6 to that in which she was proceeding, " deceitfully assuring her that she was in imminent danger,' and beseeching her to allow him to provide for her personal safety by conducting her to one of his castles.'" 1 Without the slightest consideration for the personal fatigue of his royal victim, who had been suffering so recently from a severe and alarming attack of illness the preceding day, on her journey from Stirling to Linlithgow, Bothwell hurried the captive Queen the same night to Dunbar, a weary distance of twenty miles, she having already ridden from Linlithgow nearly to the gates of Edinburgh. to On arriving at Dunbar, Bothwell dismissed his band with many thanks, and promises of grateful remembrance of the service they had rendered him, and requested them " hold themselves in readiness till he should send for them again, which he thought would be soon."2 Captain Blackadder, one of his followers, told Sir James Melville "that what had been done was with the Queen's consent;" but this proves nothing but that Bothwell, who had no wish to incur the pains and penalties of treason for his audacious capture and detention of his Sovereign, was desirous of having it so believed. He could not, however, refrain from boasting "that he would marry the Queen, who would or who would not—yea, whether she would herself or not.” 3 He was in a position, unfortunately for her, to make his bravado good. Meantime, the startling outcry that "the Queen's Highness had been treasonably ombeset 4 by the Earl of Bothwell and his military force, obstructed in her purpose of entering her own metropolis, and carried away with her Lord-Chancellor, Secretary of State, and Vice-Chamberlain, captive towards Dunbar,"5 created great excitement in the good town of Edinburgh. The common bell rang out 1" An Appeal to all Christian Princes in behalf of the Queen of Scotland"-Contemporary Italian Document in the Archives of the House of 2 Drury to Cecil-State Paper MS. See p. 336, note. Medici. 3 Sir James Melville's Memoirs. its clamorous tocsin, and her valiantly disposed citizens flew to arm themselves for her rescue. But their loyal purpose was prevented by the Provost and his fellow-traitors, for the gates were instantly shut, and the Castle guns pointed;1 while the generous ardour of her champions was artfully checked by the base insinuation " that what had been done was with her Highness's own consent, for that she was more familiar with the Earl of Bothwell than stood with her honour."2 Thus was the unfortunate Mary deprived of the timely succour that might have averted the horror of her impending fate. 1 Diurnal of Occurrents. 2 Ibid. MARY STUART CHAPTER XXXIV. SUMMARY Queen Mary's detention by Bothwell at Dunbar Castle-Her utter helplessness-Lawless proceedings of Bothwell-He carries the Queen to Edinburgh-Compels her to go with him to the Castle-His collusive divorce from Lady Bothwell-He orders Craig to proclaim banns of marriage between the Queen and him-Craig refuses to do so without her warrant-Accuses Bothwell of coercing her- Queen signs the warrant-Banns published in St Giles's Church with protest-Nobles sign a second bond pledging themselves to accomplish Queen Mary's marriage with Bothwell-Her spirit succumbs-She condones his offences-Creates him Duke of Orkney-Signs a contract of marriagePardons her nobles for signing the bond-Is married to Bothwell by Protestant rites without the mass-Compulsory nature of the marriage -Queen continues to wear her dule-weeds-Her despair-Threatens to destroy herself-Bothwell carries her into public-His brutal tyrannyProgress of the conspiracy against her-Complicity of the English government-Queen Mary carried by Bothwell to Borthwick Castle-Castle beleaguered by the rebel Lords-Bothwell absconds-Queen resumes her regal character-She is personally insulted by some of the rebelsHer proclamation-Treachery of Sir James Balfour-Her midnight escape from Borthwick Castle-Loses her way-Is encountered by Bothwell and his servants-He carries her with him to Dunbar. THE events of that painful epoch of Mary Stuart's personal history-her ten days' detention at Dunbar Castle-must be passed briefly over. The ruffian who had hurried her away to that almost impregnable fortress, without permitting so much as one of her ladies to accompany her, placed his own sister, the widow of the Lord John of Coldingham, about her person; thus was she devoid of female society or attendance, save those who were entirely at his devotion. To the eternal disgrace of her nobles be it recorded, no effort was made by them for the enfranchisement