the Regent. "That part of the Lords "-this is Melville's narrative-" that did still bear a great love for the Queen, and had compassion upon her estate, and who had entered upon the enterprise only for safety of the prince and punishment of the murder, as among others the Earl of Athol and Secretary Lidington, sent their instructions with me to my Lord of Moray praying him in their name to behave himself gently and humbly with the Queen, and to procure as much favour for her as he could." Melville intimates that Moray appeared not unwilling to follow his advice. "But when he went to see the Queen at Lochleven, instead of comforting her, and following the good counsel he had gotten, he entered instantly with her Majesty in reproaches, giving her such injurious language as was like to break her heart. We who found fault with that procedure lost his favour. The injuries were such that they cut the thread of love and credit betwixt the Queen and him for ever." 1

The severity of Moray at his interview with his sister has been otherwise explained. When he first heard that he was to be Regent he was right glad"; but he afterwards affected to hold back. He was anxious, it appeared, that the

1 Melville Memoirs, p. 87.

Queen herself should invite him to accept the Regency. The severity of his language, the hardness of his manner, were intended to intimidate her. Mary was to be made to believe that she was in imminent peril, and that her brother only could save her. Throckmorton's account of the meeting tends to confirm this impression. The English envoy, who had been satisfied from the first that "Moray will run the course that these men do, and be partaker of their fortunes,"1 was not surprised to learn that Moray, when he went to Lochleven on 15th August, "behaved himself rather like a ghostly father unto her than like a counsellor." The Queen wept bitterly; but Moray was unmoved. "In conclusion, the Earl of Moray left her that night in hope of nothing but of God's mercy, willing her to seek that as her chiefest refuge. And so they parted."

Next morning" betime" the play was played out. Moray affected to relent. If it was in his

power, her life would be spared. Nay, he would assure her of her life on one condition. The condition, if not expressed, was implied.

Mary, who had spent the night in a state of cruel uncertainty-for what she could tell, the scaffold might be preparing in the courtyard of the castle" took him in her arms and kissed

1 Throckmorton to Cecil, 12th August 1567.

him, requiring him to accept the Regency of the realm."

On Moray's return to Edinburgh he saw Throckmorton, and gave him his version of the interview. But when Throckmorton asked to be allowed to declare Elizabeth's commission, he was put off to a more convenient season. "The Earl of Moray answered, We must now serve God, for the preacher tarryeth for us, and after the sermon we must advise of a time to confer with you. And so the said Earl took his leave of me."1

Throckmorton was not received by Moray till the 21st, when the decision of the Council was communicated to him by Maitland. The Queen of England had charged them to set Mary at liberty. But the Queen of England was not their sovereign. They were the subjects of another prince. And he added with significant emphasis there was no way to do Mary so much harm as to precipitate matters before they were ripe. A few days later Throckmorton was distinctly informed that they would not permit him to see the Queen.2

Elizabeth's envoy prepared to leave. A present of gilt plate had been prepared for him, and

1 Throckmorton 20th August 1567.

to Cecil,

2 Throckmorton to Cecil, 22d August, 1st September 1567.

he was asked to accept it, but he refused. He could accept no present, he said, except from the Queen their sovereign. Lethington accompanied him to his lodgings, and again pressed him to accept the gift. "Whereunto I did not yield, but so took my leave of him.” 1

"The time was not ripe." The extreme faction was still in power. The people as a whole had been taken by surprise, and were not yet prepared for vigorous action on behalf of their sovereign. The Queen must wait. She was

safer in prison.

Maitland advocated.

That was the policy which

Throckmorton left Edinburgh on 30th August 1567; Mary escaped from Lochleven on 2d May 1568. In Maitland's opinion, as in Melville's, her escape was premature. "She escaped out of Lochleven too hastily ere the time was ripe." Had she had patience to wait, the nation, which was wearying of the Regent's rule, would have risen for her as one man. But her ill-luck was persistent. She repeated the mistake she had made at Carberry.

During the intervening months we hear little of Maitland, who was occupied with the routine duties of administration. The speech which he delivered on behalf of Moray at the opening of

1 Throckmorton to Cecil, 1st September 1567.

Parliament in December has been preserved. It is a skilful sketch in neutral tint,-the official manifesto of the Regent's Government; and though the evident anxiety to avoid the dangerous quicksands of controversy is very characteristic of its author, it cannot otherwise be taken as representing his personal convictions. As a more than usually interesting example of a "Queen's speech" to the Scottish Parliament of the sixteenth century, the reader, however, may wish to see it :

"If at any time heretofore parliaments have been thought necessary or profitable, I think whosoever shall look into the present estate of this realm will judge that is not without purpose that you are assembled at this time. And that for divers considerations whereof every one is of sufficient consequence to require this general convention; to wit, the establishing of one uniform religion; the acknowledging of the just authority in the person of the King our Sovereign Lord, upon demission of the crown in his favour by the Queen his mother, and during his minority in the person of my Lord Regent, also by her appointment; the reunion of the minds of the nobility in so far as any diversity of judgment has appeared in their actions the time of the late controversies; the taking order for the cruel murder perpetrated in the person