Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/513

1566.] THE MURDER OF DARNLEY. 493 Their friends had never ceased to intercede for them. One morning, while Argyle was still in bed, Murray and Maitland came to his room ; and Maitland, beginning upon the subject, said that the * best way to obtain Morton's pardon was to promise the Queen to find means to divorce her from her husband/ Argyle said he did not know how it could be done. ' My Lord/ said Maitland, ' care you not for that, we shall find the means to make her quit of him well enough, if you and Lord Huntly will look on and not take offence.' Scotland was still entangled in the Canon Law, and some trick could be made available if the nobles agreed to allow it. Huntly entered as the others were talking. They offered him the restoration of the Gordon estates if he would consent to Morton's return : he took the price, and agreed with the rest to forward the divorce. The four noblemen then went together to Bothwell, who professed equal readiness ; he accompanied them to the Queen ; and Maitland in the name of the rest under- took to deliver her from Darnley on condition that she pardoned Morton and his companions. Mary Stuart was craving for release : she said gener- ally that she would do what they required ; but embar- rassed as she was by her connection with Rome, she was unable to understand how a divorce could be managed, or how, if they succeeded, they could save the legitimacy of her child. So obvious a difficulty could not have been unforeseen. Under the old law of the Church the dis-