Earl of Lennox made a more formal accusation commissioners; but on the 16th her majesty apof Bothwell and others. On the 21st Bothwell peared in person, Bothwell carrying the sceptre was allowed by Mary and her ministers to get before her. The parliament confirmed to the into his own hands the strong castle of Edin- murderer all the estates and honours he had reburgh. On the 28th of the same month an order cently received, and at the same time all their was issued by the privy council for Bothwell's estates and honours to the nobles who had acted trial to take place on the 12th of April. Lennox, with him or were willing to aid him in his amwho is more than suspected of having had a prin- bitious designs. Old forfeitures were reversed, cipal share in the murder of Rizzio, and in other new grants were made, every man looking eagerly dishonourable plots, complained of violence and for a share in the queen's liberality. An alluinjustice; and he wrote not only to Mary, but to sion was boldly made to the late charges against Queen Elizabeth, to obtain a postponement of the Bothwell, and accusations by placards or bills trial, stating, with some reason, that the time stuck up secretly in the streets were prohibited. was too short to allow him to collect his wit- No Scottish parliament at this time could overnesses, and that he could not safely present him- look the great question of religion. The present self where the murderers of his son were not only drew up a bill for the renouncing of all foreign at large but in possession of power and favour.2 jurisdiction in ecclesiastical affairs, and for conBut it was determined, in spite of this remon- firming and ratifying the Protestant doctrines strance, that the court of justiciary should pro- and church government; and the queen readily ceed to trial on the day fixed. Lennox then ad- gave the royal assent to this bill, which bevanced from Glasgow to Stirling, on his way to stowed a constitutional sanction upon the ReEdinburgh; but here his fears overcame him-formed church, and proclaimed a total renunciahe wrote his excuses-and then fled with all haste into England, where he was kindly received by Elizabeth. On the 9th of April, before the trial came on, Moray, having with great difficulty obtained the queen's permission, set out from Edinburgh for France. He took his journey through England, where he also was well received; and he took care not to return until the course of events left all but the throne open to his ambition: and yet his absence could hardly exonerate him from suspicion of treacherous dealing; for the cunning Maitland was his sworn ally and coadjutor; and he, and others equally devoted to the earl, remained quietly at their posts till the vessel of the state was fairly driven upon the rocks. On the appointed day, when the justiciary court opened, Bothwell appeared at the bar, supported on the one hand by Maitland, on the other by Morton. No evidence was produced- -no prosecutor appeared-and Bothwell was necessarily acquitted; though, by this time, there was scarcely a man in the kingdom but felt assured of his guilt. On the 14th of April, two days after this acquittal, a parliament assembled in a regular manner at Edinburgh. It was opened by the queen's

He charged Bothwell, with his three partizans or dependants, Balfour, Chalmers, and Spence, and three servants of the queen Sebastian, Bordeaux, and Joseph Rizzio, the brother of David, whom Mary had promoted after the Holyrood assassination.

2 Elizabeth remonstrated with Mary, but the English messenger did not arrive at Holyrood till the very morning of the mock trial. From the 28th of March to the 12th of April are only

fifteen days, so that, as a forced journey from Edinburgh to London (and Lennox wrote from Glasgow) occupied six days, and the same time must be allowed for the return, without counting time for consulting with her ministers or allowing for contingencies, the English queen had possibly not been able to get her remonstrance to Holyrood sooner

tion of the authority of Rome. Bothwell was indefatigable in this parliament, evidently hoping to conciliate the preachers. During the sitting of the parliament reports got abroad of an intended marriage between the queen and Both well. "The bruit began to rise," says Melville, "that the queen would marry the Earl Bothwell, who had, six months before, married the Earl of Huntly's sister, and would part with his own wife. Whereat every good subject that loved the queen's honour and the prince's surety had sore hearts, and thought her majesty would be dishonoured and the prince in danger to be cut off by him that had slain his father; but few or none durst speak in the contrary. Yet my Lord Herries, a worthy nobleman, came to Edinburgh well accompanied, and told her majesty what bruits were passing through the country, of the Earl Bothwell murdering of the king, and how that she was to marry him; requesting her majesty, most humbly upon his knees, to remember upon her honour and dignity, and upon the surety of the prince, which would all be in danger of tincell (destruction) in case she married the said earl; with many other great persuasions to eschew such utter wrack and inconvenients as that would bring on. Her majesty marvelled at such bruits without purpose, and said that there was no such thing in her mind."

