The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland

yea, men of great birth and estimation and honour at open tables avowed, That the blood of the said Master George should be revenged, or else it should cost life for life: and ⟨p. 70⟩that in a short time they should be like hogs kept for slaughter, by this vicious Priest, and wicked Monster, which neither minded God, nor cared for man. Amongst those that spake against the Cardinals cruelty, John Lesley, brother to the Earle of Rothes was chief, with his Cozen Norman Lesley, who had been a great follower of the Cardinal, and very active for him but a little before, fell so foul with him, that they came to high reproaches one with another. The occasion of their falling out was a private business, wherein Norman Lesley said he was wronged by the Cardinal: On the other side, the Cardinal said he was not with respect used by Norman Lesley his inferior. The said John Lesley in all companies spared not to say, That that same dagger (showing forth his dagger) and that same hand should be put in the Cardinals breast. These brutes came to the Cardinals ears:¹ but he thought himself stout enough for all Scotland: For in Babylon, that is, in his new Block-House, he was sure, as he thought, and upon the fields he was able to match all his enemies: And to speak the truth, the most part of the Nobility of Scotland had either given unto him their Bands of Manred, or else were in confederacy, and promised amity with him, and so he gave his bastard eldest daughter in Marriage to the Earl of Crawford his eldest son and heir, and caused the Wedding to be celebrate with such State, as if she had been a Princes lawful daughter. He only feared them in whose hands God did deliver him, and for them he laid his nets so secretly (as that he made a full compt) that their feet could not escape, as we shall after hear. And something of his former practices we may recount. After Easter he came to Edinburgh, to hold the Seingnye (as the Papists termed then their unhappy Assembly of Baals shaven sort) It was bruited that something was purposed against him at that day by the Earle of Angus and his friends, whom he mortally feared, and whose destruction he sought; but it failed, and so returned he to his strength; yea, to his god and only comfort, as well in heaven as in earth;

yea, men of great birth and estimation and honour at open tables avowed, That the blood of the said Master George should be revenged, or else it should cost life for life: and