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CHAP. of the confpirators was acceptable to all that feared God, XLII. or tendered the prefervation of the king's perfon, or pros

perous ftate of the realm. They even enjoined all the 1582. clergy to recommend thefe fentiments from the pulpit; and they threatened with ecclefiaflical cenfures every man, who fhould oppofe the authority of the confederated lords N. The convention, being compofed chiefly of these lords themfelves, added their sanction to these proceedings. Arran was confined a prifoner to his own house: Lenox, though he had power to refift, yet rather than excite a civil war, or be the caufe of bloodshed, chofe to retire into France, where he foon after died. He perfevered to the laft in the proteftant religion, to which James had converted him, but which the Scotch clergy could never be perfuaded that he had fincerely embraced. The king fent for his family, restored his fon to his paternal honours and eflate, took care to eftablish the fortunes of all his other children; and to his last moments never forgot the early friendship, which he had borne their father: A ftrong proof of the good difpofitions of that prince P.

No fooner was this revolution known in England, than the queen fent fir Henry Cary, and fir Robert Bowes to James, in order to congratulate him on his deliverance from the pernicious counfels of Lenox and Arran; to exhort him not to refent the feeming violence, committed on him by the confederated lords; and to procure from him permiffion for the return of the earl of Angus, who ever fince Morton's fall, had lived in England. They eafily prevailed in procuring the recal of Angus; and as James fufpeded, that Elizabeth had not been entirely unacquainted with the project of his detention, he thought proper, before the English ambaffadors, to diffemble his refentment against the authors of it. Soon after, LaMothe-Fenelon, and Menneville, appeared as ambassadors from France: Their errand was to enquire concerning the fituation of the king, make profeffions of their matter's friendship, confirm the antient league with France, and procure an accommodation between James and the queen of Scots. This laft propofal gave great umbrage to the clergy; and the affembly had already voted the fettling of terms between the mother and son

N

to

Spotfwood, p. 322. Heylin's Hift. Prefbyter. p.

227. Spotfwood.

Р

P Spotfwood, p. 328.

to be a most wicked undertaking. The pulpits refounded C H A P. with declamations against the French ambaffadors; par- XLII. ticularly Fenelon, whom they called the meffenger of the bloody murderer, meaning the duke of Guife: And as 1583. that minifter, being knight of the Holy Ghoft, wore a white cross on his fhoulder, they commonly denominated it, in contempt, the badge of Antichrift. The king endeavoured, though in vain, to reprefs thefe infolent reflections; but in order to make the ambaffadors fome compenfation, he defired the magiftrates of Edinburgh to give them a fplendid dinner before their departure. To prevent this entertainment, the clergy appointed that very day for a public faft; and finding that their orders · were not regarded, they employed their fermons in thundering curses on the magiftrates, who, by the king's direction, had put this mark of refpect on the ambaffadors. They even pursued them afterwards with the cenfures of the church; and it was with difficulty they were prevented from iffuing the fentence of excommunication against them, on account of their fubmiffion to royal, preferably to clerical, authority Q.

WHAT encreafed their alarm with regard to an accommodation between James and Mary, was, that the English ambaffadors feemed to concur with the French in this propofal; and the clergy were fo ignorant as to credit the fincerity of the profeffions made by the former. The queen of Scots had often made overtures to Elizabeth, which had been entirely neglected; but hearing of Letter of James's detention, the wrote a letter in a more pathetic Mary to and more fpirited train than ufual; craving the affiftance Elizabeth. of that princefs, both for her own and her fon's liberty. She faid, that the account of the prince's captivity had excited her most tender concern; and the experience, which the herself, during fo many years, had of the extreme infelicity attending that fituation, had made her the more apprehenfive, left a like fate fhould purfue her unhappy offspring: that the long train of injuftice which fhe had undergone; the calumnies to which he had been expofed; were fo grievous, that, finding no place for right or truth among men, the was reduced to make her laft appeal to heaven, the only competent tribunal between princes of equal jurifdiction, degree, and dignity That after her rebellious fubjects, fecretly inftigated by Elizabeth's

Spotfwood, p. 324.

CHA P. Elizabeth's minifters, had expelled her from the throne, XLII. had confined her to prifon, had purfued her with arms,

