It is generally said that Buchan got the baton of High Constable of France as a reward for the victory of Baugé, though Monstrelet speaks of him as Constable when he fought it. At all events, he held this high office-an office so very high that his poor countrymen at home cannot have easily seen to the top of it. We are told that, in court precedence, it ranked next after the blood-royal; that an insult to the holder of it, being equivalent to one on royalty itself, was similarly punished; and that he was the highest military authority in the kingdom, having at his disposal all its warlike resources-the commander-in-chief, in short. Moreri, who tells us this, also, to be sure, tells us that when a king of England dies, the lord mayor of London acts as interim king until another is fairly settled on the throne; but it is to be presumed that Moreri had a better knowledge of the practices on the banks of the Seine than of those on the banks of the Thames. In this country we are familiar with the title chiefly through the great names coupled with it-the Constable de Luxemburg, the Constable Montmorenci, Du Guesclin, and the terrible Bourbon. Among such names, to stumble on the Constable Buchan sounds quite homely, as we say in Scotland. The constabulary was considered too formidable an office to be always full, and seems to have been reserved for emergencies, like the Roman dictatorship; and that hour of emergency and of destitution of native

spirit must have been dark indeed, when its highest dignity, and also the custody of the honour of the nation, were together conferred upon a stranger. The dignity was balanced by princely domains and castles stretching over the territory between Avranches and Chartres. These the new-comer seems to have almost taken into his own hand, for the French authorities speak of his putting himself in possession of the castle at Chartres after the battle of Baugé.

After that battle Buchan was joined by his father-in-law, Archibald Earl of Douglas, who brought with him a reinforcement of four or five thousand Scots. Douglas, among other honours and substantial rewards, was invested with the great dukedom of Touraine. There was almost a rivalry in the royal munificence to the two leaders, and their followers were not forgotten, as we shall afterwards see; but they left on bloody battle-fields a record that their honours and emoluments were well paid for, and but briefly enjoyed. Though Baugé had taught the wholesome doctrine to the French that their enemies were not unconquerable, and had put the house of Valois in sufficient heart to renew the struggle, it was yet uphill work. In the battle of Crevant in 1424 the Scots were the chief sufferers. In one brief sentence Monstrelet testifies to their devotedness, and narrates their fate: "The English and Burgundians won the day and the field; the greater part of the Scots,

amounting to three thousand, who were in the front ranks, were either killed or taken."*

The remnant of the Scots auxiliaries, though thus thinned and weakened, bore the chief weight of the bloody battle of Verneuil a year afterwards. This is one of the many battles in which defeat has been attributed to misunderstandings and mistakes among allies, for there were there men of three nations on one side-French, Lombards, and Scots. Wherever the blame lay, the penalty was paid by the Scots, of whom all but a few lay dead where they fought. It has been said that their fate was of their own seeking, for, on meeting face to face with their mortal enemies of England, they sent Bedford a message that they would neither spare nor be spared—neither give nor take quarter. Buchan,

* 'Monstrelet,' by Johns, vi. 48.

Sismondi says of the marshalling of the French army, "Les Ecossais, qui faisoient le nerf de leur armée.”—xiii. 34.

"Un écrivain contemporain, se faisant l'écho d'un bruit répandu à l'époque, signale la fierté écossaise comme la principale cause du désastre de Verneuil, qu'il considère comme un événement heureux pour la France: Les Écossais,' ditil,

sont d'habitude ardents et solides au combat, mais téméraires et fiers à l'excès.' Puis, après un récit sommaire de cette journée, il continue ainsi : ‘C'était un spectacle affreux à contempler que celui des monceaux de cadavres entassés et pressés sur ce champ de bataille, là surtout où la lutte avait eu lieu avec les Écossais; car pas un d'eux ne fut épargné à titre de captif. La cause de cet acharnement et de ce carnage sans merci fut la fierté des Écossais: avant l'engagement, le Duc de Bedford leur

the High Constable, and Douglas, the Duke of Touraine, were found among the dead. They had not given their lives an utterly vain sacrifice to the cause of their adoption. Though Verneuil is counted among the English victories, it had no resemblance to the sweeping triumphs of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. It was so tough an affair, and was so near to the defeat of Bedford and Salisbury, that they became really alarmed about the stability of the supremacy of the house of Lancaster in France.

We cannot rightly estimate the influence over the destinies of Europe of the events which severed Scotland from England and allied her to France, without remembering that it was long the aim of every powerful European monarch to follow the example of Charlemagne, and restore the Roman Empire. People have been so much occupied in discussing the religious hierarchy bequeathed to the world by the old Empire, that they seem to have forgotten how much of its political organisation remained to influence mankind. Roman institutions, in fact, live and influence our everyday habits and customs, and many of our greatest political organisations have their root in the established practice of

ayant envoyé demander quelles seraient les conditions du combat, ils répondirent qu'ils ne voulaient pas, ce jour-là, faire de prisonniers aux Anglais, ni que les Anglais leur en fissent; réponse qui, en allumant contre eux la fureur de l'ennemi, les fit exterminer.'"-Michel, i. 148, quoting from Meyer, Annales Rerum Belgicarum.'

the Empire. It is there, for instance, that we shall find how, in European diplomacy and international law, there are rules obeyed by nations, obligations performed by them, and rights exacted by them, without any paramount authority to enforce obedience. The paramount authority existed once in the person of the Emperor of the world; and though it has departed, the practices and traditions which kept the various states of Europe together have remained in force, and have been worked by "the great powers," who may be said to hold the functions of the old Empire in a sort of commission. It is observable that at the present day the established rules of diplomacy have scarcely extended beyond the bounds of the old Empire, except by including Russia; but though the greater part of the Russian territory was beyond the pale, there is no court in Europe where the traditions of the Empire are so religiously maintained as in that of Russia-where, indeed, the ambition which made the monarchs of the middle ages aim at the restoration of the empire of the world is believed still to guide the policy of the house of Romanoff. We cannot get the Oriental nations to accept of our system of diplomacy, except by sheer force. An ambassador they count an intruder and a spy, and they preserve no treaty which they can break. Even in the American States, where diplomacy and international law are studied more than anywhere else, it seems impracticable to apply those old traditional rules called the