sufferings of Jesus Christ the one hasteneth to a neighbour and the other abideth in God the one hath exercise the other joy the one conquereth the other possesseth the one knocketh at the door the other entereth in the one despiseth the world the other enjoyeth God Finally the spiritual man is a man covetous of eternity prodigal of life little careful of the present certain of the future A man who seems no longer to have any commerce with the world and who hath nothing so familiar as a life that is as it were buried in death and who flieth above sepulchers like an Angel who holdeth not of the earth but by the slender root of natural necessities and already toucheth heaven with a finger A man who is as yet in flesh though he hath made an eternal divorce with flesh who is under-foot to all the world by humility and above all the greatness thereof by contempt of it who binds himself to be at liberty who crucifieth himself to combat who mortifieth himself to be the more vigoroue who withereth to flourish again and daily dieth that he may never die The third SECTION Of the first monster which the spiritual man should resist to wit Ignorance and of the practice of virtues by which it is subdued THe greater part of men have dexterity in delving From whence our evils come the ground like moles (a) (a) (a) Oculis capti fodere cubilia talpae Virgil. Geor. and have no eyes to behold the Sun Yet all evils proceed from ignorance and the want of the knowledge of God (b) (b) (b) Primae scelerum causae mortalibus aegris Naturam nescire Dei Silius l. 4. This is the first Monster which we must assault the first obstacle we must take away And for this effect observe a wholesom doctrine to wit that God is the Sun of all the Intelligences and that from this Sun five (c) (c) (c) Five rays of the soul Dignity of faith Aug. apud Gulielm Lugdunens rays of a lively and quickening light are diffused over the darkness of our understandings These five rays are faith understanding counsel wisdom and prudence The first and most excellent light is faith because the other rays do well enlighten the soul in those operations of which it is as it were the fountain but faith alone raiseth him above himself to his beginning which is God (d) (d) (d) Fides res est audax atque improba perveniens quo non pertingit intelligentia ipsa ascendit super Cheruban volat super Seraphim senas alas habens Faith is a virtue bold and urgent which attains to that the understanding cannot reach unto mounteth above Cherubins and flies above Seraphins though they have six wings A man without faith is as the Pilot of whom it is spoken in the Proverbs (e) (e) (e) Prov. 21. that fell asleep and lost his rudder What virginity is to the body the same is faith to the soul It is the first-born of virtues the beginning of spiritual life the life of the understanding as charity is the life of the will the pillar of the cloud (f) (f) (f) Et erat nubes tenebrosa illuminans noctem Exod. 14. 30. which hath two faces the one dark because it believeth the things which are not apparent the other lightsom for that it believeth with an infallible assurance The fourth SECTION Practice of Faith THat you may well practice the acts of faith What faith is Hebr. 12. 1. Sperandarum substantia rerum argumentum non apparentium you must know the nature object and motive thereof Faith saith S. Paul is the foundation of hope and the proof of things not apparent The foundation of hope in regard all whatsoever we hope in matter of Religion is grounded upon faith as the statue upon its basis the proof of things not apparent because it is an infallible argument of truths whereof we have not as yet evident notice S. Bernard Voluntariae quaedam certa praelibatio nec dum propalatae veritatis Bern. de consider It s object S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 1. How we should believe addeth that it is a first-tast certain and voluntary of truth yet not manifested The Gold-smith laboureth upon gold silver and precious stones as upon his proper object and the object which employeth faith are the mysteries revealed unto us by God and proposed by his Church Such mysteries ought to be believed for no other motive but for that God the eternal Truth hath revealed them The arguments which are drawn from the prophesies miracles numbers of Martyrs purity of the evangelical law from the correspondency thereof with reason from the admirable success and consent of all the mysteries from the conversion of the world from the means which the Church hath used to establish it self from her firm constancy amidst persecutions from the wisdom sanctity of the professours of our law and such like things which I have produced in the first obstacle of the second book are most powerful considerations to introduce us to faith and to make easie and familiar to us the acts thereof but they are not properly motives of faith In the same manner How faith works A fine comparison as the soul draweth knowledge from sense and yet notwithstanding is