
 and best part of the empire, who saw the schemes of 
 Peter the Great neglected and like to be forgot, and their 
 prince governed by one much fitter to direct a pack of 
 hounds which had been his study the greatest part of 
 his life than such a vast empire." 
 
 Whatever rottenness he saw in the state of Russia can- 
 not have been the result of disappointed expectations, for 
 promotion came on him so rapidly as to take away his 
 breath. At the end of a year he found himself one of the 
 
THE SOLDIER. 337 
 
 three inspector-generals of the Russian forces, having for 
 his department "the frontier of Asia along the rivers 
 Volga and Don, with a part of the frontiers of Poland 
 about Smolensko." In his first year of duty he passed in 
 review thirty-two regiments, and travelled 1500 leagues. 
 In 1734 he had to give his assistance in the coercion of 
 Poland. He served unwillingly, not deeming the duty 
 " a very honourable one ; " and he describes with some 
 indignation the heartless agrarian devastation accompany- 
 ing the movements of the Russian troops. 
 
 His next work was on the other side, when Russia was 
 pressing in upon the Turkish empire, ever standing the 
 insults of the Tartars to a certain point, then quarrelling 
 with them, and coming off with " a material guarantee." 
 In 1737, Azoff on the Black Sea was stormed by a 
 large Russian force, commanded by Munnich, with Keith, 
 and Lacy an Irishman, under him. According to the 
 accounts we have of this affair, an aide-de-camp came to 
 Keith, directing him to advance within musket-shot, to 
 which he answered that he had been so for some time ; 
 a second direction came to advance within half-musket- 
 shot ; he did so, but at the same time sent a remon- 
 strance to Munnich against the aimless sacrifice of life 
 incurred. A third message came to say that Munnich 
 expected Keith to co-operate with him in an escalade. 
 When he went on to climb, he found a ditch twelve feet 
 broad, with no available means for crossing, and no 
 shelter ; and after his men had been thinned by the fire, 
 they dropped away. Meanwhile a house had been set on 
 fire, and the flames spread till they blew up a powder- 
 magazine. The town was taken, much to the surprise, 
 apparently, of the besieging general. He complimented 
 Keith as having been by his firmness the real cause of 
 the success ; but Keith was angry at the waste of life and 
 general recklessness shown in the affair, and said he had 
 merit for nothing but obeying orders. 1 
 
 He caught in this affair a wound in the knee, which 
 
 1 * Leben des Feldmarshalls Jakob Keith. Von K. A. Varnhagen 
 von Ense,' p. 59. 
 
 Y 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 gave him more trouble than he at first expected. His 
 body was recognised by it when found stripped on the 
 bloody field of Hochkirche. His elder brother, hearing 
 of it, came to visit him. They had a delightful meeting, 
 and adjourned to Paris, the brother insisting that he had 
 no trust in Russian medical skill. 
 
 James Keith broke away from the Russian service in 
 1747, and was readily caught up by Frederick the Great, 
 then organising his grand project. A letter published by 
 Lord Dovor explains the cause of his quarrel with the 
 Russian service. The chief burden of his complaint is 
 that which ever touches the soldier most keenly a com- 
 mand, to which he thought himself entitled, given to 
 another. But he founds also on the Russian Govern- 
 ment having refused to receive his brother. Now, how- 
 ever, whether as a burden to be borne for the sake of 
 James, or for his own value, Frederick accepted the elder 
 brother. He became an eminent favourite was ap- 
 pointed governor of Neuchatel, and overloaded with dis- 
 tinctions. It has fallen to the lot of few, indeed, to be 
 so widely and so ardently beloved. D'Alembert bestowed 
 on him an eloge. Frederick, it is said, never tired of 
 him, or gave him impertinence. But, what is far more 
 wonderful, Rousseau, when he was snarling at all the 
 world, and biting those who comforted or caressed him, 
 licked one hand alone, that of his venerated and patri- 
 archal patron, Le bon Milord Marechal. 
 
 It is stated in several histories and biographies that he 
 bought his peace with the British Government by reveal- 
 ing to them the family compact of the Bourbons, which 
 he had learned as ambassador from Prussia to the Court 
 of Madrid in 1759. I never could find any distinct 
 authority for this statement. It is certain, however, that 
 in the following year his disabilities were removed by 
 Act of Parliament, and he succeeded to the estate of 
 Kintore, which had been preserved in a collateral branch 
 of his family by an entail. He purchased another of the 
 family estates, where he desired to shelter Rousseau ; but 
 that troublesome visitor took flight before the arrange- 
 ments for receiving him at Keith Hall could be com- 
 
THE SOLDIER. 339 
 
 pleted, otherwise he might have lived long enough under 
 his patron's roof to find that there was another enemy 
 leagued against him. The Earl Marischal had lived too 
 much in foreign courts and among French philosophers 
 to relish the climate or the society of Aberdeenshire. 
 He wrote some complaining and amusing letters to his 
 friends, commencing sometimes in English, but generally 
 lapsing into French, as a relief to the labour of compos- 
 ing in the forgotten language of his boyhood ; and at last 
 he found it better for "an old Spaniard, and a sort of 
 Guebre in religion," as he called himself, to creep back 
 "nearer to the sun." 
 
 Before leaving him to go back to the more active 
 career of his younger brother, the opportunity is taken 
 to mention a sentimental affair with which a French lady 
 of celebrity has invested him. Although the heroine of it 
 is that Madame de Crequy, of whom the reminiscences 
 given to the public have been maintained by the critics 
 to be a collection of fictions and forgeries, there seems to 
 be no harm whatever in believing the story, professed to 
 be delivered to her grandchildren, of her girlish attach- 
 ment to Milord Marechal she says it was the only pre- 
 dilection she ever had in her life, except for Monsieur de 
 Crequy, to whom she thought fit to impart the love-pas- 
 sage as something that concerned him. "If you wish," 
 she tells the grandchildren, " to have an idea of his face, 
 you must look at that charming portrait of the handsome 
 Caylus, the favourite of Henry III., which you inherited 
 from the Constable de Lesdiguieres." And there is a 
 full-length portrait of the Earl Marischal in the college 
 founded by his ancestor, which, in its youthful beauty 
 and candid mildness of expression, justifies the old lady's 
 romantic description. "We began," she continues, "by 
 looking at one another, first with surprise, then with in- 
 terest, and at last with emotion. Next we used to listen 
 to the conversation of each other, without being able to 
 answer a word, and then neither could speak at all in the 
 presence of the other, owing to our voices at first trem- 
 bling, and then failing us altogether." 
 
 All this is common enough, and quite French. What 
 
340 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 follows is French also in its general characteristics, but it 
 is a morsel of the purest and sweetest kind of French 
 sentiment, and will strike every one who reads it with its 
 resemblance to Thackeray's story of the youthful re- 
 miniscences communicated by the Countess de Florae to 
 Colonel Newcome. When the young people had ar- 
 ranged all for themselves, their union was abruptly and 
 remorselessly stopped because the Earl was a heretic. 
 The young lady, though she had overlooked the im- 
 pediment, could not question the justice of the sentence. 
 " I refused," she says, the hand of Milord Mare'chal, and 
 two days afterwards he set out to return to his own 
 country; from whence he wrote to say that grief and 
 despair would lead him to acts that might bring him to 
 the scaffold." 
 
 When next they met her grandchildren were born, and 
 the Earl had passed his seventieth year. He presented 
 her with some French verses the only poetry, as he told 
 her, that he had ever written about white hairs cover- 
 ing an old wound. But Madam e's own remarks on the 
 meeting conveyed more subtle sentiments better ex- 
 pressed. "When we met again," she says, "after the 
 lapse of many years, we made a discovery which equally 
 surprised and affected us both. There is a world of 
 difference between the love which had endured through- 
 out a lifetime, and that which has burned fiercely in oui 
 youth and then paused. In the latter case, time has not 
 laid bare defects, nor taught the bitter lesson of mutual 
 failings ; a delusion has subsisted on both sides, which ex- 
 perience has not destroyed ; and, delighting in the idea 
 of each other's perfections, that thought has seemed to 
 smile on both with unspeakable sweetness, till, when we 
 meet in a grey old age, feelings so tender, so pure, so 
 solemn, arise, that they can be compared to no other senti- 
 ments or impressions of which our nature is capable." 
 
 During those years of dignified quiet which fell to the 
 lot of his elder brother, James was gaining a name in 
 history by his share in the Seven Years' War. The his- 
 torian of Frederick the Great stops for a minute to say of 
 him : " Highly respectable too, and well worth talking to, 
 
THE SOLDIER. 341 
 
 though left very dim in the books, is Marshal Keith; 
 who has been growing gradually with the King, and with 
 everybody, ever since he came to these parts in 1747. 
 A man of Scotch type : the broad accent, with its sagac- 
 ities and veracities, with its steadfastly fixed modera- 
 tion, and its sly twinkles of defensive humour, is still 
 audible to us through the foreign wrappings. Not given 
 to talk unless there is something to be said, but well 
 capable of it then. On all manner of subjects he can 
 talk knowingly, and with insight of his own." 1 
 
 Keith shared with the King the responsibilities of the 
 battle of Lowositz the first in the Seven Years' War. 
 He had afterwards much work of various kinds on his 
 hands ; and, among others, there was one affair in which 
 he and his master got a good deal of historical obloquy 
 the celebrated seizure of the secret papers in the 
 archives of Dresden, when the Queen stood with her 
 back to the cabinet in which they were, and said she 
 would resist their seizure. On this the German bio- 
 grapher says, "There is no ground for the story, that 
 during this transaction Keith used personal violence to 
 the Queen of Poland, and gave her a push when she 
 objected to his intention of opening the archives; in- 
 asmuch as not he, but a person commissioned by him, 
 demanded the key of the archives from the Queen ; and 
 it was most probably through Major Wangenheim's 
 urgent solicitations that she was at last persuaded to 
 withdraw from the door of the archives, the entrance to 
 which she had prepared to defend in person. But, 
 naturally, Keith would have been obliged to order the 
 removal of the Queen by force, had it been necessary ; 
 and her threat, that he would be disgraced before the 
 eyes of all Europe after such treatment, and would be 
 abandoned to shame by his own king, would have failed 
 to make any impression on the experienced soldier." 2 
 
 Carlyle has looked at the official account of this trans- 
 action furnished to his own Court by Steinberg, the 
 
 1 Carlyle's ' Frederick the Great/ iv. 389. 
 
 2 Von Ense, pp. 117, 118. 
 
342 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Austrian ambassador. Though Keith was in command, 
 it appears that the officer told off for the special duty of 
 opening the cabinet was Wangenheim. The Queen stood 
 before the door, and said that, if violence were to be 
 used, it had best begin with her ; but on being assured 
 that force actually would be used, she gave way, and 
 avoided actual handling. 1 
 
 The German biographer tells us that " Keith continued 
 to enjoy the King's entire confidence and favour, and re- 
 commended himself by many services not within the class 
 of duties for which his services were retained. At one 
 time we find him interceding for an English manufacturer 
 of woollen goods to be allowed to settle in Prussia ; at 
 another time seeking to open the East Indian trade to 
 Prussian industry. He takes the trouble to translate the 
 debates of the British Parliament for the King's perusal." 
 We are then told of designs furnished by Keith for 
 massive bridges over the Spree, which had to be post- 
 poned while the King organised his larger projects; and 
 then come some little affairs, which show, what is not 
 generally known in this country, that the Field-Marshal 
 was an authority on matters of art. 
 
 "In March 1756 the King found time, and was in the 
 humour, to listen to proposals addressed to his artistic 
 taste. Keith became the medium of ordering pictures 
 from the Italian painters, Pompeo Battoni and Constanzo; 
 also from the then celebrated Mengs, whom the King 
 wished to paint for him two pictures, for which he pro- 
 poses as suitable subjects 'The Education of Adonis' 
 and 'The Judgment of Tiresias.' The prices to be 
 paid, and the conclusion of the business, he leaves alto- 
 gether to Keith's decision and judgment ; who in April, 
 during his journey through the country to Karlsbad, 
 arranges the affair in Dresden, and sends the pictures, 
 together with the correspondence about them, to the 
 King. On this Frederick answers : ' My dear Field- 
 Marshal, I send you back your correspondence about 
 the pictures, thanking you for the trouble you have taken 
 
 1 Carlyle, iv. 524. 
 
THE SOLDIER. 343 
 
 in the affair. Would you have the kindness to order the 
 two pictures from Mengs, and to tell me to whom and 
 by whom I should have the money placed, so that I may 
 pay in advance on my return from Magdeburg ? I hope 
 with all my heart that the waters may do you all the 
 good possible, assuring you of the high esteem and 
 friendship which I shall preserve for you all my life.' " J 
 The soldier who puts his sword at the command of 
 a foreign power, whether from merely mercenary or from 
 higher motives, cannot expect that lofty fame which 
 attends the patriot hero. There are few interested in 
 immortalising him. It is not a pleasant task to the his- 
 torian of the country he has served, to dwell on the 
 merits and achievements of the stranger, and give him 
 the fame of their national victories. The enemy cannot 
 be expected to sound his praise ; and to his own country- 
 men he is in some measure a deserter. Whether it be 
 from the natural propensity of the biographer to construct 
 a hero, or from the influence of honest truth, the German 
 biographer gives Keith a far more important place in the 
 Seven Years' War than one finds usually assigned to him. 
 He felt as every native of this country should feel, a 
 loathing at the waste of human life he had seen in Russian 
 operations; and from Frederick's difficulty of getting 
 troops, and his policy of making them valuable by train- 
 ing, an economical commander was a great object to him. 
 Here are some of the incidents of the campaign of 1757. 
 When Frederick had recovered from his great disaster, 
 had fought the battle of Prague, and was besieging that 
 town, Keith's division was seriously endangered by an 
 attempt at a surprise. "During the night between the 
 23d and the 24th of May, Prince Charles of Lorraine, 
 with 12,000 men, made a violent attack on Keith's 
 post. The best Austrian troops were chosen for this 
 purpose; the greater part of their cavalry, the whole 
 of the grenadiers, and sixteen volunteers out of each 
 ordinary company, had formed before the ramparts, to 
 
 1 Von Ense, pp. 109-113. The King's letter, like all the others 
 from him quoted in this little book, is in French. 
 
344 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 take immediate advantage of every success, and to cut 
 their way through the Prussian line. Brandy was dis- 
 tributed to the men, and the assurance was given at the 
 same time that a French army would attack the Prussian 
 rear. In dead silence the troops marched out of the 
 camp under the command of General Laudon, arranged 
 themselves in battle array, and then pressed forwards 
 towards the left wing of the Prussian army. At about 
 half -past one the first shots were fired. Keith was 
 immediately on horseback, and gave orders; in fifteen 
 minutes the Prussians stood ready. The troops in the 
 intrenchments, which were first stormed, fought bravely, 
 and kept the enemy's superior force at bay until they 
 received support. Reiterated assaults were vigorously 
 driven back. At three o'clock Keith himself appeared 
 on the front, and flung the Austrians back, with the loss 
 of 1000 killed and wounded. . . . The King, who 
 heard of the battle in his camp at Saint Michael, on the 
 other side of the Moldau, without being able to par- 
 ticipate in it, was much delighted at Keith's victory, and 
 hoped to reap great results from it. He wrote, May 24, 
 in his own handwriting : * My dear Field- Marshal, The 
 night of the 23d will prove as decisive as the day of the 
 6th. I thank Heaven for the advantages which you have 
 gained over the enemy above all, for the slight loss 
 which we have sustained. I hope now, more than ever, 
 that all that race of Austrian princes and gueux will 
 be obliged to lay down their arms. It is possible for 
 4000 men to attack Kirschfeldt ; but the Austrians from 
 Prague undertake more than their forces are capable 
 of accomplishing in attacking a corps of my alert and 
 well -posted troops. I believe that the honour of the 
 generals will force them to make another attempt on my 
 position ; but if that fails, and if the bombardment makes 
 some progress, all will be well. I salute you, my dear 
 Field-Marshal, with all my heart. FREDERICK/" 
 
 In a postscript he again refers with glee to le peu dt 
 perte. J 
 
 1 Von Ense, pp. 151-153' 
 
THE SOLDIER. 345 
 
 The ordinary histories state how, in October 1757, 
 Keith was driven into Leipzig, and there held out till 
 relieved by the King ; but the biographer tells us a good 
 deal more. " On October the 22d, Keith informed the 
 King that the enemy were advancing towards Leipzig 
 both French and Imperialists. It appeared impossible to 
 hold the town against such a superior force. But Frede- 
 rick wrote from Grochwitz on the 2$d: ' You will not be 
 attacked by these people at Leipzig ; they fear destroying 
 the town ; but as they are growing audacious now, I flatter 
 myself that, in marching towards them, a battle may ensue 
 which will rid me of them.' Besides this the King pro- 
 mises speedy help ; Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick is 
 advancing round by Halle, and he himself only waits for 
 Prince Maurice of Dessau to march on Leipzig also. 
 Keith promised to hold out, although he did not conceal 
 the fact that, in the case of a serious attack, he would be 
 lost ; for the place had scarcely any fortifications left, and 
 he was destitute of ammunition even cartridges. On 
 the 24th of October, Austrian hussars appeared, against 
 whom Keith sent a party, who skirmished with them for 
 three hours. On the same day a division of the enemy's 
 army, consisting of more than 8000 men, followed, and 
 summoned the Prussians to surrender in the name of the 
 Prince of Hildburghausen, who commanded the Imperial 
 army. Counting all the men hurriedly collected by Keith 
 out of Halle, Merseburg, and Weiszenfels, his forces 
 scarcely amounted to 4000 men. The Prince of Hildburg- 
 hausen and the Prince of Soubise had already been in- 
 formed at Nuremberg, on the 22d, that the number did 
 not exceed this, and had joked a great deal about that 
 ' army ; ' they scarcely expected resistance. But Keith 
 let them know, through the commandants of the town, 
 that he would defend it to the last man, and in his own 
 name he added : ' Tell the Prince of Hildburghausen that 
 by birth I am a Scotsman, by choice and duty a Prussian ; 
 and I am determined so to defend the town that neither 
 the Scotch nor the Prussians shall be ashamed of me. 
 The King my master has commanded me to keep the 
 place, and I shall keep it.' The next morning early he 
 
346 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 assembled the town-council before him, and made the 
 following address to them : ' I must inform you, gentle- 
 men, that the Prince of Hildburghausen has sent me a 
 summons to surrender the town to him, which, however, 
 I am not going to do. He threatens, in case of a refusal, 
 to resort to extreme measures. Thus he sets me an ex- 
 ample to do so likewise ; and so to him you must impute 
 the misfortune to which your town is exposed. If you 
 wish to avoid this, I advise you to go to him, and per- 
 suade him, for your sakes, and those of the rest of the 
 inhabitants, to spare the town, for otherwise I will burn 
 the suburbs on the first news of his attack ; and if that 
 will not stop him, I shall go and not even spare the 
 town.' The delegates could make nothing of the Prince ; 
 he would grant no more than permission to the Prussians 
 to leave the town unhindered. When Keith rejected a 
 second summons, and also this degrading offer, the Prince 
 was enraged, and sent him a message to say, that if 
 Leipzig was set on fire he would lay Berlin and Potsdam 
 in ashes. Keith laughed at this threat, and made every 
 preparation for defence, had trenches dug, ramparts 
 raised, and set hussars and riflemen to skirmish with the 
 enemy. Frederick wrote to Keith from Eulenberg, Oc- 
 tober 25th : 'Be easy ; the Prince of Hildburghausen will 
 not eat you ; I will answer for it.' And Keith answered 
 on the 26th : ' I have just received the letter in which 
 your Majesty tells me that you are going to bring me 
 powder, artillery, and everything needful. When I have 
 that, he who wishes to eat me will perhaps find me a very 
 tough morsel/ " l 
 
 There is not perhaps very much colour in the following 
 sketch of Keith's social character, but it gives glimpses of 
 a fine nature : " The friendly intimacy between Keith and 
 the King was never shaken, unless that sometimes the 
 press of business and the emergencies of warfare called 
 forth a hasty or harsh word, which, however, never 
 awakened anger in Keith, and was soon followed by ex- 
 pressions of confidence and affection from the King. All 
 
 1 Von Ense, pp. 181-183. 
 
THE SOLDIER. 347 
 
 Frederick's generals had to suffer from his bad humour, 
 but he no less from their touchiness and jealousy. Win- 
 terfeldt and Keith were exceptions ; and Keith was the 
 least burdensome to the King through discontent and 
 ambition, agreed with his brother officers, obeyed and 
 commanded with the same zeal, and led the smallest corps 
 as willingly as he would a whole army. He stood on 
 amicable terms with Schwerin. Schmettau was devoted 
 to him ; Winterfeldt enjoyed his esteem ; Seydlitz and 
 Zieten seemed, without any near personal relation, to hold 
 by him. The only person spoken of as really an enemy 
 of Keith is Prince Maurice of Dessau, who tried secretly 
 to slander him to the King ; but that brave, but at the 
 same time unsociable and reckless prince, who could not 
 speak French, and only stuttered German, had conse- 
 quently very few collisions with Keith; and when he 
 once, in Dresden, in a fit of hypocrisy or humour, showed 
 Keith the most enthusiastic devotion, and even kissed his 
 saddle-cloth, Keith responded only with a smile, and the 
 words ' Good, good ! ' which Kalckreuth interprets as, 
 'Be off! I don't believe you.'" 1 
 
 His end was that which the true soldier desires. He 
 was killed by a cannon-shot in the great battle of Hoch- 
 kirche in 1758. Besides other and more conspicuous 
 commemorations, his monument, with Metastasio's inscrip- 
 tion, was placed in the village church of Hochkirche by 
 his cousin Sir Robert Murray Keith, who thus writes 
 about it : " Lord Marischal has agreed to my erecting a 
 decent gravestone to the memory of his late brother, and 
 in the place where he fell. They sent me two inscrip- 
 tions, but they were long and languid. I have engaged 
 Baron Hagen and his friend Metastasio to touch me up 
 something manly and energetic ; and in the course of this 
 summer my tribute of veneration for the memory of a 
 brave and honest man will be recorded in monumental 
 marble." 2 
 
 1 Von Ense, p. 271. 
 
 1 'Memoirs of Sir R. Murray Keith,' i. 151. The inscription is : 
 1 Jacobo Keith, Gulielmi Comitis Marescalli hereditarii regni Scotiae, 
 
348 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Besides Keith, there were many one is inclined to 
 think, too many Scotsmen employed in the construction 
 and consolidation of the power of Russia. Our old friend 
 Sir Thomas Urquhart, writing before the middle of the 
 seventeenth century, professes to give a list of " those 
 Scottish colonels that served under the great Duke of 
 Muscovy against the Tartar and Polonian." Of these, 
 one very conspicuous man, Thomas Game or Garden, 
 was elected king of Bukharia "for the height and gross- 
 ness of his person being in his stature taller, and greater 
 in his compass of body, than any within six kingdoms 
 about him." Urquhart, who professes to have been ac- 
 quainted with this giant, and who maintains that his 
 mental was as conspicuous as his corporeal superiority, 
 states that, on account of a small personal sacrifice that 
 was required of him, he declined the Mohammedan prin- 
 cipality, and remained in the Muscovite service. The 
 bearded grim old Dalyell of Binns was bred in the same 
 service, and hence his paroxysm of rage on being called 
 at the council-board " a Muscovy beast, who had roasted 
 men." 
 
 Gordons seem to have been in great force in the court 
 and camp of Peter the Great. One of them, a general, 
 wrote a life of the Czar ; another wrote what is far more 
 interesting, his own life in the form of a diary, from which 
 I have drawn the following sketches : 1 
 
 Gordon was a native of Buchan. Washington Irving 
 attributed in a great measure to the influence of the fine 
 scenery of the Hudson, that genial and imaginative turn 
 of mind which has made his works so pleasing. Perhaps 
 the scenery of Buchan had its influence in toning the in- 
 tellect of Patrick Gordon. The staple of the district is a 
 
 et Marise Drummond filio, Frederic! Borussorum regis summo exer- 
 citus Prsefecto, viro antiquis moribus et militari vertute claro, qui 
 dum in praelio non procul hinc inclinatam suorum aciem mente, 
 manu, voce, et exemplo restituebat, pugnans ut heroes decet, occubuit 
 et xiv. Octobris, anno MDCCLVIII. " 
 
 1 * Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auch- 
 leuchries, A.D. 1635 A. D. 1699.' Printed for the Spalding Club, 
 1859- 
 
THE SOLDIER. 349 
 
 flat cake of granite, which nature has clothed inland with 
 heather and seaward with sand, although the indomitable 
 perseverance of the inhabitants has made many an acre 
 smile in grain and pasture. How hard their struggle has 
 been is exemplified by one parish, which, after being 
 rescued from barrenness, was again, in one night, covered 
 deep in sand ; the walls of the church may be seen peep- 
 ing through the yellow waste. This unlovely district sig- 
 nally contradicts the theory that grand scenery is neces- 
 sary to the production of great men. Perhaps it has not 
 given much to the world in the shape of aesthetics or the 
 lyre though there are a set of curious poems in "broad 
 Buchan." But it has supplied men of the clearest brains, 
 the strongest arms, and the most determined wills, to 
 a country in which these commodities have never been 
 wanting. 
 
 There is something savouring of granite and east wind 
 in the harsh nomenclature of Gordon's surroundings. 
 The paternal estate dreary and sterile enough, no doubt 
 bore the name of Auchleuchries, of old a dependency 
 of the barony of Ardendraught. Then we have among 
 his ancestry Ogilvy of Blarac, and the Gordons of Pitlurg, 
 of Straloch, and of Coclarachy, and their feudal foe, 
 Strachan of Achnagat, and Patrick's neighbour, Buchan 
 of Auchmacoy, with whom, after he has become a great 
 man, he has a merry rouse and a reminiscence of auld 
 langsyne at my Lord Chancellor's table. To such topo- 
 graphical characteristics might be added Bothmagoak, 
 Ardendracht, Auchmedane, Auchmyliny, Kynknoky, Auch- 
 quhorteis, Creichie, Petuchry, and others equally adapted 
 for pronunciation by Cockney lips. 
 
 Patrick was born in 1635. ^is father was not the 
 laird but " the gudeman " of Auchleuchries an import- 
 ant distinction in the homely hierarchy of ranks beyond 
 the Grampians. An estate held directly of the Crown 
 was a lairdship ; when lands were held of any of the 
 great families, such as the Dukes of Gordon or Earls of 
 Sutherland, they were but a gudemanship. In 1640, on 
 Lammas-day, he was sent to school at Grochdan, "and 
 put to lodge and dyet by a widow called Margaret Allan." 
 
350 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Four years afterwards he migrated to a school at Achridy; 
 and then, the great troubles of the seventeenth century 
 having broken out, "all public schools were abandoned;" 
 so he went to live with his father at Achmade, the genius 
 of the Buchan guttural seeming still to guide his steps. 
 
 In 1651, being sixteen years of age, he entered on the 
 great resolution which decided his destiny. He belonged 
 to a family, or to " a house," as he calls it for it was not 
 becoming to apply the humble word family to his illus- 
 trious ancestors who followed the old faith, the prospects 
 of which were becoming darker every day ; and so, after 
 giving certain reasons for the step he was going to take, 
 he says " But most of all, my patrimony being but small, 
 as being the younger son of a younger brother of a 
 younger house, I resolved, I say, to go to some foreign 
 country, not caring much on what pretence, or to which 
 country I should go, seeing I had no known friend in any 
 foreign place." Patrick being obstinate, his father and 
 uncle accompanied him to Aberdeen, where, with a pro- 
 vision in clothes and money, he went on board a mer- 
 chant-ship belonging to Danzig, David Bartlman, skipper. 
 The vessel touched at Elsinore, where, he says, "we went 
 ashore, and dined in a Scotsman's house very well for 
 twelvepence a man, and at night returned to the ship." 
 On reaching his destination at Danzig, he "lodged in 
 a Scotsman's house, in the Holy Ghost Street, our land- 
 lord being called John Donaldson." As he began, so 
 he went on, finding fellow-countrymen dotted here and 
 there at convenient posting distances, on through Austria 
 and Russia, to the very extremities of European civilisa- 
 tion. He set off for Konigsberg with another country- 
 man of his own, Thomas Menzies, and on the way met 
 with Father Blackball, also a native of Scotland, eminent 
 among the Jesuits. l Another countryman and Jesuit 
 
 1 See 'A Brief Narrative of the Services performed to Three Noble 
 Ladies.' By Gilbert Blackball. Printed for the Spalding Club. 
 It is so full of interesting incidents, both in France and Scotland, 
 that I have been afraid to begin with it, lest it should add to an 
 unexpectedly enlarging book. 
 
THE SOLDIER. 351 
 
 priest, named Alexander Michael Menzies, now casts up ; 
 and Gordon finds himself how, he does not explain, nor 
 does he seem to have himself known in the toils of this 
 scheming and zealous order. He found himself a student 
 at a college they had at Branensburg, near Konigsberg ; 
 but, though a zealous Romanist, this was far from being 
 the destiny he desired : " albeit," he says, " I wanted not 
 for anything, the Jesuits always bestowing extraordinary 
 pains, and taking great care in educating youth ; yet 
 could not my humour endure such a still and strict way 
 of living." He resolved to be off. It is evident that a 
 feeling of respect prevents him from explaining that he 
 was in some shape under restraint, since the method of 
 his departure was an escape, planned with a special view 
 to avoid the vigilance of Father Blackball. Not seeing 
 any other path open to him, it was his intention to 
 return home an intention in which he was frustrated by 
 his destiny. 
 
 He thus rather picturesquely describes his departure : 
 " On a Tuesday, about ten o'clock, I took my journey 
 on foot to save expenses, for I had no more money left 
 than seven rixdollars and a half, and one suit of clothes 
 which I had on. So, taking my cloak and a little bag, 
 wherein were my linens and some books, with a staff in 
 my hand, I pilgrim' d it away all alone. I had not learned 
 any Dutch, by reason of our speaking Latin in the college, 
 but had acquired and written down some words necessary 
 for asking the way, victuals, and suchlike. My port- 
 mantel I carried for ease on my back betwixt villages, 
 or when I did see nobody; but, coming to any village 
 or meeting anybody, I took it under my arm. Thus 
 accoutred, I went privately round the old town, P. 
 Menzies only convoying me to the highway. I walked 
 the well-known way through the wood to Frawensberg, 
 pleasing myself either with trifling fancies, or such objects 
 as offered on the way." 
 
 It was all very pleasant at first, and until the hardships 
 and dangers of such an enterprise began to press upon 
 him. After a while, he came to that established curse of 
 the pedestrian's existence a severance of the roads to 
 
352 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 right and left, with nothing whatever except a fortunate 
 guess to indicate the one he ought to take. To add to 
 the unpleasantness of the difficulty, he had entered a 
 forest ; but there was nothing for it save to choose the 
 likelier of the two ways. It was then that the first cloud 
 passed over the boy's heart. 
 
 "After I had gone a pretty way into the wood, and 
 doubting whether I was right or not, I began with serious 
 thoughts to consider my present condition, calling to mind 
 from whence I was come from my good, loving parents 
 and friends and where I was now, among strangers 
 whose language I understood not, travelling, myself knew 
 not well whither, having but seven dollars by me, which 
 could not last long, and when that was gone I knew not 
 where to get a farthing more for the great journey and 
 voyage which I intended. To serve or work I thought 
 it a disparagement ; and to beg, a greater. With these 
 and suchlike thoughts, I grew so pensive and sad, that, 
 sitting down, I began to lament and bewail my miserable 
 condition. Then, having my recourse to God Almighty, 
 I, with many tears, implored His assistance, craving also 
 the intercession of the blessed Virgin and all the saints 
 in heaven. Then, getting up, I went forward, continuing 
 in prayer with great fervency, when on a sudden, from 
 the right hand, came an old man riding, whose grey hairs 
 might exact and force reverence from the haughtiest 
 heart. He, seeing me crying in crossing my way, said 
 to me in Dutch, which I understood so ' Cry not, my 
 child; God will comfort you.' I was very astonished 
 at his sudden appearance and words, and also ashamed 
 that anybody should see me in such a plight. However, 
 keeping on my way, I began to recollect myself, and 
 to think that God had sent this old man of purpose 
 to direct me from such passionate fits, the conceit 
 whereof made me rouse up myself and walk on more 
 cheerfully." 
 
 He does not tell how it was that the old man spoke 
 in a language understood by him; but the passage is 
 sufficient to show how, even when he feels himself sub- 
 dued by the overwhelming conditions he is surrounded 
 
THE SOLDIER. 353 
 
 by, the natural pride and self-reliance of the Scot break 
 forth. Far from seeking help or protection from the 
 august stranger, he is ashamed that human eyes should 
 have beheld him in his moment of transitory weakness. 
 At night he comes to a village, and lodges in the cruc, 
 the term by which he almost always designates an ale- 
 house or village tavern : it is a variation of the Low Dutch 
 kroeg, which has the same signification. The landlord 
 asked him various questions, to which he returned no 
 answer, for the satisfactory reason that he did not under- 
 stand them. However, they sat at meals together, and 
 he indulged in half a stoup of beer. When he asked for 
 a sleeping-place, he was shown an empty waggon in the 
 stable, and then he laid his cloak one half above and one 
 half under him, with his coat and portmanteau under his 
 head; and so (being exceedingly wearied) he laid him 
 down. 
 
 A good-natured maid of the inn had already shown the 
 boy some kindness; and ere he went to sleep, "by-and- 
 by came the maid, and, reaching me a pillow, began to 
 laugh downright, then jumped away in such haste, as 
 if she had been afraid of some infection. I made but 
 one sleep the whole night, and got up half an hour before 
 the sun, and, bringing my pillow to the room, asked what 
 I had to pay. The landlady told me a stoup of beer, 
 which I paid; and then asked what I had to pay for 
 victuals, and she answering, Nothing, I thanked, and 
 went on my way." 
 
 The full significance of such a picture of sordid hard- 
 ship can only be felt by keeping in view the climax to 
 which the narrative is gradually coming. The poor 
 youth, who endures all that is endured by the beggar's 
 brat, except that he will not beg, rises to an eminence 
 which, in power and external pomp, far excels that of 
 the greatest nobles in his own poor but free country. 
 Covered with the many honours and decorations of the 
 barbarian Court of the Czar invested with vast estates 
 and feudal powers he becomes more like a petty sov- 
 ereign than a subject. 
 
 In his next day's journey he fell in with two "sturdy 
 Z 
 
354 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 fellows," both professing to be, like himself, on their way 
 to Danzig. They pestered him with questions, against 
 which he had his old defence ; and although he appears 
 to have believed that they had evil designs, and was 
 warned against one of them as a professed robber, he 
 seems to have thought that the meagreness of his purse 
 would protect him against this, as his deficiency in lan- 
 guage protected him from the lesser evil. Two days 
 being passed, he says, "The next morning I was not 
 able to go farther. My feet, not being used to such hard 
 travel, were full of blisters, and the skin off in many 
 places." He got a cast in a waggon, and at last reached 
 Danzig, where he found his old landlady. Poor comfort 
 awaited him here, however : he was told that the last ship 
 of the season bound for the British Isles had sailed, and 
 he must have to wait some ten months for the next year's 
 fleet. What was he to do? 
 
 His countrymen seem to have swarmed in the district, 
 for his landlady had only to let it be known that she had 
 a Scottish youth on her hands who seemed in great per- 
 plexity, and was, as she feared, in need of money, to 
 bring a crowd of them to her table. They offered aid to 
 their countryman, but not in the direction of his am- 
 bition, for they had followed the arts of peace, but his 
 selected destiny was war. Yet they were kind in advis- 
 ing him, and it was his interest as well as his desire to 
 be civil to them. "So, the next day at dinner, these 
 merchants began to persuade me to turn merchant, to 
 the which I, finding my nature averse, answered in fair 
 terms however, not being willing to disoblige any." 
 
 The practical conclusion of the advice he received was, 
 that his best chance was in Poland ; and he set out, con- 
 sequently, on a devious journey to Warsaw. He was 
 recommended to take on his way a countryman, of his 
 own clan, "living in a town called Culm, about twenty 
 miles off, who was a very civil man, and would be very 
 glad of my company." 
 
 He sailed along the Vistula in a flat-bottomed barge. 
 There was no room for stepping about ; he could only 
 crouch in one position ; and his sole relaxation was an 
 
THE SOLDIER. 355 
 
 occasional walk on the bank, as the lazy vessel sweltered 
 along. But the view, whether from the vessel or the 
 towing-path, was not interesting, for the river was lined 
 with high embankments, over which nothing could be 
 seen but the occasional top of a house. 
 
 At Culm his countryman received him, and harboured 
 him during the winter months, when travelling was im- 
 practicable. His impatience to start for Warsaw was 
 excited by the welcome news that the Duke Ivan Radze- 
 vill "had a life-company, all or most Scotsmen," which 
 he might pretty securely calculate on entering. 
 
 He arrived at Warsaw when the Seym, or national par- 
 liament, was sitting, and took a lodging in the Lescziniski 
 suburb. There was no Radzevill with his life-company 
 of Scots there, however ; and, bitterly disappointed, Gor- 
 don again thought there was nothing for it but to return 
 to Scotland. There were many of his countrymen in 
 Warsaw, but his pride would not permit him to approach 
 them in his penury and dejection, for he had but eight or 
 nine florins left, wherewith, as he justly remarks, he " was 
 not able to subsist long in Warsaw, nor travel far either." 
 He got an opportunity of being franked to Posen, by a 
 man who went thither in charge of several horses, and 
 seems to have worked his way by assisting in driving 
 the horses. Posen is one of the few places which have 
 tempted him out of his Spartan or Buchan brevity: 
 "The buildings are all brick more after the ancient 
 form, but very convenient, especially those lately builded. 
 The market-place is spacious, having a pleasant fountain 
 in each corner ; the shops all in rows, each trade apart, 
 and a stately Radthouse, &c. There are divers mon- 
 asteries of both sexes and several orders, and a vast 
 cathedral, which make a stately show. The suburbs 
 are large, and decored with churches and monasteries. 
 The city is fortified with a brick wall, yet very tenable 
 by reason of its vastness. But that which surpasseth 
 all is the civility of the inhabitants, which is occasioned 
 by its vicinity to Germany, and the frequent resorting 
 of strangers to the two annual fairs, and every day al- 
 most. The Poles also, in emulation of the strangers 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 dwelling amongst them, strive to transcend one another 
 in civility." 
 
 There he immediately met a fellow-countryman named 
 Lindsay, whose conduct put the youth's pride and saga- 
 city both to the test. " He was imperiously inquisitive 
 of my parents, education, travels, and intentions." On 
 being told of his birth, the stranger exclaimed " Gordon 
 and Ogilvie ! ! these are two great clans ; sure you must 
 be a gentleman." Patrick knew this to be said in de- 
 rision of his sordid condition ; but he sagaciously made 
 answer, that he hoped he " was not the worse for that." 
 The kindness he received at Posen probably gave him 
 his favourable impression of the place, for he was seized 
 on by a swarm of his fellow-Scots "Robert Farquhar, 
 James Fergusson, James Lindsay, James White, James 
 Watson, and others." They recommended him to the 
 good graces of a young nobleman named Oppalinski, 
 with whom he travelled, in what capacity does not clearly 
 appear, to Hamburg. 
 
 This was in the year 1655, when Hamburg, like many 
 towns in Northern Germany, was filled with emissaries 
 recruiting for the great Swedish army, and all the inns 
 were full of cavaliers "ranting and carousing." Patrick 
 evidently felt, though he does not tell, that as this great 
 mustering and marshalling afforded various opportunities, 
 differing greatly from each other, for effecting his design, 
 he must be cautious, and pick his footing warily. He was 
 strongly tempted by the talk of two recruiting officers, a 
 cornet and quartermaster, who, knowing wnence he came 
 and what his views were, showed him much kindness and 
 attention, he permitting them no opportunity for fixing 
 their society on him save at meal-time. 
 
 The recruiter is probably much the same all the world 
 over, and the following is as good a specimen of him as 
 Sergeant Kite : " In all their discourses they extolled a 
 soldier's life, telling that riches, honours, and all sorts of 
 worldly blessings lay prostrate at a soldier's feet, wanting 
 only his will to stoop and take them up ; then falling out 
 in commendation of our countrymen, than whom no 
 better ' sojers ' were of any nation to be found, and that 
 
THE SOLDIER. 357 
 
 albeit nature had endowed them with a genius fit for 
 anything, yet did they despise the ease, advantage, or 
 contentment any other trade might bring, and embraced 
 that of a soldier, which, without all dispute, is the most 
 honourable." 
 
