Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/343

 1 565. ] THE DARNLE Y MARR1A GE. 323 Elizabeth was perfectly aware of the dangers which were thickening round her, and the effect was to end her uncertainty and to determine her to shake herself clear from the failing fortunes of the noblemen whom she had invited to rebel. They had halted at Dumfries, close to the Border, where Murray, thinking that ' no- thing worse could happen than an agreement while the Queen of Scots had the upper hand and they without a force in the field/ was with difficulty keeping together the remnant of his party. The Earl of Bedford, weary of waiting for instructions which never came, wrote at last half in earnest and half in irony to Elizabeth to propose that she should play over again the part which she had played with Winter ; he would himself enter Scotland with the Berwick garrison, and ' her Majesty could afterwards seem to blame him for attempting such things as with the help of others he could bring about/ 2 But Elizabeth was too much frightened to consent even to a vicarious fulfilment of her promises. She replied that if the lords were in danger of being taken the Earl might cover their retreat into England ; she sent him three thousand pounds which if he pleased he might place in their hands ; but he must give them to under- stand precisely that both the one and the other were his own acts, for which she would accept neither thanks nor responsibility. ' You shall make them perceive your case to be such/ she said, ' as if it should appear other- wise your danger should be so great as all the friends 1 Murray to Randolph, Sep- I 2 Bedford to Elizabeth : JUS, tcmber 8 : MS. Rolls Howe. Ibid.