Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/208

i 94 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 53. learned that the fears of those who understood Scotland better than herself had been too fatally justified. Although to the Catholics, to the friends of Mary Stuart, to the friends generally of anarchy and the right of every man to do as he pleased a large class at this time in Scotland, the administration of Murray was in every way detestable, yet the disinterested in- tegrity of his character, the activity and equity of his government, had commanded respect even from those who most disliked him. They might oppose his policy and hate his principles, but personal ill-will, as he had never deserved it from any one, had never hitherto been felt towards him, except by his sister. The arrest of Northumberland, and the supposed intention of sur- rendering him to Elizabeth, had called out a spirit against him which had not before existed, and an op- portunity was created for his destruction which had been long and anxiously watched for. The plot for the murder was originally formed in Mary Stuart's household, if she herself was not the prime mover in it. 1 The person selected for the deed was James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, nephew of the Archbishop of St Andrews and of the Duke of Chatel- herault. The conduct of the Hamiltons for the ten past years had been uniformly base. They had favoured the Reformation while there was a hope of marrying the heir of their house to Elizabeth. "When this hope 1 ' Dice el dicho Embajador de Escocia que era ya cosa concertada entre particulars cviados de 1 la Reyna.' Don Francis de Alava to Philip : TEULET, vol. v.