The reply of Elizabeth was that "presently
she was not disposed to marry." An important event made this rebuff
additionally unwelcome: on December 5th, Francis II, the husband of Mary
Stuart, unexpectedly died. Had her husband lived, Mary might have
continued to live in France, which had been so long her home, and
Scotland might have been left in large degree to settle its own affairs.
Now the probability was that Mary would return to her own country, and
with all the authority and prestige of a legitimate sovereign renew the
battle that had been lost by her mother. It was, therefore, with gloomy
forebodings that all sincere well-wishers to the Reformed Church in
Scotland saw the close of this year of their apparent triumph.
If there were these apprehensions from enemies, there was likewise a
growing alarm from the attitude of lukewarm and dubious friends. The
sincerity and good faith of all who had taken part in the late
revolution were about to be subjected to the most stringent of tests. By
the enactments of the preceding year the ancient Church had been swept
away; but the work of rearing a new edifice in its place still remained
to be accomplished. With this object the Protestant ministers had been
intrusted with the task of drafting a constitution for a new church
which should take the place of the old.
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