Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/232

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 58. no danger of murder from their mortal enemies.' l She Commended Lady Ar gyle to the care of Morton. She was 'loath/ as she said, ( to interfere between husband and wife/ 'but she feared if the Countess was carried off to Inrerary she might co'mg to a hard lnd there, Eli- zabeth intended clearly to save them all if she could ; but before her letters reached Scotland one, at least, was beyond the reach of her protection or of Morton's vengeance. Eleven days after the surrender Maitland died, and it was generally believed that, to save himself from the ignominy of the scaffold, he had taken poison. 2 He was constitutionally more likely than any of his contemporaries to have taken refuge in a Roman death ; but although the particular letter in which Sir "William Drury describes his end is not preserved, 3 yet Ealligrew mentioned it two days after in a tone in which he would hardly have spoken of something so unusual as suicide, and the popular rumour was probably unfounded. 'Lidington/ wrote Lord. Burghley, 'is dead from his natural sickness, being also stricken with great melan- choly, which he conceived of the hatred that he did see all his countrymen bear towards him since he came out of the Castle, in such sort as Sir William Drury was forced to keep a strong guard to save him in his own lodging from the fury of the people.' 4 1 Elizabeth to Killigrew, June
 * 8 ; Elizabeth to Morton, June 9 :

MSS. Gonway. 2 Memoirs of Sir James Melville. 3 Killigrew says, in a letter of jthe rjth o/ June to Sir T. Smith, ' Of Lidington's death my Lord General did advertise.' M&S. Con- way. 4 Burghley to the Earl of Shrews- bury, June 14. Illustrations oj English History, vol. ii.