The cardinal, who could not remain ignorant of these speeches, was desirous of strengthening his power by means of new alliances. He therefore gave one of his daughters, Margaret Beatoun--whose mother was Mary, daughter of Sir James Ogilvy--in marriage to David Lindsay, son of the earl of Crawford, with a portion of four thousand marks. The nuptials were celebrated with a magnificence almost royal. That a priest could celebrate with so much parade the nuptials of his daughter showed that he was destitute even of that honorable shame which is excited by the dread of anything that violates decency. He believed himself to be stronger than all Scotland, and by his despotic measures he was constantly adding to the number of his enemies. [Sidenote: CONSPIRACY AGAINST BEATOUN.] Among those who had served him with the utmost devotion was Norman Lesley, brother of the earl of Rothes. On occasion of Lesley’s reminding the cardinal of certain promises which he had made to him, they got to high words and parted bitter foes.[359] Thenceforth Lesley was head of the disaffected, and by setting before his friends the intolerable pride of the cardinal he induced them to join in a conspiracy against his life.[360] His uncle, John Lesley, did not shrink from saying before them all, clapping his right hand at the same time on his sword, ‘This hand shall draw this old sword, and they two shall be the cardinal’s confessors,’ meaning thereby that they should dismiss him into the other world. The saying was reported to Beatoun, but he made light of it, fancying himself perfectly safe in the blockhouse--a kind of fortress--which he had built. ‘I laugh at all that noise,’ said he, ‘and I would not give a button for such bragging. Is not my lord governor mine? Witness his eldest son their pledge at my table. Have I not the queen at my own devotion? Is not France my friend, and am not I friend to France? What danger should I fear?’ Nevertheless Beatoun, for the purpose of cutting off those who troubled him, ordered all his creatures, gentlemen of Fifeshire, to meet him at Falkland on Monday, May 31. The Lesleys and a certain number of their friends were to be taken prisoners and put to death. On the other side, Lesley and his accomplices had no embarrassing scruples at all. The right of the strongest was still frequently appealed to in that half barbarian age. A _coup d’état_, with deeds of violence, was a quite familiar occurrence. These nobles looked on Wishart’s death, without the concurrence of the civil judges, which the lawful government had refused, as a murder; and they considered that as Beatoun was a murderer he ought to be himself put to death. They did not reflect that they were making themselves guilty of the very crime which Beatoun had committed, that of putting themselves in the place of the regular judges. The right of war between feudal lords, which had not yet ceased to be recognized, sufficed to justify them in their own eyes. It was