Volume I Part 9 (1/2)

In the midst of these anxieties, the time for the Queen's delivery drew near After a short excursion to Stirling and the neighbourhood, in which she was accompanied by Darnley, Murray, Bothwell and others, she returned to Edinburgh, and, by the advice of her Privy Council, went to reside in the Castle, as the place of greatest security, till she should present the country with an heir to the throne During theherself with her work and her books, and occasionally walking out, for she had no wheeled carriage She occupied herself, too, in endeavouring to reconcile those of her nobility whom contrary interests and other circumstances had disunited It cost her no little trouble to prevail upon the two most faithful of her ministers, the Earl of Huntly her Chancellor, and Bothwell her Lord High Ad influence of their old ene to theyle were the only persons, in addition to the King, allowed to reside in the Castle with Mary But it was her oish to have her husband and her brothers beside her on the present occasion; and no representations made by Bothwell or Huntly could alter her resolution Yet these two Earls went the length of assuring the Queen, that Murray had entered into a new conspiracy with Morton, and that they would probably put in ward both herself and her infant, as soon as it was born Surrounded as Mary was by traitors, she could not knohether this infor affection for Murray prevailed over every other consideration[139]

Elizabeth was all this tiress of affairs in Scotland Murray's restoration to favour pleased her much; and, to reconcile Morton and his friends to the failure of their plots, she secretly countenanced and protected theh Henry Killigrew, to congratulate Mary on her late escape, and to assure her that she would give directions to reland She likewise recalled Randolph, of whose seditious practices Mary had complained; but, as if to be even with the Scottish Queen, she corew to demand the reason why a certain person of the name of Ruxby, a rebel and a Papist, had been protected in Scotland? It would have been better for Elizabeth had she allowed this subject to rest Though Ruxby feigned hiion, he had in reality been privately sent to Scotland by Elizabeth herself, and her Secretary Cecil The object of his mission was to find out whether Mary carried on any secret correspondence with the English Catholics For this purpose, he was to pretend that he was a zealous supporter of her right and title to the crown of England; and that he had solish Catholics, all of whoratiated himself with Mary, he was iht h contrived; co as an avowed ene credentials to that effect, no suspicion was for sons That he was able to learn any thing which could afford the English Queen reasonable ground of offence, is not likely; for though several communications in cipher passed between him and Cecil, their contents were never rew's arrival, Ruxby's real character had been accidentally discovered; and when the a the spy in the prosecution of his object, made a _pro forer, Mary instantly ordered his and ciphers to be seized and examined The indubitable evidence which they afforded of Elizabeth's systeht a blush to the cheek of her rival The Queen of Scots, however, did not condescend to give any utterance to the feelings which this affairfurther is known of Elizabeth's disgraced and detectedthat the time of her delivery was at hand, Mary wrote letters to her principal nobility, requiring the that juncture She then made her will, which she caused to be thrice transcribed;--one copy was sent to France, a second coe of her Privy Council, and the third she kept herself The day preceding her delivery, she wrote, with her own hand, a letter to Elizabeth, announcing the event, but leaving a blank ”to be filled,” says Melville, ”either with a son or a daughter, as it rant unto her”

On Wednesday the 19th day of June 1566, between nine and ten in the ence was received every where, throughout Scotland, with sincere demonstrations of joy ”As the birth of a prince,” says Keith, ”was one of the greatest of blessings that God could bestow upon this poor divided land; so was the saed by all ranks of people, according as the welcoh, the triumph continued for several days; and, upon the first intimation of the event, all the nobility in the town, accompanied by h Church, and offered up thanksgiving for so signal a mercy shown to the Queen and the whole realland, it was far fro heard with so much satisfaction It was between eleven and twelve on theof the 19th, that the Lady Boyne came to Sir Jaranted, he ence ”It struck twelve hours,” says Sir Jaht The fourth day after, I was at London,”--a degree of despatch very unusual in those times Melville found Elizabeth at Greenwich, ”where her Majesty was in greatafter supper But so soon as the Secretary Cecil sounded the news in her ear of the prince's birth, all ht; every one that was present ement For the Queen sat doith her hand upon her haffet (cheek), and bursting out to sohter of a fair son, and that she was but a barren stock”

Next ave Melville a for had time for preparation, she endeavoured to disse her part, she ravely, that the joyful news he brought her, had recovered her out of a heavy sickness, which had held her for fifteen days! ”Then I requested her Majesty,” says Melville, ”to be a gossip unto the Queen, for our _coladly to be Then, I said, her Majesty would have a fair occasion to see the Queen, which she had so oft desired At this she smiled, and said, that she would wish that her estate and affairs ht permit her; and promised to send both honourable lords and ladies to supply her room”[141]

