1570 April violent at Edinburgh that Randolph had been obliged CHAPXIX to leave the town and join Sussex, and Morton could only say that till Elizabeth was pleased to declare her purposes with less obscurity he could do nothing.1 She had been on the point of revoking Sussex's commission, but in her anger at the convention it had been allowed to stand, and Sussex, sending to Morton to say that in what he was about to do he intended merely to chastise such of the Borderers as had made incursions into England, prepared to execute the Queen's original commands. Before the light of the coming moon was passed' he proposed to leave a memory in Scotland, whereby they and their children should be afraid to offer war to England.2 A messenger from the Lords came to say that 'if he entered in hostile manner they would not allow it; his mistress might not take upon herself to order the realm of Scotland.' They had written again to Elizabeth, and they required him to hold his hand till an answer could be returned.3 Sussex, anxious to recover his credit for energy, declined to wait till his mistress had changed her mind. He replied that 'he neither dared nor would forbear to use her Ma'jesty's forces against her rebels wheresoever they might 'be, or against those who had broken the peace, burned 'and killed her Majesty's subjects, and taken and de'stroyed their goods. His proceedings should be rather 'an execution of justice worthy to be allowed of all 'Scottishmen than a troubling of the amity; and if any 'of their Lordships took arms in defence of their per'sons and brought themselves within the complice of 1 Sussex to Elizabeth, April 10. -MSS. Border. 2 Sussex to Cecil, April 10.—MSS. Border. 3 Petition of the Lords at Linlithgow, April 16.-MSS. Scotland. CHAP XIX 'their wickedness, he would nevertheless pass forward ' in the performance of the Queen his Sovereign's just 'intentions.'1 1570 April Despatching a courier with copies of this correspondence to London, he arranged the details of the invasion. The soldiers were Southerners. The Border levies, exposed as they would be to after vengeance, could not be relied upon to do the intended work with sufficient effect. Seven hundred men were sent to Carlisle, to Scrope, and a thousand to Sir John Foster on the Middle Marches; the remainder were kept at Berwick with Sussex himself and Hunsdon. The line was to be crossed the same day and hour at three different points. Sussex was to march direct to Kelso and follow the line of the Teviot upwards. Foster was to enter half way between Carlisle and Berwick, and Scrope was left to his discretion, to go where he could inflict greatest injury. On the evening of Monday, the 17th of April, the two noblemen left Berwick. They halted at Wark till daybreak the following morning, when they burned Kelso, and then passed up Teviotdale in two bodies on either side of the river, leaving neither castle, tower, nor town undestroyed till they came to Jedburgh.' Every stone building, large or small, was blown up with powder and left a pile of ruin, while Leonard Dacres and Lord Hume hovered about at a safe distance, but did not dare to approach. At Jedburgh they were joined by Foster, whose track from the Cheviots had been marked by the same broad belt of desolation. The next day the whole body moved up the glen to Fernihurst. They found it deserted, the laird and his gay lady, the refugees, and the thousand Border thieves 1 Sussex to the Lords in Scotland, April 17.-MSS. Scotland. 1570 April who had nestled in its outhouses, being all flown or CHAP XIX hiding among the cliffs which overhang the banks of the Jedd. With powder and pickaxe they 'rent and tore' the solid masonry, till not a man could find shelter from the rain among the ruins; and thence, still sparing nothing but the earth cabins of the poor, they advanced to Hawick. At Hawick the inhabitants, 'like unjust men' (so Hunsdon called them), had stripped the thatch from their houses, and had set it on fire in the street, so that the soldiers could not enter the town and were obliged to sleep uneasily'-they had no tents with them in the open air. On Thursday morning they finished the work which the people had begun, by burning everything that was left; after which, while Foster was making an end of the towns and villages' adjoining, Sussex and Hunsdon, with two or three companies of horse, rode out to Branxholme to do vengeance on Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch. The Scotts were so powerful that Branxholme had been a kind of sanctuary. They found it'a very strong house well set with pleasant gardens and orchards about it well kept,' a little island of beauty in the surrounding black desolation. Buccleuch had anticipated the invaders by himself applying the torch, and the woodwork was burnt to their hand as cruelly as they could have burnt it themselves;' but the place would still serve the purpose of a fortress; Sussex therefore laid powder barrels in the cellar, and of the present 'house' there are but a few fragments which survived that desolating visit. From Hawick the soldiers spread in parties about the country, converging back upon Jedburgh and Kelso, and thence at the end of the week they returned to Berwick, not a Scot having ventured a stroke to save his property. CHAP XIX 1570 April Scrope meanwhile had been no less active. Buccleuch and Fernihurst were the chief offenders on the east Marches. Scrope's duty was to inflict chastisement on Herries and Maxwell. On the Tuesday night he crossed the Esk and began his work at daybreak on Wednesday, at Ecclesfechan. After destroying this he burnt the country to the south and east of Dumfries and round by Cummartrees to Annan. Eight or ten villages, called towns in the old reports, were set on fire, and the corn, cattle, and all they contained consumed or carried off. As his numbers were smaller, the Scots looked on less patiently; a party whom Scrope had detached under one of the Musgraves to destroy a place called Blackshaw, was set upon by Maxwell and was in some danger; but Scrope coming up himself while the fight was going on, the Scots drew off into the woods, and Musgrave finished his work at leisure. There remained Hume Castle, which had been specially fortified and was held by a garrison. This stronghold at least the Scots expected would be safe, and they had carried such property as they could move within its walls. The beginning of the following week, Sussex brought heavy guns from Berwick, and took it after four hours' bombardment. Fastcastle, the Wolf's Crag of the 'Bride of Lammermoor,' followed the next day, and both there and at Hume parties of English were posted, to hold them from the Scots. In the whole foray ninety strong castles, houses, and dwelling places, with three hundred towns and villages, had been utterly destroyed.' Peels, towers, forts, every thieves' nest within twenty miles of the Border, were laid in ruins, and Sussex, whatever else might be the effect, had provided for some time to come for the quiet of the English CHAP XIX Marches.1 How the pride of Scotland would bear such a touch of the English lash was another question: there were few differences among themselves which the Scots would not forget till a blow from England had been paid back with interest; and Morton, and Morton's friends, were not likely to incur the reproach of being traitors to their country for the thankless service of Elizabeth. Had they been willing, they were powerless, for they had ruined their fortunes in maintaining Murray's Regency, and Morton, Ruthven, and Lindsay together could scarcely keep on foot two hundred men." On hearing of the foray they sent to Berwick to say, that they neither would nor could continue their present attitude. Elizabeth must speak out plainly, or they would make terms with the Hamiltons. 'Ye think,' wrote Grange to Randolph, 'ye think by the division that is among us, ye will be judge and party; ye have wrecked Teviotdale, your mistress's honour is repaired. and I pray you seek to do us no more harm, for in the end you will lose more than you can gain. The Queen your mistress shall spend mickle silver, and tyne our hearts in the end; for whatever you do to any Scotchman the haill nation will think their own interest.' 3 'The Queen,' wrote Sussex, 'must discover herself 1 Notes of the raids made into Scotland by the Earl of Sussex, April 1570.-CONWAY MSS. Hunsdon to Cecil, April 23.-MSS. Border. Scrope to Sussex, April 21.-. -MSS. Scotland. Lennox to Cecil, April 27. MSS. Scotland. 3 Grange to Randolph, April 20. Grange had been a fellow-student with Randolph at a French university, and still wrote to him, half in irony, as 'Brother Thomas.' 1570 April |