to secure the throne for this youth whom they despised and hated.  The plot involved the murder of Rizzio, the imprisonment of Mary, the crown-matrimonial for Darnley, and the return of Murray and his accomplices, who were still in exile.  The English government was, of course, privy to the scheme.[74] The murder was carried out, in circumstances of great brutality, on the night of the 9th March.  Mary’s condition of health, “having then passed almost to the end of seven months in our birth”, renders the carrying out of the deed in her presence, and while Rizzio was her guest, almost certainly an attempt upon the queen’s own life.  There were numberless opportunities of slaying Rizzio elsewhere, and the ghastly details—­the sudden appearance of Ruthven, hollow, pale, just risen from a sick bed, the pistol of Ker of Faudonside,—­are so rich in dramatic effect that one can scarcely doubt what denouement was intended.  The plot failed in its main purpose.  Rizzio, indeed, was killed, and Murray made his appearance next morning and obtained forgiveness.  The queen “embracit him and kisset him, alleging that in caice he had bene at hame, he wald not have sufferit her to have bene sa uncourterly handlit”.  But the success ended here.  Mary won over her husband, and together they escaped and fled to Dunbar.  Darnley deserted his accomplices, proclaimed his innocence, and strongly urged the punishment of the murderers.  They, of course, threw themselves on the hospitality of Queen Elizabeth, who sent them money, and lied to Mary,[75] who did not put too much faith in her cousin’s assurances.  On June 19th, a prince was born in Edinburgh Castle, but the event brought about only a partial reconciliation between his unhappy parents.  Mary was shamefully treated by her worthless husband, and in the following November her nobles suggested to her the project of a divorce.  Darnley, however, was not doomed to the fate which overtook his descendants, the life of a king without a crown.  He had awakened the enmity of men whose feuds were blood-feuds, and the Rizzio conspirators were not likely to forgive the upstart youth whose inconstancy had foiled their plan for Mary’s fall, and whose treachery had involved them in exile.  Darnley had proved useless even as a tool for the nobles, he had offended Mary and disgusted everybody in Scotland, and there were many who were willing to do without him.  At this point a new tool was ready to the hands of the discontented barons.  The Earl of Bothwell, whether with Mary’s consent or not, aspired to the queen’s hand, and devised a plan for the murder of Darnley.  On the night of the 10th February, 1566-67, the wretched boy, not yet twenty-one years of age, was strangled,[76] and the house in which he had been living was blown up with gunpowder.  Public opinion accused Bothwell of the murder; he was tried and found innocent, and Parliament put its seal upon his acquittal.  On the 24th April he seized the person of the queen as