ABOUT the year 1556, Sir James Kirkcaldy closed his chequered career. The latter years of his life, those subsequent to his return from captivity, had been spent in retirement and comparative obscurity. After mentioning his liberation, and the amnesty which put an end to his exile from Scotland, the chronicles and letters of the period make no further reference to him; and it is only from an entry in a writ of Chancery that the approximate date of his death can be determined. It was as Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange that his son returned to his native land. The first incident in which he figures, though but of slight importance in itself, is too characteristic of his chivalrous nature and martial spirit to be omitted. It had chanced, some time previously, that in the course of one of those raids, which were of constant occurrence on the Border, John Kirkcaldy had been made prisoner, by a party of Englishmen, belonging to the garrison of Berwick, of which Lord Evers was governor at the time. According to the recognised custom of the age, the young Scotsman was kept in confinement until such time as his friends should pay the ransom demanded by his captors. But, from the account which he gave after his release, it appeared that he had been treated with undue harshness by Lord Evers during his enforced stay within the walls of the English fortress. John Kirkcaldy himself was not of sufficient rank and standing to demand satisfaction of the governor. His cousin, however, was a soldier whose reputation made it no disgrace for the bravest Englishman to break a lance with him. As his kinsman’s champion, the Laird of Grange sent a challenge to the Governor of Berwick to meet him in single combat. But he had not reckoned on the punctiliousness of the English lord. Evers pleaded no justification of his conduct, nor did he deny the Scotsmen’s right, according to the established laws of chivalry, to demand satisfaction; but he would not recognise the simple Scottish Baron as his equal, and consequently declined the encounter. To ignore the cartel altogether, would, however, have exposed the English to taunts too insulting to be borne with equanimity; and for the honour of his country and of his family, Lord Evers’s brother, Sir Ralph, gallantly made known his readiness to fight with the Laird of Grange ‘ane singular combatt upoun horsback with speares.’ To this he received the reply, that Sir William was ‘verrie weill content thairof, and to meitt him in ony place he pleised.’ It was accordingly arranged that the duel should take place at Halidon Hill, in presence of the two garrisons of Berwick and of Eyemouth, but that under pain of treason, no man should come within an arrow’s flight of the two champions. Each of them, however, was allowed to have an attendant to bear his spear. There were also to be two trumpeters, and two lords ‘to be judges to see the matter finished.’ On the appointed day, the two knights rode into the field.