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 that the Douglasses had agreed with the Hamiltons, and that, through the influence of his enemies, the French king was totally estranged from him. Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus, and Robert Maxwell, in the meantime, came to Glasgow with the view of mediating- between Lennox and the Regent The Regent, however, seized them both in a clandestine manner by the way, and made them close prisoners in the castle of Cadzow. While the two factions were thus harassing one another to the ruin of their common country, Henry was demanding by letters satisfaction for the breach of treaties and the insults that had been heaped upon him in the person of his late ambassador. No notice being taken of these letters, Henry ordered a large armament, which he had prepared to send against the coast of France, to proceed directly to Leith, and to visit Edinburgh and the adjacent country with all the miseries of war; and with so much secrecy and celerity did this armament proceed, that the first tidings heard of it in Scotland was its appearance in Leith roads. Ten thousand men were disembarked on the 4th May, 1544, a little above Leith, who took possession of that place without the smallest opposition, the inhabitants being mostly abroad in the prosecution of their business. The Regent and the Cardinal were both at the time in Edinburgh, and, panic-stricken at the appearance of the enemy, and still more at the hatred of the citizens, fled with the utmost precipitation towards Stirling. The English, in the meantime, having landed their baggage and artillery, inarched in order of battle towards Edinburgh, which they sacked and set on fire; then dispersing themselves over the neighbouring country, they burnt towns, villages, and gentlemen's seats to the ground, and returning by Edinburgh to Leith, embarked aboard their ships and set sail with a fair wind, carrying with them an immense booty, and with the loss on their part of only a few individuals.

The Cardinal and his puppet the Regent, in the meantime, raised a small body of forces in the north, with which, finding the English gone, they marched against Lennox in the west, and laid siege to the castle of Glasgow, which they battered with brass cannon for a number of days. A truce was at last concluded for one day, during which the garrison were tampered with, and, on a premise of safety, surrendered. They were, however, put to death, with the exception of one or two individuals. Lennox, now totally deserted by the French, and unable to cope with the Cardinal, had no resource but to fly into England, where, through the medium of his friends, he had been assured of a cordial reception. Before leaving the country, however, he was determined to inflict signal vengeance upon the Hamiltons. Having communicated with William Earl of Glencairn upon the subject, a day was appointed on which they should assemble with their vassals at Glasgow, whence they might make an irruption into the territory of the Hamiltons, which lay in the immediate neighbourhood. The Regent, informed of this design, with the advice of the Cardinal, resolved to pre-occupy Glasgow. Glencairn, however, did not wait the appointed day, but was already in the town, and learning the approach of the Hamiltons marched out to give them battle, aided by the citizens, who do not appear to have been friendly to the Regent. The battle was stoutly contested, and for some time the Hamiltons seemed to have the worst of it. In the end, however, they gained a complete victory, the greater part of the Cuninghames being slain, and among the rest two of the Earl's sons. Nor was it a bloodless victory to the Hamiltons, several of their chieftains being slain; but the severest loss fell upon the citizens of Glasgow, whose houses were cruelly plundered, and even their doors and window shutters destroyed. The friends of Lennox refused to risk another engagement, but they insisted that he should keep the impregnable fortress of Dumbarton, where he might in safety await another revolution in the state of parties, which they prognosticated would take place in a very short time. Nothing, however, could di-