of Norfolk. Yet, probably through the guile of Lethington, he changed
his mind, and became a suitor for Mary's hand. He bade her refuse
compromise, whereas compromise was Lethington's hope: a full and free
inquiry would reveal his own guilt in Darnley's murder. The inquiry was
shifted to London in December, Mary always being refused permission to
appear and speak for herself; nay, she was not allowed even to see the
letters which she was accused of having written. Her own Commissioners,
Lord Herries and Bishop Lesley, who (as Mary knew in Herries's case) had
no faith in her innocence, showed their want of confidence by proposing a
compromise; this was not admitted. Morton 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."