d been driven--to his own step-brother, John, Earl of Atholl, "the
Black Knight of Lorne's son;" upon hearing of which another fugitive of
a similar description appeared upon the scene.

"When the Earl of Ross's wyff understood the King to be some pairt
favourable to all that sought his grace she fled also under his
protection to eschew the cruel tyranny of her husband, which she
dreaded sometyme before. The King called to remembrance that this
woman was married not by her own counsel to Donald of the Isles (the
Earl of Ross). He gave her also sufficient lands and living whereon
she might live according to her estate."

The case of women, and especially heiresses, in that lawless age must
have been miserable indeed. Bandied about from one marriage to another,
forced to accept such security as a more or less powerful lord could
give, and when he was killed to fall victim to the next who could seize
upon her, or to whom she should be allotted by feudal suzerain or
chieftain, the mere name of a king who did not disdain a woman's plaint,
but had compassion and help to give, must have conveyed hope to many an
unhappy lady bound to a repugnant life. James would seem to have been
the only man who recognised the misery to which such unconsidered items
in the wild and tumultuous course of affairs might be driven.

Thus King James and Scotland with him were delivered from the greatest
and most dangerous of the powerful houses that held the country in fear.
Shortly after he conquered, partly by arms, partly by the strain of a
universal impulse, which seemed to rouse the barons to a better way,
those great allies in the north who held the key of the Highlands, the
Earl of Crawford and the Earl of Ross, so that at last something of a
common rule and common sentiment began to move the country. It is almost
needless to say that James took advantage of this temporary unity and
enthusiasm in order to invade England--a thing without which no Scots
King could be said to be happy. The negotiations by which he was at once
stimulated and hindered--among others by ambassadors from the Duke of
York to ask his help against Henry VI, with orders to arrest his army on
their way--are too complicated to be entered upon; but at last the Scots
forces set out and, after various successes, James found himself before
Roxburgh, a town and castle which had remained in the hands of the
English from the time when the Earl of Mar