of the rudeness and insolence of her young lover, who, not contented with the title of king, demanded to be crowned and to have a share in the government,-which, however, she steadily refused. Rizzio, an Italian, and Mary's private secretary, was one of her chief advisers and often in secret conclave with her; Darnley hated him as his great opponent, and determined to effect his ruin. Unable to procure his dismissal from court, he entered into a secret plot with Ruthven and other lords to murder Rizzio, and, by the assistance of Murray and the protestant peers who were to be recalled from England, to seize upon the government. One night, when the queen, who was in the sixth month of her pregnancy, was sitting at supper with Rizzio and her natural sister the lady Argyle, the conspirators entered the chamber, and seizing Rizzio, dragged him to an adjoining apartment, where he was murdered, notwithstanding the prayers and entreaties of the queen. Mary, who could no longer conceal her contempt and even aversion for her worthless husband, every day grew colder towards him, and placed her confidence in the earl of Bothwell, who had lately been recalled from exile and reconciled to Murray. The birth of a young prince (afterwards James I. of England) gave some hopes of a reconciliation, but new dissensions soon arose, and when he was christened, his father was not admitted to the ceremony. Elizabeth, who had all along been adverse to the marriage, was taking part in a court festivity when Cecil communicated to her the important intelligence of the young prince's birth. She immediately withdrew, and, leaning her head upon her hand, appeared in great agitation: for the first few moments she remained silent, and then said, 'My cousin of Scotland is mother of a fair son, while I am but a barren stock." On the following morning, when she had recovered her wonted cheerfulness, she received the Scottish ambassador Melvill, who had been sent to communicate the news, and expressed to him her readiness to be sponsor to the infant prince, who was now presumptive heir to the united crowns of England and Scotland. Excited by this condescension on the part of their queen, the people of England were in great agitation for fear of a catholic succession, and besought Elizabeth to marry, or at least to nominate her successor, as James of Scotland would in all probability be educated in the religion of his mother; but she steadfastly refused to listen to their entreaties, and said that experience had taught her how dangerous it was to have a designated successor, who might thus become a rallying point for the disaffected; and asked the commons whether the course of her government afforded any just ground of complaint. The capital of Scotland now became the scene of a fearful tragedy: it had been remarked that Mary was particularly intimate with

Bothwell, and on the 10th of February, 1567, when all were wrapped in sleep, a loud explosion disturbed the stillness of the night, and in the morning the dead body of the king was discovered in the fields near Edinburgh at a little distance from his house, which appeared to have been blown up with gunpowder: suspicion naturally fell on Bothwell, and the queen's conduct was the subject of serious animadversion. Even if the direct evidence of Mary's participation in the murder of her husband were not sufficiently substantiated, her marriage with Bothwell but three months after the death of Darnley afforded strong presumption of her guilt, and excited the indignation of the whole Scottish nation. As soon as the nobles could assemble their forces, they met at Stirling and demanded that the murderer of the late king should be delivered up to them. In vain Mary strove to induce her troops to fight; they refused to engage in so evil a cause, and after various adventures she was compelled to surrender to the confederates. Bothwell escaped to Denmark, but the queen was retained in prison, and, after hearing herself stigmatized as the murderer of her husband, and the ruin of her people, she was at length compelled to resign the crown. Meanwhile Elizabeth, whose conduct in this whole transaction was highly commendable, sent her ambassador, Throgmorton, to intercede with the insurgent lords for the life of the queen, and even threatened to enter into a league with France to put a stop to all traffic with the rebels, as she termed them, unless they consented to restore her to liberty; but Elizabeth's menaces were unavailing against the universal voice of the people, and in December (1567), when the Scottish parliament met, it confirmed all that had been done, and declared the evidence of Mary's connivance at the murder of her husband conclusive. The act of 1560, abolishing the mass and substituting the presbyterian form of worship, was ratified, and the protestant religion finally established in Scotland. Murray, who had been absent on the continent for fear of the revenge of Bothwell, during these transactions, was chosen regent, and the infant prince was crowned at Stirling by the title of James VI. Mary, who had been removed from the castle of Edinburgh to the fortress of Lochleven, succeeded in evading the vigilance of her keeper, lord William Douglas of Lochleven, and effected her escape to Hamilton, where she was joined by the lords of that powerful clan at the head of three thousand of their retainers: the regent, who was taken by surprise at Glasgow, had no forces in readiness to oppose her, and was obliged to gain time by a feigned negotiation, which was equally acceptable to the queen's party, as they looked for the arrival of reinforcements from the north as soon, however, as Murray had assembled 4000 men he

determined to bring the matter to an issue, and although his forces amounted to only one-half those of the queen, he gained a complete victory at Langside Hill. Mary, who was watching with intense anxiety the progress of the battle from an adjacent eminence, as soon as she saw that the day was lost, gave reins to her horse, and having failed in her attempt to reach Dumbarton, rode without halting to Dundrennan abbey, near Kirkcudbright, on the Solway Firth, a distance of nearly sixty Scottish miles. The next day she embarked for England and landed at Workington, whence she proceeded to Carlisle, and despatched an envoy to Elizabeth, desiring to be admitted into the royal presence, and to be furnished with troops to re-establish her right. "The English council took the case into most grave and solemn consideration; they weighed the arguments on all sides; they viewed the dangers likely to arise to England and to protestantism in general; they saw equal peril in suffering Mary to go to France or Spain, or return to Scotland; they decided that she should be detained for the present in England. They certainly may have been swayed by secret prejudice; they may have fancied danger that was but imaginary; but beyond question they did what they believed to be right, and they must have known what the dangers to be apprehended really were, far better than we can do. Leaving, then, declamation to the advocates of Mary, we hesitate not to say, that, in our opinion, the council acted, under the circumstances, wisely and well." So far as Elizabeth's private inclinations led her to interfere, she was prejudiced in favour of Mary's cause; her exalted notions of the majesty of kings, her aversion to the rebellion of subjects against their lawful sovereign, her regard for Mary as her kinswoman and the presumptive heir to her crown, were all predisposing causes in her favour. council," writes Cecil, "can stop her majesty from manifesting her misliking of the proceedings against the queen of Scots;" but these sentiments were overcome by graver considerations of political necessity, and Mary was detained in lord Scrope's castle of Bolton in Yorkshire, while a commission of both nations was opened with the consent of Mary to investigate the truth of the accusations laid to her charge. At first the proceedings were in her favour, but the evidence produced by Murray was declared by Cecil, Bacon, and the lords who were on the trial, to be decisive against her; and, as Hume, whose known partiality for kings ought to shield him from any suspicion of prejudice in favour of the insurgents, observes, The objections made to the authenticity of these papers are, in general, of small force; but were they ever so specious, they cannot now be hearkened to, * Keightley's History of England, i. p. 490.

