"situation," says she, in a letter to the English queen, “I "neither will nor can reply to the accusations of my subjects. "But I am ready, of my own accord, and out of friendship "to you, to satisfy your scruples, and to vindicate my own "conduct. My subjects are not my equals: nor will I, by "submitting my cause to a judicial trial, acknowledge them "to be so. I fled into your arms as into those of my nearest "relation and most perfect friend. I did you honour, as I "imagined, in chusing you preferably to any other prince, "to be the restorer of an injured queen. Was it ever "known that a prince was blamed for hearing in person the "complaints of those who applied to his justice, against the "false accusations of their enemies? You admitted into

your presence my bastard brother, who had been guilty of "rebellion; and you deny me that honour! God forbid "that I should be the cause of bringing any stain on your "reputation! I expected that your manner of treating me "would have added lustre to it. Suffer me either to implore "the aid of other princes, whose delicacy on this head will "be less, and the resentment of my wrongs greater; or let "me receive from your hands that assistance, which it be

comes you more than any other prince to grant; and by "that benefit bind me to yourself in the indissoluble ties of "gratitude"."

This letter, which somewhat disconcerted her plan, the English queen laid before her privy council; and it was there agreed, that Elizabeth could not, consistently with her own honour, or with the safety of her government, either give the queen of Scots the assistance which she demanded, or permit her to retire out of the kingdom, before the inquiry into her conduct was finished. It was also agreed to remove Mary, for the sake of greater safety, from Carlisle, where she had taken refuge, to Bolton, a castle belonging to lord Scroop, on the borders of Yorkshire1o.

8. Anderson, ubi sup.

9. Anderson, vol. iv.

10. Ibid.

The

The resolution of the English privy council, in regard to Mary's person, was immediately carried into execution; and she now found herself entirely in her rival's power. Her correspondence with her friends in Scotland was become more difficult; all prospect of escape was cut off; and although she was still treated with the respect due to a queen, her real condition was that of a prisoner. She knew what it was to be deprived of liberty, and dreaded confinement as the worst of evils.

Elizabeth laid hold of this season of terror, of impatience, and despair, to extort Mary's consent to the projected She was confident, she said, that the queen of Scots would find no difficulty in refuting all the calumnies of her enemies; and though her apology should even fall short of conviction, she was determined to support her cause. It was never meant, she added, that Mary should be cited to a trial on the accusation of her rebellious subjects; but on the contrary, that they would be summoned to appear and to justify themselves for their conduct toward her". Commissioners were accordingly appointed by the English ministry for the examination of this great cause; and conferences were held between them and the Scottish commissioners, part in the name of the queen, and part in behalf of the king and kingdom, first at York, and afterward at Westminster.

During the conferences at York, Mary's commissioners seemed to triumph, as the Regent had hitherto declined accusing her of any participation in the guilt of her husband's murder, which alone could justify the violent proceedings of her subjects. But the face of the question was soon changed, on the renewal of the conferences at Westminster immediately under the eye of the English queen. Murray, encouraged by the assurances of Elizabeth's protection, laid aside his delicacy and his fears, and not only charged his sovereign with consenting to the murder of her husband, but

11. Id. Ibid.

with being accessary to the contrivance and execution of it. The same accusation was offered by the earl of Lennox, who appearing before the English commissioners, craved vengeance for the blood of his son12.

But accusations were not enough for Elizabeth; she wanted to have proofs: and in order to draw them with decency from the regent, she commanded her commissioners to testify her indignation and displeasure at his presumption, in forgetting so far the duty of a subject, as to accuse his sovereign of such atrocious crimes. Murray, thus arraigned in his turn, offered to shew that his accusations were neither false nor malicious. He produced, among other evidences, in support of his charge, some Sonnets and Love-letters, from Mary to Bothwell, written partly before, partly after the murder of her husband, and containing incontestible proofs of her consent to that barbarous deed, of her criminal amours, and her concurrence in the pretended rape13. Stunned by this latent blow,

