Part 12

Once it was decided that our Queen, without further delay, should be delivered to France, the siege continued. There was great shooting, but no assaulting; and yet they had fair occasion offered unto them. For the Englishmen, approaching the town with powder, victuals, and men for the comforting of the besieged, lost an army of six thousand men. Sir Robert Bowes was taken prisoner, and the most part of the Borderers were either captured or slain. The town might justly have despaired of any further succour, but yet it held good; for the stout courage and prudent government of General Sir James Wilford did so inspire the whole captains and soldiers that they determined to die upon their walls. From the time that the Frenchmen had gotten the bone for which the dog barked, the pursuit of the town was slow. The siege was raised, and the Queen was conveyed by the west seas to France; and so the Cardinal of Lorraine got her into his keeping, a morsel meet for his own mouth....

That winter Monsieur de Dessé remained in Scotland with the bands of Frenchmen. They fortified Inveresk, to prevent the English from invading Edinburgh and Leith. Some skirmishes there were betwixt the one and the other, but no notable thing was done, except that the French almost took Haddington, as we shall see.

[Sidenote: The French Fruits: Arrogance of the French Soldiery.]

Thinking themselves more than masters in all parts of Scotland, and in Edinburgh principally, the French thought that they could do no wrong to any Scotsman. A certain Frenchman having delivered a culverin to George Tod, a Scotsman, to be stocked, he was bringing it through the street, when another Frenchman claimed it. He would have reft it from the said George; but he resisted, alleging that the Frenchman did wrong. Parties began to assemble to succour of the Scotsman, as well as to that of the Frenchman. Two of the Frenchmen were stricken down, and the rest were chased from the Cross to Niddrie's Wynd head. The Provost, being upon the street, apprehended two of the French, and was carrying them to the Tolbooth; when from Monsieur de Dessé's lodging and close issued forth Frenchmen, to the number of threescore persons. These, with drawn swords, resisted the said Provost. But the town, assembling, repulsed them, until they came to the Nether Bow. There Monsieur de La Chapelle, with the whole bands of Frenchmen in arms, rencountered the said Provost and repulsed him (for the town was without weapons for the most part), and then attacked all that they met. In the throat of the Bow were slain David Kirke and David Barbour, who were at the Provost's back, and then were slain the said Provost himself, who was Laird of Stenhouse and captain of the Castle, James Hamilton, his son, William Chapman, a godly man, Master William Stewart, William Purves, and a woman, named Elizabeth Stewart. Thereafter the soldiers tarried within the town, by force, from five o'clock until after seven at night, and then retired to the Canongate, as to their receptacle and refuge.

The whole town, yea, the Governor and Nobility, commoved at the unworthiness of this bold attempt, craved justice upon the malefactors, and threatened that they would otherwise execute justice on the whole. The Queen, craftily enough, Monsieur de Dessé, and Monsieur D'Oysel laboured for pacification, and did promise that "unless the Frenchmen, by themselves alone, should do such an act as might recompense the wrong that they had done, they should not refuse that justice should be executed, with rigour."

These fair words pleased our fools, and the French bands were the next night directed to Haddington. They approached the town a little after midnight, so secretly that they were never espied until the foremost were within the base court, and the whole company in the churchyard, not two pair of butt-lengths from the town. The soldiers, Englishmen, were all asleep, except the watch, which was slender, and yet the shout was raised, "Bows and bills: bows and bills," which in all towns of war signifies need of extreme defence, to avoid present danger. The affrighted arose; weapons that first came to hand serving for the need. One amongst many came to the east port, where lay two great pieces of ordnance, and where the enemies were known to be. Crying to his fellows that were at the gate making defence, "Ware before," he fired a great piece, and thereafter another. God so conducted this discharge that, after it, no further pursuit was made. The bullets rebounded from the wall of the Friar Kirk, to the wall of St. Catherine's Chapel, which stood directly fornent it, and from the wall of the Chapel to the Kirk wall again, so often that there fell more than a hundred of the French, at those two shots only. The firing was continued, but the French retired with diligence, and returned to Edinburgh, without harm done, except the destruction of some drinking beer, which lay in the said Chapel and Kirk. Herein was ample satisfaction for the slaughter of the said captain and Provost, and for the slaughter of such as were slain with him. This was the beginning of the French fruits.

This winter also did the Laird of Raith most innocently suffer, the head of the said nobleman being stricken from him; especially because he was known to be one that unfeignedly favoured the truth of God's Word, and was a great friend to those that were in the Castle of St. Andrews. Of their deliverance, and of God's wondrous working with them during the time of their bondage, we must now speak, lest, in suppressing the record of so notable a work of God, we might justly be accused of ingratitude.

[Sidenote: Of the Scots Prisoners in France, and their Deliverance.]

