the greatest self-admiration. She was giving in Lord Robert the best treasure which she possessed; and Cecil approved the choice to rid his mistress of a companion whose presence about her person was a disgrace to her. But no true friend of the Queen of Scots could advise her to accept a husband whom Elizabeth dared not marry for fear of her subjects' resentment. The first two months of the year passed off with verbal fencing; the Queen of Scots was expecting news from Spain, and Murray and Maitland declined to press upon her the wishes of Elizabeth;1 while Mary herself began to express an anxiety which derives importance from her later history for the return to Scotland of the Earl of Bothwell.

Bothwell, it will be remembered, had been charged two years before by the Earl of Arran with a design of killing Murray and of carrying off the Queen. He had been imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, and had escaped, not it was supposed without Mary's connivance. He had attempted to fly to France, but had been driven by foul weather into Berwick, where he was arrested by the English commander. When Randolph informed the Queen of Scots of his capture 'he doubted whether she did give him any thanks for the news;' and a few days after she desired that he should be sent back to her keeping.' Her ministers' suspecting that her mind was more favourable to him than was cause,' and fearing that she wished for him only 'to be reserved in store to be employed in any kind of mischief,' had said that they

1 Letters of Randolph to Cecil and Elizabeth, January and February, 1564: MS. Rolls House.

would rather never see him in Scotland again; and Randolph took the opportunity of giving Cecil his opinion of the Earl of Bothwell.

'One thing I thought not to omit, that I know him as mortal an enemy to our whole nation as any man alive; despiteful above measure, false and untrue as a devil. If he could have had his will, neither the Queen's Majesty had stood in as good terms with the Queen of Scots as she doth, nor minister left alive that should be a travailer between their Majesties for a continuance of the same. He is an enemy to my country, a blasphemous and irreverent speaker both of his own sovereign and the Queen's Majesty my mistress; and over that the godly of this whole nation hath cause to curse him for ever. Your honour will pardon me thus angrily to write; it is much less than I do think or have cause to think.'1

Having an animal of this temper in her hands Elizabeth had not been anxious to let him go. Bothwell was detained for three months at Berwick, and was then sent for to London. The English Government, exasperated at the unexpected support which the Scotch Protestants then were lending to Mary Stuart's claims, trusted by keeping him in close confinement and examining him strictly to extract secrets out of him which could be used to reattach them to England-some proof that the Queen intended as soon as occasion served to turn round against them and against the Reformation."

1 Randolph to Cecil, January 22, 1563: MS. Rolls House.

2 La de Inglaterra, deseosa de descubrir alguna cosa que pudiese

Bothwell was too loyal to his mistress to betray her; but the cage door was not opened. More than a year had passed since his arrest, and he was still detained, without right or shadow of right, a prisoner in the Tower. At length, however, Mary Stuart pleaded so loudly for him that Elizabeth could not refuse. In the midst of the marriage discussion the Queen of Scots asked as a favour what if she had pleased she could have demanded as a right. Bothwell was let go, and made his way into France.

This object secured, Mary Stuart addressed herself more seriously to the larger matter. The Emperor, supported by the Cardinal of Lorraine, was still pressing the Archduke Charles upon her, and to make the offer more welcome he proposed to settle on his son an allowance of two million francs a year. But the Archduke Charles was half a Protestant, and was unwelcome to the English Catholics. At the end of February she sent her secretary to Granvelle to explain the reasons which obliged her to refuse the Austrian alliance, and to learn conclusively whether she had anything to hope from Spain.1 If the Prince of Spain failed, her friends in England wished that she should marry Lord Darnley. She now proposed to play with the position, to affect submission, to induce the Queen of England herself, if possible, to propose Darnley to her; and by accepting him with de

causar division entre la de Escocia y | De Quadra to Philip, April 24, Milord James y los demas Protes- 1563: MS. Simancas. tantes, le ha hecho venir aqui, donde sera examinado y bien guardado. Este es evangelio que aqui se usa.'

1 Mary Stuart to Granvelle: Labanoff, vol. i. p. 200.

ferential and seeming reluctance, to obtain the long-desired recognition. Once married to Darnley and admitted by Parliament as heir-presumptive, her course would then be easy. At the bottom of her heart she had determined that she would never cease to be Elizabeth's enemy; never for a moment had she parted with the conviction that the English crown was hers, and that Elizabeth was a usurper. But without support from abroad she was obliged to trust to her address; could she win her way to be 'second person,' and were she married with Elizabeth's consent to the favourite of the insurrectionary Catholics, she could show her colours with diminished danger; she could extort concession after concession, make good her ground inch by inch and yard by yard, and at last, when the favourable moment came, seize her rival by the throat and roll her from her throne into the dust. Elizabeth had offered her the choice of any English nobleman. Darnley's birth and person marked him out as the one on whom her choice, if anywhere, might naturally be expected to rest. It was with some expectation of hearing his name at least as one among others that she at last pressed Elizabeth to specify the person whom she had in view for her. It was with some real and much affected surprise that she found the name when it came at last-to be that of Lord Robert Dudley-and of Lord Robert Dudley alone. Randolph conveyed Elizabeth's wishes to her, and with them a distinct promise that as Dudley's wife the Queen of England would have her named as successor.

April.

She commanded herself so far as to listen cautiously. She objected to Dudley's inferiority of rank and said that a marriage with him would impair her honour.

It was honour enough, Randolph replied, to inherit such a kingdom as England.

'She looked not,' she said, 'for the kingdom, for her sister might marry and was likely to live longer than herself; she was obliged to consider her own and her friends' expectations, and she did not think they would agree that she should abase her state so far.'

So far she answered in public; but Mary Stuart' art was to affect a peculiar confidence in the persor whom she was addressing. She waited till she wa alone, and then detaining Randolph when the courtiers were gone she said:

'Now, Mr Randolph, tell me, does your mistress in good earnest wish me to marry my Lord Robert ?'

Randolph assured her that it was so.

'Is that,' she said, 'conform to her promise to use me as a sister or daughter to marry me to her subject?' Randolph thought it was.

'If I were a sister or a daughter,' she said, ' were it not better to match me where some alliance or friendship might ensue than to marry me where neither could be increased?'

The alliance which his sovereign desired, Randolph answered, was the perpetual union of the two realms in a single monarchy.

'The Queen your mistress,' she said, 'being assured of me, might let me marry where it may like me; and I