Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume 2 (of 2)

161

Goodall, vol. ii. p. 162.

162

Goodall, vol. ii. p. 62.

163

We do not at present stop the course of our narrative to examine these letters more minutely, but we shall devote some time to their consideration afterwards.

164

Goodall, vol. ii. p. 182.

165

Goodall, vol. ii. p. 184.

166

Goodall, vol. ii. p. 206.

167

Ibid. p. 220.

168

Ibid. p. 221.

169

Ibid. p. 184 and 206.

170

Ibid. p. 283.

171

Ibid. p. 312.

172

Ibid. p. 300 and 301.

173

There is one other circumstance connected with this conference, which, though not bearing any immediate reference to Mary, is worth mentioning. We allude to the challenges which passed between Lord Lindsay, one of Murray’s Commissioners, and Lord Herries, one of Mary’s most constant and faithful servants. Lindsay, whose passionate violence we have formerly had occasion to notice, attempted to force a quarrel upon Herries, by writing him the following letter:

“Lord Herries, – I am informed that you have spoken and affirmed, that my Lord Regent’s Grace and his company here present, were guilty of the abominable murder of the late King, our Sovereign Lord’s father. If you have so spoken, you have said untruly, and have lied in your throat, which I will maintain, God willing, against you, as becomes me of honour and duty. And hereupon I desire your answer. Subscribed with my hand, at Kingston, the twenty-second day of December 1568. Patrick Lindsay.”

To this epistle Lord Herries made the following spirited reply:

“Lord Lindsay, – I have seen a writing of yours, the 22d of December, and thereby understand, – ‘You are informed that I have said and affirmed, that the Earl of Murray, whom you call your Regent, and his company, are guilty of the Queen’s husband’s slaughter, father to our Prince; and if I said it, I have lied in my throat, which you will maintain against me as becomes you of honour and duty.’ In respect they have accused the Queen’s Majesty, mine and your native Sovereign, of that foul crime, far from the duty that good subjects owed, or ever have been seen to have done to their native Sovereign, – I have said – ‘There is of that company present with the Earl of Murray, guilty of that abominable treason, in the fore-knowledge and consent thereto.’ That you were privy to it, Lord Lindsay, I know not; and if you will say that I have specially spoken of you, you lie in your throat; and that I will defend as of my honour and duty becomes me. But let any of the principal that is of them subscribe the like writing you have sent to me, and I shall point them forth, and fight with some of the traitors therein; for meetest it is that traitors should pay for their own treason. Herries. London, 22d of December 1568.”

No answer appears to have been returned to this letter, and so the affair was dropped. – Goodall, vol. ii. p. 271.

174

Goodall, vol. ii. p. 313.

175

Chalmers, vol. i. p. 327.

176

Chalmers, vol. i. p. 332.

177

Anderson, vol. i. p. 80.

178

Strype, vol. i. p. 538. – Chalmers, vol. i. p. 337.

179

Stranguage, p. 114.

180

Goodall, vol. ii. p. 375. – Anderson, vol. ii. p. 261. – Stuart, vol. ii. p. 59. – Chalmers, vol. i. p. 349.

181

Anderson, vol. iii. p. 248.

182

See “An Account of the Life and Actions of the Reverend Father in God, John Lesley, Bishop of Ross,” in Anderson, vol. iii. p. vii.

183

Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 439.