lition her remains were disinterred, and being placed in a new coffin, with a suitable inscription, were deposited in the royal vault in Holyrood Abbey, where they now lie.

CHAPTER VI.

JAMES III.-THE BLUE BLANKET.

THE long minority of James III. drew to a close amid the usual difficulties and dangers attendant on delegated authority unrestrained by welldefined rules. In 1469, the Scottish capital once more witnessed a royal coronation. In the month of July, Margaret, princess of Denmark, landed at Leith, amidst the liveliest demonstrations of popular welcome. She was

married to king James, with great pomp and solemnity, in the abbey church of Holyrood, the royal bridegroom being then in his eighteenth and the bride in her sixteenth year. Not the least acceptable feature of this royal wedding was the gift of the islands of Orkney and Shetland, tendered in security for the queen's promised dowry. This important territorial pledge, though mortgaged for the comparatively small sum of eight thousand florins, the Danish court failed to redeem, and these northern islands have ever since continued to form a part of the Scottish dominions.

These wedding festivities were speedily fol

lowed by a struggle for freedom from the nobles, who had, as usual, held the young king in pupilage, and ruled in his name. The duke of Albany, the king's brother-in-law, fled to the continent; but the younger earl of Mar was seized and committed a prisoner to the ancient Castle of Craigmillar, the beautiful ruins of which still form so striking an object on the rising ground to the south of Edinburgh. Considerable uncertainty rests on his fate, but he is said by one historian to have been bled to death in Craigmillar Castle; and this old tradition of his fate was recalled to mind, when, in 1818, a skeleton was discovered in one of the lower vaults of the castle, which had been walled up, while the wretched victim of absolute power appeared to have been secured by a chain to the floor of his dungeon.

In due time a prince, the destined successor of his father, was born; and when, on attaining the age of twenty-five years, the king had, according to a usual form, revoked all alienations of crown property, and especially the custody of the royal castles, ceded during his minority, he delivered over the Castle of Edinburgh to his queen, with an annual pension, and full power to appoint her deputies, and intrusted to her the keeping and government of their son, prince James.

Alexander, duke of Albany, the younger brother of the king, a scheming and ambitious man, plays a prominent part in the incidents of this reign. A romantic escape, effected by

him from Edinburgh Castle, adds another to the many historic events connected with the old fortress. The duke of Albany was confined in a tower which overhung the northern face of the rock towards the town, with only one attendant, or chamber-chield, as he was called, when a small trading vessel arrived in the neighbouring Firth, with a cargo of Gascon wine. Negotiations having been opened with the castle, the duke was permitted to receive two small casks of wine, one of which contained a letter, warning him of the necessity of immediate escape, and a coil of rope to aid him in effecting it. The new supply of wine afforded an excellent excuse for inviting the captain of the guard to sup with him, while he supplied the soldiers with such abundance of liquor that the way for escape was soon clear. The rope was then fastened to the window of their apartment, and the attendant, letting himself down first, fell and broke his thigh. The duke, following with more caution, reached the ground in safety, and, taking up his disabled chamber-chield on his back, he made good his escape to the French ship, and was in full sail down the Firth before his absence was known to the governor of the castle.

It was during this period of extreme weakness of the crown, and division among the nobles, that the city of Edinburgh obtained some of its most important and valued privileges; and the office of heritable sheriff within the town, which is still claimed and exercised

by the lord provost, was first conferred on its chief magistrate. Along with these gifts, the complete control of the trained bands and armed citizens by their own magistrates was confirmed by the gift of the craftsman's banner, styled the Blue Blanket. According to ancient traditions, this banner was wrought by the fair hands of queen Margaret. It has ever since been a special object of regard to the burghers of the Scottish capital, and has been unfurled in many a battle, both for royal and civic rights. Its use in the latter capacity is referred to in no very satisfactory terms by king James VI, in his Basilicon Doron, where he says, "The craftsmen think we should be content with their work, how bad soever it be ; and if in anything they be controlled, up_goes the Blue Blanket." On the 8th of June, 1488, the unhappy James I. fell by the hands of his rebellious nobles on the field of Stirling, when fleeing from the traitorous band, headed by his own son, James IV., then a youth of seventeen years of age.