of the King, our Sovereign Lord's father of good memory, besides many other disorders standing in the public state very worthy to be redressed by the grave judgment of you my Lords, and others here assembled, which I pass over in silence, as unwilling to weary you with an unnecessary recital of the points which more properly will be brought before the Lords of Articles. These I have but touched,-chopping at them, without any further overture, leaving more ample discourse upon every head to the opening thereof in its just time and place. Two points I may not omit, both tending to your great comfort, if with thankful hearts you will embrace God's benefits so liberally offered unto you. The first is your duty to examine what great success in a short time has followed upon a small beginning concerning matters of religion, and therewithal to consider God's providence towards you, whose care of your preservation in this behalf has not only been extended towards the safety of your consciences, although that is the principal and chief benefit, but also to the security of your lives and lands, wherein as he has wrought miraculously and far beyond your expectation, so has he exceeded the ordinary and common course of the furth-setting of his glory by the hands of the nations round about you. The quietness that you presently

enjoy declares sufficiently the victory that God by his word has obtained amongst you within the space of less than eight or nine years. How feeble the foundation was in the eyes of men, how unlikely it was to rise so soon to such a greatness, with what calmness the work has proceeded, not one of you is ignorant. Iron has not been heard within the house of the Lord, that is to say, the whole is builded, set up, and erected without bloodshed. Note it, I pray you, as a singular testimony of God's favour, and a peculiar benefit granted only to the realm of Scotland, that the true religion has obtained a free course universally through the whole realm, and yet not a Scotchman's blood shed! With what nation on the earth has God dealt so mercifully? Consider the progress of religion from time to time in other countriesGermany, Denmark, England, France, Flanders, or where you please, you shall find the lives of many thousands spent before they could purchase the least part of that liberty, whereunto we have attained, as it were, sleeping upon down coddes [pillows]. As God's mercies in this behalf has been more plentuously poured out upon you than others, when you deserved nothing less, so if you be found negligent to put the talent to profit whereof he has put you in trust (specially when you have the time and fair

occasion offered), it is to be feared that by the dreadful plagues that shall come upon you, he shall teach others not to abuse the time of his merciful visitation. This I say not that I dispair of your zeal to go forward in the work you have begun, but to admonish you of your duty. Next to encourage you (which is the second head I had to touch) by reason of the fit instrument you have to forthset the godly ordinances you shall agree upon, as well in matters of religion. as touching the Commonwealth, I mean my Lord Regent, whose behaviour being so well known to you all by the experience you have had of him. from the beginning even to this hour, will make me to speak of him the more moderately, especially in his presence. This only will I dare promise in his name, that he will never take upon him to raise himself above the law, but on the contrary, will submit his own person to the law, according to such ordinances as you may agree upon, without respect to his own private commodity." 1

One curious feature of this speech may be noticed; while the tribute to the Regent is comparatively cold and formal, Mary's mild government is warmly approved. "The true religion has obtained a free course universally throughout

1 State Papers, Scotland (Eliz.), vol. xiv. No. 95. VOL. II.

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the realm, and yet not one Scotsman's blood has been shed!" Otherwise it is Moray who speaks -Moray who, yielding to the importunities of Knox, had resolved that there should be no more "mildness," and that the "crime" of heresy should be punished with death.

But though an official show of friendliness was preserved, there can be no doubt that, even prior to Mary's escape, the alienation between Maitland and Moray had been constantly growing. Maitland believed that the Regent had behaved badly to his sister; he had broken his promise to deal gently with her, and his continued and unlookedfor severity had displeased the nobles. The Regent, who professed "to direct all his ways immediately by the word of God," was shocked, or affected to be shocked, by Maitland's easy morality. The Secretary might be a master of worldly policy"; but the carnal mind was enmity against God; and the unsanctified gifts of a secular statesman were not appreciated by the pious pensionaries of Elizabeth. So Moray, as far as possible, dispensed with his services, and it soon became notorious that they had ceased to be friends. This was Moray's explanation; but Melville assures us that the Regent was to blame. Moray was surrounded by parasites. They were men of little character and inferior abilities, who, without regard to the

public interest, sought their own advancement. Lethington, on the other hand, was naturally unselfish, and had devoted himself with absolute devotion to the common good. And "his wit so far excelled theirs "-he adds-that whenever they found the chance they did him an ill turn. Yet Maitland's influence was so powerful, and his experience so wide, that the machinery of government would have come to a stop had he been driven from office. So Moray was meanwhile forced to hide his dislike to a statesman whose commanding position was everywhere recognised. "The necessary evil" was the nickname that the Regent gave him, and by which he was known among the Regent's creatures.

Moray's authority was being slowly but surely undermined, when, "on the second day of May, upon a Sunday at even," Mary escaped from Lochleven.

It is improbable that Lethington was concerned in this premature adventure. But had Mary reached Dumbarton in safety, he would certainly have exerted himself to bring about. an accord between her and her subjects. It was rumoured, indeed, that even on the morning of Langside, Mary, "to save blood, was ready, upon the Laird of Lethington's motion, to temporise, and come to some composition." Her message, however, intrusted to a Hamilton, did