Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/374

354 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 44. ' the war would come upon her when least she looked for it ; ' and that Mary Stuart now regarded her with as much contempt as hatred. ' Alas ! my lord/ he wrote to Leicester, ' is this the end ? God help us all and comfort these poor lords. There is by these deal- ings overthrown a good duke, some earls, many other barons, lords, and gentlemen, wise, honest, religious. Above all am I driven to bemoan the hard case of the Earl of Murray and the Laird of Grange, whose affec- tion to this whole realm your lordship knows right well. I surely think there came not a greater overthrow to Scotland these many years ; for the wisest, honestest, and godliest are discomfited and undone. There is now no help for them, unless God take the matter in hand, but to commit themselves to their prince's will and pleasure. And what hath England gotten by helping them in this sort ? even as many mortal enemies of them as before it had dear friends ; for otherwise will not that Queen receive them to mercy, if she deal no worse with them ; nor without open and evident de- monstration of the same cannot they assure themselves of her favour ; and the sooner they thus do the sooner they shall have her to conceive a good opinion of them, and the sooner they shall be restored to their liveli- hoods.' l ' Greater account might have been made of the lords' good-will/ wrote Randolph. ' If there be living a more mortal enemy to the Queen my mistress than Bedford to Leicester, November 5 : Scotch MSS. Holla House.