the two armies fronted other, being posted on high ground, with a valley between them, and “ each ready to abide, but not to give battle.” Many skirmishes occurred, and some brave and distinguished persons fell: among them a brother of the marshal and the bastard of Bourbon. Want of provisions en. forced the enemy to dislodge. The king followed them; but, “impeded with the desert ground and barren country through which he had to pass, over fells and craggy mountains, from hill to dale,” says the chronicler, “from marsh to wood, from naught to worse, without victuals or succour," he was constrained to retire and make again for Worcester; and the enemy, harassing his retreat, cut off some of his stores. Finding, however, poor entertainment in Wales, and no hope of eventual success, the French returned to their own country, with some credit, but with no other ad. vantage, from a painful expedition.* Eight ships, from a fleet of eight-and-thirty, conveying reinforcements to them, had been captured on the way; and Henry Paye brought home, from the coast of Bretagne, 120 prizes, laden with iron, salt, oil, and Rochelle wine.

Scotland and England had ever been ill neighbours to each other, nor had any approach towards a better feeling between them been made since the line of the Roman wall was traced out. The exiles and malecon. tents of one country were harboured, at this time, as they ever were, in the other. This led to open war; and a ,squadron, under sir Robert Logon, attacked an English fleet of fishers off Aberdeen. Some good ships of Lynn happened to come up in time to aid their countrymen, and Logon himself, “ with the residue of his company, was taken. The English then landed upon some of the Orkneys, and spoiled them.”+ Robert III. of Scotland, who had lost an excellent and dearly beloved wife, who was himself declining into old age, and sur.

PRINCE JAMES OF SCOTLAND.

17

rounded by nobles distinguished for their ferocity and factious spirit, even in factious and ferocious times, wished, by advice of the bishop of St. Andrews, Henry Wardlaw, to send his only remaining son to France, ostensibly for education, but rather, in truth, for safety. There was then a negotiation going on, as it appears, between Henry's agents and some of those nobles who were the curse of their country, for the deliverance of certain great fugitives into the king of England's hand,

which was to certain death. A kinsman of king Robert, sir David Fleming, discovered these practices, and gave the persons,

whose lives were aimed at, timely warning, so that they made their way into Wales. This sir David was charged to conduct the young prince James to the place of embarkation ; and as the prince would not have been safe from treason on the main land, sir David lodged him in the castle on the Bass Rock, till the ship which was to carry him to France should arrive from Leith, and take him on board. Having left him there, sir David was presently afterwards murdered by some of the party whose designs against the exiles he had frustrated. In consequence of the more open. troubles that ensued, a year's truce with England is said to have been obtained ; and during that time, according to writers whom there is no reason to distrust, young James embarked from the Bass. Coasting along, the A.D

1405. ship was detained off Flamborough Head, by some cruisers belonging to Cley, in Norfolk, and carried into an English port *; and though the child (for James was but in his eleventh year) was provided with letters from his father, requesting the king of England that

* Hall says that Hotspur's son, Henry, was with him, and that “by rigour of tempest they were driven on the coast of Holderness, called Flamborough Head, where the young prince, to refresh himself, took land, and he wrought not so privily but that he was known, and taken, with all his company.”—P. 39. The statement in the text rests, however, not only on other authorities, but on his own:

“ Upon the wavis weltering to and fro,

So infortunate was we that freinyi day,
That maugre plainly quether we wold or no,

With strong hand by force schortly to say

Of inymyes taken and led away
We weren all, and brought in thair contrie."

favour might be shown him, if by any chance he should land within any of his dominions, reasons of policy prevailed over rectitude and honour; and, conformably to the advice of the privy council, the prince was treated as a prisoner. But this injustice provided better for him than his father's careful foresight would have done*: even confinement, perhaps, at first came in aid of a studious and gentle disposition, which was improved by the best education that the English court could supply. Boethius was his consolation in prison, and Chaucer his model. He became a most accomplished and amiable prince : he formed an attachment which ended in a marriage every way suitable, and produced his immediate enlargement; and when, after twelve years of as much happiness as could be enjoyed • He says himself,

“ Blissit mot be the Goddis all

So fair, that glateren in the firmament;
And blissit be thair myght celestiall,
That have convoyit hale with one assent

