in bringing all Scotland to the obedience of the King; and she had empowered Hunsdon to treat with him on the course to be pursued.1 2 Mar at once moved from Stirling to Leith to prepare to besiege the castle. Hunsdon and Drury sent word to Maitland that further resistance was useless. Their mistress intended to interfere at last to real purpose; and if they refused to surrender, there was force imminent upon them utterly for their extermination.' The Castle party were well supplied with money and provisions. They had no fear of the Regent, and the Gordons in the North had just gained what passed at the time for a considerable success. In two skirmishes Adam Gordon had cut up and destroyed the whole clan of Forbes. Lady Forbes shut herself up with her children and servants in Towie Castle. Adam Gordon came under the walls, broke an opening through them with pick and crowbar, and flung in blazing faggots of brushwood. The children, choking with 'the reek,' sprang over the battlements, were caught on pikes, and tossed back into the flames. Mother, family, household, all perished, save one woman who struggled through the fire and escaped.3 The 'victory' secured Aberdeenshire for the present to Lord Huntly; and Alva, though out of humour with England, was still thinking seriously that he might effect something in the Northern kingdom. Lord Seton, supported by Leonard Dacres, had so far worked 1 Elizabeth to the Earl of Mar, giving. The later penitence of ScotOct. 2.-MSS. Scotland. 2 Drury to Maitland, Oct. 6.MSS. Scotland. This infernal wickedness was celebrated by the Queen's friends at Edinburgh with a fast and a thanks land has preserved the memory of 'Give ower your House, ye lady fair, CHAP XXII 1572 XXII 1572 CHAP upon him that the Aberdeenshire coast had been carefully surveyed, and one or two places with accessible harbours had been selected to be fortified.' If Elizabeth sent men and guns to reduce Edinburgh Castle, their hopes in this quarter would instantly disappear, and it was necessary, if possible, to amuse her with negotiations to give time for the Spaniards to come. They knew her character only too well. It was with the greatest reluctance that she had acknowledged at last the necessity of interference. She was most anxious to induce the party in the Castle to surrender of themselves, and insisted that the very easiest terms should be offered them consistent with their submission to the King. The mention of terms gave Maitland the opportunity which he wanted. It enabled him to raise a series of questions on the government of Scotland, on the restoration of forfeited property, on the endless difficulties, in detail, in the proposed reconciliation, and Elizabeth was willing to go on indefinitely allowing these points to be argued over. It was to no purpose that she was warned of the intrigues going forward at Brussels; of the danger of delay; of the certainty that when her troops were once in motion the castle would be surrendered at discretion. The Queen only recalled the powers to use force which she had given to Hunsdon; and Hunsdon vainly told her that she was throwing away time, words, and money in endeavouring to deal with the difficulty in any other way.2 1 Articles of the Lord Seton's negotiations with the Duke of Alva.MSS. QUEEN of Scots. 2 They of the castle will not yield to persuasions or threatenings. I would her Majesty had used some other instrument to make demonstrations of having the castle by force; for it is neither honourable to her nor credit to me, and doth verify their saying. They did always affirm and give out that what shew So the wretched uncertainty drove on. After three months' debate, it came to this. Elizabeth would not restore Mary Stuart, but would consent that during the King's minority the administration should be divided between the two factions; and she insisted that all the estates and offices which had been taken from the Queen's friends should be restored to them. The Regent naturally replied that he and those who had acted with him had ruined themselves to maintain the King's authority as much in Elizabeth's interest as their own-and that those who had raised the civil war ought to pay for it.1 Elizabeth might have met this objection by paying something herself; but every farthing of money which she advanced to these poor Protestant noblemen was wrung from her drop by drop as if it were her life's blood. The Regent's troops were in mutiny for want of wages, and Maitland laughed in his sleeve as he watched her wearing out their patience.2 The Queen, semper eadem, as she fitly named herself, was resolute only not to part with money, and otherwise changed her mind from day to day. She allowed Burghley to draw up conditions favourable to the soever her Majesty made she would send no forces. I pray God when they shall find that her Majesty will send no forces that they make not another alteration among themselves smally to her Majesty's contentment.' -Hunsdon to Burghley, Dec. 4. MSS. Scotland. 1 Mar to Hunsdon, Jan. 15.MSS. Scotland. 2 You will perceive the hindrance to the King's side by the delay of her Majesty's resolution and want of money. I assure you, if her Majesty tract the time any longer they will 26. CHAP XXII 1572 XXII 1572 CHAP Regent, and to threaten the Castle party with compulsion: when it came to the point of action she perpetually refused to turn her menaces into reality, or to assist the Regent with men or subsidies to drive or tempt them to submit. With such a mistress over him, Burghley could but struggle with impossibilities. He knew that unless Mary Stuart's faction in Scotland was put down, the danger to England was scarcely less than from the Ridolfi conspiracy; but his threats were wasted words. Elizabeth was capable of letting Maitland know secretly that he need not regard them. In Burghley's presence she could be argued into reason; when he left her she fell back under the persuasions of Leicester and the poisonous household clique, the nest of the traitors male and female who were for ever busy undermining her wiser judgment and thwarting the influence of her ministers. In February Thomas Randolph was called out of his retirement and sent down to Edinburgh to attempt a composition. He found the Regent in the last stage of exasperation, complaining that Murray had been ruined by Elizabeth's falsehood, and that now he himself' was finding nothing but words of which he had already had too much.' At this moment Alva was coming to a resolution to strike in. The battle of Lepanto in October, and the splendid victory of Don John of Austria, had revived the spirits of the Spaniards, and gave Philip leisure to employ his arms elsewhere. Seton had completed his arrangements for the landing 1 'Of that which it hath pleased your Lordship secretly to inform us, and so earnestly to charge us to keep in counsel, that no force shall be used against the Castilians if the treaty can take no effect, and that there is a peremptory refusal thereof, nor yet that they may be won with money to that wherein persuasion could not prevail, we can but promise in ourselves silence in the matter, and to deal with the other the best we can.' -Randolph and Drury to Burghley, March 31.-MSS. Scotland. CHAP of the troops at Aberdeen, and was hastening home with money and instructions to prepare for their reception, when the vessel in which he was crossing February the Channel was driven by a storm into Harwich. Seton to lose no time passed through England disguised as a sailor, taking the money with him. The ship was to follow as soon as the weather moderated, and believing that no suspicion could attach to her, he left his papers and ciphers on board. Information was given to the officers of the port, the ship was searched, the documents were found and sent to London, and as the ciphers were gradually read they revealed the plans for the invasion of Scotland, with a correspondence between the Countess of Northumberland and Douglas of Lochleven for the release of the Earl. Some few days elapsed, however, before the key was made out, and meanwhile Randolph and Sir William Drury, who was in commission with him, had been admitted to the Castle to an interview with the Marian leaders. Seton had arrived, and not having heard of the miscarriage of his papers, they were in high confidence and spirits. Chatelherault, Huntly, Seton, Maitland, Hume, Grange, the Bishops of Dunkeld and Galloway, Sir Robert Melville and Ker of Fernihurst, and many others, were assembled there. They had collected to consider Alva's plans and how best they could forward them. The Castle was tolerably comfortable. Morton had hoped that the cold winter would have starved the garrison out, but they had destroyed the largest merchants' houses in Edinburgh to make fuel of the timber, and so had held the frost at bay. Mons Meg was fired in honour of the coming of the English envoys. The Lords received them standing, all but Maitland, who was too ill to rise from his seat. They found the |