nce
in the capital. One incident is mentioned by the chroniclers which must
have afforded a picturesque scene, when the King himself presided,
before the gates of Edinburgh Castle, at a duel between a knight called
Henry Knokkis or Knox (curious precursor in the dimness of distance of
another of his name!), who had been accused by an Edinburgh burgess of
treasonable speeches against the King--and his accuser. But who this
accuser was, and by what privilege he was allowed to meet a gentleman
and knight in single combat we have no information. Perhaps he was
himself of noble blood, a younger son, a man before his time, seeking
the peaceful profits of trade instead of those of the marauder, as it
has become the fashion of a later age to do. It is almost impossible not
to fancy that there must have been a touch of the burlesque in this
combat, which James himself interfered to stop, separating the
combatants. He was very careless it would seem of treasonable speeches,
apt to treat them lightly and very probably smiled a little at the zeal
of the citizen who was more jealous of his honour than he was himself.
The platform before the gates would still make a splendid area for any
feat of arms, if the winds did not interfere before the King and blow
the combatants away: and the old-world crowd with their many colours,
the jerkins slashed and embroidered with the blazon of all the great
families in Scotland, the plumed caps and dazzling helmets of courtier
and knight, the border of blue bonnets outside, and all the shining
array of fair ladies around and behind the throne, would present a more
striking picture than the best we could do nowadays. Let us hope the sun
shone and warmed the keen clear air, and threw into high relief the
towers and bastions against the northern blue.

Edinburgh by this time had grown into the proportions of a town. The
houses which the citizens had the privilege of building within the
castle precincts would appear to have been low, to secure the protection
of the walls; and by certain precautionary regulations for their
preservation from fire it would seem that many of them were still
thatched. The King's residence there, judging from the straitened
accommodation, which was all that existed in a much more advanced
period, must have been small and poor, though there already existed a
Parliament Hall, in which probably other great assemblies were held. The
city walls were continued along the crest of t