They spared none but those from whom a heavy | cattle grazing in a full-replenished pasture. ransom was expected. One The fugitives fled three several ways. mighty mass took the way to Leith by the sands; another made direct for Edinburgh by the Figget Moor and Holyrood Park; while by far the most numerous body turned towards Dalkeith, in the hope that the morass which protected the right of their camp might prove a saving obstacle. The autumnal wind bore the noise of the battle at times to Edinburgh; but when the English infantry reached Edmondstone Edge, and found themselves amid the plunder of the Scottish camp equipage, the exulting shout they raised could be distinctly heard in the streets of the city, where that day's slaughter made 360 widows. The Scots by thousands threw themselves into the Esk, a deep river then, and perished miserably under the fire of the cannon from the ships, the fire of the Spaniards and Germans, or by the swords of the English when they scrambled to the bank. On the narrow Roman bridge the press of the living and choke of the dead and dying, men and horses, were frightful; for Lord Clinton's great ship lay broadside on at the river's mouth (a proof of how much the water has shallowed) pointing her cannon on the flying masses; and there were slain the Lord Fleming, the Masters of Buchan, Livingstone, Ogilvy, and Erskine, all the sons of earls; the Lairds of Lochinvar, Merchiston, Craigcrook, Priestfield, Lee, and others, till the barricade of mail-clad dead impeded all further passage. Of the battalion of monks, all nearly perished to a man, and their holy banner was found upon the field. The Esk was literally crimsoned with blood, for the mass of the slain perished on its banks, "the English having vowed that if victorious they should kill many and spare few." The castle of Fawside, near the field, was set on fire by them; the windows were all grated, and as none within it were suffered to come forth, "for their good will all were burned or smothered within" (Patten). He elsewhere admits that the aspect of the field was terrible-so thick were the corpses; some without legs, some houghed and half dead, many with their heads cloven, the brains of sundry dashed out, with a thousand kinds of killing. In the chase, all, for the most part, were killed either in the head or neck, for our horsemen," he adds regretfully, "could not well reach them lower with their swords; and thus, with blood and slaughter, the chase continued for five miles, from the fallow fields of Inveresk unto Edinburgh Park, and well-nigh to the gates of the town itself, in all of which space the dead bodies lay as thick as 141 The river Esk was red with blood, so that in the same chase were counted, by some of our men who diligently observed it, as by several of the prisoners, who greatly lamented the result, upwards of 14,000 slain. It was a wonder to see how soon the dead bodies were stripped quite naked, whereby the persons of the enemy might be easily viewed. For tallness of stature, cleanness of skin, largeness of bone, and due proportion, I could not have believed there were so many in all their country." In the place where the English cavalry were routed he records that they found their horses gored and hewed to pieces, and their slain riders so dreadfully gashed and mangled that their faces were undistinguishable. "Little Preston was found there with both his hands cut off by the wrists, and known to be him, for he wore on each arm a bracelet of gold. Edward Shelly, that worthy gentleman and gallant officer, lay among them pitifully disfigured, mangled, and only discernible by his beard." And all this miserable slaughter had ensued to gratify the ambitious spirit of a dead king, who from his deathbed had bequeathed, like the first Edward to his successors, the hopeless task of attempting to coerce a free and warlike people. Somerset did not follow up his success, or seek to pursue Arran, who retreated towards Stirling. To be ransomed, the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Huntly, and 1,500 other prisoners, were sent on board the fleet; together with 30,000 suits of mail that were found on the field, or packed in cases in the camp. Besides "their common manner of armour' were found what Master Patten calls "certain nice instruments for warnue boardes endes, about a foot in breadth and half a yarde in length, having on the inside handels. made very cunningly of two cordes endes. These, O God's name! were their targettes against the shot of our small artillerie, for they were not able to hold cannon." In the tents, he adds, were found abundance of good provisions, white bread, ale, oat