disposed with great affection towards her, as before God we wish her right to be next to us before all other."1 Mary Stuart herself meanwhile was in close communication with Lady Lennox, and was receiving from her more and more assurances of the devotion of the English Catholics. Randolph, on his return to Edinburgh from London, found Maitland open-mouthed at the suspension of the prosecution of Hales for his book on the succession. The Scotch Court had expected that he would have been 'put to death as a traitor.' Randolph protested against the word 'traitor' inasmuch as it implied the certainty of the Queen of Scots' claim,' which many in England did not believe to be certain at all.' Hales has not deserved death,' he said, ' and imprisonment was the worst which could be inflicted.' Maitland spoke menacingly of the disaffection among the Catholics. Randolph 'bade him not make too much account of conspirators;' 'the behaviour of the Scotch Court,' he said, 'was so strange that he could only suppose they meant to quarrel with England;' and with these words they grew both into further choler than wisdom led them.'" 6 Mary's own language was still smooth, affectionate, and confiding; but Maitland and even Murray protested beforehand that when the commission met they would agree to no conditions and accept no marriage 1 Elizabeth to Bedford and Randolph, October 7, 1564: Scotch MSS. Rolls House. Randolph to Cecil, October 24: Scotch MSS. Rolls House. for their mistress unless her title was first fully admitted and confirmed. Darnley's name was not mentioned; but it was through the mouths of all men that it was a thing concluded in the Queen's heart;' and Randolph was under the mistaken impression that Maitland was as much in favour of it as his mistress.1 November. 'Their object,' Randolph, on the 7th of November, wrote to Elizabeth, 'is to have the Lord Darnley rather offered by your Majesty than desired of themselves;' but your Majesty I am assured will consider the unfitness of the match for greater causes than I can think of any-of which not the least will be the loss of many a godly man's heart that by your Majesty enjoyeth now the liberty of their country, and know but in how short a time they shall lose the same if your Majesty give your consent to match her with such an one as either by dissention at home or lack of knowledge of God and his word may persecute them that profess the same.'2 The Scotch Protestants comprehended instinctively the thousand dangers to which they would be exposed. The House of Lennox was the hereditary enemy of the Hamiltons, who had headed the Revolution of 1559. Darnley was known to be a Catholic; and his marriage with Mary Stuart was well understood to mean a Catholic revolution. The terrible fear is so entered into their hearts,' continued Randolph, that the Queen tendeth only to 'Randolph to Cecil, October 31: Scotch MSS. Rolls House. that, that some are well willing to leave their country, others with their force to withstand it, the rest with patience to endure it and let God work His will.' Maitland seems to have believed that Mary Stuart would be moderate and reasonable even if she was recognized unconditionally and was left to choose her own husband; he professed to imagine that some 'liberty of religion' could be established in the modern and at that time impossible sense in which wolf and dog, Catholic and Protestant, could live in peace together, neither worried nor worrying each other. But few of the serious Reformers shared his hope; and a gap was already opening wide between him and the Earl of Murray. Maitland was inclined to press England to the uttermost;' Randolph, in a private conversation with Murray, 'found in that nobleman a marvellous good will' to be guided by Elizabeth, although he was disturbed by the conflict of duties. The Earl, as the meeting of the commissioners approached, in his perplexity sent Elizabeth a message, 'that whatever he might say, or however vehement he might seem to be in his mistress's cause, he hoped her Majesty would not take it as if he was in any way wanting in devotion to her.' Both Murray and Randolph were nervously conscious of their incapacity to cope with Maitland in a diplomatic encounter. 'To meet with such a match,' Randolph wrote to Elizabeth, your Majesty knoweth what wits had been fit. How far he exceedeth the compass of one or two heads that is able to govern a Queen and guide a whole VOL. VII. 15 realm alone, your Majesty may well think. How unfit I am, and how able is he to go beyond me, I would it were not as I know it to be.' 1 Little time was lost in preparation. On the 18th of November the four commissioners met at Berwick: Bedford, a plain, determined man, with the prejudices of a Protestant and the resolution of an English statesman; Randolph, true as Bedford to Elizabeth, but entangled deeply in the intricacies of diplomacy, and moving with more hesitation; Murray, perplexed as we have seen; and Maitland, at home in the element in which he played with the practised pleasure of a master. The preliminaries were soon disposed of. Both sides agreed on the desirableness of the union of the realms; and the English ministers admitted the propriety of the recognition of the Queen of Scots, if adequate securities could be provided for Elizabeth's safety and for the liberties of the realm. The main subject was then approached. Lord Bedford said that his mistress would undertake to favour Mary Stuart's title if Mary Stuart would marry where the English council wished; and he proposed the Earl of Leicester as a suitable husband for her. 'The Earl of Leicester,' Maitland replied,' was no 1 Randolph to Elizabeth, November 7: Cotton. MSS., CALIG. B. 10. On the same day Randolph wrote to Leicester: 'I would you were to be at Berwick to say somewhat for yourself, for there I assure you somewhat will be said of you that for | your lordship may tend to little good. How happy is your life that between these two Queens are tossed to and fro. Your lordship's luck is evil if you light not in some of their laps that love so well to play.'-Scotch MSS. Rolls House. fit marriage for his mistress taken alone; and he desired to be informed more particularly what the Queen of England was prepared to do in addition. Indefinite promises implied merely that she did not wish the Queen of Scots to make a powerful alliance; his mistress could not consent to make an inferior marriage while the Queen of England was left unfettered; the Queen of England might herself marry and have children.' 'It is not the intention of the Queen of England,' said Randolph, 'to offer the Lord Robert only as Earl of Leicester without further advancement. She desires to deal openly, fairly, and kindly, but neither will her Majesty say what she will do more, nor ought she to say, till she knows in some degree how her offer will be embraced.' 'As you,' he said particularly to Maitland, 'have spoken an earnest word, so I desire without offence to have another, which is that if you think by finesse, policy, or practice, or any other means, to wring anything out of her Majesty's hands, you are but abused and do much deceive yourselves.' As much as this had probably been foreseen on all sides. Maitland wished to extort an independent admission of Mary's claims from which Elizabeth would not afterwards be able to recede; the English would admit nothing until Mary had consented generally to conditions which would deprive her of the power of being dangerous. But it seems that they were empowered, if Leicester was unacceptable, to give the Queen of Scots the larger choice which Maitland demanded. Cecil had |