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 subscribed a bond to be Bothwell's in all actions, saving Morton and Lethington, who, though they yielded to the marriage, yet in the end refused to be his in so general terms;’ but the information of Drury must have been secondhand, and probably having heard of the defection of Morton and Lethington he simply put his own interpretation upon their conduct. Morton excused his signature on the ground that Bothwell had been cleared by an assize, and that he was charged to sign it by the ‘queen's write and command.’ Morally the excuse is inadequate, but its legal validity cannot be questioned. Nor by his subsequent conduct did Morton violate any promise, for Bothwell practically absolved the signers of the bond from their obligations by avowedly on 24 April carrying off the queen by force.

No sooner had Bothwell committed himself by compromising the honour of the queen before the world, than Morton threw off his mask of friendship. While the queen was still at Dunbar in Bothwell's nominal custody, Morton took the initiative in the formation of a ‘secret council’ of the lords, who at Stirling signed a bond to ‘seek the liberty of the queen to preserve the life of the prince, and to pursue them that murdered the king.’ For this purpose they sought the help of Elizabeth (Melville to Cecil, 8 May 1567), but as she did ‘not like that Mary's subjects should by any force withstand that which they do see her bent unto’ (Randolph to Leicester, 10 May), the marriage took place on 15 May. The party of Morton, now largely recruited by catholic noblemen, exasperated at the queen's folly, resolved, at a meeting at Stirling in the beginning of June, on the bold stroke of capturing Bothwell and Mary in Holyrood Palace. Their purpose having been betrayed, it was frustrated by the abrupt departure of Bothwell and Mary to the strong fortress of Borthwick Castle. Thereupon Morton and Lord Home galloped to the castle on the night of 10 June, and surrounded it in the darkness; but Bothwell escaped through a postern gate, and went to Dunbar. After a violent war of words with Mary (Drury to Cecil, 12 June), Morton and Home returned to the main body of the confederates, and two days afterwards Mary, in male attire, reached Dunbar in safety. The confederates resolved to augment their credit by seizing upon Edinburgh, although the castle was held for Mary by Sir James Balfour, and, entering it at four in the afternoon of 11 June by forcing the gates (, Diary, p. 5), emitted at the cross a proclamation commanding all subjects, and especially the citizens of Edinburgh, to assist them in their designs (printed in Collections, i. 128). The ‘secret council’ on the following day made an act which in somewhat halting language professed to declare Bothwell ‘to be the principall author and murtherer of the king's grace of good memorie, and ravishing of the queen's majestie’ (imprinted at Edinburgh by Robert Lickprevick, 1567, reprinted in appendix to Calderwood's ‘History,’ ii. 576–8). Bothwell, chiefly supported by his border desperadoes, now resolved with the queen to march on the capital, and the lords under the command of Morton thereupon determined to confront the royal forces in the open. Then followed the strange and dramatic surrender of Mary on Sunday, 14 June, at Carberry Hill. To the desire of Mary, as expressed by the French ambassador, that the ‘matter should be taken up without blood,’ Morton replied that they ‘had taken up arms not against the queen, but against the murderer of the king, whom if she would deliver to be punished, or at least part from her company, she would find a continuation of dutiful obedience’ (, Works, ii. 560). Bothwell now offered to fight for trial of his innocence, singling out Morton, who was nothing loth; but Lindsay having claimed precedence as a nearer kinsman of Darnley, Morton gave place, presenting Lindsay for the combat with the famous two-handed sword of Archibald Bell-the-Cat. Here, however, Mary, after an agitated scene with Bothwell, haughtily interposed, on the ground that Bothwell as her husband was above the rank of any of her subjects, and passionately appealed to those around her to advance and ‘sweep the traitors from the hillside.’ Her words obtained no response except in the breaking up and dispersion of Bothwell's followers; and Bothwell, realising at once that his cause was lost, bade Mary a gloomy farewell, and in sullen desperation rode off unmolested. Herries states that Morton gave Bothwell privately to understand ‘that if he would slip asyde he may go freily wither he pleased in securitie’ (Hist. Marie Queen of Scots, p. 94), and the fact that he mentioned this alternative to the French ambassador is in itself perhaps sufficient evidence that he regarded Bothwell's escape as less embarrassing than would have been his capture.

It was between Morton, the murderer of Rizzio, and Atholl, the chief of the catholic party (‘Narrative of the Captain of Inchkeith’ in Lettres de Marie Stuart, 1859, p.123; Beaton, 12 June, in  Hist. ii. 196), that towards the close of the warm June day Mary, ‘her face all disfigured with dust and tears’ (, ii. 365), entered the city of Edinburgh amid the execrations of the