men could fight; and this having reached his ears, he determined, with a gallant courage, worthy of a better cause, to meet them, "and chance it."* Jackey Jackey had but a small force with him at the time; the total number he could muster being but five men, well mounted and armed. With this force he took up a commanding station on the summit of a rising ground, defended on two sides by a dangerous swamp. He was dressed splendidly, and wore a sword, the handle of which sparkled with glittering diamonds. His banner was displayed; a plain field of red, with a heavy black border. Each of the pistols in his belt gleamed faintly, as a sudden flash of the sun fell upon the small determined band. It was drawing towards the close of day. The sun, which had shone brightly, scorching and oppressive for many a long hour, began to descend towards the brilliant golden clouds which margined the edge of the horizon. His light fell now uncertainly now lighting up a particular spot, as if actuated by a capricious fancy; then, with a faint flicker, withdrawing his face, making all as dull as when beauty veils herself from the world and disappears. There was a melancholy in the scene which Jackey Jackey could not resist. "Riery," he said, awaking from a reverie which had lasted for many minutes, and addressing his lieutenant, "I hardly know what is the matter with me. I feel sad, and something weighs down my heart." "Well, your honour," replied the person thus addressed, "why wait here at all? Let us be off. I have no stomach for fighting when nothing is to be made of it but hard knocks." "Oh, no! you mistake me, Riery. We must not fly now; that would be cowardly; and whatever faults I have been charged with, cowardice has never been among them." "Well, please yourself, your honour," said Riery; "you know best; and I will stand by you to the last." "I thank you, Riery. I know you are true and brave; and I wish I had led you on in a better cause. It is not that I dread anything; for I have sometimes wished to die, and would have given myself up into the hands of my pursuers long ere now, but that I joyed in baffling them. The thoughts that oppress me are of another and a far different kind. When I was a young man, I longed to distinguish myself, and gain a name in the world; visions of armies and battles were ever before my eyes. Then came the thoughts of literary and scientific renown. How my heart aspired after that, none can know. I determined to devote myself to the cause of knowledge; to gain and lay up vast stores of information for the good of my fellow-men. I looked upon the world as a world of happiness, and my fellows as good and happy. Then love came in, and broke up all my plans. I loved a beautiful girl, who was now all the world to me. Books, and everything else, were cast aside, that I might give myself up to the enchantments of this siren draught, which turned into gall and This expression used by Jackey Jackey, to "chance it," became a common saying in Australia, and is used still. I bitterness, and poisoned my soul. I was annoyed that the lady of my airy dreams should be so far void of the perfection I had looked for. This was wormwood to my soul; but I could not resist the influence of the passion, and I loved on. I was rejected with scorn. I, a poor man, to cast my eyes to a lady of birth and expectations! drowned care in intoxication; turned a gambler, a forger, a madman. When I entered the colony, I could not bear the bad treatment I received from my master; and turned bushranger. The world will think of me as the man of blood, the freebooter, and the robber. I might have been something better. I wish I had resisted the temptation to drown care in wine, or that I had ended my life then, when the nobler feelings were strong, and the mind not debased. Well, it is too late now: as I have sown, so I must reap. O God, but it is hard! it is horrible to endure this state of self-degradation. Riery, I have wept whole nights, like a woman. I have cursed, and torn my hair for hours together; nothing but those accursed intoxicating fluids, which must have been invented by the arch-fiend, and distilled over his sulphury fur naces, and given to the world to work the ruin of man, could have kept me up until now. I would have died by my own hand long ere this; but the spirit, once pure and noble, has become mean and shrinking, and afraid to die. I would fifty times have given myself up to the officers of the law; but I dread the rude looks, and the scorn, and pity of the world, more than death. Riery, the world will justly execrate my memory: it is fearful." And he wept like a child. At this moment, the dull heavy tramp of a body of horse broke on the ear; and in a few minutes more a long, glittering file of cavalry was seen approaching. The sun was setting, and his disk was more than half obscured by the heavy cloud of shining purple; but one faint, tremulous flicker of the retiring orb, fell full upon the bright carabines and high-plumed caps of the riders. As the eagle eye of Jackey Jackey lighted upon the approaching