Sir James Crofts was blamed by many for not doing his duty that day. He, with a sufficient number of most able men, had been instructed to assault the north-west quarter upon the sea-side, where, at low-water, as at the time of the assault, the passage was easy: but neither he nor his approached the quarter appointed. At their first coming in, he had spoken with the Queen Regent at the front block-house of the Castle of Edinburgh. Whether she had enchanted him we knew not, but we suspected so that day. He certainly deceived the expectation of many, and, so far as man could judge, was the cause of that great repulse.... All the time of the assault, which was both terrible and long, the Queen Regent sat upon the fore-wall of the Castle of Edinburgh; and when she perceived our overthrow, and that the ensigns of the French were again displayed upon the walls, she gave a guffaw of laughter, and said, "Now will I go to the Mass, and praise God for that which my eyes have seen!"
The French, proud of the victory, stripped naked all the slain, and laid their dead carcases in the hot sun along their wall, where they suffered them to lie more days than one. When the Queen Regent looked towards this, she hopped for mirth and said, "Yonder are the fairest tapestries that ever I saw: I would that the whole fields that are betwixt this place and yon were strewn with the same stuff." This act was seen by all, and her words were heard by some, and misliked by many. Against this, John Knox spake openly in pulpit, and boldly affirmed, that God would revenge that contumely done to His image, not only on the furious and godless soldiers, but even on such as rejoiced thereat. And that which actually happened did declare that he was not deceived, for within a few days thereafter the Queen Regent was smitten with disease.
The Siege is continued. Illness of the Queen Regent.
The Duke of Norfolk, who then lay at Berwick, commanded the Lord Grey to continue the siege, and promised that he should not lack men, so long as any were to be had betwixt Trent and Tweed; so far was he lieutenant.... While the siege thus continued, a sudden fire chanced in Leith, and this devoured many houses and much victual. Thus did God begin to fight for us, as the Lord Erskine in plain words said to the Queen Regent. "Madam," quoth he, "I can say no more; but seeing that men may not expel unjust possessors from this land, God Himself will do it; for yon fire is not kindled by man." These words offended the Queen Regent not a little. Her sickness daily increasing, she used great craft that Monsieur D'Oysel might be permitted to speak with her. Belike she wished to bid him farewell, for of old their familiarity had been great; but that was denied. Then she wrote as if to her chirurgeon and apothecary, explaining her sickness and requiring drugs. The letter being presented to the Lord Grey, he espied craft. Few lines being written above and much white paper left, he said, "Drugs are abundant and fresher in Edinburgh than they can be in Leith: there lurks here some other mystery." By holding the paper to the fire, he perceived some writing appear, and this he read. But what it was, no other man can tell; for he burnt the bill immediately, and said to the messenger, "Albeit I have been her secretary, yet tell her I shall keep her counsel. But say to her, such wares will not sell in a new market."
The Regent expresses Repentance, and receives godly Instruction.
When the Queen received this answer, she was not content; and travailed earnestly that she might speak with the Earls of Argyll, Glencairn, and Marischall, and with the Lord James. After deliberation, it was thought expedient that they should speak with her, but not altogether, lest some part of the Guisian practice had lurked under the colour of such friendship. She expressed to them all regret that she had behaved herself so foolishly, and had compelled them to seek the support of others rather than of their own sovereign; and she said that she sore repented that ever it came to that extremity. But hers was not the wyte.[165] Her action had been dictated by the wicked counsel of her friends on the one part, and the Earl of Huntly upon the other; if he had not been there, she would have fully agreed with them at their communing at Preston. They gave her what counsel and comfort they could in that extremity, and willed her to send for some godly learned man, of whom she might receive instruction; for these ignorant Papists that were about her, understood nothing of the mystery of our Redemption. Upon their motive, John Willock was sent for. With him she talked a reasonable space, and he did plainly show to her the virtue and strength of the death of Jesus Christ, as well as the vanity and abomination of the Mass. She did openly confess that there was no salvation but in and by the death of Jesus Christ. We heard not her confession concerning the Mass.
Death of the Queen Regent.
Some said the Queen was anointed in the papistical manner, a sign of small knowledge of the truth, and of less repentance of her former superstition. Yet, howsoever it was, Christ Jesus got no small victory over such an enemy. For, albeit she had formerly avowed that, in despite of all Scotland, the preachers of Jesus Christ should either die or be banished the realm, she was compelled not only to hear that Christ Jesus was preached, and all idolatry openly rebuked, and in many places suppressed, but also she was constrained to hear one of the principal ministers within the realm, and to approve the chief head of our religion, wherein we dissent from all Papists and papistry. Shortly thereafter she finished her unhappy life; unhappy, we say, for Scotland, from the first day she entered into it, to the day she departed this life, which was the ninth of June, the year of God 1560....
Peace with France is concluded.