instance to depend on her subjects to maintain her, and among them the connection might prove an occasion of discord.

So long as the Hamiltons were strong the marriage would have been absolutely impossible. Chatelherault, however, was now in his dotage; the Earl of Arran was a lunatic; the family was enfeebled and scattered; and Mary Stuart was enabled to feel her way towards her object by allowing Lennox to return and sue for his rights. Could the House of Lennox recover its rank in Scotland the next step would be more easy.

Had she affected to consult Elizabeth-had she openly admitted her desire to substitute Darnley for Lord Robert-affecting no disguise and being ready to accept with him the conditions and securities which the English Parliament would have attached to the marriage-Elizabeth would probably have yielded, or in refusing would have given the Queen of Scots legitimate ground of complaint.

But open and straightforward conduct did not suit the complexion of Mary Stuart's genius: she breathed more freely, and she used her abilities with better effect, in the uncertain twilight of conspiracy.

Although both Murray and Maitland consented to the return of Lennox, the Protestants in Scotland instantly divined the purpose of it. Her meaning therein is not known,' wrote one of Randolph's correspondents to him on the 31st of April, 'but some suspect she shall at last be persuaded to favour his son; we are presently in quiet, but I fear it shall not be for

VOI, VII.

13

long, for things begin to grow to a ripeness, and there are great practisers who are like to set all aloft.'1 'The Lady Margaret and the young Earl are looked for soon after,' wrote Knox; 'the Lord Bothwell will follow with power to put in execution whatever is demanded, and Knox and his preaching will be pulled by the ears.

May.

2

This last contingency would not have deeply distressed Elizabeth; but she knew Mary Stuart too well to trust her smooth speeches. The Queen of Scots had represented the return of Lennox as a concession to the wishes of her dear sister, the Queen of England. The expressions of friendliness were somewhat overdone, and served chiefly to place Elizabeth on her guard.

Randolph sent an earnest entreaty that Lennox should be detained in England; and when the Earl applied for a passport to Scotland, a variety of pretexts were invented for delay or refusal.

Mary Stuart wanted the self-control for successful diplomacy. She saw that she was suspected, and the suspicion was the more irritating because it was just. Her warmer temper for the moment broke loose. She sent for Randolph, bade him go to his mistress and tell her that there could be no interview in the summer: her council disapproved of it. She wrote violently to Elizabeth herself, and Maitland accompanied the letter with another to Cecil, in which he laid on England the

1

to Randolph, April 31 : Scotch MSS. Rolls House.
2 Knox to Randolph, May 3: Ibid.

failure of all the attempts to reconcile the two Queens. Why Lennox should be prevented from returning when Elizabeth herself had supported his suit, he professed himself unable to understand. The conduct of the English Court was a mystery to him, and 'he much feared that God, by the ingratitude of both the nations being provoked to anger, would not suffer them to attain so great worldly felicity as the success of the negotiation' for the union.1

June.

On these terms stood Elizabeth and Mary Stuart in the beginning of June, when the new Spanish ambassador, Don Diego Guzman de Silva, arrived in London. De Silva, though a more honourable specimen of a Castilian gentleman, was far inferior to de Quadra in ability for intrigue; yet he was a man who could see clearly and describe intelligibly the scenes in the midst of which he lived; and his despatches are more pleasing and, under some aspects, more instructive than the darker communications of his predecessor.

In the following letters he tells the story of his reception at Elizabeth's Court, where, the curtain being once more lifted, Lord Robert Dudley is still seen at his old game, professing at home an increasing attachment to the Reformation, abroad maintaining an agent at the Vatican, and declaring himself to Philip the most devoted servant of Rome.

1 Maitland to Cecil, June 6, June 23, and July 13: Scotch MSS. Rolls House.

DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.

London, June 27.

The

'I arrived in London the 18th of this month. day following, the Queen sent an officer of the household to welcome me in her name. I had previously received a number of kind messages from the Lord Robert, and in returning him my thanks I had asked him to arrange my audience with her Majesty. She promised to see me on Thursday the 22nd. The Court was at Richmond: I went up the river in a barge and landed near the palace. Sir Henry Dudley and a relative of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton met me at the stairs, and brought me to the Council Room. There Lord Darnley, Lady Margaret Lennox's son, came to me from the Queen, and escorted me into her presence.

'As I entered, some one was playing on a harpsichord. Her Majesty rose, advanced three or four steps to meet me, and then giving me her hand, said in Italian she did not know in what language to address me. I replied in Latin, and after a few words I gave her your Majesty's letter. She took it, and after first handing it to Cecil to open, she read it through.

'She then spoke to me in Latin also-with easy elegance-expressing the pleasure which she felt at my arrival. Her Court, she said, was incomplete without the presence of a minister from your Majesty; and for herself she was uneasy without hearing from time to time of your Majesty's welfare. Her ill friends' had told her that your Majesty would never send an am

bassador to England again. She was delighted to find they were mistaken. Her obligations to your Majesty were deep and many, and she would show me in her treatment of myself that she had not forgotten them.

'After a few questions about your Majesty she then took me aside and inquired about the Prince, how his health was, and what his character was. She talked at length about this; and then falling back into Italian, which she speaks remarkably well, she began again to talk of your Majesty. Your Majesty, she said, had known her when she was in trouble and sorrow. She was much altered since that time, and altered she would have me to understand much for the better.'

Some unimportant conversation followed and de Silva took his leave, Lord Darnley again waiting upon him to his barge.

A postscript was added in cipher :—

'An intimate friend of Lord Robert Dudley has just been with me. I understand from him that Lord Robert was on bad terms with Cecil before the late book on the succession appeared, and that now the enmity between them is deeper than ever, because he takes Cecil to have been the author of it. The Queen is furious, but there are so many accomplices in the business that she has been obliged to drop the prosecution. This gentleman, although he desires me to be careful how I mention Lord Robert's name, yet entreats me at the same time to lose

1 Lord Robert hoped that if the | and her children, the country would Queen of Scots was recognized as waive the objection to himself in the heir to the throne after Elizabeth desire to see the Queen married.