onoured with his sovereign's confidence, he had
sacrificed in advance his life to his position; that since that time,
however, he had had occasion to notice that in general the Scotch were
ready to threaten but slow to act; that, as to the bastard referred to,
who was doubtless the Earl of Murray, he would take care that he should
never enter Scotland far enough for his sword to reach him, were it as
long as from Dumfries to Edinburgh; which in other words was as much as
to say that Murray should remain exiled in England for life, since
Dumfries was one of the principal frontier towns.

Meanwhile the conspiracy proceeded, and Douglas and Ruthven, having
collected their accomplices and taken their measures, came to Darnley to
finish the compact. As the price of the bloody service they rendered the
king, they exacted from him a promise to obtain the pardon of Murray and
the nobles compromised with him in the affair of the "run in every
sense". Darnley granted all they asked of him, and a messenger was sent
to Murray to inform him of the expedition in preparation, and to invite
him to hold himself in readiness to reenter Scotland at the first notice
he should receive. Then, this point settled, they made Darnley sign a
paper in which he acknowledged himself the author and chief of the
enterprise. The other assassins were the Earl of Morton, the Earl of
Ruthven, George Douglas the bastard of Angus, Lindley, and Andrew, Carew.
The remainder were soldiers, simple murderers' tools, who did not even
know what was afoot. Darnley reserved it for himself to appoint the
time.

Two days after these conditions were agreed upon, Darnley having been
notified that the queen was alone with Rizzio, wished to make himself
sure of the degree of her favour enjoyed by the minister. He accordingly
went to her apartment by a little door of which he always kept the key
upon him; but though the key turned in the lock, the door did not open.
Then Darnley knocked, announcing himself; but such was the contempt into
which he had fallen with the queen, that Mary left him outside, although,
supposing she had been alone with Rizzio, she would have had time to send
him away. Darnley, driven to extremities by this, summoned Morton,
Ruthven, Lennox, Lindley, and Douglas's bastard, and fixed the
assassination of Rizzio for two days later.

They had just completed all the details, and had, distributed the parts
that each must play in this bloody trag