Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/93

Rh ¾ returned to his house at Dalkeith, attended by a hundred foot soldiers and a few horse, as a guard, in case he should be attacked by the townsmen, or to repress their incursions till a sufficient force could be collected. Morton, as desired by the regent, having sent a detachment of a few horsemen and about seventy foot to Leith, to publish a proclamation, forbidding any person to supply the faction of the queen with provisions, arms, or warlike stores, under pain of being treated as rebels, they were attacked in their way back to Dalkeith, and a smart skirmish ensued, in which the townsmen were driven back into the city, though with no great loss on either side. This was the beginning of a civil war that raged with unusual bitterness till it was terminated by the intervention of Elizabeth. The regent not being prepared to besiege the town, wished to abstain from violence ; but determined to hold the approaching parliament in the Canongate, within the liberties of the city, at a place called St John's cross, he erected two fortifications, one in Leith Wynd, and the other at the Dove Craig, whence his soldiers fired into the town during the whole time of the sitting of the parliament, slaying great numbers of the soldiers and citizens. This parliament forfeited Maitland the secretary, and two of his brothers, with several others of the party, and was held amid an almost constant discharge of cannon from the castle ; yet no one was hurt. On its rising, the regent and Morton retired to Leith, when the party of the queen burnt down the houses without the walls that had been occupied by them; and as they withdrew towards Stirling, they sent out their horsemen after them to Corstorphine. Before they reached that place, however, the regent was gone; but they attacked the earl of Morton, who slowly withdrew towards Dalkeith. As Morton afterwards waylayed all that carried provisions into the town, a party was sent out, supposed to be sufficiently strong to burn Dalkeith. The earl, however, gave them battle, and repulsed them to the marches of the Borough Muir. The garrison seeing from the castle the discomfiture of their friends, sent out a reinforcement, which turned the tide of victory; and but for the carelessness of one of the party, who dropped his match into a barrel of powder, the whole of Morton's party might have fallen victims to their temerity in pursuing the enemy so far. This accident, whereby the horse that carried the powder and many of the soldiers were severely scorched, put an end to the affray. Elizabeth all this while had professed a kind of neutrality between the parties. Now, however, she sent Sir William Drury to Kirkaldy, the captain of the castle, to know of him whether he held the castle in the queen's name or in the name of the king and regent ; assuring him that if he held it in the name of the queen, Elizabeth would be his extreme enemy, but if otherwise that she would be his friend. The captain declared that he owned no authority in Scotland but that of queen Mary. The regent, when Drury told him this, sent him back to demand the house to be rendered to him, in the king's name; on which, he and all that were along with him should be pardoned all by-past offences, restored to their rents and possessions, and should have liberty to depart with all their effects. This offer, the captain, trusting the "carnal wit and policy of Lethington," was so wicked and so foolish as to refuse, and the war was continued with singular barbarity. The small party in the castle, in order to give the colour of law to their procedure, added the absurdity of holding a parliament, in which they read a letter from the king's mother, declaring her resignation null, and requesting that she might be restored, which was at once complied with; only they wanted the power to take her out of the hands of Elizabeth. In order to conciliate the multitude, they declared that no alteration should be made in the presbyterian religion, only those preachers who should refuse to pray for the queen were forbidden to exercise their functions.