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MINORITY OF JAMES VI.
"Let none of them escape" was Elizabeth's message to the gaolers of Mary and her companions at Carlisle.

The unhappy queen prayed to see her in whose hospitality she had confided, or to be allowed to depart free.
Elizabeth's policy was to lead her into consenting to reply to her subjects' accusations, and Mary drifted into the shuffling English inquiries at York in October, while she was lodged at Bolton Castle.
Murray, George Buchanan, Lethington (now distrusted by Murray), and Morton produced, for Norfolk and other English Commissioners at York, copies, at least, of the incriminating letters which horrified the Duke of Norfolk.

Yet, probably through the guile of Lethington, he changed his mind, and became a suitor for Mary's hand.

He bade her refuse compromise, whereas compromise was Lethington's hope: a full and free inquiry would reveal his own guilt in Darnley's murder.