il'- 'i'-ii'v :•').' ''f ■ .' :/: v\\ ■ [;;. ■• :'.! tlUnlffllilrllluffi; ■i.'.:i''i:;i ■ it-,';'', •• '■', A \^ ^. '^^'^^ -K^ .v ^^ I ''^j '-^-i- .'t)" x^ ^^' ^^. r"-^ \ .'-^' 4^ . ^, ^^v^ :>'^^. 'oo"* O O. X^^x. ^0* » * r '^'"%', \^ ■"*.s^'- '^ N, ^^ Mary. Frontispiece. The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, seep.iis. ALTnnUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY HISTORY or MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS WITH rORTY-riYE ILLUSTRATIONS Bmv 5*4326 ,^5 1" ■ 43742 Libritry of Con^res* •wu CoptEs Heceived SEP 5 1900 Cc^yn'cht antry SECONO COPY. Dr*^v«r«d t« OROtrtDtVISlON, SEP 7 1900 ^/^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. i-AQE Mary's Childhood CHAPTER II. Her Education in France CHAPTER III. The Great Wedding . • • • CHAPTER IV. Misfortunes CHAPTER V. Return to Scotland . . . • CHAPTER' VI. Mary and Lord Darnley CHAPTER VII. Rizzio . • • CHAPTER VIII. Bothwell CHAPTER IX. The Fall of Bothwell . • • • CHAPTER X. Loch Leven Castle . • • • CHAPTER XL The Long Captivity . . • • CHAPTER XII. The End * (v) 22 39 57 77 96 115 135 159 177 197 211 Mary.vi Loch Leveu Castle. ILLUSTRATIONS. facing facinf facing Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, Fronthpiece. Loch Leven Castle . • • • P^S^ !! Mary's " Memento Mori " Watch . . • " ^"i Mary Stuart as the Widow of Francis II. Headpiece, Chapter I. . Mary's First Levee Plan of the Palace of Linlithgow Linlithgow Palace View from Mary's Window . Headpiece, Chapter 11. Mary, Queen of Scots . Headpiece, Chapter III. Church of Notre Dame Mary and her Young Husband, Francis II Headpiece, Chapter IV. EUzabeth, Queen of England Headpiece, Chapter V. Landing of Mary at Leith . Holyrood Palace . Headpiece, Chapter VI. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley The Earl of Murray . Headpiece, Chapter VII. Plan of Holyrood House Murder of Rizzio Room in which Mary was Imprisoned . • (vii) facinj facin,! facing X 1 8 10 11 21 22 36 39 46 54 57 76 77 86 88 96 106 110 115 127 130 134 Vlll ILLUSTRATI ONS. Headpiece, Chapter VIII. . page 135 Cradle of James I. . ' ' 141 Plan of Darnley's House . ' '146 Edinburgh Castle . ' ' 158 Headpiece, Chapter IX. . ' ' 159 Surrender of Mary at Carberry Hill facing ' ' 170 Both well Captured by a Danish Ship . ' ' 176 Headpiece, Chapter X. . ' '177 Plan of Loch Leven Castle . . ' ' 180 Mary in Captivity facing ' ' 182 Mary Abdicating the Throne a ( ' 186 Headpiece, Chapter XI. . ' ' 197 IMary Protesting Against her d iptivity facing ' ' 206 Assassination of the Earl of Murray U ( ' 208 Headpiece, Chapter XII. ' 211 Trial of Mary, Queen of Scots facing <■ ' 216 ^lary Hearing her Death Warrant U ( '220 Mary's Tomb in Westminster Abbey . * '232 Mary's " Memento Mori" Watch. INTRODUCTORY. The story of Mary Stuart is full of romance and pathos. She was a queen before she was a week old, and her childhood was passed at the Court of France, where she was carefully educated. Married at the age of sixteen to the oldest son of Henry II. of France, she became a widow two years later, and then, her mother, Mary of Guise, dying amid the throes of the Re- formation and leaving the kingdom of Scotland without a government, M'ary hastened to her native land and began an auspicious reign. Suitors for her hand sprang up from every quar- ter. Sweden, Denmark and France; Austria and Spain offered to share their thrones witli the daughter of James V.; royal dukes and belted earls were proposed as candidates for her hand. Her choice fell upon her weak and vicious cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. From tlie tragic death of Darnley to the day when Mary laid her head upon the block, her life was a stormy one ; but when at last she met her fate at the hands of Elizabeth it was with the dignity of a queen and the resignation of a martyr. (ix) Mary, x Mary Stuart as the Widow of Francis II. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. CHAPTER I. MARYS CHILDHOOD. Travelers who go into Scotland take a great interest in visiting, among other places, a certain room in the ruins of an old palace, where Queen Mary was born. Queen Mary- was very beautiful, but she was very unfortu- nate and unhappy. Everybody takes a strong interest in her story, and this interest attaches, in some degree, to the room where her sad and sorrowful life was begun. The palace is near a little village called Lin- lithgow. The village has but one long street, which consists of ancient stone houses. North of it is a little lake, or rather pond : they call it, in Scotland, a loch. The palace is between the village and the loch ; it is upon a beautiful swell of land which projects out into the water. There 2 MARY QUEEN OF BOOTS. is a very small island in the middle of the loch, and the shores are bordered with fertile fields. The palace, when entire, was square, with an open space or court in the center. There was a beautiful stone fountain in the center of this court, and an arched gateway through which horsemen and carriages could ride in. The doors of entrance into the palace were on the inside of the court. The palace is now in ruins. A troop of sol- diers came to it one day in time of war, after Mary and her mother had left it, and spent the night there : they spread straw over the floors to sleep upon. In the morning, when they went away, they wantonly set the straw on fire, and left it burning, and thus the palace was destroyed. Some of the lower floors were of stone ; but all the upper floors and the roof were burned, and all the wood- work of the rooms, and the doors and win- dow-frames. Since then the palace has never been repaired, but remains a melancholy pile of ruins. The room where Mary was born had a stone floor. The rubbish which has fallen from above has covered it with a sort of soil, and grass and weeds grow up all over it. It is a very melancholy sight to see. The visitors who go into the room walk mournfully about, trying to imagine how Queen Mary looked^ as MAEY'S CHILDHOOD. 8 an infant in her mother's arms, and reflecting on the recklessness of the soldiers in wantonly- destroying so beautiful a palace. Then they go to the window, or, rather, to the crumbling opening in the wall where the window once was, and look out upon the loch, now so de- serted and lonely ; over their heads it is all open to the sky. Mary's father was King of Scotland. At the time that Mary was born, he was away from home engaged in war with the King of England, who had invaded Scotland. In the battles Mary's father was defeated, and he thought that the generals and nobles who commanded his army allowed the English to conquer them on purpose to betray him. This thought over- whelmed him with vexation and anguish. He pined away under the acuteness of his suffer- ings, and just after the news came to him that his daughter Mary was born, he died. Thus Mary became an orphan, and her troubles commenced, at the very beginning of her days. She never saw her father, and her father never saw her. Her mother was a French lady ; her name was Mary of Guise. Her own name was Mary Stuart, but she is commonly called Mary Queen of Scots. As Mary was her father's only child, of course, when he died, she became Queen of Scotland, although she was only a few days 4 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. old. It is customary, in such a case, to appoint some distinguished person to govern the king- dom, in the name of the young queen, until she grows up : such a person is called a regent. Mary's mother wished to be the regent until Mary became of age. It happened that in those days, as now, the government and people of France were of the Catholic religion. England, on the other hand, was Protestant. There is a great difference between the Catholic and the Protestant sys- tems. The Catholic Church, though it extends nearly all over the world, is banded together, as the reader is aware, under one man — the Pope — who is the great head of the Church, and who lives in state at Rome. The Catho-" lies have, in all countries, many large and splendid churches, which are ornamented with paintings and images of the Virgin Mary and of Christ. They perform great ceremonies in these churches, the priests being dressed in magnificent costumes, and walking in proces- sions, with censers of incense burning as they go. The Protestants, oi>-^'the othai^r hand, do not like these ceremonies ; they regard such outward acts of worship as mere useless parade, and the images as idols. They themselves have smaller and plainer churches, and call the people together in them to hear sermons, and to offer up simple prayers. MARY S CHILDHOOD. O In the time of Mary, England was Protes- tant and France was Catholic, while Scotland was divided, though most of the people were Protestants. The two parties were very much excited against each other, and often persecuted each other with extreme cruelty. Sometimes the Protestants would break into the Catholic churches, and tear down and destroy the paint- ings and the images, and the other symbols of worship, all which the Catholics regarded with extreme veneration ; this exasperated the Cath- olics, and when they became powerful in their turn, they would seize the Protestants and im- prison them, and sometimes burn them to death, by tying them to a stake and piling fagots of wood about th'em, and then setting the heap on fire. Queen Mary's mother was a Catholic, and for that reason the people of Scotland were not willing that she should be regent. There were one or two other persons, moreover, who claimed the office. One was a certain noble- man called the Earl of Arran. He was a Prot- estant. The Earl of Arran was the next heir to the crown, so that if Mary had died in her infancy, he would have been king.