 No compliments could be more skilfully put, and no 
 sentiments could have been expressed more in harmony 
 with those which were fermenting in the mind of the am- 
 bitious young Scot ; but he believed he could make a better 
 bargain for himself than these men could give him, and he 
 held on till, one day at dinner, the quartermaster electri- 
 fied him by the information that there was in the city a 
 Scotsman a neighbour in fact, a member of the wor- 
 shipful family of Gordon of Troup, in Banffshire, holding 
 the rank of Rittmaster. This was conclusive, and away 
 the youth hied to pay his respects where they were so 
 eminently due. " I told him that, hearing of a person of 
 such quality as he was being come to this city, I could 
 not be satisfied with myself until I had paid my respects 
 to him with a visit, hoping that he would pardon my 
 abrupt intruding myself," &c. There was much coming 
 and going of military people, and trampling to and fro, 
 in the Rittmaster's house. At a carouse where they 
 "were all pretty well warmed," the important question 
 was opened : but he was still cautious, and mumbled 
 something about his intention of returning home. They 
 laughed at him, and insisted that his friends would say 
 he had gone to the Continent to see what o'clock it 
 was, and returned as wise as he went. " But what 
 needed," he says, " many persuasions, it being a course 
 to the which I was naturally inclined ? So that without 
 any further circumstance, I gave my promise to go along, 
 so ignorant I was of such matters at that time/' 
 
 His career at this juncture was interrupted by a remit- 
 tent fever, which threatened abruptly to close it. On the 
 1 5th of July 1656 he joined the Swedish army, encamped 
 on a large meadow near Stettin. " It consisted of thirty 
 brigades of foot and 7000 Reiters, being in all about 
 17,000 men, with a gallant train of artillery. It was a 
 most delightful and brave show, the Reiters being very 
 
358 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 well mounted, and the foot well clothed and armed, and 
 above all, the officers in extraordinary good equipage." 
 
 It has doubtless been seen already, and will presently 
 become more apparent, that Patrick Gordon did not 
 shackle himself with the higher motives professed by 
 Monro and his school. The soldiering of the day was no 
 longer in conflicts of principle like the struggle for freedom 
 in Holland and the Thirty Years' War, but had become a 
 mere scramble for territory among greedy kings. A youth 
 struggling upwards from sheer want, could not stand on 
 the dignity of his position and exercise a restraining in- 
 fluence on the rapacity of his royal employer as the Earl 
 Marischal or his brother might. Gordon went into the 
 system as he found it, pretty heartily ; and he affords us 
 a genuine, and perhaps a favourable, picture of the supe- 
 rior officer in the Continental wars, such as he was from 
 that day down to the first French Revolution. 
 
 He now held a command in that foolish invasion of 
 Poland, the first of those aggressive acts of Sweden which 
 gave her a bad character throughout Europe, and brought 
 her ultimately to grief. Patrick Gordon had perhaps as 
 much right, in consideration of his pay and rank, to plead 
 an honest espousal of the cause he was fighting for as any 
 other of its promoters, from the King of Sweden down- 
 wards. Professing no devotion to any higher motive for 
 his own conduct than a selfish ambition an aspiration 
 after military renown, rank, and pay, combined in large 
 and due proportions he took the measure of his master's 
 conduct in the following terms, which embrace his own 
 private opinion, as distinguished from the views adopted 
 by the philosophers and politicians of the age : " But, to 
 tell you briefly, the main reason was this. The Swedish 
 King having been bred a soldier, and having now obtained 
 the crown by the resignation of his cousin, Queen Chris- 
 tiana, would needs begin his reign by some notable action. 
 He knew that the remembrance of the honours and riches 
 obtained by many cavaliers in the German wars, under 
 the Swedish conduct, would bring great confluence of 
 soldiers to him when it should be known that he was to 
 arm, which, by reason of the late universal peace in Ger- 
 
THE SOLDIER. 359 
 
 many and the many forces lately disbanded, would be 
 more easily effectivated. Having in his conceit already 
 formed an army, there was no prince or people except 
 Poland to which he could have the least pretence albeit 
 princes indeed never want pretensions to satisfy their 
 ambition, and will have their pretences looked upon as 
 solid and just reason." 
 
 We shall see that Patrick Gordon practised and avowed 
 a code of political ethics which responded pretty accu- 
 rately to those of the ambitious king. But first I give a 
 passage which tells in a few words its own story, and fur- 
 nishes a powerful exemplification of the ferocity generated 
 by the contemporary civil conflicts in Britain : the date 
 is 1658. "Whilst we lay in this Werder, an English 
 ambassador called Bradshaw, having been on his journey 
 to Moscovia, and not admitted, returned this way, and 
 was lodged in Lamehand's tavern. We getting notice 
 thereof, and judging him to be that Bradshaw who sat 
 president in the highest court of justice upon our sov- 
 ereign King Charles I. of blessed memory, were resolved, 
 come what will, to make an end of him ; and being about 
 fifteen with servants, six whereof might be accounted 
 trusty weight men, the others also indifferent, we con- 
 cluded that, doing the feat in the evening, we could easily 
 make our escape by benefit of the strait ground and dark- 
 ness of the night, and so, being resolved, we took our way 
 thither. Being come near, and asking a boor come from 
 thence some questions, he told us that just now some 
 officers were come from Elbing to the ambassador, and 
 some forty dragoons who were to guard and convey him 
 to Marienburg, which made us despair of doing any 
 good, and so we returned. We had resolved to make our 
 addresses to him, as sent with a commission from Field- 
 Marshal Von der Linde to him; and being admitted 
 seven or eight of us, to have gone in and stabbed him, 
 the rest guarding our horses and the door ; and so, being 
 come to horse, make our escape to Danzig." 
 
 Even if they had been successful, they would have found 
 that they had not done " any good " in their own sense of 
 the term, for the Bradshaw they were to put to death was 
 
360 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 not the Eradshaw who had committed the mortal offence. 
 If they had slain him, no doubt they would have been 
 disappointed that they had thrown away their exertions 
 and peril in extinguishing the wrong life ; but Gordon has 
 not the affectation to express a word of thankfulness for 
 not having done it. He seems, on the whole, rather to 
 regret that a project so well planned should have come to 
 nothing. 
 
 So long as it remains a fixed principle that every writer 
 of biography is to bring his hero through, attributing to 
 him all the virtues under heaven, and fighting with sple- 
 netic bitterness against every accusation against him, it is 
 fortunate that we have autobiographies in which people 
 speak about their own conduct in a sensible, practical, 
 business-like way, without attempting to make themselves 
 better than the best men of their day, or even very much 
 better than they are. It is from good sort of fellows 
 not wiser than their neighbours, and not pretending to be 
 better telling a few facts without much consciousness of 
 their significance, that we know the truth about history 
 and the condition of governments and peoples. Take up 
 any ordinary history, and see what it says about any cam- 
 paign, in the European wars of the seventeenth century, 
 for instance. There are sentences duly turned and bal- 
 anced, about ravaging a territory from one extremity to 
 the other, sweeping away the fruits of the soil and the ac- 
 cumulated produce of industry, subjecting the people to 
 the horrors of military havoc, without respect for age or 
 sex, &c. ; and yet, if we read a memoir of any actor in 
 such scenes, we find him accredited to the world by his 
 biographer as everything that is disinterested and gentle- 
 manly, according to our modern notions of "an officer 
 and a gentleman." 
 
 Hence the use of people telling their own story in their 
 own way, and according to the lights conferred upon 
 them. If Gordon ever perpetrated what would have been 
 a crime in his own social circle, of course he would not 
 have told it, for his autobiography is not a confession ; 
 and except an occasional hard boose, with its consequent 
 headache, mentioned with an apologetic explanation that 
 
THE SOLDIER. 361 
 
 it was against his nature and forced upon him, he sets 
 forth his practice like a man who has nothing to be 
 ashamed of. The editor of the volume justly remarks 
 that, in some instances, he appears to have aided the 
 natural rapacity of the German mercenaries by what might 
 be called " a wrinkle " from Highland practice. Thus he 
 levies a sort of black-mail by engaging for certain dollars 
 to protect certain cattle ; and in other instances with the 
 full knowledge that the beasts have been driven away by 
 men under his own command, he claims and pockets 
 tribute for their restitution. 
 
 The way in which Gordon dealt with employers for his 
 services as a military commander would shock " the ser- 
 vice " at the present day ; but it is nevertheless as well 
 that we should know it from the statement of one who 
 practised it, and was so little ashamed of it as to be very 
 explicit about his method of transacting business. He 
 was repeatedly taken prisoner by the Poles, and on each 
 occasion tempted to serve with them; but he always 
 declined, and went back to the Swedes on exchange of 
 prisoners. At length, in 1659, after he had been four 
 years in the service, having come to the conclusion that 
 the Swedish cause was not likely to be a propitious one, 
 and being a prisoner in the hands of the Poles, who, 
 somewhat conveniently, refused in this instance to ex- 
 change him, he began to listen to the proposals made to 
 him. He was offered by John Sobieski, whom he calls 
 "a hard bargainer, but courteous," the command of a 
 body of troops permanently stationed on the Sobieski 
 domains a sort of household regiment apparently. 
 This offer did not suit his views, as he found that, how- 
 ever high and lucrative the appointment might be, it 
 shelved him out of the way of promotion. He preferred, 
 therefore, the next appointment offered to him, that of 
 quartermaster. He had not been long in the Polish ser- 
 vice ere he heard of the restoration of the Stewart dynasty, 
 and naturally thought of Britain as the proper field for 
 his ambition. " But," he says, " my father informing me 
 that the armies were disbanded, and that only a few 
 troops were continued in pay, and that the charge of 
 
362 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 these was given to the nobility, and to such persons as 
 had extraordinarily deserved and suffered for his Majesty, 
 and that without a good stock it was very hard living in 
 Scotland," he remained where he was, but not con- 
 tentedly, for the Polish army and the Diet were at feud, 
 and Gordon's sagacity taught him that the service was 
 not one of sufficient force and compactness to offer 
 scope for the genius of a great commander an outlook 
 in the direction of ambition, rare, it may be supposed, 
 among young soldiers just entering on their career, and 
 glad to have secured the first step. He had an eye then 
 on the service in which he finally distinguished himself. 
 " I had great temptation from the Muskovitish ambassa- 
 dors ; for having by order conducted some of their chief 
 officers to them about their ransom, as also they having 
 ransomed two officers from me, they very earnestly de- 
 sired their colonels to engage me in the Tzaar's service, to 
 the which I seemed to give half a willing ear. So they 
 promised that I should not be longer detained than three 
 years one year whereof to serve as major, and two for 
 lieutenant-colonel. Yet did I not accept of these offers, 
 but only kept them in hand to have another string for 
 my bow." 
 
 Meanwhile a prospect opened to him of service under 
 the head of all the Christian kings. "The Roman 
 emperor's ambassador, the Baron d'Isola, got orders 
 from the emperor to engage officers to levy a regiment 
 of horse; to which purpose he engaged Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Gordon, commonly called Steelhand, who, using 
 all the pressing reasons he could to persuade me to engage 
 with him, telling me of the honourable service, the good 
 pay, with the advantage and easiness of the levies at this 
 time ; wherewith being overcome, after mature consider- 
 ation I resolved to engage; and so we entered into a 
 stipulation, four of us, to levy a regiment of eight hundred 
 horse." The person called Steelhand was another Patrick 
 Gordon, who frequently figures in his namesake's narra- 
 tive. He was excommunicated in Scotland by his title 
 of "Patrick Gordon of the Steelhand" a designation 
 which he obtained doubtless not without fitting reasons, 
 
THE SOLDIER. 363 
 
 though they are not explained ; he was to be the colonel, 
 and, besides our hero, the other two field-officers were to 
 be John Watson and Major Davidson Scotsmen all. 
 
 This brilliant prospect was, however, immediately 
 blighted. "The tenth of July, by an express from 
 Vienna, the Roman emperor's ambassador received an 
 order not to engage any officers, or to capitulate for the 
 levying of men ; and if he had engaged any already, to 
 discharge them the handsomest way he could." Gordon 
 was retained in the service he had adopted, but not in a 
 shape suited to his ambition. He was to hold a second- 
 ary rank on a peace establishment, instead of casting his 
 lot into the chances and changes of the mighty contest 
 with the Turks, which was unfortunately, as he felt, com- 
 ing to a close. 
 
 He lets us into his secret estimate of his position, and 
 it seems to have been sagaciously taken. "Soldiers of 
 fortune," he says, " unless of great merit and long stand- 
 ing in that service, would be hardly admitted and little 
 regarded ; " and thus, if he were at last to obtain a com- 
 pany, he would be thrown an unoccupied stranger among 
 "men of great birth and rents, or well stocked and ac- 
 quainted with the ways of that country, where quarters, 
 accidencies, and shifts are the greatest part of their sub- 
 sistence." 
 
 He then bethought himself of the proffers which had 
 been made to him by his friend Zamiaty Fiodororovitz 
 Leontiuf, the Russian ambassador, and resolved to join 
 that service, if, on close examination, he should find it 
 adapted to his views. But he was ordered by the im- 
 perial authorities to go to Vienna, on duty, with de- 
 spatches -, and the question was, "how to come hand- 
 somely off" from the service he had so adopted. There 
 might be differences of opinion as to his method of 
 "coming handsomely off:" it involved a profession of 
 sickness, which, by the way, to the comfort of his con- 
 science if not of his body, ended in a real illness. 
 
 After many adventures he reached Riga, still feeling 
 his way before committing himself to the Russian service. 
 He was in search of General Douglas, who had, however, 
 
364 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 just marched onwards ; and the next statement shows, in 
 a characteristic light, how his countrymen dropped in 
 wherever he went. " I was very sorry, and so went into 
 the town to look for acquaintance. Coming to the 
 market-place, I did meet with my old comrades and 
 friends, Alexander Landells and Walter Airth, with whom 
 I went to a tavern and took a glass of wine, to whom 
 I revealed my intentions. These being out of service 
 themselves, having been lately disbanded by the Swedes, 
 were in a poor condition, and willing to engage any- 
 where; and told me that no service was to be had 
 among the Swedes; and besides, that it was so poor, 
 they having but pitiful allowance, that it was not worth 
 the seeking; that they had heard that the Muscovites' 
 pay, though not great, was duly paid, and that officers 
 were soon advanced to high degrees ; and many of our 
 countrymen, of great quality, were there, and some gone 
 thither lately; that they themselves, with many others 
 of our countrymen, and strangers, were resolving to go 
 thither, not knowing how to do better : so that the con- 
 sideration of a certain, at least, livelihood, preferment, 
 good company, and my former promises and engage- 
 ments, confirmed me in my resolution to go to Moscow." 
 
 So onward they went, having settled among each other 
 the relative ranks they were to accept in the service, until 
 at last " we came to Moscow, and hired a lodging in the 
 Slabod, or village where the strangers live. We were 
 admitted to kiss his Tzarasky Majesty's hand at Colu- 
 minsko, a country-house of the Tzaar's, seven versts from 
 Moscow, below the village of the same name. The 
 Tzaar was pleased to thank me for having been kind to 
 his subjects who had been prisoners in Poland ; and it 
 was told me that I should have his Majesty's grace or 
 favour, whereon I might rely." 
 
 It was on the 5th of September 1661 that the event 
 took place which not only decided the fate of the poor 
 wandering Scot, but had no little influence on the sub- 
 sequent destinies of Europe ; since, after his friend and 
 master Peter the Great, it may be questioned if any other 
 one man did so much for the early consolidation of the 
 
THE SOLDIER. 365 
 
 Russian empire as Patrick Gordon. His great services 
 date at a far later period ; but at the very beginning we 
 find him engaged in the faint remnant of a contest which, 
 though he seems to have been unconscious of it, was 
 really a life and death struggle of the imperial power for 
 predominance in its old domain of Muscovy. It is a 
 phase of European history not often kept in view, that 
 the corporate influence of the great towns maintained a 
 long contest with the predominant royal houses of Europe, 
 and that this contest had its very highest development 
 in Russia. The corporations, indeed, with Novgorod at 
 their head now that we look back on their power, and 
 compare it with other institutions commemorated in his- 
 tory were evidently so far the predominant power, that 
 had they been led by a few great men, they might have 
 kept out the empire, and preserved a rule over Russia 
 more like that of the East India Company's in Hindostan 
 than perhaps any other method of government on record. 
 It was to be otherwise, however ; and, as history tells us, 
 the great men came on the side of the empire, not of the 
 corporate republic. 
 
 When Gordon joined the service, the contest with the 
 corporations was nearly over. His " Tzaric Majesty " was 
 in a state of transition from " the Duke of Muscovia " of 
 old to " the Emperor of Russia " of our own day. It was 
 not long since the power of the corporations had been so 
 great, however, as to give significance to the old Russian 
 proverb, " Who can resist the great God and Novgorod?" 
 The annual market, drawing its traders from the extremity 
 of the empire, and from other empires, is the only existing 
 relic of its greatness. When Gordon and his companions 
 passed through it, he jotted down the following memor- 
 andum : "The town of Novgorod, called 'the Great,' 
 having been one of the greatest market-cities of Europe, 
 giveth name to a large dukedom, the greatest of all 
 Russia, where Rurick, from whom all the Russian princes 
 and dukes draw their original, did reign ; " and then he 
 refers to the ordinary histories for the cruelties which 
 Ivan the Terrible inflicted on the inhabitants when he got 
 access to the town. Another municipal relic which had 
 
366 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 " been a free principality in former times, until subdued 
 by the Tzar Ivan Vasiliovitz," attracted him by its faded 
 though not entirely ruined splendour. "About mid-day," 
 he says, "we had a sight of Plesko or Opsko, which had 
 a glorious show, being environed with a stone wall and 
 many towers. There are many churches and monasteries, 
 some whereof have three, some five steeples or towers, 
 whereon are round globes of six, eight, or ten fathoms 
 circumference, which, being covered with white iron or 
 plate, and thereon great crosses covered with the same, 
 make a great and pleasant show. One of these globes, 
 being the largest, is over-gilt." 
 
 That the municipal spirit, though broken, still lingered 
 among the people, is shown by such incidents as the follow- 
 ing, in which Gordon showed an early appreciation of the 
 approved Russian method of treating difficulties with the 
 ordinary citizen : " Some contentions did fall out betwixt 
 the officers and sojours with the rich burgesses, who would 
 not admit them into their houses. Among the rest, a 
 merchant, by whom my quarters were taken up whilst my 
 servants were cleaning the inner room ; he broke down 
 the oven in the utter room which served to warm both, so 
 that I was forced to go to another quarter. But, to teach 
 him better manners, I sent the profos (provost-marshal) 
 to quarter by him, with twenty prisoners and a corporal- 
 ship of sojours, who, by connivance, did grievously plague 
 him a week; and it cost him near a hundred dollars before 
 he could procure an order out of the right office to have 
 them removed, and was well laughed at besides for his 
 incivility and obstinacy." 
 
 This was very early in his career, and shows how 
 quickly he had learned that in Russia there was no jus- 
 tice to be got but what could be taken or bought. His 
 proud Scottish spirit, however, revolted against the slights 
 and impositions to which he was himself subjected, and 
 nothing but a threat to leave the service would bring " the 
 chancellor, being a most corrupt fellow," and his subor- 
 dinates, to acknowledge his position and claims. The 
 Russians had not yet been much accustomed to see the 
 adventurers from Scotland step in among them as their 
 
THE SOLDIER. 367 
 
 natural lords and masters ; and Gordon spoke of the ca- 
 lamity of leaving those countries, "where strangers had 
 great respect, and were in a great reputation, and even 
 more trust as the natives themselves ; and where a free 
 passage for all deserving persons lay open to all honour, 
 military and civil ; " and coming to a land where he per- 
 ceived " strangers t-o be looked upon as a company of 
 hirelings, and at the best (as they say of women) but neces- 
 saria mala; no honour or degree of preferment here to be 
 expected but military, and that with a limited command, 
 in the attainment whereof a good mediator or mediatrix, 
 and a piece of money or other bribe, is more available as 
 the merit or sufficiency of the person ; a faint heart under 
 fair plumes, and a cuckoe in gay clothes, being as ordin- 
 ary here as a counterfeited or painted visage." A certain 
 Boyar to whom he made his complaint, "being vexed, 
 caused stop his coach, and caused call the Diack ; 
 whom being come, he took by the beard, and shaked him 
 three or four times, telling him, if I complained again he 
 would cause knout him." Notwithstanding this broad 
 hint, the Diack showed no great improvement either in 
 civility or honesty when the Boyar's back was turned; 
 but when he heard one man in the rank of a gentleman 
 talk to another who happened to be his inferior in this 
 fashion, the Scot was fain to suppose that there was 
 an intention to propitiate him according to the national 
 manner. 
 
 Here is the way in which he entered on his duties. 
 " 1 66 1, September 17. I got orders to receive from a 
 Russ 700 men to be in our regiment, being runnaway 
 sojours out of several regiments, and fetched back from 
 divers places. Having received these, I marched through 
 the Sloboda of the strangers to Crasna Cella, where we 
 got our quarters, and exercised these soldiers twice a-day 
 in fair weather. September 20. I received money 
 twenty-five roubles for my welcome, and the next day 
 sables, and two days thereafter damask and cloth. Sep- 
 tember 25. I received a month's means in cursed cop- 
 per money, as did those who came along with me." 
 
 Gordon had roughed it for a quarter of a century in 
 
368 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 the service before he met his illustrious master Peter the 
 Great, with whose name his later achievements are his- 
 torically connected. Characteristically enough for one 
 who became notorious in later life as a lover of strong 
 drink, the young prince presented him, at their first meet- 
 ing, with a glass of brandy at least it is likely that no 
 smaller measure of the liquid is referred to in the follow- 
 ing notandum : " 1686, January 26, was at their majesty's 
 hands receiving a charke of brandy out of the youngest 
 his hand, with a command to return speedily." Peter 
 was then a boy fourteen years old ; but three years only 
 were to elapse ere a crisis, in which events, directed by 
 the sagacious old Scot to whom he presented a dram, were 
 to secure to him the throne he made so renowned. 
 
 The service by which Gordon set his mark on the his- 
 tory of Russia and of Europe was the subjugation of the 
 Strelitzers. These were a power more immediate and 
 menacing than the corporations, if not in reality so deeply 
 founded ; and it was necessary that this power should be 
 broken before the autocracy of the empire could be fully 
 developed. The Strelitzers were the guards or household 
 troops of Muscovy, and in their constitution and fate they 
 have often been compared with the Janissaries of Turkey. 
 They had been created by Ivan the Terrible, in the middle 
 of the sixteenth century, for the purpose of breaking the 
 power of the independent Boyards. Their distinctive 
 peculiarity that they were solely under the command of 
 the Czar himself intended to make them potent agents of 
 despotism, enabled them in reality to set up on their own 
 account. In their desire to take their orders immediately 
 from their master, they refused obedience to the officers 
 set over them ; and on some occasions showed their zeal 
 for their master by taking the labour and responsibility of 
 punishment out of his hands, and knouting, shooting, or 
 hanging those officers who had not, in their opinion, acted 
 faithfully in the discharge of their duty to the Czar. 
 
 It was a corollary, and a very formidable one, to such 
 principles of duty, that it lay with themselves to decide 
 who was the proper Czar from whom they were to take 
 their instructions. Such was the body with whom Peter 
 
THE SOLDIER. 369 
 
 had to deal in the early and unstable period of his reign. 
 Immediately before its commencement, they had per- 
 formed one of their most terrrible outbreaks of loyalty, 
 ending in the slaughter of several officers ; while others, 
 probably to save their lives, were knouted in the presence 
 of the Strelitzers to appease their just indignation, which, 
 like that of the Sepoys, arose out of a religious difficulty : 
 their consciences had been violated by their being ordered 
 on duty during Easter week. Gordon's first affair with 
 them appears to have given its turn to the memorable 
 struggle between Peter and his sister Sophia for the actual 
 government, while their imbecile brother Ivan still lived 
 and held nominal office as senior Czar. 
 
 The princess got the ear of the Strelitzers, who prom- 
 ised to surprise and slay her brother. According to 
 Gordon's account, they were as close to success as failure 
 could well be. He describes how his young master he 
 was then but seventeen hearing at dead of night that 
 the bloody band were surrounding him, sprang out of 
 bed, and, without waiting to dress himself, leapt upon a 
 horse and galloped to the nearest wood. There, waiting 
 a short time for clothing, he pursued his flight, and 
 reached the monastery of the Troitzca, or Holy Trinity, 
 about six o'clock in the morning. Here he was pro- 
 tected by the sanctity of the place, and issued his orders 
 to the officers of the Strelitzers, and to the foreign officers 
 in the Russian service. The former had taken their 
 course; the critical point lay with the foreigners. Gor- 
 don took a short time to consider and inquire. He then 
 said he had made up his mind : whatever orders came 
 from the Kremlin, he was to march to Troitzca, and take 
 his own orders there. This decided the others ; and the 
 foreign officers, with their troops, made their welcome 
 appearance at the gates of the monastery. The contest 
 was thus decided. Two days afterwards, the youth who 
 became Peter the Great entered Moscow in triumph; 
 and then of course came the usual conclusion of the 
 drama in torturings and executions. 
 
 The Strelitzers, as a body, conformed outwardly to the 
 new order, and remained composed and powerful as ever. 
 
 2 A 
 
370 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 It was in the year 1697 that Peter left his home on his 
 celebrated ramble among the working districts of Europe ; 
 and if he had not left Gordon with four thousand troops 
 under his separate command to guard the Kremlin, he 
 would probably have found a change of occupancy on his 
 return, and a difficulty in getting access to his own house. 
 The main army of Russia was then stationed on the frontiers 
 of Poland, for the purpose of influencing the election of a 
 king to succeed John Sobieski. A rumour spread through 
 the ranks of the Strelitzers that the Czar had died abroad; 
 and as they always felt it their duty to see the right per- 
 son placed on the throne, they resolved, without consult- 
 ing the Commander-in-chief, to march to Moscow, for 
 the purpose of installing the heir, Alexis Petrowich, and 
 appointing a regent during his minority. There were 
 thus eight thousand troops, in high discipline and com- 
 pact order, approaching the capital, and only four thou- 
 sand to defend it. Gordon seems to have at once re- 
 solved to save the town the horrors of a siege by meeting 
 the enemy at a distance. He had an element which 
 compensated the inequality of numbers, in the possession 
 of twenty-seven field-pieces six to ten pounders. He 
 intrenched himself strongly on the road which the muti- 
 neers must pass, never hesitating in the resolution to sub- 
 due them, or doubting his ability to do so. He parleyed 
 with and exhorted them over and over again to return to 
 their duty, and there is no doubt that he was sincere in 
 recording the sorrow he says he felt in the contemplation 
 of their fatal obstinacy. When he was driven to action, 
 he took that most humane of all courses when an irra- 
 tional and helpless mass of men are to be brought to 
 a sense of their position he made quick and sharp work 
 of it. His own brief and practical account of the con- 
 clusion is : 
 
 " I brought up the infantry and twenty-five cannon to 
 a fit position, surrounded their camp on the other side 
 with cavalry, and then sent an officer to summon and 
 exhort them once more to submit. As they again de- 
 clined, I sent yet another to demand a categorical de- 
 cision. But they rejected all proposals of compromise, 
 
THE SOLDIER. 371 
 
 and boasted that they were as ready to defend themselves 
 by force as we were to attack. Seeing that all hope of 
 their submission was vain, I made a round of the cannon 
 be fired. But, as we fired over their heads, this only em- 
 boldened them more, so that they began to wave their 
 colours, and throw up their caps, and prepare for resist- 
 ance. At the next discharge of the cannon, however, 
 seeing their comrades fall on all sides, they began to 
 waver. Out of despair, or to protect themselves from 
 the cannon, they made a sally by a lane, which, however, 
 we had occupied by a strong body. To make yet surer 
 I brought up several detachments to the spot, so as to 
 command the hollow way out of which they were issuing. 
 Seeing this, they returned to" their camp, and some of 
 them betook themselves to the barns and outhouses of 
 the adjoining village. At the third discharge of the guns, 
 many of them rushed out of the camp towards the infan- 
 try and cavalry. After the fourth round of fire, very few 
 of them remained in their waggon rampart ; and I moved 
 down with two battalions to their camp, and posted 
 guards round it. During this affair, which lasted about 
 an hour, a few of our men were wounded. The rebels 
 had twenty -two killed on the spot, and about forty 
 wounded, mostly mortally." 
 
 So far as open contest was concerned, the affair was at 
 an end. The conquest was obtained, one would say, at 
 a small sacrifice of life. But while, in ordinary warfare, 
 slaughter is at an end for a time when the battle is over, 
 and the victors are then occupied in saving the lives and 
 alleviating the sufferings of their enemies in such an 
 affair as this the slaughter and suffering were only in a 
 manner inaugurated by the battle; and the subsequent 
 journal, which records, not the victorious general's doings, 
 but other people's, has such entries as " To-day seventy 
 men were hanged, by fives and threes, on one gallows." 
 
 I must send the reader to the Diary itself for the suc- 
 cessive events of Gordon's long professional career. He 
 died on the 2Qth November 1699 ; and we are briefly but 
 effectively told by the editor of the Diary that " the Czar, 
 who had visited him five times in his illness, and had 
 
372 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 been twice with him during the night, stood weeping Dy 
 his bed as he drew his last breath and the eyes of him 
 who had left Scotland a poor unfriended wanderer were 
 closed by the hand of an emperor." 
 
 At a much later period Samuel Greig, another Scots- 
 man, gave a helping hand to the waxing power of Russia. 
 He appears to have been the son of a merchant sea- 
 captain or skipper in Inverkeithing, where he was born in 
 1735. He was bred to the sea-service, but seems to have 
 been amphibious in his combative capacities, as his most 
 important service to Russia lay in military engineering. 
 His entrance into the Russian service was quite legiti- 
 mate. He was a lieutenant in the British navy at the 
 peace of 1763, with fair chances of moderate promotion, 
 when the Russian Government applied to the British for 
 the loan of a few officers to help to improve their own 
 navy. Greig, one of these, soon made his capacity felt, 
 and was intrusted with high commands. The old Fife- 
 shire skipper's name of Charles was dragged out of its 
 obscurity to give the usual Russian patronymic of nobility, 
 and the young officer became Samuel Carlovich Greig. 
 It is odd to find one of the few notices of this remarkable 
 man in the Memoirs of the late Rev. Christopher Ander- 
 son, the historian of the English Bible. Mr Anderson's 
 mother was a relation of the Greigs, and was able to cer- 
 tify of the old skipper's wife, after her son had gone on 
 a career so widely different from his early surroundings, 
 that "his mother's supplications in his behalf had fol- 
 lowed him in that career so perilous to piety; and she 
 lived to hear from his own lips, on a visit he paid her late 
 in life, that he had not forgot a father's instruction or a 
 mother's prayer." 
 
 He was made Commodore of the Russian fleet in the 
 Mediterranean in the war with the Turks in 1769, and 
 thus became a great, perhaps the greatest, instrument in 
 the annexation of the Crimea, where so many of his coun- 
 trymen were to leave their bones after fighting to undo 
 what he had done. 
 
 At the battle of Scio in 1770, Greig, with four ships of 
 the line and two frigates, bore in upon the Turkish fleet 
 
THE SOLDIER. 373 
 
 in harbour, and burned them with fire-ships. It is re- 
 corded that this operation was so new and terrible to the 
 Russian sailors, that the British officers required to hold 
 pistols to the heads of the steersmen to keep them to 
 their duty. After the fleet was destroyed, the town was 
 bombarded; and so effectively did Greig perform his 
 work, that ere nine o'clock at night there was scarcely 
 a vestige of the town or fortress, or of the fleet that had 
 existed at mid-day. 
 
 In the subsequent war with Sweden he commanded 
 at the battle of Hogeland in 1788. The affair is remark- 
 able among sea-battles, not only for the determined and 
 obstinate fighting on either side, but for being fought in a 
 storm, and in a narrow sea full of shoals, currents, and 
 other perils. In one of the German collections of favour- 
 ite passages I have found the following account of this 
 affair, written by an author favourable to the Swedish 
 side, and I insert it because so little can be discovered 
 about the services which a man like Greig performed for 
 a government which permitted the world to know only 
 what it thought politic to tell : 
 
 " The great Russian fleet, seventeen ships of the line 
 and seven large frigates strong, sailed from Cronstadt 
 under the command of a most experienced seaman, 
 Admiral Greig, a Briton. They encountered the Swedish 
 fleet of fifteen ships of the line and five large frigates, 
 under the High Admiral Prince Charles of Sudermann- 
 land and Admiral Count Wrangel (i;th July), seven miles 
 westward of the island of Hogeland. 
 
 " Greig had been commanded by his Empress first to 
 destroy the Swedish fleet, and then without delay to 
 pursue his voyage to the Archipelago ; and if ever there 
 was one, he was the man to be honoured by such a com- 
 mission. He was at home on the sea, he had been 
 present at the celebrated capture of the Havannah (1761), 
 and he had led the terrible combat at Tschesme. 
 
 " Between four and five o'clock in the afternoon he 
 bore down before a favourable wind on the Swedes. The 
 thunder of war began on both sides with terrible fury. 
 
 " The Swedes, who now again for the first time since 
 
3/4 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 the remotest ages had taken rank as a naval power, 
 showed in the advance of their fleet an accuracy of line 
 and an ease in evolutions seldom excelled even in man- 
 oeuvres of a peaceful kind at sea. After the lapse of an 
 hour, the Russian leader, and two other Russian ships, 
 were so damaged that they were obliged to be withdrawn 
 behind the line. But again did the Russians concentrate 
 their greatest strength against the Swedish van; the 
 Swedes grounded in their manoeuvres in the stream at 
 Eckholm, and all efforts to bring them into the wind were 
 in vain. In this perilous position the Swedish Admiral's 
 ship, Gustav III., of 68 guns, which proudly displayed 
 the national flag, and was commanded by the High 
 Admiral Charles of Sudermannland, with Admiral Count 
 Wrangel under him, was so furiously attacked by the 
 Russian Admiral's ship, of 108 guns, in which Greig him- 
 self was, and by two other Russian ships, each of 74 guns, 
 that it was easy to see that the Russian Admiral's chief 
 object was to make the Duke himself his prisoner. Peace 
 might then, no doubt, have been obtained on easier 
 terms; but the Duke, preserving his coolness, gave his 
 people the example of the most astonishing bravery. 
 From all quarters the deadly mouths of the Russian 
 cannon blazed on his ship while he coolly smoked his 
 pipe ; a cannon-ball slew his servant close by him, but he 
 did not leave the deck, and strove, by his constant cry of 
 ' Conquer or die !' to inspire his soldiers and sailors with 
 his own courage. Some of the sailors, who considered 
 farther resistance useless, began to speak of striking, 
 ' Rather let us be blown into the air,' cried Charles, in 
 his sternest voice, ' than surrender ! ' Accordingly, he 
 snatched his match from an artilleryman, took his place 
 by the powder-magazine, then asked Admiral Wrangel 
 whether he thought there was no farther chance of saving 
 the ship ? A no from Wrangel, and the ship would have 
 been scattered in fragments to the wind. ' It will be 
 tough work,' said the Admiral, * but we will do our ut- 
 most.' The fire was now kept up with the most extreme 
 vehemence, till the other Swedish ships coming up made 
 the combat more equal. The Russians had a long list of 
 
THE SOLDIER. 375 
 
 killed ; Greig himself was severely wounded, and his ship 
 was obliged to leave the line. 
 
 " Meantime the darkness of night came over the sea. 
 At ten o'clock the firing ceased. The Russians had taken 
 a Swedish ship of the line, Prince Gustav, of 68 guns, in 
 which the Swedish Vice- Admiral Count Wachtmeister had 
 led the Swedish van during the combat, and which, after 
 miracles of heroism, was drifting about with 300 killed 
 and wounded on board, pierced everywhere with shots, 
 and without a flag. The Swedes, in return, had seized a 
 Russian ship of the line, the \yiadislaus, of 74 guns, had 
 run two others aground, and, on the whole, had inflicted 
 much more injury on the Russian fleet than it had sus- 
 tained from it 
 
 ;< Both parties spent the night over against each other, 
 and not far from the place of battle. The Swedes had 
 nearly shot away all their powder. Not an hour could 
 they have kept up fire if the enemy had renewed the 
 combat next day, yet they dared not attempt to reach the 
 harbour of Sweaborg before daybreak, the wind not being 
 quite favourable ; and it seemed likely that if they had 
 given the least suspicion of an intention to enter it, the 
 enemy would have pursued them. There was nothing for 
 it but patient courage. To show this, signal-guns were 
 fired regularly the whole night, as if they only waited for 
 daylight to begin the combat more terribly than ever. 
 The Russians, indeed, gave signs of a renewed attack 
 next morning. The Swedes formed in line immediately, 
 with what feelings may be imagined. But Greig, whose 
 retreat was favoured by the wind, now thought good, 
 instead of a harbour in the Archipelago, to seek that of 
 Cronstadt; and the Swedish High Admiral brought his 
 fleet under the guns of Sweaborg. 
 
 " Such was the battle of Hogeland, the first sea-fight in 
 which the Swedes had been engaged for a very long time, 
 and in which they fought with the courage and discipline 
 of veteran seamen, far surpassing the expectations of their 
 enemy and of all Europe. Both parties claim the victory 
 of this bloody day ; hi Petersburg as in Stockholm the 
 Te Deum was chanted. * Is it not generous/ says a witty 
 
3/6 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 writer, ' in Providence to have so arranged it as to suit 
 both parties, and so earned, there a Greek, here a 
 Lutheran song of praise ? ' " 1 
 
 The ' Annual Register ' for the year says : " Admiral 
 Greig is said to have declared, in the account published 
 by authority in St Petersburg, ' that he never saw a fight 
 better sustained than this was on both sides.' This, how- 
 ever, accords but badly with the number of delinquent 
 officers (of whom seventeen were captains), loaded with 
 chains, whom he sent home in a frigate for ill behaviour 
 in this action." 
 
 As he died a few weeks afterwards, on the 26th of 
 October 1788, in his own ship, the Rotislow, it must be 
 presumed that the wound he received in this fight proved 
 mortal. So ends the career of the Inverkeithing skipper's 
 son, Admiral Samuel Carlovich Greig. governor of Cron- 
 stadt, and Chevalier of the Orders of St Andrew, St Alex- 
 ander Newski, St George, St Vladimir, and St Anne. 
 Every journal in Europe repeated the account of the 
 gorgeous funeral bestowed on him by the Empress, though 
 little is generally known of the man who enjoys the repu- 
 tation of having made the Russian navy. He made some- 
 thing else, too. As governor of Cronstadt he was the 
 author of the fortifications there ; and, as a French writer 
 remarks, the Scotsman built those walls which years after- 
 wards checked the career of his fellow-countryman Sir 
 Charles Napier. 
 
 It is not, after all, an entirely satisfactory task to cele- 
 brate services like these. A nation that can show un 
 rivalled courage and endurance in the defence of its own 
 independence, need not covet the lustre of success in 
 foreign causes. Boasting of such renown in quarrels 
 selected by and not forced upon the heroes, has some- 
 thing akin to the bully in it. That so many Scotsmen 
 should have thus distinguished themselves abroad was the 
 fruit of their country's sufferings rather than its success. 
 The story of it all reminds one how dreary a thing it is 
 
 1 Translated from an extract from Possel's ' History of Gustavus 
 III. of Sweden,' in Lehman's Lesebuch. 
 
THE SOLDIER. 377 
 
 that a community should have to dismiss the choice of its 
 children from its own bosom, and how happy is the con- 
 dition of that compact and well-rounded state which, 
 under a strong and free government, productive of co- 
 operation and contentment, has resources enough to 
 keep its most active and adventurous citizens at work 
 on national objects, and neither lends its children to the 
 stranger, nor calls a foreign force into its own soil. There 
 is little ultimate satisfaction in stranger laurels. Those 
 who are the children of liberty themselves, such as the 
 Scots and Swiss, have seen their services, by the obdurate 
 tendency of historical destiny, almost ever assisting 
 tyranny; and thus the sword of the freeman has done the 
 work of the despot. The prowess and skill of our mili- 
 tary leaders have given an undue preponderance to the 
 strength of barbarism, and enabled it to weigh too heavily 
 against the beneficent control of civilisation. The foreign 
 despot is deceived with the notion that the system arti- 
 ficially constructed for him by strangers represents a per- 
 manent, well-founded, national power ; he becomes inso- 
 lent in the confidence of its possession ; and the fabric of 
 power raised up by one generation of freeborn auxiliaries, 
 costs the blood of another generation to keep it from 
 destroying freedom and civilisation throughout the world. 
 Even while this is passing through the press, the question 
 vibrates at the conference-table, whether we are to have 
 a struggle with another great power which several Scots- 
 men helped to consolidate. 
 
3/8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE STATESMAN. 
 
 REPUTATIONS, LIVING AND DEAD GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS'S SECRE- 
 TARY-AT-WAR SIR WILLIAM LOCKHART LORD STAIR JOHN LAW 
 WILLIAM PATERSON. 
 
 OF all forgotten celebrities, the author has been, at least 
 since the invention of printing, the most easily tracked 
 by the biographical detective ; what of himself he has let 
 out in his books is always available, if we have nothing 
 else. The soldier has less chance of resuscitation. If he 
 has been a patriot hero, his name does not require it. 
 His image lives in the eyes of all his countrymen, at least 
 as large as life, and each successive generation proclaims, 
 with louder and louder tongue 
 
 " Though thou art fallen while we are free, 
 
 Thou shalt not taste of death ; 
 The generous blood that flowed from thee 
 
 Disdained to sink beneath. 
 Within our veins its currents be, 
 
 Thy spirit in our breath. 
 
