Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/418

 39$ REfGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 60 Essex, Elizabeth's cousin, who was suspected afterwards of murdering her husband, was mentioned as a person of whom she would do well to beware. 1 On the whole however she felt safe under Lord Shrewsbury's care. He was punctiliously honourable, and inclined, as every one knew, to favour her claims on the succession. She had great influence with him, and she contrived to entangle him in an intrigue which, implicating them both in Elizabeth's displeasure, drew him closer than before to herself. Margaret, Countess of Lennox, and mother of Darnley, had been a con- spirator from early girlhood. She began her career by a secret marriage with a brother of the Duke of Nor- folk, and was sent to the Tower for it by Henry VIII. She had tried to persuade Mary Tudor to execute Eliza- beth, that the crown might fall to herself. She had contrived Darnley's marriage with the Queen of Scots, to unite their titles, and had worked hard to organize the Catholic party for a rising in England in their favour, After the catastrophe at Kirk o' Field, she had fallen back upon Elizabeth, believing that Mary Stuart was ruined, and expecting that the succession would be now determined in favour of her grandson James. No voice had been louder than hers in demanding vengeance on the murderers, none more emphatic in charging the guilt upon the Queen of Scots. Time however passed on, and Mary Stuart's star seemed again in the ascend- 1 Mary Stuart to the Archbishop I Lorraine, March 29, 1574: LABAN* of Glasgow and the Cardinal of | OFF, vol. iv.