s escape. The
nature of the Confession of Faith, and of the claims of the ministers to
interfere in secular affairs, with divine authority, was certain to cause
war between the Crown and the Kirk. That war, whether open and armed, or
a conflict in words, endured till, in 1690, the weapon of excommunication
with civil penalties was quietly removed from the ecclesiastical armoury.
Such were the results of a religious revolution hurriedly effected.

The Lords now sent an embassy to Elizabeth about the time of the death of
Amy Robsart, and while Amy's husband, Robert Dudley, was very dear to the
English queen, to urge, vainly, her marriage with Arran. On December 5,
1560, Francis II. died, leaving Mary Stuart a mere dowager; while her
kinsmen, the Guises, lost power, which fell into the unfriendly hands of
Catherine de Medici. At once Arran, who made Knox his confidant, began
to woo Mary with a letter and a ring. Her reply perhaps increased his
tendency to madness, which soon became open and incurable by the science
of the day.

Here we must try to sketch Mary, _la, Reine blanche_, in her white royal
mourning. Her education had been that of the learned ladies of her age;
she had some knowledge of Latin, and knew French and Italian. French was
to her almost a mother-tongue, but not quite; she had retained her Scots,
and her attempts to write English are, at first, curiously imperfect. She
had lived in a profligate Court, but she was not the wanton of hostile
slanders. She had all the guile of statesmanship, said the English
envoy, Randolph; and she long exercised great patience under daily
insults to her religion and provocations from Elizabeth. She was
generous, pitiful, naturally honourable, and most loyal to all who served
her. But her passions, whether of love or hate, once roused, were
tyrannical. In person she was tall, like her mother, and graceful, with
beautiful hands. Her face was somewhat long, the nose long and straight,
the lips and chin beautifully moulded, the eyebrows very slender, the
eyes of a reddish brown, long and narrow. Her hair was russet, drawn
back from a lofty brow; her smile was captivating; she was rather
fascinating than beautiful; her courage and her love of courage in others
were universally confessed. {118}

In January, 1561, the Estates of Scotland ordered James Stuart, Mary's
natural brother, to visit her in France. In spring she met him, and an
envoy from Huntly (Lesley, l