Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/226

 66 &EIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 58. the edge of the east bastion, and not protected by the walls. The garrison did not allow the works to proceed without interruption. They fired furiously on the trenching parties at the head of the street. They made sorties out of the Spur, and flung wild- fire among them, or sprang in upon them sword in hand ; but they did no great damage; and as it became evident that the English meant seriously after all, their hearts began to sink. Maitland, who had hitherto been as *a god' among them, lost their confidence; and one of the Castle soldiers flung a glove over the cliff, with a note inside it, to ask if there was hope for their lives. On the i yth of April the English army arrived from Berwick. On the 25th the siege guns were landed at Leith ; and Killigrew, who had assured Burghley that Maitland ' would not abide the cannon/ ' was at his wits* end/ as he said, to comprehend his obstinacy. But the statesman who had long ruled supreme in Scottish counsels was now too proud to yield. He fed the gar- rison with hopes that the French fleet might be looked for any day in the Forth ; and when Morton and Drury, for the last time, summoned the Castle to surrender, Grange hung out Mary Stuart's banner on the rock from which Mons Meg looks down over Edinburgh, and Meg herself, and fifty other guns, replied for him with can- non-balls. The hardness of the rock made the trenching a long operation. To save expense, too small a number of pioneers had been employed ; and three weeks had still