The principals being confined in several houses, as before we have said, there was great labour to make them have a good opinion of the Mass. Chiefly was there travail with Norman Leslie, the Laird of Grange, and the Laird of Pitmilly, who were in the Castle of Cherbourg. Pressed to go to Mass with the captain, they answered that "The captain had commandment to keep their bodies, but he had no power to command their conscience." The captain replied that "He had power to command and to compel them to go where he would." They answered that "They would not refuse to go to any lawful place with him; but they would not, either for him or for the King, do anything that was against their conscience." The captain said, "Will ye not go to the Mass?" They answered, "No; and if ye would compel us, we will displease you further; for we will so use ourselves there that all those that are present shall know that we despite it."

Similar answers, and somewhat sharper, did William Kirkaldy, Peter Carmichael, and such as were with them in Mount St. Michael, give to their captain; for they said they would not only hear Mass every day, but that they would help to say it, provided that they might stick the priests. Master Henry Balnaves, who was in the Castle of Rouen, was most sharply assaulted of all; for, because he was judged learned, learned men were appointed to travail with him, and with them he had many conflicts. But, God so assisting him, they departed confounded, and he, by the power of God's Spirit, remained constant in the truth and profession of the same, without any wavering or declining to idolatry.

These that were in the galleys were threatened with torments, if they would not give reverence to the Mass; but the French could never make the poorest of that company give reverence to that idol. Yea, when, upon the Saturday night, they sang their _Salve Regina_, the whole Scotsmen put on their caps, their hoods, or such things as they had to cover their heads; and when others were compelled to kiss a painted board, which they called "Notre Dame," they were not pressed more than once; for this was what happened. Soon after the arrival at Nantes, their great _Salve_ was sung, and a glorious painted Lady was brought to be kissed, and was presented to one of the Scotsmen then chained, amongst others. He gently said, "Trouble me not; such an idol is accursed; and therefore I will not touch it." The patron and the arguesyn[109] with two officers, having the chief charge of all such matters, said, "Thou shalt handle it;" and so they violently thrust it to his face, and put it betwixt his hands. He, seeing the extremity, took the idol, and advisedly looking about, cast it into the river, saying, "Let our Lady now save herself: she is light enough; let her learn to swim." After that no Scotsman was urged with that idolatry.

[109] Skipper and the lieutenant.

These are things that appear to be of no great importance; and yet, if we do rightly consider, they express the same obedience as God required of His people Israel when they should be carried to Babylon. He gave charge unto them that, when they should see the Babylonians worship their gods of gold, silver, metal, and wood, they should say, "The gods that have not made the heaven and the earth shall perish from the heaven, and out of the earth."

[Sidenote: John Knox prophesies of himself: his Confidence in God's Deliverance.]

Master James Balfour being in the same galley as John Knox, and being wondrously familiar with him, would often ask his opinion whether he thought that they should ever be delivered. His answer ever was, from the day that they entered the galleys, that God, for His own glory, would deliver them from that bondage, even in this life. The second time that the galleys returned to Scotland, when they were lying betwixt Dundee and St. Andrews, and the said John was so extremely sick that few hoped his life, the said Master James willed him to look to the land, and asked if he knew it? He answered, "Yes, I know it well; for I see the steeple of the place in which God first in public opened my mouth to His glory. I am fully persuaded that, however weak I may now appear, I shall not depart this life until my tongue shall glorify His godly name in the same place." The said Master James reported this in presence of many famous witnesses, many years before the said John set his foot in Scotland this last time.

William Kirkaldy, then younger of Grange, Peter Carmichael, Robert and William Leslie, who were all together in Mount St. Michael, wrote to the said John, asking his counsel as to whether they might, with safe conscience, break their prison? His answer was that if, without the blood of any shed or spilt by them for their deliverance, they could set themselves at freedom, they might safely take it: but that he would never consent to their shedding any man's blood for their freedom. He added, further, that he was assured that God would deliver them and the rest of that company, even in the eyes of the world; but not by such means as we had looked for; that was, by the force of friends or by their other labours. He affirmed that they should not be delivered by such means, but that God would so work in the deliverance of them, that the praise thereof should redound to His glory only. He therefore urged every one to take any occasion for deliverance that God might offer, provided that nothing was done against God's express commandment.

John Knox was the more earnest in giving his counsel, because the old Laird of Grange, and others, were averse from their purpose, fearing lest the escaping of the others should be an occasion of their own worse treatment. Thereto the said John answered that such fear proceeded not from God's Spirit, but only from a blind love of self. No good purpose was to be stayed for things that were in the hands and power of God. In one instant, he added, God delivered all that company into the hands of unfaithful men, but so would He not relieve them. Some would He deliver by one means, and at one time, and others must, for a season, abide upon His good pleasure. In the end, they embraced this counsel. Upon the King's Even, when Frenchmen commonly drink liberally, the foresaid four persons, having the help and conduct of a boy of the house, bound all those that were in the Castle, put them in sundry houses, locked the doors upon them, took the keys from the captain, and departed without harm done to the person of any, or without touching anything that appertained to the King, the Captain, or the house.

