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undisputed parliament, to secure to the reformed church the privileges which it had practically enjoyed for six years, under those acts of that assembly of the estates which were obliged to be irregular. The leaders who had taken refuge in England were the duke of Chastelherault, the earls of Moray, Glencairn, and Rothes, the lords Boyd and Ochiltree, with ten of those considerable landholders called lairds,—a term which agrees with the English lords, though slightly varying in pronunciation and writing,—who at this time sat in parliament only as commissioners from the inferior barons, but who still differed from the peers more in privilege than in honour.* These gentlemen, the best of their time, were joined by the interest of the reformation in unnatural union with the worst offspring of civil confusion,—with Morton, a profligate though able man; with Ruthven, distinguished even then for the brutal energy with which he executed wicked designs; and with the brilliant and inconstant Lethington, admired by all parties, but scarcely trusted by any: for in the measures of all numerous bodies, and especially in those seasons of commotion and peril which render every succour welcome, the good are often compelled to endure the co-operation of the bad. In this case the exiled lords, of whom many were as irreproachable as the corrupting power of intestine war will suffer men long to continue in that unhappy condition of society, must not be held to be guiltless, even though the most deplorable part of the scenes which ensued should be directly ascribed to the known depravity of their associates, or to the accidents which usually attend lawless broils. The earl of Lennox was indignant that the influence of his son should be eclipsed by the favour of Rizzio. Darnley himself betrayed symptoms of being goaded by passions more clamorous and rancorous than political jealousy. Lennox advised him to sacrifice his antipathies, and to seek the means of revenge in a coalition with the protestant

* See Jamieson on the word, for the exact agreement of laird with the English word lord. It afterwards denoted a landholder who held of the crown, but was not knighted. I doubt this last limitation, though adopted by the learned lexicographer.

lords.* Darnley accordingly, on the 10th of February, sent Douglas, his uncle, to lord Ruthven, to complain that Rizzio had abused the king in many sorts, and done him wrongs which could no longer be borne. Ruthven, fearful that the blandishments of the queen might extort secrets from her simpleton husband, refused to answer. "It is a sore case," said Darnley, "that I can get no help against this villain David." "It is your own fault,” replied Douglas; "you cannot keep a secret." Then the king swore on the Gospel that he would not betray Ruthven. That crafty assassin still seemed to hesitate: but this hesitation ceased when he obtained Darnley's assent to a treaty with the banished lords, in which he promised to obtain for them a general amnesty, and the continuance of the reformed religion; and they agreed to be the friends of his friends and the enemies of his enemies, including, as an object guaranteed by the agreement, his right of succession as next heir after the queen or her progeny. Before the final conclusion, Darnley was obliged to quiet the apprehensions of the murderers by a written instrument; a sort of effrontery seldom known but in the history of that fierce age, in which, after declaring the necessity of cutting off and slaying certain persons who had abused her majesty's confidence, Darnley binds himself ‡ to keep them "scathless" § for the execution of David in the queen's presence, or otherwise to protect them, declaring that what was done was his own device and invention. This writing (which, perhaps more explicitly than any other known document, avowed its object to be murder,) was subscribed on the 1st of March; and on Saturday the 9th of the same month, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, in the palace of Holyrood House, it was carried into execution. Perhaps it was hastened by the impatience and importunity of Darnley, as well as by the approach of the parliament, which was summoned to meet on the 12th, for the attainder of the lords.

*Spottiswood, 194.

+ Keith, Appendix, 120, 121. Cotton. Lib. Calig. b. tx. 211. 1st March, 1566. Harmless.

Darnley conducted Ruthven and other assassins through his private staircase, by the use of his own key, into a small room where the queen was at supper with Rizzio, her natural sister the countess of Argyle, and some other favourites. Ruthven rose from a sick bed, to which he had been for three months confined by a painful, and, as it soon proved, a mortal, illness. He was now in armour; though he could only come into the apartment by the support of two men. The paleness of his haggard countenance, sometimes flushed by guilty passions, formed a gloomy contrast with the glare of his helmet. Rizzio had his cap on his head as Ruthven entered; and Darnley hung on the queen's chair with his hand round her waist. That unhappy lady was in the sixth month of her pregnancy by her contemptible husband. Ruthven called to her—" Let Rizzio leave this privy chamber, where he has been too long."-"It is my will he should be here," said the queen. "It is against your honour," answered Darnley. "What hath he done ?" said the queen. "He hath offended your honour," replied Ruthven, "in such a manner as I dare not speak of." The queen rose up; and David ran behind her, laying hold of the plaits of her gown. Ruthven lifted up the queen, and placed her in the arms of Darnley, who disengaged Rizzio's hands from the hold which he had taken of her garments. Several persons here rushed in, and overset the table with the supper and lights. Rizzio was pushed out to the antechamber; at the front of which hẻ fell under fifty-five wounds, in one of which Darnley's dagger was found, whether employed by himself or by one of his accomplices is neither certain nor important. Ruthven is said to have aimed a stab at the victim over the queen's neck. He seated himself, and called for a cup of wine, which drew a spirited reproof of his familiarity from Mary. He appealed to his illness as an excuse. Though worked up by the contemplation of a crime into a ruffianly paroxysm of distempered vigour, he speedily relapsed into the feebleless incident to his malady. He expired about two

months afterwards. He left behind him a narrative of his crime, written in a tone of undisturbed impartiality; and it does not appear that his last moments betrayed a glimpse of natural compunction.

