In Byways of Scottish History. Louis Auguste Barbé

without foundation, he was ignominiously ordered to leave the country.124 Anxious as he had been to be relieved from duties which had become as dangerous as they were difficult, Randolph nevertheless refused to obey. He appealed from Mary and her Lords to Elizabeth, to the sovereign to whom he owed his allegiance, and was answerable for his conduct, by whose favour he had been appointed to a position of confidence and honour, and at whose command alone he would consent to surrender his trust. On hearing the slight which had been put upon her accredited representative, the Queen of England took up his cause with characteristic promptitude and energy. She at once dispatched a letter to the Queen of Scots complaining "of her strange and uncourteous treatment of Mr. Randolph",125 and informing her that his departure from Edinburgh would be the signal for the dismissal of the Scottish agent from the English Court. In spite of Elizabeth's remonstrances, and in the face of a threat which was so far from being idly meant that it was peremptorily carried out less than a fortnight later,126 Randolph's expulsion was insisted upon. After having twice again received orders from the Lords,127 he at length yielded to necessity and retired across the Border to Berwick.

      That Randolph, smarting under such treatment, should have made use of his enforced leisure and of the knowledge which he had had special opportunities for acquiring to write a book by which he hoped to injure her cause and tarnish her reputation, doubtless seemed to Mary to be so natural that she deemed it unnecessary to institute further enquiries into the truth of the charge brought against him. His guilt was assumed as soon as the accusation was made, and, by a singular coincidence, if, indeed, it was not of set purpose, the same Minister whose dismissal had followed his own disgrace was sent back to Elizabeth to demand his punishment.

      1

      For an account of this poem, Maister Randolphe's Fantasie, see pages 91-98.

      2

      As bearing on the subject of Mary's personal appearance and the fidelity of her portraits, the following passages from an article contributed to the Glasgow Herald, as a review of Mr. J. J. Foster's work, Concerning the True Portraiture of Mary Queen of Scots,

1

For an account of this poem, Maister Randolphe's Fantasie, see pages 91-98.

2

As bearing on the subject of Mary's personal appearance and the fidelity of her portraits, the following passages from an article contributed to the Glasgow Herald, as a review of Mr. J. J. Foster's work, Concerning the True Portraiture of Mary Queen of Scots, may here be reproduced: "Mr. Foster points out 'in some cases a slight but perceptible squint'. We have noticed this in one or two instances only, and in portraits which, though they may be authentic, are technically inferior; and we are consequently more inclined to attribute the defect to the artist than to nature. The majority of the most trustworthy portraits agree in making the upper eyelids thick, with an uninterrupted curve, in setting the arched, well-marked eyebrows wide apart, and in giving an exceptionally broad space between the eyes and the ears. The oval face, the high cheek-bones, the round, well-proportioned and capacious forehead, the long but shapely Greek nose, are features with regard to which there is practical unanimity. Even if Sir George Scharf had not pointed it out, it would hardly be possible to overlook the peculiarity of the compressed lips. They are not thin, however, though, on the other hand, they are very far from possessing that fulness which physiognomists look upon as an indication of sensuality. Another feature, so often reproduced as to be almost characteristic and distinctive, is the strongly-marked V depression in the middle of the upper lip. The cheek is full in its lower part, but not unduly so. The chin is well-developed, but is neither cloven nor dimpled… Prince Labanoff declared that, with the exception of one portrait – and that of dubious authenticity – none renders even youth or average beauty. Quite recently Major Martin Hume wrote of Mary that 'a contemplation of her known authentic portraits, even those taken in the best years of her youth and happiness, does not carry conviction that her physical beauty alone can have been the cause of the extraordinary influence she exercised over the men who came within the sphere of her attraction'. And now we have Mr. Foster admitting that 'scarcely any of the so-called portraits of Mary Stuart bear out the reputation of her beauty'; and that 'all her pictures entirely lack that indefinable charm which captivated everyone brought in contact with her'. He seems to attribute this, in some measure, at least, to the imperfections of the artists of the time. He might perhaps have added, to the unfavourable circumstances under which they worked. For, as M. Dimier tells us, 'the oil-painting was never attempted from life. The artist brought away from his model nothing but the crayon and some written notes concerning the complexion, colour of hair, and of the eyes; he handled the colours only in his studio, and finished the work at his leisure'. We know, too, of Mary Stuart, in particular, that she ordered portraits of herself to be painted in France, fourteen years after leaving the country."

3

Œuvres, vol. ii, p. 1172.

4

Memoirs, p. 124.

5

Brantôme, t. v, p. 94.

6

Memoirs, p. 123.

7

T. Wright's Queen Elizabeth and her Time, vol. i, p. 311.

8

G. Chalmers, Life of Queen Mary, vol. i, pp. 443-4.

9

Œuvres, vol. ii, pp. 1172-4.

10

Melville's Memoirs, p. 124.

11

T. v, p. 86.

12

Œuvres, l. c.

13

History of the Reformation, vol. ii, p. 381.

14

Teulet, Papiers d'État, t. ii, p. 883.

15

T. v, pp. 83-4.

16

Rhétorique Françoise, Paris, 1555.

17

Latin Themes of Mary Stuart, published by Anatole de Montaiglon.

18

Letter from Randolph to Cecil, 7 April, 1562.

19

Brantôme, t. v., p. 84.

20

Inventories of Mary Queen of Scots. Bannatyne Club, p. 179 et seq.

21

Inventories, p. cv.

22

"Concionero de Romances", Inventories, p. cxlvi.

23

Unless it be he that is meant in the entry: "Danies

124

Ibid.

125

Queen Elizabeth to the Queen of Scots, 3 March, 1566.

126

Queen Elizabeth to the Queen of Scots, 15 March, 1566.

127

Thomas Randolph to Sir W. Cecil, 6 March, 1566.