great
to be encountered by his garrison and noble attendants alone--while dark
treason and evil intent in the person of Albany kept the army of
Scotland inactive though within reach, was one to justify any such
outbreak of impatience. David must have felt that should the invader
press, there was little help to be expected from his uncle, and that he
and his faction would look on not without pleasure to see the castle
fall and the heir of Scotland taken or slain. But King Henry's object or
meaning is more difficult to divine. Save for his proclamations, and the
quite futile summons to King Robert to do homage, he seems to have
attempted nothing against the country through which he was thus
permitted to march unmolested. The little party of knights with their
attendant squires and heralds riding to every market-cross upon the way,
proclaiming to the astonished burghers or angry village folk the
invader's manifesto, scarcely staying long enough to hear the fierce
murmurs that arose--a passing pageant, a momentary excitement and no
more--was a sort of defiant embassage which might have pleased the fancy
of a young adventurer, but scarcely of a king so wary and experienced;
and his own stay in the midst of the startled country is still more
inexplicable. When the monks of Holyrood sent a mission to him to beg
his protection, lying undefended as they did in the plain, his answer to
them was curiously apologetic. "Far be it from me," he said, "to be so
inhuman as to harm any holy house, especially Holyrood in which my
father found a safe refuge.... I am myself half Scotch by the blood of
the Comyns," added the invader. The account which Boece gives of the
expedition altogether is amusing, and strictly in accord with all that
is said by other historians, though they may not take the same amiable
view. I quote from the quaint translation of Bellenden.

"A schort time efter King Harry came in Scotland with an army.
Howbeit he did small injury to the people thairof, for he desirit
nowt but his banner to be erected on their walls. Alwayis he was ane
plesand enneme, and did gret humaniteis to the people in all places
of Scotland where he was lodgit. Finally he showed to the lords of
Scotland that he come in their rialm more by counsel of his nobles
than ony hatred that he bore to Scottes. Soon efter he returnit
without any further injure in England."

It is very seldom that a Scotch historian is able