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and having overpowered them took the castle. Sir John de Walton was slain in the conflict, and the letter of his ladylove being found in his pocket, afflicted the generous and good Sir James "full sorely."

In 1312-13, Sir James took the castle of Roxburgh, and the following year commanded the centre of the Scottish army at the battle of Bannockburn. In 1317, the English were defeated by him, under the Earl of Arundel. In 1319, Sir James, in conjunction with Randolph, Earl of Murray, entered England by the west marches with 1,500 men, routed the English under the archbishop of York, eluded Edward II., and returned with honour to Scotland. When Robert the Bruce was on his deathbed, in 1329, he sent for his true friend and companion in arms the Good Sir James, and requested him, that so soon as his spirit had departed to Him who gave it, he should proceed with his heart and deposit it with humility and reverence, at the sepulchre of our Lord at Jerusalem. Douglas resolved to carry the request of the dying king into execution, and it appears that for this purpose he received a passport from Edward III., dated September 1, 1329. He set sail in the following year with the heart of his honoured master, accompanied by a splendid retinue. Having anchored off Sluys, he was informed that Alphonso XI., the king of Leon and Castile, was engaged in hostilities in Grenada with the Moorish commander Osmyn; and this determined him to pass into Spain, and assist the Christians to combat the Saracens, preparatory to completing his journey to Jerusalem. Douglas and his friends were warmly received by Alphonso, and having encountered the Saracens at Theba, on the frontiers of Andalusia, on August 25, 1330, they were routed. Douglas eagerly followed in the pursuit, and taking the casket which contained the heart of Bruce, he threw it before him, exclaiming, "Onward, brave heart, that never failed, and Douglas will follow thee or die!" The Saracens rallied, however, and the Good Sir James was slain. His companions found his body upon the field along with the casket, and mournfully conveyed them to Scotland. The heart of the Bruce was deposited at Melrose, although his body was interred in the royal tomb at Dunfermline. The remains of Sir James were buried at Douglas, and a monument erected to him by his brother Archibald. The old poet Barbour, after reciting the circumstances of Sir James' fall in Spain, tells us

"Quhen his men lang had mad murnys,
Thai debowlyt him, and syne

Gert scher him swa, that mycht be tane
The flesch all haly fra the bane,
And the carioune thar in haly place
Erdyt, with rycht gret worschip, was.
"The banys have thai with them tane;
And syne ar to thair schippis gane;
Syne towart Scotland held thair way
And thar ar cummyn in full gret hy.
And the banys honorabilly

In till the kirk off Douglas war
Erdyt, with dull and mekill car.
Schyr Archebald has some gert syn
Off alabastre, baith fair and fyne,
Or save a tumbe sa richly

As it behowyt to swa worthy."

The family was raised to an earldom in 1357 by David II.; and during this reign and the two which succeeded, the house of Douglas rose to a degree of power scarcely inferior to that of royalty itself; and, as has been remarked by an old histo rian, it became a saying that "nae man was safe in the coun try, unless he were either a Douglas or a Douglas man." The Earl went abroad with a train of 2,000 men, kept a sort of court, and even created knights. In 1424, Archibald, the 5th Earl, became possessed of the duchy of Touraine in France, for services which he had rendered to Charles VII. the French king. William, the 6th Earl, raised the family power to a most formidable height; their estates in Galloway-where they possessed the stronghold of Thrieve-Annandale, and Douglas, afforded them an amount of revenue and enabled them to raise an army not inferior to that of their sovereign. It was at this time, however, the policy of Crichton-one of the ablest of those who had the direction of affairs during the minority of James II.-to humble the overgrown power of the nobles, and accordingly Earl William, having been decoyed into the castle of Edinburgh, was subjected to a mock trial for treason, and beheaded, Nov. 24, 1440, along with his brother David, and a faithful follower named Malcom Fleming. The duchy of Touraine now reverted to the French king. After a brief period of depressed fortune, the family rose to a still greater degree of power than ever, in the person of William, the 8th Earl. He was at first a favourite of James II., but .having fallen into partial disgrace he went abroad, and his castle of Douglas was demolished during his absence by orders

of the king, on account of the insolence of his dependents. Upon the return of the Earl he came under obedience to the king, but this was not meant to be sincere. He attempted to assassinate Crichton the chancellor, and executed John Herries in despite of the king's mandate to the contrary. "By forming a league with the Earl of Crawford and other barons, he united against his sovereign almost one-half of his kingdom. But his credulity led him into the same snare which had been fatal to the former earl. Relying on the king's promises, who had now attained to the years of manhood, and having obtained a safe-conduct under the great seal, he ventured to meet him in Stirling castle. James urged him to dissolve that dangerous confederacy into which he had entered; the Earl obstinately refused;-'If you will not,' said the enraged monarch, drawing his dagger, 'this shall!' and stabbed him to the heart. An action so unworthy of a king filled the nation with astonishment and with horror. The earl's vassals ran to arms with the utmost fury, and dragging the safe-conduct, which the king had granted and violated, at a horse's tail, they marched towards Stirling, burnt the town, and threatened to besiege the castle. An accommodation, however, ensued; on what terms is not known. But the king's jealousy, and the new earl's power and resentment, prevented it from being of long continuance. Both took the field at the head of their armies, and met near Abercorn. That of the earl, composed chiefly of borderers, was far superior to the king's both in number and in valour; and a single battle must in all probability have decided whether the house of Stewart or the house of Douglas was henceforth to possess the throne of Scotland. But while his troops impatiently expected the signal to engage, the earl ordered them to retire to their camp; and Sir James Hamilton of Cadzow, the person in whom he placed the greatest confidence, convinced of his want of genius to improve an opportunity, or of his want of courage to seize a crown, deserted him that very night. This example was followed by many, and the earl, despised or forsaken by all, was soon driven out of the kingdom and obliged to depend for his subsistence on the king of England."-Robertson's History of Scotland.

