James was frightened; and as it was to please his prelates that he had failed to keep his promise, it was his wish that the expenses of the war should fall on them. He told them that, thanks to them, he was going to war with the King of England, and demanded the subsidies which they had promised. ‘If you do not furnish me with them,’ he added, ‘I shall have no choice but to confer with my uncle and satisfy his wishes.’ This menace terrified the prelates; ‘for rather would they have gone to hell.’[246] What would France say? What would the pope say? thought the cardinal. The bishops promised mountains of gold. After deliberation on the matter, they agreed to give the king fifty thousand crowns a year so long as the war lasted. They added, that their servants and other dependents who were exempt from military service would take up arms. These promises filled the heart of the rash young monarch with confidence and pride. Troops were sent to Jedburgh and to Kelso, and the priests and all their party were pluming themselves on their wealth and their power, and talking of nothing but their victory. They were mad with joy, and were already dreaming of again bringing England under the papal sway. It was possible for an instant to suppose that they were right. The parliament of England had not shown itself so forward as the clergy of Scotland; its members had closed their ears to Henry’s demands for money. This slackened his preparations for war. There were, however, some troops on the frontier, and they formed the design of seizing Jedburgh. The earl Angus and Sir George Douglas, his brother, who had been banished from Scotland for some years, joined these troops, which numbered four thousand men. But the Scots had taken their measures. Lord Huntley, at the head of a large force, encountered the English troops at Halidon on August 24. The fight was already begun, when another Scottish party appeared. The English, perceiving that they were in danger of being surrounded, retreated. Only a few were killed, but very many were taken prisoners.[247] There was no longer any limit to the joy of prelate and priest. They encouraged the king; they vaunted themselves as if they had in person gained a victory. In bishops’ palaces, in the parsonages of priests, and in the convents of monks, nothing was heard but shouts of triumph. ‘All is ours,’ said they; ‘they are but heretics. If we be a thousand and they ten thousand, they dare not fight. France shall enter the one part and we the other, and so shall England be conquered within a year.’[248] [Sidenote: PROJECTS OF HENRY VIII.]