The cardinal seems to have felt himself very secure in St Andrews where his uncle and he had so long defied their enemies both of England and Scotland-so secure that he could afford to be careless. There was building going on, and it was between five and six o'clock on the morning of the 29th of May that, as the workmen were going in at the gate, Norman Leslie, the eldest son of the Earl of Rothes, with two assistants, slipped in along with them. They were followed by James Melville with other three, who parlayed at the gate, negotiating for an interview with the cardinal. While they conversed, the young Laird of Grange came up with eight men all armed. The appearance of these roused the porter to his duty, but ere he could do anything he was stabbed and pitched into the moat. With extraordinary dexterity, the few defenders who were in the castle were driven out in detail along with the workmen, and all gates closed and guarded. The cardinal, hearing unusual and formidable sounds, was mounting the turnpike stair of his keep to see from the ramparts what was astir; there he met the invaders, and was put to death. Knowledge of the blow was soon spread by those who were driven out; the common bell was set a-ringing, and the towns folks rushed tumultuously to the castle, with their provost at their head. It was soon shown them, however, that they were too late, even could they have done anything. To show that their work was completed, the conspirators exposed the body of the cardinal over the wall, hanging by a leg and an arm. The place was too strong to be assailed save by an army, and the small body of invaders, sixteen in all were in safe possession.

Here was a strong refuge to which the Protestantism of Scotland might repair. There soon gathered within the walls a sufficient garrison of determined men. It was their good fortune to find the place well victualled by its former owner; and although, after a time, they sometimes suffered straits, they were able to keep open a communication with the sea, through which they got supplies from English vessels. Among the valuable possessions to which they succeeded was a young guest of the cardinal, a son of the regent. King Henry wanted them to make him a gift of this youth, and he set down the Castle of St Andrews as now virtually a possession of England; but he would probably have found that the actual holders entertained different views.

Hostile measures of all kinds were taken against the garrison. An act of forfeiture was passed against those who had actually taken hand in the seizure of the castle and the murder of the cardinal. All the military resources which the governor could command were, in vain employed in the siege; the walls were heavily pounded and much injured by cannon, but still the garrison held out month after month. Among the Protestant laymen of that age ther6 was not much of the Puritanic spirit or practice; and, as was natural enough, a set of desperadoes like this garrison fell into deep orgies, and indulged in all available licentiousness. But they had among them a terrible monitor-,John Knox himself-who had come among them, and ever raised his dread voice against them, and threatened them with the judgment of God for their wickedness. Knox had, indeed, accepted of the spiritual charge of this flock as of a congregation. He had not been called to the ministry according to any of the established forms. If he had been a priest, as some said, he had been degraded from the priesthood for his heresies. The pastoral position was accepted by him as the will of the Supreme Being specially dealing with the unexampled conditions in which he stood. His conduct has been treated by many of his own Church in a dubiously apologetic tone; and it is observable that the Church of Rome, the most punctilious of all in the exaction of formalities, contains the most ingenious machinery for dispensing with them in cases of necessity or exigency.

For fourteen months did the garrison defy all the efforts of the regent. At length a French force, under the command of Leo Strozzi, Prior of Capua, was brought over in sixteen galleys, and an attack opened both by sea and land. They did the work speedily; and the following account in the Pitscottie Chronicle shows how the foreigners despised the skill of the Scots, both in the defense and the attack of fortified places, and with what justice they did so:

" They came so suddenly upon the castle, that they who were without might not get in, nor they who were within might not get out. The Frenchmen leapt so hastily about the said castle and trenched it round about, so that they were hastily enclosed; syne manned artillery on the college steeple, and also upon the walls of the abbey kirk, and condemned all the close and wall heads that were within the castle, that no man that was within the castle durst move through the close, nor pass to the wall heads. Then the French captain said to the governor, 'They have been inexpert men of war that have sieged the castle, that would not lay artillery to all the steeple heads and high parts, which would ever have condemned the castle ; and I marvel that they who are within the same have let the steeple heads stand, which at all times have put them down from shooting and defending of themselves; therefore, will God, your lordship shall see to-morrow, or six hours at night, I shall make your lord-ship an easy passage through the castle, and make them to obey you who are within the same-' Then the captain laid to the great battery-to wit, the two great Scots cannons, whereof we spoke before, and six French cannons. Their captains devised very craftily that the cannons should pass down the gait them alone with windessis to save men from slaughter. But there happened an Italian to be in the castle for the time, who was sent to them out of England for their support, and was their deviser: but when the cannons were coming down the gait them alone, he said to the captains and men of war, I Defend yourselves, masters, for now ye deal with men of war who are very skilful and subtle, for they lay to their cannons without sight of men with them.' At thir sayings, the captains and men of war took great care, and said they should keep their castle for Scotland, England, and France, all three. But they -were beguiled; for within six hours after the battery was laid to the castle, and blaidit partly by the cannons that came down the gait them alone, and partly with the cannons that were stelled upon the steeple heads. Then the captain of the castle grew afraid, and went to council to see if they should give it over freely, or defend it to the uttermost: but at last they concluded that they would give it over to the French captain, and put themselves in the King of France's will, as they did. Then the Frenchmen entered the castle, and spoiled very rigorously, where they got both gold, silver, clothing, bedding, meat and drink, with all weapons, artillery, and victuals, and all other plenishing pertaining to the said castle, and left nothing behind them that they might get carried away in their galleys: and took all the captains and keepers of the said castle as prisoners, and had them away to the King of France. Syne the governor and council concluded, that they would ding down the said castle to the ground, that it should not be holden again as a strength: which was done hastily at command of the council. This castle was won the 30th of July in 1547 years."

There was yet to be another event to complete this strange wild story. The Scots garrison were taken to France, and treated as criminals. Knox, with some others-men of position in their own country-were made galley-slaves, and had to work chained to the benches running along the edge of the vessel, where the brutal misery of their condition was separated and hidden from the other parts of the vessel frequented by the passengers and sailors.