troop, he revived; for he smelt the battle afar. He drew up his body, which had been bending forward, until he sat erect; his nostrils expanded; and his eye gleamed with pleasure. It was evident that the advancing party had seen them; for they came to a halt, and formed into regular order. They could then be descried approaching slowly and with much caution, evidently afraid of an ambuscade; their bare swords gleaming from amongst the long glades of the forest, as if the wearers knew well the desperate character of the leader they were about to attack. Not a syllable had escaped from the lips of Jackey Jackey, or one of his party; each horseman sat erect and motionless, as if rivetted to the spot by the power of an enchanter: the lazy flap of the heavy banner, as it flitted in the evening breeze, was the only sound which disturbed the utter stillness. At length, when the pursuers had reached the foot of the hill, Jackey Jackey drew his long, glittering blade, and gave the word. The banner was raised aloft; the horses bounded forward; and onwards they went, with a force which was irresistible, clean Midnight is past, and the faint crow of the cock from some far-off station gives warning that the time draws towards morning. Still the glo through the ranks of the opposing party, that gave | way on each side; for what could stand against that little band? Jackey Jackey rode away as cool as if nothing had occurred. The settler, how-rious star shines on, shedding its lustre over the ever, who bore him the ill-will, had foreseen some- spot as if it had some affinity with the dishonoured thing of this kind, and, as he had his piece in readi- clay of the outcast from society which lay there ness, he took a deliberate aim and fired. The shot all alone. Had the longing aspirations of Jackey proved mortal; and Jackey Jackey gave one Jackey in his last moments been some expiation quivering, convulsive motion, and fell from his for his crimes; and did the dwellers in that bright horse on the ground, a lifeless corpse. The rays planet rejoice over a spirit of innate [nobleness, of the setting sun streamed feebler and feebler, un- rescued from a state of degradation so low, with til at last he disappeared beneath the gorgeous cloud mind and taste so vitiated, that the finely-attuned of blazing purple, and the darkening forest became mind shudders even to contemplate it; or rather, every moment more shrouded in the thick falling and we fear this is more likely, do the inhabiclouds of night. The stars now shine and glitter tants of that bright orb mourn over the total overhead; bright, oh, how radiantly bright! But wreck of a noble and accomplished mind? And is one shines forth in bold relief, larger, more glori- it not melancholy thus to see a man who might ously luminous, and apparently millions of miles have benefited his species, and died honoured and nearer the earth than any of the others. It full of years, cut down in the prime of life, and streams full on the spot where lies all that remains die the dishonoured death of a felon. Reader, of the form which, but a few hours before, was re- especially young reader, be warned against the plete with life. The countenance, where the pas- insidious vice of intemperance. Look around you sions of the human heart were so strongly depicted, in the world, and see the numbers that have been as thought after thought chased each other at ran- ruined by it. See the numbers of men possessing dom in the ever active mind, was now changed high refinement and noble intellects, who have into a wan and withered thing, as it looked up, ruined mind and body in the gratification of this unmeaningly, in the pale starlight to that pure star, depraved appetite. Be warned, then, and fly even which appeared to watch and ward it from harm. the appearance of evil. TYTLER'S HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. Nor can It is alleged, that in married life, and in lovematches, a squally season often succeeds the honeymoon, which, though the breeze may never rise to a hurricane, will, with intermissions, last a long while; and, unless both master and mate understand their duty, threaten peril and wreck to the vessel of their peace. This season commences at the critical juncture when the husband begins to find out that the idol he has created is but of clay, however finely that clay may be attempered; and when the spoiled wife, feeling the gradual decay or cooling of the lover's adoring homage, and the relaxing of his slavish attentions, resents the change as marked neglect; and beginning to tremble for the imagined supremacy of the mistress, struggles by every means to perpetuate her sway. royalty claim exemption from the common illusions | of passion, and their consequent painful dispersion, if there have been love and fancy bright enough to create illusion. James the Sixth and his Queen, Anne of Denmark, were neither the most ardent nor imaginative of lovers; but before reason had established its empire in their minds, and they had learnt the grand secret to bear and forbearif