to. He had
brought into subjection the great families which had almost contested
his throne with him. Douglas, the highest and most near himself, had
been swept clean out of his way. The fiercest rebel of all, the head of
the Highland caterans, with his wild host in all their savage array, was
by his side, ready to charge under his orders. The country, drained of
its most lawless elements, was beginning to breathe again, to sow its
fields and rebuild its homesteads. Instead of the horrors of civil war
his soldiers were now engaged in the most legitimate of all
enterprises--the attempt to recover from England an alienated
possession. Everything was bright before him, the hope of a great reign,
the promise of prosperity and honour and peace.

It is almost a commonplace of human experience that in such moments the
blow of fate is near at hand. The big guns which were a comparatively
new wonder, full of interest in their unaccustomed operation, were still
a danger as well as a prodigy, and James would seem to have forgotten
the precautions that were considered necessary in presence of an
armament still only partially understood. The historian assumes, as
every human observer is apt to do in face of such a calamity, a tone of
blame. "This Prince," says the chronicle with a shrill tone of
exasperation in the record of the catastrophe, "more curious than became
the majestie of a king, did stand hard by when the artilliarie was
discharging." And in a moment all the labours and struggles, and the
hope of the redeemed kingdom and all the prosperity that was to come,
were at an end. One can imagine the sudden dismay in the group around
him, the rush of his attendants, his own feeble command to keep silence
when some cry of horror rose from the pale-faced circle. His thigh had
been broken, "dung in two," by the explosion of the gun, "by which he
was struken to the ground, and died hastilie thereafter," with no time
to say more than to order silence, lest the army should be discouraged
and the siege prove in vain.

So ended the troublous reign of the second James, involved in strife and
warfare from his childhood, vexed by the treacheries and struggles over
him of his dearest friends, full of violence alien to his mind and
temper, which yet was justified by his example at the most critical
moment of his life. He made his way through continual contention,
intrigue, and blood, for which he was not to blame, to such a settlement
of n