He watched the struggle across the border. He had made up his mind as early as July 8th, 1559, that assistance must be given to the Lords of the Congregation "with all fair promises first, next with money, and last with arms."[312] The second stage of his programme was reached in November; and, two days before the Archbishop of Canterbury was piously invoking God's help to keep Knox's influences out of England, Cecil had resolved to send money to Scotland and to entrust its distribution to Knox. The memorandum runs: Knox to be a counsel with the payments, to see that they be employed to the common action.[313] The third stage--assistance with arms--came sooner than might have been expected. The condition of France became more favourable. Henry II. had died (July 10th, 1559), and the Guises ruled France through their niece Mary and her sickly devoted husband. But the Bourbon Princes and many of the higher nobles did not take kindly to the sudden rise of a family which had been French for only two generations, and the easiest way to annoy them was to favour publicly or secretly "those of the religion." There was unrest in France. "Beat the iron while it is hot," Throckmorton wrote from Paris; "their fair flatterings and sweet language are only to gain time."[314] Cecil struck. He had a sore battle with his royal mistress, but he won.[315] An arrangement was come to between England and the Lords of the Congregation acting on behalf "of the second person of the realm of Scotland" (Treaty of Berwick, May 10th, 1560).[316] An English fleet entered the Firth of Forth; an English army beleaguered the French troops in Leith Fort; and the end of it was that France was obliged to let go its hold on Scotland, and never thoroughly recovered it (Treaty of Edinburgh, July 6th, 1560).[317] The great majority of the Scottish people saw in the English victory only their deliverance from French tyranny, and for the first time a conquering English army left the Scottish soil followed by blessings and not curses. The Scottish Liturgy, which had contained _Prayers used in the Churches of Scotland in the time of their persecution by the Frenchmen_, was enriched by a _Thanksgiving unto God after our deliverance from the tyranny of the Frenchmen; with prayers made for the continuance of the peace betwixt the realms of England and Scotland_, which contained the following petition: