Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/392

 372 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 44. One day he was dining with the Queen at the house of a merchant in Edinburgh. He was drinking hard as usual, and when she tried to check him ( he not only paid no attention to her remonstrance, but also gave her such words as she left the place with tears.' Something else happened also, described as ' vicious,' the nature of which may be guessed at, at some festivity or other on ' Inch Island ; ' l and as a natural consequence the Queen ' withdrew her company ' from the Lord Barn- ley ; a staircase connected their rooms, but they slept apart. 2 Side by side with the estrangement from her hus- band, Mary Stuart adif,f,pri "Riggn'o tn olnsnr and closer intimacy. Signor David, as he was called, became the Queen's inseparable companion in the council-room and the cabinet. At all hours of the day he was to be found with her in her apartments. ^She kept late hours, and he was often alone with her till midnight. He had the control of all the business of the State ; as Darnley grew troublesome his presence was dispensed with at the council, and a signet, the duplicate of the King's, was intrusted to the favoured secretary. Find- ing himself so deeply detested by the adherents of Lennox, Rizzio induced the Queen to show favour to those amongthe banishedjords who were most hostile to the King and were least determined^ in their Pro- to return as a support against the Lennox faction in 1 Sir "William Drury to Cecil, I B. 10 : Printed in KEITH. February 16 : Cotton. MSS. CALIG. I 2 RUTHYEN'JJ Narrative. KEITH.