with all necessaries, and join them with a body of horse and foot; that the wives, or nearest relations of the soldiers slain, should receive a gratuity, to be regulated by the English general; that all the great guns destroyed in the siege, should be replaced by others of similar size, out of the castle; that the English general should not fortify on Scottish ground, without permission of the regent, and should retire immediately on the castle being reduced, and for the fulfilment of these conditions on the part of the Scots, and as a guarantee for the safe return of the English with all their stores, the chances of war excepted, the Scots were to grant hostages.*

Next

On the treaty being ratified, and the hostages delivered, Drury set out from Berwick, at the head of fifteen hundred men, the artillery and military stores being sent by sea. On his arrival, the regent joined him with all his forces. day, the castle was summoned, and an offer made to spare the lives of the garrison, if they would capitulate before the batteries were erected, but this being refused, the trenches were opened, and approaches regularly carried on. Animated with all the resolution of despair, Kirkaldy nobly defended the fortress, against the united efforts of the English and the regent, determined rather to die, than surrender himself into the hands of his inveterate enemy, nor did his gallant unsubdued spirit demand a parley, till a practicable breach was made, and a lodgment effected within the bulwarks, yet even then, he would have sought the honour of a soldier's death, had not his small garrison, worn out with fatigue, watching, and thirst for the rubbish had choked the well without,+ and the firing of the castle opening the rock, caused the water of that within to be absorbed-obliged the governor to ask a truce, which was granted for two days. During this time, he attempted in vain to obtain terms, but Morton would hearken

* Robertson takes no notice of this convention, although both Spotswood and Crawford insert the treaty ; and it appears to have been in consequence of the stipulation, forbidding any secret or distinct negotiation with the queen's party, that reference was made to Elizabeth to determine the fate of Kirkaldy and his associates after the castle fell.

+ Sir James Melville says, the well without the walls, to which the men were let down by a rope was poisoned.

to nothing, except unconditional surrender. He then resolved to perish amid the ruins. His soldiers, however, seduced by the regent's emissaries, refused to hazard another assault, and he, by the advice of Lethington, surrendered himself and the castle, to Drury, the English commander, upon a promise that he should be favourably treated. There surrendered along with him, Maitland, lord Home, Sir Robert Melville, some few citizens of Edinburgh, and about one hundred and fifty, or one hundred and sixty soldiers.

The common men were dismissed, on promising not to serve against the king, and the greater part of them enlisted in the Dutch service, but those of rank were detained prisoners, till the queen of England's pleasure should be known. The regent claimed the chiefs, as guilty of rebellion, in order that they might be tried by law for their offence. To this Drury would not consent, admiring the valour of Kirkaldy, and unwilling to deliver up a man, who had trusted to his word and honour. He carried him to his own lodgings, where he treated him with that humanity and kindness, which one brave and generous spirit always shows to another, and at the same time, used every endeavour to induce the queen of England to confirm the engagements he had entered into in her name. Influenced, however, by the representations of Morton, who alleged that neither his person nor government could be secure, so long as such intriguing and inveterate enemies were alive, Elizabeth, regardless of the honour or engagements of her general, ordered the prisoners to be placed at the disposal of the regent. Drury, reluctantly complied with the imperative mandate, but immediately retired to Berwick, and threw up his commission in disgust. Morton, as soon as he obtained possession of the persons of the prisoners, committed them to separate places of confinement, and in a few days, condemned Kirkaldy, and his brother Sir James, to be hanged at the cross of Edinburgh. Thus perished by the hands of the public executioner, one of the bravest, and most generous warriors of his age, sacrificed to the jealousy or the avarice of Morton. He had been one of the earliest friends, and during the first days of peril and trial, one of the most intrepid, and successful defenders of the Reformation, but personal disgust

with Morton, or the intrigues of Maitland, fatally alienated him from the friends of his youth, and induced him to desert the cause he had laboured so strenuously to establish. Knox lamented his defection, and on his deathbed, sent him an affecting, and, as it proved, a prophetical exhortation, to leave a party, his adherence to which would bring his life to a shameful close. He despised the warning at the time, but at the place of execution, remembered it with tears. Two goldsmiths were executed along with the brothers.

Maitland, fearing a like ignominious end, is said to have escaped by a voluntary death. His talents as a statesman were certainly of the first order, but his fickleness and inconstancy, deprived him of that weight in the state, which his abilities would otherwise have commanded. Buchanan, in his Chæmelion, has commemorated both his genius and versatility.

