Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/432

41 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 55. the score which, had been so long accumulating agamst him. It may be much to say that in all Scotland theie was not one man who had better earned a halter than the Archbishop of St Andrt >ws. There was the Cal- vinist minister of Spott, wLj was never silent about the crimes of Queen Mary, when, with at least equal atrocity, he was murdering his own wife. There was Kennedy, Earl of Cassilis, who roasted the Abbot of Crossraguel before a slow fire in a dungeon, to make him sign away his lands ; and Hamilton was rather unfortunate in the number of his iniquities which were brought to light, than in any especial distinction above the other miscreants of his time. Of a Churchman he had nothing in him beyond the appetite for perse- cution. It was he who had burnt Walter Milne, the last of the Scottish martyrs. He was made Beton's successor only because he was the brother of the Duke of Chatelherault, and because the revenue of the arch- bishopric was a splendid provision for his vices. He had been the prime adviser in the late intrigues of his family. He had been in the secret of the murder of Darnley; it removed an obstacle between the Hamil- tons and the crown. He had promoted and pronounced the infamous divorce of Bothwell, knowing or hoping that in marrying him the Queen would destroy herself; and while affecting to be her warmest friend, he had offered in the name of his family to support Morton and Lindsay in putting her to death, if the Regency was given back to his brother, and the succession after