272 ROBERTSON. 



were more wild and romantic, and more unreasoning, 

 than in the southern parts of the island. Not satis- 

 fied with the far less harsh view of Mary's conduct 



m 



which he had taken compared with Hume's, partial as 

 Hume was to the Stuarts, it was the fashion of this 

 little set of enthusiasts to say that he had " cut her 

 with a razor dipped in oil." It was no little conces- 

 sion to have acquitted her of all part in Babington's 

 conspiracy, to have left her share in Darnley's murder 

 hanging in doubt, to have pronounced a decisive judg- 

 ment against Elizabeth, for her whole conduct both 

 towards the Scots and their Queen. These silly per- 

 sons would not be appeased unless, in the face of all 

 her own conduct and her own words, she was ac- 

 quitted of the outrage on common decency of wed- 

 ding her husband's murderer, and screening his accom- 

 plices from punishment. But the clamour, though it 

 produced a book or two in support of this most des- 

 perate cause, spread very little even in Scotland ; and 

 the national vanity was inexpressibly gratified by this 

 great triumph in the most important and most popu- 

 lar of all the walks of polite learning. The delight of 

 his friends was of course still more lively. Aware of 

 his merits, as they always had been, and somewhat 

 impatient of the length of time which he had suffered 

 his known capacity to remain barren, now that they 

 saw the abundant fruits crowning his works, they 

 exulted as if they gathered in the rich harvest in 

 common, and confessed that the postponement had not 

 stunted the growth, but, like a fallow, made it more 

 plenteous and more rich. In truth, the discipline of 

 so many years' study to which he had subjected him- 

 self, the long delay which he had interposed, though 



