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But nothing contrary happened to him, and after affectionate farewells to his family he embarked for Cape Town on board the Tantallon Castle on 2nd May. One of his first labours was to begin an illustrated diary for his mother's delectation, a diary that was afterwards published by Messrs. Methuen in book form under the title of "The Matabele Campaign 1896."
At a Parliament in Inverness he seized the greatest of the Highland magnates whom he had summoned; they were hanged or imprisoned, and, after resistance, Alastair, the new Lord of the Isles, did penance at Holyrood, before being immured in Tantallon Castle. Without a standing army to garrison the inaccessible Highlands, the Crown could neither preserve peace in those regions nor promote justice.
A few weeks later, however, James succeeded in escaping from Angus's custody, took refuge with Margaret and Arran at Stirling, and immediately proscribed Angus and all the Douglases, forbidding them to come within seven miles of his person. Angus, having fortified himself in Tantallon, was attainted and his lands confiscated.
Gently the squire took the rein and led the way, striving to cheer the poor fainting girl, by courteous word and deed. They had passed but a few miles, when from a height, they saw the vast towers of Tantallon. The noble castle was enclosed on three sides by the ocean, and on the fourth by walled battlements, Here they rested, receiving from the host cold, but princely attention.
Tantallon had been taken by storm, and Dumbarton had been attempted, but its defences were too strong to be carried by force, Balfour, iv. 240, 268, 281, 301. The six brigades of horse seem to have been divided equally between old Covenanters and royalists. The seventh was not given to any general, but would be commanded by Hamilton, as the eldest colonel. Ib. 299-301.
We got a view of North Berwick, which stands on the extreme northern point of Haddington; and about three miles to the eastward of it we came off the far-famed Tantallon Castle, in days of yore the stronghold of the Douglases. Of course, we got out Marmion, and read the description of this celebrated fortress, which by the extent of its ruins must have been of great size and strength.
Angus himself was immediately summoned from Tantallon by an express, "ane haistie post," and instantly answering, set out with his uncle and brother, and rode to Stirling with some forlorn hope it would appear of recovering their empire over the King. But James had already gathered counsellors round him, and was himself too strongly determined to maintain his liberty to allow any approach.
He described the long journeys in Palmer's dress, his return to Scotland, meeting Marmion at Norham Castle, the tilt on Gifford moor, and the interview with the Abbess, when he received from her the letters proving his innocence. Already, at Tantallon, he had told his story to Douglas, who had known De Wilton's family of old.
In Tantallon we know the Douglasses lived in state, and bearded kings, and hung out banners to the breeze; but a sense of wonder is mingled with our knowledge, for the bothy of the Lothian farmer is even more in accordance with our methods of conducting life. Dunbar affects us similarly.
My ideas of forts at that time had all been drawn from pictures in books which depicted old-time fortresses, and from descriptions in Scott's "Marmion" of ancient feudal castles like "Tantallon strong," and the like.
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