ith, p. 376. Anderson, vol. ii. p. 106. Spotswood, p.
201.

v**** Spotswood, p. 201. Anderson, vol. i p. 113.

It is remarkable, that the indictment was laid against Bothwell for
committing the crime on the ninth of February, not the tenth, the real
day on which Henry was assassinated.[*] The interpretation generally
put upon this error, too gross, it was thought, to have proceeded from
mistake, was, that the secret council by whom Mary was governed,
not trusting entirely to precipitation, violence, and authority,
had provided this plea, by which they insured, at all adventures, a
plausible pretence for acquitting Bothwell.

Two days after this extraordinary transaction, a parliament was held;
and though the verdict in favor of Bothwell was attended with such
circumstances as strongly confirmed, rather than diminished, the general
opinion of his guilt, he was the person chosen to carry the royal
sceptre on the first meeting of that national assembly.[**] In this
parliament a rigorous act was made against those who set up defamatory
bills; but no notice was taken of the king's murder.[***] The favor
which Mary openly bore to Bothwell kept every one in awe; and the
effects of this terror appeared more plainly in another transaction,
which ensued immediately upon the dissolution of the parliament. A bond
or association was framed; in which the subscribers, after relating the
acquittal of Bothwell by a legal trial, and mentioning a further offer
which he had made, to prove his innocence by single combat, oblige
themselves, in case any person should afterwards impute to him the
king's murder, to defend him with their whole power against such
calumniators. After this promise, which implied no great assurance in
Bothwell of his own innocence, the subscribers mentioned the necessity
of their queen's marriage, in order to support the government; and
they recommended Bothwell to her as a husband.[****] This paper was
subscribed by all the considerable nobility there present. In a
country divided by violent factions, such a concurrence in favor of one
nobleman, nowise distinguished above the rest, except by his flagitious
conduct, could never have been obtained, had not every one been certain,
at least firmly persuaded, that Mary was fully determined on this
measure.[v] [9] Nor would such a motive have sufficed to influence
men, commonly so stubborn and untractable, had they not been taken by
surprise, been ignorant o