und it expedient to
discontinue for the present the use of the royal arms of England. The
enmity of the queen-mother had even chased her from that court where she
had reigned so lately, and obliged her to retire to her uncle, the
cardinal of Lorrain at Rheims. But from the age and temper of the
beautiful and aspiring Mary, it was to be expected that she would ere
long be induced to re-enter the matrimonial state with some one of the
princes of Europe; and neither as a sovereign nor a woman could
Elizabeth regard without jealousy the plans for her reestablishment
already agitated by her ambitious uncles of the house of Guise. Under
these circumstances, it was the first object of Elizabeth to obtain from
her rival the formal ratification, which had hitherto been withheld, of
the treaty of Edinburgh, by one article of which Mary was pledged never
to resume the English arms; and Throgmorton, then ambassador to France,
was instructed to urge strongly her immediate compliance with this
certainly not inequitable demand. The queen of Scots, however, persisted
in evading its fulfilment, and on pleas so forced and futile as justly
to confirm all previous suspicions of her sincerity.

Matters were in this state between the two sovereigns, when Mary came to
the resolution of acceding to the unanimous entreaties of her subjects
of both religions, by returning to govern in person the kingdom of her
ancestors; and she sent to request of Elizabeth a safe-conduct. The
English princess promptly replied, that the queen had only to ratify the
treaty of Edinburgh, and she should obtain not merely a safe-conduct but
free permission to shorten the fatigues of her voyage by passing through
England, where she should be received with all the marks of affection
due to a beloved sister. By this answer Mary chose to regard herself as
insulted; and declaring to the English ambassador in great heat that
nothing vexed her so much as to have exposed herself without necessity
to such a refusal, and that she doubted not that she should be able to
return to her country without the permission of Elizabeth, as she had
quitted it in spite of all the vigilance of her brother, she abruptly
broke off the conference.

Henceforth the breach between these illustrious kinswomen became
irreparable. In vain did Mary, after her arrival in Scotland, endeavour
to remedy the imprudence which she was conscious of having committed, by
professions of respect and friendship