"Right high, right excellent, and mighty Princess, our dearest
good-sister and cousin, to you be our most hearty commendations.
"It is well known unto you, that the inobedience of certain of your
subjects, and their turbulent inroads and forays with displayed banners
and uplifted lances among our baronies and beeves of Northumberland,
have bred great misery to our people, who desire to live in all tender
love with the Scots on the north side of the debatable land. We may
mention particularly the prickers of John Elliot of Park, Kerr of
Cessford, Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, and other notorious thieves and
outlaws; and we lament that, for the wrongs sustained by our lieges at
their hands, this our loving message may be followed by the garter king
with our glove, if peace be not kept, and restitution made; and so,
right high, right excellent, and mighty Princess, our dearest
good-sister and cousin, we pray God to send you a long and prosperous
reign.
"ELIZABETH R.
"Done at our castle of Greenwich, the 1st May, 1567."
"God send that glove comes soon!" said Glencairn with stern joy; "my
father fell at Pinkie, and my grandsire fell at Flodden, so I have a
debt of blood as yet unsettled with those Englishmen."
"Our dearest sister's letter contains a most unsisterly threat," said
the Queen with one of her arch smiles; "but this, her reiterated
remonstrance, deserves attention. Sir Walter Scott of Branxholme and
Buccleuch"----
"I will be his surety, please your grace," said Morton, whose niece
Buccleuch had married; "I will be warranty to the amount of ten thousand
merks."
"And I for my kinsman Cessford in the same," added Lord Crichton of
Sanquhar, a tall and fair-haired peer, wearing a shirt of mail and
velvet mantle.
"Ten thousand merks--um--um--that the lairds of Cessford and Buccleuch
will underly the law," muttered the secretary, making a minute in his
books.
"Poor John of Park! and will no one become surety for thee?" said the
Queen.
"Nay, your grace," replied Sir William Maitland; "no one would be so
foolhardy with his merks. He is the strongest thief between the
Lammermuir and the Rere cross of Stanmore; he never rides abroad with
less than four hundred lances in his train, all broken men, and
masterful thieves."
"All daredevils!" said the Earl of Moray; "troopers with scarred
visages, and hearts as tough and impenetrable as their armour. Ah! Park
loves the bright moonlight well."
"So do I," added the Queen, artlessly; "how droll!"
"But not in John o' Park's fashion, sweet sister," replied the swarthy
Earl. "He loves it as a lamp to light him into Northumberland, when he
thinks little of riding some forty miles between midnight and
cockcrow--laying a dozen of villages in ashes, sacking as many
peelhouses, overthrowing a score of homesteads, and so returning on the
spur with all the cattle of a countryside, goaded by the lances of his
troopers, who usually have them all safe in Ettrick wood or Tarras moss,
long ere the old bandsmen of Berwick, or the riders of the English
wardenrie, are in their stirrups."
"We will bridle his vivacity," said Mary. "Earl Marischal, how many of
our vassals have repaired to the royal standard, in conformity to the
proclamation?"
"Three thousand, please your majesty," replied the veteran head of the
house of Keith.
"Then who will lead them to the field?"
There was a half simultaneous motion among the peers--but the Reformed
lords drew back, because the Catholic vassals of Lennox were said to be
under the royal standard; and the Catholic lords exhibited a similar
coldness from a dislike to lead the Protestant vassals of the crown.
There was a pause, and all turned towards King Henry as the most fitting
person to uphold the authority of his royal consort; but he was still
engaged coquetting with Mariette Hubert, and a blush of shame and anger
crossed the cheek of Mary.
At that moment the great chamberlain, John Lord Fleming, raised his
wand, and cried with a loud voice--
"Place for the noble lord, James Earl of Bothwell, Lord of Hailes,
Crichton, and Dirleton!" and the lieutenant of the Royal Archers hastily
drew aside the tapestry concealing the doorway of the hall.