CHAPTER XVIII

MARY'S TREATMENT OF DARNLEY, AND ALLEGED LOVE FOR THE EARL OF BOTHWELL

As soon as she had sufficiently recovered to be able to quit the Castle, Mary resolved on leaving the fatigues of govern for some time into the country Her infant son was intrusted to the care of the Earl of Mar as his governor, and the Lady Mar as his governess The ti his education; but the General assembly had already sent a deputation to the Queen, to entreat that she would allow hiion To this request Mary avoided giving any positive answer; but she condescendingly took the infant from the nurse, and put it into the arms of some of the divines A prayer was pronounced over it; and Spottiswood assures us, that, at the conclusion, the child gave an inarticulate hted Presbyterians construed to be an _Amen_

It was the seat of the Earl of Mar at Alloa that the Queen first visited

Being not yet equal to the fatigues of horseback, she went on board a vessel at Newhaven, and sailed up the Forth She was accompanied by Murray and others of her nobility[142] Buchanan, whose constant malice and misrepresentation beco after her delivery, on a day very early, accompanied by very few that were privy of her council, she went down to the waterside at a place called the New-haven; and while all marvelled whither she went in such haste, she suddenly entered into a shi+p there prepared for her With a train of thieves, all honestnot one other with her”--”When she was in the shi+p,” he says elsewhere, ”a pirates and thieves, she could abide at the pump, and joyed to handle the boisterous cables”[143] It is thus this trustworthy historian describes a sail of a few hours, enjoyed by Mary and her Court

Darnley, who, though not very contented either with himself or any one else, was about this time much in the Queen's coreater part of the time she continued at the Earl of Mar's The uneasiness he suffered, and the peevish co utterance, were occasioned by the want of deference, hich he found hieneral odium into which he had fallen, was entirely to be attributed to his own folly Between hi existed a deadly hatred against each other; in associating hiainst Huntly and Bothwell, he had irre Morton and his faction, he had forever lost the friendshi+p of the only ard hilect occasioned by his own misconduct, was thus forced upon hi him a lesson of humility, it only served to sour his terieved to see him so universally hated; and anxiously endeavoured tolink between him and her incensed nobility

This was all she could do; for, even although she had wished it, she could not have dismissed, to please him, such of her ministers as he considered obnoxious; a measure so unconstitutional would have led to a second rebellion But she hoped by treating her husband kindly, and showing him every attention herself, to make it be understood that she expected others would be equally respectful Having spent soether at Alloa, Mary and Darnley went to Peebles-shi+re to enjoy the a little sport, they returned on the 20th of August to Edinburgh Thence, they went to Stirling, taking the young Prince with the Castle Bothwell, in the meantime, in his capacity of Lieutenant of the Borders, was in so the duties of his charge[144]

It is necessary to detail these facts thus minutely, as Mary's principal calumniator, Buchanan, endeavours to establish, by a tissue of falsehoods, that immediately after her delivery, or perhaps before it, she conceived a criained credit with several later writers, and particularly with Robertson, whose knowledge of Mary's ements at the period of which we speak, appears to have been very superficial Yet he erous enemy than the former Buchanan's virulence and evident party spirit, carry their own contradiction along with theths, (though guided in his belief entirely by Buchanan), ireater air of plausibility, by softening down the violence of the original, to suit the calress of these Memoirs, it will not be difficult to show that Robertson's affected candour, or too hastily formed belief, is as little to be depended on as Buchanan's undisguised malice

Buchanan wishes it to be believed, in the first place, that Mary entertained a guilty love for Rizzio He then proceeds to assert, that in little more than three months after his barbarous assassination, she had fallen no less violently in love with Bothwell, although, in thebirth to her first child, by a husband, whom he allows she doated on nine or ten months before To bolster up this story, he perverts facts with the most reckless indifference One specimen of his style we have already seen in his account of the Queen's voyage to Alloa; and proceeding with his narrative, we find hi in the sequel, that for the two or three following months, Mary was constantly in the co as he must have done all the while, that Murray and Darnley, Bothwell's principal enemies, were her chief associates, and that Bothwell spent dom

Robertson dates even more confidently than Buchanan, the commencement of Mary's love for Bothwell at a period prior to her delivery But upon this hypothesis, it is surely odd, that Murray and Argyle were permitted by the Queen to reside in the Castle previous to and during her confinement, whilst the same favour was peremptorily refused to Bothwell; and it is no less odd, that shortly after her delivery, Secretary Maitland, at the intercession of the Earl of Athol, was received once more into favour, in direct opposition to the wishes of Bothwell It is no doubt possible, that notwithstanding this presumptive evidence to the contrary, Mary may at this very tiive credit to the improbability, , and Robertson disposed to be credulous? Are the detected fabrications of the one, entitled to any better consideration than the gratuitous suppositions of the other? ”Strange and surprisingly wild,”

