husband flung all parties back into their natural places; Lennox, who twenty years before had been brought in from France in the interest of Henry the Eighth as a check on Cardinal Beton, drifted again into his old position in the front of the Protestant league; and Darnley's demand for the matrimonial crown, though in himself the mere clamour of disappointed vanity, was maintained by powerful noblemen, who though they neither possessed nor deserved the confidence of the Reformers, yet were recognizing too late that they had mistaken their interest in leaying them.

But the matrimonial crown it became every day more clear that Darnley was not to have; Rizzio above all others was held responsible for the Queen's resolution to refuse it, and for this, as for a thousand other reasons, he was gathering hatred on his devoted head. A foreigner, who had come to Scotland two years before as a wandering musician, was thrusting himself into the administration of the country, and pushing from their places the fierce lords who had been accustomed to dictate to their sovereign. As a last stroke of insolence he was now aiming at the chancellorship, of which the Queen was about to deprive in his favour the great chief of the House of Douglas.

While their blood was set on fire with these real and fancied indignities Lord Darnley, if his word was to be believed, went one night between twelve and one to the Queen's room. Finding the door locked he knocked, but could get no answer. At length after he had called

many times, and had threatened to break the lock, the Queen drew back the bolt. He entered and she appeared to be alone, but on searching he found Rizzio half-dressed in a closet.1

Darnley's word was not a good one: he was capable of inventing such a story to compass his other purposes, or if it was true it might have been innocently explained, The Queen of Scots frequently played cards with Rizzio late into the night, and being a person entirely careless of appearances she might easily have been alone with him with no guilty intention under the conditions which Darnley described. However it was, he believed or pretended that he had found evidence of his dishonour, and communicated his discovery to Sir George Douglas another of his mother's brothers, who at Darnley's desire on the 10th of February informed the Earl of Ruthven.

Once before, it appeared, 'the nobility had given Darnley counsel suitable to his honour'-that is to say, they had intimated to him their own views of Rizzio's proceedings and character. Darnley had betrayed them to the Queen, who had of course been exasperated. Ruthven had been three months ill; he was then

1 L'une cause de la mort de | rompre la porte; à cause de quoy David est que le Roy quelques jours elle lui auroit ouvert. Laquelle auparavant, environ une heure après ledict Roy trouva seule dedans ladicte minuict, seroit allé heurter à la chambre; mais ayant cherché parchambre de ladicte dame, qui estoit tout il auroit trouvé dedans son audessus de la sienne; et d'aultant cabinet ledict David en chemise, que après avoir plusieurs fois heurté couvert seullement d'une robbe l'on ne luy respondoit point il auroit fourrée.'-Analyse d'une dépêche de apellé souvent la Royne, la priant de M. de Foix à la Reyne mère : ouvrir, et enfin la menaçant de TEULET, vol. ii. p. 267.

scarcely able to leave his bed and was inclined at first to run into no further trouble; but pressed at length by Darnley's oaths and entreaties, he saw in what had occurred an opportunity for undoing his work of the summer and for bringing back the banished lords. Parliament was to meet in the first week in March to proceed with the forfeitures, so that no time was to be lost. Ruthven consulted Argyle, who was ready to agree to anything which would save Murray from attainder. Maitland, who since his conduct about the marriage had been under an eclipse, gave his warm adhesion; and swiftly and silently the links of the scheme were welded. The plan was to punish the miserable minion who, whatever his other offences, was notoriously the chief instigator of the Queen's bitterness against her brother, and to give the coveted crown matrimonial to Darnley, provided he on his part 'would take the part of the lords, bring them back to their old rooms, and establish religion as it was at the Queen's home-coming.'1

The conspirators for their mutual security drew a 'bond,' to which they required Darnley's signature, that he might not afterwards evade his responsibility. On their side they 'undertook to be liege subjects to the said Prince Henry, to take part with him in all his lawful actions, causes, and quarrels, to be friends to his friends and enemies to his enemies.' At the Parliament they would obtain for him the crown matrimonial for his life;' and 'failing the succession of their sovereign they

1 Randolph to Cecil, February 20: Scotch MSS. Rolls House.

would maintain his right to the crown of Scotland after her death.' Religion should be 'maintained and established as it was on the arrival of their sovereign lady in the realm.' 'They would spare neither life, lands, goods, nor possessions in setting forward all things to the advancement of the said noble prince, and would intercede with the Queen of England for favour to be shown both to himself and to his mother.'

Darnley promised in return that the banished noblemen 'should have free remission of all their faults' as soon as the possession of the crown matrimonial enabled him to pardon them, and till he obtained it he undertook to prevent their impeachment. The lords might return at once to Scotland in full possession of 'their lands, titles, and goods.' If they were meddled with ' he would stand by them to the uttermost, and religion should be established as they desired.1

Copies of these articles were carried by swift messengers to Newcastle. Rizzio's name was not mentioned; there was nothing in them to show that more was intended than a forcible revolution on the meeting of Parliament; and such as they were, they were promptly signed by Murray and his friends. Argyle subscribed, Maitland subscribed, Ruthven subscribed; Morton hesitated, but at the crisis of his uncertainty Mary Stuart innocently carried out her threat of depriving him of the chancellorship, and he added his name in a paroxysm of anger. It need not be supposed that the further

'Bond subscribed March 6, 1566: Scotch MSS. Rolls House.

secret was unknown to any of them, but it was undesirable to commit the darker features of the plot to formal writing.

Meanwhile the Queen of Scots, all unconscious of the deadly coil which was gathering round her, had chosen the moment to order Randolph to leave Scotland. She entertained not the faintest suspicion of the conspiracy, but she knew that the English ambassador had shared Murray's secrets, that he had been Elizabeth's instrument in keeping alive in Scotland the Protestant faction, and that so long as he remained the party whom she most detested would have a nucleus to gather round. Believing that she could do nothing which Elizabeth would dare to resent, she called him before the council, charged him with holding intercourse with her rebels, and bade him begone.1 The opportunity was ill selected, for Elizabeth had been for some time recovering her firmness; she had sent Murray money for his private necessities; in the middle of February she had so far overcome both her economy and her timidity, that she supplied him with a thousand pounds 'to be employed in the common cause and maintenance of religion; and before she heard of the treatment of Randolph she had taken courage to write with something of her old manner to the Queen of Scots herself.

'She had not intended,' she said, 'to have written on

2

1 The Queen of Scots to Eliza- | Murray of the receipt of moneys both, February 20: Scotch MSS. from the Queen's Majesty, February, Rolls House. 1566: MS. Ibid.

2 Acknowledgment by the Earl of

1