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diff --git a/43074-8.txt b/43074-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2320555..0000000 --- a/43074-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4709 +0,0 @@ - MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS IN HISTORY - - - - -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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - - -Title: Mary Queen of Scots in History -Author: C. A. Campbell -Release Date: July 01, 2013 [EBook #43074] -Language: English -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS IN HISTORY -*** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS - - IN - - HISTORY - - - BY - REV. C. A. CAMPBELL, D.D., Ph. D. - - - - MONTREAL: - D. & J. SADLIER & CO. - 1903 - - - - - Copyright, 1903, by - JAMES A. SADLIER. - - - - - PREFACE. - - -Much as has been written about Mary Queen of Scots, it would be -difficult to find in our language a biography of her that recommends -itself to busy readers by its brevity, whilst furnishing data and -arguments with respect to controverted points in her history, intended -to give satisfaction to inquiring minds. - -If the present work has done thus much, it has accomplished the aim of - -THE AUTHOR. - - -HALIFAX, N.S., - February 8th, 1902. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - -CHAPTER - -I.--The Scotland of Mary's birth -II.--Troubles surrounding her childhood -III.--The Young Queen of Scots in France -IV.--Facing troubles in Scotland -V.--The Queen's marriage and fresh Troubles -VI.--The Tragedy of "Kirk O'Field" and its sequel -VII.--Captivity--Escape--Flight -VIII.--In the hands of Elizabeth -IX.--The Queen of Scots detained a prisoner -X.--Elizabeth unmoved by her captive's appeals -XI.--The beginning of the end -XII.--The evidence against the Queen of Scots -XIII.--Extracts from her addresses to the Commissioners -XIV.--The sentence of death -XV.--An interval of suspense -XVI.--The end - - - - - MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. - - - - CHAPTER I. - - THE SCOTLAND OF MARY'S BIRTH. - - -No tale of romance possesses a more lasting charm than does the simple -history of Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots. Since the day on which Sir -Ralph Sadler, Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth, was privileged to see her -in the nursery at Linlithgow, and pronounced her a "right fair and -goodly child," every fresh contribution to her history has been welcomed -with unparalleled eagerness. Nor is there any indication that her -life-story will lose its fascination with the lapse of time. Scarcely a -year passes away that does not see a considerable addition made to the -already ponderous store of Mary-Stewart literature. Nevertheless, very -many even of her admirers have, to say the least, an inadequate -knowledge of her life. They know her only as a heroine of romance, or -as a pious widow, kneeling in devotion with the Rosary hanging at her -girdle, or as a cheerful martyr resigning her head to the block; and -they forget that for seven years she reigned over the most turbulent -nation of Europe, that she opened and closed parliament, deliberated in -the Council Chamber, led armies to the field, that, in a word, she lived -a most real and stirring life. - -I confess it is no easy task to present a complete and, at the same -time, correct picture of her career. The difficulty is owing to the -large amount of matter, written in different and contradictory spirits, -with which some of the most important events of her life have been -obscured. Religion, politics, patriotism, avarice, personal friendships -and hatreds, either conjointly or individually, determined the actions -of those who had part in framing the history of the period. It becomes -necessary, therefore, to learn how far the men on whose testimony, or -from whose conduct, we have to pass judgment on certain incidents in -Mary's life, were influenced by one or other of these motives. - -Mary Queen of Scots was born in Linlithgow Palace, in Scotland, on the -8th of December, 1542. The condition of Scotland at the time was sad and -evil-boding. Her father, the well-beloved James V., was at Falkland, -dying of a broken heart, in consequence of the humiliating conduct of -the disaffected Scottish nobles at Solway Moss. When told that a -daughter had been born to him at Linlithgow, he gave no sign of -pleasure, but sadly said, "God's will be done." Then, his memory -reverting to the person through whom the Stewarts had ascended the -throne of Scotland, he added, "It (the crown) came with a lass and it -will go with a lass." He died shortly after, in the thirty-first year -of his age, leaving to his distracted country an infant queen, only six -days old. - -The care of the young queen devolved on her mother, Mary of Lorraine, a -lady of the famous French house of Guise. Did the scope of the present -sketch but sanction the digression, I should be pleased to dwell a -little on the character of this distinguished woman, whose memory some -historians have, according to their custom, endeavoured to blacken, but -who stands out in the judgment of the best historians of every creed as -a generous, forgiving and heroic woman, who conscientiously defended the -rights of her daughter and maintained the laws of Scotland, until an -edifying and pathetic death withdrew her from the troubled scenes in -which the years of her widowhood had been passed. - -It is the privilege, or perhaps the misfortune, of rulers, that their -marriage is one of the first things that engage the attention of their -people; and while the nursery was disturbed by the cries of the infant -queen, the councils of England and Scotland were agitated with the -question of her marriage. Henry VIII., of England, had an infant son, -Edward, afterwards Edward VI., for whom he wished to secure from the -Scottish parliament a solemn promise of marriage with the young Queen of -Scots. As might be presumed, it was not so much the desire of -cultivating the friendship of his northern neighbours that actuated the -English monarch, as the hope of accomplishing, by means of a marriage, -what his predecessors had failed to accomplish by means of the sword, -the subjugation of the Scottish kingdom. To have a clear conception of -the political relations between the two countries, and to understand the -foundation of the English claims, it will be necessary to take a -retrospective glance at the history of Scotland. - -In 844, the Scots of Dalriada and various Pictish races became united -under King Kenneth McAlpine. During the reign of Malcolm I., who -ascended the throne of Alban a hundred years later, the district of -Cumberland was, by Edmund of England, made over to the King of Scotland, -on condition that the latter should, in return, render him certain -assistance in time of war. The acquisition of other districts fronting -the Scottish border was subsequently made, in return for offered -assistance against the common enemy--the Danes. But the annexation of -Cumberland was the principal source of the endless conflicts between the -sister kingdoms, until the union of the crowns under James VI. For -those possessions which he had acquired within the kingdom of England, -the Scottish king was obliged to pay homage to his neighbouring monarch. -In the course of time, however, the English Kings began to claim that -the homage they received from Scotland was for the entire Scottish -kingdom, as well as for the Scottish possessions within the English -borders. This the Scots denied, protesting that, while paying homage -for the English border lands which they had acquired, they were a free -and independent people. Such a state of affairs may seem strange to us, -but it was nothing uncommon in those feudal times. William the -Conqueror, for instance, although independent sovereign of England, paid -homage to the King of France for the dukedom of Normandy, which he held -within French territory. - -In those circumstances, any English king who might desire to make war -against Scotland could always put forward the old claim as a plea for -his action. Unfortunately, the Scottish parliament, in order to secure -the release of their King, William the Lion, on one occasion -acknowledged the English claim of suzerainty. A few years later, -however, Richard the Lion-hearted renounced the English claim, on -payment by Scotland of a certain sum of money, which that chivalrous -crusader needed to defray the expenses of his expedition to the Holy -Land. The country remained independent for about one hundred years; -then disputes concerning the rightful successor to Alexander III. having -disunited and weakened the Scottish people, Edward I. found the time -opportune for renewing the old claim. Twelve competitors for the throne -appeared in the field, who, being not altogether averse to sacrificing -national honour to personal advantage, were willing to acknowledge the -supremacy of England, in order to win the invaluable influence of Edward -for their respective causes. The principal claimants were Robert -Bruce--not the great Bruce--and John Baliol. Edward decided in favour of -Baliol, who forthwith ascended the throne as vassal of England. But the -Scottish lion was soon aroused by the encroachments of Edward, and -Baliol was forced to disclaim allegiance to his patron. Entering into a -league with France, he began to prepare for the invasion of England. -(This was the beginning of the long-continued friendship between -Scotland and France, which completely died out only with the death of -the Stewart cause.) But Scotland was not prepared to cope with the -haughty Longshanks, and it was reduced to the condition of a province of -England. This could not endure long. Disunion, and not lack of national -valour, had opened the way to defeat. A leader only was needed, and a -leader soon arose in the person of William Wallace, the soldier and -hero-patriot. Although Wallace, after having driven the English out of -his country, did not succeed in establishing her independence on a -lasting basis, nevertheless his achievements were not vain; he had -aroused his countrymen to action, and his patriotic conduct before the -English judges in Westminster Hall, could not fail to open the eyes of -certain Scottish nobles who, from motives of self-interest, had accepted -the foreign rule, to a realization of their dishonourable position. -When accused of being a traitor to King Edward, Wallace replied: "I -could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject." - -Scarcely had death struck the torch of patriotism from the hand of -Wallace, when it was caught up by a worthy successor, who had learned -bravery by the side of Wallace himself. Robert Bruce was the person -whom Providence had destined, not merely to defeat the enemies of his -country on the field of battle, but also to unite and consolidate his -kingdom and to cause it to be once more recognized as free and -independent. David II., son and successor of the great liberator, died -without issue, and thus the male line of the Bruce family became -extinct. But the nation, being strongly attached to the memory of their -deliverer, called to the throne his descendant through the female line. -Bruce's daughter, Marjory, had married the Lord High Steward of -Scotland, and had a son, Robert. Marjory Bruce was the "lass" to whom -James V. made reference on his death-bed; and her son, who in 1370 -ascended the throne as Robert II., was the first of that long, -celebrated, and unfortunate line of Stewart monarchs. Brave, witty, -rash, affable, obstinate, magnanimous, they exhibit a character in which -all the qualities that make men beloved, and nearly all that make men -great, are perversely blended with many frailties and follies. Besides, -some remorseless genius would seem to have presided over their lives and -to have ingeniously contrived to make their miseries greater, and their -lives more pitiable, by leading them into full view of prosperity and -glory before it struck them to the earth. The good Robert III. died of -sorrow at the misfortune of his sons; James I., the brave, learned and -wise monarch, died under the murderer's steel; James II. was killed by -the bursting of a cannon; James III., thrown from his horse and wounded, -was stabbed to death by an assassin; James IV., the pride and darling of -the nation, fell, sword in hand, on a disastrous field of battle; James -V. died of a broken heart, and that, too, like his predecessors, in the -blossom of his manhood; Mary (if I be permitted to anticipate), died at -the block, the victim of politico-religious utilitarianism and her -cousin's jealousy; and Charles I. died at the block, the victim of a -military despotism. - -During these centuries successive regal minorities afforded the nobles, -at all times powerful and turbulent, ample opportunity of increasing -their power, until it became a standing menace to the throne. James -IV., besides his other good works for the welfare of his people, did -much towards reducing the power of the nobles and centralizing authority -in the crown. But the progress of the country received a sudden check, -and the bright career of the King was brought to a mournful close, by an -event that did for Scotland, on the eve of the Reformation, what the -Wars of the Roses had already done for England--deprived it of its best -and bravest nobles. James' rash invasion of England ended in the -doleful battle of Flodden, which robbed Scotland of her king and almost -of her independence. There is, however, one feature in that sad event -which is pleasing to contemplate; it was the last great battle in which -a united Scotland stood with unwavering fidelity around its monarch. - -By the time Mary Stewart saw the light, an unexpected element of -disunion had been introduced into the national life. The religious -revolution of the sixteenth century, commonly called the Reformation, -had been spreading in the cities and towns of the kingdom. Already in -England Henry VIII. had enriched the throne, and the greedy nobles had -enriched themselves, from the spoils of churches and monasteries. By his -breach with Rome, Henry had made himself an enemy to the Catholic -powers, and it was important that he should strengthen his position by -drawing Scotland out of its old alliance with France, and bringing it -into friendship with himself. But this he could not do while Scotland -remained Catholic. The title of "Defender of the Faith," which, by his -rebellion against the Pope, Henry had forfeited, but which, strange to -say, neither he nor his successors have ever relinquished, was conferred -on James V. of Scotland in 1537. In 1540 Henry sent his wily envoy, Sir -Ralph Sadler, to bring the refractory young James to his own way of -thinking. Sadler came with his plan of temptation so skilfully -arranged, that one would believe him fresh from the study of the fourth -chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. - -First, he appealed to the vanity of the young King, representing to him -that if he yielded to Henry's wishes, he would become independent of all -external authority. But the device failed, and Sadler was forced to -inform his master, that James continued in his persuasion that the -"Bishop of Rome is the Vicar of Christ." - -He next attempted to gain the Scottish King through avarice. He pointed -out the wealth of the monasteries, which could be appropriated to the -uses of the crown, as it had been in England. James assured him there -was no need of that, for the "Kirkmen would give him all he wanted." -Finally, Sadler reminded him that Henry was "stricken in years" and that -by showing consideration for his uncle's wishes, James might be named -his successor, and one day rule over the whole island. Yet the young -northern king did not fall down and adore, but merely answered that he -wished his uncle many years of life on the English throne; as for -himself, he added, he was happy among his own people, and had no desire -to extend his dominions. - -Not all the Scottish nobles followed the example of their monarch. -Across the border they could see the English nobles enriching themselves -from Church property, and it was not clear to them why they should not -go and do likewise. Accordingly, a number of them became remarkably -industrious in the cause of the new religion, their zeal for the house -of God being nowise abated by the unprecedented wealth it brought to -their own house. We should greatly err, however, if we thought the -avarice of the nobles of itself could have made the change of religion -possible. The truth is, the state of Religion in Scotland, at that -time, was not flourishing, and the country offered a good field for the -growth and spread of religious innovation. The long peace from external -foes which the Church had enjoyed was the occasion of a relaxation of -discipline, and of a widespread indifference to the full observance of -religious duties. The custom of appointing lay abbots, called -Commendatory Abbots, to the charge of the temporalities of monasteries, -was another evil. This office was frequently controlled by powerful -lords, who had their own sons appointed thereto, not on account of their -virtue or their learning, but just because they were scions of noble -houses who had to be provided for. But what made the way smoothest for -the "Reformers" was the ignorance of the people in matters of Christian -doctrine. The wars in which the country had been for centuries engaged, -had left little or no time for the cultivation of the arts of peace, -except within the monasteries. Had the people been properly instructed -in their religion, the work of the "Reformers" would have made but -little headway in Scotland. A Reformation in the true sense--a recalling -of the people, high and low, to the practice of their religious -duties--was necessary; new creeds were not necessary. But the true -Reformation began too late; in the meantime there came a revolution in -which the religious fabric of centuries was overthrown, and a new -profession of faith, gotten up in a few days by a committee of divines, -was adopted by Act of Parliament. The monasteries and churches, which -vied in point of richness and architectural beauty with the best on the -Continent, were plundered and demolished. Voluminous libraries, -containing, together with the works of the Ancients and the writings of -the Church Fathers, precious manuscript histories of Scottish -institutions, were made the fuel of bonfires; and the treasures of -sculpture and painting, which had been accumulating for centuries, and -in which men's religious hopes and fears were depicted by the Master -artists of Medieval times, were hurled from their pedestals or consigned -to the flames. While the frenzy lasted, the national loss was not -considered. But cool heads soon began to deplore the wanton destruction -which robbed the country of so many monuments, the history of which was -interwoven with the history of Scottish patriots and heroic -achievements. And in truth what true Scotsman, whatever his religious -tenets, but deplores the demolition of such venerable piles as Melrose -Abbey, Kelso, Scone? or who but would feel the noblest emotions of his -nature awakened could he now approach the High Altar of Cambuskenneth's -shrine, before which, when Scotland lay prostrate at the feet of the -conqueror, the brave associates of Bruce knelt and vowed the deliverance -of their country? But we must return to Mary. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - TROUBLES SURROUNDING HER CHILDHOOD. - - -On the death of James V., the Earl of Arran, head of the powerful house -of Hamilton, became Governor of Scotland. Arran was weak and -unreliable, and favourably affected, both in religion and politics, -toward the English party. On the other hand, Cardinal David Beaton, -Archbishop of St. Andrews, stood forth as the representative of Scottish -independence and the French alliance; and through his influence the -progress of negotiations for the English alliance was checked. But, for -reasons which I need not delay to explain, an agreement of marriage -between Mary and Edward was afterwards signed. So strongly, however, -were the masses of the people opposed to any measure that might bring -Scotland under the power of the "auld enemy," and so enraged were they -at certain humiliating conditions attached to the marriage contract, -that the treaty was broken up within a fortnight after it had been -signed. "I assure you," said a Scotsman to the English envoy, "that our -nation, being a stout nation, will never agree to have an Englishman -King of Scotland; and though the whole nobility of the realm should -consent to it, yet the common people, and the stones of the streets -would rise and rebel against it." - -Henry VIII., whose patience was not his predominant virtue, was enraged -at this opposition to his will, and hastened troops into Scotland, both -by land and sea, with instructions so savagely cruel, that we could -hardly believe them to have been issued did we not see them realized in -the subsequent conduct of the soldiery. On the 3rd of May, 1544, an -English fleet suddenly appeared off Leith, which, in conjunction with a -land army, proceeded to carry out the instructions of their royal -master, namely, "To put all to fire and sword, to burn Edinburgh town, -and to raze and deface it when you have sacked it and gotten what you -can out of it, as that it may remain for ever a perpetual memory of the -vengeance of God lighted upon it for their falsehood and disloyalty." -"Do what you can," the instructions continue, "out of hand and without -long tarrying, to beat down and overthrow the Castle, sack Holyrood -House and as many towns and villages about Edinburgh as you conveniently -can. Sack Leith and burn and subvert it and all the rest, putting man, -woman and child to fire and sword, without exception, when any -resistance shall be made against you. And this done, pass over to -Fifeland and extend like extremities and destructions to all towns and -villages whereunto ye may reach conveniently; not forgetting amongst all -the rest to spoil and turn upside down the Cardinal's town of St. -Andrews, as the upper stone may be the nether, and not one stick stand -by another; sparing no creature alive within the same, especially such -as either in friendship or blood be allied to the Cardinal." - -Another army sent into Scotland in September of the same year, converted -the southern portion of the country almost into a waste, no scruple -being made of burning mothers and children in their homes. Between the -8th and the 23rd of September, the army destroyed, among other things, -seven monasteries, sixteen castles, five market towns, two hundred and -forty-three villages, thirteen mills and three hospitals. These -barbarities had the effect of uniting the two parties in Scotland and of -retarding the very movement that Henry had hoped they should accelerate. - -The greatest obstacle to the progress of Henry's designs on Scotland was -still Cardinal Beaton. Beaton was not only a distinguished prelate, but -also a statesman of European reputation. Henry was anxious to get him -out of the way; but negotiations for his murder, though entered into on -various occasions, fell through, because the interested parties could -not agree on the price of the Cardinal's blood. However, the work was -accomplished later; on the 29th of May, 1546, a band of conspirators -entered the Castle of St. Andrews, murdered the Cardinal and, having -dressed his corpse in priestly vestments, suspended it from the Castle -wall. Henry was shortly afterwards called to his reward, but the war -against Scotland was carried on by Somerset, the Protector, and in -September, 1547, Scottish independence being seriously threatened, after -the disastrous battle of Pankie, the young queen was quickly removed -from Sterling and hurried away to the Priory on Inchmahone, in the lake -of Menteith, in Perthshire. Here, unconscious of the fierce conflicts -of which she was the occasion, Mary passed her days in childish sports, -in company with her four playmates, who were destined to become her -maids of honor--Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Fleming and Mary -Livingston. - -Some decisive step with regard to the young queen had soon to be taken. -The Estates convened and decided to give her in marriage to the Dauphin, -and to send her to France to be educated. Accordingly, on the 7th of -August, 1548, Mary, being then scarcely six years old, embarked at -Dunbarton, and six days later landed at Roscoff, near Brest. Surrounded -by every mark of respect corresponding to her dignity, she was conducted -to the Court of Henry II., and was henceforward treated with the -distinction due to a crowned queen (for the coronation ceremony had been -performed in Scotland), and the betrothed of the heir to the French -throne. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - THE YOUNG QUEEN OF SCOTS IN FRANCE. - - -Those who have been accustomed to hearing the French court of that time -spoken of as dissolute and vicious, and who have furthermore taken for -granted that Mary's early life was shaped by the unsavoury habits of the -courtiers, and that the crimes of which she was afterwards accused were -only the natural outgrowth of her early training, will do well to -remember that her education was not intrusted to the French court or -courtiers. Antoinette de Bourbon, maternal grandmother of the young -queen, a lady eminent throughout France for her virtues, was the person -in whose hands Mary of Lorraine had placed the religious education of -her child. The brave Duke of Guise (who had won Calais from the -English) and his brother the Cardinal, were also particularly interested -in the welfare of their little niece. To these Mary, from the -beginning, became warmly attached, and their landless and uninterrupted -solicitude for her well-being, sealed that reciprocal love of uncles and -niece which lasted until death. - -Mary was already Queen of Scotland and betrothed of the future King of -France, and would probably succeed to the throne of England; nothing, -therefore, was overlooked that would help to qualify her for the high -position to which she was destined. Her education did not stop with the -lighter accomplishments suited to her sex and station; the deeper -studies of literature, ancient and modern; history, Sacred Scripture, -the languages and the fine arts, were assiduously attended to. An -interesting document in the form of a Latin exercise book which she used -when about twelve years of age, is preserved in the National Library in -Paris. It contains sixty-four themes, written in clear characters, -which, however, vary in appearance according to the quality of the pen -and ink she happened to have at hand. She writes on subjects taken from -Plato, Cicero and other classical authors; she cites different works of -Erasmus; she discusses the history of certain learned women of -antiquity; she speaks of the profit to be derived from the study of Holy -Scripture if approached with a pure heart; and among other things she -has a theme on Purgatory, thrown into the form of an epistle addressed -to Calvin. Mary's physical, mental and moral development were studiously -watched, and carefully reported to her mother in Scotland. When she had -just completed her eleventh year, the Cardinal of Guise, in a letter to -her mother, writes of her as follows: "Your daughter has grown much -taller and she daily improves in goodness and virtue, in beauty and -intelligence. She could not possibly make greater progress than she -does in all that is excellent and of good reputation. Never have I seen -her equal in this realm, either among high or low.... You may be -assured that in her you have a daughter who will be the greatest of -comforts to you." Further on the Cardinal drops a remark which shows -that Mary had already developed a trait of character that was -conspicuous throughout the remainder of her life. "In the settlement of -your daughter's establishment, it is my opinion that there should not be -anything that is either superfluous or mean, for meanness is the thing -which, of all others, she hates most in the world." - -In a letter written to her mother on the occasion of her first -communion, Mary uttered a prayer which we who know--what she could not -then know--the trials that awaited her, cannot read without being -touched by the sad contrast between her first bright hope and the -subsequent gloom that settled over her life. "I have come," she said, -"to Meudon to Madame my grandmother, in order to keep the feast of -Easter, because she and my uncle--Monsieur the Cardinal--wish that I -should take the Sacrament. I pray to God very humbly to give me grace -that I may make a good beginning." - -On Sunday, the 4th of April, 1558, the fair Scottish queen, who was now -in her sixteenth year, was married to the young Dauphin, in the -Cathedral of Notre Dame. All Paris was astir in its festive garments. -Scotland and France vied in adding to the splendour of the feast; the -choicest music swelled along the high arches of the grand old cathedral; -the streets of the gay capital re-echoed with the popular -demonstrations; nor need we doubt that the martial strains of the -Highland pipes mingled with the livelier tones of the French fife and -drum. According to a chronicler of the event, it was the universal -opinion of the multitude that, "if Scotland be a possession of value, -she who is queen of that realm is far more precious, for if she had -neither crown nor sceptre, her single person, in her divine beauty, -would be worth a kingdom." - -In the following November, Mary Tudor, Queen of England, died, and Mary -Stewart, at least in the opinion of the Catholics, who did not -acknowledge the legitimacy of Elizabeth, daughter of Ann Boleyn, became, -by right, Queen of England. Mary's title to the crown of England came -through her paternal grandmother, the Princess Margaret, eldest sister -of Henry VIII. A few months later, the death of the French King brought -the Dauphin to the throne, and Mary became Queen of France. A little -more than a year afterwards, she was left a widow of eighteen. She had -all along been, and still was, the pride and admiration of France; yet -she could truly say, "Now, I'm in the world alone." Her father had died -when she was an infant; her father-in-law, who was strongly attached to -her, had been cut off by a sudden death; her husband died shortly after; -and a few months later, the news of her mother's death, under -distressing circumstances, reached her. No wonder she turned her -thoughts away from royal splendour and gave herself up to meditation on -the hollowness of worldly greatness. No wonder it took all the influence -of her friends to persuade her from entering the Convent at Rheims and -passing the remainder of her days under the habit of an humble nun. But -this was not permitted her; and the question of her return to Scotland -began to be discussed. The Estates of Scotland convened to consider the -conditions on which they would permit the return of their Sovereign. -The men who led this movement had shortly before been in open rebellion, -and, with the assistance of Elizabeth of England, had carried on war -against the Queen-Regent, Mary of Lorraine. They had furthermore -concluded a treaty with Elizabeth that was prejudicial to Mary's right -of succession to the English throne; and had, by Act of Parliament, -proscribed the Catholic religion in Scotland. The articles of the treaty -and the acts against Catholic worship had been presented to Mary for -ratification; but she had declined to sanction them, the question being -weighty and she being without counsel of her nobles; more especially, -however, because these were not the work of the Scottish nation, but of -a faction in league with Queen Elizabeth. - -Indeed, the English Ambassador to Paris, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, had -repeatedly urged Mary to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh. It was after -an interview with her on this subject that this shrewd and observant -agent of Elizabeth and Cecil penned for the information of the English -court, the following description of the young widow, which is valuable -as the testimony of an enemy who knew her well:-- - -"During her husband's life no great account was made of her, for that -being under bond of marriage and subjection to him (who carried the -burden and care of all her matters), there was offered no great occasion -to know what was in her. But since her husband's death, she hath shewed -(and so continueth) that she is of great wisdom for her years, and of -equal modesty, and also of great judgment in the wise handling of -herself and her matters; which, increasing with her years, cannot but -turn greatly to her commendation, reputation, honour and great benefit -to herself and her country.... Assuredly she carries herself so -honourably and discreetly that one cannot but fear her progress." - -Mary's "modesty and honour," therefore, were already the cause of alarm -to her English foes. What wonder, then, if they strove to dispoil her -of both, or that failing, endeavoured to convince her subject that she -had cast them both from her? - -Two delegates were sent from Scotland to negotiate with their Queen -concerning her return. One represented the Congregation,[#] or what may -be called the Revolutionary party--and this was Mary's own half-brother, -Lord James Stewart, later known as the Earl of Moray; the other, John -Leslie, afterwards Bishop of Ross and the life-long friend of Mary, -represented what may be called the old loyal party. The suspicions -entertained by the loyal party as to the honesty of Lord James' -intentions are revealed by the fact that Leslie advised Mary to have him -arrested and detained in France, until she should be firmly seated on -the throne. If she did not care to do this, Leslie recommended that, -instead of going direct to Edinburgh, which was the stronghold of the -Congregation, she should land at Aberdeen, where the Earl of Huntly, -with twenty thousand of her loyal subjects, was prepared to welcome her -and conduct her in triumph to Edinburgh. And when we consider the -influence of the powerful Gordon, who even then was "Cock of the North," -it seems probable that the Congregation, without the aid of Elizabeth, -could have raised no force sufficient to oppose him. - - -[#] Since December, 1557, when a certain number of Scottish nobles, at -the instance of Knox, solemnly pledged themselves to support the new -religion and "to forsake and renounce the congregation of Satan,"--by -which they meant the Catholic Church,--the Protestants in Scotland had -been known as the Congregation. - - -But Mary--for what reason we are not informed, but probably from her -aversion to strife and bloodshed--declined the invitation of the -Catholic Earl, and decided to return to Scotland under the patronage of -neither the circumcised "Saints" of the Congregation, nor the -uncircumcised Philistines of the Gordon country, but as a messenger of -peace who would unite all parties in the bonds of mutual forbearance, -and would seek her support in the undivided loyalty of the realm. So far -she had won all hearts, and had met no man but would have thought it a -privilege to be permitted to devote his life to her service. May we not -suspect that she hoped her personal influence, which had hitherto known -victory only, would soften the animosity of rebel lords and religious -fanatics? - -At any rate she prepared to depart for Scotland. "All the bravest and -noblest gentlemen of France assembled themselves around the fairest of -Queens and women," to give her a last proof of their love and respect. -Among the Scottish nobles who formed part of her cortege on her way to -Calais, was he who, a few years later, became the evil genius of her -life--the brave and reckless Earl of Bothwell. In the following -soliloquy, the unfortunate Earl, outlawed and pining away in a Danish -prison, has been made to express his impressions of the young widow when -he first knew her in France:-- - - "O Mary, Mary, even now, - Seared as I am to shame, - The blood grows thick around my heart - At utterance of thy name! - I see her as in by-gone days, - A widow, yet a child, - Within the fields of sunny France, - When heaven and fortune smiled. - * * * * * - O lovelier than the fairest flower - That ever bloomed on green, - Was she, the darling of the land, - The young and spotless queen. - The sweet, sweet smile upon her lips, - Her eyes so kind and clear, - The magic of her gentle voice, - That even now I hear! - And nobles knelt, and princes bent, - Before her as she came; - A queen by gift of nature she, - More than a queen in name."