mself excluded from affairs more than ever, and despised. When
his son was baptised at Stirling, the father could not appear, though
he was in the palace: he was afraid of being insulted in public. His
condition filled him with shame: he often thought of leaving the
kingdom, and made preparations for doing so. But he was not able to
state and prove his grievances: he had to acknowledge before the
assembled Privy Council that he had no complaints worth mentioning.

The Queen on her side had sometimes let drop her wish to be rid of
such a husband. She could not however think seriously of having her
marriage with him dissolved, as this could only be done by declaring
it null and void, and by that step her son, of whom she had just been
delivered, and who was to inherit all her rights, would have been at
the same time declared illegitimate. She was told that means would be
found to carry the matter through without prejudice to her son. She
warned her friends not to undertake anything which, though meant to
help her, might prepare yet more trouble.

How men stood to each other is clear from the fact that on the one
side Darnley and his father linked themselves with the Catholic
party--they were said to have adopted a plan of seizing the
government, in the Queen's despite, in the name of her new-born
son[221]--while on the other side the rest of the barons pledged
themselves not to recognise him but only the Queen. A league was
already concluded between some of them, originating with Sir James
Balfour (who had been marked out for death by the halter in Holyrood),
to rid the world by force of a tyrant and enemy of the nobility,
against whom men must secure their lives.

Thus all was in preparation for a fresh catastrophe; a new personal
relation of the Queen brought it to pass.

Among the nobles of Scotland James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, was
especially distinguished for a fine figure, for youthful strength,
intrepid manly courage, proved in a thousand adventures, and decided
character. Though professedly a Protestant, he had attached himself to
the Regent without wavering, and assured the Queen of his assistance
while she was still in France. Can we wonder if Mary, under the
pressure of the party combinations around, needing before all things
a friend personally devoted to her, sought for support in this tried
and energetic man? As she in general prized nothing more highly than
bold and valiant deeds, she had often told