Stuart dynasty

Mary Stuart's Captivity and Death. 127
by success, and so easily deceived by flatterers, ma} 7 not have
been himself taken in by those who tampered with his
sister's correspondence, forging part of the Casket Letters
and adapting genuine documents to their abominable purpose.
But the death feud between Mary Stuart and her brother is
a terrible fact to contemplate.
Murray himself, strange to say, was engaged at the time
of his violent death, in negotiating with Elizabeth for Mary
Stuart's surrender ; and indeed two out of three consecutive
Eegents of Scotland, namely Murray and Mar — Lennox,
who came between them, not being similarly tempted— died
just as their Queen was about to be delivered up to destruc-
tion ; while to the grasping Morton, the next Regent, Eliza-
beth's offers appeared insufficient, prepared as he was to
betray his lawful monarch to her enemy, provided it were
made worth his while so to do. We read : —
" It is found that the continuance of the Queen of Scots
here is so dangerous, both for the Queen's Majesty and the
realm, that nothing presently is more necessary than that
the realm might be delivered of her. For certain respects it
seems better that she might be sent into Scotland to be
delivered to the Regent and party, if it might be wrought that
they themselves would secretly require it, with good assur-
ance to deal with her, by way of justice, that she should
receive that she hath deserved, whereby no further peril
should ensue by her escaping or by setting her up again."*
The fourth event w r hich helped to shut Mary Stuart's
prison-door closer than ever was the discovery of Norfolk's
connection with Rudolphi, a Florentine adventurer, who had
been conspiring to bring about an invasion of England by
the Duke of Alva; this disclosure occurring when a projected
marriage between Mary Stuart and Norfolk was under con-
sideration, and giving point to Queen Elizabeth's freely
expressed displeasure thereat.
The fifth, and probably determining, cause of the Scottish
Queen's prolonged and embittered imprisonment is found in
the Civil War which raged throughout France between
Catholics and Protestants, culminating in the massacre of
St. Bartholomew on August 28, 1572, after which religious
partisans took it for granted that the royal captive was
acting in unison with her French relatives the Guises. So
general, indeed, became this conviction, that when the
* ' Secret instructions to H. Killigrew ' (Burleigh's nephew), Sept. 10, 1572,
' Hatfield Calendar,' part ii. p. 23.