n the nations rose and fell--and pay a certain sum towards
defraying the expenses of the expedition, a bargain to which Perkin,
playing his part much better than any king of the theatre ever did
before, demurred, insisting upon easier terms--as he afterwards
remonstrated when James harried the Borders, declaring that he would
rather resign all hopes of the crown than secure it at the expense of
the blood and goods of his people. A pretended prince who thus spoke
might well be credited as far as faith could go. The story of this
strange enterprise is chiefly told in the letters to Henry VII of
England of Sir John Ramsay, the same who had been saved by James III
when the rest of his favourites were killed, and who had more or less
thriven since, though in evil ways, occupying a position at the Court of
James IV whom he hated, and acting as spy on his actions, which were all
reported to the English Court. Ramsay gives the English Government full
information of all that his sovereign is about to do on behalf of the
fengit (feigned) boy, and especially of the invasion of England which he
is about to undertake "against the minds of near the whole number of his
barons and people. Notwithstanding," Ramsay says, "this simple
wilfulness cannot be removed out of the King's mind for nae persuasion
or mean. I trust verrilie," adds the traitor, "that, God will, he be
punished by your mean for the cruel consent of the murder of his
father."

Curiously enough Pitscottie, the most graphic and circumstantial of
historians, says nothing whatever of this most romantic episode. Why he
should have left it out, for it is impossible that it could have been
unknown to him, we are unable to imagine; but so it is. Buchanan however
enters fully into the tale. The wisest of James's counsellors, he tells
us, were disposed to have nothing to do with this spurious young prince
coming out of the unknown with his claim to be the rightful King of
England; but many more were in his favour, specially with the reflection
that the moment of England's difficulties was always one of advantage
for the Scots. An army was accordingly raised, with which James marched
into England, carrying Perkin with him with a train of about fourteen
hundred followers, and hopes that the country would rise to greet and
acknowledge their lost prince. But it is evident that the Northumbrians
looked on without any response, and saw in the expedition but one of the
many raids which