I wonder very much if he did the same with another,
(1) written two years later, after Mary had come into
Scotland, in which Knox almost seeks to make Elizabeth an
accomplice with him in the matter of the "First Blast." The
Queen of Scotland is going to have that work refuted, he
tells her; and "though it were but foolishness in him to
prescribe unto her Majesty what is to be done," he would yet
remind her that Mary is neither so much alarmed about her own
security, nor so generously interested in Elizabeth's, "that
she would take such pains, UNLESS HER CRAFTY COUNSEL IN SO
DOING SHOT AT A FURTHER MARK." There is something really
ingenious in this letter; it showed Knox in the double
capacity of the author of the "First Blast" and the faithful
friend of Elizabeth; and he combines them there so naturally,
that one would scarcely imagine the two to be incongruous.
(1) Knox to Queen Elizabeth, August 6th, 1561. Works, vi.
126.
Twenty days later he was defending his intemperate
publication to another queen - his own queen, Mary Stuart.
This was on the first of those three interviews which he has
preserved for us with so much dramatic vigour in the
picturesque pages of his history. After he had avowed the
authorship in his usual haughty style, Mary asked: "You
think, then, that I have no just authority?" The question
was evaded.
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