Stuart dynasty

MARY STUART'S CAPTIVITY AND DEATH. 201
the helpless woman who at once claimed sympathy
and demanded justice.
It is impossible to scan the Cecil Manuscripts and
not see that whether Mary Stuart did or did not
aid Babington in his treason, the act would be but
an incident in the weary passage which, with more
or less devious course, was destined to end at Fother-
ingay. One ray of hope seemed to brighten the
last few years of the exile's life. Mary's son, the
King of Scotland, was approaching manhood, and
had it in his power to offer an alliance to Spain,
so that the harbours of the Northern Kingdom might
have sheltered some of the Spaniards from those tem-
pestuous winds which destroyed them. In McCrie's
' Life of Andrew Melville ' there is a striking picture
of a representative Don, who commanded one of
the Spanish men-of-war, after the Armada's defeat,
coming ashore with his crew into the little Fife-
shire town of Anstruther, and asking for food and
shelter. It was granted by the people there, not, as
the Spaniard suggested, to an ally, but in the interests
of humanity.
But during the regency of Morton, Mary Stuart's
party in Scotland had been broken in twain by the
defection of Huntly and the Hamiltons ; while the
surrender of Edinburgh Castle in 1573, together
with the subsequent deaths of Kirkaldy and Leth-
ington — who spent the close of their lives loyallv
striving to restore the Queen — had placed all Scot-
land at the Regent's feet. This collapse of Marv
Stuart's interest in Scotland had been brought about