32 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63. had gone so far. The council strove hard to save her from herself. When insensible to shame she was amenable at times to arguments of prudence. They told her that she must either encounter Lennox now, when he was comparatively weak, or try conclusions with him later, when he would have a Spanish army at his back, and half England in insurrection, when the question would no longer be of the life of Morton, but of the English crown. She replied that she could not invade Scotland merely because the King had called to his services one of his near relations. They told her she was not asked to invade Scotland. Her soldiers would go there as friends to all Scots that were good and honest, and whether or no, if she valued her throne she must not leave James in the hands of Lennox. She gathered up her courage again. On the I5th Walsing- ham wrote that after all he had hopes that she would yield. 1 But Randolph's letters again overthrew her half- formed purpose. He cast doubts on the probability of success in an armed movement. He still insisted that there would be no danger to Morton if Lennox was not unwisely irritated. Walsingham told him angrily that the Queen had given her word and must keep it. Huntingdon said that it was ' madness to hope for good from a Guisian and a Romanist.' Lennox ' might dally and speak fair till he had things fit for his purpose, and then he would show himself a man of the Holy League.' Assassination had been hinted at as a ' Walsingham to Randolph, March 15 : MSS. Scotland.
