Kenninghall in Norfolk.
The duke delayed to appear, not daring to trust himself in the hands of
his offended sovereign; and after a short delay, procured for him by the
compassion of Cecil, who persisted in assuring the queen that he would
doubtless come shortly of his own accord, a messenger was sent to bring
him up to London. This messenger, on his arrival, found the duke
apparently, and perhaps really, laboring under a violent ague; and he
suffered himself to be prevailed upon to accept his solemn promise of
appearing at court as soon as he should be able to travel, and to return
without him.

Meanwhile the queen, now bent upon sifting this matter to the bottom,
had written to require the Scottish regent to inform her of the share
which he had taken in the intrigue, and whatever else he knew respecting
it. Murray had become fully aware how much more important it was to his
interests to preserve the favor and friendship of Elizabeth than to aim
at keeping any measures with Mary, by whom he was now hated with extreme
bitterness; and learning that the confidence of the duke had already
been betrayed by the earl of Leicester, he made no scruple of
acquainting her with all the particulars in which he was immediately
concerned.

It thus became known to Elizabeth, that as early as the conferences at
York, the regent had been compelled, by threats of personal violence on
his return to Scotland, to close with the proposals of the duke relative
to his marriage;--that it was with a view to this union that Mary had
solicited from the states of Scotland a sentence of divorce from
Bothwell, which Murray by the exertion of his influence had induced them
to refuse, and thus delayed the completion of the contract: but it
appeared from other evidence, that written promises of marriage had
actually been exchanged between the duke and Mary, and committed to the
safe keeping of the French ambassador. It was also found to be a part of
the scheme to betroth the infant king of Scots to a daughter of the duke
of Norfolk.

The anger of Elizabeth disdained to be longer trifled with; and she
dispatched a messenger with peremptory orders to bring up the duke, "his
ague notwithstanding," who found him already preparing to set out on his
journey. Cecil in one of his letters to sir Henry Norris, dated October
1569, relates these circumstances at length, and expresses his
satisfaction in the last, both for the sake of the state and of the
duke