Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/591

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
1543.]
THE FRENCH WAR.
571

sanctuary for felons aud traitors; they should be arrested, by the consent and assistance of both Governments, which thenceforward should co-operate honourably and firmly in defence of order and quiet.[1]

No conditions could have been more desirable or just; but the hope of the observance of them lay in the accomplishment of the treaty of marriage. The terms which had been conceded on this point have been already stated. The Queen was to remain with her mother till she was ten years of age; and six noblemen were to be required as her securities. If children followed from the connection, and the Crowns were united, the laws and the name of Scotland were rationally and sufficiently guaranteed. If the Queen, should be left a widow without issue, she would return free and unencumbered to her separate kingdom.

To these obligations Henry set his hand at Greenwich on the 1st of July. Sir George Douglas and the Earl of Glencairn signed for Scotland, and forthwith returned to Edinburgh to obtain the formal ratification of the Scotch Parliament. It remained to be seen if Beton would still sit by passively, or at the last moment make another effort. His policy in the past month had been to ignore the assembly at Edinburgh as a faction, and to refuse to recognize any decision as legal to which the clergy had not given their sanction. But force only

  1. Rymer, vol. vi. part 3, p. 93. The treaty was not to extend to the lordship of Lorn in Scotland, nor to the Isle of Lundy. Lorn was notoriously the haunt of outlaws and marauders, and Lundy, after De Valle's followers were destroyed, seems to have been occupied by a fresh gang of French and Scotch pirates.