 Thy name our charging hosts along, 
 
 Shall be the battle- word ; 
 Thy fate the theme of choral song 
 
 From virgin voices poured. 
 To weep would do thy glory wrong 
 
 Thou shalt not be deplored. " 
 
 On such an idol the detective generally, indeed, has 
 to do the unpleasant duty of stripping him of false 
 plumage. It is an entirely different affair, as we have 
 seen, with the soldier who has lent his arm to the 
 
THE STATESMAN. 379 
 
 stranger. The materials which heap themselves over 
 and bury his memory have already been considered; 
 and I refer to the matter here, only to remark that 
 they generally bury the memory of the statesman still 
 more effectually. In the warrior's career there are battles 
 and other stormy events that cannot be entirely con- 
 cealed ; but of the man of council who " shapes the 
 whisper of the throne," it may be said, as Sergeant Pike 
 said of the collier, that he has no visible "occupation, but 
 works under ground. 
 
 There is, for instance, in the possession of some col- 
 lectors, an engraved portrait of a hard-featured, sagacious- 
 looking Scot, the Latin inscription around which makes 
 it valuable as identifying a frequent name in the history 
 of Europe during the Thirty Years' War. It is Alexander 
 Erskine, who was eminent both in camp and council. 
 He was minister-at-war to Gustavus Adolphus no trivial 
 function and a representative of Sweden in the con- 
 ferences about the Treaty of Westphalia. He held many 
 governorships and other offices was a patron of letters, 
 and had a magnificent library. Yet no biographical 
 dictionary, so far as I am aware, affords him a square 
 inch ; and in Ersch and Grubers' Encyclopedia where 
 one finds everything that is neglected elsewhere the 
 perfection of German diligence has been able to add 
 nothing material to what the ordinary historians tell us 
 of him, except that he studied at Konigsberg, and that 
 he died childless in the campaign of 1657, at Zamosc, 
 whence his body was brought and buried in great state 
 in the Cathedral of Bremen. Another Scotsman of the 
 same name, who represented Russia in some of her 
 Eastern negotiations, and had vast influence at the Court 
 of the Czar, has left still scantier traces in accessible 
 sources of biographical information. He belonged to 
 the family of Erskine of Alva, in Clackmannanshire, a 
 fact which I discovered one day by noticing the extreme 
 richness of the crimson silk window-curtains in the draw- 
 ing-room of one of his descendants. These were the 
 hangings of a tent given to him by one of the Tartar 
 princes with whom it was his function to treat. 
 
380 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 It is against the chance of any country presenting a 
 distinguished list of statesmen who have won their repu- 
 tations abroad, that the services of foreigners are more 
 unwillingly received in the cabinet than even in the camp. 
 No nation in a healthy condition, indeed, tolerates the 
 interference of foreign influence at its very heart. To 
 whisper a suspicion of such a thing has always been 
 sufficient to set England in a blaze. Poor Lord Bute 
 was almost ostracised because he was so much of a 
 foreigner as to have been born in Scotland a nation 
 not so well amalgamated with its neighbour a hundred 
 years ago as it is now. The protests of Scotland against 
 foreign administration were pretty well expressed in the 
 history of Mary of Medici and the fate of La Bastie. 
 We have seen that Albany failed as Governor of Scotland 
 because he had too much of the Frenchman in him j and 
 we have also seen that he and his father, though they 
 had still more of the Scot the father, indeed, was a 
 pure native had great influence at the French Court. 
 In peering into the minute specialties of his position, it 
 is suggestive to find him acting the part of the statesman 
 on an occasion when there was outbreak against some 
 illegitimate influence being at work in the state, while 
 his own, though that of a foreigner, seems to have passed 
 unquestioned. We are told by Felibien, in his profuse 
 circumstantial History of Paris, that Louis de Berquin 
 was sacrificed as the person who introduced des livres 
 dangereux de Luther, and that there was an insurrection 
 in the streets of Paris, with bloodshed, because the munic- 
 ipality thought fit to resist the royal decree raising to the 
 great office of Lieutenant-General of the Isle of France, a 
 prelate and a courtier of the Pope Pierre Filhoti, Arch- 
 bishop of Aix. Then we are told the King held a lit de 
 justice, in which the Duke of Albany, Prince of Scotland, 
 was inaugurated, and sat between the Duke of Alengon 
 and the Bishop-duke of Langres. On that occasion, the 
 King spoke of removing the Parliament to Poitiers, on 
 account of the turbulence of the Parisian mob, and the 
 perversity of the municipality. It would be difficult, as 
 we read the story in Felibien' s circumstantial narrative, to 
 
THE STATESMAN. 381 
 
 invent a closer parallel to the scene in Edinburgh, some 
 fifty years later, when James VI. was scared away by the 
 vehement clergy, and threatened to take the Parliament, 
 with its appurtenances, to that quiet and decorous place, 
 Stirling. At the crisis of the battle of Pavia, Albany was 
 sent on a mission to bring over Naples to the cause of 
 France ; or perhaps it might more accurately be said, to 
 create a revolution there in favour of the French interest. 1 
 
 These things took place in one of vFrance's many 
 periods of difficulty and danger. We have seen that, in 
 the time of her greatest strait of all the Hundred Years' 
 War the Constable Buchan, and Douglas Duke of Tou- 
 raine, had great influence in the national councils. At 
 periods subsequent to the history of the Ancient League, 
 the destinies of France were occasionally ruled by for- 
 eigners, and among these Scotland had, as we shall pres- 
 ently see, a good share more, perhaps, than Italy, 
 deemed the workshop of statesmen, had in Cardinal 
 Mazarin ; unless, indeed, we shall count that the empire 
 is at present under the rule of an Italian dynasty. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell has the reputation of disliking Scot- 
 land, but he was in some respects a good friend to the 
 country. True, he closed the door of the General As- 
 sembly, and placed a couple of troopers to keep it shut ; 
 
 1 There is a good deal of mystery and suggestion connected with 
 this embassy. Belcarius, in his ' Commentarii Rerum Gallicarum, ' 
 thinks it of importance to say that, while the French historian Bellay, 
 and the Italian Capella, consider that the embassy was suggested by 
 Pope Clement, he, Belcarius, must support Guicciardini in the con- 
 trary belief, because his brother, John Belcarius, who was a domestib 
 in the Duke of Albany's family, told him that he there learned how 
 the Pope had ever advised Francis not to divide his army until he 
 had entirely subdued Milan. The question might afford room for a 
 valuable archaeological paper. A second might be made out of an- 
 other French embassy into Italy that of Everard Stewart, Lord of 
 Aubigny, in 1594. It was preparatory to the invasion of Italy for 
 the purpose of conquering Naples, and was, it must be confessed, an 
 attempt to bully some of the smaller Italian states, as Comines lets 
 us see, by the gently sarcastic turns with which he mentions the 
 modest disinclination of the Venetians and Florentines to offer any 
 counsel, or profess to provide any warlike assistance worthy of accep- 
 tance, to so great a man as the King of France. 
 
382 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 but there are other statesmen who would do the same 
 service to ecclesiastical bodies if they had the power. 
 A service it was, for it prevented two opposite protest- 
 ing and detesting parties from rushing into contest, and 
 tearing away till the one had annihilated the other. It 
 is usually said that he put Scotland under the English 
 judges; but, on finding that the Court of Session was 
 thoroughly corrupt, what he really did was to appoint a 
 commission of justice to supersede it. On this com- 
 mission there were some English names; but that was 
 part of his system of amalgamation. He professed to 
 fill his offices impartially from the United Protectorate, 
 and, in fact, made one of the Scots judges, Johnston of 
 Warriston, chairman of his House of Lords. 
 
 Within his deep mind he had shaped the policy of 
 appointing a Scotsman to represent the Commonwealth 
 at the Court of France. It was the best tie that he 
 could establish between the new republic and the ancient 
 monarchy, that one from the nation who had ever been 
 so much at home in France should now go thither. He 
 found the proper man in Sir William Lockhart, the 
 brother of that Lord President Lockhart who was slain 
 in the High Street by Chiesly of Dairy, for compelling 
 him to support his family. The ambassador had a turn 
 of character still more naughty, brave, and independent, 
 even than the judge. He was on his way to France to 
 seek his fortune, disgusted by what he considered the 
 conversion of his country into a mere province, when 
 Oliver caught him up. He probably thought it a very 
 fair acknowledgment of the equality and independence 
 of his countrymen, that he should be himself chosen for 
 the most important mission which the Protector had to 
 give. He came afterwards into closer alliance with his 
 master by marrying Miss Rubina Sewster, a niece of the 
 Protector. The authorship of the following testimony to 
 the character of the ambassador, in a recent work on 
 Cromwell, will be at once recognised. It is what, in the 
 author's native language, is expressively called "ken- 
 speckle:" "It is thought that in Lockhart the Lord 
 Protector had the best ambassador of that age ; . . . 
 
THE STATESMAN. 383 
 
 a man of distinguished qualities, of manifold adventures 
 and employments ; whose biography, if he could find any 
 biographer with real industry instead of sham industry 
 and, above all, with human eyes instead of pedant's spec- 
 tacles, might still be worth writing in brief compass." 
 
 It was in 1656 that Lockhart went over as ambassador 
 from the republic to the Court of France, and his prin- 
 cipal function was to make the influence of Cromwell 
 supreme at the Cabinet of Paris, and crush any effort 
 to co-operate with the exiled children of Charles I. 
 Clarendon tells us that "he was received with great 
 solemnity, and was a man of great address hi treaty, and 
 had a marvellous credit and power with the Cardinal 
 Mazarin." His negotiations may be pretty completely 
 traced through the fifth and sixth volumes of Thurloe's 
 State Papers. It was part of the policy of the Cardinal 
 that Cromwell's ambassador should at all events be re- 
 ceived with distinguished courtesy on his touching the 
 shore of France. Lockhart describes his landing at 
 Dieppe on the 24th of April, and his reception by the 
 Governor. "He said that he had commands from the 
 Duke of Longueville to receive me with as much respect 
 as possibly he could ; that all Englishmen were likewise 
 welcome to this port, but more especially a person com- 
 ing from his Highness the Lord Protector, qualified with 
 a public character; and that he did very much rejoice 
 it was his good fortune to be the first to have an oppor- 
 tunity to testify to me the readiness of the French nation 
 to express the good correspondence and amity they de- 
 sired to hold with England. With these and several 
 other the like discourses he did entertain me till we 
 came to my lodging to which there had been a great 
 difficulty of access, through the multitude of people who 
 flocked out to see me land, with great acclamations in 
 their mouths of welcome, and desires that God might 
 preserve me and mine from all danger, had not the 
 Governor's servants made way for my passage." 
 
 The ovation accompanied him to the foot of the throne, 
 and did not stop there. But Lockhart had gone not to 
 be covered with honours and distinctions, but to do busi- 
 
384 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 ness, and that of a very serious kind. The continued 
 distinctions received by him, especially when they were 
 driven to the length of compelling him in the service of 
 his country to attend balls on the " Lord's Day," irritated 
 instead of conciliating him, and he soon suspected that 
 these profuse distinctions and kindnesses were heaped on 
 him to stifle his utterance. But both from temper and 
 sagacity he was eminently a man not to be trifled with. 
 " Remember he is a courtier and Italian," is the policy 
 towards Mazarin which he impressed on others and prac- 
 tised himself. He allowed the minister no repose. On 
 the 28th of June we find him writing: "All my late 
 addresses to his Eminence for audience have brought 
 me no other return but delays and new promises, which 
 are paid in no better coin than that of renewed excuses." 
 And on the 24th July : " It seems the Court here will 
 spend so much time in resolving what to do next, that 
 they will lose all opportunity of doing anything, and I 
 am even wearied out with their delays and excuses." 
 
 At length he got his opportunity, and employed it to 
 some purpose. Though he finally devoted himself to 
 the promotion of national interests, his first efforts were 
 in favour of a poor and persecuted people; it was by 
 his bold diplomacy that Britain was enabled to stretch 
 out a helping hand to the Protestants of Piedmont. 
 When he passed from this matter to the more immediate 
 relations of France and England, the French had nothing 
 of a practical nature to propose. No matter ; Lockhart 
 himself had a proposition of a very specific character. 
 
 The Protector was ready to aid France in her war with 
 Spain for a consideration. A French army under Turenne, 
 with an English auxiliary force, would take Mardyke and 
 Dunkirk from the Spaniards, and these acquisitions should 
 be given over to the Protector. The Cardinal was stag- 
 gered by the distinctness and greatness of the demand. 
 Compromising offers were made for a division of the 
 spoil, but the ambassador was obstinate. These two forti- 
 fied towns were what the Protector especially demanded, 
 and France must let him have them, or look to it. Even 
 after a concession of Lockhart's demand, one difficulty 
 
THE STATESMAN. 385 
 
 following another intercepted its fulfilment. Turenne, 
 whom Lockhart claimed as the right man for the work, 
 "did absolutely refuse to undertake the siege of Dun- 
 kirk," but was brought to reason. To the question, Who 
 should command the English on the occasion? there was 
 a simple and immediate answer Lockhart undertook it 
 himself; and he seems to have done so jn the conviction 
 that no other person could be trusted to play out any 
 part of the game with the wily Italian. 
 
 At length, in the words of Clarendon, after "such 
 lively instances with the Cardinal, and complaints of 
 their breach of faith, and some menaces that his master 
 knew where to find a more punctual friend" an allied 
 army under Turenne and Lockhart besieged Dunkirk. 
 The French appear to have sent at first ten thousand 
 men. Lockhart's force numbered six thousand, and it 
 was remarked that none of them were the countrymen of 
 the commander, who were in use to serve with the French, 
 but all were Englishmen, acting for the time in alliance 
 with their old hereditary foes, " their natural enemies." 
 
 It is extremely curious, after the history of our latest 
 European war, to peruse even the dull official records of 
 a siege in which Frenchmen and Englishmen fought side 
 by side almost exactly two hundred years before they 
 were to do so again. It is, for instance, incidentally 
 curious to find in Lockhart's despatches such an appre- 
 ciation of the prowess of his allies as they have rarely 
 received from a British pen until the Russian war. In 
 a common attack made by the French and English, each 
 on the counterscarp opposite to their own approach, he 
 says that "the French, at their lodging upon their point 
 of the counterscarp, were discovered to our men that 
 were lodged upon the Fort Leon ours was not so ; and 
 to give your lordship a true account of what passed, I 
 must say the French made the better lodgment, though 
 that we made stood us dearer than theirs did them ; how- 
 soever, I thank God for it, both goes on reasonable well 
 now ; for when we came short of them in the night, we 
 made up by working in the day. The seamen, from 
 whom I expected much, did nothing extraordinary : and 
 
 2 B 
 
386 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 indeed our people wanted several things that would have 
 contributed to their cheerful going through with their 
 business, for which I could not prevail, though twice or 
 thrice I importuned M. Turenne about it. I am this day 
 preparing a battery and platform for our mortar pieces," 
 &c. And so it was in 1658 as in 1856; the English 
 soldier is deficient in many things needful to his achieve- 
 ments, but one thing he always has and gives freely, his 
 own blood ; and he makes his lodgment as effectually as 
 his better-provided ally, though it costs him dearer. 
 
 Lockhart's own letters convey unmistakable evidence 
 that he was a vigilant purveyor. " If eight hundred or 
 one thousand beds could be sent, it would be a great 
 accommodation to our soldiers, of whom a great many 
 sicken daily." Again : " We have not here one bit of 
 coals : the soldiers cannot be restrained from burning 
 the deal-boards that are in their houses ; to send them 
 a few coals will save his Highness treble their price in 
 boards." There is much solicitude about the supply of 
 hay, as to which Lockhart distrusts the French promises. 
 "The Cardinal promised to send me an express from 
 England to-morrow, who shall see the hay shipped, and 
 will bring a list of such provisions as they will need, and 
 bills of exchange upon London to pay for them : but that 
 must not be trusted to, for the Cardinal being ready to 
 depart, he is so pressed with multiplicity of business, as 
 seldom he remembers anything, save just in the moment 
 he is spoke to. So that if this express do not come, I 
 must beseech your lordship to take care that the hay be 
 at Mardyke by the ist of May, new style, and I must 
 beg the same thing for the recruits." 
 
 The next demand is for three ministers, who are to 
 have ;i8o a-year each, which he thinks is encourage- 
 ment enough to any honest man who hath zeal for his 
 Master's service; and he is of opinion that "the Popish 
 priests who go a-begging to vend their errors, will rise up 
 in judgment against our ministers, who cannot be yet 
 persuaded, even upon reasonable terms, to preach the 
 glad tidings of salvation to their poor countrymen, who 
 have some longing after the ordinances of God." 
 
THE STATESMAN. 387 
 
 After the fashion of the period, his piety is minutely 
 dovetailed into his practical sagacity. " There is one 
 part," he says, " of the general of ammunition that I must 
 speak particularly to, and that is hand-grenades. I know 
 they have not been much used in our English war, but I 
 can assure your lordship and my former opinion is con- 
 firmed by my present experience that nothing can be 
 more essential either as to attack or defence ; and if you 
 have not any considerable number of these shells in store, 
 two or three thousand can be bought in Holland, till you 
 can provide more at your iron- works. A soldier, with 
 half -a- score grenades in his scrip, looks like a David, 
 before whom a Goliath, though armed, cannot stand." 
 And continuing his detailed criticism on garrison stores, 
 he says all signifies little if there be not sufficient tools 
 and material for temporary fortification; "and I can 
 reckon nothing on this head so material as palisadoes; 
 it's one of the best magazines can be in garrison ; and he 
 that hath men and store of them, may dispose of every 
 inch of ground under the command of his cannon : and 
 the spirit which must move and inform this confused and 
 great body, composed of a great many more individuals 
 than I can at present muster up, must be money which, 
 as Solomon saith, under the protection and blessing of 
 God, will answer all things." 
 
 On the 3d of June there was a great battle Condd, 
 Don John of Austria, and the exiled Duke of York head- 
 ing an attack for the relief of the garrison, on the besieger's 
 army, led by Turenne and Lockhart. This brought on 
 a battle, eminent in the French histories as the battle of 
 the Dunes, because it was fought among the long range of 
 sandhills eastward of Dunkirk. It is seldom recognised 
 in history as one of the battles from which England de- 
 rives honour. Yet the contemporary French accounts 
 of which Sismondi provides a good abridgment describe 
 the sanguinary and obstinate nature of the conflict on 
 the fortified ridge of the principal sandhill, stormed by 
 the English, who there began the battle, and astonished 
 both their Spanish opponents and their French allies by 
 the resolute and persevering obstinacy with which they 
 
388 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 struggled through the natural difficulties in the ascent 
 of a sandhill, and fought at the summit, when they should 
 have been exhausted with their labours. The allies were 
 victorious; and as the official report says, "the French 
 acknowledged to our nation the honour of this victory." 
 "As to the siege of Dunkirk," says Lord Fauconberg, 
 writing to Thurloe, " by the little discourse I have had 
 with the Duke de Crequi, Chevalier Gramont, and others, 
 I find they infinitely esteem my Lord Lockhart for his 
 courage, care, and enduring the fatigue beyond all roen 
 they ever saw." 
 
 On the 25th of June, Lockhart writes conclusively, in 
 that godly style which had become official among the 
 Crbmwellian generals : " By the goodness of God your 
 servant is now master of Dunkirk and indeed it is a 
 much better place than I could have imagined blessed 
 be God for His great mercy ; and the Lord continue His 
 protection to his Highness, and His countenance to all 
 his other undertakings." But final success only renewed 
 the diplomatic disputes with the ally, who acted as if the 
 acquisition were common to both nations. Lockhart 
 met this claim in the face, and extracted from the Car- 
 dinal an acknowledgment that "his Highness (the Pro- 
 tector) had the only title to all that can be claimed of 
 jurisdiction over the town, as prince and sovereign ; and 
 that he alone hath right to all the powers, profits, and 
 emoluments that were due to any of their former princes." 
 
 It is picturesquely told, in Kennet's History, how one 
 morning Cromwell sent suddenly to desire the presence 
 of the French ambassador at Whitehall, where he was 
 upbraided with the treachery of his master, in having 
 given secret instructions to Turenne "to keep Dunkirk 
 from the Englishman if he could." The ambassador, 
 with truth, protested his innocence and his ignorance; 
 " upon which," we are told, " Cromwell, pulling a paper 
 out of his pocket, l Here,' says he, ' is the copy of the Car- 
 dinal's order ; and I desire you to despatch immediately 
 an express to let him know that I am not to be imposed 
 upon ; and that if he deliver not up the keys of the town 
 of Dunkirk within an hour after it shall be taken, tell him 
 
THE STATESMAN. 389 
 
 I'll come in person and demand them at the gates of 
 Paris.'" 1 This is one of the Mephistopheles stories 
 which frightened our great-grandfathers into superstitious 
 fancies about the ubiquity of Old Noll. Whether there 
 is any truth in it or not, it is pretty certain, from the 
 documentary evidence, that Lockhart put the matter 
 right at his own hand. 
 
 Indeed, few men have better exemplified the house- 
 hold precept that he who would have a thing done well 
 should do it himself. That there might be no question 
 about the vigilance and sagacity of the besieging general, 
 the ambassador, as we have seen, took that office on him- 
 self. After the place was taken and a governor was re- 
 quired, he took that office also. He wrote to Thurloe a 
 long anxious letter about the proper person to appoint as 
 fort-major, and about the difficulty of finding a deputy- 
 governor who should act for the governor if he fell ill, or 
 had important calls elsewhere; but he seems never to 
 have supposed it an open question, that any one could 
 be governor of the new acquisition but he who had been 
 the means of acquiring it. 
 
 Since the fall of Calais, England had possessed no spot 
 of earth on the European continent, and the government 
 of a province which might possibly be the nucleus of 
 further British acquisitions, was an important matter. 
 Lockhart reported to Secretary Thurloe administrative 
 arrangements to which few in the present day would 
 object. He says he considers himself bound to " reserve 
 to the inhabitants the enjoyment of their property, the 
 liberty of their conscience, and the administration of 
 justice according to their usual laws and customs, in all 
 matters of difference between man and man. This," he 
 continues to say, " is all his Highness is bound to by his 
 treaty with France ; which being just in itself, I make it 
 my study that all their privileges of this nature be in- 
 violably preserved and in so doing, give full satisfac- 
 tion both to the magistrates and inhabitants." A body 
 of " Jesuites, Capauchins, and Recollects," troubled him 
 
 1 ' Complete History, ' iii. 208. 
 
390 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 with difficulties about the oath to reveal all plots against 
 the supremacy of the Protectorate, and its inconsistence 
 with the privileges of the Confessional. But they found 
 themselves in honest hands, and gave little annoyance. 
 In the governor's practice the soldier and the gentleman 
 got the better of the Puritan. He kept his bargain ap- 
 parently both in letter and in spirit, and the Romish 
 priests could not be safer, for all temporal purposes, 
 than in the hands of their honest religious enemy. 
 
 As ambassador he seems to have had his share of the 
 troubles caused by the pertinacity of the Quakers, who 
 were then in a very restless state, spreading themselves 
 over the world in search of martyrdom, and generally 
 succeeding in finding it. The historian of their persecu- 
 tions praises him for the protection extended by him to 
 one of their number, who, exceedingly indignant that cer- 
 tain amusements should be tolerated by law, lifted up his 
 testimony against such toleration. " At Morlaix, another 
 of them (William Salt) being in prison for reproving their 
 maskings which are tolerated by law, and his life vehe- 
 mently sought after by the bailiff of the town for so do- 
 ing : I shall find the King, upon the information thereof 
 by the English ambassador Lockhart, by means of a 
 merchant of that town whom God stirred up in the thing 
 I say I shall find the King sending a letter, under his 
 hand and seal, to set him presently at liberty taking 
 notice, in the said letter, that he was imprisoned for re- 
 proving of maskings tolerated by law ; and when the 
 King was informed that he was not set at liberty, I shall 
 find him sending another letter to the Duke of Millan to 
 see it effected : and that upon it he was freed ; he being, 
 as it were, become but as the shadow of a man through 
 the hardship of his sufferings." l 
 
 1 Bishop's 'New England judged by the Spirit of the Lord,' p. 
 19. Here the conduct of the French and other nations is in this 
 matter favourably contrasted with that of the Puritans, who sought 
 refuge for their tender consciences in New England, and there faith- 
 fully put to death every man who came among them with a broad- 
 brimmed hat. There is no justification for severity like this ; but 
 there is something to be said for people fleeing into the wilderness to 
 
THE STATESMAN. 391 
 
 At the treaty of the Pyrenees, to which Charles II. 
 came as a humble suppliant, Lockhart was received with 
 high distinction as the representative of a great European 
 power. But the times were soon to change, and it was 
 to be seen who should revolve with the wheel, and who 
 should remain steadily anchored to their own fixed prin- 
 ciples. None came better forth from the revolution of the 
 Restoration than Lockhart. Disregarding self-interest, 
 and those abstract questions about monarchy and re- 
 publicanism which can be so easily bent to the service 
 of self-interest, he threw himself on the simple code of 
 military fidelity. Dunkirk was the place where Charles 
 desired to meet his friends , and Lockhart, by receiving 
 him there, might have rivalled Monk in his claims on 
 the new monarch. But he answered with brief simplicity 
 that he had been trusted with the fortress by the republic, 
 and he would hold it for the republic; and the joyful 
 band of royalists had to seek a less convenient place of 
 assemblage at Breda. Hume, who says that Lockhart 
 was nowise averse to the King's service, and that he 
 resisted very urgent persuasions, says, rather character- 
 istically, *' This scruple, though on the present occurrence 
 it approaches towards superstition, it is difficult for us 
 entirely to condemn." 
 
 There were, according to Clarendon, other overtures 
 which he probably had still less hesitation in rejecting. 
 
 get rid of the offences of the times, and being forthwith pursued 
 thither by the most flagrant of them. Those who must needs go and 
 lift up their testimony in such questions must accept the conditions 
 of doing so ; and what the rest of the world feels is, that it is good 
 for peace that elements so incompatible should be kept as far apart 
 as possible. Bishop sets up, in favourable contrast to the conduct 
 of the Puritans, that of the Sultan, when Mary Fisher, a maiden 
 Friend, being moved by the Lord to deliver His word to him, sent 
 him a message that "there was an Englishwoman had something 
 to declare from the great God to the great Turk." But the visit 
 from the maiden Friend was, no doubt, a very amusing episode in 
 the life of the great Turk, who had not been brought up from in- 
 fancy in any special loathing and hatred of the people with the 
 peculiar dress as if they were unclean animals, but looked on them 
 as he did on all the rest of the infidel world. 
 
392 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 It would have been extremely convenient to France to 
 have got possession of Mardyke and Dunkirk in the mttk 
 of the Restoration : " Certain it is," says Clarendon, " that 
 at the same time that he refused to treat with the King 
 he refused to accept the great offers made to him by the 
 Cardinal, who had a high esteem for him, and offered to 
 make him Marshal of France, with great appointments of 
 pensions and other emoluments, if he would deliver Dun- 
 kirk and Mardyke into the hands of France ; all which 
 overtures he rejected." And yet, strangely enough, it 
 had been better for the subsequent honour of England 
 if he had acceded to them. 
 
 His opinions and his early training inclining him to 
 royalty, he resolved to lead the life of a quiet loyal sub- 
 ject. He began to teach his countrymen the English 
 method of agriculture, but afterwards settled in Hunting- 
 donshire, apparently to be far away from the wretched 
 disputes which were tearing his own country. Proffers 
 were made to him by the revolutionary party; if we may 
 take Burnefs authority. Algernon Sidney himself took 
 pains to secure the co-operation of one whose courage was 
 so valuable, and whose adherence to the cause of the 
 Commonwealth had been so tenacious. All their proffers, 
 however, were quietly but steadily rejected. 
 
 This honesty had the good fortune, rare in that age, 
 not to go unrewarded. He was employed at the Courts 
 of Brandenburg and Nuremberg at the time when King 
 Charles entered on his celebrated secret alliance with 
 Louis XIV. for the destruction of Holland. It is said 
 that he suspected his mission to be virtually, though not 
 avowedly, subservient to this alliance ; and Burnet attri- 
 butes his broken health, and his death a few years after- 
 wards, to his mortification on this discovery. It is perhaps 
 scarcely consistent with this supposition, that he was soon 
 afterwards sent as King Charles's ambassador to Paris. 
 Again, as in the days of Dunkirk, he showed his high 
 spirit as a public man, and his determination that the 
 honour of England should not suffer in his hands. Two 
 characteristic anecdotes have been preserved of this mis- 
 sion. According to one, he resolved to put down a prac- 
 
THE STATESMAN. 393 
 
 tice of the French privateers in seizing English merchant 
 vessels, and obtaining condemnation of them as Dutch 
 vessels sailing under a fraudulent flag. Such a seizure 
 had just been made, and the vessel lay at Dunkirk. 
 Lockhart went to Court for an audience, and demanded 
 her release. But the claim of the British Government 
 was disavowed to the French ambassador at the recom- 
 mendation of Pepys, the Secretary of the Admiralty, who 
 said merchants were all rogues, and the British Govern- 
 ment admitted the prize to be fair. A very black charge 
 stands against the most candid and amusing of diar- 
 ists, and it is said that he had actually an interest in 
 the French privateer, which was built out of British navy 
 stores purloined by him. It is very unlikely that Lock- 
 hart knew anything about such malicious gossip he knew 
 only that the majesty of England was insulted in his per- 
 son, and he begged to be recalled if his own Court de- 
 clined to support him in the position he had taken up 
 The Court of England did support him, and the vessel 
 was restored. Another story of his last mission to France 
 I shall give in the words of Burnet : 
 
 "Lockhart had a French Popish servant who was 
 dying, and sent for the sacrament, upon which it was 
 brought, with the procession ordinary in such cases. 
 Lockhart, hearing of this, ordered his gates to be shut ; 
 and upon that many were inflamed, and were running to 
 force his gates ; but he ordered all his family to stand to 
 their arms, and if any force was offered to fire. There 
 was a great noise made of this, but no force was offered. 
 He resolved to complain first, and so went to Court and 
 expostulated upon it. He said his house was his master's 
 house, and here a public triumph was attempted on his 
 master's religion, and affronts were offered him ; he said, 
 if a priest had brought the sacrament privately he would 
 have connived at it, but he asked reparation for so public 
 an injury. The King of France seemed to be highly dis- 
 pleased at this, calling it the greatest indignity that had 
 ever been done to his God during his reign. Yet the 
 point did not bear arguing ; so Lockhart said nothing to 
 that. When Lockhart went from him, Pomponne followed 
 
394 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 him, sent after him by the King, and told him he would 
 force the King to suffer none of his subjects to serve him. 
 He answered he would order his coachman to drive the 
 quicker to Paris to prevent that, and left Pomponne to 
 guess the meaning. As soon as he came to his house he 
 ordered all his French servants to be immediately paid 
 off and dismissed. The Court of England was forced to 
 justify him in all this matter. A public letter of thanks 
 was written to him upon it; and the Court of France 
 thought fit to digest it ; but the French King looked on 
 him ever after with great coldness, if not with aversion." 1 
 
 He died at his post as English ambassador to the 
 Court of France, in the year 1675. The only portrait of 
 Lockhart I ever happen to have seen is in Harding's 
 * Biographical Mirror.' Though, like the other engravings 
 in that curious book, a meagre stipple, the attention of a 
 casual inspector is sure to be arrested by the fine fore- 
 head, the full expressive eyes, the haughty intellectual 
 lip, and a general air of handsome grandeur, which would 
 remind one of the portraits of Marlborough, were there 
 not more candour and earnestness in the expression. 
 
 A logically-minded reader will at once feel that a man 
 like Lockhart does not come within the category of Scots 
 abroad, as dealt with in my previous chapters. These 
 were Scotsmen who had found employment among for- 
 eigners, and their respective careers are a united testimony 
 to the propensity and qualifications of their countrymen 
 to seek their fortunes in other lands. An ambassador, on 
 the other hand, must of necessity be a man doing business 
 in a foreign country while he is in the employment of his 
 own. It is quite true I admit the logical aberration, 
 and have only to plead in excuse for having committed it 
 with the intention of repeating it, that it led me to some 
 picturesque little historical scenes which seemed worth 
 noticing. One might, by the way, in the instance of 
 Lockhart, escape on a technicality. He was doing one 
 at least of his missions, in the service of a state foreign 
 from his own, though both were under the same monarch, 
 
 1 Burnet's * Own Time, ' B. III. 
 
THE STATESMAN. 395 
 
 When he was sent by Charles II. to the Court of France, 
 he represented England only ; Scotland, though still a 
 separate nation, with separate and even hostile interests, 
 was too poor to have an ambassador of her own. 
 
 Another diplomatist whom I propose to call up, repre- 
 sented the United Kingdom of Great Britain ; and it is 
 curious enough that, after the lapse pf half a century, 
 during which the power of Louis XIV. had waxed and 
 waned, we find the story of Dunkirk taken up and con- 
 tinued by a Scottish diplomatist. The lamentable trans- 
 action by which the fortress was sold to France is only 
 too well known. The great Vauban soon afterwards ex- 
 pounded his system of fortification, which, by inexhaustible 
 flanking works, was to render any swamp impregnable, if 
 sufficient money and skill were expended on it. Colbert, 
 whom we have found boasting of his Scottish descent, 
 resolved to employ the great resources of France in rais- 
 ing a fortress at every extremity of the scattered empire 
 of Louis. Besides the states it had absorbed in central 
 Europe, it had a footing in Hindostan; and in the New 
 World it bade fair for pre-eminence. Quebec, and the 
 other Canadian forts, with the vast deserted ruins still 
 visible in Nova Scotia, are remnants of the great works 
 which, by fortifying the extremity of her frontier, seemed 
 to be the steps by which France was gradually marching 
 to the dominion of the world. 
 
 If the distant extremities were protected by works so 
 costly, those opposite to the state which rivalled France 
 and domineered over the sea were of course still more 
 elaborately fortified. The works at Dunkirk became the 
 wonder of the day ; and topographical writers luxuriate in 
 the description of the ten bastions, the half-moons, the 
 great circumvallation of sand-mounds, and the ship-canal, 
 uniting to form what Cherbourg became a hundred and 
 fifty years afterwards. It was built to command the 
 Channel, by affording an impregnable refuge to the fleets 
 and the privateers of France. It was the natural resource 
 of a nation unable to cope with us on sea, but strong on 
 shore, to have places of refuge for her ships a policy 
 indeed so sound, that in the late war it saved for Russia 
 
396 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 all that she preserved of her marine force behind the walls 
 built by a Scots engineer. The fortifications of Dunkirk 
 were an object of strong alarm to Britain. At the treaty 
 of Utrecht, while many more conspicuous advantages 
 were abandoned by Britain, the destruction of these 
 works was demanded and conceded. But it was believed 
 that the French were again warily reconstructing them, 
 and Lord Stair was sent to Paris to insist that the works 
 should be stopped. Old age had crept on the Grand 
 Monarque, accompanied by many humiliations ; but this 
 seemed the worst of all, that he should be controlled in 
 the operation of ordinary public works, as if he were a 
 sharp tenant on a building lease, who desired to overreach 
 his landlord. Yet too many incidents in his brilliant 
 history show that his observance of treaties was only to 
 be relied on when he did not dare to violate them. Stair 
 insisted on the works being stopped. 
 
 The ambassador's pertinacity was extremely irritating 
 to Louis. He became petulant and querulous ; said he 
 had heretofore ruled the affairs of his own dominions, 
 sometimes those of others, and was he to be controlled 
 in the execution of certain canal and harbour works, cal- 
 culated for the benefit of his poor subjects? But the 
 ambassador was firm : there were many other shapes in 
 which works beneficial to the subjects of France might 
 be carried out ; these had the unfortunate effect of giving 
 alarm to the merchants of England, and they were con- 
 trary to treaty they must be abandoned. Louis sulkily 
 yielded, leaving certain incompleted works to bear testi- 
 mony against the rigidity of British diplomacy. 
 
 It was the fortune of Lord Stair's embassy to exercise 
 a considerable influence over the destinies of France. 
 He was instrumental in the establishment of the Duke of 
 Orleans as Regent. Louis XIV., in the fulness of his 
 divine right, had settled the government of the kingdom 
 by bequest. His will was set aside by the Parliament of 
 Paris. It was thought that the States-General which 
 was the nearest parallel to a parliament in the British 
 sense of the term should have been summoned on such 
 an occasion, and that the adjustment should not have 
 
THE STATESMAN. 397 
 
 been left to a mere executive or official body like the 
 Parliament of Paris. In truth, however, it was like many 
 other events in French history a coup, executed by the 
 Duke of Orleans in the plenitude of his influence. Lord 
 Stair was conspicuously present in one of the lanterns, or 
 enthroned seats ; and it was said by some of the contem- 
 porary annalists that this was suggested by the Abbd 
 Dubois, for the purpose of proclaiming the support of 
 Britain to the claims of the Duke. The assertion of some 
 annalists of the period, that the Duke carried his point 
 by intimidation, and that he brought with him an over- 
 whelming armed force, is contradicted flatly by Voltaire, 
 who says he was present, that there was no more than 
 the usual ceremonial display of military force, and that 
 the Duke took his place as one who held it by etiquette 
 and natural right. 
 
 By some writers the influence which Stair exercised on 
 this occasion has been carried far beyond the bounds of 
 mere ceremonial countenance. It is said that, as the 
 representative of the house of Hanover, which superseded 
 the house of Stewart, he whispered into the ear of the 
 ambitious Duke that it would be the interest of the new 
 line of British monarchs to countenance a new line of 
 French monarchs, which the junior branch of the house 
 of Bourbon might begin in the person of the Duke him- 
 self. There is no doubt that the Duke often consulted 
 Stair ; that the British ambassador had a greater influ- 
 ence with him than the old French party liked. It is 
 curious to connect the accounts rendered by men who 
 died before the first Revolution of the advice given by 
 the ambassador, with the career of Egalite', and with the 
 actual possession of the crown of France for eighteen 
 years by Louis Philippe, the grandson of the Regent. 
 
 Stair had disagreeable duties to perform. He repre- 
 sented that first Government of the Hanover dynasty 
 which, by its jealous severity towards its parliamentary 
 opponents, created the Jacobite insurrection. He was 
 enabled to provide his Government with information 
 which, had they been active, might have enabled them 
 to put down the attempt without either the soldier or 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 the hangman. His precautionary warnings would have 
 been a more agreeable duty had they been more success- 
 ful, but the duty that remained was eminently unpleasant 
 Knowing that the Chevalier was going to pass through 
 France on his way to Scotland, he demanded that the 
 French Government should intercept him. He obtained 
 an order from his friend the new-made Regent ; but, as 
 Sismondi says, " Contades, charge de cet ordre, etoit bien 
 resolu a ne pas trouver celui qu'il cherchoit" Stair knew 
 this very well, and made his own arrangements, through 
 a man named Douglas, to catch the Prince; but the 
 emissary and his followers were baffled by the dexterity 
 of a maitresse de poste ; and the Chevalier, after trying 
 several points in vain, reached Dunkirk, where he was 
 probably all the more easily enabled to embark, from the 
 dismantling and abandonment of the fortifications which 
 his pursuer had so rigidly carried out. 
 
 After the failure of the Chevalier's enterprise, the dis- 
 agreeable duties had to be resumed. There can surely 
 be nothing more uncongenial to a fair and generous mind 
 than to drive a fallen exile from his chosen place of re- 
 treat, and yet sometimes this must be done. To France 
 the possession of the exiled British Court was the pos- 
 session of a political weapon, by which Britain might at 
 any time be threatened, or, if need be, wounded. It was 
 a weapon which the rulers of France used entirely for 
 present objects, and who shall blame them? Without 
 committing some great crime, it was impossible to pre- 
 vent foreign nations from including the cause of the 
 exiled Stewarts in their game. But it was possible to 
 keep the exiles at a distance from those courts with 
 which their immediate connection was chiefly dangerous. 
 It was the first point of all the most important, yet the 
 most difficult to be attained that they should not remain 
 within the soil of France. Such was the demand, and 
 the Regent was obliged to comply. 
 
 No doubt throughout the tone of Lord Stair's embassy 
 there is a character of haughtiness and harshness not im- 
 mediately reconcilable with the character earned by that 
 ambassador, of having exceeded the most courtly French- 
 
THE STATESMAN. 399 
 
 man of his day in polished suavity and thorough know- 
 ledge of court etiquette ; x but he had an object before him 
 which, under whatever suavity it was varnished, could not 
 be accomplished without thefortiter in re. He had to bring 
 Britain up to a par, in European consideration, with the 
 position which the victories and fame of the Great Louis 
 had achieved for France ; and the task was all the more 
 arduous, since the opportunity of accomplishing it, so 
 signally afforded by Marlborough's victories, had been 
 lost at the treaty of Utrecht. Britain owes him a good 
 deal. He gave her diplomacy that manly tone which, 
 when in proper hands, separates it entirely from the 
 trickery of the Italian school. He taught practically 
 that, at the conference-table, Britain must trust, not to 
 skilful evasion, or happy dubiety of tone, but to her own 
 strength, and the just moderation with which it is used. 
 He taught that the true spirit of British diplomacy was 
 plainly to ask what the country demanded, and to obtain 
 fulfilment of that demand, neither abating it because the 
 opponent is found to be strong, nor increasing it because 
 he is found to be weak. 
 
