134 



TWO CHAPTERS ILLUSTRATIVE OF 



the kyng was in marvelose collore, and sware, and protested before 

 God, that yf Steward came, he woulde hange him up before he putt 

 off his bootes, and yf the queene meddled with his mother's life, she 

 shoulde knowe he would follow somewhat else than dogges and 

 deare.' Courcellis expresses his fears, that, if Mary's execution 

 should happen, James would digeste it as patiently as he hath done 

 that which passed between the queene of England and Alexander 

 Stuart, whose excuse he hath well allowed and veseth the man as 

 well as before."* 



Within three months, indeed, of his mother's execution we learn 

 from a letter of the Ambassador Randolph to Secretary Walsingham, 

 that " he (the king) determined wholly to depend upon her majes- 

 ty ; and to run her fortune against the whole world." He departed 

 suddenly from Edinburgh to Falkland, merely " to see the deer, 

 that her majesty had sent him, to be taken out of the carts, and put 

 into the park, but with one little void in his wishes. He hath 

 prayed me, says Randolph, that, by your honour, her majesty may 

 be moved to lend him, for the space of two months, a couple of her 

 majesty's yeomen prickers ; and a couple of the grooms of the leash. 

 He prayed me also to put your honour in remembrance of some 

 horses and geldings."t No one can doubt, after reading these ex- 

 tracts, that, however keen may have been the feelings of James at 

 the fate of his mother, they were not of very long duration ; and 

 the following anecdote would completely and indisputably establish 

 the reported fact, that instead of having his mind wrung with 

 agony on the subject, he rather could permit, nay even encourage, 

 others to display their irony and humour in allusion to it, without 

 seeming to be at all aware, that, in tolerating this jocularity, he was 

 subscribing indirectly to the truth and righteousness of her condem- 

 nation. " Soon after the execution of Mary, Melville happened to 

 be introduced to his majesty. James appeared to be in great spirits ; 

 laughed, and frisked, and danced about the room, in the boyish 

 manner which he retained, long after he came to man's years. The 

 contrast between this levity, and the sable attire of the company 

 and apartment, struck Melville's fancy, and brought to his recollec- 

 tion the way in which Mary was said to have mourned for the 

 murder of her husband. He expressed his feelings in an impromptu 

 to a gentleman of his acquaintance who stood beside him. The king 

 seeing them smile, came forward and eagerly enquired the cause of 



* Sec M'Crie's lAfe of Melville, Note cc, vol. i, p. 461. 



+ Ellis's Letters on English History, second Series, vol. iii, p. 123. 



