488 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 45. venge. The circumstances under which the obstacle to Mary Stuart's peace was disposed of challenged the at- tention of the whole civilized world, and no after efforts availed in court, creed, or nation, to hide the memory of the scenes which were revealed in that sudden lightning flash. The disorders of the Scots upon the Border had long been a subject of remonstrance from the English Govern- ment. The Queen of Scots, while the Parliament was sitting at Westminster, desired to give some public proof of her wish to conciliate ; and after the strange appear- ance of Darnley in September at the council at Edin- burgh, she proposed to go in person to Jedburgh and hear the complaints of Elizabeth's wardens. The Earl of Both well had taken command of the North Marches : he had gone down to prepare the way for the Queen's appearance, and on her arrival she was greeted with the news that he had been shot through the thigh in a scuffle and was lying wounded in Hermitage Castle. The Earl had been her companion throughout the summer ; her relations with him at this time whether innocent or not were of the closest intimacy ; and she had taken into her household a certain Lady Heres, who had once been his mistress. I566 She heard of his wound with the most October. a l arme d anxiety ; on every ground she could ill afford to lose him ; l and careless at all times of bodily fatigue or danger, she rode, on the I5th of 1 ' Ce ne luy eust pas este peu de perte de le perdre ! ' were the unsus- picious words of du Croq on the I7th of October. TECLET, vol. ii. p. 28q.