they ever learnt it-they were liable to the trying ills of early wedded life. They were, besides, in that position which tempted unprincipled and ambitious courtiers to promote mutual distrust and sow dissension between them. Nor were the means wanting. The queen naturally resented the custody and care of her firstborn-the infant heir-apparent-being forbidden to her and her | friends, and entrusted to the Earl of Mar, whom she disliked; and this in defiance of her entreaties and remonstrances. Her maternal feelings may have been wounded by the separation; and it is certain that her pride and anger were inflamed: nor, as we have seen, were there wanting other sources of jarring between the youthful royal pair. The reports of the violent family disputes at Holyrood, about the custody of the prince and other matters, had reached England; and Elizabeth, both as a politician and a woman, was curious to learn the grounds of the misunderstanding between husband and wife, which Maitland had craftily fomented. There were, besides, strong rumours of the favour shown by Anne of Denmark to the Catholics; and even of her change of religion; a "slander" which Elizabeth could not believe, though she warned Queen Anne against Papist seductions. We have, at this point of Mr. Tytler's history, a graphic account of the campaigns of the Hebridean chiefs; some of whom, more like independent princes than subjects of the crown of Scotland, acted as the auxiliaries of Elizabeth, in Ireland, during Tyrone's rebellion; while others aided him. We have also a narrative of several of those romantic incidents, as that of "Kinmont Willie,” and "Christie's Will," which have been celebrated in the historical Border Ballads. As Elizabeth waxed in years, and King James increased in understanding and experience of affairs, his probable succession to the English throne became the engrossing object of his thoughts and his policy and, according to Mr. Tytler, he dis- | parallels between these times and our own; though covered sound judgment in the line of conduct to be adopted in attaining this great object. His fairest chance, he thought, to gain the respect and good wishes of the English people, when death took from them their own great princess, was to show that he knew how to rule over his own unruly subjects. Hence his vigorous determination to restrain, by every possible means, the power of the greater nobility; to recruit his exhausted finances; to reduce the isles, and consolidate his kingdom; and to bridle the claims of the Kirk, in all matters of civil government, or interference with the royal prerogative: whilst he warmly seconded their efforts for the preservation of the Reformed religion, and resistance to the efforts of its enemies. the modern leaders of the late ecclesiastical movement in Scotland show more tact and knowledge of human nature when they indulge the ladies with the occasional interlude of a tea soirée, and platform oratory seasoned with merry jokes and personalities, as a relief to the great days of rigid Fast and Humiliation. When it was rumoured that the Earl of Huntly, through the influence of his countess and the favour of the king, was about to return to Scotland, there was prodigious alarm; and, fair as were the professions of the earl, the alarm was, as we apprehend, not without more serious cause than Mr. Tytler recognises. Huntly had never, he said, held any traffic with any in his leaving Scotland, and was ready to abide his trial, if any one dared to accuse him. He was ready, also, to banish from his company all seminary priests and known Papists; and would willingly hold conference on the subject of religion with any ministers of the Kirk, by whose arguments he might possibly be induced to embrace their religion. He would receive, he added, any Presbyterian pastor into his house for his better instruction; would support him at his own expense; would assist the Kirk with his utmost power in the maintenance of their discipline; and only required, in return, that a reasonable time should be given him to be satisfied in his conscience; and that, meanwhile, he should be absolved from the heavy sentence of excommunication which had been pronounced against him. When the next General Assembly met at Edinburgh, the king suddenly broke off a hunting expedition, and returned to do it honour by his pre-dividuals whatever, against the reformed religion, since sence. This was well taken; and the ModeratorThanked him in name of the Assembly for his presence; reminding him of the honour obtained by Constantine, in favouring the ancient fathers of the Church; and by David, in dancing before the ark. In reply, James professed his zeal for religion since his youth up. He had ever esteemed it, as he declared, more glory to be a Christian than a king, whatever slanders to the contrary were spoken against him. It was this zeal which moved him to convene the present Assembly: for being aware of the designs of Spain, their great enemy, against religion and this isle, he was anxious to meet, not only the ministry, but the