at hand, and meeting with the queen and her followers at Langside, on the way
for Dumbarton castle, gave them, though they were far more in number than all
the king's friends that he could muster, an entire overthrow. The regent led
the battle himself, assisted by Grange, who being an experienced soldier, was
appointed to oversee the whole battle ; to ride to every wing, and to encourage
and make help wherever it was most required. The dispositions of the regent
were excellent, and his followers behaved with great courage; so that the victory was soon won, and there being few horsemen to pursue, and the regent calling out to save and not to kill, there were not many taken or killed; the
greatest slaughter, according to Sir James Melville, being at the first rencounter by the shot of some troops that were planted behind the dykes at the head of the lane leading up to the village.
Having taken the command of the castle of Edinburgh from Sir James Balfour, the regent bestowed it upon Grange, who appears to have had the principal direction of affairs during the time that Moray through the intrigues of the queen's faction was called up to the conferences at York. Lethington, subtile, restless, and changeable, had by this time changed to the queen's side, whom he almost openly owned during the time of these conferences, and he had imposed upon the unsuspecting disposition of Grange, enticing him into a kind of doubtful neutrality, which had an unhappy influence upon the public cause, and ended fatally for Grange himself. Lethington and Sir James Balfour having been both at last arrested under an accusation of having been concerned in the king's murder, Grange took them into his own hands, and protected them in the castle, which he refused to deliver up to the regent. On the murder of the regent Moray in 1570, it did not immediately appear what party Grange would embrace. It was evident, however, that for some time previous to this event he had leaned to the side of the queen, and the castle of Edinburgh in a short time became the resort and general rendezvous of all who opposed the party of the prince.
The earl of Lennox succeeding to the regency was supported by Elizabeth, who sent an army into Scotland for that purpose, and to retaliate upon some of the border chieftains, who had made inroads into the English territories, particularly Buccleugh and Fernihurst. Grange, in the mean time, by the orders of the queen's faction, who now assembled parliaments of their own, liberated all those who had been formerly given him in charge as prisoners, for their opposition to the king in the person of the regent. These, dispersing themselves over the country, some pretending to be employed in a civil, and others in a military capacity, carried dissension and rebellion along with them, to the entire ruin of the miserable inhabitants. Lord Seaton, to intimidate the citizens of Edinburgh, who in general leaned to the side of the king, assembled his vassals at Holyrood house, while the Hamiltons, Avith the whole strength of their faction, assembled at Linlithgow, when they made a sudden and unexpected attack upon the castle of Glasgow, the residence of Lennox the regent. Coining upon the place by surprise, they gained the court, and set fire to the great hall; but they were soon repulsed, and the approach of the king's army, a principal part of which was English, compelled them to raise the siege. The Hamiltons suffered most severely on this occasion, their lands in Clydesdale being ravaged, Cadzow plundered, and the town of Hamilton, with the seat of the Hamiltons, burned to the ground. Nor did this suffice ; they also burned the house of the duke of Chatelherault in Linlithgow, the palace of Kinnoul, the house of Pardovan, and Bynie, Kincavil, and the chapel of Livingston.
Grange, meanwhile, acting somewhat dubiously, and not supporting the extreme measures of either of the parties, was confounded to see a foreign foe in
