t a remission or pardon for the offence. The unhappy and aged
monarch secluded himself in his Castle of Rothsay, in Bute, to mourn
over the son he had lost, and watch with feverish anxiety over the life
of him who remained. As the best step for the youthful James's security,
he sent him to France to receive his education at the court of the
reigning sovereign. But the vessel in which the Prince of Scotland
sailed was taken by an English cruiser, and, although there was a truce
for the moment betwixt the kingdoms, Henry IV ungenerously detained him
a prisoner. This last blow completely broke the heart of the unhappy
King Robert III. Vengeance followed, though with a slow pace, the
treachery and cruelty of his brother. Robert of Albany's own grey hairs
went, indeed, in peace to the grave, and he transferred the regency
which he had so foully acquired to his son Murdoch. But, nineteen years
after the death of the old King, James I returned to Scotland, and
Duke Murdoch of Albany, with his sons, was brought to the scaffold, in
expiation of his father's guilt and his own.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The honest heart that's free frae a'
Intended fraud or guile,
However Fortune kick the ba',
Has aye some cause to smile.

BURNS.

We now return to the Fair Maid of Perth, who had been sent from the
horrible scene at Falkland by order of the Douglas, to be placed under
the protection of his daughter, the now widowed Duchess of Rothsay. That
lady's temporary residence was a religious house called Campsie, the
ruins of which still occupy a striking situation on the Tay. It arose on
the summit of a precipitous rock, which descends on the princely river,
there rendered peculiarly remarkable by the cataract called Campsie
Linn, where its waters rush tumultuously over a range of basaltic
rock, which intercepts the current, like a dike erected by human hands.
Delighted with a site so romantic, the monks of the abbey of Cupar
reared a structure there, dedicated to an obscure saint, named St.
Hunnand, and hither they were wont themselves to retire for pleasure or
devotion. It had readily opened its gates to admit the noble lady who
was its present inmate, as the country was under the influence of
the powerful Lord Drummond, the ally of the Douglas. There the Earl's
letters were presented to the Duchess by the leader of the escort which
conducted Catharine and the glee maiden to Campsie. Whatever reason
she might h