in their
way. The new Earl married without much ceremony, though with a papal
dispensation in consequence of their relationship, the little Maid of
Galloway, to whom a great part of the Douglas lands had gone on the
death of her brothers, and thus united once more the power and
possessions of his name. He was himself a young man, but of full age, no
longer a boy, and he would seem to have combined with much of the steady
determination to aggrandise and elevate his race which was
characteristic of the Douglases, and their indifference to commonplace
laws and other people's rights, an impulsiveness of character, and
temptation towards ostentation and display, which led him at once to
submission and to defiance at unexpected moments, and gave an element of
uncertainty to his career. Soon after his succession it would seem to
have occurred to him, after some specially unseemly disputes among some
of his own followers, that to get himself into harmony with the laws of
the realm and gain the friendship of the young King would be a good
thing to do. He came accordingly to Stirling where James was, very sick
of his governors and their wiles and struggles, and throwing himself at
the boy's feet offered himself, his goods and castles, and life itself,
for the King's service, "that he might have the licence to wait upon His
Majesty but as the soberest courtier in the King's company," and
proclaimed himself ready to take any oath that might be offered to him,
and to be "as serviceable as any man within the realm." James, it would
seem, was charmed by the noble suitor, and all the glamour of youth and
impulse which was in the splendid young cavalier, far more great and
magnificent than all the Livingstones and Crichtons, who yet came with
such abandon to the foot of the throne to devote himself to its service.
He not only forgave Douglas all his offences, but placed him at the head
of his government, "used him most familiar of any man," and looked up to
him with the half-adoring admiration which a generous boy so often feels
towards the first man who becomes his hero.

This happened in 1443, when James was but thirteen. It would be as easy
to say that Douglas displaced with a rush the two more successful
governors of the kingdom, and took their places by storm--and perhaps it
would be equally true: yet it would be vain to ignore James as an actor
in national affairs because of his extreme youth. In an age when a boy
of sixteen leads