Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/509

 THE BOND OF ASSOCIATION. 493 openly for Scotland in a clause of the treaty. It might involve the release of Mary Stuart, with James for a guarantee of her good behaviour ; but anything was better than desertion of tried friends and mean alliances with subtle scoundrels. Mary Stuart's detention had lost its importance when her son became of age and was at large. Walsingham would have had the Queen send Mauvissiere to Sheffield, to offer the Queen of Scots liberty and restoration on condition of her joining Eng- land and France in the league against Spain, and would have left the paltry boy at Edinburgh to digest his dis- comfiture at his leisure. It might not be. Elizabeth never chose a straight road when a crooked one was open to her ; and ' the bye course/ as Walsingham called it, carried the day. Money was sent to Arran, and Hunsdon, with his ruffled dignity soothed down, was despatched upon his way to conciliate Arran, to flatter the King, to persuade them both that they would best consult their interests by connecting themselves with Elizabeth, and to dance the bauble of the English Crown before James's eager eyes. 1 A high commission court sat at Lambeth, with Whitgift at the head of it, to persecute English Non- conformists, while the new Scotch prelates were at the same work across the Border. The dignitaries of the two Churches were brought into correspondence. Patrick Adamson, calling himself Archbishop of St Andrews, wrote to Whitgift to use his influence, to ' the 1 Mauvissiere to the King of France, July 1626 : TEOLET, vol. iii.