By this blow, the interest of Mary was effectually broken in Scotland, and her party were never after able to make any head against that of the king. Abroad, her affairs wore no better an aspect. The duke of Alva, who had interested himself strongly in her favour, being recalled from the gov ernment of the Netherlands, and Charles IX. of France dying about the same time, she lost two of her best friends. Charles was an ardent admirer of Mary's beauty, and had sincerely interposed in her behalf, but the aversion of his mother to that princess, and his constant wars with the protestants, obstructed his exertions; while the horrible massacres which disgraced his reign, tended greatly to weaken his influence in her cause. Henry III. who succeeded him, had not the same affection for her person, and was besides, the decided enemy of the house of Guise, whose power and influence were considerably diminished, by the death of the cardinal before the end of the year.

From this date, the unhappy queen of Scots must only be considered as an exile, whose story forms an interesting episode in Scottish history, but is only incidentally connected with the affairs of that country. In England, her ambassador was dismissed from the court, and she was left to pine in the solitude of a prison, without any regular medium through

which she could convey her complaints to the ear of her op pressors, or hold any correspondence with foreign princes.

The civil war thus ended, Morton applied himself assiduously to correct the mischiefs naturally consequent on a state of internal commotion, particularly in such a country as Scotland, which had been so long rent with factions, and whose half civilized inhabitants, even in the most tranquil times, were hardly ever accustomed to regard the law. One of his first cares was to repress the disorderly borderers, whose outrages had increased during the calamities of the times, and occasioned frequent remonstrances from the English court. For this purpose he proceeded in person to the scene of action, where he had an interview with Sir John Forrester, the English warden of the middle march, to adjust all the differences which had arisen, and to concert measures for preventing their recurrence. He compelled the chiefs of the different districts to give pledges for their good behaviour, and appointed as wardens, in whom he could confide, Sir James Home of Cowdenknowes for the eastern; Sir John Carmichael, one of his principal ministers, for the middle; and lord Maxwell for the western marches.

By his vigorous proceedings the regent restored general order and tranquillity to the kingdom; but the rigour of his prosecutions, and the avarice he displayed, lost him the affections of the people, which his important services had merited. His strictness in collecting the royal revenues, and his rigidity in recalling the grants by which the crown lands had been alienated, disgusted the nobles; while the whole community were injured by the debasement of the coin, which was carried to a great extent during his administration; besides, he everywhere employed these miscreants, who in all ages have been held in detestation, and whose encouragement infallibly marks a government as tyrannical and depraved— spies and informers. By them imaginary crimes were invented, petty trespasses aggravated, and the accused were often forced to redeem their lives at the expense of their estates.

* Dr. Cooke, in his History of the Church of Scotland, mentions, but without quoting his authority, a strange mode of exacting money which Mor ton exercised: " He also sentenced to whipping and imprisonment those who

In the midst of his exactions, there was nothing procured him more universal dislike than his conduct towards the church, from whose ministers he extorted the greater part of the slender pittance upon which, at the best, they could scarcely exist. The thirds of the benefices had been appropriated for the discharge of these stipends, but through the want of power in the collectors to enforce, or the unwillingness of those who had seized on the spoils of the church to part with any portion, they received their salaries slowly and irregularly; and during the commotions, the payment in some parts of the country was altogether interrupted. On pretence of remedying this evil, and to ensure a ready and available supply, the regent proposed that the thirds should be vested in the crown, under promise to make the stipend of every minister local, and payable in the parish where he served; and if upon trial this arrangement was found ineligible, he engaged, at their request, to replace them in their former situation; but no sooner did he obtain possession of the thirds, than he appointed several churches, sometimes four, to the charge of one minister, who was directed to preach in them alternately, and in his absence a reader, with a pitiful salary, performed the duty of reading prayers. The allowance to the superintendents was at the same time altogether stopped, and when they made application at court, they were informed that their office was no more necessary, bishops being placed in the diocess, and that the ecclesiastical jurisdiction belonged to them. When the ministers complained, and desired to be placed upon the same footing on which they formerly stood, they were informed that the surplus of the thirds belonged to the king, and therefore the regent and council, and not the church, ought to regulate the stipends of the ministers, and manage the remainder.

The assembly, who found, when too late, that they had acted unwisely in placing the funds allotted for their own main

ate flesh in time of Lent, which sentences were uniformly remitted upon paying fines," vol. i. Note, p. 234.

* Except, perhaps, during a short part of the regent Moray's administration.-M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 160, Note. Indeed the pretexts used by Morton to induce them to surrender their right, implies as much.