much violence, that he was by the general consent of the house shut up in a separate chamber, while the votes were taken; after which every thing was settled in the most amicable manner, and it was agreed that hostages should be sent into England for the fulfilment of the stipulated articles.
The Cardinal in the meantime was committed as a prisoner into the hands of Lord Seton, who kept him first in Dalkeith, afterwards in Seton, and by and bye, something being bestowed on Lord Seton and the old Laird of Lethington, by way of compensation, he was suffered to resume his own castle at St Andrews. In the great confusion and uncertainty in public affairs that had prevailed for a number of years, trade had been at an entire stand, and now that a lasting peace seemed to be established, the merchants began to bestir themselves in all quarters, and a number of vessels were sent to sea laden with the most valuable merchandise. Edinburgh itself fitted out twelve, and the other towns on the eastern coast in proportion to their wealth, all of them coasting the English shores, and entering their harbours with the most undoubting confidence. Restored, however, to liberty, the Cardinal, enraged at the opposition he had encountered, and writhing under the disgrace of detected fraud, strained every nerve to break up the arrangements that had been so happily concluded. Seconded by the Queen-dowager, who, like him, hated the Douglasses, and trembled for the established religion, any change in which would necessarily involve a rupture of the ancient treaty with France, he convoked, at St Andrews, soon after his return to that place, an assembly of the clergy, to determine upon a certain sum of money to be given by them in case their measures for the preservation of the catholic church should involve the country in a war with England. The whole of the bishops not being present, the meeting was adjourned to the month of June; but the Cardinal had the address to prevail on those that were present to give all their own money, their silver plate, and the plate belonging to their churches, for the maintainance of such a war, besides engaging to enter themselves into the army as volunteers, should such a measure be thought necessary.
Aided by this money, with which he wrought upon the avarice and the poverty of the nobles and excited the clamours of the vulgar, who hated the very name of an English alliance, the Cardinal soon found himself at the head of a formidable party, which treated the English ambassador with the greatest haughtiness, in the hope of forcing him out of the country before the arrival of the day stipulated by the treaty with the regent for the delivery of the hostages. The ambassador, however, braved every insult till the day arrived, when he waited on the regent, and complained in strong terms of the manner in which he had been used, and the affronts that had been put, not upon himself only, but upon his master, in contempt of the law of nature and of nations, but at the same time demanded the fulfilment of the treaty and the immediate delivery of the hostages that had been agreed upon. With respect to the affronts complained of, the regent apologised, stating them to have been committed without his knowledge, and he promised to make strict enquiry after, and to punish the offenders. With regard to the hostages, however, he was obliged to confess, that, through the intrigues of the Cardinal, it was impossible for him to furnish them. The treaty being thus broken off, the noblemen who had been captives only a few months before, ought, according to agreement, to have gone back into England, having left hostages to that effect. Wrought upon, however, by the Cardinal and the clergy, they refused to redeem the faith they had pledged, and abandoned the friends they had left behind them to their fate. The only exception to this baseness was the Earl of Cassilis, who had left two brothers as hostages. Henry was so much pleased with this solitary instance of good faith, that he set him free along with his brothers, and sent him home loaded with gifts. He at the