^ He thought that this was a reason why he should be regent, and govern the kingdom until Mary became old enough to govern it herself. Many other persons, however, considered this rather a rea- 6 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. son why he should not be regent ; for they thought he would be naturally interested in wishing that Mary should not live, since if she died he would himself become king, and that therefore he would not be a safe protector for her. However, as the Earl of Arran was a Protestant, and as Mary's mother was a Catholic, and as the Protestant in- terest was the strongest, it was at length decided that Arran should be the regent, and govern the country until Mary should be of age. It is a curious circumstance that Mary's birth put an end to the war between England and Scotland, and that in a very singular way. The King of England had been fighting against Mary's father, James, for a long time, in order to conquer the country and annex it to Eng- land ; and now that James was dead, and Mary had become queen, with Arran for the regent, it devolved on Arran to carry on the war. But the King of England and his gov- ernment, how that the young queen was born, conceived of a new plan. The king had a little son, named Edward, about four years old, who, of course, would become King of Eng- land in his place when he should himself die. Now he thought it would be best for him to conclude a peace with Scotland, and agree with the Scottish government that, as soon as MARY S CHILDHOOD. 7 Mary wa9 old enough, she should become Edward's wife, and the two kingdoms be united in that way. The name of this King of England was Hen- ry the Eighth. He was a very headstrong and determined man. This, his plan, might have been a very good one ; it was certainly much better than an attempt to get possession of Scotland by fighting for it ; but he was very far from being as moderate and just as he should have been in the execution of his de- sign. The first thing was to ascertain whether Mary was a strong and healthy child ; for if he should make a treaty of peace, and give up all his plans of conquest, and then if Mary, after living feebly a few years, should die, all his plans would fail. To satisfy him on this point, they actually had some of the infant's clothes removed in the presence of his ambas- sador, in order that the ambassador might see that her form was perfect, and her limbs vig- orous and strong. The nurse did this with great pride and pleasure, Mary's mother stand- ing by. The nurse's name was Janet Sinclair. The ambassador wrote back to Henry, the King of England, that little Mary was "as goodly a child as he ever saw." So King Henry VHI. was confirmed in his design of having her for the wife of his son. King Henry VHI. accordingly changed all 8 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. his plans. He made a peace with the Earl of Arran. He dismissed the prisoners that he had taken, and sent them home kindly. If he had been contented with kind and gentle measures like these, he might have succeeded in them, although there was, of course, a strong party in Scotland opposed to them. INIary's mother was opposed to them, for she was a Catholic and a French lady, and she wished to have her daughter become a Catholic as she grew up, and marry a French prince. All the Catholics in Scotland took her side. Still Hen- ry's plans might have been accomplished, per- haps, if he had been moderate and conciliating in the efforts which he made to carry them into effect. But Henry VHI. was headstrong and obsti- nate. He demanded that Mary, since she was to be his son's wife, should be given up to him to be taken into England, and educated there, under the care of persons whom he should ap- point. He also demanded that the Parliament of Scotland should let him have a large share in the government of Scotland, because he was going to be the father-in-law of the young queen. The Parliament would not agree to either of these plans ; they were entirely un- willing to allow their little queen to be carried off to another country, and put under the charge of so rough and rude a man. Then they were Mary , face p. S Mary Stuart' a first Levee. maky's childhood. 9 unwilling", too, to give him any share of the government during Mary's minority. Both these measures were entirely inadmissible ; they would, if adopted, have put both the in- fant Queen of Scotland and the kingdom itself completely in the power of one who had al- ways been their greatest enemy. Henry, finding that he could not induce the Scotch government to accede to these plans, gave them up at last, and made a treaty of marriage between his son and Mary, with the agreement that she might remain in Scotland until she was ten years old, and that then she should come to England and be under his care. All this time, while these grand negotiations were pending: between 'two mighty nations about her marriage, little Mary was uncon- scious of it all, sometimes reposing quietly in Janet Sinclair's arms, sometimes looking out of the windows of the Castle of Linlithgow to see the swans swim upon the lake, and some- times, perhaps, creeping about upon the palace floor, where the earls and barons who came to visit her mother, clad in armor of steel, looked upon her with pride and pleasure. The palace where she lived was beautifully situated, as has been before remarked, on the borders of a lake. It was arranged somewhat in the following manner ; 2-Mar7 10 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Plan of the Palace of Linlithgow. I*Wtk 1 Great liall. 1 !a Court- U jar.l. S3 Churcli-yard. a. Room where Mary was born. e. Entrance through great gates. w. Bow-window projecting toward the water, d. Den where they kept a lion. /. /. Trees. There was a beautiful fountain in the center of the courtyard, where water spouted out from the mouths of carved images, and fell into marble basins below. The ruins of this fountain and of the images remain there still. The den at d was a round pit, like a well, which you could look down into from above : it was about ten feet deep. They used to keep lions in such dens near the palaces and castles in those days. A lion in a den was a sort of plaything in former times, as a parrot or a pet Iamb IS now : this was in keeping with the MARY S CHILDHOOD. u fierce and warlike spirit of the age. If they had a lion there in Mary's time, Janet often, doubtless, took her little charge out to see it, and let her throw down food to it from above. The den is there now. You approach it upon Linlithgow Palace. the top of a broad embankment, which is as high as the depth of the den, so that the bot- tom of the den is level with the surface of the ground, v/hich makes it always dry. There is a hole, too, at the bottom, through the wall, where they used to put the lion in. Mary remained here at Linlithgow for a year 1^ MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. or two ; but when she was about nine months old, they concluded to have the great ceremony of the coronation performed, as she was by that time old enough to bear the journey to Stirling Castle, where the Scottish kings and queens were generally crowned. The corona- tion of a queen is an event which always ex- cites a very deep and universal interest among all persons in the realm ; and there is a pecul- iar interest felt when, as was the case in this instance, the queen to be crov^aied is an infant just old enough to bear the journey. There was a very great interest felt in Marys corona- tion. The different courts and monarchs of Europe sent ambassadors to be present at the ceremony, and to pay their respects to the infant queen ; and Stirling became, for the time being, the center of universal attrac- tion. Stirling is in the very heart of Scotland. It is a castle, built upon a rock, or rather, upon a rocky hill, which rises like an island out of the midst of a vast region of beautiful and fertile country, rich and verdant beyond description. Beyond the confines of this region of beauty, dark mountains rise on all sides ; and wher- ever you are, whether riding along the roads in the plain, or climbing the declivities of the mountains, you see Stirling Castle, from every point, capping its rocky hill, the center and Mary's childhood. 13 ornament of the broad expanse of beauty which surrounds it. Stirling Castle is north of Linlithgow, and is distant about fifteen or twenty miles from it. The road to it lies not far from the shores of the Firth of Forth, a broad and beautiful sheet of water. The castle, as has been before re- marked, was on the summit of a rocky hill. There are precipitous crags on three sides of the hill, and a gradual approach by a long ascent on the fourth side. At the top of this ascent you enter the great gates of the castle, crossing a broad and deep ditch by means of a drawbridge. You enter then a series of paved courts, with towers and walls around them, and finally come to the more interior edifices, where the private apartments are situated, and where the little queen was crowned. It was an occasion of great pomp and cere- mony, though Mary, of course, was uncon- scious of the meaning of it all. She was sur- rounded by barons and earls, by ambassadors and princes from foreign courts, and by the principal lords and ladies of the Scottish no- bility, all dressed in magnificent costumes. They held little Mary up, and a cardinal, that is, a great dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church, placed the crown upon her head. Half pleased with the glittering show, and half frightened at the strange faces which she 14 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. saw everywhere around her, she gazed uncon- sciously upon the scene, while her mother, who could better understand its import, was elated with pride and joy. Linlithgow and Stirling are in the open and cultivated part of Scotland. All the northern and western part of the country consists of vast masses of mountains, with dark and somber glens among them, which are occupied solely by shepherds and herdsmen with their flocks and herds. This mountainous region was called the Highlands, and the inhabitants of it were the Highlanders. They were a wild and warlike class of men, and their country was seldom visited by either friend or foe. At the present time there are beautiful roads all through the Highlands, and stage-coaches and private carriages roll over them every summer, to take tourists to see and admire the pictur- esque and beautiful scenery ; but in the days of Mary the whole region was gloomy and desolate, and almost inaccessible. Mary remained in Linlithgow and Stirling for about two years, and then, as the country was becoming more and more disturbed by the struggles of the great contending parties — those who were ni favor of the Catholic religion and alliance with France on the one hand and of those in favor of the Protestant religion and alliance with England on the other hand — they MARY'S CHILDHOOD. 