[#] - -[#] "Bothwell," by William Edmondstoune Aytoun. - - -On the 15th of August, 1561, having bid farewell to her uncles, the -Cardinal and the Duke of Guise, to her other relatives and the large -number of friends and admirers who accompanied her to the water's edge, -she embarked at Calais and turned with a heavy heart to her new home, -where her mother, only a few months before, had been denied a grave; -where the death of her husband had been made the subject of rude jibes, -and where she herself had been denounced by the leader of the new -religion, as another Jezebel. France may be said in the meantime to -have been in mourning; and the words of the poet Ronsard, poetry though -they be, express a feeling that was common to the nation. - -"Ho! Scotland," he writes, "I would that thou mightest wander like -Delos on the face of the sea, or sink to its profoundest depths, so that -the sails of thy bright queen, vainly striving to seek her realm, might -suddenly turn and bear her back to her fair Duchy of Tourraine." - -Six days after her departure, having evaded, under cover of a dense fog, -the English cruisers sent out to intercept her, she landed at Leith, and -proceeded to the Royal Palace of Holyrood at Edinburgh. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - FACING TROUBLES IN SCOTLAND. - - -The news of the unexpected arrival of the young Queen, who had come -unattended by armed force, and had committed herself to the chivalry of -the nation, awakened a degree of enthusiasm even in the stern -"professors" of the Congregation. Feelings of loyalty to a long line of -monarchs die hard in the human breast, and especially was this so in -those days when the monarch, in the estimation of his people, stood for -something more than the chairman of a national committee; and the mass -of the Scottish people, whether adherents of the old religion, or -professors of the new, saw in the fair Queen who had come amongst them -the representative of a line of brave Sovereigns, around whom their -forefathers had fought and died for national independence, and whose -deeds of bravery were fresh in Scottish song and tradition, indeed, the -influence which Mary wielded over the people was greater than could well -be expected. Shortly after her arrival, a number of the most zealous -nobles of the Congregation came to Edinburgh to help Knox banish the -Mass from her household. But, after a few visits to Holyrood, their -fierce fervour disappeared. "I have been here now for five days," -remarked one of them to a friend, "and at the first I heard every man -say, 'Let us hang the priest,' but after that they had been twice or -thrice in the Abbey, all that fervency passed. I think there be some -enchantment whereby men are bewitched." And in truth it can be said -that, with scarcely an exception, no one ever came directly under the -influence of Mary Stewart without being, in some degree, impressed in -her favour. - -But in spite of the favourable signs that were manifested on her -arrival, no grave observer could contemplate her environment and fail to -foresee discord, rebellion and her almost inevitable overthrow. There -were the fierce nobles who, a few months before, had been in arms -against her mother, and who were enjoying the property of the Church, -which it was now their interest to combat. There were the stern -"Professors" of the Congregation, of which Knox was the life and force, -who considered her an idolatress, and, consequently--according to the -Jewish criminal code, which they held in special esteem--deserving of -death. There was her half-brother, Lord James, gruff, reticent and -ambitious, watching for a turn of affairs that might bring him to the -throne; and there, too, was Elizabeth, with her able and unscrupulous -Secretary, Cecil, who had already fomented and supported rebellion in -Scotland, and even now had emissaries at work for the overthrow of the -young northern Queen. Worst, perhaps of all, Mary had very little -counsel on which she could rely. Allowing for poetical exaggeration, a -good deal of truth is contained in the words of the Jacobite bard:-- - - "She stood alone without a friend, - On whom her arm might lean, - No true and trusty counsellors - Were there to serve their Queen; - But moody men, with sullen looks, - And faces hard and keen." - - -Mary was not long in Scotland before her courage was put to the test. -It had been stipulated by Lord James that she should be free to have -Mass in her own house. It would seem, however, that the zealots of the -Congregation had little expected that in face of their strong opposition -to her religion, the young Queen would venture to practice it on her -return. If so, they miscalculated the extent to which she had inherited -the high spirit and unflinching courage of her bravest ancestors. - -The first Sunday after her arrival, she ordered Mass to be celebrated in -the Chapel-Royal of Holyrood. A party of the Congregation, headed by -Patrick, Lord Lindsay, rushed into the apartment and attacked the -Chaplain. The Queen immediately published a proclamation to the effect -that she did not intend to interfere with the form of religion she had -found established in Scotland, and that she commanded her subjects not -to molest any of her servants or household. Shortly afterwards she made -a tour of the country, and on her return to Edinburgh, learned that the -Provost and his brethren in office had, in the meantime, issued a -proclamation commanding all Papists, under penalty of death for the -third offence, to depart from the town. She caused the bailies who were -responsible for this act to be removed from office, and issued a -counter-proclamation, permitting "All good and faithful subjects to -repair to, or leave Edinburgh, according to their pleasure or -convenience." - -Knox was horrified at the Queen's action, and immediately predicted a -sudden plague. But what annoyed him most was, that certain Protestant -lords, who had professed strong opposition to the Mass, were now -inclined to tolerate it in the Queen's chapel. He took care, in his -weekly sermons, to make known his opinion of these "politick heads" and -to give the people timely warning of the chastisement with which God -would certainly visit the nation for permitting idolatry. - -The young Queen, who was still in her teens, must have keenly felt the -reproaches that were being cast on herself and her religion, and, -although she succeeded in showing herself cheerful in company, we may be -sure her heart was sad and that memory often carried her back to earlier -days, in which she experienced nothing but gentle treatment and the -respectful homage of a nation of brave men, ready to draw the sword in -her defence. However, it would be unjust to the Scottish people to -think that the treatment which Mary received in Edinburgh was a correct -index to the feeling of the country at large. The hearts of the -Scottish people were with their Queen, and remained with her unto the -end. Her fiercest enemies were found in the extreme religious party led -by Knox. An amicable understanding with these was impossible. The -Protestant nobles--except those who were zealous followers of Knox--did -not, as far as I can see, care much what religious devotions the Queen -practised, so long as she took no steps towards restoring the old -religion. The fact that many of them had enriched themselves from church -property readily explains their opposition to every movement in that -direction. - -But the turbulent section of the nobles and the Congregation controlled -by Knox, were not the people of Scotland. This is a fact it would be -well to note, for, it seems to me, many people fall into the error that -the friends and the enemies of Mary in Scotland were divided on purely -religious lines. It is true, the storm in which she was shipwrecked, -was mainly a religious one; yet all the Protestants were by no means -opposed to her. Many of her best friends, who stood by her in every -peril, and supported her cause until the last hope of her restoration -was dead, were Protestant nobles. - -Early in Mary's reign there appears to have been some discontent among -certain Catholic nobles, who seemed disposed to attempt the restoration -of the old faith by force of arms. The Earl of Huntly said that, if the -Queen would "sanction him in it, he could set up the Mass again in the -three countries." She was as zealous in the cause of religion, and -willing to suffer as much for it as Huntly; but the prospect of -effecting any permanent good by such means, was extremely poor. If the -struggle would be left to Scotland itself, Huntly's project would be -more deserving of consideration. But Queen Elizabeth would never, while -she could prevent it, allow her adversaries to gain advantages in -Scotland; and in the event of the Scottish Catholics attempting to gain -freedom of worship for themselves her gold and her soldiers would soon -flow over the border, as they did in the regency of Mary of Lorraine. -But apart from this, Mary was opposed to civil strife. She had come to -the country in a peaceful manner, hoping, by a peaceful policy, to -conciliate the minds of her people and finally to obtain an alleviation -of the ills under which her Catholic subjects were suffering. But the -difficulties with which she had to contend were not fully understood by -her relations in France, nor, at the outset, even by the Pope; and it is -not improbable that for a while they feared she was not so industrious -as she should be in promoting the interests of her religion. And to this -day a number of her Protestant biographers--some of them enthusiastic -vindicators of her honour--speak of her leanings towards Protestantism, -either from policy or from conviction. Some say that early in her reign -she, through policy, openly favoured the Protestant cause, and as proof -of her favour overthrew--which she undoubtedly did--the powerful house -of Gordon, head of which was the Catholic Earl of Huntly. Others think -if the proper means had been employed, she would have become a -Protestant from conviction, and, in support of their opinion, they -adduce her readiness to read Protestant controversial works, and that -state of religious doubt which, they say, she manifested in a certain -conversation with Knox. - -A distinguished Scottish biographer of Mary's, the late Sir John -Skelton, has thought that the uncharitable treatment she received from -Knox was the principal cause why she remained a Catholic. "Knox," he -writes, "was the foremost of the Reformers; yet Mary had found that Knox -was narrow-minded, superstitious, and fiercely intolerant,--so -narrow-minded, intolerant and superstitious that he had no difficulty in -believing that the orderly course of nature was interrupted because the -Queen dined on wild fowl and danced till midnight. If this was -Protestantism, she would have none of it. Nor can we blame her much. -The eccleciastical dictator at Edinburgh was as violent and irrational -(it might well appear to her) as the ecclesiastical dictator at Rome. -Was it worth her while to exchange the infallible Pope of the Vatican -for the infallible Pope of the High Street?"[#] (Maitland of Lethington, -Vol. II., Chap. I.) - - -[#] The inconsistency of those who, having appealed to private judgment -from the authority of the Pope, persecuted all who would not recognize -their own authority, is nowhere more conspicuous than in the case of the -early Scottish Reformers. By the end of the first six months of its -existence, the Congregation formulated the following anathema with which -to pursue rebellious subjects: "And this his sin, by virtue of our -ministry we bind, and pronounce the same to be bound in heaven and -earth. We further give over into the hands and power of the devil the -said A.B. of the destruction of his flesh; straitly charging all that -profess the Lord Jesus, to repute and to hold him accursed, and unworthy -of the familiar society of Christians; declaring unto all men that such -as hereafter, before his repentance, shall haunt or familiarly accompany -him are partakers of his impiety, and subject to the like condemnation." - - -In spite of all this, I venture to say there is no historical evidence -that Mary ever contemplated a change of religion. What answer does she -herself give to these statements? Just before her departure from -France, in conversation with Throckmorton, the English Ambassador, who -was probing her mind on the question of religion, she made what may be -called a formal declaration of her faith:-- - -"I will be plain with you; the religion which I profess I take to be the -most acceptable to God, and neither do I know, nor desire to know, any -other. Constancy becometh all folks well, but none better than princes, -and such as rule over realms, especially in matters of religion. I have -been brought up in this religion, and who might credit me in anything, -if I should show myself light in this case." - -Her courageous opposition to every attempt to deprive her of Mass in the -Chapel-Royal of Holyrood, is well known to readers of history; and -furthermore it is evident that she continued her religious devotions -there as long as it was in her power to do so. - -Four years after her return to Scotland, when Randolph, the Ambassador -of Elizabeth, who had been sent to her on business concerning her -contemplated marriage, suggested that she should change her religion and -thereby gain more favor from the English Queen, Mary indignantly -answered:-- - -"What would you that I should make merchandise of my religion! ... It -cannot be so." - -Her words, in reply to those who, not long before her execution, strove -to prevail on her to renounce her former "follies and abominations," -throw light, if that were necessary, on what her religious convictions -had all along been. - -To Lord Buckhurst, who had informed her that sentence of death had been -passed upon her, and had urged her to accept the spiritual ministration -of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, she said:-- - -"I have never had the intention of changing my religion for any earthly -kingdom, or grandeur, or good, whatever, or of denying Jesus Christ, or -his name, nor will I now." - -And again, the day before her execution, in answer to similar demands, -she said, amongst other things:-- - -"I have not only heard, or read, the words of the most learned men of -the Catholic religion, but also of the Protestant religion. I have -spoken with them and have heard them preach, but I have been unable to -find anything in them that could turn me from my first belief." - -So much for Mary's own evidence. It is, to say the least, faulty -reasoning, to adduce the Queen's march against the Earl of Huntly as -proof that she wished, either from policy or from conviction, to support -the Protestant cause. In view of the firm and unequivocal stand she had -hitherto taken in defence of her religion, the presumption that she was -now prepared to sacrifice its interests, is unwarranted, and, -furthermore, is unnecessary, as other good and sufficient reasons for -her action can readily be found. - -Being young and inexperienced in dealing with such turbulent nobles as -then surrounded her throne, and having extremely few persons in whom she -could venture to put her trust, she at first allowed herself to be -influenced in her method of government by her half-brother, the Lord -James. Now, Lord James, as is commonly admitted by the best historians, -hoped to work his way to the Scottish throne, despite his illegitimacy, -and naturally he was anxious to overthrow every power that would prove -an obstacle to the advancement of his cause. Besides, he had his eye -fixed on the Earldom of Moray, which had for some time been controlled -by Huntly. The obstacle could be removed, and the Earldom gained, if -Huntley could be "worried" into war, and then overthrown by the -authority of the Queen. Three most significant things are -certain,--that Lord James acquired the Earldom of Moray (hence his title -of Earl of Moray) immediately that Huntly and his house were ruined; -that he attempted, without Mary's knowledge, to procure the execution of -Huntly's son, George, whose life had been spared, but who had been -placed in ward at Stirling; and that the Gordons never after acted -towards the Queen as if they held her responsible for the injuries they -had suffered, but, on the contrary, gave ample proof that they -considered Moray the responsible party. However, if Mary thought no -danger threatened her from the Gordon country, she could not be excused -for allowing herself to be made the instrument of Lord James' ambition -in so grave a matter. - -The fact is, the unfortunate tragedy was the result of an old and bitter -enmity between Huntly and the Lord James. The hated enemy came, -confident in the support of royal authority, which he almost fully -controlled, and committed acts that exasperated the proud Highland Earl, -and drove him into rebellion--for to oppose Lord James in these -circumstances was to resist the Queen. As far as Mary was concerned, -religion had as little to do with the overthrow of the Gordons as it had -to do with the execution of Chastellar. - -Her conversation with Knox in which she is said to have revealed a state -of religious doubt, is, to my mind, a proof of her polemical cleverness. -She takes Knox on his own principle of private judgment and delicately -shows him that it cannot satisfy her mind--that it cannot raise her -above doubt. Knox tells her one thing; her uncle, the Cardinal, tells -her another; whom is she to believe? She was setting a snare for Knox, -which he could not escape, except by acknowledging an authority in -religion that rested on a sounder foundation than either his or the -Cardinal's opinion. - -But why, it may be asked, did she not make her religious zeal more -evident at the outset, by sending Bishops to the Council of Trent, in -compliance with the request of the Pope, and by using her influence to -obtain at least religious toleration for her Catholic subjects? The -answer is simple,--because it was beyond her power to do either. She -had as much as she could do to save the life of her chaplain when he -said Mass in the Chapel-Royal; how could she take any steps publicly to -relieve her Catholic subjects? - -The report of the Papal Nuncio, Nicholas Goudanus, who came to Edinburgh -in June, 1562, throws light on the helpless condition of the Queen, and -disposes us to sympathize with her in the miseries she was destined to -suffer at so early an age, rather than to nourish suspicions of her -sincerity and good conscience. He says he was in Edinburgh a month -before he could see the Queen, and even then he had to be received in -private, while the members of the court were out. Of all the Bishops, -the Bishop of Dunkeld alone ventured to receive him. The nuncio came to -the Bishop's house disguised as a banker's clerk, and, according to a -pre-arranged device to avert suspicion, the conversation during dinner -was limited to money matters. - -Mary informed the nuncio that, in order to preserve some remains of the -Catholic faith, she had been obliged to do many things much against her -will. As regards the power exercised over her by the nobles, Goudanus -remarks: "The men in power acknowledge the Queen's title, but prevent -her from exercising any of the rights of sovereignty;[#] whenever her -opinion does not agree with theirs, they oppose her at once. Not only -that, but they deceive her as well, and frighten her with threats of an -English invasion, especially when she is meditating any steps in support -of her faith." - - -[#] This statement, however, is too sweeping. - - -As time advanced, Mary became more and more beloved by her people, -although the opposition to her religion never abated. When, in 1563, -she attended the opening of her first parliament, she was -enthusiastically hailed by the populace, whose applause grew all the -louder when they heard her address the assembly, not, as they had -expected she would, in a strange language, but in their own native -tongue, marked though it was by a foreign accent. Knox, who feared the -"politick heads" among the children of God might so far fall from grace -as to extend a degree of toleration to the outcast children of men, was -irritated by this display of affection for the Queen, and he took -revenge by denouncing the womanly vanity displayed by her and her -ladies, especially the "targetting of their tails"--whatever that meant. - -We are, as a rule, so much occupied with the romantic and tragic -features of Mary's life, that we are apt to overlook her qualities as a -ruler and the works which she accomplished for the benefit of her -people. It may in brief be said, that she was deeply interested in every -measure that could promote their welfare, that during her reign the -country was comparatively peaceful and prosperous, and that the -beneficent influence of her government is attested by various public -records. Sir Thomas Craig, one of her Privy Councillors, has witnessed -to her sound judgment in these words: "I have often heard the most -serene Princess Mary Queen of Scotland discourse so appositely and -rationally in all affairs which were brought before the Privy Council -that she was admired by all.... She had not studied law; and yet, by -the natural light of her judgment, when she reasoned on matters of -equity and justice, she oftimes had the advantage of the ablest lawyer. -Her other discourses and actions were suitable to her great judgment. -No word ever dropped from her mouth that was not exactly weighed and -pondered. _As for her liberality and other virtues they are well -known._" - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - THE QUEEN'S MARRIAGE AND FRESH TROUBLES. - - -It is hardly necessary to mention that Mary--a Queen renowned throughout -Europe for her beauty and accomplishments--was a prize for which the -royal bachelors of the Continent eagerly grappled; and that in Scotland -she was a rock upon which hopeless victims of her charms made shipwreck -of their lives. Under the spell of those charms, a cool-brained -Scotsman, the young Earl of Arran, went mad; and (what perhaps, should -not surprise us so much), the hot-brained French poet, Chastellar, not -only went mad, but was precipitated into acts of indiscretion that -brought him to the scaffold. In the question of the Scottish Queen's -marriage, however, Elizabeth wished to have a controlling voice, and she -left the young Queen under the impression that, if she married the -person of Elizabeth's own choice, her right of succession to the throne -of England, in case the English Queen died without issue, would be -declared. Accordingly, Elizabeth began proposing Robert Dudley, -afterwards Earl of Leicester, as her choice of husband for the Queen of -Scots. Leicester was a man of extremely doubtful reputation, and most -likely would never be accepted by Mary, so long as she was free to -reject him. He was the recognized favourite of Elizabeth, as well--a -fact that makes it hard to understand why she put him forward in this -connection. But, all the circumstances considered, it seems most likely -that Elizabeth never expected Mary to marry Leicester. Indeed, she -would rather see Mary remain unmarried; but William Maitland, the -Scottish Queen's able Secretary, had been urging on Cecil the necessity -of settling differences between the two Queens, and of recognizing the -Scottish right of succession. Cecil made fair or evasive promises. In -the meantime Elizabeth and he played the Leicester farce, to kill time, -and probably in the hope that Mary, with her Stewart impulsiveness, -would make some sarcastic remark on Elizabeth's policy, or that some -other event would transpire upon which they might seize, as a plea for -discontinuing negotiations, and as a screen behind which to develop -their long-settled design for the overthrow of the northern Queen. But -Mary became tired of Elizabeth's and Cecil's policy of evasion and -delay, and feeling that it would be unbecoming her dignity as an -independent sovereign, to allow herself to be played with and deceived, -she resolved to break away from their snares and to marry where she -would. She escaped Scylla only to be caught in Charybdis. - -At the court of Elizabeth was an accomplished young lord of eighteen -years, connected by blood with both the royal houses of Stewart and -Tudor, whose father, although a Scottish Earl, had resided twenty years -in England. This youth was Henry Stewart--Lord Darnley. The question -of a marriage with Darnley had already been represented to Mary by his -friends, and now she decided to entertain it. In May, 1655, after some -opposition, especially on the part of Moray, Parliament gave its -unanimous consent to the projected marriage, which was consequently -celebrated on July 29th, and a new era opened in the life of Mary -Stewart. - -Immediately after the marriage, the royal pair were called upon to take -the field against insurgent nobles. Moray, although he had given his -consent to the proposed marriage, had subsequently declared against it, -and had raised an insurrection in the country. He feared, so at least -he professed, that the Queen's union with a "Papist" threatened the -well-being of the "reformed" religion in Scotland. But whoever is -versed in the Earl's history can discover another motive for his -opposition, namely, his well-founded fear that Mary's marriage and the -return of the Lennox Stewarts to Scotland would forever shut himself out -from the throne. However, the marriage was completed and the insurgent -lords summoned to appear at court, under pain of being considered -rebels. They heeded not the summons, but prepared for war. With the -assured support of Elizabeth, who likewise was offended, or pretended to -be offended, at the Darnley marriage, what had they to fear? This was a -critical moment for Mary. Would she try to coax the rebels into -friendship by promises of pardon, and to conciliate Elizabeth by humble -apologies for whatever in the late transaction might have offended her -English cousin, or would she take up the gauntlet that had been thrown -down, and risk the consequences of an armed encounter with the rebels? -Her Secretary, Sir William Maitland, saw the danger that threatened his -mistress and, in his correspondence with Cecil, strove to secure an -adjustment of difficulties, by a reasonable and peaceful policy, -notwithstanding the Darnley marriage. But Elizabeth and Cecil would not -lose the favourable opportunity; they abandoned their attitude of -obstruction and delay, and assumed one of aggression and command. -Maitland could do no more. But there is a force which diplomacy cannot -measure, and which cannot be applied through the ordinary medium of -governmental machinery. Such is the force of a brave, resolute and -inspiring character. Mary appealed to the loyalty of her people, and in -a few days thousands of brave men were arrayed under her standard. The -rebels, in spite of their attempts to raise the populace on their side, -were never strong enough to venture an engagement with the Queen's -forces; and after a few weeks they were seeking refuge where Scottish -rebels of that period always found themselves secure--across