says Keith, ”are the accounts given by Knox, butand Queen about this time I shall not reckon it worth while to transcribe them here; and the best and shortest confutation I could propose of them is, to leave my readers the trouble, or rather satisfaction, to compare the same with the just now mentioned abstracts (of despatches fro authentic letters,” from the French and Scottish ambassadors and the Queen's Privy Council[145] Robertson, it is true, after having asserted, that ”Bothwell all this while was the Queen's prime confident,” and that he had acquired a ”sway over her heart,” proceeds to confess, that ”such delicate transitions of passion can be discerned only by those who are admitted near the persons of the parties, and who can view the secret workings of the heart with calm and acute observation” ”Neither Knox nor Buchanan,” he adds, ”enjoyed these advantages Their humble station allowed them only a distant access to the Queen and her favourite; and the ardour of their zeal, and the violence of their prejudices rendered their opinions rash, precipitate, and inaccurate” This is apparently so explicit and fair, that the only wonder is, upon what grounds Robertson ventured tothus sho little dependence was to be placed on the only authorities which supported him in it It appears that he came to his conclusions by a process of his ohich rendered him independent both of Knox and Buchanan ”Subsequent historians,” he says, ”can judge of the reality of this reciprocal passion only by its _effects_” Robertson ate to a flood of uncertainty, seeing that the sa from a hundred different causes If afor his murderer, it is always proper to inquire whether he has been murdered Besides, if effects are to be reatest care must be taken that they be not reat deal in Bothwell's company, at a time she was al seldoether

Laing is another and still later writer, who has produced a very able piece of special pleading against Mary, in which a false colouring is continually given to facts ”After her delivery,” he says, ”she removed secretly fro, Meggetland, and back again to Edinburgh, as if she were desirous to escape from the presence of her husband” That Darnley _followed_ Mary, is an assu was, he would rather never have stirred out of his chaly one ished to avoid hi, then into Peebles-shi+re, then back again to Edinburgh, and once 's stateo by water to Alloa, whilst Darnley preferred travelling by land; perhaps because he wished to hunt by the way, or call at the seats of soether, was only twenty miles; and the notion that Mary removed ”_secretly_” fro an excursion to Alloa, is absolutely ludicrous In support of his assertion that Mary had lost her heart to Bothwell, Laing proceeds to mention, that, shortly after the assassination of Rizzio, the Earl, for his successful services, was loaded with favours and preferment That Mary should have conferred some reward upon a nobleman whose power and fidelity were the chiefthrone, is not at all unlikely; but, to_misdates_ the time when most of Bothwell's offices of trust were bestowed upon hiht, such as those of Lord High Adton, and Edinburgh Part of his authority on the Borders he had acquired during the ti been e Castle, in 1558; and it was i the continuance of Murray's rebellion, that he was appointed Lieutenant of the West and Middle Marches, a situation which iton[146] The only _addition_ made to Bothwell's possessions and titles, in consequence of his services after Rizzio's death, was that of the Castle and Lordshi+p of Dunbar, together with a grant of some crown lands[147]

There is another circumstance connected with Bothwell, which we omitted to mention before, but which may with propriety be stated here At the period of which rite, when he is accused of being engaged in a criminal intercourse with Mary, he had been only two or threeof his love Three weeks before the death of Rizzio, he had espoused, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, the Lady Jane Gordon, the sister of his friend, the Earl of Huntly She was just twenty, and was possessed of an elegant and cultivated understanding They were married at Holyrood, on the 22d of February 1566, after the manner of the Reformed persuasion, in direct opposition to Mary's wishes She entertained the and rejoicings continued for a week ”The Queen desired,” says Knox, ”that the ht be made in the chapel at the rant”[148] Was there any love existing at this ti sees towards Bothwell by _effects_, not of effects by feelings, they quote several passages fron ambassadors then in Scotland, which reat influence at court That these ambassadors report no h certainly there is no evidence to show that he enjoyed so ht as Murray, or more than Huntly Yet he deserved better than the former, for he had hitherto, with one exception, continued as faithful to Mary, as he had previously been to her mother The letters alluded to, only repeat what Randolph had mentioned six months before So early as October 1565, only two e with Darnley, and when her love for hiht, Randolph wrote to Cecil; ”My Lord Bothwell, for his great virtue, doth now all, next to the Earl of Athol”[149] Was Mary in love with Bothwell at this date? Or was it with the Earl of Athol? And did she postpone her attachment to Bothwell, till he should prove his for her, by beco the husband of the Lady Jane Gordon?--We proceed with our narrative

Having spent soh, for the despatch of public business, on the 11th or 12th of September She wished Darnley to accompany her; but as he could not, or would not, act with either Murray's or Huntly's party, he refused On the 21st, she cah, by her Privy Council, on the 23d She left the French a that his wisdoht be of benefit to him[150] The distinction which, from this period up to the hour of his death, Darnley constantly s for Mary herself, and for herto associate, and she had the same desire to be as much as she could with him; but with the conditions he exacted, and by which alone she was to purchase much of his coht as well have given up her crown at once, as have dismissed all those officers of state hom Darnley had quarrelled The truth is, her husband's situation was a very unfortunate one His own ieneral odiureater stock of hypocrisy, he races of at least a part of the Scottish nobility But he had neither the prudence to disguise his sentiments, nor the ability to maintain them ”He had not learned,” says Chalmers, ”to s, and still very inexperienced; and the Queen could not easily govern without the aid of those odious men,”--his eneh, when she received a letter from the Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, which afflicted her not a little Lennox, who resided principally at Glasgow, had gone to Stirling to visit his son; and Darnley had there coested, which was to leave the country and proceed to the Continent Both Lennox and Le Croc, ”a wise aged gentleman,” as Holinshed calls him, had done all they could to divert him from so mad a purpose; but his resolution seemed to be fixed Mary immediately laid her father-in-law's letter before her Privy Council, who ”took a resolution to talk with the King, that they ht learn from himself the occasion of this hasty deliberation of his, if any such he had; and likewise, that they ht thereby be enabled to advise her Majesty after what manner she should co of the very day that this resolution was adopted, (the 29th of Septe inforyle, Murray, and Rothes ith the Queen, he declared he would not enter the palace till they departed[152] The Queen took this petulant behaviour as lad of his arrival, even condescended to go forth from the palace to meet her husband, and conducted hiether[153]

Next day, Mary prevailed upon her husband to attend aof her Council They requested to be infor, whether he had actually resolved to depart out of the realm, and if he had, ere the motives that influenced him, and the objects he had in view They added, ”that if he could complain of any of the subjects of the realm, be they of what quality soever, the fault should be immediately repaired to his satisfaction” Mary herself took hiht hiiven him any occasion for this resolution”[154] She had a clear conscience, she said, that in all her life she had done no action which could any ways prejudge either his or her own honour; but, nevertheless, that as she n, she illing to make amends, as far as he should require,--and therefore ”prayed him not to dissemble the occasion of his displeasure, if any he had, nor to spare her in the least manner”[155] Darnley answered distinctly, that he had no fault to find with the Queen; but he was either unable or unwilling to explain further With the stubborn discontent of a petted child, he would neither say one thing nor another--neither confess nor deny Without agreeing to alter his deterht be, and it was perhaps, after all, only a trick contrived to work upon Mary's affections, and intith took his leave Upon going away, he said to the Queen, ”Farewell, Mada while” He next bade Le Croc farewell; and then turning coldly to the Lords of the Council, he said, ”Gentlemen, adieu”[156]

Shortly afterwards, Mary received a letter fros ”One is,” says Maitland, ”that her Majesty trusts him not with so much authority, nor is at such pains to advance him, and make him be honoured in the nation, as she at first was And the other point is, that nobody attends him, and that the nobility deserts his company To these two points the Queen has ht to bla she had conferred so much honour upon him, as came afterwards to render herself very uneasy, the credit and reputation wherein she had placed hi served as a shadow to those who have most heinously offended her Majesty; but, howsoever, that she has, notwithstanding this, continued to show hih they who did perpetrate the murder of her faithful servant, had entered her cha followed him close at the back, and had named him the chief of their enterprise,--yet would she never accuse hi to appear as if she believed it not And then as to his being not attended,--the fault thereof ed upon himself, since she has always made an offer to him of her own servants And for the nobility, they co as they have any matters to do, and as they receive a kindly countenance; but that he is at no pains to gain theone so far as to prohibit these noblemen to enter his room, whom she had first appointed to be about his person If the nobility abandon him, his own deportment towards them is the cause thereof; for if he desire to be followed and attended by them, he must, in the first place, make them to love him, and to this purpose must render himself amiable to them; without which, it will prove a ulate this point, especially to ement of affairs put into his hands; because she finds them utterly averse to any such matter”[157]

No answer or explanation could be hly favourable view of Mary's conduct and character Le Croc accordingly says, in the letter already quoted,--”I never saw her Majesty so reat a harst all her subjects as at present is, by her wise conduct, for I cannot perceive the smallest difference or division” That Darnley ever seriously intended to quit the country, it has been said, is extre to Knox, that he still harboured so himself independent of Mary, and with this view he treacherously wrote to the Pope, and the Kings of Spain and France, , with their assistance, to re-establish the Catholic religion Copies of these letters, Knox adds, fell into Mary's hands, who, of course, took steps to prevent theirwith any attention at the Continental courts[158]

But be this matter as it may, (and its truth rests upon rather doubtful authority, since we find no mention of it, either by the Lords of Privy Council or the French Ambassador), it is certain that Darnley's determination, hastily formed, was as hastily abandoned[159]