d the best color of hair: she asked whether his queen or she
had the finest hair: she even inquired which of them he esteemed the
fairest person; a very delicate question, and which he prudently eluded,
by saying that her majesty was the fairest person in England and his
mistress in Scotland. She next demanded which of them was tallest:
he replied, his queen. "Then is she too tall," said Elizabeth; "for I
myself am of a just stature." Having learned from him that his mistress
sometimes recreated herself by playing on the harpsichord, an instrument
on which she herself excelled, she gave orders to Lord Hunsdon, that he
should lead the ambassador, as it were casually, into an apartment where
he might hear her perform; and when Melvil, as if ravished with
the harmony, broke into the queen's apartment, she pretended to be
displeased with his intrusion; but still took care to ask him whether he
thought Mary or her the best performer on that instrument.[*] From the
whole of her behavior, Melvil thought he might, on his return, assure
his mistress, that she had no reason ever to expect any cordial
friendship from Elizabeth, and that all her professions of amity were
full of falsehood and dissimulation.

* Melvil, p, 49, 50., Keith, p 264.

After two years had been spent in evasions and artifices, Mary's
subjects and counsellors, and probably herself, began to think it full
time that some marriage were concluded; and Lord Darnley, son of the
earl of Lenox, was the person in whom most men's opinions and wishes
centred. He was Mary's cousin-german, by the lady Margaret Douglas,
niece to Henry VIII., and daughter of the earl of Angus, by Margaret,
queen of Scotland. He had been born and educated in England, where the
earl of Lenox had constantly resided, since he had been banished by the
prevailing power of the house of Hamilton; and as Darnley was now in
his twentieth year, and was a very comely person, tall and delicately
shaped, it was hoped that he might soon render himself agreeable to the
queen of Scots. He was also by his father a branch of the same family
with herself; and would, in espousing her, preserve the royal dignity
in the house of Stuart: he was, after her, next heir to the crown of
England; and those who pretended to exclude her on account of her being
a foreigner, had endeavored to recommend his title, and give it the
preference. It seemed no inconsiderable advantage, that she could,
by marrying him, unite