trenches; and raised a mound, which they called Mount Pelham, on the south-east side of the town, for a battery of cannon. Lord Grey, with the demi-lances, occupied the little town of Restalrig, and to the north of it the infantry, "with their captains, were lodged in halls, huts, and pavilions." In this camp were the Earls of Montrose, Argyle, Glencairn, the Prior of St. Andrew's, and other Reformers, with only 2,000 men (though some accounts swell them up to 12,000), a fact which shows the total dislike of the mass of the people, either to the matter in hand, or to co-operation with English troops. Prior to the siege being opened, the French resorted to a little act of treachery. Strozzi sent a special message to Lord Grey, requesting a "cessation of hostilities," which his lordship granted. Taking advantage of this, the French issued forth, and flocked in considerable numbers, and all with their arms, about the English encampments at Restalrig, Hawkhill, and Hermitage, affecting to be lured there by curiosity; while several concealed themselves in thickets and bushes. Some jostled the English sentinels, to provoke a challenge or quarrel; and when Lord Grey, disliking these demonstrations, ordered them to retire, their reply was that "they should like to know his right to order them off the ground of their mistress, the Queen Regent." They were then told that "had it not been for the cessation of hostilities granted at their own request, they would have been compelled to keep at a respectful distance." This answer irritated the French, who, after defying the English to "do their worst," deliberately fired their arquebuses and pistols pointblank into the faces of those who were nearest to them. A volley of English oaths followed this treacherous attack, and a conflict instantly ensued. Those French who were in concealment now rushed to join their comrades. The English, taken thus completely by surprise, were thrown into confusion, and were seen running to arms in all directions, and yet none in camp knew whence came the dreadful uproar. At every turn they were met and slaughtered by the French; and shouts now mingled with the incessant explosion of arquebuses, till the French were driven in pell-mell through one of the gates of Leith, with the loss of 140 men killed, and twelve gentlemen and five arquebusiers taken prisoners. The loss of the English is not recorded, but we may reasonably conclude that, as they were attacked unawares, it would exceed that of their assailants. extending to Hermitage Hill, was sufficiently commanding and well chosen, but was too remote to enable the artillery of those days to injure either the town or its fortifications. They spent the first few days of the siege in forming bulwarks and digging trenches to protect themselves from the spirited and incessant sallies of the French. Whenever they perceived any detachments advancing from the town, an equal force was sent to meet them. These parties generally met midway on the Links of Leith, and there many encounters of a sanguinary nature ensued. Tiring of this, and to press the siege, Lord Grey formed batteries nearer the walls-one, named Mount Pelham, already mentioned, at the distance of 1,200 feet from the eastern ramparts; one, named Mount Somerset, at 600 feet distance; and a third, named Mount Falcon, at 250 feet southeast of St. Ninian's Church—and it is interesting to observe that two of these mounds still remain; and from their summits may still be traced the zig-zags, or regular approaches made to the walls by the soldiers of Elizabeth. After a cannonade for several days from eight guns on Mount Somerset, the steeple of St. Anthony, with its cannon and defenders, fell with a mighty crash. This feat, which a single shot from some of our modern cannon would accomplish in one minute, afforded the greatest exultation to the gunners of Captain Pelham, "who actually contemplated with wonder the effect of their prowess." Admiral Winter's fleet now seconded the efforts of the besiegers, by sailing close to the pier, where the crews opened a most destructive fire, by which many of the soldiers and of the luckless inhabitants were killed and wounded. Thomas Churchyard, the English poet, was one of Lord Grey's soldiers, and among his "Chips" is a poem entitled "The Siege of Leith; more aptlie called, The Schole of Warre." It was printed at London, in 1565, and contains many curious details. On the 21st of April, Jean de Monluc, the learned Bishop of Valence, in Savoy, came as ambassador to Scotland. He was conveyed first to the English camp, and thence to the castle of Edinburgh, where for two days he held a conference with the Queen Regent, without effecting the object of his mission-a peaceful reconciliation, with the dismissal of the French troops, who were already suffering from lack of supplies. On the 4th of May an attempt was made to carry the town by storm; and the "Orders for Thassalt" (sic), issued by Lord Grey, are curious, as being, perhaps, one of the oldest detailed orders extant, The position of the English, on the rising ground and containing the names of some of the earliest Leith.] DEATH OF THE SCOTTISH REGENT. officers in the English