d blackest villainy that has commonly passed as the then history of
Scotland. To revenge her beloved secretary Mary plotted with a new
paramour, the Earl of Bothwell, an able soldier, a {367} nominal
Protestant and an evil liver. On the night of February 9-10, 1567, the
house of Kirk o' Field near Edinburgh where Darnley was staying and
where his wife had but just left him, was blown up by gunpowder and
later his dead body was found near by. Public opinion at once laid the
crime at the right doors, and it did not need Mary's hasty marriage
with Bothwell [Sidenote: Marriage with Bothwell, May 15, 1567] to
confirm the suspicion of her complicity.

The path of those opposed to the queen was made easier by the fact that
she now had an heir, James, [Sidenote: James VI, June 19, 1566] of
Scotland the sixth and afterwards of England the first. The temper of
the people of Edinburgh was indicated by the posting up of numerous
placards accusing Bothwell and Mary. One of these was a banner on
which was painted a little boy kneeling and crowned, and thereon the
legend: "Avenge the death of my father!" Deeds followed words;
[Sidenote: July 16] Parliament compelled the queen under threat of
death to abdicate in favor of her son and to appoint her half-brother,
the Earl of Moray, regent. At the coronation of the infant king Knox
preached. [Sidenote: July 29] A still more drastic step was taken
when Parliament declared Mary guilty of murder [Sidenote: December 15]
and formally deposed her from the throne. That Mary really was guilty
in the fullest degree there can be no reasonable doubt. An element of
mystery has been added to the situation by a dispute over the
genuineness of a series of letters and poems purporting to have been
written by Mary to Bothwell and known collectively as the Casket
Letters. They were discovered in a suspiciously opportune way by her
enemies. The originals not being extant, some historians have regarded
them in whole or in part as forgeries, but Robertson, Ranke, Froude,
Andrew Lang and Pollard accept them as genuine. This is my opinion,
but it seems to me that the fascination of {368} mystery has lent the
documents undue importance. Had they never been found Mary's guilt
would have been established by circumstantial evidence.

Mary was confined for a short time in the castle of Lochleven, but
contrived to escape. As she approached Glasgow she risked a battle,
[Sidenote: May, 1568] but her t