Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/138

193 distributed throughout the different prisons of the kingdom, or kept in ward at the castles of the nobility. The greater part of them were afterwards put to death, and the remainder finally restored to liberty. With a degree of cruelty which the case does not seem to warrant, the countess of Ross, the mother of the lord of the Isles, was made a prisoner along with her son, and was long detained in captivity in the island of Inch Combe in the Firth of Forth. Alexander, after a year's confinement, was allowed to return to his own country, on condition that he would in future refrain from all acts of violence ; his mother in the mean time being held a hostage for his good conduct.

Equally regardless, however, of his promises and the predicament of his parent, he, soon after regaining his liberty, with a large body of followers attacked and burned the town of Inverness. James, to revenge this outrage, instantly collected an army and marched against the perpetrator, whom he overtook in the neighbourhood of Lochaber. A battle ensued, in which the lord of the Isles, who is said to have had an army of ten thousand men under him, was totally defeated. Humbled by this misfortune, Alexander soon after made an attempt to procure a reconciliation with the king, but failing in this, he finally resolved to throw himself upon the mercy of the sovereign. With this view he came privately to Edinburgh, and attired only in his shirt and drawers, he placed himself before the high altar of Holyrood church, and on his knees, in presence of the queen and a number of nobles, presented his naked sword to the king. For this act of humiliation and humble submission, his life was spared; but he was ordered into close confinement in the castle of Tantallon. Some curious and interesting considerations naturally present themselves when contemplating the transactions just spoken of. Amongst these a wonder is excited to find the summons of the king to the fierce, lawless chieftains of the Highlands so readily obeyed. To see them walk so tamely into the trap which was laid for them, when they must have known, from the previous character of the king, that if they once placed themselves within his reach, they might be assured of being subjected to punishment Supposing, again, that they were deceived as to his intentions, and had no idea that he meant them any personal violence, but were inveigled within his power by faithless assurances; it then becomes matter of astonishment, that in the very midst of their clans, in the heart of their own country, and in the immediate neighbourhood of their inaccessible retreats, the king should have been able, without meeting with any resistance, to take into custody and carry away as prisoners, no fewer than fifty powerful chieftains, and even to put some of them to death upon the spot. This wonder is not lessened by finding that the lord of the Isles himself could bring into the field ten thousand men, while the greater part of the others could muster from five hundred to five thousand each ; and it might be thought that, however great was their enmity to each other, they would have made common cause in such a case as this, and have all united in rescuing their chiefs from the hands of him who must have appeared their common enemy ; but no such effort was made, and the whole Highlands as it were looked quietly on and permitted their chief men to be carried away into captivity. In the midst of these somewhat inexplicable considerations, however, there is one very evident and remarkable circumstance; this is the great power of the king, which could thus enable him to enforce so sweeping an act of justice in so remote and barbarous a part of his kingdom; and perhaps a more striking instance of the existence of that extraordinary power, and of terror inspired by the royal name, is not to be found in the pages of Scottish history.

The parliament of James, directed evidently by the spirit of the monarch, continued from time to time to enact the most salutary laws. In 1427, it was