MURRAY'S INSURRECTION.
At page 198, vol. viii., after the armed rebellion of Murray and his friends, popularly known in Scotland as "The Runabout Raid," we have Mary
"breathing nothing but anger and defiance. The affection of a sister for a brother was curdled into a hatred the more malignant because it was more unnatural. Her whole passion was concentrated on Murray."
It must be clear to every one how reprehensible Mary was for showing any feeling at all in defence of her crown, her liberty, and her life, and with Mr. Froude's premises and logic, Murray gave a signal proof of affection for his sister in arraying himself against her legitimate authority as the head of an insurrection. Mr. Froude can see, in the just indignation of the queen against domestic traitors in league, with a foreign power, nothing but the violence of a vengeful fury. His anxiety to possess his readers of the same view has brought him into a serious difficulty, which has been exposed by M. Wiesener in his Marie Stuart. At p. 211, vol. viii., Mr. Froude quotes a letter of Randolph to Cecil of Oct. 5th, "in Rolls House," by which he means Record Office, to show that Mary "was deaf to advice as she had been to menace," and "she said she would have no peace till she had Murray's or Chatelherault's head." This letter appears to be visible to nobody but Mr. Froude; and we have the authority of Mr. Joseph Stevenson, who is more at home among the MSS. of the Record Office than Mr. Froude, and who, when he uses them, has the merit of citing them in their integrity, for stating that this letter of the 5th October, referred to by Mr. Froude, is not in the Record Office.[183] But there is a letter there from Randolph to Cecil of the 4th October, in which Randolph represents Mary
"not only uncertain as to what she should do, but inclined to clement measures, and so undecided as to hope that matters could be arranged"!
This does not sound like "deaf to advice," and Mr. Froude can arrange this little difficulty with the dates and Mr. Stevenson at his leisure. Meantime, we all anxiously wait to hear from Mr. Froude where he found his authority for stating that Mary said she would have no peace till she had Murray's or Chatelherault's head.
At page 205, vol. viii. the account given by Mauvissière of his interview with Mary is travestied by Mr. Froude. Mauvissière counselled her to make peace with the insurgents. Mary saw through the device; for it was the counsel of Catherine de' Medici, whose enmity to Mary was only surpassed by that of Elizabeth; and, although without advisers—for Murray was in rebellion, Morton had withdrawn himself, and Maitland was suspected—she rejected it instantly.
It is amusing to observe how the loyal attachment of the citizens and merchants of Edinburgh to Mary annoys Mr. Froude. During Mary's absence, the rebels swept into the city with a large force; but, notwithstanding the appeal of the kirk, the "Calvinist shop-keepers," as Mr. Froude witheringly styles them, would not lift a finger to aid them. We call it amusing, because Mr. Froude everywhere so undisguisedly manifests his strong personal sympathy that, as an historian, he becomes simply absurd.
Mary marched against the rebels with eighteen thousand men. As she approached, they fled into England, and the rebellion was over.
"The Queen of Scots, following in hot pursuit, glared across the frontier at her escaping prey." (Vol. viii. p. 214.) The amount of precise information in Mr. Froude's exclusive possession concerning the expression of Mary Stuart's eyes as something wonderful. Here her eyes "glare;" elsewhere, (vol. viii. p. 365,) there is an "odd glitter in her eyes," while at p. 161, they are "flashing pride and defiance."
It is this imaginative power and talent for pictorial embellishment which lend to Mr. Froude's work such peculiar attraction for the general reader. And to give expression to this natural appreciation, such testimonials as the following are seriously produced as evidences of the merit of the work.
"What a wonderful history it is!" says Mrs. Mulock Craik; "and wonderful indeed is it, with its vivid pictures of scenes and persons long passed away; its broad charity, its tender human sympathy, its ever present dignity, its outbursts of truest pathos."
All this is in keeping with the eternal fitness of things. This excellent lady, a somewhat successful writer of novels, really means what she says, and expresses herself in all sincerity. Her admiration is genuine. It is that of a pupil for her master, and she ingenuously admires one who has attained excellence in his art. We have not the slightest doubt that many will say with her, "What a wonderful history it is!"