Page:Essays and studies; by members of the English Association, volume 1.djvu/101



These words not only refer to the institutions (well-known on the Scottish border till the Union) of 'bauchilling' and 'reproving', but can be best illustrated by an event of 1452. James II murdered Earl William of Douglas breaking the 'band', as he said, with his dagger notwithstanding assurance and safe conduct under the royal privy seal. The slain earl's brother 'come on Sanct Patrikis day in lentrynto Strivling and blew out xxiiij hornis attanis apon the king and apon all the lordis that war with him that tyme for the foule slauchter of his brother and schewe all their selis at the cors on ane letter with thair handis subscrivit and tuke the letter and band it on ane burd and cuplit it till ane hors tale and gart draw it throu the towne spekand richt sclanderfully of the king and all that war with him that tyme.'

Another allusion may be cited as almost certainly topical not of Wallace's time but of the poet's. In the quarrel at Lanark an English soldier mocks Wallace by saying he had taken him for a foreign ambassador:

This can scarcely be other than a refracted reference to the splendid embassy which in 1469 brought Queen Margaret from Denmark to be married to James III at Holyrood with unwonted pomp and spectacle long remembered by the chroniclers.

Central and vital, however, to the consideration of the Wallace is its extraordinary relationship to the Bruce—a