"Strike!"
said James, with royal dignity--"Strike, and end thy work! I will not
survive my dishonour." But Bothwell with unexpected moderation, only
stipulated for remission of his forfeiture, and did not even insist
on remaining at court, whence his party was shortly expelled, by
the return of the Lord Home, and his other enemies. Incensed at this
reverse, Bothwell levied a body of four hundred cavalry, and
attacked the king's guard in broad day, upon the Borough Moor, near
Edinburgh.--The ready succour of the citizens saved James from falling
once more into the hands of his turbulent subject[28]. On a subsequent
day, Bothwell met the laird of Cessford, riding near Edinburgh, with
whom he fought a single combat, which lasted for two hours[29]. But
his credit was now fallen; he retreated to England, whence he was
driven by Elizabeth, and then wandered to Spain and Italy, where he
subsisted, in indigence and obscurity, on the bread which he earned by
apostatizing to the faith of Rome. So fell this agitator of domestic
broils, whose name passed into a proverb, denoting a powerful and
turbulent demagogue[30].
[Footnote 28: Spottiswoode says, the king awaited this charge with
firmness; but Birrell avers, that he fled upon the gallop. The same
author, instead of the firm deportment of James, when seized by
Bothwell, describes "the king's majestie as flying down the back
stair, with his breeches in his hand, in great fear.
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