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COUNTY FAMILY SCANDALS.

"up the water," waited vainly to hear her husband's horse's hoofs returning. Lord James caught and drowned a score or two of honest Scotts and Elliots-drowned them for lack of ropes to hang, and trees to hang them on.40

At Edinburgh, while Mary still hoped for the original tryst with Elizabeth, events not without sequence occurred. The General Assembly met on June 29. They sent a document to Mary, warning her against "perishing in her own iniquity," and asking that adulterers should be punished. The death-penalty was what the Kirk desired. They pleaded the cause of the poor, from whom the purveyors of the Kirk's and queen's third extorted their last penny. "It is a wonder that the sun giveth light and heat to the earth, where God's name is so frequently called upon and no mercy (according to His commandment) shown to His creatures." So much the poor had gained by the Revolution. Public relief, from the teinds and other sources, was demanded-in fact, a kind of Poor Law. A threat was uttered against Catholics who, where they had power, "troubled the ministers." The enforcement of the penal statutes was called for, but Lethington denounced the belief that Mary "would raise up Papists and Papistry again." The threat that the godly would again take the law into their own hands was resented. Lethington presented an expurgated version of the Assembly's petition, and nothing came of it all. (Knox, ii. 337-344.)

Two days before the Assembly, on June 27, a curious affray occurred. Long ago Ogilvie of Findlater had taken a Gordon lady for his second wife, and had disinherited James Ogilvie, his son by his first wife. His lands at this time were in the possession of John Gordon, a younger son of the fickle Earl of Huntly. Findlater's reasons for disinheriting his own son are stated thus by Randolph The son "had solicited his father's wife to dishonesty, both with himself and with other men." Again, he plotted to lock his father up in a dark house [room], and keep him waking (as witches were used to be) till he went stark mad. On the old gentleman's death his wife married the heir, John Gordon, who "locked her up in a close room, where she remains." 41 From these family jars came a fight in Edinburgh streets on June 27, when Lord Ogilvie was wounded, and Gordon was imprisoned. He fled to his father, Huntly, on July 25. Mary had meditated a progress to the North before Easter.42 Probably it was only

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MARY OVERTHROWS HUNTLY (OCTOBER 1562). deferred during the negotiations with England. On August 10 Randolph, who was obliged to accompany her, ruefully reported her design to go to Inverness.43 Mary at this moment was insulted by Captain Hepburn, who sent her obscene verses and drawings, and fled. This was probably a revenge for Bothwell, still a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle. On August 31 Randolph announced Mary's presence at Aberdeen. Huntly was out of favour, and she would not visit him, though his house was but three miles distant. He had been adverse to the meeting with Elizabeth, he was notoriously perfidious, his extortions were great, and he was suspected of advising his son John not to enter himself prisoner after his escape from prison. Lastly, when the queen reached Inverness, on September 9, she asked for the castle, which was held for Huntly as sheriff. The castle declined to admit her, but surrendered next day, when the captain was hanged. Mary stayed for five days at Inverness, and then went to Spynie in Moray, the house of the bishop. Huntly was expected to resist her at the passing of the Spey. Mary regretted that she was not a man, "to know what life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk on the causeway with a jack and knapschalle [steel cap], a Glasgow buckler, and a broadsword" (September 18).

Huntly, indeed, did send a force under his son John, but they retreated before the queen's army. Bothwell, who had escaped from prison, sent in his submission, but "her purpose is to put him out of the country." Knox thought that Bothwell escaped by Mary's connivance. On returning to Aberdeen, Mary gave to Mar the long-coveted earldom of Murray (September 18). To Huntly she sent, demanding surrender of a cannon which he possessed (September 25). Huntly protested his loyalty to her messenger with tears, and Lady Huntly implored her grace in the name of their common religion. Mary laughed at their entreaties. On October 9, Mary being still at Aberdeen, Huntly fled from his house of Strathbogie. On the 15th he was threatened with outlawry if he did not instantly surrender. Meanwhile Huntly's eldest son went to Châtelherault, and there was talk of his leaguing himself with Bothwell. Finally, on October 28, Randolph reports that Huntly, with a small force, has been defeated (at Corrichie), and has died suddenly, as a prisoner," without blow or stroke suddenly he fell from his horse, stark dead." John Gordon was executed on November 2, Huntly's body was brought to Edinburgh, young Adam Gordon was spared.

In May 1563 the dead man was tried, and forfeited, with his descendants. His eldest son was condemned, but was released after Mary's marriage.

This uprooting of her chief Catholic noble, by a Catholic queen, has been diversely interpreted by historians. We have followed the account by Randolph, an eyewitness and a man not easily deceived. Knox, on the other hand, was in Ayrshire, disputing with Quentin Kennedy and collecting rumours. "Mr Knox," says Randolph, "has many times given him warning of practisers, but this is the first that he, or any man, could assure him of." Randolph leaves no doubt that Mary was intent on her expedition, and became hostile to Huntly. It was she who refused to visit him at Strathbogie, "her Council find" the refusal to go "expedient" (August 31). She has just cause for disliking Huntly of long time "for manifest tokens of disobedience no longer to be borne" (September 18). "The queen is highly offended." "She will do something that will be a terror to the others."

