long and eloquent prayer offered up in the church, and supposed to have been his own composition, he crossed the Tweed on the 4th Sept., at the head of 14,000 foot, 4000 horse, and 15 cannon. After five days' march along the coast, he came in sight of the enemy, encamped on the slopes of Musselburgh; Clinton's fleet appearing at the same time, and threatening the left flank of the Scottish camp. The Scots had united in great force, to oppose the invasion of their country; the fiery cross had collected all the warlike Clans, who laid aside their usual feuds, to meet the common danger, and, among other efforts for defence, the Chiefs of the Western Highlands had engaged the services of 4000 Irish, armed with bows and arrows, which is believed to be the only occasion on which Irish troops took the field as a distinct body of " archers."

The first hostility was brought on through an attempt of Lord Clinton to communicate by the boats of his fleet with the Protector's forces. The Scots instantly detached a body of Lances, supported by some 100 pikemen, to harass the landing of the boats, to oppose whom, Lord Grey advanced with a detachment of the Italian men-atarms, and after a sharp but desultory conflict, drove off the Scots, and established the communication with Clinton's boats. As sometimes happened in such chance combats, the slaughter was unusually great, being above 1200 killed and wounded.

As soon as the Scots retired, the Protector rode rapidly across the bridge over the Esk, which separated the two armies, to examine the enemy's position. He

found it well protected on their right, by a deep marsh, and on their left by the sea. Scarcely had he regained his lines, when a herald arrived with a challenge from the Earl of Huntley, to decide the war by a personal encounter. Somerset was too prudent a man to accept so wild a proposition. The Earl of Warwick begged hard to take his place, but of course this could not be allowed, and all parties looked with anxiety for the general action which might be expected to take place on the following day.

When morning dawned, word was brought to Somerset by his scouts, that the Scots had, with unaccountable rashness, abandoned their strong position, struck their tents, and crossed the Esk to attack him with the Irish bowmen, who were marching across his front to the seashore. Lord Clinton was not a man to lose the chance presented by this blunder, and hauling in, with his ships, as close as the depth of water would allow, he opened a sharp fire on the Irish archers, and so shook their order, that in a few minutes they broke and dispersed in utter confusion.

Meanwhile the main body of the Scots were moving as fast as their close order would permit, in order to turn Somerset's left.

Lord Grey, at the head of a body of men-at-arms, prepared to charge them on their march. The Earl of Angus, with 8000 spearmen in a serried column, led the van of the Scots, and upon them the storm was first to fall. With the most gallant resolution Grey came down upon them with his heavy Lances, but, confident in their

strength, the Scots received the onset unshaken, and with their front ranks kneeling. The great length of their spears, which projected so far as to place them beyond the reach of the English lances, enabled them to receive the shock of the Cavalry unbroken, and Lord Grey, wounded and unable to rally his men, who cried out they might as well charge a wall of iron, was forced to retire behind the Infantry to collect his scattered squadrons.

But the Scots, flushed with this signal success, and carried away by their ardour, now rushed wildly forward in pursuit of the English cavalry, till they found themselves confronted by the archers and musketeers commanded by Warwick. The English shafts flew like hail, and the matchlock-men, slow as they were in their fire, yet stood firm, and threw in heavy volleys of shot upon the assailants. A panic seized the Scots, and they fell into an irremediable confusion. In vain did Arran and Huntly endeavour to rally them, and restore order. They did worse than fly, for they threw away their arms in all directions, and an eye-witness described the ground as strewed with swords and spears as thick as rushes in a chamber." The Highlanders alone maintained any order in their retreat; the clans closing to their leaders, and still obedient to their commands, whether in victory or disaster. But the Lowlanders, though they had shown such determination and courage in repulsing Lord Grey's formidable attack, no sooner found their ranks in disorder, than they gave up all for lost, and each man sought safety in flight. This was the close of the cele

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brated battle of Pinkie. Although there was great slaughter of the fugitives, the English did not lose above two or three hundred men, most of whom belonged to the cavalry who first charged the Lowland spearmen. But the Protector in gaining this brilliant victory attained no permanent advantage, and only increased the enmity between the two countries, by which the desirable marriage of King Edward to the youthful Queen of Scots was rendered more unlikely than ever.

Excepting the common plunder of a field of battle and a few ransoms obtained for noble captives, the English made but little booty; neither from the impoverished country, nor from the deserted towns and villages could any contributions be raised, and the army marched back triumphant, but with small profit, from their expedition, and the victory which had crowned it. The Protector had, however, greatly raised his military reputation, and increased the fame of his power, of which he availed himself to follow up with redoubled energy the reforms of the Church. The famous "Six Articles and the older Acts against the Lollards were repealed, and Gardiner was seized and committed to prison for resisting the innovations on the ceremonies of the Romish Church.

The suppression of the convents had produced great distress among the poor, and the roads were infested by sturdy vagrants, who begged or robbed as opportunity offered. Against the progress of this evil the Protector devised a remedy of terrible severity. By the warrant of two magistrates a proved vagrant might be awarded to a

farmer or tradesman as a bond servant, under all the conditions of actual slavery for a term of years-his food to be of the coarsest, and full work required of him. If he attempted violence or flight, he was liable to be tried as a felon. The effect of these severe measures defeated their objects. The magistrates, in many cases, did not dare, and in others were too compassionate, to execute such a law; and, after two years' trial, the Protector found himself obliged to revoke it. It seems almost incredible that he should again have indulged hopes of effecting for the King a marriage with Mary; but we find him sending an embassy to Scotland, with instructions first to try conciliation with a view to this marriage; and if that failed, to threaten a second invasion of the Border. The only result of this rash menace was an immediate alliance between France and Scotland, with propositions for a marriage of Mary to the Dauphin; and though the Protector fulfilled his threats by the siege and capture of Haddington, the French instantly despatched a fleet from Brest, landed an army at Leith, and laid siege to that town. They did not retake it, but a convention was drawn out between France and Scotland, on which occasion the Regent Arran was rewarded for his services to the French interest, by the Dukedom of Chatelherault, and Mary was conveyed to France as the bride of the Dauphin.

Somerset now reverted with renewed zeal to his schemes for the advancement of the Reformation. Laws were passed for the further suppression of the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church, and it was at