of strange and startling import to Mary occurred in the

interim.

The object of Moretta's visit-to outward appearance, the performance of the empty ceremony of offering a polite excuse on the part of the Duke of Savoy for his non-attendance at the baptism of Mary's infant son-involved more than met the public eye. It was in reality a secret Papal mission from all the Roman Catholic powers and principalities in Europe, of whom the Duke of Savoy was one of the most zealous agents, urging her to join their combination for the suppression of heresy, and to stand forth as the ostensible head of the Roman Catholic party in Britain. If Mary could have been induced to do this, the flames of a religious war would immediately have been kindled in England, Scotland, and Ireland. She and Darnley would have been proclaimed joint-Sovereigns of Great Britain by their united partisans, involving at least a third of the people of England, and an overwhelming majority in Ireland. Money and troops would have been sent to her assistance from Spain, and she would have been placed in a position to contest with Elizabeth the possession of the throne, to which her reversionary claims were as yet unrecognised. It was this position Darnley desired her to assume. Mary had seen enough of the horrors of the religious struggle in France to deter her from disturbing the congregational worship of Scotland; all she desired was, toleration for herself and her Roman Catholic subjects; or, to use her own words, " that all men might be permitted to serve God according to their own consciences "1 a sentiment too enlightened for the age, and scarcely more agreeable to the persecuted than to the persecutors.

Darnley, after playing fast and loose with the Protestant party in Scotland-silencing Knox, burning the Psalmbook, and threatening the lives of the political leaders of that powerful body-when he cut the connection with them for ever, had identified his cause with the Church in which he had been nurtured, and determined to go all lengths for her re-establishment both in England and Scotland. He was in correspondence with the Pope, and the Pope had

1 Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland.

sent him money,1 though, in consequence of the opposition of winds and waves, it had fallen into other hands; but the fact that it had been intended for him was a sufficient note of the estimation in which he was held at Rome. Everything might indeed be expected from his influence over the mind of the Queen if they became firmly reconciled, and he could be taught to regard their interests as inseparable, and indissolubly united with those of their Church.

1 Bannatyne's Memorials.

MARY STUART

CHAPTER XXIX.

SUMMARY

True date of Queen Mary's departure from Edinburgh verified-She goes to Glasgow to see Darnley-Met on the road by Lennox's man, Crawford-Crawford delivers his lord's message to the Queen-Her replyReconciliation between the Queen and Darnley-Their conversations -Darnley objects to go to Craigmillar Castle-Queen writes to Lethington to procure other lodgings-Glaring falsehoods in the forged letters -Darnley leaves Glasgow with her-Particulars of their journeyProvost's house at Kirk-of-Field chosen for Darnley's lodging by the conspirators in Mary's Cabinet-Salubrity of the situation-Queen brings Darnley there-False witness of Nelson about the beds-Inventory of some of the furniture in Darnley's chamber in the Provost's houseDescription of his bed-Queen's affectionate attention to Darnley-Their renewed regard for each other-Alarming hints of the Lord Robert Stuart to Darnley of the plot against his life-The Queen requires Lord Robert to explain his meaning-He denies having told Darnley-Their quarrel-Mutual violence-Proceedings of the conspirators-The Earl of Moray's astute policy-Day fixed for the murder of Darnley-Queen promises to give a masked ball at Holyrood in honour of Bastian and Margaret Carwood's nuptials-Her gifts to both.

QUEEN MARY remained in Edinburgh, according to the evidence of the regal records, transacting business, from Tuesday, January 14, 1566-7, till Friday, January 24.1 On the last-named day she signed a warrant appointing James Inglis tailor to the Prince her son; and a precept confirming a gift of lands in life-rent, to contribute to the weal and comfort of a newly-wedded pair, James Boyd of

1 Privy Council Record. Privy Seal Register. Registers of Signatures. Goodall. Chalmers.

VOL. V.

