will be in a position to judge for himself the degree of credibility which attaches to them.

Taking up the narrative therefore where it was left in the 45th chapter of this history, the reader will consider himself at Holyrood on the morning of the 10th of February. By the time that day had broken, the King's death, and the apparent manner of it, was known throughout the town. The people were rushing about the streets. The servants of the Court were talking eagerly in knots about the quadrangle of the palace. It was ascertained at the lodge that the Earl of Bothwell or some of his people had passed out after the Queen had returned the preceding night, and had entered again after the explosion. An instinct, explained by the character of the man, pointed at once to the Earl as the assassin; and as Paris, the French page, crossed the court to his master's room, 'all men looked askance at him,' and read guilt in his white cheeks and shuffling movements.1

1 Nicholas Hubert, alias French | person by policy.' In some way or Paris, was Bothwell's page. He left other he was kidnapped and brought Scotland soon after the murder, over to Leith. His capture was being too much terrified to remain carefully kept secret. He was taken there, and for eighteen months was privately to St Andrews, where the supposed to have been drowned. Regent happened to be, and exBut he had probably spread the re- amined by George Buchanan, Robert port himself, that there might be no Ramsay, Murray's steward, and John further inquiry after him. It was Wood, his confidential secretary. discovered afterwards that he had Paris made two depositions, the first rejoined his master in Denmark, and not touching Mary Stuart, the second in the early summer of 1569 the fatally implicating her. This last Regent Murray or the Regent Mur- was read over in his presence. He ray's friends got possession of his signed it, and was then executed,

The Ormistons, Dalgleish, Powry, Hepburn, and the other conspirators were already collected as he entered. Bothwell asked him savagely why he stood shaking there, with such a hangdog look upon him. He said miserably that he was afraid of being found out and punished. 'You?' said the Earl, glaring at him— 'you? Yes, you are a likely person to be suspected. Look at these gentlemen. They have lands and goods, wives and children, and they have risked them all in my service. The sin, if sin it be, is mine, not yours. I tell you the Lords of Scotland have done this deed. A wretch like you is safe in your insignificance.' Collecting his spirits as he could, Paris went to the apartments of the Queen, where Bothwell followed him directly after. Mary Stuart had slept soundly, but was by this time stirring. The windows were still closed. The room was already hung with black, and lighted with candles. She herself was breakfasting in bed, eating composedly, as Paris observed, a new-laid egg.1 She

that there might be no retractation | position countersigned by the exor contradiction. The haste and the aminers, which is now in the Record concealment were intended merely to Office, was forwarded in reply. baffle Elizabeth, who it was feared-Depositions and declarations of would attempt to get hold of him and suppress his evidence. She did, in fact, hear that he was in the Regent's hands, and she instantly wrote to desire that his life might be spared, but it was too late to be of use to the poor wretch. The anticipation of her interference had hast-land, Rolls House. ened his death; he was hanged 1 'Le Lundy matin entre neuf et before her letter arrived, and his de- dix heures, le dict Paris dict qu'il

Nicholas Hubert, August, 1569: MSS. Scotland, Rolls House. Depositions of French Paris, printed in Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, and in Goodall, vol. ii. p. 76. For the account of Paris's capture and Elizabeth's letters, see also MSS. Scot

did not notice or speak to him, for Bothwell came close behind and talked in a low voice with her behind the curtain.

She

Whatever may or may not have been her other bad qualities, timidity was not one of them; and if she was innocent of a share in the murder, her self-possession was equally remarkable. Her husband, the titular King of Scotland, had been assassinated the night before in the middle of Edinburgh, not two hours after she had herself left his side. The perpetrators were necessarily men about the Court, and close to her own person. She professed to believe that she was herself the second object of the conspiracy, yet she betrayed neither surprise nor alarm. The practical energy, at other times so remarkable, was conspicuously absent. did not attempt to fly. She sent for none of the absent noblemen to protect her; the vigour, the resolution, the fiery earnestness which she had shown on the murder of Rizzio-of these there was no outward symptom. Leaving the conspirators to meet in council and affect to deliberate, she spent her morning in writing a letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, her ambassador in Paris, informing him of the catastrophe: declaring her resolution, which it might have been thought unnecessary to insist upon, of punishing the murderers as soon as they should be discovered.

But

entre dans la chambre de la Reyne, | icelle, la ou Madame de Bryant luy laquelle estoit bien close, et son lict la tendu du noire en signe de deuil, et de la chandelle allumée dedans CAIRN, vol. i. part 2, p. 509.

donnoit à dejeuner d'ung œuf frais.' |—Second deposition of Paris: PIT

she took no active steps to discover them. Lennox, Darnley's father, was at Glasgow or near it, but she did not send for him. Murray was within reach, but she did not seem to desire his presence; although she told the Archbishop that only accident had interfered with her intention of spending the previous night at Kirk o'Field, that 'whoever had taken the enterprise in hand, it had been aimed as well at herself as at the King, since the providence of God only had prevented her from sleeping in the house which was destroyed.' 1

Later in the day a despatch came in from the Archbishop himself, containing a message to her from Catherine de Medici that her husband's life was in danger, and another letter to the same effect from the Spanish ambassador in London; but, alas! as she said in her reply, 'the intimation had come too late.' The plot, it seems, was known in Paris, and known to de Silva; yet she, if she was to be believed, was innocent of all suspicion of it.

In the afternoon there was a faint show of investigation. Argyle and Bothwell went to inspect the ruins. The body was brought down to Holyrood, and the servants who had survived the explosion and the inhabitants of the adjoining houses were sent for and questioned.

1 The letter of the Queen of Scots to the Archbishop is printed both by Keith and Labanoff. It is dated February 11. But there is an evident mistake, or the Queen added the date the day after the letter was written, for she describes the murder as having been committed on the

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night past, being February 9; and in a second letter, written a week after, she says, we received your letter upon the 10th of this instant, and that same day wrait to you.'Mary Stuart to the Archbishop of Glasgow, February 18: LABANOFF, vol. ii.

They could tell but little, for who, it was said, 'dared accuse Bothwell, who was doer, judge, inquirer, and examiner ?' Even so however, and in the midst of their alarm, awkward hints and facts were blurted out which it was desirable to keep back, and the witnesses were not pressed any further.

Feb. II.

The next morning (Tuesday) a proclamation appeared, signed by Bothwell, Maitland, and Argyle, offering a reward of 2000l. for the discovery of the murderer, with a free pardon to any accomplice who would confess. In the evening, after dusk, an anonymous placard was fixed against the door of the Tolbooth, accusing Bothwell and Sir James Balfour as the immediate perpetrators, and containing, in addition, the ominous words, that the Queen was an assenting party, through the persuasion of the Earl Bothwell and the witchcraft of the Lady Buccleuch.'

Feb. 13.

2

Surrounded by his own retainers, with every member of the council at Edinburgh, if not as guilty as himself, yet implicated too deeply to act against him, Bothwell met the challenge with open

1 BUCHANAN.

2 Margaret Douglas, wife of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, was the daughter of the Earl of Angus, and cousin of Morton. Like her sister Lady Reres, she had been one of the many mistresses of Bothwell, and it was by her that the Earl had been especially recommended to the notice of Mary Stuart. She does not appear to have been a very modest

lady. Sir William Drury, writing to Cecil, said: 'I dare not deliver unto your honour the Lady Buccleuch's speech, yea openly, of her telling the cause that she bred his greatness with the Queen by, nor of her speech of the Queen, nor of his insatiateness towards women.' Drury to Cecil, May, 1567: Border MSS. Rolls House.