CAMEO IV. The lame peace of Longjитсаи. 1568. The place was besieged by Montluc, but in vain; and for the next seventy years La Rochelle continued the chief stronghold of the Huguenots. Catherine de Medici had all this time been getting together a very considerable army, but she did not wish it to fight, only to overawe the Huguenots, and force them to come to terms. Indeed she dreaded victory on either side, as the conqueror would be sure to become a thorn in her side. So she offered to restore the edict of Amboise, without any of the drawbacks, on condition that the Germans were dismissed, and the towns that had been seized surrendered to the King. Condé and Coligny wanted to keep some cities as guarantees, but this was eluded, and the treaty that was signed at Longjumeau on the 23rd of March, 1568, was called "the little lame peace," and "the insecure peace." The Queen had advanced 300,oco crowns to pay off the Germans, and she insisted that this sum should be repaid her from the estates of the chiefs, not by subscriptions from the Huguenot congregations, intending thus to weaken them, and to prevent political collections at public worship. It was indeed a most insecure peace. Things had been done on either side which inflamed every one's feelings. The wickednesses that had been perpetrated on the clergy, the monks, and the nuns, could not be forgotten, and the concessions to the Calvinists shocked the clergy. The preachers in Paris denounced moderation, and cited the deaths of Korah, the slaughter of the calf-worshippers and of the votaries of Baal, as examples, just as John Knox and his friends were doing on the other side in Scotland. Murder was avenged by murder. When the royalist troops re-entered the cities the sacrilege and cruelty were remembered, and equal atrocities were committed. In a tumult at Amiens, 100 Huguenots were killed, 150 at Auxerre, others at Orleans, Bourges, and Troyes. At Ligny, a fugitive Calvinist was hunted down and killed in the very arms of the Mayor, who was trying to save him; and at Clermont, a man who had failed in tokens of reverence towards the Host was dragged to the market-place, and burnt on a pile of timber pulled from his own house. The Huguenots declared that 10,000 persons perished during the six months' peace, and only 500 in the war; and though this is an impossible exaggeration, it was true that their situation was becoming worse every day. LOCHLEVEN CASTLE still stands ruinous on its island. It has a tall round tower, with three of the angles adorned with small round turrets projecting, and with extinguisher roofs. Below, there were two vaulted floors, and another storey rose above them on beams and joists. There was room on the islet for a hall, and for chambers and out-buildings; and there were other islets on the lake, one containing the ruined monastery of St. Serf. Supplies, however, had to come from the mainland. Mary had fitted up her apartments there on her first arrival from France, and the walls were hung with tapestry representing hunting and hawking pieces, and she had a green velvet bed, and a crimson canopy over her chair of state. It stood in a round presence-chamber within the tower, and looked out across the lake to the mountains, and to the hamlet of Kinross. Three of her ladies, Marie de Courcelles, Jane Kennedy, and Mary Seton had gone with her. The Countess of Moray was likewise at Lochleven, and such of the seven daughters of Lady Douglas as were unmarried attended upon her. At first she would not eat, and seemed broken-hearted, but her elastic spirits rose-she played at cards, worked with her needle, and devised sports and pastimes for her little train, thus winning entirely the heart of George Douglas, the second son, then at home. A month had thus passed, when, on the 23rd of July, 1567, Lord Lindsay and Sir Robert Melville were seen crossing the lake. When ushered into her presence they produced three deeds, which they required her to sign. One was an abdication of her crown in favour of her son; the second appointed Moray as regent; the third established Morton CAMEO V. Lochleven 1567. CAMEO V. - Forced abdi cation of Mary. 1567. and some other lords as a council in the absence of Moray, who was still abroad. Mary utterly refused such a proposal, and Melville begged to see her alone. He told her that her danger was great in case of her persisting. He gave her a turquoise ring as a token from Athol, Huntly, Lethington, and Grange, to authorise their message that abdication was the only means of saving her life, and likewise a letter from Throckmorton, concealed in the scabbard of his sword, with the same advice. She, however, declared that she would not comply with a demand only prompted by the ambition of a few. On Melville's failure, Lindsay came in. He was a man whom Mary specially detested for his brutal insults on her entrance into Edinburgh ; and he had no scruple in employing threats, first that he would lock her up in the Tower, and then that he would throw her into the lake to feed the fishes. "I am not yet five-and-twenty!" cried the poor young Queen, and then tears choked her utterance, and she wept piteously, while Melville whispered to her that she would do wisely to save her life by signing the papers, since these threats would render them quite invalid. Lindsay, further exasperated by her tears, swore that he would make an end of it at once, and grasping her arm, forced the pen into her fingers, and held her till she traced her name, leaving the mark of his gauntlet on her soft wrist. George Douglas broke forth in indignation, but he was viewed as a mere boy, and his elder brother, Sir William, had left the room, refusing to have anything to do with the business. The Queen was left in such a state of agitation and despair, that she had a fever, which kept her for some weeks in bed. Meantime, her chapel at Holyrood was rifled by Lord Glencairn, and preparations were made for the instant coronation of her unconscious child. Scotland was accustomed to mourning coronations of infants, and perhaps that of her sixth James was the saddest of all, when, on the 28th of July, 1567, he was borne in the arms of the Earl of Mar to the parish church of Stirling. Athol carried the crown, Morton the sceptre, Glencairn the sword. Mary's act of abdication was read, and Lindsay falsely swore to its having been given by her own free will. John Knox preached the sermon. He