Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/474

454 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 61. part against Morton soon repented of their mistake. Lindsay and Ruthven secured the Castle of Edinburgh. The King had been taken back to Stirling, in the care of Sir Alexander Erskine, the Regent Mar's Catholic brother. The head of the Erskines' house was the hereditary Chatelain, and the young Earl of Mar, a boy of twenty, devoted to Morton, made his way into the Castle, and half playfully, half by force, declared him- self of age, and challenged possession of his inherit- ance. His uncle gave way. Morton, whose day was supposed to be over, came up from Lochleyen, and once more had the King in his hands. A Parliament was called immediately. The Pro- testant nobles attended, and with the alarmed burgesses declared for their old leader. Argyle and Athol stayed away, not daring to show themselves, and Morton was again master of the situation. His power he well knew could be but of short duration if he was left as before ; but he concluded that Elizabeth would have by this time learnt the importance of Scotland to her ; and he sent the Abbot of Dunfermline to England on the spot, with detailed proposals for the league which, before the late change, she had desired. It was at the moment when her ill-humour with the Low Countries was at its height ; and instead of welcoming Morton's recovery of power, it seemed only to increase her irritation. Several weeks passed before she could resolve whether the Abbot should be admitted to her presence ; she told Heneage ' it was against her heart ' to entertain as an ambassador the representative of a Government of