his love, "the fairest and the sweeteste yonge flour," of whom
he has left one of the most tender and beautiful descriptions that is to
be found in all the course of poetry. It is more to our present purpose
to tell how, amid all the charms of that courtly residence, so far
superior to anything which primitive Scotland could offer in the way of
dignity or luxury, the boy-king remained faithful to his country, and
maintained the independence for which she had so long struggled. It is
said that the one advantage taken of his captivity and youth was to
press the old oft-repeated arguments concerning the supposed supremacy
of England, and the homage due from the kings of Scotland, upon the boy
who bore that title sadly amid the luxury and splendour of what was
still a prison, however gracious and kind his jailers might be. No
circumstances could have been better suited to impress upon James's mind
the conviction that submission was inevitable: and it would have been
almost more than mortal virtue on the part of his captors had they not
attempted to bring about so advantageous a conviction. King Henry V,
under whom it is said the attempt was made, had been most generously
liberal to and careful of the boy. He was a man so brilliant in
reputation and success that a generous youth might well have been led by
enthusiasm into any homage that was suggested, too happy to feel himself
thus linked to so great a king; and James was very young, distant from
his own country and all native advisers, his very life as well as his
liberty in the power of those who asked this submission from him, and
the force of circumstances so great that even his own people might have
forgiven, and Holy Church could scarcely have hesitated to dispense him
from keeping, an obligation entered into under such pressure. But the
royal youth stood fast, and was not to be moved by any argument. Boece,
whose authority is unfortunately not much to be depended upon, has a
still more distinct and graphic story of judgment and firmness on the
part of the young captive. He had been, according to this account, taken
to France in the train of King Henry, who after the defeat the English
had sustained near Orleans, chiefly through the valour of the Scots who
had joined the French army, sent for James, and desired him "to pass to
the Scots, and to command them to return to Scotland. King Harry
promised, gif the said James brought this matter to good effect, not
only to re