"I never saw

her merrier, never dismayed, nor never thought so much to be in her as I find." "She trusts to put the country in good quietness" (September 23). "She believed not a word" (of Huntly's or Lady Huntly's apologies), "and so declared the same herself unto her Council" (September 30). "She is determined to proceed against them" (the Gordons) "with all extremity" (October 12). She refused the keys of two castles which Huntly sent in by a groom. "She said that she had provided other means to open those doors." "The queen is determined to bring Huntly to utter confusion." She declined to see Lady Huntly (October 23). On the trial of the prisoners of Corrichie, she "declared how detestable a part Huntly thought to have used against her, as to have married her where he would, to have slain her brother" (November 2). Such are the comments of an eyewitness. Turn to Knox. Says Randolph, "He is so full of distrust in all her [Mary's] doings, as though he were either of God's privy council that knew how he had determined of her from the beginning, or that he knew the secrets of her heart so well that neither she did or could have, for ever, one good thought of God, or of His true religion." 45 In Knox's theory, "one thing is certain, to wit, the queen was little offended at Bothwell's escaping." Yet Knox himself, he tells us, induced the Master of Maxwell to write to Bothwell, bidding him be a good subject, that his crime of break

44

KNOX'S SUSPICIONS OF MARY.

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ing jail might be pardoned. Randolph says she was determined to exile Bothwell. Knox holds that when Huntly's eldest son went to Châtelherault, it was to bid him rebel in the South as he would in the North, despite "Knox's crying nor preaching." "46 He admits that Mary was really in anger with Huntly when she refused to visit Strathbogie. She was "inflamed" when John Gordon cut off a patrol of hers; but he doubts if she acted lawfully in thereon putting Huntly "to the horn." He says that Huntly expected many of Mary's forces to side with him. The van of Mary's men fought ill (this seems to be certain), and Knox attributes it to treachery. Mary "gloomed" on hearing of her victory at Corrichie. Murray's success was very venom to her boldened heart against him for his godliness. . . . Of many days she bore no better countenance, . . . albeit she caused execute John Gordon and divers others, yet it was the destruction of others that she sought."

66

The real plan was "that Murray should with certain others have been taken at Strathbogie; the queen should have been taken and kept at the devotion of the said Earl of Huntly." So Mary herself told Randolph; but Knox, in contradiction of his own story, avers that "it was the destruction of others that she sought," as if she had been Huntly's accomplice. Knox's method of writing history is astonishing. He avers that Mary received Huntly well, during her journey, at Buchan and Rothiemay; that she was "offended" when John Gordon broke promise to render himself prisoner; that she was later "inflamed" more and more,-by Huntly's refusal to yield two castles (which he did yield), and by John Gordon's treacherous attack on her patrol. All this is wholly inconsistent with a plot between Mary and Huntly. Yet he writes, "Whether there was any secret practice and confederacy betwixt the queen herself and Huntly, we cannot certainly say." 47 The whole circumstances which Knox has related, Mary's original attitude to Huntly, and the repeated offences which "inflamed" her against him, confirm Randolph's account, and confute the suspicions of the Reformer. Mr Froude charitably supposes that Mary had a double policy. If Huntly could defeat Murray, and "set her at liberty,"—well. If Murray defeated Huntly, and so dropped his suspicions of herself,-well. 48 "Her brother read her a cruel lesson by compelling her to be present at the execution." The authority is not given.

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BUCHANAN'S ROMANCE.

These subtleties are futile. Mary was angered by Huntly's offences, and confirmed in her opinion of him by the confessions of his son John, and of a retainer of his, Thomas Ker. Murray, of course, gained by Huntly's fall, and so did the Protestant cause. We have seen an example of the gratitude of a preacher. Mary was true to her Church, but she was a queen, and true, so far, to her duties as a sovereign. George Buchanan tells an interesting historical romance on the whole subject. The Guises saw that they could not restore the Church while Murray lived. They trusted in Huntly. They therefore advised Mary to allure his son, John Gordon (a married man), with hopes of her hand: he might be useful in a massacre of Protestants. The Pope and a cardinal urged on Mary the same advice. Mary showed their letters to Murray, such was her artfulness.49 The plot being laid, Mary went to Aberdeen: Lady Huntly, knowing that Mary hated Huntly and Murray equally, tried to fathom her designs. But Huntly secured Mary by promising to restore the Church. Mary came into the plot to murder Murray, only stipulating that John Gordon should first surrender. But John got together 1000 men and hung about round Aberdeen. Murray knew his own danger. The murder was to be done when Mary and Murray visited Strathbogie. But Huntly would not concede the point of his son's surrender, and to Strathbogie Mary would not go. Then came the refusal to hand over Inverness Castle, which turned all Mary's wrath on the head of Huntly, who still thought that his best plan was to murder Murray. He failed, and died at Corrichie. The queen wept at John Gordon's execution, which was cruelly prolonged; wept, doubtless because she hated Murray as much as Huntly.5 The reader may now understand the value of Buchanan's evidence. A tolerant construction of Mary's conduct makes it clear that she was equally ready to win Huntly to murder her brother, or to purchase the English crown, as Mr Froude says, "by Huntly's blood"! 51 For it is, of course, impossible that she merely designed the overthrow of a perfidious and rebellious kinglet of the North. If Mary "stooped to folly" and worse, we must remember that she was for years goaded by Protestant virulence, which turned her every act and word into evil.

The truth about the affair of Huntly seems to be this: Mary, under Lethington and Mar (Murray), was "running the English course." The great House of Hamilton, ever ready to change its creed, was hostile to her, and Huntly, a Catholic, was suspicious,