yet been given to the
proposal of an alliance offensive and defensive between England and the
protestant princes of Germany; and thus prepared he reached London early
in the year 1564.

After some discourse with the queen on the ostensible object of his
mission, Melvil found occasion to break forth into earnest commendations
of the elector, whose service nothing, he said, but this duty to his own
sovereign could have induced him to quit; and he added, that for the
remembrance of so good a master, he had desired to carry home with him
his portrait, as well as those of all his sons and daughters. "So soon
as she heard me mention the pictures," continues he, "she enquired if I
had the picture of duke Casimir, desiring to see it. And when I alleged
that I had left the pictures in London, she being then at Hampton Court,
and that I was ready to go forward on my journey, she said I should not
part till she had seen the pictures. So the next day I delivered them
all to her majesty, and she desired to keep them all night; and she
called upon my lord Robert Dudley to be judge of duke Casimir's picture,
and appointed me to meet her the next morning in her garden, where she
caused to deliver them all unto me, giving me thanks for the sight of
them. I then offered unto her majesty all the pictures, so she would
permit me to retain the elector's and his lady's, but she would have
none of them. I had also sure information that first and last she
despised the said duke Casimir."

It was a little before this time that Elizabeth had been consulted by
Mary on the proposal of the archduke, and had declared by Randolph her
strong disapprobation of it.

She now told Melvil, with whom she conversed on this and other subjects
very familiarly and with apparent openness, that she intended soon to
mention as fit matches for his queen two noblemen, one or other of whom
she hoped to see her accept. These two, according to Melvil, were Dudley
and lord Darnley, eldest son of the earl of Lenox by the lady Margaret
Douglas. It must however be remarked, that Melvil appears to be the only
writer who asserts that the first suggestion of an union between Mary
and Darnley came from the English queen, who afterwards so vehemently
opposed this step. But be this as it may, it is probable that Elizabeth
was more sincere in her desire to impede the Austrian match than to
promote any other for the queen of Scots; and with the former view
Melvil accuses her of