 The French disliked him cordially. In the success 
 with which he exacted the fulfilment of offensive de- 
 mands, they saw the humiliation of their own rulers. 
 Many offensive stories were mixed with his name. It 
 was the fate of Britain at that time to have two represen- 
 tatives abroad whose ancestral names were associated 
 with a great political crime still fresh in men's minds, and 
 well known wherever there were any adherents of the 
 
 1 There are two common anecdotes bringing out this characteristic : 
 one represents Louis XIV. testing his breeding by offering him the 
 pas in entering the royal carriage. Stair made his bow and stepped 
 in. "A vulgar man," said Louis, " would have teased me with hesi- 
 tations and excuses." The other rests on his remarkable resemblance 
 to the Regent Orleans, who, desiring to turn a scandalous insinuation 
 or jest on it, asked the ambassador if his mother had ever been in 
 Paris ? The answer was, ' ' No, but my father was ! " There is 
 perhaps no other retort on record so effective and so beautifully 
 simple. If the question meant anything, that meaning was avenged ; 
 if it meant nothing, there was nothing in the answer. 
 
400 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Stewarts the massacre of Glencoe. Lord Glenorchy, 
 the representative of the old wolf Breadalbane was am- 
 bassador first to Denmark, and afterwards to Russia. 
 Lord Stair was the son of the politic instigator of his 
 Highland vengeance. Gloating over such a precedent, 
 some letter-writers of the day accused Stair of what surely 
 it is safe to call a crime that no British ambassador could 
 be guilty of a design to assassinate the Chevalier. To 
 show the spirit that was in his blood, a story was invented 
 how an ancestor called, in ignorance of the family 
 name, Sir George Stair had, from sheer love of a bloody 
 gratification of his vengeance, obtained the privilege of 
 acting the part of the masked executioner who beheaded 
 Charles I. But, assailed as he was by a powerful French 
 combination, it was the lot of the man who had bullied 
 Louis XIV., and bent the Regent to his will, to fall be 
 fore the predominance of an Edinburgh silversmith. He 
 was recalled because he would not recommend himself 
 to the countenance of John Law. 
 
 This seems the right time for bringing that notorious 
 celebrity himself on the stage. 
 
 The French, who are said to forget their great men 
 after a generation has passed over their tombs, still take 
 a lively interest in the history of John Law. Probably 
 there is something peculiarly adapted to their ardent 
 taste in its meteoric character. Every historian who tells 
 them the history of the regency, from Voltaire to Sis- 
 mondi, braces himself up to the full tension of his powers 
 of description and excitation as he approaches the great 
 Mississippi scheme. But it is perhaps the most remark- 
 able testimony to the popularity of the subject, that one 
 should be able to pick up for a couple of francs, in the 
 French Railway Library (the Bibliotheque des Chemins- 
 de-fer), an amusing volume called ' Law son Systeme 
 et son Epoque,' par P. A. Cochut. It must be admitted 
 that the French historians are not always complimentary 
 to the pilot of that storm. They had many provocations 
 to attack him, and he offered, in the conditions by which 
 he was surrounded, many avenues of attack. If a nation 
 will submit to feel grateful for the services of a foreigner. 
 
THE STATESMAN. 401 
 
 it will never patiently endure injuries or calamities at his 
 hands. The social position of John Law was not fixed 
 on a sufficiently lofty pedestal tcTstand the fastidious criti- 
 cism of a people who were the most aristocratic in Europe, 
 down to the period of reaction, when it became a sin 
 against democracy to speak of a Regent and Comptroller- 
 general. M. Cochut says, " Etait-il ou non gentilhomme?" 
 a question which, he says, caused much serious and de- 
 termined debate at one time, and is not without its inter- 
 est now. 
 
 The fact is, that he was in the position which we so 
 well understand in this country, but which foreigners 
 cannot comprehend, where a person is a gentleman or 
 not, just as he possesses, or is deficient in, certain qualities 
 of the head and heart, promoted by certain petty indefin- 
 able social advantages. To those who chose to believe 
 in him as a gentleman, he was Law de Lauriston, with a 
 significant patronymic title ; while his enemies could say, 
 that any man rich enough to buy an estate in Britain 
 could call his land and himself by what name he pleased. 
 He was an Edinburgh silversmith, which sounded ill 
 abroad, but had little significancy here. As in some 
 other trades, it did not tell whether its owner was a 
 mere retailer, or a merchant who dealt in large affairs, 
 and was more likely than a provincial squire to be a 
 gentleman. He might be a mere vendor of tooth-picks 
 and pencil-cases ; but, on the other hand, he might be a 
 large dealer in bullion and money, whose transactions 
 affected the monetary system in his country. George 
 Heriot, his predecessor in his profession, married into 
 the titled family of Rosebery ; and Law married, without 
 apparently any consciousness of inequality, the Lady 
 Catherine, daughter of the Earl of Banbury; while, in 
 the days of his pride and power, the house of Argyll 
 was glad to claim kindred with him through his mother, 
 who was a Campbell. 
 
 After his fall, it was, however, ominously remarked 
 against him that, even during the height of that pride and 
 power, one fellow-countryman kept at haughty distance 
 from him, and it was significant that this was the British 
 
 2 C 
 
402 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 ambassador. Stair thought at one time that the schemer 
 was likely to make France too powerful a rival in trade 
 and colonisation to England. He thought subsequently 
 that the system was to ruin a country which he wished to 
 see kept under the level of Britain, but not utterly de- 
 stroyed. He adhered to his opposition with honourable 
 firmness, alike disdaining the allurements of advantageous 
 allocations which had bought over the greatest men in 
 France, and coolly defying the threats of his own Court, 
 which, protesting that it could not afford to be offensive 
 to so great a man as the Comptroller-general, threatened 
 to recall him. On the whole, it was a sight flattering to 
 the pride of Scotland, to see in this conspicuous arena 
 two of her sons rising so high above the level of all around 
 them, and bidding each other stern defiance, each from 
 the standard of his own fixed principles. 
 
 But leaving the question of Law's family and social 
 position where we found it, let us cast a glance on a few 
 of those incidental characteristics of the greatness of his 
 talents, the boldness of his policy, and the vastness of his 
 influence, which are shown to us by the results of late 
 inquiries. It is a historical vulgarism to speak of this 
 man as a gambling adventurer, capable only of imposing 
 on a confiding public with a glittering and hollow plan for 
 making money. An adventurer perhaps he must be ad- 
 mitted to have been, but in the sense in which Caesar, 
 Artevelde, Wolsey, and Napoleon were adventurers. He 
 was a statesman who looked far into the distant future for 
 the results of all his acts an erring statesman, if you will, 
 but still a great one. He firmly believed that he would 
 raise up in France a power that would struggle with and 
 put down the waxing commercial greatness of England. 
 Nor can we well charge the project as criminally unpatri- 
 otic. Scotland and England had not been so long in 
 union as to feel themselves one people ; and when Law 
 threw his interests into another nation, the old ally of 
 Scotland, he did what in his father's day would have been 
 deemed an act of patriotism. 
 
 In the course of a series of letters to the English Court, 
 full of alarming prognostications, we find the British am- 
 
THE STATESMAN. 403 
 
 bassador saying, " You must henceforth look upon Law 
 as the first minister, whose daily discourse is that he will 
 raise France to a greater height Chan ever she was, on the 
 ruins of England and Holland." And again : " He in al! 
 his discourse pretends he will set France much higher than 
 ever she was before, and put her in a condition to give 
 the law to all Europe ; that he can ruin the trade of Eng- 
 land and Holland whenever he pleases; that he can 
 break our bank whenever he has a mind, and our East 
 India Company. He said publicly the other day at his 
 own table, when Lord Londonderry was present, that 
 there was but one great kingdom in Europe, and one 
 great town and that was France and Paris. He told 
 Pitt that he would bring down our East India stock ; and 
 entered into articles with him to sell him, at twelve 
 months hence, ^"100,000 of stock at n per cent under 
 the current price. You may imagine what we have to 
 apprehend from a man of this temper, who makes no 
 scruple to declare such views, and who will have all the 
 power and all the influence at this Court" 1 Such pas- 
 sages have not inaptly been compared with the boast- 
 ings of Napoleon when he issued the Berlin and Milan 
 decrees. 
 
 It involves no approval of the Mississippi Scheme, or 
 even of the conduct of its founder, to say that there was 
 more soundness in Law's views, and even in his practical 
 proposals, than the world has been disposed to concede 
 to them, and that many of the calamitous results of the 
 affair were caused by their not obtaining fair play; or, 
 perhaps it might be better said, because they got too 
 much play. In reading that eventful chapter in history, 
 it is but justice to separate two things from each other 
 what Law proposed, from what the French Government 
 and people did. All his suggestions were subjected to 
 that " ergoism," as it is aptly termed, of the French, 
 which makes them drive every opinion ruthlessly to its 
 utmost logical conclusion, that spirit so well exemplified 
 in Robespierre, when it was said that he would slay one 
 
 1 Hardwicke's State Papers, ii. 593. 
 
404 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 half of mankind to get the other half to follow his prin- 
 ciples of rigid virtue. Hence whatever Law commenced 
 was carried out to its utmost extreme ; and when there 
 arose the faintest reactive misgiving, the foundations of 
 his complicated structure were at once kicked away, and 
 the whole toppled down in ruin. 
 
 The utter prostration of the patient's condition when 
 the new physician took her in hand, is not to be con- 
 ceived. Louis XIV., with his costly triumphs, and the 
 dire vengeance taken for them, had left the country desti- 
 tute of ships, of commerce, of agriculture, of money, of 
 hope itself. There had just been a savage hunting-down 
 of farmers-general, monopolists, and other persons who 
 were supposed to have enriched themselves at the public 
 expense. But the slaughter and pillage of a few million- 
 aires would not make up for the prostration of enterprise 
 and industry. 
 
 The foreigner who offered to cure these constitutional 
 disorders did not come as a nameless and needy wanderer. 
 He was a favourite among the European courts, where he 
 had dazzled the eyes of the smaller monarchs with visions 
 which they sighed to reflect that they had not ready 
 capital sufficient to realise. He is described as very 
 handsome, very accomplished, and of marvellously fascin- 
 ating address. More than all, he did not come empty- 
 handed. He was in possession of a sum said to be a 
 hundred thousand pounds in English money, which, with 
 his usual sanguine impetuosity, he threw into his own 
 scheme, and there lost. He was accused of having real- 
 ised this money at the gaming-table. No doubt Law 
 gambled ; it was a prevalent vice of the day, only too 
 congenial to a temperament so vivacious and susceptible. 
 But he does not appear to have ever condescended to 
 petty dissipated gambling. His practices had more of the 
 character of stock-jobbing. He played with princes and 
 ministers that he might strengthen his hand to hold a 
 political part in European history; and he was rather too 
 successful in accomplishing his object. 
 
 I am not going to offer a new history of the " system," 
 but shall here notice only those incidents of violent oscil- 
 
THE STATESMAN. 405 
 
 iation, which show how remorselessly the complex plans 
 of the ingenious speculator were dashed backwards or 
 forwards, according to the prevalent humour or panic of 
 the moment. When he had gathered together the threads 
 of all the various funds and projects which were absorbed 
 within the mighty system, it was announced that the 
 company could pay 200 livres on the shares which had 
 cost 1000 livres. c 
 
 This was 20 per cent a very pretty dividend, which, 
 with interest at 4 per cent, made each 1000 livres' share 
 worth 5000. But the public would not leave them at 
 this humble figure; and though there was no promise 
 of a prospective enlargement of the already enormously 
 enhanced dividend, they bade them up, in the mad con- 
 tests so often described by historians, until they reached 
 10,000 livres ; an increase in their original value of 900 
 per cent. The impetuosity with which the " actions " 
 rose was such, that ere two men could conclude a bargain 
 for sale with the utmost possible rapidity, a difference of 
 some thousands of livres had arisen in the value of the 
 article sold ; and in- this way, messengers who were sent 
 to sell stock at eight thousand, for instance, found that, if 
 they could but linger a few minutes at the mart, the stock 
 would rise to nine thousand, and they might pocket the 
 difference. 
 
 There has been wild enough work of this sort in our 
 own country; but the peculiarity of the great French 
 system was, that whenever the popular mania took a par- 
 ticular direction, the Government beckoned it, urged it 
 nay, coerced it on to the utmost extreme. The public 
 mind was so well saturated with Law's aversion to the 
 precious metals and preference for paper money, that for 
 once gold became a drug in the market. People who 
 chose might hoard it, but none, save a few eccentric ex- 
 ceptions to the prevailing opinions, then wished to hoard. 
 All were under a sort of trading fever; they must be 
 speculating and increasing their wealth ; and with so 
 worthless a thing as gold there was no use of trading, for 
 no one would take it. Thus, to the eminent satisfaction 
 of the leaders of opinion, the precious metals were rapidly 
 
406 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 streaming out of the kingdom into countries still so be- 
 nighted as to deem them worthy of possession 
 
 Still there were a few a very few people of sceptical 
 and saturnine temperament, who, distrusting the system, 
 were suspected of having secret hoards of the precious 
 metal in their possession. This was a sort of treason 
 against the system, and must not be permitted. Accord- 
 ingly, that celebrated edict was issued, which required 
 that no person or corporation could legally possess more 
 than 500 livres in specie, whether it were in coined money 
 or in the shape of plate or ornaments. A sort of insane 
 aversion to the precious metals a simple desire to put 
 them out of existence is the best account that history 
 gives of this affair. But we can suppose that the design 
 of Law himself was to bring the bullion into his bank, 
 and make a metallic basis, somewhat on Sir Robert Peel's 
 system, for his paper currency. Bullion did, in fact, flow 
 into the bank, to the extent, in three weeks, of 44 millions 
 of livres about 5^ millions sterling; but it passed 
 through as from a sieve, not apparently in the slightest 
 degree to the regret of the Regent and his courtiers. 
 
 The dilapidation which the law of confiscation created 
 among the family plate in the great houses may easily 
 be imagined; but such a trifling inconvenience was not 
 to be permitted to impede the onward progress of the 
 system. The law was carried out with rigour and cruelty. 
 The police were directed to make domiciliary visits, and 
 the informer received one half of the forfeited treasure. 
 It would appear, from an anecdote, that whoever had 
 served the public by denouncing a bullion-keeper, might 
 retain what he had so worthily acquired. One day the 
 President Lambert de Varmon appeared before the chief 
 of police, and stated that he was prepared to denounce 
 a criminal possessed of 5000 livres' worth of bullion. 
 The chief was shocked somewhat; he thought the rage 
 for denunciation was spreading far indeed, when so ami- 
 able and excellent a man was infected by it. "Whom 
 was he to denounce?" Himself. He knew no other 
 way of saving a moiety of his plate. 
 
 As part of his grand project for resuscitating France, 
 
THE STATESMAN. 407 
 
 and lifting her to a height of greatness far above that 
 achieved by the great monarch who had just passed to 
 his account, Law proposed to carry out the greater por- 
 tion of those internal reform^ which France has sub- 
 sequently adopted ; having effected some of them by 
 peaceful degrees, and others by sudden violence. But 
 the relentless vehemence with which the Government 
 proposed immediately to enforce all these radical changes 
 effectually defeated them. 
 
 It was part of his plan to abolish the infamous corvk, 
 with all the multitudinous feudal taxes, and to establish a 
 capitation and property tax. Doubtless the exemptions 
 enjoyed by the nobility would have been swept away 
 before the paper hurricane as they fell in the great day of 
 sacrifices at the commencement of the Revolution, and 
 the Government again was not to impede the system on 
 so trifling a consideration; but the reaction postponed 
 the sacrifice for half a century. Farther, Law anticipated 
 the beneficent policy of Turgot, in a proposal to abolish 
 the provincial restrictions and monopolies which inter- 
 rupted the trade of the country, and made Frenchmen 
 strangers to each other. He had a vast colonisation 
 scheme, which was to serve two objects. It was to raise 
 up a French empire in America, which, beginning in the 
 valley of the Mississippi, should radiate thence and per- 
 vade the whole of the western hemisphere. It was to be 
 at the same time a means of removing the damaged and 
 surplus population of France, and sweetening the blood 
 of the country. 
 
 No sooner was the scheme proposed than the Govern- 
 ment plunged into it with its wonted impetuosity. On 
 the morning of the ipth September 1719, the bells of 
 St Martin gave forth a wedding-peal; it was no mere 
 private joy-peal, but something that might announce a 
 royal wedding or some other important ceremony. All 
 the people are on the alert ; and behold, there wind 
 through the street one hundred and eighty damsels, 
 dressed in white, with garlands of flowers, each attended 
 by a bridegroom suitably apparelled. They move onwards 
 with signal regularity and precision ; and no wonder, 
 
408 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 they are chained together with iron fetters, and on each 
 side of them marches a file of musketeers. These are 
 the female convicts of the prison of St Martin des Champs, 
 each mated with a suitable husband from one of the 
 other prisons, and the whole are to be shipped off to 
 form an earthly paradise in the West. It had been well 
 had matters stopped with the prisons ; but a kind of 
 emigration rapacity seized upon the Government. They 
 looked around with greedy eyes, finding this or that 
 damaged part of the population, and immediately am- 
 putating it for removal. 
 
 It was as if a universal press-gang were abroad. People 
 hid themselves, and were dragged forth from their hiding- 
 places, lodged in some prison, and marched down in 
 chains to a vessel. At Rochelle a gang of one hundred 
 and fifty women fell on their keepers and tore them. 
 The guard fired on the amazons, killing six and wound- 
 ing many others. At the same time the wildest exaggera- 
 tions were published, to encourage voluntary emigration. 
 Some deep politicians thought it would assist the progress 
 of French aggrandisement in the West, and make the 
 Parisian empire that was to cover the new hemisphere 
 arise more rapidly, were some French blood infused into 
 the native royal races of North America. Accordingly 
 the Queen of Missouri was induced to come to Paris to 
 select a husband. The fortunate object of her choice 
 was a stalwart sergeant in the Guards, named Dubois. 
 A disagreeable condition said to be attached to the new 
 dignity probably impeded more distinguished candidates. 
 The Queen of Missouri, being a Daughter of the Sun, 
 was entitled to cut off her husband's head if he displeased 
 her; and rumour went that Dubois the First actually 
 suffered the penalty of this rigid discipline. But all 
 distinct record of his fate was lost in the tangled mixture 
 of wild adventures encountered by the thousands who 
 were unshipped on the desert shore shovelled, as it 
 were, into a strange land swarming with savages, and 
 left there to struggle for life and food. 
 
 The Government was ready to do anything to banish 
 the Parliament from Paris to hang a member of one of 
 
THE STATESMAN. 409 
 
 the first families in Europe to confiscate fortunes and 
 abolish powers and privileges if it appeared that the act 
 was likely to have the faintest efficacy in establishing the 
 universal dominion of the system. In the same man- 
 ner, when the first breath was blown on it, instead of 
 leaving it to struggle on or die naturally, they turned on 
 it and rent it. The first symptom of alarm was the high 
 price of commodities. They mounted, though not by 
 such extravagant leaps, as rapidfy as the value of the 
 "actions," doubling, trebling, and quadrupling. This was 
 just the natural effect of an excessive and valueless cur- 
 rency. If the Government could have reduced that 
 currency by buying it in, they might have made it rather 
 more appropriate to its object. But short, violent 
 remedies were the rule under the Regent's Government, 
 and a decree was issued reducing the nominal value 
 of notes to one -half. It reduced their actual value 
 to nothing. They were something to be got rid of on 
 any terms. 
 
 Had the French Revolution taken place before the 
 verdict of a jury of historians had been passed upon John 
 Law, they would have found no true bill against him, 
 but, after the laudable fashion of English grand juries, 
 would have vented round opinions on all the defects 
 in public affairs which had rendered their assembling 
 together necessary. To have made all the madness of 
 those times was beyond the capacity of any human being, 
 however malignantly he were inclined. There is indeed, 
 throughout all the narratives of the affair, a signal and 
 almost appalling parallelism with the earlier symptoms 
 of the great Revolution. It looks as if the long latent 
 disease had endeavoured to break out, but had been 
 thrown back into the constitution to gather power and 
 malignity. There was much dire misery among the 
 humbler people ; and many who belonged to the com- 
 fortable classes, whose dissatisfactions are generally sup- 
 posed to proceed less from destitution than unsatisfied 
 ambition, felt the gripe of hunger and the want of a roof. 
 Amid all this misery, and at the times when it was at its 
 very worst, it was noticed by thoughtful bystanders, as it 
 
410 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 afterwards was noticed during the Reign of Terror, that 
 the theatres never were so well filled, or all the usual 
 novelties of Paris so eagerly pursued. Frondes and mots 
 abounded, and the rapidity of the ruin which fell on 
 thousands was improved in multitudinous pasquinades, 
 such as 
 
 "Lundi, j'achetai des actions, 
 Mardi, je gagnai des millions, 
 Mercredi, j'ornai mon menage, 
 Jeudi, je pris un equipage, 
 Vendredi, je m'en fis au bal, 
 Et Samedial'hopital." 
 
 Along with this well and ill timed gaiety, crime in- 
 creased rapidly ; at all events, it was supposed to increase. 
 The administration appears to have been too deeply 
 absorbed otherwise to pay much attention to it. The 
 bodies of the murdered seem, however, to have been 
 thought worth counting, and they were so numerous as 
 abundantly to alarm the living. 
 
 On one occasion, the thousands of Paris gathered in 
 insurrection, carrying with them the bodies of those 
 who had been killed in the crush before the bank. They 
 sang 
 
 " Franais, la bravure vous manque, 
 Vous etes pleins d'aveuglement ; 
 Pendre Law avec le Regent, 
 Et vous emparer de la Banque, 
 C'est 1'affaire d'un moment." 
 
 They rushed on the palace, just as their grandchildren 
 did on the renowned loth of August. So far as history 
 speaks, architecture seems to have postponed the catas- 
 trophe. The old Palais Royal was a vast square or place, 
 bordered by straight lines of high, many- windowed houses. 
 These had gradually been filled with soldiers. Thus 
 when the mob came to the point of attack, they found 
 themselves in the position in which the military have so 
 frequently found themselves in the streets of Paris sur- 
 rounded by buildings garrisoned by the enemy. 
 
 While the wheel of fortune thus revolved amid storm 
 and fire, there was, so far as we can infer from history, in 
 
THE STATESMAN. 411 
 
 the conduct of the presiding genius, serenity and haughty 
 calmness. He was the most wonderful, if not the most 
 powerful, man in the world ; and the humiliations under- 
 gone by the greatest people of France to propitiate him 
 call up a blush for human nature. It was scoffingly said 
 of him that he gave a blandly condescending reception to 
 his countryman the Duke of Argyll ; but the Duke was 
 a mere provincial respectability beside the triumphant 
 Comptroller-general, and he knew it. 
 
 To others of his countryman of very humble rank, 
 Law appears to have been kind and affable. He stands 
 entirely free from the taint of mercenary premeditation. 
 He could have fortified himself by investments to any 
 extent in England, and many other places, had not his 
 faith or his allegiance bound him to his own system. 
 When it broke he scattered everything from him, as one 
 to whom the preservation of a mere private fortune was 
 felt as infinitely despicable. There was perhaps some- 
 thing more of recklessness than of virtue in this ; yet it 
 would have been more painful to have found him in 
 search of some little prize for himself among the ruins. 
 While the house was falling he was often exposed to 
 personal danger, and he gained respect by his haughty 
 defiance of it. 
 
 Once he seems to have lost his temper. A mob follow- 
 ing his carriage with fierce cries, he stepped out and 
 faced them, saying, " Vous etes canailles," and walked on. 
 " Soit," says M. Cochut, " que le mot se fut perdu dans 
 le tumulte, soit qu'un majestueux sang-froid cut impose 
 a la multitude, 1'Ecossais put gagner le Palais Royal sans 
 accident." Not so with the coachman. He, inspired 
 with sympathetic fervour, repeated his master's scornful 
 epithet, and the canaille, in consequence, tore him from 
 his seat, and stamped him to death, while they broke the 
 carriage in pieces. The Premier-President de Mesme, 
 who beheld this little incident, acquired much fame by 
 relating it to his brethren, thus 
 
 "Messieurs, messieurs, bonne nouvelle, 
 La carosse de Law est reduit en cannelle." 
 
412 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 In the fictions, and perhaps in the realities of the East, 
 when the favourite of the caliph, who has sprung from 
 nothing, forgets himself in his overweening pride, and 
 abuses the royal confidence, he is at once hurled from his 
 height of power, and sits a beggar at the corner of the 
 market-place, to bear the gibes and cuffs of those who 
 used to court him. In like manner the popular concep- 
 tion of John Law is, that, when his meteoric flight was 
 over, he became extinguished to sight in some jeweller's 
 stall or petty gambling-house. But he was still a per- 
 sonage, carrying about him the faded lustre of a deposed 
 prince ; or, perhaps, more fitly speaking, the repute of a 
 fallen minister, of whom it is not to be forgotten that he 
 may rise again. As he left France his carriage was fol- 
 lowed by another in hot pursuit. It contained, not an 
 officer of justice, but M. Pressy, the agent of the Emperor 
 of Russia come to solicit the aid of the great financier 
 for the adjustment of the pecuniary affairs of the em- 
 pire ; but the ex-Comptroller-general does not appear to 
 have encouraged the proposal. Alberoni went to Venice 
 to meet him, and for some time he carried about in his 
 wanderings a sort of shifting levee of ministers and petty 
 princes. Desiring to return to Britain, Sir John Norris, 
 who commanded the Baltic fleet, thought it due to so 
 eminent a person to give him a passage in the admiral's 
 own ship. The courtesy with which the Government 
 received him created some excitement in the Opposition ; 
 and the last time when Law's name was brought con- 
 spicuously before the world, was in a debate in the House 
 of Lords. 
 
 What a wild world it would be if economic schemers 
 even the most moderate among them had absolute des- 
 potic powers put into their hands wherewith to give effect 
 to their own schemes ! This reflection comes up as ap- 
 propriate to the difficulty that any reader would feel in 
 discovering the seeds of so tremendous an affair as the 
 Mississippi Scheme in Law's writings. He will find in 
 them, indeed, many views of undisputed soundness. 
 Law's ideas of the nature of metallic money correspond 
 with the prevalent political economy of the present day. 
 
THE STATESMAN, 413 
 
 He seems, indeed, to have been the first to disperse the 
 theory, entertained by Locke and many others, that the 
 precious metals are endowed, by the general consent of 
 mankind, with an imaginary Value ; and he shows that 
 their universal employment as a circulating medium de- 
 pends on their real value, arising from their ornamental 
 and portable character, their indestructibility, and, above 
 all, the nearly uniform amount of labour that it ever costs 
 to bring them into the market. His notion of the real 
 value of the precious metals was the antinome, as it were, 
 of his view that their cost prevented the supply of money 
 ill sufficient abundance ; that they were too dear, in short, 
 and ought to be discarded for a cheaper and more pro- 
 lific medium. The main tenor of his theory was, that 
 when a country is exhausted, it can only be resuscitated 
 by an infusion of fresh financial blood in the shape of 
 easy issues of money. Voltaire, in his 'Age of Louis 
 XV.,' testifies that, in the end, it was successful, and that, 
 through all the misery and ruin she endured, the country 
 was the better for the Mississippi Scheme, deriving from it 
 an elasticity of movement which led her on to subsequent 
 prosperity. Many people will doubt this view ; but it is 
 rather remarkable that Law's scheme was considered by 
 the French themselves so fundamentally sound that they 
 virtually repeated it in the celebrated issue of assignats, 
 in which the French Convention played over again the 
 same desperate piece of gambling. It has obtained a 
 higher sanction still. In this present year (1864) the 
 people who enjoy the reputation of being the acutest and 
 " smartest " in the world are hard at work playing the 
 desperate game, and will bring it to its inevitable results. 
 When a suspension-bridge breaks down or a boiler ex- 
 plodes, engineers avoid the method of construction which 
 leads to such a calamity. It is otherwise in the social 
 machinery, where all the passions and prejudices of man- 
 kind are the materials used in the construction. Events 
 have their actions and reactions going on, re-echoing each 
 other into after generations, under so many different 
 forms, that people question if the beginning of all really 
 was a calamity. The echoes of this Mississippi affair 
 
4H THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 itself are not yet dead. It was followed immediately by 
 the South Sea storm in England, and a similar catas- 
 trophe in Holland. The Scheme left the French Govern- 
 ment burdened with the colony of Louisiana. It was sold 
 in 1803 to the United States for fifteen millions of dollars 
 cash down. It was this purchase that created the pre- 
 ponderating influence of the slaveholding States of the 
 Union and what that has done and is now doing we all 
 know. Again, the Scheme left France in the possession 
 of an East India Company which rivalled our own, but of 
 that rivalry came the great contest in which Clive and 
 Hastings asserted the superiority that made the British 
 Eastern empire : but for this contest, and the military 
 position it gave us in the East, it is possible that our 
 country might have known nothing of Hindostan save 
 as a field of trade. 
 
 One thing that makes the world respect political and 
 commercial schemers is their power ; and there is some- 
 thing fascinating in the contemplation of power, whether 
 used for good or for bad ends. The ideas of Law have 
 supporters in the present day in those economists who 
 vehemently urge the extension of credit as a means of 
 multiplying capital of doubling, trebling, or quadrupling 
 it. And yet credit operations are but a form of gambling, 
 and should be so treated. The lower form of gambling 
 at the gaming-table has sometimes great results, not 
 always entirely pernicious. A renowned professional 
 gambler once made a large fortune by his pursuit an 
 extremely uncommon result. His daughter was married 
 to a man of genius, who, backed by her wealth, became 
 prime minister of Britain and a prime minister who put 
 his mark upon his age. A man found wasting his brains 
 and his health at rouge et noir, however, would hardly get 
 credit for sincerity if he said he was working to get a 
 good prime minister for the country. Be the end of it in 
 the far future what it may, every act of gambling, whether 
 in the share-market or at the gaming-table, is not an 
 operation for the benefit of the human race, but an act 
 done through the influence of a selfish passion ; and, like 
 
THE STATESMAN. 415 
 
 all other selfish passions, it should be the duty of those 
 who take upon them the function of instructors rather to 
 repress than encourage it. 
 
 On the Plutarchian system of comparison, John Law 
 and William Paterson should pair off together the one, 
 as having ruined France with the Mississippi Scheme, 
 the other as having ruined Scotland with the Darien 
 Scheme. They had other parallel conditions in life, in 
 that they wei e competitors in laying-schemes before their 
 own countrymen. Law had proposed certain projects to 
 the Parliament of Scotland, which, being in a cautious 
 humour, they declined to adopt, and he then carried his 
 genius abroad. Paterson's schemes were all directed to 
 the aggrandisement of his own country, and therefore he 
 does not appear, at first sight, within the category of 
 those Scotsmen whose genius and achievements have 
 been exhibited among foreigners. But Paterson during 
 a large part of his life was busy abroad. His practical 
 information on foreign countries guided the Darien Com- 
 pany and the Scottish Parliament in all their operations. 
 The way in which he obtained this information was con- 
 nected with two rather inconsistent-looking accusations 
 touching the occupations of his earlier days. The one 
 was that he had obtained it as a buccaneer or pirate 
 on the Spanish main; the other, that he picked it up 
 while acting as a canting missionary in communication 
 with the Puritans of New England. When we think of 
 men and their actions, we should always endeavour to see 
 them by the light of their own times. The two profes- 
 sions were not so utterly inconsistent in the seventeenth 
 as they are in the nineteenth century. Paterson's corre- 
 spondence shows him to have been slightly pious. But a 
 good deal of piety need not have been inconsistent with 
 the transaction of business after the usual manner on the 
 Spanish main. Few commanders of vessels who found 
 themselves strong enough to get off with it could then 
 resist the temptation to mix up a little buccaneering with 
 legitimate commerce. Sea rights and sea ethics were by 
 no means so distinctly defined as they now are. The 
 
416 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 rule then was that good old rule which Wordsworth ad- 
 mired so much for its patriarchal simplicity 
 
 "That he should take who has the power, 
 And he should keep who can." 
 
 Once in blue water, the Tarpaulin, as the rough-handed 
 skipper of that day was called, considered that he was 
 free of land-laws and diplomatic obligations a sort of 
 separate self-acting power; and as there was generally 
 some war or other going on, he was free to take either 
 side and plunder the enemy, and to change sides as op- 
 portunity suggested. Paterson's own colony was con- 
 sidered a nest of buccaneers by the Spaniards, and indeed 
 their conduct was not calculated to rebut the charge. 
 They seized all the Spanish vessels they could lay hand 
 on, as those of enemies ; but having on one occasion 
 mistaken an English vessel for a Spanish and seized it, 
 they could not be prevailed on to rectify the mistake by 
 a restoration. 
 
 People open their eyes at the great buccaneer, Henry 
 Morgan, having been knighted ; but there was nothing 
 anomalous had he even also, as the biographer of Pater- 
 son says he was, been made governor of Jamaica. He 
 was so great a leader of ruffians as to be almost an inde- 
 pendent sovereign, like the Dey of Algiers. He would 
 have boasted of his feats at Court. Perhaps a day may 
 come when it will be considered flagitious to appoint an 
 aristocratic blackleg to a post of trust ; and Thackeray's 
 promotion of Rawdon Crawley to the government of a 
 colony may be cited as a type of the habits of our 
 generation, as De Foe's Colonel Jack exemplifies the time 
 not much more than a century old when young men 
 were kidnapped on the streets of Newcastle or Aberdeen, 
 and sold as slaves to very respectable houses concerned 
 in the plantation trade. 
 
 Paterson's zealous biographer, Mr Saxe Bannister, re- 
 pudiates the charge against him, saying that it rests on no 
 better authority than Burnet's general observation, "There 
 was one Paterson, a man of no education, but of great 
 notions, which it was generally said he had learned from 
 
THE STATESMAN. 417 
 
 the buccaneers, with whom he had consorted for some 
 time." And certainly, as nothing more specific can be 
 discovered about his early pursuits, we have no right to 
 hold that they must have been tinged with piracy. 
 
 His later transactions with foreign countries are suffi- 
 ciently ostensible. When his scheme was at its climax, he 
 directed some very important negotiations on the Conti- 
 nent, where he in some measure tried his strength against 
 the power of William III. The cause of the calamities of 
 Scotland at that time was the datermination of the Dutch 
 King to sacrifice everything to his European system. To 
 this end, when he had to consider whether he should be 
 just to Scotland, or propitiate the great trading interests 
 of England, he chose the latter alternative. The Darien 
 Scheme, as most people are aware, was a plan to enable 
 Scotland to have a foreign trade and colonies of her own, 
 since the Navigation Act made her a foreign country to 
 England, not entitled to participate in the English ship- 
 ping privileges and colonial trade. The projectors of the 
 Darien Scheme naturally enough courted English capital, 
 and established an office in London. This was denounced 
 as a breach of the privileges of the East India Company, 
 as well as in various other shapes offensive, and the emi- 
 nent men who represented the Company in London were 
 hunted out of England as criminals. 
 
 Paterson conceived that, as Scotland was deemed a 
 foreign country, incapable of participating in the trading 
 privileges of England, she was, as a converse, not only 
 entitled, but invited to treat with her old friends on the 
 Continent, without asking leave of her imperious yoke- 
 fellow. It was arranged that the Company should fill up 
 the shares which the English merchants had subscribed, 
 but were obliged to abandon, in that old burghal commu- 
 nity which had been long associated with Scotland the 
 Hanse Towns. But that foreigners should enter in the 
 field of enterprise from which their own jealous laws ex- 
 cluded themselves, was intolerable to the English capi- 
 talists, and they had interest enough to get instructions 
 issued to the representatives of England in foreign courts 
 Scotland could not afford to have representatives that 
 
 2 D 
 
41 8 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 the Company disposing of its shares was not countenanced 
 by the King, and any communities giving encouragement 
 to it would encounter his displeasure. The Burgomasters 
 of Hamburg indignantly repudiated the King of England's 
 right to menace them, and said they traded as they pleased; 
 but the Hamburgers did not take stock. 
 
 The flow of capital from Northern Europe was in fact 
 effectually checked by the intervention of William. Pat- 
 erson showed on the occasion his versatile resources, and 
 looked at once to the other side of the Continent. He 
 proposed terms to the Armenian merchants, the great 
 masters of Eastern trade, whose chain of connections 
 passed from Hindostan to Lapland. These men, so 
 remarkable for their honesty, sagacity, and substantiality, 
 would fain have aided the Scots, had they not, through 
 their subtle channels of intelligence, known that the 
 Darien Company was not countenanced by the King who 
 reigned over Scotland. Thus was frustrated a plan by 
 which Paterson and his friends projected an overland 
 traffic to India, and the establishment in the Eastern 
 Peninsula of factories which should rival those of the 
 East India Company of England. 
 
 It is matter for much regret that both the beginning 
 and the conclusion, with many portions of Paterson's life, 
 are so dark to the world. This is not for want of any 
 deficiency in biographical zeal, though it came too late 
 to be effectual. Still there is much for the world to be 
 grateful for in the fruit of the long labours of Mr Saxe 
 Bannister. If he has not done much to clear up the 
 events of Paterson's life, he has given the clearest pos- 
 sible rendering of his opinions and projects, by discover- 
 ing and printing all his works. 1 It is a sufficient hint 
 that the contents of these volumes are important, to say 
 that they give forth the earliest practical exposition of the 
 doctrines of free trade, and that they enlarge on the illim- 
 
 1 * The Writings of William Paterson of Dumfriesshire, and a citi- 
 zen of London, founder of the Bank of England and of the Darien 
 Colony.' Edited by Saxe Bannister, M-A. of Queen's College, Ox- 
 ford ; with Biographical Notices, Fac-similes, and Portrait. 1859. 
 
THE STATESMAN. 419 
 
 itable character of commerce when protected from inter- 
 ference. The editor, among the many vast schemes of 
 his master, has found one of a smaller character, but 
 curious and interesting a design to found a public 
 library, to consist solely of books bearing on trade. He 
 collected the nucleus of it himself; and if he could read 
 the books he thus bought, which are enumerated in a 
 catalogue made by him, he must have been free, or must 
 have freed himself, from Burnet's charge of being unedu- 
 cated. * 
 
 If it be open, by ingenious special theories, to prove 
 that the Mississippi Scheme was not in the end disastrous, 
 it is quite clear that Paterson's was in the end beneficent. 
 In the first place, Scotland compelled restitution by Eng- 
 land of the loss caused to the shareholders of the Darien 
 Company. The amount paid up in calls was refunded to 
 each up to the last penny, from the fund called "The 
 Equivalent." Having tasted the benefits of a free trade 
 with England during Cromwell's time, the country was 
 determined to have it again, or set up an opposition in- 
 terest to England by an alliance with France or some 
 other great foreign power. The breaking -down of the 
 dynasty of the daughters of King James, by the death 
 of all Anne's children, gave Scotland her opportunity. 
 Whatever way England settled the succession, Scotland 
 would settle it otherwise, unless she were made a partici- 
 pator in the English privileges of trade. An Act was 
 passed to arm the country in case England should at- 
 tempt to force through the Scots Parliament a concur- 
 rence in the Hanover succession. As one of the ships 
 of the Darien Company had been seized for a breach of 
 the privileges of the English African Company, an English 
 vessel was seized in the Forth by way of reprisal. On 
 suspicion of having committed piracy on a Scots ship, the 
 English captain and crew were tried and condemned to 
 death. The proof against them was very defective in any 
 eyes not obscured by national wrath, and the Crown 
 wished to spare the men's lives, but dared not do it in 
 the face of the temper shown by the country. The men 
 were hanged, to express the country's sense of the grasp- 
 
420 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 ing selfishness of the English merchants. It was now 
 clear that there was nothing for it but to concede to 
 Scotland the full privilege of participation in English 
 trade, and so came the Treaty of Union. 
 
 By a natural transition from that portion of the connec- 
 tion of Scotland with other countries which associates 
 itself with the career of Paterson, we might get among 
 the Hanse Towns, and other trading districts of the north 
 of Europe, where Scots merchants appeared to have 
 swarmed. They had established special privileges in 
 the Low Countries, which they kept a kind of ambassador 
 or consul to protect. He was the " Lord Conservator of 
 Scots privileges at Campvere j " and the office, having be- 
 come a sinecure, was given to John Home by way of 
 compensation and consolation when he was deprived of 
 his office as a parish minister for writing * Douglas.' 
 There were a number of merchants in Sweden, who, 
 with the remnant of the Scots soldiers of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, merged into what were called the thirty- six 
 noble Scots houses there. I have in my hand a book by 
 a member of one of them named Andrew Murray ; it is 
 a Treatise on the History and Whereabouts of those 
 Kenites who were prophesied against by Balaam, and told 
 that "though strong was their dwelling-place, and they 
 put their nest in a rock, yet they should be wasted until 
 Ashur should carry them away captive." The author dedi- 
 cates his book to three noble merchants of Prussia two 
 of them his relations and Murrays John in Memel and 
 Thomas in Danzig, where there was a considerable fra- 
 ternity of Scots merchants. 1 Among the Slavonians who 
 do not take to commerce, and have their merchandise 
 done by other races, the Scots seem to have supplied all 
 grades, from the merchant princes to the pedlars, so 
 called from walking about with their available stock in 
 trade. The vacuum they left when the Union opened 
 up the home market to Scots enterprise, seems to have 
 been filled by Jews. Sir John Skene, who put into his 
 Law Dictionary a quantity of the little specialties of per- 
 
 1 'Andrese Murray, Commentatio de Kinseis.' Hamburg, 1718. 
 
