[Image] "George Douglass Seized Darnley's Dagger And Struck Rizzio."
Cecil was the first informed; he repaired to Greenwich; the queen was dancing after supper. "But," wrote Melville, "when the secretary of state whispered in her ear of the birth of a Prince, the merriment disappeared for the evening. Everybody was astonished at the change, but the queen sank into a chair, with her hand upon her cheek, saying to her ladies that the Queen of Scotland was the mother of a fine boy, while she was but a barren stem." On the morrow, Elizabeth had regained her composure, and she graciously congratulated the ambassador, despatching the Earl of Bedford to Scotland with her gifts, to be present at the baptism of the little prince. Darnley did not wish to take part in the ceremony; he knew that the Queen of England had forbidden her emissaries to bestow royal honours upon him.
He had, besides, other causes for dissatisfaction. A growing coldness existed between his wife and himself. The apparent reconcilliation which had followed the murder of Rizzio, had not lasted long, and Darnley thought of going away from Scotland, and travelling upon the Continent. Queen Mary had addressed a letter to the privy council of Elizabeth, claiming the recognition of her hereditary rights, a matter which had recently been mooted in the English Parliament, to the great exasperation of her Majesty. The Commons had even insisted more than usual, notwithstanding the ordinary promise of the queen to think of marriage. Elizabeth had recently been ill, and the terrors of a contested succession had drawn forth the deputies from their ordinary state of submission. { 350} When the request of Mary arrived, the queen of England abruptly imposed silence upon the Commons. "Under the pretexts of marriage and succession, many amongst you conceal hostile intentions," she said, "but I have learnt to distinguish my friends from my enemies, and take care, whoever be the sovereign who holds the reins of government, not to wear out his patience as you have done mine." She gave instructions to the Earl of Bedford to induce Mary to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, which yet remained pending, and which contained verbally, the renunciation of the rights which Mary claimed, promising to regulate the question of the succession by a fresh treaty. Mary refused, but, in order not to exasperate her powerful rival, she consented at the request of Bedford to pardon Morton, Ruthven, and Lindsay, who had taken refuge in England after the murder of Rizzio. Darnley no doubt conceived fears at the news of the return of Morton, for he immediately left the court and sought retirement at the residence of the Earl of Lennox near Glasgow.