ss
of all else, put before her personally, as to the limitations of royal
power justified by religion, she as a matter of course would not
endure. It is more surprising to find that she also called in question
the rights which the nobility claimed as against the royal government,
assigning a sort of theoretic ground for her view. The nobles base
them, so she said, on the services of their ancestors; but if the
children have renounced their virtue, neglect honour, care only for
their families, despise the King and his laws and commit treason, must
the sovereign even then still let his power be limited by theirs? How
vast were the plans which this Queen entertained--to restore
Catholicism in Scotland, to resume the war against the nobility in
which her ancestors had failed, to overthrow the Protestant opinions,
and therewith to become one day Queen of England!

Among those around her was an Italian, David Riccio of Poncalieri in
Piedmont, who had previously been secretary to the Archbishop of
Turin, and then in the same capacity accompanied his brother-in-law,
the Conte di Moretta, who went to Scotland as ambassador of the Duke
of Savoy. He knew how to express himself well in Italian and French,
and was besides skilful in music.[216] As he exactly supplied a voice
which was wanting in the Queen's chapel, she asked the ambassador to
let him enter her service. Riccio was not a blooming handsome man;
though still young, he gave the impression of advanced years: he had
something morose and repellent about him; but he showed himself
endlessly useful and zealous, and won greater influence from day to
day. He not merely conducted the foreign correspondence, on which all
now depended and for which he was indispensable,--it became his office
to lay everything before the Queen that needed her signature, and
through this he attained the incalculable actual power of a
confidential cabinet-secretary; he saw the Queen, who took pleasure
in his company, as often as he wished, and ate at her table. James
Melvil, whom she had commissioned to warn her, if he saw her
committing faults, did not neglect doing it in this case; he
represented to her the ill effects which favouring a foreigner drew
after it: but she thought she could not let her royal prerogative be
so narrowly limited.[217] Riccio had promoted the marriage with
Darnley: the latter seemed to depend on him;[218] it was even said
that the secretary used at pleasure a signet beari