to her claims of regency, receiving him with
courtesy and an apparent welcome. He had not been many months, however,
in Scotland before, with the sanction of his council, he claimed from
Margaret the possession of the King and his brother--sending four peers,
appointed guardians, to the castle, to receive the children. It was in
July 1515, two years after Flodden, when no doubt Edinburgh had regained
that common cheerfulness and bustle of a great town which is so little
interrupted even by the gravest public events. The deputation with their
attendants proceeded from the Canongate, where they had been sitting in
assembly, through the Netherbow Port and the bustling crowded High
Street, to the castle, no doubt gathering with them on their way all the
eager crowd which could free itself from shop or booth, all the
passers-by in the streets, a continually-increasing throng. Who the four
lords were we are not told. The whole incident is recorded in a letter
of Lord Dacre to the English Council. No doubt he had his information
either from the Queen herself or from members of her household. Of the
four men chosen by Albany the Queen was at liberty to reject one, and no
doubt they were men of weight and gravity, probably not unworthy of the
trust.

It is not difficult to realise the flying rumour which would go like the
wind before them announcing their errand, and how windows and doorways
and stairheads would fill with eager spectators, and all the moving
population would press up the hill after them to see what was to be
seen. The high houses full on every story of eager heads thrust forth,
relieving with unintentional yet lively decoration the many-windowed
fronts, the shopkeepers crowding at their doors or seizing cap and
halberd to follow, the hum and excitement of the roused town, surround
the envoys like the background of a picture. Most probably they went on
foot, the distance being so short, preceded by a glittering herald and
pursuivant--perhaps David Lindsay, who can tell? still too young to wear
the Lion of Scotland on his tabard, but keen and curious to see this
scene--he who had seen the envoy of heaven in Linlithgow Church and so
many other wonderful things. The crowd surged upwards, keeping a
respectful space in the midst for the lords with their train, and filled
with colour and movement and the murmuring of numbers that great square
before the castle gates which had held the same excited throng so often.
And