army:-" May 4, 1560, vppone Saturdaye, in the mornyng, at thri of the clock, God willinge, we shalbe in readynes to give the assalte, in order as followithe, if other ympedyment than we knowe not yet of hyndre us not." For the first assault were detailed Captain Rede, with 300 men; Captains Markham, Taxley, Sutton, Fairfax, Mallorye, the Provost - Marshal, Aston, Conway, Drury (afterwards Sir William Drury, Marshal of Berwick), Barkley, and Fitzwilliams, each with 200 men, and 500 arquebusiers to be furnished by the Scots. For the second assault, fourteen captains and 2,240 men. "To kepe the fielde," Captain Somerset and eight other captains, with 2,400 men. To be furnished by "the VyceAdmyralle of the Quene's Majesty's Schippes," 500 men. Captain Vaughan was to assault the town near Mount Pelham, and the Scots on the seaward. The attack on four quarters of the town was not made till seven in the morning. The fleet failed to send the required men, thus enabling the French to muster at the points assailed with greater strength. The scaling-ladders proved too short by half a pike's length. Sir James Crofts committed some terrible blunders; and as he had lately had an interview with the Queen Regent, "appeared to act under enchantment," The whole attempt turned out a failure, and the English were repulsed with slaughter, and driven out of their trenches by the Comte de Martigues, to the risk of having their cannon taken. Pitscottie says 100 of "the English white cloakes" were slain. Keith has it that, in scouring the trenches, the French slew 600 men, spiked three pieces of cannon-and captured Sir Maurice Berkeley, adds Camden. The siege had continued nearly a month, without any prospect of a termination; and hitherto it had been attended with no other effect (exclusive of the daily loss of life, especially as Elizabeth continued to send more troops and ships) than of reducing the garrison to such dire extremity for want of provisions, that they were compelled to shoot and eat the horses of the officers and gens d'armes. Yet they endured their privations with true French sang-froid, vowing never to surrender while a horse was left; "their officers exhibiting that politeness in the science of gastronomy which is recorded of the Maréchal Strozzi, whose maitre de cuisine, during the blockade, maintained his master's table with twelve covers every day, although he had nothing better to set upon it now and then except the quarter of a carrion horse, dressed with the grass and weeds which grew upon the ramparts." 147 The repulse of the assault, in which we are told the French were assisted by their "Scottish paramours," who fired arquebuses, and threw burning coals, stones, and timber on the stormers, greatly exasperated the English; but still more did a display of the dead bodies of their comrades, whom the French stripped quite nude, and barbarously arrayed in grotesque order on the slope of the glacis towards Lord Grey's camp-a display which John Knox pretends the Queen Regent could see, and exult over, from the castle of Edinburgh. The unfortunate princess was sinking fast, and now requested an interview with General d'Oisel, her friend and countryman, who was shut up in Leith. This, of course, was denied her. She then wrote to him, "telling him how heavily the hand of death now pressed upon her," and begging certain medicines. But this letter was intercepted by Lord Grey of Wilton. "Here lurketh some mystery," said the wary old veteran, as he viewed the letter in various ways, "for medicines are more abundant in Edinburgh than in Leith." On holding it before a fire some secret writing appeared, on which he threw it into the flames. "Albeit, I have been thus her secretary," said he, "I shall keep her counsel, yet say unto her such wares will not sell until there be a new market." Mary did not live to see the fall of Leith, as she died in the castle of Edinburgh, on the 10th of June, utterly worn out by sickness and grief. Fresh reinforcements having come to enforce the siege (Sir James Balfour states in his Annals that by the time the horses were all eaten, the blockading force of the Lords of the Congregation amounted to "12,000 Scotts Protestants," commanded by the Duke of Chatelherault, eleven peers, and 120 lesser barons), the queen being dead, and their cause desperate, the French garrison began to think of capitulating. A treaty of peace was framed, including England, Scotland, and France, and by this treaty, which was signed at Edinburgh, it was stipulated that the French should be allowed to embark for France, without molestation, with bag and baggage, on board of English ships; and that the English forces should commence their homeward march on the day the French evacuated the town. It was expressly stipulated that an officer and sixty men of the latter should remain in the castle of Inchkeith, for what use we cannot now see. Accordingly, on the 16th day of July, 1560, the French troops, after plundering Leith of all that they could lay their hands upon, marched out, 4,000 strong, and embarked under Marshal Strozzi, on board of the queen's English ships, after having served in Scotland for nearly fourteen years. At the same hour