"No

since Mary, at the time when the truth could have been fully cleared, did, in effect, ratify the evidence against her, by recoiling from the inquiry at the very critical moment, and refusing to give an answer to the accusation of her enemies." From the moment that the queen of Scots set foot on English ground, the tranquillity of Elizabeth's reign was at an end, and her very existence threatened by a succession of conspiracies originating in religious fanaticism. The duke of Norfolk, the highest nobleman in England, and related to the crown, entered into a project to marry the queen of Scots and to liberate her by force; while the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, instigated by similar motives, raised a formidable rebellion in the north, where the strength of the Roman catholic party mainly lay; but owing to the wise moderation of Elizabeth in religious matters and the general popularity of her government, they met with little support, and were obliged to escape,-the one to Flanders, the other to Scotland,-where they continued to maintain a secret correspondence with the English catholics. Nor were these projects confined to the ill-affected in England; they formed part of an extensive scheme, which was supported by the catholic powers of Europe: the pope, the king of Spain, the duke of Alva, and the heads of the catholic party in France, were all united in a league for dethroning Elizabeth and extirpating the protestant religion in Europe: the queen of Scots, the duke of Norfolk, the earls of Arundel and Pembroke, and many other nobles in England, were cognizant of it, and their connivance was made known to the English ministry from a source which could not well be deceived. In July, 1568, the provost-marshal of France called sir Henry Norris aside, and desired him to advertise Cecil "that the queen's majesty did hold the wolf that would devour her;" and added, that "his master was in league with the king of Spain and the pope for accomplishing her destruction." Meantime the

position of affairs on the continent was alarming; the duke of Alva had triumphed in Flanders, where 50,000* protestants had been hung, beheaded, buried alive, or burnt; and in France the queen-mother and the duke of Guise were carrying on a war of extermination against the Huguenots. In the massacre of St. Bartholomew at Paris (25th August, 1572,) 6000 victims perished in one night, while similar atrocities were perpetrated in Orleans, Rouen, Bordeaux, and other towns. This convinced * 100,000 according to Grotius.

The number of protestants who perished in these massacres is variously estimated at from 10,000 to 100,000; the duke de Sully gives 70,000, and Mezeray says that above 25,000 perished in the Provinces, besides nearly 5000 at Paris, which corresponds with De Thou (Thuanus), who gives 30,000. Dr. Lingard estimates them at 1500, but gives no authority for his assertion.

Elizabeth that no enormity was thought too great which might accomplish the execrable design of extinguishing religious liberty in Europe; and it was reported that as soon as the Huguenots and Hollanders should have been vanquished, the catholic powers had sworn to turn their united forces against England. Elizabeth now determined that her cause and that of protestantism were one, and notwithstanding her love of economy and aversion to war, she was at length prevailed on to send arms and ammunition to the protestants on the continent, whose courage seemed to grow with their misfortunes. At this time the zeal in England for the queen's person amounted almost to a religious frenzy: the people knelt down in the streets as she passed, and prayed for her long life and prosperity; and parliament, which had not met for five years, proceeded to pass a series of statutes which can alone be explained by the uneasiness of the times. It was made treason to affirm that Elizabeth was not the lawful sovereign, or that the queen in parliament could not limit and determine the succession. Another act made it treason to publish papal bulls or absolutions, to reconcile any one or be reconciled to the church of Rome; and those who imported popish books or relics were declared to have incurred the penalties of præmunire. The duke of Norfolk had already suffered for his project to liberate Mary and restore the Roman catholic religion, and the parliament wished to proceed against the queen of Scots by bill of attainder for her participation in the plot, but were positively prohibited by Elizabeth, who was compelled to dissolve the house to prevent another bill from passing "to render her incapable of the succession." Although Burghley, Walsingham, and the other ministers were unable to prevail on Elizabeth to suffer any proceedings against Mary, they entered into a negotiation with the earl of Mar, who was then (1572) regent of Scotland, to deliver her up to him "if he would give good assurance to proceed with her, by way of justice, as he had often offered to do;" but this project was never carried into effect.

The danger which had threatened England of a foreign invasion had for the present passed away. The Huguenots in France, under the guidance of the prince of Condé and the king of Navarre, aided by Elizabeth, had succeeded in recovering their influence, and the protestant provinces of the Netherlands, under the brave prince of Orange, had thrown off the yoke of Philip, so that the kings of France and Spain had too much to do in their own dominions to think of invading England: Elizabeth took this opportunity to retaliate. Besides helping their rebellious subjects, she connived at sir Francis Drake and other naval captains fitting out vessels at their own expense to make voyages in the Spanish