is certain, however, that she at once altered her tone to Darnley. She resolved on luring him back, along with such of the other enemies surrounding her as she could win over. With her foolish husband she accomplished her purpose with the ease of a great artist; the others seem to have kept themselves beyond the magic circle. It was part of her policy to make him think she believed in his absurd protestations that he had no concern in her favourite's death. The day was spent by Darnley in vibrating between the two parties-coming from the queen to decillor, Archbishop Beaton, she says, "The said Lord Ruthven perforce invaded him in our presence (he then for refuge took safeguard, having retired him behind our back), and with his complices cast down our table upon himself, put violent hands on him, struck him over our shoulders with whinyards, one part of them standing before our face with bended dags, most cruelly took him furth of our cabinet, and at the entry of our chamber gave him fifty-six strokes with whinyards and swords." This tends to confirm Ruthven's narrative, by showing that Rizzio was taken alive out of the cabinet and killed in the anteroom. It is not a necessary inference that he was wounded, though she says they struck him over her shoulder with whinyards; their object, undoubtedly, was to get him out of the queen's presence in the first place. In the queen's short account of her controversy with Ruthven, when speaking of Rizzio, she says, "whom they had actually put to death." If this stood alone, it might be doubtful whether she mentions that as a fact merely which she might afterwards have known, or states that she was told it at the time by Ruthven. In the narrative of Bedford and Randolph, who were undoubted masters of all the facts, it is stated that, in her conversation with Ruthven and her husband, the queen spoke for Rizzio's safety partly in entreaties, partly in threats, saying, "Well, it shall be dear blood to some of you if his be spilt.' In whichever sense it be taken, this explanation is further proof that she did not see him slain (see the letter in Labanoff, i. 344, 345). Spottiswoode (p. 195) gives the following distinct account of her acquaintance with the end: "The queen, bursting forth in many tears after a great tiding she kept with the Lord Ruthven, sent one of her maids to inquire what was become of Davie, who quickly returning, told that he was killed: having asked her how she knew it, the maid answered that she had seen him dead. Then the queen, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief, said, 'No more tears— I will think upon a revenge.' Neither was she seen after that any more to lament." For this account, accepted in several quarters, I am aware of no better authority than Spottiswoode's mere statement, and the dubious memoirs attributed to Lord Herries. If better vouched, it would be formidable evidence of her intention to work for what afterwards came to pass.

mand concessions for her, getting scolded for his weakness and the peril he was bringing them all into by yielding to her blandishments, and going back fortified against her, to return again as her humble messenger. Early in the day she recovered her women, through whom she communicated with Bothwell, Huntly, and other friends. The alarm was more than once raised that a miscarriage was approaching, and the necessary attendants were summoned; but Ruthven thought he saw under all this a project for her escaping among the miscellaneous throng of women hurrying out and in, and it was regulated, much to the queen's annoyance, that no gentlewoman should pass forth "undismuffled."

It was arranged, as a signal token of reconciliation, that Darnley was to share the queen's couch that night. As men will do, however, when they have got a heavy piece of business satisfactorily through, he took a drowsy fitprobably, too, he was saturated with wine; so he fell dead asleep in his own chamber, and when he awoke too late, scolded those who had failed to break his slumber. Probably the queen did not much regret a new insult which relieved her of a portion of her work of dissimulation. She was next day all smiles and caresses. The meeting with the banished lords cannot be better told than in Ruthven's own words :

"She took purpose, and came out of the utter chamber, led by the king. The said earls and lords sitting down upon their knees, made their general oration by the Earl of Morton, chancellor, and after their particular orations by themselves. And after that her majesty had heard all, her answer was, that it was not unknown to the lords that she was never bloodthirsty nor greedy upon their lands and goods sithence her coming into Scotland, nor yet would be upon theirs that were present, but would remit the whole number that was banished, or at the last dead, and bury and put all things in oblivion, as if they had never been; and so caused the said lords and barons to arise on their feet. And afterwards her majesty desired them to make their own security in that sort they pleased best, and she should subscribe the same. Thereafter her

majesty took the king by the one hand and the Earl of Murray by the other, and walked in her said upper chamber the space of one hour, and then her majesty passed into her inner chamber."1

