orting the King's government and establishing the
authority of law over the distracted country, sweetening his sermon with
protestations of his high regard for the Douglas name, whose house, kin,
and friends were more dear to him than any in Scotland, and of affection
to the young Earl himself. Perhaps this was the turning-point, though
the young gallant in his heyday of power and self-confidence was all
unconscious of it; perhaps he received the advice too lightly, or
laughed at the seriousness of his counsellor. At all events, when the
gay band took horse again and proceeded towards Edinburgh, suspicion
began to steal among the Earl's companions. Several of them made efforts
to restrain their young leader, begging him at least to send back his
young brother David if he would not himself turn homeward. "But," says
the chronicler, "the nearer that a man be to peril or mischief he runs
more headlong thereto, and has no grace to hear them that gives him any
counsel to eschew the peril."

[Illustration: EDINBURGH CASTLE FROM THE VENNEL]

The only result of these attempts was that the party of boys spurred on,
more gaily, more confidently than ever, with the deceiver at their side,
who had spoken in so wise and fatherly a tone, giving so much good
advice to the heedless lads. They were welcomed into Edinburgh within
the fatal walls of the Castle with every demonstration of respect and
delight. How long the interval was before all this enthusiasm turned
into the stern preparations of murder it seems impossible to say--it
might have been on the first night that the catastrophe happened, for
anything the chroniclers tell us. The followers of Douglas were
carefully got away, "skailled out of the town," sent for lodging outside
the castle walls, while the two young brothers were marshalled, as
became their rank, to table to dine with the King. Whether they
suspected anything, or whether the little James in his helpless
innocence had any knowledge of what was going to happen, it is
impossible to tell. The feast proceeded, a royal banquet with "all
delicatis that could be procured." According to a persistent tradition,
the signal of fate was given by the bringing in of a bull's head, which
was placed before the young Earl. Mr. Burton considers this incident as
so picturesque as to be merely a romantic addition; but no symbol was
too boldly picturesque for the time. When this fatal dish appeared the
two young Douglases seem at onc