proofs" of Mary's guilt which he held in his hand.

But neither the Scottish associates of Murray nor the English cabinet
were disposed to rest satisfied with this feeble and temporizing
conduct. Mary's commissioners too, emboldened by his apparent timidity,
of which the motives were probably not known to them all, began to push
their advantage in a manner which threatened final defeat to his party:
the queen of England artfuly incited him to proceed; and in spite of his
secret engagements with the duke and his own reluctance, he at length
saw himself compelled to let fall the long suspended stroke on the head
of Mary. He applied to the English court for encouragement and
protection in his perilous enterprise; and Elizabeth, being at length
suspicious of the intrigue which had hitherto baffled all her
expectations from the conferences at York, suddenly gave orders for the
removal of the queen of Scots from Bolton-castle and the superintendence
of lord Scrope, the duke's brother-in-law, to the more secure situation
of Tutbury-castle in Staffordshire and the vigilant custody of the earl
of Shrewsbury. At the same time she found pretexts for transferring the
conferences from York to Westminster, and added to the number of her
commissioners sir Nicholas Bacon, lord-keeper, the earls of Arundel and
Leicester, lord Clinton, and Cecil.

Anxious to preserve an air of impartiality, Elizabeth declined giving to
the regent all the assurances for his future security which he required;
but on his arrival in London she extended to him a reception equally
kind and respectful, and by alternate caresses and hints of intimidation
she gradually led him on to the production of the fatal casket
containing the letters of Mary to Bothwell, by which her participation
in the murder of her husband was clearly proved.

After steps on the part of his sovereign from which the duke might have
inferred her knowledge of his secret machinations; after discoveries
respecting the conduct of Mary which impeached her of guilt so heinous,
and covered her with infamy so indelible; prudence and honor alike
required that he should abandon for ever the thought of linking his
destiny with hers. But in the light and unbalanced mind of Norfolk, the
ambition of matching with royalty unfortunately preponderated over all
other considerations: he speedily began to weave anew the tissue of
intrigue which the removal of the conferences had broken off; and
turning once