sent, except Spence of Kilspindie, gave the preference to the Earl of Angus. This man, in a luckless hour for himself, began to speak disparagingly of the earl, in the true Scottish fashion of doubt, saying, "It is true, if all be good that is up-come," insinuating that the earl's valour and courage might not be quite corresponding to his appearance. Douglas heard of the taunt, and vowed a deadly revenge. One day after this, while riding from Douglas to Tantallan, having sent his train another way, the earl continued his journey, attended by a single follower, each having a hawk on his wrist; and in the neighbourhood of the town of Fala, they lighted at a brook, for the purpose of bathing their birds. While thus employed, the laird of Kilspindie approached them, travelling from the opposite direction. "Is not this Spence?" the earl asked of his retainer; "the man who made question of my manhood? I will go and give him a trial of it, that we may know which of us is the better man." The servant would have dissuaded him from encountering one his inferior in rank, and offered to go in his stead; but to this Angus answered, "I see he hath one with him; do thou grapple with the attendant, whilst I deal with the master." Having fastened their hawks, that they might not fly away, and mounted their horses, the pair rode forward to achieve this double duel. "Wherefore did you speak of me so contemptuously, and doubt whether my courage was equal to my appearance?" cried Angus, in a loud tone of challenge. Spence, thus confronted, and brought to bay, would fain have excused himself, but the other would not be so satisfied. "We are both tall fellows, and one of us must pay for it," he exclaimed; while the other, warming in anger, replied, "If better may not be, there is never an earl in Scotland but I will defend myself against him, and kill him if I can, rather than that he should kill me." They alighted from their horses, and commenced a desperate combat with their two-handed swords. But the affair was of brief continuance; for Angus, with one tremendous blow, cut asunder the other's leg by the thigh-bone, so that the limb was lopped off like a branch beneath the gardener's pruning-hook, and Spence died a few moments after. When the conflict between the principals was thus ended, Angus put a stop to that which had commenced between the two retainers, and said to Spence's follower, "Go thy way, and tell my gossip the king that there was nothing but fair play here. I know my gossip will be offended; but I will get me into Liddesdale, and remain in the Hermitage till his anger is over.' This he did; and the only penalty he underwent for the deed was an exchange of the lands of Liddesdale for those of Bothwell, as the king declared that no order could be kept with the Earls of Angus as long as they held the former.
In the history of Scotland, nothing can be more revolting than the feuds and factions of the nobles, by which the country was rent asunder, unless it be the readiness with which they joined the cause of England when their avarice or ambition was solicited by a tempting bribe. Such had ever been the case since the war of Scottish independence commenced. An excuse, perhaps, might be found for the earliest defaulters, in the fact that they were Anglo-Normans, who had but recently become Scotsmen; that they held estates in England sometimes more valuable than those they possessed in Scotland; and that their homage was due to the sovereign of either kingdom indifferently, as their lord paramount. But no such excuse can be offered for their unworthy successors, who continued the same course of treachery and double-dealing, after a descent of more than two centuries had made them natives of the soil. Hence it was that the reign of James III. was so full of trouble, and finally so disastrous. In conse-