she had voluntarily thrown herself under the protection of 1583. England; fatally allured by those reiterated profeffions of amity which had been made her, and by her confidence in the generofity of a friend, an ally, and a kinfwoman : That not content with debarring her from her prefence, with fupporting the ufurpers of her throne, with contributing to the destruction of her faithful fubjects, Elizabeth had reduced her to a worfe captivity than that from which he had efcaped, and had made her this cruel return for the unlimited confidence, which fhe had repofed in her: That though her refentment of such severe usage had never carried her farther than to use fome difap pointed efforts for her deliverance, unhappy to herself, and fatal to others, the found the rigours of confinement daily multiplied upon her; and at length carried to such a height as furpaffed the bounds of all human patience any longer to endure them: That he was cut off from all communication, not only with the rest of mankind, but with her only fon; and her maternal fondness, which was now more enlivened by their unhappy fympathy in fituation, and was her fole remaining attachment to this world, deprived even of that melancholy folace, which letters or meffages could give: That the bitterness of her forrows, ftill more than her close confinement, had preyed upon her health, and had added the infufferable weight of bodily infirmity to all thofe other calamities, under which the laboured: That while the daily experience of her maladies opened to her the comfortable profpect of an approaching deliverance into a region where pain and forrow are no more, her enemies envied her that last confolation; and having fecluded her from every joy on earth, had done what in them lay to debar her from all hopes in her future and eternal existence: That the exercife of her religion was refused her; the ufage of those facred rites in which the had been educated; the commerce with those holy minifters, whom heaven had appointed to receive the acknowledgment of our tranfgreffions, and to feal our penitence by a folemn re-admiffion into heavenly favour and forgiveness: That it was in vain to complain of the rigours of perfecution exercised in other kingdoms; when a queen, and an innocent woman, was excluded from an indulgence, which never yet, in

the

XLII.

1583.

the most barbarous countries, had been denied to the CHA P. meanest and most obnoxious malefactor: That could the ever be induced to defcend from that royal dignity in which providence had placed her, or depart from her appeal to Heaven, there was only one other tribunal, to which she would appeal from all her enemies; to the juftice and humanity of Elizabeth's own breaft, and to that lenity, which, uninfluenced by malignant counfel, the would naturally be induced to exercise towards her: And that she finally intreated her, to refume her natural difpofition, and to reflect on the support, as well as comfort, which the might receive from her fon and herself, if joining the obligations of gratitude to the ties of blood, she would deign to raise them from their prefent melancholy fituation, and reinstate them in that liberty and authority, to which they were entitled R.

ELIZABETH was, engaged to obftru&t Mary's reftoration, chiefly becaufe fhe forefaw an unhappy alternative. attending that event. If this princess recovered any confiderable fhare of authority in Scotland, her refentment, ambition, zeal and connections, both domeftic and foreign, might render her a dangerous neighbour to England, and enable her, after fuppreffing the protestant party among her fubjects, to revive thofe pretenfions, which he had formerly advanced to the crown, and which her partizans in both kingdoms ftill fupported with great industry and affurance. If fhe was reinftated in power, with fuch ftri&t limitations as could not be broken, The might be disgufted with her fituation; and fiying abroad, form more defperate attempts than any fovereign, who had a crown to hazard, would willingly undertake. Mary herself, fenfible of those difficulties, and convinced by experience, that Elizabeth would for ever debar her the throne, was now become more humble in her wishes; and as age and infirmities had repreffed those fentiments of ambition and indignation, by which the was formerly so much actuated, fhe was willing to facrifice all her hopes of power and grandeur, in order to obtain a little liberty; a bleffing to which the very naturally afpired with the fondeft impatience. She propofed, therefore, that she should be affociated with her fon in the title of the crown of Scotland, but that the administration fhould remain solely in him: And she was content to live

R Camden, p. 489.

in

CHAP. in England, in a private station, and even under a kind of XLII. restraint; but with fome more liberty, both for exercise and company, than fhe had enjoyed, fince the first disco1583. very of her intrigues with the duke of Norfolk. But

Elizabeth, afraid left fuch a loofe method of guarding her would facilitate her efcape into France or Spain, or, at leaft, would encourage and encrease her partizans, and enable her to conduct thofe intrigues, to which the had already difcovered fo ftrong a propenfity, was fecretly determined to deny her requefls; and though the feigned to affent to them, the well knew how to disappoint the expectations of the unhappy princess. While Lenox maintained his authority in Scotland, fhe never gave any reply to all the applications made to her by the Scottish queen S: At prefent, when her own creatures had acquired poffeffion of the government, fhe was refolved to throw the odium of the refufal upon them; and pretending, that nothing farther was required to a perfect accommodation, but the concurrence of the council of ftate in Scotland, fhe ordered her ambaffador, Bowes, to open the negociation for Mary's liberty, and her affociation with her fon in the title to the crown. Though the feemed to make this conceffion to Mary, fhe refufed her the liberty of fending any ambaffador of her own; and that princess could easily conjecture, from this circumftance, what would be the refult of the pretended negociation. The privy council of Scotland, inftigated by the clergy, rejected all treaty; and James, who was now a captive in their hands, affirmed, that he had never affented to an affociation with his mother, and that the matter had never gone farther than fome loose proposals for that purpose T.

THE affairs of Scotland remained not long on the prefent footing. James, impatient of reftraint, made his escape from his keepers; and flying to St. Andrews, fummoned his friends and partizans to attend him. The earls of Argyle, Marshal, Montrofe, and Rothes, haftened to pay their duty to their fovereign; and the oppofite party found themselves unable to refift fo powerful a combination. They were offered a pardon, upon their fubmiffion, and an acknowledgment of their fault, in

s Jebb, vol. ii. p. 540. T MS. in the Advocates' library, A. 3. 28. p. 401. from the Cott. Lib. Calig. c. 9.

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