Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/30

 I 4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63. she was really in earnest. He galloped back to Edinburgh. He asked for a private interview with James, which Lennox prevented him from obtaining. He then turned to Morton as he had been told to do, and Morton, trust- ing to an engagement from which he believed that Elizabeth could not now retreat, committed himself at once to a plot for Lennox's destruction. The haste was fatal. A panting courier came in two days later from London with news that all was undecided again. ' Her Majesty,' Walsingham wrote to Bowes, 'de- September. . . sires you to lollow the way ot persuasion, and forbear to enter into any conference with them of force to be used, or promise of assistance from her Majesty.' ' You perceive,' he added, in bitter despondency, ' how uncertain we are in the course of our doings. I am afraid our un thankfulness to God, which in justice ought to receive some severe punishment, will not suffer us to put off by timely prevention the approaching mis- chiefs that hasten towards us, which I fear are to re- ceive their beginning from that realm. Be not hasty to promise much from hence for we take no care to per- form.' l Unfortunately Bowes had promised. Morton had involved himself in schemes at Elizabeth's instiga- tion which were distinctly treasonable, and which, if unexecuted, could not fail sooner or later to be dis- covered by his enemies. He might still have saved himself, powerful as these enemies were, if he had acted on his first impulse, and dropped thenceforth all con- "Walsingham to Bowes, September 2 : MSS. Scotland.