would unite herself with the man to whom
the murder of her husband was ascribed. Men fell on their knees before
her, to represent the dishonour she would thus draw on herself, and
even the danger into which she would bring her child. Letters from
England were shown her in which the ruin of all her prospects as to
the English throne was intimated, if she took this step: for it would
strengthen the suspicion, which had arisen on the spot, that she had
been an accomplice in her husband's murder. But she was already no
longer her own mistress. Bothwell now did altogether what he would. He
obtained from the lords, who feared him, a declaration that he was
guiltless of any share in the King's murder, and even their consent to
his marriage with the Queen. He said publicly he would marry the
Queen, whoever might be against it, whether she would or not. And if
Mary wished ever again to govern the country, and make the lords feel
her vengeance, Bothwell might appear to her the only man who could
assist her in this. Half of her free will, half by force, she fell
into his power and thus into the necessity of giving him her hand. An
archiepiscopal matrimonial court found in a near relationship between
Bothwell and his wife a pretext for dissolving his previous
marriage.[227] Bothwell was created Duke of Orkney: he began to
exercise the royal power for his own objects; his friends, even the
accomplices in the murder, were promoted.[228]

But how could it be expected that the Lords would tolerate in the much
more dangerous hands of Bothwell a power they would not have endured
in Darnley's? Against him they had the full support of the people;
filled with moral aversion to the Queen for the guilt she had
incurred, or which was attributed to her, they expressed their loyalty
only in hostility to her; a general uneasiness showed itself as to the
safety of her son who was likewise threatened by his father's
murderers.

Under a banner on which were depicted the murdered King and his child
the latter praying for help, a great army marched against the castle
where the newly-married pair dwelt. Bothwell merely regarded the
hostile lords as his rivals, who envied him the great position to
which he had raised himself, and thought to rout them all with the
feudal array which gathered round him at the Queen's summons. But at
the decisive moment the feeling of the country infected his own people
as well; instead of being able to fight he had to