barons and gentlemen; to receive their advice, and resolve on measures to resist the common enemy. Two points he would press on them reformation and preparation; the reformation of themselves, clergy, people, and king. For his own part, he never refused admonition; he was ever anxious to be told his faults; and his chamber door should never be closed to any minister who reproved him. All he begged was, that they would first speak privately before they arraigned him in open pulpit. This was but a reasonable and even scriptural stipulation. The king's address was followed up by a message, intimating his intention of having all the kirks in the kingdom supplied with ministers, endowed with sufficient stipends; and he Requested the Kirk to cause their commissioners to meet with those councillors and officers whom he had appointed for this purpose, and to fix upon some plan for carrying his resolution into effect. But he commanded his commissioners to represent to the ministers of the Kirk how much this good work was hindered by themselves. Why did they teach the people that the king and his councillors resisted the planting of kirks, and swallowed up the livings of the clergy, when they were truly most willing that the whole kirks should be planted, and the rents of the ministers augmented, as far as could be obtained with consent of the nobility and the tacksmen of the teinds, whose rights, without order of law, could not be impaired ? Nothing could be more moderate than such requests; but the Kirk fired at the very idea that an excommunicated traitor, as they termed the earl, who had been guilty of idolatry, a crime punishable by death, and who, in the face of his sentence of banishment, had dared, without license, to return, should have the hardihood to propose any terms whatever. It was whispered that the Spanish faction was daily gaining strength; that the earls would not show themselves so openly unless they knew their return to be acceptable to the king: that the party against the truth and liberty of the Word was bold and confident of success, both in England and at home; and that, if some great and resolute resistance was not instantly made, the Kirk, with all its boasted purity and privileges, would become the prey of Antichrist. To remedy or avert these evils, a day of humiliation was appointed to be observed with more than ordinary rigour; in which the people and the ministry were called upon to weep, between the porch and the altar, for a land polluted by the enemies of God, and threatened with the loss of his favour. A body of sixteen commissioners was selected from the ministers, who were to sit monthly at Edinburgh, under the name of the "Council of the Church :" their duty was to provide, according to the ancient phrase, "Ne quid Ecclesia detrimenti caperet;" and through them a constant correspondence was kept up with all parts of the realm. These proceedings alarmed the king, who could see no good grounds for the erection of so formidable a machinery against what he deemed an imaginary danger. oppose or to promote his succession. And he had reason for alarm, upon other grounds, if he per ceived There was now again, for the moment, the greatest harmony between the King and the Kirk, although a gentle remonstrance was tendered The king wished to be merciful; conceiving that against "divers Jesuits and excommunicated Pa- mercy was his best policy, while there was so pists" being still permitted to harbour in the king-powerful a Catholic party in England either to dom, and spread their pestilent doctrines; and complaining that the rents of the confiscated estates of the Papist earls were not in reality alienated. The wives of the self-banished lords had remained in Scotland, as the agents of their husbands, and enjoyed the favour of the court; and shortly afterwards, the Papist earl, Huntly, it was whispered, proposed returning home. The Kirk was again in alarm; and the king once more suspected of favouring the Papists. Curious readers may find amusement in drawing VOL. XI. NO. CXXIII. the purity of the faith, the Kirk were erecting a tribunal That, under the alleged necessity of watching over independent alike of the law and the throne. Nor did James conceal these sentiments; inveighing bitterly against the ministers, both in public and private, at council and table. It was in vain that some of the brethren (for here, as in all other popular factions, there was a more moderate party, who were dragged forward and hustled into excesses by the more violent) entreated him to explain the causes of his offence, and declared their anxiety for an agreement. "As to agreement," said the monarch, "never will there be an agreement, as long as the limits of the two jurisdictions, the civil and the ecclesiastical, are so vague and undistinguishable. The lines must be strongly and clearly drawn. In your preachings, your license is intolerable; you censure both prince, estate, and council; you convoke general assemblies without my authority; you pass laws under the allegation that they are purely ecclesiastical, but