cakes, oatmeal, mutton, butter in pots, and cheese, and in the tents of the nobles good wine and silver plate. Cold in the cause of their country, many of those same nobles had been among the first to fly "like traitors," as Arran called them; and hence came the rhyme, by which the Scots sought to console themselves for their defeat— "Twas English gold and Scots traiters won The Highlanders suffered little loss, they threw themselves into one dense circle, and in that strange order retired over the most difficult ground, where in Bunbury Church, Cheshire, there is a monument none could pursue them. to Sir George Beeston, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his bravery against the Armada, and who died in 1601, at the age of 102 years. fought in that great slaughter of the 10th of September, 1547, as his tomb records, "contra Scotos apud Musselborrow." After remaining a week near Edinburgh, during which he burned Sir Andrew Barton's house in Leith, set fire to that town, and stripped the lead off Holyrood Church, the Protector Somerset commenced his retreat for England, having won a battle for no use or purpose; and the young Queen of Scots became the bride of France. Sir John Hayward's assertion, that Somerset lost only "under sixty men" in the whole sixteen days' campaign, must be treated as absurd. As the English marched home by the field of Pinkie, they found the greater part of the dead still lying unburied. A number had been interred in St. Michael's Churchyard at Inveresk, in graves that were lightly turfed over. Beside several of the bodies, says Patten, there was set "a stick with a clout, a rag, an old shoe, or some other mark," by their sorrowing kindred, to distinguish them when they might come to inter them on the English leaving the country. The day of this defeat was long remembered as the Black Saturday of Pinkie; but the English invariably named the battle after the adjacent town. Thus, He In the following "acquittance," rendered into English, it is styled the battle of Inveresk:-" I, Walter Scott, of Branxholm, knight, grant me to have received from an honourable man, Sir Patrick Cheyne, of Essilmont, knight, the sum of eight score English nobles-for which I was bound and obliged to content, and pay to Thomas Dacre, of Lanercost, knight, Englishman-taken of the said Sir Patrick, at the field of Inveresk, for his ransom; for which sum I hold me well content and payed. In witness whereof I have subscribed this, my letter of acquittance, with my hand, at Edinburgh, this 2nd March, 1548" (Aberdeen Collections). The result of Pinkie added greatly to the ferocity of subsequent encounters between the English and Scots, and the latter, on the borders, made the most dreadful retaliations, leading for a time to an inextinguishable thirst for blood. CHAPTER XXV. SIEGE OF LEITH, 1560. No military event of importance occurred during the short life of Edward VI. or the subsequent reign of his sister Mary; and, prior to the exploits of Hawkins and Drake, the defence of the seaport of Leith by a French garrison, under a Marshal of France, until compelled by hunger to eat their horses, when besieged by a mixed force of English and Scots, forms the next prominent occurrence in our warlike history. The flame of the Reformation, long stifled in Scotland, had now burst forth and spread over the realm with the fury of a volcanic eruption. Elizabeth, then on the throne of England, had composed the dissensions of that kingdom; and finding her power there firmly established, she naturally turned her attention to Scotland, where the Catholic party would have formed but a minority, save for the power of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise and Lorraine, and the presence of the French troops, who had been sent there to uphold the authority of Mary, her daughter, the Queen of Scotland and Consort of France. Elizabeth, though anxious enough to make some profit out of the troubles of the Scots, was too cunning, or too politic, to do much that might embroil her with France; but she supplied the enemies of the Regent with money and encouragement in secret. After the disgraceful demolition of the cathedrals, churches, and monasteries by the lawless mobs of Scotland, the Regent came to an open rupture with the Lords of the Congregation, as the insurgent nobles termed themselves, and both parties appealed to arms. Powerful reinforcements were expected by her from France, and on the 30th of July she formed a camp on the common still known as the Links of Leith, a town which the French forces-some of whom had been long in Scotland-now began to fortify, by adding to the defences erected there ten years before by André de Montalembert and General d'Essé d'Epainvilliers. Leith.] FIFESHIRE RAVAGED. 