The campaign against the Scots brought little credit to either side, and terminated in a treaty, the terms of which were for the most part arranged by Mortimer and the queen-mother. One of the articles of peace stipulated for the surrender of all proofs of the subjection of Scotland; and accordingly the abbot of Westminster received orders to deliver up the stone of Scone to the Sheriffs of London for transmission to Isabel, who was in the north.(437) This the abbot refused to do—"for reasons touching God and the church,"—without further instructions from the king and his council.(438) When negotiations were opened in 1363 for the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, it was proposed that Edward should be crowned king at Scone on the royal seat (_siége roial_) which he should cause to be returned from England. These negotiations, however, fell through, and the stone remains in Westminster Abbey to this day.(439) The treaty which had been arranged at Edinburgh (17 March, 1328), was afterwards confirmed by a Parliament held at Northampton, in which the city was represented by Richard de Betoyne and Robert de Kelseye.(440) (M264) When the terms of this treaty of Northampton (as it was called) came to be fully understood, the nation began to realise the measure of disgrace which they involved, and Mortimer and the queen became the objects of bitter hatred. Henry, Earl of Lancaster, the king’s nominal guardian, had grown weary of his false position, and of serving only as Mortimer’s tool. Determined to throw off the yoke, he refused to attend a parliament which met at Salisbury in October (1328),(441) unless certain changes in the government and in the king’s household were first made. In the meantime, Bishop Stratford of Winchester and Thomas, Lord Wake, two of his supporters, had paid a visit to the city and had endeavoured to rouse the citizens to action. The king, hearing of this, wrote to the municipal authorities for an explanation. They frankly acknowledged, in reply, that the bishop had been in the city for the purpose of discussing the ill state of affairs, and themselves expressed a hope, amid vows of the utmost loyalty, that the king would redress the grievances under which the nation suffered.(442) (M265) Instead of attending the parliament at Salisbury, the earl marched in full force to Winchester. On the 5th November he wrote to the citizens from Hungerford, to the effect that he had made known to parliament his honourable intentions, but had received no reply; that the parliament had been adjourned to London; that he had been informed of certain matters about which he could not write, but which the bearer would communicate to them; and he concluded with assuring them that he desired nothing so much as the king’s honour and the welfare of the kingdom, and declaring his implicit confidence in their loyalty.(443) (M266)