the English -border. The uprising served as a test of the popular feeling, and the -test proved that the nation was devoted to Mary. - -In an historical question like this, on which so much divergence of -opinion has existed, one must be careful not lightly to dogmatize. -This, however, may be said, that it is not easy to read the -correspondence of that period between the English agents in Scotland and -Berwick and the Secretary of State's office in London, without being -driven to conclude that the subsequent rebellious movements that -afflicted Scotland were directed largely from Westminster and aimed at -the ultimate overthrow of Mary Queen of Scots. - -The rebel nobles had suffered an inglorious defeat. Elizabeth, although -she had encouraged them, now, with her habitual duplicity, to clear -herself in the eyes of foreign princes, spurned them from her presence -as traitors to their lawful Queen. Indeed, it requires more than -ordinary mental insight to understand how Moray, if he was the -conscientious and high-minded worthy that many of his friends claim him -to have been--that "_vir pietate gravis_" of Buchanan--could have acted -the part he did in that "scene of farce and falsehood" which Elizabeth -contrived for her own justification. When he and the secularized Abbot -of Kilwinning, as representatives of the discomfited rebels, approached -their English patroness for consolation, she refused to give them -audience, until they consented to make a solemn declaration in the -presence of the French and Spanish Ambassadors, that she had given them -no encouragement in their rebellion. When the humiliated Scotsmen -finished their part, Elizabeth immediately added: "The treason of which -you have been guilty is detestable; and as traitors, I banish you from -my presence." - -What was next to be done? Having given such great cause for displeasure -to their Queen, the rebel nobles might well fear that the grants of -property which many of them had received from her childlike lavishness, -would be revoked at the first opportunity. It was necessary, therefore, -that something should be done to prevent any measure of this kind and to -cripple the power of the Queen. What means could be employed to this -end? - -Darnley, at the time of his marriage, was handsome and accomplished, but -Cardinal Beaton, Mary's Ambassador at Paris, warned her, unfortunately -all too late, against the match, saying that he was a "quarrelsome -coxcomb." The truth of the remark was verified shortly after, when the -boyish follies and profligate habits of the young King began to reveal -themselves. Instead of being a comfort and support to his consort, who -scarcely knew where to turn for trustworthy advice, and who had known -nothing but suffering since she landed in the realm, Darnley only added -fresh trials to her life. He looked for position that she could not -grant him; he looked for authority that he had not judgment to exercise, -and he became wrathy and troublesome when refused. Besides, he -contracted the habit of drunkenness, and associated with low companions. -Here, then, was a tool whom the cunning conspirators could use to work -out their design. - -There was in Mary's service, as Secretary, an Italian named David -Rizzio, a man fairly well advanced in years, rather unprepossessing in -appearance, but, according to the testimony of those who knew him well, -very clever in business affairs, and of inflexible fidelity. Rizzio had -so far been the faithful friend of Darnley; but the conspirators -represented to the young King that the Italian had too much influence -with the Queen, and was instrumental in withholding from him the -authority he desired. Finally, the traitors in Scotland and the rebel -lords sojourning in England, working on Darnley's ambition, entered into -a league with him and signed a bond--Moray, the "_vir pietate gravis_" -among the rest--by which they pledged themselves to give him the crown -matrimonial, to advance his cause, to be friends of his friends and -enemies of his enemies; Darnley in return promised the recall of the -rebels and the security of their estates. Provisions to justify their -rebellious enterprise were made in the alleged undue influence of Rizzio -with the Queen, and the helpless foreigner was marked for death. A more -shameful contract would be difficult to imagine. A few months earlier -these men had taken up arms against their Queen, because she had decided -on a marriage which (they said) was inimical to the interests of -religion, and now they are signing a contract to subvert her authority -and promote to unexpected power that self-same Darnley whose advancement -they had risen in arms to prevent. Of course, nobody versed in the -history of the movement believes that they intended to redeem their -pledge. They had need of Darnley until the Queen should be disposed of. -After that the mad youth could be easily cast aside, and the way to the -throne would be clear for Moray. In defence of these nobles it may be -answered, that they were acting in the interest of religion, which they -were persuaded would be in danger as long as a Catholic monarch occupied -the throne. I admit the interests of religion are preferable to the -interests of a dynasty, and, if one must be sacrificed, it should be the -dynasty. So far we might put ourselves in the place of the conspirators -and frame a defence of their conduct. But unless we likewise admit that -the end justifies the means we cannot deny the baseness and villany of -this plot. - -The work proceeds. Moray is notified to be within convenient distance -of Edinburgh. On March 9th, 1566, about seven o'clock in the evening, -while Mary is at supper with a few attendants and Rizzio, a door opening -into a private stairway leading from Darnley's apartments to the -Queen's, opens, and Darnley enters in an apparently friendly mood. The -meaning of this unexpected entrance soon becomes evident. The -evil-boding figure of Lord Ruthven, in full armour, appears in the door, -his face haggard and his eyes sunken, for he has risen from a bed of -sickness to direct the work of blood. A number of associates follow -him. Rizzio, understanding their purpose, flees for protection behind -the Queen, and cries out for justice. The Queen attempts to protect her -faithful servant, but is rudely thrust aside, and the defenceless -Secretary, being dragged, wounded and bleeding, to the door, is -dispatched with fifty-six stabs. "Ah, poor Davit" (says Mary as she -hears the dying Rizzio's groans)--"ah, poor Davit, my good and faithful -servant; may the Lord have mercy on your soul!" - -Three months after this tragedy James VI. was born. Considering the -time and place chosen for the murder, we have good reason to suspect -that harm was intended to the Queen herself, and to the future heir to -the throne, as well as to Rizzio. Add to this the remarks dropped by a -certain confidant of the conspirators, and suspicion gives place to -conviction. Randolph, the English Ambassador, writing nearly a month -before to Leicester, referred to the plot, and said that if it should -take place "David shall have his throat cut within these ten days. Many -things," he adds, "grievouser and worse than these are brought to my -ears, yea, of things intended against her own person, which, because I -think better to keep secret than to write to Mr. Secretary (Cecil), I -speak of them but now to Your Lordship." - -Mary was kept closely guarded, and Darnley himself, observing the -movements of the traitors, began to fear for his own safety. - -Darnley could be led by ambition into a rash act, but he had not reached -that depth of wickedness in which the heart becomes callous to the -feelings of humanity. - -Stricken partly by remorse for his unfaithful and ungrateful conduct to -his wife, and partly by fear of his threatened ruin, in the gray of the -morning succeeding the night of murder, while all was still in Holyrood, -the wretched and repentant youth stole quietly up to the Queen's -chamber, and, throwing himself on his knees before her, said: "Ah, my -Mary, I am bound to confess at this time, though now it is too late, -that I have failed in my duty towards you. The only atonement which I -can make for this, is to acknowledge my fault and sue for pardon, by -pleading my youth and great indiscretion. I have been most miserably -deluded and deceived by the persuasions of these wicked traitors, who -have led me to confirm and support all their plots against you, myself, -and all our family. I see it all now, and I see clearly that they aim -at our ruin. I take God to witness that I never could have thought, nor -expected, that they would have gone to such lengths. I confess that -ambition has blinded me. But since the grace of God has stopped me from -going further, and has led me to repent before it is too late, as I -hope, I ask you, my Mary, to have pity on me, have pity on our child, -have pity on yourself. Unless you take some means to prevent it, we are -all ruined, and that speedily." - -This report of Darnley's prayer for pardon is taken from a fragmentary -sketch of Mary's life, written most probably by Claude Nau, her -Secretary during the most part of her imprisonment in England, who, -during the long hours of conversation with his captive mistress, had -special opportunities of hearing her own account of that painful ordeal -through which she had passed. It is all the more interesting, -therefore, to note the answer that Nau attributes to the Queen. "The -Queen," he continues, "still troubled with the agitation and weakness -arising from the emotions of the previous night, answered him frankly, -for she had never been trained to dissemble, nor was it her custom to do -so: 'Sire,' she said, 'within the last twenty-four hours you have done -me such a wrong that neither the recollection of our early friendship, -nor all the hopes you can give me of the future, can ever make me forget -it. As I do not wish to hide from you the impression which it has made -on me, I may tell you that I think you will never be able to undo what -you have done. You have committed a very grave error. What did you -hope to possess in safety without me? You are aware that, contrary to -the advice of those very persons whom you now court, I have made earnest -suit to obtain for you of them the very thing which you think you can -obtain through their means and wicked devices. I have been more careful -about your elevation than you yourself have been. Have I ever refused -you anything that was reasonable, and which was for your advantage, by -placing you above those persons who to-day are trying to get both you -and me into their power, that they may tread us under their feet? -Examine your conscience, Sire, and see the blot of ingratitude with -which you have stained it. You say you are sorry for what you have -done, and this gives me some comfort; yet I cannot but think that you -are driven to it rather by necessity than led by any sentiment of true -and sincere affection. Had I offended you as deeply as can be imagined, -you could not have discovered how to avenge yourself on me with greater -disgrace and cruelty. I thank God that neither you nor anyone in the -world can charge me with ever having done or said aught justly to -displease you, were it not for your own personal good. Your life is -dear to me, and God and my duty oblige me to be as careful of it as of -my own. But since you have placed us both on the brink of the precipice, -you must now deliberate how we shall escape the peril.'" - -Such we can well believe to have been the feeling words of the outraged -wife and queen. She had been humiliated by her husband in the eyes of -the nation and of the world; and the ingratitude of him to whom she had -been so devoted had inflicted on her heart a wound that she feared time -could never heal. The bonds of love, which had been severed in spite of -her and could not be reunited by an act of her will, no longer bound her -to him, but "God and her duty" did, and his life would still be dear to -her. - -A plan of escape was arranged, and Darnley, acting with more coolness -and shrewdness than was his wont, had the guards removed from the royal -apartments, and, two nights later, he and Mary, accompanied by a few -faithful attendants, having stealthily escaped from the palace by a back -way, mounted their horses and hurried off to Dunbar. - -Once more free to appeal to the loyalty of her people, the Queen had -nothing to fear. The traitor lords, outwitted and alarmed, dispersed -and fled, some--especially those most prominent in the execution of the -murder--betaking themselves across the border, and others withdrawing to -retreats in the country. Mary was now in a position in which, had she -been of a vindictive nature, she could have taken complete revenge on -her enemies. But her habitual clemency prevailed, and her ear was soon -again open to the prayers for pardon that reached her from the -conspirators. - -Her generous conduct could not fail to win hearts even among her former -foes, and when, three months afterwards, James VI. was born in Edinburgh -Castle, hearty demonstrations of joy marked the event throughout the -whole realm. "I never," wrote the French Ambassador, Le Croc, to -Cardinal Beaton, "saw Her Majesty so much beloved, honoured and -esteemed, nor so great a harmony among all her subjects as at present is -by her wise conduct; for I cannot perceive the smallest difference or -division." - -But the seeds of dissension were still alive. A new Cabinet had been -formed in which hitherto discordant elements were mechanically united. -Atholl, Huntly and Bothwell held prominent places; and Moray, who, by a -plausible story, had exonerated himself from responsibility in the -Rizzio murder, was taken into confidence. Maitland was afterwards -admitted to his former post of Secretary. Darnley was furious against -Moray and Maitland; against Bothwell he had no complaint, a circumstance -worth noting. He was displeased with Mary because she allowed herself -to be influenced by Moray and Maitland, whom he believed to be traitors. -There may, perhaps, be some justification for the unfortunate Darnley's -conduct at this juncture. It is possible that his brief complicity with -the late conspirators had taught him a lesson which Mary, who was -clement and forgiving almost to a fault, had yet to learn, namely, the -deep treachery of some in whom she was putting her trust. Be this as it -may, Darnley soon began to reap the bitter fruits of his mad crime. The -nobles that he had left in the lurch cordially hated him; the Queen, -whom he had so grievously betrayed, while she did what she could to -please and pacify him, could not entrust him with the power he desired. -He became the source of keen and uninterrupted grief to Mary, which -added to her partial loss of health since the birth of her son, and the -political dangers that threatened her independence, made her wish for -death. She was brought to the point of death by an illness with which -she was stricken during a visit to the remote border hamlet of Jedburgh, -in October, 1566, but recovered to drag on her weary life. Her health -and spirits, however, seem to have been considerably broken. "The Queen -breaketh much," wrote Drury, "and is subject to frequent fainting fits." -Melville, her close acquaintance, says, "she was somewhat sad when -solitary." The French Ambassador gives his opinion as to the cause of -her troubles: "I do believe the principal part of her disease to consist -of a deep grief and sorrow, nor does it seem possible to make her forget -the same. Still she repeats these words: 'I could wish to be dead.'" - - The touch of care had blanched her cheek, her smile was sadder - now; - The weight of royalty had pressed too heavy on her brow. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - THE TRAGEDY OF KIRK O'FIELD AND ITS SEQUEL. - - -Darnley left the court in one of his sullen moods in December, 1566, and -shortly after was stricken with smallpox at Glasgow. Notwithstanding -his past ingratitude and infidelity, Mary, on hearing of his misfortune, -sent her own physician to attend him, and a little later, having -proceeded to Glasgow herself, brought him back with her to Edinburgh. -Not yet being free from infection, he was placed in a house known as the -Kirk O'Field, on the outskirts of the city. Mary visited him frequently -and, as far as could be judged from outward signs, a complete -reconciliation was effected. But the evil genius of the Stewarts again -held sway. On February 10th, about 3 o'clock in the morning, the Kirk -O'Field was blown into the air with gunpowder, and the mortal career of -Darnley, who had just turned his twentieth year, was brought to a tragic -close. Suspicions pointed to Bothwell as the author of the crime. The -Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, sued for a trial. Bothwell promptly -offered himself up, and, being tried before his peers, was acquitted. - -I have now arrived at the most complicated question in Mary's history, -and before offering an opinion on the events that ensued, I shall -mention some of them in chronological order. - -Bothwell was acquitted on April 12th; on April 24th, Mary, while -returning from a visit to her child at Stirling, was intercepted by him, -and--willingly or unwillingly--carried off to the Castle of Dunbar. -Twelve days afterwards, a promise of marriage having first been obtained -from her, she was brought back to Edinburgh by Bothwell and lodged in -the Castle. Eight days later she was married to Bothwell in Holyrood, -before a Protestant minister. - -These events have all along been interpreted in two widely different -senses. One interpretation makes Mary an accomplice in the murder of -her husband; the other makes her an innocent but injured woman. The -historians hostile to her, catching their inspiration from the pages of -George Buchanan, maintain that previously to Darnley's murder, she was -familiar beyond due measure with Bothwell; that when she visited Darnley -at Glasgow, it was as the agent of Bothwell to enveigle the intended -victim to where he could be conveniently dispatched; that the -reconciliation was feigned on her part; that when the murder was -accomplished, she used her authority to shield Bothwell; and, finally, -that she was carried off by him according to her own desire. - -I admit that from a slight study of her life one is apt to be impressed -with the thought, that the Mary Stewart of this period is not the Mary -Stewart of earlier, or even later times. Something unusually weak, -which leaves the suspicion of guilt, seems to characterize her conduct. -I believe, however, that the more fully the sources of information are -studied, the clearer will it appear that no evidence on which she can be -justly convicted, has yet been adduced; but that, on the contrary, the -conviction will grow in the minds of sincere enquirers, that she was -first gravely injured, and next gravely calumniated, for party ends. It -should be borne in mind that an accused person must be presumed innocent -until his guilt is proved. This is a principle recognized in all law, -and one that has something exceptionally strong to recommend it in the -present case. - -Until the death of Darnley, no word had been uttered against Mary's -character as a woman. On the contrary, her praises were sounded on all -sides, and even those who were leagued with her foes sometimes bore -testimony to her virtues. The Privy Council itself, shortly before -Darnley fell ill, spoke of him as one "honoured and blessed with a good -and virtuous wife." But when lying served the purpose, especially in a -struggle against a Papist "idolatress," who would scruple at it? Men -who could unctuously quote Scripture, while engaged in the most -disgraceful and unlawful work, and could, as Skelton thinks, perjure -themselves with a good conscience, could hardly be expected to lose an -opportunity of blackening the character of an unsanctified woman, for -the glory of God and the advancement of Calvinism. - -Who, on the other hand, were Mary's accusers? They were those who -profited by her overthrow; those who had been known traitors and had -been guilty of grievous offences against her; and those who, beyond -doubt, have been convicted of caluminating her in many particulars. Of -the last mentioned class the most notorious is George Buchanan, a man -who owed his life to her clemency, who had been enriched by her -warm-hearted liberality, who had penned his most polished verses in -praise of her distinguished beauty and virtues, but who, when misfortune -fell upon her, sold his venal pen to her enemies, and clothed in -classical Latin the calumnies by which they hoped to overthrow her cause -and establish their own. Now, students of this period of Scottish -history know that Buchanan has been convicted of calumny in many -particulars of Mary's life. This is beyond controversy, established by -official records of the time. The presumption of calumny, therefore, -attaches to his other accusations, and until these are proved to be true -from reliable sources, they cannot decide anything against her. -Furthermore, Buchanan's "Detectio," which was written to ruin Mary's -cause in England, was prepared at the instigation of her enemies, and -Buchanan's services were engaged only because he was a good Latinist. -"The book was written by him," writes Cecil, "not as of himself, nor in -his own name, but according to the instructions given him by common -conference of the Lords of the Privy Council of Scotland"--the Moray -party. It may also be mentioned that while the English translation of -the "Detectio" was fathered by Cecil, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, -the "Defence" of Mary, written by Bishop Leslie, was suppressed by the -authorities at Westminster immediately it appeared. - -So much for presumptive argument; but how explain the strange series of -events after Darnley's murder? - -Mary, after the murder of her husband, was like one who does not know -what moment a mine is going to explode under her feet. She had got an -inkling, through reports from London, gathered by her Ambassador in -Paris, of the plot to murder Rizzio, of the conspiracy against the life -of Darnley, and of harm intended to herself. The two first having been -so emphatically verified, had she not reason to fear that the next would -soon be consummated in her own person? Her support, too, if we except -Bothwell, was, at that critical time, slender indeed. Moray, her Prime -Minister who, with something akin to the wild goose instinct of -approaching storms, always managed to get away whenever any disagreeable -work was ready for execution, had left Edinburgh on the eve of the -murder and remained absent. - -It is commonly asserted by Mary's adversaries that Bothwell's trial was -a farce; nor do I deny that it was. But was Mary responsible for the -farce any more than Bothwell's peers who acquitted him? One reason why -the trial proved a farce was, that Bothwell had too many secrets in his -keeping--secrets which, others besides himself, who perhaps were -uttering expressions of pious horror at the crime, were about as deeply -stained with the blood of Darnley as he. I do not claim that the Queen -was perfectly persuaded of Bothwell's innocence. I say, however, that -as matters then stood, there were various reasons that well might lead -her to believe a plot had been formed against him; some of which were, -on the one hand, the treasonable character of many who were now opposed -to him, and, on the other, Bothwell's strict loyalty. With regard to -this celebrated Earl, it may, I think, be truly said, that whatever his -faults or his vices, besides being the most powerful, he had proved -himself one of the most loyal of the Scottish nobles. James Hepburn -(Earl of Bothwell) had inherited many important offices. He was Lord -Admiral of Scotland, Keeper of Edinburgh Castle and of Hermitage Castle, -Sheriff of the Western Lothians, and Lieutenant of the Border. No -Scottish nobleman of his rank was more sincerely hated by Elizabeth. As -early as 1560, Throckmorton, the English Ambassador to Paris, referred -to the "glorious, boastful, rash and hazardous" Bothwell as one who -should be watched. The sword of Bothwell was never wanting when the -cause of his sovereign required its aid. A Protestant in religion, he -had stood by Mary of Lorraine in her troubles with the Anglicizing -party, and had intercepted a quantity of Elizabeth's gold that had been -sent to the Scottish rebels; he had supported Mary herself against the -Moray faction who revolted after her marriage with Darnley; and he was -one of the first to escape from Holyrood on the night of Rizzio's -murder, and arouse the country in her defence. In view of these facts, -and of the widespread treachery existing among the nobles, nobody should -be surprised if, at the time of the Kirk O'Field tragedy, Bothwell, -considered in his public character, stood high in the opinion of the -Queen and was regarded as her strongest and surest defence against the -dangers by which she was encompassed. - -A week after Bothwell's acquittal, a curious deed was accomplished which -helps to explain the events that immediately followed. All the -influential members except one, who were present at the Parliament held -the same day, signed a document known in history as the "Ainslie Tavern -Band," by which they engaged to do all in their power to promote a -marriage between Bothwell and the Queen. In addition to this, if we -accept the testimony of Claude Nau, these nobles sent a deputation to -Mary, who represented that, seeing the disturbed condition of the realm, -it was necessary that she should marry, and unanimously pressed her to -accept Bothwell for husband. Mary refused, and reminded them of the -report current about his connection with her late husband's death. The -deputies had a ready reply. Bothwell, they said, had been legally -acquitted by the Council; besides (to quote Nau), "they who made the -request to her do so for the public good of the realm, and as they were -the highest of the nobility, it would be for them to vindicate a -marriage brought about by their advice and authority." - -It is difficult to discover the motives that prompted some of the nobles -to sign this objectionable bond. In this, very probably, as in many -similar instances, indifferentism, self-interest, or fear of differing -from the stronger party, led a number to subscribe. But, if we read the -motives of the prime movers in the light of subsequent events, we can -discover the old design for Mary's overthrow carried out under a new -form. Even James Anthony Froude, one of the last men in the world from -whom we should expect to hear it, suggests that several at least of the -nobles appended their names in deliberate treachery to the Queen. - -But where the treachery? I have already pointed out that the attempts -to overthrow Mary's authority had hitherto failed chiefly because she -was beloved by the people. To succeed against her, therefore, it was -necessary to bring her into disgrace before the Scottish nation; and how -could this be more successfully done than by drawing her into a marriage -with the man who was widely believed to be the murderer of her husband, -and then rising up in apparent indignation against the union? - -In view of the facts I have just indicated, it is not surprising that, -having fallen into the hands of Bothwell, and having been detained by -him, Mary should have made the best of the case by consenting to marry -him. I do not pretend to decide how far her consent was obtained by -persuasion, or how far by force. Both were used. But it should not be -forgotten, that for more than six mouths after the event, the public -records of Scotland refer to the intercepting of the Queen by Bothwell -as a forcible and treasonable act, and speak of her as having been -compelled, through fear and other unlawful means, to give her promise of -marriage; and it was only when changed circumstances demanded a change -of tactics, that the worthies who had hurled her from the throne began -to assert that what had been done by Bothwell had been done with her -consent. However, leaving aside the question of violence, see what -influence persuasion itself could have had. Bothwell was not without -certain favourable qualities. His sterling loyalty and great power were -invaluable to one in Mary's difficult circumstances. But if these were -insufficient to gain his end, there was the agreement signed by the -nobles. "And when," writes Mary, giving an account of her marriage to -her friends in France, "he saw us like to reject all his suit and -offers, in the end he showed us how far he was proceeded with our whole -nobility and principals of our estate, and what they had promised him -under their handwrits. If we had cause to be astonished, we remit us to -the judgment of the King, the Queen, our uncle, and others our friends." -Could Mary, with her sore experience of their turbulency, lightly oppose -the will of so many of her nobility as set forth in that celebrated -"Band?" She might express doubt as to the genuineness of their -signatures; but Bothwell could point out that, although she was already -in his power nearly twelve days, not one whose name was subscribed -thereto had moved hand or foot to liberate her. - -If, placed in these circumstances, without any indication that -protracted resistance would result in her rescue, she consented to marry -Bothwell, is there not sufficient reason for her action, without the -theory of an old and ungovernable passion for the "rugged Border Lord"? -It is poor philosophy to invent theories to account for events of which -we already see adequate cause. Mary may, or may not, have been -infatuated with Bothwell; but that she was must be proved--if proved at -all--independently of the fact that she married him. In the -presumption, warranted by law, reason and common sense, of her -innocence, we can account satisfactorily for her marriage. Why then -resort to the presumption, warranted neither by law, reason nor common -sense, of her guilt, in order to explain it? - -It may seem strange that, whatever her circumstances were, she should -have married a man who had a wife living. But it must not be forgotten -that the Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrews had declared Bothwell's -former marriage invalid on the ground of consanguinity within the -forbidden degree, from which no dispensation had been obtained. It is -true that at a later date Mary regarded her marriage with Bothwell as -invalid;[#] but it cannot be inferred that she contracted it in bad -faith, for in the meantime doubts may have arisen as to whether the -Archbishop's decision was founded on fact.