Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/561

1542.] those which had succeeded the battle of Flodden. A great invasion had a second time been followed by a great defeat, by the death of a king, and by the succession of an infant. A second time there was an opportunity for a union of the Crowns by marriage. A second time there was an interval of penitence, when suffering brought with it wiser counsels. The recurring crisis was attended only with this difference, that before Scotland was left with a prince who was then to be mated with an English princess. The position was now reversed. A girl inherited the throne of the Stuarts: a boy, a few years older, was the heir of the rival crown. But, under either form, 'the situation,' to use the language of Knox, 'was a wonderful providence of God;' and while the wounds of Solway Moss were still green, and the memory of suffering was fresh, the fear of the