LEITH. 99
an outrage he was particularly commanded to commit. And so, having
accomplished the object of the invasion, he re-embarked with his victorious
forces, proud of their success and laden with spoil, committing, however, on
leaving, the port and its shipping to the flames.
Leith, only three years afterwards, was again visited by the same scourge,
now Duke of Somerset, and again suffered by fire at his hand, although not
to the same extent. Not that he on that occasion was less relentless, or not
so much bent on damaging and destroying Scottish property; but simply
because he then met with a stouter resistance, and had less opportunity.
Still he left his mark on this, as on the former occasion, and Leith has no
reason to remember with gratitude the visits, or presence among them, of
this fierce and pitiless firebrand of war.
A few years subsequent to this, and Leith again comes prominently to the
front. Hardly any event indeed of any great national importance occurred
without the port being in some way, less or more, closely connected with it.
Now were the days of the Reformation struggle, when Popery and Protestantism
fought a fierce hand-to-hand battle with varying fortune. Mary of Lorraine
was then Regent, and did her best to crush the rising spirit of rebellion as
directed against prelacy and despotism ; the reformers, on the other hand,
brave-hearted and fearless men, dared to despise the decrees and enactments
of royalty, and bade defiance to the uplifted arm, though sceptred with the
golden rod of sovereignty. For a good wide the battle went on with little
advantage to either side; neither party inclined to sheathe the sword, each
being eagerly bent upon victory, and determined to put down and trample
out the other. The right, however, ultimately prevailed. Popery went to
the wall, and Protestantism triumphed, but it was at a fearful cost of life and
treasure.
Mary of Lorraine, when the
palace was no longer safe for her, retired thither and fortified it, garrisoning
it with a body of French troops. The wall which was then thrown up was,
as it appears, of an octangular form with eight bastions at so many angles ;
and following the line of the present Bernard and Constitution Streets, from
nearly the west end of the latter, it pursued a northerly direction towards the
river. Here a wooden bridge, about 115 yards below the present erection at
the west end of Great Junction Street, connected the continuation of the wall
which reached to the citadel, and then taking an easterly course terminated
at Sandport Street. The bastions were of great strength, and the wall was
entirely built of stone. It had several ports or gates, the chief of which was
'
Leith figures very largely in this struggle.
I00 QUEENSFERRY TO MUSSELBURGH.
one called the Block House, and it was here that the fiercest assaults and
heaviest carnage then took place. In vain did the besiegers endeavour to
force an entrance. Daring deeds of noblest valour were then performed;
greatest efforts of loftiest courage, both individually and collectively, were
there put forth j but to no purpose. Mary and her French soldiers remained
safe within the strong arms of that impregnable rampart, and the reformers
had only the sad mortification of seeing their best and their brightest fall by
the hands of foreign mercenaries, comparatively secure behind its massive
strength.
' The flankers then, in murdering holes that lay,
Went off and slew, God knows, stout men enow ;
The harquebuse afore had made foul playe,
But it behoved our men for to go throwe,
And so men sought their deaths, they knew not how.
From such a sight, swate God, my friends defend,
For out of paine did dyvers find theyr end,'
Hardly a vestige of these fortifications are now visible, although, in making
excavations, evident traces of the former- military character of. the town are
occasionally found. Perhaps we should add that the site of the citadel is
still preserved by a place of that name adjacent to, and principally occupied
by, the North Leith Station of the North British Railway, with the principal
entrance thereto, an arched way of great strength, with a little bit of the wall
attached.
Time rolls on, bringing with him in his irresistible march his own great
changes. The queen-mother dies, and Mary, who by this time is a widow,
. has come over from that beautiful country she loved so well,' to take the
reins of government into her own hands. The day on which she anived
seems to have been unexceptionally dull and heavy. Knox, in describing it,
1 'Adieu, plaisant pays de France,
0 ma patrie I
La plus chCrie
Qui as nourri ma jeune enfance?
Adieu, France 1 Adieu, mes beaux jours,
La nef qui de joint mes amours
Na ey de moi qui la mortie
Une parte te resti ; elle est la tienne
Je la tie ton amitie,
Pour que de I'autre il la souvienne.'
These beautiful lines were written by Mary on leaving France, and show how dearly she
loved the land she was parting from-for ever 1
