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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I (of 2), by 
+Henry Glassford Bell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I (of 2)
+
+Author: Henry Glassford Bell
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2011 [EBook #37058]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, VOL I ***
+
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+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
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+are annexed, Corroborative Writings, Correspondence, and Observations on
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+    It is the design of this work to give an account of the Diseases of
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+    ordinary articles of food, stating in what cases each may be used, and
+    when they should be used sparingly, or avoided altogether. The work is
+    arranged in the form of a Dictionary, in order that persons in quest
+    of information on any subject affecting health, may easily obtain it,
+    by means of the alphabetical arrangement. Medical discussion has been
+    avoided; technical words are introduced as sparingly as possible; and
+    the various medical terms which have found their way into common use
+    are carefully explained. The precepts respecting diet are practical
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+THE ADVANCEMENT of SOCIETY in KNOWLEDGE and RELIGION. By JA. DOUGLAS, Esq.
+Second edition. In 1 vol. 8vo, price 9s. boards.
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+
+THE PHILOSOPHY of the ACTIVE and MORAL POWERS of MAN. By DUGALD STEWART,
+formerly Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
+
+Engraved by A. Wilson
+
+PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL BY JOHN WATSON GORDON R.I.A.]
+
+
+
+
+  CONSTABLE'S MISCELLANY OF
+  Original and Selected Publications
+  IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF
+  LITERATURE SCIENCE, & THE ARTS.
+
+  VOL. XXIV.
+
+  LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, VOL. I.
+
+  [Illustration: LINLITHGOW PALACE
+
+  Drawn by W. Brown     Engraved by W. Miller]
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+  PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE & CO. EDINBURGH:
+  AND HURST, CHANCE & CO. LONDON.
+
+  1828.
+
+
+
+
+  LIFE OF
+  MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
+
+  BY HENRY GLASSFORD BELL, ESQ.
+
+  IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+  VOL. I.
+
+
+  "AYEZ MEMOIRE DE L'AME ET DE L'HONNEUR DE
+  CELLE QUI A ESTE VOTRE ROYNE."
+                          _Mary's own Words._
+
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+  PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE & CO. EDINBURGH;
+  AND HURST, CHANCE & CO. LONDON.
+
+  1828.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+A new work on the subject of Mary Queen of Scots runs an eminent risk of
+being considered a work of supererogation. No period of British history
+has been more elaborately illustrated than that of her life and reign. She
+ascended the Scottish throne at a time replete with interest; when the
+country had awakened from the lethargy of ages, and when the gray dawn of
+civilization, heralding the full sunshine of coming years, threw its light
+and shade on many a bold and prominent figure, standing confessed in
+rugged grandeur as the darkness gradually rolled away. It was a time when
+national and individual character were alike strongly marked,--a time when
+Knox preached, Buchanan wrote, Murray plotted, and Bothwell murdered. The
+mailed feudal barons,--the unshrinking Reformers, founders of the
+Presbyterian Church, and mailed in mind, if not in body,--the discomfited,
+but the still rich and haughty ecclesiastics of the Romish faith, the
+contemporaries and followers of the stern Cardinal Beaton,--all start
+forth so vividly before the mind's eye, that they seem subjects better
+suited for the inspired pencil of a Salvator Rosa, than for the soberer
+pen of History. Mary herself, with her beauty and her misfortunes, shining
+among the rest like the creation of a softer age and clime, fills up the
+picture, and rivets the interest. She becomes the centre round which the
+others revolve; and their importance is measured only by the influence
+they exercised over her fate, and the share they had in that strange
+concatenation of circumstances, which, as if in mockery of the nobility of
+her birth, and the splendour of her expectations, rendered her life
+miserable, and her death ignominious.
+
+There is little wonder if such a theme, though in itself inexhaustible,
+should have exhausted the energies of many. Yet the leading events of
+Mary's reign still give rise to frequent doubts and discussions; and the
+question regarding her character, which has so long agitated and divided
+the literary world, remains undetermined. It is indeed only they who have
+time and inclination to dismantle the shelves of a library, and pore over
+many a contradictory volume,--examine many a perplexing hypothesis,--and
+endeavour to reconcile many an inconsistent and distracting
+statement,--who are entitled to pronounce upon her guilt or innocence.
+
+Not that it is meant to be asserted, that unpublished manuscripts and
+documents, calculated to throw new light upon the subject, slumber in the
+archives of Government, or among the collections of the learned, which
+have hitherto escaped the notice of the antiquarian and the scholar. On
+the contrary, there is every reason to believe, that all the papers of
+value which exist, have already been found, and given to the world. After
+the voluminous publications of Anderson, Jebb, Goodall, Haynes, Hardwicke,
+Strype, Sadler, and Murdin, it is by no means probable, that future
+historians will discover additional materials to guide them in their
+narrative of facts. But few are disposed to wade through works like
+these; and they who are, find, that though they indicate the ground on
+which the superstructure of truth may be raised, they at the same time,
+from the diffuseness and often contradictory nature of their contents,
+afford every excuse to those who wander into error. The consequence is,
+that almost no two writers have given exactly the same account of the
+principal occurrences of Mary's life. And it is this fact which would lead
+to the belief, that there is still an opening for an author, who would
+endeavour, with impartiality, candour, and decision, to draw the due line
+of distinction between the prejudices of the one side, and the
+prepossessions of the other,--who would expose the wilful
+misrepresentations of party-spirit, and correct the involuntary errors of
+ignorance,--who would aim at being scrupulously just, but not
+unnecessarily severe--steadily consistent, but not tamely
+indifferent--boldly independent, but not unphilosophically violent.
+
+It seems to be a principle of our common nature, to be ever anxious to
+wage an honourable warfare against doubt; and no one is more likely to fix
+the attention, than he who undertakes to prove what has been previously
+disputed. It is this principle which has attached so much interest to the
+life of the Queen of Scots, and induced so many writers (and some of no
+mean note) to investigate her character both as a sovereign and a woman;
+and the consequence has been, that one half have undertaken to put her
+criminality beyond a doubt, and the other as confidently pledged
+themselves to establish her innocence. It may seem a bold, but it is a
+conscientious opinion, that no single author, whether an accuser or a
+defender, has been entirely successful. To arrive at a satisfactory
+conclusion, the works of several must be consulted; and, even after all,
+the mind is often left tossing amidst a sea of difficulties. The talents
+of many who have broken a lance in the Marian controversy, are undoubted;
+but, if we attend for a moment to its progress, the reasons why it is
+still involved in obscurity may probably be discovered.
+
+The ablest literary man in Scotland, contemporary with Mary, was George
+Buchanan; the Earl of Murray was his patron, and Secretary Cecil his
+admirer. The first publication regarding the Queen, came from his pen; it
+was written with consummate ability, but with a dishonest, though not
+unnatural leaning to the side which was the strongest at the time, and
+which his own interests and views of personal and family aggrandizement
+pointed out as the most profitable. The eloquence of his style, and the
+confidence of his statements, gave a bias to public opinion, which feebler
+spirits laboured in vain to counteract.--Less powerful as an author, but
+not less virulent as an enemy, Knox next appeared in the lists, and,
+unfurling the banner of what was then considered religion, converted every
+doubt into conviction, by appealing to the bigotry and the superstition of
+the uninformed multitude. Yet Knox was probably conscientious, if the term
+can be applied with propriety to one who did not believe that the Church
+of Rome possessed a single virtuous member.--In opposition to the
+productions of these authors, is the "Defence of Mary's Honour," by
+Lesley, Bishop of Ross, an able but somewhat declamatory work, and as
+liable to suspicion as the others, because written by an avowed partisan
+and active servant of the Queen. A crowd of inferior compositions
+followed, useful sometimes for the facts they contain, but all so strongly
+tinctured with party zeal, that little reliance is to be placed on their
+accuracy. Among these may be enumerated the works of Blackwood and
+Caussin, who wrote in French,--of Conĉus, Strada, and Turner, (the last
+under the assumed name of Barnestaple,) who wrote in Latin,--and of
+Antonio de Herrera, who wrote in Spanish.
+
+The calamities which, after the lapse of a century, again overtook the
+house of Stuart, recalled attention to the discussions concerning Mary;
+and though time had softened the asperity of the disputants, the question
+was once more destined to become connected with party prejudices. From the
+publication of Crawford's "Memoirs," in 1705, down to the appearance of
+Chalmers's "Life of Mary," in 1818, the history of the Queen of Scots has
+continued one of those standard subjects which has given birth to a new
+work, at least every five years. A few of the more important may be
+mentioned. In 1725, Jebb published his own life of Mary, and his
+collection, in two volumes folio, of works which had previously appeared
+both for and against her. The former production is of little value, but
+the latter is exceedingly useful, and indeed no one can write with
+fairness concerning Mary, without consulting it. Lives of the Queen by
+Heywood and Freebairn, shortly succeeded, both of whom were anxious to
+vindicate her, but in their anxiety, overshot the mark. In 1728,
+Anderson's "Collections" were presented to the public, containing many
+papers of interest and value, which are not to be found elsewhere. But
+they are often disingenuously garbled, that Mary may be made to appear in
+an unfavourable light; and a more recent author informs us, that they
+were, in consequence, "sold as waste paper, leaving the editor ruined in
+his character, and injured in his prospects."
+
+In Scotland, the Rebellion of 1715, powerfully revived the animosities
+which had never lain entirely dormant since the establishment of a new
+dynasty, in 1688; and the transition from Charles to his ancestor Mary,
+was easy and natural. The second Rebellion in 1745, did not diminish the
+interest taken in the Queen of Scots, nor the ardor with which the
+question of her wrongs or crimes was agitated. In 1754, Mr Goodall,
+librarian to the Faculty of Advocates, made a valuable addition to the
+works already extant on the subject, in his "Examination" of the letters
+attributed to Mary. His habits of laborious research, combined with no
+inconsiderable powers of reasoning, enabled him not only to bring together
+many original papers, not before published, but to found on these much
+acute argument, and deduce from them many sound conclusions. Goodall's
+work will never be popular, because it is full of ancient documents, which
+one is more willing to refer to than to read; but, as may be remarked of
+Jebb and Anderson, he who means to write of Mary, should not commence
+until he has also carefully perused the "Examination."
+
+Four years posterior to Goodall's two volumes, appeared Robertson's
+"History of Scotland." Of course, the leading events of Mary's reign were
+narrated at length, but too much with the stiff frigidity which Robertson
+imagined constituted historical dignity, and which was continually
+betraying a greater anxiety about the manner than the matter. Accordingly,
+what his style gained in constraint, his subject lost in interest. No one
+has said so much of Queen Mary, to so little definite purpose, as
+Robertson;--no one has so entirely failed in making us either hate or love
+her. Besides, he thought her guilty, on the authority of Buchanan, and has
+consequently thrown a false gloss over her character from beginning to
+end. He was supported in his opinions, it is true, by the historian Hume,
+but the latter having devoted most of his attention to the History of
+England, cannot be supposed to have been very deeply versed in the affairs
+of Scotland; and in so far as these are concerned, his authority is not of
+the highest weight. Yet, from the reputation which these two writers have
+acquired, and deservedly, upon other grounds, they have done more mischief
+to Mary than perhaps any of her calumniators, the multitude being too
+often inclined to forget, when once thoroughly _juratus in verba
+magistri_, that he who distinguishes himself in one department, may be,
+and commonly is, deficient in another.--In 1760, the credit both of
+Robertson and Hume was a good deal shaken, by Tytler's "Enquiry" into the
+evidence against Mary. This work is neither historical nor biographical,
+but argumentative and controversial. It is founded upon Goodall, to whom
+Tytler confesses his obligations, but the reasonings are much more lucidly
+and popularly arranged; and though not so complete or so full of research
+as it might have been, it is, upon the whole, the ablest and most
+convincing production which has yet appeared on the side of the Queen of
+Scots.
+
+Of the five works of greatest consequence which have appeared since
+Tytler's, only one has ventured to tread in the footsteps of Buchanan. The
+first in order of date is the French "Histoire d'Elizabeth," in five
+volumes, by Mademoiselle de Keralio, who devotes a large portion of her
+book to Mary, and, with a degree of talent that does honour to the sex to
+which she belongs, vindicates the Scottish Queen from the obloquy which
+her rival, Elizabeth, had too great a share in casting upon her.--Nearly
+about the same time, was published Dr Gilbert Stuart's "History of
+Scotland." It came out at an unfortunate period, for Robertson had
+pre-occupied the field; and it was hardly to be expected, that a writer of
+inferior note would dispossess him of it. But Dr Stuart's History, though
+too much neglected, is in many essential particulars, superior to
+Robertson's, not perhaps in so far as regards precision of style, but in
+research, accuracy, and impartiality. It would be wrong to say, that
+Stuart has committed no mistakes, but they are certainly fewer and less
+glaring than those of his predecessor.--Towards the end of the last
+century, Whittaker stood forth as a champion of the Queen of Scots, and
+threw into the literary arena four closely printed volumes. They bear the
+stamp of great industry and enthusiasm; but his materials are not well
+digested, and his violence often weakens his argument. The praise of
+ardor, but not of judgment, belongs to Whittaker; he seems to have
+forgotten, that there may be bigotry in a good as well as in a bad cause;
+in his anxiety to maintain the truth, he often plunges into error, and in
+his indignation at the virulence of others, he not unfrequently becomes
+still more virulent himself. Had he abridged his work by one-third, it
+would have gained in force what it lost in declamation, and would not have
+been less conclusive, because less confused and verbose.--Whittaker was
+followed early in the present century by Mr Malcolm Laing, who, with a
+far clearer head, if not with a sounder heart, has, in his "Preliminary
+Dissertation," to his "History of Scotland," done much more against Mary
+than Whittaker has done for her. Calm, collected, and well-informed, he
+proceeds, as might be expected from an adept in the profession to which he
+belonged, from one step of evidence to another, linking the whole so well
+together that it is at first sight extremely difficult to discover a flaw
+in the chain. Yet flaws there are, and serious ones; indeed, Mr Laing's
+book is altogether a piece of special pleading, not of unprejudiced
+history. His ingenuity, however, is great; and his arguments carry with
+them such an air of sincerity, that they are apt to be believed almost
+before the judgment acknowledges them to be true. It is to be feared, that
+he is powerful only to be dangerous,--that he dazzles only to
+mislead.--The author whose two large quarto, or three thick octavo
+volumes, brings up the rear of this goodly array, is Mr George Chalmers.
+There was never a more careful compiler,--a more pains-taking investigator
+of public and private records, deeds, and registers,--a more zealous
+stickler for the accuracy of dates, the fidelity of witnesses, and the
+authenticity of facts. His work, diffuse, tedious, and ill-arranged though
+it be, full of perpetual repetitions, and abounding in erroneous theories,
+(for it is one talent to ascertain truth, and another to draw inferences),
+is nevertheless a valuable accession to the stock of knowledge previously
+possessed on this subject. His proofs are too disjointed to be conclusive,
+and his reasonings too feeble to be convincing; but the materials are
+better than the workmanship, and might be moulded by a more skilful hand
+into a shape of much beauty and excellence.
+
+Such is an impartial view of the chief works extant upon Mary Queen of
+Scots; and it would appear in consequence, that something is still wanting
+to complete the catalogue. Three causes may be stated in particular, why
+so many persons of acknowledged ability should have devoted their time and
+talents to the investigation without exhausting it.
+
+_First_, Several of the works we have named are Histories; and these,
+professing as they do, to describe the character of a nation rather than
+of an individual, cannot be supposed to descend to those minutiĉ, or to
+enter into those personal details necessary for presenting the vivid
+portraits in which biography delights. History is more conversant with the
+genus or the species; and is addressed more to the judgment than to the
+feelings. There is in it a spirit of generalization, which, though it
+expands the mind, seldom touches the heart. Its views of human nature are
+on a comprehensive scale; it traces the course of empires, and marks the
+progress of nations. If, in the great flood of events, it singles out a
+few crowned and conspicuous heads, making them the beacons by which to
+guide its way, it associates itself with them only so long as they
+continue to exercise an influence over the destiny of others. It is alike
+ignorant and careless of those circumstances which make private life happy
+or miserable, and which exercise an influence over the fate of those who
+have determined that of so many others. Neither Hume, nor Robertson, nor
+Stuart, nor Keralio, therefore, have said all of Mary that they might have
+said;--they wrote history--not biography.
+
+_Second_, Many of the productions we have named, are purely controversial,
+consisting almost entirely of arguments founded upon facts, not of facts
+upon which to found arguments. Among these may be particularly included,
+Tytler, Whittaker, and Laing, works which do not so much aim at
+illustrating the life and character of Mary, as of settling the abstract
+question of her guilt or innocence. They present, therefore, only such
+detached portions of her history as bear upon the question of which they
+treat. To become intimately acquainted with Mary, we must have recourse to
+other authors; to form an estimate of her moral character these might
+suffice, were it fair to be guided on that subject by the opinions of
+others.
+
+_Third_, In most of the works, in which historical research is fully
+blended with argumentative deductions, erroneous theories have been
+broached, which, failing to make good their object, either excite
+suspicion, or lead into error. Thus, Goodall and Chalmers have laid it
+down as a principle, that in order to exculpate Mary, it was necessary to
+accuse her brother, the Earl of Murray, of all sorts of crimes. By
+representing Bothwell, as an inferior tool in his hands, they have
+involved themselves in improbabilities, and have weakened the strength of
+a good cause by a mistaken mode of treatment. Indeed this remark applies
+with a greater or less degree of force, to all the vindications of Queen
+Mary which have appeared. Why transfer the burden of Darnley's murder from
+Bothwell, the actual perpetrator of the deed, to one who may have been
+accessory to it, but certainly more remotely? Why confirm the suspicion
+against her they wish to defend, by unjustly accusing another, whom they
+cannot prove to be criminal? If Goodall and Chalmers have done this, their
+learning is comparatively useless, and their labour has been nearly lost.
+
+If the author of the following "Life of Mary Queen of Scots," has been
+able in any measure, to execute his own wishes, he would trust, that by a
+careful collation of all the works to which he has referred; he has
+succeeded, in separating much of the ore from the dross, and in giving a
+freshness, perhaps in one or two instances, an air of originality to his
+production. He has affected neither the insipidity of neutrality, nor the
+bigotry of party zeal. His desire was to concentrate all that could be
+known of Mary, in the hope that a light might thus be thrown on the
+obscurer parts of his subject, sufficient to re-animate the most
+indifferent, and satisfy the most scrupulous. He commenced his readings
+with an unbiassed mind, and was not aware at the outset, to what
+conviction they would bring him. But if a conscientious desire to
+disseminate truth be estimable, it is hoped that this desire will be found
+to characterize these Memoirs. Little more need be added. The biography of
+a Queen, who lived two hundred and fifty years ago, cannot be like the
+biography of a contemporary or immediate predecessor; but the inherent
+interest of the subject, will excuse many deficiencies. Omissions may,
+perhaps, be pardoned, if there are no misrepresentations; and the absence
+of minute cavilling and trifling distinctions, may not be complained of,
+if the narrative leads, by a lucid arrangement, to satisfactory general
+deductions. Fidelity is at all times preferable to brilliancy, and a sound
+conclusion to a plausible hypothesis.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                                         1
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+    Scotland and its Troubles during Mary's Infancy                   11
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+    Scotland and the Scottish Reformers, under the Regency of
+    the Queen Dowager                                                 25
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+    Mary's Birth, and subsequent residence at the French Court,
+    with a Sketch of the State of Society and Manners in France,
+    during the sixteenth century                                      42
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+    Mary's Marriage, Personal Appearance, and Popularity              58
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+    Mary the Queen Dauphiness, the Queen, and the Queen Dowager
+    of France                                                         74
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+    Mary's return to Scotland, and previous negociations with
+    Elizabeth                                                         88
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+    Mary's arrival at Holyrood, with Sketches of her Principal
+    Nobility                                                         108
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+    John Knox, the Reformers, and the turbulent Nobles               126
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+    Mary's Expedition to the North                                   146
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+    Chatelard's imprudent Attachment, and Knox's persevering
+    Hatred                                                           166
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+    The domestic Life of Mary, with some Anecdotes of Elizabeth      182
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+    Mary's Suitors, and the Machinations of her Enemies              198
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+    Mary's Marriage with Darnley                                     222
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+    Murray's Rebellion                                               232
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+    The Earl of Morton's Plot                                        251
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+    The Assassination of David Rizzio                                272
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+    The Birth of James VI                                            287
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+    Mary's Treatment of Darnley, and alleged Love for the Earl
+    of Bothwell                                                      295
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+During the reigns of James IV. and James V., Scotland emerged from
+barbarism into comparative civilization. Shut out, as it had previously
+been, from almost any intercourse with the rest of Europe, both by the
+peculiarities of its situation, and its incessant wars with England, it
+had long slumbered in all the ignorance and darkness of those remote
+countries, which even Roman greatness, before its dissolution, found it
+impossible to enclose and retain within the fortunate pale of its
+conquests. The refinement, which must always more or less attend upon the
+person of a king, and shelter itself in the stronghold of his court, was
+little felt in Scotland. Though attached, from long custom, to the
+monarchical form of government, the sturdy feudal barons, each possessing
+a kind of separate principality of his own, took good care that their
+sovereign's superior influence should be more nominal than real.
+Distracted too by perpetual jealousies among themselves, it was only upon
+rare occasions that the nobles would assemble peaceably together, to aid
+the king by their counsel, and strengthen his authority by their
+unanimity. Hence, there was no standard of national manners,--no means of
+fixing and consolidating the wavering and turbulent character of the
+people. Each clan attached itself to its own hereditary chieftain; and,
+whatever his prejudices or follies might be, was implicitly subservient to
+them. The feuds and personal animosities which existed among the leaders,
+were thus invariably transmitted to the very humblest of their retainers,
+and a state of society was the consequence, pregnant with civil discord
+and confusion, which, on the slightest impulse, broke out into anarchy and
+bloodshed.
+
+Many reasons have been assigned why the evils of the feudal system should
+have been more severely felt in Scotland than elsewhere. The leading
+causes, as given by the best historians, seem to be,--the geographical
+nature of the country, which made its baronial fastnesses almost
+impregnable;--the want of large towns, by which the vassals of different
+barons were prevented from mingling together, and rubbing off, in the
+collision, the prepossessions they mutually entertained against each
+other;--the division of the inhabitants, not only into the followers of
+different chiefs but into clans, which resembled so many great families,
+among all whose branches a relationship existed, and who looked with
+jealousy upon the increasing strength or wealth of any other clan;--the
+smallness of the number of Scottish nobles, a circumstance materially
+contributing to enhance the weight and dignity of each;--the frequent
+recourse which these barons had, for the purpose of overawing the crown,
+to leagues of mutual defence with their equals, or bonds of reciprocal
+protection and assistance with their inferiors;--the unceasing wars which
+raged between England and Scotland, and which were the perpetual means of
+proving to the Scottish king, that the very possession of his crown
+depended upon the fidelity and obedience of his nobles, whose good-will it
+was therefore necessary to conciliate upon all occasions, by granting them
+whatever they chose to demand; and, lastly--the long minorities to which
+the misfortunes of its kings exposed the country at an early period of its
+history, when the vigour and consistency, commonly attendant upon the acts
+of one mind, were required more than any thing else, but instead of which,
+the contradictory measures of contending nobles, or of regents hastily
+elected, and as hastily displaced, were sure to produce an unnatural
+stagnation in the government, from which it could be redeemed only by
+still more unnatural convulsions.
+
+The necessary consequences of these political grievances were, of course,
+felt in every corner of the country. It is difficult to form any accurate
+estimate, or to draw any very minute picture of the state of manners and
+nicer ramifications of society at so remote a period. But it may be stated
+generally, that the great mass of the population was involved in poverty,
+and sunk in the grossest ignorance. The Catholic system of faith and
+worship, in its very worst form, combined with the national superstitions
+so prevalent among the vulgar, not only to exclude every idea of rational
+religion, but to produce the very lowest state of mental degradation.
+Commerce was comparatively unknown,--agriculture but imperfectly
+understood. If the wants of the passing hour were supplied, however
+sparely, the enslaved vassal was contented,--almost the only happiness of
+his life consisting in that animal gratification afforded him by the
+sports of the chase, or the bloodier diversion of the field of battle.
+Education was neglected and despised even by the wealthy, few of whom were
+able to read, and almost none to write. As for the middle and lower
+orders, fragments of rude traditionary songs constituted their entire
+learning, and the savage war-dance, inspired by the barbarous music of
+their native hills, their principal amusement. At the same time, it is
+not to be supposed that virtue and intelligence were extinct among them.
+There must be many exceptions to all general rules, and however
+unfavourable the circumstances under which they were placed for calling
+into activity the higher attributes of man's nature, it is not to be
+denied, that their chronicles record, even in the lowest ranks, many
+bright examples of patience, perseverance, unsinking fortitude, and
+fidelity founded upon generous and exalted attachment.
+
+It has been said, that under the reigns of the Fourth and Fifth James, the
+moral and political aspect of the Scotch horizon began to brighten. This
+is to be attributed partly to the beneficial changes which the progress of
+time was effecting throughout Europe, and which gradually extended
+themselves to Scotland,--and partly to the personal character of these two
+monarchs. France, Germany, and England, had made considerable strides out
+of the gloom of the dark ages, even before the appearance of Francis I.,
+Charles V., and Henry VIII. James IV., naturally of a chivalric and ardent
+disposition, was extremely anxious to advance his own country in the scale
+of nations; and whilst, by the urbanity of his manners, he succeeded in
+winning the affections of his nobles, he contrived also to find a place in
+the hearts of his inferior subjects, even beside that allotted to their
+own hereditary chieftain,--an achievement which few of his predecessors
+had been able to accomplish. The unfortunate battle of Flodden, is a
+melancholy record both of the vigour of James's reign, and of the national
+advantages which his romantic spirit induced him to risk in pursuit of the
+worthless phantom of military renown.
+
+James V. had much of the ardour of his father, combined with a somewhat
+greater share of prudence. He it was who first made any successful inroads
+upon the exorbitant powers of his nobility; and though, upon more
+occasions than one, he was made to pay dearly for his determination to
+vindicate the regal authority, he was, nevertheless, true to his purpose
+to the very last. There seem to be three features in the reign of this
+prince which particularly deserve attention. The first is, the more
+extensive intercourse than had hitherto subsisted, which he established
+between Scotland and foreign nations,--particularly with France. The
+inexhaustible ambition of Charles V., which aimed at universal empire, and
+which probably would have accomplished its design had he not met with a
+rival so formidable as Francis I., was the means of convincing the other
+states of Europe, that the only security for their separate independence
+was the preservation of a balance of power. Italy was thus roused into
+activity, and England, under Henry VIII., took an active share in the
+important events of the age. To the continental powers, against whom that
+monarch's strength was directed, it became a matter of no small moment to
+secure the assistance of Scotland. Both Francis and Charles, therefore,
+paid their court to James, who, finding it necessary to become the ally of
+one or other, prudently rejected the empty honours offered him by the
+Emperor, and continued faithful to France. He went himself to Paris in
+1536, where he married Magdalene, daughter of Francis. She died however
+soon after his return home; but determined not to lose the advantages
+resulting from a French alliance, he again married, in the following year,
+Mary of Lorraine, daughter to the Duke of Guise, and the young widow of
+the Duke of Longueville. Following the example of their king, most of the
+Scotch nobility visited France, and as many as could afford it, sent their
+sons thither to be educated; whilst on the other hand, numerous French
+adventurers landed in Scotland, bringing along with them some of the
+French arts and luxuries. Thus the manners of the Scotch, gradually began
+to lose a little of that unbending severity, which had hitherto rendered
+them so repulsive.
+
+The second peculiarity in the reign of James V., is the countenance and
+support he bestowed upon the clergy. This he did, not from any motives of
+bigotry, but solely as a matter of sound policy. He saw that he could not
+stand alone against his nobles, and he was therefore anxious to raise into
+an engine of power, a body of men whose interests he thus identified with
+his own. It is remarkable, that even in the most flourishing days of
+Catholicism, when the Pope's ecclesiastical authority extended itself
+everywhere, Scotland alone was overlooked. The king was there always the
+head of the church, in so far as regarded all ecclesiastical appointments,
+and the patronage of his bishoprics and abbeys was no slight privilege to
+the Scottish monarch, denied as it was to other kings of more extensive
+temporal jurisdiction. James converted into benefices, several of the
+forfeited estates of his rebellious nobles, and raised the clergy to a
+pitch of authority they had never before possessed in Scotland. He acted
+upon principle, and perhaps judiciously; but he was not aware, that by
+thus surrounding his priests with wealth and luxury, he was paving the way
+for their utter destruction, and a new and better order of things.
+
+It will be useful to observe, as the third characteristic of this reign,
+the encouragement James gave to the arts and sciences. For the first time,
+education began to take some form and system. He gave stability to the
+universities, and was careful to select for them the best teachers. He was
+fond of drawing to his court men of learning and genius. He was himself a
+poet of considerable ability. He had likewise devoted much of his
+attention to architecture--his fondness for which elegant study was
+testified, by his anxiety to repair, or rebuild, most of the royal
+palaces. He established also on a permanent footing, the Court of Session,
+or College of Justice; and though his reign, as a whole, was not a happy
+one, it probably redounded more to the advantage of his country than that
+of any of his predecessors.
+
+At his death, which took place in 1542, at the early age of 30,
+accelerated by the distress of mind occasioned by the voluntary defeats
+which his refractory nobles allowed themselves to sustain, both at Falla
+and Solway Moss, Scotland speedily fell into a state of confusion and
+civil war. The events which followed are indissolubly connected with the
+subject of these Memoirs, and are related at length in the succeeding
+pages.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SCOTLAND AND ITS TROUBLES DURING MARY'S INFANCY.
+
+
+James V. left, as an inheritance to his kingdom, an expensive and
+destructive war with England. He likewise left what, under such
+circumstances, was a very questionable advantage, a treasury well stored
+with gold, and a coinage in good condition, produced from the mines which
+he had worked in Scotland. The foreign relations of the country demanded
+the utmost attention; but the long minority necessarily ensuing, as Mary,
+his only surviving lawful child, was but a few days old when James died,
+awakened hopes and wishes in the ambitious which superseded all other
+considerations. For a time England was forgotten; and the prize of the
+Regency became a bone of civil contention and discord.
+
+There were three persons who aspired to that office, and the pretensions
+of each had their supporters, as interest or reason might dictate. The
+first was the Queen-Dowager, a lady who inherited many of the peculiar
+virtues, as well as some of the failings, of the illustrious house of
+Guise, to which she belonged. She possessed a bold and masculine
+understanding, a perseverance to overcome difficulties, and a fortitude to
+bear up against misfortunes, not often met with among her sex. She was
+indeed superior to most of the weaknesses of the female character; and
+having, from her earliest years, deeply studied the science of government,
+she felt herself, so far as mere political tactics and diplomatic
+acquirements were concerned, able to cope with the craftiest of the Scotch
+nobility. Besides, her intimate connexion with the French court, coupled
+with the interest she might naturally be supposed to take in the affairs
+of a country over which her husband had reigned, and which was her
+daughter's inheritance, seemed to give her a claim of the strongest kind.
+
+The second aspirant was Cardinal David Beaton, at that time the undoubted
+head of the Catholic party in Scotland. He was a man whose abilities all
+allowed, and who, had he been less tinctured with severity, and less
+addicted to the exclusive principles of the Church of Rome, might probably
+have filled with _éclat_ the very highest rank in the State. He
+endeavoured to strengthen his title to the Regency, by producing the will
+of James V. in his favour. But as this will was dated only a short while
+before the King's death, it was suspected that the Prelate had himself
+written it, and obtained the King's signature, at a time when his bodily
+weakness had impaired his mental faculties. Beaton was, moreover, from his
+violence and rigour, particularly obnoxious to all those who favoured the
+Reformation.
+
+James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and next heir to the throne, was the third
+candidate, and the person upon whom the choice of the people ultimately
+fell. In more settled times, this choice might possibly have been
+judicious; but Arran was of far too weak and irresolute a character to be
+able to regulate the government with that decision and firmness which the
+existing emergency required. He had few opinions of his own, and was
+continually driven hither and thither by the contradictory counsels of
+those who surrounded him. He had joined, however, the reformed religion;
+and this, together with the inoffensive softness of his disposition, made
+him, in the eyes of many, only the more fit to govern.
+
+The annexation of Scotland to the crown of England, either by conquest or
+the more amicable means of marriage, had for many years been the object
+nearest the heart of Henry VIII. and several of his predecessors. That his
+father, in particular, Henry VII., had given some thought to this subject,
+is evident from the answer he made to such of his Privy Council as were
+unwilling that he should give his daughter Margaret in marriage to James
+IV., on the ground that the English Crown might, through that marriage,
+devolve to a King of Scotland. "Whereunto the King made answer, and said,
+'What then? for if any such thing should happen (which God forbid), yet I
+see our kingdom should take no harm thereby, because England should not
+be added unto Scotland, but Scotland unto England, as to the far most
+noble head of the whole island; for so much as it is always so, that the
+lesser is wont, for honour's sake, to be adjoined to that which is far the
+greater.'"[1] How correct Henry VII. was in his opinion, the accession of
+James VI. sufficiently proved.
+
+Henry VIII., though aiming at the same object as his father, thought it
+more natural that Scotland should accept of an English, than England of a
+Scottish King. Immediately, therefore, after the birth of Mary, he
+determined upon straining every nerve to secure her for his son Edward.
+For this purpose, he concluded a temporary peace with the Regent Arran,
+and sent back into Scotland the numerous prisoners who had surrendered
+themselves at Solway Moss, upon an understanding that they should do all
+they could to second his views with their countrymen. His first proposals,
+however, were so extravagant, that the Scottish Parliament would not
+listen to them for a moment. He demanded not only that the young Queen
+should be sent into England, to be educated under his own superintendance,
+but that he himself, as her future father-in-law, should be allowed an
+active share in the government of Scotland. Having subsequently consented
+to depart considerably from the haughty tone in which these terms were
+dictated, a treaty of marriage was agreed upon at the instigation of
+Arran, whom Henry had won to his interests, in which it was promised, that
+Mary should be sent into England at the age of ten, and that six persons
+of rank should, in the mean time, be delivered as hostages for the
+fulfilment of this promise.
+
+It may easily be conceived, that whatever the Regent, together with some
+of the reformed nobility and their partisans, might think of this treaty,
+the Queen Mother and Cardinal Beaton, who had for the present formed a
+coalition, could not be very well satisfied with it. Henry, with all the
+hasty violence of his nature, had, in a fit of spleen, espoused the
+reformed opinions; and if Mary became the wife of his son, it was evident
+that all the interests both of the House of Guise and of the Catholic
+religion in Scotland, would suffer a fatal blow. By their forcible
+representations of the inevitable ruin which they alleged this alliance
+would bring upon Scotland, converting it into a mere province of their
+ancient and inveterate enemies, and obliging it to renounce forever the
+friendship of their constant allies the French, they succeeded in
+effecting a change in public opinion; and the result was, that Arran found
+himself at length obliged to yield to their superior influence, to deliver
+up to the Cardinal and Mary of Lorraine the young Queen, and refuse to
+ratify the engagements he had entered into with Henry. The Cardinal now
+carried every thing before him, having converted or intimidated almost all
+his enemies. The Earl of Lennox alone, a nobleman whose pretensions were
+greater than his power, could not forgive Beaton for having used him
+merely as a cat's paw in his intrigues to gain the ascendency over Arran.
+Lennox had himself aspired at the Regency, alleging that his title, as
+presumptive heir to the Crown, was a more legitimate one than that of the
+House of Hamilton, to which Arran belonged. But the still more ambitious
+Cardinal flattered only to deceive him; and when Lennox considered his
+success certain, he found himself farther from the object of his wishes
+than ever.
+
+Seeing every other hope vain, Lennox set on foot a secret correspondence
+with Henry, promising that monarch his best support, should he determine
+upon avenging the insult he had sustained, through the vacillating conduct
+of the Scotch. Henry gladly availed himself of the offer, and sent a
+considerable force under the Earl of Hartford to the North, by sea, which,
+having landed at Leith, and plundered that place, as well as the
+neighbouring city of Edinburgh, again took its departure for England,
+without attempting to penetrate further into the country. This was an
+unprofitable and ill-advised expedition, for it only tended to exasperate
+the minds of the Scotch, without being of any service to Henry. The Earl
+of Huntly well remarked concerning it, that even although he might have
+had no objections to the proposed match, he had a most especial dislike to
+the manner of wooing.
+
+The Earl of Lennox now found himself deserted in the midst of his former
+friends, and went prudently into voluntary exile, by retiring into
+England. Here Henry, in reward of his former services, gave him his niece,
+the Lady Margaret Douglas, in marriage. She was the daughter, by the
+second marriage, of Henry's sister, the Lady Margaret, wife of James IV.,
+who, after the King's death, espoused Archibald Earl of Angus. By this
+alliance, Lennox, though it was impossible for him to foresee such a
+result, became the father of Henry Darnley, and a long line of Kings.
+
+Shortly afterwards, an event well known in Scottish history, and which was
+accomplished by means only too frequently resorted to in those unsettled
+times, facilitated the conclusion of a short peace with England. Cardinal
+Beaton, elevated by his success, and anxious, now that all more immediate
+danger was removed, to re-establish on a firmer basis the tottering
+authority of the Romish Church, determined upon striking awe into the
+people, by some memorable examples of severity towards heretics. About the
+end of the year 1545, he made a progress through several parts of his
+diocess, accompanied by the Earl of Argyle, who was then Lord Justice
+General, and other official persons, for the purpose of trying and
+punishing offenders against the laws of the Church. At Perth, several of
+the lieges were found guilty of arguing or disputing concerning the sense
+of the Holy Scriptures, in opposition to an Act of Parliament, which
+forbade any such freedom of speech, and five men and one woman were
+condemned to die. Great intercession was made for them, but in vain; the
+men were hanged, and the woman was drowned. Still farther to intimidate
+the Reformers, a yet more memorable instance of religious persecution and
+cruelty was presented to them a few months afterwards. George Wishart was
+at this time one of the most learned and zealous of all the supporters of
+the new doctrines in Scotland. He had been educated at the University of
+Cambridge, and had, in his youth, officiated as one of the masters of the
+grammar school at Montrose. His talents and perseverance rendered him
+particularly obnoxious to the Cardinal, who, having contrived to make him
+his prisoner, carried him to his castle at St Andrews. An Ecclesiastical
+Court was there assembled, at which Wishart was sentenced to be burnt. It
+may give us a clearer idea of the spirit of the times, to know, that on
+the day on which this sentence was to be put in execution, Beaton issued a
+proclamation, forbidding any one, under pain of church censure, to offer
+up prayers for so notorious a heretic. When Wishart was brought to the
+stake, and after the fire had been kindled, and was already beginning to
+take effect, it is said that he turned his eyes towards a window in the
+castle overlaid with tapestry, at which the Cardinal was sitting, viewing
+with complacency the unfortunate man's suffering, and exclaimed,--"He who,
+from yonder high place, beholdeth me with such pride, shall, within few
+days, be in as much shame as now he is seen proudly to rest himself."
+These words, though they met with little attention at the time, were
+spoken of afterwards as an evident and most remarkable prophecy.
+
+It was not long after this martyrdom, that Cardinal Beaton was present at
+the marriage of one of his own illegitimate daughters, to whom he gave a
+dowry of 4000 merks, and whose nuptials were solemnized with great
+magnificence. Probably he conceived, that the more heretics he burned, the
+more unblushingly he might confess his own sins against both religion and
+common morality.
+
+On the prelate's return to St Andrew's, Norman Lesly, a young man of
+strong passions, and eldest Son to the Earl of Rothes, came to him to
+demand some favour, which the Cardinal thought proper to refuse. The
+particulars of the quarrel are not precisely known, but it must have been
+of a serious kind; for Lesly, taking advantage of the popular feeling
+which then existed against the Cardinal, determined upon seeking his own
+revenge by the assassination of Beaton. He associated with himself several
+accomplices, who undertook to second him in this design. Early on the
+morning of the 29th of May 1546, having entered the castle by the gate,
+which was open to admit some workmen who were repairing the
+fortifications, he and his assistants proceeded to the door of the
+Cardinal's chamber, at which they knocked. Beaton asked,--"Who is
+there?"--Norman answered,--"My name is Lesly,"--adding, that the door must
+be opened to him, and those that were with him. Beaton now began to fear
+the worst, and attempted to secure the door. But Lesly called for fire to
+burn it, upon which the Cardinal, seeing all resistance useless, permitted
+them to enter. They found him sitting on a chair, pale and agitated; and
+as they approached him he exclaimed,--"I am a Priest--ye will not slay
+me!" Lesly, however, losing all command of his temper, struck him more
+than once, and would have proceeded to further indignities, had not James
+Melville, one of the assassins, "a man," says Knox, "of nature most gentle
+and most modest," drawn his sword, and presenting the point to the
+Cardinal, advised him to repent of his sins, informing him, at the same
+time, that no hatred he bore his person, but simply his love of true
+religion induced him to take part against one whom he looked upon as an
+enemy to the gospel. So saying, and without waiting for an answer, he
+stabbed him twice or thrice through the body. When his friends and
+servants collected without, the conspirators lifted up the deceased
+Prelate, and showed him to them from the very window at which he had sat
+at the day of Wishart's execution. Beaton, at the time of his death, was
+fifty-two. He had long been one of the leading men in Scotland, and had
+enjoyed the favour of the French King, as well as that of his own
+sovereign James V. Some attempt was made by the Regent to punish his
+murderers, but they finally escaped into France.[2]
+
+There is good reason to believe that Henry VIII. secretly encouraged Lesly
+and his associates in this dishonest enterprise. But, if such be the case,
+that monarch did not live long enough to reap the fruits of its success.
+He died only a few months later than the Cardinal; and, about the same
+time, his cotemporary, Francis I., was succeeded on his throne by his son
+Henry II. These changes did not materially affect the relative situation
+of Scotland. They may, perhaps, have opened up still higher hopes to the
+Queen Dowager, and the French party; but, in England, the Duke of
+Somerset, who had been appointed Lord Protector during the minority of
+Edward VI., was determined upon following out the plans of the late
+monarch, and compelling the Scotch to agree to the alliance which he had
+proposed.
+
+In prosecution of his designs, he marched a powerful army into Scotland,
+and the result was the unfortunate battle of Pinkie. The Earl of Arran,
+whose exertions to rescue the country from this new aggression, were
+warmly seconded by the people, collected a force sufficiently numerous to
+enable him to meet and offer battle to Somerset. The English camp was in
+the neighbourhood of Prestonpans, and the Scotch took up very advantageous
+ground about Musselburgh and Inveresk. Military discipline was at that
+time but little understood in this country; and the reckless impetuosity
+of the Scotch infantry was usually attended either with immediate success,
+or, by throwing the whole battle into confusion, with irretrievable and
+signal defeat. The weapons to which they principally trusted, were, in the
+first place, the pike, with which, upon joining with the enemy, all the
+fore-rank, standing shoulder to shoulder together, thrust straight
+forwards, those who stood in the second rank putting their pikes over the
+shoulders of their comrades before them. The length of these pikes or
+spears was eighteen feet six inches. They seem to have been used
+principally on the first onset, and were probably speedily relinquished
+for the more efficient exercise of the sword, which was broad and thin,
+and of excellent temper. It was employed to cut or slice with, not to
+thrust; and, in defence against any similar weapon of the enemy, a large
+handkerchief was wrapt twice or thrice about the neck, and a buckler
+invariably carried on the left arm.[3]
+
+For some days the two armies continued in sight of each other, without
+coming to any general engagement. The hourly anxiety which prevailed at
+Edinburgh regarding the result, may be easily imagined. To inspire the
+soldiers with the greater courage, it was enacted by Government, that the
+heirs of those who fell upon this occasion in defence of their country,
+should for five years be free from Government taxes, and the usual
+assessments levied by landlords. At length, on Saturday the 10th of
+September 1547, the Scotch, misled by a motion in the English army, which
+they conceived indicated a design to retreat, rashly left their superior
+situation, and crossing the mouth of the Esk at Musselburgh, gave the
+Protector battle in the fields of Pinkie, an adjoining country seat. They
+were thus so exposed, that the English fleet, which lay in the bay, was
+enabled, by firing upon their flank to do them much mischief. The Earl of
+Angus, who was leading the van-guard, found himself suddenly assailed by a
+flight of arrows, a raking fire from a regiment or two of foreign
+fusileers, and a discharge of cannon which unexpectedly opened upon him.
+Unable to advance, he attempted to change his position for a more
+advantageous one. The main body imagined he was falling back upon them in
+confusion; and to heighten their panic, a vigorous charge, which was at
+this moment made by the English cavalry, decided the fortune of the day.
+After a feeble resistance the Scotch fled towards Dalkeith, Edinburgh, and
+Leith, and being hotly pursued by their enemies, all the three roads were
+strewed with the dead and dying. In this battle the Earl of Arran lost
+upwards of 8000 men; among whom were Lord Fleming, together with many
+other Scotch noblemen and gentlemen.
+
+The English army advanced immediately upon Leith, which they took and
+pillaged; and would have entered Edinburgh, had they not found it
+impossible to make themselves masters of the Castle. The fleet ravaged the
+towns and villages on the coasts of the Forth, and proceeded as far north
+as the River Tay, seizing on whatever shipping they could meet with in the
+harbours by which they passed.
+
+Far, however, from obtaining by these violent measures, the ultimate
+object of his desires, Somerset found himself farther from his point than
+ever. The Scotch, enraged against England, threw themselves into the arms
+of France; and the Protector, understanding that affairs in the south had
+fallen into confusion, in his absence, was obliged to return home, leaving
+strong garrisons in Haddington, and one or two other places, which he had
+captured. The Earl of Arran, and Mary of Guise, sent immediate
+intelligence to Henry II., of all that had taken place; and, sanctioned by
+the Scottish Parliament, offered to conclude a treaty of marriage between
+his infant son, the Dauphin Francis, and the young Scottish Queen. They,
+moreover, agreed to send Mary into France, to be educated at the French
+Court, until such time as the nuptials could be solemnized. This proposal
+was every way acceptable to Henry, who, like his father Francis, perfectly
+understood the importance of a close alliance with Scotland, as the most
+efficient means for preventing the English from invading his own
+dominions. He sent over an army of 6000 men, to the aid of the Regent; and
+in the same vessels, which brought these troops, Mary was conveyed from
+Dumbarton into France. Henry also, with much sound policy, in order to
+strengthen his interests in Scotland, bestowed, about this time, upon the
+Earl of Arran, the title of the Duke of Chatelherault, together with a
+pension of some value. During a period of two years, a continual series of
+skirmishings were carried on between the Scotch, supported by their French
+allies, and the English; but without any results of much consequence on
+either side. In 1550, a general peace was concluded; and the marriage of
+the Scottish Queen was never afterwards made the ground of war between the
+two countries.
+
+From this period, till Mary's return to her own country, the attention of
+Scotland was entirely engrossed with its own affairs, and the various
+important events connected with the rise, progress, and establishment of
+the Reformation. As these effected no slight change in the political
+aspect of the country, and exercised a material influence over Mary's
+future destiny, it will be proper to give some account of them in this
+place; and these details being previously gone through, the narrative, in
+so far as regards Queen Mary, will thus be preserved unbroken.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+SCOTLAND AND THE SCOTTISH REFORMERS, UNDER THE REGENCY OF THE
+QUEEN-DOWAGER.
+
+
+It was in the year 1517, that Luther first stated his objections to the
+validity of the indulgences granted so liberally by Pope Leo X. From this
+year, those who love to trace causes to their origin, date the epoch of
+the Reformation. It was not, however, till a considerably later period,
+that the new doctrines took any deep root in Scotland. In 1552, the Duke
+of Chatelherault, wearied with the fatigues of Government, and provoked at
+the opposition he was continually meeting with, resigned the regency in
+favour of the Queen-mother. Mary of Guise, by a visit she had shortly
+before paid to the French Court, had paved the way for this accession of
+power. Her brothers, the Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorraine, were far
+from being satisfied with the state of parties in Scotland. Chatelherault,
+they knew to be of a weak and fluctuating disposition; and it seemed to
+them necessary, both for the preservation of the ancient religion, and to
+secure the allegiance of the country to their niece, the young Queen, that
+a stronger hand, guided by a sounder head, should hold the reigns of the
+State. Upon their sister's fidelity they knew they could depend; and it
+was principally through the influence of French gold and French intrigue,
+that she was placed in the regency.
+
+The inhabitants of Scotland were at this time divided into two great
+classes,--those who were still staunch to the Church of Rome, and those
+who were determined on effecting a reformation. At the head of the former
+was John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, who, upon the murder of
+Cardinal Beaton, had obtained that appointment through the Duke of
+Chatelherault, whose natural brother he was. He was greatly the Duke's
+superior in courage and sagacity, and was deeply imbued with the
+prelatical spirit of ambition then so prevalent. The resignation of the
+regency provoked him exceedingly, the more especially as Mary, to
+strengthen her own authority, found it necessary at first to treat the
+Reformers mildly. He was consoled, however, by the death of Edward VI. in
+1553, and the accession of the young King's eldest sister Mary to the
+English throne,--as bigoted and determined a Catholic as ever lived.
+
+The man who had placed himself at the head of the Reformers, and who,
+although young, had already given Hamilton and his party good cause to
+tremble at his increasing authority, was James Stuart, the eldest of
+Mary's three illegitimate brothers,--and one who occupies a most important
+station in the history of his country. His father made him, when only
+seven years old, Prior or Commendator of St Andrews, an office which
+entitled him, though a layman, to the full income arising from that rich
+benefice. It was soon discovered, however, that he had views far beyond so
+comparatively humble a rank. Even when a boy, it was his ambition to
+collect around him associates who were devoted to his service and desires.
+He went over with Mary to France in 1548, but remained there only a very
+short time; and, at the age of twenty-one, he was already looked up to by
+the Scottish Reformers as their chief. His knowledge was extensive, and
+considerably in advance of the times in which he lived. His personal
+bravery was undoubted, and his skill in arms so great, that few of his
+military enterprises were unsuccessful. His passions, if they were strong,
+seem also to have been deep, and entirely under his own command. Whatever
+may be thought of the secret motives which actuated him, he was seldom
+betrayed into any symptoms of apparent violence. He thus contrived to hold
+a steady course, amidst all the turbulence and convulsions of the age in
+which he lived; whilst the external decorum and propriety of his manners,
+so different from the ill-concealed dissoluteness of many of his
+cotemporaries, endeared him the more to the stern followers of Luther. It
+is curious to observe the very opposite views which different historians
+have taken of his character, more especially when they come to speak of
+him as the Earl of Murray and the Regent of Scotland. It would be improper
+and unnecessary to anticipate these discussions at present, since it is
+hoped the reader will be able to form his own estimate upon this subject,
+from the facts he will find recorded in these Memoirs.
+
+It must be evident, that with two such men, each at the head of his own
+party, the country was not likely to continue long in a state of
+quietness. The Queen Regent soon found it necessary, at the instigation of
+the French Court, to associate herself with the Archbishop of St
+Andrews,--in opposition to which coalition, a bond was drawn up in 1557,
+by some of the principal Reformers, in which they announced their
+resolution to form an independent congregation of their own, and to
+separate themselves entirely from the "congregation of Satan, with all the
+superstitious abomination and idolatry thereof." Articles, or Heads of a
+Reformation, were soon afterwards published, in which it was principally
+insisted, that on Sunday and other festival days, the Common-Prayer should
+be read openly in the parish churches, along with the lessons of the Old
+and New Testaments; and that preaching and interpretation of the
+Scriptures in private houses should be allowed.
+
+In the following year, one of the first outrages which the Reformers
+committed in Scotland, took place in Edinburgh. On occasion of the annual
+procession through the city, in honour of the tutelar Saint--St Giles, the
+image of that illustrious personage, which ought to have been carried by
+some of the priests, was amissing,--the godly having, beforehand,
+according to John Knox, first drowned the idol in the North Loch, and then
+burned it. It was therefore necessary to borrow a smaller saint from the
+Gray-Friars, in order that this "great solemnity and manifest abomination"
+might proceed. Upon the day appointed, priests, friars, canons, and
+"rotten Papists," assembled, with tabors, trumpets, banners, and bagpipes.
+At this sight, the hearts of the brethren were wondrously inflamed; and
+they resolved, that this second dragon should suffer the fate of the
+first. They broke in upon the procession; and though the Catholics made
+some slight resistance at first, they were soon obliged to surrender the
+image into the hands of the Philistines, who, taking it by the heels, and
+knocking, or, as the reformed historian says, _dadding_ its head upon the
+pavement, soon reduced it to fragments, only regretting, that "the young
+St Giles" had not been so difficult to kill as his father. The priests,
+alarmed for their personal safety, sought shelter as quickly as possible,
+and gave Knox an opportunity of indulging in some of that austere mirth
+which is peculiarly remarkable, because so foreign to his general style.
+"Then might have been seen," says he, "so sudden a fray as seldom has been
+seen among that sort of men within this realm; for down goes the cross,
+off go the surplices, round caps, and cornets with the crowns. The
+Gray-Friars gaped, the Black-Friars blew, and the priests panted and fled,
+and happy was he that first got the house; for such a sudden fray came
+never among the generation of Antichrist within this realm before." The
+magistrates had some difficulty in prevailing upon the mob to disperse,
+after they had kept possession of the streets for several hours; and the
+rioters escaped without punishment; for "the brethren assembled themselves
+in such sort in companies, singing psalms, and praising God, that the
+proudest of the enemies were astounded."[4]
+
+The Commissioners who, about this time, were sent into France, and the
+motives of their embassy, will be spoken of afterwards. But the remarkable
+circumstance, that four of them died when about to return home,--one at
+Paris, and three at Dieppe,--had a considerable influence in exciting the
+populace to still greater hatred against the French party,--it being
+commonly suspected that they had come by their death unfairly. The
+Congregation now rose in their demands; and among other things, insisted
+that "the wicked and scandalous lives" of churchmen should be reformed,
+according to the rules contained in the New Testament, the writings of the
+ancient fathers, and the laws of Justinian the Emperor. For a while, the
+Queen Regent temporized; but finding it impossible to preserve the favour
+of both parties, she yielded at length to the solicitations of the
+Archbishop of St Andrews, and determined to resist the Reformers
+vigorously. In 1559, she summoned all the ministers of the Congregation,
+to appear before her at Stirling. This citation was complied with, but not
+exactly in the manner that the Queen wished; for the ministers came not as
+culprits, but as men proud of their principles, and accompanied by a vast
+multitude of those who were of the same mode of thinking. The Queen, who
+was at Stirling, did not venture to proceed to Perth; and the request she
+made, that the numbers there assembled should depart, leaving their
+ministers to be examined by the Government, having been refused, she
+proceeded to the harsh and decisive measure of declaring them all rebels.
+
+The consternation which this direct announcement of hostilities
+occasioned among them, was still at its height, when the great champion of
+the Scottish Reformation, John Knox, arrived at Perth. This celebrated
+divine had already suffered much for "the good cause;" and though his zeal
+and devotion to it were well known, it was not till latterly that he had
+entertained much hope of its final triumph in his native country. He had
+spent the greater part of his life in imprisonment or exile; he had
+undergone many privations, and submitted to many trials. But these were
+the daily food of the Reformers; and, whilst they only served to
+strengthen them in the obduracy of their belief, they had the additional
+effect of infusing a morose acerbity into dispositions not naturally of
+the softest kind. Knox had returned only a few days before from Geneva,
+where he had been solacing his solitude by writing and publishing that
+celebrated work, which he was pleased to entitle, "The first blast of the
+trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women." This treatise, directed
+principally against Mary of England, not forgetting Mary Queen of Scots
+and her mother of Guise, rather overshot its own purpose, by bringing the
+Reformer into disrepute with Elizabeth, who came to the crown soon after
+its appearance. To pacify that Queen, for it appears even Knox could
+temporize occasionally, he gave up his original intention of blowing his
+trumpet thrice, and his first blast was his last.[5]
+
+The day after the ministers and their friends, had been declared rebels,
+Knox delivered at Perth what Keith terms "that thundering Sermon against
+Idolatry." The tumult which ensued at the conclusion of this discourse,
+has been attributed by some historians to accident; but Keith's suspicion,
+that Knox had a direct intention to excite it, seems well founded, when we
+consider the ferment in which the minds of his audience were at the time,
+and the peculiar style in which he addressed them. Buchanan is of the same
+opinion, though he would naturally have leant to the other conclusion. He
+says that Knox, "in that ticklish posture of affairs, made such a pathetic
+sermon to the multitude who were gathered together, that he set their
+minds, which were already fired, all in a flame." If, in addition to this,
+the usual manner of Knox's eloquence be considered, it will hardly be
+questioned but that the outrage of that day was of his doing. His
+vehemence in the pulpit was at all times tremendous; indeed, in so far as
+the effect he produced upon his hearers was concerned, he seems to have
+trusted almost as much to the display of his physical as of his mental
+energies. Many years after the period now alluded to, when he was in his
+old age, and very weak, Melville tells us, that he saw him every Sunday go
+slowly and feebly, with fur about his neck, a staff in his hand, and a
+servant supporting him, from his own house, to the parish church in St
+Andrews. There, after being lifted into the pulpit, his limbs for some
+time were so feeble, that they could hardly support him; but ere he had
+done with his sermon, he became so active and vigorous, that he was like
+"to ding the pulpit in blads, and flie out of it."[6] What he must have
+been, therefore, in his best days, may be more easily imagined than
+described.
+
+On the present occasion, after Knox had preached, and some of the
+congregation had retired, it appears that some "godly men" remained in the
+church. A priest had the imprudence to venture in among them, and to
+commence saying mass. A young man called out that such idolatry was
+intolerable, upon which it is said that the priest struck him. The young
+man retorted, by throwing a stone, which injured one of the pictures. The
+affair soon became general. The enraged people fell upon the altars and
+images, and in a short time nothing was left undemolished but the bare
+walls of the church. The Reformers throughout the city, hearing of these
+proceedings, speedily collected, and attacking the monasteries of the Gray
+and Black Friars, along with the costly edifice of the Carthusian Monks,
+left not a vestige of what they considered idolatrous and profane worship
+in any of them. The example thus set at Perth was speedily followed almost
+everywhere throughout the country.
+
+These outrages greatly incensed the Queen Regent, and were looked upon
+with horror by the Catholics in general. To this day, the loss of many a
+fine building, through the zeal of the early Reformers, is a common
+subject of regret and complaint. It is to be remembered, however, that no
+revolution can be effected without paying a price for it. If the
+Reformation was a benefit, how could the Catholic superstition be more
+successfully attacked, than by knocking down those gorgeous temples, which
+were of themselves sufficient to render invincible the pride and
+inveterate bigotry of its votaries? The saying of John Knox, though a
+homely, was a true one,--"Pull down their nests, and the rooks will fly
+away." It is not improbable, as M'Crie conjectures, that had these
+buildings been allowed to remain in their former splendour, the Popish
+clergy might have long continued to indulge hopes, and to make efforts, to
+be restored to them. Victories over an enemy are celebrated with public
+rejoicings, notwithstanding the thousands of our fellow-countrymen who may
+have fallen in the contest. Why should the far more important victory,
+over those who had so long held in thraldom the human mind, be robbed of
+its due praise, because some statues were mangled, some pictures torn, and
+some venerable towers overthrown?[7]
+
+With as little delay as possible, the Queen Regent appeared with an army
+before Perth, and made herself mistress of the town. The Reformers,
+however, were not to be intimidated; and their strength having, by this
+time, much increased, it was deemed prudent by the Regent not to push
+matters to an extremity. Both parties agreed to disband their forces, and
+to refer the controversy to the next Parliament. As was to be expected,
+this temporary truce was not of long duration. Incessant mutual
+recrimination and aggression, soon induced both sides to concentrate
+their forces once more. Perth was re-taken by the Reformers, who shortly
+afterwards marched into Edinburgh. After remaining there for some time,
+they were surprised by a sudden march which the Queen made upon them from
+Dunbar, and were compelled to fall back upon Stirling.
+
+A belief was at this time prevalent at the court of France, that the Prior
+of St Andrews, who was the principal military leader of the Congregation,
+had views of a treasonable nature even upon the crown itself, and that he
+hoped the flaw in his legitimacy might be forgotten, in consideration of
+his godly exertions in support of the true faith. A new reinforcement of
+French soldiers arrived at Leith, which they fortified; and the French
+ambassador was commanded to inform the Prior, that the King, his master,
+would rather spend the crown of France, than not be revenged of the
+seditious persons in Scotland.
+
+The civil war now raged with increased bitterness, and with various
+success, but without any decisive advantage on either side for some time.
+The Reformers applied for assistance to Queen Elizabeth, who favoured
+their cause for various reasons, and would, no doubt, much rather have
+seen Murray in possession of the Scottish crown, than her own personal
+rival, Mary. The Congregation having found it impossible, by their own
+efforts, to drive the French out of Leith, Elizabeth, in the beginning of
+the year 1560, fitted out a powerful fleet, which, to the astonishment of
+the Queen Regent and her French allies, sailed up the Firth of Forth, and
+anchored in the Roads, before even the purpose for which it had come was
+known. A treaty was soon afterwards concluded at Berwick between the Lords
+of the Congregation and Elizabeth's Commissioner, the Duke of Norfolk, by
+which it was agreed, on the part of the former, that no alliance should
+ever be entered into by them with France; and on that of the latter, that
+an English army should march into Scotland early in spring, for the
+purpose of aiding in the expulsion of the French troops.
+
+This army came at the time appointed, and was soon joined by the forces of
+the Reformers. The allies marched directly for Leith, which they invested
+without loss of time. The siege was conducted with great spirit, but the
+town was very resolutely defended by the French. So much determination was
+displayed upon both sides, that it is difficult to say how the matter
+might have ended, had not the death of the Queen Regent, which took place
+at this juncture, changed materially the whole aspect of affairs. She had
+been ill for some time, and during her sickness resided in the Castle of
+Edinburgh. Perceiving that her end was approaching, she requested an
+interview with some of the leaders of the Congregation. The Duke of
+Chatelherault, the Prior of St Andrews, or the Lord James, as he was
+commonly called, and others, waited upon her in her sick-chamber. She
+expressed to them her sincere grief for the troubles which existed in the
+country, and advised that both the English and French troops should be
+sent home. She entreated that they would reverence and obey their native
+and lawful sovereign, her daughter Mary. She told them how deeply attached
+she was to Scotland and its interests, although by birth a Frenchwoman;
+and at the conclusion, she burst into tears, kissing the nobles one by
+one, and asking pardon of all whom she had in any way offended. The day
+after this interview, Mary of Guise died. Her many excellent qualities
+were long remembered in Scotland; for even those who could not love,
+respected her. In private life, if this term can be used with propriety
+when speaking of a Queen, she appears to have been most deservedly
+esteemed. She set an example to all her maids of honour, of piety,
+modesty, and becoming gravity of deportment; she was exceedingly
+charitable to the poor; and had she fallen upon better days, her life
+would have been a happier one for herself, and her memory more generally
+prized by posterity. Her body was carried over to France, and buried in
+the Benedictine Monastery at Rheims.[8]
+
+Very soon after the death of the Queen Regent, Commissioners arrived both
+from France and England, with full powers to conclude a treaty of peace
+between the three countries. By the loss of their sister, the Princes of
+Lorraine had been deprived of their chief support in Scotland, and, being
+actively engaged in schemes of ambition nearer home, they found it
+necessary to conciliate, as they best could, the predominating party
+there. The important treaty of Edinburgh, which will be mentioned
+frequently hereafter, was concluded on the 14th of June 1560. It was
+signed on the part of France by the two plenipotentiaries, Monluc, Bishop
+of Valence, and the Sieur Derandon, reckoned two of the best diplomatists
+of the day; and, on the part of England, by Wotton, Dean of Canterbury,
+and Elizabeth's prime minister, Cecil, one of the ablest men of that or
+any age. The interests of the Congregation were intrusted principally to
+the Lord James. In consequence of this treaty, the French troops were
+immediately withdrawn. The fortifications of Leith and Dunbar were
+destroyed, and a Parliament was held, whose acts were to be considered as
+valid as if it had been called by the express commands of the Queen. In
+that Parliament, the adherents of the Congregation were found greatly to
+out-number their adversaries. An act of oblivion and indemnity was passed
+for all that had taken place within the two preceding years; and, for the
+first time, the Catholics, awed into silence, submitted to every thing
+which the Reformers proposed. A new Confession of Faith was sanctioned;
+the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts was abolished; and the
+exercise of worship, according to the rites of the Romish Church, was
+prohibited under severe penalties--a third act of disobedience being
+declared capital.
+
+Thus, the Reformation finally triumphed in Scotland. Though as yet only in
+its infancy, and still exposed to many perils, it was nevertheless
+established on a comparatively firm and constitutional basis. The
+Catholics, it is true, aware of the school in which Mary had been
+educated, were far from having given up all hope of retrieving their
+circumstances; and they waited for her return with the utmost impatience
+and anxiety. But they ought to have known, that whatever might have been
+Mary's wishes, their reign was over in Scotland. A Sovereign may coerce
+the bodies, but he can never possess a despotic sway over the minds of his
+subjects. The people had now begun to think for themselves; and a belief
+in the mere mummeries of a fantastic system of Christianity, and of the
+efficacy of miracles performed by blocks of wood and stone, was never
+again to form a portion of their faith. A brief account of one of the
+last, and not least ludicrous attempts which the Popish clergy made to
+support their sinking cause, will form a not improper conclusion to this
+chapter.
+
+There was a chapel in the neighbourhood of Musselburgh, dedicated to the
+Lady of Loretto, which, from the character of superior sanctity it had
+acquired, had long been the favourite resort of religious devotees. In
+this chapel, a body of the Catholic priests undertook to put their
+religion to the test, by performing a miracle. They fixed upon a young
+man, who was well known as a common blind beggar, in the streets of
+Edinburgh, and engaged to restore to him, in the presence of the assembled
+people, the perfect use of his eyesight. A day was named, on which they
+calculated they might depend on this wonderful interposition of divine
+power in their behalf. From motives of curiosity, a great crowd was
+attracted at the appointed time to the chapel. The blind man made his
+appearance on a scaffold, erected for the occasion. The priests approached
+the altar, and, after praying very devoutly, and performing other
+religious ceremonies, he who had previously been stone blind, opened his
+eyes, and declared he saw all things plainly. Having humbly and gratefully
+thanked his benefactors, the priests, he was permitted to mingle among the
+astonished people, and receive their charity.
+
+Unfortunately, however, for the success of this deception, a gentleman
+from Fife, of the name of Colville, determined to penetrate, if possible,
+a little further into the mystery. He prevailed upon the subject of the
+recent experiment to accompany him to his lodgings in Edinburgh. As soon
+as they were alone, he locked the chamber-door, and either by bribes or
+threats, contrived to win from him the whole secret. It turned out, that
+in his boyhood, this tool, in the hands of the designing, had been
+employed as a herd by the nuns of the Convent of Sciennes, then in the
+neighbourhood of Edinburgh. It was remarked by the sisterhood, that he had
+an extraordinary facility in "flyping up the lid of his eyes, and casting
+up the white." Some of the neighbouring priests, hearing accidentally of
+this talent, imagined that it might be applied to good account. They
+accordingly took him from Sciennes to the monastery near Musselburgh,
+where they kept him till he had made himself an adept in this mode of
+counterfeiting blindness, and till his personal appearance was so much
+changed, that the few who had been acquainted with him before, would not
+be able to recognise him. They then sent him into Edinburgh to beg
+publicly, and make himself familiarly known to the inhabitants, as a
+common blind mendicant. So far every thing had gone smoothly, and the
+scene at the Chapel of Loretto might have had effect on the minds of the
+vulgar, had Colville's activity not discovered the gross imposture.
+Colville, who belonged to the Congregation, instantly took the most
+effectual means to make known the deceit. He insisted upon the blind man's
+appearing with him next day, at the Cross of Edinburgh, where the latter
+repeated all he had previously told Colville, and confessed the iniquity
+of his own conduct, as well as that of the priests. To shelter him from
+their revenge, Colville immediately afterwards carried him off to Fife;
+and the story, with all its details, being speedily disseminated, exposed
+the Catholic clergy to more contempt than ever.[9]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MARY'S BIRTH, AND SUBSEQUENT RESIDENCE AT THE FRENCH COURT, WITH A SKETCH
+OF THE STATE OF SOCIETY AND MANNERS IN FRANCE, DURING THE SIXTEENTH
+CENTURY.
+
+
+Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was the third child of James V. and his wife,
+Mary of Guise. That lady had born him previously two sons, both of whom
+died in infancy. Mary came into the world on the 7th of December 1542, in
+the Palace of Linlithgow.[10] She was only seven days old when she lost
+her father, who at the time of her birth lay sick in the Palace of
+Falkland. James died, as he had lived, with a kingly and gallant spirit.
+In the language of Pitscottie, he turned him upon his back, and looked and
+beheld all his nobles and lords about him, and, giving a little smile of
+laughter, kissed his hand, and offered it to them. When they had pressed
+it to their lips for the last time, he tossed up his arms, and yielded his
+spirit to God. James was considered one of the most handsome men of his
+day. He was above the middle stature; his hair flowed luxuriantly over his
+shoulders in natural ringlets, and was of a dark yellow or auburn colour;
+his eyes were gray, and very penetrating; his voice was sweet toned; and
+the general expression of his countenance uncommonly prepossessing. He
+inherited a vigorous constitution, and kept it sound and healthy by
+constant exercise, and by refraining from all excesses in eating or
+drinking. He was buried in the Royal Vault in the Chapel of Holyrood
+House, where his embalmed body, in a state of entire preservation, was
+still to be seen in the time of the historian Keith.
+
+The young Queen was crowned by Cardinal Beaton at Stirling, on the 9th of
+September 1543. Her mother, who watched over her with the most careful
+anxiety, had been told a report prevailed that the infant was sickly, and
+not likely to live. To disprove this calumny, she desired Janet Sinclair,
+Mary's nurse, to unswaddle her in the presence of the English Ambassador,
+who wrote to his own court that she was as goodly a child as he had seen
+of her age.
+
+Soon after her birth, the Parliament nominated Commissioners, to whom they
+intrusted the charge of the Queen's person, leaving all her other
+interests to the care of her mother. The two first years of her life, Mary
+spent at Linlithgow, where it appears she had the small-pox, a point of
+some importance, as one of her historians remarks, in the biography of a
+beauty and a queen.[11] The disease must have been of a particularly
+gentle kind, having left behind no visible traces. During the greater
+part of the years 1545, 46 and 47, she resided at Stirling Castle, in the
+keeping of Lords Erskine and Livingstone. Here she received the first
+rudiments of education from two ecclesiastics, who were appointed her
+preceptors, more, however, as matter of form, than from any use they could
+be of to her at so early an age. When the internal disturbances of the
+country rendered even Stirling Castle a somewhat dangerous residence, Mary
+was removed to Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the Lake of Monteith.
+That she might not be too lonely, and that a spirit of generous emulation
+might present her with an additional motive for the prosecution of her
+studies, the Queen Dowager selected four young ladies of rank as her
+companions and playmates. They were each about her daughter's age, and
+either from chance, or because the conceit seemed natural, they all bore
+the same surname. The four Maries were, Mary Beaton, a niece of Cardinal
+Beaton, Mary Fleming, daughter of Lord Fleming, Mary Livingstone, whose
+father was one of the young Queen's guardians, and Mary Seaton, daughter
+of Lord Seaton.
+
+Mary having remained upwards of two years in this island, those who had,
+at the time, the disposal of her future destiny, thought it expedient, for
+reasons which have been already explained, that she should be removed to
+France. She was accordingly, in the fifth year of her age, taken to
+Dumbarton, where she was delivered to the French Admiral, whose vessels
+were waiting to receive her, and attended by the Lords Erskine and
+Livingstone, her three natural brothers, and her four Maries, she left
+Scotland.
+
+The thirteen happiest years of Mary's life were spent in France. Towards
+the end of July 1548, she sailed from Dumbarton, and, after a tempestuous
+voyage, landed at Brest on the 14th of August. She was there received, by
+Henry II.'s orders, with all the honours due to her rank and royal
+destiny. She travelled, with her retinue, by easy stages, to the palace at
+St Germain En Laye; and to mark the respect that was paid to her, the
+prison-gates of every town she came to were thrown open, and the prisoners
+set free. Shortly after her arrival, she was sent, along with the King's
+own daughters, to one of the first convents in France, where young ladies
+of distinction were instructed in the elementary branches of education.
+
+The natural quickness of her capacity, and the early acuteness of her
+mind, now began to manifest themselves. She made rapid progress in
+acquiring that species of knowledge suited to her years, and her lively
+imagination went even the length of attaching a more than ordinary
+interest to the calm and secluded life of a nunnery. It was whispered,
+that she had already expressed a wish to separate herself forever from the
+world; and it is not improbable, that had this wish been allowed to foster
+itself silently in her bosom, Mary might ultimately have taken the veil,
+in which case her life would have been a blank in history. But these views
+were not consistent with the more ambitious projects entertained by Henry
+and her uncles of Lorraine. As soon as they were informed of the bent
+which her mind appeared to be taking, she was again removed from the
+convent to the palace. To reconcile her to parting with the vestal
+sisters, Henry, whose conduct towards her was always marked by affection
+and delicacy, selected, from all the noble Scotch families then residing
+in France, a certain number to constitute her future household. The tears
+which Mary shed, however, upon leaving the nunnery, proved the warmth of
+her young heart; and that her feelings were not of merely momentary
+duration, is evinced by the frequent visits she subsequently paid this
+asylum of her childhood,--and by the altar-piece she embroidered with her
+own hands for the chapel of the convent.
+
+In no country of Europe was education better understood than it then was
+in France. Francis I., who remodelled, upon a magnificent scale, the
+University of Paris, only followed the example which had already been set
+him by Louis XII. The youth of all countries flocked to the French
+schools. The liberal principles which induced the government to maintain,
+at its own expense, professors, who lectured to as many students as chose
+to hear them, was amply repaid by the beneficial consequences arising from
+the great influx of strangers. A competent knowledge of Latin, Greek,
+Hebrew, Mathematics, Moral Philosophy and Medicine, could be acquired in
+France for literally nothing. Nor was it necessary, that he who sought for
+the blessings of education, should profess any particular system of
+religious faith. The German Protestant, and the Spanish Catholic, were
+allowed, in these noble institutions, to take their seat side by side.
+Henry supported the church as an engine of state, whilst he detested the
+arrogant pretensions and empty insolence of many of the clergy, and was
+determined that they should not interfere with the more enlightened views
+which he himself entertained. In this, he only followed the opinions of
+his illustrious father, Francis, who used to remark, that monks were
+better at teaching linnets to whistle, playing at dice, tippling, and
+gormandizing, than in doing good either to religion or morality.
+
+The host of authors, and men of genius, who flourished in France about
+this period, was another cause of its literary eminence. "Learning," says
+Miss Benger, "far from being the badge of singularity, had become the
+attribute of a superior station." "There was," observes the ingenious
+Pasquier, "a glorious crusade against ignorance." Many of the names then
+celebrated have since, it is true, passed into oblivion, but the multitude
+who cultivated letters, show the spirit of the times. Beza, Seve,
+Pelletier and others, led the van in the severer departments of intellect;
+whilst Bellay, Ronsard and Jodelle, showed the way, to a host of
+followers, in the cultivation of poetry, and the softer arts of
+composition.
+
+Nor must the great statesmen and warriors, whose presence lent a lustre to
+the court, be forgotten in this view of the existing pre-eminence of
+France. The two Houses of Bourbon and Guise, had each given birth to many
+names destined for immortality. The present chiefs of Bourbon were
+Anthony, Duke of Navarre, and Louis, known in the history of the world as
+the first Prince of Condé. There were six brothers of the Guises, of whom
+the two most illustrious were Francis Duke of Guise, and Charles Cardinal
+of Lorraine. But they all held the very highest offices in the church or
+state; one was a Cardinal, and another a Grand Prior; a third, the Duke
+d'Aumale, commanded the army then in Italy; and the fourth, the Marquis
+d'Elbeuf, was intrusted with the charge of the French troops in Scotland.
+But he who held the balance of power between all these contending
+interests, was the great Montmorency, Constable of France. He had, by this
+time, become a veteran in the service of the French monarchs. Louis XII.
+had acknowledged his virtues, and Francis I. looked to him for advice and
+aid in every emergency. Henry felt almost a filial affection and reverence
+for so distinguished a statesman and patriot; and Diana de Poictiers
+herself, the fascinating widow of the Duke de Valentinois, frequently
+found that she possessed less influence with the monarch than the
+venerable and unostentatious Montmorency. The minister was at all times
+surrounded by a formidable phalanx of friends and supporters. Of these his
+own sons were not the least considerable; and his nephews, the two
+Colignys, need only to be mentioned, to awaken recollections of some of
+the most remarkable events of French history.
+
+Neither must we omit to mention the two ladies who held the highest places
+in the French Court. The sister and the wife of Henry II. resembled each
+other but faintly, yet both secured the admiration of the country. The
+Princess Margaret had established herself by her patronage of every
+liberal art, and her universal beneficence, in the hearts of the whole
+people. Her religion did not degenerate into bigotry, and her charity,
+whilst it was at all times efficient, was without parade. She became
+afterwards the Duchess of Savoy; but till past the meridian of life, she
+continued constantly at her brother's Court,--a bright example of all that
+was virtuous and attractive in female character. To her, France was
+indebted for discovering and fostering the talents of its great Chancellor
+Michel L'Hopital; and the honourable name by which she was universally
+known was that of Minerva. The King's wife, Catherine de Medicis, was more
+respected for her talents than loved for her virtues. But as yet, the
+ambition of her nature had not betrayed itself, and little occasion had
+been afforded for the exercise of those arts of dissimulation, or the
+exposure of that proneness to envy and resentment, which at a later period
+became so apparent. She was still in the bloom of youth, and maintained a
+high character, not without much show of reason.
+
+Such being the general aspect of the country and the Court, it cannot fail
+to become evident, that so far from being a just cause of regret, nothing
+could have redounded more to Mary's advantage than her education and
+residence in France. If bigotry prevailed among the clergy, it was not
+countenanced at the Court, for Henry cared little about religion, and his
+sister Margaret was suspected of leaning to the Reformed opinions. If
+Parisian manners were known to be too deeply tinctured with
+licentiousness, the palace of Catherine must be excepted from the charge;
+for even the deportment of Diana herself was grave and decorous, and for
+his sister's sake, the King dared not have countenanced any of those
+grosser immoralities in which Henry VIII. of England so openly indulged.
+The Cardinal of Lorraine, who was at the head of the Parisian University,
+quickly discovering Mary's capabilities, directed her studies with the
+most watchful anxiety. She was still attended by the two preceptors who
+had accompanied her from Scotland, and before she was ten years old, had
+made good progress in the French, Latin, and Italian languages. French was
+all her life as familiar to her as her native tongue; and she wrote it
+with a degree of elegance which no one could surpass. Her acquaintance
+with Latin was not of that superficial kind but too common in the present
+day. This language was then regarded as almost the only one on whose
+stability any reliance could be placed. It was consequently deemed
+indispensable, that all who aspired at any eminence in literature, should
+be able to compose in it fluently. Mary's teacher was the celebrated
+George Buchanan, who was then in France, and who, whatever other praise he
+may be entitled to, was unquestionably one of the best scholars of his
+time. The young Queen's attention was likewise directed to Rhetoric, by
+Fauchet, author of a treatise on that subject which he dedicated to his
+pupil,--to history by Pasquier,--and to the delightful study of poetry,
+for which her genius was best suited, and for which she retained a
+predilection all her life, by Ronsard.
+
+Nor must it be imagined that Mary's childhood was exclusively devoted to
+these more scholastic pursuits. She and her young companions, the Scotch
+Maries and the daughters of Henry, were frequently present at those
+magnificent galas and fêtes, in which the King himself so much delighted,
+and which were so particularly in unison with the taste of the times,
+though no where conducted with so much elegance and grace, as at the
+French Court. The summer tournaments and fêtes champêtres, and the winter
+festivals and masquerades, were attended by all the beauty and chivalry of
+the land. In these amusements, Mary, as she grew up, took a lively and
+innocent pleasure. The woods and gardens also of Fontainbleau, afforded a
+delightful variation from the artificial splendours of Paris. In summer,
+sailing on the lakes, or fishing in the ponds; and in winter, a
+construction of fortresses on the ice,--a mimic battle of snow-balls,--or
+skating, became royal pastimes. Mary's gait and air, naturally dignified
+and noble, acquired an additional charm from the attention she paid to
+dancing and riding. The favourite dance at the time was the Spanish
+minuet, which Mary frequently performed with her young consort, to the
+admiration of the whole court. In the livelier gailliarde, she was
+unequalled, as was confessed, even by the beautiful Anne of Este, who, in
+a pas des deux, acknowledged that she was eclipsed by Mary.
+
+The activity of her body indeed, kept, upon all occasions, full pace with
+that of her mind. She was particularly fond of hunting; and she and her
+maids of honour were frequently seen following the stag through the
+ancestral forests of France. Her attachment to this amusement, which
+continued all her life, exposed her, on several occasions, to some danger.
+So early as the year 1559, when hunting in France, some part of her dress
+was caught by the bough of a tree, and she was cast off her horse when
+galloping at full speed. Many of the ladies and gentlemen in her train
+passed by without observing her, and some so near as actually to tread on
+her riding-dress. As soon as the accident was discovered, she was raised
+from the ground; but, though the shock had been considerable, she had too
+manly a spirit to complain, and, readjusting her hair, which had fallen
+into confusion, she again mounted her horse, and rode home smiling at the
+accident.[12]
+
+Another, but more sedentary amusement with Mary, was the composition of
+devices. To excel in these, required some wit and judgment. A device was
+the skilful coupling of a few expressive words with any engraved figure or
+picture. It was an art intimately connected with the science of heraldry,
+and seems to have suggested the modern seal and motto. The composition of
+these devices was, as it is somewhere called, only "an elegant species of
+trifling;" but it had something intellectual in it, which the best
+informed ladies of the French court liked. An old author, who writes upon
+this subject, elevates it to a degree of importance rather amusing. "It
+delights the eye," he says, "it captivates the imagination, it is also
+profitable and useful; and therefore surpasseth all other arts, and also
+painting, since this only represents the body and exquisite features of
+the face, whereas a device exposes the rare ideas and gallant sentiments
+of its author; it also excels poetry, in as much as it joineth profit with
+pleasure, since none merit the title of devices unless they at once please
+by their grace, and yield profit by their doctrine."
+
+Mary's partialities were commonly lasting, and when in very different
+circumstances, she frequently loved to return to this amusement of her
+childhood. Some of the emblems she invented, betray much elegance and
+sensibility of mind. On the death of her husband Francis, she took for her
+device a little branch of the liquorice-tree, whose root only is sweet,
+all the rest of the plant being bitter, and the motto was, _Dulce meum
+terra tegit_. On her cloth of state was embroidered the sentence, _En ma
+fin est mon commencement_; "a riddle," says Haynes, "I understand not;"
+but which evidently meant to inculcate a lesson of humility, and to remind
+her that life, with all its grandeur, was the mere prologue to eternity.
+The French historian, Mezeray, mentions also that Mary had a medal struck,
+on which was represented a vessel in a storm, with its masts broken and
+falling, illustrated by the motto, _Nunquam nisi rectam_; indicating a
+determination rather to perish than deviate from the path of
+integrity.[13] When she was in England, she embroidered for the Duke of
+Norfolk a hand with a sword in it, cutting vines, with the motto _Virescit
+vulnere virtus_. In these and similar fancies, she embodied strong and
+often original thoughts with much delicacy.
+
+In the midst of these occupations and amusements, Mary was not allowed to
+forget her native country. Frequent visits were paid her from Scotland, by
+those personally attached to herself or her family. In 1550, her mother,
+Mary of Guise, came over to see her, accompanied by several of the
+nobility. The Queen-dowager, a woman of strong affections, was so
+delighted with the improvement she discovered in her daughter's mind and
+person, that she burst into tears of joy; and her Scottish attendants were
+hardly less affected by the sight of their future Sovereign. Henry, with
+his young charge, was at Rouen, when the Queen-dowager arrived. To testify
+his respect for her, he ordered a triumph to be prepared, which consisted
+of one of those grotesque allegorical exhibitions then so much in vogue;
+and, shortly afterwards, the two Queens made a public entry into Paris.
+Mary of Guise had there an opportunity likewise of seeing her son by her
+first husband, the Duke de Longueville, Mary's half-brother, but who seems
+to have spent his life in retirement, as history scarcely notices him. It
+may well be conceived, that the widow of James V. returned even to the
+regency of Scotland with reluctance, since she purchased the gratification
+of her ambition by a final separation from her children.[14]
+
+It was about the same time that Mary first saw Sir James Melville, who was
+then only a few years older than herself, and who was sent over in the
+train of the Bishop of Monluc, when he returned after signing the Treaty
+of Edinburgh, to be one of Mary's pages of honour. Sir James was
+afterwards frequently employed by the Queen as her foreign ambassador, and
+his name will appear more than once in the sequel. We have spoken of him
+here for the purpose of introducing an amusing anecdote, which he gives us
+in his own Memoirs, and which illustrates the state of manners at that
+period. Upon landing at Brest, the Bishop proceeded direct to Paris. But
+Sir James, who was young, and could hardly have endured the fatigue of
+this mode of travelling, was intrusted to the care of two Scotch
+gentlemen, who had come over in the same ship. Their first step was to
+purchase three little "naigies," on which they proposed riding to Paris,
+any thing in the shape of a _diligence_ being out of the question. To
+ensure greater safety on the journey, three others joined the party,--two
+Frenchmen, and a young Spaniard, who was on his way to the College at
+Paris. On the evening of the first day, they arrived at the town of
+Landerneau, where all the six were lodged in one room, containing three
+beds. The two Frenchmen slept together in one, the two Scotsmen in
+another, and Melville and the Spaniard in the third. The company on the
+whole does not appear to have been of the most respectable kind; for, as
+Melville lay awake, he heard "the twa Scotchmen devising how they were
+directed to let him want naething; therefore, said they, we will pay for
+his ordinair all the way, and shall count up twice as meikle to his master
+when we come to Paris, and sae shall win our ain expenses." The two
+Frenchmen, on their part, thinking that nobody in the room understood
+French, said to each other, "These strangers are all young, and know not
+the fashion of the hostelries; therefore we shall deal and reckon with the
+hosts at every repast, and shall cause the strangers pay more than the
+custom is, and that way shall we save our expenses." At all this Melville,
+as he tells us, could not refrain from "laughing in his mind," and
+determined to be upon his guard. "Yet the twa Scotch young men," he adds
+in his antique phraseology, "would not consent that I should pay for
+myself, hoping still to beguile the Bishop, but the Spaniart and I writ up
+every day's compt." The Frenchmen being foiled in their swindling
+intentions, had recourse to a still bolder manoeuvre. One day, as the
+party were riding through a wood, two other Frenchmen, who had joined them
+a short time before, suddenly leapt off their horses, and, drawing their
+swords, demanded that the others should deliver up their purses. Melville
+and his Scotch friends, however, were not to be thus intimidated. They
+also drew their swords, and prepared for resistance; on seeing which, the
+Frenchmen affected to make a joke of the whole affair, saying that they
+merely wanted to try the courage of the Scotchmen, in case they should
+have been attacked by robbers. "But the twa last loons," says Melville,
+"left us at the next lodging; and the twa Scotch scholairs never obtenit
+payment frae the Bishop for their pretendit fraud." Sir James arrived in
+safety at Paris, having taken thirteen days to ride from Brest to the
+capital.[15]
+
+Thus diversified by intercourse with her friends and with her books, by
+study and recreation, Mary's early life passed rapidly away. It has been
+already seen, that whatever could have tended to corrupt the mind or
+manners was carefully removed from the young Queen. As soon as Mary
+entered upon her teens, she and her companions, the two young princesses,
+Henry's daughters, spent several hours every day in the private apartment
+of Catherine de Medicis, whose conversation, as well as that of the
+foreign ambassadors and other persons of distinction who paid their
+respects to her, they had thus an opportunity of hearing. Conĉus mentions,
+that Mary was soon observed to avail herself, with great earnestness, of
+these opportunities of acquiring knowledge; and it has been hinted, that
+the superior intelligence she evinced, in comparison with Catherine's own
+daughters, was the first cause of exciting that Queen's jealousy. It was
+perhaps at some of these conferences that Mary imperceptibly imbibed, from
+her future mother-in-law, and her not unfrequent visitor, Nostradamus, a
+slight portion of that tendency to superstitious belief then so prevalent.
+One of the most remarkable characters about Henry's court, was Nicolas
+Cretin, or Nostradamus, as he was more commonly called, who combined in
+his own person the three somewhat incongruous professions of physician,
+astrologer, and philosopher. He asserted, that he was not only perfectly
+acquainted with the laws of planetary influence, but that, by the
+inspiration of divine power, he could predict the events of futurity. The
+style of his prophecies was in general sufficiently obscure; yet such was
+the reverence paid to learning in those days (and Nostradamus was a very
+library of learning), that he was courted and consulted even by the first
+statesmen in France. Mary had far too lively a fancy to escape the
+infection; and the force of this early bias continued to be felt by her
+more or less all her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MARY'S MARRIAGE, PERSONAL APPEARANCE, AND POPULARITY.
+
+
+The time now approached when Henry began to think of confirming the French
+authority in Scotland, by consummating the contract of marriage which had
+so long existed between Francis and Mary. This was not, however, to be
+done without considerable opposition from several quarters. The Constable
+Montmorency, and the House of Bourbon, already trembled at the growing
+influence of the Guises, plainly foreseeing, that as soon as the niece of
+the Duke and Cardinal of Lorraine became wife to the Dauphin, and
+consequently, upon Henry's death, Queen of France, their own influence
+would be at an end. It is not improbable that Montmorency aimed at
+marrying one of his own sons to Mary. At all events, he endeavoured to
+persuade Henry that he might find a more advantageous alliance for
+Francis. The Guises, however, were not thus to be overreached; and the
+King more willingly listened to their powerful representations in favour
+of the match, as it had long been a favourite scheme with himself. It
+would be uncharitable to ascribe to the agency of any of those who
+opposed it, an attempt which was made some time before by a person of the
+name of Stuart, a Scottish archer in the King's guards, to poison Mary.
+Stuart being detected, was tried, condemned, and executed, but made no
+confession which could lead to any discovery of his motives. It is most
+likely that he had embraced the reformed religion, and was actuated by a
+fanatical desire to save his country from the dominion of a Catholic
+princess.
+
+Francis, the young Dauphin, who was much about Mary's own age, was far
+inferior to her, both in personal appearance and mental endowments. He was
+of a very weakly constitution; and the energies of his mind seem to have
+been repressed by the feebleness of his body. But if unable to boast of
+any distinguishing virtues, he was undegraded by the practice of any vice.
+He was amiable, timid, affectionate, and shy. He was aware of his want of
+physical strength, and feared lest the more robust should make it a
+subject of ridicule. He appears to have loved Mary with the tenderest
+affection, being probably anxious to atone to her, by every mark of
+devotion, for the sacrifice he must have seen she was making in
+surrendering herself to him, in all the lustre of her charms. Yet there is
+good reason to believe that Mary really loved Francis. They had been
+playmates from infancy; they had prosecuted all their studies together;
+and though Francis cared little for the pleasures of society, and rather
+shunned than encouraged those who wished to pay their court to him, Mary
+was aware that, for this very reason, he was only the more sincere in his
+passion for her. It was not in Mary's nature to be indifferent to those
+who evinced affection for her; and if her fondness for Francis were
+mingled with pity, it has long been asserted, that "pity is akin to love".
+
+On the 24th of April 1558, the nuptials took place. In December the
+preceding year, a letter from Henry had been laid before the Scotch
+Parliament, requesting that some persons of rank should be sent over from
+Scotland as Commissioners to witness the marriage; and in compliance with
+this desire, the Lord James, Prior of St Andrews, and eight other persons
+of distinction, arrived at the French Court in March 1558.[16] Their
+instructions commanded them to guard against French encroachments, upon
+the rights and privileges of Scottish subjects; and, that no doubt might
+remain regarding the right of succession to the Scottish throne, they were
+to obtain from the King of France a ratification of his former promise, to
+aid and support the Duke of Chatelherault in his claims upon the crown, in
+case Mary died without issue. They were also to require a declaration to a
+similar effect from the Queen and Dauphin. All these demands were at once
+complied with.
+
+It has been alleged, however, that a very gross deceit was practised, upon
+this occasion, by the French Court. It is said, that though, to satisfy
+the Scotch Commissioners, all their requests were ostensibly granted,
+Henry took secret measures to render these grants entirely inefficacious.
+Mary, it is asserted, on the 4th of April, signed three papers, in the
+first of which she made over the kingdom of Scotland in free gift to the
+King of France, to be enjoyed by him and his heirs, should she die without
+children; in the second, (lest it might not be deemed expedient to insist
+upon the first,) she assigned to the King of France the possession of
+Scotland, after her decease without children, till he should be reimbursed
+of a million pieces of gold, or any greater sum which he should be found
+to have expended on her during her residence in France; and, in the third,
+she protested, that whatever declarations she might subscribe, in
+compliance with the desire of the Scotch Parliament, touching the lineal
+succession of her crown, the genuine sense of her mind was contained only
+in the two preceding papers.[17] If this dishonourable transaction really
+took place, whilst it cannot involve Mary, a young and inexperienced girl
+of fifteen, in any serious blame, it certainly reflects the highest
+discredit both upon Henry and his advisers of the house of Guise. There is
+good reason, however, to believe, that these instruments, though they
+unquestionably exist, are forgeries. It was not an uncommon trick in those
+times, for the Reformers to stir up jealousy against a Catholic sovereign,
+by alleging, that he had promised away his country to some well known
+papist. The Prince of Condé, in December 1568, was not aware of the
+authenticity of any such papers; for, if he had been, he would undoubtedly
+have mentioned them when he asked Elizabeth's assistance to establish the
+Protestant religion in France. On the contrary, he trumps up a ridiculous
+story, to which no one has ever given any credit, that Mary had ceded her
+right to the crown of England, in behalf of the King of France's brother,
+Henry Duke of Anjou. After Mary's death, it was confidently reported, and
+with equal falsehood, that by her testament she had left England to the
+King of Spain, unless her son became a Roman Catholic. There is, besides,
+internal evidence of a striking nature, that these deeds were forgeries.
+For its discovery, we are indebted to the industry and research of
+Goodall.[18]
+
+Some of the provisions in the marriage-contract between Francis and Mary,
+are sufficiently remarkable to deserve being recorded. The jointure
+assigned by it to the Queen, provided her husband died King of France, is
+60,000 livres, or a greater sum, if a greater had ever been given to a
+Queen of France. If her husband died only Dauphin, the jointure was to be
+30,000 livres. The eldest son of the marriage was to be King of France and
+Scotland; and if there were no sons, the eldest daughter was to be Queen
+of Scotland only, with a portion of 400,000 crowns, as a daughter of
+France,--every younger daughter being allowed 300,000 crowns. Should her
+husband die, Mary was to be at liberty either to remain in France or
+return to Scotland, with an assurance that her jointure would be always
+duly paid her. The Dauphin was to bear the name and title of King of
+Scotland, and enjoy all the privileges of the crown-matrimonial.
+
+The marriage, for which so many preparations had thus been made, was
+solemnized in the church of Notre Dame, the ceremony being performed by
+the Cardinal of Bourbon, Archbishop of Rouen. Upon this occasion, the
+festivities were graced by the presence of all the most illustrious
+personages of the Court of France; and when Francis, taking a ring from
+his finger, presented it to the Archbishop, who, pronouncing the
+benediction, placed it on the young Queen's finger, the vaulted roof of
+the Cathedral rung with congratulations, and the multitude without rent
+the air with joyful shouts. The spectacle was altogether one of the most
+imposing which, even in that age of spectacles, had been seen in Paris.
+The procession, upon leaving the church, proceeded to the palace of the
+Archbishop, where a magnificent collation was prepared,--largess, as it
+moved along, being proclaimed among the people, in the name of the King
+and Queen of Scots. In the afternoon, the royal party returned to the
+palace of the Tournelles--Catherine de Medicis and Mary sitting together
+in the same palanquin, and a Cardinal walking on each side. Henry and
+Francis followed on horseback, with a long line of princes and princesses
+in their train. The chronicler of these nuptials is unable to conceal his
+rapture, when he describes the manner in which the palace had been
+prepared for their reception. Its whole appearance, he tells us, was
+"light and beautiful as Elysium." During supper, which was served upon a
+marble table in the great hall, the King's band of "one hundred gentlemen"
+poured forth delicious strains of music. The members of Parliament
+attended in their robes; and the princes of the blood performed the duty
+of servitors--the Duke of Guise acting as master of the ceremonies. The
+banquet being concluded, a series of the most magnificent masks and
+mummeries, prepared for the occasion, was introduced. In the pageant,
+twelve artificial horses, of admirable mechanism, covered with cloth of
+gold, and ridden by the young heirs of noble houses, attracted deserved
+attention. They were succeeded by six galleys, which sailed into the hall,
+each rich as Cleopatra's barge, and bearing on its deck two seats, the one
+filled by a young cavalier, who, as he advanced, carried off from among
+the spectators, and gently placed in the vacant chair, the lady of his
+love. A splendid tournament concluded these rejoicings.
+
+During the whole of these solemnities, every eye was fixed on the youthful
+Mary; and, inspired by those feelings which beauty seldom fails to excite,
+every heart offered up prayers for her future welfare and happiness. She
+was now at that age when feminine loveliness is perhaps most attractive.
+It is not to be supposed, indeed, that in her sixteenth year, her charms
+had ripened into that full-blown maturity which they afterwards attained;
+but they were, on this account, only the more fascinating. Some have
+conjectured that Mary's beauty has been extolled far beyond its real
+merits; and it cannot be denied that many vague and erroneous notions
+exist regarding it. But that her countenance possessed in a pre-eminent
+degree the something which constitutes beauty, is sufficiently attested by
+the unanimous declaration of all cotemporary writers. It is only, however,
+by carefully gathering together hints scattered here and there, that any
+accurate idea can be formed of the lineaments of a countenance which has
+so long ceased to exist, unless in the fancy of the enthusiast. Generally
+speaking, Mary's features were more Grecian than Roman, though without the
+insipidity that would have attached to them, had they been exactly
+regular. Her nose exceeded a little the Grecian proportion in length. Her
+hair was very nearly of the same colour as James V.'s--dark yellow, or
+auburn, and, like his, clustered in luxuriant ringlets. Her eyes,--which
+some writers, misled by the thousand blundering portraits of her scattered
+everywhere, conceive to have been gray, or blue, or hazel,--were of a
+chestnut colour,--darker, yet matching well with her auburn hair. Her brow
+was high, open, and prominent. Her lips were full and expressive, as the
+lips of the Stuarts generally were; and she had a small dimple in her
+chin. Her complexion was clear, and very fair, without a great deal of
+colour in her cheeks. Her mother was a woman of large stature, and Mary
+was also above the common size. Her person was finely proportioned, and
+her carriage exceedingly graceful and dignified.[19]
+
+In this description of Mary's personal appearance, we have placed a good
+deal of reliance on the research and accuracy of Chalmers. It will be
+observed, that our account differs, in many essential particulars, from
+that of Robertson, who says--"Mary's hair was black, though, according to
+the fashion of that age, she frequently wore borrowed locks, and of
+different colours. Her eyes were a dark gray; her complexion was
+exquisitely fine; and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to
+shape and colour. Her stature was of an height that rose to the majestic."
+Where Robertson discovered that Mary's hair was black, or her eyes gray,
+he does not mention. That her eyes were _not_ black, we have the direct
+testimony of Beal, Clerk to the Privy Council of England, who was ordered
+by Cecil to be present at the death of the Scottish Queen, and who
+describes her as having "chestnut-coloured eyes." As to her hair, and her
+other features, though Melville, in his Memoirs, certainly seems to imply
+that the former was auburn, yet, as he does not expressly say so, we
+suspect correct conclusions can be arrived at only by a reference to the
+best authenticated portraits which have been preserved of Mary. This,
+however, is far from being a criterion by which opinions should be rashly
+formed. There are few persons in the whole range of history, likenesses of
+whom have been more eagerly sought after; and, in proportion to the
+anxiety manifested to secure originals, has been the temptation to mislead
+and deceive. Almost all the paintings said to be originals of Mary Queen
+of Scots, are the impositions of picture-dealers. When the demand for
+these paintings became general, it was not at all unusual to despatch
+emissaries over the Continent to pick up every picture, the costume and
+general appearance of which in the least resembled the Scottish Queen.
+During Mary's life, and for some time after her death, the fame of her
+beauty, and the interest attached to her fortunes, induced numerous ladies
+of rank, who flattered themselves that they were like her, to have
+portraits painted in the style then well understood by the phrase _à la
+Mary Stuart_. There was, in particular, a celebrated Continental beauty of
+those days--a Countess of Mansfeldt--(we speak on the authority of a
+living artist of celebrity), who resembled Mary in many particulars, and
+all whose portraits (nor were they few in number) when they afterwards
+came into the hands of the picture-dealers, were affirmed to be Maries.
+Thus, in the lapse of years, the truth became so involved in uncertainty,
+that even Robertson, allowing himself to be too hastily misled, has lent
+his name to the dissemination of error.
+
+Horace Walpole, after having made extensive inquiries on this subject, has
+recorded, that he never could ascertain the authenticity and originality
+of any portrait of Mary, except of that in the possession of the Earl of
+Morton, which was painted when she was at Lochleven. Chalmers, in order to
+come as near the truth as possible, employed Mr Pailou, an artist of
+ability, to compare the picture belonging to the Earl of Morton, with two
+or three other undoubted originals which have been discovered since
+Walpole wrote. Pailou commenced by sketching the outline of his picture
+from Lord Morton's original. He then proceeded to the examination of
+three genuine portraits of Mary, one in the Church of St Andrew in
+Antwerp, another in the Scotch College at Douay, and a third in the Scotch
+College at Paris. Neither did he forget the profile heads of Mary struck
+upon her coins, nor the marble figure representing her on her tomb in
+Henry VII's Chapel, which Walpole thought a correct likeness. Mr Pailou
+thus made Lord Morton's picture the basis of his own, but, as he advanced,
+constantly referred to the others, "till he got the whole adjusted and
+coloured." Though we cannot exactly approve of thus cooking up a picture
+from various different sources, and should be inclined to think, that too
+much was left by such a mode of procedure to the arbitrary taste of the
+artist, we nevertheless feel satisfied that Mr Pailou has hit upon a
+tolerably accurate likeness. His picture, engraved by Scriven, forms the
+frontispiece to the second volume of Chalmers's work. The brow, eyes,
+mouth, and chin, he has given with great success. But the painting is far
+from being without faults;--the face is a good deal too round and plump,
+the nose is made slightly aquiline--a decided mistake,--and the neck is
+much too short, at least so it appears in the engraving.
+
+The portrait of Mary, which forms the frontispiece to the present volume,
+and on which we place greater reliance than on any with which we are
+acquainted, is an engraving executed expressly for this work, from an
+original picture of much merit.[20] It was painted when Mary was in
+France, by an Italian artist of eminence, who flourished as her
+cotemporary in the sixteenth century, and whose name is on the canvas. It
+would have been impossible to say at what precise age it represented Mary,
+though, from the juvenility of the countenance, it might have been
+concluded that it was taken a year or two before she became Dauphiness,
+had not the painter fortunately obviated the difficulty, by inserting
+immediately after his own signature the date, which is 1556, when she was
+just fourteen. It is upon this picture that we have chiefly founded our
+description of Mary's personal appearance. What gives us the greater
+confidence in its authenticity and accuracy, is, that it very exactly
+corresponds with two other portraits, believed on good grounds to be
+originals. This is a strong circumstance, for it is a very common and just
+remark, that almost no two likenesses of Mary agree. The paintings to
+which we allude are, first, one at the seat of Logie Almond, which
+represents Mary at the same age, but in a religious habit. It gives
+precisely the same view of the left side of the face as the engraving in
+this volume does of the right. From the style and other circumstances, it
+is very probable, that both pictures were painted by the same artist. The
+second is in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton, and is in
+one of the private apartments at Hamilton palace. It represents Mary at a
+somewhat more advanced period of life, but the features are quite the
+same. There is still a third picture, said to be an original, in the
+collection of the Marquis of Salisbury, at Hatfield House, and which has
+been engraved for Miss Benger's Memoirs, which very closely resembles our
+own. To be yet more assured, we have carefully examined the heads upon
+Mary's gold and silver coins. Some of these are inaccurate, but they have
+all a general resemblance to each other. A silver coin, of 1561, and the
+gold real stamped in 1562, agree minutely with our picture,--a
+circumstance which cannot but be considered a strong corroboration of its
+truth. It is unnecessary to make any apology to the reader for having
+entered thus minutely upon a subject of so much general interest.[21]
+
+With regard to the asseverations of cotemporary writers, as to the effects
+which Mary's beauty produced, many of them are almost too extravagant to
+be believed. They prove, nevertheless, that, whatever beauty may be,
+whether a mere fortunate arrangement of material atoms, or a light
+suffused upon the face, from the secret and etherial mind, it was a gift
+which Nature had lavishly bestowed on Mary. A year or two previous to her
+marriage, when walking in a religious procession, through the streets of
+Paris, with a lighted torch in her hand, a woman among the crowd was so
+struck with her appearance, that she could not help stopping her to
+ask,--"Are you not indeed an angel?" Brantome, with more questionable
+sincerity, compares her, at the age of fifteen, to the sun at mid-day. He
+tells us also, that the brother of Francis, afterwards Charles IX., never
+saw even a picture of Mary, without lingering to gaze upon it, declaring
+passionately, that he looked upon Francis as the happiest man on earth, to
+possess a creature of so much loveliness. Nay, Brantome even goes the
+length of asserting, that no man ever saw Mary who did not lose his heart
+to her. He is pleased, likewise, with some naïveté, to pay her several
+high compliments at the expense of her native country. It appears that
+Mary, amidst all the gaieties of the French Court, had not forgot her
+early residence at Inchmahome, in the quiet lake of Monteith. Actuated by
+these recollections and other motives, she delighted to testify her regard
+for Scotland in various ways; and, among others, by frequently wearing in
+public the graceful Highland costume. The rich and national Stuart tartan
+became her exceedingly; and Brantome, who seems to have been greatly
+puzzled by the novelty of the dress, is nevertheless forced to declare,
+that when arrayed after "the barbarous fashion of the savages of her
+country, she appeared a goddess in a mortal body, and in a most outré and
+astonishing garb." Mary herself, was so fond of this costume, that she
+wore it in one of the portraits which were taken of her in France. If she
+appeared so beautiful thus "_habillée à la sauvage_," exclaims Brantome,
+"what must she not be in her rich and lovely robes made _à la Française,
+ou l'Espagnole_, or with a bonnet _à l'Italienne_; or in her flowing white
+dress, contending in vain with the whiteness of her skin!" Even when she
+sung, and accompanied herself upon the lute, Brantome found occasion to
+discover a new beauty,--"her soft snowy hand and fingers, fairer than
+Aurora's." "Ah royaume d'Escosse!" he touchingly adds, "Je croy que,
+maintenant, vos jours sont encore bien plus courts qu'ils n'estoient, et
+vos nuits plus longues, puisque vous avez perdu cette Princesse qui vos
+illuminoit!" The historian, Castelnau, in like manner, pronounces Mary
+"the most beautiful and accomplished of her sex;" and Mezeray tells us,
+that "Nature had bestowed upon her every thing that is necessary to form a
+complete beauty;" adding, that "by the study of the liberal arts and
+sciences, especially painting, music, and poetry, she had so embellished
+her natural good qualities, that she appeared to be the most amiable
+Princess in Christendom." On the occasion of her marriage, not only were
+the brains of all the jewellers, embroiderers, and tailors of Paris put in
+requisition, but a whole host of French poets felt themselves suddenly
+inspired. Epithalamiums poured in from all quarters, spiced with flattery
+of all kinds, few of which have been borne down the stream of time so
+honourably for their author's abilities as that of Buchanan, who, having
+long struggled with poverty, had at last risen to independence, under the
+patronage of Cardinal Lorraine. This poem is well known, but is not more
+complimentary than that of Joachim du Bellay, who, after comparing Mary to
+Venus, concludes his song with these lines:--
+
+  "Par une chaîne à sa langue attachée
+  Hercule à soi les peuple attiroit;
+  Mais celle ci tire ceux qu'elle voit
+  Par une chaîne à ses beaux yeux attachée."
+
+Homage, so general, cannot have been entirely misplaced, or very palpably
+exaggerated.
+
+In Scotland, through the instigation of the Queen Regent, Mary's nuptials,
+which were far from being agreeable to a numerous party, were celebrated
+with probably less sincere, and certainly much more homely expressions of
+pleasure. Orders were sent to the different towns "to make fyres and
+processions general." Mons-Meg, the celebrated great gun of Edinburgh
+Castle, was fired once; and there is a charge of ten shillings in the
+treasurer's accounts of that year paid to certain persons for bringing up
+the cannon "to be schote, and for the finding and carrying of her bullet
+after she was schote frae Wardie Muir to the Castel of Edinburgh,"--a
+distance of about two miles. A play was also enacted, but of what kind it
+is difficult to say, at the expense of the city of Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+MARY THE QUEEN DAUPHINESS, THE QUEEN, AND THE QUEEN DOWAGER OF FRANCE.
+
+
+Shortly after the espousals, Mary and her husband retired to one of their
+princely summer residences. Here she unostentatiously discharged the
+duties of a respectful and attentive wife, in a manner which gained for
+her the admiration of all who visited them. Delightful as society and
+amusements must at that age have been to her, she readily accommodated
+herself to the peculiar temper of Francis, and seemed willing, for his
+sake, to resign all the gaieties of the court.
+
+But the intriguing and restless ambition of her uncles could not allow her
+to remain long quiet. About this time, Mary Tudor, who had succeeded
+Edward VI. on the English throne, died; and although the Parliament of
+that country had declared that the succession rested in her sister
+Elizabeth, it was thought proper to claim for Mary Stuart a prior right.
+The ground upon which they built this claim was the following. Henry VIII.
+married for his first wife Catharine of Arragon, widow of his brother
+Arthur, and by her he had one child, Mary. Pretending after having lived
+with her eighteen years, that his conscience rebuked him for making his
+brother's wife the partner of his bed, he procured a divorce from
+Catharine for the purpose of marrying Anne Boleyn, by whom he had also one
+daughter, Elizabeth. Growing tired of this new wife, she was sent to the
+scaffold to make way for Jane Seymour, by whom he had one son, Edward. Of
+this uxorious monarch's other three wives, it is unnecessary to speak.
+Henry had procured from the British Parliament a solemn act, declaring
+both his daughters illegitimate, and he left his crown to Edward VI., who
+accordingly succeeded him. Upon Edward's death, the Parliament, rescinding
+their former act, in order to save the nation from a civil war, called to
+the throne Henry's eldest daughter Mary,--not, however, without a protest
+being entered in behalf of the Scotch Queen by her guardians. Upon Mary's
+death, the opportunity again occurred of pressing the claims of the
+daughter of James V. The mother of that king, it will be remembered, who
+married his father James IV., was the eldest daughter of Henry VII., and
+sister, consequently, of Henry VIII. Henry was, therefore, Mary's maternal
+grand-uncle; and if his wives, Catharine and Anne Boleyn, were legally
+divorced, she had certainly a better right to the English Crown than any
+of their illegitimate offspring. Soon after the accession, however, of
+Edward VI., the Parliament, complying with the voice of the whole nation,
+had declared them legitimate; and as Elizabeth now quietly took possession
+of the throne, and could hardly by any chance have been dispossessed, it
+was, to say the least, extremely ill-advised to push Mary forward as a
+rival claimant.
+
+For various reasons, however, this was the policy which the Guises chose
+to pursue. Nor did they proceed to assert her right with any particular
+delicacy or caution. Whenever the Dauphin and his Queen came into public,
+they were greeted as the King and Queen of England; and the English arms
+were engraved upon their plate, embroidered upon their scutcheons and
+banners, and painted on their furniture.[22] Mary's favourite device,
+also, at this time, was the two crowns of France and Scotland, with the
+motto, _Aliamque moratur_, meaning that of England. The prediction made by
+the Duke of Alva, on observing this piece of empty parade, was but too
+fatally fulfilled,--"That bearing of Mary Stuart's," said he, "will not be
+easily borne."
+
+About this time Mary seems to have been attacked with the first serious
+illness which had overtaken her in France. It was not of that acute
+description which confined her to bed, but was a sort of general debility
+accompanied with a tendency to frequent fainting. It is mentioned in
+Forbes's State Papers, that on one occasion, to prevent her from swooning
+in church, her attendants were glad to bring her wine from the altar.
+There were some at the French Court who would have felt little grief had
+this illness ended fatally, considering how serious a blow Mary's death
+would have been to the too predominating influence of the House of Guise.
+In England, the news would have been particularly agreeable to Elizabeth,
+whose ambassador at Paris eagerly consoled her with the intelligence that
+Mary was not expected to be of long continuance. The natural strength of
+her constitution, however, soon restored her to her former health and
+spirits.
+
+But it was destined that there was to be another and more unexpected death
+at the French Court. Henry II., while exhibiting his prowess at a
+tournament, on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to
+Philip of Spain, in July 1559, received a wound in the head from the spear
+of his antagonist, the Count Montgomery, which, though apparently not of
+much consequence at first, occasioned his dissolution eight days
+afterwards. A considerable change immediately took place in the aspect of
+the Court. The stars of the Duchess de Valentinois, and of the Constable
+Montmorency, set at once; and that of Catharine de Medicis, though not
+entirely obscured, shone lower in the horizon. She was now only the
+second lady in France, Mary Stuart taking the precedence. The Guises
+reigned along with her, and the House of Bourbon trembled. Catharine, who
+could bear no superior, more especially one young enough to be her own
+daughter, could ill disguise her chagrin. As a guardian, however, of her
+late husband's younger sons, the presumptive heirs to the crown, she was
+entitled to maintain her place and authority in the Government. There is a
+curious little anecdote of her which shows how much the change in her
+situation was preying on her mind. As she was leaving the Palace of the
+Tournelles, to accompany Francis to the Louvre, where he was to appear as
+the new Sovereign, she fell into a reverie, and in traversing the gallery,
+took a wrong turn, and was entirely separated from her party before she
+discovered her mistake. She soon overtook them, however, and as they
+passed out, said to Mary,--"Pass on, Madam, it is now your turn to take
+precedence." Mary accepted the courtesy, but with becoming delicacy
+insisted that Catharine should enter the carriage first.[23] There is
+something more affecting in the change which Henry's death produced in the
+condition of the venerable Montmorency and his family. He whom three
+monarchs had loved and respected, who had given dignity to their counsels,
+and ensured success to their arms, was not considered worthy of remaining
+in the palace of the feeble and entrammelled Francis. With a princely
+retinue, he retired honourably to his mansion at Chantilly.
+
+Mary was now at the very height of European grandeur. The Queen of two
+powerful countries--and the heir-presumptive of a third,--in the flower of
+her age,--and, from her superior mental endowments, much more worshipped,
+even in France, than her husband, she affords at this period of her
+history as striking an example as can be found of the concentration of all
+the blessings of fortune in one person. She stood unluckily on too high
+and glorious a pinnacle to be able to retain her position long, consistent
+with the _vices vitĉ mortalium_. Whilst she conducted herself with a
+prudence and propriety altogether remarkable, considering her youth and
+the susceptibility of her nature, she began to be regarded with suspicion
+at once by France, England, and Scotland. In France, she was obliged to
+bear the blame of many instances of bigotry and over-severity in the
+government of her uncles;--in England, Elizabeth took every opportunity to
+load with opprobrium a sister Queen, whose descent, birth, station, and
+accomplishments, were so much superior to her own;--in Scotland, the
+Reformers, inspired by James Stuart, who, with ulterior views of his own,
+was contented to act as the tool of Elizabeth, laboured to make it be
+believed that Mary was an uncompromising and narrow-minded Catholic.
+
+In September 1559, Francis was solemnly crowned at Rheims; and during the
+remainder of the season, he and Mary, attended by their nobles, made
+various progresses through the country. In December, Francis, whose health
+was evidently giving way, went, by the advice of his physicians, to Blois,
+celebrated for the mildness of its climate. It affords a very vivid idea
+of the ignorant superstition of the French peasantry to learn, that on
+his journey thither, every village through which he passed was deserted.
+An absurd story had been circulated, and was universally believed, that
+the nature of Francis's complaints were such, that they could only be
+cured by the royal patient bathing in the blood of young children. Francis
+himself, although probably not informed of the cause, observed with pain
+how he was every where shunned; and, notwithstanding the soothing
+tenderness of Mary, who accompanied him, is said to have exclaimed to the
+Cardinal Lorraine, "What have I done to be thus shunned and detested? They
+fly me; my people abhor me! It is not thus that the French used to receive
+their King."[24]
+
+Misfortunes, it is said, never come singly. Whilst Mary was performing the
+part of an affectionate nurse to her husband, she sustained an
+irretrievable loss in the death of her mother, the Scottish Regent, in
+June 1560; and in the December following, her husband, Francis, died at
+Orleans, in the 17th year of his age, and the 17th month of his reign.[25]
+Feeling that his exhausted constitution was sinking rapidly, and that his
+death was at hand, almost the last words he spoke were to testify his
+affection for Mary, and his sense of her virtues. He earnestly beseeched
+his mother to treat her as her own daughter, and his brother to look upon
+her as a sister. He was a prince, says Conĉus, in whom, had he lived,
+more merit would probably have been discovered than most people
+suspected.[26] The whole face of things in France was by this event
+instantly changed again. Francis the Little, as he was contemptuously
+termed by the French, in opposition to his father Francis the Great, was
+succeeded by his younger brother, Charles IX. He being still a minor, his
+mother, Catharine, contrived to get herself appointed his guardian, and
+thus became once more Queen of France, the nobility, as Chalmers remarks,
+being more inclined to relish a _real_ minority, than an imaginary
+_majority_. Catharine's jealousy of Mary Stuart, of course extended
+itself, with greater justice, to her uncles of Guise. It was now their
+turn to make way for Montmorency; and the Cardinal of Lorraine, one of the
+most intriguing statesmen of the age, retired, in no very charitable mood
+of mind, to his archbishopric at Rheims, where, in a fit of spleen, he
+declared he would devote himself entirely to religion.
+
+There is something exceedingly naïve and amusing in Sir James Melville's
+account of this "gret changement." "The Queen-mother," says he, "was blyth
+of the death of King Francis, her son, because she had na guiding of him,
+but only the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal, his brother, by raisoun that
+the Queen, our maistress, was their sister's dochter. Sa, the Queen-mother
+was content to be quit of the government of the house of Guise; and for
+their cause (sake) she had a great mislyking of our Queen." Of
+Montmorency, who, as soon as he heard of the illness of Francis,
+commenced his journey towards the Court, he says,--"The Constable, also
+chargit to come to the court, looked for na less, and seamed to be seak,
+making little journees, caried in a horse-litter, drew time sae lang by
+the way, that the King, in the meantime, died. Then he lap on horsbak and
+cam freely to the Court and commandit, like a Constable, the men of war
+that gardit the Croun, by the Duke of Guise commandement, to pack them aff
+the toune. The Queen-mother was also very glaid of his coming, that by his
+autority and frendship with the King of Navarre, she mycht the better
+dryve the house of Guise to the door." Of Mary, who, it may well be
+supposed, felt this change more than any one, Melville says,--"Our Queen
+also, seeing her friends in disgrace, and knawing hirself no to be weil
+liked, left the Court, and was a sorrowful widow when I took my leave at
+hir, in a gentilman's house, four myle fra Orleans." To this "gentilman's
+house," or chateau, in the neighbourhood of Orleans, Mary had retired to
+shed in private those tears, which the death of her husband called forth.
+In losing Francis, she had lost the playmate of her childhood, the husband
+of her youth, and what, by many women, would be considered as serious a
+loss as either, the rank and title of Queen of France. It was here,
+probably, that she composed those verses to the memory of her deceased
+husband, which her biographers have so frequently copied, and which are so
+full of gentle and unaffected feeling.
+
+Mary, however, was at this time a personage of too much importance in the
+politics and affairs of Europe, to be left long unmolested to the
+indulgence of that sincere, but commonly temporary, sorrow of a widow of
+eighteen. New suitors were even now beginning to form hopes of an alliance
+with her; and two of the earliest in the field were, Don Carlos of Spain,
+and the King of Navarre. But Mary was determined to listen to no proposals
+of a matrimonial nature, till she had arranged the plan of her future
+life. France was no longer for her the country it had once been. Her
+affectionate father-in-law Henry, and her amiable, though weak, husband
+Francis, both of whom commanded for her the first rank in the State, were
+dead; her mother would never visit her more, for her tomb had already been
+erected at Rheims, and her proud uncles had been banished from the Court.
+Mary had too high a spirit, and knew her own superiority too well, to
+brook for a moment the haughty control of Catharine de Medicis. She felt
+that not all the blood of all the merchants of Italy, could ever elevate
+the Queen-Dowager to an equality with one who, as it is said she herself
+once expressed it, drew her descent from a centinary line of Kings.
+Catharine felt this painfully, and the more so, that when Mary once more
+made her appearance at Court, she perceived, in the words of Miss Benger,
+that "the charms of her conversation, her graceful address, her
+captivating accomplishments, had raised the _woman_ above the _Queen_."
+
+In the mean time, by the Reformed party in Scotland, the news of the death
+of Francis was received with any thing but sorrow. Knox declared
+triumphantly that "his glory had perished, and that the pride of his
+stubborn heart had vanished into smoke." The Lord James, her natural
+brother, was immediately deputed by the Congregation to proceed to
+France, to ascertain whether the Queen intended returning to her native
+country, and if she did, to influence her as much as possible in favour of
+the true gospel and its friends. Nor were the Catholics inactive at this
+critical juncture. A meeting was held, at which were present the
+Archbishop of St Andrews, the Bishops of Aberdeen, Murray, and Ross, the
+Earls of Huntly, Athol, Crawfurd, and Sutherland, and many other persons
+of distinction, by whom it was determined to send as _their_ ambassador to
+Mary, John Lesly, afterwards Bishop of Ross, and one of the Queen's
+staunchest friends, both during her life and after it. He was of course
+instructed to give her a very different account of the state of matters
+from that which the Lord James would do. He was to speak to her of the
+power and influence of the Catholic party; and to contrast their fidelity
+both to her and to her mother, with the rebellious proceedings of those
+who supported the covenant.
+
+The Lord James went by the way of England, and Lesly sailed from Aberdeen
+for Holland. Both made good speed; and Lesly arrived at Vitry in
+Champagne, where Mary was then residing, only one day before the Prior of
+St Andrews. He lost no time in gaining admission to the Queen; and though
+there is little doubt that his views were more sincere and honourable than
+those of her brother, it is at the same time very questionable whether the
+advice he gave her was judicious; and it is probably fortunate that Mary's
+good sense and moderation led her to reject it. Lesly commenced with
+cautioning her against the crafty speeches which he knew the Lord James
+was about to make to her, assuring her that his principal object was to
+insinuate himself into her good graces, to obtain the chief management of
+affairs, and crush effectually the old religion. The Prior, Lesly assured
+her, was not so warm in the cause of the Reformers, from any conviction of
+its truth, as from his wish to make it a stepping-stone for his own
+ambition. For these reasons, he advised her to bring with her to Scotland
+an armed force, and to land at Aberdeen, or some northern port, where the
+Earl of Huntly and her other friends would join her with a numerous army,
+at the head of which she might advance towards Edinburgh, and defeat at
+once the machinations of her enemies. The Queen, in reply to all this,
+merely desired that Lesly should remain with her till she returned to
+Scotland, commanding him to write, in the mean time, to the Lords and
+Prelates who sent him, to inform them of her favourable sentiments towards
+them, and of her intention to come speedily home.[27]
+
+The day after Lesly's audience, Mary's old friend the Lord James (for it
+will be remembered, that thirteen years before he had come to France with
+her, and he had in the interval paid her one or two visits) obtained an
+interview with his sister. He had every desire to retain the favourable
+place which he flattered himself he held in her estimation; and, though so
+rigid a Reformer among his Scottish friends, his conscience does not seem
+to have prevented him from paying all the court he could to his Catholic
+Sovereign. In the course of his conversation with her, he carefully
+avoided every subject which might have been disagreeable to Mary. He
+beseeched her to believe, that she would not find the remotest occasion
+for any foreign troops in Scotland, as the whole nation was prepared
+faithfully to obey her. This assurance was true, as it turned out; but it
+is not quite certain whether the Prior of St Andrews was thinking, at the
+time, so much of its truth, as of its being convenient, for various
+reasons, that Mary should have no standing force, at her command, in her
+own kingdom. Mary gave to her brother the same general sort of answer that
+she had previously given to Lesly. At the same time, she was secretly
+disposed to attribute greater weight to his arguments, and treat him with
+higher consideration, for a reason which Melville furnishes. It appears
+that the French noblemen, who, on the conclusion of peace with England had
+returned from Scotland, had all assured her, that she would find it most
+for her interest to associate in her councils the leaders of the
+Reformers,--particularly the Prior himself,--the Earl of Argyle, who had
+married her natural sister, the Lady Jane Stuart,--and Maitland of
+Lethington.
+
+It is worthy of notice, that, affairs of state having been discussed, the
+Prior ventured to speak a word or two for his own interest. He requested
+that the Earldom of Murray might be conferred on him, and the Queen
+promised to attend to his request on her return to Scotland. Having thus
+prudently discharged his commission, the Lord James took his leave,
+visiting Elizabeth on his way home, as he had already done before passing
+over into France. About the same time, many of the Scotch nobility, in
+anticipation of her speedy return, came to pay their duty to the Queen,
+and, among them, was the celebrated Earl of Bothwell.[28]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MARY'S RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND PREVIOUS NEGOTIATIONS WITH ELIZABETH.
+
+
+Elizabeth being informed of Mary's intended movements, thought the
+opportunity a favourable one, for adjusting with her one or two of their
+mutual disagreements. Mary's refusal to ratify the celebrated treaty of
+Edinburgh, had particularly galled the English Queen. Most of the
+essential articles of that treaty had already been carried into effect;
+and as Francis and Mary had sent their ambassadors into Scotland with full
+powers, they were bound according to the ordinary laws of diplomacy, to
+agree to whatever concessions their plenipotentiaries made. But, as
+Robertson has remarked, Cecil "had proved greatly an overmatch for
+Monluc." In the sixth article, which was by far the most offensive to the
+Scottish Queen, he had got the French delegates to consent to a
+declaration, that Francis and Mary should abstain from using and bearing
+the title and arms of the kingdom of England, not only during the life of
+Elizabeth, but "_in all times coming_." There was here so palpable a
+departure from all law and justice, that, if there was ever a case in
+which a sovereign was justified in refusing to sanction the blunders of
+his representatives, it was this. Robertson's observations on the point
+are forcible and correct. "The ratification of this article," says he,
+"would have been of the most fatal consequence to Mary. The Crown of
+England was an object worthy of her ambition. Her pretensions to it gave
+her great dignity and importance in the eyes of all Europe. By many, her
+title was esteemed preferable to that of Elizabeth. Among the English
+themselves, the Roman Catholics, who formed at that time a numerous and
+active party, openly espoused this opinion; and even the Protestants, who
+supported Elizabeth's throne, could not deny the Queen of Scots to be her
+immediate heir. A proper opportunity to avail herself of all these
+advantages, could not, in the course of things, be far distant, and many
+incidents might fall in to bring this opportunity nearer than was
+expected. In these circumstances, Mary, by ratifying the article in
+dispute, would have lost that rank which she had hitherto held among
+neighbouring princes; the zeal of her adherents must have gradually
+cooled; and she might have renounced, from that moment, all hopes of ever
+wearing the English crown."
+
+Mary, therefore, cannot be, in fairness, blamed for her conduct regarding
+this treaty. But, as has been already said, she allowed herself to be
+persuaded to a very great imprudence, when she advanced, what she declared
+to be a present and existing claim on the English Crown. This was an
+aggravation of the offence, which Elizabeth could never pardon. She
+determined to retort upon Mary, as efficiently though not quite so
+directly. She found means to hint to her friends in Scotland, that it
+would not be disagreeable to her, were the Earl of Arran, eldest son of
+the Duke of Chatelherault, and, after his father, presumptive heir to the
+throne, to propose himself to her as a husband. This was accordingly done,
+and must have touched Mary very closely, especially as she had no children
+by her husband Francis. But as Elizabeth had never any serious intention
+of accepting of Arran's proposals, she was resolved upon taking another
+and much more unjustifiable method of harassing Mary.
+
+Knowing that she possessed the command of the seas, the English Queen
+imagined that she had it in her power to prevent, if she chose, Mary's
+return to her own kingdom. Before granting her, therefore, as in common
+courtesy she was bound to do, a free passage, she determined on seizing
+the opportunity for again pressing the ratification of the treaty of
+Edinburgh. With this view, she desired Sir Nicolas Throckmorton, her
+ambassador at Paris, to wait on the Queen of Scots, ostensibly to
+congratulate her on her recovery from an attack of ague, but in reality to
+press this matter upon her attention. The audience which Mary granted to
+Throckmorton upon this occasion, together with another which she gave him
+a few weeks afterwards, introduce us to her, for the first time, acting
+for herself, in her public and important capacity of Queen of Scotland.
+All historians unite in expressing their admiration of the talented and
+dignified manner in which she conducted herself, though only in her
+nineteenth year. We have fortunately a full account of both conferences,
+furnished by Sir Nicolas Throckmorton himself, in his letters to the Queen
+of England.
+
+The ambassador, on his first interview, having expressed Elizabeth's
+happiness at Mary's recovery, proceeded to renew the demand which had so
+frequently been made to her regarding the treaty of Edinburgh. Mary, in
+answer, said, that she begged to thank the Queen her good sister for her
+congratulations, and though she was not yet in perfect health, she thanked
+God for her evident convalescence. As to the treaty of Edinburgh, she
+begged to postpone giving any final answer in the affair until she had
+taken the advice of the nobles and estates of her own realm. "For though
+this matter," she said, "doth touch me principally, yet doth it also touch
+the nobles and estates of my realm; and, therefore, it is meet that I use
+their advice therein. Heretofore they have seemed to be grieved that I
+should do any thing without them, and now they would be more offended if I
+should proceed in this matter of myself without their advice." She added,
+that she intended to return home soon, and that she was about to send an
+ambassador to Elizabeth, to require of her the common favour of a free
+passage which princes usually ask of each other in such cases. In a spirit
+of conciliation and sound policy, she concluded with these words. "Though
+the terms wherein we have stood heretofore have been somewhat hard, yet I
+trust, that from henceforth we shall accord together as cousins and good
+neighbours. I mean to retire all the Frenchmen from Scotland who have
+given jealousy to the Queen my sister, and miscontent to my subjects; so
+that I will leave nothing undone to satisfy all parties, trusting the
+Queen my good sister will do the like, and that from henceforth none of my
+disobedient subjects shall find aid or support at her hands."--Seeing that
+Mary was not to be moved from the position she had taken regarding this
+treaty, Throckmorton went on to sound her upon the subject of religion.
+His object was to ascertain what course she intended to pursue towards the
+Scottish Reformers. Mary stated to him distinctly her views upon this
+important matter, and there was a consistency and moderation in them
+hardly to have been expected from the niece of the Cardinal of Lorraine,
+had we not been previously aware of the strength of her superior mind. "I
+will be plain with you," said she to the ambassador. "The religion which I
+profess I take to be most acceptable to God; and indeed, I neither know,
+nor desire to know, any other. Constancy becometh all people well, but
+none better than princes, and such as have rule over realms, and
+especially in matters of religion. I have been brought up in this
+religion, and who might credit me in any thing if I should show myself
+light in this case." "I am none of those," she added, "that will change
+their religion every year; _but I mean to constrain none of my subjects,
+though I could wish that they were all as I am; and I trust they shall
+have no support to constrain me_." It will be seen, in the sequel, whether
+Mary ever deviated for a moment from the principles she here laid down.
+Throckmorton ventured to ask, if she did not think many errors had crept
+into her church, and whether she had ever seriously weighed the arguments
+in support of the Reformed opinions. "Though I be young, and not well
+learned," she replied modestly, "yet have I heard this matter oft disputed
+by my uncle,--my Lord Cardinal, with some that thought they could say
+somewhat in the matter; and I found no great reason to change my opinion.
+But I have oft heard him confess, that great errors have come into the
+church, and great disorder among the ministers and clergy, of which errors
+and disorders he wished there might be a reformation." Here this
+conference concluded.[29]
+
+Elizabeth, as soon as she understood that Mary waited for the advice of
+her Privy Counsellors and her Parliament, before ratifying the treaty of
+Edinburgh, addressed a letter to the "States of Scotland," as she was
+pleased to term them, but, in point of fact, only to her old allies the
+Lords of the Congregation. The object of this letter was to convey, in
+haughty and even insolent terms, a threat that, unless they secured their
+Queen's assent to the treaty, they might cease to look for any aid or
+protection from her. In other words, its meaning was this:--Through my
+interference, you have been able to establish the new Gospel; your Queen
+you know to be a Catholic; and as it is not unlikely that she may
+associate in her councils your old enemies the Catholic nobility, it is in
+me you trust to enable you to rebel successfully against your lawful
+Sovereign. But I have no intention to give you my support for nothing; and
+unless your reformed consciences will permit of your insisting that Mary
+Stuart shall sign away her hereditary right of succession to the English
+throne, I shall henceforth have nothing more to do with you. No other
+interpretation can be put on such expressions as the following, couched in
+terms whose meaning sophistry itself could not hide. "In a matter so
+profitable to both the realms, we think it strange that your Queen hath no
+better advice; and therefore we do require ye all, being the States of
+that realm upon whom the burden resteth, to consider this matter deeply,
+and to make us answer whereunto we may trust. And if you shall think meet,
+she shall thus leave the peace imperfect, by breaking of her solemn
+promise, contrary to the order of all princes, we shall be well content to
+accept your answer, and shall be as careless to see the peace kept, as ye
+shall give us cause; and doubt not, by the grace of God, but whosoever of
+ye shall incline thereto, shall soonest repent. You must be content with
+our plain writing."
+
+To this piece of "plain writing," the Reformers, probably at the
+instigation of the Lord James, sent a submissive and cringing answer.
+"Your Majesty," they say, "may be well assured, that in us shall be noted
+no blame, if that peace be not ratified to your Majesty's
+contentment."--"The benefit that we have received is so recent, that we
+cannot suddenly bury it in forgetfulness. We would desire your Majesty
+rather to be persuaded of us, that we, to our powers, will study to leave
+it in remembrance to our posterity." In other words,--Whatever our own
+Queen Mary may determine on doing, we shall remain steady to your
+interests, and would much rather quarrel with her than with you. To this
+state of mind had Elizabeth's machinations contrived to bring the
+majority of the young Queen's subjects.[30]
+
+In the meantime, Mary had sent an ambassador into England to demand a safe
+conduct for her approaching voyage. This was expressly refused; and
+Throckmorton was again ordered to request an audience with Mary, to
+explain the motives of this refusal. "In this conference," observes
+Robertson, "Mary exerted all that dignity and vigour of mind of which she
+was so capable, and at no period of her life, were her abilities displayed
+to greater advantage." Throckmorton had recourse to the endless subject of
+the treaty of 1560, or, as it is more commonly called, the treaty of
+Edinburgh, as the apology his mistress offered for having, with studied
+disrespect, denied the suit made by Mary's ambassador, in the presence of
+a numerous audience,--a direct breach of courtly etiquette. Mary, before
+answering Throckmorton, commanded all her attendants to retire, and then
+said,--"I like not to have so many witnesses of my passions as the Queen,
+your mistress, was content to have, when she talked with M. D'Oysel. There
+is nothing that doth more grieve me, than that I did so forget myself, as
+to require of the Queen, your mistress, that favour, which I had no need
+to ask. I may pass well enough home into my own realm, I think, without
+her passport or license; for, though the late king, your master, used all
+the impeachment he could, both to stay me and catch me, when I came
+hither, yet you know, M. l'Ambassadeur, I came hither safely, and I may
+have as good means to help me home again, if I could employ my friends."
+"It seemeth," she added, with much truth, "that the Queen, your mistress,
+maketh more account of the amity of my disobedient subjects, than she doth
+of me, their sovereign, who am her equal in degree, though inferior in
+wisdom and experience, her nighest kinswoman, and her next neighbour." She
+then proceeded very forcibly to state, once more, her reasons for refusing
+to ratify the treaty. It had been made, she said, during the life of
+Francis II., who, as her lord and husband, was more responsible for it
+than she. Upon his death, she ceased to look for advice to the council of
+France, neither her uncles nor her own subjects, nor Elizabeth herself,
+thinking it meet, that she should be guided by any council but that of
+Scotland. There were none of her ministers with her; the matter was
+important; it touched both them and her; and she, therefore, considered it
+her duty to wait, till she should get the opinions of the wisest of them.
+As soon as she did, she undertook to send Elizabeth whatever answer might
+appear to be reasonable. "The Queen, your mistress," observed Mary, "saith
+that I am young; she might say that I were as foolish as young, if I
+would, in the state and country that I am in, proceed to such a matter, of
+myself, without any counsel; for that which was done by the King, my late
+lord and husband, must not be taken to be my act; and yet I will say,
+truly, unto ye, and as God favours me, I did never mean otherwise, unto
+the Queen, your mistress, than becometh me to my good sister and cousin,
+nor meant her any more harm than to myself. God forgive them that have
+otherwise persuaded her, if there be any such."
+
+It may seem strange, that as the sixth article was the only one in the
+whole treaty of Edinburgh, which occasioned any disagreement, it was not
+proposed to make some alteration in it, which might have rendered it
+satisfactory to all parties. Mary would have had no objection to have
+given up all claim upon the Crown of England, during the lifetime of
+Elizabeth, and in favour of children born by her in lawful wedlock,--if,
+failing these children, her own right was acknowledged. There could have
+been little difficulty, one would have thought, in expressing the
+objectionable article accordingly. But this amendment would not by any
+means have suited the views of Elizabeth.[31] To have acknowledged Mary's
+right of succession would have been at once to have pointed out to all the
+Catholics of Europe, the person to whom they were to pay their court, on
+account not only of her present influence, but of the much greater which
+awaited her. Besides, it might have had the appearance of leaving it
+doubtful, whether Elizabeth's possession of the throne was not conceded to
+her, more as a favour than as a right. This extreme jealousy on the part
+of the English Queen, originated in Mary having imprudently allowed
+herself to be persuaded to bear the arms of England, diversely quartered
+with her own, at the time Elizabeth was first called to the crown. At the
+interview we have been describing, Throckmorton, being silenced with
+regard to the ratification of the treaty, thought he might with propriety
+advert to this other subject of complaint.
+
+"I refer it to your own judgment, Madam," said he, "if any thing can be
+more prejudicial to a prince, than to usurp the title and interest
+belonging to him." Mary's answer deserves particular attention. "M.
+L'Ambassadeur," said she, "I was then under the commandment of King Henry
+my father, and of the king my lord and husband; and whatsoever was then
+done by their order and commandments, the same was in like manner
+continued until both their deaths; _since which time, you know I neither
+bore the arms, or used the title of England_. Methinks," she added, "these
+my doings might ascertain the queen your mistress, that that which was
+done before, was done by commandment of them that had power over me; and
+also, in reason, she ought to be satisfied, seeing I (now) order my
+doings, as I tell ye." With this answer Throckmorton took his leave.[32]
+
+Seeing that matters could not be more amicably adjusted, Mary prepared to
+return home, independent of Elizabeth's permission. Yet it was not without
+many a bitter regret that she thought of leaving all the fascinations of
+her adopted country, France. When left alone, she was frequently found in
+tears; and it is more than probable, that, as Miss Benger has expressed
+it, "there were moments when Mary recoiled with indescribable horror from
+the idea of living in Scotland--where her religion was insulted, and her
+sex contemned; where her mother had languished in misery, and her father
+sunk into an untimely grave." At last, however, the period arrived when it
+was necessary for her to bid a final adieu to the scenes and friends of
+her youth. She had delayed from month to month, as if conscious that, in
+leaving France, she was about to part with happiness. She had originally
+proposed going so early as the spring of 1561, but it was late in July
+before she left Paris; and as she lingered on the way, first at St
+Germains, and afterwards at Calais, August was well advanced before she
+set sail. The spring of this year, says Brantome poetically, was so
+backward, that it appeared as if it would never put on its robe of
+flowers; and thus gave an opportunity to the gallants of the Court to
+assert, that it wore so doleful a garb to testify its sorrow for the
+intended departure of Mary Stuart.[33] She was accompanied as far as St
+Germains by Catharine de Medicis, and nearly all the French Court. Her six
+uncles, Anne of Este, and many other ladies and gentlemen of distinction,
+proceeded on with her to Calais. The historians Castelnau and Brantome
+were both of the Queen's retinue, and accompanied her to Scotland. At
+Calais she found four vessels, one of which was fitted up for herself and
+friends, and a second for her escort; the two others were for the
+furniture she took with her.
+
+Elizabeth, meanwhile, was not inattentive to the proceedings of the
+Scottish Queen. Through the agency of her minister, Cecil, she had been
+anxiously endeavouring to discover whether she would render herself
+particularly obnoxious either to Catharine de Medicis, or the leading men
+in Scotland, by making herself mistress of Mary's person on her passage
+homewards, and carrying her a prisoner into England. Her ambassador,
+Throckmorton, had given her good reason to believe that Catharine was not
+disposed to be particularly warm in Mary's defence.[34] As to Scotch
+interference, Camden expressly informs us, that the Lord James, when he
+passed through England on his return from France, warned Elizabeth of
+Mary's intended movements, and advised that she should be intercepted.
+This assertion, though its truth has been doubted, is rendered exceedingly
+probable by the contents of two letters, which have been preserved. The
+first is from Throckmorton, who assures Elizabeth that the Lord James
+deserves her most particular esteem;--"Your Majesty," he says, "may, in my
+opinion, make good account of his constancy towards you; and so he
+deserveth to be well entertained and made of by your Majesty, as one that
+may stand ye in no small stead for the advancement of your Majesty's
+desire. Since his being here (in France), he hath dealt so frankly and
+liberally with me, that I must believe he will so continue after his
+return home."[35] The other letter is from Maitland of Lethington, one of
+the ablest men among the Scotch Reformers, and the personal friend and
+co-adjutor of the Lord James, to Sir William Cecil. In this letter he
+says;--"I do also allow your opinion anent the Queen our Sovereign's
+journey towards Scotland, whose coming hither, if she be enemy to the
+religion, and so affected towards that realm as she yet appeareth, shall
+not fail to raise wonderful tragedies." He then proceeds to point out,
+that, as Elizabeth's object, for her own sake, must be to prevent the
+Catholics from gaining ground in Scotland, her best means of obtaining
+such an object, is to prevent a Queen from returning into the kingdom, who
+"shall so easily win to her party the whole Papists, and so many
+Protestants as be either addicted to the French faction, covetous,
+inconstant, uneasy, ignorant, or careless."--"So long as her Highness is
+absent," he adds, "in this case there is no peril; but you may judge what
+the presence of a prince being craftily counselled is able to bring to
+pass." "For my opinion," he concludes, "anent the continuance of amity
+betwixt these two realms, there is no danger of breach so long as the
+Queen is absent; but her presence may alter many things."[36]
+
+To make assurance doubly sure, Cecil desired Randolph, the English
+resident in Scotland, to feel the pulse of the nobility. On the 9th of
+August 1561, only a few days before Mary sailed from France, Randolph
+wrote from Edinburgh an epistle to Cecil, in which he assures him that it
+will be a "stout adventure for a _sick crazed woman_," (a singular mode of
+designating Mary), to venture home to a country so little disposed to
+receive her. "I have shewn your Honour's letters," he says, "unto the Lord
+James, Lord Morton, Lord Lethington; _they wish, as your Honour doth, that
+she might be stayed yet for a space; and if it were not for their
+obedience sake, some of them care not tho' they never saw her face_."--And
+again--"Whatsomever cometh of this, he (Lethington), findeth it ever best
+that she come not." Knox also, it seems, had been written to, and had
+expressed his resolution to resist to the last Mary's authority. "By such
+letters as ye have last received," says Randolph, "your Honour somewhat
+understandeth of Mr Knox himself, and also of others, what is
+determined,--he himself to abide the uttermost, and others never to leave
+him, until God hath taken his life."--"His daily prayer is, for the
+maintenance of unity with England, and that God will never suffer men to
+be so ungrate as by any persuasion to run headlong unto the destruction of
+them that have saved their lives, and restored their country to
+liberty."[37]
+
+Elizabeth having thus felt her way, and being satisfied that she might
+with safety pursue her own inclinations, was determined not to rest
+contented with the mere refusal of passports. Throckmorton was ordered to
+ascertain exactly when and how Mary intended sailing. The Scottish Queen
+became aware of his drift, from some questions he put to her, and said to
+him cuttingly,--"I trust the wind will be so favourable, as I shall not
+need to come on the coast of England; and if I do, then M. l'Ambassadeur,
+the Queen, your mistress, shall have me in her hands to do her will of me;
+and if she be so hard-hearted as to desire my end, she may then do her
+pleasure, and make sacrifice of me. Peradventure, that casualty might be
+better for me than to live." Throckmorton, however, made good his point,
+and was able to inform Elizabeth that Mary would sail either from
+Havre-de-Grace or Calais, and that she would first proceed along the coast
+of Flanders, and then strike over to Scotland. For the greater certainty,
+he suggested the propriety of some spies being sent across to the French
+coast, who would give the earliest intelligence of her movements.
+Profiting by this and other information, all the best historians of the
+time agree in stating, that Elizabeth sent a squadron to sea with all
+expedition. It was only a thick and unexpected fog which prevented these
+vessels from falling in with that in which Mary sailed. The smaller craft
+which carried her furniture, they did meet with, and, believing them to be
+the prize they were in search of, they boarded and examined them. One ship
+they detained, in which was the Earl of Eglinton, and some of Mary's
+horses and mules, and, under the pretence of suspecting it of piracy,
+actually carried it into an English harbour. The affectation of "clearing
+the seas from pirates," as Cecil expresses it, was a mere after-thought,
+invented to do away with the suspicion which attached itself to this
+unsuccessful attempt. Its real purpose was openly talked of at the time.
+Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, in a speech he made at a meeting of the
+Privy Council in 1562, said frankly,--"Think ye that the Scottish Queen's
+suit, made in all friendly manner, to come through England at the time she
+left France, and the denial thereof, unless the treaty were ratified, is
+by them forgotten, or else your sending of your ships to sea at the time
+of her passage?" Camden, Holinshed, Spottiswoode, Stranguage, and
+Buchanan, all speak to the same effect; and Elizabeth's intentions, though
+frustrated, hardly admit of a doubt.[38]
+
+On the 25th of August 1561, Mary sailed out of the harbour of Calais,--not
+without shedding, and seeing shed many tears. She did not, however, part
+with all the friends who had accompanied her to the coast. Three of her
+uncles,--the Duke d'Aumale, the Marquis D'Elbeuf, and the Grand
+Prior,--the Duke Danville, son to Montmorency, and afterwards Constable of
+France, one of the most ardent and sincere admirers that Mary perhaps ever
+had,--and many other persons of rank, among whom was the unfortunate poet
+Chatelard, who fluttered like a moth round the light in which he was to be
+consumed,--sailed with her for Scotland. Just as she left the harbour, an
+unfortunate accident happened to a vessel, which, by unskilful management,
+struck upon the bar, and was wrecked within a very short distance of her
+own galley. "This is a sad omen," she exclaimed, weeping. A gentle breeze
+sprang up; the sails were set, and the little squadron got under way,
+consisting, as has been said, of only four vessels, for Mary dreaded lest
+her subjects should suppose that she was coming home with any military
+force. The feelings of "_la Reine Blanche_," as the French termed her,
+from the white mourning she wore for Francis, were at all times
+exceedingly acute. On the present occasion, her grief amounted almost to
+despair. As long as the light of day continued, she stood immoveable on
+the vessel's deck, gazing with tearful eyes upon the French coast, and
+exclaiming incessantly,--"Farewell, France! farewell, my beloved country!"
+When night approached, and her friends beseeched her to retire to the
+cabin, she hid her face in her hands, and sobbed aloud. "The darkness
+which is now brooding over France," said she, "is like the darkness in my
+own heart." A little afterwards, she added,--"I am unlike the Carthaginian
+Dido, for she looked perpetually on the sea, when Ĉneas departed, whilst
+all my regards are for the land." Having caused a bed to be made for her
+on deck, she wept herself asleep, previously enjoining her attendants to
+waken her at the first peep of day, if the French coast was still visible.
+Her wishes were gratified; for during the night the wind died away, and
+the vessel made little progress. Mary rose with the dawn, and feasted her
+eyes once more with a sight of France. At sunrise, however, the breeze
+returned, and the galley beginning to make way, the land rapidly receded
+in the distance. Again her tears burst forth, and again she
+exclaimed,--"Farewell, beloved France! I shall never, never, see you
+more." In the depth of her sorrow, she even wished that the English
+fleet, which she conjectured had been sent out to intercept her, would
+make its appearance, and render it necessary for her to seek for safety,
+by returning to the port from whence she had sailed. But no interruption
+of this kind occurred.[39]
+
+It is more than likely, that it was during this voyage Mary composed the
+elegant and simple little song, so expressive of her genuine feelings on
+leaving France. Though familiarly known to every reader, we cannot deny
+ourselves the pleasure of inserting it here.
+
+    Adieu, plaisant pays de France!
+        O my patrie,
+        La plus cherie;
+    Qui a nourri ma jeune enfance.
+  Adieu, France! adieu, mes beaux jours!
+  La nef qui déjoint mes amours,
+  N'à cy de moi que la moitié;
+  Une parte te reste; elle est tienne;
+  Je la fie à ton amitié,
+  Pour que de l'autre il te souvienne![40]
+
+Brantome, who sailed in the same vessel with Mary, and gives a particular
+account of all the events of this voyage, mentions, that the day before
+entering the Frith of Forth, so thick a mist came on, that it was
+impossible to see from the poop to the prow. By way of precaution, lest
+they should run foul of any other vessel, a lantern was lighted, and set
+at the bow. This gave Chatelard occasion to remark, that it was taking a
+very unnecessary piece of trouble, so long at least as Mary Stuart
+remained upon deck, and kept her eyes open. When the mist, at length,
+cleared away, they found their vessel in the midst of rocks, from which it
+required much skill and no little labour to get her clear. Mary declared,
+that so far as regarded her own feelings, she would not have looked upon
+shipwreck as a great calamity; but that she would not wish to see the
+lives of the friends who were with her endangered (among whom not the
+least dear were her four Maries), for all the kingdom of Scotland. She
+added, that as a bad omen had attended her departure so this thick fog
+seemed to be but an evil augury at her arrival. At length, the harbour of
+Leith appeared in sight, and Mary's eye rested, for the first time, upon
+Arthur Seat and the Castle of Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MARY'S ARRIVAL AT HOLYROOD, WITH SKETCHES OF HER PRINCIPAL NOBILITY.
+
+
+Mary landed in Scotland with a mind full of anxiety and uncertainty. She
+came alone and unprotected, to assume the government of a country which
+had long been distinguished for its rebellious turbulence. The masculine
+spirit of her father had quailed before the storm. Her mother, whose
+intellectual energy she well knew, had in vain attempted to bring order
+out of confusion, and harassed and worn out, had at length surrendered her
+life in the struggle. For the last two years, it is true, the country had
+enjoyed, not peace and tranquillity, but a cessation from an actual state
+of warfare. Nevertheless, the seeds of discontent, and of mutual distrust
+and hatred, were as abundant as ever. Mary's religion was well known; and
+her confirmed devotion to it, was by one party magnified into bigotry, and
+pronounced criminal; whilst by another, it was feared she would show
+herself too lukewarm in revenging the insults which the ancient worship
+had sustained. Such being the state of things, how could a young, and
+comparatively inexperienced queen, just nineteen years of age, approach
+her kingdom otherwise than with fear and trembling?
+
+Contrasted too with her former situation, that which she was now about to
+fill, appeared particularly formidable. In France, even during the life of
+her husband, and while at the very height of her power, few of the severer
+duties of government rested upon her. She had all the essential authority,
+without much of the responsibility of a sovereign. Francis consulted her
+upon every occasion, and followed her advice in almost every matter in
+which she chose to interfere; but it was to him, or her uncles of Guise,
+that the nation looked, when any of the state-machinery went wrong. It
+would be very different in Scotland. By whatever counsel she acted, the
+blame of all unpopular measures would be sure to rest with her. If she
+favoured the Protestants, the Catholics would renounce her; if she
+assisted the Catholics, the Protestants would again be found assembling at
+Perth, listening, with arms in their hands, to the sermons of John Knox,
+pulling down the remaining monasteries, and subscribing additional
+covenants. Is it surprising then, that she found it difficult to steer her
+course between the rocks of Scylla and the whirlpools of Charybdis? If
+misfortunes ultimately overtook her, the wonder unquestionably ought to
+be, not that they ever arrived, but that they should have been guarded
+against so long. Nothing but the wisest and most temperate policy, could
+have preserved quietness in a country so full of the elements of internal
+discord. Mary's system of government throughout all its ramifications,
+must have been such as no Queen of her age could have established, had
+there not been more than an empty compliment, in those lines of Buchanan,
+in which he addresses his Royal mistress as one
+
+  "Quae sortem antevenis meritis, virtutibus annos,
+  Sexum animis, morum nobilitate genus."
+
+There is, besides, a natural feeling of loyalty, which, though it may be
+evanescent, hardly fails to be kindled in the breasts of the populace, at
+the sight of their native sovereign. The Scots, though they frequently
+were far from being contented with the measures pursued by their monarchs,
+have been always celebrated for their attachment to their persons. Mary,
+on her first landing, became aware of this truth. As soon as it was known
+that she intended returning from all the splendours of France, to the more
+homely comforts of the land of her birth, the people, flattered by the
+preference she was about to show them, abated somewhat of their previous
+asperity. They were the more pleased, that she came to them, not as the
+Queen of France, who might have regarded Scotland as only a province of
+her empire, but as their own exclusive and independent sovereign. They
+recollected that she had been at the disposal of the Estates of the
+country, from the time she was seven days old, and they almost felt as if
+she had been a child of their own rearing. They knew, also, that she had
+made a narrow escape in crossing the seas; and the confidence she
+evidently placed in them, by casting anchor in Leith Roads, with only two
+galleys, did not pass unnoticed. But she had arrived sooner than was
+expected; for, so little were they aware of her intended motions, that
+when her two ships were first observed in the Frith, from the Castle of
+Edinburgh, no suspicion was entertained that they carried the Queen and
+her suite. It was not, till a royal salute was fired in the Roads, that
+her arrival was positively known, and that the people began to flock in
+crowds to the shore.
+
+On the 20th or 21st of August, 1561, the Queen landed at Leith. Here she
+was obliged to remain the whole day, as the preparations for her reception
+at Holyroodhouse were not completed. The multitude continued in the
+interval to collect at Leith, and on the roads leading to the Palace. On
+the road between Leith and Restalrig, and from thence to the Abbey, the
+different trades and corporations of Edinburgh were drawn up in order,
+lining the way with their banners and bands of music. Towards evening,
+horses were brought for the Queen and her attendants. When Mary saw them,
+accustomed as she had been to the noble and richly caparisoned steeds of
+the Parisian tournaments, she was struck both with the inferiority of
+their breed, and the poorness of their furnishings. She sighed, and could
+not help remarking the difference to some of her friends. "But they mean
+well," said she, "and we must be content." As she passed along, she was
+every where greeted with enthusiastic shouts of applause--the involuntary
+homage which the beauty of her countenance, the elegance of her person,
+and the graceful dignity of her bearing, could not fail to draw forth.
+Bonfires were lighted in all directions; and though illuminations were
+then but indifferently understood in Scotland, something of the kind seems
+to have been attempted. On her arrival at the Palace, all the musicians of
+Edinburgh collected below her windows, and in strains of most discordant
+music continued all night to testify their joy for her return. Some of the
+more rigid Reformers, willing to yield in their own way to the general
+feeling, assembled together in a knot, and sung psalms in her honour.
+Among the musical instruments, the bagpipes were preeminently
+distinguished, which, not exactly suiting the uncultivated taste of
+Brantome, he pathetically exclaims, "He! quelle musique! et quel repos
+pour sa nuit!"[41]
+
+It is worth while remarking here, how Knox, in his History of the
+Reformation, betrays his chagrin at the affectionate manner in which Mary
+was received. "The very face of the heavens, at the time of her arrival,"
+he says, "did manifestly speak what comfort was brought into this country
+with her, by sorrow, dolor, darkness, and all impiety; for in the memory
+of man that day of the year was never seen a more dolorous face of the
+heavens, than was at her arrival, which two days after did so continue;
+for, besides the surface wet, and the corruption of the air, the mist was
+so thick and dark, that scarce could any man espy another the length of
+two pair of butts. The sun was not seen to shine two days before, nor two
+days after. That forewarning gave God to us, but alas! the most part were
+blind."[42] Knox proceeds to reprobate, in the severest terms, the
+unhallowed amusements which Mary permitted at Holyroodhouse. "So soon as
+ever her French fillocks, fiddlers, and others of that band, got the house
+alone, there might be seen skipping not very comely for honest women. Her
+common talk was, in secret, that she saw nothing in Scotland but gravity,
+which was altogether repugnant to her nature, for she was brought up in
+joyeusitye." If Knox really believed in the omens he talks of, or thought
+the less of a young and beautiful woman for indulging in innocent
+recreation, his judgment is to be pitied. If he, in truth, did not give
+any credence to the one, and saw no sin in the other, his candour and
+sincerity cannot be very highly praised.
+
+M'Crie, the able but too partial biographer of Knox, and the defender of
+all his errors and failings, speaking of Mary at this period,
+says;--"Nursed from her infancy in a blind attachment to the Roman
+Catholic religion, every means had been employed before she left France,
+to strengthen this prejudice, and to inspire her with aversion to the
+religion which had been embraced by her people. She was taught that it
+would be the great glory of her reign, to reduce her kingdom to the
+obedience of the Romish See, and to co-operate with the Popish Princes on
+the Continent in extirpating heresy. With these fixed prepossessions, Mary
+came into Scotland, and she adhered to them with singular pertinacity to
+the end of her life."[43] The whole of this statement is in the highest
+degree erroneous. We have seen that Mary was _not_ nursed in a blind
+attachment to the Catholic religion--some of her best friends, and even
+one or two of her preceptors, being attached to the new opinions. We have
+seen, that so far from having any "prejudice" strengthened before she left
+France, she was expressly advised to give her support to the Reformers;
+and we have heard from her own lips, her mature determination to tolerate
+every species of worship throughout her kingdom. That she ever thought of
+"co-operating with the Popish Princes of the Continent, that she might
+reduce her kingdom to the obedience of the Romish See, and extirpate
+heresy," will be discovered immediately to be a particularly preposterous
+belief, when we find her intrusting the reins of Government to the leaders
+of the Reformed party. To this system of moderation, much beyond that of
+the age in which she lived, Mary adhered, "with singular pertinacity, to
+the end of her life." M'Crie, in proof of his gratuitous assertions,
+affirms, that she never examined the subjects of controversy between the
+Papists and Protestants. This also is incorrect, as he would have known,
+had he read that letter of Throckmorton's, in which, as has been seen, she
+informed the Ambassador of the frequent opportunities she had enjoyed of
+hearing the whole matter discussed in the presence of the Cardinal
+Lorraine; and the confession which that discussion extorted both from the
+Cardinal and herself, of the necessity of some reformation among the
+Catholics, though not to the extent to which the Protestants pushed it.
+M'Crie further objects, that Mary never went to hear Knox, or any of the
+Reformed divines, preach. Knox, from the invariable contempt with which he
+affected to treat Mary, no doubt particularly deserved such a compliment;
+and as to the other divines, by all of whom she was hated, what would have
+been the use of leaving her own chapel to listen to sermons which could
+not have altered the firm conviction of her mind, and which, consequently,
+it would have been hypocrisy to pretend to admire? We return from this
+digression.
+
+The nobility, who now flocked to Holyrood from all parts of the country,
+constituted that portion of the inhabitants of Scotland, who, for many
+centuries, had exercised almost unlimited influence over their native
+sovereigns. Their mutual dissensions during the late long minority, had a
+good deal weakened their respective strength; and the progress of time was
+gradually softening the more repulsive features of the feudal system. But
+still the Scottish barons deemed themselves indispensable to the councils
+of their monarch, and entitled to deliver opinions, which they expected
+would be followed, on every affair of state. They collected at present,
+under the influence of a thousand contending interests and wishes. With
+some of the more distinguished figures in the group, it will be necessary
+to make the reader better acquainted.
+
+Of the Lord James, who was now shortly to become the Earl of Murray, the
+title by which he is best known in Scottish history, a good deal has
+already been said. That he must secretly have regretted his sister's
+return to Scotland, may be safely concluded, from the facts formerly
+stated. He was too skilful a politician, however, to betray his
+disappointment. Had he openly ventured to oppose Mary, the result would
+have been at all events uncertain, and his own ruin might have been the
+ultimate consequence. He considered it more prudent to use every means in
+his power to conciliate her friendship; and wrought so successfully, that
+before long, he found himself the person of by far the most consequence in
+the kingdom. Mary, perhaps, trusted too implicitly to his advice, and left
+too much to his controul; yet it is difficult to see how she could have
+managed otherwise. It is but fair also to add, that for several years
+Murray continued to keep his ambition (which, under a show of moderation,
+was in truth enormous) within bounds. Nor does there appear to be any
+evidence sufficient to stamp Murray with that deeper treachery and blacker
+guilt, which some writers have laid to his charge. The time, however, is
+not yet arrived for considering his conduct in connexion with the darker
+events of Mary's reign. The leading fault of his administration is, that
+it was double-faced. In all matters of importance, he allowed himself to
+be guided as much by the wishes of Elizabeth, secretly communicated to
+him, as by those of his own Sovereign. He probably foresaw that, if he
+ever quarrelled with Mary, it would be through the assistance of the
+English Queen alone he could hope to retrieve his fortunes. This
+subservience to Elizabeth, among those in whom she confided, was, indeed,
+the leading misfortune of Mary's reign. Had her counsellors been
+unbiassed, and her subjects undistracted by English intrigue, her prudent
+conduct would have got the better of the internal dissensions in her
+kingdom, and she would have governed in peace, perhaps in happiness. But
+it was Elizabeth's jealous and narrow-minded policy, to prevent, if
+possible, this consummation. With infinite art, and, if the term is not
+debased by its application, with no little ability, she accomplished her
+wishes, principally through the agency of the ambitious and the
+self-interested, among Mary's ministers. One of these, the Earl of Murray,
+unquestionably was. At the time of which we are writing, he was in his
+thirty-first year, possessing considerable advantages both of face and
+person, but of reserved, austere, and rather forbidding manners. Murray's
+mother, who was the Lady Margaret Erskine, daughter of Lord Erskine, had
+married Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven. He had also, as has been
+mentioned, several illegitimate brothers, particularly Lord John and Lord
+Robert, and one sister, Jane, who married the Earl of Argyle, and to whom
+Mary became very sincerely attached.
+
+Associated with the Earl of Murray, both as a leader of the Reformers, and
+as a servant of Elizabeth, but not allowing his ambitious views to carry
+him quite so far as the Earl, was William Maitland of Lethington, Mary's
+Secretary of State. He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Maitland of
+Lethington, and was about five years older than Murray. He had been
+educated at the University of St Andrews, and had travelled a good deal on
+the Continent, where he studied civil law. John Knox, in his History,
+claims the honour of having converted Maitland to the Reformed opinions.
+Whether this be true or not, it is certain that, after having for some
+time co-operated with Mary of Guise, he finally deserted her, and
+continued to act with the Reformers, as Secretary of State, an office to
+which he had been appointed for life, in 1558. It has been already seen,
+that a close and confidential intercourse subsisted between him and Cecil;
+and that he too would have been glad, had Mary's return to Scotland been
+prevented. That Maitland possessed an acute and subtle genius, there can
+be no doubt; that he had cultivated his mind to good purpose, and
+understood the art of composition as well as any man of the age, is
+undeniable. That his manners were more polished than those of most of the
+Scottish nobility, is also true; but, that his talents were of that high
+and exquisite kind, which Robertson and some other historians have
+described, does not appear. During his political career, many instances
+occur, which seem to imply a vacillating and unsteady temperament, a fault
+which can hardly be forgiven in a statesman.
+
+James Douglas, Earl of Morton, another associate of Murray, was one of the
+most powerful and least respectable of those who had embraced the
+Reformation. Restless, factious, crafty, avaricious and cruel, nothing
+could have saved him from general odium, but his pretended zeal for
+religion. This was a cloak for many sins; by flattering the vanity of Knox
+and the other gospel-ministers, he contrived to cover the hollowness of
+his character, and to patch up a reputation for sanctity. In consequence
+of the rebellion of the Earl of Angus, his uncle, during the reign of
+James V., Morton had been obliged to spend several years in England, where
+he lived in great poverty. But the only effect adversity had produced upon
+him, was a determination to be more rapacious when he recovered his power.
+His ambition was of a more contracted and selfish kind than Murray's, and
+he had not so cool a head, or so cautious a hand.
+
+The Duke of Chatelherault, Mary's nearest relation, being advanced in
+years, had retired from public life. The Earl of Arran, his son, who, it
+will be remembered, had been induced to propose himself as a husband for
+Elizabeth, was of a weak and almost crazed intellect. Indeed it was not
+long before the increasing strength of the malady made it necessary to
+confine him. He came to Court, however, upon Mary's arrival, and having
+been unsuccessful with Elizabeth, chose to fall desperately in love with
+his own Queen. But Mary had always an aversion to him, originating no
+doubt in the want of delicacy towards her, which had characterized his
+negociations with Elizabeth, and confirmed by his own presuming and
+disagreeable manners. His father's natural brother, the Archbishop of St
+Andrews, is the only other member of the family worth mentioning. He was
+still staunch to the Roman Catholic party; but had of late seen the wisdom
+of remaining quiet, and though he became rather a favourite with Mary, it
+does not appear that he henceforth took a very active interest in public
+affairs.[44]
+
+James Hepburne, Earl of Bothwell, though some of the leading features of
+his character had hardly shown themselves at the period of which we speak,
+merits nevertheless, from the part he subsequently acted, especial notice
+at present. He had succeeded his father in his titles and estates in the
+year 1556, when he was five or six and twenty years of age. He enjoyed not
+only large estates, but the hereditary offices of Lord High Admiral of
+Scotland, Sheriff of Berwick, Haddington and Edinburgh, and Baillie of
+Lauderdale. With the exception of the Duke of Chatelherault, he was the
+most powerful nobleman in the southern districts of Scotland. Soon after
+coming to his titles, he began to take an active share in public business.
+In addition to his other offices, he was appointed the Queen's Lieutenant
+on the Borders, and Keeper of Hermitage Castle, by the Queen Regent, to
+whom he always remained faithful, in opposition to the Lord James, and
+what was then termed the English faction. He went over to France on the
+death of Francis II. to pay his duty to Mary, and on his return to
+Scotland, was by her intrusted with the discharge of an important
+commission regarding the Government. Though all former differences were
+now supposed to have been forgotten, there was not, nor did there ever
+exist, a very cordial agreement between the Earls of Murray and Bothwell.
+They were both about the same age, but their dispositions were very
+different. Murray was self-possessed, full of foresight, prudent and wary.
+Bothwell was bold, reckless, and extravagant. His youth had been devoted
+to every species of dissipation; and even in manhood, he seemed more
+intent on pleasure than on business. This was a sort of life which Murray
+despised, and perhaps he calculated that Bothwell would never aim at any
+other. But, though guided by no steady principles, and devoted to
+licentiousness, Bothwell was nevertheless not the mere man of pleasure. He
+was all his life celebrated for daring and lawless exploits, and vanity or
+passion, were motives whose force he was never able to resist. Unlike
+Murray, who, when he had an end in view, made his advances towards it as
+cautiously as an Indian hunter, Bothwell dashed right through, as careless
+of the means by which he was to accomplish his object, as of the
+consequences that were to ensue. His manner was of that frank, open, and
+uncalculating kind, which frequently catches a superficial observer. They
+who did not study him more closely, were apt to imagine that he was merely
+a blustering, good-natured, violent, headstrong man, whose manners must
+inevitably have degenerated into vulgarity, had he not been nobly born,
+and accustomed to the society of his peers. But much more serious
+conclusions might have drawn by those who had penetration enough to see
+under the cloak of dissoluteness, in which he wrapped himself and his
+designs. With regard to his personal appearance, it does not seem to have
+been remarkably prepossessing. Brantome says, that he was one of the
+ugliest men he had ever seen, and that his planners were correspondently
+outré.[45] Buchanan, who must have known Bothwell well, and who draws his
+character with more accuracy than was to have been expected from so
+partial a writer, says, in his "Detection:"--"Was there in him any gift of
+eloquence, or grace of beauty, or virtue of mind, garnished with the
+benefits which we call of fortune? As for his eloquence and beauty, we
+need not make long tale of them, since both they that have seen him can
+well remember his countenance, his gait, and the whole form of his body,
+how gay it was; they that have heard him, are not ignorant of his rude
+utterance and blockishness." As to Bothwell's religious opinions, Buchanan
+remarks very truly, that wavering between the different factions, and
+despising either side, he counterfeited a love of both.[46] Such was the
+man of whom we shall have occasion to say so much in the course of these
+Memoirs.
+
+In the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, remained unaltered all the
+characteristics of the ruder feudal chiefs, rendered still more repulsive
+by their bigoted zeal in favour of the Reformed opinions. They were men of
+coarse and contracted minds, fit instigators to villany, or apt tools in
+the hands of those who were more willing to plan than to execute.
+
+Opposed to all these nobles, was the great lay head of the Catholic party
+in Scotland, John, Earl of Huntly. His jurisdiction and influence extended
+over nearly the whole of the north of Scotland, from Aberdeen to
+Inverness. He was born in 1510, and had been a personal friend and
+favourite of James V. He ranked in Parliament as the Premier Earl of
+Scotland, and in 1546, was appointed Chancellor of the kingdom. He was
+always opposed to the English party, and had been taken prisoner at the
+battle of Pinkie, fighting against the claims of Edward VI., upon the
+infant Mary. He made his escape, in 1548, and as a reward for his services
+and sufferings, obtained, in the following year, a grant of the Earldom of
+Murray, which, however, he again resigned in 1554. He continued faithful
+to the Queen Regent till her death. Upon that occasion, we have seen that
+he and other nobles sent Lesley, with certain proposals, to Mary. He was
+an honourable man and a good subject, though the termination of his career
+was a most unfortunate one. The respect which his memory merits, is
+founded on the conviction, that he had too great a love for his country
+and sovereign ever to have consented to have made the one little better
+than tributary to England, or to have betrayed the other into the hands of
+her deadliest enemy.
+
+Such were the men who were now to become Mary's associates and
+counsellors. The names of most of them occur as members of the Privy
+Council which she constituted shortly after her return. It consisted of
+the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earl of Huntly, the Earl of Argyle, the
+Earl of Bothwell, the Earl of Errol, Earl Marschall, the Earl of Athol,
+the Earl of Morton, the Earl of Montrose, the Earl of Glencairn, the Lord
+Erskine, and the Lord James Stuart. In this Council, the influence of the
+Lord James, backed as it was by a great majority of Protestant nobles,
+carried every thing before it.
+
+Elizabeth, finding that Mary had arrived safely in her own country, and
+had been well received there, lost no time in changing her tone towards
+the Scottish queen. Her English resident in Scotland, was the celebrated
+Randolph, whom she kept as a sort of accredited spy at Mary's court. He
+has rendered himself notorious by the many letters he wrote to England
+upon Scottish affairs. He had an acute, inquisitive, and gossiping turn of
+mind. His style is lively and amusing; and though the office he had to
+perform is not to be envied, he seems to have entered on it _con amore_,
+and with little remorse of conscience. His epistles are mostly preserved,
+and are valuable from containing pictures of the state of manners in
+Scotland at the time, not to be found any where else, though not always to
+be depended on as accurate chronicles of fact. To Randolph, the Queen of
+England now wrote, desiring him to offer her best congratulations to Mary
+upon her safe arrival. She sent him also a letter which he was to deliver
+to Mary, in which she disclaimed ever having had the most distant
+intention of intercepting her on her voyage. Mary answered Elizabeth's
+letter with becoming cordiality. She, likewise, sent Secretary Maitland
+into England, to remain for some time as her resident at Elizabeth's
+Court. She was well aware for what purposes Randolph was ordered to
+continue in Edinburgh; and said, that as it seemed to be Elizabeth's wish
+that he should remain, she was content, but that she would have another in
+England as crafty as he. Maitland was certainly as crafty, but his
+craftiness was unfortunately too frequently directed against Mary
+herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+JOHN KNOX, THE REFORMERS, AND THE TURBULENT NOBLES.
+
+
+Mary had been only a few days in Scotland when she was painfully reminded
+of the excited and dangerous state of feeling which then prevailed on the
+important subject of Religion. Her great and leading desire was to
+conciliate all parties, and to preserve, unbroken, the public peace. With
+this view she had issued proclamations, charging her subjects to conduct
+themselves quietly; and announcing her intention to make no alteration in
+the form of religion as existing in the country at her arrival.
+Notwithstanding these precautions, the first breach of civil order took
+place at the very Palace of Holyroodhouse. Mary had intimated her
+intention to attend the celebration of a solemn mass in her chapel, on
+Sunday the 24th of August, 1561, the first Sunday she spent in Scotland.
+The Reformers, as soon as they got the upper hand, had prohibited this
+service under severe penalties, and these principles of intolerance they
+were determined to maintain. Mary had not interfered with their mode of
+worship; but this was not enough;--they considered themselves called upon
+to interfere with hers. In anticipation of the mass, for which she had
+given orders, the godly, Knox tells us, met together and said,--"Shall
+that idol be suffered again to take place within this realm? It shall
+not." They even repented that they had not pulled down the chapel itself
+at the time they had demolished most of the other religious houses; for
+the sparing of any place where idols were worshipped was, in their
+opinion, "the preserving the accursed thing." When Sunday arrived, a crowd
+collected on the outside of the chapel; and Lord Lindsay, whose bigotry
+has been already mentioned, called out with fiery zeal,--"The idolatrous
+priests shall die the death, according to God's law." The Catholics were
+insulted as they entered the chapel, and the tumult increased so much,
+that they feared to commence the service. At length, the Lord James, whose
+superior discrimination taught him, that his party, by pushing things to
+this extremity, were doing their cause more harm than good, stationed
+himself at the door, and declared he would allow no evil-disposed person
+to enter. His influence with the godly was such, that they ventured not to
+proceed to violence against his will. He was a good deal blamed, however,
+by Knox for his conduct. When the service was concluded, Lord James's two
+brothers were obliged to conduct the priests home, as a protection to them
+from the insults of the people; and in the afternoon, crowds collected in
+the neighbourhood of the palace, who, by their disloyal language and
+turbulent proceedings, signified to the Queen their disapprobation, that
+she had dared to worship her God in the manner which seemed to herself
+most consistent, both with the revealed and natural law. Many of Mary's
+friends, who had accompanied her from France, were so disgusted with the
+whole of this scene, that they announced their intention of returning
+sooner than they might otherwise have done. "Would to God," exclaims Knox,
+"that altogether, with the mass, they had taken good-night of the realm
+for ever!"