143 The council of the Protestant lords suspended | rate at sea;" and concluding that these must have the Queen Regent from the exercise of her office, but found themselves unable to reduce Leith, where the French soldiers, being veterans of Francis I. and Henry II., gave infinite trouble to the less skilful levies of the Congregation, which blockaded the town in October, 1559. Before proceeding to extremities, they sent a long-winded summons, in the names of "their sovereign lord and lady Francis and Mary, King and Queen of Scotland and France," demanding that all "Scots and Frenchmen, of whatever estate or degree, depart out of the town of Leith within the space of twelve hours." No answer was returned. The Regent, whose power was now over, lay ill on her death-bed, in the castle of Edinburgh, and the assailants prepared to attack the last remnant of her adherents in Leith, which they endeavoured to carry by assault; but their scaling-ladders proved too short, and the fire of the French repulsed them. The lords were short of money, and on losing 4,000 crowns of the sum sent by Queen Elizabeth for their aid, but which were abstracted, sword in hand, from the bearer by the Earl of Bothwell, their troops became disheartened, irresolute, and disorderly, despising alike the threats of the peers and the denunciations of the preachers. on board the long-expected succours from France, under the Marquis d'Elbœuf; in honour of this arrival, they fired seaward a salute from their great culverins on the brow of the bluff. Their feu de joie and congratulations were somewhat premature, as the strange barques proved to be the English fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral William Winter, Master of the Naval Ordnance, sailing up the Firth to assist the Scottish lords in the reduction of Leith. On discovering St. George's Cross, the French, overwhelmed with mortification and disappointment, broke into three separate columns, and retreated westward towards Stirling, there to cross the river and regain their shelter in Leith. Death and disaster were the concomitants of this retreat, for Kirkaldy and others followed them closely, till they reached the seaport, harassed, palled with excesses, and minus some of the best and bravest of their comrades, among whom they regretted none so much as a Swiss captain named L'Abast, whose skull had been cloven, through steel and bone, by the sword of the Master of Lindesay, near Kinghorn. Coligny, the Seigneur d'Andelot, and Paul de la Barthe, Lord of Thermes, and Maréchal of France in 1555, also served in these Scottish wars. In fulfilment of the treaty with England, when the winter snows melted and the season for action came, on the 2nd of April, 1560, there marched into Scotland an English force, amounting to 1,250 horse and 6,000 infantry, under the veteran William, Lord Grey of Wilton, Warden of the East and Middle Marches of England. The second officer in com In their disputation, they sent certain delegates to England, and a meeting was held at Berwick between the Duke of Norfolk and these persons, who were the Lord James Stuart (afterwards the Regent Murray), Patrick Ruthven (the ghastly Ruthven of the Rizzio murder), James Wishart, of Pittarrow, and three others. With these Re-mand was Sir James Crofts; the Lord Scroope formers the Duke of Norfolk concluded a treaty, which, with some slight alterations, was confirmed by the Queen of England. The chief object of this treaty was the defence of the Protestant religion and of the ancient rights and liberties of Scotland against the attempts of France to destroy them and make a conquest of that kingdom-in effect, to crush completely the Catholic interest and the power of the House of Guise. While these arrangements were pending, the French troops, under General d'Oisel, the Count de Martigues, and others, were ravaging Fife and destroying the estates of the leading Protestant lords, though closely followed and harassed by a body of cavalry, under Sir William Kirkaldy, of Grange, who sent a challenge to D'Oisel, defying him to mortal combat-an invitation which the Frenchman declined to accept. When marching eastward, on the 25th of March, 1560, the French ravagers reached the promontory of Kincraigie, in Fifeshire, where they "discerned eight great ships of the first was earl-marshal; Sir George Howard was general of the men-at-arms, and Burnaby Fitzpatrick was his lieutenant; Sir Henry Piercy was general of the light horse or demi-lances; Thomas Huggins was provost-marshal; William Pelham was captain of the pioneers (Stow); and Thomas Gower