with some others would have omitted the anointing as a Jewish or Popish ceremony, but as it was unsafe to dispense with anything essential to the King's legal title, he was overruled. The Bishop of Orkney (by title), the same who had married the Queen to Bothwell, was to perform the ceremony, and a newly-framed coronation-oath to protect the Kirk was taken in the child's name by the Earl of Morton. Then the crown of Scotland was held over the poor little unconscious head, and each noble and each burgher laid his hand on it, and swore those oaths of allegiance which they were wont to count so lightly. After which the Earl of Mar lifted the poor baby off his throne, and carried him back to the castle as King James VI. of Scotland. The English ambassador was not there: Queen Elizabeth had forbidden him to countenance any such proceeding; and indeed the English Queen was in great perplexity. As a woman, she would fain have supported her cousin; and as a Queen, she hated insurgents; but her interests were with the Reformed rather than the Roman Catholic cause, and she knew or suspected enough to make her doubt whether Mary was not a criminal whose part she could not espouse. Her view was that it would be best for all that Mary and her son should both be in her own keeping, where the child could be well educated like the best man of his line, James I., and prepared for the throne of England, and where the lives of both would be safer than among their own subjects. For Sir Nicolas Throckmorton wrote her word that he heard from the Council that the Archbishop of St. Andrew's (George Hamilton) was calling on the Council to put Mary to death, and when he (Sir Nicolas) suggested that it would be better to divorce her from Bothwell, and marry her to one of their own party, the answer was that her death would leave the Hamiltons with nothing but the little King between them and the throne, and he "might die." Throckmorton, by his own account, only succeeded in persuading the Council to take no steps for the trial and execution of their Queen till the arrival of the Earl of Moray, whom they elected as Regent. He was in France when the tidings reached him, and there was much excitement there. Young Charles IX., who had a boy's fondness for his beautiful sister-in-law, would have brought her and her son to France at once, but this was the last thing that Catherine de Medici wished. Provided Scotland remained her ally, she did not care who was its sovereign, and she absolutely disliked Mary. Large promises were made to the new Regent; but he was a cool and cautious man, and did not commit himself except by taking gifts of plate and money. He returned by way of England, and saw Queen Elizabeth, who scolded him well, and declared that she meant to restore her sister-queen, and punish the rebels. Her Council did the best to smooth away the impression these words had made, but Moray went away in displeasure, though still saying as little as possible of his intentions, and reserving his decision till he should be on the spot. Four hundred gentlemen on horseback met him as soon as he had left Berwick and escorted him to Edinburgh. He was urged to accept the Regency, but refused until he should have seen his sister. Difficulties were made, lest she should talk him over, and at last he was only permitted to go to Lochleven in company with Morton, Athol, and Lindsay. CAMEO V. Coronation of James VI. 1567. CAMEO V. Regency of Mary. 1567. Mary received them with tears and complaints of her captivity. She had a long private interview with her brother, of which we have only the account he chose to give to Sir Nicolas Throckmorton on his return to Edinburgh. By this he represented himself as behaving to her at first "more like a ghostly father than a counsellor," and leaving her no hope but in the mercy of Heaven when he parted with her at night; but in the morning he showed some relenting, and she, with many entreaties, tears, and embracings, besought him to accept the Regency, as the best hope for herself and her son, and to get all the strong places into his power. He showed some reluctance, but her pleading grew stronger, and finally he promised to become Regent. It After this she became cheerful and sent her blessing to her son. seems likely that this narrative is true, though possibly not the whole truth. Indeed Moray's conduct would seem to have been a piece of acting, in order that he might be armed with her consent to his taking the Regency in case of accidents. At any rate, Moray was sworn in as Regent at the Tolbooth on the 19th of August, 1567, and proclaimed the same day at the Market Cross. The first thing he did was to take away the government of Edinburgh Castle from Balfour, Bothwell's creature, and give it to Kirkaldy of Grange; but he was obliged to buy Balfour off with 5,000, the Abbey of Pittenweem, and a pledge of immunity for his share in Darnley's murder, though some of the lesser tools were arrested. The greater ones, such as Morton, Lethington, and Athol, who had made Moray king in all but name, were necessarily let go free. It was a perilous path in which he had to walk. From France he had few fears. Charles IX. might declare that he would deliver his fair sister, but he was a mere boy; the Duke of Guise was younger still, and Catherine was sure not to promote any scheme in Mary's favour, even had she been at leisure to send any forces from France. Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, was furious, and used the most violent language respecting the subjects who had dared to judge and dethrone their Queen; and she sent off Sir Nicolas Throckmorton with orders to see Queen Mary, assure her of England's protection, and then dictate terms to the rebels. Sir Nicolas, who had only just come home from Scotland, knew that it was all very well for his mistress to talk; but he did not believe that he should even be allowed access to Mary, and was quite sure that Scottish pride would never endure to be thus treated. However, he could not persuade the Queen to attend to him. She felt all royalty outraged by a sovereign's imprisonment, and though she was very angry with Mary, she was still more angry with the subjects who had dared to dethrone her. Poor man, he was in a difficult position. The utmost speed that messengers could make left a fortnight at the very least between the despatch of a letter from Edinburgh and the receipt of the answer |