"--_Letter to Wolsey_, July
18. 1528. The Earl of Angus, with his reluctant ward, had slept at
Melrose; and the clans of Home and Kerr, under the Lord Home, and
the barons of Cessford, and Fairnihirst, had taken their leave of
the king, when, in the gray of the morning, Buccleuch and his band
of cavalry were discovered, hanging, like a thunder-cloud, upon the
neighbouring hill of Haliden[10]. A herald was sent to demand his
purpose, and to charge him to retire. To the first point he answered,
that he came to shew his clan to the king, according to the custom of
the borders; to the second, that he knew the king's mind better than
Angus.--When this haughty answer was reported to the earl, "Sir," said
he to the king, "yonder is Buccleuch, with the thieves of Annandale
and Liddesdale, to bar your grace's passage. I vow to God they shall
either fight or flee. Your grace shall tarry on this hillock, with my
brother George; and I will either clear your road of yonder banditti,
or die in the attempt." The earl, with these words, alighted, and
hastened to the charge; while the Earl of Lennox (at whose instigation
Buccleuch made the attempt), remained with the king, an inactive
spectator. Buccleuch and his followers likewise dismounted, and
received the assailants with a dreadful shout, and a shower of lances.
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