15 concluded to send her into the Highlands for safety. It was not far into the country of the High- lands that they concluded to send her, but only into the borders of it. There was a small lake on the southern margin of the wild and moun- tainous country, called the Lake of Menteith. In this lake was an island named Inchmahome, the word inch being the name for island in the language spoken by the Highlanders. This island, which was situated in a very secluded and solitary region, was selected as Mary's place of residence. She was about four years old when they sent her to this place. Several persons went with her to take care of her, and to teach her. In fact, everything was provided for her which could secure her improvement and happiness. Her mother did not forget that she would need playmates^ and so she selected four little girls of about the same age with the little queen herself, and invited them to accompany her. They were daughters of the noblemen and high officers about the court. It is very singular that these girls were all named Mary. Their names in full were as follows : Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming, Mary Livingstone, Mary Seaton. 16 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. These, with Mary Stuart, which was Queen Mary's name, made five girls of four or five years of age, all named Mary. Mary lived two years in this solitary island. She had, however, all the comforts and conven- iences of life, and enjoyed herself with her four Maries very much. Of course she knew noth- ing, and thought nothing of the schemes and plans of the great governments for having her married, when she grew up, to the young Eng- lish prince, who was then a little boy of about her own age, nor of the angry disputes in Scotland to which this subject gave rise. It did give rise to very serious disputes. Mary's mother did not like the plan at all. As she was herself a French lady and a Catholic, she did not wish to have her daughter marry a prince who was of the English royal family, and a Protestant. All the Catholics in Scot- land took her side. At length the Earl. of Arran, who was the regent, changed to that side ; and finally the government, being thus brought over, gave notice to King Henry VIII. that the plan must be given up, as they had concluded, on the whole, that Mary should not marry his son. King Henry was very much incensed. He declared that Mary should marry his son, and he raised an army and sent it into Scotland to make war upon the Scotch again, and compel Mary's childhood. 17 them to consent to the execution of the plan. He was at this time beginning to be sick, but his sickness, instead of softening his temper, only made him the more ferocious and cruel. He turned against his best friends. He grew worse, and was evidently about to die ; but he was so irritable and angry that for a long time no one dared to tell him of his approaching dissolution, and he lay restless, and wretched, and agitated with political animosities upon his dying bed. At length some one ventured to tell him that his end was near. When he found that he must die, he resigned himself to his fate. He sent for an archbishop to come and see him, but he was speechless when the prelate came, and soon afterward expired. The English government, however, after his death, adhered to his plan of compelling the Scotch to make Mary the wife of his son. Xhey sent an army into Scotland. A great battle was fought, and the Scotch were defeated. The battle was fought at a place not far from Edin- burgh, and near the sea. It was so near the sea that the English fired upon the Scotch army from their ships, and thus assisted their troops upon the shore. The armies had remained several days near each other before coming to battle, and during all this time the city of Edin- burgh was in a state of great anxiety and sus- pense, as they expected that their city would 18 MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS. be attacked by the English if they should con- quer in the battle. The English army did, in fact, advance toward Edinburgh after the bat- tle was over, and would have got possession of it had it not been for the castle. There is a very strong castle in the very heart of Edin- burgh upon the summit of a rocky hill. These attempts of the English to force the Scotch government to consent to Mary's mar- riage only made them the more determined to prevent it. A great many who were not op- posed to it before, became opposed to it now, when they saw foreign armies in the country destroying the towns and murdering the people. They said they had no great objection to the match, but that they did not like the mode of wooing. They sent to France to ask the French king to send over an army to aid them, and promised him that if he would do so they would agree that Mary should marry his son. His son's name was Francis. The French king was very much pleased with this plan. He sent an army of six thou- sand men into Scotland to assist the Scotch against their English enemies. It was ar- ranged, also, as little Mary was now hardly safe among all these commotions, even in her retreat in the island of Inchmahome, to send her to France to be educated there, and to live MARY'S CHILDHOOD. 19 there until she was old enough to be married. The same ships which brought the army from France to Scotland, were to carry Mary and her retinue from Scotland to France. The four Maries went with her. They bade their lonely island farewell, and traveled south till they came to a strong castle on a high, rocky hill, on the banks of the River Clyde. The name of this fortress is Dumbar- ton Castle. Almost all the castles of those times were built upon precipitous hills, to in- crease the difficulties of the enemies in ap- proaching them. The Rock of Dumbarton is a very remarkable one. It stands close to the bank of the river. There are a great many ships and steamboats continually passing up and down the Clyde, to and from the great city of Glasgow, and all the passengers on board gaze with great interest, as they sail by, on the Rock of Dumbarton, with the castle walls on the sides, and the towers and battlements crowning the summit. ^"^ In Mary's time there was comparatively very little shipping on the river, but the P'rench fleet was there, waiting opposite the castle to receive Mary and the numerous persons who were to go in her train. * Travelers who visit Scotland from this country at the present day, usually land first, at the close of the voyage across the Atlantic, at Liverpool, and there take a 20 MARY QUEEK OF SCOTS. Mary was escorted from the island where she had been Hving, across the country to Dumbarton Castle, with a strong retinue. She was now between five and six years of age. She was, of course, too young to know any thing about the contentions and wars which had distracted her country on her account, or to feel much interest in the subject of her ap- proaching departure from her native land. She enjoyed the novelty of the scenes through which she passed on her journey. She was pleased with the dresses and the arms of the soldiers who accompanied her, and with the ships which were floating in the river, beneath the walls of the Castle of Dumbarton, when Glasgow steamer. Glasgow, which is the great commer- cial city of Scotland, is on the River Clyde. This river flows northwest to the sea. The steamer, in ascending the river, makes its way with difficulty along the narrow chan- nel, which, besides being narrow and tortuous, is obstructed by boats, ships, steamers, and every other variety of water-craft, such as are always going to and fro in the neighborhood of any great commercial emporium. The tourists, who stand upon the deck gazing at this exciting scene of life and motion, have their attention strongly attracted, about half way up the river, by this Castle of Dumbarton, which crowns a rocky hill, rising abruptly from the water's edge, on the north side of the stream. It attracts sometimes the more attention from American travelers, on account of its being the first an- cient castle they see. This is likely to be the case if they proceed to Scotland immediately on landing at Liverpool. MARY S CHILDHOOD. 21 she arrived there. She was pleased, too, to think that, wherever she was to go, her four Maries were to go with her. She bade her View from Mary's window, mother farewell, embarked on board the ship w^hich was to receive her, and sailed away from her native land, not to return to it again for many years. CHAPTER II, HER EDUCATION IN FRANCE. The departure of Mary from Scotland, little as she was, was a great event both for Scotland and for France. In those days kings and queens were even of greater relative importance than they are now, and all Scotland was in- terested in the young queen's going away from them, and all France in expecting her arrival. She sailed down the Clyde, and then passed along the seas and channels which lie between England and Ireland. These seas, though they look small upon the map, are really spacious and wide, and are often greatly agi- tated by winds and storms. This was the case at the time Mary made her voyage. The days and nights were tempestuous and wild, and the ships had difficulty in keeping in each other's company. There was danger of being blown upon the coasts, or upon the rocks or islands which lie in the way. Mary was too young to give much heed to these dangers, but t, the lords and commissioners, and the great ladies who went to attend her, were heartily 22 HER EDUCATIOK IN FRANCE. 23 glad when the voyage was over. It ended safely at last, after several days of tossing upon the stormy billows, by their arrival upon the northern coast of France. They landed at a town called Brest. The King of France had made great prepara- tions for receiving the young queen immedi- ately upon her landing. Carriages and horses had been provided to convey herself and the company of her attendants, by easy journeys, to Paris. They received her with great pomp and ceremony at every town which she passed through. One mark of respect which they showed her was very singular. The king or- dered that every prison which she passed in her route should be thrown open, and the prisoners set free. This fact is a striking illus- tration of the different ideas which prevailed in those days, compared with those which are en- tertained now, in respect to crime and punish- ment. Crime is now considered as an offense against the community, and it would be con- sidered no faTor to the community, but the re- verse, to let imprisoned criminals go free. In those days, on the other hand, crimes were considered rather as injuries committed by the community, and against the king ; so that, if f the monarch wished to show the community a favor, he would do it by releasing such of them as had been imprisoned by his officers 24 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. for their crimes. It was just so in the time of our Saviour, when the Jews had a custom of having some criminal released to them once a year, at the Passover, by the Roman govern- ment, as an act oi favor. That is, the govern- ment was accustomed to furnish, by way of contributing its share toward the general festivities of the occasion, the setting of a robber and a murderer at liberty ! The King of France has several palaces in the neighborhood of Paris. Mary was taken to one of them, named St. Germain. This palace, which still stands, is about twelve miles from Paris, toward the northwest. It is a very magnificent residence, and has been for many centuries a favorite resort of the French kings. Many of them ,vero born in it. There are ex- tensive parks an ' gardens onnected with it, and a great artificial lorest, in which the trees were all planted and cultivated like the trees of an orchard. Mary was received at this palace with great pomp and parade ; and many spectacles and festivities were arranged to amuse her and the four Maries who accom- panied her, and to impress her strongly with an idea of the wealth, and power, and splendor of the great country to which she had come. She remained here but a short time, and then it was arranged for her to go to a convent to be educated. Convents were in those days, as in HER EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 25 fact they are now, quite famous as places of education. They were situated sometimes in large towns, and sometimes in secluded places in the country ; but. Whether in town or coun- try, the inmates of them were shut up very strictly from all intercourse with the world. They were under the care of nuns who had de- voted themselves for life to the service. These nuns were some of them unhappy persons, who were weary of the sorrows and sufferings of the world, and who were glad to retire from it to such a retreat as they fancied the con- vent would be. Others became nuns from con- scientious principles of duty, thinking that they should commend themselves to the favor of God by devoting their lives to works of be- nevolence and to the exercis'-s of religion. Of course there were all varieties of character among the nuns ; somj of them were selfish and disagreeable, others were benevolent and kind. At the convent where Mary was sent there were some nuns of very excellent and amiable character, and they took a great interest in Mary, both because she was a queen, and be- cause she was beautiful, and of a kind and affectionate disposition. Mary became very strongly attached to these nuns, and began to entertain the idea of becoming a nun herself, and spending her life with them in the con- 3-Mary 26 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. vent. It seemed pleasant to her to live there in such a peaceful seclusion, in company with those who loved her, and whom she herself loved ; but the King of France, and the Scot- tish nobles who had come with her from Scot- land, would, of course, be opposed to any such plan. They intended her to be married to the young prince, and to become one of the great ladies of the court, and to lead a life of magnifi- cence and splendor. They became alarmed, therefore, when they found that she was im- bibing a taste for the life of seclusion and soli- tude which is led by a nun. They decided to take her immediately away. Mary bade farewell to the convent and its inmates with much regret and many tears ; but, notwithstanding her reluctance, she was obliged to submit. If she had not been a queen, she might, perhaps, have had her own way. At it was, however, she was obliged to leave the convent and the nuns whom she loved, and to go back to the palaces of the king, in which she afterward continued to live, some- times in one and sometimes in another, for many years. Wherever she went, she was surrounded with scenes of great gaiety and splendor. They wished to obliterate from her mind all recollections of the convent, and all love of solitude and seclusion. They did not neglect her studies, but they filled up the in- HER EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 27 tervals of study with all possible schemes of enjoyment and pleasure, to amuse and occupy her mind and the minds of her companions. Her companions were her own four Maries, and the two daughters of the French king. When Mary was about seven years of age, that is, after she had been two years in France, her mother formed a plan to come from Scot- land to see her. Her mother had remained behind when Mary left Scotland, as she had an important part to perform in public affairs, and in the administration of the government of Scot- land while Mary was away. She wanted, how- ever, to come and see her. France, too, was her own native land, and all her relations and friends resided there. SHe wished to see them as well as Mary, and to revisit once more the palaces and cities where her own early life had been spent. In speaking of Mary's mother we shall call her sometimes the queen dowager. The expression queen dowager is the one usu- ally applied to the widow of a king, as queen consort is used to denote the wife of a king. This visit of the queen dowager of Scotland to her little daughter in France was an event of great consequence, and all the arrangements for carrying it into effect were conducted with great pomp and ceremony. A large company attended her, with many of the Scottish lords and ladies among them. The King of France, 28 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. too, went from Paris toward the French coast, to meet the party of visitors, taking little Mary and a large company of attendants with him. They went to Rouen, a large city not far from the coast, where they awaited the arrival of Mary's mother, and where they received her with great ceremonies of parade and rejoicing. The queen regent was very much delighted to see her little daughter again. She had grown two years older, and had improved greatly in every respect, and tears of joy came into her mother's eyes as she clasped her in her arms. The two parties journeyed in company to Paris, and entered the city with great rejoicings. The two queens, mother and daughter, were the ob- jects of universal interest and attention. Feasts and celebrations without end were arranged for them, and every possible means of amusement and rejoicing were contrived in the palaces of Paris, of St. Germain's, and of Fontainebleau. Mary's mother remained in France about a year. She then bade Mary farewell, leaving her at Fontainebleau. This proved to be a final farewell, for she never saw her again. After taking leave of her daughter, the queen dowager went, before leaving France, to see her own mother, who was a widow, and who was living at a considerable distance fromParis in seclusion, and in a state of austere and mel- ancholy grief, on account of the loss of her hus- HER EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 29 band. Instead of forg-ettingf her sorrows, as she ought to have done, and returning calmly and peacefully to the duties and enjoyments of life, she had given herself up to inconsolable grief, and was doing all she could to perpetuate the mournful influence of her sorrows. She lived in an ancient and gloomy mansion, of vast size, and she had hung all the apartments in black, to make it still more desolate and gloomy, and to continue the influence of grief upon her mind. Here- the queen dowager found her, spending her time in prayers and austerities of every kind, making herself and all her family perfectly miserable. Many persons, at the present day act, under such circumstances, on the same prin- ciple and with the same spirit, though they do not do it perhaps in precisely the same way. One would suppose that Mary's mother would have preferred to remain in France with her daughter and her mother and all her family friends, instead of going back to Scotland, where she was, as it were, a foreigner and a stranger. The reason why she desired to go back was, that she wished to be made queen I'egent, and thus have tlie government of Scotland in her own hands. She would rather b,e queen regent in Scotland than a simple queen mother in France. While she was in France, she urged the king to use all his influence to have Arran resign his regency into her hands, and finally 30 MARY QUEEK OF SCOTS. obtained writings from him and from Queen Mary to this effect. She then left France and went to Scotland, going through England on the way. The young King of England, to whom Mary had been engaged by the govern- ment when she was an infant in Janet Sinclair's arms, renewed his proposals to the queen dowager to let her daughter become his wife ; but she told him that it was all settled that she w^as to be married to the French prince, and that it was now too late to change the plan. There was a young gentleman, about nine- teen or twenty years of age, who cnme from Scotland also, not far from this time, to wait upon Mary as her page of