o
separate from the English in Picardy; and Henry, finding himself obliged
to raise the siege of Montreuil, returned into England. This campaign
served to the populace as matter of great triumph; but all men of sense
concluded, that the king had, as in all his former military enterprises,
made, at a great expense, an acquisition which was of no importance.

The war with Scotland, meanwhile, was conducted feebly and with various
success. Sir Ralph Evers, now Lord Evers and Sir Bryan Latoun, made
an inroad into that kingdom; and having laid waste the counties of
Tiviotdale and the Merse, they proceeded to the abbey of Coldingham,
which they took possession of, and fortified. The governor assembled an
army of eight thousand men, in order to dislodge them from this post;
but he had no sooner opened his batteries before the place, than a
sudden panic seized him; he left the army, and fled to Dunbar. He
complained of the mutiny of his troops, and pretended apprehensions
lest they should deliver him into the hands of the English; but his own
unwarlike spirit was generally believed to have been the motive of this
dishonorable flight. The Scottish army, upon the departure of their
general, fell into confusion; and had not Angus, with a few of his
retainers, brought off the cannon, and protected their rear, the English
might have gained great advantages over them. Evers, elated with this
success, boasted to Henry, that he had conquered all Scotland to the
Forth; and he claimed a reward for this important service. The duke
of Norfolk, who knew with what difficulty such acquisitions would be
maintained against a warlike enemy, advised the king to grant him, as
his reward, the conquests of which he boasted so highly. The next inroad
made by the English showed the vanity of Evers's hopes.

{1545.} This general led about five thousand men into Tiviotdale, and
was employed in ravaging that country; when intelligence was brought him
that some Scottish forces appeared near the abbey of Melross. Angus had
roused the governor to more activity; and a proclamation being issued
for assembling the troops of the neighboring counties, a considerable
body had repaired thither to oppose the enemy. Norman Lesly, son of the
earl of Rothes, had also joined the army with some volunteers from Fife;
and he inspired courage into the whole, as well by this accession of
force, as by his personal bravery and intrepidity. In order to bring
their troops to t