a renewed escape, for "the King smiled," say the
chroniclers, probably delighted by the novelty and renewed
adventure--the glorious gallop across country in the dewy morning, a
more pleasant prospect than the previous conveyance in his mother's big
chest. Thus in a few hours the balance was turned, and it was once more
the Chancellor and not the Governor who could issue ordinances and make
regulations in the name of the King.

Nothing, however, could be more tedious and trifling in the record than
these struggles over the small person of the child-king. But the story
quickens when the long-desired occasion arrived, and the two rulers,
rivals yet partners in power, found opportunity to strike the blow upon
which they had decided, and crush the great family which threatened to
dominate Scotland, and which was so contemptuous of their own sway. The
great Earl, Duke of Touraine, almost prince at home, the son of that
Douglas whose valour had moved England, and indeed Christendom, to
admiration, though he never won a battle--died in the midst of his
years, leaving behind him two young sons much under age as the
representatives of his name. It is extraordinary to us to realise the
place held by youth in those times, when one would suppose a man's
strength peculiarly necessary for the holding of an even nominal
position. Mr. Church has just shown in his Life of Henry V how that
prince at sixteen led armies and governed provinces; and it is clear
that this was by no means exceptional, and that the right of boys to
rule themselves and their possessions was universally acknowledged and
permitted. The young William, Earl of Douglas, is said to have been only
about fourteen at his father's death. He was but eighteen at the time of
his execution, and between these dates he appears to have exercised all
the rights of independent authority without tutor or guardian. The
position into which he entered at this early age was unequalled in
Scotland, in many respects superior to that of the nominal sovereign,
who had so many to answer to for every step he took--counsellors and
critics more plentiful than courtiers. The chronicles report all manner
of vague arrogancies and presumptions on the part of the new Earl. He
held a veritable court in his castle, very different from the
semi-prison which, whether at Edinburgh or Stirling, was all that James
of Scotland had for home and throne--and conferred fiefs and knighthood
upon his followers as