I believe the principal part of her disease to consist in a deep grief and sorrow, which it seems impossible to make her forget. She is continually exclaiming "Would I were dead!"[3] "But, alas!" says Melville, "she had over evil company about her for the time; the Earl Bothwell had a mark of his own that he shot at."[4] One of his bolts Bothwell lost no time in shooting; but it missed the mark. By undertaking to sue with them for Morton's pardon, and by making other promises, he prevailed on Murray, Huntly, Argyle and Lethington, to join him in advising the Queen to consent to a divorce. It could have been obtained only through the interference of the Pope, and Murray at first affected to have some religious scruples; but as the suggestion was secretly agreeable to him, it was not difficult to overcome his objections. "Take you no trouble," said Lethington to him, "we shall find the means well enough to make her quit of him, so that you and my Lord of Huntly will only behold the matter, and not be offended thereat." The Lords therefore proceeded to wait upon the Queen, and lay their proposal before her. Lethington, who had a better command of words than any among them, commenced by reminding her of the "great number of grievous and intolerable offences, the King, ungrateful for the honour received from her Majesty, had committed." He added, that Darnley "troubled her Grace and them all;" and that, if he was allowed to remain with her Majesty, he "would not cease till he did her some other evil turn which she would find it difficult to remedy." He then proceeded to suggest a divorce, undertaking for himself and the rest of the nobility, to obtain the consent of Parliament to it, provided she would agree to pardon the Earl of Morton, the Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, and their friends, whose aid they would require to secure a majority. But Lethington, and the rest, soon found that they had little understood Mary's real sentiments towards her husband. She would not at first agree even to talk upon the subject at all; and it was only after "every one of them endeavoured particularly to bring her to the purpose," that she condescended to state two objections, which, setting aside every other consideration, she regarded as insuperable. The first was, that she did not understand how the divorce could be made lawfully; and the second, that it would be to her son's prejudice, rather than hurt whom, she declared she "would endure all torments." Bothwell endeavoured to take up the argument, and to do away with the force of these objections, alleging, that though his father and mother had been divorced, there had never been any doubt as to his succession to his paternal estates; but his illustrations and Lethington's oratory met with the same success. Mary answered firmly, "I will that you do nothing, by which any spot may be laid on my honour and conscience; and therefore, I pray ye rather let the matter be in the