--A good deal of uncertainty -still hangs over the value of this decision. Besides, she must have -learned, what does not appear to have occurred to the mind of the -Archbishop, that, owing to the ecclesiastical impediment of _raptus_, -she was incapable, no matter how earnestly she may have desired it, of -contracting valid matrimony with Bothwell, without having first regained -his liberty. - - -[#] I do not think it can be any longer doubted that Mary learned in the -course of time to regard her marriage with Bothwell as invalid; and I am -surprised that so eminent and enlightened a writer as Mr. Skelton should -argue that her "subsequent anxiety to obtain a divorce from Bothwell -proves that she continued to believe that the marriage was binding." -She was too well versed in Catholic doctrine and in the history of Henry -the Eighth's conflict with Rome to hope for a divorce from Bothwell, if -she believed the marriage was binding. At any rate, her instructions to -Bishop Leslie, whom she sent to Rome in 1575, leave it beyond doubt that -it was not a divorce, but merely a declaration that the marriage was -null from the beginning, that she asked of the Pope. "Take good heed," -she said, "that the Holy Father shall publicly announce that the -pretended marriage contracted between me and Bothwell, without any -legality but by a pretended procedure is of no (force). For although -there are many reasons which, as you know, make it clearly invalid in -itself, yet the matter will be much clearer if his Holiness, acting as -the most certain lawyer of the Church, will come forward to annul it." -(Published from a Cottonian MS. by the late Rev. Joseph Stevenson, S.J., -in notes to his preface to Claude Nau's narrative.) - - -During the nine days that intervened between the times he was brought -back to Edinburgh and the day of her marriage, no effort was made to -stay the proceedings. Craig, the minister of St. Giles, to whom it fell -to publish the marriage banns, courageously declared his disapproval of -the union, adding, however, the significant words that "the best part of -the realm did approve it, either by flattery or by their silence"--words -that show how completely the unfortunate Queen was left under the -control of Bothwell. - -But as soon as Mary's fortunes were identified with Bothwell's by the -bond of marriage, the sound of approaching war was heard. The -Confederate lords rose in arms to avenge the murder of the late King (so -they said), and to liberate the Queen; and many true friends of Mary's, -little suspecting the real purpose of the prime movers, arrayed -themselves under their standard. The two armies met at Carberry Hill; -no battle ensued. The Confederates promised that if Mary would separate -herself from Bothwell and confide in them, they would respect her as -their true sovereign. Mary agreed, but once in their power her eyes were -opened. She was brought back to Edinburgh, flouted along the way with a -banner on which was depicted the effigy of her murdered husband, and -exposed to the studied insults of a rabble, half frantic from the fierce -harangues of the Knoxonian preachers. The following night she was -hurried away, and placed in the lonely castle of Lochleven, situated on -a rock in a lake of the same name, in the County of Kinross. And that -was how they fulfilled their promises to restore her to her royal -estate,--that was her reward for the confidence she had placed in their -word. - -Froude attempts to justify the action of the Confederates on the ground -that Mary, after reaching Edinburgh, refused to give up Bothwell, and -that she wrote him a letter which was intercepted that same night, -declaring her anxiety to be with him at almost any cost. Of course -Froude was not the first to offer this explanation; but no writer who -wishes to be classed among respectable historians would now embody that -unauthenticated gossip in his narrative in the manner in which Froude -has done. Froude evidently relies much on the gullibility of his -readers; and not without reason; for how many of those who sweep over -his dramatic pages, captivated by the brilliancy of his master style, -ever suspect that his statements are reckless and unwarranted? - -But did the Confederate lords imprison the Queen because she refused to -give up Bothwell? We cannot tell. The alleged letter to Bothwell is -the only argument for it, and that letter was never afterwards produced, -although the production of it would have been of incalculable value to -her enemies. The fact is, the lords gave nobody access to the -Queen--not even the English envoy and what she did, or what she desired, -we know only through those whose interest it was to make out a case -against her. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - CAPTIVITY.--ESCAPE.--FLIGHT. - - -The next step was to force Mary to abdicate in favour of her infant son. -(To use the child against the parent monarch had long been a favourite -policy with the Scottish rebel lords.) A delegation was sent to her for -that purpose, headed by Lord Lindsay, whom Sir Walter Scott calls "the -rudest baron of that rude age"--fit agent for the tyrranous deed. Moved -partly by fear that refusal would lead to a violent death, and partly by -the previous representation of some of her friends that what she did -under constraint could not bind her if she regained her liberty, Mary -signed the cruel document-- - - "She wrote the words--She stood erect--a queen without a crown," - -and although prudence would prevent her from uttering them with her -lips, we may be sure that in her heart she spoke the words attributed to -her by the poet:-- - - "My lords,--my lords," the captive said, "were I but once more - free, - With ten good knights on yonder shore to aid my cause and me, - That parchment would I scatter wide to every breeze that blows, - And once more reign a Stewart queen o'er my remorseless foes." - - -The next important visit the helpless Queen received in her prison was -from the Earl of Moray. The cautious Earl had been absent in France -during the troublous times that had elapsed since the murder of Darnley, -but no doubt was well pleased with the success with which Morton and his -associates had been advancing his cause. His sister was now dethroned, -the infant James was crowned King, and he himself was named Regent. The -goal of his ambition seemed near. He had returned to Scotland in time to -receive the honours prepared for him, and--whatever his motives -were--before formally accepting the Regency, he visited Mary in -Lochleven Castle. It is thought by many that he paid this visit with a -view to rendering his footing more secure, as he probably hoped that the -prisoner, recognizing the helplessness of her condition, would ask him -to accept the office of Regent. Depressed with the gravity of the trials -she had just passed through, the tender-hearted Queen naturally hoped -that her brother's visit would bear some comfort to her lonely prison. -But she was disappointed. Ambition (if nothing more) had expelled from -Moray's breast those feelings of natural tenderness with which we should -presume every man to be moved towards a humiliated and afflicted sister. -Even his friends are slow to commend his conduct on this occasion. -"That visit" (writes Robertson, in the History of Scotland) "to a -sister, and a queen in prison, from which he had neither any intention -to relieve her, nor to mitigate the rigour of her confinement, may be -mentioned among the circumstances which discover the great want of -delicacy and refinement in that age." - -As long as the Queen was confined in Lochleven, her friends in Scotland -were obliged to keep quiet, for it was intimated to them that if they -attempted to liberate her, they would be presented with her head. - -The unhappy Queen, cut off from the world in the bloom and beauty of her -youth, looked out from day to day across the dull waters that encircled -her prison-house, and anxiously surveyed the neighbouring hills in -which, she knew, her faithful friends were lingering, in hopes of -discovering some means of effecting her deliverance. After various -ineffectual attempts, a successful plan of escape was at length devised -by the ingenuity of little Willie Douglas, a youth in the household of -the Laird of Lochleven. - -Sunday, May 2nd, was the day chosen for what proved to be a successful -attempt to escape. Lords Seton, Beton and George Douglas, with a number -of followers, were lingering about the shore, near the village of -Kinross, ready to receive the Queen and convey her to a place of safety. -Within the castle prison all preliminaries were arranged, but the lowest -point of the wall that Mary could reach was higher than she could -venture to leap from, and the keys of the gate were scrupulously guarded -by the Laird. Let us hear Nau relate how the problem was solved:-- - -"An hour before supper-time, the Queen retired into her own chamber. -She put on a red kirtle belonging to one of her women, and over it she -covered herself with one of her own mantles. Then she went into the -garden to talk with the old lady whence she could see the people who -were walking on the other side of the loch. - -"Everything being now ready, the Queen, who, of set purpose, had caused -the supper to be delayed until that time, now ordered it to be served. -When the supper was finished, the Laird (whose ordinary custom it was to -wait upon her at table), went to sup along with his wife and the rest of -the household, in a hall on the ground story. A person called -Draisdel,[#] who had the chief charge in the establishment, and who -generally remained in the Queen's room to keep her safe, went out along -with the Laird, and amused himself by playing at hand ball. - - -[#] When Draisdel--the original, no doubt, of Scott's imperturbable -Dryfesdale in "The Abbott"--was informed by the two young girls that the -queen was missing and had probably escaped, "he was amused at this, and -said he would soon find her; he would give her leave to escape if she -could. At one time he whistled, at another he cut capers." Romance -must have been unfair in painting him a phlegmatic steward. - - -"In order to free herself from the two young girls who remained with -her, Her Majesty in the meantime went into an upper room, above her own, -occupied by her surgeon, on the plea that she wished to say her prayers; -and, indeed, she did pray very devoutly, recommending herself to God, -who then showed His pity and care for her. In this room she left her -mantle, and, having put on a hood, such as is worn by the country-women -of the district, she made one of her domestics, who was to accompany -her, dress herself in the same fashion. The other _femme-de-chambre_ -remained with the two young girls to amuse them, for they had become -very inquisitive as to the cause of the Queen's lengthened absence. - -"While the laird was at supper, William Douglas, as he was handing him -his drink, secretly removed the key of the great gate, which lay on the -table before him. He promptly gave notice of this to the Queen, in -order that she should come down stairs instantaneously; and immediately -afterwards as he came out of the door he gave the sign to the young -woman who was to accompany Her Majesty, as she was looking towards the -window. This being understood, the Queen came down forthwith; but as -she was at the bottom of the steps she noticed that several of the -servants of the household were passing backwards and forwards in the -court, which induced her to stand for some time the door of the stairs. -At last, however, in the sight of the whole of them, she crossed the -courtyard, and having gone out by the great gate, William Douglas locked -it with the key and threw it into a cannon placed near at hand. The -Queen and her _femme-de-chambre_ had stood for some time close to the -wall, fearing that they should be seen from the windows of the house; -but at length they got into the vessel, and the Queen laid herself down -under the boatman's seat. She had been advised to do this, partly to -escape notice, partly to escape being hit, if a cannon shot should be -sent after her. Several washerwomen and other domestics were amusing -themselves in a garden near the loch when Her Majesty got into the boat. -One of the washerwomen even recognized her, and made a sign to William -Douglas that she was aware of it, but William called out to her aloud, -by name, telling her to hold her tongue. - -"As the boat was nearing the other side, William saw one of George's -servants, but failed to recognize him, as he was armed. Apprehending -some fraud, he hesitated to come nearer the shore; at length, however, -the servant having spoken, he landed, and then Her Majesty was met and -welcomed by George Douglas and John Beton, who had broken into the -laird's stables and seized his best horses. Being mounted as best she -might, the Queen would not set off until she had seen William Douglas on -horse also--he who had hazarded so much for her release. She left her -_femme-de-chambre_ behind her, but with direction that she should follow -her as soon as she could have an outfit." - -Being joined by her friends on shore, the Queen hurried south, and, -having crossed the Firth at Queen's Ferry, reached Lord Seton's house at -Niddry, about midnight. Thence she proceeded to Hamilton, where she -remained until the 13th of May collecting her forces. The plan was, to -place the Queen in safety in Dunbarton Castle, on the Clyde, and then -muster all her forces for the overthrow of the Regent. It is not -difficult now to see that her friends made a fatal blunder in not -conveying her directly to Dunbarton from Lochleven. In Dunbarton she -would be safe, and her followers could take time to properly organize. -As it was, those who rallied round her standard during her stay at -Hamilton were equal in number to the army under command of the Regent at -Glascow. Her two main supports in the North, Lord Ogilvy and the -powerful Earl of Huntly, had not yet succeeded in joining her; but the -Earls of Argyle, Cassillis, Rothes and Eglinton, Lords Seton, Borthwick, -Somerville, Livingstone, Claud Hamilton, Herries, Boyd, Yester, Ross and -others, were already at her side. Bravery and chivalry were in her -ranks, but organization and efficient generalship were wanting. - -The fact that, notwithstanding the persistent and ingenious efforts of -her enemies to utterly defame her, so many nobles (most of whom were -Protestants), hurried to her support as soon as her escape was made -known, draws the following remarks from her Protestant biographer, Mr. -Hosack-- - -"That in spite of all the efforts of Moray and his faction, and in spite -of all the violence of the preachers, she--the Catholic Queen of -Scotland, the daughter of the hated house of Guise, the reputed mortal -enemy of their religion--should now, after being maligned as the most -abandoned of her sex, find her best friends among her Protestant -subjects, appears at first sight inexplicable. A phenomenon so strange -admits of only one explanation. If, throughout her reign, she had not -loyally kept her promises of security and toleration to her Protestant -subjects, they assuredly would not in her hour of need have risked their -lives and fortunes in her defence." - -On their march to Dunbarton the Queen's forces were met by those of the -Regent at Langside, and thrown into confusion. Attended by three brave -nobles--Lords Herries, Fleming and Livingstone--and little Willie -Douglas, she hurried towards the south, and, after a wearisome journey, -reached Dundrennen Abbey, in Galloway. Here she resolved on a step that -was the greatest mistake of her life. The majority of the Scottish -people were loyal to her, and only needed time to muster, but in spite -of the advice, persuasions and entreaties of Lord Herries and her other -attendants, she determined to cross over to England. Elizabeth's recent -expressions of friendship and promises of help had blinded the Scottish -Queen; and her own generous nature, which would have instantly prompted -her to assist, as far as she could, a sister queen in distress, rendered -her for the time incapable of suspecting that Elizabeth could betray her -in her hour of greatest need. She stepped forth from Scottish soil, -never to set foot on it again, and steered across the Firth to the -shores of England. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - IN THE HANDS OF ELIZABETH. - - -Having landed in England, the Scottish Queen was, by order of Elizabeth, -conveyed to Carlisle Castle, and there placed in custody of Sir Francis -Knollys. She hastened to send Lord Herries to the English court, to -request that Elizabeth, according to her promise, would help restore her -to her throne; or at least would give her liberty to pass out of the -kingdom and seek help elsewhere. Elizabeth could have pursued either -course with honour, but she pursued neither; and as long as right is -right and wrong is wrong--as long as justice is not synonymous with -temporal advantage--so long will it remain impossible to frame a defence -for Elizabeth Tudor in her conduct toward Mary Stewart. Her hostility -to Mary, and her support of Mary's enemies, veil them as she would, were -evident throughout the subsequent proceedings. - -Mary's friends in Scotland were rising in large numbers and preparing to -take the field against the Regent. Elizabeth, leading Mary to believe -that she would reinstate her, prevailed on her to request her partizans -to desist from warfare; the Regent in the meantime continued his work of -destruction against those who had fought for the Queen. Elizabeth -offered to act as umpire between the Regent's party and Mary. The whole -affair, so Mary was given to understand, would turn out to her profit. -Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk; Thomas Ratcliff, Earl of Sussex, and Sir -Ralph Sadler, were nominated commissioners by Elizabeth to hear the -charge of political misgovernment which the Regent would bring against -Mary. No charge affecting Mary's personal honour was to be admitted. - -The conference opened at York, in October, 1568. Of course it was mere -fiction to speak of Mary's misgovernment. But would Cecil and Elizabeth -lose their opportunity of disgracing, as far as they could, the Scottish -Queen, in the eyes of the English people, and of rendering a compromise -with her enemies in Scotland impossible? Such could hardly be expected. -The Conference was transferred to Westminster, and, contrary to the -conditions on which Mary had permitted her case to be referred to a -commission, Moray was assured that he might bring forward accusations -against her honour--in fact he was urged or encouraged to do so. He -then accused her of being the author, with Bothwell, of her late -husband's murder, and of having intended a like fate for her infant son; -and in support of his charge he produced the celebrated documents known -as the Casket Letters, consisting of letters and sonnets which, he -claimed, had been written by Mary to Bothwell, and had fallen into the -hands of the Earl of Morton, shortly after the surrender at Carberry -Hill. Mary's commissioners protested against this violation of the -conditions on which the conference had been opened, and demanded that, -as Moray had been admitted to Elizabeth's presence, so should their -Queen. Otherwise, they maintained, the conference was closed. Cecil -disregarded their protests, and the Regent placed his accusations and -papers before the commissioners and Lords of the Privy Council. Mary, -hearing this, instructed her commissioners to declare that Moray himself -and his faction were guilty of Darnley's murder, and that if she were -furnished with the originals or even with copies of the Casket Letters, -and admitted to the presence of Elizabeth as her accusers had been, she -should prove them to be liars, and should convict certain persons of -their number as the real murderers. But she was refused admittance to -Queen Elizabeth. As soon as she was informed of the refusal, she -directed her commissioners to resume the conference, and to throw back -the charge of murder on Moray and his associates. But the conference -was not resumed, nor was Mary furnished with the originals of the -letters that had been brought forward as evidence against her honour. -Elizabeth, Cecil and Moray shrank from a fair investigation of the case; -and Moray, with his "Casket" and "Originals," and with £5,000 of -Elizabeth's gold in his pocket, was hurried back to Scotland. Mary, -however, was left as before--a prisoner whom Elizabeth would neither -help to regain her throne, nor permit to pass out of the realm. Matters -now seemed to stand in the condition in which Elizabeth had hoped to -place them. The breach between Mary and the Regent's party had been -rendered irreparable; and the English nation--in which she had had so -many adherents--had been taught (so at least her enemies hoped), to -regard the Scottish Queen as a criminal and abandoned woman. - -The celebrated Casket Letters demand at least a brief consideration. If -they are genuine, Mary was undoubtedly implicated in the murder of her -husband. If they are forged or interpolated, they are not only worthless -as evidence against her, but are a crowning proof of her innocence. -Much of the matter of these letters might have been written by Mary--and -probably was written by her, though not to Bothwell--without being -evidence that she shared in the murder. It is commonly believed by her -friends that the Casket Letters are partly made up of letters written by -her to Darnley. It is well known that, while she was in Lochleven, -Holyrood was ransacked by the Morton-Moray faction, and that her papers, -as well as those which Darnley may have left there, were at their -disposal. They could easily select those letters which could be most -readily doctored up so as to bear a sinister meaning, and those which, -as they stood, would appear criminal if addressed to other than Darnley. -There is, however, one letter, or at least part of one letter, that -could not be written by Mary if she was innocent, namely, letter No. 2, -represented as written to Bothwell from Glasgow, while she was visiting -Darnley in his sickness. - -With regard to these letters, I would say, in the first place, that they -cannot be adduced as conclusive evidence of Mary's guilt, because, at -best, their genuineness is doubtful. I would say, in the second place, -that at any rate as far as the incriminating portions are concerned, I -cannot regard them as other than forged; and here in brief are my -principal reasons for rejecting them:-- - -First. Because, in view of the ill-treatment to which in other things -she was subjected, and of the unfair tactics used against her, by those -interested in producing the Casket Letters, no accusation proceeding -from that same source against her honour as a woman, can be accepted, -unless it is clearly substantiated. It can hardly be controverted that, -whatever Mary's faults may have been, the Morton-Moray faction had -already treated her dishonourably and unjustly. They had plotted with -foreigners against her before ever the Bothwell imbroglio arose; they -had tried to brand her with dishonour at the time of the Rizzio murder; -they had broken their promise, given at Carberry Hill, and had cast her -into prison; they had brutally forced her to abdicate, and then, in open -Parliament, solemnly professed that she had voluntarily resigned. -Besides, the Earl of Morton, whose testimony is the principal evidence -in support of the genuineness of the Casket Letters, was probably the -most vicious and unscrupulous man in Scotland. Can the testimony of -such men,--men who had acknowleged that they had gone too far to -recede,--given to protect their most cherished interests, to defend -perhaps their very lives, be accepted as conclusive evidence, where -there are so many evident reasons to suspect their veracity? - -Second. Because these letters, and these letters only, exhibit in Mary -an indelicacy of language, and a jestful levity in treating of crime, -which are altogether foreign to her character as learned from reliable -and authentic sources. - -Third. Because a score, or thereabouts, of the most distinguished -Scottish peers, in the instructions which they issued in September, -1568, to Mary's commissioners in England, declared that at least the -incriminating portions of these letters were not in the Queen's -handwriting. This valuable document recounts clearly and briefly the -history of the disturbance which had ended in Mary's overthrow, and -exposes, according to the view of the subscribers, the deceitful conduct -of her enemies. I am not aware of any external evidence bearing on the -Casket Letters that can compare in force and authority with this -document. Whoever is acquainted with the history of the Scottish -nobility of that time, must admit that the men whose names are -subscribed thereto were at least as honest and honourable as the leaders -of the Regent's party; and that the vindication of the Queen's honour -would be no more profitable to them than her complete overthrow would be -to those who had usurped her power and authority. Now these -instructions state, in express terms, what many other evidences, both -internal and external, have since gone to establish, that, however much -of the Casket literature was Mary's the compromising parts had been -interpolated by her enemies. "If it be alleged" (thus the instructions) -"that Her Majesty's writing produced in Parliament should prove -culpable, it may be answered that there is no place mention made in it -by which she may be convicted, albeit it were her own -hand-writing--_which it is not_--and also the same is devised by -themselves in some principal and substantial clauses." - -Fourth. Because the papers that were passed off as the originals in -Mary's hand-writing were kept out of sight and, far as can be known, -were seen, neither then nor since, by anybody except the select few at -Hampton Court; and though Mary repeatedly demanded them, they were never -shown her. - -Fifth. Another document, represented as a warrant from the Queen -requiring the lords to sign the celebrated Anslie tavern "band" for her -marriage with Bothwell, was said to be in the Casket also, and was -furtively shown in the Conference at York, but was never produced in the -official enquiry at Westminster. The suppression of such a document, -which, by reason of its public nature, could easily have been proved -genuine, if it really were so, seems to admit of only one -explanation--it could not stand the light of criticism, it was forged. -But if the other Casket papers were genuine, Mary's accusers had no need -of forged ones. - -Sixth. The Casket Letter number two, commonly known as the Glascow -letter (because it was supposed to have been written to Bothwell from -Glasgow while Mary was visiting her sick husband there) contains a -report of a conversation between Mary and Darnley which corresponds so -closely with another document adduced eighteen months later in evidence -against the Queen, that the one must have been copied from the other. A -brief explanation is necessary to make the importance of this -circumstance clear. A certain Robert Crawfurd was in attendance on -Darnley at Glasgow when Mary went thither to comfort him. At the -request of the Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, Crawfurd (so he -states), noted down the conversations that passed between the royal -couple; but, not being present at them, he learned what had been said -only from the account which Darnley afterwards gave him. Also in the -letter number two is recounted one of Darnley's plaintive discourses. -It is clear, therefore, that if it could be shown that the conversation -embodied in this letter was really held, something would be done to give -an air of genuineness to the whole document. Hence, Crawfurd was called -upon for an account of what had passed between Mary and Darnley, and his -deposition was brought forward by the Regent and his associates before -the English commissioners. Now, it turns out that Crawfurd's deposition -and the portion of the Casket Letter that covers the same ground, agree -almost verbally--agree, in fact, so wonderfully that, all the -circumstances considered, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that -either one must have been copied from the other, and that a fraud was -practised somewhere, for both documents were represented as original. I -have said, "all the circumstances considered." We must remember that -reporters, especially if they are not skilled stenographers, recording a -speech, even, while it is being delivered, exhibit a considerable -divergence of vocabulary and phraseology in their respective reports. -But here both Crawfurd and Mary reported from memory; in fact, Crawfurd -had to struggle against the vagaries of two memories--his own and -Darnley's. This is what makes the agreement suspiciously strange. More -than that; Crawfurd's deposition was written in Scots, while the Casket -letter was written in French, and afterwards translated into Scots; and -it is these two documents which, in spite of so many causes why they -should widely differ, are found to agree so closely. - -Here are the passages in question:-- - - _Deposition of Crawfurd_. - -"Ye asked me what I ment by the crueltye specified in my lettres; yat -proceedethe of you onelye, that wille not accept mye offres and -repentance. I confess that I have failed in som thingis, and yet -greater faultes have bin made to you sundrye tymes, which ye have -forgiven. I am but yonge, and ye will saye ye have forgiven me diverse -tymes. Maye not a man of mye age, for lack of counselle, of which I am -very destitute, falle twise or thrise, and yet repent, and be chastised -bye experience? If I have made any faile that ye wul think a faile, -howsoever its be, I crave your pardone, and protest that I shall never -faile againe. I desire no other thinge but that we may be together as -husband and wife. And if ye will not consent hereto, I desire never to -ris futhe from this bed. Therefore I pray yow, give me an answer -hereunto. God knoweth how I am punished for making mye god of yow, and -for having no other thought but on yow. And if at ainie tyme I offend -yow, ye are the cause; for that when anie offendethe me, if for mye -refuge I might open mye minde to you, I would speak to no other; but -when ainie thing is spoken to me, and ye and I not beinge as husband and -wife ought to be, necessitee compelleth me to kepe it in my brest," etc. - - - _Alleged Letter of Mary's_. - - (_Translated from French into Scots._) - -"Ye ask me quhat I mene be the crueltie conteint in my letter; it is of -you alone, that will not accept my offeris and repentance. I confess -that I have faillit but not into that quihilk I ever denyit; and -sicklyke hes faillit to sindrie of your subjeetis, quhilk ye have -forgiven. I am young. Ye will say that ye have forgiven me ofttymes, -and yit yat I return to my faultis. May not ane man of my age, for lack -of counsell, fall twyse or thryse, or in lack of his promeis, and at -last repent himself, and be chastisit be experience? If I may obtain -pardoun, I proteste I shall never make faulte agane. And I craif na -uther thing bot yat we may be at bed and buird togidder as husband and -wyfe; and gif ye will not consent heirunto I sail nevir ryse out of yis -bed. I pray yow tell me yoor resolution. God knawis how I am punischit -for making my god of yow, and for having na uther thoucht bot on yow; -and gif at ony tyme I offend yow, ye are the caus; because when ony -offendis me, gif for my refuge I micht playne unto yow, I would speike -it unto na uther body; but quhen I heir ony thing, not being familiar -with you, necessitie constraine me to keip it in my briest," etc. - - -It will be noticed that, not only are the words the same (the -differences of spelling do not affect the case), but the clauses and -phrases occupy the same relative positions in both documents. And yet -we are asked to believe that these are independent reports of the same -discourse, written down from memory. - -A distinguished Scottish writer has summed up the question thus: "That -Mary and Darnley should have held a long private conversation on many -topics of no particular importance; that after Mary was gone Darnley -should have repeated the whole conversation to Crawfurd; that Crawfurd -either then or eighteen months later should have written out a report in -Scots of what Darnley had said; that Mary should have written within -twenty-four hours a letter in French in which she also reported the -conversation; that Mary's letter should have been afterwards translated -into Scots; and that the Scots translation of Mary's letter should have -been found to agree, word for word, with Crawfurd's report,--this series -of marvels is more than the most devout credulity can stomach." (John -Skelton, C.B., LL.D.) - -Seventh. The history of these letters makes it tolerably clear that it -was many months after they were said to have been discovered by Morton, -before they took definite form; in other words, that they were being -concocted, at least, to use the words of the loyal nobility, "in some -principal and substantial clauses." Even as late as the month of -August, 