authority; and Sir Robert
Douglas, of Lochleven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name,
was answered, 'Tis I, the Earl of Mar.' Cochran and some of his
friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold
chain from his neck, said, 'A rope will become thee better,' while
Douglas of Lochleven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had
been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed,
Cochran said, 'My lords, is it jest or earnest?' To which it was
replied, 'It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it; for thou
and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour. But no
longer expect such advantage, for thou and thy followers shall now
reap the deserved reward.' Having secured Mar, the lords despatched
some men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three
moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the
favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over
the bridge at Lauder. Cochran was now brought out, his hands bound
with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his
fellows."] Later scions of the family prospered, and in 1641, Sir
William Cochrane was raised to the peerage, as Lord Cochrane of
Cowden, by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause this
nobleman was fined 5000_l._ by the Long Parliament in 1654; and, in
recompense for his loyalty, he was made first Earl of Dundonald by
Charles II. in 1669. His successors were faithful to the Stuarts, and
thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the ninth Earl, inheriting a
patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent
it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and
in which he was the friendly rival of Watt, Priestley, Cavendish, and
other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations
ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and a
chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in
the world.

Lord Cochrane--as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy
until his accession to the peerage in 1831--was intended by his father
for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his
own predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly,
after brief schooling, he joined the _Hind_, as a midshipman, in June,
1793, when he was nearly eighteen years of age.

During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships