with the Archduke that they had abandoned hope. The Scottish Prince was the sole object of their interest, and all the motives which before had recommended Mary Stuart were working with irresistible force. Whatever might be the Queen's personal reluctance, Melville was able to feel that it would avail little; the cause of his mistress, if her game was now played with tolerable skill, was virtually won. Norfolk declared for her, Pembroke declared for her, no longer caring to conceal their feelings; even Leicester, now that his own chances were over, became the Queen of Scots' avowed friend,' and pressed her claims upon Elizabeth, 'alleging that to acknowledge them would be her greatest security, and that Cecil would undo all.' All that Melville found necessary was to give his mistress a few slight warnings and cautions. Her recognition as second person he knew July. that she regarded as but a step to the dethronement of Elizabeth; nor did he advise her to abandon her ambition. He did not wish her to slacken her correspondence with the Catholics; she need not cease to entertain O'Neil;' but he required her only to be prudent and secret. Seeing the great mark her Majesty shot at, she should be careful and circumspect, that her desires being so near to be obtained should not be overthrown for lack of management.'" August. 6 Schooled for once by advice, Mary Stuart wrote from her sick bed to Melville's brother 1 MELVILLE's Memoirs. 2 Ibid. Robert. The letter appeared to be meant only for himself, but it was designed to be shown among the Protestant nobility of England. She declared in it that she meant nothing but toleration in religion, nothing but good in all ways; she protested that she had not concealed designs, no unavowed wishes; her highes* ambition went no farther than to be recognized by Parliament, with the consent of her dear sister. With these words in their hands the Melvilles mada swift progress in England. Elizabeth's uncertainties and changes had shaken her truest friends; and even before the Parliament some popular demonstrations were looked for. 'There are threats of disturbance,' de Silva wrote in August, and trouble is looked for before the meeting of Parliament. For the present we are reassured, but it is likely enough that something will happen. The Queen is out of favour with all sides: the Catholics hate her because she is not a Papist, the Protestants because she is less furious and violent in heresy than they would like to see her; while the courtiers complain of her parsimony.' James Melville was soon able to send the gratifying assurance to the Queen of Scots, that should Elizabeth continue the old excuses and delays her friends were so increased that many whole shires were ready to rebel, and their captains already named by election of the nobility.' 2 1 In such a world and with such humours abroad the De Silva to Philip, August 23, 1566: MS. Simancas. approaching session could not fail to be a stormy one; and Elizabeth knew, though others might affect to be ignorant, that if shew as forced into a recognition of Mary Stuart a Catholic revolution would not be many months distant. At the beginning of August, to gather strength and spirit for the struggle, she went on progress, not to the northern counties where the Queen of Scots had hoped to meet her, but first to Stamford on a visit to Cecil, thence round to Woodstock, her old prison in the perilous days of her sister, and finally, on the evening of the 31st, she paid Oxford the honour which two years before she had conferred on the sister University. The preparations for her visit were less gorgeous, the reception itself far less imposing, yet the fairest of her cities in its autumnal robe of sad and mellow loveliness, suited the Queen's humour, and her stay there had a peculiar interest. She travelled in a carriage. At Wolvercot, three miles out on the Woodstock road, she was met by the heads of houses in their gowns and hoods. The approach was by the long north avenue leading to the north gate; and as she drove along it she saw in front of her the black tower of Bocardo, where Cranmer had been long a prisoner, and the ditch where with his brother martyrs he had given his life for the sins of the people. The scene was changed from that chill, sleety morning, and the soft glow of the August sunset was no unfitting symbol of the change of times; yet how soon such another season might tread upon the heels of the de parting summer none knew better than Elizabeth. She went on under the archway and up the corn-market between rows of shouting students. The students cried in Latin 'Vivat Regina.' Elizabeth amidst bows and smiles answered in Latin also, Gratias ago, gratias ago.' At Carfax, where Bishop Longlands forty years before had burnt Tyndal's Testaments, a professor greeted her with a Greek speech, to which with unlooked-for readiness she replied again in the same language. A few more steps brought her down to the great gate of Christ Church, the splendid monument of Wolsey and of the glory of the age that was gone. She left the carriage, and with de Silva at her side she walked under a canopy across the magnificent quadrangle to the Cathedral. The dean after evening service entertained her at his house. The days of her stay were spent as at Cambridge— in hearing plays or in attending the exercises of the University. The subjects chosen for disputation in the schools mark the balance of the two streams of ancient and modern thought, and show the matter with which the rising mind of England was beginning to occupy itself. There were discussions on the tides—whether or how far they were caused by the attraction of the moon. There were arguments on the currency—whether a debt contracted when the coin was pure could be liquidated by the payment of debased money of the same nominal value. The keener intellects were climbing the stairs of the temple of Modern Science, though as yet they were VOL. VII. 28 few and feeble and they were looked upon askance with orthodox suspicion. At their side the descendants of the schoolmen were working on the old safe methods, proving paradoxes by laws of logic amidst universal applause. The Professor of Medicine maintained in the Queen's presence that it was not the province of the physician to cure disease, because diseases were infinite, and the infinite was beyond the reach of art; or again, because medicine could not retard age, and age ended in death, and therefore medicine could not preserve life. With trifles such as these the second childhood of the authorities was content to drowse away the hours. More interesting than either science or logic were perilous questions of politics, which Elizabeth permitted to be agitated before her. The Puritan formula that it was lawful to take arms against a bad sovereign was argued by examples from the Bible and from the stories of the patriot tyrannicides of Greece and Rome. Doctor Humfrey deserted his friends to gain favour with the Queen, and protested his horror of rebellion; but the defenders of the rights of the people held their ground, and remained in possession of it. Pursuing the question into the subtleties of theology, they even ventured to say that God himself might instigate a regicide, when Bishop Jewel, who was present, stepped down into the dangerous arena and closed the discussion with a vindication of the divine right of kings. More critically-even in that quiet haven of peaceful thought the great subject of the day, which Elizabeth called her death-knell, still pursued her. An eloquent |