Woe is me for you when David's (Rizzio's) son shall be 1566. At length a darker secret stole abroad, that January. Pius the Fifth, who had just succeeded to the Papal chair, had drawn away Catherine de Medici from the freer and nobler part of the French people; that she had entered on the dark course which found its outcome on the day of St Bartholomew; and that a secret league had been formed between the Pope and the King of France and the Guises for the uprooting of the reformed faith out of France by fair means or foul. Nor was the conspiracy confined to the Continent; a copy of the bond had been sent across to Scotland, which Randolph ascertained that Mary Stuart had signed. At the moment when it arrived she had been moved in some slight degree by Melville's persuasions, and perhaps, finding that Philip also advised moderation, she was hesitating whether she should not pardon the lords after all. But the Queen-mother's messenger, M. de Villemont, entreated that she would under no circumstances whatever permit men to return to Scotland who had so long thwarted and obstructed her. The unexpected support from France blew her passion into flame again; 3 and she looked only to the meeting of the Parliament, from which the strength of the Protestants would now be absent, not only to gratify her own and Rizzio's revenge but to commence her larger 1 Randolph to Leicester, January 29: Scotch MSS. Rolls House, 3 MELVILLE's Memoirs. and long-cherished projects. She determined to make an effort to induce the Estates to re-establish Catholicism as the religion of Scotland, leaving the Protestants for the present with liberty of conscience, but with small prospect of retaining long a privilege which when in power they had refused to their opponents. The defeat of the lords and the humiliating exhibition of Elizabeth's fears had left Mary Stuart to outward appearance mistress of the situation. There was no power in Scotland which seemed capable of resisting her. She wrote to Pius to congratulate him on her triumph over the enemies of the faith, and to assure him that with the help of God and his Holiness she would leap over the wall." Bedford and Randolph ceased to hope; and Murray, in a letter modestly and mournfully beautiful, told Cecil that unless Elizabeth interfered, of which he had now small expectation, ' for anything that he could judge' he and his friends were wrecked for ever.2 On Suddenly, and from a quarter least expect- February. ed, a little cloud rose over the halcyon prospects of the Queen of Scots, wrapped the heavens in blackness, and burst over her head in a tornado. the political stage Mary Stuart was but a great actress. The 'woman' had a drama of her own going on behind the scenes; the theatre caught fire; the mock heroics of the Catholic crusade burnt into ashes; and a tremendous 1 Mary Stuart to the Pope, January 21, 1566: MIGNET. VOL. VII. 24 domestic tragedy was revealed before the astonished eyes of Europe. Towards the close of 1565 rumours went abroad in Edinburgh, coupled with the news that the Queen was enceinte, that she was less happy in her marriage than she had anticipated. She had expected Darnley to be passive in her hands, and she was finding that he was too foolish to be controlled: a proud, ignorant, selfwilled boy was at the best an indifferent companion to an accomplished woman of the world; and when he took upon himself the airs of a king, when he affected to rule the country and still more to rule the Queen, he very soon became intolerable. The first open difference between them arose from the appointment of Bothwell as lieutenant-general in preference to Lennox. The Lennox clan and kindred, the Douglases, the Ruthvens, the Lindsays, who were linked together in feudal affinity, took the affront to themselves; and Darnley, supported by his friends, showed his resentment by absenting himself from the Court. 'The Lord Darnley,' wrote Randolph on the 20th of December,' 'followeth his pastimes more than the Queen is content withal; what it will breed hereafter I cannot say, but in the mean time there is some misliking between them.' It was seen how Darnley, at the time of his marriage, grasped at the title of King. As he found his wishes thwarted he became anxious, and his kins 1 Scotch MSS. Rolls House. men with him, that the name should become a reality, and the crown matrimonial' be legally secured to him at the approaching Parliament. But there were signs abroad that his wish would not be acceded to; Mary Stuart was unwilling to part with her power for the same reason that Darnley required it. On Christmas-day Randolph wrote again of 'strange alterations.' 'A while ago,' he said,' 'there was nothing but King and Queen; now the Queen's husband is the common word. He was wont in all writings to be first named; now he is placed in the second. Lately there were certain pieces of money coined with their faces Henricus et Maria; these are called in and others framed. Some private disorders there are among themselves; but because they may be but amantium iræ, or 'household words,' as poor men speak, it makes no matter if it grow no further.' In January a marked affront was passed on Darnley. M. Rambouillet brought from Paris the Order of the Cockle' for him. A question rose about his shield. Had the crown matrimonial' been intended for him he would have been allowed to bear the royal arms. The Queen coldly 'bade give him his due,' and he was enrolled as Duke of Rothsay and Earl of Ross. Darnley retaliated with vulgar brutality. He gave roistering parties to the young French noblemen in Rambouillet's train and made them drunk.3 1 Scotch MSS. Rolls House. Sick with draughts of aqua 2 KNOX; History of the Reform- composita.' ation. One day he was dining with the Queen at the house of a merchant in Edinburgh. He was drinking hard as usual, and when she tried to check him 'he not only paid no attention to her remonstrance, but also gave her such words as she left the place with tears.' Something else happened also, described as 'vicious,' the nature of which may be guessed at, at some festivity or other on Inch Island;' and as a natural consequence the Queen withdrew her company' from the Lord Darnley; a staircase connected their rooms, but they slept apart.2 Side by side with the estrangement from her husband, Mary Stuart admitted Rizzio to closer and closer intimacy. Signor David, as he was called, became the Queen's inseparable companion in the council-room and the cabinet. At all hours of the day he was to be found with her in her apartments. She kept late hours, and he was often alone with her till midnight. He had the control of all the business of the State; as Darnley grew troublesome his presence was dispensed with at the council, and a signet, the duplicate of the King's, was intrusted to the favoured secretary. Finding himself so deeply detested by the adherents of Lennox, Rizzio induced the Queen to show favour to those among the banished lords who were most hostile to the King and were least determined in their Protestantism. Chatelherault was pardoned and allowed to return as a support against the Lennox faction in 1 Sir William Drury to Cecil, | B. 10: Printed in KEITH. February 16: Cotton, MSS. CALIG. 2 RUTHVEN's Narrative. KEITH. |