Perthshire in bygone days

592 PERTHSHIRE IN BYGONE DAYS.
CHAPTER II.
BONNIE MAEGAEET DEUMMOND— continued.
" The hand of God hung heavy here,
And lightly touched foul tyrannie :
It struck the righteous to the ground,
And lifted the destroyers hie.
' But there's a day,' quo' my God in prayer,
' When righteousness shall bear the gree ;
I'll rake the wicked low i' the dust,
And wauken in bliss the gude man's e'e.' "
Allan Cunningham.
However justly James the Fourth may be accused of
reckless gallantries, his nature was far from cruel ; he was
the victim of his high position, and, in the affair with
Margaret Drummond, he would, no doubt, have prevented
the foul catastrophe ; but it was perpetrated without his
knowledge. His nobles made him the innocent cause of
his father's death ; and if his consent could have been
obtained to that of his affianced bride, it would have been
to them highly satisfactory. But they did not dare to
name it to him ; and it was not till after her death that
their stratagem of marrying him to Margaret Tudor,
daughter of Henry the Seventh, became fully known to
him. When the first act of the drama was performed,
James seems to have grown indifferent, and, surrendering
himself into their hands, he espoused Margaret Tudor, and
paid twenty pounds a year to two priests for saying masses
for the soul of Margaret Drummond.
The date of the king's betrothal to Margaret Drummond
is not known ; but in the year 1495 a daughter was born,
and, without scruple, she was received into the king's
household. She was baptised as the king's daughter,
Margaret Stuart, and was in her seventh year, progressing
well with her education, when a circumstance occurred
which utterly changed her apparent destiny, and for years
made her rue the day that she was born.
Lord Drummond's daughter Euphemia, Lady Fleming,
was on a visit to Drummond Castle, where her sister
Margaret had permanent apartments, awaiting her delayed