Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/129

1545.] to have done no less. Will King Henry for that have my life? Little knows he the skirts of Keriietable. I will keep myself there from the whole English army.' Young Leslie, the Master of Rothes, one of the party who had volunteered to kill Beton, was also in the battle, and, after Angus, contributed most to the victory of the Scots. If conciliation had failed to gain the body of the people, chastisement seemed to have alienated the few who were well inclined.

Ancram Muir was almost the last success which the Scots gained. The substantial advantage was nothing. The English army was increased to thirty thousand men; and fresh devastations, to which no resistance could be attempted, avenged the defeat. One small party from Carlisle was cut off on the West Marches, and then the heavy hand of Hertford was again laid on Scotland.

Abroad, however, the consequences might have been more serious. The exulting eagerness of the Catholics magnified a skirmish into a battle, and the destruction of a marauding division into a lost campaign. The strength of England was said to be broken; and even the cautious Emperor was encouraged further in the belief, of which he had already given evidence, that he might himself venture into the lists. A secret correspondence commenced between Charles, Cardinal Pole, and the Papal faction in the Scottish Government; and