+
+On the following Sunday, Knox took the opportunity of preaching, what
+Keith might have termed, another "thundering sermon" against idolatry. In
+this discourse he declared, that one mass was more fearful to him than ten
+thousand armed enemies would be, landed in any part of the realm on
+purpose to suppress the whole religion. No one will deny, that the earlier
+Reformers of this and all other countries would, naturally and properly,
+look upon Popish rites with far greater abhorrence than is done by the
+strictest Protestants of more modern times. Nor is it wonderful that the
+ablest men among them, (and John Knox was one of those), should have given
+way so far to the feelings of the age, as to be unable to draw the exact
+line of distinction between the improvements of the new gospel, and the
+imperfections of the old. The faith which they established, was of a
+purer, simpler, and better kind than that from which they were converted.
+Yet, making all these allowances, there does seem to have been something
+unnecessarily overbearing and illiberal in the spirit which animated Knox
+and some of his followers. When contrasted with the mildness of Mary at
+least, and even with the greater moderation observed in some of the other
+countries of Europe, where the Reformation was making no less rapid
+progress, the anti-Catholic ardor of the good people of Scotland must be
+allowed to have over-stepped considerably the just limits of Christian
+forbearance. It is useful also to observe the inconsistencies which still
+existed in the Reformed faith. Whilst the Catholic religion was
+reprobated, Catholic customs springing out of that religion do not seem to
+have called forth any censure. On the very day on which Knox preached the
+sermon already mentioned, a great civic banquet was given by the city of
+Edinburgh to Mary's uncles, the Duke Danville, and other of her French
+friends; and, generally speaking, Sunday was, throughout the country, the
+favourite day for festivities of all kinds.
+
+The mark of attention paid to her relations pleased Mary, but her pleasure
+was rendered imperfect, by perceiving how powerful and unlooked for an
+enemy both she and they had in John Knox. Aware of the liberal manner in
+which she had treated him and his party, she thought it hard that he
+should so unremittingly exert his influence to stir up men's minds against
+her. That this influence was of no insignificant kind, is attested by very
+sufficient evidence. Knox was not a mere polemical churchman. His friends
+and admirers intrusted to him their temporal as well as spiritual
+interests. He was often selected as an umpire in civil disputes of
+importance; and persons whom the Town-council had determined to punish for
+disorderly conduct, were continually requesting his intercession in their
+behalf. When differences fell out even among the nobility, he was not
+uncommonly employed to adjust them. He was besides, at that time, the only
+established clergyman in Edinburgh who taught the Reformed doctrines.
+There was a minister in the Canongate, and another in the neighbouring
+parish of St Cuthberts, but Knox was _the_ minister of Edinburgh. He
+preached in the church of St Giles, which was capable of holding three
+thousand persons. To this numerous audience he held forth twice every
+Sunday, and thrice on other days during the week. He was regular too in
+his attendance at the meetings of the Synod and the General Assembly, and
+was frequently commissioned to travel through the country to disseminate
+gospel truth. In 1563, but not till then, a colleague was appointed to
+him.
+
+Animated by a sincere desire to soften if possible our Reformer's austere
+temper, Mary requested that he might be brought into her presence two days
+after he had delivered his sermon against idolatry. Knox had no objection
+whatever to this interview. To have it granted him at all would show his
+friends the importance attached to his character and office; and from the
+manner in which he determined to carry himself through it, he hoped to
+strengthen his reputation for bold independence of sentiment, and
+undeviating adherence to his principles. This was so far well; but Knox
+unfortunately mingled rudeness with his courage, and stubbornness with his
+consistency.
+
+Mary opened the conversation by expressing her surprise that he should
+have formed so very unfavourable an opinion of herself; and requested to
+know what could have induced him to commence his calumnies against her so
+far back as 1559, when he published his book upon the "monstrous
+government of women."[47] Knox answered, that learned men in all ages
+considered their judgments free, and that, if these judgments sometimes
+differed from the common judgment of mankind, they were not to blame. He
+then ventured to compare his "First Blast of the Trumpet" to Plato's work
+"On the Commonwealth," observing, with much self-complacency, that both
+these books contained many new sentiments. He added, that what he had
+written was directed most especially against Mary--"that wicked Jezabel of
+England." The Queen, perceiving that this was a mere subterfuge, said, "Ye
+speak of women in general." Knox confessed that he did so, but again went
+the length of assuring her, though the assurance seems to involve a
+contradiction, that he had said nothing "intended to trouble her estate."
+
+Satisfied with this concession, Mary proceeded to ask, why he could not
+teach the people a new religion without exciting them to hold in contempt
+the authority of their Sovereign? Knox found it necessary to answer this
+question in a somewhat round-about manner. "If all the seed of Abraham,"
+said he, "should have been of the religion of Pharaoh, what religion
+should there have been in the world? Or if all men, in the days of the
+Roman Emperors, should have been of the religion of the Roman Emperors,
+what religion should have been on the face of the earth? Daniel and his
+fellows were subject to Nebuchadnezzar and unto Darius, and yet they would
+not be of their religion." "Yea," replied Mary promptly, "but none of
+these men raised the sword against their princes." "Yet you cannot deny
+that they resisted," said Knox, refining a little too much; "for those who
+obey not the commandment given them, do in some sort resist." "But yet,"
+said the Queen, perceiving the quibble, "they resisted not with the
+sword." The Reformer felt that he had been driven into a corner, and
+determined to get out of it at whatever cost. "God, Madam," said he, "had
+not given unto them the power and the means." "Think ye," asked Mary,
+"that subjects having the power may resist their princes?" "If princes
+exceed their bounds, Madam," said Knox, evidently departing from the
+point, "no doubt they may be resisted even by power." He proceeded to
+fortify this opinion with arguments of no very loyal kind; and Mary,
+overcome by a rudeness and presumption she had been little accustomed to,
+was for some time silent. Nay, Randolph, in one of his letters, affirms
+that he "knocked so hastily upon her heart that he made her weep." At
+length she said, "I perceive then that my subjects shall obey you, and not
+me, and will do what they please, and not what I command; and so must I be
+subject to them, and not they to me." Knox answered, that a subjection
+unto God and his Church was the greatest dignity that flesh could enjoy
+upon the face of the earth, for it would raise it to everlasting glory.
+"But you are not the Church that I will nourish," said Mary; "I will
+defend the Church of Rome, for it is, I think, the true Church of God."
+Knox's coarse and discourteous answer shows that he was alike ignorant of
+the delicacy with which, in this argument, he should have treated a
+_lady_, and of the respect a _queen_ was entitled to demand. "Your _will_,
+Madam," said he, "is no reason; neither doth your thought make the Roman
+harlot to be the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ. Wonder not,
+Madam, that I call Rome a harlot, for that Church is altogether polluted
+with all kinds of spiritual fornication, both in doctrine and manners."
+Whilst this speech must have deeply wounded the feelings of Mary, a
+sincere Catholic as she was, it cannot entitle the Reformer to any praise
+on the score of its bravery and independence. Knox knew that the whole
+country would, in a few days, be full of his conference with the Queen. By
+yielding to her, he had nothing to gain; and, as his reputation was his
+dearest possession, he hoped to increase it by an unmanly display of his
+determined zeal. Mary, perceiving what sort of a man she had to deal
+with, soon afterwards broke off the conversation.[48]
+
+On the same day that the Queen gave Knox this audience, she made her first
+public entry into Edinburgh. She rode up the Canongate and High Street, to
+the Castle, where a banquet had been prepared for her. She was greeted, as
+she passed along, with every mark of respect and loyalty; and pains had
+been taken to give to the whole procession, as striking and splendid an
+air as possible. The Town had issued proclamations, requiring the citizens
+to appear in their best attire, and advising the young men to assume a
+uniform, that they might make "the convoy before the court more
+triumphant." When Mary left the castle after dinner, on her way back, a
+pageant which had been prepared was exhibited on the Castle Hill. The
+Reformers could not allow this opportunity to pass, without reminding her
+that she was now in a country where their authority was paramount. The
+greater part of this pageant, represented the terrible vengeance of God
+upon idolaters. It was even, at one time, intended to have had a priest
+burned in effigy; but the Earl of Huntly declared, he would not allow so
+gross an insult to be offered to his sovereign.
+
+Soon after paying this compliment to the City of Edinburgh, Mary
+determined upon making a progress through the country, that she and her
+subjects might become better acquainted with each other. She made this
+progress upon horseback, accompanied by a pretty numerous train. There
+appears at the time to have been only one wheeled carriage in Scotland. It
+was a chariot, (as it is called in the treasurer's books), probably of a
+rude enough construction, which Margaret of England brought with her when
+she married James IV. Mary, no doubt, knew that it would have been rather
+adventurous to have attempted travelling on the Scotch roads of that day
+in so frail and uncertain a vehicle. It is not, however, to be supposed,
+that a Queen such as Mary, with her Lords and Ladies well-mounted around
+her, could pass through her native country without being the object of
+universal admiration, even without the aid of so wonderful a piece of
+mechanism as a coach or a chariot. Her first stage was to the palace at
+Linlithgow. Here she remained a day or two, and then proceeded to
+Stirling. On the night of her arrival there, she made a very narrow
+escape. As she lay in bed asleep, a candle, that was burning beside her,
+set fire to the curtains; and had the light and heat not speedily awakened
+her, when she immediately exerted her usual presence of mind, she might
+have been burned to death. The populace said at the time, that this was
+the fulfilment of a very old prophecy, that a Queen should be burned at
+Stirling. It was only the bed, however, not the Queen that was burned, so
+that the prophet must have made a slight mistake. On the Sunday she spent
+at Stirling, the Lord James, finding perhaps, that his former apparent
+defence of the mass, had hurt his reputation among the Reformers,
+corrected the error by behaving with singular impropriety in the Royal
+chapel. He was assisted by the Lord Justice General, the Earl of Argyle,
+in conjunction with whom he seems to have come to actual blows with the
+priests. This affair was considered good sport by many. "But there were
+others," says Randolph, alluding probably to Mary, "that shed a tear or
+two." "It was reserved," Chalmer's remarks, "for the _Prime Minister_ and
+the _Justice General_, to make a riot in the house which had been
+dedicated to the service of God, and to obstruct the service in the
+Queen's presence."[49]
+
+Leaving Stirling, Mary spent a night at Lesly Castle, the seat of the Earl
+of Rothes, a Catholic nobleman. On the 16th of September she entered
+Perth. She was everywhere welcomed with much apparent satisfaction; but in
+the midst of their demonstrations of affection, her subjects always took
+care to remind her that they were Presbyterians, and that she was a
+Papist. In the very pious town of Perth, pageants greeted her arrival
+somewhat similar to those which had been exhibited to her on the Castle
+Hill at Edinburgh. Mary was not a little affected by observing this
+constant determination to wound her feelings. In riding through the
+streets of Perth, she became suddenly faint, and was carried from her
+horse to her lodging. Her acute sensibility often produced similar effects
+upon her health, although the cause was not understood by the unrefined
+multitude. With St Andrews, the seat of the Commendatorship of the Lord
+James, she seems to have been most pleased, and remained there several
+days. She returned to Edinburgh by the end of September, passing, on the
+way, through Falkland, where her father had died. Knox was much distressed
+at the manifestation of the popular feeling in favour of Mary during this
+journey. He consoles himself by saying, that she polluted the towns
+through which she passed with her idolatry; and in allusion to the
+accident at Stirling, remarks, "Fire followed her very commonly on that
+journey."[50]
+
+It was, perhaps, to counteract, in some degree, the impression which
+Mary's affability and beauty had made upon her subjects, that soon after
+her return to Edinburgh, a very singular proclamation was issued by the
+civil authorities of that town. It was couched in the following
+terms:--"October 2. 1561. On which day the Provost, Baillies, Council, and
+all the Deacons, perceiving the Priests, Monks, Friars, and others of the
+wicked rabble of the Anti-Christ the Pope, to resort to this town,
+contrary to the tenor of a previous proclamation; therefore ordain the
+said proclamation, charging all Monks, Friars, Priests, Nuns, Adulterers,
+Fornicators, and all such filthy persons, to remove themselves out of this
+town and bounds thereof, within twenty-four hours, under the pain of
+carting through the town, burning on the cheek, and perpetual
+banishment."[51] The insult offered to the Sovereign of the realm, by thus
+attempting to confound the professors of the old religion with the most
+depraved characters in the country, was too gross to be allowed to pass
+unnoticed. Mary did not bring these bigoted magistrates to trial,--she did
+not even imprison them, but with much mildness, though with no less
+firmness, she ordered the Town-Council instantly to deprive the Provost
+and Baillies of the offices they held, and to elect other better qualified
+persons in their stead.[52]
+
+During the remainder of the year 1561, the only public affairs of
+consequence, were the appointment of the Lord James as the Queen's
+Lieutenant on the Borders, where he proceeded to hold courts, and
+endeavoured, by great severity and many capital punishments, to reduce the
+turbulent districts to something like order; and the renewal on the part
+of Queen Elizabeth of the old dispute concerning the treaty of Edinburgh.
+Mary, having now had the benefit of advice from her Council, without
+directly refusing what Elizabeth asked, gave her, in pretty plain terms,
+to understand, that she could never think of signing away her hereditary
+title and interest to the Crown of England. "We know," she says, in a
+letter she wrote to Elizabeth on the subject, "how near we are descended
+of the blood of England, and what devices have been attempted to make us,
+as it were, a stranger from it. We trust, being so nearly your cousin, you
+would be loth we should receive so manifest an injury, as entirely to be
+debarred from that title, which, in possibility, may fall to us."
+
+Most of Mary's French friends had, by this time, returned home. Her uncle,
+the Marquis D'Elbeuf, however, remained all winter with her. In losing the
+Duke of Danville, Mary lost one of her warmest admirers; but it appears,
+that from his being already married, (though he could have obtained a
+divorce,) and from other considerations, Mary rejected his addresses. Many
+foreign princes were suing for the honour of her alliance, among whom were
+Don Carlos of Spain, the Archduke Charles of Austria, the King of Sweden,
+the Duke of Ferrara, and the Prince of Condé; but Mary did not yet see the
+necessity of an immediate marriage. Among her own subjects, there were two
+who ventured upon confessing their attachment, and nourishing some hopes
+that she might be brought to view it propitiously. These were the Earl of
+Arran, already mentioned, and Sir John Gordon, second son of the Earl of
+Huntly. The former of these Mary never liked; and though the latter far
+excelled him in accomplishments, both of body and mind, she does not seem
+to have given him encouragement either. Inspired by mutual jealousy, these
+noblemen, of course, detested each other; but Arran was the more factious
+and absurd. Having taken offence at some slights which he supposed had
+been offered him, he had retired to St Andrews, where he was believed, by
+those who knew his restless temperament, to be hatching sedition. Upon one
+occasion--a Sunday night in November--just before the Queen had retired to
+bed, a report was suddenly spread through the palace, that Arran had
+crossed the water at the head of a strong body of retainers, and was
+marching direct for Holyroodhouse, with the intention of carrying off the
+Queen to Dumbarton Castle, which was in the possession of his father, or
+to some other place of strength. This report, which gained credit, it was
+scarcely known how, excited the greatest alarm. Mary's friends collected
+round her with as much speed as possible; the gates were closed, and the
+Lords remained in arms within the court all night. Arran did not make his
+appearance, and the panic gradually subsided,--though the nobles
+determined to keep guard every night for some time. This is the foundation
+of the assertion made by some writers, that Mary kept a perpetual body
+guard, which, unfortunately, she never did during the whole of her reign.
+The Duke of Chatelherault, who came to Court soon after, alleged, that the
+rumour which had gained credence against his son, was only a manoeuvre
+of his enemies; and though his son's conduct was, on all occasions,
+sufficiently outré, it is not unlikely that this allegation was true.
+
+Another tumult, which soon afterwards occurred, shows how difficult it
+was, at this time, to preserve quietness and good order. It had been
+reported among the more dissolute nobles, that the daughter of a
+respectable merchant in Edinburgh, was the _chere amie_ of the Earl of
+Arran. Bothwell, always at home in any affair of this kind, undertook to
+introduce the Marquis D'Elbeuf to the lady; Lord John, brother of the
+Commendator of St Andrews, was also of the party. They went to her house
+the first night in masks, and were admitted, and courteously entertained.
+Returning next evening, they were disappointed to find, that the object of
+their admiration refused to receive their visits any longer. They
+proceeded, therefore, to break open the doors, and to create much
+disturbance in the house and neighbourhood. Next day the Queen was
+informed of their disorderly conduct, and she rebuked them sharply. But
+Bothwell and the Lord John, animated partly by their dislike to the house
+of Hamilton, and partly by a turbulent spirit of contradiction, declared
+they would repeat their visit the very next night in despite of either
+friend or foe. Their intentions being understood, the servants of the Duke
+of Chatelherault and Arran thought themselves called upon to defend a lady
+whom their masters patronized. They assembled accordingly with jack and
+spear in the streets, determined to oppose force to force. Bothwell wished
+for nothing else, and collected his friends about him in his own lodgings.
+The opposite party, however, increased much more rapidly than his, and
+began to collect in a threatening manner before his house. The magistrates
+saw the necessity of interfering; the alarm-bell was rung, and despatches
+were sent off to Holyrood, to know what course was to be taken. The Earls
+of Argyle and Huntly, together with the Lord James, joined the civic
+authorities, and, proceeding out to the mob, made proclamation, that all
+men should instantly depart on pain of death. This had the desired effect;
+the streets gradually became quiet, and Bothwell gave up his wild scheme.
+Mary, next day, ordered both the Duke of Chatelherault and the Earl of
+Bothwell to appear before her. The first came accompanied by a crowd of
+Protestants, and the latter with an equal number of Catholics. But the
+Queen was not to be over-awed, and having investigated the matter,
+Bothwell was banished from Court for ten days.[53]
+
+This was only the prelude to a still more serious difference, which took
+place between these untamed and irascible nobles. The Earl of Arran
+appeared before the Queen, and declared that a powerful conspiracy had
+been formed against the life of the Lord James, upon whom the title of
+Earl of Mar, as preliminary to that of Murray, had recently been
+conferred. This conspiracy, he said, had originated with himself and his
+father, who were beginning to tremble, lest the newly created Earl's
+influence with the Queen, might induce her to set aside the Hamilton
+succession, in favour of her illegitimate brother. That the Earl of Mar
+had really proposed some such arrangement, seems to be established on good
+authority.[54] The Earl of Huntly, together with Mar's old enemy,
+Bothwell, had been induced by the Hamiltons to join in this plot. The
+intention was, to shoot the Earl of Mar when hunting with the Queen, to
+obtain for the Hamiltons his authority in the government, and to give the
+Catholic party greater weight in the state. Huntly's eldest son, the Lord
+Gordon, was also implicated in Arran's confession. A few days before the
+whole of these plans were to be carried into execution, the weak and
+vacillating Arran, according to his own declaration, had been seized with
+remorse of conscience; and, actuated by his ancient friendship for Mar,
+and his love for the Queen, determined on disclosing every thing.
+
+Historians seem to have been puzzled, what degree of dependence they
+should place upon the truth of this strange story, told by one who was
+already half crazed, and soon afterwards altogether insane. That there is
+good reason, however, for giving credit to his assertions, is evident,
+from the manner in which all contemporary writers speak, and the fact,
+that the Queen sent both him and Bothwell to prison. When the affair was
+further investigated, it was found to involve so many of the first
+nobility of the land, and among others, Arran's own father,
+Chaltelherault, whom he could never be expected publicly to accuse, that
+Mary resolved not to push matters to extremity against any one. She
+ordered the Duke of Chatelherault, however, to deliver up the Castle of
+Dumbarton; and, at the Earl of Mar's instigation, she kept Bothwell a
+prisoner, first in the Castle of St Andrews, and afterwards in that of
+Edinburgh, until he made his escape, and left the country for upwards of
+two years. It is remarkable, that this conspiracy should not have been
+hitherto dwelt upon at greater length, tending as it does to develope the
+secret motives by which the Earl of Mar was actuated in his subsequent
+feuds with the Earl of Huntly.[55] It is worth recollecting too, though
+the fact has not been previously noticed, that this was the _first_
+occasion on which Bothwell aimed at making himself master of the Queen's
+person. The design, though unsuccessful, shows the spirit which long
+continued to actuate him. Had Mary fallen into his hands at this period,
+it is not likely that she would ever have had it in her power to marry
+Darnley, and the whole complexion of her fate might have been changed.
+
+In February 1562, Mary gave a series of splendid entertainments, on the
+occasion of the marriage of her favourite brother, James. He was then in
+the thirty-first year of his age, and chose for his wife Lady Agnes Keith,
+eldest daughter of the Earl of Marschal. The marriage was solemnized in
+the church of St Giles; and Knox took advantage of the occasion, to offer
+the Lord James a wholesome, but somewhat curiously expressed advice;
+"for," said the preacher to him, "unto this day has the kirk of God
+received comfort by you, and by your labours; in the which, if hereafter
+you shall be found fainter than you were before, it will be said that your
+wife has changed your nature." Knox and his friends were subsequently much
+scandalized by "the greatness of the banquetting, and the vanity thereof,"
+which characterized the honeymoon. The issue of this marriage was three
+daughters, two of whom married Scotch noblemen, and the third died
+young.[56]
+
+In August 1562, Mary commenced the progress into the North, which, in so
+far as some of her principal nobility were concerned, was attended with
+such very important consequences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MARY'S EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH.
+
+
+The Lord James, now Earl of Mar, had for some time felt, that so long as
+he was regarded with suspicion by the Hamiltons, and with ill-concealed
+hatred by the Earl of Huntly and the Gordons, his power could not be so
+stable, nor his influence so extensive, as he desired. If it is true that
+he had already proposed to Mary to set aside the succession of the Earl of
+Arran, it is equally true that she had refused his request. Foiled,
+therefore, in this, his more ambitious aim, he saw the necessity of
+limiting, in the meantime, to more moderate bounds, his views of personal
+preferment. With regard to the Hamiltons, he had succeeded in securing
+their banishment from court, and in making them objects of suspicion and
+dislike to the Queen. There was not indeed sufficient talent in the family
+ever to have made it formidable to him, had it not been that it was of the
+blood royal. Though not possessing this advantage, the Gordons were always
+looked upon by Mar as more dangerous rivals. He had long nursed a secret
+desire, at least to weaken, if not to crush altogether, the power of
+Huntly. In getting himself created Earl of Mar, he had made one step
+towards his object. The lands which went along with this title were part
+of the royal demesnes; but had for some time been held in fee by the Earls
+of Huntly. Her brother had prevailed upon Mary to recall them in his
+favour, and he was thus able to set himself down in the very heart of a
+country, which had hitherto acknowledged no master who did not belong to
+the house of Gordon. Huntly felt this encroachment bitterly; and it makes
+it the more probable, that he had secretly joined with Arran in his plot
+upon Mar; at any rate Mar gave him full credit for having done so. Their
+mutual animosity being thus exasperated, to the highest pitch, Huntly left
+the Court, and the Prime Minister waited anxiously for the first
+opportunity that might occur, to humble effectually the great leader of
+the Catholics.
+
+In prosecution of his purpose, Mar now obtained a grant under the Privy
+Seal of the earldom of Murray. A grant under the Privy Seal constituted
+only an inchoate, not a complete title. To ratify the grant and make it
+legal, it was necessary to have the Great Seal also affixed to it. The
+Great Seal, however, was in the custody of Huntly, as Lord Chancellor; and
+as Mar well knew that the grant of this second earldom infringed upon
+Huntly's rights even more than the former, he saw the propriety of keeping
+it secret for some time. The earldom of Murray, which, with its lands and
+appurtenances, was bestowed upon Huntly in 1549, for his services in the
+war with England, had been again recalled by the Crown in 1554, when
+Huntly fell into the displeasure of the Queen-Regent, in consequence of
+having refused to punish with fire and sword some Highland rebels. But in
+1559, the title and lands were restored, not as a free grant, but as a
+lease during five years, to Huntly, his wife and heirs, on the condition
+of a yearly payment of 2500 merks Scots. Till 1564, therefore, Huntly was
+entitled to consider himself master of all the lands and revenues of this
+earldom. But in 1561, the title and lands were privately conferred upon
+the Earl of Mar. It is true, that he might have applied thus early only to
+prevent himself from being anticipated, and might not have intended to
+encroach on Huntly's rights before the legal period of his enjoying them
+had expired. The advantage, however, he so eagerly took of an incident
+that occurred in the month of June 1562, proves that Mar had never any
+intention to keep his title to the earldom of Murray locked up for three
+years.[57]
+
+The father of James, Lord Ogilvy, had married one of the Earl of Huntly's
+sisters, who gave her some lands in liferent as her dowry. Upon her
+husband's death, considerations induced her to surrender the liferent to
+her brother, and the Earl then gave it to his son, Sir John Gordon. But
+Lord Ogilvy was displeased with his mother's conduct, and questioned its
+legality. The matter, however, was decided against him, though not before
+it had occasioned much bad blood between him and Sir John Gordon. These
+two noblemen unfortunately met on the streets of Edinburgh; and though Sir
+John had married Ogilvy's sister, all ties of relationship were
+disregarded, and an affray took place, in which both were assisted by
+their respective servants. It does not exactly appear who was the
+aggressor in this scuffle, but, from the circumstances which led to it,
+the probability is, that it was Ogilvy. Both noblemen were severely
+wounded; and the magistrates, enraged at their breach of the peace,
+committed them to prison.[58] Mary with her Court was at Stirling, but the
+Earl of Mar obtained permission to depart for Edinburgh, to examine into
+the whole affair. The son of the Earl of Huntly was now within his power,
+and he saw the advantages which might be made to accrue to himself in
+consequence. After examination, he ordered the Lord Ogilvy and his
+retainers to be set at liberty, but Sir John Gordon he sent to the common
+gaol. Sir John, not liking to trust himself in such hands, made his
+escape, after remaining in prison for about a month, and proceeded to his
+father's house in the North to recite to him his grievances.[59]
+
+Such being the state of feeling subsisting between the Queen's prime
+minister and these great Northern chieftains, it can scarcely be allowed
+that Robertson expresses himself correctly when he says, "The Queen
+_happened_ to set out on a progress into the northern parts of the
+kingdom." Her motions were at this time entirely regulated by the Earl of
+Mar, who, seeing the contempt which had been offered to her authority by
+the flight of his son, felt satisfied that Mary could not pass through the
+extensive territories of Huntly, without either giving or receiving some
+additional cause of offence, which would in all probability lead to
+consequences favourable to Mar's ambition. Unless this hypothesis be
+adopted, no rational cause can be assigned why the Queen should have
+chosen this particular season for her visit to the North. From the recent
+suspicion which had attached to the Earl of Huntly, as one of Arran's
+colleagues in a conspiracy against her favourite minister, and the still
+more recent conduct of his son Sir John Gordon, she certainly could have
+no intention to pay that family the compliment of honouring them with her
+royal presence as a guest. North of Aberdeen, however, nearly the whole
+country was subservient to Huntly; and if Mary did not pass through it as
+a friend, she must as an enemy. This was the consideration that prompted
+the Earl of Mar to fix this year for the expedition. It was owing to
+negociations with Elizabeth, concerning a personal interview between the
+two Queens, that Mary was unable to set out till towards the middle of
+August.
+
+The Queen left Edinburgh on horseback, as usual, attended by a very
+considerable train. Among others, four members of her Privy Council went
+with her,--the Earls of Argyle, Morton, Marschall, and Mar,--the three
+first of whom had no particular liking for Huntly, and were, besides,
+entirely under the direction of the last. Randolph also attended the
+Queen in this journey, and furnishes some details concerning it. On the
+18th of August, 1562, she left Stirling; and, after a disagreeable and
+fatiguing journey, arrived at Old Aberdeen on the 27th. Here she remained
+for several days, and all the nobility in these parts came to pay their
+homage to her. Among the rest were the Earl and Countess of Huntly, who
+entreated her to honour them with a visit at Huntly Castle, informing her
+that they had endeavoured to make suitable preparations for her
+entertainment. Mary, at Mar's instigation of course, (for, as far as her
+own feelings were concerned, she must have looked with favour upon the
+first Catholic Peer of the realm), received them coldly. This was but a
+poor return for Huntly's long tried fidelity to herself and family; for,
+whatever quarrels he may have had with the nobility, he had always
+preserved inviolate his respect for the royal prerogative. His son, Sir
+John Gordon, also came to Aberdeen, and surrendered himself to the Queen,
+to be dealt with as her justice might direct. He was neither tried nor
+taken into custody; but, with more refined policy, he was ordered by Mar,
+and the rest of the Queen's Council, to proceed voluntarily to Stirling
+Castle, and there deliver himself, as a prisoner, to the keeper, Lord
+Erskine, Mar's uncle. It was, no doubt, foreseen that this order, so
+disproportioned in its severity to the offence which occasioned it, would
+not be complied with, nor was it wished that it should. Guided by similar
+advice, Mary refused to visit the residence of the Earl of Huntly,--a
+refusal which was pathetically lamented by Randolph, as it was "within
+three miles of her way, and the fairest house in this country." We learn
+from the same authority, that there was such a scarcity of accommodation,
+in Old Aberdeen, that Randolph, and Maitland the secretary, who had
+recently returned from England, were obliged to sleep together in the same
+bed. This is, perhaps, rendered the less remarkable, when we are informed
+that there were, at the University, only fifteen or sixteen scholars.
+
+On the 1st of September, Mary left Aberdeen for Inverness; but, in the
+interval, the Earl of Mar, perceiving that there might be some occasion
+for their services, had collected a pretty strong body of men, who marched
+forward with the Queen and her train. In journeying northwards, she
+travelled by Rothiemay, Grange, Balvenie, and Elgin, passing very near the
+Earl of Huntly's castle. No entreaty would induce her to enter it; but she
+permitted the Earl of Argyle and Randolph to partake of its hospitality
+for two days. "The Earl of Huntly's house," says Randolph, "is the best
+furnished that I have seen in this country. His cheer is marvellous great;
+his mind then, such, as it appeared to us, _as ought to be, in any
+subject, to his sovereign_." On the 8th of September, Mary went from Elgin
+to Tarnaway, the baronial residence of the earldom of Murray, and at that
+time in possession of a tenant of the Earl of Huntly. Information being
+there received that Sir John Gordon's friends and vassals, exasperated at
+the over-degree of rigour with which he was treated, were assembling in
+arms; and that Sir John, instead of going to Stirling, had joined the
+rebels, a proclamation was issued, charging him to surrender, by way of
+forfeit, into the Queen's hands, his houses and fortresses of Findlater
+and Auchindoune. This proclamation was expressed with a bitterness which
+must only have enraged the discontents the more. It required the surrender
+of these strongholds, with the avowed intention of breaking the power of
+the rebels, and in consideration of her Majesty having heard "the many
+grievous complaints of the poor people of this country, hearing them to be
+_herreit_ (robbed) and oppressed by him and his accomplices, in times
+by-past; and fearing the like, or worse, should be done in time coming."
+The same proclamation described Sir John Gordon's wife as "Lady Findlater,
+his _pretended_ spouse."[60]
+
+Fearing that even all this might not be enough to induce Huntly to take
+such steps as might be plausibly construed into treason, Mar now, for the
+first time, produced his title to the Earldom of Murray, and assumed the
+name. The only meeting of council held north of Aberdeen was at Tarnaway,
+and at the first council after the Queen had returned to Aberdeen, we find
+Mar's name changed to that of Murray. Robertson, who has followed
+Buchanan's, or in other words Murray's own account of the transactions in
+the North, in referring Mar's assumption of the Earldom of Murray to a
+later date, forgets that it must have been sanctioned by Mary and her
+Council; and that the only opportunity for doing so, in the interval of
+their departure from, and return to Aberdeen, was at Tarnaway.[61]
+
+This new insult upon himself and family was, as Murray expected, deeply
+felt by the Earl of Huntly. He began to suspect that it was intended to
+ruin him; and in this extremity, with evident reluctance, he prepared to
+defend himself. Mary, meanwhile, marched forward to Inverness. "On her
+arrival," says Robertson, "the commanding officer in the Castle, _by
+Huntly's orders_, shut the gates against her." The gates were shut, but
+certainly not by Huntly's orders; for as soon as he heard that the Castle
+had been summoned, he sent his express commands to the governor (who had
+acted upon his own responsibility) to surrender it. These commands,
+however, came too late; the Castle had been taken by storm, and the
+governor put to death. What right the Earl of Murray, or even the Queen
+herself, had to demand the surrender of the castle, which belonged
+hereditarily to Lord George Gordon, the Earl of Huntly's eldest son, does
+not appear. As Chalmers remarks, the whole proceeding seems to have been
+illegal and unwarrantable. Huntly, who was on his way to Inverness, to
+attempt an arrangement of these disputes, by a personal interview with the
+Queen, when he heard of the execution of the governor, returned to his
+castle.[62]
+
+The Gordons were now fairly roused; and, collecting their followers, they
+determined to act resolutely, but not as aggressors. Mary was made to
+believe that she was in the midst of a hostile country; and though there
+was, in reality no intention to attack her, every means was taken to
+inspire her with fear, and to convince her of the treacherous designs of
+the Earl of Huntly. But Mary, had a courageous spirit, when it was
+necessary to exert it. "In all those garbrilles," says Randolph, "I never
+saw the Queen moved,--never dismayed; nor never thought I that stomach to
+be in her that I find. She repented nothing, but when the Lords and others
+at Inverness came in the morning from the watch; that she was not a man,
+to know what life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk upon
+the causeway with a jack and knapsack, a Glasgow buckler and a
+broadsword."
+
+On the 15th of September, the Queen returned southwards. She had with her
+about two thousand men, and as she advanced, their number increased to
+3000. She marched by Kilravock and Tarnaway, to Spynie Castle. Thence, she
+proceeded through the country of the Gordons, crossing the Spey at
+Fochabers, and going by the way of Cullen and Banff. Throughout the whole
+course of this march, Murray took care to make her believe that she was in
+danger of being attacked every moment. If there had been any enemy to
+fight with, "what desperate blows," says Randolph, "would not have been
+given, when every man should have fought in the sight of so noble a Queen,
+and so many fair ladies!" The only incidents which seem to have occurred,
+were summonses to surrender, given by sound of trumpet at Findlater House,
+and at Deckford, mansions of Sir John Gordon. The keepers of both refused;
+but they were not acting upon their master's authority. Having slept a
+night at the Laird of Banff's house, Mary returned, on the 22d of
+September, to Aberdeen. Her entry into the New Town, was celebrated by
+the inhabitants with every demonstration of respect. Spectacles, plays,
+and interludes were devised; a richly wrought silver cup, with 500 crowns
+in it, was presented to her; and wine, coals, and wax, were sent in great
+abundance to her lodgings.
+
+But the Earl of Murray, was not yet satisfied that he had humbled the
+Gordons enough. It was true, that the lands of Sir John had been
+forfeited,--that the castle of Lord George had been captured,--and that
+the title and estates of the earldom of Murray had been wrested from
+Huntly. But Huntly's power still remained nearly as great as ever; and it
+seemed doubtful whether Murray would ever be able to seat himself quietly
+in his new possessions, situated as they were in the very heart of the
+Earl's domains. The privy council were therefore prevailed upon to come to
+the resolution that the Earl of Huntly, in the language of Randolph,
+"shall either submit himself, and deliver his disobedient son John, or
+utterly to use all force against him, _for the subversion of his house for
+ever_." To enforce this determination, Murray levied soldiers, and sent
+into Lothian and Fife for officers in whom he could place confidence,
+particularly Lindsay and Grange. With what show of reason the unfortunate
+Huntly could be subjected to so severe a fate, it is difficult to say. He
+had come to offer his obedience and hospitality to the Queen, on her first
+arrival at Aberdeen;--he remained perfectly quiet during her journey
+through that part of the country which was subject to him;--he sent to
+her, after she returned to Aberdeen, the keys of the Houses of Findlater
+and Deckford, which she had summoned unsuccessfully on her march from
+Cullen to Banff;--and he delivered to her, out of his own castle, a
+field-piece which the Regent Arran had long ago given to him, and which
+Mary now demanded. He added, that "not only that, which was her own, but
+also his body and goods, were at her Grace's commands."[63] His wife, the
+Countess of Huntly, led Captain Hay, the person sent for the cannon, into
+the chapel at her castle, and placing herself at the altar, said to
+him,--"Good friend, you see here the envy that is borne unto my husband.
+Would he have forsaken God and his religion as those that are now about
+the Queen's grace, and have the whole guiding of her, have done, my
+husband had never been put at as now he is. God, and He that is upon this
+holy altar, whom I believe in, will, I am sure, preserve, and let our true
+meaning hearts be known; and as I have said unto you, so, I pray you, let
+it be said unto your mistress. My husband was ever obedient unto her, and
+so will die her faithful subject."[64]
+
+That Mary should have given her sanction to these iniquitous proceedings,
+can only be accounted for by supposing, what was in truth the case, that
+she was kept in ignorance of every thing tending to exculpate Huntly,
+whilst various means were invented to inspire her with a belief, that he
+had conceived, and was intent upon executing a diabolical plot against
+herself and government. It was given out, that his object was to seize
+upon the Queen's person,--to marry her by force to his son Sir John
+Gordon,--and to cut off Murray, Morton, and Maitland, his principal
+enemies.[65] Influenced by these misrepresentations, which would have been
+smiled at in later times, but which, in those days, were taken more
+seriously, the Queen put the fate of Huntly into the hands of Murray. Soon
+after her return to Aberdeen, an expedition was secretly prepared against
+Huntly's castle. If resistance was offered, the troops sent for the
+purpose were to take it by force, and if admitted without opposition, they
+were to bring Huntly, a prisoner to Aberdeen. Intimation, however, of this
+enterprise and its object was conveyed to the Earl, and he contrived to
+baffle its success. His wife received the party with all hospitality;
+threw open her doors, and entreated that they would examine the whole
+premises, to ascertain whether they afforded any ground of suspicion. But
+Huntly himself, took care to be out of the way, having retired to
+Badenoch.[66]
+
+Thus foiled again, Murray, on the 15th of October, called a Privy Council,
+at which he got it declared, that unless Huntly appeared on the following
+day before her Majesty, "to answer to such things as are to lay to his
+charge," he should be put to the horn for his contempt of her authority,
+and "his houses, strengths, and friends, taken from him."[67] However
+willing he might have been to have ventured thus into the lion's den,
+Huntly could not possibly have appeared within the time appointed. On the
+17th of October, he was therefore denounced a rebel in terms of the
+previous proclamation, and his lands and titles declared forfeited.[68]
+Even yet, however, Huntly acted with forbearance. He sent his Countess to
+Aberdeen on the 20th, who requested admission to the Queen's presence,
+that she might make manifest her husband's innocence. So far from
+obtaining an audience, this lady, who was respected and loved over the
+whole country, was not allowed to come within two miles of the Court, and
+she returned home with a heavy heart. As a last proof of his fidelity,
+Huntly sent a messenger to Aberdeen, offering to enter into ward till his
+cause might be tried by the whole nobility. Even this offer was rejected;
+and, goaded into madness, the unfortunate Earl at length collected his
+followers round him, and, raising the standard of rebellion, not against
+the Queen, but against Murray, advanced suddenly upon Aberdeen.
+
+This resolute proceeding excited considerable alarm at Court. Murray,
+however, had foreseen the probability of such a step being ultimately
+taken, and had been busy collecting forces sufficient to repel the attack.
+A number of the neighbouring nobility had joined him, who, not penetrating
+the prime minister's real motives, were not displeased to see so proud and
+powerful an earldom as that of Huntly likely to fall to pieces. On the
+28th of October, Murray marched out of Aberdeen at the head of about 2000
+men. He found Huntly advantageously stationed at Corrachie, a village
+about fifteen miles from Aberdeen. Huntly's force was much inferior to
+that of Murray, scarcely exceeding 500 men. Indeed, it seems doubtful,
+whether he had advanced so much for the purpose of fighting, as for the
+sake of giving greater weight to his demands, to be admitted into the
+presence of the Queen, who, he always maintained, had been misled by false
+council. Perceiving the approach, however, of his inveterate enemy Murray,
+and considering the superiority of his own position on the hill of Fare,
+he relinquished all idea of retreat, and determined, at any risk to
+accept the battle which was offered him. The contest was of short
+duration. The broadswords of the Highlanders, even had the numbers been
+more equal, would have been no match for the spears and regular discipline
+of Murray's Lowland troops. Their followers fled; but the Earl of Huntly
+and his two sons, Sir John Gordon and Adam, a youth of seventeen,
+disdaining to give ground, were taken prisoners. The Earl, who was
+advanced in life, was no sooner set upon horseback, to be carried
+triumphantly into Aberdeen, than the thoughts of the ruin which was now
+brought upon himself and his family overwhelmed him; and, without speaking
+a word, or receiving a blow, he fell dead from his horse.[69]
+
+Sir John Gordon who was pronounced the author of all these troubles,
+having been marched into Aberdeen, was tried, condemned, and executed. He
+may have been an enemy of Murray's, but so far from being a traitor to the
+Queen, he was one of the most devoted admirers and attached subjects she
+ever had. Yet Murray took care to have it reported, that Sir John, before
+he was beheaded, confessed, that if his father had taken Aberdeen, he was
+determined to have "burned the Queen, and as many as were in the house
+with her."[70] So palpable a falsehood throws additional light upon the
+motives which instigated the prime minister throughout. With a refinement
+of cruelty, he insisted upon Mary giving her public countenance to his
+proceedings, by consenting to be present at Gordon's death. She was placed
+at a window, opposite to which the scaffold had been erected. Gordon, who
+was one of the handsomest men of his times, observed her, and fixing his
+eyes upon her, "gave her to understand by his looks," says Freebairn,
+"that her presence sweetened the death he was going to suffer only for
+loving her too well." He then fell upon his knees, and prepared to lay his
+head upon the block. Mary, totally unable to stand this scene, was already
+suffused in tears; and when she was informed that the unskilful official,
+instead of striking off the head, had only mangled the neck, she fainted
+away, and it was some time before she could be recovered.[71] Adam Gordon
+was indebted to his youth for saving him from his brother's fate. He lived
+to be, as his father had been, one of Mary's most faithful servants. Lord
+Gordon, the late Earl's eldest son, who was with his father-in-law, the
+Duke of Chatelherault, at Hamilton, was soon afterwards seized and
+committed to prison, Murray finding it convenient to declare him
+implicated in the Earl's guilt. Having remained under arrest for some
+months, he was tried and found guilty, but the execution of his sentence
+was left at the Queen's pleasure. She sent him to Dunbar Castle; and as
+Murray could not prevail upon her to sign the death-warrant, he had
+recourse to forgery; and had the keeper of the castle not discovered the
+deceit, the Lord Gordon's fate would have been sealed. Mary was content
+with keeping him prisoner, till a change in her administration restored
+him to favour, and to the forfeited estates and honours of his father.
+
+One other incident connected with these tragical events is worth
+recording. Means having been taken for the preservation of Huntly's body,
+it was sent by sea to Leith, and lay for several months at Holyroodhouse.
+In the Parliament which met in May 1563, these melancholy remains were
+produced, to have sentence of forfeiture pronounced against them. To
+obviate if possible this additional calamity, the Countess of Huntly,
+widow of the deceased, appeared before the Parliament, and with the spirit
+of a Gordon requested to be heard in her late husband's defence. The
+request was refused; Huntly's castles and houses were rifled of their
+property, his friends and vassals fined, and many escheats granted to
+those who had assisted in crushing this once noble family.[72]
+
+Murray having now no farther occasion for the Queen's presence at
+Aberdeen, the Court moved southwards on the 5th of November. On her way
+home, she visited Dunottar Castle, Montrose, Arbroath, Dundee, Stirling,
+and Linlithgow. She arrived at Edinburgh on the 22d, having been absent
+upwards of three months. It is much to be regretted, that she ever
+undertook this northern expedition. Though she had little or no share in
+its guilt, she had allowed herself to be made an effectual tool in the
+hands of Murray, who was now more powerful than any minister of Mary's
+ought to have been. He had forced the Earl of Bothwell into exile; he had
+brought the Duke of Chatelherault and Arran into disgrace; and having
+accomplished the death of the courageous Huntly, he had obtained for
+himself and friends the greater part of that nobleman's princely estates
+and titles. Besides, he was more popular among the Reformers than ever,
+for the destruction of the Gordon family had been long wished for by them.
+In short, though without the name, he was the King of Scotland, and his
+sister Mary was his subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+CHATELARD'S IMPRUDENT ATTACHMENT, AND KNOX'S PERSEVERING HATRED.
+
+
+Mary returned from her Northern expedition towards the conclusion of the
+year 1562. The two following years, 1563 and 1564, undistinguished as they
+were by any political events of importance, were the quietest and happiest
+she spent in Scotland. Her moderation and urbanity had endeared her to her
+people; and, in her own well regulated mind, existed a spring of pure and
+abiding satisfaction. Nevertheless, vexations of various sorts mingled
+their bitterness in her cup of sweets. An occurrence which took place
+early in 1563, demands our attention first.
+
+The poet Chatelard has been already mentioned as one of those who sailed
+in Mary's train, when she came from the continent. He had attached himself
+to the future Constable of France, the Duke Danville, and was a gentleman
+of good family and fortune, being by the mother's side the grand-nephew of
+the celebrated Chevalier Bayard. The manly beauty of his person was not
+unlike that of his ancestor; and, besides being well versed in all the
+more active accomplishments of the day, he had softened and refined his
+manners by an ardent cultivation of every species of belles-lettres. It
+was this latter circumstance that gained for him the occasional favourable
+notice of Mary. A poetess herself, as much by nature as by study, her
+heart warmed towards those who indulged in the same delightful art.
+Chatelard wrote both in French and Italian; and, finding that Mary deigned
+to read and admire his productions, he seems thenceforth to have made her
+the only theme of his enamoured and too presumptuous Muse. To the Queen
+this was no uncommon compliment. She received it, gracefully, and
+sometimes even amused herself with answering Chatelard's effusions. This
+condescension almost turned the young poet's brain. He had left Scotland
+with the Duke Danville, and Mary's other French friends, at the end of the
+year 1561; but he eagerly seized the opportunity afforded him, by the
+civil wars in France, to return before twelve months had elapsed. The Duke
+Danville sent him to Mary's court, there is every reason to believe, to
+press upon her attention once more his own pretensions to her hand. But
+Chatelard, in the indulgence of his mad passion, forgot the duty he owed
+his master; and, for every word he spoke in prose for the Duke, he spoke
+in verse twenty for himself. Mary, long accustomed to this species of
+adulation, and looking upon flattery as a part of a poet's profession,
+smiled at the more extravagant flights of his imagination, and forgot them
+as soon as heard. These smiles, however, were fatal to Chatelard. "They
+tempted him," says Brantome, "to aspire, like Phaeton, at ascending the
+chariot of the sun." In February 1563, he had the audacity to steal into
+the Queen's bedchamber, armed with sword and dagger, and attempted to
+conceal himself till Mary should retire to rest. He was discovered by her
+maids of honour; and Mary, though much enraged at his conduct, was
+unwilling, for a first offence, to surrender him to that punishment which
+she knew would be inflicted were it known to her Privy Council. She was
+contented with reprimanding him severely, and ordering him from her
+presence.
+
+This leniency was thrown away upon the infatuated Chatelard. Only two
+nights afterwards, the Queen having, in the interval, left Edinburgh for
+St Andrews, he again committed the same offence. As she went to St Andrews
+by the circuitous route of the Queensferry, she slept the first night at
+Dumfermline, and the second at Burntisland. Here Chatelard insolently
+followed the Queen into her bedroom, without attempting any concealment,
+and assigned, as the motive for his conduct, his desire to clear himself
+from the blame she had formerly imputed to him. Mary commanded him to
+leave her immediately, but he refused; upon which she saw the necessity of
+calling for assistance. The Earl of Murray was at hand, and came
+instantly. The daring boldness of Chatelard's conduct could no longer be
+concealed; the proper legal authorities were sent for from Edinburgh; the
+poet was tried at St Andrews, and was condemned to death. He was executed
+on the 22d of February, and conducted himself bravely, but as a confirmed
+enthusiast, even on the scaffold. He would not avail himself of the
+spiritual advice of any minister or confessor; but having read Ronsard's
+Hymn on Death, he turned towards the place where he supposed the Queen
+was, and exclaimed in an unfaltering voice, "Farewell, loveliest and most
+cruel Princess whom the world contains!" He then, with the utmost
+composure, laid his head upon the block, and submitted, with all
+resignation, to his fate.[73]
+
+Mary remained at St Andrews till the middle of April, when she removed to
+Loch Leven, where she had better opportunities of enjoying her favourite
+amusements of hunting and hawking. She went thither in considerable grief,
+occasioned by the news she had lately received from France, of the death
+of two of her uncles, the Duke of Guise, and the Grand Prior. The former
+had been barbarously assassinated at the siege of Orleans, by a Protestant
+bigot of the name of Poltrot; and the latter had been fatally wounded at
+the battle of Dreux. Alluding triumphantly to the murder of the Duke of
+Guise, Knox expressed himself in these words, "_God_ has stricken that
+bloody tyrant." This enmity to the House of Guise, which Knox carried even
+beyond the grave, was now no novelty. Some months before, he had taken
+occasion to preach a severe sermon against Mary and her friends, in
+consequence of an entertainment she gave at Holyrood, upon receiving news
+of her uncles' successes in the French civil wars. Mary had, in
+consequence, sent for Knox a second time, when he repeated to her the
+principal part of his sermon, in a manner which made it appear not quite
+so obnoxious as she had been induced to believe. She had then the
+magnanimity to tell him, that though his words were sharp, she would not
+blame him for having no good opinion of her uncles, as they and he were of
+a different religion. She only wished that he would not publicly
+misrepresent them, without sufficient evidence upon which to ground his
+charges. Knox left Mary, "with a reasonable merry countenance," and some
+one observing it, remarked, "He is not afraid!" Knox's answer is
+characteristic, and does him credit, "Why should the pleasing face of a
+gentlewoman affray me? I have looked in the faces of many angry men, and
+yet have not been afraid above measure."
+
+The third time that Knox was admitted into Mary's presence was at Loch
+Leven. This, as indeed every interview she had with the celebrated
+Reformer, and she had only four, exhibits her character in a very
+favourable point of view. It appears, that whilst the Queen reserved for
+herself the right of celebrating mass in her own chapel, it was prohibited
+throughout the rest of the kingdom. Some instances had occurred in which
+this prohibition had been disregarded; and upon these occasions the
+over-zealous Protestants had not scrupled to take the law into their own
+hands. Mary wished to convince Knox of the impropriety of this
+interference. He thought it necessary to defend his brethren; but his
+answer to the Queen's simple question,--"Will ye allow that they shall
+take my sword in their hands?"--though laboured, is quite inconclusive.
+That "the sword of justice is God's," may be a very good apopthegm, but
+would be a dangerous precept upon which to form a practical rule in the
+government of a state. Mary, however, knowing by experience that it was
+hopeless to attempt to change Knox's sentiments, and not wishing to enter
+into an argument with him, passed to other matters. Though she disliked
+the rudeness of his manners, she had a respect for the unbending Stoicism
+of his principles; and having too much good sense to hold any one
+responsible for the peculiarities of his belief, she could not help
+persuading herself, that she would finally soften the asperity of those
+with whom she disagreed, only upon articles of faith. With this view, she
+conversed with Knox upon various confidential matters, and actually did
+succeed in winning for the moment the personal favour of her stern
+adversary. "This interview," observes Dr M'Crie, "shows how far Mary was
+capable of dissembling, what artifice she could employ, and what
+condescensions she could make, when she was bent on accomplishing a
+favourite object." There is something very uncharitable in the
+construction thus put upon the Queen's conduct. She had, no doubt, a
+favourite object in view; but that object was mutual reconcilement, and
+the establishment, as far as in her lay, of reciprocal feelings of
+forbearance and good will among all classes of her subjects. The
+"artifice" she used, consisted merely in the urbanity of her manners, and
+her determination to avoid all violence, in return for the violence which
+had been exhibited towards herself.
+
+Soon after this conference, Mary went to Edinburgh, to open in person the
+first Parliament which had been held since her return to Scotland. Its
+session continued only from the 26th of May, to the 24th of June 1563; but
+during that short period, business of some importance was transacted. The
+Queen on the first day rode to the Parliament House in her robes of
+state,--the Duke of Chatelherault carrying the crown, the Earl of Argyle
+the sceptre, and the Earl of Murray the sword.[74] She was present on
+three or four occasions afterwards; but on the first day she made a
+speech to the representatives of her people, which was received with
+enthusiastic applause. This applause was wormwood to Knox, who, with even
+more than his usual discourtesy towards a sex whom he seems to have
+despised, says,--"Such stinking pride of women as was seen at that
+Parliament, was never before seen in Scotland." He was heartily borne out
+in his vituperations by the rest of the preachers. The rich attire which
+Mary and the ladies of her court chose to wear, were abominations in their
+eyes. They held forth to their respective flocks against the "superfluity
+of their clothes," the "targeting of their tails," and "the rest of their
+vanity." It was enough, they said, "to draw down God's wrath not only upon
+these foolish women, but upon the whole realm." At this Parliament the
+Earldoms of Huntly and Sutherland were declared forfeited; an act was
+passed for preventing any one from summoning the lieges together without
+the Queen's consent; some judicious legislative measures of a domestic
+nature were established; and an act of oblivion for all acts done from the
+6th of March 1558, to the first of September 1561, was unanimously
+carried. This act of oblivion was declared to have no reference whatever
+to a similar act sanctioned by the Treaty of Edinburgh, the ratification
+of which was expressly avoided by the Queen. Its object, how--was
+precisely the same,--namely, to secure the Reformers against any
+disagreeable consequences which might arise out of the violences they
+committed during the first heat of the Reformation.
+
+An act of oblivion thus obtained as a free gift from Mary, and not as a
+consequence of his favourite Treaty of Edinburgh, was by no means
+agreeable to Knox. He assembled some of the leading Members of Parliament,
+and urged upon them the necessity of forcing from the Queen a ratification
+of this treaty. Even the Protestant Lords, however, felt how unjust such a
+demand would be. The Earl of Murray himself, one of Knox's oldest and
+staunchest friends, refused to ask Mary to take this step. Knox, in
+consequence, solemnly renounced Murray's friendship, and a coldness
+subsisted between them for nearly two years. Foiled in his object, the
+Reformer had recourse to his usual mode of revenge. He preached another
+"thundering sermon." The object of this sermon was to convince the people,
+that as soon as a Parliament was assembled, they had the Queen in their
+power to make her do what they chose. "And is this the thankfulness that
+ye render unto your God," said he, "to betray his cause, when ye have it
+in your hands to establish it as you please?" Before concluding, he
+adverted to the report that her Majesty would soon be married, and called
+upon the nobility, if they regarded the safety of their country, to
+prevent her from forming an alliance with a Papist.
+
+"Protestants as well as Papists," says Knox's biographer, "were offended
+with the freedom of this sermon, and some who had been most familiar with
+the preacher, now shunned his company." There must have been something
+more than usually bitter and unjust in a discourse which produced such
+results. It was the occasion of the last and most memorable interview
+which the Reformer had with Mary. As soon as she was made acquainted with
+the manner in which he had attacked her, she summoned him to her presence.
+He was accompanied to the palace by Lord Ochiltree, and some other
+gentlemen; but John Erskine of Dun, a man of a mild and gentle temper, was
+the only one allowed to enter Mary's apartment along with Knox. The
+Reformer found his Queen in considerable agitation. She told him she did
+not believe any prince had ever submitted to the usage she had experienced
+from him. "I have borne with you," she said, "in all your rigorous manner
+of speaking, both against myself, and against my uncles; yea, I have
+sought your favour by all possible means; I offered unto ye presence and
+audience whensoever it pleased ye to admonish me; and yet I cannot be quit
+of you." She then passionately burst into tears, so that, as Knox says
+with apparent satisfaction, they could scarce "get handkerchiefs to hold
+her eyes dry; for the tears and the howling, besides womanly weeping,
+stayed her speech." The preacher, when he was allowed to speak,
+complacently assured her Majesty that when it pleased God to deliver her
+from that bondage of darkness and error wherein she had been nourished,
+she would not find the liberty of his tongue offensive. He added, that in
+the pulpit he was not his own master, but the servant of Him who commanded
+that he should speak plain, and flatter no flesh upon the face of the
+earth. Mary told him that she did not wish for his flattery, but begged to
+know what rank he held in the kingdom to entitle him to interfere with her
+marriage. Knox, whose self-esteem seldom forsook him, replied, that though
+neither an Earl, Lord, nor Baron, he was a profitable and useful member of
+the commonwealth, and that it became him to teach her nobility, who were
+too partial towards her, their duty. "Therefore, Madam," he continued, "to
+yourself I say that which I spake in public: whensoever the nobility of
+this realm shall be content, and consent that you be subject to an
+unlawful husband, they do as much as in them lies to remove Christ, to
+banish the truth, to betray the freedom of this realm, and perchance shall
+in the end do small comfort to yourself." Language so unwarranted and
+uncalled for again drew tears from Mary, and Erskine, affected by her
+grief, attempted to soften down its harshness. Knox looked on with an
+unaltered countenance, and comparing his Sovereign to his own children,
+when he saw occasion to chastise them, he said,--"Madam, in God's presence
+I speak. I never delighted in the weeping of any of God's creatures; yea,
+I can scarcely well abide the tears of mine own boys, when mine own hands
+correct them. Much less can I rejoice in your Majesty's weeping; but,
+seeing I have offered unto ye no just occasion to be offended, but have
+spoken the truth as my vocation craves of me, I must sustain your
+Majesty's tears, rather than dare hurt my conscience, or betray the
+commonwealth by silence." That he might not be longer under the necessity
+of sustaining tears he could so ill abide, Mary commanded him to leave
+her presence, and wait her pleasure in the adjoining room.
+
+Here his friends who were expecting him, and who had overheard some of the
+conversation which had just taken place, perceiving how much he had
+excited the Queen's just indignation, would hardly acknowledge him. In his
+own words, "he stood as one whom men had never seen." His confidence,
+however, did not forsake him. Observing Mary's maids of honour seated
+together, and richly dressed, he took the opportunity, that he might not
+lose his time, of giving them also some gratuitous advice. "Fair ladies,"
+he said with a smile, "how pleasant were this life of yours, if it should
+ever abide, and then in the end that we might pass to heaven with this
+gear: but fy upon that knave, Death, that will come whether we will or
+not; and when he has laid on the arrest, then foul worms will be busy with
+this flesh, be it never so fair and so tender; and the silly soul I fear
+shall be so feeble, that it can neither carry with it gold, garnishing,
+targeting, pearl, nor precious stones." Shortly afterwards Erskine, who
+had somewhat pacified the Queen, came to inform him that he was allowed to
+go home.[75]
+
+As the Queen and Knox came just once more into public contact, and that
+only a few weeks after the date of the above interview, it may be as well
+to terminate our interference with the affairs of the Reformer in this
+place. The Queen having gone to Stirling, a disturbance took place one
+Sunday during her absence at the Chapel of Holyrood. Some of her domestics
+and Catholic retainers, had assembled for the celebration of worship,
+after the form of the Romish Church. The Presbyterians were at the time
+dispensing in Edinburgh the Sacrament of the Supper, and were consequently
+more zealous than usual in support of their own cause. Hearing of the
+Catholic practices carried on at Holyrood, they proceeded thither in a
+body, burst into the Chapel, and drove the priests from the altar. To
+quell the riot, the Comptroller of the Household was obliged to obtain the
+assistance of the Magistrates, and even then it was not without difficulty
+that the godly were prevailed upon to disperse. Two of their number, who
+had been more violent than the rest, had indictments served upon them for
+"forethought felony, hamesucken, and invasion of the Palace." Knox and his
+friends determined to save these two men from punishment, at whatever
+risk. The means they adopted to effect their purpose were of the most
+seditious kind. It was determined to overawe the judges by displaying the
+power of the accused; and with this view, Knox wrote circular letters to
+all the principal persons of his persuasion, requesting them to crowd to
+Edinburgh on the day of trial. He thus assumed to himself the prerogative
+of calling Mary's subjects together, in direct opposition to one of the
+acts of the late Parliament. When those letters were shown to the Queen,
+and her Privy Council, at Stirling, they were unanimously pronounced
+treasonable, and Knox was summoned to appear before a convention of
+nobles, to be held in Edinburgh a few weeks afterwards, for the purpose of
+trying him. It was, however, intimated to him, that as the Queen wished to
+be lenient, if he would acknowledge his fault, and throw himself upon her
+mercy, little or no punishment would be awarded. He obstinately refused to
+make the slightest concession, and in consequence nearly lost the
+friendship of Lord Herries, with whom he had been long intimate.
+
+On the day of trial, public curiosity was much excited to know the result.
+The Lords assembled in the Council Chamber at Holyrood; the Queen took her
+seat at the head of the table, and Knox stood uncovered at the foot. The
+proceedings were opened by Secretary Maitland, who stated the grounds of
+the accusation, and explained in what manner the law had been infringed.
+Knox made a declamatory and very unsatisfactory reply. The substance of
+his defence was, that there were lawful and unlawful convocations of the
+people, and that, as the Act of Parliament could not apply to the
+assembling of his congregation every Sunday, neither could he be held to
+have transgressed it by writing letters to the heads of his church,
+calling them together upon a matter of vital importance to their religion.
+The sophistry of this reasoning was easily seen through. It was answered
+for the Queen, that his sermons were sanctioned by Government, and that
+their tendency was supposed to be peaceable; but that the direct purpose
+of the letters in question was to exasperate the minds of the lieges. One
+passage, in particular was read, in which Knox said, alluding to the two
+persons who were indicted,--"This fearful summons is directed against
+them, to make, no doubt, a preparative on a few, that a door may be opened
+to execute cruelty upon a greater multitude." "Is it not treason, my
+Lords," said Mary, "to accuse a Prince of cruelty? I think there be acts
+of Parliament against such whisperers." Knox endeavoured to evade the
+force of this remark by a very evident quibble. "Madam," he said, "cast up
+when you list the acts of your Parliament, I have offended nothing against
+them; for I accuse not in my letter your Grace, nor yet your nature, of
+cruelty. But I affirm yet again, that the pestilent Papists who have
+inflamed your Grace against those poor men at this present, are the sons
+of the Devil, and therefore must obey the desires of their father, who has
+been a liar and a man-slayer from the beginning." More words were spoken
+on both sides, but nothing further was advanced that bore directly upon
+the subject in hand. It is worthy of notice, however, that Knox, in the
+course of his defence, actually forgot himself so far as to institute a
+comparison between Mary and the Roman Nero. At length, having been fully
+heard, he was ordered to retire, and after some discussion, the vote of
+guilty or not guilty was put to the nobles. There being a considerable
+preponderance of Protestant lords at the meeting, it was carried that Knox
+had not committed any breach of the laws. He evinces his triumph on this
+occasion by remarking spitefully in his History,--"That night was neither
+dancing nor fiddling in the Court; for Madam was disappointed of her
+purpose, whilk was to have had John Knox in her will by vote of her
+nobility." His acquittal certainly disappointed Mary; but it only served
+to convince her more and more, that bigotry and justice were incompatible.
+
+Before concluding this chapter, one of the peculiarities of the Scottish
+Reformer's mind deserves to be noticed. That he was a strong thinker and
+a bold man, cannot be denied; yet, as has been before remarked, he himself
+confesses that he was much addicted to superstition. This weakness, if
+real, lowers him considerably in the scale of intellect; and, if affected,
+proves that, amidst all the pretensions of his new doctrines, he still
+retained a taint of priestly craft. Alluding to the year of which we
+speak, (1563), he has incorporated into his History the following
+remarkable passage. "God from Heaven, and upon the face of the earth, gave
+declaration that he was offended at the iniquity that was committed even
+within this realm; for upon the 20th day of January, there fell wet in
+great abundance, which in the falling freezed so vehemently, that the
+earth was but one sheet of ice. The fowls both great and small freezed,
+and could not fly; many died, and some were taken and laid before the
+fire, that their feathers might resolve; and in that same month the sea
+stood still, as was clearly observed, and neither ebbed nor flowed the
+space of twenty-four hours. In the month of February, the fifteenth and
+eighteenth days thereof, were seen in the firmament battles arrayed,
+spears and other weapons, and as it had been the joining of two armies.
+These things were not only observed, but also spoken and constantly
+affirmed by men of judgement and credit. But the Queen and our Court made
+merry."[76] It would thus appear, that Knox's mind was either a strange
+compound of strength and imbecility, courage and fear, sound sense and
+superstition, or that duplicity was more a part of his character than is
+generally supposed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF MARY, WITH SOME ANECDOTES OF ELIZABETH.
+
+
+The summer and autumn of the year 1563, were spent by Mary in making
+various excursions through the country. She had not yet visited the west
+and south-west of Scotland. Shortly after the rising of Parliament, she
+set out for Glasgow, and from thence went on to Dumbarton and Loch-Lomond.
+In the neighbourhood of its romantic scenery, she spent some days, and
+then crossed over to Inverary, where she visited her natural sister, the
+Countess of Argyle, to whom she was much attached. Upon leaving Inverary,
+she passed over the Argyleshire hills, and came down upon the Clyde at
+Dunoon. Following the course of the river, she next visited Toward Castle,
+near the entrance of the Bay of Rothesay. Here she crossed the Frith of
+Clyde, and landing in Ayrshire, spent several weeks in this Arcadian
+district of Scotland. She then went into Galloway, and before her return
+to Edinburgh, visited Dumfries, and other towns in the south. Her next
+excursion was to Stirling, Callander, and Dumblane, in the neighbourhood
+of which places she remained till late in the season. The earlier part of
+1564, she spent at Perth, Falkland, and St Andrews; and in the autumn of
+this year, she again went as far north as Inverness, and from thence into
+Ross-shire. "The object of that distant journey," says Chalmers, "was not
+then known, and cannot be completely ascertained." "She repassed through
+the country of the Gordons, which had once been held out as so frightful.
+She remained a night at Gartley, where there is still a ruined castle, and
+the parish whereof belongs even now to the Duke of Gordon. She rode
+forward to Aberdeen, without seeing Huntly's ghost, and went thence to
+Dunnottar, where she remained a night, and thence, proceeding along the
+coast road, to Dundee. She then crossed the Tay into Fife, and diverging
+for a few days to St Andrews, she returned to Edinburgh about the 26th of
+September, after an absence of two months."
+
+As we are speedily to enter upon a new and more bustling, though not a
+happier period, of Mary's life, we should wish to avail ourselves of the
+present opportunity, to convey to the reader some notion of her domestic
+habits and amusements, and how, when left to herself, she best liked to
+fill up her time. The affability and gentleness of her manners, had
+endeared her even more than her personal attractions, to all who
+frequented her court. She had succeeded, by the firm moderation of her
+measures, not only in giving a more than ordinary degree of popularity to
+her government, but, by the polished amenity of her bearing, her powers of
+conversation, and varied accomplishments, she had imparted to the court of
+Holyrood a refinement and elegance we in vain look for under the reign of
+any of her predecessors. There is a vast difference between an over-degree
+of luxuriousness and a due attention to the graces. Under the influence of
+the former, a nation becomes effeminate, and addicted to every species of
+petty vice; under that of the latter, its characteristic virtues are
+called only more efficiently into action. The tree is not the less
+valuable divested of its rugged bark. It is to the example set by Mary,
+that we are to attribute, in a great degree, that improvement in the
+manners and feelings of Scotch society, which speedily placed this country
+more upon a par with the rest of civilized Europe. Had the precepts of
+John Knox been strictly followed, the blue bonnets of a rigid, unbending
+Presbyterianism would probably to this day have decorated the heads of
+two-thirds of the population. A scarcity which prevailed about the
+commencement of the year 1564, drew from this stern Reformer the
+assertion, that "the riotous feasting and excessive banqueting used in
+city and country, wheresoever the profane Court repaired, provoked God to
+strike the staff of bread, and to give his maledictions upon the fruits of
+the earth." Mary judged differently of the effects produced by these
+"profane banquetings,"--and so will the political economists of more
+modern times.
+
+It was only, after the performance of duties of a severer kind, that Mary
+indulged in recreation. She sat some hours regularly every day with her
+Privy Council; and, with her work-table beside her and her needle in her
+hand, she heard and offered opinions upon the various affairs of State. To
+the poor of every description, she was, like her mother, exceedingly
+attentive; and she herself benevolently superintended the education of a
+number of poor children. To direct and distribute her charities, two
+ecclesiastics were appointed her _elcemosynars_; and they, under her
+authority, obtained money from the Treasurer in all cases of necessity.
+She gave an annual salary also to an advocate for the poor, who conducted
+the causes of such as were unable to bear the expenses of a lawsuit; and
+to secure proper attention for these causes, she not unfrequently took her
+seat upon the bench when they came to be heard. Her studies were extensive
+and regular. She was well versed in history, of which she read a great
+deal. Every day after dinner she devoted an hour or two to the perusal of
+some Latin classic, particularly Livy, under the superintendence of George
+Buchanan. In reward for his services, she gave him the revenue of the
+Abbey of Crossraguel in Ayrshire, worth about 500_l._ a year. This grant
+was probably made at the request of the Earl of Murray, who was Buchanan's
+patron, and to whom he always considered himself more indebted than to the
+Queen. Buchanan, whose talents for controversial writing it was foreseen
+might be useful, had also a pension of 100_l._ a year from Elizabeth. Mary
+had a competent knowledge of astronomy and geography; and her library in
+the Palace of Holyrood contained, among other things, two globes, which
+were at that time considered curiosities in Scotland,--"the ane of the
+heavin, and the uther of the earth." She had, besides, several maps, and a
+few pictures, in particular portraits of her father, her mother, her
+husband Francis II., and Montmorency. Being fond of all sorts of
+exercises, she frequently received ambassadors and others, to whom she
+gave audience, in the Palace gardens. She had two of these,--the southern
+and the northern; and, not contented with their more limited range, she
+often extended her walk through the King's Park, and sometimes even along
+the brow of Salisbury Crags or Arthur Seat. She had gardens and parks
+attached to all her principal residences throughout Scotland,--at
+Linlithgow,--at Stirling,--at Falkland,--at Perth,--and at St Andrews. It
+was in one of her gardens at Holyrood that she planted a sycamore she had
+brought with her from France, and which, becoming in time a large and
+valuable tree, was an object of curiosity and admiration even in our own
+day. It was blown down only about ten years ago, and its wood was eagerly
+sought after, to be made into trinkets and costly relics.
+
+To her female followers and friends, Mary was ever attentive and kind. For
+her four Maries, her companions from infancy, she retained her affection
+during all the vicissitudes of her fortune. At the period of which we
+write, she still enjoyed the society of all of them; but Mary Fleming
+afterwards became the wife of Secretary Maitland, and Mary Livingstone of
+Lord Semple. Mary Beaton and Mary Seaton remained unmarried. Madame de
+Pinguillon, who had come with the Queen from France, and to whom she was
+extremely partial, continued in her service for several years, her husband
+being appointed Master of the Household. They both returned to their own
+country when the troubles in Scotland began. There were many other ladies
+belonging to the court, whose names possess no interest, because
+unconnected with any of the events of history.
+
+Mary's establishment was by no means expensive or extraordinary. She does
+not appear to have had so great a variety of dresses as Elizabeth, yet she
+was not ill provided either. Her common wearing gowns, as long as she
+continued in mourning, which was till the day of her second marriage, were
+made either of camlet, or damis, or serge of Florence, bordered with black
+velvet. Her riding-habits were mostly of serge of Florence, stiffened in
+the neck and body with buckram, and trimmed with lace and ribands. In the
+matter of shoes and stockings, she seems to have been remarkably well
+supplied. She had thirty-six pair of velvet shoes, laced with gold and
+silver; she had ten pair of hose woven of gold, silver, and silk, and
+three pair woven of worsted of Guernsey. Silk stockings were then a
+rarity. The first pair worn in England were sent as a present from France
+to Elizabeth. Six pair of gloves of worsted of Guernsey are also mentioned
+in the catalogue, still existing, of Mary's wardrobe. She was fond of
+tapestry, and had the walls of her chambers hung with the richest
+specimens of it she could bring from France. She had not much plate; but
+she had a profusion of rare and valuable jewels. Her cloth of gold, her
+Turkey carpets, her beds and coverlids, her table-cloths, her crystal,
+her chairs and foot-stools covered with velvet, and garnished with
+fringes, were all celebrated in the gossiping chronicles of the day.
+
+The Scottish Queen's amusements were varied, but not in general sedentary.
+She was, however, a chess-player, and anxious to make herself a mistress
+of that most intellectual of all games. Archery was one of her favourite
+out-of-door pastimes, and she indulged in it frequently in her gardens at
+Holyrood. She revived the ancient chivalric exercise of riding at the
+ring, making her nobles contend against each other; and crowds frequently
+collected on the sands at Leith to witness their trials of skill.
+Tournaments Mary did not so much like, because they tempted the courageous
+to what she thought unnecessary danger; and when obliged to be present at
+them in France, it was remarked, that her superior delicacy of feeling
+always marred her enjoyment, from the anticipation that they might end in
+bloodshed. These sentiments were probably strengthened by the unfortunate
+manner in which Henry II. met his death. The now almost obsolete, but then
+fashionable and healthful amusement of hawking, was much esteemed by Mary.
+Her attachment to it was hereditary, for both her father and grandfather
+were passionately fond of it. James V. kept a master-falconer, who had
+seven others under him. In 1562, hawks of an approved kind were brought
+for Mary from Orkney; and in the same year, she sent a present of some of
+them to Elizabeth. To riding and hunting, as has been already seen, Mary
+had long been partial.
+
+Within doors, Mary found an innocent gratification in dancing, masquings,
+and music. She was herself, as has been seen, a most graceful dancer,
+moving, according to Melville, "not so high, nor so disposedly," as
+Elizabeth; by which we may understand that she danced, as they who have
+been taught in France usually do, with greater ease and self-possession,
+or, in other words, with less effort--less consciousness that she was
+overcoming a difficulty in keeping time, and executing the steps and
+evolutions of the dance. The masques and mummeries, which were
+occasionally got up, were novelties in Scotland, and excited the anger of
+the Reformers, though it is difficult to tell why. Randolph, describing a
+feast at which he was present in 1564, mentions that, at the first course,
+some one, representing Cupid, made his appearance, and sung, with a
+chorus, some Italian verses; at the second, "a fair young maid" sung a few
+Latin verses; and at the third, a figure dressed as Time concluded the
+mummery, with some wholesome piece of morality. Upon other occasions,
+several of which will be alluded to afterwards, masques were performed
+upon a more extensive scale. These amusements were seldom or never allowed
+to degenerate into dissipation, by being protracted to untimely hours.
+Mary was always up before eight o'clock;--she supped at seven, and was
+seldom out of bed after ten.[77]
+
+The Queen's taste in music had been cultivated from her earliest years.
+When almost an infant she had _minstrels_ attached to her establishment.
+On her return to Scotland, she had a small band of about a dozen
+musicians--vocal and instrumental--whom she kept always near her person.
+Five of these were violars, or players on the viol;[78] three of them were
+players on the lute; one or two of them were organists, but the organs in
+the chapels at Stirling and Holyrood were the only ones which had been
+saved from the fury of the Reformers; and the rest were singers, who also
+acted as _chalmer-chields_, or valets-de-chambre. Mary could herself play
+upon the lute and virginals, and loved to hear concerted music upon all
+occasions. She even introduced into her religious worship a military band,
+in aid of the organ, consisting of trumpet, drum, fife, bagpipe, and
+tabor.
+
+It was as one skilled in music that David Rizzio first recommended himself
+to Mary. He came to Edinburgh towards the end of the year 1561, in the
+train of the ambassador from Savoy. He was a Piedmontese by birth, and had
+received a good education. His father was a respectable professional
+musician in Turin, who, having a large family, had sent his two sons,
+David and Joseph, to push their own way in Nice, at the court of the Duke
+of Savoy. They were both noticed at that court, and were taken into the
+service of the Duke of Moretto, the ambassador already mentioned. The
+knowledge which David Rizzio possessed of music, says a French writer, was
+the least of his talents: He had a polished and ready wit, a lively
+imagination, full of pleasant fancies, soft and winning manners, abundance
+of courage, and still more assurance. "He was," says Melville, "a merry
+fallow, and a guid musician." He was, moreover, abundantly ugly, and past
+the meridian of life, as attested by all cotemporary writers of any
+authority. His brother, Joseph, is scarcely mentioned in history, though
+it appears that he also attached himself to Mary's Court. At the time of
+David's arrival, the Queen's three pages, or _sangsters_, who used to sing
+trios for her, wanted a fourth as a bass. Rizzio was recommended, and he
+received the appointment, together with a salary of 80_l._ Being not only
+by far the most scientific musician in the Queen's household, but likewise
+well acquainted both with French and Italian, Rizzio contrived to make
+himself generally useful. In 1564 he was appointed Mary's French
+secretary, and in this situation he continued till his death.[79]
+
+An amusing peep into the interior of both the Scots and English Courts,
+afforded by Sir James Melville, will form an appropriate conclusion to
+this chapter. Sir James returned from the Continent to Scotland in May
+1564. He found the Queen at St Johnstone; and she, aware of his fidelity,
+requested him to give up thoughts of going back to France, where he had
+been promised preferment. "She was so affable," says he, "so gracious and
+discreet, that she won great estimation, and the hearts of many both in
+England and Scotland, and mine among the rest; so that I thought her more
+worthy to be served for little profit, than any other prince in Europe for
+great commodity." But Mary had too proud a spirit to submit to be served
+for nothing. She was by nature liberal almost to a fault. Out of her
+French dowry she settled upon Melville a pension of a thousand marks, and
+in addition, she begged him to accept of the heritage of the lands of
+Auchtermuchty, near Falkland. These he refused, as he was unwilling that
+she should dismember, on his account, her own personal property; but they
+were subsequently given to some one less scrupulous. Sir James was soon
+afterwards sent by Mary on an embassy to Elizabeth, principally for the
+sake of expediting some matters connected with Mary's intended matrimonial
+arrangements.
+
+The morning after his arrival in London, he was admitted to an audience by
+Elizabeth, whom he found pacing in an alley in her garden. The business
+upon which he came being arranged satisfactorily, Melville was favourably
+and familiarly treated by the English Queen. He remained at her Court
+nearly a fortnight, and conversed with her Majesty every day, sometimes
+thrice on the same day. Sir James, who was a shrewd observer, had thus an
+opportunity of remarking the many weaknesses and vanities which
+characterized Elizabeth. In allusion to her extreme love of power, he
+ventured to say to her, when she informed him she never intended to marry,
+"Madam, you need not tell me that; I know your stately stomach. You think,
+if you were married, you would be but Queen of England; and now you are
+King and Queen both; you may not suffer a commander." Elizabeth was
+fortunately not offended at this freedom. She took Sir James, upon one
+occasion, into her bedchamber, and opened a little case, in which were
+several miniature pictures. The pretence was to show him a likeness of
+Mary, but her real object was, that he should observe in her possession a
+miniature of her favourite the Earl of Leicester, upon which she had
+written with her own hand, "My Lord's picture." When Melville made this
+discovery, Elizabeth affected a little amiable confusion. "I held the
+candle," says Sir James, "and pressed to see my Lord's picture; albeit she
+was loth to let me see it; at length, I by importunity obtained the sight
+thereof, and asked the same to carry home with me unto the Queen; which
+she refused, alleging she had but that one of his." At another time,
+Elizabeth talked with Sir James of the different costumes of different
+countries. She told him she had dresses of many sorts; and she appeared in
+a new one every day during his continuance at Court. Sometimes she dressed
+after the English, sometimes after the French, and sometimes after the
+Italian fashion. She asked Sir James which he thought became her best. He
+said the Italian, "whilk pleasit her weel; for she delighted to show her
+golden coloured hair, wearing a kell and bonnet as they do in Italy. Her
+hair was redder than yellow, and apparently of nature." Elizabeth herself
+seems to have been quite contented with its hue, for she very complacently
+asked Sir James, whether she or Mary had the finer hair? Sir James having
+replied as politely as possible, she proceeded to inquire which he
+considered the more beautiful? The ambassador quaintly answered, that the
+beauty of either was not her worst fault. This evasion would not serve;
+though Melville, for many sufficient reasons, was unwilling to say any
+thing more definite. He told her that she was the fairest queen in
+England, and Mary the fairest in Scotland. Still this was not enough. Sir
+James ventured, therefore, one step farther. "They were baith," he said,
+"the fairest ladies of their courts, and that the Queen of England was
+whiter, but our Queen was very lusome." Elizabeth next asked which of them
+was of highest stature? Sir James told her the Queen of Scots. "Then she
+said the Queen was over heigh, and that herself was neither over heigh nor
+over laigh. Then she askit what kind of exercises she used. I said, that
+as I was dispatchit out of Scotland, the Queen was but new come back from
+the Highland hunting; and that when she had leisure frae the affairs of
+her country, she read upon guid buiks the histories of divers countries;
+and sometimes would play upon the lute and virginals. She spearit gin she
+played weel; I said, raisonably for a Queen."
+
+This account of Mary's accomplishments piqued Elizabeth's vanity, and
+determined her to give Melville some display of her own. Accordingly, next
+day one of the Lords in waiting took him to a quiet gallery, where, as if
+by chance, he might hear the Queen play upon the virginals. After
+listening a little, Melville perceived well enough that he might take the
+liberty of entering the chamber whence the music came. Elizabeth
+coquettishly left off as soon as she saw him, and, coming forward, tapped
+him with her hand, and affected to feel ashamed of being caught, declaring
+that she never played before company, but only when alone to keep off
+melancholy. Melville made her a flattering speech, protesting that the
+music he had heard was of so exquisite a kind, that it had irresistibly
+drawn him into the room. Elizabeth, who does not seem to have thought as
+people are usually supposed to do in polite society, that "comparisons are
+odious," could not rest satisfied, without putting, as usual, the
+question, whether Mary or she played best? Melville gave the English Queen
+the palm. Being now in good humour, she resolved that Sir James should
+have a specimen of her learning, which it is well known degenerated too
+much into pedantry. She praised his French, asking if he could also speak
+Italian, which, she said, she herself spoke reasonably well. She spoke to
+him also in Dutch; but Sir James says it was not good. Afterwards, she
+insisted upon his seeing her dance; and when her performance was over, she
+put the old question, whether she or Mary danced best. Melville
+answered,--"The Queen dancit not so high and disposedly as she did."
+Melville returned to Scotland, "convinced in his judgment," as he says,
+"that in Elizabeth's conduct there was neither plain-dealing nor upright
+meaning, but great dissimulation, emulation, and fear that Mary's princely
+qualities should too soon chase her out, and displace her from the
+kingdom."
+
+Sir James, by way of contrast, concludes this subject with the following
+interesting account of Mary's well-won popularity, prudence, modesty, and
+good sense. "The Queen's Majesty, as I have said, after her returning out
+of France to Scotland, behaved herself so princely, so honourably and
+discreetly, that her reputation spread in all countries; and she was
+determined, and also inclined to continue in that kind of comeliness even
+to the end of her life, desiring to hold none in her company, but such as
+were of the best quality and conversation, abhorring all vices and vicious
+persons, whether they were men or women; and she requested me to assist
+her in giving her my good counsel how she might use the meetest means to
+advance her honest intention; and in case she, being yet young, might
+forget herself in any unseemly gesture or behaviour, that I would warn her
+thereof with my admonition, to forbear and reform the same. Which
+commission I refused altogether; saying, that her virtuous actions, her
+natural judgment, and the great experience she had learned in the company
+of so many notable princes in the Court of France, had instructed her so
+well, and made her so able, as to be an example to all her subjects and
+servants. But she would not have it so, but said she knew that she had
+committed divers errors upon no evil meaning, for lack of the admonition
+of loving friends, because that the most part of courtiers commonly
+flatter princes, to win their favour, and will not tell them the verity,
+fearing to tine their favour; and therefore she adjured me and commanded
+me to accept that charge, which I said was a ruinous commission, willing
+her to lay that burden upon her brother, my Lord of Murray, and the
+Secretary Lethington; but she said that she would not take it in so good a
+part of them as of me. I said, I feared it would cause me, with time, to
+tine her favour; but she said it appeared I had an evil opinion of her
+constancy and discretion, which opinion, she doubted not, but I would
+alter, after that I had essayed the occupation of that friendly and
+familiar charge. In the meantime, she made me familiar with all her most
+urgent affairs; but chiefly in her dealing with any foreign nation. She
+showed unto me all her letters, and them that she received from other
+princes; and willed me to write unto such princes as I had acquaintance
+of, and to some of their counsellors; wherein I forgot not to set out her
+virtues, and would show her again their answers, and such occurrences as
+passed at the time between countries, to her great contentment. For she
+was of a quick spirit, and anxious to know and to get intelligence of the
+state of other countries; and would be sometimes sad when she was
+solitary, and glad of the company of them that had travelled in foreign
+parts."[80]
+
+This testimony in Mary's favour, from a cotemporary author of so much
+respectability, is worth volumes of ordinary panegyrick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+MARY'S SUITORS, AND THE MACHINATIONS OF HER ENEMIES.
+
+
+Mary had now continued a widow for about three years, but certainly not
+from a want of advantageous offers. It was in her power to have formed
+almost any alliance she chose. There was not a court in Europe, where the
+importance of a matrimonial connexion with the Queen of Scotland, and
+heir-apparent to the English throne, was not acknowledged. Accordingly,
+ambassadors had found their way to Holyrood Palace from all parts of the
+Continent. The three most influential suitors were, the Duke of Anjou,
+brother of Mary's late husband, Francis II., and afterwards King of
+France, on the death of his other brother, Charles IX.--the Archduke
+Charles of Austria, third son of the Emperor Ferdinand--and Don Carlos of
+Spain, heir-apparent to all the dominions of his father, Philip II. None
+of these personages, however, were destined to be successful. The death of
+the Duke of Guise, and the greater influence which consequently fell into
+the hands of Catharine de Medicis, made some alteration in the Duke of
+Anjou's prospects, and diminished his interest with Mary. Besides, it was
+considered dangerous to marry the brother of a late husband. The Archduke
+Charles found, that his proposals to the Scottish Queen excited so much
+the jealousy of his elder brother, Maximilian, that it became necessary
+for him reluctantly to quit the field. It is not improbable that Don
+Carlos might have been listened to, had not Mary found it necessary, for
+reasons which will be mentioned immediately, to give up all thoughts of a
+Continental alliance. Had she married Carlos, she might have saved him
+from the untimely fate inflicted by parental cruelty in 1568.
+
+Of all the sovereigns who at this time watched Mary's intentions with the
+most jealous anxiety, none felt so deeply interested in the decision she
+might ultimately come to, as Elizabeth. To her, Mary's marriage was a
+matter of the very last importance. If she connected herself with a
+powerful Catholic prince, her former claims upon the English throne might
+be renewed; and her Scottish armies, assisted by continental forces, might
+ultimately deprive Elizabeth of her crown. Even though Mary did not
+proceed to such extremities, if she had a Catholic husband, and more
+especially if there were any children of the marriage, all the Catholics
+of Europe would rally round her, and her power would be such, that her
+requests would be tantamount to commands. So far as Elizabeth's own
+interests, and those of the kingdom over which she reigned, were involved,
+she was called upon to pay all due attention to the proceedings of so
+formidable a rival as Mary. But the English Queen's selfish and invidious
+policy far over-stepped the limits marked out by the laws of
+self-defence. Having determined against marriage herself, she could not
+bear to think that the Queen of Scots should be any thing but a "barren
+stock" also. It made her miserable to know that her power should end with
+her life, whilst Mary might become the mother of a long line of kings. She
+hoped, therefore, though she did not dare to avow her object, to be able
+to exert such influence with Murray and the Scottish Reformers, that Mary,
+by their united machinations, might find it impossible ever to form
+another matrimonial alliance; and with this view her first step was to
+inform "her good sister," that if she married without her consent, she
+would have little difficulty in prevailing upon the Parliament of England
+to set aside her succession.
+
+Driven hither and thither by so many contrary opinions and contending
+interests, it was no easy matter for the Scottish Queen to come to a final
+determination upon this subject. Although, in her own words, "not to marry
+she knew could not be for her, and to defer it long many incommodities
+might ensue," she at the same time saw that there were insuperable reasons
+against a foreign alliance. The loss of her best and most powerful
+continental friend, the Duke of Guise, was one of these; another was, the
+avowed wish of Elizabeth and the English nation; and the third, and that
+which weighed most forcibly, the earnest entreaties of her own subjects.
+The great proportion of the inhabitants of Scotland were now Protestants;
+and to have attempted to place over them a foreign Catholic Prince, would
+have been to have incurred the risk of throwing them at once into the
+arms of Elizabeth, and of losing their allegiance for ever. Mary was
+therefore willing to make a virtue of necessity, and to allow herself to
+be guided very much by "her good sister's discretion." This concession to
+the English Queen was far from being agreeable to Catharine de Medicis and
+the French Court. It seemed to be paving the way for a cessation of that
+friendship which had so long existed between France and Scotland.
+Catharine, altering her policy, began to treat Mary with every mark of
+attention. She paid up the dowry she received from France, which had
+fallen into arrears, and requested Mary to exercise as much patronage and
+influence in that country as she chose. Elizabeth, however, had already
+suggested a husband for her; and, to the astonishment of every body, had
+named her favourite minion, Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Though the proposal
+of one of her own subjects, and one too, whom she had raised from
+comparative obscurity, was regarded by Mary as little else than an insult,
+she agreed, that two commissioners upon her part, Murray and
+Maitland--should meet two of Elizabeth's, the Duke of Bedford and
+Randolph, to discuss the expediency of the match. At the conference, which
+took place at Berwick, it was stated for Mary, that she could never
+condescend to marry a newly-created English Earl, having so long a list of
+princes of the blood-royal of the noblest houses of Europe among her
+suitors; and it was added, boldly, that Elizabeth seemed somewhat
+deficient even in self-respect, when she could think of recommending such
+a husband for a Queen, her kinswoman. It is not at all likely, that either
+Elizabeth, or the Earl of Leicester, expected or wished any other answer.
+Elizabeth could hardly have done without her favourite; and the Earl would
+have fallen into irretrievable disgrace, had he dared to confess a
+preference for any mistress over the one he already had.
+
+It was soon after this conference that Randolph, by Elizabeth's
+directions, repaired to the Queen at St Andrews, to ascertain from her own
+lips what were her real sentiments on the subject of marriage. He found
+her living very quietly in a merchant's house, with a small train. She had
+been wearied with the state and show of a Court, and had determined to
+pass some weeks in her favourite retirement of St Andrews, more as a
+subject than a queen. She made Randolph dine and sup with her every day
+during his visit; and she frequently, upon these occasions, drank to the
+health of Elizabeth. When Randolph entered upon matters of business, Mary
+said to him playfully,--"I sent for you to be merry, and to see how like a
+bourgeoise wife I live with my little troop; and you will interrupt our
+pastime with your great and grave matters? I pray ye, Sir, if ye be weary
+here, return home to Edinburgh; and keep your gravity and great embassade
+until the Queen come thither; for, I assure ye, you shall not get her
+here, nor I know not myself where she is become. Ye see neither cloth of
+estate, nor such appearance that you may think that there is a Queen here;
+nor I would not that you should think that I am she at St Andrews, that I
+was at Edinburgh." Randolph was thus, for the time, fairly bantered out
+of his diplomatic gravity. But next day, he rode abroad with the Queen,
+and renewed the subject. Mary then told him, that she saw the necessity of
+marrying, and that she would rather be guided in her choice by England
+than by France, or any other country after Scotland. She frankly added,
+that her reason for paying this deference to Elizabeth, was to obtain an
+acknowledgment of her right of succession to the English crown. She was
+making a sacrifice, she said, in renouncing the much more splendid
+alliances which had been offered her; and she could not be expected to do
+so without a return on the part of Elizabeth. Fearful that the crafty
+Randolph might make a bad use of this open confession, she suddenly
+checked herself;--"I am a fool," she said, "thus long to talk with you;
+you are too subtle for me to deal with." But Randolph, finding her in a
+communicative mood, was unwilling that the conversation should drop so
+soon. Some further discourse took place, and Mary, in conclusion, gave
+utterance to the following sentiments, which do honour both to her head
+and heart. "How much better were it," said she, "that we two being queens,
+so near of kin and neighbours, and being in one isle, should be friends
+and live together like sisters, than, by strange means, divide ourselves
+to the hurt of us both; and to say that we may for all that live friends,
+we may say and prove what we will, but it will pass both our powers. You
+repute us poor; but yet you have found us cumbersome enough. We have had
+loss; ye have taken scaith. Why may it not be between my sister and me,
+that we, living on peace and assured friendship, may give our minds, that
+some as notable things may be wrought by us women, as by our predecessors
+have been done before. Let us seek this honour against some other, rather
+than fall to debate amongst ourselves."[81]
+
+Mary, however, was by this time convinced of Elizabeth's want of
+sincerity, and formed, therefore, a matrimonial plan of her own, which,
+she flattered herself, would be considered judicious by all parties. It
+will be recollected, that, during the troubles which ensued soon after
+Mary's birth, Matthew, Earl of Lennox, having drawn upon himself the
+suspicion, both of the Protestant and Catholic parties in Scotland,
+retired into England, where Henry VIII. gave him his niece in marriage.
+The Lady Margaret Douglas was daughter of the eldest daughter of Henry
+VII., the Princess Margaret, who, upon the decease of her first husband
+James IV., had married the Earl of Angus, of which marriage the Lady
+Margaret was the issue. Lennox, belonging as he did to the house of
+Stuart, was himself related to the Royal Family of Scotland; and his wife,
+failing the children of Henry VIII., and the direct line of succession by
+her mother's first husband James IV., in which line Mary stood, was the
+legal heir to the crown of England. The first child of this marriage died
+in infancy. The second, afterwards known as Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley,
+was born in 1546, and was, consequently, about four years younger than
+Mary. This disparity in point of years, though unfortunate in another
+point of view, was not such as to preclude the possibility of an alliance
+between two persons, in whose veins flowed so much of the blood of the
+Stuarts and the Tudors.
+
+Henry VIII. had, along with his niece, bestowed upon Lennox English lands,
+from which he derived a yearly revenue of fifteen hundred marks. His own
+estates in Scotland were forfeited, so that he thus came to be considered
+more an English than a Scottish subject. He had long, however, nourished
+the secret hope of restoring his fortunes in his native land. His wife,
+who was a woman of an ambitious and intriguing spirit, induced him, at an
+early period, to educate his son with a view to his aspiring to the hand
+of the Scottish Queen. On the death of Francis II. she went herself to
+Paris, for the purpose of ingratiating herself with Mary, and securing a
+favourable opinion for Darnley. Mary, probably, gave her some hope that
+she might, at a future date, take her proposals into serious
+consideration; for it appears, by some papers still preserved in the
+British Museum, that few rejoiced more sincerely at the Queen's safe
+arrival in Scotland, than Lady Lennox. She is said to have fallen on her
+knees, and, with uplifted hands, thanked God that the Scottish queen had
+escaped the English ships. For this piece of piety, and to show her the
+necessity of taking less interest in the affairs of Elizabeth's rival,
+Cecil sent Lady Lennox to prison for some months.
+
+Seeing the difficulties which stood in the way of all her other suitors,
+Mary, in the year 1564, began seriously to think of Darnley. A marriage
+with him would unite, in the person of the heir of such marriage, the
+rival claims of the Stuarts and the Tudors upon the English succession,
+failing issue by Elizabeth; and it would give to Scotland a native prince
+of the old royal line. It was difficult to see what reasonable objections
+could be made to such an alliance; and that she might at all events have
+an opportunity of judging for herself, Mary granted the Earl of Lennox
+permission to return to Scotland, in 1564, after an exile of twenty years,
+and promised to assist him in reclaiming his hereditary rights. Elizabeth,
+who was well aware of the ultimate views with which this journey was
+undertaken, and had certainly no desire to forward their accomplishment,
+made nevertheless no opposition to it. With her usual sagacity, she
+calculated that much discord and jealousy would arise, out of the Earl's
+suit, in favour of his son. She knew that the House of Hamilton, whose
+claims upon the Scottish crown were publicly recognised, looked upon the
+Lennox family as its worst enemies; and that the haughty nobility of
+Scotland would ill brook to see a stripling elevated above the heads of
+all of them. Besides, the principal estates of Lennox now lay in England;
+and in the words of Robertson, "she hoped by this pledge to keep the
+negotiation entirely in her own hands, and to play the same game of
+artifice and delay which she had planned out, if her recommendation of
+Leicester had been more favourably received."
+
+In the Parliament which assembled towards the end of the year 1564, Lennox
+was restored to his estates and honours. Such of his possessions as had
+passed into the hands of the Earl of Argyle, were surrendered with
+extreme reluctance; and the Duke of Chatelherault, dreading the marriage
+with Darnley, continued obstinate in his hatred. The Earl of Murray too,
+aware that this new connection would be a fatal blow to his influence, set
+his face against it from the first. Maitland, on the contrary, who felt
+that he had been hitherto kept too much under by the prime minister, did
+not anticipate with any regret the decline of his ascendancy. The
+Secretary, and most of the other members of the Privy Council, were
+assiduously courted by Lennox. He made presents both to the Queen and them
+of valuable jewels; but to Murray, whose enmity he knew, he gave
+nothing.[82] That Murray's weight in the government, however, had not yet
+decreased, is apparent, from his procuring an enactment, to gratify the
+Protestants, in the parliament of this year, making the attending of
+mass, except in the Queen's chapel, punishable with loss of goods, lands,
+and life: and the Archbishop of St Andrews having infringed this act, was
+imprisoned, in spite of Mary's intercession, for some months.
+
+Early in 1565, Darnley obtained leave from Elizabeth to set out for
+Scotland. His ostensible purpose was to visit his father, and to see the
+estates to which he had been recently restored; but that his real object
+was to endeavour to win the good graces of Mary, was no secret.
+Elizabeth's wish being to involve Mary in a quarrel, as well with some of
+her own nobility, as with England, there was much art in the plan she laid
+for its accomplishment. She consented that the Earl of Lennox should go
+into Scotland to recover his forfeited estates, and that his son should
+follow him to share in his father's good fortune; she even went the length
+of recommending them both to the especial favour of the Scottish Queen;
+but of course said not a word of any suspicions she entertained of the
+projected alliance. As soon as it should appear that Mary's resolution was
+taken, she would affect the greatest indignation at the whole proceedings,
+and pretend that they had been cunningly devised and executed, hoping
+either to break off the match altogether, or to make Mary's nuptial couch,
+any thing but a bed of roses. Thus was the Scottish Queen to be
+systematically harassed, and made miserable, to gratify the splenetic
+jealousy, and lull the selfish terrors, of her sister of England.
+
+Darnley, in the midst of a severe snow-storm, travelled with all
+expedition to Edinburgh. Upon his arrival he found that Mary was at
+Wemyss Castle in Fife, whither, at his father's desire, he immediately
+proceeded. The impression which it is said he made upon the Queen, at even
+his first interview, has been much exaggerated. Chalmers, alluding
+principally to Robertson's account of this matter, acutely remarks, "The
+Scottish historians would have us believe, that Mary fell desperately in
+love with Darnley at first sight; they would have us suppose, as simply as
+themselves, that the widowed Queen, at the age of twenty-two," (it should
+have been twenty-three), "who knew the world, and had seen the most
+accomplished gentlemen in Europe, was a boarding-school Miss, who had
+never till now seen a man." Mary received Darnley frankly, and as one whom
+she wished to like; but she had been too long accustomed to admiration, to
+be prepared to surrender her heart at the first glance. It was not Mary's
+character to allow herself to be won before she was wooed. She was, no
+doubt, glad to perceive that Darnley was one of the handsomest young men
+of the day. She said playfully, that "he was the lustiest and best
+proportioned long man she had seen." She might have said a good deal more;
+for all historians agree in noticing the grace of his person, the easy
+elegance of his carriage, the agreeable regularity of his features, and
+the animated expression of his countenance, lighted up, as it was, by a
+pair of dazzling eyes. He excelled too in all the showy and manly
+accomplishments so much in vogue among the young nobility. His riding and
+dancing were unrivalled; and to gratify Mary, he avowed, whether real or
+affected, a great fondness for poetry and music. Melville says quaintly,
+"He was of a heigh stature, lang and small, even and brent up; well
+instructed from his youth in all honest and comely exercises."[83]
+
+It was not, however, Darnley's exterior in which Mary and her subjects
+were principally interested. The bent which nature and education had given
+to his mind and character, was a much more important subject of
+consideration. With regard to his religious sentiments, they seem to have
+sat loosely upon him; though his mother was a Catholic, he himself
+professed adherence to the Established Church of England.[84] In Scotland,
+he saw the necessity of ingratiating himself with the Reformers; and he
+went, the very first Sunday he spent in Edinburgh, to hear Knox preach.
+But Darnley's great misfortune was, that, before he had learned any thing
+in the school of experience, and in the very heat and fire of youth, he
+was raised to an eminence which, so far from enabling him to see over the
+heads of other men, only rendered him giddy, and made his inferiority the
+more apparent. He was naturally of a headstrong and violent temper, which
+might, perhaps, have been tamed down by adversity, but which only ran into
+wilder waste in the sunshine of prosperity. He was passionately fond of
+power, without the ability to make a proper use of it. It is not unlikely
+that, had he continued a subject for some years longer, and associated
+with men of sound judgment and practical knowledge, he might have divested
+himself of some of the follies of youth, and acquired a contempt for many
+of its vices. But his honours came upon him too suddenly; and the
+intellectual strength of his character, never very great, was crushed
+under the load. Conscious of his inability to cope with persons of talent,
+he sought to gather round him those who were willing to flatter him on
+account of his rank, or to join him in all kinds of dissipation, with the
+view of sharing his ill-regulated liberality. Of the duties of a courtier,
+he knew something; but of those of a politician, he was profoundly
+ignorant. The polish of his manners gained him friends at first; but the
+reckless freedom with which he gave utterance to his hasty opinions and
+ill-grounded prejudices, speedily converted them into enemies. He had only
+been a short time in Scotland, when he remarked to one of the Earl of
+Murray's brothers, who pointed out to him on the map the Earl's lands,
+"that they were too extensive." Murray was told of this; and, perceiving
+what he had to expect when Darnley became King, he took his measures
+accordingly. Mary, whose affliction it was to have husbands far inferior
+to herself in mental qualifications, beseeched Darnley to be more guarded
+in future. That he was somewhat violent and self-sufficient, she did not
+feel to be an insuperable objection, considering, as she did, the
+political advantages that might accrue from the alliance. She hoped that
+time would improve him; and besides, she did not yet know the full extent
+of his imperfections, as he had, of course, been anxious to show her only
+the fairer side of his character. Melville speaks of him, even when he
+came to be most hated, as a young prince, who failed rather for lack of
+good counsel than of evil will. "It appeared to be his destiny," says he,
+"to like better of flatterers and evil company, than of plain speakers and
+good men; whilk has been the wreck of many princes, who, with good
+company, might have produced worthy effects." Randolph himself allows,
+that for some weeks, his "behaviour was very well liked, and there was
+great promise of him." He had been about a month at Court before he
+ventured to propose himself as a husband to Mary; and at first she gave
+him but small encouragement, telling him she had not yet made up her mind,
+and refusing to accept of a ring, which he offered her.[85] This was not
+like one who had fallen in love at first sight. But the Queen invariably
+conducted herself with becoming self-respect towards Darnley, permitting,
+as Miss Benger remarks, rather than inviting, his intentions.
+
+Darnley, thus finding that, though the ball was at his foot, the game was
+not already won, saw it necessary to engage with his father's assistance,
+as powerful a party as possible to support his pretensions. Sir James
+Melville was his friend, and spoke in his favour to Mary. All the Lords
+who hated or feared Murray did the same; among whom were, the Earls of
+Athol and Caithness, and the Lords Ruthven and Hume. A still more useful
+agent than any of these, Darnley found in David Rizzio, who, as the
+Queen's French Secretary, and one whose abilities she respected, had a
+good deal of influence with her. Rizzio knew that for this very reason he
+was hated by Murray, and others of the Privy Council. He was, therefore,
+not ill pleased to find himself sought after by her future husband, for he
+hoped thus to retain his place at Court, and perhaps to rise upon the ruin
+of some of those who wished his downfal. An accidental illness which
+overtook Darnley, when the Queen, with her Court, was at Stirling, about
+the beginning of April 1565, was another circumstance in his favour. At
+first, his complaint was supposed to be a common cold, but in a few days
+it turned out to be the measles. The natural anxiety which Mary felt for
+Darnley's recovery, induced her to exhibit a tenderer interest in him than
+she had ever done before. She paid him the most flattering attentions, and
+continued them unwearyingly, though her patient was provokingly attacked
+by an ague, almost immediately after his recovery from the measles.[86]
+
+It is worth noticing, that while Mary was thus occupied in attending to
+Darnley, the Earl of Bothwell returned to Scotland from his involuntary
+banishment. His former misdemeanours were not yet forgotten, and he was
+summoned by the Queen and Murray to take his trial in Edinburgh; but not
+liking to trust himself in the hands of his ancient enemies, he again left
+the country for six months. He did not depart before giving utterance to
+several violent threats against Murray and Maitland, and speaking so
+disrespectfully of the Queen, that Randolph says she declared to him, upon
+her honour, that he should never receive favour at her hands.[87]
+
+The Queen of Scots being now resolved to bestow her hand on Darnley, sent
+her Secretary, Maitland, to London, to intimate her intentions, and to
+request Elizabeth's approbation. This was the very last thing Elizabeth
+meant to give. The matter had now arrived exactly at the point to which
+she had all along wished to bring it. She had prevailed upon Mary to
+abandon the idea of a foreign alliance; she had induced her to throw away
+some valuable time in ridiculous negociations concerning the Earl of
+Leicester; she had consented, first that the Earl of Lennox, and then that
+his son Darnley, should go into Scotland; and she did not say a single
+syllable against it till she had allowed Mary to be persuaded, that no
+marriage in Christendom could be more prudent. It was now that the
+cloven-foot was to betray itself; that her faction was to be called upon
+to exert itself in Scotland; that the cup was to be dashed from Darnley's
+lips; and that Mary was to be involved in the vortex of civil dissension.
+The historian Castelnau, whom Mary at this time sent as her ambassador to
+France, and who there obtained their Majesties' consent to the marriage,
+mentions, that when he returned through England, he found the Queen much
+colder than formerly, complaining that Mary had subtracted her relation
+and subject, and that she was intending to marry him without her
+permission, and against her approbation. "And yet I am sure," adds
+Castelnau, "that these words were very far from her heart; for she used
+all her efforts, and spared nothing to set this marriage a-going."[88]
+
+Elizabeth seldom did things by halves. She assembled her Privy Council,
+and, at the instigation of Cecil, they gave it as their unanimous opinion,
+that "this marriage with my Lord Darnley appeared to be unmeet,
+unprofitable, and directly prejudicial to the sincere amity between both
+the Queens."[89] Upon what reasons this sage determination was founded,
+the Privy Council did not condescend to state. It is not difficult,
+however, to do so for them, the more especially as an official paper is
+still preserved, drawn up by Cecil himself, in which the explanations he
+attempts serve to disclose more fully his own and his Queen's policy. He
+did not think this marriage "meet or profitable;" because, in the first
+place, it would have given great content to those who were anxious that
+Mary's succession to the English crown should not be set aside; and in the
+second place, because, by representing it as dangerous, a plausible
+pretence would be furnished to all Mary's enemies to join with Elizabeth
+in opposing it, and harassing the Queen of Scots. Cecil proceeds to point
+out explicitly how the harassing system was to be carried on. _First_, It
+was to be represented, that in France the houses of Guise and Lorraine,
+and all the other leading Catholics; and in Scotland, all who hated the
+Duke of Chatelherault and the Hamiltons, and Murray and the Reformers, and
+were devoted to the authority of Rome, approved of the marriage. _Second_,
+It was to be spread abroad that the Devil would stir up some of the
+friends of Mary and Darnley, to alienate the minds of Elizabeth's
+subjects, and even to attempt the life of that Sovereign; and, under the
+pretext of preventing such evils, the most rigorous measures might be
+taken against all suspected persons; and, _Third_, Tumults and rebellions
+in Scotland were to be fomented in all prudent and secret ways.[90]
+
+To report to Mary the decision of her Privy Council, Elizabeth sent Sir
+Nicolas Throckmorton into Scotland. He arrived at Stirling on the 15th of
+May 1565, and, in an audience which Mary gave him, he set forth
+Elizabeth's disliking and disallowance of what she was pleased to term
+"the hasty proceeding with my Lord Darnley." Mary, with becoming dignity
+and unanswerable argument, replied, that she was sorry Elizabeth disliked
+the match, but that, as to her "disallowance," she had never asked the
+English Queen's permission,--she had only communicated to her, as soon as
+she had made up her own mind, the person whom she had chosen. She was not
+a little surprised, she added, at Elizabeth's opposition, since it had
+been expressly intimated to her, through the English resident, Randolph,
+that if she avoided a foreign alliance, "she might take her choice of any
+person within the realms of England or Scotland, without any exception."
+Her choice had fallen upon Lord Darnley, both from the good qualities she
+found in him, and because being Elizabeth's kinsman and her's, and
+participating of the English and Scottish blood royal, she had imagined
+that none would be more agreeable to her Majesty and the realm of England.
+Convinced, by so decided an answer to his remonstrance, that Mary's
+resolution was fixed, Throckmorton wrote to Elizabeth, that she could not
+hope to stop the marriage, unless she had recourse to violence. But
+Elizabeth had too much prudence to take up arms herself; all she wished
+was, to instigate others to this measure. Accordingly, Throckmorton, one
+of the wiliest of her diplomatic agents, received orders to deal with the
+Scottish malcontents, and especially the Earl of Murray, whom he was to
+assure of Elizabeth's support, should they proceed to extremities. Murray
+was likewise invited to enter into a correspondence with Cecil, an
+invitation with which he willingly complied;[91] and to give the whole
+affair as serious an air as possible, a fresh supply of troops was sent to
+the Earl of Bedford, Elizabeth's Lieutenant of the Borders; and her
+Wardens of the Marches were commanded to show no more favour to Mary's
+subjects than the bare abstaining from any breach of peace. The Earl of
+Northumberland, who was attached to the Lennox family, was detained in
+London; and Lady Lennox herself, was committed to the Tower. Lady
+Somerset, who pretended a sort of title to the English succession in
+opposition to Mary, was received very graciously at the Court of
+Westminster. Means were used to induce Secretary Maitland to associate
+himself with Murray, and the other discontents; and, all this time, that
+no suspicion of such insiduous enmity towards the Scottish Queen might be
+entertained on the Continent, the good opinion of France and Spain was
+carefully courted.
+
+Elizabeth next wrote letters to Lennox and Darnley, commanding them both,
+as her subjects, to return to England without delay. Randolph was desired
+to wait upon them, to know what answer they were disposed to give. He got
+little satisfaction from either;--Lennox firmly, and Darnley
+contemptuously, refused to obey the mandate of recall. Randolph then
+waited upon the Queen to ascertain her mind on the subject. Mary felt
+keenly the contemptible jealousy and envy with which she was treated by
+Elizabeth; and received the English resident with greater reserve than she
+had ever done before, "as a man new and first come into her presence that
+she had never seen." Randolph asked, if she would give Lennox and Darnley
+permission to depart for England. Mary smiled at the question, which was
+an artful one, and said,--"If I would give them leave, I doubt what they
+would do themselves; I see no will in them to return." Randolph answered
+with insolence, that they must either return, or do worse; for that, if
+they refused, and were supported by Mary in that refusal, the Queen his
+mistress had the power and the will to be revenged upon both them and her.
+The Queen of Scots merely replied, that she hoped Elizabeth would change
+her mind, and so dismissed Randolph.
+
+Satisfied of the integrity of her purpose, Mary was not to be easily
+driven from it. She sent Mr John Hay to the English court, to state once
+more her anxious wish to avoid giving any just cause of offence to
+Elizabeth, but at the same time to repeat, that she could not but consider
+as strange and vexatious, any opposition to a marriage, to which there did
+not seem to be one plausible objection. He was desired also to complain of
+the "sharp handling" which had been given to Mary's aunt, the Lady
+Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. But her chief anxieties arose from
+the state of matters nearer home. The Duke of Chatelherault, and the Earls
+of Murray, Argyle, and Glencairn, had now openly declared themselves
+adverse to the marriage; and Lethington and Morton were suspected of
+giving it only a very doubtful support. There was, in consequence, a great
+change at Mary's court. They who had formerly most influence kept away
+from it altogether; and a new set of men, little accustomed to state
+duties, such as Montrose, Fleming, Cassils, Montgomery, and others, came
+into favour. It was now that Mary found Rizzio, who was active, and well
+acquainted with all the details of public business, and was, besides,
+liked by Darnley, of the greatest use to her; and being deserted by her
+more efficient, but too ambitious counsellors, she gladly availed herself
+of his services.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+MARY'S MARRIAGE WITH DARNLEY.
+
+
+Murray, meanwhile, was busily organizing his scheme of rebellion. "Their
+chief trust," says Randolph, alluding to the Earl and his associates,
+"next unto God, is the Queen's Majesty, (Elizabeth,) whom they will repose
+themselves upon; not leaving in the meantime to provide for themselves the
+best they can." Elizabeth was not backward to give them every
+encouragement. She wrote letters to the heads of the party; means were
+taken to win over to their views the General Assembly, which met in June
+1565, the members of which, as Randolph says, were "never more constant or
+more earnest;" and the nobles summoned by Mary to a convention at Perth,
+were all tampered with. But the great majority at this convention, gave
+their consent and approbation to the proposed marriage; and Murray, in
+despair, begged Randolph to inform his mistress, in the name of himself
+and those who had joined his faction, that they were "grieved to see such
+extreme folly in their sovereign; that they lamented the state of their
+country, which tended to utter ruin; and that they feared the nobility
+would be forced to assemble themselves together, so to provide for the
+state, that it should not utterly perish." In other words, they had made
+up their mind to rebellion; at all events, to prevent Darnley from
+obtaining the crown, and an ascendancy over them,--and probably, if an
+opportunity should offer, to put Mary in confinement, and rule the country
+themselves. This was exactly the state of feeling which Elizabeth had long
+laboured to produce in Scotland. "Some that have already heard," says
+Randolph, "of my Lady's Grace imprisonment," (meaning the Countess of
+Lennox), "like very well thereof, and wish both father and son to keep her
+company. The question hath been asked me, whether, if they were delivered
+us into Berwick, we would receive them? I answered, that we could not nor
+would not refuse our own, in what sort soever they came unto us."[92] But
+as it was felt that a plausible apology would be required for proceeding
+to these extremities, the Earl of Murray gave out that a conspiracy had
+been formed to assassinate him at the Convention at Perth. His story was,
+that there had been a quarrel between one of his own servants and another
+man, who was supported by retainers of Athol and Lennox, and that it had
+been arranged that they should renew their dispute at Perth, and that he
+himself should be slain in the affray, which was expected to ensue. But
+the evidence of a plot against him rests only upon Murray's own statement
+and when Mary asked him to transmit in writing a more particular account
+of it, seeing that he made it his excuse for refusing to come to Court,
+"it appeared to her Highness and to her Council, that his purgation in
+that behalf, was not so sufficient as the matter required;" and his excuse
+was not sustained.[93]
+
+The treasonable views entertained by Murray and his friends, are involved
+in no such doubt. In these times, the common mode of effecting a change in
+the government, was to seize the person of the sovereign; and all
+historians of credit agree in affirming, that Murray was determined on
+making the experiment. On Sunday, the first of July, 1565, the Queen was
+to ride with Darnley and a small train of friends from Perth to the seat
+of Lord Livingston at Callander, the baptism of one of whose children she
+had promised to attend. Murray knew that it would be necessary for her to
+pass, in the course of this journey, through several steep and wild
+passes, where she and her attendants might easily be overpowered. At what
+precise spot the attack was to be made, or whether that was not left to
+the chapter of accidents, does not appear. Knox, who was, of course, too
+staunch a Presbyterian directly to accuse the great lay-head of his church
+of so treasonable a design, says that the path of Dron (a rugged pass
+about three miles south of Perth), had been mentioned, whilst Sir James
+Melville and others, point out the Kirk of Beith, which stood on a
+solitary piece of ground, between Dumfermline and the Queensferry. But
+late upon the previous Saturday night, a rumour reached Mary of the
+contemplated plot. To prevent its execution, she ordered the Earl of Athol
+and Lord Ruthven, to collect immediately as strong a body of men as
+possible; and through their exertions, she left Perth next morning at
+five, accompanied by three hundred horsemen well mounted. Murray was
+waiting at Loch Leven, Argyle at Castle Campbell, Chatelherault at his
+house of Kinneil, in the neighbourhood of the Queensferry, and Lord
+Rothes, who had joined in the conspiracy, at a place called the Parrot
+Well, not far distant. The Queen, however, to their great disappointment,
+having passed over the ground on which they intended to intercept her,
+both much earlier in the day, and much more strongly guarded than they had
+anticipated, they were obliged to remain quiet; indeed the Earl of Argyle
+did not come to join Murray, till two hours after Mary had ridden through
+Kinross.[94]
+
+On Mary's return to Edinburgh she found that an attempt had been made,
+through the conjoined influence of Knox and Murray, to stir up to sedition
+some of the more bigoted Presbyterians--on the plea that Darnley favoured
+Popery. Two or three hundred of the malcontents, or _brethren_, as Knox
+calls them, assembled at St Leonard's Hill, and their mutinous proceedings
+might have led to disagreeable consequences, had not Mary arrived just in
+time to disperse and overawe them.[95] Murray and his associates, keeping
+at a greater distance, held some secret meetings at Loch-Leven, and then
+assembling at Stirling on the 17th of July, openly raised the standard of
+rebellion. But, amidst all these troubles, Mary, conscious that she had
+right upon her side, remained undaunted, and, at no period of her life,
+did her strength of mind appear more conspicuous. To retain that
+confidence, which she knew the great majority of her subjects still placed
+in her, she issued proclamations announcing her determination to abstain,
+as she had hitherto done, from any interference in the matter of religion;
+she wrote, with her own hand, letters to many of her nobles, assuring them
+of the integrity of her intentions; and, she sent requisitions to all upon
+whom she could depend, calling on them to collect their followers, and
+come armed to her assistance.
+
+The Earl of Murray, on the other hand, having thrown off his allegiance to
+his own Sovereign, became entirely subservient to the wishes and commands
+of Elizabeth. He and his friends wrote to request that she would send
+them, as a proof of her sincerity in the cause, the sum of three thousand
+pounds to meet the expenses of the current year; and they would thus be
+able, they imagined, to carry every thing before them, unless Mary
+received foreign assistance. They likewise suggested that Lord Hume, whose
+estates lay on the Borders, and who was one of the Scottish Queen's most
+faithful servants, should be harassed by some ostensibly accidental
+incursions;--that the Bishop of Dumblane, who was to be sent on an embassy
+to the Continent, should be delayed in London till "his budgets were
+rifled by some good slight or other;"--and that Bothwell, whom Mary was
+about to recall, to obtain his assistance in her present difficulties,
+should be "kept in good surety" for a time.[96] To all this Elizabeth
+replied, that if the Lords suffered any inconvenience, "they should not
+find lack in her to succour them." She hinted, however, that the less
+money they asked the better, advising them "neither to make greater
+expense than their security makes necessary, nor less which may bring
+danger." "This letter," says Keith, "is an evident demonstration of the
+English Queen's fomenting and supporting a rebellion in Scotland; and the
+rebellious Lords knew too well what they had to trust to."
+
+One can hardly attempt to unravel, as has been done in the preceding
+pages, the secret causes which led to the iniquitous rebellion now
+organized, without feeling it almost a duty to express indignation both at
+the malicious interference of the English Queen, and the overweening
+ambition and ingratitude of the Earl of Murray. Mary's conduct, since her
+return from France, had been almost unexceptionable. The only fault she
+had committed, and the necessity of the times forced it on her, was
+yielding too implicitly to the counsels of her brother. These had been in
+some instances judicious, and in others, the natural severity of his
+temper had been rebuked by the mildness of Mary; so that, take it for all
+in all, no government had ever been more popular in Scotland than hers.
+Her choice of Lord Darnley for a husband, so far from diminishing the
+estimation in which she was held by the great body of her subjects, only
+contributed to raise her in their opinion. For the sake of the political
+advantages which would result to her country from this alliance, she was
+willing to forego much more splendid offers; and, though the imperfections
+of Darnley's character might ultimately be the means of destroying her own
+happiness, his birth and expectations were exactly such as gave him the
+best right to be the father of James VI. Nor could his religious opinions
+be objected to, for, whatever they were, they did not influence the
+Queen;--indeed, ever since she had known him, she had treated the
+Protestants with even more than her usual liberality. At the baptism of
+Lord Livingston's child, she remained and heard a Protestant sermon; and
+about the same time she intimated to some of the leaders of the Reformers,
+that though she was not persuaded of the truth of any religion except of
+that in which she had been brought up, she would nevertheless allow a
+conference and disputation on the Scriptures in her presence, and also a
+public preaching from the mouth of Mr Erskine of Dun, whom she regarded as
+"a mild and sweet-natured man, with true honesty and uprightness."[97] All
+these things considered, one is at a loss to conceive how, even in these
+restless times, any set of men dared to enter into rebellion against Mary.
+But the selfish and insidious policy of Elizabeth--the jealousy of the
+Duke of Chatelherault, in whose family rested the succession to the
+Scottish crown, and who had hoped that his son Arran might have obtained
+Mary's hand--the envy and rage of the Earl of Argyle, who had been obliged
+to surrender to Lennox some of his forfeited estates--and, above all, the
+artful and grasping spirit of Murray, solve the enigma. Whatever opinion
+may be entertained of Mary's subsequent proceedings it appears but too
+evident, that the first serious troubles of her reign were forced upon her
+in spite of her utmost prudence, by the intrigues of enemies who were only
+the more dangerous, because they had for a time assumed the disguise of
+friends.
+
+Whatever the hopes or wishes of the conspirators might be, Mary resolved
+that they should not long have it in their power to make their desire to
+prevent her nuptials a pretext for continuing in arms. On Sunday, the 29th
+of July 1565, she celebrated her marriage with Darnley, upon whom she had
+previously conferred various titles, and among others that of Duke of
+Albany.[98] The banns of matrimony were proclaimed in the Canongate
+church, the palace of Holyrood being in that parish; and, as Mary and
+Darnley were first cousins, a Catholic dispensation had been obtained from
+the Pope. The ceremony was performed, according to the Catholic ritual, in
+the chapel of Holyrood, between five and six in the morning--an hour which
+appears somewhat strange to modern habits. John Sinclair, Dean of
+Restalrig, and Bishop of Brechin, had the honour of presiding on the
+occasion. It was generally remarked, that a handsomer couple had never
+been seen in Scotland. Mary was now twenty-three, and at the very height
+of her beauty, and Darnley, though only nineteen, was of a more manly
+person and appearance than his age would have indicated. The festivities
+were certainly not such as had attended the Queen's first marriage, for
+the elegancies of life were not understood in Scotland as in France; and,
+besides, it was a time of trouble when armed men were obliged to stand
+round the altar. Nevertheless, all due observances and rejoicings lent a
+dignity to the occasion. Mary, in a flowing robe of black, with a wide
+mourning hood, was led into the chapel by the Earls of Lennox and Athol,
+who, having conducted her to the altar, retired to bring in the
+bridegroom. The Bishop having united them in the presence of a great
+attendance of Lords and Ladies, three rings were put upon the Queen's
+finger--the middle one a rich diamond. They then knelt together, and many
+prayers were said over them. At their conclusion, Darnley kissed his
+bride, and as he did not himself profess the Catholic faith, left her till
+she should hear mass. She was afterwards followed by most of the company
+to her own apartments, where she laid aside her sable garments, to
+intimate, that henceforth, as the wife of another, she would forget the
+grief occasioned by the loss of her first husband. In observance of an old
+custom, as many of the Lords as could approach near enough were permitted
+to assist in unrobing her, by taking out a pin. She was then committed to
+her ladies, who, having attired her with becoming splendour, brought her
+to the ball-room, where there was great cheer and dancing till dinner
+time. At dinner, Darnley appeared in his royal robes; and after a great
+flourish of trumpets, largess was proclaimed among the multitude who
+surrounded the palace. The Earls of Athol, Morton, and Crawfurd, attended
+the Queen as sewer, carver, and cup-bearer; and the Earls of Eglinton,
+Cassilis, and Glencairn, performed the like offices for Darnley. When
+dinner was over, the dancing was renewed till supper-time, soon after
+which the company retired for the night.[99]
+
+The rejoicings that attended the commencement of Darnley's career as King
+of Scotland, were but of short duration. Randolph, expressing the
+sentiments of Elizabeth and the rebels, hesitated not to say, that "_God
+must either send the King a short end, or them a miserable life; that
+either he must be taken away, or they find some support, that what he
+intendeth to others may light upon himself_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+MURRAY'S REBELLION.
+
+
+Murray had now gone too far to recede, though, had he been so inclined,
+Mary's leniency would willingly have given him the opportunity. Mr John
+Hay, who had formerly acted as her ambassador in England, and who was one
+of her brother's personal friends, was sent to him to declare the good
+will which both the Earl of Lennox and Darnley bore towards him. Mary even
+avowed her readiness to bring to trial any one he would accuse of having
+conspired against his life; but he had no evidence to prove that such a
+conspiracy had ever existed, much less to fix the guilt upon any
+individual. He had made the accusation originally, only the better to
+conceal his own nefarious purposes; for Murray well understood the
+practical application of Machiavel's maxim,--"Calumniare audacter aliquid
+adhĉrebit."
+
+Acting in concert with this nobleman, Elizabeth now sent more imperative
+orders than before for the return of Lennox and Darnley. But the former
+answered, that, considering his wife had been committed to the Tower for
+no fault on her part, he thought it unlikely that the climate of England
+would suit his constitution; and the latter said boldly and gallantly,
+that he now acknowledged duty and obedience to none but the Queen of
+Scots, whom he served and honoured; and though Elizabeth chose to be
+envious of his good fortune, he could not discover why he should leave a
+country where he found himself so comfortable. Randolph coolly replied,
+that he hoped to see the wreck and overthrow of as many as were of the
+same mind; "and so turning my back to him, without reverence or farewell,
+I went away."[100] The disaffected Lords, on their part, as soon as they
+heard of Mary's marriage, and the proclamations in which she conferred
+upon her husband the rank and title of King, renewed their complaints with
+increased bitterness. The majority of their countrymen, however, saw
+through their real motives; and even Knox allows it was generally alleged,
+that these complaints were "not for religion, but rather for hatred, envy
+of sudden promotion or dignity, or such worldly causes." The recalling of
+the Earls Bothwell and Sutherland, and the restoring Lord Gordon to the
+forfeited estates and honours of his father, the Earl of Huntly, was
+another source of exasperation. From the tried fidelity of these noblemen,
+Mary knew she could depend upon their services; though Bothwell,
+personally, as we have already seen, was far from being agreeable to her.
+
+To put in the clearest point of view the utter worthlessness of all the
+grounds of offence which Elizabeth and the Scottish rebels pretended at
+this time to have against Mary, a short and impartial account of a message
+sent by the English Queen, early in August 1565, and of the answer it
+received, will be read here with interest. The person who brought this
+message was one of Elizabeth's inferior officials, of the name of
+Tamworth, "a forward, insolent man," says Camden, and, with marked
+disrespect, chosen for this very reason. He was ordered not to acknowledge
+Darnley as King, and to give him no title but that which he had borne in
+England; but Mary, "having smelt," as Camden adds "the nature both of the
+message, and of the animal who brought it," would not admit him into her
+presence. His objections were therefore committed to writing, and the
+answer given in similar form. On the part of Elizabeth it was stated, that
+her Majesty had found Mary's late proceedings, both towards herself and
+towards her subjects, very strange, upon diverse grounds. These, as they
+were brought forward, so were they replied to methodically and _seriatim_.
+_First_, Elizabeth took God to witness, that her offer to Mary, of any of
+her own subjects in marriage, was made sincerely and lovingly; and that
+she was grieved to hear that Mary, listening to false council, had been
+made to think otherwise.--To this it was answered, that the Queen of Scots
+did not doubt Elizabeth's sincerity and uprightness in her offer of a
+husband from England, and that no counsel had been given to induce her to
+change her opinion. _Second_, Elizabeth was much surprised, that
+notwithstanding the offer made by Mary to Sir Nicolas Throckmorton, to
+delay her marriage till the middle of August, that she might have longer
+time to prevail upon Elizabeth to consent to it, she had consummated that
+marriage without giving her Majesty any intimation, on the 29th of July,
+and had thereby disappointed both Elizabeth and some foreign princes, who
+thought as strangely of the alliance as she did.--To this it was answered,
+that it was true, that though Mary's resolution was fixed before Sir
+Nicolas Throckmorton came into Scotland, she had, nevertheless, promised
+to delay her marriage in the hope that the doubts entertained by
+Elizabeth, as to the propriety of the said marriage, might in the
+meantime, be removed; but that this promise was made expressly on the
+condition, that Commissioners should be appointed on both sides to discuss
+the matter, and that, as Elizabeth refused to nominate any such
+commissioners, Mary was relieved from her promise; that further, she had
+good reasons, known to herself and her own people, with which no other
+prince needed to interfere, for consummating her marriage at the time she
+did; and that, with regard to foreign princes thinking the alliance
+strange, she had a perfect knowledge of the opinions, and had obtained the
+express consent of the principal and greatest princes in Christendom.
+_Third_, Elizabeth was astonished how Mary, in direct opposition to the
+conditions of the treaty of peace, existing between England and Scotland,
+could detain her Majesty's subjects, Lennox and Darnley in Scotland,
+having allured them thither under a pretence of suits for lands, but in
+reality to form an alliance without her Majesty's consent and
+license,--an offence so unnatural, that the world spoke of it, and her
+Majesty could not forget it.--To this it was answered, that Mary marvelled
+not a little at the Queen, her good sister, insisting any further upon
+this head, for she did not understand how it could be found strange that
+she detained within her realm the person with whom she had joined herself
+in marriage, or a Scottish Earl, whom Elizabeth herself named by his
+Scottish title, the more especially as they both came to her with
+Elizabeth's consent and letters of recommendation; and that she had no
+doubt that the world spoke as sound sense would dictate, judging that her
+detaining of them was in no ways prejudicial to any treaty of peace,
+existing between the two realms, since no annoyance was intended towards
+Elizabeth, her kingdom, or estate. _Fourth_, Elizabeth wondered that
+Mary's ambassador, Mr John Hay, came to ask to be informed of her
+Majesty's objections to the marriage, and of what she wished to be done,
+but had no authority either to agree to, or refuse her requests; and she
+therefore supposed that he had been sent more as a piece of empty form,
+than for any useful purpose.--To this it was answered, that Mary, though
+willing to hear Elizabeth's objections, if any such existed, and to
+endeavour to remove them, had yet expressly declared, that she would make
+such endeavour only through the medium of commissioners mutually agreed
+on; and that she was still so convinced of the expediency of the match,
+that though now married, she was still willing, if Elizabeth wished it, to
+have its propriety discussed by such commissioners. _Fifth_, Elizabeth
+begged that an explanation might be given of a sentence in one of Mary's
+French letters, which she found somewhat obscured, and which ran
+thus,--"Je n'estimerois jamais que cela vienne de vous, et sans en
+chercher autre vengeance, j'aurois recours à tous les princes mes allies
+pour avec moi vous remonstrer ce que je vous suis par parentage. Vous
+savez assez ce que vous avez resolu sur cela."--To this it was answered,
+that Mary, by the whole of her letter, as well as the passage in question,
+meant no other thing but to express her desire to remain in perfect
+friendship and good intelligence with the Queen her sister, from whom she
+expected such treatment as reason and nature required from one princess to
+another, who was her cousin; and that if, as God forbid, other treatment
+were received, which Mary would not anticipate, she could do no less than
+lay her case before other princes, her friends and allies. _Sixth_,
+Elizabeth was grieved to see that Mary encouraged fugitives and offenders
+from England, and practised other devices within her Majesty's realm; and
+that, in her own kingdom, seduced by false counsellors and malicious
+information, she raised up factions among the nobility.--To this it was
+answered, that if the Scottish Queen really wished to offend Elizabeth,
+she would not be contented with such paltry practices as those she was
+accused of towards English subjects;--and that, with regard to her
+proceedings in her own realm, as she had never interfered with Elizabeth's
+order of government, not thinking it right that one state should have a
+finger in the internal policy of another, so she requested that Elizabeth
+would not meddle with her's, but trust to her discretion, as the person
+most interested, to preserve peace and quietness. _Seventh_, Elizabeth
+warned Mary to take good heed that she did not proceed in her intention to
+suppress and extirpate the religion already established in Scotland, or to
+effect the suppression of the Reformed faith in England, for that all such
+designs, consultations, intelligences, and devices, should be converted to
+the peril and damage of those that advised and engaged in them.--To this
+it was answered, that Mary could not but marvel at Elizabeth's fears for a
+religion upon which no innovation had ever been attempted, but for the
+establishment of which every arrangement had been made most agreeable to
+her Scottish subjects; that as to an intention to interfere with the
+spiritual faith of England, she never heard of it before; but that, if any
+practices to such effect could be condescended on, they should instantly
+be explained and altered; and that, with regard to her designs,
+consultations, intelligences and devices, such as she really engaged in,
+would be found no vainer or more deceitful than those of her neighbours.
+_Eighth_ and _lastly_, Elizabeth wished that Mary would not show herself
+so given to change, as to conceive evil of the Earl of Murray, whose just
+deserts she had so long acknowledged, for that by indifference and
+severity, there were plenty examples to prove, that many noble men had
+been constrained to take such measures for their own security, as they
+would otherwise never have resorted to; and that these were _part_ of the
+reasons why Elizabeth was offended with Mary.--To this it was answered,
+that Mary wished her good sister would not meddle with the affairs of her
+Scottish subjects any more than Mary meddled with the affairs of
+Elizabeth's English subjects; but that, if Elizabeth desired any
+explanation of her conduct towards Murray, it would be willingly given, as
+soon as Elizabeth explained her motives for committing to the Tower Lady
+Margaret, Countess of Lennox, mother-in-law and aunt of Mary; and that, as
+soon as Elizabeth stated any _other_ grounds of offence, they should be
+answered as satisfactorily as the above had been.[101]
+
+Having thus triumphantly replied to the English Queen's irritating
+message, Mary, in the true spirit of conciliation, had the magnanimity to
+propose that the following articles should be mutually agreed upon. On the
+part of the King and Queen of Scotland,--_First_, That their Majesties
+being satisfied of the Queen their sister's friendship, are content to
+assure the Queen, that during the term of her life, or that of her lawful
+issue, they will not, directly or indirectly, attempt any thing
+prejudicial to their sister's title to the Crown of England, or in any way
+disturb the quietness of that kingdom. _Second_, They will enter into no
+communication with any subject or subjects of the realm of England, in
+prejudice of their said sister and her lawful issue, or receive into their
+protection any subjects of the realm of England, with whom their sister
+may have occasion to be offended. _Third_, They will not enter into any
+league or confederation with any foreign prince, to the hurt, damage, and
+displeasure of the Queen and realm of England. _Fourth_, They will enter
+into any such league and confederation with the Queen and realm of
+England, as shall be for the weal of the princes and subjects on both
+sides. And, _Fifth_, They will not go about to procure in any way,
+alteration, innovation, or change in the religion, laws, or liberties of
+the realm of England, though it should please God at any time hereafter to
+call them to the succession of that kingdom. In consideration of these
+offers, the three following equally reasonable articles were to be agreed
+to, on the part of England;--_First_, That by Act of Parliament, the
+succession to the Crown, failing Elizabeth and her lawful issue, shall be
+established first, in the person of Mary and her lawful issue, and failing
+them, in the person of the Countess of Lennox and her lawful issue, as by
+the law of God and nature, entitled to the inheritance of the said Crown.
+_Second_, That the second offer made by the King and Queen of Scotland be
+also made on the part of England; and, _Third_, That the third offer shall
+be likewise mutual. To have agreed to these liberal articles would not
+have suited Elizabeth's policy, and we consequently hear nothing farther
+concerning them.
+
+On the 15th of August 1565, Murray summoned the rebellious nobles to a
+public meeting at Ayr, where it was resolved that they should assemble
+together in arms on the 24th. Mary in consequence issued proclamations,
+calling upon her loyal subjects to come to Edinburgh, with their kin,
+friends, and household, and provided for fifteen days, on the 25th of
+August. On that day she left Edinburgh with a numerous force, and marched
+to Linlithgow. Before leaving the capital, measures were taken to prevent
+the discontented there from turning to advantage the absence of their
+sovereign. The Provost, who was entirely under the management of Knox, and
+strongly suspected to favour the rebels, was displaced, and a more
+trust-worthy civic officer appointed in his stead. Knox himself, a few
+days before, had, been suspended from the discharge of his clerical
+duties, in consequence of a seditious and insulting sermon he delivered
+before the young King, who paid him the compliment of attending divine
+service in St Giles's church, a Sunday or two after his marriage. In this
+sermon the preacher, among other things, said, that God had raised to the
+throne, for the sins of the people, boys and women; adding, in the words
+of Scripture,--"I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall
+rule over them: children are their oppressors, and women rule over them."
+In the same style of allusions grossly personal, he remarked, that "God
+justly punished Ahab, because he did not correct his idolatrous wife, the
+harlot Jezabel." It is singular, that Knox never thought of objecting to
+Mary's marriage with Darnley, till he found that his patron, the Earl of
+Murray, to whom he was now reconciled, did not approve of it. He had said
+only a few months before that--"The Queen being at Stirling, order was
+given to Secretary Lethington to pass to the Queen of England, to declare
+to that Queen, Mary was minded to marry her cousin, the Lord Darnley; and
+the rather, because he was so near of blood to both Queens; for, by his
+mother, he was cousin-german to the Queen of Scotland, also of near
+kindred and the same name by his father;--his mother was cousin-german to
+the Queen of England. Here, mark God's providence: King James V., having
+lost his two sons, did declare his resolution to make the Earl of Lennox
+his heir of the crown; but he, prevented by sudden death, that design
+ceased. Then came the Earl of Lennox from France, with intention to marry
+King James's widow; but that failed also: he marries Mary Douglas; and his
+son, Lord Darnley, marrieth Queen Mary, King James V.'s daughter: and so
+the King's desire is fulfilled, viz.--the crown continueth in the name and
+in the family." Knox had changed his opinion (as even Knox could sometimes
+do), both when he preached the above-mentioned sermon, and when, towards
+the end of August 1565, he said, that the Castle of Edinburgh was
+"shooting against _the exiled for Christ Jesus' sake_."[102]
+
+From Linlithgow, Mary advanced with an increasing force, first to
+Stirling, and then to Glasgow. Here she was within a short distance of the
+rebel army, which, mustering about 1200 strong, had taken its position at
+Paisley; "a fine pleasant village," says Keith, "five miles W.S.W. from
+Glasgow." But Murray, not venturing to attack the Royalists, made a
+circuit at some distance and, by a forced march, arrived unexpectedly at
+Edinburgh, where he hoped to increase his force. In this hope he was
+grievously disappointed. Finding that the Provost, who was taken by
+surprise, had not sufficient strength to keep him without the walls, he
+entered the city by the West Port, and immediately despatched messengers
+for assistance in every direction, and, by beat of drum, called upon all
+men who wished to receive wages "for the defence of the glory of God," to
+join his standard. But Knox confesses, that few or none resorted to him,
+and that he got little or no support in Edinburgh; although the preacher
+himself did all he could for his patron by prayers and exhortations, in
+which he denominated the rebels "the best part of the nobility, and chief
+members of the Congregation."[103] The truth is, that the current of
+popular opinion ran directly in favour of Mary; for the _godly_ Earl's
+real motives were well understood.
+
+As soon as the Queen was made aware that she had missed her enemies, she
+marched back in pursuit of them, at the head of 5000 men, as far as
+Callender. Murray could only fly from a power which he knew he was not
+able to withstand. Alarmed by Mary's speedy return, he left Edinburgh, and
+again passing her on the road, led his followers to Lanark, and from
+thence to Hamilton. With indomitable perseverance, the Queen retraced her
+steps to Glasgow, expecting Murray would make an attempt upon that city.
+But finding there was no safety for him in this part of Scotland, he
+suddenly turned off towards the south, and with as little delay as
+possible, retired into Dumfries-shire. Here, being near the Borders, he
+expected that Elizabeth would send him succour from England, and at all
+events, he could at any time make good his retreat into that country. The
+principal noblemen with him were the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls of
+Argyle, Glencairn, and Rothes, and the Lords Boyd and Ochiltree. Morton
+and Maitland remained with the Queen; but the fidelity of both is much to
+be suspected, though the command of the main body of the Royal army was
+intrusted to the former. The Earl of Lennox led the van, and the Queen
+herself rode with her officers in a suit of light armour, carrying pistols
+at her saddle-bow; "her courage," says Knox, "manlike, and always
+increasing." She did not think it worth while to follow Murray into
+Dumfries-shire, but preferred leading her army through Fife, to St
+Andrews, taking possession, on the way, of Castle Campbell, the seat of
+the rebel Lord, Argyle.
+
+Elizabeth in the mean time was far from being inattentive to the interests
+of her servants in Scotland. Randolph wrote to Cecil, that if she would
+assist them with men and more money, he doubted not but one country would
+receive both the Queens; by which he meant, that the rebels would thus be
+able to fulfil their design, of sending Mary prisoner into England.[104]
+The Earl of Bedford informed his mistress of the arrival of her friends on
+the Borders, and hinted to her that their cause was evidently not very
+popular in Scotland, and that their force was much inferior to that of
+Mary. Elizabeth's letter, in answer, is as artful a piece of writing as
+has ever proceeded even from a female pen. Afraid that she might go too
+far in assisting the losing party, she resolved to make it be believed
+that she acted against them, whilst in truth she secretly encouraged and
+supported them. With this view, she wrote to Bedford, that in consequence
+of his representations, as well as those of Randolph and others, she sent
+him three thousand pounds; one thousand of which was to be paid
+immediately to Murray, in the most private way possible, and as if it came
+from Bedford himself. The remainder was to be kept till occasion required
+its expenditure. "And where, we perceive," she continued, "by your sundry
+letters, the earnest request of the said Earl of Murray and his
+associates, that they might have at least 300 of our soldiers to aid them,
+and that you also write, that though we would not command you to give them
+aid, yet if we would but wink at your doing herein, and seem to blame you
+for attempting such things, as you, with the help of others, should bring
+about, you doubt not but things would do well,--we are content, and do
+authorize you, if you shall see it necessary for their defence, to let
+them (as of your own adventure, and without notification that you have any
+direction therein from us), to have the number of 300 soldiers, wherein
+you shall so precisely deal with them, that they may perceive your care to
+be such as, if it should otherwise appear, your danger should be so great,
+as all the friends you have could not be able to save you towards us. And
+so we assure you, our conscience moveth us to charge you so to proceed
+with them; and yet we would not that either of these were known to be our
+act, but rather to be covered with your own desire and attempt." Having
+further mentioned, that she had written lately to Mary, to assure that
+princess of her esteem and good will, Elizabeth boldly affixed her
+signature to this memorable record of unblushing duplicity.[105]
+
+But Mary was not to be lulled into dangerous security. All her operations
+during this campaign were, as Robertson has remarked, "concerted with
+wisdom, executed with vigour, and attended with success." At St Andrews,
+she issued a proclamation, exposing the hollowness of the grounds upon
+which arms had been taken up against her, and showing that religion was
+only made a cloak to cover other more ungodly designs. Alluding, in
+particular, to the Earl of Murray, upon whom she had bestowed so many
+benefits, this proclamation stated, that his insatiable ambition was not
+to be satisfied with heaping riches upon riches, and honour upon honour,
+unless he should also continue to have, as he had too long had, the Queen
+and the whole realm in his own hands, to be used and governed at his
+pleasure. "By letters sent from themselves to us," Mary says, "they make
+plain profession that the establishment of religion will not content them,
+but we must per force be governed by such council as it shall please them
+to appoint unto us." "The like," she adds, "was never demanded of any our
+most noble progenitors heretofore, yea, not even of governors or regents;
+but the prince, or such as occupied his place, ever chose his council of
+such as he thought most fit for the purpose. When we ourselves were of
+less age, and at our first arrival in our realm, we had free choice of our
+council at our pleasure; and now, when we are at our full majority, shall
+we be brought back to the state of pupils and minors, or be put under
+tutelage? So long as some of them bore the whole swing with us
+themselves, this matter was never called in question; but now, when they
+cannot be longer permitted to do and undo all things of their appetite,
+they will put a bridle in our mouths, and give us a council chosen after
+their phantasy! To speak it in plain language, they would be king
+themselves; or at the least, leaving to us the bare name and title, take
+to themselves the whole use and administration of the kingdom."[106]
+
+After levying a small fine of two hundred marks from the town of Dundee,
+which had given some countenance to the malcontents, Mary and Darnley
+returned to Edinburgh. They there received such accounts of the increasing
+strength of the rebels, as induced them to determine on marching
+southwards. Biggar was named as the place of rendezvous for the lieges,
+and they flocked in such crowds to join the standard of their sovereign,
+that the Queen was enabled to advance towards the Borders at the head of
+an army of 18,000 men. Before this greatly superior force, Murray and his
+partisans, including his 300 English soldiers, retired to Carlisle. He was
+closely followed thither, upon which his troops dispersed, and he himself
+and his friends sought refuge by flying further into England. Mary, after
+visiting the castle of Lochmaben, left Bothwell, with some troops, to
+watch the Borders; and, on the 18th of October, returned to Edinburgh with
+the rest of her army.[107]
+
+Of the rebellious nobles thus forced into exile, the Duke of
+Chatelherault alone was able or willing to make his peace immediately. He
+and his sons were pardoned, on condition of their living abroad--a degree
+of leniency extended to them by Mary, in opposition to the wishes of the
+house of Lennox, which was anxious for the entire ruin of the
+Hamiltons.[108] Murray and the rest, being kindly received by Bedford,
+fixed their residence at Newcastle, whence the Earl himself, and the Abbot
+of Kilwinning, were deputed to proceed to the English court, and lay the
+state of their affairs before Elizabeth, upon whose patronage they
+conceived they had peculiar claims. It was, however, no part of
+Elizabeth's policy to befriend in their adversity those with whom she had
+associated herself in more prosperous days. As soon as she heard that
+Murray was on his way to her court, she wrote to stop him, and to inform
+him that it was not meet for him to have any "open dealing" with her. But
+at Bedford's earnest entreaty he was allowed to continue his journey, the
+object of which, he said, was to make some proposals for the "common
+cause."[109] It was nevertheless a long while before he could obtain an
+audience of the Queen; and when that honour was at length conceded to him,
+she had the confidence to ask him, with an unruffled countenance, how he,
+being a rebel to her sister of Scotland, durst have the boldness to come
+within her realm? Murray, in reply, ventured to speak of the support he
+had all along received from her; but as this was betraying her policy to
+her continental neighbours, it exasperated her to such a degree, that she
+declared he and his friends should never obtain any thing from her but
+scorn and neglect, unless he made a public recantation of such an
+assertion. With this demand both the Earl and the Abbot had the meanness
+to comply; and though Sir Nicolas Throckmorton interfered in their behalf,
+and openly avowed that he had been sent into Scotland expressly to make
+offers of assistance to the rebel lords, he could not save them from the
+degradation which Elizabeth inflicted. They appeared before her when she
+was surrounded by the French and Spanish ambassadors, and impiously
+affirmed, upon their knees, that her Majesty had never moved them to any
+opposition or resistance against their own Queen. As soon as they had
+uttered this falsehood, Elizabeth said to them,--"Now ye have told the
+truth; for neither did I, nor any in my name, stir you up against your
+Queen. Your abominable treason may serve for example to my own subjects to
+rebel against me. Therefore, get ye out of my presence; ye are but
+unworthy traitors."[110]
+
+Sir James Melville, speaking of this affair, says, with his usual
+quaintness, that "Mary chasit the rebel lords here and there, till at
+length they were compellit to flee into England for refuge, to her that
+had promised, by her ambassadors, to wair (expend) her Croun in their
+defence, in case they were driven to any strait for their opposition to
+the said marriage."--"But Elizabeth," he adds, "handlit the matter sae
+subtilly, and the other twa sae blaitly, that she triumphed both over
+them and the ambassadors." The deputation returned quite chop-fallen, to
+their friends at Newcastle, where they lived for some time in great
+poverty, and very wretchedly. Such were the more immediate results of this
+piece of juggling on the part of Elizabeth, and justly unsuccessful
+rebellion on that of Murray.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE EARL OF MORTON'S PLOT.
+
+
+Hitherto, Mary's government had been prosperous and popular. Various
+difficulties had, no doubt, surrounded her; but, by a prudence and
+perseverance, beyond her sex and age, she had so successfully encountered
+them, that she fixed herself more firmly than ever on the throne of her
+ancestors. The misfortunes, however, in which all the intrigues of her
+enemies vainly attempted to involve her, it was Mary's fate to bring upon
+herself, by an act, innocent in so far as regarded her own private
+feelings, and praiseworthy in its intention to increase and secure the
+power and happiness of her country. This act was her marriage with
+Darnley. From this fatal connexion, all Mary's miseries took their origin;
+and as the sunshine which has as yet lighted her on her course, begins to
+gleam upon it with a sicklier ray, they who have esteemed her in the blaze
+of her prosperity, will peruse the remainder of her melancholy story with
+a deeper and a tenderer interest. Let it at the same time be remembered,
+that the present Memoirs come not from the pen of a partisan, but are
+dictated by a sacred desire to discover and preserve the truth. Mary's
+weaknesses shall not be concealed; but surely, whilst the common frailties
+of humanity thus become the subjects of history, justice imposes the
+nobler and the more delightful duty of asserting the talents and
+vindicating the virtues of Scotland's fairest Queen.
+
+It was evident, that public affairs could not long continue in the
+position in which they now stood. With the Earl of Murray and the
+Hamiltons, the greater number of Mary's most experienced counsellors were
+in a state of banishment. At the head of those who remained was the crafty
+Earl of Morton, who, though he affected outward allegiance, secretly
+longed for the return of his old allies and friends of the Protestant
+party. It was not indeed without some show of reason that the professors
+of the Reformed faith considered their religion to be exposed at the
+present crisis to hazard. The King now openly supported Popery; the most
+powerful of the Lords of the Congregation were in disgrace; several of the
+Catholic nobility had lately been restored to their honours; some of the
+Popish ecclesiastics had, by Mary's influence, been allowed to resume
+their place in Parliament; and above all, ambassadors arrived from the
+French King and her Continental friends, for the express purpose of
+advising the Queen to grant no terms to the expatriated nobles, and of
+making her acquainted, with the objects of the Holy League which had been
+recently formed. This was the league between Charles IX. and his sister
+the Queen of Spain, with the consent of her husband Philip, and Pope Pius
+IV., and at the instigation of Catherine de Medicis and the Duke of Alva,
+to secure, at whatever cost, the suppression of the Reformation throughout
+Europe. So great a variety of circumstances, all seeming to favour the old
+superstition, alarmed the Protestants not a little; but this alarm was
+unnecessarily exaggerated, and Mary's intentions which were not known at
+the time, have been misrepresented since.
+
+Robertson has asserted, that Mary "instantly joined" the Continental
+Confederacy, and was willing to go any length for the restoration of
+Popery. He would thus have us believe that she was a direct party to the
+horrible massacre of the Hugonots in France; and that she would have
+spared no bloodshed to re-establish in Scotland that form of worship which
+she herself, in conjunction with her Parliament, had expressly abrogated.
+Robertson goes further, and maintains, with a degree of absurdity so
+glaring that we are at a loss to understand why it should never before
+have been exposed, that "to this fatal resolution (that of joining the
+Anti-Protestant Confederacy) may be imputed all the subsequent calamities
+of Mary's life." Why a secret contract which Mary might have made with an
+ambassador from France, the terms or effects of which were never known or
+felt in any corner of Scotland, should have produced "all her subsequent
+calamities," must remain an enigma to those who do not possess the same
+remarkable facility of tracing effects to their causes which seems to have
+been enjoyed by Dr Robertson. But it is extremely doubtful that Mary ever
+gave either her consent or approbation to this League. Robertson's
+authorities upon the subject by no means bear him out in his assertions.
+He affirms, that "she allowed mass to be celebrated in different parts of
+the kingdom; and declared that she would have mass free for all men who
+would hear it." But the first part of this information is supplied by the
+Englishman Bedford, who was not then in Scotland, and the second rests
+upon the authority of the insidious Randolph. Robertson likewise mentions,
+that Blackwood, in his "_Martyre de Marie_," says, "that the Queen
+intended to have procured in the approaching Parliament, if not the
+re-establishment of the Catholic religion, at least something for the ease
+of Catholics." But this announcement of what was _intended_ is so very
+unimportant, that even, if true, it requires no refutation; the more
+especially, as Blackwood goes on to say, though Robertson stops short,
+that this "something for the ease of Catholics" was only to be a request
+that the Protestants would be more tolerant.[111] Robertson however adds,
+that "Mary herself, in a letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, her
+ambassador in France, acknowledges '_that in that Parliament she intended
+to have done some good with respect to restoring the old religion_.'" For
+this quotation from Mary's letter, Robertson refers to Keith; but upon
+making the reference, it will be found that he has somewhat unaccountably
+garbled the original. All that Mary wrote to her ambassador concerning the
+Parliament was, that "the spiritual estate is placed therein in the
+ancient manner, _tending to have done some good_ anent restoring the old
+religion, and to have proceeded against our rebels according to their
+demerits."[112] The different shade of meaning which Robertson has given
+to this passage, is rather singular.
+
+Having thus seen the weakness of these preliminary arguments against
+Mary's willingness to countenance the Reformed faith, it only remains to
+be inquired, whether she was a party to the confederacy formed at Bayonne.
+It will be recollected, that the measures concocted by this confederacy
+were of the most sanguinary and savage description. It was resolved, "by
+treachery and circumvention, by fire and the sword, utterly to exterminate
+the Protestants over Christendom." It might very fairly be asked, and the
+question would carry with it its own answer, whether such a scheme,
+uncertain as its results were, and sure to produce in the mean time civil
+war and confusion wherever its execution was attempted, was at all
+consistent either with Mary's established policy, or her so earnestly
+cherished hopes of succession to the English crown? Robertson, however,
+says, "she instantly joined the confederacy;" and Dr Gilbert Stuart, an
+historian of greater research and more impartiality, allows himself to
+believe the same thing. These writers ground their belief on what they
+have found in Sir James Melville and in Keith. But the former gives us not
+the slightest reason to suppose that Mary had any thing to do with the
+League, although he allows that the representations of the French
+ambassador tended to harden her heart towards the Earl of Murray and the
+other rebels.[113] It would even appear, by his Memoirs, that Mary was
+never asked to become a party to the confederacy; for Sir James simply
+states, that the ambassadors came "with a commission to stay the Queen in
+nowise to agree with the Lords Protestants that were banished." Conĉus, in
+his Life of Mary, leaves entirely the same impression, and rather
+strengthens it.[114] As to Keith, he nowhere goes the length of Robertson
+or Stuart,--merely remarking that the letters from France tended much to
+hinder the cause of the banished Lords. He gives, it is true, in his
+Appendix, an extract of a letter from Randolph to Cecil, in which we find
+it stated, on the very dubious authority of the English Resident, that the
+"band to introduce Popery through all Christendom, was signed by Queen
+Mary." But if Mary had actually done so, it would have been with the
+utmost secrecy, and surely, above all, she would have concealed such a
+step from the spy of Elizabeth. This letter is given at full length by
+Robertson; and on perusing the whole, it expressly appears, that Randolph
+spoke only from hearsay; for he adds, "If the copy of his band _may be
+gotten_, it shall be sent as I conveniently may." In the same letter he
+mentions that most of the nobles had been asked to attend mass, in
+compliment to the foreign ambassadors, and that they had all refused;
+enumerating, among others, Fleming, Livingston, Lindsay, Huntly, and
+Bothwell; "and of them all, Bothwell is the stoutest, but worst thought
+of." These Lords must have had little dread of the consequences, else they
+would not have ventured to refuse. The truth is, Randolph's common
+practice was, to convert into a fact every report which he knew would be
+agreeable to Cecil and his mistress; and so little reliance did they place
+upon the accuracy of his information, that it does not appear Elizabeth
+ever took any notice of his statement regarding the band, which she would
+eagerly have done had it been true. So much, therefore, for Robertson's
+declaration, that "to this fatal resolution may be imputed all the
+subsequent calamities of Mary's life." They would have been few, indeed,
+had they taken their origin in any countenance she gave to the ferocious
+wickedness of continental bigotry.[115]
+
+There does not, then, exist a shadow of proof that Mary contemplated the
+subversion of the Reformed religion in Scotland, though it may safely be
+admitted that she was greatly perplexed what course to pursue towards the
+expatriated rebels. On the one hand, Elizabeth petitioned in their behalf,
+well knowing she could depend on their co-operation, as soon as they were
+again in power; and her petition was warmly supported by Murray's friends
+in Scotland,--some for the sake of religion,--many for their own private
+interests,--and a few because they believed his return would be for the
+good of the country. On the other hand, the Catholic party was delighted
+to be rid of such formidable adversaries, and their wishes were enforced
+by those of Mary's uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine. Besides, though
+disposed to be lenient almost to a fault, she cannot but have felt just
+indignation against men who had so grossly abused her kindness, and
+insulted her authority. It was in the midst of these contending opinions
+and interests, that a Parliament was summoned, first for the 4th of
+February 1566, and afterwards prorogued till the 7th of March, at which it
+was determined that, in one way or other, the subject should be set at
+rest. The matter would then most probably have terminated unfavourably for
+Murray, had not the whole affair assumed a new feature, and been hurried
+on to an unexpected and violent conclusion, under influences on which it
+would have been difficult to have calculated.
+
+Mary had been Darnley's wife only a few months, when a painful conviction
+was forced upon her of the error she had committed in so far as regarded
+her own happiness, in uniting her fortunes with a youth so weak,
+headstrong, and inexperienced. The homage, whether real or affected, which
+before his marriage Darnley paid to Mary,--his personal graces and
+accomplishments,--and the care he took to keep as much as possible in the
+background, the numerous defects of his character, had succeeded in
+securing for him a place in Mary's heart, and, what he considered of
+greater importance, a share of her throne. But as soon as the object of
+his ambition was obtained, the mask was thrown aside. He broke out into a
+thousand excesses,--offended almost all the nobility,--and forgetting, or
+misunderstanding the kind of men he had to deal with, cherished a wild and
+boyish desire to make his own will law. He changed from the Protestant to
+the Catholic religion; but the Catholics had no confidence in him, whilst
+John Knox and the Reformers lifted up their voices loudly against his
+apostasy. He was addicted to great intemperance in his pleasures; was
+passionately fond of his hounds and hawks, grossly licentious, and much
+given to drinking. Upon one occasion, his indulgence in this latter vice
+made him so far forget himself, that at a civic banquet where the Queen
+and he were present, he dared to speak to her so brutally, that she left
+the place in tears.[116]
+
+But there were other causes, besides the imperfections of Darnley's
+character, which served to sow dissension between him and his young wife.
+It would be wrong to say that they were mutually jealous of each other's
+love of power, for this would be to put Mary on an equality with her
+husband, who was Queen in her own right, while Darnley had no title to any
+authority beyond what she chose to confer on him. In the first ardor of
+her affection, however, she permitted him, with the confiding generosity
+of sincere attachment, to carry every thing his own way; and he was too
+conceited and selfish to appreciate as it deserved, the value of the trust
+she thus reposed in him. "All honour," says Randolph, "that may be
+attributed unto any man by a wife, he hath it wholly and fully,--all
+praise that may be spoken of him, he lacketh not from herself,--all
+dignities that she can endow him with, are already given and granted. No
+man pleaseth her that contenteth not him. And what may I say more? She
+hath given over unto him her whole will, to be ruled and guided as himself
+best liketh."[117] This was nothing more than the conduct naturally to be
+expected from a woman who warmly loved her husband, and who, in the
+ingenuous integrity of her heart, believed him worthy of her love. Had
+this indeed been the case, no evil consequences could have resulted from
+the excess of kindness she lavished on him; but with all his fair
+exterior, Darnley was incapable of understanding or estimating aright the
+mind and dispositions of Mary Stuart. Had he even in part answered the
+expectations she had formed of him,--had he listened to the prudent
+councils of Sir James Melville, and others whom Mary requested he would
+associate near his person,--and had he continued those affectionate
+attentions which she had a right to expect, but had far too proud a
+spirit to ask, he might have obtained from her every honour he desired.
+But what she felt that slighted love did not call upon her to yield, it
+was in vain to expect to win from her by force or fear; and the
+consequence was, that about this time, what was technically termed the
+_Crown matrimonial_, became a great source of dissension between herself
+and her husband.
+
+On the day that Mary gave her hand to Darnley, she conferred upon him the
+title of King of Scotland; and his name, in all public writs, was signed,
+in some before, and in others after her own. The public coin of the realm,
+issued subsequent to the marriage, also contained his name.[118] But
+though Darnley had the title, and to a certain extent the authority of a
+King, it was never Mary's intention to surrender to him an influence in
+the administration greater then her own. This was the object, however, at
+which his discontented and restless spirit aimed, and it was to achieve
+it that he demanded the _crown-matrimonial_,--a term used only by Scottish
+historians, by many of whom its exact import does not appear to have been
+understood. In its more limited acceptation, it seems to have conferred
+upon the husband, who married a wife of superior rank, the whole of her
+power and dignity, so long as their union continued. Thus, if a Countess
+married an Esquire, he might become, by the marriage-contract, a
+_matrimonial Earl_; and, during the life of the Countess, her authority
+was vested in her husband, as entirely as if he had been an Earl by birth.
+But it was in a more extended sense that Darnley was anxious for this
+matrimonial dignity. Knowing it to be consistent with the laws of
+Scotland, that a person who married an heiress, should keep possession of
+her estate, not only during his wife's life, but till his own death, he
+was desirous of having a sovereign sway secured in his own person, even
+though Mary died without issue. In the first warmth of her attachment to
+Darnley, the Queen might have been willing, with the consent of
+Parliament, to gratify his ambition; but as soon as his unstable and
+ill-regulated temper betrayed itself, she felt that she was called upon,
+both for her own sake, and that of the country, to refuse his request.
+
+The more opposition Darnley experienced, the more anxious he became, as is
+frequently the case, to accomplish his wishes. It was now for the first
+time, that he found Rizzio's friendship fail him. That Italian, whom the
+bigotry of the Reformers, and the ignorant prejudices of more recent
+historians, have buried under a weight of undeserved abuse, was one of the
+most faithful servants Mary ever had. He approved of her marriage with
+Darnley for state reasons, and had, in consequence, incurred the hatred of
+Murray and his party, whilst Darnley, on the contrary, had courted and
+supported him. But Rizzio loved his mistress too well to wish to see her
+husband become her master. His motives, it is true, may not have been
+altogether disinterested. He knew he was a favourite with Mary, and that
+he would retain his situation at court so long as her influence was
+paramount; but he had not the same confidence in the wayward and
+vacillating Darnley, who was too conceited to submit to be ruled, and too
+weak to be allowed to govern. The consequence naturally was, that a
+coldness took place between them, and that the consideration with which
+Mary continued to treat Rizzio, as her foreign secretary, only served to
+increase Darnley's disaffection.
+
+Such was the state of matters, when the Earl of Morton, secretly supported
+by Maitland, and more openly by the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, determined
+on making use of Darnley's discontent to forward his own private
+interests, and those of some of his political friends. His object was, in
+the first place, to strengthen his own party in the government, by
+securing the return of Murray, Argyle, Rothes, and the other banished
+Lords; and in the second, to prevent certain enactments from being passed
+in the approaching Parliament, by which Mary intended to restore to her
+ecclesiastics a considerable portion of church lands, which he himself,
+and other rapacious noblemen, had unjustly appropriated. These possessions
+were to be retained only by saving the rebels from the threatened
+forfeitures, and thus securing a majority in Parliament. But Mary, with a
+firmness which was the result of correct views of good government, was now
+finally resolved not to pardon Murray and his accomplices. For offences of
+a far less serious nature, Elizabeth was every month sending her subjects
+to the block; and it would have argued imbecility and fickleness in the
+Queen of Scots, so soon to have forgotten the treachery of her own, and
+her husband's enemies. There was scarcely one of her ministers, except
+Rizzio, who had the courage and the good sense to confirm her in these
+sentiments; and he continued to retain his own opinion, both in this
+affair and that of the crown-matrimonial, notwithstanding the open threats
+of Darnley, the mysterious insinuations of Morton, and the attempt at
+bribery on the part of Murray. This last nobleman, who had played the
+hypocrite so abjectly before Elizabeth and her court, did not scruple, in
+his selfish humility, to offer his respects, and to send presents to one
+whom he had always been accustomed to call, in the language of his
+historian Buchanan, "an upstart fellow," "a base miscreant," "a
+contemptible mushroom," and to whom he had never before given any thing
+but "a sour look."[119]
+
+It may therefore be said, that there were, at this time, four powerful
+parties connected with Scotland;--Mary was at the head of one,--Morton of
+another,--Darnley of a third,--and Murray of the fourth. But so long as
+the Queen retained her ascendency, the other three factions could have
+little hope of arriving at their respective objects. Mutually to
+strengthen each other, a coalition very naturally suggested itself,
+founded upon the principle of a reciprocity of benefits. The idea was soon
+matured, and the plan of operations concocted with a secrecy and callous
+cruelty, worthy of Morton. The usual expedient was adopted, of drawing up
+and signing a formal bond, or set of articles, which were entered into
+between Henry, King of Scotland, and James, Earl of Murray, Archibald,
+Earl of Argyle, Andrew, Earl of Rothes, Robert, Lord Boyd, Andrew, Lord
+Ochiltree, and certain others "remaining in England;" in which it was
+stipulated, on the part of the Lords, that, at the first Parliament which
+should be held after their return, they should take such steps as would
+secure to Darnley a grant of the crown-matrimonial for all the days of his
+life; and that, whoever opposed this grant, they should "seek, pursue, and
+extirpate out of the realm of Scotland, or take and slay them,"--language,
+it will be observed, which had a more direct application to Mary than to
+any one else. On the part of Darnley, and in return for these favours, it
+was declared, that he should not allow, in as much as in him lay, any
+forfeiture to be led against them; and that, as soon as he obtained the
+crown-matrimonial, he should give them a free remission for all
+crimes,--taking every means to remove and punish any one who opposed such
+remission.[120] In plain language, these articles implied neither more
+nor less than high treason, and place Darnley's character, both as a
+husband and a man, in the very worst point of view, showing him as a
+husband to be wofully deficient in natural affection, and as a man to be
+destitute of honour, and incapable of gratitude.
+
+Morton's intrigues having proceeded thus far, there seemed to be only one
+other step necessary to secure for him the accomplishment of his purposes.
+Mary, strong in the integrity of her own intentions, and in the popularity
+of her administration, did not suspect the secret machinations which were
+carried on around her; and of this over-degree of confidence in the
+stability of her resources, Morton determined to take advantage. He saw
+that a change in the government must be effected at whatever risk, though
+he knew that nothing but a sudden and violent measure could bring it
+about. It was now February;--Parliament was to meet on the 7th of March,
+and on the 12th the trial of the absent Lords was to come on, and after
+they had been forfeited, the church-lands would be restored to their
+rightful owners. If Mary's person, however, could be seized,--if her
+principal anti-protestant ministers could be removed from about her,--and
+if Darnley could be invested for a time with the supreme command, these
+disagreeable consequences might be averted, and the Parliament might be
+either prorogued, or intimidated into submission. But, without a shadow of
+justice, to have openly ventured upon putting the Queen in ward, would
+have been too daring and dangerous. A scheme therefore was formed, by
+which, under the pretence of caring for her personal safety, and
+protecting the best interests of the country, she was to be kept, as long
+as they should think necessary, from exercising her own independent
+authority. By this scheme it was resolved to make David Rizzio the victim
+and the scape-goat of the conspiracy. Morton and his accomplices well knew
+that Rizzio was generally hated throughout Scotland. The Reformers, in
+particular, exaggerating his influence with the Queen, delighted in
+representing him as the minion of the Pope, and the servant of Antichrist,
+and there were no terms of abuse too gross which they did not direct
+against the unfortunate Italian. It would, therefore, give a popular
+effect to the whole enterprise, were it to be believed that it was
+undertaken principally for the sake of ridding the country from so hateful
+an interloper. Many historians, confounding the effect with the cause,
+have been puzzled to explain why Rizzio's murder should have led so
+immediately to the return of Murray and his friends; they forget that it
+was, on the contrary, a determination to secure their return, and to
+discover a plausible pretext for retaining Mary a prisoner in her own
+palace, that led to the murder.
+
+In the meantime, Rizzio was not without some apprehensions for his
+personal safety. The Scots, though they seldom evince much reluctance to
+secure their own advancement in foreign countries, are of all nations the
+most averse to allow strangers to interfere with their affairs at home.
+Aware that they have little enough for themselves, they cannot bear to see
+any part of what they consider their birthright given away to aliens,
+however deserving. Rizzio's abilities, and consequent favour with the
+Queen, were the means of placing in his hands so much power and wealth,
+that he incurred the hatred and envy of almost every one about court. In
+the homely but expressive language of Melville, "some of the nobility
+would gloom upon him, and some of them would shoulder him and shoot him
+by, when they entered in the chamber, and found him always speaking with
+her Majesty." Buchanan, that able but most prejudiced and disingenuous
+historian, expressing the prevalent sentiments of the day, says that, "the
+low birth and indigent condition of this man, placed him in a station in
+which he ought naturally to have remained unknown to posterity; but that
+which fortune called him to act and to suffer in Scotland, obliges history
+to descend from its dignity to record his adventures." As if "low birth
+and indigent condition" have ever been, or will ever be, barriers
+sufficient to shut out genius and talent from the road to greatness. But
+Rizzio was in truth far from being of that officious, conceited, and
+encroaching disposition, which Buchanan has ascribed to him. Sir James
+Melville, who knew him well, gives quite an opposite impression of his
+character. He mentions, that not without some fear, Rizzio lamented his
+state to him, and asked his council how to conduct himself. Sir James told
+him, that strangers ought to be cautious how they meddled too far in the
+affairs of foreign countries, for that, though he was her Majesty's
+Continental secretary, it was suspected a great deal of Scottish business
+also passed through his hands. "I advised him," says Melville, "when the
+nobility were present, to give them place, and pray the Queen's Majesty to
+be content therewith; and shewed him for an example, how I had been in so
+great favour with the Elector Palatine, that he caused set me at his own
+table, and the board being drawn, used to confer with me in presence of
+his whole Court. Whereat divers of them took great indignation against me,
+which, so soon as I perceived, I requested him to let me sit from his own
+table with the rest of his gentlemen, and no more to confer with me in
+their presence, but to send a page for me, any time that he had leisure,
+to come to him in his chamber; which I obtained, and that way made my
+master not to be hated, nor myself to be envied; and willed him to do the
+like, _which he did_, and said unto me afterwards, that the Queen would
+not suffer him, but would needs have him to use himself in the old
+manner." Melville then spoke to Mary herself upon the subject, and she
+expressly told him, that Signor David Rizzio "meddled no further but in
+her French writings and affairs, as her other French secretary had done
+before."[121]
+
+Rizzio's religion was another reason why he was so very unpopular. It was
+confidently asserted that he was in the pay of the Pope; and that he was
+in close correspondence with the Cardinal of Lorraine. Be this as it may,
+the support he undoubtedly gave, so far as lay in his power, to the
+Scottish Catholics, was of itself enough, in these times of bigotry, to
+make his assassination be considered almost a virtue. Besides, there were
+some more personal and private grounds for Morton and his friends wishing
+to get rid of the Secretary. There is a remarkable passage in Blackwood's
+_Martyre de Marie_, by which it would appear, that it was not the
+original intention of the conspirators to assassinate Rizzio, but merely
+to secure the person of Mary; and that it was in consequence of Rizzio's
+fidelity to the Queen, and refusal to sanction such a proceeding, that
+they afterwards changed their plan. "The Earl of Morton," says Blackwood,
+"had apartments in the royal palace.[122] There lodged there also her
+Majesty's Secretary, David Rizzio, a Piedmontese, and a man of great
+experience, and well versed in affairs of state. He was much respected by
+his mistress, not for any beauty or external grace that was in him, being
+rather old, ugly, austere, and disagreeable, but for his great fidelity,
+wisdom, and prudence, and on account of several other good qualities which
+adorned his mind. But, on the other hand, his master (the King) hated him
+greatly, both because he had laboured to effect the re-establishment of
+the house of Hamilton," (the Duke of Chatelherault, it will be
+recollected, was the only one of the rebels who had been pardoned), "and
+because _he had not only refused to become a party to, but had even
+revealed to the Queen_ a certain conspiracy that had been concluded on
+between his Highness and the rebels, by which it was resolved to shut up
+her Majesty in a castle, under good and sure guard, that Darnley might
+gain for himself all authority, and the entire government of the kingdom.
+My Lord Ruthven, the head of this conspiracy, entertained the greatest
+ill-will against the poor Secretary, because he had neither dared nor
+been able to conceal from her Majesty, that he had found Ruthven and all
+the conspirators assembled together in council in a small closet, and had
+heard her husband express himself with especial violence and chagrin.
+Besides, Morton, fearing greatly the foresight and penetration of this
+man, whom he knew to be entirely opposed to his designs, resolved to
+accomplish his death, and in so doing comply with the advice which had
+been given him by the English Court." This is a passage of much interest,
+and puts in a clear and strong point of view the treasonable designs of
+this formidable conspiracy.[123]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE ASSASSINATION OF DAVID RIZZIO.
+
+
+It was on the evening of Saturday the 9th of March 1566,[124] that the
+conspirators determined to strike the blow, which was either to make or
+mar them.[125] The retainers of Morton, and the other Lords his
+accomplices, assembled secretly in the neighbourhood of the Palace, to the
+number of nearly five hundred. They were all armed, and when it became
+dark, Morton, who took the command, led them into the interior court of
+Holyroodhouse, which, in his capacity of Lord High Chancellor of the
+kingdom, he was able to do, without much difficulty or suspicion. It had
+been arranged, that he should remain to guard the entry to the palace,
+whilst Ruthven, with a select party, was to proceed to the Queen's
+chamber. Patrick Lord Ruthven was exactly the sort of person suited for a
+deed of cowardice and cruelty, being by nature cursed with dispositions
+which preferred bigotry to religion, and barbarism to refinement. He was
+now in the forty-sixth year of his age, and had been for some months
+confined to a sick-bed, by a dangerous disease.[126] Though scarcely able
+to walk, he nevertheless undertook to head the assassins. He wore a
+helmet, and a complete suit of armour concealed under a loose robe.[127]
+
+Mary, altogether unsuspicious of the tragedy about to be performed, sat
+down to supper, as usual, at seven o'clock. There were with her only her
+illegitimate sister, the Countess of Argyle, her brother the Lord Robert
+Stuart, and her Foreign Secretary, David Rizzio. Beaton, her Master of the
+Household, Erskine, an inferior attendant, and one or two other servants
+of the Privy Chamber, were in waiting at a side-table; or, in the words of
+Stranguage, "tasting the meat taken from the Queen's table, at the
+cupboard, as the servants of the Privy Chamber use to do."[128] It is a
+curious and interesting fact, that notwithstanding all the changes which
+time has wrought on the Palace of Holyrood, the very cabinet in which Mary
+supped, on this eventful evening, as well as the adjoining rooms and
+passages through which the conspirators came, still exist, in nearly the
+same state in which they were in the year 1566. The principal staircase,
+in the north-west tower, leads up to the Queen's chamber of
+presence;--passing through this apartment, a door opens into Mary's
+bedroom, where her own bed yet stands, although its furniture is now
+almost in tatters. It was in the small closet or cabinet off her bed-room,
+containing one window, and only about twelve feet square, that Mary sat at
+supper on the 9th of March, two hundred and sixty-two years ago.
