When Johnny cam before the king

With all his men sa gallantlie,
The king he mov'd his bonnet to him,

He trow'd him a king as well as he. To this day the tradition of the country has preserved many recollections of this regal expedition against the border thieves. The wild and romantic pass through which James penetrated into Ettrick is still known by the appellation of the King's Road; the ruins of the castle of Henderland are pointed out in the vale of Megget; and near it the Dow's Linn, a romantic waterfall, at the side of which is a wild natural cavern. To this spot, it is said, the unhappy wife of the border freebooter retreated whilst her husband was manacled before his own gate. In the valley of the Ettrick, opposite to Rankleburn, is seen the dark tower of Tuschielaw, where Adam Scott, the King of the Border, so long kept the neighbourhood in terror, and levied his black mail from the trembling inhabitants. It is to this famous expedition of James that Lindsay alludes in these encomiastic verses :

Now Justice holds her sword on high,
With her balance of Equity;
And in this realm has made sic ordour,
Baith thro' the hieland and the bordour,
That Oppression and all his fallows
Are hanged high upon the gallows.
Dame Prudence has thee be the heed,
And Temperance doth thy bridle lead;
I see dame Force mak assistance,
Bearing thy targe of assurance ;
And lusty Lady Chastity
Has banished Sensualitie.

Policy and Peace begin to plant,
That virtuous men can nathing want ;
Aud masterful and idle lowns
Shall banished be in the Galzeownis;
Johne Upland ben full blyth, I trow,

Because the rash-bush keeps the cow*. Lindsay concludes this piece by some admirable advice to the young king on the subject of his duties and his responsibility, not neglecting a prudent hint that if his Majesty made provision for his old servant, or, at least, lent him

Of gold ane thousand pound or tway, it would be for the credit and advantage of both : • If not,' says he, in a tone of calm Christian philosophy, ‘My God

Shall cause me stand content
With quiet life and sober rent,
And take me in my latter nge
Unto my simple hermitage,
To spend the gear my olders won,

As did Diogenes in his tunt. It is pleasing to find, that soon after the presentation of this poem to his sovereign, the same affection which prompted the punctual payment of Lindsay's pension induced James to promote the servant of his carly years to the honourable office of Lion King at Arms,- situation the duties of which were probably of as high antiquity as the bearing of conts armorial, but which under this name does not appear earlier than the reign of Robert the Second. At the coronation of this monarch, as it is described in a manuscript quoted

I fellows.
* Poems, vol. i., pp. 273, 274. + Ibid. p. 279.

questioned, but whose life and works are little else than a blank in our national literature.

It was soon after the king's recovery of his personal freedom, and the termination of the power of the Douglases, that Lindsay addressed to the monarch his Complaint,' in which he states his own services, remonstrates in a manly tone against the neglect with which he had been treated, and compliments his master upon the efforts which were already made for the establishment of order and good government throughout the realm. It is written throughout, to use the words of Warton, no mean judge of poetry, with vigour, and occasionally with much tenderness and elegance; whilst its pictures of the government and manners of the times, and its digressions upon the author's individual history and feelings, render it interesting and valuable. It is singularly bold in its remonstrances against the injury inflicted both upon the monarch and the kingdom by the reins of government being entrusted too early to his hands. They who flattered and indulged thee,' says he, for their own selfish ends, took thee, when still a boy, from the schools, and haistely entrusted to thine inexperience the governance of all Scotland:'

Imprudently, like witless fools,
They took the young prinee from the schools,
Quhare he, under obedience,
Was learning virtue and science,
And hastily put in his hand
The government of all Scotland.
As who, when roars the stormy blast,
And mariners are all aghast,
Through dangers of the ocean's rage,
Would take a child of tender age,

• I may not call it treason,' he continues, “but was it not folly and madness ? May God defend us from again seeing in this realm so young a king! It were long to tell,' he continues, * in what a strange manner the court was then guided by those who petulantly assumed the whole power, how basely they flattered the young monarch.' The passage is not only spirited and elegant, but valuable in an historical point of view. I shall give it, only altering the ancient language or spelling, and nearly word for word:

Sir, some would say, your Majesty
Shall now know what is liberty:
Ye shall by no man be restrained,
Nor to the weary school-bench chained.
For us, we think them very fools
That still are drudging at the schools :
'Tis time ye learn to couch a spear,
And bear ye like a man of weir;
And we shall put such men about you,
That all the world shant dare to flout you.
'Twas done ; they raised a royal guard,
And royally each soldier fared;
Whilst every one with flattering speech
His Majesty did something teach.
Some gart him ravel at the racket,
Some harl'd him to the hurly-hacket,
And some, to show their courtly courses,
Would ride to Leith and run their horses,
And wightly gallop o'er the sand,

They neither spared the spur nor wand.
made him play at the racket. a school-boy game.

2

Casting galmonds, with benns and becks,
For wantonness some broke their necks;
There was no game but cards and dice,

And still Sir Flattery bore the price. Lindsay, with much spirit and humour, represents the interested and avaricious motives with which all this was done: the courtiers and governors of the young monarch engrossing and dividing amongst themselves the richest offices :

Roundand and whispering to each other,
Tak thou my part, quoth he, my brother ;
Be there between us stedfast bands,
When aught shall vaik' into our hands,
That each man stand to help his fallow;
I shall thereto man be all hallow-
And if the Treasurer be our friend,
Then shall we get baith tack and teind';
Tak he our part, then who dare wrong us?
But we shall pairt 3 the pelf amang us.
So hastily they made a hand,
Some gather'd gold, some conquest land:
Sir, some would say, by St. Denis,
Give me some lusty benefice,
And ye shall all the profit have;
Give me the name, take thou the lave * ;
But e'er the bulls were weill come hame
His conscience told him 'twas a shame;
An action awful and prodigious,
To make such pactions with the lieges,
So to avoid the sin and scandal,
'Twas right both name and rent to handle.
Methocht it was a piteous thing
To see that fair, young, tender king,

*

*