exclaims loudly against this breach of truce with Elizabeth, charging Queen Mary’s party with having “houndit furth proude and uncircumspecte young men, to hery, burne, and slay, and tak prisoneris, in her realme, and use all misordour and crueltie, not only usit in weir, but detestabil to all barbar and wild Tartaris, in slaying of prisoneris, and contrair to all humanitie and justice, keeping na promeis to miserabil catives resavit anis to thair mercy “—­Admonitioun to the trew lordis, Striveling, 1571.  He numbers, among these insurgents, highlanders as well as borderers, Buccleuch and Fairnihirst, the Johnstons and Armstrongs, the Grants, and the clan Chattan.  Besides these powerful clans, Mary numbered among her adherents, the Maxwells, and almost all the west border leaders, excepting Drumlanrig, and Jardine of Applegirth.  On the eastern border, the faction of the infant king was more powerful; for, although deserted by Lord Home, the greater part of his clan, under the influence of Wedderburn, remained attached to that party.  The laird of Cessford wished them well, and the Earl of Angus naturally followed the steps of his uncle Morton.  A sharp and bloody invasion of the middle march, under the command of the Earl of Sussex, avenged with interest the raids of Buccleuch and Fairnihirst.  The domains of these chiefs were laid waste, their castles burned and destroyed.  The narrow vales of Beaumont and Kale, belonging to Buccleuch, were treated with peculiar severity; and the forrays of Hertford were equalled by that of Sussex.  In vain did the chiefs request assistance from the government to defend their fortresses.  Through the predominating interest of Elizabeth in the Scottish councils, this was refused to all but Home, whose castle, nevertheless, again received an English garrison; while Buccleuch and Fairnihirst complained bitterly that those, who had instigated their invasion, durst not even come so far as Lauder, to shew countenance to their defence against the English.  The bickerings, which followed, distracted the whole kingdom.  One celebrated exploit may be selected, as an illustration of the border fashion of war.

The Earl of Lennox, who had succeeded Murray in the regency, held a parliament at Stirling, in 1571.  The young king was exhibited to the great council of his nation.  He had been tutored to repeat a set speech, composed for the occasion; but, observing that the roof of the building was a little decayed, he interrupted his recitation, and exclaimed, with childish levity, “that there was a hole in the parliament,”—­words which, in these days, were held to presage the deadly breach shortly to be made in that body, by the death of him in whose name it was convoked.