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THE EURES. 149
walls of the castle. And Sir Ralph Eure did the same at Scarborough,
defending it against the rebels with his household servants only, and subsisting
for nearly twenty days on little more than bread and water.
Who can say how much the unswerving loyalty and undaunted
bravery of these gallant men contributed to check the apparent triumphant
development of that movement which had such a speedy and ghastly end.
Henry rewarded Sir Ralph by making him commander-in-chief of all
the forces guarding the Marches towards Scotland. And his services were
soon called into
action.
In October, 1542, the Scotch began their customary depredations on
the Border, and Sir Ralph Bowes, who had crossed the Marches in pursuit
of a party of them, fell into an ambuscade at Halydon Rigg, and was taken
prisoner Hume says (vol. iii. p. 198) with Sir Ralph Eure, Sir Brian
Latoun, and some other persons of distinction. War was now inevitable.
The Duke of Norfolk crossed the Tweed and wasted the country for nine
days; and 10,000 Scotchmen crossed into the Marches of Cumberland to
waste the country in revenge, but only, bewildered, to retreat before
Sir Thomas Wharton, Lord Dacre, and Lord Musgrave, and a few hundred
farmers, and perish ignominiously in Solway Moss.
James, on hearing this, sickened of mortification and despair. He
went languidly to Falkland, and when the birth of his daughter, afterwards
known as Mary Queen of Scots, was announced to him, he only said
" The de'il go with it it will end as it begun. It came from a lass and will
!
"end with a lass;" and falling back into his old song, "Fie! fled Oliver?
"Is Oliver taken? All is lost!" in a few more days he moaned away
his
life.
Henry, on this, made another conciliatory effort ;
and (offering to
betroth his little child Edward to Mary, release the prisoners of Solway
Moss, the Earls of Casilis and Glencairn, Lords Maxwell, Fleming, Somerville,
Oliphant, and Grey, Sir Oliver Sinclair, and two hundred gentlemen)
he proposed substantial conditions of peace.
Cardinal Beton was safely immured in Blackness Castle. Arran was
Regent.
The power had passed from the clergy to the laity, and as Knox
But Beton was
said, " the situation was a wonderful providence of God."
soon again at liberty
;
for Ralph Sadler, Henry's ambassador, found himself
involved in the conflicting bickerings and claims of Beton and Arran. The
Scotch ambassadors to Henry, Glencairn and Douglas, returned, indeed,
with encouraging assurances, but the ecclesiastical influence, and the
national antipathy of the Scots to their southern neighbours, prevailed.
The English ambassador and his retinue were insulted. The Cardinal
himself sent a hostile message to Sir Ralph Eure at Berwick, threatening
to challenge him to single combat, to which Eure replied, signifying his
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