"--_Letter from Sir C. Dacre
to Lord Dacre, 2d December_, 1526.]
[Sidenote: 1528] Stratagem at length effected what force had been
unable to accomplish; and the king, emancipated from the iron tutelage
of Angus, made the first use of his authority, by banishing from
the kingdom his late lieutenant, and the whole race of Douglas. This
command was not enforced without difficulty; for the power of Angus
was strongly rooted in the east border, where he possessed the castle
of Tantallon, and the hearts of the Homes and Kerrs. The former, whose
strength was proverbial[12], defied a royal army; and the latter, at
the Pass of Pease, baffled the Earl of Argyle's attempts to enter the
Merse, as lieutenant of his sovereign. On this occasion, the borderers
regarded with wonder and contempt the barbarous array, and rude
equipage, of their northern countrymen Godscroft has preserved the
beginning of a scoffing rhyme, made upon this occasion:
The Earl of Argyle is bound to ride
From the border of Edgebucklin brae[13];
And all his habergeons him beside,
Each man upon a sonk of strae.
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.
Pages:
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32