honor. A page is an attendant above the rank of an ordinary servant whose business it is to wait upon his mistress, to read to her, sometimes to convey her letters and notes, and to carry her commands to the other attendants who are beneath him in rank, and whose business it is actually to per- form the services which the lady requires. A page of honor is a young gentleman who sus- tains this office in a nominal and temporary manner for a princess or a queen. The name of Mary's page of honor, who came to her now from Scotland, was Sir James Mel- ville. The only reason for mentioning him thus particularly, rather than the many other officers and attendants by whom Mary was surrounded HER EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 31 was, that the service which he thus commenced was continued in various ways through the whole period of Mary's life. We shall often hear of him in the subsequent parts of this nar- rative. He followed Mary to Scotland when she returned to that country, and became after- ward her secretary, and also her ambassador on many occasions. He was now quite young, and when he landed at Brest he traveled slowly to Paris in the care of two Scotchmen, to whose charge he had been intrusted. He was a young man of uncommon talents and of great accom- plishments, and it was a mark of high distinc- tion for him to be appointed page of honor to the queen, although he was about nineteen years of age and she was, but seven. After the queen regent's return to Scotland, Mary went on improving in every respect more and more. She was diligent, industrious, and tractable. She took a great interest in her studies. She was not only beautiful in person, and amiable and affectionate in heart, but she possessed a very intelligent and active mind, and she entered with a sort of quiet but ear- nest enthusiasm into all the studies to which her attention was called. She paid a great deal of attention to music, to poetry, and to drawing. She used to invent little devices for seals, with French and Latin mottoes, and, after drawing them again and again with great care, until sh^ 32 MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS. was satisfied with the design, she would give them to the gem-engravers to be cut upon stone seals, so that she could seal her letters with them. These mottoes and devices cannot well be represented in English, as the force and beauty of them depended generally upon a double meaning in some word of French or Latin, which cannot be preserved in the trans- lation. We shall, however, give one of these seals, which she made just before she left France, to return to Scotland, when we come to that period of her history. The King of France, and the lords and ladies who came with INIary from Scotland, contrived a great many festivals and celebrations in the parks, and forests, and palaces, to amuse the queen and the four Maries who were with her. The daughters of the French king joined, also, in these pleasures. They would have little balls, and parties, and picnics, sometimes in the open air, sometimes in the little summer- houses built upon the grounds attached to the palaces. The scenes of these festivities were in many cases made unusually joyous and gay by bonfires and illuminations. They had water parties on the little lakes, and hunt- ing parties through the parks and forests. Mary was a very graceful and beautiful rider, and full of courage. Sometimes she met with accidents which were attended with some HER EDtJCATlOK IN FRANCE. B8 danger. Once, while hunting the stag, and riding at full speed with a great company of ladies and gentlemen behind her and before her, her dress got caught by the bough of a tree, and she was pulled to the ground. The horse went on. Several other riders drove by her without seeing her, as she had too much composure and fortitude to attract their atten- tion by outcries and lamentations. They saw her, however, at last, and came to her assist- ance. They brought back her horse, and smoothing down her hair, which had fallen into confusion, she mounted again, and rode on after the stag as before. Notwithstanding all these means of enjoy- ment and diversion, Mary was subjected to a great deal of restraint. The rules of etiquette are very precise and very strictly enforced in royal households, and they were still more strict in those days than they are now. The king was very ceremonious in all his arrange- ments, and was surrounded by a multitude of officers who performed everything by rule. As Mary grew older, she was subjected to greater and greater restraint. She used to spend a considerable portion of every day in the apartments of Queen Catharine, the wife of the King of France and the mother of the little Francis to whom she was to be married. Mary and Queen Catharine did not, however. 34 MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS. like each other very well. Catharine was a woman of strong mind and of an imperious disposition ; and it is supposed by some that she was jealous of Mary because she was more beautiful and accomplished and more gener- ally beloved than her own daughters, the prin- cesses of France. At any rate, she treated Mary in rather a stern and haughty manner, and it was thought that she would finally op- pose her marriage to Francis her son. And yet Mary was at first very much pleased with Queen Catharine, and was accustomed to look up to her with great admiration, and to feel for her a very sincere regard. She often went into the queen's apartments, where they sat together and talked, or worked upon their embroidery, which was a famous amusement for ladies of exalted rank in those days. Mary herself at one time worked a large piece, which she sent as a present to the nuns in the con- vent where she had resided ; and afterward, in Scotland, she worked a great many things, some of which still remain, and maybe seen in her ancient rooms in the palace of Holyrood House.- She learned this art by working with Queen Catharine in her apartments. When she first became acquainted with Catharine on these occasions, she used to love her society. She admired her talents and her conversational powers, and she liked very much to be in her HER EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 35 room. She listened to all she said, watched her movements, and endeavored in all things to follow her example. Catharine, however, thought that this was all a pretense, and that Mary did not really like her, but only wished to make her believe that she did so in order to get favor, or to accomplish some other selfish end. One day she asked her why she seemed to prefer her society to that of her youthful and more suitable com- panions. Mary replied, in substance, "The reason was, that though with them she might enjoy much, she could learn nothing ; while she always learned from Queen Catharine's conversation something, which would be of use to her as a guide in future life." One would have thought that this answer would have pleased the queen, but it did not. She did not believe that it was sincere. On one occasion INIary seriously offended the queen by a remark which she made, and which was, at least, incautious. Kings and queens, and, in fact, all great people in Europe, pride themselves very much upon the antiquity of the line from which they have descended. Now the family of Queen Catharine had risen to rank and distinction within a moderate period ; and though she was, as Queen of France, on the very pinnacle of human great- ness, she would naturally be vexed at any re- 36 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. mark which would remind her of the recent- ness of her elevation. Now Mary at one time said, in conversation in the presence of Queen Catharine, that she herself was the descendant of a hundred kings. This was perhaps true, but it brought her into direct comparison with Catharine in a point in which the latter was greatly her inferior, and it vexed and mortified Catharine very much to have such a thing said to her by such a child. Mary associated thus during all this time, not only with the queen and the princesses, but also with the little prince whom she was des- tined to marry. His name was Francis, but he was commonly called the dauphin, which was the name by which the oldest son of the King of France was then, and has been since designated. The origin of this custom was this : About a hundred years before the time of which we are speaking, a certain nobleman of high rank, who possessed estates in an ancient prov- ince of France called Dauphiny, lost his son and heir. He was overwhelmed with affliction at the loss, and finally bequeathed all his es- tates to the king and his successors, on condi- tion that the oldest son should bear the title of Dauphin. The grant was accepted, and the oldest son was accordingly so styled from that time forward, from generation to generation. The dauphin, Francis, was a weak and fee- Mary, face p Mary, Queen of Scots. HER EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 37 ble child, but he was amiable and gentle in his manners, and Mary liked him. She met him often in their walks and rides, and she danced with him at the balls and parties given for her amusement. She knew that he was to be her husband as soon as she was old enough to be married, and he knew that she was to be his wife. It was all decided, and nothing which either of them could say or do would have any influence on the result. Neither of them, how- ever, seem to have had any desire to change the result. Mary pitied Francis on account of his feeble health, and liked his amiable and gentle disposition ; and Francis could not help loving Mary, both on account of the traits of her character and her personal charms. As Mary advanced in years, she grew very beautiful. In some of the great processions and ceremonies, the ladies were accustomed to walk, magnificently dressed and carrying torches in their hands. In one of these pro- cessions Mary was moving along with the rest, through a crowd of spectators, and the light from her torch fell upon her features and upon her hair in such a manner as to make her ap- pear more beautiful than usual. A