the party of Albany, who was now absent in France collecting fresh means for maintaining the war. He sent the Earl of Surrey, son of the victor of Flodden Field, to co-operate with her, to win over as many as possible of the nobles with money, and to lay waste the borders, so that they should be incapable of furnishing supplies to an invading army.
It was agreed that Surrey should march into the country to support the queen, who, on her part, should proceed to Edinburgh, and there proclaim her son as king, though he was only twelve years old. These plans were defeated by the return of Albany from France, who landed at Dumbarton on the 23rd of December, with 2,000 soldiers, and a great quantity of stores, arms, artillery, and ammunition. Surrey had just laid the large town of Jedburgh in ashes; but he found it necessary to retire before the impending storm. At the summons of the Scottish Parliament, the whole nation flew to arms. Sixty thousand men flocked to the standard of Albany on the Burrow Moor, whilst Surrey had not more than 9,000. In this situation, he dispatched messengers in all haste to the council, urging instant reinforcements. He wrote to the king, praying him to send to him all the young lords who were wasting their time at Court in cards, dice, and balls; and as he regarded his position as very critical, he commended to the royal notice his family. He requested the king to send him, amongst the other troops, a body of 4,000 Germans, who were somewhere in Henry's service, that they might teach the English to observe the order of battle, and, remembering the effect of the Scotch pikemen at Flodden, that he might be able to oppose pikemen to pikemen.
The Earl of Surrey was promptly responded to by the Court, and he soon found his army swelled from 9,000 to 50,000 men. With these he garrisoned the castles of Berwick, Norham, and Wark, and fixed his head-quarters at Bedford. Albany, on the other hand, posted himself at Eccles, and laid siege to Wark. He had made a breach, and penetrated to the interior court, when the storming party were repulsed; and, hearing that Surrey was on the march to take him in the rear, he retired to Lander, in the night, daring a heavy fall of snow. Albany, indeed, seems to have been utterly destitute of the courage or the talents of a general. This disgraceful transaction, bringing with it the memory of his former one, completely destroyed his influence: he returned to France, and never came again to Scotland.
Margaret now had every opportunity which a woman of spirit and reputation could wish. She was strongly supported by the power of England, and her great opponent was for ever defeated. She proclaimed her son, and assumed the regency; but her worst enemy was herself. She fell into her old habits; and her scandalous attachment to Henry Stuart, the son of Lord Evandale, soon ruined her prospects. Henry once more abandoned her, and raised her husband, the Earl of Angus, to the chief power. It was in vain that Margaret applied for assistance to Francis I., and humiliated herself so far as to solicit the return of Albany. From this moment there was more tranquillity in Scotland. The French faction, seeing support from France hopeless, were compelled to remain quiet. Truce after truce was established with England; and for eighteen years the borders rested from hostilities.
The position of the King of France was, at this crisis, becoming more and more critical. His kingdom was environed with perils, and menaced with ruin, which could only be averted by singular courage and address. Against him was arrayed a most formidable confederacy of the Pope, the emperor, the King of England, and the various states of Italy. He had not a single ally, except the King of Scotland, a minor, and without authority. The internal condition of France was extremely discouraging. The wars of Francis in Italy and at home, his gay life and expensive pleasures, with his extravagant grants to his favourites, had exhausted his treasury, and involved him in great embarrassments. The troops were ill-paid, and, as is usual in such cases, became disorderly and infested the highways, plundered the peasantry, and filled the whole kingdom with alarm and discontent. The Court partook of the licence and distraction of the nation; it was rent by faction, and the most dangerous secret conspiracy was at work in it.
Francis himself, amid these hosts of enemies, external and domestic, was undaunted, and even resolved to march into Italy, to recover his possessions there. "All the world," said the intrepid monarch, "have conspired against me, but I fear them not. The emperor has no money, the English cannot penetrate far into my kingdom, the militia of the Low Countries can do me little harm. I will march into Italy, subdue my enemies there, and return soon enough to recover what I may have lost in France." He appointed his mother, Louise of Savoy, regent of the kingdom, put himself at the head of his army, and commenced his march. But he had advanced no further than Lyons, when he was overtaken by despatches from his mother of so serious a nature, that he gave the command of his troops to his favourite the gallant Bonivet, the Admiral of France, who led them on to Italy.
Francis, on his return to Paris, received from his mother the most extraordinary disclosures regarding the treason of the Duke of Bourbon, Constable of France. Bourbon was one of the most distinguished and influential nobles of the kingdom, and circumstances had occurred, betwixt Francis, his mother, and him, which made him a very dangerous man to have been left behind. By birth he was very near the throne itself. Handsome, brave, popular, strongly and extensively allied, the richest man in the realm, not a breath of suspicion of disloyalty had over been raised against him. But Louise, the mother of Francis, though no longer young, was deeply enamoured of him, and proposed that he should marry her. Bourbon was as haughty and vindictive as he was otherwise generous and agreeable, and from this temperament had acquired the name of Charles the Impatient. He received the overtures of the Duchess Louise with disdain, and with some severe strictures on her gallantries. He intimated that he was by no means inclined to marry a woman old enough to be his mother; and the despised princess, who had been a beauty in her day, conceived the most implacable spirit of revenge for the insult. She had unbounded influence over her son; and, complaining to him that the constable withheld lands in the name of his deceased wife from her, to whom they had now justly
