Prince Hal for granted, as we feel disposed
at all times to take the poet's word in defiance of history; though no
doubt the historical argument is calculated to throw a chill of doubt
upon that gay and brilliant image.

On this occasion the invader was Henry IV of England, the father of the
other prodigal, whose object is somewhat perplexing, and differs much
from the usual raid to which the Scots were so well accustomed. So far
as appears from all the authorities, his invasion was a sort of
promenade of defiance or bravado, though it seems unlike the character
of that astute prince to have undertaken so gratuitous a demonstration.
He penetrated as far as Leith, and lay there for some time threatening,
or appearing to threaten, Edinburgh Castle; but all that he seems to
have done was to make proclamation by his knights and heralds in every
town they passed through, of the old, always renewed, claim of
allegiance to the English crown which every generation of Scots had so
strenuously and passionately resisted. The fact that he was allowed to
penetrate so far unmolested is as remarkable as that the invasion was an
entirely peaceful one and harmed nobody. When Henry pitched his camp at
Leith, Albany was within reach with what is called a great army, but did
not advance a step to meet the invader--in face of whom, however, young
David of Rothesay, and with him many potent personages, retired into
Edinburgh Castle with every appearance of expecting a siege there. But
when no sign of any such intention appeared or warlike movement of any
kind, nothing but the gleam of Henry's spears, stationary day by day in
the same place, and a strange tranquillity, which must have encouraged
every kind of wondering rumour and alarm, the young Prince launched
forth a challenge to the English king and host to meet him in person
with two or three hundred knights on each side, and so to settle the
question between them and save the spilling of Christian blood. Henry,
it is said, replied with something of the sarcasm of a grave and
middle-aged man to the hasty youth, regretting that Prince David should
consider noble blood as less than Christian since he desired the
effusion of one and not the other. The position of the young man shut up
within the walls of the fortress in enforced inactivity while the hated
Leopards of England fluttered in the fresh breezes from the Firth, and
Henry's multitudinous tents shone in the northern sun--an army too