This refusal of a passport was deemed so serious a step that the Spanish ambassador in France announced it to his master as an event likely to bring war between France and England. He observes that it was a gratuitous in 66 in a letter of Cecil's: "The queen's majesty hath three ships in the North Seas to preserve the fishers from pirates-I think these will be sorry to see her pass. The significance of such brief remarks depends on the context, and this is supplied in Wright's Queen Elizabeth (i. 67-69), where the letter it belongs to is printed at length. It would appear that these ships actually met the galleys and let them pass, if Cecil was rightly informed when he wrote to Throckmorton, saying: The queen's majesty's ships that were upon the seas to cleanse them from pirates saw her and saluted her galleys; and staying her ships, examined them of pirates, and dismissed them gently; one Scottish ship they detained, as vehemently suspected of piracy -(Hardwicke's State Papers, 176). In construing this intelligence the difference of treatment towards galleys and ships must be noted Though it does not appear that as an act of national policy Queen Elizabeth's Government intended to intercept Queen Mary in her voyage, yet it seems to have been in the view of subordinates that they might do acceptable service by seizing accidental opportunities. For instance, the Earl of Rutland tells Cecil how he was advertised by a man from Bridlington that about four o'clock of the previous day, eight galleys and sixteen great ships were visible—it is not easy to reconcile this apparition with Brantome's: "Elle trouvera au port deux galeres, et deux navires de charge seulement pour tout armement (p. 110). The earl states that he had sent "Mr Strickland" to use all diligence and circumspection in the matter, giving this significant account of his duty: "It is thought they will draw to the shore, which, if they do, and arrive, I have given such order as I nothing doubt but ye shall hear good news of her stay."-Calendar of State Papers (Foreign), 254. It might account for interruptions and alarms, that there was a serious difficulty at that time between England and Spain, arising out of charges that English pirates had plundered Spanish vessels. In the course of the diplomatic correspondence on this point it was maintained on the part of England that some of the guilty vessels belonged to Scotsmen, and that others had sought refuge by running into the narrow seas of Scotland, where English ships were endeavouring to trace them. And then all this petty complexity about the designs of Queen Elizabeth and the attempts to effect them is simplified, if we are to believe a brief announcement of Randolph, who was in Edinburgh at the time of the arrival and ravenous for news: "She never met or saw ships upon the sea, for all the bruit that was of her stay that should have been" (ibid.) From casual remarks in the letters of the period, it seems possible that some diligent investigator may find that Queen Elizabeth thought better of the matter and granted the safe-conduct. VOL IV. B sult; for Queen Elizabeth must know that information about the movements of the English fleet could be so easily and fully obtained at Calais, that Queen Mary might time her voyage with almost a certainty of safely completing it. The refusal had an ugly and discourteous aspect, and yet something can be said for Queen Elizabeth in the matter. She was asked to permit a pretender to her throne to pass through England. She put the granting of the passports and the ratifying of the treaty of Edinburgh as equivalents. Let Queen Mary abandon her claims by signing the treaty-then she would be received in England with all honour and hospitality.1 Queen Mary embarked to return to Scotland on the 14th of August 1561. She and her escort sailed from Calais in two of the galleys then almost peculiar to France, as vessels which went before the wind when they could, and were rowed by galley-slaves on benches at other times. Two ordinary sailing vessels attended, the whole making a fleet of four. She was well escorted. There were with her, besides many minor nobles of France, her two uncles, the Duke of Aumale and the Marquis of Elbœuf; her two adorers, Marshal d'Amville, and Chastellar, whose adoration afterwards cost him so dear. There was Strozzi-apparently the son of the general who besieged St Andrews-and La Noue, afterwards known in the Huguenot wars as Bras de Fer.2 By far the most interesting, however, of her attendants to us at the present day was Brantome, who sailed in the same galley with her.3 Her conduct during the voyage has been treasured and told in various 1 Calendar of State Papers (Foreign), 1560-61, p. 574; 1561-62, p. 46, 58, 166, 67, 179, 187, 196, 244. Letters from Throckmorton, Keith (8vo ed.), ii. 26 et seq. 2 M. de Castelneau, l. iii. ch. i. 3 It might be inferred from what Leslie says, that she was then accompanied by her evil genius, Bothwell: "Not long efter, the Earls Bothwell and Eglintoun, the Bishop of Orkney, and sindry other noblemen and clerks, arrivet in France, wha returnet in Scotland with the queen's majesty again."-P. 295. In the Latin version, Bothwell's going to France is mentioned; but in the train coming to Scotland with the queen, only the French are mentioned, as in Brantome. The author of a contemporary diary says: 66 Upon the 21 day of Februar, my Lord Bothwell landed in Scotland out of France."