above sense so faith though she serve her self with these considerations which are able to command the most contumacious spirits yet is she admirably raised upon a more supereminent sphere and will abide no other touch but of the eternal Verity which darteth a forcible lightening-flash into the soul able to dazle enlighten and surprize the most prosperous liberty that may be imagined Thence the soul cometh to believe not by Wherin faith consisteth humane discourse by miracles by doctrine by sanctity but because God speaketh inwardly unto it and giveth it so powerful a touch that she judgeth infallible whatsoever is revealed and proposed unto her by the Church Behold to what point the good S. Elzear Count of Arian was arrived when he said he tasted matters of faith with such certainty and resolution of understanding that when Monsieur Miron held for a prodigie of knowledge in his time and all the most famous Doctours would have perswaded him the contrary of what he had embraced in the simplicity of his heart all their subtilties could not be able to give the least shock to his spirit This admitted the acts of faith are I. To submit proper judgement to God with all Touch-stone to know whether one have faith simplicity and humility of spirit who speaketh unto us by his Church by Scriptures by Traditions by Councels by Canons of the sovereign Pastours of the Church II. To believe firmly all the Articles of faith which are proposed to us as well those concerning the Divinity as the humanity of our Saviour those which concern the Sacraments and ceremonies as those which appertain to the order and
of his side The Prince in whom passion caused a continuall drâ—â—kennesse of Reason being more easie to believe then prudent to examine reasons turned towards them and presently found himself caught in their snare When seeing himself betraied and ready to be delivered into the hands of his Father and step-mother whom he more feared then a Panther he addressed himself to Geilan his confident friend and prayed him to give an end to his miserable life sith having found so much infidelity in his beloved treachery in his friends and crueltie in his father there nothing remained for him but a Tomb to bury all his miseries The other thinking to do him great service thrust his sword into his body and separated his soul Which may be a fearfull example for youth to make them for ever to abhor the charms of love That of Carloman was as light although it had Paulus Aemilius not so long a sequele of accidents Paulus Aemilius recounteth that this young Prince accustomed to sottish and sordid love having in a street perceived a creature which to him seemed handsome he began to follow her being mounted on his horse but the maid very chaste to avoid his courtships cast her self speedily into a house whither Carloman spurring his horse desperately followed her not observing that the door of the house was too low which smote him and stroke him down so unfortunately that he left both love and life It was a direfull thing to see so great a Prince to die in jeast but the sports of this passion are ordinarily bloudy and Venus came from a sea of water to swim in a sea of bloud 3. I will here also let you see the effect of a passion Concilia Gallieana tom 3. to all extremity dissolute and scandalous which made a great noise throughout all Christendome and will serve to make men detest the wickednesse of such as break conjugall bands to satisfie their lust The young Emperour Lotharius grand-child of Lewis the Courteous loved in his younger years a Lady much mentioned in the Epistles of Popes under the name of Valdrada She had a commanding beauty was of a humour full of attractives and wiles which surprized the young Prince with an affection so strong and catching that after a thousand crosses he could not be unloosed from it but by death Neverthelesse Time and Reason inviting him to think upon a lawfull marriage he espoused Theutbergue a beautifull and virtuous Princesse Scandalous love of the Emperour Lotharius and Valdrada who was thought fit to quench the fire of his unchaste love and hereafter to enkindle his heart with flames more chaste and happy But fascinated by his evil Genius he presently took an aversion against his wife being seldome personally with her and perpetually in mind and affection with her who had laid hold of his first love Whether it were that this audacious woman imperiously ruled over him as a man timorous in his passions who durst not yet confidently do a mischief or whether he were sufficiently disposed thereunto by the violence of his love he undertakes a very scandalous businesse which was to unmarry himself falsly imputing adultery and barrennesse to his wife The criminall processe is handled in the Ecclesiasticall Court Gontier Archbishop of Collen who had great power and great faults supporteth the Princes part what he might having won Theutgard Archbishop of Trew on his side he drags along souls set to sale by a torrent of authority to which