large sum of money, and Elizabeth was constitutionally economical and
frugal. But then, on the other hand, as she deliberated upon the affair
long and, anxiously, both alone and with her council, she thought that,
if she should so far succeed as to get the government of Scotland into
her power, she could compel Mary to renounce forever all claims to the
English crown, by threatening her, if she would not do it, with the loss
of her own.

Finally, she decided on making the attempt. Cecil, her wise and prudent
counselor, strongly advised it. He said it was far better to carry on
the contest with Mary and the French in one of their countries than in
her own. She began to make preparations. Mary and the French government,
on learning this, were alarmed in their turn. They sent word to
Elizabeth that for her to render countenance and aid to rebels in arms
against their sovereign, in a sister kingdom, was wholly unjustifiable,
and they remonstrated most earnestly against it. Besides making this
remonstrance, they offered, as an inducement of another kind, that if
she would refrain from taking any part in the contest in Scotland, they
would restore to her the great town and citadel of Calais, which her
sister had been so much grieved to lose. To this Elizabeth replied
that, so long as Mary adhered to her pretensions to the English crown,
she should be compelled to take energetic measures to protect herself
from them; and as to Calais, the possession of a fishing town on a
foreign coast was of no moment to her in comparison with the peace and
security of her own realm. This answer did not tend to close the breach.
Besides the bluntness of the refusal of their offer, the French were
irritated and vexed to hear their famous sea-port spoken of so
contemptuously.

Elizabeth accordingly fitted out a fleet and an army, and sent them
northward. A French fleet, with re-enforcements for Mary's adherents in
this contest, set sail from France at about the same time. It was a very
important question to be determined which of these two fleets should get
first upon the stage of action.

[Illustration: THE FIRTH OF FORTH WITH LEITH AND EDINBURGH IN THE
DISTANCE.]

In the mean time, the Protestant party in Scotland, or the rebels, as
Queen Mary and her government called them, had had very hard work to
maintain their ground. There was a large French force already there, and
their co-operation and aid made the government too strong for the