e to retire
into France, where he soon after died. He persevered to the last in the
Protestant religion, to which James had converted him, but which the
Scottish clergy could never be persuaded that he had sincerely embraced.
The king sent for his family, restored his son to his paternal honors
and estate, took care to establish the fortunes of all his other
children, and to his last moments never forgot the early friendship
which he had borne their father; a strong proof of the good dispositions
of that prince.[***]

* Spotswood, p. 322.

** Heylin's Hist. Presbyter, p. 227. Spotswood.

*** Spotswood, p. 328.

No sooner was this revolution known in England, than the queen sent Sir
Henry Gary and Sir Robert Bowes to James in order to congratulate him
on his deliverance from the pernicious counsels of Lenox and Arran; to
exhort him not to resent the seeming violence committed on him by the
confederated lords; and to procure from him permission for the return
of the earl of Angus, who ever since Morton's fall had lived in England.
They easily prevailed in procuring the recall of Angus; and as James
suspected, that Elizabeth had not been entirely unacquainted with
the project of his detention, he thought proper, before the English
ambassadors, to dissemble his resentment against the authors of it.

{1583.} Soon after, La Mothe-Fenelon and Menneville appeared as
ambassadors from France: their errand was to inquire concerning the
situation of the king, make professions of their master's friendship,
confirm the ancient league with France, and procure an accommodation
between James and the queen of Scots. This last proposal gave great
umbrage to the clergy; and the assembly voted the settling of terms
between the mother and son to be a most wicked undertaking. The pulpits
resounded with declamations against the French ambassadors; particularly
Fenelon, whom they called the messenger of the bloody murderer, meaning
the duke of Guise: and as that minister, being knight of the Holy Ghost,
wore a white cross on his shoulder, they commonly denominated it, in
contempt, the badge of Antichrist. The king endeavored, though in
vain, to repress these insolent reflections; but in order to make the
ambassadors some compensation, he desired the magistrates of Edinburgh
to give them a splendid dinner before their departure. To prevent this
entertainment, the clergy appointed that very day for a public fast; and
finding