Great search was made through the whole country for them. But it was God's good pleasure so to conduct them that they escaped the hands of the faithless, albeit it was with long travail, and endurance of great pain and poverty; for the French boy left them, and took with him the small poise that they had. Having neither money, nor knowledge of the country, and fearing that the boy should discover them, as in very deed he did, of purpose they divided themselves, changed their garments, and went in sundry parties. The two brethren, William and Robert Leslie (who now are become, the said Robert especially, enemies to Christ Jesus and to all virtue) came to Rouen. William Kirkaldy and Peter Carmichael, in beggars' garments, came to Le Conquet, and for the space of twelve or thirteen weeks they travelled as poor mariners, from port to port, till at length they got a French ship, and landed in the west. From thence they came to England, where they met with the said John Knox, he and Alexander Clark having been delivered that same winter.

[Sidenote: John Knox in England and on the Continent.]

The said John was first appointed preacher to Berwick, then to Newcastle; and lastly, he was called to London and the south parts of England, where he remained until the death of King Edward the Sixth. Then he left England, and went to Geneva, where he remained in his private study, until he was called to be preacher to the English congregation at Frankfort. This call he obeyed, albeit unwillingly, at the commandment of that notable servant of God, John Calvin. He remained at Frankfort until some of the learned, more given to unprofitable ceremonies than to sincerity of religion, began to quarrel with him. These men, because they despaired of prevailing before the magistrate there in the overt purpose of establishing their corruptions, accused him of treason committed against the Emperor, and against their sovereign Queen Mary, in that, in his _Admonition to England_, he called the one little inferior to Nero, and the other more cruel than Jezebel. The magistrate, perceiving their malice and fearing that the said John should fall into the hands of his accusers by one means or another, gave secret warning to him to depart from the city; for they could not save him if he were required by the Emperor, or by the Queen of England, in the Emperor's name. So the said John returned to Geneva, from thence to Dieppe, and thereafter to Scotland, as we shall hear.

In the winter that the galleys remained in Scotland, there were delivered Master James Balfour, his two brethren, David and Gilbert, John Auchinleck, John Sibbald, John Gray, William Guthrie, and Stephen Bell. The gentlemen that remained in prisons were, by the procurement of the Queen-Dowager, set at liberty in the month of July 1550. These were shortly thereafter recalled to Scotland, their peace was proclaimed, and they themselves were restored to their lands, in despite of their enemies. And that was done in hatred of the Duke, and because France began to thirst to have the regiment of Scotland in her own hands. Howsoever it was, God made their enemies set them at liberty and freedom. There still remained a number of common servants in the galleys, but these were all delivered when the contract of peace was made betwixt France and England, after the taking of Boulogne. So was the whole company set at liberty, none perishing except James Melvin, who departed from the miseries of this life in the Castle of Brest in Brittany.

This we write, that the posterity to come may understand how potently God wrought in preserving and delivering those that had but a small knowledge of His truth, and for the love of the same hazarded all. We or our posterity may see a fearful dispersion of such as oppose themselves to impiety, or take upon them to punish the same otherwise than laws of men will permit: we may see them forsaken by men, and, as it were, despised and punished by God. But, if we do, let us not damn the persons that punish vice for just causes, nor yet despair that the same God that casts down, for causes unknown to us, will again raise up the persons dejected, to His glory and their comfort....

[Sidenote: Haddington proves the Truth of Master George Wishart's Foreboding.]

Haddington being in the hands of the English, and much herschip being done in the country (for what the Englishmen did not destroy, the French consumed), God did begin to fight for Scotland; for to the town named He sent so contagious a pest, that with great difficulty could the English garrison have their dead buried. They were oft reinforced with new men, but all was in vain. Hunger and pest were within the town, and the enemy, with a camp-volant,[110] lay about them and intercepted all victuals, unless these were brought by a convoy from Berwick; and the Council of England was compelled, in spring, to withdraw its forces from that place. So, after spoiling and burning some part of the town, they left it to be occupied by such as first should take possession--and those were the Frenchmen, with a mean number of the ancient inhabitants. Thus did God perform the words and the threatening of His servant Master George Wishart, who said that, for their contempt of God's messenger, they should be visited with sword and fire, with pestilence, strangers, and famine.

[110] Expeditionary force.

[Sidenote: Peace proclaimed (April 1550): the Papists resume Persecution.]

