that their orders were not regarded, they employed their sermons
in thundering curses on the magistrates, who, by the king's direction,
had put this mark of respect on the ambassadors. They even pursued them
afterwards with the censures of the church; and it was with difficulty
they were prevented from issuing the sentence of excommunication against
them, on account of their submission to royal, preferably to clerical
authority.[*]

* Spotswood, p. 324.

What increased their alarm with regard to an accommodation between James
and Mary was, that the English ambassadors seemed to concur with the
French in this proposal; and the clergy were so ignorant as to believe
the sincerity of the professions made by the former. The queen of
Scots had often made overtures to Elizabeth, which had been entirely
neglected; but hearing of James's detention, she wrote a letter in
a more pathetic and more spirited strain than usual; craving the
assistance of that princess, both for her own and her son's liberty. She
said, that the account of the prince's captivity had excited her most
tender concern; and the experience which she herself, during so many
years, had of the extreme infelicity attending that situation, had made
her the more apprehensive lest a like fate should pursue her unhappy
offspring: that the long train of injustice which she had undergone, the
calumnies to which she had been exposed, were so grievous, that finding
no place for right or truth among men she was reduced to make her last
appeal to Heaven, the only competent tribunal between princes of equal
jurisdiction degree, and dignity: that after her rebellious subjects,
secretly instigated by Elizabeth's ministers, had expelled her the
throne, had confined her in prison, had pursued her with arms, she had
voluntarily thrown herself under the protection of England; fatally
allured by those reiterated professions of amity which had been made
her, and by her confidence in the generosity of a friend, an ally, and
a kinswoman; that not content with excluding her from her presence,
with supporting the usurpers of her throne, with contributing to the
destruction of her faithful subjects, Elizabeth had reduced her to a
worse captivity than that from which she had escaped, and had made her
this cruel return for the unlimited confidence which she had reposed in
her: that though her resentment of such severe usage had never carried
her further than to use some disappointed