When Mary fled to England, Elizabeth refused to see her, on the ground that she ought first to clear herself from the suspicion of guilt in connection with the murder of Darnley.  In the end, Mary agreed that the case should be submitted to the judgment of a commission appointed by Elizabeth, and she appeared as prosecuting Moray and his friends as rebels and traitors.  They defended themselves by bringing accusations against Mary, and produced the Casket Letters and other documents in support of their assertions.  Mary asked to be brought face to face with her accusers; Elizabeth thought the claim “very reasonable”, and refused it.  Mary then asked for copies of the letters produced as evidence against her, and when her request was pressed upon Elizabeth’s notice by La Mothe Fenelon, the French ambassador, he was informed that Elizabeth’s feelings had been hurt by Mary’s accusing her of partiality.[80] Mary’s commissioners then withdrew, and Elizabeth closed the case, with the oracular decision that, “nothing has been adduced against the Earl of Moray and his adherents, as yet, that may impair their honour or allegiances; and, on the other part, there has been nothing sufficiently produced nor shown by them against the queen, their sovereign, whereby the Queen of England should conceive or take any evil opinion of the queen, her good sister, for anything yet seen”.  So Elizabeth’s “good sister” was subjected to a rigorous imprisonment, and the Earl of Moray returned to Scotland, with an increased allowance of English gold.  Henceforth the successive regents of Scotland had to guide their policy in accordance with Elizabeth’s wishes.  If they rebelled, she could always threaten to release her prisoner, and, once or twice in the course of those long, weary years, Mary, whose nature was buoyant, actually dared to hope that Elizabeth would replace her on her throne.  While Mary was plotting, and hope deferred was being succeeded by hope deferred and vain illusion by vain illusion, events moved fast.  In November, 1569, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland raised a rebellion in her favour, which was easily suppressed.  In January, 1570, Moray was assassinated at Linlithgow, and the Earl of Lennox, the father of Darnley, and the traitor of Mary’s minority, succeeded to the regency, while Mary’s Scottish supporters, who had continued to fight for her desperate cause, were strengthened by the accession of Maitland of Lethington, who, with Kirkaldy of Grange, also a recruit from the king’s party, held Edinburgh Castle for the queen.  Mary’s hopes were further raised by the rebellion of the Duke of Norfolk, whose marriage with the Scottish queen had been suggested in 1569.  Letters from the papal agent, Rudolfi, were discovered, and, in June, 1572, Norfolk was put to death.  Lennox had been killed in September, 1571, and his successor, the Earl of Mar, was approached on the subject of taking Mary’s life.  Elizabeth was unwilling to accept the responsibility for the