The Mystery of Mary Stuart

Maitland of Lethington, ii. 224.

368

Lethington to Beaton, October 24, 1566; cf. Keith, ii. 542.

369

‘The safety,’ ‘la seurete.’ Mr. Henderson’s text has ‘la seincte.’ The texts in his volume are strangely misleading and incorrect, both in the English of Letter II. and in the copies of the original French.

370

This means a ring in black enamel, with representations of tears and bones, doubtless in white: a fantastic mourning ring. Mary left a diamond in black enamel to Bothwell, in June, 1566.

371

This coincidence was pointed out to me by Mr. Saintsbury.

372

By the way, she says to Norfolk, in the same Letter, ‘I am resolvid that weale nor wo shall never remove me from yow, If yow cast me not away.’ Compare the end of this Letter VIII.: ‘Till death nor weal nor woe shall estrange me’ (jusques à la mort ne changera, car mal ni bien oncque ne m’estrangera). Now the forger could not copy a letter not yet written (Labanoff, iii. 5). This conclusion of her epistle is not on the same level as the customary conclusion – the prayer that God will give the recipient long life, and to her – something else. That formula was usual: ‘Je supplie Dieu et de vous donner bonne vie, et longue, et a moy l’eur de votre bonne grasse.’ This formula, found in Mary’s Letters and in the Casket Letters, also occurs in a note from Marguerite de France to the Duchesse de Montmorency (De Maulde, Women of the Renaissance, p. 309). A forger would know, and would insert the stereotyped phrase, if he chose.

373

On the point of wearing a concealed jewel in her bosom, the curious may consult the anecdote, ‘Queen Mary’s Jewels,’ in the author’s Book of Dreams and Ghosts.

374

In Laing, ii. 234.

375

Cecil’s Journal.

376

Cecil’s Journal.

377

Laing, ii. 285.

378

Laing, ii. 289.

379

Laing, ii. 325, 326. Laing holds that between April 21 and April 23 Mary wrote Letters V. VI. VII. VIII. and Eleven Sonnets to Bothwell: strange literary activity!

380

Froude, iii. 75, note 1.

381

Teulet, ii. 169, 170.

382

Labanoff, iii. 5.

383

Labanoff, iii. 64.

384

Spanish Calendar, i. 659.

385

Bain, ii. 329, 330.

386

Privy Council Register.

387

Bain, ii. 336. Sir John Skelton did not observe the coincidence between the opening of the Casket and the ‘sudden dispatch’ of Robert Melville to London. The letter in full is in Maitland of Lethington, ii. 226, 227.

388

Bain, ii. 339.

389

Goodall, ii. 342, 343.

390

Goodall, ii. 388, 389.

391

Camden, Annals, 143-5. Laing, i. 226.

392