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 1565.] 77/7: DA RNLE Y MARRIA Gh. 301 gagements to which he had committed her, but she directed him under her own hand to assure them of her perfect satisfaction with the course which they were preparing to pursue. She could have entertained no sort of doubt that they would use violence ; yet she did not even conceal her approbation under ambiguous or uncertain phrases. She said that they should find her ' in all their just and honourable causes regard their state and continuance ; ' ' if by malice or practice they were forced to any inconveiiiency they should find no lack in her ; ' she desired merely that in carrying out their enterprise they would ' spend no more money than their security made necessary, nor less which might bring danger/ 1 As the collision drjew_near both parties prepared for it by endeavouring to put themselves right with the country. No sooner was it generally known in Scot- land that the Queen intended to marry a Catholic than the General Assembly rushed together at Edinburgh. The extreme Protestants were able to appeal to the ful- filment of their predictions of evil when Mary Stuart was permitted the free exercise of her own religion. Like the children of Israel on their entrance into Canaan, they had made terms with wickedness : they had sown the wind of a carnal policy and were now reaping the whirlwind. A resolution was passed to which Murray, though he was present, no longer raised his voice in opposition that the sovereign was Elizabeth to Randolph, July 10 : Printed in KEITH.