Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/470

456 condolence or congratulation. But all this time she had been in secret and close correspondence with her enemies; had furnished them money, even while giving them, publicly, reproof; and had given an asylum at her Court, or in the kingdom, to the rebels whom she affected to denounce.

In reality, therefore, she did not now alter in the least her policy, except in that it became more honestly hostile; she was still the same woman—she only dropped her mask. Elizabeth and her subtle minister Cecil now so planned their proceedings as to secure the greatest amount of injustice under the greatest appearance of fairness. Mary urged her demand for a personal interview with Elizabeth, when she promised to state to her things that had never yet been uttered by her to any mortal. But these disclosures the politic queen, and her equally politic servant, were too well aware would touch too nearly, not only the guilty conspiracies of Murray and his colleagues, but on those of Elizabeth and Cecil themselves. They, as we are now fully informed, were all along cognisant of the murder scheme which the Scotch lords had carried out. With the charges which Mary could bring home to Murray and Maitland—for she openly accused them and Morton of the murder of Darnley—it would not be so easy for them, with a show of honour, to support these nobles against their queen. Therefore, it was used as a precaution against any such interview, that Mary lay herself under charge of participation in this murder, and also of adultery, from which she must first clear herself.

For this purpose Elizabeth dispatched Mr. Middlemore to Mary, and thence to the regent. To Mary she disclaimed all intention of detaining her as a prisoner; her object, she said, was merely to secure her from immediate pursuit of her enemies: but as to a personal interview, that was at present inadmissible, because Mary having chosen the Queen of England as her judge, it was necessary, to prevent any charge of partiality, not to receive either party before the trial, or indeed, as regarded her, till she had established her innocence.

"Judge! trial!" exclaimed Mary, in indignant amazement. "What did the Queen of England mean? She had appointed no one her judge, and could accept no trial, where she could have no peers. She had come freely to seek the protection of Elizabeth, and was as freely willing to accept her mediation. She had offered to explain all the circumstances of her case to her sister, the queen; but she could submit to no trial, being an independent sovereign like herself. As to Murray and the rest of the rebels, it seemed that Elizabeth proposed to hear them against their queen, who was not to be allowed to be present to hear and rebut their traitorous charges. Was that impartial? Was that due to a sovereign to listen to the charges of traitors against their prince? Yet, if they must needs be heard, let them come, but let her be there to answer them, and she suspected that they would not be very eager for the opportunity."

When Mary learned that a message was actually on its way to call Murray and his accomplices to England, to prefer their charges against her, she protested vehemently against such a proceeding, and declared that she would rather die than submit to such indignity. The conduct of Elizabeth was, indeed, a violation of all the rights of sovereign princes, and as unjust as it was mean. Murray received his summons with his usual artful coolness. He was required by Elizabeth to prefer his charges against the Queen of Scots, but in the meantime to refrain from all hostilities. He obeyed the requisition; placed his soldiers in quarters; but demanded to know what was to be the result of the inquiry. If the queen was declared innocent, what guarantee was he to receive for his own security? If guilty, what then? He said he had already sent copies of his proofs by his servant Wood; and if they were found to be faithful to the originals, would they be deemed conclusive?

Thus the cunning regent was seeking to ascertain whether he had already evidence deemed by the selected judge sufficiently damnatory, or whether he should fabricate more. Nothing can be conceived more unwarrantable than such a proceeding, and nothing ever was more serpentine than Elizabeth's dealings in reply. She assured Murray, and also Mary, that she did not set herself up as a judge of the Scottish queen, far less as an accuser; that her sole object was to settle all the disputes betwixt Mary and her subjects, and to reinstate her at once in their good opinion and in her full power; but in secret she assured Murray, as we learn from Goodall and Anderson, that, whatever were her assurances to Mary, she really meant to try her, and, if she could find her guilty, to retain her in perpetual imprisonment.

Thus encouraged, Murray engaged to meet her Majesty's commissioners at York; and, indeed, it was high time for him to do something to sustain his position. His unpopularity was become extreme. His unnatural situation as the dethroner of his sister and benefactor, when he had declared that he would be her champion, and his severity in punishing those who had espoused her cause, offended the people's natural sense of right, and alarmed even his supporters. Murray of Tullibardine, who had so vigorously pursued Bothwell, now excited discontent by pointing out the discrepancy betwixt the regent's pretended zeal against the king's murderers and his real lukewarmness. He pointed to the infamous Sir James Balfour, who had openly confessed himself one of the murderers, and bargained for his security and reward, as now the confidential and right-hand man of the soi-disant virtuous Murray. Encouraged by the manifest discontent, Argyll, Huntley, and the Hamiltons were once more on foot; they met at Largs on the 28th of July, and determined to raise the borders to make incursions on England, and applied to the Duke of Alva for his aid. It was absolutely necessary, both for the security of Murray and his own borders, that the conference at York should come off as early as possible. Lord Herries was therefore sent post haste to Bolton Castle, to which Mary had been removed, where, in the presence of Scroope and Knollys, he delivered these distinct proposals from Elizabeth:—"That if the Queen of Scots would commit her cause to be heard by her highness's order, but not to make her highness judge over her, but rather, as to her dear cousin and friend, to commit herself to her advice and counsel,—that if she would thus do, her highness would surely set her again in her seat of regiment, and dignity regal, in this form and order: First, her highness would send for the noblemen of Scotland that be her adversaries, to ask account of them,