made more grim by the tragic
death of Dudley's wife, Amy Robsart.

_II.--Mary Stuart and Saint Bartholomew_

The proposals for Elizabeth's own hand were now diversified by her
interest in those for the hand of the Queen of Scots; for it was of
immense importance to the Queen of England that Mary should not wed a
foreign prince who might support her claim to the English throne. Mary
professed willingness to be guided by her "sister," but was insulted by
Elizabeth's offer of her own favourite, Dudley, who was made Earl of
Leicester. Melville, the courtly Scots ambassador, had much ado to
answer Elizabeth's questions about his mistress's beauty and
accomplishments in a manner agreeable to the English queen. Mary solved
her own problem, only to create a new one, by marrying her cousin, Lord
Darnley. Elizabeth was bitterly aggrieved when a son--afterwards James
I.--was born to them. She herself continued to agitate Cecil and the
council by the favours she lavished on Leicester. But the renewed
entreaties of Parliament, that steps might be taken to secure the
succession, led to what threatened to be a serious quarrel.

Amongst these high matters, the records of her majesty's wardrobe, and
the interests of Cecil in capturing for her service a tailor employed by
Catherine de Medici, form an entertaining interlude. But tragedy was at
hand; the murder of Darnley, Mary's marriage to the murderer Bothwell,
her imprisonment at Loch Leven, Elizabeth's perturbation--for she was
sincere in her fear of encouraging subjects to control monarchs by force
of arms--was diversified by a last negotiation for her marriage with the
Archduke Charles, which broke down over his refusal to abjure his
religion.

Then came a turn of the wheel; Mary escaped from Loch Leven, her
followers were dispersed at Langside, and she fled across the Solway to
throw herself on Elizabeth's protection and find herself Elizabeth's
prisoner.

The Scottish queen was consigned to Bolton; an investigation was held at
York, when Mary's accusers were allowed to produce, and Mary's friends
were not allowed to test, their evidence of her complicity in Darnley's
murder. At that stage the investigations were stopped; but the Duke of
Norfolk, the head of the commission, was not deterred from pressing the
design of marrying Mary himself. Mary was placed in the charge of
Shrewsbury and his termagant spouse, Bess of Hardwick.

From this time for fifteen years, Elizabeth