Stuart dynasty

162 THE STUART DYNASTY.
wife during the baptismal ceremony at Stirling in the
autuinn of 1566, that the Earl of Bedford, the English
representative, expressed to Sir James Melville his
regret at such an estrangement.* It is, however,
questionable whether Darnley himself was not partly
responsible for the strained situation then existing ;
inasmuch as he not unnaturally deprecated Morton's
pending return from exile, to which the Queen agreed
at the instance of the French ambassador, Le Croc.f
Nor is it possible to deny that the unfortunate King
had ample reason for distrusting the co-conspirator he
had himself betrayed. It is difficult to say whether
Mary's despair at her husband's dissipations, or the
Lords' conviction that his unwisdom threatened the
stability of Scotland, brought about the conference of
December 1566, at Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh,
where and when the Queen fell into the first of those
startling errors which her enemies have, not un-
naturally, and with much plausibility, represented
as crimes. The assembled Lords, the leading
spirits being Murray, Lethington, and Bothwell,
desired that Morton might be recalled from exile
in England, and pardoned for his conspicuous share
in Rizio's murder. To effect this object it was
suggested that perhaps the Queen might look with
favour on Morton's return, if it was coincident with
a divorce or separation from her troublesome
husband, whose conduct threatened to embarrass
affairs of State, while, though his own life was loose
* Sir James Melville's ' Memoirs,' edition 1683, p. 77.
t Hosack's ' Mary Queen, of Soots. A brief Statement,' p. 15.