of their liege lady; nor so much as a remonstrance offered to Bothwell on the subject of her detention, neither was there a single appeal addressed to her people urging them to take up arms for her rescue from the power of that audacious traitor. On the contrary, those who had been his accomplices in the murder of her consort, took the greatest pains to confirm his impudent assertion that she was his voluntary companion at Dunbar Castle. For the twofold purpose of convincing the Queen of the hopelessness of her position, and at the same time to give a plausible colour to his assertion that all he did was by her consent, Bothwell daringly assembled such of his confederates in her Cabinet and Council as he could rely on in a chamber at Dunbar Castle, where they agreed on an act of small importance, and entered their proceedings in the books of the Privy Council as a sederunt,1 a trick that was easily arranged by the traitor Secretary of State, Lethington. It was said that the banns of marriage between the Queen and Bothwell had been proclaimed in Oldhamstocks church by Parson Hepburn, one of Bothwell's vassal kinsmen ;2 many other reports, equally devoid of truth and probability, were industriously circulated both in Scotland and England. The person whose pen was most actively employed in the defamation of his hapless Sovereign was Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, who, as the secret-service-man of England,3 and a member of the confederacy against Queen Mary, framed his letters to the Earl of Bedford for the purpose of misrepresenting her and furnishing pretexts to Queen Elizabeth for sending an invading army into Scotland, once more to lacerate the bosom of his native land. The following is a sample of his treason: "This Queen will never cease unto such time as she have wrecked all the honest men of this realm. She was minded to cause Bothwell to ravish her [carry her away], to the end that she may the sooner end the 1 Bell's Life of Mary Queen of Scots, p. 97. 2 Drury to Cecil-Border Correspondence. 3 Drury to Cecil in April and May 1567-Border Correspondence. marriage which she promised before she caused Bothwell murder her husband. There is many that would avenge the murder, but they fear your mistress. I am so suited to for to enterprise the revenge, that I must either take it in hand or maun leave the country. She minds hereafter to take the Prince out of the Earl of Mar's hands, and put him in his hands that murdered his father, as I writ in my last. I pray your lordship let me know what your mistress will do."1 He intimates in the conclusion that France was ready to take part with the confederate traitors against Mary, if England refused to do so. This letter is dated April 26, two days after the abduction of the Queen by Bothwell. That great criminal was permitted, meantime, to retain undisputed possession of his prey; suffice it to add that the lawless ruffian scrupled not to inflict on his royal captive the greatest outrage that can be offered to woman. The fact continues to be matter of controversy among historians, yet no circumstance in history was ever verified by so important a weight of evidence;2 for it was attested in bonds of association, both private and public, in records of Council, and, above all, certified by the voice of the Three Estates of Scotland assembled in Parliament--not by Mary, but the shameless traitors who deprived her of her throne and liberty, under the flimsy pretence that she was the instigator of Bothwell's crimes. Yet the documents which contain her full acquittal were framed by themselves in language the most positive and explicit, and were published, with sound of trumpets, by the heralds at the Market Cross of Edinburgh from time to time, within the first seven months after the offences were perpetrated by Bothwell, and while the facts were fresh in the minds of men. All the vituperative declamations that were fulminated against her from the pulpits; all the forgeries and fictions that were subsequently devised for the purpose of defaming her, cannot obliterate from the Acts of the first Parliament of James VI. the declaration, that Queen Mary's abduction by Bothwell was forcible, her imprisonment and ruffianly treatment by him at Dunbar . 1 Letter from Laird of Grange to the Earl of Bedford-State Paper MS. 2 Proclamation of Lords of Secret Council against Bothwell, Anderson's Collections; Letter to Throckmorton, July 20, 1567, in Stevenson's Illustrations; Maitland Miscellany; Act for Bothwell's forfeiture of the Lords in Moray's first Parliament, Dec. 20, 1567. |