In mid-October Mary was seriously ill at Jedburgh, where Bothwell, wounded in an encounter with a Border reiver, was welcomed, while Darnley, coldly received, went to his father's house on the Forth.

On her recovery Mary resided in the last days of November at Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh.

Here Murray, Argyll, Bothwell, Huntly, and Lethington held counsel with her as to Darnley.

Lethington said that "a way would be found," a way that Parliament would approve, while Murray would "look through his fingers." Lennox believed that the plan was to arrest Darnley on some charge, and slay him if he resisted.
At Stirling (December 17), when the young prince was baptised with Catholic rites, Darnley did not appear; he sulked in his own rooms.

A week later, the exiles guilty of Riccio's murder were recalled, among them Morton; and Darnley, finding all his enemies about to be united, went to Glasgow, where he fell ill of smallpox.