; but Knox would, and her path would have been a thousand times more
clear. Only it has to be said at the end of all, that religion had
little part in the woes of Mary. Had there been no Darnley or Bothwell
in her path, had it been in her nature to take that wise resolution of
Elizabeth's, wise for every woman who has great duties and position of
her own, how wonderfully everything might have been changed! Such
reflections, however, are very futile, though they are strangely
fascinating.

Knox wrote to Argyle immediately after with that plain speaking in which
he delighted, and made the Earl very angry. It might well have been part
of Mary's "craft," knowing that he was sure to do this, to embroil him
with her brother-in-law. And she prosecuted her bishops to save them
from the Westland lords, and imprisoned them gently to keep them out of
harm's way. Neither of these acts was very successful, and it would seem
that the mollifying impression that had been made upon Knox soon died
away; for when the Queen opened the next Parliament he speaks of her
splendour and that of her train in words more like those of a peevish
scold than of a prophet and statesman. "All things mislyking the
preachers," he says with candour, "they spoke boldly against the
tarjatting of their tails, and against the rest of their vanity, which
they affirmed should provoke God's vengeance not only against those
foolish women, but against the whole Realm." God's vengeance was freely
dealt out on all hands against those who disagreed with the speakers;
but the silken trains that swept the ground, the wonderful clear
starching of the delicate ruffs, the embroidered work of pearls and gems
which the fashion of the time demanded, were but slight causes to draw
forth the flaming sword. And that Parliament was very unsatisfactory to
Knox and his friends; they tried to bring in a sumptuary law; they
endeavoured to have immorality recognised as crime, and subjected to
penalties as such; and above all, they attempted to obtain the
ratification of various matters of discipline upon which Knox so pressed
that the quarrel rose high between him and Murray, and there ensued a
breach and lasting coolness--Murray being as unwilling to press Queen
Mary into measures she disliked, as Knox was determined that only by
doing so was God's vengeance to be averted. When the Parliament was over
the preacher made his usual commentary upon it in the pulpit; warning
the lords wha