+Communicating with Darnley's chamber, immediately beneath, there was, and
+is, a private passage into Mary's bedroom, by which it could be entered,
+without previously passing through the presence-chamber. The approach to
+this passage from the Queen's room is concealed by a piece of wainscot,
+little more than a yard square, which hangs upon hinges in the wall, and
+opens on a trap-stair. It had been originally proposed to seize Rizzio in
+his own apartment; but this plan was abandoned, for two reasons; _first_,
+because it was less certain, since it was often late before Rizzio retired
+for the night, since he sometimes did not sleep in his own room at all,
+but in that of another Italian belonging to the Queen's household, named
+Signor Francis, and since there were back-doors and windows, through which
+he might have effected his escape; and, _second_, because it would not
+have so much intimidated Mary, and would have made it necessary to employ
+another party to secure her person--the chief object of the
+conspirators.[129]
+
+To ascertain whether there was any thing to hinder the execution of their
+design, Darnley, about eight o'clock, went up the private stairs, and,
+entering the small room where his wife was supping, sat down familiarly
+beside her. He found, as he expected, his victim Rizzio in attendance,
+who, indeed, owing to bad health, and the little estimation in which he
+was held by the populace, seldom went beyond the precincts of the
+palace.[130] He was dressed, this evening, in a loose _robe-de-chambre_ of
+furred damask, with a satin doublet, and a hose of russet velvet; and he
+wore a rich jewel about his neck, which was never heard of after his
+death.[131] The conspirators having allowed sufficient time to elapse, to
+be satisfied that all was as they wished, followed the King up the private
+way, which they chose in order to avoid any of the domestics who might
+have been in the presence-chamber, and given an alarm. They were headed by
+the Lord Ruthven, and George Douglas, an illegitimate son of the late Earl
+of Angus, and the bastard brother of Darnley's mother, the Lady Lennox; a
+person of the most profligate habits, and an apt instrument in the hands
+of the Earl of Morton. These men, followed by as many of their accomplices
+as could crowd into the small room where Mary sat, entered abruptly and
+without leave; whilst the remainder, to the number of nearly two score,
+collected in her bedroom. Ruthven, with his heavy armour rattling upon his
+lank and exhausted frame, and looking as grim and fearful as an animated
+corpse, stalked into the room first, and threw himself unceremoniously
+into a chair. The Queen, with indignant amazement, demanded the meaning of
+this insolent intrusion, adding, that he came with the countenance, and in
+the garb of one who had no good deed in his mind. Turning his hollow eyes
+upon Rizzio, Ruthven answered, that he intended evil only to the villain
+who stood near her. On hearing these words, Rizzio saw that his doom was
+fixed, and lost all presence of mind; but Mary, through whose veins flowed
+the heroic blood of James V., and his warlike ancestors, retained her
+self-possession. She turned to her husband, and called upon him for
+protection; but perceiving that he was disposed to remain a passive
+spectator of the scene, she ordered Ruthven to withdraw under pain of
+treason, promising, that if Rizzio was accused of any crime, it should be
+inquired into by the Parliament then assembled. Ruthven replied only by
+heaping upon the unfortunate Secretary a load of abuse; and, in
+conclusion, declared the determination of the conspirators to make
+themselves masters of Rizzio's person. Rizzio, scarcely knowing what he
+did, pressed close into the recess at the window, with his dagger drawn in
+one hand, and clasping the folds of Mary's gown with the other. In spite
+of every threat, he remained standing behind her, and continually
+exclaiming in his native language, and in great agitation, _Giustizia!
+Giustizia!_ Mary's own person was thus exposed to considerable danger, and
+the assassins desired Darnley to take his wife in his arms and remove her
+out of the way. The confusion and terror of the scene now increased a
+hundredfold;--the master of the household, and the three or four servants
+of the privy-chamber, attempted to turn Lord Ruthven out of the room;--his
+followers rushing to his support, overturned the supper-table, threw down
+the dishes and the candles, and, with hideous oaths, announced their
+resolution to murder Rizzio. Their own impetuosity might have frustrated
+their design; for, had not the Countess of Argyle caught one of the
+candles in her hand as it was falling, they would have been involved in
+darkness, and their victim might have escaped.
+
+The first man who struck Rizzio was George Douglas. Swords and daggers had
+been drawn, and pistols had been presented at him and at the Queen; but no
+blow was given, till Douglas, seizing the dirk which Darnley wore at his
+side, stabbed Rizzio over Mary's shoulder, though, at the moment, she was
+not aware of what he had done. The unhappy Italian was then forcibly
+dragged out into the bed-room, and through the presence-chamber, where the
+conspirators, gathering about him, speedily completed the bloody deed,
+leaving in his body no fewer than fifty-six wounds. He lay weltering in
+his gore at the door of the presence-chamber for some time; and a few
+large dusky spots, whether occasioned by his blood or not, are to this day
+pointed out, which stain that part of the floor. The body was afterwards
+thrown down the stairs, and carried from the palace to the porter's lodge,
+with the King's dagger still sticking in his side. He was obscurely buried
+next day; but, subsequently, more honourably near the Royal vault in
+Holyrood Chapel.[132]
+
+Such was the unhappy end of one who, having come into Scotland poor and
+unbefriended, had been raised, through the Queen's penetration and his own
+talents, to an honourable office, the duties of which he discharged with
+fidelity. If his rise was sudden, his fall was more so; for, up to the
+very day of his assassination, many of the Scottish nobility, says
+Buchanan, "sought his friendship, courted him, admired his judgment,
+walked before his lodgings, and observed his levee." But death no sooner
+put an end to his influence, than the memory of the once envied Italian
+was calumniated upon all hands. Knox even speaks approvingly of his
+murder, (as he had formerly done of that of Cardinal Beaton), assuring us
+that he was slain by those whom "God raised up to do the same"--an error,
+indicating a distorted moral perception, from the reproach consequent on
+which, his biographer, M'Crie, has unsuccessfully endeavoured to defend
+him.[133] The Reformer adds to his notice of Rizzio, a story which suits
+well the superstitious character of the times, and which Buchanan has
+repeated. He mentions, that there was a certain John Daniot, a French
+priest, and a reputed conjuror, who told Rizzio "to beware of a bastard."
+Rizzio, supposing he alluded to the Earl of Murray, answered, that no
+bastard should have much power in Scotland, so long as he lived; but the
+prophecy was considered to be fulfilled, when it was known that the
+bastard, Douglas, was the first who stabbed him.[134]
+
+In the meantime, the Earl of Morton, who had been left below, to guard the
+gates, being informed that Rizzio was slain, and that Ruthven and Darnley
+retained possession of the Queen's person, made an attempt to seize
+several of the nobility who lodged in the palace, and whom he knew to be
+unfavourable to his design of restoring the banished Lords. Whether it was
+his intention to have put them also to death, it is difficult to say; but
+it is at all events not likely that he would have treated them with much
+leniency. The noblemen in question, however, who were the Earls of Huntly,
+Bothwell, and Athol, the Lords Fleming and Livingston, and Sir James
+Balfour, contrived, not without much difficulty, to effect their escape.
+The two first let themselves down by ropes at a back window; Athol, who
+was supping in the town with Maitland, was apprised of his danger, and did
+not return to Holyrood that night. He, or some of the fugitives, hastened
+to the Provost of Edinburgh, and informed him of the treasonable
+proceedings at the Palace. The alarm-bell was immediately rung; and the
+civic authorities, attended by five or six hundred of the loyal citizens,
+hastened down to Holyrood, and called upon the Queen to show herself, and
+assure them of her safety. But Mary, who was kept a prisoner in the closet
+in which she had supped, was not allowed to answer this summons, the
+conspirators well knowing what would have been the consequences. On the
+contrary, as she herself afterwards wrote to her ambassador in France, she
+was "extremely threatened by the traitors, who, in her face, declared,
+that if she spoke to the town's people they would cut her in collops, and
+cast her over the walls." Darnley went to the window, and informed the
+crowd that he and the Queen were well, and did not require their
+assistance; and Morton and Ruthven told them, that no harm had been done,
+and beseeched them to return home, which, upon these assurances, they
+consented to do.
+
+A scene of mutual recrimination now took place between Mary and her
+husband, which was prolonged by the rude and gross behaviour of Ruthven.
+That barbarian, returning to the Queen's apartment, after having imbrued
+his hands in the blood of Rizzio, called for a cup of wine, and having
+seated himself, drained it to the dregs, whilst Mary stood beside him.
+Being somewhat recovered from the extreme terror she had felt when she saw
+her Secretary dragged away by the assassins, she rebuked Ruthven for his
+unmannerly conduct; but he only added insulting language to the crimes he
+had already committed. Perceiving, however, that her Majesty was again
+growing sick and ill, (and even without considering, what the conspirators
+well knew, that she was in the seventh month of her pregnancy, her
+indisposition will excite little wonder), he proposed to the King that
+they should retire, taking care to station a sufficiently strong guard at
+the door of Mary's chamber. "All that night," says Mary, "we were detained
+in captivity within our chamber, and not permitted to have intercommunion
+scarcely with our servant-women."[135]
+
+Next morning, although it was Sunday, the conspirators issued a
+proclamation in the King's name, and without asking the Queen's leave,
+proroguing the Parliament,--and commanding all the temporal and spiritual
+lords, who had come to attend it, to retire from Edinburgh. Illegal as it
+was, this proclamation was obeyed; for Morton, and his accomplices, had
+the executive power in their own hands, and Mary's more faithful subjects
+were taken so much by surprise, that they were unable to offer any
+immediate resistance. Mary herself was still kept in strict confinement;
+and the only attempt she could make to escape, which was through the
+assistance of Sir James Melville, failed. Sir James was allowed to leave
+the Palace early on the forenoon of Sunday; and, as he passed towards the
+outer gate, Mary happened to be looking over her window, and called upon
+him imploringly for help. "I drew near unto the window," says Melville,
+"and asked what help lay in my power, for that I should give. She said,
+'Go to the Provost of Edinburgh, and bid him, in my name, convene the town
+with speed, and come and relieve me out of these traitors' hands; but run
+fast, for they will stay you.'" The words were scarcely spoken, before
+some of the guards came up, and challenged Sir James. He told them, he
+"was only passing to the preaching in St Giles's Kirk," and they allowed
+him to proceed. He went direct to the Provost, and delivered his
+commission from the Queen; but the Provost protested he did not know how
+to act, for he had received contrary commands from the King; and, besides,
+the people, he said, were not disposed to take up arms to revenge Rizzio's
+death. Sir James was, therefore, reluctantly obliged to send word to Mary,
+by one of her ladies, that he could not effect her release. In the course
+of the day, Mary was made acquainted with Rizzio's fate, and she lamented
+the death of her faithful servant with tears. Between seven and eight in
+the evening, the Earls of Murray and Rothes, with the other banished
+Lords, arrived from England. During the whole of the night, and all next
+day, the Queen was kept as close a prisoner as before.
+
+Morton and his accomplices, however, now found themselves in a dilemma.
+They had succeeded in bringing home their rebel friends, in proroguing or
+dissolving the Parliament, in conferring upon Darnley all the power he
+wished, in murdering Rizzio, and in chasing from Court the nobles who had
+formed part of the administration along with him. But to effect these
+purposes, they had grossly insulted their lawful sovereign, and had turned
+her own palace into a prison, constituting themselves her gaolers. Having
+achieved all their more immediate objects, the only remaining question
+was--what were they to do with the Queen? If they were to set her at
+liberty, could they expect that she would tamely forget the indignities
+they had offered her, or quietly submit to the new state of things they
+had established? Had they, on the other hand, any sufficient grounds for
+proceeding to further extremities against her? Would the country allow a
+sovereign, whose reign had been hitherto so prosperous, to be at once
+deprived of her crown and her authority?[136] Daring as these men were,
+they could hardly venture upon a measure so odious. Besides, Darnley,
+always vacillating, and always contemptible, was beginning to think he had
+gone too far; and, influenced by something like returning affection for
+his beautiful consort, who was probably in a month or two to make him a
+father, he insisted that the matter should now be allowed to rest where it
+was, provided Mary would promise to receive into favour the Lords who had
+returned from banishment, and would grant a deed of oblivion to all who
+had taken a part in the recent assassination. Morton, Ruthven, Murray, and
+the rest, were extremely unwilling to consent to so precarious an
+arrangement; but Darnley overruled their objections. On Monday evening,
+articles were drawn up for their security, which he undertook to get
+subscribed by the Queen; and, trusting to his promises, all the
+conspirators, including the Lords who had just returned, withdrew
+themselves and their retainers from Holyroodhouse, and went to sup at the
+Earl of Morton's.[137]
+
+As soon as Mary found herself alone with Darnley, she urged, with all the
+force of her superior mind, every argument she could think of, to convince
+him how much he erred in associating himself with the existing cabal. She
+was not aware of the full extent to which he was implicated in their
+transactions; for he had assured her, that he was not to blame for
+Rizzio's murder, and as yet she believed him innocent of contriving it.
+She spoke to him therefore, with the confidence of an affectionate wife,
+with the winning eloquence of a lovely woman, and with the force and
+dignity of an injured Queen. She at length satisfied him, that his best
+hopes of advancement rested in her, and not on men who having first
+renounced allegiance to their lawful Queen, undertook to confer upon him a
+degree of power which was not their's to bestow. Darnley further learned
+from Mary, that Huntly, Bothwell, Athol, and others, had already risen in
+her behalf, and yielding to her representations and entreaties, he
+consented that they should immediately make their escape together. At
+midnight, accompanied only by the captain of the guard and two others,
+they left the palace, and rode to Dunbar without stopping.
+
+In a few days, Mary having been joined by more than one half of her
+nobility, found herself at the head of a powerful army. The conspirators,
+on the other hand, seeing themselves betrayed by Darnley and little
+supported by the country, were hardly able to offer even the shadow of
+resistance to the Queen. Still farther to diminish the little strength
+they had, Mary resolved to make a distinction between the old and the new
+rebels; and, influenced by reasons on which Morton had little calculated,
+she consented to pardon Murray, Argyle, and others, who immediately
+resorted to her, and were received into favour. After remaining in Dunbar
+only five days, she marched back in triumph to Edinburgh, and the
+conspirators fled in all directions to avoid the punishment they so justly
+deserved. Morton, Maitland, Ruthven, and Lindsay betook themselves to
+Newcastle, where, for aught that is known to the contrary, they occupied
+the very lodgings which Murray and his accomplices had possessed a week or
+two before.
+
+The whole face of affairs was now altered; and Mary, who for some days had
+suffered so much, was once more Queen of Scotland. "And such a change you
+should have seen," says Archbishop Spottiswood, "that they who, the night
+preceding, did vaunt of the fact (Rizzio's murder) as a godly and
+memorable act, affirming, some truly, some falsely, that they were present
+thereat,--did, on the morrow, forswear all that before they had affirmed."
+But it was not in Mary's nature to be cruel, and her resentments were
+never of long continuance. Two persons only were put to death for their
+share in Rizzio's slaughter, and these were men of little note. Before the
+end of the year, most of the principal delinquents, as will be seen in the
+sequel, were allowed to return to Court. Lord Ruthven, however, died at
+Newcastle of his old disease, a month or two after his flight thither. His
+death occasioned little regret, and his name lives in history only as that
+of a titled murderer.[138]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE BIRTH OF JAMES VI.
+
+
+Mary's vigorous conduct had again put her in possession of that rightful
+authority of which so lawless an attempt had been made to deprive her; but
+though restored to power, she was far from being likewise restored to
+happiness. The painful conviction was now at length forced upon her, that
+she had not in all the world one real friend. She felt that the
+necessities of her situation forced her to associate in her councils men,
+who were the slaves of ambition, and whose heartless courtesies were
+offered to her, only until a prospect of higher advantages held out a
+temptation to transfer them to another. She had not been long in her own
+kingdom, before Bothwell and others contemplated seizing her person, and
+assassinating her prime minister, the Earl of Murray;--she had hardly
+succeeded in frustrating these designs, when Murray himself directed his
+strength against her; and now, still more recently, the husband, for whose
+sake she had raised armies to chase her brother from the country, had
+aimed at making himself independent, and, to ingratiate himself with
+traitors, had scrupled not to engage in a deed of wanton cruelty,
+personally insulting to his wife and sovereign.
+
+Ignorant where to turn for repose and safety, Mary began to lose much of
+the natural vivacity and buoyancy of her temper; and to feel, that in
+those turbulent times, she was endowed with too little of that
+dissimulation, which enabled her sister Elizabeth to steer so successfully
+among the rocks and shoals of government. In a letter written about this
+period to one of her female relations in France, she says, touchingly, "It
+will grieve you to hear how entirely, in a very short time, I have changed
+my character, from that of the most easily satisfied and care-chasing of
+mortals, to one embroiled in constant turmoils and perplexities." "She was
+sad and pensive," says Sir James Melville, "for the late foul act
+committed in her presence so irreverently. So many great sighs she would
+give that it was pity to hear her, and over-few were careful to comfort
+her." But the perfidy of her nobles Mary could have borne;--it was the
+disaffection and wickedness of her husband that afflicted her most.
+Anxious to believe that he told her the truth, when he asserted that he
+was not implicated in the murder of Rizzio, she rejoiced to see him issue
+a proclamation, declaring that he was neither "a partaker in, nor privy
+to, David's slaughter." But the truth was too notorious to be kept long
+concealed. Randolph wrote to Cecil on the 4th of April 1566:--"The Queen
+hath seen all the covenants and bands that passed between the King and the
+Lords, and now findeth that his declaration before her and Council, of his
+innocency of the death of David, was false; and is grievously offended,
+that by their means he should seek to come to the crown matrimonial."
+Hence sprang the grief which, in secret, preyed so deeply upon Mary's
+health and spirits. Few things are more calculated to distress a generous
+mind, than to discover that the object of its affections is unworthy the
+love which has been lavished upon it. The young and graceful Darnley,
+laying at Mary's feet the real or pretended homage of his heart, was a
+very different person from the headstrong and designing King, colleaguing
+with her rebels, assassinating her faithful servant, and endeavouring to
+snatch the crown from her head. "That very power," says Robertson, "which,
+with liberal and unsuspicious fondness she had conferred upon him, he had
+employed to insult her authority, to limit her prerogative, and to
+endanger her person: such an outrage it was impossible any woman could
+bear or forgive." Yet Mary looked upon these injuries, coming as they did
+from the man whom she had chosen to be the future companion of her life,
+"more in sorrow than in anger;" and though she shed many a bitter tear
+over his unworthiness, she did not cease to love him.
+
+In the midst of these anxieties, the time for the Queen's delivery drew
+near. After a short excursion to Stirling and the neighbourhood, in which
+she was accompanied by Darnley, Murray, Bothwell and others, she returned
+to Edinburgh, and, by the advice of her Privy Council, went to reside in
+the Castle, as the place of greatest security, till she should present the
+country with an heir to the throne. During the months of April and May,
+she lived there very quietly, amusing herself with her work and her books,
+and occasionally walking out, for she had no wheeled carriage. She
+occupied herself, too, in endeavouring to reconcile those of her nobility
+whom contrary interests and other circumstances had disunited. It cost her
+no little trouble to prevail upon the two most faithful of her ministers,
+the Earl of Huntly her Chancellor, and Bothwell her Lord High Admiral, to
+submit to the returning influence of their old enemy the Earl of Murray.
+It was especially galling to them, that Murray and Argyle were the only
+persons, in addition to the King, allowed to reside in the Castle with
+Mary. But it was her own wish to have her husband and her brothers beside
+her on the present occasion; and no representations made by Bothwell or
+Huntly could alter her resolution. Yet these two Earls went the length of
+assuring the Queen, that Murray had entered into a new conspiracy with
+Morton, and that they would probably put in ward both herself and her
+infant, as soon as it was born. Surrounded as Mary was by traitors, she
+could not know whether this information was true or not; but her returning
+affection for Murray prevailed over every other consideration.[139]
+
+Elizabeth was all this time narrowly watching the progress of affairs in
+Scotland. Murray's restoration to favour pleased her much; and, to
+reconcile Morton and his friends to the failure of their plots, she
+secretly countenanced and protected them. With her usual duplicity,
+however, she sent to Edinburgh Henry Killigrew, to congratulate Mary on
+her late escape, and to assure her that she would give directions to
+remove Morton out of England. She likewise recalled Randolph, of whose
+seditious practices Mary had complained; but, as if to be even with the
+Scottish Queen, she commanded Killigrew to demand the reason why a certain
+person of the name of Ruxby, a rebel and a Papist, had been protected in
+Scotland? It would have been better for Elizabeth had she allowed this
+subject to rest. Though Ruxby feigned himself a refugee from England on
+account of religion, he had in reality been privately sent to Scotland by
+Elizabeth herself, and her Secretary Cecil. The object of his mission was
+to find out whether Mary carried on any secret correspondence with the
+English Catholics. For this purpose, he was to pretend that he was a
+zealous supporter of her right and title to the crown of England; and that
+he had some influence with the English Catholics, all of whom, he was to
+assert, thought as he did. Having thus ingratiated himself with Mary, he
+was immediately to betray any discoveries he might make to Cecil. The
+scheme was ingeniously enough contrived; coming as an avowed enemy to
+Elizabeth, and she herself actually supplying credentials to that effect,
+no suspicion was for some time entertained of his real designs. That he
+was able to learn any thing which could afford the English Queen
+reasonable ground of offence, is not likely; for though several
+communications in cipher passed between him and Cecil, their contents were
+never made public. Shortly before Killigrew's arrival, Ruxby's real
+character had been accidentally discovered; and when the ambassador, more
+for the sake of aiding than of hindering the spy in the prosecution of his
+object, made a _pro forma_ request that he should not be harboured any
+longer, Mary instantly ordered him to be apprehended, and all his writings
+and ciphers to be seized and examined. The indubitable evidence which they
+afforded of Elizabeth's systematic cunning, forced a smile from Mary, and
+might have brought a blush to the cheek of her rival. The Queen of Scots,
+however, did not condescend to give any utterance to the feelings which
+this affair must have inspired; and nothing further is known of
+Elizabeth's disgraced and detected minion.[140]
+
+Early in June, perceiving that the time of her delivery was at hand, Mary
+wrote letters to her principal nobility, requiring them to come to
+Edinburgh during that juncture. She then made her will, which she caused
+to be thrice transcribed;--one copy was sent to France, a second committed
+to the charge of her Privy Council, and the third she kept herself. The
+day preceding her delivery, she wrote, with her own hand, a letter to
+Elizabeth, announcing the event, but leaving a blank "to be filled," says
+Melville, "either with a son or a daughter, as it might please God to
+grant unto her."
+
+On Wednesday the 19th day of June 1566, between nine and ten in the
+morning, the Queen was safely delivered of a son. The intelligence was
+received every where, throughout Scotland, with sincere demonstrations of
+joy. "As the birth of a prince," says Keith, "was one of the greatest of
+blessings that God could bestow upon this poor divided land; so was the
+same most thankfully acknowledged by all ranks of people, according as the
+welcome news thereof reached their ears." In Edinburgh, the triumph
+continued for several days; and, upon the first intimation of the event,
+all the nobility in the town, accompanied by most of the citizens, went in
+solemn procession to the High Church, and offered up thanksgiving for so
+signal a mercy shown to the Queen and the whole realm.
+
+When the news was conveyed to England, it was far from being heard with so
+much satisfaction. It was between eleven and twelve on the morning of the
+19th, that the Lady Boyne came to Sir James Melville, and told him, that
+their prayers being granted, he must carry Mary's letter to London with
+all diligence. "It struck twelve hours," says Sir James, "when I took my
+horse, and I was at Berwick that same night. The fourth day after, I was
+at London,"--a degree of despatch very unusual in those times. Melville
+found Elizabeth at Greenwich, "where her Majesty was in great merriness,
+and dancing after supper. But so soon as the Secretary Cecil sounded the
+news in her ear of the prince's birth, all merriness was laid aside for
+that night; every one that was present marvelling what might move so
+sudden a changement. For the Queen sat down with her hand upon her haffet
+(cheek), and bursting out to some of her ladies, how that the Queen of
+Scotland was lighter of a fair son, and that she was but a barren stock."
+Next morning, Elizabeth gave Melville a formal audience, at which, having
+had time for preparation, she endeavoured to dissemble her real feelings;
+though, by over-acting her part, she made them only the more apparent. She
+told him gravely, that the joyful news he brought her, had recovered her
+out of a heavy sickness, which had held her for fifteen days! "Then I
+requested her Majesty," says Melville, "to be a gossip unto the Queen, for
+our _comers_ are called gossips in England, which she granted gladly to
+be. Then, I said, her Majesty would have a fair occasion to see the Queen,
+which she had so oft desired. At this she smiled, and said, that she would
+wish that her estate and affairs might permit her; and promised to send
+both honourable lords and ladies to supply her room."[141]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+MARY'S TREATMENT OF DARNLEY, AND ALLEGED LOVE FOR THE EARL OF BOTHWELL.
+
+
+As soon as she had sufficiently recovered to be able to quit the Castle,
+Mary resolved on leaving the fatigues of government behind, and going for
+some time into the country. Her infant son was intrusted to the care of
+the Earl of Mar as his governor, and the Lady Mar as his governess. The
+time was not yet arrived to make arrangements regarding his education; but
+the General Assembly had already sent a deputation to the Queen, to
+entreat that she would allow him to be brought up in the Reformed
+religion. To this request Mary avoided giving any positive answer; but she
+condescendingly took the infant from the nurse, and put it into the arms
+of some of the divines. A prayer was pronounced over it; and Spottiswood
+assures us, that, at the conclusion, the child gave an inarticulate
+murmur, which the delighted Presbyterians construed to be an _Amen_.
+
+It was the seat of the Earl of Mar at Alloa that the Queen first visited.
+Being not yet equal to the fatigues of horseback, she went on board a
+vessel at Newhaven, and sailed up the Forth. She was accompanied by
+Murray and others of her nobility.[142] Buchanan, whose constant malice
+and misrepresentation become at times almost ludicrous, says--"Not long
+after her delivery, on a day very early, accompanied by very few that were
+privy of her council, she went down to the waterside at a place called the
+New-haven; and while all marvelled whither she went in such haste, she
+suddenly entered into a ship there prepared for her. With a train of
+thieves, all honest men wondering at it, she betook herself to sea, taking
+not one other with her."--"When she was in the ship," he says elsewhere,
+"among pirates and thieves, she could abide at the pump, and joyed to
+handle the boisterous cables."[143] It is thus this trustworthy historian
+describes a sail of a few hours, enjoyed by Mary and her Court.
+
+Darnley, who, though not very contented either with himself or any one
+else, was about this time much in the Queen's company, went to Alloa by
+land, and remained with Mary the greater part of the time she continued at
+the Earl of Mar's. The uneasiness he suffered, and the peevish complaints
+to which he was continually giving utterance, were occasioned by the want
+of deference, with which he found himself treated by all Mary's ministers.
+But the general odium into which he had fallen, was entirely to be
+attributed to his own folly. Between him and the Earl of Murray there had
+long existed a deadly hatred against each other; in associating himself
+with Morton, and plotting against Huntly and Bothwell, he had
+irremediably offended these noblemen; and in deserting Morton and his
+faction, he had forever lost the friendship of the only men who seemed
+willing to regard him with any favour. The distressing consciousness of
+neglect occasioned by his own misconduct, was thus forced upon him
+wherever he turned; and instead of teaching him a lesson of humility, it
+only served to sour his temper, and pervert his feelings. The Queen was
+deeply grieved to see him so universally hated; and anxiously endeavoured
+to make herself the connecting link between him and her incensed nobility.
+This was all she could do; for, even although she had wished it, she could
+not have dismissed, to please him, such of her ministers as he considered
+obnoxious; a measure so unconstitutional would have led to a second
+rebellion. But she hoped by treating her husband kindly, and showing him
+every attention herself, to make it be understood that she expected others
+would be equally respectful. Having spent some days together at Alloa,
+Mary and Darnley went to Peebles-shire to enjoy the amusement of hunting;
+but finding little sport, they returned on the 20th of August to
+Edinburgh. Thence, they went to Stirling, taking the young Prince with
+them, whom they established in Stirling Castle. Bothwell, in the meantime,
+in his capacity of Lieutenant of the Borders, was in some of the southern
+shires attending the duties of his charge.[144]
+
+It is necessary to detail these facts thus minutely, as Mary's principal
+calumniator, Buchanan, endeavours to establish, by a tissue of
+falsehoods, that immediately after her delivery, or perhaps before it, she
+conceived a criminal attachment for Bothwell. This absurdity has gained
+credit with several later writers, and particularly with Robertson, whose
+knowledge of Mary's motions and domestic arrangements at the period of
+which we speak, appears to have been very superficial. Yet he may be
+regarded as even a more dangerous enemy than the former. Buchanan's
+virulence and evident party spirit, carry their own contradiction along
+with them; whilst Robertson, not venturing to go the same lengths, (though
+guided in his belief entirely by Buchanan), imparts to the authority on
+which he trusts a greater air of plausibility, by softening down the
+violence of the original, to suit the calmer tone of _professedly_
+unprejudiced history. In the progress of these Memoirs, it will not be
+difficult to show that Robertson's affected candour, or too hastily formed
+belief, is as little to be depended on as Buchanan's undisguised malice.
+
+Buchanan wishes it to be believed, in the first place, that Mary
+entertained a guilty love for Rizzio. He then proceeds to assert, that in
+little more than three months after his barbarous assassination, she had
+fallen no less violently in love with Bothwell, although, in the meantime,
+she had been employed in giving birth to her first child, by a husband,
+whom he allows she doated on nine or ten months before. To bolster up this
+story, he perverts facts with the most reckless indifference. One specimen
+of his style we have already seen in his account of the Queen's voyage to
+Alloa; and proceeding with his narrative, we find him positively
+asserting in the sequel, that for the two or three following months, Mary
+was constantly in the company of Bothwell, and of Bothwell alone, knowing
+as he must have done all the while, that Murray and Darnley, Bothwell's
+principal enemies, were her chief associates, and that Bothwell spent most
+of the time in a distant part of the kingdom.
+
+Robertson dates even more confidently than Buchanan, the commencement of
+Mary's love for Bothwell at a period prior to her delivery. But upon this
+hypothesis, it is surely odd, that Murray and Argyle were permitted by the
+Queen to reside in the Castle previous to and during her confinement,
+whilst the same favour was peremptorily refused to Bothwell; and it is no
+less odd, that shortly after her delivery, Secretary Maitland, at the
+intercession of the Earl of Athol, was received once more into favour, in
+direct opposition to the wishes of Bothwell. It is no doubt possible, that
+notwithstanding this presumptive evidence to the contrary, Mary may at
+this very time have had a violent love for Bothwell; but are we to give
+credit to the improbability, merely because Buchanan was the slave of
+party feeling, and Robertson disposed to be credulous? Are the detected
+fabrications of the one, entitled to any better consideration than the
+gratuitous suppositions of the other? "Strange and surprisingly wild,"
+says Keith, "are the accounts given by Knox, but more especially by
+Buchanan, concerning the King and Queen about this time. I shall not
+reckon it worth while to transcribe them here; and the best and shortest
+confutation I could propose of them is, to leave my readers the trouble,
+or rather satisfaction, to compare the same with the just now mentioned
+abstracts (of despatches from Randolph to Cecil) and the three following
+authentic letters," from the French and Scottish ambassadors and the
+Queen's Privy Council.[145] Robertson, it is true, after having asserted,
+that "Bothwell all this while was the Queen's prime confident," and that
+he had acquired a "sway over her heart," proceeds to confess, that "such
+delicate transitions of passion can be discerned only by those who are
+admitted near the persons of the parties, and who can view the secret
+workings of the heart with calm and acute observation." "Neither Knox nor
+Buchanan," he adds, "enjoyed these advantages. Their humble station
+allowed them only a distant access to the Queen and her favourite; and the
+ardour of their zeal, and the violence of their prejudices rendered their
+opinions rash, precipitate, and inaccurate." This is apparently so
+explicit and fair, that the only wonder is, upon what grounds Robertson
+ventured to make _his_ accusation of Mary, having thus shown how little
+dependence was to be placed on the only authorities which supported him in
+it. It appears that he came to his conclusions by a process of his own,
+which rendered him independent both of Knox and Buchanan. "Subsequent
+historians," he says, "can judge of the reality of this reciprocal passion
+only by its _effects_." Robertson must of course have been aware that he
+thus opened the gate to a flood of uncertainty, seeing that the same
+effects may spring from a hundred different causes. If a man be found
+dead, before looking for his murderer, it is always proper to inquire
+whether he has been murdered. Besides, if effects are to be made the
+criterion by which to form an opinion, the greatest care must be taken
+that they be not misrepresented. Mary must not be said to have been a
+great deal in Bothwell's company, at a time she was almost never with him,
+and she must not be described as being seldom with her husband, at a time
+they were constantly together.
+
+Laing is another and still later writer, who has produced a very able
+piece of special pleading against Mary, in which a false colouring is
+continually given to facts. "After her delivery," he says, "she removed
+secretly from the Castle, and was followed by Darnley to Alloa, Stirling,
+Meggetland, and back again to Edinburgh, as if she were desirous to escape
+from the presence of her husband." That Darnley _followed_ Mary, is an
+assumption of Mr Laing's own. Conceited as the young King was, he would
+rather never have stirred out of his chamber again, than have condescended
+to follow so perseveringly one who wished to avoid him, first to Alloa,
+then to Stirling, then into Peebles-shire, then back again to Edinburgh,
+and once more to Stirling. The only correct part of Laing's statement is,
+that Mary chose to go by water to Alloa, whilst Darnley preferred
+travelling by land; perhaps because he wished to hunt by the way, or call
+at the seats of some of the nobility. The distance, altogether, was only
+twenty miles; and the notion that Mary removed "_secretly_" from the
+Castle, for the important purpose of taking an excursion to Alloa, is
+absolutely ludicrous. In support of his assertion that Mary had lost her
+heart to Bothwell, Laing proceeds to mention, that, shortly after the
+assassination of Rizzio, the Earl, for his successful services, was loaded
+with favours and preferment. That Mary should have conferred some reward
+upon a nobleman whose power and fidelity were the chief means of
+preserving her on a tottering throne, is not at all unlikely; but, to make
+that reward appear disproportioned to the occasion, Laing _misdates_ the
+time when most of Bothwell's offices of trust were bestowed upon him.
+Several of them were his by hereditary right, such as those of Lord High
+Admiral, and the Sheriffships of Berwick, Haddington, and Edinburgh. Part
+of his authority on the Borders he had acquired during the time of the
+late Queen-Regent, Mary's mother, having been made her Lieutenant, and
+keeper of Hermitage Castle, in 1558; and it was immediately after his
+restoration to favour, during the continuance of Murray's rebellion, that
+he was appointed Lieutenant of the West and Middle Marches, a situation
+which implied the superiority of the Abbeys of Melrose and
+Haddington.[146] The only _addition_ made to Bothwell's possessions and
+titles, in consequence of his services after Rizzio's death, was that of
+the Castle and Lordship of Dunbar, together with a grant of some crown
+lands.[147]
+
+There is another circumstance connected with Bothwell, which we omitted to
+mention before, but which may with propriety be stated here. At the period
+of which we write, when he is accused of being engaged in a criminal
+intercourse with Mary, he had been only two or three months married to a
+wife every way deserving of his love. Three weeks before the death of
+Rizzio, he had espoused, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, the Lady
+Jane Gordon, the sister of his friend, the Earl of Huntly. She was just
+twenty, and was possessed of an elegant and cultivated understanding. They
+were married at Holyrood, on the 22d of February 1566, after the manner of
+the Reformed persuasion, in direct opposition to Mary's wishes. She
+entertained them, however, at a banquet on the first day; and the feasting
+and rejoicings continued for a week. "The Queen desired," says Knox, "that
+the marriage might be made in the chapel at the mass, which the Earl
+Bothwell would in no ways grant."[148] Was there any love existing at this
+time between Mary and her minister? Robertson and Laing seem to think
+there was. Choosing to judge of Mary's feelings towards Bothwell by
+_effects_, not of effects by feelings, they quote several passages from
+the letters of one or two of the foreign ambassadors then in Scotland,
+which mention that Bothwell possessed great influence at court. That these
+ambassadors report no more than the truth may be very safely granted;
+though certainly there is no evidence to show that he enjoyed so much
+weight as Murray, or more than Huntly. Yet he deserved better than the
+former, for he had hitherto, with one exception, continued as faithful to
+Mary, as he had previously been to her mother. The letters alluded to,
+only repeat what Randolph had mentioned six months before. So early as
+October 1565, only two months after Mary's marriage with Darnley, and when
+her love for him remained at its height, Randolph wrote to Cecil; "My Lord
+Bothwell, for his great virtue, doth now all, next to the Earl of
+Athol."[149] Was Mary in love with Bothwell at this date? Or was it with
+the Earl of Athol? And did she postpone her attachment to Bothwell, till
+he should prove his for her, by becoming the husband of the Lady Jane
+Gordon?--We proceed with our narrative.
+
+Having spent some time with Darnley at Stirling, Mary returned to
+Edinburgh, for the despatch of public business, on the 11th or 12th of
+September. She wished Darnley to accompany her; but as he could not, or
+would not, act with either Murray's or Huntly's party, he refused. On the
+21st, she came again to Stirling; but was recalled once more to Edinburgh,
+by her Privy Council, on the 23d. She left the French ambassador, Le Croc,
+with the wayward Darnley, hoping that his wisdom and experience might be
+of benefit to him.[150] The distinction which, from this period up to the
+hour of his death, Darnley constantly made between his feelings for Mary
+herself, and for her ministers, is very striking. With Mary he was always
+willing to associate, and she had the same desire to be as much as she
+could with him; but with the conditions he exacted, and by which alone she
+was to purchase much of his company, it was impossible for her to comply.
+She might as well have given up her crown at once, as have dismissed all
+those officers of state with whom Darnley had quarrelled. The truth is,
+her husband's situation was a very unfortunate one. His own imbecility and
+unlawful ambition, had brought upon him general odium; but if he had
+possessed a stronger mind, or a greater stock of hypocrisy, he might have
+re-established himself in the good graces of at least a part of the
+Scottish nobility. But he had neither the prudence to disguise his
+sentiments, nor the ability to maintain them. "He had not learned," says
+Chalmers, "to smile, and smile, and be a villain. He was still very young,
+and still very inexperienced; and the Queen could not easily govern
+without the aid of those odious men,"--his enemies.
+
+Mary had been only a few days in Edinburgh, when she received a letter
+from the Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, which afflicted her not a
+little. Lennox, who resided principally at Glasgow, had gone to Stirling
+to visit his son; and Darnley had there communicated to him a design, his
+present discontents had suggested, which was to leave the country and
+proceed to the Continent. Both Lennox and Le Croc, "a wise aged
+gentleman," as Holinshed calls him, had done all they could to divert him
+from so mad a purpose; but his resolution seemed to be fixed. Mary
+immediately laid her father-in-law's letter before her Privy Council, who
+"took a resolution to talk with the King, that they might learn from
+himself the occasion of this hasty deliberation of his, if any such he
+had; and likewise, that they might thereby be enabled to advise her
+Majesty after what manner she should comport herself in this
+conjuncture."[151] On the evening of the very day that this resolution was
+adopted, (the 29th of September), Darnley himself arrived at
+Holyrood;--but being informed that the Earls of Argyle, Murray, and Rothes
+were with the Queen, he declared he would not enter the palace till they
+departed.[152] The Queen took this petulant behaviour as mildly as
+possible; and glad of his arrival, even condescended to go forth from the
+palace to meet her husband, and conducted him to her own apartment, where
+they spent the night together.[153]
+
+Next day, Mary prevailed upon her husband to attend a meeting of her
+Council. They requested to be informed by the King, whether he had
+actually resolved to depart out of the realm, and if he had, what were the
+motives that influenced him, and the objects he had in view. They added,
+"that if he could complain of any of the subjects of the realm, be they of
+what quality soever, the fault should be immediately repaired to his
+satisfaction." Mary herself took him by the hand, and speaking
+affectionately to him, "besought him, for God's sake, to declare if she
+had given him any occasion for this resolution."[154] She had a clear
+conscience, she said, that in all her life she had done no action which
+could any ways prejudge either his or her own honour; but, nevertheless,
+that as she might, perhaps, have given him offence without design, she was
+willing to make amends, as far as he should require,--and therefore
+"prayed him not to dissemble the occasion of his displeasure, if any he
+had, nor to spare her in the least manner."[155] Darnley answered
+distinctly, that he had no fault to find with the Queen; but he was either
+unable or unwilling to explain further. With the stubborn discontent of a
+petted child, he would neither say one thing nor another--neither confess
+nor deny. Without agreeing to alter his determination, whatever it might
+be, and it was perhaps, after all, only a trick contrived to work upon
+Mary's affections, and intimidate her into his wishes, he at length took
+his leave. Upon going away, he said to the Queen, "Farewell, Madam; you
+shall not see my face for a long while." He next bade Le Croc farewell;
+and then turning coldly to the Lords of the Council, he said, "Gentlemen,
+adieu."[156]
+
+Shortly afterwards, Mary received a letter from Darnley, in which he
+complained of two things. "One is," says Maitland, "that her Majesty
+trusts him not with so much authority, nor is at such pains to advance
+him, and make him be honoured in the nation, as she at first was. And the
+other point is, that nobody attends him, and that the nobility deserts his
+company. To these two points the Queen has made answer, that if the case
+be so, he ought to blame himself, not her; for that in the beginning she
+had conferred so much honour upon him, as came afterwards to render
+herself very uneasy, the credit and reputation wherein she had placed him
+having served as a shadow to those who have most heinously offended her
+Majesty; but, howsoever, that she has, notwithstanding this, continued to
+show him such respect, that although they who did perpetrate the murder of
+her faithful servant, had entered her chamber with his knowledge, having
+followed him close at the back, and had named him the chief of their
+enterprise,--yet would she never accuse him thereof, but did always excuse
+him, and was willing to appear as if she believed it not. And then as to
+his being not attended,--the fault thereof must be charged upon himself,
+since she has always made an offer to him of her own servants. And for the
+nobility, they come to court, and pay deference and respect, according as
+they have any matters to do, and as they receive a kindly countenance; but
+that he is at no pains to gain them, and make himself beloved by them,
+having gone so far as to prohibit these noblemen to enter his room, whom
+she had first appointed to be about his person. If the nobility abandon
+him, his own deportment towards them is the cause thereof; for if he
+desire to be followed and attended by them, he must, in the first place,
+make them to love him, and to this purpose must render himself amiable to
+them; without which, it will prove a most difficult task for her Majesty
+to regulate this point, especially to make the nobility consent that he
+shall have the management of affairs put into his hands; because she finds
+them utterly averse to any such matter."[157]
+
+No answer or explanation could be more satisfactory; and the whole affair
+exhibits a highly favourable view of Mary's conduct and character. Le Croc
+accordingly says, in the letter already quoted,--"I never saw her Majesty
+so much beloved, esteemed, and honoured; nor so great a harmony amongst
+all her subjects as at present is, by her wise conduct, for I cannot
+perceive the smallest difference or division." That Darnley ever seriously
+intended to quit the country, it has been said, is extremely uncertain. It
+would appear, however, according to Knox, that he still harboured some
+chimerical design of making himself independent of Mary, and with this
+view he treacherously wrote to the Pope, and the Kings of Spain and
+France, misrepresenting the state of affairs, and offering, with their
+assistance, to re-establish the Catholic religion. Copies of these
+letters, Knox adds, fell into Mary's hands, who, of course, took steps to
+prevent their meeting with any attention at the Continental courts.[158]
+But be this matter as it may, (and its truth rests upon rather doubtful
+authority, since we find no mention of it, either by the Lords of Privy
+Council or the French Ambassador), it is certain that Darnley's
+determination, hastily formed, was as hastily abandoned.[159]
+
+Shortly after her husband's departure from Edinburgh, the Queen, attended
+by her officers of state, set out upon a progress towards the Borders,
+with the view, in particular, of holding justice-courts at Jedburgh. The
+southern marches of Scotland were almost always in a state of
+insubordination. The recent encouragement which the secret practices,
+first of Murray and afterwards of Morton, both aided by Elizabeth, had
+given to the turbulent spirit of the Borderers, called loudly for the
+interference of the law. Mary had intended to hold assizes in Liddisdale
+in August, but on account of the harvest, postponed leaving Edinburgh till
+October. On the 6th or 7th of that month, she sent forward Bothwell, her
+Lieutenant, to make the necessary preparations for her arrival, and on the
+8th, the Queen and her Court set out,--the noblemen and gentlemen of the
+southern shires having been summoned to meet her with their retainers at
+Melrose. On the 10th she arrived at Jedburgh. There, or it may have been
+on her way from Melrose, she received the disagreeable news, that on the
+very day she left Edinburgh, her Lieutenant's authority had been insulted
+by some of the unruly Borderers, and that soon after his reaching his
+Castle of Hermitage, a place of strength about eighteen miles from
+Jedburgh, he had been severely and dangerously wounded. Different
+historians assign different reasons for the attack made on Bothwell. Some
+say that Morton had bought over the tribe of Elliots, to revenge his
+present disgrace upon one whom he considered an enemy. Others, with
+greater probability, assert, that it was only a riot occasioned by
+thieves, whose lawless proceedings Bothwell wished to punish. But
+whichever statement be correct, the report of what had actually taken
+place was, as usual, a good deal exaggerated when it reached Mary. Being
+engaged, however, with public business at Jedburgh, she was prevented, for
+several days, from ascertaining the precise truth for herself. Finding
+that she had leisure on the 16th of the month, and being informed that her
+Lieutenant was still confined with his wounds, she paid him the
+compliment, or rather discharged the duty of riding across the country
+with some attendants, both to inquire into the state of his health, and to
+learn to what extent her authority had been insulted in his person. She
+remained with him only an hour or two, and returned to Jedburgh the same
+evening.[160]
+
+The above simple statement of facts, so natural in themselves, and so
+completely authenticated, acquires additional interest when compared with
+the common version of this story which Buchanan and his follower Robertson
+have contrived to render prevalent. "When the news that Bothwell was in
+great danger of his life," says Buchanan, "was brought to the Queen _at
+Borthwick_, though the _winter_ was very sharp, she _flew in haste_, first
+to Melrose, then to Jedburgh. There, though she received certain
+intelligence that Bothwell was alive, yet, being impatient of delay, and
+not able to forbear, though in such a bad time of the year,
+notwithstanding the difficulty of the way, and the danger of robbers, she
+put herself on her journey with such attendants as hardly any honest man,
+though he was but of a mean condition, would trust his life and fortune
+to. From thence she returned again to Jedburgh, and there she was mighty
+diligent in making great preparations for Bothwell's being brought
+thither."[161] The whole of this is a tissue of wilful misrepresentation.
+No one, unacquainted with Buchanan's character, would read the statement
+without supposing that Mary proceeded direct from Borthwick to Hermitage
+Castle, scarcely stopping an hour by the way. Now, if Mary heard of
+Bothwell's accident at Borthwick (which is scarcely possible), it must
+have been, at the latest, on the 9th of October, or more probably on the
+evening of the 8th; but, so far from being in a hurry in consequence, it
+appears, by the Privy Council Register, that she did not reach Jedburgh
+till the 10th, and, by the Privy Seal Register, that she did not visit
+Hermitage Castle till the 16th of the month.[162] Had she really ridden
+from Borthwick to the Hermitage and back again to Jedburgh in one day, she
+would have performed a journey of nearly seventy miles, which she could
+not have done even though she had wished it. As to her employing herself,
+on her return to Jedburgh, "in making great preparations for Bothwell's
+being brought thither," she certainly must have made extremely good use of
+her time, for she returned on the evening of the 16th, and next day she
+was taken dangerously ill. The motives which induced Buchanan to propagate
+falsehood concerning Mary, are sufficiently known; but, being known,
+Robertson ought to have been well convinced of the truth of his
+allegations before he drew inferences upon such authority. But the Doctor
+had laid down the principle, that he was to judge of Mary's love for
+Bothwell by its _effects_; and it became, therefore, convenient for him to
+assert, that her visit to Hermitage Castle was one of those effects. "Mary
+_instantly_ flew thither," he says, "with an impatience which strongly
+marks the anxiety of a lover, but little suiting the dignity of a queen."
+Now, "instantly," must mean, that she allowed at all events six, and
+probably seven days to elapse; and that, too, after being informed of the
+danger one of the most powerful and best affectioned of her nobility had
+incurred in her behalf. Robertson must have thought it strange, that she
+staid only an hour or two at the Castle. "Upon her finding Bothwell
+slightly wounded," says Tytler, "was it love that made her in such a
+violent haste to return back the same night to Jedburgh, by the same bad
+roads and tedious miles? Surely, if love had in any degree possessed her
+heart, it must have supplied her with many plausible reasons for passing
+that night in her lover's company, without exposing herself to the
+inconveniences of an uncomfortable journey, and the inclemencies of the
+night air at that season." If Mary had been blamed for an over-degree of
+callousness and indifference, there would have been almost more justice in
+the censure. With honest warmth Chalmers remarks, that "the _records_ and
+the _facts_ laugh at Robertson's false dates and frothy declamation."[163]
+
+On the 17th of October, Mary was seized with a severe and dangerous fever,
+and for ten days her life was esteemed in great danger; indeed, it was at
+one time reported at Edinburgh, that she was dead. The fever was
+accompanied with fainting or convulsion-fits, of an unusual and alarming
+description. They frequently lasted for three or four hours; and during
+their continuance, she was, to all appearance, lifeless. Her body was
+motionless; her eyes closed; her mouth fast; her feet and arms stiff and
+cold. Upon coming out of these, she suffered the most dreadful pain, her
+whole frame being collapsed, and her limbs drawn writhingly together. She
+was at length so much reduced, that she herself began to despair of
+recovery. She summoned together the noblemen who were with her, in
+particular Murray, Huntly, Rothes, and Bothwell, and gave them what she
+believed to be her dying advice and instructions. Bothwell was not at
+Jedburgh when the Queen was taken ill, nor did he show any greater haste
+to proceed thither when he heard of her sickness than she had done to
+visit him, it being the 24th of October before he left Hermitage
+Castle.[164] After requesting her council to pray for her, and professing
+her willingness to submit to the will of Heaven, Mary recommended her son
+to their especial care. She entreated that they would give every
+attention to his education, suffering none to approach him, whose example
+might pervert his manners or his mind, and studying to bring him up in all
+virtue and godliness. She strongly advised the same toleration to be
+continued in matters of religion, which she had practised; and she
+concluded, by requesting that suitable provision should be made for the
+servants of her household, to whom Mary was scrupulously attentive, and by
+all of whom she was much beloved. Fortunately however, after an
+opportunity had been thus afforded her of evincing her strength of mind,
+and willingness to meet death, the violence of her disease abated, and her
+youth and good constitution triumphed over the attack.
+
+Darnley, who was with his father at Glasgow, probably did not hear of the
+Queen's illness till one or two days after its commencement; but as soon
+as he was made acquainted with her extreme danger, he determined on going
+to see her. Here again, we discover the marked distinction that
+characterized Darnley's conduct towards his wife and towards her nobility.
+With Mary herself he had no quarrel; and though his love for her was not
+so strong and pure as it should have been, and was easily forgotten when
+it stood in the way of his own selfish wishes, he never lost any
+opportunity of evincing his desire to continue on a friendly footing with
+her. When he last parted from her at Holyrood, he had said that she should
+not see him for a long while; but startled into better feelings by her
+unexpected illness, he came to visit her at Jedburgh, on the 28th of
+October. The Queen was, by this time, better; but her convalescence being
+still uncertain, Darnley's arrival was far from being agreeable to her
+ministers. Should Mary die, one or other of them would be appointed
+Regent, an office to which they knew that Darnley, as father to the young
+prince, had strong claims. It was their interest, therefore, to sow
+dissension in every possible way, between the Queen and her husband; and
+they trembled lest the remaining affection they entertained for each
+other, might be again rekindled into a more ardent flame. Mary, when cool
+and dispassionate, they knew they could manage easily; but Mary, when in
+love, chose, like most other women, to have her own way. They received
+Darnley, on the present occasion, so forbiddingly, and gave him so little
+countenance, that having spent a day and a night with Mary, he was glad
+again to take his departure, and leave her to carry on the business of the
+state, surrounded by those designing and factious men who were weaving the
+web of her ruin.
+
+On the 9th of November, the Queen, with her court, left Jedburgh, and went
+to Kelso, where she remained two days. She proceeded thence to Berwick,
+attended by not fewer than 800 knights and gentlemen on horseback. From
+Berwick, she rode to Dunbar; and from Dunbar, by Tantallan to Craigmillar,
+where she arrived on the 20th of November 1566, and remained for three
+weeks, during which time an occurrence of importance took place.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIRST.
+
+  PRINTED BY J. HUTCHISON,
+  FOR THE HEIRS OF D. WILLISON.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Polydore, lib. 26. quoted by Leslie--"Defence of Mary's Honour,"
+Preface, p. xiv.--Apud Anderson, vol. I.
+
+[2] Knox seems not only to justify the assassination of Cardinal Beaton,
+but to hint that it would have been proper to have disposed of his
+successor in the same way. "These," says he, "_are the works of our God_,
+whereby he would admonish the tyrants of this earth, that, in the end, he
+will be revenged of their cruelty, what strength soever they make in the
+contrary. But such is the blindness of man, as David speaks, that the
+posterity does ever follow the footsteps of their wicked fathers, and
+principally in their impiety: For how little differs the cruelty of that
+bastard, that yet is called Bishop of St Andrews, from the cruelty of the
+former, we will after hear."--Knox's Hist. of the Reformation, p. 65.
+
+[3] Dalyell's "Fragments of Scottish History."
+
+[4] Keith, p. 68.--Knox's History, p. 94-6.
+
+[5] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 222.
+
+[6] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 206.
+
+[7] The Biographer of Knox goes perhaps a little too far, when he proposes
+to alleviate the sorrow felt for the loss of these architectural monuments
+of superstition, by reminding the antiquarian that _Ruins_ inspire more
+lively sentiments of the sublime and beautiful than more perfect remains.
+This is a piece of ingenuity, but not of sound reasoning. It is rather a
+curious doctrine, that a Cathedral or Monastery does not look best with
+all its walls standing.--M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. I. p. 271.
+
+[8] It is worth while observing with what a total want of all Christian
+charity Knox speaks of the death of Mary of Guise. Alluding to her burial,
+he says:--"The question was moved of her burial: the preachers boldly
+gainstood that any superstitious rites should be used within that realm,
+which God of his mercy had begun to purge; and so was she clapped in a
+coffin of lead, and kept in the Castle from the 9th of June until the 19th
+of October, when she, by Pinyours, was carried to a ship, and so carried
+to France. What pomp was used there, we neither hear nor yet regard; but
+in it we see that she, that delighted that others lay without burial, got
+it neither so soon as she herself (if she had been of the counsel in her
+life) would have required it, neither yet so honourable in this realm as
+sometimes she looked for. It may perchance be a pronosticon, that the
+Guisean blood cannot have any rest within this realm." Elsewhere he
+says--"Within few days after, began her belly and loathsome legs to swell,
+and so continued till that God did execute his judgment upon her." And
+again--"God, for his mercy's sake, rid us of the rest of the Guisean
+blood. Amen." As Keith remarks, it was not by this spirit that the
+Apostles converted the world.--Keith, p. 129.
+
+[9] M'Crie's Life of Knox, Vol. 1. p. 323.
+
+[10] By the kindness of Mr Brown of Glasgow, the ingenious delineator of
+the Royal Palaces of Scotland, we are enabled to give, as the vignette to
+the present Volume, a view of this Palace, exhibiting the window of the
+very room where Mary was born, which is the large window on the first
+floor, immediately under the flight of birds.
+
+[11] Sadler's State Papers and Letters, vol. i. p. 263.
+
+[12] Whittaker, vol. iv. p. 144.
+
+[13] Mezeray, Histoire de France, tom. iii. p. 50.
+
+[14] Miss Benger's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 189, et seq.
+
+[15] Melville's Memoirs of his own Life, p. 12.
+
+[16] In transcribing dates it may be proper to mention, that we do not
+observe the old division of the year. Down till 1563, the French began the
+year at Easter; but it was then altered to the 1st of January, by the
+Chancellor L'Hopital. In Scotland till 1599, and in England till 1751, the
+year began on the 25th of March. Thus, in all the State Papers and letters
+of the age, written between the 1st of January and the 25th of March, the
+dates invariably belong to what we should now consider the preceding year.
+It is useful to be aware of this fact; though it is unnecessary for a
+writer of the present day, to deviate from the established computation of
+time.--Anderson's Collections, vol. i.--Preface, p. li.; and Laing, vol.
+i. p. 266.
+
+[17] Keith, p. 73.
+
+[18] Goodall's Examination, vol. l. p. 159, et seq. The motto which
+Goodall put upon his title page,
+
+  "Pandere res altà terrâ et caligine mersas,"
+
+he has in more than one instance amply justified.
+
+[19] Mezeray, Castelnau, Brantome, Thuanus, Chalmers, Miss Benger.
+
+[20] This picture originally belonged to Lord Robert Stuart, Earl of
+Orkney, one of Mary's natural brothers, and is now in the possession of
+William Trail, Esq. of Woodwick, Orkney, into whose family it came,
+together with other relics of the Earl, by the marriage of an ancestor of
+Mr Trail, to one of his descendants. _Vide_ APPENDIX A.
+
+[21] It is to the kindness of John Watson Gordon, Esq. deservedly one of
+the most eminent portrait-painters in Scotland, that we are indebted, both
+for the use of the painting from which the engraving has been made, and
+for several of the facts we have stated above. Mr Gordon has executed
+three copies of the picture--all of them exceedingly beautiful and
+accurate--possessing the merits, without any of the dusky dimness, which
+time has thrown over the original.
+
+[22] The coat of arms borne by Francis and Mary is worth describing. The
+coat was borne Baron and Femme;--The first contained the coat of the
+Dauphin, which took up the upper half of the shield, and consisted of the
+arms of France. The lower half was impaled quarterly. In _one_ and _four_
+the arms of Scotland, and in _two_ and _three_ those of England. Over the
+whole was half an escutcheon the sinister half being obscured or cut off,
+to denote that the English crown was in the possession of another, to the
+bearer's prejudice. Under the arms were four lines in French, thus
+wretchedly translated by Strype, in his "Annals of Queen Elizabeth."
+
+  "The arms of Mary Queen Dauphiness of France,
+  The noblest lady in earth for till advance,
+  Of Scotland Queen and of England, also
+  Of France, as God hath providet it so."
+
+Keith, p. 114. Chalmers, vol. 2d, p. 413. A painting (probably a copy)
+containing these arms, and the above motto, is preserved in Mary's
+apartments at Holyroodhouse.
+
+[23] Miss Benger, Vol. II. p. 7.
+
+[24] Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 43.
+
+[25] Miss Benger erroneously antedates the death of Francis, on the 28th
+of November. See her _Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 74. Chalmers, who is the very
+historian of dates, gives a copy of the inscription on the tomb of
+Francis, which of course settles the point, vol. ii. p. 124. Miss Benger
+does not appear to have seen this inscription.
+
+[26] Conĉus in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 19.
+
+[27] Keith, p. 157 and 160.
+
+[28] Keith, p. 160, & seq.
+
+[29] Keith, p. 165, et seq.
+
+[30] Keith, p. 167, et seq.
+
+[31] Robertson says, that the amendment would not have been approved of by
+"_either_ Queen." He alleges that Mary had only "suspended" the
+prosecution of her title to the English Crown; and that "she determined to
+revive her claim, on the first prospect of success." That Robertson has,
+in this instance, done injustice to Mary, is evident, from the exact
+consistency of her future conduct, with what will be found stated in the
+text.--_Robertson_, _Vol._ ii. _p._ 200.
+
+[32] Keith, p. 170. et seq. Robertson says, that at the period of these
+conferences, Mary was only in her eighteenth year; but, as they both took
+place in 1561, she must have been in her nineteenth year, which Keith
+confirms, who says (page 178), "The readers having now perused several
+original conferences, will, I suppose, clearly discern the fine spirit and
+genius of that princess, who was yet but in the 19th year of her age."
+
+[33] Brantome in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 82.
+
+[34] Keith, p. 175. Throckmorton writes, "Thereto the Queen-mother said,
+The King, my son, and I, would be glad to do good betwixt the Queen, my
+sister, your mistress, and the Queen, my daughter, and shall be glad to
+hear that there were good amity betwixt them; for neither the King, my
+son, nor I, nor any of his Council, will do harm in the matter, _or show
+ourselves other than friends to them both_."
+
+[35] Keith, p. 164.
+
+[36] Keith, Appendix, p. 92.
+
+[37] Robertson, Appendix, No. 5.--from the Cotton Library.
+
+[38] Keith, p. 178.--Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 418--Stranguage, p. 9--and
+Freebairn, p. 19.
+
+[39] Brantome in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 483, et seq.--Keith, p. 179--and
+Freebairn, p. 16 et seq.
+
+[40] Several translations of this song have been attempted, but no
+translation can preserve the spirit of the original.
+
+  Adieu, thou pleasant land of France!
+    The dearest of all lands to me,
+  Where life was like a joyful dance--
+    The joyful dance of infancy.
+
+  Farewell my childhood's laughing wiles,
+    Farewell the joys of youth's bright day;
+  The bark that bears me from thy smiles,
+    Bears but my meaner half away.
+
+  The best is thine;--my changeless heart
+    Is given, beloved France! to thee;
+  And let it sometimes, though we part,
+    Remind thee with a sigh of me.
+
+Mary was not the only one who commemorated in verse her departure from
+France. Numerous _Vaudevilles_ were written upon the occasion, several of
+which are preserved in the _Anthologie Française_.
+
+[41] Jebb, vol. ii. p. 484. Keith, p. 180. Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 125.
+In an anonymous French work, entitled, "Histoire de Marie Stuart, Reine
+d'Ecosse et de France," &c. respectably written on the whole, there is an
+amusing mistake concerning the locality of Holyroodhouse. In tom. i. p.
+181, it is said, "The Queen landed at Leith, and then departed for
+L'Islebourg," (the name anciently given to Edinburgh), "a celebrated Abbey
+a mile or two distant. In this Abbey Mary remained for three weeks, and in
+the month of October 1561 took her departure for Edinburgh." This
+departure for Edinburgh alludes to the visit which Mary paid, a short time
+after her arrival, to the Castle.
+
+[42] The day that his present Majesty George IV. arrived at Leith, in
+August 1822 (whose landing and progress to Holyroodhouse, though much more
+brilliant, resembled in some respects that of his ancestor Mary), was as
+wet and unfavourable as the weather so piously described by Knox. Was this
+a "forewarning" also of the "comfort" our gracious Sovereign brought into
+the country? If Knox believed in _warnings_, there is no telling to what
+conclusions these warnings might have led.
+
+[43] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 22.
+
+[44] Miss Benger (vol. ii. p. 132) erroneously supposes, that the
+Archbishop of St Andrews had died before Mary's return to Scotland. She
+should have known that it was he who presided at the baptism of James VI.,
+of which ceremony she gives so particular an account. See Keith, p. 360,
+and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 196.
+
+[45] Jebb, vol. ii. p. 486. Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 202.
+
+[46] Buchanan's Detection, in Anderson's Collections, vol. ii. p. 52 and
+58.
+
+[47] This is apparently the first time Mary had ever expressed to Knox her
+sentiments regarding this pamphlet. He had been treated less ceremoniously
+by Elizabeth. But knowing the respect in which she was held by the
+Protestants, he saw it for his interest to attempt to pacify her, and
+wrote to her several conciliatory letters. Elizabeth put a stop to them,
+by desiring Cecil, to forward to Knox the following laconic epistle, which
+merits preservation as a literary curiosity:--"Mr Knox! Mr Knox! Mr Knox!
+there is neither male nor female: all are one in Christ, saith Paul.
+Blessed is the man who confides in the Lord! I need to wish you no more
+prudence than God's grace; whereof God send you plenty. W. CECIL."
+Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 494. Knox himself gives a somewhat different edition
+of this letter, (Hist. of the Reformation, p. 212.) Where Chalmers found
+the above, he does not mention.
+
+[48] Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 287, & seq.--Keith, p. 188. It
+is worth observing, that Knox is the only person who gives us any detailed
+account of these interviews, and he, of course, represents them in as
+favourable a light for himself as possible. "The report," says Randolph,
+"that Knox hath talked with the Queen, maketh the Papists doubt what will
+become of the world."--"I have been the more minute in the narrative of
+this curious conference," says M'Crie, "because it affords the most
+satisfactory refutation of the charge that Knox treated Mary with rudeness
+and disrespect." Different people have surely different modes of defining
+rudeness and respect.
+
+[49] Keith supposes erroneously, that this disturbance took place in the
+Chapel at Holyrood. Randolph, his authority, though his expressions are
+equivocal, undoubtedly alludes to the Royal Chapel at Stirling. Keith, p.
+189 and 190.
+
+[50] Knox, p. 292.
+
+[51] Keith, p 192.
+
+[52] It is worth while attending to the very partial and grossly perverted
+account which Knox gives of this proclamation, actually introducing into
+his History an edition of it, fabricated by himself. He then proceeds to
+find fault with the Magistrates for yielding to "_Jezabel's_" commands,
+and remarks, in allusion to a counter proclamation which the Queen issued,
+that the town should be patent to all her lieges until they were found
+guilty of some offence,--"The Queen took upon her greater boldness than
+she and Balaam's bleating priests durst have attempted before. And so
+murderers, adulterers, thieves, whores, drunkards, idolaters, and all
+malefactors got protection under the Queen's wings, under colour that they
+were of her religion. And so got the Devil freedom again, whereas before
+he durst not have been seen by daylight upon the common streets. Lord
+deliver us from that bondage!"--Knox, p. 292-3.
+
+[53] Randolph in Keith, p. 210.
+
+[54] Goodall, vol. i. p. 199, et seq.
+
+[55] Freebairn's translation of Bois Guilbert, p. 32, et seq.--Knox's
+History, p. 307.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 62, and vol. ii. p. 212.--Keith, p.
+215 and 216.--and Goodall, vol. i. p. 191.
+
+[56] Knox, p. 302.--Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 425.
+
+[57] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 78.; vol. ii. p. 293, et seq.; and p. 426, et
+seq.
+
+[58] Knox, p. 315.; Goodall, vol. i. p. 192.--Chalmers says, that Sir John
+Gordon's antagonist was not a Lord Ogilvy, but only James Ogilvy of
+Cardell, a son of the deceased Alexander Ogilvy of Findlater. But as he
+does not give any authority for this assertion, we have preferred
+following Knox, Goodall, and Robertson.
+
+[59] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 80.; and vol. ii. p. 298.
+
+[60] Keith, p. 225.
+
+[61] Keith, p. 226.
+
+[62] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 84, and vol. ii. p. 302.
+
+[63] Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 306.
+
+[64] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 90.
+
+[65] "The time and place for perpetrating this horrid deed," says
+Robertson, "were frequently appointed; but the executing of it was
+wonderfully prevented by some of those unforeseen accidents which so often
+occur to disconcert the schemes, and to intimidate the hearts of
+assassins." There is something strangely inconsistent between this
+statement, and that which Robertson makes immediately afterwards in a
+note, where he says,--"We have imputed the violent conduct of the Earl of
+Huntly to a sudden start of resentment, without charging him with any
+premeditated purpose of rebellion." And that Huntly did not intend to
+seize the Queen and her ministers, the historian argues upon these
+grounds:--"1st, On the Queen's arrival in the North, he laboured in good
+earnest to gain her favour, and to obtain a pardon for his son.--2d, He
+met the Queen, first at Aberdeen and then at Rothiemay, whither he would
+not have ventured to come had he harboured any such treasonable
+resolution.--3d, His conduct was irresolute and wavering, like that of a
+man disconcerted by an unforeseen danger, not like one executing a
+concerted plan.--4th, The most considerable persons of his clan submitted
+to the Queen, and found surety to obey her commands; had the Earl been
+previously determined to rise in arms against the Queen, or to seize her
+ministers, it is probable he would have imparted it to his principal
+followers, nor would they have deserted him in this manner," Yet in direct
+opposition to this view of the matter, Robertson, in telling the story of
+Huntly's wrongs, throws upon him the whole blame, and entirely exculpates
+Murray.--Robertson, vol. i. p. 222, et seq.
+
+[66] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 93, and vol. ii. p. 306.
+
+[67] Keith, p. 226.
+
+[68] Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 307.
+
+[69] Knox, p. 320.--Buchanan's History, Book xvii.--Chalmers, vol. i. p.
+95, and vol. ii. p. 309, whose authority is a letter of Randolph,
+preserved in the Paper Office, and written the evening of the very day on
+which the battle took place. Randolph, though not on the field himself,
+had two servants there, and saw the dead body of the Earl, when it was
+brought into Aberdeen. Robertson and others have said, that Huntly, who
+was very corpulent, was slain on the field, or trodden to death in the
+pursuit. Chalmers, however, has truth on his side, when he remarks, that
+"Doctor Robertson, who never saw those instructive letters (of Randolph),
+grossly misrepresents the whole circumstances of that affair at Corrachie;
+he says, 'Huntly advanced with a considerable force towards Aberdeen, and
+filled the Queen's _small court_ with the _utmost consternation_; and that
+Murray had only a handful of men in whom he could confide; but, by his
+steady courage and prudent conduct, gained a miraculous victory.' For the
+assertion of Murray's having only a _handful of men_, he quotes Keith, p.
+230, in which there is not one word of the _force_ at Corrachie on either
+side. The force there spoken of is what the Queen had about her _two
+months before_ on her first progress into the North, not on her return to
+Aberdeen, after new troops had been raised, and old ones summoned to that
+premeditated and barbarous scene." Knox is also a better authority upon
+this subject than Robertson. He gives the following curious account of the
+Earl's death and subsequent fate:--"The Earl, immediately after his
+taking, departed this life, without any wound, or yet appearance of any
+stroke, whereof death might have ensued; and so, because it was late, he
+was cast over athwart a pair of creels, and so was carried to Aberdeen,
+and was laid in the tolbooth thereof, that the response which his wife's
+witches had given might be fulfilled, who all affirmed (as the most part
+say), that that same night he should be in the tolbooth of Aberdeen,
+without any wound upon his body. When his lady got knowledge thereof, she
+blamed her principal witch, called Janet; but she stoutly defended herself
+(as the Devil can ever do), and affirmed that she gave a true answer,
+albeit she spoke not all the truth; for she knew that he should be there
+dead." Knox, p. 328. "It is a memorable fact," Chalmers elsewhere remarks,
+"that Huntly and Sutherland" (who was forfeited soon afterwards, as
+implicated in this pretended rebellion) "were two of those nobles who had
+sent Bishop Lesley to France, with offers of duty and services to the
+Queen, while Murray, Maitland, and other considerable men offered their
+duties and services to Elizabeth."
+
+[70] Randolph in Keith, p. 230.
+
+[71] Little did Mary then dream of Fotheringay.
+
+[72] In Buchanan's _Cameleon_, a severe satire, written at the request of
+his patron the Earl of Murray, when that nobleman quarrelled with
+Secretary Maitland, we have the following ridiculous account of the secret
+motives which led to this disastrous northern expedition. "The Queen, by
+advice of her uncles, devised to destroy the Earl of Murray, thinking him
+to be a great bridle to refrain her appetites, and impediment to live at
+liberty of her pleasure; not that he ever used any violence anent her, but
+that his honesty was so great that she was ashamed to attempt any thing
+indecent in his presence. She, then, being deliberate to destroy him, by
+the Earl of Huntly, went to the north and he in her company; and howbeit
+the treason was opened plainly, and John Gordon lying not far off the town
+(Aberdeen) with a great power, and the Earl of Murray expressly lodged in
+a house separate from all other habitation, and his death by divers ways
+sought,--this Cameleon (Maitland) whether for simpleness or for lack of
+foresight, or for boldness of courage, I refer to every man's conscience
+that doth know him, he alone could see no treason, could fear no danger,
+and could never believe that the Earl of Huntly would take on hand such an
+enterprise." This statement, while it gives some notion of the dependence
+to be placed on Buchanan's accuracy when influenced by party feelings,
+betrays, at the same time, the important secret, that Maitland saw and
+felt the injustice of Huntly's persecution.--Buchanan's Cameleon, p. 9.
+
+[73] Brantome in Jebb, p. 495, & seq.--Chalmers, vol. i. p.
+101.--Freebairn, p. 25--and Histoire de Marie Stuart, tom. i. p. 210.
+Knox, as usual, gives a highly indecorous and malicious account of this
+affair, his drift being to make his readers believe (though he does not to
+venture to say so in direct terms) that Mary had first tempted, and then
+betrayed Chatelard; and that she was anxious to have him despatched
+secretly, that he might not stain her honour by a public confession. If
+such were really the fact, it is odd that Chatelard should have been
+brought to a scaffold, which was surrounded by thousands, and that, even
+according to Knox himself, he said nothing relating to Mary but what is
+narrated in the text.--Vide Knox's History, p. 325.
+
+[74] Chalmers, in his account of the opening of this Parliament, seems to
+have committed an error. He says, (vol. i. p. 105.) "The Queen came to
+Parliament in her robes _and was crowned_." That any coronation took
+place, is not at all likely. Chalmers surely had forgotten that Mary was
+crowned at Stirling by Cardinal Beaton just twenty years before. There was
+no reason why the ceremony should have been repeated. Chalmers' mistake is
+probably founded upon the following passage, in a letter of Randolph's,
+quoted by Keith, p. 239--"The Parliament began 26th May, on which day the
+Queen came to it in her robes _and crowned_." The word _was_ is an
+interpolation of Chalmers. But as Randolph goes on immediately to
+say,--"The Duke carried the crown, Argyle the sceptre, &c.," Chalmers
+probably thought Mary could not at the same time wear the crown. But the
+crown of state, carried upon state occasions, was no doubt different from
+the crown made expressly to be worn by the reigning Queen. Buchanan puts
+the matter beyond a doubt, for he says explicitly;--"The Queen, _with the
+crown on her head_, and in her royal robes, went in great pomp to the
+Parliament House--a new sight to many." Buchanan's History, Book xvii.
+
+[75] Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 332 et seq.
+
+[76] Knox, p. 345.
+
+[77] Keith, p. 206 and 249.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 65, et seq.--Whittaker,
+vol. iii, p. 334.--Miss Benger, vol. ii, p. 145, et seq.
+
+[78] These violars were all Scotchmen, and two of them were of the name of
+Dow,--"a name," says Chalmers, "consecrated to music." Having never heard
+of this consecration before, we think it not unlikely that Chalmers has
+mistaken Dow for Gow. _Vide_ Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 72.
+
+[79] Jebb, vol. ii. p. 202. Chalmers, vol. i. p. 95, and vol. ii. p. 156.
+Tytler's Enquiry, vol. ii. p. 4 et seq.; Histoire de Marie Stuart, p. 218;
+and Laing, vol. i. p. 10.
+
+[80] Melville's Memoirs, p. 110-30. The French historian Castelnau, speaks
+in exactly similar terms. When sent by the King of France as ambassador to
+Mary, "I found that princess," he says, "in the flower of her age,
+esteemed and adored by her subjects, and sought after by all neighbouring
+states, in so much that there was no great fortune or alliance that she
+might not have aspired to, not only because she was the relation and
+successor of the Queen of England, but because she was endowed with more
+graces and perfection of beauty than any other princess of her
+time."--Castelnau in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 460.
+
+[81] Keith, p. 269.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 123.
+
+[82] Chalmers says (vol. i. p. 120), that the "Countess of Lennox sent
+Murray a diamond," which, though true, is not supported by the authority
+he quotes--Randolph in Keith, who says (p. 259)--"Lennox giveth to the
+Queen and most of the council jewels; but none to Murray." The authority
+Chalmers ought to have quoted is Melville (p. 127), who, on his return
+from his embassy to England, brought some presents with him from Lady
+Lennox, who was then not aware of the precise state of parties in
+Scotland. "My Lady Lennox," says Melville, "sent also tokens: to the Queen
+a ring with a fair diamont; ane emerald to my Lord her husband, who was
+yet in Scotland; a diamont to my Lord of Murray; ane orloge or montre
+(watch) set with diamonts and rubies, to the secretary Lethington; a ring
+with a ruby to my brother Sir Robert; for she was still in good hope that
+her son, my Lord Darnley, should come better speed than the Earl of
+Leicester, anent the marriage with the Queen. She was a very wise and
+discreet matron, and had many favourers in England for the time."
+
+[83] In confirmation of the fact, that he was "well-instructed," it may be
+mentioned, that, before he was twelve years old, he wrote a tale, called
+"_Utopia Nova_." Some ballads are also ascribed to him; and Bishop
+Montague, in his Preface to the Works of James VI., mentions, that he
+translated Valerius Maximus into English. His only literary effort, which
+seems to have been preserved, is a letter he wrote when about nine years
+old from Temple Newsome, his father's principal seat in Yorkshire, to his
+cousin Mary Tudor, Queen of England. It deserves insertion as a curiosity:
+
+"Like as the monuments of ancient authors, most triumphant, most
+victorious, and most gracious Princess, declare how that a certain
+excellent musician, Timotheus Musicus, was wont, with his
+sweet-proportioned and melodious harmony, to inflame Alexander the Great,
+Conqueror and King of Macedonia, to civil wars, with a most fervent
+desire, even so, I, remembering with myself oftentimes how that (over and
+besides such manifold benefits as your Highness heretofore hath bestowed
+on me) it hath pleased your most excellent Majesty lately to accept a
+little plot of my simple penning, which I termed _Utopia Nova_; for the
+which, it being base, vile, and maimed, your Majesty hath given me a rich
+chain of gold;--the noise (I say) of such instruments, as I hear now and
+then, (although their melody differ much from the sweet strokes and sounds
+of King Alexander's Timotheus), do not only persuade and move, yea prick
+and spur me forward, to endeavour my wits daily (all vanities set apart)
+to virtuous learning and study, being thereto thus encouraged, so
+oftentimes by your Majesty's manifold benefits, gifts, and rewards; but
+also I am enflamed and stirred, even now my tender age notwithstanding, to
+be serving your Grace, wishing every hair in my head for to be a worthy
+soldier of that same self heart, mind and stomach, that I am of. But where
+as I perceive that neither my wit, power, nor years, are at this present
+corresponding unto this, my good will: these shall be, therefore, (most
+gracious Princess) most humbly rendering unto your Majesty immortal thanks
+for your rich chain, and other your Highness' sundry gifts, given unto me
+without any my deservings, from time to time. Trusting in God one day of
+my most bounden duty, to endeavour myself, with my faithful hearty
+service, to remember the same. And being afraid, with these my superfluous
+words to interturb (God forfend) your Highness, whose most excellent
+Majesty is always, and specially now, occupied in most weighty matters,
+thus I make an end. Praying unto Almighty God most humbly and faithfully
+to preserve, keep, and defend your Majesty, long reigning over us all,
+your true and faithful subjects, a most victorious and triumphant
+Princess. Amen.--From Temple Newsome, the 28th March 1554.
+
+  Your Majesty's most bounden and obedient
+  subject and servant,
+
+  HENRY DARNLEY.[*]
+
+    [*] Ellis's Collection of "Original Letters Illustrative of English
+    History." Second series, vol. ii. p. 249.
+
+[84] Keith, p. 278.
+
+[85] Melville's Memoirs, p. 134.
+
+[86] Mary's conduct upon this occasion may be compared with that of
+Elizabeth to her favourite Essex; but the Scottish Queen's motives were of
+a far purer and better kind. "When Essex," says Walpole, "acted a fit of
+sickness, not a day passed without the Queen's sending after to see him;
+and she once went so far as to sit long by him, and order his broths and
+things." "It may be observed," remarks Chalmers, "that Mary was engaged
+(or rather secretly resolved) to marry Darnley, but Elizabeth only flirted
+with Essex."
+
+[87] Keith, p. 270, and Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 214, et seq.
+
+[88] Castelnau in Keith, p. 277.
+
+[89] Keith, p. 275.
+
+[90] Keith, Appendix, p. 97.
+
+[91] Keith, p. 280.
+
+[92] Keith, p. 290.
+
+[93] Of Chatelherault, Argyle, Murray, Morton, and Glencairn, all of whom
+were summoned to the Convention, only Morton came. Keith, p. 287.
+
+[94] Keith, p. 291, et seq.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 139, et seq.; vol. ii.
+p. 141.--Tytler, vol. i. p. 374, et seq. Melville's account of this
+conspiracy is, that Murray and the other Lords "had made a mynt to tak the
+Lord Darnley, in the Queen's company, at the Raid of Baith, and to have
+sent him in England as they allegit. I wot not what was in their minds,
+but it was ane evil-favoured enterprise whereintil the Queen was in
+danger, either of kepping (imprisonment) or heart-breaking; and as they
+had failed in their foolish enterprise, they took on plainly their arms of
+rebellion." Melville, p. 135. There is some reason to believe, that Knox
+was implicated in this conspiracy; for, in the continuation of his
+History, written by his amanuensis, Richard Bannatyne, under the authority
+of the General Assembly, it appears that a Mr Hamilton, minister of St
+Andrews, had openly accused him of a share in it; and though Knox noticed
+the accusation, it does not appear that he ever satisfactorily refuted
+it.--Goodall, vol. i. p. 207.
+
+[95] Keith, p. 293--Spottiswoode, p. 190.
+
+[96] Keith, p. 294, _et seq._
+
+[97] Keith, p. 297.
+
+[98] Buchanan says, foolishly enough, that the predictions of "wizardly
+women" contributed much to hasten this marriage. They prophesied, it
+seems, that if it was consummated before the end of July, it would be
+happy for both; if not, it would be the source of much misery. It is a
+pity that these predictions were not true.
+
+[99] Randolph in Robertson, Appendix, No. XI.--Keith, p. 307. Miss Benger,
+vol. ii. p. 214.
+
+[100] Keith, p. 303 and 304. This was a day or two before Darnley's
+marriage.
+
+[101] Keith, Appendix No. VII. p. 99, et seq.
+
+[102] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 106; and Tytler's Enquiry, vol.
+i. p. 362 and 367.
+
+[103] Knox, p. 389.
+
+[104] Keith, Appendix, p. 264.
+
+[105] Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. Nos. XII. and XIII.
+
+[106] Keith, Appendix, p. 114.
+
+[107] Keith, p. 316, and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 155.
+
+[108] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 156.
+
+[109] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 157, and Keith, p. 319.
+
+[110] Keith, p. 319.--Melville, p. 135.
+
+[111] Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.
+
+[112] Keith, p. 331.
+
+[113] Melville's Memoirs, p. 147.
+
+[114] Conĉus in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 25.
+
+[115] Dr Stuart, in support of his statements on this subject, quotes, in
+addition to the authorities already mentioned, Mezeray "Histoire de
+France," tome 3, and Thuanus, "Historia sui Temporis," lib. xxxvii. But we
+suspect he has done so at random; for, on referring to these works, we
+have been unable to discover any thing which bears upon the matter.
+Chalmers, who is in general acute and explicit enough, says, that these
+ambassadors came "to advise the Queen not to pardon the expatriated
+nobles;" vol. ii. p. 158. Laing, who writes with so much _apparent_
+candour and _real_ ability against Mary that he almost makes "the worse
+appear the better reason," has avoided falling into the gross error of
+Robertson. "It would be unjust," he says, "to suppose, that, upon acceding
+to the Holy League, for the preservation of the Catholic faith, she was
+apprised of the full extent of the design to exterminate the Protestants
+by a general massacre throughout Christendom; but the instructions from
+her uncle rendered her inexorable towards the banished Lords."--Laing's
+Preliminary Dissertation to the History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 9.
+
+[116] Keith, p. 328 and 329.
+
+[117] Goodall, vol. i. p. 222.
+
+[118] Several of these pennies, as they were called, both of gold and
+silver, remain to this day; and some of them have been already noticed. In
+December 1565, there was stamped a silver penny, called the _Mary Rial_,
+bearing on one side a tree, with the motto, _Dat gloria vires_; and the
+circumscription, _Exsurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ejus_; and, on the
+other, _Maria et Henricus, Dei Gratia, Regina et Rex Scotorum_. Speaking
+of this coin, Keith says, that "the famous ewe-tree of Crookston, the
+inheritance of the family of Darnley, in the parish of Paisley, is made
+the reverse of this new coin; and the inscription about the tree, _Dat
+gloria vires_, is no doubt with a view to reflect honour on the Lennox
+family. This tree, he adds, which stands to this day, is of so large a
+trunk, and so well spread in its branches, that it is seen at several
+miles distance."--Keith, p. 327, and Appendix, p. 118.--It stands no
+longer.
+
+[119] Buchanan's History.--Melville's Memoirs.--Keith, p. 325.
+
+[120] Goodall, vol. i. p. 227.
+
+[121] Melville's Memoirs, p. 132 and 133.
+
+[122] We translate from the original French of an edition, of the _Martyre
+de la Royne d'Escosse_, printed at Antwerp, in the year 1583,--which very
+nearly agrees with the Edition in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 202.
+
+[123] Buchanan alone, of all the Scottish historians, has dared to
+insinuate the probability of an illicit intercourse having subsisted
+between Mary and Rizzio; and the calumny is too self-evidently false to
+merit a moment's notice. Every respectable writer reprobates so disgusting
+a piece of scandal, however unfavourably inclined towards Mary in other
+respects. Camden, Castelnau, Robertson, Hume, Tytler, Laing, and Dr
+Stuart, all of whom think it worth while to advert to the subject in
+Notes, put the falsehood of Buchanan's assertion beyond the most distant
+shadow of a doubt. Indeed, it is paying it too great a compliment to
+advert to it at all.
+
+[124] Miss Benger, oddly enough, says, it was on Saturday the 5th of
+April; a mistake into which no other historian with whom we are acquainted
+has fallen.--Miss Benger's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 233.
+
+[125] The Parliament had met upon the 7th, and Mary had opened it in
+person, unattended by Darnley, who refused to give it his countenance; but
+no business of importance had as yet been transacted.
+
+[126] This disease was "an inflammation of the liver, and a consumption of
+the kidneys."--_Keith_, _Appendix_, _p._ 119.
+
+[127] Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.--Goodall, vol. i. p. 252.
+
+[128] Stranguage, p. 33.--Crawford's Memoirs, p. 9.
+
+[129] Keith, Appendix, p. 122.
+
+[130] Conĉus in Jebb. Vol. ii. p. 25.
+
+[131] Robertson's Appendix to vol. i. No. xv.
+
+[132] Keith, p. 330.--Appendix, p. 119.--Melville's Memoirs, p.
+148.--Buchanan's History of Scotland, Book xvii.--Martyre de Marie in
+Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.--Knox, p. 392.--Holinshed's Chronicles, p.
+382.--Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. No. xv.--Some historians have
+maintained, that Rizzio was actually despatched in Mary's presence. But
+this is not the fact, for Mary remained ignorant of his fate till next
+day. In a letter which the Earl of Bedford and Randolph wrote to the Privy
+Council of England, giving an account of this murder, and which has been
+published in the first series of "Ellis's Original Letters, illustrative
+of English History," (vol. ii. p. 207), we find these words:--"He was not
+slain in the Queen's presence, as was said." Holinshed and others are
+equally explicit. It has been likewise said, that it was not intended to
+have killed him that evening; but to have tried him next day, and then to
+have hanged or beheaded him publicly. That there is no foundation for this
+assertion, is proved by the authorities quoted above; and to these may be
+added the letter from Morton and Ruthven to Throckmorton, and "the bond of
+assurance for the murder to be committed," granted by Darnley to the
+conspirators, on the 1st of March, both preserved by Goodall, vol. i. p.
+264 and 266. That the conspirators meant, as others have insisted, to take
+advantage of the situation in which Mary then was, and terrify her into a
+miscarriage, which might have ended in her death, is unsupported by any
+evidence; nor can we see what purposes such a design would have answered.
+
+[133] Vide M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 47.
+
+[134] Knox, p. 339.--Buchanan, Book XVII.
+
+[135] Keith, p. 332--and Appendix, 126.
+
+[136] That something of the kind was actually contemplated, we learn from
+Mary herself. "In their council," she says in the letter already quoted,
+"they thought it most expedient we should be warded in our castle of
+Stirling, there to remain till we had approved in Parliament all their
+wicked enterprises, established their religion, and given to the King the
+crown-matrimonial, and the whole government of our realm; or else, by all
+appearance, firmly purposed to have put us to death, or detained us in
+perpetual captivity."--Keith, Appendix, p. 132.
+
+[137] Ruthven's "Discourse" concerning the murder of Rizzio, in Keith,
+Appendix, p. 128.
+
+[138] Keith, p. 334.--Stuart's History of Scotland, p. 138, et seq.
+
+[139] Melville's Memoirs, p. 154--Goodall, vol. i. p. 286.--Chalmers, vol.
+ii. p. 164.
+
+[140] Melville's Memoirs, p. 156.--Keith, p. 337.
+
+[141] Melville's Memoirs, p. 158.
+
+[142] Keith, p. 345, and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 180.
+
+[143] Buchanan's History, Book XVIII.--His "Detection," in Anderson's
+Collections, vol. ii. p. 6.; and his "Oration," p. 44.
+
+[144] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 181, et seq. Goodall, vol. i. p. 292, et seq.
+
+[145] Keith, p. 345.
+
+[146] Knox, p. 386--Anderson, vol. i. p. 90--Tytler, vol. ii. p.
+39--Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 206-207.
+
+[147] Knox, p. 396, and Chalmers, p. 219.
+
+[148] Knox, p. 392. Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 206 and 218. Laing, vol. i. p.
+359. In the first edition of Tytler's "Vindication," Bothwell, being
+confounded with the former Earl, his father, was said to be about
+fifty-nine at this period. In the second edition, Tytler partly corrected
+his error, but not entirely; for he stated Bothwell's age to be
+forty-three when he married. Chalmers, who is seldom wrong in the matter
+of dates, has settled the question.
+
+[149] Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 217.
+
+[150] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 183 and 184.
+
+[151] Maitland's Official Letter to Catherine de Medicis, in Keith, p.
+348.
+
+[152] These noblemen, it may be observed, instead of being the friends,
+were the personal and political enemies of Bothwell, with whom Darnley was
+less displeased than with them.
+
+[153] Goodall, vol. i. p. 284.--Keith, p. 348.
+
+[154] Le Croc's Letter in Keith, p. 346.
+
+[155] Maitland's Letter in Keith, p. 349.
+
+[156] Keith, idem, p. 346 and 349.
+
+[157] Keith, idem, p. 350.
+
+[158] Knox, p. 399.
+
+[159] The turn which Buchanan gives to the whole of this affair, in the
+work he libellously calls a "History," scarcely deserves notice. "In the
+meantime," he veraciously writes in his Eighteenth Book, "the King,
+finding no place for favour with his wife, is sent away with injuries and
+reproaches; and though he often tried her spirit, yet by no offices of
+observance could he obtain to be admitted to conjugal familiarity as
+before; whereupon he retired, in discontent, to Stirling." In his
+"Detection," he is still more ludicrously false. "In the meantime," he
+writes, "the King commanded out of sight, and with injuries and miseries
+banished from her, kept himself close with a few of his servants at
+Stirling; for, alas! what should he else do? He could not creep into any
+piece of grace with the Queen, nor could get so much as to obtain his
+daily necessary expenses, to find his servants and horses. And, finally,
+with brawlings lightly rising for every small trifle, and quarrels,
+usually picked, he was chased out of her presence; yet his heart,
+obstinately fixed in loving her, could not be restrained, but he must
+needs come back to Edinburgh of purpose, with all kind of serviceable
+humbleness, to get some entry into her former favour, and to recover the
+kind society of marriage: who once again, with most dishonourable disdain
+excluded, once again returns from whence he came, there, as in solitary
+desert, to bewail his woful miseries." Anderson, vol. ii. p. 9.--Another
+equally honest record of these times, commonly known by the name of
+"Murray's or Cecil's Journal," the former having supplied the information
+to the latter, to answer his own views at a subsequent period, says,--"At
+this time, the King coming from Stirling, _was repulsed with chiding_."
+The same Journal mentions, that, on the 24th of September, Mary lodged in
+the Chequer House, and met with Bothwell,--a story which Buchanan
+disgustingly amplifies in his Detection, though the Privy Council records
+prove that the Queen lodged in her Palace of Holyrood on the 24th with her
+Privy Council and officers of state in attendance. As to Buchanan's
+complaint, that the King was stinted in his necessary expenses, the
+treasurer's accounts clearly show its falsehood. "The fact is," says
+Chalmers, "that he was allowed to order, by himself, payments in money and
+furnishments of necessaries from the public treasurer. And the treasurer's
+accounts show that he was amply furnished with necessaries at the very
+time when those calumnious statements were asserted by men who knew them
+to be untrue. On two days alone, the 13th and 31st of August, the
+treasurer, by the King and Queen's order, was supplied with a vast number
+of articles for the King's use alone, amounting to 300_l._, which is more
+than the Queen had for six months, even including the necessaries which
+she had during her confinement."--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 186. These minute
+details would be unworthy of attention, did they not serve to prove the
+difficulty of determining whether Buchanan's patron, who was also Mary's
+Prime Minister, or the Historian himself, possessed the superior talent
+for misrepresentation.
+
+[160] Birrel's Diary.--Keith, p. 351.--Goodall, vol. i. p. 302.--Chalmers,
+vol. i. p. 190, vol. ii. p. 109 and 224.
+
+[161] Buchanan's History, book xviii.; and in his, "Detection," he repeats
+the same story, with still more venom.
+
+[162] Both of these Registers are quoted by Chalmers, vol. i. p. 181.
+
+[163] Miss Benger's observations upon this subject are judicious and
+forcible. "It was not till the 16th, the Queen, with her Officers of
+State, passed to hermitage Castle, twenty miles distant, whether to confer
+with Bothwell on business, respecting the motives for the late outrage on
+his person, or purely as a visit of friendship and condolence, a
+respectful, and as it should seem, well-merited acknowledgement of his
+loyal services, must be left to conjecture. It is, however, not
+improbable, since the Earl of Morton was, at that time, known to be in the
+neighbouring March of Cessford, that Mary might be anxious to ascertain
+from Bothwell's lips, whether he ascribed the attack on his person to that
+nobleman's instigation. In Morton's behalf she had long been importuned by
+Murray, by Elizabeth, and Maitland, and, at a proper time, meant to yield
+to their solicitations; but the discovery of a new treason, would have
+altered her proceedings; to ascertain the fact was, therefore, of
+importance. By whatever considerations Mary was induced to pay this visit,
+there appears not (when calumny is discarded), any specific ground for the
+suspicion, that she then felt for Bothwell a warmer sentiment than
+friendship; in all her affections, Mary was ardent and romantic, and
+though it should have been admitted, that she had gone to Hermitage
+Castle, merely to say one kind word to the loyal servant, whose blood had
+lately flowed in her service, she had, two years before, made a far
+greater effort to gratify a _female_ friend, when she rode to Callender,
+to assist at the baptism of Lord Livingston's child, regardless of the
+danger which awaited her, from Murray and his party."--Memoirs, vol. ii.
+p. 289. We have dwelt too long on a calumny unsupported by any respectable
+evidence.
+
+[164] Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 224.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I (of 2), by 
+Henry Glassford Bell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I (of 2)
+
+Author: Henry Glassford Bell
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2011 [EBook #37058]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, VOL I ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries.)
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+
+
+<div class="verts">
+<p class="center"><span class="large">BOOKS LATELY PUBLISHED BY</span></p>
+
+<p>ADAM BLACK, <span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, AND LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, &amp; GREEN LONDON.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">A SYSTEM of UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY, by <span class="smcap">M. Malte-Brun</span>, Editor of the &#8220;Annales
+des Voyages,&#8221; &amp;c. Parts I. to XII. price 7s. 6d. each. To be completed in
+Fourteen Parts.</p>
+
+<p class="dent">The Publishers are extremely happy to be able to state, that,
+notwithstanding the lamented death of M. Malte-Brun, the remainder of this
+great work, comprising the description of <span class="smcap">Western Europe</span>, will be
+completed in a style every way worthy of what has been already executed.
+The papers and collections of M. Malte-Brun have been placed in the hands
+of M. Valcknaer, with whose numerous and valuable contributions to
+geographical science the scientific portion of the public have been long
+and familiarly acquainted. M. Balbi, the celebrated author of the <i>Essai
+Statistique sur le Royaume de Portugal</i>, has undertaken to superintend and
+complete that portion of the work which relates to Italy, Spain, and
+Portugal. There can, therefore, be no doubt, that the high and established
+character of the Original Work will be maintained to its close; and the
+British Public may be assured, that no efforts will be spared to render
+the Translation, now in course of publication, not only equal, but even
+superior, to the original. The account of the British Empire will be
+carefully revised, and, if necessary, re-written by gentlemen who are
+extremely well versed in statistical inquiries. The reports and papers
+printed by order of the House of Commons will be referred to for every
+fact of importance; and the Publishers believe that they may venture to
+say, that the account which will be given in this work of the
+Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce of Great Britain, will be
+decidedly superior to any that has hitherto appeared.</p>
+
+<p class="dent">The account of the United States, given in the Translation, is an entirely
+<i>original composition</i>; and it is admitted by the Americans themselves, to
+contain the most able, comprehensive, and luminous account of that
+powerful confederacy that has ever been published.</p>
+
+<div class="smaller"><p><span class="smcap">&#8220;M. Malte-Brun</span> is probably known to most of our readers as the author
+of a systematic work on Geography. He is, besides, the editor of a
+periodical digest, under the title of <i>Nouvelles Annales des Voyages
+de la Geographie et de l&#8217;Histoire</i>; the first as much superior to the
+compilations of our Guthries and Pinkertons, as the other is to the
+garbled productions of our Truslers and Mavors.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Quarterly Review</i>,
+No. 52.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But however highly we may estimate this publication, which is, in our
+opinion, infinitely superior to anything of its class which has ever
+appeared, it is not of a kind which we can illustrate by extracts. We
+can merely state, that it is admirable in its original form,&mdash;that it
+is well translated,&mdash;that it is printed in a fair style, so as to fit
+it not only for libraries, but for families and schools,&mdash;and that, in
+fine, it is a work that neither library, family, nor school, should be
+without.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Literary Gazette</i>, No. 405.</p></div>
+
+<p class="hang">JOURNAL of a SOLDIER of the 71st REGIMENT, HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY, from
+1806 to 1815. Including particulars of the Battles of Vimeira, Corunna,
+Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Toulouse, and Waterloo. Third Edition. 1 vol.
+12mo, 5s.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">&#8220;The Journal of a Soldier of the 71st Regiment, first gave the public
+a taste for narratives of the personal adventures, and the sufferings,
+and &#8216;hair-breadth escapes,&#8217; of military men. That Journal excited a
+very considerable degree of interest. It was written with ease and
+simplicity, and indicated no small powers of description and
+observation. There was a romantic interest, too, attached to the
+history of the writer, as developed in his own modest and unvarnished
+tale. But moreover, as disclosing the mode of life, and the hardships
+and privations of the common soldier, it let in a new light on the
+commonly received notions of warlike expeditions.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Saturday Post.</i></p>
+
+<p class="hang">The EDINBURGH MEDICAL and SURGICAL JOURNAL. Vols. 27 and 28; being those
+for 1827. Published in Numbers, Quarterly, price 6s.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">The EDINBURGH NEW PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL; exhibiting a View of the
+Progressive Discoveries and Improvements in the <span class="smcap">Sciences</span> and the <span class="smcap">Arts</span>.
+Conducted by <span class="smcap">Robert Jameson</span>, F.R.S.L. &amp; E. Regius Professor of Natural
+History, Lecturer on Mineralogy, and Keeper of the Museum of the
+University of Edinburgh, &amp;c. &amp;c. Published Quarterly, price 7s. 6d.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MEMOIRS of the LIFE of JOHN LAW of LAURISTON, Projector of the Mississippi
+Scheme; containing a Detailed Account of the Rise and Progress of this
+extraordinary Joint Stock Company, with many curious Anecdotes of the rage
+for speculating in its Funds, and the disastrous consequences of its
+Failure. By <span class="smcap">John Philip Wood,</span> Esq. 1 vol. 12mo, 6s. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">&#8220;It is worth the while of those multitudes of all classes, who are
+engaging so eagerly, and often so heedlessly, in joint stock and
+funding speculations, to read the story of the most stupendous scheme
+of the kind ever conceived; a scheme which absorbed the resources of a
+powerful kingdom in its vortex, infected a nation with temporary
+madness, confounded all conditions, raising beggars to boundless
+wealth, and casting down princes to penury.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Scotsman.</i></p>
+
+<p class="hang">LION HUNTING; or, A SUMMER&#8217;S RAMBLE through Parts of FLANDERS, GERMANY,
+and SWITZERLAND, in 1825. With some Remarks on Men, Manners, and Things,
+at Home and Abroad. 1 vol. 12mo, 6s.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">An ESSAY on NAVAL TACTICS, Systematical and Historical, with upwards of
+Fifty Explanatory Plates; in Four Parts. By <span class="smcap">John Clerk</span>, Esq. of Eldin,
+Fellow of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and of the Royal Society of
+Edinburgh: Third Edition, with Notes by Lord Rodney, and an Introduction
+by a Naval Officer. 8vo, price &pound;.1, 5s. bds.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BIBLIOTHECA BIBLICA, a Select List of Books on Sacred Literature; with
+Notices, Biographical, Critical, and Bibliographical. Intended as a Guide
+to the consultation of the most useful Writers on Biblical Subjects. By
+<span class="smcap">William Orme</span>, Author of the &#8220;Life of John Owen, D.D.&#8221; 1 vol. 8vo, 12s.
+boards.</p>
+
+<p class="dent">This publication contains some account of nearly one thousand books,
+including editions of the original Scriptures, Concordances to the Hebrew,
+Greek, Latin, and English Bibles; Hebrew and Greek Lexicon; British and
+Foreign Commentators on the Scriptures, Books on Sacred Chronology,
+Geography, and Antiquities; Ecclesiastical Historians; and numerous works
+of a miscellaneous nature, adapted to the illustration of the Word of God;
+it also furnishes short notices of the age, country, and profession of the
+authors.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">&#8220;The theological student cannot fail to derive much advantage from it;
+and the more learned divine will find it an excellent supplement to
+the Bibliotheca Theologica Selecta of the laborious Walchius, or to
+the erudite Bibliotheca Sacra of Le Long.&#8221;&mdash;<i>British Critic for
+November 1824.</i></p>
+
+<p class="hang">ACADEMICAL EXAMINATIONS on the PRINCIPLES of CHEMISTRY; being an
+Introduction to the Study of that Science. By <span class="smcap">David Boswell Reid</span>. In 2
+vols. 12mo, 15s. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ELEMENTS of CHEMISTRY. By <span class="smcap">Andrew Fyfe</span>, M.D. F.R.S.E. &amp;c. &amp;c. Illustrated
+by numerous Engravings on Wood. In 2 vols. 8vo, 21s. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">A MANUAL of ANATOMY, arranged so as to afford a concise and accurate
+Description of the different parts of the Human Body. From the French of
+<span class="smcap">A. L. J. Bayle</span>. Revised and improved by <span class="smcap">William Bennet</span>, M.D. In one
+closely printed volume, 18mo, 7s. 6d. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">A MANUAL of CHEMISTRY, illustrated by upwards of 130 Engravings on Wood.
+By <span class="smcap">Andrew Fyfe</span>, M.D. F.R.S.E. Lecturer on Chemistry to the Edinburgh
+School of Arts. 12mo, 7s. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">The NATURAL and AGRICULTURAL HISTORY of PEAT-MOSS or TURF-BOG: to which
+are annexed, Corroborative Writings, Correspondence, and Observations on
+the Qualities of Peat or Fen Earth as a Soil and Manure, and on the
+Methods used in Scotland for converting Moss-soils into Arable and Pasture
+Grounds, Plantations of Trees, &amp;c. By <span class="smcap">Andrew Steele</span>, Esq. of
+Crosswoodhill, Member of the Natural History and Agricultural Societies of
+Edinburgh. 8vo, 10s. 6d. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">A SYSTEM of MATERIA MEDICA and PHARMACY, including Translations of the
+Edinburgh, London, and Dublin Pharmacop&oelig;ias. By <span class="smcap">John Murray</span>, M.D.
+Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, &amp;c. &amp;c. Fifth Edition. Adapted
+to the present State of Chemical and Medical Science by <span class="smcap">John Murray</span>,
+Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Lecturer on Chemistry. 2
+vols. 8vo, 24s. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ELEMENTS of CHEMISTRY. By <span class="smcap">John Murray</span>, M.D. Fellow of the Royal College of
+Physicians, &amp;c. &amp;c. Sixth Edition, including all the recent Discoveries,
+and adapted to the present State of the Science, by <span class="smcap">John Murray</span>, Fellow of
+the Royal College of Surgeons, and Lecturer on Chemistry, Edinburgh. 2
+thick vols. 8vo, with Plates, 25s. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">A POPULAR DOMESTIC MEDICAL DICTIONARY. By <span class="smcap">Alexander Macaulay</span>, M.D. Fellow
+of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and Physician-Accoucheur to
+the Edinburgh New Town Dispensary. In 1 thick vol. 8vo, price 14s.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">It is the design of this work to give an account of the Diseases of
+various climates, and their remedies; to notice the more ordinary
+accidents, with their cures, and the treatment of those who have
+swallowed poisons; to give a full list of the common medicines,
+mentioning in what cases they may be administered, and in what
+quantities, according to varying circumstances. It embraces all the
+ordinary articles of food, stating in what cases each may be used, and
+when they should be used sparingly, or avoided altogether. The work is
+arranged in the form of a Dictionary, in order that persons in quest
+of information on any subject affecting health, may easily obtain it,
+by means of the alphabetical arrangement. Medical discussion has been
+avoided; technical words are introduced as sparingly as possible; and
+the various medical terms which have found their way into common use
+are carefully explained. The precepts respecting diet are practical
+and useful; and great care has been taken to give such directions for
+the management of infants and children, as, it is hoped, will render
+the work of much utility to the nursery.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE ADVANCEMENT of SOCIETY in KNOWLEDGE and RELIGION. By <span class="smcap">Ja. Douglas</span>, Esq.
+Second edition. In 1 vol. 8vo, price 9s. boards.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><br />In a few days will be published, in 2 vols. 8vo, price &pound;.1, 4s.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THE PHILOSOPHY of the ACTIVE and MORAL POWERS of MAN. By <span class="smcap">Dugald Stewart</span>,
+formerly Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p class="center"><span class="giant">LIFE</span></p>
+<p class="center"><small>OF</small></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="giant">MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center"><small>Engraved by A. Wilson</small></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS</span></p>
+<p class="center">PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL BY JOHN WATSON GORDON R.I.A.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/titlename.jpg" alt="CONSTABLE&#8217;S MISCELLANY OF Original and Selected Publications IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE SCIENCE, &amp; THE ARTS. VOL. XXIV." /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="large">LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, VOL. I.</span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center"><small>Drawn by W. Brown</small><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span><small>Engraved by W. Miller</small></p>
+<p class="center">LINLITHGOW PALACE</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EDINBURGH:<br />
+PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE &amp; C<sup>o.</sup> EDINBURGH:<br />
+AND HURST, CHANCE &amp; C<sup>o.</sup> LONDON.</p>
+<p class="center">1828.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="huge">LIFE</span></p>
+<p class="center"><small>OF</small></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="huge">MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br />
+<span class="large">HENRY GLASSFORD BELL, <span class="smcap">Esq.</span></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">IN TWO VOLUMES.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">VOL. I.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&#8220;AYEZ MEMOIRE DE L&#8217;AME ET DE L&#8217;HONNEUR DE<br />
+CELLE QUI A ESTE VOTRE ROYNE.&#8221;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><i>Mary&#8217;s own Words.</i></span></td></tr></table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EDINBURGH:<br />
+PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE &amp; CO. EDINBURGH;<br />
+AND HURST, CHANCE &amp; CO. LONDON.</p>
+<p class="center">1828.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>A new work on the subject of Mary Queen of Scots runs an eminent risk of
+being considered a work of supererogation. No period of British history
+has been more elaborately illustrated than that of her life and reign. She
+ascended the Scottish throne at a time replete with interest; when the
+country had awakened from the lethargy of ages, and when the gray dawn of
+civilization, heralding the full sunshine of coming years, threw its light
+and shade on many a bold and prominent figure, standing confessed in
+rugged grandeur as the darkness gradually rolled away. It was a time when
+national and individual character were alike strongly marked,&mdash;a time when
+Knox preached, Buchanan wrote, Murray<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> plotted, and Bothwell murdered. The
+mailed feudal barons,&mdash;the unshrinking Reformers, founders of the
+Presbyterian Church, and mailed in mind, if not in body,&mdash;the discomfited,
+but the still rich and haughty ecclesiastics of the Romish faith, the
+contemporaries and followers of the stern Cardinal Beaton,&mdash;all start
+forth so vividly before the mind&#8217;s eye, that they seem subjects better
+suited for the inspired pencil of a Salvator Rosa, than for the soberer
+pen of History. Mary herself, with her beauty and her misfortunes, shining
+among the rest like the creation of a softer age and clime, fills up the
+picture, and rivets the interest. She becomes the centre round which the
+others revolve; and their importance is measured only by the influence
+they exercised over her fate, and the share they had in that strange
+concatenation of circumstances, which, as if in mockery of the nobility of
+her birth, and the splendour of her expectations, rendered her life
+miserable, and her death ignominious.</p>
+
+<p>There is little wonder if such a theme, though in itself inexhaustible,
+should have exhausted the energies of many. Yet the leading events of
+Mary&#8217;s reign still give rise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> to frequent doubts and discussions; and the
+question regarding her character, which has so long agitated and divided
+the literary world, remains undetermined. It is indeed only they who have
+time and inclination to dismantle the shelves of a library, and pore over
+many a contradictory volume,&mdash;examine many a perplexing hypothesis,&mdash;and
+endeavour to reconcile many an inconsistent and distracting
+statement,&mdash;who are entitled to pronounce upon her guilt or innocence.</p>
+
+<p>Not that it is meant to be asserted, that unpublished manuscripts and
+documents, calculated to throw new light upon the subject, slumber in the
+archives of Government, or among the collections of the learned, which
+have hitherto escaped the notice of the antiquarian and the scholar. On
+the contrary, there is every reason to believe, that all the papers of
+value which exist, have already been found, and given to the world. After
+the voluminous publications of Anderson, Jebb, Goodall, Haynes, Hardwicke,
+Strype, Sadler, and Murdin, it is by no means probable, that future
+historians will discover additional materials to guide them in their
+narrative of facts. But few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> are disposed to wade through works like
+these; and they who are, find, that though they indicate the ground on
+which the superstructure of truth may be raised, they at the same time,
+from the diffuseness and often contradictory nature of their contents,
+afford every excuse to those who wander into error. The consequence is,
+that almost no two writers have given exactly the same account of the
+principal occurrences of Mary&#8217;s life. And it is this fact which would lead
+to the belief, that there is still an opening for an author, who would
+endeavour, with impartiality, candour, and decision, to draw the due line
+of distinction between the prejudices of the one side, and the
+prepossessions of the other,&mdash;who would expose the wilful
+misrepresentations of party-spirit, and correct the involuntary errors of
+ignorance,&mdash;who would aim at being scrupulously just, but not
+unnecessarily severe&mdash;steadily consistent, but not tamely
+indifferent&mdash;boldly independent, but not unphilosophically violent.</p>
+
+<p>It seems to be a principle of our common nature, to be ever anxious to
+wage an honourable warfare against doubt; and no one is more likely to fix
+the attention, than he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> who undertakes to prove what has been previously
+disputed. It is this principle which has attached so much interest to the
+life of the Queen of Scots, and induced so many writers (and some of no
+mean note) to investigate her character both as a sovereign and a woman;
+and the consequence has been, that one half have undertaken to put her
+criminality beyond a doubt, and the other as confidently pledged
+themselves to establish her innocence. It may seem a bold, but it is a
+conscientious opinion, that no single author, whether an accuser or a
+defender, has been entirely successful. To arrive at a satisfactory
+conclusion, the works of several must be consulted; and, even after all,
+the mind is often left tossing amidst a sea of difficulties. The talents
+of many who have broken a lance in the Marian controversy, are undoubted;
+but, if we attend for a moment to its progress, the reasons why it is
+still involved in obscurity may probably be discovered.</p>
+
+<p>The ablest literary man in Scotland, contemporary with Mary, was George
+Buchanan; the Earl of Murray was his patron, and Secretary Cecil his
+admirer. The first <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>publication regarding the Queen, came from his pen; it
+was written with consummate ability, but with a dishonest, though not
+unnatural leaning to the side which was the strongest at the time, and
+which his own interests and views of personal and family aggrandizement
+pointed out as the most profitable. The eloquence of his style, and the
+confidence of his statements, gave a bias to public opinion, which feebler
+spirits laboured in vain to counteract.&mdash;Less powerful as an author, but
+not less virulent as an enemy, Knox next appeared in the lists, and,
+unfurling the banner of what was then considered religion, converted every
+doubt into conviction, by appealing to the bigotry and the superstition of
+the uninformed multitude. Yet Knox was probably conscientious, if the term
+can be applied with propriety to one who did not believe that the Church
+of Rome possessed a single virtuous member.&mdash;In opposition to the
+productions of these authors, is the &#8220;Defence of Mary&#8217;s Honour,&#8221; by
+Lesley, Bishop of Ross, an able but somewhat declamatory work, and as
+liable to suspicion as the others, because written by an avowed partisan
+and active servant of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> Queen. A crowd of inferior compositions
+followed, useful sometimes for the facts they contain, but all so strongly
+tinctured with party zeal, that little reliance is to be placed on their
+accuracy. Among these may be enumerated the works of Blackwood and
+Caussin, who wrote in French,&mdash;of Con&aelig;us, Strada, and Turner, (the last
+under the assumed name of Barnestaple,) who wrote in Latin,&mdash;and of
+Antonio de Herrera, who wrote in Spanish.</p>
+
+<p>The calamities which, after the lapse of a century, again overtook the
+house of Stuart, recalled attention to the discussions concerning Mary;
+and though time had softened the asperity of the disputants, the question
+was once more destined to become connected with party prejudices. From the
+publication of Crawford&#8217;s &#8220;Memoirs,&#8221; in 1705, down to the appearance of
+Chalmers&#8217;s &#8220;Life of Mary,&#8221; in 1818, the history of the Queen of Scots has
+continued one of those standard subjects which has given birth to a new
+work, at least every five years. A few of the more important may be
+mentioned. In 1725, Jebb published his own life of Mary, and his
+collection, in two volumes folio, of works which had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>previously appeared
+both for and against her. The former production is of little value, but
+the latter is exceedingly useful, and indeed no one can write with
+fairness concerning Mary, without consulting it. Lives of the Queen by
+Heywood and Freebairn, shortly succeeded, both of whom were anxious to
+vindicate her, but in their anxiety, overshot the mark. In 1728,
+Anderson&#8217;s &#8220;Collections&#8221; were presented to the public, containing many
+papers of interest and value, which are not to be found elsewhere. But
+they are often disingenuously garbled, that Mary may be made to appear in
+an unfavourable light; and a more recent author informs us, that they
+were, in consequence, &#8220;sold as waste paper, leaving the editor ruined in
+his character, and injured in his prospects.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In Scotland, the Rebellion of 1715, powerfully revived the animosities
+which had never lain entirely dormant since the establishment of a new
+dynasty, in 1688; and the transition from Charles to his ancestor Mary,
+was easy and natural. The second Rebellion in 1745, did not diminish the
+interest taken in the Queen of Scots, nor the ardor with which the
+question of her wrongs or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> crimes was agitated. In 1754, Mr Goodall,
+librarian to the Faculty of Advocates, made a valuable addition to the
+works already extant on the subject, in his &#8220;Examination&#8221; of the letters
+attributed to Mary. His habits of laborious research, combined with no
+inconsiderable powers of reasoning, enabled him not only to bring together
+many original papers, not before published, but to found on these much
+acute argument, and deduce from them many sound conclusions. Goodall&#8217;s
+work will never be popular, because it is full of ancient documents, which
+one is more willing to refer to than to read; but, as may be remarked of
+Jebb and Anderson, he who means to write of Mary, should not commence
+until he has also carefully perused the &#8220;Examination.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Four years posterior to Goodall&#8217;s two volumes, appeared Robertson&#8217;s
+&#8220;History of Scotland.&#8221; Of course, the leading events of Mary&#8217;s reign were
+narrated at length, but too much with the stiff frigidity which Robertson
+imagined constituted historical dignity, and which was continually
+betraying a greater anxiety about the manner than the matter. Accordingly,
+what his style<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> gained in constraint, his subject lost in interest. No one
+has said so much of Queen Mary, to so little definite purpose, as
+Robertson;&mdash;no one has so entirely failed in making us either hate or love
+her. Besides, he thought her guilty, on the authority of Buchanan, and has
+consequently thrown a false gloss over her character from beginning to
+end. He was supported in his opinions, it is true, by the historian Hume,
+but the latter having devoted most of his attention to the History of
+England, cannot be supposed to have been very deeply versed in the affairs
+of Scotland; and in so far as these are concerned, his authority is not of
+the highest weight. Yet, from the reputation which these two writers have
+acquired, and deservedly, upon other grounds, they have done more mischief
+to Mary than perhaps any of her calumniators, the multitude being too
+often inclined to forget, when once thoroughly <i>juratus in verba
+magistri</i>, that he who distinguishes himself in one department, may be,
+and commonly is, deficient in another.&mdash;In 1760, the credit both of
+Robertson and Hume was a good deal shaken, by Tytler&#8217;s &#8220;Enquiry&#8221; into the
+evidence against Mary. This work is neither historical nor <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span>biographical,
+but argumentative and controversial. It is founded upon Goodall, to whom
+Tytler confesses his obligations, but the reasonings are much more lucidly
+and popularly arranged; and though not so complete or so full of research
+as it might have been, it is, upon the whole, the ablest and most
+convincing production which has yet appeared on the side of the Queen of
+Scots.</p>
+
+<p>Of the five works of greatest consequence which have appeared since
+Tytler&#8217;s, only one has ventured to tread in the footsteps of Buchanan. The
+first in order of date is the French &#8220;Histoire d&#8217;Elizabeth,&#8221; in five
+volumes, by Mademoiselle de Keralio, who devotes a large portion of her
+book to Mary, and, with a degree of talent that does honour to the sex to
+which she belongs, vindicates the Scottish Queen from the obloquy which
+her rival, Elizabeth, had too great a share in casting upon her.&mdash;Nearly
+about the same time, was published Dr Gilbert Stuart&#8217;s &#8220;History of
+Scotland.&#8221; It came out at an unfortunate period, for Robertson had
+pre-occupied the field; and it was hardly to be expected, that a writer of
+inferior note would dispossess him of it. But Dr Stuart&#8217;s History, though
+too much neglected,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span> is in many essential particulars, superior to
+Robertson&#8217;s, not perhaps in so far as regards precision of style, but in
+research, accuracy, and impartiality. It would be wrong to say, that
+Stuart has committed no mistakes, but they are certainly fewer and less
+glaring than those of his predecessor.&mdash;Towards the end of the last
+century, Whittaker stood forth as a champion of the Queen of Scots, and
+threw into the literary arena four closely printed volumes. They bear the
+stamp of great industry and enthusiasm; but his materials are not well
+digested, and his violence often weakens his argument. The praise of
+ardor, but not of judgment, belongs to Whittaker; he seems to have
+forgotten, that there may be bigotry in a good as well as in a bad cause;
+in his anxiety to maintain the truth, he often plunges into error, and in
+his indignation at the virulence of others, he not unfrequently becomes
+still more virulent himself. Had he abridged his work by one-third, it
+would have gained in force what it lost in declamation, and would not have
+been less conclusive, because less confused and verbose.&mdash;Whittaker was
+followed early in the present century by Mr Malcolm Laing, who,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span> with a
+far clearer head, if not with a sounder heart, has, in his &#8220;Preliminary
+Dissertation,&#8221; to his &#8220;History of Scotland,&#8221; done much more against Mary
+than Whittaker has done for her. Calm, collected, and well-informed, he
+proceeds, as might be expected from an adept in the profession to which he
+belonged, from one step of evidence to another, linking the whole so well
+together that it is at first sight extremely difficult to discover a flaw
+in the chain. Yet flaws there are, and serious ones; indeed, Mr Laing&#8217;s
+book is altogether a piece of special pleading, not of unprejudiced
+history. His ingenuity, however, is great; and his arguments carry with
+them such an air of sincerity, that they are apt to be believed almost
+before the judgment acknowledges them to be true. It is to be feared, that
+he is powerful only to be dangerous,&mdash;that he dazzles only to
+mislead.&mdash;The author whose two large quarto, or three thick octavo
+volumes, brings up the rear of this goodly array, is Mr George Chalmers.
+There was never a more careful compiler,&mdash;a more pains-taking investigator
+of public and private records, deeds, and registers,&mdash;a more zealous
+stickler for the accuracy of dates, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span> fidelity of witnesses, and the
+authenticity of facts. His work, diffuse, tedious, and ill-arranged though
+it be, full of perpetual repetitions, and abounding in erroneous theories,
+(for it is one talent to ascertain truth, and another to draw inferences),
+is nevertheless a valuable accession to the stock of knowledge previously
+possessed on this subject. His proofs are too disjointed to be conclusive,
+and his reasonings too feeble to be convincing; but the materials are
+better than the workmanship, and might be moulded by a more skilful hand
+into a shape of much beauty and excellence.</p>
+
+<p>Such is an impartial view of the chief works extant upon Mary Queen of
+Scots; and it would appear in consequence, that something is still wanting
+to complete the catalogue. Three causes may be stated in particular, why
+so many persons of acknowledged ability should have devoted their time and
+talents to the investigation without exhausting it.</p>
+
+<p><i>First</i>, Several of the works we have named are Histories; and these,
+professing as they do, to describe the character of a nation rather than
+of an individual, cannot be supposed to descend to those minuti&aelig;, or to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span>enter into those personal details necessary for presenting the vivid
+portraits in which biography delights. History is more conversant with the
+genus or the species; and is addressed more to the judgment than to the
+feelings. There is in it a spirit of generalization, which, though it
+expands the mind, seldom touches the heart. Its views of human nature are
+on a comprehensive scale; it traces the course of empires, and marks the
+progress of nations. If, in the great flood of events, it singles out a
+few crowned and conspicuous heads, making them the beacons by which to
+guide its way, it associates itself with them only so long as they
+continue to exercise an influence over the destiny of others. It is alike
+ignorant and careless of those circumstances which make private life happy
+or miserable, and which exercise an influence over the fate of those who
+have determined that of so many others. Neither Hume, nor Robertson, nor
+Stuart, nor Keralio, therefore, have said all of Mary that they might have
+said;&mdash;they wrote history&mdash;not biography.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second</i>, Many of the productions we have named, are purely controversial,
+consisting almost entirely of arguments founded upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span> facts, not of facts
+upon which to found arguments. Among these may be particularly included,
+Tytler, Whittaker, and Laing, works which do not so much aim at
+illustrating the life and character of Mary, as of settling the abstract
+question of her guilt or innocence. They present, therefore, only such
+detached portions of her history as bear upon the question of which they
+treat. To become intimately acquainted with Mary, we must have recourse to
+other authors; to form an estimate of her moral character these might
+suffice, were it fair to be guided on that subject by the opinions of
+others.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third</i>, In most of the works, in which historical research is fully
+blended with argumentative deductions, erroneous theories have been
+broached, which, failing to make good their object, either excite
+suspicion, or lead into error. Thus, Goodall and Chalmers have laid it
+down as a principle, that in order to exculpate Mary, it was necessary to
+accuse her brother, the Earl of Murray, of all sorts of crimes. By
+representing Bothwell, as an inferior tool in his hands, they have
+involved themselves in improbabilities, and have weakened the strength of
+a good cause by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span> mistaken mode of treatment. Indeed this remark applies
+with a greater or less degree of force, to all the vindications of Queen
+Mary which have appeared. Why transfer the burden of Darnley&#8217;s murder from
+Bothwell, the actual perpetrator of the deed, to one who may have been
+accessory to it, but certainly more remotely? Why confirm the suspicion
+against her they wish to defend, by unjustly accusing another, whom they
+cannot prove to be criminal? If Goodall and Chalmers have done this, their
+learning is comparatively useless, and their labour has been nearly lost.</p>
+
+<p>If the author of the following &#8220;Life of Mary Queen of Scots,&#8221; has been
+able in any measure, to execute his own wishes, he would trust, that by a
+careful collation of all the works to which he has referred; he has
+succeeded, in separating much of the ore from the dross, and in giving a
+freshness, perhaps in one or two instances, an air of originality to his
+production. He has affected neither the insipidity of neutrality, nor the
+bigotry of party zeal. His desire was to concentrate all that could be
+known of Mary, in the hope that a light might thus be thrown on the
+obscurer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</a></span> parts of his subject, sufficient to re-animate the most
+indifferent, and satisfy the most scrupulous. He commenced his readings
+with an unbiassed mind, and was not aware at the outset, to what
+conviction they would bring him. But if a conscientious desire to
+disseminate truth be estimable, it is hoped that this desire will be found
+to characterize these Memoirs. Little more need be added. The biography of
+a Queen, who lived two hundred and fifty years ago, cannot be like the
+biography of a contemporary or immediate predecessor; but the inherent
+interest of the subject, will excuse many deficiencies. Omissions may,
+perhaps, be pardoned, if there are no misrepresentations; and the absence
+of minute cavilling and trifling distinctions, may not be complained of,
+if the narrative leads, by a lucid arrangement, to satisfactory general
+deductions. Fidelity is at all times preferable to brilliancy, and a sound
+conclusion to a plausible hypothesis.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[Pg xxv]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS OF VOL. I.</h2>
+
+<table width="65%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Scotland and its Troubles during Mary&#8217;s Infancy</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Scotland and the Scottish Reformers, under the Regency of the Queen Dowager</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary&#8217;s Birth, and subsequent residence at the French Court, with a Sketch of the State of Society and Manners in France, during the sixteenth century</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary&#8217;s Marriage, Personal Appearance, and Popularity</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary the Queen Dauphiness, the Queen, and the Queen Dowager of France</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary&#8217;s return to Scotland, and previous negociations with Elizabeth</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary&#8217;s arrival at Holyrood, with Sketches of her Principal Nobility</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[Pg xxvi]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">John Knox, the Reformers, and the turbulent Nobles</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary&#8217;s Expedition to the North</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Chatelard&#8217;s imprudent Attachment, and Knox&#8217;s persevering Hatred</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">The domestic Life of Mary, with some Anecdotes of Elizabeth</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary&#8217;s Suitors, and the Machinations of her Enemies</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary&#8217;s Marriage with Darnley</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Murray&#8217;s Rebellion</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">The Earl of Morton&#8217;s Plot</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">The Assassination of David Rizzio</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">The Birth of James VI</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="dent">Mary&#8217;s Treatment of Darnley, and alleged Love for the Earl of Bothwell</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<p>During the reigns of James IV. and James V., Scotland emerged from
+barbarism into comparative civilization. Shut out, as it had previously
+been, from almost any intercourse with the rest of Europe, both by the
+peculiarities of its situation, and its incessant wars with England, it
+had long slumbered in all the ignorance and darkness of those remote
+countries, which even Roman greatness, before its dissolution, found it
+impossible to enclose and retain within the fortunate pale of its
+conquests. The refinement, which must always more or less attend upon the
+person of a king, and shelter itself in the stronghold of his court, was
+little felt in Scotland. Though attached, from long custom, to the
+monarchical form of government, the sturdy feudal barons, each possessing
+a kind of separate principality of his own, took good care that their
+sovereign&#8217;s superior influence should be more nominal than real.
+Distracted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> too by perpetual jealousies among themselves, it was only upon
+rare occasions that the nobles would assemble peaceably together, to aid
+the king by their counsel, and strengthen his authority by their
+unanimity. Hence, there was no standard of national manners,&mdash;no means of
+fixing and consolidating the wavering and turbulent character of the
+people. Each clan attached itself to its own hereditary chieftain; and,
+whatever his prejudices or follies might be, was implicitly subservient to
+them. The feuds and personal animosities which existed among the leaders,
+were thus invariably transmitted to the very humblest of their retainers,
+and a state of society was the consequence, pregnant with civil discord
+and confusion, which, on the slightest impulse, broke out into anarchy and
+bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p>Many reasons have been assigned why the evils of the feudal system should
+have been more severely felt in Scotland than elsewhere. The leading
+causes, as given by the best historians, seem to be,&mdash;the geographical
+nature of the country, which made its baronial fastnesses almost
+impregnable;&mdash;the want of large towns, by which the vassals of different
+barons were prevented from mingling together, and rubbing off, in the
+collision, the prepossessions they mutually entertained against each
+other;&mdash;the division of the inhabitants,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> not only into the followers of
+different chiefs but into clans, which resembled so many great families,
+among all whose branches a relationship existed, and who looked with
+jealousy upon the increasing strength or wealth of any other clan;&mdash;the
+smallness of the number of Scottish nobles, a circumstance materially
+contributing to enhance the weight and dignity of each;&mdash;the frequent
+recourse which these barons had, for the purpose of overawing the crown,
+to leagues of mutual defence with their equals, or bonds of reciprocal
+protection and assistance with their inferiors;&mdash;the unceasing wars which
+raged between England and Scotland, and which were the perpetual means of
+proving to the Scottish king, that the very possession of his crown
+depended upon the fidelity and obedience of his nobles, whose good-will it
+was therefore necessary to conciliate upon all occasions, by granting them
+whatever they chose to demand; and, lastly&mdash;the long minorities to which
+the misfortunes of its kings exposed the country at an early period of its
+history, when the vigour and consistency, commonly attendant upon the acts
+of one mind, were required more than any thing else, but instead of which,
+the contradictory measures of contending nobles, or of regents hastily
+elected, and as hastily displaced, were sure to produce an unnatural
+stagnation in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> the government, from which it could be redeemed only by
+still more unnatural convulsions.</p>
+
+<p>The necessary consequences of these political grievances were, of course,
+felt in every corner of the country. It is difficult to form any accurate
+estimate, or to draw any very minute picture of the state of manners and
+nicer ramifications of society at so remote a period. But it may be stated
+generally, that the great mass of the population was involved in poverty,
+and sunk in the grossest ignorance. The Catholic system of faith and
+worship, in its very worst form, combined with the national superstitions
+so prevalent among the vulgar, not only to exclude every idea of rational
+religion, but to produce the very lowest state of mental degradation.
+Commerce was comparatively unknown,&mdash;agriculture but imperfectly
+understood. If the wants of the passing hour were supplied, however
+sparely, the enslaved vassal was contented,&mdash;almost the only happiness of
+his life consisting in that animal gratification afforded him by the
+sports of the chase, or the bloodier diversion of the field of battle.
+Education was neglected and despised even by the wealthy, few of whom were
+able to read, and almost none to write. As for the middle and lower
+orders, fragments of rude traditionary songs constituted their entire
+learning, and the savage war-dance, inspired by the barbarous music of
+their native hills, their principal amusement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> At the same time, it is
+not to be supposed that virtue and intelligence were extinct among them.
+There must be many exceptions to all general rules, and however
+unfavourable the circumstances under which they were placed for calling
+into activity the higher attributes of man&#8217;s nature, it is not to be
+denied, that their chronicles record, even in the lowest ranks, many
+bright examples of patience, perseverance, unsinking fortitude, and
+fidelity founded upon generous and exalted attachment.</p>
+
+<p>It has been said, that under the reigns of the Fourth and Fifth James, the
+moral and political aspect of the Scotch horizon began to brighten. This
+is to be attributed partly to the beneficial changes which the progress of
+time was effecting throughout Europe, and which gradually extended
+themselves to Scotland,&mdash;and partly to the personal character of these two
+monarchs. France, Germany, and England, had made considerable strides out
+of the gloom of the dark ages, even before the appearance of Francis I.,
+Charles V., and Henry VIII. James IV., naturally of a chivalric and ardent
+disposition, was extremely anxious to advance his own country in the scale
+of nations; and whilst, by the urbanity of his manners, he succeeded in
+winning the affections of his nobles, he contrived also to find a place in
+the hearts of his inferior subjects, even beside that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> allotted to their
+own hereditary chieftain,&mdash;an achievement which few of his predecessors
+had been able to accomplish. The unfortunate battle of Flodden, is a
+melancholy record both of the vigour of James&#8217;s reign, and of the national
+advantages which his romantic spirit induced him to risk in pursuit of the
+worthless phantom of military renown.</p>
+
+<p>James V. had much of the ardour of his father, combined with a somewhat
+greater share of prudence. He it was who first made any successful inroads
+upon the exorbitant powers of his nobility; and though, upon more
+occasions than one, he was made to pay dearly for his determination to
+vindicate the regal authority, he was, nevertheless, true to his purpose
+to the very last. There seem to be three features in the reign of this
+prince which particularly deserve attention. The first is, the more
+extensive intercourse than had hitherto subsisted, which he established
+between Scotland and foreign nations,&mdash;particularly with France. The
+inexhaustible ambition of Charles V., which aimed at universal empire, and
+which probably would have accomplished its design had he not met with a
+rival so formidable as Francis I., was the means of convincing the other
+states of Europe, that the only security for their separate independence
+was the preservation of a balance of power. Italy was thus roused into
+activity, and England,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> under Henry VIII., took an active share in the
+important events of the age. To the continental powers, against whom that
+monarch&#8217;s strength was directed, it became a matter of no small moment to
+secure the assistance of Scotland. Both Francis and Charles, therefore,
+paid their court to James, who, finding it necessary to become the ally of
+one or other, prudently rejected the empty honours offered him by the
+Emperor, and continued faithful to France. He went himself to Paris in
+1536, where he married Magdalene, daughter of Francis. She died however
+soon after his return home; but determined not to lose the advantages
+resulting from a French alliance, he again married, in the following year,
+Mary of Lorraine, daughter to the Duke of Guise, and the young widow of
+the Duke of Longueville. Following the example of their king, most of the
+Scotch nobility visited France, and as many as could afford it, sent their
+sons thither to be educated; whilst on the other hand, numerous French
+adventurers landed in Scotland, bringing along with them some of the
+French arts and luxuries. Thus the manners of the Scotch, gradually began
+to lose a little of that unbending severity, which had hitherto rendered
+them so repulsive.</p>
+
+<p>The second peculiarity in the reign of James V., is the countenance and
+support he bestowed upon the clergy. This he did, not from any <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>motives of
+bigotry, but solely as a matter of sound policy. He saw that he could not
+stand alone against his nobles, and he was therefore anxious to raise into
+an engine of power, a body of men whose interests he thus identified with
+his own. It is remarkable, that even in the most flourishing days of
+Catholicism, when the Pope&#8217;s ecclesiastical authority extended itself
+everywhere, Scotland alone was overlooked. The king was there always the
+head of the church, in so far as regarded all ecclesiastical appointments,
+and the patronage of his bishoprics and abbeys was no slight privilege to
+the Scottish monarch, denied as it was to other kings of more extensive
+temporal jurisdiction. James converted into benefices, several of the
+forfeited estates of his rebellious nobles, and raised the clergy to a
+pitch of authority they had never before possessed in Scotland. He acted
+upon principle, and perhaps judiciously; but he was not aware, that by
+thus surrounding his priests with wealth and luxury, he was paving the way
+for their utter destruction, and a new and better order of things.</p>
+
+<p>It will be useful to observe, as the third characteristic of this reign,
+the encouragement James gave to the arts and sciences. For the first time,
+education began to take some form and system. He gave stability to the
+universities, and was careful to select for them the best teachers. He was
+fond of drawing to his court men of learning and genius.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> He was himself a
+poet of considerable ability. He had likewise devoted much of his
+attention to architecture&mdash;his fondness for which elegant study was
+testified, by his anxiety to repair, or rebuild, most of the royal
+palaces. He established also on a permanent footing, the Court of Session,
+or College of Justice; and though his reign, as a whole, was not a happy
+one, it probably redounded more to the advantage of his country than that
+of any of his predecessors.</p>
+
+<p>At his death, which took place in 1542, at the early age of 30,
+accelerated by the distress of mind occasioned by the voluntary defeats
+which his refractory nobles allowed themselves to sustain, both at Falla
+and Solway Moss, Scotland speedily fell into a state of confusion and
+civil war. The events which followed are indissolubly connected with the
+subject of these Memoirs, and are related at length in the succeeding
+pages.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="giant">LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">SCOTLAND AND ITS TROUBLES DURING MARY&#8217;S INFANCY.</span></p>
+
+<p>James V. left, as an inheritance to his kingdom, an expensive and
+destructive war with England. He likewise left what, under such
+circumstances, was a very questionable advantage, a treasury well stored
+with gold, and a coinage in good condition, produced from the mines which
+he had worked in Scotland. The foreign relations of the country demanded
+the utmost attention; but the long minority necessarily ensuing, as Mary,
+his only surviving lawful child, was but a few days old when James died,
+awakened hopes and wishes in the ambitious which superseded all other
+considerations. For a time England was forgotten; and the prize of the
+Regency became a bone of civil contention and discord.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>There were three persons who aspired to that office, and the pretensions
+of each had their supporters, as interest or reason might dictate. The
+first was the Queen-Dowager, a lady who inherited many of the peculiar
+virtues, as well as some of the failings, of the illustrious house of
+Guise, to which she belonged. She possessed a bold and masculine
+understanding, a perseverance to overcome difficulties, and a fortitude to
+bear up against misfortunes, not often met with among her sex. She was
+indeed superior to most of the weaknesses of the female character; and
+having, from her earliest years, deeply studied the science of government,
+she felt herself, so far as mere political tactics and diplomatic
+acquirements were concerned, able to cope with the craftiest of the Scotch
+nobility. Besides, her intimate connexion with the French court, coupled
+with the interest she might naturally be supposed to take in the affairs
+of a country over which her husband had reigned, and which was her
+daughter&#8217;s inheritance, seemed to give her a claim of the strongest kind.</p>
+
+<p>The second aspirant was Cardinal David Beaton, at that time the undoubted
+head of the Catholic party in Scotland. He was a man whose abilities all
+allowed, and who, had he been less tinctured with severity, and less
+addicted to the exclusive principles of the Church of Rome, might probably
+have filled with <i>&eacute;clat</i> the very highest rank in the State. He
+endeavoured to strengthen his title to the Regency, by producing the will
+of James V. in his favour. But as this will was dated only a short while
+before the King&#8217;s death, it was suspected that the Prelate had himself
+written it, and obtained the King&#8217;s signature, at a time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> when his bodily
+weakness had impaired his mental faculties. Beaton was, moreover, from his
+violence and rigour, particularly obnoxious to all those who favoured the
+Reformation.</p>
+
+<p>James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and next heir to the throne, was the third
+candidate, and the person upon whom the choice of the people ultimately
+fell. In more settled times, this choice might possibly have been
+judicious; but Arran was of far too weak and irresolute a character to be
+able to regulate the government with that decision and firmness which the
+existing emergency required. He had few opinions of his own, and was
+continually driven hither and thither by the contradictory counsels of
+those who surrounded him. He had joined, however, the reformed religion;
+and this, together with the inoffensive softness of his disposition, made
+him, in the eyes of many, only the more fit to govern.</p>
+
+<p>The annexation of Scotland to the crown of England, either by conquest or
+the more amicable means of marriage, had for many years been the object
+nearest the heart of Henry VIII. and several of his predecessors. That his
+father, in particular, Henry VII., had given some thought to this subject,
+is evident from the answer he made to such of his Privy Council as were
+unwilling that he should give his daughter Margaret in marriage to James
+IV., on the ground that the English Crown might, through that marriage,
+devolve to a King of Scotland. &#8220;Whereunto the King made answer, and said,
+&#8216;What then? for if any such thing should happen (which God forbid), yet I
+see our kingdom should take no harm thereby, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>because England should not
+be added unto Scotland, but Scotland unto England, as to the far most
+noble head of the whole island; for so much as it is always so, that the
+lesser is wont, for honour&#8217;s sake, to be adjoined to that which is far the
+greater.&#8217;&#8221;<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a> How correct Henry VII. was in his opinion, the accession of
+James VI. sufficiently proved.</p>
+
+<p>Henry VIII., though aiming at the same object as his father, thought it
+more natural that Scotland should accept of an English, than England of a
+Scottish King. Immediately, therefore, after the birth of Mary, he
+determined upon straining every nerve to secure her for his son Edward.
+For this purpose, he concluded a temporary peace with the Regent Arran,
+and sent back into Scotland the numerous prisoners who had surrendered
+themselves at Solway Moss, upon an understanding that they should do all
+they could to second his views with their countrymen. His first proposals,
+however, were so extravagant, that the Scottish Parliament would not
+listen to them for a moment. He demanded not only that the young Queen
+should be sent into England, to be educated under his own superintendance,
+but that he himself, as her future father-in-law, should be allowed an
+active share in the government of Scotland. Having subsequently consented
+to depart considerably from the haughty tone in which these terms were
+dictated, a treaty of marriage was agreed upon at the instigation of
+Arran, whom Henry had won to his interests, in which it was promised, that
+Mary should be sent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> into England at the age of ten, and that six persons
+of rank should, in the mean time, be delivered as hostages for the
+fulfilment of this promise.</p>
+
+<p>It may easily be conceived, that whatever the Regent, together with some
+of the reformed nobility and their partisans, might think of this treaty,
+the Queen Mother and Cardinal Beaton, who had for the present formed a
+coalition, could not be very well satisfied with it. Henry, with all the
+hasty violence of his nature, had, in a fit of spleen, espoused the
+reformed opinions; and if Mary became the wife of his son, it was evident
+that all the interests both of the House of Guise and of the Catholic
+religion in Scotland, would suffer a fatal blow. By their forcible
+representations of the inevitable ruin which they alleged this alliance
+would bring upon Scotland, converting it into a mere province of their
+ancient and inveterate enemies, and obliging it to renounce forever the
+friendship of their constant allies the French, they succeeded in
+effecting a change in public opinion; and the result was, that Arran found
+himself at length obliged to yield to their superior influence, to deliver
+up to the Cardinal and Mary of Lorraine the young Queen, and refuse to
+ratify the engagements he had entered into with Henry. The Cardinal now
+carried every thing before him, having converted or intimidated almost all
+his enemies. The Earl of Lennox alone, a nobleman whose pretensions were
+greater than his power, could not forgive Beaton for having used him
+merely as a cat&#8217;s paw in his intrigues to gain the ascendency over Arran.
+Lennox had himself aspired at the Regency, alleging that his title, as
+presumptive heir to the Crown, was a more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>legitimate one than that of the
+House of Hamilton, to which Arran belonged. But the still more ambitious
+Cardinal flattered only to deceive him; and when Lennox considered his
+success certain, he found himself farther from the object of his wishes
+than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing every other hope vain, Lennox set on foot a secret correspondence
+with Henry, promising that monarch his best support, should he determine
+upon avenging the insult he had sustained, through the vacillating conduct
+of the Scotch. Henry gladly availed himself of the offer, and sent a
+considerable force under the Earl of Hartford to the North, by sea, which,
+having landed at Leith, and plundered that place, as well as the
+neighbouring city of Edinburgh, again took its departure for England,
+without attempting to penetrate further into the country. This was an
+unprofitable and ill-advised expedition, for it only tended to exasperate
+the minds of the Scotch, without being of any service to Henry. The Earl
+of Huntly well remarked concerning it, that even although he might have
+had no objections to the proposed match, he had a most especial dislike to
+the manner of wooing.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Lennox now found himself deserted in the midst of his former
+friends, and went prudently into voluntary exile, by retiring into
+England. Here Henry, in reward of his former services, gave him his niece,
+the Lady Margaret Douglas, in marriage. She was the daughter, by the
+second marriage, of Henry&#8217;s sister, the Lady Margaret, wife of James IV.,
+who, after the King&#8217;s death, espoused Archibald Earl of Angus. By this
+alliance, Lennox, though it was impossible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> for him to foresee such a
+result, became the father of Henry Darnley, and a long line of Kings.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards, an event well known in Scottish history, and which was
+accomplished by means only too frequently resorted to in those unsettled
+times, facilitated the conclusion of a short peace with England. Cardinal
+Beaton, elevated by his success, and anxious, now that all more immediate
+danger was removed, to re-establish on a firmer basis the tottering
+authority of the Romish Church, determined upon striking awe into the
+people, by some memorable examples of severity towards heretics. About the
+end of the year 1545, he made a progress through several parts of his
+diocess, accompanied by the Earl of Argyle, who was then Lord Justice
+General, and other official persons, for the purpose of trying and
+punishing offenders against the laws of the Church. At Perth, several of
+the lieges were found guilty of arguing or disputing concerning the sense
+of the Holy Scriptures, in opposition to an Act of Parliament, which
+forbade any such freedom of speech, and five men and one woman were
+condemned to die. Great intercession was made for them, but in vain; the
+men were hanged, and the woman was drowned. Still farther to intimidate
+the Reformers, a yet more memorable instance of religious persecution and
+cruelty was presented to them a few months afterwards. George Wishart was
+at this time one of the most learned and zealous of all the supporters of
+the new doctrines in Scotland. He had been educated at the University of
+Cambridge, and had, in his youth, officiated as one of the masters of the
+grammar school at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> Montrose. His talents and perseverance rendered him
+particularly obnoxious to the Cardinal, who, having contrived to make him
+his prisoner, carried him to his castle at St Andrews. An Ecclesiastical
+Court was there assembled, at which Wishart was sentenced to be burnt. It
+may give us a clearer idea of the spirit of the times, to know, that on
+the day on which this sentence was to be put in execution, Beaton issued a
+proclamation, forbidding any one, under pain of church censure, to offer
+up prayers for so notorious a heretic. When Wishart was brought to the
+stake, and after the fire had been kindled, and was already beginning to
+take effect, it is said that he turned his eyes towards a window in the
+castle overlaid with tapestry, at which the Cardinal was sitting, viewing
+with complacency the unfortunate man&#8217;s suffering, and exclaimed,&mdash;&#8220;He who,
+from yonder high place, beholdeth me with such pride, shall, within few
+days, be in as much shame as now he is seen proudly to rest himself.&#8221;
+These words, though they met with little attention at the time, were
+spoken of afterwards as an evident and most remarkable prophecy.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long after this martyrdom, that Cardinal Beaton was present at
+the marriage of one of his own illegitimate daughters, to whom he gave a
+dowry of 4000 merks, and whose nuptials were solemnized with great
+magnificence. Probably he conceived, that the more heretics he burned, the
+more unblushingly he might confess his own sins against both religion and
+common morality.</p>
+
+<p>On the prelate&#8217;s return to St Andrew&#8217;s, Norman Lesly, a young man of
+strong passions, and eldest Son to the Earl of Rothes, came to him to
+demand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> some favour, which the Cardinal thought proper to refuse. The
+particulars of the quarrel are not precisely known, but it must have been
+of a serious kind; for Lesly, taking advantage of the popular feeling
+which then existed against the Cardinal, determined upon seeking his own
+revenge by the assassination of Beaton. He associated with himself several
+accomplices, who undertook to second him in this design. Early on the
+morning of the 29th of May 1546, having entered the castle by the gate,
+which was open to admit some workmen who were repairing the
+fortifications, he and his assistants proceeded to the door of the
+Cardinal&#8217;s chamber, at which they knocked. Beaton asked,&mdash;&#8220;Who is
+there?&#8221;&mdash;Norman answered,&mdash;&#8220;My name is Lesly,&#8221;&mdash;adding, that the door must
+be opened to him, and those that were with him. Beaton now began to fear
+the worst, and attempted to secure the door. But Lesly called for fire to
+burn it, upon which the Cardinal, seeing all resistance useless, permitted
+them to enter. They found him sitting on a chair, pale and agitated; and
+as they approached him he exclaimed,&mdash;&#8220;I am a Priest&mdash;ye will not slay
+me!&#8221; Lesly, however, losing all command of his temper, struck him more
+than once, and would have proceeded to further indignities, had not James
+Melville, one of the assassins, &#8220;a man,&#8221; says Knox, &#8220;of nature most gentle
+and most modest,&#8221; drawn his sword, and presenting the point to the
+Cardinal, advised him to repent of his sins, informing him, at the same
+time, that no hatred he bore his person, but simply his love of true
+religion induced him to take part against one whom he looked upon as an
+enemy to the gospel. So<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> saying, and without waiting for an answer, he
+stabbed him twice or thrice through the body. When his friends and
+servants collected without, the conspirators lifted up the deceased
+Prelate, and showed him to them from the very window at which he had sat
+at the day of Wishart&#8217;s execution. Beaton, at the time of his death, was
+fifty-two. He had long been one of the leading men in Scotland, and had
+enjoyed the favour of the French King, as well as that of his own
+sovereign James V. Some attempt was made by the Regent to punish his
+murderers, but they finally escaped into France.<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>There is good reason to believe that Henry VIII. secretly encouraged Lesly
+and his associates in this dishonest enterprise. But, if such be the case,
+that monarch did not live long enough to reap the fruits of its success.
+He died only a few months later than the Cardinal; and, about the same
+time, his cotemporary, Francis I., was succeeded on his throne by his son
+Henry II. These changes did not materially affect the relative situation
+of Scotland. They may, perhaps, have opened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> up still higher hopes to the
+Queen Dowager, and the French party; but, in England, the Duke of
+Somerset, who had been appointed Lord Protector during the minority of
+Edward VI., was determined upon following out the plans of the late
+monarch, and compelling the Scotch to agree to the alliance which he had
+proposed.</p>
+
+<p>In prosecution of his designs, he marched a powerful army into Scotland,
+and the result was the unfortunate battle of Pinkie. The Earl of Arran,
+whose exertions to rescue the country from this new aggression, were
+warmly seconded by the people, collected a force sufficiently numerous to
+enable him to meet and offer battle to Somerset. The English camp was in
+the neighbourhood of Prestonpans, and the Scotch took up very advantageous
+ground about Musselburgh and Inveresk. Military discipline was at that
+time but little understood in this country; and the reckless impetuosity
+of the Scotch infantry was usually attended either with immediate success,
+or, by throwing the whole battle into confusion, with irretrievable and
+signal defeat. The weapons to which they principally trusted, were, in the
+first place, the pike, with which, upon joining with the enemy, all the
+fore-rank, standing shoulder to shoulder together, thrust straight
+forwards, those who stood in the second rank putting their pikes over the
+shoulders of their comrades before them. The length of these pikes or
+spears was eighteen feet six inches. They seem to have been used
+principally on the first onset, and were probably speedily relinquished
+for the more efficient exercise of the sword, which was broad and thin,
+and of excellent temper. It was employed to cut or slice with, not to
+thrust;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> and, in defence against any similar weapon of the enemy, a large
+handkerchief was wrapt twice or thrice about the neck, and a buckler
+invariably carried on the left arm.<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>For some days the two armies continued in sight of each other, without
+coming to any general engagement. The hourly anxiety which prevailed at
+Edinburgh regarding the result, may be easily imagined. To inspire the
+soldiers with the greater courage, it was enacted by Government, that the
+heirs of those who fell upon this occasion in defence of their country,
+should for five years be free from Government taxes, and the usual
+assessments levied by landlords. At length, on Saturday the 10th of
+September 1547, the Scotch, misled by a motion in the English army, which
+they conceived indicated a design to retreat, rashly left their superior
+situation, and crossing the mouth of the Esk at Musselburgh, gave the
+Protector battle in the fields of Pinkie, an adjoining country seat. They
+were thus so exposed, that the English fleet, which lay in the bay, was
+enabled, by firing upon their flank to do them much mischief. The Earl of
+Angus, who was leading the van-guard, found himself suddenly assailed by a
+flight of arrows, a raking fire from a regiment or two of foreign
+fusileers, and a discharge of cannon which unexpectedly opened upon him.
+Unable to advance, he attempted to change his position for a more
+advantageous one. The main body imagined he was falling back upon them in
+confusion; and to heighten their panic, a vigorous charge, which was at
+this moment made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> by the English cavalry, decided the fortune of the day.
+After a feeble resistance the Scotch fled towards Dalkeith, Edinburgh, and
+Leith, and being hotly pursued by their enemies, all the three roads were
+strewed with the dead and dying. In this battle the Earl of Arran lost
+upwards of 8000 men; among whom were Lord Fleming, together with many
+other Scotch noblemen and gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>The English army advanced immediately upon Leith, which they took and
+pillaged; and would have entered Edinburgh, had they not found it
+impossible to make themselves masters of the Castle. The fleet ravaged the
+towns and villages on the coasts of the Forth, and proceeded as far north
+as the River Tay, seizing on whatever shipping they could meet with in the
+harbours by which they passed.</p>
+
+<p>Far, however, from obtaining by these violent measures, the ultimate
+object of his desires, Somerset found himself farther from his point than
+ever. The Scotch, enraged against England, threw themselves into the arms
+of France; and the Protector, understanding that affairs in the south had
+fallen into confusion, in his absence, was obliged to return home, leaving
+strong garrisons in Haddington, and one or two other places, which he had
+captured. The Earl of Arran, and Mary of Guise, sent immediate
+intelligence to Henry II., of all that had taken place; and, sanctioned by
+the Scottish Parliament, offered to conclude a treaty of marriage between
+his infant son, the Dauphin Francis, and the young Scottish Queen. They,
+moreover, agreed to send Mary into France, to be educated at the French
+Court, until such time as the nuptials could be solemnized.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> This proposal
+was every way acceptable to Henry, who, like his father Francis, perfectly
+understood the importance of a close alliance with Scotland, as the most
+efficient means for preventing the English from invading his own
+dominions. He sent over an army of 6000 men, to the aid of the Regent; and
+in the same vessels, which brought these troops, Mary was conveyed from
+Dumbarton into France. Henry also, with much sound policy, in order to
+strengthen his interests in Scotland, bestowed, about this time, upon the
+Earl of Arran, the title of the Duke of Chatelherault, together with a
+pension of some value. During a period of two years, a continual series of
+skirmishings were carried on between the Scotch, supported by their French
+allies, and the English; but without any results of much consequence on
+either side. In 1550, a general peace was concluded; and the marriage of
+the Scottish Queen was never afterwards made the ground of war between the
+two countries.</p>
+
+<p>From this period, till Mary&#8217;s return to her own country, the attention of
+Scotland was entirely engrossed with its own affairs, and the various
+important events connected with the rise, progress, and establishment of
+the Reformation. As these effected no slight change in the political
+aspect of the country, and exercised a material influence over Mary&#8217;s
+future destiny, it will be proper to give some account of them in this
+place; and these details being previously gone through, the narrative, in
+so far as regards Queen Mary, will thus be preserved unbroken.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">SCOTLAND AND THE SCOTTISH REFORMERS, UNDER THE REGENCY OF THE QUEEN-DOWAGER.</span></p>
+
+<p>It was in the year 1517, that Luther first stated his objections to the
+validity of the indulgences granted so liberally by Pope Leo X. From this
+year, those who love to trace causes to their origin, date the epoch of
+the Reformation. It was not, however, till a considerably later period,
+that the new doctrines took any deep root in Scotland. In 1552, the Duke
+of Chatelherault, wearied with the fatigues of Government, and provoked at
+the opposition he was continually meeting with, resigned the regency in
+favour of the Queen-mother. Mary of Guise, by a visit she had shortly
+before paid to the French Court, had paved the way for this accession of
+power. Her brothers, the Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorraine, were far
+from being satisfied with the state of parties in Scotland. Chatelherault,
+they knew to be of a weak and fluctuating disposition; and it seemed to
+them necessary, both for the preservation of the ancient religion, and to
+secure the allegiance of the country to their niece, the young Queen, that
+a stronger hand, guided by a sounder head, should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> hold the reigns of the
+State. Upon their sister&#8217;s fidelity they knew they could depend; and it
+was principally through the influence of French gold and French intrigue,
+that she was placed in the regency.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of Scotland were at this time divided into two great
+classes,&mdash;those who were still staunch to the Church of Rome, and those
+who were determined on effecting a reformation. At the head of the former
+was John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, who, upon the murder of
+Cardinal Beaton, had obtained that appointment through the Duke of
+Chatelherault, whose natural brother he was. He was greatly the Duke&#8217;s
+superior in courage and sagacity, and was deeply imbued with the
+prelatical spirit of ambition then so prevalent. The resignation of the
+regency provoked him exceedingly, the more especially as Mary, to
+strengthen her own authority, found it necessary at first to treat the
+Reformers mildly. He was consoled, however, by the death of Edward VI. in
+1553, and the accession of the young King&#8217;s eldest sister Mary to the
+English throne,&mdash;as bigoted and determined a Catholic as ever lived.</p>
+
+<p>The man who had placed himself at the head of the Reformers, and who,
+although young, had already given Hamilton and his party good cause to
+tremble at his increasing authority, was James Stuart, the eldest of
+Mary&#8217;s three illegitimate brothers,&mdash;and one who occupies a most important
+station in the history of his country. His father made him, when only
+seven years old, Prior or Commendator of St Andrews, an office which
+entitled him, though a layman, to the full income<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> arising from that rich
+benefice. It was soon discovered, however, that he had views far beyond so
+comparatively humble a rank. Even when a boy, it was his ambition to
+collect around him associates who were devoted to his service and desires.
+He went over with Mary to France in 1548, but remained there only a very
+short time; and, at the age of twenty-one, he was already looked up to by
+the Scottish Reformers as their chief. His knowledge was extensive, and
+considerably in advance of the times in which he lived. His personal
+bravery was undoubted, and his skill in arms so great, that few of his
+military enterprises were unsuccessful. His passions, if they were strong,
+seem also to have been deep, and entirely under his own command. Whatever
+may be thought of the secret motives which actuated him, he was seldom
+betrayed into any symptoms of apparent violence. He thus contrived to hold
+a steady course, amidst all the turbulence and convulsions of the age in
+which he lived; whilst the external decorum and propriety of his manners,
+so different from the ill-concealed dissoluteness of many of his
+cotemporaries, endeared him the more to the stern followers of Luther. It
+is curious to observe the very opposite views which different historians
+have taken of his character, more especially when they come to speak of
+him as the Earl of Murray and the Regent of Scotland. It would be improper
+and unnecessary to anticipate these discussions at present, since it is
+hoped the reader will be able to form his own estimate upon this subject,
+from the facts he will find recorded in these Memoirs.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that with two such men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> each at the head of his own
+party, the country was not likely to continue long in a state of
+quietness. The Queen Regent soon found it necessary, at the instigation of
+the French Court, to associate herself with the Archbishop of St
+Andrews,&mdash;in opposition to which coalition, a bond was drawn up in 1557,
+by some of the principal Reformers, in which they announced their
+resolution to form an independent congregation of their own, and to
+separate themselves entirely from the &#8220;congregation of Satan, with all the
+superstitious abomination and idolatry thereof.&#8221; Articles, or Heads of a
+Reformation, were soon afterwards published, in which it was principally
+insisted, that on Sunday and other festival days, the Common-Prayer should
+be read openly in the parish churches, along with the lessons of the Old
+and New Testaments; and that preaching and interpretation of the
+Scriptures in private houses should be allowed.</p>
+
+<p>In the following year, one of the first outrages which the Reformers
+committed in Scotland, took place in Edinburgh. On occasion of the annual
+procession through the city, in honour of the tutelar Saint&mdash;St Giles, the
+image of that illustrious personage, which ought to have been carried by
+some of the priests, was amissing,&mdash;the godly having, beforehand,
+according to John Knox, first drowned the idol in the North Loch, and then
+burned it. It was therefore necessary to borrow a smaller saint from the
+Gray-Friars, in order that this &#8220;great solemnity and manifest abomination&#8221;
+might proceed. Upon the day appointed, priests, friars, canons, and
+&#8220;rotten Papists,&#8221; assembled, with tabors, trumpets, banners, and bagpipes.
+At this sight,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> the hearts of the brethren were wondrously inflamed; and
+they resolved, that this second dragon should suffer the fate of the
+first. They broke in upon the procession; and though the Catholics made
+some slight resistance at first, they were soon obliged to surrender the
+image into the hands of the Philistines, who, taking it by the heels, and
+knocking, or, as the reformed historian says, <i>dadding</i> its head upon the
+pavement, soon reduced it to fragments, only regretting, that &#8220;the young
+St Giles&#8221; had not been so difficult to kill as his father. The priests,
+alarmed for their personal safety, sought shelter as quickly as possible,
+and gave Knox an opportunity of indulging in some of that austere mirth
+which is peculiarly remarkable, because so foreign to his general style.
+&#8220;Then might have been seen,&#8221; says he, &#8220;so sudden a fray as seldom has been
+seen among that sort of men within this realm; for down goes the cross,
+off go the surplices, round caps, and cornets with the crowns. The
+Gray-Friars gaped, the Black-Friars blew, and the priests panted and fled,
+and happy was he that first got the house; for such a sudden fray came
+never among the generation of Antichrist within this realm before.&#8221; The
+magistrates had some difficulty in prevailing upon the mob to disperse,
+after they had kept possession of the streets for several hours; and the
+rioters escaped without punishment; for &#8220;the brethren assembled themselves
+in such sort in companies, singing psalms, and praising God, that the
+proudest of the enemies were astounded.&#8221;<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>The Commissioners who, about this time, were sent into France, and the
+motives of their embassy, will be spoken of afterwards. But the remarkable
+circumstance, that four of them died when about to return home,&mdash;one at
+Paris, and three at Dieppe,&mdash;had a considerable influence in exciting the
+populace to still greater hatred against the French party,&mdash;it being
+commonly suspected that they had come by their death unfairly. The
+Congregation now rose in their demands; and among other things, insisted
+that &#8220;the wicked and scandalous lives&#8221; of churchmen should be reformed,
+according to the rules contained in the New Testament, the writings of the
+ancient fathers, and the laws of Justinian the Emperor. For a while, the
+Queen Regent temporized; but finding it impossible to preserve the favour
+of both parties, she yielded at length to the solicitations of the
+Archbishop of St Andrews, and determined to resist the Reformers
+vigorously. In 1559, she summoned all the ministers of the Congregation,
+to appear before her at Stirling. This citation was complied with, but not
+exactly in the manner that the Queen wished; for the ministers came not as
+culprits, but as men proud of their principles, and accompanied by a vast
+multitude of those who were of the same mode of thinking. The Queen, who
+was at Stirling, did not venture to proceed to Perth; and the request she
+made, that the numbers there assembled should depart, leaving their
+ministers to be examined by the Government, having been refused, she
+proceeded to the harsh and decisive measure of declaring them all rebels.</p>
+
+<p>The consternation which this direct announcement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> of hostilities
+occasioned among them, was still at its height, when the great champion of
+the Scottish Reformation, John Knox, arrived at Perth. This celebrated
+divine had already suffered much for &#8220;the good cause;&#8221; and though his zeal
+and devotion to it were well known, it was not till latterly that he had
+entertained much hope of its final triumph in his native country. He had
+spent the greater part of his life in imprisonment or exile; he had
+undergone many privations, and submitted to many trials. But these were
+the daily food of the Reformers; and, whilst they only served to
+strengthen them in the obduracy of their belief, they had the additional
+effect of infusing a morose acerbity into dispositions not naturally of
+the softest kind. Knox had returned only a few days before from Geneva,
+where he had been solacing his solitude by writing and publishing that
+celebrated work, which he was pleased to entitle, &#8220;The first blast of the
+trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women.&#8221; This treatise, directed
+principally against Mary of England, not forgetting Mary Queen of Scots
+and her mother of Guise, rather overshot its own purpose, by bringing the
+Reformer into disrepute with Elizabeth, who came to the crown soon after
+its appearance. To pacify that Queen, for it appears even Knox could
+temporize occasionally, he gave up his original intention of blowing his
+trumpet thrice, and his first blast was his last.<a name='fna_5' id='fna_5' href='#f_5'><small>[5]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The day after the ministers and their friends, had been declared rebels,
+Knox delivered at Perth what Keith terms &#8220;that thundering Sermon <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>against
+Idolatry.&#8221; The tumult which ensued at the conclusion of this discourse,
+has been attributed by some historians to accident; but Keith&#8217;s suspicion,
+that Knox had a direct intention to excite it, seems well founded, when we
+consider the ferment in which the minds of his audience were at the time,
+and the peculiar style in which he addressed them. Buchanan is of the same
+opinion, though he would naturally have leant to the other conclusion. He
+says that Knox, &#8220;in that ticklish posture of affairs, made such a pathetic
+sermon to the multitude who were gathered together, that he set their
+minds, which were already fired, all in a flame.&#8221; If, in addition to this,
+the usual manner of Knox&#8217;s eloquence be considered, it will hardly be
+questioned but that the outrage of that day was of his doing. His
+vehemence in the pulpit was at all times tremendous; indeed, in so far as
+the effect he produced upon his hearers was concerned, he seems to have
+trusted almost as much to the display of his physical as of his mental
+energies. Many years after the period now alluded to, when he was in his
+old age, and very weak, Melville tells us, that he saw him every Sunday go
+slowly and feebly, with fur about his neck, a staff in his hand, and a
+servant supporting him, from his own house, to the parish church in St
+Andrews. There, after being lifted into the pulpit, his limbs for some
+time were so feeble, that they could hardly support him; but ere he had
+done with his sermon, he became so active and vigorous, that he was like
+&#8220;to ding the pulpit in blads, and flie out of it.&#8221;<a name='fna_6' id='fna_6' href='#f_6'><small>[6]</small></a> What he must have
+been, therefore, in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> best days, may be more easily imagined than
+described.</p>
+
+<p>On the present occasion, after Knox had preached, and some of the
+congregation had retired, it appears that some &#8220;godly men&#8221; remained in the
+church. A priest had the imprudence to venture in among them, and to
+commence saying mass. A young man called out that such idolatry was
+intolerable, upon which it is said that the priest struck him. The young
+man retorted, by throwing a stone, which injured one of the pictures. The
+affair soon became general. The enraged people fell upon the altars and
+images, and in a short time nothing was left undemolished but the bare
+walls of the church. The Reformers throughout the city, hearing of these
+proceedings, speedily collected, and attacking the monasteries of the Gray
+and Black Friars, along with the costly edifice of the Carthusian Monks,
+left not a vestige of what they considered idolatrous and profane worship
+in any of them. The example thus set at Perth was speedily followed almost
+everywhere throughout the country.</p>
+
+<p>These outrages greatly incensed the Queen Regent, and were looked upon
+with horror by the Catholics in general. To this day, the loss of many a
+fine building, through the zeal of the early Reformers, is a common
+subject of regret and complaint. It is to be remembered, however, that no
+revolution can be effected without paying a price for it. If the
+Reformation was a benefit, how could the Catholic superstition be more
+successfully attacked, than by knocking down those gorgeous temples, which
+were of themselves sufficient to render invincible the pride and
+inveterate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> bigotry of its votaries? The saying of John Knox, though a
+homely, was a true one,&mdash;&#8220;Pull down their nests, and the rooks will fly
+away.&#8221; It is not improbable, as M&#8217;Crie conjectures, that had these
+buildings been allowed to remain in their former splendour, the Popish
+clergy might have long continued to indulge hopes, and to make efforts, to
+be restored to them. Victories over an enemy are celebrated with public
+rejoicings, notwithstanding the thousands of our fellow-countrymen who may
+have fallen in the contest. Why should the far more important victory,
+over those who had so long held in thraldom the human mind, be robbed of
+its due praise, because some statues were mangled, some pictures torn, and
+some venerable towers overthrown?<a name='fna_7' id='fna_7' href='#f_7'><small>[7]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>With as little delay as possible, the Queen Regent appeared with an army
+before Perth, and made herself mistress of the town. The Reformers,
+however, were not to be intimidated; and their strength having, by this
+time, much increased, it was deemed prudent by the Regent not to push
+matters to an extremity. Both parties agreed to disband their forces, and
+to refer the controversy to the next Parliament. As was to be expected,
+this temporary truce was not of long duration. Incessant mutual
+recrimination<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> and aggression, soon induced both sides to concentrate
+their forces once more. Perth was re-taken by the Reformers, who shortly
+afterwards marched into Edinburgh. After remaining there for some time,
+they were surprised by a sudden march which the Queen made upon them from
+Dunbar, and were compelled to fall back upon Stirling.</p>
+
+<p>A belief was at this time prevalent at the court of France, that the Prior
+of St Andrews, who was the principal military leader of the Congregation,
+had views of a treasonable nature even upon the crown itself, and that he
+hoped the flaw in his legitimacy might be forgotten, in consideration of
+his godly exertions in support of the true faith. A new reinforcement of
+French soldiers arrived at Leith, which they fortified; and the French
+ambassador was commanded to inform the Prior, that the King, his master,
+would rather spend the crown of France, than not be revenged of the
+seditious persons in Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>The civil war now raged with increased bitterness, and with various
+success, but without any decisive advantage on either side for some time.
+The Reformers applied for assistance to Queen Elizabeth, who favoured
+their cause for various reasons, and would, no doubt, much rather have
+seen Murray in possession of the Scottish crown, than her own personal
+rival, Mary. The Congregation having found it impossible, by their own
+efforts, to drive the French out of Leith, Elizabeth, in the beginning of
+the year 1560, fitted out a powerful fleet, which, to the astonishment of
+the Queen Regent and her French allies, sailed up the Firth of Forth, and
+anchored in the Roads, before even the purpose for which it had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> come was
+known. A treaty was soon afterwards concluded at Berwick between the Lords
+of the Congregation and Elizabeth&#8217;s Commissioner, the Duke of Norfolk, by
+which it was agreed, on the part of the former, that no alliance should
+ever be entered into by them with France; and on that of the latter, that
+an English army should march into Scotland early in spring, for the
+purpose of aiding in the expulsion of the French troops.</p>
+
+<p>This army came at the time appointed, and was soon joined by the forces of
+the Reformers. The allies marched directly for Leith, which they invested
+without loss of time. The siege was conducted with great spirit, but the
+town was very resolutely defended by the French. So much determination was
+displayed upon both sides, that it is difficult to say how the matter
+might have ended, had not the death of the Queen Regent, which took place
+at this juncture, changed materially the whole aspect of affairs. She had
+been ill for some time, and during her sickness resided in the Castle of
+Edinburgh. Perceiving that her end was approaching, she requested an
+interview with some of the leaders of the Congregation. The Duke of
+Chatelherault, the Prior of St Andrews, or the Lord James, as he was
+commonly called, and others, waited upon her in her sick-chamber. She
+expressed to them her sincere grief for the troubles which existed in the
+country, and advised that both the English and French troops should be
+sent home. She entreated that they would reverence and obey their native
+and lawful sovereign, her daughter Mary. She told them how deeply attached
+she was to Scotland and its interests, although by birth a Frenchwoman;
+and at the conclusion, she burst<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> into tears, kissing the nobles one by
+one, and asking pardon of all whom she had in any way offended. The day
+after this interview, Mary of Guise died. Her many excellent qualities
+were long remembered in Scotland; for even those who could not love,
+respected her. In private life, if this term can be used with propriety
+when speaking of a Queen, she appears to have been most deservedly
+esteemed. She set an example to all her maids of honour, of piety,
+modesty, and becoming gravity of deportment; she was exceedingly
+charitable to the poor; and had she fallen upon better days, her life
+would have been a happier one for herself, and her memory more generally
+prized by posterity. Her body was carried over to France, and buried in
+the Benedictine Monastery at Rheims.<a name='fna_8' id='fna_8' href='#f_8'><small>[8]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>Very soon after the death of the Queen Regent, Commissioners arrived both
+from France and England, with full powers to conclude a treaty of peace
+between the three countries. By the loss of their sister, the Princes of
+Lorraine had been deprived of their chief support in Scotland, and, being
+actively engaged in schemes of ambition nearer home, they found it
+necessary to conciliate, as they best could, the predominating party
+there. The important treaty of Edinburgh, which will be mentioned
+frequently hereafter, was concluded on the 14th of June 1560. It was
+signed on the part of France by the two plenipotentiaries, Monluc, Bishop
+of Valence, and the Sieur Derandon, reckoned two of the best diplomatists
+of the day; and, on the part of England, by Wotton, Dean of Canterbury,
+and Elizabeth&#8217;s prime minister, Cecil, one of the ablest men of that or
+any age. The interests of the Congregation were intrusted principally to
+the Lord James. In consequence of this treaty, the French troops were
+immediately withdrawn. The fortifications of Leith and Dunbar were
+destroyed, and a Parliament was held, whose acts were to be considered as
+valid as if it had been called by the express commands of the Queen. In
+that Parliament, the adherents of the Congregation were found greatly to
+out-number their adversaries. An act of oblivion and indemnity was passed
+for all that had taken place within the two preceding years; and, for the
+first time, the Catholics, awed into silence, submitted to every thing
+which the Reformers proposed. A new Confession of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> Faith was sanctioned;
+the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts was abolished; and the
+exercise of worship, according to the rites of the Romish Church, was
+prohibited under severe penalties&mdash;a third act of disobedience being
+declared capital.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, the Reformation finally triumphed in Scotland. Though as yet only in
+its infancy, and still exposed to many perils, it was nevertheless
+established on a comparatively firm and constitutional basis. The
+Catholics, it is true, aware of the school in which Mary had been
+educated, were far from having given up all hope of retrieving their
+circumstances; and they waited for her return with the utmost impatience
+and anxiety. But they ought to have known, that whatever might have been
+Mary&#8217;s wishes, their reign was over in Scotland. A Sovereign may coerce
+the bodies, but he can never possess a despotic sway over the minds of his
+subjects. The people had now begun to think for themselves; and a belief
+in the mere mummeries of a fantastic system of Christianity, and of the
+efficacy of miracles performed by blocks of wood and stone, was never
+again to form a portion of their faith. A brief account of one of the
+last, and not least ludicrous attempts which the Popish clergy made to
+support their sinking cause, will form a not improper conclusion to this
+chapter.</p>
+
+<p>There was a chapel in the neighbourhood of Musselburgh, dedicated to the
+Lady of Loretto, which, from the character of superior sanctity it had
+acquired, had long been the favourite resort of religious devotees. In
+this chapel, a body of the Catholic priests undertook to put their
+religion to the test, by performing a miracle. They fixed upon a young
+man, who was well known as a common blind beggar,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> in the streets of
+Edinburgh, and engaged to restore to him, in the presence of the assembled
+people, the perfect use of his eyesight. A day was named, on which they
+calculated they might depend on this wonderful interposition of divine
+power in their behalf. From motives of curiosity, a great crowd was
+attracted at the appointed time to the chapel. The blind man made his
+appearance on a scaffold, erected for the occasion. The priests approached
+the altar, and, after praying very devoutly, and performing other
+religious ceremonies, he who had previously been stone blind, opened his
+eyes, and declared he saw all things plainly. Having humbly and gratefully
+thanked his benefactors, the priests, he was permitted to mingle among the
+astonished people, and receive their charity.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, however, for the success of this deception, a gentleman
+from Fife, of the name of Colville, determined to penetrate, if possible,
+a little further into the mystery. He prevailed upon the subject of the
+recent experiment to accompany him to his lodgings in Edinburgh. As soon
+as they were alone, he locked the chamber-door, and either by bribes or
+threats, contrived to win from him the whole secret. It turned out, that
+in his boyhood, this tool, in the hands of the designing, had been
+employed as a herd by the nuns of the Convent of Sciennes, then in the
+neighbourhood of Edinburgh. It was remarked by the sisterhood, that he had
+an extraordinary facility in &#8220;flyping up the lid of his eyes, and casting
+up the white.&#8221; Some of the neighbouring priests, hearing accidentally of
+this talent, imagined that it might be applied to good account.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> They
+accordingly took him from Sciennes to the monastery near Musselburgh,
+where they kept him till he had made himself an adept in this mode of
+counterfeiting blindness, and till his personal appearance was so much
+changed, that the few who had been acquainted with him before, would not
+be able to recognise him. They then sent him into Edinburgh to beg
+publicly, and make himself familiarly known to the inhabitants, as a
+common blind mendicant. So far every thing had gone smoothly, and the
+scene at the Chapel of Loretto might have had effect on the minds of the
+vulgar, had Colville&#8217;s activity not discovered the gross imposture.