12. Goodall, vol. ii. Anderson, vol. iv.

13. Some bold attempts have lately been made to prove these Letters and Sonnets to be forgeries; but, unfortunately for Mary's reputation, the principal arguments, in support of their authority, yet remain unanswered. 1. They were examined and compared with her acknowledged hand-writing, in many letters to Elizabeth, not only by the English commissioners, and by the Scottish council and parliament, but by the English privy council assisted by several noblemen well affected to the cause of the queen of Scots, who all admitted them to be authentic. (Anderson, vol iv.) This circumstance is of great weight in the dispute; for although it is not very difficult to counterfeit a subscription, it is almost impossible to counterfeit any number of pages, so perfectly as to elude detection. 2. Mary and her commissioners, by declining to refute the charge of the Regent, though requested to attempt a refutation in any manner or form, and told by Elizabeth, that silence would be considered as the fullest confession of guilt, seemed to admit the justice of the accusation. (Id. Ibid.) 3. The duke of Norfolk, who had been favoured with every opportunity of examining the Letters in question, and who gave the strongest marks of his attachment to the queen of Scots, yet believed them to be authentic. (State Tryals, vol. i.). 4. In the conferences between the duke, Maitland of Lethington, and bishop Lesley, all zealous partizans of Mary, the authenticity of the Letters, and her participation in the murder

of

blow, against which it appears they were not provided with any proper defence, Mary's commissioners endeavoured to change the inquiry into a negociation, and finding that attempt impracticable, as the English commissioners insisted on proceeding, they finally broke off the conferences, without making any reply.

Elizabeth having got into her possession these evidences of her rival's guilt, began to treat her with less delicacy. Orders were given for removing Mary from Bolton, a place surrounded with Catholics, to Tutbury, in the county of Suffolk. And as Elizabeth entertained hopes that the queen of Scots depressed by her misfortunes, and scarce recovered from the shock of the late attack on her reputation, would now be glad to secure a safe retreat at the expence of her grandeur, she promised to bury every thing in oblivion, provided Mary would agree either to confirm her resignation of the crown or to associate her son with her in the government, and let the administration remain with the earl of Murray during the minority of James. But that high-spirited princess refused all treaty on such terms. "Death," said she," is less dread"ful than such an ignominious step. Rather than give 66 away with my own hands, the crown which descended to << me from my ancestors, I will part with life: but the last "words which I shall utter shall be those of a queen of Scot"land14 !”

of her husband, are always taken for granted. (Id. Ibid.) 5. But, independent of all other evidence, the Letters themselves contain many internal proofs of authenticity; many minute and unnecessary particulars, which could have occurred to no person employed to forge them, and which, as the English commissioners ingeniously observed, "were unknown to any other "than to herself and Bothwell." 6. Their very indelicacy is a proof of their authenticity; for although Mary, in an amorous moment, might slide into a gross expression, in writing to a man to whom she had sacrificed her honour, the framer of no forgery could hope to gain it credibility, by imputing such expressions to so polite and accomplished a princess as the queen of Scots.

14. Haynes, p. 497. Goodall, vol. ii.

After

After an end had been put to the conferences, the Regent returned into Scotland, and Mary was confined more closely than ever. In vain did she still demand, that Elizabeth should either assit her in recovering her authority, or permit her to retire into France, and make trial of the friendship of other princes. Aware of the danger attending both these proposals, Elizabeth resolved to comply with neither, but to detain her rival still a prisoner;-and the proofs produced of Mary's guilt, she hoped would apologize for this severity. The queen of Scots, however, before the Regent's departure, had artfully recriminated upon him and his party, by accusing them of having devised and executed the murder of the king. And although this accusation, which was not given in till after the dissolution of the conferences, was generally considered as a mere expression of resentment's, Mary had behaved with so much modesty, propriety, and even dignity, during her confinement, that her friends were enabled, on plausible grounds, to deny the reality of the crimes imputed to her; and a scheme was formed in both kingdoms, for restoring her to liberty and replacing her on her throne.

The fatal marriage of the queen of Scots with Bothwell was the grand source of all her misfortunes. A divorce only could repair in any degree, the injuries her reputation had suffered by that step; and a new choice seemed the most effectual means of recovering her authority. Her friends therefore looked out for a husband, whose influence would be sufficient to accomplish this desirable end. A foreign alliance was, for many reasons, to be avoided; and as the duke of Norfolk was, without comparison, the first subject,

15. Hume, vol. v. If Mary's commissioners could have produced any proofs of the earl of Murray's guilt, they would surely, as able advocates and zealous partizans, have prevented the accusation of her enemies; or they would have confronted accusation with accusation, instead of breaking off the conferences at the very moment the charge was brought against their mistress, and when all their eloquence was become necessary for the vindication of her honour.

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