H

Trogrig, and Margaret Chalmer his bride ;1 incidents which might be deemed beneath the dignity of history to notice, if the dates of the contemporary records that attest them did not verify the fact that the Queen was in her own palace of Holyrood on the days when the first of the vile letters she is accused of writing to Bothwell from Glasgow is represented as commencing, continuing, and concludingthus combining, with other strong circumstances, to prove the spurious nature of the whole series, and with them to overthrow the structure of false witness of which they form the keystone.2 The precise date of Mary's departure from Edinburgh, and her subsequent arrival in Glasgow, have, it is true, been variously stated by contemporary authorities. Birrel's Diary, and the Diary of Occurrents, both give Jan. 20th as the day on which she left Edinburgh. Moray's journal says "the 21st, and that she arrived at Glasgow on the 23d."3 Sir William Drury, in a letter to Cecil, dated Jan. 23d, says "The Lord Darnley lieth sick of the smallpox at Glasgow, unto whom the Queen came yesterday;' but as Drury dates from Berwick, he could only speak from

1 Goodall, vol. i. p. 120-21. Chalmers.

2 Robertson, in a futile attempt to discredit the simple matter-of-fact evidence afforded by the dates of Mary's Privy Seal Registers, her Grants and Precepts, as to her whereabout, affirms "that he had discovered a grant to Archibald Edmonstone in the Register of Signatures, folio 16, purporting to be "subscribed by our Sovereigns the King and Queen at Edinburgh, Jan. 24, 1567;" and exultingly observes "that this might in like manner be alleged as a proof that Darnley was in Edinburgh as well as Mary on that day, when every one knows he was in his sick-bed at Glasgow." In a marginal note to his next page, however, he testifies to the existence of "a document to which Darnley's regal signature had been affixed by means of the facsimile stamp mentioned by Buchanan"-an expedient for executing papers requiring their joint signatures to which the Queen had been early compelled to have recourse, during Darnley's long and frequent absences from the post of duty, or all business must have stood still. "The stamp was always affixed in her presence," we are told, "after she had signed;" therefore the grant to Archibald Edmonstone, discovered by Robertson, affords an additional voucher that the Queen was in Edinburgh on the day specified. Robertson also notices that there are various papers bearing Queen Mary's signature, dated at Edinburgh, at the time she was detained by Bothwell at Dunbar; but this only indicates the fact that some of her Ministers were in the habit of forging her signature, and those who were able to achieve that feat possessed the power of imitating her handwriting for other purposes. But of course they would not have forged a profitable grant in favour of Margaret Chalmer and her husband, Margaret being one of the Queen's Roman Catholic clients. 3 Anderson's Collections.

4 State Paper Office MS., Border Correspondence.

report; and again he says, later in the same day-" Unto whom I hear the Queen intendeth to go, and bring him. away as soon as he can bear the cold air."1

A very considerable outlay in the article of gunpowder might have been spared, as well as the lives of three gentlemen, and two harmless boys, their servants, who perished in the house of Kirk-of-Field, and all the horrors and publicity attending a melodramatic murder, if Mary had been less anxious to preserve her sick husband from the inimical effects of that cold air, which, to a person in his circumstances, would have been no less formidable than the poniard of an assassin. Every one who understands the nature of the malady, and the severity of the climate of Edinburgh, must be aware that the premature removal of a Southron patient, newly convalesced of the small-pox, from the soft mild valley of Glasgow to the sharp temperature of a place situated like Edinburgh, would be at the imminent risk of life; and that if he were either lodged in the damp low palace of Holyrood, or on the bleak heights of the castled rock, when enveloped in its mid-winter mantle of chilling mists, a fatal inflammation of the lungs, windpipe, or throat, would be the probable result. But Mary, in order to avoid these dangers, had decided on not bringing her husband into Edinburgh till he should be sufficiently recovered to bear the cutting winds or the still more noxious fogs of Auld Reekie. She had caused the pleasant suite of apartments lately occupied by herself at Craigmillar Castle to be prepared for his reception, with baths, and every comfort requisite for him to go through the course of medicine which the physicians judged necessary for the purification of his system, after that loathsome cutaneous malady the small-pox. No place could be better chosen than Craigmillar Castle for such a purpose-quiet, cheerful, sunny, and salubrious in situation, sheltered from the bleak winds, the sea fogs, and the smoke of Edinburgh, and yet within sight and an easy distance of everything going on there. Such were the arrangements made by the Queen,

1 State Paper Office MS., Border Correspondence, quoted by Chalmers in his Memoir of Darnley. Life of the Scottish Queen.