of war, and some of those who knew Elizabeth best did

2

1

not believe that war was coming; but Mary Stuart knew too well her own intentions to escape misgivings that the Queen of England might be as resolute as herself. When Randolph presented the letter with the message which accompanied it, she burst into tears; Lennox was silent with dismay; Darnley alone, too foolish to comprehend the danger, remained careless and defiant, and said shortly he had no mind to return.' Mary Stuart as soon as she could collect herself said she trusted that her good sister did not mean what she had written. Randolph replied that she most certainly did mean it; and speaking plainly, as his habit was, he added that if they refused to return and her Grace comforted them in so doing, the Queen his mistress had both power and will to be revenged on them, being her subjects.'

From the Court Randolph went to Argyle and Murray, who had ascertained meanwhile that there was no time to lose; the Bishop of Dunblane had been sent

1 Paul de Foix to Catherine de | being of better understanding, seekMedici, June 18: TEULET, vol. ii.

2 A sad and singular horoscope had already been cast for Darnley. 'His behaviour,' Randolph wrote to Cecil, is such that he is come in open contempt of all men that were his chief friends. What shall become of him I know not; but it is greatly to be feared he can have no long life amongst this people. The Queen,

eth to frame and fashion him to the nature of her subjects; but no persuasion can alter that which custom hath made in him. He is counted proud, disdainful, and suspicious, which kind of men this soil of any other can least bear.'-Randolph to Cecil, July 2: Cotton. MSS. CALIG. B. 10. Printed in KEITH.

to the Pope; Mary Stuart had obtained money from Flanders; she had again sent for Bothwell, and she meant immediate mischief. The two Earls expressed their belief that the time was come to put to a remedy.'

They saw their sovereign determined to overthrow religion received, and sore bent against those that desired the amity with England to be continued, which two points they were bound in conscience to maintain and defend.' They had resolved therefore 'to withstand such attempts with all their power, and to provide for their sovereign's estate better than she could at that time consider for herself.' They intended to do nothing which was not for their mistress's real advantage; Sir Nicholas Throgmorton had assured them of the Queen of England's 'godly and friendly offer to concur with and assist them;' the Queen of England's interest was as much concerned as their own; and they humbly desired the performance of her Majesty's promises: they did not ask for an English army; if her Majesty would give them three thousand pounds they could hold their followers together, and would undertake the rest for themselves; Lennox and Darnley could be seized and delivered into Berwick,' if her Majesty would receive them.

July.

To these communications Randolph replied with renewed assurances that Elizabeth would send them whatever assistance they required. He gave them the warmest encouragement to persevere; and as to the father and son whom they proposed to

kidnap, the English Government, he said, 'could not and would not refuse their own in what sort soever they came.' 1

The Queen of Scots was not long in receiving intelligence of what the lords intended against her. She sent a message to her brother requesting that he would meet her at Perth. As he was mounting his horse a hint was given him that if he went he would not return alive, and that Darnley and Rizzio had formed a plan to kill him. He withdrew to his mother's castle at Lochleven and published the occasion of his disobedience. Mary Stuart replied with a countercharge that the Earl of Murray had proposed to take her prisoner and carry off Darnley to England. Both stories were probably true: Murray's offer to Randolph is sufficient evidence against himself. Lord Darnley's conspiracy against the Earl was no more than legitimate retaliation. Civil war was fast approaching; and it is impossible to acquit Elizabeth of having done her best to foster it. Afraid to take an open part lest she should have an insurrection on her own hands at home, she was ready to employ to the uttermost the assistance of the Queen of Scots' own subjects, and she trusted to diplomacy or accident to extricate herself from the consequences.

On receiving Randolph's letter, which explained with sufficient clearness the intentions of the Protestant noblemen, she not only did not find fault with the en

1 Randolph to Cecil, July 2 and July 4: Cotton. MSS. CALIG. B. 10. Printed in KEITH.

gagements to which he had committed her, but she directed him under her own hand to assure them of her perfect satisfaction with the course which they were preparing to pursue. She could have entertained no sort of doubt that they would use violence; yet she did not even conceal her approbation under ambiguous or uncertain phrases. She said that they should find her in all their just and honourable causes regard their state and continuance;' if by malice or practice they were forced to any inconveniency they should find no lack in her;' she desired merely that in carrying out their enterprise they would 'spend no more money than their security made necessary, nor less which might bring danger.'1

As the collision drew near both parties prepared for it by endeavouring to put themselves right with the country. No sooner was it generally known in Scotland that the Queen intended to marry a Catholic than the General Assembly rushed together at Edinburgh. The extreme Protestants were able to appeal to the fulfilment of their predictions of evil when Mary Stuart was permitted the free exercise of her own religion. Like the children of Israel on their entrance into Canaan, they had made terms with wickedness: they had sown the wind of a carnal policy and were now reaping the whirlwind. A resolution was passed-to which Murray, though he was present, no longer raised his voice in opposition-that the sovereign was

1 Elizabeth to Randolph, July 10; Printed in KEITH.

not exempt from obedience to the law of the land, that the mass should be put utterly away, and the reformed service take the place of it in the royal chapel.

Mary Stuart had been described by Randolph as so much changed that those who had known her when she was under Murray's and Maitland's tutelage were astonished at the alteration; manner, words, features, all were different; in mind and body she was said to be swollen and disfigured by the tumultuous working of her passions.

To

So perhaps she may have appeared in Randolph's eyes; and yet the change may have been more in Randolph's power of insight than in the object at which he looked. Never certainly did she show herself cooler or more adroit than in her present emergency. She replied to the Assembly with returning from Perth to Edinburgh; and as a first step towards recovering their confidence she attended a Protestant sermon. the resolution of the General Assembly she delayed her answer, but she issued circulars protesting that neither then nor at any past time had she entertained a thought of interfering with her subjects' religion; the toleration which she had requested for herself she desired only to extend to others; her utmost wish had been that her subjects might worship God freely in the form which each most approved.1

A Catholic sovereign sincerely pleading to a Protestant Assembly for liberty of conscience might have

1 Circular by the Queen, July 17.