Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/347

1548.] pass; and the breach between the Scots and their allies was soon healed by the recall of d'Essy, the arrival of reinforcements, and a series of small successes, in which both Scots and French bore their share, and which restored confidence and good-humour. The English attempted a landing in Fife, where Lord James Stuart beat them to their ships, with a loss of six hundred men; the French, with the help of their galleys, took the islands in the Forth which Somerset had fortified, and destroyed several hundred more. A series of small fortresses in Teviotdale and the Marches—Roxburgh, Hume Castle, Fast Castle, and Broughty Craig, fell one after the other in the winter; and by the spring of 1549 Haddington remained the sole visible result to the Protector of all his costly efforts, while the object for which the war had been undertaken was utterly lost.

Meanwhile, the quarrel with France had extended. An irregular cannonade was kept up between the French forts and the new English works at Boulogne. The Boullonnaise had been invaded; there had been skirmishes and loss of life. Villegaignon's galleys, after landing Mary Stuart at Brest, had roamed about the Channel, preying upon English merchant- ships; and while peace still continued in name, the French Court professed an insolent confidence that the Protector durst not resent their violation of it. He shrunk, it was true, from declaring war; but England as well as France could play at the game of marauding