+Colville, who belonged to the Congregation, instantly took the most
+effectual means to make known the deceit. He insisted upon the blind man&#8217;s
+appearing with him next day, at the Cross of Edinburgh, where the latter
+repeated all he had previously told Colville, and confessed the iniquity
+of his own conduct, as well as that of the priests. To shelter him from
+their revenge, Colville immediately afterwards carried him off to Fife;
+and the story, with all its details, being speedily disseminated, exposed
+the Catholic clergy to more contempt than ever.<a name='fna_9' id='fna_9' href='#f_9'><small>[9]</small></a></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY&#8217;S BIRTH, AND SUBSEQUENT RESIDENCE AT THE FRENCH COURT, WITH A SKETCH
+OF THE STATE OF SOCIETY AND MANNERS IN FRANCE, DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.</span></p>
+
+<p>Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was the third child of James V. and his wife,
+Mary of Guise. That lady had born him previously two sons, both of whom
+died in infancy. Mary came into the world on the 7th of December 1542, in
+the Palace of Linlithgow.<a name='fna_10' id='fna_10' href='#f_10'><small>[10]</small></a> She was only seven days old when she lost
+her father, who at the time of her birth lay sick in the Palace of
+Falkland. James died, as he had lived, with a kingly and gallant spirit.
+In the language of Pitscottie, he turned him upon his back, and looked and
+beheld all his nobles and lords about him, and, giving a little smile of
+laughter, kissed his hand, and offered it to them. When they had pressed
+it to their lips for the last time, he tossed up his arms, and yielded his
+spirit to God. James was considered one of the most handsome men of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> his
+day. He was above the middle stature; his hair flowed luxuriantly over his
+shoulders in natural ringlets, and was of a dark yellow or auburn colour;
+his eyes were gray, and very penetrating; his voice was sweet toned; and
+the general expression of his countenance uncommonly prepossessing. He
+inherited a vigorous constitution, and kept it sound and healthy by
+constant exercise, and by refraining from all excesses in eating or
+drinking. He was buried in the Royal Vault in the Chapel of Holyrood
+House, where his embalmed body, in a state of entire preservation, was
+still to be seen in the time of the historian Keith.</p>
+
+<p>The young Queen was crowned by Cardinal Beaton at Stirling, on the 9th of
+September 1543. Her mother, who watched over her with the most careful
+anxiety, had been told a report prevailed that the infant was sickly, and
+not likely to live. To disprove this calumny, she desired Janet Sinclair,
+Mary&#8217;s nurse, to unswaddle her in the presence of the English Ambassador,
+who wrote to his own court that she was as goodly a child as he had seen
+of her age.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after her birth, the Parliament nominated Commissioners, to whom they
+intrusted the charge of the Queen&#8217;s person, leaving all her other
+interests to the care of her mother. The two first years of her life, Mary
+spent at Linlithgow, where it appears she had the small-pox, a point of
+some importance, as one of her historians remarks, in the biography of a
+beauty and a queen.<a name='fna_11' id='fna_11' href='#f_11'><small>[11]</small></a> The disease must have been of a particularly
+gentle kind, having left behind no visible traces. During the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> greater
+part of the years 1545, 46 and 47, she resided at Stirling Castle, in the
+keeping of Lords Erskine and Livingstone. Here she received the first
+rudiments of education from two ecclesiastics, who were appointed her
+preceptors, more, however, as matter of form, than from any use they could
+be of to her at so early an age. When the internal disturbances of the
+country rendered even Stirling Castle a somewhat dangerous residence, Mary
+was removed to Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the Lake of Monteith.
+That she might not be too lonely, and that a spirit of generous emulation
+might present her with an additional motive for the prosecution of her
+studies, the Queen Dowager selected four young ladies of rank as her
+companions and playmates. They were each about her daughter&#8217;s age, and
+either from chance, or because the conceit seemed natural, they all bore
+the same surname. The four Maries were, Mary Beaton, a niece of Cardinal
+Beaton, Mary Fleming, daughter of Lord Fleming, Mary Livingstone, whose
+father was one of the young Queen&#8217;s guardians, and Mary Seaton, daughter
+of Lord Seaton.</p>
+
+<p>Mary having remained upwards of two years in this island, those who had,
+at the time, the disposal of her future destiny, thought it expedient, for
+reasons which have been already explained, that she should be removed to
+France. She was accordingly, in the fifth year of her age, taken to
+Dumbarton, where she was delivered to the French Admiral, whose vessels
+were waiting to receive her, and attended by the Lords Erskine and
+Livingstone, her three natural brothers, and her four Maries, she left
+Scotland.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>The thirteen happiest years of Mary&#8217;s life were spent in France. Towards
+the end of July 1548, she sailed from Dumbarton, and, after a tempestuous
+voyage, landed at Brest on the 14th of August. She was there received, by
+Henry II.&#8217;s orders, with all the honours due to her rank and royal
+destiny. She travelled, with her retinue, by easy stages, to the palace at
+St Germain En Laye; and to mark the respect that was paid to her, the
+prison-gates of every town she came to were thrown open, and the prisoners
+set free. Shortly after her arrival, she was sent, along with the King&#8217;s
+own daughters, to one of the first convents in France, where young ladies
+of distinction were instructed in the elementary branches of education.</p>
+
+<p>The natural quickness of her capacity, and the early acuteness of her
+mind, now began to manifest themselves. She made rapid progress in
+acquiring that species of knowledge suited to her years, and her lively
+imagination went even the length of attaching a more than ordinary
+interest to the calm and secluded life of a nunnery. It was whispered,
+that she had already expressed a wish to separate herself forever from the
+world; and it is not improbable, that had this wish been allowed to foster
+itself silently in her bosom, Mary might ultimately have taken the veil,
+in which case her life would have been a blank in history. But these views
+were not consistent with the more ambitious projects entertained by Henry
+and her uncles of Lorraine. As soon as they were informed of the bent
+which her mind appeared to be taking, she was again removed from the
+convent to the palace. To reconcile her to parting with the vestal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+sisters, Henry, whose conduct towards her was always marked by affection
+and delicacy, selected, from all the noble Scotch families then residing
+in France, a certain number to constitute her future household. The tears
+which Mary shed, however, upon leaving the nunnery, proved the warmth of
+her young heart; and that her feelings were not of merely momentary
+duration, is evinced by the frequent visits she subsequently paid this
+asylum of her childhood,&mdash;and by the altar-piece she embroidered with her
+own hands for the chapel of the convent.</p>
+
+<p>In no country of Europe was education better understood than it then was
+in France. Francis I., who remodelled, upon a magnificent scale, the
+University of Paris, only followed the example which had already been set
+him by Louis XII. The youth of all countries flocked to the French
+schools. The liberal principles which induced the government to maintain,
+at its own expense, professors, who lectured to as many students as chose
+to hear them, was amply repaid by the beneficial consequences arising from
+the great influx of strangers. A competent knowledge of Latin, Greek,
+Hebrew, Mathematics, Moral Philosophy and Medicine, could be acquired in
+France for literally nothing. Nor was it necessary, that he who sought for
+the blessings of education, should profess any particular system of
+religious faith. The German Protestant, and the Spanish Catholic, were
+allowed, in these noble institutions, to take their seat side by side.
+Henry supported the church as an engine of state, whilst he detested the
+arrogant pretensions and empty insolence of many of the clergy, and was
+determined that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> should not interfere with the more enlightened views
+which he himself entertained. In this, he only followed the opinions of
+his illustrious father, Francis, who used to remark, that monks were
+better at teaching linnets to whistle, playing at dice, tippling, and
+gormandizing, than in doing good either to religion or morality.</p>
+
+<p>The host of authors, and men of genius, who flourished in France about
+this period, was another cause of its literary eminence. &#8220;Learning,&#8221; says
+Miss Benger, &#8220;far from being the badge of singularity, had become the
+attribute of a superior station.&#8221; &#8220;There was,&#8221; observes the ingenious
+Pasquier, &#8220;a glorious crusade against ignorance.&#8221; Many of the names then
+celebrated have since, it is true, passed into oblivion, but the multitude
+who cultivated letters, show the spirit of the times. Beza, Seve,
+Pelletier and others, led the van in the severer departments of intellect;
+whilst Bellay, Ronsard and Jodelle, showed the way, to a host of
+followers, in the cultivation of poetry, and the softer arts of
+composition.</p>
+
+<p>Nor must the great statesmen and warriors, whose presence lent a lustre to
+the court, be forgotten in this view of the existing pre-eminence of
+France. The two Houses of Bourbon and Guise, had each given birth to many
+names destined for immortality. The present chiefs of Bourbon were
+Anthony, Duke of Navarre, and Louis, known in the history of the world as
+the first Prince of Cond&eacute;. There were six brothers of the Guises, of whom
+the two most illustrious were Francis Duke of Guise, and Charles Cardinal
+of Lorraine. But they all held the very highest offices in the church or
+state; one was a Cardinal, and another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> a Grand Prior; a third, the Duke
+d&#8217;Aumale, commanded the army then in Italy; and the fourth, the Marquis
+d&#8217;Elbeuf, was intrusted with the charge of the French troops in Scotland.
+But he who held the balance of power between all these contending
+interests, was the great Montmorency, Constable of France. He had, by this
+time, become a veteran in the service of the French monarchs. Louis XII.
+had acknowledged his virtues, and Francis I. looked to him for advice and
+aid in every emergency. Henry felt almost a filial affection and reverence
+for so distinguished a statesman and patriot; and Diana de Poictiers
+herself, the fascinating widow of the Duke de Valentinois, frequently
+found that she possessed less influence with the monarch than the
+venerable and unostentatious Montmorency. The minister was at all times
+surrounded by a formidable phalanx of friends and supporters. Of these his
+own sons were not the least considerable; and his nephews, the two
+Colignys, need only to be mentioned, to awaken recollections of some of
+the most remarkable events of French history.</p>
+
+<p>Neither must we omit to mention the two ladies who held the highest places
+in the French Court. The sister and the wife of Henry II. resembled each
+other but faintly, yet both secured the admiration of the country. The
+Princess Margaret had established herself by her patronage of every
+liberal art, and her universal beneficence, in the hearts of the whole
+people. Her religion did not degenerate into bigotry, and her charity,
+whilst it was at all times efficient, was without parade. She became
+afterwards the Duchess of Savoy; but till past the meridian of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> life, she
+continued constantly at her brother&#8217;s Court,&mdash;a bright example of all that
+was virtuous and attractive in female character. To her, France was
+indebted for discovering and fostering the talents of its great Chancellor
+Michel L&#8217;Hopital; and the honourable name by which she was universally
+known was that of Minerva. The King&#8217;s wife, Catherine de Medicis, was more
+respected for her talents than loved for her virtues. But as yet, the
+ambition of her nature had not betrayed itself, and little occasion had
+been afforded for the exercise of those arts of dissimulation, or the
+exposure of that proneness to envy and resentment, which at a later period
+became so apparent. She was still in the bloom of youth, and maintained a
+high character, not without much show of reason.</p>
+
+<p>Such being the general aspect of the country and the Court, it cannot fail
+to become evident, that so far from being a just cause of regret, nothing
+could have redounded more to Mary&#8217;s advantage than her education and
+residence in France. If bigotry prevailed among the clergy, it was not
+countenanced at the Court, for Henry cared little about religion, and his
+sister Margaret was suspected of leaning to the Reformed opinions. If
+Parisian manners were known to be too deeply tinctured with
+licentiousness, the palace of Catherine must be excepted from the charge;
+for even the deportment of Diana herself was grave and decorous, and for
+his sister&#8217;s sake, the King dared not have countenanced any of those
+grosser immoralities in which Henry VIII. of England so openly indulged.
+The Cardinal of Lorraine, who was at the head of the Parisian University,
+quickly discovering <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>Mary&#8217;s capabilities, directed her studies with the
+most watchful anxiety. She was still attended by the two preceptors who
+had accompanied her from Scotland, and before she was ten years old, had
+made good progress in the French, Latin, and Italian languages. French was
+all her life as familiar to her as her native tongue; and she wrote it
+with a degree of elegance which no one could surpass. Her acquaintance
+with Latin was not of that superficial kind but too common in the present
+day. This language was then regarded as almost the only one on whose
+stability any reliance could be placed. It was consequently deemed
+indispensable, that all who aspired at any eminence in literature, should
+be able to compose in it fluently. Mary&#8217;s teacher was the celebrated
+George Buchanan, who was then in France, and who, whatever other praise he
+may be entitled to, was unquestionably one of the best scholars of his
+time. The young Queen&#8217;s attention was likewise directed to Rhetoric, by
+Fauchet, author of a treatise on that subject which he dedicated to his
+pupil,&mdash;to history by Pasquier,&mdash;and to the delightful study of poetry,
+for which her genius was best suited, and for which she retained a
+predilection all her life, by Ronsard.</p>
+
+<p>Nor must it be imagined that Mary&#8217;s childhood was exclusively devoted to
+these more scholastic pursuits. She and her young companions, the Scotch
+Maries and the daughters of Henry, were frequently present at those
+magnificent galas and f&ecirc;tes, in which the King himself so much delighted,
+and which were so particularly in unison with the taste of the times,
+though no where conducted with so much elegance and grace,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> as at the
+French Court. The summer tournaments and f&ecirc;tes champ&ecirc;tres, and the winter
+festivals and masquerades, were attended by all the beauty and chivalry of
+the land. In these amusements, Mary, as she grew up, took a lively and
+innocent pleasure. The woods and gardens also of Fontainbleau, afforded a
+delightful variation from the artificial splendours of Paris. In summer,
+sailing on the lakes, or fishing in the ponds; and in winter, a
+construction of fortresses on the ice,&mdash;a mimic battle of snow-balls,&mdash;or
+skating, became royal pastimes. Mary&#8217;s gait and air, naturally dignified
+and noble, acquired an additional charm from the attention she paid to
+dancing and riding. The favourite dance at the time was the Spanish
+minuet, which Mary frequently performed with her young consort, to the
+admiration of the whole court. In the livelier gailliarde, she was
+unequalled, as was confessed, even by the beautiful Anne of Este, who, in
+a pas des deux, acknowledged that she was eclipsed by Mary.</p>
+
+<p>The activity of her body indeed, kept, upon all occasions, full pace with
+that of her mind. She was particularly fond of hunting; and she and her
+maids of honour were frequently seen following the stag through the
+ancestral forests of France. Her attachment to this amusement, which
+continued all her life, exposed her, on several occasions, to some danger.
+So early as the year 1559, when hunting in France, some part of her dress
+was caught by the bough of a tree, and she was cast off her horse when
+galloping at full speed. Many of the ladies and gentlemen in her train
+passed by without observing her, and some so near as actually to tread on
+her riding-dress.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> As soon as the accident was discovered, she was raised
+from the ground; but, though the shock had been considerable, she had too
+manly a spirit to complain, and, readjusting her hair, which had fallen
+into confusion, she again mounted her horse, and rode home smiling at the
+accident.<a name='fna_12' id='fna_12' href='#f_12'><small>[12]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Another, but more sedentary amusement with Mary, was the composition of
+devices. To excel in these, required some wit and judgment. A device was
+the skilful coupling of a few expressive words with any engraved figure or
+picture. It was an art intimately connected with the science of heraldry,
+and seems to have suggested the modern seal and motto. The composition of
+these devices was, as it is somewhere called, only &#8220;an elegant species of
+trifling;&#8221; but it had something intellectual in it, which the best
+informed ladies of the French court liked. An old author, who writes upon
+this subject, elevates it to a degree of importance rather amusing. &#8220;It
+delights the eye,&#8221; he says, &#8220;it captivates the imagination, it is also
+profitable and useful; and therefore surpasseth all other arts, and also
+painting, since this only represents the body and exquisite features of
+the face, whereas a device exposes the rare ideas and gallant sentiments
+of its author; it also excels poetry, in as much as it joineth profit with
+pleasure, since none merit the title of devices unless they at once please
+by their grace, and yield profit by their doctrine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mary&#8217;s partialities were commonly lasting, and when in very different
+circumstances, she frequently loved to return to this amusement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> of her
+childhood. Some of the emblems she invented, betray much elegance and
+sensibility of mind. On the death of her husband Francis, she took for her
+device a little branch of the liquorice-tree, whose root only is sweet,
+all the rest of the plant being bitter, and the motto was, <i>Dulce meum
+terra tegit</i>. On her cloth of state was embroidered the sentence, <i>En ma
+fin est mon commencement</i>; &#8220;a riddle,&#8221; says Haynes, &#8220;I understand not;&#8221;
+but which evidently meant to inculcate a lesson of humility, and to remind
+her that life, with all its grandeur, was the mere prologue to eternity.
+The French historian, Mezeray, mentions also that Mary had a medal struck,
+on which was represented a vessel in a storm, with its masts broken and
+falling, illustrated by the motto, <i>Nunquam nisi rectam</i>; indicating a
+determination rather to perish than deviate from the path of
+integrity.<a name='fna_13' id='fna_13' href='#f_13'><small>[13]</small></a> When she was in England, she embroidered for the Duke of
+Norfolk a hand with a sword in it, cutting vines, with the motto <i>Virescit
+vulnere virtus</i>. In these and similar fancies, she embodied strong and
+often original thoughts with much delicacy.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these occupations and amusements, Mary was not allowed to
+forget her native country. Frequent visits were paid her from Scotland, by
+those personally attached to herself or her family. In 1550, her mother,
+Mary of Guise, came over to see her, accompanied by several of the
+nobility. The Queen-dowager, a woman of strong affections, was so
+delighted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> with the improvement she discovered in her daughter&#8217;s mind and
+person, that she burst into tears of joy; and her Scottish attendants were
+hardly less affected by the sight of their future Sovereign. Henry, with
+his young charge, was at Rouen, when the Queen-dowager arrived. To testify
+his respect for her, he ordered a triumph to be prepared, which consisted
+of one of those grotesque allegorical exhibitions then so much in vogue;
+and, shortly afterwards, the two Queens made a public entry into Paris.
+Mary of Guise had there an opportunity likewise of seeing her son by her
+first husband, the Duke de Longueville, Mary&#8217;s half-brother, but who seems
+to have spent his life in retirement, as history scarcely notices him. It
+may well be conceived, that the widow of James V. returned even to the
+regency of Scotland with reluctance, since she purchased the gratification
+of her ambition by a final separation from her children.<a name='fna_14' id='fna_14' href='#f_14'><small>[14]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>It was about the same time that Mary first saw Sir James Melville, who was
+then only a few years older than herself, and who was sent over in the
+train of the Bishop of Monluc, when he returned after signing the Treaty
+of Edinburgh, to be one of Mary&#8217;s pages of honour. Sir James was
+afterwards frequently employed by the Queen as her foreign ambassador, and
+his name will appear more than once in the sequel. We have spoken of him
+here for the purpose of introducing an amusing anecdote, which he gives us
+in his own Memoirs, and which illustrates the state of manners at that
+period. Upon landing at Brest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> the Bishop proceeded direct to Paris. But
+Sir James, who was young, and could hardly have endured the fatigue of
+this mode of travelling, was intrusted to the care of two Scotch
+gentlemen, who had come over in the same ship. Their first step was to
+purchase three little &#8220;naigies,&#8221; on which they proposed riding to Paris,
+any thing in the shape of a <i>diligence</i> being out of the question. To
+ensure greater safety on the journey, three others joined the party,&mdash;two
+Frenchmen, and a young Spaniard, who was on his way to the College at
+Paris. On the evening of the first day, they arrived at the town of
+Landerneau, where all the six were lodged in one room, containing three
+beds. The two Frenchmen slept together in one, the two Scotsmen in
+another, and Melville and the Spaniard in the third. The company on the
+whole does not appear to have been of the most respectable kind; for, as
+Melville lay awake, he heard &#8220;the twa Scotchmen devising how they were
+directed to let him want naething; therefore, said they, we will pay for
+his ordinair all the way, and shall count up twice as meikle to his master
+when we come to Paris, and sae shall win our ain expenses.&#8221; The two
+Frenchmen, on their part, thinking that nobody in the room understood
+French, said to each other, &#8220;These strangers are all young, and know not
+the fashion of the hostelries; therefore we shall deal and reckon with the
+hosts at every repast, and shall cause the strangers pay more than the
+custom is, and that way shall we save our expenses.&#8221; At all this Melville,
+as he tells us, could not refrain from &#8220;laughing in his mind,&#8221; and
+determined to be upon his guard. &#8220;Yet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> twa Scotch young men,&#8221; he adds
+in his antique phraseology, &#8220;would not consent that I should pay for
+myself, hoping still to beguile the Bishop, but the Spaniart and I writ up
+every day&#8217;s compt.&#8221; The Frenchmen being foiled in their swindling
+intentions, had recourse to a still bolder man&oelig;uvre. One day, as the
+party were riding through a wood, two other Frenchmen, who had joined them
+a short time before, suddenly leapt off their horses, and, drawing their
+swords, demanded that the others should deliver up their purses. Melville
+and his Scotch friends, however, were not to be thus intimidated. They
+also drew their swords, and prepared for resistance; on seeing which, the
+Frenchmen affected to make a joke of the whole affair, saying that they
+merely wanted to try the courage of the Scotchmen, in case they should
+have been attacked by robbers. &#8220;But the twa last loons,&#8221; says Melville,
+&#8220;left us at the next lodging; and the twa Scotch scholairs never obtenit
+payment frae the Bishop for their pretendit fraud.&#8221; Sir James arrived in
+safety at Paris, having taken thirteen days to ride from Brest to the
+capital.<a name='fna_15' id='fna_15' href='#f_15'><small>[15]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Thus diversified by intercourse with her friends and with her books, by
+study and recreation, Mary&#8217;s early life passed rapidly away. It has been
+already seen, that whatever could have tended to corrupt the mind or
+manners was carefully removed from the young Queen. As soon as Mary
+entered upon her teens, she and her companions, the two young princesses,
+Henry&#8217;s daughters, spent several hours every day in the private apartment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+of Catherine de Medicis, whose conversation, as well as that of the
+foreign ambassadors and other persons of distinction who paid their
+respects to her, they had thus an opportunity of hearing. Con&aelig;us mentions,
+that Mary was soon observed to avail herself, with great earnestness, of
+these opportunities of acquiring knowledge; and it has been hinted, that
+the superior intelligence she evinced, in comparison with Catherine&#8217;s own
+daughters, was the first cause of exciting that Queen&#8217;s jealousy. It was
+perhaps at some of these conferences that Mary imperceptibly imbibed, from
+her future mother-in-law, and her not unfrequent visitor, Nostradamus, a
+slight portion of that tendency to superstitious belief then so prevalent.
+One of the most remarkable characters about Henry&#8217;s court, was Nicolas
+Cretin, or Nostradamus, as he was more commonly called, who combined in
+his own person the three somewhat incongruous professions of physician,
+astrologer, and philosopher. He asserted, that he was not only perfectly
+acquainted with the laws of planetary influence, but that, by the
+inspiration of divine power, he could predict the events of futurity. The
+style of his prophecies was in general sufficiently obscure; yet such was
+the reverence paid to learning in those days (and Nostradamus was a very
+library of learning), that he was courted and consulted even by the first
+statesmen in France. Mary had far too lively a fancy to escape the
+infection; and the force of this early bias continued to be felt by her
+more or less all her life.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY&#8217;S MARRIAGE, PERSONAL APPEARANCE, AND POPULARITY.</span></p>
+
+<p>The time now approached when Henry began to think of confirming the French
+authority in Scotland, by consummating the contract of marriage which had
+so long existed between Francis and Mary. This was not, however, to be
+done without considerable opposition from several quarters. The Constable
+Montmorency, and the House of Bourbon, already trembled at the growing
+influence of the Guises, plainly foreseeing, that as soon as the niece of
+the Duke and Cardinal of Lorraine became wife to the Dauphin, and
+consequently, upon Henry&#8217;s death, Queen of France, their own influence
+would be at an end. It is not improbable that Montmorency aimed at
+marrying one of his own sons to Mary. At all events, he endeavoured to
+persuade Henry that he might find a more advantageous alliance for
+Francis. The Guises, however, were not thus to be overreached; and the
+King more willingly listened to their powerful representations in favour
+of the match, as it had long been a favourite scheme with himself. It
+would be uncharitable to ascribe to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> the agency of any of those who
+opposed it, an attempt which was made some time before by a person of the
+name of Stuart, a Scottish archer in the King&#8217;s guards, to poison Mary.
+Stuart being detected, was tried, condemned, and executed, but made no
+confession which could lead to any discovery of his motives. It is most
+likely that he had embraced the reformed religion, and was actuated by a
+fanatical desire to save his country from the dominion of a Catholic
+princess.</p>
+
+<p>Francis, the young Dauphin, who was much about Mary&#8217;s own age, was far
+inferior to her, both in personal appearance and mental endowments. He was
+of a very weakly constitution; and the energies of his mind seem to have
+been repressed by the feebleness of his body. But if unable to boast of
+any distinguishing virtues, he was undegraded by the practice of any vice.
+He was amiable, timid, affectionate, and shy. He was aware of his want of
+physical strength, and feared lest the more robust should make it a
+subject of ridicule. He appears to have loved Mary with the tenderest
+affection, being probably anxious to atone to her, by every mark of
+devotion, for the sacrifice he must have seen she was making in
+surrendering herself to him, in all the lustre of her charms. Yet there is
+good reason to believe that Mary really loved Francis. They had been
+playmates from infancy; they had prosecuted all their studies together;
+and though Francis cared little for the pleasures of society, and rather
+shunned than encouraged those who wished to pay their court to him, Mary
+was aware that, for this very reason, he was only the more sincere in his
+passion for her. It was not in Mary&#8217;s nature to be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>indifferent to those
+who evinced affection for her; and if her fondness for Francis were
+mingled with pity, it has long been asserted, that &#8220;pity is akin to love&#8221;.</p>
+
+<p>On the 24th of April 1558, the nuptials took place. In December the
+preceding year, a letter from Henry had been laid before the Scotch
+Parliament, requesting that some persons of rank should be sent over from
+Scotland as Commissioners to witness the marriage; and in compliance with
+this desire, the Lord James, Prior of St Andrews, and eight other persons
+of distinction, arrived at the French Court in March 1558.<a name='fna_16' id='fna_16' href='#f_16'><small>[16]</small></a> Their
+instructions commanded them to guard against French encroachments, upon
+the rights and privileges of Scottish subjects; and, that no doubt might
+remain regarding the right of succession to the Scottish throne, they were
+to obtain from the King of France a ratification of his former promise, to
+aid and support the Duke of Chatelherault in his claims upon the crown, in
+case Mary died without issue. They were also to require a declaration to a
+similar effect from the Queen and Dauphin. All these demands were at once
+complied with.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>It has been alleged, however, that a very gross deceit was practised, upon
+this occasion, by the French Court. It is said, that though, to satisfy
+the Scotch Commissioners, all their requests were ostensibly granted,
+Henry took secret measures to render these grants entirely inefficacious.
+Mary, it is asserted, on the 4th of April, signed three papers, in the
+first of which she made over the kingdom of Scotland in free gift to the
+King of France, to be enjoyed by him and his heirs, should she die without
+children; in the second, (lest it might not be deemed expedient to insist
+upon the first,) she assigned to the King of France the possession of
+Scotland, after her decease without children, till he should be reimbursed
+of a million pieces of gold, or any greater sum which he should be found
+to have expended on her during her residence in France; and, in the third,
+she protested, that whatever declarations she might subscribe, in
+compliance with the desire of the Scotch Parliament, touching the lineal
+succession of her crown, the genuine sense of her mind was contained only
+in the two preceding papers.<a name='fna_17' id='fna_17' href='#f_17'><small>[17]</small></a> If this dishonourable transaction really
+took place, whilst it cannot involve Mary, a young and inexperienced girl
+of fifteen, in any serious blame, it certainly reflects the highest
+discredit both upon Henry and his advisers of the house of Guise. There is
+good reason, however, to believe, that these instruments, though they
+unquestionably exist, are forgeries. It was not an uncommon trick in those
+times, for the Reformers to stir up jealousy against a Catholic sovereign,
+by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> alleging, that he had promised away his country to some well known
+papist. The Prince of Cond&eacute;, in December 1568, was not aware of the
+authenticity of any such papers; for, if he had been, he would undoubtedly
+have mentioned them when he asked Elizabeth&#8217;s assistance to establish the
+Protestant religion in France. On the contrary, he trumps up a ridiculous
+story, to which no one has ever given any credit, that Mary had ceded her
+right to the crown of England, in behalf of the King of France&#8217;s brother,
+Henry Duke of Anjou. After Mary&#8217;s death, it was confidently reported, and
+with equal falsehood, that by her testament she had left England to the
+King of Spain, unless her son became a Roman Catholic. There is, besides,
+internal evidence of a striking nature, that these deeds were forgeries.
+For its discovery, we are indebted to the industry and research of
+Goodall.<a name='fna_18' id='fna_18' href='#f_18'><small>[18]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Some of the provisions in the marriage-contract between Francis and Mary,
+are sufficiently remarkable to deserve being recorded. The jointure
+assigned by it to the Queen, provided her husband died King of France, is
+60,000 livres, or a greater sum, if a greater had ever been given to a
+Queen of France. If her husband died only Dauphin, the jointure was to be
+30,000 livres. The eldest son of the marriage was to be King of France and
+Scotland; and if there were no sons, the eldest daughter was to be Queen
+of Scotland only, with a portion of 400,000 crowns, as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> daughter of
+France,&mdash;every younger daughter being allowed 300,000 crowns. Should her
+husband die, Mary was to be at liberty either to remain in France or
+return to Scotland, with an assurance that her jointure would be always
+duly paid her. The Dauphin was to bear the name and title of King of
+Scotland, and enjoy all the privileges of the crown-matrimonial.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage, for which so many preparations had thus been made, was
+solemnized in the church of Notre Dame, the ceremony being performed by
+the Cardinal of Bourbon, Archbishop of Rouen. Upon this occasion, the
+festivities were graced by the presence of all the most illustrious
+personages of the Court of France; and when Francis, taking a ring from
+his finger, presented it to the Archbishop, who, pronouncing the
+benediction, placed it on the young Queen&#8217;s finger, the vaulted roof of
+the Cathedral rung with congratulations, and the multitude without rent
+the air with joyful shouts. The spectacle was altogether one of the most
+imposing which, even in that age of spectacles, had been seen in Paris.
+The procession, upon leaving the church, proceeded to the palace of the
+Archbishop, where a magnificent collation was prepared,&mdash;largess, as it
+moved along, being proclaimed among the people, in the name of the King
+and Queen of Scots. In the afternoon, the royal party returned to the
+palace of the Tournelles&mdash;Catherine de Medicis and Mary sitting together
+in the same palanquin, and a Cardinal walking on each side. Henry and
+Francis followed on horseback, with a long line of princes and princesses
+in their train. The chronicler of these nuptials is unable to conceal his
+rapture,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> when he describes the manner in which the palace had been
+prepared for their reception. Its whole appearance, he tells us, was
+&#8220;light and beautiful as Elysium.&#8221; During supper, which was served upon a
+marble table in the great hall, the King&#8217;s band of &#8220;one hundred gentlemen&#8221;
+poured forth delicious strains of music. The members of Parliament
+attended in their robes; and the princes of the blood performed the duty
+of servitors&mdash;the Duke of Guise acting as master of the ceremonies. The
+banquet being concluded, a series of the most magnificent masks and
+mummeries, prepared for the occasion, was introduced. In the pageant,
+twelve artificial horses, of admirable mechanism, covered with cloth of
+gold, and ridden by the young heirs of noble houses, attracted deserved
+attention. They were succeeded by six galleys, which sailed into the hall,
+each rich as Cleopatra&#8217;s barge, and bearing on its deck two seats, the one
+filled by a young cavalier, who, as he advanced, carried off from among
+the spectators, and gently placed in the vacant chair, the lady of his
+love. A splendid tournament concluded these rejoicings.</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of these solemnities, every eye was fixed on the youthful
+Mary; and, inspired by those feelings which beauty seldom fails to excite,
+every heart offered up prayers for her future welfare and happiness. She
+was now at that age when feminine loveliness is perhaps most attractive.
+It is not to be supposed, indeed, that in her sixteenth year, her charms
+had ripened into that full-blown maturity which they afterwards attained;
+but they were, on this account, only the more fascinating. Some have
+conjectured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> that Mary&#8217;s beauty has been extolled far beyond its real
+merits; and it cannot be denied that many vague and erroneous notions
+exist regarding it. But that her countenance possessed in a pre-eminent
+degree the something which constitutes beauty, is sufficiently attested by
+the unanimous declaration of all cotemporary writers. It is only, however,
+by carefully gathering together hints scattered here and there, that any
+accurate idea can be formed of the lineaments of a countenance which has
+so long ceased to exist, unless in the fancy of the enthusiast. Generally
+speaking, Mary&#8217;s features were more Grecian than Roman, though without the
+insipidity that would have attached to them, had they been exactly
+regular. Her nose exceeded a little the Grecian proportion in length. Her
+hair was very nearly of the same colour as James V.&#8217;s&mdash;dark yellow, or
+auburn, and, like his, clustered in luxuriant ringlets. Her eyes,&mdash;which
+some writers, misled by the thousand blundering portraits of her scattered
+everywhere, conceive to have been gray, or blue, or hazel,&mdash;were of a
+chestnut colour,&mdash;darker, yet matching well with her auburn hair. Her brow
+was high, open, and prominent. Her lips were full and expressive, as the
+lips of the Stuarts generally were; and she had a small dimple in her
+chin. Her complexion was clear, and very fair, without a great deal of
+colour in her cheeks. Her mother was a woman of large stature, and Mary
+was also above the common size. Her person was finely proportioned, and
+her carriage exceedingly graceful and dignified.<a name='fna_19' id='fna_19' href='#f_19'><small>[19]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>In this description of Mary&#8217;s personal appearance, we have placed a good
+deal of reliance on the research and accuracy of Chalmers. It will be
+observed, that our account differs, in many essential particulars, from
+that of Robertson, who says&mdash;&#8220;Mary&#8217;s hair was black, though, according to
+the fashion of that age, she frequently wore borrowed locks, and of
+different colours. Her eyes were a dark gray; her complexion was
+exquisitely fine; and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to
+shape and colour. Her stature was of an height that rose to the majestic.&#8221;
+Where Robertson discovered that Mary&#8217;s hair was black, or her eyes gray,
+he does not mention. That her eyes were <i>not</i> black, we have the direct
+testimony of Beal, Clerk to the Privy Council of England, who was ordered
+by Cecil to be present at the death of the Scottish Queen, and who
+describes her as having &#8220;chestnut-coloured eyes.&#8221; As to her hair, and her
+other features, though Melville, in his Memoirs, certainly seems to imply
+that the former was auburn, yet, as he does not expressly say so, we
+suspect correct conclusions can be arrived at only by a reference to the
+best authenticated portraits which have been preserved of Mary. This,
+however, is far from being a criterion by which opinions should be rashly
+formed. There are few persons in the whole range of history, likenesses of
+whom have been more eagerly sought after; and, in proportion to the
+anxiety manifested to secure originals, has been the temptation to mislead
+and deceive. Almost all the paintings said to be originals of Mary Queen
+of Scots, are the impositions of picture-dealers. When the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>demand for
+these paintings became general, it was not at all unusual to despatch
+emissaries over the Continent to pick up every picture, the costume and
+general appearance of which in the least resembled the Scottish Queen.
+During Mary&#8217;s life, and for some time after her death, the fame of her
+beauty, and the interest attached to her fortunes, induced numerous ladies
+of rank, who flattered themselves that they were like her, to have
+portraits painted in the style then well understood by the phrase <i>&agrave; la
+Mary Stuart</i>. There was, in particular, a celebrated Continental beauty of
+those days&mdash;a Countess of Mansfeldt&mdash;(we speak on the authority of a
+living artist of celebrity), who resembled Mary in many particulars, and
+all whose portraits (nor were they few in number) when they afterwards
+came into the hands of the picture-dealers, were affirmed to be Maries.
+Thus, in the lapse of years, the truth became so involved in uncertainty,
+that even Robertson, allowing himself to be too hastily misled, has lent
+his name to the dissemination of error.</p>
+
+<p>Horace Walpole, after having made extensive inquiries on this subject, has
+recorded, that he never could ascertain the authenticity and originality
+of any portrait of Mary, except of that in the possession of the Earl of
+Morton, which was painted when she was at Lochleven. Chalmers, in order to
+come as near the truth as possible, employed Mr Pailou, an artist of
+ability, to compare the picture belonging to the Earl of Morton, with two
+or three other undoubted originals which have been discovered since
+Walpole wrote. Pailou commenced by sketching the outline of his picture
+from Lord Morton&#8217;s original.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> He then proceeded to the examination of
+three genuine portraits of Mary, one in the Church of St Andrew in
+Antwerp, another in the Scotch College at Douay, and a third in the Scotch
+College at Paris. Neither did he forget the profile heads of Mary struck
+upon her coins, nor the marble figure representing her on her tomb in
+Henry VII&#8217;s Chapel, which Walpole thought a correct likeness. Mr Pailou
+thus made Lord Morton&#8217;s picture the basis of his own, but, as he advanced,
+constantly referred to the others, &#8220;till he got the whole adjusted and
+coloured.&#8221; Though we cannot exactly approve of thus cooking up a picture
+from various different sources, and should be inclined to think, that too
+much was left by such a mode of procedure to the arbitrary taste of the
+artist, we nevertheless feel satisfied that Mr Pailou has hit upon a
+tolerably accurate likeness. His picture, engraved by Scriven, forms the
+frontispiece to the second volume of Chalmers&#8217;s work. The brow, eyes,
+mouth, and chin, he has given with great success. But the painting is far
+from being without faults;&mdash;the face is a good deal too round and plump,
+the nose is made slightly aquiline&mdash;a decided mistake,&mdash;and the neck is
+much too short, at least so it appears in the engraving.</p>
+
+<p>The portrait of Mary, which forms the frontispiece to the present volume,
+and on which we place greater reliance than on any with which we are
+acquainted, is an engraving executed expressly for this work, from an
+original picture of much merit.<a name='fna_20' id='fna_20' href='#f_20'><small>[20]</small></a> It was painted when Mary was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+France, by an Italian artist of eminence, who flourished as her
+cotemporary in the sixteenth century, and whose name is on the canvas. It
+would have been impossible to say at what precise age it represented Mary,
+though, from the juvenility of the countenance, it might have been
+concluded that it was taken a year or two before she became Dauphiness,
+had not the painter fortunately obviated the difficulty, by inserting
+immediately after his own signature the date, which is 1556, when she was
+just fourteen. It is upon this picture that we have chiefly founded our
+description of Mary&#8217;s personal appearance. What gives us the greater
+confidence in its authenticity and accuracy, is, that it very exactly
+corresponds with two other portraits, believed on good grounds to be
+originals. This is a strong circumstance, for it is a very common and just
+remark, that almost no two likenesses of Mary agree. The paintings to
+which we allude are, first, one at the seat of Logie Almond, which
+represents Mary at the same age, but in a religious habit. It gives
+precisely the same view of the left side of the face as the engraving in
+this volume does of the right. From the style and other circumstances, it
+is very probable, that both pictures were painted by the same artist. The
+second is in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton, and is in
+one of the private apartments at Hamilton palace. It represents Mary at a
+somewhat more advanced period of life, but the features are quite the
+same. There is still a third picture, said to be an original,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> in the
+collection of the Marquis of Salisbury, at Hatfield House, and which has
+been engraved for Miss Benger&#8217;s Memoirs, which very closely resembles our
+own. To be yet more assured, we have carefully examined the heads upon
+Mary&#8217;s gold and silver coins. Some of these are inaccurate, but they have
+all a general resemblance to each other. A silver coin, of 1561, and the
+gold real stamped in 1562, agree minutely with our picture,&mdash;a
+circumstance which cannot but be considered a strong corroboration of its
+truth. It is unnecessary to make any apology to the reader for having
+entered thus minutely upon a subject of so much general interest.<a name='fna_21' id='fna_21' href='#f_21'><small>[21]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>With regard to the asseverations of cotemporary writers, as to the effects
+which Mary&#8217;s beauty produced, many of them are almost too extravagant to
+be believed. They prove, nevertheless, that, whatever beauty may be,
+whether a mere fortunate arrangement of material atoms, or a light
+suffused upon the face, from the secret and etherial mind, it was a gift
+which Nature had lavishly bestowed on Mary. A year or two previous to her
+marriage, when walking in a religious procession, through the streets of
+Paris, with a lighted torch in her hand, a woman among the crowd was so
+struck with her appearance, that she could not help stopping her to
+ask,&mdash;&#8220;Are you not indeed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> an angel?&#8221; Brantome, with more questionable
+sincerity, compares her, at the age of fifteen, to the sun at mid-day. He
+tells us also, that the brother of Francis, afterwards Charles IX., never
+saw even a picture of Mary, without lingering to gaze upon it, declaring
+passionately, that he looked upon Francis as the happiest man on earth, to
+possess a creature of so much loveliness. Nay, Brantome even goes the
+length of asserting, that no man ever saw Mary who did not lose his heart
+to her. He is pleased, likewise, with some na&iuml;vet&eacute;, to pay her several
+high compliments at the expense of her native country. It appears that
+Mary, amidst all the gaieties of the French Court, had not forgot her
+early residence at Inchmahome, in the quiet lake of Monteith. Actuated by
+these recollections and other motives, she delighted to testify her regard
+for Scotland in various ways; and, among others, by frequently wearing in
+public the graceful Highland costume. The rich and national Stuart tartan
+became her exceedingly; and Brantome, who seems to have been greatly
+puzzled by the novelty of the dress, is nevertheless forced to declare,
+that when arrayed after &#8220;the barbarous fashion of the savages of her
+country, she appeared a goddess in a mortal body, and in a most outr&eacute; and
+astonishing garb.&#8221; Mary herself, was so fond of this costume, that she
+wore it in one of the portraits which were taken of her in France. If she
+appeared so beautiful thus &#8220;<i>habill&eacute;e &agrave; la sauvage</i>,&#8221; exclaims Brantome,
+&#8220;what must she not be in her rich and lovely robes made <i>&agrave; la Fran&ccedil;aise,
+ou l&#8217;Espagnole</i>, or with a bonnet <i>&agrave; l&#8217;Italienne</i>; or in her flowing white
+dress, contending in vain with the whiteness of her skin!&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> Even when she
+sung, and accompanied herself upon the lute, Brantome found occasion to
+discover a new beauty,&mdash;&#8220;her soft snowy hand and fingers, fairer than
+Aurora&#8217;s.&#8221; &#8220;Ah royaume d&#8217;Escosse!&#8221; he touchingly adds, &#8220;Je croy que,
+maintenant, vos jours sont encore bien plus courts qu&#8217;ils n&#8217;estoient, et
+vos nuits plus longues, puisque vous avez perdu cette Princesse qui vos
+illuminoit!&#8221; The historian, Castelnau, in like manner, pronounces Mary
+&#8220;the most beautiful and accomplished of her sex;&#8221; and Mezeray tells us,
+that &#8220;Nature had bestowed upon her every thing that is necessary to form a
+complete beauty;&#8221; adding, that &#8220;by the study of the liberal arts and
+sciences, especially painting, music, and poetry, she had so embellished
+her natural good qualities, that she appeared to be the most amiable
+Princess in Christendom.&#8221; On the occasion of her marriage, not only were
+the brains of all the jewellers, embroiderers, and tailors of Paris put in
+requisition, but a whole host of French poets felt themselves suddenly
+inspired. Epithalamiums poured in from all quarters, spiced with flattery
+of all kinds, few of which have been borne down the stream of time so
+honourably for their author&#8217;s abilities as that of Buchanan, who, having
+long struggled with poverty, had at last risen to independence, under the
+patronage of Cardinal Lorraine. This poem is well known, but is not more
+complimentary than that of Joachim du Bellay, who, after comparing Mary to
+Venus, concludes his song with these lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Par une cha&icirc;ne &agrave; sa langue attach&eacute;e<br />
+Hercule &agrave; soi les peuple attiroit;<br />
+Mais celle ci tire ceux qu&#8217;elle voit<br />
+Par une cha&icirc;ne &agrave; ses beaux yeux attach&eacute;e.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>Homage, so general, cannot have been entirely misplaced, or very palpably
+exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>In Scotland, through the instigation of the Queen Regent, Mary&#8217;s nuptials,
+which were far from being agreeable to a numerous party, were celebrated
+with probably less sincere, and certainly much more homely expressions of
+pleasure. Orders were sent to the different towns &#8220;to make fyres and
+processions general.&#8221; Mons-Meg, the celebrated great gun of Edinburgh
+Castle, was fired once; and there is a charge of ten shillings in the
+treasurer&#8217;s accounts of that year paid to certain persons for bringing up
+the cannon &#8220;to be schote, and for the finding and carrying of her bullet
+after she was schote frae Wardie Muir to the Castel of Edinburgh,&#8221;&mdash;a
+distance of about two miles. A play was also enacted, but of what kind it
+is difficult to say, at the expense of the city of Edinburgh.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY THE QUEEN DAUPHINESS, THE QUEEN, AND THE QUEEN DOWAGER OF FRANCE.</span></p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the espousals, Mary and her husband retired to one of their
+princely summer residences. Here she unostentatiously discharged the
+duties of a respectful and attentive wife, in a manner which gained for
+her the admiration of all who visited them. Delightful as society and
+amusements must at that age have been to her, she readily accommodated
+herself to the peculiar temper of Francis, and seemed willing, for his
+sake, to resign all the gaieties of the court.</p>
+
+<p>But the intriguing and restless ambition of her uncles could not allow her
+to remain long quiet. About this time, Mary Tudor, who had succeeded
+Edward VI. on the English throne, died; and although the Parliament of
+that country had declared that the succession rested in her sister
+Elizabeth, it was thought proper to claim for Mary Stuart a prior right.
+The ground upon which they built this claim was the following. Henry VIII.
+married for his first wife Catharine of Arragon, widow of his brother
+Arthur, and by her he had one child,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> Mary. Pretending after having lived
+with her eighteen years, that his conscience rebuked him for making his
+brother&#8217;s wife the partner of his bed, he procured a divorce from
+Catharine for the purpose of marrying Anne Boleyn, by whom he had also one
+daughter, Elizabeth. Growing tired of this new wife, she was sent to the
+scaffold to make way for Jane Seymour, by whom he had one son, Edward. Of
+this uxorious monarch&#8217;s other three wives, it is unnecessary to speak.
+Henry had procured from the British Parliament a solemn act, declaring
+both his daughters illegitimate, and he left his crown to Edward VI., who
+accordingly succeeded him. Upon Edward&#8217;s death, the Parliament, rescinding
+their former act, in order to save the nation from a civil war, called to
+the throne Henry&#8217;s eldest daughter Mary,&mdash;not, however, without a protest
+being entered in behalf of the Scotch Queen by her guardians. Upon Mary&#8217;s
+death, the opportunity again occurred of pressing the claims of the
+daughter of James V. The mother of that king, it will be remembered, who
+married his father James IV., was the eldest daughter of Henry VII., and
+sister, consequently, of Henry VIII. Henry was, therefore, Mary&#8217;s maternal
+grand-uncle; and if his wives, Catharine and Anne Boleyn, were legally
+divorced, she had certainly a better right to the English Crown than any
+of their illegitimate offspring. Soon after the accession, however, of
+Edward VI., the Parliament, complying with the voice of the whole nation,
+had declared them legitimate; and as Elizabeth now quietly took possession
+of the throne, and could hardly by any chance have been dispossessed, it
+was, to say the least, extremely <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>ill-advised to push Mary forward as a
+rival claimant.</p>
+
+<p>For various reasons, however, this was the policy which the Guises chose
+to pursue. Nor did they proceed to assert her right with any particular
+delicacy or caution. Whenever the Dauphin and his Queen came into public,
+they were greeted as the King and Queen of England; and the English arms
+were engraved upon their plate, embroidered upon their scutcheons and
+banners, and painted on their furniture.<a name='fna_22' id='fna_22' href='#f_22'><small>[22]</small></a> Mary&#8217;s favourite device,
+also, at this time, was the two crowns of France and Scotland, with the
+motto, <i>Aliamque moratur</i>, meaning that of England. The prediction made by
+the Duke of Alva, on observing this piece of empty parade, was but too
+fatally fulfilled,&mdash;&#8220;That bearing of Mary Stuart&#8217;s,&#8221; said he, &#8220;will not be
+easily borne.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>About this time Mary seems to have been attacked with the first serious
+illness which had overtaken her in France. It was not of that acute
+description which confined her to bed, but was a sort of general debility
+accompanied with a tendency to frequent fainting. It is mentioned in
+Forbes&#8217;s State Papers, that on one occasion, to prevent her from swooning
+in church, her attendants were glad to bring her wine from the altar.
+There were some at the French Court who would have felt little grief had
+this illness ended fatally, considering how serious a blow Mary&#8217;s death
+would have been to the too predominating influence of the House of Guise.
+In England, the news would have been particularly agreeable to Elizabeth,
+whose ambassador at Paris eagerly consoled her with the intelligence that
+Mary was not expected to be of long continuance. The natural strength of
+her constitution, however, soon restored her to her former health and
+spirits.</p>
+
+<p>But it was destined that there was to be another and more unexpected death
+at the French Court. Henry II., while exhibiting his prowess at a
+tournament, on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to
+Philip of Spain, in July 1559, received a wound in the head from the spear
+of his antagonist, the Count Montgomery, which, though apparently not of
+much consequence at first, occasioned his dissolution eight days
+afterwards. A considerable change immediately took place in the aspect of
+the Court. The stars of the Duchess de Valentinois, and of the Constable
+Montmorency, set at once; and that of Catharine de Medicis, though not
+entirely obscured, shone lower in the horizon. She was now only the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>second lady in France, Mary Stuart taking the precedence. The Guises
+reigned along with her, and the House of Bourbon trembled. Catharine, who
+could bear no superior, more especially one young enough to be her own
+daughter, could ill disguise her chagrin. As a guardian, however, of her
+late husband&#8217;s younger sons, the presumptive heirs to the crown, she was
+entitled to maintain her place and authority in the Government. There is a
+curious little anecdote of her which shows how much the change in her
+situation was preying on her mind. As she was leaving the Palace of the
+Tournelles, to accompany Francis to the Louvre, where he was to appear as
+the new Sovereign, she fell into a reverie, and in traversing the gallery,
+took a wrong turn, and was entirely separated from her party before she
+discovered her mistake. She soon overtook them, however, and as they
+passed out, said to Mary,&mdash;&#8220;Pass on, Madam, it is now your turn to take
+precedence.&#8221; Mary accepted the courtesy, but with becoming delicacy
+insisted that Catharine should enter the carriage first.<a name='fna_23' id='fna_23' href='#f_23'><small>[23]</small></a> There is
+something more affecting in the change which Henry&#8217;s death produced in the
+condition of the venerable Montmorency and his family. He whom three
+monarchs had loved and respected, who had given dignity to their counsels,
+and ensured success to their arms, was not considered worthy of remaining
+in the palace of the feeble and entrammelled Francis. With a princely
+retinue, he retired honourably to his mansion at Chantilly.</p>
+
+<p>Mary was now at the very height of European<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> grandeur. The Queen of two
+powerful countries&mdash;and the heir-presumptive of a third,&mdash;in the flower of
+her age,&mdash;and, from her superior mental endowments, much more worshipped,
+even in France, than her husband, she affords at this period of her
+history as striking an example as can be found of the concentration of all
+the blessings of fortune in one person. She stood unluckily on too high
+and glorious a pinnacle to be able to retain her position long, consistent
+with the <i>vices vit&aelig; mortalium</i>. Whilst she conducted herself with a
+prudence and propriety altogether remarkable, considering her youth and
+the susceptibility of her nature, she began to be regarded with suspicion
+at once by France, England, and Scotland. In France, she was obliged to
+bear the blame of many instances of bigotry and over-severity in the
+government of her uncles;&mdash;in England, Elizabeth took every opportunity to
+load with opprobrium a sister Queen, whose descent, birth, station, and
+accomplishments, were so much superior to her own;&mdash;in Scotland, the
+Reformers, inspired by James Stuart, who, with ulterior views of his own,
+was contented to act as the tool of Elizabeth, laboured to make it be
+believed that Mary was an uncompromising and narrow-minded Catholic.</p>
+
+<p>In September 1559, Francis was solemnly crowned at Rheims; and during the
+remainder of the season, he and Mary, attended by their nobles, made
+various progresses through the country. In December, Francis, whose health
+was evidently giving way, went, by the advice of his physicians, to Blois,
+celebrated for the mildness of its climate. It affords a very vivid idea
+of the ignorant superstition of the French peasantry to learn, that on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+his journey thither, every village through which he passed was deserted.
+An absurd story had been circulated, and was universally believed, that
+the nature of Francis&#8217;s complaints were such, that they could only be
+cured by the royal patient bathing in the blood of young children. Francis
+himself, although probably not informed of the cause, observed with pain
+how he was every where shunned; and, notwithstanding the soothing
+tenderness of Mary, who accompanied him, is said to have exclaimed to the
+Cardinal Lorraine, &#8220;What have I done to be thus shunned and detested? They
+fly me; my people abhor me! It is not thus that the French used to receive
+their King.&#8221;<a name='fna_24' id='fna_24' href='#f_24'><small>[24]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Misfortunes, it is said, never come singly. Whilst Mary was performing the
+part of an affectionate nurse to her husband, she sustained an
+irretrievable loss in the death of her mother, the Scottish Regent, in
+June 1560; and in the December following, her husband, Francis, died at
+Orleans, in the 17th year of his age, and the 17th month of his reign.<a name='fna_25' id='fna_25' href='#f_25'><small>[25]</small></a>
+Feeling that his exhausted constitution was sinking rapidly, and that his
+death was at hand, almost the last words he spoke were to testify his
+affection for Mary, and his sense of her virtues. He earnestly beseeched
+his mother to treat her as her own daughter, and his brother to look upon
+her as a sister. He was a prince, says Con&aelig;us,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> in whom, had he lived,
+more merit would probably have been discovered than most people
+suspected.<a name='fna_26' id='fna_26' href='#f_26'><small>[26]</small></a> The whole face of things in France was by this event
+instantly changed again. Francis the Little, as he was contemptuously
+termed by the French, in opposition to his father Francis the Great, was
+succeeded by his younger brother, Charles IX. He being still a minor, his
+mother, Catharine, contrived to get herself appointed his guardian, and
+thus became once more Queen of France, the nobility, as Chalmers remarks,
+being more inclined to relish a <i>real</i> minority, than an imaginary
+<i>majority</i>. Catharine&#8217;s jealousy of Mary Stuart, of course extended
+itself, with greater justice, to her uncles of Guise. It was now their
+turn to make way for Montmorency; and the Cardinal of Lorraine, one of the
+most intriguing statesmen of the age, retired, in no very charitable mood
+of mind, to his archbishopric at Rheims, where, in a fit of spleen, he
+declared he would devote himself entirely to religion.</p>
+
+<p>There is something exceedingly na&iuml;ve and amusing in Sir James Melville&#8217;s
+account of this &#8220;gret changement.&#8221; &#8220;The Queen-mother,&#8221; says he, &#8220;was blyth
+of the death of King Francis, her son, because she had na guiding of him,
+but only the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal, his brother, by raisoun that
+the Queen, our maistress, was their sister&#8217;s dochter. Sa, the Queen-mother
+was content to be quit of the government of the house of Guise; and for
+their cause (sake) she had a great mislyking of our Queen.&#8221; Of
+Montmorency, who, as soon as he heard of the illness of Francis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+commenced his journey towards the Court, he says,&mdash;&#8220;The Constable, also
+chargit to come to the court, looked for na less, and seamed to be seak,
+making little journees, caried in a horse-litter, drew time sae lang by
+the way, that the King, in the meantime, died. Then he lap on horsbak and
+cam freely to the Court and commandit, like a Constable, the men of war
+that gardit the Croun, by the Duke of Guise commandement, to pack them aff
+the toune. The Queen-mother was also very glaid of his coming, that by his
+autority and frendship with the King of Navarre, she mycht the better
+dryve the house of Guise to the door.&#8221; Of Mary, who, it may well be
+supposed, felt this change more than any one, Melville says,&mdash;&#8220;Our Queen
+also, seeing her friends in disgrace, and knawing hirself no to be weil
+liked, left the Court, and was a sorrowful widow when I took my leave at
+hir, in a gentilman&#8217;s house, four myle fra Orleans.&#8221; To this &#8220;gentilman&#8217;s
+house,&#8221; or chateau, in the neighbourhood of Orleans, Mary had retired to
+shed in private those tears, which the death of her husband called forth.
+In losing Francis, she had lost the playmate of her childhood, the husband
+of her youth, and what, by many women, would be considered as serious a
+loss as either, the rank and title of Queen of France. It was here,
+probably, that she composed those verses to the memory of her deceased
+husband, which her biographers have so frequently copied, and which are so
+full of gentle and unaffected feeling.</p>
+
+<p>Mary, however, was at this time a personage of too much importance in the
+politics and affairs of Europe, to be left long unmolested to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>indulgence of that sincere, but commonly temporary, sorrow of a widow of
+eighteen. New suitors were even now beginning to form hopes of an alliance
+with her; and two of the earliest in the field were, Don Carlos of Spain,
+and the King of Navarre. But Mary was determined to listen to no proposals
+of a matrimonial nature, till she had arranged the plan of her future
+life. France was no longer for her the country it had once been. Her
+affectionate father-in-law Henry, and her amiable, though weak, husband
+Francis, both of whom commanded for her the first rank in the State, were
+dead; her mother would never visit her more, for her tomb had already been
+erected at Rheims, and her proud uncles had been banished from the Court.
+Mary had too high a spirit, and knew her own superiority too well, to
+brook for a moment the haughty control of Catharine de Medicis. She felt
+that not all the blood of all the merchants of Italy, could ever elevate
+the Queen-Dowager to an equality with one who, as it is said she herself
+once expressed it, drew her descent from a centinary line of Kings.
+Catharine felt this painfully, and the more so, that when Mary once more
+made her appearance at Court, she perceived, in the words of Miss Benger,
+that &#8220;the charms of her conversation, her graceful address, her
+captivating accomplishments, had raised the <i>woman</i> above the <i>Queen</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, by the Reformed party in Scotland, the news of the death
+of Francis was received with any thing but sorrow. Knox declared
+triumphantly that &#8220;his glory had perished, and that the pride of his
+stubborn heart had vanished into smoke.&#8221; The Lord James, her natural
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>brother, was immediately deputed by the Congregation to proceed to
+France, to ascertain whether the Queen intended returning to her native
+country, and if she did, to influence her as much as possible in favour of
+the true gospel and its friends. Nor were the Catholics inactive at this
+critical juncture. A meeting was held, at which were present the
+Archbishop of St Andrews, the Bishops of Aberdeen, Murray, and Ross, the
+Earls of Huntly, Athol, Crawfurd, and Sutherland, and many other persons
+of distinction, by whom it was determined to send as <i>their</i> ambassador to
+Mary, John Lesly, afterwards Bishop of Ross, and one of the Queen&#8217;s
+staunchest friends, both during her life and after it. He was of course
+instructed to give her a very different account of the state of matters
+from that which the Lord James would do. He was to speak to her of the
+power and influence of the Catholic party; and to contrast their fidelity
+both to her and to her mother, with the rebellious proceedings of those
+who supported the covenant.</p>
+
+<p>The Lord James went by the way of England, and Lesly sailed from Aberdeen
+for Holland. Both made good speed; and Lesly arrived at Vitry in
+Champagne, where Mary was then residing, only one day before the Prior of
+St Andrews. He lost no time in gaining admission to the Queen; and though
+there is little doubt that his views were more sincere and honourable than
+those of her brother, it is at the same time very questionable whether the
+advice he gave her was judicious; and it is probably fortunate that Mary&#8217;s
+good sense and moderation led her to reject it. Lesly commenced with
+cautioning her against the crafty speeches which he knew the Lord James
+was about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> to make to her, assuring her that his principal object was to
+insinuate himself into her good graces, to obtain the chief management of
+affairs, and crush effectually the old religion. The Prior, Lesly assured
+her, was not so warm in the cause of the Reformers, from any conviction of
+its truth, as from his wish to make it a stepping-stone for his own
+ambition. For these reasons, he advised her to bring with her to Scotland
+an armed force, and to land at Aberdeen, or some northern port, where the
+Earl of Huntly and her other friends would join her with a numerous army,
+at the head of which she might advance towards Edinburgh, and defeat at
+once the machinations of her enemies. The Queen, in reply to all this,
+merely desired that Lesly should remain with her till she returned to
+Scotland, commanding him to write, in the mean time, to the Lords and
+Prelates who sent him, to inform them of her favourable sentiments towards
+them, and of her intention to come speedily home.<a name='fna_27' id='fna_27' href='#f_27'><small>[27]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The day after Lesly&#8217;s audience, Mary&#8217;s old friend the Lord James (for it
+will be remembered, that thirteen years before he had come to France with
+her, and he had in the interval paid her one or two visits) obtained an
+interview with his sister. He had every desire to retain the favourable
+place which he flattered himself he held in her estimation; and, though so
+rigid a Reformer among his Scottish friends, his conscience does not seem
+to have prevented him from paying all the court he could to his Catholic
+Sovereign. In the course of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> his conversation with her, he carefully
+avoided every subject which might have been disagreeable to Mary. He
+beseeched her to believe, that she would not find the remotest occasion
+for any foreign troops in Scotland, as the whole nation was prepared
+faithfully to obey her. This assurance was true, as it turned out; but it
+is not quite certain whether the Prior of St Andrews was thinking, at the
+time, so much of its truth, as of its being convenient, for various
+reasons, that Mary should have no standing force, at her command, in her
+own kingdom. Mary gave to her brother the same general sort of answer that
+she had previously given to Lesly. At the same time, she was secretly
+disposed to attribute greater weight to his arguments, and treat him with
+higher consideration, for a reason which Melville furnishes. It appears
+that the French noblemen, who, on the conclusion of peace with England had
+returned from Scotland, had all assured her, that she would find it most
+for her interest to associate in her councils the leaders of the
+Reformers,&mdash;particularly the Prior himself,&mdash;the Earl of Argyle, who had
+married her natural sister, the Lady Jane Stuart,&mdash;and Maitland of
+Lethington.</p>
+
+<p>It is worthy of notice, that, affairs of state having been discussed, the
+Prior ventured to speak a word or two for his own interest. He requested
+that the Earldom of Murray might be conferred on him, and the Queen
+promised to attend to his request on her return to Scotland. Having thus
+prudently discharged his commission, the Lord James took his leave,
+visiting Elizabeth on his way home, as he had already done<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> before passing
+over into France. About the same time, many of the Scotch nobility, in
+anticipation of her speedy return, came to pay their duty to the Queen,
+and, among them, was the celebrated Earl of Bothwell.<a name='fna_28' id='fna_28' href='#f_28'><small>[28]</small></a></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY&#8217;S RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND PREVIOUS NEGOTIATIONS WITH ELIZABETH.</span></p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth being informed of Mary&#8217;s intended movements, thought the
+opportunity a favourable one, for adjusting with her one or two of their
+mutual disagreements. Mary&#8217;s refusal to ratify the celebrated treaty of
+Edinburgh, had particularly galled the English Queen. Most of the
+essential articles of that treaty had already been carried into effect;
+and as Francis and Mary had sent their ambassadors into Scotland with full
+powers, they were bound according to the ordinary laws of diplomacy, to
+agree to whatever concessions their plenipotentiaries made. But, as
+Robertson has remarked, Cecil &#8220;had proved greatly an overmatch for
+Monluc.&#8221; In the sixth article, which was by far the most offensive to the
+Scottish Queen, he had got the French delegates to consent to a
+declaration, that Francis and Mary should abstain from using and bearing
+the title and arms of the kingdom of England, not only during the life of
+Elizabeth, but &#8220;<i>in all times coming</i>.&#8221; There was here so palpable a
+departure from all law and justice, that, if there was ever a case in
+which a sovereign was justified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> in refusing to sanction the blunders of
+his representatives, it was this. Robertson&#8217;s observations on the point
+are forcible and correct. &#8220;The ratification of this article,&#8221; says he,
+&#8220;would have been of the most fatal consequence to Mary. The Crown of
+England was an object worthy of her ambition. Her pretensions to it gave
+her great dignity and importance in the eyes of all Europe. By many, her
+title was esteemed preferable to that of Elizabeth. Among the English
+themselves, the Roman Catholics, who formed at that time a numerous and
+active party, openly espoused this opinion; and even the Protestants, who
+supported Elizabeth&#8217;s throne, could not deny the Queen of Scots to be her
+immediate heir. A proper opportunity to avail herself of all these
+advantages, could not, in the course of things, be far distant, and many
+incidents might fall in to bring this opportunity nearer than was
+expected. In these circumstances, Mary, by ratifying the article in
+dispute, would have lost that rank which she had hitherto held among
+neighbouring princes; the zeal of her adherents must have gradually
+cooled; and she might have renounced, from that moment, all hopes of ever
+wearing the English crown.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mary, therefore, cannot be, in fairness, blamed for her conduct regarding
+this treaty. But, as has been already said, she allowed herself to be
+persuaded to a very great imprudence, when she advanced, what she declared
+to be a present and existing claim on the English Crown. This was an
+aggravation of the offence, which Elizabeth could never pardon. She
+determined to retort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> upon Mary, as efficiently though not quite so
+directly. She found means to hint to her friends in Scotland, that it
+would not be disagreeable to her, were the Earl of Arran, eldest son of
+the Duke of Chatelherault, and, after his father, presumptive heir to the
+throne, to propose himself to her as a husband. This was accordingly done,
+and must have touched Mary very closely, especially as she had no children
+by her husband Francis. But as Elizabeth had never any serious intention
+of accepting of Arran&#8217;s proposals, she was resolved upon taking another
+and much more unjustifiable method of harassing Mary.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing that she possessed the command of the seas, the English Queen
+imagined that she had it in her power to prevent, if she chose, Mary&#8217;s
+return to her own kingdom. Before granting her, therefore, as in common
+courtesy she was bound to do, a free passage, she determined on seizing
+the opportunity for again pressing the ratification of the treaty of
+Edinburgh. With this view, she desired Sir Nicolas Throckmorton, her
+ambassador at Paris, to wait on the Queen of Scots, ostensibly to
+congratulate her on her recovery from an attack of ague, but in reality to
+press this matter upon her attention. The audience which Mary granted to
+Throckmorton upon this occasion, together with another which she gave him
+a few weeks afterwards, introduce us to her, for the first time, acting
+for herself, in her public and important capacity of Queen of Scotland.
+All historians unite in expressing their admiration of the talented and
+dignified manner in which she conducted herself, though only in her
+nineteenth year. We have fortunately a full account of both conferences,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+furnished by Sir Nicolas Throckmorton himself, in his letters to the Queen
+of England.</p>
+
+<p>The ambassador, on his first interview, having expressed Elizabeth&#8217;s
+happiness at Mary&#8217;s recovery, proceeded to renew the demand which had so
+frequently been made to her regarding the treaty of Edinburgh. Mary, in
+answer, said, that she begged to thank the Queen her good sister for her
+congratulations, and though she was not yet in perfect health, she thanked
+God for her evident convalescence. As to the treaty of Edinburgh, she
+begged to postpone giving any final answer in the affair until she had
+taken the advice of the nobles and estates of her own realm. &#8220;For though
+this matter,&#8221; she said, &#8220;doth touch me principally, yet doth it also touch
+the nobles and estates of my realm; and, therefore, it is meet that I use
+their advice therein. Heretofore they have seemed to be grieved that I
+should do any thing without them, and now they would be more offended if I
+should proceed in this matter of myself without their advice.&#8221; She added,
+that she intended to return home soon, and that she was about to send an
+ambassador to Elizabeth, to require of her the common favour of a free
+passage which princes usually ask of each other in such cases. In a spirit
+of conciliation and sound policy, she concluded with these words. &#8220;Though
+the terms wherein we have stood heretofore have been somewhat hard, yet I
+trust, that from henceforth we shall accord together as cousins and good
+neighbours. I mean to retire all the Frenchmen from Scotland who have
+given jealousy to the Queen my sister, and miscontent to my subjects; so
+that I will leave nothing undone to satisfy all parties, trusting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> the
+Queen my good sister will do the like, and that from henceforth none of my
+disobedient subjects shall find aid or support at her hands.&#8221;&mdash;Seeing that
+Mary was not to be moved from the position she had taken regarding this
+treaty, Throckmorton went on to sound her upon the subject of religion.
+His object was to ascertain what course she intended to pursue towards the
+Scottish Reformers. Mary stated to him distinctly her views upon this
+important matter, and there was a consistency and moderation in them
+hardly to have been expected from the niece of the Cardinal of Lorraine,
+had we not been previously aware of the strength of her superior mind. &#8220;I
+will be plain with you,&#8221; said she to the ambassador. &#8220;The religion which I
+profess I take to be most acceptable to God; and indeed, I neither know,
+nor desire to know, any other. Constancy becometh all people well, but
+none better than princes, and such as have rule over realms, and
+especially in matters of religion. I have been brought up in this
+religion, and who might credit me in any thing if I should show myself
+light in this case.&#8221; &#8220;I am none of those,&#8221; she added, &#8220;that will change
+their religion every year; <i>but I mean to constrain none of my subjects,
+though I could wish that they were all as I am; and I trust they shall
+have no support to constrain me</i>.&#8221; It will be seen, in the sequel, whether
+Mary ever deviated for a moment from the principles she here laid down.
+Throckmorton ventured to ask, if she did not think many errors had crept
+into her church, and whether she had ever seriously weighed the arguments
+in support of the Reformed opinions. &#8220;Though I be young, and not well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+learned,&#8221; she replied modestly, &#8220;yet have I heard this matter oft disputed
+by my uncle,&mdash;my Lord Cardinal, with some that thought they could say
+somewhat in the matter; and I found no great reason to change my opinion.
+But I have oft heard him confess, that great errors have come into the
+church, and great disorder among the ministers and clergy, of which errors
+and disorders he wished there might be a reformation.&#8221; Here this
+conference concluded.<a name='fna_29' id='fna_29' href='#f_29'><small>[29]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth, as soon as she understood that Mary waited for the advice of
+her Privy Counsellors and her Parliament, before ratifying the treaty of
+Edinburgh, addressed a letter to the &#8220;States of Scotland,&#8221; as she was
+pleased to term them, but, in point of fact, only to her old allies the
+Lords of the Congregation. The object of this letter was to convey, in
+haughty and even insolent terms, a threat that, unless they secured their
+Queen&#8217;s assent to the treaty, they might cease to look for any aid or
+protection from her. In other words, its meaning was this:&mdash;Through my
+interference, you have been able to establish the new Gospel; your Queen
+you know to be a Catholic; and as it is not unlikely that she may
+associate in her councils your old enemies the Catholic nobility, it is in
+me you trust to enable you to rebel successfully against your lawful
+Sovereign. But I have no intention to give you my support for nothing; and
+unless your reformed consciences will permit of your insisting that Mary
+Stuart shall sign away her hereditary right of succession to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> English
+throne, I shall henceforth have nothing more to do with you. No other
+interpretation can be put on such expressions as the following, couched in
+terms whose meaning sophistry itself could not hide. &#8220;In a matter so
+profitable to both the realms, we think it strange that your Queen hath no
+better advice; and therefore we do require ye all, being the States of
+that realm upon whom the burden resteth, to consider this matter deeply,
+and to make us answer whereunto we may trust. And if you shall think meet,
+she shall thus leave the peace imperfect, by breaking of her solemn
+promise, contrary to the order of all princes, we shall be well content to
+accept your answer, and shall be as careless to see the peace kept, as ye
+shall give us cause; and doubt not, by the grace of God, but whosoever of
+ye shall incline thereto, shall soonest repent. You must be content with
+our plain writing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>To this piece of &#8220;plain writing,&#8221; the Reformers, probably at the
+instigation of the Lord James, sent a submissive and cringing answer.
+&#8220;Your Majesty,&#8221; they say, &#8220;may be well assured, that in us shall be noted
+no blame, if that peace be not ratified to your Majesty&#8217;s
+contentment.&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;The benefit that we have received is so recent, that we
+cannot suddenly bury it in forgetfulness. We would desire your Majesty
+rather to be persuaded of us, that we, to our powers, will study to leave
+it in remembrance to our posterity.&#8221; In other words,&mdash;Whatever our own
+Queen Mary may determine on doing, we shall remain steady to your
+interests, and would much rather quarrel with her than with you. To this
+state of mind had Elizabeth&#8217;s <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>machinations contrived to bring the
+majority of the young Queen&#8217;s subjects.<a name='fna_30' id='fna_30' href='#f_30'><small>[30]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Mary had sent an ambassador into England to demand a safe
+conduct for her approaching voyage. This was expressly refused; and
+Throckmorton was again ordered to request an audience with Mary, to
+explain the motives of this refusal. &#8220;In this conference,&#8221; observes
+Robertson, &#8220;Mary exerted all that dignity and vigour of mind of which she
+was so capable, and at no period of her life, were her abilities displayed
+to greater advantage.&#8221; Throckmorton had recourse to the endless subject of
+the treaty of 1560, or, as it is more commonly called, the treaty of
+Edinburgh, as the apology his mistress offered for having, with studied
+disrespect, denied the suit made by Mary&#8217;s ambassador, in the presence of
+a numerous audience,&mdash;a direct breach of courtly etiquette. Mary, before
+answering Throckmorton, commanded all her attendants to retire, and then
+said,&mdash;&#8220;I like not to have so many witnesses of my passions as the Queen,
+your mistress, was content to have, when she talked with M. D&#8217;Oysel. There
+is nothing that doth more grieve me, than that I did so forget myself, as
+to require of the Queen, your mistress, that favour, which I had no need
+to ask. I may pass well enough home into my own realm, I think, without
+her passport or license; for, though the late king, your master, used all
+the impeachment he could, both to stay me and catch me, when I came
+hither, yet you know, M. l&#8217;Ambassadeur, I came hither safely, and I may
+have as good means to help me home again, if I could employ my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> friends.&#8221;
+&#8220;It seemeth,&#8221; she added, with much truth, &#8220;that the Queen, your mistress,
+maketh more account of the amity of my disobedient subjects, than she doth
+of me, their sovereign, who am her equal in degree, though inferior in
+wisdom and experience, her nighest kinswoman, and her next neighbour.&#8221; She
+then proceeded very forcibly to state, once more, her reasons for refusing
+to ratify the treaty. It had been made, she said, during the life of
+Francis II., who, as her lord and husband, was more responsible for it
+than she. Upon his death, she ceased to look for advice to the council of
+France, neither her uncles nor her own subjects, nor Elizabeth herself,
+thinking it meet, that she should be guided by any council but that of
+Scotland. There were none of her ministers with her; the matter was
+important; it touched both them and her; and she, therefore, considered it
+her duty to wait, till she should get the opinions of the wisest of them.
+As soon as she did, she undertook to send Elizabeth whatever answer might
+appear to be reasonable. &#8220;The Queen, your mistress,&#8221; observed Mary, &#8220;saith
+that I am young; she might say that I were as foolish as young, if I
+would, in the state and country that I am in, proceed to such a matter, of
+myself, without any counsel; for that which was done by the King, my late
+lord and husband, must not be taken to be my act; and yet I will say,
+truly, unto ye, and as God favours me, I did never mean otherwise, unto
+the Queen, your mistress, than becometh me to my good sister and cousin,
+nor meant her any more harm than to myself. God forgive them that have
+otherwise persuaded her, if there be any such.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>It may seem strange, that as the sixth article was the only one in the
+whole treaty of Edinburgh, which occasioned any disagreement, it was not
+proposed to make some alteration in it, which might have rendered it
+satisfactory to all parties. Mary would have had no objection to have
+given up all claim upon the Crown of England, during the lifetime of
+Elizabeth, and in favour of children born by her in lawful wedlock,&mdash;if,
+failing these children, her own right was acknowledged. There could have
+been little difficulty, one would have thought, in expressing the
+objectionable article accordingly. But this amendment would not by any
+means have suited the views of Elizabeth.<a name='fna_31' id='fna_31' href='#f_31'><small>[31]</small></a> To have acknowledged Mary&#8217;s
+right of succession would have been at once to have pointed out to all the
+Catholics of Europe, the person to whom they were to pay their court, on
+account not only of her present influence, but of the much greater which
+awaited her. Besides, it might have had the appearance of leaving it
+doubtful, whether Elizabeth&#8217;s possession of the throne was not conceded to
+her, more as a favour than as a right. This extreme jealousy on the part
+of the English Queen, originated in Mary having imprudently allowed
+herself to be persuaded to bear the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> arms of England, diversely quartered
+with her own, at the time Elizabeth was first called to the crown. At the
+interview we have been describing, Throckmorton, being silenced with
+regard to the ratification of the treaty, thought he might with propriety
+advert to this other subject of complaint.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I refer it to your own judgment, Madam,&#8221; said he, &#8220;if any thing can be
+more prejudicial to a prince, than to usurp the title and interest
+belonging to him.&#8221; Mary&#8217;s answer deserves particular attention. &#8220;M.
+L&#8217;Ambassadeur,&#8221; said she, &#8220;I was then under the commandment of King Henry
+my father, and of the king my lord and husband; and whatsoever was then
+done by their order and commandments, the same was in like manner
+continued until both their deaths; <i>since which time, you know I neither
+bore the arms, or used the title of England</i>. Methinks,&#8221; she added, &#8220;these
+my doings might ascertain the queen your mistress, that that which was
+done before, was done by commandment of them that had power over me; and
+also, in reason, she ought to be satisfied, seeing I (now) order my
+doings, as I tell ye.&#8221; With this answer Throckmorton took his leave.<a name='fna_32' id='fna_32' href='#f_32'><small>[32]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Seeing that matters could not be more amicably adjusted, Mary prepared to
+return home, independent of Elizabeth&#8217;s permission. Yet it was not without
+many a bitter regret that she thought of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> leaving all the fascinations of
+her adopted country, France. When left alone, she was frequently found in
+tears; and it is more than probable, that, as Miss Benger has expressed
+it, &#8220;there were moments when Mary recoiled with indescribable horror from
+the idea of living in Scotland&mdash;where her religion was insulted, and her
+sex contemned; where her mother had languished in misery, and her father
+sunk into an untimely grave.&#8221; At last, however, the period arrived when it
+was necessary for her to bid a final adieu to the scenes and friends of
+her youth. She had delayed from month to month, as if conscious that, in
+leaving France, she was about to part with happiness. She had originally
+proposed going so early as the spring of 1561, but it was late in July
+before she left Paris; and as she lingered on the way, first at St
+Germains, and afterwards at Calais, August was well advanced before she
+set sail. The spring of this year, says Brantome poetically, was so
+backward, that it appeared as if it would never put on its robe of
+flowers; and thus gave an opportunity to the gallants of the Court to
+assert, that it wore so doleful a garb to testify its sorrow for the
+intended departure of Mary Stuart.<a name='fna_33' id='fna_33' href='#f_33'><small>[33]</small></a> She was accompanied as far as St
+Germains by Catharine de Medicis, and nearly all the French Court. Her six
+uncles, Anne of Este, and many other ladies and gentlemen of distinction,
+proceeded on with her to Calais. The historians Castelnau and Brantome
+were both of the Queen&#8217;s retinue, and accompanied her to Scotland. At
+Calais she found four vessels, one of which was fitted up for herself and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+friends, and a second for her escort; the two others were for the
+furniture she took with her.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth, meanwhile, was not inattentive to the proceedings of the
+Scottish Queen. Through the agency of her minister, Cecil, she had been
+anxiously endeavouring to discover whether she would render herself
+particularly obnoxious either to Catharine de Medicis, or the leading men
+in Scotland, by making herself mistress of Mary&#8217;s person on her passage
+homewards, and carrying her a prisoner into England. Her ambassador,
+Throckmorton, had given her good reason to believe that Catharine was not
+disposed to be particularly warm in Mary&#8217;s defence.<a name='fna_34' id='fna_34' href='#f_34'><small>[34]</small></a> As to Scotch
+interference, Camden expressly informs us, that the Lord James, when he
+passed through England on his return from France, warned Elizabeth of
+Mary&#8217;s intended movements, and advised that she should be intercepted.
+This assertion, though its truth has been doubted, is rendered exceedingly
+probable by the contents of two letters, which have been preserved. The
+first is from Throckmorton, who assures Elizabeth that the Lord James
+deserves her most particular esteem;&mdash;&#8220;Your Majesty,&#8221; he says, &#8220;may, in my
+opinion, make good account of his constancy towards you; and so he
+deserveth to be well entertained and made of by your Majesty, as one that
+may stand ye in no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> small stead for the advancement of your Majesty&#8217;s
+desire. Since his being here (in France), he hath dealt so frankly and
+liberally with me, that I must believe he will so continue after his
+return home.&#8221;<a name='fna_35' id='fna_35' href='#f_35'><small>[35]</small></a> The other letter is from Maitland of Lethington, one of
+the ablest men among the Scotch Reformers, and the personal friend and
+co-adjutor of the Lord James, to Sir William Cecil. In this letter he
+says;&mdash;&#8220;I do also allow your opinion anent the Queen our Sovereign&#8217;s
+journey towards Scotland, whose coming hither, if she be enemy to the
+religion, and so affected towards that realm as she yet appeareth, shall
+not fail to raise wonderful tragedies.&#8221; He then proceeds to point out,
+that, as Elizabeth&#8217;s object, for her own sake, must be to prevent the
+Catholics from gaining ground in Scotland, her best means of obtaining
+such an object, is to prevent a Queen from returning into the kingdom, who
+&#8220;shall so easily win to her party the whole Papists, and so many
+Protestants as be either addicted to the French faction, covetous,
+inconstant, uneasy, ignorant, or careless.&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;So long as her Highness is
+absent,&#8221; he adds, &#8220;in this case there is no peril; but you may judge what
+the presence of a prince being craftily counselled is able to bring to
+pass.&#8221; &#8220;For my opinion,&#8221; he concludes, &#8220;anent the continuance of amity
+betwixt these two realms, there is no danger of breach so long as the
+Queen is absent; but her presence may alter many things.&#8221;<a name='fna_36' id='fna_36' href='#f_36'><small>[36]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>To make assurance doubly sure, Cecil desired Randolph, the English
+resident in Scotland, to feel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> the pulse of the nobility. On the 9th of
+August 1561, only a few days before Mary sailed from France, Randolph
+wrote from Edinburgh an epistle to Cecil, in which he assures him that it
+will be a &#8220;stout adventure for a <i>sick crazed woman</i>,&#8221; (a singular mode of
+designating Mary), to venture home to a country so little disposed to
+receive her. &#8220;I have shewn your Honour&#8217;s letters,&#8221; he says, &#8220;unto the Lord
+James, Lord Morton, Lord Lethington; <i>they wish, as your Honour doth, that
+she might be stayed yet for a space; and if it were not for their
+obedience sake, some of them care not tho&#8217; they never saw her face</i>.&#8221;&mdash;And
+again&mdash;&#8220;Whatsomever cometh of this, he (Lethington), findeth it ever best
+that she come not.&#8221; Knox also, it seems, had been written to, and had
+expressed his resolution to resist to the last Mary&#8217;s authority. &#8220;By such
+letters as ye have last received,&#8221; says Randolph, &#8220;your Honour somewhat
+understandeth of Mr Knox himself, and also of others, what is
+determined,&mdash;he himself to abide the uttermost, and others never to leave
+him, until God hath taken his life.&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;His daily prayer is, for the
+maintenance of unity with England, and that God will never suffer men to
+be so ungrate as by any persuasion to run headlong unto the destruction of
+them that have saved their lives, and restored their country to
+liberty.&#8221;<a name='fna_37' id='fna_37' href='#f_37'><small>[37]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth having thus felt her way, and being satisfied that she might
+with safety pursue her own inclinations, was determined not to rest
+contented with the mere refusal of passports. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>Throckmorton was ordered to
+ascertain exactly when and how Mary intended sailing. The Scottish Queen
+became aware of his drift, from some questions he put to her, and said to
+him cuttingly,&mdash;&#8220;I trust the wind will be so favourable, as I shall not
+need to come on the coast of England; and if I do, then M. l&#8217;Ambassadeur,
+the Queen, your mistress, shall have me in her hands to do her will of me;
+and if she be so hard-hearted as to desire my end, she may then do her
+pleasure, and make sacrifice of me. Peradventure, that casualty might be
+better for me than to live.&#8221; Throckmorton, however, made good his point,
+and was able to inform Elizabeth that Mary would sail either from
+Havre-de-Grace or Calais, and that she would first proceed along the coast
+of Flanders, and then strike over to Scotland. For the greater certainty,
+he suggested the propriety of some spies being sent across to the French
+coast, who would give the earliest intelligence of her movements.
+Profiting by this and other information, all the best historians of the
+time agree in stating, that Elizabeth sent a squadron to sea with all
+expedition. It was only a thick and unexpected fog which prevented these
+vessels from falling in with that in which Mary sailed. The smaller craft
+which carried her furniture, they did meet with, and, believing them to be
+the prize they were in search of, they boarded and examined them. One ship
+they detained, in which was the Earl of Eglinton, and some of Mary&#8217;s
+horses and mules, and, under the pretence of suspecting it of piracy,
+actually carried it into an English harbour. The affectation of &#8220;clearing
+the seas from pirates,&#8221; as Cecil expresses it, was a mere after-thought,
+invented to do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> away with the suspicion which attached itself to this
+unsuccessful attempt. Its real purpose was openly talked of at the time.
+Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, in a speech he made at a meeting of the
+Privy Council in 1562, said frankly,&mdash;&#8220;Think ye that the Scottish Queen&#8217;s
+suit, made in all friendly manner, to come through England at the time she
+left France, and the denial thereof, unless the treaty were ratified, is
+by them forgotten, or else your sending of your ships to sea at the time
+of her passage?&#8221; Camden, Holinshed, Spottiswoode, Stranguage, and
+Buchanan, all speak to the same effect; and Elizabeth&#8217;s intentions, though
+frustrated, hardly admit of a doubt.<a name='fna_38' id='fna_38' href='#f_38'><small>[38]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>On the 25th of August 1561, Mary sailed out of the harbour of Calais,&mdash;not
+without shedding, and seeing shed many tears. She did not, however, part
+with all the friends who had accompanied her to the coast. Three of her
+uncles,&mdash;the Duke d&#8217;Aumale, the Marquis D&#8217;Elbeuf, and the Grand
+Prior,&mdash;the Duke Danville, son to Montmorency, and afterwards Constable of
+France, one of the most ardent and sincere admirers that Mary perhaps ever
+had,&mdash;and many other persons of rank, among whom was the unfortunate poet
+Chatelard, who fluttered like a moth round the light in which he was to be
+consumed,&mdash;sailed with her for Scotland. Just as she left the harbour, an
+unfortunate accident happened to a vessel, which, by unskilful management,
+struck upon the bar, and was wrecked within a very short distance of her
+own galley. &#8220;This is a sad omen,&#8221; she exclaimed, weeping. A gentle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> breeze
+sprang up; the sails were set, and the little squadron got under way,
+consisting, as has been said, of only four vessels, for Mary dreaded lest
+her subjects should suppose that she was coming home with any military
+force. The feelings of &#8220;<i>la Reine Blanche</i>,&#8221; as the French termed her,
+from the white mourning she wore for Francis, were at all times
+exceedingly acute. On the present occasion, her grief amounted almost to
+despair. As long as the light of day continued, she stood immoveable on
+the vessel&#8217;s deck, gazing with tearful eyes upon the French coast, and
+exclaiming incessantly,&mdash;&#8220;Farewell, France! farewell, my beloved country!&#8221;
+When night approached, and her friends beseeched her to retire to the
+cabin, she hid her face in her hands, and sobbed aloud. &#8220;The darkness
+which is now brooding over France,&#8221; said she, &#8220;is like the darkness in my
+own heart.&#8221; A little afterwards, she added,&mdash;&#8220;I am unlike the Carthaginian
+Dido, for she looked perpetually on the sea, when &AElig;neas departed, whilst
+all my regards are for the land.&#8221; Having caused a bed to be made for her
+on deck, she wept herself asleep, previously enjoining her attendants to
+waken her at the first peep of day, if the French coast was still visible.
+Her wishes were gratified; for during the night the wind died away, and
+the vessel made little progress. Mary rose with the dawn, and feasted her
+eyes once more with a sight of France. At sunrise, however, the breeze
+returned, and the galley beginning to make way, the land rapidly receded
+in the distance. Again her tears burst forth, and again she
+exclaimed,&mdash;&#8220;Farewell, beloved France! I shall never, never, see you
+more.&#8221; In the depth of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> her sorrow, she even wished that the English
+fleet, which she conjectured had been sent out to intercept her, would
+make its appearance, and render it necessary for her to seek for safety,
+by returning to the port from whence she had sailed. But no interruption
+of this kind occurred.<a name='fna_39' id='fna_39' href='#f_39'><small>[39]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>It is more than likely, that it was during this voyage Mary composed the
+elegant and simple little song, so expressive of her genuine feelings on
+leaving France. Though familiarly known to every reader, we cannot deny
+ourselves the pleasure of inserting it here.</p>
+
+<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Adieu, plaisant pays de France!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">O my patrie,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">La plus cherie;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Qui a nourri ma jeune enfance.</span><br />
+Adieu, France! adieu, mes beaux jours!<br />
+La nef qui d&eacute;joint mes amours,<br />
+N&#8217;&agrave; cy de moi que la moiti&eacute;;<br />
+Une parte te reste; elle est tienne;<br />
+Je la fie &agrave; ton amiti&eacute;,<br />
+Pour que de l&#8217;autre il te souvienne!<a name='fna_40' id='fna_40' href='#f_40'><small>[40]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>Brantome, who sailed in the same vessel with Mary, and gives a particular
+account of all the events of this voyage, mentions, that the day before
+entering the Frith of Forth, so thick a mist came on, that it was
+impossible to see from the poop to the prow. By way of precaution, lest
+they should run foul of any other vessel, a lantern was lighted, and set
+at the bow. This gave Chatelard occasion to remark, that it was taking a
+very unnecessary piece of trouble, so long at least as Mary Stuart
+remained upon deck, and kept her eyes open. When the mist, at length,
+cleared away, they found their vessel in the midst of rocks, from which it
+required much skill and no little labour to get her clear. Mary declared,
+that so far as regarded her own feelings, she would not have looked upon
+shipwreck as a great calamity; but that she would not wish to see the
+lives of the friends who were with her endangered (among whom not the
+least dear were her four Maries), for all the kingdom of Scotland. She
+added, that as a bad omen had attended her departure so this thick fog
+seemed to be but an evil augury at her arrival. At length, the harbour of
+Leith appeared in sight, and Mary&#8217;s eye rested, for the first time, upon
+Arthur Seat and the Castle of Edinburgh.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY&#8217;S ARRIVAL AT HOLYROOD, WITH SKETCHES OF HER PRINCIPAL NOBILITY.</span></p>
+
+<p>Mary landed in Scotland with a mind full of anxiety and uncertainty. She
+came alone and unprotected, to assume the government of a country which
+had long been distinguished for its rebellious turbulence. The masculine
+spirit of her father had quailed before the storm. Her mother, whose
+intellectual energy she well knew, had in vain attempted to bring order
+out of confusion, and harassed and worn out, had at length surrendered her
+life in the struggle. For the last two years, it is true, the country had
+enjoyed, not peace and tranquillity, but a cessation from an actual state
+of warfare. Nevertheless, the seeds of discontent, and of mutual distrust
+and hatred, were as abundant as ever. Mary&#8217;s religion was well known; and
+her confirmed devotion to it, was by one party magnified into bigotry, and
+pronounced criminal; whilst by another, it was feared she would show
+herself too lukewarm in revenging the insults which the ancient worship
+had sustained. Such being the state of things, how could a young, and
+comparatively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> inexperienced queen, just nineteen years of age, approach
+her kingdom otherwise than with fear and trembling?</p>
+
+<p>Contrasted too with her former situation, that which she was now about to
+fill, appeared particularly formidable. In France, even during the life of
+her husband, and while at the very height of her power, few of the severer
+duties of government rested upon her. She had all the essential authority,
+without much of the responsibility of a sovereign. Francis consulted her
+upon every occasion, and followed her advice in almost every matter in
+which she chose to interfere; but it was to him, or her uncles of Guise,
+that the nation looked, when any of the state-machinery went wrong. It
+would be very different in Scotland. By whatever counsel she acted, the
+blame of all unpopular measures would be sure to rest with her. If she
+favoured the Protestants, the Catholics would renounce her; if she
+assisted the Catholics, the Protestants would again be found assembling at
+Perth, listening, with arms in their hands, to the sermons of John Knox,
+pulling down the remaining monasteries, and subscribing additional
+covenants. Is it surprising then, that she found it difficult to steer her
+course between the rocks of Scylla and the whirlpools of Charybdis? If
+misfortunes ultimately overtook her, the wonder unquestionably ought to
+be, not that they ever arrived, but that they should have been guarded
+against so long. Nothing but the wisest and most temperate policy, could
+have preserved quietness in a country so full of the elements of internal
+discord. Mary&#8217;s system of government throughout all its ramifications,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+must have been such as no Queen of her age could have established, had
+there not been more than an empty compliment, in those lines of Buchanan,
+in which he addresses his Royal mistress as one</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Quae sortem antevenis meritis, virtutibus annos,<br />
+Sexum animis, morum nobilitate genus.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There is, besides, a natural feeling of loyalty, which, though it may be
+evanescent, hardly fails to be kindled in the breasts of the populace, at
+the sight of their native sovereign. The Scots, though they frequently
+were far from being contented with the measures pursued by their monarchs,
+have been always celebrated for their attachment to their persons. Mary,
+on her first landing, became aware of this truth. As soon as it was known
+that she intended returning from all the splendours of France, to the more
+homely comforts of the land of her birth, the people, flattered by the
+preference she was about to show them, abated somewhat of their previous
+asperity. They were the more pleased, that she came to them, not as the
+Queen of France, who might have regarded Scotland as only a province of
+her empire, but as their own exclusive and independent sovereign. They
+recollected that she had been at the disposal of the Estates of the
+country, from the time she was seven days old, and they almost felt as if
+she had been a child of their own rearing. They knew, also, that she had
+made a narrow escape in crossing the seas; and the confidence she
+evidently placed in them, by casting anchor in Leith Roads, with only two
+galleys, did not pass unnoticed. But she had arrived sooner than was
+expected; for, so little were they aware of her intended motions, that
+when her two ships were first observed in the Frith, from the Castle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> of
+Edinburgh, no suspicion was entertained that they carried the Queen and
+her suite. It was not, till a royal salute was fired in the Roads, that
+her arrival was positively known, and that the people began to flock in
+crowds to the shore.</p>
+
+<p>On the 20th or 21st of August, 1561, the Queen landed at Leith. Here she
+was obliged to remain the whole day, as the preparations for her reception
+at Holyroodhouse were not completed. The multitude continued in the
+interval to collect at Leith, and on the roads leading to the Palace. On
+the road between Leith and Restalrig, and from thence to the Abbey, the
+different trades and corporations of Edinburgh were drawn up in order,
+lining the way with their banners and bands of music. Towards evening,
+horses were brought for the Queen and her attendants. When Mary saw them,
+accustomed as she had been to the noble and richly caparisoned steeds of
+the Parisian tournaments, she was struck both with the inferiority of
+their breed, and the poorness of their furnishings. She sighed, and could
+not help remarking the difference to some of her friends. &#8220;But they mean
+well,&#8221; said she, &#8220;and we must be content.&#8221; As she passed along, she was
+every where greeted with enthusiastic shouts of applause&mdash;the involuntary
+homage which the beauty of her countenance, the elegance of her person,
+and the graceful dignity of her bearing, could not fail to draw forth.
+Bonfires were lighted in all directions; and though illuminations were
+then but indifferently understood in Scotland, something of the kind seems
+to have been attempted. On her arrival at the Palace, all the musicians of
+Edinburgh collected below her windows, and in strains<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> of most discordant
+music continued all night to testify their joy for her return. Some of the
+more rigid Reformers, willing to yield in their own way to the general
+feeling, assembled together in a knot, and sung psalms in her honour.
+Among the musical instruments, the bagpipes were preeminently
+distinguished, which, not exactly suiting the uncultivated taste of
+Brantome, he pathetically exclaims, &#8220;He! quelle musique! et quel repos
+pour sa nuit!&#8221;<a name='fna_41' id='fna_41' href='#f_41'><small>[41]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>It is worth while remarking here, how Knox, in his History of the
+Reformation, betrays his chagrin at the affectionate manner in which Mary
+was received. &#8220;The very face of the heavens, at the time of her arrival,&#8221;
+he says, &#8220;did manifestly speak what comfort was brought into this country
+with her, by sorrow, dolor, darkness, and all impiety; for in the memory
+of man that day of the year was never seen a more dolorous face of the
+heavens, than was at her arrival, which two days after did so continue;
+for, besides the surface wet, and the corruption of the air, the mist was
+so thick and dark, that scarce could any man espy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> another the length of
+two pair of butts. The sun was not seen to shine two days before, nor two
+days after. That forewarning gave God to us, but alas! the most part were
+blind.&#8221;<a name='fna_42' id='fna_42' href='#f_42'><small>[42]</small></a> Knox proceeds to reprobate, in the severest terms, the
+unhallowed amusements which Mary permitted at Holyroodhouse. &#8220;So soon as
+ever her French fillocks, fiddlers, and others of that band, got the house
+alone, there might be seen skipping not very comely for honest women. Her
+common talk was, in secret, that she saw nothing in Scotland but gravity,
+which was altogether repugnant to her nature, for she was brought up in
+joyeusitye.&#8221; If Knox really believed in the omens he talks of, or thought
+the less of a young and beautiful woman for indulging in innocent
+recreation, his judgment is to be pitied. If he, in truth, did not give
+any credence to the one, and saw no sin in the other, his candour and
+sincerity cannot be very highly praised.</p>
+
+<p>M&#8217;Crie, the able but too partial biographer of Knox, and the defender of
+all his errors and failings, speaking of Mary at this period,
+says;&mdash;&#8220;Nursed from her infancy in a blind attachment to the Roman
+Catholic religion, every means had been employed before she left France,
+to strengthen this prejudice,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> and to inspire her with aversion to the
+religion which had been embraced by her people. She was taught that it
+would be the great glory of her reign, to reduce her kingdom to the
+obedience of the Romish See, and to co-operate with the Popish Princes on
+the Continent in extirpating heresy. With these fixed prepossessions, Mary
+came into Scotland, and she adhered to them with singular pertinacity to
+the end of her life.&#8221;<a name='fna_43' id='fna_43' href='#f_43'><small>[43]</small></a> The whole of this statement is in the highest
+degree erroneous. We have seen that Mary was <i>not</i> nursed in a blind
+attachment to the Catholic religion&mdash;some of her best friends, and even
+one or two of her preceptors, being attached to the new opinions. We have
+seen, that so far from having any &#8220;prejudice&#8221; strengthened before she left
+France, she was expressly advised to give her support to the Reformers;
+and we have heard from her own lips, her mature determination to tolerate
+every species of worship throughout her kingdom. That she ever thought of
+&#8220;co-operating with the Popish Princes of the Continent, that she might
+reduce her kingdom to the obedience of the Romish See, and extirpate
+heresy,&#8221; will be discovered immediately to be a particularly preposterous
+belief, when we find her intrusting the reins of Government to the leaders
+of the Reformed party. To this system of moderation, much beyond that of
+the age in which she lived, Mary adhered, &#8220;with singular pertinacity, to
+the end of her life.&#8221; M&#8217;Crie, in proof of his gratuitous assertions,
+affirms, that she never examined the subjects of controversy between the
+Papists and Protestants. This also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> is incorrect, as he would have known,
+had he read that letter of Throckmorton&#8217;s, in which, as has been seen, she
+informed the Ambassador of the frequent opportunities she had enjoyed of
+hearing the whole matter discussed in the presence of the Cardinal
+Lorraine; and the confession which that discussion extorted both from the
+Cardinal and herself, of the necessity of some reformation among the
+Catholics, though not to the extent to which the Protestants pushed it.
+M&#8217;Crie further objects, that Mary never went to hear Knox, or any of the
+Reformed divines, preach. Knox, from the invariable contempt with which he
+affected to treat Mary, no doubt particularly deserved such a compliment;
+and as to the other divines, by all of whom she was hated, what would have
+been the use of leaving her own chapel to listen to sermons which could
+not have altered the firm conviction of her mind, and which, consequently,
+it would have been hypocrisy to pretend to admire? We return from this
+digression.</p>
+
+<p>The nobility, who now flocked to Holyrood from all parts of the country,
+constituted that portion of the inhabitants of Scotland, who, for many
+centuries, had exercised almost unlimited influence over their native
+sovereigns. Their mutual dissensions during the late long minority, had a
+good deal weakened their respective strength; and the progress of time was
+gradually softening the more repulsive features of the feudal system. But
+still the Scottish barons deemed themselves indispensable to the councils
+of their monarch, and entitled to deliver opinions, which they expected
+would be followed, on every affair of state. They collected at present,
+under the influence of a thousand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> contending interests and wishes. With
+some of the more distinguished figures in the group, it will be necessary
+to make the reader better acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>Of the Lord James, who was now shortly to become the Earl of Murray, the
+title by which he is best known in Scottish history, a good deal has
+already been said. That he must secretly have regretted his sister&#8217;s
+return to Scotland, may be safely concluded, from the facts formerly
+stated. He was too skilful a politician, however, to betray his
+disappointment. Had he openly ventured to oppose Mary, the result would
+have been at all events uncertain, and his own ruin might have been the
+ultimate consequence. He considered it more prudent to use every means in
+his power to conciliate her friendship; and wrought so successfully, that
+before long, he found himself the person of by far the most consequence in
+the kingdom. Mary, perhaps, trusted too implicitly to his advice, and left
+too much to his controul; yet it is difficult to see how she could have
+managed otherwise. It is but fair also to add, that for several years
+Murray continued to keep his ambition (which, under a show of moderation,
+was in truth enormous) within bounds. Nor does there appear to be any
+evidence sufficient to stamp Murray with that deeper treachery and blacker
+guilt, which some writers have laid to his charge. The time, however, is
+not yet arrived for considering his conduct in connexion with the darker
+events of Mary&#8217;s reign. The leading fault of his administration is, that
+it was double-faced. In all matters of importance, he allowed himself to
+be guided as much by the wishes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> Elizabeth, secretly communicated to
+him, as by those of his own Sovereign. He probably foresaw that, if he
+ever quarrelled with Mary, it would be through the assistance of the
+English Queen alone he could hope to retrieve his fortunes. This
+subservience to Elizabeth, among those in whom she confided, was, indeed,
+the leading misfortune of Mary&#8217;s reign. Had her counsellors been
+unbiassed, and her subjects undistracted by English intrigue, her prudent
+conduct would have got the better of the internal dissensions in her
+kingdom, and she would have governed in peace, perhaps in happiness. But
+it was Elizabeth&#8217;s jealous and narrow-minded policy, to prevent, if
+possible, this consummation. With infinite art, and, if the term is not
+debased by its application, with no little ability, she accomplished her
+wishes, principally through the agency of the ambitious and the
+self-interested, among Mary&#8217;s ministers. One of these, the Earl of Murray,
+unquestionably was. At the time of which we are writing, he was in his
+thirty-first year, possessing considerable advantages both of face and
+person, but of reserved, austere, and rather forbidding manners. Murray&#8217;s
+mother, who was the Lady Margaret Erskine, daughter of Lord Erskine, had
+married Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven. He had also, as has been
+mentioned, several illegitimate brothers, particularly Lord John and Lord
+Robert, and one sister, Jane, who married the Earl of Argyle, and to whom
+Mary became very sincerely attached.</p>
+
+<p>Associated with the Earl of Murray, both as a leader of the Reformers, and
+as a servant of Elizabeth, but not allowing his ambitious views to carry
+him quite so far as the Earl, was William<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> Maitland of Lethington, Mary&#8217;s
+Secretary of State. He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Maitland of
+Lethington, and was about five years older than Murray. He had been
+educated at the University of St Andrews, and had travelled a good deal on
+the Continent, where he studied civil law. John Knox, in his History,
+claims the honour of having converted Maitland to the Reformed opinions.
+Whether this be true or not, it is certain that, after having for some
+time co-operated with Mary of Guise, he finally deserted her, and
+continued to act with the Reformers, as Secretary of State, an office to
+which he had been appointed for life, in 1558. It has been already seen,
+that a close and confidential intercourse subsisted between him and Cecil;
+and that he too would have been glad, had Mary&#8217;s return to Scotland been
+prevented. That Maitland possessed an acute and subtle genius, there can
+be no doubt; that he had cultivated his mind to good purpose, and
+understood the art of composition as well as any man of the age, is
+undeniable. That his manners were more polished than those of most of the
+Scottish nobility, is also true; but, that his talents were of that high
+and exquisite kind, which Robertson and some other historians have
+described, does not appear. During his political career, many instances
+occur, which seem to imply a vacillating and unsteady temperament, a fault
+which can hardly be forgiven in a statesman.</p>
+
+<p>James Douglas, Earl of Morton, another associate of Murray, was one of the
+most powerful and least respectable of those who had embraced the
+Reformation. Restless, factious, crafty, avaricious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> and cruel, nothing
+could have saved him from general odium, but his pretended zeal for
+religion. This was a cloak for many sins; by flattering the vanity of Knox
+and the other gospel-ministers, he contrived to cover the hollowness of
+his character, and to patch up a reputation for sanctity. In consequence
+of the rebellion of the Earl of Angus, his uncle, during the reign of
+James V., Morton had been obliged to spend several years in England, where
+he lived in great poverty. But the only effect adversity had produced upon
+him, was a determination to be more rapacious when he recovered his power.
+His ambition was of a more contracted and selfish kind than Murray&#8217;s, and
+he had not so cool a head, or so cautious a hand.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Chatelherault, Mary&#8217;s nearest relation, being advanced in
+years, had retired from public life. The Earl of Arran, his son, who, it
+will be remembered, had been induced to propose himself as a husband for
+Elizabeth, was of a weak and almost crazed intellect. Indeed it was not
+long before the increasing strength of the malady made it necessary to
+confine him. He came to Court, however, upon Mary&#8217;s arrival, and having
+been unsuccessful with Elizabeth, chose to fall desperately in love with
+his own Queen. But Mary had always an aversion to him, originating no
+doubt in the want of delicacy towards her, which had characterized his
+negociations with Elizabeth, and confirmed by his own presuming and
+disagreeable manners. His father&#8217;s natural brother, the Archbishop of St
+Andrews, is the only other member of the family worth mentioning. He was
+still staunch to the Roman Catholic party; but had of late seen the wisdom
+of remaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> quiet, and though he became rather a favourite with Mary, it
+does not appear that he henceforth took a very active interest in public
+affairs.<a name='fna_44' id='fna_44' href='#f_44'><small>[44]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>James Hepburne, Earl of Bothwell, though some of the leading features of
+his character had hardly shown themselves at the period of which we speak,
+merits nevertheless, from the part he subsequently acted, especial notice
+at present. He had succeeded his father in his titles and estates in the
+year 1556, when he was five or six and twenty years of age. He enjoyed not
+only large estates, but the hereditary offices of Lord High Admiral of
+Scotland, Sheriff of Berwick, Haddington and Edinburgh, and Baillie of
+Lauderdale. With the exception of the Duke of Chatelherault, he was the
+most powerful nobleman in the southern districts of Scotland. Soon after
+coming to his titles, he began to take an active share in public business.
+In addition to his other offices, he was appointed the Queen&#8217;s Lieutenant
+on the Borders, and Keeper of Hermitage Castle, by the Queen Regent, to
+whom he always remained faithful, in opposition to the Lord James, and
+what was then termed the English faction. He went over to France on the
+death of Francis II. to pay his duty to Mary, and on his return to
+Scotland, was by her intrusted with the discharge of an important
+commission regarding the Government. Though all former differences<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> were
+now supposed to have been forgotten, there was not, nor did there ever
+exist, a very cordial agreement between the Earls of Murray and Bothwell.
+They were both about the same age, but their dispositions were very
+different. Murray was self-possessed, full of foresight, prudent and wary.
+Bothwell was bold, reckless, and extravagant. His youth had been devoted
+to every species of dissipation; and even in manhood, he seemed more
+intent on pleasure than on business. This was a sort of life which Murray
+despised, and perhaps he calculated that Bothwell would never aim at any
+other. But, though guided by no steady principles, and devoted to
+licentiousness, Bothwell was nevertheless not the mere man of pleasure. He
+was all his life celebrated for daring and lawless exploits, and vanity or
+passion, were motives whose force he was never able to resist. Unlike
+Murray, who, when he had an end in view, made his advances towards it as
+cautiously as an Indian hunter, Bothwell dashed right through, as careless
+of the means by which he was to accomplish his object, as of the
+consequences that were to ensue. His manner was of that frank, open, and
+uncalculating kind, which frequently catches a superficial observer. They
+who did not study him more closely, were apt to imagine that he was merely
+a blustering, good-natured, violent, headstrong man, whose manners must
+inevitably have degenerated into vulgarity, had he not been nobly born,
+and accustomed to the society of his peers. But much more serious
+conclusions might have drawn by those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> had penetration enough to see
+under the cloak of dissoluteness, in which he wrapped himself and his
+designs. With regard to his personal appearance, it does not seem to have
+been remarkably prepossessing. Brantome says, that he was one of the
+ugliest men he had ever seen, and that his planners were correspondently
+outr&eacute;.<a name='fna_45' id='fna_45' href='#f_45'><small>[45]</small></a> Buchanan, who must have known Bothwell well, and who draws his
+character with more accuracy than was to have been expected from so
+partial a writer, says, in his &#8220;Detection:&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;Was there in him any gift of
+eloquence, or grace of beauty, or virtue of mind, garnished with the
+benefits which we call of fortune? As for his eloquence and beauty, we
+need not make long tale of them, since both they that have seen him can
+well remember his countenance, his gait, and the whole form of his body,
+how gay it was; they that have heard him, are not ignorant of his rude
+utterance and blockishness.&#8221; As to Bothwell&#8217;s religious opinions, Buchanan
+remarks very truly, that wavering between the different factions, and
+despising either side, he counterfeited a love of both.<a name='fna_46' id='fna_46' href='#f_46'><small>[46]</small></a> Such was the
+man of whom we shall have occasion to say so much in the course of these
+Memoirs.</p>
+
+<p>In the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, remained unaltered all the
+characteristics of the ruder feudal chiefs, rendered still more repulsive
+by their bigoted zeal in favour of the Reformed opinions. They were men of
+coarse and contracted minds, fit instigators to villany, or apt tools in
+the hands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> of those who were more willing to plan than to execute.</p>
+
+<p>Opposed to all these nobles, was the great lay head of the Catholic party
+in Scotland, John, Earl of Huntly. His jurisdiction and influence extended
+over nearly the whole of the north of Scotland, from Aberdeen to
+Inverness. He was born in 1510, and had been a personal friend and
+favourite of James V. He ranked in Parliament as the Premier Earl of
+Scotland, and in 1546, was appointed Chancellor of the kingdom. He was
+always opposed to the English party, and had been taken prisoner at the
+battle of Pinkie, fighting against the claims of Edward VI., upon the
+infant Mary. He made his escape, in 1548, and as a reward for his services
+and sufferings, obtained, in the following year, a grant of the Earldom of
+Murray, which, however, he again resigned in 1554. He continued faithful
+to the Queen Regent till her death. Upon that occasion, we have seen that
+he and other nobles sent Lesley, with certain proposals, to Mary. He was
+an honourable man and a good subject, though the termination of his career
+was a most unfortunate one. The respect which his memory merits, is
+founded on the conviction, that he had too great a love for his country
+and sovereign ever to have consented to have made the one little better
+than tributary to England, or to have betrayed the other into the hands of
+her deadliest enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the men who were now to become Mary&#8217;s associates and
+counsellors. The names of most of them occur as members of the Privy
+Council which she constituted shortly after her return.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> It consisted of
+the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earl of Huntly, the Earl of Argyle, the
+Earl of Bothwell, the Earl of Errol, Earl Marschall, the Earl of Athol,
+the Earl of Morton, the Earl of Montrose, the Earl of Glencairn, the Lord
+Erskine, and the Lord James Stuart. In this Council, the influence of the
+Lord James, backed as it was by a great majority of Protestant nobles,
+carried every thing before it.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth, finding that Mary had arrived safely in her own country, and
+had been well received there, lost no time in changing her tone towards
+the Scottish queen. Her English resident in Scotland, was the celebrated
+Randolph, whom she kept as a sort of accredited spy at Mary&#8217;s court. He
+has rendered himself notorious by the many letters he wrote to England
+upon Scottish affairs. He had an acute, inquisitive, and gossiping turn of
+mind. His style is lively and amusing; and though the office he had to
+perform is not to be envied, he seems to have entered on it <i>con amore</i>,
+and with little remorse of conscience. His epistles are mostly preserved,
+and are valuable from containing pictures of the state of manners in
+Scotland at the time, not to be found any where else, though not always to
+be depended on as accurate chronicles of fact. To Randolph, the Queen of
+England now wrote, desiring him to offer her best congratulations to Mary
+upon her safe arrival. She sent him also a letter which he was to deliver
+to Mary, in which she disclaimed ever having had the most distant
+intention of intercepting her on her voyage. Mary answered Elizabeth&#8217;s
+letter with becoming cordiality. She, likewise, sent Secretary Maitland<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+into England, to remain for some time as her resident at Elizabeth&#8217;s
+Court. She was well aware for what purposes Randolph was ordered to
+continue in Edinburgh; and said, that as it seemed to be Elizabeth&#8217;s wish
+that he should remain, she was content, but that she would have another in
+England as crafty as he. Maitland was certainly as crafty, but his
+craftiness was unfortunately too frequently directed against Mary
+herself.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">JOHN KNOX, THE REFORMERS, AND THE TURBULENT NOBLES.</span></p>
+
+<p>Mary had been only a few days in Scotland when she was painfully reminded
+of the excited and dangerous state of feeling which then prevailed on the
+important subject of Religion. Her great and leading desire was to
+conciliate all parties, and to preserve, unbroken, the public peace. With
+this view she had issued proclamations, charging her subjects to conduct
+themselves quietly; and announcing her intention to make no alteration in
+the form of religion as existing in the country at her arrival.
+Notwithstanding these precautions, the first breach of civil order took
+place at the very Palace of Holyroodhouse. Mary had intimated her
+intention to attend the celebration of a solemn mass in her chapel, on
+Sunday the 24th of August, 1561, the first Sunday she spent in Scotland.
+The Reformers, as soon as they got the upper hand, had prohibited this
+service under severe penalties, and these principles of intolerance they
+were determined to maintain. Mary had not interfered with their mode of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>worship; but this was not enough;&mdash;they considered themselves called upon
+to interfere with hers. In anticipation of the mass, for which she had
+given orders, the godly, Knox tells us, met together and said,&mdash;&#8220;Shall
+that idol be suffered again to take place within this realm? It shall
+not.&#8221; They even repented that they had not pulled down the chapel itself
+at the time they had demolished most of the other religious houses; for
+the sparing of any place where idols were worshipped was, in their
+opinion, &#8220;the preserving the accursed thing.&#8221; When Sunday arrived, a crowd
+collected on the outside of the chapel; and Lord Lindsay, whose bigotry
+has been already mentioned, called out with fiery zeal,&mdash;&#8220;The idolatrous
+priests shall die the death, according to God&#8217;s law.&#8221; The Catholics were
+insulted as they entered the chapel, and the tumult increased so much,
+that they feared to commence the service. At length, the Lord James, whose
+superior discrimination taught him, that his party, by pushing things to
+this extremity, were doing their cause more harm than good, stationed
+himself at the door, and declared he would allow no evil-disposed person
+to enter. His influence with the godly was such, that they ventured not to
+proceed to violence against his will. He was a good deal blamed, however,
+by Knox for his conduct. When the service was concluded, Lord James&#8217;s two
+brothers were obliged to conduct the priests home, as a protection to them
+from the insults of the people; and in the afternoon, crowds collected in
+the neighbourhood of the palace, who, by their disloyal language and
+turbulent proceedings, signified to the Queen their disapprobation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> that
+she had dared to worship her God in the manner which seemed to herself
+most consistent, both with the revealed and natural law. Many of Mary&#8217;s
+friends, who had accompanied her from France, were so disgusted with the
+whole of this scene, that they announced their intention of returning
+sooner than they might otherwise have done. &#8220;Would to God,&#8221; exclaims Knox,
+&#8220;that altogether, with the mass, they had taken good-night of the realm
+for ever!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>On the following Sunday, Knox took the opportunity of preaching, what
+Keith might have termed, another &#8220;thundering sermon&#8221; against idolatry. In
+this discourse he declared, that one mass was more fearful to him than ten
+thousand armed enemies would be, landed in any part of the realm on
+purpose to suppress the whole religion. No one will deny, that the earlier
+Reformers of this and all other countries would, naturally and properly,
+look upon Popish rites with far greater abhorrence than is done by the
+strictest Protestants of more modern times. Nor is it wonderful that the
+ablest men among them, (and John Knox was one of those), should have given
+way so far to the feelings of the age, as to be unable to draw the exact
+line of distinction between the improvements of the new gospel, and the
+imperfections of the old. The faith which they established, was of a
+purer, simpler, and better kind than that from which they were converted.
+Yet, making all these allowances, there does seem to have been something
+unnecessarily overbearing and illiberal in the spirit which animated Knox
+and some of his followers. When contrasted with the mildness of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> Mary at
+least, and even with the greater moderation observed in some of the other
+countries of Europe, where the Reformation was making no less rapid
+progress, the anti-Catholic ardor of the good people of Scotland must be
+allowed to have over-stepped considerably the just limits of Christian
+forbearance. It is useful also to observe the inconsistencies which still
+existed in the Reformed faith. Whilst the Catholic religion was
+reprobated, Catholic customs springing out of that religion do not seem to
+have called forth any censure. On the very day on which Knox preached the
+sermon already mentioned, a great civic banquet was given by the city of
+Edinburgh to Mary&#8217;s uncles, the Duke Danville, and other of her French
+friends; and, generally speaking, Sunday was, throughout the country, the
+favourite day for festivities of all kinds.</p>
+
+<p>The mark of attention paid to her relations pleased Mary, but her pleasure
+was rendered imperfect, by perceiving how powerful and unlooked for an
+enemy both she and they had in John Knox. Aware of the liberal manner in
+which she had treated him and his party, she thought it hard that he
+should so unremittingly exert his influence to stir up men&#8217;s minds against
+her. That this influence was of no insignificant kind, is attested by very
+sufficient evidence. Knox was not a mere polemical churchman. His friends
+and admirers intrusted to him their temporal as well as spiritual
+interests. He was often selected as an umpire in civil disputes of
+importance; and persons whom the Town-council had determined to punish for
+disorderly conduct, were continually requesting his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> intercession in their
+behalf. When differences fell out even among the nobility, he was not
+uncommonly employed to adjust them. He was besides, at that time, the only
+established clergyman in Edinburgh who taught the Reformed doctrines.
+There was a minister in the Canongate, and another in the neighbouring
+parish of St Cuthberts, but Knox was <i>the</i> minister of Edinburgh. He
+preached in the church of St Giles, which was capable of holding three
+thousand persons. To this numerous audience he held forth twice every
+Sunday, and thrice on other days during the week. He was regular too in
+his attendance at the meetings of the Synod and the General Assembly, and
+was frequently commissioned to travel through the country to disseminate
+gospel truth. In 1563, but not till then, a colleague was appointed to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Animated by a sincere desire to soften if possible our Reformer&#8217;s austere
+temper, Mary requested that he might be brought into her presence two days
+after he had delivered his sermon against idolatry. Knox had no objection
+whatever to this interview. To have it granted him at all would show his
+friends the importance attached to his character and office; and from the
+manner in which he determined to carry himself through it, he hoped to
+strengthen his reputation for bold independence of sentiment, and
+undeviating adherence to his principles. This was so far well; but Knox
+unfortunately mingled rudeness with his courage, and stubbornness with his
+consistency.</p>
+
+<p>Mary opened the conversation by expressing her surprise that he should
+have formed so very <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>unfavourable an opinion of herself; and requested to
+know what could have induced him to commence his calumnies against her so
+far back as 1559, when he published his book upon the &#8220;monstrous
+government of women.&#8221;<a name='fna_47' id='fna_47' href='#f_47'><small>[47]</small></a> Knox answered, that learned men in all ages
+considered their judgments free, and that, if these judgments sometimes
+differed from the common judgment of mankind, they were not to blame. He
+then ventured to compare his &#8220;First Blast of the Trumpet&#8221; to Plato&#8217;s work
+&#8220;On the Commonwealth,&#8221; observing, with much self-complacency, that both
+these books contained many new sentiments. He added, that what he had
+written was directed most especially against Mary&mdash;&#8220;that wicked Jezabel of
+England.&#8221; The Queen, perceiving that this was a mere subterfuge, said, &#8220;Ye
+speak of women in general.&#8221; Knox confessed that he did so, but again went
+the length of assuring her, though the assurance seems to involve a
+contradiction, that he had said nothing &#8220;intended to trouble her estate.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>Satisfied with this concession, Mary proceeded to ask, why he could not
+teach the people a new religion without exciting them to hold in contempt
+the authority of their Sovereign? Knox found it necessary to answer this
+question in a somewhat round-about manner. &#8220;If all the seed of Abraham,&#8221;
+said he, &#8220;should have been of the religion of Pharaoh, what religion
+should there have been in the world? Or if all men, in the days of the
+Roman Emperors, should have been of the religion of the Roman Emperors,
+what religion should have been on the face of the earth? Daniel and his
+fellows were subject to Nebuchadnezzar and unto Darius, and yet they would
+not be of their religion.&#8221; &#8220;Yea,&#8221; replied Mary promptly, &#8220;but none of
+these men raised the sword against their princes.&#8221; &#8220;Yet you cannot deny
+that they resisted,&#8221; said Knox, refining a little too much; &#8220;for those who
+obey not the commandment given them, do in some sort resist.&#8221; &#8220;But yet,&#8221;
+said the Queen, perceiving the quibble, &#8220;they resisted not with the
+sword.&#8221; The Reformer felt that he had been driven into a corner, and
+determined to get out of it at whatever cost. &#8220;God, Madam,&#8221; said he, &#8220;had
+not given unto them the power and the means.&#8221; &#8220;Think ye,&#8221; asked Mary,
+&#8220;that subjects having the power may resist their princes?&#8221; &#8220;If princes
+exceed their bounds, Madam,&#8221; said Knox, evidently departing from the
+point, &#8220;no doubt they may be resisted even by power.&#8221; He proceeded to
+fortify this opinion with arguments of no very loyal kind; and Mary,
+overcome by a rudeness and presumption she had been little accustomed to,
+was for some time <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>silent. Nay, Randolph, in one of his letters, affirms
+that he &#8220;knocked so hastily upon her heart that he made her weep.&#8221; At
+length she said, &#8220;I perceive then that my subjects shall obey you, and not
+me, and will do what they please, and not what I command; and so must I be
+subject to them, and not they to me.&#8221; Knox answered, that a subjection
+unto God and his Church was the greatest dignity that flesh could enjoy
+upon the face of the earth, for it would raise it to everlasting glory.
+&#8220;But you are not the Church that I will nourish,&#8221; said Mary; &#8220;I will
+defend the Church of Rome, for it is, I think, the true Church of God.&#8221;
+Knox&#8217;s coarse and discourteous answer shows that he was alike ignorant of
+the delicacy with which, in this argument, he should have treated a
+<i>lady</i>, and of the respect a <i>queen</i> was entitled to demand. &#8220;Your <i>will</i>,
+Madam,&#8221; said he, &#8220;is no reason; neither doth your thought make the Roman
+harlot to be the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ. Wonder not,
+Madam, that I call Rome a harlot, for that Church is altogether polluted
+with all kinds of spiritual fornication, both in doctrine and manners.&#8221;
+Whilst this speech must have deeply wounded the feelings of Mary, a
+sincere Catholic as she was, it cannot entitle the Reformer to any praise
+on the score of its bravery and independence. Knox knew that the whole
+country would, in a few days, be full of his conference with the Queen. By
+yielding to her, he had nothing to gain; and, as his reputation was his
+dearest possession, he hoped to increase it by an unmanly display of his
+determined zeal. Mary, perceiving what sort of a man she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> had to deal
+with, soon afterwards broke off the conversation.<a name='fna_48' id='fna_48' href='#f_48'><small>[48]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>On the same day that the Queen gave Knox this audience, she made her first
+public entry into Edinburgh. She rode up the Canongate and High Street, to
+the Castle, where a banquet had been prepared for her. She was greeted, as
+she passed along, with every mark of respect and loyalty; and pains had
+been taken to give to the whole procession, as striking and splendid an
+air as possible. The Town had issued proclamations, requiring the citizens
+to appear in their best attire, and advising the young men to assume a
+uniform, that they might make &#8220;the convoy before the court more
+triumphant.&#8221; When Mary left the castle after dinner, on her way back, a
+pageant which had been prepared was exhibited on the Castle Hill. The
+Reformers could not allow this opportunity to pass, without reminding her
+that she was now in a country where their authority was paramount. The
+greater part of this pageant, represented the terrible vengeance of God
+upon idolaters. It was even, at one time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> intended to have had a priest
+burned in effigy; but the Earl of Huntly declared, he would not allow so
+gross an insult to be offered to his sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after paying this compliment to the City of Edinburgh, Mary
+determined upon making a progress through the country, that she and her
+subjects might become better acquainted with each other. She made this
+progress upon horseback, accompanied by a pretty numerous train. There
+appears at the time to have been only one wheeled carriage in Scotland. It
+was a chariot, (as it is called in the treasurer&#8217;s books), probably of a
+rude enough construction, which Margaret of England brought with her when
+she married James IV. Mary, no doubt, knew that it would have been rather
+adventurous to have attempted travelling on the Scotch roads of that day
+in so frail and uncertain a vehicle. It is not, however, to be supposed,
+that a Queen such as Mary, with her Lords and Ladies well-mounted around
+her, could pass through her native country without being the object of
+universal admiration, even without the aid of so wonderful a piece of
+mechanism as a coach or a chariot. Her first stage was to the palace at
+Linlithgow. Here she remained a day or two, and then proceeded to
+Stirling. On the night of her arrival there, she made a very narrow
+escape. As she lay in bed asleep, a candle, that was burning beside her,
+set fire to the curtains; and had the light and heat not speedily awakened
+her, when she immediately exerted her usual presence of mind, she might
+have been burned to death. The populace said at the time, that this was
+the fulfilment of a very old prophecy, that a Queen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> should be burned at
+Stirling. It was only the bed, however, not the Queen that was burned, so
+that the prophet must have made a slight mistake. On the Sunday she spent
+at Stirling, the Lord James, finding perhaps, that his former apparent
+defence of the mass, had hurt his reputation among the Reformers,
+corrected the error by behaving with singular impropriety in the Royal
+chapel. He was assisted by the Lord Justice General, the Earl of Argyle,
+in conjunction with whom he seems to have come to actual blows with the
+priests. This affair was considered good sport by many. &#8220;But there were
+others,&#8221; says Randolph, alluding probably to Mary, &#8220;that shed a tear or
+two.&#8221; &#8220;It was reserved,&#8221; Chalmer&#8217;s remarks, &#8220;for the <i>Prime Minister</i> and
+the <i>Justice General</i>, to make a riot in the house which had been
+dedicated to the service of God, and to obstruct the service in the
+Queen&#8217;s presence.&#8221;<a name='fna_49' id='fna_49' href='#f_49'><small>[49]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Leaving Stirling, Mary spent a night at Lesly Castle, the seat of the Earl
+of Rothes, a Catholic nobleman. On the 16th of September she entered
+Perth. She was everywhere welcomed with much apparent satisfaction; but in
+the midst of their demonstrations of affection, her subjects always took
+care to remind her that they were Presbyterians, and that she was a
+Papist. In the very pious town of Perth, pageants greeted her arrival
+somewhat similar to those which had been exhibited to her on the Castle
+Hill at Edinburgh.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> Mary was not a little affected by observing this
+constant determination to wound her feelings. In riding through the
+streets of Perth, she became suddenly faint, and was carried from her
+horse to her lodging. Her acute sensibility often produced similar effects
+upon her health, although the cause was not understood by the unrefined
+multitude. With St Andrews, the seat of the Commendatorship of the Lord
+James, she seems to have been most pleased, and remained there several
+days. She returned to Edinburgh by the end of September, passing, on the
+way, through Falkland, where her father had died. Knox was much distressed
+at the manifestation of the popular feeling in favour of Mary during this
+journey. He consoles himself by saying, that she polluted the towns
+through which she passed with her idolatry; and in allusion to the
+accident at Stirling, remarks, &#8220;Fire followed her very commonly on that
+journey.&#8221;<a name='fna_50' id='fna_50' href='#f_50'><small>[50]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>It was, perhaps, to counteract, in some degree, the impression which
+Mary&#8217;s affability and beauty had made upon her subjects, that soon after
+her return to Edinburgh, a very singular proclamation was issued by the
+civil authorities of that town. It was couched in the following
+terms:&mdash;&#8220;October 2. 1561. On which day the Provost, Baillies, Council, and
+all the Deacons, perceiving the Priests, Monks, Friars, and others of the
+wicked rabble of the Anti-Christ the Pope, to resort to this town,
+contrary to the tenor of a previous proclamation; therefore ordain the
+said proclamation, charging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> all Monks, Friars, Priests, Nuns, Adulterers,
+Fornicators, and all such filthy persons, to remove themselves out of this
+town and bounds thereof, within twenty-four hours, under the pain of
+carting through the town, burning on the cheek, and perpetual
+banishment.&#8221;<a name='fna_51' id='fna_51' href='#f_51'><small>[51]</small></a> The insult offered to the Sovereign of the realm, by thus
+attempting to confound the professors of the old religion with the most
+depraved characters in the country, was too gross to be allowed to pass
+unnoticed. Mary did not bring these bigoted magistrates to trial,&mdash;she did
+not even imprison them, but with much mildness, though with no less
+firmness, she ordered the Town-Council instantly to deprive the Provost
+and Baillies of the offices they held, and to elect other better qualified
+persons in their stead.<a name='fna_52' id='fna_52' href='#f_52'><small>[52]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>During the remainder of the year 1561, the only public affairs of
+consequence, were the appointment of the Lord James as the Queen&#8217;s
+Lieutenant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> on the Borders, where he proceeded to hold courts, and
+endeavoured, by great severity and many capital punishments, to reduce the
+turbulent districts to something like order; and the renewal on the part
+of Queen Elizabeth of the old dispute concerning the treaty of Edinburgh.
+Mary, having now had the benefit of advice from her Council, without
+directly refusing what Elizabeth asked, gave her, in pretty plain terms,
+to understand, that she could never think of signing away her hereditary
+title and interest to the Crown of England. &#8220;We know,&#8221; she says, in a
+letter she wrote to Elizabeth on the subject, &#8220;how near we are descended
+of the blood of England, and what devices have been attempted to make us,
+as it were, a stranger from it. We trust, being so nearly your cousin, you
+would be loth we should receive so manifest an injury, as entirely to be
+debarred from that title, which, in possibility, may fall to us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Most of Mary&#8217;s French friends had, by this time, returned home. Her uncle,
+the Marquis D&#8217;Elbeuf, however, remained all winter with her. In losing the
+Duke of Danville, Mary lost one of her warmest admirers; but it appears,
+that from his being already married, (though he could have obtained a
+divorce,) and from other considerations, Mary rejected his addresses. Many
+foreign princes were suing for the honour of her alliance, among whom were
+Don Carlos of Spain, the Archduke Charles of Austria, the King of Sweden,
+the Duke of Ferrara, and the Prince of Cond&eacute;; but Mary did not yet see the
+necessity of an immediate marriage. Among her own subjects, there were two
+who ventured upon confessing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> their attachment, and nourishing some hopes
+that she might be brought to view it propitiously. These were the Earl of
+Arran, already mentioned, and Sir John Gordon, second son of the Earl of
+Huntly. The former of these Mary never liked; and though the latter far
+excelled him in accomplishments, both of body and mind, she does not seem
+to have given him encouragement either. Inspired by mutual jealousy, these
+noblemen, of course, detested each other; but Arran was the more factious
+and absurd. Having taken offence at some slights which he supposed had
+been offered him, he had retired to St Andrews, where he was believed, by
+those who knew his restless temperament, to be hatching sedition. Upon one
+occasion&mdash;a Sunday night in November&mdash;just before the Queen had retired to
+bed, a report was suddenly spread through the palace, that Arran had
+crossed the water at the head of a strong body of retainers, and was
+marching direct for Holyroodhouse, with the intention of carrying off the
+Queen to Dumbarton Castle, which was in the possession of his father, or
+to some other place of strength. This report, which gained credit, it was
+scarcely known how, excited the greatest alarm. Mary&#8217;s friends collected
+round her with as much speed as possible; the gates were closed, and the
+Lords remained in arms within the court all night. Arran did not make his
+appearance, and the panic gradually subsided,&mdash;though the nobles
+determined to keep guard every night for some time. This is the foundation
+of the assertion made by some writers, that Mary kept a perpetual body
+guard, which, unfortunately, she never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> did during the whole of her reign.
+The Duke of Chatelherault, who came to Court soon after, alleged, that the
+rumour which had gained credence against his son, was only a man&oelig;uvre
+of his enemies; and though his son&#8217;s conduct was, on all occasions,
+sufficiently outr&eacute;, it is not unlikely that this allegation was true.</p>
+
+<p>Another tumult, which soon afterwards occurred, shows how difficult it
+was, at this time, to preserve quietness and good order. It had been
+reported among the more dissolute nobles, that the daughter of a
+respectable merchant in Edinburgh, was the <i>chere amie</i> of the Earl of
+Arran. Bothwell, always at home in any affair of this kind, undertook to
+introduce the Marquis D&#8217;Elbeuf to the lady; Lord John, brother of the
+Commendator of St Andrews, was also of the party. They went to her house
+the first night in masks, and were admitted, and courteously entertained.
+Returning next evening, they were disappointed to find, that the object of
+their admiration refused to receive their visits any longer. They
+proceeded, therefore, to break open the doors, and to create much
+disturbance in the house and neighbourhood. Next day the Queen was
+informed of their disorderly conduct, and she rebuked them sharply. But
+Bothwell and the Lord John, animated partly by their dislike to the house
+of Hamilton, and partly by a turbulent spirit of contradiction, declared
+they would repeat their visit the very next night in despite of either
+friend or foe. Their intentions being understood, the servants of the Duke
+of Chatelherault and Arran thought themselves called upon to defend a lady
+whom their masters patronized. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> assembled accordingly with jack and
+spear in the streets, determined to oppose force to force. Bothwell wished
+for nothing else, and collected his friends about him in his own lodgings.
+The opposite party, however, increased much more rapidly than his, and
+began to collect in a threatening manner before his house. The magistrates
+saw the necessity of interfering; the alarm-bell was rung, and despatches
+were sent off to Holyrood, to know what course was to be taken. The Earls
+of Argyle and Huntly, together with the Lord James, joined the civic
+authorities, and, proceeding out to the mob, made proclamation, that all
+men should instantly depart on pain of death. This had the desired effect;
+the streets gradually became quiet, and Bothwell gave up his wild scheme.
+Mary, next day, ordered both the Duke of Chatelherault and the Earl of
+Bothwell to appear before her. The first came accompanied by a crowd of
+Protestants, and the latter with an equal number of Catholics. But the
+Queen was not to be over-awed, and having investigated the matter,
+Bothwell was banished from Court for ten days.<a name='fna_53' id='fna_53' href='#f_53'><small>[53]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>This was only the prelude to a still more serious difference, which took
+place between these untamed and irascible nobles. The Earl of Arran
+appeared before the Queen, and declared that a powerful conspiracy had
+been formed against the life of the Lord James, upon whom the title of
+Earl of Mar, as preliminary to that of Murray, had recently been
+conferred. This conspiracy, he said, had originated with himself and his
+father, who were beginning to tremble, lest the newly created<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> Earl&#8217;s
+influence with the Queen, might induce her to set aside the Hamilton
+succession, in favour of her illegitimate brother. That the Earl of Mar
+had really proposed some such arrangement, seems to be established on good
+authority.<a name='fna_54' id='fna_54' href='#f_54'><small>[54]</small></a> The Earl of Huntly, together with Mar&#8217;s old enemy,
+Bothwell, had been induced by the Hamiltons to join in this plot. The
+intention was, to shoot the Earl of Mar when hunting with the Queen, to
+obtain for the Hamiltons his authority in the government, and to give the
+Catholic party greater weight in the state. Huntly&#8217;s eldest son, the Lord
+Gordon, was also implicated in Arran&#8217;s confession. A few days before the
+whole of these plans were to be carried into execution, the weak and
+vacillating Arran, according to his own declaration, had been seized with
+remorse of conscience; and, actuated by his ancient friendship for Mar,
+and his love for the Queen, determined on disclosing every thing.</p>
+
+<p>Historians seem to have been puzzled, what degree of dependence they
+should place upon the truth of this strange story, told by one who was
+already half crazed, and soon afterwards altogether insane. That there is
+good reason, however, for giving credit to his assertions, is evident,
+from the manner in which all contemporary writers speak, and the fact,
+that the Queen sent both him and Bothwell to prison. When the affair was
+further investigated, it was found to involve so many of the first
+nobility of the land, and among others, Arran&#8217;s own father,
+Chaltelherault, whom he could never be expected publicly to accuse, that
+Mary resolved not to push matters to extremity against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> any one. She
+ordered the Duke of Chatelherault, however, to deliver up the Castle of
+Dumbarton; and, at the Earl of Mar&#8217;s instigation, she kept Bothwell a
+prisoner, first in the Castle of St Andrews, and afterwards in that of
+Edinburgh, until he made his escape, and left the country for upwards of
+two years. It is remarkable, that this conspiracy should not have been
+hitherto dwelt upon at greater length, tending as it does to develope the
+secret motives by which the Earl of Mar was actuated in his subsequent
+feuds with the Earl of Huntly.<a name='fna_55' id='fna_55' href='#f_55'><small>[55]</small></a> It is worth recollecting too, though
+the fact has not been previously noticed, that this was the <i>first</i>
+occasion on which Bothwell aimed at making himself master of the Queen&#8217;s
+person. The design, though unsuccessful, shows the spirit which long
+continued to actuate him. Had Mary fallen into his hands at this period,
+it is not likely that she would ever have had it in her power to marry
+Darnley, and the whole complexion of her fate might have been changed.</p>
+
+<p>In February 1562, Mary gave a series of splendid entertainments, on the
+occasion of the marriage of her favourite brother, James. He was then in
+the thirty-first year of his age, and chose for his wife Lady Agnes Keith,
+eldest daughter of the Earl of Marschal. The marriage was solemnized in
+the church of St Giles; and Knox took advantage of the occasion, to offer
+the Lord James a wholesome, but somewhat curiously expressed advice;
+&#8220;for,&#8221; said the preacher to him, &#8220;unto this day has the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> kirk of God
+received comfort by you, and by your labours; in the which, if hereafter
+you shall be found fainter than you were before, it will be said that your
+wife has changed your nature.&#8221; Knox and his friends were subsequently much
+scandalized by &#8220;the greatness of the banquetting, and the vanity thereof,&#8221;
+which characterized the honeymoon. The issue of this marriage was three
+daughters, two of whom married Scotch noblemen, and the third died
+young.<a name='fna_56' id='fna_56' href='#f_56'><small>[56]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>In August 1562, Mary commenced the progress into the North, which, in so
+far as some of her principal nobility were concerned, was attended with
+such very important consequences.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY&#8217;S EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH.</span></p>
+
+<p>The Lord James, now Earl of Mar, had for some time felt, that so long as
+he was regarded with suspicion by the Hamiltons, and with ill-concealed
+hatred by the Earl of Huntly and the Gordons, his power could not be so
+stable, nor his influence so extensive, as he desired. If it is true that
+he had already proposed to Mary to set aside the succession of the Earl of
+Arran, it is equally true that she had refused his request. Foiled,
+therefore, in this, his more ambitious aim, he saw the necessity of
+limiting, in the meantime, to more moderate bounds, his views of personal
+preferment. With regard to the Hamiltons, he had succeeded in securing
+their banishment from court, and in making them objects of suspicion and
+dislike to the Queen. There was not indeed sufficient talent in the family
+ever to have made it formidable to him, had it not been that it was of the
+blood royal. Though not possessing this advantage, the Gordons were always
+looked upon by Mar as more dangerous rivals. He had long nursed a secret
+desire, at least to weaken, if not to crush<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> altogether, the power of
+Huntly. In getting himself created Earl of Mar, he had made one step
+towards his object. The lands which went along with this title were part
+of the royal demesnes; but had for some time been held in fee by the Earls
+of Huntly. Her brother had prevailed upon Mary to recall them in his
+favour, and he was thus able to set himself down in the very heart of a
+country, which had hitherto acknowledged no master who did not belong to
+the house of Gordon. Huntly felt this encroachment bitterly; and it makes
+it the more probable, that he had secretly joined with Arran in his plot
+upon Mar; at any rate Mar gave him full credit for having done so. Their
+mutual animosity being thus exasperated, to the highest pitch, Huntly left
+the Court, and the Prime Minister waited anxiously for the first
+opportunity that might occur, to humble effectually the great leader of
+the Catholics.</p>
+
+<p>In prosecution of his purpose, Mar now obtained a grant under the Privy
+Seal of the earldom of Murray. A grant under the Privy Seal constituted
+only an inchoate, not a complete title. To ratify the grant and make it
+legal, it was necessary to have the Great Seal also affixed to it. The
+Great Seal, however, was in the custody of Huntly, as Lord Chancellor; and
+as Mar well knew that the grant of this second earldom infringed upon
+Huntly&#8217;s rights even more than the former, he saw the propriety of keeping
+it secret for some time. The earldom of Murray, which, with its lands and
+appurtenances, was bestowed upon Huntly in 1549, for his services in the
+war with England, had been again recalled by the Crown in 1554, when
+Huntly fell into the displeasure of the Queen-Regent, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> consequence of
+having refused to punish with fire and sword some Highland rebels. But in
+1559, the title and lands were restored, not as a free grant, but as a
+lease during five years, to Huntly, his wife and heirs, on the condition
+of a yearly payment of 2500 merks Scots. Till 1564, therefore, Huntly was
+entitled to consider himself master of all the lands and revenues of this
+earldom. But in 1561, the title and lands were privately conferred upon
+the Earl of Mar. It is true, that he might have applied thus early only to
+prevent himself from being anticipated, and might not have intended to
+encroach on Huntly&#8217;s rights before the legal period of his enjoying them
+had expired. The advantage, however, he so eagerly took of an incident
+that occurred in the month of June 1562, proves that Mar had never any
+intention to keep his title to the earldom of Murray locked up for three
+years.<a name='fna_57' id='fna_57' href='#f_57'><small>[57]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The father of James, Lord Ogilvy, had married one of the Earl of Huntly&#8217;s
+sisters, who gave her some lands in liferent as her dowry. Upon her
+husband&#8217;s death, considerations induced her to surrender the liferent to
+her brother, and the Earl then gave it to his son, Sir John Gordon. But
+Lord Ogilvy was displeased with his mother&#8217;s conduct, and questioned its
+legality. The matter, however, was decided against him, though not before
+it had occasioned much bad blood between him and Sir John Gordon. These
+two noblemen unfortunately met on the streets of Edinburgh; and though Sir
+John had married Ogilvy&#8217;s sister, all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> ties of relationship were
+disregarded, and an affray took place, in which both were assisted by
+their respective servants. It does not exactly appear who was the
+aggressor in this scuffle, but, from the circumstances which led to it,
+the probability is, that it was Ogilvy. Both noblemen were severely
+wounded; and the magistrates, enraged at their breach of the peace,
+committed them to prison.<a name='fna_58' id='fna_58' href='#f_58'><small>[58]</small></a> Mary with her Court was at Stirling, but the
+Earl of Mar obtained permission to depart for Edinburgh, to examine into
+the whole affair. The son of the Earl of Huntly was now within his power,
+and he saw the advantages which might be made to accrue to himself in
+consequence. After examination, he ordered the Lord Ogilvy and his
+retainers to be set at liberty, but Sir John Gordon he sent to the common
+gaol. Sir John, not liking to trust himself in such hands, made his
+escape, after remaining in prison for about a month, and proceeded to his
+father&#8217;s house in the North to recite to him his grievances.<a name='fna_59' id='fna_59' href='#f_59'><small>[59]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Such being the state of feeling subsisting between the Queen&#8217;s prime
+minister and these great Northern chieftains, it can scarcely be allowed
+that Robertson expresses himself correctly when he says, &#8220;The Queen
+<i>happened</i> to set out on a progress into the northern parts of the
+kingdom.&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Her motions were at this time entirely regulated by the Earl of
+Mar, who, seeing the contempt which had been offered to her authority by
+the flight of his son, felt satisfied that Mary could not pass through the
+extensive territories of Huntly, without either giving or receiving some
+additional cause of offence, which would in all probability lead to
+consequences favourable to Mar&#8217;s ambition. Unless this hypothesis be
+adopted, no rational cause can be assigned why the Queen should have
+chosen this particular season for her visit to the North. From the recent
+suspicion which had attached to the Earl of Huntly, as one of Arran&#8217;s
+colleagues in a conspiracy against her favourite minister, and the still
+more recent conduct of his son Sir John Gordon, she certainly could have
+no intention to pay that family the compliment of honouring them with her
+royal presence as a guest. North of Aberdeen, however, nearly the whole
+country was subservient to Huntly; and if Mary did not pass through it as
+a friend, she must as an enemy. This was the consideration that prompted
+the Earl of Mar to fix this year for the expedition. It was owing to
+negociations with Elizabeth, concerning a personal interview between the
+two Queens, that Mary was unable to set out till towards the middle of
+August.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen left Edinburgh on horseback, as usual, attended by a very
+considerable train. Among others, four members of her Privy Council went
+with her,&mdash;the Earls of Argyle, Morton, Marschall, and Mar,&mdash;the three
+first of whom had no particular liking for Huntly, and were, besides,
+entirely under the direction of the last. Randolph also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> attended the
+Queen in this journey, and furnishes some details concerning it. On the
+18th of August, 1562, she left Stirling; and, after a disagreeable and
+fatiguing journey, arrived at Old Aberdeen on the 27th. Here she remained
+for several days, and all the nobility in these parts came to pay their
+homage to her. Among the rest were the Earl and Countess of Huntly, who
+entreated her to honour them with a visit at Huntly Castle, informing her
+that they had endeavoured to make suitable preparations for her
+entertainment. Mary, at Mar&#8217;s instigation of course, (for, as far as her
+own feelings were concerned, she must have looked with favour upon the
+first Catholic Peer of the realm), received them coldly. This was but a
+poor return for Huntly&#8217;s long tried fidelity to herself and family; for,
+whatever quarrels he may have had with the nobility, he had always
+preserved inviolate his respect for the royal prerogative. His son, Sir
+John Gordon, also came to Aberdeen, and surrendered himself to the Queen,
+to be dealt with as her justice might direct. He was neither tried nor
+taken into custody; but, with more refined policy, he was ordered by Mar,
+and the rest of the Queen&#8217;s Council, to proceed voluntarily to Stirling
+Castle, and there deliver himself, as a prisoner, to the keeper, Lord
+Erskine, Mar&#8217;s uncle. It was, no doubt, foreseen that this order, so
+disproportioned in its severity to the offence which occasioned it, would
+not be complied with, nor was it wished that it should. Guided by similar
+advice, Mary refused to visit the residence of the Earl of Huntly,&mdash;a
+refusal which was pathetically lamented by Randolph, as it was &#8220;within
+three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> miles of her way, and the fairest house in this country.&#8221; We learn
+from the same authority, that there was such a scarcity of accommodation,
+in Old Aberdeen, that Randolph, and Maitland the secretary, who had
+recently returned from England, were obliged to sleep together in the same
+bed. This is, perhaps, rendered the less remarkable, when we are informed
+that there were, at the University, only fifteen or sixteen scholars.</p>
+
+<p>On the 1st of September, Mary left Aberdeen for Inverness; but, in the
+interval, the Earl of Mar, perceiving that there might be some occasion
+for their services, had collected a pretty strong body of men, who marched
+forward with the Queen and her train. In journeying northwards, she
+travelled by Rothiemay, Grange, Balvenie, and Elgin, passing very near the
+Earl of Huntly&#8217;s castle. No entreaty would induce her to enter it; but she
+permitted the Earl of Argyle and Randolph to partake of its hospitality
+for two days. &#8220;The Earl of Huntly&#8217;s house,&#8221; says Randolph, &#8220;is the best
+furnished that I have seen in this country. His cheer is marvellous great;
+his mind then, such, as it appeared to us, <i>as ought to be, in any
+subject, to his sovereign</i>.&#8221; On the 8th of September, Mary went from Elgin
+to Tarnaway, the baronial residence of the earldom of Murray, and at that
+time in possession of a tenant of the Earl of Huntly. Information being
+there received that Sir John Gordon&#8217;s friends and vassals, exasperated at
+the over-degree of rigour with which he was treated, were assembling in
+arms; and that Sir John, instead of going to Stirling, had joined the
+rebels, a proclamation was issued, charging him to surrender, by way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> of
+forfeit, into the Queen&#8217;s hands, his houses and fortresses of Findlater
+and Auchindoune. This proclamation was expressed with a bitterness which
+must only have enraged the discontents the more. It required the surrender
+of these strongholds, with the avowed intention of breaking the power of
+the rebels, and in consideration of her Majesty having heard &#8220;the many
+grievous complaints of the poor people of this country, hearing them to be
+<i>herreit</i> (robbed) and oppressed by him and his accomplices, in times
+by-past; and fearing the like, or worse, should be done in time coming.&#8221;
+The same proclamation described Sir John Gordon&#8217;s wife as &#8220;Lady Findlater,
+his <i>pretended</i> spouse.&#8221;<a name='fna_60' id='fna_60' href='#f_60'><small>[60]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Fearing that even all this might not be enough to induce Huntly to take
+such steps as might be plausibly construed into treason, Mar now, for the
+first time, produced his title to the Earldom of Murray, and assumed the
+name. The only meeting of council held north of Aberdeen was at Tarnaway,
+and at the first council after the Queen had returned to Aberdeen, we find
+Mar&#8217;s name changed to that of Murray. Robertson, who has followed
+Buchanan&#8217;s, or in other words Murray&#8217;s own account of the transactions in
+the North, in referring Mar&#8217;s assumption of the Earldom of Murray to a
+later date, forgets that it must have been sanctioned by Mary and her
+Council; and that the only opportunity for doing so, in the interval of
+their departure from, and return to Aberdeen, was at Tarnaway.<a name='fna_61' id='fna_61' href='#f_61'><small>[61]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>This new insult upon himself and family was, as Murray expected, deeply
+felt by the Earl of Huntly. He began to suspect that it was intended to
+ruin him; and in this extremity, with evident reluctance, he prepared to
+defend himself. Mary, meanwhile, marched forward to Inverness. &#8220;On her
+arrival,&#8221; says Robertson, &#8220;the commanding officer in the Castle, <i>by
+Huntly&#8217;s orders</i>, shut the gates against her.&#8221; The gates were shut, but
+certainly not by Huntly&#8217;s orders; for as soon as he heard that the Castle
+had been summoned, he sent his express commands to the governor (who had
+acted upon his own responsibility) to surrender it. These commands,
+however, came too late; the Castle had been taken by storm, and the
+governor put to death. What right the Earl of Murray, or even the Queen
+herself, had to demand the surrender of the castle, which belonged
+hereditarily to Lord George Gordon, the Earl of Huntly&#8217;s eldest son, does
+not appear. As Chalmers remarks, the whole proceeding seems to have been
+illegal and unwarrantable. Huntly, who was on his way to Inverness, to
+attempt an arrangement of these disputes, by a personal interview with the
+Queen, when he heard of the execution of the governor, returned to his
+castle.<a name='fna_62' id='fna_62' href='#f_62'><small>[62]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The Gordons were now fairly roused; and, collecting their followers, they
+determined to act resolutely, but not as aggressors. Mary was made to
+believe that she was in the midst of a hostile country; and though there
+was, in reality no intention to attack her, every means was taken to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+inspire her with fear, and to convince her of the treacherous designs of
+the Earl of Huntly. But Mary, had a courageous spirit, when it was
+necessary to exert it. &#8220;In all those garbrilles,&#8221; says Randolph, &#8220;I never
+saw the Queen moved,&mdash;never dismayed; nor never thought I that stomach to
+be in her that I find. She repented nothing, but when the Lords and others
+at Inverness came in the morning from the watch; that she was not a man,
+to know what life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk upon
+the causeway with a jack and knapsack, a Glasgow buckler and a
+broadsword.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>On the 15th of September, the Queen returned southwards. She had with her
+about two thousand men, and as she advanced, their number increased to
+3000. She marched by Kilravock and Tarnaway, to Spynie Castle. Thence, she
+proceeded through the country of the Gordons, crossing the Spey at
+Fochabers, and going by the way of Cullen and Banff. Throughout the whole
+course of this march, Murray took care to make her believe that she was in
+danger of being attacked every moment. If there had been any enemy to
+fight with, &#8220;what desperate blows,&#8221; says Randolph, &#8220;would not have been
+given, when every man should have fought in the sight of so noble a Queen,
+and so many fair ladies!&#8221; The only incidents which seem to have occurred,
+were summonses to surrender, given by sound of trumpet at Findlater House,
+and at Deckford, mansions of Sir John Gordon. The keepers of both refused;
+but they were not acting upon their master&#8217;s authority. Having slept a
+night at the Laird of Banff&#8217;s house, Mary returned, on the 22d of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>September, to Aberdeen. Her entry into the New Town, was celebrated by
+the inhabitants with every demonstration of respect. Spectacles, plays,
+and interludes were devised; a richly wrought silver cup, with 500 crowns
+in it, was presented to her; and wine, coals, and wax, were sent in great
+abundance to her lodgings.</p>
+
+<p>But the Earl of Murray, was not yet satisfied that he had humbled the
+Gordons enough. It was true, that the lands of Sir John had been
+forfeited,&mdash;that the castle of Lord George had been captured,&mdash;and that
+the title and estates of the earldom of Murray had been wrested from
+Huntly. But Huntly&#8217;s power still remained nearly as great as ever; and it
+seemed doubtful whether Murray would ever be able to seat himself quietly
+in his new possessions, situated as they were in the very heart of the
+Earl&#8217;s domains. The privy council were therefore prevailed upon to come to
+the resolution that the Earl of Huntly, in the language of Randolph,
+&#8220;shall either submit himself, and deliver his disobedient son John, or
+utterly to use all force against him, <i>for the subversion of his house for
+ever</i>.&#8221; To enforce this determination, Murray levied soldiers, and sent
+into Lothian and Fife for officers in whom he could place confidence,
+particularly Lindsay and Grange. With what show of reason the unfortunate
+Huntly could be subjected to so severe a fate, it is difficult to say. He
+had come to offer his obedience and hospitality to the Queen, on her first
+arrival at Aberdeen;&mdash;he remained perfectly quiet during her journey
+through that part of the country which was subject to him;&mdash;he sent to
+her, after she returned to Aberdeen, the keys of the Houses of Findlater
+and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> Deckford, which she had summoned unsuccessfully on her march from
+Cullen to Banff;&mdash;and he delivered to her, out of his own castle, a
+field-piece which the Regent Arran had long ago given to him, and which
+Mary now demanded. He added, that &#8220;not only that, which was her own, but
+also his body and goods, were at her Grace&#8217;s commands.&#8221;<a name='fna_63' id='fna_63' href='#f_63'><small>[63]</small></a> His wife, the
+Countess of Huntly, led Captain Hay, the person sent for the cannon, into
+the chapel at her castle, and placing herself at the altar, said to
+him,&mdash;&#8220;Good friend, you see here the envy that is borne unto my husband.
+Would he have forsaken God and his religion as those that are now about
+the Queen&#8217;s grace, and have the whole guiding of her, have done, my
+husband had never been put at as now he is. God, and He that is upon this
+holy altar, whom I believe in, will, I am sure, preserve, and let our true
+meaning hearts be known; and as I have said unto you, so, I pray you, let
+it be said unto your mistress. My husband was ever obedient unto her, and
+so will die her faithful subject.&#8221;<a name='fna_64' id='fna_64' href='#f_64'><small>[64]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>That Mary should have given her sanction to these iniquitous proceedings,
+can only be accounted for by supposing, what was in truth the case, that
+she was kept in ignorance of every thing tending to exculpate Huntly,
+whilst various means were invented to inspire her with a belief, that he
+had conceived, and was intent upon executing a diabolical plot against
+herself and government.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> It was given out, that his object was to seize
+upon the Queen&#8217;s person,&mdash;to marry her by force to his son Sir John
+Gordon,&mdash;and to cut off Murray, Morton, and Maitland, his principal
+enemies.<a name='fna_65' id='fna_65' href='#f_65'><small>[65]</small></a> Influenced by these misrepresentations, which would have been
+smiled at in later times, but which, in those days, were taken more
+seriously, the Queen put the fate of Huntly into the hands of Murray. Soon
+after her return to Aberdeen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> an expedition was secretly prepared against
+Huntly&#8217;s castle. If resistance was offered, the troops sent for the
+purpose were to take it by force, and if admitted without opposition, they
+were to bring Huntly, a prisoner to Aberdeen. Intimation, however, of this
+enterprise and its object was conveyed to the Earl, and he contrived to
+baffle its success. His wife received the party with all hospitality;
+threw open her doors, and entreated that they would examine the whole
+premises, to ascertain whether they afforded any ground of suspicion. But
+Huntly himself, took care to be out of the way, having retired to
+Badenoch.<a name='fna_66' id='fna_66' href='#f_66'><small>[66]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Thus foiled again, Murray, on the 15th of October, called a Privy Council,
+at which he got it declared, that unless Huntly appeared on the following
+day before her Majesty, &#8220;to answer to such things as are to lay to his
+charge,&#8221; he should be put to the horn for his contempt of her authority,
+and &#8220;his houses, strengths, and friends, taken from him.&#8221;<a name='fna_67' id='fna_67' href='#f_67'><small>[67]</small></a> However
+willing he might have been to have ventured thus into the lion&#8217;s den,
+Huntly could not possibly have appeared within the time appointed. On the
+17th of October, he was therefore denounced a rebel in terms of the
+previous proclamation, and his lands and titles declared forfeited.<a name='fna_68' id='fna_68' href='#f_68'><small>[68]</small></a>
+Even yet, however, Huntly acted with forbearance. He sent his Countess to
+Aberdeen on the 20th, who requested admission to the Queen&#8217;s presence,
+that she might make manifest her husband&#8217;s innocence. So far from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+obtaining an audience, this lady, who was respected and loved over the
+whole country, was not allowed to come within two miles of the Court, and
+she returned home with a heavy heart. As a last proof of his fidelity,
+Huntly sent a messenger to Aberdeen, offering to enter into ward till his
+cause might be tried by the whole nobility. Even this offer was rejected;
+and, goaded into madness, the unfortunate Earl at length collected his
+followers round him, and, raising the standard of rebellion, not against
+the Queen, but against Murray, advanced suddenly upon Aberdeen.</p>
+
+<p>This resolute proceeding excited considerable alarm at Court. Murray,
+however, had foreseen the probability of such a step being ultimately
+taken, and had been busy collecting forces sufficient to repel the attack.
+A number of the neighbouring nobility had joined him, who, not penetrating
+the prime minister&#8217;s real motives, were not displeased to see so proud and
+powerful an earldom as that of Huntly likely to fall to pieces. On the
+28th of October, Murray marched out of Aberdeen at the head of about 2000
+men. He found Huntly advantageously stationed at Corrachie, a village
+about fifteen miles from Aberdeen. Huntly&#8217;s force was much inferior to
+that of Murray, scarcely exceeding 500 men. Indeed, it seems doubtful,
+whether he had advanced so much for the purpose of fighting, as for the
+sake of giving greater weight to his demands, to be admitted into the
+presence of the Queen, who, he always maintained, had been misled by false
+council. Perceiving the approach, however, of his inveterate enemy Murray,
+and considering the superiority of his own position on the hill of Fare,
+he relinquished all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> idea of retreat, and determined, at any risk to
+accept the battle which was offered him. The contest was of short
+duration. The broadswords of the Highlanders, even had the numbers been
+more equal, would have been no match for the spears and regular discipline
+of Murray&#8217;s Lowland troops. Their followers fled; but the Earl of Huntly
+and his two sons, Sir John Gordon and Adam, a youth of seventeen,
+disdaining to give ground, were taken prisoners. The Earl, who was
+advanced in life, was no sooner set upon horseback, to be carried
+triumphantly into Aberdeen, than the thoughts of the ruin which was now
+brought upon himself and his family overwhelmed him; and, without speaking
+a word, or receiving a blow, he fell dead from his horse.<a name='fna_69' id='fna_69' href='#f_69'><small>[69]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>Sir John Gordon who was pronounced the author of all these troubles,
+having been marched into Aberdeen, was tried, condemned, and executed. He
+may have been an enemy of Murray&#8217;s, but so far from being a traitor to the
+Queen, he was one of the most devoted admirers and attached subjects she
+ever had. Yet Murray took care to have it reported, that Sir John, before
+he was beheaded, confessed, that if his father had taken Aberdeen, he was
+determined to have &#8220;burned the Queen, and as many as were in the house
+with her.&#8221;<a name='fna_70' id='fna_70' href='#f_70'><small>[70]</small></a> So palpable a falsehood throws <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>additional light upon the
+motives which instigated the prime minister throughout. With a refinement
+of cruelty, he insisted upon Mary giving her public countenance to his
+proceedings, by consenting to be present at Gordon&#8217;s death. She was placed
+at a window, opposite to which the scaffold had been erected. Gordon, who
+was one of the handsomest men of his times, observed her, and fixing his
+eyes upon her, &#8220;gave her to understand by his looks,&#8221; says Freebairn,
+&#8220;that her presence sweetened the death he was going to suffer only for
+loving her too well.&#8221; He then fell upon his knees, and prepared to lay his
+head upon the block. Mary, totally unable to stand this scene, was already
+suffused in tears; and when she was informed that the unskilful official,
+instead of striking off the head, had only mangled the neck, she fainted
+away, and it was some time before she could be recovered.<a name='fna_71' id='fna_71' href='#f_71'><small>[71]</small></a> Adam Gordon
+was indebted to his youth for saving him from his brother&#8217;s fate. He lived
+to be, as his father had been, one of Mary&#8217;s most faithful servants. Lord
+Gordon, the late Earl&#8217;s eldest son, who was with his father-in-law, the
+Duke of Chatelherault, at Hamilton, was soon afterwards seized and
+committed to prison, Murray finding it convenient to declare him
+implicated in the Earl&#8217;s guilt. Having remained under arrest for some
+months, he was tried and found guilty, but the execution of his sentence
+was left at the Queen&#8217;s pleasure. She sent him to Dunbar Castle; and as
+Murray could not prevail upon her to sign the death-warrant, he had
+recourse to forgery; and had the keeper of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> the castle not discovered the
+deceit, the Lord Gordon&#8217;s fate would have been sealed. Mary was content
+with keeping him prisoner, till a change in her administration restored
+him to favour, and to the forfeited estates and honours of his father.</p>
+
+<p>One other incident connected with these tragical events is worth
+recording. Means having been taken for the preservation of Huntly&#8217;s body,
+it was sent by sea to Leith, and lay for several months at Holyroodhouse.
+In the Parliament which met in May 1563, these melancholy remains were
+produced, to have sentence of forfeiture pronounced against them. To
+obviate if possible this additional calamity, the Countess of Huntly,
+widow of the deceased, appeared before the Parliament, and with the spirit
+of a Gordon requested to be heard in her late husband&#8217;s defence. The
+request was refused; Huntly&#8217;s castles and houses were rifled of their
+property, his friends and vassals fined, and many escheats granted to
+those who had assisted in crushing this once noble family.<a name='fna_72' id='fna_72' href='#f_72'><small>[72]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>Murray having now no farther occasion for the Queen&#8217;s presence at
+Aberdeen, the Court moved southwards on the 5th of November. On her way
+home, she visited Dunottar Castle, Montrose, Arbroath, Dundee, Stirling,
+and Linlithgow. She arrived at Edinburgh on the 22d, having been absent
+upwards of three months. It is much to be regretted, that she ever
+undertook this northern expedition. Though she had little or no share in
+its guilt, she had allowed herself to be made an effectual tool in the
+hands of Murray, who was now more powerful than any minister of Mary&#8217;s
+ought to have been. He had forced the Earl of Bothwell into exile; he had
+brought the Duke of Chatelherault and Arran into disgrace; and having
+accomplished the death of the courageous Huntly, he had obtained for
+himself and friends the greater part of that nobleman&#8217;s princely estates
+and titles. Besides, he was more popular among the Reformers than ever,
+for the destruction of the Gordon family had been long wished for by them.
+In short, though without the name, he was the King of Scotland, and his
+sister Mary was his subject.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">CHATELARD&#8217;S IMPRUDENT ATTACHMENT, AND KNOX&#8217;S PERSEVERING HATRED.</span></p>
+
+<p>Mary returned from her Northern expedition towards the conclusion of the
+year 1562. The two following years, 1563 and 1564, undistinguished as they
+were by any political events of importance, were the quietest and happiest
+she spent in Scotland. Her moderation and urbanity had endeared her to her
+people; and, in her own well regulated mind, existed a spring of pure and
+abiding satisfaction. Nevertheless, vexations of various sorts mingled
+their bitterness in her cup of sweets. An occurrence which took place
+early in 1563, demands our attention first.</p>
+
+<p>The poet Chatelard has been already mentioned as one of those who sailed
+in Mary&#8217;s train, when she came from the continent. He had attached himself
+to the future Constable of France, the Duke Danville, and was a gentleman
+of good family and fortune, being by the mother&#8217;s side the grand-nephew of
+the celebrated Chevalier Bayard. The manly beauty of his person was not
+unlike that of his ancestor; and, besides being well versed in all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+more active accomplishments of the day, he had softened and refined his
+manners by an ardent cultivation of every species of belles-lettres. It
+was this latter circumstance that gained for him the occasional favourable
+notice of Mary. A poetess herself, as much by nature as by study, her
+heart warmed towards those who indulged in the same delightful art.
+Chatelard wrote both in French and Italian; and, finding that Mary deigned
+to read and admire his productions, he seems thenceforth to have made her
+the only theme of his enamoured and too presumptuous Muse. To the Queen
+this was no uncommon compliment. She received it, gracefully, and
+sometimes even amused herself with answering Chatelard&#8217;s effusions. This
+condescension almost turned the young poet&#8217;s brain. He had left Scotland
+with the Duke Danville, and Mary&#8217;s other French friends, at the end of the
+year 1561; but he eagerly seized the opportunity afforded him, by the
+civil wars in France, to return before twelve months had elapsed. The Duke
+Danville sent him to Mary&#8217;s court, there is every reason to believe, to
+press upon her attention once more his own pretensions to her hand. But
+Chatelard, in the indulgence of his mad passion, forgot the duty he owed
+his master; and, for every word he spoke in prose for the Duke, he spoke
+in verse twenty for himself. Mary, long accustomed to this species of
+adulation, and looking upon flattery as a part of a poet&#8217;s profession,
+smiled at the more extravagant flights of his imagination, and forgot them
+as soon as heard. These smiles, however, were fatal to Chatelard. &#8220;They
+tempted him,&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> says Brantome, &#8220;to aspire, like Phaeton, at ascending the
+chariot of the sun.&#8221; In February 1563, he had the audacity to steal into
+the Queen&#8217;s bedchamber, armed with sword and dagger, and attempted to
+conceal himself till Mary should retire to rest. He was discovered by her
+maids of honour; and Mary, though much enraged at his conduct, was
+unwilling, for a first offence, to surrender him to that punishment which
+she knew would be inflicted were it known to her Privy Council. She was
+contented with reprimanding him severely, and ordering him from her
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>This leniency was thrown away upon the infatuated Chatelard. Only two
+nights afterwards, the Queen having, in the interval, left Edinburgh for
+St Andrews, he again committed the same offence. As she went to St Andrews
+by the circuitous route of the Queensferry, she slept the first night at
+Dumfermline, and the second at Burntisland. Here Chatelard insolently
+followed the Queen into her bedroom, without attempting any concealment,
+and assigned, as the motive for his conduct, his desire to clear himself
+from the blame she had formerly imputed to him. Mary commanded him to
+leave her immediately, but he refused; upon which she saw the necessity of
+calling for assistance. The Earl of Murray was at hand, and came
+instantly. The daring boldness of Chatelard&#8217;s conduct could no longer be
+concealed; the proper legal authorities were sent for from Edinburgh; the
+poet was tried at St Andrews, and was condemned to death. He was executed
+on the 22d of February,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> and conducted himself bravely, but as a confirmed
+enthusiast, even on the scaffold. He would not avail himself of the
+spiritual advice of any minister or confessor; but having read Ronsard&#8217;s
+Hymn on Death, he turned towards the place where he supposed the Queen
+was, and exclaimed in an unfaltering voice, &#8220;Farewell, loveliest and most
+cruel Princess whom the world contains!&#8221; He then, with the utmost
+composure, laid his head upon the block, and submitted, with all
+resignation, to his fate.<a name='fna_73' id='fna_73' href='#f_73'><small>[73]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Mary remained at St Andrews till the middle of April, when she removed to
+Loch Leven, where she had better opportunities of enjoying her favourite
+amusements of hunting and hawking. She went thither in considerable grief,
+occasioned by the news she had lately received from France, of the death
+of two of her uncles, the Duke of Guise, and the Grand Prior. The former
+had been barbarously assassinated at the siege of Orleans, by a Protestant
+bigot of the name of Poltrot; and the latter had been fatally wounded at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+the battle of Dreux. Alluding triumphantly to the murder of the Duke of
+Guise, Knox expressed himself in these words, &#8220;<i>God</i> has stricken that
+bloody tyrant.&#8221; This enmity to the House of Guise, which Knox carried even
+beyond the grave, was now no novelty. Some months before, he had taken
+occasion to preach a severe sermon against Mary and her friends, in
+consequence of an entertainment she gave at Holyrood, upon receiving news
+of her uncles&#8217; successes in the French civil wars. Mary had, in
+consequence, sent for Knox a second time, when he repeated to her the
+principal part of his sermon, in a manner which made it appear not quite
+so obnoxious as she had been induced to believe. She had then the
+magnanimity to tell him, that though his words were sharp, she would not
+blame him for having no good opinion of her uncles, as they and he were of
+a different religion. She only wished that he would not publicly
+misrepresent them, without sufficient evidence upon which to ground his
+charges. Knox left Mary, &#8220;with a reasonable merry countenance,&#8221; and some
+one observing it, remarked, &#8220;He is not afraid!&#8221; Knox&#8217;s answer is
+characteristic, and does him credit, &#8220;Why should the pleasing face of a
+gentlewoman affray me? I have looked in the faces of many angry men, and
+yet have not been afraid above measure.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The third time that Knox was admitted into Mary&#8217;s presence was at Loch
+Leven. This, as indeed every interview she had with the celebrated
+Reformer, and she had only four, exhibits her character in a very
+favourable point of view. It appears, that whilst the Queen reserved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> for
+herself the right of celebrating mass in her own chapel, it was prohibited
+throughout the rest of the kingdom. Some instances had occurred in which
+this prohibition had been disregarded; and upon these occasions the
+over-zealous Protestants had not scrupled to take the law into their own
+hands. Mary wished to convince Knox of the impropriety of this
+interference. He thought it necessary to defend his brethren; but his
+answer to the Queen&#8217;s simple question,&mdash;&#8220;Will ye allow that they shall
+take my sword in their hands?&#8221;&mdash;though laboured, is quite inconclusive.
