re he departed
for his army the king attended St. Michael's Church, adjacent to his
stately palace at Linlithgow, when a venerable stranger entered the
aisle where the king knelt. The hair from his uncovered head flowed down
over his shoulders, and his blue robe was confined by a linen girdle.
With an air of majesty he walked up to the kneeling king, and said,
"Sire, I am sent to warn thee not to proceed in thy present undertaking,
for if thou dost it shall not fare well either with thyself or those who
go with thee." He vanished then in the awe-stricken crowd. But this was
not the only warning. At midnight, prior to the departure of the troops
for the south, it is related that a voice not mortal proclaimed a
summons from the market cross, where proclamations were usually read,
calling upon all who should march against the English to appear within
the space of forty days before the court of the Evil One. Sir Walter
Scott says that this summons, like the apparition at Linlithgow, was
probably an attempt by those averse to the war to impose upon the
superstitious temper of James IV. But the king started at the head of
the finest army, and supported by the strongest artillery-train, that
had down to that time been brought into the field by any Scottish
monarch. He entered England August 22d. without having formed any
definite plan of action. He wasted two days on the Till, besieged Norham
for a week, when it surrendered, and then besieged Ford. These delays
gave the English time to assemble. King James, as above related,
captured Lady Heron at Ford. She was beautiful and deceitful, and soon
enthralled the gay king in her spells, while all the time she was in
communication with the English. Thus James wasted his time in dalliance,
and, as Scott tells us,

"The monarch o'er the siren hung,
And beat the measure as she sung,
And, pressing closer and more near,
He whispered praises in her ear."

All the time the energetic Earl of Surrey was marshalling the English
hosts, and, marching with twenty-six thousand men northward through
Durham, received there the sacred banner of St. Cuthbert. On September
4th. Surrey challenged James to battle, which the king accepted against
the advice of his best councillors. The Scots had become restive under
the king's do-nothing policy, and many of them left the camp and
returned home with the booty already acquired. James selected a strong
position on Flodden Hill, with both flanks