hrow the whole
blame and odium of that action upon Lord Burleigh.[*]

* Camden, p. 538. Strype, vol. iii. p. 375, 376. MS. in the
Advocates' Library, A. 3. 28, p. 17, from the Cott. Lib.
Calig. c. 9. Biog. Brit. p. 1625, 1627.

Elizabeth's dissimulation was so gross, that it could deceive nobody who
was not previously resolved to be blinded; but as James's concern for
his mother was certainly more sincere and cordial, he discovered the
highest resentment, and refused to admit Cary into his presence. He
recalled his ambassadors from England, and seemed to breathe nothing but
war and vengeance. The states of Scotland, being assembled, took part in
his anger; and professed that they were ready to spend their lives and
fortunes in revenge of his mother's death, and in defence of his title
to the crown of England. Many of his nobility instigated him to take
arms: Lord Sinclair, when the courtiers appeared in deep mourning,
presented himself to the king arrayed in complete armor and said, that
this was the proper mourning for the queen. The Catholics took the
opportunity of exhorting James to make an alliance with the king of
Spain, to lay immediate claim to the crown of England, and to prevent
the ruin which, from his mother's example, he might conclude would
certainly, if Elizabeth's power prevailed, overwhelm his person and his
kingdom. The queen was sensible of the danger attending these counsels;
and after allowing James some decent interval to vent his grief and
anger, she employed her emissaries to pacify him, and to set before him
every motive of hope or fear which might induce him to live in amity
with her.

Walsingham wrote to Lord Thirlstone, James's secretary, a judicious
letter to the same purpose. He said that he was much surprised to
hear of the violent resolutions taken in Scotland, and of the passion
discovered by a prince of so much judgment and temper as James: that
a war, founded merely on the principle of revenge, and that, too, on
account of an act of justice which necessity had extorted, would for
ever be exposed to censure, and could not be excused by any principles
of equity or reason: that if these views were deemed less momentous
among princes, policy and interest ought certainly to be attended to;
and these motives did still more evidently oppose all thoughts of
a rupture with Elizabeth, and all revival of exploded claims to the
English throne: that the inequality between the two