Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/331

 1583.] THE JESUITS IN SCOTLAND. 315 view of her own letters which we sought by all means to conceal), the proofs fall out so sufficient against her (as both Norfolk and Arundel did declare unto us, how- soever they were after drawn to cover her faults and pronounce her innocent), as the said nobility of Scotland intended to urge us that without our mislike, having so apparent matter to charge her withal they might have proceeded against her.' Lastly, when the Parliament moved her Majesty to proceed judicially against her after the rebellion of the North, her Majesty was the only stay that it was not done. If the case were fairly weighed, the princes whom she now sought to raise against her Majesty would not have dealt with equal leniency. 1 The stern and serious tone of these instructions was no agreeable introduction to the reopening of a treaty ; but it was a better evidence of true meaning than smooth and vague phrases, and no one understood better than the Queen of Scots the difference between the sincere and the plausible, was a more accomplished mistress of the second or had a keener appreciation of the first. Her first question, on hearing of Beale's arrival, was whether he had brought her a letter from the Queen. Finding that he had only a message, she at first stood upon her dignity and refused to hear him. Her own letter of November, she said, should remain as a testimony between the Queen of England and herself, and she would never trouble her further. This however 1 Commission to Mr Beale, April 4, 1583. Abridged: MSS. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS,