Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/276

 26o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. the post into which he had pushed himself. In cunning and adroitness he was without a rival. He could take life when there was no risk to his own, but in the nervous courage which could face death without flinch- ing he was entirely deficient. He was terrified and longed to fly. 1 No more serious calamity could have befallen the conspirators. Arran was biding his time to snatch the leadership at the Court ; but Arran was only known as an ambitious, unscrupulous soldier, eager for his own advancement, and careless of all besides. Len- nox alone was in the confidence of the Duke of Guise ; and if Lennox failed, there was no one to be found in the faction which had destroyed Morton who could hold his ground against Arran' s rivalry. Meanwhile the battle with the General Assembly raged more fiercely than ever. Andrew Melville, the moderator, preached on the 27th of June, in the new Kirk at Edinburgh, against those ' who would pluck the crown from Christ's head and wring the sceptre from his hand' the politicians who would raise in Scotland a counterpart of the Anglican supremacy. 1 ' Intentan con grueso niervo de dincro por todas vias que maten al Aubigny y apoderense de la persona del Rey. De lo qual le advierten por infinitas vias al de Lennox ; y offrescen prcmio aqui a quien le bechizare, atosigare, 6 matare, y tinalmente echarele del Reyno ; por mauera que de razon ha de tener cuantos punales hay en Escocia, que no solo estan avisados por livianas causas en banarse en la sangre de particulares, pero en la de sus mis- nios Reyes : y desea verse fuera de tan manifiesto peligro, el cual no es posible que no haga mas horrible el miedo, viendose combatido y al ojo la muerte para abraqarle en tan mise- rable estado cosa que necessaria- mente le ha de tener confusisimo como ye entiendo que lo esta fuera del decirlo la Reyna en su carta.' Don Bernardino al Rey, 14 Agosto : MSS. Simancas.