elf was married as well as Mary. He had been married but
a few months to a beautiful lady a few years younger than the queen.
The question, however, whether Mary did right or wrong in paying this
visit to him, is not, after all, a very important one. There is no
doubt that she and Bothwell loved each other before they ought to
have done so, and it is of comparatively little consequence when the
attachment began. The end of it is certain. Bothwell resolved to
kill Darnley, to get divorced from his own wife, and to marry the
queen. The world has never yet settled the question whether she was
herself his accomplice or not in the measures he adopted for
effecting these plans, or whether she only submitted to the result
when Bothwell, by his own unaided efforts, reached it. Each reader
must judge of this question for himself from the facts about to be
narrated.

Bothwell first communicated with the nobles about the court, to get
their consent and approbation to the destruction of the king. They
all appeared to be very willing to have the thing done, but were a
little cautious about involving themselves in the responsibility of
doing it. Darnley was thoroughly hated, despised, and shunned by them
all. Still they were afraid of the consequences of taking his life.
One of them, Morton, asked Bothwell what the queen would think of the
plan. Bothwell said that the queen approved of it. Morton replied,
that if Bothwell would show him an expression of the queen's approval
of the plot, in her own hand-writing, he would join it, otherwise
not. Bothwell failed to furnish this evidence, saying that the queen
was really privy to, and in favor of the plan, but that it was not
to be expected that she would commit herself to it in writing. Was
this all true, or was the pretense only a desperate measure of
Bothwell's to induce Morton to join him?

Most of the leading men about the court, however, either joined the
plot, or so far gave it their countenance and encouragement as to
induce Bothwell to proceed. There were many and strange rumors about
Darnley. One was, that he was actually going to leave the country,
and that a ship was ready for him in the Clyde. Another was, that he
had a plan for seizing the young prince, dethroning Mary, and
reigning himself in her stead, in the prince's name. Other strange
and desperate schemes were attributed to him. In the midst of them,
news came to Mary at Holyrood that he was taken suddenly and
dang