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enormous, of 2001. sterling. Casaubon began his approaches from a secure distance, immediately after his arrival in England. "The king declares that he prefers one Thuanus to many such writers as Tacitus."* Shortly after which he apprises his friend that the king was disturbed by the deviation from truth into which rebels and libellers had seduced De Thou in his account of Scottish affairs; and that, to remove the delusion of that historian, he had caused a true account of these events to be composed from authentic materials by sir Robert Cotton, which, when complete, should be sent to him at Paris.† In consequence of these communications and solicitations, which were continued by Casaubon and renewed by Camden almost to the death of De Thou, he appears to have proved his candour by suppressing some acrimonious passages which he owed to Buchanan; but he also proved his honesty by at last leaving his text in such a condition that no reader who forms his judgment from it, can doubt that Mary was an accomplice in the murder.

In perusing those parts of Camden's annals which relate to Scotland, it ought to be borne in mind, that the agent of James, in labouring to soften the sincerity of De Thou, must have composed his narrative of the reign of Mary under a strong temptation to suppress truth.

The remaining transactions in Scotland, which at this period form a part of English history, will not occupy a large space. The dominion of Bothwell lasted only a month, and involved in its fall the throne of his wife, thenceforward the most unfortunate of women. He endeavoured to possess himself of the person of the infant prince; but his guilty purpose was defeated by sir James Melville, who confirmed lord Mar, the prince's guardian, in his resolution to save his ward" from the hands of those who had slain his father," especially as Bothwell already boasted among his companions" that he should

*Casaubon to Thuanus, 16th Nov. 1610. Id. p. 12.
+ Same to same, 22d Feb. 1611. Id. p. 14.

warrant the child from revenging his father's death." Melville persuaded Balfour, the governor of the castle of Edinburgh, not to part with it to Bothwell, but to join the lords, who had secretly confederated" to prosecute the murderer and to crown the prince."* Such was the prevalence of the rumours that Bothwell intended to murder the royal infant, that Mary was reduced to the dreadful necessity of disclaiming, in a solemn proclamation, such designs against her own child. On the 6th of June, Bothwell and the queen, to whom one of the confederated lords hi revealed the intended revolt, fled from Holyrood House, and sheltered themselves in Borthwick Castle. The lords took possession of Edinburgh, supported by the people, in spite of the efforts of Mary's lieutenants. They published a proclamation against Bothwell and his adherents, charging him with having made a dishonest marriage with the queen, after having murdered the king, and now gathering a force to cover his intended murder of the prince."

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On the 15th of June, precisely a month after the marriage, the queen and Bothwell collected a small army, with few men of importance, at Carberry hill, within a few miles of Edinburgh. She issued a prɔclamation, offering land producing annually forty pounds to the slayer of an earl, half that sum for the head of a lord, and an estate of ten pounds by the year to him who killed a baron.+ Dismay, the natural effect of an unpopular and odious cause, spread rapidly among men who, with all their vices, were strangers to fear. Le Croc vainly laboured to perform his usual part as mediator. On his assuring the lords of peace and pardon from the queen, the earl of Morton said, " that they would be satisfied with the punishment and removal of the murderer of the late king." "As to pardon," said the earl of Glencairn, we have not come here to ask pardon for any offence we have done, but rather to grant pardon to those

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* Melv. 180.

+ History of James VI., 14. Baron denoted inferior baron, i. e. landed gentleman.

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.

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.

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+ 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,

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