=24. Taking of Dunbarton.=--This castle, the strongest in the kingdom, was the chief strength of the Queen's party, and in it was the moving spirit of the Hamiltons, John, the much hated and feared archbishop. Both fell during this regency. _Crawford_ of _Jordanhill_, a retainer of _Lennox_, took the castle by subtlety with but a handful of men. He scaled the steep rock on which the castle is built under cover of the night, and when he had gained the highest point he turned the guns on the garrison below, who had no choice left but to give in, April 2, 1571. Five days later, the archbishop was hanged at _Stirling_, after the form of a trial had been hurried through, on a charge of having planned the murder of the King and of the Regent. =25. Parliament at Stirling.=--The other noteworthy event during the regency of Lennox was the holding of a parliament, for the first time since 1567. It met at _Stirling_, and the young King, who lived in the castle under the care of the _Earl of Mar_, was himself present. While the Regent and all the leaders of his party were thus gathered in the town, a body of four hundred men, sent out by the Queen's party in Edinburgh Castle, came down upon them suddenly, swept the streets, and captured _Morton_ and the Regent; and though the latter was afterwards rescued, he had been mortally wounded in the scuffle, and died after lingering a few hours, September 4, 1571. It was then remembered how the little King had spied a hole in the cloth with which the board whereon he sat was covered, and, trying to poke his finger into it, had said, "There is a hole in this parliament." This was looked on as a prophecy of the violent death of the Regent, and laid the foundation of that reputation for wisdom and acuteness which clung to James all his life. =26. Mar's Regency.=--_John Erskine, Earl of Mar_, governor of Stirling, was chosen Regent the very next day. As the Queen's party, who held Edinburgh, had held a rival parliament in her name in the Parliament House, it was clear that all efforts must be made to get the castle out of their hands. Mar therefore began the siege, and open war broke out. The West, the North, and the Border were for the Queen, the eastern Lowlands for the King; the latter looked to England for help, but got none; the former appealed to France with not much better success. After much useless bloodshed, a truce of two months was agreed on, August 1, 1572.