the position of the game, "This game is an image of the words and deeds of men. If, for example, we lose a pawn, it seems but a small matter; nevertheless the loss often draws after it that of the whole game." "I understand you," observed Elizabeth; "Darnley is but a pawn, but may well checkmate me if he is promoted!" She rose and gave over the play. A council was immediately called, and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was dispatched to dissuade or intimidate the Queen of Scots from the match. He found that ineffectual. Mary told him that she might have married into the houses of Austria, France, or Spain; but as none of those matches could please Elizabeth, she gave them up to oblige her, and had now resolved to marry one who was not only her subject, which she had so earnestly recommended to her, but her kinsman. "And why," she asked, "is she offended?" All she offered was to defer the marriage three months, to give time for Elizabeth's opposition to subside, and dismissed Throckmorton with the present of a gold chain. But that wily minister had contrived to breathe suspicion into the mind of Murray. Darnley, and Lennox, his father, were represented as Papists, and the fears of the Lords of the Congregation were thus aroused. Murray withdrew from Court, declaring that he could not remain to witness idolatry. The gospel was declared to be in danger; the Protestants were summoned in defence of their religion, and the most scandalous stories of the intimacy of Darnley and the queen were propagated. Such was the excitement, that Randolph informed his own Court that the assassination of Darnley, now created Earl of Ross, was openly menaced. In England, Elizabeth showed her resentment by seizing the Countess of Lennox, Darnley's mother, and shutting her up in the Tower. She also sent word, through Randolph, to the Scottish leaders of the Congregation, bidding them maintain their religion, and the union betwixt the kingdoms, and on these conditions promising her support. Encouraged by these assurances, the Kirk presented to Mary a memorial, bluntly informing her that they could no longer tolerate idolatry in the sovereign, any more than in the subject. Private information was given to Mary that the Protestant lords had laid their plan to seize both herself, Lennox, and Darnley, as they proceeded to the baptism of a child of Lord Livingstone's, at Callendar: that Chatelherault was at Kinneil, Murray at Lochleven, Argyll at Castle Campbell, and Rothes at Parretwall. To prevent this, Mary was on horseback at five in the morning, and dashed through their intended ambush before they were aware. Two hours later, Argyll, Boyd, and Murray met at the appointed spot, only to learn that the bird had escaped the snare. The traitors, to cover their defeated design, authorised Randolph to assure the queen that she had unnecessarily alarmed herself. But as, after this, there could be no safety for them, they implored Elizabeth to send them £3,000, and they would still endeavour to seize Lennox and Darnley. To defeat that object, Mary, on the 9th of July, privately married Darnley at Edinburgh. The intimacy which now subsisted betwixt the queen and her husband attracted the attention of the spies of the lords, and the utmost horror was expressed at the profligacy of their queen. Matters were now hastening to an extremity. The lords assembled at Stirling, and entered into a bond to stand by each other. They sent off a messenger to urge speedy aid from Elizabeth, and actively diffused reports that Lennox had plotted to take away the life of Murray. This, both Lennox and Darnley stoutly denied, and the queen, to leave no obscurity in the case, gave Murray a safe conduct for himself and eighty others, and ordered him to attend in her presence and produce his proofs. She declared that such a thing as enforcement of the religion or consciences of her subjects had never entered her mind, and she called on her loyal subjects to hasten to her defence. This call was promptly and widely responded to, and Mary, finding herself now in security, declared the choice of Darnley as her husband, created him Duke of Albany, and married him openly, in the chapel of Holyrood. He was by proclamation declared king during the time of their marriage, and all writs were ordered to run in the joint names of Henry and Mary, King and Queen of Scotland. Elizabeth, meantime, had complied with the demands of the Scottish lords; sent off money, appointed Bedford and Shrewsbury her lieutenants in the north, and rainforced the garrison of Berwick with 2,000 men. Finding, however, that the call of Mary on her subjects had brought out such a force around her as would require still more money and men to cope with it, she dispatched Tamworth, a creature of Leicester's, to Scotland, to deter Mary by menaces and reproaches. It was too late; and Mary, assuming the attitude of a justly incensed monarch, compelled the ambassador to deliver his charge in writing, and answered it in the same manner, requesting Elizabeth to content herself with the government of her own kingdom, and not to interfere in the concerns of monarchs as inde pendent as herself. When Tamworth took leave, the passport given him bearing the joint names of the kin and queen, he refused it, out of fear of his imperus mistress, for which Mary ordered him to be appre