1566.] THE MURDER OF DARNLEY. 441 mitted of aggravation. Still more terrified, he then thought of flying from the kingdom. The Scotch council was about to meet in Edinburgh, in the middle of September ; the Queen desired that he would attend the session with her ; he refused, and as soon as she was gone he made arrangements to escape in an English vessel which was lying in the Forth. ' In a sort of desperation' he communicated his project to the French ambassador, du Croq, who had remained after the Queen's departure at Stirling. He told him it seems that he should go to the Scilly Isles ; perhaps like Sir Thomas Seymour with a notion of becoming a pirate chief there. When du Croq questioned him on his rea- sons for such a step, he complained 'that the Queen would give him no authority ; ' 'all the lords had abandoned him, he said ; he had no hope in Scotland and he feared for his life.' Better far it would have been had they allowed him to go, better for himself, better for Mary Stuart, better for human history which would have escaped the inky stain which blots its page ; yet his departure at such a time and in such a manner would attract inconvenient notice in England it would be used in Parliament in the debate on the succession. Du Croq carried word to Mary Stuart. Lennox, after endeavouring in vain to dissuade him, wrote to her also in the hope that he might appease her by giving proofs of his own loyalty ; and Darnley, finding his purpose betrayed, followed the French ambassador to Edinburgh, and on the evening of the 29th of September presented himself at the gates
