ence that the Queen Regent has not kept all things promised to
them." But Melville goes on to say that the Constable quoted d'Elboeuf's
failure to reach Scotland with his fleet, as a reason for not sending the
troops which were promised by Henri. As d'Elboeuf's failure occurred
long after the date of the alleged conversation, the evidence of Melville
is here incorrect. He wrote his "Memoirs" much later, in old age, but
Henri may have written to the Regent in one sense, and given Melville
orders in another. {279a}

We find that Knox's charge against the Regent is not made in our earliest
information, Croft's letter of May 19: is not made by the Protestant
(and, we think, contemporary) author of the "Historie," and, of course,
is not hinted at by Lesley, a Catholic. We have seen throughout that
Knox vilifies Mary of Guise in cases where she is blameless. On the
other hand, Knox is our only witness who was at Perth at the time of the
events, and it cannot be doubted that what he told Mrs. Locke was what he
believed, whether correctly or erroneously. He could believe anything
against Mary of Guise. Archbishop Spottiswoode says, "The author of the
story" ("History") "ascribed to John Knox in his whole discourse showeth
a bitter and hateful spite against the Regent, forging dishonest things
which were never so much as suspected by any, setting down his own
conjectures as certain truths, yea, the least syllable that did escape
her in passion, he maketh it an argument of her cruel and inhuman
disposition . . . " {279b} In the MS. used by Bishop Keith, {279c}
Spottiswoode added, after praising the Regent, "these things I have heard
my father often affirm"; he had the like testimony "from an honourable
and religious lady, who had the honour to wait near her person."
Spottiswoode was, therefore, persuaded that the "History" "was none of
Mr. Knox his writings." In spite of this opinion, Spottiswoode, writing
about 1620-35, accepts most of the hard things that Knox says of the
Regent's conduct in 1559, and indeed exaggerates one or two of them; that
is, as relates to her political behaviour, for example, in the affair of
the broken promise of May 10. It may be urged that here Spottiswoode had
the support of the reminiscences of his father, a Superintendent in the
Knoxian church.

APPENDIX B: FORGERY PROCURED BY MARY OF GUISE

In the writer's opinion several of Knox's accusations of perfidy against
the Regent, in