But the queen was so well pleased with Norfolk's behavior, that she
released him from the Tower; allowed him to live, though under some show
of confinement, in his own house; and only exacted a promise from
him not to proceed any further in his negotiations with the queen of
Scots.[*]

Elizabeth now found that the detention of Mary was attended with all
the ill consequences which she had foreseen when she first embraced that
measure. This latter princess recovering, by means of her misfortunes
and her own natural good sense, from that delirium into which she seems
to have been thrown during her attachment to Bothwell, had behaved
with such modesty and judgment, and even dignity, that every one who
approached her was charmed with her demeanor; and her friends were
enabled, on some plausible grounds, to deny the reality of all those
crimes which had been imputed to her.[**]

* Lesley, p. 98. Camden, p. 429. Haynes, p. 597.

** Lesley, p. 232. Haynes, p. 511, 548.

Compassion for her situation, and the necessity of procuring her
liberty, proved an incitement among all her partisans to be active
in promoting her cause; and as her deliverance from captivity, it was
thought, could nowise be effected but by attempts dangerous to
the established government, Elizabeth had reason to expect little
tranquillity so long as the Scottish queen remained a prisoner in her
hands. But as this inconvenience had been preferred to the danger of
allowing that princess to enjoy her liberty, and to seek relief in
all the Catholic courts of Europe, it behoved the queen to support the
measure which she had adopted, and to guard, by every prudent expedient,
against the mischiefs to which it was exposed. She still flattered Mary
with hopes of her protection, maintained an ambiguous conduct between
that queen and her enemies in Scotland, negotiated perpetually
concerning the terms of her restoration, made constant professions of
friendship to her; and by these artifices endeavored, both to prevent
her from making any desperate efforts for her deliverance, and to
satisfy the French and Spanish ambassadors, who never intermitted their
solicitations, sometimes accompanied with menaces, in her behalf.
This deceit was received with the same deceit by the queen of Scots:
professions of confidence were returned by professions equally
insincere: and while an appearance of friendship was maintained on both
sides, the animosity and jealousy, whi