Kirkaldy became after this incident actively engaged in the cause of the Reformation. When the French troops arrived to subdue Scotland, and by means of the popish faction reduce it to a province of France, no man stood firmer to
the interests of his country, and in the first encounter he is said to have slain the first man with his own hand. To the French, who were aware of his bravery and military skill, he was particularly obnoxious, and in one of their
inroads through Fife they razed his house of Grange to the foundation. Naturally exasperated at such an act, Kirkaldy sent a defiance to the French commander; reproached him for his barbarity, and reminded him of the many Frenchmen whom he had saved when engaged in quarrels not his own. The commander, less chivalrous than Grange, paid no regard to the communication; and the latter took vengeance by waylaying a party of marauders, and cutting them off to a man. During this invasion of Fife by the French, he had a mere handful of men, and these were but poorly provided, yet he retarded the
powerful and well-appointed troops of France at every village and at every field, disputing as it were, every inch of ground, and making them purchase at a ruinous price every advantage.
In common with all the wise and good among his countrymen, Kirkaldy was convinced of the danger of the French alliance, and of the far superior advantages which might be derived from a connexion with England, which by a barbarous and ignorant policy had been always overlooked or despised, and he contributed materially to the formation of that friendship which subsisted between the ministers of Elizabeth and the Scottish reformers, without which, it may be doubted if the reformation of that country could have been effected. In the contests that arose between Mary and her subjects, while it must be admitted that his correspondence with the English was clandestine, contrary to the law, and not perhaps dictated by motives quite purely patriotic, he steadily adhered to the popular cause. Kirkaldy was among the number of the adherents of Moray, who on the temporary success of the queen, were compelled in 1565, to take refuge or "banish themselves" in England, and the criminal record shows us some instances of barbarous punishment denounced on those who had intercourse with them, as "intercommuning with rebels."[1]
When after her unhappy marriage and flight to Dunbar, she returned with an army to meet the lords who had entered into a confederation for the preservation of the prince, Grange was one of the most active and influential among them, having the command of two hundred horse, with which he intended at Carberry hill, by a stratagem, to have seized upon the earl of Bothwell, which he hoped would have been the means of putting an end to the contest between the queen and her subjects. The queen, however, who highly respected him, perceiving the approach of the troop, and understanding that he was their leader, requested to speak with him, which prevented the attempt being made. While he was in this conference with the queen, Bothwell called forth a soldier to shoot him, who was in the very act of taking aim, when the queen perceiving him, gave a sudden scream, and exclaimed to Bothwell, that he surely would not disgrace her so far as to murder a man who stood under her protection. With that frank honesty which was natural to him, Kirkaldy told her that it was of absolute necessity, if she ever expected to enjoy the services and the confidence of her subjects, that she should abandon Bothwell, who was the murderer of her husband, and who could never be a husband to her, having been so lately married to the sister of the earl of Huntly. Bothwell, who stood near enough to overhear part of this colloquy, offered to vindicate himself by single combat, from the charge of any one who should accuse him of murdering the
- ↑ Pitcairn's Crim. Trials, i. (p. i.) 466, 478.
