Castle: David Beton, the nephew of the Archbishop of St Andrew's, was accredited to the Court of France: again the stone which had been dragged with so much labour to the crest of the hill, was bounding helplessly back into the plain.
Opposition of policy in Scotland generally, when it grew hot, took the form of an attempt at assassination. Before the approaching return of the Douglases had been announced, the Earls of Lennox, Argyle, Murray, and Glencairn, the leaders in the absence of Angus of the English faction, informed the Duke of Norfolk that, if he was detained any further, they did not intend to tolerate the present scandalous Government. Angus, if he came, could give peace to Scotland;[1] but, peace or no peace, there should be a change of some kind. They might have waited his arrival but for the haste of the Queen. The liberation of the bishops, however, put an end to their forbearance. Lennox collected five hundred horse three miles from Edinburgh. They had scaling ladders ready prepared, and the intention was to surprise Holyrood and kill Arran; and probably Methuen. The design was well laid, and would in all likelihood have succeeded, but it was betrayed by the treachery of a confederate; a certain 'unhappy James Pringle,' as Norfolk called him, in deep regret at the
- ↑ 'The noblemen and commons do much desire the amity of England, and the commons universally hate the Duke of Albany of all men living. The Earl of Angus is desired universally amongst them.'—Norfolk, Dacre, and Magnus to Wolsey: State Papers, vol. iv. p. 188.