If some remarkable details in Melville's Memoirs are honestly and correctly given and our own impression is that they are so in the mainMary was evidently at this moment coerced by the ruffianly audacity of Bothwell, who was still in close alliance with Maitland and all her ninisters, and permitted by them to menace her true friends in her own palace. Immediately after

the eyes of most women of that time, as the only means of covering her honour. Melville, who was, as we have seen, with the queen when she was taken, is not very clear on this point; he says, however, that Bothwell, after taking the queen's bridle, "boasted to marry the queen, who would or who would not; yea, whether she would herself or not." But he adds-"Captain Blaiketer (or Blackadder), that was my taker, alleged that it was with the queen's own consent." Yet here, it should be observed, that Blackadder, as officer or servant of Bothwell-as a person actively engaged in the transaction-would naturally make such an assertion; for if it was against the queen's consent, the act was nothing less than treason in all concerned. On the following day Melville was let out of Dunbar Castle, and perBut Bothwell kept the mitted to pass home.

place was supplied by his friend and colleague Craig, who, after some hesitation, published the banns as required, and then protested from the pulpit that he abhorred and detested the intended marriage as unlawful and scandalous, and solemnly charged the nobility to use their influence to prevent the queen from taking a step which would cover her with infamy. But the nobles were far indeed from any disposition to make efforts in this way, the influence of the greater part of them being engaged to promote the match, and no complaint on their part being made against it until it was completed, and the queen irretrievably lost. Bothwell was now created Duke of Orkney; and on the 15th of May, only eight days after the dissolution of his former marriage, he was united to the queen. "The marriage," says Melville, "was made in the palace of Holyroodhouse, after a preaching by Adam Bodewell (or Bothwell), Bishop of Orkney, in the great hall where the council uses to sit,

bards to drive Bothwell from the country and in a strictly Protestant and Presbyterian manner, herself from her throne. On the 29th of April Bothwell commanded that the banns should he the daring man brought the queen back to Edin- published in the regular parish church at Edinburgh Castle, and placed her in seeming liber-burgh. John Knox was then absent, but his ty, but she was in fact still in a snare, entirely sur rounded by crafty and remorseless men. "Afterwards," says Melville, "the court came to Edinburgh, and there a number of noblemen were drawn together in a chamber within the palace, where they subscribed, all, that the marriage between the queen and the Earl Bothwell was very meet, he being well friended in Lothians and upon the Borders, to cause good rule to be kept; and then the queen could not but marry him, seeing he had ravished her and lain with her against her will. I cannot tell how nor by what law he parted with his own wife, sister to the Earl of Huntly." This hurried parting with his wife was one of the most revolting features of Bothwell's conduct: and yet, in this respect, he was scarcely more infamous than his high-born wife herself, or her brother the Earl of Huntly, chancellor of the kingdom and guardian of the purity of the laws! He commenced a process in the consistory court of the Popish Archbishop of St Andrews for a divorce, on the plea of consan-according to the order of the Reformed religion, guinity; and his wife, in collusion with him, sued and not in the chapel of the mass, as was the her husband in the Protestant court of commis- king's marriage." On the same day, however, the saries of Edinburgh for a divorce, on a charge of ceremony was also performed in private accordadultery. She had been previously gratified bying to the Catholic forms. At the public celeBothwell with a grant for life of the lands and bration there was a great attendance of nobles town of Nether Hailes in Haddingtonshire; and A few days after, Le Croc, the French ambassador, Huntly, her brother, continued in the closest in-represents Mary as being in the extremity of grief timacy with Bothwell, and was even present at his marriage with the queen. Both the ecclesiastical courts proceeded with as much speed as Bothwell could have required, and on different grounds passed sentence of divorce. A few days after, the queen appeared in the court of session, and there declared before the chancellor, the judges, and several of the nobility, that though she had been carried off and detained against her will in Dunbar, and greatly injured by the Earl of Bothwell, yet considering his former great services, and all that might be hereafter expected from his bravery and ability, she was disposed not only to forgive him, but also to exalt him to higher honours. Bothwell, of course, had made the best use of his bond signed by the bishops, and earls, and lords at "Ainslie's Supper;" and it is generally admitted that this document had great weight with Mary, who, it should appear, did not see it until she was at Dunbar. And now the said great lords, spiritual and temporal, who had signed the deed, got from the queen a written assurance that neither they nor their descendants should ever be accused on that account.' Resolving to have his new marriage performed

Keith; Lesley; Scott.

and despair. "On Thursday the queen sent for me, when I perceived something strange in the mutual behaviour of her and her husband. She attempted to excuse it, and said, 'If you see me melancholy, it is because I do not choose to be cheerful--because I never will be so, and wish for nothing but death."" This does not look like an amorous bride who had eagerly thrown herself into the arms of her lover. Envoys were sent to England and to France to communicate the queen's marriage, and to counteract the rumours which were afloat. Elizabeth, who had certainly been warned beforehand by Morton and Maitlandthe very men who were most active in bringing about the match-now prepared to lend her assistance to them in taking up arms against the queen. Morton, as has been observed, was aware that, by ruining Mary, he should gratify Elizabeth, and raise his own party to the management of affairs; and, after the lapse of a few short years, when Moray, who was the first to step to greatness by Mary's fall, was laid in a bloody grave, we shall see this same Morton, one of the murderers of Rizzio as of Darnley, made Regent of Scotland, under the protection of the English queen. "Harl. MS, quoted by Raumer.

