Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/255

I 5 6 5 .J THE EMBASSY OF DE SILVA. 235 our.' l It appears as if she had persuaded him that she had looked the Darnley marriage in the face and had turned away from it as too full of danger ; and even Cecil was so far convinced that he entered in his diary at the date of these letters ' Mr Randolph writeth at length of the Queen of Scots' allowance of my Lord of Leicester, and giveth great appearance of success in the marriage.' 2 On the 6th of February Randolph wrote again to Leicester as if there was no longer any doubt that he would be accepted. ' This Queen,' he said, ' is now content to give good ear to her Majesty's suit in your behalf; she judges you worthy to be husband to any Queen.' 3 And though Randolph himself still vaguely anticipated evil, and though other persons who understood the state of things in Scotland shared his misgivings, 4 Elizabeth permitted herself to be persuaded February. 1 Maitland to Cecil, January 16 and February i : MS. Rolls House. 2 Cecil's Diary, February 5. 3 Randolph to Leicester, Feb- ruary 6 : WRIGHT, vol. i. 4 Among the Conway MSS. there is a remarkable paper, unsigned and unaddressed, on the Lennox question in Scotland, and on the views sup- posed to be entertained by Lady Lennox and her busband. It shows how remarkably the religious parties were intersected by family feuds ; and how disintegrating and danger- ous to the Catholic party in Scotland the marriage of Mary Stuart and Darnley must have been. NOTE OF AFFAIRS IN SCOTLAND. February 3, 1564-5. ' Enemies to the Earl of Lennox All the Protestants of that realm in general, and in special the Duke of Chatelherault, with all the Hamil- tons in Clydesdale, Linlithgow, and Edinburgh ; the Bishop of St An- drew's ; the Abbot of Kilwinning ; the Bishop of Glasgow ; all the Be- tons ; the allies of the late Cardinal of St Andrew's ; the Laird of Borth- wick, and all the Scots. The Earl of Argyle, sister's son to the Duke ; all the Campbells; the Earl of Glencairn, whose eldest son is sister's son to the Duke; and all the Cu-