ENG1 
peiTons about the court attended with noife, which might 
difiurb him in his infirm (late of health, file fitted up an 
apartment for him in a folitary houfe at fome diftance, 
called the Kirk of Fidld‘. Mary even there gave him 
every mark of kindnefs and 1 attachment ; flie converfed 
cordially and kindly with him, and flept in a room under 
him. But on the ninth of February, 1567, the told him 
the would pafs that night in the palace, becaufe the 
marriage of one of her houfehold was to be there cele¬ 
brated in her prefence. But dreadful was the confe- 
quence which enfued. About two o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing the whole city was alarmed at an uncommon explo- 
fioh : the houfe in which Darnley lay was blown up with 
gunpowder! His dead body was found at fome diftance 
in a neighbouring field, but without any marks of vio¬ 
lence or contufion. No doubt could be entertained but 
that Darnley was murdered ; and the general fufpicion 
fell upon the earl of Botlwell. All orders of the date, 
and the whole body of the people, began mod cotnmen- 
dably to demand juflice, and a drift enquiry to be fet on 
foot, in order to deteft, and to punifli, the perpetrators; 
amongft whom even the queen herfelf* was fufpefted to 
be implicated. On this fubjeft the pens of the mod able 
hidorians have been employed ; and various have been 
their conjectures as to the fact. The enquiry, indeed, 
rather belongs to the article Scotland ; but as the fub¬ 
jeft is fo very intereding, and fo intimately connected with 
queen Elizabeth’? reign ; and more particularly as Mary 
queen of Scots was brought to the fcad'old in England, 
it may not be confidered as much out of its place, if we 
date the principal facts under the records of this country. 
The party zeal.of our more early hidorians induced them 
to labour hard to dain the memory of the unfortunate 
Mary with the blood of her luifband ; while later and 
more difpafilonate writers, have been inclined wholly to 
acquit her. Dri^-Coote, in his very able and impartial 
hidory, feems judicioufly to have deered between the two 
extremes, which has prompted us to follow him. 
It was the partizans of the earl of Murray w ho fird 
propagated reports to the prejudice of the queen’s cha¬ 
racter, inlinuating that die had been concerned in the 
murder of a hufband whom (he hated. But more fatif- 
faftory evidence than has yet been produced, feems ne- 
ceffary, to an impartial mind, to juftify thofe who have 
imputed to her fo horrible a crime. However great might 
be the averfion which (he had conceived for Darnley, the 
humanity of her difpofition was too drong to fud'er her 
to concur in his dedruftion. Had die been delirous of 
his death, die might have procured the judicial condem¬ 
nation of one who was fo generally defpifed, that the 
nobles would not have interpofed to refeue him from 
j;udice. She might have brought him to trial for the 
united crimes of murder and treafo'n; of murder, in hav¬ 
ing abetted the affaflination of her fecretary ; of treafon, 
in having directed his agents to commit that deed in the 
queen’s apartment, to the manifed hazard of her life. 
She might, with equal facility, have prccured-a legal re¬ 
paration from him, without injuring herfon’s legitimacy, 
which could not have been affected by a divorce grounded 
on his adulterous commerce with other women ; or, even 
if there had been a riik of dedroying the foil’s right of 
inheritance, an aft which expofed that right to difpute 
would have been far lefs criminal than the murder of 
the father. . 