which interfere with my prerogative, and restrict the decisions of my council and my judges. To these my allowance or approbation is never required; and, under the general head of Scandal,' your synods and presbyteries fulminate the most bitter personal attacks, and draw within the sphere of their censure every conceivable grievance. To think of agreement under such circumstances is vain: even if made, it could not last for a moment." In the midst of all this, and when the feelings of the king and the clergy were in a state of high excitement, Mr. David Black, one of the ministers of St. Andrews, a fierce Puritan, delivered a discourse in which he not only animadverted on the threatened triumph of idolatry at home, but raised his voice against the prelacy which had established itself in the neighbouring kingdom. The Queen of England, he said, was an atheist; the religion professed in that kingdom nothing better than an empty show, guided by the injunctions of the bishops; and not content with this pageant at home, they were now persuading the king to set it up in Scotland. As for his highness, none knew better than he did of the meditated return of these Papist earls; and herein he was guilty of manifest treachery. But what could they look for? Was not Satan the head of both court and council? Were not all kings devil's bairns? Was not Satan in the court, in the guiders of the court, in the head of the court? Were not the Lords of Session miscreants and bribers, the nobility cormorants, and the Queen of Scotland a woman whom, for fashion's sake, they might pray for, but in whose time it was vain to hope for good? This was fully as plain as pleasant. The English ambassador, Bowes, indignantly complained of the insult offered to his sovereign; and Mr. David Black was cited to appear before the Privy Council, where he assumed the line of defence so often abused I cannot fall in the reverence of any evil law of man, but in so far as I shall be found past the compass of my instructions; which cannot be judged accordingly to that order established by that God of order, but [except] by the prophets, whose lips He hath appointed to be the keepers of His heavenly wisdom, and to whom He hath subjected the spirit of the prophets. And now, seeing it is the preaching of the Word whereon I am accused, which is a principal point of my calling, of necessity the prophets must first declare whether I have kept the bounds of my direction, before I come to be judged of your majesty which being done, and I found culpable in transgressing any point of that commission which the Lord has given me, I refuse not to abide your majesty's judgment in the second instance, and to underly whatsoever punishment it shall be found I have deserved. How "the prophets were to declare," or who the prophets were, if it were not the ministers themselves who thus claimed Divine inspiration, does not appear. It was now that, on Mr. David Black refusing to submit himself to the judgment of the law, on account of the strong truths or seditious libels which he had vended in the pulpit, the feud between the Kirk and the Crown was exasperated to extremity. Both parties mustered their forces; but the king was half afraid, and therefore half unwilling to strike; and, hoping to compromise matters, he deferred the trial of Black, and sent for some of the more judicious and moderate of the ministers, to whom he said It had been reported to him, that they were in terror lest their spiritual jurisdiction should be invaded; but nothing could be farther from his mind than any abridgment of the liberties of the Kirk; and he was ready, by a public declaration on this point, to quiet their minds. "But," he continued, "this licentious manner of discoursing of affairs of State in the pulpit cannot be tolerated. My claim is only to judge in matters of sedition, and other civil and criminal causes, and of speeches that may import such crimes, wheresoever they may be uttered-in the pulpit or elsewhere: for surely, if treason and sedition be crimes, much more are they so if committed in the pulpit, where the Word of Truth alone should be taught and heard." To this some of the ministers replied, that they did not plead for the privilege of place, but for respect due to their message, which was received from God, and far above the control of any civil judicature. "Most true," said James; "and would you keep to your message, there would and could be no strife. But I trust your message be not to rule estates, and, when matters dislike you, to stir the people to sedition, making both me and my councillors odious by your railings."-"If any dare do so," said the champion of the Kirk," and have passed the bounds, it is reason he be punished with all extremity; but this question of his having past the bounds must be judged by the Church."