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Mary Stuart (ib. p. 178). The truth was, they had no wish that Mary should sign the treaty. The nomination by Henry VIII of the Lady Frances and her issue as next in succession to Elizabeth was an act of hostility to Scotland. The proposed Arran marriage would have solved the difficulty, but Elizabeth's rejection of it left the Scots no option but to recall Mary ; and with her as sovereign, goodwill between the two kingdoms would be impossible till the insult to the Scottish dynasty was withdrawn. On 6 Aug. Lord James therefore wrote to Elizabeth suggesting that while Elizabeth's full rights should be recognised, Mary should be designated heir-presumptive (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1561-2, entry 384). The dangers that might be obviated by this arrangement were also dexterously indicated by Maitland in two remarkable letters of 9 (ib. p. 238) and 10 Aug. (, iii. 211-16). He feared that Mary's coming could not ' fail to raise wonderful tragedies,' unless some method 'might be compassed that the queen's majesty and her highness might be dear friends as they were tender cousins.' Meantime Mary's excuses and promises only hardened the determination of Elizabeth to withhold the passport (Throckmorton corresp. in Keith, ii. 26-64 ; Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1561-2, entries 108, 110, 124, 155, 158, 180, 208, and 214). She had even some thoughts of intercepting her on the voyage, but — apparently influenced by a letter of Mary (8 Aug., cf. ib. entry 404), by the representations of Mary's ambassador, St. Colme (MSmoire in La- banoff, i. 99-102), by the advice of Throckmorton (11 Aug., Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. entry 395), and by the suggestions of Lord James and Maitland — she recoiled from the half-formed intention. On 16 Aug. she informed Mary that learning she intended to follow the advice of her council on the treaty she was ' content to suspend her concept of all unkindness ' (printed in Robertson, Hist. of Scotland, 5th ed. ii. 327-9).

Mary had left France before Elizabeth's letter was penned. On 21 July she had expressed to Throckmorton the hope that she might not be driven on Elizabeth's inhospitable shores; but if she were, then might Elizabeth, she said, ' do her pleasure and make sacrifice of me.' ' Peradventure,' she added, in words whose foreboding pathos the future more than justified, 'that casualty might be better for me than to live ' (Keith, ii. 51). To defeat any projects for her capture, she, however, while naming 26 Aug. to the Scottish authorities as the date of her probable arrival, set sail from Calais on the loth. Brant ome records her passionate grief at bidding farewell to France. It was intensified by her cheerless prospects. She had resolved to take up the task at which her mother had failed, and only trouble and danger seemed in store for her. On the voyage she was accompanied by three of her uncles, and one hundred other gentlemen and attendants, including the Sieur de Brantome, Castelnau, Chastelard, and her confessor. On account of a dense fog — foreshadowing, according to Knox, the ' sorrow, dolour, darkness, and all impietie ' incident to her coming ( Works, ii. 269) — the galleys lay all night of the 18th at anchor some distance from the shore, but it cleared off sufficiently to permit them to enter the harbour of Leith in the morning. Xo preparations had been made for her arrival at Holyrood, and she did not journey thither till the evening. ' Fires of joy were set forth all night ' (ib. p. 270), and a i company of the most honest ' serenaded her with violins and the dismal chanting of Reformation melodies (ib.; Brantome).

Mary had frankly told Throckmorton that though ' she meant to constrain none of her subjects ' in religion, she wished they were all as she was (23 June 1561, Keith, ii. 33). Accordingly, on her first Sunday in Scotland mass was said in her private chapel, a vow of Lord Lindsay and others that ' the idolater priest should die the death ' being frustrated by Lord James Stewart. This connivance at 'idolatry' provoked a violent outburst from Knox, who declared that 'one mass was more fearful to him than ten thousand armed enemies' (Works, ii. 276). Mary called him into her presence and plied him with arguments, upbraidings, threats, and tears, but only to convince him of her 'proud mind,' 'crafty wit,' and ' indurate heart ' (ib. p. 286 ; Knox to Cecil, 31 Oct.; Haynes, p. 372 ; Cal. Hatfield MSS. pt. i. p. 262). Her passion had unwittingly betrayed her ; but probably as yet she did not adequately understand the situation. The proclamation of 25 Aug., forbidding on pain of death any ' alteration or innovation in the state of religion ' (Knox, ii. 272), was a mere provisionary arrangement till the meeting of parliament. Shortly after her arrival she had informed the pope of her determination to restore Catholicism (letter of the pope, 3 Dec, in the Bibl. Barb. Rome, quoted in Philippson, Marie Stusirt, ii. 33, 37), and her first purpose probably was to secure general toleration for catholics. But after Maitland's return in October from his mission to England, her attitude towards protestantism became almost deprecatory. The administration of affairs was left in the hands of Maitland and Lord James, and