446.
** See note B, at the end of the volume.
*** Spotswood, p.121.Knox, p.

127.
The queen regent, provoked at these violences, assembled an army, and prepared to chastise the rebels.

She had about two thousand French under her command, with a few Scottish troops; and being assisted by such of the nobility as were well affected to her, she pitched her camp within ten miles of Perth.

Even the earl of Argyle, and Lord James Stuart, prior of St.Andrew's, the queen's natural brother, though deeply engaged with the reformers, attended the regent in this enterprise, either because they blamed the fury of the populace, or hoped by their own influence and authority to mediate some agreement between the parties.

The congregation, on the other hand, made preparations for defence; and being joined by the earl of Glencarne from the west, and being countenanced by many of the nobility and gentry, they appeared formidable from their numbers, as well as from the zeal by which they were animated.