judicious conduct and general abilities, a very high degree of consideration in
the kingdom. He was by many degrees the most potent instrument, after
John Knox, in establishing the reformed religion.
Having now abandoned all appearance of the clerical character, he was, eoon after the death of the queen regent, which happened on the 11th of June, 1580, appointed one of the lords of the Articles; and in the following year, he was commissioned by a council of the nobility to proceed to France, to invite Mary, whose husband was now dead, to return to Scotland. This commission he executed with much judgment, and with much tenderness towards his ill-fated relative; having, much against the inclination of those by whom he was deputed, insisted on the young queen's being permitted the free exercise of her own religion, after she should have ascended the throne of her ancestors.
On Mary's assuming the reins of government in her native land, the prior look his place beside her throne, as her confidant, prime minister, and adviser; and, by his able and judicious conduct, carried her safely and triumphantly through the first act of her stormy reign. He swept the borders of the numerous bands of freebooters with which they were infested. He kept the enemies of Mary's dynasty in abeyance, strengthened the attachment of her friends, and by his "igilance, promptitude, and resolution, made those who did not love her government, learn to fear its resentment. For these important services, Mary, whose implicit confidence he enjoyed, first created him lieutenant of the borders, and afterwards earl of Mar. Soon after his creation, the earl married the lady Agnes Keith, daughter of the earl Marischal. The ceremony was publicly performed in the church of St Giles, Edinburgh, with a pomp which greatly offended the reformers, who were highly scandalized by the profanities which were practised on the occasion. The earldom, which the prior had just obtained from the gratitude of the queen, having been claimed by lord Erskine as In's peculiar right, the claim was admitted, and the prior resigned both the title and the property attached to it; but was soon after gratified by the earldom of Murray, which had long been the favourite object of his ambition. Immediately after his promotion to this dignity, the earl of Huntly. a disappointed compe- titor for the power and popularity which Murray had obtained, and for the favour and confidence of the queen, having been proclaimed a rebel for various overt acts of insubordination, originating in his hostility to the earl; the latter, equally prompt, vigorous, and efficient in the field as at the council board, led a small army, hastily summoned for the occasion, against Huntly, whom he encountered at the head of his adherents, at a place called Corrichie. A battle ensued, and the earl of Murray was victorious. In this engagement he displayed singular prudence, skill, and intrepidity, and a military genius, which proved him to be as able a soldier, as he was a statesman. On the removal of Huntly, for this powerful enemy died suddenly and immediately after the battle, although he had received no wound, and his eldest son perished on the srafibld at Aberdeen, Murray remained in undisputed possession of the chief authority in the kingdom, next to that of the sovereign; and the history of Scotland does not present an instance, where a similar authority was more wisely or more judiciously employed. The confidence, however, amounting even to affection, which had hitherto subsisted between Murray and his sovereign, was now about to be interrupted, and finally annihilated. The first step towards this unhappy change of sentiment, was occasioned by the queen's marriage with DarnJey. To this marriage, Murray was not at first averse; nay, he rather promoted it: but some personal insults, which the vanity and weakness of Darnley induced him to offer to Murray, together with an offensive behaviour on the part of his father, the earl of Lennox, produced in the haughty statesman that hostility to
