Leith.] REPULSE OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTS. I77
Cornelle, Shelly, Littleton, Southworthe, and nine
other officers, with 2,240 men.
To keep the. field (i.~., the Reserve), Captain
Somerset, and eight other captains, with 2,400
men.
?Item ; it is ordered that the Vyce Admyralle
of the Queen?s Majesty?s schippes shall, when a
token is given, send Vc. (500) men out of the
Navye into the haven of Leythe, to give an assaulte
on the side of the towne, at the same instant when
the assaulte shal be gevene on the breche.?
Captain Vaughan was ordered to assault the
town near Mount Pelham, and the Scots on the
westward and seaward.
The assault was not made until the 7th of May,
when it was delivered at seven in the morning on
dead they could find, and suspended the corpses
along the sloping faces of the ramparts, where they
remained for several days. The failure of the
attempted storm did not very materially affect the
blockade. On the contrary, the besiegers still continued
to harass the town by incessant cannonading
from the mounds already formed and others they
erected One of the former, Mount Falcon, must
have been particularly destructive, as its guns swept
the most crowded part of Leith called the Shore,
along which none could pass but at the greatest
hazard of death. Moreover, the English were
barbarously and uselessly cruel. Before burning
Leith mills they murdered in cold blood every
individual found therein.
The close siege had now lasted about two months,
PROSPECT OF LEITH, 1693. (Reduced Facainrilc aftw Grernvillr Coil us.)
four quarters, but, for some reason not given, the
fleet failed to act, and by some change in the plans
Sir James Crofts was ordered, with what was deemed
a sufficient force, to assail the town on the north
side, at the place latterly called the Sand Port,
where at low water an entrance was deemed easy.
For some reason best known to himself Sir James
thought proper to remain aloof during the whole
uproar of the assault, the ladders provided for
which proved too short by half a pike?s length;
thus he was loudly accused of treachery-a charge
which was deemed sufficiently proved when it was
discovered that a few days before he had been seen
in conversation with the Queen Regent, who addressed
him from the walls of Edinburgh Castle.
The whole affair turned out a complete failure,
English and Scots were alike repulse2 r%Ah slaughter,
?and singular as it may appear,? says a writer,
? the success of the garrison was not a little aided
by the exertionsof certain ladies, whom the French,
with their usual gallantry to the fair sex, entertained
in their quarters.? To these fair ones Knox
applies some pretty rough epithets.
The French now made a sally, stripped all the
110
without any prospect of a termination, though
Elizabeth continued to send more men and more
ships ; but the garrison were reduced to such dire
extremities that for food they were compelled to
shoot and eat all the horses of the. officers and
gens Zurmes. Yet they endured their privations
with true French sung froid, vowing never to surrender
while a horse was left, <?their officers exhibiting
that politeness in the science of gastronomy
which is recorded of the Margchal Strozzi, whose
maifre de cuisine maintained his master?s table with
twelve covers every day, although he had nothing
better to set upon it now and then except the
quarter of a carrion horse, dressed with the grass
and weeds that grew upon the ramparts.?
The discovery, a few years ago, of an ancient
well filled to its brim with cart-loads of horses?
heads, near the head of the Links, was a singular
but expressive monument of the resolution with
which the town was defended
The unfortunate Queen Regent did not live to
see the end of these affairs. She was sinking
fast. She had contemplated retiring to France,
and had a commission executed at Blois by Francis
OLD AND NEW EDINBUKGH. [I eith.
and Mary, constituting their uncle, Rend, Marquis
dElbeuf, Regent of Scotland. She tried to arrange
a treaty of peace, including Scotland, England, and
France, but died ere it could be concluded, on
the 10th June, 1560.
Fresh forces were now envkoning Leith. Sir
James Balfour states that there were among them
4c 12,000 Scots Protestants,? under the Duke of
Chatelerault, eleven peers, and 120 lesser
barons ; but all their operations at Leith had signally
failed ; thus Lethington, in one of his letters,
acknowledged that its fortifications were so strong,
that if well victualled it might defy an army of
zo,ooo men. In these circumstances negotiations
for peace began. A commission was granted by
Francis and May, joint sovereigns of Scotland, to
John de Monluc, Bishop of Valence, Nicholas,
Bishop of Amiens, the Sieurs de la Brosse, d?Oisel,
and de Raudan, to arrange the conditions of a
treaty to include Scotland, France, and England.
It was duly signed at Edinburgh, but prior to it
the French, says Rapin, offered to restore Calais
if Elizabeth would withdraw her troops from before
Leith. ?But she answered that she did not
value that Fishtown so much as the quiet of
Britain.?
It was stipulated that the French army should
embark for France on board of English ships with
bag and baggage, arms and armour, without molestation,
and that, on the day they evacuated Leith
Lord Grey should begin his homeward march ; but,
oddly enough, it was expressly stipulated that an
officer with sixty Frenchmen should remain in the
castle of Inchkeith It was also arranged that all
the artillery in Leith should be collected in the
market-place ; that at the same time the artillery of
the besiegers, piece for piece, should be ranged in
an open place, and that every gun and standard
should be conveyed to their respective countries.
On the 16th of July, 1560, the French troops,
reduced now to 4000 men, under MarCchal
Strozzi, marched out of Leith after plundering it of
everything they could lay their hands on, and embarked
on board Elizabeth?s fleet, thus closiiig a
twelve years? campaign inScotland. At the same
hour the English began their march for the Borders,
and John Knox held a solemn service of thanks
giving in St. Giles?s.
In addition to the battery mounds which still
remain, many relics of this siege have been dis
covered from time to time in Leith. In 1853,
when some workmen were lowering the head of
King Street, they came upon an old wall of great
strength (says the Edinburgh Guardian of that
year), and near it lay two ancient cannon-balls,
respectively 6- and 32-pounders. In the Scotsman
for 1857 and 1859 is reported the discovery of
several skeletons buried in the vicinity of the batteries
; and many human bones, cannon-balls, old
swords, &c., have been found from time to time
in the vicinity of Wellington Place. Two of the
principal thoroughfares of Leith were said to be
long known as Les Deux Bras, being so styled by
the garrison of Mary of Lorraine.
CHAPTER XIX.
LEITH-HISTORICAL SURVEY (c~ntittu~d).
f i e Fortifications demolished-Landing of Queen Mary-Leith Mortgaged-Edinburgh takes Military Possession of i t - a Convention-a Plague
.-Jams VI. Departs and Returns-WitchesGowrie Conspiracy-The Union Jack-Pirates-Taylor the Water Poet-A Fight in the
Harbour-Death of Jams VI.
BARELY was the treaty of peace concluded, than
it was foolishly resolved by the Scottish government
to demolish the fortifications which had been reared
with such labour and skill, lest they migh! be the
means of future mischief if they fell into the hands
of an enemy ; consequently, the following Order of
Council was issued at Edinburgh 2nd July, 1560,
commanding their destruction :-
?Forsaemeikle as it is naturiie knawyn how
hurtful the fortifications of Leith hes been to this
haille realme, and in especialle to the townes next
adjacent thairunto, and how prejudiciall the same
sal1 be to the libertie of this haille countrie, in caiss
strangears sal1 at any tyme hereafter intruse thamselfs
thairin : For this and syck like considerations
the Council has thocht expedient, and chargis
Provost, Bailies and Council of Edinburgh to tak
order with the town and community of the same?
and caus and compel1 thame to appoint a sufficient
number to cast doilll and demolish the south part
of the said towne, begynand at Sanct Anthones
Port, and passing westward to the Water of Leith,
making the Blockhouse and curtain equal with the
ground.?
