Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/96

124 course was abandoned, and the former kind of ceaseless hostility renewed. Maitland .and Kirkaldy, in company, now had recourse to Elizabeth to settle their disputes; but they expected their property and their offices restored, and for security, that Kirkaldy should retain the command of the castle. Elizabeth offered to protect them and to treat with the regent on their behalf; but, laying aside disguise, she informed them that Mary had been so ill advised, and adopted measures so dangerous to her, that while she lived she should neither have liberty nor rule.

It was about this time that John, lord Maxwell, was married to a sister of Archibald, earl of Angus. Morton, for the entertainment of a number of gentlemen and ladies on the occasion, had store of wines, venison, &c. provided, which being brought from Perth on the way towards Dalkeith, was taken by a party of horsemen from the castle; which so enraged Morton, that he sent a number of armed men into Fife, who destroyed all the corn on the lands of the governor of the castle, and burnt his house ; and the governor the same night succeeded in burning the whole town of Dalkeith. The same detestable wickedness was, by both parties, committed in various other places shortly after. In March, 1572, all the mills in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh were broken down, that the inhabitants might be cut off from their supply of meal ; and by placing soldiers in Corstorphine, Redhall, Merchiston, Craigmillar, and other defensible places in the neighbourhood of the town, it came to be closely blockaded. Whoever was found carrying any necessary to the town was brought down to Leitb, where he was either hanged or drowned, or at the very least burnt in the cheek. So inveterate, indeed, had the parties now become, that prisoners taken in the field of open war, were instantly hanged on both sides. This blind brutality was carried on without intermission for nearly two months. The town of Edinburgh was now reduced to the greatest straits, and nothing but the deepest infatuation could have prevented the governor of the castle from surrendering, especially as Elizabeth, by her ambassador, was willing to treat with the regent on his behalf. A truce was, however, effected by the mediation of the French and English ambassadors, the town was made patent to the governor, and the banished clergy were all allowed to return, but still no terms of mutual agreement could be devised, and the regent Marr, broken in spirit for the wickedness and folly of his countrymen, died, as has been generally supposed, of a broken heart, on the 24th of October, 1572. Morton had now a air field for his ambition, and on the 24th of November, he was elected regent, in the room of the earl of Marr.

During the reign of the three former regents, Morton had been a principal actor in all matters of importance, and there did not appear to be any positive change in his principles and views, now that he was at liberty to act for himself. He still proffered peace upon the conditions that had been held out by his predecessor, but Grange, Who commanded the castle, having risen in his demands, and Maitland being a man of whom he was jealous, he fell upon the plan of treating with the party separately, and by this means ruining, or at least, disabling the whole. In this he was assisted, perhaps unwittingly, by the English ambassador Killigrew, who, now that a partisan of England was at the head of the government, laboured to bring about a reconciliation between all parties. Under his auspices a correspondence was accordingly entered into with the two most powerful leaders of the party, Chatelherault and Huntly, by whom a renewal of the truce was gladly accepted. Kirkaldy, who refused to be included in the prolongation of the truce, fired some cannon at six o'clock in the morning after it had expired, against a place which had been turned into a fish market, whereby one man was slain and several wounded. The ambassa-