They made their vow that they would slay—­

Godscroft, v. 2. p. 104.  Ed. 1743.

[Footnote 12:  “To ding down Tantallon, and make a bridge to the Bass,” was an adage expressive of impossibility.  The shattered ruins of this celebrated fortress still overhang a tremendous rock on the coast of East Lothian.]

[Footnote 13:  Edgebucklin, near Musselburgh.]

The pertinacious opposition of Angus to his doom irritated to the extreme the fiery temper of James, and he swore, in his wrath, that a Douglas should never serve him; an oath which he kept in circumstances under which the spirit of chivalry, which he worshipped[14], should have taught him other feelings.

[Footnote 14:  I allude to the affecting story of Douglas of Kilspindie, uncle to the Earl of Angus.  This gentleman had been placed by Angus about the king’s person, who, when a boy, loved him much, on account of his singular activity of body, and was wont to call him his Graysteil, after a champion of chivalry, in the romance of Sir Eger and Sir Grime.  He shared, however, the fate of his chief, and, for many years, served in France.  Weary, at length, of exile, the aged warrior, recollecting the king’s personal attachment to him, resolved to throw himself on his clemency.  As James returned from hunting in the park at Stirling, he saw a person at a distance, and, turning to his nobles, exclaimed, “Yonder is my Graysteil, Archibald of Kilspindie!” As he approached, Douglas threw himself on his knees, and implored permission to lead an obscure life in his native land.  But the name of Douglas was an amulet, which steeled the king’s heart against the influence of compassion and juvenile recollection.  He passed the suppliant without an answer, and rode briskly up the steep hill, towards the castle.  Kilspindie, though loaded with a hauberk under his cloaths, kept pace with the horse, in vain endeavouring to catch a glance from the implacable monarch.  He sat down at the gate, weary and exhausted, and asked for a draught of water.  Even this was refused by the royal attendants.  The king afterwards blamed their discourtesy; but Kilspindie was obliged to return to France, where he died of a broken heart; the same disease which afterwards brought to the grave his unrelenting sovereign.  Even the stern Henry VIII. blamed his nephew’s conduct, quoting the generous saying “A king’s face should give grace.”—­Godscroft, Vol.  II.  P. 107.]

While these transactions, by which the fate of Scotland was influenced, were passing upon the eastern border, the Lord Maxwell seems to have exercised a most uncontrouled domination in Dumfries-shire.  Even the power of the Earl of Angus was exerted in vain, against the banditti of Liddesdale, protected and bucklered by this mighty chief.  Repeated complaints are made by the English residents, of the devastation occasioned by the depredations of the Elliots, Scotts,