I am sorry that the soil of my native country did ever produce so unnatural a subject as the Earl of Huntly hath proved in the end against his sovereign, being a princess so gentle and benign, and whose behaviour hath been always such towards all her subjects, and every one in particular, that wonder is it that any could be found so ungracious as once to think evil against her.... I have heard it whispered that in this late storm of yours {Elizabeth's illness} a device was intended there to prefer some other in the succession to my mistress, which I cannot think to be true, seeing none is more worthy for all respects, nor hath so good a title. If her religion hath moved anything, seeing her behaviour such toward these that be of the religion within her own realm, yea, and the religion itself, which is a great deal more increased since she came home than it was before, I see no reason why those that be zealous of religion should suspect her. _A GRUESOME SPECTACLE_ 1563.--28th May. The Sentence on the Earl's Body. _Rutland MSS. at Belvoir, quoted in the Marquess of Huntly's Annals of Aboyne_, pp. 467-468. The coffin was set upright, as if the Earl stood upon his feet, and upon it a piece of good black cloth with his arms fast pinned. His accusation being read, his proctor answering for him, as if himself had been alive, the inquest was empanelled. The verdict was given that he was found guilty, and judgment given thereupon as by the law is accustomed. Immediately hereupon the good black cloth that hung over the coffin was taken away, and in its place a worse hanged on, the arms torn in pieces in sight of the people, and likewise struck out of the herald's book. _GENTLE ENTREATMENT OF A STRANGER_ 1563.--22nd February. The Death of Châtelar. _Laing's Knox_, vol. ii. pp. 367-369. [Châtelar, a musician and poet, had been in the suite of d'Amville, who accompanied Mary to Scotland. He addressed poems to the Queen, who received them graciously, and replied to them. He went home with his master, but returned to Scotland in 1562, and became one of the Queen's favourite attendants.]