hended on the road by Lord Home as a vagrant, and detained a couple of days; and on Randolph remo strating, she informed him that unless he ceased intrigue with her subjects, she would treat him the same. This bold rebuff given to the meddling Queen of Erzland, and the demonstration of affection on the part of the people, confounded the disaffected lords; they retin with their forces, some towards Ayr, some towards Argy shire. Henry and Mary pursued the latter divis which, by a rapid march, gained Edinburgh; but rece ing no encouragement there, and the king and que approaching, they fled towards Dumfries. Mary in i campaign appeared on horseback in light armour, w pistols at her belt, and at once greatly encouraged her courage and devotion, her followers, and astonis her enemies. As she drew near Dumfries the rebel arut disbanded, and Murray and his associates fled to Caris where Bedford received and protected them. The traitors, being in the pay, and having acted u the encouragement of Elizabeth, hastened up to Lor to seek refuge and fresh supplies at her Court. I. Elizabeth, who had brought herself into ill odour clandestinely fomenting and assisting the rebellious. jects of both Scotland and France, now looked asiato. = them, and would not admit them to her presence unless they would free her from all blame, by confessing before the French and Spanish ambassadors that she had had nothing to do with their rising. As they knew that this was to mystify the continental Courts, they consented, but they little anticipated the result. Murray, the Duke of Hamilton, and the Lord Abbot of Kilwinning being admitted, on their knees declared that the queen had no part in the conspiracy, which was entirely of their own concocting and executing. "Now," exclaimed this truthless queen, “ye have spoken the truth; get from my presence, traitors as ye are!" The confounded men were driven from her presence; and, assuming a lofty and dignified air, according to her true servant Cecil, she declared roundly that "whatever the world said or reported of her, she would by her actions let it appear that she would not for the price of the world maintain any subject in any disobedience against any prince. For, besides the offence of her conscience, which should justly condemn her, she knew that Almighty God might justly recompense her with the like trouble in her own realm." The crest-fallen Scottish lords retired to the north, where Elizabeth suffered them to hide their dishonoured heads, supplying them, however, with the necessary means of existence. Mary summoned them to surrender, but failing to do so, she proclaimed them rebels. Randolph, who ought long ago to have been ordered out of Scotland, still remained there, and to console the queen his mistress for her defeat, he regaled her ear with the most abominable scandals against Mary that he could rake together or invent. Amongst others he did not fail to insinuate that Murray was become her enemy, on account of an incestuous passion which she had entertained for him, and the knowledge of which she would now fain extinguish by his murder. This atrocious calumny, which her very worst enemies could not believe, is one of many such still to be seen in his letters to Leicester, and Raumer, the Prussian historian, has stated it as a fact. Mary, on her part, displayed a spirit of forgiveness equally surprising. She had called a Parliament for the purpose of attainting the rebel lords and confiscating their estates, but no sooner did Chatelherault and her traitor brother, Murray, exhibit assumed symptoms of repentance, than she discovered a disposition to pardon them, and would probably have done it, but for the persuasions of her uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, and the fanatic fury of the mob, who insulted the priests, disturbed her at mass in her own chapel, and at the preceding Easter had dragged out a priest in his robes, with the chalice in his hand, and bound him to the market-cross of Edinburgh, where they pelted him with mud and rotten eggs. These, in an evil hour, led her to join the great Popish league of France and Spain, by which she hoped to gain the support of the monarchs of these countries against England and her own intolerant people. By this illadvised step she only roused the religious zeal of her Protestant subjects to a formidable height, and increased the power of Elizabeth to wound her, whilst she gained Lo support whatever from the cruel bigots who, by their Payonne alliance, covered their names with infamy and horror. CHAPTER XIV. 429 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH (Continued). The Murder of Rizzio-Birth of James, afterwards the First of England -Another Petition to Elizabeth to marry-Her Mysterious Answer -The Murder of Darnley-Trial of Bothwell-Marriage of Mary to Bothwell-Indignation of the People-Attempt to seize Mary and Bothwell at Borthwick Castle-Affair of Carberry Hill-Mary taken Captive, and imprisoned at Lochleven-Compelled to resign the Crown-Her Son proclaimed King-Murray made RegentBothwell escapes to Norway-Mary's Escape from LochlevenDefeated at Langside-Flees into England-Her Reception there. THE Queen of Scots, victorious by arms over her enemies, determined to call together a Parliament, and there to procure the forfeiture of Murray and his adherents. This threw the rebel lords into