on explained how he got the
silver casket with the fatal letters, poems to Bothwell, and other
papers; they were read in translations, English and Scots; handwritings
were compared, with no known result; evidence was heard, and Elizabeth,
at last, merely decided--that she could not admit Mary to her presence.
The English Lords agreed, "as the case does now stand," and presently
many of them were supporting Norfolk in his desire to marry the accused.
Murray was told (January 10, 1669) that he had proved nothing which could
make Elizabeth "take any evil opinion of the queen, her good sister,"
nevertheless, Elizabeth would support him in his government of Scotland,
while declining to recognise James VI. as king.

All compromises Mary now utterly refused: she would live and die a queen.
Henceforth the tangled intrigues cannot be disengaged in a work of this
scope. Elizabeth made various proposals to Mary, all involving her
resignation as queen, or at least the suspension of her rights. Mary
refused to listen; her party in Scotland, led by Chatelherault, Herries,
Huntly, and Argyll, did not venture to meet Murray and his party in war,
and was counselled by Lethington, who still, in semblance, was of
Murray's faction. Lethington was convinced that, sooner or later, Mary
would return; and he did not wish to incur "her _particular_ ill-will."
He knew that Mary, as she said, "had that in black and white which would
hang him" for the murder of Darnley. Now Lethington, Huntly, and Argyll
were daunted, without stroke of sword, by Murray, and a Convention to
discuss messages from Elizabeth and Mary met at Perth (July 25-28, 1569),
and refused to allow the annulment of her marriage with Bothwell, though
previously they had insisted on its annulment. Presently Lethington was
publicly accused of Darnley's murder by Crawford, a retainer of Lennox;
was imprisoned, but was released by Kirkcaldy, commander in Edinburgh
Castle, which henceforth became the fortress of Mary's cause.

The secret of Norfolk's plan to marry the Scottish queen now reached
Elizabeth, making her more hostile to Mary; an insurrection in the North
broke out; the Earl of Northumberland was driven into Scotland, was
betrayed by Hecky Armstrong, and imprisoned at Loch Leven. Murray
offered to hand over Northumberland to Elizabeth in exchange for Mary,
her life to be guaranteed by hostages, but, on January 23, 1570, Murray
was shot by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh from