she had "a proud mind, a crafty wit, and an
indurate heart against God and His truth." She showed none of these
qualities in the conversation as described by himself; but her part in it
is mainly that of a listener who returns not railing with railing.

Knox was going about to destroy the scheme of les politiques, Randolph,
Lethington, and the Lord James. They desired peace and amity with
England, and the two Scots, at least, hoped to secure these as the
Cardinal Guise did, by Mary's renouncing all present claim to the English
throne, in return for recognition as heir, if Elizabeth died without
issue. Elizabeth, as we know her, would never have granted these terms,
but Mary's ministers, Lethington then in England, Lord James at home,
tried to hope. {200b} Lord James had heard Mary's outburst to Knox about
defending her own insulted Church, but he was not nervously afraid that
she would take to dipping her hands in the blood of the saints. Neither
he nor Lethington could revert to the old faith; they had pecuniary
reasons, as well as convictions, which made that impossible.

Lethington, returned to Edinburgh (October 25), spoke his mind to Cecil.
"The Queen behaves herself . . . as reasonably as we can require: if
anything be amiss the fault is rather in ourselves. You know the
vehemency of Mr. Knox's spirit which cannot be bridled, and yet doth
utter sometimes such sentences as cannot easily be digested by a weak
stomach. I would wish he should deal with her more gently, being a young
princess unpersuaded. . . . Surely in her comporting with him she
declares a wisdom far exceeding her age." {201a} Vituperation is not
argument, and gentleness is not unchristian. St. Paul did not revile the
gods of Felix and Festus.

But, prior to these utterances of October, the brethren had been baiting
Mary. On her public entry (which Knox misdates by a month) her idolatry
was rebuked by a pageant of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Huntly managed to
stop a burning in effigy of a priest at the Mass. They never could cease
from insulting the Queen in the tenderest point. The magistrates next
coupled "mess-mongers" with notorious drunkards and adulterers, "and such
filthy persons," in a proclamation, so the Provost and Bailies were
"warded" (Knox says) in the Tolbooth. Knox blamed Lethington and Lord
James, in a letter to Cecil; {201b} in his "History" he says, "God be
merciful to some of our own." {201c}

The Queen herself,