Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/420

406 whilst tilting at the celebration of the festivities on the marriages of his daughter Isabella with Philip of Spain, and his sister Margaret with the Duke of Savoy, inflammation took place, and he died on the 10th of July, 1559. He was succeeded by his son as Francis II., and thus Mary Queen of Scots became the Queen of France.

Melville, on his return, found this change had taken place. The Guises were in the ascendant, and the most determined menaces of destruction to the Protestant party in Scotland prevailed at the French court. The Congregation was greatly alarmed at the rumours of French troops which were to be sent over. The leaders had retired to Stirling, where they entered into a new bond to receive no message from the regent—who sought to sow dissension amongst them—without communicating it to the whole body. Knox was dispatched to the borders to communicate with Sir James Crofts, the governor. The assistance which the Reformers claimed was extensive. They asked for money to pay a garrison for Stirling, which they engaged to seize. They called for reinforcements by sea to secure the safety of Perth and Dundee, and proposed that Broughty Craig should be fortified, the nobles of the neighbourhood offering to do the work so that they got the money. Knox had it in his instructions to urge the seizure of Eyemouth, and money to influence the Kers, the Homes, and other borderers. Money was wanted and troops too, ready to support the movements of the Congregation: in fact, the Scottish nobles were thirsting for the pay which they had enjoyed under Henry VIII. and Edward VI.; and, in return for what they called "this comfortable aid," they promised to enter into a strict league of alliance with Elizabeth, binding themselves to make her enemies their enemies, her friends their friends, and never to come to any accommodation with France without the consent of Elizabeth.

Knox and his companion, Alexander Whitelaw, did not go and return on this clandestine mission without incurring danger from the French, who attacked their escort at Dunbar; and they returned much disgusted with the cautious parsimony and double-faced conduct of the English queen, who, instead of furnishing the funds which they craved, accused the Congregation of lukewarmness in not more vigorously exerting themselves against the queen-regent, whilst she herself was making the most open professions of amity to that princess. Her policy is displayed in the instructions which she gave to Sir Ralph Sadler, whom she now sent as her agent to Scotland. He was to nourish the faction betwixt the Scotch and the French, so that the French should have less leisure to turn their attention to England; and he was to ascertain whether the Lord James really entertained designs against the crown.

This policy of Elizabeth's extremely chagrined the Reformers. The Lord James and the Earl of Argyll addressed letters to Sir James Crofts and to Cecil, in which they complained of the treatment shown them, and aspersions of indifference cast upon them. They even threw out mysterious threats if they were not succoured. They observed that the English Government recommended them to supply themselves out of the wealth of the churches and altars, but they replied that they had not the court with them in this matter, as England had had; but in one thing they had followed the advice of England: they had established a council, had endeavoured to bring over Chatelherault to their views, and only waited a good opportunity to depose the queen-regent, and to place the viceregal power in the hands of some chief of their own party.

Who this should be was an important question. There were three leaders who principally attracted the attention of England: Chatelherault, his son the Earl of Arran, and the Lord James. Chatelherault was a timid and undecided character; Arran was daring enough, for he aspired to the hand of Elizabeth, and was thought to be liberal and chivalric, but further experience proved him to be only rash, vain, and fickle. The man on whom the expectations of Elizabeth and her wary minister, Cecil, were fixed, was the Lord James, the natural brother of the Queen of Scots, and afterwards the noted regent Murray. He was yet not twenty-six, and devoted to the Congregation. He was of powerful mind, of inordinate ambition, and, as the way opened so brilliantly before him, it became obvious that no moral principle was likely to present any obstacle in his path to power. He had been educated in France for the Church, in a school where the most subtle and unscrupulous doctrines were taught as the real philosophy of life. Outwardly he had an honest, frank, and friendly air, covering a mind quick, penetrating, capable of seizing on the thoughts, and appropriating the plans and powers, of those around him. He had a fine person and air, a kingly presence, and his knowledge of continental politics gave him a superiority over all his countrymen. At the same time he was selfish, perfidious, and capable of the worst deeds to his nearest kindred, in the prosecution of his own advancement.

Such an instrument was precisely of the kind that the English queen and her minister desired. Cecil requested Sadler to ascertain whether the Lord James had an eye to the crown, and, if he had, to let Chatelherault take what course he pleased without troubling himself much about him. Meantime Knox wrote very plainly to Cecil, telling him that if the queen did not soon do something for the Scottish nobles, and that liberally, they would be very likely to accept the bribes which France was offering. He desired Cecil to speak out plainly, and let them know what they had to expect at once, adding that he marvelled that the queen did not write to them, as her noble father used to do to men fewer in number and of less power; alluding to those hired by him for the murder of Cardinal Beaton, a business which seemed to be approved by Knox.

This remonstrance produced the desired effect. Sadler was instructed to treat with the Scotch Reformers. A messenger from Knox assured him that if the queen would furnish money to pay a body of 1,500 arquebuses and 300 horse, they would soon expel the French from Scotland, and establish the English ascendancy there. Balnaves, a zealous adherent of the Congregation, and intimate friend of Knox, had a long private interview with Sadler, and assured him that the Reformers were resolved to make no further league with the queen-regent, but to depose her on the first opportunity, place the power in the hands of Chatelherault or Arran, and then make open treaty with England. Sadler was so satisfied with this prospect that he paid over to Balnaves £2,000 for the