woman, standing there, pressed up nearer to her to view her more closely, and, seeing how beauti- ful she was, asked her if she was not an angel. In those d^ys, however, people believed in what 38 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. is miraculous and supernatural more easily than now, so that it was not very surprising that one should think, in such a case, that an angel from Heaven had come down to join in the procession. Mary grew up a Catholic, of course : all were Catholics around her. The king and all the royal family were devoted to Catholic ob- servances. The convent, the ceremonies, the daily religious observances enjoined upon her, the splendid churches wliich she frequented, all tended in their influence to lead her mind away from the Protestant religion which prevailed in her native land, and to make her a Catholic : she remained so throughout her life. There is no doubt that she was conscientious in her at- tachment to the forms and to the spirit of the Roman Church. At any rate, she was faithful to the ties which her early education imposed upon her, and this fidelity became afterward the source of some of her heaviest calamities and woes. CHAPTER III. THE GREAT WEDDING. When Mary was about fifteen years of age, the King of France began to think that it was time for her to be married. It is true that she was still very young, but there were strong reasons for having the marriage take place at the earliest possible period, for fear that some- thing might occur to prevent its consumma- tion at all. In fact, there were very strong parties opposed to it altogether. The whole Protestant interest in Scotland were opposed to it, and were continually contriving plans to defeat it. They thought that if Mary married a French prince, who was, of course, a Catholic, she would become wedded to the Catholic in- terest hoplessly and forever. This made them feel a most bitter and determined opposition to the plan. In fact, so bitter and relentless were the ani- mosities that grew out of this question, that an attempt was actually made to poison Mary. The man who committed this crime was an 4-Mary 39 40 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. archer in the king's guard : he was a Scotch- man, and his name was Stewart. His attempt was discovered in time to prevent the accom- plishment of his purpose. He was tried and condemned. They made every effort to induce him to explain the reason which led him to such an act, or, if he was employed by others, to reveal their names ; but he would reveal nothing. He was executed for his crime, leav- ing mankind to conjecture that his motive, or that of the persons who instigated him to the deed, was a desperate determination to save Scotland, at all hazards, from falling under the influence of papal power. Mary's mother, the queen dowager of Scot- land, was of a celebrated French family, called the family of Guise. She is often, herself, called in history, Mary of Guise. There were other great families in France who were very jealous of the Guises, and envious of their influence and power. They opposed Queen Mary's marriage to the dauphin, and were ready to do all in their power to thwart and defeat it. Queen Catharine, too, who seemed to feel a greater and greater degree of envy and jealousy against Mary as she saw her in creasing in grace, beauty, and influence with her advancing years, was supposed to be averse to the marriage. Mary was, in some sense, her rival, and she could not bear to have her become the wife of her son, THE GREAT WEDDING. 41 King Heny, finding all these opposing influ- ences at work, thought that the safest plan would be to have the marriage carried uito effect at the earUest possible period. When, therefore, Mary was about fifteen years of age, which was in 1557, he sent to Scotland, asking the government there to appoint some commis- sioners to come to France to assent to the marriage contracts, and to witness the cere- monies of the betrothment and the weddmg. The marriage contracts, in the case of the union of a queen of one country with a prince of another, are documents of very high impor- tance. It is considered necessary not only to make very formal provision for the personal welfare and comfort of the wife during her married life, and during her widowhood in case of the death of her husband, but also to settle beforehand the questions of succession which might arise out of the marriage, and to define precisely the rights and powers both of the husband and the wife in the two countries to which they respectively belong. The Parliament of Scotland appointed a num- ber of commissioners, of the highest rank and station, to proceed to France, and to act there as the representatives of Scotland in every- thing which pertained to the marriage. They Charged them to guard well the rights and pow- ers of Mary, to see that these rights and all the 42 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. interests of Scotland were well protected in the marriage contracts, and to secure proper pro- vision for the personal comfort and happiness of the queen. The number of these commis- sioners was eight. Their departure from Scot- land was an event of great public importance. They were accompanied by a large number of attendants and followers, who were eager to be present in Paris at the marriage festivities. The whole company arrived safely at Paris, and were received with every possible mark of distinction and honor. The marriage contracts were drawn up, and executed with great formality. King Henry made no objection to any of the stipulations and provisions which the commissioners re- quired, for he had a secret plan for evading them all. Very ample provision was made for Mary herself. She was to have a very large income. In case the dauphin died while he was dauphin, leaving Mary a widow, she was still to have a large income paid to her by the French government as long as she lived, whether she remained in France or went back to Scotland. If her husband outlived his father, so as to become King of France, and then died, leaving Mary his widow, her income for the rest of her life was to be double what it would have been if he had died while dauphin. Francis was, in the mean time, to share with THE GREAT WEDDING. 43 her the government of Scotland. If they had a son, he was to be, after their deaths, King of France and of Scotland too. Thus the two crowns would have been united. If, on the other hand, they had only daughters, the oldest one was to be Queen of Scotland only, as the laws of France did not allow a female to inherit the throne. In case they had no children, the crown of Scotland was not to come into the French family at all, but to descend regularly to the next Scotch heir. Henry was not satisfied with this entirely, for he wanted to secure the union of the Scotch and French crowns at all events, whether Mary had children or not ; and. he persuaded Mary to sign some papers with him privately, which he thought would secure his purposes, charg- ing her not to let the commissioners know that she had signed them. He thought it possible that he should never have occasion to produce them. One of these papers conveyed the crown of Scotland to the King of France abso- lutety and forever, in case Mary should die without children. Another provided that the Scotch government should repay him for the enormous sums he had expended upon Mary during her residence in France for her education, her attendants, the celebrations and galas which he had provided for her, and all the spendid jour- neys, processions, and parades. His motive 44 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. in all this expense had been to unite the crown of Scotland to that of France, and he wished to provide that if anything should occur to pre- vent the execution of his plan, he could have all this money reimbursed to him again. He estimated the amount at a million of pieces of gold. This was an enormous sum : it shows on how magnificent a scale Mary's reception and entetainment in France w^ere managed. These preliminary proceedings being settled, all Paris, and, in fact, all France, began to pre- pare for the marriage celebrations. There were to be two great ceremonies connected with the occasion. The first was the betroth- ment, the second was the marriage. At the betrothment Francis and Mary w^ere to meet in a great public hall, and there, in the presence of a small and select assemblage of the lords and ladies of the court, and persons of distinc- tion connected with the royal family, they were formally and solemnly to engage them- selves to each other. Then, in about a week afterward, they were to be married, in the most ■public manner, in the great Cathedral Church of Notre Dame. The ceremony of the betrothal was celebra- ted in the palace. The palace then occupied by the royal family was the Louvre. It still stands, but is no longer a royal dwelling. Another palace, more modern in its structure. THE GREAT WEDDING. 