1566.] THE MURDER OF DARNLEY. 415 This letter was sent by the hands of a certain Thornton, a confidential agent of Mary Stuart, who had been employed on messages to Kome. 'A very evil and naughty person, whom I pray you not to believe/ was Bedford's credential for him in a letter of the 1st of April to Cecil. He was on his way to Home again on this present occasion. The public in Scotland supposed that b ? was sent to consult the Pope on the possibility of divorcing Darnley; and it is remarkable that the Queen of Scots at the close of her own letter desired Elizabeth to give credit to him on some secret matter which he would communicate to her. She perhaps hoped that Elizabeth would now assist her in the dissolution of a marriage which she had been so anxious to prevent. It was not till her return to Edinburgh that the whole circumstances became known to her which preceded 1 the murder ; and whether she had lost in Rizzio a favoured lover, or whether the charge against her had been in- vented by Darnley to heat the blood of his kindred in either case his offence against the Queen was irreparable and deadly, and every fresh act of baseness into which he plunged increased the loathing with which she re- garded him. The poor creature laboured to earn his pardon by denouncing accomplice after accomplice. Maitland's complicity was unsuspected till it was re- vealed by Darnley. He gave up the names of three other gentlemen ' whom only he and no man else knew to be privy.' * Maitland's lands were seized, and he had him- 1 Randolph to Cecil, April 2 : Scotch MSS. Soils House.