none make resistance The innocent Theutbergue is condemned in two pestilent Synods and handled as a prostitute the Crown is taken from her and put on Valdrada's head who appeared with a marvellous pomp whilest the other groaned under the ashes of a publick penance The chaste Princesse who not so much regarded eminent wedlocks as the honour of her purity which she meant to preserve to her tomb appealed to the Pope which at that time was Nicholas the first and wrote mournfull letters to him able to rent rocks asunder The common Father of Christendome heareth her complaints animated by truth and deputeth two Legates to do her right These Prelates had not courage enough to decide the matter and seeing themselves upon one side assailed by their conscience and on the other besieged by the powerfull contentions of Lotharius and two Archbishops they found out a way how to wash their hands from this judgement They shew that since two Provinciall Councels had passed upon it and that the Archbishops Gontier and Theutgard had born sway therein it were good that the same men took pains to go to Rome to let the Pope see the acts of those two assemblies and to justifie all their proceedings These two Prelates who thought nothing was impossible to their credit refused not the commission They go armed with impostures and tattle to oppresse truth and overwhelm innocency The Pope a clear-seeing and charitable man interessed himself in the cause and in full assembly discovereth their jugling with such vigour and perspicuity that all the Fathers cast their stone at them The mischief they meant against the innocent Theutbergue falls back upon their own heads they are excommunicated degraded deprived of their offices and benefices to be reduced to the communion of Lackies Never did men practise a mischief with more unluckinesse and lesse successe A Legate is dispatched to annull all they had done which was the courageous Arsemius who caused all the processe to be reviewed drave away the impudent Valdrada restored her honour to Queen Theutbergue and tied her marriage with an indissoluble knot Neverthelesse this judicious Lady well foreseeing that those loves which are re-enkindled with the fires of S. Peters thunders would neither be happy nor faithfull for her saith she was satisfied to have put her honour into safegard and that having observed so much evil disposition in her husband and treachery in the world she desired to spend the rest of her dayes with God Lotharius was transported with joy upon this news and addressed an humble supplication to the Pope shewing he had obeyed his commandments being dutifully bent to take his wife again but since the piety of this Princesse who is not born for worldly matters is suggested with the thought of entering into religion it would please him to favour her generous purpose to give him leave to marry Valdrada which would be a means to take away all the sin scandall of his miserable life The holy Father answers that he much commended the charity he had towards queen Theutbergue his spouse but that it was fit this good affection might begin in himself and should he throughly resolve to enter into a Monastery the permission he required for his wife should hinder nothing This answer confounded him and seeing that of two wives he was despised by the one and interdicted from the other he lived in the world as a man without soul or contentment Mean while he hoped that
did frequent her house Seneca was named amongst the foremost Calumny against Julia and Seneca and by calumny invelopped in the same accusation whether it was suspected that he had treated of love with her or whether it was thought that he was an accomplice in her excesses and had flattered her in her passion without giving her advice It is true that our Seneca was then in the flower of his age and was none of those fullen and stern Stoicks that had put the world into a fright He had a gentle spirit discreet and agreeable to women but he was too advised to let his passions flie so high as to commit any loose act in the house of the Cesars Dion his greatest enemy doth justifie him in this businesse and doth confesse that all this accusation was most unjustly grounded and that Messalina was so depraved and so corrupted with the inordinatenesse of filthy lusts that no credit was to be given to her Neverthelesse she ceased not to bear down the innocent with the weight of her power she condemned the Princesse to banishment and afterwards to death as Dion and Suetonius do affirm It did much afflict her that Seneca was alive who by divers sentences in the Senate was allotted to death but the good Emperour Claudius was most unwilling to extinguish in that Spirit the Glory of Eloquence and of the Empire desired his life of the Senate and was contented that he should be banished into the Isle of Corsica where at the beginning he was touched with a melancholy amazement to find himself separated from the pleasures of the Court to live amongst the rocks and people as