Ayrshire > Volume 1

120 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE
Sir John Paston, Knight, by his brother, as " one of the
lightest, delyverst (nimblest), best-spoken, fairest archers;
devoutest, most perfect, and truest to his lady of all the
knights that ever I was acquainted with ; so would
God my lady liked me as well as I his person, and most
knightly conditions, with whom I pray you to be
acquainted as to you seemeth best." It seems probable
that the Countess of Arran was in the plot against her
husband. She fled with him to Denmark indeed, but
only to return to Scotland again ; and, later, having
procured a divorce from her husband, she was married
to James Lord Hamilton, to whom, it is said, she had
been pledged previously. The lady may have been
innocent, but the whole environment is suggestive. In
any event, the fall of the Boyds was complete. Their
brief day was brilliant while it lasted, but, when their
day waned to night, there was no coming morrow of
glory behind it.
James IV. closed his reign in the thirty-fifth year of
his age. The rebel barons, Albany and Angus at their
head, had raised the standard of rebellion. Securing
the person of Prince James, the heir-apparent, they
brought him into the field at the battle of Sauchieburn,
which was fought within a mile or two of the decisive
scene of Bannockburn. The battle went sore against
the King, he sought safety in flight, and, his horse
falling, he was carried into a mill, where he was stabbed
to the heart with a dagger by one of his pursuers. In
this affair, Hugh, third Lord Montgomerie, who was
afterwards created Earl of Eglinton, and Lord Kilmaurs,
upon whom was conferred the title of Earl of Glencairn.
fought in the victorious arm}*. John Ross of Mount-
greenan, the King's Lord Advocate, was on the losing
side, and, after the accession of James IV., he was
deprived of his honours and estates, the latter being
given to Patrick Hume of Fastcastle. During the reign
of James IV. (1488-1513), Ayrshire was largely outwith
the range of its excitements, and enjoyed a period of
comparative tranquillity.