My lufe, and to so glad a consequent :
And thankit be Fortuny's exil tre

And whele that thus so well has whirlit me."
When Henry “ assembled his council to know what should be done with
this noble infant, some," says Hall,“ to whom the continual wars and daily
battle was both displeasant and odious, affirmed that there could not hap-
pen a better or a more surer occasion of peace and amity between both the
realms; which being so offered, they would in no wise should be rejected,
but taken, considering that this prince was sent thither in trust of safe
guard, in hope of refuge, and in request of aid and comfort against his evil
willers and malicious enemies: others (whose opinion took place) affirmed
him to be a prisoner, and so to be ordered, forasmuch as he was taken, the
war being open, and that his fath did not only maintain the earl of Nor.
thumberland and other rebels within his country, and give them great
honours, but also sent a great number of his nobility against the king, at
the battle of Shrewsbury. Wherefore it was agreed that he should be de-
tained as a prisoner, lawfully taken and duly apprehended. When tidings
of this definitive sentence was showed to his father, he took such an inward
conceit, and so sore a pensiveness, that he ended his natural life within a
few months after. Although the taking of this young prince was at the
first tiine displeasant to the realm of Scotland, yet surely after, he and all
his region had great cause to rejoice, and thank God of their fortunate
chance and good luck that ensued. For where before that time the people
of Scotland were rude, rustical, without any urbanity, having little learn.
ing, and less good manners, and good qualities least of all, this prince,
being eighteen year prisoner within this realın, was so instructed and
taught by his schoolmasters and pedagogues, appointed to him by the only
clemency of the king, that he not only flourished in good learning, and
fresh literature (as the time then served), but also excelled in all points
of martial feats, musical instruments, poetical arts, and liberal sciences.
Insomuch, that at his return from captivity he furnished his realm both
with good learning and civil policy, which before was barbarous, savage,
rude, and without all good nurture."-P. 39.

ROBIN MEND-MARKET.

19

in his miserable station, he was murdered by a knot of traitorous subjects, he left for himself a more honour. able remembrance, as the best poet of his age, than royalty can confer, or wealth and fortune purchase.*

In the hostilities that ensued, the vice-admiral of England, sir Robert Umfreville, infested the Scotch coast. Some little time before, upon an incursion into Scotland, he had burnt the town of Peebles, and obtained from the people of that country, who were not unwilling to profit by their neighbour's loss, the name of Robin Mend-market, because his men measured the cloth which they took there by the spear or the bows-length, and sold it at plunderer's price. He now entered the Forth with ten ships; and remaining there a fortnight, landed every day on one side or the other, and spoiled the country, notwithstanding the duke of Albany and earl Douglas had brought together a considerable power to oppose

him. “ He burnt the galleot of Scotland (being a ship of great account) with many other vessels, lying at the same time at Blackness, over against Leith; and at his return brought with him fourteen good ships, and many other prizes of clothes, both woollen and linen, pitch, tar, wood, flour, meal, wheat, and rye, which, being sold abroad," says Holin. shed, “the markets were well holpen thereby, so that his surname of Robin Mend-market seemed very well to agree with his qualities." + Umfreville has a much better claim to remembrance; and it would be wronging his memory to omit it here. He and his nephew, Gilbert earl of Kyme, and their kinsman, sir John Gray, were sent with an English force to assist the duke of Burgundy against the Orleanists : they had taken a great many prisoners, and the duke commanded them to put them all to the sword. But the English leaders made answer, that they were not sent thither

Poetic Remains of the Scottish Kings, Fordun, lib. xv. c. 18. flolinshed, iii. 40. Speed, 620.

Holinshed, iii. 50. Hardyng, 366 | It appears that sir Manserd de Bos had been put to death, and divers others, which the Burgogneans bought of the Englishmen that had taken them prisoners.-Holinshed, iii, 51.

# Chalmers's Life of James I.

A.D.

to act as butchers; they would neither kill their prisoners nor offer them in the market for sale, but put them to their fair ransom, according to the laws of arms; and they drew themselves up in array with their prisoners, to defend, and, if need were, to die with them, as honour required. This determination had its effect, and the duke was politic enough to applaud them for the spirit they had displayed. *

At this time the French applied to the king of Cas1405. tille, Henrique III., for naval aid. The Seville fleet of

galleys, which would otherwise have been sent, was too far distant: the king, therefore, ordered forty ships to be made ready with all speed, and three galleys in Santandes, appointing Martin Ruiz de Abendaño to the command of the former, and Pero Niño to that of the latter. The two commanders were enjoined to wait for each other, and to keep company; although it was well known that ships and galleys could seldom act together, because it suited the galleys every night to seek the shore, and the ships to keep the sea. Pero Niño, afterwards Conde de Buelna, was a man of high birth, and had previously distinguished himself by his services in the Mediterranean. The king, who was then rejoicing over the birth of a son and heir, and whose heart was opened by festivity, provided this squadron most liberally: it was manned with the ablest men who could be found, either as soldiers or sailors; and money was not forgotten, though by the treaty between the two powers France was to take upon itself the charges of such a force while employed in its aid. So little concert was there between the two commanders, notwithstanding their instructions, that while the ships were at Santona, the galleys set out in quest of them from Santander, looked for them every

where but in the right place, and having got to Passages without finding them, made at once for Rochelle. Pero Niño presumed on his influence, his abilities, and his good fortune ; and probably he was better pleased to act independently with a small force than to co-operate