He caused his body to be taken downe, And over the hatch-bord cast into the sea, And about his middle three hundred crownes: "Whersoever thou lands, itt will bury thee." With his head they sayled into England againe, With right good will, and fforce and main, And the day before new Yeereseven Into Thames mouth they came againe. Then King Henerye shiffted his roome; In came the Queene and ladyes bright; Other arrand they had none But to see Sir Andrew Bartton, Knight. But when they see his deadly face, His eyes were hollow in his head; "I wold give a hundred pound," sais King Henerye, "The man were alive as hee is dead." A gruesome sight, indeed, for the Queen--the courageous but gentle Katharine of Aragon--and her ladies! There is a disposition in some quarters to regard the whole incident as fictitious, but this does not appear to be at all justifiable. Edward Hall, the Chronicler, was a lad of thirteen or fourteen at the time, and so may be regarded as, practically, a contemporary writer; while Bishop Leslie (1527-96) and George Buchanan (1506-82) must certainly have known many persons who remembered the fight. Moreover, it appears to be certain that the _Lion_ and _Jenny Pirwin_ were at that time added to the infant Navy, while the official correspondence of the King of Scotland tells of the grant and renewal of the letters of marque. Barton was not entitled to the "handle" which the Elizabethan rhymester prefixes to his name: he was not a knight, though he might very possibly have become one, had he lived. Whether or not he was, strictly speaking, a pirate is very doubtful; he was probably no worse in this respect than many, both in prior and later times, who have escaped the odium and the consequences of piracy. He was certainly empowered by his sovereign to overhaul and plunder Portuguese ships and appropriate the goods of Portuguese subjects; and if he permitted himself some latitude in the matter of Portuguese cargoes carried in English or other bottoms--well, there are some naval commanders of the twentieth century who would scarcely find themselves in a position to cast the first stone at him; there were some curious doings in the Russo-Japanese War, some of which still await the final decision of the courts. Andrew Barton, as has already been hinted, was not, strictly speaking, a privateer; but he occupies an exceptional position, by reason of his intimate association with the two Scottish kings, which places him somewhat outside of the sphere of the ordinary letter of marque; while as an intrepid sea-fighter, in command of a private ship, he is second to none. THE "AMITY" AND THE SPANIARDS