- Diurnal of Occurrents, 64. shapes; but as the original source of all of them is a few precious sentences by that vivid writer in his little book 'Des Dames Illustres,' it may be well to adhere to what is so said. A light wind sprang up, the crew of galleyslaves were released from their labours, and the sails set. As the lumbering vessels moved slowly away, the queen sat beside the helm, as the place where she would be nearest the land she was leaving. She gazed on it with her fine eyes, and wept bitterly throughout the remaining five hours of daylight, repeating over and over the simple words," Adieu, France!" When the sight of land faded into the darkness, she uttered passionate words about the jealous night drawing its curtain before her, and with tears falling faster and faster, exclaimed that the sight of France was now lost to her-she would never see it more. She then became conversible, and spoke of herself with her eyes bent on the land, dropping a sentiment about her reversing the attitude of Dido, who, when Æneas departed, ever gazed on the sea. She slept on the deck, desiring the pilot to waken her immediately, should the land become again visible at dawn. The wind fell, and the slaves were set to their slow labours again, so that next morning the coast was still to be seen; and sitting up, she looked on it till it vanished, crying—" Adieu la France, cela est fait! Adieu la France, je pense ne vous voir jamais plus !" The queen reached her dominion through the port of Leith on the morning of the 19th of August. The voyage was made with unusual rapidity-in four days, as it appears. The event was not expected.1 The arrival of their queen was announced to the nearest inhabitants by the discharge of the guns mounted on the galleys. Whatever arrangements were in preparation for the event had not been completed, and the contrast betweeen Scotland and France was rather exaggerated than modified. She and her following 1 66 Since Randolph, writing a week later, says: The noblemen were all absent, saving the Lord Robert; her arrival was so sudden, that no man thought of her. Incontinent upon the news there arrived the duke first, next the Lord James, then the Earl of Arran. that time the repair has been great of all sorts. All men welcomeall men well received; good entertainment, good cheer, and fair words."-Calendar of State Papers (Foreign), 278. had to wait some time at Leith ere horses-there were no carriages-could be procured for them. Brantome, whose narrative still accompanies us, says the queen burst into tears at the sorry contrast with the gorgeous processions of France. He says nothing more, however, against the equipage, save that it consisted of the horses of the country, with conformable harness; but this he seems to have thought enough. Some zealous citizens sought to enliven her first night at Holyrood by a serenade, in which it is said that fiddles with three strings bore a conspicuous and discordant part. Whatever effect the discord may have had on the queen herself, it seems to have grated direfully on the nerves of Brantome, who describes the attempt as some five or six hundred "marauds" performing on mechans violons and petits rebecs; continuing, by way of aggravation apparently, that the music, abominably performed by them, partook of the nature of psalmody. The serenade is described by an observer of a different order in Knox's History, where we are told that "a company of most honest men, with instruments of music and with musicians, gave their salutations at her chamber window," and that the queen said the melody "liked her well," and she wished the same to be continued some nights after. The spoilt beauty expected to find in the land of her destiny a dreary contrast with that of her adoption, and she found her expectations fully realised. France, though now more closely and economically cultivated, scarcely bears to outward appearance a richer raiment of civilised fruitfulness than it did then. Wherever royalty was likely to resort, there were palaces and chateaus, walled towns, fine churches, and great stretches of pleasure-ground. Scotland was yet ignorant of the high cultivation which has warmed her cold landscape and softened her dreary winds. There was a greater contrast even in the people than in the country. England was behind France in a certain kind of civilisation; the Court and the aristocracy were more home-spun and yeoman-like. Scotland was a much greater distance behind England, and lacked the solid respectability which was then ripening into a civili sation more firm and true than that of France. The common people of Scotland were perhaps as well off as those of France, but they were not subdued to the same submissive order, being self-willed, boisterous, and, down to the very humblest grade, even proud. In France, the Court, through its power and wealth, could effectually isolate itself from the people, clearing away whatever was sordid and disagreeable, all around. In Scotland, the common people, such as they were, pressed close around the palace-door, and haunted royalty wherever it went. The contrast between the two nations, thus considerable in the lowest sphere of society, increased rather than diminished with the ascending grades, and was greatest among the courtiers immediately surrounding the throne. There were many country seigneurs in France, who practised rough hospitality and tyranny in their own domains, and were seen but on rare occasions at Court, where they were the objects of ridicule and horror. But those who frequented the Court had mounted as high in the scale of external elegance and fastidiousness as the world has ever reached. Though corroding vices were eating all morality out of it, the Court abounded in as much elegant luxury and external refinement as it has ever known at any later age. There was a high polish in the very vices of the period. If there were gluttony and drunkenness, they exercised themselves in the most skilfully prepared meats and costly wines. French cookery had made wonderful strides as a skilful art, and had produced one master-mind. Sensuality indulged itself in exquisite works of art and inspired poetry. The men even were profuse in silks and velvets, indulged in perfumes, and kept diminutive monkeys and silky spaniels as pets. Murder itself was refined, by a preference of subtle poisons, skilfully prepared, over the bloody brawls of earlier times. A portion of these vices and trivialities, covered with a thin polish, had been transferred by the French courtiers to their faithful allies of Scotland; but these tended rather to expose and aggravate than to subdue the natural character of the Scots aristocracy. Their dress was that of the camp or the stable; they were |