Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/209

 1570.] THE RISING OF THE NORTH. 195 failed, they tried to secure Mary Stuart for him ; and when she declined the honour, thought of carrying her oif by force. The Archbishop had been a party to the murder of Darnley. He had divorced Bothwell and helped the Queen to marry him, in the hope that she would ruin herself. When she was at Lochleveii the house of Hamilton would have voted for her death if their title to the crown had been recognized. Had they won at Langside she was to have repaid their service by marrying the Abbot of Arbroath. A steady indifference to every interest but their own, a disregard of every obligation of justice or honour, if they could secure the crown of Scotland to their lineage, had given a consistency to the conduct of the Hamiltons beyond what was to be found in any other Scottish family. No scruples of religion had disturbed them, no loyalty to their Sovereign, no care or thought for the public interests of their country. Through good and evil, through truth and lies, through intrigues and bloodshed, they worked their way towards the one object of a base ambition. Murray was the great obstacle. With Murray put out of the way the little James would not be long a difficulty. For the present and for their immediate convenience they were making use of Mary Stuart's name, as she for her own purposes was making use of theirs. The alliance would last as long as was con- venient, and at this point they were in ited in a com- mon desire for the Regent's death. Bothwellhaugh had been taken at Langside. His