ed by the Scots.--Death of Darnley.--Conduct of
Elizabeth towards his mother.--Letter of Cecil.--Letter of Elizabeth to
Mary.--Mary marries Bothwell--is defeated at Langside--committed to Loch
Leven castle.--Interference of Elizabeth in her behalf.--Earl of Sussex
ambassador to Vienna.--Letters from him to Elizabeth respecting the
archduke.--Causes of the failure of the marriage treaty with this
prince.--Notice of lord Buckhurst.--Visit of the queen to Fotheringay
castle.--Mary escapes from prison--raises an army--is defeated--flies
into England.--Conduct of Elizabeth.--Mary submits her cause to
her--is detained prisoner.--Russian embassy.--Chancellor's voyage
to Archangel.--Trade opened with Russia.--Treaty with the
Czar.--Negotiations between Elizabeth and the French court.--Marriage
proposed with the duke of Anjou.--Privy-council hostile to
France.--Queen on bad terms with Spain.

Notwithstanding the uniform success and general applause which had
hitherto crowned her administration, at no point perhaps of her whole
reign was the path of Elizabeth more beset with perplexities and
difficulties than at the commencement of the year 1567.

The prevalence of the Scottish faction had compelled her to give a
pledge to her parliament respecting matrimony, which must either be
redeemed by the sacrifice of her darling independence, or forfeited
with the loss of her credit and popularity. Her favorite
state-mystery,--the choice of a successor,--had also been invaded by
rude and daring hands; and to such extremity was she reduced on this
point, that she had found it necessary to empower the commissioners whom
she sent into Scotland for the baptism of the prince, distinctly to
propound the following offer. That on a simple ratification by Mary of
only so much of the treaty of Edinburgh as engaged her to advance no
claim upon the English crown during the lifetime of Elizabeth or any
posterity of hers, a solemn recognition of her right of succession
should be made by the queen and parliament of England.

The Scottish ministry, instead of closing instantly with so advantageous
a proposal, were imprudent enough to insist upon a previous examination
of the will of Henry VIII., which they fondly believed that they could
show to be a forgery: and the delay which the refusal of Elizabeth
occasioned, gave time for the interposition of circumstances which
ruined for ever the character and authority of Mary, and rescued her
sister-queen