Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/578

558 would be dead, and excuses could be found without difficulty to break the contract. The truest friend to the two countries, she gravely assured Sadler, was Cardinal Beton. If Beton were once at liberty, the King of England's wishes would be all fulfilled. The English Court were living in a delusion. They depended on the Regent and the Douglases, whose only thought was how to defeat their desires; and she herself, she declared, was in fear for the life of her child as long as she remained in Scotland. The Regent had his eye upon the crown. He was already preparing the public to hear of the infant's death by spreading rumours that she was sickly.

The accomplished hypocrisy did not convince; yet it was not wholly without effect. Sir George Douglas had cautioned the ambassador against the queen-mother; the queen-mother warned him against Sir George Douglas. He perceived that there was 'some juggling,' but the grace and charm of Mary of Guise forbade him for the moment to believe with certainty that the falsehood was with her. She saw the impression which she had made, and, with winning confidence, she led him into her nursery, and lifted the baby out of the cradle, that he might admire its health and loveliness. Alas, for the child! born in sorrow, and nurtured in treachery! It grew to be Mary Stuart; and Sir Ralph Sadler lived to sit on the commission which investigated the murder of Darnley.

For the present, perplexities thickened about him. The Regent himself, in successive conversations, had