-" And shall not I," said the king, with some asperity, "have power to call and punish a minister that breaketh out in treasonable speeches, but must come to your presbytery and be a complainer? I have had good proof already what justice ye will do me; and were this a doubtful case, where by any colour the speeches might be justified, there might be some excuse for saying the minister should be convicted by his brethren; but here, what says Mr Black? All kings are devil's bairns; the treachery of the king's heart is discovered.' Who sees not that this man hath passed his bounds? Who will say he hath kept to his message?" It was easier to demur to this than to answer it; and so convinced were the ministers at the moment of the reasonableness of the king's desires, that after much conference and cavilling, they agreed to withdraw from the contest, till the limits between the civil and spiritual jurisdictions should be discussed and decided in a lawful General Assembly. One might fancy that these scenes were lately acted over again in Scotland--but in how changed a Scotland! But they calculated without their host who reckoned upon any submission from Mr. David Black, who used the self-same arguments from which the Catholic clergy had so often, in Scotland, been driven by the strength of the law. Come what might, he would never plead before a civil tribunal for an alleged Spiritual delinquency; but if the siastical senate, he would declare the truth; and, if found monarch chose to remit him to his lawful judge, the eccleguilty, cheerfully submit to its censure. Mr. Cunningham, a Non-intrusion minister, lately made it his boast, that he had literally trampled under his feet the interdict of the civil tribunal; but he and his associates did, at last, deign to plead. Black did not, and was ultimately found guilty, in absence, of having slandered the king, the queen, the Queen of England, and the Lords of Council and Session. His punishment was merely nominal. And now another Fast was proclaimed The Kirk protesting that every effort had failed to obtain redress for the wrongs offered to Christ's kingdom, proclaimed a fast; commanded all faithful pastors to betake themselves to their spiritual armour; caused sound mightily ;" and protested that, whatever might "the Doctrine," to use the phrase of these times, "to be the consequences, they were free of his majesty's blood. The king was enraged; and ordered Black to go into ward, and the commissioners to leave the | Cranston, who had read to them the history of Haman capital. and Mordecai. This story had worked them up to a All that he had asked, he said, was, that his proceed-point that prepared them for any mischief; and when ings should not be made a subject of pulpit attack and bitter ecclesiastical railing: instead of listening to which request, they had vilified him in their sermons, accused him of persecution, defended Black, and falsely held him up to his people as the enemy of all godliness. In the face of all such slander and defamation, he now declared to his good subjects, that as it was his determination on the one hand to maintain religion and the discipline of the Church as established by law, so, on the other, he was resolved to enforce upon all his people, ministers of the Kirk as well as others, that obedience to the laws and reverence for the throne, without which no Christian kingdom could hold together. they heard that the king had turned his back upon their messengers, they became furious with rage and disappointment. Some, dreading the worst, desired to separate; but Lindsay's lion voice was heard above the clamour, forbidding them to disperse. Shouts now arose, to force the doors and bring out the wicked Haman; others cried out "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon ;" and in the midst of the confusion, an agent of the courtiers, or, as Calderwood terms him, "a messenger of Satan sent by the Cubiculars," vociferated, "Armour, The people now rose in arms; some rushing one way, armour! save yourselves. Fy, fy! bills and axes!" some another; some, thinking the king was laid hands on, ran to the Tolbooth; some, believing that their minThese proceedings, and the results of this embroil-isters were being butchered, flew to the Kirk; others ment of the crown and the Kirk, which decid- thundered with their axes and weapons on the Tolbooth edly fixed the king's inclination for the establish- doors; calling for President Seton, Mr. Elphinston, and ment of Episcopacy, will, in our own times, be felt Mr. Thomas Hamilton, to be given up to them, that they by many the most interesting and instructive por- the Kirk. At this moment, had not a brave deacon of might take order with them as abusers of the king and tion of Scottish history embodied in the closing the craftsmen, named Wat, with a small guard, beat volume of the national annals. We shall ex- them back, the gate would have been forced, and none tract but one isolated incident, which occurred could have answered for the consequences. But at last when the artifices of a faction in the palace, conthe provost, Sir Alexander Hume, whom the shouts of sisting of the creatures to be found lurking in his sword, rushed in, all haggard and pale, amongst the the uproar had reached as he lay on a sick bed, seizing every palace, had