ungentle as the rocks but he imployed all his Philosophy to comfort himself and to temper the eagernesse of his fortune with the tranquility of his mind Here his spirit being delivered from the noise and the tumults of Rome and the servitudes of the Court did altogether reflect upon it self and found there those Lights and those Treasures which before lay undiscovered to him Tribulation is to men as a spurre to incite them to the production of brave works and of generous actions and this appeared in Seneca who in this Seneca benished to Corsica where he composed excellent works place of banishment did write most excellent Treatises neither did his conversation with those rude inhabitants alter the graces or the beauty of his language He treated there with the Intelligences and dived into the Contemplation of the World He took off the vail from Nature that she might the better be seen in her majesty Howsoever in that solitary place he had sometimes his hours of affection beholding himself severed from his mother whom he tenderly loved and whom in that affliction he comforted w th a letter which might pass for a good book He passionately desired the company of his brothers and some personages of Honour who loved him with as much sincerity as profession There was some that think it strange in Seneca that he should desire and endeavour his return and that in his consolatory letter to Polybius he did write the praises of the Emperour Claudius who did banish Seneca did well to desire and procure his liberty him But have not they somthing to do who exact more perfection in Seneca a man at that time of the world then is required in a Prophet where is the bird that doth not sometimes beat his bill against the cage to find out the door to his liberty Jeremy was exceeding patient and yet he humbly besought K. Zedekiah to draw him out of prison where he had suffered much and much feared that he should be committed again unto it Doth not S. Paul say that liberty is better then slavery that one is to be supported by necessity and the other to be procured by reason What fault hath Seneca done that in his exile he wrote unto Polybius a great favourite a letter consolatory on the death of his brother and inserted in it a few good words to appease the Emperour Should he have spared a period or two to deliver himself from a banishment where he had continued for the space of eight years I should no way approve him for bestowing flatteries on a wicked man which should be an act unworthy of a Philosopher for a generous spirit had better to endure the extremity of evil then praise a tyrant and give applauses to his person You may observe how carefull he is in that Tract to give not so much as one Complement to Messalina who was a very bad woman although she had the command of all he onely praised an Emperour who in that time wherein he wrote his Consolation to Polybius was in good reputation and made the face of the Empire look farre otherwise then it did in the Reign of Caligula his predecessour He is so discreet that all the praises he doth give him are no more then wishes Let the Powers of Heaven preserve him long on The excellent Complement of Seneca earth Let him surmount the years and the acts of Augustus and as long as he shall be mortall let there not any die in his house Let him give us a long sonne to be Master of the Roman Empire having approved him by his long fidelity And let him have him rather for his Colleague then for his Successour Afterwards he addresseth himself to Fortune speaketh unto her Take heed O Fortune how thou makest thy approaches to him Let not thy power be seen in his person but by thy bounties Let him redresse the calamities of mankind and re-establish all that which the fury of his Predecessour hath ruined and made desolate Let that fair Starre which is risen when the world was falling into the Abysmes continue alwayes to illuminate the Universe Let him pacifie Germany and let him open England Let him gain and surmount the Triumphs of his Father His Clemency which is the first of his Virtues doth promise that I shall not be a Spectatour onely and that he hath not cast me down to raise me up no more But why say I cast down he hath upheld me from the hour that I fell into my misfortune when they would have thrown me headlong down he interposed and by the moderation of his divine hands he laid me gently on the earth He hath entreated the Senate for me and not content himself to give me life he hath desired it of others that I might enjoy the Grant with more assurance Let him deal with me as he pleaseth I assure my self that his Justice will find my cause to be good or his Clemency will make it so It is all one to me whether I am judged not guilty by his Equity or whether I am made innocent by his Bounty In the mean time I rejoyce in my miseries with a sensible consolation to see the course of his Mercy which goes through the Universe and which every day doth call forth the Banished from this
by a writing signed under their own hands have authentically protested to the Queen of England that the Earls of Murray Morton and Lidington were the Counsellers and Authours of the horrible Parricide committed against the King the good Queen always professing that she did forbid them to do any thing whatsoever that might any way reflect upon her honour or offend her conscience Also this unfortunate Earl of Morton who was afterward Cambden part 3. pag. 336. convicted and executed for this murder did totally discharge the Queen from having any hand in the Kings death and named the Conspiratours who by writing had obliged themselves one to another to defend the murder of his Royal Majesty John Hebron Cambden pag. 128. an 1567. Paris and Daglis who prepared the Myne being put to the Rack to accuse the Innocent Queen did absolutely discharge her protesting before God and his Angels that she was free from all fault and that Murray and Morton did give them commandment to perform it Buchanan a Pensionar of Murrays who Cambden pag. 105. cried down this Queen by his venemous pen being touched at last with the remorse of conscience with tears demanded pardon of her Son King James And being sick to death desired that his life might be prolonged either to clear the integrity of Queen Mary by the light of Truth or by his own bloud to wash away the stains of his reproches Some Protestants being amazed to hear him speak in this manner in the apprehension he had of Gods judgements to fall upon him did give forth that his old age had made him to doat This which I now write was afterwards acknowledged as we shall see anon by a publick and solemn sentence of the principal Nobility of England who although Lutherans and enemies being chosen to examine the business did highly publish the Innocence of this Queen And now Detractours what have you to say Do you not behold wherewith to make your shame to blush and the despite of so many infamous Historians to increase who have made black her whiteness Nay some of the Catholicks themselves being but little versed in the discerning of History having suffered themselves to be surprized concerning this subject not considering that all this calumnie is derived from the Book of Buchanan being corrupted to it by the bastard Murray who promised to make him Patriarch of Scotland if ever he should come unto the Crown And this is it which made this Apostate to write a detestable libel against the honour of this Queen which was condemned afterwards by the Estates of Scotland and retracted by the Authour himself But some Hugenots of the Consistory who are the most pestilent slanderers that ever the earth brought forth have not ceased to give some countenance to this fable and illusion of mankind although it was legally condemned of falshood by the most apparent of all their party It is an unhappiness of most men that they are wilfully given to believe the worst whether by an inclination they have unto it or whether by a difficulty to forsake and to put off that which first they entertained in their belief The most virtuous Queen Dido doth pass perpetually through the world for a woman lost in love although indeed she died in the defence of her chastity chusing rather to be devoured by the flames of fire than to be given in marriage as Tertullian doth affirm 6. But to take into my hand again the thread of The rash love of the Earl of Bothuel my discourse Some time after the Kings death Bothuel who was one of the most powerfull Earls of Scotland did prevent to court this Queen in the way of marriage and the rather because the Earl of Murray had promised her unto him for the recompence of this treason This motion came directly cross to her heart although as yet she did not know that this pernicious man had imbrued his hands in her Husbands bloud having always found him most faithfull in his service But as the report thereof increased she grew very angry with all those who offered to renew the motion to her alledging that there was no apparance that he should be propounded for a husband to her who is suspected for so detestable an act no although he indeed were innocent Besides that she urged that he was already tied in marriage to another woman But Murray the Bastard and other of the conspiratours who with an obstinate resolution had undertaken this business did justifie this Crime by the Judges of their faction and gave the Queen to understand that his first wife was not lawfully contracted to him and therefore she was removed from him All this was not able to perswade her who was wonderfully troubled with the dismalness of these late events which was the occasion that Bothuel being transported with love and assured of the high reputation which he had in the Kingdom did draw forth into the fields with five hundred horse where corvetting before them a wild presumption did invade him to take away the Queen as she returned from Sterlin to which place she was gone to see her Son and to bring him with her to her Castle at Dunbar At which place having with strange submissions demanded pardon for his boldness He represented to her the contract of his marriage signed by the Earl of Murray and the principal of the Nobility of the Kingdom who thought very well of it by that means to remedy the publick calamities of the Kingdom Moreover he protested to her that he would never over-value himself for the Honour he should receive from her Majesty nor for the greatness of his unexpected fortune with which the greatest Monarch on the earth might proudly content himself but that he would always continue her most humble and most obedient servant In this manner did this Philistine adore the Ark in its captivity But she moderating her passion did represent unto him that to proceed in this nature was to overthrow the whole business before it was established that she would be absolutely brought to Edinborough the chiefest Citie of her Kingdom where she would take a resolution to do that which should seem good unto Her On this occasion it came about that the Earl of Murray who had removed himself a little to be the less suspected of the murder did return to Court and brought with him the Suite of the Assassinate rewarding him for it with the obtainment of the bravest Lady in the world as the recompence of his murder He ceased not to importune her to take Bothuel Cambden part 1. pag. 3. doth shew that this marriage was brought about by the fraud and the pressing solicitations of the Earl of Murray for her husband declaring his innocence publickly avouched the splendour of his house the exploits of his courage the proofs of his fidelity which did render him most worthy of her love He added that being alone and without assistance she was no
of all Interests to procure her death In stead of coming to the Court to be received there according to her birth and merit she found her self to be confined into a corner of a desart Island where in a new captivity she most unworthily was detained Her disloyal Brother the Vice-roy seeing her escaped from his bloudy hands did promise to himself to oppress with much ease by the circumventions of the Protestant Judges He laid anew for her the nets of his old Accusations and made use of all the falsities which had been invented to eclipse her honour Queen Elizabeth in stead of suppressing the unnatural insolence of her subjects gave them Commissions and an Order that a Process should be made against her The Puritans and the Lutherans the mortal Enemies of Queen Mary are now her Accusers her Judges and her Witnesses The number of honest men was here very few and the apprehension of the danger did stop the mouthes of those men which understood the truth but had not the courage to defend it Nevertheless amongst others there was a Scotch Gentleman the Viscount Herrin worthy of eternal Memory who presented himself to Elizabeth for the defence of his own Queen and said unto her MADAM THe Queen my Mistress who is nothing subject to A generous Compassion you but by misfortune doth desire you to consider that it is a work of an evil Example and most pernicious Consequence to give way that her rebellious Subjects should be heard against her who being not able to destroy her by arms do promise themselves to assassinate her even in your own breast under the colour of Justice Madam Consider the estate of worldly affairs and bear some compassion to the calamities of your poor Suppliant After the most horrid attempt on the King her husband the murder of her servants the cruel Designs on her sacred Person After so many prisons and chains the subjects are heard against their Queen the Rebels against their lawfull Mistress the guilty against the Innocent and the felons against their Judge Where are we or what do we do Though Nature hath planted us in the further parts and the extremities of all the earth yet she hath not taken the sense of humanity from us Consider she is your own bloud your nearest kins-woman she is one of the best Queens in the world for whom your Majestie is preparing bloudy Scaffolds in a place where she was promised and expected greatest favours I want words to express so barbarous a deed but I am ready to come to the Effects and to justifie the innocence of my Queen by witnesses unreproveable and by papers written and subscribed by the hands of the Accusers If this will not suffice I offer my self by your Majesties permission to fight hand to hand for the honour of my Queen against the most hardy and most resolute of those who are her Accusers In this I do assure my self of your Equitie that you will not deny that favour unto her who will acknowledge her self obliged to your bounty Elizabeth who found her advantages in the misfortunes of Mary made no account of these remonstrances and commanded the Commissioners who were the Dukes of Norfolk and of Sussex to proceed unto the Charge But there is a God who rules the Assemblies of men and oftentimes doth turn their Advice against their own consciences The greatest part of this Court were so transported that they had a Resolution to destroy Queen Mary Murray Morton the infamous Bishop of Orcades and the pernicious Buchanan with divers other Enemies of the Queen were now come and brought with them the most execrable inventions and blackest calumnies that ever were fetcht from hell to charge the Queen with the death of the King her husband nay Letters of love were produced which had been invented by some Puritans who with an insupportable impudence affirmed that they found them in a silver coffer of the Queens The Earl of Murray who in the beginning pretended The inhumane cruelty of ambition to wish better to no man than to Bothuel doth now declare himself the chief of this Accusation outragiously pursuing the death of his Sister alledgeing That she was the occasion of her husband's death in revenge of the murder of her Secretary that she never loved him afterwards that she never lamented his loss nor repented of her own sin That she altogether abandoned her self to the love of the Earl of Bothuel whom afterwards she married although he was the murderer of her husband Lesley the Bishop of Rosse Gordon Gauvin Baron and others who were there on the behalf of the Queen for she was present her self in person knowing the whole truth of the business and being incensed at the heart to see the foul treasons of this Judas did handle him according to his desert and did answer him by a very strong Apologie which was afterward presented to the Judges to consider of it at their leisure I will in this place insert the substance of it having some years since found it amongst the Acts of the Queen of Scotland MY LORDS IT is a great favour of Heaven to us that the Earl of Murray is an Accuser in this Cause since his name is able to justifie the greatest crimes much more to accuse the Innocent before persons so approved for their justice and their wisdom It is sufficiently known that by the ignominie of his mother he was the son of a Crime as soon as a son of Nature that he hath ever since lived by wickedness and is grown great by insolence The Queen his Sister hath but one fault which is that she hath advanced him against the intentions of the King her father who designed to him no Crown but what when he was to take Religious Orders the Barber should give him and now he hath usurped the Crown of the Realm His desire and endeavours are that the Diadem should be taken from the head of Mary in recompence to him for having cried her down by his calumnies dishonoured her by his outrages imprisoned her by his fury and dispossessed her by his tyranny Murray doth accuse the Innocent for having contrived her husbands death and he doth accuse her in a Court where there are Witnesses unreproveable that will presently be deposed upon Oath that having plotted this horrible murder he being in a Boat did say That the King should that night be cured of all his maladies And surely it was easie for him to presage it when he and his Accomplices had before decreed it and he had assigned them the place the time and the manner of the execution Murray hath made himself an Accuser to ravish the Kingdom and sway the Scepter imbrued with the bloud of the Queen his sister And we are not so much amazed at this for he hath sold his soul to work wickedness at a far cheaper rate Who had a deeper interest in the death of the King than a Monk for so
propose three Remedies to take away the differences and to re-establish the true Queen in her Kingdom The first was That she should give assurances to the Queen Elizabeth no ways to disquiet her in the Succession of the Crown of England The Second was That she should grant an Act of Pardon and Forgetfulness to her rebellious Subjects for fear the punishment should otherwise extend to a number that was infinite The third was That the Marriage with Bothuel being condemned to be unlawfull she should consent to be espoused to some Illustrious Person in England who should be answerable in all conditions and maintain both Kingdoms in a perpetual friendship to which Queen Mary shewed a singular inclination 9. But the Queen of England was wonderfully The labyrinths of the hypocrisie of Elizabeth amazed at this Sentence and proceedings and although in publick she seemed to be much contented at the justification of her Cousin yet in secret she much raged at it and encouraged the Accusers to prosecute their complaints in full Parliament telling them They were both lazy and impertinent to begin their Suit and not to accomplish it The Process upon this was brought again to the Councel of England where the bastard Murray armed with the outragious pen of Buchanan used all his power even to the affrighting of the Agents of Queen Mary by the Authority of Elizabeth But the best sort of people began to murmure saying that it was necessary that the Traitours should be taken off and the innocent Queen re-established in her Kingdom On the one side Elizabeth ceased not to make delays and on the other she pretended that she would understand what should be the conditions of her Inlargement whether it were to appear civil and humane or whether she would sound the minds of those further whom she thought did talk with too much liberty concerning that affair In the mean time the Spirits which could not clearly enough discover the labyrinths of her dark heart conceived that Truth had now prevailed to publish the innocence of the Queen of Scotland that the Deceitfull hopes Storm was grown into a Calm and that she now began to arrive at her desired haven she now was looked on by every one with another eye and the greatest personages in England did passionately desire an Alliance with her The Earl of Liecester an intimate favourite of Elizabeths observing that his Queen had no intention to be married and that the Scepter of England did look upon this Prisoner did entertain a delicate Ambition to court her in the way of Marriage but the Transalpine humour of his most jealous Mistress did so perplex him that he durst not tell to his own heart what his own thoughts were He most passionately desired that the Queen would make some overture to him of it to submit all things to her discretion and to make her understand that this would be a happy means to take away all doubts and misapprehensions that should arise from Scotland But so it was that he durst not proceed in it so well he understood the spirit of Elizabeth who was as apt to receive an evil impression as she was cruel to revenge it The Duke of Norfolk who was President at the Treason against the Duke of Norfolk and his ruin Trial of Queen Mary was advanced above all others in Dignity and remarkable over all the Realm for his great and gallant qualities The bastard Murray did flatter him with the hope of his Sisters marriage The Earl of Liecester began to dive into his heart concerning that suit and gave him some touches of it whether it were that by that means he would know the pleasure of Elizabeth or whether he were resolved to destroy the Duke who onely was able to cast a shadow on his light Throgmorton who was a friend unto them both did first carry the message and acquainted Norfolk that Leicester had a desire to speak with him on a business of high importance which was concerning his marriage with the Queen of Scotland he told him That he spoke this unto him as of himself but counselled him as a friend to refer the further proceedings on that marriage to the Earl of Leicester who though it was thought did pretend himself to it yet he desired that his modesty would give way that the Earl might advise him because there was no great apparence of any thriving in that motion without his direction He believed this counsel and as soon as the Earl began to open his mouth concerning it he did comply unto him with all honour and submission and did express himself to be indifferent and cold enough concerning that marriage although to speak the truth her Innocence so much persecuted had kindled already the first fire of love within his heart Leicester touched with this courtesie did increase his flame and did remonstrate to him that this Marriage would highly conduce to the benefit of the State because it would prove a happy means to divert all strange Alliances which might carry the Queen of Scotland to pursue her pretensions to the Crown of England and serve absolutely to confirm her in the good opinion of Queen Elizabeth The Duke who was indued with a natural freedom of disposition and knew not how to dissemble beholding himself at one time betwixt two violent fires of Love and Honour did entertain the heat which too soon he did evaporate and besought the Earl since he pretended no more to that affair and that he himself would not proceed in it without his assurance that he would do him a courtesie worthy of the place which he had near the Queen for which he never would be ingratefull This the Earl did promise him and if men may judge by apparence very heartily which did so blow up the heart of the Lover that in thinking of it he did adore his own thoughts It was indeed a strange temptation to propose unto himself so accomplished a Beauty and so eminent a Virtue on whose trayn two Kingdoms did attend The world is not capable to be governed by two Suns and the heart of man suffers more than mortal Agonies when it sustains the shock of two violent passions who unite their forces and designs to make a war upon him The Duke beholding himself flattered with these Great passions of Love and Ambition loves by divers other Agents did write unto the Queen of Scotland with magnifick complements and offers of unparallel'd service with the greater pomp sweetness to enter into the secrets of her thoughts The Prisoner who laboured for nothing more than to break her chains asunder did desire rather to see the end of that affair than to understand the beginning of it but the experience which she had of the dissimulation and jealousies of Elizabeth did make her to go upon these considerations as on a fire covered with ashes Wherefore without being much moved at it she made answer That she must commit the