1567, the rebel lords reiterated that Bothwell had laid violent -hands on the Queen, and that they had risen up to rescue her from his -thraldom. But on December 4th, the same lords declared, as we read in -the Act of the Secret Counsel, that they had taken arms against her -because she was an accomplice of Bothwell's in the murder of her -husband, as shown "be divers hir previe lettres written and subscrivit -with hir awen hand, and sent by hir to James Erll Boithwell." This flat -contradiction between the statements of the same parties arouses the -strongest suspicion of treachery. Nor will it avail to say that in -their excessive charity, they had for a time chosen to make liars of -themselves rather than unnecessarily reveal the vices of their former -Queen; for, according to the deposition of Morton, at least according to -what Mary's adversaries claim to be Morton's deposition, the Casket -containing the incriminating documents was taken from a servant of -Bothwell's on June 20th--nearly two weeks after the Confederate lords -had taken up arms. Again, the minutes of the Secret Counsel describe -the letters as "written and subscrit with hir (Mary's) awen hand, and -sent by hir to James Erll Boithwell." Yet the letters exhibited at -Hampton Court nearly a year later, were neither signed by Mary, nor -addressed to Bothwell. - -Eighth. The Countess of Lennox, Darnley's mother, has indirectly -furnished evidence against the genuineness of the Casket Letters that -can scarcely be valued too highly. For some years she had ceased to be -on friendly terms with the Queen. It was her husband, the Earl, who had -demanded that Bothwell should be tried for the murder of their son; and -by reason of the suspicions which fanatical clamour and cunning -treachery had attached to Mary's conduct, the bereaved parents had -naturally entertained bitter feelings for their royal daughter-in-law. -But the villainy which had brought the unfortunate Queen to an English -prison was at length revealed; close acquaintance with the Regent -Morton, the quondam leading spirit of the rebel faction, afforded the -Countess opportunities of discovering facts that neither she nor her -husband had known during the strife of 1567; and, in November, 1575, she -comforted the imprisoned exile by a letter in which, among other things, -she said:-- - -"I beseech Your Majesty, fear not, but trust in God that all shall be -well; the treachery of your traitors is known better than before. I -shall always play my part to Your Majesty's content, willing God, so as -may ten to both our comforts." "_The treachery of your traitors is -known better than before._" Could the mother of the murdered King -change front and write thus, if she believed that Mary had written the -Casket Letter number two, in all its parts? - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - THE QUEEN OF SCOTS DETAINED A PRISONER. - - -Mary's cause, as far as Elizabeth was concerned, was now hopeless, -although the unfortunate Queen was not given to understand as much. She -was removed from Carlisle, which was too near her English friends and -her faithful Scottish Borderers. The danger of leaving her at Carlisle -is thus hinted by Mr. Skelton, where he describes the effect she -produced on Sir Francis Knollys:-- - -"When she first flashed upon him in her dishevelled beauty and strong -anger--travel-stained though she was from her long ride after the -Langside panic--the puritanic veteran warmed into unpremeditated -welcome. When we read the remarkable letters in which he describes the -fugitive Queen, we cease to wonder at the disquietude of Elizabeth; a -glance, a smile, a few cordial words, from such a woman might have set -all the northern counties in a blaze. The cold and canny Scot, whose -metaphysical and theological ardour contrast so curiously with his -frugal common sense, could stolidly resist the charm; but the Catholic -nobles, the Border chivalry, would have responded without a day's delay -to her summons." - -It will not be amiss to give, as recorded from time to time in his own -words, the impression which the fugitive and impassioned Queen made on -Sir Francis during the short time she was under his care. - -"We found her," he writes, "in her chamber of presence ready to receive -us, when we declared unto her Your Highness' (Queen Elizabeth's) -sorrowfulness for her lamentable misadventure. We found her in answer -to have an eloquent tongue and a discreet head; and it seemeth by her -doings she hath stout courage and liberal heart adjoining thereto." -Later: "This lady and princess is a notable woman. She seemeth to -regard no ceremonious honour besides the acknowledgment of her estate -royal. She showeth a disposition to speak much, to be bold, to be -pleasant, to be very familiar. She showeth a great desire to be -revenged of her enemies. She shows a readiness to expose herself to all -perils in hope of victory. She desires much to hear of hardiness and -valiancy, commending by name all approved hardy men of her country, -although they be her enemies; and she concealeth no cowardice even in -her friends. The thing she most thirsteth after is victory; and it -seemeth to be indifferent to her to have her enemies diminished either -by the sword of her friends, or by the liberal promises and rewards of -her purse, or by division and quarrels among themselves. So that for -victory's sake, pain and peril seem pleasant to her; and in respect of -victory, wealth and all things seem to her contemptuous and vile. Now -what is to be done with such a lady and princess, and whether such a -lady and princess is to be nourished in our bosom, or whether it be good -to halt and dissemble with such a lady, I refer to your judgment. The -plainest way is the most honorable in my opinion." Yes; "the plainest -way is the most honourable," but "to halt and dissemble" was esteemed -the most profitable. Again Knollys writes: "She does not dislike my -plain dealing. Surely she is a rare woman; for as no flattery can -lightly abuse her, so no plain speech seemeth to offend her, if she -think the speaker thereof to be an honest man." If we knew nothing of -Mary but what we have learned from the pen of this cold and critical -adversary, who saw her only when misfortune and disappointment might -well have soured and irritated her nature, yet found her "eloquent, -discreet, bold, pleasant, very familiar," unmoved by flattery and -unruffled by "plain speech," we could legitimately infer that -fascinating beyond all ordinary measure must have been the days of her -unclouded girlhood in France, and even the less cheerful years of her -prosperity in Holyrood;[#] and we could well understand why -Elizabeth--who hated her for her claim to the English throne and for her -surpassing personal beauty--was anxious to place her as far as possible -beyond reach of her friends and sympathizers. The necessity of doing -this was emphasized nearly a year later, when Mary was at Tutbury in -charge of the Earl of Shrewsbury, by a certain friend of Cecil's named -Nicholas White, whose curiosity had lead him to seek an audience with -the far-famed captive. In a letter to Cecil, which, as its -parenthetical clauses clearly demonstrate, was intended also for the eye -of Elizabeth, he wrote:-- - - -[#] Randolph, the English Ambassador to Scotland, has left us, in a -letter to Queen Elizabeth, a lively picture of the Scottish queen at the -age of twenty-two. He had waited on her at St. Andrews, whither she had -withdrawn to pass a few quiet days with some friends, and he describes -how good-humouredly she upbraided him for interrupting their merriment -with his "grave matters." Among other things he wrote:--"Immediately -after the receipt of your letter to this Queen, I repaired to St. -Andrews. So soon as time served, I did present the same, which being -read, and as appeared in her countenance very well liked, she said -little to me for that time. The next day she passed wholly in mirth, -nor gave any appearance to any of the contrary; nor would not, as she -said openly, but be quiet and merry. Her grace lodged in a merchant's -house, her train were very few; and there was small repair from any -part. Her will was, that for the time that I did tarry, I should dine -and sup with her. Your Majesty was aftertimes dranken unto by her, at -dinners and suppers. Having in this sort continued with her grace -Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, I thought it time to take occasion to utter -unto her grace that which last I received in command from your Majesty, -by Mr. Secretary's letter.... I had no sooner spoken these words, but -she saith, I see now well that you are weary of this company and -treatment. I sent for you to be merry, and to see how like a Bourgeois -wife I live with my little troop; and you will interrupt our pastime -with your great and grave matters. I pray you, sir, if you weary here, -return home to Edinburgh, and keep your gravity and great embassade -until the Queen come thither; for I assure you, you shall not get her -here, nor I know not myself where she is gone; you see neither cloth nor -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." - - -"If I (who in the sight God bear the Queen's majesty a natural love -beside my bounded duty) might give advice, there should be very few -subjects in this land have access to, or conference with, this lady. -For besides that she is a goodly personage (and yet in truth not -comparable to our Sovereign), she hath withal an alluring grace, a -pretty Scottish speech, and a searching wit, clouded with mildness." We -are indebted to Mr. White for the following piece of information also: -"Her hair of itself is black; and yet Mr. Knollys told me that she wears -hair of sundry colours." - -From this time forward Mary's history is the history of sustaining hope -and depressing disappointment. Hopes of an accommodation with her rebel -subjects were held out to her by Elizabeth; non-committal promises of -her restoration were made; kill-time negotiations were sometimes entered -into. It is distressing to read the history of her nineteen years of -imprisonment. She never ceased to hope for her release, and yet her -hopes were repeatedly disappointed. She continued to write Elizabeth in -a friendly tone, hoping, no doubt, to touch a chord of sympathy in her -cousin's heart; but she never cringed, she never abased herself. The -proud spirit of her forefathers, which she had so fully inherited, lent -courage and dignity to her utterances. Various plans were laid for her -rescue; but her great distance from any point from which she could be -carried out of the realm, rendered them ineffectual. She was removed -from place to place, more than a dozen times. The close confinement and -the advance of years began to tell on her once lithe and beautiful form. -And, indeed, what suffering could be more terrible to a young woman of -Mary's lively temperament, than prolonged confinement under a rigorous -regime and complete separation from the society of friends. No wonder -the Bard of Ayr indignantly addresses Elizabeth:-- - - The weeping blood in woman's breast - Was never known to thee, - Nor the balm that draps on wound of woe - Frae woman's pitying e'e. - - -If Mary continued to languish in an English prison, it was not because -the majority of the Scottish people had not the good-will to liberate -her and place her on the throne. But now, as in the days of her -imprisonment in Lochleven Castle, the very love they bore her paralyzed -their efforts in her behalf. A miscarried attempt at rescuing her would -most probably involve the loss of her life. Elizabeth had received -assurance that Mary would never be allowed to pass the precincts of her -prison alive. The most distinguished and powerful nobles in -Scotland--Argyll, Huntly, Chatelheraut, Athol, Herries, and many -others--continued to support her cause, and there is hardly room to -doubt, that if Scotland had been left to settle its own internal -disputes, Mary would have been restored. But Elizabeth was resolved -that Scotland should not settle its own disputes. She laid aside the -mask, when she could no longer wear it, and, according as the need -arose, sent her soldiers into Scotland to help overpower the friends of -Mary. From the day on which Moray returned to Scotland from the -Westminster farce, the Queen's party began to gain strength. But what -could this avail, since Elizabeth was determined that the cause of the -helpless captive should not prosper. The Regent was shot at Linlithgow -in January, 1570, and the Earl of Lennox, who succeeded him in the -Regency, gave notice to the Ambassador of Elizabeth that English aid -would be necessary for the maintenance of his position. The aid, of -course, was granted, and the English auxiliaries, under Sussex, by the -severity which they exercised against the adherents of the Queen, fully -demonstrated their claim to the title of "auld enemies." Mary's party -had done enough to prove their loyalty, but when Elizabeth unreservedly -cast her lot with the opposite side, they could not hope for permanent -success, and they ultimately came to terms with the Regent. - -The disgust which Moray's conduct towards his sister had excited among -the moderate Scottish nobles is apparent in the action of two leading -personages, shortly after the breaking up of the Westminster Conference. -William Maitland of Lethington--the "flower of Scottish wit"--and -William Kirkaldy of Grange--the "mirror of chivalry"--had been attached -to the Regent's party, although it is certain that at least Maitland -aimed at a compromise with the Queen and opposed extreme measures. -Seeing that a middle course was no longer possible, they unequivocally -went over to the Queen's party. Kirkaldy was Governor of Edinburgh -Castle, and in April, 1571, Maitland, broken down in body, but mentally -the recognized leader of the Queen's men, passed within its walls. From -this inacessible height Kirkaldy could look down with indifference on -the futile efforts of the Regent's forces to dislodge him, and Maitland -could send forth to his associates his letters of advice and -encouragement. Throughout the country the opposing forces met in many a -bloody conflict. Lennox was killed in an engagement with Huntly in -1571; the Earl of Mar, who succeeded him, died the following year, and -the Regency passed into the hands of the fierce and licentious Earl of -Morton. Morton renewed the conflict with redoubled vigour. But -Kirkaldy's position remained impregnable. "Mons. Meg," the old monster -gun, so famous in Scottish history, continued to roar defiance from the -ramparts of the Castle, and the Standard of Mary still floated over -David's tower. But the old story was repeated; English troops were sent -from Berwick to reinforce Morton; and on May the 9th, 1573, the Castle -surrendered. - -In England the sympathy for the fallen Queen had already burst forth in -sudden but ill-directed revolt, under the leadership of two of the most -ancient and powerful peers of the realm,--the Earls of Northumberland -and Westmorland. Slight success at the outset was soon succeeded by -disorder and disaster. The Earls fled to Scotland, whence Westmorland -passed safely to Flanders. Northumberland was taken by the Regent -Moray, and was afterwards, to the great disgust and humiliation of all -honest Scotsmen, handed over to Elizabeth by the Regent Morton, in -return for a suitable sum of money. Needless to say the Earl was put to -death. Sir Walter Scott, always ready to view transaction from the -standpoint of chivalry, makes the following reference to this bargain:-- - -"The surrender of this unfortunate nobleman to England was a great -stain, not only on the character of Morton, but on that of Scotland in -general, which had hitherto been accounted a safe and hospitable place -of refuge for those whom misfortune or political faction had exiled from -their own country. It was the more particularly noticed because when -Morton himself had been forced to fly to England, on account of his -share in Rizzio's murder, he had been courteously received and protected -by the unhappy nobleman whom he had now delivered up to his fate. It -was an additional and aggravating circumstance, that it was a Douglas -who had betrayed a Percy,[#] and when the annals of their ancestors were -considered, it was found that while they presented many acts of open -hostility, many instances of close and firm alliance, they never till -now had afforded an example of any act of treachery exercised by one -family against the other. To complete the infamy of the transaction, a -sum of money was paid to the Regent on this occasion, which he divided -with Douglas of Lochleven." (_Tales of a Grandfather_.) - -[#] Northumberland was a Percy; Westmoreland, a Nevil. - -On February 4th, 1568, Mary passed to the care of the Earl of -Shrewsbury, who was destined to be her keeper for the next fifteen -years. In November, 1570, she was brought to Sheffield where she was -detained, almost without interruption, for fourteen years. Personally, -Shrewsbury bore no ill-will to his charge. He appears to have been an -upright and cultured man, and was evidently disposed to treat his -prisoner with the consideration and leniency her rank and misfortune -would seem to demand. But he was a loyal subject of Elizabeth's, and -until she should be pleased to relieve him of his unpleasant duty, he -would faithfully execute her will in regard to the restrictions which -she thought fit to place on the liberty of the Scottish Queen. - -Great as were the bodily and mental sufferings which close confinement, -disappointed hopes and the ingratitude of men produced, they would have -been greatly aggravated, had Mary only known by what a slender thread -her life sometimes hung. Elizabeth entered into negotiations with -successive Regents, from Moray to Morton, for the delivery of Mary into -their hands. The remonstrations of the French and Spanish Ambassadors, -who represented that such an action would be equivalent to condemning -her to instant death, arrested the progress of the first negotiations -till the death of Moray brought them to an abrupt ending. During the -regency of Mar, the project was revived and almost realized, the -necessary condition that Mary should be quickly put to death having been -agreed to by the Regent and Morton. But here the death of another -Regent intervened to save the doomed Queen from assassination or -judicial murder. On the death of Mar, Morton, who had hitherto been the -real, though not the nominal Regent, assumed the reins of government. -He had no scruples about executing the will of Elizabeth, but he -demanded a higher price for his services than she cared to pay. Morton -and Elizabeth were well matched; they both knew the value of money, and -were unwilling to close a bargain that would not promise to be a safe -business transaction. Morton was, no doubt, confident that he would not -be hampered by competition in the work he was undertaking, and that he -could exact what wages he pleased for his expert labour. Killegrew, the -agent of Elizabeth, understood this, and was anxious that the bargain -should be clinched before Morton took it into his mind to demand a -greater reward. "I pray God," he wrote; "we prove not herein like those -who refused the three volumes of Sibylla's prophecies, with the price -that they were afterwards pleased to give for one; for sure I left the -market here better cheap than now I find it." But Elizabeth would not -be outwitted--and Mary lived on. - -A never-failing source of sorrow to Mary was the knowledge that her son, -whom she had seen for the last time an infant, scarcely twelve months -old, at Stirling, was in charge of those who had contrived her own -overthrow, and was under the tutorship of the venal and ungrateful -Buchanan. The burden of her captivity would have been immeasurably -lightened, could she have been assured that he had learned to love her -and feel for her misfortunes. But the young James, whatever may have -been his desire, was in the hands of her enemies, and could communicate -with his mother only in the manner and through the means that they were -pleased to specify. Nevertheless, as he grew older he had ample -opportunity of learning the real character of the men who had dethroned -her, and would, it must be presumed, have done what he could to procure -her release, did not the promptings of human interest run counter to the -dictates of natural love. He was not of that stuff of which heroes are -made. The bravery and chivalry for which his forefathers had long been -distinguished, found no abode in his bosom. A sound skin and the -prospect of succeeding to the English throne weighed more with him than -the thought of adopting a firm and uncompromising policy in defence of -his mother. While the projects of Mary's friends on the Continent gave -promise of being carried to a successful issue, he was not averse to -plotting with the Guises and seeking the aid of the Pope in behalf of -his "dearest and most honoured lady mother"; but when these projects -came to naught, he was found closely allied to the winning cause. Later -on, it is true, when Mary was declared a party to a conspiracy against -the life of Elizabeth, and her execution was imminent, he dispatched -Ambassadors to the English Court to intercede for her life; and when at -last the fatal blow was struck, he gave vent to angry feelings and -expressed a desire of revenge. A large number of the Scottish nobility -were anxious to avert by armed force the contemplated insult to their -nation, and to secure Scotland against a humiliation such as their -ancestors would never have tolerated. But a cowardly King and a divided -nobility were not the forces which, in earlier days, had awakened terror -in the heart of England. Elizabeth and her advisers know this, and were -well aware that the fear of never reaching the goal of his ambition--the -united thrones of England and Scotland--would curb within harmless -limits the half-hearted anger of the selfish James. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - ELIZABETH UNMOVED BY HER CAPTIVE'S APPEALS. - - -Reading the history of Mary's prison life in England, one is surprised -at the frequent expressions of hope in Elizabeth's good will which are -found in her letters. How she could continue to hope in one who had -repeatedly deceived her is difficult to explain, except on the -supposition that she was constitutionally incapable of believing that -misery such as hers could fail to awaken sympathy in the heart of a -woman. There can be little doubt, however, that she believed -considerably less in Elizabeth's friendship than she professed. But the -absence of all well-founded hope, except through the favourable action -of Elizabeth, led her to employ every subtle means in her power to -induce her "good cousin" to break the fetters of her captivity, and -restore her once more to liberty. Still, she did not always restrain -her actions within these diplomatic lines; she was human,--noble and -courageous, it is true, but only human--and the desire of freedom, the -sense of the injustice she suffered, and the pains of her illness, -occasionally broke forth in angry and impassioned language. But she -never lost the consciousness that she was a Queen, nor did she hesitate, -when mild and guarded language proved vain, to speak with bold and -dignified straightforwardness, that seemed almost designed to challenge -the direst resentment of her royal captor. Her letter to Elizabeth, -dated from Sheffield, November 8th, 1582, is a good specimen, both of -her plain, outspoken style, and of her insinuating pathos, and likewise -witnesses the clearness and vigour of her mind, despite long years of -bodily and mental suffering. The document is lengthy, and I shall omit -those paragraphs which I may consider of lesser interest to the -reader:-- - -"Madam,-- - -"Upon that which has come to my knowledge of the last conspiracies -executed in Scotland against my poor child, having reason to fear the -consequence of it, from the example of myself; I must employ the very -small remainder of my life and strength before my death, to discharge my -heart to you fully of my just and melancholy complaints, of which I -desire that this letter may serve you, as long as you live after me, for -a perpetual testimony and engraving upon your conscience; as much for my -discharge to posterity as to the shame and confusion of all those who, -under your approbation, have so cruelly and unworthily treated me to -this time, and reduced me to the extremity in which I am. But, as their -designs, practices, actions and proceedings, though as detestable as -they could have been, have always prevailed with you against my very -just remonstrances, and sincere deportment; and as the power which you -have in your hands, has always been a reason for you among mankind, I -will have recourse to the living God, our only judge, who has -established us equally and immediately under him for the government of -his people. - -"I will invoke to the end of this, my very pressing affliction, that he -will return to you, and to me (as he will do in his last judgment), the -share of our merits, and demerits, one towards the other. And remember, -Madam, that to him we shall not be able to disguise anything by the -paint and policy of the world; though mine enemies, under you, have been -able, for a time, to cover their subtle inventions to men, perhaps to -you. - -"In his name, and before him sitting, between you and me, I will remind -you, that by the agents, spies and secret messengers sent in your name -into Scotland while I was there, my subjects were corrupted and -encouraged to rebel against me, _to make attempts upon my person_, and, -in one word to speak, to emprise and execute that which has come to the -said country during my troubles. Of which I will not at present specify -other proof than that which I have gained of it by the confession of one -who was afterwards amongst those that were most advanced for this good -service, and of the witnesses confronted with him. To whom, if I had -since done justice, he had not afterwards, by his ancient intelligences, -renewed the same practices against my son, and had not procured for all -my traitorous and rebellious subjects, who took refuge with you, that -aid and support which they have had ever since my detention on this side -(i. e., in England); without which support, I think, the said traitors -could not since have prevailed, nor afterwards have stood out so long as -they have done. - -"During my imprisonment at Lochleven, Trogmorton counselled me on your -behalf to sign that demission, which he advertised me would be presented -to me, assuring me that it could not be valid. And there was not -afterwards a place in Christendom where it was held for valid, except on -this side, where it was maintained, even to have assisted with open -force, the authors of it. In your conscience, Madam, would you -acknowledge an equal liberty and power in your subjects? -Notwithstanding this, my authority has been by my subjects transferred -to my son, when he was not capable of exercising it. - -"When I was escaped from Lochleven, ready to give battle to my rebels, I -remitted to you, by a gentleman, express a diamond jewel, which I had -formerly received as a token from you, and with assurance to be -succoured by you against my rebels; and even that, on my retiring -towards you, you would come to the very frontiers in order to assist me, -which had been confirmed to me by divers messengers. This promise -coming, and repeatedly, from your mouth (though I had found myself often -abused by your Ministers), made me place such affiance on the -effectiveness of it that, when my army was routed, I came directly to -throw myself into your arms, if I had been able to approach them. But -while I was planning to set out to find you, there was I arrested on my -way, surrounded with guards, secured in strong places, and at last -reduced, all shame set aside, to the captivity in which I remain to this -day, after a thousand deaths which I have already suffered for it. - - * * * * * - -"In the meantime my rebels, perceiving that their headlong course was -carrying them much farther than they had thought before, and the truth -being evidenced concerning the calumnies that had been propagated of me -at the conference, to which I submitted, in full assembly of your -deputies and mine, with others of the contrary party in that country, in -order to clear myself publicly of them; there were the principals,[#] -for having come to repentance, besieged by your forces in the Castle of -Edinburgh, and one of the first among them poisoned, and the other most -cruelly hanged, after I had twice made them lay down their arms, at your -request, in hopes of an agreement which God knows whether my enemies -aimed at, I have been for a long time trying whether patience would -soften the rigour and ill-treatment, which they have begun, for these -ten years particularly, to make me suffer. And accommodating myself -exactly to the order prescribed me for my captivity in this house, as -well in regard to the number and quality of the attendants, which I -retain, dismissing the others; as for my diet, and ordinary exercise for -my health, I am living, even at present, as quietly and peaceably as one -much inferior to myself, and more obliged, than with such treatment, I -was to you, had been able to do; even to deprive myself, in order to -take away all shadow of suspicion and diffidence from you, of requiring -to have some intelligence with my son, and my country, which is what, by -no right or reason, could be denied me, and principally with my child; -whom, instead of this, they have endeavoured by every way to persuade -against me, in order to weaken us by our division. - - -[#] Secretary Maitland and the Laird of Grange, whose defection from the -Regent's party has already been mentioned. - - -"It was permitted me, you will say, to send one to visit him there, -about three years ago. His captivity then at Stirling, under the -tyrrany of Morton, was the cause of it; as his liberty was afterwards, -of a refusal to make the like visit. All this year past I have several -times entered into divers overtures for the establishment of a good -amity between us, and a sure understanding between these realms in -future. To Chatsworth, about ten years ago, commissioners were sent for -that purpose. A treaty had been held upon it with yourself, by my -ambassadours and those of France. I even myself made, concerning it, the -last winter, all the advantageous overtures to Beal that it was possible -to make. What return have I had thence? My good intention has been -despised, the sincerity of my actions has been neglected and -calumniated, the state of my affairs has been traversed by delays, -postponings and other such artifices. And, in conclusion, a worse and -more unworthy treatment from day to day, anything which I am compelled -to do in order to deserve the contrary, my very long, useless and -prejudicial patience, have rendered me so low that mine enemies, in -their habits of using me ill, think this day they have the right of -prescription for treating me, not as a prisoner, which, in reason I -could not be, but as some slave whose life and whose death depend only -upon their tyrrany. - -"I cannot, Madam, suffer it any longer; and I must in dying, discover -the authors of my death, or, living, attempt, under your protection, to -find an end to the cruelties, calumnies and traitorous designs of my -said enemies, in order to establish me in some little more repose for -the remainder of my life. To take away the occasions pretended for all -differences between us, clear yourself, if you please, of all which has -been reported of you concerning my actions; review the depositions of -the strangers taken in Ireland; let those of the Jesuits last executed -be represented to you; give liberty to those who would undertake to -charge me publickly, and permit me to enter upon my