who have offended."* Mary was never fearful, but she quickly apprehended her situation. She desired Bothwell to provide for himself, bidding him a farewell which proved to be everlasting. Distinguishing Kirkaldy of Grange, a warrior of some irregular generosity, from the others, she called to him, "Laird of Grange, I surrender myself to you, upon the conditions brought from the lords."+ She gave him her hand, which he kissed, and, holding her bridle, he led her down to the lords, who conducted her in the evening to the house of the provost of Edinburgh. On her entrance she was assailed by reproaches and upbraided with crimes, in a manner, says Melville, "which was a pity." In the morning she saw a white flag before her window, on which were painted the corpse of her murdered husband lying under a tree, as it was found after his murder, and her infant son upon his knees, uttering these words, "Judge and revenge my cause, O Lord."+ On the 16th of June she was committed prisoner to the castle of Lochleven, which seemed to be doubly secured by its position upon an island of that small lake, and still more by its being the castle of Margaret Douglas, the mother of the earl of Moray. She found means to expostulate with Kirkaldy on this breach of an agreement concluded by him. He excused his acquiescence in her imprisonment by quoting a letter written by her to Bothwell, in the night of her confinement at Edinburgh, intercepted by the lords, and shown by them to Kirkaldy, in which she called Bothwell "her dear heart, whom she should never forget nor abandon." In Kirkaldy's reply, he requested her to put Bothwell out of her mind, or else she would never get the love or obe

* Keith, 401.

+ Melv. 184. Her unworthy paramour had already made her feel how heavy the yoke of illicit love may be. "He was so beastly and suspicious that he suffered not a day in patience, causing her to shed abundance of salt tears."- Id. 182.

The reader who peruses the eighteenth book of Buchanan's History will probably be surprised at finding that historians of the most opposite opinions have closely followed the narrative of that illustrious man, especially in his beautiful descriptions of memorable events; though, to their shame be it spoken, few of them own their obligations to their great master, and many repay them by wanton aspersions on his moral character. VOL. III.

dience of her subjects," which made her bitterly weep, for she could not do so hastily.' Whatever doubts may be felt about this letter, of which Kirkaldy believed the genuineness (a testimony which seems to outweigh all difficulties), it is remarkably conformable to the tenour of her correspondence with sir Nicholas Throgmorton, the English minister, to whom she declared that "she would rather die than be divorced from Bothwell," for which she does indeed assign a reason founded on alleged regard to her honour; but it was probably a pretext, both from its own peculiar nature, and from her renouncing it on being pressed by Throgmorton so to do, in order to save her own life. There were at that time four parties on the question how Mary was to be disposed of. The first proposed the restoration of the queen, with sufficient security for the revolted lords and the reformed religion, comprehending the punishment of all the murderers, and the effectual divorce of her majesty from the ringleader. The second proposed that Mary should quit the realm, to reside either in France or England, after having resigned the crown to her son, and appointed a regent during his minority. Both these parties were, however, weak; the first, consisting of Lethington, nearly alone; the second composed chiefly of the earl of Athol and his followers, strengthened by acquiescence rather than support from the earl of Morton:- the third, composed of the greater part of the counsellors, and many considerable persons in the country, required the coronation of the prince, and insisted on the trial and condemnation of the queen; but were contented with her perpetual imprisonment in the realm as a punishment for her misdeeds. The fourth demanded the infliction of capital punishment on her, as, in point of justice, the sole penalty commensurate to her crimes; and in point

*Melv. 185, 186.

+ Throgmorton to Elizabeth. Edin. 18th July, 1567. Rob. App. xxii. In the same letter there is a passage unfavourable to Mary. "Of late the queen hath written a letter to the captain of Dunbar castle" (a fortress belonging to Bothwell), "which has been surprised, and thereby matter is discovered which maketh little for the queen's advantage."

of sound policy, because they doubted their own means of safe custody; because they dreaded the interference of foreign princes; apprehended the danger of factions among themselves, and feared evil from the compassion which long confinement might excite in the bosoms of the Scottish people.* Throgmorton maintained the prudence of the first plan, as being the only one which his own sovereign or the kings of France and Spain were likely to endure; but he considered it as more prudent to plead, in his discussions with the statesmen, the divines, and scholars, for the more moderate of the two latter plans, which alone divided the country. He entreated them "not to wipe away the queen's infamy and Bothwell's detestable murder by enormities on their side, and not to bring upon themselves the indignation of all Christendom, which had been hitherto fixed upon their adversaries." He reminded them that there were no competent judges to try the queen, by whose authority all courts are holden, and all malefactors brought to justice; that it was not possible to try her for a crime without being guilty of high treason, which was the greatest of crimes. He was answered, that in the case of monstrous enormities there must be extraordinary proceedings; that if there were no written law against offences not to be expected, new punishments might be applied by the estates of the realm; and they quoted examples from their ancient history, which, if not apocryphal, were justly considered by Throgmorton as rather practice than law. Knox preached in favour of the more rigorous measure, which he justified by examples from Jewish history. Buchanan (with a more enlarged soul) appealed to the generous principles of equal law and popular liberty; but it was in support of a rigour to which these most noble principles are in themselves uncongenial.

On the 25th of July the queen was compelled, at Lochleven, by lord Lindsay, a rough emissary of the confederated lords, to subscribe three deeds; by the first she was made * Throgmorton to Elizabeth, 19th July, 1567. Keith, 420

to appoint seven noblemen to exercise the powers of government until the return of the earl of Moray, who, in case of his refusal of the regency, were to be continued in power; by the second she resigned her regal authority to her son; and by the third she appointed the earl of Moray to be regent of the realm on his arrival from France, and after his regular acceptance of that high office.

The messenger and the errand were harsh. But the insurgent lords, as they believed their cause of war against the queen to be just, and considered themselves as justified by necessity in proceeding to inflict that highest punishment which they regarded as due to her offences, viewed every measure which was short of that extremity as an act of lenity and a remission of perfect though rigorous right. Where they deemed themselves authorised to depose her, they did not conceive it to be unlawful to extort a resignation from her.

On the 29th of July the young prince was crowned at Stirling by the title of James VI. king of Scots. A warrant for the apprehension of Bothwell had been issued by the privy council a few days after the surrender of the queen and the seizure of her correspondence with him. But in the distracted state of the kingdom, the castle of Dunbar held out against the government till the end of September.* Bothwell had escaped in July

to the Orkney and Shetland islands, which formed the dukedom bestowed on him by the queen. In the latter group of islands he hired some vessels in order to transport him to Denmark, whence he professed an intention to proceed to France. Kirkaldy of Grange and Murray of Tullibardine were despatched with four armed vessels in pursuit of him. They surprised and took four of his vessels in an inlet of the Shetland islands called Bressey Sound, while the masters and crew were on shore. Bothwell's own vessel and that which pursued her most closely both struck on a sunk rock, where the course of the latter was stopped, but the former escaped. The Scotch pursued him with the remaining three vessels

Cecil to Norris, 9th October, 1567. Cabala,

in a running fight of about three hours, at the end of which time a cannon ball dismasted his best vessel. At that moment a heavy gale from the south-west drove him on the coast of Norway, where Oldburgh the captain of a Danish vessel demanded his passport. Bothwell alleged that on account of his unsuitable dress he was unwilling to discover himself, but gave the Danish officer to understand that in the hurry and peril of an escape from Scotland he had been unable to provide himself with foreign papers. Oldburgh having prevailed on the principal part of Bothwell's crew to come on board his own ship under pretence of furnishing them with provisions, he detained them in confinement, and summoned the peasants of the neighbourhood to aid in securing the vessels of certain freebooters, who navigated the Danish seas without authority from any prince or state. They were conducted prisoners to Berghem, where Rosencratz the viceroy of Norway, treated them with hospitality.* He was examined by Danish commissioners, before whom he appeared in the old torn and patched clothes of a boatswain; and being asked who he was, he answered that he was the husband of the queen of Scotland. They required his passport. He answered them with scorn, asking of whom he was to receive papers or credentials, being himself the supreme ruler of the land? It seemed extraordinary that, his vessel being armed and manned for fight, he should have no letters of marque, passport, or ship's papers; and as it appeared that his ship had before been commanded by one Daniel Cooth, a reputed pirate, the suspicions that he was himself a freebooter were increased. Soon after, however, a portfolio was found hidden in one of his vessels, containing his patent as duke of Orkney, proclamations of the Scottish government, offering rewards for his ap

*The above narrative is taken from the statement made by himself to the Danish government on his arrival at Copenhagen, the original manuscript of which was lately discovered in the royal Swedish collection at Drottningholm. It is comprised in a publication entitled "Les Affaires du Comte de Bothwell." Edin. 1829. pp. 22-27.