sent to treat with her, that if they would disperse, the proceedings against the ministers should be abandoned. But no sooner had they, relying on this promise, returned to their homes, than she ordered the summons to be continued, and the parties cited having failed to appear, were in their absence condemned as rebels and outlaws.

Whilst men's minds were burning with indignation at this flagrant breach of faith and of honour, on the part of the supreme authority, John Knox, who had returned to Scotland on the 3d of May, delivered on the 11th, at Perth, one of those powerful appeals by which he knew so well how to inflame the passions of his audience. After the sermon, a monk had the imprudence to unveil a rich shrine that stood above the altar, and prepare to celebrate mass, when the images were immediately broken to pieces by the enraged multitude. The mob then proceeded to the monasteries of the Grey and Black Friars, both of which they rifled and laid in ruins. They next attacked the rich monastery of the Carthusians; and here the work of destruction occupied them two days, at the end of which time, however, nothing remained of the costly edifice, save the bare walls. Similar excesses were committed at Cupar.

The Queen Regent, incensed at these outrages, threatened to level the town of Perth with the ground. She marched thither with an army, in which were the Earl of Argyle and Lord James Stewart, with their followers, both of whom favoured the cause of the Reformers, though opposed to the violence that had marked their recent proceedings. The Reformers mustered their forces at Perth, determined, sword in hand, to maintain their religion. Their army was at first much inferior to the Queen's, but being joined by Glencairn, with two thousand five hundred men, the Regent found it prudent to listen to terms of accommodation; and having promised them toleration for their religion, and engaged that no French garrison should be stationed at Perth, matters were for the present adjusted. John Knox, in a private interview with Stewart and Argyle, upbraided them for abandoning their faith: they justified their conduct, on the ground that they only wished for peace, and that the Queen's offers were fair; but they engaged, in case she did not fulfil the terms of the agreement, that they would forsake her cause and join

their brethren. The Regent, ever ready at evasion, posted in Perth a body of Scottish soldiers in French pay, and this being viewed as a violation of the spirit of the treaty, Stewart and Argyle immediately passed over to the Lords of the Congregation, and were followed by Monteith, Ruthven, and Murray of Tullibardine.

The unwearied zeal and impassioned eloquence of Knox continued to produce its usual effects. His maxim, “ Pull down the nests, and the rooks will fly away," was directed against the religious houses or monasteries, not against the churches or cathedrals. Amid the general corruption that prevailed in the Popish Church in Scotland at the time which immediately preceded the Reformation, the monasteries had become scenes of infamous profligacy and dissipation; and it was against these that the Reformer directed the thunders of his eloquence, and the ready hands of his audience-but the cathedrals, where mass had been mumbled over in an unknown tongue, might be employed in a more edifying service, now that the gospel was preached, and that in a language which all could understand. He preached in Crail and Anstruther, and in both places the images and altars were demolished. The leaders of the Congregation were assembled at St Andrews, and the Bishop having learned that they intended to use his cathedral, he entered the town on Saturday evening with one hundred spearmen, and sent word to Knox that if he dared to enter his pulpit, he should be saluted with a volley of musketry. His friends entreated him to forbear; but the fearless Reformer ascended the pulpit, and spared none of his usual exhortations to abolish every monument of idolatry. The audience sallied from the Cathedral, and soon laid the Dominican and Franciscan monasteries in ruins. The Regent with her Frenchmen advanced from Falkland; but so rapidly did the people pour in from all quarters to strengthen the Reformers, that she again had recourse to negotiation, and a truce was concluded.

The Reformers being now joined by Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, a man of high military reputation, they took Perth-by a rapid march seized upon Stirling, which they "purged of idolatry,”—thence they advanced upon Linlithgow, which underwent a similar purgation,-and

finally, on the 29th of June, they took possession of the capital, the Regent and her French troops having retreated to Dunbar. So rapid had been the progress of the Reformed Cause in the first two months after the reappearance of John Knox in the country, and within seven weeks after the deceitful trial of the ministers at Stirling.

