Scotland, died
suddenly, and suspicion of poison fell on his host. But Morton's ensuing
success in expelling from Scotland the Hamilton leaders, Lord Claude and
Arbroath, brought down his own doom. With them Sir James Balfour, deep
in the secrets of Darnley's death, was exiled; he opened a correspondence
with Mary, and presently procured for her "a contented revenge" on
Morton.

Two new characters in the long intrigue of vengeance now come on the
scene. Both were Stewarts, and as such were concerned in the feud
against the Hamiltons. The first was a cousin of Darnley, brought up in
France, namely Esme Stuart d'Aubigny, son of John, a brother of Lennox.
He had all the accomplishments likely to charm the boy king, now in his
fourteenth year.

James had hitherto been sternly educated by George Buchanan, more mildly
by Peter Young. Buchanan and others had not quite succeeded in bringing
him to scorn and hate his mother; Lady Mar, who was very kind to him, had
exercised a gentler influence. The boy had read much, had hunted yet
more eagerly, and had learned dissimulation and distrust, so natural to a
child weak and ungainly in body and the conscious centre of the intrigues
of violent men. A favourite of his was James Stewart, son of Lord
Ochiltree, and brother-in-law of John Knox. Stewart was Captain of the
Guard, a man of learning, who had been in foreign service; he was skilled
in all bodily feats, was ambitious, reckless, and resolute, and no friend
of the preachers. The two Stewarts, d'Aubigny and the Captain, became
allies.

In a Parliament at Edinburgh (November 1579) their foes, the chiefs of
the Hamiltons, were forfeited (they had been driven to seek shelter with
Elizabeth), while d'Aubigny got their lands and the key of Scotland,
Dumbarton Castle, on the estuary of Clyde. The Kirk, regarding
d'Aubigny, now Earl of Lennox, despite his Protestant professions, as a
Papist or an atheist, had little joy in Morton, who was denounced in a
printed placard as guilty in Darnley's murder: Sir James Balfour could
show his signature to the band to slay Darnley, signed by Huntly,
Bothwell, Argyll, and Lethington. This was not true. Balfour knew much,
was himself involved, but had not the band to show, or did not dare to
produce it.

To strengthen himself, Lennox was reconciled to the Kirk; to help the
Hamiltons, Elizabeth sent Bowes to intrigue against Lennox, who was
conspiring in Mary's interest, or in that of