Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/386

 366 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 44. to present themselves would be proceeded against for high treason. The Queen of Scots, at Rizzio's instiga- tion, was determined to carry an Act of Attainder and forfeiture against them, which Elizabeth felt herself bound in honour to make an effort to prevent. So anxious she had been for the first two months after they had come to England to disclaim connection with them that she had almost allowed them to starve ; and Randolph, on Christmas-day, wrote to Cecil that Murray 'had not at that time two crowns in the world.' * But this neglect was less the result of de- liberate carelessness than of temporary panic ; and as the alarm cooled down she recovered some percep- tion of the obligations under which she lay. At length therefore she consented for herself to name two commissioners if the Queen of Scots would name two others ; and in writing on the subject to Randolph, under her first and more generous impulse, she said that ' her chief intention in their meeting was, if it might be, that some good might be done for the Earl of Murray/ Her timidity came back upon her before she had finished her letter ; she scored out the words and wrote instead ' the chief intention of this meeting on our part is, covertly though not manifestly, to procure that some good might be done for the Earl/ 2 More painful evidence she could scarcely have given of her perplexity and alarm. Bedford and Sir John Foster were named to repre- 1 Randolph to Cecil, December 25 : Scotch MSS. Rolls House. 2 Elizabeth to Eandplph, January 10: Ibid.