Whilst Balneaves was soliciting help from England, Panter, on behalf of the Regent, was appealing to France. On the strength of the old alliance between the two countries, Francis was requested to send supplies, not only of money, but also of arms, and to place some of his own experienced military leaders at the disposal of Scotland.
About the middle of June 1547, the papal bull upon which so much had been made to depend, reached Scotland, and was communicated to the rebel leaders, together with a summons that they should surrender the Castle, in accordance with the promise given by them the previous December. On making themselves acquainted with the document, they found it contained a remarkable clause, in which Paul III. professed to remit the crime that could not be remitted, ‘Remittimus irremissibile.’ It was, in all probability, nothing more than a theological conceit, in the Italian taste. But those whom it most nearly concerned read it otherwise. It was not, they declared, the sure and sufficient absolution which the Governor and his Council had undertaken to procure for them, but merely a trap set for their destruction. They consequently refused to give up the Castle, alleging that the condition upon which they had agreed to do so had not been fulfilled.
When the little garrison thus resolved once more to defy the Regent’s power, the armament upon which he depended to force them into subjection, was ready to set sail, if it had not already left the French port. On the 29th of June, a fleet consisting, according to some chroniclers of twenty-one galleys, according to others, of six galleys and two great ships, appeared in sight of St Andrews. Leo Strozzi, who was in command, at once disposed his vessels in such fashion that their artillery should command all the outworks of the Castle, and early next day sent another summons to the garrison to surrender. The bold defenders replied that he had no lawful authority over them, and that they consequently declined to obey his orders. That was the signal for the commencement of active operations on the part of the French squadron. Two days’ firing, however, produced no further effect on the fortress than the demolition of portions of the roof; whilst the defenders inflicted serious injuries on the assailants, and besides killing several rowers and soldiers, completely crippled one galley.
Strozzi, by this time, had recognized the futility of continuing the siege from the sea alone, and at once began to make preparation to attack it from the land side as well. The measures which he took showed that he meant more serious work, and that he understood his business better than the Scottish engineers who had conducted operations the summer before. Indeed, he did not hesitate to express his contempt for them as ‘unexpert men of war,’ to whom it had not occurred to mount batteries on the steeples and all the high places that overlooked the Castle. Nor did he think much better of the besieged for not bringing down the steeples to prevent such advantage being taken of them.
In getting his own batteries into position, Strozzi’s ingenuity was put to the test. His guns had to be taken through streets completely exposed to the fire of the enemy; and if men were employed to transport them, there would necessarily be very heavy losses amongst them. To avoid this, he set up powerful windlasses at the extremity of each street, and by their means was able to draw his cumbrous guns along without sacrificing the life of a single soldier. When this was noticed from the Castle by the Italian engineer, who had been sent from England to assist the garrison, he was not slow in realising the danger of the situation. ‘Defend yourselves, Masters,’ he exclaimed, ‘for now you have to deal with men of war who are very skilful and subtle, for they work their cannons without any men near them.’ But the confederates had dared too much to be intimidated by this new device, and they answered resolutely that they should hold the Castle to the last against the united forces of Scotland and France.
The laborious task of raising heavy guns on to the tower of the Abbey Church and the steeple of Saint Salvator’s College must have taken a considerable time, for the 24th of July is given as the date of the beginning of the siege from the land side. It had now become evident that the end could not be far off. From their high position the besiegers commanded even the courtyard of the Castle; and it was only with the greatest danger that the besieged could make their way from one point to another. The persistent cannonade drove them first from the block-house, then from the sea-tower, and finally effected a breach in the wall, of which a large portion came crushing down, with a mighty noise. A tremendous storm that broke out checked the progress of the assailants for a few hours, and probably saved the garrison from the slaughter which must inevitably have taken place if the breach had been stormed and the Castle captured by force. Even at this last extremity, there were some within the walls who counselled a last effort, and urged that the whole available force should join in a sortie. But the desperate proposal though discussed was not adopted; and when the storm abated and preparation was again being made for a final assault, a flag of truce announced that, for the first time, the rebel leaders demanded a parley with a view to the surrender of the fortress. But, not even yet was their spirit so utterly crushed that they were ready to consent without demur to any terms. Neither with the Governor nor with any of their own countrymen would they condescend to negotiate, for these had deserted them, ‘Which, I am assured,’ said the Laird of Grange, ‘God shall revenge ere it be long.’ It was to Strozzi himself that they surrendered. According to Knox the terms of the capitulation were: That the lives of all that were within the Castle, as well of the English as of the Scots, should be saved; that they should be safely transported to France; that, at the King of France’s expense they should be safely conveyed to any country they might desire, other than Scotland, in case that, upon conditions which should be offered by the King of France unto them, they could not be content to remain in service and freedom there.
