Series 3 > Scottish correspondence of Mary of Lorraine

INTRODUCTION
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in his presentiment that he had warned in vain, that the
heedless Government ‘ will nocht gif credence quhill ye
see [the enemy] cum in at the dur.’ [No. CXLL] For
all their subtlety, the letters of Sir George Douglas ‘ vaysely
med and vith gentill vourdis ’ do not disguise the diplo¬
macy of an adventurer skilfully playing for his own hand.
[No. LXXL] Hepburn of Dairy unwittingly paints for
us the character of Bothwell as a man sadly lacking in
‘ the wit of Salomon,’ wayward, extravagant and easily
led. [No CCX.]
The letters not only reveal personality, they are often
also vivid and graphic in their descriptive power. One
almost hears the roar of battle during the ‘ continwall
carmosche fra the sun past till this day at iiij in the
morning ’ when in the early dawn Methven, eagerly
expectant ‘ of the wyning of [the] town and all therintill,’
wrote to the Dowager in the fever heat of excitement.
[No. CLXXVL] We are eye-witnesses of the storming of
Ferniherst, when the Scots, impatient ‘ to byd of fordar
prowision,’ impetuously ‘ laid fiyre to the irne yett and
handelit tham swa scharply as we culd . . . that thay
cryit at all tymis for mercy.’ [No. CXCIX.] We can
feel the palpable hesitation of the Protector when, in the
consciousness of momentous issues, he ‘ pausit upoun
better way is to be had than the effusioun of blude and
destruction of the pure pupil.’ [No. CXLL] We can
sympathise with the irritated burgesses of Berwick who
‘ ar werray crabyt . . . and nocht content off the takin
dowin off thar howsis . . . for defens off the castell ’
against the French navy. [No. CLVL]
The realism of these pen pictures owes much to the
piquancy of the description : and it is here that the philo¬
logical importance of the Correspondence becomes marked.
There is a force and vigour, a refreshing sense of originality
and unexpectedness, about the phraseology. In part
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