THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF JAMES I. ]35 



their mirth. The gentleman excused himself by saying that it was 

 merely a sally of the principal's humour, which had extorted a smile 

 from him. His Majesty then applied to Melville, who felt averse 

 to gratify the royal curiosity, but James, insisting on his demand, 

 and promising not to resent any freedom that might have been 

 used, he repeated these lines: — 



Quid sibi vult lantus lugubri sub veste cachinnus 

 Scilicit hie matrem deflet ; ut ilia patrem."* 



But if it be pertinaciously asserted, that we here lay too much 

 stress upon a few isolated examples, and that further corroboration 

 and argument are necessary to convict James of that mora.l depra- 

 vity at which so many of his subjects stood aghast, we will call the 

 attention of the reader to the following curious document, as it 

 proves, first, the irresistable or rather unresisted ascendancy which 

 Elizabeth wielded over James, by indulging him with ample sup- 

 plies of money ; and secondly, that as they were granted within the 

 very year of his mother's execution, it mattered not whether the 

 English queen announced weal or woe to him, respecting her fate,t 

 provided she filled his empty coffers. " Memorandum, that Anno 

 Domini, 1585, I was sente into Scotlande by her majestie, to the 

 kynge there. I receavede by her majesty's order, out of th' eyscheck- 

 er, <£2000, to be employed for her highnesse's service upon the noble- 

 men and other then at my discretion and as I found cawse, which 

 sum of monie I bestowede as then as I was wylled, and as the same 

 was employed from tyme to tyme advertised by my lettres to Mr. 

 Secretary Walsingham, as in some of my lettres of that yere unto 

 his honour it might appere, as also be found in some notes or copies 

 of lettres wrytten by myselfe and yet remayninge amonge wryttinge 

 of Scottysshe cawses, for the tyme of my beinge ther in that yere. 

 This I wryte for my discharge ; for that other accompte I cannot 

 make none, nor yet of the £4000 which I delivered unto the kynge 

 selfe by lyke commandments from her majestie in A. D. 1586, for 

 that in such cases, nether princes gyve bylles of their handes, nor 

 any other that receave the lyke rewards or guifts from princes, for 



• See M'Crie's Life of Melville, vol. i, p. 286. 



f If it be true, that Mary betrayed such an unnatural hardness of heart, 

 as not only to disinherit her son, but to enter into a conspiracy for kidnap, 

 ping and delivering him a prisoner to the Spanish Monarch, from whom his 

 liberty was only to be purchased at the price of his turning Roman Catholic, 

 (See Mmden Papers, vol i, p. 84,) it is not so surprising in James to have 

 cared so little for such a mother. 



