make him a greater earl, and you shall see it done. I CHAP VIII take him as my brother and my best friend.'

1564

She went on to say that she would have married Lord September Robert herself had she been able. As she might not, she wished her sister to marry him; and that done,' she would have no suspicion or fear of any usurpation before her death, being assured that Dudley was so loving and trusty that he would never permit anything to be attempted during her time.'1

Dudley is

'My Lord Robert's promotion in Scotland is earnestly Lord Robert intended,' Cecil wrote a few days later to Sir Thomas created Earl Smith.2 On Michaelmas-day he was created Earl of of Leicester. Leicester at Westminster in Melville's presence-to qualify him for his higher destiny; while Elizabeth, vain of his beauty, showed off his fair proportions, and dwelt on the charms which she was sacrificing.

Nor was she unaware of Melville's secret practices or of Mary's secret desires. You like better,' she said sadly to the ambassador,' you like better yonder long lad-pointing to Darnley, who tall and slim, with soft and beardless face, bore the sword of state at the ceremony.

To throw her off the scent Melville answered that 'no woman of spirit could choose such an one, who more resembled a woman than a man.' 'I had no will,' he said of himself, that she should think that I had an eye that way, although I had a secret charge to deal with Lady Lennox to procure liberty for him to go to Scotland.'

Elizabeth was not deceived, but she chose to blind herself. Clinging to her favourite scheme she allowed a legal opinion to be drawn out in favour of the Scottish title. She promised Melville that when Parliament met she

1 MELVILLE's Memoirs.

2 Cecil to Smith, October 4.-WRIGHT, vol. i.

CHAP VIII would again protect his mistress's interests.

1564 October

The poor

Archduke was to be once more cast overboard; she undertook to bind herself never to marry unless necessitated The meeting by her sister's hard behaviour;' and last of all-as the strongest evidence which she could give that she was postponed. acting in good faith-she risked the discontent which

of Parlia

ment is

would inevitably be provoked, and postponed the Parliament till the spring or the following autumn. Randolph who had been detained on Melville's arrival was sent off to tell Mary that the tragedy created by her letter had turned into comedy;' the Queen of England would consent with pleasure to the proposed meeting of commissioners; and meanwhile-'contrary to the expectation and desire of her people, contrary to the disposition of no small number of her council, and also to some detriment of herself for her own private lucre, by the intention of her people to have gratified her with some subsidy her Majesty had by proclamation prolonged her Parliament that should have been even now begun in October: meaning of purpose to have no assembly wherein the interests of her sister might be brought in question until it were better considered, that no harm might thereof ensue to her, and that her Majesty and the Queen of Scots might have further proceedings in the establishment of their amity."

In the delay of the Parliament the Queen of Scots had gained one step of vital moment; she had next to obtain the consent of her own people to her marriage with Darnley; she had to strengthen the Lennox faction that it might be strong enough to support her against the

1 Message sent by Randolph to the Queen of Scots, October 4.-Scotch MSS. Rolls House.

Hamiltons, and when this was done to get the person CHAP VIII of Darnley into her hands.

Lennox himself was distributing presents with lavish generosity in the court at Holyrood. Melville when he returned to Scotland carried back with him Lady Margaret's choicest jewels to be bestowed to the best advantage. For the full completion of the scheme it was necessary to delude Elizabeth into the belief that Mary Stuart would give way about Leicester; and having satisfied her that she really had nothing to fear from Darnley's visit to Edinburgh to obtain leave of absence for him for three months to assist Lennox in the recovery of his property. When the father and son were once on Scottish soil she could then throw off the mask.

1564 October

Stuart's

friends in

The ambassador had employed his time well in Eng- Mary land making friends for his mistress, and had carried back with him from London profuse promises of service: England. some from honourable men who looked to Mary Stuart's succession as a security for the peace of the country, some from the courtier race who desired to save their own fortunes should the revolution come.

Among these last was Leicester-that very Leicester in whose affection Elizabeth was blindly confiding, who was to be her own protection when she had named Mary Stuart her heir. The man who thought it no preposterous ambition to aspire to the hand of Elizabeth excused himself to Melville with abject apologies, as having been forced to appear as the suitor of a princess whose shoes he was unworthy to loose; he implored the Queen of Scots to pardon him for the proud pretences which were set forward for his undoing by Cecil and his secret enemies.'1

1 MELVILLE's Memoirs.

CHAP VIII

1564 October

Elizabeth intends to check the

Protestants.

On the position and views of Lord Robert-on the state of feeling at the court-on the Scotch and other questions-additional light is thrown by a letter of de Silva, written on the 9th of October.

say

DE SILVA TO PHILIP.1

London, October 9.

'The gentleman sent hither from the court of Scotland has returned, and this Queen has written by him to that for various reasons there will be no Parliament this year. The succession question therefore will be allowed to rest. She says she is not so old that her death need be so perpetually dragged before her.

"Cecil has intimated to the heretical bishops that they must look to their clergy; the Queen is determined to bring them to order, and will no longer tolerate their extravagances.

'He desires them too to be careful how they proceed against the Catholics; the Queen will not have her good subjects goaded into sedition by calumnies on their creed or by irritating inquiries into their conduct. I am told that the bishops do not like these cautions. Cecil understands his mistress and says nothing to her but what she likes to hear. He thus keeps her in good humour and maintains his position. Lord Robert is obliged to be on terms with him, although at heart he hates him as much as ever. Cecil has more genius than the rest of the Council put together, and is therefore envied and hated on all sides.

'The Queen happening to speak to me about the beginning of her reign, mentioned that circumstances had at first obliged her to dissemble her real feelings in religion;

1 MS. Simancas.

but God knew, she said, that her heart was sound in his CHAP VIII service; with more to the same purpose: she wanted

1564

to persuade me that she was.orthodox, but she was less October explicit than I could have wished.

I told her (she knew it already) that the preachers railed at her in the most insolent language for keeping the cross on the altar of her chapel. She answered that she meant to have crosses generally restored throughout the realm.

Again and again she has said to me, "I am insulted both in England and abroad for having shown more favour than I ought to have shown to the Lord Robert. I am spoken of as if I were an immodest woman. I ought not to wonder at it: I have favoured him because of his excellent disposition, and for his many merits; but I am young and he is young, and therefore we have been slandered. God knows they do us grievous wrong, and the time will come when the world will know it also. I do not live in a corner-a thousand eyes see all that I do, and calumny will not fasten on me for ever."

'She went on to speak of the Queen of Scots, whose beauty she warmly praised.

"Some tell me," she said, "that my sister will marry your Prince after all."

I laughed and said that the last story which I had heard was that the Queen of Scots was to marry the King of France.

'She said that could not be, "The Queen-mother and the Queen of Scots were not good friends."

'The Lord Robert, whom they now call Earl of Leicester, has been with me again, repeating his protestations of a desire to be of service to your Majesty. He mentioned particularly the troubles in the Low Countries and the necessity of taking steps to pacify them.