Let this pass for truth; yet was Lord Elphinston's case the most remarkable, and most deserving of favour to his posterity, on account of the insults offered to his body, under a supposition that it was the body of the King. After the death of James IV. a long Minority ensued, and consequently a Regency; but what reward the Family of _Elphinston_ had, or what weight they bore in the Reign of James V. or in that of Queen Mary, History is not minute enough to inform us; though we find, that the Great Grandson of the first Peer slain at Flodden-Field was of the Privy Council, and High Treasurer to James VI. (anno 1599) before his accession to the Crown of England. This King was too well read not to have known what passed in the Reign of his Great Grandfather respecting the first Lord _Elphinston_; and I am willing to suppose the Descendants of that Peer were equally informed of the fact above related; and that the Lord Treasurer _Elphinston_ modestly imputed his elevation ultimately to that circumstance, and allusively took the Motto before us. Lest this surmise should not be satisfactory, I will offer another on a very different ground, arising from the _Crest_, which is, "A Lady from the middle richly attired, holding a _Castle_ in her Right Hand, and in her Left a Branch of _Laurel_." This throws the matter open to another conjecture; for the Bearing of the _Lady_, with the _Castle_ in her Right Hand, may well be supposed to relate to Alliances; several of the Ancestry of the Family, which came originally from Germany in the time of Robert the Bruce (in the Reign of our Edward II.) having married Heiresses[327], whereby they obtained Lands, Castles, Power, and Nobility. These events often repeated, which may be termed the effects of _chance_, give us latitude to suppose the Motto may, on the other hand, relate to those casual means, whereby the Family rose to the honour of the Peerage. [327] Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 154. These are the only two conjectures I have to offer; and I do not at present meet with any other historical matter to warrant a third. * * * * *