ps of his throne. Cochrane was an architect
probably, though called a mason in his earlier career, and had no doubt
been employed on some of the buildings in which the King delighted,
being "verrie ingenious" and "cunning in that craft." Perhaps, however,
to make the royal favour for a mere craftsman more respectable,
according to the notions of the time, it is added in a popular story
that the favourite was a man of great strength and stature, whose
prowess in some brawl attracted the admiration of the timid monarch, to
whom a man who was a tall fellow of his hands, as well as a person of
similar tastes to himself, might well be a special object of approval. A
musician, William Roger, an Englishman, whose voice had charmed the
King--a weakness which at least was not ignoble, and was shared by
various other members of his race--was the second of James's favourites:
and there were others still less important--one the King's tailor--a
band of persons of no condition, who surrounded him no doubt with
flattery and adulation, since their promotion and maintenance were
entirely dependent on his pleasure. King Louis XI was at that time upon
the throne of France, a powerful prince whose little privy council was
composed of equally mean men, and perhaps some reflection from the Court
of the old ally of Scotland made young James believe that this was the
best and wisest thing for a King to do. Louis was also a believer in
astrologers, witches, and all the prophecies and omens in which they
dealt. To copy him was not a high ambition, but he was in his way a
great king, and it is conceivable that the feeble monarch of Scotland,
never roused to the height of his father's or grandfather's example,
took a little satisfaction in copying what he could from Louis. The
example of Oliver le Dain might make him think that he showed his
superiority by preferring his tailor, a man devoted to his service, to
Albany or Angus. And if Louis trembled at the predictions of his Eastern
sage, what more natural than that James should quake when the stars
revealed a danger which every spaewife confirmed? No doubt he would know
well the story of the mysterious spaewife who, had her advice been
taken, might have saved James I. from his murderers. It is rarely that
there is not a certain cruelty involved in selfish cowardice. In a
sudden panic the mildest-seeming creature will trample down furiously
any weaker being who stands in the way of his own safety,