+That &#8220;the sword of justice is God&#8217;s,&#8221; may be a very good apopthegm, but
+would be a dangerous precept upon which to form a practical rule in the
+government of a state. Mary, however, knowing by experience that it was
+hopeless to attempt to change Knox&#8217;s sentiments, and not wishing to enter
+into an argument with him, passed to other matters. Though she disliked
+the rudeness of his manners, she had a respect for the unbending Stoicism
+of his principles; and having too much good sense to hold any one
+responsible for the peculiarities of his belief, she could not help
+persuading herself, that she would finally soften the asperity of those
+with whom she disagreed, only upon articles of faith. With this view, she
+conversed with Knox upon various confidential matters, and actually did
+succeed in winning for the moment the personal favour of her stern
+adversary. &#8220;This interview,&#8221; observes Dr M&#8217;Crie, &#8220;shows how far Mary was
+capable of dissembling, what artifice she could employ, and what
+condescensions she could make, when she was bent on accomplishing a
+favourite object.&#8221; There is something very <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>uncharitable in the
+construction thus put upon the Queen&#8217;s conduct. She had, no doubt, a
+favourite object in view; but that object was mutual reconcilement, and
+the establishment, as far as in her lay, of reciprocal feelings of
+forbearance and good will among all classes of her subjects. The
+&#8220;artifice&#8221; she used, consisted merely in the urbanity of her manners, and
+her determination to avoid all violence, in return for the violence which
+had been exhibited towards herself.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this conference, Mary went to Edinburgh, to open in person the
+first Parliament which had been held since her return to Scotland. Its
+session continued only from the 26th of May, to the 24th of June 1563; but
+during that short period, business of some importance was transacted. The
+Queen on the first day rode to the Parliament House in her robes of
+state,&mdash;the Duke of Chatelherault carrying the crown, the Earl of Argyle
+the sceptre, and the Earl of Murray the sword.<a name='fna_74' id='fna_74' href='#f_74'><small>[74]</small></a> She was present on
+three or four occasions <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>afterwards; but on the first day she made a
+speech to the representatives of her people, which was received with
+enthusiastic applause. This applause was wormwood to Knox, who, with even
+more than his usual discourtesy towards a sex whom he seems to have
+despised, says,&mdash;&#8220;Such stinking pride of women as was seen at that
+Parliament, was never before seen in Scotland.&#8221; He was heartily borne out
+in his vituperations by the rest of the preachers. The rich attire which
+Mary and the ladies of her court chose to wear, were abominations in their
+eyes. They held forth to their respective flocks against the &#8220;superfluity
+of their clothes,&#8221; the &#8220;targeting of their tails,&#8221; and &#8220;the rest of their
+vanity.&#8221; It was enough, they said, &#8220;to draw down God&#8217;s wrath not only upon
+these foolish women, but upon the whole realm.&#8221; At this Parliament the
+Earldoms of Huntly and Sutherland were declared forfeited; an act was
+passed for preventing any one from summoning the lieges together without
+the Queen&#8217;s consent; some judicious legislative measures of a domestic
+nature were established; and an act of oblivion for all acts done from the
+6th of March 1558, to the first of September 1561, was unanimously
+carried. This act of oblivion was declared to have no reference whatever
+to a similar act sanctioned by the Treaty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> of Edinburgh, the ratification
+of which was expressly avoided by the Queen. Its object, how&mdash;was
+precisely the same,&mdash;namely, to secure the Reformers against any
+disagreeable consequences which might arise out of the violences they
+committed during the first heat of the Reformation.</p>
+
+<p>An act of oblivion thus obtained as a free gift from Mary, and not as a
+consequence of his favourite Treaty of Edinburgh, was by no means
+agreeable to Knox. He assembled some of the leading Members of Parliament,
+and urged upon them the necessity of forcing from the Queen a ratification
+of this treaty. Even the Protestant Lords, however, felt how unjust such a
+demand would be. The Earl of Murray himself, one of Knox&#8217;s oldest and
+staunchest friends, refused to ask Mary to take this step. Knox, in
+consequence, solemnly renounced Murray&#8217;s friendship, and a coldness
+subsisted between them for nearly two years. Foiled in his object, the
+Reformer had recourse to his usual mode of revenge. He preached another
+&#8220;thundering sermon.&#8221; The object of this sermon was to convince the people,
+that as soon as a Parliament was assembled, they had the Queen in their
+power to make her do what they chose. &#8220;And is this the thankfulness that
+ye render unto your God,&#8221; said he, &#8220;to betray his cause, when ye have it
+in your hands to establish it as you please?&#8221; Before concluding, he
+adverted to the report that her Majesty would soon be married, and called
+upon the nobility, if they regarded the safety of their country, to
+prevent her from forming an alliance with a Papist.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Protestants as well as Papists,&#8221; says Knox&#8217;s biographer, &#8220;were offended
+with the freedom of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> this sermon, and some who had been most familiar with
+the preacher, now shunned his company.&#8221; There must have been something
+more than usually bitter and unjust in a discourse which produced such
+results. It was the occasion of the last and most memorable interview
+which the Reformer had with Mary. As soon as she was made acquainted with
+the manner in which he had attacked her, she summoned him to her presence.
+He was accompanied to the palace by Lord Ochiltree, and some other
+gentlemen; but John Erskine of Dun, a man of a mild and gentle temper, was
+the only one allowed to enter Mary&#8217;s apartment along with Knox. The
+Reformer found his Queen in considerable agitation. She told him she did
+not believe any prince had ever submitted to the usage she had experienced
+from him. &#8220;I have borne with you,&#8221; she said, &#8220;in all your rigorous manner
+of speaking, both against myself, and against my uncles; yea, I have
+sought your favour by all possible means; I offered unto ye presence and
+audience whensoever it pleased ye to admonish me; and yet I cannot be quit
+of you.&#8221; She then passionately burst into tears, so that, as Knox says
+with apparent satisfaction, they could scarce &#8220;get handkerchiefs to hold
+her eyes dry; for the tears and the howling, besides womanly weeping,
+stayed her speech.&#8221; The preacher, when he was allowed to speak,
+complacently assured her Majesty that when it pleased God to deliver her
+from that bondage of darkness and error wherein she had been nourished,
+she would not find the liberty of his tongue offensive. He added, that in
+the pulpit he was not his own master, but the servant of Him who commanded
+that he should speak plain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> and flatter no flesh upon the face of the
+earth. Mary told him that she did not wish for his flattery, but begged to
+know what rank he held in the kingdom to entitle him to interfere with her
+marriage. Knox, whose self-esteem seldom forsook him, replied, that though
+neither an Earl, Lord, nor Baron, he was a profitable and useful member of
+the commonwealth, and that it became him to teach her nobility, who were
+too partial towards her, their duty. &#8220;Therefore, Madam,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;to
+yourself I say that which I spake in public: whensoever the nobility of
+this realm shall be content, and consent that you be subject to an
+unlawful husband, they do as much as in them lies to remove Christ, to
+banish the truth, to betray the freedom of this realm, and perchance shall
+in the end do small comfort to yourself.&#8221; Language so unwarranted and
+uncalled for again drew tears from Mary, and Erskine, affected by her
+grief, attempted to soften down its harshness. Knox looked on with an
+unaltered countenance, and comparing his Sovereign to his own children,
+when he saw occasion to chastise them, he said,&mdash;&#8220;Madam, in God&#8217;s presence
+I speak. I never delighted in the weeping of any of God&#8217;s creatures; yea,
+I can scarcely well abide the tears of mine own boys, when mine own hands
+correct them. Much less can I rejoice in your Majesty&#8217;s weeping; but,
+seeing I have offered unto ye no just occasion to be offended, but have
+spoken the truth as my vocation craves of me, I must sustain your
+Majesty&#8217;s tears, rather than dare hurt my conscience, or betray the
+commonwealth by silence.&#8221; That he might not be longer under the necessity
+of sustaining tears he could so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> ill abide, Mary commanded him to leave
+her presence, and wait her pleasure in the adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p>Here his friends who were expecting him, and who had overheard some of the
+conversation which had just taken place, perceiving how much he had
+excited the Queen&#8217;s just indignation, would hardly acknowledge him. In his
+own words, &#8220;he stood as one whom men had never seen.&#8221; His confidence,
+however, did not forsake him. Observing Mary&#8217;s maids of honour seated
+together, and richly dressed, he took the opportunity, that he might not
+lose his time, of giving them also some gratuitous advice. &#8220;Fair ladies,&#8221;
+he said with a smile, &#8220;how pleasant were this life of yours, if it should
+ever abide, and then in the end that we might pass to heaven with this
+gear: but fy upon that knave, Death, that will come whether we will or
+not; and when he has laid on the arrest, then foul worms will be busy with
+this flesh, be it never so fair and so tender; and the silly soul I fear
+shall be so feeble, that it can neither carry with it gold, garnishing,
+targeting, pearl, nor precious stones.&#8221; Shortly afterwards Erskine, who
+had somewhat pacified the Queen, came to inform him that he was allowed to
+go home.<a name='fna_75' id='fna_75' href='#f_75'><small>[75]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>As the Queen and Knox came just once more into public contact, and that
+only a few weeks after the date of the above interview, it may be as well
+to terminate our interference with the affairs of the Reformer in this
+place. The Queen having gone to Stirling, a disturbance took place one
+Sunday during her absence at the Chapel of Holyrood. Some of her domestics
+and Catholic retainers, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> assembled for the celebration of worship,
+after the form of the Romish Church. The Presbyterians were at the time
+dispensing in Edinburgh the Sacrament of the Supper, and were consequently
+more zealous than usual in support of their own cause. Hearing of the
+Catholic practices carried on at Holyrood, they proceeded thither in a
+body, burst into the Chapel, and drove the priests from the altar. To
+quell the riot, the Comptroller of the Household was obliged to obtain the
+assistance of the Magistrates, and even then it was not without difficulty
+that the godly were prevailed upon to disperse. Two of their number, who
+had been more violent than the rest, had indictments served upon them for
+&#8220;forethought felony, hamesucken, and invasion of the Palace.&#8221; Knox and his
+friends determined to save these two men from punishment, at whatever
+risk. The means they adopted to effect their purpose were of the most
+seditious kind. It was determined to overawe the judges by displaying the
+power of the accused; and with this view, Knox wrote circular letters to
+all the principal persons of his persuasion, requesting them to crowd to
+Edinburgh on the day of trial. He thus assumed to himself the prerogative
+of calling Mary&#8217;s subjects together, in direct opposition to one of the
+acts of the late Parliament. When those letters were shown to the Queen,
+and her Privy Council, at Stirling, they were unanimously pronounced
+treasonable, and Knox was summoned to appear before a convention of
+nobles, to be held in Edinburgh a few weeks afterwards, for the purpose of
+trying him. It was, however, intimated to him, that as the Queen wished to
+be lenient, if he would acknowledge his fault, and throw <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>himself upon her
+mercy, little or no punishment would be awarded. He obstinately refused to
+make the slightest concession, and in consequence nearly lost the
+friendship of Lord Herries, with whom he had been long intimate.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of trial, public curiosity was much excited to know the result.
+The Lords assembled in the Council Chamber at Holyrood; the Queen took her
+seat at the head of the table, and Knox stood uncovered at the foot. The
+proceedings were opened by Secretary Maitland, who stated the grounds of
+the accusation, and explained in what manner the law had been infringed.
+Knox made a declamatory and very unsatisfactory reply. The substance of
+his defence was, that there were lawful and unlawful convocations of the
+people, and that, as the Act of Parliament could not apply to the
+assembling of his congregation every Sunday, neither could he be held to
+have transgressed it by writing letters to the heads of his church,
+calling them together upon a matter of vital importance to their religion.
+The sophistry of this reasoning was easily seen through. It was answered
+for the Queen, that his sermons were sanctioned by Government, and that
+their tendency was supposed to be peaceable; but that the direct purpose
+of the letters in question was to exasperate the minds of the lieges. One
+passage, in particular was read, in which Knox said, alluding to the two
+persons who were indicted,&mdash;&#8220;This fearful summons is directed against
+them, to make, no doubt, a preparative on a few, that a door may be opened
+to execute cruelty upon a greater multitude.&#8221; &#8220;Is it not treason, my
+Lords,&#8221; said Mary, &#8220;to accuse a Prince of cruelty? I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> think there be acts
+of Parliament against such whisperers.&#8221; Knox endeavoured to evade the
+force of this remark by a very evident quibble. &#8220;Madam,&#8221; he said, &#8220;cast up
+when you list the acts of your Parliament, I have offended nothing against
+them; for I accuse not in my letter your Grace, nor yet your nature, of
+cruelty. But I affirm yet again, that the pestilent Papists who have
+inflamed your Grace against those poor men at this present, are the sons
+of the Devil, and therefore must obey the desires of their father, who has
+been a liar and a man-slayer from the beginning.&#8221; More words were spoken
+on both sides, but nothing further was advanced that bore directly upon
+the subject in hand. It is worthy of notice, however, that Knox, in the
+course of his defence, actually forgot himself so far as to institute a
+comparison between Mary and the Roman Nero. At length, having been fully
+heard, he was ordered to retire, and after some discussion, the vote of
+guilty or not guilty was put to the nobles. There being a considerable
+preponderance of Protestant lords at the meeting, it was carried that Knox
+had not committed any breach of the laws. He evinces his triumph on this
+occasion by remarking spitefully in his History,&mdash;&#8220;That night was neither
+dancing nor fiddling in the Court; for Madam was disappointed of her
+purpose, whilk was to have had John Knox in her will by vote of her
+nobility.&#8221; His acquittal certainly disappointed Mary; but it only served
+to convince her more and more, that bigotry and justice were incompatible.</p>
+
+<p>Before concluding this chapter, one of the peculiarities of the Scottish
+Reformer&#8217;s mind deserves to be noticed. That he was a strong thinker and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>
+a bold man, cannot be denied; yet, as has been before remarked, he himself
+confesses that he was much addicted to superstition. This weakness, if
+real, lowers him considerably in the scale of intellect; and, if affected,
+proves that, amidst all the pretensions of his new doctrines, he still
+retained a taint of priestly craft. Alluding to the year of which we
+speak, (1563), he has incorporated into his History the following
+remarkable passage. &#8220;God from Heaven, and upon the face of the earth, gave
+declaration that he was offended at the iniquity that was committed even
+within this realm; for upon the 20th day of January, there fell wet in
+great abundance, which in the falling freezed so vehemently, that the
+earth was but one sheet of ice. The fowls both great and small freezed,
+and could not fly; many died, and some were taken and laid before the
+fire, that their feathers might resolve; and in that same month the sea
+stood still, as was clearly observed, and neither ebbed nor flowed the
+space of twenty-four hours. In the month of February, the fifteenth and
+eighteenth days thereof, were seen in the firmament battles arrayed,
+spears and other weapons, and as it had been the joining of two armies.
+These things were not only observed, but also spoken and constantly
+affirmed by men of judgement and credit. But the Queen and our Court made
+merry.&#8221;<a name='fna_76' id='fna_76' href='#f_76'><small>[76]</small></a> It would thus appear, that Knox&#8217;s mind was either a strange
+compound of strength and imbecility, courage and fear, sound sense and
+superstition, or that duplicity was more a part of his character than is
+generally supposed.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF MARY, WITH SOME ANECDOTES OF ELIZABETH.</span></p>
+
+<p>The summer and autumn of the year 1563, were spent by Mary in making
+various excursions through the country. She had not yet visited the west
+and south-west of Scotland. Shortly after the rising of Parliament, she
+set out for Glasgow, and from thence went on to Dumbarton and Loch-Lomond.
+In the neighbourhood of its romantic scenery, she spent some days, and
+then crossed over to Inverary, where she visited her natural sister, the
+Countess of Argyle, to whom she was much attached. Upon leaving Inverary,
+she passed over the Argyleshire hills, and came down upon the Clyde at
+Dunoon. Following the course of the river, she next visited Toward Castle,
+near the entrance of the Bay of Rothesay. Here she crossed the Frith of
+Clyde, and landing in Ayrshire, spent several weeks in this Arcadian
+district of Scotland. She then went into Galloway, and before her return
+to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> Edinburgh, visited Dumfries, and other towns in the south. Her next
+excursion was to Stirling, Callander, and Dumblane, in the neighbourhood
+of which places she remained till late in the season. The earlier part of
+1564, she spent at Perth, Falkland, and St Andrews; and in the autumn of
+this year, she again went as far north as Inverness, and from thence into
+Ross-shire. &#8220;The object of that distant journey,&#8221; says Chalmers, &#8220;was not
+then known, and cannot be completely ascertained.&#8221; &#8220;She repassed through
+the country of the Gordons, which had once been held out as so frightful.
+She remained a night at Gartley, where there is still a ruined castle, and
+the parish whereof belongs even now to the Duke of Gordon. She rode
+forward to Aberdeen, without seeing Huntly&#8217;s ghost, and went thence to
+Dunnottar, where she remained a night, and thence, proceeding along the
+coast road, to Dundee. She then crossed the Tay into Fife, and diverging
+for a few days to St Andrews, she returned to Edinburgh about the 26th of
+September, after an absence of two months.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As we are speedily to enter upon a new and more bustling, though not a
+happier period, of Mary&#8217;s life, we should wish to avail ourselves of the
+present opportunity, to convey to the reader some notion of her domestic
+habits and amusements, and how, when left to herself, she best liked to
+fill up her time. The affability and gentleness of her manners, had
+endeared her even more than her personal attractions, to all who
+frequented her court. She had succeeded, by the firm moderation of her
+measures, not only in giving a more than ordinary degree of popularity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> to
+her government, but, by the polished amenity of her bearing, her powers of
+conversation, and varied accomplishments, she had imparted to the court of
+Holyrood a refinement and elegance we in vain look for under the reign of
+any of her predecessors. There is a vast difference between an over-degree
+of luxuriousness and a due attention to the graces. Under the influence of
+the former, a nation becomes effeminate, and addicted to every species of
+petty vice; under that of the latter, its characteristic virtues are
+called only more efficiently into action. The tree is not the less
+valuable divested of its rugged bark. It is to the example set by Mary,
+that we are to attribute, in a great degree, that improvement in the
+manners and feelings of Scotch society, which speedily placed this country
+more upon a par with the rest of civilized Europe. Had the precepts of
+John Knox been strictly followed, the blue bonnets of a rigid, unbending
+Presbyterianism would probably to this day have decorated the heads of
+two-thirds of the population. A scarcity which prevailed about the
+commencement of the year 1564, drew from this stern Reformer the
+assertion, that &#8220;the riotous feasting and excessive banqueting used in
+city and country, wheresoever the profane Court repaired, provoked God to
+strike the staff of bread, and to give his maledictions upon the fruits of
+the earth.&#8221; Mary judged differently of the effects produced by these
+&#8220;profane banquetings,&#8221;&mdash;and so will the political economists of more
+modern times.</p>
+
+<p>It was only, after the performance of duties of a severer kind, that Mary
+indulged in recreation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> She sat some hours regularly every day with her
+Privy Council; and, with her work-table beside her and her needle in her
+hand, she heard and offered opinions upon the various affairs of State. To
+the poor of every description, she was, like her mother, exceedingly
+attentive; and she herself benevolently superintended the education of a
+number of poor children. To direct and distribute her charities, two
+ecclesiastics were appointed her <i>elcemosynars</i>; and they, under her
+authority, obtained money from the Treasurer in all cases of necessity.
+She gave an annual salary also to an advocate for the poor, who conducted
+the causes of such as were unable to bear the expenses of a lawsuit; and
+to secure proper attention for these causes, she not unfrequently took her
+seat upon the bench when they came to be heard. Her studies were extensive
+and regular. She was well versed in history, of which she read a great
+deal. Every day after dinner she devoted an hour or two to the perusal of
+some Latin classic, particularly Livy, under the superintendence of George
+Buchanan. In reward for his services, she gave him the revenue of the
+Abbey of Crossraguel in Ayrshire, worth about 500<i>l.</i> a year. This grant
+was probably made at the request of the Earl of Murray, who was Buchanan&#8217;s
+patron, and to whom he always considered himself more indebted than to the
+Queen. Buchanan, whose talents for controversial writing it was foreseen
+might be useful, had also a pension of 100<i>l.</i> a year from Elizabeth. Mary
+had a competent knowledge of astronomy and geography; and her library in
+the Palace of Holyrood contained, among other things, two globes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> which
+were at that time considered curiosities in Scotland,&mdash;&#8220;the ane of the
+heavin, and the uther of the earth.&#8221; She had, besides, several maps, and a
+few pictures, in particular portraits of her father, her mother, her
+husband Francis II., and Montmorency. Being fond of all sorts of
+exercises, she frequently received ambassadors and others, to whom she
+gave audience, in the Palace gardens. She had two of these,&mdash;the southern
+and the northern; and, not contented with their more limited range, she
+often extended her walk through the King&#8217;s Park, and sometimes even along
+the brow of Salisbury Crags or Arthur Seat. She had gardens and parks
+attached to all her principal residences throughout Scotland,&mdash;at
+Linlithgow,&mdash;at Stirling,&mdash;at Falkland,&mdash;at Perth,&mdash;and at St Andrews. It
+was in one of her gardens at Holyrood that she planted a sycamore she had
+brought with her from France, and which, becoming in time a large and
+valuable tree, was an object of curiosity and admiration even in our own
+day. It was blown down only about ten years ago, and its wood was eagerly
+sought after, to be made into trinkets and costly relics.</p>
+
+<p>To her female followers and friends, Mary was ever attentive and kind. For
+her four Maries, her companions from infancy, she retained her affection
+during all the vicissitudes of her fortune. At the period of which we
+write, she still enjoyed the society of all of them; but Mary Fleming
+afterwards became the wife of Secretary Maitland, and Mary Livingstone of
+Lord Semple. Mary Beaton and Mary Seaton remained unmarried. Madame de
+Pinguillon, who had come with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> Queen from France, and to whom she was
+extremely partial, continued in her service for several years, her husband
+being appointed Master of the Household. They both returned to their own
+country when the troubles in Scotland began. There were many other ladies
+belonging to the court, whose names possess no interest, because
+unconnected with any of the events of history.</p>
+
+<p>Mary&#8217;s establishment was by no means expensive or extraordinary. She does
+not appear to have had so great a variety of dresses as Elizabeth, yet she
+was not ill provided either. Her common wearing gowns, as long as she
+continued in mourning, which was till the day of her second marriage, were
+made either of camlet, or damis, or serge of Florence, bordered with black
+velvet. Her riding-habits were mostly of serge of Florence, stiffened in
+the neck and body with buckram, and trimmed with lace and ribands. In the
+matter of shoes and stockings, she seems to have been remarkably well
+supplied. She had thirty-six pair of velvet shoes, laced with gold and
+silver; she had ten pair of hose woven of gold, silver, and silk, and
+three pair woven of worsted of Guernsey. Silk stockings were then a
+rarity. The first pair worn in England were sent as a present from France
+to Elizabeth. Six pair of gloves of worsted of Guernsey are also mentioned
+in the catalogue, still existing, of Mary&#8217;s wardrobe. She was fond of
+tapestry, and had the walls of her chambers hung with the richest
+specimens of it she could bring from France. She had not much plate; but
+she had a profusion of rare and valuable jewels. Her cloth of gold, her
+Turkey <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>carpets, her beds and coverlids, her table-cloths, her crystal,
+her chairs and foot-stools covered with velvet, and garnished with
+fringes, were all celebrated in the gossiping chronicles of the day.</p>
+
+<p>The Scottish Queen&#8217;s amusements were varied, but not in general sedentary.
+She was, however, a chess-player, and anxious to make herself a mistress
+of that most intellectual of all games. Archery was one of her favourite
+out-of-door pastimes, and she indulged in it frequently in her gardens at
+Holyrood. She revived the ancient chivalric exercise of riding at the
+ring, making her nobles contend against each other; and crowds frequently
+collected on the sands at Leith to witness their trials of skill.
+Tournaments Mary did not so much like, because they tempted the courageous
+to what she thought unnecessary danger; and when obliged to be present at
+them in France, it was remarked, that her superior delicacy of feeling
+always marred her enjoyment, from the anticipation that they might end in
+bloodshed. These sentiments were probably strengthened by the unfortunate
+manner in which Henry II. met his death. The now almost obsolete, but then
+fashionable and healthful amusement of hawking, was much esteemed by Mary.
+Her attachment to it was hereditary, for both her father and grandfather
+were passionately fond of it. James V. kept a master-falconer, who had
+seven others under him. In 1562, hawks of an approved kind were brought
+for Mary from Orkney; and in the same year, she sent a present of some of
+them to Elizabeth. To riding and hunting, as has been already seen, Mary
+had long been partial.</p>
+
+<p>Within doors, Mary found an innocent <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>gratification in dancing, masquings,
+and music. She was herself, as has been seen, a most graceful dancer,
+moving, according to Melville, &#8220;not so high, nor so disposedly,&#8221; as
+Elizabeth; by which we may understand that she danced, as they who have
+been taught in France usually do, with greater ease and self-possession,
+or, in other words, with less effort&mdash;less consciousness that she was
+overcoming a difficulty in keeping time, and executing the steps and
+evolutions of the dance. The masques and mummeries, which were
+occasionally got up, were novelties in Scotland, and excited the anger of
+the Reformers, though it is difficult to tell why. Randolph, describing a
+feast at which he was present in 1564, mentions that, at the first course,
+some one, representing Cupid, made his appearance, and sung, with a
+chorus, some Italian verses; at the second, &#8220;a fair young maid&#8221; sung a few
+Latin verses; and at the third, a figure dressed as Time concluded the
+mummery, with some wholesome piece of morality. Upon other occasions,
+several of which will be alluded to afterwards, masques were performed
+upon a more extensive scale. These amusements were seldom or never allowed
+to degenerate into dissipation, by being protracted to untimely hours.
+Mary was always up before eight o&#8217;clock;&mdash;she supped at seven, and was
+seldom out of bed after ten.<a name='fna_77' id='fna_77' href='#f_77'><small>[77]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The Queen&#8217;s taste in music had been cultivated from her earliest years.
+When almost an infant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> she had <i>minstrels</i> attached to her establishment.
+On her return to Scotland, she had a small band of about a dozen
+musicians&mdash;vocal and instrumental&mdash;whom she kept always near her person.
+Five of these were violars, or players on the viol;<a name='fna_78' id='fna_78' href='#f_78'><small>[78]</small></a> three of them were
+players on the lute; one or two of them were organists, but the organs in
+the chapels at Stirling and Holyrood were the only ones which had been
+saved from the fury of the Reformers; and the rest were singers, who also
+acted as <i>chalmer-chields</i>, or valets-de-chambre. Mary could herself play
+upon the lute and virginals, and loved to hear concerted music upon all
+occasions. She even introduced into her religious worship a military band,
+in aid of the organ, consisting of trumpet, drum, fife, bagpipe, and
+tabor.</p>
+
+<p>It was as one skilled in music that David Rizzio first recommended himself
+to Mary. He came to Edinburgh towards the end of the year 1561, in the
+train of the ambassador from Savoy. He was a Piedmontese by birth, and had
+received a good education. His father was a respectable professional
+musician in Turin, who, having a large family, had sent his two sons,
+David and Joseph, to push their own way in Nice, at the court of the Duke
+of Savoy. They were both noticed at that court, and were taken into the
+service of the Duke of Moretto, the ambassador already <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>mentioned. The
+knowledge which David Rizzio possessed of music, says a French writer, was
+the least of his talents: He had a polished and ready wit, a lively
+imagination, full of pleasant fancies, soft and winning manners, abundance
+of courage, and still more assurance. &#8220;He was,&#8221; says Melville, &#8220;a merry
+fallow, and a guid musician.&#8221; He was, moreover, abundantly ugly, and past
+the meridian of life, as attested by all cotemporary writers of any
+authority. His brother, Joseph, is scarcely mentioned in history, though
+it appears that he also attached himself to Mary&#8217;s Court. At the time of
+David&#8217;s arrival, the Queen&#8217;s three pages, or <i>sangsters</i>, who used to sing
+trios for her, wanted a fourth as a bass. Rizzio was recommended, and he
+received the appointment, together with a salary of 80<i>l.</i> Being not only
+by far the most scientific musician in the Queen&#8217;s household, but likewise
+well acquainted both with French and Italian, Rizzio contrived to make
+himself generally useful. In 1564 he was appointed Mary&#8217;s French
+secretary, and in this situation he continued till his death.<a name='fna_79' id='fna_79' href='#f_79'><small>[79]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>An amusing peep into the interior of both the Scots and English Courts,
+afforded by Sir James Melville, will form an appropriate conclusion to
+this chapter. Sir James returned from the Continent to Scotland in May
+1564. He found the Queen at St Johnstone; and she, aware of his fidelity,
+requested him to give up thoughts of going back to France, where he had
+been promised preferment. &#8220;She was so affable,&#8221; says he, &#8220;so <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>gracious and
+discreet, that she won great estimation, and the hearts of many both in
+England and Scotland, and mine among the rest; so that I thought her more
+worthy to be served for little profit, than any other prince in Europe for
+great commodity.&#8221; But Mary had too proud a spirit to submit to be served
+for nothing. She was by nature liberal almost to a fault. Out of her
+French dowry she settled upon Melville a pension of a thousand marks, and
+in addition, she begged him to accept of the heritage of the lands of
+Auchtermuchty, near Falkland. These he refused, as he was unwilling that
+she should dismember, on his account, her own personal property; but they
+were subsequently given to some one less scrupulous. Sir James was soon
+afterwards sent by Mary on an embassy to Elizabeth, principally for the
+sake of expediting some matters connected with Mary&#8217;s intended matrimonial
+arrangements.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after his arrival in London, he was admitted to an audience by
+Elizabeth, whom he found pacing in an alley in her garden. The business
+upon which he came being arranged satisfactorily, Melville was favourably
+and familiarly treated by the English Queen. He remained at her Court
+nearly a fortnight, and conversed with her Majesty every day, sometimes
+thrice on the same day. Sir James, who was a shrewd observer, had thus an
+opportunity of remarking the many weaknesses and vanities which
+characterized Elizabeth. In allusion to her extreme love of power, he
+ventured to say to her, when she informed him she never intended to marry,
+&#8220;Madam, you need not tell me that; I know your stately stomach. You think,
+if you were married, you would be but Queen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> of England; and now you are
+King and Queen both; you may not suffer a commander.&#8221; Elizabeth was
+fortunately not offended at this freedom. She took Sir James, upon one
+occasion, into her bedchamber, and opened a little case, in which were
+several miniature pictures. The pretence was to show him a likeness of
+Mary, but her real object was, that he should observe in her possession a
+miniature of her favourite the Earl of Leicester, upon which she had
+written with her own hand, &#8220;My Lord&#8217;s picture.&#8221; When Melville made this
+discovery, Elizabeth affected a little amiable confusion. &#8220;I held the
+candle,&#8221; says Sir James, &#8220;and pressed to see my Lord&#8217;s picture; albeit she
+was loth to let me see it; at length, I by importunity obtained the sight
+thereof, and asked the same to carry home with me unto the Queen; which
+she refused, alleging she had but that one of his.&#8221; At another time,
+Elizabeth talked with Sir James of the different costumes of different
+countries. She told him she had dresses of many sorts; and she appeared in
+a new one every day during his continuance at Court. Sometimes she dressed
+after the English, sometimes after the French, and sometimes after the
+Italian fashion. She asked Sir James which he thought became her best. He
+said the Italian, &#8220;whilk pleasit her weel; for she delighted to show her
+golden coloured hair, wearing a kell and bonnet as they do in Italy. Her
+hair was redder than yellow, and apparently of nature.&#8221; Elizabeth herself
+seems to have been quite contented with its hue, for she very complacently
+asked Sir James, whether she or Mary had the finer hair? Sir James having
+replied as politely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> as possible, she proceeded to inquire which he
+considered the more beautiful? The ambassador quaintly answered, that the
+beauty of either was not her worst fault. This evasion would not serve;
+though Melville, for many sufficient reasons, was unwilling to say any
+thing more definite. He told her that she was the fairest queen in
+England, and Mary the fairest in Scotland. Still this was not enough. Sir
+James ventured, therefore, one step farther. &#8220;They were baith,&#8221; he said,
+&#8220;the fairest ladies of their courts, and that the Queen of England was
+whiter, but our Queen was very lusome.&#8221; Elizabeth next asked which of them
+was of highest stature? Sir James told her the Queen of Scots. &#8220;Then she
+said the Queen was over heigh, and that herself was neither over heigh nor
+over laigh. Then she askit what kind of exercises she used. I said, that
+as I was dispatchit out of Scotland, the Queen was but new come back from
+the Highland hunting; and that when she had leisure frae the affairs of
+her country, she read upon guid buiks the histories of divers countries;
+and sometimes would play upon the lute and virginals. She spearit gin she
+played weel; I said, raisonably for a Queen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This account of Mary&#8217;s accomplishments piqued Elizabeth&#8217;s vanity, and
+determined her to give Melville some display of her own. Accordingly, next
+day one of the Lords in waiting took him to a quiet gallery, where, as if
+by chance, he might hear the Queen play upon the virginals. After
+listening a little, Melville perceived well enough that he might take the
+liberty of entering the chamber whence the music came. Elizabeth
+coquettishly left off as soon as she saw him, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> coming forward, tapped
+him with her hand, and affected to feel ashamed of being caught, declaring
+that she never played before company, but only when alone to keep off
+melancholy. Melville made her a flattering speech, protesting that the
+music he had heard was of so exquisite a kind, that it had irresistibly
+drawn him into the room. Elizabeth, who does not seem to have thought as
+people are usually supposed to do in polite society, that &#8220;comparisons are
+odious,&#8221; could not rest satisfied, without putting, as usual, the
+question, whether Mary or she played best? Melville gave the English Queen
+the palm. Being now in good humour, she resolved that Sir James should
+have a specimen of her learning, which it is well known degenerated too
+much into pedantry. She praised his French, asking if he could also speak
+Italian, which, she said, she herself spoke reasonably well. She spoke to
+him also in Dutch; but Sir James says it was not good. Afterwards, she
+insisted upon his seeing her dance; and when her performance was over, she
+put the old question, whether she or Mary danced best. Melville
+answered,&mdash;&#8220;The Queen dancit not so high and disposedly as she did.&#8221;
+Melville returned to Scotland, &#8220;convinced in his judgment,&#8221; as he says,
+&#8220;that in Elizabeth&#8217;s conduct there was neither plain-dealing nor upright
+meaning, but great dissimulation, emulation, and fear that Mary&#8217;s princely
+qualities should too soon chase her out, and displace her from the
+kingdom.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sir James, by way of contrast, concludes this subject with the following
+interesting account of Mary&#8217;s well-won popularity, prudence, modesty, and
+good sense. &#8220;The Queen&#8217;s Majesty, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> I have said, after her returning out
+of France to Scotland, behaved herself so princely, so honourably and
+discreetly, that her reputation spread in all countries; and she was
+determined, and also inclined to continue in that kind of comeliness even
+to the end of her life, desiring to hold none in her company, but such as
+were of the best quality and conversation, abhorring all vices and vicious
+persons, whether they were men or women; and she requested me to assist
+her in giving her my good counsel how she might use the meetest means to
+advance her honest intention; and in case she, being yet young, might
+forget herself in any unseemly gesture or behaviour, that I would warn her
+thereof with my admonition, to forbear and reform the same. Which
+commission I refused altogether; saying, that her virtuous actions, her
+natural judgment, and the great experience she had learned in the company
+of so many notable princes in the Court of France, had instructed her so
+well, and made her so able, as to be an example to all her subjects and
+servants. But she would not have it so, but said she knew that she had
+committed divers errors upon no evil meaning, for lack of the admonition
+of loving friends, because that the most part of courtiers commonly
+flatter princes, to win their favour, and will not tell them the verity,
+fearing to tine their favour; and therefore she adjured me and commanded
+me to accept that charge, which I said was a ruinous commission, willing
+her to lay that burden upon her brother, my Lord of Murray, and the
+Secretary Lethington; but she said that she would not take it in so good a
+part of them as of me. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> said, I feared it would cause me, with time, to
+tine her favour; but she said it appeared I had an evil opinion of her
+constancy and discretion, which opinion, she doubted not, but I would
+alter, after that I had essayed the occupation of that friendly and
+familiar charge. In the meantime, she made me familiar with all her most
+urgent affairs; but chiefly in her dealing with any foreign nation. She
+showed unto me all her letters, and them that she received from other
+princes; and willed me to write unto such princes as I had acquaintance
+of, and to some of their counsellors; wherein I forgot not to set out her
+virtues, and would show her again their answers, and such occurrences as
+passed at the time between countries, to her great contentment. For she
+was of a quick spirit, and anxious to know and to get intelligence of the
+state of other countries; and would be sometimes sad when she was
+solitary, and glad of the company of them that had travelled in foreign
+parts.&#8221;<a name='fna_80' id='fna_80' href='#f_80'><small>[80]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>This testimony in Mary&#8217;s favour, from a cotemporary author of so much
+respectability, is worth volumes of ordinary panegyrick.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY&#8217;S SUITORS, AND THE MACHINATIONS OF HER ENEMIES.</span></p>
+
+<p>Mary had now continued a widow for about three years, but certainly not
+from a want of advantageous offers. It was in her power to have formed
+almost any alliance she chose. There was not a court in Europe, where the
+importance of a matrimonial connexion with the Queen of Scotland, and
+heir-apparent to the English throne, was not acknowledged. Accordingly,
+ambassadors had found their way to Holyrood Palace from all parts of the
+Continent. The three most influential suitors were, the Duke of Anjou,
+brother of Mary&#8217;s late husband, Francis II., and afterwards King of
+France, on the death of his other brother, Charles IX.&mdash;the Archduke
+Charles of Austria, third son of the Emperor Ferdinand&mdash;and Don Carlos of
+Spain, heir-apparent to all the dominions of his father, Philip II. None
+of these personages, however, were destined to be successful. The death of
+the Duke of Guise, and the greater influence which consequently fell into
+the hands of Catharine de Medicis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> made some alteration in the Duke of
+Anjou&#8217;s prospects, and diminished his interest with Mary. Besides, it was
+considered dangerous to marry the brother of a late husband. The Archduke
+Charles found, that his proposals to the Scottish Queen excited so much
+the jealousy of his elder brother, Maximilian, that it became necessary
+for him reluctantly to quit the field. It is not improbable that Don
+Carlos might have been listened to, had not Mary found it necessary, for
+reasons which will be mentioned immediately, to give up all thoughts of a
+Continental alliance. Had she married Carlos, she might have saved him
+from the untimely fate inflicted by parental cruelty in 1568.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the sovereigns who at this time watched Mary&#8217;s intentions with the
+most jealous anxiety, none felt so deeply interested in the decision she
+might ultimately come to, as Elizabeth. To her, Mary&#8217;s marriage was a
+matter of the very last importance. If she connected herself with a
+powerful Catholic prince, her former claims upon the English throne might
+be renewed; and her Scottish armies, assisted by continental forces, might
+ultimately deprive Elizabeth of her crown. Even though Mary did not
+proceed to such extremities, if she had a Catholic husband, and more
+especially if there were any children of the marriage, all the Catholics
+of Europe would rally round her, and her power would be such, that her
+requests would be tantamount to commands. So far as Elizabeth&#8217;s own
+interests, and those of the kingdom over which she reigned, were involved,
+she was called upon to pay all due attention to the proceedings of so
+formidable a rival as Mary. But the English Queen&#8217;s selfish and invidious
+policy far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> over-stepped the limits marked out by the laws of
+self-defence. Having determined against marriage herself, she could not
+bear to think that the Queen of Scots should be any thing but a &#8220;barren
+stock&#8221; also. It made her miserable to know that her power should end with
+her life, whilst Mary might become the mother of a long line of kings. She
+hoped, therefore, though she did not dare to avow her object, to be able
+to exert such influence with Murray and the Scottish Reformers, that Mary,
+by their united machinations, might find it impossible ever to form
+another matrimonial alliance; and with this view her first step was to
+inform &#8220;her good sister,&#8221; that if she married without her consent, she
+would have little difficulty in prevailing upon the Parliament of England
+to set aside her succession.</p>
+
+<p>Driven hither and thither by so many contrary opinions and contending
+interests, it was no easy matter for the Scottish Queen to come to a final
+determination upon this subject. Although, in her own words, &#8220;not to marry
+she knew could not be for her, and to defer it long many incommodities
+might ensue,&#8221; she at the same time saw that there were insuperable reasons
+against a foreign alliance. The loss of her best and most powerful
+continental friend, the Duke of Guise, was one of these; another was, the
+avowed wish of Elizabeth and the English nation; and the third, and that
+which weighed most forcibly, the earnest entreaties of her own subjects.
+The great proportion of the inhabitants of Scotland were now Protestants;
+and to have attempted to place over them a foreign Catholic Prince, would
+have been to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> incurred the risk of throwing them at once into the
+arms of Elizabeth, and of losing their allegiance for ever. Mary was
+therefore willing to make a virtue of necessity, and to allow herself to
+be guided very much by &#8220;her good sister&#8217;s discretion.&#8221; This concession to
+the English Queen was far from being agreeable to Catharine de Medicis and
+the French Court. It seemed to be paving the way for a cessation of that
+friendship which had so long existed between France and Scotland.
+Catharine, altering her policy, began to treat Mary with every mark of
+attention. She paid up the dowry she received from France, which had
+fallen into arrears, and requested Mary to exercise as much patronage and
+influence in that country as she chose. Elizabeth, however, had already
+suggested a husband for her; and, to the astonishment of every body, had
+named her favourite minion, Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Though the proposal
+of one of her own subjects, and one too, whom she had raised from
+comparative obscurity, was regarded by Mary as little else than an insult,
+she agreed, that two commissioners upon her part, Murray and
+Maitland&mdash;should meet two of Elizabeth&#8217;s, the Duke of Bedford and
+Randolph, to discuss the expediency of the match. At the conference, which
+took place at Berwick, it was stated for Mary, that she could never
+condescend to marry a newly-created English Earl, having so long a list of
+princes of the blood-royal of the noblest houses of Europe among her
+suitors; and it was added, boldly, that Elizabeth seemed somewhat
+deficient even in self-respect, when she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> could think of recommending such
+a husband for a Queen, her kinswoman. It is not at all likely, that either
+Elizabeth, or the Earl of Leicester, expected or wished any other answer.
+Elizabeth could hardly have done without her favourite; and the Earl would
+have fallen into irretrievable disgrace, had he dared to confess a
+preference for any mistress over the one he already had.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon after this conference that Randolph, by Elizabeth&#8217;s
+directions, repaired to the Queen at St Andrews, to ascertain from her own
+lips what were her real sentiments on the subject of marriage. He found
+her living very quietly in a merchant&#8217;s house, with a small train. She had
+been wearied with the state and show of a Court, and had determined to
+pass some weeks in her favourite retirement of St Andrews, more as a
+subject than a queen. She made Randolph dine and sup with her every day
+during his visit; and she frequently, upon these occasions, drank to the
+health of Elizabeth. When Randolph entered upon matters of business, Mary
+said to him playfully,&mdash;&#8220;I sent for you to be merry, and to see how like a
+bourgeoise wife I live with my little troop; and you will interrupt our
+pastime with your great and grave matters? I pray ye, Sir, if ye be weary
+here, return home to Edinburgh; and keep your gravity and great embassade
+until the Queen come thither; for, I assure ye, you shall not get her
+here, nor I know not myself where she is become. Ye see neither cloth of
+estate, nor such appearance that you may think that there is a Queen here;
+nor I would not that you should think that I am she at St Andrews, that I
+was at Edinburgh.&#8221; Randolph was thus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> for the time, fairly bantered out
+of his diplomatic gravity. But next day, he rode abroad with the Queen,
+and renewed the subject. Mary then told him, that she saw the necessity of
+marrying, and that she would rather be guided in her choice by England
+than by France, or any other country after Scotland. She frankly added,
+that her reason for paying this deference to Elizabeth, was to obtain an
+acknowledgment of her right of succession to the English crown. She was
+making a sacrifice, she said, in renouncing the much more splendid
+alliances which had been offered her; and she could not be expected to do
+so without a return on the part of Elizabeth. Fearful that the crafty
+Randolph might make a bad use of this open confession, she suddenly
+checked herself;&mdash;&#8220;I am a fool,&#8221; she said, &#8220;thus long to talk with you;
+you are too subtle for me to deal with.&#8221; But Randolph, finding her in a
+communicative mood, was unwilling that the conversation should drop so
+soon. Some further discourse took place, and Mary, in conclusion, gave
+utterance to the following sentiments, which do honour both to her head
+and heart. &#8220;How much better were it,&#8221; said she, &#8220;that we two being queens,
+so near of kin and neighbours, and being in one isle, should be friends
+and live together like sisters, than, by strange means, divide ourselves
+to the hurt of us both; and to say that we may for all that live friends,
+we may say and prove what we will, but it will pass both our powers. You
+repute us poor; but yet you have found us cumbersome enough. We have had
+loss; ye have taken scaith. Why may it not be between my sister and me,
+that we, living on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> peace and assured friendship, may give our minds, that
+some as notable things may be wrought by us women, as by our predecessors
+have been done before. Let us seek this honour against some other, rather
+than fall to debate amongst ourselves.&#8221;<a name='fna_81' id='fna_81' href='#f_81'><small>[81]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Mary, however, was by this time convinced of Elizabeth&#8217;s want of
+sincerity, and formed, therefore, a matrimonial plan of her own, which,
+she flattered herself, would be considered judicious by all parties. It
+will be recollected, that, during the troubles which ensued soon after
+Mary&#8217;s birth, Matthew, Earl of Lennox, having drawn upon himself the
+suspicion, both of the Protestant and Catholic parties in Scotland,
+retired into England, where Henry VIII. gave him his niece in marriage.
+The Lady Margaret Douglas was daughter of the eldest daughter of Henry
+VII., the Princess Margaret, who, upon the decease of her first husband
+James IV., had married the Earl of Angus, of which marriage the Lady
+Margaret was the issue. Lennox, belonging as he did to the house of
+Stuart, was himself related to the Royal Family of Scotland; and his wife,
+failing the children of Henry VIII., and the direct line of succession by
+her mother&#8217;s first husband James IV., in which line Mary stood, was the
+legal heir to the crown of England. The first child of this marriage died
+in infancy. The second, afterwards known as Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley,
+was born in 1546, and was, consequently, about four years younger than
+Mary. This disparity in point of years, though unfortunate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> in another
+point of view, was not such as to preclude the possibility of an alliance
+between two persons, in whose veins flowed so much of the blood of the
+Stuarts and the Tudors.</p>
+
+<p>Henry VIII. had, along with his niece, bestowed upon Lennox English lands,
+from which he derived a yearly revenue of fifteen hundred marks. His own
+estates in Scotland were forfeited, so that he thus came to be considered
+more an English than a Scottish subject. He had long, however, nourished
+the secret hope of restoring his fortunes in his native land. His wife,
+who was a woman of an ambitious and intriguing spirit, induced him, at an
+early period, to educate his son with a view to his aspiring to the hand
+of the Scottish Queen. On the death of Francis II. she went herself to
+Paris, for the purpose of ingratiating herself with Mary, and securing a
+favourable opinion for Darnley. Mary, probably, gave her some hope that
+she might, at a future date, take her proposals into serious
+consideration; for it appears, by some papers still preserved in the
+British Museum, that few rejoiced more sincerely at the Queen&#8217;s safe
+arrival in Scotland, than Lady Lennox. She is said to have fallen on her
+knees, and, with uplifted hands, thanked God that the Scottish queen had
+escaped the English ships. For this piece of piety, and to show her the
+necessity of taking less interest in the affairs of Elizabeth&#8217;s rival,
+Cecil sent Lady Lennox to prison for some months.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing the difficulties which stood in the way of all her other suitors,
+Mary, in the year 1564, began seriously to think of Darnley. A marriage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+with him would unite, in the person of the heir of such marriage, the
+rival claims of the Stuarts and the Tudors upon the English succession,
+failing issue by Elizabeth; and it would give to Scotland a native prince
+of the old royal line. It was difficult to see what reasonable objections
+could be made to such an alliance; and that she might at all events have
+an opportunity of judging for herself, Mary granted the Earl of Lennox
+permission to return to Scotland, in 1564, after an exile of twenty years,
+and promised to assist him in reclaiming his hereditary rights. Elizabeth,
+who was well aware of the ultimate views with which this journey was
+undertaken, and had certainly no desire to forward their accomplishment,
+made nevertheless no opposition to it. With her usual sagacity, she
+calculated that much discord and jealousy would arise, out of the Earl&#8217;s
+suit, in favour of his son. She knew that the House of Hamilton, whose
+claims upon the Scottish crown were publicly recognised, looked upon the
+Lennox family as its worst enemies; and that the haughty nobility of
+Scotland would ill brook to see a stripling elevated above the heads of
+all of them. Besides, the principal estates of Lennox now lay in England;
+and in the words of Robertson, &#8220;she hoped by this pledge to keep the
+negotiation entirely in her own hands, and to play the same game of
+artifice and delay which she had planned out, if her recommendation of
+Leicester had been more favourably received.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the Parliament which assembled towards the end of the year 1564, Lennox
+was restored to his estates and honours. Such of his possessions as had
+passed into the hands of the Earl of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>Argyle, were surrendered with
+extreme reluctance; and the Duke of Chatelherault, dreading the marriage
+with Darnley, continued obstinate in his hatred. The Earl of Murray too,
+aware that this new connection would be a fatal blow to his influence, set
+his face against it from the first. Maitland, on the contrary, who felt
+that he had been hitherto kept too much under by the prime minister, did
+not anticipate with any regret the decline of his ascendancy. The
+Secretary, and most of the other members of the Privy Council, were
+assiduously courted by Lennox. He made presents both to the Queen and them
+of valuable jewels; but to Murray, whose enmity he knew, he gave
+nothing.<a name='fna_82' id='fna_82' href='#f_82'><small>[82]</small></a> That Murray&#8217;s weight in the government, however, had not yet
+decreased, is apparent, from his procuring an enactment, to gratify the
+Protestants, in the parliament of this year,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> making the attending of
+mass, except in the Queen&#8217;s chapel, punishable with loss of goods, lands,
+and life: and the Archbishop of St Andrews having infringed this act, was
+imprisoned, in spite of Mary&#8217;s intercession, for some months.</p>
+
+<p>Early in 1565, Darnley obtained leave from Elizabeth to set out for
+Scotland. His ostensible purpose was to visit his father, and to see the
+estates to which he had been recently restored; but that his real object
+was to endeavour to win the good graces of Mary, was no secret.
+Elizabeth&#8217;s wish being to involve Mary in a quarrel, as well with some of
+her own nobility, as with England, there was much art in the plan she laid
+for its accomplishment. She consented that the Earl of Lennox should go
+into Scotland to recover his forfeited estates, and that his son should
+follow him to share in his father&#8217;s good fortune; she even went the length
+of recommending them both to the especial favour of the Scottish Queen;
+but of course said not a word of any suspicions she entertained of the
+projected alliance. As soon as it should appear that Mary&#8217;s resolution was
+taken, she would affect the greatest indignation at the whole proceedings,
+and pretend that they had been cunningly devised and executed, hoping
+either to break off the match altogether, or to make Mary&#8217;s nuptial couch,
+any thing but a bed of roses. Thus was the Scottish Queen to be
+systematically harassed, and made miserable, to gratify the splenetic
+jealousy, and lull the selfish terrors, of her sister of England.</p>
+
+<p>Darnley, in the midst of a severe snow-storm, travelled with all
+expedition to Edinburgh. Upon his arrival he found that Mary was at
+Wemyss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> Castle in Fife, whither, at his father&#8217;s desire, he immediately
+proceeded. The impression which it is said he made upon the Queen, at even
+his first interview, has been much exaggerated. Chalmers, alluding
+principally to Robertson&#8217;s account of this matter, acutely remarks, &#8220;The
+Scottish historians would have us believe, that Mary fell desperately in
+love with Darnley at first sight; they would have us suppose, as simply as
+themselves, that the widowed Queen, at the age of twenty-two,&#8221; (it should
+have been twenty-three), &#8220;who knew the world, and had seen the most
+accomplished gentlemen in Europe, was a boarding-school Miss, who had
+never till now seen a man.&#8221; Mary received Darnley frankly, and as one whom
+she wished to like; but she had been too long accustomed to admiration, to
+be prepared to surrender her heart at the first glance. It was not Mary&#8217;s
+character to allow herself to be won before she was wooed. She was, no
+doubt, glad to perceive that Darnley was one of the handsomest young men
+of the day. She said playfully, that &#8220;he was the lustiest and best
+proportioned long man she had seen.&#8221; She might have said a good deal more;
+for all historians agree in noticing the grace of his person, the easy
+elegance of his carriage, the agreeable regularity of his features, and
+the animated expression of his countenance, lighted up, as it was, by a
+pair of dazzling eyes. He excelled too in all the showy and manly
+accomplishments so much in vogue among the young nobility. His riding and
+dancing were unrivalled; and to gratify Mary, he avowed, whether real or
+affected, a great fondness for poetry and music. Melville says quaintly,
+&#8220;He was of a heigh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> stature, lang and small, even and brent up; well
+instructed from his youth in all honest and comely exercises.&#8221;<a name='fna_83' id='fna_83' href='#f_83'><small>[83]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>It was not, however, Darnley&#8217;s exterior in which Mary and her subjects
+were principally interested. The bent which nature and education had given
+to his mind and character, was a much more important subject of
+consideration. With regard to his religious sentiments, they seem to have
+sat loosely upon him; though his mother was a Catholic, he himself
+professed adherence to the Established Church of England.<a name='fna_84' id='fna_84' href='#f_84'><small>[84]</small></a> In Scotland,
+he saw the necessity of ingratiating himself with the Reformers; and he
+went, the very first Sunday he spent in Edinburgh, to hear Knox preach.
+But Darnley&#8217;s great misfortune was, that, before he had learned any thing
+in the school of experience, and in the very heat and fire of youth, he
+was raised to an eminence which, so far from enabling him to see over the
+heads of other men, only <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>rendered him giddy, and made his inferiority the
+more apparent. He was naturally of a headstrong and violent temper, which
+might, perhaps, have been tamed down by adversity, but which only ran into
+wilder waste in the sunshine of prosperity. He was passionately fond of
+power, without the ability to make a proper use of it. It is not unlikely
+that, had he continued a subject for some years longer, and associated
+with men of sound judgment and practical knowledge, he might have divested
+himself of some of the follies of youth, and acquired a contempt for many
+of its vices. But his honours came upon him too suddenly; and the
+intellectual strength of his character, never very great, was crushed
+under the load. Conscious of his inability to cope with persons of talent,
+he sought to gather round him those who were willing to flatter him on
+account of his rank, or to join him in all kinds of dissipation, with the
+view of sharing his ill-regulated liberality. Of the duties of a courtier,
+he knew something; but of those of a politician, he was profoundly
+ignorant. The polish of his manners gained him friends at first; but the
+reckless freedom with which he gave utterance to his hasty opinions and
+ill-grounded prejudices, speedily converted them into enemies. He had only
+been a short time in Scotland, when he remarked to one of the Earl of
+Murray&#8217;s brothers, who pointed out to him on the map the Earl&#8217;s lands,
+&#8220;that they were too extensive.&#8221; Murray was told of this; and, perceiving
+what he had to expect when Darnley became King, he took his measures
+accordingly. Mary, whose affliction it was to have husbands far inferior
+to herself in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> mental qualifications, beseeched Darnley to be more guarded
+in future. That he was somewhat violent and self-sufficient, she did not
+feel to be an insuperable objection, considering, as she did, the
+political advantages that might accrue from the alliance. She hoped that
+time would improve him; and besides, she did not yet know the full extent
+of his imperfections, as he had, of course, been anxious to show her only
+the fairer side of his character. Melville speaks of him, even when he
+came to be most hated, as a young prince, who failed rather for lack of
+good counsel than of evil will. &#8220;It appeared to be his destiny,&#8221; says he,
+&#8220;to like better of flatterers and evil company, than of plain speakers and
+good men; whilk has been the wreck of many princes, who, with good
+company, might have produced worthy effects.&#8221; Randolph himself allows,
+that for some weeks, his &#8220;behaviour was very well liked, and there was
+great promise of him.&#8221; He had been about a month at Court before he
+ventured to propose himself as a husband to Mary; and at first she gave
+him but small encouragement, telling him she had not yet made up her mind,
+and refusing to accept of a ring, which he offered her.<a name='fna_85' id='fna_85' href='#f_85'><small>[85]</small></a> This was not
+like one who had fallen in love at first sight. But the Queen invariably
+conducted herself with becoming self-respect towards Darnley, permitting,
+as Miss Benger remarks, rather than inviting, his intentions.</p>
+
+<p>Darnley, thus finding that, though the ball was at his foot, the game was
+not already won, saw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> it necessary to engage with his father&#8217;s assistance,
+as powerful a party as possible to support his pretensions. Sir James
+Melville was his friend, and spoke in his favour to Mary. All the Lords
+who hated or feared Murray did the same; among whom were, the Earls of
+Athol and Caithness, and the Lords Ruthven and Hume. A still more useful
+agent than any of these, Darnley found in David Rizzio, who, as the
+Queen&#8217;s French Secretary, and one whose abilities she respected, had a
+good deal of influence with her. Rizzio knew that for this very reason he
+was hated by Murray, and others of the Privy Council. He was, therefore,
+not ill pleased to find himself sought after by her future husband, for he
+hoped thus to retain his place at Court, and perhaps to rise upon the ruin
+of some of those who wished his downfal. An accidental illness which
+overtook Darnley, when the Queen, with her Court, was at Stirling, about
+the beginning of April 1565, was another circumstance in his favour. At
+first, his complaint was supposed to be a common cold, but in a few days
+it turned out to be the measles. The natural anxiety which Mary felt for
+Darnley&#8217;s recovery, induced her to exhibit a tenderer interest in him than
+she had ever done before. She paid him the most flattering attentions, and
+continued them unwearyingly, though her patient was provokingly attacked
+by an ague, almost immediately after his recovery from the measles.<a name='fna_86' id='fna_86' href='#f_86'><small>[86]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>It is worth noticing, that while Mary was thus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> occupied in attending to
+Darnley, the Earl of Bothwell returned to Scotland from his involuntary
+banishment. His former misdemeanours were not yet forgotten, and he was
+summoned by the Queen and Murray to take his trial in Edinburgh; but not
+liking to trust himself in the hands of his ancient enemies, he again left
+the country for six months. He did not depart before giving utterance to
+several violent threats against Murray and Maitland, and speaking so
+disrespectfully of the Queen, that Randolph says she declared to him, upon
+her honour, that he should never receive favour at her hands.<a name='fna_87' id='fna_87' href='#f_87'><small>[87]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The Queen of Scots being now resolved to bestow her hand on Darnley, sent
+her Secretary, Maitland, to London, to intimate her intentions, and to
+request Elizabeth&#8217;s approbation. This was the very last thing Elizabeth
+meant to give. The matter had now arrived exactly at the point to which
+she had all along wished to bring it. She had prevailed upon Mary to
+abandon the idea of a foreign alliance; she had induced her to throw away
+some valuable time in ridiculous negociations concerning the Earl of
+Leicester; she had consented, first that the Earl of Lennox, and then that
+his son Darnley, should go into Scotland; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> she did not say a single
+syllable against it till she had allowed Mary to be persuaded, that no
+marriage in Christendom could be more prudent. It was now that the
+cloven-foot was to betray itself; that her faction was to be called upon
+to exert itself in Scotland; that the cup was to be dashed from Darnley&#8217;s
+lips; and that Mary was to be involved in the vortex of civil dissension.
+The historian Castelnau, whom Mary at this time sent as her ambassador to
+France, and who there obtained their Majesties&#8217; consent to the marriage,
+mentions, that when he returned through England, he found the Queen much
+colder than formerly, complaining that Mary had subtracted her relation
+and subject, and that she was intending to marry him without her
+permission, and against her approbation. &#8220;And yet I am sure,&#8221; adds
+Castelnau, &#8220;that these words were very far from her heart; for she used
+all her efforts, and spared nothing to set this marriage a-going.&#8221;<a name='fna_88' id='fna_88' href='#f_88'><small>[88]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth seldom did things by halves. She assembled her Privy Council,
+and, at the instigation of Cecil, they gave it as their unanimous opinion,
+that &#8220;this marriage with my Lord Darnley appeared to be unmeet,
+unprofitable, and directly prejudicial to the sincere amity between both
+the Queens.&#8221;<a name='fna_89' id='fna_89' href='#f_89'><small>[89]</small></a> Upon what reasons this sage determination was founded,
+the Privy Council did not condescend to state. It is not difficult,
+however, to do so for them, the more especially as an official paper is
+still preserved, drawn up by Cecil himself, in which the explanations he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>
+attempts serve to disclose more fully his own and his Queen&#8217;s policy. He
+did not think this marriage &#8220;meet or profitable;&#8221; because, in the first
+place, it would have given great content to those who were anxious that
+Mary&#8217;s succession to the English crown should not be set aside; and in the
+second place, because, by representing it as dangerous, a plausible
+pretence would be furnished to all Mary&#8217;s enemies to join with Elizabeth
+in opposing it, and harassing the Queen of Scots. Cecil proceeds to point
+out explicitly how the harassing system was to be carried on. <i>First</i>, It
+was to be represented, that in France the houses of Guise and Lorraine,
+and all the other leading Catholics; and in Scotland, all who hated the
+Duke of Chatelherault and the Hamiltons, and Murray and the Reformers, and
+were devoted to the authority of Rome, approved of the marriage. <i>Second</i>,
+It was to be spread abroad that the Devil would stir up some of the
+friends of Mary and Darnley, to alienate the minds of Elizabeth&#8217;s
+subjects, and even to attempt the life of that Sovereign; and, under the
+pretext of preventing such evils, the most rigorous measures might be
+taken against all suspected persons; and, <i>Third</i>, Tumults and rebellions
+in Scotland were to be fomented in all prudent and secret ways.<a name='fna_90' id='fna_90' href='#f_90'><small>[90]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>To report to Mary the decision of her Privy Council, Elizabeth sent Sir
+Nicolas Throckmorton into Scotland. He arrived at Stirling on the 15th of
+May 1565, and, in an audience which Mary gave him, he set forth
+Elizabeth&#8217;s disliking and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> disallowance of what she was pleased to term
+&#8220;the hasty proceeding with my Lord Darnley.&#8221; Mary, with becoming dignity
+and unanswerable argument, replied, that she was sorry Elizabeth disliked
+the match, but that, as to her &#8220;disallowance,&#8221; she had never asked the
+English Queen&#8217;s permission,&mdash;she had only communicated to her, as soon as
+she had made up her own mind, the person whom she had chosen. She was not
+a little surprised, she added, at Elizabeth&#8217;s opposition, since it had
+been expressly intimated to her, through the English resident, Randolph,
+that if she avoided a foreign alliance, &#8220;she might take her choice of any
+person within the realms of England or Scotland, without any exception.&#8221;
+Her choice had fallen upon Lord Darnley, both from the good qualities she
+found in him, and because being Elizabeth&#8217;s kinsman and her&#8217;s, and
+participating of the English and Scottish blood royal, she had imagined
+that none would be more agreeable to her Majesty and the realm of England.
+Convinced, by so decided an answer to his remonstrance, that Mary&#8217;s
+resolution was fixed, Throckmorton wrote to Elizabeth, that she could not
+hope to stop the marriage, unless she had recourse to violence. But
+Elizabeth had too much prudence to take up arms herself; all she wished
+was, to instigate others to this measure. Accordingly, Throckmorton, one
+of the wiliest of her diplomatic agents, received orders to deal with the
+Scottish malcontents, and especially the Earl of Murray, whom he was to
+assure of Elizabeth&#8217;s support, should they proceed to extremities. Murray
+was likewise invited to enter into a correspondence with Cecil, an
+invitation with which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> willingly complied;<a name='fna_91' id='fna_91' href='#f_91'><small>[91]</small></a> and to give the whole
+affair as serious an air as possible, a fresh supply of troops was sent to
+the Earl of Bedford, Elizabeth&#8217;s Lieutenant of the Borders; and her
+Wardens of the Marches were commanded to show no more favour to Mary&#8217;s
+subjects than the bare abstaining from any breach of peace. The Earl of
+Northumberland, who was attached to the Lennox family, was detained in
+London; and Lady Lennox herself, was committed to the Tower. Lady
+Somerset, who pretended a sort of title to the English succession in
+opposition to Mary, was received very graciously at the Court of
+Westminster. Means were used to induce Secretary Maitland to associate
+himself with Murray, and the other discontents; and, all this time, that
+no suspicion of such insiduous enmity towards the Scottish Queen might be
+entertained on the Continent, the good opinion of France and Spain was
+carefully courted.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth next wrote letters to Lennox and Darnley, commanding them both,
+as her subjects, to return to England without delay. Randolph was desired
+to wait upon them, to know what answer they were disposed to give. He got
+little satisfaction from either;&mdash;Lennox firmly, and Darnley
+contemptuously, refused to obey the mandate of recall. Randolph then
+waited upon the Queen to ascertain her mind on the subject. Mary felt
+keenly the contemptible jealousy and envy with which she was treated by
+Elizabeth; and received the English resident with greater reserve than she
+had ever done before, &#8220;as a man new and first come into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> her presence that
+she had never seen.&#8221; Randolph asked, if she would give Lennox and Darnley
+permission to depart for England. Mary smiled at the question, which was
+an artful one, and said,&mdash;&#8220;If I would give them leave, I doubt what they
+would do themselves; I see no will in them to return.&#8221; Randolph answered
+with insolence, that they must either return, or do worse; for that, if
+they refused, and were supported by Mary in that refusal, the Queen his
+mistress had the power and the will to be revenged upon both them and her.
+The Queen of Scots merely replied, that she hoped Elizabeth would change
+her mind, and so dismissed Randolph.</p>
+
+<p>Satisfied of the integrity of her purpose, Mary was not to be easily
+driven from it. She sent Mr John Hay to the English court, to state once
+more her anxious wish to avoid giving any just cause of offence to
+Elizabeth, but at the same time to repeat, that she could not but consider
+as strange and vexatious, any opposition to a marriage, to which there did
+not seem to be one plausible objection. He was desired also to complain of
+the &#8220;sharp handling&#8221; which had been given to Mary&#8217;s aunt, the Lady
+Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. But her chief anxieties arose from
+the state of matters nearer home. The Duke of Chatelherault, and the Earls
+of Murray, Argyle, and Glencairn, had now openly declared themselves
+adverse to the marriage; and Lethington and Morton were suspected of
+giving it only a very doubtful support. There was, in consequence, a great
+change at Mary&#8217;s court. They who had formerly most influence kept away
+from it altogether; and a new set of men, little accustomed to state
+duties,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> such as Montrose, Fleming, Cassils, Montgomery, and others, came
+into favour. It was now that Mary found Rizzio, who was active, and well
+acquainted with all the details of public business, and was, besides,
+liked by Darnley, of the greatest use to her; and being deserted by her
+more efficient, but too ambitious counsellors, she gladly availed herself
+of his services.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY&#8217;S MARRIAGE WITH DARNLEY.</span></p>
+
+<p>Murray, meanwhile, was busily organizing his scheme of rebellion. &#8220;Their
+chief trust,&#8221; says Randolph, alluding to the Earl and his associates,
+&#8220;next unto God, is the Queen&#8217;s Majesty, (Elizabeth,) whom they will repose
+themselves upon; not leaving in the meantime to provide for themselves the
+best they can.&#8221; Elizabeth was not backward to give them every
+encouragement. She wrote letters to the heads of the party; means were
+taken to win over to their views the General Assembly, which met in June
+1565, the members of which, as Randolph says, were &#8220;never more constant or
+more earnest;&#8221; and the nobles summoned by Mary to a convention at Perth,
+were all tampered with. But the great majority at this convention, gave
+their consent and approbation to the proposed marriage; and Murray, in
+despair, begged Randolph to inform his mistress, in the name of himself
+and those who had joined his faction, that they were &#8220;grieved to see such
+extreme folly in their sovereign; that they lamented the state of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> their
+country, which tended to utter ruin; and that they feared the nobility
+would be forced to assemble themselves together, so to provide for the
+state, that it should not utterly perish.&#8221; In other words, they had made
+up their mind to rebellion; at all events, to prevent Darnley from
+obtaining the crown, and an ascendancy over them,&mdash;and probably, if an
+opportunity should offer, to put Mary in confinement, and rule the country
+themselves. This was exactly the state of feeling which Elizabeth had long
+laboured to produce in Scotland. &#8220;Some that have already heard,&#8221; says
+Randolph, &#8220;of my Lady&#8217;s Grace imprisonment,&#8221; (meaning the Countess of
+Lennox), &#8220;like very well thereof, and wish both father and son to keep her
+company. The question hath been asked me, whether, if they were delivered
+us into Berwick, we would receive them? I answered, that we could not nor
+would not refuse our own, in what sort soever they came unto us.&#8221;<a name='fna_92' id='fna_92' href='#f_92'><small>[92]</small></a> But
+as it was felt that a plausible apology would be required for proceeding
+to these extremities, the Earl of Murray gave out that a conspiracy had
+been formed to assassinate him at the Convention at Perth. His story was,
+that there had been a quarrel between one of his own servants and another
+man, who was supported by retainers of Athol and Lennox, and that it had
+been arranged that they should renew their dispute at Perth, and that he
+himself should be slain in the affray, which was expected to ensue. But
+the evidence of a plot against him rests only upon Murray&#8217;s own statement
+and when Mary asked him to transmit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> in writing a more particular account
+of it, seeing that he made it his excuse for refusing to come to Court,
+&#8220;it appeared to her Highness and to her Council, that his purgation in
+that behalf, was not so sufficient as the matter required;&#8221; and his excuse
+was not sustained.<a name='fna_93' id='fna_93' href='#f_93'><small>[93]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The treasonable views entertained by Murray and his friends, are involved
+in no such doubt. In these times, the common mode of effecting a change in
+the government, was to seize the person of the sovereign; and all
+historians of credit agree in affirming, that Murray was determined on
+making the experiment. On Sunday, the first of July, 1565, the Queen was
+to ride with Darnley and a small train of friends from Perth to the seat
+of Lord Livingston at Callander, the baptism of one of whose children she
+had promised to attend. Murray knew that it would be necessary for her to
+pass, in the course of this journey, through several steep and wild
+passes, where she and her attendants might easily be overpowered. At what
+precise spot the attack was to be made, or whether that was not left to
+the chapter of accidents, does not appear. Knox, who was, of course, too
+staunch a Presbyterian directly to accuse the great lay-head of his church
+of so treasonable a design, says that the path of Dron (a rugged pass
+about three miles south of Perth), had been mentioned, whilst Sir James
+Melville and others, point out the Kirk of Beith, which stood on a
+solitary piece of ground, between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> Dumfermline and the Queensferry. But
+late upon the previous Saturday night, a rumour reached Mary of the
+contemplated plot. To prevent its execution, she ordered the Earl of Athol
+and Lord Ruthven, to collect immediately as strong a body of men as
+possible; and through their exertions, she left Perth next morning at
+five, accompanied by three hundred horsemen well mounted. Murray was
+waiting at Loch Leven, Argyle at Castle Campbell, Chatelherault at his
+house of Kinneil, in the neighbourhood of the Queensferry, and Lord
+Rothes, who had joined in the conspiracy, at a place called the Parrot
+Well, not far distant. The Queen, however, to their great disappointment,
+having passed over the ground on which they intended to intercept her,
+both much earlier in the day, and much more strongly guarded than they had
+anticipated, they were obliged to remain quiet; indeed the Earl of Argyle
+did not come to join Murray, till two hours after Mary had ridden through
+Kinross.<a name='fna_94' id='fna_94' href='#f_94'><small>[94]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>On Mary&#8217;s return to Edinburgh she found that an attempt had been made,
+through the conjoined influence of Knox and Murray, to stir up to sedition
+some of the more bigoted Presbyterians&mdash;on the plea that Darnley favoured
+Popery. Two or three hundred of the malcontents, or <i>brethren</i>, as Knox
+calls them, assembled at St Leonard&#8217;s Hill, and their mutinous proceedings
+might have led to disagreeable consequences, had not Mary arrived just in
+time to disperse and overawe them.<a name='fna_95' id='fna_95' href='#f_95'><small>[95]</small></a> Murray and his associates, keeping
+at a greater distance, held some secret meetings at Loch-Leven, and then
+assembling at Stirling on the 17th of July, openly raised the standard of
+rebellion. But, amidst all these troubles, Mary, conscious that she had
+right upon her side, remained undaunted, and, at no period of her life,
+did her strength of mind appear more conspicuous. To retain that
+confidence, which she knew the great majority of her subjects still placed
+in her, she issued proclamations announcing her determination to abstain,
+as she had hitherto done, from any interference in the matter of religion;
+she wrote, with her own hand, letters to many of her nobles, assuring them
+of the integrity of her intentions; and, she sent requisitions to all upon
+whom she could depend, calling on them to collect their followers, and
+come armed to her assistance.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Murray, on the other hand, having thrown off his allegiance to
+his own Sovereign, became entirely subservient to the wishes and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> commands
+of Elizabeth. He and his friends wrote to request that she would send
+them, as a proof of her sincerity in the cause, the sum of three thousand
+pounds to meet the expenses of the current year; and they would thus be
+able, they imagined, to carry every thing before them, unless Mary
+received foreign assistance. They likewise suggested that Lord Hume, whose
+estates lay on the Borders, and who was one of the Scottish Queen&#8217;s most
+faithful servants, should be harassed by some ostensibly accidental
+incursions;&mdash;that the Bishop of Dumblane, who was to be sent on an embassy
+to the Continent, should be delayed in London till &#8220;his budgets were
+rifled by some good slight or other;&#8221;&mdash;and that Bothwell, whom Mary was
+about to recall, to obtain his assistance in her present difficulties,
+should be &#8220;kept in good surety&#8221; for a time.<a name='fna_96' id='fna_96' href='#f_96'><small>[96]</small></a> To all this Elizabeth
+replied, that if the Lords suffered any inconvenience, &#8220;they should not
+find lack in her to succour them.&#8221; She hinted, however, that the less
+money they asked the better, advising them &#8220;neither to make greater
+expense than their security makes necessary, nor less which may bring
+danger.&#8221; &#8220;This letter,&#8221; says Keith, &#8220;is an evident demonstration of the
+English Queen&#8217;s fomenting and supporting a rebellion in Scotland; and the
+rebellious Lords knew too well what they had to trust to.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One can hardly attempt to unravel, as has been done in the preceding
+pages, the secret causes which led to the iniquitous rebellion now
+organized, without feeling it almost a duty to express indignation both at
+the malicious <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>interference of the English Queen, and the overweening
+ambition and ingratitude of the Earl of Murray. Mary&#8217;s conduct, since her
+return from France, had been almost unexceptionable. The only fault she
+had committed, and the necessity of the times forced it on her, was
+yielding too implicitly to the counsels of her brother. These had been in
+some instances judicious, and in others, the natural severity of his
+temper had been rebuked by the mildness of Mary; so that, take it for all
+in all, no government had ever been more popular in Scotland than hers.
+Her choice of Lord Darnley for a husband, so far from diminishing the
+estimation in which she was held by the great body of her subjects, only
+contributed to raise her in their opinion. For the sake of the political
+advantages which would result to her country from this alliance, she was
+willing to forego much more splendid offers; and, though the imperfections
+of Darnley&#8217;s character might ultimately be the means of destroying her own
+happiness, his birth and expectations were exactly such as gave him the
+best right to be the father of James VI. Nor could his religious opinions
+be objected to, for, whatever they were, they did not influence the
+Queen;&mdash;indeed, ever since she had known him, she had treated the
+Protestants with even more than her usual liberality. At the baptism of
+Lord Livingston&#8217;s child, she remained and heard a Protestant sermon; and
+about the same time she intimated to some of the leaders of the Reformers,
+that though she was not persuaded of the truth of any religion except of
+that in which she had been brought up, she would nevertheless allow a
+conference and disputation on the Scriptures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> in her presence, and also a
+public preaching from the mouth of Mr Erskine of Dun, whom she regarded as
+&#8220;a mild and sweet-natured man, with true honesty and uprightness.&#8221;<a name='fna_97' id='fna_97' href='#f_97'><small>[97]</small></a> All
+these things considered, one is at a loss to conceive how, even in these
+restless times, any set of men dared to enter into rebellion against Mary.
+But the selfish and insidious policy of Elizabeth&mdash;the jealousy of the
+Duke of Chatelherault, in whose family rested the succession to the
+Scottish crown, and who had hoped that his son Arran might have obtained
+Mary&#8217;s hand&mdash;the envy and rage of the Earl of Argyle, who had been obliged
+to surrender to Lennox some of his forfeited estates&mdash;and, above all, the
+artful and grasping spirit of Murray, solve the enigma. Whatever opinion
+may be entertained of Mary&#8217;s subsequent proceedings it appears but too
+evident, that the first serious troubles of her reign were forced upon her
+in spite of her utmost prudence, by the intrigues of enemies who were only
+the more dangerous, because they had for a time assumed the disguise of
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever the hopes or wishes of the conspirators might be, Mary resolved
+that they should not long have it in their power to make their desire to
+prevent her nuptials a pretext for continuing in arms. On Sunday, the 29th
+of July 1565, she celebrated her marriage with Darnley, upon whom she had
+previously conferred various titles, and among others that of Duke of
+Albany.<a name='fna_98' id='fna_98' href='#f_98'><small>[98]</small></a> The banns of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> matrimony were proclaimed in the Canongate
+church, the palace of Holyrood being in that parish; and, as Mary and
+Darnley were first cousins, a Catholic dispensation had been obtained from
+the Pope. The ceremony was performed, according to the Catholic ritual, in
+the chapel of Holyrood, between five and six in the morning&mdash;an hour which
+appears somewhat strange to modern habits. John Sinclair, Dean of
+Restalrig, and Bishop of Brechin, had the honour of presiding on the
+occasion. It was generally remarked, that a handsomer couple had never
+been seen in Scotland. Mary was now twenty-three, and at the very height
+of her beauty, and Darnley, though only nineteen, was of a more manly
+person and appearance than his age would have indicated. The festivities
+were certainly not such as had attended the Queen&#8217;s first marriage, for
+the elegancies of life were not understood in Scotland as in France; and,
+besides, it was a time of trouble when armed men were obliged to stand
+round the altar. Nevertheless, all due observances and rejoicings lent a
+dignity to the occasion. Mary, in a flowing robe of black, with a wide
+mourning hood, was led into the chapel by the Earls of Lennox and Athol,
+who, having conducted her to the altar, retired to bring in the
+bridegroom. The Bishop having united them in the presence of a great
+attendance of Lords and Ladies, three rings were put upon the Queen&#8217;s
+finger&mdash;the middle one a rich diamond. They then knelt together, and many
+prayers were said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> over them. At their conclusion, Darnley kissed his
+bride, and as he did not himself profess the Catholic faith, left her till
+she should hear mass. She was afterwards followed by most of the company
+to her own apartments, where she laid aside her sable garments, to
+intimate, that henceforth, as the wife of another, she would forget the
+grief occasioned by the loss of her first husband. In observance of an old
+custom, as many of the Lords as could approach near enough were permitted
+to assist in unrobing her, by taking out a pin. She was then committed to
+her ladies, who, having attired her with becoming splendour, brought her
+to the ball-room, where there was great cheer and dancing till dinner
+time. At dinner, Darnley appeared in his royal robes; and after a great
+flourish of trumpets, largess was proclaimed among the multitude who
+surrounded the palace. The Earls of Athol, Morton, and Crawfurd, attended
+the Queen as sewer, carver, and cup-bearer; and the Earls of Eglinton,
+Cassilis, and Glencairn, performed the like offices for Darnley. When
+dinner was over, the dancing was renewed till supper-time, soon after
+which the company retired for the night.<a name='fna_99' id='fna_99' href='#f_99'><small>[99]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The rejoicings that attended the commencement of Darnley&#8217;s career as King
+of Scotland, were but of short duration. Randolph, expressing the
+sentiments of Elizabeth and the rebels, hesitated not to say, that &#8220;<i>God
+must either send the King a short end, or them a miserable life; that
+either he must be taken away, or they find some support, that what he
+intendeth to others may light upon himself</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MURRAY&#8217;S REBELLION.</span></p>
+
+<p>Murray had now gone too far to recede, though, had he been so inclined,
+Mary&#8217;s leniency would willingly have given him the opportunity. Mr John
+Hay, who had formerly acted as her ambassador in England, and who was one
+of her brother&#8217;s personal friends, was sent to him to declare the good
+will which both the Earl of Lennox and Darnley bore towards him. Mary even
+avowed her readiness to bring to trial any one he would accuse of having
+conspired against his life; but he had no evidence to prove that such a
+conspiracy had ever existed, much less to fix the guilt upon any
+individual. He had made the accusation originally, only the better to
+conceal his own nefarious purposes; for Murray well understood the
+practical application of Machiavel&#8217;s maxim,&mdash;&#8220;Calumniare audacter aliquid
+adh&aelig;rebit.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Acting in concert with this nobleman, Elizabeth now sent more imperative
+orders than before for the return of Lennox and Darnley. But the former
+answered, that, considering his wife had been committed to the Tower for
+no fault on her part, he thought it unlikely that the climate of England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>
+would suit his constitution; and the latter said boldly and gallantly,
+that he now acknowledged duty and obedience to none but the Queen of
+Scots, whom he served and honoured; and though Elizabeth chose to be
+envious of his good fortune, he could not discover why he should leave a
+country where he found himself so comfortable. Randolph coolly replied,
+that he hoped to see the wreck and overthrow of as many as were of the
+same mind; &#8220;and so turning my back to him, without reverence or farewell,
+I went away.&#8221;<a name='fna_100' id='fna_100' href='#f_100'><small>[100]</small></a> The disaffected Lords, on their part, as soon as they
+heard of Mary&#8217;s marriage, and the proclamations in which she conferred
+upon her husband the rank and title of King, renewed their complaints with
+increased bitterness. The majority of their countrymen, however, saw
+through their real motives; and even Knox allows it was generally alleged,
+that these complaints were &#8220;not for religion, but rather for hatred, envy
+of sudden promotion or dignity, or such worldly causes.&#8221; The recalling of
+the Earls Bothwell and Sutherland, and the restoring Lord Gordon to the
+forfeited estates and honours of his father, the Earl of Huntly, was
+another source of exasperation. From the tried fidelity of these noblemen,
+Mary knew she could depend upon their services; though Bothwell,
+personally, as we have already seen, was far from being agreeable to her.</p>
+
+<p>To put in the clearest point of view the utter worthlessness of all the
+grounds of offence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> which Elizabeth and the Scottish rebels pretended at
+this time to have against Mary, a short and impartial account of a message
+sent by the English Queen, early in August 1565, and of the answer it
+received, will be read here with interest. The person who brought this
+message was one of Elizabeth&#8217;s inferior officials, of the name of
+Tamworth, &#8220;a forward, insolent man,&#8221; says Camden, and, with marked
+disrespect, chosen for this very reason. He was ordered not to acknowledge
+Darnley as King, and to give him no title but that which he had borne in
+England; but Mary, &#8220;having smelt,&#8221; as Camden adds &#8220;the nature both of the
+message, and of the animal who brought it,&#8221; would not admit him into her
+presence. His objections were therefore committed to writing, and the
+answer given in similar form. On the part of Elizabeth it was stated, that
+her Majesty had found Mary&#8217;s late proceedings, both towards herself and
+towards her subjects, very strange, upon diverse grounds. These, as they
+were brought forward, so were they replied to methodically and <i>seriatim</i>.
+<i>First</i>, Elizabeth took God to witness, that her offer to Mary, of any of
+her own subjects in marriage, was made sincerely and lovingly; and that
+she was grieved to hear that Mary, listening to false council, had been
+made to think otherwise.&mdash;To this it was answered, that the Queen of Scots
+did not doubt Elizabeth&#8217;s sincerity and uprightness in her offer of a
+husband from England, and that no counsel had been given to induce her to
+change her opinion. <i>Second</i>, Elizabeth was much surprised, that
+notwithstanding the offer made by Mary to Sir <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>Nicolas Throckmorton, to
+delay her marriage till the middle of August, that she might have longer
+time to prevail upon Elizabeth to consent to it, she had consummated that
+marriage without giving her Majesty any intimation, on the 29th of July,
+and had thereby disappointed both Elizabeth and some foreign princes, who
+thought as strangely of the alliance as she did.&mdash;To this it was answered,
+that it was true, that though Mary&#8217;s resolution was fixed before Sir
+Nicolas Throckmorton came into Scotland, she had, nevertheless, promised
+to delay her marriage in the hope that the doubts entertained by
+Elizabeth, as to the propriety of the said marriage, might in the
+meantime, be removed; but that this promise was made expressly on the
+condition, that Commissioners should be appointed on both sides to discuss
+the matter, and that, as Elizabeth refused to nominate any such
+commissioners, Mary was relieved from her promise; that further, she had
+good reasons, known to herself and her own people, with which no other
+prince needed to interfere, for consummating her marriage at the time she
+did; and that, with regard to foreign princes thinking the alliance
+strange, she had a perfect knowledge of the opinions, and had obtained the
+express consent of the principal and greatest princes in Christendom.
+<i>Third</i>, Elizabeth was astonished how Mary, in direct opposition to the
+conditions of the treaty of peace, existing between England and Scotland,
+could detain her Majesty&#8217;s subjects, Lennox and Darnley in Scotland,
+having allured them thither under a pretence of suits for lands, but in
+reality to form an alliance without her Majesty&#8217;s consent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> and
+license,&mdash;an offence so unnatural, that the world spoke of it, and her
+Majesty could not forget it.&mdash;To this it was answered, that Mary marvelled
+not a little at the Queen, her good sister, insisting any further upon
+this head, for she did not understand how it could be found strange that
+she detained within her realm the person with whom she had joined herself
+in marriage, or a Scottish Earl, whom Elizabeth herself named by his
+Scottish title, the more especially as they both came to her with
+Elizabeth&#8217;s consent and letters of recommendation; and that she had no
+doubt that the world spoke as sound sense would dictate, judging that her
+detaining of them was in no ways prejudicial to any treaty of peace,
+existing between the two realms, since no annoyance was intended towards
+Elizabeth, her kingdom, or estate. <i>Fourth</i>, Elizabeth wondered that
+Mary&#8217;s ambassador, Mr John Hay, came to ask to be informed of her
+Majesty&#8217;s objections to the marriage, and of what she wished to be done,
+but had no authority either to agree to, or refuse her requests; and she
+therefore supposed that he had been sent more as a piece of empty form,
+than for any useful purpose.&mdash;To this it was answered, that Mary, though
+willing to hear Elizabeth&#8217;s objections, if any such existed, and to
+endeavour to remove them, had yet expressly declared, that she would make
+such endeavour only through the medium of commissioners mutually agreed
+on; and that she was still so convinced of the expediency of the match,
+that though now married, she was still willing, if Elizabeth wished it, to
+have its propriety discussed by such commissioners. <i>Fifth</i>, Elizabeth
+begged that an explanation might be given of a sentence in one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> of Mary&#8217;s
+French letters, which she found somewhat obscured, and which ran
+thus,&mdash;&#8220;Je n&#8217;estimerois jamais que cela vienne de vous, et sans en
+chercher autre vengeance, j&#8217;aurois recours &agrave; tous les princes mes allies
+pour avec moi vous remonstrer ce que je vous suis par parentage. Vous
+savez assez ce que vous avez resolu sur cela.&#8221;&mdash;To this it was answered,
+that Mary, by the whole of her letter, as well as the passage in question,
+meant no other thing but to express her desire to remain in perfect
+friendship and good intelligence with the Queen her sister, from whom she
+expected such treatment as reason and nature required from one princess to
+another, who was her cousin; and that if, as God forbid, other treatment
+were received, which Mary would not anticipate, she could do no less than
+lay her case before other princes, her friends and allies. <i>Sixth</i>,
+Elizabeth was grieved to see that Mary encouraged fugitives and offenders
+from England, and practised other devices within her Majesty&#8217;s realm; and
+that, in her own kingdom, seduced by false counsellors and malicious
+information, she raised up factions among the nobility.&mdash;To this it was
+answered, that if the Scottish Queen really wished to offend Elizabeth,
+she would not be contented with such paltry practices as those she was
+accused of towards English subjects;&mdash;and that, with regard to her
+proceedings in her own realm, as she had never interfered with Elizabeth&#8217;s
+order of government, not thinking it right that one state should have a
+finger in the internal policy of another, so she requested that Elizabeth
+would not meddle with her&#8217;s, but trust to her discretion, as the person
+most interested, to preserve peace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> and quietness. <i>Seventh</i>, Elizabeth
+warned Mary to take good heed that she did not proceed in her intention to
+suppress and extirpate the religion already established in Scotland, or to
+effect the suppression of the Reformed faith in England, for that all such
+designs, consultations, intelligences, and devices, should be converted to
+the peril and damage of those that advised and engaged in them.&mdash;To this
+it was answered, that Mary could not but marvel at Elizabeth&#8217;s fears for a
+religion upon which no innovation had ever been attempted, but for the
+establishment of which every arrangement had been made most agreeable to
+her Scottish subjects; that as to an intention to interfere with the
+spiritual faith of England, she never heard of it before; but that, if any
+practices to such effect could be condescended on, they should instantly
+be explained and altered; and that, with regard to her designs,
+consultations, intelligences and devices, such as she really engaged in,
+would be found no vainer or more deceitful than those of her neighbours.
+<i>Eighth</i> and <i>lastly</i>, Elizabeth wished that Mary would not show herself
+so given to change, as to conceive evil of the Earl of Murray, whose just
+deserts she had so long acknowledged, for that by indifference and
+severity, there were plenty examples to prove, that many noble men had
+been constrained to take such measures for their own security, as they
+would otherwise never have resorted to; and that these were <i>part</i> of the
+reasons why Elizabeth was offended with Mary.&mdash;To this it was answered,
+that Mary wished her good sister would not meddle with the affairs of her
+Scottish subjects any more than Mary meddled with the affairs of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>
+Elizabeth&#8217;s English subjects; but that, if Elizabeth desired any
+explanation of her conduct towards Murray, it would be willingly given, as
+soon as Elizabeth explained her motives for committing to the Tower Lady
+Margaret, Countess of Lennox, mother-in-law and aunt of Mary; and that, as
+soon as Elizabeth stated any <i>other</i> grounds of offence, they should be
+answered as satisfactorily as the above had been.<a name='fna_101' id='fna_101' href='#f_101'><small>[101]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Having thus triumphantly replied to the English Queen&#8217;s irritating
+message, Mary, in the true spirit of conciliation, had the magnanimity to
+propose that the following articles should be mutually agreed upon. On the
+part of the King and Queen of Scotland,&mdash;<i>First</i>, That their Majesties
+being satisfied of the Queen their sister&#8217;s friendship, are content to
+assure the Queen, that during the term of her life, or that of her lawful
+issue, they will not, directly or indirectly, attempt any thing
+prejudicial to their sister&#8217;s title to the Crown of England, or in any way
+disturb the quietness of that kingdom. <i>Second</i>, They will enter into no
+communication with any subject or subjects of the realm of England, in
+prejudice of their said sister and her lawful issue, or receive into their
+protection any subjects of the realm of England, with whom their sister
+may have occasion to be offended. <i>Third</i>, They will not enter into any
+league or confederation with any foreign prince, to the hurt, damage, and
+displeasure of the Queen and realm of England. <i>Fourth</i>, They will enter
+into any such league and confederation with the Queen and realm of
+England, as shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> be for the weal of the princes and subjects on both
+sides. And, <i>Fifth</i>, They will not go about to procure in any way,
+alteration, innovation, or change in the religion, laws, or liberties of
+the realm of England, though it should please God at any time hereafter to
+call them to the succession of that kingdom. In consideration of these
+offers, the three following equally reasonable articles were to be agreed
+to, on the part of England;&mdash;<i>First</i>, That by Act of Parliament, the
+succession to the Crown, failing Elizabeth and her lawful issue, shall be
+established first, in the person of Mary and her lawful issue, and failing
+them, in the person of the Countess of Lennox and her lawful issue, as by
+the law of God and nature, entitled to the inheritance of the said Crown.
+<i>Second</i>, That the second offer made by the King and Queen of Scotland be
+also made on the part of England; and, <i>Third</i>, That the third offer shall
+be likewise mutual. To have agreed to these liberal articles would not
+have suited Elizabeth&#8217;s policy, and we consequently hear nothing farther
+concerning them.</p>
+
+<p>On the 15th of August 1565, Murray summoned the rebellious nobles to a
+public meeting at Ayr, where it was resolved that they should assemble
+together in arms on the 24th. Mary in consequence issued proclamations,
+calling upon her loyal subjects to come to Edinburgh, with their kin,
+friends, and household, and provided for fifteen days, on the 25th of
+August. On that day she left Edinburgh with a numerous force, and marched
+to Linlithgow. Before leaving the capital, measures were taken to prevent
+the discontented there from turning to advantage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> the absence of their
+sovereign. The Provost, who was entirely under the management of Knox, and
+strongly suspected to favour the rebels, was displaced, and a more
+trust-worthy civic officer appointed in his stead. Knox himself, a few
+days before, had, been suspended from the discharge of his clerical
+duties, in consequence of a seditious and insulting sermon he delivered
+before the young King, who paid him the compliment of attending divine
+service in St Giles&#8217;s church, a Sunday or two after his marriage. In this
+sermon the preacher, among other things, said, that God had raised to the
+throne, for the sins of the people, boys and women; adding, in the words
+of Scripture,&mdash;&#8220;I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall
+rule over them: children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.&#8221;
+In the same style of allusions grossly personal, he remarked, that &#8220;God
+justly punished Ahab, because he did not correct his idolatrous wife, the
+harlot Jezabel.&#8221; It is singular, that Knox never thought of objecting to
+Mary&#8217;s marriage with Darnley, till he found that his patron, the Earl of
+Murray, to whom he was now reconciled, did not approve of it. He had said
+only a few months before that&mdash;&#8220;The Queen being at Stirling, order was
+given to Secretary Lethington to pass to the Queen of England, to declare
+to that Queen, Mary was minded to marry her cousin, the Lord Darnley; and
+the rather, because he was so near of blood to both Queens; for, by his
+mother, he was cousin-german to the Queen of Scotland, also of near
+kindred and the same name by his father;&mdash;his mother was cousin-german to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>
+the Queen of England. Here, mark God&#8217;s providence: King James V., having
+lost his two sons, did declare his resolution to make the Earl of Lennox
+his heir of the crown; but he, prevented by sudden death, that design
+ceased. Then came the Earl of Lennox from France, with intention to marry
+King James&#8217;s widow; but that failed also: he marries Mary Douglas; and his
+son, Lord Darnley, marrieth Queen Mary, King James V.&#8217;s daughter: and so
+the King&#8217;s desire is fulfilled, viz.&mdash;the crown continueth in the name and
+in the family.&#8221; Knox had changed his opinion (as even Knox could sometimes
+do), both when he preached the above-mentioned sermon, and when, towards
+the end of August 1565, he said, that the Castle of Edinburgh was
+&#8220;shooting against <i>the exiled for Christ Jesus&#8217; sake</i>.&#8221;<a name='fna_102' id='fna_102' href='#f_102'><small>[102]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>From Linlithgow, Mary advanced with an increasing force, first to
+Stirling, and then to Glasgow. Here she was within a short distance of the
+rebel army, which, mustering about 1200 strong, had taken its position at
+Paisley; &#8220;a fine pleasant village,&#8221; says Keith, &#8220;five miles W.S.W. from
+Glasgow.&#8221; But Murray, not venturing to attack the Royalists, made a
+circuit at some distance and, by a forced march, arrived unexpectedly at
+Edinburgh, where he hoped to increase his force. In this hope he was
+grievously disappointed. Finding that the Provost, who was taken by
+surprise, had not sufficient strength to keep him without the walls, he
+entered the city by the West Port, and immediately despatched messengers
+for assistance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> in every direction, and, by beat of drum, called upon all
+men who wished to receive wages &#8220;for the defence of the glory of God,&#8221; to
+join his standard. But Knox confesses, that few or none resorted to him,
+and that he got little or no support in Edinburgh; although the preacher
+himself did all he could for his patron by prayers and exhortations, in
+which he denominated the rebels &#8220;the best part of the nobility, and chief
+members of the Congregation.&#8221;<a name='fna_103' id='fna_103' href='#f_103'><small>[103]</small></a> The truth is, that the current of
+popular opinion ran directly in favour of Mary; for the <i>godly</i> Earl&#8217;s
+real motives were well understood.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the Queen was made aware that she had missed her enemies, she
+marched back in pursuit of them, at the head of 5000 men, as far as
+Callender. Murray could only fly from a power which he knew he was not
+able to withstand. Alarmed by Mary&#8217;s speedy return, he left Edinburgh, and
+again passing her on the road, led his followers to Lanark, and from
+thence to Hamilton. With indomitable perseverance, the Queen retraced her
+steps to Glasgow, expecting Murray would make an attempt upon that city.
+But finding there was no safety for him in this part of Scotland, he
+suddenly turned off towards the south, and with as little delay as
+possible, retired into Dumfries-shire. Here, being near the Borders, he
+expected that Elizabeth would send him succour from England, and at all
+events, he could at any time make good his retreat into that country. The
+principal noblemen with him were the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls of
+Argyle, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>Glencairn, and Rothes, and the Lords Boyd and Ochiltree. Morton
+and Maitland remained with the Queen; but the fidelity of both is much to
+be suspected, though the command of the main body of the Royal army was
+intrusted to the former. The Earl of Lennox led the van, and the Queen
+herself rode with her officers in a suit of light armour, carrying pistols
+at her saddle-bow; &#8220;her courage,&#8221; says Knox, &#8220;manlike, and always
+increasing.&#8221; She did not think it worth while to follow Murray into
+Dumfries-shire, but preferred leading her army through Fife, to St
+Andrews, taking possession, on the way, of Castle Campbell, the seat of
+the rebel Lord, Argyle.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth in the mean time was far from being inattentive to the interests
+of her servants in Scotland. Randolph wrote to Cecil, that if she would
+assist them with men and more money, he doubted not but one country would
+receive both the Queens; by which he meant, that the rebels would thus be
+able to fulfil their design, of sending Mary prisoner into England.<a name='fna_104' id='fna_104' href='#f_104'><small>[104]</small></a>
+The Earl of Bedford informed his mistress of the arrival of her friends on
+the Borders, and hinted to her that their cause was evidently not very
+popular in Scotland, and that their force was much inferior to that of
+Mary. Elizabeth&#8217;s letter, in answer, is as artful a piece of writing as
+has ever proceeded even from a female pen. Afraid that she might go too
+far in assisting the losing party, she resolved to make it be believed
+that she acted against them, whilst in truth she secretly encouraged and
+supported them. With this view,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> she wrote to Bedford, that in consequence
+of his representations, as well as those of Randolph and others, she sent
+him three thousand pounds; one thousand of which was to be paid
+immediately to Murray, in the most private way possible, and as if it came
+from Bedford himself. The remainder was to be kept till occasion required
+its expenditure. &#8220;And where, we perceive,&#8221; she continued, &#8220;by your sundry
+letters, the earnest request of the said Earl of Murray and his
+associates, that they might have at least 300 of our soldiers to aid them,
+and that you also write, that though we would not command you to give them
+aid, yet if we would but wink at your doing herein, and seem to blame you
+for attempting such things, as you, with the help of others, should bring
+about, you doubt not but things would do well,&mdash;we are content, and do
+authorize you, if you shall see it necessary for their defence, to let
+them (as of your own adventure, and without notification that you have any
+direction therein from us), to have the number of 300 soldiers, wherein
+you shall so precisely deal with them, that they may perceive your care to
+be such as, if it should otherwise appear, your danger should be so great,
+as all the friends you have could not be able to save you towards us. And
+so we assure you, our conscience moveth us to charge you so to proceed
+with them; and yet we would not that either of these were known to be our
+act, but rather to be covered with your own desire and attempt.&#8221; Having
+further mentioned, that she had written lately to Mary, to assure that
+princess of her esteem and good will, Elizabeth boldly affixed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> her
+signature to this memorable record of unblushing duplicity.<a name='fna_105' id='fna_105' href='#f_105'><small>[105]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>But Mary was not to be lulled into dangerous security. All her operations
+during this campaign were, as Robertson has remarked, &#8220;concerted with
+wisdom, executed with vigour, and attended with success.&#8221; At St Andrews,
+she issued a proclamation, exposing the hollowness of the grounds upon
+which arms had been taken up against her, and showing that religion was
+only made a cloak to cover other more ungodly designs. Alluding, in
+particular, to the Earl of Murray, upon whom she had bestowed so many
+benefits, this proclamation stated, that his insatiable ambition was not
+to be satisfied with heaping riches upon riches, and honour upon honour,
+unless he should also continue to have, as he had too long had, the Queen
+and the whole realm in his own hands, to be used and governed at his
+pleasure. &#8220;By letters sent from themselves to us,&#8221; Mary says, &#8220;they make
+plain profession that the establishment of religion will not content them,
+but we must per force be governed by such council as it shall please them
+to appoint unto us.&#8221; &#8220;The like,&#8221; she adds, &#8220;was never demanded of any our
+most noble progenitors heretofore, yea, not even of governors or regents;
+but the prince, or such as occupied his place, ever chose his council of
+such as he thought most fit for the purpose. When we ourselves were of
+less age, and at our first arrival in our realm, we had free choice of our
+council at our pleasure; and now, when we are at our full majority, shall
+we be brought back to the state of pupils and minors, or be put under
+tutelage?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> So long as some of them bore the whole swing with us
+themselves, this matter was never called in question; but now, when they
+cannot be longer permitted to do and undo all things of their appetite,
+they will put a bridle in our mouths, and give us a council chosen after
+their phantasy! To speak it in plain language, they would be king
+themselves; or at the least, leaving to us the bare name and title, take
+to themselves the whole use and administration of the kingdom.&#8221;<a name='fna_106' id='fna_106' href='#f_106'><small>[106]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>After levying a small fine of two hundred marks from the town of Dundee,
+which had given some countenance to the malcontents, Mary and Darnley
+returned to Edinburgh. They there received such accounts of the increasing
+strength of the rebels, as induced them to determine on marching
+southwards. Biggar was named as the place of rendezvous for the lieges,
+and they flocked in such crowds to join the standard of their sovereign,
+that the Queen was enabled to advance towards the Borders at the head of
+an army of 18,000 men. Before this greatly superior force, Murray and his
+partisans, including his 300 English soldiers, retired to Carlisle. He was
+closely followed thither, upon which his troops dispersed, and he himself
+and his friends sought refuge by flying further into England. Mary, after
+visiting the castle of Lochmaben, left Bothwell, with some troops, to
+watch the Borders; and, on the 18th of October, returned to Edinburgh with
+the rest of her army.<a name='fna_107' id='fna_107' href='#f_107'><small>[107]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Of the rebellious nobles thus forced into exile,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> the Duke of
+Chatelherault alone was able or willing to make his peace immediately. He
+and his sons were pardoned, on condition of their living abroad&mdash;a degree
+of leniency extended to them by Mary, in opposition to the wishes of the
+house of Lennox, which was anxious for the entire ruin of the
+Hamiltons.<a name='fna_108' id='fna_108' href='#f_108'><small>[108]</small></a> Murray and the rest, being kindly received by Bedford,
+fixed their residence at Newcastle, whence the Earl himself, and the Abbot
+of Kilwinning, were deputed to proceed to the English court, and lay the
+state of their affairs before Elizabeth, upon whose patronage they
+conceived they had peculiar claims. It was, however, no part of
+Elizabeth&#8217;s policy to befriend in their adversity those with whom she had
+associated herself in more prosperous days. As soon as she heard that
+Murray was on his way to her court, she wrote to stop him, and to inform
+him that it was not meet for him to have any &#8220;open dealing&#8221; with her. But
+at Bedford&#8217;s earnest entreaty he was allowed to continue his journey, the
+object of which, he said, was to make some proposals for the &#8220;common
+cause.&#8221;<a name='fna_109' id='fna_109' href='#f_109'><small>[109]</small></a> It was nevertheless a long while before he could obtain an
+audience of the Queen; and when that honour was at length conceded to him,
+she had the confidence to ask him, with an unruffled countenance, how he,
+being a rebel to her sister of Scotland, durst have the boldness to come
+within her realm? Murray, in reply, ventured to speak of the support he
+had all along received from her; but as this was betraying her policy to
+her continental neighbours, it exasperated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> her to such a degree, that she
+declared he and his friends should never obtain any thing from her but
+scorn and neglect, unless he made a public recantation of such an
+assertion. With this demand both the Earl and the Abbot had the meanness
+to comply; and though Sir Nicolas Throckmorton interfered in their behalf,
+and openly avowed that he had been sent into Scotland expressly to make
+offers of assistance to the rebel lords, he could not save them from the
+degradation which Elizabeth inflicted. They appeared before her when she
+was surrounded by the French and Spanish ambassadors, and impiously
+affirmed, upon their knees, that her Majesty had never moved them to any
+opposition or resistance against their own Queen. As soon as they had
+uttered this falsehood, Elizabeth said to them,&mdash;&#8220;Now ye have told the
+truth; for neither did I, nor any in my name, stir you up against your
+Queen. Your abominable treason may serve for example to my own subjects to
+rebel against me. Therefore, get ye out of my presence; ye are but
+unworthy traitors.&#8221;<a name='fna_110' id='fna_110' href='#f_110'><small>[110]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Sir James Melville, speaking of this affair, says, with his usual
+quaintness, that &#8220;Mary chasit the rebel lords here and there, till at
+length they were compellit to flee into England for refuge, to her that
+had promised, by her ambassadors, to wair (expend) her Croun in their
+defence, in case they were driven to any strait for their opposition to
+the said marriage.&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;But Elizabeth,&#8221; he adds, &#8220;handlit the matter sae
+subtilly, and the other twa sae blaitly, that she triumphed both over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
+them and the ambassadors.&#8221; The deputation returned quite chop-fallen, to
+their friends at Newcastle, where they lived for some time in great
+poverty, and very wretchedly. Such were the more immediate results of this
+piece of juggling on the part of Elizabeth, and justly unsuccessful
+rebellion on that of Murray.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">THE EARL OF MORTON&#8217;S PLOT.</span></p>
+
+<p>Hitherto, Mary&#8217;s government had been prosperous and popular. Various
+difficulties had, no doubt, surrounded her; but, by a prudence and
+perseverance, beyond her sex and age, she had so successfully encountered
+them, that she fixed herself more firmly than ever on the throne of her
+ancestors. The misfortunes, however, in which all the intrigues of her
+enemies vainly attempted to involve her, it was Mary&#8217;s fate to bring upon
+herself, by an act, innocent in so far as regarded her own private
+feelings, and praiseworthy in its intention to increase and secure the
+power and happiness of her country. This act was her marriage with
+Darnley. From this fatal connexion, all Mary&#8217;s miseries took their origin;
+and as the sunshine which has as yet lighted her on her course, begins to
+gleam upon it with a sicklier ray, they who have esteemed her in the blaze
+of her prosperity, will peruse the remainder of her melancholy story with
+a deeper and a tenderer interest. Let it at the same time be remembered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+that the present Memoirs come not from the pen of a partisan, but are
+dictated by a sacred desire to discover and preserve the truth. Mary&#8217;s
+weaknesses shall not be concealed; but surely, whilst the common frailties
+of humanity thus become the subjects of history, justice imposes the
+nobler and the more delightful duty of asserting the talents and
+vindicating the virtues of Scotland&#8217;s fairest Queen.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident, that public affairs could not long continue in the
+position in which they now stood. With the Earl of Murray and the
+Hamiltons, the greater number of Mary&#8217;s most experienced counsellors were
+in a state of banishment. At the head of those who remained was the crafty
+Earl of Morton, who, though he affected outward allegiance, secretly
+longed for the return of his old allies and friends of the Protestant
+party. It was not indeed without some show of reason that the professors
+of the Reformed faith considered their religion to be exposed at the
+present crisis to hazard. The King now openly supported Popery; the most
+powerful of the Lords of the Congregation were in disgrace; several of the
+Catholic nobility had lately been restored to their honours; some of the
+Popish ecclesiastics had, by Mary&#8217;s influence, been allowed to resume
+their place in Parliament; and above all, ambassadors arrived from the
+French King and her Continental friends, for the express purpose of
+advising the Queen to grant no terms to the expatriated nobles, and of
+making her acquainted, with the objects of the Holy League which had been
+recently formed. This was the league between Charles IX. and his sister
+the Queen of Spain, with the consent of her husband<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> Philip, and Pope Pius
+IV., and at the instigation of Catherine de Medicis and the Duke of Alva,
+to secure, at whatever cost, the suppression of the Reformation throughout
+Europe. So great a variety of circumstances, all seeming to favour the old
+superstition, alarmed the Protestants not a little; but this alarm was
+unnecessarily exaggerated, and Mary&#8217;s intentions which were not known at
+the time, have been misrepresented since.</p>
+
+<p>Robertson has asserted, that Mary &#8220;instantly joined&#8221; the Continental
+Confederacy, and was willing to go any length for the restoration of
+Popery. He would thus have us believe that she was a direct party to the
+horrible massacre of the Hugonots in France; and that she would have
+spared no bloodshed to re-establish in Scotland that form of worship which
+she herself, in conjunction with her Parliament, had expressly abrogated.
+Robertson goes further, and maintains, with a degree of absurdity so
+glaring that we are at a loss to understand why it should never before
+have been exposed, that &#8220;to this fatal resolution (that of joining the
+Anti-Protestant Confederacy) may be imputed all the subsequent calamities
+of Mary&#8217;s life.&#8221; Why a secret contract which Mary might have made with an
+ambassador from France, the terms or effects of which were never known or
+felt in any corner of Scotland, should have produced &#8220;all her subsequent
+calamities,&#8221; must remain an enigma to those who do not possess the same
+remarkable facility of tracing effects to their causes which seems to have
+been enjoyed by Dr Robertson. But it is extremely doubtful that Mary ever
+gave either her consent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> or approbation to this League. Robertson&#8217;s
+authorities upon the subject by no means bear him out in his assertions.
+He affirms, that &#8220;she allowed mass to be celebrated in different parts of
+the kingdom; and declared that she would have mass free for all men who
+would hear it.&#8221; But the first part of this information is supplied by the
+Englishman Bedford, who was not then in Scotland, and the second rests
+upon the authority of the insidious Randolph. Robertson likewise mentions,
+that Blackwood, in his &#8220;<i>Martyre de Marie</i>,&#8221; says, &#8220;that the Queen
+intended to have procured in the approaching Parliament, if not the
+re-establishment of the Catholic religion, at least something for the ease
+of Catholics.&#8221; But this announcement of what was <i>intended</i> is so very
+unimportant, that even, if true, it requires no refutation; the more
+especially, as Blackwood goes on to say, though Robertson stops short,
+that this &#8220;something for the ease of Catholics&#8221; was only to be a request
+that the Protestants would be more tolerant.<a name='fna_111' id='fna_111' href='#f_111'><small>[111]</small></a> Robertson however adds,
+that &#8220;Mary herself, in a letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, her
+ambassador in France, acknowledges &#8216;<i>that in that Parliament she intended
+to have done some good with respect to restoring the old religion</i>.&#8217;&#8221; For
+this quotation from Mary&#8217;s letter, Robertson refers to Keith; but upon
+making the reference, it will be found that he has somewhat unaccountably
+garbled the original. All that Mary wrote to her ambassador concerning the
+Parliament was, that &#8220;the spiritual estate is placed therein in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>ancient manner, <i>tending to have done some good</i> anent restoring the old
+religion, and to have proceeded against our rebels according to their
+demerits.&#8221;<a name='fna_112' id='fna_112' href='#f_112'><small>[112]</small></a> The different shade of meaning which Robertson has given
+to this passage, is rather singular.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus seen the weakness of these preliminary arguments against
+Mary&#8217;s willingness to countenance the Reformed faith, it only remains to
+be inquired, whether she was a party to the confederacy formed at Bayonne.
+It will be recollected, that the measures concocted by this confederacy
+were of the most sanguinary and savage description. It was resolved, &#8220;by
+treachery and circumvention, by fire and the sword, utterly to exterminate
+the Protestants over Christendom.&#8221; It might very fairly be asked, and the
+question would carry with it its own answer, whether such a scheme,
+uncertain as its results were, and sure to produce in the mean time civil
+war and confusion wherever its execution was attempted, was at all
+consistent either with Mary&#8217;s established policy, or her so earnestly
+cherished hopes of succession to the English crown? Robertson, however,
+says, &#8220;she instantly joined the confederacy;&#8221; and Dr Gilbert Stuart, an
+historian of greater research and more impartiality, allows himself to
+believe the same thing. These writers ground their belief on what they
+have found in Sir James Melville and in Keith. But the former gives us not
+the slightest reason to suppose that Mary had any thing to do with the
+League, although he allows that the representations of the French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
+ambassador tended to harden her heart towards the Earl of Murray and the
+other rebels.<a name='fna_113' id='fna_113' href='#f_113'><small>[113]</small></a> It would even appear, by his Memoirs, that Mary was
+never asked to become a party to the confederacy; for Sir James simply
+states, that the ambassadors came &#8220;with a commission to stay the Queen in
+nowise to agree with the Lords Protestants that were banished.&#8221; Con&aelig;us, in
+his Life of Mary, leaves entirely the same impression, and rather
+strengthens it.<a name='fna_114' id='fna_114' href='#f_114'><small>[114]</small></a> As to Keith, he nowhere goes the length of Robertson
+or Stuart,&mdash;merely remarking that the letters from France tended much to
+hinder the cause of the banished Lords. He gives, it is true, in his
+Appendix, an extract of a letter from Randolph to Cecil, in which we find
+it stated, on the very dubious authority of the English Resident, that the
+&#8220;band to introduce Popery through all Christendom, was signed by Queen
+Mary.&#8221; But if Mary had actually done so, it would have been with the
+utmost secrecy, and surely, above all, she would have concealed such a
+step from the spy of Elizabeth. This letter is given at full length by
+Robertson; and on perusing the whole, it expressly appears, that Randolph
+spoke only from hearsay; for he adds, &#8220;If the copy of his band <i>may be
+gotten</i>, it shall be sent as I conveniently may.&#8221; In the same letter he
+mentions that most of the nobles had been asked to attend mass, in
+compliment to the foreign ambassadors, and that they had all refused;
+enumerating, among others, Fleming, Livingston, Lindsay, Huntly, and
+Bothwell; &#8220;and of them all, Bothwell is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> the stoutest, but worst thought
+of.&#8221; These Lords must have had little dread of the consequences, else they
+would not have ventured to refuse. The truth is, Randolph&#8217;s common
+practice was, to convert into a fact every report which he knew would be
+agreeable to Cecil and his mistress; and so little reliance did they place
+upon the accuracy of his information, that it does not appear Elizabeth
+ever took any notice of his statement regarding the band, which she would
+eagerly have done had it been true. So much, therefore, for Robertson&#8217;s
+declaration, that &#8220;to this fatal resolution may be imputed all the
+subsequent calamities of Mary&#8217;s life.&#8221; They would have been few, indeed,
+had they taken their origin in any countenance she gave to the ferocious
+wickedness of continental bigotry.<a name='fna_115' id='fna_115' href='#f_115'><small>[115]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>There does not, then, exist a shadow of proof that Mary contemplated the
+subversion of the Reformed religion in Scotland, though it may safely be
+admitted that she was greatly perplexed what course to pursue towards the
+expatriated rebels. On the one hand, Elizabeth petitioned in their behalf,
+well knowing she could depend on their co-operation, as soon as they were
+again in power; and her petition was warmly supported by Murray&#8217;s friends
+in Scotland,&mdash;some for the sake of religion,&mdash;many for their own private
+interests,&mdash;and a few because they believed his return would be for the
+good of the country. On the other hand, the Catholic party was delighted
+to be rid of such formidable adversaries, and their wishes were enforced
+by those of Mary&#8217;s uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine. Besides, though
+disposed to be lenient almost to a fault, she cannot but have felt just
+indignation against men who had so grossly abused her kindness, and
+insulted her authority. It was in the midst of these contending opinions
+and interests, that a Parliament was summoned, first for the 4th of
+February 1566, and afterwards prorogued till the 7th of March, at which it
+was determined that, in one way or other, the subject should be set at
+rest. The matter would then most probably have terminated unfavourably for
+Murray, had not the whole affair assumed a new feature, and been hurried
+on to an unexpected and violent conclusion, under influences on which it
+would have been difficult to have calculated.</p>
+
+<p>Mary had been Darnley&#8217;s wife only a few months, when a painful conviction
+was forced upon her of the error she had committed in so far as regarded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>
+her own happiness, in uniting her fortunes with a youth so weak,
+headstrong, and inexperienced. The homage, whether real or affected, which
+before his marriage Darnley paid to Mary,&mdash;his personal graces and
+accomplishments,&mdash;and the care he took to keep as much as possible in the
+background, the numerous defects of his character, had succeeded in
+securing for him a place in Mary&#8217;s heart, and, what he considered of
+greater importance, a share of her throne. But as soon as the object of
+his ambition was obtained, the mask was thrown aside. He broke out into a
+thousand excesses,&mdash;offended almost all the nobility,&mdash;and forgetting, or
+misunderstanding the kind of men he had to deal with, cherished a wild and
+boyish desire to make his own will law. He changed from the Protestant to
+the Catholic religion; but the Catholics had no confidence in him, whilst
+John Knox and the Reformers lifted up their voices loudly against his
+apostasy. He was addicted to great intemperance in his pleasures; was
+passionately fond of his hounds and hawks, grossly licentious, and much
+given to drinking. Upon one occasion, his indulgence in this latter vice
+made him so far forget himself, that at a civic banquet where the Queen
+and he were present, he dared to speak to her so brutally, that she left
+the place in tears.<a name='fna_116' id='fna_116' href='#f_116'><small>[116]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>But there were other causes, besides the imperfections of Darnley&#8217;s
+character, which served to sow dissension between him and his young wife.
+It would be wrong to say that they were mutually jealous of each other&#8217;s
+love of power, for this would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> be to put Mary on an equality with her
+husband, who was Queen in her own right, while Darnley had no title to any
+authority beyond what she chose to confer on him. In the first ardor of
+her affection, however, she permitted him, with the confiding generosity
+of sincere attachment, to carry every thing his own way; and he was too
+conceited and selfish to appreciate as it deserved, the value of the trust
+she thus reposed in him. &#8220;All honour,&#8221; says Randolph, &#8220;that may be
+attributed unto any man by a wife, he hath it wholly and fully,&mdash;all
+praise that may be spoken of him, he lacketh not from herself,&mdash;all
+dignities that she can endow him with, are already given and granted. No
+man pleaseth her that contenteth not him. And what may I say more? She
+hath given over unto him her whole will, to be ruled and guided as himself
+best liketh.&#8221;<a name='fna_117' id='fna_117' href='#f_117'><small>[117]</small></a> This was nothing more than the conduct naturally to be
+expected from a woman who warmly loved her husband, and who, in the
+ingenuous integrity of her heart, believed him worthy of her love. Had
+this indeed been the case, no evil consequences could have resulted from
+the excess of kindness she lavished on him; but with all his fair
+exterior, Darnley was incapable of understanding or estimating aright the
+mind and dispositions of Mary Stuart. Had he even in part answered the
+expectations she had formed of him,&mdash;had he listened to the prudent
+councils of Sir James Melville, and others whom Mary requested he would
+associate near his person,&mdash;and had he continued those affectionate
+attentions which she had a right to expect, but had far too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> proud a
+spirit to ask, he might have obtained from her every honour he desired.
+But what she felt that slighted love did not call upon her to yield, it
+was in vain to expect to win from her by force or fear; and the
+consequence was, that about this time, what was technically termed the
+<i>Crown matrimonial</i>, became a great source of dissension between herself
+and her husband.</p>
+
+<p>On the day that Mary gave her hand to Darnley, she conferred upon him the
+title of King of Scotland; and his name, in all public writs, was signed,
+in some before, and in others after her own. The public coin of the realm,
+issued subsequent to the marriage, also contained his name.<a name='fna_118' id='fna_118' href='#f_118'><small>[118]</small></a> But
+though Darnley had the title, and to a certain extent the authority of a
+King, it was never Mary&#8217;s intention to surrender to him an influence in
+the administration greater then her own. This was the object, however, at
+which his discontented and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> restless spirit aimed, and it was to achieve
+it that he demanded the <i>crown-matrimonial</i>,&mdash;a term used only by Scottish
+historians, by many of whom its exact import does not appear to have been
+understood. In its more limited acceptation, it seems to have conferred
+upon the husband, who married a wife of superior rank, the whole of her
+power and dignity, so long as their union continued. Thus, if a Countess
+married an Esquire, he might become, by the marriage-contract, a
+<i>matrimonial Earl</i>; and, during the life of the Countess, her authority
+was vested in her husband, as entirely as if he had been an Earl by birth.
+But it was in a more extended sense that Darnley was anxious for this
+matrimonial dignity. Knowing it to be consistent with the laws of
+Scotland, that a person who married an heiress, should keep possession of
+her estate, not only during his wife&#8217;s life, but till his own death, he
+was desirous of having a sovereign sway secured in his own person, even
+though Mary died without issue. In the first warmth of her attachment to
+Darnley, the Queen might have been willing, with the consent of
+Parliament, to gratify his ambition; but as soon as his unstable and
+ill-regulated temper betrayed itself, she felt that she was called upon,
+both for her own sake, and that of the country, to refuse his request.</p>
+
+<p>The more opposition Darnley experienced, the more anxious he became, as is
+frequently the case, to accomplish his wishes. It was now for the first
+time, that he found Rizzio&#8217;s friendship fail him. That Italian, whom the
+bigotry of the Reformers, and the ignorant prejudices of more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>recent
+historians, have buried under a weight of undeserved abuse, was one of the
+most faithful servants Mary ever had. He approved of her marriage with
+Darnley for state reasons, and had, in consequence, incurred the hatred of
+Murray and his party, whilst Darnley, on the contrary, had courted and
+supported him. But Rizzio loved his mistress too well to wish to see her
+husband become her master. His motives, it is true, may not have been
+altogether disinterested. He knew he was a favourite with Mary, and that
+he would retain his situation at court so long as her influence was
+paramount; but he had not the same confidence in the wayward and
+vacillating Darnley, who was too conceited to submit to be ruled, and too
+weak to be allowed to govern. The consequence naturally was, that a
+coldness took place between them, and that the consideration with which
+Mary continued to treat Rizzio, as her foreign secretary, only served to
+increase Darnley&#8217;s disaffection.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of matters, when the Earl of Morton, secretly supported
+
+by Maitland, and more openly by the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, determined
+on making use of Darnley&#8217;s discontent to forward his own private
+interests, and those of some of his political friends. His object was, in
+the first place, to strengthen his own party in the government, by
+securing the return of Murray, Argyle, Rothes, and the other banished
+Lords; and in the second, to prevent certain enactments from being passed
+in the approaching Parliament, by which Mary intended to restore to her
+ecclesiastics a considerable portion of church lands, which he himself,
+and other rapacious noblemen, had unjustly appropriated. These possessions
+were to be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>retained only by saving the rebels from the threatened
+forfeitures, and thus securing a majority in Parliament. But Mary, with a
+firmness which was the result of correct views of good government, was now
+finally resolved not to pardon Murray and his accomplices. For offences of
+a far less serious nature, Elizabeth was every month sending her subjects
+to the block; and it would have argued imbecility and fickleness in the
+Queen of Scots, so soon to have forgotten the treachery of her own, and
+her husband&#8217;s enemies. There was scarcely one of her ministers, except
+Rizzio, who had the courage and the good sense to confirm her in these
+sentiments; and he continued to retain his own opinion, both in this
+affair and that of the crown-matrimonial, notwithstanding the open threats
+of Darnley, the mysterious insinuations of Morton, and the attempt at
+bribery on the part of Murray. This last nobleman, who had played the
+hypocrite so abjectly before Elizabeth and her court, did not scruple, in
+his selfish humility, to offer his respects, and to send presents to one
+whom he had always been accustomed to call, in the language of his
+historian Buchanan, &#8220;an upstart fellow,&#8221; &#8220;a base miscreant,&#8221; &#8220;a
+contemptible mushroom,&#8221; and to whom he had never before given any thing
+but &#8220;a sour look.&#8221;<a name='fna_119' id='fna_119' href='#f_119'><small>[119]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>It may therefore be said, that there were, at this time, four powerful
+parties connected with Scotland;&mdash;Mary was at the head of one,&mdash;Morton of
+another,&mdash;Darnley of a third,&mdash;and Murray of the fourth. But so long as
+the Queen retained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> her ascendency, the other three factions could have
+little hope of arriving at their respective objects. Mutually to
+strengthen each other, a coalition very naturally suggested itself,
+founded upon the principle of a reciprocity of benefits. The idea was soon
+matured, and the plan of operations concocted with a secrecy and callous
+cruelty, worthy of Morton. The usual expedient was adopted, of drawing up
+and signing a formal bond, or set of articles, which were entered into
+between Henry, King of Scotland, and James, Earl of Murray, Archibald,
+Earl of Argyle, Andrew, Earl of Rothes, Robert, Lord Boyd, Andrew, Lord
+Ochiltree, and certain others &#8220;remaining in England;&#8221; in which it was
+stipulated, on the part of the Lords, that, at the first Parliament which
+should be held after their return, they should take such steps as would
+secure to Darnley a grant of the crown-matrimonial for all the days of his
+life; and that, whoever opposed this grant, they should &#8220;seek, pursue, and
+extirpate out of the realm of Scotland, or take and slay them,&#8221;&mdash;language,
+it will be observed, which had a more direct application to Mary than to
+any one else. On the part of Darnley, and in return for these favours, it
+was declared, that he should not allow, in as much as in him lay, any
+forfeiture to be led against them; and that, as soon as he obtained the
+crown-matrimonial, he should give them a free remission for all
+crimes,&mdash;taking every means to remove and punish any one who opposed such
+remission.<a name='fna_120' id='fna_120' href='#f_120'><small>[120]</small></a> In plain language, these <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>articles implied neither more
+nor less than high treason, and place Darnley&#8217;s character, both as a
+husband and a man, in the very worst point of view, showing him as a
+husband to be wofully deficient in natural affection, and as a man to be
+destitute of honour, and incapable of gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>Morton&#8217;s intrigues having proceeded thus far, there seemed to be only one
+other step necessary to secure for him the accomplishment of his purposes.
+Mary, strong in the integrity of her own intentions, and in the popularity
+of her administration, did not suspect the secret machinations which were
+carried on around her; and of this over-degree of confidence in the
+stability of her resources, Morton determined to take advantage. He saw
+that a change in the government must be effected at whatever risk, though
+he knew that nothing but a sudden and violent measure could bring it
+about. It was now February;&mdash;Parliament was to meet on the 7th of March,
+and on the 12th the trial of the absent Lords was to come on, and after
+they had been forfeited, the church-lands would be restored to their
+rightful owners. If Mary&#8217;s person, however, could be seized,&mdash;if her
+principal anti-protestant ministers could be removed from about her,&mdash;and
+if Darnley could be invested for a time with the supreme command, these
+disagreeable consequences might be averted, and the Parliament might be
+either prorogued, or intimidated into submission. But, without a shadow of
+justice, to have openly ventured upon putting the Queen in ward, would
+have been too daring and dangerous. A scheme therefore was formed, by
+which, under the pretence of caring for her personal safety, and
+protecting the best interests of the country, she was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> to be kept, as long
+as they should think necessary, from exercising her own independent
+authority. By this scheme it was resolved to make David Rizzio the victim
+and the scape-goat of the conspiracy. Morton and his accomplices well knew
+that Rizzio was generally hated throughout Scotland. The Reformers, in
+particular, exaggerating his influence with the Queen, delighted in
+representing him as the minion of the Pope, and the servant of Antichrist,
+and there were no terms of abuse too gross which they did not direct
+against the unfortunate Italian. It would, therefore, give a popular
+effect to the whole enterprise, were it to be believed that it was
+undertaken principally for the sake of ridding the country from so hateful
+an interloper. Many historians, confounding the effect with the cause,
+have been puzzled to explain why Rizzio&#8217;s murder should have led so
+immediately to the return of Murray and his friends; they forget that it
+was, on the contrary, a determination to secure their return, and to
+discover a plausible pretext for retaining Mary a prisoner in her own
+palace, that led to the murder.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Rizzio was not without some apprehensions for his
+personal safety. The Scots, though they seldom evince much reluctance to
+secure their own advancement in foreign countries, are of all nations the
+most averse to allow strangers to interfere with their affairs at home.
+Aware that they have little enough for themselves, they cannot bear to see
+any part of what they consider their birthright given away to aliens,
+however deserving. Rizzio&#8217;s abilities, and consequent favour with the
+Queen, were the means of placing in his hands so much power and wealth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>
+that he incurred the hatred and envy of almost every one about court. In
+the homely but expressive language of Melville, &#8220;some of the nobility
+would gloom upon him, and some of them would shoulder him and shoot him
+by, when they entered in the chamber, and found him always speaking with
+her Majesty.&#8221; Buchanan, that able but most prejudiced and disingenuous
+historian, expressing the prevalent sentiments of the day, says that, &#8220;the
+low birth and indigent condition of this man, placed him in a station in
+which he ought naturally to have remained unknown to posterity; but that
+which fortune called him to act and to suffer in Scotland, obliges history
+to descend from its dignity to record his adventures.&#8221; As if &#8220;low birth
+and indigent condition&#8221; have ever been, or will ever be, barriers
+sufficient to shut out genius and talent from the road to greatness. But
+Rizzio was in truth far from being of that officious, conceited, and
+encroaching disposition, which Buchanan has ascribed to him. Sir James
+Melville, who knew him well, gives quite an opposite impression of his
+character. He mentions, that not without some fear, Rizzio lamented his
+state to him, and asked his council how to conduct himself. Sir James told
+him, that strangers ought to be cautious how they meddled too far in the
+affairs of foreign countries, for that, though he was her Majesty&#8217;s
+Continental secretary, it was suspected a great deal of Scottish business
+also passed through his hands. &#8220;I advised him,&#8221; says Melville, &#8220;when the
+nobility were present, to give them place, and pray the Queen&#8217;s Majesty to
+be content therewith; and shewed him for an example, how I had been in so
+great favour with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> Elector Palatine, that he caused set me at his own
+table, and the board being drawn, used to confer with me in presence of
+his whole Court. Whereat divers of them took great indignation against me,
+which, so soon as I perceived, I requested him to let me sit from his own
+table with the rest of his gentlemen, and no more to confer with me in
+their presence, but to send a page for me, any time that he had leisure,
+to come to him in his chamber; which I obtained, and that way made my
+master not to be hated, nor myself to be envied; and willed him to do the
+like, <i>which he did</i>, and said unto me afterwards, that the Queen would
+not suffer him, but would needs have him to use himself in the old
+manner.&#8221; Melville then spoke to Mary herself upon the subject, and she
+expressly told him, that Signor David Rizzio &#8220;meddled no further but in
+her French writings and affairs, as her other French secretary had done
+before.&#8221;<a name='fna_121' id='fna_121' href='#f_121'><small>[121]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Rizzio&#8217;s religion was another reason why he was so very unpopular. It was
+confidently asserted that he was in the pay of the Pope; and that he was
+in close correspondence with the Cardinal of Lorraine. Be this as it may,
+the support he undoubtedly gave, so far as lay in his power, to the
+Scottish Catholics, was of itself enough, in these times of bigotry, to
+make his assassination be considered almost a virtue. Besides, there were
+some more personal and private grounds for Morton and his friends wishing
+to get rid of the Secretary. There is a remarkable passage in Blackwood&#8217;s
+<i>Martyre de Marie</i>, by which it would appear,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> that it was not the
+original intention of the conspirators to assassinate Rizzio, but merely
+to secure the person of Mary; and that it was in consequence of Rizzio&#8217;s
+fidelity to the Queen, and refusal to sanction such a proceeding, that
+they afterwards changed their plan. &#8220;The Earl of Morton,&#8221; says Blackwood,
+&#8220;had apartments in the royal palace.<a name='fna_122' id='fna_122' href='#f_122'><small>[122]</small></a> There lodged there also her
+Majesty&#8217;s Secretary, David Rizzio, a Piedmontese, and a man of great
+experience, and well versed in affairs of state. He was much respected by
+his mistress, not for any beauty or external grace that was in him, being
+rather old, ugly, austere, and disagreeable, but for his great fidelity,
+wisdom, and prudence, and on account of several other good qualities which
+adorned his mind. But, on the other hand, his master (the King) hated him
+greatly, both because he had laboured to effect the re-establishment of
+the house of Hamilton,&#8221; (the Duke of Chatelherault, it will be
+recollected, was the only one of the rebels who had been pardoned), &#8220;and
+because <i>he had not only refused to become a party to, but had even
+revealed to the Queen</i> a certain conspiracy that had been concluded on
+between his Highness and the rebels, by which it was resolved to shut up
+her Majesty in a castle, under good and sure guard, that Darnley might
+gain for himself all authority, and the entire government of the kingdom.
+My Lord Ruthven, the head of this conspiracy, entertained the greatest
+ill-will against the poor Secretary, because he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> had neither dared nor
+been able to conceal from her Majesty, that he had found Ruthven and all
+the conspirators assembled together in council in a small closet, and had
+heard her husband express himself with especial violence and chagrin.
+Besides, Morton, fearing greatly the foresight and penetration of this
+man, whom he knew to be entirely opposed to his designs, resolved to
+accomplish his death, and in so doing comply with the advice which had
+been given him by the English Court.&#8221; This is a passage of much interest,
+and puts in a clear and strong point of view the treasonable designs of
+this formidable conspiracy.<a name='fna_123' id='fna_123' href='#f_123'><small>[123]</small></a></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">THE ASSASSINATION OF DAVID RIZZIO.</span></p>
+
+<p>It was on the evening of Saturday the 9th of March 1566,<a name='fna_124' id='fna_124' href='#f_124'><small>[124]</small></a> that the
+conspirators determined to strike the blow, which was either to make or
+mar them.<a name='fna_125' id='fna_125' href='#f_125'><small>[125]</small></a> The retainers of Morton, and the other Lords his
+accomplices, assembled secretly in the neighbourhood of the Palace, to the
+number of nearly five hundred. They were all armed, and when it became
+dark, Morton, who took the command, led them into the interior court of
+Holyroodhouse, which, in his capacity of Lord High Chancellor of the
+kingdom, he was able to do, without much difficulty or suspicion. It had
+been arranged, that he should remain to guard the entry to the palace,
+whilst Ruthven, with a select<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> party, was to proceed to the Queen&#8217;s
+chamber. Patrick Lord Ruthven was exactly the sort of person suited for a
+deed of cowardice and cruelty, being by nature cursed with dispositions
+which preferred bigotry to religion, and barbarism to refinement. He was
+now in the forty-sixth year of his age, and had been for some months
+confined to a sick-bed, by a dangerous disease.<a name='fna_126' id='fna_126' href='#f_126'><small>[126]</small></a> Though scarcely able
+to walk, he nevertheless undertook to head the assassins. He wore a
+helmet, and a complete suit of armour concealed under a loose robe.<a name='fna_127' id='fna_127' href='#f_127'><small>[127]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Mary, altogether unsuspicious of the tragedy about to be performed, sat
+down to supper, as usual, at seven o&#8217;clock. There were with her only her
+illegitimate sister, the Countess of Argyle, her brother the Lord Robert
+Stuart, and her Foreign Secretary, David Rizzio. Beaton, her Master of the
+Household, Erskine, an inferior attendant, and one or two other servants
+of the Privy Chamber, were in waiting at a side-table; or, in the words of
+Stranguage, &#8220;tasting the meat taken from the Queen&#8217;s table, at the
+cupboard, as the servants of the Privy Chamber use to do.&#8221;<a name='fna_128' id='fna_128' href='#f_128'><small>[128]</small></a> It is a
+curious and interesting fact, that notwithstanding all the changes which
+time has wrought on the Palace of Holyrood, the very cabinet in which Mary
+supped, on this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> eventful evening, as well as the adjoining rooms and
+passages through which the conspirators came, still exist, in nearly the
+same state in which they were in the year 1566. The principal staircase,
+in the north-west tower, leads up to the Queen&#8217;s chamber of
+presence;&mdash;passing through this apartment, a door opens into Mary&#8217;s
+bedroom, where her own bed yet stands, although its furniture is now
+almost in tatters. It was in the small closet or cabinet off her bed-room,
+containing one window, and only about twelve feet square, that Mary sat at
+supper on the 9th of March, two hundred and sixty-two years ago.
+Communicating with Darnley&#8217;s chamber, immediately beneath, there was, and
+is, a private passage into Mary&#8217;s bedroom, by which it could be entered,
+without previously passing through the presence-chamber. The approach to
+this passage from the Queen&#8217;s room is concealed by a piece of wainscot,
+little more than a yard square, which hangs upon hinges in the wall, and
+opens on a trap-stair. It had been originally proposed to seize Rizzio in
+his own apartment; but this plan was abandoned, for two reasons; <i>first</i>,
+because it was less certain, since it was often late before Rizzio retired
+for the night, since he sometimes did not sleep in his own room at all,
+but in that of another Italian belonging to the Queen&#8217;s household, named
+Signor Francis, and since there were back-doors and windows, through which
+he might have effected his escape; and, <i>second</i>, because it would not
+have so much intimidated Mary, and would have made it necessary to employ
+another party to secure her person&mdash;the chief object of the
+conspirators.<a name='fna_129' id='fna_129' href='#f_129'><small>[129]</small></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>To ascertain whether there was any thing to hinder the execution of their
+design, Darnley, about eight o&#8217;clock, went up the private stairs, and,
+entering the small room where his wife was supping, sat down familiarly
+beside her. He found, as he expected, his victim Rizzio in attendance,
+who, indeed, owing to bad health, and the little estimation in which he
+was held by the populace, seldom went beyond the precincts of the
+palace.<a name='fna_130' id='fna_130' href='#f_130'><small>[130]</small></a> He was dressed, this evening, in a loose <i>robe-de-chambre</i> of
+furred damask, with a satin doublet, and a hose of russet velvet; and he
+wore a rich jewel about his neck, which was never heard of after his
+death.<a name='fna_131' id='fna_131' href='#f_131'><small>[131]</small></a> The conspirators having allowed sufficient time to elapse, to
+be satisfied that all was as they wished, followed the King up the private
+way, which they chose in order to avoid any of the domestics who might
+have been in the presence-chamber, and given an alarm. They were headed by
+the Lord Ruthven, and George Douglas, an illegitimate son of the late Earl
+of Angus, and the bastard brother of Darnley&#8217;s mother, the Lady Lennox; a
+person of the most profligate habits, and an apt instrument in the hands
+of the Earl of Morton. These men, followed by as many of their accomplices
+as could crowd into the small room where Mary sat, entered abruptly and
+without leave; whilst the remainder, to the number of nearly two score,
+collected in her bedroom. Ruthven, with his heavy armour rattling upon his
+lank and exhausted frame, and looking as grim and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> fearful as an animated
+corpse, stalked into the room first, and threw himself unceremoniously
+into a chair. The Queen, with indignant amazement, demanded the meaning of
+this insolent intrusion, adding, that he came with the countenance, and in
+the garb of one who had no good deed in his mind. Turning his hollow eyes
+upon Rizzio, Ruthven answered, that he intended evil only to the villain
+who stood near her. On hearing these words, Rizzio saw that his doom was
+fixed, and lost all presence of mind; but Mary, through whose veins flowed
+the heroic blood of James V., and his warlike ancestors, retained her
+self-possession. She turned to her husband, and called upon him for
+protection; but perceiving that he was disposed to remain a passive
+spectator of the scene, she ordered Ruthven to withdraw under pain of
+treason, promising, that if Rizzio was accused of any crime, it should be
+inquired into by the Parliament then assembled. Ruthven replied only by
+heaping upon the unfortunate Secretary a load of abuse; and, in
+conclusion, declared the determination of the conspirators to make
+themselves masters of Rizzio&#8217;s person. Rizzio, scarcely knowing what he
+did, pressed close into the recess at the window, with his dagger drawn in
+one hand, and clasping the folds of Mary&#8217;s gown with the other. In spite
+of every threat, he remained standing behind her, and continually
+exclaiming in his native language, and in great agitation, <i>Giustizia!
+Giustizia!</i> Mary&#8217;s own person was thus exposed to considerable danger, and
+the assassins desired Darnley to take his wife in his arms and remove her
+out of the way. The confusion and terror of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> the scene now increased a
+hundredfold;&mdash;the master of the household, and the three or four servants
+of the privy-chamber, attempted to turn Lord Ruthven out of the room;&mdash;his
+followers rushing to his support, overturned the supper-table, threw down
+the dishes and the candles, and, with hideous oaths, announced their
+resolution to murder Rizzio. Their own impetuosity might have frustrated
+their design; for, had not the Countess of Argyle caught one of the
+candles in her hand as it was falling, they would have been involved in
+darkness, and their victim might have escaped.</p>
+
+<p>The first man who struck Rizzio was George Douglas. Swords and daggers had
+been drawn, and pistols had been presented at him and at the Queen; but no
+blow was given, till Douglas, seizing the dirk which Darnley wore at his
+side, stabbed Rizzio over Mary&#8217;s shoulder, though, at the moment, she was
+not aware of what he had done. The unhappy Italian was then forcibly
+dragged out into the bed-room, and through the presence-chamber, where the
+conspirators, gathering about him, speedily completed the bloody deed,
+leaving in his body no fewer than fifty-six wounds. He lay weltering in
+his gore at the door of the presence-chamber for some time; and a few
+large dusky spots, whether occasioned by his blood or not, are to this day
+pointed out, which stain that part of the floor. The body was afterwards
+thrown down the stairs, and carried from the palace to the porter&#8217;s lodge,
+with the King&#8217;s dagger still sticking in his side. He was obscurely buried
+next day; but, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>subsequently, more honourably near the Royal vault in
+Holyrood Chapel.<a name='fna_132' id='fna_132' href='#f_132'><small>[132]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Such was the unhappy end of one who, having come into Scotland poor and
+unbefriended, had been raised, through the Queen&#8217;s penetration and his own
+talents, to an honourable office, the duties of which he discharged with
+fidelity. If his rise was sudden, his fall was more so; for, up to the
+very day of his assassination, many of the Scottish nobility, says
+Buchanan, &#8220;sought his friendship,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> courted him, admired his judgment,
+walked before his lodgings, and observed his levee.&#8221; But death no sooner
+put an end to his influence, than the memory of the once envied Italian
+was calumniated upon all hands. Knox even speaks approvingly of his
+murder, (as he had formerly done of that of Cardinal Beaton), assuring us
+that he was slain by those whom &#8220;God raised up to do the same&#8221;&mdash;an error,
+indicating a distorted moral perception, from the reproach consequent on
+which, his biographer, M&#8217;Crie, has unsuccessfully endeavoured to defend
+him.<a name='fna_133' id='fna_133' href='#f_133'><small>[133]</small></a> The Reformer adds to his notice of Rizzio, a story which suits
+well the superstitious character of the times, and which Buchanan has
+repeated. He mentions, that there was a certain John Daniot, a French
+priest, and a reputed conjuror, who told Rizzio &#8220;to beware of a bastard.&#8221;
+Rizzio, supposing he alluded to the Earl of Murray, answered, that no
+bastard should have much power in Scotland, so long as he lived; but the
+prophecy was considered to be fulfilled, when it was known that the
+bastard, Douglas, was the first who stabbed him.<a name='fna_134' id='fna_134' href='#f_134'><small>[134]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the Earl of Morton, who had been left below, to guard the
+gates, being informed that Rizzio was slain, and that Ruthven and Darnley
+retained possession of the Queen&#8217;s person, made an attempt to seize
+several of the nobility who lodged in the palace, and whom he knew to be
+unfavourable to his design of restoring the banished Lords. Whether it was
+his intention to have put them also to death, it is difficult to say;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> but
+it is at all events not likely that he would have treated them with much
+leniency. The noblemen in question, however, who were the Earls of Huntly,
+Bothwell, and Athol, the Lords Fleming and Livingston, and Sir James
+Balfour, contrived, not without much difficulty, to effect their escape.
+The two first let themselves down by ropes at a back window; Athol, who
+was supping in the town with Maitland, was apprised of his danger, and did
+not return to Holyrood that night. He, or some of the fugitives, hastened
+to the Provost of Edinburgh, and informed him of the treasonable
+proceedings at the Palace. The alarm-bell was immediately rung; and the
+civic authorities, attended by five or six hundred of the loyal citizens,
+hastened down to Holyrood, and called upon the Queen to show herself, and
+assure them of her safety. But Mary, who was kept a prisoner in the closet
+in which she had supped, was not allowed to answer this summons, the
+conspirators well knowing what would have been the consequences. On the
+contrary, as she herself afterwards wrote to her ambassador in France, she
+was &#8220;extremely threatened by the traitors, who, in her face, declared,
+that if she spoke to the town&#8217;s people they would cut her in collops, and
+cast her over the walls.&#8221; Darnley went to the window, and informed the
+crowd that he and the Queen were well, and did not require their
+assistance; and Morton and Ruthven told them, that no harm had been done,
+and beseeched them to return home, which, upon these assurances, they
+consented to do.</p>
+
+<p>A scene of mutual recrimination now took place between Mary and her
+husband, which was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>prolonged by the rude and gross behaviour of Ruthven.
+That barbarian, returning to the Queen&#8217;s apartment, after having imbrued
+his hands in the blood of Rizzio, called for a cup of wine, and having
+seated himself, drained it to the dregs, whilst Mary stood beside him.
+Being somewhat recovered from the extreme terror she had felt when she saw
+her Secretary dragged away by the assassins, she rebuked Ruthven for his
+unmannerly conduct; but he only added insulting language to the crimes he
+had already committed. Perceiving, however, that her Majesty was again
+growing sick and ill, (and even without considering, what the conspirators
+well knew, that she was in the seventh month of her pregnancy, her
+indisposition will excite little wonder), he proposed to the King that
+they should retire, taking care to station a sufficiently strong guard at
+the door of Mary&#8217;s chamber. &#8220;All that night,&#8221; says Mary, &#8220;we were detained
+in captivity within our chamber, and not permitted to have intercommunion
+scarcely with our servant-women.&#8221;<a name='fna_135' id='fna_135' href='#f_135'><small>[135]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Next morning, although it was Sunday, the conspirators issued a
+proclamation in the King&#8217;s name, and without asking the Queen&#8217;s leave,
+proroguing the Parliament,&mdash;and commanding all the temporal and spiritual
+lords, who had come to attend it, to retire from Edinburgh. Illegal as it
+was, this proclamation was obeyed; for Morton, and his accomplices, had
+the executive power in their own hands, and Mary&#8217;s more faithful subjects
+were taken so much by surprise, that they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> unable to offer any
+immediate resistance. Mary herself was still kept in strict confinement;
+and the only attempt she could make to escape, which was through the
+assistance of Sir James Melville, failed. Sir James was allowed to leave
+the Palace early on the forenoon of Sunday; and, as he passed towards the
+outer gate, Mary happened to be looking over her window, and called upon
+him imploringly for help. &#8220;I drew near unto the window,&#8221; says Melville,
+&#8220;and asked what help lay in my power, for that I should give. She said,
+&#8216;Go to the Provost of Edinburgh, and bid him, in my name, convene the town
+with speed, and come and relieve me out of these traitors&#8217; hands; but run
+fast, for they will stay you.&#8217;&#8221; The words were scarcely spoken, before
+some of the guards came up, and challenged Sir James. He told them, he
+&#8220;was only passing to the preaching in St Giles&#8217;s Kirk,&#8221; and they allowed
+him to proceed. He went direct to the Provost, and delivered his
+commission from the Queen; but the Provost protested he did not know how
+to act, for he had received contrary commands from the King; and, besides,
+the people, he said, were not disposed to take up arms to revenge Rizzio&#8217;s
+death. Sir James was, therefore, reluctantly obliged to send word to Mary,
+by one of her ladies, that he could not effect her release. In the course
+of the day, Mary was made acquainted with Rizzio&#8217;s fate, and she lamented
+the death of her faithful servant with tears. Between seven and eight in
+the evening, the Earls of Murray and Rothes, with the other banished
+Lords, arrived from England. During the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> of the night, and all next
+day, the Queen was kept as close a prisoner as before.</p>
+
+<p>Morton and his accomplices, however, now found themselves in a dilemma.
+They had succeeded in bringing home their rebel friends, in proroguing or
+dissolving the Parliament, in conferring upon Darnley all the power he
+wished, in murdering Rizzio, and in chasing from Court the nobles who had
+formed part of the administration along with him. But to effect these
+purposes, they had grossly insulted their lawful sovereign, and had turned
+her own palace into a prison, constituting themselves her gaolers. Having
+achieved all their more immediate objects, the only remaining question
+was&mdash;what were they to do with the Queen? If they were to set her at
+liberty, could they expect that she would tamely forget the indignities
+they had offered her, or quietly submit to the new state of things they
+had established? Had they, on the other hand, any sufficient grounds for
+proceeding to further extremities against her? Would the country allow a
+sovereign, whose reign had been hitherto so prosperous, to be at once
+deprived of her crown and her authority?<a name='fna_136' id='fna_136' href='#f_136'><small>[136]</small></a> Daring as these men were,
+they could hardly venture upon a measure so odious.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> Besides, Darnley,
+always vacillating, and always contemptible, was beginning to think he had
+gone too far; and, influenced by something like returning affection for
+his beautiful consort, who was probably in a month or two to make him a
+father, he insisted that the matter should now be allowed to rest where it
+was, provided Mary would promise to receive into favour the Lords who had
+returned from banishment, and would grant a deed of oblivion to all who
+had taken a part in the recent assassination. Morton, Ruthven, Murray, and
+the rest, were extremely unwilling to consent to so precarious an
+arrangement; but Darnley overruled their objections. On Monday evening,
+articles were drawn up for their security, which he undertook to get
+subscribed by the Queen; and, trusting to his promises, all the
+conspirators, including the Lords who had just returned, withdrew
+themselves and their retainers from Holyroodhouse, and went to sup at the
+Earl of Morton&#8217;s.<a name='fna_137' id='fna_137' href='#f_137'><small>[137]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>As soon as Mary found herself alone with Darnley, she urged, with all the
+force of her superior mind, every argument she could think of, to convince
+him how much he erred in associating himself with the existing cabal. She
+was not aware of the full extent to which he was implicated in their
+transactions; for he had assured her, that he was not to blame for
+Rizzio&#8217;s murder, and as yet she believed him innocent of contriving it.
+She spoke to him therefore, with the confidence of an affectionate wife,
+with the winning <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>eloquence of a lovely woman, and with the force and
+dignity of an injured Queen. She at length satisfied him, that his best
+hopes of advancement rested in her, and not on men who having first
+renounced allegiance to their lawful Queen, undertook to confer upon him a
+degree of power which was not their&#8217;s to bestow. Darnley further learned
+from Mary, that Huntly, Bothwell, Athol, and others, had already risen in
+her behalf, and yielding to her representations and entreaties, he
+consented that they should immediately make their escape together. At
+midnight, accompanied only by the captain of the guard and two others,
+they left the palace, and rode to Dunbar without stopping.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days, Mary having been joined by more than one half of her
+nobility, found herself at the head of a powerful army. The conspirators,
+on the other hand, seeing themselves betrayed by Darnley and little
+supported by the country, were hardly able to offer even the shadow of
+resistance to the Queen. Still farther to diminish the little strength
+they had, Mary resolved to make a distinction between the old and the new
+rebels; and, influenced by reasons on which Morton had little calculated,
+she consented to pardon Murray, Argyle, and others, who immediately
+resorted to her, and were received into favour. After remaining in Dunbar
+only five days, she marched back in triumph to Edinburgh, and the
+conspirators fled in all directions to avoid the punishment they so justly
+deserved. Morton, Maitland, Ruthven, and Lindsay betook themselves to
+Newcastle, where, for aught that is known to the contrary, they <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>occupied
+the very lodgings which Murray and his accomplices had possessed a week or
+two before.</p>
+
+<p>The whole face of affairs was now altered; and Mary, who for some days had
+suffered so much, was once more Queen of Scotland. &#8220;And such a change you
+should have seen,&#8221; says Archbishop Spottiswood, &#8220;that they who, the night
+preceding, did vaunt of the fact (Rizzio&#8217;s murder) as a godly and
+memorable act, affirming, some truly, some falsely, that they were present
+thereat,&mdash;did, on the morrow, forswear all that before they had affirmed.&#8221;
+But it was not in Mary&#8217;s nature to be cruel, and her resentments were
+never of long continuance. Two persons only were put to death for their
+share in Rizzio&#8217;s slaughter, and these were men of little note. Before the
+end of the year, most of the principal delinquents, as will be seen in the
+sequel, were allowed to return to Court. Lord Ruthven, however, died at
+Newcastle of his old disease, a month or two after his flight thither. His
+death occasioned little regret, and his name lives in history only as that
+of a titled murderer.<a name='fna_138' id='fna_138' href='#f_138'><small>[138]</small></a></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">THE BIRTH OF JAMES VI.</span></p>
+
+<p>Mary&#8217;s vigorous conduct had again put her in possession of that rightful
+authority of which so lawless an attempt had been made to deprive her; but
+though restored to power, she was far from being likewise restored to
+happiness. The painful conviction was now at length forced upon her, that
+she had not in all the world one real friend. She felt that the
+necessities of her situation forced her to associate in her councils men,
+who were the slaves of ambition, and whose heartless courtesies were
+offered to her, only until a prospect of higher advantages held out a
+temptation to transfer them to another. She had not been long in her own
+kingdom, before Bothwell and others contemplated seizing her person, and
+assassinating her prime minister, the Earl of Murray;&mdash;she had hardly
+succeeded in frustrating these designs, when Murray himself directed his
+strength against her; and now, still more recently, the husband, for whose
+sake she had raised armies to chase her brother from the country, had
+aimed at making himself independent, and, to ingratiate himself with
+traitors, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> scrupled not to engage in a deed of wanton cruelty,
+personally insulting to his wife and sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>Ignorant where to turn for repose and safety, Mary began to lose much of
+the natural vivacity and buoyancy of her temper; and to feel, that in
+those turbulent times, she was endowed with too little of that
+dissimulation, which enabled her sister Elizabeth to steer so successfully
+among the rocks and shoals of government. In a letter written about this
+period to one of her female relations in France, she says, touchingly, &#8220;It
+will grieve you to hear how entirely, in a very short time, I have changed
+my character, from that of the most easily satisfied and care-chasing of
+mortals, to one embroiled in constant turmoils and perplexities.&#8221; &#8220;She was
+sad and pensive,&#8221; says Sir James Melville, &#8220;for the late foul act
+committed in her presence so irreverently. So many great sighs she would
+give that it was pity to hear her, and over-few were careful to comfort
+her.&#8221; But the perfidy of her nobles Mary could have borne;&mdash;it was the
+disaffection and wickedness of her husband that afflicted her most.
+Anxious to believe that he told her the truth, when he asserted that he
+was not implicated in the murder of Rizzio, she rejoiced to see him issue
+a proclamation, declaring that he was neither &#8220;a partaker in, nor privy
+to, David&#8217;s slaughter.&#8221; But the truth was too notorious to be kept long
+concealed. Randolph wrote to Cecil on the 4th of April 1566:&mdash;&#8220;The Queen
+hath seen all the covenants and bands that passed between the King and the
+Lords, and now findeth that his declaration before her and Council, of his
+innocency of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> the death of David, was false; and is grievously offended,
+that by their means he should seek to come to the crown matrimonial.&#8221;
+Hence sprang the grief which, in secret, preyed so deeply upon Mary&#8217;s
+health and spirits. Few things are more calculated to distress a generous
+mind, than to discover that the object of its affections is unworthy the
+love which has been lavished upon it. The young and graceful Darnley,
+laying at Mary&#8217;s feet the real or pretended homage of his heart, was a
+very different person from the headstrong and designing King, colleaguing
+with her rebels, assassinating her faithful servant, and endeavouring to
+snatch the crown from her head. &#8220;That very power,&#8221; says Robertson, &#8220;which,
+with liberal and unsuspicious fondness she had conferred upon him, he had
+employed to insult her authority, to limit her prerogative, and to
+endanger her person: such an outrage it was impossible any woman could
+bear or forgive.&#8221; Yet Mary looked upon these injuries, coming as they did
+from the man whom she had chosen to be the future companion of her life,
+&#8220;more in sorrow than in anger;&#8221; and though she shed many a bitter tear
+over his unworthiness, she did not cease to love him.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these anxieties, the time for the Queen&#8217;s delivery drew
+near. After a short excursion to Stirling and the neighbourhood, in which
+she was accompanied by Darnley, Murray, Bothwell and others, she returned
+to Edinburgh, and, by the advice of her Privy Council, went to reside in
+the Castle, as the place of greatest security, till she should present the
+country with an heir to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> throne. During the months of April and May,
+she lived there very quietly, amusing herself with her work and her books,
+and occasionally walking out, for she had no wheeled carriage. She
+occupied herself, too, in endeavouring to reconcile those of her nobility
+whom contrary interests and other circumstances had disunited. It cost her
+no little trouble to prevail upon the two most faithful of her ministers,
+the Earl of Huntly her Chancellor, and Bothwell her Lord High Admiral, to
+submit to the returning influence of their old enemy the Earl of Murray.
+It was especially galling to them, that Murray and Argyle were the only
+persons, in addition to the King, allowed to reside in the Castle with
+Mary. But it was her own wish to have her husband and her brothers beside
+her on the present occasion; and no representations made by Bothwell or
+Huntly could alter her resolution. Yet these two Earls went the length of
+assuring the Queen, that Murray had entered into a new conspiracy with
+Morton, and that they would probably put in ward both herself and her
+infant, as soon as it was born. Surrounded as Mary was by traitors, she
+could not know whether this information was true or not; but her returning
+affection for Murray prevailed over every other consideration.<a name='fna_139' id='fna_139' href='#f_139'><small>[139]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth was all this time narrowly watching the progress of affairs in
+Scotland. Murray&#8217;s restoration to favour pleased her much; and, to
+reconcile Morton and his friends to the failure of their plots, she
+secretly countenanced and protected them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> With her usual duplicity,
+however, she sent to Edinburgh Henry Killigrew, to congratulate Mary on
+her late escape, and to assure her that she would give directions to
+remove Morton out of England. She likewise recalled Randolph, of whose
+seditious practices Mary had complained; but, as if to be even with the
+Scottish Queen, she commanded Killigrew to demand the reason why a certain
+person of the name of Ruxby, a rebel and a Papist, had been protected in
+Scotland? It would have been better for Elizabeth had she allowed this
+subject to rest. Though Ruxby feigned himself a refugee from England on
+account of religion, he had in reality been privately sent to Scotland by
+Elizabeth herself, and her Secretary Cecil. The object of his mission was
+to find out whether Mary carried on any secret correspondence with the
+English Catholics. For this purpose, he was to pretend that he was a
+zealous supporter of her right and title to the crown of England; and that
+he had some influence with the English Catholics, all of whom, he was to
+assert, thought as he did. Having thus ingratiated himself with Mary, he
+was immediately to betray any discoveries he might make to Cecil. The
+scheme was ingeniously enough contrived; coming as an avowed enemy to
+Elizabeth, and she herself actually supplying credentials to that effect,
+no suspicion was for some time entertained of his real designs. That he
+was able to learn any thing which could afford the English Queen
+reasonable ground of offence, is not likely; for though several
+communications in cipher passed between him and Cecil, their contents were
+never made public. Shortly before Killigrew&#8217;s arrival, Ruxby&#8217;s real
+character<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> had been accidentally discovered; and when the ambassador, more
+for the sake of aiding than of hindering the spy in the prosecution of his
+object, made a <i>pro forma</i> request that he should not be harboured any
+longer, Mary instantly ordered him to be apprehended, and all his writings
+and ciphers to be seized and examined. The indubitable evidence which they
+afforded of Elizabeth&#8217;s systematic cunning, forced a smile from Mary, and
+might have brought a blush to the cheek of her rival. The Queen of Scots,
+however, did not condescend to give any utterance to the feelings which
+this affair must have inspired; and nothing further is known of
+Elizabeth&#8217;s disgraced and detected minion.<a name='fna_140' id='fna_140' href='#f_140'><small>[140]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Early in June, perceiving that the time of her delivery was at hand, Mary
+wrote letters to her principal nobility, requiring them to come to
+Edinburgh during that juncture. She then made her will, which she caused
+to be thrice transcribed;&mdash;one copy was sent to France, a second committed
+to the charge of her Privy Council, and the third she kept herself. The
+day preceding her delivery, she wrote, with her own hand, a letter to
+Elizabeth, announcing the event, but leaving a blank &#8220;to be filled,&#8221; says
+Melville, &#8220;either with a son or a daughter, as it might please God to
+grant unto her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>On Wednesday the 19th day of June 1566, between nine and ten in the
+morning, the Queen was safely delivered of a son. The intelligence was
+received every where, throughout Scotland, with sincere demonstrations of
+joy. &#8220;As the birth of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> a prince,&#8221; says Keith, &#8220;was one of the greatest of
+blessings that God could bestow upon this poor divided land; so was the
+same most thankfully acknowledged by all ranks of people, according as the
+welcome news thereof reached their ears.&#8221; In Edinburgh, the triumph
+continued for several days; and, upon the first intimation of the event,
+all the nobility in the town, accompanied by most of the citizens, went in
+solemn procession to the High Church, and offered up thanksgiving for so
+signal a mercy shown to the Queen and the whole realm.</p>
+
+<p>When the news was conveyed to England, it was far from being heard with so
+much satisfaction. It was between eleven and twelve on the morning of the
+19th, that the Lady Boyne came to Sir James Melville, and told him, that
+their prayers being granted, he must carry Mary&#8217;s letter to London with
+all diligence. &#8220;It struck twelve hours,&#8221; says Sir James, &#8220;when I took my
+horse, and I was at Berwick that same night. The fourth day after, I was
+at London,&#8221;&mdash;a degree of despatch very unusual in those times. Melville
+found Elizabeth at Greenwich, &#8220;where her Majesty was in great merriness,
+and dancing after supper. But so soon as the Secretary Cecil sounded the
+news in her ear of the prince&#8217;s birth, all merriness was laid aside for
+that night; every one that was present marvelling what might move so
+sudden a changement. For the Queen sat down with her hand upon her haffet
+(cheek), and bursting out to some of her ladies, how that the Queen of
+Scotland was lighter of a fair son, and that she was but a barren stock.&#8221;
+Next morning,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> Elizabeth gave Melville a formal audience, at which, having
+had time for preparation, she endeavoured to dissemble her real feelings;
+though, by over-acting her part, she made them only the more apparent. She
+told him gravely, that the joyful news he brought her, had recovered her
+out of a heavy sickness, which had held her for fifteen days! &#8220;Then I
+requested her Majesty,&#8221; says Melville, &#8220;to be a gossip unto the Queen, for
+our <i>comers</i> are called gossips in England, which she granted gladly to
+be. Then, I said, her Majesty would have a fair occasion to see the Queen,
+which she had so oft desired. At this she smiled, and said, that she would
+wish that her estate and affairs might permit her; and promised to send
+both honourable lords and ladies to supply her room.&#8221;<a name='fna_141' id='fna_141' href='#f_141'><small>[141]</small></a></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">MARY&#8217;S TREATMENT OF DARNLEY, AND ALLEGED LOVE FOR THE EARL OF BOTHWELL.</span></p>
+
+<p>As soon as she had sufficiently recovered to be able to quit the Castle,
+Mary resolved on leaving the fatigues of government behind, and going for
+some time into the country. Her infant son was intrusted to the care of
+the Earl of Mar as his governor, and the Lady Mar as his governess. The
+time was not yet arrived to make arrangements regarding his education; but
+the General Assembly had already sent a deputation to the Queen, to
+entreat that she would allow him to be brought up in the Reformed
+religion. To this request Mary avoided giving any positive answer; but she
+condescendingly took the infant from the nurse, and put it into the arms
+of some of the divines. A prayer was pronounced over it; and Spottiswood
+assures us, that, at the conclusion, the child gave an inarticulate
+murmur, which the delighted Presbyterians construed to be an <i>Amen</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It was the seat of the Earl of Mar at Alloa that the Queen first visited.
+Being not yet equal to the fatigues of horseback, she went on board a
+vessel at Newhaven, and sailed up the Forth. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> was accompanied by
+Murray and others of her nobility.<a name='fna_142' id='fna_142' href='#f_142'><small>[142]</small></a> Buchanan, whose constant malice
+and misrepresentation become at times almost ludicrous, says&mdash;&#8220;Not long
+after her delivery, on a day very early, accompanied by very few that were
+privy of her council, she went down to the waterside at a place called the
+New-haven; and while all marvelled whither she went in such haste, she
+suddenly entered into a ship there prepared for her. With a train of
+thieves, all honest men wondering at it, she betook herself to sea, taking
+not one other with her.&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;When she was in the ship,&#8221; he says elsewhere,
+&#8220;among pirates and thieves, she could abide at the pump, and joyed to
+handle the boisterous cables.&#8221;<a name='fna_143' id='fna_143' href='#f_143'><small>[143]</small></a> It is thus this trustworthy historian
+describes a sail of a few hours, enjoyed by Mary and her Court.</p>
+
+<p>Darnley, who, though not very contented either with himself or any one
+else, was about this time much in the Queen&#8217;s company, went to Alloa by
+land, and remained with Mary the greater part of the time she continued at
+the Earl of Mar&#8217;s. The uneasiness he suffered, and the peevish complaints
+to which he was continually giving utterance, were occasioned by the want
+of deference, with which he found himself treated by all Mary&#8217;s ministers.
+But the general odium into which he had fallen, was entirely to be
+attributed to his own folly. Between him and the Earl of Murray there had
+long existed a deadly hatred against each other; in associating himself
+with Morton, and plotting <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>against Huntly and Bothwell, he had
+irremediably offended these noblemen; and in deserting Morton and his
+faction, he had forever lost the friendship of the only men who seemed
+willing to regard him with any favour. The distressing consciousness of
+neglect occasioned by his own misconduct, was thus forced upon him
+wherever he turned; and instead of teaching him a lesson of humility, it
+only served to sour his temper, and pervert his feelings. The Queen was
+deeply grieved to see him so universally hated; and anxiously endeavoured
+to make herself the connecting link between him and her incensed nobility.
+This was all she could do; for, even although she had wished it, she could
+not have dismissed, to please him, such of her ministers as he considered
+obnoxious; a measure so unconstitutional would have led to a second
+rebellion. But she hoped by treating her husband kindly, and showing him
+every attention herself, to make it be understood that she expected others
+would be equally respectful. Having spent some days together at Alloa,
+Mary and Darnley went to Peebles-shire to enjoy the amusement of hunting;
+but finding little sport, they returned on the 20th of August to
+Edinburgh. Thence, they went to Stirling, taking the young Prince with
+them, whom they established in Stirling Castle. Bothwell, in the meantime,
+in his capacity of Lieutenant of the Borders, was in some of the southern
+shires attending the duties of his charge.<a name='fna_144' id='fna_144' href='#f_144'><small>[144]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to detail these facts thus minutely, as Mary&#8217;s principal
+calumniator, Buchanan,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> endeavours to establish, by a tissue of
+falsehoods, that immediately after her delivery, or perhaps before it, she
+conceived a criminal attachment for Bothwell. This absurdity has gained
+credit with several later writers, and particularly with Robertson, whose
+knowledge of Mary&#8217;s motions and domestic arrangements at the period of
+which we speak, appears to have been very superficial. Yet he may be
+regarded as even a more dangerous enemy than the former. Buchanan&#8217;s
+virulence and evident party spirit, carry their own contradiction along
+with them; whilst Robertson, not venturing to go the same lengths, (though
+guided in his belief entirely by Buchanan), imparts to the authority on
+which he trusts a greater air of plausibility, by softening down the
+violence of the original, to suit the calmer tone of <i>professedly</i>
+unprejudiced history. In the progress of these Memoirs, it will not be
+difficult to show that Robertson&#8217;s affected candour, or too hastily formed
+belief, is as little to be depended on as Buchanan&#8217;s undisguised malice.</p>
+
+<p>Buchanan wishes it to be believed, in the first place, that Mary
+entertained a guilty love for Rizzio. He then proceeds to assert, that in
+little more than three months after his barbarous assassination, she had
+fallen no less violently in love with Bothwell, although, in the meantime,
+she had been employed in giving birth to her first child, by a husband,
+whom he allows she doated on nine or ten months before. To bolster up this
+story, he perverts facts with the most reckless indifference. One specimen
+of his style we have already seen in his account of the Queen&#8217;s voyage to
+Alloa; and proceeding with his narrative, we find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> him positively
+asserting in the sequel, that for the two or three following months, Mary
+was constantly in the company of Bothwell, and of Bothwell alone, knowing
+as he must have done all the while, that Murray and Darnley, Bothwell&#8217;s
+principal enemies, were her chief associates, and that Bothwell spent most
+of the time in a distant part of the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Robertson dates even more confidently than Buchanan, the commencement of
+Mary&#8217;s love for Bothwell at a period prior to her delivery. But upon this
+hypothesis, it is surely odd, that Murray and Argyle were permitted by the
+Queen to reside in the Castle previous to and during her confinement,
+whilst the same favour was peremptorily refused to Bothwell; and it is no
+less odd, that shortly after her delivery, Secretary Maitland, at the
+intercession of the Earl of Athol, was received once more into favour, in
+direct opposition to the wishes of Bothwell. It is no doubt possible, that
+notwithstanding this presumptive evidence to the contrary, Mary may at
+this very time have had a violent love for Bothwell; but are we to give
+credit to the improbability, merely because Buchanan was the slave of
+party feeling, and Robertson disposed to be credulous? Are the detected
+fabrications of the one, entitled to any better consideration than the
+gratuitous suppositions of the other? &#8220;Strange and surprisingly wild,&#8221;
+says Keith, &#8220;are the accounts given by Knox, but more especially by
+Buchanan, concerning the King and Queen about this time. I shall not
+reckon it worth while to transcribe them here; and the best and shortest
+confutation I could propose of them is, to leave my readers the trouble,
+or rather <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>satisfaction, to compare the same with the just now mentioned
+abstracts (of despatches from Randolph to Cecil) and the three following
+authentic letters,&#8221; from the French and Scottish ambassadors and the
+Queen&#8217;s Privy Council.<a name='fna_145' id='fna_145' href='#f_145'><small>[145]</small></a> Robertson, it is true, after having asserted,
+that &#8220;Bothwell all this while was the Queen&#8217;s prime confident,&#8221; and that
+he had acquired a &#8220;sway over her heart,&#8221; proceeds to confess, that &#8220;such
+delicate transitions of passion can be discerned only by those who are
+admitted near the persons of the parties, and who can view the secret
+workings of the heart with calm and acute observation.&#8221; &#8220;Neither Knox nor
+Buchanan,&#8221; he adds, &#8220;enjoyed these advantages. Their humble station
+allowed them only a distant access to the Queen and her favourite; and the
+ardour of their zeal, and the violence of their prejudices rendered their
+opinions rash, precipitate, and inaccurate.&#8221; This is apparently so
+explicit and fair, that the only wonder is, upon what grounds Robertson
+ventured to make <i>his</i> accusation of Mary, having thus shown how little
+dependence was to be placed on the only authorities which supported him in
+it. It appears that he came to his conclusions by a process of his own,
+which rendered him independent both of Knox and Buchanan. &#8220;Subsequent
+historians,&#8221; he says, &#8220;can judge of the reality of this reciprocal passion
+only by its <i>effects</i>.&#8221; Robertson must of course have been aware that he
+thus opened the gate to a flood of uncertainty, seeing that the same
+effects may spring from a hundred different causes. If a man be found
+dead, before looking for his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>murderer, it is always proper to inquire
+whether he has been murdered. Besides, if effects are to be made the
+criterion by which to form an opinion, the greatest care must be taken
+that they be not misrepresented. Mary must not be said to have been a
+great deal in Bothwell&#8217;s company, at a time she was almost never with him,
+and she must not be described as being seldom with her husband, at a time
+they were constantly together.</p>
+
+<p>Laing is another and still later writer, who has produced a very able
+piece of special pleading against Mary, in which a false colouring is
+continually given to facts. &#8220;After her delivery,&#8221; he says, &#8220;she removed
+secretly from the Castle, and was followed by Darnley to Alloa, Stirling,
+Meggetland, and back again to Edinburgh, as if she were desirous to escape
+from the presence of her husband.&#8221; That Darnley <i>followed</i> Mary, is an
+assumption of Mr Laing&#8217;s own. Conceited as the young King was, he would
+rather never have stirred out of his chamber again, than have condescended
+to follow so perseveringly one who wished to avoid him, first to Alloa,
+then to Stirling, then into Peebles-shire, then back again to Edinburgh,
+and once more to Stirling. The only correct part of Laing&#8217;s statement is,
+that Mary chose to go by water to Alloa, whilst Darnley preferred
+travelling by land; perhaps because he wished to hunt by the way, or call
+at the seats of some of the nobility. The distance, altogether, was only
+twenty miles; and the notion that Mary removed &#8220;<i>secretly</i>&#8221; from the
+Castle, for the important purpose of taking an excursion to Alloa, is
+absolutely ludicrous. In support of his assertion that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> Mary had lost her
+heart to Bothwell, Laing proceeds to mention, that, shortly after the
+assassination of Rizzio, the Earl, for his successful services, was loaded
+with favours and preferment. That Mary should have conferred some reward
+upon a nobleman whose power and fidelity were the chief means of
+preserving her on a tottering throne, is not at all unlikely; but, to make
+that reward appear disproportioned to the occasion, Laing <i>misdates</i> the
+time when most of Bothwell&#8217;s offices of trust were bestowed upon him.
+Several of them were his by hereditary right, such as those of Lord High
+Admiral, and the Sheriffships of Berwick, Haddington, and Edinburgh. Part
+of his authority on the Borders he had acquired during the time of the
+late Queen-Regent, Mary&#8217;s mother, having been made her Lieutenant, and
+keeper of Hermitage Castle, in 1558; and it was immediately after his
+restoration to favour, during the continuance of Murray&#8217;s rebellion, that
+he was appointed Lieutenant of the West and Middle Marches, a situation
+which implied the superiority of the Abbeys of Melrose and
+Haddington.<a name='fna_146' id='fna_146' href='#f_146'><small>[146]</small></a> The only <i>addition</i> made to Bothwell&#8217;s possessions and
+titles, in consequence of his services after Rizzio&#8217;s death, was that of
+the Castle and Lordship of Dunbar, together with a grant of some crown
+lands.<a name='fna_147' id='fna_147' href='#f_147'><small>[147]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>There is another circumstance connected with Bothwell, which we omitted to
+mention before, but which may with propriety be stated here. At the period
+of which we write, when he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> is accused of being engaged in a criminal
+intercourse with Mary, he had been only two or three months married to a
+wife every way deserving of his love. Three weeks before the death of
+Rizzio, he had espoused, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, the Lady
+Jane Gordon, the sister of his friend, the Earl of Huntly. She was just
+twenty, and was possessed of an elegant and cultivated understanding. They
+were married at Holyrood, on the 22d of February 1566, after the manner of
+the Reformed persuasion, in direct opposition to Mary&#8217;s wishes. She
+entertained them, however, at a banquet on the first day; and the feasting
+and rejoicings continued for a week. &#8220;The Queen desired,&#8221; says Knox, &#8220;that
+the marriage might be made in the chapel at the mass, which the Earl
+Bothwell would in no ways grant.&#8221;<a name='fna_148' id='fna_148' href='#f_148'><small>[148]</small></a> Was there any love existing at this
+time between Mary and her minister? Robertson and Laing seem to think
+there was. Choosing to judge of Mary&#8217;s feelings towards Bothwell by
+<i>effects</i>, not of effects by feelings, they quote several passages from
+the letters of one or two of the foreign ambassadors then in Scotland,
+which mention that Bothwell possessed great influence at court. That these
+ambassadors report no more than the truth may be very safely granted;
+though certainly there is no evidence to show that he enjoyed so much
+weight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> as Murray, or more than Huntly. Yet he deserved better than the
+former, for he had hitherto, with one exception, continued as faithful to
+Mary, as he had previously been to her mother. The letters alluded to,
+only repeat what Randolph had mentioned six months before. So early as
+October 1565, only two months after Mary&#8217;s marriage with Darnley, and when
+her love for him remained at its height, Randolph wrote to Cecil; &#8220;My Lord
+Bothwell, for his great virtue, doth now all, next to the Earl of
+Athol.&#8221;<a name='fna_149' id='fna_149' href='#f_149'><small>[149]</small></a> Was Mary in love with Bothwell at this date? Or was it with
+the Earl of Athol? And did she postpone her attachment to Bothwell, till
+he should prove his for her, by becoming the husband of the Lady Jane
+Gordon?&mdash;We proceed with our narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Having spent some time with Darnley at Stirling, Mary returned to
+Edinburgh, for the despatch of public business, on the 11th or 12th of
+September. She wished Darnley to accompany her; but as he could not, or
+would not, act with either Murray&#8217;s or Huntly&#8217;s party, he refused. On the
+21st, she came again to Stirling; but was recalled once more to Edinburgh,
+by her Privy Council, on the 23d. She left the French ambassador, Le Croc,
+with the wayward Darnley, hoping that his wisdom and experience might be
+of benefit to him.<a name='fna_150' id='fna_150' href='#f_150'><small>[150]</small></a> The distinction which, from this period up to the
+hour of his death, Darnley constantly made between his feelings for Mary
+herself, and for her ministers, is very striking.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> With Mary he was always
+willing to associate, and she had the same desire to be as much as she
+could with him; but with the conditions he exacted, and by which alone she
+was to purchase much of his company, it was impossible for her to comply.
