CHAP IX insult, named Bothwell as a fit person to meet with 1565 them; and even this-though wounded to the quickElizabeth endured lest a refusal might 'increase her malice." December So the winter months passed away; and the time was fast approaching for the meeting of the Scottish Parliament. The Queen of Scots was by this time pregnant. Her popularity in England was instantly tenfold increased; while from every part of Europe warnings came thicker and thicker that mischief was in the wind. The young King and Queen of Scots,' wrote Sir Thomas Smith from Paris, 'do look for a further and a bigger crown and have more intelligence and practice in England and in other realms than you think for. Both the Pope's and the King of Spain's hands be in that dish further and deeper than I think you know. The ambassadors of Spain, Scotland, and the Cardinal of Lorraine be too great in their devices for me to like. The Bishop of Glasgow looks to be a cardinal, and to bring in Popery ere it be long, not only into Scotland but into England. I have cause to say to you vigilate !” 'It is written,' Randolph reported to Leicester, 'that this Queen's faction increaseth greatly among you. I commend you for that; for so shall you have religion overthrown, your country torn in pieces, and never an honest man left alive that is good or godly. Woe is me when David's (Ritzio's) son shall be a king of for you England." At length a darker secret stole abroad that Pius the 1 Elizabeth to Randolph, February 2.-LANSDOWNE MSS. 8. 2 Sir T. Smith to Cecil, March, 1565-6.—French MSS. Rolls House. 1566 league in the extirpa heresy. Fifth, who had just succeeded to the Papal chair, had CHAP IX drawn away Catherine de Medici from the freer and nobler part of the French people; that she had entered January on the dark course which found its outcome on the day of St. Bartholomew; and that a secret league had been Catholic formed between the Pope and the King of France and Europe for the Guises, for the uprooting of the reformed faith out ton of 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 circumstance whatever permit men to return to Scotland who had so long thwarted and obstructed her. The unlooked-for support from France blew her passion into flame again; 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 Ritzio's revenge but to commence her larger 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 1 Randolph to Cecil, February 7.-Scotch MSS. Rolls House. 2 MELVILLE'S Memoirs. 1566 February ap CHAP IX of Elizabeth's fears had left Mary Stuart to outward pearance 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 Differences between the Scots and her husband. Suddenly, and from a quarter least expected, 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. On 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 domestic tragedy was revealed before the astonished eyes of Europe. Towards the close of 1565 rumours went abroad in Queen of 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, self-willed 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 CHAP IX arose from the appointment of Bothwell as lieutenant- 1566 general in preference to Lennox. The Lennox clan February 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 kinsmen with him-that the name should become a reality, and 'the crown matrimonial' be legally secured to him at the The crown approaching Parliament. But there were signs abroad nial, 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. 2 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 matrimo 2 Scotch MSS. Rolls House. 1 Ibid. CHAP IX words" as poor men speak, it makes no matter if it grow no further.' 1566 February Loose living 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.2 One day he was dining with the Queen at the house. of Darnley 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.* Intimacy between Mary Ritzio. Side by side with the estrangement from her husband Mary Stuart admitted Ritzio to closer and closer intimacy. Stuart and 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; and as Darnley grew troublesome 1 KNOX; History of the Reformation. 2 Sick with draughts of aqua composita.' 3 Sir William Drury to Cecil, February 16.-COTTON MSS., CALIG. B. 10. Printed in KEITH. 4 RUTHVEN'S Narrative.-Keith. |