ce bidding him
not to make a brute of himself by listening to the priests who would
lead any man by the nose who gave them credence. The negotiations
altogether were carried on from the English side in a very arrogant
manner as comported with Henry's character, made all the more
overbearing towards James by their relationship, which gave him a
certain natural title to bully his sister's son.

And everything in Scotland was now tending to the miseries of a divided
council and a nation rent asunder by internal differences. The new
opinions were making further progress day by day, the priests becoming
more fierce in their attempts to crush by violence the force of the
Reformation--attempts which in their very cruelty and ferocity betrayed
a certain growing despair. When Norfolk came to Scotland from Henry--an
ill-omened messenger if what is said above of Henry's threat was
true--the Scottish gentlemen sought him secretly with confessions of
their altered faith; and the ambassador made the startling report to
Henry that James's own mind was in so wavering and uncertain a state
that if the priests did not drive him into war during the current summer
he would confiscate the possessions of the Church before the year was
out. But Norfolk's mission, which was in itself a threat, and the
presence of the Douglases over the Border, who had never ceased to be
upheld by Henry, and whose secret machinations, of which Lady Glamis and
James Hamilton had been victims, were now about to culminate in open
mischief, all contributed to exasperate the mind of James. That he was
not supported as his father had been by the nobility, who alone had the
power of giving effect to his call for a general armament, is evident
from the first. His priestly counsellors could support him by the
imposts which he made freely upon the revenues of the Church, not always
without complaint on their part; but they were of comparatively little
influence in bringing together the hosts who had to do the fighting; and
from the first the nobility,--half of which or more was leavened with
Reformation doctrines and felt that their best support was in
England--while the whole, almost without exception, resented the
prominence of the Church in the national councils, hating and scorning
her interference in secular and especially in warlike matters, as is the
case in every age,--showed itself hostile. After various incursions on
the part of England, made with much bravado