At Edinburgh, the Lords of the Congregation in solemn council, proceeded formally to depose the Queen Regent from her high office, and appointed a Council of Regency to conduct the government. The Regent urged reinforcements from France. The Reformers opened negotiations with England, earnestly soliciting assistance ir men and money from Elizabeth. This princess favoured the Reformation, but she disliked the ultra-opinions of the Scottish Reformers; and, besides, Knox was personally offensive to her for his treatise against female government, or the "monstrous regiment of women." On the arrival of one thousand additional troops from France, the Regent took and fortified Leith, and the Leaders of the Congregation, after some ineffectual attempts to interrupt this work, evacuated Edinburgh, and retreated to Stirling, on the 6th of November, 1559. Seeing the regent reinforced, and their own followers falling off from want of pay and provisions, the Reformers began to look on their cause with despondency; but their gloom was dispelled, and new energy imparted by an animating discourse delivered by John Knox to their Leaders at Stirling. It was well for the sacred cause in which these devoted men were engaged, and ought to be ground of thanksgiving to Providence at the present day, that an advocate and a champion of Knox's unflinching firmness had been raised up to animate their councils, and re-assure their hopes, and to infuse into them a part of his own unyielding spirit, whereby, with renewed confidence in God, they were led to continue the glorious struggle, till it pleased Providence to bless it with an abundant success -the benefits and blessings of which we now in tranquillity enjoy. The Duke of Chatelherault had, same time previous to this, rejoined the party, and was now employed in purifying Glasgow from its idols and images. Maitland of Lethington, the Secretary, esteemed the most skilful diplorna

tist of his day, had long in secret favoured their cause, and he now openly joined them. He was immediately sent on a mission to England, to endeavour to prevail upon Elizabeth to send them some effectual assistance.

The Queen Regent, anxious to crush her opponents before succours should arrive from England, dispatched a body of Frenchmen by way of Stirling to.Fife, where Lord James and the Earl of Arran commanded a body of horse; but an English fleet having appeared in the Frith, they made a hasty retreat by the same route, during which they were severely harassed by the Scottish cavalry. An English army of six thousand foot and two thousand horse entered Scotland on the second of April, 1560, and being joined by the forces of the Reformers, prepared to lay siege to Leith: whilst the Queen Regent, enfeebled by disease, probably induced by the harassing life she had recently led, sought refuge in the Castle of Edinburgh. She was admitted by Lord Erskine the Governor, who stood neutral between the two parties, declaring that he would acknowledge neither, but that he would keep the Castle for his true sovereign, whensoever she might come to claim it. Previous to her death, the Regent sent for Lord James Stewart and others of the Reformed Leaders, to whom she confessed her error in opposing the Reformation, and deplored the calamities that had befallen the kingdom through the counsels of her brothers. Mary of Guise expired on the 10th of June, 1560; a princess of respectable talents, and whose judgment, if left to herself, would in all probability have enabled her, as her wishes inclined her, to preserve the peace of the kingdom she governed.

V.-Reign of Mary-Continued.

FROM THE DEATH OF MARY OF GUISE, TO THE QUEEN'S MARRIAGE WITH DARNLEY-1560-1565.

ALL parties were now desirous of peace; and the French and English Commissioners having met at Edin burgh, a treaty was concluded in July, 1560, in which, although the Lords of the Congregation were not recog nised, yet their interests were in effect provided for. One

article secured indemnity for all offences committed dur ing the last two years: another authorized a Parliament to be held the following month (August), in which the Reformers well knew they would have a large majority in their favour. So greatly, indeed, did their party predominate in the ensuing Parliament, that any opposition made to their measures by the friends of the Romish Church was faint and ineffectual. "The Confession of Faith," containing a summary of doctrine, was drawn up in four days, submitted, discussed, and sanctioned as the standard of the reformed faith in Scotland. Three acts followed, -the first, abolishing the power of the Pope within the realm; the second, repealing all existing statutes in favour of Popery; and the third prohibited the performance of mass within the kingdom, affixing as a punishment for the first offence, confiscation of goods-for the second, banishment and for the third, death. Religious toleration was not yet known in Europe, but was the growth of a later age and we must not therefore so much wonder as lament, to see those who had so recently suffered under the hand of persecution inclined, now that they were the dom inant party, to act in a somewhat similar spirit towards their opponents. But it ought to be noted to the honour of the Reformed party, as contrasting brightly with the malignant spirit that had animated their Popish perse cutors, that even under these penal enactments, no person appears to have suffered death at their hands for his religious opinions. "The Book of Discipline," for the regu lation of Church Government, was not only coldly received, but strenuously opposed. Many of the Barons, whose lives were none of the most regular, had no fancy for the severity of the Calvinistic discipline; and those nobles, who had shared largely in the spoil of the Church property, had no intention to resign their spoil for the sustenance of the Protestant Ministers.

Mary, the youthful Queen of Scots, liad been married in 1558 to Francis the Dauphin, who succeeded to the throne of France in 1559, and died the following year, on the 6th of December. Mary, thus left a widow at the age of eighteen, resolved to return to her native kingdom of Scotland. She was a princess possessed of great beauty, and of the highest personal accomplishments; neither was