In 1585, an affray took place at a border meeting in which Lord Russel, the Earl of Bedford’s eldest son, chanced to be slain.  Queen Elizabeth imputed the guilt of this slaughter to Thomas Kerr of Fairnihirst, instigated by Arran.  Upon the imperious demand of the English ambassador, both were committed to prison; but the minion, Arran, was soon restored to liberty and favour; while Fairnihirst, the dread of the English borderers and the gallant defender of Queen Mary, died in his confinement, of a broken heart.—­Spottiswoode p. 341.

The tyranny of Arran becoming daily more insupportable the exiled lords, joined by Maxwell, Home, Bothwell, and other border chieftains, seized the town of Stirling, which was pillaged by their disorderly followers, invested the castle, which surrendered at discretion, and drove the favourite from the king’s council[27].

[Footnote 27:  The associated nobles seem to have owed their success chiefly to the border spearmen; for, though they had a band of mercenaries, who used fire arms, yet they were such bad masters of their craft, their captain was heard to observe, “that those, who knew his soldiers as well as he did, would hardly chuse to march before them.”—­Godscroft, v. ii. p. 368.]

The king, perceiving the Earl of Bothwell among the armed barons, to whom he surrendered his person addressed him in these prophetic words:—­ “Francis, Francis, what moved thee to come in arms against thy prince, who never wronged thee?  I wish thee a more quiet spirit, else I foresee thy destruction.”—­Spottiswoode, p. 343.

In fact, the extraordinary enterprizes of this nobleman disturbed the next ten years of James’s reign.  Francis Stuart, son to a bastard of James V., had been invested with the titles and estates belonging to his maternal uncle, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, upon the forfeiture of that infamous man; and consequently became lord of Liddesdale, and of the castle of Hermitage.—­This acquisition of power upon the borders, where he could easily levy followers, willing to undertake the most desperate enterprize, joined to the man’s native daring and violent spirit, rendered Bothwell the most turbulent insurgent, that ever disturbed the tranquillity of a kingdom.  During the king’s absence in Denmark, Bothwell, swayed by the superstition of his age, had tampered with certain soothsayers and witches, by whose pretended art he hoped to atchieve the death of his monarch.  In one of the courts of inquisition, which James delighted to hold upon the professors of the occult sciences, some of his cousin’s proceedings were brought to light, for which he was put in ward in the castle of Edinburgh.  Burning with revenge, he broke from his confinement, and lurked for some time upon the borders, where he hoped for the countenance of his son-in-law, Buccleuch.  Undeterred by the absence of that chief, who, in obedience to the royal command, had prudently retired to France,