ay, the omen was evil
for Huntly, who practically held the lands. {191a} A bargain, on this
showing, was initiated. Lord James was to have the earldom, and he got
it; Mary was to have his support.

Much has been said about Lord James's betrayal to Throckmorton of Mary's
intentions, as revealed by her to himself. But what Lord James said to
Throckmorton amounts to very little. I am not certain that, both in
Paris with Throckmorton, and in London with Elizabeth and Cecil, he did
not moot his plan for friendship between Mary and Elizabeth, and
Elizabeth's recognition of Mary's rights as her heir. {191b} Lord James
proposed all this to Elizabeth in a letter of August 6, 1561. {191c} He
had certainly discussed this admirable scheme with Lord Robert Dudley at
Court, in May 1561, on his return from France. {191d} Nothing could be
more statesmanlike and less treacherous.

Meanwhile (May 27, 1561) the brethren presented a supplication to the
Parliament, with clauses, which, if conceded, would have secured the
stipends of the preachers. The prayers were granted, in promise, and a
great deal of church wrecking was conscientiously done; the Lord James,
on his return, paid particular attention to idolatry in his hoped for
earldom, but the preachers were not better paid.

Meanwhile the Protestants looked forward to the Queen's arrival with
great searchings of heart. She had not ratified the treaty of Leith, but
already Cardinal Guise hoped that she and Elizabeth would live in
concord, and heard that Mary ceded all claims to the English throne in
return for Elizabeth's promise to declare her the heir, if she herself
died childless (August 21). {192}

Knox, who had not loved Mary of Guise, was not likely to think well of
her daughter. Mary, again, knew Knox as the chief agitator in the
tumults that embittered her mother's last year, and shortened her life.
In France she had threatened to deal with him severely, ignorant of his
power and her own weakness. She could not be aware that Knox had
suggested to Cecil opposition to her succession to the throne on the
ground of her sex. Knox uttered his forebodings of the Queen's future:
they were as veracious as if he had really been a prophet. But he was,
to an extent which can only be guessed, one of the causes of the
fulfilment of his own predictions. To attack publicly, from the pulpit,
the creed and conduct of a girl of spirit; to provoke cruel insults to
her priests whom