From the character, alfo, of the chief accufers of Mary, 
a difpadionate enquirer would be led to form a drong 
prefumption of her innocence. Thefe were the earls of 
Murray and Morton, who were men of fuch depraved 
hearts, and fuch unprincipled minds, that no crime which 
might gratify their irregular paflions, would appear too 
enormous for them to perpetrate. The former was con¬ 
fident that, by his hypocritical pretences to piety, and 
by his artful mode of throwing off his own guilt on the 
heads of others, he could retain the good opinion of the 
whole prefoyterian pdrty, whofe plan o.f reformation he 
a A N D. 1 
had warmly patron!fed. An eminent liificrian obferves, 
that Murray could have no motive for the commiffion of 
the murder; but, without judging from the event, we 
may infer, from his conduit preceding the king’s death, 
that he aimed at the pofTeflion of the government; and, 
as he retained a drong refentment againd his fider for her 
final refolution of punidiing him, which nothing but the 
fituation of her affairs, on the affaflination of Rizzio, had 
induced her to relinquilh, he was ready to contrive any 
fcheme which miglit at once be fubfervient to hisanimo- 
dty and his ambition. We alfo find that he had been 
apprehend ve of the execution of Darnley’s menaces againd 
his life ; a fact recorded by Camden, which, according to 
the frequent practice of that age, would prompt him to 
anticipate the blow'. Under thefe circumdances, can it 
be judly faid that he had no motive for the crime? On 
the contrary, he feems to have had every motive which, 
however repugnant to humanity and juftice, could urge 
a vindictive and afpiring nobleman, who forefaw, in the 
event of the confpiracy, the indulgence not only of his 
revenge againd Darnley, but likewife againd the queen, 
whom, by calumnies confequent on the murder, and by 
fuch advice as might contribute to increafe the effeft of 
his malicious fabrications, he might render fo unpopular 
that her depoiition might eafily be procured by his in¬ 
fluence over a people who had long been impatient of 
the government of a catholic princefs. The earl of Mor¬ 
ton, the friend and confederate of Murray, was influenced 
by fimilar views. He was exafperated againd Darnley 
for having deferred him after the murder of Rizzio, in 
violation of his folemn engagements for the protection of 
the authors of that horrid deed. Befides, the defire'of 
vengeance, the hopes of recovering his influence in the 
government, and the dignified office of chancellor, in¬ 
clined him to promote, with great eagernefs, the iniqui¬ 
tous fchemes of the queen’s brother. 
When Mary had received intelligence of her hufband’s 
fudden dilfolution, die iffiied a proclamation, offering re¬ 
wards for the difeovery of the murderers. Bothwell being 
accufed of the crime by the public voice, the earl of Le¬ 
nox advifed the queen to bring him to trial, as well as all 
other perfons who were fufpefted of a concern in it. Mary, 
without hefitation, gave directions for that purpofe; and 
Lenox was dedred to repair to Edinburgh, that he might 
be prefent at the judicial proceedings. He propofed that 
Bothwell fhould be taken into cudody; but the queen 
at fird declined it, becaufe the accufation againd him 
reded only on the evidence of anonymous bills fixed up 
in different parts of the city. When the day of trial ar¬ 
rived, the arts of Bothwell, and the influence of Morton 
and the other partizans of Murray (for this nobleman 
himfelf, to avoid fufpicion, had retired into France), 
deterred the earl of Lenox from appearing as an accufer; 
and no evidence being adduced againd Bothwell, the 
jury thought proper to acquit him. This verdift re¬ 
ceived the fanftion of a parliament which met two days 
afterwards ; and the didblution of this affembly was fol¬ 
lowed by a remarkable affociation of many of the nobles 
tor promoting the marriage of Bothwell with the queen. 
They figned a bond, ex-prefling their conviction of his 
innocence of the king’s murder, and promifing to hazard 
their lives and fortunes in defending him againd all who 
(hould prefume to charge him with that crime. He had 
lately been extremely atliduous in his endeavours to ob¬ 
tain favour with Mary ; but, when he made propofals of 
marriage to her, the dignified her dilfent. Unwilling to 
fubrnit to a refufal, he refolved to make ufe of comptil- 
live meafures; and, by a daring violation of her chadity, 
to render a marriage.with him neceffary for the reparation 
of her wounded honour. He affembled a party of eight 
hundred horle, under pretence of making an excurfion 
againd banditti; and meeting the queen in her return 
from a vidt to her infant fon, he difperfed her fmall guard, 
and feizing her liorfe by the bridle, conveyed her to the 
cattle of Dunbar. He there conjured her, in the mod. 
perfuadve 
