brethren, to which these nobles replied that they had done it only as a means of arbitrating for peace; but the Congregation took means to bind them in future by framing a new covenant, to which every member swore obedience, engaging to defend the Congregation or any of its members when menaced by the enemies of their religion.
They were soon called upon to prove their sincerity. The queen-regent—totally regardless of the treaty just entered into—the very same day that the Lords of the Congregation quitted Perth, entered it with Chatelherault, D'Oyselles, and a body of French soldiers. She deprived the chief magistrates of their authority because they favoured the Reformation; made Charteris of Kinfauns, a man of infamous character, provost, and left a garrison of troops in French pay to support him.
The Lords of the Congregation assembled at St. Andrews, and with them Knox, having come, as he said, to the conclusion that to be rid of the rooks it was necessary to pull down their nests. At Crail, a small seaport in Fife, he had avowedly urged on the multitude to this work, and they had done it effectually, in the destruction of the altars and images in the church. The same scene was repeated at Anstruther, another seaport not far distant; and now he prepared to attack the great centre of Papal power and worship in St. Andrews.
The archbishop, hearing of the menaced attack, entered the town on the Saturday evening, at the head of a hundred spears, and sent to inform Knox that the moment he showed himself in the pulpit he would be saluted with a dozen culverins. Great alarm was occasioned in the congregation by this, but Knox treated the threat with contempt, appeared in the pulpit, and took for his text the account of Christ whipping the money-changers out of the temple. He declared that it was the intention of the queen-regent, who kept no oath or treaty, to bring in French troops and curb both their religion and their liberties, and to such a degree of fury did he work them, that the whole congregation rushed forth, with their magistrates at their head, and levelled with the ground the proud edifices of the Dominican and Franciscan friars.
The archbishop fled to the queen, who was lying at Falkland, and she immediately ordered her army to march upon St. Andrews and annihilate the iconoclasts. But on reaching Cupar Moor she found the camp of the Congregation defended at all points, and filled with a host of enthusiastic Covenanters, with skilful commanders at their head. Knox said people seemed to have been rained from the skies. Mary of Guise again betook herself to negotiation, and a truce of eight days was granted on the assurance that a number of noblemen should be appointed to meet the leaders of the Congregation, and settle all points of difference. But it was soon perceived that the queen-regent was only endeavouring to gain time for the muster of more troops; and no commissioners arriving, but, on the contrary, the inhabitants of Perth complaining loudly of the cruelties and oppressions of Charteris, it was determined to send a force to their relief. Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, an officer of great ability and experience, joined them at this juncture. Such numbers flocked to the rescue of Perth, that it was surrendered at the first assault. In the immediate vicinity stood the episcopal palace and abbey of Scone, in which, from time immemorial, the kings of Scotland had been crowned; but, spite of the popular veneration for this place, they entertained a deep hatred of the bishop, who had been the chief instigator of the burning of Walter Miln. The people rushed away to execute vengeance upon him, and Knox and the Congregation hurried after them to prevent them. They succeeded in checking any further outrage than the destruction of the altar and images, and Argyll and the Lord James contrived to draw them away to fresh quarry. It was reported that the queen-regent was on the march to occupy Stirling and the fords of the Forth, so as to cut off all communication betwixt the northern and southern Covenanters. A great crowd followed Argyll and Murray to forestall her, but by this means they left Scone exposed. People from Perth began the next day to gather about the abbey, some in hope of plunder, others of vengeance, and the bishop, alarmed, barred his gates, armed his servants, and stood on the defensive. A man approaching the "gernel," or granary, was thrust through with a rapier, and the cry was that it had been done by the prelate's son. The news fled to Perth; the excited populace poured forth vowing vengeance, and presently, spite of the vehement dissuasions of Knox and his associates, the palace and abbey were in flames. "Now," exclaimed an old woman, who had been watching the efforts of the leaders to prevent the conflagration, "I see that God's judgments are just, and none can save where he will punish. Since ever I can remember aught, this place hath been nothing else than a den of profligates, where those filthy beasts, the friars, have acted in darkness every sort of sin, and specially that most wicked man the bishop. If all know what I know, they would see matter for gratitude, but none for offence."
Argyll and the Lord James had succeeded in checking the march of the queen-regent; and on their advance to Linlithgow, she and the French forces evacuated Edinburgh, falling back to Dunbar; whilst the covenanting army, entering Linlithgow, pulled down the altars and images, destroyed the relics, and then advanced on Edinburgh, which they entered in triumph on the 29th of June, 1559.
It was at this crisis that the progress of the Reformers in Scotland arrested the attention of the Government in England, and a letter was received from Sir Henry Percy by Kirkaldy of Grange, inquiring into the real objects of the Lords of the Congregation. Kirkaldy replied that they meant nothing but the reformation of religion; that they had purged the churches of imagery and other Popish stuff wherever they had come, and that they pull down such friaries and abbeys as will not receive the reformed faith; but that they had not meddled with a pennyworth of the Church's property, reserving the appropriation of that to the maintenance of godly ministers hereafter; that if the queen-regent would grant them spiritual liberty and send away the Frenchmen, they will obey her; if not, they will hear of no agreement. Knox also wrote to Percy in the name of the whole Congregation, and entreated that England should aid them in their struggle, telling them, in his sturdy way, that if it did it would be better for it; if not, though Scotland might suffer, England could not escape her share of the trouble.
