1.11k. FALL OF MARY STUART.*

Is this book—a continuation of his earlier studies—Mr. Mumby links together quotations from " contemporary letters " and • The Foil of Mary Stuart. By Frank A. Mumby. London: Constable. 118a. net.]

so tells the history of Mary Stuart, from her marriage to Darnley down to her fatal flight to England in 1668. No chronicle of the passage of three years can ever have contained so dramatic) a series of tragic events. But, helpless though she may have seemed in the meshes of Elizabeth's statecraft, and pursued by such ill-luck as it is seldom the fate of monarchs to endure, Mary, it must be confessed, was finally betrayed by the traitor within her heart. Her own character, her own passions, were at the root of her misfortunes, and not all hor beauty and reputed charm can save her from the condemnation of anyone who in the present day reads, with an impartial eye, the story of her two fatal marriages. It may, of course, be said on her side that she was one of those unfortunate people who " never had a chance." Taken at the age of six to the Court of Catherine de Medici, whose subtle and corrupt mind produced a moral atmosphere so bad that Mary of Guise loudly advocated the removal of her child from its influence, how could Mary, who

obviously was endowed with very little strength of character, fail to steer a ruinous course in the perilous waters on which her ship of Monarchy was embarked ? Cruelty and hypocrisy are vices to which the e. ample of Catherine must early have accustomed her, and it it, impossible for the critic of her life

not to feel pity for a Queen so ill-prepared morally—her intellectual education seems to have been adequate—for the great position which she was to fill. It is quite obvious that Darnley's exterior, especially his height, made a most favourable impression on her. Yet she was politician enough to think most of the State aspects of her alliance. According to Mr.

Mumby, she would have been quite content with a Spanish marriage, although the proposed bridegroom was out of his mind. Elizabeth's idea of marrying her to Leicester failed through what the students of that distinguished lady's character cannot but think was Leicester's politic indifference. So Mary took as her husband the son of Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, whose right to the English Succession, as Mr. Mumby reminds us, " was inferior only to her own." Her decision once taken she, with that haste and impulsiveness which was characteristic of all her love affairs, insisted on the wedding being hurried forward without even waiting for the Papal Dispensation. The Dispensation, according to Mr. Mumby —though this is a matter of dispute—was only granted two months after the marriage, and having married her " long lad," as Elizabeth called him, Mary lost no time in proclaiming him King. The " crown matrimonial," which would have made him King for life, she refused to grant him, and irked by Ifs position of King on sufferance, Darnley, weak, arrogant, and treacherous, saw in her refusal the hand of Rizzio, or " Riede," according to Mr. Mumby's spelling. Not eight months after the marriage jealousy so worked on Darnley's mind that ho joined in the plot for Rizzio's murder. Whether he had grounds for his suspicions will never be known, but it is certain that when,

eleven months after her wedding, Mary gave birth to a son, she thought it necessary to protest to her husband on his first visit

to her bedside that the child was his own, as she would answer to God " at the great day of judgment." Sir James Melville took the news to England, arriving in London on the evening of the 23rd of June.

" The Court was then at Greenwich, and Elizabeth, in merry mood, was dancing in the hall after supper, when Cecil, to whom the great event was first announced, whispered the news in her Majesty's oar. According to Melville, the Queen was so over- come with vexation that all merriment was laid aside for that night. ' Every ono present,' he was .afterwards told, ' mar- velled what might move so sudden a change ; for the Queen sat down with her hand upon her cheek, and burst out to some of her ladies how that the Queen of Scots was lighter of a fair son, while she was but a barren stock.' "

Mary sent another special envoy to tell the news to the King of France, and the two Sovereigns stood sponsors to the little

prince. In the following October it seemed to the English Parliament that a suitable occasion had arisen to induce Queen Elizabeth to proclaim her successor. Mr. Mumby gives a series of letters from the Spanish and French Ambassadors—those admirable special correspondents of the Elizabethan age— describing the stormy session which ensued. The French Ambassador tells his Sovereign how the Comptroller of the Queen's Household moved in the House of Commons for a subsidy for her Majesty, the Queen having " emptied the exchequer, as well in the late wars as in the maintenance of her ships at sea, for the protection of her kingdom and her subjects." A simple country gentleman rose up to answer him, and said quite frankly that " he saw no occasion, nor any pressing neces- sity, which ought to move her. Majesty to ask for money of her.

subjects. And, in regard to the wars, which it was said had exhausted her treasury, she had undertaken them from herself, as she had thought proper ; not for the defence of her kingdom, nor for the advantage of her subjects ; but there was one thing which seemed to him more urgent, and far more necessary to examine concerning this campaign ; which was, how the money raised by the late subsidy had been spent ; and that everyone who had had the handling of it should produce their accounts, that it might be known if the moneys had been well or ill spent." After a two days' debate the question of the Succession was raised, the House alleging that " it was far more necessary for this kingdom to speak concerning an heir or successor to their Crown, and of her marriage, than of a subsidy." The following week the principal Lords and Bishops went to Elizabeth on the subject. She declared, in great anger, that " the Commons were very rebellious, and that they had not dared to have attempted such things during the life of her father : that it was not for them to impede her affairs, and that it did not become a subject to compel the Sovereign. What they asked was nothing less than wishing her to dig her grave before she was dead." It appears to have been on the same °occasion that she turned round on. Lord Pembroke, who, with the Marquess of Northampton, came on. the deputation, and "told him he talked like a swaggering soldier, and said to Leicester that she had thought if all the world abandoned her he would not have done so, to which he answered he would die at her feet, and she said that that had nothing to do with the matter. She said that Northampton was of no account, and he had better talk about the arguments used to enable him to get married again, when he had a wife living, instead of mincing words with her. With this she left them, and had resolved to order them to be con- sidered under arrest in their houses." However, though the Commons treated it as " against the liberties of Parliament " that she should forbid them, as she did, to debate the matter, she really carried her point, for the members were so pleased with her " instructing the Speaker ' to relieve the House of the burden of her injunction,' as it was not her intention to deprive the members of the freedom of speech conferred by their privi- leges," that they voted her the money she asked, dropped the matter of the Succession, and expressed humble gratitude for a vague promise which she made that she would marry. When the moment came for the christening of James, Elizabeth not only sent a christening present in the shape of a font of solid gold, which soon after Darnley's murder was turned.: by Mary into coin of the realm,. but selected as her proxy the Countess of Argyll, who, poor lady, for her attendance at a Roman Catholic rite was subsequently ordered by the General Assembly to " make public repentance in the Chapel Royal upon a Sunday in time of. preaching." Which proves that Roman Catholicism was not the only intolerant religion in Scotland.

