6,) that Mary actually
wrote that very day a letter to Charles Paget; and further she mentions,
in the manuscript letter, a letter of Charles Paget's of the 10th of
April. Now we find by Murden, (p. 506,) that Charles Paget did actually
write her a letter of that date.

This violence of spirit is very consistent with Mary's character. Her
maternal affection was too weak to oppose the gratification of her
passions, particularly her pride, her ambition, and her bigotry. Her
son, having made some fruitless attempts to associate her with him in
the title, and having found the scheme impracticable on account of the
prejudices of his Protestant subjects, at last desisted from that design
and entered into an alliance with England, without comprehending his
mother. She was in such a rage at this undutiful behavior, as she
imagined it, that she wrote to Queen Elizabeth, that she no longer cared
what became of him or herself in the world; the greatest satisfaction
she could have before her death, was, to see him and all his adherents
become a signal example of tyranny, ingratitude and impiety, and undergo
the vengeance of God for their wickedness. She would find in Christendom
other heirs, and doubted not to put her inheritance in such hands as
would retain the firmest hold of it. She cared not, after taking this
revenge, what became of her body. The quickest death would then be the
most agreeable to her. And she assured her that, if he persevered, she
would disown him for her son, would give him her malediction, would
disinherit him, as well of his present possessions as of all he could
expect by her; abandoning him not only to her subjects to treat him as
they had done her, but to all strangers to subdue and conquer him. It
was in vain to employ menaces against her: the fear of death or other
misfortune would never induce her to make one step or pronounce one
syllable beyond what she had determined. She would rather perish with
honor, in maintaining the dignity to which God had raised her, than
degrade herself by the least pusillanimity, or act what was unworthy of
her station and of her race. Murden, p. 566, 567.

James said to Courcelles, the French ambassador, that he had seen a
letter under her own hand, in which she threatened to disinherit him,
and said that he might betake him to the lordship of Darnley; for
that was all he had by his father. Courcelles' Letter, a MS. of Dr.
Campbell's. There is in Jebb (vol. ii. p. 573