t of a great Catholic house for her claims, she neglected
nothing that could contribute at the same time to make a good and
friendly understanding with Queen Elizabeth possible, and to bring it
about. In the company of her half-brother Murray, who held the reins
of government with a firm hand, supported by his religious and
political friends, she undertook a campaign into the Northern counties
(which inclined to Catholicism), to make them submit to the universal
law of the land. Only one priest was allowed at court, from whom she
heard mass; some of those who read the mass elsewhere were
occasionally punished for it; clergymen who complained of the hardship
they experienced were referred to Murray. This proceeding too was only
temporary, it was intended to incline the Queen of England to her
wishes. All quarrel was carefully avoided: on solemn festivals she
drank to the English ambassador, to the health of his mistress.
Besides, there were negociations for a meeting of the two Queens in
person at York, where Mary hoped to be solemnly recognised as
presumptive heiress of England.[209] However much it otherwise lies
beyond the mental horizon of this epoch of firm and mutually opposed
convictions, Mary was then thought capable of willingly adopting the
forms of the English Church; to this even the Cardinal of Lorraine had
assented. She herself unceasingly declared that she wished to honour
Elizabeth as a mother, as an elder sister. But the Queen of England,
after all sorts of promises, preparations, and delays, declined the
interview. She would hear absolutely nothing of any recognition of
the claim of inheritance. With naive plainness she inferred that such
a declaration would not lead 'to concord with her sister, the Queen of
Scotland,' since naturally a sovereign does not love his heir;--how
indeed could that be possible, since every one is wont to make the
heir the object of his aim and hopes;--she might increase Mary's
importance by the recognition, but at the same time she would
undermine her own;--whether Mary had a right to the English throne,
she did not know and did not even wish to know: for she was (and as
she said this, she pointed to the ring on her finger in proof) married
to the people of England; if the Queen of Scotland had a right to the
English throne, that should be left to her unimpaired.

And none could deny that such a declaration as Mary required had its
hazardous side for Elizabeth. Henry VIII's s