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ed the custody of the paper, carried it, by a flagrant misinterpretation of her wishes, to the council, who immediately despatched a commission to see it put into execution; which was done, she protested to God, before she knew it. The secretary was committed to prison for his misdeeds, for which he should not escape her high displeasure. 'This,' concludes Cary, is the effect of my message; which, if I could express so lively as I did hear her utter it with a heavy heart and sorrowful countenance, I think your Majesty would rather pity the grief she endureth, than in any sort blame her for the fact whereunto she never gave

consent.

6

Cary also bore the following letter from Elizabeth herself-one of the most ingenious pieces of false feeling which even that exquisite dissembler ever penned :

"My Dear Brother; I would you knew, though not felt, the extreme dolor that overwhelmeth my mind for that miserable accident which, far contrary to my meaning, hath befallen. I have sent this kinsman of mine, whom ere now it hath pleased you to favour, to instruct you truly of ́that which is too irksome to my pen to tell you. I beseech you, that as God and many mo know how innocent I am in this case, so you will believe me, that, if I had done it, I would have abode by it. I am not so base-minded that the fear of any living creature should make me afraid to do what is just, or, done, to deny the same; I am not so degenerate, nor carry so vile a mind. But, as not to disguise fits most a king, so will I never dissemble my actions, but cause them show as I mean

them. This assure yourself for me, that, as I know it was well deserved if I had meant it, I would never lay it on another's shoulders; and to impute to myself that which I did never so much as think of, I will not. The circumstances you will be pleased to hear of this bearer: And for my part, think you have not a more loving kinswoman and more dear friend, nor any that will watch more carefully to preserve you and your state. And if any would otherwise persuade you, think they bear more good will to others than to you. Thus, in haste, I leave to trouble you, beseeching God to send you a long reign.

'Your most assured loving sister and cousin, ELIZABETH, R.'

Of course, few readers will require to be reminded, that the writer of this letter was herself the direct dictator of Mary's death, and that, if she had any hesitation whatever in the matter, it arose from an earnest wish that the unhappy Queen should be assassinated by some wretch, from an idea of good service, instead of being put to a ceremonious death by her warrant. Oh, tyger's heart within a woman's hide!' as the old dramatist has prophetically expressed her cha

racter.

After the delivery of these letters, there was a meeting of English and Scotch commissioners at Foulden Kirk in the Merse, to adjust the terms of satisfaction to be rendered by Elizabeth to James for his mother's slaughter. And a scheme was agitated for a reparation of a tangible shape, such as was sometimes paid, according to a custom which prevailed in Scotland, by persons guilty of

homicide, to the nearest of kin of the deceased. But, in the course of a few weeks, the King permitted himself to be pacified, without any formal recognition of the injury he complained of. The death of Mary was a matter too necessary to the interests of all and sundry, himself included, to be very long resented; and, all the circumstances considered, he might very well smother his desires of revenge, without incurring the charge of having been indifferent to the claims of blood.

CHAPTER V.

JAMES'S MARRIAGE-HIS ARRIVAL WITH THE QUEEN FROM DENMARK-THEIR RECEPTION.

1589-1590.

There He was

THE next transaction in which James was engaged, was one of a much more pleasing nature. He now judged it time, since he approached his majority, to supply himself with a consort. were many reasons for this resolution. the only individual of his family; the heir-presumptive to his Scottish crown was a lunatic, (the Earl of Arran); failing himself, the inheritance of the English crown was apt to be disputed by a number of claimants; and he knew that, if he had offspring, he would be less exposed than heretofore to assassination. He was moreover sensible, that the possession of a family of children must recommend him very warmly to the English people, and smooth his way to the throne.

Eli

zabeth had long endeavoured to repress all desires of this kind in James, partly from a fear lest he should make an improper choice, and partly from anticipation of the favour and influence he should thus acquire among her people, to her own prejudice. But she now relaxed so much, as to recommend him to marry the sister of the King of

Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of France, an alliance calculated to strengthen the Huguenot or Protestant interest in that kingdom against the Guise family and the King of Spain.

But, previous to introducing a Queen into his kingdom, he esteemed it necessary that the feuds which agitated it should be somewhat stilled. For this purpose, at a Convention of Estates, which was held at Edinburgh in May 1587, he exerted himself to abolish some of the causes of wrath which existed among his nobility. The Master of Glammis, for instance, and the Earl of Crawford, had long been inflamed against each other; and the brother of the former had been shot by the servants of the latter, as he was passing along one of the streets of Stirling, only ten years before. The Earl of Angus entertained a vehement grudge against the Earl of Montrose, chiefly because Montrose had sat as chancellor on the jury which condemned Angus's uncle, the Earl of Morton; for in that age, as justice could only be obtained by force, so was its stroke looked upon by the sufferers as a matter no less to be avenged than an, ordinary private injury and all this notwithstanding, that Angus was a zealous religionist, even so much so as to be styled by James, for his friendliness to the Church, the Ministers' King. All these persons being assembled at the Convention, and every exertion having been there made by the King and his chancellor Maitland to adjust their disputes, James invited them privately to a banquet in Ho, lyroodhouse, on a Sunday afternoon, placed them promiscuously at a large table, drank to them three several times, commanded them to live henceforth in peace and concord, and vowed to be a mortal