nds of the queen of Scots multiplied
every day in England; and besides the Catholics, many of whom kept
a treasonable correspondence with her, and were ready to rise at
her command,[*] the court itself of Elizabeth was full of her avowed
partisans. The duke of Norfolk, the earls of Leicester, Pembroke,
Bedford, Northumberland, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, and most of the
considerable men in England, except Cecil, seemed convinced of the
necessity of declaring her the successor. None but the more zealous
Protestants adhered either to the countess of Hertford, or to her aunt,
Eleanor, countess of Cumberland; and as the marriage of the former
seemed liable to some objections, and had been declared invalid, men
were alarmed, even on that side, with the prospect of new disputes
concerning the succession. Mary's behavior, also, so moderate towards
the Protestants, and so gracious towards all men, had procured her
universal respect;[**] and the public was willing to ascribe any
imprudences into which she had fallen to her youth and inexperience. But
all these flattering prospects were blasted by the subsequent incidents;
where her egregious indiscretions, shall I say, or atrocious crimes,
threw her from the height of her prosperity and involved her in infamy
and in ruin.

The earl of Bothwell was of a considerable family and power in Scotland;
and though not distinguished by any talents either of a civil or
military nature, he had made a figure in that party which opposed the
greatness of the earl of Murray and the more rigid reformers. He was
a man of profligate manners; had involved his opulent fortune in great
debts, and even reduced himself to beggary by his profuse expenses;[***]
and seemed to have no resource but in desperate counsels and
enterprises.

* Haynes, p. 446, 448.

** Melvil, p. 53, 61, 74.

*** Keith, p. 240.

He had been accused more than once of an attempt to assassinate Murray;
and though the frequency of these accusations on all sides diminish
somewhat the credit due to any particular imputation, they prove
sufficiently the prevalence of that detestable practice in Scotland, and
may in that view serve to render such rumors the more credible. This man
had of late acquired the favor and entire confidence of Mary; and all
her measures were directed by his advice and authority. Reports were
spread of more particular intimacies between them; and these reports
gained ground from the continuan