1559.] PROCEEDINGS OF SCOTTISH REFORMERS. 19

had the hardihood to prepare to celebrate mass: but the people, who had been wrought up to a high degree of excitement by the eloquence of Knox, rushed forward, seized and destroyed the implements, tore the pictures, broke the images, and overthrew the altars. They then proceeded, their numbers increasing as they went, to the convents of the Gray, Black, and White Friars, whence they drove out the inmates, and pillaged and destroyed the buildings. The same thing was done at Cupar, in Fife, which was reformed, as the phrase was, in a similar manner.

The regent, on receiving the intelligence, advanced with what troops she had towards Perth. She was joined by Arran (now Duke of Chatelherault in France), Argyle, James Stuart, prior of St. Andrew's, and other lords of the Reformed party, while Glencairn and others led their retainers to the support of the Congregation. They were so formidable in numbers and evinced so determined a spirit, that the regent, dubious of the event of a conflict, agreed to an accommodation. She was then admitted into Perth. But it was not long before she perfidiously violated the conditions; whereupon the Congregation, now joined by Argyle and the prior, again took up arms; Knox became their animating spirit, and Anstruther, Scone, Stirling, and other places, were reformed as Perth had been. They advanced to Edinburgh, where they were admitted by the people, who had already reformed their city. The queen took refuge at Dunbar but the usual causes having acted to increase her strength and to diminish that of her adversaries, a new accommodation was agreed to, and on the 12th of July she regained possession of Edinburgh. Soon after troops came from France to her support, and she stationed them at Leith, which she had fortified.

Henry II. of France, having lost his life by an accident at the tournament celebrated in honour of his sis

* She introduced a French garrison into Perth, fined or banish ed the most obnoxious citizens, displaced the magistrates, and forbade the exercise of any religion except the Roman Catholic, all of which was in direct violation of her solemn promises.-Am. Ed.

ter's marriage with the Duke of Savoy, was succeeded by the dauphin, under the title of Francis II., and the power of the Guises was now without limits. The young sovereigns styled themselves King and Queen of England. The design of making Scotland, and eventually England, a dependency of France, and of putting down the Reformation, was still retained. Additional troops were collected to be sent to the former kingdom. The Congregation saw, therefore, that, unless supported by England, they ran the risk of being crushed; and they accordingly sent Maitland of Lethington and Robert Melvill secretly to London. Cecil stated to his royal mistress various reasons which he said not only justified, but rendered imperative on her the support of the applicants. Her scruples about treating with the subjects of another prince gave way, and she concluded a treaty with the lords of the Congregation, solemnly promising never to desist till the French should evacuate Scotland. Admiral Winter was sent with a fleet of fifteen sail to the Frith of Forth, and an army of eight thousand men was assembled on the borders.

The French troops had surprised Stirling, and were laying Fifeshire waste, when the appearance of Winter's fleet forced them to return to Leith, where they were besieged by the Congregationalists.* A treaty for peace was now set on foot at Newcastle, whither Elizabeth sent Cecil and Wotton to meet the French ministers. While it was in progress the queen-regent died, on the 11th of June, 1560. The negotiation was then removed to Edinburgh, and it was finally agreed that the French should evacuate Scotland; that twelve persons, seven to be selected by the queen and five by the parliament, should govern the kingdom; and

* During this siege the queen-regent died, of whom Robertson says, that she outlived in a great measure that reputation and popularity which had smoothed her way to the highest station in the kingdom; and by many examples of falsehood and some of severity, in the latter part of her administration, alienated from her the affections of a people who had once placed in her an unbounded confidence."-Am. Ed.

1560.]

PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE.

21

that war or peace should not be made without the consent of the parliament. By a separate treaty with Elizabeth, Francis and Mary were to renounce the title of king and queen of England. These princes, however, refused to ratify the treaty, under pretext that the Scots had not fulfilled the conditions, and that Elizabeth continued to support them.

In France itself, at this time, the Protestants formed a numerous party: their heads were the Prince of Condé, the Admiral Coligni and his brother Andelot. The persecution against them, which had been begun by Francis I., was still kept up; and, from the furious bigotry of the Guises, it was likely to be aggravated. Community of interest naturally made them look to the Queen of England; and Throgmorton, her ambassador, entered into communication with them. An attempt was made to seize the young king at Amboise; but it failed, and the hopes of the Reformers were crushed for a time. The aspect of affairs in France, however, soon underwent a considerable change. Francis, who was a puny, delicate youth, died on the 5th of December, and the queen-dowager, Catharine de' Medici, became regent for the minority of her son Charles IX.; the King of Navarre, whom the Guises had thrown into prison, was liberated, and made lieutenant-general of the kingdom; the Prince of Condé, who had been condemned to death, was also set at liberty; the Constable Montmorenci was recalled to court, and a counterpoise to the power of the Guises was thus formed.

