And finally, having made such devastation of the country hereabouts as your majesty hath commanded, I shall then proceed to the execution of the rest of my charge in our return home by land, which I trust shall be accomplished to your highness' honour and contentment. Thus Almighty God preserve your majesty in your royal estate most felicitously to endure. At Leith the ixth of May. Your Majesty's humble subjects and most bounden servants, E. Hertford, John Lisle, Rafe Sadleyr.
B. (May 18.)
Source.—Hamilton Papers, No. 240, Vol. II.
Please it Your Highness to understand that like as we wrote in our last letters to Your Majesty our determination to depart from Leith homewards by land with your army upon Thursday last, and so to devastate the country by the way in our return as we might conveniently, so have we now accomplished the same. And first before our departure from Leith having brent Edinburgh and sundry other towns and villages in those parties as we wrote in our said last letters,—we did likewise burn the town of Leith, the same morning that we departed thence, and such ships and boats as we found in the haven, meet to be brought away, we have conveyed thence by sea, and the rest are brent; and have also destroyed and brent the pier and haven. Which damages we think they shall not be able to recover in our time. And in our way homewards we have brent the town of Musselborough, Preston, Seton, with Lord Seton's principal house, himself being pricking aloof from us with a certain number of horsemen, so that he will see his own house and his own toun on fire, and also we have brent the touns of Haddington and Dunbar, which we dare assure Your Majesty be well burnt, with as many other piles, gentlemen's and others houses and villages as we might conveniently reach, within the limits or compass of our way homewards. And always had such respect towards the keeping of good order and array in our marching, as notwithstanding the Scots would daily prick about us, and make as many proud shows and braggs, they could take us at none advantage. And yesterday the Lords Hume and Seton, and also as we were informed, the Earl of Bothwell, had assembled together the number of two thousand horsemen and vi thousand footmen, and were once determined to have stopped us at the Pease, which is a very straight and ill passage for an army, assuring your majesty that three thousand men, being men of heart, and having captains of any policy or experience of the wars, might keep and defend the said passage against a greater power than we had. Nevertheless being the said Scots assembled and determined as is aforesaid, to keep that passage, when they saw your majesty's army and power marching towards them in an honest order and in such sort as they might well perceive were fully bent and determined to assault them, they did immediately disperse and scale themselves in our sight, and gave us the passage without resistance. And so this journey is accomplished to Your Majesty's honour.
Touching the castle of Temptallen, like as we wrote to Your Highness what we have done to Sir George Douglas in the same, so have I the Earl of Hertford since that time received letters from the Earl of Angus and the said Sir George, which I send herewith to Your Majesty; and what shall be Your Majesty's further pleasure to have done in that behalf, I shall accomplish accordingly; and would right gladly have returned by Temptallen, and made some countenance of assault to the same, but that partly I forbare and tarried for the said answer, and chiefly I was constrained to leave it for lack of carriages for great pieces of artillery and also for lack of powder; and besides that we were so disfurnished by carriages for our victuals, that we were not able to carry so much with us, as might serve us for any longer time than that we might march home. And yet having made as Good Shift and Provision for the same as we could for our lives, the soldiers, ere we came half-way home, were fain to drink water the residue of the way which they did with as good will as ever did men, and as well content to endure labour and pain, without grudging at the same. These respects and lacks enforced us to leave both Temptallen and Hume Castles much against our wills, and to make the haste we could homewards for avoiding of more inconvenience. So that this night we arrived here at Berwick with our whole army, and shall forthwith dissolve the same, to the intent Your Highness may the sooner be exonerated of your great charges sustained in that behalf.
Finally, we have received letters since our arrival here from the lords of your majesty's council, by the which it appeareth that Your Highness' pleasure to have 3900 soldiers chosen out of this army to be transported hence to Calais to serve Your Highness in France,—whereupon I the said Earl have called sundry of the captains afore me, and appointed such as I thought most meet with their numbers for that purpose. Assuring Your Majesty that though the gentlemen are most willing to serve, yet they declare their necessity to be such, which indeed is most evident,—as we see not how it is possible to furnish the said number presently from these parts, to be transported to Calais, unless the gentlemen and their men might have time to go home and prepare and furnish themselves in such sort as they might be able to serve Your Majesty to your honour and their honesties. For having in this journey spent all their money, they say that of force they must go home to make shift for more, and they have neither tents nor pavilions here; for because this enterprise into Scotland was by sea, all gentlemen had special commandment to bring no carriages with them, so that few or none brought any pavilion hither. And as for the soldiers having lain nightly in their clothes, since they came from home being now the space of two months, and for this fortnight, every night in the fields without covering, they have the most part of them, what with cold and great travail and scant victualling have caught such diseases both in their bodies and swelling in their legs, and be so wearied with labour and pain that few or none of them be meet to go to the seas, nor yet able to serve Your Majesty when they come to land to your honor. And besides that they be so far out of apparrell both in shirts, doublets, coats, and all other things, having also no money to furnish the same, that their captains cannot with honesty bring them to the field in such plight. So that except they might have time to refresh themselves, both to get health and such necessary furniture as they now want, undoubtedly we see not how it is possible to pick out the said number of 3900 of such men as may be sent with honesty to serve Your Highness purpose,—as I the said lord Admiral shall declare unto Your Majesty at my coming. In the mean season, we have appointed here 500 Harquebusiers, which be as forward and apt men to serve in strait feat as ever we saw, and also 200 of the Lord Cobham's men, 200 pioneers under the conduct of Mr. Lee and 50 of Sir Christopher Mone's men, besides 500 of those that come by sea, over and above 2000 reserved to keep the sea, so that the whole number that can be had here is 1450 men, which shall forthwith be embarked and transported to Calais, according to Your Majesty's pleasure. And this is as much as can be done here in that behalf, without a longer respect as is aforesaid. Thus Almighty God preserve Your Majesty in your royal estate most felicitously to endure.
At Berwick the xviiith of May and ix o'clock within night. Your Majesty's humble subjects and most bounden servants. (Signed) E. Hertford, John Lisle, Rafe Sadleyr.
[68] i.e. Cardinal Beaton, leader of the French Party in Scotland.
ATTEMPTED INVASION OF ENGLAND BY THE FRENCH (1545).
Source.—Holinshed, p. 847.