it in the present day is, that it has preserved some vestiges of old Scots music, showing that tunes now known and practised are older than the Reformation, and that others then popular have since been lost.

The few existing copies of the 'Godly Psalms and Spiritual Songs' have been treated with close and skilful criticism.1 How many editions they may have appeared in is undecided. Old copies of the book are extremely rare, and the cause of the rarity evidently is, not because few copies were printed, but because the book was SO popular and so extensively used that the copies of it were worn out. Its contents, however, achieved no permanent popularity. While they fell into oblivion, sacred music did not decrease. The Psalter or "Psalm-book" became the great treasury of vocal praise, and the musical genius

The cursed fox is of course the Church of Rome. The following is perhaps still a stronger specimen :—

Who

1 Some fragments of the godly songs were printed by Lord Hailes. They were reprinted more fully by Sir John Graham Dalzell. ever desires them in their most accurate form, with the fullest introduction to their literary history, will consult A Compendious Book of Psalms and Spiritual Songs, commonly known as the Gude and Godlie Ballads,' edited by David Laing, 1868.

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of the religious community found sufficient occupation in adapting all the psalms to congregational use. They were adapted to "part-singing" or harmony. This art was taught in the chief towns of Scotland in the Sang Schule," an institution fitted to go home to the heart of the German both in name and purpose. We have an instance of the influence of this teaching in 1582, when John Durie, a popular minister, returning from banishment, went up Leith Walk in a procession of Edinburgh citizens, who, as we are told, sang the 124th Psalm "till heaven and earth resounded."

Before returning from this ecclesiastical digression, to follow the course of political events, let us say a word or two on the places where the people worshipped. Throughout the latter half of the sixteenth century we find the churches breaking up into that condition of ruin which the early Reformers were reputed to have accomplished at once. To their leaders the objects of offence were those which partook in what they counted idolatry—everything connected with the mass and its transubstantiation; the crucifixes, images, and pictures which were used for breaking the second commandment. These things could not be destroyed by a rough mob without other parts of the edifice suffering. Buildings bearing the marks of mutilation and fracture are ever subject to disrespectful usage. There was no fund for the protection of the edifices, and the State left them to their fate.

Even in so early a voice of the new Church as the First Book of Discipline, we find an exhortation in terms that imply great urgency and need of remedy: "Lest that the Word of God and ministration of the sacraments, by unseemliness of the place, come in contempt, of neces

1 The division into the four parts-" tenor," "treble," " counter," and "bassus"-does not appear to have been printed in the Book of Common Order earlier than the year 1635; but it had then been long in use, the variations being marked off with the pen to save the cost of printing. See 'The Scottish Metrical Psalter,' by the Rev. Neil Livingston, 1864; and Mr Macmeeken's book, cited above. 2 Calderwood, iii. 346; Melville's Diary, 134.

sity it is that the churches and places where the people ought publicly to convene, be with expedition repaired, in doors, windows, thack, and with such preparations within as appertaineth as well to the majesty of the Word of God as to the ease and commodity of the people. And because we know the slothfulness of men in this behalf, and in all others which may not redound to their private commodity, strait charge and commandment must be given, that within a certain day the reparations must be begun, and within another day to be affixed by your honours that they be finished; penalties and sums of money must be enjoined, and, without pardon, taken from the contemners." i

The lead on the roofs of ecclesiastical buildings was coveted by the State for warlike purposes, and there was an excuse for removing it, as it was disappearing through private pillage, and had better be put to use than lost. In 1568 the lead on the Cathedral of Elgin was so removed "for the sustentation of the men at war," and the same fate befell St Machar's, in Aberdeen.2 The clergy, instead of welcoming the adversity thus befalling the temples of the old worship, were loud in lamentations and reproaches, heard by the possessors of the ecclesiastical revenues with supreme indifference. The records of the various General Assemblies provide many testimonies of this sort; but perhaps more expressive than any of them is this record, from a sermon preached before the regent and nobility in 1572 by David Ferguson, minister of Dunfermline: "Now to speak of your temples, where the Word of God ought to be preached and the sacraments ministered. All men sees to what miserable ruin and decay they are come; yea, they are so profaned, that, in my conscience, if I had been brought up in Germany, or any other country where Christ is truly preached, and all things done decently and in order, according to God's Word, and had heard of that purity of religion that is among you, and for the love thereof had taken travail to

1 Laing's edition of Knox's Works, ii. 252.

2 Shaw's Province of Moray, 217; Privy Council Records.

visit this land, and there should have seen the foul deformity and desolation of your kirks and temples, which are mair like to sheep-cots than the houses of God, I could not have judged that there had been any fear of God or right religion in the maist part of this realm."1 There is abundant testimony that the clergy of the Reformation did their best for the preservation and good order of the fabrics of the churches.

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CHAPTER L.

REGENCY OF MURRAY.

THE REGENT'S GOVERNMENT-ITS STRENGTH-ITS DIFFICULTIES— THE DEALING WITH THE MURDERERS OF THE KING THE CHURCH AND THE HOLDERS OF ECCLESIASTICAL ESTATES-NEWS OF THE ESCAPE OF THE QUEEN-WHAT IS KNOWN OF HER CAPTIVITY— LOCHLEVEN CASTLE AND ITS INMATES-PROJECTS FOR ESCAPEFINAL SUCCESS-FLIGHT TO HAMILTON-GATHERING THERE-THE REGENT AT GLASGOW-THE BATTLE OF LANGSIDE-FLIGHT ΤΟ DUMFRIESSHIRE-TO ENGLAND-THE PERPLEXITIES OF THE SITUATION ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL POLITICS-RESIDENCE OF MARY AT CARLISLE-HER BLANDISHMENTS-SEEKS A MEETING WITH ELIZABETH-REMOVAL TO BOLTON.

MEANWHILE the executive government was emphatically of that kind which it is usual for history to call "vigorous." The Border marauders had not felt so heavy a hand on them since the days of James IV.; but it was a hand guided by a wiser head, which sought to effect real order and obedience, instead of wasting strength in irritating petulance and unproductive vengeance. As Throckmorton said, "He seeks to imitate rather some which have led the people of Israel, than any captain of our age. As I can learn, he meaneth to use no dallying, but either he will have obedience for this young king of all Estates within this realm, or it shall cost him his life; and yet I see no disposition in him either to bereave the queen of her life, or to keep her in perpetual prison. He is resolved to defend those lords and gentlemen who have taken this matter in hand, though all the princes in Christendom would band against them." 1

1 Stevenson's Selections, 282.