Into the controversy as to the Casket Letters it is impossible for one who's not an expert to enter. Mr. Mumby holds. the balance even, leaving the letters to speak for themselves, and on their authenticity rests the decision as to whether or no Mary was an accomplice in the murder of Darnley. Her mad infatuation for Bothwell, his divorce from his own wife, his abduction of the Queen, and their marriage are described in this book in a series of letters from various sources, terminating

in a letter from Bothwell himself to Queen Elizabeth, which ends: " In conclusion. I will thus far boldly affirm, that albeit men of greater birth and estimation might well have been preferred to this room, yet none more careful to see your two Majesties' amity and intelligence continued by all good offices, nor moro affectionate to do your Highness honour and service, could have entered therein."

One cannot help wondering with what feelings Queen Elizabeth received this missive. Much the most dramatic letter in the book is that written in June, 1567, by M. du Croc, the French Ambassador in Scotland, to Charles IX. No war correspondent has ever sent a more vivid account of a fight than' his French Excellency's description of the battle fought at Haddington, near Dunbar, in which the forces

led by the Earl of Morton and Lord Hume- prevailed over those of the Queen. M. do Croc, with the permission of the Lords, w=t right up to the front line to the Queen's headquarters. The two armies were drawn up with a little brook between them, and after M. du Croo had had an

audience of the Queen, the Duke, as Bothwell was now called, came- up and joined in with many asseverations that his cause was so just "that God would be with him." M. du• Croo declared. that he would consider himself fortunate if,. in the name of his

own master, he could be of service to the Queen and the two, armies " The Duke replied that we could not speak any longer now, as he saw the enemy approaching, and that they had -already crossed the brook • so that if I wished-to emulate that go-between who, unable to bring about peace between the two armies of Scipio and Hannibal, and wishing to favour neither side, took up a position, where he had watched the greatest pastime he had ever seen, I could do so now and should see such good fighting as I had never enjoyed before. I said it was not from the Queen and these two armies that I desired such amusement, but that, on the contrary, I should never see anything which would distress me so much. I must say that I heard him speak with the confidence of a great captain, who would lead his army gallantly and wisely, and amused myself quite a long time in estimating that he would have the best of it if his mon remained faithful. I praised him that he was in no way perturbed at seeing his, enemy resolute, while he could not be assured of half of his own men. His army consisted of 4,000 men, and he had three- pieces of ordnance. The enemy had none, and could not have numbered more than 3,500 men at most. . . ."

The description of the standard of the Lords is striking:-

" The Lords carry a white ensign, on which there is a dead man near a tree (because the late King was found in a garden near a tree), and a child on its knees, representing the Prince of this kingdom, who holds a scroll on whioh are these words : ' Judge and Revenge my Cause, 0 Lord 1 ' " The whole matter seems to have been settled by the opposing

troops intermingling, whereupon Bothwell fled to Dunbar and the Queen was carried off to Lochleven. It is quite impossible for people who were brought up on Sir Walter Scott's novels to take an impartial view of the doings at Lochleven, but, as usual, Mary charmed her jailers, and considerable scandal ensued with regard to her relations with the young George Douglas who subsequently arranged for the escape. The eerier( of letters from Mary at Lochleven to Catherine de Medici, and the French Queen-mother's letters to Elizabeth, are most interesting to the student of politics. Catherine- played her cards with great subtlety, and quoted to Elizabeth her former words, " that Princes are bound to assist one another to chastise and punish the subjects who rise up against them and are

rebellious to their Sovereigns.' And inasmuch as this touches us to the heart, we ought to be ready to take-part for- the pro,

tection of ' this desolate and afflicted Queen,' that she may be restored to her liberty and the authority given to her by God, which In right and equity-pertains to her and not to another." The volume ends with Mary established in the Castle of

Carlisle, deeply disappointed by- Elizabeth'S refusal to see her, bnt still begging for her help and countenance. But, as Mr. Mumby reminds us, " It was one thing to vow eternal friendship when Mary was safely imprisoned in Lochleven ; it was quite another thing to give her an opportunity of making a triumphal progress through England as the rallying point of Elizabeth's discontented Catholics."

We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Mumby for giving us his story in contemporary- letters. These cannot fail to hold our

interest, both as a curious study in psychology and as the record of a woman who, gravely suspected of treachery, murder and imnrorality, yet continues through the mere force of her beauty and -charm to find hosts of valiant defenders, absolutely con-

vinced that she was a maligned and injured victim of slanderous tongues.