‘Then they desire to see her wedded,’ resumed Randolph. ‘It rejoices me to hear this, guessing, as I think I can, at the Queen of England’s wishes. Frankly now, and between friends, hath your beautiful Mistress no predilection for any of her wooers?’
‘I am only a statesman,’ answered Maitland, laughing. ‘I can fathom a plot or an intrigue; but a woman’s schemes are far too deep for me. I believe, however, that on this subject ladies are not prone to speak their real minds.’
‘Lord Robert Dudley is a stanch Protestant?’ proceeded Randolph, interrogatively; ‘and a comely, personable nobleman besides?’
‘Would your mistress like to part with him to mine?’ said the other, with increasing mirth. ‘If Dudley aims at a crown-matrimonial, Mr Randolph, he need not cross the Tweed to fetch it, or we are strangely misinformed in the North.’
‘Nay,’ answered the Englishman, ‘I will be frank with you. The Maiden Queen would be loathe to resign either title. But it is not on her marriage that the eyes of all Protestant Europe are fixed. The destiny of the Reformed Church will be strongly influenced by Mary Stuart’s choice of a husband.’
‘She will be guided doubtless in this, as in everything, by the wishes of her people and the advice of her royal cousin,’ was the diplomatic reply. ‘The Austrian and the Spanish match are alike distasteful. The Archduke is a greybeard, and Don Carlos a puling, sickly boy. You see, I can be candid with you. Our Queen will have none of these.’
Mr Randolph, in common with the general public, had known this important disclosure for weeks. It was his cue, however, to accept the communication for somewhat more than it was worth.
‘As we are in confidence, then,’ he continued, ‘I will round in your ear an idea of mine own. What if the Scottish Queen should unite herself to one of her own blood, and of suitable years, thus avoiding all foreign influences, the while she does no violence to her natural inclinations?—a goodly young gentleman, of honest nurture, and of the Reformed religion. Surely such a mate could be found amongst the noble families in both kingdoms.’
It was a leading suggestion, from which Randolph hoped to gather a corroboration of Mary Beton’s intelligence; but he had to do with one as skilled in state-craft as himself, and equally unhampered by compunctions as to truth or sincerity.