45 and called the Tuilleries, has since been built, a little farther from the heart of the city, and in a more pleasant situation. The Louvre is square, with an open court in the center. This open court or area is very large, and is paved like the streets. In fact, two great carriage ways pass through it, crossing each other at right angles in the center, and passing out under great arch-ways in the four sides of the build- ing. There is a large hall within the palace, and in this hall the ceremony of the betrothal took place. Francis and Mary pledged their faith to each other with appropriate ceremonies. Only a select circle of relations and intimate friends were present on this occasion. The ceremony was concluded in the evening with a ball. In the mean time, all Paris was busy with preparations for the marriage. The Louvre is upon one side of the River Seine, its principal front being toward the river, with a broad street between. There are no buildings, but only a parapet wall on the river side of the street, so that there is a fine view of the river and of the bridges which cross it, from the pal- ace windows. Nearly opposite the Louvre is an island, covered with edifices, and con- nected, by means of bridges, with either shore. The great church of Notre Dame, where the. marriage ceremony was to be performed, is 46 MARY QUEEN O^ SCOTS. upon this island. It has two enormous square towers in front, which may be seen, rising above all the roofs of the city, at a great dis- tance in every direction. Before the church is a large open area, where vast crowds assemble on any great occasion. The interior of the church impresses the mind with the sublimest emotions. Two rows of enormous columns rise to a great height on either hand, support- ing the lofty arches of the roof. The floor is paved with great flat stones, and resounds continually with the footsteps of visitors, who walk to and fro, up and down the aisles, look- ing at the chapels, the monuments, the sculp- tures, the paintings, and the antique and grotesque images and carvings. Colored light streams through the stained glass of the enormous windows, and the tones of the or- gan, and the voices of the priests, chanting the service of the mass, are almost always re- sounding and echoing from the vaulted roof above. The words No/re Dame mean Our Lady, an expression by which the Roman Catholics de- note Mary, the mother of Jesus. The church of Notre Dame had been for many centuries the vast cathedral church of Paris, w^here all great ceremonies of state were performed. On this occasion they erected a great amphitheater in the area before the church, which would Mwni,tMary thought of her proposal of Dudley for her hus- band. Melville told her that she had not given the subject much reflection, but that she was going to appoint two commissioners, and she wished Elizabeth to appoint two others, and 104 MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS. then that the four should meet on the borders of the two countries, and consider the whole subject of the marriage. Elizabeth said that she perceived that Mary did not think much of this proposed match. She said, however, that Dudley stood extremely high in her regard ; that she was going to make him an earl, and that she should marry him herself were it not that she was fully resolved to live and die a single woman. She said she wished very much to have Dudley become Mary's husband, both on account of her attachment to him, and also on account of his attachment to her, which she was sure would prevent his allowing her, that is, Elizabeth, to have any trouble out of Mary's claim to her crown as long as she lived. Elizabeth also asked Melville to wait in Westminster until the day appointed for mak- ing Dudley an earl. This was done, a short time afterward, with great ceremony. Lord Darnley, then a very tall and slender youth of about nineteen, was present on the occasion. His father and mother had been banished from Scotland, on account of some political offenses, twenty years before, and he had thus himself been brought up in England. As he was a near relative of the queen, and a sort of heir- presumptive to the crown, he had a high posi- tion at the court, and his office was, on this oc- casion, to bear the sword of honor before the MARY AND LORD DARNLEY. 106 queen Dudley kneeled before Elizabeth while she put upon him the badges of his new dig- nity Afterward she asked Melville what he thought of him. Melville was polite enough to speak warmly in his favor. ''And yet, caid the queen, - I suppose you prefer yonder ^long lad," pointing to Darnley. She knew something of Mary's half-formed design of making Darnley her husband. Melville, who did not wish her to suppose that Mary had any serious intention of choosing Darnley, said that "no woman of spirit would choose such a person as he was, for he was handsome beardless, and lady-faced; in fact, he looked more like a woman than a man." Melville was not very honest in this, for he had secret instructions at this very time to ap- ply to Lady Lennox, Darnley's mother, to send her son into Scotland, in order that Mary might see him and be assisted to decide the question of becoming his wife, by ascertaining how she was going to like him personally. Queen Elizabeth, in the mean time, pressed upon Melville the importance of Mary's deciding soon ;n favor of the marriage with Leicester. As to declaring in favor of Mary's right to in- hent the crown after her, she said the question was in the hands of the great lawyers and com- missioners to whom she had referred it, and that she heartily wished that they might come 106 MARY QUEEN OF SCOfS. to a conclusion in favor of Mary's claim. She should urge the business forward as fast as she could ; but the result would depend very much upon the disposition which Mary showed to comply with her wishes in respect to the mar- riage. She said she should never marry her- self unless she was compelled to it on account of Mary's giving her trouble by her claims up- on the crown, and forcing her to desire that it should go to her direct descendants. If Mary would act wisely, and as she ought, and follow her counsel, she would, in due time, have all her desire. Some time more elapsed in negotiations and delays. There was a good deal of trouble in getting leave for Darnley to go to Scotland. From his position, and from the state of the laws and customs of the two realms, he could not go without Elizabeth's permission. Finally, Mary sent word to Elizabeth that she would marry Leicester according to her wish, if she would have her claim to the English crown, after Elizabeth, acknowledged and es- tablished by the English government, so as to have that question definitely and finally settled. Elizabeth sent back for answer to this pro- posal, that if Mary married Leicester, she would advance him to great honors and digni- ties, but that she could not do anything at present about the succession. She also, at the Mary, face p. 106 Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. MARY AND LORD DARNLEY. 107 same time, gave permission to Darnley to go to Scotland. It is thought that Elizabeth never seriously intended that Mary should marry Leicester, and that she did not suppose Mary herself would consent to it on any terms. Accord- ingly, when she found Mary was acceding to the plan, she wanted to retreat from it herself, and hoped that Darnley's going to Scotland, and appearing there as a new competitor in the field, would tend to complicate and em- barrass the question in Mary's mind, and help to prevent the Leicester negotiation from going any further. At any rate, Lord Darnley — then a very tall and handsome young man of nineteen — obtained suddenly permission to go to Scotland. Mary went to Wemyss Castle, and made arrangements to have Darnley come and visit her there. Wemyss Castle is situated in a most roman- tic and beautiful spot on the seashore, on the northern side of the Frith of Forth. Edin- burgh is upon the southern side of the Frith, and is in full view from the windows of the castle, with Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat on the left of the city. Wemyss Castle was, at this time, the residence of Murray, Mary's brother. Mary's visit to it was an event which attracted a great deal of attention. The peo- ple flocked into the neighborhood and provi- 108 MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS. sions and accommodations of every kind rose enormously in price. Every one was eager to get a glimpse of the beautiful queen. Besides, they knew that Lord Darnley was expected, and the rumor that he was seriously thought of as her future husband had been widely circulated, and had awakened, of course, a universal desire to see him. Mary was very much pleased with Darnley. She told Melville, after their first interview, that he was the handsomest and best propor- tioned " long man " she had ever seen. Darn- ley was, in fact, very tall, and as he was straight and slender, he appeared even taller than he really was. He was, however, though young, very easy and graceful in his manners, and highly accomplished. Mary was very much pleased with him. She had almost de- cided to make him her husband before she saw him, merely from poHtical considerations, on account of her wish to combine his claim "with hers in respect to the English crown. Eliza- beth's final answer, refusing the terms on which Mary had consented to marry Leicester, which came about this time, vexed her, and determined her to abandon that plan. And now, just in such a crisis, to find Darnley possessed of such strong personal attractions, seemed to decide the question. In a few days her imagination was full of pictures of joy and MARY AND LORD DARNLEY* 109 J)leasure, in anticipations of union with such a husband. The thing took the usual course of such af- fairs. Darnley asked Mary to be his wife. She said no, and was offended with him for asking it. He offered her a present of a ring. She refused to accept it. But the no meant yes, and the rejection of the ring was only the prelude to the acceptance of something far more important, of which a ring is the symbol. Mary's first interview with Darnley was in Feb- ruary. In April, Queen Elizabeth's ambassa- dor sent her word that he was satisfied that Mary's marriage with Darnley was all arranged and settled. Queen Elizabeth was', or pretended to be, in a great rage. She sent the most urgent re- monstrances to Mary against the execution of the plan. She forwarded, also, very decisive orders to Darnley, and to the Earl of Lennox his father, to return immediately to England. Lennox replied that he could not return, for ' ' he did not think the climate would agree with him ! " Darnley sent back word that he had entered the service of the Queen of Scots, and henceforth should obey her orders alone. Eliz- abeth, however, was not the only one who opposed this marriage. The Earl of Murray, Mary's brother, who had been thus far the great manager of the government under Mary, 9-M*ry 110 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. took at once a most decided stand against it. He enlisted a great number of Protestant nobles with him, and they held deliberations, in which they formed plans for resisting it by force. But Mary, who, with all her gentle- ness and loveliness of