hatred of England, and the hearts of all parties among them turned passionately to France. Although the available military strength of the nation was for the moment annihilated, the conquerors could not follow up their success. The Queen was withdrawn to Stirling, and they could not reach her. They had brought supplies with them for a month only, and so long and no longer could they remain; neither force nor payment could extract the means of subsistence from a country where it did not exist; there were no more stores in readiness to be brought up from England, and Scotland, unsuccessful in her arms, drove the invaders back by her hardy poverty.
Sept. 11.Leith was again burnt—so much of it as would burn: the ships in the harbour were taken and destroyed; two islands in the Forth were fortified, and small garrisons left there; a few castles were dismantled. These alone were the tangible fruits of the bloody inroad of the Duke of Somerset.
But at least he had surrounded himself with glory. He did not return with the Queen of Scots, but he had fought and won a great battle. He was the hero of the hour, and while the hour lasted, he could work his will in Church or State without fear of opposition.
When he set out for Scotland, the ecclesiastical visitors were in full activity. From the people, wherever they went, they met with no open opposition; in London they were indisputably popular. In London, the old, the timid, the superstitious, the imaginative, prayed in secret to the saints to deliver them from evil;