202 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 58. could not be granted.' ' Maitland, by his wit, enchanted Grange, saying that for all Lord Burghley's letters, her Majesty would never send in her forces, but only boast them ; and that for all Scotland could do they would keep the Castle till France came in.' These were Mart- land' s very words. Killigrew had seen them in his own handwriting. If the Queen was really ' resolved to stop her aid/ he could only say, ' God's will be done ; ' but, ' if the Castle was not recovered, and that with ex- pedition, he saw the beginning of sorrows, and her Ma- jesty's peaceable reign decaying, as it were, in post.' ' He would rather go to Rome barefoot than deliver that answer to the Regent. If her Majesty could be brought no farther, and if there was no good meaning to provide in the cause,' he begged that he might be recalled imme- diately, ' or he would come home with no good news.' l Elizabeth was so far affected by this letter that she lowered her tone. She bade Killigrew tell Morton that many heavy demands had been recently made upon her ; she was in real difficulties, ' and if he could spare her the additional expense, it would be thankfully taken.' To this Morton answered briefly that Lady Mar and the young Earl, ' being Papists,' were already in treaty with the French to place the King in their hands. He was afraid to remove him from their charge, because there was no other ' place of assurance ' in which he could keep him ; nor while the Castle of Edinburgh to Burghley, March 9 : MSS. Scotland,
