ailed to secure Scottish interests by moderate
counsels and the conciliation of Elizabeth, were forced to take a strong
course. Of foreign suitors Mary had many, some promoted by the
Protestants, some by the Pope and the Guises, while the Catholics of
England were secretly intriguing to force Elizabeth's hand by arranging
Mary's marriage with young Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, eldest son of
Margaret, Countess of Lennox, niece of Henry VIII., who lived at
Elizabeth's court. Cecil's spies were everywhere, and the plot was soon
known and stopped by Elizabeth, violently angry with her kinswoman for
listening to such a scheme.

But Murray and Lethington, in desperation, were aiming at higher game
even than this. They were Protestant, they had tried their best to win
Elizabeth's recognition; but they were Scotsmen first, and if their
country was to be independent it must have a great ally behind it.
France was out of the question while the Guises were in the shade and
Catharine was queen-mother. So the ministers of Mary turned their eyes
to the Protestant heir of the Catholic king. Elizabeth soon heard of
this, too, and suddenly pretended to be in favour of the Darnley match
for Mary, while she developed the most cordial friendship for Mary
herself; for the Guises had again become paramount in France, and
Elizabeth could not afford to flout all the Catholic interests at once.

That danger soon passed, for the Huguenots flew to arms, and Guise was
murdered, Mary losing thus her principal prop abroad. And Lethington now
pushed vigorously what seemed to be Scotland's only chance of
safety--the marriage of Mary with the semi-idiot heir of Spain.

The English Catholics were drawn into the plot. "Only let Mary marry the
heir of Spain, and we will salute her as our leader," said they. But
Elizabeth soon gained wind of it, as usual, and was ready with her
antidote--a most extraordinary one--the proposal that Mary should wed
her own lover, Lord Robert Dudley, with the assurance of the English
succession after Elizabeth's death without issue. It was a mere feint,
of course, but it divided Scotland, and unsettled Mary herself.

Meanwhile, Philip, with his leaden methods, was pondering and seeking
fresh pledges and guarantees from the English Catholics. Before his
temporising answer came Elizabeth had frightened Mary's advisers into
doubt, while she was holding the English Catholics in check by dangling
Darnley and Dudley before Mary's