the utmost consternation; for, in the then temper of the nation at large, the measure would have been passed, and they would have been stripped of their estates and entirely crushed. To prevent this catastrophe no time was lost. It was actively spread amongst the people that Mary, having signed the league, it was the intention, through the Kings of France and Spain, to put down the Reformation in Scotland. It was represented that David Rizzio, a Milanese, who was become Mary's secretary for the French language, was the agent of the league and a pensioner of Rome, and that it was necessary to have him removed. This Rizzio had come into the kingdom in the train of Moret, the Savoy ambassador; and, according to Melville, was at first content with being made a singer in the queen's band; but this fact Chalmers, by examining the treasurer's accounts, and tracing Rizzio's progress from the first, denies. Whatever was his original station, however, he soon rose to that of Mary's secretary, and to the possession of her confidence. Nor was this at all extraordinary, for Mary felt that she was surrounded by traitors and enemies. The violence and intolerance of the reform nobles had driven her into the league, and Rizzio, as a strict Papist, supported all her views. Besides himself, there were also his brother Joseph Rizzio, and one Francisco, Italians, and other foreigners, in the queen's service. Rizzio strongly urged the queen to call the Parliament, and thus to crush her turbulent and insolent enemies, and unless he could be got out of the way that would inevitably take place, and the ruin of Murray, Morton, and the rest be certainly ensured. Unfortunately for Rizzio, he had incurred the hatred, not only of these Protestant lords, but of Darnley, the queen's husband. That young man had soon displayed a character which could bring nothing but misery to the queen. He was a man of shallow intellect but of violent passions, and, as is usually the case with such persons, of a will as strong as his judgment was weak. He was ambitious of the chief power, and sullenly resentful because it was denied. Mary, who was of a warm and impulsive temperament, in the ardour of her first affection, had promised Darnley the crown matrimonial, which would have invested him with an equal share of the Royal authority; but soon unhappily perceiving that she had lavished her regard on a weak, headstrong, and dissipated person, she refused to comply, fully assured of the mischiefs which such power in his hands would produce. Darnley resented this denial violently. He reproached the queen with her insincerity in most intemperate language; treated her in public with scandalous disrespect; abandoned her society for the lowest and worst company, and threw himself into the hands of his enemies, who soon made him their tool. They persuaded him that Rizzio, who, in his quarrels with the queen, always took her part, and who, as the keeper of the privy purse, was obliged to resist his extravagant demands upon it, was not only the enemy of the nation, the spy and paid agent of foreign princes, but was the queen's paramour, and the author of the resolve to keep him out of all real power. The scheme took all the effect that was desired. Darnley became jealous and furious for revenge. His father, the Earl of Lennox, joined him in his suspicions, and it was resolved to put Rizzio out of the way. Darnley, in his blind fury, sent for Lord Ruthven, imploring him to come to him on a matter of life and death. Ruthven was confined to his bed by a severe illness, yet he consented to engage in the conspiracy for the murder of Rizzio, on condition that Darnley should engage to prevent the meeting of Parliament, and to procure the return of Murray and the rebel chiefs. Darnley was in a mood ready to grant anything for the gratification of his resentment against Rizzio; he agreed to everything: a league was entered into, a new covenant sworn, the objects of which were the murder of Rizzio, the prevention of the assembling of Parliament, and the return of Murray and his adherents. Randolph, the English ambassador, now banished from Scotland for his traitorous collusion with the insurgents, yet had gone no further than Berwick, where he was made fully acquainted with the plot, and communicated it immediately to Leicester in a letter, dated February 13th, 1566, which yet remains. assured him that the murder of Rizzio would be accomplished within ten days; that the crown would be torn from Mary's dishonoured head, and that matters of a still darker nature were meditated against her person which he dared not yet allude to. He of the queen. This was signed by Darnley, Morton, a:.] Ruthven. The second covenant, also still preserved, promised to support Darnley in this and all his just quarrels, to be friends of his friends, enemies of his enemies, to give him the crown matrimonial, to maintain the Protestant religion, on condition that the king pardoned Murray and his associates, and restored their lands and dignities. This wa signed by Darnley, Murray, Argyll, Glenclairn, Rothes, Boyd, Ochiltree, and their "complices." All this was duly communicated to Elizabeth and her ministers, Cecil and Leicester, by letters still extant, from Randolph and the Earl of Bedford, the lieutenant of the north, to both Elizabeth and Cecil; and they add that they have engaged