Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/222

208 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 53. supreme hour, lie was ready to return to his old policy, and carry half Scotland with him, if Elizabeth would understand her own mind and adhere to any definite resolution. 1 On Elizabeth herself the blow told with terrible power. Whether or no she felt remorse for her own behaviour to Murray, his murder brought home those realities of assassination which had long floated before her as a dream. Never again, she well knew it, would she find another Scot so true to England ; never another whose disinterestedness she could try to the uttermost, who would work for her without help or reward or ac- knowledgment, and whose constancy she could never exhaust. ' His death/ she passionately exclaimed, ' was the beginning of her own ruin/ 2 ' She had lost her truest friend/ ' There was none like him in the world ' ' none/ she admitted it now ' so useful to herself.' 3 The French ambassador feared that in her first alarm she would make short work with the Queen of Scots. That Mary Stuart and the Bishop of Ross had been privy to the Northern rebellion, had become every day more clear to her. That the Regent's murder came from the same hand, she had too keenly conjectured; and 1 Maitland to Cecil, January 26 : JBurghley Papers, vol. i. 2 ' Ha le sentido esta Reyna nnicho, y hizd ayer grandes exclam- aciones, diciendo que esto seria el principle de su ruina.' Don Guerau to Philip, January 30. 3 ' II n'est pas a croire combien ladicte Dame a vifvement senty la mort dudict de Moray ; pour la- quelle s'estant enfermee dans sa chambre elle a escrye avecques lar- mes qu'elle avoit perdu le meilleur et le plus utille amy qu'elle eut au monde pour 1'ayder a se maintenir et conserver en repos.' La Mothe Fenelon au Roy, February 17. De- peches, vol. ii.