Sovereign Lady, being in her companie, suld have been slain." When they reached Dunbar both Bothwell and Huntly turned upon Maitland. The Queen threw herself between them. She told Huntly that if a hair of Lethington's head did perish, she would cause him to forfeit lands and goods and lose his life. One virtue, if one only, Mary had,-nothing, apparently, could shake her steadfast loyalty to her friends.

Drury's letter, from which these particulars are gleaned, shows that Maitland had taken measures, if his life was again in imminent peril, to escape from the Court. It proves, moreover, that the scheme of using the son against the mother had taken shape at an earlier period than is commonly supposed, and that the motives of the Archbishop of St Andrews in favouring the marriage had been already surmised. Drury was an inveterate gossip, and the political scandal in his letters is often quite unreliable; but on this occasion his information with regard to the position of parties in Scotland a week before the marriage appears to have been obtained from persons who could speak with authority.

"It may please your Honour to be advertised last advertisement concerning the de

that my

1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 107.

termination of the Lords at Stirling to crown the Prince is true, and also that they mean to deal with the Queen to put away the soldiers, and be better accompanied of her nobility. Otherwise unless she write unto them, or they see writings confirmed with her hand, they will not credit them, but believe that she has been forced, and will defend the Prince and maintain the nobility and liberties of their country. This morning a gentleman of very good credit desired to speak with me secretly in the bounds, which I answered, and met with him. He showed me among the rest a letter sent from the dearest friend that the Lord of Ledington hath, requiring him to advertise me of his great desire to speak with your Honour (by letters till you may do otherwise) concerning those matters that doth concern the service of the Queen's Majesty. He also sends me word that the Queen for certain will marry the Earl Bothwell; whom he says he knows to be a great enemy unto the Queen's Majesty and to her country. Also he advertises me that he minded this night past to escape from the danger he is in and presently to repair to the Lords at Stirling. He meant once to have come to Fast Castle, but altered. He means to escape by this means. He will come out to shoot with the others, for so far he has liberty, having a guard with him,

and between the marks, riding upon a good nag will haste himself to a place appointed where both a fresh horse and company tarry for him. He should have been slain the first night of the Queen's last coming to Dunbar. Huntly should have been at the execution, to whom the Queen said if a hair of his head did perish, she would cause him to forfeit his lands and goods and lose his life. The cause why of late he was supposed to be Bothwell's was for certain letters he wrote to the Earl of Athol and others-to which he was compelled; but, by a trusty messenger, he did advise to which of his writings they should not give credit. It is expected she will presently send for the nobility to come to the marriage, and that she means to levy both horsemen and footmen, which if she doth the Lords mean also to gather. It is judged the Bishop of St Andrews encourages the Queen and Bothwell in this manner to proceed, not for any good will to either of them, but for both their destructions, the rather to bring his friends to their purpose. The Lord of Ledington hath earnestly requested me to convey his message unto your Lordship (affirming that therein I shall do the Queen good service), and that your Honour would let her Highness know he had that to say that would conserve the benefit of both the realms. It is thought by others that after he

hath been with the Lords he may have cause to repair to your Court."1

Even when it became clear to Maitland that, after what had occurred, the marriage could not be prevented, and that the part he had taken against it had converted Bothwell into a bitter enemy, he remained at the Queen's side. He did his best to smooth the thorny path on which, willingly or unwillingly, she had entered. Mary's instructions to her ambassadors, in which she explains the enormous difficulties by which she had been beset, are understood to have been drawn by Maitland. The key in which they are pitched is studiously moderate. The Queen had been badly treated by her powerful subject; but she was now content to accept the choice of her nobles, and to make the best of a bad business. Bothwell's earlier history having been passed in review, surprise is expressed that a noble who had proved himself so uniformly loyal should have ventured to intrigue against her. Before, however, he had even "afar off" begun to discover his intentions to herself, he had obtained from the assembled Estates their consent to the marriage; and thereafter, finding that the Queen would not listen to his suit, he

1 Drury to Cecil, 6th May | tences being often barely in1567. Condensed and modern- telligible.

ised,-Drury's involved sen

had forcibly carried her to Dunbar. There, after having again rejected him, she was shown the bond signed by the nobles upon whose counsel and fidelity she had before depended. "Many things we revolved with ourself, but never could find ane outgait." Having at length extorted an unwilling consent, the Earl resolving "either to tine all in an hour, or to bring to pass that thing he had taken in hand," insisted on an immediate marriage. "So ceased he never, till by persuasions and importunate suit, accompanied not the less by force, he has finally driven us to end the work begun at sic time and in sic forme as he thocht might best serve his turn, wherein we cannot dissemble that he has used us otherways than we have deservit at his hand. But now," she concludes, "since it is past, and cannot be brought back again, we will mak the best of it."1

Maitland was one of the last of Mary's friends to leave the Court; but the savage violence of Bothwell ultimately exhausted his patience. Athol was already in arms, and he stole away to Athol. "Not long after," Melville says, "the Earl of Bothwell thought to have slain him in the Queen's chamber, had not her Majesty come be

1 Instructions to the Bishop | ii. 592.

of Dunblane, May 1567. Keith,

VOL. II.

P