glas, so often pronounced, in Scottish history,
and which at this time, extinct in the elder branch, known as the Black
Douglases, was perpetuated in the younger branch, known as the Red
Douglases. It was an ancient, noble, and powerful family, which, when
the descent in the male line from Robert Bruce had lapsed, disputed the
royal title with the first Stuart, and which since then had constantly
kept alongside the throne, sometimes its support, sometimes its enemy,
envying every great house, for greatness made it uneasy, but above all
envious of the house of Hamilton, which, if not its equal, was at any
rate after itself the next most powerful.

During the whole reign of James V, thanks to the hatred which the king
bore them, the Douglases had: not only lost all their influence, but had
also been exiled to England. This hatred was on account of their having
seized the guardianship of the young prince and kept him prisoner till
he was fifteen. Then, with the help of one of his pages, James V had
escaped from Falkland, and had reached Stirling, whose governor was
in his interests. Scarcely was he safe in the castle than he made
proclamation that any Douglas who should approach within a dozen
miles of it would be prosecuted for high treason. This was not all: he
obtained a decree from Parliament, declaring them guilty of felony, and
condemning them to exile; they remained proscribed, then, during the
king's lifetime, and returned to Scotland only upon his death. The
result was that, although they had been recalled about the throne, and
though, thanks to the past influence of Murray, who, one remembers, was
a Douglas on the mother's side, they filled the most important posts
there, they had not forgiven to the daughter the enmity borne them by
the father.

This was why James Douglas, chancellor as he was, and consequently
entrusted with the execution of the laws, put himself at the head of a
conspiracy which had for its aim the violation of all laws; human and
divine.

Douglas's first idea had been to treat Rizzio as the favourites of James
III had been treated at the Bridge of Lauder--that is to say, to make a
show of having a trial and to hang him afterwards. But such a death did
not suffice for Darnley's vengeance; as above everything he wished to
punish the queen in Rizzio's person, he exacted that the murder should
take place in her presence.

Douglas associated with himself Lord Ruthven, an idle and dissolute
sy