defence; if any evil -be found in me, let me suffer it, it shall be patiently when I shall -know the occasion of it; if any good, suffer me not to be worst treated -for it, with your very great commission before God and man. - -"The vilest criminals that are in your prisons, born under your -obedience, are admitted to their justification; and their accusers, and -their accusations, are always declared to them. Why, then, shall not -the same order have place towards me, a Sovereign Queen, your nearest -relation and lawful heir? I think that this last circumstance has -hitherto been, on the side of my enemies, the principal cause of it, and -of all their calumnies, to make their unjust pretences slide between the -two, by keeping us in division. But, alas, they have now little reason -and less need to torment me more upon this account. For I protest to -you upon mine honour that I look this day for no kingdom but that of my -God; whom I see preparing me for the better conclusion of all my -afflictions and adversities past." - -Reverting to the injustices to which her son was then subjected by -traitors in Scotland, she exhorts Elizabeth not to give countenance to -their actions, and proceeds in the following amazingly naive manner:-- - -"I shall be contented then, only at your not permitting my son to -receive any injury from this country (which is all that I have ever -required of you before, even when an army was sent to the borders to -prevent justice from being done to that detestable Morton), and that -none of your subjects directly or indirectly intermeddle any more in the -affairs of Scotland, unless it is with my knowledge, to whom all -cognizance of these things belongs, or with the assistance of some one -on the part of the most Christian King, my good brother; whom, as our -principal ally, I desire to make privy to the whole of this cause, -because of the little credit that he can have with the traitors who -detain my son at present. - -"But, Madam, with all this freedom of speech, which, I foresee will in -some sort displease you, though it be the truth itself, you will find it -more strange, I assure myself, that I come now to importune you again -with a request of much greater importance, and yet very easy for you to -grant, and release to me. This is, that having not been able hitherto, -by accommodating myself patiently so long a time to the rigorous -treatment of this captivity, and carrying myself sincerely in all -things, yea, even to the last, that could concern you a very little, to -gain myself some assurance of my entire affection towards you; all my -hope being taken away by it of being better treated for the very short -time which remains to me of life; I supplicate you, by the honour of the -sorrowful passion of our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, again I -supplicate you, at once to permit me to withdraw myself out of your -realm, into some place of repose, to search out some comfort for my poor -body, so wearied as it is with continual sorrow, and with liberty of my -conscience to prepare my soul for God, who is calling for it daily." - - * * * * * - -"Your prison, without any right or foundation, has already destroyed my -body, of which you will shortly have the end, if it continues there a -little longer; and my enemies will not have much time for glutting their -cruelties on me; nothing remains of me but the soul, which all your -power cannot make captive. Give it, then, room for aspiring a little -more freely after its salvation, which alone it seeks for at this day, -more than any grandeur of this world. It seems to me that it cannot be -to you any great satisfaction, honour, and advantage, for mine enemies -to trample my life under foot, till they have stifled me in your -presence. Whereas, if in this extremity, however late it be, you -release me out of their hands, you will bind me greatly to you, and bind -all those who belong to me, particularly my poor child, whom you will, -perhaps, make sure to yourself by it. - -"Two things I have principally to require at the close; the one that, -near as I am to going out of this world, I may have with me, for my -consolation, some honourable church-man, to remind me daily of the -course which I have to finish, and teach me how to complete it according -to my religion in which I am firmly resolved to live and die. - -"This is a last duty which cannot be denied to the most mean and -miserable person that lives; it is a liberty which you grant to all -foreign embassadours; as also all other Catholick kings give to your -embassadours the exercise of their religion. And even I myself have not -hitherto forced my own subjects to anything contrary to their religion, -though I had all power and authority over them. And that I in this -extremity should be deprived of such freedom, you cannot, with justice, -require. What advantage will redound to you, when you shall deny it to -me? I hope God will excuse me if, oppressed by you in this manner, I do -not render to him any duty but what I shall be permitted to do in my -heart. But you will set a very bad example to the other Princes of -Christendom, to act towards their subjects with the same rigour that you -shall show to me, a Sovereign Queen, and your nearest relation; which I -am, and will be as long as I live, in despite of mine enemies." - -Here she enters upon a justification of her conduct in view of a charge -which had been brought against her, namely, that contrary to her -promise, and without the knowledge of Elizabeth, she had entered into -certain political negotiations with her son in Scotland. She reviews the -circumstances of the case, indicates her own and Elizabeth's respective -practices, and then refers to her cousin's consideration "which of us -has proceeded with the greatest sincerity." Finally she closes her -lengthy letter with the following appeal:-- - -"Resume the ancient pledges of your good nature; bind your relations to -yourself; give me the satisfaction before I die that, seeing all matters -happily settled again between us, my soul, when delivered from this -body, may not be constrained to display its lamentations before God for -the wrong which you have suffered to be done me here below; but, rather, -that being happily united to you, it may quit this captivity to set -forward towards him, whom I pray to inspire you happily upon my very -just and more than reasonable complaints and grievances. - -"At Sheffield, this 8th of November, one thousand five hundred and -eighty-two. - -"Your very disconsolate, nearest relation, and affectionate cousin, - -"MARIE E." - - -But no appeal, however deeply it might possibly touch the heart of the -Tudor Queen, could turn her from that one purpose which, in her -ever-changing policy, remained forever fixed, of preventing the -possibility of Mary's returning to public life. With all her unwomanly -qualities, however, it cannot be presumed that she was always insensible -to the pathos of her captive's language, or even to the better impulses -of her own heart. She was not, as certain tyrants seem to have been, -cruel from the mere love of inflicting pain. The fierce outbursts of -anger and the arbitrary commands with which she overawed Parliament when -other means of carrying her point failed, did not prevent her from being -sincerely interested in procuring the happiness of her people; and it is -not wholly without cause that she has received, from a portion of her -subjects, the title of "Good Queen Bess." But woe to him who stood -between her and her interest. Her ambition would not be thwarted by any -inconvenient delicacy or dictate of conscience. Whether in her more -peaceful hours she practised "modest stillness and humility," is -irrelevant to the present question; it is beyond doubt however, that -when the blast of jealousy, suspicion, or hatred, blew in her ears she -knew how to "imitate the action of the tiger." It must in truth be -admitted that her position in relation to the Scottish Queen, was a -difficult one; but it should, in equal truth, be admitted that her own -dishonesty was cause of the most part of her trouble. To have within -her realm the one whom a large portion of her subjects considered by -right Queen of England, and through whom the Pope and the Catholic -powers hoped to see the island restored to the obedience of the Holy -See, was eminently calculated to make her life uncomfortable. She was -conscious that she was an object of hatred to many who had power to do -her no end of mischief. But she must have foreseen these troubles when -she elected to detain Mary a prisoner. At any rate she must soon have -learned that so long as she chose to be the jailer of the most -beautiful, accomplished and renowned woman in Europe, she could not hope -for a peaceful career. Who so foolish as to think that Mary would not -use all her energy to regain her liberty, or that powerful parties at -home and abroad would not make the captive's cause their own? Certainly -not the crafty Elizabeth. Yet a simple act of justice--the release of -the prisoner whom she unjustly and ungenerously detained--would have -removed the cause of half her anxieties. Elizabeth's troubles, -therefore, were voluntarily assumed, and were part of the price which -she was content to pay for the gratification of having in her power the -woman and queen whose superior beauty, and title to the throne of -England, had long before aroused her undying hatred. It is childish and -ridiculous for historians to excuse Elizabeth's harshness on the plea -that Mary's plotting and intriguing rendered severe treatment necessary. -The same argument would justify the bandit in maltreating his victim who -would be so ungrateful as to attempt escaping from his custody. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - THE BEGINNING OF THE END. - - -The spacious park of Sheffield, in which Mary's prison was situated, -beautiful as was the natural scenery of river, mountain and cultivated -slope, that extended far beyond it, could offer no antidote to the -"_dura catena, et misera paena_," in which she languished. Her mind had -already been stored with pictures of the choicest rural scenery in -France, and of the rugged grandeur of Aberdeen and Perthshire; and the -variegated charms on which she could now gaze from her prison window -only served to produce that sad pleasure which we feel in renewing -memories of joys that have forever departed. Well, has Mr. Samuel -Roberts (in his feeling lines in reference to her stay at Sheffield -Lodge) presumed that she gazed upon the "lovely scene" "through -tears":-- - - Alone, here oft may Scotia's beauteous queen, - Through tears have gazed upon the lovely scene, - Victim of villainy, of woman's hate, - Of fiery zeal, of wiles and storms of state; - Torn from her throne, her country and her child, - And cast an exiled monarch in this wild, - She here was taught, what youthful beauty ne'er - While seated on a throne, had deigned to hear, - To say submissive, at the closing scene, - "'Tis well that I have thus afflicted been;" - Then calmly on the block, in faith, resign - Three heart-corrupting crowns, for one divine. - Reader,--the ways of God are not like thine. - - -In August, 1584, Shrewsbury was released of his charge. He had served -long and faithfully in a capacity that was repulsive to his instincts; -and after fifteen full years of close acquaintance with the captive -Queen, he was able to assure Elizabeth "that if the Queen of Scotland -promise anything she will not break her word." - -With the withdrawal of Shrewsbury, a new and more ominous period opened -in the life of the Scottish Queen. She was removed from Sheffield to -Wingfield; and again from Wingfield to Tutbury. Here, in April, 1585, -she was committed to the charge of that "narrow, boorish and bitter -secretary," Sir Amias Paulet, who seems to have been selected mainly -with a view of driving her to desperation and of rendering the last days -of her life as bitter and insufferable as possible. Shrewsbury had, it -is true, executed the commands of his mistress; but he had done so -without making it clear that he found pleasure in being the instrument -of tyranny. In the meantime his upright, gentlemanly character -modified, as far as was consistent with his duty and safety, the rigour -which it was his office to enforce. Paulet, on the contrary, carried -into effect the will of Elizabeth to the letter, and in addition -satiated his own fierce and fanatical hatred of his helpless prisoner. -What wonder if Mary should become desperate and resolve to embark on -whatever expedition, daring and reckless though it might be, that gave -even a probable hope of securing her liberty? Seventeen years of -waiting and negotiating for a peaceable settlement of her case, had -resulted in failure; nay, had left her in greater distress than ever. -Whatever quota of humanity had tempered the severity of her treatment, -was now replaced by the studied rudeness of her keeper; her son had just -disassociated completely his political interests from hers; and the -movements and tactics of her enemies awakened and intensified her old -fear that she should soon be visited with a secret and unnatural death. - -The defection of James deeply wounded the mother's heart. "This was the -most unkindest cut of all." That the one for whom she had so long -defended the independence of Scotland against the English claim of -suzerainty; that the one from whom she had hopefully waited through -years of patient suffering to receive even one word that would assure -her that she had a son growing up to love and assist her; that the one -whom she remembered only as an innocent and playful infant, from whom -she had been, torn away by heartless traitors,--that he should abandon -her when fresh miseries were gathering thick and fast around her, was -more than she could calmly suffer, and for a short time her wounded love -and feelings of indignation were revealed in sad and bitter complaint. -"Was it for this," she wrote to the French Ambassador, "that I have -endured so much, in order to preserve for him the inheritance to which I -have a just right? I am far from envying his authority in Scotland. I -desire no power, nor wish to set my foot in that kingdom, if it were not -for the pleasure of once embracing a son, whom I have hitherto loved -with too tender affection. Whatever he either enjoys or expects, he -derived it from me. From him I never received assistance, supply or -benefit of any kind. Let not my allies treat him any longer as a king; -he holds that dignity by my consent; and if a speedy repentance does not -appease my just resentment, I will load him with a parent's curse, and -surrender my crown, with all its pretensions, to one who will receive -them with gratitude, and defend them with vigour." - -The English Parliament had recently framed a statute, out of special -consideration for the Queen of Scots, by which it was enacted that, not -only the person _by_ whom, but also the person _for_ whom, a rebellion -should be excited against the majesty of Elizabeth, might be visited -with several penalties, and "pursued to death," and it only remained to -induce Mary to avail herself of the benefits of that benign -legislation.[#] The event long hoped for by her enemies ere long came -to pass. The net of Secretary Walsingham's cunning intrigue gradually -involved the unsuspecting victim in its deadly meshes. In April, 1586, -a young English Catholic gentleman, named Babington, whom a spirit of -chivalry had deeply interested in the Scottish Queen's behalf, and who -was stung to desperation by the injustices which he and his -co-religionists were obliged to suffer because they would not forswear -the faith of their English forefathers, was drawn into a plot, devised -by Morgan and Paget in France, for the overthrow of Elizabeth and the -liberation of Mary. This plot is known in English history as the -Babington plot, though it might, with far more truth, be called the -Walsingham plot. Walsingham was aware of its existence for some months -before the services of Babington were solicited. His agents, especially -Pooley and Gilbert Gifford, combined the offices of staunch conspirators -and spies at the same time, and kept their master fully informed of what -was being done. The assassination of Elizabeth formed no part of the -original design. It was only at a consultation, held at Paris, in -April, in which Gifford took an active part, that this daring project -was agreed upon, and that it was resolved to seek the aid of the -unfortunate young Babington. In the meantime, Walsingham, anxious that -Mary might be entangled as completely as possible in his net, and -tempted to ratify the compromising scheme that he himself, through his -worthy agent, had helped to concoct, arranged that she should be given -favourable opportunities for communication with her outside friends; but -he equally provided that the medium of communication should be persons -in his own service. Thus, the letters she sent out, as well as those -she received, all passed through the office of the Secretary of State, -were deciphered there by another noted instrument of the Secretary's, -named Philipps, and forwarded to their destination with whatever -addition or interpolation seemed best calculated to provoke a reply -directly implicating the unsuspecting captive. - - -[#] In justice it must be stated, that it was not under this statute, -but under a later one requiring the complicity of the party in whose -interest the treasonable measures should be taken, that the Queen of -Scots was subsequently condemned. - - -Elizabeth and her Minister knew that the plot had now reached a point -beyond which it would be perilous to allow it to proceed. Early in -August, Babington and his associates were arrested, and on the 16th of -the same month Mary, who was then at Chartley, in Staffordshire, was -removed without forewarning, her two Secretaries, Curle and Nau being -separated from her, and all her papers seized; a few weeks later (25th -September) she was lodged in the ominous castle of Fotheringay, in -Northamptonshire. - -"The name of Fotheringay had been connected through a long course of -years with many sorrows and much crime, and during the last three years -the castle had been used as a state prison. Catherine of Arragon, more -fortunate than her great-niece, had flatly refused to be imprisoned -within its walls, declaring that 'to Fotheringay she would not go, -unless bound with cart rope and dragged thither.' Tradition, often -kinder than history, asserts that James VI., after his accession to the -English throne, destroyed the castle; and though it is no longer -possible to credit him with this act of filial love or remorse, time has -obliterated almost every trace of the once grim fortress. A green -mound, an isolated mass of masonry, and a few thistles, are all that now -remain to mark the scene of Mary's last sufferings. Very different was -the aspect of Fotheringay at the time of which we write. Then, -protected by its double moat, it frowned on the surrounding country in -almost impregnable strength. The front of the castle and the great -gateway faced the north, while to the southwest rose the keep. A large -courtyard occupied the interior of the building, in which were situated -the chief apartments, including the chapel and the great hall destined -to be the scene of the queen's death."[#] - - -[#] Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott in "_The Tragedy of Fotheringay_." - - -A moment had now arrived in which the helpless Queen, broken down by -nineteen years of close confinement and consequent ill-health, had heed -to summon up all her native courage. Her papers and most of her private -correspondence had been carried off to London; her Secretaries, who had -been privy to all her plots and plans, had been separated from her, and -with the terrors of the rack before their minds would be forced not only -to divulge what they knew, but still worse to subscribe, perhaps, to -what they did not believe; and she, without counsel or comfort, was left -in the hands of her enemies. The manoeuvrings of her enemies at this -time show that they expected that, finding herself alone and in the -extremity of danger, she would cast herself at the feet of Elizabeth, -confess that she was guilty, and sue for pardon. But they had yet to -learn the calm dignity, the unflinching courage and the Christian -hopefulness with which Mary Stewart could place her neck upon the block. - -A commission of the nobles was appointed to try her at Fotheringay, on -the charge of plotting against the life of Elizabeth. Mary protested -against the manner in which she was to be tried as belittling an -independent sovereign, who was subject neither to the laws nor to the -Queen of England. But at length, through fear that her refusal to -appear before the commissioners would be interpreted as a sign of guilt, -and through dread of being dispatched secretly by poison--in which case -her enemies could assert what they wished about the way she died--she -consented to appear, and for two days sat before the commissioners -listening to and answering accusations. - -The proceedings in which she was constrained to take part cannot -properly be called a trial. She was deprived, as far as possible, of -every means of defence; she had no secretary, her correspondence was -withheld from her, she was refused counsel. "Alas," she said to her -faithful servant Melville, as she took her seat the first day before the -Commissioners, "Alas, here are many counsellors, but not one for me." -Nevertheless she spoke with so much courage and energy, and showed so -little regard for the wrath of her enemies, or even for death itself, so -long as her honour was vindicated, that she surprised and partly -confounded the hard-hearted zealots who were hounding her to death. - -On the 14th of October, the trial was opened in a large room in -Fotheringay Castle. Seated on benches placed in the middle of the room -and along both walls were all the Peers of England who could -conveniently be brought together, as well as the various officers of the -court. Once upon a time, in the brave days of knight-errantry, no -injured lady need have feared to present herself and plead her cause -before the assembled chivalry of "Merry England," but 'old times were -changed, old manners gone.' At 9 o'clock in the forenoon, the Queen -entered, supported by Melville and Bourgoin her physician. She had been -personally acquainted with but very few of those who sat there to pass -judgment upon her. Many of them had been known to her by name, a few -had been attached to her cause, and she looked about in the hope of -meeting an eye that would reveal the presence of a friend. But she was -disappointed. No one in that hostile assembly, however he might feel in -his heart, would venture now to betray any sign of sympathy. Three -faces must have impressed her more than all the rest as suggesting, in -three different periods, the history of her troubled career. There she -saw Sir Ralph Sadler, the English Ambassador who, forty-four years -before, had stood over her cradle in the nursery at Linlithgow and -pronounced her a "right fair and goodly child;" there she saw Sir -William Cecil (now Lord Burleigh), who had been her ablest and most -industrious enemy through all the years of her short reign, and who had -contributed more perhaps that any other individual to produce the -Scottish anarchy in which she had lost her crown; and there she met, for -the first time, the gaze of the crafty and vigilant Sir Francis -Walsingham, whose mephistophelian devices had led her to the precipice -over which she now hung, without an arm to save her. - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - THE EVIDENCE AGAINST THE QUEEN OF SCOTS. - - -Replying to the accusations brought against her, Mary did not deny that, -having given up hope of being liberated by Elizabeth, she had treated -with foreign powers for her deliverance; but she protested that she had -never consented to the assassination of Elizabeth, and that she would -rather remain all her life in prison than stain her conscience with that -crime. Nor can I see that any evidence had been produced to prove that -she did. Her intercepted letter in reply to Babington, in which she was -said to have sanctioned the projected murder of Elizabeth, was not -exhibited at the trial. Here we find the same shuffling as in the case -of the Casket Letters. If her accusers had decisive proof of her guilt, -why did they not give her a fair trial, and employ those means which -would make her guilt evident? Babington, instead of being kept as a -witness, was put to death. Her two secretaries, who had been terrified -into testifying to something,--what exactly they did testify we cannot -be certain,--were kept out of the way, and never confronted with their -mistress. Her letter on which the case depended had been written in -cipher; yet the original in cipher was shown neither to her secretaries -nor to herself, but only what was passed off as a translation of it into -French. But what need of this traffic in second-hand documents, if the -original, which would settle all dispute, could be safely exposed to the -light of investigation? Neither the strained dialectics of a Hume, nor -the brilliant rhetoric of a Froude, can avail against the force of -argument springing from Walsingham's determination not to exhibit the -original documents. Mary had been charged with being party to a plot -for the murder of Elizabeth, and her correspondence with Babington was -made the basis of evidence against her. Hence common justice demanded -that the correspondence should be taken, as far as possible, at first -hand. Yet, Walsingham and Philipps, although they had in their -possession, at least, a minute in Mary's own hand of her last answer to -Babington and the same cast into the form of a letter in French by Nau, -made use of what they alleged was a copy of that incriminating answer. -Mary denied that she had ever dictated the words of Philipps' decipher -in reference to the murder of Elizabeth. Philipps, the associate of -Walsingham, and the bitter enemy of Mary, went sponsor for the -correctness of the decipher. The trial therefore was reduced to a -contest between the veracity of Mary and the veracity of Philipps. It -is hardly to be doubted that, guilty or not guilty, Mary would have -disowned the authorship of the compromising clauses. But if her denial -was worthless as evidence of her innocence, the assertion of a forger in -the employ of her enemies was likewise worthless as evidence of her -guilt. Why, then, were not the original papers laid before the -commissioners, that she might be reduced to silence by the evidence of -her own and of her secretary's handwriting? Shall we be asked to believe -that Walsingham, if he had all he needed in the original, would have had -recourse to a copy? Indeed, Mary's letter, as it has reached us through -Philipps and Walsingham, presents an incoherence of parts which, even if -every other reason were wanting, would render its genuineness extremely -doubtful. The argument founded on this incoherence has been frequently -used, but its strength remains unimpaired. Mary orders that nothing -shall be done towards releasing her from prison until Elizabeth is -murdered. Four horsemen are to be kept in readiness to immediately -inform her that this has been accomplished. Then she is to be set at -liberty, but care must be taken that the army prepared to receive her, -or the stronghold destined to shelter her, be such as will render her -person secure, for (she writes) "it were sufficient excuse given to that -queen in catching me again, to enclose me in some hold, out of which I -should never escape, if she did use me no worse." This precaution -against the revenge of Elizabeth is quite natural, and just what we -should expect from Mary in her letter to Babington; but it would be -inconceivable and absurd if Mary had already made provision that -Elizabeth should first of all be murdered. Had Philipps forged the -entire letter, he would not have committed this blunder, but even an -expert may reveal his identity when he attempts to interpolate a lengthy -document. - -It will avail but little to insist that there remains what Froude calls -the "positive proof of two very credible witnesses" in support of the -charge against the Scottish queen. These "very credible witnesses" were -Mary's secretaries, Nau and Curle; and the "positive proof" was their -subscription to a "copy"--that ever recurring "copy"--of Mary's -deciphered answer to Babington's last letter, which had been wrung from -them in circumstances little calculated to enhance its value. - -Since their forced separation from Mary at Chartley, they had been -carefully guarded and accurately learned the nature of the evidence -which they were expected to give. On the 20th. September, Babington and -six of his associates were made a ghastly and terrifying spectacle to -every weak-hearted friend of Mary's. "They were all hanged but for a -moment, according to the letter of the sentence, taken down while the -susceptibility of agony was unimpaired, and cut in pieces afterwards, -with due precautions for the protraction of pain."[#] - - -[#] Froude, "History of England," Vol. XII., Chap. 69. - - -The third day following, while this ominous lesson of vengeance was -fresh in every mind, the two secretaries were forced to ratify by their -oath the testimony which they had already given (Sept. 5th) to the -correctness of the "copy." The testimony which they now ratified had -been appended to the copy in these words:--"_Telle ou semblable me -semble avoir esté la reponse escripte en francoys par monsieur Nau, -laquelle J'ay traduict et mis en chiffre.--Gilbert Curle._" "_Je pense -de vray que c'est la lettre escripte par sa Majesté à Babington, come il -me souvient.--Nau._" "This letter or one like it appears to me to have -been the answer written in French by monsieur Nau, which I translated -and put into cipher.--Gilbert Curle." - -"I think in truth that this is the letter written by Her Majesty to -Babington, _as far as I can remember_.--Nau." - -These equivocal testimonies contain the force of all the evidence -produced against Mary. It is unnecessary to point out the impossibility -of resting a conviction upon them. That is clear to every intelligent -reader acquainted with the circumstances in which they were obtained and -with the history of the prosecution as already summarily indicated, up -to this point. The phrases "_this or one like it,_" "_as well as I can -remember,_" insignificant as they might seem if employed in the absence -of compulsion, will in their present connection strike every reflecting -mind as the feeble devices of men striving to hold a safe course between -the Scylla and the Charibdis of perjury and the rack. - -Whether Mary would or would not accept an offer of deliverance that -involved the life of Elizabeth, is a purely speculative question, which -does not affect the nature of the evidence produced against her. This, -however, may be observed, that nearly four years earlier, when a -conspiracy similar to the Babington plot against the life of Elizabeth -was being organized by some of her friends on the Continent, she, on -being acquainted of it, "refused," (so wrote the Papal Nuncio at Paris -to the Cardinal of Como), "to listen to it." But, when hope in -Elizabeth's good intentions completely failed, and increased rigour -deepened the misery of her prison-life, reasons which had hitherto -seemed inadequate might now convince her that she was not obliged to -live with the axe of the executioner or the dagger of the assassin, -raised over her head because liberty could be brought to her only -through the blood of her jailer. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - EXTRACTS FROM HER ADDRESSES TO THE COMMISSIONERS. - - -Every word and act of this unhappy Princess, more especially as her life -neared its close, have proved so interesting to students of her history, -that I have deemed it well to reproduce here some of her speeches and -utterances before the Commissioners appointed to try her. - -On the first day of the trial, the Lord Chancellor, Bromley, having -signified the causes which had impelled Elizabeth to take action against -her as the disturber of religion and the public peace, Mary replied as -follows:-- - -"I came into this kingdom under promise of assistance and aid against my -enemies, and not as a subject, as I could prove to you had I my papers; -instead of which I have been detained and imprisoned. I protest -publicly that I am an independent sovereign and princess, and I -recognize no superior but God alone. I therefore require that before I -proceed further, it be recorded that whatever I may say in replying here -to the Commissioners of my good sister, the Queen of England (who, I -consider, has been wrongly and falsely prejudiced against me), shall not -be to my prejudice, nor that of the princes, my allies, nor the king, my -son, or any of those who may succeed me. I make this protestation not -out of regard to my life, or in order to conceal the truth, but purely -for the preservation of the honour and dignity of my royal prerogative, -and to show that in consenting to appear before this commission I do so, -not as a subject to Queen Elizabeth, but only from my desire to clear -myself, and to show to all the world that I am not guilty of this crime -against the person of the Queen, with which it seems I am charged. I -wish to reply to this point alone, I desire this protest to be publicly -recorded, and I appeal to all the lords and nobles present to bear me -testimony should it one day be necessary." - -In the course of the afternoon discussion, she made bitter complaint of -the unfair treatment to which she had been subjected:-- - -"I have, as you see, lost my health and the use of my limbs. I cannot -walk without assistance, nor use my arms, and I spend most of my time -confined to bed by sickness. Not only this, but through my trials, I -have lost the small intellectual gifts bestowed on me by God, such as my -memory, which would have aided me to recall those things which I have -seen and read, and which might be useful to me in the cruel position in -which I now find myself ... Not content with this, my enemies now -endeavour to complete my ruin, using against me means that are unheard -of towards persons of my rank, and unknown in this kingdom before the -reign of the present Queen, and even now not approved by rightful -judges, but only by unlawful authority. Against these I appeal to -Almighty God, to all Christian princes, and to the estates of this -kingdom duly and lawfully assembled. Being innocent and falsely -suspected, I am ready to maintain and defend my honour, provided that my -defence be publicly recorded, and that I make it in the presences of -some princes or foreign judges, or even before my natural judges; and -this without prejudice to my mother the Church, to kings, sovereign -princes and to my son. With regard to the pretensions long put forward -by the English (as their chronicles testify) to suzerainty over my -predecessors, the Kings of Scotland, I utterly deny and protest against -them, and will not, like a _femme-de peu de coeur_, admit them, nor by -any present act, to which I may be constrained, will I fortify such a -claim, whereby I should dishonour those princes, my ancestors, and -acknowledge them to have been traitors and rebels. Rather than do this, -I am ready to die for God and my rights in this quarrel, in which, as in -all others, I am innocent." - -Burleigh had reproached her with having assumed the arms of England, and -a spirited discussion after a somewhat legal fashion followed. Passing -with characteristic facility from that unprofitable topic, Mary -proceeded in the following spirited and pathetic manner:-- - -"God and you know whether I have a right or not to the crown of England. -I have offered myself to maintain the rights of my sister, Queen -Elizabeth, as being the eldest, but I have no scruple of conscience in -desiring the second rank, as being the legitimate and nearest heir. I -am the daughter of James V., king of Scotland, and grand-daughter of -Henry VII. This cannot be taken from me by any law, or council or -assembly, or judgment, nor consequently can my rights. I know well that -my enemies and those who wish to deprive me of those rights have done up -till now all that they can to injure me, and have essayed all -illegitimate means, even to attempting my life, as is well known, and -has been discovered in certain places and by certain persons whom I -could name, were it necessary; but God, who is the best Judge, and who -never forgets His own, has until now, in His infinite mercy and -goodness, preserved me from all dangers, and I hope that he will -continue to do so and will not abandon me, knowing that He is all truth, -and that He has promised not to abandon His servants in their need. He -has extended His hand over me to afflict me, but He has given me this -grace of patience to bear the adversities which it has pleased Him to -send me. I do not desire vengeance. I leave it to Him who is the just -Avenger of the innocent and of those who suffer for His name, under -whose power and will I take shelter. I prefer the conduct of Esther to -that of Judith, although both are approved by the Church. I pray God to -do with me according to His good pleasure, to His praise and honour, and -to the greater glory of His Church, in which I wish to live and die, in -which I have been brought up and educated, and for which (as I have -already protested several times), I would shed my blood to the last -drop, being resolved to suffer all that God wishes. I do not fear the -menaces of men. I will never deny Jesus Christ, knowing well that those -who deny Him in this world, He will deny before His Father. I demand -another hearing, and that I be allowed an advocate to plead my cause, or -that I be believed on the word of a Queen.... I came to England relying -on the friendship and promises of your Queen. Look here, my Lords, [at -this point she took a ring from her finger], see this pledge of love and -protection which I received from your mistress, regard it well. -Trusting to this pledge, I came amongst you. You all know how it has -been kept." - -Her criticism of the second-hand evidence, secured from her secretaries -in her absence, is so just that I cannot pass it over without giving, at -least, some extracts from it. It will be observed, that while sharing -in the suspicion not uncommon at the time, that Nau had betrayed her to -save himself, her fairmindedness and charitable disposition prevented -her from condemning him without a hearing. - -"Why," she asked, "are not Nau and Curle examined in my presence? They -at any rate are still alive. If my enemies were assured that they would -confirm their pretended avowals, they would be here without doubt. If -they have written, be it what it may, concerning the enterprise, they -have done it of themselves, and did not communicate it to me, and on -this point I disavow them." ...... - -"I know well that Nau had many peculiarities, likings and intentions, -that I cannot mention, in public, but which I much regret, for he does -me great injustice. For my part, I do not wish to accuse my secretaries, -but I plainly see that what they have said is from fear of torture and -death. Under promises of their lives, and in order to save themselves, -they have excused themselves at my expense, fancying that I could -thereby more easily save myself; at the same time not knowing where I -was and not suspecting the manner in which I am treated ... As to Curle, -if he has done anything suspicious, he has been compelled to do it by -Nau, whom he feared much to displease.... _And yet I do not think that -either the one or the other would have forgotten himself so far._" - -"I commanded him (Nau) it is true, and in a general way supported his -doings, as all princes are accustomed to do, but it is for him to answer -for his private doings. I cannot but think he has been acting under -constraint in this matter. Feeling himself to be feeble and weak by -nature, and fearing torture, he thought to escape by throwing all the -blame on me." - - * * * * * - -"I dictated nothing to them (the secretaries) but what nature herself -inspired me, for the recovery at least of my liberty. I can only be -convicted by my words or by my own writings. If, without my consent, -but have written something to the prejudice of the Queen, your mistress, -let them suffer the punishment of their rashness. _But of this I am -very sure, if they were now in my presence, they would clear me on the -spot of all blame, and would put me out of case_. Show me, at least, the -minutes of my correspondence written by myself; they will bear witness -to what I now assert." - -On the morning of the second day, Mary made a strong and dignified -protest against the manner in which the trial had been conducted, and -after specifying the treatment she expected to receive when she -consented to appear before the Commissioners, proceeded:-- - -"Instead of this, I find myself overwhelmed under the importunity of a -crowd of advocates and lawyers, who appear to be more versed in the -formalities of petty courts of justice, in little towns, than in the -investigation of questions such as the present. And although I was -promised that I should be simply questioned and examined on one -point,--that, namely, concerning the attempt on the person of the -Queen,--they have presumed to accuse me, each striving who should -surpass the other in stating and exaggerating facts, and attempting to -force me to reply to questions which I do not understand, and which have -nothing to do with the Commission. Is it not an unworthy act to submit -to such conduct of such people, the title of a princess, one little -accustomed to such procedures and formalities? And is it not against -all right, justice and reason to deliver her over to them, weak and ill -as she is, and deprived of counsel, without papers or notes or -secretary? It is very easy for many together, and, as it appears to me, -conspiring for the same object, to vanquish by force of words a solitary -and defenceless woman. There is not one, I think, among you, let him be -the cleverest man you will, who would be capable of resisting or -defending himself, were he in my place. I am alone, taken by surprise, -and forced to reply to so many people who are unfriendly to me, and who -have long been preparing for this occasion; and who appear to be more -influenced by vehement prejudice and anger, than by a desire of -discovering the truth and fulfilling the duties laid down for them by -the Commission." - -Referring to the complaint that, in Rome, public prayers had been -offered for her, under the title of Queen of England, she remarked:--"If -the Pope gives me the title of Queen, it is not for me to correct him. -He knows what he does much better than I do. I thank him, all Christian -people and all Catholic nations for the prayers they daily offer for me, -and I pray them to continue to do so, and to remember me in their -Masses." - -As regards her attitude towards her Protestant subjects she said:--"You -know very well that in my own kingdom I never interfered with any of the -Protestants, but, on the contrary, tried to win them always by -gentleness and clemency, which I carried too far, and for which I have -been blamed. It has been the cause of my ruin, for my subjects became -proud and haughty, and abused my clemency; indeed, they now complain -that they were never so well off as under my government." - -The trial ended on the 15th October. Mary rose from her seat before the -Commissioners and passed out of the hall, addressing a few words of -good-humoured reproach to the lawyers for their "quibbling," as she -moved past the table around which they were seated. The Commissioners, -in compliance with instructions received from Elizabeth, withdrew to -Westminster before passing sentence. Assembled in the Star-Chamber ten -days later, they declared Mary "to be accessory to Babington's -conspiracy, and to have imagined diverse matters, tending to the hurt, -death, and destruction of Elizabeth, contrary to the express words of -the statute, made for the security of the Queen's life" (Camden). -Parliament sat a few days after, and both houses, having sanctioned the -sentence of the Commissioners, presented an address to Elizabeth, -requesting her to publish and execute without delay the sentence against -her dangerous rival. - -Mary in the meantime was ignorant of what was being done since the -rising of the Commission at Fotheringay. However, she maintained an -extraordinary cheerfulness and surprised the observant Sir Amias by her -"quietness and serenity." The feast of All Saints arrived, but without -the joyous anthems and splendid ceremonial that marked it in Catholic -lands. The Queen passed the day reading the lives of the Saints and -Martyrs and praying in her oratory. In the afternoon she received a -visit from Paulet. In the course of their conversation, this censorious -pedant, anxious to execute the will of Elizabeth, who had instructed him -to carefully observe whether his prisoner should reveal a disposition to -sue for pardon, undertook to instruct her in the necessity of having a -clear conscience and of confessing her crimes before God and the world. -Mary promptly answered, saying:--"No one can say that he is free from -sin. I am a woman and human, and have offended God, and I repent of my -sins, and pray God to forgive me, doing penance for the same; but at -present I do not know to whom I could or should confess--God forbid that -I should ask you to be my confessor." - - - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - THE SENTENCE OF DEATH. - - -On November the 30th, 1586, Lord Buckhurst, as envoy of Queen Elizabeth, -waited upon the lonely captive, and announced to her that sentence of -death had been passed upon her. "The person of the Queen," added -Buckhurst, "the state and religion are no longer safe; it is impossible -for you both to live, and therefore one must die. For this end then, in -order that you should not be taken by surprise, Mr. Beale and I have -been sent to warn you to prepare for death, and we will send you the -Bishop of Peterborough or the Dean of ---- for your consolation." - -The news was, in some respects a relief to Mary; it relaxed her -consuming mental tension. Now she knew the worst, and her conduct -needed no longer to be disturbed by alternating hopes and fears. She -had striven hard, during the weary years of her captivity, to resign -herself with Christian cheerfulness to the inevitable. But the love of -liberty, and perhaps too a subtle desire of revenge, had at times -ruffled the serenity of her spirit, and had dulled the pure flame of her -religious zeal. Human aid now seemed no longer available, human -prospects of glory and power no longer captivated her imagination, and -the time and energy which she had hitherto expended on profitless plans -and visionary deeds, she could now devote, with rich and enduring -profit, to the preparation for a better life. When she heard Lord -Buckhurst's message, her face, as Camden relates, "became illumined with -an extraordinary joy at the thought that she was about to die for the -cause of religion," and with perfect composure, she made answer:--"I -expected nothing else. This is the manner in which you generally proceed -with regard to persons of my quality, and who are nearly related to the -crown, so that none may live who aspire to it. For long I have known -that you would bring me to this in the end. I have loved the queen and -the country, and have done all that I could for the preservation of -both. The offers which I have made are the proof of this, as Beale can -bear me witness. I do not fear death, and shall suffer it with a good -heart. I have never been the author of any conspiracy to injure the -queen. I have several times been offered my freedom, and have been -blamed for refusing my consent. My partizans have abandoned me and -troubled themselves no more with my affairs. To prevent this I have -attempted to obtain my deliverance by gentle means, to my great -disadvantage, till at last, being repulsed on the one side and pressed -on the other, I placed myself in the hands of my friends, and have taken -part with Christian and Catholic princes, not, as I have before -declared, and as the English themselves can bear witness by the papers -which they have in their possession, through ambition nor the desire of -a greater position, but I have done it for the honour of God and His -Church, and for my deliverance from the state of captivity and misery in -which I am placed. I am a Catholic,--of a different religion from -yourselves; and for this reason you will take care not to let me live. -I am grieved that my death cannot be of as much benefit to the kingdom -as I fear it will do it harm; and this I say not from any ill-feeling or -from any desire to live. For my part, I am weary of being in this -world, nor do I, or any one else, profit by my being here. But I look -forward to a better life, and I thank God for giving me this grace of -dying in his quarrel. No greater good can come to me in this world; it -is what I have most begged of God and most wished for, as being the -thing most honourable for myself and most profitable for the salvation -of my soul. I have never had the intention of changing my religion for -any earthly kingdom, or grandeur, or good whatever, nor of denying Jesus -Christ or His name, nor will I now. You may feel well assured that I -shall die in this entire faith and with my good will, and as happy in -doing so as I was ever for anything that has come to me in my life. I -pray God to have mercy on the poor Catholics of this kingdom, who are -persecuted and oppressed for their religion. The only thing I regret -is, that it has not pleased God to give me before I die the grace to see -them, able to live in full liberty of conscience in the faith of their -parents, in the Catholic Church, and serving God as they desire to do. I -am not ignorant that for long certain persons have been plotting against -me; and to speak plainly, I know well it has been done at the instance -of one who professes to be my enemy. But I have spoken sufficiently of -this before the Commissioners." - -After this trying ordeal, Mary's first thought was to send letters of -final greeting to her dearest friends. She wrote to the Archbishop of -Glasgow, then in Paris; to Pope Sixtus V., to Barnard De Mendoça, -Spanish Ambassador at Paris; and to the Duke of Guise. In the course of -her letter to the Archbishop, referring to the proposal that she should -accept the services of the Anglican divines, she writes:-- - -"As to their bishops, I praise God that without their aid I know well -enough my offences against God and His Church, and that I do not approve -their errors, nor wish to communicate with them in any way. But if it -pleased them to permit me to have a Catholic priest, I said I would -accept that very willingly, and even demanded it in the name of Jesus -Christ, in order to dispose my conscience, and to participate in the -Holy Sacraments, on leaving this world. They answered me that, do what -I would, I should not be either saint or martyr, as I was to die for the -murder of their queen and for wishing to dispossess her. I replied that -I was not so presumptuous as to aspire to these two honours; but that -although they had power over my body by divine permission, not by -justice, as I am a sovereign queen, as I have always protested, still -they had not power over my soul, nor could they prevent me from hoping -that, through the mercy of God, who died for me, he will accept from me -my blood and my life which I offer to Him for the maintenance of His -Church outside of which I should never desire to rule any worldly -kingdom." - -Her letter to the Pope is lengthy, but as no one interested in her -history would be satisfied with an abbreviated form of so interesting a -document, I shall give it in full. - - - "Jesus Maria, - -"Holy Father,--As it has pleased God by His divine providence so to -ordain, that in His Church, under His Son, Jesus Christ crucified, all -those who should believe in Him and be baptized in the name of the Holy -Trinity, should recognize one universal and Catholic Church as Mother, -whose commandments together with the ten of the law we should keep under -pain of damnation, it is requisite that each one who aspires to eternal -life should fix his eyes upon her. I, therefore, who am born of kings -and relatives all baptized in her, as I myself also was, and what is -more, from my infancy, unworthy as I am, have been called to the royal -dignity, anointed and consecrated by the authority and by the ministers -of the Church, under whose wing and in whose bosom I have been nourished -and brought up, and by her instructed in the obedience due by all -Christians to him whom she, guided by the Holy Spirit, has elected -according to the ancient order and decrees of the primitive Church, to -the holy Apostolic See as our head upon earth, to whom Jesus Christ in -His last will has given power (speaking to St. Peter of her foundation -on a living rock) of binding and loosing poor sinners from the chains of -Satan, absolving us by himself or by his ministers for this purpose -appointed, of all crimes or sins committed or perpetrated by us, we -being repentant, as far as in us lies, making satisfaction for them -after having confessed them according to the ordinance of the Church. I -call my Saviour Jesus Christ to be my witness, the Blessed Trinity, the -glorious Virgin Mary, all the Angels and Archangels, St. Peter, the -pastor, my special intercessor and advocate, St. Paul, Apostle of the -Gentiles, St. Andrew and all the holy apostles, St. George and in -general all the Saints of Paradise,--that I have always lived in this -faith, which is that of the universal Catholic Church, Apostolic and -Roman, in which being regenerated, I have always had the intention of -doing my duty to the holy Apostolic See. Of this, to my great regret, I -have not been able to render due testimony to your Holiness, on account -both of my detention in this captivity and of my long illness; but now -that it has pleased God, my Holy Father, to permit for my sins and those -of this unfortunate island, that I (the only one remaining of the blood -of England and Scotland who makes profession of this faith) should, -after twenty years of captivity, shut up in a narrow prison and at last -condemned to die by the heretical States and Assembly of this country, -as it has been to-day signified to me by the mouth of Lord Buckhurst, -Amias Paulet my keeper, one Drew Drury, knight, and a secretary named -Beale, in the name of their Queen, commanding me to prepare to receive -death, offering me one of their bishops and a dean for my consolation (a -priest that I had, having been taken from me long before by them, and -held by them I know not where); I have thought it to be my first duty to -turn me to God, and then to relate the whole to your Holiness in -writing, to the end that, although I cannot let you hear it before my -death, at least afterwards, the cause of it should be made manifest to -you, which is, all things well considered and examined, their dread of -subversion of their religion in this island, which they say I plan, and -which is attempted for my sake, as well by those of their own subjects -who obey your laws and are declared enemies (and who cause me to be -prayed for as their Sovereign in their churches whose priests profess -duty and subjection to me), as by strangers, and specially by the -Catholic princes and my relations, and who (so they say) maintain my -right to the crown of England. I leave it to your Holiness to consider -the consequence of such a sentence, imploring you to have prayers made -for my poor soul, and for all those who have died, or will die, in the -same cause and the like sentence, and even in honour of God. I beg you -to give your alms and incite the kings to do likewise to those who shall -survive this shipwreck. And my intention being, according to the -constitution of the Church, to confess, do penance as far as in me lies, -and receive my Viaticum, if I can obtain my chaplain, or some other -legitimate minister, to administer to me the said Sacraments; in default -of this, with contrite and repentant heart, I prostrate myself at your -Holiness' feet, confessing myself to God and to His Saints, and to the -same your Paternity, as a very unworthy sinner and one meriting eternal -damnation, unless it pleases the good God who died for sinners, to -receive me in His infinite mercy among the number of poor penitent -sinners trusting in his mercy--imploring you to take this my general -confession in testimony of my intention to accomplish the remainder in -the form ordained and commanded in the Church, if it is permitted me, -and to give me your general absolution according as you know and think -to be requisite for the glory of God, the honour of His Church, and the -salvation of my poor soul, between which and the justice of God, I -interpose the blood of Jesus Christ, crucified for me and all sinners, -one of the most execrable among whom I confess myself to be, seeing the -infinite grace I have received through Him, and which I have so little -recognized and employed; the which would render me unworthy of -forgiveness if His promise made to all those who, burdened with sin and -spiritual woes coming to Him to be assisted by Him, and His mercy, did -not encourage me, following His commandment to come to Him, bearing my -burden in order to be relieved by Him of it like the prodigal son, and, -what is more, offering my blood willingly at the foot of His cross, for -the unwearied and faithful zeal which I bear to His Church, without the -restoration of which I desire never to live in this unhappy world. - -"And further, Holy Father, having left myself no goods in this world, I -supplicate your Holiness to obtain from the very Christian king that my -dowry should be charged with the payment of my debts, and the wages of -my poor desolate servants, and with an annual obit for my soul and those -of all our brethren departed in this just quarrel, having had no other -private intention, as my poor servants, present at this, my affliction, -will testify to you; as likewise how I have willingly offered my life in -their heretical Assembly to maintain my Catholic, Apostolic and Roman -religion, and to bring back those of this island who have ignorantly -gone astray (to wit, themselves); protesting that in this case I would -willingly deprive myself of all the title and dignity of a Queen, and do -all honour and service to theirs, if she would cease to persecute the -Catholics; as I protest that that is the end at which I have aimed since -I have been in this country, and I have no ambition or desire to reign, -nor to dispossess any other for my personal advantage, as by illness and -by long afflictions I am so weakened that I have no longer any desire to -trouble myself in this world except with the service of His Church, and -to gain the souls of this island to God; in testimony of which, at my -end, I do not wish to falter in preferring the public salvation to my -personal interests of flesh and blood, which cause me to pray you,--with -a mortal regret for the perdition of my poor child, after having tried -by all means to regain him,--to be a true father to him, as St. John the -Evangelist was to the youth whom he withdrew from the company of -robbers; to take, in short, all the authority over him that I can give -you to constrain him, and if it pleases you to call upon the Catholic -king, to assist you in what touches temporal matters, and especially -that you two may together try to ally him in marriage. And if God, for -my sins, permit that he should remain obstinate, I knowing no Christian -prince in these times who works so much for the faith, or who has so -many means to aid him in the bringing back of this island, as the -Catholic king, to whom I am much indebted and obliged, being the only -one who aided me with his money and advice in my needs, I, subject to -your good pleasure, leave him all that I can have of power or interest -in the government of this kingdom if my son obstinately remains outside -the Church. But if he finds he can bring him back, I desire he shall be -aided, supported and advised by him (the king of Spain) and my relations -of Guise, enjoining him by my last will to hold them, after you, as his -fathers, and to ally himself by their advice and consent, or in one of -their two houses. And if it pleased God, I would he were worthy to be a -son of the Catholic king. This is the secret of my heart and the end of -my desires in this world, tending as I mean them, to the good of His -Church and to the discharge of my conscience, which I present at the -feet of your Holiness, which I humbly kiss. - -"You shall have the true account of the manner of my last taking, and -all the proceedings against me, and by me, to the end that, hearing the -truth, the calumnies which the enemies of the Church wish to lay upon me -may be refuted by you and the truth known, and to this effect I have -sent to you this bearer, requesting your holy blessing for the end, and -saying to you for the last time _à Dieu_. Whom I pray in His grace to -preserve your person for long, for the good of His Church and your -sorrowful flock, especially that of this island, which I leave very much -astray, without the mercy of God and without your paternal care. - -"Fotheringay, 23rd November, 1586." - -She adds a postscript and signs herself, - -"Of your Holiness the very humble and devoted daughter - -MARIE, Queen of Scotland, - Dowager of France." - - -Her letter to Mendoça is written in a freer and clearer style, and is, I -think, a truer picture of her thoughts, as they spontaneously form in -her mind, than that to the Pope. - - - LETTER TO DON BERNARD DE MENDOÇA. - -"My very dear Friend,--As I have always known you to be zealous in God's -cause, and interested in my welfare and deliverance from captivity, I -have likewise also always made you a sharer in all my intentions for the -same cause, begging you to signify them to the king, Monsieur my good -brother, for which at present, according to the little leisure I have, I -have wished to send you this last adieu, being resolved to receive the -death-stroke which was announced to me last Saturday. - -"I know not when or in what manner, but at least you can feel assured -and praise God for me that, by His grace, I had the courage to receive -this very unjust sentence of the heretics with contentment for the -honour which I esteem it to be to me to shed my blood at the demand of -the enemies of His Church; whilst they honour me so much as to say that -theirs cannot exist if I live; and the other point they affirm to be -that their Queen cannot reign in security, for the same reason. In both -these 'conditions' I, without contradicting them, accepted the honour -they were so anxious to confer upon me, as very zealous in the Catholic -religion, for which I had publicly offered my life; and as to the other -matter, although I had made no attempt or taken any action to remove her -who was in the place, still as they reproached me with what is my right, -and is so considered by all Catholics, as they say, I did not wish to -contradict them, leaving it to them to judge. But they, becoming angry -in consequence of this, told me that, do what I would, I should not die -for religion, but for having wished to have their Queen murdered, which -I denied to them as being very false, as I never attempted anything of -the kind, but left it to God and the Church to settle everything for -this island regarding religion and what depends upon it. - -"This bearer has promised me to relate to you how rigorously I have been -treated by this people, and ill served