Mary had signed any paper, appears doubtful; she certainly wished the affair to take this turn, and acted so that nobody could tell what her will was. (71) All these arguments, which prove indeed Bothwell's skill in intrigue, can by no means acquit those who signed the paper from the reproach of servile, nay, scandalous concession; and it must not be forgotten that among them, and among the members of the Court on Bothwell's trial, there were several well acquainted with the affair, who, like Mary, afterwards attempted to free themselves from all blame, and to cast it upon the Earl of Murray, who was gone to France.

The report that the Queen thought of marrying Bothwell obtained a fearful confirmation by that declaration. Several of her faithful friends, like Melvil, conjured Mary not to devote herself to eternal infamy by a marriage with the murderer of her husband. But instead of profiting by these warnings, she communicated them to Bothwell, who then eagerly persecuted the authors of them. Five days after the signing of the recommendatory paper, the Queen rode to Stirling: suddenly Bothwell, with many attendants appeared, seized her horse's bridle, and led her to his castle of Dunbar, where she remained twelve days. It was, says Mary's advocates, a horrible wicked rape: nobody moved to release the Queen, and as she was in the hands of her enemies, the best re

source that she had left was to marry the criminal. Others with more truth and good sense answered, "The whole plan was concerted with Bothwell, and it is a proof of the greatest levity and even shamelessness, that Mary could believe the pretext of rape and violence would excuse the shameful plans of marriage." Several persons who were present certify, that she willingly followed Bothwell, and though some of her attendants left Dunbar on the following day, she did not charge any of them to take measures for her deliverance, but seemed to take pleasure in the riotous course of life in the castle, till another obstacle to the marriage was removed in a scandalous manner. Bothwell had formerly, and this was not unknown to the Queen, led a very dissolute life; but had six months before married the sister of Lord Huntley, with a dispensation from the Pope. About the time of the pretended rape, proceedings for a divorce were instituted in the Catholic and Protestant Courts, and sentence passed accordingly in a few days; in the former, on the ground of consanguinity; in the second, at the instance of his wife, on that of adultery. Three days after this sentence, the Queen returned with Bothwell to Edinburgh, and twelve days afterwards, on the 12th of May, she publicly declared before the Lords, that she had been ravished and detained against her will in Dunbar, but pardoned Bothwell on account of his services and polite behaviour, and was

resolved to marry him. Two days later she gave to the persons who signed the above-mentioned recommendation a document, by which they, some of whom were accomplices, were fully acquitted of all the facts therein mentioned, so that neither they nor their descendants could ever be accused on account of them.

After reciprocal precautions of so offensive a nature, the banns of marriage between the Queen and Bothwell were to be published; but the Protestant clergyman, Craig, declared that his conscience and the divine laws forbade him to acknowledge this marriage to be just, and he was ready to produce his reasons. Being summoned to do so, he said to the Privy Counsellors and to Bothwell, who was present, that the laws of the Church prohibited persons who had been divorced for adultery, to contract a second marriage; that this divorce was besides evidently a stratagem, pronounced with undue precipitation, and at the moment of a new union; that Bothwell was accused of having carried off the Queen by violence, and that the suspicion of his participation in the murder of the King was publicly talked of. He therefore exhorted him to renounce so presumptuous and criminal an undertaking, and implored the counsellors to use all their influence to dissuade the Queen from a marriage which must cover her with disgrace. Notwithstanding these courageous and well-founded re

monstrances, the order to publish the banns was persisted in. Craig obeyed; but at the same time stated what objections he had made as his duty commanded, and concluded as follows: "I take Heaven and earth to witness that I abhor this marriage; but as I see that most persons in the kingdom, some by flattery, some by their silence, approve it, I exhort the faithful to pray to God, that he may be pleased to let it turn to the good of the State, though it may seem to them to be contrary to reason and conscience." Being again summoned before the Privy Council, Craig appealed to the duties of his office, to the word of God, and nature, to sound reason, and to the consciences of all present, which loudly testified the odious and offensive nature of this marriage; but before he could conclude his speech, Bothwell commanded him to be silent, and the 15th of May was fixed for the marriage; and the warnings of Queen Elizabeth, the declaration of several persons, especially of the French Ambassador, de Croc, that they would not be present at the ceremony, was equally unavailing. Three months after the murder of Darnley, three weeks after the pretended rape, fourteen days after the divorce, Mary married Bothwell, the murderer of her husband, both according to the Roman Catholic and the Protestant rites. (72) If any excuse or explanation can be found for this wretched weakness, this indifference to all warnings and facts,

this dreadful indiscretion, it can only be in the insanity of passion, which was shown in the sequel in other ways: whereas it is contrary to all the facts, and absolutely absurd, when Mary's advocates say, that the notion of passion is not supported or confirmed by any historical testimony. These infatuated advocates forget that if that motive is reasoned away, there does not remain the remotest inducement for compassionate interest, but only an abyss of vices and crimes.

Mary, however, endeavoured by every means in her power, to justify her conduct to the French and English Courts; in her instructions to her Ambassadors she extolled the services which Bothwell had done to herself and to the state, represented the rape as a consequence of his affection, and as a means by which he desired to secure himself against powerful conspiracies; her anger had been appeased by the recommendation of the nobles, and as no person had appeared to support her, she had the rather resolved to marry the most worthy of her subjects, because the people of Scotland were equally averse to a female government, and to a foreign sovereign; as soon as Bothwell had, by a bravado, obtained the first point, her consent to the marriage, he had by persuasion, by urgent demand, nay, even by force, so hastened the marriage, that she scarcely had time to ask, and to wait for the advice and assent of her