It remained to be seen if they could retrieve their fortunes by the recovery of Boulogne, for on this side lay their only present hope. The Comte de Montgomery had been landed with his five thousand men in Scotland, and from him also there had been great expectations.[1] An ominous entry in the State Papers measured too plainly the extent of service which French assistance could render in return for Scottish fidelity. While Lisle was watching the dissolution of D'Annebault's fleet, Lord Hertford was making his preparations to undo the effects of Ancram Muir. When the harvest was ripe for destruction, he recrossed the Border, under the eyes of the Regent and Montgomery, and the following brief epitome of desolation records his exploits there:—'List of fortresses, abbeys, friars' houses, market towns, villages, towers, and places burnt, razed, and cast down by the Earl of Hertford, the King's Majesty's lieutenant in the north parts, in the invasion of Scotland, between the eighth of September and the twenty-third of the same, anno 1545. Monasteries and friars' houses, seven; castles, towers, and piles, sixteen; market towns, five; villages, two hundred and forty-three; mills, thirteen; spitals and hospitals, three.'[2] Barbarous and useless havoc! for the spirits of the proud Scots were tough and hard as steel. English conciliation had failed to bend them; and English ferocity could as little break their ineffectual but indomitable gallantry. Only God Almighty and the common cause
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1545.]
THE INVASION.
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