+She might as well have given up her crown at once, as have dismissed all
+those officers of state with whom Darnley had quarrelled. The truth is,
+her husband&#8217;s situation was a very unfortunate one. His own imbecility and
+unlawful ambition, had brought upon him general odium; but if he had
+possessed a stronger mind, or a greater stock of hypocrisy, he might have
+re-established himself in the good graces of at least a part of the
+Scottish nobility. But he had neither the prudence to disguise his
+sentiments, nor the ability to maintain them. &#8220;He had not learned,&#8221; says
+Chalmers, &#8220;to smile, and smile, and be a villain. He was still very young,
+and still very inexperienced; and the Queen could not easily govern
+without the aid of those odious men,&#8221;&mdash;his enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Mary had been only a few days in Edinburgh, when she received a letter
+from the Earl of Lennox, Darnley&#8217;s father, which afflicted her not a
+little. Lennox, who resided principally at Glasgow, had gone to Stirling
+to visit his son; and Darnley had there communicated to him a design, his
+present discontents had suggested, which was to leave the country and
+proceed to the Continent. Both Lennox and Le Croc, &#8220;a wise aged
+gentleman,&#8221; as Holinshed calls him, had done all they could to divert him
+from so mad a purpose; but his resolution seemed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> be fixed. Mary
+immediately laid her father-in-law&#8217;s letter before her Privy Council, who
+&#8220;took a resolution to talk with the King, that they might learn from
+himself the occasion of this hasty deliberation of his, if any such he
+had; and likewise, that they might thereby be enabled to advise her
+Majesty after what manner she should comport herself in this
+conjuncture.&#8221;<a name='fna_151' id='fna_151' href='#f_151'><small>[151]</small></a> On the evening of the very day that this resolution was
+adopted, (the 29th of September), Darnley himself arrived at
+Holyrood;&mdash;but being informed that the Earls of Argyle, Murray, and Rothes
+were with the Queen, he declared he would not enter the palace till they
+departed.<a name='fna_152' id='fna_152' href='#f_152'><small>[152]</small></a> The Queen took this petulant behaviour as mildly as
+possible; and glad of his arrival, even condescended to go forth from the
+palace to meet her husband, and conducted him to her own apartment, where
+they spent the night together.<a name='fna_153' id='fna_153' href='#f_153'><small>[153]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Next day, Mary prevailed upon her husband to attend a meeting of her
+Council. They requested to be informed by the King, whether he had
+actually resolved to depart out of the realm, and if he had, what were the
+motives that influenced him, and the objects he had in view. They added,
+&#8220;that if he could complain of any of the subjects of the realm, be they of
+what quality soever, the fault should be immediately repaired to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> his
+satisfaction.&#8221; Mary herself took him by the hand, and speaking
+affectionately to him, &#8220;besought him, for God&#8217;s sake, to declare if she
+had given him any occasion for this resolution.&#8221;<a name='fna_154' id='fna_154' href='#f_154'><small>[154]</small></a> She had a clear
+conscience, she said, that in all her life she had done no action which
+could any ways prejudge either his or her own honour; but, nevertheless,
+that as she might, perhaps, have given him offence without design, she was
+willing to make amends, as far as he should require,&mdash;and therefore
+&#8220;prayed him not to dissemble the occasion of his displeasure, if any he
+had, nor to spare her in the least manner.&#8221;<a name='fna_155' id='fna_155' href='#f_155'><small>[155]</small></a> Darnley answered
+distinctly, that he had no fault to find with the Queen; but he was either
+unable or unwilling to explain further. With the stubborn discontent of a
+petted child, he would neither say one thing nor another&mdash;neither confess
+nor deny. Without agreeing to alter his determination, whatever it might
+be, and it was perhaps, after all, only a trick contrived to work upon
+Mary&#8217;s affections, and intimidate her into his wishes, he at length took
+his leave. Upon going away, he said to the Queen, &#8220;Farewell, Madam; you
+shall not see my face for a long while.&#8221; He next bade Le Croc farewell;
+and then turning coldly to the Lords of the Council, he said, &#8220;Gentlemen,
+adieu.&#8221;<a name='fna_156' id='fna_156' href='#f_156'><small>[156]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards, Mary received a letter from Darnley, in which he
+complained of two things. &#8220;One is,&#8221; says Maitland, &#8220;that her Majesty
+trusts him not with so much authority, nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> is at such pains to advance
+him, and make him be honoured in the nation, as she at first was. And the
+other point is, that nobody attends him, and that the nobility deserts his
+company. To these two points the Queen has made answer, that if the case
+be so, he ought to blame himself, not her; for that in the beginning she
+had conferred so much honour upon him, as came afterwards to render
+herself very uneasy, the credit and reputation wherein she had placed him
+having served as a shadow to those who have most heinously offended her
+Majesty; but, howsoever, that she has, notwithstanding this, continued to
+show him such respect, that although they who did perpetrate the murder of
+her faithful servant, had entered her chamber with his knowledge, having
+followed him close at the back, and had named him the chief of their
+enterprise,&mdash;yet would she never accuse him thereof, but did always excuse
+him, and was willing to appear as if she believed it not. And then as to
+his being not attended,&mdash;the fault thereof must be charged upon himself,
+since she has always made an offer to him of her own servants. And for the
+nobility, they come to court, and pay deference and respect, according as
+they have any matters to do, and as they receive a kindly countenance; but
+that he is at no pains to gain them, and make himself beloved by them,
+having gone so far as to prohibit these noblemen to enter his room, whom
+she had first appointed to be about his person. If the nobility abandon
+him, his own deportment towards them is the cause thereof; for if he
+desire to be followed and attended by them, he must, in the first place,
+make them to love him, and to this purpose must render himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> amiable to
+them; without which, it will prove a most difficult task for her Majesty
+to regulate this point, especially to make the nobility consent that he
+shall have the management of affairs put into his hands; because she finds
+them utterly averse to any such matter.&#8221;<a name='fna_157' id='fna_157' href='#f_157'><small>[157]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>No answer or explanation could be more satisfactory; and the whole affair
+exhibits a highly favourable view of Mary&#8217;s conduct and character. Le Croc
+accordingly says, in the letter already quoted,&mdash;&#8220;I never saw her Majesty
+so much beloved, esteemed, and honoured; nor so great a harmony amongst
+all her subjects as at present is, by her wise conduct, for I cannot
+perceive the smallest difference or division.&#8221; That Darnley ever seriously
+intended to quit the country, it has been said, is extremely uncertain. It
+would appear, however, according to Knox, that he still harboured some
+chimerical design of making himself independent of Mary, and with this
+view he treacherously wrote to the Pope, and the Kings of Spain and
+France, misrepresenting the state of affairs, and offering, with their
+assistance, to re-establish the Catholic religion. Copies of these
+letters, Knox adds, fell into Mary&#8217;s hands, who, of course, took steps to
+prevent their meeting with any attention at the Continental courts.<a name='fna_158' id='fna_158' href='#f_158'><small>[158]</small></a>
+But be this matter as it may, (and its truth rests upon rather doubtful
+authority, since we find no mention of it, either by the Lords of Privy
+Council or the French Ambassador),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> it is certain that Darnley&#8217;s
+determination, hastily formed, was as hastily abandoned.<a name='fna_159' id='fna_159' href='#f_159'><small>[159]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Shortly after her husband&#8217;s departure from Edinburgh, the Queen, attended
+by her officers of state, set out upon a progress towards the Borders,
+with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> the view, in particular, of holding justice-courts at Jedburgh. The
+southern marches of Scotland were almost always in a state of
+insubordination. The recent encouragement which the secret practices,
+first of Murray and afterwards of Morton, both aided by Elizabeth, had
+given to the turbulent spirit of the Borderers, called loudly for the
+interference of the law. Mary had intended to hold assizes in Liddisdale
+in August, but on account of the harvest, postponed leaving Edinburgh till
+October. On the 6th or 7th of that month, she sent forward Bothwell, her
+Lieutenant, to make the necessary preparations for her arrival, and on the
+8th, the Queen and her Court set out,&mdash;the noblemen and gentlemen of the
+southern shires having been summoned to meet her with their retainers at
+Melrose. On the 10th she <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>arrived at Jedburgh. There, or it may have been
+on her way from Melrose, she received the disagreeable news, that on the
+very day she left Edinburgh, her Lieutenant&#8217;s authority had been insulted
+by some of the unruly Borderers, and that soon after his reaching his
+Castle of Hermitage, a place of strength about eighteen miles from
+Jedburgh, he had been severely and dangerously wounded. Different
+historians assign different reasons for the attack made on Bothwell. Some
+say that Morton had bought over the tribe of Elliots, to revenge his
+present disgrace upon one whom he considered an enemy. Others, with
+greater probability, assert, that it was only a riot occasioned by
+thieves, whose lawless proceedings Bothwell wished to punish. But
+whichever statement be correct, the report of what had actually taken
+place was, as usual, a good deal exaggerated when it reached Mary. Being
+engaged, however, with public business at Jedburgh, she was prevented, for
+several days, from ascertaining the precise truth for herself. Finding
+that she had leisure on the 16th of the month, and being informed that her
+Lieutenant was still confined with his wounds, she paid him the
+compliment, or rather discharged the duty of riding across the country
+with some attendants, both to inquire into the state of his health, and to
+learn to what extent her authority had been insulted in his person. She
+remained with him only an hour or two, and returned to Jedburgh the same
+evening.<a name='fna_160' id='fna_160' href='#f_160'><small>[160]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>The above simple statement of facts, so natural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> in themselves, and so
+completely authenticated, acquires additional interest when compared with
+the common version of this story which Buchanan and his follower Robertson
+have contrived to render prevalent. &#8220;When the news that Bothwell was in
+great danger of his life,&#8221; says Buchanan, &#8220;was brought to the Queen <i>at
+Borthwick</i>, though the <i>winter</i> was very sharp, she <i>flew in haste</i>, first
+to Melrose, then to Jedburgh. There, though she received certain
+intelligence that Bothwell was alive, yet, being impatient of delay, and
+not able to forbear, though in such a bad time of the year,
+notwithstanding the difficulty of the way, and the danger of robbers, she
+put herself on her journey with such attendants as hardly any honest man,
+though he was but of a mean condition, would trust his life and fortune
+to. From thence she returned again to Jedburgh, and there she was mighty
+diligent in making great preparations for Bothwell&#8217;s being brought
+thither.&#8221;<a name='fna_161' id='fna_161' href='#f_161'><small>[161]</small></a> The whole of this is a tissue of wilful misrepresentation.
+No one, unacquainted with Buchanan&#8217;s character, would read the statement
+without supposing that Mary proceeded direct from Borthwick to Hermitage
+Castle, scarcely stopping an hour by the way. Now, if Mary heard of
+Bothwell&#8217;s accident at Borthwick (which is scarcely possible), it must
+have been, at the latest, on the 9th of October, or more probably on the
+evening of the 8th; but, so far from being in a hurry in consequence, it
+appears, by the Privy Council Register, that she did not reach Jedburgh
+till the 10th, and, by the Privy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> Seal Register, that she did not visit
+Hermitage Castle till the 16th of the month.<a name='fna_162' id='fna_162' href='#f_162'><small>[162]</small></a> Had she really ridden
+from Borthwick to the Hermitage and back again to Jedburgh in one day, she
+would have performed a journey of nearly seventy miles, which she could
+not have done even though she had wished it. As to her employing herself,
+on her return to Jedburgh, &#8220;in making great preparations for Bothwell&#8217;s
+being brought thither,&#8221; she certainly must have made extremely good use of
+her time, for she returned on the evening of the 16th, and next day she
+was taken dangerously ill. The motives which induced Buchanan to propagate
+falsehood concerning Mary, are sufficiently known; but, being known,
+Robertson ought to have been well convinced of the truth of his
+allegations before he drew inferences upon such authority. But the Doctor
+had laid down the principle, that he was to judge of Mary&#8217;s love for
+Bothwell by its <i>effects</i>; and it became, therefore, convenient for him to
+assert, that her visit to Hermitage Castle was one of those effects. &#8220;Mary
+<i>instantly</i> flew thither,&#8221; he says, &#8220;with an impatience which strongly
+marks the anxiety of a lover, but little suiting the dignity of a queen.&#8221;
+Now, &#8220;instantly,&#8221; must mean, that she allowed at all events six, and
+probably seven days to elapse; and that, too, after being informed of the
+danger one of the most powerful and best affectioned of her nobility had
+incurred in her behalf. Robertson must have thought it strange, that she
+staid only an hour or two at the Castle. &#8220;Upon her finding Bothwell
+slightly wounded,&#8221; says Tytler, &#8220;was it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> love that made her in such a
+violent haste to return back the same night to Jedburgh, by the same bad
+roads and tedious miles? Surely, if love had in any degree possessed her
+heart, it must have supplied her with many plausible reasons for passing
+that night in her lover&#8217;s company, without exposing herself to the
+inconveniences of an uncomfortable journey, and the inclemencies of the
+night air at that season.&#8221; If Mary had been blamed for an over-degree of
+callousness and indifference, there would have been almost more justice in
+the censure. With honest warmth Chalmers remarks, that &#8220;the <i>records</i> and
+the <i>facts</i> laugh at Robertson&#8217;s false dates and frothy declamation.&#8221;<a name='fna_163' id='fna_163' href='#f_163'><small>[163]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>On the 17th of October, Mary was seized with a severe and dangerous fever,
+and for ten days her life was esteemed in great danger; indeed, it was at
+one time reported at Edinburgh, that she was dead. The fever was
+accompanied with fainting or convulsion-fits, of an unusual and alarming
+description. They frequently lasted for three or four hours; and during
+their continuance, she was, to all appearance, lifeless. Her body<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> was
+motionless; her eyes closed; her mouth fast; her feet and arms stiff and
+cold. Upon coming out of these, she suffered the most dreadful pain, her
+whole frame being collapsed, and her limbs drawn writhingly together. She
+was at length so much reduced, that she herself began to despair of
+recovery. She summoned together the noblemen who were with her, in
+particular Murray, Huntly, Rothes, and Bothwell, and gave them what she
+believed to be her dying advice and instructions. Bothwell was not at
+Jedburgh when the Queen was taken ill, nor did he show any greater haste
+to proceed thither when he heard of her sickness than she had done to
+visit him, it being the 24th of October before he left Hermitage
+Castle.<a name='fna_164' id='fna_164' href='#f_164'><small>[164]</small></a> After requesting her council to pray for her, and professing
+her willingness to submit to the will of Heaven, Mary recommended her son
+to their especial care. She entreated that they would give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> every
+attention to his education, suffering none to approach him, whose example
+might pervert his manners or his mind, and studying to bring him up in all
+virtue and godliness. She strongly advised the same toleration to be
+continued in matters of religion, which she had practised; and she
+concluded, by requesting that suitable provision should be made for the
+servants of her household, to whom Mary was scrupulously attentive, and by
+all of whom she was much beloved. Fortunately however, after an
+opportunity had been thus afforded her of evincing her strength of mind,
+and willingness to meet death, the violence of her disease abated, and her
+youth and good constitution triumphed over the attack.</p>
+
+<p>Darnley, who was with his father at Glasgow, probably did not hear of the
+Queen&#8217;s illness till one or two days after its commencement; but as soon
+as he was made acquainted with her extreme danger, he determined on going
+to see her. Here again, we discover the marked distinction that
+characterized Darnley&#8217;s conduct towards his wife and towards her nobility.
+With Mary herself he had no quarrel; and though his love for her was not
+so strong and pure as it should have been, and was easily forgotten when
+it stood in the way of his own selfish wishes, he never lost any
+opportunity of evincing his desire to continue on a friendly footing with
+her. When he last parted from her at Holyrood, he had said that she should
+not see him for a long while; but startled into better feelings by her
+unexpected illness, he came to visit her at Jedburgh, on the 28th of
+October. The Queen was, by this time, better; but her convalescence being
+still uncertain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> Darnley&#8217;s arrival was far from being agreeable to her
+ministers. Should Mary die, one or other of them would be appointed
+Regent, an office to which they knew that Darnley, as father to the young
+prince, had strong claims. It was their interest, therefore, to sow
+dissension in every possible way, between the Queen and her husband; and
+they trembled lest the remaining affection they entertained for each
+other, might be again rekindled into a more ardent flame. Mary, when cool
+and dispassionate, they knew they could manage easily; but Mary, when in
+love, chose, like most other women, to have her own way. They received
+Darnley, on the present occasion, so forbiddingly, and gave him so little
+countenance, that having spent a day and a night with Mary, he was glad
+again to take his departure, and leave her to carry on the business of the
+state, surrounded by those designing and factious men who were weaving the
+web of her ruin.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th of November, the Queen, with her court, left Jedburgh, and went
+to Kelso, where she remained two days. She proceeded thence to Berwick,
+attended by not fewer than 800 knights and gentlemen on horseback. From
+Berwick, she rode to Dunbar; and from Dunbar, by Tantallan to Craigmillar,
+where she arrived on the 20th of November 1566, and remained for three
+weeks, during which time an occurrence of importance took place.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">END OF VOLUME FIRST.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINTED BY J. HUTCHISON,<br />
+FOR THE HEIRS OF D. WILLISON.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p>
+
+<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> Polydore, lib. 26. quoted by Leslie&mdash;&#8220;Defence of Mary&#8217;s Honour,&#8221;
+Preface, p. xiv.&mdash;Apud Anderson, vol. I.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a> Knox seems not only to justify the assassination of Cardinal Beaton,
+but to hint that it would have been proper to have disposed of his
+successor in the same way. &#8220;These,&#8221; says he, &#8220;<i>are the works of our God</i>,
+whereby he would admonish the tyrants of this earth, that, in the end, he
+will be revenged of their cruelty, what strength soever they make in the
+contrary. But such is the blindness of man, as David speaks, that the
+posterity does ever follow the footsteps of their wicked fathers, and
+principally in their impiety: For how little differs the cruelty of that
+bastard, that yet is called Bishop of St Andrews, from the cruelty of the
+former, we will after hear.&#8221;&mdash;Knox&#8217;s Hist. of the Reformation, p. 65.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> Dalyell&#8217;s &#8220;Fragments of Scottish History.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a> Keith, p. 68.&mdash;Knox&#8217;s History, p. 94-6.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_5' id='f_5' href='#fna_5'>[5]</a> M&#8217;Crie&#8217;s Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 222.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_6' id='f_6' href='#fna_6'>[6]</a> M&#8217;Crie&#8217;s Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 206.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_7' id='f_7' href='#fna_7'>[7]</a> The Biographer of Knox goes perhaps a little too far, when he proposes
+to alleviate the sorrow felt for the loss of these architectural monuments
+of superstition, by reminding the antiquarian that <i>Ruins</i> inspire more
+lively sentiments of the sublime and beautiful than more perfect remains.
+This is a piece of ingenuity, but not of sound reasoning. It is rather a
+curious doctrine, that a Cathedral or Monastery does not look best with
+all its walls standing.&mdash;M&#8217;Crie&#8217;s Life of Knox, vol. I. p. 271.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_8' id='f_8' href='#fna_8'>[8]</a> It is worth while observing with what a total want of all Christian
+charity Knox speaks of the death of Mary of Guise. Alluding to her burial,
+he says:&mdash;&#8220;The question was moved of her burial: the preachers boldly
+gainstood that any superstitious rites should be used within that realm,
+which God of his mercy had begun to purge; and so was she clapped in a
+coffin of lead, and kept in the Castle from the 9th of June until the 19th
+of October, when she, by Pinyours, was carried to a ship, and so carried
+to France. What pomp was used there, we neither hear nor yet regard; but
+in it we see that she, that delighted that others lay without burial, got
+it neither so soon as she herself (if she had been of the counsel in her
+life) would have required it, neither yet so honourable in this realm as
+sometimes she looked for. It may perchance be a pronosticon, that the
+Guisean blood cannot have any rest within this realm.&#8221; Elsewhere he
+says&mdash;&#8220;Within few days after, began her belly and loathsome legs to swell,
+and so continued till that God did execute his judgment upon her.&#8221; And
+again&mdash;&#8220;God, for his mercy&#8217;s sake, rid us of the rest of the Guisean
+blood. Amen.&#8221; As Keith remarks, it was not by this spirit that the
+Apostles converted the world.&mdash;Keith, p. 129.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_9' id='f_9' href='#fna_9'>[9]</a> M&#8217;Crie&#8217;s Life of Knox, Vol. 1. p. 323.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_10' id='f_10' href='#fna_10'>[10]</a> By the kindness of Mr Brown of Glasgow, the ingenious delineator of
+the Royal Palaces of Scotland, we are enabled to give, as the vignette to
+the present Volume, a view of this Palace, exhibiting the window of the
+very room where Mary was born, which is the large window on the first
+floor, immediately under the flight of birds.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_11' id='f_11' href='#fna_11'>[11]</a> Sadler&#8217;s State Papers and Letters, vol. i. p. 263.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_12' id='f_12' href='#fna_12'>[12]</a> Whittaker, vol. iv. p. 144.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_13' id='f_13' href='#fna_13'>[13]</a> Mezeray, Histoire de France, tom. iii. p. 50.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_14' id='f_14' href='#fna_14'>[14]</a> Miss Benger&#8217;s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 189, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_15' id='f_15' href='#fna_15'>[15]</a> Melville&#8217;s Memoirs of his own Life, p. 12.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_16' id='f_16' href='#fna_16'>[16]</a> In transcribing dates it may be proper to mention, that we do not
+observe the old division of the year. Down till 1563, the French began the
+year at Easter; but it was then altered to the 1st of January, by the
+Chancellor L&#8217;Hopital. In Scotland till 1599, and in England till 1751, the
+year began on the 25th of March. Thus, in all the State Papers and letters
+of the age, written between the 1st of January and the 25th of March, the
+dates invariably belong to what we should now consider the preceding year.
+It is useful to be aware of this fact; though it is unnecessary for a
+writer of the present day, to deviate from the established computation of
+time.&mdash;Anderson&#8217;s Collections, vol. i.&mdash;Preface, p. li.; and Laing, vol.
+i. p. 266.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_17' id='f_17' href='#fna_17'>[17]</a> Keith, p. 73.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_18' id='f_18' href='#fna_18'>[18]</a> Goodall&#8217;s Examination, vol. l. p. 159, et seq. The motto which
+Goodall put upon his title page,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Pandere res alt&agrave; terr&acirc; et caligine mersas,&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>he has in more than one instance amply justified.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_19' id='f_19' href='#fna_19'>[19]</a> Mezeray, Castelnau, Brantome, Thuanus, Chalmers, Miss Benger.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_20' id='f_20' href='#fna_20'>[20]</a> This picture originally belonged to Lord Robert Stuart, Earl of
+Orkney, one of Mary&#8217;s natural brothers, and is now in the possession of
+William Trail, Esq. of Woodwick, Orkney, into whose family it came,
+together with other relics of the Earl, by the marriage of an ancestor of
+Mr Trail, to one of his descendants. <i>Vide</i> <span class="smcap">Appendix A</span>.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_21' id='f_21' href='#fna_21'>[21]</a> It is to the kindness of John Watson Gordon, Esq. deservedly one of
+the most eminent portrait-painters in Scotland, that we are indebted, both
+for the use of the painting from which the engraving has been made, and
+for several of the facts we have stated above. Mr Gordon has executed
+three copies of the picture&mdash;all of them exceedingly beautiful and
+accurate&mdash;possessing the merits, without any of the dusky dimness, which
+time has thrown over the original.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_22' id='f_22' href='#fna_22'>[22]</a> The coat of arms borne by Francis and Mary is worth describing. The
+coat was borne Baron and Femme;&mdash;The first contained the coat of the
+Dauphin, which took up the upper half of the shield, and consisted of the
+arms of France. The lower half was impaled quarterly. In <i>one</i> and <i>four</i>
+the arms of Scotland, and in <i>two</i> and <i>three</i> those of England. Over the
+whole was half an escutcheon the sinister half being obscured or cut off,
+to denote that the English crown was in the possession of another, to the
+bearer&#8217;s prejudice. Under the arms were four lines in French, thus
+wretchedly translated by Strype, in his &#8220;Annals of Queen Elizabeth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;The arms of Mary Queen Dauphiness of France,<br />
+The noblest lady in earth for till advance,<br />
+Of Scotland Queen and of England, also<br />
+Of France, as God hath providet it so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Keith, p. 114. Chalmers, vol. 2d, p. 413. A painting (probably a copy)
+containing these arms, and the above motto, is preserved in Mary&#8217;s
+apartments at Holyroodhouse.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_23' id='f_23' href='#fna_23'>[23]</a> Miss Benger, Vol. II. p. 7.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_24' id='f_24' href='#fna_24'>[24]</a> Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 43.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_25' id='f_25' href='#fna_25'>[25]</a> Miss Benger erroneously antedates the death of Francis, on the 28th
+of November. See her <i>Memoirs</i>, vol. ii. p. 74. Chalmers, who is the very
+historian of dates, gives a copy of the inscription on the tomb of
+Francis, which of course settles the point, vol. ii. p. 124. Miss Benger
+does not appear to have seen this inscription.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_26' id='f_26' href='#fna_26'>[26]</a> Con&aelig;us in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 19.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_27' id='f_27' href='#fna_27'>[27]</a> Keith, p. 157 and 160.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_28' id='f_28' href='#fna_28'>[28]</a> Keith, p. 160, &amp; seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_29' id='f_29' href='#fna_29'>[29]</a> Keith, p. 165, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_30' id='f_30' href='#fna_30'>[30]</a> Keith, p. 167, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_31' id='f_31' href='#fna_31'>[31]</a> Robertson says, that the amendment would not have been approved of by
+&#8220;<i>either</i> Queen.&#8221; He alleges that Mary had only &#8220;suspended&#8221; the
+prosecution of her title to the English Crown; and that &#8220;she determined to
+revive her claim, on the first prospect of success.&#8221; That Robertson has,
+in this instance, done injustice to Mary, is evident, from the exact
+consistency of her future conduct, with what will be found stated in the
+text.&mdash;<i>Robertson</i>, <i>Vol.</i> ii. <i>p.</i> 200.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_32' id='f_32' href='#fna_32'>[32]</a> Keith, p. 170. et seq. Robertson says, that at the period of these
+conferences, Mary was only in her eighteenth year; but, as they both took
+place in 1561, she must have been in her nineteenth year, which Keith
+confirms, who says (page 178), &#8220;The readers having now perused several
+original conferences, will, I suppose, clearly discern the fine spirit and
+genius of that princess, who was yet but in the 19th year of her age.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_33' id='f_33' href='#fna_33'>[33]</a> Brantome in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 82.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_34' id='f_34' href='#fna_34'>[34]</a> Keith, p. 175. Throckmorton writes, &#8220;Thereto the Queen-mother said,
+The King, my son, and I, would be glad to do good betwixt the Queen, my
+sister, your mistress, and the Queen, my daughter, and shall be glad to
+hear that there were good amity betwixt them; for neither the King, my
+son, nor I, nor any of his Council, will do harm in the matter, <i>or show
+ourselves other than friends to them both</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_35' id='f_35' href='#fna_35'>[35]</a> Keith, p. 164.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_36' id='f_36' href='#fna_36'>[36]</a> Keith, Appendix, p. 92.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_37' id='f_37' href='#fna_37'>[37]</a> Robertson, Appendix, No. 5.&mdash;from the Cotton Library.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_38' id='f_38' href='#fna_38'>[38]</a> Keith, p. 178.&mdash;Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 418&mdash;Stranguage, p. 9&mdash;and
+Freebairn, p. 19.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_39' id='f_39' href='#fna_39'>[39]</a> Brantome in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 483, et seq.&mdash;Keith, p. 179&mdash;and
+Freebairn, p. 16 et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_40' id='f_40' href='#fna_40'>[40]</a> Several translations of this song have been attempted, but no
+translation can preserve the spirit of the original.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">Adieu, thou pleasant land of France!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The dearest of all lands to me,</span><br />
+Where life was like a joyful dance&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The joyful dance of infancy.</span><br />
+<br />
+Farewell my childhood&#8217;s laughing wiles,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Farewell the joys of youth&#8217;s bright day;</span><br />
+The bark that bears me from thy smiles,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bears but my meaner half away.</span><br />
+<br />
+The best is thine;&mdash;my changeless heart<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is given, beloved France! to thee;</span><br />
+And let it sometimes, though we part,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Remind thee with a sigh of me.</span></p>
+
+<p>Mary was not the only one who commemorated in verse her departure from
+France. Numerous <i>Vaudevilles</i> were written upon the occasion, several of
+which are preserved in the <i>Anthologie Fran&ccedil;aise</i>.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_41' id='f_41' href='#fna_41'>[41]</a> Jebb, vol. ii. p. 484. Keith, p. 180. Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 125.
+In an anonymous French work, entitled, &#8220;Histoire de Marie Stuart, Reine
+d&#8217;Ecosse et de France,&#8221; &amp;c. respectably written on the whole, there is an
+amusing mistake concerning the locality of Holyroodhouse. In tom. i. p.
+181, it is said, &#8220;The Queen landed at Leith, and then departed for
+L&#8217;Islebourg,&#8221; (the name anciently given to Edinburgh), &#8220;a celebrated Abbey
+a mile or two distant. In this Abbey Mary remained for three weeks, and in
+the month of October 1561 took her departure for Edinburgh.&#8221; This
+departure for Edinburgh alludes to the visit which Mary paid, a short time
+after her arrival, to the Castle.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_42' id='f_42' href='#fna_42'>[42]</a> The day that his present Majesty George IV. arrived at Leith, in
+August 1822 (whose landing and progress to Holyroodhouse, though much more
+brilliant, resembled in some respects that of his ancestor Mary), was as
+wet and unfavourable as the weather so piously described by Knox. Was this
+a &#8220;forewarning&#8221; also of the &#8220;comfort&#8221; our gracious Sovereign brought into
+the country? If Knox believed in <i>warnings</i>, there is no telling to what
+conclusions these warnings might have led.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_43' id='f_43' href='#fna_43'>[43]</a> M&#8217;Crie&#8217;s Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 22.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_44' id='f_44' href='#fna_44'>[44]</a> Miss Benger (vol. ii. p. 132) erroneously supposes, that the
+Archbishop of St Andrews had died before Mary&#8217;s return to Scotland. She
+should have known that it was he who presided at the baptism of James VI.,
+of which ceremony she gives so particular an account. See Keith, p. 360,
+and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 196.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_45' id='f_45' href='#fna_45'>[45]</a> Jebb, vol. ii. p. 486. Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 202.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_46' id='f_46' href='#fna_46'>[46]</a> Buchanan&#8217;s Detection, in Anderson&#8217;s Collections, vol. ii. p. 52 and
+58.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_47' id='f_47' href='#fna_47'>[47]</a> This is apparently the first time Mary had ever expressed to Knox her
+sentiments regarding this pamphlet. He had been treated less ceremoniously
+by Elizabeth. But knowing the respect in which she was held by the
+Protestants, he saw it for his interest to attempt to pacify her, and
+wrote to her several conciliatory letters. Elizabeth put a stop to them,
+by desiring Cecil, to forward to Knox the following laconic epistle, which
+merits preservation as a literary curiosity:&mdash;&#8220;Mr Knox! Mr Knox! Mr Knox!
+there is neither male nor female: all are one in Christ, saith Paul.
+Blessed is the man who confides in the Lord! I need to wish you no more
+prudence than God&#8217;s grace; whereof God send you plenty. <span class="smcap">W. Cecil</span>.&#8221;
+Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 494. Knox himself gives a somewhat different edition
+of this letter, (Hist. of the Reformation, p. 212.) Where Chalmers found
+the above, he does not mention.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_48' id='f_48' href='#fna_48'>[48]</a> Knox&#8217;s History of the Reformation, p. 287, &amp; seq.&mdash;Keith, p. 188. It
+is worth observing, that Knox is the only person who gives us any detailed
+account of these interviews, and he, of course, represents them in as
+favourable a light for himself as possible. &#8220;The report,&#8221; says Randolph,
+&#8220;that Knox hath talked with the Queen, maketh the Papists doubt what will
+become of the world.&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;I have been the more minute in the narrative of
+this curious conference,&#8221; says M&#8217;Crie, &#8220;because it affords the most
+satisfactory refutation of the charge that Knox treated Mary with rudeness
+and disrespect.&#8221; Different people have surely different modes of defining
+rudeness and respect.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_49' id='f_49' href='#fna_49'>[49]</a> Keith supposes erroneously, that this disturbance took place in the
+Chapel at Holyrood. Randolph, his authority, though his expressions are
+equivocal, undoubtedly alludes to the Royal Chapel at Stirling. Keith, p.
+189 and 190.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_50' id='f_50' href='#fna_50'>[50]</a> Knox, p. 292.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_51' id='f_51' href='#fna_51'>[51]</a> Keith, p 192.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_52' id='f_52' href='#fna_52'>[52]</a> It is worth while attending to the very partial and grossly perverted
+account which Knox gives of this proclamation, actually introducing into
+his History an edition of it, fabricated by himself. He then proceeds to
+find fault with the Magistrates for yielding to &#8220;<i>Jezabel&#8217;s</i>&#8221; commands,
+and remarks, in allusion to a counter proclamation which the Queen issued,
+that the town should be patent to all her lieges until they were found
+guilty of some offence,&mdash;&#8220;The Queen took upon her greater boldness than
+she and Balaam&#8217;s bleating priests durst have attempted before. And so
+murderers, adulterers, thieves, whores, drunkards, idolaters, and all
+malefactors got protection under the Queen&#8217;s wings, under colour that they
+were of her religion. And so got the Devil freedom again, whereas before
+he durst not have been seen by daylight upon the common streets. Lord
+deliver us from that bondage!&#8221;&mdash;Knox, p. 292-3.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_53' id='f_53' href='#fna_53'>[53]</a> Randolph in Keith, p. 210.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_54' id='f_54' href='#fna_54'>[54]</a> Goodall, vol. i. p. 199, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_55' id='f_55' href='#fna_55'>[55]</a> Freebairn&#8217;s translation of Bois Guilbert, p. 32, et seq.&mdash;Knox&#8217;s
+History, p. 307.&mdash;Chalmers, vol. i. p. 62, and vol. ii. p. 212.&mdash;Keith, p.
+215 and 216.&mdash;and Goodall, vol. i. p. 191.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_56' id='f_56' href='#fna_56'>[56]</a> Knox, p. 302.&mdash;Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 425.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_57' id='f_57' href='#fna_57'>[57]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 78.; vol. ii. p. 293, et seq.; and p. 426, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_58' id='f_58' href='#fna_58'>[58]</a> Knox, p. 315.; Goodall, vol. i. p. 192.&mdash;Chalmers says, that Sir John
+Gordon&#8217;s antagonist was not a Lord Ogilvy, but only James Ogilvy of
+Cardell, a son of the deceased Alexander Ogilvy of Findlater. But as he
+does not give any authority for this assertion, we have preferred
+following Knox, Goodall, and Robertson.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_59' id='f_59' href='#fna_59'>[59]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 80.; and vol. ii. p. 298.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_60' id='f_60' href='#fna_60'>[60]</a> Keith, p. 225.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_61' id='f_61' href='#fna_61'>[61]</a> Keith, p. 226.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_62' id='f_62' href='#fna_62'>[62]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 84, and vol. ii. p. 302.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_63' id='f_63' href='#fna_63'>[63]</a> Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 306.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_64' id='f_64' href='#fna_64'>[64]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 90.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_65' id='f_65' href='#fna_65'>[65]</a> &#8220;The time and place for perpetrating this horrid deed,&#8221; says
+Robertson, &#8220;were frequently appointed; but the executing of it was
+wonderfully prevented by some of those unforeseen accidents which so often
+occur to disconcert the schemes, and to intimidate the hearts of
+assassins.&#8221; There is something strangely inconsistent between this
+statement, and that which Robertson makes immediately afterwards in a
+note, where he says,&mdash;&#8220;We have imputed the violent conduct of the Earl of
+Huntly to a sudden start of resentment, without charging him with any
+premeditated purpose of rebellion.&#8221; And that Huntly did not intend to
+seize the Queen and her ministers, the historian argues upon these
+grounds:&mdash;&#8220;1st, On the Queen&#8217;s arrival in the North, he laboured in good
+earnest to gain her favour, and to obtain a pardon for his son.&mdash;2d, He
+met the Queen, first at Aberdeen and then at Rothiemay, whither he would
+not have ventured to come had he harboured any such treasonable
+resolution.&mdash;3d, His conduct was irresolute and wavering, like that of a
+man disconcerted by an unforeseen danger, not like one executing a
+concerted plan.&mdash;4th, The most considerable persons of his clan submitted
+to the Queen, and found surety to obey her commands; had the Earl been
+previously determined to rise in arms against the Queen, or to seize her
+ministers, it is probable he would have imparted it to his principal
+followers, nor would they have deserted him in this manner,&#8221; Yet in direct
+opposition to this view of the matter, Robertson, in telling the story of
+Huntly&#8217;s wrongs, throws upon him the whole blame, and entirely exculpates
+Murray.&mdash;Robertson, vol. i. p. 222, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_66' id='f_66' href='#fna_66'>[66]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 93, and vol. ii. p. 306.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_67' id='f_67' href='#fna_67'>[67]</a> Keith, p. 226.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_68' id='f_68' href='#fna_68'>[68]</a> Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 307.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_69' id='f_69' href='#fna_69'>[69]</a> Knox, p. 320.&mdash;Buchanan&#8217;s History, Book xvii.&mdash;Chalmers, vol. i. p.
+95, and vol. ii. p. 309, whose authority is a letter of Randolph,
+preserved in the Paper Office, and written the evening of the very day on
+which the battle took place. Randolph, though not on the field himself,
+had two servants there, and saw the dead body of the Earl, when it was
+brought into Aberdeen. Robertson and others have said, that Huntly, who
+was very corpulent, was slain on the field, or trodden to death in the
+pursuit. Chalmers, however, has truth on his side, when he remarks, that
+&#8220;Doctor Robertson, who never saw those instructive letters (of Randolph),
+grossly misrepresents the whole circumstances of that affair at Corrachie;
+he says, &#8216;Huntly advanced with a considerable force towards Aberdeen, and
+filled the Queen&#8217;s <i>small court</i> with the <i>utmost consternation</i>; and that
+Murray had only a handful of men in whom he could confide; but, by his
+steady courage and prudent conduct, gained a miraculous victory.&#8217; For the
+assertion of Murray&#8217;s having only a <i>handful of men</i>, he quotes Keith, p.
+230, in which there is not one word of the <i>force</i> at Corrachie on either
+side. The force there spoken of is what the Queen had about her <i>two
+months before</i> on her first progress into the North, not on her return to
+Aberdeen, after new troops had been raised, and old ones summoned to that
+premeditated and barbarous scene.&#8221; Knox is also a better authority upon
+this subject than Robertson. He gives the following curious account of the
+Earl&#8217;s death and subsequent fate:&mdash;&#8220;The Earl, immediately after his
+taking, departed this life, without any wound, or yet appearance of any
+stroke, whereof death might have ensued; and so, because it was late, he
+was cast over athwart a pair of creels, and so was carried to Aberdeen,
+and was laid in the tolbooth thereof, that the response which his wife&#8217;s
+witches had given might be fulfilled, who all affirmed (as the most part
+say), that that same night he should be in the tolbooth of Aberdeen,
+without any wound upon his body. When his lady got knowledge thereof, she
+blamed her principal witch, called Janet; but she stoutly defended herself
+(as the Devil can ever do), and affirmed that she gave a true answer,
+albeit she spoke not all the truth; for she knew that he should be there
+dead.&#8221; Knox, p. 328. &#8220;It is a memorable fact,&#8221; Chalmers elsewhere remarks,
+&#8220;that Huntly and Sutherland&#8221; (who was forfeited soon afterwards, as
+implicated in this pretended rebellion) &#8220;were two of those nobles who had
+sent Bishop Lesley to France, with offers of duty and services to the
+Queen, while Murray, Maitland, and other considerable men offered their
+duties and services to Elizabeth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_70' id='f_70' href='#fna_70'>[70]</a> Randolph in Keith, p. 230.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_71' id='f_71' href='#fna_71'>[71]</a> Little did Mary then dream of Fotheringay.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_72' id='f_72' href='#fna_72'>[72]</a> In Buchanan&#8217;s <i>Cameleon</i>, a severe satire, written at the request of
+his patron the Earl of Murray, when that nobleman quarrelled with
+Secretary Maitland, we have the following ridiculous account of the secret
+motives which led to this disastrous northern expedition. &#8220;The Queen, by
+advice of her uncles, devised to destroy the Earl of Murray, thinking him
+to be a great bridle to refrain her appetites, and impediment to live at
+liberty of her pleasure; not that he ever used any violence anent her, but
+that his honesty was so great that she was ashamed to attempt any thing
+indecent in his presence. She, then, being deliberate to destroy him, by
+the Earl of Huntly, went to the north and he in her company; and howbeit
+the treason was opened plainly, and John Gordon lying not far off the town
+(Aberdeen) with a great power, and the Earl of Murray expressly lodged in
+a house separate from all other habitation, and his death by divers ways
+sought,&mdash;this Cameleon (Maitland) whether for simpleness or for lack of
+foresight, or for boldness of courage, I refer to every man&#8217;s conscience
+that doth know him, he alone could see no treason, could fear no danger,
+and could never believe that the Earl of Huntly would take on hand such an
+enterprise.&#8221; This statement, while it gives some notion of the dependence
+to be placed on Buchanan&#8217;s accuracy when influenced by party feelings,
+betrays, at the same time, the important secret, that Maitland saw and
+felt the injustice of Huntly&#8217;s persecution.&mdash;Buchanan&#8217;s Cameleon, p. 9.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_73' id='f_73' href='#fna_73'>[73]</a> Brantome in Jebb, p. 495, &amp; seq.&mdash;Chalmers, vol. i. p.
+101.&mdash;Freebairn, p. 25&mdash;and Histoire de Marie Stuart, tom. i. p. 210.
+Knox, as usual, gives a highly indecorous and malicious account of this
+affair, his drift being to make his readers believe (though he does not to
+venture to say so in direct terms) that Mary had first tempted, and then
+betrayed Chatelard; and that she was anxious to have him despatched
+secretly, that he might not stain her honour by a public confession. If
+such were really the fact, it is odd that Chatelard should have been
+brought to a scaffold, which was surrounded by thousands, and that, even
+according to Knox himself, he said nothing relating to Mary but what is
+narrated in the text.&mdash;Vide Knox&#8217;s History, p. 325.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_74' id='f_74' href='#fna_74'>[74]</a> Chalmers, in his account of the opening of this Parliament, seems to
+have committed an error. He says, (vol. i. p. 105.) &#8220;The Queen came to
+Parliament in her robes <i>and was crowned</i>.&#8221; That any coronation took
+place, is not at all likely. Chalmers surely had forgotten that Mary was
+crowned at Stirling by Cardinal Beaton just twenty years before. There was
+no reason why the ceremony should have been repeated. Chalmers&#8217; mistake is
+probably founded upon the following passage, in a letter of Randolph&#8217;s,
+quoted by Keith, p. 239&mdash;&#8220;The Parliament began 26th May, on which day the
+Queen came to it in her robes <i>and crowned</i>.&#8221; The word <i>was</i> is an
+interpolation of Chalmers. But as Randolph goes on immediately to
+say,&mdash;&#8220;The Duke carried the crown, Argyle the sceptre, &amp;c.,&#8221; Chalmers
+probably thought Mary could not at the same time wear the crown. But the
+crown of state, carried upon state occasions, was no doubt different from
+the crown made expressly to be worn by the reigning Queen. Buchanan puts
+the matter beyond a doubt, for he says explicitly;&mdash;&#8220;The Queen, <i>with the
+crown on her head</i>, and in her royal robes, went in great pomp to the
+Parliament House&mdash;a new sight to many.&#8221; Buchanan&#8217;s History, Book xvii.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_75' id='f_75' href='#fna_75'>[75]</a> Knox&#8217;s History of the Reformation, p. 332 et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_76' id='f_76' href='#fna_76'>[76]</a> Knox, p. 345.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_77' id='f_77' href='#fna_77'>[77]</a> Keith, p. 206 and 249.&mdash;Chalmers, vol. i. p. 65, et seq.&mdash;Whittaker,
+vol. iii, p. 334.&mdash;Miss Benger, vol. ii, p. 145, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_78' id='f_78' href='#fna_78'>[78]</a> These violars were all Scotchmen, and two of them were of the name of
+Dow,&mdash;&#8220;a name,&#8221; says Chalmers, &#8220;consecrated to music.&#8221; Having never heard
+of this consecration before, we think it not unlikely that Chalmers has
+mistaken Dow for Gow. <i>Vide</i> Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 72.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_79' id='f_79' href='#fna_79'>[79]</a> Jebb, vol. ii. p. 202. Chalmers, vol. i. p. 95, and vol. ii. p. 156.
+Tytler&#8217;s Enquiry, vol. ii. p. 4 et seq.; Histoire de Marie Stuart, p. 218;
+and Laing, vol. i. p. 10.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_80' id='f_80' href='#fna_80'>[80]</a> Melville&#8217;s Memoirs, p. 110-30. The French historian Castelnau, speaks
+in exactly similar terms. When sent by the King of France as ambassador to
+Mary, &#8220;I found that princess,&#8221; he says, &#8220;in the flower of her age,
+esteemed and adored by her subjects, and sought after by all neighbouring
+states, in so much that there was no great fortune or alliance that she
+might not have aspired to, not only because she was the relation and
+successor of the Queen of England, but because she was endowed with more
+graces and perfection of beauty than any other princess of her
+time.&#8221;&mdash;Castelnau in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 460.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_81' id='f_81' href='#fna_81'>[81]</a> Keith, p. 269.&mdash;Chalmers, vol. i. p. 123.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_82' id='f_82' href='#fna_82'>[82]</a> Chalmers says (vol. i. p. 120), that the &#8220;Countess of Lennox sent
+Murray a diamond,&#8221; which, though true, is not supported by the authority
+he quotes&mdash;Randolph in Keith, who says (p. 259)&mdash;&#8220;Lennox giveth to the
+Queen and most of the council jewels; but none to Murray.&#8221; The authority
+Chalmers ought to have quoted is Melville (p. 127), who, on his return
+from his embassy to England, brought some presents with him from Lady
+Lennox, who was then not aware of the precise state of parties in
+Scotland. &#8220;My Lady Lennox,&#8221; says Melville, &#8220;sent also tokens: to the Queen
+a ring with a fair diamont; ane emerald to my Lord her husband, who was
+yet in Scotland; a diamont to my Lord of Murray; ane orloge or montre
+(watch) set with diamonts and rubies, to the secretary Lethington; a ring
+with a ruby to my brother Sir Robert; for she was still in good hope that
+her son, my Lord Darnley, should come better speed than the Earl of
+Leicester, anent the marriage with the Queen. She was a very wise and
+discreet matron, and had many favourers in England for the time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_83' id='f_83' href='#fna_83'>[83]</a> In confirmation of the fact, that he was &#8220;well-instructed,&#8221; it may be
+mentioned, that, before he was twelve years old, he wrote a tale, called
+&#8220;<i>Utopia Nova</i>.&#8221; Some ballads are also ascribed to him; and Bishop
+Montague, in his Preface to the Works of James VI., mentions, that he
+translated Valerius Maximus into English. His only literary effort, which
+seems to have been preserved, is a letter he wrote when about nine years
+old from Temple Newsome, his father&#8217;s principal seat in Yorkshire, to his
+cousin Mary Tudor, Queen of England. It deserves insertion as a curiosity:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Like as the monuments of ancient authors, most triumphant, most
+victorious, and most gracious Princess, declare how that a certain
+excellent musician, Timotheus Musicus, was wont, with his
+sweet-proportioned and melodious harmony, to inflame Alexander the Great,
+Conqueror and King of Macedonia, to civil wars, with a most fervent
+desire, even so, I, remembering with myself oftentimes how that (over and
+besides such manifold benefits as your Highness heretofore hath bestowed
+on me) it hath pleased your most excellent Majesty lately to accept a
+little plot of my simple penning, which I termed <i>Utopia Nova</i>; for the
+which, it being base, vile, and maimed, your Majesty hath given me a rich
+chain of gold;&mdash;the noise (I say) of such instruments, as I hear now and
+then, (although their melody differ much from the sweet strokes and sounds
+of King Alexander&#8217;s Timotheus), do not only persuade and move, yea prick
+and spur me forward, to endeavour my wits daily (all vanities set apart)
+to virtuous learning and study, being thereto thus encouraged, so
+oftentimes by your Majesty&#8217;s manifold benefits, gifts, and rewards; but
+also I am enflamed and stirred, even now my tender age notwithstanding, to
+be serving your Grace, wishing every hair in my head for to be a worthy
+soldier of that same self heart, mind and stomach, that I am of. But where
+as I perceive that neither my wit, power, nor years, are at this present
+corresponding unto this, my good will: these shall be, therefore, (most
+gracious Princess) most humbly rendering unto your Majesty immortal thanks
+for your rich chain, and other your Highness&#8217; sundry gifts, given unto me
+without any my deservings, from time to time. Trusting in God one day of
+my most bounden duty, to endeavour myself, with my faithful hearty
+service, to remember the same. And being afraid, with these my superfluous
+words to interturb (God forfend) your Highness, whose most excellent
+Majesty is always, and specially now, occupied in most weighty matters,
+thus I make an end. Praying unto Almighty God most humbly and faithfully
+to preserve, keep, and defend your Majesty, long reigning over us all,
+your true and faithful subjects, a most victorious and triumphant
+Princess. Amen.&mdash;From Temple Newsome, the 28th March 1554.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Your Majesty&#8217;s most bounden and obedient subject and servant,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Henry Darnley</span>.<a href="#note_for_83">*</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="blockquot"><a name="note_for_83" id="note_for_83"></a>* Ellis&#8217;s Collection of &#8220;Original Letters Illustrative of English
+History.&#8221; Second series, vol. ii. p. 249.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_84' id='f_84' href='#fna_84'>[84]</a> Keith, p. 278.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_85' id='f_85' href='#fna_85'>[85]</a> Melville&#8217;s Memoirs, p. 134.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_86' id='f_86' href='#fna_86'>[86]</a> Mary&#8217;s conduct upon this occasion may be compared with that of
+Elizabeth to her favourite Essex; but the Scottish Queen&#8217;s motives were of
+a far purer and better kind. &#8220;When Essex,&#8221; says Walpole, &#8220;acted a fit of
+sickness, not a day passed without the Queen&#8217;s sending after to see him;
+and she once went so far as to sit long by him, and order his broths and
+things.&#8221; &#8220;It may be observed,&#8221; remarks Chalmers, &#8220;that Mary was engaged
+(or rather secretly resolved) to marry Darnley, but Elizabeth only flirted
+with Essex.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_87' id='f_87' href='#fna_87'>[87]</a> Keith, p. 270, and Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 214, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_88' id='f_88' href='#fna_88'>[88]</a> Castelnau in Keith, p. 277.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_89' id='f_89' href='#fna_89'>[89]</a> Keith, p. 275.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_90' id='f_90' href='#fna_90'>[90]</a> Keith, Appendix, p. 97.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_91' id='f_91' href='#fna_91'>[91]</a> Keith, p. 280.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_92' id='f_92' href='#fna_92'>[92]</a> Keith, p. 290.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_93' id='f_93' href='#fna_93'>[93]</a> Of Chatelherault, Argyle, Murray, Morton, and Glencairn, all of whom
+were summoned to the Convention, only Morton came. Keith, p. 287.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_94' id='f_94' href='#fna_94'>[94]</a> Keith, p. 291, et seq.&mdash;Chalmers, vol. i. p. 139, et seq.; vol. ii.
+p. 141.&mdash;Tytler, vol. i. p. 374, et seq. Melville&#8217;s account of this
+conspiracy is, that Murray and the other Lords &#8220;had made a mynt to tak the
+Lord Darnley, in the Queen&#8217;s company, at the Raid of Baith, and to have
+sent him in England as they allegit. I wot not what was in their minds,
+but it was ane evil-favoured enterprise whereintil the Queen was in
+danger, either of kepping (imprisonment) or heart-breaking; and as they
+had failed in their foolish enterprise, they took on plainly their arms of
+rebellion.&#8221; Melville, p. 135. There is some reason to believe, that Knox
+was implicated in this conspiracy; for, in the continuation of his
+History, written by his amanuensis, Richard Bannatyne, under the authority
+of the General Assembly, it appears that a Mr Hamilton, minister of St
+Andrews, had openly accused him of a share in it; and though Knox noticed
+the accusation, it does not appear that he ever satisfactorily refuted
+it.&mdash;Goodall, vol. i. p. 207.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_95' id='f_95' href='#fna_95'>[95]</a> Keith, p. 293&mdash;Spottiswoode, p. 190.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_96' id='f_96' href='#fna_96'>[96]</a> Keith, p. 294, <i>et seq.</i></p>
+
+<p><a name='f_97' id='f_97' href='#fna_97'>[97]</a> Keith, p. 297.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_98' id='f_98' href='#fna_98'>[98]</a> Buchanan says, foolishly enough, that the predictions of &#8220;wizardly
+women&#8221; contributed much to hasten this marriage. They prophesied, it
+seems, that if it was consummated before the end of July, it would be
+happy for both; if not, it would be the source of much misery. It is a
+pity that these predictions were not true.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_99' id='f_99' href='#fna_99'>[99]</a> Randolph in Robertson, Appendix, No. XI.&mdash;Keith, p. 307. Miss Benger,
+vol. ii. p. 214.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_100' id='f_100' href='#fna_100'>[100]</a> Keith, p. 303 and 304. This was a day or two before Darnley&#8217;s
+marriage.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_101' id='f_101' href='#fna_101'>[101]</a> Keith, Appendix No. VII. p. 99, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_102' id='f_102' href='#fna_102'>[102]</a> M&#8217;Crie&#8217;s Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 106; and Tytler&#8217;s Enquiry, vol.
+i. p. 362 and 367.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_103' id='f_103' href='#fna_103'>[103]</a> Knox, p. 389.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_104' id='f_104' href='#fna_104'>[104]</a> Keith, Appendix, p. 264.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_105' id='f_105' href='#fna_105'>[105]</a> Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. Nos. XII. and XIII.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_106' id='f_106' href='#fna_106'>[106]</a> Keith, Appendix, p. 114.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_107' id='f_107' href='#fna_107'>[107]</a> Keith, p. 316, and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 155.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_108' id='f_108' href='#fna_108'>[108]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 156.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_109' id='f_109' href='#fna_109'>[109]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 157, and Keith, p. 319.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_110' id='f_110' href='#fna_110'>[110]</a> Keith, p. 319.&mdash;Melville, p. 135.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_111' id='f_111' href='#fna_111'>[111]</a> Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_112' id='f_112' href='#fna_112'>[112]</a> Keith, p. 331.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_113' id='f_113' href='#fna_113'>[113]</a> Melville&#8217;s Memoirs, p. 147.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_114' id='f_114' href='#fna_114'>[114]</a> Con&aelig;us in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 25.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_115' id='f_115' href='#fna_115'>[115]</a> Dr Stuart, in support of his statements on this subject, quotes, in
+addition to the authorities already mentioned, Mezeray &#8220;Histoire de
+France,&#8221; tome 3, and Thuanus, &#8220;Historia sui Temporis,&#8221; lib. xxxvii. But we
+suspect he has done so at random; for, on referring to these works, we
+have been unable to discover any thing which bears upon the matter.
+Chalmers, who is in general acute and explicit enough, says, that these
+ambassadors came &#8220;to advise the Queen not to pardon the expatriated
+nobles;&#8221; vol. ii. p. 158. Laing, who writes with so much <i>apparent</i>
+candour and <i>real</i> ability against Mary that he almost makes &#8220;the worse
+appear the better reason,&#8221; has avoided falling into the gross error of
+Robertson. &#8220;It would be unjust,&#8221; he says, &#8220;to suppose, that, upon acceding
+to the Holy League, for the preservation of the Catholic faith, she was
+apprised of the full extent of the design to exterminate the Protestants
+by a general massacre throughout Christendom; but the instructions from
+her uncle rendered her inexorable towards the banished Lords.&#8221;&mdash;Laing&#8217;s
+Preliminary Dissertation to the History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 9.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_116' id='f_116' href='#fna_116'>[116]</a> Keith, p. 328 and 329.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_117' id='f_117' href='#fna_117'>[117]</a> Goodall, vol. i. p. 222.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_118' id='f_118' href='#fna_118'>[118]</a> Several of these pennies, as they were called, both of gold and
+silver, remain to this day; and some of them have been already noticed. In
+December 1565, there was stamped a silver penny, called the <i>Mary Rial</i>,
+bearing on one side a tree, with the motto, <i>Dat gloria vires</i>; and the
+circumscription, <i>Exsurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ejus</i>; and, on the
+other, <i>Maria et Henricus, Dei Gratia, Regina et Rex Scotorum</i>. Speaking
+of this coin, Keith says, that &#8220;the famous ewe-tree of Crookston, the
+inheritance of the family of Darnley, in the parish of Paisley, is made
+the reverse of this new coin; and the inscription about the tree, <i>Dat
+gloria vires</i>, is no doubt with a view to reflect honour on the Lennox
+family. This tree, he adds, which stands to this day, is of so large a
+trunk, and so well spread in its branches, that it is seen at several
+miles distance.&#8221;&mdash;Keith, p. 327, and Appendix, p. 118.&mdash;It stands no
+longer.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_119' id='f_119' href='#fna_119'>[119]</a> Buchanan&#8217;s History.&mdash;Melville&#8217;s Memoirs.&mdash;Keith, p. 325.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_120' id='f_120' href='#fna_120'>[120]</a> Goodall, vol. i. p. 227.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_121' id='f_121' href='#fna_121'>[121]</a> Melville&#8217;s Memoirs, p. 132 and 133.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_122' id='f_122' href='#fna_122'>[122]</a> We translate from the original French of an edition, of the <i>Martyre
+de la Royne d&#8217;Escosse</i>, printed at Antwerp, in the year 1583,&mdash;which very
+nearly agrees with the Edition in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 202.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_123' id='f_123' href='#fna_123'>[123]</a> Buchanan alone, of all the Scottish historians, has dared to
+insinuate the probability of an illicit intercourse having subsisted
+between Mary and Rizzio; and the calumny is too self-evidently false to
+merit a moment&#8217;s notice. Every respectable writer reprobates so disgusting
+a piece of scandal, however unfavourably inclined towards Mary in other
+respects. Camden, Castelnau, Robertson, Hume, Tytler, Laing, and Dr
+Stuart, all of whom think it worth while to advert to the subject in
+Notes, put the falsehood of Buchanan&#8217;s assertion beyond the most distant
+shadow of a doubt. Indeed, it is paying it too great a compliment to
+advert to it at all.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_124' id='f_124' href='#fna_124'>[124]</a> Miss Benger, oddly enough, says, it was on Saturday the 5th of
+April; a mistake into which no other historian with whom we are acquainted
+has fallen.&mdash;Miss Benger&#8217;s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 233.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_125' id='f_125' href='#fna_125'>[125]</a> The Parliament had met upon the 7th, and Mary had opened it in
+person, unattended by Darnley, who refused to give it his countenance; but
+no business of importance had as yet been transacted.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_126' id='f_126' href='#fna_126'>[126]</a> This disease was &#8220;an inflammation of the liver, and a consumption of
+the kidneys.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Keith</i>, <i>Appendix</i>, <i>p.</i> 119.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_127' id='f_127' href='#fna_127'>[127]</a> Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.&mdash;Goodall, vol. i. p. 252.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_128' id='f_128' href='#fna_128'>[128]</a> Stranguage, p. 33.&mdash;Crawford&#8217;s Memoirs, p. 9.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_129' id='f_129' href='#fna_129'>[129]</a> Keith, Appendix, p. 122.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_130' id='f_130' href='#fna_130'>[130]</a> Con&aelig;us in Jebb. Vol. ii. p. 25.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_131' id='f_131' href='#fna_131'>[131]</a> Robertson&#8217;s Appendix to vol. i. No. xv.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_132' id='f_132' href='#fna_132'>[132]</a> Keith, p. 330.&mdash;Appendix, p. 119.&mdash;Melville&#8217;s Memoirs, p.
+148.&mdash;Buchanan&#8217;s History of Scotland, Book xvii.&mdash;Martyre de Marie in
+Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.&mdash;Knox, p. 392.&mdash;Holinshed&#8217;s Chronicles, p.
+382.&mdash;Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. No. xv.&mdash;Some historians have
+maintained, that Rizzio was actually despatched in Mary&#8217;s presence. But
+this is not the fact, for Mary remained ignorant of his fate till next
+day. In a letter which the Earl of Bedford and Randolph wrote to the Privy
+Council of England, giving an account of this murder, and which has been
+published in the first series of &#8220;Ellis&#8217;s Original Letters, illustrative
+of English History,&#8221; (vol. ii. p. 207), we find these words:&mdash;&#8220;He was not
+slain in the Queen&#8217;s presence, as was said.&#8221; Holinshed and others are
+equally explicit. It has been likewise said, that it was not intended to
+have killed him that evening; but to have tried him next day, and then to
+have hanged or beheaded him publicly. That there is no foundation for this
+assertion, is proved by the authorities quoted above; and to these may be
+added the letter from Morton and Ruthven to Throckmorton, and &#8220;the bond of
+assurance for the murder to be committed,&#8221; granted by Darnley to the
+conspirators, on the 1st of March, both preserved by Goodall, vol. i. p.
+264 and 266. That the conspirators meant, as others have insisted, to take
+advantage of the situation in which Mary then was, and terrify her into a
+miscarriage, which might have ended in her death, is unsupported by any
+evidence; nor can we see what purposes such a design would have answered.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_133' id='f_133' href='#fna_133'>[133]</a> Vide M&#8217;Crie&#8217;s Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 47.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_134' id='f_134' href='#fna_134'>[134]</a> Knox, p. 339.&mdash;Buchanan, Book XVII.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_135' id='f_135' href='#fna_135'>[135]</a> Keith, p. 332&mdash;and Appendix, 126.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_136' id='f_136' href='#fna_136'>[136]</a> That something of the kind was actually contemplated, we learn from
+Mary herself. &#8220;In their council,&#8221; she says in the letter already quoted,
+&#8220;they thought it most expedient we should be warded in our castle of
+Stirling, there to remain till we had approved in Parliament all their
+wicked enterprises, established their religion, and given to the King the
+crown-matrimonial, and the whole government of our realm; or else, by all
+appearance, firmly purposed to have put us to death, or detained us in
+perpetual captivity.&#8221;&mdash;Keith, Appendix, p. 132.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_137' id='f_137' href='#fna_137'>[137]</a> Ruthven&#8217;s &#8220;Discourse&#8221; concerning the murder of Rizzio, in Keith,
+Appendix, p. 128.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_138' id='f_138' href='#fna_138'>[138]</a> Keith, p. 334.&mdash;Stuart&#8217;s History of Scotland, p. 138, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_139' id='f_139' href='#fna_139'>[139]</a> Melville&#8217;s Memoirs, p. 154&mdash;Goodall, vol. i. p. 286.&mdash;Chalmers, vol.
+ii. p. 164.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_140' id='f_140' href='#fna_140'>[140]</a> Melville&#8217;s Memoirs, p. 156.&mdash;Keith, p. 337.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_141' id='f_141' href='#fna_141'>[141]</a> Melville&#8217;s Memoirs, p. 158.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_142' id='f_142' href='#fna_142'>[142]</a> Keith, p. 345, and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 180.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_143' id='f_143' href='#fna_143'>[143]</a> Buchanan&#8217;s History, Book XVIII.&mdash;His &#8220;Detection,&#8221; in Anderson&#8217;s
+Collections, vol. ii. p. 6.; and his &#8220;Oration,&#8221; p. 44.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_144' id='f_144' href='#fna_144'>[144]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 181, et seq. Goodall, vol. i. p. 292, et seq.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_145' id='f_145' href='#fna_145'>[145]</a> Keith, p. 345.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_146' id='f_146' href='#fna_146'>[146]</a> Knox, p. 386&mdash;Anderson, vol. i. p. 90&mdash;Tytler, vol. ii. p.
+39&mdash;Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 206-207.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_147' id='f_147' href='#fna_147'>[147]</a> Knox, p. 396, and Chalmers, p. 219.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_148' id='f_148' href='#fna_148'>[148]</a> Knox, p. 392. Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 206 and 218. Laing, vol. i. p.
+359. In the first edition of Tytler&#8217;s &#8220;Vindication,&#8221; Bothwell, being
+confounded with the former Earl, his father, was said to be about
+fifty-nine at this period. In the second edition, Tytler partly corrected
+his error, but not entirely; for he stated Bothwell&#8217;s age to be
+forty-three when he married. Chalmers, who is seldom wrong in the matter
+of dates, has settled the question.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_149' id='f_149' href='#fna_149'>[149]</a> Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 217.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_150' id='f_150' href='#fna_150'>[150]</a> Chalmers, vol. i. p. 183 and 184.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_151' id='f_151' href='#fna_151'>[151]</a> Maitland&#8217;s Official Letter to Catherine de Medicis, in Keith, p. 348.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_152' id='f_152' href='#fna_152'>[152]</a> These noblemen, it may be observed, instead of being the friends,
+were the personal and political enemies of Bothwell, with whom Darnley was
+less displeased than with them.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_153' id='f_153' href='#fna_153'>[153]</a> Goodall, vol. i. p. 284.&mdash;Keith, p. 348.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_154' id='f_154' href='#fna_154'>[154]</a> Le Croc&#8217;s Letter in Keith, p. 346.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_155' id='f_155' href='#fna_155'>[155]</a> Maitland&#8217;s Letter in Keith, p. 349.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_156' id='f_156' href='#fna_156'>[156]</a> Keith, idem, p. 346 and 349.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_157' id='f_157' href='#fna_157'>[157]</a> Keith, idem, p. 350.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_158' id='f_158' href='#fna_158'>[158]</a> Knox, p. 399.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_159' id='f_159' href='#fna_159'>[159]</a> The turn which Buchanan gives to the whole of this affair, in the
+work he libellously calls a &#8220;History,&#8221; scarcely deserves notice. &#8220;In the
+meantime,&#8221; he veraciously writes in his Eighteenth Book, &#8220;the King,
+finding no place for favour with his wife, is sent away with injuries and
+reproaches; and though he often tried her spirit, yet by no offices of
+observance could he obtain to be admitted to conjugal familiarity as
+before; whereupon he retired, in discontent, to Stirling.&#8221; In his
+&#8220;Detection,&#8221; he is still more ludicrously false. &#8220;In the meantime,&#8221; he
+writes, &#8220;the King commanded out of sight, and with injuries and miseries
+banished from her, kept himself close with a few of his servants at
+Stirling; for, alas! what should he else do? He could not creep into any
+piece of grace with the Queen, nor could get so much as to obtain his
+daily necessary expenses, to find his servants and horses. And, finally,
+with brawlings lightly rising for every small trifle, and quarrels,
+usually picked, he was chased out of her presence; yet his heart,
+obstinately fixed in loving her, could not be restrained, but he must
+needs come back to Edinburgh of purpose, with all kind of serviceable
+humbleness, to get some entry into her former favour, and to recover the
+kind society of marriage: who once again, with most dishonourable disdain
+excluded, once again returns from whence he came, there, as in solitary
+desert, to bewail his woful miseries.&#8221; Anderson, vol. ii. p. 9.&mdash;Another
+equally honest record of these times, commonly known by the name of
+&#8220;Murray&#8217;s or Cecil&#8217;s Journal,&#8221; the former having supplied the information
+to the latter, to answer his own views at a subsequent period, says,&mdash;&#8220;At
+this time, the King coming from Stirling, <i>was repulsed with chiding</i>.&#8221;
+The same Journal mentions, that, on the 24th of September, Mary lodged in
+the Chequer House, and met with Bothwell,&mdash;a story which Buchanan
+disgustingly amplifies in his Detection, though the Privy Council records
+prove that the Queen lodged in her Palace of Holyrood on the 24th with her
+Privy Council and officers of state in attendance. As to Buchanan&#8217;s
+complaint, that the King was stinted in his necessary expenses, the
+treasurer&#8217;s accounts clearly show its falsehood. &#8220;The fact is,&#8221; says
+Chalmers, &#8220;that he was allowed to order, by himself, payments in money and
+furnishments of necessaries from the public treasurer. And the treasurer&#8217;s
+accounts show that he was amply furnished with necessaries at the very
+time when those calumnious statements were asserted by men who knew them
+to be untrue. On two days alone, the 13th and 31st of August, the
+treasurer, by the King and Queen&#8217;s order, was supplied with a vast number
+of articles for the King&#8217;s use alone, amounting to 300<i>l.</i>, which is more
+than the Queen had for six months, even including the necessaries which
+she had during her confinement.&#8221;&mdash;Chalmers, vol. i. p. 186. These minute
+details would be unworthy of attention, did they not serve to prove the
+difficulty of determining whether Buchanan&#8217;s patron, who was also Mary&#8217;s
+Prime Minister, or the Historian himself, possessed the superior talent
+for misrepresentation.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_160' id='f_160' href='#fna_160'>[160]</a> Birrel&#8217;s Diary.&mdash;Keith, p. 351.&mdash;Goodall, vol. i. p. 302.&mdash;Chalmers,
+vol. i. p. 190, vol. ii. p. 109 and 224.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_161' id='f_161' href='#fna_161'>[161]</a> Buchanan&#8217;s History, book xviii.; and in his, &#8220;Detection,&#8221; he repeats
+the same story, with still more venom.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_162' id='f_162' href='#fna_162'>[162]</a> Both of these Registers are quoted by Chalmers, vol. i. p. 181.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_163' id='f_163' href='#fna_163'>[163]</a> Miss Benger&#8217;s observations upon this subject are judicious and
+forcible. &#8220;It was not till the 16th, the Queen, with her Officers of
+State, passed to hermitage Castle, twenty miles distant, whether to confer
+with Bothwell on business, respecting the motives for the late outrage on
+his person, or purely as a visit of friendship and condolence, a
+respectful, and as it should seem, well-merited acknowledgement of his
+loyal services, must be left to conjecture. It is, however, not
+improbable, since the Earl of Morton was, at that time, known to be in the
+neighbouring March of Cessford, that Mary might be anxious to ascertain
+from Bothwell&#8217;s lips, whether he ascribed the attack on his person to that
+nobleman&#8217;s instigation. In Morton&#8217;s behalf she had long been importuned by
+Murray, by Elizabeth, and Maitland, and, at a proper time, meant to yield
+to their solicitations; but the discovery of a new treason, would have
+altered her proceedings; to ascertain the fact was, therefore, of
+importance. By whatever considerations Mary was induced to pay this visit,
+there appears not (when calumny is discarded), any specific ground for the
+suspicion, that she then felt for Bothwell a warmer sentiment than
+friendship; in all her affections, Mary was ardent and romantic, and
+though it should have been admitted, that she had gone to Hermitage
+Castle, merely to say one kind word to the loyal servant, whose blood had
+lately flowed in her service, she had, two years before, made a far
+greater effort to gratify a <i>female</i> friend, when she rode to Callender,
+to assist at the baptism of Lord Livingston&#8217;s child, regardless of the
+danger which awaited her, from Murray and his party.&#8221;&mdash;Memoirs, vol. ii.
+p. 289. We have dwelt too long on a calumny unsupported by any respectable
+evidence.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_164' id='f_164' href='#fna_164'>[164]</a> Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 224.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I (of 2), by
+Henry Glassford Bell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I (of 2)
+
+Author: Henry Glassford Bell
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2011 [EBook #37058]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, VOL I ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
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+A SYSTEM of UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY, by M. MALTE-BRUN, Editor of the "Annales
+des Voyages," &c. Parts I. to XII. price 7s. 6d. each. To be completed in
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+    appeared, it is not of a kind which we can illustrate by extracts. We
+    can merely state, that it is admirable in its original form,--that it
+    is well translated,--that it is printed in a fair style, so as to fit
+    it not only for libraries, but for families and schools,--and that, in
+    fine, it is a work that neither library, family, nor school, should be
+    without."--_Literary Gazette_, No. 405.
+
+JOURNAL of a SOLDIER of the 71st REGIMENT, HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY, from
+1806 to 1815. Including particulars of the Battles of Vimeira, Corunna,
+Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Toulouse, and Waterloo. Third Edition. 1 vol.
+12mo, 5s.
+
+    "The Journal of a Soldier of the 71st Regiment, first gave the public
+    a taste for narratives of the personal adventures, and the sufferings,
+    and 'hair-breadth escapes,' of military men. That Journal excited a
+    very considerable degree of interest. It was written with ease and
+    simplicity, and indicated no small powers of description and
+    observation. There was a romantic interest, too, attached to the
+    history of the writer, as developed in his own modest and unvarnished
+    tale. But moreover, as disclosing the mode of life, and the hardships
+    and privations of the common soldier, it let in a new light on the
+    commonly received notions of warlike expeditions."--_Saturday Post._
+
+The EDINBURGH MEDICAL and SURGICAL JOURNAL. Vols. 27 and 28; being those
+for 1827. Published in Numbers, Quarterly, price 6s.
+
+The EDINBURGH NEW PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL; exhibiting a View of the
+Progressive Discoveries and Improvements in the SCIENCES and the ARTS.
+Conducted by ROBERT JAMESON, F.R.S.L. & E. Regius Professor of Natural
+History, Lecturer on Mineralogy, and Keeper of the Museum of the
+University of Edinburgh, &c. &c. Published Quarterly, price 7s. 6d.
+
+MEMOIRS of the LIFE of JOHN LAW of LAURISTON, Projector of the Mississippi
+Scheme; containing a Detailed Account of the Rise and Progress of this
+extraordinary Joint Stock Company, with many curious Anecdotes of the rage
+for speculating in its Funds, and the disastrous consequences of its
+Failure. By JOHN PHILIP WOOD, Esq. 1 vol. 12mo, 6s. boards.
+
+    "It is worth the while of those multitudes of all classes, who are
+    engaging so eagerly, and often so heedlessly, in joint stock and
+    funding speculations, to read the story of the most stupendous scheme
+    of the kind ever conceived; a scheme which absorbed the resources of a
+    powerful kingdom in its vortex, infected a nation with temporary
+    madness, confounded all conditions, raising beggars to boundless
+    wealth, and casting down princes to penury."--_Scotsman._
+
+LION HUNTING; or, A SUMMER'S RAMBLE through Parts of FLANDERS, GERMANY,
+and SWITZERLAND, in 1825. With some Remarks on Men, Manners, and Things,
+at Home and Abroad. 1 vol. 12mo, 6s.
+
+An ESSAY on NAVAL TACTICS, Systematical and Historical, with upwards of
+Fifty Explanatory Plates; in Four Parts. By JOHN CLERK, Esq. of Eldin,
+Fellow of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and of the Royal Society of
+Edinburgh: Third Edition, with Notes by Lord Rodney, and an Introduction
+by a Naval Officer. 8vo, price L.1, 5s. bds.
+
+BIBLIOTHECA BIBLICA, a Select List of Books on Sacred Literature; with
+Notices, Biographical, Critical, and Bibliographical. Intended as a Guide
+to the consultation of the most useful Writers on Biblical Subjects. By
+WILLIAM ORME, Author of the "Life of John Owen, D.D." 1 vol. 8vo, 12s.
+boards.
+
+This publication contains some account of nearly one thousand books,
+including editions of the original Scriptures, Concordances to the Hebrew,
+Greek, Latin, and English Bibles; Hebrew and Greek Lexicon; British and
+Foreign Commentators on the Scriptures, Books on Sacred Chronology,
+Geography, and Antiquities; Ecclesiastical Historians; and numerous works
+of a miscellaneous nature, adapted to the illustration of the Word of God;
+it also furnishes short notices of the age, country, and profession of the
+authors.
+
+    "The theological student cannot fail to derive much advantage from it;
+    and the more learned divine will find it an excellent supplement to
+    the Bibliotheca Theologica Selecta of the laborious Walchius, or to
+    the erudite Bibliotheca Sacra of Le Long."--_British Critic for
+    November 1824._
+
+ACADEMICAL EXAMINATIONS on the PRINCIPLES of CHEMISTRY; being an
+Introduction to the Study of that Science. By DAVID BOSWELL REID. In 2
+vols. 12mo, 15s. boards.
+
+ELEMENTS of CHEMISTRY. By ANDREW FYFE, M.D. F.R.S.E. &c. &c. Illustrated
+by numerous Engravings on Wood. In 2 vols. 8vo, 21s. boards.
+
+A MANUAL of ANATOMY, arranged so as to afford a concise and accurate
+Description of the different parts of the Human Body. From the French of
+A. L. J. BAYLE. Revised and improved by WILLIAM BENNET, M.D. In one
+closely printed volume, 18mo, 7s. 6d. boards.
+
+A MANUAL of CHEMISTRY, illustrated by upwards of 130 Engravings on Wood.
+By ANDREW FYFE, M.D. F.R.S.E. Lecturer on Chemistry to the Edinburgh
+School of Arts. 12mo, 7s. boards.
+
+The NATURAL and AGRICULTURAL HISTORY of PEAT-MOSS or TURF-BOG: to which
+are annexed, Corroborative Writings, Correspondence, and Observations on
+the Qualities of Peat or Fen Earth as a Soil and Manure, and on the
+Methods used in Scotland for converting Moss-soils into Arable and Pasture
+Grounds, Plantations of Trees, &c. By ANDREW STEELE, Esq. of
+Crosswoodhill, Member of the Natural History and Agricultural Societies of
+Edinburgh. 8vo, 10s. 6d. boards.
+
+A SYSTEM of MATERIA MEDICA and PHARMACY, including Translations of the
+Edinburgh, London, and Dublin Pharmacopoeias. By JOHN MURRAY, M.D.
+Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, &c. &c. Fifth Edition. Adapted
+to the present State of Chemical and Medical Science by JOHN MURRAY,
+Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Lecturer on Chemistry. 2
+vols. 8vo, 24s. boards.
+
+ELEMENTS of CHEMISTRY. By JOHN MURRAY, M.D. Fellow of the Royal College of
+Physicians, &c. &c. Sixth Edition, including all the recent Discoveries,
+and adapted to the present State of the Science, by JOHN MURRAY, Fellow of
+the Royal College of Surgeons, and Lecturer on Chemistry, Edinburgh. 2
+thick vols. 8vo, with Plates, 25s. boards.
+
+A POPULAR DOMESTIC MEDICAL DICTIONARY. By ALEXANDER MACAULAY, M.D. Fellow
+of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and Physician-Accoucheur to
+the Edinburgh New Town Dispensary. In 1 thick vol. 8vo, price 14s.
+
+    It is the design of this work to give an account of the Diseases of
+    various climates, and their remedies; to notice the more ordinary
+    accidents, with their cures, and the treatment of those who have
+    swallowed poisons; to give a full list of the common medicines,
+    mentioning in what cases they may be administered, and in what
+    quantities, according to varying circumstances. It embraces all the
+    ordinary articles of food, stating in what cases each may be used, and
+    when they should be used sparingly, or avoided altogether. The work is
+    arranged in the form of a Dictionary, in order that persons in quest
+    of information on any subject affecting health, may easily obtain it,
+    by means of the alphabetical arrangement. Medical discussion has been
+    avoided; technical words are introduced as sparingly as possible; and
+    the various medical terms which have found their way into common use
+    are carefully explained. The precepts respecting diet are practical
+    and useful; and great care has been taken to give such directions for
+    the management of infants and children, as, it is hoped, will render
+    the work of much utility to the nursery.
+
+THE ADVANCEMENT of SOCIETY in KNOWLEDGE and RELIGION. By JA. DOUGLAS, Esq.
+Second edition. In 1 vol. 8vo, price 9s. boards.
+
+In a few days will be published, in 2 vols. 8vo, price L.1, 4s.
+
+THE PHILOSOPHY of the ACTIVE and MORAL POWERS of MAN. By DUGALD STEWART,
+formerly Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
+
+Engraved by A. Wilson
+
+PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL BY JOHN WATSON GORDON R.I.A.]
+
+
+
+
+  CONSTABLE'S MISCELLANY OF
+  Original and Selected Publications
+  IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF
+  LITERATURE SCIENCE, & THE ARTS.
+
+  VOL. XXIV.
+
+  LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, VOL. I.
+
+  [Illustration: LINLITHGOW PALACE
+
+  Drawn by W. Brown     Engraved by W. Miller]
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+  PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE & CO. EDINBURGH:
+  AND HURST, CHANCE & CO. LONDON.
+
+  1828.
+
+
+
+
+  LIFE OF
+  MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
+
+  BY HENRY GLASSFORD BELL, ESQ.
+
+  IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+  VOL. I.
+
+
+  "AYEZ MEMOIRE DE L'AME ET DE L'HONNEUR DE
+  CELLE QUI A ESTE VOTRE ROYNE."
+                          _Mary's own Words._
+
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+  PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE & CO. EDINBURGH;
+  AND HURST, CHANCE & CO. LONDON.
+
+  1828.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+A new work on the subject of Mary Queen of Scots runs an eminent risk of
+being considered a work of supererogation. No period of British history
+has been more elaborately illustrated than that of her life and reign. She
+ascended the Scottish throne at a time replete with interest; when the
+country had awakened from the lethargy of ages, and when the gray dawn of
+civilization, heralding the full sunshine of coming years, threw its light
+and shade on many a bold and prominent figure, standing confessed in
+rugged grandeur as the darkness gradually rolled away. It was a time when
+national and individual character were alike strongly marked,--a time when
+Knox preached, Buchanan wrote, Murray plotted, and Bothwell murdered. The
+mailed feudal barons,--the unshrinking Reformers, founders of the
+Presbyterian Church, and mailed in mind, if not in body,--the discomfited,
+but the still rich and haughty ecclesiastics of the Romish faith, the
+contemporaries and followers of the stern Cardinal Beaton,--all start
+forth so vividly before the mind's eye, that they seem subjects better
+suited for the inspired pencil of a Salvator Rosa, than for the soberer
+pen of History. Mary herself, with her beauty and her misfortunes, shining
+among the rest like the creation of a softer age and clime, fills up the
+picture, and rivets the interest. She becomes the centre round which the
+others revolve; and their importance is measured only by the influence
+they exercised over her fate, and the share they had in that strange
+concatenation of circumstances, which, as if in mockery of the nobility of
+her birth, and the splendour of her expectations, rendered her life
+miserable, and her death ignominious.
+
+There is little wonder if such a theme, though in itself inexhaustible,
+should have exhausted the energies of many. Yet the leading events of
+Mary's reign still give rise to frequent doubts and discussions; and the
+question regarding her character, which has so long agitated and divided
+the literary world, remains undetermined. It is indeed only they who have
+time and inclination to dismantle the shelves of a library, and pore over
+many a contradictory volume,--examine many a perplexing hypothesis,--and
+endeavour to reconcile many an inconsistent and distracting
+statement,--who are entitled to pronounce upon her guilt or innocence.
+
+Not that it is meant to be asserted, that unpublished manuscripts and
+documents, calculated to throw new light upon the subject, slumber in the
+archives of Government, or among the collections of the learned, which
+have hitherto escaped the notice of the antiquarian and the scholar. On
+the contrary, there is every reason to believe, that all the papers of
+value which exist, have already been found, and given to the world. After
+the voluminous publications of Anderson, Jebb, Goodall, Haynes, Hardwicke,
+Strype, Sadler, and Murdin, it is by no means probable, that future
+historians will discover additional materials to guide them in their
+narrative of facts. But few are disposed to wade through works like
+these; and they who are, find, that though they indicate the ground on
+which the superstructure of truth may be raised, they at the same time,
+from the diffuseness and often contradictory nature of their contents,
+afford every excuse to those who wander into error. The consequence is,
+that almost no two writers have given exactly the same account of the
+principal occurrences of Mary's life. And it is this fact which would lead
+to the belief, that there is still an opening for an author, who would
+endeavour, with impartiality, candour, and decision, to draw the due line
+of distinction between the prejudices of the one side, and the
+prepossessions of the other,--who would expose the wilful
+misrepresentations of party-spirit, and correct the involuntary errors of
+ignorance,--who would aim at being scrupulously just, but not
+unnecessarily severe--steadily consistent, but not tamely
+indifferent--boldly independent, but not unphilosophically violent.
+
+It seems to be a principle of our common nature, to be ever anxious to
+wage an honourable warfare against doubt; and no one is more likely to fix
+the attention, than he who undertakes to prove what has been previously
+disputed. It is this principle which has attached so much interest to the
+life of the Queen of Scots, and induced so many writers (and some of no
+mean note) to investigate her character both as a sovereign and a woman;
+and the consequence has been, that one half have undertaken to put her
+criminality beyond a doubt, and the other as confidently pledged
+themselves to establish her innocence. It may seem a bold, but it is a
+conscientious opinion, that no single author, whether an accuser or a
+defender, has been entirely successful. To arrive at a satisfactory
+conclusion, the works of several must be consulted; and, even after all,
+the mind is often left tossing amidst a sea of difficulties. The talents
+of many who have broken a lance in the Marian controversy, are undoubted;
+but, if we attend for a moment to its progress, the reasons why it is
+still involved in obscurity may probably be discovered.
+
+The ablest literary man in Scotland, contemporary with Mary, was George
+Buchanan; the Earl of Murray was his patron, and Secretary Cecil his
+admirer. The first publication regarding the Queen, came from his pen; it
+was written with consummate ability, but with a dishonest, though not
+unnatural leaning to the side which was the strongest at the time, and
+which his own interests and views of personal and family aggrandizement
+pointed out as the most profitable. The eloquence of his style, and the
+confidence of his statements, gave a bias to public opinion, which feebler
+spirits laboured in vain to counteract.--Less powerful as an author, but
+not less virulent as an enemy, Knox next appeared in the lists, and,
+unfurling the banner of what was then considered religion, converted every
+doubt into conviction, by appealing to the bigotry and the superstition of
+the uninformed multitude. Yet Knox was probably conscientious, if the term
+can be applied with propriety to one who did not believe that the Church
+of Rome possessed a single virtuous member.--In opposition to the
+productions of these authors, is the "Defence of Mary's Honour," by
+Lesley, Bishop of Ross, an able but somewhat declamatory work, and as
+liable to suspicion as the others, because written by an avowed partisan
+and active servant of the Queen. A crowd of inferior compositions
+followed, useful sometimes for the facts they contain, but all so strongly
+tinctured with party zeal, that little reliance is to be placed on their
+accuracy. Among these may be enumerated the works of Blackwood and
+Caussin, who wrote in French,--of Conaeus, Strada, and Turner, (the last
+under the assumed name of Barnestaple,) who wrote in Latin,--and of
+Antonio de Herrera, who wrote in Spanish.
+
+The calamities which, after the lapse of a century, again overtook the
+house of Stuart, recalled attention to the discussions concerning Mary;
+and though time had softened the asperity of the disputants, the question
+was once more destined to become connected with party prejudices. From the
+publication of Crawford's "Memoirs," in 1705, down to the appearance of
+Chalmers's "Life of Mary," in 1818, the history of the Queen of Scots has
+continued one of those standard subjects which has given birth to a new
+work, at least every five years. A few of the more important may be
+mentioned. In 1725, Jebb published his own life of Mary, and his
+collection, in two volumes folio, of works which had previously appeared
+both for and against her. The former production is of little value, but
+the latter is exceedingly useful, and indeed no one can write with
+fairness concerning Mary, without consulting it. Lives of the Queen by
+Heywood and Freebairn, shortly succeeded, both of whom were anxious to
+vindicate her, but in their anxiety, overshot the mark. In 1728,
+Anderson's "Collections" were presented to the public, containing many
+papers of interest and value, which are not to be found elsewhere. But
+they are often disingenuously garbled, that Mary may be made to appear in
+an unfavourable light; and a more recent author informs us, that they
+were, in consequence, "sold as waste paper, leaving the editor ruined in
+his character, and injured in his prospects."
+
+In Scotland, the Rebellion of 1715, powerfully revived the animosities
+which had never lain entirely dormant since the establishment of a new
+dynasty, in 1688; and the transition from Charles to his ancestor Mary,
+was easy and natural. The second Rebellion in 1745, did not diminish the
+interest taken in the Queen of Scots, nor the ardor with which the
+question of her wrongs or crimes was agitated. In 1754, Mr Goodall,
+librarian to the Faculty of Advocates, made a valuable addition to the
+works already extant on the subject, in his "Examination" of the letters
+attributed to Mary. His habits of laborious research, combined with no
+inconsiderable powers of reasoning, enabled him not only to bring together
+many original papers, not before published, but to found on these much
+acute argument, and deduce from them many sound conclusions. Goodall's
+work will never be popular, because it is full of ancient documents, which
+one is more willing to refer to than to read; but, as may be remarked of
+Jebb and Anderson, he who means to write of Mary, should not commence
+until he has also carefully perused the "Examination."
+
+Four years posterior to Goodall's two volumes, appeared Robertson's
+"History of Scotland." Of course, the leading events of Mary's reign were
+narrated at length, but too much with the stiff frigidity which Robertson
+imagined constituted historical dignity, and which was continually
+betraying a greater anxiety about the manner than the matter. Accordingly,
+what his style gained in constraint, his subject lost in interest. No one
+has said so much of Queen Mary, to so little definite purpose, as
+Robertson;--no one has so entirely failed in making us either hate or love
+her. Besides, he thought her guilty, on the authority of Buchanan, and has
+consequently thrown a false gloss over her character from beginning to
+end. He was supported in his opinions, it is true, by the historian Hume,
+but the latter having devoted most of his attention to the History of
+England, cannot be supposed to have been very deeply versed in the affairs
+of Scotland; and in so far as these are concerned, his authority is not of
+the highest weight. Yet, from the reputation which these two writers have
+acquired, and deservedly, upon other grounds, they have done more mischief
+to Mary than perhaps any of her calumniators, the multitude being too
+often inclined to forget, when once thoroughly _juratus in verba
+magistri_, that he who distinguishes himself in one department, may be,
+and commonly is, deficient in another.--In 1760, the credit both of
+Robertson and Hume was a good deal shaken, by Tytler's "Enquiry" into the
+evidence against Mary. This work is neither historical nor biographical,
+but argumentative and controversial. It is founded upon Goodall, to whom
+Tytler confesses his obligations, but the reasonings are much more lucidly
+and popularly arranged; and though not so complete or so full of research
+as it might have been, it is, upon the whole, the ablest and most
+convincing production which has yet appeared on the side of the Queen of
+Scots.
+
+Of the five works of greatest consequence which have appeared since
+Tytler's, only one has ventured to tread in the footsteps of Buchanan. The
+first in order of date is the French "Histoire d'Elizabeth," in five
+volumes, by Mademoiselle de Keralio, who devotes a large portion of her
+book to Mary, and, with a degree of talent that does honour to the sex to
+which she belongs, vindicates the Scottish Queen from the obloquy which
+her rival, Elizabeth, had too great a share in casting upon her.--Nearly
+about the same time, was published Dr Gilbert Stuart's "History of
+Scotland." It came out at an unfortunate period, for Robertson had
+pre-occupied the field; and it was hardly to be expected, that a writer of
+inferior note would dispossess him of it. But Dr Stuart's History, though
+too much neglected, is in many essential particulars, superior to
+Robertson's, not perhaps in so far as regards precision of style, but in
+research, accuracy, and impartiality. It would be wrong to say, that
+Stuart has committed no mistakes, but they are certainly fewer and less
+glaring than those of his predecessor.--Towards the end of the last
+century, Whittaker stood forth as a champion of the Queen of Scots, and
+threw into the literary arena four closely printed volumes. They bear the
+stamp of great industry and enthusiasm; but his materials are not well
+digested, and his violence often weakens his argument. The praise of
+ardor, but not of judgment, belongs to Whittaker; he seems to have
+forgotten, that there may be bigotry in a good as well as in a bad cause;
+in his anxiety to maintain the truth, he often plunges into error, and in
+his indignation at the virulence of others, he not unfrequently becomes
+still more virulent himself. Had he abridged his work by one-third, it
+would have gained in force what it lost in declamation, and would not have
+been less conclusive, because less confused and verbose.--Whittaker was
+followed early in the present century by Mr Malcolm Laing, who, with a
+far clearer head, if not with a sounder heart, has, in his "Preliminary
+Dissertation," to his "History of Scotland," done much more against Mary
+than Whittaker has done for her. Calm, collected, and well-informed, he
+proceeds, as might be expected from an adept in the profession to which he
+belonged, from one step of evidence to another, linking the whole so well
+together that it is at first sight extremely difficult to discover a flaw
+in the chain. Yet flaws there are, and serious ones; indeed, Mr Laing's
+book is altogether a piece of special pleading, not of unprejudiced
+history. His ingenuity, however, is great; and his arguments carry with
+them such an air of sincerity, that they are apt to be believed almost
+before the judgment acknowledges them to be true. It is to be feared, that
+he is powerful only to be dangerous,--that he dazzles only to
+mislead.--The author whose two large quarto, or three thick octavo
+volumes, brings up the rear of this goodly array, is Mr George Chalmers.
+There was never a more careful compiler,--a more pains-taking investigator
+of public and private records, deeds, and registers,--a more zealous
+stickler for the accuracy of dates, the fidelity of witnesses, and the
+authenticity of facts. His work, diffuse, tedious, and ill-arranged though
+it be, full of perpetual repetitions, and abounding in erroneous theories,
+(for it is one talent to ascertain truth, and another to draw inferences),
+is nevertheless a valuable accession to the stock of knowledge previously
+possessed on this subject. His proofs are too disjointed to be conclusive,
+and his reasonings too feeble to be convincing; but the materials are
+better than the workmanship, and might be moulded by a more skilful hand
+into a shape of much beauty and excellence.
+
+Such is an impartial view of the chief works extant upon Mary Queen of
+Scots; and it would appear in consequence, that something is still wanting
+to complete the catalogue. Three causes may be stated in particular, why
+so many persons of acknowledged ability should have devoted their time and
+talents to the investigation without exhausting it.
+
+_First_, Several of the works we have named are Histories; and these,
+professing as they do, to describe the character of a nation rather than
+of an individual, cannot be supposed to descend to those minutiae, or to
+enter into those personal details necessary for presenting the vivid
+portraits in which biography delights. History is more conversant with the
+genus or the species; and is addressed more to the judgment than to the
+feelings. There is in it a spirit of generalization, which, though it
+expands the mind, seldom touches the heart. Its views of human nature are
+on a comprehensive scale; it traces the course of empires, and marks the
+progress of nations. If, in the great flood of events, it singles out a
+few crowned and conspicuous heads, making them the beacons by which to
+guide its way, it associates itself with them only so long as they
+continue to exercise an influence over the destiny of others. It is alike
+ignorant and careless of those circumstances which make private life happy
+or miserable, and which exercise an influence over the fate of those who
+have determined that of so many others. Neither Hume, nor Robertson, nor
+Stuart, nor Keralio, therefore, have said all of Mary that they might have
+said;--they wrote history--not biography.
+
+_Second_, Many of the productions we have named, are purely controversial,
+consisting almost entirely of arguments founded upon facts, not of facts
+upon which to found arguments. Among these may be particularly included,
+Tytler, Whittaker, and Laing, works which do not so much aim at
+illustrating the life and character of Mary, as of settling the abstract
+question of her guilt or innocence. They present, therefore, only such
+detached portions of her history as bear upon the question of which they
+treat. To become intimately acquainted with Mary, we must have recourse to
+other authors; to form an estimate of her moral character these might
+suffice, were it fair to be guided on that subject by the opinions of
+others.
+
+_Third_, In most of the works, in which historical research is fully
+blended with argumentative deductions, erroneous theories have been
+broached, which, failing to make good their object, either excite
+suspicion, or lead into error. Thus, Goodall and Chalmers have laid it
+down as a principle, that in order to exculpate Mary, it was necessary to
+accuse her brother, the Earl of Murray, of all sorts of crimes. By
+representing Bothwell, as an inferior tool in his hands, they have
+involved themselves in improbabilities, and have weakened the strength of
+a good cause by a mistaken mode of treatment. Indeed this remark applies
+with a greater or less degree of force, to all the vindications of Queen
+Mary which have appeared. Why transfer the burden of Darnley's murder from
+Bothwell, the actual perpetrator of the deed, to one who may have been
+accessory to it, but certainly more remotely? Why confirm the suspicion
+against her they wish to defend, by unjustly accusing another, whom they
+cannot prove to be criminal? If Goodall and Chalmers have done this, their
+learning is comparatively useless, and their labour has been nearly lost.
+
+If the author of the following "Life of Mary Queen of Scots," has been
+able in any measure, to execute his own wishes, he would trust, that by a
+careful collation of all the works to which he has referred; he has
+succeeded, in separating much of the ore from the dross, and in giving a
+freshness, perhaps in one or two instances, an air of originality to his
+production. He has affected neither the insipidity of neutrality, nor the
+bigotry of party zeal. His desire was to concentrate all that could be
+known of Mary, in the hope that a light might thus be thrown on the
+obscurer parts of his subject, sufficient to re-animate the most
+indifferent, and satisfy the most scrupulous. He commenced his readings
+with an unbiassed mind, and was not aware at the outset, to what
+conviction they would bring him. But if a conscientious desire to
+disseminate truth be estimable, it is hoped that this desire will be found
+to characterize these Memoirs. Little more need be added. The biography of
+a Queen, who lived two hundred and fifty years ago, cannot be like the
+biography of a contemporary or immediate predecessor; but the inherent
+interest of the subject, will excuse many deficiencies. Omissions may,
+perhaps, be pardoned, if there are no misrepresentations; and the absence
+of minute cavilling and trifling distinctions, may not be complained of,
+if the narrative leads, by a lucid arrangement, to satisfactory general
+deductions. Fidelity is at all times preferable to brilliancy, and a sound
+conclusion to a plausible hypothesis.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                                         1
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+    Scotland and its Troubles during Mary's Infancy                   11
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+    Scotland and the Scottish Reformers, under the Regency of
+    the Queen Dowager                                                 25
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+    Mary's Birth, and subsequent residence at the French Court,
+    with a Sketch of the State of Society and Manners in France,
+    during the sixteenth century                                      42
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+    Mary's Marriage, Personal Appearance, and Popularity              58
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+    Mary the Queen Dauphiness, the Queen, and the Queen Dowager
+    of France                                                         74
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+    Mary's return to Scotland, and previous negociations with
+    Elizabeth                                                         88
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+    Mary's arrival at Holyrood, with Sketches of her Principal
+    Nobility                                                         108
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+    John Knox, the Reformers, and the turbulent Nobles               126
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+    Mary's Expedition to the North                                   146
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+    Chatelard's imprudent Attachment, and Knox's persevering
+    Hatred                                                           166
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+    The domestic Life of Mary, with some Anecdotes of Elizabeth      182
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+    Mary's Suitors, and the Machinations of her Enemies              198
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+    Mary's Marriage with Darnley                                     222
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+    Murray's Rebellion                                               232
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+    The Earl of Morton's Plot                                        251
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+    The Assassination of David Rizzio                                272
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+    The Birth of James VI                                            287
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+    Mary's Treatment of Darnley, and alleged Love for the Earl
+    of Bothwell                                                      295
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+During the reigns of James IV. and James V., Scotland emerged from
+barbarism into comparative civilization. Shut out, as it had previously
+been, from almost any intercourse with the rest of Europe, both by the
+peculiarities of its situation, and its incessant wars with England, it
+had long slumbered in all the ignorance and darkness of those remote
+countries, which even Roman greatness, before its dissolution, found it
+impossible to enclose and retain within the fortunate pale of its
+conquests. The refinement, which must always more or less attend upon the
+person of a king, and shelter itself in the stronghold of his court, was
+little felt in Scotland. Though attached, from long custom, to the
+monarchical form of government, the sturdy feudal barons, each possessing
+a kind of separate principality of his own, took good care that their
+sovereign's superior influence should be more nominal than real.
+Distracted too by perpetual jealousies among themselves, it was only upon
+rare occasions that the nobles would assemble peaceably together, to aid
+the king by their counsel, and strengthen his authority by their
+unanimity. Hence, there was no standard of national manners,--no means of
+fixing and consolidating the wavering and turbulent character of the
+people. Each clan attached itself to its own hereditary chieftain; and,
+whatever his prejudices or follies might be, was implicitly subservient to
+them. The feuds and personal animosities which existed among the leaders,
+were thus invariably transmitted to the very humblest of their retainers,
+and a state of society was the consequence, pregnant with civil discord
+and confusion, which, on the slightest impulse, broke out into anarchy and
+bloodshed.
+
+Many reasons have been assigned why the evils of the feudal system should
+have been more severely felt in Scotland than elsewhere. The leading
+causes, as given by the best historians, seem to be,--the geographical
+nature of the country, which made its baronial fastnesses almost
+impregnable;--the want of large towns, by which the vassals of different
+barons were prevented from mingling together, and rubbing off, in the
+collision, the prepossessions they mutually entertained against each
+other;--the division of the inhabitants, not only into the followers of
+different chiefs but into clans, which resembled so many great families,
+among all whose branches a relationship existed, and who looked with
+jealousy upon the increasing strength or wealth of any other clan;--the
+smallness of the number of Scottish nobles, a circumstance materially
+contributing to enhance the weight and dignity of each;--the frequent
+recourse which these barons had, for the purpose of overawing the crown,
+to leagues of mutual defence with their equals, or bonds of reciprocal
+protection and assistance with their inferiors;--the unceasing wars which
+raged between England and Scotland, and which were the perpetual means of
+proving to the Scottish king, that the very possession of his crown
+depended upon the fidelity and obedience of his nobles, whose good-will it
+was therefore necessary to conciliate upon all occasions, by granting them
+whatever they chose to demand; and, lastly--the long minorities to which
+the misfortunes of its kings exposed the country at an early period of its
+history, when the vigour and consistency, commonly attendant upon the acts
+of one mind, were required more than any thing else, but instead of which,
+the contradictory measures of contending nobles, or of regents hastily
+elected, and as hastily displaced, were sure to produce an unnatural
+stagnation in the government, from which it could be redeemed only by
+still more unnatural convulsions.
+
+The necessary consequences of these political grievances were, of course,
+felt in every corner of the country. It is difficult to form any accurate
+estimate, or to draw any very minute picture of the state of manners and
+nicer ramifications of society at so remote a period. But it may be stated
+generally, that the great mass of the population was involved in poverty,
+and sunk in the grossest ignorance. The Catholic system of faith and
+worship, in its very worst form, combined with the national superstitions
+so prevalent among the vulgar, not only to exclude every idea of rational
+religion, but to produce the very lowest state of mental degradation.
+Commerce was comparatively unknown,--agriculture but imperfectly
+understood. If the wants of the passing hour were supplied, however
+sparely, the enslaved vassal was contented,--almost the only happiness of
+his life consisting in that animal gratification afforded him by the
+sports of the chase, or the bloodier diversion of the field of battle.
+Education was neglected and despised even by the wealthy, few of whom were
+able to read, and almost none to write. As for the middle and lower
+orders, fragments of rude traditionary songs constituted their entire
+learning, and the savage war-dance, inspired by the barbarous music of
+their native hills, their principal amusement. At the same time, it is
+not to be supposed that virtue and intelligence were extinct among them.
+There must be many exceptions to all general rules, and however
+unfavourable the circumstances under which they were placed for calling
+into activity the higher attributes of man's nature, it is not to be
+denied, that their chronicles record, even in the lowest ranks, many
+bright examples of patience, perseverance, unsinking fortitude, and
+fidelity founded upon generous and exalted attachment.
+
+It has been said, that under the reigns of the Fourth and Fifth James, the
+moral and political aspect of the Scotch horizon began to brighten. This
+is to be attributed partly to the beneficial changes which the progress of
+time was effecting throughout Europe, and which gradually extended
+themselves to Scotland,--and partly to the personal character of these two
+monarchs. France, Germany, and England, had made considerable strides out
+of the gloom of the dark ages, even before the appearance of Francis I.,
+Charles V., and Henry VIII. James IV., naturally of a chivalric and ardent
+disposition, was extremely anxious to advance his own country in the scale
+of nations; and whilst, by the urbanity of his manners, he succeeded in
+winning the affections of his nobles, he contrived also to find a place in
+the hearts of his inferior subjects, even beside that allotted to their
+own hereditary chieftain,--an achievement which few of his predecessors
+had been able to accomplish. The unfortunate battle of Flodden, is a
+melancholy record both of the vigour of James's reign, and of the national
+advantages which his romantic spirit induced him to risk in pursuit of the
+worthless phantom of military renown.
+
+James V. had much of the ardour of his father, combined with a somewhat
+greater share of prudence. He it was who first made any successful inroads
+upon the exorbitant powers of his nobility; and though, upon more
+occasions than one, he was made to pay dearly for his determination to
+vindicate the regal authority, he was, nevertheless, true to his purpose
+to the very last. There seem to be three features in the reign of this
+prince which particularly deserve attention. The first is, the more
+extensive intercourse than had hitherto subsisted, which he established
+between Scotland and foreign nations,--particularly with France. The
+inexhaustible ambition of Charles V., which aimed at universal empire, and
+which probably would have accomplished its design had he not met with a
+rival so formidable as Francis I., was the means of convincing the other
+states of Europe, that the only security for their separate independence
+was the preservation of a balance of power. Italy was thus roused into
+activity, and England, under Henry VIII., took an active share in the
+important events of the age. To the continental powers, against whom that
+monarch's strength was directed, it became a matter of no small moment to
+secure the assistance of Scotland. Both Francis and Charles, therefore,
+paid their court to James, who, finding it necessary to become the ally of
+one or other, prudently rejected the empty honours offered him by the
+Emperor, and continued faithful to France. He went himself to Paris in
+1536, where he married Magdalene, daughter of Francis. She died however
+soon after his return home; but determined not to lose the advantages
+resulting from a French alliance, he again married, in the following year,
+Mary of Lorraine, daughter to the Duke of Guise, and the young widow of
+the Duke of Longueville. Following the example of their king, most of the
+Scotch nobility visited France, and as many as could afford it, sent their
+sons thither to be educated; whilst on the other hand, numerous French
+adventurers landed in Scotland, bringing along with them some of the
+French arts and luxuries. Thus the manners of the Scotch, gradually began
+to lose a little of that unbending severity, which had hitherto rendered
+them so repulsive.
+
+The second peculiarity in the reign of James V., is the countenance and
+support he bestowed upon the clergy. This he did, not from any motives of
+bigotry, but solely as a matter of sound policy. He saw that he could not
+stand alone against his nobles, and he was therefore anxious to raise into
+an engine of power, a body of men whose interests he thus identified with
+his own. It is remarkable, that even in the most flourishing days of
+Catholicism, when the Pope's ecclesiastical authority extended itself
+everywhere, Scotland alone was overlooked. The king was there always the
+head of the church, in so far as regarded all ecclesiastical appointments,
+and the patronage of his bishoprics and abbeys was no slight privilege to
+the Scottish monarch, denied as it was to other kings of more extensive
+temporal jurisdiction. James converted into benefices, several of the
+forfeited estates of his rebellious nobles, and raised the clergy to a
+pitch of authority they had never before possessed in Scotland. He acted
+upon principle, and perhaps judiciously; but he was not aware, that by
+thus surrounding his priests with wealth and luxury, he was paving the way
+for their utter destruction, and a new and better order of things.
+
+It will be useful to observe, as the third characteristic of this reign,
+the encouragement James gave to the arts and sciences. For the first time,
+education began to take some form and system. He gave stability to the
+universities, and was careful to select for them the best teachers. He was
+fond of drawing to his court men of learning and genius. He was himself a
+poet of considerable ability. He had likewise devoted much of his
+attention to architecture--his fondness for which elegant study was
+testified, by his anxiety to repair, or rebuild, most of the royal
+palaces. He established also on a permanent footing, the Court of Session,
+or College of Justice; and though his reign, as a whole, was not a happy
+one, it probably redounded more to the advantage of his country than that
+of any of his predecessors.
+
+At his death, which took place in 1542, at the early age of 30,
+accelerated by the distress of mind occasioned by the voluntary defeats
+which his refractory nobles allowed themselves to sustain, both at Falla
+and Solway Moss, Scotland speedily fell into a state of confusion and
+civil war. The events which followed are indissolubly connected with the
+subject of these Memoirs, and are related at length in the succeeding
+pages.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SCOTLAND AND ITS TROUBLES DURING MARY'S INFANCY.
+
+
+James V. left, as an inheritance to his kingdom, an expensive and
+destructive war with England. He likewise left what, under such
+circumstances, was a very questionable advantage, a treasury well stored
+with gold, and a coinage in good condition, produced from the mines which
+he had worked in Scotland. The foreign relations of the country demanded
+the utmost attention; but the long minority necessarily ensuing, as Mary,
+his only surviving lawful child, was but a few days old when James died,
+awakened hopes and wishes in the ambitious which superseded all other
+considerations. For a time England was forgotten; and the prize of the
+Regency became a bone of civil contention and discord.
+
+There were three persons who aspired to that office, and the pretensions
+of each had their supporters, as interest or reason might dictate. The
+first was the Queen-Dowager, a lady who inherited many of the peculiar
+virtues, as well as some of the failings, of the illustrious house of
+Guise, to which she belonged. She possessed a bold and masculine
+understanding, a perseverance to overcome difficulties, and a fortitude to
+bear up against misfortunes, not often met with among her sex. She was
+indeed superior to most of the weaknesses of the female character; and
+having, from her earliest years, deeply studied the science of government,
+she felt herself, so far as mere political tactics and diplomatic
+acquirements were concerned, able to cope with the craftiest of the Scotch
+nobility. Besides, her intimate connexion with the French court, coupled
+with the interest she might naturally be supposed to take in the affairs
+of a country over which her husband had reigned, and which was her
+daughter's inheritance, seemed to give her a claim of the strongest kind.
+
+The second aspirant was Cardinal David Beaton, at that time the undoubted
+head of the Catholic party in Scotland. He was a man whose abilities all
+allowed, and who, had he been less tinctured with severity, and less
+addicted to the exclusive principles of the Church of Rome, might probably
+have filled with _eclat_ the very highest rank in the State. He
+endeavoured to strengthen his title to the Regency, by producing the will
+of James V. in his favour. But as this will was dated only a short while
+before the King's death, it was suspected that the Prelate had himself
+written it, and obtained the King's signature, at a time when his bodily
+weakness had impaired his mental faculties. Beaton was, moreover, from his
+violence and rigour, particularly obnoxious to all those who favoured the
+Reformation.
+
+James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, and next heir to the throne, was the third
+candidate, and the person upon whom the choice of the people ultimately
+fell. In more settled times, this choice might possibly have been
+judicious; but Arran was of far too weak and irresolute a character to be
+able to regulate the government with that decision and firmness which the
+existing emergency required. He had few opinions of his own, and was
+continually driven hither and thither by the contradictory counsels of
+those who surrounded him. He had joined, however, the reformed religion;
+and this, together with the inoffensive softness of his disposition, made
+him, in the eyes of many, only the more fit to govern.
+
+The annexation of Scotland to the crown of England, either by conquest or
+the more amicable means of marriage, had for many years been the object
+nearest the heart of Henry VIII. and several of his predecessors. That his
+father, in particular, Henry VII., had given some thought to this subject,
+is evident from the answer he made to such of his Privy Council as were
+unwilling that he should give his daughter Margaret in marriage to James
+IV., on the ground that the English Crown might, through that marriage,
+devolve to a King of Scotland. "Whereunto the King made answer, and said,
+'What then? for if any such thing should happen (which God forbid), yet I
+see our kingdom should take no harm thereby, because England should not
+be added unto Scotland, but Scotland unto England, as to the far most
+noble head of the whole island; for so much as it is always so, that the
+lesser is wont, for honour's sake, to be adjoined to that which is far the
+greater.'"[1] How correct Henry VII. was in his opinion, the accession of
+James VI. sufficiently proved.
+
+Henry VIII., though aiming at the same object as his father, thought it
+more natural that Scotland should accept of an English, than England of a
+Scottish King. Immediately, therefore, after the birth of Mary, he
+determined upon straining every nerve to secure her for his son Edward.
+For this purpose, he concluded a temporary peace with the Regent Arran,
+and sent back into Scotland the numerous prisoners who had surrendered
+themselves at Solway Moss, upon an understanding that they should do all
+they could to second his views with their countrymen. His first proposals,
+however, were so extravagant, that the Scottish Parliament would not
+listen to them for a moment. He demanded not only that the young Queen
+should be sent into England, to be educated under his own superintendance,
+but that he himself, as her future father-in-law, should be allowed an
+active share in the government of Scotland. Having subsequently consented
+to depart considerably from the haughty tone in which these terms were
+dictated, a treaty of marriage was agreed upon at the instigation of
+Arran, whom Henry had won to his interests, in which it was promised, that
+Mary should be sent into England at the age of ten, and that six persons
+of rank should, in the mean time, be delivered as hostages for the
+fulfilment of this promise.
+
+It may easily be conceived, that whatever the Regent, together with some
+of the reformed nobility and their partisans, might think of this treaty,
+the Queen Mother and Cardinal Beaton, who had for the present formed a
+coalition, could not be very well satisfied with it. Henry, with all the
+hasty violence of his nature, had, in a fit of spleen, espoused the
+reformed opinions; and if Mary became the wife of his son, it was evident
+that all the interests both of the House of Guise and of the Catholic
+religion in Scotland, would suffer a fatal blow. By their forcible
+representations of the inevitable ruin which they alleged this alliance
+would bring upon Scotland, converting it into a mere province of their
+ancient and inveterate enemies, and obliging it to renounce forever the
+friendship of their constant allies the French, they succeeded in
+effecting a change in public opinion; and the result was, that Arran found
+himself at length obliged to yield to their superior influence, to deliver
+up to the Cardinal and Mary of Lorraine the young Queen, and refuse to
+ratify the engagements he had entered into with Henry. The Cardinal now
+carried every thing before him, having converted or intimidated almost all
+his enemies. The Earl of Lennox alone, a nobleman whose pretensions were
+greater than his power, could not forgive Beaton for having used him
+merely as a cat's paw in his intrigues to gain the ascendency over Arran.
+Lennox had himself aspired at the Regency, alleging that his title, as
+presumptive heir to the Crown, was a more legitimate one than that of the
+House of Hamilton, to which Arran belonged. But the still more ambitious
+Cardinal flattered only to deceive him; and when Lennox considered his
+success certain, he found himself farther from the object of his wishes
+than ever.
+
+Seeing every other hope vain, Lennox set on foot a secret correspondence
+with Henry, promising that monarch his best support, should he determine
+upon avenging the insult he had sustained, through the vacillating conduct
+of the Scotch. Henry gladly availed himself of the offer, and sent a
+considerable force under the Earl of Hartford to the North, by sea, which,
+having landed at Leith, and plundered that place, as well as the
+neighbouring city of Edinburgh, again took its departure for England,
+without attempting to penetrate further into the country. This was an
+unprofitable and ill-advised expedition, for it only tended to exasperate
+the minds of the Scotch, without being of any service to Henry. The Earl
+of Huntly well remarked concerning it, that even although he might have
+had no objections to the proposed match, he had a most especial dislike to
+the manner of wooing.
+
+The Earl of Lennox now found himself deserted in the midst of his former
+friends, and went prudently into voluntary exile, by retiring into
+England. Here Henry, in reward of his former services, gave him his niece,
+the Lady Margaret Douglas, in marriage. She was the daughter, by the
+second marriage, of Henry's sister, the Lady Margaret, wife of James IV.,
+who, after the King's death, espoused Archibald Earl of Angus. By this
+alliance, Lennox, though it was impossible for him to foresee such a
+result, became the father of Henry Darnley, and a long line of Kings.
+
+Shortly afterwards, an event well known in Scottish history, and which was
+accomplished by means only too frequently resorted to in those unsettled
+times, facilitated the conclusion of a short peace with England. Cardinal
+Beaton, elevated by his success, and anxious, now that all more immediate
+danger was removed, to re-establish on a firmer basis the tottering
+authority of the Romish Church, determined upon striking awe into the
+people, by some memorable examples of severity towards heretics. About the
+end of the year 1545, he made a progress through several parts of his
+diocess, accompanied by the Earl of Argyle, who was then Lord Justice
+General, and other official persons, for the purpose of trying and
+punishing offenders against the laws of the Church. At Perth, several of
+the lieges were found guilty of arguing or disputing concerning the sense
+of the Holy Scriptures, in opposition to an Act of Parliament, which
+forbade any such freedom of speech, and five men and one woman were
+condemned to die. Great intercession was made for them, but in vain; the
+men were hanged, and the woman was drowned. Still farther to intimidate
+the Reformers, a yet more memorable instance of religious persecution and
+cruelty was presented to them a few months afterwards. George Wishart was
+at this time one of the most learned and zealous of all the supporters of
+the new doctrines in Scotland. He had been educated at the University of
+Cambridge, and had, in his youth, officiated as one of the masters of the
+grammar school at Montrose. His talents and perseverance rendered him
+particularly obnoxious to the Cardinal, who, having contrived to make him
+his prisoner, carried him to his castle at St Andrews. An Ecclesiastical
+Court was there assembled, at which Wishart was sentenced to be burnt. It
+may give us a clearer idea of the spirit of the times, to know, that on
+the day on which this sentence was to be put in execution, Beaton issued a
+proclamation, forbidding any one, under pain of church censure, to offer
+up prayers for so notorious a heretic. When Wishart was brought to the
+stake, and after the fire had been kindled, and was already beginning to
+take effect, it is said that he turned his eyes towards a window in the
+castle overlaid with tapestry, at which the Cardinal was sitting, viewing
+with complacency the unfortunate man's suffering, and exclaimed,--"He who,
+from yonder high place, beholdeth me with such pride, shall, within few
+days, be in as much shame as now he is seen proudly to rest himself."
+These words, though they met with little attention at the time, were
+spoken of afterwards as an evident and most remarkable prophecy.
+
+It was not long after this martyrdom, that Cardinal Beaton was present at
+the marriage of one of his own illegitimate daughters, to whom he gave a
+dowry of 4000 merks, and whose nuptials were solemnized with great
+magnificence. Probably he conceived, that the more heretics he burned, the
+more unblushingly he might confess his own sins against both religion and
+common morality.
+
+On the prelate's return to St Andrew's, Norman Lesly, a young man of
+strong passions, and eldest Son to the Earl of Rothes, came to him to
+demand some favour, which the Cardinal thought proper to refuse. The
+particulars of the quarrel are not precisely known, but it must have been
+of a serious kind; for Lesly, taking advantage of the popular feeling
+which then existed against the Cardinal, determined upon seeking his own
+revenge by the assassination of Beaton. He associated with himself several
+accomplices, who undertook to second him in this design. Early on the
+morning of the 29th of May 1546, having entered the castle by the gate,
+which was open to admit some workmen who were repairing the
+fortifications, he and his assistants proceeded to the door of the
+Cardinal's chamber, at which they knocked. Beaton asked,--"Who is
+there?"--Norman answered,--"My name is Lesly,"--adding, that the door must
+be opened to him, and those that were with him. Beaton now began to fear
+the worst, and attempted to secure the door. But Lesly called for fire to
+burn it, upon which the Cardinal, seeing all resistance useless, permitted
+them to enter. They found him sitting on a chair, pale and agitated; and
+as they approached him he exclaimed,--"I am a Priest--ye will not slay
+me!" Lesly, however, losing all command of his temper, struck him more
+than once, and would have proceeded to further indignities, had not James
+Melville, one of the assassins, "a man," says Knox, "of nature most gentle
+and most modest," drawn his sword, and presenting the point to the
+Cardinal, advised him to repent of his sins, informing him, at the same
+time, that no hatred he bore his person, but simply his love of true
+religion induced him to take part against one whom he looked upon as an
+enemy to the gospel. So saying, and without waiting for an answer, he
+stabbed him twice or thrice through the body. When his friends and
+servants collected without, the conspirators lifted up the deceased
+Prelate, and showed him to them from the very window at which he had sat
+at the day of Wishart's execution. Beaton, at the time of his death, was
+fifty-two. He had long been one of the leading men in Scotland, and had
+enjoyed the favour of the French King, as well as that of his own
+sovereign James V. Some attempt was made by the Regent to punish his
+murderers, but they finally escaped into France.[2]
+
+There is good reason to believe that Henry VIII. secretly encouraged Lesly
+and his associates in this dishonest enterprise. But, if such be the case,
+that monarch did not live long enough to reap the fruits of its success.
+He died only a few months later than the Cardinal; and, about the same
+time, his cotemporary, Francis I., was succeeded on his throne by his son
+Henry II. These changes did not materially affect the relative situation
+of Scotland. They may, perhaps, have opened up still higher hopes to the
+Queen Dowager, and the French party; but, in England, the Duke of
+Somerset, who had been appointed Lord Protector during the minority of
+Edward VI., was determined upon following out the plans of the late
+monarch, and compelling the Scotch to agree to the alliance which he had
+proposed.
+
+In prosecution of his designs, he marched a powerful army into Scotland,
+and the result was the unfortunate battle of Pinkie. The Earl of Arran,
+whose exertions to rescue the country from this new aggression, were
+warmly seconded by the people, collected a force sufficiently numerous to
+enable him to meet and offer battle to Somerset. The English camp was in
+the neighbourhood of Prestonpans, and the Scotch took up very advantageous
+ground about Musselburgh and Inveresk. Military discipline was at that
+time but little understood in this country; and the reckless impetuosity
+of the Scotch infantry was usually attended either with immediate success,
+or, by throwing the whole battle into confusion, with irretrievable and
+signal defeat. The weapons to which they principally trusted, were, in the
+first place, the pike, with which, upon joining with the enemy, all the
+fore-rank, standing shoulder to shoulder together, thrust straight
+forwards, those who stood in the second rank putting their pikes over the
+shoulders of their comrades before them. The length of these pikes or
+spears was eighteen feet six inches. They seem to have been used
+principally on the first onset, and were probably speedily relinquished
+for the more efficient exercise of the sword, which was broad and thin,
+and of excellent temper. It was employed to cut or slice with, not to
+thrust; and, in defence against any similar weapon of the enemy, a large
+handkerchief was wrapt twice or thrice about the neck, and a buckler
+invariably carried on the left arm.[3]
+
+For some days the two armies continued in sight of each other, without
+coming to any general engagement. The hourly anxiety which prevailed at
+Edinburgh regarding the result, may be easily imagined. To inspire the
+soldiers with the greater courage, it was enacted by Government, that the
+heirs of those who fell upon this occasion in defence of their country,
+should for five years be free from Government taxes, and the usual
+assessments levied by landlords. At length, on Saturday the 10th of
+September 1547, the Scotch, misled by a motion in the English army, which
+they conceived indicated a design to retreat, rashly left their superior
+situation, and crossing the mouth of the Esk at Musselburgh, gave the
+Protector battle in the fields of Pinkie, an adjoining country seat. They
+were thus so exposed, that the English fleet, which lay in the bay, was
+enabled, by firing upon their flank to do them much mischief. The Earl of
+Angus, who was leading the van-guard, found himself suddenly assailed by a
+flight of arrows, a raking fire from a regiment or two of foreign
+fusileers, and a discharge of cannon which unexpectedly opened upon him.
+Unable to advance, he attempted to change his position for a more
+advantageous one. The main body imagined he was falling back upon them in
+confusion; and to heighten their panic, a vigorous charge, which was at
+this moment made by the English cavalry, decided the fortune of the day.
+After a feeble resistance the Scotch fled towards Dalkeith, Edinburgh, and
+Leith, and being hotly pursued by their enemies, all the three roads were
+strewed with the dead and dying. In this battle the Earl of Arran lost
+upwards of 8000 men; among whom were Lord Fleming, together with many
+other Scotch noblemen and gentlemen.
+
+The English army advanced immediately upon Leith, which they took and
+pillaged; and would have entered Edinburgh, had they not found it
+impossible to make themselves masters of the Castle. The fleet ravaged the
+towns and villages on the coasts of the Forth, and proceeded as far north
+as the River Tay, seizing on whatever shipping they could meet with in the
+harbours by which they passed.
+
+Far, however, from obtaining by these violent measures, the ultimate
+object of his desires, Somerset found himself farther from his point than
+ever. The Scotch, enraged against England, threw themselves into the arms
+of France; and the Protector, understanding that affairs in the south had
+fallen into confusion, in his absence, was obliged to return home, leaving
+strong garrisons in Haddington, and one or two other places, which he had
+captured. The Earl of Arran, and Mary of Guise, sent immediate
+intelligence to Henry II., of all that had taken place; and, sanctioned by
+the Scottish Parliament, offered to conclude a treaty of marriage between
+his infant son, the Dauphin Francis, and the young Scottish Queen. They,
+moreover, agreed to send Mary into France, to be educated at the French
+Court, until such time as the nuptials could be solemnized. This proposal
+was every way acceptable to Henry, who, like his father Francis, perfectly
+understood the importance of a close alliance with Scotland, as the most
+efficient means for preventing the English from invading his own
+dominions. He sent over an army of 6000 men, to the aid of the Regent; and
+in the same vessels, which brought these troops, Mary was conveyed from
+Dumbarton into France. Henry also, with much sound policy, in order to
+strengthen his interests in Scotland, bestowed, about this time, upon the
+Earl of Arran, the title of the Duke of Chatelherault, together with a
+pension of some value. During a period of two years, a continual series of
+skirmishings were carried on between the Scotch, supported by their French
+allies, and the English; but without any results of much consequence on
+either side. In 1550, a general peace was concluded; and the marriage of
+the Scottish Queen was never afterwards made the ground of war between the
+two countries.
+
+From this period, till Mary's return to her own country, the attention of
+Scotland was entirely engrossed with its own affairs, and the various
+important events connected with the rise, progress, and establishment of
+the Reformation. As these effected no slight change in the political
+aspect of the country, and exercised a material influence over Mary's
+future destiny, it will be proper to give some account of them in this
+place; and these details being previously gone through, the narrative, in
+so far as regards Queen Mary, will thus be preserved unbroken.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+SCOTLAND AND THE SCOTTISH REFORMERS, UNDER THE REGENCY OF THE
+QUEEN-DOWAGER.
+
+
+It was in the year 1517, that Luther first stated his objections to the
+validity of the indulgences granted so liberally by Pope Leo X. From this
+year, those who love to trace causes to their origin, date the epoch of
+the Reformation. It was not, however, till a considerably later period,
+that the new doctrines took any deep root in Scotland. In 1552, the Duke
+of Chatelherault, wearied with the fatigues of Government, and provoked at
+the opposition he was continually meeting with, resigned the regency in
+favour of the Queen-mother. Mary of Guise, by a visit she had shortly
+before paid to the French Court, had paved the way for this accession of
+power. Her brothers, the Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorraine, were far
+from being satisfied with the state of parties in Scotland. Chatelherault,
+they knew to be of a weak and fluctuating disposition; and it seemed to
+them necessary, both for the preservation of the ancient religion, and to
+secure the allegiance of the country to their niece, the young Queen, that
+a stronger hand, guided by a sounder head, should hold the reigns of the
+State. Upon their sister's fidelity they knew they could depend; and it
+was principally through the influence of French gold and French intrigue,
+that she was placed in the regency.
+
+The inhabitants of Scotland were at this time divided into two great
+classes,--those who were still staunch to the Church of Rome, and those
+who were determined on effecting a reformation. At the head of the former
+was John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, who, upon the murder of
+Cardinal Beaton, had obtained that appointment through the Duke of
+Chatelherault, whose natural brother he was. He was greatly the Duke's
+superior in courage and sagacity, and was deeply imbued with the
+prelatical spirit of ambition then so prevalent. The resignation of the
+regency provoked him exceedingly, the more especially as Mary, to
+strengthen her own authority, found it necessary at first to treat the
+Reformers mildly. He was consoled, however, by the death of Edward VI. in
+1553, and the accession of the young King's eldest sister Mary to the
+English throne,--as bigoted and determined a Catholic as ever lived.
+
+The man who had placed himself at the head of the Reformers, and who,
+although young, had already given Hamilton and his party good cause to
+tremble at his increasing authority, was James Stuart, the eldest of
+Mary's three illegitimate brothers,--and one who occupies a most important
+station in the history of his country. His father made him, when only
+seven years old, Prior or Commendator of St Andrews, an office which
+entitled him, though a layman, to the full income arising from that rich
+benefice. It was soon discovered, however, that he had views far beyond so
+comparatively humble a rank. Even when a boy, it was his ambition to
+collect around him associates who were devoted to his service and desires.
+He went over with Mary to France in 1548, but remained there only a very
+short time; and, at the age of twenty-one, he was already looked up to by
+the Scottish Reformers as their chief. His knowledge was extensive, and
+considerably in advance of the times in which he lived. His personal
+bravery was undoubted, and his skill in arms so great, that few of his
+military enterprises were unsuccessful. His passions, if they were strong,
+seem also to have been deep, and entirely under his own command. Whatever
+may be thought of the secret motives which actuated him, he was seldom
+betrayed into any symptoms of apparent violence. He thus contrived to hold
+a steady course, amidst all the turbulence and convulsions of the age in
+which he lived; whilst the external decorum and propriety of his manners,
+so different from the ill-concealed dissoluteness of many of his
+cotemporaries, endeared him the more to the stern followers of Luther. It
+is curious to observe the very opposite views which different historians
+have taken of his character, more especially when they come to speak of
+him as the Earl of Murray and the Regent of Scotland. It would be improper
+and unnecessary to anticipate these discussions at present, since it is
+hoped the reader will be able to form his own estimate upon this subject,
+from the facts he will find recorded in these Memoirs.
+
+It must be evident, that with two such men, each at the head of his own
+party, the country was not likely to continue long in a state of
+quietness. The Queen Regent soon found it necessary, at the instigation of
+the French Court, to associate herself with the Archbishop of St
+Andrews,--in opposition to which coalition, a bond was drawn up in 1557,
+by some of the principal Reformers, in which they announced their
+resolution to form an independent congregation of their own, and to
+separate themselves entirely from the "congregation of Satan, with all the
+superstitious abomination and idolatry thereof." Articles, or Heads of a
+Reformation, were soon afterwards published, in which it was principally
+insisted, that on Sunday and other festival days, the Common-Prayer should
+be read openly in the parish churches, along with the lessons of the Old
+and New Testaments; and that preaching and interpretation of the
+Scriptures in private houses should be allowed.
+
+In the following year, one of the first outrages which the Reformers
+committed in Scotland, took place in Edinburgh. On occasion of the annual
+procession through the city, in honour of the tutelar Saint--St Giles, the
+image of that illustrious personage, which ought to have been carried by
+some of the priests, was amissing,--the godly having, beforehand,
+according to John Knox, first drowned the idol in the North Loch, and then
+burned it. It was therefore necessary to borrow a smaller saint from the
+Gray-Friars, in order that this "great solemnity and manifest abomination"
+might proceed. Upon the day appointed, priests, friars, canons, and
+"rotten Papists," assembled, with tabors, trumpets, banners, and bagpipes.
+At this sight, the hearts of the brethren were wondrously inflamed; and
+they resolved, that this second dragon should suffer the fate of the
+first. They broke in upon the procession; and though the Catholics made
+some slight resistance at first, they were soon obliged to surrender the
+image into the hands of the Philistines, who, taking it by the heels, and
+knocking, or, as the reformed historian says, _dadding_ its head upon the
+pavement, soon reduced it to fragments, only regretting, that "the young
+St Giles" had not been so difficult to kill as his father. The priests,
+alarmed for their personal safety, sought shelter as quickly as possible,
+and gave Knox an opportunity of indulging in some of that austere mirth
+which is peculiarly remarkable, because so foreign to his general style.
+"Then might have been seen," says he, "so sudden a fray as seldom has been
+seen among that sort of men within this realm; for down goes the cross,
+off go the surplices, round caps, and cornets with the crowns. The
+Gray-Friars gaped, the Black-Friars blew, and the priests panted and fled,
+and happy was he that first got the house; for such a sudden fray came
+never among the generation of Antichrist within this realm before." The
+magistrates had some difficulty in prevailing upon the mob to disperse,
+after they had kept possession of the streets for several hours; and the
+rioters escaped without punishment; for "the brethren assembled themselves
+in such sort in companies, singing psalms, and praising God, that the
+proudest of the enemies were astounded."[4]
+
+The Commissioners who, about this time, were sent into France, and the
+motives of their embassy, will be spoken of afterwards. But the remarkable
+circumstance, that four of them died when about to return home,--one at
+Paris, and three at Dieppe,--had a considerable influence in exciting the
+populace to still greater hatred against the French party,--it being
+commonly suspected that they had come by their death unfairly. The
+Congregation now rose in their demands; and among other things, insisted
+that "the wicked and scandalous lives" of churchmen should be reformed,
+according to the rules contained in the New Testament, the writings of the
+ancient fathers, and the laws of Justinian the Emperor. For a while, the
+Queen Regent temporized; but finding it impossible to preserve the favour
+of both parties, she yielded at length to the solicitations of the
+Archbishop of St Andrews, and determined to resist the Reformers
+vigorously. In 1559, she summoned all the ministers of the Congregation,
+to appear before her at Stirling. This citation was complied with, but not
+exactly in the manner that the Queen wished; for the ministers came not as
+culprits, but as men proud of their principles, and accompanied by a vast
+multitude of those who were of the same mode of thinking. The Queen, who
+was at Stirling, did not venture to proceed to Perth; and the request she
+made, that the numbers there assembled should depart, leaving their
+ministers to be examined by the Government, having been refused, she
+proceeded to the harsh and decisive measure of declaring them all rebels.
+
+The consternation which this direct announcement of hostilities
+occasioned among them, was still at its height, when the great champion of
+the Scottish Reformation, John Knox, arrived at Perth. This celebrated
+divine had already suffered much for "the good cause;" and though his zeal
+and devotion to it were well known, it was not till latterly that he had
+entertained much hope of its final triumph in his native country. He had
+spent the greater part of his life in imprisonment or exile; he had
+undergone many privations, and submitted to many trials. But these were
+the daily food of the Reformers; and, whilst they only served to
+strengthen them in the obduracy of their belief, they had the additional
+effect of infusing a morose acerbity into dispositions not naturally of
+the softest kind. Knox had returned only a few days before from Geneva,
+where he had been solacing his solitude by writing and publishing that
+celebrated work, which he was pleased to entitle, "The first blast of the
+trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women." This treatise, directed
+principally against Mary of England, not forgetting Mary Queen of Scots
+and her mother of Guise, rather overshot its own purpose, by bringing the
+Reformer into disrepute with Elizabeth, who came to the crown soon after
+its appearance. To pacify that Queen, for it appears even Knox could
+temporize occasionally, he gave up his original intention of blowing his
+trumpet thrice, and his first blast was his last.[5]
+
+The day after the ministers and their friends, had been declared rebels,
+Knox delivered at Perth what Keith terms "that thundering Sermon against
+Idolatry." The tumult which ensued at the conclusion of this discourse,
+has been attributed by some historians to accident; but Keith's suspicion,
+that Knox had a direct intention to excite it, seems well founded, when we
+consider the ferment in which the minds of his audience were at the time,
+and the peculiar style in which he addressed them. Buchanan is of the same
+opinion, though he would naturally have leant to the other conclusion. He
+says that Knox, "in that ticklish posture of affairs, made such a pathetic
+sermon to the multitude who were gathered together, that he set their
+minds, which were already fired, all in a flame." If, in addition to this,
+the usual manner of Knox's eloquence be considered, it will hardly be
+questioned but that the outrage of that day was of his doing. His
+vehemence in the pulpit was at all times tremendous; indeed, in so far as
+the effect he produced upon his hearers was concerned, he seems to have
+trusted almost as much to the display of his physical as of his mental
+energies. Many years after the period now alluded to, when he was in his
+old age, and very weak, Melville tells us, that he saw him every Sunday go
+slowly and feebly, with fur about his neck, a staff in his hand, and a
+servant supporting him, from his own house, to the parish church in St
+Andrews. There, after being lifted into the pulpit, his limbs for some
+time were so feeble, that they could hardly support him; but ere he had
+done with his sermon, he became so active and vigorous, that he was like
+"to ding the pulpit in blads, and flie out of it."[6] What he must have
+been, therefore, in his best days, may be more easily imagined than
+described.
+
+On the present occasion, after Knox had preached, and some of the
+congregation had retired, it appears that some "godly men" remained in the
+church. A priest had the imprudence to venture in among them, and to
+commence saying mass. A young man called out that such idolatry was
+intolerable, upon which it is said that the priest struck him. The young
+man retorted, by throwing a stone, which injured one of the pictures. The
+affair soon became general. The enraged people fell upon the altars and
+images, and in a short time nothing was left undemolished but the bare
+walls of the church. The Reformers throughout the city, hearing of these
+proceedings, speedily collected, and attacking the monasteries of the Gray
+and Black Friars, along with the costly edifice of the Carthusian Monks,
+left not a vestige of what they considered idolatrous and profane worship
+in any of them. The example thus set at Perth was speedily followed almost
+everywhere throughout the country.
+
+These outrages greatly incensed the Queen Regent, and were looked upon
+with horror by the Catholics in general. To this day, the loss of many a
+fine building, through the zeal of the early Reformers, is a common
+subject of regret and complaint. It is to be remembered, however, that no
+revolution can be effected without paying a price for it. If the
+Reformation was a benefit, how could the Catholic superstition be more
+successfully attacked, than by knocking down those gorgeous temples, which
+were of themselves sufficient to render invincible the pride and
+inveterate bigotry of its votaries? The saying of John Knox, though a
+homely, was a true one,--"Pull down their nests, and the rooks will fly
+away." It is not improbable, as M'Crie conjectures, that had these
+buildings been allowed to remain in their former splendour, the Popish
+clergy might have long continued to indulge hopes, and to make efforts, to
+be restored to them. Victories over an enemy are celebrated with public
+rejoicings, notwithstanding the thousands of our fellow-countrymen who may
+have fallen in the contest. Why should the far more important victory,
+over those who had so long held in thraldom the human mind, be robbed of
+its due praise, because some statues were mangled, some pictures torn, and
+some venerable towers overthrown?[7]
+
+With as little delay as possible, the Queen Regent appeared with an army
+before Perth, and made herself mistress of the town. The Reformers,
+however, were not to be intimidated; and their strength having, by this
+time, much increased, it was deemed prudent by the Regent not to push
+matters to an extremity. Both parties agreed to disband their forces, and
+to refer the controversy to the next Parliament. As was to be expected,
+this temporary truce was not of long duration. Incessant mutual
+recrimination and aggression, soon induced both sides to concentrate
+their forces once more. Perth was re-taken by the Reformers, who shortly
+afterwards marched into Edinburgh. After remaining there for some time,
+they were surprised by a sudden march which the Queen made upon them from
+Dunbar, and were compelled to fall back upon Stirling.
+
+A belief was at this time prevalent at the court of France, that the Prior
+of St Andrews, who was the principal military leader of the Congregation,
+had views of a treasonable nature even upon the crown itself, and that he
+hoped the flaw in his legitimacy might be forgotten, in consideration of
+his godly exertions in support of the true faith. A new reinforcement of
+French soldiers arrived at Leith, which they fortified; and the French
+ambassador was commanded to inform the Prior, that the King, his master,
+would rather spend the crown of France, than not be revenged of the
+seditious persons in Scotland.
+
+The civil war now raged with increased bitterness, and with various
+success, but without any decisive advantage on either side for some time.
+The Reformers applied for assistance to Queen Elizabeth, who favoured
+their cause for various reasons, and would, no doubt, much rather have
+seen Murray in possession of the Scottish crown, than her own personal
+rival, Mary. The Congregation having found it impossible, by their own
+efforts, to drive the French out of Leith, Elizabeth, in the beginning of
+the year 1560, fitted out a powerful fleet, which, to the astonishment of
+the Queen Regent and her French allies, sailed up the Firth of Forth, and
+anchored in the Roads, before even the purpose for which it had come was
+known. A treaty was soon afterwards concluded at Berwick between the Lords
+of the Congregation and Elizabeth's Commissioner, the Duke of Norfolk, by
+which it was agreed, on the part of the former, that no alliance should
+ever be entered into by them with France; and on that of the latter, that
+an English army should march into Scotland early in spring, for the
+purpose of aiding in the expulsion of the French troops.
+
+This army came at the time appointed, and was soon joined by the forces of
+the Reformers. The allies marched directly for Leith, which they invested
+without loss of time. The siege was conducted with great spirit, but the
+town was very resolutely defended by the French. So much determination was
+displayed upon both sides, that it is difficult to say how the matter
+might have ended, had not the death of the Queen Regent, which took place
+at this juncture, changed materially the whole aspect of affairs. She had
+been ill for some time, and during her sickness resided in the Castle of
+Edinburgh. Perceiving that her end was approaching, she requested an
+interview with some of the leaders of the Congregation. The Duke of
+Chatelherault, the Prior of St Andrews, or the Lord James, as he was
+commonly called, and others, waited upon her in her sick-chamber. She
+expressed to them her sincere grief for the troubles which existed in the
+country, and advised that both the English and French troops should be
+sent home. She entreated that they would reverence and obey their native
+and lawful sovereign, her daughter Mary. She told them how deeply attached
+she was to Scotland and its interests, although by birth a Frenchwoman;
+and at the conclusion, she burst into tears, kissing the nobles one by
+one, and asking pardon of all whom she had in any way offended. The day
+after this interview, Mary of Guise died. Her many excellent qualities
+were long remembered in Scotland; for even those who could not love,
+respected her. In private life, if this term can be used with propriety
+when speaking of a Queen, she appears to have been most deservedly
+esteemed. She set an example to all her maids of honour, of piety,
+modesty, and becoming gravity of deportment; she was exceedingly
+charitable to the poor; and had she fallen upon better days, her life
+would have been a happier one for herself, and her memory more generally
+prized by posterity. Her body was carried over to France, and buried in
+the Benedictine Monastery at Rheims.[8]
+
+Very soon after the death of the Queen Regent, Commissioners arrived both
+from France and England, with full powers to conclude a treaty of peace
+between the three countries. By the loss of their sister, the Princes of
+Lorraine had been deprived of their chief support in Scotland, and, being
+actively engaged in schemes of ambition nearer home, they found it
+necessary to conciliate, as they best could, the predominating party
+there. The important treaty of Edinburgh, which will be mentioned
+frequently hereafter, was concluded on the 14th of June 1560. It was
+signed on the part of France by the two plenipotentiaries, Monluc, Bishop
+of Valence, and the Sieur Derandon, reckoned two of the best diplomatists
+of the day; and, on the part of England, by Wotton, Dean of Canterbury,
+and Elizabeth's prime minister, Cecil, one of the ablest men of that or
+any age. The interests of the Congregation were intrusted principally to
+the Lord James. In consequence of this treaty, the French troops were
+immediately withdrawn. The fortifications of Leith and Dunbar were
+destroyed, and a Parliament was held, whose acts were to be considered as
+valid as if it had been called by the express commands of the Queen. In
+that Parliament, the adherents of the Congregation were found greatly to
+out-number their adversaries. An act of oblivion and indemnity was passed
+for all that had taken place within the two preceding years; and, for the
+first time, the Catholics, awed into silence, submitted to every thing
+which the Reformers proposed. A new Confession of Faith was sanctioned;
+the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts was abolished; and the
+exercise of worship, according to the rites of the Romish Church, was
+prohibited under severe penalties--a third act of disobedience being
+declared capital.
+
+Thus, the Reformation finally triumphed in Scotland. Though as yet only in
+its infancy, and still exposed to many perils, it was nevertheless
+established on a comparatively firm and constitutional basis. The
+Catholics, it is true, aware of the school in which Mary had been
+educated, were far from having given up all hope of retrieving their
+circumstances; and they waited for her return with the utmost impatience
+and anxiety. But they ought to have known, that whatever might have been
+Mary's wishes, their reign was over in Scotland. A Sovereign may coerce
+the bodies, but he can never possess a despotic sway over the minds of his
+subjects. The people had now begun to think for themselves; and a belief
+in the mere mummeries of a fantastic system of Christianity, and of the
+efficacy of miracles performed by blocks of wood and stone, was never
+again to form a portion of their faith. A brief account of one of the
+last, and not least ludicrous attempts which the Popish clergy made to
+support their sinking cause, will form a not improper conclusion to this
+chapter.
+
+There was a chapel in the neighbourhood of Musselburgh, dedicated to the
+Lady of Loretto, which, from the character of superior sanctity it had
+acquired, had long been the favourite resort of religious devotees. In
+this chapel, a body of the Catholic priests undertook to put their
+religion to the test, by performing a miracle. They fixed upon a young
+man, who was well known as a common blind beggar, in the streets of
+Edinburgh, and engaged to restore to him, in the presence of the assembled
+people, the perfect use of his eyesight. A day was named, on which they
+calculated they might depend on this wonderful interposition of divine
+power in their behalf. From motives of curiosity, a great crowd was
+attracted at the appointed time to the chapel. The blind man made his
+appearance on a scaffold, erected for the occasion. The priests approached
+the altar, and, after praying very devoutly, and performing other
+religious ceremonies, he who had previously been stone blind, opened his
+eyes, and declared he saw all things plainly. Having humbly and gratefully
+thanked his benefactors, the priests, he was permitted to mingle among the
+astonished people, and receive their charity.
+
+Unfortunately, however, for the success of this deception, a gentleman
+from Fife, of the name of Colville, determined to penetrate, if possible,
+a little further into the mystery. He prevailed upon the subject of the
+recent experiment to accompany him to his lodgings in Edinburgh. As soon
+as they were alone, he locked the chamber-door, and either by bribes or
+threats, contrived to win from him the whole secret. It turned out, that
+in his boyhood, this tool, in the hands of the designing, had been
+employed as a herd by the nuns of the Convent of Sciennes, then in the
+neighbourhood of Edinburgh. It was remarked by the sisterhood, that he had
+an extraordinary facility in "flyping up the lid of his eyes, and casting
+up the white." Some of the neighbouring priests, hearing accidentally of
+this talent, imagined that it might be applied to good account. They
+accordingly took him from Sciennes to the monastery near Musselburgh,
+where they kept him till he had made himself an adept in this mode of
+counterfeiting blindness, and till his personal appearance was so much
+changed, that the few who had been acquainted with him before, would not
+be able to recognise him. They then sent him into Edinburgh to beg
+publicly, and make himself familiarly known to the inhabitants, as a
+common blind mendicant. So far every thing had gone smoothly, and the
+scene at the Chapel of Loretto might have had effect on the minds of the
+vulgar, had Colville's activity not discovered the gross imposture.
+Colville, who belonged to the Congregation, instantly took the most
+effectual means to make known the deceit. He insisted upon the blind man's
+appearing with him next day, at the Cross of Edinburgh, where the latter
+repeated all he had previously told Colville, and confessed the iniquity
+of his own conduct, as well as that of the priests. To shelter him from
+their revenge, Colville immediately afterwards carried him off to Fife;
+and the story, with all its details, being speedily disseminated, exposed
+the Catholic clergy to more contempt than ever.[9]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MARY'S BIRTH, AND SUBSEQUENT RESIDENCE AT THE FRENCH COURT, WITH A SKETCH
+OF THE STATE OF SOCIETY AND MANNERS IN FRANCE, DURING THE SIXTEENTH
+CENTURY.
+
+
+Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was the third child of James V. and his wife,
+Mary of Guise. That lady had born him previously two sons, both of whom
+died in infancy. Mary came into the world on the 7th of December 1542, in
+the Palace of Linlithgow.[10] She was only seven days old when she lost
+her father, who at the time of her birth lay sick in the Palace of
+Falkland. James died, as he had lived, with a kingly and gallant spirit.
+In the language of Pitscottie, he turned him upon his back, and looked and
+beheld all his nobles and lords about him, and, giving a little smile of
+laughter, kissed his hand, and offered it to them. When they had pressed
+it to their lips for the last time, he tossed up his arms, and yielded his
+spirit to God. James was considered one of the most handsome men of his
+day. He was above the middle stature; his hair flowed luxuriantly over his
+shoulders in natural ringlets, and was of a dark yellow or auburn colour;
+his eyes were gray, and very penetrating; his voice was sweet toned; and
+the general expression of his countenance uncommonly prepossessing. He
+inherited a vigorous constitution, and kept it sound and healthy by
+constant exercise, and by refraining from all excesses in eating or
+drinking. He was buried in the Royal Vault in the Chapel of Holyrood
+House, where his embalmed body, in a state of entire preservation, was
+still to be seen in the time of the historian Keith.
+
+The young Queen was crowned by Cardinal Beaton at Stirling, on the 9th of
+September 1543. Her mother, who watched over her with the most careful
+anxiety, had been told a report prevailed that the infant was sickly, and
+not likely to live. To disprove this calumny, she desired Janet Sinclair,
+Mary's nurse, to unswaddle her in the presence of the English Ambassador,
+who wrote to his own court that she was as goodly a child as he had seen
+of her age.
+
+Soon after her birth, the Parliament nominated Commissioners, to whom they
+intrusted the charge of the Queen's person, leaving all her other
+interests to the care of her mother. The two first years of her life, Mary
+spent at Linlithgow, where it appears she had the small-pox, a point of
+some importance, as one of her historians remarks, in the biography of a
+beauty and a queen.[11] The disease must have been of a particularly
+gentle kind, having left behind no visible traces. During the greater
+part of the years 1545, 46 and 47, she resided at Stirling Castle, in the
+keeping of Lords Erskine and Livingstone. Here she received the first
+rudiments of education from two ecclesiastics, who were appointed her
+preceptors, more, however, as matter of form, than from any use they could
+be of to her at so early an age. When the internal disturbances of the
+country rendered even Stirling Castle a somewhat dangerous residence, Mary
+was removed to Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the Lake of Monteith.
+That she might not be too lonely, and that a spirit of generous emulation
+might present her with an additional motive for the prosecution of her
+studies, the Queen Dowager selected four young ladies of rank as her
+companions and playmates. They were each about her daughter's age, and
+either from chance, or because the conceit seemed natural, they all bore
+the same surname. The four Maries were, Mary Beaton, a niece of Cardinal
+Beaton, Mary Fleming, daughter of Lord Fleming, Mary Livingstone, whose
+father was one of the young Queen's guardians, and Mary Seaton, daughter
+of Lord Seaton.
+
+Mary having remained upwards of two years in this island, those who had,
+at the time, the disposal of her future destiny, thought it expedient, for
+reasons which have been already explained, that she should be removed to
+France. She was accordingly, in the fifth year of her age, taken to
+Dumbarton, where she was delivered to the French Admiral, whose vessels
+were waiting to receive her, and attended by the Lords Erskine and
+Livingstone, her three natural brothers, and her four Maries, she left
+Scotland.
+
+The thirteen happiest years of Mary's life were spent in France. Towards
+the end of July 1548, she sailed from Dumbarton, and, after a tempestuous
+voyage, landed at Brest on the 14th of August. She was there received, by
+Henry II.'s orders, with all the honours due to her rank and royal
+destiny. She travelled, with her retinue, by easy stages, to the palace at
+St Germain En Laye; and to mark the respect that was paid to her, the
+prison-gates of every town she came to were thrown open, and the prisoners
+set free. Shortly after her arrival, she was sent, along with the King's
+own daughters, to one of the first convents in France, where young ladies
+of distinction were instructed in the elementary branches of education.
+
+The natural quickness of her capacity, and the early acuteness of her
+mind, now began to manifest themselves. She made rapid progress in
+acquiring that species of knowledge suited to her years, and her lively
+imagination went even the length of attaching a more than ordinary
+interest to the calm and secluded life of a nunnery. It was whispered,
+that she had already expressed a wish to separate herself forever from the
+world; and it is not improbable, that had this wish been allowed to foster
+itself silently in her bosom, Mary might ultimately have taken the veil,
+in which case her life would have been a blank in history. But these views
+were not consistent with the more ambitious projects entertained by Henry
+and her uncles of Lorraine. As soon as they were informed of the bent
+which her mind appeared to be taking, she was again removed from the
+convent to the palace. To reconcile her to parting with the vestal
+sisters, Henry, whose conduct towards her was always marked by affection
+and delicacy, selected, from all the noble Scotch families then residing
+in France, a certain number to constitute her future household. The tears
+which Mary shed, however, upon leaving the nunnery, proved the warmth of
+her young heart; and that her feelings were not of merely momentary
+duration, is evinced by the frequent visits she subsequently paid this
+asylum of her childhood,--and by the altar-piece she embroidered with her
+own hands for the chapel of the convent.
+
+In no country of Europe was education better understood than it then was
+in France. Francis I., who remodelled, upon a magnificent scale, the
+University of Paris, only followed the example which had already been set
+him by Louis XII. The youth of all countries flocked to the French
+schools. The liberal principles which induced the government to maintain,
+at its own expense, professors, who lectured to as many students as chose
+to hear them, was amply repaid by the beneficial consequences arising from
+the great influx of strangers. A competent knowledge of Latin, Greek,
+Hebrew, Mathematics, Moral Philosophy and Medicine, could be acquired in
+France for literally nothing. Nor was it necessary, that he who sought for
+the blessings of education, should profess any particular system of
+religious faith. The German Protestant, and the Spanish Catholic, were
+allowed, in these noble institutions, to take their seat side by side.
+Henry supported the church as an engine of state, whilst he detested the
+arrogant pretensions and empty insolence of many of the clergy, and was
+determined that they should not interfere with the more enlightened views
+which he himself entertained. In this, he only followed the opinions of
+his illustrious father, Francis, who used to remark, that monks were
+better at teaching linnets to whistle, playing at dice, tippling, and
+gormandizing, than in doing good either to religion or morality.
+
+The host of authors, and men of genius, who flourished in France about
+this period, was another cause of its literary eminence. "Learning," says
+Miss Benger, "far from being the badge of singularity, had become the
+attribute of a superior station." "There was," observes the ingenious
+Pasquier, "a glorious crusade against ignorance." Many of the names then
+celebrated have since, it is true, passed into oblivion, but the multitude
+who cultivated letters, show the spirit of the times. Beza, Seve,
+Pelletier and others, led the van in the severer departments of intellect;
+whilst Bellay, Ronsard and Jodelle, showed the way, to a host of
+followers, in the cultivation of poetry, and the softer arts of
+composition.
+
+Nor must the great statesmen and warriors, whose presence lent a lustre to
+the court, be forgotten in this view of the existing pre-eminence of
+France. The two Houses of Bourbon and Guise, had each given birth to many
+names destined for immortality. The present chiefs of Bourbon were
+Anthony, Duke of Navarre, and Louis, known in the history of the world as
+the first Prince of Conde. There were six brothers of the Guises, of whom
+the two most illustrious were Francis Duke of Guise, and Charles Cardinal
+of Lorraine. But they all held the very highest offices in the church or
+state; one was a Cardinal, and another a Grand Prior; a third, the Duke
+d'Aumale, commanded the army then in Italy; and the fourth, the Marquis
+d'Elbeuf, was intrusted with the charge of the French troops in Scotland.
+But he who held the balance of power between all these contending
+interests, was the great Montmorency, Constable of France. He had, by this
+time, become a veteran in the service of the French monarchs. Louis XII.
+had acknowledged his virtues, and Francis I. looked to him for advice and
+aid in every emergency. Henry felt almost a filial affection and reverence
+for so distinguished a statesman and patriot; and Diana de Poictiers
+herself, the fascinating widow of the Duke de Valentinois, frequently
+found that she possessed less influence with the monarch than the
+venerable and unostentatious Montmorency. The minister was at all times
+surrounded by a formidable phalanx of friends and supporters. Of these his
+own sons were not the least considerable; and his nephews, the two
+Colignys, need only to be mentioned, to awaken recollections of some of
+the most remarkable events of French history.
+
+Neither must we omit to mention the two ladies who held the highest places
+in the French Court. The sister and the wife of Henry II. resembled each
+other but faintly, yet both secured the admiration of the country. The
+Princess Margaret had established herself by her patronage of every
+liberal art, and her universal beneficence, in the hearts of the whole
+people. Her religion did not degenerate into bigotry, and her charity,
+whilst it was at all times efficient, was without parade. She became
+afterwards the Duchess of Savoy; but till past the meridian of life, she
+continued constantly at her brother's Court,--a bright example of all that
+was virtuous and attractive in female character. To her, France was
+indebted for discovering and fostering the talents of its great Chancellor
+Michel L'Hopital; and the honourable name by which she was universally
+known was that of Minerva. The King's wife, Catherine de Medicis, was more
+respected for her talents than loved for her virtues. But as yet, the
+ambition of her nature had not betrayed itself, and little occasion had
+been afforded for the exercise of those arts of dissimulation, or the
+exposure of that proneness to envy and resentment, which at a later period
+became so apparent. She was still in the bloom of youth, and maintained a
+high character, not without much show of reason.
+
+Such being the general aspect of the country and the Court, it cannot fail
+to become evident, that so far from being a just cause of regret, nothing
+could have redounded more to Mary's advantage than her education and
+residence in France. If bigotry prevailed among the clergy, it was not
+countenanced at the Court, for Henry cared little about religion, and his
+sister Margaret was suspected of leaning to the Reformed opinions. If
+Parisian manners were known to be too deeply tinctured with
+licentiousness, the palace of Catherine must be excepted from the charge;
+for even the deportment of Diana herself was grave and decorous, and for
+his sister's sake, the King dared not have countenanced any of those
+grosser immoralities in which Henry VIII. of England so openly indulged.
+The Cardinal of Lorraine, who was at the head of the Parisian University,
+quickly discovering Mary's capabilities, directed her studies with the
+most watchful anxiety. She was still attended by the two preceptors who
+had accompanied her from Scotland, and before she was ten years old, had
+made good progress in the French, Latin, and Italian languages. French was
+all her life as familiar to her as her native tongue; and she wrote it
+with a degree of elegance which no one could surpass. Her acquaintance
+with Latin was not of that superficial kind but too common in the present
+day. This language was then regarded as almost the only one on whose
+stability any reliance could be placed. It was consequently deemed
+indispensable, that all who aspired at any eminence in literature, should
+be able to compose in it fluently. Mary's teacher was the celebrated
+George Buchanan, who was then in France, and who, whatever other praise he
+may be entitled to, was unquestionably one of the best scholars of his
+time. The young Queen's attention was likewise directed to Rhetoric, by
+Fauchet, author of a treatise on that subject which he dedicated to his
+pupil,--to history by Pasquier,--and to the delightful study of poetry,
+for which her genius was best suited, and for which she retained a
+predilection all her life, by Ronsard.
+
+Nor must it be imagined that Mary's childhood was exclusively devoted to
+these more scholastic pursuits. She and her young companions, the Scotch
+Maries and the daughters of Henry, were frequently present at those
+magnificent galas and fetes, in which the King himself so much delighted,
+and which were so particularly in unison with the taste of the times,
+though no where conducted with so much elegance and grace, as at the
+French Court. The summer tournaments and fetes champetres, and the winter
+festivals and masquerades, were attended by all the beauty and chivalry of
+the land. In these amusements, Mary, as she grew up, took a lively and
+innocent pleasure. The woods and gardens also of Fontainbleau, afforded a
+delightful variation from the artificial splendours of Paris. In summer,
+sailing on the lakes, or fishing in the ponds; and in winter, a
+construction of fortresses on the ice,--a mimic battle of snow-balls,--or
+skating, became royal pastimes. Mary's gait and air, naturally dignified
+and noble, acquired an additional charm from the attention she paid to
+dancing and riding. The favourite dance at the time was the Spanish
+minuet, which Mary frequently performed with her young consort, to the
+admiration of the whole court. In the livelier gailliarde, she was
+unequalled, as was confessed, even by the beautiful Anne of Este, who, in
+a pas des deux, acknowledged that she was eclipsed by Mary.
+
+The activity of her body indeed, kept, upon all occasions, full pace with
+that of her mind. She was particularly fond of hunting; and she and her
+maids of honour were frequently seen following the stag through the
+ancestral forests of France. Her attachment to this amusement, which
+continued all her life, exposed her, on several occasions, to some danger.
+So early as the year 1559, when hunting in France, some part of her dress
+was caught by the bough of a tree, and she was cast off her horse when
+galloping at full speed. Many of the ladies and gentlemen in her train
+passed by without observing her, and some so near as actually to tread on
+her riding-dress. As soon as the accident was discovered, she was raised
+from the ground; but, though the shock had been considerable, she had too
+manly a spirit to complain, and, readjusting her hair, which had fallen
+into confusion, she again mounted her horse, and rode home smiling at the
+accident.[12]
+
+Another, but more sedentary amusement with Mary, was the composition of
+devices. To excel in these, required some wit and judgment. A device was
+the skilful coupling of a few expressive words with any engraved figure or
+picture. It was an art intimately connected with the science of heraldry,
+and seems to have suggested the modern seal and motto. The composition of
+these devices was, as it is somewhere called, only "an elegant species of
+trifling;" but it had something intellectual in it, which the best
+informed ladies of the French court liked. An old author, who writes upon
+this subject, elevates it to a degree of importance rather amusing. "It
+delights the eye," he says, "it captivates the imagination, it is also
+profitable and useful; and therefore surpasseth all other arts, and also
+painting, since this only represents the body and exquisite features of
+the face, whereas a device exposes the rare ideas and gallant sentiments
+of its author; it also excels poetry, in as much as it joineth profit with
+pleasure, since none merit the title of devices unless they at once please
+by their grace, and yield profit by their doctrine."
+
+Mary's partialities were commonly lasting, and when in very different
+circumstances, she frequently loved to return to this amusement of her
+childhood. Some of the emblems she invented, betray much elegance and
+sensibility of mind. On the death of her husband Francis, she took for her
+device a little branch of the liquorice-tree, whose root only is sweet,
+all the rest of the plant being bitter, and the motto was, _Dulce meum
+terra tegit_. On her cloth of state was embroidered the sentence, _En ma
+fin est mon commencement_; "a riddle," says Haynes, "I understand not;"
+but which evidently meant to inculcate a lesson of humility, and to remind
+her that life, with all its grandeur, was the mere prologue to eternity.
+The French historian, Mezeray, mentions also that Mary had a medal struck,
+on which was represented a vessel in a storm, with its masts broken and
+falling, illustrated by the motto, _Nunquam nisi rectam_; indicating a
+determination rather to perish than deviate from the path of
+integrity.[13] When she was in England, she embroidered for the Duke of
+Norfolk a hand with a sword in it, cutting vines, with the motto _Virescit
+vulnere virtus_. In these and similar fancies, she embodied strong and
+often original thoughts with much delicacy.
+
+In the midst of these occupations and amusements, Mary was not allowed to
+forget her native country. Frequent visits were paid her from Scotland, by
+those personally attached to herself or her family. In 1550, her mother,
+Mary of Guise, came over to see her, accompanied by several of the
+nobility. The Queen-dowager, a woman of strong affections, was so
+delighted with the improvement she discovered in her daughter's mind and
+person, that she burst into tears of joy; and her Scottish attendants were
+hardly less affected by the sight of their future Sovereign. Henry, with
+his young charge, was at Rouen, when the Queen-dowager arrived. To testify
+his respect for her, he ordered a triumph to be prepared, which consisted
+of one of those grotesque allegorical exhibitions then so much in vogue;
+and, shortly afterwards, the two Queens made a public entry into Paris.
+Mary of Guise had there an opportunity likewise of seeing her son by her
+first husband, the Duke de Longueville, Mary's half-brother, but who seems
+to have spent his life in retirement, as history scarcely notices him. It
+may well be conceived, that the widow of James V. returned even to the
+regency of Scotland with reluctance, since she purchased the gratification
+of her ambition by a final separation from her children.[14]
+
+It was about the same time that Mary first saw Sir James Melville, who was
+then only a few years older than herself, and who was sent over in the
+train of the Bishop of Monluc, when he returned after signing the Treaty
+of Edinburgh, to be one of Mary's pages of honour. Sir James was
+afterwards frequently employed by the Queen as her foreign ambassador, and
+his name will appear more than once in the sequel. We have spoken of him
+here for the purpose of introducing an amusing anecdote, which he gives us
+in his own Memoirs, and which illustrates the state of manners at that
+period. Upon landing at Brest, the Bishop proceeded direct to Paris. But
+Sir James, who was young, and could hardly have endured the fatigue of
+this mode of travelling, was intrusted to the care of two Scotch
+gentlemen, who had come over in the same ship. Their first step was to
+purchase three little "naigies," on which they proposed riding to Paris,
+any thing in the shape of a _diligence_ being out of the question. To
+ensure greater safety on the journey, three others joined the party,--two
+Frenchmen, and a young Spaniard, who was on his way to the College at
+Paris. On the evening of the first day, they arrived at the town of
+Landerneau, where all the six were lodged in one room, containing three
+beds. The two Frenchmen slept together in one, the two Scotsmen in
+another, and Melville and the Spaniard in the third. The company on the
+whole does not appear to have been of the most respectable kind; for, as
+Melville lay awake, he heard "the twa Scotchmen devising how they were
+directed to let him want naething; therefore, said they, we will pay for
+his ordinair all the way, and shall count up twice as meikle to his master
+when we come to Paris, and sae shall win our ain expenses." The two
+Frenchmen, on their part, thinking that nobody in the room understood
+French, said to each other, "These strangers are all young, and know not
+the fashion of the hostelries; therefore we shall deal and reckon with the
+hosts at every repast, and shall cause the strangers pay more than the
+custom is, and that way shall we save our expenses." At all this Melville,
+as he tells us, could not refrain from "laughing in his mind," and
+determined to be upon his guard. "Yet the twa Scotch young men," he adds
+in his antique phraseology, "would not consent that I should pay for
+myself, hoping still to beguile the Bishop, but the Spaniart and I writ up
+every day's compt." The Frenchmen being foiled in their swindling
+intentions, had recourse to a still bolder manoeuvre. One day, as the
+party were riding through a wood, two other Frenchmen, who had joined them
+a short time before, suddenly leapt off their horses, and, drawing their
+swords, demanded that the others should deliver up their purses. Melville
+and his Scotch friends, however, were not to be thus intimidated. They
+also drew their swords, and prepared for resistance; on seeing which, the
+Frenchmen affected to make a joke of the whole affair, saying that they
+merely wanted to try the courage of the Scotchmen, in case they should
+have been attacked by robbers. "But the twa last loons," says Melville,
+"left us at the next lodging; and the twa Scotch scholairs never obtenit
+payment frae the Bishop for their pretendit fraud." Sir James arrived in
+safety at Paris, having taken thirteen days to ride from Brest to the
+capital.[15]
+
+Thus diversified by intercourse with her friends and with her books, by
+study and recreation, Mary's early life passed rapidly away. It has been
+already seen, that whatever could have tended to corrupt the mind or
+manners was carefully removed from the young Queen. As soon as Mary
+entered upon her teens, she and her companions, the two young princesses,
+Henry's daughters, spent several hours every day in the private apartment
+of Catherine de Medicis, whose conversation, as well as that of the
+foreign ambassadors and other persons of distinction who paid their
+respects to her, they had thus an opportunity of hearing. Conaeus mentions,
+that Mary was soon observed to avail herself, with great earnestness, of
+these opportunities of acquiring knowledge; and it has been hinted, that
+the superior intelligence she evinced, in comparison with Catherine's own
+daughters, was the first cause of exciting that Queen's jealousy. It was
+perhaps at some of these conferences that Mary imperceptibly imbibed, from
+her future mother-in-law, and her not unfrequent visitor, Nostradamus, a
+slight portion of that tendency to superstitious belief then so prevalent.
+One of the most remarkable characters about Henry's court, was Nicolas
+Cretin, or Nostradamus, as he was more commonly called, who combined in
+his own person the three somewhat incongruous professions of physician,
+astrologer, and philosopher. He asserted, that he was not only perfectly
+acquainted with the laws of planetary influence, but that, by the
+inspiration of divine power, he could predict the events of futurity. The
+style of his prophecies was in general sufficiently obscure; yet such was
+the reverence paid to learning in those days (and Nostradamus was a very
+library of learning), that he was courted and consulted even by the first
+statesmen in France. Mary had far too lively a fancy to escape the
+infection; and the force of this early bias continued to be felt by her
+more or less all her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MARY'S MARRIAGE, PERSONAL APPEARANCE, AND POPULARITY.
+
+
+The time now approached when Henry began to think of confirming the French
+authority in Scotland, by consummating the contract of marriage which had
+so long existed between Francis and Mary. This was not, however, to be
+done without considerable opposition from several quarters. The Constable
+Montmorency, and the House of Bourbon, already trembled at the growing
+influence of the Guises, plainly foreseeing, that as soon as the niece of
+the Duke and Cardinal of Lorraine became wife to the Dauphin, and
+consequently, upon Henry's death, Queen of France, their own influence
+would be at an end. It is not improbable that Montmorency aimed at
+marrying one of his own sons to Mary. At all events, he endeavoured to
+persuade Henry that he might find a more advantageous alliance for
+Francis. The Guises, however, were not thus to be overreached; and the
+King more willingly listened to their powerful representations in favour
+of the match, as it had long been a favourite scheme with himself. It
+would be uncharitable to ascribe to the agency of any of those who
+opposed it, an attempt which was made some time before by a person of the
+name of Stuart, a Scottish archer in the King's guards, to poison Mary.
+Stuart being detected, was tried, condemned, and executed, but made no
+confession which could lead to any discovery of his motives. It is most
+likely that he had embraced the reformed religion, and was actuated by a
+fanatical desire to save his country from the dominion of a Catholic
+princess.
+
+Francis, the young Dauphin, who was much about Mary's own age, was far
+inferior to her, both in personal appearance and mental endowments. He was
+of a very weakly constitution; and the energies of his mind seem to have
+been repressed by the feebleness of his body. But if unable to boast of
+any distinguishing virtues, he was undegraded by the practice of any vice.
+He was amiable, timid, affectionate, and shy. He was aware of his want of
+physical strength, and feared lest the more robust should make it a
+subject of ridicule. He appears to have loved Mary with the tenderest
+affection, being probably anxious to atone to her, by every mark of
+devotion, for the sacrifice he must have seen she was making in
+surrendering herself to him, in all the lustre of her charms. Yet there is
+good reason to believe that Mary really loved Francis. They had been
+playmates from infancy; they had prosecuted all their studies together;
+and though Francis cared little for the pleasures of society, and rather
+shunned than encouraged those who wished to pay their court to him, Mary
+was aware that, for this very reason, he was only the more sincere in his
+passion for her. It was not in Mary's nature to be indifferent to those
+who evinced affection for her; and if her fondness for Francis were
+mingled with pity, it has long been asserted, that "pity is akin to love".
+
+On the 24th of April 1558, the nuptials took place. In December the
+preceding year, a letter from Henry had been laid before the Scotch
+Parliament, requesting that some persons of rank should be sent over from
+Scotland as Commissioners to witness the marriage; and in compliance with
+this desire, the Lord James, Prior of St Andrews, and eight other persons
+of distinction, arrived at the French Court in March 1558.[16] Their
+instructions commanded them to guard against French encroachments, upon
+the rights and privileges of Scottish subjects; and, that no doubt might
+remain regarding the right of succession to the Scottish throne, they were
+to obtain from the King of France a ratification of his former promise, to
+aid and support the Duke of Chatelherault in his claims upon the crown, in
+case Mary died without issue. They were also to require a declaration to a
+similar effect from the Queen and Dauphin. All these demands were at once
+complied with.
+
+It has been alleged, however, that a very gross deceit was practised, upon
+this occasion, by the French Court. It is said, that though, to satisfy
+the Scotch Commissioners, all their requests were ostensibly granted,
+Henry took secret measures to render these grants entirely inefficacious.
+Mary, it is asserted, on the 4th of April, signed three papers, in the
+first of which she made over the kingdom of Scotland in free gift to the
+King of France, to be enjoyed by him and his heirs, should she die without
+children; in the second, (lest it might not be deemed expedient to insist
+upon the first,) she assigned to the King of France the possession of
+Scotland, after her decease without children, till he should be reimbursed
+of a million pieces of gold, or any greater sum which he should be found
+to have expended on her during her residence in France; and, in the third,
+she protested, that whatever declarations she might subscribe, in
+compliance with the desire of the Scotch Parliament, touching the lineal
+succession of her crown, the genuine sense of her mind was contained only
+in the two preceding papers.[17] If this dishonourable transaction really
+took place, whilst it cannot involve Mary, a young and inexperienced girl
+of fifteen, in any serious blame, it certainly reflects the highest
+discredit both upon Henry and his advisers of the house of Guise. There is
+good reason, however, to believe, that these instruments, though they
+unquestionably exist, are forgeries. It was not an uncommon trick in those
+times, for the Reformers to stir up jealousy against a Catholic sovereign,
+by alleging, that he had promised away his country to some well known
+papist. The Prince of Conde, in December 1568, was not aware of the
+authenticity of any such papers; for, if he had been, he would undoubtedly
+have mentioned them when he asked Elizabeth's assistance to establish the
+Protestant religion in France. On the contrary, he trumps up a ridiculous
+story, to which no one has ever given any credit, that Mary had ceded her
+right to the crown of England, in behalf of the King of France's brother,
+Henry Duke of Anjou. After Mary's death, it was confidently reported, and
+with equal falsehood, that by her testament she had left England to the
+King of Spain, unless her son became a Roman Catholic. There is, besides,
+internal evidence of a striking nature, that these deeds were forgeries.
+For its discovery, we are indebted to the industry and research of
+Goodall.[18]
+
+Some of the provisions in the marriage-contract between Francis and Mary,
+are sufficiently remarkable to deserve being recorded. The jointure
+assigned by it to the Queen, provided her husband died King of France, is
+60,000 livres, or a greater sum, if a greater had ever been given to a
+Queen of France. If her husband died only Dauphin, the jointure was to be
+30,000 livres. The eldest son of the marriage was to be King of France and
+Scotland; and if there were no sons, the eldest daughter was to be Queen
+of Scotland only, with a portion of 400,000 crowns, as a daughter of
+France,--every younger daughter being allowed 300,000 crowns. Should her
+husband die, Mary was to be at liberty either to remain in France or
+return to Scotland, with an assurance that her jointure would be always
+duly paid her. The Dauphin was to bear the name and title of King of
+Scotland, and enjoy all the privileges of the crown-matrimonial.
+
+The marriage, for which so many preparations had thus been made, was
+solemnized in the church of Notre Dame, the ceremony being performed by
+the Cardinal of Bourbon, Archbishop of Rouen. Upon this occasion, the
+festivities were graced by the presence of all the most illustrious
+personages of the Court of France; and when Francis, taking a ring from
+his finger, presented it to the Archbishop, who, pronouncing the
+benediction, placed it on the young Queen's finger, the vaulted roof of
+the Cathedral rung with congratulations, and the multitude without rent
+the air with joyful shouts. The spectacle was altogether one of the most
+imposing which, even in that age of spectacles, had been seen in Paris.