THE STATESMAN. 421 
 
 sonal knowledge which are so valuable when found in old 
 books, but so little likely to be found in law dictionaries, 
 says of pedlars, " Ane pedder is called ane merchand or 
 cremar, quha bears ane pack or crame upon his back, 
 quha are called bearars of the puddill be the Scottesmen 
 in the realme of Polonia, quhairof I saw ane great multi- 
 tude in the town of Cracovia, anno Dom. 1569." 
 
 I have little doubt that a deal of matter both valuable 
 and curious might be found by an investigation into the 
 conditions which created the class of trading Scots. The 
 present object is, however, rather to tell what has fallen 
 in the writer's way than to search out new matter ; and 
 as I do not happen to possess any notices of them suffi- 
 ciently picturesque for the present purpose, I again take 
 advantage of the licence to bring forth any occurrences in 
 the career of Scotsmen in the diplomatic service, when 
 these happen to go beyond the ordinary beaten circle of 
 diplomatic functions. 
 
 The scene opens in a State to which the world has 
 lately been looking with unusual interest Denmark 
 in the remote palace of Fredericksberg, about the year 
 1771. The notorious Struensee, who, with a few long 
 strides, passed from the function of a German village- 
 doctor to that of prime minister, or, more properly, 
 dictator of Denmark, has just reached the climax of his 
 meteoric career. He was a prodigious reformer ; but it is 
 useless to discuss the merit of his projects. If there was 
 any nation in Europe at that time where the Pombals, 
 Josephs, or Potemkins could take great social systems to 
 pieces and reconstruct them scientifically, without mis- 
 chief or danger, Denmark was not that nation. It is 
 quite different now; but at that time before the first 
 French Revolution, remember in no European country 
 was there a harder system of immovable uniformity and 
 routine, protected by a powerful aristocratic order whose 
 existence depended on its being executed to the minut- 
 est tittle. The old Norse freedom and heartiness were 
 entirely gone, and everything was frozen into an icy per- 
 manence by the frigid influence which the Russian autoc- 
 racy and bureaucracy were then exercising over the north- 
 
422 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 ern nations. But however judicious or acceptable in them- 
 selves Struensee's reforms might have been, they came 
 from a poisoned fountain. He was one of that most 
 odious of all classes of statesmen, a royal favourite ; and 
 of the two kinds of royal favouritism his was by repute 
 the more odious the favouritism of a woman. 
 
 The young Queen of Denmark, Caroline Matilda, the 
 sister of George III., was reared in a Court where a prin- 
 cess was certainly not likely to imbibe profligacy ; and it 
 is difficult to conceive any one brought up under the 
 same auspices as her rigid brother, becoming even amen- 
 able to a charge of levity. Her possession of remarkable 
 beauty and great powers of fascination is scarcely less 
 easily reconcilable with that generation of the royal 
 family. That she had these powers of fascination seems, 
 however, to be beyond a doubt. It can be as little 
 doubted that she was wayward and indiscreet ; and in- 
 deed her own family did little to vindicate her fame from 
 graver charges. If it were any vindication of her con- 
 duct, it is certain that her husband Christian was as con- 
 temptible and odious a being as ever lived in a sty of 
 profligacy a sort of vulgarised Darnley, in a single- 
 breasted coat and powdered wig. 
 
 Struensee was originally his own favourite, and was 
 dragged by him, with that indecorous vehemence with 
 which weak men tug at their favourites, into the inmost 
 recesses of the palace. He was highly educated, hand- 
 some, clever, and agreeable. The Queen certainly liked 
 him; and she had some good substantial reasons for 
 awarding him a decorous preference. He took in hand 
 the charge of the young Crown Prince's health, as a 
 physician, and superintended the training both of his 
 body and mind. A mother might have sympathy for all 
 reasonable dispensations of kindness to such a person, 
 and Struensee had claims perhaps of a still more touching 
 kind, in being the means of reconciling the royal couple 
 to each other of exacting promises of reformation from 
 the King, and pardon of his past profligacy from the poor 
 Queen. 
 
 It is difficult to say which of the three the King, the 
 
THE STATESMAN. 423 
 
 Queen, or their favourite acted the maddest part in the 
 political saturnalia which followed. Struensee's certainly 
 was the guiding hand, so far as there was guidance. Step 
 by step he rose in political power, each step being at- 
 tended by an excess of folly and presumption. At length, 
 when he had the fate of Denmark in his hands, he scat- 
 tered to the winds at one blast the old Council of State, 
 in which the representatives of ih& chief families of Den- 
 mark held absolute oligarchical rule. He transferred the 
 power of government to a ministerial board subservient to 
 his own bidding. 
 
 It was scarcely consistent with human nature that the 
 discharged statesmen should bear this act with Christian 
 meekness. At the same time, the favourite could not so 
 easily make good harvests, and abolish idle habits among 
 the people, as he could dismiss the Council. The times 
 happened to be hard, and the people made common 
 cause with the nobles, charging the favourite with their 
 calamities. Drunk with power, he did many frantic and 
 wicked things ; but of all his follies and vices, the least 
 defensible part of his conduct was his treatment of the 
 Queen. With such a husband as she had, and with all 
 the Court against her, she unfortunately was too solely 
 dependent on the favourite. He exulted in his strength, 
 and proclaimed, as it were, his triumph in conduct which 
 would have been despicable if the poor woman had been 
 erring, and was fiendish if she were innocent. 
 
 At length a blow was struck. The Queen was arrested, 
 so were Struensee and his friend Brand. The triumph- 
 ant party were madder with success than even the fallen 
 favourite had ever been. They fiercely demanded blood. 
 Struensee was at once hurled with oriental precipitancy 
 from the throne to the scaffold, and was executed with 
 every concomitant of ignominy and horror. 
 
 There is little doubt that the Queen would have been 
 a victim had not a hand been stretched out to save her. 
 The whole wild history was watched by the calm observ- 
 ant eye of a young Scot Colonel Robert Keith, who, 
 though a novice in diplomacy, was deemed suitable to be 
 trusted with so quiet a post as the Danish mission. But 
 
424 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 few veteran ambassadors have ever been more sorely tried, 
 Was he to see the sister of his sovereign put to death ? 
 and if not, where were the means by which he could avert 
 her fate ? No doubt, national wars had often been caused 
 by acts far more trifling. Philip V. of Spain had de- 
 clared that rivers of blood would not wash out an in- 
 cidental slight thrown on his family, and he would not 
 have thought thousands of lives unduly wasted in such 
 a cause. But it was not to be concluded that Britain 
 would plunge into a European war for the fate of one 
 person, though that person were a Princess. These were 
 the diplomatic difficulties which would surround such a 
 question at the conference-table. The young ambassa- 
 dor solved them all by an act of wise heroism. He was 
 free at all events to sacrifice his own personal safety in 
 the cause. He took it on himself to denounce any act 
 of violence to the Queen as an act of war with England, 
 and to strike his flag as one who was no longer an am- 
 bassador protected by the law of nations, but a prisoner 
 in the hands of the enemies of his country. 
 
 A little examination will show that this step was as wise 
 as it was disinterested. If it proved successful, and the 
 revolutionists spared the Queen, it would be for the con- 
 sideration of the British Government whether or not they 
 should punish the successful blusterer for an excess of his 
 constitutional powers as a British ambassador. If he 
 were unsuccessful if the Danish Cabinet defied the rep- 
 resentative of Britain, and sacrificed the Queen to their 
 vengeance it was still in the power of the British Gov- 
 ernment to repudiate the act of the ambassador, and be 
 at peace with Denmark. 
 
 The question fortunately did not arise in its more for- 
 midable shape. No violence beyond enforced seclusion 
 was offered to the Queen. An uncertainty, which may 
 be called unsatisfactory rather than mysterious, hangs 
 over the subsequent intercourse of the two Governments 
 about her destination. The history of the time does not 
 speak of war with Denmark as one of the perils of Britain, 
 but the diplomacy refers to a formidable naval force pre- 
 pared to rescue the Queen from the hands of her enemies. 
 
THE STATESMAN. 425 
 
 In the * Annual Register ' for the year, there is a pretty 
 full history of the revolution, followed by an account of 
 the conclusion of the contest between Denmark and 
 the Dey of Algiers. About the position of the Queen of 
 Denmark, the writer of the chronicle for the year speaks 
 as one who desired information, but had it not to give. 
 Nothing is said of an armed force being fitted out, yet 
 the following passage of a letter from Lord Suffolk, the 
 Foreign Secretary, has an air as if Britain had made pre- 
 paration for war. "The national object," he says, "of 
 procuring the liberty of a Daughter of England, confined 
 in Denmark after her connection with Denmark was dis- 
 solved, is now obtained. For this alone an armament 
 was prepared, and therefore, as soon as the acquiescence 
 of the Court of Copenhagen was known, the preparations 
 were suspended, that the mercantile and marine inter- 
 ests of this kingdom might be affected no longer than 
 was necessary by the expectation of a war. Instead of 
 a hostile armament, two frigates and a sloop are now 
 ordered to Elsinore. One of them is already in the 
 Downs, the others will repair thither immediately, and 
 as soon as the wind permits they will proceed to their 
 destination. 3 ' 1 
 
 The small force was sent as a sort of guard of honour 
 to accompany the Queen to her place of retreat at Zell, 
 known from its tragic"*association with another princess 
 connected with the house of Hanover. The allusion to 
 the larger force which might have been fitted out, but 
 was not, may be suspected to have been a small diplo- 
 matic expedient for imparting a wholesome alarm to the 
 ruling powers in Denmark. 
 
 The shape in which the acknowledgments of his Court 
 seem to have been conveyed to the spirited young am- 
 bassador has the same unsatisfactory mystery or uncer- 
 tainty which characterises the whole conduct of the 
 British Court in this matter. The anxiously awaited 
 despatch, in which his conduct was to be approved or 
 
 1 'Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir Robert Murray Keith, 
 K.B.' 2 vols. : 1849. Vol. i. p. 287. 
 
426 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 condemned, contained, if we may believe the laborious 
 editor of his papers, neither approval nor condemnation ; 
 but " the parcel flew open, and the Order of the Bath 
 fell at his feet ! The insignia had been enclosed by 
 the King's own hands, with a despatch commanding him 
 to invest himself forthwith, and appear at the Danish 
 Court." 1 
 
 It had got wind among the gossips of the day that 
 there was something peculiar in the acknowledgment of 
 Keith's services, for Horace Walpole is found writing: 
 " Mr Keith's spurt in behalf of the Queen has been re- 
 warded. The red ribbon has been sent him, though 
 there was no vacancy, with orders to put it on directly 
 himself, as there is no sovereign in Denmark to invest 
 him with it." A letter from Lord Suffolk to the father of 
 the new-made knight enlarges on the eminence of the 
 distinction conferred. " The dispensation with ceremonies 
 is carried further than usual ; " the dependence of negotia- 
 tions is chosen as the time for conferring the decoration, 
 because his Majesty wishes it to be the reward of merit, 
 independently of success ; it is the King's own personal 
 act ; and " Sir R. Keith is not to inquire into the expenses 
 of the present his Majesty has made." So the Secretary 
 parades the reward, carefully avoiding any reference to 
 the nature of the service for which it is conferred. I 
 admit that something like an idle curiosity has led me 
 into these piebald criticisms on the conduct of the British 
 Government with reference to the history of Queen Ma- 
 tilda. When the subject is old enough, and the state 
 papers bearing on it are freely published, it will doubtless 
 afford matter for a curious secondary chapter in British 
 history. 
 
 The young knight, whose mission it appeared to be to 
 revive the institutions of ancient chivalry, by winning his 
 spurs in the defence of injured and imperilled beauty, 
 had very little romance in his character, but a great fund 
 of Scottish shrewdness, tempered by honourable upright- 
 ness, and put to good service by various qualifications, in 
 
 1 ' Memoirs, ' i. 250. 
 
THE STATESMAN. 427 
 
 which we may fairly include the pen of a ready writei. 
 His father, Robert Keith of Craig, in Kincardineshire, 
 the country of the Keiths, was also a diplomatist. He 
 rose from the office of Lord Stair's military secretary to 
 be Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and afterwards 
 Ambassador at Vienna and at St Petersburg. Both the 
 father and the son witnessed, and were more or less 
 concerned in, several of the historical events marking the 
 progress of the northern courts events which, though 
 they seem to have been -buried under the more convul- 
 sive revolutions of later times, are yet eminently deserv- 
 ing of careful study, as the organic elements out of which 
 several of the states of Europe have grown, and from 
 which they take their political character and destiny. 
 
 The elder Keith thus describes a great revolution in 
 Russia. On Friday, the i3th day of July 1762, he had 
 an appointment to meet the Emperor. It was thus in- 
 terrupted : " About nine o'clock one of my servants came 
 running into my bed-chamber, with a frighted counte- 
 nance, and told me that there was a great uproar at the 
 other end of the town ; that the guards, having mutinied, 
 had assembled, and talked of no less than dethroning the 
 Emperor. He could tell me no other circumstances, nor 
 could give me any answer to the only question I asked 
 namely, if the Empress was in town : but about a quarter 
 of an hour after, one of the gentlemen of our factory came 
 in, and informed me that the Empress was in town ; that 
 she had been declared by the guards and the other troops 
 of the garrison their Empress and Sovereign ; and that 
 she was then actually at the Casansky church to hear 
 Mass and the 'Te Deum' sung on the occasion/' 1 
 
 The colleges of the empire and all the great people 
 were pressing to take the oaths, like people crowding to 
 a fashionable singer or a popular preacher. The whole 
 affair occupied two hours, during which the quarter of 
 the town where the English resided "was as quiet as if 
 nothing extraordinary had happened; the only novelty 
 to be seen was some pickets placed at the bridges and 
 
 1 ' Memoirs,'!. 53. 
 
428 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 corners of the streets, and some of the horse-guards 
 patrolling in order to preserve the public tranquillity." 
 To make clean work of it, in the evening the Empress 
 was seen marching forth "at the head of ten or twelve 
 thousand men, with a great train of artillery, on the 
 road to Peterhoff, in order to attack the Emperor, whether 
 at Peterhoff or Oranienbaum ; and the next day, in the 
 afternoon, we received the accounts of his Imperial Ma- 
 jesty having, without striking a stroke, surrendered his 
 person and resigned his crown." Such was the installa- 
 tion of the Semiramis of the North, the great Catherine 
 an event pregnant with great results both to Europe 
 and Asia. 
 
 A considerable number of letters by the elder Keith, 
 and a far greater number of his son's, are to be found in 
 the two octavo volumes just referred to. To people who 
 are fond of reading old family papers in fluent print, with- 
 out floundering through the blots, or stumbling over the 
 crabbed cacography of the original manuscript, the vol- 
 umes will have an interest ; and the historian who gropes 
 diligently through them will find a few facts. Some of 
 the best letters in the collection were addressed to "Sis- 
 ter Anne," Mrs Murray Keith, a lady occupying a niche 
 in literature as the Mrs Bethune Baliol of Scott, who 
 says of her, in a letter printed with pardonable pride by 
 the editing relation : " I never knew any one whose sun- 
 set was so enviably serene; and such was the benevo- 
 lence of her disposition that one almost thought time re- 
 spected a being so amiable, and laid his hand upon her 
 so gradually, that she reached the extremity of age, and 
 the bowl was broken at the cistern before she experienced 
 either the decay of her organs or of her excellent intellect. 
 The recollection of her virtues and her talents is now all 
 that remains to us ; but it will be a valued treasure to all 
 who shared her esteem." 
 
 Throughout these Keith papers there are pleasant 
 glimpses of a Scottish family of gentlefolks of the old 
 school. The men, all brave and persevering, are scat- 
 tered over the world, bettering the fortunes of their 
 house, and raising the national character. The women are 
 
THE STATESMAN. 429 
 
 gentle and domestic, with a strong sense both of humour 
 and pathos, with a certain Scottish liveliness, too, and 
 those profuse and friendly manners, said to have been 
 derived from the long intercourse with the French, of 
 which I have had so much to say. Middle-aged people 
 have seen specimens of it in very old women. It was 
 something which, though totally different from the man- 
 ners of the English gentry, Jiad an unmistakable character 
 of high breeding. To the young ambassador it was a 
 sad change to pass from his own genial circle into the 
 cold routine of diplomatic life at so obdurately formalised 
 a Court as that of Denmark. V He wailed loudly from time 
 to time about his lot, after this fashion : 
 
 " The nonsense of etiquette has already thrown a stum- 
 bling-block in my way, by a new, and, I believe, unpre- 
 cedented regulation with respect to private audiences. 
 But as I have preserved all possible respect towards this 
 Court, and made my report with fairness and temper to 
 my own, I can be under no uneasiness with regard to my 
 share of the innovation and its consequences. A shut or 
 an open door for that is the point is a subject to be 
 canvassed by the higher powers. My duty is to wait for 
 instructions, and adhere to them quietly. In the mean 
 time I heartily consign that old harridan Etiquette, with 
 all her trumpery, to the lowest underling of all possible 
 
 devils After looking round me with an 
 
 anxious yet a benevolent eye, for anything that may be 
 called a society, or even a single friend, male or female, 
 I am forced to own to myself that there is not any hope 
 of succeeding. I do not mean to asperse a whole 
 nation, in which there are undoubtedly many worthy 
 people j but such is the shyness of all those I have seen 
 to each other, and still more to men of my cloth, that 
 meeting them now and then at dinner, or in a public 
 place, forms not a more intimate connection than that of 
 three or four Dutchmen who have crossed in the same 
 doit-boat at Rotterdam. . . . . A Monsieur and 
 Madame Juel are just come to town, with a sweet little 
 cherub of a daughter just fifteen ; consequently just the 
 very thing that can be turned to no earthly advantage by 
 
430 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 a gentleman of my years. These good people curtsied 
 to me very politely at my presentation ; and as they are 
 renowned for hospitality, I have since had the happiness 
 of seeing the outside of their street door, which is of 
 
 strong handsome oak, and painted yellow 
 
 Our week is now going to be parcelled out in plays and 
 operas, and there will be at least a place of rendezvous 
 every evening. Yet are we starched and demure even 
 in our playhouses, for every human being has his or her 
 place allotted by the Book of Etiquette, and sticks to it 
 during the whole performance. Those who are two 
 boxes from me might as well be in Norway, for any man- 
 ner of communication I can have with them. My little 
 Juel is within five seats of being as great a lady as Ma- 
 dame de Blosset ; and as I squat next to Madame L'Am- 
 bassadrice, I can, at least twice in an evening, see the tip 
 of my cherub's nose. Were she to marry into the third 
 class of grandees, I should see no more of her during my 
 stay in Denmark. It is really ridiculous to see how the 
 world is parcelled out here into no less than nine classes, 
 six of whom I must never encounter without horror. Yet 
 my opera-glass tells me that numbers eight and nine beat 
 us all hollow as to flesh and blood." 1 
 
 Sir Robert's next embassy was to Vienna \ and it will 
 show that diplomacy had done little to conventionalise 
 his British feelings, to give a few sentences expressing his 
 sensations on hearing of the American revolutionary war. 
 He writes from Vienna, on the 5th of February 1775 : "^ 
 think next post will bring me a handsome sheet of day- 
 light into American matters, which to me are hitherto all 
 mirk and mystery. I am out of all patience with the six 
 hundred congresses of as many American villages, and I 
 long to hear old Mother England hold to them the lan- 
 guage of affectionate authority and dignified firmness. I 
 would not hurt a hair of their crazy heads if I could help 
 it ; but I would enforce the laws with temper and moder- 
 ation, in order to impress upon their memories this first 
 salutary lesson of filial obedience The fero- 
 
 1 'Memoirs,' i. 220, 221. 
 
THE STATESMAN. 431 
 
 cious miscreants who inhabit the outskirts of our colonies 
 in America may be guilty of all the crimes you ascribe to 
 them, without their affecting my opinions concerning the 
 bulk of the community, and I'll tell you why : because 
 when I buy a large piece of broadcloth, and convince 
 myself by a thorough examination that it is well spun, 
 well woven, and warm and durable through nine-tenths 
 of the web, I don't value it fe. pin the less because it has 
 been fretted and moth-eaten within two inches of the 
 selvage. I love mankind ancLour own home-spun part 
 of it from the bottom of my heart ; and it would be a 
 pretty thing indeed if a fellow like me, who has his Suf- 
 folks, his Chamiers, his Drummonds, his Campbells, and 
 his Conways to boast of, should lay thorns upon his own 
 pillow, because there are thieves and pickpockets in the 
 purlieus ofSt Giles." 1 
 
 Sir Robert Keith is one of the many Scotsmen who 
 saw Frederick the Great, and left notes of their impres- 
 sions of one whom it was so great a thing to have seen. 
 Fritz might have supposed that Scotsmen formed the 
 greater portion of the inhabitants of Britain, and that 
 the predominating name among the Scots was Keith, or 
 Kite, as it was pronounced in Prussia. There were the 
 two Roberts, the father and son the Earl Marischal of 
 Scotland, and his own field-marshal. There were two 
 other Keiths brothers intimately connected with the 
 adventures of Frederick's early life. One of them appears 
 with the title of Lieutenant, the other of Page. They 
 were the chief abettors of his attempt to escape or de- 
 sert, as it was called in the Prussian official documents 
 at Steinfurth, when travelling with his tyrant father in 
 1730. These Kites had for their accomplice a Lieu- 
 tenant Katt, who, until the story came to be fully unrav- 
 elled by Carlyle, was often confounded with them. Katt 
 was hanged with ignominy, but the two Keiths escaped. 
 The page, in fact, confessed the whole affair. The lieu- 
 tenant, who was waiting at Wesel to give assistance, was 
 warned in time ; and so one evening Lieutenant Keith, 
 
 1 'Memoirs,' ii. 45. 
 
432 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 " doubtless smelling something," saddled his horse, and 
 " decided to have a ride in the country this fine evening, 
 and issued out at the Brunnen Gate of Wesel. He is on 
 the right bank of the Rhine ; pleasant yellow fields on 
 this side and on that. He ambles slowly for a space, then 
 gradually awakens into speed into full speed; arrives 
 within a couple of hours at Dingden, a village in the 
 Munster territory, safe over the Prussian border by the 
 shortest line; and from Dingden rides at more leisure, 
 but without losing time, into the Dutch Overyssel 
 region." l He was taken in hand by Chesterfield, the 
 British ambassador at the Hague, who sent him to 
 England. The old King had to content himself with 
 symbolical redress, and sentenced him " to be hanged in 
 effigy, cut in four quarters, and nailed to the gallows at 
 Wesel." 2 
 
 As intimately as with any of the Scotsmen in his own 
 employment was Frederick connected with the British 
 ambassador, Sir Alexander Mitchell, of the Mitchells of 
 Thainston in Aberdeenshire. Frederick talked specula- 
 tive republicanism and speculative virtue to him; and 
 when the Scotsman seemed to show a dangerous inclina- 
 tion for putting the speculative virtues into a practical 
 shape, he could say : " I have no doubt of your good 
 and honourable sentiments, my dear Mr Mitchell. I 
 could wish that everybody thought in the same manner : 
 the world would be all the happier for it, and men more 
 virtuous." 3 
 
 In his now never-perused Epistle on the Origin of Evil, 
 he could speak of " mon cher Mitchell " as 
 
 " Ministre vertueux d'un peuple dont les lois 
 Ont a leur sage frein assujetti les rois." 
 
 He is said to have wept whether sincerely or not as 
 he saw Mitchell's funeral procession pass. And he might 
 well have been sincere, for he was under many obligations 
 
 1 ' History of Frederick the Great,' ii. 264. 2 Ibid., ii. 287. 
 
 3 'Memoirs and Papers of Sir Andrew Mitchell.' By Andrew 
 Bisset. Vol. i. p. 160. 
 
THE STATESMAN. 433 
 
 to the Scot As we have seen some of his countrymen 
 sent abroad to intimidate aggressive powers, so Mitchell 
 was sent to cheer and to help a struggling cause with 
 which Britain had more sympathy than it was expedient 
 for her rulers to show. He did his mission bravely and 
 honourably. Whatever our general view over the field 
 of past history reveals to us^ about a policy for the aggran- 
 disement of one house, by % squeezing out one small state 
 after another, the position in which the British people at 
 that time saw Frederick was tife same that the gods love 
 to look on a brave man struggling against fate in the 
 shape of enemies stronger than himself. It was as the 
 representative of British sympathy with this that Mitchell 
 went over. 
 
 One who seems to have inherited the ancient spirit of 
 his countrymen, ever to give a good word in the go-by to 
 any respectable brother Scot casually met in the course 
 of his inquiries, gives this testimony to Mitchell : " One 
 wise thing the English have done sent an Excellency 
 Mitchell, a man of loyalty, of sense, and honesty, to be 
 their resident at Berlin. This is the noteworthy, not 
 yet much noted, Sir Andrew Mitchell, by far the best 
 Excellency England ever had in that Court; an Aberdeen 
 Scotsman, creditable to his country, hard-headed, saga- 
 cious, sceptical of shows, but capable of recognising sub- 
 stances withal, and of standing loyal to them stubbornly 
 if needful; who grew to a great mutual regard with 
 Friedrich, and well deserved to do so : constantly about 
 him during the next seven years, and whose letters are 
 among the perennially valuable documents in Friedrich's 
 history." 1 
 
 A life more at variance with the placid luxurious ease of 
 an embassy to some great court cannot well be conceived. 
 It was a mission, indeed, not to a court, but to a camp. 
 In critical times Mitchell was ever present. Whether 
 when abandoned by the world, and seemingly by Prov- 
 idence, Frederick sat in his old coat, in a dirty hovel 
 writing French poetry, or stood exulting over the wondrous 
 
 1 Carlyle's Frederick the Great,' iv. 537, 538. 
 2 E 
 
434 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 field of Rosbach Mitchell was at his side, not a cold 
 diplomatist watching and reporting, but a friend and 
 champion, sharing his dangers and helping to over- 
 come them. He is even now and then actually under 
 fire; then he makes a narrow escape from capture, be- 
 cause, in his eagerness to join his royal friend, he passes 
 too near the enemy's lines. At another time he has to 
 endure the hardships of a disastrous march, want of food 
 included. "The Prussian camp," he says, "is no place 
 of pleasure. Neither convenience nor luxury dwell here. 
 You are well provided with everything, if you bring it 
 along with you. I find I must increase my equipage or 
 starve. All my family are like spectres. . . . Pray 
 let me know if my long letter of the 2ist was intelligible. 
 It cost me much labour. I was twelve hours on horse- 
 back in one day. I understand nothing by description. 
 I must see it, and therefore I fear what I write is not 
 intelligible." 
 
 Where is the Secretary for Foreign Affairs who has 
 been accustomed to receive from his own ambassador 
 such a hint as the following, written on the 28th of 
 August 1757, to Lord Holderness, and explaining suffi- 
 ciently the juncture to which it refers? 
 
 " England is cheated and ministers duped by Hanover. 
 What a pitiful figure will they make in Europe ! The 
 most notorious breach of faith has been wantonly com- 
 mitted to support a weak, ill-judged, and ineffectual 
 measure. You know what has happened. Why was not 
 the King of Prussia previously consulted ? I can answer 
 with my head he would have yielded to any reasonable 
 proposition for the safety of Hanover. What will pos- 
 terity say of an Administration that made the Treaty of 
 Westminster for the safety of Hanover, and suffered the 
 Hanover ministers to say openly that they have no treaty 
 with the King of Prussia, nay, have suffered them to 
 betray that prince who has risked his all to save them, 
 and whose misfortunes are owing to his generosity and 
 good faith ? . . . Let us have done with negotiating. 
 After what has happened, no man will trust us. I know 
 
THE STATESMAN. 435 
 
 not how to look the King of Prussia in the face ; and 
 honour, my lord, is not to be purchased with money." l 
 
 To one by. whom he was backed in this fashion, Fred- 
 erick might well afford a little licence of remonstrance 
 and sarcasm. Mitchell was celebrated for the broad, 
 strong censures which he often levelled against the King's 
 acts of cruelty and aggression, and there is no doubt 
 that Frederick stood in awe of his honest, observing 
 eye. He could be sarcastic and epigrammatic too, and 
 one of his retorts has been often repeated. Discussing 
 the disaster of Port-Mahon, Mitchell remarked, in a 
 manner not congenial with the usual conversation of Sans 
 Souci, that Britain must place her trust in God. The 
 King was not aware that Britain had such an ally. " He 
 is the only ally," said Mitchell, "who requires no sub- 
 sidies from us." 
 
 1 Memoirs,' i 268, 269. 
 
436 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ARTIST. 
 
 GLIMPSES OF EARLY ART GEORGE JAMESONE AND HIS CONTEMPOR 
 ARIES AIRMAN HAMILTON ALLAN RAMSAY MARTIN JACOB 
 MORE RUNCIMAN SIR ROBERT STRANGE EARLY ARCHITECTS 
 JAMES GIBBS. 
 
 THIS is a department of intellectual labour in which there 
 is little to be said for Scotland by one whose notice is 
 entirely confined to the past, and the rather far past 
 There are certain conditions of the possession of a school 
 of art which Scotland has never enjoyed until very late 
 times. The arts have sometimes flourished amid turbu- 
 lence and vice, but never could they gain root in a coun- 
 try disturbed and impoverished by a perpetual struggle 
 with powerful neighbours for independence and bare 
 national existence. To the hardier virtues such arid and 
 storm-swept soil was congenial. It was the natural nur- 
 sery of military leadership it was favourable to strong- 
 headed and strong-willed statesmanship it made bold, 
 ambitious, hard-working scholars, who scorned delights 
 and lived laborious days. But the artist is not autoch- 
 thonous-, he grows in a garden, of which not only the 
 original plants are imported and carefully nurtured, but 
 the very mould itself is artificial : hence, that Scotland 
 should have produced artists and sent them abroad as 
 missionaries to lead on the great schools of foreign art, 
 would have been as absurd an expectation as to anticipate 
 such a service from Iceland or Vancouver Island at the 
 present day. 
 
THE ARTIST. 437 
 
 There are conditions, indeed, so critical in their bearing 
 on existence itself, that the mere statesman will attend to 
 them alone, and forego the decorations of life. Music is 
 a great humaniser and solacer of existence, but the kings 
 who take to the fiddle when their Rome is burning, how- 
 ever skilfully they may have performed, have not reached 
 a high character in their profession as rulers of men. 
 James III. of Scotland was not placed in a favourable 
 position for encouraging art in any prominent shape; 
 and that the nobles of his realm should have been 
 such barbarians as to hang his favourite companions 
 over the bridge of Lauder, only shows us that he did 
 not act the part of a wise governor in raising artists 
 to a high rank among his rough-handed nobles, and 
 making them his exclusive companions, and, in fact, his 
 counsellors on state affairs a function for which, had 
 they been thoroughly devoted to art, they were not fitted, 
 and to which they would not have aspired. 
 
 A statesman's destiny is a hard one in this as perhaps 
 in other matters : he must not pursue, like the vagabond 
 world, his own inclinations and instincts, but must study 
 other people's. The failing of James III. seems to have 
 been, that he consulted his own enjoyment in art, instead 
 of trying how much of it he could get others to enjoy and 
 follow him in. His favour for art was, as we have seen, 
 fatal to the poor artists. By the chroniclers it is only 
 referred to, with more or less of charitable excuse, as a 
 vice ; and of the real fruits of his encouragement of the 
 arts we would know nothing, were it not for the zeal of 
 recent inquirers. 
 
 It appears to have been in his reign that the impulse to 
 architecture, both civil and ecclesiastical, on the French 
 model, as already referred to, began. There stood until 
 very recently in Edinburgh a noble remnant of this re- 
 vival the history of which, perhaps, points to the source 
 whence the King inherited his love of art. The Trinity 
 College Church was built in the early part of his reign by 
 his mother, Mary of Gueldres, the granddaughter of John 
 Duke of Burgundy. It was but a fragment of a church, 
 being little more than the chancel and transept ; but it 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 was sufficient to develop the prevailing French style with 
 extraordinary beauty and richness, and it contained a 
 sufficiency of types of the architect's intentions to permit 
 of its being finished as it had been begun. There it stood, 
 left incompleted, like many another Gothic fragment, by 
 builders who, having exhausted their own resources, left 
 their handiwork in the assured faith that when wealth and 
 opportunity sufficed it would be reverently completed. 
 
 It is a wonderful illustration of how a stratum of bar- 
 barism often runs through a state of high civilisation, that, 
 just after the middle of the nineteenth century, this pre- 
 cious work of art was deliberately obliterated, and that in 
 the face of day, and in the midst of protests by the lovers 
 of art and the students of archaeology throughout the 
 land. The act, indeed, was perpetrated with a sort of 
 cynical contempt of their outcries, as if the doers were 
 actuated by the spirit which sometimes prompts people to 
 outrage the prejudices of their neighbours. In general 
 such acts are hidden under the common barbarism of the 
 times, and the actual perpetrators of the offence rest un- 
 known ; in this instance everything is known of the sev- 
 eral steps which led to the conclusion, and the men 
 engaged in them. If they have any of the aspirations 
 after notoriety which inspired the burner of Diana's 
 temple, they are very likely to be gratified ; for an inquis- 
 itive posterity will be pretty sure to demand a full and 
 complete history of one of the most remarkable outrages 
 that has occurred since art began. Let us hope that it 
 may become a prominent event as the last great instance 
 of Vandalism perpetrated within the United Kingdom. 
 It seems a coincidence worth noting, that as all hope of 
 the retention of the massive stone edifice disappeared, 
 the labours of zealous lovers of art and antiquity became 
 successful in the recovery of a fragile but precious work 
 of art which had evidently decorated the interior of the 
 church. Among the odds and ends of art casually pre- 
 served at Kensington Palace, were two large panels, with 
 scenes partially at least sacred painted on them, so as to 
 render it likely that they were compartments of an altar- 
 piece. They attracted notice by the clearness and cold- 
 
THE ARTIST. 439 
 
 ness of outline, the fresh brightness of colour, the gentle 
 earnestness, not like the ideal of the Italian, and the 
 general air of a struggle with the difficulties of primitive 
 art, which belong to the Van Eyck school. Yet there 
 is a degree of full drawing, and a wonderful compass of 
 colouring, as if of a later school. The minever and ermine 
 furs, the silks and the jewellery, are almost as real as Ter- 
 bourg's. There was a monarch at devotion with a patron 
 saint, and a young prince in royal robes behind him, on 
 one panel ; on another was a queen at prayer, with a 
 mailed figure, also supposed t^> be a patron saint, standing 
 behind her. To those who got access to the other sides 
 of the panels, there were revealed on the one a representa- 
 tion of the Trinity, and on the other St Cecilia playing on 
 an organ, while an angel listens, and a man with strange 
 expressive Scotch features, in rich ecclesiastical robes, 
 kneels in devotion. It was evident that several of the 
 figures here were portraits, and some heraldic devices 
 connected the whole both with Scotland and Denmark. 
 It has been shown by a process of induction, which has a 
 distinctness unfortunately not often realised in such in- 
 quiries, that these panels had been the altar-piece of the 
 Trinity Church. The praying King is James III., the 
 praying Queen his wife, Margaret of Denmark, who is 
 identified by the blazon of the three Scandinavian states, 
 then ruled by one monarch. The St Cecilia is identified 
 as the King's mother, Mary of Gueldres, the foundress of 
 the Church. 
 
 A point was still wanting to connect this piece of art 
 with the Church, and heraldry came in aid when all other 
 sources failed. This often happens, compelling the archae- 
 ologist to pay respect to the fantastic science. It may be 
 all a vain show, ministering to human vanity and folly ; 
 but this is true of many other things that have to be re- 
 corded of the ways of the human race. In fact, man is a 
 blazoning animal ; and if we would know his history, we 
 must accept such his propensity just as, in conchology, 
 we deal with the nautilus spreading his sail, and find in 
 ornithology that the member of the Pavonidae family 
 called the peacock is addicted to fanning out his many- 
 
440 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 coloured tail to the sun. Of the ecclesiastic who is kneel- 
 ing in presence of St Cecilia, Pinkerton, the first to 
 suggest the accepted tenor of the piece, observes, with 
 some disappointment, that "his heraldry of three buckles 
 and a chevron can hardly be traced, except to the obscure 
 family of Bonkil in the Mearns." But the next investi- 
 gator neatly clenches the link that shall join this obscure 
 family to a courtly pageant, by finding that one of them, 
 Edward Bonkil or Boncle, was the first provost of the 
 foundation, and the confessor of the foundress. 1 And by 
 the way, if all tales told of that Queen be true, he must 
 have had duties tending sorely to try the mettle of a court 
 confessor. Whatever may have been the claim of the 
 representative of St Cecilia to a share in her divine art, 
 Mary of Gueldres had poor claims to sanctity, if we ac- 
 cept the grotesque and outspoken account of her conduct 
 in the Pitscottie Chronicle an account unfortunately too 
 distinct and specific to admit of public repetition at the 
 present day ; and in her face there is more of the kind of 
 flesh and blood in which the human passions and failings 
 reside, than of the meek piety of the saint. 
 
 There would be no use attempting to make out that 
 this fine piece was painted by a Scot, whether abroad or 
 at home. But before concluding that in that day, and 
 indeed earlier, there was no art in the land, let us listen 
 to the curious plea put in by a foreigner, to the effect 
 that a picture, perhaps the most remarkable in its his- 
 torical conditions that the world has seen, was probably 
 painted by one of our countrymen. Such a picture 
 was actually in the possession of a Scot abroad and this 
 is something. 
 
 Among the many strange questions put to poor Joan 
 of Arc by her inquisitors, one was, Whether she had 
 ever seen, or caused paint, a picture of herself? She 
 answered, Yes. She had seen at Reims, in the posses- 
 sion of a Scotsman, a picture of herself, in armour, kneel- 
 
 1 See David Laing's ' Historical Description of the Altar- Piece, 
 painted in the reign of King James III. of Scotland, belonging to 
 her Majesty, in the Palace of Holyrood.' 
 
THE ARTIST. 44! 
 
 ing on a hassock, and presenting a letter to the King. 1 
 It is not in evidence that the Scot painted the picture 
 he possessed, nor is it known who painted it ; but, as M. 
 Michel justly remarks, it is lawful to guess at the artist. 
 There was at that time a painter who attended the camp 
 of the Pucelle. It is known that he painted her banner 
 for her that banner also described in her inquisition 
 as white, seme with fleurs-de-lis, with a world and two 
 angels painted on it, and the motto "Jhesus Maria." 
 The name of the painter of this banner, who is also likely 
 enough to have painted the portrait, is recorded as Hames 
 Poulevoir, whose daughter was an intimate friend of the 
 heroine. No one will readily dispute with M. Michel 
 the opinion that this does not sound like a French name ; 
 and he will be readily supported here, when holding that 
 a name it much resembles, and of which he supposes it 
 may be a corruption, Polwarth, is familiar in Scotland. 
 He mentions that the names of Scottish Jameses are 
 often made Hames in old French. 2 Is it fair to suggest 
 a nearer way to the conclusion that the painter was a 
 Scotsman? Suppose Hames a mistake for Hume or 
 Home : Polwarth was an old patronymic of that family. 
 Sir Alexander Hume, the head of the house, was one of 
 the Scots followers of Douglas, killed at Verneuil. He 
 left behind him three sons; but whether any of them 
 remained in France, or, remaining, gave himself to art, 
 I do not know. David Hume was a descendant of the 
 hero of Verneuil. I wonder if he could have been per- 
 suaded that an ancestor of his painted a portrait of Joan 
 of Arc ? There was a Scot who steadily followed Joan's 
 career, and witnessed her last agonies in the fire. He 
 returned to Scotland, where it is believed that he ended 
 
 1 "Interrogee se elle avoit point vu ou fait faire aucunes images 
 ou peintures d'elles . . . respond qu'elle vit a Reims une peinture 
 en la main d'un Escossois ; et y avoit la semblance d'elle, toute 
 armee, qui presentoit une lettre a son roy, et estoit agenouillee d'un 
 genouil, &c. L'edition du proces de condamnation donne'e par 
 M. J. Quicherat porte Arras au lieu de Reims. Voyez t. i. p. loo 
 (Quoted, Michel, i. 174.) 
 
 2 'Les Ecossais en France,' i. 174, 175. 
 
442 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 his days as a monk in the abbey of Dunfermline. He 
 wrote an account of the career of Joan, which, to the 
 great misfortune of historical literature, has been hitherto 
 undiscovered. M. Michel supposes that this man may 
 have been the owner of the picture and this is not 
 impossible. 
 
 Leaving these fields of idle conjecture, let us dwell on 
 the significant and honourable fact, that Scotland pro- 
 duced the first eminent British portrait-painter. When 
 Charles I. revisited the country of his birth in 1633, just 
 after he had brought over Vandyck to fill the vacuum of 
 art in England, he had the gratification of sitting to a 
 native Scottish artist George Jamesone. Few reputa- 
 tions stand in more isolated solitude, and few histories 
 have been more mysterious than this man's. The stormy 
 age, so many of whose great actors he has given us to 
 know face to face, had too much bloody and feverish work 
 to do to pay him much attention, and any memorials now 
 possessed of him have been dug up, fragment after frag- 
 ment, with much industry. His father was a burgess of 
 guild of the city of Aberdeen, his mother the daughter of 
 a bailie thereof. What peculiar train of circumstances 
 can have induced people of this kind, shortly after the 
 end of the sixteenth century, to send their son abroad to 
 study art, it is difficult to conceive ; and if it was from 
 the pure impulse of enlightened ambition, it may be 
 counted that this worthy couple were at least two cen- 
 turies before their age. I am not sure that at this day 
 an Aberdeen bailie would consider it quite consistent 
 with sanity to send a son to Antwerp to be educated 
 as a painter. 
 
 Jamesone was born some twelve or thirteen years be- 
 fore the end of the sixteenth century. It has always 
 been held as an established fact that he studied along 
 with Vandyck under Rubens, and competent critics have 
 declared that his style sufficiently vouches for his train- 
 ing that there is no mistaking in his thinly painted 
 portraits the animated flesh -tints of his master. This 
 may be sufficient to establish the fact that he adopted 
 Rubens's method. That he was the pupil of this master, 
 
THE ARTIST. 443 
 
 is asserted in the anecdotes of Horace Walpole, who 
 simply states the fact, mentioning that he received his in- 
 formation about George Jamesone from James Jamesone, 
 a merchant in Leith. A hundred years after the painter's 
 death, Walpole was but eighteen years old, so that the 
 tradition must be supposed to have been transmitted 
 through two or three generations. The amount of evi- 
 dence, however, demanded for any such fact, depends on 
 its weight. If one shows you a coal which he extracted 
 from the granitic rocks of Devonshire, you would require 
 some evidence of so startling^an assertion ; but if he says 
 he got it at Newcastle, it is not worth while proving that 
 it did not come from North Shields or Wallsend. Had 
 Jamesone been a self-created artist, his style would have 
 been as different from others as the methods of the 
 founders of the Italian, the German, and the Flemish 
 schools respectively. But his pictures are Flemish, as 
 broad as they can stare. He learnt to paint, therefore, 
 in the school where Rubens was supreme ; and whether he 
 frequented the potentate's studio or not, is a trivial matter. 
 Local tradition goes farther even than Walpole has 
 followed, and connects Jamesone with the domestic his- 
 tory of his illustrious instructor. All men know the 
 lovely picture known as the "Straw Hat" the portrait 
 of Rubens's second wife, whom he married when he was 
 fifty-four and she sixteen. Some of the French Lives 
 call her Helena Fremont, but the more accurate Germans 
 give her name as Forman. This is a common north- 
 country name, and the tradition is, that she was an Aber- 
 deenshire girl, and a relation of Jamesone's. Waagen 
 says she belonged to a distinguished family in Antwerp, 
 but his authority for this seems only to be of a semi- 
 traditional character. I asked him about it. The Aber- 
 deen story, however, will not hold its own ground. It 
 represents Helena Forman as rising from the humble 
 position of a house-maiden in the artist's family, and then 
 bringing her kinsman to participate in her fortunes. But 
 it happens that her marriage with Rubens occurred in 
 1631, after Jamesone had returned with his training to 
 his native town. 
 
444 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 Jamesone, like his father, was a burgess of Aberdeen, 
 and seems to have lived in affluence and comfort, since 
 a few notices preserved of him are chiefly taken from the 
 recorded settlements in which he disposed of his pro- 
 perty. Among the topographical memoranda in that 
 valuable little itinerarium so full of amusing learning, 
 called ' The Book of Bon Accord/ there are some curi- 
 ous memoranda of his house and garden. The old local 
 writer there quoted says : " Upon the west side of the 
 town, at a small distance, there is a little green swelling 
 hill to be seen, corruptly called the Woman Hill, but 
 more properly the Woolman Hill, because it is affirmed 
 that in old tymes the sellers of wool quho came frome 
 the neirest pairts about the towne took ther stand ther 
 upon merkat days. Under the verie hill there runs a 
 stream of water, and another veyne of the same water in 
 the midst of the channel of a little brook running south- 
 ward close under the foot of that hill, yet it is easilie 
 distinguyshed both by its taste and colour from the waters 
 of the brook. This spring is known by the name of the 
 Wall of Spaa. Hard by it to the westward there is a 
 four-squair feild, which of old served for a theater, since 
 made a gardyne for pleasure by the industrie and expense 
 of George Jamesone, ane ingenious paynter, who did set 
 up therein ane tymber house, paynted all over with his 
 own hand." 
 
 In the town-garden and pleasure-house, or Lust Haus> 
 we may trace Jamesone's adoption of the habits he saw in 
 the Netherlands. They are commemorated in one of the 
 curious topographical epigrams of Arthur Johnston, of 
 whom and his rivalship with Buchanan something has 
 already been seen. His tribute to the painter's pleasure- 
 garden is not one of his most successful efforts ; and it is 
 not improved in the translation of a local bard of some 
 half a century later, whose lyre was inspired by the genius 
 of municipality reform : 
 
 " The Woolman Hill, which all the rest outvies 
 In pleasantness, this city beautifies ! 
 There is the well of Spa, that healthful font, 
 Where yr'ne-brewed water celoureth the mount. 
 
THE ARTIST. 445 
 
 Not far from thence a garden's to be seen, 
 "Which unto Jamesone did appertain, 
 Wherein a little pleasant house doth stand, 
 Painted (as I guess) with its master's hand. " x 
 
 Some documents connected with Jamesone's acquisition 
 of his little suburban paradise show more distinctly still 
 the influence of ""Flemish habits on the painter. The 
 ground where the old Catholic rhysteries used to be per- 
 formed having fallen into the offensive condition in which 
 suburban public grounds, when not carefully tended, are 
 sure to fall, while at the mercy of a turbulent burn, he 
 resolved to beautify it according to the Flemish fashion 
 at his own proper charges. He represented to the magis- 
 trates, "That for as meikle as agreeit part of the playfeild 
 belonging to the toune quhair comedies were wont to be 
 acted of auld beside the wall of Spay, is spoiled, broken, 
 and carried away in speat and inundation of water, and 
 is liable to the same danger and inconvenience hereafter, 
 so that, unless some course be taken to withstand such 
 speats and inundation, the whole playfeild, within a short 
 space of time, will all utterlie decay, and serve for no use. 
 And the said George Jamesone, taking notice of the 
 toun's prejudice therein, and withall haveand considera- 
 tion how this litil plot of ground may be useful to the 
 toune heirefter ; out of his naturall affectioun to this his 
 native citie, he is content, upon his own charges, not only 
 to make some fortification to restrain the violence of the 
 speattis in tyme cuming, bot lykewayes to make some 
 policie and planting within and about the said playfeild 
 for the publict use and benefit of the toun." The condi- 
 tion on which he offered to lay out the pleasure-ground 
 
 1 ' Memorials for the Government of the Royal Burghs in Scotland, 
 with some Overtures laid before the Nobility and Gentry of the 
 several Shyres in this Kingdom ; as also a History of the City of 
 Aberdeen ; with the Epigrams of Arthur Johnstoun, Doctor of Medi- 
 cine, upon some of our chief Burghs, translated into English by 
 J. B. 1685.' The original reads : 
 
 " Hanc quoque Lanaris mons ornat, amcenoir illis, 
 Hinc ferrugineis Spada colorat aquis, 
 Inde suburbanum Jameson! despicis hortum 
 Quern domini pictum suspicor esse manu." 
 
446 THE SCOT ABROAD 
 
 for the future use of the public was, that he should himself 
 retain it for the remainder of his days at a nominal rent, 
 and the offer was thankfully acceded to. 
 
 Such trivial details have surely a significance entitling 
 them to be preserved. They show the hopeful readiness 
 with which the foreign notions of the travelled artist were 
 received among his fellow-burgesses in the short breath- 
 ing-time of peace which followed the union of the crowns. 
 It will easily be believed especially when the troublous 
 time that immediately followed on the artist's setting up 
 of his tabernacle is remembered that little of his garden 
 finery remained down to late times. A stone arch over 
 the chalybeate spring, still called the Well of Spa, is the 
 sole relic of his public benefactions. The stream that 
 threatened to destroy the playground is well barricadoed, 
 but it runs blue and red with the refuse of dyers' vats, 
 mixed with elements still more offensive : the very site 
 of the pleasure-house is forgotten, and the old garden 
 is covered with a filthy suburb. 
 
 One who had lived in the house of Rubens must have 
 seen something like princely grandeur : it was the way in 
 Flanders, as well as in some of the Italian states, practi- 
 cally to reverence high art, by letting it open the way to 
 power and wealth. Whether this was a more enlightened 
 principle than that of permitting every artist to advance 
 himself as well as he can, by selling his works to the pub- 
 lic at large, and endeavouring to give them cheaper than 
 his neighbours, I am not going to inquire. Jamesone 
 may or may not have sighed for the sort of artistic 
 court which he left behind him at Antwerp. Certainly, 
 however, if he did not find himself where art held its 
 proper supremacy, and where he might reverentially fol- 
 low masters or ambitiously cope with rivals, he was in 
 the middle of a set of trained scholars and clever men 
 even when at home in his garden-house ; and we know 
 that he frequently resided at Edinburgh, and travelled 
 about. The names of some of those whose portraits he 
 painted will show that he enjoyed no mean share of the 
 artist's privilege, to meet face to face the great men of 
 his age. He painted Charles I., Montrose, Rothes, old 
 
THE ARTIST. 447 
 
 Leslie the Earl of Leven, the Chancellor Loudon, the 
 Marquesses of Hamilton and Huntly, Bishop Forbes, 
 Andrew Cant, Gordon of Straloch, Urquhart of Cromarty, 
 Sir Thomas Hope, Gregory, Richard Baxter, George 
 Heriot, Arthur Johnston, and Sir Thomas Nicolson. 
 
 We have already made acquaintance with the remark- 
 able group of men renowned for literature and science 
 who then clustered round the old northern city which 
 boasted of the united attractions of a cathedral and a 
 university. When an artist of the Flemish school settled 
 down among the other celebrities of the place, it might 
 have been held a token that civilisation was ripening 
 apace up to the standard of the foreign seats of learning, 
 and that the Scot would no longer be driven abroad to 
 seek a field for intellectual supremacy. But darker days 
 than ever were at hand, and the frail fabric of civilisation 
 was shaken by hands ruder than even those of a foreign 
 enemy. The place where Jamesone had set up his taber- 
 nacle was peculiarly under the curse of the civil war. 
 Being tainted with Episcopacy and Royalism, Montrose, 
 when he was himself a zealous Covenanter, came down 
 on it, and forced on the community the iron rule of the 
 Covenant ; at that juncture, among other revolutions, 
 we learn that Jamesone's portrait of the provost was re- 
 moved from the session-house, as "savouring of Popery." 
 After Montrose had made his great apostasy he came 
 back, bringing seven devils worse than himself in the 
 shape of his Celtic hordes ; and finding the town under 
 the rule he had himself imposed on it, burned and slaugh- 
 tered all around, as if he were taking vengeance on the 
 poor citizens for his own fit of disloyalty. It was not a 
 time for the encouragement of the fine arts when the one 
 party had made camp-fires of the carvings of the cathe- 
 dral, and the other left the streets strewed with the un- 
 buried dead. 
 
 It was a fortunate thing, however, for the commemora- 
 tion of the features hardened in that great conflict, that 
 the brief sunshine of peace should have nourished an 
 artist, to pursue his peaceful labours among the men at 
 work with head and hand in the mighty storm. To see 
 
443 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 their portraits after their manner in the flesh hanging on 
 the walls of old houses gives a liveliness to our book- 
 knowledge of the wars of the Covenant, which we owe 
 entirely to the chances that set down in the midst of 
 them an artist trained abroad. The traces of Jamesone's 
 movements, at a time when people had so many other 
 things to think about, are naturally but scanty. Sir 
 Thomas Hope, a lawyer and professional champion of 
 the Covenanters, who had the reputation of having helped 
 materially in the drafting of the Solemn League and 
 Covenant itself, takes time, just as the storm is coming to 
 its height, to make the following entries in his diary : 
 
 "20 Julji 1638, Fryday. 
 
 * ' This day William Jamesoun, painter (at the ernest desyr of my 
 sone Mr Alexander) was sufferit to draw my pictur. 
 
 "27julji 1638. 
 "Item, a second draught be William Jamesoun." 
 
 Making allowance for the busy statesman forgetting 
 the artist's Christian name, it is inferred from this that 
 the rather majestic-looking portrait of Hope in the Par- 
 liament House of Edinburgh is the work of Jamesone, 
 though some think it must be a mere copy, since it fails 
 in conquering so well as Jamesone in other instances did, 
 that great difficulty of the portrait -painter the giving 
 flesh and muscle and the proper pose to the hand. 
 
 Jamesone had one munificent, and, it might be said, 
 princely patron, Sir Colin Campbell of Glenurchy, who 
 united the educated and refined gentleman with the 
 feudal baron and Highland chief, brought arras hangings 
 and damask napery out of Flanders, and " bestowet and 
 gave to ane Germane painter, whom he entertainet in his 
 house aught month, the soume of ane thousand pundis." 
 Some of Jamesone's letters to this potent chief still exist. 
 On the 1 3th of October 1634, he writes from Edinburgh 
 to acknowledge the receipt of a hundred merks, and ex- 
 plains that it will be the month of January before he be- 
 gins his pictures, " except that I have the occasione to 
 meet with the parties in the north, quhair I mynd to stay 
 
THE ARTIST. 449 
 
 for tuo moneths." In the ensuing month of June he 
 refers to sixteen pictures of which he has got " a not ; " 
 and, in reference to pecuniary considerations, says : " The 
 pryce quhilk ewerie ane payes to me abowe the west 
 [above the waist] is twentie merkis, I furnishing claith 
 and coulleris ; bot iff I furniss ane double-gilt muller, 
 then it is twentie poundis. Thes I deall with all alyk; 
 bot I am moir bound to hawe ane gryte cair of your 
 worship's service, becaus of my gouid payment for my 
 laist imployment. Onlie thus your worship wold resolve 
 at quohis charges I mist go throwe the countrey to maik 
 thir picturis/for all that are heir in town neidis onlie your 
 worship's letter to theam to cause theam sitt." He con- 
 cludes by saying, " Iff I begin the picturs in Julii, I will 
 hawe the sextine redie about the laist of September." l 
 
 The execution of sixteen portraits between July and 
 the end of September looks like industrious application 
 and rapid execution ; but he followed a master whom he 
 had seen sweep the canvas with tempestuous brush, and 
 his portraits show a characteristic tendency to broad 
 effects in preference to elaborate finishing. 
 
 The class of persons called Tourists are familiar with 
 the long line of portraits of the kings of Scotland, from 
 Father Fergus downwards, which decorate the narrow 
 gallery of Holyrood. It has been remarked how, through 
 century after century, they carry so strong a family like- 
 ness ; and the spectator may also observe that there is a 
 sort of unity, with judicious variations, in the nature of 
 their costume, such as may be seen in the characters of a 
 well-adjusted play. Jamesone was naturally the man to 
 whom tradition pointed as the painter of these portraits. 
 But there is no evidence that he gave himself to the 
 pious fraud of setting forth likenesses of men whose 
 features such of them as ever existed had been per- 
 mitted to pass into oblivion. Whoever commenced the 
 gallery, the artist who is known to have made a complete 
 job of it was a Dutchman named De Wit ; and, for the 
 credit of art, it is a pleasant thing to know that his name 
 
 1 ' Black Book of Taymouth,' Bannatyne Club, page 441. 
 a r 
 
45O THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 was Jacob, and that there is no excuse for throwing the 
 scandal of his paltry forgeries on that passionate devotee 
 of art, Emanuel De Wit, whose crowded interiors are the 
 very soul of truth and distinctness. Jacob De Wit, in- 
 deed, appears to have been a mechanic and an artist by 
 turns, as he was hired. The job of painting the kings he 
 completed in 1686; and some ten years earlier we find 
 him drawing coats of arms, graining chimney-pieces in 
 imitation of marble, and doing " ane piece of history " for 
 the ceiling of the royal bedroom. 1 
 
 There is a landscape picture of King's College in 
 Aberdeen, attributed, but without distinct authority, to 
 Jamesone. If it be truly his, it shows that he was wise 
 in restricting himself in general to portraiture, though the 
 piece has its value, as informing us of the nature of the 
 architectural character of some portions of the building 
 which have since disappeared. In that edifice there 
 hangs a collection of strange, musty, decayed pictures, 
 also attributed to Jamesone, which have a curious fas- 
 cination in their quaint and almost eldritch character. 
 They are called "the Sibyls," and all represent female 
 heads, yet certainly not ordinary female portraits, for 
 there is an airy, wild fantasticalness of expression mixed 
 with beauty in them, and in some instances peculiarities 
 of corporeal structure not quite human. A general deli- 
 cacy and sweetness of tone distinguishes them from the 
 Temptations of St Anthony, and other fantasies of the 
 contemporary Flemish school. 
 
 Walpole, who was pleased, in one of his complimentary 
 
 1 The national arms over the great entrance to Holyrood House, 
 also the blazon in the quadrangle, were designed by De Wit. There 
 are the following entries of payments to him in the accounts of Sir 
 William Bruce, the Surveyor- General of Royal Works, preserved in 
 the General Register House : " 1674, February 7. Item, payed to 
 Jacob De Wett, Dutch paynter, ,98, 12s. (Scots), for two several 
 chimney-pieces paynted by him, and for paynting in marble colour 
 ane chimney. 1675, Julii 31. Item, payed to Mr De Wett, paynter, 
 ji2o Scots, for ane piece of historic, paynted and placed in the roofe 
 of the King's bed-chamber in the 2d storie to the east quarter on the 
 syde towards the Privie Garden." 'Proceedings of the Antiquaries 
 of Scotland,' iii. 113. 
 
THE ARTIST. 45! 
 
 moods, to call Scotland " the most accomplished nation 
 in Europe the nation to which, if any one country is en- 
 dowed with a superior portion of sense, he should be in- 
 clined to give the preference in that particular" had 
 the merit of first drawing attention to the works of 
 Jamesone, as the first eminent British portrait - painter 
 that is, the first inhabitant of Britain who painted, like 
 a trained artist, life-size portraits in oil. The great critic 
 says of him : " His excellency consists in delicacy and 
 softness, with a clear and beautiful colouring ; his shades 
 not charged, but helped by varnish, with little appear- 
 ance of the pencil. He had much of Vandyck's second 
 manner; and to Sir Anthony some of his works have 
 been occasionally imputed." Walpole, in his Anecdotes, 
 re-engraved an old plate from one of Jamesone's pictures, 
 representing an extremely pleasing family group. It is 
 the artist himself his hat on his head, after the practice 
 of his master and his colleague, and his palette in hand. 
 Beside him stands the faithful partner of his days, Isabella 
 Tosh by name, and their round-cheeked child drops roses 
 on the mother's lap. There is a delightful repose and 
 simplicity in the whole, accompanied by perfect truth. 
 Isabella has her head covered with the modest plaid or 
 "screen" long worn in the north, and has a feminine 
 beauty which the first artists of that age could rarely im- 
 part to their female faces. The child is the perfection 
 of health, vivacity, and reverential affection. It is a 
 strange contrast this peaceful little group with the array 
 of the warriors and statesmen of that stormy age, por- 
 trayed by the same pencil. 
 
 The plate thus resuscitated by Walpole was originally 
 engraved by John Alexander, a grandson of Jamesone, 
 who might also, if there were sufficient materials at hand 
 concerning him, exemplify the Scottish student of art in 
 foreign countries. He seems to have been the first among 
 them who studied in Italy, for the little that is known of 
 him is that he lived a long time in Florence. On his 
 return to Britain he enjoyed some fashionable repute in 
 his day. It is said that he worked chiefly at Gordon 
 Castle, where probably some of the pictures which, in 
 
452 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 great houses, after a generation or two, lose their artistic 
 genealogies, might be traced to him, were it a sufficiently 
 important object to ascertain the fact, either on account 
 of the merits of the pictures or the celebrity of the artist. 
 His fame indeed has lain under a sort of artistic scan- 
 dal, which cannot recommend it to association with high 
 and worthy names in honest art. The possession of a 
 genuine ancestral portrait of Queen Mary has always 
 been, in advertising phraseology, " a desideratum " in 
 old Scottish families. Two painters of the early part of 
 last century, this Alexander and a dissipated son of Sir 
 John Medina, are said to have competed with each other 
 in the trade or mystery of producing the kind of article 
 called " a genuine and original portrait of Mary Queen 
 of Scots." 
 
 A very different person from either of these worthies 
 comes next before us in chronological order, yet he is 
 one of whom little can be said. The name of William 
 Aikman, celebrated in its day by more than one distin- 
 guished poet, is now forgotten. But his character, as 
 exemplified in his personal history, will deserve the sym- 
 pathy of the lovers of art so long as the sacrifice of all 
 worldly advantages at this shrine, and a simple devotion 
 to art for itself, pursued in defiance of conventional pre- 
 judices, are respected. Aikman was born some twelve 
 years before the end of the seventeenth century, and he 
 was then born a laird, being come of a worshipful an- 
 cestry, who left him, as their representative, heir to the 
 estate of Cairnie. There are several Cairnies in Scotland, 
 and it is not very surprising that it should be a question 
 which of them owned one who was so little conscious of 
 the importance of his possession. 
 
 He resolved very early in life to sell his estate and 
 become a student of art in Italy. After living and work- 
 ing for some time in Rome, he paid a visit to Constanti- 
 nople and Syria, and returned to Rome to pursue his 
 studies. Towards the end of Queen Anne's reign he 
 came to Britain, and found immediate admission to the 
 brilliant London intellectual circle ever associated with 
 that reign. It was breaking up, but not yet gone, and 
 
THE ARTIST. 453 
 
 Aikman was the means of in some measure conveying its 
 mantle to such successors of that intellectual hierarchy 
 as the reign of the Georges afforded. As a kindred spirit 
 free of the corporation of Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot, he 
 was enabled to introduce to fashionable fame his country- 
 man James Thomson the poet, and to do many acts of 
 patronage to authors, who commemorated his merits in 
 abundant rhymes. 
 
 Another Scottish artist, who belongs to a period about 
 a quarter of a century later, is better known to fame 
 Gavin Hamilton. When he came to manhood he went 
 abroad, and lived almost entirely in Italy, where he held 
 his state like one of the great old masters, and Scotland 
 saw no more of him save when he appeared on an occa- 
 sional visit, prompted by a lingering desire to settle in his 
 native county, Lanark, a design always protracted by 
 the coldness of the climate, or some other uncongeniality, 
 when it came to a practical issue. He was a very learned 
 and industrious worker in what may now be termed the 
 aesthetic department of archaeology, and the services 
 performed by him for the Italian collections of antiques 
 are to be found recorded in all the proper authorities. 
 
 He executed some stately portraits, one of which, rep- 
 resenting the Duchess of Hamilton with a greyhound, is 
 pretty well known in an engraving once very popular. 
 Hamilton saturated himself with classicality. He aimed 
 high, and in his day had a reputation somewhat akin to 
 that subsequently enjoyed by the French David. Efforts 
 so rigidly conventional in this direction are not popular 
 at present, yet the system has had its great advocates ; 
 and no one can deny that Hamilton, whether he rightly 
 or wrongly understood the mission of the artist, did his 
 work nobly, and carried the palm of a victor. Look at 
 his "Andromache weeping over the Body of Hector." 
 There she is in full attitude, like Clairon in one of her 
 most felicitous classical inspirations, while Dumesnil 
 might have personified the decorously solicitous attend- 
 ant. The whole group is, in short, intensely theatrical, 
 or, if one may make a word more suitable to the purpose, 
 attitudinary ; yet it exhibits a profusion of energy and 
 
454 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 conventional skill which must commend it as a great 
 work to the devotees of that style of art. 
 
 Another picture by Hamilton excited a melancholy 
 interest in its day. It represented Achilles dragging the 
 body of Hector round the walls of Troy. It was pur- 
 chased by the Duke of Bedford. The tragic fate of the 
 young heir of that house became some time afterwards 
 the talk of all England, and the object of many a sym- 
 pathising echo to the grief of the bereaved parents, not 
 unaccompanied by apposite reflections on the incapacity 
 of temporal greatness and wealth to save us from the 
 common lot. The youth fell from his horse, and was 
 dragged by the stirrup till death relieved him from tor- 
 ture. The canvas, full of energy and terrible action, so 
 vividly recalled the character of the calamity that it was 
 ejected from the collection of the ducal house, and fell, 
 if I mistake not, into the hands of General Scott, the 
 father-in-law of Canning. 
 
 If it were desirable to fill the present rapid sketch with 
 all available names, it would be easy to bring forward 
 many secondary Scottish artists who studied and worked 
 on the Continent ; such, for instance, as Thomas Murray, 
 whose portrait is in the Florentine Gallery, and William 
 Ferguson, a painter of still life, who seems to have lived 
 so much of his life in Italy that scarcely anything is 
 known of him in his own country but the general reputa- 
 tion of his paintings for vigour and natural truth. Leav- 
 ing the completion of such inquiries to all who are patri- 
 otic enough for the task, I profess only to touch and 
 that fugitively the names that hold a conspicuous place 
 in the general history of art; and so let us pass to a 
 name which has acquired a renown amply deserved 
 that of Allan Ramsay. 
 
 Every one, of course, is acquainted with the fame of 
 his father, the author of the ' Gentle Shepherd.' It was 
 one quite alien from the purpose of these papers, for he 
 was eminently a Scot at home his birthplace in the 
 Lanarkshire hills, and his house on the Castlehill of 
 Edinburgh, forming the limits of his migrations. He 
 confesses to an early propensity for art; and in some of 
 
THE ARTIST. 455 
 
 his manuscripts which I have seen, there are impatient 
 dabbings of grotesque heads and angular fragments of 
 rock and tree scenery, dashed off to occupy the pen 
 while the brain was elaborating the poetic thought. 
 About the year 1736 the poet writes to a friend that 
 young Allan (he was born in 1713) had been sedu- 
 lously pursuing art since he was thirteen years old ; " has 
 since been painting here like a Raphael," and " sets out 
 to the seat of the Beast beyond the Alps within a month 
 hence to be away two years." " I am sweer," continues 
 the father, " to part with him, but cannot stem the current 
 which flows from the advice of his patrons and his own 
 inclination." 
 
 On this his first visit to Rome he remained for three 
 years, and on his return home he painted a well-known 
 portrait of his father, and others of his relations and near 
 friends. Very much to the poet's satisfaction, the artist 
 showed a decided disposition to re-establish the gentility 
 of the family ; for old Allan, much as he had been tossed 
 about in the world, and hard as was his struggle for 
 decent subsistence, never forgot that he was come of the 
 Ramsays of Dalwolsey and the Douglases of Muthill. 
 His position speaking of him as a tradesman, not as 
 a poet was common to members of the best Scottish 
 families in his age. The country was not rich enough to 
 afford two classes of traders ; the larger, who, as exten- 
 sive dealers, might be counted gentlemen by profession 
 the smaller, who were mere retailers. All trade was 
 looked askance on; but when it was necessary to find 
 a living by commerce, we see the best families at once 
 accepting the humblest position in its ranks. 
 
 Old Allan united in his person three rather incongru- 
 ous social conditions. He was by descent a country 
 gentleman ; by personal qualification a man of genius ; 
 by profession the keeper of a bookstall and circulating 
 library. In his old age, when he had conquered his 
 difficulties, and was gathering in a harvest of wealth and 
 fame, it was not without satisfaction that he saw his son 
 although following a pursuit which, like his own, some- 
 times led its votaries into an erratic career holding his 
 
456 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 head high in the social circle, and likely to keep up the 
 old gentility of his race. 
 
 The young artist greatly strengthened his position by 
 his marriage with the heiress of the Lindsays of Eyvelic, 
 whose domain, perched on the ridge of the line of hills 
 running from Perth eastward, overlooks the rich Carse of 
 Gowrie, and the river Tay widening into the sea. Of his 
 wife he painted a portrait, of which it may safely be said 
 that no other, painted in the same half-century in Britain, 
 can have excelled it for artistic truth of drawing and 
 sweetness of sentiment. It represents a fair-haired bright- 
 cheeked Scottish damsel, simply dressed, and with an 
 expression full of earnestness and innocence, carrying a 
 basket of flowers. The attitude and the general tone are 
 quite natural, and borrowed from none of the standard 
 portraits, which relieved secondary artists from the labour 
 of thinking and the responsibility of novelty. It perhaps 
 enhances the pleasantness of this picture that it is still 
 fresh as if it had been painted yesterday, and has suffered 
 none of the cadaverous ravages with which Reynolds's 
 unfortunate method of preparing his colours has afflicted 
 his beauties. It may be a farther reason why it is so 
 pleasant to look upon, that the artist, while exerting all 
 his skill, was at his ease, and did not require to give his 
 sitter either a state dress or a state attitude. 
 
 Too much state is undoubtedly the defect, in a wide 
 sense, of Allan Ramsay's painting. The success with 
 which he brought out Lord Bute's immaculate legs be- 
 neath the canopy of his rich Treasury robes, has been the 
 object of much half-sarcastic laudation. But if it be a 
 defect in an artist to succumb to conventionalities, and 
 give prominence to robes and decorations at the sacri- 
 fice of the individual character, yet painting of this kind 
 admits of being well done and ill done. In the common 
 run of such state pictures the robes and decorations are 
 the fabric on which a human face or something as like a 
 human face as the artist could create is plastered. But 
 with Ramsay, Lord Bute, in all his glory, is still Lord 
 Bute, from his powdered hair through the easy bend of 
 his body and the renowned calves of his legs to the toes. 
 
THE ARTIST. 457 
 
 And so of all Ramsay's paintings; they may generally 
 have too much silk and velvet, and too much attitude 
 but they are pieces of thorough art. 
 
 Before returning to Rome, about the year 1754, he had 
 socially allied himself, not only with many men of rank, 
 but with a far higher circle in the permanent estimate of 
 such matters the leaders of the intellect of the age. He 
 left behind him a literary association, which he had 
 founded in Edinburgh, called the " Select Society." All 
 inquirers into the history of British literature at that 
 period must be familiar with its influence over at least the 
 Scottish department not a small one. 1 David Hume is 
 found writing to his friend Allan of the progress and 
 prospects of the little flock left behind him in the wilder- 
 ness : " It has grown to be a national concern. Young 
 and old, noble and ignoble, witty and dull, laity and 
 clergy all the world are ambitious of a place amongst 
 us, and on each occasion we are as much solicited by 
 candidates as if we were to choose a member of Parlia- 
 ment." Then of individualities, " Our friend young Wed- 
 derburn has acquired a great character by the appearance 
 he has made." This refers to him who became Lord 
 Loughborough. " Wilkie the minister has turned up from 
 obscurity, and become a very fashionable man, as he is 
 indeed a very singular one. Monboddo's oddities divert 
 Sir David's [Lord Hailes] zeal entertains Jack Dal- 
 rymple's rhetoric interests. The long drawling speakers 
 have found out their want of talents, and rise seldomer. 
 In short, the House of Commons was less the object of 
 general curiosity at London than the Select Society at 
 Edinburgh. < The Robin Hood/ ' The Devil,' and all other 
 speaking societies, are ignoble in comparison. Such 
 felicity has attended the seed which you planted. But 
 what chiefly renders us considerable is a project of en- 
 grafting on the Society a scheme for the encouragement 
 of arts and sciences and manufactures in Scotland, by 
 
 1 An account of the Select Society the parent of a numerous 
 progeny of debating societies in Edinburgh will be found in the first 
 volume of Tytkr's ' Life of Kames.' 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 premiums partly honorary, partly lucrative. A box is 
 opened for donations, and about one hundred guineas 
 have been given in. We hear of considerable sums in- 
 tended by Lord Hopetoun, Morton, Marchmont, &c., 
 who desire to be members. Nine managers have been 
 chosen ; and to keep the business distinct from our rea- 
 soning, the first Monday of every month is set apart for 
 these transactions, and they are never to be mentioned 
 in our Wednesday meetings. Advertisements have been 
 published to inform the public of our intentions. A 
 premium, I remember, is promised to the best discourse 
 on Taste, and on the Principles of Vegetation. These 
 regard the belles lettres and the sciences ; but we have not 
 neglected porter, strong ale, and wrought ruffles, even 
 down to linen rags." 
 
 Then follows a good-natured word on the collection of 
 Essays published by Ramsay, which carried a considerable 
 reputation in their day: "Your 'Investigator' has been 
 published this spring, and I find that it has met with a 
 very good reception from the wits and the critics. In 
 vain did I oppose myself, and assert it was not just meta- 
 physics. They did nothing but laugh at me, and told me 
 it was very entertaining, and seemed very reasonable." 1 
 
 The artist, writing back from the Mons ViminaUs, 
 showed that he could hold his own against the great 
 author, even with the pen. "Can a man, O philosopher, 
 be both sorry and glad at the same time ? If the thing is 
 possible, I am in these circumstances ; for I am glad to 
 hear that there is any society of men amongst you, who 
 give a particular attention to the improvement of the arts 
 of luxury, so conducive to the riches, the strength, and 
 liberty of our dear country ; but I am afraid, at the same 
 time, that this scheme, by bringing in a new set of mem- 
 bers of another species, will destroy that which we had 
 set on foot; and I could have wished that some other 
 way had been fallen upon by which porter might have 
 
 1 The author got access to the letters from which these passages 
 are taken subsequently to his publication of the 'Life of David 
 Hume. ' 
 
THE ARTIST. 459 
 
 been made thick, brick thin, and the nation rich, without 
 our understanding being at all the poorer for it. Is not 
 truth more than meat, and wisdom than raiment ? . . . 
 Have your rewards produced an essay on Taste ? If they 
 have, and it is printed, I should be glad to see it. Millar 
 would send it to me, some way or other, if you desire 
 him. I am satisfied with my own dialogue, though I find 
 I shall make but few proselytes. It has always been my 
 hard fate in these matters to pass for a very comical dog 
 when I meant to get the fame of a deep philosopher ; but 
 I am comforted again when I consider that the same has 
 been the lot of my favourite Lucian ; and that to write 
 like a deep philosopher, we must write like Turnbull or 
 Plato." 
 
 This letter gives shape to a practical joke which must 
 have cost Ramsay an enormous deal of labour. It is 
 embodied in a long fabricated Greek inscription, profess- 
 ing to aiford evidence in refutation of Hume's scepticism, 
 " which," says its author, " I found, while I was looking 
 for bas-reliefs, in a lumber-room of the Palace Farnese." 
 He conveys the result of his observation on the three 
 popular horrors of the day in these terms : " The Pope 
 himself is short and fat, the Pretender is long and lean, 
 which is all I am able to inform you with regard to either. 
 As to the Devil, I have not yet seen him, and am too 
 diffident of reports, especially when they concern heads 
 of parties, to send you any description of his person by 
 hearsay." That Ramsay was a pretty genial representa- 
 tive of the philosopher in " the seat of the Beast," may be 
 inferred from the manner in which Hume communicates 
 to him his own embroilments with the ecclesiastical au- 
 thorities. He begins by telling about Kames, against 
 whom the General Assembly were undoubtedly urged 
 strongly by a party in the Church to proceed. " They 
 will not," he says, " at once go to extremities with him, 
 and deliver him over to Satan, without any preparation or 
 precaution. They intend to make him be prayed for in 
 all the churches of Scotland during six months, after 
 which, if he do not give signs of repentance, he is to be 
 held as anathema maranatha" And then he takes a com- 
 
THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 placent view of his own prospects : " Meanwhile I am 
 preparing for the day of wrath, and have already bespoken 
 a number of discreet families, who have promised to 
 admit me after I shall be excommunicated." 
 
 And again : " You may tell that reverend gentleman 
 the Pope that there are many here who rail at him, and 
 yet would be much greater prosecutors had they equal 
 power. The last Assembly sat on me. They did not 
 propose to burn me, because they cannot. But they in- 
 tend to give me over to Satan, which they think they have 
 the power of doing. My friends, however, prevailed, and 
 my damnation is postponed for a twelvemonth. But next 
 Assembly will surely be upon me. Anderson the godly, 
 spiteful, pious, splenetic, charitable, unrelenting, meek, 
 persecuting, Christian, inhuman, peace-making, furious 
 Anderson is at present very hot in pursuit of Lord 
 Kames. He has lately wrote a letter to his son, which they 
 say is a curiosity. He mentions his own great age, which 
 leaves him no hopes of being able long to survive the con- 
 demnation of that atheistical, however just judge. He 
 therefore leaves me as a legacy to his son, and conjures 
 him, as he expects his blessing, or the blessing of Heaven, 
 never to cease his pursuit of me till he bring me to con- 
 dign punishment. Is not this somewhat like Hamilcar, 
 who swore Hannibal on the altar to be an eternal enemy 
 to the Roman people ? " These were the characteristic 
 home-memorials which broke in on the dreamy luxurious- 
 ness of an artist-life in Rome ; recalling the memories of 
 that healthy warfare of the mind, which, in the city of the 
 Republic, the Caesars, and the Vatican, had long been 
 dead and buried. 
 
 Ramsay's mantle fell on one of his countrymen who 
 studied under him at Rome David Martin. There is a 
 good deal of his master's touch in his portraits, and the 
 same affection for velvet and state finery. A portrait- 
 painter takes rank in a great measure by the importance 
 of his sitters. Martin has thus possession of two of the 
 most remarkable statesmen of his day. The one was a 
 great lawyer perhaps the greatest Britain ever saw 
 Lord Mansfield. There he is spread before you in bland 
 
THE ARTIST. 461 
 
 breadth, the warm glow of red velvet toning his ruddy, 
 good-humoured, powerful face. *One may see in it some- 
 thing of the epicureanism which made him decline to 
 wrinkle it with the cares of the woolsack. Like Ramsay's 
 Lord Bute, this portrait goes somewhat to legs, but then 
 they are also well-drawn and well-set legs. The painting 
 has the specialty that its artist made the best engraving 
 we have of it. The other eminent statesman painted by 
 Martin was a man at the opposite extreme of eminence 
 Benjamin Franklin. This portrait is known to the 
 world by a dark mezzotint, and is reputed to be the 
 best likeness of Franklin. Martin painted David Hume 
 and Rousseau, too. He could not have had access to 
 " the self-torturing sophist " except through the fat philo- 
 sopher ; and it is odd that among the charges made by 
 Rousseau against Hume, that of being compelled or fraud- 
 ulently induced to sit for his portrait is not included. 
 Martin preserved the likeness of another man who left 
 the chief evidence of his talents to posterity Dr Car- 
 lyle. His autobiography, recently published, was accom- 
 panied with an engraving of this fine portrait, which 
 one can easily believe to have meted out full justice to 
 the reverend dignity and beauty for which Carlyle was 
 famed. 
 
 Such are a few stray notices of the artists whom Scot- 
 land sent forth, most of them before England could point 
 to her great Reynolds. They were not sufficiently strong 
 in their home influence to found a school. The artistic 
 character which they conferred on their country was fed, 
 as it were, from hand to mouth by foreign supplies. Each 
 stood alone on his merits, such as they were ; but it may 
 be safely attributed to the genial influence of that connec- 
 tion with foreign countries which the enterprise of Scottish 
 warriors and scholars had created, that down to the 
 middle of the last century we could boast of an array 
 of artists such as England, with all her numerical superi- 
 ority of population, her riches, and her pecuniary patron- 
 age of art, could not match. For Jamesone, Aikman, 
 Hamilton, and Ramsay, she can show only such names 
 as Dobson, Thornhill, and Hudson; and that after her 
 
462 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 affluence had set before her artists the examples of Hol- 
 bein, Rubens, Vandyck, Lely, Kneller, and a host of 
 painters second to these eminences. Of Jamesone, our 
 old friend Allan Cunningham says, in his ' Lives of British 
 Painters : ' " That he stands at the head of the British 
 school of portrait - painting there can be no question ; 
 nor had England an artist of her own worthy of being 
 named above him, in his own walk, before the days of 
 Reynolds." 
 
 Here it comes to one's remembrance that Hogarth 
 also was an occasional portrait-painter, and that he was 
 anterior to Reynolds. And without disputing the merits 
 of his portraits, or detracting from the rank of his trans- 
 cendent genius, I yet hold that the lofty isolation and 
 entire solitude of his position in the world of art, is in 
 itself a curious record of the reserved ungeniality which 
 prevented England from imbibing any artistic spirit or 
 practice out of the opportunities afforded by the presence 
 of great foreign artists and the purchase of great paint- 
 ings. It is common indeed to deny that Hogarth was, 
 properly speaking, an artist. It is impossible to wish him 
 to have been an artist, in the conventional sense, if his 
 being so must have deprived the world of those wonder- 
 ful tragedies and comedies which he has performed for 
 us on paper. But his genius had all the rugged indi- 
 viduality that characterises a single creative mind arising 
 in the midst of surrounding intellectual barrenness. And 
 he became himself, through the power of his self-achieved 
 position, the trumpet of the vulgar English prejudice 
 against high art. He could not endure anything foreign. 
 All Frenchmen he held in such hatred, that in his short 
 sojourn among them he could not restrain ebullitions 
 which, towards a less polite people, might have been 
 dangerous. He embodied his contempt of high art in 
 those hideous nightmare groups which he thought would 
 demonstrate how easily he could excel Michael Angelo, 
 Correggio, or Rembrandt, if he condescended to abandon 
 London life and adopt their conventionalities. Hogarth 
 was perhaps as far above William Aikman as Burns was 
 beyond Darwin or Glover ; yet the Scottish painter's 
 
THE ARTIST. 463 
 
 career was a type of national conditions more conducive 
 to the cultivation of art, in that catholic spirit which goes 
 through the whole world to discover whatever is best 
 and greatest in the achievements of those who have gone 
 before. 
 
 Down to Ramsay's epoch, our Scottish painters had 
 been persons of family and station. It shows perhaps 
 the germinating of something like a national school, when 
 we find men of obscure condition struggling into the 
 ranks of fame. Jacob More was a house-painter's ap- 
 prentice in Edinburgh. Through the aid of some en- 
 lightened patrons he went to Italy, and there remained, 
 unknown among his countrymen save by the general 
 European celebrity of his landscapes. In other instances, 
 the descent of artistic ambition to a humbler grade was 
 accompanied by the dawning of a national spirit in the 
 objects of the artist. David Allan, though he studied in 
 Italy, had the boldness to devote his genius to the illus- 
 tration of Scottish life, and painted such scenes as would 
 have made the classic Hamilton shudder. But far above 
 Allan high indeed in the great republic of genius was 
 the ill-starred Runciman. He was one of those who had 
 not the good fortune, or the skill, as it may be, to make 
 their light shine before men ; and it is in obscure corners 
 that people stumble on his best works, wondering whence 
 came the deep artistic power, and the noble simplicity, 
 of pictures so unknown to fame. I have seen portraits 
 of his own esteemed friends of some of those, for 
 instance, who made his student circle at Rome which I 
 question if even Raeburn who took his tone from Run- 
 ciman, and is generally reputed to have greatly improved 
 on it could have excelled in truth and dignified sim- 
 plicity. 
 
 Let us now step over to another department of art 
 one lower than painting, in general estimation, and ancil- 
 lary to it, yet which it was the function of one of our 
 countrymen to elevate to a rank very little under that of 
 the higher walks of design. Sir Robert Strange's en- 
 gravings look like the works of a man who could do 
 everything that the human hand, aided by the head, is 
 
464 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 capable of achieving. There is not an effect in the whole 
 range of painting which he has not shown his capacity to 
 shadow forth with his magic graver. Beginning with the 
 restless cheerful sky, and the energetic white horse of 
 Wouvermans's Market-Cart, he advances with immediate 
 perfection to the rugged grandeur of Salvator's Belisarius, 
 the soft smooth fleshes of Guido Reni, and the heavenly 
 countenances of the Correggios. There is surely no 
 sweeter production that can be looked upon in un- 
 coloured art than the Parce somnum rumpere, whether 
 we prefer to rest the eye on the health and innocence 
 radiating from the babe, or the absorbing love of the 
 graceful mother, or on the tender beaming excitement of 
 the beautiful onlooker. From these features, which arrest 
 even the uninitiated eye, the adept will turn to the per- 
 fection of detail in the drapery, and the gossamer light- 
 ness of the veil which the mother gently removes. Nor 
 less perfect is he in representing the stately dignity of 
 Vandyck's Charles L, and the pleasant mixture of childish 
 simplicity and princely consciousness in the royal children 
 with their dogs. There are few things more calculated 
 to awaken a train of pensive reflection than to find hang- 
 ing, perhaps in some quiet bedroom in a remote coun- 
 try-house, the portraits of the stately monarch and the 
 unconscious group of children, with their silky -haired 
 spaniels, when one contemplates them with time and 
 inclination to recall the tragic and eventful history through 
 which they all passed. 
 
 There never was a nobler and more unselfish devotion 
 to art than Strange's adoption of his great object in life. 
 With genius enough to have achieved a separate reputa- 
 tion as a creative artist, he resolved to devote his rare 
 powers to the promulgation of the beautiful forms which 
 others had created, rather than attempt to add to their 
 number. He knew that aloft in the domes of great 
 cathedrals, or remote in private mansions, or in the ex- 
 clusive recesses of palaces, were those wondrous produc- 
 tions of the great masters which hitherto had received 
 but unworthy interpreters to the world, or none at all; 
 and he resolved that his mission through life should 
 
THE ARTIST. 465 
 
 be so to devote those powers which he knew he was 
 endowed with, as to become the great teacher of art, as 
 it were, among the nations, by promulgating abroad its 
 unknown treasures. 
 
 The difficulties he had to undergo show, when com- 
 pared with the life of the ordinary engraver, who copies 
 what he is employed to copy, and does it as accurately 
 as his opportunities permit, how arduous is the task of 
 the engraver who sets before himself a higher object who 
 is bent on copying certain pictures, because they are the 
 best and none others will satisfy him, and who must have 
 a full opportunity of rendering all their characteristics on 
 his plate ere he ventures to interpret them to the public. 
 In one instance, perhaps, there are political or ecclesi- 
 astical difficulties in the way. Certain cardinals and 
 bishops have to be consulted ere access can be obtained 
 to the picture. There perhaps is a high altar-piece : to 
 remove it would be sacrilege, were it practicable, which 
 it often is not ; and raising a scaffolding before it, which 
 was not unfrequently Strange's proposal, was something 
 nearly as offensive. Less truthful engravers would have 
 been content with such flying opportunities as they could 
 catch, hoping that no others would be enabled, by a 
 closer inspection of the original, to detect their slovenly 
 workmanship. But Strange set out with a resolution to 
 copy the best pictures in the world, and to copy them 
 faithfully; and his resolute perseverance was rewarded 
 with marvellous success. 
 
 It is fortunate for the memory of Strange, and for those 
 who love to dwell on such a history as his, that it has 
 been recorded by one whose naturally fastidious and 
 highly cultivated taste made him a worshipper at the 
 same shrine of high Italian art. Though the work fell 
 to his hands nearly a century after it should have been 
 performed by others, James Dennistoun, with a zealous 
 devotion which the fatal progress of disease could not 
 quench, collected the fragments of the artist's history 
 scattered as they were, minute and scarcely perceptible, 
 all over Europe and massed them together in a book, 
 which, if it do not afford an exciting narrative to the 
 
 2 G 
 
466 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 common reader, must be full of interest to the collector 
 and the critic of art. 1 
 
 The artist, casually referring in a letter to the impulse 
 under which he devoted himself, says : " Since the time 
 of the memorable revival of the arts in the fifteenth 
 century, Italy, without doubt, is the country which has 
 produced the most celebrated painters. There are none 
 who have penetrated so deep as they into the secret of 
 this art, or reached to such a height in the sublime. A 
 purity and correctness of design, the most noble expres- 
 sions, elegant forms, just proportions, elevated ideas, and 
 a fertility of genius, give a superiority to their productions 
 which no other artist would have been able to attain. It 
 is only by studying and meditating upon the works of the 
 Italian masters that we can reasonably expect to form a 
 true taste, and to defend ourselves against the destructive 
 and capricious sorcery of fashion, which changes almost 
 with the seasons, and of which the most applauded and 
 finest efforts in the space of a few years generally appear 
 to be, what they really are, unnatural and ridiculous." 
 
 How very true is this reference to "the capricious 
 sorcery of fashion ! " How imperfectly have mental 
 philosophers yet expounded that specialty in the human 
 intellect that carries it off in aesthetic epidemic, to hold 
 that the prevailing fashion, and nothing else, is graceful 
 or beautiful, and to feel that when a change has come, 
 nothing can be more hideous and odious than the pre- 
 vailing fashion last deserted ! Perhaps this, like all other 
 indications of barbarism, is getting chastened down as the 
 world grows older. Certainly the multiplication through 
 
 1 ' Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange, Knight, and of his Brother-in- 
 law, Andrew Lumisden, Private Secretary to the Stuart Princes. 
 By James Dennistoun of Dennistoun. 1855.' All who knew James 
 Dennistoun will recognise in his own life, and in these two volumes, 
 something of that unselfish enthusiasm which inspired Strange him- 
 self. He could not have expected the life of the engraver to be 
 popular, nor did he write it as one courting popularity. Placed, 
 however, from family conditions, in a position to be acquainted with 
 the beautiful history of the great artist, he thought it his duty to let 
 the world have an opportunity of knowing what he knew. 
 
THE ARTIST. 467 
 
 the world of the forms destined to everlasting homage for 
 their grace and beauty was likely to be a counteracting 
 balance-wheel to such oscillations. 
 
 And in this the world's debt of gratitude to Strange is 
 very great. Few men can possess the paintings of the 
 great masters. Their possession is indeed not always a 
 privilege to be envied, since, if honourably and kindly 
 used, it must admit of participation by others. It is, 
 perhaps, hard that because a man is wealthy and can buy 
 great pictures he should become a showman ; yet con- 
 cealing them from the sight of those worthy of beholding 
 them is something like a crime. Humbler devotees of 
 art, collecting scraps of paintings, enjoy the notion that 
 though not great works there is here a special artistic 
 touch, and there a happy combination of colours, that, 
 after frequent study, in the end endear to them the 
 possession. So in paintings. But in engravings there 
 is no excuse for decorating the wall with anything that 
 does not repeat the forms adjusted by the great masters. 
 Believing in the education of the eye by training it to 
 beauty, I cannot but also believe that the being habitually 
 surrounded by such forms gives a capacity for finding and 
 enjoying beauty, to the eyes of children, and when, in 
 maturity, they see the great paintings themselves, the 
 engraved copies at home recall all the relish of the sight. 
 Since, then, Strange seems to have rendered these great 
 works as fully as an inspiration can be rendered, I have 
 often thought that it would be a wholesome arrangement 
 that places frequented by young people should be deco- 
 rated by the best Stranges, and perhaps a few other 
 engravings of like eminence, such as Morghen's of the 
 smaller Raphael Madonna, or Mullens of the larger. 
 They would be all the better a safeguard to the eyes of 
 the young, that at present there exists a school which, 
 determining to pit the ideal ugly against the ideal beau- 
 tiful, has worked for the degradation of the popular 
 taste with an amount of zealous energy, and also of suc- 
 cess, which are, taken together, among the wonders of 
 the age. 
 
 To come to Strange's personal history : he was de- 
 
468 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 scended of a somewhat worshipful family in Orkney, his 
 father leaving some landed property and sheep, with 
 " twelve double-silver spoons," " a knock [clock] and case 
 thereof," and a wainscot cabinet. His mother's name 
 was Scollay, and the paternal name was originally the 
 Norwegian Strang or Strong. The artist, disliking its 
 northern harshness, softened it by the addition of an e, 
 and thus carried it into a totally different line of etymo- 
 logical descent the French etrange. There is a tradi- 
 tional story I remember being told it by Dr Chalmers 
 that soon after the metamorphosis he happened to 
 meet a traveller, who, hearing his name, said : " Ah, sir, 
 you call yourself Strange, but the strangest part of it is 
 that your name is only the letter e" The artist's guilty 
 conscience smote him with the idea that the traveller in- 
 tended to be sarcastic on his addition to the patronymic ; 
 but he was only an etymological enthusiast, who derived 
 the word, very inaccurately, by increment from the Latin 
 preposition e. Thus e, ex, extra, extraneous, whence comes 
 the French etrange. 
 
 With a sort of instinct that he was some day or other 
 to be great, he began at an early period an account of 
 his own progress. It dropped, suddenly interrupted by 
 the labours of a busy life ; and the artist-like clearness of 
 his account of whatever passed around him in his early 
 humble phase of life, makes the reader regret that it is so 
 brief. He underwent some training in one of the humbler 
 departments of the law, but apparently with a hopeless 
 restlessness; and the bent of his genius drove him to 
 an engraver of the name of Cooper, whose apparently 
 wealthy circumstances show how considerable a field was 
 then open in Edinburgh to one of that profession who 
 was little above a trading mechanic. The young artist 
 joined the insurgents of 1745 fortunately for himself 
 and art, not so effectually distinguishing himself by his 
 warlike prowess as to encounter the vengeance of the 
 victors. 
 
 His chief service to the cause was characteristic. At 
 the camp at Inverness, and just before the battle of Cul- 
 loden, he engraved at the Prince's desire a plate for 
 
THE ARTIST. 469 
 
 bank-notes, payable at the Restoration. The excellence 
 of the engraving, however, could not make up for the want 
 of assets ; and doubtless, if one of the notes thrown off 
 could now be recovered, it would bring far more as a 
 relic of art than its original value in the money market. 
 Making his escape, like many others, from the broken 
 army through terrible hardships, he reached France, and 
 studied engraving with Le Bas. It would have been 
 difficult to find a better master. His clearness and 
 quiet sweetness make him still a favourite, whether 
 the collector prefers his fresh sunny seaports with their 
 lazy life, or the warm interiors, where the solemn Dutch 
 alchemist blows his bellows, and imparts wisdom to his 
 pupils. 
 
 But as Strange acquired technical skill in secondary 
 work, higher aspirations dawned on him, and a visit 
 to Italy confirmed him in the great project of his life. 
 With the devotion of the monk or the crusader in the 
 pursuit of his mission, he made sacrifices to his pursuit, 
 some of them trivial, others deep and real. His adher- 
 ence to the Jacobite cause has been attributed with 
 considerable foundation to his love for Miss Lumisden, 
 the sister of the accomplished secretary of the exiled 
 Court in Italy. She was one of the arbitrary and enthusi- 
 astic Jacobite beauties who would tolerate no lover unless 
 he first proved himself a true knight by wearing the 
 white rose. Strange obtained his reward, and they were 
 married; but art stepped in to claim her votary, and 
 years after years of absence from her husband, all-ab- 
 sorbed in the pursuit of his mission, joined to the pro- 
 tracted hopelessness of her darling cause, turned her 
 enthusiasm into acidity. 
 
 Her growing fretfulness and ardent Jacobitism to the 
 end make the letters and conversation of this strong- 
 charactered woman very amusing. When it came to 
 her ear that her brother, after a quarter of a century 
 of endurance, must at last leave the Prince's service, 
 and the announcement came along with rumours not 
 complimentary to the habits and conduct into which 
 the object of her devoted loyalty had fallen, she cannot 
 
4/0 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 show the letter to her husband, so filled is it with matter 
 of overwhelming grief. " If ever," she says, " anything 
 in prejudice of my darling's [the Prince's] character is 
 suggested, I deny it, or find an excuse for it. Oh, he has 
 had much to disturb his brains ! I am perfectly satisfied, 
 my dearest Andrew, that you have not failed in your duty, 
 for which I thank God. Believe me, I would sooner 
 wish to hear of your death than blush for anything you 
 ever did in your life. Suffer I can, but sin I will not. 
 Honest principles were the noble legacy our dear parents 
 left us ; while we live we will display them when called 
 on to do so. All I beg is secrecy. Four-and-twenty 
 years' faithful service cannot be rewarded with a frown : 
 no, you must be mistaken. If you are not, at least be 
 advised. 'Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the 
 streets of Askelon ; lest the uncircumcised rejoice, and 
 the daughters of the Philistines be glad' this was our 
 good grandfather's text for many years on the 3oth of 
 January." 
 
 And on another occasion : " If my twenty years' old 
 acquaintance [the Prince] is now at your house, on your 
 knees present my most respectful duty, nor blush to think 
 a lady bid you do so. Oh, had I been of a more useful 
 sex ! Had my pen been a sword, I had not been here, 
 sitting tamely by my fireside, desiring you to do me a sim- 
 ple office like this. In those years, so many and so long, 
 I have not been altogether idle, for I have made three 
 fine boys, who, I hope, will do me credit : they'll be re- 
 cruits when I am gone I hope they'll all have Roman 
 spirits in them. I'll instruct them that their lives are not 
 their own when Rome demands them." Afterwards send- 
 ing one of these young Gracchi to Paris, she insists that 
 he is not to wear ruffles, silk, or lace, or any other orna- 
 ment, however imperiously dictated by fashion : she will 
 give her reasons when she sees her brother they are 
 doubtless founded on the calamitous condition of her 
 favourite Court, and not to be casually committed to 
 writing even in the year 1770; and she characteristically 
 winds up her injunction, " If he appears awkward, say 
 he does so by the positive command of his worthy old 
 
THE ARTIST. 471 
 
 mother, who never did or said anything but what she 
 had a good reason for therefore you comply without ask- 
 ing a single question." 
 
 A common tradition attributes the commencement of 
 Strange's prosperity to the courtly dexterity of his wife. 
 A rumour of the excellence of his engraved portrait of 
 "the Prince" had, according to the tradition, reached the 
 palace, and some royal relation called at Strange's work- 
 shop desirous to see it. Mrs Strange, who was there 
 alone, knowing that the portrait by her husband was of 
 the wrong Prince, took care that amid the other works 
 with which she entertained the visitor it should not be 
 found, and fixed a time for a second visit, before which 
 she got her obedient husband to have in tolerable pro- 
 gress an engraving of the right Prince. 
 
 It is very clear that Mrs Strange, or "Bella," as she 
 was called, was not a person to perform such a feat. It 
 was known, indeed, to those conversant with the artistic 
 gossip of the time, that Strange had received proffers from 
 the royal family very early in his career, and that he had 
 repelled them with a surly abruptness, which was supposed 
 too clearly to indicate the motives of " the brother-in-law 
 of the Pretender's secretary." The documents published 
 by Mr Dennistoun make this affair very clear. A proffer 
 had been made to him by Allan Ramsay to engrave his 
 own portrait of the Prince of Wales, just before he be- 
 came George III. But Strange was then full of his great 
 Italian projects. His allegiance was for his own chosen 
 sovereign, high art, and he cared for neither of their houses. 
 
 But it was not necessary to go into large questions 
 there was a sublunary and immediate shape assumed by 
 the offer. The payment was to be ;ioo, and Strange, 
 saying that to do justice to the subject would occupy him 
 fifteen months, said he could not afford to engrave the 
 picture at the price offered. Other people would, of 
 course, naturally look to the consequent patronage of the 
 Court as the ultimate bribe to such an undertaking. But 
 Strange had built his ultimate hopes elsewhere the only 
 question about the offer was whether the immediate re- 
 muneration might bribe him to postpone for a time his 
 
4/2 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 nobler studies. It would not ; and so the matter ended. 
 But public fame naturally rumoured disaffection as his 
 motive, and the consequences of this, coupled with his 
 exclusion from the Royal Academy as an engraver, 
 excited bitter feelings. He wrote a fierce letter to 
 Ramsay, saying, " Did I ever, directly or indirectly, 
 hint that it was from the least disaffection I declined at 
 that time to engrave the picture you had painted ? Speak 
 the truth, and the whole truth, so help you God." Ram- 
 say, thus pressed, answered very bluntly that there had 
 been no hint whatever of disaffection, " the reasons you 
 gave me were all of the money-getting kind." There was 
 something in an expression of this sort not calculated en- 
 tirely to secure the friendship of a man actuated by such 
 motives and aims as those which governed Strange, and 
 the apparent conclusion of the whole history was not 
 likely to cool the ardour of Bella's Jacobitism. She con- 
 tinued to pray for an heir to the exiled house, after the 
 greater portion of her most zealous allies were comforting 
 themselves that the improbability of such an event was 
 a fortunate conclusion of all difficulties. Yet this mother 
 of the Gracchi stands as an illustration of that sarcastic 
 philosophy which says that all have their price if one 
 knew the coin to pay it in. She was ready for all forms 
 of martyrdom, and direct bribery of any kind she would 
 have thrown back with scorn. But when one day rather 
 unexpectedly she found that Robbie was knighted, and 
 that she was Lady Strange, all reminiscences from across 
 the water seem to have been swept away in a gush of 
 gratitude. 
 
 Let us have a few words before parting on a depart- 
 ment of art proverbial for leaving the artist forgotten, 
 while his work remains to create wonder and admiration. 
 The world is filled with buildings of which the architects 
 are unknown, but which yet are found by the careful 
 student to contain enough to show the character of their 
 acquirements, and sometimes the school in which they 
 must have studied. I have already had to show how, 
 after the rupture with England, Scotland took her ecclesi- 
 astical and baronial architecture from the Continent, and 
 
THE ARTIST. 473 
 
 chiefly from France. 1 The process by which the rich 
 turreted chateaus of France were transferred to the 
 moorlands of the north and the braes of the Grampians, 
 could not fail to be extremely interesting, if we could 
 remove from it the veil which shrouds it in the mystery 
 common to so large a portion of the architectural history 
 even of civilised times. How much of it was brought 
 over by foreigners? how much learned in France by 
 Scotsmen who returned to practise at home ? are ques- 
 tions that must be asked in vain. We have no clue to 
 the studies which induced Aytoun, by decorating the 
 bulky framework of a German palace with a beautiful 
 coronet of turrets and decorated chimneys, to conceive 
 the plan of Heriot's Hospital. Even so late as the time 
 of Sir William Bruce, who worked into the last century, 
 we are not aware how far his conversion of Holyrood 
 into a French chateau of the sixteenth century was 
 founded on a practical acquaintance acquired in the 
 land of its origin with that style of building. And yet 
 he was a person of worshipful condition, whose lands 
 and inheritances are set forth in genealogical books. 
 We know, however, too much of the poverty of the coun- 
 try at the time of the reconstruction of the palace in 
 1674. From the accounts still preserved, every kind of 
 work above that which supplied the sordid needs of 
 a poor people had to be brought from other lands. 2 In 
 
 1 P. 198. 
 
 2 "The mason, Robert Mylne, was a Scot; and so were the 
 wrights, the smiths, the glaziers, the plumbers, and the painters, 
 at least of common work. But much of their material had to be 
 sought elsewhere than in Scotland. Lead was brought from New- 
 castle. The glass was either English or French ; white-lead and 
 linseed-oil were imported from Holland. The 'sex hundreth fyne 
 large wanscott planks, readie sawen for lyneing severall of the roomes 
 of the King's owne appartment, ' were bought in Rotterdam, at a cost, 
 including freight, of \2iJ (Scots). They were put up by a Scottish 
 carpenter, but the nicer woodwork had to be done by foreign hands. 
 There is a payment of 400 (Scots) to John Vansantvort, carver of 
 timber, for cutting, carving, and upputting of severall pieces of carved 
 work upon severall of the chimney and door pieces of his Majesty's 
 apartments in the east quarter of the pallace. " ' Proceedings of the 
 Antiquaries,' p. 115. 
 
474 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 far later times we know that Robert Adam, also a man 
 of considerable territorial position, studied the architec- 
 tural remains of the Roman empire with a devoted zeal 
 attested by his great work on the ruins of Diocletian's 
 mighty palace at Spalatro. 
 
 But there was a Scotsman before the period of Robert 
 Adam, whose pilgrimage among classical remains pro- 
 duced results not to be so briefly passed by. James 
 Gibbs was born in Aberdeen about the year 1674. He 
 was the son of a substantial tradesman, and rinding him- 
 self at twenty without parents, and possessed of some 
 money and a good useiiil Scottish education, he made up 
 his mind to qualify himself as an architect. He went 
 first to Holland, where, save the State House of Amster- 
 dam, he can have found little adapted to his peculiar 
 taste; but what he did consider worth studying, he ex- 
 amined laboriously and practically. By mere accident 
 he was found there by the Earl of Mar, who felt an 
 interest in the quiet persevering youth who had come 
 forth from his own peculiar district in the north to push 
 through the world. Whatever were the Earl's defects of 
 character, he is generally admitted to have had fine 
 taste. Whether for assistance received at that time, or 
 for subsequent patronage in his profession, Gibbs was 
 so grateful to Mar, that, when he had realised fame and 
 fortune, and the family of his patron were precarious 
 exiles, he bequeathed a considerable fortune to his bene- 
 factor's son. 
 
 After the commencement of the century he spent ten 
 years in Italy, studying, searching, and treasuring up the 
 practical results of his labours for future use. He returned 
 at a favourable juncture. The great church-extension 
 scheme for London had developed itself in an arrange- 
 ment for building fifty new churches, and his friend Mar 
 being in power, the young architect had an excellent op- 
 portunity of bringing forward his claims, and obtained a 
 considerable share in the execution of the undertaking. 
 Gibbs accomplished a sufficient number of works to make 
 an era for himself in English architecture, and his name 
 came so readily upwards, that poor Savage, in his wild 
 
THE ARTIST. 475 
 
 forgotten poem of * The Wanderer,' naturally calls on it 
 When he passes from the ancient fanes, where time's hand 
 leaves its print of mossy green, it is to cry 
 
 " Oh Gibbs ! whose art the solemn fane can raise 
 Where God delights to dwell and man to praise} 
 When mouldered thus, the column falls away, 
 Like some great prince majestic in decay ; 
 When ignorance and scorn the ground shall tread 
 Where wisdom tutored and devotion prayed 
 Where shall thy pompous work our wonder claim ? 
 What but the muse alone preserve thy name ? " 
 
 His many works were by no means equal in merit. 
 The Radcliffe Library at Oxford probably the most 
 ambitious justifies the borrowed remark of Walpole, 
 that it looks as if it had sunk a stage into the earth. 
 Yet Allan Cunningham, speaking of its general effect on 
 the landscape, says : " The Radcliffe dome, in fact, con- 
 veys to every distant observer the idea of its being the 
 air-hung crown of some gigantic cathedral or theatre. 
 It is perhaps the grandest feature in the grandest of all 
 English architectural landscapes. It rises wide and vast 
 amidst a thousand other fine buildings, interrupts the 
 horizontal line, and materially increases the picturesque 
 effect of Oxford." He completed the quadrangle of All- 
 Souls, where Walpole gives him credit for stumbling upon 
 a sort of Gothic picturesqueness ; and made additions to 
 King's College, Cambridge, which have been censured 
 for subdivision of detail. 
 
 The work, however, on which his fame rests as the 
 embodiment of a great thought, unbroken by partial 
 defects, is the Church of St Martin's-in-the-Fields, fortun- 
 ately opened up to the admiration of the present genera- 
 tion by the works in Trafalgar Square. It was a bold 
 and original idea, greatly censured in its day as a bar- 
 barous combination of two distinct and antagonistic types 
 of architecture, and a rank rebellion against the first Hora- 
 tian rule of taste. The spire or steeple had been held 
 peculiar to Gothic architecture, and was deemed the 
 natural terminus of the aspiring character of the pointed 
 arch. Yet Gibbs placed a spire on a pediment, supported 
 
476 THE SCOT ABROAD. 
 
 by Corinthian columns. It was, however, no mixture of 
 styles in luxurious confusion, like the efforts of the French 
 Renaissance. The edifice in itself was untainted by Gothic ; 
 and even on the spire, that architecture had no more 
 claim than merely as it was a spire, since its details were 
 carefully and severely classic. 
 
 Illegitimate or not, it was a great hit in architecture 
 something like Michael Angelo's mounting the dome in 
 air and became so prevalent that it is now never deemed 
 an anomaly. For the general merits of the building, it 
 may be truly said that it is one of the chief architectural 
 glories of London. Formerly buried in a mass of obscure 
 streets and lanes, its thorough architectural character has 
 been tested by the severest ordeal to which the innate 
 character of a building can be trusted a general clearing 
 away, which lays it bare for full inspection, and either 
 close or distant criticism. To try how it bears this, look 
 first upon St Martin's, and then turn to the costly modern 
 edifice to the right, built as a suitable repository for the 
 artistic treasures of the British empire ! 
 
 Of course it has its enemies among those who are inimi- 
 cal to the classic forms, but I hope we are getting more 
 tolerant in aesthetics, as in other things, and that the day 
 may come when people will be content to enjoy each in 
 its own way all the forms in which high intellect is de- 
 veloped in stone structure, just as in going over a picture- 
 gallery we can pass from the divine loveliness of the 
 Raphaels and Correggios to enjoy the riotous vitality of 
 Rubens, the solemn gloom of Teniers, and the perfect 
 velvets and satins of Terbourg. There is a good deal, 
 no doubt, of intolerant sentiment against the classic forms. 
 Such terms as "dishonourable "and "sensual "are levelled 
 at them, as if those who esteem them might be capable of 
 forging a bill on you, or ruining the peace of your family. 
 But all is mere scolding, and there is no one eloquent 
 enough to deal towards the classic that utter intolerance 
 which, in our grandfathers' days, held down the Gothic 
 under the level of art. 
 
 Even during the revival, this oppression has a mis- 
 chievous influence, like that of their former life on emanci- 
 
THE ARTIST. 477 
 
 pated slaves. Its own admirers treat the Gothic with a 
 disrespectful familiarity. They forget that it is the oldest 
 art in existence, for it lived by the influence of the clergy 
 when other arts perished, and so it is legitimately de- 
 scended from the age of the Pyramids, having passed 
 through the rigid Greek to the ductile Roman, from which 
 all the steps to the pointed arch are distinct Too many 
 of its votaries are unconscious how much reverend study 
 it should take to become master of the art which it took 
 three hundred years of the labours of the most accom- 
 plished artists in their several generations to develop. 
 Every draughtsman and mere builder thinks he can 
 flounder through the details of the Gothic, and hence 
 every religious denomination is doing its most desperate 
 to rear a set of structures, which can but torture every eye 
 in which the sense of the symmetrical and appropriate is 
 not utterly dead. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ABERDEEN, calamities to which ex- 
 posed during the civil war, 447 ; 
 King's College modelled on Univer- 
 sity of Paris, 1 66. 
 
 Achaius, the alleged league between 
 Charlemagne and, 2. 
 
 Adam, Robert, the architect, 474. 
 
 Adamnan, the biographer of Columba, 
 an Irishman, 233. 
 
 Adamson, Patrick, residence of, abroad, 
 
 Aguillan-neuf, the, in France, 208 et 
 seq. 
 
 Aikman, William, a Scottish artist, 452. 
 
 Albania, the Scots kingdom of, con- 
 quered by the Norsemen, 232. 
 
 Albany, Alexander Duke of, his career, 
 &c., 47 et seq. 
 
 Albany, the Regent, his character and 
 rule in Scotland, 96 et seq. ; his ser- 
 vices in France, 381 et seq. 
 
 Alberoni, the Cardinal, connection of 
 Marshal Keith with, 332, 333. 
 
 Ales, Alexander, sketch of his career, 
 279 et seq. ; his account of the tra- 
 gedy of Anne Boleyn, 281. 
 
 Alexander, John, a Scottish artist, 451. 
 
 Allan, David, the painter, 463. 
 
 Alva, the Duke of, his interview with 
 Catherine of Medici, 120. 
 
 Anderson, Alexander and David, 312. 
 
 Anderson, Patrick, and his pills, 305. 
 
 Anderson's ' History of the Bible,' no- 
 tice of Admiral Greig from, 372. 
 
 Angers, the Synod of, denunciation of 
 the Fetes des Foux by, 214 ; and of 
 the architectural profanities, 218 note. 
 
 Anjou, the Duke of, proposed marriage 
 between Mary of Scotland and, 149. 
 
 Anne Boleyn, mystery attending the 
 case of, and contemporary account of 
 it, 281 et seq. 
 
 Annuchudus, a monk of Funda, 232. 
 
 Aodh, King of Connaught, notices of, 
 228. 
 
 Arbuthnot, Principal, educated abroad, 
 287. 
 
 Architecture, influence of the French 
 alliance on, in Scotland, 198 ; Scot- 
 tish, its characteristics, 472. 
 
 Ardriagh, the, President of the Irish 
 Kings, 228 ; nature of his authority, 
 229. 
 
 Argyleshire, early Irish settlement in, 
 228. 
 
 Armada, the, its origin, &c., 127. 
 
 Art, sketches of early, in Scotland, 436. 
 
 Aubigne, the Lord of, the first captain 
 of the Scots Guard, 33. 
 
 Aubigny, the lords of (Stewart of Darn- 
 ley), S 1 . 5 2 - 
 
 Ayrault, Peter, his contest with the 
 Jesuits, 299, 300. 
 
 Ayton, Sir Robert, 297. 
 
 Aytoun, W., the architect of Heriot's 
 Hospital, 202, 404. 
 
 Azoff, Marshal Keith at the storming 
 of, 337- 
 
 BAILLIE, Robert, 287. 
 
 Balfour, Robert, Professor at Bor- 
 deaux, 296. 
 
 Baliol, national hatred of, 14. 
 
 Bannister, Mr Saxe, his life of William 
 Paterson, 416, 418. 
 
 Bannockburn, effect of the battle of, 
 as regards the French and Scottish 
 league, 14. 
 
 "Banquet of Dun-Na N-Gedth and 
 battle of Magh-Rath, the," account 
 of, zy>etseq. 
 
 Barbour, John, the author of 'The 
 Bruce,' 313. 
 
 Barclay, the ' Argenis ' of, 297 ; his 
 birthplace, &c., 299 ; extracts from 
 his 'Argenis' on the Guises, 118. 
 
 Barclay the physician, defence of to- 
 bacco by, 306. 
 
 Barclay, William, career of, 298; his 
 contest with the Jesuits, 299. 
 
 Baron, Robert, 311. 
 
 Baronial architecture, Scottish, its 
 character, 200. 
 
 Bassantin, James, 263. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 479 
 
 Bassol, a pupil of Duns Scotus, 239. 
 
 Bauge", the battle of, 26. 
 
 Bayle, account of John Cameron, by, 
 297 ; contemporary account of the 
 origin, &c., of his Dictionary, 260. 
 
 Bejeant and Bejaune, origin of the 
 term, 184 et seq. 
 
 Beaton, Cardinal, 61 ; James, ib. 
 
 Bell, Archibald, Sheriff of Ayrshire, 
 222 note. 
 
 Bell, Thomas, ' Roma restituta, ' &c. , 
 by, 267. 
 
 Bellenden, William, 297 ; paraphrase of 
 Boece's History by, 242 note. 
 
 Bellievre, M., mission of, to England 
 as regards the execution of Mary of 
 Scotland, 123. 
 
 Berey, family of, 57. 
 
 Berquin, Louis de, 380. 
 
 Berwick, its former commercial import- 
 ance, 83. 
 
 Bethunes, the, their Scottish parentage, 
 64. 
 
 Bianci or Blanc, poisoner to Catherine 
 of Medici, 122. 
 
 Bianci, Vincent, ' Parere intorno alii 
 caratteri,' &c., by, 266. 
 
 Bissat, Peter, Professor at Bologna, 
 301. 
 
 Bisset's ' Memoirs of Sir Andrew Mit- 
 chell,' 432. 
 
 Blackball, Father, a Jesuit, 350. 
 
 Blackwood, the family of, in France, 
 60 et seq. ; Adam, 60. 
 
 Blackwood, Henry, 304. 
 
 Blairs, the, in France, 59. 
 
 Bleau's Atlas, the 'Theatrum Scotise' 
 in, 268. 
 
 Boece, Hector, first Principal of King's 
 College, Aberdeen, 167 ; the career 
 and history of, 240 et seq, l his ac- 
 count of the Ancient League between 
 France and Scotland, 2. 
 
 Boulay*s ' History of the University of 
 Paris,' 180. 
 
 Bourges, the archbishopric of, intrigues 
 regarding, 94. 
 
 Bournezel or Bournaseau, the lord of, 
 ambassador to Scotland, 75. 
 
 Bourtic or Bourtie, an archer of the 
 Guard, 57. 
 
 Boyd of Trochrig, 287. 
 
 Boyd, Mark Alexander, the Jurist, 302. 
 
 Bradshaw, an English ambassador, ad- 
 venture of, 359. 
 
 Bradwardine, a pupil of Duns Scotus, 
 *39- 
 
 Brissac, the Marshal de, connection of 
 Buchanan with, 244. 
 
 Brisson, President, the career and 
 death of, 191 
 
 Brown, John, of Wamphrey, and his 
 works, 290. 
 
 Bruce, Sir William, the architect, 473. 
 
 Buchan, the Earl of, leader of the 
 Scots auxiliaries in France, 94 ; his 
 victory at Bange", 26; High Con- 
 stable of France, 27 ; killed at Ver- 
 neuil, 29 ; his origin, 41. 
 
 Buchan, the scenery of, 348. 
 
 Buchanan, George, the career and works 
 of, 242 et seq. ; his traditional reputa- 
 tion in Scotland, 247 ; character of his 
 writings, 248 ; effect of the use of his 
 works as class-books in Scotland, 249. 
 
 Buchanan, Patrick, 244. 
 
 Burgundians and Orleanists, the, their 
 struggle in France, 20. 
 
 Burgundy, John the Fearless of, mur- 
 ders the Sieur de Montagu, 18 ; and 
 the Duke of Orleans, 19 ; his own 
 murder, 20. 
 
 Burne, Nicol, charges against Knox 
 by, 193. 
 
 Burnet, Bishop, residence of, abroad, 
 293 ; notices of, 313 et seq. ; anecdote 
 of Sir W. Lockhart from, 393. 
 
 Bursaries, what, and the old competi- 
 tions for them, 180; example of a 
 Highland, 181 note. 
 
 CALAIS, negotiations between France 
 and England regarding, 129. 
 
 Calvin, theocratic claims of, in Geneva, 
 188. 
 
 Cameron, John, 297. 
 
 Campbell, Sir Colin, of Glenurchy, his 
 patronage of Jamesone, 448. 
 
 Carlos, Don, projected marriage of 
 Mary Queen of Scots to, 119. 
 
 Carlyle, character of Field - Marshal 
 Keith by, 341 ; notice, &c., of Sir W. 
 Lockhart by, 383 ; character of Sir 
 Andrew Mitchell, 433. 
 
 Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark, 
 the case of, 422 et seq. 
 
 Castelnau, Michel de, his mission to 
 Scotland, character, &c., 147 et seq. 
 
 Catherine of Medici, opposition of, to 
 the schemes of the Guises, 119; her 
 character and policy, 120 ; her hatred 
 to Mary of Scotland, 121 ; sets aside 
 the Spanish match, 122 ; matrimonial 
 alliances proposed by her to Eliza- 
 beth, 148. 
 
 Catherine, the Empress, account by an 
 eyewitness of her elevation to power, 
 428. 
 
 Cecil, difficulties of, regarding the Scot- 
 tish alliance, 138 et seq. 
 
 Celt, treatment of the, by the Lowland- 
 ers, 91. 
 
 Censor in the Scottish universities, the, 
 172. 
 
 Cessiobonorum, the, in Scotland, 164. 
 
 Chalmers or Chambers, David, hU 
 ' History of the Kings of France,' 
 &c., 252. 
 
480 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Chambers, David, ' De Scotorum For- 
 titudine,' &c. by, 253 ; charges against 
 Knox by, 193. 
 
 Chambers, Nicholas, lord of Guerche, 
 
 Chancellors of the Scottish and French 
 universities, the, 167. 
 
 Charlemagne, the fabulous league be- 
 tween, and Achaius, i, 2. 
 
 Charles VII. of France, consolidation 
 of the Scots Guard by, 33. 
 
 Charles IX., proposed marriage between 
 Elizabeth and, 148. 
 
 Charles II., services of Sir Wm. Lock- 
 hart under, 392. 
 
 Charles of Burgundy, the storming of 
 
 Charles, Prince, of Sudermannland, at 
 
 the battle of Hogeland, 373. 
 Charpentier on the French Hogmanay, 
 
 2IO. 
 
 Chasles, M., extracts from his life of 
 Queen Mary, in note. 
 
 Chatelar, the fate of, his position, &c., 
 no and note. 
 
 Cheruel on the union of Scotland and 
 England, 155. 
 
 Christian, King of Denmark, the hus- 
 band of Caroline Matilda, 422. 
 
 Christianity, the establishment, &c. , of, 
 in Ireland, 233. 
 
 Church, the, the representative of Intel- 
 lect during the Middle Ages, 170; its 
 early encouragement of learning, 171. 
 
 Clarence, the Duke of, killed at Bauge", 
 26. 
 
 Clarendon, notices of Sir W. Lockhart 
 from, 383, 391. 
 
 Claverhouse, services of, in Holland, 
 320. 
 
 Clerks or Le Clerks, the, 59. 
 
 Cochut, P. A., his work on Law of 
 Lauriston, 400. 
 
 Colbert, alleged Scottish descent of, 
 
 Columba, expulsion of, from Ireland, 
 
 and his settlement, &c., in lona, 228. 
 Comines, notices of the Scots Guard 
 
 by, 35 5 his account of the storming 
 
 of Liege, 36. 
 Commerce, the early, between Scotland 
 
 and France, 48. 
 
