XXXIX. CHA P. the accusation against her, would submit to any reasonable terms of accommodation; but if he once 1568. 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 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." 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,' 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. X W NORFOLK, however, was obliged to transmit to court the queries proposed by the regent. These 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? Whe Anderson, vol. iv. part 2. p. 47, 48. ther Goodall, vol. ii. p. 159. XXXIX 1568, ther the queen of Scots, if she were found guilty, CHAP 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 Scot land? and, Whether Elizabeth would also, in that case, promise to acknowledge the young king, and protect the regent in his authority ELIZABETH, when these queries, with the other transactions, were laid before her, began to think that they pointed towards a conclusion more decisive 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." 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. The conferences were accordingly continued at Hampton-court; and Mary's commissioners, as before, made no scruple to be present at them. a THE queen, meanwhile, gave a satisfactory answer to all Murray's demands, and declared, that though she wished and hoped, from the present in quiry, Y Anderson, vol. iv. part 2. p. 55. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 130, 7 Anderson, vol. iv. part. 2. p. 99. a Ibid p. 95, Goodall, vol. ii. p. 177. 179. CHAP. quiry to be entirely convinced of Mary's innocence, XXXIX. yet if the event should prove contrary, and that 1568 princess should appear guilty of her husband's murder, she should, for her own part, deem her ever after unworthy of a throne.b 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 must not be abandoned for any delicacy, could have engaged him in such a measure, he proceeded to accuse her in plain terms of participation and consent in the assassination of the king. The earl of Lenox too appeared before the English commissioners; and imploring vengeance for the murder of his son, accused Mary as an accomplice with Bothwel in that enormity.d WHEN this charge was so unexpectedly given in, and copies of it were transmitted to the bishop of Ross, lord Herries, and the other commissioners of Mary, they absolutely refused to return an answer; and they grounded their silence on very extraordinary reasons: They had orders, they said, from their mistress, if any thing were advanced that might touch her honour, not to make any defence, as she was a sovereign princess, and could not be subject to any tribunal; and they required that she should previously be admitted to Elizabeth's presence, to whom, and to whom alone, she was determined to justify her innocence. They forgot that the conferences were at first begun, and were still continued, with no other view than to clear her from the accusations of her enemies; that Elizabeth had ever pretended to enter into them only as her friend, by her own consent and approbation, not as Anderson, vol. iv. part 2. b Goodall, vol. ii. p. 199 p. 115 & seq. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 206. d Anderson, vol. iv. part. 2. p. 123. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 208. e Anderson, vol. iv. part. 2. p. 125. & seq. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 184. 211.217. XXXIX. as assuming any jurisdiction over her; that this CHA P. princess had, from the beginning, refused to admit her to her presence, till she should vindicate 1568. herself from the crimes imputed to her; that she had therefore discovered no new signs of partiality by her perseverance in that resolution; and that though she had granted an audience to the earl of Murray and his colleagues, she had previously conferred the same honour on Mary's commissioners; f and her conduct was so far éntirely equal to both parties. As the commissioners of the queen of Scots refused to give in any answer to Murray's charge, the necessary consequence seemed to be, that there could be no further proceedings in the conference. But though this silence might be interpreted as a presumption against her, it did not fully answer the purpose of those English ministers who were enemies to that princess. They still desired to have in their hands the proofs of her guilt; and, in order to draw them with decency from the regent, a judicious artifice was employed by Elizabeth. Murray was called before the English commissioners, and reproved by them, in the queen's name, for the atrocious imputations which he had the temerity to throw upon his sovereign: But though the earl of Murray, they added, and the other commissioners, had so far forgotten the duty of allegiance to their prince, the queen never would overlook what she owed to her friend, her neighbour, and her kinswoman; and she therefore desired to know what they could say in their own justification. Murray, thus urged, made no difficulty in producing the proofs of his charge against the queen of Scots; and among the rest some love-letters and sonnets of her's to Bothwel, written f Lesley's Negociations in Anderson, vol. iii. p. 25. Haynes, p. 487. See note [K] at the end of the volume. Anderson, vol. iv. part. 2. p. 147. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 233. XXXIX. 1568. CHA P. written all in her own hand, and two other papers, one written in her own hand, another subscribed by her, and written by the earl of Huntley; each of which contained a promise of marriage with Bothwel, made before the pretended trial and acquittal of that nobleman. ALL these important papers had been kept by Bothwel in a silver box or casket, which had been given him by Mary, and which had belonged to her first husband, Francis; and though the princess had enjoined him to burn the letters as soon as he had read them, he had thought proper carefully to preserve them as pledges of her fidelity, and had committed, them to the custody of sir James Balfour, deputy-governor of the castle of Edinburgh. When that fortress was besieged by the associated lords, Bothwel sent a servant to receive the casket from the hands of the deputy-governor. Balfour delivered it to the messenger; but as he had at that time received some disgust from Bothwel, and was secretly negociating an agreement with the ruling party, he took care, by conveying private intelligence to the earl of Morton, to make the papers be intercepted by him. They contained incontestible proofs of Mary's criminal correspondence with Bothwel, of her consent to the king's murder, and of her concurrence in the violence which Bothwel pretended to commit upon her.i Murray fortified this evidence by some testimonies of corresponding facts;k and he added, some time after, the dying confession of one Hubert, or French Paris, as he was called, a servant of Bothwel's, who had been executed for the king's murder, and who directly charged the queen with her being accessary to that criminal enterprise.l i Anderson, vol. ii. p. 115. MARY'S Goodall, vol. ii. p. 1. 165, &c. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 243. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 76. |