1584-] THE BOND OF ASSOCIATION. 489 opened her eyes to see what was best for her State,' to see Belgium become part of France. 1 What she would do depended on the success of a fresh intrigue which she had opened at the Scotch Court. By promises which she never meant to fulfil she had tempted Angus and Mar and Gowrie into con- spiracy. Gowrie's head stood by the side of Morton's, and Angus and Mar and the Protestant ministers were in exile, and every tried friend of hers and of England had been banished from James's presence. As has been already said however a party had formed itself at the Scotch Court in imitation of the English via media, of which the Earl of Arran was the head and representative. Gorged alike with the plunder of Hamil- tons and Douglases, the reigning favourite dreaded equally both Catholic and Protestant. He was afraid of the return, afraid even of the release of Mary Stuart. He preferred that she should remain under a cloud in England, and he had brought James entirely to agree with him. There were thus many points of sympathy, notwithstanding Gowrie's overthrow, between him and the Queen of England, and to have ruined those who had hitherto been her staunchest supporters was not necessarily to quarrel with herself. Both the King and Elizabeth detested Scotch Protestantism. It was an unmanageable force, unavailable for tricks of policy, straightforward, direct, and defiant. To crush this, yet without appearing absolutely to quarrel with religion ; Walsinffham to Stafford, August 1020 : MSS. France.