was captain of the ordnance. The spread of the use of fire-arms had now led to some alteration in the military equipments of this period. Armour now seldom came below the hip, complete suits being only used for tilting; and knights frequently appeared in the lists without greaves or steel boots. The breastplates were made, however, much thicker, in order to be bullet-proof; the tassettes were now of one plate each, but marked as if composed of several; the point of the tapul projected downward, like the doublets of Elizabeth's time; and the morions were frequently beautifully embossed, especially those which came from France and Italy. Carbines, petronels, and dragons are frequently mentioned among the fire i arms of the age. The first was so named from having been first used in the vessels called carabs; the second from being fired with its square butt planted upon the chest; the third from its muzzle being frequently decorated with a dragon's head; and hence the troopers who used it came subsequently to be named dragoons. The wheel-lock hackbut was used in Elizabeth's reign, with the rest for the heavy matchlock. But the powder was now made up in cases, each containing a complete charge, to facilitate the loading of the piece; and the strap to which they were attached was named a collar or bandolier. The lighter troops, The prevailing colours for the clothing of this time were white and "sadd grene or russet," according to Grose, and red cloaks were worn chiefly by the cavalry. On the 23rd July, 1601. we find that when 1,500 of Elizabeth's soldiers arrived from England to share in the siege of Ostend, they wore red cassocks. Of these, says Stow, 1,000 were Londoners, and they are now represented by the 3rd Regiment of Foot, or Kentish Buffs. On the day after Lord Grey of Wilton's forces entered Scotland, he marched as far as Dunglass, where the infantry encamped, while the cavalry BREECH-LOADING WHEEL-LOCK PISTOL (ABOUT TIME OF HENRY VIII.). STOCK OF IVORY. called demi-lances, were now replacing the heavily mailed men-at-arms, who had figured so conspicuously in all wars since the Middle Ages. In a letter of Sir John Harrington's, we find the pay and the clothing of Elizabeth's troops detailed at some length. The following is the outfit for an officer of the English service in 1599:"A cassock of broadcloth ... ... £1 A doublet of canvas, with silk lining and buttons Two shirts and two bands 7 -some of whom had served at Pinkie-were peacefully cantoned in the adjacent villages. The next day's march brought them to Haddington. As they had passed the castle of Dunbar, some of the Queen Regent's adherents sallied out; an encounter took place, and some lives were lost. The third day's march brought them to Prestonpans, 7 where they met the Scottish leaders, and had an interview; which is, perhaps, the more important from the fact that now we find, for the first time in history, Scottish and English forces acting together as allies. 56 6 7 O 7 O 15 4 £40 10." Mary of Guise still remained obstinate. She would bow to no terms, and refused to dismiss the French troops without the consent of her daughter and the King of France. The English and Scots now advanced upon Leith, where the operations of the siege were inaugurated by a long and fierce The French in Leith were now reduced to 5,000 men, and their orders were to defend the place to the last. The long-expected reinforcements, under René, the Marquis d'Elbœuf, uncle of the young Queen of Scotland and general of the galleys of France, never reached its shores. They were chiefly levied by the Rhinegrave's assistance (Camden); but a tempest scattered his fleet on the coast of Holland, and the little force in Leith was left to its own resources. It was now led by Monsieur Octavius, brother of D'Elbœuf, who was a peer of the house of Lorraine, and had led into Scotland some of the old Bandes Françaises; the Comte de Martigues, a young noble of the house of Luxembourg, afterwards Duc d'Estampes, France was issued in 1554, six years before the siege of Leith. The fortifications of the latter at this time, chiefly made by the skilful French, under General d'Essé, consisted of strong walls and ramparts, with eight great bastions. Towards Edinburgh and the west these works measured about 16,500 feet; on the eastward more than 10,000 feet, and on the northern or seaward line more than 12,500 feet. The bastions, the first of which, called Ramsay's Fort, defended the harbour, were all angular, and well flanked out. The French had also taken possession of the tower of the preceptory of St. Anthony, and had slung cannon up to its summit. The English, says Holinshed, began to cut |