Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/317

 I5C5-J THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE. 297 she would have to comply and run all hazards, or she would justify the worst suspicions which the Scotch Protestants already entertained of her sincerity, and convert into enemies the only friends that she possessed among Mary Stuart's subjects. In the first outburst of her anger she seemed pre- pared to dare everything. After the departure of Throgmorton from Scotland the Queen of Scots sent Hay of Balmerinoch with a letter in which she protested with the most innocent simplicity that in all which she had done she had been actuated only by the purest desire to meet her dear sister's wishes ; that she was alike astonished and grieved to hear that she had done wrong ; but that as Elizabeth was dissatisfied she would refer the question once more to a commission; and on her own side she proposed the unsuspicious names of Murray, Maitland, Morton, and Glencairn. 1 Had Elizabeth complied with this suggestion she would have committed herself to an admission that a < question existed, and that the Darnley marriage was not. j wholly intolerable. She had no intention of admitting ^ j& anything of the kind. She replied with requiring Len- ^ >P" nox and Darnley on their allegiance to return immedi- ^ ately to England ; and the Queen of Scots' letter she answered only with a request that they might be sent home without delay. Neither Lennox nor Mary expected such peremptory dealing. The order of return was short of a declaration The Queen of Scots to the Queen of England, June 14 : KEITH.