then be sent to England to be educated; that six Scottish noblemen should be at once delivered to Henry as hostages for the fulfilment of the contract; and when the union of the two kingdoms should take place, Scotland should retain all its own laws and privileges.
But though Beaton was in prison, his spirit was abroad. The clergy had the highest faith in the talents and influence of the cardinal. They considered his liberation as necessary to avert the ruin of their party, and they put in motion all their machinery for rousing the people. They shut up the churches, and refused to administer the sacraments or bury the dead; and the priests and monks were thus set at liberty from all other duties to harangue and influence the passions of the people. Everywhere it was declared that Arran, the regent, had formed a league with Angus and the Douglases, who had been so long in England, to sell the country and the queen to England under the pretence of a marriage; that this was what the English monarchs had long been seeking; and that not only the Douglases but Arran himself, were pensioned by Henry for the purpose. That this was but too true, the "State Papers," which have now been published by Government, relative to Scotland, amply prove. Henry and his successors spared no money for this end; and the traitorous bargaining of a great number of the Scottish nobles with the English monarchs, stands too well evidenced under their own hands.
Henry, with his characteristic impatience, insisted that Cardinal Beaton should be delivered at once into his own hands, and that the Scottish fortresses should be made over to English garrisons. The traitor nobles entreated him to be patient, or he would ruin all; that if he waited awhile all would succeed to his wishes; but that if he precipitated such important measures, the spirit of the Scotch would be roused by their ancient jealousy of England, and the whole plan would be defeated. But they might just as well have talked to the winds as to Henry. He had long ceased to be politic, to use caution, or to regard anything but the immediate gratification of his pampered will. He insisted on immediate fulfilment of their pledges: would only grant till June for the accomplishment of those startling measures, and to enforce them he began to collect great numbers of troops in the northern counties. What the Earl of Angus and his associates had assured Henry directly took place. The alarm of the Scottish people at the threatened betrayal of their country became universal. The patriotic noblemen and clergy at once fanned the flame of apprehension, and used it to their advantage. The Earls of Huntly, Bothwell, and Murray demanded the release of the cardinal, offering to give bail for him in their own persons, and to answer the charges advanced against him. The Earl of Argyll joined them—an example quickly followed by a great concourse of bishops and abbots, barons and knights, who proceeded to Perth, where they drew up certain articles, demanding the liberation of the cardinal and the prohibition of the circulation of the New Testament in the national tongue.
These they sent to Arran and the council by the Bishop of Orkney and Sir John Campbell, of Caldour, uncle to the Earl of Argyll. There were other articles, demanding a share in the council, and that the ambassadors selected to proceed to England should be changed, and men of more certain patriotism should be substituted. Arran and the council refused to comply with these demands; and, on the return of the emissaries, the regent dispatched his herald-at-arms to the assembly at Perth, commanding them, under pain of treason, to break up their meeting, and proceed to Edinburgh to attend in Parliament. The assembled prelates, lords, and gentlemen obeyed without opposition, and went almost wholly to take their places in Parliament, which was summoned for the 12th of March, 1543. They felt their strength, for they had had an opportunity of coming to a perfect understanding with each other, and such was the state of the popular mind that they had little fear of any dangerous concessions from Parliament; in fact, such was the ferment of the people everywhere, that Sir George Douglas told Sadler, the English agent, that, for Henry to obtain the government of Scotland in the summary way that he sought to, and at this crisis, was utterly impossible; "for," said he, "there is not so little a boy but he will hurl stones against it; and the wives will handle their distaffs; and the commons universally will rather die in it; yea, and many noblemen, and all the clergy be fully against it." Sadler added in his despatch:—"The whole realm murmureth that they would rather die than break their old league with France."
Under these circumstances the Parliament assembled, and the traitors Angus and Sir George Douglas informed the English Court that it was "the most substantial Parliament that ever was seen in Scotland in any man's remembrance, and best furnished with all the three estates." When the Archbishop of Glasgow, as chancellor, introduced the English proposals of peace and marriage, not a voice was raised against the alliance; and could Henry have exercised ordinary patience and tact, never was there a fairer prospect of the union of the nations. But at the same time that the Scottish Parliament acceded to the marriage, it proposed that on no account should the young queen be allowed to go into England, and not a man dared to mention the additional demands which Henry made as indispensable to the contract.
On learning these facts Henry became transported with rage at the idea of any body of men presuming to have a will of their own. He upbraided Angus, Glencairn, and the rest of his late captives with the breach of their promises—as if they could work impossibilities, or work possibilities with so self-willed and impossible a person as himself destroying all their efforts. He assured them that he had no intention of waiving a single particle of his demands; that if the Scotch would not grant them freely he would force them from them by arms; and he told these nobles that if they did not accomplish his wishes for him, they must return to their imprisonment according to their contract. It was in vain that his experienced agent, Ralph Sadler, assured him, "In myn opinion, they had lever suffre extremytee than com to the obidiens and subjection of England. They wool have their own realm free, and live within themselves after their own laws and custumes."
At this juncture Cardinal Beaton managed to escape from his prison, from which he had never ceased to correspond with and inspirit his party. How he came to escape has been considered a mystery; but perhaps that
