Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/419

] The consequence of this was that a secret interview took place betwixt Kirkaldy and Percy, at Norham, in which assistance was promised to the Scotch Reformers by Elizabeth. The manner in which Elizabeth proposed to afford this aid was most mean and dishonourable. As a friend to the Reformation, nothing could have been more noble than to have openly and courageously owned that sympathy, and sought in a legitimate manner to influence the young Queen of Scotland to arrest the persecution of her subjects, and to allow them toleration of their religion. But nothing was further from Elizabeth's intention than this. She regarded Mary already with deep jealousy and resentment, on account of her claims on the succession to the English throne, aggravated by her having been induced to quarter the arms of England with those of Scotland. Her desire, therefore, was to weaken Mary in the affections of her subjects, and to create such troubles in Scotland as should not only prevent any attempt of Mary in England, but also afford herself opportunity of acquiring an ascendancy in Scotland. Elizabeth was bound by treaty to be at peace with both France and Scotland, yet she did not hesitate thus secretly to foment rebellion in the kingdom of the young and absent queen, to hold her subjects in her secret pay, at the same time that she professed to act uprightly and faithfully towards their Government, as by her treaty bound.

The parsimony of Elizabeth, however, and the caution of her minister Cecil, withheld all efficient aid from the Scottish Reformers at the time that it was most essential. Whilst the queen-regent delayed any active proceedings in the hope of the arrival of fresh troops from France, and the knowledge that the irregular army brought into the field by the Scottish barons could not long be kept together, Elizabeth deferred the promised subsidies. Mary of Guise, meantime, spread all kinds of reports to the disadvantage of the Covenanters, declaring that, under the guise of seeking freedom of conscience, they were conspiring to overturn the Government of the country. She caused a proclamation to be issued in the name of the young king and queen, charging the Reformers with having stolen the irons of the Mint, and of maintaining a correspondence with England—a charge only too true. She asserted that she had already offered to call a Parliament, in which everything should be satisfactorily settled, and full religious liberty conceded.

These acts had their effect. Many of the reform party, in a letter to the queen, repudiated every idea of rebellion; others drew off from the army, and the Duke of Chatelherault abandoned the Congregation. In this predicament, the Lords of the Congregation made still more impassioned appeals to Cecil, and Knox wrote to him entreating him to abate the prejudice of Elizabeth towards him. But that prejudice was of the most bitter and unconquerable kind in the heart of Elizabeth. She regarded Knox with the fiercest aversion, and swore that he should never set foot in her kingdom. He had sought through Cecil to obtain from her permission to pass through England on his way from Geneva, but received the most angry denial. Knox had perpetrated the unpardonable offence to Elizabeth in writing his "First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women," wherein, aiming a blow at his own Queen Mary, he had hit more mortally the proud Queen of England. It was in vain that Knox now attempted to correct this error. He declared that, "though he still adhered to the propositions he had set forth in his book, he never meant to apply them in her case, whose whole life had been a miracle, God having by an extraordinary dispensation of his mercy made lawful to her that which both nature and God's law denied to other women, and that no one in England would be more willing to maintain her lawful authority than himself." He prayed that he might be permitted to come into England to plead the cause of the religion of his country. But such was the detestation with which the English queen regarded him, that he might have been thankful that she did not allow him to go there, or she would probably have served him worse than she did afterwards the Scottish queen.

Disappointed in his attempt, Knox did not fail, impolitic as it was, to give the proud queen a taste of his quality. He called her "an infirm vessel," and warned her that, if "she persisted in her pride and foolish presumption, she would not long escape punishment." He was equally outspoken to Cecil, from whom he hoped to obtain assistance for his cause; reminding him of his backsliding in the days of bloody Mary, when "he had followed the world in the way of perdition, to the suppressing of Christ's true evangel, to the erecting of idolatry, and to the shedding of the blood of God's most dear children, to which he had by silence consented and subscribed."

No aid coming soon from Elizabeth, the Reformers were compelled to come to terms with the queen-regent. They agreed to evacuate the town, restore the coining irons of the Mint, and refrain from any attacks on churches and religious houses, or molestation of churchmen. On the other hand, the queen agreed to give full freedom of faith and speech, and to admit neither a French nor Scotch garrison to the town. The conditions were signed by the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earl of Huntley, and D'Oyselles, to whom the negotiation was entrusted. The Reformers, before quitting the place, issued a proclamation, in which they made a false representation of the treaty, giving at length a statement of the privileges conceded, but concealing the conditions by which they had bound themselves to make no aggressions on the opposite party.

Neither party was honest in its professions. The queen-regent was looking daily for succour from France, the Reformers for support from England; and either party would, no doubt, have broken the contract with little ceremony had it found itself in a condition to dictate to the other. Sir James Melville had arrived from France during these late transactions on a private mission to ascertain the actual state of parties, and particularly whether the Lord James had any design of seizing the crown, as the queen-regent had represented. Melville interrogated Murray himself, and, professing himself satisfied with his denial, returned through England.

At this juncture died Henry II. of France. He had been in low spirits since the signing of the treaty of Cateau Cambresis; and receiving a wound in the eye