nd she had so far succeeded, that each side accused her
commissioners of partiality towards their adversaries.[*] She herself
appears, by the instructions given them, to have fixed no plan for the
decision; but she knew that the advantages which she should reap must
be great, whatever issue the cause might take. If Mary's crimes could be
ascertained by undoubted proof, she could forever blast the reputation
of that princess, and might justifiably detain her forever a prisoner
in England: if the evidence fell short of conviction, it was intended
to restore her to the throne, but with such strict limitations, as would
leave Elizabeth perpetual arbiter of all differences between the
parties in Scotland, and render her in effect absolute mistress of the
kingdom.[**]

* Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 40.

** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 14, 15, etc. Goodall, vol.
ii p. 110.

Mary's commissioners, before they gave in their complaint, against her
enemies in Scotland, entered a protest, that their appearance in
the cause should nowise affect the independence of her crown, or
be construed as a mark of subordination to England: the English
commissioners received this protest, but with a reserve to the claim of
England. The complaint of that princess was next read, and contained a
detail of the injuries which she had suffered since her marriage with
Bothwell: that her subjects had taken arms against her, on pretence of
freeing her from captivity; that when she put herself into their hands,
they had committed her to close custody in Lochlevin; had placed her
son, an infant, on her throne; had again taken arms against her
after her deliverance from prison; had rejected all her proposals for
accommodation, had given battle to her troops; and had obliged her, for
the safety of her person, to take shelter in England.[*] The earl
of Murray, in answer to this complaint, gave a summary and imperfect
account of the late transactions: that the earl of Bothwell, the known
murderer of the late king, had, a little after committing that crime,
seized the person of the queen and led her to Dunbar; that he acquired
such influence over her as to gain her consent to marry him, and he had
accordingly procured a divorce from his former wife, and had pretended
to celebrate his nuptials with the queen; that the scandal of this
transaction, the dishonor which it brought on the nation, the danger to
which the infant prince was exposed