believe that he was supplanted in
the queen's affections by an Italian favorite, the musician Rizzio,
whom Mary had made her secretary. He therefore signed a bond, with
certain lords, for the murder of the Italian, who seems to have been a
man of no character. One evening, as the queen was at supper, in her
private apartment, with the countess of Argyle and Rizzio, the Earl of
Morton, with one hundred and sixty men, took possession of the palace
of Holyrood, while Darnley himself showed the way to a band of
ruffians to the royal presence. Rizzio was barbarously murdered in the
presence of the queen, who endeavored to protect him.

Darnley, in thus perpetrating this shocking murder, was but the tool
of some of the great lords, who wished to make him hateful to the
queen, and to the nation, and thus prepare the way for his own
execution. And they succeeded. A plot was contrived for the murder of
Darnley, of which Murray was probably the author. Shortly after, the
house, in which he slept, was blown up by gunpowder, in the middle of
the night.

[Sidenote: Bothwell--Civil War in Scotland.]

The public voice imputed to the Earl of Bothwell, a great favorite of
the queen, the murder of Darnley. Nor did the queen herself escape
suspicion. "But no inquiry or research," says Scott, "has ever been
able to bring us either to that clear opinion upon the guilt of Mary
which is expressed by many authors, or guide us to that triumphant
conclusion in favor of her innocence of all accession, direct or
tacit, to the death of her husband, which others have maintained with
the same obstinacy." But whatever doubt exists as to the queen's
guilt, there is none respecting her ministers--Maitland, Huntley,
Morton, and Argyle. Still they offered a reward of two thousand pounds
for the discovery of the murderers. The public voice accused Bothwell
as the principal: and yet the ministers associated with him, and the
queen, entirely exculpated him. He was brought to a trial, on the
formal accusation of the Earl of Lennox, in the city of Edinburgh,
which he was permitted to obtain possession of. In a place guarded by
his own followers, it was not safe for any witnesses to appear against
him, and he was therefore acquitted, though the whole nation believed
him guilty.

Mary was rash enough to marry, shortly after, the man whom public
opinion pronounced to be the murderer of her husband; and Murray, her
brother, was so ambitious and treacherous, a