also commemorates, was long after recalled by the preacher himself in St
Giles, in another great crisis of the Evangel.

'From the beginning of God's mighty working within this realm, I
have been with you in your most desperate tentations. Ask your
own consciences, and let them answer you before God, if that
I--not I, but God's Spirit by me--in your greatest extremity
willed you not ever to depend upon your God, and in His name
promised unto you victory and preservation from your enemies, so
that ye would only depend upon his protection and prefer His
glory to your own lives and worldly commodity. In your most
extreme dangers I have been with you: St Johnstone, Cupar Muir,
and the Crags of Edinburgh, are yet recent in my heart: yea,
that dark and dolorous night wherein all ye, my Lords, with
shame and fear left this town, is yet in my mind; and God forbid
that ever I forget it!'

'The voice of one man,' it was afterwards said of Knox by the English
ambassador in Edinburgh, 'is able in one hour to put more life in us
than five hundred trumpets continually blustering in our ears.' This day
in Stirling was the very lowest point of the fortunes of the
Congregation, and from this hour they began to rise. There were reverses
still; but Scotland was sick of the French, and the end was to come with
the coming year. In April 1560, the English forces surrounded Leith; the
Queen Regent withdrew from it into the Castle of Edinburgh; and the
Lords of the Congregation, stronger than they were originally by the
accession of the Duke of Hamilton and the Earls of Morton and
Huntly,[80] made one more 'Band' or Covenant. In it for the last time
they fall back on liberty of conscience; for all they bind themselves to
is,

'with our bodies, goods, friends, and all that we may do, to set
forward the Reformation of Religion, according to God's word;
and procure, by all means possible, that the truth of God's word
may have _free passage within this realm_, with due
administration of the Sacraments, and all things depending upon
the said word.'[81]

A copy of this Band, by which each subscriber also bound himself not to
make separate overtures to the Regent, was brought to her in the Castle.
Knox, who by this time was become very hostile to Mary of Lorraine, and
reports much doubtful gossip as to her rejoicing over the victories and
cruelties of her soldiers, say