his Highland host he stormed and took it. It belonged to the widowed Countess of Mar. The country was not so absolutely without any nominal law that territory could be acquired in this way; at all events, it was prudent to have the military title of conquest fortified by some civil formalities to prevent future cavilling. The victor, therefore, married the widow, obtaining from her a conveyance of her property to himself and his heirs.

Some formalist having probably put him up to the notion that the transaction, as it stood, was still open to question, a second deed bears record how that the husband resigned the whole property back to the wife, and in token thereof approached the castle, and humbly placed the key in her hand, telling her to take possession of the castle, the furniture therein, and the title-deeds of the domain; whereupon she gave the whole back to be enjoyed by her husband and the heirs of the marriage. Still again the dread of the red-tapism of the day haunted the prudent marauder, and a scene occurred which must have been exceedingly amusing to all concerned. In presence of the Bishop of Ross and of the feudatories of the domain, assembled in general council in the fields beyond the walls of the Castle of Kildrummy, the Countess again executed an investiture of her husband in all her estates and properties, especially including those of which she was unjustly deprived, a gift which opened up indefinite fields of enterprise to so active a husband. The deed is so profuse in

its attestations of the perfect freedom and absence of all restraint and intimidation wherewith the Countess acted, that one's suspicion would naturally be raised even without a knowledge of the antecedents.

Such was the career of one who afterwards made a brilliant figure at the Court of France. His reception there, or rather the position he took up, is recorded in his homely rhymes by the contemporary Wyntoun; and as M. Michel adopts his account, so may we. Here it is, with the spelling a little modernised, as in the preceding passage from the same rather wordy chronicle:

:

"The Earl of Mar passed in France,

In his delight and his pleasance,
With a noble company

Well arrayed and daintily,

Knights and squires-great gentlemen,

Sixty or more full numbered there,
Men of council and of virtue,

Of his court and retinue.

In Paris he held a royal state

At the Syngne, knowen the Tynny Plate,*

All the time that he was there

Biding, twelve weeks full and mare,

Door and gate both gart he

Aye stand open, that men might se (so)

Enter all time at their pleasance

Til eat or drink, or sing or dance."

The Earl of Mar-for he was now firmly established in that dignified position-took part with some com

* M. Michel calls it Plat d'Etain.

E

panions-at-arms of the best blood in Scotland, at the battle of Liège, fought on the 14th of September 1407 it was one of the contests in which the Duke of Burgundy had to back the Prince-Bishop against the powerful corporation of that almost sovereign city. M. Michel cites an old French chronicler, a good pendant to Wyntoun, who, after Messieurs Guillaume Hay, and Jacques Scringour, and Helis de Guenemont, expands concerning the feats of other heroes, whose names, slightly disguised, will readily be recognised by their countrymen.

"Sire Alexandre en son droit nom

De Commech, qui ot cuer entier,
Ce jour y fut fait chevalier,
Et Messire Andrieu Stievart
Fu chevalier de belle part.
De Hay sire Guillebert
Fut ce jour en armes appert,

Com bon et hardi combattant.

Sire Jehan de Sidrelant

Doy bien en honneur mettre en compte,

Car il est fiz d'un noble conte.

Sire Alexandre d'Iervin,

Qui le cuer ot humble et benin,

En ce jour monstra hardie chiere;
Et cil qui porta la baniere

Du conte qui est tant prisiez

Ce fu sire Jehan de Miniez."

Here are many familiar Scots names, some of them, it is true, a little disguised. Guenemont is Kinninmond, the name of a good old stock sometime decayed, and now, it is believed, unrepresented in Scotland, though it is supposed to be alive both in

Sweden and France. Sidrelant is Sutherland, and Miniez Menzies, the laird of that territory which bears the queer-sounding name of Pitfoddles. De Commech is puzzling, but M. Michel boldly transposes it into Keith. Alexandre d'Iervin, who represents the true knight of chivalry-a lamb at home, a lion in the field-is the same who gets like praise in the rude Scots ballad which details so accurately the great battle of Harlaw :—

"Gude Sir Alexander Irvine,

The much-renowned Laird of Drum,
Nane in his days was better seen,
When they were sembled all and some,
To praise him we should not be dumb,
For valour, wit, and worthyness,

To end his days he there did come,
Whose ransome is remeediless."

The same companions-at-arms, indeed, who fought with him in Flanders, followed Mar to victory in the great battle of Harlaw. The Continental campaign had therefore a great influence on British history. There, doubtless, the Scots knights obtained that consciousness of the prowess of trained, mail-clad men-at-arms, which prompted them with confidence and success to fight a host many times as large as their own. That critical day brought to an end what our common historians call the Rebellion of Donald of the Isles. The question it really decided was, whether the representative of the Norse race, which had founded an empire in the islands and western Highlands, should continue to be an

independent monarch, ruling Scotland as far as the Forth, and perhaps as far as the English border.

Here the roystering leader of ragamuffins, coming home with his foreign experience, became a mighty general and sage statesman; and like many others who pass from disreputable into creditable and profitable courses, he achieved the suppression of those who, while he was sowing his wild oats, were his companions and tools.*

Most conspicuous and illustrious among the emigrants to France were those who belonged to the royal race of Stewart and here let me offer an explanatory protest for spelling the name in this unfashionable manner. It is the old Scots spelling, the other-namely, Stuart-having been gradually adopted in deference to the infirmity of the French language, which is deficient in that sinewy lettera half-breed between vowel and consonant-which we call W. This innovation stands in the personal nomenclature of our day, a trivial but distinct relic of the influence of French manners and habits over our ancestors.

For all their illustrious birth, these Stewarts went

* It is curious to find the demure Fordun from his quiet cell, in dog Latin gently referring to the indiscretions of this hero's youth, as in contrast with the honoured decorum of his other years, thus-In juventute erat multum indomitus et ductor catervanorum—that is to say, of caterans or Highland thieves. But afterwards in virum alterum mutatus placenter trans montes quasi totum aquilonem gubernabat.