Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/592

572 could give weight to his opposition. He had again written for assistance to Francis; and the importance of the crisis had produced the desired effect. On the 30th of June, while the treaties were on the point of completion in England, Sadler reported the presence of sixteen French ships of war on the coast of Aberdeen. They had brought with them money, arms, and artillery. Several thousand men were said to be on board, and to be waiting for directions from the Cardinal on the point at which they were to land. They were to remain as the nucleus of a Catholic army, or to carry off the Queen, as Mary of Guise and her advisers should direct. Six days after, when the ambassadors were known to have returned from Greenwich, the Romanist lords, the abbots, and bishops were assembled in council at St Andrew's. The Regent was denounced as a heretic and a traitor. It was agreed that the noblemen and gentlemen who were within reach of the Border should immediately carry forays into Northumberland, and exasperating the English into retaliation, compel a war in the teeth of the Government, while Lennox, Huntly, Argyle, Murray, and the Cardinal himself should disperse to raise their powers, and again meet at Stirling