Stray Leaves from English History, A.D. 1570-85 [pp. 346-357]

354 STRAY 4EA VES FROM EKGLISK HISToRY. [Dec.,
Burleigh proposed to double the amount already offered by the
Countess of Northumberland, whilst the Scotch kfraves increased
their demand upon the English council to ten thousand pounds,
all to be paid down in gold on the day that Lord Northumberland was delivered up to the agents of the English queen.
Queen Elizabeth, in her usual style, denounced the proposal as
"an extortion; she would pay no such sum." "Then," said Lord
Morton in his letter, "your highness will not have the immense
pleasure of cutting off the head of your rebel subject." The
queen took ten days to consider the matter. At the end of the
time named she agreed to pay the sum demanded.
"Even in that ruthless age," remarks Mr. Hosack, "the giving up of a fugitive to certain death was regarded as a heinous
crime." In the eyes of William Cecil and Francis Walsingham
such a crime became a venial offence, or one justified on the
broad ground of expediency. Of all the actors in this infamous
transaction, Morton, in the opinion of his contemporaries, incurred the largest share of guilt. It was given out that Northumberland was to be cotiveyed in a Scotch ship to Antwerp and
-there set free. He therefore joyfully left his gloomy prison at
Lochleven and embarked on the Frith of Forth, as he believed,
for Antwerp, where his wife and friends awaited his arrival. To
his astonishment and dismay he found that the vessel, instead
of putting out to sea, ran down the coast off Berwickshire and
anchored near Coldingham. Lord Hunsdon went on board the
vessel, when John Colville, a "Scotch gentleman," delivered to
Queen Elizabeth's political agent the unfortunate Earl of Northumberland. The gold was then paid down in a business-like
manner. Northumberland underwent an examination which
Lasted six weeks; but he criminated no man, betrayed no one.
John Colville, who aided in entrapping the Earl of Northumberland, had originally been a Presbyterian minister. He next took
to the "politics of the times, and became a spy for both parties."
His treachery was revolting. He was the author of some blasphemous tracts against Christian principles. He was also said
to have been the writer of a life of King James VI. Like many
of the political adventurers and dagger-men of those times, he
died in poverty, abandoned by his corrupt patrons and false
friends.
Queen Elizabeth sent her final command, or judgment, to Lord
Hunsdon to bring his prisoner immediately to York, where her
highness "commanded" that he should die on the public scaffold
as a rebel and a traitor. Northumberland had no trial, but was