earded men! What part did
he have in it? Was his father done to death by his orders? Was he
consenting at least to what was done? Was he aware of all that was to
follow that hurried ride with the lords, into which he had been beguiled
or persuaded? James III had to some degree favoured Edinburgh, where,
notwithstanding his long captivity in the Castle, he had found defenders
and friends. And there must have been many in the crowd who took part
with the unfortunate monarch, so mysteriously gone out of their midst,
and who looked with horror upon the boy who had something at least to do
with the ruin and death of his father. It was a sombre entry upon the
future dwelling to which this young James was to bring so much splendour
and rejoicing.

How these doubts were cleared up and certainty attained we have no sure
way of knowing. Pitscottie's story is that when the false priest
murdered the King, he took up the body on his back and carried it away,
"but no man knew what he did with him or where he buried him." Other
authorities speak of a funeral service in the Abbey of Cambuskenneth on
the banks of the Forth--a great religious establishment, of which one
dark grey tower alone remains upon the green meadows by the winding
river; and there is mention afterwards of a bloody shirt carried about
on the point of a lance to excite the indignant Northmen to rebellion.
But notwithstanding these facts no one ventures to say that James's body
was found or buried. Masses for the dead were sung, and every religious
honour paid; but so far as anything is told us, these rites might have
been performed around an empty bier. At last however, in some way, a
dolorous certainty, which must by many have been felt as a relief, was
attained, and the young King was crowned in Edinburgh in the summer of
1488, some weeks after his father's death. At the same time a Parliament
was called, and the Castle of Edinburgh, which all this time seems to
have kept its gates closed and rendered no submission, was summoned by
the herald to yield, "which was obediently done at the King's command,"
says the chronicle. There was evidently no thought of rebellion or of
resisting the lawful sovereign, so soon as it was certain which he was.
The procession of the herald, perhaps the Lord Lyon himself, with all
his pursuivants, up the long street to sound the trumpets outside the
castle gates and demand submission, must have brightened the waiting and
wondering city