Lennox his father, to return immediately to England.
Lennox replied that he could not return, for "he did not think the
climate would agree with him!" Darnley sent back word that he had
entered the service of the Queen of Scots, and henceforth should
obey her orders alone. Elizabeth, however, was not the only one who
opposed this marriage. The Earl of Murray, Mary's brother, who had
been thus far the great manager of the government under Mary, took at
once a most decided stand against it. He enlisted a great number of
Protestant nobles with him, and they held deliberations, in which
they formed plans for resisting it by force. But Mary, who, with all
her gentleness and loveliness of spirit, had, like other women, some
decision and energy when an object in which the heart is concerned is
at stake, had made up her mind. She sent to France to get the consent
of her friends there. She dispatched a commissioner to Rome to obtain
the pope's dispensation; she obtained the sanction of her own
Parliament; and, in fact, in every way hastened the preparations for
the marriage.

Murray, on the other hand, and his confederate lords, were determined
to prevent it. They formed a plan to rise in rebellion against Mary,
to waylay and seize her, to imprison her, and to send Darnley and his
father to England, having made arrangements with Elizabeth's
ministers to receive them at the borders. The plan was all well
matured, and would probably have been carried into effect, had not
Mary, in some way or other, obtained information of the design. She
was then at Stirling, and they were to waylay her on the usual route
to Edinburgh. She made a sudden journey, at an unexpected time, and
by a new and unusual road, and thus evaded her enemies. The violence
of this opposition only stimulated her determination to carry the
marriage into effect without delay. Her escape from her rebellious
nobles took place in June, and she was married in July. This was six
months after her first interview with Darnley. The ceremony was
performed in the royal chapel at Holyrood. They show, to this day,
the place where she is said to have stood, in the now roofless
interior.

Mary was conducted into the chapel by Lennox and another nobleman, in
the midst of a large company of lords and ladies of the court, and of
strangers of distinction, who had come to Edinburgh to witness the
ceremony. A vast throng had collected also around the palace. Mary was
led to the altar