CHAPTER XVI.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1567-1569.

ELIZABETH.

The Scottish nobles discontented with their queen's marriage-They attempt to seize her and Bothwell-The queen and Bothwell escape-They raise an army against the confederated nobles-Bothwell's idle challenge at Carberry Hill-He retires from the field-Mary surrenders to the lords-Her treatment on being brought to Edinburgh-She is sent prisoner to Lochleven-Bothwell's escape from Scotland-His miserable end-Proceedings against Mary-She is compelled to abdicate in favour of her son-The Earl of Moray appointed regent -His interview with Mary at Lochleven-Earl of Morton's profitable promotions-Mary escapes from Lochleven-Raises an army-Its defeat at Langside-Mary's flight into England-She is treated as a prisonerElizabeth refuses an interview until Mary has proved her innocence in Darnley's murder- Mary's ingratiating behaviour to her keepers-Elizabeth's intrigues to weaken the cause of Mary-Mary's imprudent avowals-She is removed to a more secure confinement-Mary writes to Elizabeth-She consents to a trial about the nurder of her husband-Meeting of commission for that purpose at York-Earl of Moray's conduct on the trialProofs adduced of Mary's complicity in the murder of Darnley-Answers of Mary's commissioners-Maitland intrigues with the Duke of Norfolk in behalf of Mary-Earl of Moray's additional charges against MaryHe produces the silver casket and its contents-Authenticity of her letters denied-Elizabeth's equivocal verdict at the close of the trial-Her partial behaviour to the Earl of Moray-Mary removed to Tatbury Castle.

H

S soon as the queen's honour was, of being deemed murderers of the late king; and inseparably connected with Both- in order to move men's hearts, they circulated well, then Morton, Maitland, and printed papers, detailing the atrocities of Boththe rest began to talk against the well. Still, however, with the exception of the marriage, to revive the mournful lower orders, few flocked to their standard; and fate of Darnley, and to intimate at this moment the corporation of Edinburgh that Bothwell was guilty of that murder. At sent a deputation to Mary, to excuse the city for first, all this was said cautiously and secretly; but admitting the confederated nobles. The queen, as soon as they had seen the effects of such dis- in the meanwhile, summoned her faithful subcourses, and the great force they could rely upon, jects in the adjoining counties; and, by the end they openly declared themselves; and three weeks of two days, 2000 fighting men from the Lothian. after the marriage they flew to arms, ostensibly and the Merse gathered round her standard at only to punish their colleague and brother as- Dunbar. Here she ought to have remained-for sassin, Bothwell, to secure the person of the the castle was almost impregnable, the confede young prince, and to liberate the queen from the rates had little or no artillery, and their force control of her husband. The confederacy of the was not increasing so rapidly as her own. But lords was, in fact, explicitly declared to be for the queen, who was always bold and decisive in the protection of the queen and her son against the face of such dangers as these, and who could the guilty Bothwell; but they had already deter- not have forgotten how the lords fled before her mined to dethrone Mary, and crown the infant in the Round-about Raid, marched out of Dunbar James. On the 6th of June, before any declara- towards Edinburgh on the 14th of June. She tion was made, they attempted to seize the queen halted at Gladsmuir, where she caused a proclaand Bothwell in Borthwick Castle, about eight mation to be read to her little army, exposing miles south-east of Edinburgh; but the earl easily the professions of the insurgents, declaring that escaped, and after him the queen, disguised in her late marriage with Bothwell had been con male attire, rode without stopping, on a common tracted and solemnized with the consent and at saddle, to the castle of Dunbar. The confederates the persuasion of the chiefs of the insurrection, counter-marched upon Edinburgh, where the as their own hand-writings testified, and affirmpopulace joined them. It was still reported that ing that, though they affected to fear for the the life of Prince James was in danger, though safety of her son (who was in their own possession), the Earl of Mar, who had joined the confederacy, yet they only aimed at overthrowing her and her had him in perfect safety in Stirling Castle. The posterity, in order that they themselves might confederates assumed the power of government, enjoy the supreme power. That night she lay issuing proclamations, as if the queen had been at Seton. On the following morning, Sunday, already dethroned. They called upon all the the 15th of June, exactly one month after her queen's people to join their standard under pain marriage, she advanced to Carberry Hill, and