the same privilege which she accorded to her subjects — " that of worshipping God according to her own creed." "So the nation rested in tolerable peace, trusting in Mur- ray rather than in IMary, and suffering her mass, though always under protest, so long as she suffered herself to be guided by his counsels. But of this kind of compromise the holy IMother Church is always impatient. Although there was no papal legate at the court of Edinburgh, Rome did not lack for envoys — shrewd ones, too. Of these the chief was an Italian, David Rizzio (q.v.). He entered her service as a musician soon after she went to Scotland ; was promoted to the office of valet de chambre ; became her private secretary ; conducted all her private and secret correspondence ; became eventually the pow- er behind the throne greater than the throne itself, usurping the verj' government. Chief we have called him, yet he was not alone. The court of Scotland had her representatives in foreign courts, as befitted her dignitj' ; but her true representatives were unknown to courtly fame — Chesein in France, Yaxley in the Netherlands, Ranlet in the Low Countries. So there was an outer and inner court. My lord James, earl of ]\Iurray, was, indeed, the queen's prime minister; but this unknown adventur- er from Piedmont — unknown because he succeeded best while he hid his office, as his designs — was virtually her secretary for foreign affairs, and her most confiden- tial adviser. The earl of Murray must be dismissed. No easy task, surely, but one that art can accomplish. Wlio so fitting to come between sister and brother as a husband? Queen INIary shall be married. It is time she laid off her widow's weeds. And who so fitting a spouse as my lord Darnley — the only one who, when Elizabeth dies, can compete with Mary for the throne of England ? So my lord Darnley and Mary queen of Scots are brought together. They meet in Wemyss Castle, by the Firth of Forth. It is a clear case of ' love at first sight.' Royal husbands not a few have been proposed for IMary's hand, but nothing more is heard of them. ' He is the handsomest and best-pro- portioned long man,' says Mary, ' I have ever seen.' Everything goes as Rizzio and the papal court would have it. The Protestant interest takes fire, for Darnley is a Catholic. It is not less furious in England than in Scotland, for the nation has little hope now that queen Elizabeth will ever take a husband, and in the absence of her heirs the throne of the iniited kingdom will fall into the hands of this Catholic couple. . . . Queen Eliz- abeth, -who has been playing fast and loose, with fair promises and fickle performance, finds herself no match for the cunning Italian. Her own kingdom is threat- ened with faction ; and rumors of Catholic rebellion, to unseat her and place her rival and cousin on the empty throne, fill the court and the nation with perplexity. She indignantly summons Darnley back again, and gets for answer that ' he has no mind to return.' ' I find my- self,' he says, shortly and almost contemptuously, ' very well where I am, and so I purpose to keep me.' My lord Murray sees the end of all this from the beginning. Neither Blary's tears nor INIary's threats, and she uses both with a woman's consummate skiU, can wring from him an approval of the marriage. But all his affection- ately-earnest protests are powerless to hinder it. Op- position is only fuel to the flame. IMarry she will, though all the world opposes. Love, blind as it always is said to be, for the ignoble Darnley, revenge on Eliza- beth, whom Mary cordially hates, and who hates her as cordially, and ambition — the arabitioji to make good her claim to the English throne, which since she was a girl eighteen j-^ears old she has never ceased to nourish — all push her on to this destructive marriage. And Mc- phistopheles is «t her side to remove every obstacle and clear the way. It is Rizzio who arranges for the first meeting between Mary and Darnley. It is Rizzio who affects such liking for the young lord that he shares his bed with him. It is Rizzio who promises to secure the pope's dispensation — for jMary and Darnley are cousins. It is Rizzio who, while negotiations are still pending
MARY STUART
852
MARY STUART