t any moral
considerations prevented the many people whom Knox had offended from
doing unto him as the Elect did to Riccio. Manifestly, nobody had the
courage. No clan was so strong as the warlike brethren who would have
avenged the Reformer, and who probably would have been backed by
Elizabeth.

Again, though he was estranged from Moray, that leader was also, in some
degree, estranged from Lethington, who did not allow him to know the
details of his intrigues, in France and England, for the Queen's
marriage. The marriage question was certain to reunite Moray and Knox.
When Knox told Mary that, as "a subject of this realm," he had a right to
oppose her marriage with any infidel, he spoke the modern constitutional
truth. For Mary to wed a Royal Catholic would certainly have meant peril
for Protestantism, war with England, and a tragic end. But what
Protestant could she marry? If a Scot, he would not long have escaped
the daggers of the Hamiltons; indeed, all the nobles would have borne the
fiercest jealousy against such an one as, say, Glencairn, who, we learn,
could say anything to Mary without offence. She admired a strong brave
man, and Glencairn, though an opponent, was gallant and resolute. England
chose only to offer the infamous and treacherous Leicester, whose
character was ruined by the mysterious death of his wife (Amy Robsart),
and who had offered to sell England and himself to idolatrous Spain.
Mary's only faint chance of safety lay in perpetual widowhood, or in
marrying Knox, by far the most powerful of her subjects, and the best
able to protect her and himself.

This idea does not seem to have been entertained by the subtle brain of
Lethington. Between February and May 1563, the Cardinal of Lorraine had
reopened an old negotiation for wedding the Queen to the Archduke, and
Mary had given an evasive reply; she must consult Parliament. In March,
with the Spanish Ambassador in London, Lethington had proposed for Don
Carlos. Philip II., as usual, wavered, consented (in August),
considered, and reconsidered. Lethington, in France, had told the Queen-
Mother that the Spanish plan was only intended to wring concessions from
Elizabeth; and, on his return to England, had persuaded the Spanish
Ambassador that Charles IX. was anxious to succeed to his brother's
widow. This moved Philip to be favourable to the Don Carlos marriage,
but he waited; there was no sign from France, and Philip withdrew,
waverin