prisoner. These persons declared publicly, that within his coffers were twenty thousand livres in hard cash, to say nothing of his jewels, his silver plate and dresses, among which report affirms that he had more than thirty clokes, the meanest of which would not have been unbecoming for any lord in England. He had dresses and other garments of silk in great numbers, strangely rich. At all events, he conveyed into France from twelve to fourteen chests filled with his own property. It is within the scope of the subject to mention that the ready money and the annual rents which he has in France may be fairly reckoned at one hundred thousand livres, of which he became the possessor during the twelve years he was in England."

As soon as he and his party arrived in France, he told his own tale to the king, in which, I suppose, he was not hard upon the English, from whom he had derived so many advantages. But I cannot understand how he could justify himself without accusing his own mistress, for he was her chief adviser, and he could do anything he pleased upon his own authority, so much so, that if he had taken anything in hand, he could have done it without her Majesty's knowledge, as his own admissions prove. If then the late queen was guilty (which could not be the case) why was not he punished as well as she? There was no reason why he should escape and she be put to death. The only explanation is that he had made his peace with the English. The queen, therefore, was justified in saying that he was the cause of her death.”

Passing to the consideration of the charges against Mary, founded upon the papers seized at Chartley, the French author from whom we are quoting proceeds thus :-" It is a fraud to say that her Majesty had them in her custody. If it be true that any such discovery was ever made it was made in the chamber of a secretary, and consisted of nothing more than some memoirs and rough drafts, or the crazy speculations of one of the most presumptuous men in the world, to whom every dream was a reality. All this happened by the fault of his clerk, a young fellow, who kept copies of them for his own instruction and that he might use them afterwards. The Eng

aware of it; and now, thinking that they had a firm footing on which to proceed, they pushed on the matter in such wise that the persons who had written these papers thought it necessary to affirm that they had acted under the orders of their mistress, for unless they had done so they could not have saved themselves. Here we see the reason why her Majesty said that Nau had brought about her death to save his own life."

"Nau's supporters affirm that all that her Majesty said was not true; that when she spoke in these terms of her secretary she was agitated and transported by anger and impatience. Such people are unworthy of having been in the service of such a mistress. Her words and her behaviour at the time of her death sufficiently declare their falsehood and ill-will,-according to the estimate even of her greatest enemies.

"They also assert that her Majesty dealt more gently with Nau in her own writings than her servants have reported in what they have said. But if we look at the terms of her will where he is mentioned, we shall find her ordering that neither wages nor pensions shall be paid to him, a sufficient indication of what her wishes really were. These, however, she expressed with all possible moderation, for she feared that if she had given vent to her feelings against Nau the English would have prevented the removal of the will, and would have kept it, or destroyed it. Thus her Majesty would have been thwarted in the execution of her last wishes, which she explained verbally and very fully to her attendants, with the request that they should be believed in what they reported about such matters that she did not dare to commit to writing."

After some very severe remarks upon Nau, who is described as being, in the opinion of all the English and Scotch, "the most impatient, the most audacious, and the most presumptuous man in the world," the narrative proceeds thus :-"I hope that God will give him the grace to make amends and confession of his own free will, so that laying his hand upon his heart he will speak the truth as to what he has seen and known; and thus become the principal means by which this

good princess may be liberated, declared innocent, and avenged on all these wicked and lying heretics. Now that he has escaped from the danger of his former position, let him confess that he has been surprised, circumvented, deceived, and cheated by the craft, the cunning, the imposture and the falsehood of the English; who, in order to get from him what they wanted, have spared neither false reports, nor forged letters, nor lying witnesses, nor promises nor civilities, nor good entertainment, nor menaces and threats, to induce him and his fellow to put into writing and to sign a statement to the effect that the papers which were shown to them had been written by the express orders of their mistress."

"But is it not a piece of intolerable arrogance in this person to say that if the princes did not cease to report the words against him which her Majesty uttered at her death, he would be compelled to say what he did not wish to repeat against the dead? What can he say or do worse than he has already done? After her death he could do nothing worse against her honour than he had done against her life while she was yet alive. His deposition is extant, without which, and that of his companion, the English could not have had sufficient subject matter on which to condemn her to death. . . . He has been so long accustomed to play the master within the prison that he thinks he must needs be as much regarded out of it as he wished to be within it. He wished to be considered the first councillor, the king's agent, the great master, the great treasurer, the chancellor, the controuller, the banker, the master of the household, the physician, the master of the wardrobe, the esquire, second only to the queen; all the others were nothing, if they were not his deputies."

These extracts might be enlarged, but the passages here given may suffice to show the principal charges brought against Nau. Although I do not venture to decide how far they are true or false, I cannot but remark that the tone of bitterness with which they are urged detracts, in my opinion, from their credibility. Be that as it may, I have thought it my duty to give the reader the opportunity of weighing the

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

THE FLIGHT FROM HOLYROOD.

We now reach the point at which Queen Mary's Secretary begins his narrative, and as long as he continues to be our guide we shall find ourselves upon firm ground. It might seem that he plunges abruptly into the very heart of his story, and some introductory information might naturally have been expected. The fault does not lie with Nau; it arises from the mutilated condition in which his papers have reached our hands. In the portion which is lost he had already begun to describe the incidents which took place at a conference which was being held by Riccio's murderers, and which had not yet broken up. We do not know the precise time when it was held, nor the place of meeting, nor the names of all those who were present; but we cannot be far from the truth if we assume that they met within the walls of Holyrood, possibly in Darnley's apartment, and very shortly after the completion of the bloody tragedy. All who had taken a prominent part in it probably met together to discuss the questions which now demanded. their further consideration. Darnley was there, so was Lennox, so was Ruthven, for their names are mentioned in our history. As to the others we have no certain evidence; but as the safety of the entire party demanded a resolute unity of action, we may take it for granted that of its members few ventured to absent themselves upon such a momentous occasion.

good princess may be liberated, declared innocent, and avenged on all these wicked and lying heretics. Now that he has escaped from the danger of his former position, let him confess that he has been surprised, circumvented, deceived, and cheated by the craft, the cunning, the imposture and the falsehood of the English; who, in order to get from him what they wanted, have spared neither false reports, nor forged letters, nor lying witnesses, nor promises nor civilities, nor good entertainment, nor menaces and threats, to induce him and his fellow to put into writing and to sign a statement to the effect that the papers which were shown to them had been written by the express orders of their mistress."

"But is it not a piece of intolerable arrogance in this person to say that if the princes did not cease to report the words against him which her Majesty uttered at her death, he would be compelled to say what he did not wish to repeat against the dead? What can he say or do worse than he has already done? After her death he could do nothing worse against her honour than he had done against her life while she was yet alive. His deposition is extant, without which, and that of his companion, the English could not have had sufficient subject matter on which to condemn her to death. . . . He has been so long accustomed to play the master within the prison that he thinks he must needs be as much regarded out of it as he wished to be within it. He wished to be considered the first councillor, the king's agent, the great master, the great treasurer, the chancellor, the controuller, the banker, the master of the household, the physician, the master of the wardrobe, the esquire, second only to the queen; all the others were nothing, if they were not his deputies.'

These extracts might be enlarged, but the passages here given may suffice to show the principal charges brought against Nau. Although I do not venture to decide how far they are true or false, I cannot but remark that the tone of bitterness with which they are urged detracts, in my opinion, from their credibility. Be that as it may, I have thought it my duty to give the reader the opportunity of weighing the