+The procession, upon leaving the church, proceeded to the palace of the
+Archbishop, where a magnificent collation was prepared,--largess, as it
+moved along, being proclaimed among the people, in the name of the King
+and Queen of Scots. In the afternoon, the royal party returned to the
+palace of the Tournelles--Catherine de Medicis and Mary sitting together
+in the same palanquin, and a Cardinal walking on each side. Henry and
+Francis followed on horseback, with a long line of princes and princesses
+in their train. The chronicler of these nuptials is unable to conceal his
+rapture, when he describes the manner in which the palace had been
+prepared for their reception. Its whole appearance, he tells us, was
+"light and beautiful as Elysium." During supper, which was served upon a
+marble table in the great hall, the King's band of "one hundred gentlemen"
+poured forth delicious strains of music. The members of Parliament
+attended in their robes; and the princes of the blood performed the duty
+of servitors--the Duke of Guise acting as master of the ceremonies. The
+banquet being concluded, a series of the most magnificent masks and
+mummeries, prepared for the occasion, was introduced. In the pageant,
+twelve artificial horses, of admirable mechanism, covered with cloth of
+gold, and ridden by the young heirs of noble houses, attracted deserved
+attention. They were succeeded by six galleys, which sailed into the hall,
+each rich as Cleopatra's barge, and bearing on its deck two seats, the one
+filled by a young cavalier, who, as he advanced, carried off from among
+the spectators, and gently placed in the vacant chair, the lady of his
+love. A splendid tournament concluded these rejoicings.
+
+During the whole of these solemnities, every eye was fixed on the youthful
+Mary; and, inspired by those feelings which beauty seldom fails to excite,
+every heart offered up prayers for her future welfare and happiness. She
+was now at that age when feminine loveliness is perhaps most attractive.
+It is not to be supposed, indeed, that in her sixteenth year, her charms
+had ripened into that full-blown maturity which they afterwards attained;
+but they were, on this account, only the more fascinating. Some have
+conjectured that Mary's beauty has been extolled far beyond its real
+merits; and it cannot be denied that many vague and erroneous notions
+exist regarding it. But that her countenance possessed in a pre-eminent
+degree the something which constitutes beauty, is sufficiently attested by
+the unanimous declaration of all cotemporary writers. It is only, however,
+by carefully gathering together hints scattered here and there, that any
+accurate idea can be formed of the lineaments of a countenance which has
+so long ceased to exist, unless in the fancy of the enthusiast. Generally
+speaking, Mary's features were more Grecian than Roman, though without the
+insipidity that would have attached to them, had they been exactly
+regular. Her nose exceeded a little the Grecian proportion in length. Her
+hair was very nearly of the same colour as James V.'s--dark yellow, or
+auburn, and, like his, clustered in luxuriant ringlets. Her eyes,--which
+some writers, misled by the thousand blundering portraits of her scattered
+everywhere, conceive to have been gray, or blue, or hazel,--were of a
+chestnut colour,--darker, yet matching well with her auburn hair. Her brow
+was high, open, and prominent. Her lips were full and expressive, as the
+lips of the Stuarts generally were; and she had a small dimple in her
+chin. Her complexion was clear, and very fair, without a great deal of
+colour in her cheeks. Her mother was a woman of large stature, and Mary
+was also above the common size. Her person was finely proportioned, and
+her carriage exceedingly graceful and dignified.[19]
+
+In this description of Mary's personal appearance, we have placed a good
+deal of reliance on the research and accuracy of Chalmers. It will be
+observed, that our account differs, in many essential particulars, from
+that of Robertson, who says--"Mary's hair was black, though, according to
+the fashion of that age, she frequently wore borrowed locks, and of
+different colours. Her eyes were a dark gray; her complexion was
+exquisitely fine; and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to
+shape and colour. Her stature was of an height that rose to the majestic."
+Where Robertson discovered that Mary's hair was black, or her eyes gray,
+he does not mention. That her eyes were _not_ black, we have the direct
+testimony of Beal, Clerk to the Privy Council of England, who was ordered
+by Cecil to be present at the death of the Scottish Queen, and who
+describes her as having "chestnut-coloured eyes." As to her hair, and her
+other features, though Melville, in his Memoirs, certainly seems to imply
+that the former was auburn, yet, as he does not expressly say so, we
+suspect correct conclusions can be arrived at only by a reference to the
+best authenticated portraits which have been preserved of Mary. This,
+however, is far from being a criterion by which opinions should be rashly
+formed. There are few persons in the whole range of history, likenesses of
+whom have been more eagerly sought after; and, in proportion to the
+anxiety manifested to secure originals, has been the temptation to mislead
+and deceive. Almost all the paintings said to be originals of Mary Queen
+of Scots, are the impositions of picture-dealers. When the demand for
+these paintings became general, it was not at all unusual to despatch
+emissaries over the Continent to pick up every picture, the costume and
+general appearance of which in the least resembled the Scottish Queen.
+During Mary's life, and for some time after her death, the fame of her
+beauty, and the interest attached to her fortunes, induced numerous ladies
+of rank, who flattered themselves that they were like her, to have
+portraits painted in the style then well understood by the phrase _a la
+Mary Stuart_. There was, in particular, a celebrated Continental beauty of
+those days--a Countess of Mansfeldt--(we speak on the authority of a
+living artist of celebrity), who resembled Mary in many particulars, and
+all whose portraits (nor were they few in number) when they afterwards
+came into the hands of the picture-dealers, were affirmed to be Maries.
+Thus, in the lapse of years, the truth became so involved in uncertainty,
+that even Robertson, allowing himself to be too hastily misled, has lent
+his name to the dissemination of error.
+
+Horace Walpole, after having made extensive inquiries on this subject, has
+recorded, that he never could ascertain the authenticity and originality
+of any portrait of Mary, except of that in the possession of the Earl of
+Morton, which was painted when she was at Lochleven. Chalmers, in order to
+come as near the truth as possible, employed Mr Pailou, an artist of
+ability, to compare the picture belonging to the Earl of Morton, with two
+or three other undoubted originals which have been discovered since
+Walpole wrote. Pailou commenced by sketching the outline of his picture
+from Lord Morton's original. He then proceeded to the examination of
+three genuine portraits of Mary, one in the Church of St Andrew in
+Antwerp, another in the Scotch College at Douay, and a third in the Scotch
+College at Paris. Neither did he forget the profile heads of Mary struck
+upon her coins, nor the marble figure representing her on her tomb in
+Henry VII's Chapel, which Walpole thought a correct likeness. Mr Pailou
+thus made Lord Morton's picture the basis of his own, but, as he advanced,
+constantly referred to the others, "till he got the whole adjusted and
+coloured." Though we cannot exactly approve of thus cooking up a picture
+from various different sources, and should be inclined to think, that too
+much was left by such a mode of procedure to the arbitrary taste of the
+artist, we nevertheless feel satisfied that Mr Pailou has hit upon a
+tolerably accurate likeness. His picture, engraved by Scriven, forms the
+frontispiece to the second volume of Chalmers's work. The brow, eyes,
+mouth, and chin, he has given with great success. But the painting is far
+from being without faults;--the face is a good deal too round and plump,
+the nose is made slightly aquiline--a decided mistake,--and the neck is
+much too short, at least so it appears in the engraving.
+
+The portrait of Mary, which forms the frontispiece to the present volume,
+and on which we place greater reliance than on any with which we are
+acquainted, is an engraving executed expressly for this work, from an
+original picture of much merit.[20] It was painted when Mary was in
+France, by an Italian artist of eminence, who flourished as her
+cotemporary in the sixteenth century, and whose name is on the canvas. It
+would have been impossible to say at what precise age it represented Mary,
+though, from the juvenility of the countenance, it might have been
+concluded that it was taken a year or two before she became Dauphiness,
+had not the painter fortunately obviated the difficulty, by inserting
+immediately after his own signature the date, which is 1556, when she was
+just fourteen. It is upon this picture that we have chiefly founded our
+description of Mary's personal appearance. What gives us the greater
+confidence in its authenticity and accuracy, is, that it very exactly
+corresponds with two other portraits, believed on good grounds to be
+originals. This is a strong circumstance, for it is a very common and just
+remark, that almost no two likenesses of Mary agree. The paintings to
+which we allude are, first, one at the seat of Logie Almond, which
+represents Mary at the same age, but in a religious habit. It gives
+precisely the same view of the left side of the face as the engraving in
+this volume does of the right. From the style and other circumstances, it
+is very probable, that both pictures were painted by the same artist. The
+second is in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton, and is in
+one of the private apartments at Hamilton palace. It represents Mary at a
+somewhat more advanced period of life, but the features are quite the
+same. There is still a third picture, said to be an original, in the
+collection of the Marquis of Salisbury, at Hatfield House, and which has
+been engraved for Miss Benger's Memoirs, which very closely resembles our
+own. To be yet more assured, we have carefully examined the heads upon
+Mary's gold and silver coins. Some of these are inaccurate, but they have
+all a general resemblance to each other. A silver coin, of 1561, and the
+gold real stamped in 1562, agree minutely with our picture,--a
+circumstance which cannot but be considered a strong corroboration of its
+truth. It is unnecessary to make any apology to the reader for having
+entered thus minutely upon a subject of so much general interest.[21]
+
+With regard to the asseverations of cotemporary writers, as to the effects
+which Mary's beauty produced, many of them are almost too extravagant to
+be believed. They prove, nevertheless, that, whatever beauty may be,
+whether a mere fortunate arrangement of material atoms, or a light
+suffused upon the face, from the secret and etherial mind, it was a gift
+which Nature had lavishly bestowed on Mary. A year or two previous to her
+marriage, when walking in a religious procession, through the streets of
+Paris, with a lighted torch in her hand, a woman among the crowd was so
+struck with her appearance, that she could not help stopping her to
+ask,--"Are you not indeed an angel?" Brantome, with more questionable
+sincerity, compares her, at the age of fifteen, to the sun at mid-day. He
+tells us also, that the brother of Francis, afterwards Charles IX., never
+saw even a picture of Mary, without lingering to gaze upon it, declaring
+passionately, that he looked upon Francis as the happiest man on earth, to
+possess a creature of so much loveliness. Nay, Brantome even goes the
+length of asserting, that no man ever saw Mary who did not lose his heart
+to her. He is pleased, likewise, with some naivete, to pay her several
+high compliments at the expense of her native country. It appears that
+Mary, amidst all the gaieties of the French Court, had not forgot her
+early residence at Inchmahome, in the quiet lake of Monteith. Actuated by
+these recollections and other motives, she delighted to testify her regard
+for Scotland in various ways; and, among others, by frequently wearing in
+public the graceful Highland costume. The rich and national Stuart tartan
+became her exceedingly; and Brantome, who seems to have been greatly
+puzzled by the novelty of the dress, is nevertheless forced to declare,
+that when arrayed after "the barbarous fashion of the savages of her
+country, she appeared a goddess in a mortal body, and in a most outre and
+astonishing garb." Mary herself, was so fond of this costume, that she
+wore it in one of the portraits which were taken of her in France. If she
+appeared so beautiful thus "_habillee a la sauvage_," exclaims Brantome,
+"what must she not be in her rich and lovely robes made _a la Francaise,
+ou l'Espagnole_, or with a bonnet _a l'Italienne_; or in her flowing white
+dress, contending in vain with the whiteness of her skin!" Even when she
+sung, and accompanied herself upon the lute, Brantome found occasion to
+discover a new beauty,--"her soft snowy hand and fingers, fairer than
+Aurora's." "Ah royaume d'Escosse!" he touchingly adds, "Je croy que,
+maintenant, vos jours sont encore bien plus courts qu'ils n'estoient, et
+vos nuits plus longues, puisque vous avez perdu cette Princesse qui vos
+illuminoit!" The historian, Castelnau, in like manner, pronounces Mary
+"the most beautiful and accomplished of her sex;" and Mezeray tells us,
+that "Nature had bestowed upon her every thing that is necessary to form a
+complete beauty;" adding, that "by the study of the liberal arts and
+sciences, especially painting, music, and poetry, she had so embellished
+her natural good qualities, that she appeared to be the most amiable
+Princess in Christendom." On the occasion of her marriage, not only were
+the brains of all the jewellers, embroiderers, and tailors of Paris put in
+requisition, but a whole host of French poets felt themselves suddenly
+inspired. Epithalamiums poured in from all quarters, spiced with flattery
+of all kinds, few of which have been borne down the stream of time so
+honourably for their author's abilities as that of Buchanan, who, having
+long struggled with poverty, had at last risen to independence, under the
+patronage of Cardinal Lorraine. This poem is well known, but is not more
+complimentary than that of Joachim du Bellay, who, after comparing Mary to
+Venus, concludes his song with these lines:--
+
+  "Par une chaine a sa langue attachee
+  Hercule a soi les peuple attiroit;
+  Mais celle ci tire ceux qu'elle voit
+  Par une chaine a ses beaux yeux attachee."
+
+Homage, so general, cannot have been entirely misplaced, or very palpably
+exaggerated.
+
+In Scotland, through the instigation of the Queen Regent, Mary's nuptials,
+which were far from being agreeable to a numerous party, were celebrated
+with probably less sincere, and certainly much more homely expressions of
+pleasure. Orders were sent to the different towns "to make fyres and
+processions general." Mons-Meg, the celebrated great gun of Edinburgh
+Castle, was fired once; and there is a charge of ten shillings in the
+treasurer's accounts of that year paid to certain persons for bringing up
+the cannon "to be schote, and for the finding and carrying of her bullet
+after she was schote frae Wardie Muir to the Castel of Edinburgh,"--a
+distance of about two miles. A play was also enacted, but of what kind it
+is difficult to say, at the expense of the city of Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+MARY THE QUEEN DAUPHINESS, THE QUEEN, AND THE QUEEN DOWAGER OF FRANCE.
+
+
+Shortly after the espousals, Mary and her husband retired to one of their
+princely summer residences. Here she unostentatiously discharged the
+duties of a respectful and attentive wife, in a manner which gained for
+her the admiration of all who visited them. Delightful as society and
+amusements must at that age have been to her, she readily accommodated
+herself to the peculiar temper of Francis, and seemed willing, for his
+sake, to resign all the gaieties of the court.
+
+But the intriguing and restless ambition of her uncles could not allow her
+to remain long quiet. About this time, Mary Tudor, who had succeeded
+Edward VI. on the English throne, died; and although the Parliament of
+that country had declared that the succession rested in her sister
+Elizabeth, it was thought proper to claim for Mary Stuart a prior right.
+The ground upon which they built this claim was the following. Henry VIII.
+married for his first wife Catharine of Arragon, widow of his brother
+Arthur, and by her he had one child, Mary. Pretending after having lived
+with her eighteen years, that his conscience rebuked him for making his
+brother's wife the partner of his bed, he procured a divorce from
+Catharine for the purpose of marrying Anne Boleyn, by whom he had also one
+daughter, Elizabeth. Growing tired of this new wife, she was sent to the
+scaffold to make way for Jane Seymour, by whom he had one son, Edward. Of
+this uxorious monarch's other three wives, it is unnecessary to speak.
+Henry had procured from the British Parliament a solemn act, declaring
+both his daughters illegitimate, and he left his crown to Edward VI., who
+accordingly succeeded him. Upon Edward's death, the Parliament, rescinding
+their former act, in order to save the nation from a civil war, called to
+the throne Henry's eldest daughter Mary,--not, however, without a protest
+being entered in behalf of the Scotch Queen by her guardians. Upon Mary's
+death, the opportunity again occurred of pressing the claims of the
+daughter of James V. The mother of that king, it will be remembered, who
+married his father James IV., was the eldest daughter of Henry VII., and
+sister, consequently, of Henry VIII. Henry was, therefore, Mary's maternal
+grand-uncle; and if his wives, Catharine and Anne Boleyn, were legally
+divorced, she had certainly a better right to the English Crown than any
+of their illegitimate offspring. Soon after the accession, however, of
+Edward VI., the Parliament, complying with the voice of the whole nation,
+had declared them legitimate; and as Elizabeth now quietly took possession
+of the throne, and could hardly by any chance have been dispossessed, it
+was, to say the least, extremely ill-advised to push Mary forward as a
+rival claimant.
+
+For various reasons, however, this was the policy which the Guises chose
+to pursue. Nor did they proceed to assert her right with any particular
+delicacy or caution. Whenever the Dauphin and his Queen came into public,
+they were greeted as the King and Queen of England; and the English arms
+were engraved upon their plate, embroidered upon their scutcheons and
+banners, and painted on their furniture.[22] Mary's favourite device,
+also, at this time, was the two crowns of France and Scotland, with the
+motto, _Aliamque moratur_, meaning that of England. The prediction made by
+the Duke of Alva, on observing this piece of empty parade, was but too
+fatally fulfilled,--"That bearing of Mary Stuart's," said he, "will not be
+easily borne."
+
+About this time Mary seems to have been attacked with the first serious
+illness which had overtaken her in France. It was not of that acute
+description which confined her to bed, but was a sort of general debility
+accompanied with a tendency to frequent fainting. It is mentioned in
+Forbes's State Papers, that on one occasion, to prevent her from swooning
+in church, her attendants were glad to bring her wine from the altar.
+There were some at the French Court who would have felt little grief had
+this illness ended fatally, considering how serious a blow Mary's death
+would have been to the too predominating influence of the House of Guise.
+In England, the news would have been particularly agreeable to Elizabeth,
+whose ambassador at Paris eagerly consoled her with the intelligence that
+Mary was not expected to be of long continuance. The natural strength of
+her constitution, however, soon restored her to her former health and
+spirits.
+
+But it was destined that there was to be another and more unexpected death
+at the French Court. Henry II., while exhibiting his prowess at a
+tournament, on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to
+Philip of Spain, in July 1559, received a wound in the head from the spear
+of his antagonist, the Count Montgomery, which, though apparently not of
+much consequence at first, occasioned his dissolution eight days
+afterwards. A considerable change immediately took place in the aspect of
+the Court. The stars of the Duchess de Valentinois, and of the Constable
+Montmorency, set at once; and that of Catharine de Medicis, though not
+entirely obscured, shone lower in the horizon. She was now only the
+second lady in France, Mary Stuart taking the precedence. The Guises
+reigned along with her, and the House of Bourbon trembled. Catharine, who
+could bear no superior, more especially one young enough to be her own
+daughter, could ill disguise her chagrin. As a guardian, however, of her
+late husband's younger sons, the presumptive heirs to the crown, she was
+entitled to maintain her place and authority in the Government. There is a
+curious little anecdote of her which shows how much the change in her
+situation was preying on her mind. As she was leaving the Palace of the
+Tournelles, to accompany Francis to the Louvre, where he was to appear as
+the new Sovereign, she fell into a reverie, and in traversing the gallery,
+took a wrong turn, and was entirely separated from her party before she
+discovered her mistake. She soon overtook them, however, and as they
+passed out, said to Mary,--"Pass on, Madam, it is now your turn to take
+precedence." Mary accepted the courtesy, but with becoming delicacy
+insisted that Catharine should enter the carriage first.[23] There is
+something more affecting in the change which Henry's death produced in the
+condition of the venerable Montmorency and his family. He whom three
+monarchs had loved and respected, who had given dignity to their counsels,
+and ensured success to their arms, was not considered worthy of remaining
+in the palace of the feeble and entrammelled Francis. With a princely
+retinue, he retired honourably to his mansion at Chantilly.
+
+Mary was now at the very height of European grandeur. The Queen of two
+powerful countries--and the heir-presumptive of a third,--in the flower of
+her age,--and, from her superior mental endowments, much more worshipped,
+even in France, than her husband, she affords at this period of her
+history as striking an example as can be found of the concentration of all
+the blessings of fortune in one person. She stood unluckily on too high
+and glorious a pinnacle to be able to retain her position long, consistent
+with the _vices vitae mortalium_. Whilst she conducted herself with a
+prudence and propriety altogether remarkable, considering her youth and
+the susceptibility of her nature, she began to be regarded with suspicion
+at once by France, England, and Scotland. In France, she was obliged to
+bear the blame of many instances of bigotry and over-severity in the
+government of her uncles;--in England, Elizabeth took every opportunity to
+load with opprobrium a sister Queen, whose descent, birth, station, and
+accomplishments, were so much superior to her own;--in Scotland, the
+Reformers, inspired by James Stuart, who, with ulterior views of his own,
+was contented to act as the tool of Elizabeth, laboured to make it be
+believed that Mary was an uncompromising and narrow-minded Catholic.
+
+In September 1559, Francis was solemnly crowned at Rheims; and during the
+remainder of the season, he and Mary, attended by their nobles, made
+various progresses through the country. In December, Francis, whose health
+was evidently giving way, went, by the advice of his physicians, to Blois,
+celebrated for the mildness of its climate. It affords a very vivid idea
+of the ignorant superstition of the French peasantry to learn, that on
+his journey thither, every village through which he passed was deserted.
+An absurd story had been circulated, and was universally believed, that
+the nature of Francis's complaints were such, that they could only be
+cured by the royal patient bathing in the blood of young children. Francis
+himself, although probably not informed of the cause, observed with pain
+how he was every where shunned; and, notwithstanding the soothing
+tenderness of Mary, who accompanied him, is said to have exclaimed to the
+Cardinal Lorraine, "What have I done to be thus shunned and detested? They
+fly me; my people abhor me! It is not thus that the French used to receive
+their King."[24]
+
+Misfortunes, it is said, never come singly. Whilst Mary was performing the
+part of an affectionate nurse to her husband, she sustained an
+irretrievable loss in the death of her mother, the Scottish Regent, in
+June 1560; and in the December following, her husband, Francis, died at
+Orleans, in the 17th year of his age, and the 17th month of his reign.[25]
+Feeling that his exhausted constitution was sinking rapidly, and that his
+death was at hand, almost the last words he spoke were to testify his
+affection for Mary, and his sense of her virtues. He earnestly beseeched
+his mother to treat her as her own daughter, and his brother to look upon
+her as a sister. He was a prince, says Conaeus, in whom, had he lived,
+more merit would probably have been discovered than most people
+suspected.[26] The whole face of things in France was by this event
+instantly changed again. Francis the Little, as he was contemptuously
+termed by the French, in opposition to his father Francis the Great, was
+succeeded by his younger brother, Charles IX. He being still a minor, his
+mother, Catharine, contrived to get herself appointed his guardian, and
+thus became once more Queen of France, the nobility, as Chalmers remarks,
+being more inclined to relish a _real_ minority, than an imaginary
+_majority_. Catharine's jealousy of Mary Stuart, of course extended
+itself, with greater justice, to her uncles of Guise. It was now their
+turn to make way for Montmorency; and the Cardinal of Lorraine, one of the
+most intriguing statesmen of the age, retired, in no very charitable mood
+of mind, to his archbishopric at Rheims, where, in a fit of spleen, he
+declared he would devote himself entirely to religion.
+
+There is something exceedingly naive and amusing in Sir James Melville's
+account of this "gret changement." "The Queen-mother," says he, "was blyth
+of the death of King Francis, her son, because she had na guiding of him,
+but only the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal, his brother, by raisoun that
+the Queen, our maistress, was their sister's dochter. Sa, the Queen-mother
+was content to be quit of the government of the house of Guise; and for
+their cause (sake) she had a great mislyking of our Queen." Of
+Montmorency, who, as soon as he heard of the illness of Francis,
+commenced his journey towards the Court, he says,--"The Constable, also
+chargit to come to the court, looked for na less, and seamed to be seak,
+making little journees, caried in a horse-litter, drew time sae lang by
+the way, that the King, in the meantime, died. Then he lap on horsbak and
+cam freely to the Court and commandit, like a Constable, the men of war
+that gardit the Croun, by the Duke of Guise commandement, to pack them aff
+the toune. The Queen-mother was also very glaid of his coming, that by his
+autority and frendship with the King of Navarre, she mycht the better
+dryve the house of Guise to the door." Of Mary, who, it may well be
+supposed, felt this change more than any one, Melville says,--"Our Queen
+also, seeing her friends in disgrace, and knawing hirself no to be weil
+liked, left the Court, and was a sorrowful widow when I took my leave at
+hir, in a gentilman's house, four myle fra Orleans." To this "gentilman's
+house," or chateau, in the neighbourhood of Orleans, Mary had retired to
+shed in private those tears, which the death of her husband called forth.
+In losing Francis, she had lost the playmate of her childhood, the husband
+of her youth, and what, by many women, would be considered as serious a
+loss as either, the rank and title of Queen of France. It was here,
+probably, that she composed those verses to the memory of her deceased
+husband, which her biographers have so frequently copied, and which are so
+full of gentle and unaffected feeling.
+
+Mary, however, was at this time a personage of too much importance in the
+politics and affairs of Europe, to be left long unmolested to the
+indulgence of that sincere, but commonly temporary, sorrow of a widow of
+eighteen. New suitors were even now beginning to form hopes of an alliance
+with her; and two of the earliest in the field were, Don Carlos of Spain,
+and the King of Navarre. But Mary was determined to listen to no proposals
+of a matrimonial nature, till she had arranged the plan of her future
+life. France was no longer for her the country it had once been. Her
+affectionate father-in-law Henry, and her amiable, though weak, husband
+Francis, both of whom commanded for her the first rank in the State, were
+dead; her mother would never visit her more, for her tomb had already been
+erected at Rheims, and her proud uncles had been banished from the Court.
+Mary had too high a spirit, and knew her own superiority too well, to
+brook for a moment the haughty control of Catharine de Medicis. She felt
+that not all the blood of all the merchants of Italy, could ever elevate
+the Queen-Dowager to an equality with one who, as it is said she herself
+once expressed it, drew her descent from a centinary line of Kings.
+Catharine felt this painfully, and the more so, that when Mary once more
+made her appearance at Court, she perceived, in the words of Miss Benger,
+that "the charms of her conversation, her graceful address, her
+captivating accomplishments, had raised the _woman_ above the _Queen_."
+
+In the mean time, by the Reformed party in Scotland, the news of the death
+of Francis was received with any thing but sorrow. Knox declared
+triumphantly that "his glory had perished, and that the pride of his
+stubborn heart had vanished into smoke." The Lord James, her natural
+brother, was immediately deputed by the Congregation to proceed to
+France, to ascertain whether the Queen intended returning to her native
+country, and if she did, to influence her as much as possible in favour of
+the true gospel and its friends. Nor were the Catholics inactive at this
+critical juncture. A meeting was held, at which were present the
+Archbishop of St Andrews, the Bishops of Aberdeen, Murray, and Ross, the
+Earls of Huntly, Athol, Crawfurd, and Sutherland, and many other persons
+of distinction, by whom it was determined to send as _their_ ambassador to
+Mary, John Lesly, afterwards Bishop of Ross, and one of the Queen's
+staunchest friends, both during her life and after it. He was of course
+instructed to give her a very different account of the state of matters
+from that which the Lord James would do. He was to speak to her of the
+power and influence of the Catholic party; and to contrast their fidelity
+both to her and to her mother, with the rebellious proceedings of those
+who supported the covenant.
+
+The Lord James went by the way of England, and Lesly sailed from Aberdeen
+for Holland. Both made good speed; and Lesly arrived at Vitry in
+Champagne, where Mary was then residing, only one day before the Prior of
+St Andrews. He lost no time in gaining admission to the Queen; and though
+there is little doubt that his views were more sincere and honourable than
+those of her brother, it is at the same time very questionable whether the
+advice he gave her was judicious; and it is probably fortunate that Mary's
+good sense and moderation led her to reject it. Lesly commenced with
+cautioning her against the crafty speeches which he knew the Lord James
+was about to make to her, assuring her that his principal object was to
+insinuate himself into her good graces, to obtain the chief management of
+affairs, and crush effectually the old religion. The Prior, Lesly assured
+her, was not so warm in the cause of the Reformers, from any conviction of
+its truth, as from his wish to make it a stepping-stone for his own
+ambition. For these reasons, he advised her to bring with her to Scotland
+an armed force, and to land at Aberdeen, or some northern port, where the
+Earl of Huntly and her other friends would join her with a numerous army,
+at the head of which she might advance towards Edinburgh, and defeat at
+once the machinations of her enemies. The Queen, in reply to all this,
+merely desired that Lesly should remain with her till she returned to
+Scotland, commanding him to write, in the mean time, to the Lords and
+Prelates who sent him, to inform them of her favourable sentiments towards
+them, and of her intention to come speedily home.[27]
+
+The day after Lesly's audience, Mary's old friend the Lord James (for it
+will be remembered, that thirteen years before he had come to France with
+her, and he had in the interval paid her one or two visits) obtained an
+interview with his sister. He had every desire to retain the favourable
+place which he flattered himself he held in her estimation; and, though so
+rigid a Reformer among his Scottish friends, his conscience does not seem
+to have prevented him from paying all the court he could to his Catholic
+Sovereign. In the course of his conversation with her, he carefully
+avoided every subject which might have been disagreeable to Mary. He
+beseeched her to believe, that she would not find the remotest occasion
+for any foreign troops in Scotland, as the whole nation was prepared
+faithfully to obey her. This assurance was true, as it turned out; but it
+is not quite certain whether the Prior of St Andrews was thinking, at the
+time, so much of its truth, as of its being convenient, for various
+reasons, that Mary should have no standing force, at her command, in her
+own kingdom. Mary gave to her brother the same general sort of answer that
+she had previously given to Lesly. At the same time, she was secretly
+disposed to attribute greater weight to his arguments, and treat him with
+higher consideration, for a reason which Melville furnishes. It appears
+that the French noblemen, who, on the conclusion of peace with England had
+returned from Scotland, had all assured her, that she would find it most
+for her interest to associate in her councils the leaders of the
+Reformers,--particularly the Prior himself,--the Earl of Argyle, who had
+married her natural sister, the Lady Jane Stuart,--and Maitland of
+Lethington.
+
+It is worthy of notice, that, affairs of state having been discussed, the
+Prior ventured to speak a word or two for his own interest. He requested
+that the Earldom of Murray might be conferred on him, and the Queen
+promised to attend to his request on her return to Scotland. Having thus
+prudently discharged his commission, the Lord James took his leave,
+visiting Elizabeth on his way home, as he had already done before passing
+over into France. About the same time, many of the Scotch nobility, in
+anticipation of her speedy return, came to pay their duty to the Queen,
+and, among them, was the celebrated Earl of Bothwell.[28]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MARY'S RETURN TO SCOTLAND, AND PREVIOUS NEGOTIATIONS WITH ELIZABETH.
+
+
+Elizabeth being informed of Mary's intended movements, thought the
+opportunity a favourable one, for adjusting with her one or two of their
+mutual disagreements. Mary's refusal to ratify the celebrated treaty of
+Edinburgh, had particularly galled the English Queen. Most of the
+essential articles of that treaty had already been carried into effect;
+and as Francis and Mary had sent their ambassadors into Scotland with full
+powers, they were bound according to the ordinary laws of diplomacy, to
+agree to whatever concessions their plenipotentiaries made. But, as
+Robertson has remarked, Cecil "had proved greatly an overmatch for
+Monluc." In the sixth article, which was by far the most offensive to the
+Scottish Queen, he had got the French delegates to consent to a
+declaration, that Francis and Mary should abstain from using and bearing
+the title and arms of the kingdom of England, not only during the life of
+Elizabeth, but "_in all times coming_." There was here so palpable a
+departure from all law and justice, that, if there was ever a case in
+which a sovereign was justified in refusing to sanction the blunders of
+his representatives, it was this. Robertson's observations on the point
+are forcible and correct. "The ratification of this article," says he,
+"would have been of the most fatal consequence to Mary. The Crown of
+England was an object worthy of her ambition. Her pretensions to it gave
+her great dignity and importance in the eyes of all Europe. By many, her
+title was esteemed preferable to that of Elizabeth. Among the English
+themselves, the Roman Catholics, who formed at that time a numerous and
+active party, openly espoused this opinion; and even the Protestants, who
+supported Elizabeth's throne, could not deny the Queen of Scots to be her
+immediate heir. A proper opportunity to avail herself of all these
+advantages, could not, in the course of things, be far distant, and many
+incidents might fall in to bring this opportunity nearer than was
+expected. In these circumstances, Mary, by ratifying the article in
+dispute, would have lost that rank which she had hitherto held among
+neighbouring princes; the zeal of her adherents must have gradually
+cooled; and she might have renounced, from that moment, all hopes of ever
+wearing the English crown."
+
+Mary, therefore, cannot be, in fairness, blamed for her conduct regarding
+this treaty. But, as has been already said, she allowed herself to be
+persuaded to a very great imprudence, when she advanced, what she declared
+to be a present and existing claim on the English Crown. This was an
+aggravation of the offence, which Elizabeth could never pardon. She
+determined to retort upon Mary, as efficiently though not quite so
+directly. She found means to hint to her friends in Scotland, that it
+would not be disagreeable to her, were the Earl of Arran, eldest son of
+the Duke of Chatelherault, and, after his father, presumptive heir to the
+throne, to propose himself to her as a husband. This was accordingly done,
+and must have touched Mary very closely, especially as she had no children
+by her husband Francis. But as Elizabeth had never any serious intention
+of accepting of Arran's proposals, she was resolved upon taking another
+and much more unjustifiable method of harassing Mary.
+
+Knowing that she possessed the command of the seas, the English Queen
+imagined that she had it in her power to prevent, if she chose, Mary's
+return to her own kingdom. Before granting her, therefore, as in common
+courtesy she was bound to do, a free passage, she determined on seizing
+the opportunity for again pressing the ratification of the treaty of
+Edinburgh. With this view, she desired Sir Nicolas Throckmorton, her
+ambassador at Paris, to wait on the Queen of Scots, ostensibly to
+congratulate her on her recovery from an attack of ague, but in reality to
+press this matter upon her attention. The audience which Mary granted to
+Throckmorton upon this occasion, together with another which she gave him
+a few weeks afterwards, introduce us to her, for the first time, acting
+for herself, in her public and important capacity of Queen of Scotland.
+All historians unite in expressing their admiration of the talented and
+dignified manner in which she conducted herself, though only in her
+nineteenth year. We have fortunately a full account of both conferences,
+furnished by Sir Nicolas Throckmorton himself, in his letters to the Queen
+of England.
+
+The ambassador, on his first interview, having expressed Elizabeth's
+happiness at Mary's recovery, proceeded to renew the demand which had so
+frequently been made to her regarding the treaty of Edinburgh. Mary, in
+answer, said, that she begged to thank the Queen her good sister for her
+congratulations, and though she was not yet in perfect health, she thanked
+God for her evident convalescence. As to the treaty of Edinburgh, she
+begged to postpone giving any final answer in the affair until she had
+taken the advice of the nobles and estates of her own realm. "For though
+this matter," she said, "doth touch me principally, yet doth it also touch
+the nobles and estates of my realm; and, therefore, it is meet that I use
+their advice therein. Heretofore they have seemed to be grieved that I
+should do any thing without them, and now they would be more offended if I
+should proceed in this matter of myself without their advice." She added,
+that she intended to return home soon, and that she was about to send an
+ambassador to Elizabeth, to require of her the common favour of a free
+passage which princes usually ask of each other in such cases. In a spirit
+of conciliation and sound policy, she concluded with these words. "Though
+the terms wherein we have stood heretofore have been somewhat hard, yet I
+trust, that from henceforth we shall accord together as cousins and good
+neighbours. I mean to retire all the Frenchmen from Scotland who have
+given jealousy to the Queen my sister, and miscontent to my subjects; so
+that I will leave nothing undone to satisfy all parties, trusting the
+Queen my good sister will do the like, and that from henceforth none of my
+disobedient subjects shall find aid or support at her hands."--Seeing that
+Mary was not to be moved from the position she had taken regarding this
+treaty, Throckmorton went on to sound her upon the subject of religion.
+His object was to ascertain what course she intended to pursue towards the
+Scottish Reformers. Mary stated to him distinctly her views upon this
+important matter, and there was a consistency and moderation in them
+hardly to have been expected from the niece of the Cardinal of Lorraine,
+had we not been previously aware of the strength of her superior mind. "I
+will be plain with you," said she to the ambassador. "The religion which I
+profess I take to be most acceptable to God; and indeed, I neither know,
+nor desire to know, any other. Constancy becometh all people well, but
+none better than princes, and such as have rule over realms, and
+especially in matters of religion. I have been brought up in this
+religion, and who might credit me in any thing if I should show myself
+light in this case." "I am none of those," she added, "that will change
+their religion every year; _but I mean to constrain none of my subjects,
+though I could wish that they were all as I am; and I trust they shall
+have no support to constrain me_." It will be seen, in the sequel, whether
+Mary ever deviated for a moment from the principles she here laid down.
+Throckmorton ventured to ask, if she did not think many errors had crept
+into her church, and whether she had ever seriously weighed the arguments
+in support of the Reformed opinions. "Though I be young, and not well
+learned," she replied modestly, "yet have I heard this matter oft disputed
+by my uncle,--my Lord Cardinal, with some that thought they could say
+somewhat in the matter; and I found no great reason to change my opinion.
+But I have oft heard him confess, that great errors have come into the
+church, and great disorder among the ministers and clergy, of which errors
+and disorders he wished there might be a reformation." Here this
+conference concluded.[29]
+
+Elizabeth, as soon as she understood that Mary waited for the advice of
+her Privy Counsellors and her Parliament, before ratifying the treaty of
+Edinburgh, addressed a letter to the "States of Scotland," as she was
+pleased to term them, but, in point of fact, only to her old allies the
+Lords of the Congregation. The object of this letter was to convey, in
+haughty and even insolent terms, a threat that, unless they secured their
+Queen's assent to the treaty, they might cease to look for any aid or
+protection from her. In other words, its meaning was this:--Through my
+interference, you have been able to establish the new Gospel; your Queen
+you know to be a Catholic; and as it is not unlikely that she may
+associate in her councils your old enemies the Catholic nobility, it is in
+me you trust to enable you to rebel successfully against your lawful
+Sovereign. But I have no intention to give you my support for nothing; and
+unless your reformed consciences will permit of your insisting that Mary
+Stuart shall sign away her hereditary right of succession to the English
+throne, I shall henceforth have nothing more to do with you. No other
+interpretation can be put on such expressions as the following, couched in
+terms whose meaning sophistry itself could not hide. "In a matter so
+profitable to both the realms, we think it strange that your Queen hath no
+better advice; and therefore we do require ye all, being the States of
+that realm upon whom the burden resteth, to consider this matter deeply,
+and to make us answer whereunto we may trust. And if you shall think meet,
+she shall thus leave the peace imperfect, by breaking of her solemn
+promise, contrary to the order of all princes, we shall be well content to
+accept your answer, and shall be as careless to see the peace kept, as ye
+shall give us cause; and doubt not, by the grace of God, but whosoever of
+ye shall incline thereto, shall soonest repent. You must be content with
+our plain writing."
+
+To this piece of "plain writing," the Reformers, probably at the
+instigation of the Lord James, sent a submissive and cringing answer.
+"Your Majesty," they say, "may be well assured, that in us shall be noted
+no blame, if that peace be not ratified to your Majesty's
+contentment."--"The benefit that we have received is so recent, that we
+cannot suddenly bury it in forgetfulness. We would desire your Majesty
+rather to be persuaded of us, that we, to our powers, will study to leave
+it in remembrance to our posterity." In other words,--Whatever our own
+Queen Mary may determine on doing, we shall remain steady to your
+interests, and would much rather quarrel with her than with you. To this
+state of mind had Elizabeth's machinations contrived to bring the
+majority of the young Queen's subjects.[30]
+
+In the meantime, Mary had sent an ambassador into England to demand a safe
+conduct for her approaching voyage. This was expressly refused; and
+Throckmorton was again ordered to request an audience with Mary, to
+explain the motives of this refusal. "In this conference," observes
+Robertson, "Mary exerted all that dignity and vigour of mind of which she
+was so capable, and at no period of her life, were her abilities displayed
+to greater advantage." Throckmorton had recourse to the endless subject of
+the treaty of 1560, or, as it is more commonly called, the treaty of
+Edinburgh, as the apology his mistress offered for having, with studied
+disrespect, denied the suit made by Mary's ambassador, in the presence of
+a numerous audience,--a direct breach of courtly etiquette. Mary, before
+answering Throckmorton, commanded all her attendants to retire, and then
+said,--"I like not to have so many witnesses of my passions as the Queen,
+your mistress, was content to have, when she talked with M. D'Oysel. There
+is nothing that doth more grieve me, than that I did so forget myself, as
+to require of the Queen, your mistress, that favour, which I had no need
+to ask. I may pass well enough home into my own realm, I think, without
+her passport or license; for, though the late king, your master, used all
+the impeachment he could, both to stay me and catch me, when I came
+hither, yet you know, M. l'Ambassadeur, I came hither safely, and I may
+have as good means to help me home again, if I could employ my friends."
+"It seemeth," she added, with much truth, "that the Queen, your mistress,
+maketh more account of the amity of my disobedient subjects, than she doth
+of me, their sovereign, who am her equal in degree, though inferior in
+wisdom and experience, her nighest kinswoman, and her next neighbour." She
+then proceeded very forcibly to state, once more, her reasons for refusing
+to ratify the treaty. It had been made, she said, during the life of
+Francis II., who, as her lord and husband, was more responsible for it
+than she. Upon his death, she ceased to look for advice to the council of
+France, neither her uncles nor her own subjects, nor Elizabeth herself,
+thinking it meet, that she should be guided by any council but that of
+Scotland. There were none of her ministers with her; the matter was
+important; it touched both them and her; and she, therefore, considered it
+her duty to wait, till she should get the opinions of the wisest of them.
+As soon as she did, she undertook to send Elizabeth whatever answer might
+appear to be reasonable. "The Queen, your mistress," observed Mary, "saith
+that I am young; she might say that I were as foolish as young, if I
+would, in the state and country that I am in, proceed to such a matter, of
+myself, without any counsel; for that which was done by the King, my late
+lord and husband, must not be taken to be my act; and yet I will say,
+truly, unto ye, and as God favours me, I did never mean otherwise, unto
+the Queen, your mistress, than becometh me to my good sister and cousin,
+nor meant her any more harm than to myself. God forgive them that have
+otherwise persuaded her, if there be any such."
+
+It may seem strange, that as the sixth article was the only one in the
+whole treaty of Edinburgh, which occasioned any disagreement, it was not
+proposed to make some alteration in it, which might have rendered it
+satisfactory to all parties. Mary would have had no objection to have
+given up all claim upon the Crown of England, during the lifetime of
+Elizabeth, and in favour of children born by her in lawful wedlock,--if,
+failing these children, her own right was acknowledged. There could have
+been little difficulty, one would have thought, in expressing the
+objectionable article accordingly. But this amendment would not by any
+means have suited the views of Elizabeth.[31] To have acknowledged Mary's
+right of succession would have been at once to have pointed out to all the
+Catholics of Europe, the person to whom they were to pay their court, on
+account not only of her present influence, but of the much greater which
+awaited her. Besides, it might have had the appearance of leaving it
+doubtful, whether Elizabeth's possession of the throne was not conceded to
+her, more as a favour than as a right. This extreme jealousy on the part
+of the English Queen, originated in Mary having imprudently allowed
+herself to be persuaded to bear the arms of England, diversely quartered
+with her own, at the time Elizabeth was first called to the crown. At the
+interview we have been describing, Throckmorton, being silenced with
+regard to the ratification of the treaty, thought he might with propriety
+advert to this other subject of complaint.
+
+"I refer it to your own judgment, Madam," said he, "if any thing can be
+more prejudicial to a prince, than to usurp the title and interest
+belonging to him." Mary's answer deserves particular attention. "M.
+L'Ambassadeur," said she, "I was then under the commandment of King Henry
+my father, and of the king my lord and husband; and whatsoever was then
+done by their order and commandments, the same was in like manner
+continued until both their deaths; _since which time, you know I neither
+bore the arms, or used the title of England_. Methinks," she added, "these
+my doings might ascertain the queen your mistress, that that which was
+done before, was done by commandment of them that had power over me; and
+also, in reason, she ought to be satisfied, seeing I (now) order my
+doings, as I tell ye." With this answer Throckmorton took his leave.[32]
+
+Seeing that matters could not be more amicably adjusted, Mary prepared to
+return home, independent of Elizabeth's permission. Yet it was not without
+many a bitter regret that she thought of leaving all the fascinations of
+her adopted country, France. When left alone, she was frequently found in
+tears; and it is more than probable, that, as Miss Benger has expressed
+it, "there were moments when Mary recoiled with indescribable horror from
+the idea of living in Scotland--where her religion was insulted, and her
+sex contemned; where her mother had languished in misery, and her father
+sunk into an untimely grave." At last, however, the period arrived when it
+was necessary for her to bid a final adieu to the scenes and friends of
+her youth. She had delayed from month to month, as if conscious that, in
+leaving France, she was about to part with happiness. She had originally
+proposed going so early as the spring of 1561, but it was late in July
+before she left Paris; and as she lingered on the way, first at St
+Germains, and afterwards at Calais, August was well advanced before she
+set sail. The spring of this year, says Brantome poetically, was so
+backward, that it appeared as if it would never put on its robe of
+flowers; and thus gave an opportunity to the gallants of the Court to
+assert, that it wore so doleful a garb to testify its sorrow for the
+intended departure of Mary Stuart.[33] She was accompanied as far as St
+Germains by Catharine de Medicis, and nearly all the French Court. Her six
+uncles, Anne of Este, and many other ladies and gentlemen of distinction,
+proceeded on with her to Calais. The historians Castelnau and Brantome
+were both of the Queen's retinue, and accompanied her to Scotland. At
+Calais she found four vessels, one of which was fitted up for herself and
+friends, and a second for her escort; the two others were for the
+furniture she took with her.
+
+Elizabeth, meanwhile, was not inattentive to the proceedings of the
+Scottish Queen. Through the agency of her minister, Cecil, she had been
+anxiously endeavouring to discover whether she would render herself
+particularly obnoxious either to Catharine de Medicis, or the leading men
+in Scotland, by making herself mistress of Mary's person on her passage
+homewards, and carrying her a prisoner into England. Her ambassador,
+Throckmorton, had given her good reason to believe that Catharine was not
+disposed to be particularly warm in Mary's defence.[34] As to Scotch
+interference, Camden expressly informs us, that the Lord James, when he
+passed through England on his return from France, warned Elizabeth of
+Mary's intended movements, and advised that she should be intercepted.
+This assertion, though its truth has been doubted, is rendered exceedingly
+probable by the contents of two letters, which have been preserved. The
+first is from Throckmorton, who assures Elizabeth that the Lord James
+deserves her most particular esteem;--"Your Majesty," he says, "may, in my
+opinion, make good account of his constancy towards you; and so he
+deserveth to be well entertained and made of by your Majesty, as one that
+may stand ye in no small stead for the advancement of your Majesty's
+desire. Since his being here (in France), he hath dealt so frankly and
+liberally with me, that I must believe he will so continue after his
+return home."[35] The other letter is from Maitland of Lethington, one of
+the ablest men among the Scotch Reformers, and the personal friend and
+co-adjutor of the Lord James, to Sir William Cecil. In this letter he
+says;--"I do also allow your opinion anent the Queen our Sovereign's
+journey towards Scotland, whose coming hither, if she be enemy to the
+religion, and so affected towards that realm as she yet appeareth, shall
+not fail to raise wonderful tragedies." He then proceeds to point out,
+that, as Elizabeth's object, for her own sake, must be to prevent the
+Catholics from gaining ground in Scotland, her best means of obtaining
+such an object, is to prevent a Queen from returning into the kingdom, who
+"shall so easily win to her party the whole Papists, and so many
+Protestants as be either addicted to the French faction, covetous,
+inconstant, uneasy, ignorant, or careless."--"So long as her Highness is
+absent," he adds, "in this case there is no peril; but you may judge what
+the presence of a prince being craftily counselled is able to bring to
+pass." "For my opinion," he concludes, "anent the continuance of amity
+betwixt these two realms, there is no danger of breach so long as the
+Queen is absent; but her presence may alter many things."[36]
+
+To make assurance doubly sure, Cecil desired Randolph, the English
+resident in Scotland, to feel the pulse of the nobility. On the 9th of
+August 1561, only a few days before Mary sailed from France, Randolph
+wrote from Edinburgh an epistle to Cecil, in which he assures him that it
+will be a "stout adventure for a _sick crazed woman_," (a singular mode of
+designating Mary), to venture home to a country so little disposed to
+receive her. "I have shewn your Honour's letters," he says, "unto the Lord
+James, Lord Morton, Lord Lethington; _they wish, as your Honour doth, that
+she might be stayed yet for a space; and if it were not for their
+obedience sake, some of them care not tho' they never saw her face_."--And
+again--"Whatsomever cometh of this, he (Lethington), findeth it ever best
+that she come not." Knox also, it seems, had been written to, and had
+expressed his resolution to resist to the last Mary's authority. "By such
+letters as ye have last received," says Randolph, "your Honour somewhat
+understandeth of Mr Knox himself, and also of others, what is
+determined,--he himself to abide the uttermost, and others never to leave
+him, until God hath taken his life."--"His daily prayer is, for the
+maintenance of unity with England, and that God will never suffer men to
+be so ungrate as by any persuasion to run headlong unto the destruction of
+them that have saved their lives, and restored their country to
+liberty."[37]
+
+Elizabeth having thus felt her way, and being satisfied that she might
+with safety pursue her own inclinations, was determined not to rest
+contented with the mere refusal of passports. Throckmorton was ordered to
+ascertain exactly when and how Mary intended sailing. The Scottish Queen
+became aware of his drift, from some questions he put to her, and said to
+him cuttingly,--"I trust the wind will be so favourable, as I shall not
+need to come on the coast of England; and if I do, then M. l'Ambassadeur,
+the Queen, your mistress, shall have me in her hands to do her will of me;
+and if she be so hard-hearted as to desire my end, she may then do her
+pleasure, and make sacrifice of me. Peradventure, that casualty might be
+better for me than to live." Throckmorton, however, made good his point,
+and was able to inform Elizabeth that Mary would sail either from
+Havre-de-Grace or Calais, and that she would first proceed along the coast
+of Flanders, and then strike over to Scotland. For the greater certainty,
+he suggested the propriety of some spies being sent across to the French
+coast, who would give the earliest intelligence of her movements.
+Profiting by this and other information, all the best historians of the
+time agree in stating, that Elizabeth sent a squadron to sea with all
+expedition. It was only a thick and unexpected fog which prevented these
+vessels from falling in with that in which Mary sailed. The smaller craft
+which carried her furniture, they did meet with, and, believing them to be
+the prize they were in search of, they boarded and examined them. One ship
+they detained, in which was the Earl of Eglinton, and some of Mary's
+horses and mules, and, under the pretence of suspecting it of piracy,
+actually carried it into an English harbour. The affectation of "clearing
+the seas from pirates," as Cecil expresses it, was a mere after-thought,
+invented to do away with the suspicion which attached itself to this
+unsuccessful attempt. Its real purpose was openly talked of at the time.
+Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, in a speech he made at a meeting of the
+Privy Council in 1562, said frankly,--"Think ye that the Scottish Queen's
+suit, made in all friendly manner, to come through England at the time she
+left France, and the denial thereof, unless the treaty were ratified, is
+by them forgotten, or else your sending of your ships to sea at the time
+of her passage?" Camden, Holinshed, Spottiswoode, Stranguage, and
+Buchanan, all speak to the same effect; and Elizabeth's intentions, though
+frustrated, hardly admit of a doubt.[38]
+
+On the 25th of August 1561, Mary sailed out of the harbour of Calais,--not
+without shedding, and seeing shed many tears. She did not, however, part
+with all the friends who had accompanied her to the coast. Three of her
+uncles,--the Duke d'Aumale, the Marquis D'Elbeuf, and the Grand
+Prior,--the Duke Danville, son to Montmorency, and afterwards Constable of
+France, one of the most ardent and sincere admirers that Mary perhaps ever
+had,--and many other persons of rank, among whom was the unfortunate poet
+Chatelard, who fluttered like a moth round the light in which he was to be
+consumed,--sailed with her for Scotland. Just as she left the harbour, an
+unfortunate accident happened to a vessel, which, by unskilful management,
+struck upon the bar, and was wrecked within a very short distance of her
+own galley. "This is a sad omen," she exclaimed, weeping. A gentle breeze
+sprang up; the sails were set, and the little squadron got under way,
+consisting, as has been said, of only four vessels, for Mary dreaded lest
+her subjects should suppose that she was coming home with any military
+force. The feelings of "_la Reine Blanche_," as the French termed her,
+from the white mourning she wore for Francis, were at all times
+exceedingly acute. On the present occasion, her grief amounted almost to
+despair. As long as the light of day continued, she stood immoveable on
+the vessel's deck, gazing with tearful eyes upon the French coast, and
+exclaiming incessantly,--"Farewell, France! farewell, my beloved country!"
+When night approached, and her friends beseeched her to retire to the
+cabin, she hid her face in her hands, and sobbed aloud. "The darkness
+which is now brooding over France," said she, "is like the darkness in my
+own heart." A little afterwards, she added,--"I am unlike the Carthaginian
+Dido, for she looked perpetually on the sea, when AEneas departed, whilst
+all my regards are for the land." Having caused a bed to be made for her
+on deck, she wept herself asleep, previously enjoining her attendants to
+waken her at the first peep of day, if the French coast was still visible.
+Her wishes were gratified; for during the night the wind died away, and
+the vessel made little progress. Mary rose with the dawn, and feasted her
+eyes once more with a sight of France. At sunrise, however, the breeze
+returned, and the galley beginning to make way, the land rapidly receded
+in the distance. Again her tears burst forth, and again she
+exclaimed,--"Farewell, beloved France! I shall never, never, see you
+more." In the depth of her sorrow, she even wished that the English
+fleet, which she conjectured had been sent out to intercept her, would
+make its appearance, and render it necessary for her to seek for safety,
+by returning to the port from whence she had sailed. But no interruption
+of this kind occurred.[39]
+
+It is more than likely, that it was during this voyage Mary composed the
+elegant and simple little song, so expressive of her genuine feelings on
+leaving France. Though familiarly known to every reader, we cannot deny
+ourselves the pleasure of inserting it here.
+
+    Adieu, plaisant pays de France!
+        O my patrie,
+        La plus cherie;
+    Qui a nourri ma jeune enfance.
+  Adieu, France! adieu, mes beaux jours!
+  La nef qui dejoint mes amours,
+  N'a cy de moi que la moitie;
+  Une parte te reste; elle est tienne;
+  Je la fie a ton amitie,
+  Pour que de l'autre il te souvienne![40]
+
+Brantome, who sailed in the same vessel with Mary, and gives a particular
+account of all the events of this voyage, mentions, that the day before
+entering the Frith of Forth, so thick a mist came on, that it was
+impossible to see from the poop to the prow. By way of precaution, lest
+they should run foul of any other vessel, a lantern was lighted, and set
+at the bow. This gave Chatelard occasion to remark, that it was taking a
+very unnecessary piece of trouble, so long at least as Mary Stuart
+remained upon deck, and kept her eyes open. When the mist, at length,
+cleared away, they found their vessel in the midst of rocks, from which it
+required much skill and no little labour to get her clear. Mary declared,
+that so far as regarded her own feelings, she would not have looked upon
+shipwreck as a great calamity; but that she would not wish to see the
+lives of the friends who were with her endangered (among whom not the
+least dear were her four Maries), for all the kingdom of Scotland. She
+added, that as a bad omen had attended her departure so this thick fog
+seemed to be but an evil augury at her arrival. At length, the harbour of
+Leith appeared in sight, and Mary's eye rested, for the first time, upon
+Arthur Seat and the Castle of Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MARY'S ARRIVAL AT HOLYROOD, WITH SKETCHES OF HER PRINCIPAL NOBILITY.
+
+
+Mary landed in Scotland with a mind full of anxiety and uncertainty. She
+came alone and unprotected, to assume the government of a country which
+had long been distinguished for its rebellious turbulence. The masculine
+spirit of her father had quailed before the storm. Her mother, whose
+intellectual energy she well knew, had in vain attempted to bring order
+out of confusion, and harassed and worn out, had at length surrendered her
+life in the struggle. For the last two years, it is true, the country had
+enjoyed, not peace and tranquillity, but a cessation from an actual state
+of warfare. Nevertheless, the seeds of discontent, and of mutual distrust
+and hatred, were as abundant as ever. Mary's religion was well known; and
+her confirmed devotion to it, was by one party magnified into bigotry, and
+pronounced criminal; whilst by another, it was feared she would show
+herself too lukewarm in revenging the insults which the ancient worship
+had sustained. Such being the state of things, how could a young, and
+comparatively inexperienced queen, just nineteen years of age, approach
+her kingdom otherwise than with fear and trembling?
+
+Contrasted too with her former situation, that which she was now about to
+fill, appeared particularly formidable. In France, even during the life of
+her husband, and while at the very height of her power, few of the severer
+duties of government rested upon her. She had all the essential authority,
+without much of the responsibility of a sovereign. Francis consulted her
+upon every occasion, and followed her advice in almost every matter in
+which she chose to interfere; but it was to him, or her uncles of Guise,
+that the nation looked, when any of the state-machinery went wrong. It
+would be very different in Scotland. By whatever counsel she acted, the
+blame of all unpopular measures would be sure to rest with her. If she
+favoured the Protestants, the Catholics would renounce her; if she
+assisted the Catholics, the Protestants would again be found assembling at
+Perth, listening, with arms in their hands, to the sermons of John Knox,
+pulling down the remaining monasteries, and subscribing additional
+covenants. Is it surprising then, that she found it difficult to steer her
+course between the rocks of Scylla and the whirlpools of Charybdis? If
+misfortunes ultimately overtook her, the wonder unquestionably ought to
+be, not that they ever arrived, but that they should have been guarded
+against so long. Nothing but the wisest and most temperate policy, could
+have preserved quietness in a country so full of the elements of internal
+discord. Mary's system of government throughout all its ramifications,
+must have been such as no Queen of her age could have established, had
+there not been more than an empty compliment, in those lines of Buchanan,
+in which he addresses his Royal mistress as one
+
+  "Quae sortem antevenis meritis, virtutibus annos,
+  Sexum animis, morum nobilitate genus."
+
+There is, besides, a natural feeling of loyalty, which, though it may be
+evanescent, hardly fails to be kindled in the breasts of the populace, at
+the sight of their native sovereign. The Scots, though they frequently
+were far from being contented with the measures pursued by their monarchs,
+have been always celebrated for their attachment to their persons. Mary,
+on her first landing, became aware of this truth. As soon as it was known
+that she intended returning from all the splendours of France, to the more
+homely comforts of the land of her birth, the people, flattered by the
+preference she was about to show them, abated somewhat of their previous
+asperity. They were the more pleased, that she came to them, not as the
+Queen of France, who might have regarded Scotland as only a province of
+her empire, but as their own exclusive and independent sovereign. They
+recollected that she had been at the disposal of the Estates of the
+country, from the time she was seven days old, and they almost felt as if
+she had been a child of their own rearing. They knew, also, that she had
+made a narrow escape in crossing the seas; and the confidence she
+evidently placed in them, by casting anchor in Leith Roads, with only two
+galleys, did not pass unnoticed. But she had arrived sooner than was
+expected; for, so little were they aware of her intended motions, that
+when her two ships were first observed in the Frith, from the Castle of
+Edinburgh, no suspicion was entertained that they carried the Queen and
+her suite. It was not, till a royal salute was fired in the Roads, that
+her arrival was positively known, and that the people began to flock in
+crowds to the shore.
+
+On the 20th or 21st of August, 1561, the Queen landed at Leith. Here she
+was obliged to remain the whole day, as the preparations for her reception
+at Holyroodhouse were not completed. The multitude continued in the
+interval to collect at Leith, and on the roads leading to the Palace. On
+the road between Leith and Restalrig, and from thence to the Abbey, the
+different trades and corporations of Edinburgh were drawn up in order,
+lining the way with their banners and bands of music. Towards evening,
+horses were brought for the Queen and her attendants. When Mary saw them,
+accustomed as she had been to the noble and richly caparisoned steeds of
+the Parisian tournaments, she was struck both with the inferiority of
+their breed, and the poorness of their furnishings. She sighed, and could
+not help remarking the difference to some of her friends. "But they mean
+well," said she, "and we must be content." As she passed along, she was
+every where greeted with enthusiastic shouts of applause--the involuntary
+homage which the beauty of her countenance, the elegance of her person,
+and the graceful dignity of her bearing, could not fail to draw forth.
+Bonfires were lighted in all directions; and though illuminations were
+then but indifferently understood in Scotland, something of the kind seems
+to have been attempted. On her arrival at the Palace, all the musicians of
+Edinburgh collected below her windows, and in strains of most discordant
+music continued all night to testify their joy for her return. Some of the
+more rigid Reformers, willing to yield in their own way to the general
+feeling, assembled together in a knot, and sung psalms in her honour.
+Among the musical instruments, the bagpipes were preeminently
+distinguished, which, not exactly suiting the uncultivated taste of
+Brantome, he pathetically exclaims, "He! quelle musique! et quel repos
+pour sa nuit!"[41]
+
+It is worth while remarking here, how Knox, in his History of the
+Reformation, betrays his chagrin at the affectionate manner in which Mary
+was received. "The very face of the heavens, at the time of her arrival,"
+he says, "did manifestly speak what comfort was brought into this country
+with her, by sorrow, dolor, darkness, and all impiety; for in the memory
+of man that day of the year was never seen a more dolorous face of the
+heavens, than was at her arrival, which two days after did so continue;
+for, besides the surface wet, and the corruption of the air, the mist was
+so thick and dark, that scarce could any man espy another the length of
+two pair of butts. The sun was not seen to shine two days before, nor two
+days after. That forewarning gave God to us, but alas! the most part were
+blind."[42] Knox proceeds to reprobate, in the severest terms, the
+unhallowed amusements which Mary permitted at Holyroodhouse. "So soon as
+ever her French fillocks, fiddlers, and others of that band, got the house
+alone, there might be seen skipping not very comely for honest women. Her
+common talk was, in secret, that she saw nothing in Scotland but gravity,
+which was altogether repugnant to her nature, for she was brought up in
+joyeusitye." If Knox really believed in the omens he talks of, or thought
+the less of a young and beautiful woman for indulging in innocent
+recreation, his judgment is to be pitied. If he, in truth, did not give
+any credence to the one, and saw no sin in the other, his candour and
+sincerity cannot be very highly praised.
+
+M'Crie, the able but too partial biographer of Knox, and the defender of
+all his errors and failings, speaking of Mary at this period,
+says;--"Nursed from her infancy in a blind attachment to the Roman
+Catholic religion, every means had been employed before she left France,
+to strengthen this prejudice, and to inspire her with aversion to the
+religion which had been embraced by her people. She was taught that it
+would be the great glory of her reign, to reduce her kingdom to the
+obedience of the Romish See, and to co-operate with the Popish Princes on
+the Continent in extirpating heresy. With these fixed prepossessions, Mary
+came into Scotland, and she adhered to them with singular pertinacity to
+the end of her life."[43] The whole of this statement is in the highest
+degree erroneous. We have seen that Mary was _not_ nursed in a blind
+attachment to the Catholic religion--some of her best friends, and even
+one or two of her preceptors, being attached to the new opinions. We have
+seen, that so far from having any "prejudice" strengthened before she left
+France, she was expressly advised to give her support to the Reformers;
+and we have heard from her own lips, her mature determination to tolerate
+every species of worship throughout her kingdom. That she ever thought of
+"co-operating with the Popish Princes of the Continent, that she might
+reduce her kingdom to the obedience of the Romish See, and extirpate
+heresy," will be discovered immediately to be a particularly preposterous
+belief, when we find her intrusting the reins of Government to the leaders
+of the Reformed party. To this system of moderation, much beyond that of
+the age in which she lived, Mary adhered, "with singular pertinacity, to
+the end of her life." M'Crie, in proof of his gratuitous assertions,
+affirms, that she never examined the subjects of controversy between the
+Papists and Protestants. This also is incorrect, as he would have known,
+had he read that letter of Throckmorton's, in which, as has been seen, she
+informed the Ambassador of the frequent opportunities she had enjoyed of
+hearing the whole matter discussed in the presence of the Cardinal
+Lorraine; and the confession which that discussion extorted both from the
+Cardinal and herself, of the necessity of some reformation among the
+Catholics, though not to the extent to which the Protestants pushed it.
+M'Crie further objects, that Mary never went to hear Knox, or any of the
+Reformed divines, preach. Knox, from the invariable contempt with which he
+affected to treat Mary, no doubt particularly deserved such a compliment;
+and as to the other divines, by all of whom she was hated, what would have
+been the use of leaving her own chapel to listen to sermons which could
+not have altered the firm conviction of her mind, and which, consequently,
+it would have been hypocrisy to pretend to admire? We return from this
+digression.
+
+The nobility, who now flocked to Holyrood from all parts of the country,
+constituted that portion of the inhabitants of Scotland, who, for many
+centuries, had exercised almost unlimited influence over their native
+sovereigns. Their mutual dissensions during the late long minority, had a
+good deal weakened their respective strength; and the progress of time was
+gradually softening the more repulsive features of the feudal system. But
+still the Scottish barons deemed themselves indispensable to the councils
+of their monarch, and entitled to deliver opinions, which they expected
+would be followed, on every affair of state. They collected at present,
+under the influence of a thousand contending interests and wishes. With
+some of the more distinguished figures in the group, it will be necessary
+to make the reader better acquainted.
+
+Of the Lord James, who was now shortly to become the Earl of Murray, the
+title by which he is best known in Scottish history, a good deal has
+already been said. That he must secretly have regretted his sister's
+return to Scotland, may be safely concluded, from the facts formerly
+stated. He was too skilful a politician, however, to betray his
+disappointment. Had he openly ventured to oppose Mary, the result would
+have been at all events uncertain, and his own ruin might have been the
+ultimate consequence. He considered it more prudent to use every means in
+his power to conciliate her friendship; and wrought so successfully, that
+before long, he found himself the person of by far the most consequence in
+the kingdom. Mary, perhaps, trusted too implicitly to his advice, and left
+too much to his controul; yet it is difficult to see how she could have
+managed otherwise. It is but fair also to add, that for several years
+Murray continued to keep his ambition (which, under a show of moderation,
+was in truth enormous) within bounds. Nor does there appear to be any
+evidence sufficient to stamp Murray with that deeper treachery and blacker
+guilt, which some writers have laid to his charge. The time, however, is
+not yet arrived for considering his conduct in connexion with the darker
+events of Mary's reign. The leading fault of his administration is, that
+it was double-faced. In all matters of importance, he allowed himself to
+be guided as much by the wishes of Elizabeth, secretly communicated to
+him, as by those of his own Sovereign. He probably foresaw that, if he
+ever quarrelled with Mary, it would be through the assistance of the
+English Queen alone he could hope to retrieve his fortunes. This
+subservience to Elizabeth, among those in whom she confided, was, indeed,
+the leading misfortune of Mary's reign. Had her counsellors been
+unbiassed, and her subjects undistracted by English intrigue, her prudent
+conduct would have got the better of the internal dissensions in her
+kingdom, and she would have governed in peace, perhaps in happiness. But
+it was Elizabeth's jealous and narrow-minded policy, to prevent, if
+possible, this consummation. With infinite art, and, if the term is not
+debased by its application, with no little ability, she accomplished her
+wishes, principally through the agency of the ambitious and the
+self-interested, among Mary's ministers. One of these, the Earl of Murray,
+unquestionably was. At the time of which we are writing, he was in his
+thirty-first year, possessing considerable advantages both of face and
+person, but of reserved, austere, and rather forbidding manners. Murray's
+mother, who was the Lady Margaret Erskine, daughter of Lord Erskine, had
+married Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven. He had also, as has been
+mentioned, several illegitimate brothers, particularly Lord John and Lord
+Robert, and one sister, Jane, who married the Earl of Argyle, and to whom
+Mary became very sincerely attached.
+
+Associated with the Earl of Murray, both as a leader of the Reformers, and
+as a servant of Elizabeth, but not allowing his ambitious views to carry
+him quite so far as the Earl, was William Maitland of Lethington, Mary's
+Secretary of State. He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Maitland of
+Lethington, and was about five years older than Murray. He had been
+educated at the University of St Andrews, and had travelled a good deal on
+the Continent, where he studied civil law. John Knox, in his History,
+claims the honour of having converted Maitland to the Reformed opinions.
+Whether this be true or not, it is certain that, after having for some
+time co-operated with Mary of Guise, he finally deserted her, and
+continued to act with the Reformers, as Secretary of State, an office to
+which he had been appointed for life, in 1558. It has been already seen,
+that a close and confidential intercourse subsisted between him and Cecil;
+and that he too would have been glad, had Mary's return to Scotland been
+prevented. That Maitland possessed an acute and subtle genius, there can
+be no doubt; that he had cultivated his mind to good purpose, and
+understood the art of composition as well as any man of the age, is
+undeniable. That his manners were more polished than those of most of the
+Scottish nobility, is also true; but, that his talents were of that high
+and exquisite kind, which Robertson and some other historians have
+described, does not appear. During his political career, many instances
+occur, which seem to imply a vacillating and unsteady temperament, a fault
+which can hardly be forgiven in a statesman.
+
+James Douglas, Earl of Morton, another associate of Murray, was one of the
+most powerful and least respectable of those who had embraced the
+Reformation. Restless, factious, crafty, avaricious and cruel, nothing
+could have saved him from general odium, but his pretended zeal for
+religion. This was a cloak for many sins; by flattering the vanity of Knox
+and the other gospel-ministers, he contrived to cover the hollowness of
+his character, and to patch up a reputation for sanctity. In consequence
+of the rebellion of the Earl of Angus, his uncle, during the reign of
+James V., Morton had been obliged to spend several years in England, where
+he lived in great poverty. But the only effect adversity had produced upon
+him, was a determination to be more rapacious when he recovered his power.
+His ambition was of a more contracted and selfish kind than Murray's, and
+he had not so cool a head, or so cautious a hand.
+
+The Duke of Chatelherault, Mary's nearest relation, being advanced in
+years, had retired from public life. The Earl of Arran, his son, who, it
+will be remembered, had been induced to propose himself as a husband for
+Elizabeth, was of a weak and almost crazed intellect. Indeed it was not
+long before the increasing strength of the malady made it necessary to
+confine him. He came to Court, however, upon Mary's arrival, and having
+been unsuccessful with Elizabeth, chose to fall desperately in love with
+his own Queen. But Mary had always an aversion to him, originating no
+doubt in the want of delicacy towards her, which had characterized his
+negociations with Elizabeth, and confirmed by his own presuming and
+disagreeable manners. His father's natural brother, the Archbishop of St
+Andrews, is the only other member of the family worth mentioning. He was
+still staunch to the Roman Catholic party; but had of late seen the wisdom
+of remaining quiet, and though he became rather a favourite with Mary, it
+does not appear that he henceforth took a very active interest in public
+affairs.[44]
+
+James Hepburne, Earl of Bothwell, though some of the leading features of
+his character had hardly shown themselves at the period of which we speak,
+merits nevertheless, from the part he subsequently acted, especial notice
+at present. He had succeeded his father in his titles and estates in the
+year 1556, when he was five or six and twenty years of age. He enjoyed not
+only large estates, but the hereditary offices of Lord High Admiral of
+Scotland, Sheriff of Berwick, Haddington and Edinburgh, and Baillie of
+Lauderdale. With the exception of the Duke of Chatelherault, he was the
+most powerful nobleman in the southern districts of Scotland. Soon after
+coming to his titles, he began to take an active share in public business.
+In addition to his other offices, he was appointed the Queen's Lieutenant
+on the Borders, and Keeper of Hermitage Castle, by the Queen Regent, to
+whom he always remained faithful, in opposition to the Lord James, and
+what was then termed the English faction. He went over to France on the
+death of Francis II. to pay his duty to Mary, and on his return to
+Scotland, was by her intrusted with the discharge of an important
+commission regarding the Government. Though all former differences were
+now supposed to have been forgotten, there was not, nor did there ever
+exist, a very cordial agreement between the Earls of Murray and Bothwell.
+They were both about the same age, but their dispositions were very
+different. Murray was self-possessed, full of foresight, prudent and wary.
+Bothwell was bold, reckless, and extravagant. His youth had been devoted
+to every species of dissipation; and even in manhood, he seemed more
+intent on pleasure than on business. This was a sort of life which Murray
+despised, and perhaps he calculated that Bothwell would never aim at any
+other. But, though guided by no steady principles, and devoted to
+licentiousness, Bothwell was nevertheless not the mere man of pleasure. He
+was all his life celebrated for daring and lawless exploits, and vanity or
+passion, were motives whose force he was never able to resist. Unlike
+Murray, who, when he had an end in view, made his advances towards it as
+cautiously as an Indian hunter, Bothwell dashed right through, as careless
+of the means by which he was to accomplish his object, as of the
+consequences that were to ensue. His manner was of that frank, open, and
+uncalculating kind, which frequently catches a superficial observer. They
+who did not study him more closely, were apt to imagine that he was merely
+a blustering, good-natured, violent, headstrong man, whose manners must
+inevitably have degenerated into vulgarity, had he not been nobly born,
+and accustomed to the society of his peers. But much more serious
+conclusions might have drawn by those who had penetration enough to see
+under the cloak of dissoluteness, in which he wrapped himself and his
+designs. With regard to his personal appearance, it does not seem to have
+been remarkably prepossessing. Brantome says, that he was one of the
+ugliest men he had ever seen, and that his planners were correspondently
+outre.[45] Buchanan, who must have known Bothwell well, and who draws his
+character with more accuracy than was to have been expected from so
+partial a writer, says, in his "Detection:"--"Was there in him any gift of
+eloquence, or grace of beauty, or virtue of mind, garnished with the
+benefits which we call of fortune? As for his eloquence and beauty, we
+need not make long tale of them, since both they that have seen him can
+well remember his countenance, his gait, and the whole form of his body,
+how gay it was; they that have heard him, are not ignorant of his rude
+utterance and blockishness." As to Bothwell's religious opinions, Buchanan
+remarks very truly, that wavering between the different factions, and
+despising either side, he counterfeited a love of both.[46] Such was the
+man of whom we shall have occasion to say so much in the course of these
+Memoirs.
+
+In the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, remained unaltered all the
+characteristics of the ruder feudal chiefs, rendered still more repulsive
+by their bigoted zeal in favour of the Reformed opinions. They were men of
+coarse and contracted minds, fit instigators to villany, or apt tools in
+the hands of those who were more willing to plan than to execute.
+
+Opposed to all these nobles, was the great lay head of the Catholic party
+in Scotland, John, Earl of Huntly. His jurisdiction and influence extended
+over nearly the whole of the north of Scotland, from Aberdeen to
+Inverness. He was born in 1510, and had been a personal friend and
+favourite of James V. He ranked in Parliament as the Premier Earl of
+Scotland, and in 1546, was appointed Chancellor of the kingdom. He was
+always opposed to the English party, and had been taken prisoner at the
+battle of Pinkie, fighting against the claims of Edward VI., upon the
+infant Mary. He made his escape, in 1548, and as a reward for his services
+and sufferings, obtained, in the following year, a grant of the Earldom of
+Murray, which, however, he again resigned in 1554. He continued faithful
+to the Queen Regent till her death. Upon that occasion, we have seen that
+he and other nobles sent Lesley, with certain proposals, to Mary. He was
+an honourable man and a good subject, though the termination of his career
+was a most unfortunate one. The respect which his memory merits, is
+founded on the conviction, that he had too great a love for his country
+and sovereign ever to have consented to have made the one little better
+than tributary to England, or to have betrayed the other into the hands of
+her deadliest enemy.
+
+Such were the men who were now to become Mary's associates and
+counsellors. The names of most of them occur as members of the Privy
+Council which she constituted shortly after her return. It consisted of
+the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earl of Huntly, the Earl of Argyle, the
+Earl of Bothwell, the Earl of Errol, Earl Marschall, the Earl of Athol,
+the Earl of Morton, the Earl of Montrose, the Earl of Glencairn, the Lord
+Erskine, and the Lord James Stuart. In this Council, the influence of the
+Lord James, backed as it was by a great majority of Protestant nobles,
+carried every thing before it.
+
+Elizabeth, finding that Mary had arrived safely in her own country, and
+had been well received there, lost no time in changing her tone towards
+the Scottish queen. Her English resident in Scotland, was the celebrated
+Randolph, whom she kept as a sort of accredited spy at Mary's court. He
+has rendered himself notorious by the many letters he wrote to England
+upon Scottish affairs. He had an acute, inquisitive, and gossiping turn of
+mind. His style is lively and amusing; and though the office he had to
+perform is not to be envied, he seems to have entered on it _con amore_,
+and with little remorse of conscience. His epistles are mostly preserved,
+and are valuable from containing pictures of the state of manners in
+Scotland at the time, not to be found any where else, though not always to
+be depended on as accurate chronicles of fact. To Randolph, the Queen of
+England now wrote, desiring him to offer her best congratulations to Mary
+upon her safe arrival. She sent him also a letter which he was to deliver
+to Mary, in which she disclaimed ever having had the most distant
+intention of intercepting her on her voyage. Mary answered Elizabeth's
+letter with becoming cordiality. She, likewise, sent Secretary Maitland
+into England, to remain for some time as her resident at Elizabeth's
+Court. She was well aware for what purposes Randolph was ordered to
+continue in Edinburgh; and said, that as it seemed to be Elizabeth's wish
+that he should remain, she was content, but that she would have another in
+England as crafty as he. Maitland was certainly as crafty, but his
+craftiness was unfortunately too frequently directed against Mary
+herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+JOHN KNOX, THE REFORMERS, AND THE TURBULENT NOBLES.
+
+
+Mary had been only a few days in Scotland when she was painfully reminded
+of the excited and dangerous state of feeling which then prevailed on the
+important subject of Religion. Her great and leading desire was to
+conciliate all parties, and to preserve, unbroken, the public peace. With
+this view she had issued proclamations, charging her subjects to conduct
+themselves quietly; and announcing her intention to make no alteration in
+the form of religion as existing in the country at her arrival.
+Notwithstanding these precautions, the first breach of civil order took
+place at the very Palace of Holyroodhouse. Mary had intimated her
+intention to attend the celebration of a solemn mass in her chapel, on
+Sunday the 24th of August, 1561, the first Sunday she spent in Scotland.
+The Reformers, as soon as they got the upper hand, had prohibited this
+service under severe penalties, and these principles of intolerance they
+were determined to maintain. Mary had not interfered with their mode of
+worship; but this was not enough;--they considered themselves called upon
+to interfere with hers. In anticipation of the mass, for which she had
+given orders, the godly, Knox tells us, met together and said,--"Shall
+that idol be suffered again to take place within this realm? It shall
+not." They even repented that they had not pulled down the chapel itself
+at the time they had demolished most of the other religious houses; for
+the sparing of any place where idols were worshipped was, in their
+opinion, "the preserving the accursed thing." When Sunday arrived, a crowd
+collected on the outside of the chapel; and Lord Lindsay, whose bigotry
+has been already mentioned, called out with fiery zeal,--"The idolatrous
+priests shall die the death, according to God's law." The Catholics were
+insulted as they entered the chapel, and the tumult increased so much,
+that they feared to commence the service. At length, the Lord James, whose
+superior discrimination taught him, that his party, by pushing things to
+this extremity, were doing their cause more harm than good, stationed
+himself at the door, and declared he would allow no evil-disposed person
+to enter. His influence with the godly was such, that they ventured not to
+proceed to violence against his will. He was a good deal blamed, however,
+by Knox for his conduct. When the service was concluded, Lord James's two
+brothers were obliged to conduct the priests home, as a protection to them
+from the insults of the people; and in the afternoon, crowds collected in
+the neighbourhood of the palace, who, by their disloyal language and
+turbulent proceedings, signified to the Queen their disapprobation, that
+she had dared to worship her God in the manner which seemed to herself
+most consistent, both with the revealed and natural law. Many of Mary's
+friends, who had accompanied her from France, were so disgusted with the
+whole of this scene, that they announced their intention of returning
+sooner than they might otherwise have done. "Would to God," exclaims Knox,
+"that altogether, with the mass, they had taken good-night of the realm
+for ever!"
+
+On the following Sunday, Knox took the opportunity of preaching, what
+Keith might have termed, another "thundering sermon" against idolatry. In
+this discourse he declared, that one mass was more fearful to him than ten
+thousand armed enemies would be, landed in any part of the realm on
+purpose to suppress the whole religion. No one will deny, that the earlier
+Reformers of this and all other countries would, naturally and properly,
+look upon Popish rites with far greater abhorrence than is done by the
+strictest Protestants of more modern times. Nor is it wonderful that the
+ablest men among them, (and John Knox was one of those), should have given
+way so far to the feelings of the age, as to be unable to draw the exact
+line of distinction between the improvements of the new gospel, and the
+imperfections of the old. The faith which they established, was of a
+purer, simpler, and better kind than that from which they were converted.
+Yet, making all these allowances, there does seem to have been something
+unnecessarily overbearing and illiberal in the spirit which animated Knox
+and some of his followers. When contrasted with the mildness of Mary at
+least, and even with the greater moderation observed in some of the other
+countries of Europe, where the Reformation was making no less rapid
+progress, the anti-Catholic ardor of the good people of Scotland must be
+allowed to have over-stepped considerably the just limits of Christian
+forbearance. It is useful also to observe the inconsistencies which still
+existed in the Reformed faith. Whilst the Catholic religion was
+reprobated, Catholic customs springing out of that religion do not seem to
+have called forth any censure. On the very day on which Knox preached the
+sermon already mentioned, a great civic banquet was given by the city of
+Edinburgh to Mary's uncles, the Duke Danville, and other of her French
+friends; and, generally speaking, Sunday was, throughout the country, the
+favourite day for festivities of all kinds.
+
+The mark of attention paid to her relations pleased Mary, but her pleasure
+was rendered imperfect, by perceiving how powerful and unlooked for an
+enemy both she and they had in John Knox. Aware of the liberal manner in
+which she had treated him and his party, she thought it hard that he
+should so unremittingly exert his influence to stir up men's minds against
+her. That this influence was of no insignificant kind, is attested by very
+sufficient evidence. Knox was not a mere polemical churchman. His friends
+and admirers intrusted to him their temporal as well as spiritual
+interests. He was often selected as an umpire in civil disputes of
+importance; and persons whom the Town-council had determined to punish for
+disorderly conduct, were continually requesting his intercession in their
+behalf. When differences fell out even among the nobility, he was not
+uncommonly employed to adjust them. He was besides, at that time, the only
+established clergyman in Edinburgh who taught the Reformed doctrines.
+There was a minister in the Canongate, and another in the neighbouring
+parish of St Cuthberts, but Knox was _the_ minister of Edinburgh. He
+preached in the church of St Giles, which was capable of holding three
+thousand persons. To this numerous audience he held forth twice every
+Sunday, and thrice on other days during the week. He was regular too in
+his attendance at the meetings of the Synod and the General Assembly, and
+was frequently commissioned to travel through the country to disseminate
+gospel truth. In 1563, but not till then, a colleague was appointed to
+him.
+
+Animated by a sincere desire to soften if possible our Reformer's austere
+temper, Mary requested that he might be brought into her presence two days
+after he had delivered his sermon against idolatry. Knox had no objection
+whatever to this interview. To have it granted him at all would show his
+friends the importance attached to his character and office; and from the
+manner in which he determined to carry himself through it, he hoped to
+strengthen his reputation for bold independence of sentiment, and
+undeviating adherence to his principles. This was so far well; but Knox
+unfortunately mingled rudeness with his courage, and stubbornness with his
+consistency.
+
+Mary opened the conversation by expressing her surprise that he should
+have formed so very unfavourable an opinion of herself; and requested to
+know what could have induced him to commence his calumnies against her so
+far back as 1559, when he published his book upon the "monstrous
+government of women."[47] Knox answered, that learned men in all ages
+considered their judgments free, and that, if these judgments sometimes
+differed from the common judgment of mankind, they were not to blame. He
+then ventured to compare his "First Blast of the Trumpet" to Plato's work
+"On the Commonwealth," observing, with much self-complacency, that both
+these books contained many new sentiments. He added, that what he had
+written was directed most especially against Mary--"that wicked Jezabel of
+England." The Queen, perceiving that this was a mere subterfuge, said, "Ye
+speak of women in general." Knox confessed that he did so, but again went
+the length of assuring her, though the assurance seems to involve a
+contradiction, that he had said nothing "intended to trouble her estate."
+
+Satisfied with this concession, Mary proceeded to ask, why he could not
+teach the people a new religion without exciting them to hold in contempt
+the authority of their Sovereign? Knox found it necessary to answer this
+question in a somewhat round-about manner. "If all the seed of Abraham,"
+said he, "should have been of the religion of Pharaoh, what religion
+should there have been in the world? Or if all men, in the days of the
+Roman Emperors, should have been of the religion of the Roman Emperors,
+what religion should have been on the face of the earth? Daniel and his
+fellows were subject to Nebuchadnezzar and unto Darius, and yet they would
+not be of their religion." "Yea," replied Mary promptly, "but none of
+these men raised the sword against their princes." "Yet you cannot deny
+that they resisted," said Knox, refining a little too much; "for those who
+obey not the commandment given them, do in some sort resist." "But yet,"
+said the Queen, perceiving the quibble, "they resisted not with the
+sword." The Reformer felt that he had been driven into a corner, and
+determined to get out of it at whatever cost. "God, Madam," said he, "had
+not given unto them the power and the means." "Think ye," asked Mary,
+"that subjects having the power may resist their princes?" "If princes
+exceed their bounds, Madam," said Knox, evidently departing from the
+point, "no doubt they may be resisted even by power." He proceeded to
+fortify this opinion with arguments of no very loyal kind; and Mary,
+overcome by a rudeness and presumption she had been little accustomed to,
+was for some time silent. Nay, Randolph, in one of his letters, affirms
+that he "knocked so hastily upon her heart that he made her weep." At
+length she said, "I perceive then that my subjects shall obey you, and not
+me, and will do what they please, and not what I command; and so must I be
+subject to them, and not they to me." Knox answered, that a subjection
+unto God and his Church was the greatest dignity that flesh could enjoy
+upon the face of the earth, for it would raise it to everlasting glory.
+"But you are not the Church that I will nourish," said Mary; "I will
+defend the Church of Rome, for it is, I think, the true Church of God."
+Knox's coarse and discourteous answer shows that he was alike ignorant of
+the delicacy with which, in this argument, he should have treated a
+_lady_, and of the respect a _queen_ was entitled to demand. "Your _will_,
+Madam," said he, "is no reason; neither doth your thought make the Roman
+harlot to be the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ. Wonder not,
+Madam, that I call Rome a harlot, for that Church is altogether polluted
+with all kinds of spiritual fornication, both in doctrine and manners."
+Whilst this speech must have deeply wounded the feelings of Mary, a
+sincere Catholic as she was, it cannot entitle the Reformer to any praise
+on the score of its bravery and independence. Knox knew that the whole
+country would, in a few days, be full of his conference with the Queen. By
+yielding to her, he had nothing to gain; and, as his reputation was his
+dearest possession, he hoped to increase it by an unmanly display of his
+determined zeal. Mary, perceiving what sort of a man she had to deal
+with, soon afterwards broke off the conversation.[48]
+
+On the same day that the Queen gave Knox this audience, she made her first
+public entry into Edinburgh. She rode up the Canongate and High Street, to
+the Castle, where a banquet had been prepared for her. She was greeted, as
+she passed along, with every mark of respect and loyalty; and pains had
+been taken to give to the whole procession, as striking and splendid an
+air as possible. The Town had issued proclamations, requiring the citizens
+to appear in their best attire, and advising the young men to assume a
+uniform, that they might make "the convoy before the court more
+triumphant." When Mary left the castle after dinner, on her way back, a
+pageant which had been prepared was exhibited on the Castle Hill. The
+Reformers could not allow this opportunity to pass, without reminding her
+that she was now in a country where their authority was paramount. The
+greater part of this pageant, represented the terrible vengeance of God
+upon idolaters. It was even, at one time, intended to have had a priest
+burned in effigy; but the Earl of Huntly declared, he would not allow so
+gross an insult to be offered to his sovereign.
+
+Soon after paying this compliment to the City of Edinburgh, Mary
+determined upon making a progress through the country, that she and her
+subjects might become better acquainted with each other. She made this
+progress upon horseback, accompanied by a pretty numerous train. There
+appears at the time to have been only one wheeled carriage in Scotland. It
+was a chariot, (as it is called in the treasurer's books), probably of a
+rude enough construction, which Margaret of England brought with her when
+she married James IV. Mary, no doubt, knew that it would have been rather
+adventurous to have attempted travelling on the Scotch roads of that day
+in so frail and uncertain a vehicle. It is not, however, to be supposed,
+that a Queen such as Mary, with her Lords and Ladies well-mounted around
+her, could pass through her native country without being the object of
+universal admiration, even without the aid of so wonderful a piece of
+mechanism as a coach or a chariot. Her first stage was to the palace at
+Linlithgow. Here she remained a day or two, and then proceeded to
+Stirling. On the night of her arrival there, she made a very narrow
+escape. As she lay in bed asleep, a candle, that was burning beside her,
+set fire to the curtains; and had the light and heat not speedily awakened
+her, when she immediately exerted her usual presence of mind, she might
+have been burned to death. The populace said at the time, that this was
+the fulfilment of a very old prophecy, that a Queen should be burned at
+Stirling. It was only the bed, however, not the Queen that was burned, so
+that the prophet must have made a slight mistake. On the Sunday she spent
+at Stirling, the Lord James, finding perhaps, that his former apparent
+defence of the mass, had hurt his reputation among the Reformers,
+corrected the error by behaving with singular impropriety in the Royal
+chapel. He was assisted by the Lord Justice General, the Earl of Argyle,
+in conjunction with whom he seems to have come to actual blows with the
+priests. This affair was considered good sport by many. "But there were
+others," says Randolph, alluding probably to Mary, "that shed a tear or
+two." "It was reserved," Chalmer's remarks, "for the _Prime Minister_ and
+the _Justice General_, to make a riot in the house which had been
+dedicated to the service of God, and to obstruct the service in the
+Queen's presence."[49]
+
+Leaving Stirling, Mary spent a night at Lesly Castle, the seat of the Earl
+of Rothes, a Catholic nobleman. On the 16th of September she entered
+Perth. She was everywhere welcomed with much apparent satisfaction; but in
+the midst of their demonstrations of affection, her subjects always took
+care to remind her that they were Presbyterians, and that she was a
+Papist. In the very pious town of Perth, pageants greeted her arrival
+somewhat similar to those which had been exhibited to her on the Castle
+Hill at Edinburgh. Mary was not a little affected by observing this
+constant determination to wound her feelings. In riding through the
+streets of Perth, she became suddenly faint, and was carried from her
+horse to her lodging. Her acute sensibility often produced similar effects
+upon her health, although the cause was not understood by the unrefined
+multitude. With St Andrews, the seat of the Commendatorship of the Lord
+James, she seems to have been most pleased, and remained there several
+days. She returned to Edinburgh by the end of September, passing, on the
+way, through Falkland, where her father had died. Knox was much distressed
+at the manifestation of the popular feeling in favour of Mary during this
+journey. He consoles himself by saying, that she polluted the towns
+through which she passed with her idolatry; and in allusion to the
+accident at Stirling, remarks, "Fire followed her very commonly on that
+journey."[50]
+
+It was, perhaps, to counteract, in some degree, the impression which
+Mary's affability and beauty had made upon her subjects, that soon after
+her return to Edinburgh, a very singular proclamation was issued by the
+civil authorities of that town. It was couched in the following
+terms:--"October 2. 1561. On which day the Provost, Baillies, Council, and
+all the Deacons, perceiving the Priests, Monks, Friars, and others of the
+wicked rabble of the Anti-Christ the Pope, to resort to this town,
+contrary to the tenor of a previous proclamation; therefore ordain the
+said proclamation, charging all Monks, Friars, Priests, Nuns, Adulterers,
+Fornicators, and all such filthy persons, to remove themselves out of this
+town and bounds thereof, within twenty-four hours, under the pain of
+carting through the town, burning on the cheek, and perpetual
+banishment."[51] The insult offered to the Sovereign of the realm, by thus
+attempting to confound the professors of the old religion with the most
+depraved characters in the country, was too gross to be allowed to pass
+unnoticed. Mary did not bring these bigoted magistrates to trial,--she did
+not even imprison them, but with much mildness, though with no less
+firmness, she ordered the Town-Council instantly to deprive the Provost
+and Baillies of the offices they held, and to elect other better qualified
+persons in their stead.[52]
+
+During the remainder of the year 1561, the only public affairs of
+consequence, were the appointment of the Lord James as the Queen's
+Lieutenant on the Borders, where he proceeded to hold courts, and
+endeavoured, by great severity and many capital punishments, to reduce the
+turbulent districts to something like order; and the renewal on the part
+of Queen Elizabeth of the old dispute concerning the treaty of Edinburgh.
+Mary, having now had the benefit of advice from her Council, without
+directly refusing what Elizabeth asked, gave her, in pretty plain terms,
+to understand, that she could never think of signing away her hereditary
+title and interest to the Crown of England. "We know," she says, in a
+letter she wrote to Elizabeth on the subject, "how near we are descended
+of the blood of England, and what devices have been attempted to make us,
+as it were, a stranger from it. We trust, being so nearly your cousin, you
+would be loth we should receive so manifest an injury, as entirely to be
+debarred from that title, which, in possibility, may fall to us."
+
+Most of Mary's French friends had, by this time, returned home. Her uncle,
+the Marquis D'Elbeuf, however, remained all winter with her. In losing the
+Duke of Danville, Mary lost one of her warmest admirers; but it appears,
+that from his being already married, (though he could have obtained a
+divorce,) and from other considerations, Mary rejected his addresses. Many
+foreign princes were suing for the honour of her alliance, among whom were
+Don Carlos of Spain, the Archduke Charles of Austria, the King of Sweden,
+the Duke of Ferrara, and the Prince of Conde; but Mary did not yet see the
+necessity of an immediate marriage. Among her own subjects, there were two
+who ventured upon confessing their attachment, and nourishing some hopes
+that she might be brought to view it propitiously. These were the Earl of
+Arran, already mentioned, and Sir John Gordon, second son of the Earl of
+Huntly. The former of these Mary never liked; and though the latter far
+excelled him in accomplishments, both of body and mind, she does not seem
+to have given him encouragement either. Inspired by mutual jealousy, these
+noblemen, of course, detested each other; but Arran was the more factious
+and absurd. Having taken offence at some slights which he supposed had
+been offered him, he had retired to St Andrews, where he was believed, by
+those who knew his restless temperament, to be hatching sedition. Upon one
+occasion--a Sunday night in November--just before the Queen had retired to
+bed, a report was suddenly spread through the palace, that Arran had
+crossed the water at the head of a strong body of retainers, and was
+marching direct for Holyroodhouse, with the intention of carrying off the
+Queen to Dumbarton Castle, which was in the possession of his father, or
+to some other place of strength. This report, which gained credit, it was
+scarcely known how, excited the greatest alarm. Mary's friends collected
+round her with as much speed as possible; the gates were closed, and the
+Lords remained in arms within the court all night. Arran did not make his
+appearance, and the panic gradually subsided,--though the nobles
+determined to keep guard every night for some time. This is the foundation
+of the assertion made by some writers, that Mary kept a perpetual body
+guard, which, unfortunately, she never did during the whole of her reign.
+The Duke of Chatelherault, who came to Court soon after, alleged, that the
+rumour which had gained credence against his son, was only a manoeuvre
+of his enemies; and though his son's conduct was, on all occasions,
+sufficiently outre, it is not unlikely that this allegation was true.
+
+Another tumult, which soon afterwards occurred, shows how difficult it
+was, at this time, to preserve quietness and good order. It had been
+reported among the more dissolute nobles, that the daughter of a
+respectable merchant in Edinburgh, was the _chere amie_ of the Earl of
+Arran. Bothwell, always at home in any affair of this kind, undertook to
+introduce the Marquis D'Elbeuf to the lady; Lord John, brother of the
+Commendator of St Andrews, was also of the party. They went to her house
+the first night in masks, and were admitted, and courteously entertained.
+Returning next evening, they were disappointed to find, that the object of
+their admiration refused to receive their visits any longer. They
+proceeded, therefore, to break open the doors, and to create much
+disturbance in the house and neighbourhood. Next day the Queen was
+informed of their disorderly conduct, and she rebuked them sharply. But
+Bothwell and the Lord John, animated partly by their dislike to the house
+of Hamilton, and partly by a turbulent spirit of contradiction, declared
+they would repeat their visit the very next night in despite of either
+friend or foe. Their intentions being understood, the servants of the Duke
+of Chatelherault and Arran thought themselves called upon to defend a lady
+whom their masters patronized. They assembled accordingly with jack and
+spear in the streets, determined to oppose force to force. Bothwell wished
+for nothing else, and collected his friends about him in his own lodgings.
+The opposite party, however, increased much more rapidly than his, and
+began to collect in a threatening manner before his house. The magistrates
+saw the necessity of interfering; the alarm-bell was rung, and despatches
+were sent off to Holyrood, to know what course was to be taken. The Earls
+of Argyle and Huntly, together with the Lord James, joined the civic
+authorities, and, proceeding out to the mob, made proclamation, that all
+men should instantly depart on pain of death. This had the desired effect;
+the streets gradually became quiet, and Bothwell gave up his wild scheme.
+Mary, next day, ordered both the Duke of Chatelherault and the Earl of
+Bothwell to appear before her. The first came accompanied by a crowd of
+Protestants, and the latter with an equal number of Catholics. But the
+Queen was not to be over-awed, and having investigated the matter,
+Bothwell was banished from Court for ten days.[53]
+
+This was only the prelude to a still more serious difference, which took
+place between these untamed and irascible nobles. The Earl of Arran
+appeared before the Queen, and declared that a powerful conspiracy had
+been formed against the life of the Lord James, upon whom the title of
+Earl of Mar, as preliminary to that of Murray, had recently been
+conferred. This conspiracy, he said, had originated with himself and his
+father, who were beginning to tremble, lest the newly created Earl's
+influence with the Queen, might induce her to set aside the Hamilton
+succession, in favour of her illegitimate brother. That the Earl of Mar
+had really proposed some such arrangement, seems to be established on good
+authority.[54] The Earl of Huntly, together with Mar's old enemy,
+Bothwell, had been induced by the Hamiltons to join in this plot. The
+intention was, to shoot the Earl of Mar when hunting with the Queen, to
+obtain for the Hamiltons his authority in the government, and to give the
+Catholic party greater weight in the state. Huntly's eldest son, the Lord
+Gordon, was also implicated in Arran's confession. A few days before the
+whole of these plans were to be carried into execution, the weak and
+vacillating Arran, according to his own declaration, had been seized with
+remorse of conscience; and, actuated by his ancient friendship for Mar,
+and his love for the Queen, determined on disclosing every thing.
+
+Historians seem to have been puzzled, what degree of dependence they
+should place upon the truth of this strange story, told by one who was
+already half crazed, and soon afterwards altogether insane. That there is
+good reason, however, for giving credit to his assertions, is evident,
+from the manner in which all contemporary writers speak, and the fact,
+that the Queen sent both him and Bothwell to prison. When the affair was
+further investigated, it was found to involve so many of the first
+nobility of the land, and among others, Arran's own father,
+Chaltelherault, whom he could never be expected publicly to accuse, that
+Mary resolved not to push matters to extremity against any one. She
+ordered the Duke of Chatelherault, however, to deliver up the Castle of
+Dumbarton; and, at the Earl of Mar's instigation, she kept Bothwell a
+prisoner, first in the Castle of St Andrews, and afterwards in that of
+Edinburgh, until he made his escape, and left the country for upwards of
+two years. It is remarkable, that this conspiracy should not have been
+hitherto dwelt upon at greater length, tending as it does to develope the
+secret motives by which the Earl of Mar was actuated in his subsequent
+feuds with the Earl of Huntly.[55] It is worth recollecting too, though
+the fact has not been previously noticed, that this was the _first_
+occasion on which Bothwell aimed at making himself master of the Queen's
+person. The design, though unsuccessful, shows the spirit which long
+continued to actuate him. Had Mary fallen into his hands at this period,
+it is not likely that she would ever have had it in her power to marry
+Darnley, and the whole complexion of her fate might have been changed.
+
+In February 1562, Mary gave a series of splendid entertainments, on the
+occasion of the marriage of her favourite brother, James. He was then in
+the thirty-first year of his age, and chose for his wife Lady Agnes Keith,
+eldest daughter of the Earl of Marschal. The marriage was solemnized in
+the church of St Giles; and Knox took advantage of the occasion, to offer
+the Lord James a wholesome, but somewhat curiously expressed advice;
+"for," said the preacher to him, "unto this day has the kirk of God
+received comfort by you, and by your labours; in the which, if hereafter
+you shall be found fainter than you were before, it will be said that your
+wife has changed your nature." Knox and his friends were subsequently much
+scandalized by "the greatness of the banquetting, and the vanity thereof,"
+which characterized the honeymoon. The issue of this marriage was three
+daughters, two of whom married Scotch noblemen, and the third died
+young.[56]
+
+In August 1562, Mary commenced the progress into the North, which, in so
+far as some of her principal nobility were concerned, was attended with
+such very important consequences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MARY'S EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH.
+
+
+The Lord James, now Earl of Mar, had for some time felt, that so long as
+he was regarded with suspicion by the Hamiltons, and with ill-concealed
+hatred by the Earl of Huntly and the Gordons, his power could not be so
+stable, nor his influence so extensive, as he desired. If it is true that
+he had already proposed to Mary to set aside the succession of the Earl of
+Arran, it is equally true that she had refused his request. Foiled,
+therefore, in this, his more ambitious aim, he saw the necessity of
+limiting, in the meantime, to more moderate bounds, his views of personal
+preferment. With regard to the Hamiltons, he had succeeded in securing
+their banishment from court, and in making them objects of suspicion and
+dislike to the Queen. There was not indeed sufficient talent in the family
+ever to have made it formidable to him, had it not been that it was of the
+blood royal. Though not possessing this advantage, the Gordons were always
+looked upon by Mar as more dangerous rivals. He had long nursed a secret
+desire, at least to weaken, if not to crush altogether, the power of
+Huntly. In getting himself created Earl of Mar, he had made one step
+towards his object. The lands which went along with this title were part
+of the royal demesnes; but had for some time been held in fee by the Earls
+of Huntly. Her brother had prevailed upon Mary to recall them in his
+favour, and he was thus able to set himself down in the very heart of a
+country, which had hitherto acknowledged no master who did not belong to
+the house of Gordon. Huntly felt this encroachment bitterly; and it makes
+it the more probable, that he had secretly joined with Arran in his plot
+upon Mar; at any rate Mar gave him full credit for having done so. Their
+mutual animosity being thus exasperated, to the highest pitch, Huntly left
+the Court, and the Prime Minister waited anxiously for the first
+opportunity that might occur, to humble effectually the great leader of
+the Catholics.
+
+In prosecution of his purpose, Mar now obtained a grant under the Privy
+Seal of the earldom of Murray. A grant under the Privy Seal constituted
+only an inchoate, not a complete title. To ratify the grant and make it
+legal, it was necessary to have the Great Seal also affixed to it. The
+Great Seal, however, was in the custody of Huntly, as Lord Chancellor; and
+as Mar well knew that the grant of this second earldom infringed upon
+Huntly's rights even more than the former, he saw the propriety of keeping
+it secret for some time. The earldom of Murray, which, with its lands and
+appurtenances, was bestowed upon Huntly in 1549, for his services in the
+war with England, had been again recalled by the Crown in 1554, when
+Huntly fell into the displeasure of the Queen-Regent, in consequence of
+having refused to punish with fire and sword some Highland rebels. But in
+1559, the title and lands were restored, not as a free grant, but as a
+lease during five years, to Huntly, his wife and heirs, on the condition
+of a yearly payment of 2500 merks Scots. Till 1564, therefore, Huntly was
+entitled to consider himself master of all the lands and revenues of this
+earldom. But in 1561, the title and lands were privately conferred upon
+the Earl of Mar. It is true, that he might have applied thus early only to
+prevent himself from being anticipated, and might not have intended to
+encroach on Huntly's rights before the legal period of his enjoying them
+had expired. The advantage, however, he so eagerly took of an incident
+that occurred in the month of June 1562, proves that Mar had never any
+intention to keep his title to the earldom of Murray locked up for three
+years.[57]
+
+The father of James, Lord Ogilvy, had married one of the Earl of Huntly's
+sisters, who gave her some lands in liferent as her dowry. Upon her
+husband's death, considerations induced her to surrender the liferent to
+her brother, and the Earl then gave it to his son, Sir John Gordon. But
+Lord Ogilvy was displeased with his mother's conduct, and questioned its
+legality. The matter, however, was decided against him, though not before
+it had occasioned much bad blood between him and Sir John Gordon. These
+two noblemen unfortunately met on the streets of Edinburgh; and though Sir
+John had married Ogilvy's sister, all ties of relationship were
+disregarded, and an affray took place, in which both were assisted by
+their respective servants. It does not exactly appear who was the
+aggressor in this scuffle, but, from the circumstances which led to it,
+the probability is, that it was Ogilvy. Both noblemen were severely
+wounded; and the magistrates, enraged at their breach of the peace,
+committed them to prison.[58] Mary with her Court was at Stirling, but the
+Earl of Mar obtained permission to depart for Edinburgh, to examine into
+the whole affair. The son of the Earl of Huntly was now within his power,
+and he saw the advantages which might be made to accrue to himself in
+consequence. After examination, he ordered the Lord Ogilvy and his
+retainers to be set at liberty, but Sir John Gordon he sent to the common
+gaol. Sir John, not liking to trust himself in such hands, made his
+escape, after remaining in prison for about a month, and proceeded to his
+father's house in the North to recite to him his grievances.[59]
+
+Such being the state of feeling subsisting between the Queen's prime
+minister and these great Northern chieftains, it can scarcely be allowed
+that Robertson expresses himself correctly when he says, "The Queen
+_happened_ to set out on a progress into the northern parts of the
+kingdom." Her motions were at this time entirely regulated by the Earl of
+Mar, who, seeing the contempt which had been offered to her authority by
+the flight of his son, felt satisfied that Mary could not pass through the
+extensive territories of Huntly, without either giving or receiving some
+additional cause of offence, which would in all probability lead to
+consequences favourable to Mar's ambition. Unless this hypothesis be
+adopted, no rational cause can be assigned why the Queen should have
+chosen this particular season for her visit to the North. From the recent
+suspicion which had attached to the Earl of Huntly, as one of Arran's
+colleagues in a conspiracy against her favourite minister, and the still
+more recent conduct of his son Sir John Gordon, she certainly could have
+no intention to pay that family the compliment of honouring them with her
+royal presence as a guest. North of Aberdeen, however, nearly the whole
+country was subservient to Huntly; and if Mary did not pass through it as
+a friend, she must as an enemy. This was the consideration that prompted
+the Earl of Mar to fix this year for the expedition. It was owing to
+negociations with Elizabeth, concerning a personal interview between the
+two Queens, that Mary was unable to set out till towards the middle of
+August.
+
+The Queen left Edinburgh on horseback, as usual, attended by a very
+considerable train. Among others, four members of her Privy Council went
+with her,--the Earls of Argyle, Morton, Marschall, and Mar,--the three
+first of whom had no particular liking for Huntly, and were, besides,
+entirely under the direction of the last. Randolph also attended the
+Queen in this journey, and furnishes some details concerning it. On the
+18th of August, 1562, she left Stirling; and, after a disagreeable and
+fatiguing journey, arrived at Old Aberdeen on the 27th. Here she remained
+for several days, and all the nobility in these parts came to pay their
+homage to her. Among the rest were the Earl and Countess of Huntly, who
+entreated her to honour them with a visit at Huntly Castle, informing her
+that they had endeavoured to make suitable preparations for her
+entertainment. Mary, at Mar's instigation of course, (for, as far as her
+own feelings were concerned, she must have looked with favour upon the
+first Catholic Peer of the realm), received them coldly. This was but a
+poor return for Huntly's long tried fidelity to herself and family; for,
+whatever quarrels he may have had with the nobility, he had always
+preserved inviolate his respect for the royal prerogative. His son, Sir
+John Gordon, also came to Aberdeen, and surrendered himself to the Queen,
+to be dealt with as her justice might direct. He was neither tried nor
+taken into custody; but, with more refined policy, he was ordered by Mar,
+and the rest of the Queen's Council, to proceed voluntarily to Stirling
+Castle, and there deliver himself, as a prisoner, to the keeper, Lord
+Erskine, Mar's uncle. It was, no doubt, foreseen that this order, so
+disproportioned in its severity to the offence which occasioned it, would
+not be complied with, nor was it wished that it should. Guided by similar
+advice, Mary refused to visit the residence of the Earl of Huntly,--a
+refusal which was pathetically lamented by Randolph, as it was "within
+three miles of her way, and the fairest house in this country." We learn
+from the same authority, that there was such a scarcity of accommodation,
+in Old Aberdeen, that Randolph, and Maitland the secretary, who had
+recently returned from England, were obliged to sleep together in the same
+bed. This is, perhaps, rendered the less remarkable, when we are informed
+that there were, at the University, only fifteen or sixteen scholars.
+
+On the 1st of September, Mary left Aberdeen for Inverness; but, in the
+interval, the Earl of Mar, perceiving that there might be some occasion
+for their services, had collected a pretty strong body of men, who marched
+forward with the Queen and her train. In journeying northwards, she
+travelled by Rothiemay, Grange, Balvenie, and Elgin, passing very near the
+Earl of Huntly's castle. No entreaty would induce her to enter it; but she
+permitted the Earl of Argyle and Randolph to partake of its hospitality
+for two days. "The Earl of Huntly's house," says Randolph, "is the best
+furnished that I have seen in this country. His cheer is marvellous great;
+his mind then, such, as it appeared to us, _as ought to be, in any
+subject, to his sovereign_." On the 8th of September, Mary went from Elgin
+to Tarnaway, the baronial residence of the earldom of Murray, and at that
+time in possession of a tenant of the Earl of Huntly. Information being
+there received that Sir John Gordon's friends and vassals, exasperated at
+the over-degree of rigour with which he was treated, were assembling in
+arms; and that Sir John, instead of going to Stirling, had joined the
+rebels, a proclamation was issued, charging him to surrender, by way of
+forfeit, into the Queen's hands, his houses and fortresses of Findlater
+and Auchindoune. This proclamation was expressed with a bitterness which
+must only have enraged the discontents the more. It required the surrender
+of these strongholds, with the avowed intention of breaking the power of
+the rebels, and in consideration of her Majesty having heard "the many
+grievous complaints of the poor people of this country, hearing them to be
+_herreit_ (robbed) and oppressed by him and his accomplices, in times
+by-past; and fearing the like, or worse, should be done in time coming."
+The same proclamation described Sir John Gordon's wife as "Lady Findlater,
+his _pretended_ spouse."[60]
+
+Fearing that even all this might not be enough to induce Huntly to take
+such steps as might be plausibly construed into treason, Mar now, for the
+first time, produced his title to the Earldom of Murray, and assumed the
+name. The only meeting of council held north of Aberdeen was at Tarnaway,
+and at the first council after the Queen had returned to Aberdeen, we find
+Mar's name changed to that of Murray. Robertson, who has followed
+Buchanan's, or in other words Murray's own account of the transactions in
+the North, in referring Mar's assumption of the Earldom of Murray to a
+later date, forgets that it must have been sanctioned by Mary and her
+Council; and that the only opportunity for doing so, in the interval of
+their departure from, and return to Aberdeen, was at Tarnaway.[61]
+
+This new insult upon himself and family was, as Murray expected, deeply
+felt by the Earl of Huntly. He began to suspect that it was intended to
+ruin him; and in this extremity, with evident reluctance, he prepared to
+defend himself. Mary, meanwhile, marched forward to Inverness. "On her
+arrival," says Robertson, "the commanding officer in the Castle, _by
+Huntly's orders_, shut the gates against her." The gates were shut, but
+certainly not by Huntly's orders; for as soon as he heard that the Castle
+had been summoned, he sent his express commands to the governor (who had
+acted upon his own responsibility) to surrender it. These commands,
+however, came too late; the Castle had been taken by storm, and the
+governor put to death. What right the Earl of Murray, or even the Queen
+herself, had to demand the surrender of the castle, which belonged
+hereditarily to Lord George Gordon, the Earl of Huntly's eldest son, does
+not appear. As Chalmers remarks, the whole proceeding seems to have been
+illegal and unwarrantable. Huntly, who was on his way to Inverness, to
+attempt an arrangement of these disputes, by a personal interview with the
+Queen, when he heard of the execution of the governor, returned to his
+castle.[62]
+
+The Gordons were now fairly roused; and, collecting their followers, they
+determined to act resolutely, but not as aggressors. Mary was made to
+believe that she was in the midst of a hostile country; and though there
+was, in reality no intention to attack her, every means was taken to
+inspire her with fear, and to convince her of the treacherous designs of
+the Earl of Huntly. But Mary, had a courageous spirit, when it was
+necessary to exert it. "In all those garbrilles," says Randolph, "I never
+saw the Queen moved,--never dismayed; nor never thought I that stomach to
+be in her that I find. She repented nothing, but when the Lords and others
+at Inverness came in the morning from the watch; that she was not a man,
+to know what life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk upon
+the causeway with a jack and knapsack, a Glasgow buckler and a
+broadsword."
+
+On the 15th of September, the Queen returned southwards. She had with her
+about two thousand men, and as she advanced, their number increased to
+3000. She marched by Kilravock and Tarnaway, to Spynie Castle. Thence, she
+proceeded through the country of the Gordons, crossing the Spey at
+Fochabers, and going by the way of Cullen and Banff. Throughout the whole
+course of this march, Murray took care to make her believe that she was in
+danger of being attacked every moment. If there had been any enemy to
+fight with, "what desperate blows," says Randolph, "would not have been
+given, when every man should have fought in the sight of so noble a Queen,
+and so many fair ladies!" The only incidents which seem to have occurred,
+were summonses to surrender, given by sound of trumpet at Findlater House,
+and at Deckford, mansions of Sir John Gordon. The keepers of both refused;
+but they were not acting upon their master's authority. Having slept a
+night at the Laird of Banff's house, Mary returned, on the 22d of
+September, to Aberdeen. Her entry into the New Town, was celebrated by
+the inhabitants with every demonstration of respect. Spectacles, plays,
+and interludes were devised; a richly wrought silver cup, with 500 crowns
+in it, was presented to her; and wine, coals, and wax, were sent in great
+abundance to her lodgings.
+
+But the Earl of Murray, was not yet satisfied that he had humbled the
+Gordons enough. It was true, that the lands of Sir John had been
+forfeited,--that the castle of Lord George had been captured,--and that
+the title and estates of the earldom of Murray had been wrested from
+Huntly. But Huntly's power still remained nearly as great as ever; and it
+seemed doubtful whether Murray would ever be able to seat himself quietly
+in his new possessions, situated as they were in the very heart of the
+Earl's domains. The privy council were therefore prevailed upon to come to
+the resolution that the Earl of Huntly, in the language of Randolph,
+"shall either submit himself, and deliver his disobedient son John, or
+utterly to use all force against him, _for the subversion of his house for
+ever_." To enforce this determination, Murray levied soldiers, and sent
+into Lothian and Fife for officers in whom he could place confidence,
+particularly Lindsay and Grange. With what show of reason the unfortunate
+Huntly could be subjected to so severe a fate, it is difficult to say. He
+had come to offer his obedience and hospitality to the Queen, on her first
+arrival at Aberdeen;--he remained perfectly quiet during her journey
+through that part of the country which was subject to him;--he sent to
+her, after she returned to Aberdeen, the keys of the Houses of Findlater
+and Deckford, which she had summoned unsuccessfully on her march from
+Cullen to Banff;--and he delivered to her, out of his own castle, a
+field-piece which the Regent Arran had long ago given to him, and which
+Mary now demanded. He added, that "not only that, which was her own, but
+also his body and goods, were at her Grace's commands."[63] His wife, the
+Countess of Huntly, led Captain Hay, the person sent for the cannon, into
+the chapel at her castle, and placing herself at the altar, said to
+him,--"Good friend, you see here the envy that is borne unto my husband.
+Would he have forsaken God and his religion as those that are now about
+the Queen's grace, and have the whole guiding of her, have done, my
+husband had never been put at as now he is. God, and He that is upon this
+holy altar, whom I believe in, will, I am sure, preserve, and let our true
+meaning hearts be known; and as I have said unto you, so, I pray you, let
+it be said unto your mistress. My husband was ever obedient unto her, and
+so will die her faithful subject."[64]
+
+That Mary should have given her sanction to these iniquitous proceedings,
+can only be accounted for by supposing, what was in truth the case, that
+she was kept in ignorance of every thing tending to exculpate Huntly,
+whilst various means were invented to inspire her with a belief, that he
+had conceived, and was intent upon executing a diabolical plot against
+herself and government. It was given out, that his object was to seize
+upon the Queen's person,--to marry her by force to his son Sir John
+Gordon,--and to cut off Murray, Morton, and Maitland, his principal
+enemies.[65] Influenced by these misrepresentations, which would have been
+smiled at in later times, but which, in those days, were taken more
+seriously, the Queen put the fate of Huntly into the hands of Murray. Soon
+after her return to Aberdeen, an expedition was secretly prepared against
+Huntly's castle. If resistance was offered, the troops sent for the
+purpose were to take it by force, and if admitted without opposition, they
+were to bring Huntly, a prisoner to Aberdeen. Intimation, however, of this
+enterprise and its object was conveyed to the Earl, and he contrived to
+baffle its success. His wife received the party with all hospitality;
+threw open her doors, and entreated that they would examine the whole
+premises, to ascertain whether they afforded any ground of suspicion. But
+Huntly himself, took care to be out of the way, having retired to
+Badenoch.[66]
+
+Thus foiled again, Murray, on the 15th of October, called a Privy Council,
+at which he got it declared, that unless Huntly appeared on the following
+day before her Majesty, "to answer to such things as are to lay to his
+charge," he should be put to the horn for his contempt of her authority,
+and "his houses, strengths, and friends, taken from him."[67] However
+willing he might have been to have ventured thus into the lion's den,
+Huntly could not possibly have appeared within the time appointed. On the
+17th of October, he was therefore denounced a rebel in terms of the
+previous proclamation, and his lands and titles declared forfeited.[68]
+Even yet, however, Huntly acted with forbearance. He sent his Countess to
+Aberdeen on the 20th, who requested admission to the Queen's presence,
+that she might make manifest her husband's innocence. So far from
+obtaining an audience, this lady, who was respected and loved over the
+whole country, was not allowed to come within two miles of the Court, and
+she returned home with a heavy heart. As a last proof of his fidelity,
+Huntly sent a messenger to Aberdeen, offering to enter into ward till his
+cause might be tried by the whole nobility. Even this offer was rejected;
+and, goaded into madness, the unfortunate Earl at length collected his
+followers round him, and, raising the standard of rebellion, not against
+the Queen, but against Murray, advanced suddenly upon Aberdeen.
+
+This resolute proceeding excited considerable alarm at Court. Murray,
+however, had foreseen the probability of such a step being ultimately
+taken, and had been busy collecting forces sufficient to repel the attack.
+A number of the neighbouring nobility had joined him, who, not penetrating
+the prime minister's real motives, were not displeased to see so proud and
+powerful an earldom as that of Huntly likely to fall to pieces. On the
+28th of October, Murray marched out of Aberdeen at the head of about 2000
+men. He found Huntly advantageously stationed at Corrachie, a village
+about fifteen miles from Aberdeen. Huntly's force was much inferior to
+that of Murray, scarcely exceeding 500 men. Indeed, it seems doubtful,
+whether he had advanced so much for the purpose of fighting, as for the
+sake of giving greater weight to his demands, to be admitted into the
+presence of the Queen, who, he always maintained, had been misled by false
+council. Perceiving the approach, however, of his inveterate enemy Murray,
+and considering the superiority of his own position on the hill of Fare,
+he relinquished all idea of retreat, and determined, at any risk to
+accept the battle which was offered him. The contest was of short
+duration. The broadswords of the Highlanders, even had the numbers been
+more equal, would have been no match for the spears and regular discipline
+of Murray's Lowland troops. Their followers fled; but the Earl of Huntly
+and his two sons, Sir John Gordon and Adam, a youth of seventeen,
+disdaining to give ground, were taken prisoners. The Earl, who was
+advanced in life, was no sooner set upon horseback, to be carried
+triumphantly into Aberdeen, than the thoughts of the ruin which was now
+brought upon himself and his family overwhelmed him; and, without speaking
+a word, or receiving a blow, he fell dead from his horse.[69]
+
+Sir John Gordon who was pronounced the author of all these troubles,
+having been marched into Aberdeen, was tried, condemned, and executed. He
+may have been an enemy of Murray's, but so far from being a traitor to the
+Queen, he was one of the most devoted admirers and attached subjects she
+ever had. Yet Murray took care to have it reported, that Sir John, before
+he was beheaded, confessed, that if his father had taken Aberdeen, he was
+determined to have "burned the Queen, and as many as were in the house
+with her."[70] So palpable a falsehood throws additional light upon the
+motives which instigated the prime minister throughout. With a refinement
+of cruelty, he insisted upon Mary giving her public countenance to his
+proceedings, by consenting to be present at Gordon's death. She was placed
+at a window, opposite to which the scaffold had been erected. Gordon, who
+was one of the handsomest men of his times, observed her, and fixing his
+eyes upon her, "gave her to understand by his looks," says Freebairn,
+"that her presence sweetened the death he was going to suffer only for
+loving her too well." He then fell upon his knees, and prepared to lay his
+head upon the block. Mary, totally unable to stand this scene, was already
+suffused in tears; and when she was informed that the unskilful official,
+instead of striking off the head, had only mangled the neck, she fainted
+away, and it was some time before she could be recovered.[71] Adam Gordon
+was indebted to his youth for saving him from his brother's fate. He lived
+to be, as his father had been, one of Mary's most faithful servants. Lord
+Gordon, the late Earl's eldest son, who was with his father-in-law, the
+Duke of Chatelherault, at Hamilton, was soon afterwards seized and
+committed to prison, Murray finding it convenient to declare him
+implicated in the Earl's guilt. Having remained under arrest for some
+months, he was tried and found guilty, but the execution of his sentence
+was left at the Queen's pleasure. She sent him to Dunbar Castle; and as
+Murray could not prevail upon her to sign the death-warrant, he had
+recourse to forgery; and had the keeper of the castle not discovered the
+deceit, the Lord Gordon's fate would have been sealed. Mary was content
+with keeping him prisoner, till a change in her administration restored
+him to favour, and to the forfeited estates and honours of his father.
+
+One other incident connected with these tragical events is worth
+recording. Means having been taken for the preservation of Huntly's body,
+it was sent by sea to Leith, and lay for several months at Holyroodhouse.
+In the Parliament which met in May 1563, these melancholy remains were
+produced, to have sentence of forfeiture pronounced against them. To
+obviate if possible this additional calamity, the Countess of Huntly,
+widow of the deceased, appeared before the Parliament, and with the spirit
+of a Gordon requested to be heard in her late husband's defence. The
+request was refused; Huntly's castles and houses were rifled of their
+property, his friends and vassals fined, and many escheats granted to
+those who had assisted in crushing this once noble family.[72]
+
+Murray having now no farther occasion for the Queen's presence at
+Aberdeen, the Court moved southwards on the 5th of November. On her way
+home, she visited Dunottar Castle, Montrose, Arbroath, Dundee, Stirling,
+and Linlithgow. She arrived at Edinburgh on the 22d, having been absent
+upwards of three months. It is much to be regretted, that she ever
+undertook this northern expedition. Though she had little or no share in
+its guilt, she had allowed herself to be made an effectual tool in the
+hands of Murray, who was now more powerful than any minister of Mary's
+ought to have been. He had forced the Earl of Bothwell into exile; he had
+brought the Duke of Chatelherault and Arran into disgrace; and having
+accomplished the death of the courageous Huntly, he had obtained for
+himself and friends the greater part of that nobleman's princely estates
+and titles. Besides, he was more popular among the Reformers than ever,
+for the destruction of the Gordon family had been long wished for by them.
+In short, though without the name, he was the King of Scotland, and his
+sister Mary was his subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+CHATELARD'S IMPRUDENT ATTACHMENT, AND KNOX'S PERSEVERING HATRED.
+
+
+Mary returned from her Northern expedition towards the conclusion of the
+year 1562. The two following years, 1563 and 1564, undistinguished as they
+were by any political events of importance, were the quietest and happiest
+she spent in Scotland. Her moderation and urbanity had endeared her to her
+people; and, in her own well regulated mind, existed a spring of pure and
+abiding satisfaction. Nevertheless, vexations of various sorts mingled
+their bitterness in her cup of sweets. An occurrence which took place
+early in 1563, demands our attention first.
+
+The poet Chatelard has been already mentioned as one of those who sailed
+in Mary's train, when she came from the continent. He had attached himself
+to the future Constable of France, the Duke Danville, and was a gentleman
+of good family and fortune, being by the mother's side the grand-nephew of
+the celebrated Chevalier Bayard. The manly beauty of his person was not
+unlike that of his ancestor; and, besides being well versed in all the
+more active accomplishments of the day, he had softened and refined his
+manners by an ardent cultivation of every species of belles-lettres. It
+was this latter circumstance that gained for him the occasional favourable
+notice of Mary. A poetess herself, as much by nature as by study, her
+heart warmed towards those who indulged in the same delightful art.
+Chatelard wrote both in French and Italian; and, finding that Mary deigned
+to read and admire his productions, he seems thenceforth to have made her
+the only theme of his enamoured and too presumptuous Muse. To the Queen
+this was no uncommon compliment. She received it, gracefully, and
+sometimes even amused herself with answering Chatelard's effusions. This
+condescension almost turned the young poet's brain. He had left Scotland
+with the Duke Danville, and Mary's other French friends, at the end of the
+year 1561; but he eagerly seized the opportunity afforded him, by the
+civil wars in France, to return before twelve months had elapsed. The Duke
+Danville sent him to Mary's court, there is every reason to believe, to
+press upon her attention once more his own pretensions to her hand. But
+Chatelard, in the indulgence of his mad passion, forgot the duty he owed
+his master; and, for every word he spoke in prose for the Duke, he spoke
+in verse twenty for himself. Mary, long accustomed to this species of
+adulation, and looking upon flattery as a part of a poet's profession,
+smiled at the more extravagant flights of his imagination, and forgot them
+as soon as heard. These smiles, however, were fatal to Chatelard. "They
+tempted him," says Brantome, "to aspire, like Phaeton, at ascending the
+chariot of the sun." In February 1563, he had the audacity to steal into
+the Queen's bedchamber, armed with sword and dagger, and attempted to
+conceal himself till Mary should retire to rest. He was discovered by her
+maids of honour; and Mary, though much enraged at his conduct, was
+unwilling, for a first offence, to surrender him to that punishment which
+she knew would be inflicted were it known to her Privy Council. She was
+contented with reprimanding him severely, and ordering him from her
+presence.
+
+This leniency was thrown away upon the infatuated Chatelard. Only two
+nights afterwards, the Queen having, in the interval, left Edinburgh for
+St Andrews, he again committed the same offence. As she went to St Andrews
+by the circuitous route of the Queensferry, she slept the first night at
+Dumfermline, and the second at Burntisland. Here Chatelard insolently
+followed the Queen into her bedroom, without attempting any concealment,
+and assigned, as the motive for his conduct, his desire to clear himself
+from the blame she had formerly imputed to him. Mary commanded him to
+leave her immediately, but he refused; upon which she saw the necessity of
+calling for assistance. The Earl of Murray was at hand, and came
+instantly. The daring boldness of Chatelard's conduct could no longer be
+concealed; the proper legal authorities were sent for from Edinburgh; the
+poet was tried at St Andrews, and was condemned to death. He was executed
+on the 22d of February, and conducted himself bravely, but as a confirmed
+enthusiast, even on the scaffold. He would not avail himself of the
+spiritual advice of any minister or confessor; but having read Ronsard's
+Hymn on Death, he turned towards the place where he supposed the Queen
+was, and exclaimed in an unfaltering voice, "Farewell, loveliest and most
+cruel Princess whom the world contains!" He then, with the utmost
+composure, laid his head upon the block, and submitted, with all
+resignation, to his fate.[73]
+
+Mary remained at St Andrews till the middle of April, when she removed to
+Loch Leven, where she had better opportunities of enjoying her favourite
+amusements of hunting and hawking. She went thither in considerable grief,
+occasioned by the news she had lately received from France, of the death
+of two of her uncles, the Duke of Guise, and the Grand Prior. The former
+had been barbarously assassinated at the siege of Orleans, by a Protestant
+bigot of the name of Poltrot; and the latter had been fatally wounded at
+the battle of Dreux. Alluding triumphantly to the murder of the Duke of
+Guise, Knox expressed himself in these words, "_God_ has stricken that
+bloody tyrant." This enmity to the House of Guise, which Knox carried even
+beyond the grave, was now no novelty. Some months before, he had taken
+occasion to preach a severe sermon against Mary and her friends, in
+consequence of an entertainment she gave at Holyrood, upon receiving news
+of her uncles' successes in the French civil wars. Mary had, in
+consequence, sent for Knox a second time, when he repeated to her the
+principal part of his sermon, in a manner which made it appear not quite
+so obnoxious as she had been induced to believe. She had then the
+magnanimity to tell him, that though his words were sharp, she would not
+blame him for having no good opinion of her uncles, as they and he were of
+a different religion. She only wished that he would not publicly
+misrepresent them, without sufficient evidence upon which to ground his
+charges. Knox left Mary, "with a reasonable merry countenance," and some
+one observing it, remarked, "He is not afraid!" Knox's answer is
+characteristic, and does him credit, "Why should the pleasing face of a
+gentlewoman affray me? I have looked in the faces of many angry men, and
+yet have not been afraid above measure."
+
+The third time that Knox was admitted into Mary's presence was at Loch
+Leven. This, as indeed every interview she had with the celebrated
+Reformer, and she had only four, exhibits her character in a very
+favourable point of view. It appears, that whilst the Queen reserved for
+herself the right of celebrating mass in her own chapel, it was prohibited
+throughout the rest of the kingdom. Some instances had occurred in which
+this prohibition had been disregarded; and upon these occasions the
+over-zealous Protestants had not scrupled to take the law into their own
+hands. Mary wished to convince Knox of the impropriety of this
+interference. He thought it necessary to defend his brethren; but his
+answer to the Queen's simple question,--"Will ye allow that they shall
+take my sword in their hands?"--though laboured, is quite inconclusive.
+That "the sword of justice is God's," may be a very good apopthegm, but
+would be a dangerous precept upon which to form a practical rule in the
+government of a state. Mary, however, knowing by experience that it was
+hopeless to attempt to change Knox's sentiments, and not wishing to enter
+into an argument with him, passed to other matters. Though she disliked
+the rudeness of his manners, she had a respect for the unbending Stoicism
+of his principles; and having too much good sense to hold any one
+responsible for the peculiarities of his belief, she could not help
+persuading herself, that she would finally soften the asperity of those
+with whom she disagreed, only upon articles of faith. With this view, she
+conversed with Knox upon various confidential matters, and actually did
+succeed in winning for the moment the personal favour of her stern
+adversary. "This interview," observes Dr M'Crie, "shows how far Mary was
+capable of dissembling, what artifice she could employ, and what
+condescensions she could make, when she was bent on accomplishing a
+favourite object." There is something very uncharitable in the
+construction thus put upon the Queen's conduct. She had, no doubt, a
+favourite object in view; but that object was mutual reconcilement, and
+the establishment, as far as in her lay, of reciprocal feelings of
+forbearance and good will among all classes of her subjects. The
+"artifice" she used, consisted merely in the urbanity of her manners, and
+her determination to avoid all violence, in return for the violence which
+had been exhibited towards herself.
+
+Soon after this conference, Mary went to Edinburgh, to open in person the
+first Parliament which had been held since her return to Scotland. Its
+session continued only from the 26th of May, to the 24th of June 1563; but
+during that short period, business of some importance was transacted. The
+Queen on the first day rode to the Parliament House in her robes of
+state,--the Duke of Chatelherault carrying the crown, the Earl of Argyle
+the sceptre, and the Earl of Murray the sword.[74] She was present on
+three or four occasions afterwards; but on the first day she made a
+speech to the representatives of her people, which was received with
+enthusiastic applause. This applause was wormwood to Knox, who, with even
+more than his usual discourtesy towards a sex whom he seems to have
+despised, says,--"Such stinking pride of women as was seen at that
+Parliament, was never before seen in Scotland." He was heartily borne out
+in his vituperations by the rest of the preachers. The rich attire which
+Mary and the ladies of her court chose to wear, were abominations in their
+eyes. They held forth to their respective flocks against the "superfluity
+of their clothes," the "targeting of their tails," and "the rest of their
+vanity." It was enough, they said, "to draw down God's wrath not only upon
+these foolish women, but upon the whole realm." At this Parliament the
+Earldoms of Huntly and Sutherland were declared forfeited; an act was
+passed for preventing any one from summoning the lieges together without
+the Queen's consent; some judicious legislative measures of a domestic
+nature were established; and an act of oblivion for all acts done from the
+6th of March 1558, to the first of September 1561, was unanimously
+carried. This act of oblivion was declared to have no reference whatever
+to a similar act sanctioned by the Treaty of Edinburgh, the ratification
+of which was expressly avoided by the Queen. Its object, how--was
+precisely the same,--namely, to secure the Reformers against any
+disagreeable consequences which might arise out of the violences they
+committed during the first heat of the Reformation.
+
+An act of oblivion thus obtained as a free gift from Mary, and not as a
+consequence of his favourite Treaty of Edinburgh, was by no means
+agreeable to Knox. He assembled some of the leading Members of Parliament,
+and urged upon them the necessity of forcing from the Queen a ratification
+of this treaty. Even the Protestant Lords, however, felt how unjust such a
+demand would be. The Earl of Murray himself, one of Knox's oldest and
+staunchest friends, refused to ask Mary to take this step. Knox, in
+consequence, solemnly renounced Murray's friendship, and a coldness
+subsisted between them for nearly two years. Foiled in his object, the
+Reformer had recourse to his usual mode of revenge. He preached another
+"thundering sermon." The object of this sermon was to convince the people,
+that as soon as a Parliament was assembled, they had the Queen in their
+power to make her do what they chose. "And is this the thankfulness that
+ye render unto your God," said he, "to betray his cause, when ye have it
+in your hands to establish it as you please?" Before concluding, he
+adverted to the report that her Majesty would soon be married, and called
+upon the nobility, if they regarded the safety of their country, to
+prevent her from forming an alliance with a Papist.
+
+"Protestants as well as Papists," says Knox's biographer, "were offended
+with the freedom of this sermon, and some who had been most familiar with
+the preacher, now shunned his company." There must have been something
+more than usually bitter and unjust in a discourse which produced such
+results. It was the occasion of the last and most memorable interview
+which the Reformer had with Mary. As soon as she was made acquainted with
+the manner in which he had attacked her, she summoned him to her presence.
+He was accompanied to the palace by Lord Ochiltree, and some other
+gentlemen; but John Erskine of Dun, a man of a mild and gentle temper, was
+the only one allowed to enter Mary's apartment along with Knox. The
+Reformer found his Queen in considerable agitation. She told him she did
+not believe any prince had ever submitted to the usage she had experienced
+from him. "I have borne with you," she said, "in all your rigorous manner
+of speaking, both against myself, and against my uncles; yea, I have
+sought your favour by all possible means; I offered unto ye presence and
+audience whensoever it pleased ye to admonish me; and yet I cannot be quit
+of you." She then passionately burst into tears, so that, as Knox says
+with apparent satisfaction, they could scarce "get handkerchiefs to hold
+her eyes dry; for the tears and the howling, besides womanly weeping,
+stayed her speech." The preacher, when he was allowed to speak,
+complacently assured her Majesty that when it pleased God to deliver her
+from that bondage of darkness and error wherein she had been nourished,
+she would not find the liberty of his tongue offensive. He added, that in
+the pulpit he was not his own master, but the servant of Him who commanded
+that he should speak plain, and flatter no flesh upon the face of the
+earth. Mary told him that she did not wish for his flattery, but begged to
+know what rank he held in the kingdom to entitle him to interfere with her
+marriage. Knox, whose self-esteem seldom forsook him, replied, that though
+neither an Earl, Lord, nor Baron, he was a profitable and useful member of
+the commonwealth, and that it became him to teach her nobility, who were
+too partial towards her, their duty. "Therefore, Madam," he continued, "to
+yourself I say that which I spake in public: whensoever the nobility of
+this realm shall be content, and consent that you be subject to an
+unlawful husband, they do as much as in them lies to remove Christ, to
+banish the truth, to betray the freedom of this realm, and perchance shall
+in the end do small comfort to yourself." Language so unwarranted and
+uncalled for again drew tears from Mary, and Erskine, affected by her
+grief, attempted to soften down its harshness. Knox looked on with an
+unaltered countenance, and comparing his Sovereign to his own children,
+when he saw occasion to chastise them, he said,--"Madam, in God's presence
+I speak. I never delighted in the weeping of any of God's creatures; yea,
+I can scarcely well abide the tears of mine own boys, when mine own hands
+correct them. Much less can I rejoice in your Majesty's weeping; but,
+seeing I have offered unto ye no just occasion to be offended, but have
+spoken the truth as my vocation craves of me, I must sustain your
+Majesty's tears, rather than dare hurt my conscience, or betray the
+commonwealth by silence." That he might not be longer under the necessity
+of sustaining tears he could so ill abide, Mary commanded him to leave
+her presence, and wait her pleasure in the adjoining room.
+
+Here his friends who were expecting him, and who had overheard some of the
+conversation which had just taken place, perceiving how much he had
+excited the Queen's just indignation, would hardly acknowledge him. In his
+own words, "he stood as one whom men had never seen." His confidence,
+however, did not forsake him. Observing Mary's maids of honour seated
+together, and richly dressed, he took the opportunity, that he might not
+lose his time, of giving them also some gratuitous advice. "Fair ladies,"
+he said with a smile, "how pleasant were this life of yours, if it should
+ever abide, and then in the end that we might pass to heaven with this
+gear: but fy upon that knave, Death, that will come whether we will or
+not; and when he has laid on the arrest, then foul worms will be busy with
+this flesh, be it never so fair and so tender; and the silly soul I fear
+shall be so feeble, that it can neither carry with it gold, garnishing,
+targeting, pearl, nor precious stones." Shortly afterwards Erskine, who
+had somewhat pacified the Queen, came to inform him that he was allowed to
+go home.[75]
+
+As the Queen and Knox came just once more into public contact, and that
+only a few weeks after the date of the above interview, it may be as well
+to terminate our interference with the affairs of the Reformer in this
+place. The Queen having gone to Stirling, a disturbance took place one
+Sunday during her absence at the Chapel of Holyrood. Some of her domestics
+and Catholic retainers, had assembled for the celebration of worship,
+after the form of the Romish Church. The Presbyterians were at the time
+dispensing in Edinburgh the Sacrament of the Supper, and were consequently
+more zealous than usual in support of their own cause. Hearing of the
+Catholic practices carried on at Holyrood, they proceeded thither in a
+body, burst into the Chapel, and drove the priests from the altar. To
+quell the riot, the Comptroller of the Household was obliged to obtain the
+assistance of the Magistrates, and even then it was not without difficulty
+that the godly were prevailed upon to disperse. Two of their number, who
+had been more violent than the rest, had indictments served upon them for
+"forethought felony, hamesucken, and invasion of the Palace." Knox and his
+friends determined to save these two men from punishment, at whatever
+risk. The means they adopted to effect their purpose were of the most
+seditious kind. It was determined to overawe the judges by displaying the
+power of the accused; and with this view, Knox wrote circular letters to
+all the principal persons of his persuasion, requesting them to crowd to
+Edinburgh on the day of trial. He thus assumed to himself the prerogative
+of calling Mary's subjects together, in direct opposition to one of the
+acts of the late Parliament. When those letters were shown to the Queen,
+and her Privy Council, at Stirling, they were unanimously pronounced
+treasonable, and Knox was summoned to appear before a convention of
+nobles, to be held in Edinburgh a few weeks afterwards, for the purpose of
+trying him. It was, however, intimated to him, that as the Queen wished to
+be lenient, if he would acknowledge his fault, and throw himself upon her
+mercy, little or no punishment would be awarded. He obstinately refused to
+make the slightest concession, and in consequence nearly lost the
+friendship of Lord Herries, with whom he had been long intimate.
+
+On the day of trial, public curiosity was much excited to know the result.
+The Lords assembled in the Council Chamber at Holyrood; the Queen took her
+seat at the head of the table, and Knox stood uncovered at the foot. The
+proceedings were opened by Secretary Maitland, who stated the grounds of
+the accusation, and explained in what manner the law had been infringed.
+Knox made a declamatory and very unsatisfactory reply. The substance of
+his defence was, that there were lawful and unlawful convocations of the
+people, and that, as the Act of Parliament could not apply to the
+assembling of his congregation every Sunday, neither could he be held to
+have transgressed it by writing letters to the heads of his church,
+calling them together upon a matter of vital importance to their religion.
+The sophistry of this reasoning was easily seen through. It was answered
+for the Queen, that his sermons were sanctioned by Government, and that
+their tendency was supposed to be peaceable; but that the direct purpose
+of the letters in question was to exasperate the minds of the lieges. One
+passage, in particular was read, in which Knox said, alluding to the two
+persons who were indicted,--"This fearful summons is directed against
+them, to make, no doubt, a preparative on a few, that a door may be opened
+to execute cruelty upon a greater multitude." "Is it not treason, my
+Lords," said Mary, "to accuse a Prince of cruelty? I think there be acts
+of Parliament against such whisperers." Knox endeavoured to evade the
+force of this remark by a very evident quibble. "Madam," he said, "cast up
+when you list the acts of your Parliament, I have offended nothing against
+them; for I accuse not in my letter your Grace, nor yet your nature, of
+cruelty. But I affirm yet again, that the pestilent Papists who have
+inflamed your Grace against those poor men at this present, are the sons
+of the Devil, and therefore must obey the desires of their father, who has
+been a liar and a man-slayer from the beginning." More words were spoken
+on both sides, but nothing further was advanced that bore directly upon
+the subject in hand. It is worthy of notice, however, that Knox, in the
+course of his defence, actually forgot himself so far as to institute a
+comparison between Mary and the Roman Nero. At length, having been fully
+heard, he was ordered to retire, and after some discussion, the vote of
+guilty or not guilty was put to the nobles. There being a considerable
+preponderance of Protestant lords at the meeting, it was carried that Knox
+had not committed any breach of the laws. He evinces his triumph on this
+occasion by remarking spitefully in his History,--"That night was neither
+dancing nor fiddling in the Court; for Madam was disappointed of her
+purpose, whilk was to have had John Knox in her will by vote of her
+nobility." His acquittal certainly disappointed Mary; but it only served
+to convince her more and more, that bigotry and justice were incompatible.
+
+Before concluding this chapter, one of the peculiarities of the Scottish
+Reformer's mind deserves to be noticed. That he was a strong thinker and
+a bold man, cannot be denied; yet, as has been before remarked, he himself
+confesses that he was much addicted to superstition. This weakness, if
+real, lowers him considerably in the scale of intellect; and, if affected,
+proves that, amidst all the pretensions of his new doctrines, he still
+retained a taint of priestly craft. Alluding to the year of which we
+speak, (1563), he has incorporated into his History the following
+remarkable passage. "God from Heaven, and upon the face of the earth, gave
+declaration that he was offended at the iniquity that was committed even
+within this realm; for upon the 20th day of January, there fell wet in
+great abundance, which in the falling freezed so vehemently, that the
+earth was but one sheet of ice. The fowls both great and small freezed,
+and could not fly; many died, and some were taken and laid before the
+fire, that their feathers might resolve; and in that same month the sea
+stood still, as was clearly observed, and neither ebbed nor flowed the
+space of twenty-four hours. In the month of February, the fifteenth and
+eighteenth days thereof, were seen in the firmament battles arrayed,
+spears and other weapons, and as it had been the joining of two armies.
+These things were not only observed, but also spoken and constantly
+affirmed by men of judgement and credit. But the Queen and our Court made
+merry."[76] It would thus appear, that Knox's mind was either a strange
+compound of strength and imbecility, courage and fear, sound sense and
+superstition, or that duplicity was more a part of his character than is
+generally supposed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF MARY, WITH SOME ANECDOTES OF ELIZABETH.
+
+
+The summer and autumn of the year 1563, were spent by Mary in making
+various excursions through the country. She had not yet visited the west
+and south-west of Scotland. Shortly after the rising of Parliament, she
+set out for Glasgow, and from thence went on to Dumbarton and Loch-Lomond.
+In the neighbourhood of its romantic scenery, she spent some days, and
+then crossed over to Inverary, where she visited her natural sister, the
+Countess of Argyle, to whom she was much attached. Upon leaving Inverary,
+she passed over the Argyleshire hills, and came down upon the Clyde at
+Dunoon. Following the course of the river, she next visited Toward Castle,
+near the entrance of the Bay of Rothesay. Here she crossed the Frith of
+Clyde, and landing in Ayrshire, spent several weeks in this Arcadian
+district of Scotland. She then went into Galloway, and before her return
+to Edinburgh, visited Dumfries, and other towns in the south. Her next
+excursion was to Stirling, Callander, and Dumblane, in the neighbourhood
+of which places she remained till late in the season. The earlier part of
+1564, she spent at Perth, Falkland, and St Andrews; and in the autumn of
+this year, she again went as far north as Inverness, and from thence into
+Ross-shire. "The object of that distant journey," says Chalmers, "was not
+then known, and cannot be completely ascertained." "She repassed through
+the country of the Gordons, which had once been held out as so frightful.
+She remained a night at Gartley, where there is still a ruined castle, and
+the parish whereof belongs even now to the Duke of Gordon. She rode
+forward to Aberdeen, without seeing Huntly's ghost, and went thence to
+Dunnottar, where she remained a night, and thence, proceeding along the
+coast road, to Dundee. She then crossed the Tay into Fife, and diverging
+for a few days to St Andrews, she returned to Edinburgh about the 26th of
+September, after an absence of two months."
+
+As we are speedily to enter upon a new and more bustling, though not a
+happier period, of Mary's life, we should wish to avail ourselves of the
+present opportunity, to convey to the reader some notion of her domestic
+habits and amusements, and how, when left to herself, she best liked to
+fill up her time. The affability and gentleness of her manners, had
+endeared her even more than her personal attractions, to all who
+frequented her court. She had succeeded, by the firm moderation of her
+measures, not only in giving a more than ordinary degree of popularity to
+her government, but, by the polished amenity of her bearing, her powers of
+conversation, and varied accomplishments, she had imparted to the court of
+Holyrood a refinement and elegance we in vain look for under the reign of
+any of her predecessors. There is a vast difference between an over-degree
+of luxuriousness and a due attention to the graces. Under the influence of
+the former, a nation becomes effeminate, and addicted to every species of
+petty vice; under that of the latter, its characteristic virtues are
+called only more efficiently into action. The tree is not the less
+valuable divested of its rugged bark. It is to the example set by Mary,
+that we are to attribute, in a great degree, that improvement in the
+manners and feelings of Scotch society, which speedily placed this country
+more upon a par with the rest of civilized Europe. Had the precepts of
+John Knox been strictly followed, the blue bonnets of a rigid, unbending
+Presbyterianism would probably to this day have decorated the heads of
+two-thirds of the population. A scarcity which prevailed about the
+commencement of the year 1564, drew from this stern Reformer the
+assertion, that "the riotous feasting and excessive banqueting used in
+city and country, wheresoever the profane Court repaired, provoked God to
+strike the staff of bread, and to give his maledictions upon the fruits of
+the earth." Mary judged differently of the effects produced by these
+"profane banquetings,"--and so will the political economists of more
+modern times.
+
+It was only, after the performance of duties of a severer kind, that Mary
+indulged in recreation. She sat some hours regularly every day with her
+Privy Council; and, with her work-table beside her and her needle in her
+hand, she heard and offered opinions upon the various affairs of State. To
+the poor of every description, she was, like her mother, exceedingly
+attentive; and she herself benevolently superintended the education of a
+number of poor children. To direct and distribute her charities, two
+ecclesiastics were appointed her _elcemosynars_; and they, under her
+authority, obtained money from the Treasurer in all cases of necessity.
+She gave an annual salary also to an advocate for the poor, who conducted
+the causes of such as were unable to bear the expenses of a lawsuit; and
+to secure proper attention for these causes, she not unfrequently took her
+seat upon the bench when they came to be heard. Her studies were extensive
+and regular. She was well versed in history, of which she read a great
+deal. Every day after dinner she devoted an hour or two to the perusal of
+some Latin classic, particularly Livy, under the superintendence of George
+Buchanan. In reward for his services, she gave him the revenue of the
+Abbey of Crossraguel in Ayrshire, worth about 500_l._ a year. This grant
+was probably made at the request of the Earl of Murray, who was Buchanan's
+patron, and to whom he always considered himself more indebted than to the
+Queen. Buchanan, whose talents for controversial writing it was foreseen
+might be useful, had also a pension of 100_l._ a year from Elizabeth. Mary
+had a competent knowledge of astronomy and geography; and her library in
+the Palace of Holyrood contained, among other things, two globes, which
+were at that time considered curiosities in Scotland,--"the ane of the
+heavin, and the uther of the earth." She had, besides, several maps, and a
+few pictures, in particular portraits of her father, her mother, her
+husband Francis II., and Montmorency. Being fond of all sorts of
+exercises, she frequently received ambassadors and others, to whom she
+gave audience, in the Palace gardens. She had two of these,--the southern
+and the northern; and, not contented with their more limited range, she
+often extended her walk through the King's Park, and sometimes even along
+the brow of Salisbury Crags or Arthur Seat. She had gardens and parks
+attached to all her principal residences throughout Scotland,--at
+Linlithgow,--at Stirling,--at Falkland,--at Perth,--and at St Andrews. It
+was in one of her gardens at Holyrood that she planted a sycamore she had
+brought with her from France, and which, becoming in time a large and
+valuable tree, was an object of curiosity and admiration even in our own
+day. It was blown down only about ten years ago, and its wood was eagerly
+sought after, to be made into trinkets and costly relics.
+
+To her female followers and friends, Mary was ever attentive and kind. For
+her four Maries, her companions from infancy, she retained her affection
+during all the vicissitudes of her fortune. At the period of which we
+write, she still enjoyed the society of all of them; but Mary Fleming
+afterwards became the wife of Secretary Maitland, and Mary Livingstone of
+Lord Semple. Mary Beaton and Mary Seaton remained unmarried. Madame de
+Pinguillon, who had come with the Queen from France, and to whom she was
+extremely partial, continued in her service for several years, her husband
+being appointed Master of the Household. They both returned to their own
+country when the troubles in Scotland began. There were many other ladies
+belonging to the court, whose names possess no interest, because
+unconnected with any of the events of history.
+
+Mary's establishment was by no means expensive or extraordinary. She does
+not appear to have had so great a variety of dresses as Elizabeth, yet she
+was not ill provided either. Her common wearing gowns, as long as she
+continued in mourning, which was till the day of her second marriage, were
+made either of camlet, or damis, or serge of Florence, bordered with black
+velvet. Her riding-habits were mostly of serge of Florence, stiffened in
+the neck and body with buckram, and trimmed with lace and ribands. In the
+matter of shoes and stockings, she seems to have been remarkably well
+supplied. She had thirty-six pair of velvet shoes, laced with gold and
+silver; she had ten pair of hose woven of gold, silver, and silk, and
+three pair woven of worsted of Guernsey. Silk stockings were then a
+rarity. The first pair worn in England were sent as a present from France
+to Elizabeth. Six pair of gloves of worsted of Guernsey are also mentioned
+in the catalogue, still existing, of Mary's wardrobe. She was fond of
+tapestry, and had the walls of her chambers hung with the richest
+specimens of it she could bring from France. She had not much plate; but
+she had a profusion of rare and valuable jewels. Her cloth of gold, her
+Turkey carpets, her beds and coverlids, her table-cloths, her crystal,
+her chairs and foot-stools covered with velvet, and garnished with
+fringes, were all celebrated in the gossiping chronicles of the day.
+
+The Scottish Queen's amusements were varied, but not in general sedentary.
+She was, however, a chess-player, and anxious to make herself a mistress
+of that most intellectual of all games. Archery was one of her favourite
+out-of-door pastimes, and she indulged in it frequently in her gardens at
+Holyrood. She revived the ancient chivalric exercise of riding at the
+ring, making her nobles contend against each other; and crowds frequently
+collected on the sands at Leith to witness their trials of skill.
+Tournaments Mary did not so much like, because they tempted the courageous
+to what she thought unnecessary danger; and when obliged to be present at
+them in France, it was remarked, that her superior delicacy of feeling
+always marred her enjoyment, from the anticipation that they might end in
+bloodshed. These sentiments were probably strengthened by the unfortunate
+manner in which Henry II. met his death. The now almost obsolete, but then
+fashionable and healthful amusement of hawking, was much esteemed by Mary.
+Her attachment to it was hereditary, for both her father and grandfather
+were passionately fond of it. James V. kept a master-falconer, who had
+seven others under him. In 1562, hawks of an approved kind were brought
+for Mary from Orkney; and in the same year, she sent a present of some of
+them to Elizabeth. To riding and hunting, as has been already seen, Mary
+had long been partial.
+
+Within doors, Mary found an innocent gratification in dancing, masquings,
+and music. She was herself, as has been seen, a most graceful dancer,
+moving, according to Melville, "not so high, nor so disposedly," as
+Elizabeth; by which we may understand that she danced, as they who have
+been taught in France usually do, with greater ease and self-possession,
+or, in other words, with less effort--less consciousness that she was
+overcoming a difficulty in keeping time, and executing the steps and
+evolutions of the dance. The masques and mummeries, which were
+occasionally got up, were novelties in Scotland, and excited the anger of
+the Reformers, though it is difficult to tell why. Randolph, describing a
+feast at which he was present in 1564, mentions that, at the first course,
+some one, representing Cupid, made his appearance, and sung, with a
+chorus, some Italian verses; at the second, "a fair young maid" sung a few
+Latin verses; and at the third, a figure dressed as Time concluded the
+mummery, with some wholesome piece of morality. Upon other occasions,
+several of which will be alluded to afterwards, masques were performed
+upon a more extensive scale. These amusements were seldom or never allowed
+to degenerate into dissipation, by being protracted to untimely hours.
+Mary was always up before eight o'clock;--she supped at seven, and was
+seldom out of bed after ten.[77]
+
+The Queen's taste in music had been cultivated from her earliest years.
+When almost an infant she had _minstrels_ attached to her establishment.
+On her return to Scotland, she had a small band of about a dozen
+musicians--vocal and instrumental--whom she kept always near her person.
+Five of these were violars, or players on the viol;[78] three of them were
+players on the lute; one or two of them were organists, but the organs in
+the chapels at Stirling and Holyrood were the only ones which had been
+saved from the fury of the Reformers; and the rest were singers, who also
+acted as _chalmer-chields_, or valets-de-chambre. Mary could herself play
+upon the lute and virginals, and loved to hear concerted music upon all
+occasions. She even introduced into her religious worship a military band,
+in aid of the organ, consisting of trumpet, drum, fife, bagpipe, and
+tabor.
+
+It was as one skilled in music that David Rizzio first recommended himself
+to Mary. He came to Edinburgh towards the end of the year 1561, in the
+train of the ambassador from Savoy. He was a Piedmontese by birth, and had
+received a good education. His father was a respectable professional
+musician in Turin, who, having a large family, had sent his two sons,
+David and Joseph, to push their own way in Nice, at the court of the Duke
+of Savoy. They were both noticed at that court, and were taken into the
+service of the Duke of Moretto, the ambassador already mentioned. The
+knowledge which David Rizzio possessed of music, says a French writer, was
+the least of his talents: He had a polished and ready wit, a lively
+imagination, full of pleasant fancies, soft and winning manners, abundance
+of courage, and still more assurance. "He was," says Melville, "a merry
+fallow, and a guid musician." He was, moreover, abundantly ugly, and past
+the meridian of life, as attested by all cotemporary writers of any
+authority. His brother, Joseph, is scarcely mentioned in history, though
+it appears that he also attached himself to Mary's Court. At the time of
+David's arrival, the Queen's three pages, or _sangsters_, who used to sing
+trios for her, wanted a fourth as a bass. Rizzio was recommended, and he
+received the appointment, together with a salary of 80_l._ Being not only
+by far the most scientific musician in the Queen's household, but likewise
+well acquainted both with French and Italian, Rizzio contrived to make
+himself generally useful. In 1564 he was appointed Mary's French
+secretary, and in this situation he continued till his death.[79]
+
+An amusing peep into the interior of both the Scots and English Courts,
+afforded by Sir James Melville, will form an appropriate conclusion to
+this chapter. Sir James returned from the Continent to Scotland in May
+1564. He found the Queen at St Johnstone; and she, aware of his fidelity,
+requested him to give up thoughts of going back to France, where he had
+been promised preferment. "She was so affable," says he, "so gracious and
+discreet, that she won great estimation, and the hearts of many both in
+England and Scotland, and mine among the rest; so that I thought her more
+worthy to be served for little profit, than any other prince in Europe for
+great commodity." But Mary had too proud a spirit to submit to be served
+for nothing. She was by nature liberal almost to a fault. Out of her
+French dowry she settled upon Melville a pension of a thousand marks, and
+in addition, she begged him to accept of the heritage of the lands of
+Auchtermuchty, near Falkland. These he refused, as he was unwilling that
+she should dismember, on his account, her own personal property; but they
+were subsequently given to some one less scrupulous. Sir James was soon
+afterwards sent by Mary on an embassy to Elizabeth, principally for the
+sake of expediting some matters connected with Mary's intended matrimonial
+arrangements.
+
+The morning after his arrival in London, he was admitted to an audience by
+Elizabeth, whom he found pacing in an alley in her garden. The business
+upon which he came being arranged satisfactorily, Melville was favourably
+and familiarly treated by the English Queen. He remained at her Court
+nearly a fortnight, and conversed with her Majesty every day, sometimes
+thrice on the same day. Sir James, who was a shrewd observer, had thus an
+opportunity of remarking the many weaknesses and vanities which
+characterized Elizabeth. In allusion to her extreme love of power, he
+ventured to say to her, when she informed him she never intended to marry,
+"Madam, you need not tell me that; I know your stately stomach. You think,
+if you were married, you would be but Queen of England; and now you are
+King and Queen both; you may not suffer a commander." Elizabeth was
+fortunately not offended at this freedom. She took Sir James, upon one
+occasion, into her bedchamber, and opened a little case, in which were
+several miniature pictures. The pretence was to show him a likeness of
+Mary, but her real object was, that he should observe in her possession a
+miniature of her favourite the Earl of Leicester, upon which she had
+written with her own hand, "My Lord's picture." When Melville made this
+discovery, Elizabeth affected a little amiable confusion. "I held the
+candle," says Sir James, "and pressed to see my Lord's picture; albeit she
+was loth to let me see it; at length, I by importunity obtained the sight
+thereof, and asked the same to carry home with me unto the Queen; which
+she refused, alleging she had but that one of his." At another time,
+Elizabeth talked with Sir James of the different costumes of different
+countries. She told him she had dresses of many sorts; and she appeared in
+a new one every day during his continuance at Court. Sometimes she dressed
+after the English, sometimes after the French, and sometimes after the
+Italian fashion. She asked Sir James which he thought became her best. He
+said the Italian, "whilk pleasit her weel; for she delighted to show her
+golden coloured hair, wearing a kell and bonnet as they do in Italy. Her
+hair was redder than yellow, and apparently of nature." Elizabeth herself
+seems to have been quite contented with its hue, for she very complacently
+asked Sir James, whether she or Mary had the finer hair? Sir James having
+replied as politely as possible, she proceeded to inquire which he
+considered the more beautiful? The ambassador quaintly answered, that the
+beauty of either was not her worst fault. This evasion would not serve;
+though Melville, for many sufficient reasons, was unwilling to say any
+thing more definite. He told her that she was the fairest queen in
+England, and Mary the fairest in Scotland. Still this was not enough. Sir
+James ventured, therefore, one step farther. "They were baith," he said,
+"the fairest ladies of their courts, and that the Queen of England was
+whiter, but our Queen was very lusome." Elizabeth next asked which of them
+was of highest stature? Sir James told her the Queen of Scots. "Then she
+said the Queen was over heigh, and that herself was neither over heigh nor
+over laigh. Then she askit what kind of exercises she used. I said, that
+as I was dispatchit out of Scotland, the Queen was but new come back from
+the Highland hunting; and that when she had leisure frae the affairs of
+her country, she read upon guid buiks the histories of divers countries;
+and sometimes would play upon the lute and virginals. She spearit gin she
+played weel; I said, raisonably for a Queen."
+
+This account of Mary's accomplishments piqued Elizabeth's vanity, and
+determined her to give Melville some display of her own. Accordingly, next
+day one of the Lords in waiting took him to a quiet gallery, where, as if
+by chance, he might hear the Queen play upon the virginals. After
+listening a little, Melville perceived well enough that he might take the
+liberty of entering the chamber whence the music came. Elizabeth
+coquettishly left off as soon as she saw him, and, coming forward, tapped
+him with her hand, and affected to feel ashamed of being caught, declaring
+that she never played before company, but only when alone to keep off
+melancholy. Melville made her a flattering speech, protesting that the
+music he had heard was of so exquisite a kind, that it had irresistibly
+drawn him into the room. Elizabeth, who does not seem to have thought as
+people are usually supposed to do in polite society, that "comparisons are
+odious," could not rest satisfied, without putting, as usual, the
+question, whether Mary or she played best? Melville gave the English Queen
+the palm. Being now in good humour, she resolved that Sir James should
+have a specimen of her learning, which it is well known degenerated too
+much into pedantry. She praised his French, asking if he could also speak
+Italian, which, she said, she herself spoke reasonably well. She spoke to
+him also in Dutch; but Sir James says it was not good. Afterwards, she
+insisted upon his seeing her dance; and when her performance was over, she
+put the old question, whether she or Mary danced best. Melville
+answered,--"The Queen dancit not so high and disposedly as she did."
+Melville returned to Scotland, "convinced in his judgment," as he says,
+"that in Elizabeth's conduct there was neither plain-dealing nor upright
+meaning, but great dissimulation, emulation, and fear that Mary's princely
+qualities should too soon chase her out, and displace her from the
+kingdom."
+
+Sir James, by way of contrast, concludes this subject with the following
+interesting account of Mary's well-won popularity, prudence, modesty, and
+good sense. "The Queen's Majesty, as I have said, after her returning out
+of France to Scotland, behaved herself so princely, so honourably and
+discreetly, that her reputation spread in all countries; and she was
+determined, and also inclined to continue in that kind of comeliness even
+to the end of her life, desiring to hold none in her company, but such as
+were of the best quality and conversation, abhorring all vices and vicious
+persons, whether they were men or women; and she requested me to assist
+her in giving her my good counsel how she might use the meetest means to
+advance her honest intention; and in case she, being yet young, might
+forget herself in any unseemly gesture or behaviour, that I would warn her
+thereof with my admonition, to forbear and reform the same. Which
+commission I refused altogether; saying, that her virtuous actions, her
+natural judgment, and the great experience she had learned in the company
+of so many notable princes in the Court of France, had instructed her so
+well, and made her so able, as to be an example to all her subjects and
+servants. But she would not have it so, but said she knew that she had
+committed divers errors upon no evil meaning, for lack of the admonition
+of loving friends, because that the most part of courtiers commonly
+flatter princes, to win their favour, and will not tell them the verity,
+fearing to tine their favour; and therefore she adjured me and commanded
+me to accept that charge, which I said was a ruinous commission, willing
+her to lay that burden upon her brother, my Lord of Murray, and the
+Secretary Lethington; but she said that she would not take it in so good a
+part of them as of me. I said, I feared it would cause me, with time, to
+tine her favour; but she said it appeared I had an evil opinion of her
+constancy and discretion, which opinion, she doubted not, but I would
+alter, after that I had essayed the occupation of that friendly and
+familiar charge. In the meantime, she made me familiar with all her most
+urgent affairs; but chiefly in her dealing with any foreign nation. She
+showed unto me all her letters, and them that she received from other
+princes; and willed me to write unto such princes as I had acquaintance
+of, and to some of their counsellors; wherein I forgot not to set out her
+virtues, and would show her again their answers, and such occurrences as
+passed at the time between countries, to her great contentment. For she
+was of a quick spirit, and anxious to know and to get intelligence of the
+state of other countries; and would be sometimes sad when she was
+solitary, and glad of the company of them that had travelled in foreign
+parts."[80]
+
+This testimony in Mary's favour, from a cotemporary author of so much
+respectability, is worth volumes of ordinary panegyrick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+MARY'S SUITORS, AND THE MACHINATIONS OF HER ENEMIES.
+
+
+Mary had now continued a widow for about three years, but certainly not
+from a want of advantageous offers. It was in her power to have formed
+almost any alliance she chose. There was not a court in Europe, where the
+importance of a matrimonial connexion with the Queen of Scotland, and
+heir-apparent to the English throne, was not acknowledged. Accordingly,
+ambassadors had found their way to Holyrood Palace from all parts of the
+Continent. The three most influential suitors were, the Duke of Anjou,
+brother of Mary's late husband, Francis II., and afterwards King of
+France, on the death of his other brother, Charles IX.--the Archduke
+Charles of Austria, third son of the Emperor Ferdinand--and Don Carlos of
+Spain, heir-apparent to all the dominions of his father, Philip II. None
+of these personages, however, were destined to be successful. The death of
+the Duke of Guise, and the greater influence which consequently fell into
+the hands of Catharine de Medicis, made some alteration in the Duke of
+Anjou's prospects, and diminished his interest with Mary. Besides, it was
+considered dangerous to marry the brother of a late husband. The Archduke
+Charles found, that his proposals to the Scottish Queen excited so much
+the jealousy of his elder brother, Maximilian, that it became necessary
+for him reluctantly to quit the field. It is not improbable that Don
+Carlos might have been listened to, had not Mary found it necessary, for
+reasons which will be mentioned immediately, to give up all thoughts of a
+Continental alliance. Had she married Carlos, she might have saved him
+from the untimely fate inflicted by parental cruelty in 1568.
+
+Of all the sovereigns who at this time watched Mary's intentions with the
+most jealous anxiety, none felt so deeply interested in the decision she
+might ultimately come to, as Elizabeth. To her, Mary's marriage was a
+matter of the very last importance. If she connected herself with a
+powerful Catholic prince, her former claims upon the English throne might
+be renewed; and her Scottish armies, assisted by continental forces, might
+ultimately deprive Elizabeth of her crown. Even though Mary did not
+proceed to such extremities, if she had a Catholic husband, and more
+especially if there were any children of the marriage, all the Catholics
+of Europe would rally round her, and her power would be such, that her
+requests would be tantamount to commands. So far as Elizabeth's own
+interests, and those of the kingdom over which she reigned, were involved,
+she was called upon to pay all due attention to the proceedings of so
+formidable a rival as Mary. But the English Queen's selfish and invidious
+policy far over-stepped the limits marked out by the laws of
+self-defence. Having determined against marriage herself, she could not
+bear to think that the Queen of Scots should be any thing but a "barren
+stock" also. It made her miserable to know that her power should end with
+her life, whilst Mary might become the mother of a long line of kings. She
+hoped, therefore, though she did not dare to avow her object, to be able
+to exert such influence with Murray and the Scottish Reformers, that Mary,
+by their united machinations, might find it impossible ever to form
+another matrimonial alliance; and with this view her first step was to
+inform "her good sister," that if she married without her consent, she
+would have little difficulty in prevailing upon the Parliament of England
+to set aside her succession.
+
+Driven hither and thither by so many contrary opinions and contending
+interests, it was no easy matter for the Scottish Queen to come to a final
+determination upon this subject. Although, in her own words, "not to marry
+she knew could not be for her, and to defer it long many incommodities
+might ensue," she at the same time saw that there were insuperable reasons
+against a foreign alliance. The loss of her best and most powerful
+continental friend, the Duke of Guise, was one of these; another was, the
+avowed wish of Elizabeth and the English nation; and the third, and that
+which weighed most forcibly, the earnest entreaties of her own subjects.
+The great proportion of the inhabitants of Scotland were now Protestants;
+and to have attempted to place over them a foreign Catholic Prince, would
+have been to have incurred the risk of throwing them at once into the
+arms of Elizabeth, and of losing their allegiance for ever. Mary was
+therefore willing to make a virtue of necessity, and to allow herself to
+be guided very much by "her good sister's discretion." This concession to
+the English Queen was far from being agreeable to Catharine de Medicis and
+the French Court. It seemed to be paving the way for a cessation of that
+friendship which had so long existed between France and Scotland.
+Catharine, altering her policy, began to treat Mary with every mark of
+attention. She paid up the dowry she received from France, which had
+fallen into arrears, and requested Mary to exercise as much patronage and
+influence in that country as she chose. Elizabeth, however, had already
+suggested a husband for her; and, to the astonishment of every body, had
+named her favourite minion, Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Though the proposal
+of one of her own subjects, and one too, whom she had raised from
+comparative obscurity, was regarded by Mary as little else than an insult,
+she agreed, that two commissioners upon her part, Murray and
+Maitland--should meet two of Elizabeth's, the Duke of Bedford and
+Randolph, to discuss the expediency of the match. At the conference, which
+took place at Berwick, it was stated for Mary, that she could never
+condescend to marry a newly-created English Earl, having so long a list of
+princes of the blood-royal of the noblest houses of Europe among her
+suitors; and it was added, boldly, that Elizabeth seemed somewhat
+deficient even in self-respect, when she could think of recommending such
+a husband for a Queen, her kinswoman. It is not at all likely, that either
+Elizabeth, or the Earl of Leicester, expected or wished any other answer.
+Elizabeth could hardly have done without her favourite; and the Earl would
+have fallen into irretrievable disgrace, had he dared to confess a
+preference for any mistress over the one he already had.
+
+It was soon after this conference that Randolph, by Elizabeth's
+directions, repaired to the Queen at St Andrews, to ascertain from her own
+lips what were her real sentiments on the subject of marriage. He found
+her living very quietly in a merchant's house, with a small train. She had
+been wearied with the state and show of a Court, and had determined to
+pass some weeks in her favourite retirement of St Andrews, more as a
+subject than a queen. She made Randolph dine and sup with her every day
+during his visit; and she frequently, upon these occasions, drank to the
+health of Elizabeth. When Randolph entered upon matters of business, Mary
+said to him playfully,--"I sent for you to be merry, and to see how like a
+bourgeoise wife I live with my little troop; and you will interrupt our
+pastime with your great and grave matters? I pray ye, Sir, if ye be weary
+here, return home to Edinburgh; and keep your gravity and great embassade
+until the Queen come thither; for, I assure ye, you shall not get her
+here, nor I know not myself where she is become. Ye see neither cloth of
+estate, nor such appearance that you may think that there is a Queen here;
+nor I would not that you should think that I am she at St Andrews, that I
+was at Edinburgh." Randolph was thus, for the time, fairly bantered out
+of his diplomatic gravity. But next day, he rode abroad with the Queen,
+and renewed the subject. Mary then told him, that she saw the necessity of
+marrying, and that she would rather be guided in her choice by England
+than by France, or any other country after Scotland. She frankly added,
+that her reason for paying this deference to Elizabeth, was to obtain an
+acknowledgment of her right of succession to the English crown. She was
+making a sacrifice, she said, in renouncing the much more splendid
+alliances which had been offered her; and she could not be expected to do
+so without a return on the part of Elizabeth. Fearful that the crafty
+Randolph might make a bad use of this open confession, she suddenly
+checked herself;--"I am a fool," she said, "thus long to talk with you;
+you are too subtle for me to deal with." But Randolph, finding her in a
+communicative mood, was unwilling that the conversation should drop so
+soon. Some further discourse took place, and Mary, in conclusion, gave
+utterance to the following sentiments, which do honour both to her head
+and heart. "How much better were it," said she, "that we two being queens,
+so near of kin and neighbours, and being in one isle, should be friends
+and live together like sisters, than, by strange means, divide ourselves
+to the hurt of us both; and to say that we may for all that live friends,
+we may say and prove what we will, but it will pass both our powers. You
+repute us poor; but yet you have found us cumbersome enough. We have had
+loss; ye have taken scaith. Why may it not be between my sister and me,
+that we, living on peace and assured friendship, may give our minds, that
+some as notable things may be wrought by us women, as by our predecessors
+have been done before. Let us seek this honour against some other, rather
+than fall to debate amongst ourselves."[81]
+
+Mary, however, was by this time convinced of Elizabeth's want of
+sincerity, and formed, therefore, a matrimonial plan of her own, which,
+she flattered herself, would be considered judicious by all parties. It
+will be recollected, that, during the troubles which ensued soon after
+Mary's birth, Matthew, Earl of Lennox, having drawn upon himself the
+suspicion, both of the Protestant and Catholic parties in Scotland,
+retired into England, where Henry VIII. gave him his niece in marriage.
+The Lady Margaret Douglas was daughter of the eldest daughter of Henry
+VII., the Princess Margaret, who, upon the decease of her first husband
+James IV., had married the Earl of Angus, of which marriage the Lady
+Margaret was the issue. Lennox, belonging as he did to the house of
+Stuart, was himself related to the Royal Family of Scotland; and his wife,
+failing the children of Henry VIII., and the direct line of succession by
+her mother's first husband James IV., in which line Mary stood, was the
+legal heir to the crown of England. The first child of this marriage died
+in infancy. The second, afterwards known as Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley,
+was born in 1546, and was, consequently, about four years younger than
+Mary. This disparity in point of years, though unfortunate in another
+point of view, was not such as to preclude the possibility of an alliance
+between two persons, in whose veins flowed so much of the blood of the
+Stuarts and the Tudors.
+
+Henry VIII. had, along with his niece, bestowed upon Lennox English lands,
+from which he derived a yearly revenue of fifteen hundred marks. His own
+estates in Scotland were forfeited, so that he thus came to be considered
+more an English than a Scottish subject. He had long, however, nourished
+the secret hope of restoring his fortunes in his native land. His wife,
+who was a woman of an ambitious and intriguing spirit, induced him, at an
+early period, to educate his son with a view to his aspiring to the hand
+of the Scottish Queen. On the death of Francis II. she went herself to
+Paris, for the purpose of ingratiating herself with Mary, and securing a
+favourable opinion for Darnley. Mary, probably, gave her some hope that
+she might, at a future date, take her proposals into serious
+consideration; for it appears, by some papers still preserved in the
+British Museum, that few rejoiced more sincerely at the Queen's safe
+arrival in Scotland, than Lady Lennox. She is said to have fallen on her
+knees, and, with uplifted hands, thanked God that the Scottish queen had
+escaped the English ships. For this piece of piety, and to show her the
+necessity of taking less interest in the affairs of Elizabeth's rival,
+Cecil sent Lady Lennox to prison for some months.
+
+Seeing the difficulties which stood in the way of all her other suitors,
+Mary, in the year 1564, began seriously to think of Darnley. A marriage
+with him would unite, in the person of the heir of such marriage, the
+rival claims of the Stuarts and the Tudors upon the English succession,
+failing issue by Elizabeth; and it would give to Scotland a native prince
+of the old royal line. It was difficult to see what reasonable objections
+could be made to such an alliance; and that she might at all events have
+an opportunity of judging for herself, Mary granted the Earl of Lennox
+permission to return to Scotland, in 1564, after an exile of twenty years,
+and promised to assist him in reclaiming his hereditary rights. Elizabeth,
+who was well aware of the ultimate views with which this journey was
+undertaken, and had certainly no desire to forward their accomplishment,
+made nevertheless no opposition to it. With her usual sagacity, she
+calculated that much discord and jealousy would arise, out of the Earl's
+suit, in favour of his son. She knew that the House of Hamilton, whose
+claims upon the Scottish crown were publicly recognised, looked upon the
+Lennox family as its worst enemies; and that the haughty nobility of
+Scotland would ill brook to see a stripling elevated above the heads of
+all of them. Besides, the principal estates of Lennox now lay in England;
+and in the words of Robertson, "she hoped by this pledge to keep the
+negotiation entirely in her own hands, and to play the same game of
+artifice and delay which she had planned out, if her recommendation of
+Leicester had been more favourably received."
