Section 1167

and the envoy is yet on his way to the court of Rome, fits up a private room in the palace, where the marriage- ceremuny, which the Church pronounces void, is clan- destinely performed. For the papal benediction is need- ed, it ajjpears, not to hallow the marriage-tie, but only to give it respectability before the public. Elizabeth might as well spare her diplomacy, since all is virtually settled. Eizzio has not exceeded his instructions. There are no delaj'S at the court of Rome. Fast as wind and wave can carry him comes back the messenger with the prom- ised dispensation. The marriage, already perlbnned in secret, is repeated in public. It takes place on June 29, loGo. Queen Mary, as though some secret conscious- ness hung over her of the sorrows on which she is en- tering, wears at the marriage-altar her mourning dress of black velvet. It is a gloomy ceremony. \Mien the herald proclaims in the streets of Edinburgh that Henry, earl of Ross and Albany, is hereafter king of Scotland, the crowd receive the proclamation in sullen silence. Even the money distributed in profusion among them awalvcns no enthusiasm. Onlj' one voice cries, ' God save his Grace.' It is the voice of Darnley's father. My lord the earl of Murraj' has tried dissuasion. It has failed. He has tried wile against wile, has planned to al>duct lord Darnley and send him back to the queen of England. But the rough Scotchman is no match in craft for the cunning Italian. This fruitless conspiracj' has only incensed the queen against him. His honest portraiture of the poor fool with whom queen Mary is .so infatuated has awakened all her womanly indigna- tion. The court is no longer safe. Rumors are rife of plans for his assassination. True or false, they are prob- able enough to make him avoid Rizzio and Darnley. The queen summons him to court, and offers him a safe- conduct. But Protestants have learned to look with suspicion on safe-conducts ])roffered by Roman CathoUc princes. Murray is conveniently sick, and cannot come. Sentence of outlawry is pronounced against him. AU the hate of a hot woman's heart is aroused ; ' hatred the more malignant because it was unnatural.' Revenge is sweeter than ambition. ' I would rather lose my crown than not be revenged upon him,' she is heard to say. He calls to arms. The interest of the Protestant religion is his battle-cry. But there are few responses. He despatches messengers to queen Elizabeth for the help she has long since promised. She hesitates, delays, falters. Mary knows no delay. She takes the field in jicrson. Lord Darnley rides at her side. He is clad in gilt armor, she in steel bonnet and corslet, with pistols at her saddle-bow and pistols in her hand. In August the standard of rebellion was raised. In October Mur- ray antl his few retainers are flying across the border into England (Burton, ix, 28G). Mephistopheles no longer conceals his purpose. Mass is no longer confined to the queen's private chapel. The retainers of Darn- ley's father go openly to the Catholic service. The General Assembly have passed a resolution that the sovereign is not exempt from the law of the land, and that the Reformed service take the })lace of the mass in the royal chapel. This is Rizzio's answer to their de- mand. Negotiations are opened with pope Pius Y and Philip of Spain. One promises soldiers, twelve thou- sand men; the other sends money, twenty thousand crowns. The Catholic powders of Europe liave at length settled their political controversies, and joined in a se- cret league for the extirpation of heres\' by fire and sword ; a league of which that Alva was the founder whose estimate of Protestantism was simmied u]) in the epigrammatic saying, 'One salmon is wortli a multitude of frogs;' a league of which tlie outcome was the Inqui- sition in Holland, and the massacre of St. Barilmlomew in France. That Mary was in hearty sympathy with this league is undoii1)ted; thafshe was actually a party to it is both asserted and denied by men behind tlie scenes who had every ojiport unity to know. Tliat a vigorous attempt was to be made to re-establish the Catholic faith and worship is certain. Her most Catholic maj-