II. 68 BOOK they returned to Edinburgh; and then to open the queen's will, and take proper measures for the government of the kingdom, but to suppress all turbulence wherever it should appear. They issued, on the 25th October, their proclamation, that the queen's illness disabling her from attending to the business, which was the occasion of her repairing to those parts, divers persons might take the opportunity to revenge their private quarrels, to the disturbing of all good order: and therefore the nobility and council had resolved, that, setting aside all feud and favor, they would declare themselves enemies to every committer of such violences." The king was mentioned upbraidingly by the bishop of Ross, on 26th October, not to have come to see the queen.70 But no one has considered whether he was officially apprised of her illness, or was only left to hear of it by current report, or by a chance private information. That he was not purposely made acquainted with it by the cabinet, we may infer from the French envoy's expressions: because this minister would not have in that case attached any 'ifs' to the question, whether he had members, has made her so weak, that she is not able hastily to travel XXII. been apprised of it," but from his official situation CHAP. would have known whether any direct communication had been made to him on the subject, as ought unquestionably to have been done. Altho we have four letters on her illness from official men," written while the danger lasted; and two of these blame the king for not being there, and in the other, Maitland mentions him with censure, none intimate that any express had been sent to him of the queen's attack or danger. The natural inference therefore is, that he was left to hear it how he could, at a distance of eighty miles; and reasoning from this appearance, to arrive at Jedburgh on the 28th of the month,73 had no appearance of any wilful delay after he could have heard of it:74 nor was nor was it his interest to be absent. When he arrived, the crisis had passed. Of his reception, we have no contemporary evidence but that of Knox and Buchanan, and from 71Si est ce qu'il a été adverti par quelqu'un et a eu de temps asser pour vent.' We cannot but think from these words, that Le Croc thought it possible at least, if not probable, that he might not have been apprised of it by any one, and might not have had time to arrive. The par quelqu'un,'negatives the likelihood of any official communication. 72 The privy council, in Keith, 133; Le Croc. ib.; Maitland; 2 Laing, 71-3; the bishop of Ross; Keith, 134. 73 We learn the date of his arrival from Le Croc's letter of 2 Dec. which states, the king her husband came to visit her at Jedburgh, the very day after capt. Hay went.' Keith's pref. 7. Now we find, from the bishop's letter of 27 Oct. that upon that day he made 'capt. Hay the bearer' of his letter. Keith, app. 135. 74 Knox seems therefore correct in his assertion; the king, being advertised, rode post from Stirling to Jedburgh, where he found the queen somewhat convalesced, but she would not see nor speak to him.' p. 399. Correspondently with this, Buchanan says, in his Detection, when the king heard thereof, he hasted by post to Jedburgh, to visit the queen.' It is not at all likely that the king would delay an instant his visit to her, because, if she died, he had the greatest pretensions to the regency, and therefore the greatest interest to be on the spot to claim it. There is a difference between Knox and Le Croc and Ross, whether the king was at Stirling or Glasgow. It is of no moment, as the difference of either distance from Edinburgh does not materially vary. II. BOOK them we find it to have been so unaccommodating," that he staid but one night; and after conversing a long time with the French ambassador,76 returned to his accustomed residence, having found in the queen little else than one continued spirit of indifference or aversion towards him. In trying at this distant period to trace the real character of Mary's feelings towards him at this moment, on which so much of the probability, as to the guilt or innocence of her future conduct seems to depend, we may remark, that when she thought she was dying, and was giving directions as to her son and government on that expectancy, which were minutely detailed at the moment by her episcopal friend, she never mentioned her husband; nor did she desire the lords to place him in the regency; but instead of committing their common son to his superintendence, she particularly recommended the child to the care of the king and queenmother of France; altho, whatever might be Darnley's faults, Charles IX. and Catherine de Medicis had no claim whatever to be preferred to him, either in virtue or in piety, or for the national good." This 75 To Knox's' she would scarce speak to him,' we may add Buchanan's account: So far was it off, that his lodging and things necessary were provided for him against his coming, as were wont to be for mean persons, that he found not any one token toward him of a friendly mind.' He adds, the nobility, and all the officers of the court that were present, were specially forbidden to do him any reverence at all at his coming, nor to yield him their lodging, nor to harbour him so much as for one night.' Detect. 76 The statement of Buchanan, 'Being thus denied all duties of civil kindness, the next day, with great grief of heart, he returned to his old solitary corner,' coincides with Le Croc's 'he remained there but one single night, and yet in that short time I had a great deal of conversation with him.' Keith's pref. 7. But Le Croc omits all mention of the reasons of his short stay, or of his feelings on the subject. 77 See the bishop of Ross's letter on the evening of the 26th Oct. in Keith, 135. 6 6 XXII. wilful and spontaneous deposition of the king, from CHAP. all concern with his own offspring and with the kingdom, combined with the entire omission of his name in the deliberation of the court nobles on their measures, if the queen should die, sanctions Buchanan's statement, that he found not any one token toward him of a friendly mind.' But a more painful consideration remains to be expressed. We have already remarked, that Maitland, her confidential secretary, writing officially on the 9th day of her illness to the bishop-ambassador at Paris, declared one of the causes of her sickness to be thought and displeasure;' and that he had wrung out of her own declaration to him, the root of it was the king.'" With this thought and displeasure' about her husband, she had gone to Bothwell on the 16th, and returned the same day, and on the next, before her illness seized her, despatched a mass of letters to him." What could be the subject of these perturbing meditations, feelings, consultation and correspondence? The next passage in Maitland's letter gives us a glimpse of some unfavorable possibilities; for she has done him so great honor without the advice of her friends, and contrary to the advice of her subjects; and he, on the t'other part, has recompensed her with such ingratitude, and misuses himself so far towards her, that it is ane heart-break for her to think that he should be her husband, AND HOW TO BE FREE OF HIM SHE SEES NO OUT-GAIT.' This was not written at an ordinary moment or upon a common occasion, but is what he, as a statesman, is 78 Laing, append. 2. p. 72. 79 See before. 980 Laing, app. p. 72. II. BOOK confidentially disclosing at that critical hour to the employed ambassador of her court, as what he had wrung' from the queen; and this being written when all was uncertain whether the queen would live or die, and when her symptoms rather inclined towards her dissolution, becomes peculiarly important. He proceeds in this developement of her secret feelings towards her husband, and represents them not only as those which she at that moment entertained, but which she had for some time cherished. I write freely to your lordship, as to a man that being employed in the charge ye bear, should not be ignorant in what estate things stand at home, and yet as to a friend with whom I may safely communicate my opinion. I see betwixt them no agreement; nor no appearance that they shall agree well thereafter; at least I am assured that it has been her mind this good while, AND YET IS as I write.'81 From this letter of Maitland, we learn that thoughts and displeasures about her husband were agitating Mary's mind when she went to Bothwell, and that these were, vexation to think he should be her husband, and meditations how to be free of him; for to see no way out of a matter, implies that we are meditating to find one; and these thoughts were occupying her consideration at a time when it was her mind, and had been for a good while, that there was no agreement between her and her husband, and no appearance that they would afterwards agree. If these were the subjects and feelings that were disturbing Mary's mind, when, to the compromise of her own character, she made Bothwell that hasty 81 Laing, p. 72. |