The widowed queen, finding the court where she had ruled no longer an agreeable abode, retired to that of her uncles in Lorraine. She still persevered in refusing to ratify the treaty with Elizabeth. Her subjects sent, entreating her to return to her own kingdom; and her uncles urged her to the same course: but the ill feeling which prevailed between her and the queen-mother assured her that she could never expect happiness in France. She therefore consented to a departure; and her minister, D'Oysell, was sent to England to ask a safe passage for himself and

his royal mistress to Scotland. Elizabeth received him in the presence of her whole court; and, in a tone of strong emotion, refused both requests, unless the treaty of Edinburgh were first ratified. "Let your queen," said she, "ratify the treaty, and she shall experience on my part, either by sea or by land, whatever can be expected from a queen, a relation, or a neighbour." When Mary was informed of this refusal, she remonstrated in very spirited terms with Throgmorton against the conduct of Elizabeth. Another envoy, however, was sent to London; and, as Mary intimated her intentions of being guided by the advice of her council in Scotland, Elizabeth declared herself content to "suspend her conceit of unkindness ;" and, in answer to the report that was made of her having sent a fleet to intercept her, she assured her that she had only, at the desire of the King of Spain, sent two or three small barks to sea in pursuit of some Scottish pirates.

Mary, accompanied by her uncles, and many lords and ladies of the court of France, now proceeded to Calais, where she embarked on the 14th of August, 1561. Just as she was leaving the harbour, a vessel was lost in her sight. "Mercy," cried she, "what an omen for a voyage!" She stood leaning with both arms on the poop, and the tears streamed from her eyes as she regarded the country she was leaving. She continually repeated, "Farewell, France! farewell, France!" When it was growing dark and she was summoned down to supper, her tears flowed still more plenteously; and she cried, "It is now, my dear France, that I lose sight of thee; I shall never see thee more." A bed was prepared for her on the poop; and she directed the pilot to awake her at daybreak if the coast of France should be still in sight. The man called her as she had desired. She gazed on the distant coast till it sunk from her view. "Farewell, France," said she; "it is over; I shall never see thee more." The English squadron met and saluted her. It searched the baggage ships for pirates, and detained one that was suspected.* On the third day

* A very different account of this matter is given by other his

1561.]

CHARACTER OF MARY.

23

a dense fog came on, which obliged them to cast anchor in the open sea; and the next day the queen landed at Leith. Though she came before the appointed time, and due preparations had not, therefore, been made to receive her, the people crowded down to the port to evince their loyalty: but the queen and her retinue could procure no better conveyance to the palace of Holyrood than the paltry horses of the country, and these ill caparisoned. "Are these," cried she, "the pomps, the splendours, and the superb animals on which I used to ride in France?" In the evening a concert of barbarous and discordant music, performed before her windows to testify the joy of her subjects, grated the ears of Mary and her French attendants.

*

The young queen was now in her nineteenth year. Her person was tall and elegant, and her face handsome, if not beautiful. Her abilities were considerable, and her manners highly polished. She had been brought up in a court where the serpent but too often lurked among the roses: where treachery, falsehood, and cruelty lay hid beneath the covert of honeyed words and wreathed smiles; and where dissoluteness of manners prevailed to a degree elsewhere unknown. She had been reared, too, in a bigoted adherence to the tenets and practices of Rome. She had come, on the contrary, to a country poor and semi-barbarous, where deeds of violence and treachery were openly enacted; where the Reformation breathed its sternest spirit, as yet but little mitigated by the Gospel precepts of peace and charity; where the reformed clergy, led by the rigid Knox, denounced the masks, torians, and Elizabeth is openly charged with having sent out this squadron for the express purpose of intercepting the Scottish queen, and bringing her to England; which, is said, was prevented only by a fog which very opportunely arose, and prevented the French vessels from being seen by the English.-See Bell's Life of Mary Queen of Scots, i., 96, et. seq., Harpers' edition.Am. Ed.

* We express ourselves thus, because, in some undoubtedly genuine portraits of Mary, her face is not by any means what w should consider beautiful.