I receive of her Grace at all times very good words. I am borne in hand {assured} by such as are nearest about her, as the Lord James and the Laird of Lethington, that they are meant as they are spoken; I see them above all others in credit, and find in them no alteration, though there be that complain that they yield too much unto her appetite; which yet I see not. The Lord James dealeth according to his nature, rudely, homely, and bluntly; the Laird of Lethington more delicately and finely, yet nothing swerveth from the other in mind and effect. She is patient to hear, and beareth much. The Earl Marischal is wary, but speaketh sometimes to good purpose.... Mr. Knox cannot be otherwise persuaded, but many men are deceived in this woman; he feareth yet that _posteriora sunt pejora primis_; his severity keepeth us in marvellous order. I commend better the success of his doings and preachings than the manner thereof, tho' I acknowledged his doctrine to be sound: His prayer is daily for her--"That God will turn her obstinate heart against God and His truth; or, if the Holy Will be otherwise, to strengthen the hearts and hands of His chosen and elect, stoutly to withstand the rage of all tyrants," &c., in words terrible enough. _PROTESTANT RULE_ _Cecil to Challoner (English Ambassador in Spain). Foreign Calendar_, 1562, June 8, 1562. In Scotland ... the Earl of Huntly is in no credit with the Queen. The whole governance rests in Lord James, being Earl of Mar, and the Laird of Lethington. The others that have credit are the Earls Marshal, Argyll, Morton, and Glencairn, all Protestants. The Queen quietly tolerates the reformed religion throughout the realm, who is thought to be no more devout towards Rome than for the contentation of her uncles. [Cecil's suspicion was quite unfounded. Throughout her reign Mary was always in correspondence with the Pope, to whom she appealed for money to help her in her efforts for the restoration of Catholicism in Scotland.] Mary on the Treaty of Edinburgh. _Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth_, January 5, 1562. _Keith's History_, vol. ii. p. 134. How prejudicial that Treaty is to such title and interest as by birth and natural descent of your own lineage may fall to us, by very inspection of the Treaty itself ye may easily perceive, and how slenderly a matter of so great consequence is wrapped up in obscure terms. We know how near we are descended of the blood of England, and what devices have been attempted to make us, as it were, a stranger from it. We trust, being so near your cousin, ye would be loth we should receive so manifest an injury as all utterly to be debarred from that title which in possibility may fall unto us. _THE WAY TO INVERNESS_ 1562.--Randolph's Account of the Huntly Rebellion. _Randolph to Cecil from Old Aberdeen_, August 31, 1562. _Foreign Calendar_, 1562.