Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/528

 508 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.45. would trust himself in her hands though she should cut his throat/ l And Mary, what was her occupation after parting thus from her husband ? Late into the night she sat writing an account of that day's business to her lover, 1 with whom/ as she said, ' she had left her heart.' She told him of her meeting with Crawford, and of her coming to the King ; she related, with but slight verbal variations, Darnley's passionate appeal to her, as Darnley himself had told it to his friend. 'I pretend/ she wrote, 'that I believe what he says ; you never saw him better or heard him speak more humbly. If I did not know his heart was wax, and mine a diamond whereinto no shot can enter but that which comes from your hand, I could almost have had pity on him ; but fear not, the plan shall hold to the death/ If Mary Stuart was troubled with a husband, Both- well was inconvenienced equally with a wife. ' Hemember in return/ she continued, ' that you suffer not yourself to be won by that false mistress of yours, who will travel no less with you for the same ; I believe they learnt their lesson together. He has ever a tear in his eye. He desires I should feed him with my own hands. I am doing what I hate. Would you not laugh to see me lie so well and dissemble so well : and tell truth betwixt my hands ? We are coupled with two bad companions. The devil sunder us, and Crawford's deposition : Scotch MSS. Eolls House.