Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/425

] fresh reinforcements of 2,000 men, with promises of more, declaring that the besiegers should not lack men whilst there were any betwixt the Trent and Tweed. The investment was thus continued with the utmost rigour, and famine became terrible within the walls.

On the 10th of June the queen-regent died in the castle. On her death-bed she earnestly entreated the Lord James, in her presence, and some others of the Lords of the Congregation, as well as her own courtiers, to support the rightful power of her daughter; but, as the events showed, and the treacherous, ambitious character of the bastard brother of Queen Mary rendered probable, to very little purpose. The queen-regent's decease, however, opened a way to negotiation. The insurrectionary feeling in France made the French court readily tender such a proposition, and it was agreed that the French and English commissioners should meet at Berwick on the 14th of June. The English commissioners were Cecil and Dr. Wotton, Dean of Canterbury; the French, Monluc, Bishop of Valence, and Count de Randon. Perhaps four more acute diplomatists never met. On the 16th of June they proceeded to Edinburgh, passing through the English camp on the way, where they were saluted by a general discharge of firearms. By the 6th of July all the conditions of peace were settled, and it was announced both to the besiegers and besieged that hostilities were at an end. Leith was surrendered, and D'Oyselles, the French commander, entertained the English and Scotch officers, by whom he had been so nearly famished, at an entertainment, "where, says Stow, "was prepared for them a banquet of thirty or forty dishes, and yet not one either of flesh or fish, saving one of a powdered horse, as was avouched by one that vowed himself to have tasted thereof."

The French commissioners stood stoutly for the rights and prerogatives of the crown, but they were compelled to yield many points to the imperturbable firmness of Cecil. Dunbar and Inchkeith were surrendered as well as Leith. The French troops, expecting a small garrison in Dunbar and another in Inchkeith, were to be sent home and no more to be brought over. An indemnity for all that had passed since March, 1558, in Scotland, was granted; every man was to regain the post or position which he held before the struggle, and no Frenchman was to hold any office in that kingdom. A convention of the three estates was to be summoned by the king and queen, and four-and-twenty persons were to be named by this convention, out of whom should be chosen a council of twelve for the government of the country, of whom the queen should name seven and the estates five. The king and queen were not to declare war, or conclude peace, without the concurrence of the estates; neither the lords nor the members of the Congregation should be molested for what they had done, and the Churchmen were to be protected in their persons, rights, and properties, and to receive compensation for their losses according to the award of the estates in Parliament.

On one point, and that the chief point of the quarrel, the leaders of the Congregation did not obtain their demand, which naturally was for the establishment of their religion. We may suppose that Cecil and his colleague were not very desirous of carrying this; for the Queen of England regarded the Scotch Reformers as fanatical and "outré," and she especially abominated the character and doctrines of Knox. It was conceded, however, that Parliament should be summoned without delay, and that a deputation should lay this request before the king and queen.

By a second treaty betwixt England and France, it was determined that the right to the crowns of England and Ireland lay in Elizabeth, and that Mary should no longer bear the arms or use the style of these two kingdoms. Another proposition, however, was refused in this treaty, and that was the surrender of Calais to England.

The war thus brought to an end reflected little credit on the diplomatic principles of Elizabeth and her ministers, however much it might display their ability and address. To excite the subjects of a neighbouring sovereign to rebellion, at the same time that she was bound by a treaty of peace, and was solemnly professing to maintain it, can never be vindicated on any system of morals, either public or private. If Mary of Scotland infringed, by her assumption of the arms or title of Elizabeth, the treaty betwixt them, that was a cause of fair but open appeal. If Elizabeth regarded her own national tranquillity as endangered, that was another just cause of protest; if she wished to protect the interests of the struggling Protestants in Scotland, nothing could have been more honourable, had the attempt been made by open and direct means, by earnest application to Francis and Mary; but so long as Elizabeth neglected these means and offices, by fomenting clandestine resistance amongst the subjects of the Scottish queen, she at once violated every honourable principle of international law, and perpetrated a felony on the rights of sovereigns.

Cecil, whilst busy with the negotiations now terminated, saw enough of the Reformers of Scotland to convince him that the French troops would be no sooner removed than they would trample under foot all the engagements into which they had entered whilst under that restraint. This was immediately verified. The Parliament assembled on the 1st of August, and the very first act which it passed was one of abolishing the Papal jurisdiction in Scotland, and decreeing severe punishment, in the very style of the church against which they had been battling, for those who presumed to worship according to the Romish creed. A crowd of lesser barons had attended at the call of the Lords of the Congregation, so that they carried everything their own way. They prohibited mass both publicly and privately. Whoever officiated at mass, or attended it in church chapel, or private house, was amenable to confiscation of his goods and imprisonment at the discretion of the magistrate, for the first offence; to banishment for the second; and death for the third.

A confession of faith, according to the austere model of Geneva, was framed by Knox and his confederates, and the moment that this bill was passed, was put into execution. Every member of the Parliament who refused to subscribe to this new creed was instantly expelled, and, with a strange injustice, they then called over twice the names of the ejected, and, of course, receiving no answer, refused them all compensation for their losses during the war, according to the provisions of the treaty which they thus violated.

One of the most singular proceedings of the