ear her boy in the comparative safety of that
stronghold. Accordingly when Earl Angus came to attend the Parliament he
was confronted by his adversaries in possession of the town and of the
castle, with his wife, the most violent adversary of all, in the
fortress shut up from his access or approach. He was accompanied,
Pitscottie tells us, "with all his kin and friends to the number of five
hundred spears, weill accompanied and arrayed." But the city was
hostile, and perhaps something in the sombre air of all about awakened
the suspicions of the Douglases, especially as the gates were hastily
shut behind them and more than usual precautions taken. Awakened thus to
a sense of alarm, the threatened party sent scouts out into the streets
during the night, to find out what mischief was brewing. While the
humbler spies pursued their inquiries by wynd and changehouse, Maister
Gawin Douglas, the bishop, went out to see what he could discover of the
real state of affairs--if it was true that the westland lords had held a
secret meeting and resolved that Angus should not leave Edinburgh now
that he had put himself in their power--and "if he could find any gude
way betwixt the two parties." In pursuance of this anxious quest he went
in search of Archbishop James Beatoun, his brother of St. Andrews, whom
he found in the church of the Black Friars, assisting, it is to be
presumed, at some evening service.

"The said Mr. Gawin desired him to take some pains to labour betwixt
this two parties which was at ane sharp point, and meaning little
less than that the bishop had most part the wyte (blame) thereof.
But the bishop assured him again with ane oath, chopping on his
breast, saying, 'By my conscience, my lord, I know not the matter.'
But when Mr. Gawin heard the bishop's purgation, and chopping on his
breast, and perceived the plates of his jack clattering, he thought
the bishop deceaved him, so Mr. Gawin said to him, 'My lord, your
conscience is not good, for I hear it clattering.'"

[Illustration: REID'S CLOSE, CANONGATE]

After all these advertisements--the bishop's secret coat of mail, the
angry discussion between two Hamiltons in the very presence of Arran the
head of the house, when he was himself willing to grant licence to Angus
"to speak with the Queen's Grace and thereafter depart out of the
town"--and all the lesser evidences of danger and conspiracy, the Earl
and his band prepared th