by others, who I could wish had -not so much shown their fear of death in so just a quarrel, or their -inordinate passions. Whereas from me they only obtained the avowal that -I was a free queen, Catholic, obedient to the Church, and that for my -deliverance I was obliged--having tried for it by good means without -being able to obtain it--to procure it by the means which were offered -to me, without approving (all the means employed). - -"Nau has confessed all, Curle following his example, and all is thrown -on me. They threaten me if I do not ask for pardon, but I say that, as -they have already destined me to death, they may proceed in their -injustice, hoping that God will recompense me in the other world. And -through spite because I will not thus confess, they came the day before -yesterday, Monday, to remove my dais, saying that I was no longer -anything but a dead woman without any dignity. - -"They are working in my hall; I think they are making a scaffold to make -me play the last scene of the tragedy. I die in a good quarrel, and -happy at having given up my rights to the king, your Master. I have said -that if my son does not return to the bosom of the Church, I confess I -know no princes more worthy or more suitable, for the protection of the -island. I have written as much to His Holiness, and I beg you to certify -to him that I die in this same wish, that I have written to you, and to -him (you) know who is his near relative and old friend, and to a fourth -who, above all others, I leave under the protection of the king, and -require him, in the name of God, not to abandon them; and I beg them to -serve him in my place. I cannot write to them. Salute them for me, and -all of you pray God for my soul. - -"I have asked for a priest, but do not know if I shall have one; they -offered me one of their bishops. I utterly refused him. Believe what -this bearer tells you, and these two poor women[#] who have been the -nearest to me. They will tell you the truth. I beg of you to publish -it, as I fear others will make it sound quite differently. Give orders -that payment be made where you know of, for the discharge of my -conscience; and may the churches of Spain keep me in remembrance in -their prayers. Keep this bearer's secret; he has been a faithful valet -to me. - - -[#] Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth Curle. - - -"May God give you a happy life. You will receive a token from me, of a -diamond, which I valued as being that with which the late Duke of -Norfolk[#] pledged me his faith, and which I have nearly always worn. -Keep it for love of me. - - -[#] Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and Premier Peer of England, had been -chairman of the Conference to which Mary's dispute with the rebels had -been submitted in 1568. At that time, encouraged by many prominent -members of the English nobility, he formed the design of marrying the -Queen of Scots. He was betrayed to Elizabeth by the Regent Moray, to -whom he had confided his plans. After a term of nine months in the -Tower, he was set at liberty. Resuming negotiations with Mary and her -friends, he was again betrayed--this time by his secretary--and being -convicted of treasonable practices, was put to death. - - -"I do not know if I shall be allowed to make a will. I have asked for -leave, but they have all my money. God be with you. Forgive me if I -write with pain and trouble, having not even one solitary person to aid -me or make my rough copies and to write from my dictation. If you -cannot read my handwriting this bearer will read it to you, or my -Ambassador, who is familiar with it. Among other accusations, Criton's -is one about which I know nothing. I fear much that Nau and Pasquier -have much hastened my death, for they kept some papers, and also they -are people who wish to live in both worlds, if they can have their -commodities. I would to God that Fontenay had been here; he is a young -man of strong resolution and knowledge. Adieu. - -"Once more I recommend to you my poor destitute servants, and beg you to -pray for my soul. - -"From Fotheringay, this Wednesday, the 23rd of November. I recommend to -you the poor Bishop of Ross, who will be quite destitute. - -"Your much obliged and perfect friend. - -MARIE R." - - -The Duke of Guise being nearly related to her, would be expected to -regard the treatment which she received as something personally touching -himself and his family. Wishing, therefore, to inspire him with the -thoughts that sustained her own spirits when, as she was convinced, the -gates of martyrdom were opening to receive her into a better world, she -penned him the following spirited letter:-- - - - "From Fotheringay, the 24th of November, - -"My Good Cousin:--You whom I hold as dearest to me in the world, being -ready through unjust judgment, to be put to a death such as no one of -our race, thanks be to God, has ever suffered, still less one of my -quality; but my good cousin, praise God for it, as I was useless in the -world, for the cause of God and His Church in the state I was, and I -hope my death will testify to my constancy in the faith, and my -readiness to die for the upholding and restoration of the Church in this -unhappy island. And, although no executioner has ever before dipped his -hand in our blood, be not ashamed of it my dear friend, for the -condemnation of heretics and enemies of the Church (and who have no -jurisdiction over me, a free queen) is profitable before God for the -children of His Church. If I would belong to them I should not receive -this blow. All those of our house have been persecuted by this sect; -for example, your good father, with whom I hope to be received by the -mercy of the just Judge. I recommend to you, then, my poor servants, -the discharge of my debts, and I beg you to have some annual obit -founded for my soul, not at your expense, but please make the necessary -solicitations and give the orders which shall be required. And you -shall understand my intention by these, my poor desolate servants, -eye-witnesses of my last tragedy. - -"May God prosper you, your wife, children, brothers and cousins, and -above all our chief, my good brother and cousin, and all his. May the -blessing of God and that which I would give to children of my own, be on -yours, whom I recommend no less to God than my own unfortunate and -ill-advised child. - -"You will receive some token from me, to remind you to pray for the soul -of your poor cousin, destitute of all aid and advice but that of God, -which gives me strength and courage to resist alone so many wolves -howling after me. To God be the glory. - -"Believe, in particular, all that shall be said to you by a person who -will give you a ruby ring from me, for I take it upon my conscience that -the truth shall be told you of what I have charged her with, especially -of what touches my poor servants, and regarding one of them in -particular. I recommend you this person on account of her -straightforward sincerity and goodness, and so that she may be placed in -some good situation. I have chosen her as being most impartial and the -one who will the most simply convey my orders. I beg of you not to make -it known that she has said anything to you in private, as envy might -harm her. - -"I have suffered much for two years or more, and could not let you know -it for important reasons, God be praised for all, and may He give you -the grace to persevere in the service of His Church as long as you live, -and may this honour never leave our race; so that we, men as well as -women, may be ready to shed our blood to maintain the quarrel of the -faith, putting aside all worldly interests. And as for me, I esteem -myself born, both on the paternal and maternal side, to offer my blood -for it, and I have no intention of degenerating. May Jesus, for us -crucified, and may all the holy martyrs by their intercession, render us -worthy of willingly offering our bodies to His Glory. - -"Thinking to degrade me, they had my dais taken down, and afterwards my -guardian came to offer to write to their Queen, saying he had not done -this by her order, but by the advice of some of the council. I showed -them the cross of my Saviour in the place where my arms had been on the -said dais. You shall hear of our conversation. They have been more -gentle since. - -"Your affectionate cousin and perfect friend, - -MARIE, Queen of Scotland, - Dowager of France." - - - - - CHAPTER XV. - - AN INTERVAL OF SUSPENSE. - - -The end did not come so quickly as Mary had expected. Although the -sentence had been publicly proclaimed throughout the kingdom, Elizabeth -hesitated to sign the death-warrant. She saw that the execution of the -Scottish queen might be fraught with dangerous consequences to herself -and the realm, and it was not her policy to make a perilous advance -without having provided the means for a safe retreat. If she could only -find some servant who, "upon the winking of authority could understand a -law," her purpose would be better served. Mary would be secretly -removed, and a scapegoat would be at hand to bear the sin, and, if needs -be, the punishment due to it. On February the 1st, she signed the -death-warrant, which had been placed before her among a number of other -papers, and impressed upon Assistant Secretary Davison that she did not -wish to be troubled further with that matter. Indeed she continued to -complain of the lack of zeal in those who had joined the Association for -her defence. She had done all, she said, that could be required of her -by law or reason, and those who were interested in her welfare should -relieve her of further responsibility. "Would it not be better for me," -she remarked, "to risk personal danger than to take the life of a -relation. But if a loyal subject were to save me from the embarrassment -of dealing the blow, the resentment of Scotland and France might be -disarmed." The prudence of those "loyal subjects" who preferred to -leave the responsibility on her own shoulders, was amply vindicated -immediately after the execution, when, in the futile endeavour to -deceive the French and Spanish ambassadors, she visited Burleigh and -other Ministers with temporary suspension from office, and cast Davison -into the Tower, where she left him to languish for the remainder of her -lifetime, because forsooth they had executed the death-warrant without -her knowledge. Walsingham and Davison felt constrained, however, to -write Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Drew Drury, whom the Queen thought should -be ready to do her will, to point out to them the service their royal -Mistress expected from them. "We find," they wrote, "by speech lately -uttered by Her Majesty that she doth note in you a lack of that care and -zeal of her service that she looked for at your hands, in that you have -not in all this time of yourselves (without other provocation) found out -some way to shorten the life of the Queen, considering the great peril -she (Elizabeth) is subject unto hourly, so long as the said Queen shall -live........ - -"And therefore she (Elizabeth) taketh it most unkindly towards her, that -men professing that love towards her that you do, should in any kind or -sort, for lack of the discharge of your duties, cast the burthen upon -her, knowing, as you do, her indisposition to shed blood, especially of -one of that sex and quality, and so near to her in blood as the said -Queen is." Closing, they commit Paulet and Drury "to the _protection_ -of the Almighty"--which was very thoughtful, seeing how persuasively -they had just been soliciting them to an act of assassination. Paulet, -in spite of his fierce hatred of Mary, unequivocally refused to -entertain the suggestion and expressed his regret that he had lived to -see the unhappy day in which he was "required by direction from her most -gracious sovereign, to do an act which God and the law forbiddeth." -Then, with exquisite propriety of terminology, he commits Walsingham and -Davison, not to the "_protection_"--the time when they most needed -protection he probably thought was past--but to "the _mercy_ of the -Almighty." - -In the meantime the preparations for the execution were advancing. -Elizabeth having signed the death-warrant, Davison handed it over to the -Chancellor; at the instance of the Lord Treasurer, Burleigh, the Council -convened, and, without waiting further instructions from the Queen, -appointed the Earls of Kent and Shrewsbury to execute the warrant. - -While her fate was being sealed at Westminster, the doomed captive in -Fotheringay was expecting, from day to day, to receive the final blow. -Though frequently confined to bed by rheumatism in her limbs, she -maintained a cheerfulness and composure that greatly annoyed the -irascible Paulet. On December the 15th, he complains to Walsingham that -"this lady continues to show her perverse and obstinate character." -"She shows," he adds, "no sign of repentance and no submission. She -does not acknowledge her fault, does not ask for forgiveness and shows -no sign of wishing to live." - -On the 19th of December, she penned a letter of which the following is a -portion, to Queen Elizabeth:-- - -"Madame, in honour of Jesus (whose name all powers obey), I require you -to promise that when my enemies shall have satisfied their dark desire -for my innocent blood, you will permit that my poor sorrowful servants -may altogether bear my body to be buried in holy ground and near those -of my predecessors who are in France, especially the late queen, my -mother; and this because in Scotland the bodies of the kings, my -ancestors, have been insulted, and the churches pulled down and -profaned, and because, suffering death in this country, I cannot have a -place beside your predecessors, who are also mine; and what is more -important, because in our religion we must prize being buried in holy -ground. And as I am told you wish in nothing to force my conscience or -my religion, and have even conceded me a priest, I hope that you will -not refuse this my last request, but will at least allow free sepulture -to the body from which the soul will be separated, as being united, they -never knew how to obtain liberty to live in peace, or to procure the -same for you, for which before God I do not in any way blame you--but -may God show you the entire truth after my death. - -"And because I fear the secret tyranny of some of those into whose power -you have abandoned me, I beg you not to permit me to be executed without -your knowledge--not from fear of the pain, which I am ready to suffer, -but on account of the rumours which would be spread concerning my death -if it was not seen by reliable witnesses; how it was done, I am -persuaded, in the case of others of different rank. It is for this -reason that in another place I require that my attendants remain to be -spectators and witnesses of my end in the faith of my Saviour, and in -the obedience of His Church, and afterwards they shall all together -quickly withdraw, taking my body with them as secretly as you wish, and -so that the furniture and other things which I may be able to leave them -in dying, be not taken from them, which will be, indeed a very small -reward for their good service. Would you wish me to return a jewel, -which you gave me, to you with my last words, or would it please you to -receive it sooner? I implore of you anew to permit me to send a jewel -and a last adieu to my son, together with my blessing, of which he has -been deprived, owing to that you informed me of his refusal to enter -into a treaty in which I was included,--by the unhappy advice of whom? -The last point I leave to your conscience and favourable consideration. -For the others I demand of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and in -consideration of our relationship, in remembrance of King Henry VII., -your grandfather and mine[#] and in honour of the dignity we have both -held, and of our common sex, that my request be granted. - - -[#] Henry VII. was Elizabeth's grandfather and Mary's great-grandfather. - - -"For the rest I think you will certainly have heard that they pulled -down my dais, by your order, as they said, and that afterwards they told -me that it was not done by your command but by that of some of the -Council. I praise God that such cruelty, which could only show malice -and affect me after I had made up my mind to die, came not from you. I -fear it has been like this in many other things, and that this is the -reason why they would not permit me to write to you until they had, as -far as they could, taken from me all external mark of dignity and power, -telling me I was simply a dead woman, stripped of all dignity. - -"God be praised for all. I wish that all my papers, without any -exception, had been shown to you, so that it might have been said that -it was not solely the care of your safety which animated all those who -are so prompt in pursuing me. If you grant me this, my last request, -give orders that I shall see what you write regarding it, as otherwise -they will make me believe what they like; and I desire to know your -final reply to my final request. - -"In conclusion, I pray the God of mercy, the just Judge, that He will -deign to enlighten you by His Holy Spirit, and that He will give me the -grace to die in perfect charity, as I am preparing myself to do, -pardoning all those who are the cause of my death, or who have -co-operated in it, and this shall be my prayer till the end. I consider -it happy for me that it should come before the persecution which I -foresee threatens this island--if God is not more truly feared and -revered, and vanity and worldly policy not more wisely curbed. Do not -accuse me of presumption if, on the eve of leaving this world, and -preparing myself for a better, I remind you that one day you will have -to answer for your charge as well as those who are sent before, and -that, making no account of my blood or my country, I desire to think of -the time when, from the earliest dawn of reason, we were taught to place -our soul's welfare before all temporal matters, which should cede to -those of eternity. - -"Your Sister and Cousin wrongfully imprisoned, - MARIE, QUEEN." - - -She wrote again to Elizabeth nearly a month later, but Paulet refused to -dispatch her letter. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - THE END. - - - What lovely form, in deepest gloom - Of prison cave, awaits her doom?-- - * * * * * - 'Tis Scotia's basely-injured Queen; - 'Tis she who, cherished, would have been - The loveliest, brightest, richest gem - In Caledonia's diadem,-- - A gem too polished, pure and bright - For Scotia's sons, in Scotia's night, - When evil man and evil times - Were stained in basest, blackest crimes.-- - _The Royal Exile._ - - -On Tuesday, the 7th of February (1587), the Earls of Kent and -Shrewsbury, who had been appointed to conduct the execution of the -Scottish queen, arrived at Fotheringay. Towards evening they sent her -word that they wished to see her on urgent business. She had gone to -bed, but, on hearing their message, she rose and prepared to receive -them. Shrewsbury and Kent entered, accompanied by Beale, clerk of the -Council, and the two keepers, Paulet and Drury. Shrewsbury, who in his -heart sympathized with the helpless queen, performed the unpleasant duty -imposed upon him by announcing to her the purpose of their visit, and -requesting her to listen to the sentence which Beale was about to read. -When Beale had finished reading, Mary thanked them for the welcome news. -"I have long looked for this," she said, "and have expected it day by -day for eighteen years. Unworthy though I think myself, I am by the -grace of God a Queen born and a Queen anointed, a near relative of the -Queen (of England), grand-daughter of King Henry VII., and I have had -the honour to be Queen of France, but, in all my life I have had only -sorrow." In answer to their urgent requests that she should accept of -the religious services of the Dean of Peterborough, and renounce her -former "abominations," she assured them that all their efforts to -persuade her in that matter were useless. "Having lived till now in the -true faith," she said, "this is not the time to change, but on the -contrary, it is the very moment when it is most needful that I should -remain firm and constant, as I intend to do." Turning from the -profitless religious discussion on which Kent seemed disposed to linger, -she enquired when she should die. "To-morrow morning at eight o'clock," -was Shrewsbury's reply. - -Short indeed was the notice, but Mary betrayed no sign of alarm. The -lords shortly after retired, and she was left alone to prepare for the -closing scene in the painful tragedy of her life. She was denied the -assistance of a priest--a last act of cruelty for which no excuse can be -offered. - -The little family of her faithful servants who had shared with her the -weary years of captivity, were disconsolate. She alone was bright and -joyful. "Well," she said, "let supper be hastened, so that I may put my -affairs in order. My children, it is now no time to weep; that is -useless; what do you now fear? You should rather rejoice to see me on -such a good road to being delivered from the many evils and afflictions -which have so long been my portion." During supper she turned to her -physician, Bourgoin, with a bright countenance, and said:--"Did you -remark what Lord Kent said in his interview with me? He said that my -life would have been the death of their religion, and that my death will -be its life. Oh, how happy these words make me............ They told me -that I was to die because I had plotted against the Queen, and here is -Lord Kent sent to me to convert me, and what does he tell me?--that I am -to die on account of my religion." - -When the light repast was finished, her attendants gathered around her -on their knees, implored her to forgive them whatever offences they had -committed against her. "With all my heart, my children," she fervently -answered, "even as I pray you to forgive me any injustice or harshness -of which I may have been guilty towards you." - -Her unselfishness, which was one of the strongest features of her -character, showed itself to the last. No one would have thought it was -she who had to die next morning. She was administering comfort, not -seeking it. In all her life she had never abandoned a friend, nor -forgotten a good turn; nor did she now. The night was already well -advanced, and she began parcelling out gifts of money and jewellery for -her attendants and friends. Late in the night she wrote a short letter -to her chaplain, Preau, who was detained in another part of the Castle -and denied admittance to her presence. - -"I have," she wrote, "been attacked to-day concerning my religion, and -urged to receive consolation from the heretics. You will hear from -Bourgoin and others that I, at least, faithfully made protestation for -my faith, in which I wish to die. I requested to have you, in order -that I might make my confession and receive my Sacrament, which was -cruelly refused me, as well as leave for my body to be removed and the -power of making a free will, or writing anything except what shall pass -through their hands and be subject to the good pleasure of their -mistress. In default of that, I confess in general the gravity of my -sins, as I had intended to do to you in particular, begging you in the -name of God to pray and watch with me this night in satisfaction for my -sins, and to send me your absolution and pardon for the things in which -I have offended you. I shall try to see you in their presence, as they -have allowed me to see the steward,[#] and if I am allowed, I shall ask -the blessing on my knees before all. - - -[#] Melville, the steward here referred to, and Preau had been separated -from Mary three weeks before. Melville was permitted to meet his -mistress on her way to the scaffold. Preau was denied even this. - - -"Advise me as to the most appropriate prayers, for this night and -to-morrow morning, as the time is short and I have no leisure to write; -but I will recommend you, as well as the others, and especially your -benefices will be spared to you, and I will recommend you to the king. -I have no more time. Tell me in writing of all that you shall think -best for the good of my soul. I shall send you a last little token." - -"At two hours after midnight," she wrote a letter to the King of France, -and then, worn out with the anxieties and labours of the last twelve -hours, laid down to rest. But her women attendants, who watched closely -by her bedside, assure us that, though she lay calm and motionless with -her hands crossed on her breast, her lips continued to move in prayer, -and a joyful expression occasionally rested on her countenance. - -The royal victim rose early in the morning, and attired herself in her -most costly garments.[#] Then she called together her little household, -gave to each the present she had prepared the night before, and with -comforting words bade them farewell. "I beg you all," she said, "to -assist at my death, and to testify to my unalterable devotion to my -religion. Be ye witnesses of my last acts and my last words." This -done, she retired to her oratory to pray. At eight o'clock the sheriff -interrupted her devotions, announcing that the hour had come. The Queen -promptly answered the summons, and, although suffering from a rheumatism -which prevented her from walking without support, she strove to disguise -her suffering and to march to death with as firm a step as possible. At -the foot of the stairs leading down from her apartments, her old servant -Melville awaited his mistress, and, on her approach, threw himself on -his knees before her, and wept. "Ah, madame," he said, "unhappy me, -what man on earth was ever before the messenger of so important sorrow -and heaviness as I shall be, when I shall report that my good and -gracious Queen and Mistress is beheaded in England." - - -[#] "Her robes--the only ones she had reserved of former -splendours--were such as were then worn by queens-dowager. The skirt and -bodice of black satin were worn over a petticoat of russet-brown velvet; -while the long regal mantle, also of black satin, embroidered with gold -and trimmed with fur, had long hanging sleeves and a train. The Queen's -head-dress was of white crape, from which fell a long veil of the same -delicate material, edged with lace. Round her neck she wore a chain of -scented beads with a cross, and at her waist a golden rosary." (_The -Tragedy of Fotheringay_, by Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott.) - - -"Not so," replied the Queen; "to-day, good Melville, thou seest the end -of Mary Stewart's miseries, that should rejoice thee. Thou knowest that -this world is but vanity and misery. Be the bearer of this news, that I -die a Catholic, firm in my religion, a faithful Scotchwoman and a true -Frenchwoman. God forgive those who have sought my death." She advanced -unmoved through the hall in which the scaffold stood, carrying in her -uplifted hand a large ivory crucifix. After encountering much -opposition, she succeeded in obtaining permission for her two women, -Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth Curle, to assist her until she should be -disrobed for the execution. - -Having mounted the scaffold, she seated herself on a low stool covered -with black, while the warrant of execution was being read. When it was -finished, she signed herself with the sign of the Cross and (as an eye -witness says), "She looked upon the assembly with a joyous countenance, -her beauty more apparent than ever, a bright colour in her face." Mr. -Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough, then approached the scaffold railing and -began to address her. But she paid no heed to him, except to inform him -that he need not trouble himself further, for she was settled in her -religion. On the contrary, as if indifferent to what was being said and -done around her, she glided from the stool on which she sat, and -kneeling down prayed aloud for the afflicted Church of Christ, for her -son, for Queen Elizabeth, "that she might prosper and serve God aright," -for her enemies who had long sought her blood; finally, kissing the -crucifix, which she held in her hand, she begged that Jesus, whose arms -were there extended on the cross, would receive her into the arms of his -mercy. Her prayer ended, the executioners began to disrobe her. At -this point her women, no longer able to control their feelings, broke -into lamentations, but she embracing them, prayed them not to cry, or -she would be obliged to send them away. Turning to where her -men-servants stood, a short distance from the scaffold, she crossed them -with her hands and bade them farewell. - -All being now ready, she embraced her women, saying, "Adieu for the last -time,--Adieu, au revoir," and then requested them to withdraw from the -scaffold. - -Seated on the black stool, her eyes bandaged, and the crucifix raised in -her hands, she prays aloud, "My God, I have hoped in thee, I give back -my soul into Thy hands." The executioners lead her to the block; Lord -Shrewsbury lifts up his wand; a deep silence falls upon the hall as the -axe trembles in the air, and is broken only by the last words of Mary -Stewart as she awaits the deadly blow,--"Into Thy hands, O Lord, I -commend my spirit." - - "The neck is bared--the blow is struck--the soul is passed away, - The bright, the beautiful, is now--a bleeding piece of clay." - - -The executioner taking up the head, according to custom, and exposing it -to the gaze of the people, cried out, "God save the Queen." "So perish -all the Queen's enemies," added the Dean of Peterborough; "such be the -end of all the Queen's and the Gospel's enemies," remarked the Earl of -Kent. But even that hostile assembly was melted to tears, and scarcely -a voice was heard to answer, "Amen." - -The body of the Scottish Queen, notwithstanding her dying request that -it be consigned to the care of her servants and by them borne away to -France and laid beside that of her mother, was detained for six months -in Fotheringay Castle. It was then removed, by order of Elizabeth, to -the Cathedral of Peterborough, a few miles distant, and laid in a vault -opposite the tomb of another noble victim of Tudor tyranny, the -blameless Catherine of Arragon. Twenty-five years later her son, King -James, who had in the meantime succeeded to the throne of England, in -partial reparation for his former neglects, removed her remains to -Westminster Abbey, and caused a beautiful monument, with a marble effigy -of the Queen in a recumbent position, to be erected over them, in the -south aisle of Henry the Seventh's chapel. - -No more need be added to this brief review of Mary Stewart's history. -The opinions set forth and defended in the above pages will not be -received by all, for the leading events of her life will continue to be -interpreted very generally according to theories conceived by party -zeal, before the historical evidence bearing on them has been examined. -I do not pretend that I myself have approached the study of her life -without prejudice. Say what we will, where party spirit has run high, -our feelings are always enlisted before our judgment has been moved. -This, however, should be borne in mind: the prejudices of a writer -cannot destroy the force of the evidence with which he supports his -contention; and, whithersoever my sympathies may tend, I have -endeavoured to give my reasons--the intelligent reader will judge of -their value--why I refuse to believe that Mary was the paramour of -Bothwell and a party to the murder of her husband, and why I maintain -that her conviction, on the charge of having sanctioned the projected -murder of Queen Elizabeth, was unjust. - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS IN HISTORY -*** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43074 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. 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