Historical and genealogical memoirs of the House of Hamilton

OF THE HOUSE OF HAMILTON. 13
sence of mind, ordered his men to dismount, being resolved to fight on james,
foot, but the Merse men most basely abandoned him in this emergency ; '
and he was so closely beset that four of his attendants were slain, and he
and the remainder, with the greatest difficulty, made their escape to Hume
Castle.
A Parliament having been summoned to meet at Edinburgh towards 1520.
the end of April, the Earl of Arran prepared to attend, together with
Archbishop Beaton, and the most of the lords of the west, who all con-
sidered it necessary for the common good, that the overgrown power of
the Earl of Angus should be curbed. The Earl of Arran, with his kins-
men and friends, on their arrival at Edinburgh, held a meeting in Arch-
bishop Beaton's house, in the Blackfriars' Wynd, to concert measures for
their mutual safety and welfare ; wherein it was resolved, at the suggestion
of the Archbishop, to place the Earl of Angus, who was then within the
city, in his lodgings near the West Bow, under confinement.
Angus, privily getting notice of the purport of their consultations, sent April 30.
his uncle, the famous Gawin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, to accommo-
date matters, and to state, that he was ready to answer in Parliament for
his conduct ; that all he required in the meantime was, liberty to visit the
Queen-dowager, his wife, in the Castle, after which he engaged to depart
from the town peaceably. The Archbishop, the most violent of his party,
having heard this message, replied by enumerating all the causes of dis-
content which the Earl of Arran had against the Earl of Angus ; and con-
cluded by saying, " There is no remedy, — the Earl of Angus must go to
prison ; upon my conscience I cannot help it ;" and, in the heat of his
asseveration, striking his breast with his hand, the hauberk, which he wore
that day under his cassock, rattled, " How now, my Lord !" says Dun-
keld, " methinks your conscience clatters ; it is not becoming for us
churchmen to carry arms, or engage in civil broils."
The Earl of Angus, in the meantime, to be prepared for the worst, as-
sembled his friends and followers, and, passing down the High Street, sup-
plied himself from the armourers' shops, as he went along, with spears and
pikes, the longest he could find ; at the same time numbers of the citi-
zens joined him, whilst others handed his followers weapons from their
windows. After causing the heads of the wynds and closes leading from
the Cowgate to be barricadoed with carts, ale barrels, and whatever lum-
ber came readiest to hand, he seized on the eastern gate of the city, called