that the particulars shall be communicated to none but the queen, Cecil, and Leicester. Thus we see that Elizabeth was made fully cognisant of all these diabolical designs, and the names of all the leading men engaged in them. In the letter of the 6th of March, 1566, from Berwick, signed by Hertford and Randolph, we learn that Randolph had taken copies of th secret bonds or covenants entered into by the conspirators, and forwarded them to the queen and her confidentia ministers. She knew, therefore, that Rizzio was to be murdered before the meeting of Parliament, that the queen was to be seized, stripped of her crown, imprisonel, and that other designs too dark to mention were meitated against her person. Murray and the rebels, wh she had so indignantly reprimanded in public, were to be restored to power; and all this was menaced against a queen whom she was calling sister, for whom she was pro fessing great regard, and with whom she was in profetza peace and alliance. What did she do at this startling crisis? We prefer using the words of a distinguished historian to our own Mr. Tyler says, 66 'She knew all that was about to occa the life of Riccio, the liberty, perhaps, too, the life of Mary was in her power; Moray was at her court; the cospirators were at her devotion; they had given the fallet information to Randolph, that he might consult the que She might have imprisoned Moray, discomfited the plane the conspirators, saved the life of the miserable vi who was marked for slaughter, and preserved Mary, whom she professed a warm attachment, from captiv: All this might have been done, perhaps it is not t much to say, that even in those dark times, it was have been done by a monarch acutely alive to 2 common feelings of humanity. But Elizabeth adop a very different course; she not only allowed Moray leave her realm, she dismissed him with the marks the highest confidence and distinction; and this u when ready to sail for Scotland, to take his part in th dark transactions which soon followed, sent his secretary Wood, to acquaint Cecil with the most secret intenti of the conspirators." Amongst the nobles who had fully participated in the rebellion against their queen, but who had had the cunning to keep their treason concealed, were Morton, Ruthven, Lindsay, and Maitland. These men now worked diligently to organise the conspiracy. They communicated the plot to Knox and Craig, as the head of the clergy, who came fully into the design, as did Bellenden, the justice-clerk, Makgill, the clerk-register, the Lairds of Brunston, Calder, and Ormiston. Morton assured them that the only means of establishing the Reformation was to prevent the meeting of Parliament, by the murder of Rizzio and the interposition of the king, the imprisonment of the queen, the investment of Darnley with the regal authority, and of Murray with the conduct of the Government; and the whole was readily accepted by both the ministers of State and the ministers of religion as a thing perfectly justifiable. To communicate with Murray and the other refugees in England, Lennox, the father of Darnley, set out thither; and the result was two bonds or covenants, into which the conspirators entered. The first still preserved in the Mary was not without some warnings of what v British Museum-ran in the name of the king. In it he being prepared, but she could not be made sensible of solemnly swore to seize certain ungodly persons, who danger, neither could Rizzio; for Damiot, an astrol y abused the queen's good nature, and especially an Italian whom he was in the habit of consulting, bade him be stranger called David; and on any resistance "to cut of the bastard. The obscurity attending all such ora::* them off immediately, and slay them, wherever it hap-led Rizzio to believe that Damiot alluded to Murray, and pened," and to defend and uphold his associates in this Rizzio laughed at any danger from him, a banished nar enterprise, even if carried into effect in the very presence but we shall see that he received his first wound tra A.D. 1566.] MURDER OF RIZZIO. 431 another bastard, George Douglas, the natural son of the the people, and assure them that both the queen and Earl of Angus. himself were safe, and commanding them to retire in peace, which they did. On the 3rd of March Parliament was opened, and a statute of treason and of forfeiture against Murray and his accomplices was immediately introduced on the Thursday, which was to be passed on the following Tuesday. But on the Saturday evening, the queen, sitting at supper in a small closet adjoining her chamber, attended by her natural sister, the Countess of Argyll, the Commendator of Holyrood, Beaton, Master of the Household, Arthur Erskine, captain of the guard, and her secretary, Rizzio, was surprised by the apparition of Darnley suddenly putting aside the arras which concealed the door, and standing for a moment gloomily surveying the group. Behind him came a still more startling figure; it was that of Ruthven, in complete armour, just come from his sick bed, and with a face pale and ghastly as that of a ghost. Mary, who was seven months gone with child, started up at this terrible sight, and commanded Ruthven to be gone; but at this moment Darnley put his arm round her waist as to detain her, and other conspirators entered, one after another, with naked weapons, into the room. Ruthven