The chief actor in this tragedy was undoubtedly James Hepburn, earl of Ijothwell, a needy, reckless, vain- glorious, profligate noble, who, since Murray's revolt, and still more since Kizzio's murder, had enjoyed a large share of the queen's favor. But there were suspicions that the queen herself was not whoUj'^ ignorant of the plot, and these suspicions could not but be strengthened by what followed. On the r2th of April, Bothwell was brought to a mock-trial and acquitted ; on the 24th, he intercepted the queen on her way from Linlithgow to Edinburgh, and carried her, -with scarcely a show of re- sistance, to Dunbar. On the 7th of May, he was di- vorced from the young and comelj' wife whom he had married little more than a twelvemonth before ; on the rith, Mary publicly pardoned his seizure of her person, and created him duke of Orkney; and on the 15th — only three months after her husband's murder — she married the man whom every one regarded as his murderer, married while the stain of her husband's blood w^as still upon him. " Surely this is carrying quite too far the 'indulgent temper' for which her eulogist (Meline, p. 124) praises her so highly." Impelled by a just and burning indignation, her subjects rose in rebellion, led by nobles of both the Protestant and Romish factions. Surround- ed at Borthwick Castle, Bothwell escaped under cover of the night, Mary following him dressed in male attire. They hastily gathered the Royalists about them, but such a cause enlisted few followers. Yet the few were mustered, an(l,however sparse in number,Mary hesitated not to brave the storm ; she even dared to enter the lists against her opponents, but on the field of Carberry (.June 15) the army melted away in sight of the enemy, and no alternative was ieft to her but to abandon Both- well, and surrender herself to the confederate lords. She was now escorted by the nobles as a prisoner to Edin- burgh, where the insults of the rabble and grief at part- ing with Bothwell threw her into such a frenzy that she refused all nourishment, and, rushing to the window of the room in which she was kept prisoner, called for help, and showed herself to the people half naked, with her hair hanging about her ears. From Edinbiu^gh she was hurried to Loch Leven, where, on the 24th of July, she -was prevailed upon to sign an act of abdication in favor of her son, who, five days .afterwards, was crowned at Stirling [see James I] ; while to her brother INIurray was intrusted the government during the minority of her successor on the throne. Barred windows and iron doors proved no confinement to Mary. She soon found ways to communicate with the world, and made even
the very prison-keeper her friend and confidant. May 2, 15G8, she finally succeeded in making her escape from the island-prison, and once more she made a call to arms, this time to enter the lists life for life. An army gath- ered, and in a few da3's she found herself at the head of GOOO men. Elizabeth of England, whose great political maxim was " that the head should not be subject to the foot," would gladly have extended aid to Mary had she not feared the power of the perspicacious and firm leader of the Protestants who had imprisoned Mary — her own half-brother, Murray. On the 12th of May it finally came to a battle between the Royalists and the insurgents at Langside, near Glasgow. IMary was com- pletely routed, and obliged to flee the kingdom. She entered England, and threw herself on the protection of Elizabeth. The queen of England, however, had al- ways had cause to fear the presence of her rival on English ground. Mary had never yet renounced her claim to the crown which Elizabeth wore. Moreover, "Mary Stuart was the centre of the hopes of the ene- mies of Protestant England and of Elizabeth. Their plots looked to the elevation of ]\Iary to the throne which Elizabeth filled " (Fisher, p. 882). Political ambi- tion and religious fanaticism controlled both parties, and should the stronger yield to the weaker? Mary had come hoping to secure her cousin's sympathy and aid. But that cousin feared for her own life and the security of her throne, and therefore persistently denied the ardent and persevering solicitations of Mary for an interview, on the agreeable pretence that she should first clear her- self of the crime imputed to her. A criminal, then, she was made a prisoner, and, after an immense amount of deceptive diplomacy, a commission was appointed, nom- inally to investigate the charges of Ma>y against her rebellious lords, really to investigate the charges of the lords against their queen. Before this commission JIurray represented the Scottish government. At first he laid the guilt of the murder on Bothwell alone, and defended the insurrection only as one against the infa- mous, ambitious, and tyrannical earl. But as the trial proceeded he changed his ground. He hesitated, pro- crastinated, faltered. At length he openly charged his sister with the murder of her husband ; and he pro- duced, in confirmation of this charge, the since famous " casket letters." Of their discover}' he told tliis story : The earl of Bothwell — so said lord IMurray, and so said the lords he represented — fleeing from Edinburgh, sent back a confidential messenger to the castle to bring thence a silver casket from a certain drawer. James Balfour— that Balfour who drew the deed for Darnley's murder — had received the captaincy of the castle as the price of his crime. He delivered the casket; he at the same time sent the lords a hint of the fact. The mes- senger was intercepted and the casket seized. This casket, with its contents, was the witness Murray pro- duced before the English commission against the Scot- tish queen. Its contents were eight letters and twelve sonnets, written in French, apparently in Mary's hand- writing. Among the commissioners were more than one of INIary's friends, one of them that duke of Norfolk who subsequently attested the strength of his attach- ment by the sacrifice of his life : if these letters were a forgery, they were not so declared by them. Of these letters one gave a full account of Jlary's interview w^ith Darnley at Glasgow; of his unsuspicious confidence; of her own mournful sense of shame and guilt. Another advised the earl when and where to abduct her, and cau- tioned him to come with force sufficient to overcome all resistance. All breathed the language of passionate de- votion, with here and there a flash of fierce jealousy. They were true to nature, but to a lost, though not a shameless one. Their language was that of a once noble but now ruined woman unveiling her heart's secrets in unsuspecting confidence. If forged, the forger was a consummate master of his art. True or false, they were equally remarkable as contributions to the language of passion. Mary denounced them as forgeries. She de-