f each other's sentiments, and overawed by the
present power of the court, and by the apprehensions of further violence
from persons so little governed by any principles of honor and humanity.
Even with all these circumstances, the subscription to this paper may
justly be regarded as a reproach to the nation.

* Keith, p. 375. Anderson, vol. ii. p. 93. Spotswood, p.
201.

** Keith, p. 78. Crawford, p. 14.

*** Keith, p. 389.

**** Keith, p. 381.

v See note I, at the end of the volume.

The subsequent measures of Bothwell were equally precipitate and
audacious. Mary having gone to Stirling to pay a visit to her son, he
assembled a body of eight hundred horse, on pretence of pursuing some
robbers on the borders; and having waylaid her on her return, he seized
her person near Edinburgh, and carried her to Dunbar, with an avowed
design of forcing her to yield to his purpose. Sir James Melvil, one of
her retinue, was carried along with her, and says not that he saw any
signs of reluctance or constraint; he was even informed, as he tells
us, by Bothwell's officers, that the whole transaction was managed in
concert with her.[*] A woman, indeed, of that spirit and resolution
which is acknowledged to belong to Mary, does not usually, on these
occasions, give such marks of opposition to real violence as can appear
any wise doubtful or ambiguous. Some of the nobility, however, in order
to put matters to further trial, sent her a private message, in which
they told her, that if in reality she lay under force, they would use
all their efforts to rescue her. Her answer was, that she had indeed
been carried to Dunbar by violence, but ever since her arrival had been
so well treated that she willingly remained with Bothwell.[**] No one
gave himself thenceforth any concern to relieve her from a captivity
which was believed to proceed entirely from her own approbation and
connivance.

This unusual conduct was at first ascribed to Mary's sense of the infamy
attending her purposed marriage, and her desire of finding some color
to gloss over the irregularity of her conduct. But a pardon, given
to Bothwell a few days after, made the public carry their conjectures
somewhat further. In this deed, Bothwell received a pardon for the
violence committed on the queen's person, and for "all other crimes;" a
clause by which the murder of the king was indirectly forgiven. The rape
was then conjectured to have