twenty-five, that these terms were ratified by the Scottish Parliament.[38]

Nothing was said about Mary of Scotland during these negotiations. She was entirely ignored; and it is impossible to say how far this may have helped to remove any scruples which she might have felt about the objects of the Babington Conspiracy.[39] Her execution, however, endangered the new alliance when it had existed for only nine months. The Scottish clergy had, indeed, with scarcely an exception, refused to pray for her; and if she had been tried and sentenced by the Privy Council of Scotland or by the Scottish Parliament, the Catholic laity alone would have attempted to save her. But the manner of her trial and condemnation was regarded as a national affront; and when the Estates met in July 1587 the peers offered to give their lives and fortunes to avenge the fate of the Scottish queen, who, after eighteen years of captivity in England, had perished at the hands of Englishmen. During the autumn and winter the Borders were in a state of dangerous excitement. An invasion from Scotland was expected. Preparations were made for raising ten thousand men to repel it; and there appears to have been some idea of rebuilding the old Roman wall.[40]

The indignation expressed by James at the treatment which his mother had received was doubtless not altogether feigned. But the great aim of his life now was to secure his own succession to the throne of England; and Walsingham adroitly availed himself of this circumstance for the purpose of preventing war. Sir John Maitland, a younger brother of Maitland of Lethington, was the Scottish Secretary, and to him Walsingham wrote a letter, which he knew would be read by James, and in which, with consummate art, he proved that if the youthful King of Scots wished to reach the object of his ambition, he must maintain his friendship with England.[41]

The resentment of James died speedily away. On various occasions, during the remainder of Elizabeth’s reign, the relations of the two countries were strained, and there was bad blood between the sovereigns. But there was no open rupture; and at last the house of Stuart entered peaceably, and without opposition, on the rich heritage of the English Crown.

CHAPTER II

THE UNION OF THE CROWNS

A few years before the Union of the Crowns, James, in the Basilikon Doron, that quaint little volume of “Instructions to his dearest sonne, Henry the Prince,” had alluded to the dangers which were caused by the divided state of the island. “As for the Borders,” he wrote, “because I know, if ye enjoy not this whole Isle, according to God’s right and your lineal descent, ye will never get leave to brooke this North and barrenest part thereof; no, not your own head whereon the crown should stand! I need not in that case trouble you with them; for then they will be the middest part of the Isle, and so as easily ruled as any part thereof.” Hitherto a royal marriage had been the favourite plan for removing these dangers; but after this we enter upon a series of attempts to bring about an Union of a more complete and definite character. James came to the throne of England with his mind full of the subject. The people of Scotland anticipated the removal of the Court to London with dismay. But to the king it opened up a dazzling prospect of power and splendour; and he lost no time in proposing the Union, and pressing it, in season and out of season, with a persistency which brings out, in a remarkable manner, the strong individuality of his character.

For some time before the death of Elizabeth, James had been doing his best to gain the goodwill of the English people; and as soon as he received the official announcement of his accession he directed his Privy Council to proclaim the news, not only in order that the fact that he was now King of England as well as Scotland should become known, but in the hope, as the proclamation expressed it, that there might be kindled in the hearts of all Scotsmen “ane loveing and kyndlie dispositioun towardis all his Majestie’s subjectis inhabitantis of England.”[42] Nor did he fail to impress this sentiment on the people. On the last Sunday which he spent in Scotland he went to the Church of Saint Giles, where, when the sermon was ended, he made a speech to the congregation. It was regarded as a farewell, and was received with “such a mourning and lamentation of all sorts, as cannot well be expressed.”[43]

“There is no difference,” he said, to cheer his weeping subjects, “betwixt London and Edinburgh; yea, not so much as betwixt Inverness or Aberdeen and Edinburgh, for all our marches be dry, and there are ferries between them. But my course must be betwixt both, to establish peace, and religion, and wealth betwixt the countries.”

The departure of James meant a great deal to Scotland. When the day came, and the cannon were booming from the old castle of Edinburgh, the citizens assembled in multitudes to gaze at the brilliant company of courtiers who were to accompany their king upon his journey to the south; but the spectacle was one which excited many fears and few hopes. The Union of the Crowns was making great changes. The Court was leaving. The queen remained behind with the young Princes and the Princess Elizabeth; but it was known that they were soon to follow, and that, henceforth, they would live in England. Their old Scottish home, the ancient palace of Holyrood, was being dismantled already; and soon nothing would remain in the royal apartments, but some stray pieces of furniture, and a few yards of faded tapestry. It was true that to Scotland there was still left that independence which had been so hardly won. The Parliament remained in the same position as before; but a new official was spoken of, a Royal Commissioner, who was, in future, to represent the sovereign at the meetings of the Estates. The separate Scottish Executive, too, was to be continued, in the shape of the Privy Council; but it was to be divided into two parts, the one to sit in England, and the other in Scotland; and it was evident that, in future, the real centre of influence in Scottish affairs would be London.

To some of the Scottish people the future seemed very bright. During the reign of Elizabeth, there were seldom so many as a hundred Scotsmen