, and any
hope of aid from her son, Mary was now cut off. Walsingham laid the
snares into which she fell, deliberately providing for her means of
communication with Babington and his company, and deciphering and copying
the letters which passed through the channel which he had contrived. A
trifle of forgery was also done by his agent, Phelipps. Mary, knowing
herself deserted by her son, was determined, as James knew, to disinherit
him. For this reason, and for the 4000 pounds, he made no strong protest
against her trial. One of his agents in London--the wretched accomplice
in his father's murder, Archibald Douglas--was consenting to her
execution. James himself thought that strict imprisonment was the best
course; but the Presbyterian Angus declared that Mary "could not be
blamed if she had caused the Queen of England's throat to be cut for
detaining her so unjustly imprisoned." The natural man within us
entirely agrees with Angus!

A mission was sent from Holyrood, including James's handsome new
favourite, the Master of Gray, with his cousin, Logan of Restalrig, who
sold the Master to Walsingham. The envoys were to beg for Mary's life.
The Master had previously betrayed her; but he was not wholly lost, and
in London he did his best, contrary to what is commonly stated, to secure
her life. He thus incurred the enmity of his former allies in the
English Court, and, as he had foreseen, he was ruined in Scotland--his
_previous_ letters, hostile to Mary, being betrayed by his aforesaid
cousin, Logan of Restalrig.

On February 8, 1567, ended the lifelong tragedy of Mary Stuart. The
woman whom Elizabeth vainly moved Amyas Paulet to murder was publicly
decapitated at Fotheringay. James vowed that he would not accept from
Elizabeth "the price of his mother's blood." But despite the fury of his
nobles James sat still and took the money, at most some 4000 pounds
annually,--when he could get it.

During the next fifteen years the reign of James, and his struggle for
freedom from the Kirk, was perturbed by a long series of intrigues of
which the details are too obscure and complex for presentation here. His
chief Minister was now John Maitland, a brother of Lethington, and as
versatile, unscrupulous, and intelligent as the rest of that House.
Maitland had actually been present, as Lethington's representative, at
the tragedy of the Kirk-o'-Field. He was Protestant, and favoured the
party of England. In the State th