Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/442

428 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 reinforced 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 independent as herself. When Tamworth took leave, the passport given him bearing the joint names of the king and queen, he refused it, out of fear of his imperious mistress, for which Mary ordered him to be apprehended on the road by Lord Home as a vagrant, and detained a couple of days; and on Randolph remonstrating, she informed him that unless he ceased to intrigue with her subjects, she would treat him the same.

This bold rebuff given to the meddling Queen of England, and the demonstration of affection on the part of the people, confounded the disaffected lords; they retired with their forces, some towards Ayr, some towards Argyllshire. Henry and Mary pursued the latter division, which, by a rapid march, gained Edinburgh; but receiving no encouragement there, and the king and queen approaching, they fled towards Dumfries. Mary in this campaign appeared on horseback in light armour, with pistols at her belt, and at once greatly encouraged, by her courage and devotion, her followers, and astonished her enemies. As she drew near Dumfries the rebel army disbanded, and Murray and his associates fled to Carlisle, where Bedford received and protected them.

The traitors, being in the pay, and having acted under the encouragement of Elizabeth, hastened up to London to seek refuge and fresh supplies at her Court. But Elizabeth, who had brought herself into ill odour by clandestinely fomenting and assisting the rebellious subjects of both Scotland and France, now looked askance on