fidy by the perfidious; and on October 21 the Congregation
proclaimed her deposition on the alleged authority of her daughter, now
Queen of France, whose seal they forged and used in their documents. One
Cokky was the forger; he saw Arran use the seal on public papers. {111b}
Cokky had made a die for the coins of the Congregation--a crown of
thorns, with the words _Verbum Dei_. Leith, manned by French soldiers,
was, till in the summer of 1560 it surrendered to the Congregation and
their English allies, the centre of Catholic resistance.

In November the Congregation, after a severe defeat, fled in grief from
Edinburgh to Stirling, where Knox reanimated them, and they sent
Lethington to England to crave assistance. Lethington, who had been in
the service of the Regent, is henceforth the central figure of every
intrigue. Witty, eloquent, subtle, he was indispensable, and he had one
great ruling motive, to unite the crowns and peoples of England and
Scotland. Unfortunately he loved the crafty exercise of his dominion
over men's minds for its own sake, and when, in some inscrutable way, he
entered the clumsy plot to murder Darnley, and knew that Mary could prove
his guilt, his shiftings and changes puzzle historians. In Scotland he
was called Michael Wily, that is, Macchiavelli, and "the necessary evil."

In his mission to England Lethington was successful. By December 21 the
English diplomatist, Sadleyr, informed Arran that a fleet was on its way
to aid the Congregation, who were sacking Paisley Abbey, and issuing
proclamations in the names of Francis and Mary. The fleet arrived while
the French were about to seize St Andrews (January 23, 1560), and the
French plans were ruined. The Regent, who was dying, found shelter in
Edinburgh Castle, which stood neutral. On February 27, 1560, at Berwick,
the Congregation entered into a regular league with England, Elizabeth
appearing as Protectress of Scotland, while the marriage of Mary and
Francis endured.

Meanwhile, owing to the Huguenot disturbances in France (such as the
Tumult of Amboise, directed against the lives of Mary's uncles the
Cardinal and Duc de Guise), Mary and Francis could not help the Regent,
and Huntly, a Catholic, presently, as if in fear of the western clans,
joined the Congregation. Mary of Guise had found the great northern
chief treacherous, and had disgraced him, and untrustworthy he continued
to be. On May 7 the garrison of Leith defeated wit