so incensed the king against the citizens, and with difficulty appeased them into a temcitizens of Edinburgh, (who were the zealous sup- porary calm. porters of the ministers,) that, in the heat of his resentment, he arbitrarily ordered twenty-four of their number to quit the town. This proceeding enraged the ministers; and their indignation "blazed to the highest pitch," when, from an anonymous letter, they learned that the king had been closeted with The information was false, or a trick, Huntly. but it had the desired effect. Balcanquel flew to the pulpit; and after a general discourse on some text of the Canticles, plunged into the present troubles of the Kirk, arraigned the "treacherous forms" of which they had been made the victims; and turning to the noblemen and barons who were his auditors, reminded them, in glowing language, of the deeds of their ancestors in defence of the truth: exhorting them not to disgrace their fathers, but to meet the ministers forthwith in the Little Church. To this quarter so great a crowd now rushed, that the clergy could not make their entrance; but Mr Robert Bruce, pressing forward, at last reached the table where the Protestant barons were seated, and warning them of the imminent perils which hung over their heads, the return of the Papist earls, the persecution of Black, the banishment of the Commissioners and the citizens, conjured them to bestir themselves and intercede with the king. For this purpose, Lords Lindsay and Forbes, with the Lairds of Barganie and Balquhan, and the two ministers, Bruce and Watson, sought the royal presence, then not far off for the king was at that moment sitting in the Upper Tolbooth with some of his privy-council, while the Judges of the Session were assembled in the Lower House. On being admitted with the rest, Bruce informed the monarch that they were sent by the noblemen and barons then convened, to bemoan and avert the dangers threatened to religion. "What dangers ?" said James: "I see none; and who dares convene, contrary to my proclamation?"-" Dares!" retorted the fierce Lord Lindsay. "We dare more than that; and shall not suffer the Truth to be overthrown, and stand tamely by." As he said this the clamour increased; numbers were thronging unmannerly into the presence-chamber, and the king, starting up in alarm, and without giving any answer, retreated down stairs to the Lower House, where the Judges were assembled, and commanded the doors to be shut. The Protestant lords and ministers upon this returned to the Little Kirk, where the multitude had been addressed, during their absence, by Mr. Michael James, who was greatly alarmed, now sent the Earl of Mar to remonstrate with the ministers, whom he found pacing up and down, disconsolately, behind the church, lamenting the tumult, and excusing their own part. On being remonstrated with by Mar, all that they required, they said, was the abolition of the acts done in prejudice of the Kirk during the last four weeks; that in religion, and enemies to the truth, should have no the President, Comptroller, and Advocate, men suspected voice in ecclesiastical matters; and that the good citizens who had been banished, should be recalled. These demands being reported, the monarch promised to lay them, when put into proper form, before his Council; and seizing the moment of tranquillity, ventured to open the doors of the Lower Tolbooth, and accompanied by the provost, bailies, and Octavians, slipt quietly into the street, and proceeded to his palace at Holyrood. Here at last there was safety; and his courage reviving, James expressed himself with the utmost indignation against the ministers and leaders of the late tumult. Next day the court departed for Linlithgow, at an early hour; and a menacing proclamation was read at the Cross, denouncing the treasonable tumult of the previous day; removing the seat of the supreme courts of law from Edinburgh; and commanding all noblemen and barons to depart to their own houses, from that rebellious capital, which was no longer a fit locality either for the royal residence or the administration of justice, "This proclamation," says Mr. Tytler,— Had an immediate effect, and caused a great alteration, Men looked sadly and despondingly on each other. The craftsmen and burgesses foretold the utter decay of their town and trade. All seemed in despair: but nothing could intimidate the Kirkmen ; and Mr. Robert Bruce, one of their principal leaders, ascending the pulpit, upbraided them with their pusillanimity. "A day," said he, "a day of trial and terror is at hand. The hypocrisy of many, the flagrant iniquity of others will clearly appear. The trial shall go through all men : from king and queen to council and nobility, from session to barons, from barons to burgesses, from burgesses to the meanest craftsmen, all will be sifted ; and sorry am I that I should see such weakness in so many, that ye dare not utter so much as one word for God's glory and the good cause. It is not we that are parties in this cause. No the quarrel is betwixt a greater prince |