s were so well known,
that their pretence of zeal for religion had little influence even on
the ignorant populace.[*] The king and queen advanced to Edinburgh
at the head of their army: the rebels were obliged to retire into the
south; and being pursued by a force which now amounted to eighteen
thousand men,[**] they found themselves under a necessity of abandoning
their country, and of taking shelter in England.

Elizabeth, when she found the event so much to disappoint her
expectations, thought proper to disavow all connections with the
Scottish malecontents, and to declare every where, that she had
never given them any encouragement, nor any promise of countenance or
assistance. She even carried further her dissimulation and hypocrisy.
Murray had come to London, with the abbot of Kilwinning, agent for
Chatelrault; and she seduced them, by secret assurances of protection,
to declare before the ambassadors of France and Spain that she had
nowise contributed to their insurrection. No sooner had she extorted
this confession from them, than she chased them from her presence,
called them unworthy traitors, declared that their detestable rebellion
was of bad example to all princes; and assured them, that as she had
hitherto given them no encouragement, so should they never thenceforth
receive from her any assistance or protection.[***] Throgmorton alone,
whose honor was equal to his abilities, could not be prevailed on to
conceal the part which he had acted in the enterprise of the Scottish
rebels; and being well apprised of the usual character and conduct of
Elizabeth, he had had the precaution to obtain an order of council
to authorize the engagements which he had been obliged to make with
them.[****]

* Knox, p. 380, 385.

** Knox, p. 388.

*** Melvil, p. 57. Knox, p. 388. Keith, p. 319. Crawford, p,
62, 63.

**** Melvil, p. 60.

The banished lords, finding themselves so harshly treated by Elizabeth,
had recourse to the clemency of their own sovereign; and after some
solicitation and some professions of sincere repentance, the duke of
Chatelrault obtained his pardon, on condition that he should retire into
France. Mary was more implacable against the ungrateful earl of Murray
and the other confederates, on whom she threw the chief blame of the
enterprise; but as she was continually plied with applications from
their friends, and as some of her most judicious partisans in England
thought,