I566-] THE DARNLE Y MARRIA GE. 379 secret was unknown to any of them, but it was unde- sirable to commit the darker features of the plot to formal writing. Meanwhile the Queen of Scots, all unconscious of the deadly coil which was gathering round her, had chosen the moment to order Randolph to leave Scotland. She entertained not the faintest suspicion of the conspiracy, but she knew that the English ambassador had shared Murray's secrets, that he had been Elizabeth's instru- ment in keeping alive in Scotland the Protestant faction, and that so long as he remained the party whom she most detested would have a nucleus to gather round. Believing that she could do nothing which Elizabeth would dare to resent, she called him before the council, charged him with holding intercourse with her rebels, and bade him begone. 1 The opportunity was ill selected, for Elizabeth had been for some time recovering her firmness ; she had sent Murray money for his private necessities ; in the middle of February she had so far overcome both her economy and her timidity, that she supplied him with a thousand pounds ' to be employed in the common cause and maintenance of religion ; ' 2 and before she heard of the treatment of Randolph she had taken courage to write with something of her old manner to the Queen of Scots herself. 1 She had not intended,' she said, ' to have written on 1 The Queen of Scots to Eliza- l)oth, February 20: Scotch MSS. Eolk House. 2 Acknowledgment by the Earl of Murray of the receipt of moneys from the Queen's Majesty, February, 1566: MS. Ibid.
