g in the north, the queen, better
advised or instructed by experience, granted a general pardon to all but
its leader; and such was the effect of this lenity, or of the example of
repeated failure on the part of the insurgents, that the internal
tranquillity of her kingdom was never more disturbed from this quarter,
the most dangerous of all from the vicinity of Scotland.

The earl of Sussex had been kept for some time in a state of
dissatisfaction, as appears from one of his letters to Cecil, by her
majesty's dilatoriness in conferring upon him such a mark of her special
favor as she had graciously promised at the conclusion of his
satisfactory defence of himself before the council; but she appeased at
length his wounded feelings, by admitting him to the council-board and
giving him the command of a strong force appointed to act on the
Scottish border.

The occasion for this military movement arose out of the tragical
incident of the assassination of the regent Murray, which had proved the
signal for a furious inroad upon the English limits by some of the
southern clans, who found themselves immediately released from the
restraints of an administration vigorous enough to make the lawless
tremble. Sussex was ordered to chastize their insolence; and he
performed the task thoroughly and pitilessly, laying waste with fire and
sword the whole obnoxious district.

Besides recognising in Murray a valuable coadjutor, neighbour and ally,
Elizabeth appears to have loved and esteemed him as a man and a friend,
and she bewailed his death with an excess of dejection honorable surely
to her feelings, though regarded by some as derogatory from the dignity
of her station. It was indeed an event which broke all her measures, and
which, at a period when difficulties and dangers were besetting her on
all hands, added fresh embarrassment to her perplexity and presented new
chances of evil to her fears. What degree of compunction she felt for
her unjustifiable detention of Mary may be doubtful; but it is certain
that her mind was now shaken with perpetual terrors and anxieties for
the consequences of that irrevocable step, and that there was nothing
which she more earnestly desired than to transfer to other hands the
custody of so dangerous a prisoner.

She had nearly concluded an agreement for this purpose with Murray, to
whom she was to have surrendered the person of the captive queen,
receiving six Scottish noblemen as hostages for