The troops which had landed entered Leith, under the command of the earl of Hertford, between twelve and one o’clock, after having dispersed a small body of men which resisted them. As they found dinner ready in all the houses, and the tables loaded with wines and victuals, they sat down and refreshed themselves. On Monday, May 5, two thousand English horsemen came from Berwick to reinforce the infantry, and the whole army, after taking one day’s rest, forced the gates of Edinburgh on Wednesday and entered the town. People called to mind the terrible threats of Henry VIII. The town was first pillaged and then burnt. The palace of Holyrood, Leith and the environs shared the same fate. The English were not able to take the castle, and after having satiated themselves with pillage, burning, and eating, they carried off their plunder to the ships. The English army returned to their own country by way of Berwick, sacking and burning Haddington and Dunbar, castles, country seats, and all the districts through which they passed. The army had lost only forty men.[325] Henry VIII. had entertained the vastest projects. His aims were that Scotland should renounce the French alliance; that the queen should be placed in his own household; that the title of elector of the kingdom should be given to him; that Lennox should be named regent in the place of Arran; and that the Word of God should be preached, of course in his own way. This appears from the instructions given by himself to the governors of the marches.[326] But he felt it necessary to postpone his scheme, and to content himself with the chastisement inflicted on the capital. We have to encounter facts such as these in the history of every people and of all ages. It is impossible to narrate or to read them without horror. Happily, Scotland at this epoch offers to our notice facts of a quite different kind, which are within the province of Christian civilization. CHAPTER XIV. WISHART: HIS MINISTRY AND HIS MARTYRDOM. (SUMMER OF 1544-MARCH, 1546.) [Sidenote: GEORGE WISHART.]