the troops of Lord Grey began their march for the borders, and were accompanied as a mark of respect by many Lords of the Congregation. A solemn thanksgiving was held in the church of St. Giles, where the services were conducted by John Knox. After the conclusion of these important transactions, the safety of Berwick became a matter of serious consideration to the English Court, and its garrison was ordered to consist permanently of the strength of 2,000 men. Besides the battery-mounds, which still remain at Leith, and the trenches yet visible, many relics of this siege are often discovered there. In the Scotsman of 1857 and 1859 are reported the exhuming of several skeletons buried in the vicinity of these old earthworks; and many human bones, cannon balls, old swords, &c., have been dug up from time to time in the immediate vicinity of the street called Wellington Place. Two of the principal thoroughfares were long known by the name of "Les Deux Bras," being so styled by the garrison of Mary of Guise. CHAPTER XXVI. ZUTPHEN, 1586. IN tracing British military achievements through a series of historiettes, we have now arrived at the epoch of the two cousins, Elizabeth and Mary, an age rightly distinguished as "the Elizabethan;" the age in which the naval glory of England shone out so brilliantly-in which the Portuguese, the Dutch, and Castilians had led the way to unknown seas and shores, and England was not far behind them; for Sir Francis Drake sailed round the world, Sir Martin Frobisher braved the terrors of the Arctic Sea, Sir John Hawkins traced out the burning coast of Guinea, and Sir Walter Raleigh colonised America, and named his settlement Virginia, in compliment to his queen. Though the latter preferred peace, she was not afraid of war; and when the United Provinces, in their sore extremity, had recourse to her for protection, she concluded a treaty with them, in consequence of which she was put in possession of the Brille, Flushing, and the castle of Ramakins, as security for the payment of her expenses. She knew that the step she had taken would immediately engage her in hostilities with Philip II. of Spain, whose bigotry and misgovernment had produced such distress and dissension in the Netherlands, to the heritage of which he had succeeded, like Maximilian of Austria, as a portion of the possessions of the Duke of Burgundy. But the power of Philip did not alarm her, though such prepossessions were everywhere prevalent of the vast force of the Spanish monarchy that the King of Sweden, when informed that the Queen of England had openly embraced the cause of the revolted Flemings, said, "She has now taken the diadem from her head, and placed it on the point of a sword ;" and still more did it look like this when the terrible Armada came to be spoken of. On the roth of December, 1585, the English armament arrived off Flushing, of which Sir Philip Sidney was already governor. It was under the command of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, K.G., who had been rejected by the Queen of the Scots, and now aspired to the hand of Elizabeth ; a man who in private life was little esteemed, and in his public character detested as the murderer of Amy Robsart. The queen had bound herself to send a fleet of forty ships, the least of which should be forty tons; but now this fleet consisted of fifty sail, chiefly hired merchant ships, having on board 6,000-men. With Dudley were the Earls of Essex, Oxford, and Northumberland; Lords Willoughby, Audley, Sheffield, K.B., Burroughs, and North; Sir Thomas Shirley, Sir Arthur Basset, Sir Gervase Clifton, Sir Philip, Sir Robert, and Sir Henry Sidney, and many other knights, together with a select troop of 500 gentlemen. The latter served at their own expense, as volunteers, and among them was Sir Francis de Vere, one of the most gallant soldiers of the age, and the lineal descendant of Alaric de Vere, who came over with William the Conqueror. By the revolted Flemings, Leicester was received as a guardian angel; and, by way of expressing their gratitude to his sovereign, they immediately made him Governor and Captain-General of Holland, Zealand, and the United Provinces, investing him with absolute power. He was attended by a noble guard, and saluted by all men with the title of "Your Excellency," upon which, adds Camden, "he began to take upon him as if he were a perfect king." Leicester possessed neither courage nor capacity to fulfil the trust reposed in him; and he speedily showed his inability to direct military operations by permitting the Duke of Parma to advance in a rapid course of conquests, and abused his authority by a course of administration, wanton and cruel, weak yet oppressive. At this period companies of infantry in all European armies varied from 150 to 300 men, and each company had a colour or ensign, and the mode of formation recommended by Sir John Smith, an English military writer of those days, was that the colours should be in the centre invariably, and guarded by the halberdiers; for under Elizabeth every company consisted of men armed in five different ways. In every hundred men, forty were men-at-arms, and sixty "shot." The former were ten halberdiers and thirty pikemen. Bruce, in his "Military 149 by the Lord of Van Hemert, a Dutchman, says Cardinal Bentivoglio, in his "History of Flanders," and formed its garrison when besieged by the Spaniards under the Prince of Parma. "The enemy strove to capture the place, and Leicester prepared to relieve it. For that purpose he sent out a good proportion of horse and foot; and the king's men were not wanting in making such opposition as was needful, though they had not men enough to keep the garrison from making excursions, and hinder the designs which the enemy had without. During this uncertainty of the siege on one side, and of the succour on the other, there happened divers actions and skirmishes, one of which proved very bloody. The English intended to relieve the town chiefly by the way of a great dyke that ran along the Maese, and for this purpose had fortified themselves upon it, and prepared divers barques upon the river. Wherefore, taking their time, they began to march with some squadrons of foot, and advanced boldly. The Royalists (i.e., the Spaniards) were very watchful on their part; and, resolving to Law, 1717," says, the tallest men were always "culled out for that service." The "shot" were twenty archers, twenty musketeers, and twenty arquebusiers, and, in addition to his principal weapon, every man carried a sword and dagger. According to the tactics of the time, the formation of a single company in line would appear as above. It was customary to unite these companies into one body, called a regiment, frequently amounting to 3,000 men. The muskets carried a ball weighing one-tenth of a pound; the arquebuse a ball weighing one-twenty-fifth of a pound. The ancient war-cry was still retained, as it was enacted that "all soldiers entering into battle, assault, skirmish, or other faction of arms, shall have for their common cry "Saint George, forward!" or, "Upon them, Saint George!" At this time the rank of sergeant-major, then the same as adjutant, first appears. No great battle, but little more than a series of skirmishes, some of which were brilliant in their way, distinguished the expedition of Leicester to the Low Countries. He suffered the Prince of Parma to besiege and capture Greve, or Graves, Venloo, and other places, and then to pass the Rhine, after which he threw succours into Zutphen. At Greve the English infantry were commanded repulse the succour, likewise marched boldly to the encounter. The conflict was very hot for a time, till the English began to give way and retreat, which made the King of Spain's men press forward the more eagerly; but being too enthusiastic in their pursuit, they fell into disorder, and while in this state were suddenly attacked by a fresh body of English infantry, and routed with great slaughter." The English were commanded by Sir Francis Vere, and the Spaniards were the brigade of Don Juan d'Aquila, who there lost seven captains, among other officers, and 200 soldiers. The English failed to capture another dyke, of which the Spaniards had possessed themselves; but the repulse of Aquila, a maestro de campo, enabled them to succour their countrymen in the town, by means of some boats on the Maese, and thus protract the defence, a result which exasperated the Prince of Parma, who ordered Altapenna to relinquish the siege of Nuys, and bring his troops to Greve. Fresh trenches were dug and batteries erected, and twenty-four pieces of heavy artillery were opened upon the town. The Earl of Leicester, on whom the hopes of the beseiged rested, had already advanced to Utrecht, and thence to Arnheim, but there he halted. On this "the Lord of Hemert, with some of his captains, being poorly timorous, began to treat for a surrender. Nor could the prince refuse them any conditions they could desire, that he might the sooner rid his hands of the enterprise." pany distinguished themselves at the escalade of Avil. Some brilliant services were also performed by his friend and comrade, Sir Philip Sidney. The latter, on his arrival in Zealand, had formed a close friendship and intimacy with Maurice, son of The garrison had made a brave defence, and the the Prince of Orange, and in conjunction with SIR PHILIP SIDNEY AT ZUTPHEN (see page 152). troops were permitted to march out with bag and | him entered baggage, arms and armour, and with colours flying; by surprise. but the Prince of Parma repented that he had not taken them all prisoners of war, for the moment they reached the camp of the Earl of Leicester, that noble, in virtue of his authority as governor and captain-general, mercilessly put the Lord of Hemert, "and all the captains that partook with him in the surrender, to an ignominious death." After the fall of Greve, Sir Francis and his com Flanders, and took Axel, in Zealand, Though local historians always name the prince only in this enterprise, the honour of the contrivance and the execution of it are ascribed by the English to the gallant Sidney, who revived the ancient discipline of perfect silence on the march, and by this conduct his soldiers were enabled to approach the walls unheard, and to scale them in the night, when no attack was expected. Having succeeded in this, a chosen band made |