is Judas'
questioun, 'Is it I, Maister?'"--whereat was muche laughter.'

The forfeiture of the lords was agreed to, all but unanimously. But it
was easier to pronounce this sentence than to execute it. Huntly, the
chief traitor, defied the Government from his stronghold in the North,
where he was all-powerful. The Crown had no standing army, and depended
in military undertakings on the great feudal lords, one of the greatest
of whom, Argyle, the potentate of the West Highlands, was ready to take
the field against his rival, Huntly, in the North. He invaded the
Gordon district with a strong force, but was beaten by Huntly at
Glenlivet. The Crown then raised an army of its own, by proclamation,
and the King marched north with the force, accompanied on his own
command by the two Melvilles, that their presence might be a pledge to
the country of his sincerity and zeal in the business. On the army
reaching Aberdeen, it was found that Huntly and his friends had again
fled to Caithness, and it was resolved to go on to the district of the
rebels and demolish their strongholds. The weather was so severe,
however, that the army could not move out of Aberdeen for a whole month;
and by that time all the money the King had in hand for the expense of
the war was exhausted, and it became necessary to raise more. The means
he took to do this showed his estimate of the ministers' hold on the
country. He sent James Melville south to enlist their services in
procuring the money, and with him a letter in his own hand to the
ministers of Edinburgh, whom he addressed as his 'trusty friends,' in
which he made a fervent appeal to them to rouse the burgesses to do
their duty in the matter, and declared that, rather than that there
should be any miscarriage of justice, he would 'give crown, life, and
all else God had put into his hands.'

The King's message had been no sooner despatched than a difference of
opinion arose among his advisers as to the course to be pursued with the
rebels. A majority was in favour of taking no further action, while
Melville vehemently urged that the army should advance into Huntly's
territory and overthrow his chief stronghold, the castle of Strathbogie.
The King could better afford to differ from the Council than from
Melville, whose advice he adopted and at once put into execution; and
when the rebels heard of the destruction of Strathbogie, they believed
that at last the King was serious in the business, and Hu