The overgrown strength of this family was destroyed in the year 1455, and the earl, after enduring many viscissitudes, retired in his old age to Lindores abbey in Fife, and died there

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in 1488. The title of Earl of Douglas, of this the first branch of the family, existed for 98 years, giving an average of eleven years to each possessor. The lands of the family reverted to the Crown; but they were shortly afterwards bestowed on the Earl of Angus, the head of a junior branch of the old family, and descended from George Douglas, the only son of William 1st Earl of Douglas by his third wife, Margaret countess of Angus, who, upon his mother's resignation of her right, received her title. This family assisted in the destruction of the parent-house, and it became a saying, in allusion to the complexion of the two races, that the red Douglas had put down the black. This family produced some men who have occupied a prominent position in Scottish story, such as Archibald, the 5th Earl, who was known by the soubriquet of Bell-thecat; and Archibald, the 6th Earl, who, marrying Margaret of England, widow of James IV., who fell at Flodden, was the grandfather of the unfortunate Henry Lord Darnley, the husband of Queen Mary, and father of James VI. This Archibald, during the minority of his step-son James V., had all the authority of a regent. From the accession of the second Douglas line, after the forfeiture of the first, the possessions of the house were held by the family in uninterrupted succession till the death of the Duke of Douglas in 1761. William, the 11th Earl of Angus, was raised to the marquisate of Douglas, in 1633, by Charles I. This nobleman was a Catholic and a royalist, and inclined to hold out his castle against the covenanters, in favour of the king; but he was surprised by them, and the castle taken. He was one of the best of the family, and kept up to its fullest extent the olden princely Scottish hospitality. The king constituted him his lieutenant on the borders, and he joined Montrose after his victory at Kilsyth, escaped from the rout at the battle of Philliphaugh, and soon after made terms with the powers that be. The first Marquis of Douglas was the father of three peers of different titles, viz. Archibald, his eldest son, who succeeded him as second Marquis; William, his eldest son by a second marriage, who became 3d Duke of Hamilton; and George, his second son by the same marriage, who was created Earl of Dumbarton. Archibald, the 3d Marquis, succeeded to the peerage in 1700, and was created Duke of Douglas in 1703. In the rebellion of 1715 he adhered to the ruling family of Hanover, and fought as a volunteer in the battle of Sheriff-muir.-He died child

less at Queensberry-house, Edinburgh, 1761, when the ducal title became extinct. The Marquisate of Douglas devolved, through heirs-male, to the Duke of Hamilton, on account of his descent from the 1st Marquis; and the title of Marquis of Douglas and Clydesdale, is now conceded by courtesy to the eldest son of that ducal house. The real and personal estate of the Duke of Douglas was inherited by his nephew, Archibald Stewart, Esq., who was served his nearest lawful heir, September 3, 1761. This gentleman assumed the surname of Douglas, and was created Baron Douglas by George III. in 1796, and his titles and estates are now enjoyed by his son the present peer.]

THE FALLS OF CLYDE.

[It may not be unpleasing to the reader, to compare Wil son's description of the falls of the Clyde, with that to be found in the Gazetteer of Scotland:

"Over a distance of 74 miles after receiving the Douglas, it passes along the margin of the parish of Lanark, separating it from the parish of Lesmahagow, and presenting, in its celebrated falls and the scenery of its banks and basin, views of beauty and picturesqueness and grandeur which arouse the sensibilities of even the laggard in sentiment. 'The Clyde,' says Mr. Robert Chambers, in his "Picture of Scotland," 'is here a large and beautiful river. Before arriving at the uppermost fall, about two miles and a half from Lanark, it flows for several miles through a level tract of country with slow and scarcely perceptible motion. It then enters by the Bonnington fall a deep chasm, from which it only escapes about two miles below, after having been forced over two other cascades. Four or five miles of an ordinary channel bring it to the last fall, that of Stonebyres, below which it enters that series of fine alluvial plains formerly alluded to, which terminate at Bothwell bridge. The way to the upper falls from Lanark is through the beautiful grounds of Bonnington, which, by the liberality of the proprietor, are open to the public at all times except on Sunday. At the uppermost fall, called the Bonnington linn or fall, the river pours, in a divided stream, over a ledge of rocks 30 feet in height. It is considered the least beautiful of the falls, on account of its smaller height, and the bareness of

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