Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/466

452 forts and protect the king? When this is in hand we shall think her sincere; but for her charge to set our sovereign forthwith at liberty, and to restore her to her dignity, it is enough to reply to such strange language, that we are the subjects of another prince, and know not the queen's majesty for our sovereign."

Throckmorton, after listening to this new language, turned to Murray, and said that he trusted that such sentiments did not meet his approval; that he was not "banded" with these lords, nor had joined in their excesses. But Murray very soon undeceived him, by indorsing all that had been said, and declaring that, being made regent, he would reduce all men to obedience in the king's name, or that it should cost him his life.

Throckmorton at once informed Elizabeth that his stay there was now useless, and obtained his recall. On taking his leave he requested an interview with Mary, which, as he expected, was refused; but a piece of plate was pressed on his acceptance in the name of the king, which he declined with very decided expressions, and quitted the capital for England on the 29th of August.

Murray now endeavoured to strengthen himself in his government with much vigour. Bothwell was still at large, capable any day of exposing the Council's participation in Darnley's murder; there were the actual perpetrators also at liberty, and in danger of divulging too much; there were castles and forts in the hands of the queen's party. In the first place he dispatched Grange and Tullibardine with three armed vessels in quest of Bothwell. This desperado had been suffered quietly to retire to his castle of Dunbar. Thence he passed by water into Morayshire, where he remained some time, consulting with the friends of Mary on the possibility of rescuing her, and next sought shelter in the Orkneys, where his nominal subjects refused to receive him. On this he took to the sea with a band of pirates, and vowed to scour the ocean with a blood-red flag. In this course he was overtaken by the ships of Orange and Tullibardine; and, in endeavouring to escape from them, was driven by a tempest on the coast of Norway. On being discovered, Frederick the king refused to see him, and sent him prisoner to the castle of Malmo, in Schonen. Thence, at different times, he addressed the king in vindication of his conduct, and made him an offer of the Orkneys and Shetland Islands, to be annexed to the Crown of Denmark and Norway, on condition that he should fit out an expedition for the liberation of the Queen of Scots. The offer was declined, and Bothwell lingered in prison till 1576, when he died. Both Murray and Lennox, during his short regency, claimed Bothwell of the King of Denmark, but he refused to give him up; and on his death-bed he is said to have confessed that Murray, Morton, and himself perpetrated the murder of Darnley, but that Mary was perfectly innocent of it. Mary, whilst in captivity in England, endeavoured to get a copy of this confession, or testament as it is called: Elizabeth was said to have received a copy, but suppressed it, as it exculpated Mary; and another was said to have found its way to the Court of Scotland, and was afterwards published by Keith, but deserves no credit.

Murray next made a bargain with Sir James Balfour, who held the castle of Edinburgh, for its surrender. Balfour was the intimate friend of Bothwell, and one of the most notorious of the murderers of the king: but this did not prevent Murray from giving him both immunity and reward on condition of his yielding the castle. The villain bargained for a sum of £5,000 paid down, a full indemnity for his share in the murder, the priory of Pittenweem for himself, and an annuity to his son. Murray gave all these without hesitation, showing that, notwithstanding his declaration of his resolve to punish the murderers of the king, he cared only for his own advantage. In two days after obtaining the regency he was in possession of the castle.

But whilst he thus let the chief actors escape, he determined to be rid of the inferior ones. Captain Blackadder, we have seen, was already executed; he now arrested John Hay of Tollo, Durham, a page of the king, black John Spens, John Blackadder, and James Edmonson. But no sooner did he attempt to proceed with the trial of these men, than Hay began to open up such a scene of villany, and to implicate so many in high places, that the trials were postponed, and the parties kept close in prison.

Murray now proceeded to summon the castle of Dunbar, still held for Bothwell, to suppress some disturbance of the Hamiltons, and on the 15th of September announced to Cecil that the whole kingdom was quiet. On the 15th of December he summoned a Parliament, which sanctioned the transfer of the Crown, and the appointment of the regency, declared the Protestant religion the religion of the State, but refused to restore to the clergy the property of the Church as had been promised. The imprisonment of the queen was confirmed, and a bill was passed exonerating all the lords who had risen to prosecute the murder, and declaring that they should never be subject to any prosecution for what they had done. But it required much management to prevent the crimes of these nobles bringing them into trouble; and Murray was compelled to resort to such flagrant partiality in order to screen them, as soon brought him into great discredit.

It appeared that the jewels of Mary, her apparel, and other effects, had been deposited in the castle of Edinburgh. On its surrender to Murray by Sir James Balfour, he delivered the jewels and apparel to Murray; but the "bond" in which the murderers had bound themselves to that act, and which Bothwell had kept possession of, was seized by Maitland and committed to the flames, thus extinguishing this evidence of guilt, bearing the signatures of himself, Huntley, Argyll, and Balfour, according to the assertion of Ormiston, one of the accomplices, who had seen it. Along with the jewels, was said to be found the celebrated silver box, which was submitted by Morton to the Privy Council. In this box, or casket, were certain letters of the queen to Bothwell, and love sonnets: but as Mary was never permitted to see them, or to have them tested by her friends, they may have been forgeries prepared by these murderers and usurpers, to justify themselves by criminating the queen, making her cognisant of the murder of her husband. Murray suffered these to be preserved and exposed, to the dishonour of his sister, whilst he allowed the bond of the assassins to bo destroyed before his face. These facts, distinctly stated in the letters of Bedford, Randolph, and Drury, to Cecil, still in the State Paper Office, began to tell strongly on the public against Murray; and the