+
+In the Parliament which assembled towards the end of the year 1564, Lennox
+was restored to his estates and honours. Such of his possessions as had
+passed into the hands of the Earl of Argyle, were surrendered with
+extreme reluctance; and the Duke of Chatelherault, dreading the marriage
+with Darnley, continued obstinate in his hatred. The Earl of Murray too,
+aware that this new connection would be a fatal blow to his influence, set
+his face against it from the first. Maitland, on the contrary, who felt
+that he had been hitherto kept too much under by the prime minister, did
+not anticipate with any regret the decline of his ascendancy. The
+Secretary, and most of the other members of the Privy Council, were
+assiduously courted by Lennox. He made presents both to the Queen and them
+of valuable jewels; but to Murray, whose enmity he knew, he gave
+nothing.[82] That Murray's weight in the government, however, had not yet
+decreased, is apparent, from his procuring an enactment, to gratify the
+Protestants, in the parliament of this year, making the attending of
+mass, except in the Queen's chapel, punishable with loss of goods, lands,
+and life: and the Archbishop of St Andrews having infringed this act, was
+imprisoned, in spite of Mary's intercession, for some months.
+
+Early in 1565, Darnley obtained leave from Elizabeth to set out for
+Scotland. His ostensible purpose was to visit his father, and to see the
+estates to which he had been recently restored; but that his real object
+was to endeavour to win the good graces of Mary, was no secret.
+Elizabeth's wish being to involve Mary in a quarrel, as well with some of
+her own nobility, as with England, there was much art in the plan she laid
+for its accomplishment. She consented that the Earl of Lennox should go
+into Scotland to recover his forfeited estates, and that his son should
+follow him to share in his father's good fortune; she even went the length
+of recommending them both to the especial favour of the Scottish Queen;
+but of course said not a word of any suspicions she entertained of the
+projected alliance. As soon as it should appear that Mary's resolution was
+taken, she would affect the greatest indignation at the whole proceedings,
+and pretend that they had been cunningly devised and executed, hoping
+either to break off the match altogether, or to make Mary's nuptial couch,
+any thing but a bed of roses. Thus was the Scottish Queen to be
+systematically harassed, and made miserable, to gratify the splenetic
+jealousy, and lull the selfish terrors, of her sister of England.
+
+Darnley, in the midst of a severe snow-storm, travelled with all
+expedition to Edinburgh. Upon his arrival he found that Mary was at
+Wemyss Castle in Fife, whither, at his father's desire, he immediately
+proceeded. The impression which it is said he made upon the Queen, at even
+his first interview, has been much exaggerated. Chalmers, alluding
+principally to Robertson's account of this matter, acutely remarks, "The
+Scottish historians would have us believe, that Mary fell desperately in
+love with Darnley at first sight; they would have us suppose, as simply as
+themselves, that the widowed Queen, at the age of twenty-two," (it should
+have been twenty-three), "who knew the world, and had seen the most
+accomplished gentlemen in Europe, was a boarding-school Miss, who had
+never till now seen a man." Mary received Darnley frankly, and as one whom
+she wished to like; but she had been too long accustomed to admiration, to
+be prepared to surrender her heart at the first glance. It was not Mary's
+character to allow herself to be won before she was wooed. She was, no
+doubt, glad to perceive that Darnley was one of the handsomest young men
+of the day. She said playfully, that "he was the lustiest and best
+proportioned long man she had seen." She might have said a good deal more;
+for all historians agree in noticing the grace of his person, the easy
+elegance of his carriage, the agreeable regularity of his features, and
+the animated expression of his countenance, lighted up, as it was, by a
+pair of dazzling eyes. He excelled too in all the showy and manly
+accomplishments so much in vogue among the young nobility. His riding and
+dancing were unrivalled; and to gratify Mary, he avowed, whether real or
+affected, a great fondness for poetry and music. Melville says quaintly,
+"He was of a heigh stature, lang and small, even and brent up; well
+instructed from his youth in all honest and comely exercises."[83]
+
+It was not, however, Darnley's exterior in which Mary and her subjects
+were principally interested. The bent which nature and education had given
+to his mind and character, was a much more important subject of
+consideration. With regard to his religious sentiments, they seem to have
+sat loosely upon him; though his mother was a Catholic, he himself
+professed adherence to the Established Church of England.[84] In Scotland,
+he saw the necessity of ingratiating himself with the Reformers; and he
+went, the very first Sunday he spent in Edinburgh, to hear Knox preach.
+But Darnley's great misfortune was, that, before he had learned any thing
+in the school of experience, and in the very heat and fire of youth, he
+was raised to an eminence which, so far from enabling him to see over the
+heads of other men, only rendered him giddy, and made his inferiority the
+more apparent. He was naturally of a headstrong and violent temper, which
+might, perhaps, have been tamed down by adversity, but which only ran into
+wilder waste in the sunshine of prosperity. He was passionately fond of
+power, without the ability to make a proper use of it. It is not unlikely
+that, had he continued a subject for some years longer, and associated
+with men of sound judgment and practical knowledge, he might have divested
+himself of some of the follies of youth, and acquired a contempt for many
+of its vices. But his honours came upon him too suddenly; and the
+intellectual strength of his character, never very great, was crushed
+under the load. Conscious of his inability to cope with persons of talent,
+he sought to gather round him those who were willing to flatter him on
+account of his rank, or to join him in all kinds of dissipation, with the
+view of sharing his ill-regulated liberality. Of the duties of a courtier,
+he knew something; but of those of a politician, he was profoundly
+ignorant. The polish of his manners gained him friends at first; but the
+reckless freedom with which he gave utterance to his hasty opinions and
+ill-grounded prejudices, speedily converted them into enemies. He had only
+been a short time in Scotland, when he remarked to one of the Earl of
+Murray's brothers, who pointed out to him on the map the Earl's lands,
+"that they were too extensive." Murray was told of this; and, perceiving
+what he had to expect when Darnley became King, he took his measures
+accordingly. Mary, whose affliction it was to have husbands far inferior
+to herself in mental qualifications, beseeched Darnley to be more guarded
+in future. That he was somewhat violent and self-sufficient, she did not
+feel to be an insuperable objection, considering, as she did, the
+political advantages that might accrue from the alliance. She hoped that
+time would improve him; and besides, she did not yet know the full extent
+of his imperfections, as he had, of course, been anxious to show her only
+the fairer side of his character. Melville speaks of him, even when he
+came to be most hated, as a young prince, who failed rather for lack of
+good counsel than of evil will. "It appeared to be his destiny," says he,
+"to like better of flatterers and evil company, than of plain speakers and
+good men; whilk has been the wreck of many princes, who, with good
+company, might have produced worthy effects." Randolph himself allows,
+that for some weeks, his "behaviour was very well liked, and there was
+great promise of him." He had been about a month at Court before he
+ventured to propose himself as a husband to Mary; and at first she gave
+him but small encouragement, telling him she had not yet made up her mind,
+and refusing to accept of a ring, which he offered her.[85] This was not
+like one who had fallen in love at first sight. But the Queen invariably
+conducted herself with becoming self-respect towards Darnley, permitting,
+as Miss Benger remarks, rather than inviting, his intentions.
+
+Darnley, thus finding that, though the ball was at his foot, the game was
+not already won, saw it necessary to engage with his father's assistance,
+as powerful a party as possible to support his pretensions. Sir James
+Melville was his friend, and spoke in his favour to Mary. All the Lords
+who hated or feared Murray did the same; among whom were, the Earls of
+Athol and Caithness, and the Lords Ruthven and Hume. A still more useful
+agent than any of these, Darnley found in David Rizzio, who, as the
+Queen's French Secretary, and one whose abilities she respected, had a
+good deal of influence with her. Rizzio knew that for this very reason he
+was hated by Murray, and others of the Privy Council. He was, therefore,
+not ill pleased to find himself sought after by her future husband, for he
+hoped thus to retain his place at Court, and perhaps to rise upon the ruin
+of some of those who wished his downfal. An accidental illness which
+overtook Darnley, when the Queen, with her Court, was at Stirling, about
+the beginning of April 1565, was another circumstance in his favour. At
+first, his complaint was supposed to be a common cold, but in a few days
+it turned out to be the measles. The natural anxiety which Mary felt for
+Darnley's recovery, induced her to exhibit a tenderer interest in him than
+she had ever done before. She paid him the most flattering attentions, and
+continued them unwearyingly, though her patient was provokingly attacked
+by an ague, almost immediately after his recovery from the measles.[86]
+
+It is worth noticing, that while Mary was thus occupied in attending to
+Darnley, the Earl of Bothwell returned to Scotland from his involuntary
+banishment. His former misdemeanours were not yet forgotten, and he was
+summoned by the Queen and Murray to take his trial in Edinburgh; but not
+liking to trust himself in the hands of his ancient enemies, he again left
+the country for six months. He did not depart before giving utterance to
+several violent threats against Murray and Maitland, and speaking so
+disrespectfully of the Queen, that Randolph says she declared to him, upon
+her honour, that he should never receive favour at her hands.[87]
+
+The Queen of Scots being now resolved to bestow her hand on Darnley, sent
+her Secretary, Maitland, to London, to intimate her intentions, and to
+request Elizabeth's approbation. This was the very last thing Elizabeth
+meant to give. The matter had now arrived exactly at the point to which
+she had all along wished to bring it. She had prevailed upon Mary to
+abandon the idea of a foreign alliance; she had induced her to throw away
+some valuable time in ridiculous negociations concerning the Earl of
+Leicester; she had consented, first that the Earl of Lennox, and then that
+his son Darnley, should go into Scotland; and she did not say a single
+syllable against it till she had allowed Mary to be persuaded, that no
+marriage in Christendom could be more prudent. It was now that the
+cloven-foot was to betray itself; that her faction was to be called upon
+to exert itself in Scotland; that the cup was to be dashed from Darnley's
+lips; and that Mary was to be involved in the vortex of civil dissension.
+The historian Castelnau, whom Mary at this time sent as her ambassador to
+France, and who there obtained their Majesties' consent to the marriage,
+mentions, that when he returned through England, he found the Queen much
+colder than formerly, complaining that Mary had subtracted her relation
+and subject, and that she was intending to marry him without her
+permission, and against her approbation. "And yet I am sure," adds
+Castelnau, "that these words were very far from her heart; for she used
+all her efforts, and spared nothing to set this marriage a-going."[88]
+
+Elizabeth seldom did things by halves. She assembled her Privy Council,
+and, at the instigation of Cecil, they gave it as their unanimous opinion,
+that "this marriage with my Lord Darnley appeared to be unmeet,
+unprofitable, and directly prejudicial to the sincere amity between both
+the Queens."[89] Upon what reasons this sage determination was founded,
+the Privy Council did not condescend to state. It is not difficult,
+however, to do so for them, the more especially as an official paper is
+still preserved, drawn up by Cecil himself, in which the explanations he
+attempts serve to disclose more fully his own and his Queen's policy. He
+did not think this marriage "meet or profitable;" because, in the first
+place, it would have given great content to those who were anxious that
+Mary's succession to the English crown should not be set aside; and in the
+second place, because, by representing it as dangerous, a plausible
+pretence would be furnished to all Mary's enemies to join with Elizabeth
+in opposing it, and harassing the Queen of Scots. Cecil proceeds to point
+out explicitly how the harassing system was to be carried on. _First_, It
+was to be represented, that in France the houses of Guise and Lorraine,
+and all the other leading Catholics; and in Scotland, all who hated the
+Duke of Chatelherault and the Hamiltons, and Murray and the Reformers, and
+were devoted to the authority of Rome, approved of the marriage. _Second_,
+It was to be spread abroad that the Devil would stir up some of the
+friends of Mary and Darnley, to alienate the minds of Elizabeth's
+subjects, and even to attempt the life of that Sovereign; and, under the
+pretext of preventing such evils, the most rigorous measures might be
+taken against all suspected persons; and, _Third_, Tumults and rebellions
+in Scotland were to be fomented in all prudent and secret ways.[90]
+
+To report to Mary the decision of her Privy Council, Elizabeth sent Sir
+Nicolas Throckmorton into Scotland. He arrived at Stirling on the 15th of
+May 1565, and, in an audience which Mary gave him, he set forth
+Elizabeth's disliking and disallowance of what she was pleased to term
+"the hasty proceeding with my Lord Darnley." Mary, with becoming dignity
+and unanswerable argument, replied, that she was sorry Elizabeth disliked
+the match, but that, as to her "disallowance," she had never asked the
+English Queen's permission,--she had only communicated to her, as soon as
+she had made up her own mind, the person whom she had chosen. She was not
+a little surprised, she added, at Elizabeth's opposition, since it had
+been expressly intimated to her, through the English resident, Randolph,
+that if she avoided a foreign alliance, "she might take her choice of any
+person within the realms of England or Scotland, without any exception."
+Her choice had fallen upon Lord Darnley, both from the good qualities she
+found in him, and because being Elizabeth's kinsman and her's, and
+participating of the English and Scottish blood royal, she had imagined
+that none would be more agreeable to her Majesty and the realm of England.
+Convinced, by so decided an answer to his remonstrance, that Mary's
+resolution was fixed, Throckmorton wrote to Elizabeth, that she could not
+hope to stop the marriage, unless she had recourse to violence. But
+Elizabeth had too much prudence to take up arms herself; all she wished
+was, to instigate others to this measure. Accordingly, Throckmorton, one
+of the wiliest of her diplomatic agents, received orders to deal with the
+Scottish malcontents, and especially the Earl of Murray, whom he was to
+assure of Elizabeth's support, should they proceed to extremities. Murray
+was likewise invited to enter into a correspondence with Cecil, an
+invitation with which he willingly complied;[91] and to give the whole
+affair as serious an air as possible, a fresh supply of troops was sent to
+the Earl of Bedford, Elizabeth's Lieutenant of the Borders; and her
+Wardens of the Marches were commanded to show no more favour to Mary's
+subjects than the bare abstaining from any breach of peace. The Earl of
+Northumberland, who was attached to the Lennox family, was detained in
+London; and Lady Lennox herself, was committed to the Tower. Lady
+Somerset, who pretended a sort of title to the English succession in
+opposition to Mary, was received very graciously at the Court of
+Westminster. Means were used to induce Secretary Maitland to associate
+himself with Murray, and the other discontents; and, all this time, that
+no suspicion of such insiduous enmity towards the Scottish Queen might be
+entertained on the Continent, the good opinion of France and Spain was
+carefully courted.
+
+Elizabeth next wrote letters to Lennox and Darnley, commanding them both,
+as her subjects, to return to England without delay. Randolph was desired
+to wait upon them, to know what answer they were disposed to give. He got
+little satisfaction from either;--Lennox firmly, and Darnley
+contemptuously, refused to obey the mandate of recall. Randolph then
+waited upon the Queen to ascertain her mind on the subject. Mary felt
+keenly the contemptible jealousy and envy with which she was treated by
+Elizabeth; and received the English resident with greater reserve than she
+had ever done before, "as a man new and first come into her presence that
+she had never seen." Randolph asked, if she would give Lennox and Darnley
+permission to depart for England. Mary smiled at the question, which was
+an artful one, and said,--"If I would give them leave, I doubt what they
+would do themselves; I see no will in them to return." Randolph answered
+with insolence, that they must either return, or do worse; for that, if
+they refused, and were supported by Mary in that refusal, the Queen his
+mistress had the power and the will to be revenged upon both them and her.
+The Queen of Scots merely replied, that she hoped Elizabeth would change
+her mind, and so dismissed Randolph.
+
+Satisfied of the integrity of her purpose, Mary was not to be easily
+driven from it. She sent Mr John Hay to the English court, to state once
+more her anxious wish to avoid giving any just cause of offence to
+Elizabeth, but at the same time to repeat, that she could not but consider
+as strange and vexatious, any opposition to a marriage, to which there did
+not seem to be one plausible objection. He was desired also to complain of
+the "sharp handling" which had been given to Mary's aunt, the Lady
+Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. But her chief anxieties arose from
+the state of matters nearer home. The Duke of Chatelherault, and the Earls
+of Murray, Argyle, and Glencairn, had now openly declared themselves
+adverse to the marriage; and Lethington and Morton were suspected of
+giving it only a very doubtful support. There was, in consequence, a great
+change at Mary's court. They who had formerly most influence kept away
+from it altogether; and a new set of men, little accustomed to state
+duties, such as Montrose, Fleming, Cassils, Montgomery, and others, came
+into favour. It was now that Mary found Rizzio, who was active, and well
+acquainted with all the details of public business, and was, besides,
+liked by Darnley, of the greatest use to her; and being deserted by her
+more efficient, but too ambitious counsellors, she gladly availed herself
+of his services.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+MARY'S MARRIAGE WITH DARNLEY.
+
+
+Murray, meanwhile, was busily organizing his scheme of rebellion. "Their
+chief trust," says Randolph, alluding to the Earl and his associates,
+"next unto God, is the Queen's Majesty, (Elizabeth,) whom they will repose
+themselves upon; not leaving in the meantime to provide for themselves the
+best they can." Elizabeth was not backward to give them every
+encouragement. She wrote letters to the heads of the party; means were
+taken to win over to their views the General Assembly, which met in June
+1565, the members of which, as Randolph says, were "never more constant or
+more earnest;" and the nobles summoned by Mary to a convention at Perth,
+were all tampered with. But the great majority at this convention, gave
+their consent and approbation to the proposed marriage; and Murray, in
+despair, begged Randolph to inform his mistress, in the name of himself
+and those who had joined his faction, that they were "grieved to see such
+extreme folly in their sovereign; that they lamented the state of their
+country, which tended to utter ruin; and that they feared the nobility
+would be forced to assemble themselves together, so to provide for the
+state, that it should not utterly perish." In other words, they had made
+up their mind to rebellion; at all events, to prevent Darnley from
+obtaining the crown, and an ascendancy over them,--and probably, if an
+opportunity should offer, to put Mary in confinement, and rule the country
+themselves. This was exactly the state of feeling which Elizabeth had long
+laboured to produce in Scotland. "Some that have already heard," says
+Randolph, "of my Lady's Grace imprisonment," (meaning the Countess of
+Lennox), "like very well thereof, and wish both father and son to keep her
+company. The question hath been asked me, whether, if they were delivered
+us into Berwick, we would receive them? I answered, that we could not nor
+would not refuse our own, in what sort soever they came unto us."[92] But
+as it was felt that a plausible apology would be required for proceeding
+to these extremities, the Earl of Murray gave out that a conspiracy had
+been formed to assassinate him at the Convention at Perth. His story was,
+that there had been a quarrel between one of his own servants and another
+man, who was supported by retainers of Athol and Lennox, and that it had
+been arranged that they should renew their dispute at Perth, and that he
+himself should be slain in the affray, which was expected to ensue. But
+the evidence of a plot against him rests only upon Murray's own statement
+and when Mary asked him to transmit in writing a more particular account
+of it, seeing that he made it his excuse for refusing to come to Court,
+"it appeared to her Highness and to her Council, that his purgation in
+that behalf, was not so sufficient as the matter required;" and his excuse
+was not sustained.[93]
+
+The treasonable views entertained by Murray and his friends, are involved
+in no such doubt. In these times, the common mode of effecting a change in
+the government, was to seize the person of the sovereign; and all
+historians of credit agree in affirming, that Murray was determined on
+making the experiment. On Sunday, the first of July, 1565, the Queen was
+to ride with Darnley and a small train of friends from Perth to the seat
+of Lord Livingston at Callander, the baptism of one of whose children she
+had promised to attend. Murray knew that it would be necessary for her to
+pass, in the course of this journey, through several steep and wild
+passes, where she and her attendants might easily be overpowered. At what
+precise spot the attack was to be made, or whether that was not left to
+the chapter of accidents, does not appear. Knox, who was, of course, too
+staunch a Presbyterian directly to accuse the great lay-head of his church
+of so treasonable a design, says that the path of Dron (a rugged pass
+about three miles south of Perth), had been mentioned, whilst Sir James
+Melville and others, point out the Kirk of Beith, which stood on a
+solitary piece of ground, between Dumfermline and the Queensferry. But
+late upon the previous Saturday night, a rumour reached Mary of the
+contemplated plot. To prevent its execution, she ordered the Earl of Athol
+and Lord Ruthven, to collect immediately as strong a body of men as
+possible; and through their exertions, she left Perth next morning at
+five, accompanied by three hundred horsemen well mounted. Murray was
+waiting at Loch Leven, Argyle at Castle Campbell, Chatelherault at his
+house of Kinneil, in the neighbourhood of the Queensferry, and Lord
+Rothes, who had joined in the conspiracy, at a place called the Parrot
+Well, not far distant. The Queen, however, to their great disappointment,
+having passed over the ground on which they intended to intercept her,
+both much earlier in the day, and much more strongly guarded than they had
+anticipated, they were obliged to remain quiet; indeed the Earl of Argyle
+did not come to join Murray, till two hours after Mary had ridden through
+Kinross.[94]
+
+On Mary's return to Edinburgh she found that an attempt had been made,
+through the conjoined influence of Knox and Murray, to stir up to sedition
+some of the more bigoted Presbyterians--on the plea that Darnley favoured
+Popery. Two or three hundred of the malcontents, or _brethren_, as Knox
+calls them, assembled at St Leonard's Hill, and their mutinous proceedings
+might have led to disagreeable consequences, had not Mary arrived just in
+time to disperse and overawe them.[95] Murray and his associates, keeping
+at a greater distance, held some secret meetings at Loch-Leven, and then
+assembling at Stirling on the 17th of July, openly raised the standard of
+rebellion. But, amidst all these troubles, Mary, conscious that she had
+right upon her side, remained undaunted, and, at no period of her life,
+did her strength of mind appear more conspicuous. To retain that
+confidence, which she knew the great majority of her subjects still placed
+in her, she issued proclamations announcing her determination to abstain,
+as she had hitherto done, from any interference in the matter of religion;
+she wrote, with her own hand, letters to many of her nobles, assuring them
+of the integrity of her intentions; and, she sent requisitions to all upon
+whom she could depend, calling on them to collect their followers, and
+come armed to her assistance.
+
+The Earl of Murray, on the other hand, having thrown off his allegiance to
+his own Sovereign, became entirely subservient to the wishes and commands
+of Elizabeth. He and his friends wrote to request that she would send
+them, as a proof of her sincerity in the cause, the sum of three thousand
+pounds to meet the expenses of the current year; and they would thus be
+able, they imagined, to carry every thing before them, unless Mary
+received foreign assistance. They likewise suggested that Lord Hume, whose
+estates lay on the Borders, and who was one of the Scottish Queen's most
+faithful servants, should be harassed by some ostensibly accidental
+incursions;--that the Bishop of Dumblane, who was to be sent on an embassy
+to the Continent, should be delayed in London till "his budgets were
+rifled by some good slight or other;"--and that Bothwell, whom Mary was
+about to recall, to obtain his assistance in her present difficulties,
+should be "kept in good surety" for a time.[96] To all this Elizabeth
+replied, that if the Lords suffered any inconvenience, "they should not
+find lack in her to succour them." She hinted, however, that the less
+money they asked the better, advising them "neither to make greater
+expense than their security makes necessary, nor less which may bring
+danger." "This letter," says Keith, "is an evident demonstration of the
+English Queen's fomenting and supporting a rebellion in Scotland; and the
+rebellious Lords knew too well what they had to trust to."
+
+One can hardly attempt to unravel, as has been done in the preceding
+pages, the secret causes which led to the iniquitous rebellion now
+organized, without feeling it almost a duty to express indignation both at
+the malicious interference of the English Queen, and the overweening
+ambition and ingratitude of the Earl of Murray. Mary's conduct, since her
+return from France, had been almost unexceptionable. The only fault she
+had committed, and the necessity of the times forced it on her, was
+yielding too implicitly to the counsels of her brother. These had been in
+some instances judicious, and in others, the natural severity of his
+temper had been rebuked by the mildness of Mary; so that, take it for all
+in all, no government had ever been more popular in Scotland than hers.
+Her choice of Lord Darnley for a husband, so far from diminishing the
+estimation in which she was held by the great body of her subjects, only
+contributed to raise her in their opinion. For the sake of the political
+advantages which would result to her country from this alliance, she was
+willing to forego much more splendid offers; and, though the imperfections
+of Darnley's character might ultimately be the means of destroying her own
+happiness, his birth and expectations were exactly such as gave him the
+best right to be the father of James VI. Nor could his religious opinions
+be objected to, for, whatever they were, they did not influence the
+Queen;--indeed, ever since she had known him, she had treated the
+Protestants with even more than her usual liberality. At the baptism of
+Lord Livingston's child, she remained and heard a Protestant sermon; and
+about the same time she intimated to some of the leaders of the Reformers,
+that though she was not persuaded of the truth of any religion except of
+that in which she had been brought up, she would nevertheless allow a
+conference and disputation on the Scriptures in her presence, and also a
+public preaching from the mouth of Mr Erskine of Dun, whom she regarded as
+"a mild and sweet-natured man, with true honesty and uprightness."[97] All
+these things considered, one is at a loss to conceive how, even in these
+restless times, any set of men dared to enter into rebellion against Mary.
+But the selfish and insidious policy of Elizabeth--the jealousy of the
+Duke of Chatelherault, in whose family rested the succession to the
+Scottish crown, and who had hoped that his son Arran might have obtained
+Mary's hand--the envy and rage of the Earl of Argyle, who had been obliged
+to surrender to Lennox some of his forfeited estates--and, above all, the
+artful and grasping spirit of Murray, solve the enigma. Whatever opinion
+may be entertained of Mary's subsequent proceedings it appears but too
+evident, that the first serious troubles of her reign were forced upon her
+in spite of her utmost prudence, by the intrigues of enemies who were only
+the more dangerous, because they had for a time assumed the disguise of
+friends.
+
+Whatever the hopes or wishes of the conspirators might be, Mary resolved
+that they should not long have it in their power to make their desire to
+prevent her nuptials a pretext for continuing in arms. On Sunday, the 29th
+of July 1565, she celebrated her marriage with Darnley, upon whom she had
+previously conferred various titles, and among others that of Duke of
+Albany.[98] The banns of matrimony were proclaimed in the Canongate
+church, the palace of Holyrood being in that parish; and, as Mary and
+Darnley were first cousins, a Catholic dispensation had been obtained from
+the Pope. The ceremony was performed, according to the Catholic ritual, in
+the chapel of Holyrood, between five and six in the morning--an hour which
+appears somewhat strange to modern habits. John Sinclair, Dean of
+Restalrig, and Bishop of Brechin, had the honour of presiding on the
+occasion. It was generally remarked, that a handsomer couple had never
+been seen in Scotland. Mary was now twenty-three, and at the very height
+of her beauty, and Darnley, though only nineteen, was of a more manly
+person and appearance than his age would have indicated. The festivities
+were certainly not such as had attended the Queen's first marriage, for
+the elegancies of life were not understood in Scotland as in France; and,
+besides, it was a time of trouble when armed men were obliged to stand
+round the altar. Nevertheless, all due observances and rejoicings lent a
+dignity to the occasion. Mary, in a flowing robe of black, with a wide
+mourning hood, was led into the chapel by the Earls of Lennox and Athol,
+who, having conducted her to the altar, retired to bring in the
+bridegroom. The Bishop having united them in the presence of a great
+attendance of Lords and Ladies, three rings were put upon the Queen's
+finger--the middle one a rich diamond. They then knelt together, and many
+prayers were said over them. At their conclusion, Darnley kissed his
+bride, and as he did not himself profess the Catholic faith, left her till
+she should hear mass. She was afterwards followed by most of the company
+to her own apartments, where she laid aside her sable garments, to
+intimate, that henceforth, as the wife of another, she would forget the
+grief occasioned by the loss of her first husband. In observance of an old
+custom, as many of the Lords as could approach near enough were permitted
+to assist in unrobing her, by taking out a pin. She was then committed to
+her ladies, who, having attired her with becoming splendour, brought her
+to the ball-room, where there was great cheer and dancing till dinner
+time. At dinner, Darnley appeared in his royal robes; and after a great
+flourish of trumpets, largess was proclaimed among the multitude who
+surrounded the palace. The Earls of Athol, Morton, and Crawfurd, attended
+the Queen as sewer, carver, and cup-bearer; and the Earls of Eglinton,
+Cassilis, and Glencairn, performed the like offices for Darnley. When
+dinner was over, the dancing was renewed till supper-time, soon after
+which the company retired for the night.[99]
+
+The rejoicings that attended the commencement of Darnley's career as King
+of Scotland, were but of short duration. Randolph, expressing the
+sentiments of Elizabeth and the rebels, hesitated not to say, that "_God
+must either send the King a short end, or them a miserable life; that
+either he must be taken away, or they find some support, that what he
+intendeth to others may light upon himself_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+MURRAY'S REBELLION.
+
+
+Murray had now gone too far to recede, though, had he been so inclined,
+Mary's leniency would willingly have given him the opportunity. Mr John
+Hay, who had formerly acted as her ambassador in England, and who was one
+of her brother's personal friends, was sent to him to declare the good
+will which both the Earl of Lennox and Darnley bore towards him. Mary even
+avowed her readiness to bring to trial any one he would accuse of having
+conspired against his life; but he had no evidence to prove that such a
+conspiracy had ever existed, much less to fix the guilt upon any
+individual. He had made the accusation originally, only the better to
+conceal his own nefarious purposes; for Murray well understood the
+practical application of Machiavel's maxim,--"Calumniare audacter aliquid
+adhaerebit."
+
+Acting in concert with this nobleman, Elizabeth now sent more imperative
+orders than before for the return of Lennox and Darnley. But the former
+answered, that, considering his wife had been committed to the Tower for
+no fault on her part, he thought it unlikely that the climate of England
+would suit his constitution; and the latter said boldly and gallantly,
+that he now acknowledged duty and obedience to none but the Queen of
+Scots, whom he served and honoured; and though Elizabeth chose to be
+envious of his good fortune, he could not discover why he should leave a
+country where he found himself so comfortable. Randolph coolly replied,
+that he hoped to see the wreck and overthrow of as many as were of the
+same mind; "and so turning my back to him, without reverence or farewell,
+I went away."[100] The disaffected Lords, on their part, as soon as they
+heard of Mary's marriage, and the proclamations in which she conferred
+upon her husband the rank and title of King, renewed their complaints with
+increased bitterness. The majority of their countrymen, however, saw
+through their real motives; and even Knox allows it was generally alleged,
+that these complaints were "not for religion, but rather for hatred, envy
+of sudden promotion or dignity, or such worldly causes." The recalling of
+the Earls Bothwell and Sutherland, and the restoring Lord Gordon to the
+forfeited estates and honours of his father, the Earl of Huntly, was
+another source of exasperation. From the tried fidelity of these noblemen,
+Mary knew she could depend upon their services; though Bothwell,
+personally, as we have already seen, was far from being agreeable to her.
+
+To put in the clearest point of view the utter worthlessness of all the
+grounds of offence which Elizabeth and the Scottish rebels pretended at
+this time to have against Mary, a short and impartial account of a message
+sent by the English Queen, early in August 1565, and of the answer it
+received, will be read here with interest. The person who brought this
+message was one of Elizabeth's inferior officials, of the name of
+Tamworth, "a forward, insolent man," says Camden, and, with marked
+disrespect, chosen for this very reason. He was ordered not to acknowledge
+Darnley as King, and to give him no title but that which he had borne in
+England; but Mary, "having smelt," as Camden adds "the nature both of the
+message, and of the animal who brought it," would not admit him into her
+presence. His objections were therefore committed to writing, and the
+answer given in similar form. On the part of Elizabeth it was stated, that
+her Majesty had found Mary's late proceedings, both towards herself and
+towards her subjects, very strange, upon diverse grounds. These, as they
+were brought forward, so were they replied to methodically and _seriatim_.
+_First_, Elizabeth took God to witness, that her offer to Mary, of any of
+her own subjects in marriage, was made sincerely and lovingly; and that
+she was grieved to hear that Mary, listening to false council, had been
+made to think otherwise.--To this it was answered, that the Queen of Scots
+did not doubt Elizabeth's sincerity and uprightness in her offer of a
+husband from England, and that no counsel had been given to induce her to
+change her opinion. _Second_, Elizabeth was much surprised, that
+notwithstanding the offer made by Mary to Sir Nicolas Throckmorton, to
+delay her marriage till the middle of August, that she might have longer
+time to prevail upon Elizabeth to consent to it, she had consummated that
+marriage without giving her Majesty any intimation, on the 29th of July,
+and had thereby disappointed both Elizabeth and some foreign princes, who
+thought as strangely of the alliance as she did.--To this it was answered,
+that it was true, that though Mary's resolution was fixed before Sir
+Nicolas Throckmorton came into Scotland, she had, nevertheless, promised
+to delay her marriage in the hope that the doubts entertained by
+Elizabeth, as to the propriety of the said marriage, might in the
+meantime, be removed; but that this promise was made expressly on the
+condition, that Commissioners should be appointed on both sides to discuss
+the matter, and that, as Elizabeth refused to nominate any such
+commissioners, Mary was relieved from her promise; that further, she had
+good reasons, known to herself and her own people, with which no other
+prince needed to interfere, for consummating her marriage at the time she
+did; and that, with regard to foreign princes thinking the alliance
+strange, she had a perfect knowledge of the opinions, and had obtained the
+express consent of the principal and greatest princes in Christendom.
+_Third_, Elizabeth was astonished how Mary, in direct opposition to the
+conditions of the treaty of peace, existing between England and Scotland,
+could detain her Majesty's subjects, Lennox and Darnley in Scotland,
+having allured them thither under a pretence of suits for lands, but in
+reality to form an alliance without her Majesty's consent and
+license,--an offence so unnatural, that the world spoke of it, and her
+Majesty could not forget it.--To this it was answered, that Mary marvelled
+not a little at the Queen, her good sister, insisting any further upon
+this head, for she did not understand how it could be found strange that
+she detained within her realm the person with whom she had joined herself
+in marriage, or a Scottish Earl, whom Elizabeth herself named by his
+Scottish title, the more especially as they both came to her with
+Elizabeth's consent and letters of recommendation; and that she had no
+doubt that the world spoke as sound sense would dictate, judging that her
+detaining of them was in no ways prejudicial to any treaty of peace,
+existing between the two realms, since no annoyance was intended towards
+Elizabeth, her kingdom, or estate. _Fourth_, Elizabeth wondered that
+Mary's ambassador, Mr John Hay, came to ask to be informed of her
+Majesty's objections to the marriage, and of what she wished to be done,
+but had no authority either to agree to, or refuse her requests; and she
+therefore supposed that he had been sent more as a piece of empty form,
+than for any useful purpose.--To this it was answered, that Mary, though
+willing to hear Elizabeth's objections, if any such existed, and to
+endeavour to remove them, had yet expressly declared, that she would make
+such endeavour only through the medium of commissioners mutually agreed
+on; and that she was still so convinced of the expediency of the match,
+that though now married, she was still willing, if Elizabeth wished it, to
+have its propriety discussed by such commissioners. _Fifth_, Elizabeth
+begged that an explanation might be given of a sentence in one of Mary's
+French letters, which she found somewhat obscured, and which ran
+thus,--"Je n'estimerois jamais que cela vienne de vous, et sans en
+chercher autre vengeance, j'aurois recours a tous les princes mes allies
+pour avec moi vous remonstrer ce que je vous suis par parentage. Vous
+savez assez ce que vous avez resolu sur cela."--To this it was answered,
+that Mary, by the whole of her letter, as well as the passage in question,
+meant no other thing but to express her desire to remain in perfect
+friendship and good intelligence with the Queen her sister, from whom she
+expected such treatment as reason and nature required from one princess to
+another, who was her cousin; and that if, as God forbid, other treatment
+were received, which Mary would not anticipate, she could do no less than
+lay her case before other princes, her friends and allies. _Sixth_,
+Elizabeth was grieved to see that Mary encouraged fugitives and offenders
+from England, and practised other devices within her Majesty's realm; and
+that, in her own kingdom, seduced by false counsellors and malicious
+information, she raised up factions among the nobility.--To this it was
+answered, that if the Scottish Queen really wished to offend Elizabeth,
+she would not be contented with such paltry practices as those she was
+accused of towards English subjects;--and that, with regard to her
+proceedings in her own realm, as she had never interfered with Elizabeth's
+order of government, not thinking it right that one state should have a
+finger in the internal policy of another, so she requested that Elizabeth
+would not meddle with her's, but trust to her discretion, as the person
+most interested, to preserve peace and quietness. _Seventh_, Elizabeth
+warned Mary to take good heed that she did not proceed in her intention to
+suppress and extirpate the religion already established in Scotland, or to
+effect the suppression of the Reformed faith in England, for that all such
+designs, consultations, intelligences, and devices, should be converted to
+the peril and damage of those that advised and engaged in them.--To this
+it was answered, that Mary could not but marvel at Elizabeth's fears for a
+religion upon which no innovation had ever been attempted, but for the
+establishment of which every arrangement had been made most agreeable to
+her Scottish subjects; that as to an intention to interfere with the
+spiritual faith of England, she never heard of it before; but that, if any
+practices to such effect could be condescended on, they should instantly
+be explained and altered; and that, with regard to her designs,
+consultations, intelligences and devices, such as she really engaged in,
+would be found no vainer or more deceitful than those of her neighbours.
+_Eighth_ and _lastly_, Elizabeth wished that Mary would not show herself
+so given to change, as to conceive evil of the Earl of Murray, whose just
+deserts she had so long acknowledged, for that by indifference and
+severity, there were plenty examples to prove, that many noble men had
+been constrained to take such measures for their own security, as they
+would otherwise never have resorted to; and that these were _part_ of the
+reasons why Elizabeth was offended with Mary.--To this it was answered,
+that Mary wished her good sister would not meddle with the affairs of her
+Scottish subjects any more than Mary meddled with the affairs of
+Elizabeth's English subjects; but that, if Elizabeth desired any
+explanation of her conduct towards Murray, it would be willingly given, as
+soon as Elizabeth explained her motives for committing to the Tower Lady
+Margaret, Countess of Lennox, mother-in-law and aunt of Mary; and that, as
+soon as Elizabeth stated any _other_ grounds of offence, they should be
+answered as satisfactorily as the above had been.[101]
+
+Having thus triumphantly replied to the English Queen's irritating
+message, Mary, in the true spirit of conciliation, had the magnanimity to
+propose that the following articles should be mutually agreed upon. On the
+part of the King and Queen of Scotland,--_First_, That their Majesties
+being satisfied of the Queen their sister's friendship, are content to
+assure the Queen, that during the term of her life, or that of her lawful
+issue, they will not, directly or indirectly, attempt any thing
+prejudicial to their sister's title to the Crown of England, or in any way
+disturb the quietness of that kingdom. _Second_, They will enter into no
+communication with any subject or subjects of the realm of England, in
+prejudice of their said sister and her lawful issue, or receive into their
+protection any subjects of the realm of England, with whom their sister
+may have occasion to be offended. _Third_, They will not enter into any
+league or confederation with any foreign prince, to the hurt, damage, and
+displeasure of the Queen and realm of England. _Fourth_, They will enter
+into any such league and confederation with the Queen and realm of
+England, as shall be for the weal of the princes and subjects on both
+sides. And, _Fifth_, They will not go about to procure in any way,
+alteration, innovation, or change in the religion, laws, or liberties of
+the realm of England, though it should please God at any time hereafter to
+call them to the succession of that kingdom. In consideration of these
+offers, the three following equally reasonable articles were to be agreed
+to, on the part of England;--_First_, That by Act of Parliament, the
+succession to the Crown, failing Elizabeth and her lawful issue, shall be
+established first, in the person of Mary and her lawful issue, and failing
+them, in the person of the Countess of Lennox and her lawful issue, as by
+the law of God and nature, entitled to the inheritance of the said Crown.
+_Second_, That the second offer made by the King and Queen of Scotland be
+also made on the part of England; and, _Third_, That the third offer shall
+be likewise mutual. To have agreed to these liberal articles would not
+have suited Elizabeth's policy, and we consequently hear nothing farther
+concerning them.
+
+On the 15th of August 1565, Murray summoned the rebellious nobles to a
+public meeting at Ayr, where it was resolved that they should assemble
+together in arms on the 24th. Mary in consequence issued proclamations,
+calling upon her loyal subjects to come to Edinburgh, with their kin,
+friends, and household, and provided for fifteen days, on the 25th of
+August. On that day she left Edinburgh with a numerous force, and marched
+to Linlithgow. Before leaving the capital, measures were taken to prevent
+the discontented there from turning to advantage the absence of their
+sovereign. The Provost, who was entirely under the management of Knox, and
+strongly suspected to favour the rebels, was displaced, and a more
+trust-worthy civic officer appointed in his stead. Knox himself, a few
+days before, had, been suspended from the discharge of his clerical
+duties, in consequence of a seditious and insulting sermon he delivered
+before the young King, who paid him the compliment of attending divine
+service in St Giles's church, a Sunday or two after his marriage. In this
+sermon the preacher, among other things, said, that God had raised to the
+throne, for the sins of the people, boys and women; adding, in the words
+of Scripture,--"I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall
+rule over them: children are their oppressors, and women rule over them."
+In the same style of allusions grossly personal, he remarked, that "God
+justly punished Ahab, because he did not correct his idolatrous wife, the
+harlot Jezabel." It is singular, that Knox never thought of objecting to
+Mary's marriage with Darnley, till he found that his patron, the Earl of
+Murray, to whom he was now reconciled, did not approve of it. He had said
+only a few months before that--"The Queen being at Stirling, order was
+given to Secretary Lethington to pass to the Queen of England, to declare
+to that Queen, Mary was minded to marry her cousin, the Lord Darnley; and
+the rather, because he was so near of blood to both Queens; for, by his
+mother, he was cousin-german to the Queen of Scotland, also of near
+kindred and the same name by his father;--his mother was cousin-german to
+the Queen of England. Here, mark God's providence: King James V., having
+lost his two sons, did declare his resolution to make the Earl of Lennox
+his heir of the crown; but he, prevented by sudden death, that design
+ceased. Then came the Earl of Lennox from France, with intention to marry
+King James's widow; but that failed also: he marries Mary Douglas; and his
+son, Lord Darnley, marrieth Queen Mary, King James V.'s daughter: and so
+the King's desire is fulfilled, viz.--the crown continueth in the name and
+in the family." Knox had changed his opinion (as even Knox could sometimes
+do), both when he preached the above-mentioned sermon, and when, towards
+the end of August 1565, he said, that the Castle of Edinburgh was
+"shooting against _the exiled for Christ Jesus' sake_."[102]
+
+From Linlithgow, Mary advanced with an increasing force, first to
+Stirling, and then to Glasgow. Here she was within a short distance of the
+rebel army, which, mustering about 1200 strong, had taken its position at
+Paisley; "a fine pleasant village," says Keith, "five miles W.S.W. from
+Glasgow." But Murray, not venturing to attack the Royalists, made a
+circuit at some distance and, by a forced march, arrived unexpectedly at
+Edinburgh, where he hoped to increase his force. In this hope he was
+grievously disappointed. Finding that the Provost, who was taken by
+surprise, had not sufficient strength to keep him without the walls, he
+entered the city by the West Port, and immediately despatched messengers
+for assistance in every direction, and, by beat of drum, called upon all
+men who wished to receive wages "for the defence of the glory of God," to
+join his standard. But Knox confesses, that few or none resorted to him,
+and that he got little or no support in Edinburgh; although the preacher
+himself did all he could for his patron by prayers and exhortations, in
+which he denominated the rebels "the best part of the nobility, and chief
+members of the Congregation."[103] The truth is, that the current of
+popular opinion ran directly in favour of Mary; for the _godly_ Earl's
+real motives were well understood.
+
+As soon as the Queen was made aware that she had missed her enemies, she
+marched back in pursuit of them, at the head of 5000 men, as far as
+Callender. Murray could only fly from a power which he knew he was not
+able to withstand. Alarmed by Mary's speedy return, he left Edinburgh, and
+again passing her on the road, led his followers to Lanark, and from
+thence to Hamilton. With indomitable perseverance, the Queen retraced her
+steps to Glasgow, expecting Murray would make an attempt upon that city.
+But finding there was no safety for him in this part of Scotland, he
+suddenly turned off towards the south, and with as little delay as
+possible, retired into Dumfries-shire. Here, being near the Borders, he
+expected that Elizabeth would send him succour from England, and at all
+events, he could at any time make good his retreat into that country. The
+principal noblemen with him were the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls of
+Argyle, Glencairn, and Rothes, and the Lords Boyd and Ochiltree. Morton
+and Maitland remained with the Queen; but the fidelity of both is much to
+be suspected, though the command of the main body of the Royal army was
+intrusted to the former. The Earl of Lennox led the van, and the Queen
+herself rode with her officers in a suit of light armour, carrying pistols
+at her saddle-bow; "her courage," says Knox, "manlike, and always
+increasing." She did not think it worth while to follow Murray into
+Dumfries-shire, but preferred leading her army through Fife, to St
+Andrews, taking possession, on the way, of Castle Campbell, the seat of
+the rebel Lord, Argyle.
+
+Elizabeth in the mean time was far from being inattentive to the interests
+of her servants in Scotland. Randolph wrote to Cecil, that if she would
+assist them with men and more money, he doubted not but one country would
+receive both the Queens; by which he meant, that the rebels would thus be
+able to fulfil their design, of sending Mary prisoner into England.[104]
+The Earl of Bedford informed his mistress of the arrival of her friends on
+the Borders, and hinted to her that their cause was evidently not very
+popular in Scotland, and that their force was much inferior to that of
+Mary. Elizabeth's letter, in answer, is as artful a piece of writing as
+has ever proceeded even from a female pen. Afraid that she might go too
+far in assisting the losing party, she resolved to make it be believed
+that she acted against them, whilst in truth she secretly encouraged and
+supported them. With this view, she wrote to Bedford, that in consequence
+of his representations, as well as those of Randolph and others, she sent
+him three thousand pounds; one thousand of which was to be paid
+immediately to Murray, in the most private way possible, and as if it came
+from Bedford himself. The remainder was to be kept till occasion required
+its expenditure. "And where, we perceive," she continued, "by your sundry
+letters, the earnest request of the said Earl of Murray and his
+associates, that they might have at least 300 of our soldiers to aid them,
+and that you also write, that though we would not command you to give them
+aid, yet if we would but wink at your doing herein, and seem to blame you
+for attempting such things, as you, with the help of others, should bring
+about, you doubt not but things would do well,--we are content, and do
+authorize you, if you shall see it necessary for their defence, to let
+them (as of your own adventure, and without notification that you have any
+direction therein from us), to have the number of 300 soldiers, wherein
+you shall so precisely deal with them, that they may perceive your care to
+be such as, if it should otherwise appear, your danger should be so great,
+as all the friends you have could not be able to save you towards us. And
+so we assure you, our conscience moveth us to charge you so to proceed
+with them; and yet we would not that either of these were known to be our
+act, but rather to be covered with your own desire and attempt." Having
+further mentioned, that she had written lately to Mary, to assure that
+princess of her esteem and good will, Elizabeth boldly affixed her
+signature to this memorable record of unblushing duplicity.[105]
+
+But Mary was not to be lulled into dangerous security. All her operations
+during this campaign were, as Robertson has remarked, "concerted with
+wisdom, executed with vigour, and attended with success." At St Andrews,
+she issued a proclamation, exposing the hollowness of the grounds upon
+which arms had been taken up against her, and showing that religion was
+only made a cloak to cover other more ungodly designs. Alluding, in
+particular, to the Earl of Murray, upon whom she had bestowed so many
+benefits, this proclamation stated, that his insatiable ambition was not
+to be satisfied with heaping riches upon riches, and honour upon honour,
+unless he should also continue to have, as he had too long had, the Queen
+and the whole realm in his own hands, to be used and governed at his
+pleasure. "By letters sent from themselves to us," Mary says, "they make
+plain profession that the establishment of religion will not content them,
+but we must per force be governed by such council as it shall please them
+to appoint unto us." "The like," she adds, "was never demanded of any our
+most noble progenitors heretofore, yea, not even of governors or regents;
+but the prince, or such as occupied his place, ever chose his council of
+such as he thought most fit for the purpose. When we ourselves were of
+less age, and at our first arrival in our realm, we had free choice of our
+council at our pleasure; and now, when we are at our full majority, shall
+we be brought back to the state of pupils and minors, or be put under
+tutelage? So long as some of them bore the whole swing with us
+themselves, this matter was never called in question; but now, when they
+cannot be longer permitted to do and undo all things of their appetite,
+they will put a bridle in our mouths, and give us a council chosen after
+their phantasy! To speak it in plain language, they would be king
+themselves; or at the least, leaving to us the bare name and title, take
+to themselves the whole use and administration of the kingdom."[106]
+
+After levying a small fine of two hundred marks from the town of Dundee,
+which had given some countenance to the malcontents, Mary and Darnley
+returned to Edinburgh. They there received such accounts of the increasing
+strength of the rebels, as induced them to determine on marching
+southwards. Biggar was named as the place of rendezvous for the lieges,
+and they flocked in such crowds to join the standard of their sovereign,
+that the Queen was enabled to advance towards the Borders at the head of
+an army of 18,000 men. Before this greatly superior force, Murray and his
+partisans, including his 300 English soldiers, retired to Carlisle. He was
+closely followed thither, upon which his troops dispersed, and he himself
+and his friends sought refuge by flying further into England. Mary, after
+visiting the castle of Lochmaben, left Bothwell, with some troops, to
+watch the Borders; and, on the 18th of October, returned to Edinburgh with
+the rest of her army.[107]
+
+Of the rebellious nobles thus forced into exile, the Duke of
+Chatelherault alone was able or willing to make his peace immediately. He
+and his sons were pardoned, on condition of their living abroad--a degree
+of leniency extended to them by Mary, in opposition to the wishes of the
+house of Lennox, which was anxious for the entire ruin of the
+Hamiltons.[108] Murray and the rest, being kindly received by Bedford,
+fixed their residence at Newcastle, whence the Earl himself, and the Abbot
+of Kilwinning, were deputed to proceed to the English court, and lay the
+state of their affairs before Elizabeth, upon whose patronage they
+conceived they had peculiar claims. It was, however, no part of
+Elizabeth's policy to befriend in their adversity those with whom she had
+associated herself in more prosperous days. As soon as she heard that
+Murray was on his way to her court, she wrote to stop him, and to inform
+him that it was not meet for him to have any "open dealing" with her. But
+at Bedford's earnest entreaty he was allowed to continue his journey, the
+object of which, he said, was to make some proposals for the "common
+cause."[109] It was nevertheless a long while before he could obtain an
+audience of the Queen; and when that honour was at length conceded to him,
+she had the confidence to ask him, with an unruffled countenance, how he,
+being a rebel to her sister of Scotland, durst have the boldness to come
+within her realm? Murray, in reply, ventured to speak of the support he
+had all along received from her; but as this was betraying her policy to
+her continental neighbours, it exasperated her to such a degree, that she
+declared he and his friends should never obtain any thing from her but
+scorn and neglect, unless he made a public recantation of such an
+assertion. With this demand both the Earl and the Abbot had the meanness
+to comply; and though Sir Nicolas Throckmorton interfered in their behalf,
+and openly avowed that he had been sent into Scotland expressly to make
+offers of assistance to the rebel lords, he could not save them from the
+degradation which Elizabeth inflicted. They appeared before her when she
+was surrounded by the French and Spanish ambassadors, and impiously
+affirmed, upon their knees, that her Majesty had never moved them to any
+opposition or resistance against their own Queen. As soon as they had
+uttered this falsehood, Elizabeth said to them,--"Now ye have told the
+truth; for neither did I, nor any in my name, stir you up against your
+Queen. Your abominable treason may serve for example to my own subjects to
+rebel against me. Therefore, get ye out of my presence; ye are but
+unworthy traitors."[110]
+
+Sir James Melville, speaking of this affair, says, with his usual
+quaintness, that "Mary chasit the rebel lords here and there, till at
+length they were compellit to flee into England for refuge, to her that
+had promised, by her ambassadors, to wair (expend) her Croun in their
+defence, in case they were driven to any strait for their opposition to
+the said marriage."--"But Elizabeth," he adds, "handlit the matter sae
+subtilly, and the other twa sae blaitly, that she triumphed both over
+them and the ambassadors." The deputation returned quite chop-fallen, to
+their friends at Newcastle, where they lived for some time in great
+poverty, and very wretchedly. Such were the more immediate results of this
+piece of juggling on the part of Elizabeth, and justly unsuccessful
+rebellion on that of Murray.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE EARL OF MORTON'S PLOT.
+
+
+Hitherto, Mary's government had been prosperous and popular. Various
+difficulties had, no doubt, surrounded her; but, by a prudence and
+perseverance, beyond her sex and age, she had so successfully encountered
+them, that she fixed herself more firmly than ever on the throne of her
+ancestors. The misfortunes, however, in which all the intrigues of her
+enemies vainly attempted to involve her, it was Mary's fate to bring upon
+herself, by an act, innocent in so far as regarded her own private
+feelings, and praiseworthy in its intention to increase and secure the
+power and happiness of her country. This act was her marriage with
+Darnley. From this fatal connexion, all Mary's miseries took their origin;
+and as the sunshine which has as yet lighted her on her course, begins to
+gleam upon it with a sicklier ray, they who have esteemed her in the blaze
+of her prosperity, will peruse the remainder of her melancholy story with
+a deeper and a tenderer interest. Let it at the same time be remembered,
+that the present Memoirs come not from the pen of a partisan, but are
+dictated by a sacred desire to discover and preserve the truth. Mary's
+weaknesses shall not be concealed; but surely, whilst the common frailties
+of humanity thus become the subjects of history, justice imposes the
+nobler and the more delightful duty of asserting the talents and
+vindicating the virtues of Scotland's fairest Queen.
+
+It was evident, that public affairs could not long continue in the
+position in which they now stood. With the Earl of Murray and the
+Hamiltons, the greater number of Mary's most experienced counsellors were
+in a state of banishment. At the head of those who remained was the crafty
+Earl of Morton, who, though he affected outward allegiance, secretly
+longed for the return of his old allies and friends of the Protestant
+party. It was not indeed without some show of reason that the professors
+of the Reformed faith considered their religion to be exposed at the
+present crisis to hazard. The King now openly supported Popery; the most
+powerful of the Lords of the Congregation were in disgrace; several of the
+Catholic nobility had lately been restored to their honours; some of the
+Popish ecclesiastics had, by Mary's influence, been allowed to resume
+their place in Parliament; and above all, ambassadors arrived from the
+French King and her Continental friends, for the express purpose of
+advising the Queen to grant no terms to the expatriated nobles, and of
+making her acquainted, with the objects of the Holy League which had been
+recently formed. This was the league between Charles IX. and his sister
+the Queen of Spain, with the consent of her husband Philip, and Pope Pius
+IV., and at the instigation of Catherine de Medicis and the Duke of Alva,
+to secure, at whatever cost, the suppression of the Reformation throughout
+Europe. So great a variety of circumstances, all seeming to favour the old
+superstition, alarmed the Protestants not a little; but this alarm was
+unnecessarily exaggerated, and Mary's intentions which were not known at
+the time, have been misrepresented since.
+
+Robertson has asserted, that Mary "instantly joined" the Continental
+Confederacy, and was willing to go any length for the restoration of
+Popery. He would thus have us believe that she was a direct party to the
+horrible massacre of the Hugonots in France; and that she would have
+spared no bloodshed to re-establish in Scotland that form of worship which
+she herself, in conjunction with her Parliament, had expressly abrogated.
+Robertson goes further, and maintains, with a degree of absurdity so
+glaring that we are at a loss to understand why it should never before
+have been exposed, that "to this fatal resolution (that of joining the
+Anti-Protestant Confederacy) may be imputed all the subsequent calamities
+of Mary's life." Why a secret contract which Mary might have made with an
+ambassador from France, the terms or effects of which were never known or
+felt in any corner of Scotland, should have produced "all her subsequent
+calamities," must remain an enigma to those who do not possess the same
+remarkable facility of tracing effects to their causes which seems to have
+been enjoyed by Dr Robertson. But it is extremely doubtful that Mary ever
+gave either her consent or approbation to this League. Robertson's
+authorities upon the subject by no means bear him out in his assertions.
+He affirms, that "she allowed mass to be celebrated in different parts of
+the kingdom; and declared that she would have mass free for all men who
+would hear it." But the first part of this information is supplied by the
+Englishman Bedford, who was not then in Scotland, and the second rests
+upon the authority of the insidious Randolph. Robertson likewise mentions,
+that Blackwood, in his "_Martyre de Marie_," says, "that the Queen
+intended to have procured in the approaching Parliament, if not the
+re-establishment of the Catholic religion, at least something for the ease
+of Catholics." But this announcement of what was _intended_ is so very
+unimportant, that even, if true, it requires no refutation; the more
+especially, as Blackwood goes on to say, though Robertson stops short,
+that this "something for the ease of Catholics" was only to be a request
+that the Protestants would be more tolerant.[111] Robertson however adds,
+that "Mary herself, in a letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, her
+ambassador in France, acknowledges '_that in that Parliament she intended
+to have done some good with respect to restoring the old religion_.'" For
+this quotation from Mary's letter, Robertson refers to Keith; but upon
+making the reference, it will be found that he has somewhat unaccountably
+garbled the original. All that Mary wrote to her ambassador concerning the
+Parliament was, that "the spiritual estate is placed therein in the
+ancient manner, _tending to have done some good_ anent restoring the old
+religion, and to have proceeded against our rebels according to their
+demerits."[112] The different shade of meaning which Robertson has given
+to this passage, is rather singular.
+
+Having thus seen the weakness of these preliminary arguments against
+Mary's willingness to countenance the Reformed faith, it only remains to
+be inquired, whether she was a party to the confederacy formed at Bayonne.
+It will be recollected, that the measures concocted by this confederacy
+were of the most sanguinary and savage description. It was resolved, "by
+treachery and circumvention, by fire and the sword, utterly to exterminate
+the Protestants over Christendom." It might very fairly be asked, and the
+question would carry with it its own answer, whether such a scheme,
+uncertain as its results were, and sure to produce in the mean time civil
+war and confusion wherever its execution was attempted, was at all
+consistent either with Mary's established policy, or her so earnestly
+cherished hopes of succession to the English crown? Robertson, however,
+says, "she instantly joined the confederacy;" and Dr Gilbert Stuart, an
+historian of greater research and more impartiality, allows himself to
+believe the same thing. These writers ground their belief on what they
+have found in Sir James Melville and in Keith. But the former gives us not
+the slightest reason to suppose that Mary had any thing to do with the
+League, although he allows that the representations of the French
+ambassador tended to harden her heart towards the Earl of Murray and the
+other rebels.[113] It would even appear, by his Memoirs, that Mary was
+never asked to become a party to the confederacy; for Sir James simply
+states, that the ambassadors came "with a commission to stay the Queen in
+nowise to agree with the Lords Protestants that were banished." Conaeus, in
+his Life of Mary, leaves entirely the same impression, and rather
+strengthens it.[114] As to Keith, he nowhere goes the length of Robertson
+or Stuart,--merely remarking that the letters from France tended much to
+hinder the cause of the banished Lords. He gives, it is true, in his
+Appendix, an extract of a letter from Randolph to Cecil, in which we find
+it stated, on the very dubious authority of the English Resident, that the
+"band to introduce Popery through all Christendom, was signed by Queen
+Mary." But if Mary had actually done so, it would have been with the
+utmost secrecy, and surely, above all, she would have concealed such a
+step from the spy of Elizabeth. This letter is given at full length by
+Robertson; and on perusing the whole, it expressly appears, that Randolph
+spoke only from hearsay; for he adds, "If the copy of his band _may be
+gotten_, it shall be sent as I conveniently may." In the same letter he
+mentions that most of the nobles had been asked to attend mass, in
+compliment to the foreign ambassadors, and that they had all refused;
+enumerating, among others, Fleming, Livingston, Lindsay, Huntly, and
+Bothwell; "and of them all, Bothwell is the stoutest, but worst thought
+of." These Lords must have had little dread of the consequences, else they
+would not have ventured to refuse. The truth is, Randolph's common
+practice was, to convert into a fact every report which he knew would be
+agreeable to Cecil and his mistress; and so little reliance did they place
+upon the accuracy of his information, that it does not appear Elizabeth
+ever took any notice of his statement regarding the band, which she would
+eagerly have done had it been true. So much, therefore, for Robertson's
+declaration, that "to this fatal resolution may be imputed all the
+subsequent calamities of Mary's life." They would have been few, indeed,
+had they taken their origin in any countenance she gave to the ferocious
+wickedness of continental bigotry.[115]
+
+There does not, then, exist a shadow of proof that Mary contemplated the
+subversion of the Reformed religion in Scotland, though it may safely be
+admitted that she was greatly perplexed what course to pursue towards the
+expatriated rebels. On the one hand, Elizabeth petitioned in their behalf,
+well knowing she could depend on their co-operation, as soon as they were
+again in power; and her petition was warmly supported by Murray's friends
+in Scotland,--some for the sake of religion,--many for their own private
+interests,--and a few because they believed his return would be for the
+good of the country. On the other hand, the Catholic party was delighted
+to be rid of such formidable adversaries, and their wishes were enforced
+by those of Mary's uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine. Besides, though
+disposed to be lenient almost to a fault, she cannot but have felt just
+indignation against men who had so grossly abused her kindness, and
+insulted her authority. It was in the midst of these contending opinions
+and interests, that a Parliament was summoned, first for the 4th of
+February 1566, and afterwards prorogued till the 7th of March, at which it
+was determined that, in one way or other, the subject should be set at
+rest. The matter would then most probably have terminated unfavourably for
+Murray, had not the whole affair assumed a new feature, and been hurried
+on to an unexpected and violent conclusion, under influences on which it
+would have been difficult to have calculated.
+
+Mary had been Darnley's wife only a few months, when a painful conviction
+was forced upon her of the error she had committed in so far as regarded
+her own happiness, in uniting her fortunes with a youth so weak,
+headstrong, and inexperienced. The homage, whether real or affected, which
+before his marriage Darnley paid to Mary,--his personal graces and
+accomplishments,--and the care he took to keep as much as possible in the
+background, the numerous defects of his character, had succeeded in
+securing for him a place in Mary's heart, and, what he considered of
+greater importance, a share of her throne. But as soon as the object of
+his ambition was obtained, the mask was thrown aside. He broke out into a
+thousand excesses,--offended almost all the nobility,--and forgetting, or
+misunderstanding the kind of men he had to deal with, cherished a wild and
+boyish desire to make his own will law. He changed from the Protestant to
+the Catholic religion; but the Catholics had no confidence in him, whilst
+John Knox and the Reformers lifted up their voices loudly against his
+apostasy. He was addicted to great intemperance in his pleasures; was
+passionately fond of his hounds and hawks, grossly licentious, and much
+given to drinking. Upon one occasion, his indulgence in this latter vice
+made him so far forget himself, that at a civic banquet where the Queen
+and he were present, he dared to speak to her so brutally, that she left
+the place in tears.[116]
+
+But there were other causes, besides the imperfections of Darnley's
+character, which served to sow dissension between him and his young wife.
+It would be wrong to say that they were mutually jealous of each other's
+love of power, for this would be to put Mary on an equality with her
+husband, who was Queen in her own right, while Darnley had no title to any
+authority beyond what she chose to confer on him. In the first ardor of
+her affection, however, she permitted him, with the confiding generosity
+of sincere attachment, to carry every thing his own way; and he was too
+conceited and selfish to appreciate as it deserved, the value of the trust
+she thus reposed in him. "All honour," says Randolph, "that may be
+attributed unto any man by a wife, he hath it wholly and fully,--all
+praise that may be spoken of him, he lacketh not from herself,--all
+dignities that she can endow him with, are already given and granted. No
+man pleaseth her that contenteth not him. And what may I say more? She
+hath given over unto him her whole will, to be ruled and guided as himself
+best liketh."[117] This was nothing more than the conduct naturally to be
+expected from a woman who warmly loved her husband, and who, in the
+ingenuous integrity of her heart, believed him worthy of her love. Had
+this indeed been the case, no evil consequences could have resulted from
+the excess of kindness she lavished on him; but with all his fair
+exterior, Darnley was incapable of understanding or estimating aright the
+mind and dispositions of Mary Stuart. Had he even in part answered the
+expectations she had formed of him,--had he listened to the prudent
+councils of Sir James Melville, and others whom Mary requested he would
+associate near his person,--and had he continued those affectionate
+attentions which she had a right to expect, but had far too proud a
+spirit to ask, he might have obtained from her every honour he desired.
+But what she felt that slighted love did not call upon her to yield, it
+was in vain to expect to win from her by force or fear; and the
+consequence was, that about this time, what was technically termed the
+_Crown matrimonial_, became a great source of dissension between herself
+and her husband.
+
+On the day that Mary gave her hand to Darnley, she conferred upon him the
+title of King of Scotland; and his name, in all public writs, was signed,
+in some before, and in others after her own. The public coin of the realm,
+issued subsequent to the marriage, also contained his name.[118] But
+though Darnley had the title, and to a certain extent the authority of a
+King, it was never Mary's intention to surrender to him an influence in
+the administration greater then her own. This was the object, however, at
+which his discontented and restless spirit aimed, and it was to achieve
+it that he demanded the _crown-matrimonial_,--a term used only by Scottish
+historians, by many of whom its exact import does not appear to have been
+understood. In its more limited acceptation, it seems to have conferred
+upon the husband, who married a wife of superior rank, the whole of her
+power and dignity, so long as their union continued. Thus, if a Countess
+married an Esquire, he might become, by the marriage-contract, a
+_matrimonial Earl_; and, during the life of the Countess, her authority
+was vested in her husband, as entirely as if he had been an Earl by birth.
+But it was in a more extended sense that Darnley was anxious for this
+matrimonial dignity. Knowing it to be consistent with the laws of
+Scotland, that a person who married an heiress, should keep possession of
+her estate, not only during his wife's life, but till his own death, he
+was desirous of having a sovereign sway secured in his own person, even
+though Mary died without issue. In the first warmth of her attachment to
+Darnley, the Queen might have been willing, with the consent of
+Parliament, to gratify his ambition; but as soon as his unstable and
+ill-regulated temper betrayed itself, she felt that she was called upon,
+both for her own sake, and that of the country, to refuse his request.
+
+The more opposition Darnley experienced, the more anxious he became, as is
+frequently the case, to accomplish his wishes. It was now for the first
+time, that he found Rizzio's friendship fail him. That Italian, whom the
+bigotry of the Reformers, and the ignorant prejudices of more recent
+historians, have buried under a weight of undeserved abuse, was one of the
+most faithful servants Mary ever had. He approved of her marriage with
+Darnley for state reasons, and had, in consequence, incurred the hatred of
+Murray and his party, whilst Darnley, on the contrary, had courted and
+supported him. But Rizzio loved his mistress too well to wish to see her
+husband become her master. His motives, it is true, may not have been
+altogether disinterested. He knew he was a favourite with Mary, and that
+he would retain his situation at court so long as her influence was
+paramount; but he had not the same confidence in the wayward and
+vacillating Darnley, who was too conceited to submit to be ruled, and too
+weak to be allowed to govern. The consequence naturally was, that a
+coldness took place between them, and that the consideration with which
+Mary continued to treat Rizzio, as her foreign secretary, only served to
+increase Darnley's disaffection.
+
+Such was the state of matters, when the Earl of Morton, secretly supported
+by Maitland, and more openly by the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, determined
+on making use of Darnley's discontent to forward his own private
+interests, and those of some of his political friends. His object was, in
+the first place, to strengthen his own party in the government, by
+securing the return of Murray, Argyle, Rothes, and the other banished
+Lords; and in the second, to prevent certain enactments from being passed
+in the approaching Parliament, by which Mary intended to restore to her
+ecclesiastics a considerable portion of church lands, which he himself,
+and other rapacious noblemen, had unjustly appropriated. These possessions
+were to be retained only by saving the rebels from the threatened
+forfeitures, and thus securing a majority in Parliament. But Mary, with a
+firmness which was the result of correct views of good government, was now
+finally resolved not to pardon Murray and his accomplices. For offences of
+a far less serious nature, Elizabeth was every month sending her subjects
+to the block; and it would have argued imbecility and fickleness in the
+Queen of Scots, so soon to have forgotten the treachery of her own, and
+her husband's enemies. There was scarcely one of her ministers, except
+Rizzio, who had the courage and the good sense to confirm her in these
+sentiments; and he continued to retain his own opinion, both in this
+affair and that of the crown-matrimonial, notwithstanding the open threats
+of Darnley, the mysterious insinuations of Morton, and the attempt at
+bribery on the part of Murray. This last nobleman, who had played the
+hypocrite so abjectly before Elizabeth and her court, did not scruple, in
+his selfish humility, to offer his respects, and to send presents to one
+whom he had always been accustomed to call, in the language of his
+historian Buchanan, "an upstart fellow," "a base miscreant," "a
+contemptible mushroom," and to whom he had never before given any thing
+but "a sour look."[119]
+
+It may therefore be said, that there were, at this time, four powerful
+parties connected with Scotland;--Mary was at the head of one,--Morton of
+another,--Darnley of a third,--and Murray of the fourth. But so long as
+the Queen retained her ascendency, the other three factions could have
+little hope of arriving at their respective objects. Mutually to
+strengthen each other, a coalition very naturally suggested itself,
+founded upon the principle of a reciprocity of benefits. The idea was soon
+matured, and the plan of operations concocted with a secrecy and callous
+cruelty, worthy of Morton. The usual expedient was adopted, of drawing up
+and signing a formal bond, or set of articles, which were entered into
+between Henry, King of Scotland, and James, Earl of Murray, Archibald,
+Earl of Argyle, Andrew, Earl of Rothes, Robert, Lord Boyd, Andrew, Lord
+Ochiltree, and certain others "remaining in England;" in which it was
+stipulated, on the part of the Lords, that, at the first Parliament which
+should be held after their return, they should take such steps as would
+secure to Darnley a grant of the crown-matrimonial for all the days of his
+life; and that, whoever opposed this grant, they should "seek, pursue, and
+extirpate out of the realm of Scotland, or take and slay them,"--language,
+it will be observed, which had a more direct application to Mary than to
+any one else. On the part of Darnley, and in return for these favours, it
+was declared, that he should not allow, in as much as in him lay, any
+forfeiture to be led against them; and that, as soon as he obtained the
+crown-matrimonial, he should give them a free remission for all
+crimes,--taking every means to remove and punish any one who opposed such
+remission.[120] In plain language, these articles implied neither more
+nor less than high treason, and place Darnley's character, both as a
+husband and a man, in the very worst point of view, showing him as a
+husband to be wofully deficient in natural affection, and as a man to be
+destitute of honour, and incapable of gratitude.
+
+Morton's intrigues having proceeded thus far, there seemed to be only one
+other step necessary to secure for him the accomplishment of his purposes.
+Mary, strong in the integrity of her own intentions, and in the popularity
+of her administration, did not suspect the secret machinations which were
+carried on around her; and of this over-degree of confidence in the
+stability of her resources, Morton determined to take advantage. He saw
+that a change in the government must be effected at whatever risk, though
+he knew that nothing but a sudden and violent measure could bring it
+about. It was now February;--Parliament was to meet on the 7th of March,
+and on the 12th the trial of the absent Lords was to come on, and after
+they had been forfeited, the church-lands would be restored to their
+rightful owners. If Mary's person, however, could be seized,--if her
+principal anti-protestant ministers could be removed from about her,--and
+if Darnley could be invested for a time with the supreme command, these
+disagreeable consequences might be averted, and the Parliament might be
+either prorogued, or intimidated into submission. But, without a shadow of
+justice, to have openly ventured upon putting the Queen in ward, would
+have been too daring and dangerous. A scheme therefore was formed, by
+which, under the pretence of caring for her personal safety, and
+protecting the best interests of the country, she was to be kept, as long
+as they should think necessary, from exercising her own independent
+authority. By this scheme it was resolved to make David Rizzio the victim
+and the scape-goat of the conspiracy. Morton and his accomplices well knew
+that Rizzio was generally hated throughout Scotland. The Reformers, in
+particular, exaggerating his influence with the Queen, delighted in
+representing him as the minion of the Pope, and the servant of Antichrist,
+and there were no terms of abuse too gross which they did not direct
+against the unfortunate Italian. It would, therefore, give a popular
+effect to the whole enterprise, were it to be believed that it was
+undertaken principally for the sake of ridding the country from so hateful
+an interloper. Many historians, confounding the effect with the cause,
+have been puzzled to explain why Rizzio's murder should have led so
+immediately to the return of Murray and his friends; they forget that it
+was, on the contrary, a determination to secure their return, and to
+discover a plausible pretext for retaining Mary a prisoner in her own
+palace, that led to the murder.
+
+In the meantime, Rizzio was not without some apprehensions for his
+personal safety. The Scots, though they seldom evince much reluctance to
+secure their own advancement in foreign countries, are of all nations the
+most averse to allow strangers to interfere with their affairs at home.
+Aware that they have little enough for themselves, they cannot bear to see
+any part of what they consider their birthright given away to aliens,
+however deserving. Rizzio's abilities, and consequent favour with the
+Queen, were the means of placing in his hands so much power and wealth,
+that he incurred the hatred and envy of almost every one about court. In
+the homely but expressive language of Melville, "some of the nobility
+would gloom upon him, and some of them would shoulder him and shoot him
+by, when they entered in the chamber, and found him always speaking with
+her Majesty." Buchanan, that able but most prejudiced and disingenuous
+historian, expressing the prevalent sentiments of the day, says that, "the
+low birth and indigent condition of this man, placed him in a station in
+which he ought naturally to have remained unknown to posterity; but that
+which fortune called him to act and to suffer in Scotland, obliges history
+to descend from its dignity to record his adventures." As if "low birth
+and indigent condition" have ever been, or will ever be, barriers
+sufficient to shut out genius and talent from the road to greatness. But
+Rizzio was in truth far from being of that officious, conceited, and
+encroaching disposition, which Buchanan has ascribed to him. Sir James
+Melville, who knew him well, gives quite an opposite impression of his
+character. He mentions, that not without some fear, Rizzio lamented his
+state to him, and asked his council how to conduct himself. Sir James told
+him, that strangers ought to be cautious how they meddled too far in the
+affairs of foreign countries, for that, though he was her Majesty's
+Continental secretary, it was suspected a great deal of Scottish business
+also passed through his hands. "I advised him," says Melville, "when the
+nobility were present, to give them place, and pray the Queen's Majesty to
+be content therewith; and shewed him for an example, how I had been in so
+great favour with the Elector Palatine, that he caused set me at his own
+table, and the board being drawn, used to confer with me in presence of
+his whole Court. Whereat divers of them took great indignation against me,
+which, so soon as I perceived, I requested him to let me sit from his own
+table with the rest of his gentlemen, and no more to confer with me in
+their presence, but to send a page for me, any time that he had leisure,
+to come to him in his chamber; which I obtained, and that way made my
+master not to be hated, nor myself to be envied; and willed him to do the
+like, _which he did_, and said unto me afterwards, that the Queen would
+not suffer him, but would needs have him to use himself in the old
+manner." Melville then spoke to Mary herself upon the subject, and she
+expressly told him, that Signor David Rizzio "meddled no further but in
+her French writings and affairs, as her other French secretary had done
+before."[121]
+
+Rizzio's religion was another reason why he was so very unpopular. It was
+confidently asserted that he was in the pay of the Pope; and that he was
+in close correspondence with the Cardinal of Lorraine. Be this as it may,
+the support he undoubtedly gave, so far as lay in his power, to the
+Scottish Catholics, was of itself enough, in these times of bigotry, to
+make his assassination be considered almost a virtue. Besides, there were
+some more personal and private grounds for Morton and his friends wishing
+to get rid of the Secretary. There is a remarkable passage in Blackwood's
+_Martyre de Marie_, by which it would appear, that it was not the
+original intention of the conspirators to assassinate Rizzio, but merely
+to secure the person of Mary; and that it was in consequence of Rizzio's
+fidelity to the Queen, and refusal to sanction such a proceeding, that
+they afterwards changed their plan. "The Earl of Morton," says Blackwood,
+"had apartments in the royal palace.[122] There lodged there also her
+Majesty's Secretary, David Rizzio, a Piedmontese, and a man of great
+experience, and well versed in affairs of state. He was much respected by
+his mistress, not for any beauty or external grace that was in him, being
+rather old, ugly, austere, and disagreeable, but for his great fidelity,
+wisdom, and prudence, and on account of several other good qualities which
+adorned his mind. But, on the other hand, his master (the King) hated him
+greatly, both because he had laboured to effect the re-establishment of
+the house of Hamilton," (the Duke of Chatelherault, it will be
+recollected, was the only one of the rebels who had been pardoned), "and
+because _he had not only refused to become a party to, but had even
+revealed to the Queen_ a certain conspiracy that had been concluded on
+between his Highness and the rebels, by which it was resolved to shut up
+her Majesty in a castle, under good and sure guard, that Darnley might
+gain for himself all authority, and the entire government of the kingdom.
+My Lord Ruthven, the head of this conspiracy, entertained the greatest
+ill-will against the poor Secretary, because he had neither dared nor
+been able to conceal from her Majesty, that he had found Ruthven and all
+the conspirators assembled together in council in a small closet, and had
+heard her husband express himself with especial violence and chagrin.
+Besides, Morton, fearing greatly the foresight and penetration of this
+man, whom he knew to be entirely opposed to his designs, resolved to
+accomplish his death, and in so doing comply with the advice which had
+been given him by the English Court." This is a passage of much interest,
+and puts in a clear and strong point of view the treasonable designs of
+this formidable conspiracy.[123]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE ASSASSINATION OF DAVID RIZZIO.
+
+
+It was on the evening of Saturday the 9th of March 1566,[124] that the
+conspirators determined to strike the blow, which was either to make or
+mar them.[125] The retainers of Morton, and the other Lords his
+accomplices, assembled secretly in the neighbourhood of the Palace, to the
+number of nearly five hundred. They were all armed, and when it became
+dark, Morton, who took the command, led them into the interior court of
+Holyroodhouse, which, in his capacity of Lord High Chancellor of the
+kingdom, he was able to do, without much difficulty or suspicion. It had
+been arranged, that he should remain to guard the entry to the palace,
+whilst Ruthven, with a select party, was to proceed to the Queen's
+chamber. Patrick Lord Ruthven was exactly the sort of person suited for a
+deed of cowardice and cruelty, being by nature cursed with dispositions
+which preferred bigotry to religion, and barbarism to refinement. He was
+now in the forty-sixth year of his age, and had been for some months
+confined to a sick-bed, by a dangerous disease.[126] Though scarcely able
+to walk, he nevertheless undertook to head the assassins. He wore a
+helmet, and a complete suit of armour concealed under a loose robe.[127]
+
+Mary, altogether unsuspicious of the tragedy about to be performed, sat
+down to supper, as usual, at seven o'clock. There were with her only her
+illegitimate sister, the Countess of Argyle, her brother the Lord Robert
+Stuart, and her Foreign Secretary, David Rizzio. Beaton, her Master of the
+Household, Erskine, an inferior attendant, and one or two other servants
+of the Privy Chamber, were in waiting at a side-table; or, in the words of
+Stranguage, "tasting the meat taken from the Queen's table, at the
+cupboard, as the servants of the Privy Chamber use to do."[128] It is a
+curious and interesting fact, that notwithstanding all the changes which
+time has wrought on the Palace of Holyrood, the very cabinet in which Mary
+supped, on this eventful evening, as well as the adjoining rooms and
+passages through which the conspirators came, still exist, in nearly the
+same state in which they were in the year 1566. The principal staircase,
+in the north-west tower, leads up to the Queen's chamber of
+presence;--passing through this apartment, a door opens into Mary's
+bedroom, where her own bed yet stands, although its furniture is now
+almost in tatters. It was in the small closet or cabinet off her bed-room,
+containing one window, and only about twelve feet square, that Mary sat at
+supper on the 9th of March, two hundred and sixty-two years ago.
+Communicating with Darnley's chamber, immediately beneath, there was, and
+is, a private passage into Mary's bedroom, by which it could be entered,
+without previously passing through the presence-chamber. The approach to
+this passage from the Queen's room is concealed by a piece of wainscot,
+little more than a yard square, which hangs upon hinges in the wall, and
+opens on a trap-stair. It had been originally proposed to seize Rizzio in
+his own apartment; but this plan was abandoned, for two reasons; _first_,
+because it was less certain, since it was often late before Rizzio retired
+for the night, since he sometimes did not sleep in his own room at all,
+but in that of another Italian belonging to the Queen's household, named
+Signor Francis, and since there were back-doors and windows, through which
+he might have effected his escape; and, _second_, because it would not
+have so much intimidated Mary, and would have made it necessary to employ
+another party to secure her person--the chief object of the
+conspirators.[129]
+
+To ascertain whether there was any thing to hinder the execution of their
+design, Darnley, about eight o'clock, went up the private stairs, and,
+entering the small room where his wife was supping, sat down familiarly
+beside her. He found, as he expected, his victim Rizzio in attendance,
+who, indeed, owing to bad health, and the little estimation in which he
+was held by the populace, seldom went beyond the precincts of the
+palace.[130] He was dressed, this evening, in a loose _robe-de-chambre_ of
+furred damask, with a satin doublet, and a hose of russet velvet; and he
+wore a rich jewel about his neck, which was never heard of after his
+death.[131] The conspirators having allowed sufficient time to elapse, to
+be satisfied that all was as they wished, followed the King up the private
+way, which they chose in order to avoid any of the domestics who might
+have been in the presence-chamber, and given an alarm. They were headed by
+the Lord Ruthven, and George Douglas, an illegitimate son of the late Earl
+of Angus, and the bastard brother of Darnley's mother, the Lady Lennox; a
+person of the most profligate habits, and an apt instrument in the hands
+of the Earl of Morton. These men, followed by as many of their accomplices
+as could crowd into the small room where Mary sat, entered abruptly and
+without leave; whilst the remainder, to the number of nearly two score,
+collected in her bedroom. Ruthven, with his heavy armour rattling upon his
+lank and exhausted frame, and looking as grim and fearful as an animated
+corpse, stalked into the room first, and threw himself unceremoniously
+into a chair. The Queen, with indignant amazement, demanded the meaning of
+this insolent intrusion, adding, that he came with the countenance, and in
+the garb of one who had no good deed in his mind. Turning his hollow eyes
+upon Rizzio, Ruthven answered, that he intended evil only to the villain
+who stood near her. On hearing these words, Rizzio saw that his doom was
+fixed, and lost all presence of mind; but Mary, through whose veins flowed
+the heroic blood of James V., and his warlike ancestors, retained her
+self-possession. She turned to her husband, and called upon him for
+protection; but perceiving that he was disposed to remain a passive
+spectator of the scene, she ordered Ruthven to withdraw under pain of
+treason, promising, that if Rizzio was accused of any crime, it should be
+inquired into by the Parliament then assembled. Ruthven replied only by
+heaping upon the unfortunate Secretary a load of abuse; and, in
+conclusion, declared the determination of the conspirators to make
+themselves masters of Rizzio's person. Rizzio, scarcely knowing what he
+did, pressed close into the recess at the window, with his dagger drawn in
+one hand, and clasping the folds of Mary's gown with the other. In spite
+of every threat, he remained standing behind her, and continually
+exclaiming in his native language, and in great agitation, _Giustizia!
+Giustizia!_ Mary's own person was thus exposed to considerable danger, and
+the assassins desired Darnley to take his wife in his arms and remove her
+out of the way. The confusion and terror of the scene now increased a
+hundredfold;--the master of the household, and the three or four servants
+of the privy-chamber, attempted to turn Lord Ruthven out of the room;--his
+followers rushing to his support, overturned the supper-table, threw down
+the dishes and the candles, and, with hideous oaths, announced their
+resolution to murder Rizzio. Their own impetuosity might have frustrated
+their design; for, had not the Countess of Argyle caught one of the
+candles in her hand as it was falling, they would have been involved in
+darkness, and their victim might have escaped.
+
+The first man who struck Rizzio was George Douglas. Swords and daggers had
+been drawn, and pistols had been presented at him and at the Queen; but no
+blow was given, till Douglas, seizing the dirk which Darnley wore at his
+side, stabbed Rizzio over Mary's shoulder, though, at the moment, she was
+not aware of what he had done. The unhappy Italian was then forcibly
+dragged out into the bed-room, and through the presence-chamber, where the
+conspirators, gathering about him, speedily completed the bloody deed,
+leaving in his body no fewer than fifty-six wounds. He lay weltering in
+his gore at the door of the presence-chamber for some time; and a few
+large dusky spots, whether occasioned by his blood or not, are to this day
+pointed out, which stain that part of the floor. The body was afterwards
+thrown down the stairs, and carried from the palace to the porter's lodge,
+with the King's dagger still sticking in his side. He was obscurely buried
+next day; but, subsequently, more honourably near the Royal vault in
+Holyrood Chapel.[132]
+
+Such was the unhappy end of one who, having come into Scotland poor and
+unbefriended, had been raised, through the Queen's penetration and his own
+talents, to an honourable office, the duties of which he discharged with
+fidelity. If his rise was sudden, his fall was more so; for, up to the
+very day of his assassination, many of the Scottish nobility, says
+Buchanan, "sought his friendship, courted him, admired his judgment,
+walked before his lodgings, and observed his levee." But death no sooner
+put an end to his influence, than the memory of the once envied Italian
+was calumniated upon all hands. Knox even speaks approvingly of his
+murder, (as he had formerly done of that of Cardinal Beaton), assuring us
+that he was slain by those whom "God raised up to do the same"--an error,
+indicating a distorted moral perception, from the reproach consequent on
+which, his biographer, M'Crie, has unsuccessfully endeavoured to defend
+him.[133] The Reformer adds to his notice of Rizzio, a story which suits
+well the superstitious character of the times, and which Buchanan has
+repeated. He mentions, that there was a certain John Daniot, a French
+priest, and a reputed conjuror, who told Rizzio "to beware of a bastard."
+Rizzio, supposing he alluded to the Earl of Murray, answered, that no
+bastard should have much power in Scotland, so long as he lived; but the
+prophecy was considered to be fulfilled, when it was known that the
+bastard, Douglas, was the first who stabbed him.[134]
+
+In the meantime, the Earl of Morton, who had been left below, to guard the
+gates, being informed that Rizzio was slain, and that Ruthven and Darnley
+retained possession of the Queen's person, made an attempt to seize
+several of the nobility who lodged in the palace, and whom he knew to be
+unfavourable to his design of restoring the banished Lords. Whether it was
+his intention to have put them also to death, it is difficult to say; but
+it is at all events not likely that he would have treated them with much
+leniency. The noblemen in question, however, who were the Earls of Huntly,
+Bothwell, and Athol, the Lords Fleming and Livingston, and Sir James
+Balfour, contrived, not without much difficulty, to effect their escape.
+The two first let themselves down by ropes at a back window; Athol, who
+was supping in the town with Maitland, was apprised of his danger, and did
+not return to Holyrood that night. He, or some of the fugitives, hastened
+to the Provost of Edinburgh, and informed him of the treasonable
+proceedings at the Palace. The alarm-bell was immediately rung; and the
+civic authorities, attended by five or six hundred of the loyal citizens,
+hastened down to Holyrood, and called upon the Queen to show herself, and
+assure them of her safety. But Mary, who was kept a prisoner in the closet
+in which she had supped, was not allowed to answer this summons, the
+conspirators well knowing what would have been the consequences. On the
+contrary, as she herself afterwards wrote to her ambassador in France, she
+was "extremely threatened by the traitors, who, in her face, declared,
+that if she spoke to the town's people they would cut her in collops, and
+cast her over the walls." Darnley went to the window, and informed the
+crowd that he and the Queen were well, and did not require their
+assistance; and Morton and Ruthven told them, that no harm had been done,
+and beseeched them to return home, which, upon these assurances, they
+consented to do.
+
+A scene of mutual recrimination now took place between Mary and her
+husband, which was prolonged by the rude and gross behaviour of Ruthven.
+That barbarian, returning to the Queen's apartment, after having imbrued
+his hands in the blood of Rizzio, called for a cup of wine, and having
+seated himself, drained it to the dregs, whilst Mary stood beside him.
+Being somewhat recovered from the extreme terror she had felt when she saw
+her Secretary dragged away by the assassins, she rebuked Ruthven for his
+unmannerly conduct; but he only added insulting language to the crimes he
+had already committed. Perceiving, however, that her Majesty was again
+growing sick and ill, (and even without considering, what the conspirators
+well knew, that she was in the seventh month of her pregnancy, her
+indisposition will excite little wonder), he proposed to the King that
+they should retire, taking care to station a sufficiently strong guard at
+the door of Mary's chamber. "All that night," says Mary, "we were detained
+in captivity within our chamber, and not permitted to have intercommunion
+scarcely with our servant-women."[135]
+
+Next morning, although it was Sunday, the conspirators issued a
+proclamation in the King's name, and without asking the Queen's leave,
+proroguing the Parliament,--and commanding all the temporal and spiritual
+lords, who had come to attend it, to retire from Edinburgh. Illegal as it
+was, this proclamation was obeyed; for Morton, and his accomplices, had
+the executive power in their own hands, and Mary's more faithful subjects
+were taken so much by surprise, that they were unable to offer any
+immediate resistance. Mary herself was still kept in strict confinement;
+and the only attempt she could make to escape, which was through the
+assistance of Sir James Melville, failed. Sir James was allowed to leave
+the Palace early on the forenoon of Sunday; and, as he passed towards the
+outer gate, Mary happened to be looking over her window, and called upon
+him imploringly for help. "I drew near unto the window," says Melville,
+"and asked what help lay in my power, for that I should give. She said,
+'Go to the Provost of Edinburgh, and bid him, in my name, convene the town
+with speed, and come and relieve me out of these traitors' hands; but run
+fast, for they will stay you.'" The words were scarcely spoken, before
+some of the guards came up, and challenged Sir James. He told them, he
+"was only passing to the preaching in St Giles's Kirk," and they allowed
+him to proceed. He went direct to the Provost, and delivered his
+commission from the Queen; but the Provost protested he did not know how
+to act, for he had received contrary commands from the King; and, besides,
+the people, he said, were not disposed to take up arms to revenge Rizzio's
+death. Sir James was, therefore, reluctantly obliged to send word to Mary,
+by one of her ladies, that he could not effect her release. In the course
+of the day, Mary was made acquainted with Rizzio's fate, and she lamented
+the death of her faithful servant with tears. Between seven and eight in
+the evening, the Earls of Murray and Rothes, with the other banished
+Lords, arrived from England. During the whole of the night, and all next
+day, the Queen was kept as close a prisoner as before.
+
+Morton and his accomplices, however, now found themselves in a dilemma.
+They had succeeded in bringing home their rebel friends, in proroguing or
+dissolving the Parliament, in conferring upon Darnley all the power he
+wished, in murdering Rizzio, and in chasing from Court the nobles who had
+formed part of the administration along with him. But to effect these
+purposes, they had grossly insulted their lawful sovereign, and had turned
+her own palace into a prison, constituting themselves her gaolers. Having
+achieved all their more immediate objects, the only remaining question
+was--what were they to do with the Queen? If they were to set her at
+liberty, could they expect that she would tamely forget the indignities
+they had offered her, or quietly submit to the new state of things they
+had established? Had they, on the other hand, any sufficient grounds for
+proceeding to further extremities against her? Would the country allow a
+sovereign, whose reign had been hitherto so prosperous, to be at once
+deprived of her crown and her authority?[136] Daring as these men were,
+they could hardly venture upon a measure so odious. Besides, Darnley,
+always vacillating, and always contemptible, was beginning to think he had
+gone too far; and, influenced by something like returning affection for
+his beautiful consort, who was probably in a month or two to make him a
+father, he insisted that the matter should now be allowed to rest where it
+was, provided Mary would promise to receive into favour the Lords who had
+returned from banishment, and would grant a deed of oblivion to all who
+had taken a part in the recent assassination. Morton, Ruthven, Murray, and
+the rest, were extremely unwilling to consent to so precarious an
+arrangement; but Darnley overruled their objections. On Monday evening,
+articles were drawn up for their security, which he undertook to get
+subscribed by the Queen; and, trusting to his promises, all the
+conspirators, including the Lords who had just returned, withdrew
+themselves and their retainers from Holyroodhouse, and went to sup at the
+Earl of Morton's.[137]
+
+As soon as Mary found herself alone with Darnley, she urged, with all the
+force of her superior mind, every argument she could think of, to convince
+him how much he erred in associating himself with the existing cabal. She
+was not aware of the full extent to which he was implicated in their
+transactions; for he had assured her, that he was not to blame for
+Rizzio's murder, and as yet she believed him innocent of contriving it.
+She spoke to him therefore, with the confidence of an affectionate wife,
+with the winning eloquence of a lovely woman, and with the force and
+dignity of an injured Queen. She at length satisfied him, that his best
+hopes of advancement rested in her, and not on men who having first
+renounced allegiance to their lawful Queen, undertook to confer upon him a
+degree of power which was not their's to bestow. Darnley further learned
+from Mary, that Huntly, Bothwell, Athol, and others, had already risen in
+her behalf, and yielding to her representations and entreaties, he
+consented that they should immediately make their escape together. At
+midnight, accompanied only by the captain of the guard and two others,
+they left the palace, and rode to Dunbar without stopping.
+
+In a few days, Mary having been joined by more than one half of her
+nobility, found herself at the head of a powerful army. The conspirators,
+on the other hand, seeing themselves betrayed by Darnley and little
+supported by the country, were hardly able to offer even the shadow of
+resistance to the Queen. Still farther to diminish the little strength
+they had, Mary resolved to make a distinction between the old and the new
+rebels; and, influenced by reasons on which Morton had little calculated,
+she consented to pardon Murray, Argyle, and others, who immediately
+resorted to her, and were received into favour. After remaining in Dunbar
+only five days, she marched back in triumph to Edinburgh, and the
+conspirators fled in all directions to avoid the punishment they so justly
+deserved. Morton, Maitland, Ruthven, and Lindsay betook themselves to
+Newcastle, where, for aught that is known to the contrary, they occupied
+the very lodgings which Murray and his accomplices had possessed a week or
+two before.
+
+The whole face of affairs was now altered; and Mary, who for some days had
+suffered so much, was once more Queen of Scotland. "And such a change you
+should have seen," says Archbishop Spottiswood, "that they who, the night
+preceding, did vaunt of the fact (Rizzio's murder) as a godly and
+memorable act, affirming, some truly, some falsely, that they were present
+thereat,--did, on the morrow, forswear all that before they had affirmed."
+But it was not in Mary's nature to be cruel, and her resentments were
+never of long continuance. Two persons only were put to death for their
+share in Rizzio's slaughter, and these were men of little note. Before the
+end of the year, most of the principal delinquents, as will be seen in the
+sequel, were allowed to return to Court. Lord Ruthven, however, died at
+Newcastle of his old disease, a month or two after his flight thither. His
+death occasioned little regret, and his name lives in history only as that
+of a titled murderer.[138]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE BIRTH OF JAMES VI.
+
+
+Mary's vigorous conduct had again put her in possession of that rightful
+authority of which so lawless an attempt had been made to deprive her; but
+though restored to power, she was far from being likewise restored to
+happiness. The painful conviction was now at length forced upon her, that
+she had not in all the world one real friend. She felt that the
+necessities of her situation forced her to associate in her councils men,
+who were the slaves of ambition, and whose heartless courtesies were
+offered to her, only until a prospect of higher advantages held out a
+temptation to transfer them to another. She had not been long in her own
+kingdom, before Bothwell and others contemplated seizing her person, and
+assassinating her prime minister, the Earl of Murray;--she had hardly
+succeeded in frustrating these designs, when Murray himself directed his
+strength against her; and now, still more recently, the husband, for whose
+sake she had raised armies to chase her brother from the country, had
+aimed at making himself independent, and, to ingratiate himself with
+traitors, had scrupled not to engage in a deed of wanton cruelty,
+personally insulting to his wife and sovereign.
+
+Ignorant where to turn for repose and safety, Mary began to lose much of
+the natural vivacity and buoyancy of her temper; and to feel, that in
+those turbulent times, she was endowed with too little of that
+dissimulation, which enabled her sister Elizabeth to steer so successfully
+among the rocks and shoals of government. In a letter written about this
+period to one of her female relations in France, she says, touchingly, "It
+will grieve you to hear how entirely, in a very short time, I have changed
+my character, from that of the most easily satisfied and care-chasing of
+mortals, to one embroiled in constant turmoils and perplexities." "She was
+sad and pensive," says Sir James Melville, "for the late foul act
+committed in her presence so irreverently. So many great sighs she would
+give that it was pity to hear her, and over-few were careful to comfort
+her." But the perfidy of her nobles Mary could have borne;--it was the
+disaffection and wickedness of her husband that afflicted her most.
+Anxious to believe that he told her the truth, when he asserted that he
+was not implicated in the murder of Rizzio, she rejoiced to see him issue
+a proclamation, declaring that he was neither "a partaker in, nor privy
+to, David's slaughter." But the truth was too notorious to be kept long
+concealed. Randolph wrote to Cecil on the 4th of April 1566:--"The Queen
+hath seen all the covenants and bands that passed between the King and the
+Lords, and now findeth that his declaration before her and Council, of his
+innocency of the death of David, was false; and is grievously offended,
+that by their means he should seek to come to the crown matrimonial."
+Hence sprang the grief which, in secret, preyed so deeply upon Mary's
+health and spirits. Few things are more calculated to distress a generous
+mind, than to discover that the object of its affections is unworthy the
+love which has been lavished upon it. The young and graceful Darnley,
+laying at Mary's feet the real or pretended homage of his heart, was a
+very different person from the headstrong and designing King, colleaguing
+with her rebels, assassinating her faithful servant, and endeavouring to
+snatch the crown from her head. "That very power," says Robertson, "which,
+with liberal and unsuspicious fondness she had conferred upon him, he had
+employed to insult her authority, to limit her prerogative, and to
+endanger her person: such an outrage it was impossible any woman could
+bear or forgive." Yet Mary looked upon these injuries, coming as they did
+from the man whom she had chosen to be the future companion of her life,
+"more in sorrow than in anger;" and though she shed many a bitter tear
+over his unworthiness, she did not cease to love him.
+
+In the midst of these anxieties, the time for the Queen's delivery drew
+near. After a short excursion to Stirling and the neighbourhood, in which
+she was accompanied by Darnley, Murray, Bothwell and others, she returned
+to Edinburgh, and, by the advice of her Privy Council, went to reside in
+the Castle, as the place of greatest security, till she should present the
+country with an heir to the throne. During the months of April and May,
+she lived there very quietly, amusing herself with her work and her books,
+and occasionally walking out, for she had no wheeled carriage. She
+occupied herself, too, in endeavouring to reconcile those of her nobility
+whom contrary interests and other circumstances had disunited. It cost her
+no little trouble to prevail upon the two most faithful of her ministers,
+the Earl of Huntly her Chancellor, and Bothwell her Lord High Admiral, to
+submit to the returning influence of their old enemy the Earl of Murray.
+It was especially galling to them, that Murray and Argyle were the only
+persons, in addition to the King, allowed to reside in the Castle with
+Mary. But it was her own wish to have her husband and her brothers beside
+her on the present occasion; and no representations made by Bothwell or
+Huntly could alter her resolution. Yet these two Earls went the length of
+assuring the Queen, that Murray had entered into a new conspiracy with
+Morton, and that they would probably put in ward both herself and her
+infant, as soon as it was born. Surrounded as Mary was by traitors, she
+could not know whether this information was true or not; but her returning
+affection for Murray prevailed over every other consideration.[139]
+
+Elizabeth was all this time narrowly watching the progress of affairs in
+Scotland. Murray's restoration to favour pleased her much; and, to
+reconcile Morton and his friends to the failure of their plots, she
+secretly countenanced and protected them. With her usual duplicity,
+however, she sent to Edinburgh Henry Killigrew, to congratulate Mary on
+her late escape, and to assure her that she would give directions to
+remove Morton out of England. She likewise recalled Randolph, of whose
+seditious practices Mary had complained; but, as if to be even with the
+Scottish Queen, she commanded Killigrew to demand the reason why a certain
+person of the name of Ruxby, a rebel and a Papist, had been protected in
+Scotland? It would have been better for Elizabeth had she allowed this
+subject to rest. Though Ruxby feigned himself a refugee from England on
+account of religion, he had in reality been privately sent to Scotland by
+Elizabeth herself, and her Secretary Cecil. The object of his mission was
+to find out whether Mary carried on any secret correspondence with the
+English Catholics. For this purpose, he was to pretend that he was a
+zealous supporter of her right and title to the crown of England; and that
+he had some influence with the English Catholics, all of whom, he was to
+assert, thought as he did. Having thus ingratiated himself with Mary, he
+was immediately to betray any discoveries he might make to Cecil. The
+scheme was ingeniously enough contrived; coming as an avowed enemy to
+Elizabeth, and she herself actually supplying credentials to that effect,
+no suspicion was for some time entertained of his real designs. That he
+was able to learn any thing which could afford the English Queen
+reasonable ground of offence, is not likely; for though several
+communications in cipher passed between him and Cecil, their contents were
+never made public. Shortly before Killigrew's arrival, Ruxby's real
+character had been accidentally discovered; and when the ambassador, more
+for the sake of aiding than of hindering the spy in the prosecution of his
+object, made a _pro forma_ request that he should not be harboured any
+longer, Mary instantly ordered him to be apprehended, and all his writings
+and ciphers to be seized and examined. The indubitable evidence which they
+afforded of Elizabeth's systematic cunning, forced a smile from Mary, and
+might have brought a blush to the cheek of her rival. The Queen of Scots,
+however, did not condescend to give any utterance to the feelings which
+this affair must have inspired; and nothing further is known of
+Elizabeth's disgraced and detected minion.[140]
+
+Early in June, perceiving that the time of her delivery was at hand, Mary
+wrote letters to her principal nobility, requiring them to come to
+Edinburgh during that juncture. She then made her will, which she caused
+to be thrice transcribed;--one copy was sent to France, a second committed
+to the charge of her Privy Council, and the third she kept herself. The
+day preceding her delivery, she wrote, with her own hand, a letter to
+Elizabeth, announcing the event, but leaving a blank "to be filled," says
+Melville, "either with a son or a daughter, as it might please God to
+grant unto her."
+
+On Wednesday the 19th day of June 1566, between nine and ten in the
+morning, the Queen was safely delivered of a son. The intelligence was
+received every where, throughout Scotland, with sincere demonstrations of
+joy. "As the birth of a prince," says Keith, "was one of the greatest of
+blessings that God could bestow upon this poor divided land; so was the
+same most thankfully acknowledged by all ranks of people, according as the
+welcome news thereof reached their ears." In Edinburgh, the triumph
+continued for several days; and, upon the first intimation of the event,
+all the nobility in the town, accompanied by most of the citizens, went in
+solemn procession to the High Church, and offered up thanksgiving for so
+signal a mercy shown to the Queen and the whole realm.
+
+When the news was conveyed to England, it was far from being heard with so
+much satisfaction. It was between eleven and twelve on the morning of the
+19th, that the Lady Boyne came to Sir James Melville, and told him, that
+their prayers being granted, he must carry Mary's letter to London with
+all diligence. "It struck twelve hours," says Sir James, "when I took my
+horse, and I was at Berwick that same night. The fourth day after, I was
+at London,"--a degree of despatch very unusual in those times. Melville
+found Elizabeth at Greenwich, "where her Majesty was in great merriness,
+and dancing after supper. But so soon as the Secretary Cecil sounded the
+news in her ear of the prince's birth, all merriness was laid aside for
+that night; every one that was present marvelling what might move so
+sudden a changement. For the Queen sat down with her hand upon her haffet
+(cheek), and bursting out to some of her ladies, how that the Queen of
+Scotland was lighter of a fair son, and that she was but a barren stock."
+Next morning, Elizabeth gave Melville a formal audience, at which, having
+had time for preparation, she endeavoured to dissemble her real feelings;
+though, by over-acting her part, she made them only the more apparent. She
+told him gravely, that the joyful news he brought her, had recovered her
+out of a heavy sickness, which had held her for fifteen days! "Then I
+requested her Majesty," says Melville, "to be a gossip unto the Queen, for
+our _comers_ are called gossips in England, which she granted gladly to
+be. Then, I said, her Majesty would have a fair occasion to see the Queen,
+which she had so oft desired. At this she smiled, and said, that she would
+wish that her estate and affairs might permit her; and promised to send
+both honourable lords and ladies to supply her room."[141]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+MARY'S TREATMENT OF DARNLEY, AND ALLEGED LOVE FOR THE EARL OF BOTHWELL.
+
+
+As soon as she had sufficiently recovered to be able to quit the Castle,
+Mary resolved on leaving the fatigues of government behind, and going for
+some time into the country. Her infant son was intrusted to the care of
+the Earl of Mar as his governor, and the Lady Mar as his governess. The
+time was not yet arrived to make arrangements regarding his education; but
+the General Assembly had already sent a deputation to the Queen, to
+entreat that she would allow him to be brought up in the Reformed
+religion. To this request Mary avoided giving any positive answer; but she
+condescendingly took the infant from the nurse, and put it into the arms
+of some of the divines. A prayer was pronounced over it; and Spottiswood
+assures us, that, at the conclusion, the child gave an inarticulate
+murmur, which the delighted Presbyterians construed to be an _Amen_.
+
+It was the seat of the Earl of Mar at Alloa that the Queen first visited.
+Being not yet equal to the fatigues of horseback, she went on board a
+vessel at Newhaven, and sailed up the Forth. She was accompanied by
+Murray and others of her nobility.[142] Buchanan, whose constant malice
+and misrepresentation become at times almost ludicrous, says--"Not long
+after her delivery, on a day very early, accompanied by very few that were
+privy of her council, she went down to the waterside at a place called the
+New-haven; and while all marvelled whither she went in such haste, she
+suddenly entered into a ship there prepared for her. With a train of
+thieves, all honest men wondering at it, she betook herself to sea, taking
+not one other with her."--"When she was in the ship," he says elsewhere,
+"among pirates and thieves, she could abide at the pump, and joyed to
+handle the boisterous cables."[143] It is thus this trustworthy historian
+describes a sail of a few hours, enjoyed by Mary and her Court.
+
+Darnley, who, though not very contented either with himself or any one
+else, was about this time much in the Queen's company, went to Alloa by
+land, and remained with Mary the greater part of the time she continued at
+the Earl of Mar's. The uneasiness he suffered, and the peevish complaints
+to which he was continually giving utterance, were occasioned by the want
+of deference, with which he found himself treated by all Mary's ministers.
+But the general odium into which he had fallen, was entirely to be
+attributed to his own folly. Between him and the Earl of Murray there had
+long existed a deadly hatred against each other; in associating himself
+with Morton, and plotting against Huntly and Bothwell, he had
+irremediably offended these noblemen; and in deserting Morton and his
+faction, he had forever lost the friendship of the only men who seemed
+willing to regard him with any favour. The distressing consciousness of
+neglect occasioned by his own misconduct, was thus forced upon him
+wherever he turned; and instead of teaching him a lesson of humility, it
+only served to sour his temper, and pervert his feelings. The Queen was
+deeply grieved to see him so universally hated; and anxiously endeavoured
+to make herself the connecting link between him and her incensed nobility.
+This was all she could do; for, even although she had wished it, she could
+not have dismissed, to please him, such of her ministers as he considered
+obnoxious; a measure so unconstitutional would have led to a second
+rebellion. But she hoped by treating her husband kindly, and showing him
+every attention herself, to make it be understood that she expected others
+would be equally respectful. Having spent some days together at Alloa,
+Mary and Darnley went to Peebles-shire to enjoy the amusement of hunting;
+but finding little sport, they returned on the 20th of August to
+Edinburgh. Thence, they went to Stirling, taking the young Prince with
+them, whom they established in Stirling Castle. Bothwell, in the meantime,
+in his capacity of Lieutenant of the Borders, was in some of the southern
+shires attending the duties of his charge.[144]
+
+It is necessary to detail these facts thus minutely, as Mary's principal
+calumniator, Buchanan, endeavours to establish, by a tissue of
+falsehoods, that immediately after her delivery, or perhaps before it, she
+conceived a criminal attachment for Bothwell. This absurdity has gained
+credit with several later writers, and particularly with Robertson, whose
+knowledge of Mary's motions and domestic arrangements at the period of
+which we speak, appears to have been very superficial. Yet he may be
+regarded as even a more dangerous enemy than the former. Buchanan's
+virulence and evident party spirit, carry their own contradiction along
+with them; whilst Robertson, not venturing to go the same lengths, (though
+guided in his belief entirely by Buchanan), imparts to the authority on
+which he trusts a greater air of plausibility, by softening down the
+violence of the original, to suit the calmer tone of _professedly_
+unprejudiced history. In the progress of these Memoirs, it will not be
+difficult to show that Robertson's affected candour, or too hastily formed
+belief, is as little to be depended on as Buchanan's undisguised malice.
+
+Buchanan wishes it to be believed, in the first place, that Mary
+entertained a guilty love for Rizzio. He then proceeds to assert, that in
+little more than three months after his barbarous assassination, she had
+fallen no less violently in love with Bothwell, although, in the meantime,
+she had been employed in giving birth to her first child, by a husband,
+whom he allows she doated on nine or ten months before. To bolster up this
+story, he perverts facts with the most reckless indifference. One specimen
+of his style we have already seen in his account of the Queen's voyage to
+Alloa; and proceeding with his narrative, we find him positively
+asserting in the sequel, that for the two or three following months, Mary
+was constantly in the company of Bothwell, and of Bothwell alone, knowing
+as he must have done all the while, that Murray and Darnley, Bothwell's
+principal enemies, were her chief associates, and that Bothwell spent most
+of the time in a distant part of the kingdom.
+
+Robertson dates even more confidently than Buchanan, the commencement of
+Mary's love for Bothwell at a period prior to her delivery. But upon this
+hypothesis, it is surely odd, that Murray and Argyle were permitted by the
+Queen to reside in the Castle previous to and during her confinement,
+whilst the same favour was peremptorily refused to Bothwell; and it is no
+less odd, that shortly after her delivery, Secretary Maitland, at the
+intercession of the Earl of Athol, was received once more into favour, in
+direct opposition to the wishes of Bothwell. It is no doubt possible, that
+notwithstanding this presumptive evidence to the contrary, Mary may at
+this very time have had a violent love for Bothwell; but are we to give
+credit to the improbability, merely because Buchanan was the slave of
+party feeling, and Robertson disposed to be credulous? Are the detected
+fabrications of the one, entitled to any better consideration than the
+gratuitous suppositions of the other? "Strange and surprisingly wild,"
+says Keith, "are the accounts given by Knox, but more especially by
+Buchanan, concerning the King and Queen about this time. I shall not
+reckon it worth while to transcribe them here; and the best and shortest
+confutation I could propose of them is, to leave my readers the trouble,
+or rather satisfaction, to compare the same with the just now mentioned
+abstracts (of despatches from Randolph to Cecil) and the three following
+authentic letters," from the French and Scottish ambassadors and the
+Queen's Privy Council.[145] Robertson, it is true, after having asserted,
+that "Bothwell all this while was the Queen's prime confident," and that
+he had acquired a "sway over her heart," proceeds to confess, that "such
+delicate transitions of passion can be discerned only by those who are
+admitted near the persons of the parties, and who can view the secret
+workings of the heart with calm and acute observation." "Neither Knox nor
+Buchanan," he adds, "enjoyed these advantages. Their humble station
+allowed them only a distant access to the Queen and her favourite; and the
+ardour of their zeal, and the violence of their prejudices rendered their
+opinions rash, precipitate, and inaccurate." This is apparently so
+explicit and fair, that the only wonder is, upon what grounds Robertson
+ventured to make _his_ accusation of Mary, having thus shown how little
+dependence was to be placed on the only authorities which supported him in
+it. It appears that he came to his conclusions by a process of his own,
+which rendered him independent both of Knox and Buchanan. "Subsequent
+historians," he says, "can judge of the reality of this reciprocal passion
+only by its _effects_." Robertson must of course have been aware that he
+thus opened the gate to a flood of uncertainty, seeing that the same
+effects may spring from a hundred different causes. If a man be found
+dead, before looking for his murderer, it is always proper to inquire
+whether he has been murdered. Besides, if effects are to be made the
+criterion by which to form an opinion, the greatest care must be taken
+that they be not misrepresented. Mary must not be said to have been a
+great deal in Bothwell's company, at a time she was almost never with him,
+and she must not be described as being seldom with her husband, at a time
+they were constantly together.
+
+Laing is another and still later writer, who has produced a very able
+piece of special pleading against Mary, in which a false colouring is
+continually given to facts. "After her delivery," he says, "she removed
+secretly from the Castle, and was followed by Darnley to Alloa, Stirling,
+Meggetland, and back again to Edinburgh, as if she were desirous to escape
+from the presence of her husband." That Darnley _followed_ Mary, is an
+assumption of Mr Laing's own. Conceited as the young King was, he would
+rather never have stirred out of his chamber again, than have condescended
+to follow so perseveringly one who wished to avoid him, first to Alloa,
+then to Stirling, then into Peebles-shire, then back again to Edinburgh,
+and once more to Stirling. The only correct part of Laing's statement is,
+that Mary chose to go by water to Alloa, whilst Darnley preferred
+travelling by land; perhaps because he wished to hunt by the way, or call
+at the seats of some of the nobility. The distance, altogether, was only
+twenty miles; and the notion that Mary removed "_secretly_" from the
+Castle, for the important purpose of taking an excursion to Alloa, is
+absolutely ludicrous. In support of his assertion that Mary had lost her
+heart to Bothwell, Laing proceeds to mention, that, shortly after the
+assassination of Rizzio, the Earl, for his successful services, was loaded
+with favours and preferment. That Mary should have conferred some reward
+upon a nobleman whose power and fidelity were the chief means of
+preserving her on a tottering throne, is not at all unlikely; but, to make
+that reward appear disproportioned to the occasion, Laing _misdates_ the
+time when most of Bothwell's offices of trust were bestowed upon him.
+Several of them were his by hereditary right, such as those of Lord High
+Admiral, and the Sheriffships of Berwick, Haddington, and Edinburgh. Part
+of his authority on the Borders he had acquired during the time of the
+late Queen-Regent, Mary's mother, having been made her Lieutenant, and
+keeper of Hermitage Castle, in 1558; and it was immediately after his
+restoration to favour, during the continuance of Murray's rebellion, that
+he was appointed Lieutenant of the West and Middle Marches, a situation
+which implied the superiority of the Abbeys of Melrose and
+Haddington.[146] The only _addition_ made to Bothwell's possessions and
+titles, in consequence of his services after Rizzio's death, was that of
+the Castle and Lordship of Dunbar, together with a grant of some crown
+lands.[147]
+
+There is another circumstance connected with Bothwell, which we omitted to
+mention before, but which may with propriety be stated here. At the period
+of which we write, when he is accused of being engaged in a criminal
+intercourse with Mary, he had been only two or three months married to a
+wife every way deserving of his love. Three weeks before the death of
+Rizzio, he had espoused, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, the Lady
+Jane Gordon, the sister of his friend, the Earl of Huntly. She was just
+twenty, and was possessed of an elegant and cultivated understanding. They
+were married at Holyrood, on the 22d of February 1566, after the manner of
+the Reformed persuasion, in direct opposition to Mary's wishes. She
+entertained them, however, at a banquet on the first day; and the feasting
+and rejoicings continued for a week. "The Queen desired," says Knox, "that
+the marriage might be made in the chapel at the mass, which the Earl
+Bothwell would in no ways grant."[148] Was there any love existing at this
+time between Mary and her minister? Robertson and Laing seem to think
+there was. Choosing to judge of Mary's feelings towards Bothwell by
+_effects_, not of effects by feelings, they quote several passages from
+the letters of one or two of the foreign ambassadors then in Scotland,
+which mention that Bothwell possessed great influence at court. That these
+ambassadors report no more than the truth may be very safely granted;
+though certainly there is no evidence to show that he enjoyed so much
+weight as Murray, or more than Huntly. Yet he deserved better than the
+former, for he had hitherto, with one exception, continued as faithful to
+Mary, as he had previously been to her mother. The letters alluded to,
+only repeat what Randolph had mentioned six months before. So early as
+October 1565, only two months after Mary's marriage with Darnley, and when
+her love for him remained at its height, Randolph wrote to Cecil; "My Lord
+Bothwell, for his great virtue, doth now all, next to the Earl of
+Athol."[149] Was Mary in love with Bothwell at this date? Or was it with
+the Earl of Athol? And did she postpone her attachment to Bothwell, till
+he should prove his for her, by becoming the husband of the Lady Jane
+Gordon?--We proceed with our narrative.
+
+Having spent some time with Darnley at Stirling, Mary returned to
+Edinburgh, for the despatch of public business, on the 11th or 12th of
+September. She wished Darnley to accompany her; but as he could not, or
+would not, act with either Murray's or Huntly's party, he refused. On the
+21st, she came again to Stirling; but was recalled once more to Edinburgh,
+by her Privy Council, on the 23d. She left the French ambassador, Le Croc,
+with the wayward Darnley, hoping that his wisdom and experience might be
+of benefit to him.[150] The distinction which, from this period up to the
+hour of his death, Darnley constantly made between his feelings for Mary
+herself, and for her ministers, is very striking. With Mary he was always
+willing to associate, and she had the same desire to be as much as she
+could with him; but with the conditions he exacted, and by which alone she
+was to purchase much of his company, it was impossible for her to comply.
+She might as well have given up her crown at once, as have dismissed all
+those officers of state with whom Darnley had quarrelled. The truth is,
+her husband's situation was a very unfortunate one. His own imbecility and
+unlawful ambition, had brought upon him general odium; but if he had
+possessed a stronger mind, or a greater stock of hypocrisy, he might have
+re-established himself in the good graces of at least a part of the
+Scottish nobility. But he had neither the prudence to disguise his
+sentiments, nor the ability to maintain them. "He had not learned," says
+Chalmers, "to smile, and smile, and be a villain. He was still very young,
+and still very inexperienced; and the Queen could not easily govern
+without the aid of those odious men,"--his enemies.
+
+Mary had been only a few days in Edinburgh, when she received a letter
+from the Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, which afflicted her not a
+little. Lennox, who resided principally at Glasgow, had gone to Stirling
+to visit his son; and Darnley had there communicated to him a design, his
+present discontents had suggested, which was to leave the country and
+proceed to the Continent. Both Lennox and Le Croc, "a wise aged
+gentleman," as Holinshed calls him, had done all they could to divert him
+from so mad a purpose; but his resolution seemed to be fixed. Mary
+immediately laid her father-in-law's letter before her Privy Council, who
+"took a resolution to talk with the King, that they might learn from
+himself the occasion of this hasty deliberation of his, if any such he
+had; and likewise, that they might thereby be enabled to advise her
+Majesty after what manner she should comport herself in this
+conjuncture."[151] On the evening of the very day that this resolution was
+adopted, (the 29th of September), Darnley himself arrived at
+Holyrood;--but being informed that the Earls of Argyle, Murray, and Rothes
+were with the Queen, he declared he would not enter the palace till they
+departed.[152] The Queen took this petulant behaviour as mildly as
+possible; and glad of his arrival, even condescended to go forth from the
+palace to meet her husband, and conducted him to her own apartment, where
+they spent the night together.[153]
+
+Next day, Mary prevailed upon her husband to attend a meeting of her
+Council. They requested to be informed by the King, whether he had
+actually resolved to depart out of the realm, and if he had, what were the
+motives that influenced him, and the objects he had in view. They added,
+"that if he could complain of any of the subjects of the realm, be they of
+what quality soever, the fault should be immediately repaired to his
+satisfaction." Mary herself took him by the hand, and speaking
+affectionately to him, "besought him, for God's sake, to declare if she
+had given him any occasion for this resolution."[154] She had a clear
+conscience, she said, that in all her life she had done no action which
+could any ways prejudge either his or her own honour; but, nevertheless,
+that as she might, perhaps, have given him offence without design, she was
+willing to make amends, as far as he should require,--and therefore
+"prayed him not to dissemble the occasion of his displeasure, if any he
+had, nor to spare her in the least manner."[155] Darnley answered
+distinctly, that he had no fault to find with the Queen; but he was either
+unable or unwilling to explain further. With the stubborn discontent of a
+petted child, he would neither say one thing nor another--neither confess
+nor deny. Without agreeing to alter his determination, whatever it might
+be, and it was perhaps, after all, only a trick contrived to work upon
+Mary's affections, and intimidate her into his wishes, he at length took
+his leave. Upon going away, he said to the Queen, "Farewell, Madam; you
+shall not see my face for a long while." He next bade Le Croc farewell;
+and then turning coldly to the Lords of the Council, he said, "Gentlemen,
+adieu."[156]
+
+Shortly afterwards, Mary received a letter from Darnley, in which he
+complained of two things. "One is," says Maitland, "that her Majesty
+trusts him not with so much authority, nor is at such pains to advance
+him, and make him be honoured in the nation, as she at first was. And the
+other point is, that nobody attends him, and that the nobility deserts his
+company. To these two points the Queen has made answer, that if the case
+be so, he ought to blame himself, not her; for that in the beginning she
+had conferred so much honour upon him, as came afterwards to render
+herself very uneasy, the credit and reputation wherein she had placed him
+having served as a shadow to those who have most heinously offended her
+Majesty; but, howsoever, that she has, notwithstanding this, continued to
+show him such respect, that although they who did perpetrate the murder of
+her faithful servant, had entered her chamber with his knowledge, having
+followed him close at the back, and had named him the chief of their
+enterprise,--yet would she never accuse him thereof, but did always excuse
+him, and was willing to appear as if she believed it not. And then as to
+his being not attended,--the fault thereof must be charged upon himself,
+since she has always made an offer to him of her own servants. And for the
+nobility, they come to court, and pay deference and respect, according as
+they have any matters to do, and as they receive a kindly countenance; but
+that he is at no pains to gain them, and make himself beloved by them,
+having gone so far as to prohibit these noblemen to enter his room, whom
+she had first appointed to be about his person. If the nobility abandon
+him, his own deportment towards them is the cause thereof; for if he
+desire to be followed and attended by them, he must, in the first place,
+make them to love him, and to this purpose must render himself amiable to
+them; without which, it will prove a most difficult task for her Majesty
+to regulate this point, especially to make the nobility consent that he
+shall have the management of affairs put into his hands; because she finds
+them utterly averse to any such matter."[157]
+
+No answer or explanation could be more satisfactory; and the whole affair
+exhibits a highly favourable view of Mary's conduct and character. Le Croc
+accordingly says, in the letter already quoted,--"I never saw her Majesty
+so much beloved, esteemed, and honoured; nor so great a harmony amongst
+all her subjects as at present is, by her wise conduct, for I cannot
+perceive the smallest difference or division." That Darnley ever seriously
+intended to quit the country, it has been said, is extremely uncertain. It
+would appear, however, according to Knox, that he still harboured some
+chimerical design of making himself independent of Mary, and with this
+view he treacherously wrote to the Pope, and the Kings of Spain and
+France, misrepresenting the state of affairs, and offering, with their
+assistance, to re-establish the Catholic religion. Copies of these
+letters, Knox adds, fell into Mary's hands, who, of course, took steps to
+prevent their meeting with any attention at the Continental courts.[158]
+But be this matter as it may, (and its truth rests upon rather doubtful
+authority, since we find no mention of it, either by the Lords of Privy
+Council or the French Ambassador), it is certain that Darnley's
+determination, hastily formed, was as hastily abandoned.[159]
+
+Shortly after her husband's departure from Edinburgh, the Queen, attended
+by her officers of state, set out upon a progress towards the Borders,
+with the view, in particular, of holding justice-courts at Jedburgh. The
+southern marches of Scotland were almost always in a state of
+insubordination. The recent encouragement which the secret practices,
+first of Murray and afterwards of Morton, both aided by Elizabeth, had
+given to the turbulent spirit of the Borderers, called loudly for the
+interference of the law. Mary had intended to hold assizes in Liddisdale
+in August, but on account of the harvest, postponed leaving Edinburgh till
+October. On the 6th or 7th of that month, she sent forward Bothwell, her
+Lieutenant, to make the necessary preparations for her arrival, and on the
+8th, the Queen and her Court set out,--the noblemen and gentlemen of the
+southern shires having been summoned to meet her with their retainers at
+Melrose. On the 10th she arrived at Jedburgh. There, or it may have been
+on her way from Melrose, she received the disagreeable news, that on the
+very day she left Edinburgh, her Lieutenant's authority had been insulted
+by some of the unruly Borderers, and that soon after his reaching his
+Castle of Hermitage, a place of strength about eighteen miles from
+Jedburgh, he had been severely and dangerously wounded. Different
+historians assign different reasons for the attack made on Bothwell. Some
+say that Morton had bought over the tribe of Elliots, to revenge his
+present disgrace upon one whom he considered an enemy. Others, with
+greater probability, assert, that it was only a riot occasioned by
+thieves, whose lawless proceedings Bothwell wished to punish. But
+whichever statement be correct, the report of what had actually taken
+place was, as usual, a good deal exaggerated when it reached Mary. Being
+engaged, however, with public business at Jedburgh, she was prevented, for
+several days, from ascertaining the precise truth for herself. Finding
+that she had leisure on the 16th of the month, and being informed that her
+Lieutenant was still confined with his wounds, she paid him the
+compliment, or rather discharged the duty of riding across the country
+with some attendants, both to inquire into the state of his health, and to
+learn to what extent her authority had been insulted in his person. She
+remained with him only an hour or two, and returned to Jedburgh the same
+evening.[160]
+
+The above simple statement of facts, so natural in themselves, and so
+completely authenticated, acquires additional interest when compared with
+the common version of this story which Buchanan and his follower Robertson
+have contrived to render prevalent. "When the news that Bothwell was in
+great danger of his life," says Buchanan, "was brought to the Queen _at
+Borthwick_, though the _winter_ was very sharp, she _flew in haste_, first
+to Melrose, then to Jedburgh. There, though she received certain
+intelligence that Bothwell was alive, yet, being impatient of delay, and
+not able to forbear, though in such a bad time of the year,
+notwithstanding the difficulty of the way, and the danger of robbers, she
+put herself on her journey with such attendants as hardly any honest man,
+though he was but of a mean condition, would trust his life and fortune
+to. From thence she returned again to Jedburgh, and there she was mighty
+diligent in making great preparations for Bothwell's being brought
+thither."[161] The whole of this is a tissue of wilful misrepresentation.
+No one, unacquainted with Buchanan's character, would read the statement
+without supposing that Mary proceeded direct from Borthwick to Hermitage
+Castle, scarcely stopping an hour by the way. Now, if Mary heard of
+Bothwell's accident at Borthwick (which is scarcely possible), it must
+have been, at the latest, on the 9th of October, or more probably on the
+evening of the 8th; but, so far from being in a hurry in consequence, it
+appears, by the Privy Council Register, that she did not reach Jedburgh
+till the 10th, and, by the Privy Seal Register, that she did not visit
+Hermitage Castle till the 16th of the month.[162] Had she really ridden
+from Borthwick to the Hermitage and back again to Jedburgh in one day, she
+would have performed a journey of nearly seventy miles, which she could
+not have done even though she had wished it. As to her employing herself,
+on her return to Jedburgh, "in making great preparations for Bothwell's
+being brought thither," she certainly must have made extremely good use of
+her time, for she returned on the evening of the 16th, and next day she
+was taken dangerously ill. The motives which induced Buchanan to propagate
+falsehood concerning Mary, are sufficiently known; but, being known,
+Robertson ought to have been well convinced of the truth of his
+allegations before he drew inferences upon such authority. But the Doctor
+had laid down the principle, that he was to judge of Mary's love for
+Bothwell by its _effects_; and it became, therefore, convenient for him to
+assert, that her visit to Hermitage Castle was one of those effects. "Mary
+_instantly_ flew thither," he says, "with an impatience which strongly
+marks the anxiety of a lover, but little suiting the dignity of a queen."
+Now, "instantly," must mean, that she allowed at all events six, and
+probably seven days to elapse; and that, too, after being informed of the
+danger one of the most powerful and best affectioned of her nobility had
+incurred in her behalf. Robertson must have thought it strange, that she
+staid only an hour or two at the Castle. "Upon her finding Bothwell
+slightly wounded," says Tytler, "was it love that made her in such a
+violent haste to return back the same night to Jedburgh, by the same bad
+roads and tedious miles? Surely, if love had in any degree possessed her
+heart, it must have supplied her with many plausible reasons for passing
+that night in her lover's company, without exposing herself to the
+inconveniences of an uncomfortable journey, and the inclemencies of the
+night air at that season." If Mary had been blamed for an over-degree of
+callousness and indifference, there would have been almost more justice in
+the censure. With honest warmth Chalmers remarks, that "the _records_ and
+the _facts_ laugh at Robertson's false dates and frothy declamation."[163]
+
+On the 17th of October, Mary was seized with a severe and dangerous fever,
+and for ten days her life was esteemed in great danger; indeed, it was at
+one time reported at Edinburgh, that she was dead. The fever was
+accompanied with fainting or convulsion-fits, of an unusual and alarming
+description. They frequently lasted for three or four hours; and during
+their continuance, she was, to all appearance, lifeless. Her body was
+motionless; her eyes closed; her mouth fast; her feet and arms stiff and
+cold. Upon coming out of these, she suffered the most dreadful pain, her
+whole frame being collapsed, and her limbs drawn writhingly together. She
+was at length so much reduced, that she herself began to despair of
+recovery. She summoned together the noblemen who were with her, in
+particular Murray, Huntly, Rothes, and Bothwell, and gave them what she
+believed to be her dying advice and instructions. Bothwell was not at
+Jedburgh when the Queen was taken ill, nor did he show any greater haste
+to proceed thither when he heard of her sickness than she had done to
+visit him, it being the 24th of October before he left Hermitage
+Castle.[164] After requesting her council to pray for her, and professing
+her willingness to submit to the will of Heaven, Mary recommended her son
+to their especial care. She entreated that they would give every
+attention to his education, suffering none to approach him, whose example
+might pervert his manners or his mind, and studying to bring him up in all
+virtue and godliness. She strongly advised the same toleration to be
+continued in matters of religion, which she had practised; and she
+concluded, by requesting that suitable provision should be made for the
+servants of her household, to whom Mary was scrupulously attentive, and by
+all of whom she was much beloved. Fortunately however, after an
+opportunity had been thus afforded her of evincing her strength of mind,
+and willingness to meet death, the violence of her disease abated, and her
+youth and good constitution triumphed over the attack.
+
+Darnley, who was with his father at Glasgow, probably did not hear of the
+Queen's illness till one or two days after its commencement; but as soon
+as he was made acquainted with her extreme danger, he determined on going
+to see her. Here again, we discover the marked distinction that
+characterized Darnley's conduct towards his wife and towards her nobility.
+With Mary herself he had no quarrel; and though his love for her was not
+so strong and pure as it should have been, and was easily forgotten when
+it stood in the way of his own selfish wishes, he never lost any
+opportunity of evincing his desire to continue on a friendly footing with
+her. When he last parted from her at Holyrood, he had said that she should
+not see him for a long while; but startled into better feelings by her
+unexpected illness, he came to visit her at Jedburgh, on the 28th of
+October. The Queen was, by this time, better; but her convalescence being
+still uncertain, Darnley's arrival was far from being agreeable to her
+ministers. Should Mary die, one or other of them would be appointed
+Regent, an office to which they knew that Darnley, as father to the young
+prince, had strong claims. It was their interest, therefore, to sow
+dissension in every possible way, between the Queen and her husband; and
+they trembled lest the remaining affection they entertained for each
+other, might be again rekindled into a more ardent flame. Mary, when cool
+and dispassionate, they knew they could manage easily; but Mary, when in
+love, chose, like most other women, to have her own way. They received
+Darnley, on the present occasion, so forbiddingly, and gave him so little
+countenance, that having spent a day and a night with Mary, he was glad
+again to take his departure, and leave her to carry on the business of the
+state, surrounded by those designing and factious men who were weaving the
+web of her ruin.
+
+On the 9th of November, the Queen, with her court, left Jedburgh, and went
+to Kelso, where she remained two days. She proceeded thence to Berwick,
+attended by not fewer than 800 knights and gentlemen on horseback. From
+Berwick, she rode to Dunbar; and from Dunbar, by Tantallan to Craigmillar,
+where she arrived on the 20th of November 1566, and remained for three
+weeks, during which time an occurrence of importance took place.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIRST.
+
+  PRINTED BY J. HUTCHISON,
+  FOR THE HEIRS OF D. WILLISON.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Polydore, lib. 26. quoted by Leslie--"Defence of Mary's Honour,"
+Preface, p. xiv.--Apud Anderson, vol. I.
+
+[2] Knox seems not only to justify the assassination of Cardinal Beaton,
+but to hint that it would have been proper to have disposed of his
+successor in the same way. "These," says he, "_are the works of our God_,
+whereby he would admonish the tyrants of this earth, that, in the end, he
+will be revenged of their cruelty, what strength soever they make in the
+contrary. But such is the blindness of man, as David speaks, that the
+posterity does ever follow the footsteps of their wicked fathers, and
+principally in their impiety: For how little differs the cruelty of that
+bastard, that yet is called Bishop of St Andrews, from the cruelty of the
+former, we will after hear."--Knox's Hist. of the Reformation, p. 65.
+
+[3] Dalyell's "Fragments of Scottish History."
+
+[4] Keith, p. 68.--Knox's History, p. 94-6.
+
+[5] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 222.
+
+[6] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 206.
+
+[7] The Biographer of Knox goes perhaps a little too far, when he proposes
+to alleviate the sorrow felt for the loss of these architectural monuments
+of superstition, by reminding the antiquarian that _Ruins_ inspire more
+lively sentiments of the sublime and beautiful than more perfect remains.
+This is a piece of ingenuity, but not of sound reasoning. It is rather a
+curious doctrine, that a Cathedral or Monastery does not look best with
+all its walls standing.--M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. I. p. 271.
+
+[8] It is worth while observing with what a total want of all Christian
+charity Knox speaks of the death of Mary of Guise. Alluding to her burial,
+he says:--"The question was moved of her burial: the preachers boldly
+gainstood that any superstitious rites should be used within that realm,
+which God of his mercy had begun to purge; and so was she clapped in a
+coffin of lead, and kept in the Castle from the 9th of June until the 19th
+of October, when she, by Pinyours, was carried to a ship, and so carried
+to France. What pomp was used there, we neither hear nor yet regard; but
+in it we see that she, that delighted that others lay without burial, got
+it neither so soon as she herself (if she had been of the counsel in her
+life) would have required it, neither yet so honourable in this realm as
+sometimes she looked for. It may perchance be a pronosticon, that the
+Guisean blood cannot have any rest within this realm." Elsewhere he
+says--"Within few days after, began her belly and loathsome legs to swell,
+and so continued till that God did execute his judgment upon her." And
+again--"God, for his mercy's sake, rid us of the rest of the Guisean
+blood. Amen." As Keith remarks, it was not by this spirit that the
+Apostles converted the world.--Keith, p. 129.
+
+[9] M'Crie's Life of Knox, Vol. 1. p. 323.
+
+[10] By the kindness of Mr Brown of Glasgow, the ingenious delineator of
+the Royal Palaces of Scotland, we are enabled to give, as the vignette to
+the present Volume, a view of this Palace, exhibiting the window of the
+very room where Mary was born, which is the large window on the first
+floor, immediately under the flight of birds.
+
+[11] Sadler's State Papers and Letters, vol. i. p. 263.
+
+[12] Whittaker, vol. iv. p. 144.
+
+[13] Mezeray, Histoire de France, tom. iii. p. 50.
+
+[14] Miss Benger's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 189, et seq.
+
+[15] Melville's Memoirs of his own Life, p. 12.
+
+[16] In transcribing dates it may be proper to mention, that we do not
+observe the old division of the year. Down till 1563, the French began the
+year at Easter; but it was then altered to the 1st of January, by the
+Chancellor L'Hopital. In Scotland till 1599, and in England till 1751, the
+year began on the 25th of March. Thus, in all the State Papers and letters
+of the age, written between the 1st of January and the 25th of March, the
+dates invariably belong to what we should now consider the preceding year.
+It is useful to be aware of this fact; though it is unnecessary for a
+writer of the present day, to deviate from the established computation of
+time.--Anderson's Collections, vol. i.--Preface, p. li.; and Laing, vol.
+i. p. 266.
+
+[17] Keith, p. 73.
+
+[18] Goodall's Examination, vol. l. p. 159, et seq. The motto which
+Goodall put upon his title page,
+
+  "Pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas,"
+
+he has in more than one instance amply justified.
+
+[19] Mezeray, Castelnau, Brantome, Thuanus, Chalmers, Miss Benger.
+
+[20] This picture originally belonged to Lord Robert Stuart, Earl of
+Orkney, one of Mary's natural brothers, and is now in the possession of
+William Trail, Esq. of Woodwick, Orkney, into whose family it came,
+together with other relics of the Earl, by the marriage of an ancestor of
+Mr Trail, to one of his descendants. _Vide_ APPENDIX A.
+
+[21] It is to the kindness of John Watson Gordon, Esq. deservedly one of
+the most eminent portrait-painters in Scotland, that we are indebted, both
+for the use of the painting from which the engraving has been made, and
+for several of the facts we have stated above. Mr Gordon has executed
+three copies of the picture--all of them exceedingly beautiful and
+accurate--possessing the merits, without any of the dusky dimness, which
+time has thrown over the original.
+
+[22] The coat of arms borne by Francis and Mary is worth describing. The
+coat was borne Baron and Femme;--The first contained the coat of the
+Dauphin, which took up the upper half of the shield, and consisted of the
+arms of France. The lower half was impaled quarterly. In _one_ and _four_
+the arms of Scotland, and in _two_ and _three_ those of England. Over the
+whole was half an escutcheon the sinister half being obscured or cut off,
+to denote that the English crown was in the possession of another, to the
+bearer's prejudice. Under the arms were four lines in French, thus
+wretchedly translated by Strype, in his "Annals of Queen Elizabeth."
+
+  "The arms of Mary Queen Dauphiness of France,
+  The noblest lady in earth for till advance,
+  Of Scotland Queen and of England, also
+  Of France, as God hath providet it so."
+
+Keith, p. 114. Chalmers, vol. 2d, p. 413. A painting (probably a copy)
+containing these arms, and the above motto, is preserved in Mary's
+apartments at Holyroodhouse.
+
+[23] Miss Benger, Vol. II. p. 7.
+
+[24] Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 43.
+
+[25] Miss Benger erroneously antedates the death of Francis, on the 28th
+of November. See her _Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 74. Chalmers, who is the very
+historian of dates, gives a copy of the inscription on the tomb of
+Francis, which of course settles the point, vol. ii. p. 124. Miss Benger
+does not appear to have seen this inscription.
+
+[26] Conaeus in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 19.
+
+[27] Keith, p. 157 and 160.
+
+[28] Keith, p. 160, & seq.
+
+[29] Keith, p. 165, et seq.
+
+[30] Keith, p. 167, et seq.
+
+[31] Robertson says, that the amendment would not have been approved of by
+"_either_ Queen." He alleges that Mary had only "suspended" the
+prosecution of her title to the English Crown; and that "she determined to
+revive her claim, on the first prospect of success." That Robertson has,
+in this instance, done injustice to Mary, is evident, from the exact
+consistency of her future conduct, with what will be found stated in the
+text.--_Robertson_, _Vol._ ii. _p._ 200.
+
+[32] Keith, p. 170. et seq. Robertson says, that at the period of these
+conferences, Mary was only in her eighteenth year; but, as they both took
+place in 1561, she must have been in her nineteenth year, which Keith
+confirms, who says (page 178), "The readers having now perused several
+original conferences, will, I suppose, clearly discern the fine spirit and
+genius of that princess, who was yet but in the 19th year of her age."
+
+[33] Brantome in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 82.
+
+[34] Keith, p. 175. Throckmorton writes, "Thereto the Queen-mother said,
+The King, my son, and I, would be glad to do good betwixt the Queen, my
+sister, your mistress, and the Queen, my daughter, and shall be glad to
+hear that there were good amity betwixt them; for neither the King, my
+son, nor I, nor any of his Council, will do harm in the matter, _or show
+ourselves other than friends to them both_."
+
+[35] Keith, p. 164.
+
+[36] Keith, Appendix, p. 92.
+
+[37] Robertson, Appendix, No. 5.--from the Cotton Library.
+
+[38] Keith, p. 178.--Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 418--Stranguage, p. 9--and
+Freebairn, p. 19.
+
+[39] Brantome in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 483, et seq.--Keith, p. 179--and
+Freebairn, p. 16 et seq.
+
+[40] Several translations of this song have been attempted, but no
+translation can preserve the spirit of the original.
+
+  Adieu, thou pleasant land of France!
+    The dearest of all lands to me,
+  Where life was like a joyful dance--
+    The joyful dance of infancy.
+
+  Farewell my childhood's laughing wiles,
+    Farewell the joys of youth's bright day;
+  The bark that bears me from thy smiles,
+    Bears but my meaner half away.
+
+  The best is thine;--my changeless heart
+    Is given, beloved France! to thee;
+  And let it sometimes, though we part,
+    Remind thee with a sigh of me.
+
+Mary was not the only one who commemorated in verse her departure from
+France. Numerous _Vaudevilles_ were written upon the occasion, several of
+which are preserved in the _Anthologie Francaise_.
+
+[41] Jebb, vol. ii. p. 484. Keith, p. 180. Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 125.
+In an anonymous French work, entitled, "Histoire de Marie Stuart, Reine
+d'Ecosse et de France," &c. respectably written on the whole, there is an
+amusing mistake concerning the locality of Holyroodhouse. In tom. i. p.
+181, it is said, "The Queen landed at Leith, and then departed for
+L'Islebourg," (the name anciently given to Edinburgh), "a celebrated Abbey
+a mile or two distant. In this Abbey Mary remained for three weeks, and in
+the month of October 1561 took her departure for Edinburgh." This
+departure for Edinburgh alludes to the visit which Mary paid, a short time
+after her arrival, to the Castle.
+
+[42] The day that his present Majesty George IV. arrived at Leith, in
+August 1822 (whose landing and progress to Holyroodhouse, though much more
+brilliant, resembled in some respects that of his ancestor Mary), was as
+wet and unfavourable as the weather so piously described by Knox. Was this
+a "forewarning" also of the "comfort" our gracious Sovereign brought into
+the country? If Knox believed in _warnings_, there is no telling to what
+conclusions these warnings might have led.
+
+[43] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 22.
+
+[44] Miss Benger (vol. ii. p. 132) erroneously supposes, that the
+Archbishop of St Andrews had died before Mary's return to Scotland. She
+should have known that it was he who presided at the baptism of James VI.,
+of which ceremony she gives so particular an account. See Keith, p. 360,
+and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 196.
+
+[45] Jebb, vol. ii. p. 486. Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 202.
+
+[46] Buchanan's Detection, in Anderson's Collections, vol. ii. p. 52 and
+58.
+
+[47] This is apparently the first time Mary had ever expressed to Knox her
+sentiments regarding this pamphlet. He had been treated less ceremoniously
+by Elizabeth. But knowing the respect in which she was held by the
+Protestants, he saw it for his interest to attempt to pacify her, and
+wrote to her several conciliatory letters. Elizabeth put a stop to them,
+by desiring Cecil, to forward to Knox the following laconic epistle, which
+merits preservation as a literary curiosity:--"Mr Knox! Mr Knox! Mr Knox!
+there is neither male nor female: all are one in Christ, saith Paul.
+Blessed is the man who confides in the Lord! I need to wish you no more
+prudence than God's grace; whereof God send you plenty. W. CECIL."
+Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 494. Knox himself gives a somewhat different edition
+of this letter, (Hist. of the Reformation, p. 212.) Where Chalmers found
+the above, he does not mention.
+
+[48] Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 287, & seq.--Keith, p. 188. It
+is worth observing, that Knox is the only person who gives us any detailed
+account of these interviews, and he, of course, represents them in as
+favourable a light for himself as possible. "The report," says Randolph,
+"that Knox hath talked with the Queen, maketh the Papists doubt what will
+become of the world."--"I have been the more minute in the narrative of
+this curious conference," says M'Crie, "because it affords the most
+satisfactory refutation of the charge that Knox treated Mary with rudeness
+and disrespect." Different people have surely different modes of defining
+rudeness and respect.
+
+[49] Keith supposes erroneously, that this disturbance took place in the
+Chapel at Holyrood. Randolph, his authority, though his expressions are
+equivocal, undoubtedly alludes to the Royal Chapel at Stirling. Keith, p.
+189 and 190.
+
+[50] Knox, p. 292.
+
+[51] Keith, p 192.
+
+[52] It is worth while attending to the very partial and grossly perverted
+account which Knox gives of this proclamation, actually introducing into
+his History an edition of it, fabricated by himself. He then proceeds to
+find fault with the Magistrates for yielding to "_Jezabel's_" commands,
+and remarks, in allusion to a counter proclamation which the Queen issued,
+that the town should be patent to all her lieges until they were found
+guilty of some offence,--"The Queen took upon her greater boldness than
+she and Balaam's bleating priests durst have attempted before. And so
+murderers, adulterers, thieves, whores, drunkards, idolaters, and all
+malefactors got protection under the Queen's wings, under colour that they
+were of her religion. And so got the Devil freedom again, whereas before
+he durst not have been seen by daylight upon the common streets. Lord
+deliver us from that bondage!"--Knox, p. 292-3.
+
+[53] Randolph in Keith, p. 210.
+
+[54] Goodall, vol. i. p. 199, et seq.
+
+[55] Freebairn's translation of Bois Guilbert, p. 32, et seq.--Knox's
+History, p. 307.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 62, and vol. ii. p. 212.--Keith, p.
+215 and 216.--and Goodall, vol. i. p. 191.
+
+[56] Knox, p. 302.--Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 425.
+
+[57] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 78.; vol. ii. p. 293, et seq.; and p. 426, et
+seq.
+
+[58] Knox, p. 315.; Goodall, vol. i. p. 192.--Chalmers says, that Sir John
+Gordon's antagonist was not a Lord Ogilvy, but only James Ogilvy of
+Cardell, a son of the deceased Alexander Ogilvy of Findlater. But as he
+does not give any authority for this assertion, we have preferred
+following Knox, Goodall, and Robertson.
+
+[59] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 80.; and vol. ii. p. 298.
+
+[60] Keith, p. 225.
+
+[61] Keith, p. 226.
+
+[62] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 84, and vol. ii. p. 302.
+
+[63] Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 306.
+
+[64] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 90.
+
+[65] "The time and place for perpetrating this horrid deed," says
+Robertson, "were frequently appointed; but the executing of it was
+wonderfully prevented by some of those unforeseen accidents which so often
+occur to disconcert the schemes, and to intimidate the hearts of
+assassins." There is something strangely inconsistent between this
+statement, and that which Robertson makes immediately afterwards in a
+note, where he says,--"We have imputed the violent conduct of the Earl of
+Huntly to a sudden start of resentment, without charging him with any
+premeditated purpose of rebellion." And that Huntly did not intend to
+seize the Queen and her ministers, the historian argues upon these
+grounds:--"1st, On the Queen's arrival in the North, he laboured in good
+earnest to gain her favour, and to obtain a pardon for his son.--2d, He
+met the Queen, first at Aberdeen and then at Rothiemay, whither he would
+not have ventured to come had he harboured any such treasonable
+resolution.--3d, His conduct was irresolute and wavering, like that of a
+man disconcerted by an unforeseen danger, not like one executing a
+concerted plan.--4th, The most considerable persons of his clan submitted
+to the Queen, and found surety to obey her commands; had the Earl been
+previously determined to rise in arms against the Queen, or to seize her
+ministers, it is probable he would have imparted it to his principal
+followers, nor would they have deserted him in this manner," Yet in direct
+opposition to this view of the matter, Robertson, in telling the story of
+Huntly's wrongs, throws upon him the whole blame, and entirely exculpates
+Murray.--Robertson, vol. i. p. 222, et seq.
+
+[66] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 93, and vol. ii. p. 306.
+
+[67] Keith, p. 226.
+
+[68] Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 307.
+
+[69] Knox, p. 320.--Buchanan's History, Book xvii.--Chalmers, vol. i. p.
+95, and vol. ii. p. 309, whose authority is a letter of Randolph,
+preserved in the Paper Office, and written the evening of the very day on
+which the battle took place. Randolph, though not on the field himself,
+had two servants there, and saw the dead body of the Earl, when it was
+brought into Aberdeen. Robertson and others have said, that Huntly, who
+was very corpulent, was slain on the field, or trodden to death in the
+pursuit. Chalmers, however, has truth on his side, when he remarks, that
+"Doctor Robertson, who never saw those instructive letters (of Randolph),
+grossly misrepresents the whole circumstances of that affair at Corrachie;
+he says, 'Huntly advanced with a considerable force towards Aberdeen, and
+filled the Queen's _small court_ with the _utmost consternation_; and that
+Murray had only a handful of men in whom he could confide; but, by his
+steady courage and prudent conduct, gained a miraculous victory.' For the
+assertion of Murray's having only a _handful of men_, he quotes Keith, p.
+230, in which there is not one word of the _force_ at Corrachie on either
+side. The force there spoken of is what the Queen had about her _two
+months before_ on her first progress into the North, not on her return to
+Aberdeen, after new troops had been raised, and old ones summoned to that
+premeditated and barbarous scene." Knox is also a better authority upon
+this subject than Robertson. He gives the following curious account of the
+Earl's death and subsequent fate:--"The Earl, immediately after his
+taking, departed this life, without any wound, or yet appearance of any
+stroke, whereof death might have ensued; and so, because it was late, he
+was cast over athwart a pair of creels, and so was carried to Aberdeen,
+and was laid in the tolbooth thereof, that the response which his wife's
+witches had given might be fulfilled, who all affirmed (as the most part
+say), that that same night he should be in the tolbooth of Aberdeen,
+without any wound upon his body. When his lady got knowledge thereof, she
+blamed her principal witch, called Janet; but she stoutly defended herself
+(as the Devil can ever do), and affirmed that she gave a true answer,
+albeit she spoke not all the truth; for she knew that he should be there
+dead." Knox, p. 328. "It is a memorable fact," Chalmers elsewhere remarks,
+"that Huntly and Sutherland" (who was forfeited soon afterwards, as
+implicated in this pretended rebellion) "were two of those nobles who had
+sent Bishop Lesley to France, with offers of duty and services to the
+Queen, while Murray, Maitland, and other considerable men offered their
+duties and services to Elizabeth."
+
+[70] Randolph in Keith, p. 230.
+
+[71] Little did Mary then dream of Fotheringay.
+
+[72] In Buchanan's _Cameleon_, a severe satire, written at the request of
+his patron the Earl of Murray, when that nobleman quarrelled with
+Secretary Maitland, we have the following ridiculous account of the secret
+motives which led to this disastrous northern expedition. "The Queen, by
+advice of her uncles, devised to destroy the Earl of Murray, thinking him
+to be a great bridle to refrain her appetites, and impediment to live at
+liberty of her pleasure; not that he ever used any violence anent her, but
+that his honesty was so great that she was ashamed to attempt any thing
+indecent in his presence. She, then, being deliberate to destroy him, by
+the Earl of Huntly, went to the north and he in her company; and howbeit
+the treason was opened plainly, and John Gordon lying not far off the town
+(Aberdeen) with a great power, and the Earl of Murray expressly lodged in
+a house separate from all other habitation, and his death by divers ways
+sought,--this Cameleon (Maitland) whether for simpleness or for lack of
+foresight, or for boldness of courage, I refer to every man's conscience
+that doth know him, he alone could see no treason, could fear no danger,
+and could never believe that the Earl of Huntly would take on hand such an
+enterprise." This statement, while it gives some notion of the dependence
+to be placed on Buchanan's accuracy when influenced by party feelings,
+betrays, at the same time, the important secret, that Maitland saw and
+felt the injustice of Huntly's persecution.--Buchanan's Cameleon, p. 9.
+
+[73] Brantome in Jebb, p. 495, & seq.--Chalmers, vol. i. p.
+101.--Freebairn, p. 25--and Histoire de Marie Stuart, tom. i. p. 210.
+Knox, as usual, gives a highly indecorous and malicious account of this
+affair, his drift being to make his readers believe (though he does not to
+venture to say so in direct terms) that Mary had first tempted, and then
+betrayed Chatelard; and that she was anxious to have him despatched
+secretly, that he might not stain her honour by a public confession. If
+such were really the fact, it is odd that Chatelard should have been
+brought to a scaffold, which was surrounded by thousands, and that, even
+according to Knox himself, he said nothing relating to Mary but what is
+narrated in the text.--Vide Knox's History, p. 325.
+
+[74] Chalmers, in his account of the opening of this Parliament, seems to
+have committed an error. He says, (vol. i. p. 105.) "The Queen came to
+Parliament in her robes _and was crowned_." That any coronation took
+place, is not at all likely. Chalmers surely had forgotten that Mary was
+crowned at Stirling by Cardinal Beaton just twenty years before. There was
+no reason why the ceremony should have been repeated. Chalmers' mistake is
+probably founded upon the following passage, in a letter of Randolph's,
+quoted by Keith, p. 239--"The Parliament began 26th May, on which day the
+Queen came to it in her robes _and crowned_." The word _was_ is an
+interpolation of Chalmers. But as Randolph goes on immediately to
+say,--"The Duke carried the crown, Argyle the sceptre, &c.," Chalmers
+probably thought Mary could not at the same time wear the crown. But the
+crown of state, carried upon state occasions, was no doubt different from
+the crown made expressly to be worn by the reigning Queen. Buchanan puts
+the matter beyond a doubt, for he says explicitly;--"The Queen, _with the
+crown on her head_, and in her royal robes, went in great pomp to the
+Parliament House--a new sight to many." Buchanan's History, Book xvii.
+
+[75] Knox's History of the Reformation, p. 332 et seq.
+
+[76] Knox, p. 345.
+
+[77] Keith, p. 206 and 249.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 65, et seq.--Whittaker,
+vol. iii, p. 334.--Miss Benger, vol. ii, p. 145, et seq.
+
+[78] These violars were all Scotchmen, and two of them were of the name of
+Dow,--"a name," says Chalmers, "consecrated to music." Having never heard
+of this consecration before, we think it not unlikely that Chalmers has
+mistaken Dow for Gow. _Vide_ Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 72.
+
+[79] Jebb, vol. ii. p. 202. Chalmers, vol. i. p. 95, and vol. ii. p. 156.
+Tytler's Enquiry, vol. ii. p. 4 et seq.; Histoire de Marie Stuart, p. 218;
+and Laing, vol. i. p. 10.
+
+[80] Melville's Memoirs, p. 110-30. The French historian Castelnau, speaks
+in exactly similar terms. When sent by the King of France as ambassador to
+Mary, "I found that princess," he says, "in the flower of her age,
+esteemed and adored by her subjects, and sought after by all neighbouring
+states, in so much that there was no great fortune or alliance that she
+might not have aspired to, not only because she was the relation and
+successor of the Queen of England, but because she was endowed with more
+graces and perfection of beauty than any other princess of her
+time."--Castelnau in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 460.
+
+[81] Keith, p. 269.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 123.
+
+[82] Chalmers says (vol. i. p. 120), that the "Countess of Lennox sent
+Murray a diamond," which, though true, is not supported by the authority
+he quotes--Randolph in Keith, who says (p. 259)--"Lennox giveth to the
+Queen and most of the council jewels; but none to Murray." The authority
+Chalmers ought to have quoted is Melville (p. 127), who, on his return
+from his embassy to England, brought some presents with him from Lady
+Lennox, who was then not aware of the precise state of parties in
+Scotland. "My Lady Lennox," says Melville, "sent also tokens: to the Queen
+a ring with a fair diamont; ane emerald to my Lord her husband, who was
+yet in Scotland; a diamont to my Lord of Murray; ane orloge or montre
+(watch) set with diamonts and rubies, to the secretary Lethington; a ring
+with a ruby to my brother Sir Robert; for she was still in good hope that
+her son, my Lord Darnley, should come better speed than the Earl of
+Leicester, anent the marriage with the Queen. She was a very wise and
+discreet matron, and had many favourers in England for the time."
+
+[83] In confirmation of the fact, that he was "well-instructed," it may be
+mentioned, that, before he was twelve years old, he wrote a tale, called
+"_Utopia Nova_." Some ballads are also ascribed to him; and Bishop
+Montague, in his Preface to the Works of James VI., mentions, that he
+translated Valerius Maximus into English. His only literary effort, which
+seems to have been preserved, is a letter he wrote when about nine years
+old from Temple Newsome, his father's principal seat in Yorkshire, to his
+cousin Mary Tudor, Queen of England. It deserves insertion as a curiosity:
+
+"Like as the monuments of ancient authors, most triumphant, most
+victorious, and most gracious Princess, declare how that a certain
+excellent musician, Timotheus Musicus, was wont, with his
+sweet-proportioned and melodious harmony, to inflame Alexander the Great,
+Conqueror and King of Macedonia, to civil wars, with a most fervent
+desire, even so, I, remembering with myself oftentimes how that (over and
+besides such manifold benefits as your Highness heretofore hath bestowed
+on me) it hath pleased your most excellent Majesty lately to accept a
+little plot of my simple penning, which I termed _Utopia Nova_; for the
+which, it being base, vile, and maimed, your Majesty hath given me a rich
+chain of gold;--the noise (I say) of such instruments, as I hear now and
+then, (although their melody differ much from the sweet strokes and sounds
+of King Alexander's Timotheus), do not only persuade and move, yea prick
+and spur me forward, to endeavour my wits daily (all vanities set apart)
+to virtuous learning and study, being thereto thus encouraged, so
+oftentimes by your Majesty's manifold benefits, gifts, and rewards; but
+also I am enflamed and stirred, even now my tender age notwithstanding, to
+be serving your Grace, wishing every hair in my head for to be a worthy
+soldier of that same self heart, mind and stomach, that I am of. But where
+as I perceive that neither my wit, power, nor years, are at this present
+corresponding unto this, my good will: these shall be, therefore, (most
+gracious Princess) most humbly rendering unto your Majesty immortal thanks
+for your rich chain, and other your Highness' sundry gifts, given unto me
+without any my deservings, from time to time. Trusting in God one day of
+my most bounden duty, to endeavour myself, with my faithful hearty
+service, to remember the same. And being afraid, with these my superfluous
+words to interturb (God forfend) your Highness, whose most excellent
+Majesty is always, and specially now, occupied in most weighty matters,
+thus I make an end. Praying unto Almighty God most humbly and faithfully
+to preserve, keep, and defend your Majesty, long reigning over us all,
+your true and faithful subjects, a most victorious and triumphant
+Princess. Amen.--From Temple Newsome, the 28th March 1554.
+
+  Your Majesty's most bounden and obedient
+  subject and servant,
+
+  HENRY DARNLEY.[*]
+
+    [*] Ellis's Collection of "Original Letters Illustrative of English
+    History." Second series, vol. ii. p. 249.
+
+[84] Keith, p. 278.
+
+[85] Melville's Memoirs, p. 134.
+
+[86] Mary's conduct upon this occasion may be compared with that of
+Elizabeth to her favourite Essex; but the Scottish Queen's motives were of
+a far purer and better kind. "When Essex," says Walpole, "acted a fit of
+sickness, not a day passed without the Queen's sending after to see him;
+and she once went so far as to sit long by him, and order his broths and
+things." "It may be observed," remarks Chalmers, "that Mary was engaged
+(or rather secretly resolved) to marry Darnley, but Elizabeth only flirted
+with Essex."
+
+[87] Keith, p. 270, and Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 214, et seq.
+
+[88] Castelnau in Keith, p. 277.
+
+[89] Keith, p. 275.
+
+[90] Keith, Appendix, p. 97.
+
+[91] Keith, p. 280.
+
+[92] Keith, p. 290.
+
+[93] Of Chatelherault, Argyle, Murray, Morton, and Glencairn, all of whom
+were summoned to the Convention, only Morton came. Keith, p. 287.
+
+[94] Keith, p. 291, et seq.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 139, et seq.; vol. ii.
+p. 141.--Tytler, vol. i. p. 374, et seq. Melville's account of this
+conspiracy is, that Murray and the other Lords "had made a mynt to tak the
+Lord Darnley, in the Queen's company, at the Raid of Baith, and to have
+sent him in England as they allegit. I wot not what was in their minds,
+but it was ane evil-favoured enterprise whereintil the Queen was in
+danger, either of kepping (imprisonment) or heart-breaking; and as they
+had failed in their foolish enterprise, they took on plainly their arms of
+rebellion." Melville, p. 135. There is some reason to believe, that Knox
+was implicated in this conspiracy; for, in the continuation of his
+History, written by his amanuensis, Richard Bannatyne, under the authority
+of the General Assembly, it appears that a Mr Hamilton, minister of St
+Andrews, had openly accused him of a share in it; and though Knox noticed
+the accusation, it does not appear that he ever satisfactorily refuted
+it.--Goodall, vol. i. p. 207.
+
+[95] Keith, p. 293--Spottiswoode, p. 190.
+
+[96] Keith, p. 294, _et seq._
+
+[97] Keith, p. 297.
+
+[98] Buchanan says, foolishly enough, that the predictions of "wizardly
+women" contributed much to hasten this marriage. They prophesied, it
+seems, that if it was consummated before the end of July, it would be
+happy for both; if not, it would be the source of much misery. It is a
+pity that these predictions were not true.
+
+[99] Randolph in Robertson, Appendix, No. XI.--Keith, p. 307. Miss Benger,
+vol. ii. p. 214.
+
+[100] Keith, p. 303 and 304. This was a day or two before Darnley's
+marriage.
+
+[101] Keith, Appendix No. VII. p. 99, et seq.
+
+[102] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 106; and Tytler's Enquiry, vol.
+i. p. 362 and 367.
+
+[103] Knox, p. 389.
+
+[104] Keith, Appendix, p. 264.
+
+[105] Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. Nos. XII. and XIII.
+
+[106] Keith, Appendix, p. 114.
+
+[107] Keith, p. 316, and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 155.
+
+[108] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 156.
+
+[109] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 157, and Keith, p. 319.
+
+[110] Keith, p. 319.--Melville, p. 135.
+
+[111] Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.
+
+[112] Keith, p. 331.
+
+[113] Melville's Memoirs, p. 147.
+
+[114] Conaeus in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 25.
+
+[115] Dr Stuart, in support of his statements on this subject, quotes, in
+addition to the authorities already mentioned, Mezeray "Histoire de
+France," tome 3, and Thuanus, "Historia sui Temporis," lib. xxxvii. But we
+suspect he has done so at random; for, on referring to these works, we
+have been unable to discover any thing which bears upon the matter.
+Chalmers, who is in general acute and explicit enough, says, that these
+ambassadors came "to advise the Queen not to pardon the expatriated
+nobles;" vol. ii. p. 158. Laing, who writes with so much _apparent_
+candour and _real_ ability against Mary that he almost makes "the worse
+appear the better reason," has avoided falling into the gross error of
+Robertson. "It would be unjust," he says, "to suppose, that, upon acceding
+to the Holy League, for the preservation of the Catholic faith, she was
+apprised of the full extent of the design to exterminate the Protestants
+by a general massacre throughout Christendom; but the instructions from
+her uncle rendered her inexorable towards the banished Lords."--Laing's
+Preliminary Dissertation to the History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 9.
+
+[116] Keith, p. 328 and 329.
+
+[117] Goodall, vol. i. p. 222.
+
+[118] Several of these pennies, as they were called, both of gold and
+silver, remain to this day; and some of them have been already noticed. In
+December 1565, there was stamped a silver penny, called the _Mary Rial_,
+bearing on one side a tree, with the motto, _Dat gloria vires_; and the
+circumscription, _Exsurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ejus_; and, on the
+other, _Maria et Henricus, Dei Gratia, Regina et Rex Scotorum_. Speaking
+of this coin, Keith says, that "the famous ewe-tree of Crookston, the
+inheritance of the family of Darnley, in the parish of Paisley, is made
+the reverse of this new coin; and the inscription about the tree, _Dat
+gloria vires_, is no doubt with a view to reflect honour on the Lennox
+family. This tree, he adds, which stands to this day, is of so large a
+trunk, and so well spread in its branches, that it is seen at several
+miles distance."--Keith, p. 327, and Appendix, p. 118.--It stands no
+longer.
+
+[119] Buchanan's History.--Melville's Memoirs.--Keith, p. 325.
+
+[120] Goodall, vol. i. p. 227.
+
+[121] Melville's Memoirs, p. 132 and 133.
+
+[122] We translate from the original French of an edition, of the _Martyre
+de la Royne d'Escosse_, printed at Antwerp, in the year 1583,--which very
+nearly agrees with the Edition in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 202.
+
+[123] Buchanan alone, of all the Scottish historians, has dared to
+insinuate the probability of an illicit intercourse having subsisted
+between Mary and Rizzio; and the calumny is too self-evidently false to
+merit a moment's notice. Every respectable writer reprobates so disgusting
+a piece of scandal, however unfavourably inclined towards Mary in other
+respects. Camden, Castelnau, Robertson, Hume, Tytler, Laing, and Dr
+Stuart, all of whom think it worth while to advert to the subject in
+Notes, put the falsehood of Buchanan's assertion beyond the most distant
+shadow of a doubt. Indeed, it is paying it too great a compliment to
+advert to it at all.
+
+[124] Miss Benger, oddly enough, says, it was on Saturday the 5th of
+April; a mistake into which no other historian with whom we are acquainted
+has fallen.--Miss Benger's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 233.
+
+[125] The Parliament had met upon the 7th, and Mary had opened it in
+person, unattended by Darnley, who refused to give it his countenance; but
+no business of importance had as yet been transacted.
+
+[126] This disease was "an inflammation of the liver, and a consumption of
+the kidneys."--_Keith_, _Appendix_, _p._ 119.
+
+[127] Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.--Goodall, vol. i. p. 252.
+
+[128] Stranguage, p. 33.--Crawford's Memoirs, p. 9.
+
+[129] Keith, Appendix, p. 122.
+
+[130] Conaeus in Jebb. Vol. ii. p. 25.
+
+[131] Robertson's Appendix to vol. i. No. xv.
+
+[132] Keith, p. 330.--Appendix, p. 119.--Melville's Memoirs, p.
+148.--Buchanan's History of Scotland, Book xvii.--Martyre de Marie in
+Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.--Knox, p. 392.--Holinshed's Chronicles, p.
+382.--Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. No. xv.--Some historians have
+maintained, that Rizzio was actually despatched in Mary's presence. But
+this is not the fact, for Mary remained ignorant of his fate till next
+day. In a letter which the Earl of Bedford and Randolph wrote to the Privy
+Council of England, giving an account of this murder, and which has been
+published in the first series of "Ellis's Original Letters, illustrative
+of English History," (vol. ii. p. 207), we find these words:--"He was not
+slain in the Queen's presence, as was said." Holinshed and others are
+equally explicit. It has been likewise said, that it was not intended to
+have killed him that evening; but to have tried him next day, and then to
+have hanged or beheaded him publicly. That there is no foundation for this
+assertion, is proved by the authorities quoted above; and to these may be
+added the letter from Morton and Ruthven to Throckmorton, and "the bond of
+assurance for the murder to be committed," granted by Darnley to the
+conspirators, on the 1st of March, both preserved by Goodall, vol. i. p.
+264 and 266. That the conspirators meant, as others have insisted, to take
+advantage of the situation in which Mary then was, and terrify her into a
+miscarriage, which might have ended in her death, is unsupported by any
+evidence; nor can we see what purposes such a design would have answered.
+
+[133] Vide M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 47.
+
+[134] Knox, p. 339.--Buchanan, Book XVII.
+
+[135] Keith, p. 332--and Appendix, 126.
+
+[136] That something of the kind was actually contemplated, we learn from
+Mary herself. "In their council," she says in the letter already quoted,
+"they thought it most expedient we should be warded in our castle of
+Stirling, there to remain till we had approved in Parliament all their
+wicked enterprises, established their religion, and given to the King the
+crown-matrimonial, and the whole government of our realm; or else, by all
+appearance, firmly purposed to have put us to death, or detained us in
+perpetual captivity."--Keith, Appendix, p. 132.
+
+[137] Ruthven's "Discourse" concerning the murder of Rizzio, in Keith,
+Appendix, p. 128.
+
+[138] Keith, p. 334.--Stuart's History of Scotland, p. 138, et seq.
+
+[139] Melville's Memoirs, p. 154--Goodall, vol. i. p. 286.--Chalmers, vol.
+ii. p. 164.
+
+[140] Melville's Memoirs, p. 156.--Keith, p. 337.
+
+[141] Melville's Memoirs, p. 158.
+
+[142] Keith, p. 345, and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 180.
+
+[143] Buchanan's History, Book XVIII.--His "Detection," in Anderson's
+Collections, vol. ii. p. 6.; and his "Oration," p. 44.
+
+[144] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 181, et seq. Goodall, vol. i. p. 292, et seq.
+
+[145] Keith, p. 345.
+
+[146] Knox, p. 386--Anderson, vol. i. p. 90--Tytler, vol. ii. p.
+39--Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 206-207.
+
+[147] Knox, p. 396, and Chalmers, p. 219.
+
+[148] Knox, p. 392. Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 206 and 218. Laing, vol. i. p.
+359. In the first edition of Tytler's "Vindication," Bothwell, being
+confounded with the former Earl, his father, was said to be about
+fifty-nine at this period. In the second edition, Tytler partly corrected
+his error, but not entirely; for he stated Bothwell's age to be
+forty-three when he married. Chalmers, who is seldom wrong in the matter
+of dates, has settled the question.
+
+[149] Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 217.
+
+[150] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 183 and 184.
+
+[151] Maitland's Official Letter to Catherine de Medicis, in Keith, p.
+348.
+
+[152] These noblemen, it may be observed, instead of being the friends,
+were the personal and political enemies of Bothwell, with whom Darnley was
+less displeased than with them.
+
+[153] Goodall, vol. i. p. 284.--Keith, p. 348.
+
+[154] Le Croc's Letter in Keith, p. 346.
+
+[155] Maitland's Letter in Keith, p. 349.
+
+[156] Keith, idem, p. 346 and 349.
+
+[157] Keith, idem, p. 350.
+
+[158] Knox, p. 399.
+
+[159] The turn which Buchanan gives to the whole of this affair, in the
+work he libellously calls a "History," scarcely deserves notice. "In the
+meantime," he veraciously writes in his Eighteenth Book, "the King,
+finding no place for favour with his wife, is sent away with injuries and
+reproaches; and though he often tried her spirit, yet by no offices of
+observance could he obtain to be admitted to conjugal familiarity as
+before; whereupon he retired, in discontent, to Stirling." In his
+"Detection," he is still more ludicrously false. "In the meantime," he
+writes, "the King commanded out of sight, and with injuries and miseries
+banished from her, kept himself close with a few of his servants at
+Stirling; for, alas! what should he else do? He could not creep into any
+piece of grace with the Queen, nor could get so much as to obtain his
+daily necessary expenses, to find his servants and horses. And, finally,
+with brawlings lightly rising for every small trifle, and quarrels,
+usually picked, he was chased out of her presence; yet his heart,
+obstinately fixed in loving her, could not be restrained, but he must
+needs come back to Edinburgh of purpose, with all kind of serviceable
+humbleness, to get some entry into her former favour, and to recover the
+kind society of marriage: who once again, with most dishonourable disdain
+excluded, once again returns from whence he came, there, as in solitary
+desert, to bewail his woful miseries." Anderson, vol. ii. p. 9.--Another
+equally honest record of these times, commonly known by the name of
+"Murray's or Cecil's Journal," the former having supplied the information
+to the latter, to answer his own views at a subsequent period, says,--"At
+this time, the King coming from Stirling, _was repulsed with chiding_."
+The same Journal mentions, that, on the 24th of September, Mary lodged in
+the Chequer House, and met with Bothwell,--a story which Buchanan
+disgustingly amplifies in his Detection, though the Privy Council records
+prove that the Queen lodged in her Palace of Holyrood on the 24th with her
+Privy Council and officers of state in attendance. As to Buchanan's
+complaint, that the King was stinted in his necessary expenses, the
+treasurer's accounts clearly show its falsehood. "The fact is," says
+Chalmers, "that he was allowed to order, by himself, payments in money and
+furnishments of necessaries from the public treasurer. And the treasurer's
+accounts show that he was amply furnished with necessaries at the very
+time when those calumnious statements were asserted by men who knew them
+to be untrue. On two days alone, the 13th and 31st of August, the
+treasurer, by the King and Queen's order, was supplied with a vast number
+of articles for the King's use alone, amounting to 300_l._, which is more
+than the Queen had for six months, even including the necessaries which
+she had during her confinement."--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 186. These minute
+details would be unworthy of attention, did they not serve to prove the
+difficulty of determining whether Buchanan's patron, who was also Mary's
+Prime Minister, or the Historian himself, possessed the superior talent
+for misrepresentation.
+
+[160] Birrel's Diary.--Keith, p. 351.--Goodall, vol. i. p. 302.--Chalmers,
+vol. i. p. 190, vol. ii. p. 109 and 224.
+
+[161] Buchanan's History, book xviii.; and in his, "Detection," he repeats
+the same story, with still more venom.
+
+[162] Both of these Registers are quoted by Chalmers, vol. i. p. 181.
+
+[163] Miss Benger's observations upon this subject are judicious and
+forcible. "It was not till the 16th, the Queen, with her Officers of
+State, passed to hermitage Castle, twenty miles distant, whether to confer
+with Bothwell on business, respecting the motives for the late outrage on
+his person, or purely as a visit of friendship and condolence, a
+respectful, and as it should seem, well-merited acknowledgement of his
+loyal services, must be left to conjecture. It is, however, not
+improbable, since the Earl of Morton was, at that time, known to be in the
+neighbouring March of Cessford, that Mary might be anxious to ascertain
+from Bothwell's lips, whether he ascribed the attack on his person to that
+nobleman's instigation. In Morton's behalf she had long been importuned by
+Murray, by Elizabeth, and Maitland, and, at a proper time, meant to yield
+to their solicitations; but the discovery of a new treason, would have
+altered her proceedings; to ascertain the fact was, therefore, of
+importance. By whatever considerations Mary was induced to pay this visit,
+there appears not (when calumny is discarded), any specific ground for the
+suspicion, that she then felt for Bothwell a warmer sentiment than
+friendship; in all her affections, Mary was ardent and romantic, and
+though it should have been admitted, that she had gone to Hermitage
+Castle, merely to say one kind word to the loyal servant, whose blood had
+lately flowed in her service, she had, two years before, made a far
+greater effort to gratify a _female_ friend, when she rode to Callender,
+to assist at the baptism of Lord Livingston's child, regardless of the
+danger which awaited her, from Murray and his party."--Memoirs, vol. ii.
+p. 289. We have dwelt too long on a calumny unsupported by any respectable
+evidence.
+
+[164] Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 224.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I
+(of 2), by Henry Glassford Bell
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