similar conduct, he requested a personal interview with him at York. Convinced of the importance of such an ally, and of the consequences which would attend a refusal, James consented. Alarmed with the danger which threatened their religion, they successfully employed their influence to divert the king from this conference, and offered an annual donative of 50,000 crowns upon the event of a war with England. The haughty Henry resented the affront by declaring war against Scotland. James was obliged to have recourse to his nobles; they assembled their followers with the same dispositions which animated their ancestors in the reign of James III. and had not a discord among themselves prevented, the camp of Fala would have been as tragical as that of Lauder. Famine, and an inclement season, forced the English to retire; but the nobles, with a sullen contempt, refused to advance a step beyond the limits of their own country. Provoked at this insult, and suspicious of a new conspiracy, he disbanded the army, and returned into the heart of the kingdom.

An ambitious and high-spirited prince could not brook such an affront; his hopes of success had been rash, and his despair upon a disappointment was excessive. Impatience, resentment, indignation, filled his bosom in turns. The violence of these passions altered his temper, and perhaps impaired his reason; he became pensive, sullen, and retired. He seemed through the day to be swallowed up in profound meditation; and through the night he was disturbed with those visionary terrors which make impression upon a weak understanding only, or a disordered fancy.

To rouse the mind of James, another invasion was planned. Distrust in his nobles, however, induced him to give the command to one of his

own favourites. Hatred to the king, and contempt of the general, induced an army of ten thousand men to surrender, without a single blow, to five hundred of the English. Incapable of bearing these repeated insults, and unable to revenge them, his spirit sunk altogether. The deepest melancholy and despair succeeded to the furious transports of rage and indignation. All the violent passions, which are the enemies of life, preyed upon his mind, and wasted a youthful and vigorous constitution: these proved fatal to James, "His death," says Drummond, "proves his mind to have been raised to an high strain, and above mediocrity; he could die, but he could not digest a disaster."

CARDINAL BEATOUN.

THE undue partiality of King James V. for this Cardinal, was one of the chief blemishes in his character. For many years he had been considered as prime minister, and he retained the same character at his death. The situation in which James left the throne, was alarming and inauspicious: a war with England had been undertaken without necessity, and carried on without success: many of the nobles were made prisoners, and still retained in London. The violence of religious dispute which then reigned among the nobles at home, rendered them disaffected and disunited. Mary Queen of Scots was only an infant of a few days old. The government of an infant queen was not calculated to imprint much reverence in the minds of a martial people. Overcome with the pressure of misfortune, James neglected to appoint a Regent who might protect his daughter and support his throne. Taking advantages of these dis

astrous circumstances, and of his present power, Cardinal Beatoun, by a forged testament, thrust himself into the Regency; but the unanimous voice of the nation soon expelled him from that dignified station, and James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, next heir to the queen, was chosen in his

room.

The Cardinal was by nature of immoderate ambition. By long experience he had acquired address and refinement, and insolence grew upon him from continual success. His high station in the church placed him in the way of great employments; his abilities were equal to the greatest of these, nor did he, reckon any of them to be above his merit. As his own eminence was founded upon the power of the church of Rome, he was a zealous defender of that superstition, and for the same reason an avowed enemy to the doctrine of the reformers. Political motives alone determined him to support the one or oppose the other. His early application to public business, kept him unacquainted with the learning and controversies of the age; he judgment, however, upon all points in dispute, with a precipitancy, violence and rigour, which contemporary historians mention with indignation.

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The character of Cardinal Beatoun is drawn by Dr. Stuart in the following manner: "No Scotish ecclesiastic had been ever invested with greater authority, and the reformers had every thing to fear from so formidable an enemy. The natural violence of his temper had fixed itself in an overbearing insolence, from the success which had attended him his youth had been passed in scenes of policy and intrigue, which, while they communicated to him address, and the knowledge of men, corrupted altogether the simplicity and candour of his mind; he was dark, designing, and artificial; no principles of justice were any bar to his schemes.

His heart did not open to any impressions of pity; his ruling passion was an inordinate love of power, and the support of his consequence depending alone upon the church of Rome, he was animated to maintain its superstitions with the warmest zeal. He seemed to take a delight in perfidiousness and dissimulation; he had no religion, and he was stained with inhuman cruelty, and the most open profligacy of manners. In connection with these defects, he possessed a persevering obstinacy in pursuing his measures, the ability to perceive and to practise all the arts which were necessary to advance them, and the allurements of ostentation and prodigality."

The measures which this crafty politician pursued to retard the Reformation, and to oppose the Regent, procured his imprisonment. He soon however had sufficient remaining influence to obtain his liberty, and then watched every opportunity to raise himself to power upon the ruins of his rival. He was successful, and by the fluctuating nobles, hailed as the defender of the honour and liberty of his country.

Aided by some of these, he seized on the persons of the young queen and her mother; and added to his party the splendour and authority of the royal name. He betrayed the Regent into a recantation of his religious and political principles, so that he was condemned by one half of the nation, and mistrusted by the other. Accordingly he acquired the possession of every thing his ambition could desire, and exercised all the authority of a Regent, without the envy of the name. soon found another rival in Stewart, Earl of Lennox, whom he had ungenerously sacrificed to purchase the favour of Arran. Their rivalships continued with variable success, until an event occurred, which terminated their political struggle.

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Cardinal Beatoun had not used his power with moderation, equal to the prudence with which he attained it. Notwithstanding his great abilities, he had too many of the passions and prejudices of an angry leader of a faction, to govern a divided people with temper: his resentment against one party of the nobility, his insolence towards the rest, his severity to the reformers, and, above all, the barbarous and illegal execution of the famous George Wishart, a man of honourable birth, and of primitive sanctity, wore out the patience of a fierce age, and nothing but a bold hand was wanting to gratify the public wish by his destruction. Private revenge, inflamed and sanctified by a false zeal for religion, quickly supplied this want. Norman Lesly, the eldest son of the Earl of Rothes, had been treated by the Cardinal with injustice and contempt. It was not the temper of the man, or the spirit of the times, quietly to digest an affront; and as the profession of his adversary screened him from the effects of what is called an honourable resentment, he resolved to take that satisfaction which he could not demand. This resolution deserves as much censure, as the singular courage and conduct with which he put it in execution excite wonder. The Cardinal at that time resided in the castle of St. Andrews, which he had fortified at great expense, and in the opinion of the age had rendered impregnable. His retinue was numerous, the town at his devotion, and the neighbouring country full of his dependants. In this situation, sixteen persons undertook to surprise his castle, and to assassinate himself, and their success was equal to the boldness of the attempt. Early in the morning they seized on the gate of the castle, which was set open to the workmen, who were employed in finishing the fortifications; and having placed sentries at the door of the Cardinal's apart