e may plausibly attribute a proposal which, on
October 25, Knox submitted to Croft. {159} It was that England should
lend 1000 men for the attack on the Regent in Leith. Peace with France
need not be broken, for the men may come as private adventurers, and
England may denounce them as rebels. Croft declined this proposal as
dishonourable, and as too clearly a breach of treaty. Knox replied that
he had communicated Croft's letter "to such as partly induced me before
to write" (October 29). Very probably Lethington suggested the idea,
leaving the burden of its proposal on Knox. Dr. M'Crie says that it is a
solitary case of the Reformer's recommending dissimulation; but the
proceeding was in keeping with Knox's previous statements about the
nature of the terms made in July; with the protestations of loyalty; with
the lie given to Mary of Guise when she spoke, on the whole, the plain
truth; and generally with the entire conduct of the prophet and of the
Congregation. Dr. M'Crie justly remarks that Knox "found it difficult to
preserve integrity and Christian simplicity amidst the crooked wiles of
political intrigue."

On the behaviour of the godly heaven did not smile--for the moment.
Scaling-ladders had been constructed in St. Giles's church, "so that
preaching was neglected." "The preachers spared not openly to say that
they feared the success of that enterprise should not be prosperous," for
this reason, "God could not suffer such contempt of His word . . . long
to be unpunished." The Duke lost heart; the waged soldiers mutinied for
lack of pay; Morton deserted the cause; Bothwell wounded Ormiston as he
carried money from Croft, and seized the cash {160a}--behaving
treacherously, if it be true that he was under promise not to act against
the brethren. The French garrison of Leith made successful sorties; and
despite the valour of Arran and Lord James and the counsel of Lethington,
the godly fled from Edinburgh on November 5, under taunts and stones cast
by the people of the town.

The fugitives never stopped till they reached Stirling, when Knox
preached to them. He lectured at great length on discomfitures of the
godly in the Old Testament, and about the Benjamites, and the Levite and
his wife. Coming to practical politics, he reminded his audience that
after the accession of the Hamiltons to their party, "there was nothing
heard but This lord will bring these many hundred spears . . . if this
Earl be ours,