 Conoeus or Cone, George, work by, 254. 
 Covenanters, the, influence of the French 
 
 Huguenots on them, 186. 
 Crafort or Craufurd, Henri de, Sieur 
 
 de Longchamp, 57. 
 Craig, John, sketch of the career of, 
 
 278 et seq. 
 
 Craig, Sir Thomas, 301. 
 Cre"quy, Madame, and the Earl Maris- 
 
 chal Keith, 339. 
 Crevant, the Scots auxiliaries at the 
 
 battle of, 28. 
 
 Crichton, George, 61. 
 
 Crichton, James (the Admirable), 256. 
 
 Crichton Castle, the ruins of, 256. 
 
 Cromwell, services rendered to Scot- 
 land by, 381 ; Sir W. Lockhart his 
 ambassador to France, 382. 
 
 Cronstadt, the fortifications of, designed 
 by Admiral Greig, 376. 
 
 Cunningham, lord of Arcenay, 55. 
 
 Cunningham, Alex., History of Great 
 Britain by, 252. 
 
 Cunningham, Allan, on Jamesone, 461. 
 
 "DAFT DAYS" in Scotland, the, 211. 
 
 Dalgetty, Sir Walter Scott's, as the 
 representative of the Scots mercen- 
 ary, 316. 
 
 Dalriada, the Scottish kingdom of, 228, 
 229 et seq. 
 
 Dalyell, General, his services in Rus- 
 sia, 348. 
 
 Damien, Jean, Dunbar the poet's at- 
 tack on. 98. 
 
 Dargaud, M., errors in his 'Life of 
 Queen Mary,' 112 note. 
 
 Darien Company, the, and causes of 
 its failure, 415. 
 
 Darnley Stewarts, the, in France, &c., 
 50 et seq. 
 
 Davidson, William, work on the ' Phil- 
 osophy of Medicine ' by, 267 ; his 
 career, &c., 307. 
 
 Deans of Faculties, the, in the Scot- 
 tish universities, 176. 
 
 Debtors, old laws regarding, in Scot- 
 land and France, 163. 
 
 Defoe on Scotland, 219 ; his ' Memoirs 
 of a Cavalier,' extracts from, &c., 
 323. 
 
 De Glais or Douglas, an archer of the 
 Guard, 57. 
 
 'Delices de la Grand Bretagne,' &c., 
 portion devoted to Scotland in, 270. 
 
 Dempster, Thomas, the career and 
 writings of, 260 ; his ' Literary His- 
 tory of Scotland,' 261. 
 
 Denmark, Sir R. Murray Keith as am- 
 dassador to, &c., 423 et seq., 428 et 
 seq. 
 
 Dennistoun, James, his ' Life of Sir R. 
 Strange,' &c., 465. 
 
 Destournay, the Lord, seizure of Oud- 
 enarde by, 80. 
 
 Devillengon, the Sieur, 58. 
 
 De Wit, Jacob, the portraits in Holy. 
 
 Dods or Doddes, family of, 58. 
 
 Donaldson, Walter, 305. 
 
 Douglas, Archibald Earl of, joins 
 Buchan in France and is created 
 duke of Touraine, 27 ; killed at Ver- 
 neuil, 29 ; his installation into his 
 dukedom of Touraine, 53. 
 
 Douglas, Robert, Scots chaplain to 
 
INDEX. 
 
 481 
 
 Gustavus, tradition regarding birth 
 
 of, 291. 
 
 Doyens, the, in France, 176. 
 Dromont or Drummond, Guillaume, 
 
 Drummond of Hawthornden, residence 
 of, abroad, 302. 
 
 Ducange, his account of the Festus as- 
 inorum, 213. 
 
 Du Chesne, on the Aguilanleu in France, 
 208 note. 
 
 Dunbar the poet, his " Fenyet Freir of 
 Tungland," 99. 
 
 Duncan, Marc, 305. 
 
 Dunes, battle of the, and Sir W. Lock- 
 hart's services at it, 387. 
 
 Dunkirk, the acquisition of, by Eng- 
 land under Cromwell, 385 et^ seq. ', 
 Lockhart's administration of it, 389 
 
 Dunnottar, ruins of the castle of, 329 ; 
 its last possessors and their career, 
 330 et seq. 
 
 Duns Scotus, nationality of, 235 ; the 
 party headed by him, 237 et seq. ; his 
 career, 238. 
 
 Durrow, the Abbot of, tradition re- 
 garding, 228. 
 
 Dyvour's habit, the, in Scotland, 164. 
 
 EDICT of Nantes, its true character, 
 188. 
 
 Edinburgh University, constitution, 
 &c., of, 170. 
 
 Edward I., notices of, 12 ; summoned 
 before Philip of France as his feudal 
 superior, 13. 
 
 Edward VI., birth, &c., of, 106 ; views 
 of Henry VIII. regarding his mar- 
 riage to Mary Queen of Scots, ib. et 
 seq. 
 
 Eglisham, George, the assailant of 
 Buchanan, 309. 
 
 Eguimene' in France and Hogmanay in 
 Scotland, connection between, 204 
 et seq. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, her policy toward 
 Scotland, negotiations with France, 
 &c., 136 et seq. ; her hatred of Knpx, 
 142 ; matrimonial alliances with 
 France proposed to, 148; her con- 
 duct toward Mary, 152. 
 
 Elphinstone, Bishop, founder of King's 
 College, Aberdeen, 167. 
 
 England, the common hostility of 
 France and Scotland to, as the cause 
 of the Ancient League, 2 ; the Nor- 
 man rule in, 5 et seq. ; and France, 
 true nature of the contest between, 
 23 ; circumstances which brought 
 about the alliance of Scotland with, 
 136 et seq ; rejection of the Roman 
 jurisprudence by, 162 ; contrast be- 
 tween its architecture and that of 
 Scotland, 198. 
 
 2 
 
 English and French armies, contrast 
 between them during the hundred 
 years' war, and cause of the victories 
 of the former, 22 et seq. 
 
 English merchants, the, their opposi- 
 tion to the Darien scheme, 418. 
 
 English party, first rise of the, in Scot- 
 land, 98. 
 
 Eochaidh Buidh, King of the Scottish 
 Dalriada, his invasion of Ireland and 
 its defeat, 229 et seq. 
 
 Eochy or Auchy, the supposed Achaius, 
 2. 
 
 Erian, marriages of Scotsmen into 
 family of, 57. 
 
 Erigena, nationality of, 234. 
 
 Erskine of Dun, a pupil of Melanch- 
 thon's, 287. 
 
 Erskine, Alexander, minister-at-war to 
 Gustavus Adolphus, career of, 379. 
 
 Erskines, services of one of the, in 
 Russia, 379. 
 
 Esneval, the Baron of, ambassador to 
 Scotland, 130 et seq. 
 
 Espence or Spence, family of, in France, 
 58. 
 
 Esse, the Sieur d', the expedition under 
 him, 106. 
 
 FACULTIES, the Deans of, in the Scot- 
 tish universities, 176. 
 
 Ferdinand of Spain, intrigues of, with 
 England and Scotland, 92. 
 
 Fergus Mor Mac Earca, founder of the 
 Scottish Kingdom of Dalriada, 228. 
 
 Ferguson, W., a Scottish artist, 454. 
 
 Ferrerius, the continuator of Boece, 
 301. 
 
 Fetes des Foux, the, in France, 212 
 et seq. 
 
 Feudalism, influences of, in medieval 
 Europe, 31. 
 
 Filhoti, Pierre, 380. 
 
 Flockharts or Folcarts, the, 59. 
 
 Flodden, the battle of, and its effect on 
 the French alliance, 93. 
 
 Forbes, Dr John, of Corse, 293. 
 
 Forman, Andrew, Bishop of Moray, 
 94; becomes Archbishop of St 
 Andrews, 96. 
 
 Forman, Helena, the wife of Rubens, 
 tradition regarding her, 443. 
 
 France, picture of its early social con- 
 dition, 15 et seq.; successive northern 
 immigrations into, and their influence, 
 70; illustrations of social state of, 
 during the English wars, 89 ; in- 
 creased power of, as compared with 
 Scotland in the sixteenth century, 
 131 ; Scotland treated as a depend- 
 ency, 134 ; circumstances which led 
 to the disruption of the Ancient 
 League, 135 et seq. ; influence of the 
 alliance with, on law, manners, &c., 
 
 H 
 
482 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 in Scotland, 161 et seq. ; Lockhart as 
 ambassador in, 383 et seq. ; and Lord 
 Stair, 396 et seq, ; Law and the Mis- 
 sissippi scheme, 401 et seq. 
 
 Francis I., demands of, in regard to 
 the murder of La Bastie, 102; re- 
 newed league with Scotland, 104. 
 
 Frederick the Great, services of Mar- 
 shal and Ambassador Keith under, 
 338 et seq. ; notices of, 431 ; Sir R. 
 Mitchell as ambassador to, 432. 
 
 French religious wars, cruelties on both 
 sides during the, 187. 
 
 Froissart, account of French adven- 
 turers in Scotland from, 78 ; and of 
 Vienne's expedition and its reception, 
 82, 83 et seq. 
 
 Froude, Mr, on the case of Anne 
 Boleyn, 281. 
 
 Fyvie Castle, the builder of, &c., 201. 
 
 GAFFAREL'S 'Unheard-of Curiosities,' 
 266. 
 
 Galleys, Knox's life in the, 274. 
 
 Garciones, the, at the Scottish univer- 
 sities, 182. 
 
 Garden or Game, Thomas, 348. 
 
 Gebelin, Count, on J.he French Hog- 
 manay, 208. 
 
 Genevan Church, arrogant spirit and 
 claims of the, 188. 
 
 Gibbs, James, the architect, and his 
 works, 474. 
 
 Gibraltar, narrow escape of, from cap- 
 ture in 172^, 335. 
 
 Glasgow University, duties of the Cen- 
 sor in, 173 ; recent claims by it to in- 
 dependence of the ordinary tribunals, 
 179. 
 
 Gohory, Gorry, or Gowrie, family of, in 
 France, 56. 
 
 Gordon, General Patrick, extracts from 
 his autobiography and sketch of his 
 career, 348 et seq. 
 
 Gordon, Patrick, of the Steel-hand, 362. 
 
 Gordon, Sir Robert, o_f Straloch, 269. 
 
 Gorion, French physician to Mary of 
 Scotland, 126. 
 
 Gorry or Gowrie, family of, in France, 
 56. 
 
 Grahame of Claverhouse, services of, in 
 Holland, 320. 
 
 Gray, Andre, 57. 
 
 Gray, Sir Andrew, the Scottish adven- 
 turers under, 320. 
 
 Greek, the English pronunciation of, 
 161. 
 
 Gregory, James, the discoverer of the 
 reflecting telescope, 31 1. 
 
 Greig, Admiral, sketch of his career in 
 the service of Russia, 372 et seq. 
 
 "Gudeman," a, in Scotland, 349. 
 
 Guendeville's Atlas Historique, 165 
 note. 
 
 Guisards or Maskers of Scotland, their 
 probable French origin, 211. 
 
 Guises, ambition of the, 114; their ob- 
 jects and policy in pursuit of them, 
 116 et seq. I Le Balafre, ib, ; their 
 policy after the death of Francis II., 
 117; their plans as regards Scotland, 
 132. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, the Scottish troops 
 in his service, 321 ; Scotch officers 
 trained under, 326. 
 
 HAGGIS, the, derived from France, 221. 
 Haguignetes, Menage on the, 206. 
 Hallidays, the, in France, 59. 
 Hamilton, Gavin, the career and works 
 
 of, 453. 
 Hamilton, 
 
 John, his charges against 
 Knox, 190; sketch of his career, 191 
 et seq. 
 
 Hamilton, Michael, an archer of the 
 Guard, curious adventure of, 72. 
 
 Hamilton, Sir W. t on the Regents of 
 the universities, 175. 
 
 Handsel -gathering, the custom of, in 
 Scotland, &c., 206. 
 
 Harding's Biographical Mirror, por- 
 trait of Lockhart in, 394. 
 
 Harlaw, the battle of, 45. 
 
 Hegate, William, professor at Bor- 
 deaux, 296. 
 
 Helias the Scot, 232. 
 
 Henderson or D'Handresson, family of, 
 
 Henderson, Alexander, 287. 
 
 Henry V., measures of, after the defeat 
 of Bauge, 26. 
 
 Henry VII., his alliance with Ferdi- 
 nand of Spain, 92. 
 
 Henry VIII., indignation of, at the 
 elevation of La Bastie, 102 ; demands 
 of, regarding Mary Queen of Scots, 
 and war which followed, 106 ; con- 
 temporary notices of, and Anne 
 Boleyn's death, 281 et seq. 
 
 Henry II., of France, an eyewitness's 
 account of the tilt in which he was 
 wounded, 130 note. 
 
 Henry III., conduct of, on the execu- 
 tion of Mary of Scotland, 123 et seq. ; 
 murder of the Guises, 125 et seq. 
 
 Henryson, Herisson, or D'Arson, family 
 of, 58. 
 
 Henryson, Edward, 301. 
 
 Hepburn or Esbron, the Chevalier, 158. 
 
 Hepburn, James Bonaventura, Mac- 
 kenzie's account of, 265 ; his true his- 
 tory, 266. 
 
 Hepburn, Sir John, notices of, 321, 322, 
 325- 
 
 Heriot's Hospital, the architecture of, 
 201. 
 
 Highland bursaries, example of, 181 
 note. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 483 
 
 Highlanders, animosity between, and 
 
 the Lowlanders, 91. 
 Hogarth, peculiarities of, as an artist, 
 
 462. 
 
 Hogeland, the naval battle of, -473. 
 Hogmanay, origin of the name and 
 
 usage, 203 et seq 
 Holland, services of Scotsmen on both 
 
 sides in, 319. 
 
 Holybush, John, nationality of, 234. 
 Hplyrood, the painter of the portraits 
 
 in, 449. 
 Homes, the, slaughter of De la Bastie 
 
 by, 102. 
 
 Hotch-Potch, derived from France, 221. 
 Houston, Thomas de, 62. 
 Huguenots, influence of the, on Scottish 
 
 Presbyterianism, 185 ; their influence 
 
 on the character of the Covenanters, 
 
 186; their intolerance and ferocity, 
 
 187. 
 Humanity, the Professors of, in the 
 
 Scottish universities, 183. 
 Hume, David, or Theagrius, 289 note. 
 Hume, David, correspondence of, with 
 
 Ramsay the painter, 457 et seq. 
 Humes, Marguerite de, &c., 56. 
 
 IMMACULATE Conception, the, first 
 maintained by Duns Scotus, 238. 
 
 Inch of Perth, Highland combat on, 90. 
 
 Inglis or d'Anglars, family of, 59. 
 
 Innes, Father, his career, and ' Critical 
 Essay on the early Inhabitants of 
 Scotland,' 271. 
 
 Inquisition, the, and George Buchanan, 
 244. 
 
 Intolerance, universal, in France, 187. 
 
 lona, settlement of Columba in, 228. 
 
 Ireland, contrast between her fate and 
 that of Scotland, 153 ; the first migra- 
 tion into Scotland from, 228 ; the 
 early missionaries, though called 
 Scots, natives of, 232 et seq. ; the 
 establishment of Christianity in, 233. 
 
 Irvine, Sir Alexander, of Drum, 45, 46. 
 
 Irving, Dr, sketch of Volusinus from, 
 293 et seq. ; his spelling of Scotish, 
 296 note. 
 
 Ivan the Terrible, the Strelitzers or- 
 ganised by, 368. 
 
 JACK, Gilbert, 311. 
 
 Jacobite refugees, the, and Jacobitism, 
 
 3 2 9- 
 
 James III., patronage of art by, 437. 
 James IV., intrigues of Ferdinand of 
 
 Spain with, 92 ; his death at Flodden, 
 
 94 
 James V. , marriage of, to Madeleine of 
 
 France, 104 : and to Mary of Guise, 
 
 105. 
 James I., conduct of, as regards his 
 
 mother's death, 151 et seq. 
 
 Jamesone, George, the painter, his 
 career and works, 442 et seq. 
 
 Jesuits, the, early connection of Patrick 
 Gordon with, 350. 
 
 Joan of Arc, portrait of, supposed by a 
 Scotchman, 441. 
 
 Jocteleg, origin of the name, 223. 
 
 John of Burgundy, murder of the Sieur 
 de Montagu by, 18 ; and of the Duke 
 of Orleans. 19 ; his own murder, 20. 
 
 John de Vienne, the auxiliary force 
 sent into Scotland under, their re- 
 ception, treatment, &c., 81 et seq. 
 
 Johnston, Arthur, sketch of the career 
 of, 308 et seq. ; his Latin version of 
 the Psalms, 309 ; epigram by, on 
 Jamesone, 444. 
 
 Johnston, John, 311. 
 
 Johnston, Robert, ' History of Britain ' 
 by, 251. 
 
 Julius II., intrigues of, with Matthew 
 Lang, 94. 
 
 KEITH, the Earl Marischal, 331 ; sketch 
 of his career. 331 et seq. ,' enters the 
 service of Prussia, 338 et sea; his 
 attainder reversed, 338 ; his after life, 
 
 Keith, Field - Marshal, 331 ; extracts 
 from his autobiography, and sketch 
 of his career and character, 331 et 
 seq. ; his death, 347. 
 
 Keith. Sir R. Murray, 347; his conduct 
 in the affair of Queen Caroline Mat- 
 ilda, 423 et seq. ', sketch of his career, 
 427 et seq. ; extracts from his letters, 
 428. 
 
 Keith, Robert, of Craig, the career of, 
 427 ; his account of the elevation of 
 the Empress Catherine, ib. 
 
 Keith, Mrs Murray, 428. 
 
 Keiths, the family of, 331 ; connection 
 of two, with Frederick the Great's 
 attempt to escape from his father, 431. 
 
 Kennedys, the, in France, 62. 
 
 Kennet, anecdote regarding Cromwell's 
 acquisition of Dunkirk from, 388. 
 
 Kildrummy, castle of, seized by Stewart 
 of Badenoch,.43 et seq. 
 
 King's College, Aberdeen, modelled on 
 the University of Paris, 166. 
 
 Kinnimonds, the, in France, 56. 
 
 Kirkaldy of Grange, notices of. 140. 
 
 Kirkmichael or Carmichael, John, 61. 
 
 Knox, John, errors of Dargaud regard- 
 ing, 113 note; engaged in the nego- 
 tiations for the English alliance, 141 
 et seq. ', his attacks on the Lords of 
 the Congregation, 146; his intoler- 
 ance in words, and moderation in act, 
 189 ; notices of his residence abroad, 
 &c., 274 ; his ' History of his own 
 Times,' 275; absence of portraits, 
 &c., of, 278 note. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 LABANOFF, Prince, his ' Letters of 
 Mary Qxteen of Scots,' 108 note. 
 
 La Bastie, the Chevalier, the slaughter 
 of, in Scotland, 100 et seq, 
 
 Laing or Langius, James, 254. 
 
 Lamberton, archbishop of St Andrews 
 under Wallace, 12. 
 
 La Mothe Fenelon, M., 149 et seq. 
 
 Lang, Mathew, bishop of Gorz, 94. 
 
 Latin, the English pronunciation of, 
 161 ; regulations regarding, at the 
 Scottish universities, 182 ; familiarity 
 of the early Scots scholars with, and 
 reason for their writing in it, 245. 
 
 Lauder, William, the assailant of Mil- 
 ton, 310. 
 
 Lauration, the, at the Scottish univer- 
 sities, 183. 
 
 Law of Lauriston, his territorial desig- 
 nation, 69 ; sketch of his career and 
 " System," 400 et seq. 
 
 Law, influence of the French alliance 
 on it in Scotland, 161. 
 
 Lawson or De Lauzun, family of, 58. 
 
 League, the Ancient, between Scotland 
 and France, circumstances which 
 originated it, 2. 
 
 Learning, early encouragement of, by 
 the Church, 171. 
 
 Leeth, Dr, 308. 
 
 Leighton, bishop, 293. 
 
 Lennox, Matthew, earl of, 51. 
 
 Leslie, bishop of Ross, his history of 
 Scotland, 251. 
 
 Leslie, George, the Scottish Capuchin, 
 292. 
 
 Leslie of Balquhain, connection of, 
 with the death of Wallenstein, 326. 
 
 Leslies or De Lisles, the, 58. 
 
 Leslies, the, trained under Gustavus 
 Adplphus, 326. _ 
 
 Le Vincton or Swinton, Guillaume, 57. 
 
 Liddell, Duncan, the career of, 304. 
 
 Liege, the storming of, by Charles of 
 Burgundy, 36 ; the battle of, Scots- 
 men present at, 45. 
 
 Lockhart or Locart, family of, 57. 
 
 Lockhart, Sir William, sketch of the 
 career of, 382, 
 
 Logan, A. S. , 198 note. 
 
 Louis XL, his confidence in the Scots 
 Guard, and uses he made of them, 
 35; at the storming of Liege, ib. 
 et seg. 
 
 Louis XIV., claim made to, for restora- 
 tion of the Scots Guard, 39; anec- 
 dotes of Lord Stair and, 396. 
 
 Louis XV., the costume of the Scots 
 Guard at his coronation, 40. 
 
 Louisiana, origin of the French colony 
 of, 414. 
 
 Lowe, Peter, 304. 
 
 Lumisden, Miss (Lady Strange), ex- 
 tracts from letters of, 470. 
 
 Lyndsay, Sir David, his encounter 
 with a Highlander, 42. 
 
 MACCABEUS, John, sketch of, 287. 
 
 Machiavelli, the political code of, in. 
 
 Macintosh's mortification, conditions 
 attached to, 181 note. 
 
 Mackay, General, services of, in Hol- 
 land, 320 ; the inventor of the fixed 
 bayonet, ib. 
 
 Mackenzie's eminent writers of the 
 Scots Nation, account of, 262 et seq. 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, on Duns Scotus, 
 
 M'Ward, a refugee Covenanter, 290. 
 Madeleine of France, marriage of 
 
 James V. to, 104. 
 Magrath or Moyra, the battle of, 229 
 
 et seq. 
 Malcolm of Scotland, connection of, 
 
 with the Anglo-Saxons, 4. 
 Mair or Major, John, 239 ; his History, 
 
 240. 
 Mar, the Earl of (Alexander Stewart 
 
 of Badenoch), his career, &c., 42 
 
 et seq. 
 Mar, the Earl of, connection of the 
 
 Keiths with him and his rebellion, 
 
 331 ; patronage of James Gibbs by, 
 
 Mar, the Countess of, married to 
 Stewart of Badenoch, 44. 
 
 Margaret, widow of James IV., the 
 successive marriages of, 98. 
 
 Marianus Scotus, 231 ; the chronicle of, 
 232 ; really an Irishman, 233. 
 
 Marianus the elder, an Irishman, 234. 
 
 Marienburg, the Scots at the capture 
 of, 324. 
 
 Martin, David, the Scottish painter, 
 460. 
 
 Martin, James, professor at Rome, &c. , 
 296. 
 
 Mary of Gueldres, foundation of Trinity 
 College Church by, 437. 
 
 Mary of Guise, marriage of James V. 
 to, 105 ; her elevation to the Regency, 
 and its effects, 133 et seq. ; her policy, 
 136. 
 
 Mary Queen of Scots, birth of, 106 
 her influence on European history, 
 107; French writers on her, ib. and 
 note ; sketch of her career, &c., in ; 
 her pretensions to the English crown, 
 129 et seq.; her duplicity regarding 
 the church, 146 ; the last scene and 
 its attendant circumstances, 123 et 
 seq. ; her testament, &c., 125. 
 
 Mathurin de Neure on the Fete des 
 Foux, &c., 216. 
 
 Maurice, Prince, of Dessau, and Mar- 
 shal Keith, 347. 
 
 Maurigon or Morrison, an archer of the 
 Guard, 57. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 485 
 
 Maxwells or Maxuels, the, 58. 
 
 Mazarin, Cardinal, and Sir W. Lock- 
 hart, 383 et seq. 
 
 Melville, Andrew, educated abroad, 
 287. 
 
 Melvin, Dr, of Aberdeen, and Buch- 
 anan's psalms, 249 note ; his character 
 as a scholar, 250 note. 
 
 Memoirs of a Cavalier, the, 323. 
 
 Menzies, Alexander, a Jesuit, 351. 
 
 Mere folle, the festival of the, in 
 France, 214. 
 
 Michel's ' Les Ecossais en France,' &c., 
 account of, 155 et seq. ; account of De 
 la Bastie by, 100. 
 
 Mississippi scheme, the, and its origin- 
 ator, 401 et seq. 
 
 Missouri, the Queen of, and her hus- 
 band, 408. 
 
 Mitchell, Sir Robert, ambassador to 
 Frederick the Great, character, &c., 
 of, 432 et seq. 
 
 Mitchell, Colonel, notices of the Scots 
 in the service of Gustavus from, 321, 
 323. 
 
 Moderators in the Scotch Church, 
 origin of, 185. 
 
 Moliere, alleged Scottish descent of, 
 64. 
 
 Monachism, early prevalence of, in 
 Ireland, 234. 
 
 Mpncrieff, Montcrif, or Moncriff, fam- 
 ily of, 57. 
 
 Monro, Robert, extracts from his work, 
 317 et seq. / notices of him, 321 et 
 seq. ; his heroic defence of Schevelin, 
 322. 
 
 Montagu, the Sieur de, his career and 
 fate, 17. 
 
 Montaigne, a pupil of George Buch- 
 anan's, 243. 
 
 Montecuculi, defeat of, by the Scots, 
 322. 
 
 Monteith of Salmonet, origin of his 
 title, 68 ; ' History of the Troubles of 
 Great Britain' by, 251. 
 
 Montgomery, the Count of, captain of 
 the Scots Guard, 33. 
 
 Monypenny or Menypeny, family of, 
 59* 
 
 More, Jacob, the career and works of, 
 463- 
 
 Moreri on the nationality of Duns 
 Scotus, 235 ; space devoted to Scot- 
 land in, 270. 
 
 Moyra or Magrath, the battle of, 229 
 et seq. 
 
 Munich, Marshal, storming of Azoff by, 
 
 Municipalities, the, originated with the 
 Roman Empire, 30 ; of Russia, their 
 former power, 365. 
 
 Murray, the Regent, educated under 
 Peter Ramus, 287. 
 
 Murray, Andrew, author of the ' Com- 
 
 mentatio de Kinaeis,' 420. 
 Murray, Thomas, a Scottish artist, 
 
 Murray of Broughton, the family of, 
 69. 
 
 " NATIONS" of the Scottish universities, 
 the, 1 68 et seq. 
 
 Nevay, John, 290. 
 
 New Brandenburg, defence of, by the 
 Scots, 322. 
 
 New England, persecution of the Puri- 
 tans in, 390 note. 
 
 Nobility of France, their rise, privileges, 
 &c., i jr. 
 
 Nominalists and Realists, the, 237. 
 
 Norman Conquest, the, its effects as re- 
 gards Scotland, 4. 
 
 Normans, the, their claims to supre- 
 macy in Europe, &c., 31 ; in Scotland, 
 5 ; their oppressions in England, 6. 
 
 Norsemen, extinction of the Scots 
 Kingdom of Albania by the, 232 ; 
 crushed by the battle of Harlaw, 45. 
 
 North, Lord, anecdote of, 246 note. 
 
 Northumberland and Nottingham, the 
 Earls of, their raid into Scotland, 78. 
 
 Novgorod, former power of, 365, 366. 
 
 OCCAM, a pupil of Duns Scotus, 239. 
 
 Oillencons, the, in France, 58. 
 
 Oppenneim, storming of the castle of, 
 by the Scots, 325. 
 
 Orleans, the Duke of, his murder by 
 John of Burgundy, 19. 
 
 Orleans, the Regent, and Lord Stair, 
 396 et seq. 
 
 Orleanists and Burgundians, the strug- 
 gle between the, 20. 
 
 Overture, origin of the term, 186. 
 
 PANTHER, David, 297. 
 
 Paris, social condition of, in the four- 
 teenth century, 15. 
 
 Parliament, the old Scottish, taken from 
 the States-General of France, 164. 
 
 Parr, Dr, his preface to Bellenden, 297. 
 
 Paterspn, William, originator of the 
 Darien Company, &c., sketch of his 
 career, 415 et seq. 
 
 Peasantry, the, their early state in 
 France, 21 et seq. 
 
 Pepys, anecdote of, 393. 
 
 Perth, the Earl of, account of the origin 
 of Bayle's Dictionary by, 269. 
 
 Peter the Great, Patrick Gordon's first 
 introduction to, and his services un- 
 der, 368 et seq. 
 
 Philip of France, his claim of feudal 
 superiority over Edward I , 12. 
 
 Philip II., position of Spain under, and 
 scheme for the marriage of his son to 
 Mary Queen of Scots, 117; Mary's 
 
486 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 bequest to, 125 et seq. ; his views with 
 
 regard to England, 128. 
 Pinkie House, the architecture of, 201. 
 Pitcairn, Dr, 305. 
 Pitscottie, account of the slaughter of 
 
 De la Bastie by, 102. 
 Pittilloch, Robert, 62. 
 Poland, adventures of Patrick Gordon 
 
 ' n > 354 > his services with the Swedes 
 
 there, 358 ; Scottish merchants in, 
 
 421. 
 Pont, Timothy, his maps of Scotland, 
 
 268. 
 Person, anecdote of, in connection with 
 
 Buchanan, 246 note. 
 Portugal, residence of Buchanan in, 
 
 244. 
 Posen, General Gordon's account of, 
 
 Preston, family of, in France, 56. 
 
 Proctors of the English universities, 
 the, 169. 
 
 Procurators of the " Nations," the, in 
 the universities, 168, 169. 
 
 Protestantism, effect of, on the univer- 
 sities, 172. 
 
 Puritans, the, their treatment of the 
 Quakers, 390 note. 
 
 QUAKERS, the, in the time of Cromwell, 
 390 ; their treatment by the Puritans 
 in New England, ib. note. 
 
 Quhele and Chattan, clans of, the duel 
 between, on the Inch of Perth, 90. 
 
 RABELAIS, reference to the French 
 Hogmanay in, 205 ; on the nation- 
 ality of Duns Scotus, 235 ; extract 
 from, 257. 
 
 Ramsay, Sir James, one of the Scots 
 officers under Gustavus, 324, 325. 
 
 Ramsay, Allan, the painter, his career, 
 &c., 454 et sea. 
 
 Ratisbon, the Monastery of St James 
 at, an Irish establishment, 234. 
 
 Rebellion of 1715, connection of the 
 Keiths with, 335. 
 
 Rectors of the Scottish universities, 
 the, 167. 
 
 Reformation, the, in Scotland, 144 ; its 
 secular and political character, ib. et 
 seq. 
 
 Regents, the, in the Scottish univer- 
 sities, 173. 
 
 Reid, Robert, an ancestor of the meta- 
 physician's, 257. 
 
 Reid, Robert, President of the Court of 
 Session, 300. 
 
 1 Respublicae ' of the Elzeviers, the, the 
 part devoted to Scotland in, 270. 
 
 " Riding of the Parliament, the," in 
 Scotland, 165 note. 
 
 Rinuccini's Life of George Leslie, and 
 Lord Hailes's abridgment of it, 292. 
 
 Rizzio, David, Knox on the murder of, 
 277, 278. 
 
 Roman Empire, the medieval efforts to 
 re-establish it, 29 ; its wide and per- 
 manent influence, 30. 
 
 Roman jurisprudence, its adoption by 
 Scotland, and rejection by England, 
 162. 
 
 RosSj Alexander, his ' View of all Re- 
 ligions,' &c., 310 ; his ' Christiados,' 
 ib. 
 
 Rubens, supposed connection of Jame- 
 sone with, 442. 
 
 Russia, services of Marshal Keith un- 
 der, 336 et seq. ; services of Patrick 
 Gordon in, 363 et seq. ; and of Ad- 
 miral Greig, 372 et seq. 
 
 Rutherford, Samuel, and his works, 288 
 et seq. 
 
 SACROBOSCO, Joannes de, nationality 
 
 of, 234. 
 Sadoleto, Cardinal, patronage of Vol- 
 
 usinus by, 295 
 St Gall, nationality of, 234. 
 St Kilian of Wurzburg, an Irishman, 
 
 234- 
 
 St Margaret, parentage, &c., of, 4. 
 Saxon Chronicle, the, account of the 
 
 oppressions of the Normans from, 6. 
 Scaligers, connection of Buchanan with 
 
 the, 243. 
 Scholastics, the, their merits, &c., 236 
 
 et seq. 
 
 Scio, Greig's defeat of the Turks at, 372. 
 Scot or Scotus, name of, at first applied 
 
 to Irishmen, 227. 
 Scot, Alexander, the Greek grammar of, 
 
 312. 
 Scotists, the, among the Scholastics, 
 
 Scotland, notices of the French in, their 
 position, treatment, &c. , 74 ; first 
 French ambassador to, 76 ; impover- 
 ishing effect of the English wars on, 
 83 ; animosity between the Highland- 
 ers and Lowlanders, 91 ; first rise of 
 an English party in, 98 ; changed 
 position of, as regards France in the 
 sixteenth century, 131 ; treated as a 
 dependency of France, 134 ; circum- 
 stances which led to the disruption of 
 the Ancient League, 135 et seq. ; the 
 Reformation Act in, 144 et seq. ', con- 
 trast between her fate and that of Ire- 
 land, 153 ; effect of the struggle with 
 England on the national character, 
 154 ; influence of the French league 
 on manners, &c., 161 et seq. ; the first 
 Irish migration into, 228 ; Bleau's 
 maps of, 268 ; ultimate advantage of 
 the Darien scheme to, 419 ; early ob- 
 stacles to art in, 436. 
 
 Scots, jealousy with which regarded in 
 
INDEX. 
 
 487 
 
 France, 71 ; the early so-called really 
 Irishmen, 231 et seq. 
 
 Scots Guard in France, origin, &c., of 
 the, 33; their duties and privileges, 
 34 ; their conduct at the storming of 
 Liege, 35 ; their fidelity, 37 ; gradual 
 disappearance of Scotsmen from it, 
 38 ; claim for its restoration in 1642, 
 39 ; its nominal retention to the Re- 
 volution, id. ; their costume under 
 Louis XV., 40. 
 
 Scotsmen, military services of, abroad, 
 315 et seq. 
 
 Scott, Sir John, of Scotstarvet, 269, 
 
 Scottish architecture, peculiarities of, 
 198. 
 
 Scottish brigade in Holland, the, 319, 
 320. 
 
 Scotus, Duns, 235 et seq. 
 
 Scotus, John, or Erigena, really an 
 Irishman, 234. 
 
 Scrimgeour, Henry, 301. 
 
 Seaton, Dr, Sir Thomas Urquhart's 
 account of, 302 note. 
 
 Sectarianism, prevalence of, in Scot- 
 land, 197. 
 
 Sedulius the Latin hymn writer, nation- 
 ality of, 233, and note. 
 
 Select Society, the, of Edinburgh, 457. 
 
 Seminara, the battle of, 52. 
 
 Servetus, Calvin's conduct toward, 188. 
 
 Session, the Court of, borrowed from 
 France, 166. 
 
 Seton, Lord, embassy of, to France, 151. 
 
 Seton, Earl of Dunfermline, 201. 
 
 Seton, George Lord, adventure of, in 
 Holland, 320. 
 
 Simpson or Sinson, family of, 59. 
 
 Skene, Sir John, 301. 
 
 Smeton, Thomas, 287. 
 
 Sobieski, John, offers made to Patrick 
 Gordon by, 361. 
 
 Sophia, the sister of Peter the Great, 
 her struggle with him for power, 369 
 et seq. 
 
 Spain, alliance between, and England 
 under Henry VII., 92 ; supremacy 
 of, and plans of the Guises regarding, 
 118 ; collapse of, after the defeat of 
 the Armada, 127 ; adventures, &c., 
 of Marshal Keith in, 333, 335. 
 
 Spang, Robert, 287. 
 
 Spottiswood, Archbishop, his residence 
 abroad, 293. 
 
 Stair, Lord, notices of, as ambassador 
 to France, 396 et seq. ; his opposition 
 to Law, 400, 402. 
 
 States-General of France, analogy of 
 the Scottish Parliament to the, 164. 
 
 Statesmen, Scottish, and their services 
 abroad, 379. 
 
 Stephen, picture of England under, 7. 
 
 Stewart, John, lord of Aubigne, the 
 first captain of the Scots Guard, 33. 
 
 Stewart, Alexander, the Wolf of Bade- 
 
 noch, 41 ; the younger, his career, 43 
 
 et seq. 
 
 Stewart, Alexander, Duke of Albany, 47. 
 Stewart, Sir John, of Darnley, 51. 
 Stewart, W., metrical version of Koece's 
 
 History by, 242 note. 
 Strange, Sir Robert, the career and 
 
 works of, 463 et seq. 
 Strelitzers, the, the suppression of their 
 
 revolt by General Gordon, 368 et seq. 
 Struensee, sketch of the career of, 422 
 
 et seq, 
 
 Stud or Estud, family of, 58. 
 Students of Paris, their ancient lawless- 
 ness, 178. 
 
 Stuyers, William, 59. 
 Suffolk, Lord, letter from, regarding 
 
 Queen Caroline Matilda, 425. 
 Sully, connection with Scotland claimed 
 
 by, 64. 
 Sweden, the corporation of Scottish 
 
 merchants in, 420. 
 
 TANGUY DU CHATEL, murder of John 
 
 of Burgundy by, 21. 
 Territorial titles, uses made of, by 
 
 emigrant Scotsmen, 68 ; rage for, in 
 
 Scotland, 219. 
 Teulet's ' Lettres de Marie Stuart,' 108 
 
 note ; ' Relations Politiques,' &c., 
 
 account of, 155 et seq. 
 Theagrius, real name of, 289 note. 
 Thesis, the old system of, 257. 
 Thomas Aquinas, the opponent of Duns 
 
 Scotus, 237. 
 Thomists, the, among the Scholastics, 
 
 2 37- 
 Throckmorton, notices of, 143; account 
 
 by, of the wound and death of Henry 
 
 II., 130 note. 
 
 Titles of honour, varieties and peculi- 
 arities of, 67. 
 Touraine, dukedom of, conferred on the 
 
 Earl of Douglas, 28; ceremonial of 
 
 his installation, 53. 
 Trevoux Dictionary, the, on the Aguil- 
 
 laneuf, 209, and note. 
 Trinity College Church, the, 437; the 
 
 altar-piece of, 439 et seq. 
 Turenne, notices of, at the siege, &c., 
 
 of Dunkirk, 385. 
 Turnbuil, William, death of, 38. 
 Turnbulls or Tournebulles, the, in 
 
 France, 57. 
 Turner, Sir James, his ' Memoirs of his 
 
 Life and Times,' 317. 
 Tyrie the Jesuit, works of, 292. 
 
 UNIVERSITIES, the Scottish, resem- 
 blances between, and the French, 166 
 ft seq. ,* the ancient, their independ- 
 ence of the ordinary tribunals, 176 ; 
 recent claims to it in Glasgow, 179. 
 
488 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 University, Sir W. Hamilton on the 
 meaning of, 168. 
 
 Urquhart, Sir Thomas, and his works, 
 255; his account of the Admirable 
 Crichton, 258; and of his own library, 
 260; on the ecclesiastical differences 
 of the Scots abroad, 273 ; account of 
 Dr Seaton by, 302 note ; and of Dr 
 Davidson, 308 ; his account of Alex- 
 ander Anderson, 312 ; list of Scots 
 officers who served in the German 
 wars from, 327 ; account of Scotsmen 
 in the service of Russia by, 348. 
 
 VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, extracts from 
 his Life of Keith, 341 et seq. 
 
 Vaus, John, 311. 
 
 Verneuil, the Scots auxiliaries at the 
 battle of, 28. 
 
 Vienne, the Admiral, the expedition 
 into Scotland under, 81 et seq. 
 
 Volusenus, sketch of the career of, 293. 
 
 WALLACE, Sir William, the representa- 
 tive of Scottish nationality, 7 et seq. ; 
 his visits, &c., to France, u ; his dip- 
 lomatic relations with that country, 
 
 Walpole, notices of Jamesone from, 
 
 Wauchop, Vaucop, or Vulcob, family 
 
 of, 59. 
 Welch, John, Knpx's son-in-law, his 
 
 career, and specimens of his ' Popery 
 
 Anatomised,' 194 et seq. 
 Wellwood, William, a writer on inter- 
 national law, 301. 
 Whylowe or Whitlaw, a follower of 
 
 Knox, 143. 
 William III., his opposition to the 
 
 Darien scheme, 417. 
 Williamson, family of, in France, 58. 
 Wilson, Florence, or Florentius Volu- 
 
 sinus, sketch of, 293. 
 Wine, early trade of Scotland with 
 
 France in, 48. 
 Winzeat or Wingate, Ninian, Knox's 
 
 opponent, 191, 291. 
 Wodrow, story of John Welch from, 
 
 197 note ; account of Father Innes 
 
 by, 271. 
 Wolf of Badenoch, the, his career, &c. , 
 
 41. 
 Wrangel, Admiral Count, 373. 
 
 YOUNG, Patrick, 293. 
 
LOAN DEPT. 
 
 
GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY