doing either would have been likely to trouble England afresh, it was
decided that she should be detained here. She first came to Carlisle,
and, after that, was moved about from castle to castle, as was considered
necessary; but England she never left again.

After trying very hard to get rid of the necessity of clearing herself,
Mary, advised by LORD HERRIES, her best friend in England, agreed to
answer the charges against her, if the Scottish noblemen who made them
would attend to maintain them before such English noblemen as Elizabeth
might appoint for that purpose. Accordingly, such an assembly, under the
name of a conference, met, first at York, and afterwards at Hampton
Court. In its presence Lord Lennox, Darnley's father, openly charged
Mary with the murder of his son; and whatever Mary's friends may now say
or write in her behalf, there is no doubt that, when her brother Murray
produced against her a casket containing certain guilty letters and
verses which he stated to have passed between her and Bothwell, she
withdrew from the inquiry. Consequently, it is to be supposed that she
was then considered guilty by those who had the best opportunities of
judging of the truth, and that the feeling which afterwards arose in her
behalf was a very generous but not a very reasonable one.

However, the DUKE OF NORFOLK, an honourable but rather weak nobleman,
partly because Mary was captivating, partly because he was ambitious,
partly because he was over-persuaded by artful plotters against
Elizabeth, conceived a strong idea that he would like to marry the Queen
of Scots--though he was a little frightened, too, by the letters in the
casket. This idea being secretly encouraged by some of the noblemen of
Elizabeth's court, and even by the favourite Earl of Leicester (because
it was objected to by other favourites who were his rivals), Mary
expressed her approval of it, and the King of France and the King of
Spain are supposed to have done the same. It was not so quietly planned,
though, but that it came to Elizabeth's ears, who warned the Duke 'to be
careful what sort of pillow he was going to lay his head upon.' He made
a humble reply at the time; but turned sulky soon afterwards, and, being
considered dangerous, was sent to the Tower.

Thus, from the moment of Mary's coming to England she began to be the
centre of plots and miseries.

A rise of the Catholics in the north was the next of these, and it was
only chec