It was
reported that she was busily engaged in fortifying Leith--a proceeding,
the Congregation maintained, in direct violation of the late treaty.
Disregarding their protest, she steadily proceeded with the work; and,
as she was strengthened by a new contingent of eight hundred French
men-at-arms, her position by the middle of autumn was such as to excite
alarm alike in Scotland and England. Again there was no arbitrament but
by the sword.
On October 16th the insurgent leaders entered Edinburgh with the
intention of laying siege to Leith, where the Regent had taken refuge as
the safest place in the kingdom. One of their earliest steps was the
most audacious they had yet taken. They formally deposed Mary of
Lorraine from the regency, on the ground that she had ruled as a tyrant
and was betraying the country to a foreign enemy. But they soon found
that they had taken a task beyond their strength. Their force amounted
to but eight thousand men, most of whom were "cuntrie fellows" with no
experience in war, and whose service could not extend beyond a few
weeks. To this undisciplined host was opposed a garrison of three
thousand trained soldiers, with the command of the sea and intrenched in
a town fortified after the best military art of the time. Fortune,
moreover, was against the Congregation from the first.
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