'By this was advised and spoken by thir lords foresaid, Cochran, the
Earl of Mar, came from the King to the council, (which council was
holden in the kirk of Lauder for the time,) who was well accompanied
with a band of men of war; to the number of three hundred light
axes, all clad in white livery, and black bends thereon, that they
might be known for Cochran the Earl of Mar's men. Himself was clad
in a riding-pie of black velvet, with a great chain of gold about
his neck, to the value of five hundred crowns, and four blowing
horns, with both the ends of gold and silk, set with a precious
stone, called a berryl, hanging in the midst. This Cochran had his
heumont born before him, overgilt with gold, and so were all the
rest of his horns, and all his pallions were of fine canvas of silk,
and the cords thereof fine twined silk, and the chains upon his
pallions were double overgilt with gold.
'This Cochran was so proud in his conceit, that he counted no lords
to be marrows to him, therefore he rushed rudely at the kirk-door.
The council inquired who it was that perturbed them at that time.
Sir Robert Douglas, Laird of Lochleven, was keeper of the kirk-door
at that time, who inquired who that was that knocked so rudely; and
Cochran answered, "This is I, the Earl of Mar." The which news
pleased well the lords, because they were ready boun to cause take
him, as is before rehearsed. Then the Earl of Angus past hastily to
the door, and with him Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven, there to
receive in the Earl of Mar, and go many of his complices who were
there, as they thought good. And the Earl of Angus met with the Earl
of Mar, as he came in at the door, and pulled the golden chain from
his craig, and said to him, a tow1 would set him better. Sir Robert
Douglas syne pulled the blowing horn from him in like manner, and
said, "He had been the hunter of mischief over long." This Cochran
asked, "My lords, is it mows2, or earnest?" They answered, and said,
"It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find; for thou and thy
complices have abused our prince this long time; of whom thou shalt
hare no more credence, but shalt have thy reward according to thy
good service, as thou hast deserved in times bypast; right so the
rest of thy followers."
-------------------------------------
1rope. 2jest.
-------------------------------------
'Notwithstanding, the lords held them quiet till they caused certain
armed men to pass into the King's pallion, and two or three wise men
to pass with them, and give the King fair pleasant words, till they
laid hands on all the King's servants and took them and hanged them
before his eyes over the bridge of Lawder. Incontinent they brought
forth Cochran, and his hands bound with a tow, who desired them to
take one of his own pallion tows and bind his hands, for he thought
shame to have his hands bound with such tow of hemp, like a thief.
The lords answered, he was a traitor, he deserved no better; and,
for despight, they took a hair tether3, and hanged him over the
bridge of Lawder, above the rest of his complices.'--PITSCOTTIE, p.
78, folio edit.
-------------------------------------
3halter.
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line 400. Hermitage Castle is on Hermitage water, which falls into
the Liddell. The ruins still exist.
line 402. Bothwell Castle is on the right bank of the Clyde, a few
miles above Glasgow. While staying there in 1799 Scott began a
ballad entitled 'Bothwell Castle,' which remains a fragment.
Lockhart gave it in the 'Life,' i. 305, ed. 1837. There, as here, he
makes reference to the touching legendary ballad, 'Bothwell bank
thou bloomest fair,' which a traveller before 1605 heard a woman
singing in Palestine.
line 406. Reference to Cicero's cedant arma togae, a relic of an
attempt at verse.
line 414. 'Angus was an old man when the war against England was
resolved upon. He earnestly spoke against that measure from its
commencement; and, on the eve of the battle of Flodden, remonstrated
so freely upon the impolicy of fighting, that the King said to him,
with scorn and indignation, "if he was afraid, he might go home."
The Earl burst into tears at this insupportable insult, and retired
accordingly, leaving his sons, George, Master of Angus, and Sir
William of Glenbervie, to command his followers. They were both
slain in the battle, with two hundred gentlemen of the name of
Douglas. The aged Earl, broken-hearted at the calamities of his
house and his country, retired into a religious house, where he died
about a year after the field of Flodden.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XV. lines 415-20. Cp. description of Sir H. Osbaldistone,
'Rob Roy,' chap. vi.
line 429. 'The ruins of Tantallon Castle occupy a high rock
projecting into the German Ocean, about two miles east of North
Berwick. The building is not seen till a close approach, as there is
rising ground betwixt it and the land. The circuit is of large
extent, fenced upon three sides by the precipice which overhangs the
sea, and on the fourth by a double ditch and very strong outworks.
Tantallon was a principal castle of the Douglas family, and when the
Earl of Angus was banished, in 1527, it continued to hold out
against James V. The King went in person against it, and for its
reduction, borrowed from the Castle of Dunbar, then belonging to the
Duke of Albany, two great cannons, whose names, as Pitscottie
informs us with laudable minuteness, were "Thrawn mouth'd Meg and
her Marrow"; also, "two great botcards, and two moyan, two double
falcons, and four quarter falcons"; for the safe guiding and re-
delivery of which, three lords were laid in pawn at Dunbar. Yet,
notwithstanding all this apparatus, James was forced to raise the
siege, and only afterwards obtained possession of Tantallon by
treaty with the governor, Simon Panango, When the Earl of Angus
returned from banishment, upon the death of James, he again obtained
possession of Tantallon, and it actually afforded refuge to an
English ambassador, under circumstances similar to those described
in the text. This was no other than the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler,
who resided there for some time under Angus's protection, after the
failure of his negotiation for matching the infant Mary with Edward
VI. He says, that though this place was poorly furnished, it was of
such strength as might warrant him against the malice of his
enemies, and that he now thought himself out of danger. (His State
papers were published in 1810, with certain notes by Scott.)
'There is a military tradition, that the old Scottish March was
meant to express the words,
"Ding down Tantallon,
Mak a brig to the Bass."
'Tantallon was at length "dung down" and ruined by the Covenanters;
its lord, the Marquis of Douglas, being a favourer of the royal
cause. The castle and barony were sold in the beginning of the
eighteenth century to President Dalrymple of North Berwick, by the
then Marquis of Douglas.'--SCOTT.
In 1888, under the direction of Mr. Walter Dalrymple, son of the
proprietor, certain closed staircases in the ruins were opened, and
various excavations were made, with the purpose of discovering as
fully as possible what the original character of the structure had
been. These operations have added greatly to the interest of the
ruin, which both by position and aspect is one of the most imposing
in the country.
line 432. 'A very ancient sword, in possession of Lord Douglas,
bears, among a great deal of flourishing, two hands pointing to a
heart which is placed betwixt them, and the date 1329, being the
year in which Bruce charged the Good Lord Douglas to carry his heart
to the Holy Land. The following lines (the first couplet of which is
quoted by Godscroft, as a popular saying in his time) are inscribed
around the emblem:--
"So mony guid as of ye Dovglas beinge,
Of ane surname was ne'er in Scotland seine.
I will ye charge, efter yat I depart,
To holy grawe, and thair bury my hart;
Let it remane ever BOTHE TYME AND HOWR,
To ye last day I sie my Saviour.
I do protest in tyme of al my ringe,
Ye lyk subject had never ony keing."
'This curious and valuable relic was nearly lost during the Civil
War of 1745-6, being carried away from Douglas Castle by some of
those in arms for Prince Charles. But great interest having been
made by the Duke of Douglas among the chief partisans of the Stuart,
it was at length restored. It resembles a Highland claymore, of the
usual size, is of an excellent temper, and admirably poised.'--
SCOTT.