commissioners of partiality towards their adversaries 56. She herself appears, by the instructions given them, to have fixed no plan for their decision; but she knew that the advantages which she should reap must be great, whatever issue the cause might take. If Mary's crimes could be ascertained by undoubted proof, she could for ever blast the reputation of that princess, and might justifiably detain her for ever a prisoner in England: if the evidence fell short of conviction, it was intended to restore her to the throne, but with such strict limitations as would leave Elizabeth perpetual arbiter of all differences between the parties in Scotland, and render her in effect absolute mistress of the kingdom 57. Mary's commissioners, before they gave in their complaints against her enemies in Scotland, entered a protest, that their appearance in the cause should nowise affect the independence of her crown, or be construed as a mark of subordination to England: the English commissioners received this protest, but with a reserve to the claim of England. The complaint of that princess was next read, and contained a detail of the injuries which she had suffered since her marriage with Bothwell: that her subjects had taken arms against her, on pretence of freeing her from captivity; and when she put herself into their hands, they had committed her to close custody in Lochleven; had placed her son, an infant, on her throne; had again taken arms against her after her deliverance from prison; had rejected all her proposals for accommodation; had given battle to her troops; and had obliged her, for the safety of her person, to take shelter in England 58. The earl of Murray, in answer to this complaint, gave a sum 56 Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 40. 57 Anderson, p. 14, 15, &c. Goodall, vol. ii. 58 Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. Haynes, p. 478. p. 110. p. 52. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 128. t mary and imperfect account of the late transactions: that the earl of Bothwell, the known murderer of the late king, had, a little after committing that crime, seized the person of the queen, and led her to Dunbar; that he acquired such influence over her, as to gain her consent to marry him, and he had accordingly procured a divorce from his former wife, and had pretended to celebrate his nuptials with the queen; that the scandal of this transaction, the dishonour which it brought on the nation, the danger to which the infant prince was exposed from the attempts of that audacious man, had obliged the nobility to take arms, and expose his criminal enter. prises; that after Mary, in order to save him, had thrown herself into their hands, she still discovered such a violent attachment to him, that they found it necessary, for their own and the public safety, to confine her person, during a season, till Bothwell and the other murderers of her husband could be tried and punished for their crimes; and that, during this confinement, she had voluntarily, without compulsion or violence, merely from disgust at the inquietude and vexations attending power, resigned her crown to her only son, and had appointed the earl of Murray regent during the minority 59. The queen's answer to this apology was obvious: that she did not know, and never could suspect, that Bothwell, who had been acquitted by a jury, and recommended to her by all the nobility for her husband, was the murderer of the king; that she ever was, and still continues, desirous that if he be guilty he may be brought to condign punishment; that her resignation of the crown was extorted from her by the well grounded fears of her life, and even by direct menaces of violence; and that Throgmorton, the English ambassador, as well as others of her 59 Anderson, vol. iv. part. ii. p. 64, et seq. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 144. friends, had advised her to sign that paper, as the only means of saving herself from the last extremity, and had assured her that a consent given under these circumstances, could never have any validity 6. So far the queen of Scots seemed plainly to have the advantage in the contest; and the English commissioners might have been surprised that Murray had made so weak a defence, and had suppressed all the material imputations against that princess, on which his party had ever so strenuously insisted; had not some private conferences previously informed them of the secret. Mary's commissioners had boasted that Elizabeth, from regard to her kinswoman, and from her desire of maintaining the rights of sovereigns, was determined, how criminal soever the conduct of that princess might appear, to restore her to the throne ; and Murray, reflecting on some past measures of the English court, began to apprehend that there were but too just grounds for these expectations. He believed that Mary, if he would agree to conceal the most violent part of the accusation against her, would submit to any reasonable terms of accommodation; but if he once proceeded so far as to charge her with the whole of her guilt, no composition could afterwards take place; and should she ever be restored, either by the power of Elizabeth, or the assistance of her other friends, he and his party must be exposed to her severe and implacable vengeance. He resolved therefore not to venture rashly on a measure which it would be impossible for him ever to recall; and he privately paid a visit to Norfolk, and the other English commissioners, confessed his scruples, laid 60 Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 60, et seq. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 162. 61 Anderson, vol. iv. p. 45. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 127. 62 Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 47, 48. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 159. before them the evidence of the queen's guilt, and desired to have some security for Elizabeth's protection, in case that evidence should, upon examination, appear entirely satisfactory. Norfolk was not secretly displeased with these scruples of the regent 63 He had ever been a partisan of the queen of Scots. Secretary Lidington, who began also to incline to the party, and was a man of singular address and capacity, had engaged him to embrace farther views in her favour, and even to think of espousing her: and though that duke confessed 64, that the proofs against Mary seemed to be unquestionable, he encouraged Murray in his present resolution, not to produce them publicly in the conferences before the English commissioners 65. Norfolk, however, was obliged to transmit to court the queries proposed by the regent. Those queries consisted of four particulars. Whether the English commissioners had authority from their sovereign to pronounce sentence against Mary, in case her guilt should be fully proved before them? Whether they would promise to exercise that authority, and proceed to an actual sentence? Whether the queen of Scots, if she were found guilty, should be delivered into the hands of the regent, or, at least, be so secured in England, that she never should be able to disturb the tranquillity of Scotland? and, Whether Elizabeth would also, in that case, promise to acknowledge the young king, and protect the regent in his authority 66 ? Elizabeth, when these queries, with the other transactions, were laid before her, began to think that they pointed towards a conclusion more deciHaynes, p. 574. 63 Crawford, p. 92. 64 Anderson, vol. iv. 65 Anderson, vol. iv. p. 76. Melvil, p. 94, 95. 66 Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 55. State Trials, vol. i. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 130. sive and more advantageous than she had hitherto expected. She determined, therefore, to bring the matter into full light; and under pretext that the distance from her person retarded the proceedings of her commissioners, she ordered them to come to London, and there continue the conferences. On their appearance, she immediately joined in commission with them some of the most considerable of her council; sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper, the earls of Arundel and Leicester, lord Clinton, admiral, and sir William Cecil, secretary 67 The queen of Scots, who knew nothing of these secret motives, and who expected that fear or decency would still restrain Murray from proceeding to any violent accusation against her, expressed an entire satisfaction in this adjournment; and declared that the affair, being under the immediate inspection of Elizabeth, was now in the hands where she most desired to rest it 68. The conferences were accordingly continued at Hampton Court; and Mary's commissioners, as before, made no scruple to be present at them. The queen, meanwhile, gave a satisfactory answer to all Murray's demands, and declared, that though she wished and hoped, from the present inquiry, to be entirely convinced of Mary's innocence, yet if the event should prove contrary, and that princess should appear guilty of her husband's murder, she should, for her own part, deem her ever after unworthy of a throne. The regent, encouraged by this declaration, opened more fully his charge against the queen of Scots, and, after expressing his reluctance to proceed to that extremity, and protesting that nothing but the necessity of self-defence, which 67 Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 99. 68 Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 95. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 177. 179. 69 Goodall, vol. ii. p. 199. |