It is not known when he entered the service of King James.  From his poems it appears that he was employed as a clerk or secretary in several of the missions despatched to foreign courts.  It is difficult to guess in what capacity Dunbar served at Holyrood.  He was all his life a priest, and expected preferment from his royal patron.  We know that he performed mass in the presence.  Yet when the king in one of his dark moods had withdrawn from the gaieties of the capital to the religious gloom of the convent of Franciscans at Stirling, we find the poet inditing a parody on the machinery of the Church, calling on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and on all the saints of the calendar, to transport the princely penitent from Stirling, “where ale is thin and small,” to Edinburgh, where there is abundance of swans, cranes, and plovers, and the fragrant clarets of France.  And in another of his poems, he describes himself as dancing in the queen’s chamber so zealously that he lost one of his slippers, a mishap which provoked her Majesty to great mirth.  Probably, as the king was possessed of considerable literary taste, and could appreciate Dunbar’s fancy and satire, he kept him attached to his person, with the intention of conferring a benefice on him when one fell vacant; and when a benefice did fall vacant, felt compelled to bestow it on the cadet of some powerful family in the state,—­for it was always the policy of James to stand well with his nobles.  He remembered too well the deaths of his father and great-grandfather to give unnecessary offense to his great barons.  From his connexion with the court, the poet’s life may be briefly epitomised.  In August, 1500, his royal master granted Dunbar an annual pension of 10 pounds for life, or till such time as he should be promoted to a benefice of the annual value of 40 pounds.  In 1501, he visited England in the train of the ambassadors sent thither to negotiate the king’s marriage.  The marriage took place in May, 1503, on which occasion the high-piled capital wore holiday attire, balconies blazed with scarlet cloth, and the loyal multitude shouted as bride and bridegroom rode past, with the chivalry of two kingdoms in their train.  Early in May, Dunbar composed his most celebrated poem in honour of the event.  Next year he said mass in the king’s presence for the first time, and received a liberal reward.  In 1505, he received a sum in addition to his stated pension, and two years thereafter his pension was doubled.  In August, 1510, his pension was increased to 80 pounds per annum, until he became possessed of a benefice of the annual value of 10 pounds or upwards.  In 1513, Flodden was fought, and in the confusion consequent on the king’s death, Dunbar and his slowly-increasing pensions disappear from the records of things.  We do not know whether he received his benefice; we do not know the date of his death, and to this day his grave is secret as the grave of Moses.