Thus, on the 30th of July, 1547, ended the siege of the famous Castle. Entering it at once, the French ‘spoylled verrie rigorouslie.’ According to Pitscottie, ‘they gott both gold, silver, cloathing, bedding, meitt and drink, with all veapones, artaillie, and victuallis, and all vther plenisching, and left nothing behind thame that they might gett carried away in thair gallies.’ The ‘Diurnal of Occurrents’ estimates the value of the spoil at one hundred thousand pounds. By command of the Governor and Council, the Castle itself was razed to the ground. ‘Whether this was to fulfil their law, which commandeth places where cardinals are slain so to be used, or for fear that England should have taken it, as they did Broughty rock, we are uncertain,’ says Calderwood, who reports the fact.
IV. IN FRANCE
To Arran and his Council, the terms obtained from Strozzi by the rebel garrison seemed to be far too lenient; and they accordingly sent John Hamilton of Milburne to the King of France, who was now Henry II., and to the powerful Cardinal of Lorraine, urging them to repudiate the Captain-General’s action, and, in spite of the promises by which they had finally been induced to surrender, to handle the prisoners sharply.
Owing to circumstances which the chroniclers do not explain, the journey to France appears to have been unusually protracted; for, although Strozzi is said to have sailed from St Andrews about the middle of August, it was not till November that the galleys are reported to have reached Rouen. On his arrival, the six score Scotsmen whom he brought with him, learned that they were not to be given the option of entering into the service of France, or of passing, at the King’s expense, into any other country they might choose; and that the murder of Cardinal Beaton, and the subsequent rebellious defiance of the royal authority were not to be allowed to go unpunished. John Knox and Balfour, together with the prisoners of lower degree, were kept on the galleys as slaves, and sent to work on the Loire. Their fate was commemorated in the doggerel couplet given by Calderwood as the ‘song of triumph’ of the Papists: —
‘Preests, content you now; preests, content you now,For Norman and his companie hath filled the galeyes fow.’In reality, however, Norman Lesley, with the Laird of Pitmillie, and the Laird of Grange for his companions, was conveyed to Cherbourg. Henry Balneaves was imprisoned in Rouen itself, where he spent his enforced leisure in writing a ‘comfortable treatise’ on Justification by Faith without Works. James Melville was relegated to the Castle of Brest, but very shortly after ‘departed from the miseries of this life.’
To William Kirkcaldy, Peter Carmichael, Robert and William Lesley, what was then one of the most formidable fortresses in the kingdom, was assigned as a place of confinement.
Built on a huge rock of granite, in the blue, savage Norman Bay, there stood the imposing structure upon which the admiration of the Middle-Ages bestowed the name of the Wonder of the West. Situated some four miles from the nearest point of the mainland, it was guarded by the sea at high water, but became more inaccessible still when, for a couple of hours each day, the ebbing tide left nothing but a wide expanse of treacherous quicksands between it and the coast. This was the abbey-fortress of Mont Saint-Michel, that ‘wonderfully strong place upon the sea-shore,’ which had proved the bulwark of Normandy during the long struggle between England and France, and in which insignificant garrisons of determined men had, time and again, successfully held out against the assaults of beleaguering thousands. Here it was that the four Scottish prisoners were destined to spend many months of captivity. But the very fastness of their isolated prison was not without advantage for them. It inspired the Governor with such confidence that he deemed it unnecessary to deprive them of the restricted liberty that the rock afforded. The only annoyance to which they were submitted, was one which affected them through their religious opinions, and which they shared in common with the Scottish prisoners in other parts of the country. Knox relates that those who were in the galleys were threatened with torments if they would not give reverence to the Mass, and that they would have been compelled to kiss a statue of the Virgin, if one of them had not seized it and cast it into the Loire. At Cherbourg, too, the governor of the castle did his utmost to induce Sir James Kirkcaldy and his companions to attend Mass with him. When they refused to do so, he threatened to compel them; but they warned him that, if he chose to adopt such a course, they would, by their irreverent behaviour, let all present know their contempt for the ceremony. William Kirkcaldy, with his three fellow-captives, was subjected to the same importunities by the captain to whose keeping he had been entrusted at Mont Saint-Michel. With equal firmness, though in a more bantering tone, he replied for himself and for them, that ‘they would not only hear Mass every day but also help to say it, providing they might stick the priests; otherwise not.’
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