Mary of Lorraine

An Historical Romance.
JAMES GRANT,
AUTHOR OF THE ROMANCE OF WAR, THE AIDE-DE-CAMP, ARTHUR BLANE, ETC. ETC.
It was English gold and Scots traitors wan Pinkeycleuch, but no Englishman. OLD RHYME.
A NEW EDITION
LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL; NEW YORK: 129, GRAND STREET. 1865.
Contents
PREFACE.
In the following pages I have endeavoured to describe something of the manners and inner life of the Lowland Scots at the period referred to, modernizing the language, which, to my English readers, might otherwise prove unintelligible.
For the political corruption of the Scottish noblesse at that—as at every other—period of their annals, ample proofs to support me are furnished by Rymer's Foedera, and Tytler's History; while the fact that Henry VIII. and his successors too often employed in Scotland other and very different emissaries than the two I shall introduce to the reader, has been amply proved by the Calendar of State Papers on Scotland, lately published by Mr. Thorpe, who shows us that, in addition to the devastations and burning of his lawless invading armies of English, Spaniards, and Germans, he was base enough to hire secret assassins, to remove all who were inimical to his matrimonial speculations in Scotland.
Incidentally, I have introduced the terrible episode of a Highland feud which occurred in the time of James V. The story of The Neish's Head is still remembered in Strathearn; and I believe a different version of it appeared some years ago in a work entitled The Scottish Wars.
The mode of torture mentioned in the adventure at Millheugh Tower, was not uncommon in those barbarous days. My attention was called, by a friend, to a paper which is preserved at Cullen House, Bauffshire, and which furnished the idea.