The Treaty of Berwick was signed on the 27th of February; but so unwilling was Elizabeth to take the final step that nearly a month had passed away before the troops were allowed to advance. At the end of the month the greater portion of the army crossed the Tweed.[29] They were well received by the country people; and on the 4th of April the English and Scottish leaders held a council of war at Pinkie House. In the operations of the next three months everything centred round the siege of Leith. In spite of the gallantry of the French, the garrison was reduced to desperate straits. The French fleet, with reinforcements on board, was scattered by a storm. The Queen Regent died during the night of the 10th of June 1560; and four days later the preliminary articles of a treaty were signed at Berwick.[30] Peace was finally concluded at Edinburgh on the 6th of July. Mary and the Dauphin were to give up using the arms or the royal title of England. The fortifications of Leith were to be demolished. All the French soldiers, except one hundred and twenty men, were to leave Scotland at once. The affairs of Scotland were to be administered entirely by Scotsmen; and the executive government was, during the absence of Mary, to consist of twelve persons, of whom the queen was to choose seven from a list of names drawn up by the Estates. On the question of religion, it was agreed that when the Scottish Parliament next met, a deputation should be sent to France to lay the wishes of the country before the queen.[31] These events not only proved that England was strong enough to set the arms of France at defiance, and to reject the councils of Spain, but they established, for all time to come, a close and real connection between England and Scotland. In the hour of danger the best men in Scotland had turned to England for help. Cecil, and those who thought with him, had persuaded Elizabeth to disregard all interference and the remonstrances of foreign Courts. She had done so with reluctance. Slowly and through many a tortuous path she had sent help to Scotland; but, in the end, the deliverance was complete. The war and the treaty of July 1560 destroyed the French influence in the northern portion of the island, taught the Scots that it was only by an Union with Protestant England instead of Catholic France that their liberties could be maintained, and opened the way for the Scottish Reformation. For the Lords of the Congregation were now supreme; and before the end of August, without waiting for the queen’s consent, the Estates had met and passed the statute by which they disowned the authority of the Pope.[32]