infeparable companions, made him haftily retire to his caftle at Dunbar; from whence he fled, and once more fought the protection and affiftance of the English.

Richard received him kindly; but his own domeftic concerns incapacitated him from affording any other aid than 500 horfe; with which, and what few volunteers he and the earl of Douglas (who was ftill a prifoner in England) could jointly obtain, he proposed to plunder Lochabar fair. The old earl attended him in this fcanda- 1484. lous expedition. They thought to have furprised the market-place, but they were disappointed; for the towns people, having been informed of their intended vifit, and that the main object was plunder, had affembled the borderers, who being well armed and difciplined, fought, defeated them, and what still added to their renown, made captive that old rebel, Douglas.

Kirkpatrick, by whom he had been taken, carried him in triumph to Edinburg. The earl appeared before his king with a fullen pride, and even turned his back on him; nevertheless, James, with a generofity, which fome have thought faulty and ill-timed, pardoned his crimes, and allowed him to retire to the abby of Lindores, where he had received his education, and where he foon after died. As for the duke of Albany, having in this defeat, loft his friend Douglas, and being afterwards unable to procure any English affistance, he ended his days in France.

Had James now pursued wife measures, he might have lived on good terms with his nobility, and been an happy monarch: But ftill continuing his unpopular conduct, his nobles, piqued at his difregard of them, formed a dangerous confederacy. On the first news of it, he fhut himself up in Stirling caftle, forbidding, on pain of death, any perfon, in arms, to approach it.

The

The king's eldest son, then about fif1487. teen years of age, headed the confpirators; fo that the extent of their design was then no longer a fecret. James was given to understand, that he might, if he chofe, refign his crown to his fon, without bloodfhed. This he refufed; on the contrary, he raised forces by proclamation, in order to fubdue the rebels. Both parties met at Bannockburn, a field in which the great Bruce had gained the greatest renown; but it was now to be ftained with patriotic blood. The lords Erfkine, Monteith, Graham, Maxwell, Ruthwen, Crawford, and Lindfay, commanded in the royal army, which attacked the confederate lords with great fpirit; but they were foon repulsed, and, in a very short time, totally defeated. The king loft his small portion of courage at the firft charge; and turning tail, galloped out of the field on full fpeed. He had hardly rode two miles ere his horse threw him, and he was taken up half dead by a miller, who carried him to his hut. Having recovered his fenfes, he defired a priest; and incautiously letting the miller into the secret of his rank, he ran out calling for a priest to confefs the king. Borthwick, who, with lord Gray, was pursuing him, just then paffed by, "I am a priest, fays he, lead me to his majefty.' As foon as he faw James, he afked him if he thought himfelf very dangerously wounded; and on his anfwering in the negative, he ftabbed him to the

heart.

Thus he fell on the 11th of June, 1488, in the 35th year of his age, and the 29th of his reign. He was certainly a weak, mean, jealous, and credulous prince; though many errors of government, into which he fell, may be attributed to his want of a fettled and regular education: this defect, however, might have been supplied by able counsellors; but he hated his nobility, and they effected his ruin, As a man, he was juft,

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merciful, and remarkably handfome. His justice is indeed questioned by fome, for uttering coin, which, for its exceeding bafenefs, was called Black Money; but as soon as he found it was difagreeable to his people, it was called in. He had a good tafte for architecture, which fhewed itfelf in the many edifices that he erected.

The late king's death was for fome time unknown: As foon as the news of 1488. it reached the ears of young James, he is

faid to have difcovered much contrition and filial regard. It is pretty certain, that he did not take arms against his father from principle; though at the fame time, the distance, at which he had been kept by him, (even to the ignorance of his perfon) made him, young as he was, the more readily fide with the confederate lords; whofe only aim in gaining him to their party was merely to fanction their actions. The power which had first persuaded, now governed him: it is no wonder, therefore, that the regicide was pardoned; that every measure, which had been taken against his late majefty was vindicated, and that all the loyal nobles, who had enjoyed places of profit, were fufpended.

Our young monarch's grief foon fubfided; and as he difcovered, as well towards his people, as in himself, an excellent difpofition, it was fucceeded by tranquility throughout the kingdom, which for feveral years had been unknown. Parties, which are the bane and difgrace of a nation, coàlefced; and the parliament, which met in 1493, was wholly intent upon what is now only a fecondary confideration,--the service of their country. Obferving the neglect of the late law, refpecting the fishery, they enacted, that all maritime towns fhould

F

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provide veffels of at least twenty tons burthen for that fervice; and that idle perfons fhould be preffed to man them. This act was followed by feveral others relative to their trade and civil policy: and in regard to their religion, they held the pope's authority fo cheap, as to pafs a vote, that none but cardinals, and fuch as were natives of Scotland, fhould be confidered as his legates.

When James came of age, he made a 1494. circuit round his dominions, that he might difcover and redress his people's grievances. He found that the poor of his fubjects were too frequently plundered of their cattle, by their more powerful neighbours; but he foon made fuch wife regulations in this respect, that (to use his own expreffion) "the bulrush guarded the cow." Agriculture he every where encouraged; and rightly confidered it as the great fource of a nation's cafe, opulence, and glory and in fine, fcarcely any thing was omitted, which, at the fame time, that it promoted the welfare of his people, infured his own happiness, and circulated his fame. There cannot be a greater proof of James's good character, than that fo fhrewd, cautious, and parfimonious a monarch as Henry the 7th of England, fhould invite him to be his fon-in-law. This match, which would have been the moft illuftrious of any in Europe, was prevented by the arrival of Perkin Warbeck.

This Perkin was fet up by the dutchefs of Burgundy, to perfonate one of Edward the 4th's children; both of whom were generally thought to be murthered by Richard the 3d. Perkin had at one time a very ftrong party in England, who really believed him to be the identical duke of York. He was a young man, near about James's own age, fenfible and engaging; and the Scottish monarch, who had a great deal of the knight-errant in his difpofition, confidering him as a diftretled prince,

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