II. 1559. Queen's intentions, the Protestants, who saw the B O O K danger approach, in order to avert it, employed the Earl of Glencairn, and Sir Hugh Campbell of London, to expostulate with her concerning this change towards severity, which their former services had so little merited, and which her reiterated promises gave them no reason to expect. She, without disguise or apology, avowed to them her resolution of extirpating the reformed religion out of the kingdom. And, upon their urging her former engagements with an uncourtly but honest boldness, she so far forgot her usual moderation, as to utter a sentiment, which, however apt those of royal condition may be to entertain it, prudence should teach them to conceal as much as possible. "The promises of Princes," says she, "ought not to be too carefully remembered, nor the performance of them exacted, unless it suits their own conveniency.' 99 their before her. The indignation which betrayed the Queen into Summons this rash expression, was nothing in comparison of preachers that with which she was animated, upon hearing to appear that the public exercise of the reformed religion had been introduced into the town of Perth. At once she threw off the mask, and issued a mandate, summoning all the Protestant preachers in the kingdom to a court of justice, which was to be held at Stirling on the tenth of May. The Protestants, who, from their union, began, about this time, to be distinguished by the name of the CONGREGATION, were alarmed, but not intimidated, by this danger; and instantly resolved not to abandon the men to whom they were indebted for the most valuable of all blessings, the knowledge of truth. At that time there pre II. BOO K vailed in Scotland, with respect to criminal trials, a custom, introduced at first by the institutions of vas1559. salage and clanship, and tolerated afterwards under a feeble government: persons accused of any crime were accompanied to the place of trial by a retinue of their friends and adherents, assembled for that purpose from every quarter of the kingdom. Authorized by this ancient practice, the reformed convened in great numbers to attend their pastors to Stirling. The Queen dreaded their approach with a train so numerous, though unarmed; and in order to prevent them from advancing, she empowered John Erskine of Dun, a person of eminent authority with the party, to promise in her name, that she would put a stop to the intended trial, on condition the preachers and their retinue advanced no nearer to Stirling. Erskine, being convinced himself of the Queen's sincerity, served her with the utmost zeal; and the Protestants, averse from proceeding to any act of violence, listened with pleasure to so pacific a proposition. The preachers, with a few leaders of the party, remained at Perth; the multitude which had gathered from different parts of the kingdom dispersed, and retired to their own habitations. Breaks a promise on But, notwithstanding this solemn promise, the which they Queen, on the tenth of May, proceeded to call to had relied. trial the persons who had been summoned, and, upon their non-appearance, the rigour of justice took place, and they were pronounced outlaws. By this ignoble artifice, so incompatible with regal dignity, and so inconsistent with that integrity which should prevail in all transactions between sovereigns and their subjects, the Queen forfeited the esteem II. 1559. and confidence of the whole nation. The Pro- в O O K testants, shocked no less at the indecency with which she violated the public faith, than at the danger which threatened themselves, prepared boldly for their own defence. Erskine, enraged at having been made the instrument for deceiving his party, instantly abandoned Stirling, and, repairing to Perth, added to the zeal of his associates, by his representations of the Queen's inflexible resolution to suppress religion1. sions an in The popular rhetoric of Knox powerfully second- This occaed his representations; he having been carried a surrection prisoner into France, together with the other per- at Perth. sons taken in the castle of St. Andrew's, soon made his escape out of that country; and residing sometimes in England, sometimes in Scotland, had at last been driven out of both kingdoms, by the rage of the Popish clergy, and was obliged to retire to Geneva. Thence he was called by the leaders of the Protestants in Scotland; and, in compliance with their solicitations, he set out for his native country, where he arrived a few days before the trial appointed at Stirling. He hurried instantly to Perth, to share with his brethren in the common danger, or to assist them in the common cause. While their minds were in that ferment, which the Queen's perfidiousness and their own danger occasioned, he mounted the pulpit, and, by a vehement harangue against idolatry, inflamed the multitude with the utmost rage. The indiscretion of a priest, who, immediately after Knox's sermon, was prepar h Keith, p. 84. II. 1559. BOOK ing to celebrate mass, and began to decorate the altar for that purpose, precipitated them into immediate action. With tumultuary but irresistible violence, they fell upon the churches in that city, overturned the altars, defaced the pictures, broke in pieces the images; and proceeding next to the monasteries, they in a few hours laid those sumptuous fabrics almost level with the ground. This riotous insurrection was not the effect of any concert, or previous deliberation: censured by the reformed preachers, and publicly condemned by persons of most power and credit with the party, it must be regarded merely as an accidental eruption of popular rage. The Re gent marches against them. But to the Queen Dowager these proceedings appeared in a very different light. Besides their manifest contempt for her authority, the Protestants had violated every thing in religion which she deemed venerable or holy; and on both these accounts she determined to inflict the severest vengeance on the whole party. She had already drawn the troops in French pay to Stirling; with these, and what Scottish forces she could levy of a sudden, she marched directly to Perth, in hopes of surprising the Protestant leaders before they could assemble their followers, whom, out of confidence in her disingenuous promises, they had been rashly induced to dismiss. Intelligence of these preparations and menaces was soon conveyed to Perth. The Protestants would gladly have soothed the Queen, by addresses both to herself and to the persons of greatest Knox. Hist. 127, 128. II. credit in her court; but, finding her inexorable, B O O K they, with great vigour, took measures for their own defence. Their adherents, animated with zeal for religion, and eager to expose themselves in so good a cause, flocked in such numbers to Perth, that they not only secured the town from danger, but within a few days were in a condition to take the field, and to face the Queen, who advanced with an army seven thousand strong. cause. Neither party, however, was impatient to engage. The Queen dreaded the event of a battle with men whom the fervour of religion raised above the sense of fear or danger. The Protestants beheld with regret the Earl of Argyll, the Prior of St. Andrew's, and some other eminent persons of their party, still adhering to the Queen; and, destitute of their aid and counsel, declined hazarding an action, the ill success of which might have proved the ruin of their The prospect of an accommodation was for these reasons highly acceptable to both sides: Argyll and the Prior, who were the Queen's commissioners for conducting the negotiation, seem to have been sincerely desirous of reconciling the contending factions; and the Earl of Glencairn arriving unexpectedly with a powerful reinforcement to the Congregation, augmented the Queen's eagerness for peace. A treaty was accordingly concluded, in a treaty which it was stipulated that both armies should be concluded. disbanded, and the gates of Perth set open to the Queen; that indemnity should be granted to the inhabitants of that city, and to all others concerned in the late insurrection; that no French garrison |
