him over to support the schemes which were being hatched by the Italian Rizzio, and therefore took precautions for his delivering up the castle of Tantallon for her use in case of war (Reg. Privy Counc. Scot. i. 383). This naturally made him more watchful of her designs. When it became known that she intended to have sentence of forfeiture passed against Moray and the other banished lords, Morton recognised that momentous purposes were in contemplation, which would involve him in ruin. Rizzio, supposed to be the inspirer of these purposes, had awakened also Darnley's ill-will through the favour shown him by Mary, and the plot now elaborated by Morton seems to have been the development of an earlier one conceived by Darnley and his father. ‘Their purpose,’ says Calderwood, ‘was to have taken him coming out of a tennis-court … but it was revealed’ (History, ii. 312; see also Randolph's letter to Leicester, 13 Feb. 1565–6, in Tytler's Hist. Scot. ed. 1864, iii. 215). It was after the failure of this plot that the direct assistance of Morton was called in, who in taking the project in hand may have been influenced by the rumour that at the ensuing parliament he was to be deprived of certain lands, and that the office of lord chancellor was to be transferred to Rizzio (Cal. State Papers, Scot. Ser. i. 230; Spotiswood, Hist. ii. 35). Mr. Froude represents Morton as suddenly adding his name to the bond for Rizzio's murder ‘in a paroxysm of anger,’ but at the least he was the first whom Ruthven induced to take a practical share in the plot (Ruthven's ‘Relation’ in Keith's Hist. iii. 264), and the idea of a bond was his own suggestion. While the author of the ‘Historie of James the Sext’ (p. 5) and Calderwood (History, ii. 311) name Maitland of Lethington as at the bottom of the whole conspiracy, the credit of it is given by Sir James Melville to Morton, by means of his cousin George Douglas, who, says Melville, ‘was constantly about the king,’ and put ‘suspicion in his head against Rizzio’ (Memoirs, p. 148). Herries goes further and asserts that Morton's purpose was to cause a breach between the king and queen (Hist. Marie Queen of Scots, p. 65). In any case Darnley was to be used as a mere puppet, the real power being placed in the hands of Moray. The course to be adopted to the queen would depend upon the policy she pursued (Randolph to Cecil, 6 March 1565–6). In the bond signed on 6 March the conspirators promised to Darnley the crown matrimonial, he engaging to maintain the protestant religion and restore the banished lords. The principal leaders of the protestant party, including even Knox, seem to have been privy to the scheme, but its chief elaborators were Maitland and Morton. The method of its execution was left entirely to Morton, who, however, cannot be held responsible for the brutal ferocity with which summary vengeance was inflicted on Rizzio, on the threshold of the queen's chamber. Besides despatching Rizzio, it was necessary to secure the person of the queen, and with skilful audacity Morton took means which would guarantee the accomplishment of both purposes. At dusk on Saturday, 9 March, a body of armed men, secretly collected by Morton, swarmed into the quadrangle of Holyrood Palace, the keys being seized from the porter and the gates locked to prevent further egress or ingress. Morton with a select band then held the staircase communicating with the queen's supper-room and the other apartments. Into the supper-room Ruthven and others had been admitted from Darnley's apartment, Darnley having joined the queen a few minutes before. The original intention of the conspirators was that Rizzio should be publicly executed (Morton and Ruthven to Cecil, 27 March 1566; Calderwood, Hist. ii. 314), and Knox states that they had with them a rope for this purpose (Works, ii. 521); but either a sudden alarm or overpowering passion made them dispense with formalities, and as soon as he had been dragged from the apartment they fell upon him with their daggers (ib.) Herries asserts that Morton gave him the first stroke (Hist. Marie Queen of Scots, p. 77), but other writers agree that this was done by George Douglas with Darnley's dagger, which he plucked from Darnley's sheath, and, with the words ‘Take this from the king,’ left it in Rizzio's body. An alarm of the citizens was quieted by the appearance of Darnley, who assured them that all was well, and the queen was locked up in her room, the palace being left in charge of Morton.
While Moray, Morton, and Ruthven, lulled to carelessness by Mary's proposals for a general reconciliation, were deliberating at midnight of the 11th in Morton's house, Mary, escorted by Darnley, was riding swiftly to Dunbar. Morton, Ruthven, and others, denounced as the originators of the plot by Darnley—who, with obtuse effrontery, now denied that it ever had his wish or approval—thereupon fled precipitately towards England. From Berwick, Morton and Ruthven, on 27 March, sent a letter asking Elizabeth's clemency and favour (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, entry 229; Scot. Ser. i. 232), and on 2 April sent to Cecil ‘the whole discourse of the manner of their proceedings in the slaughter of David,’ expressing also their
