Stuart dynasty

152 THE STUART DYNASTY.
The fame of this beauty and fascination was wafted
over the Scotch moors long before she came as queen
to govern the hardy but lawless Highlanders who
peopled that region. The hold thereby gained on
national sympathies can scarcely have been rendered
less secure by the possession of that national accent
lisped in childhood which a youth spent in France
had not obliterated.
Writing during Mary Stuart's imprisonment in
England, one of Cecil's correspondents says that he
has been to Tutbury and seen the Scottish queen,
and advises that very few should have access to or
conference with this lady. " For besides that she is
a goodly personage, she hath withall an alluring
grace, a pretty Scottish speech, and a searching wit,
clouded with mildness." *
We have spoken of Mary Queen of Scots as en-
gaged in an impossible task when seeking to govern
Scotland as a zealous Catholic upon Calvinist lines,
giving at the same time to others the religious
toleration she asked for herself and desired for her
coreligionists.
Relying upon the counsels of her illegitimate half-
brother — whom she elevated to be successively Earl
of Mar and Murray — and also on the unrivalled
wisdom of William Maitland of Lethington, an
attempt to revert to the compromise' so long pre-
valent under Mary of Lorraine's regency met with
temporary success.
* N. White to Sir William Cecil, ' Hatfield MSS.,' Part I., p. 400,
1568-9, Feb. 26.