The desire that they should "make their own security" had reference to a new band appropriate to the occasion, which a skilful conveyancer was in fact at that moment preparing, under the vigilant inspection of the returned exiles, or of the king's party, as they were then-but only for a few hours-named. Soon after six o'clock in the evening the king joined them, or at least their committee, consisting of Murray, Morton, Ruthven, and Lindsay, who handed to him their band of security, ready for his signature and the queen's, "which the king took in hand (as soon as he had supped) to be done." He made a request, however, which inflamed their still slumbering suspicions, by desiring them to remove their own people, and leave the queen in the hands of her proper guard. The lords had been telling Darnley all along, in pretty plain terms, that there was duplicity at work and they were only led on to be betrayed; and at this proposal Ruthven, bursting out in anger, told him that what should follow and what blood be shed should come on his head and that of his posterity, not on theirs. The guards seem not to have been removed; but the lords themselves adjourned to Morton's house to sup-a step attended with risk, yet in which there was a certain policy, because it was expedient that the queen, in whatever she signed, should have as much appearance of free-will as it was safe to allow. After supper they sent Archibald Douglas to see if the queen had subscribed the band. No, she had not; the king said she had read the articles and found them very good, but she was sick and going to bed, and delayed the subscribing until the morning.

About an hour after midnight the queen and Darnley managed, by connivance, to slip out through the wine-cellar. Outside, Arthur Erskine, captain of her guard, met her by

1 Ruthven's Relation.

arrangement with six or seven mounted followers. The queen seated on a crupper behind Erskine, they all rode straight to Seton House, where the Lord Seton gave them an escort on to Dunbar. The governor of that strong fortress was amazed, early on Tuesday morning, by the arrival of his king and queen, hungry, and clamorous for fresh eggs to breakfast.

156

CHAPTER XLV.

QUEEN MARY.

(Continued.)

THE CONFEDERATE LORDS AND THEIR DANGER- PROJECTS OF RETALIATION THE SLAYERS OF RIZZIO SEEK REFUGE IN ENGLAND -A PARLIAMENT — THE FIT OF CONJUGAL ATTACHMENT PASSES -SYMPTOMS OF MARY'S FEELING TOWARDS HER HUSBAND - HE IS AVOIDED, AND BECOMES ALARMED-RISE AND CHARACTER OF BOTHWELL HIS POWER ON THE BORDERS-CONDITION OF THE BORDERS AT THAT TIME HIS POWER ON THE SEA HISTORY OF HIS HOUSE AS RENOWNED FOR ROYAL LOVE-AFFAIRS-WOUNDED IN A BORDER SCUFFLE - THE QUEEN'S RIDE FROM JEDBURGH TO HERMITAGE TO VISIT HIM-BIRTH OF THE PRINCE PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS BAPTISM-PROJECTS AGAINST DARNLEY MOOTED-DARNLEY'S ILLNESS-THE QUEEN'S NEW PROFESSION OF RECONCILIATION, AND VISIT TO HIM IN GLASGOW HIS FATHER AND HE AFRAID OF MURDER-HIS OWN EXPRESSIONS ON THE MATTER DARNLEY BROUGHT TO THE KIRK-OF-FIELD-A BAND FOR PUTTING HIM OUT OF THE WAY-THE PREPARATIONS-THE COMPLETION OF THE MURDER.

THUS the confederate lords rose in the morning to find themselves outwitted and in great danger. They despatched a messenger to Dunbar on the useless errand of procuring that signature to their band which the royal fugitives had neglected to leave. The messenger was detained two days before his message could be delivered, and it was not even honoured with the formality of an

answer.