Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/204

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 58. saw her further from that they looked for J from the time that the Queen of Scots had first begun to trouble her peace, and that he could but pray that God would put a better determination in her heart for her own sake and for theirs. 1 At this moment the unfortunate Scotland was again convulsed by the death of the Earl of Mar. Poison or natural illness it was uncertain which threw the He- gency open, after every one except the party in the Castle had acquiesced in Mar's authority. The rival- ries of the great families and the suspended feuds and hatreds were at once revived. The natural command of the section who had adhered throughout to the King devolved on Morton. At one time Morton had main- tained almost the entire weight of the civil war, and he alone had never truckled to France, or lent himself to the thousand intrigues for the restoration of the Queen. There was no other nobleman in Scotland on whom the English ministers could rely. Yet Morton was licen- tious in his private life, and in public avaricious and unprincipled. His creed was purely- political ; and if the times made him necessary to the Protestants, they none the less distrusted his principles and censured his character. His power was great however and his ability considerable. If Mar had nominally governed Scot- land, Morton had governed Mar. None but he could carry on the policy on which the settlement of the country had been so far advanced. And there was a 1 Leicester to Burghley, November 2 : MURDIX.