e was soon after delivered of a daughter.

* Buchanan, lib. xiv. Drummond.

Henry, in order to check the authority of Albany and the French party,
gave encouragement to these malecontents, and assured them of his
support. Matters being afterwards in appearance accommodated between
Hume and the regent, that nobleman returned into his own country; but
mutual suspicions and jealousies still prevailed. He was committed to
custody, under the care of the earl of Arran, his brother-in-law; and
was for some time detained prisoner in his castle. But having persuaded
Arran to enter into the conspiracy with him, he was allowed to make his
escape; and he openly levied war upon the regent. A new accommodation
ensued, not more sincere than the foregoing; and Hume was so imprudent
as to intrust himself, together with his brother, into the hands of that
prince. They were immediately seized, committed to custody, brought to
trial, condemned and executed. No legal crime was proved against these
brothers: it was only alleged, that at the battle of Flouder they had
not done their duty in supporting the king; and as this backwardness
could not, from the course of their past life, be ascribed to cowardice,
it was commonly imputed to a more criminal motive. The evidence,
however, of guilt produced against them was far from being valid or
convincing; and the people, who hated them while living, were much
dissatisfied with their execution.

Such violent remedies often produce for some time a deceitful
tranquillity; but as they destroy mutual confidence, and beget the most
inveterate animosities, their consequences are commonly fatal, both to
the public and to those who have recourse to them. The regent, however,
took advantage of the present calm which prevailed; and being invited
over by the French king, who was at that time willing to gratify Henry
he went into France, and was engaged to remain there for some years.
During the absence of the regent, such confusions prevailed in Scotland,
and such mutual enmity, rapine, and violence among the great families,
that that kingdom was for a long time utterly disabled both from
offending its enemies and assisting its friends. We have carried on the
Scottish history some years beyond the present period; that, as that
country had little connection with the general system of Europe, we
might be the less interrupted in the narration of those more memorable
events which were transacted in the othe