1565 October CHAP IX The following morning, the 22nd of October, he was admitted to an audience in public, at which de Foix and de Mauvissière, who had by this time returned from Scotland, were especially invited to be present. De Silva describes what ensued, not as an eye-witness, but from an account which was given to him by the Queen herself.1 Elizabeth receives Murray in form; Elizabeth having taken her place with the Council and the ambassadors at her side, the Earl of Murray entered modestly dressed in black. Falling on one knee he began to speak in Scotch, when the Queen interrupted him with a request that he would speak in French, which she said she could better understand. Murray objected that he had been so long out of practice that he could not properly express himself in French; and Elizabeth, whose object was to produce an effect on de Foix and his companion, accepted his excuse for himself; but she said that although he might not be sufficient master of the idiom to speak it, she knew that he understood it when he heard it spoken; she would therefore, in her own part of the conversation, make use of that language. She then went on to express her astonishment, that, being declared an outlaw as he was, by the Queen of Scots, the Earl of Murray should have dared to come unlicensed into her presence. The Queen of Scots had been her good sister, and such she always hoped to find her. There had been differences between them which had made Mary Stuart herself, and the Courts 1 The account in Sir James Melville's Memoirs is evidently taken from the official narrative, with which in most points it verbally agrees. De Silva's is but little different. The one variation of importance will be noticed. 1565 October licly denics couraged the rebel lion. her fear for their friendship; but the King of France had CHAP IX kindly interposed his good offices between herself, her sister, and her sister's subjects; and the two ministers who had been his instruments in that good service being at the moment at her court, she had requested both them and others to attend on the present occasion to hear what she was about to say. She wished it to be gene- and pubrally understood that she would do nothing which would that she give just offence to the Queen of Scots, or which would had enimpair her own honour. The world, she was aware, was in the habit of saying that her realm was the sanctuary for the seditious subjects of her neighbours; and it was even rumoured that she had instigated or encouraged the insurrection in Scotland. She would not have done such a thing to be sovereign of the universe. God, who was a just God, she well knew, would punish her with the like troubles in her own country; and if she encouraged the subjects of another prince in disobedience, He would stir her own people into insurrection against herself. So far as she knew, there were two causes for the present disturbances in Scotland: the Queen of Scots had married without the consent of her Estates, and had failed to apprize the princes her neighbours of her intentions; the Earl of Murray had attempted to oppose her, and had fallen into disgrace. This was the first cause. The second was that the Earl of Lennox and his house were opposed to the reformed religion; the Earl of Murray feared that he would attempt to destroy it, and with his friends preferred to lose his life rather than allow what he believed to be the truth to be overthrown. The Earl had come to the English court to request her to intercede with his sovereign that he might be heard in his defence. There were faults which proceeded of malice which deserved the rigour of justice-one of CHAP IX these was treason against the person of the sovereign; 1565 and were she to understand that the Earl of Murray had October meditated treason, she would arrest and chastise him ac cording to his demerits: but she had known him in times past to be well-affectioned to his mistress; he had loved her, she was confident, with the love which a subject owes to his prince. There were other faultsfaults committed through imprudence, through ignorance, or in self-defence, which might be treated mercifully. The Earl of Murray's fault might be one of these; she bade him therefore say for which cause he had instigated the late disturbances.' Elizabeth had exercised a wise caution in preparing Murray for this preposterous harangue. He commanded himself, and replied by calling God to witness of the loyalty with which he had ever served his sovereign: she had bestowed lands, honour, and rewards upon him far beyond his desert; he had desired nothing less than to offend her, and he would have stood by her with life and goods to the utmost of his ability. Elizabeth then began again: 'She held a balance in her hand,' she said; 'in the one scale was the sentence of outlawry pronounced against him by the Queen of Scots, in the other were the words which he had just spoken. But the word of a Queen must outweigh the word of a subject in the mind of a sister sovereign, who was bound to show most favour to her own like and equal. The Earl had committed actions deserving grave reprehension: he had refused to appear when lawfully summoned; he had taken up arms, and had made a league with others like himself to levy war against his sovereign. She had been told that he was afraid of being murdered, but if there had been a conspiracy against him he should have produced the proofs of it in his sovereign's presence.' October Murray replied in Scotch, the Queen interpreting as CHAP IX he went on. He said that it was true that there had 1565 been a conspiracy; the condition of his country was such that he could not have saved his life except by the means which he had adopted. Elizabeth had doubtless made it a condition of her further friendship that he should say nothing by which she could herself be incriminated; and he contented himself with entreating her to intercede for him to obtain the Queen of Scots' forgiveness. Elizabeth affected to hesitate. The Queen of Scots, she said, had so often refused her mediation that she knew not how she could offer it again; but she would communicate with her Council, and when she had ascertained their opinions he should hear from her. Meanwhile she would have him understand that he was in great danger, and that he must consider himself a prisoner. The Elizabeth declares nothing but The Earl was then permitted to withdraw. Queen went aside with the Frenchmen, and assuring that she them that they might accept what they had witnessed had spoken as the exact truth, she begged that they would commu- the truth. nicate it to the King of France. To de Silva, when he was next admitted to an audience, she repeated the story word by word; and to him as well as to the others she protested that rebels against their princes should receive from her neither aid nor countenance.1 Sir James Mel So ended this extraordinary scene. ville's narrative carries the extravagance one point further. He describes Elizabeth as extorting from Murray an acknowledgment that she had not encouraged the rebellion, and as then bidding him depart from her presence as an unworthy traitor. Sir James Melville 1 De Silva to Philip, November 5.-MS. Simancas. 1565 October CHAP IX does but follow an official report which was drawn up under Elizabeth's eye and sanction, to be sent to Scotland and circulated through Europe. It was thus therefore that she herself desired the world to believe that she had spoken; and one falsehood more or less in a web of artifice could scarcely add to her discredit. For Murray's sake however it may be hoped that he was spared this further ignominy, and that de Silva's is the truer story. Private protest of Murray. If the Earl did not declare in words however that Elizabeth was unconnected with the rebellion he allowed her to disavow it in silence; and by his forbearance created for himself and Scotland a claim upon her gratitude. He was evidently no consenting party to the deception; and after leaving her presence he said to her in a letter what he had restrained himself from publicly declaring. 'Her treatment of him would have been more easy to bear,' he said, had he known in what he had offended;' he had done his uttermost with all his power to serve and gratify her;' and the more he considered the matter it was ever the longer the more grievous to him:' noblemen who had suffered in former times for maintaining English interests in Scotland, 'when their cause was not to be compared to the present, had been well received and liberally gratified;' while he who had endeavoured to show a thankful heart in her service when any occasion was presented, could in no wise perceive by her Highness's answer any affection towards his present state:' 'her declaration had been more grievous to him than all his other troubles;' he trusted that he might in time receive from her some more comfortable answer." The Earl of Murray to Queen Elizabeth, from Westminster, October 31. --Scotch MSS. Rolls House. |