Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/54

 38 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63. He was then reminded that it was his duty while he had yet the means to make a clear confession. Knox had asked him on his death-bed if he had been ac- quainted beforehand with the murder, and he had then denied all knowledge of it. To Scotland and to his own soul he owed now a frank acknowledgment if he had anything to tell. He made no difficulty. Very simply he related the overtures which had been made to him by Bothwell, and the answer which he had given. He had not consented, but he knew that the deed was to be done. His cousin Archibald Douglas had been present, and he knew this also, and had taken no steps to punish him. The ministers asked him why he had not put Barnley on his guard. He replied that he had not dared, and he admitted that he was justly condemned. He had no new light to throw on the manner of the murder. Whether Darnley had been strangled or was alive at the explosion, he was as ignorant as the rest of the world. Of the death of the Earl of Athol he de- clared himself wholly innocent. The ministers obviously bore him no good- will. They charged him with having been a pensioner of Elizabeth, with having intended to put James into her hands, and with having betrayed the Kirk by maintaining the iniqui- tous bishops. He could afford to smile at the chai-ge of having received money from the Queen of England. He had asked her for money certainly, but for the King and not for himself, and his requests had been uniformly re- fused. Bishops or no bishops he had been a true friend to the Kirk of Scotland, and the ministers, of all men in