as

During the tumult the queen remained for a long time in the closet, interceding for her favourite, who was probably then dead. She asked her husband how he could be the author of so foul an act. The recrimination was too coarse for historical relation. "It was," he said, 66 much for your honour as for my own satisfaction.' "The nature of her defence; her retort on Ruthven; her loath some assent to Darnley's desire of resuming all the usual exterior of living together, with her backwardness and her evasions about such intercourse after such a scene, are conclusive and disgusting proofs that the highest-born beauties of the court of Catherine de' Medicis threw but a thin veil over their frailties, and deported themselves with so little delicacy as to render jealousy somewhat excusable, however ungenerous or unwarrantable. After this offensive conversation, she sent one of her ladies to learn the fate of Rizzio. The lady quickly returned with tidings that she had seen him dead. The queen, with a spirit that never forsook her, said, "No more tears; I must think of revenge." She wiped her eyes, and was never seen to lament the murdered man.

To complete the narrative of an event sufficient to dishonour a nation, and to characterise an age, it may be added, that the earl of Morton, lord chancellor of Scotland, commanded the guard who were posted at the

"This we find for certain, that the king had entered into a vehement suspicion of David having committed something which was most against the queen's honour, and not to be borne by her husband."- Letter from Bedford and Randolph, 27 Mar. ii. Ellis, 208. "Marie Stuart reine d'Ecosse avait un beau mari, et delectabatur turpibus adulteris. Lorsque j'y étois, elle étoit eu mauvais menage avec son mari, à cause de la mort de ce David L'histoire de Buchanan est très vrai: elle ne parloit point avec son mari. C'étoit une belle créature!"-Scaligerana, 149. From the mention of Mauvissier in the despatches, it is clear that Castelnau was the ambassador whom Joseph Scaliger accompanied. The universal prevalence of these rumours, the only circumstance for which they are quoted, is confirmed by the language of the accurate Dutch historian, Van Metteren, who resided, during a great part of his life, in England. "Henri par jalousie fit oter de sa table et massacrer David Rizzio, musicien Piedmontois, qui étoit dans la bonne grace de la Royne."- Metteren, Hist. de Pays Bas, liv. iii. p. 266.

entrances of the palace to protect the murderers from interruption.*

Bothwell and Huntly, the most obnoxious of the catholic ministers, made their escape in the night of the murder. On Monday the 11th the banished lords came to Edinburgh. On the entrance of Moray into the palace, Mary embraced and kissed him, declaring "that if he had been at home, he would not have allowed her to be so discourteously handled; which so moved him that the tears fell from his eyes." She informed the archbishop of Glasgow, that " Moray, seeing our condition, was moved by natural affection towards us."‡ The attractions of Mary prevailed over the fidelity of Darnley towards his accomplices: she obtained the discharge of the guard, under the specious pretext of showing the liberty of the king and queen after their hearty reconciliation. He was content to disavow in public whatever he had written or sworn; and she carried him towards Dunbar, after stealing out of Holyrood House at midnight. The particulars of the remainder of this year belong to the historians of Scotland. To us only pertains such an account of them as may explain the policy of England; of which, however, the ascendant of the protestant party in Scotland continued to be the main object. The birth of a prince on the 19th of June was deemed by Moray and Castelnau an event sufficiently auspicious to revive § the habits of conjugal intercourse between the queen and her husband; the reconciliation

The principal contemporary accounts of the murder of Rizzio are Knox, Buchanan, and Melville, together with the despatch from Bedford and Randolph at Berwick (printed by Dr. Robertson in his appendix, and by Mr. Ellis in his letters); the letter written on the 2d of April in the queen's name to the archbishop of Glasgow, the minister at Paris, (Keith, 330334.); and the narrative sent to Elizabeth by Morton and Ruthven from Berwick, in the latter end of April, (Keith's App. 119. 129.) which appears in Keith without subscription or address, but was probably the same which is re ferred to as about to be sent in a despatch of the 2d of April, State Paper Office MSS. The materials for the greater part of it must have been sup plied by Ruthven. Nothing that can extenuate his conduct is therefore admitted into the text. Neither is any thing taken from the beautiful narrative of Buchanan, though it was so solemnly confirmed by that great man on his death-bed. No part of it rests on Knox, though he was a man that never lied.

+ Melville, 150.
+ Keith, 332.
Cecil's Diary, Cal. b. ix. 217. and Keith's App. 169.

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