Stormy scenes.--Lord James.--Acts of cruelty.--Mary's energy and decision.--Her popularity.--Story of Chatelard.--His love and infatuation.--Trial of Chatelard.--His execution and last words.--Mary and Elizabeth.--The English succession.--Claim of Lady Lennox.--Lord Darnley.--Offers of marriage.--Duplicity of Elizabeth.--Melville sent as embassador to Elizabeth.--His reception.--Conversation of Melville and Elizabeth.--Dudley, earl of Leicester.--The "long" lad.--Lord Darnley.--Elizabeth's management.--Darnley's visit to Scotland.--Mary's message to Elizabeth.--Elizabeth's duplicity.--Wemys Castle.--Mary's opinion of Darnley.--His interview with her.--The courtship.--Elizabeth in a rage.--Murray's opposition.--Mary hastens the marriage.--A dangerous plot.--Mary's narrow escape.--The marriage.--The mourner and the bride.--Darnley's contemptible character.--Darnley's imperiousness and pride.--Mary's cares.--Rebellion.--Elizabeth's treatment of the rebels.--Mary's generous conduct to Darnley.--The double throne.--Darnley's cruel ingratitude. During the three or four years which elapsed after Queen Mary's arrival in Scotland, she had to pass through many stormy scenes of anxiety and trouble. The great nobles of the land were continually quarreling, and all parties were earnest and eager in their efforts to get Mary's influence and power on their side. She had a great deal of trouble with the affairs of her brother, the Lord James. He wished to have the earldom of Murray conferred upon him. The castle and estates pertaining to this title were in the north of Scotland, in the neighborhood of Inverness. They were in possession of another family, who refused to give them up. Mary accompanied Lord James to the north with an army, to put him in possession. They took the castle, and hung the governor, who had refused to surrender at their summons. This, and some other acts of this expedition, have since been considered unjust and cruel; but posterity have been divided in opinion on the question how far Mary herself was personally responsible for them. Mary, at any rate, displayed a great degree of decision and energy in her management of public affairs, and in the personal exploits which she performed. She made excursions from castle to castle, and from town to town, all over Scotland. On these expeditions she traveled on horseback, sometimes with a royal escort, and sometimes at the head of an army of eighteen or twenty thousand men. These royal progresses were made sometimes among the great towns and cities on the eastern coast of Scotland, and also, at other times, among the gloomy and dangerous defiles of the Highlands. Occasionally she would pay visits to the nobles at their castles, to hunt in their parks, to review their Highland retainers, or to join them in celebrations and fetes, and military parades.