DEATH OF EARL DOUGLAS. FIELD OF STIRLING. 



157 



as well as the present obstinacy of his subject, " if you will not break this 

 league I shall;" and drawing liis dagger as he spoke, he struck it into the 

 Douglas's heart. Sir Patrick Gray, who commanded the guard, inflicted a 

 mortal wound with his battle-axe, thereby unexpectedly fulfilling the threat 

 which he had uttered on discovering the murder committed by Douglas on the 

 body of his relative Maclellan. 



James III. evinced his attachment to the Castle of Stirling by making it his 

 chief residence ; and so completely did he surrender himself to the seclusion of 

 the place, and to the society of a few favourites collected around him, that the old 

 and privileged nobility were very seldom admitted to court. He erected several 

 new siructures, besides repairing and embellishing others that were falling into 

 decay. The noble hall, called the Parliament House, one hundred and 

 twenty feet long, was built for the accommodation of his court, as well as 

 " for other solemn purposes." It is covered with an oaken roof, of exquisite 

 workmanship, and is still very perfect. The same monarch instituted a college 

 of secular priests in the castle, and erected for them the chapel which afterwards 

 gave place to the present Chapel Royal, founded by James VI. To support the 

 new Chapel in becoming splendour, he annexed to it the rich temporalities 

 of the prior}' of Coldingham — a measure wliich deeply offended the Lords Home 

 and Hailes, and gave rise to those civil commotions which only terminated with 

 the battle of Sauchie, or Field of Stirling. On the morning of the fatal day to 

 which we refer, the two armies met in a tract of ground occupying the east side 

 of a brook called Sauchie-burn. The king, against whom the gates of the castle 

 had been treacherously closed by Shaw, the governor, had only this alternative 

 left — either to betake himself on board Admiral Wood's -fleet, then stationed 

 in the Forth, near AUoa, or to engage the rebels, headed by the prince, his son, 

 with what forces he had collected. Although naturally timid, and greatly averse 

 to hostile intervention, he adopted the latter, and resolved to face the danger. 

 Casing himself in complete armour, he mounted a stately charger, presented 

 to him by Sir David Lindsay, who told him that he might at any time trust his 

 life to the animal's agility and sure-footedness, provided he could keep his seat. 



The royalist troops at first gained considerable advantage, and repulsed 

 the rebel lords ; but their first line, being quickly supported by the Borderers, 

 not only recovered their ground, but drove the first and second Unes of the 

 royalists back to the third. Panic-struck by these symptoms of approaching 

 discomfiture, James put spurs to his horse, and galloped off the field in the 

 direction of the fleet, which lay within sight, and, as it is conjectured, with the 

 intention of taking shelter on board the admiral's ship. As he was on the 



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