. The young King and the power now exercised in his
name were in the hands of the lords who had headed the rebellion, Angus,
Home, Bothwell, and the rest; and while their own safety was naturally
their first consideration, they had evidently no desire to stir up
troublesome questions even for the fierce joy of condemning their
opponents. At one or other of the early Parliaments in this reign,
either that first held by way of smoothing over matters and preparing
such an account of all that had happened as might be promulgated by
foreign ambassadors to their respective Courts--or one which followed
the easy settlement of an attempt at rebellion already referred to, when
the Lord of Forbes carried a bloody shirt, supposed to be that of King
James, through the streets of Aberdeen, and raised a quickly-quelled
insurrection--there occurs the trial of Sir David Lindsay, one of the
most quaint narratives of a _cause celebre_ ever written. The
chronicler, whom we may quote at some length--and whose living and
graphic narrative none even of those orthodox historians who pretend to
hold lightly the ever-delightful Pitscottie, upon whom at the same time
they rely as their chief authority, attempt to question in this
case--was himself a Lindsay, and specially concerned for the honour of
his name. The defendant was Lindsay of the Byres, one of the chief of
James III's supporters, he who had given the King that ominous gift of a
fleet courser on the eve of the battle. When he appeared at the bar of
the house so to speak--before Parliament--the following "dittay" or
indictment was made against him:--

"Lord David Lindsay of the Byres compeir for the cruel coming
against the King at Bannokburne with his father, and in giving him
counsall to have devored his sone, the King's grace, here present:
and to that effect gave him ane sword and ane hors to fortify him
against his sone: what is your answer heirunto?"

A more curious reversal of the facts of the case could not be, and the
idea that James the actual monarch could be a rebel against his own son,
then simply the heir to the crown, is bewildering in its grave defiance
of all reason. There is not much wonder that Lindsay, "ane rasch man,
and of rud language, albeit he was stout and hardy in the field and
exercised in war," burst forth upon the assembled knights and lords,
upbraiding them with bringing the Prince into their murderous designs
against the King. The ef