Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/38

 22 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63 Scots pressed upon her with superfluous eagerness the importance of his execution, if the Catholic faith was to be restored. 1 The meaning of the charge on which he had been arrested was perfectly understood in England. It was to verify to the world the Queen of Scots' allegation that those who had accused her of her husband's murder were themselves guilty of it. 2 The obligation of Eliza- beth to protect him was, it is needless to say, at least as great as the eagerness of the Catholics for his destruction. She it was who had prevented Morton and Murray originally from publishing the Casket letters, and making a defence of the Queen of Scots im- possible. She it was who had forced the Regency of Scotland upon him against his will, and had used him ever since for her own convenience, while she had with- held from him the support which she had promised She had herself under her own hand invited him to concert measures with her for the coercion of his own sovereign. She had entangled him in a dangerous intrigue by engagements of the most solemn kind ; and at the last moment, when he could have provided otherwise for his personal safety, she had bound him to her side by reiterated assurances that come what would she would never abandon him. Lightly as obligations of this kind sat upon Eliza- 1 Don B. de Mendoza to Philip, January 15, 1581 : MSS. Simancas. Philip wrote on the margin of l,he decipher, ' Fue muy hien,' ' It was yery well done.' 2 ' Queriendo proceder en esta manera el Key con Morton porque se clarincase mas la innocencia de su madre, y falsedad de que le han auerido culpar.' Ibid.