drew his dagger, and crying that their business was with Rizzio, endeavoured to seize him. But Rizzio, rushing to his mistress, seized the skirt of her robe, and shouted, "Giustizia! giustizia! sauve ma vie-Madame, sauve ma vie!" Darnley forced himself betwixt the queen and Rizzio, to separate them from one another, and probably the intention was to drag him out of her presence, and dispatch him. But George Douglas, the bastard, in his impetuosity, drove his dagger into the back of Rizzio over the queen's shoulder, and the rest of the conspiratorsMorton, Car of Faudonside, and others-dragged him out to the entrance of the presence-chamber, where, in their murderous fury, they stabbed him with fifty-six wounds, with such blind rage that they wounded one another, and left Darnley's dagger sticking in the body as an evidence of his participation in the deed. This done, the hideous Ruthven, exhausted with the excitement, staggered into the presence of the shrieking queen, and, sinking upon a seat, demanded a cup of wine. Mary upbraided him with his brutality; but he coolly assured her that it was all done at the command of her husband and king. At that moment one of her ladies rushed in crying that they had killed Rizzio. "And is it so ?" said Mary; "then farewell tears, we must now study revenge." The queen remained in the most frightful condition, and the only wonder is that in her situation the consequences were not fatal to both herself and child. She became delirious, and cried out ever and anon that Ruthven was coming to murder her. As miscarriage was imminent, even the foolish and contemptible Darnley was at last moved, and her women were admitted to attend on and soothe her. In the morning her base brother, Murray, with Rothes, Ochiltree, and others of the banished lords, rode into the capital, and thence directly to the palace. So little was the unfortunate queen aware of the extent of the villany surrounding her that, on seeing Murray, she threw herself into his arms, and, bursting into tears, exclaimed, "If my brother had been here he would never have suffered me to have been thus cruelly handled." The wretch either felt or feigned a momentary compassion; but, if real, it was but like a passing flash, for he went from her direct to the meeting of the conspirators, where it was determined to shut Mary up in Stirling Castle, to confer the crown on Darnley, and establish the Protestant religion, with death or imprisonment to all dissentients. But Mary was not long left alone with Darnley, before she convinced him of the dupe he had made of himself. She asked him whether he was so mad as to expect that after they had secured her, after they had imperilled the life of his child, they would spare him? and she bade him look at their conduct now, where they usurped all authority and did not even allow him to send his own servants to her. Darnley became thoroughly alarmed; he vowed he had had no hand in the conspiracy, and offered to call the conspirators into her presence, and declare that the queen was ready to pardon them, on condition that they withdrew their guards, replaced her own servants, and treated her as their true queen. The noble traitors were this time over-reached in their turn; probably trembling for the consequences of their daring conduct, on seeing Darnley and the queen reconciled, they consented, and in the night the queen and Darnley mounted fleet horses and fled to Dunbar. The consternation of the murderers in the morning may be imagined. The outraged and insulted queen had escaped their hands, and the news came flying that already the nobles and the people were hurrying from all sides to her standard. Huntley, Atholl, Bothwell, and whole crowds of barons and gentlemen flew to her, and at Dunbar a numerous army stood as by magic ready to march on the traitors and execute the vengeance due. They fled. Morton, Ruthven the grisly, pale-faced assassin—Brunston, and Car of Faudonside escaped to England. Maitland of Lethington betook himself to the hills of Atholl, and Craig, the colleague of Knox, dived into the darksome It was about seven in the evening when this savage murder was perpetrated. The palace was beset by troops under the command of Morton. There was no means of rousing the city, the queen was kept close prisoner in her chamber, whilst the king, assuming the sole authority, issued letters commanding the three estates to quit the capital within three hours, on pain of treason, whilst Morton with his guards was ordered to allow no one to leave the palace. Notwithstanding this, Huntley, Both-recesses of the city wynds. well, Sir James Balfour, and James Melville made their Mary, once more free, resumed all the decision of her escape in the darkness and confusion; and as Melville character. But she had a difficult part to play. Willing passed under the queen's window, she suddenly threw up to think the best, and only too prone to forgive, she yet the sash, and entreated him to give the alarm to the must have seen enough to shake her faith in all around city. Her ruffianly guards immediately seized her, and her. Darnley, spite of his protestation, had appeared dragged her back, swearing they would cut her to simultaneously with the assassins, and what had been pieces; and Darnley was pushed forward to harangue the real conduct of Murray? Besides the doubts which |