by the word
"bored" than any other more dignified expression. The priests might be
fierce (as indeed were the lords, still more) but they were able, and
knew something of the necessities of government. The barons disgusted
him with their petty jealousies, their want of instruction, their
incapacity for any broad or statesmanlike view, and there would seem
little doubt that he dispensed with their services as much as possible,
and turned to those persons who comprehended him with a natural movement
which unfortunately, however, is never fortunate in a king. Something of
the severance between himself and those who were nearest to him in rank,
which had ruined his grandfather, showed itself as he advanced towards
the gravity of manhood: and the fatal name of favourite began to be
attached to one man at least in the Court, who would seem to have
understood better than the others the ways and intentions of James. But
in the meantime the clouds were only gathering; the darkness had not
begun. A year or two before, the King had given to the legal faculty of
Scotland a form and constitution which it has retained to this day. He
had instituted the Court of Session, the "Feifteen," the law lords in
their grave if short-lived dignity. He had begun to build and repair and
decorate at Holyrood and Linlithgow. "He sent to Denmark," says
Pitscottie, "and brought home great horss and meares and put them in
parks that their offspring might be gotten to sustein the warres when
need was. Also he sent and furnished the country with all kinds of
craftsmen such as Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Dutchmen, which ever was the
first of their profession that could be had." He went even so far in his
desire to develop the natural wealth of his kingdom that he brought over
certain German wise men to see if gold could be found in the mines, of
which there has always been a tradition, as probably in most countries.
All these pacific enterprises occupied James's time and helped on the
prosperity of the country. But evil times were close at hand.

One of the first indications that the dreadful round of misfortune was
about to begin was the sudden denunciation of James Hamilton, the
bastard of Arran, as a conspirator against the King, an event which
Pitscottie narrates as happening in the year 1541. He had been a
favourite of the King in his youth, and a great champion against the
Douglas faction, and it was indeed his intemperate and imprudent rage
which d