When Knox says “there is never a sentence in the narrative true,” he is very bold.  It was not true that the rising was merely under pretext of religion.  It may have been untrue that messengers went daily to England, but five letters were written between June 21 and June 28.  To stand on the words of the Regent—­“every day”—­would be a babyish quibble.  All the rest of her narrative was absolutely true.

Knox, on June 28, asked leave to enter England for secret discourse; he had already written to the same effect from St. Andrews. {137a} If Henri sends French reinforcement, Knox “is uncertain what will follow”; we may guess that authority would be in an ill way.  Cecil temporised; he wanted a better name than Kirkcaldy’s—­a man in the Regent’s service—­to the negotiations (July 4).  “Anywise kindle the fire,” he writes to Croft (July 8).  Croft is to let the Reformers know that Arran has escaped out of France.  Such a chance will not again “come in our lives.”  We see what the chance is!

On July 19 Knox writes again to Cecil, enclosing what he means to be an apology for his “Blast of the Trumpet,” to be given to Elizabeth.  He says, while admitting Elizabeth’s right to reign, as “judged godly,” though a woman, that they “must be careful not to make entrance and title to many, by whom not only shall the truth be impugned, but also shall the country be brought to bondage and slavery.  God give you eyes to foresee and wisdom to avoid the apparent danger.” {137b}

The “many” to whom “entrance and title” are not to be given, manifestly are Mary Stuart, Queen of France and Scotland.

It is not very clear whether Knox, while thus working against a woman’s “entrance and title” to the crown on the ground of her sex, is thinking of Mary Stuart’s prospects of succession to the throne of England or of her Scottish rights, or of both.  His phrase is cast in a vague way; “many” are spoken of, but it is not hard to understand what particular female claimant is in his mind.

Thus Knox himself was intriguing with England against his Queen at the very moment when in his “History” he denies that communications were frequent between his party and England, or that any of the Regent’s charges are true.  As for opposing authority and being rebellious, the manifest fundamental idea of the plot is to marry Elizabeth to Arran and deny “entrance and title” to the rightful Queen.  It was an admirable scheme, and had Arran not become a lunatic, had Elizabeth not been “that imperial votaress” vowed to eternal maidenhood, their bridal, with the consequent loss of the Scottish throne by Mary, would have been the most fortunate of all possible events.  The brethren had, in short, a perfect right to defend their creed in arms; a perfect right to change the dynasty; a perfect right to intrigue with England, and to resist a French landing, if they could.  But for a reformer of the Church to give a dead lady the lie in his “History” when the economy of truth lay rather on his own side, as he knew, is not so well.  We shall see that Knox possibly had the facts in his mind during the first interview with Mary Stuart. {138}