After this, peace was contracted betwixt France and England and Scotland; and a separate contract of peace was made betwixt Scotland and Flanders, with all the Easterlings; so that Scotland had peace with the world. But yet the Bishops would make war with God. As soon as they got any quietness, they apprehended Adam Wallace, a simple man, without great learning, but zealous in godliness and of an upright life. He with his wife, Beatrice Livingston, frequented the company of the Lady Ormiston, for the instruction of her children during the trouble of her husband, who then was banished. That bastard, called Archbishop of St. Andrews, took the said Adam from the place of Winton, and carried him to Edinburgh. And, in the kirk of the black thieves, alias Friars, he was brought to trial before the Duke, the Earl of Huntly, divers others besides, and the Bishops and their rabble.

[Sidenote: The faithful Testimony and Martyrdom of Adam Wallace.]

Master John Lauder was accuser, and alleged that he took upon him to preach. He answered that he never considered himself worthy of so excellent a vocation, and therefore never took upon him to preach; but that he would not deny that, sometimes at the table and sometimes in other privy places, he had read the Scriptures, and had given such exhortation as God pleased to give him, to such as pleased to hear him. "Knave," quoth one, "what have ye to do to meddle with the Scriptures?" "I think," said he, "it is the duty of every Christian to seek the will of his God, and the assurance of his salvation, where it is to be found, and that is within his Old and New Testament." "What then," said another, "shall we leave to the bishops and kirkmen to do, if every man shall be a babbler upon the Bible?" "It becometh you," said he, "to speak more reverently of God and of His blessed Word. If the judge were incorrupt, he would punish you for your blasphemy. To your question, I answer that, albeit ye and I and other five thousand within this realm should read the Bible, and speak of it what God should give us to speak, yet should we leave more to the bishops to do than either they will or yet can well do. We leave to them to preach the Evangel of Jesus Christ publicly, and to feed the flock which He hath redeemed with His own blood, and hath commended to the care of all true pastors. When we leave this unto them, methinks we leave to them a heavy burden; and we do them no wrong if we search our own salvation where it is to be found, considering that they are but dumb dogs, and unsavoury salt that has altogether lost its season." The Bishops, offended, said, "What prating is this? Let his accusation be read."

And then was begun, "False traitor, heretic, thou didst baptize thine own bairn. Thou saidst there is no purgatory. Thou saidst that to pray to saints and for the dead is idolatry and a vain superstition, and so on. What sayest thou of these things?" He answered, "If I should be bound to answer, I would require an upright and indifferent judge." The Earl of Huntly disdainfully said, "Foolish man, wilt thou desire another judge than my Lord Duke's Grace, great Governor of Scotland, and my Lords the bishops, and the clergy here present?" Thereto he answered, "The bishops can be no judges of me; for they are open enemies to me and to the doctrine that I profess. And, as for my Lord Duke, I cannot tell if he has the knowledge that should be in him that should judge and discern betwixt lies and the truth, the inventions of men and the true worshipping of God. I desire God's Word," and with that he produced the Bible, "to be judge betwixt the bishops and me, and I am content that ye shall all hear. If by this book I shall be convicted to have taught, spoken, or done, in matters of religion, anything that repugns to God's will, I refuse not to die; but if I cannot be convicted, as I am assured by God's Word I shall not be, then I in God's name desire your assistance, that malicious men may not execute unjust tyranny upon me." The Earl of Huntly said, "What a babbling fool this is. Thou shalt get none other judges than these that sit here." Thereto the said Adam answered, "The good will of God be done. But be ye assured, my Lord, with such measure as ye mete to others, with the same measure it shall be meted to you again. I know that I shall die, but be ye assured that my blood will be required of your hands."

Alexander Earl of Glencairn, yet alive, then said to the Bishop of Orkney, and others that sat near him, "Take you yon, my lords of the clergy; for here I protest, for my part, that I consent not to his death." And so, without fear, the said Adam prepared to answer. As to the baptizing of his own child, he said, "It was and is as lawful to me, for lack of a true minister, to baptize my own child, as it was to Abraham to circumcise his son Ishmael and his family. And as for purgatory, praying to saints, and praying for the dead, I have read both the New and Old Testaments often, but I neither could find mention nor assurance of them; and, therefore, I believe that they are but mere inventions of man, devised for covetousness's sake." "What sayest thou of the Mass?" speired[111] the Earl of Huntly. He answered, "I say, my Lord, as my Master Jesus Christ says, 'That which is in greatest estimation before men is abomination before God.'" Then all cried out, "Heresy! heresy!" And so this simple servant of God was adjudged to the fire; which he patiently sustained that same afternoon, upon the Castle Hill.

[111] Inquired.

Thus the Papists began again to pollute the land, which God had lately plagued. Their iniquity was not yet come to that full ripeness in which God willed that it should be made manifest to this whole realm that they were faggots prepared for the everlasting fire, and men whom neither plagues might correct, nor the light of God's Word convert from their darkness and impiety.

[Sidenote: The Duke is deposed, and the Queen-Dowager is made Regent: 1554.]