Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/323

 i 5 6 5 .] THE DARNLE Y MARRIA GE. 3<>3 been a lesson to the bigotry of mankind ; but Mary Stuart was not sincere ; and could the Assembly have believed her they would have thought her French teaching was bearing fruits more deadly than Popery itself. The Protestant respected the Catholic as an honest WQjjhi^per_QXsQmething, though that something might be_the_ jLevil. ' Liberty of conscie^e ' was the crime of the Laodiceans, which hell and heaven alike The attendance of Mary Stuart at sermon produced as little effect on the Congregation as Elizabeth's candles and crucifixes on the hatred of the English Papists. The elders of the Church dispersed ; Argyle, Murray, and their friends withdrew to Stirling ; and on the i8th of July they despatched a messenger to Elizabeth with a bond in which they pledged them- p jj. selves to resist all attempts either to restore the Catholic e ritual or to dissolve the English alliance. From their own sovereign they professed to hope for nothing but evil. They looked to the Queen of England ' as under .Grod protectress most special of the professors of re- ligion ; ' and they thanked her warmly for the promises of help on which it was evident that they entirely relied. 1 They relied on those promises ; and to have doubted

1 ' Understanding by your High- ness's ambassador, Sir N. Throg- morton, and also by the information of your Majesty's servant Master Randolph, the good and gracious mind which your Majesty with con- tinuance beareth to the maintenance of the Gospel and us that profess the same,' &c. The Lords in Stir- ling to the Queen of England, July 1 8 : KEITH, vol. ii. p. 329.