Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/244

 228 AE1GA 7 OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. justice courts when the Marian faction was in power, he obtained his suit without difficulty. The largest private estates in Scotland were made over to him, and he figured thenceforward with the Arran coronet, while the true owner was left to languish in a prison. Careless and fearless of God and man, Stewart had perilous stuff in him, which was not long in coming out after his ad- vancement. For the present he continued a useful de- pendant of Lennox, and was employed to prepare James's mind for conversion to Rome, by debauching his mind, surrounding him with loose women, ' provoking him to the pleasures of the flesh, and fostering him in foolish talk.' 1 Lennox himself meanwhile proceeded in the de- velopment of the great conspiracy, which he had com- menced so successfully. In religion he was still obliged to wear his mask. The King, boy as he was, had opinions of his own which were not easily shaken. In other respects, everything combined to throw him into the groove in which it was Lennox's object that he should move. He hated Elizabeth as cordially as he knew that Elizabeth hated him. 2 She had refused to help him with money. She had robbed him of his grandmother's inheritance. She would not acknowledge his claims on the succession. His mother's imprisonment was a con- 1 CALDERWOOD. - 'Voyant que le Prince ne se soucioit pas beaucoup de la Eoyne d'Angleterre, la quelle d'aultre part lo bait plus qu'elle ne feist jamais la Eoyne d'Escosse sa mere,et estime ung jour sa ruyne de ce cote la, si ellemesme ne ruyne le diet Prince d'Escosse : ils sont les ungs et les aultres pour en venir en extremites.' Mauvissie're au Hoy, 20 Juillet, 1582 : TEULET, vol. iii.