spirit, had, like other women, some decision and energy when an object in which the heart is concerned is at stake, had made up her mind. She sent to France to get the consent of her friends there. She despatched a commissioner to Rome to ob. tain the Pope's dispensation ; she obtained the sanction of her own Parliament ; and, in fact, in every way hastened the preparations for the marriage. Murray, on the other hand, and his confed- erate lords, were determined to prevent it. They formed a plan to rise in rebellion against Mary, to waylay and seize her, to imprison her, and to send Darnley and his father to England, having made arrangements with Elizabeth's ministers to receive them at the borders. The plan was all well matured, and would probably have been carried into effect, had not ]\Iary, in some way or other, obtained information of the design. She was then at Stirling, and they were to waylay her on the usual route to Edinburgh. She made a sudden journey, at an unexpected time, and by a new and unusual road, and thus evaded her ene- Mary, face p. iiO The Earl of Murray. MARY And LORb darnley. Ill mies. The violence of this opposition only- stimulated her determination to carry the mar- riage into effect without delay. Her escape from her rebellious nobles took place in June, and she was married in July. This was six months after her first interview with Darnley. The ceremony was performed in the royal chapel at Holyrood. They show, to this day, the place where she is said to have stood, in the now roofless interior. Mary was conducted into the chapel by her father and another nobleman, in the midst of a large company of lords and ladies of the court, and of strangers of distinction, who had come to Edinburgh to witness the ceremony. A vast throng had collected also around the palace. Mary was led to the altar, and then Lord Darnley was conducted in. The mar- riage ceremony was performed according to the Catholic ritual. Three rings, one of them a diamond ring of great value, were put upon her finger. After the ceremony, largess was proclaimed, and money distributed among the crowd, as had been done in Paris at Mary's former marriage, five years before. Mary then remained to attend the celebration of mass, Darnley, who was not a Catholic, retiring. After the mass, Mary returned to the palace, and changed the mourning dress which she had continued to wear from the time of her 112 MARY QUEEN OE SCOTS. first husband's death to that hour, for one more becoming a bride. The evening was spent in festivities of every kind. We have said that Darnley w^as personally attractive in respect both to his countenance and his manners ; and, unfortunately, this is all that can be said in his favor. He vi^as weak-minded, and yet self-conceited and vain. V The sudden elevation which his marriage with a queen gave him, made him proud, and he soon began to treat all around him in a very haughty and imperious manner. He seems to have been entirely unaccustomed to exercise any self-command, or to submit to any restraints in the gratification of his passions. Mary paid him a great many attentions, and took great pleasure in conferring upon him, as her queenly power enabled her to do, distinctions and honors : but, instead of being grateful for them, he received them as matters of course, and was continually demanding more. There was one title which he wanted, and which, for some good reason, it was necessary to post- pone conferring upon him. A nobleman came to him one day and informed him of the neces- sity of this delay. He broke into a fit of passion, drew his dagger, rushed toward the nobleman, and attempted to stab him. He commenced his imperious and haughty course of procedure even before his marriage, and continued it MARY AND LORD DARNLEY. 113 afterward, growing more and more violent as his ambition increased with an increase of power. Mary felt these cruel acts of selfish- ness and pride very keenly, but, woman-like, she palliated and excused them, and loved him still. She had, however, other trials and cares pressing upon her immediately. Murray and his confederates organized a formal and open rebellion. Mary raised an army and took the field against them. The country generally took her side. A terrible and somewhat pro- tracted civil war ensued, but the rebels were finally defeated and driven out of the country. They went to England and claimed Elizabeth's protection, saying that she had incited them to the revolt, and promised them her aid. Elizabeth told them that it would not do for her to be supposed to have abetted a rebellion in her cousin Mary's dominions, and that, un- less they would, in the presence of the foreign ambassadors at her court, disavow her having done so, she could not help them or counte- nance them in any way. The miserable men, being reduced to a hard extremity, made this disavowal. Elizabeth then said to them, "Now you have told the truth. Neither I, nor any one else in my name, incited you against your queen ; and your abominable treason may set an example to my own sub- 114 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. jects to rebel against me. So get you gone out of my presence, miserable traitors as you are." Thus Mary triumphed over all the obstacles to her marriage with the man she loved ; but, alas ! before the triumph was fully accomplish- ed, the love was gone. Darnley was selfish, unfeeling, and incapable of requiting affection like Mary's. He treated her with the most heartless indifference, though she had done everything to aw^aken his gratitude and win his love. She bestowed upon him every honor which it was in her power to grant. She gave him the title of king. She admitted him to share with her the powers and prerogatives of the crown. There is to this day, in Mary's apartments at Holyrood House, a double throne which she had made for herself and her husband, with their initials worked together in the embroidered covering, and each seat surmounted by a crown. Mankind have al- ways felt a strong sentiment of indignation at the ingratitude w^hich could requite such love with such selfishness and cruelty. !i ; i ' i ri;i i i ' i^hI A' Ht X s^rfs n li CHAPTER VII. RIZZIO. Mary had a secretary named David Rizzio. He was from Savoy, a country among the Alps. It was the custom then, as it is now, for the various governments of Europe to have ambassadors at the courts of other govern- ments, to attend to any negotiations, or to the transaction of any other business which might arise between their respective sovereigns. These ambassadors generally traveled with pomp and parade, taking sometimes many attendants with them. The ambassador from Savoy happened to bring with him to Scot- land, in his train, this young man, Rizzio, in 1 56 1, that is, just about the time that Mary herself returned to Scotland. He was a hand- some and agreeable young man, but his rank and position were such that, for some years, he attracted no attention. He was, however, quite a singer, and they used to bring him in sometimes to sing in Mary's presence with three other singers. His 115 116 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. voice, being- a good bass, made up the quar- tette. Mary saw him in this way, and as he was a good French and ItaHan scholar, and was amiable, and intelligent, she gradually became somewhat interested in him. Mary had, at this time, among her other officers, a French secretary, who wTote for her, and transacted such other business as required a knowledge of the French language. This French secretary went home, and Mary ap- pointed Rizzio to take his place. The native Scotchmen in Mary's court were naturally very jealous of the influence of these foreigners. They looked down with special contempt on Rizzio, considering him of mean rank and position, and wholly destitute of all claim to the office of confidential secretary to the queen. Rizzio increased the difficulty by not acting with the reserve and prudence which his delicate situation required. The nobles, proud of their own rank and import- ance, were very much displeased at the degree of intimacy and confidence to which Mary admitted him. They called him an intruder and an upstart. When they came in and found him in conversation with the queen, or when- ever he accosted her freely, as he was wont to do, in their presence, they were irritated and vexed. They did not dare to remonstrate with Mary, but they took care to express their RIZZIO. 117 feelings of resentment and scorn to the sub- ject of them in every possible way. They scowled upon him. They directed to him looks of contempt. They turned their backs upon him, and jostled him in a rude and in- sulting manner. All this was a year or two before Mary's marriage. Rizzio consulted Melville, asking his judg- ment as to what he had better do. He said that, being Mary's French secretary, he was necessarily a good deal in her company, and the nobles seemed displeased with it ; but he did not see what he could do to diminish or avoid the difficulty. Melville replied that the nobles had an opinion that he not only per- formed the duties of French secretary, but that he was fast acquiring a great ascendency in respect to all other affairs. Melville further advised him to be much more cautious in his bearing than he had been, to give place to the nobles when they were with him in the presence of the queen, to speak less freely, and in a more unasuming manner, and to explain the whole case to the queen herself, that she might co-operate with him in pursuing a course which would soothe and conciliate the irritated and angry feelings of the nobles. Melville said, moreover, that he had himself, at one time, at a court on the Continent, been placed in a very similar situation to Rizzio's, 118 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. and had been involved in the same difficulties, but had escaped the dangers which threatened him by pursuing himself the course which he now recommended. Rizzio seemed to approve of this counsel, and promised to follow it ; but he afterward told Melville that he had spoken to the queen on the subject, and that she would not con- sent to any change, but wished everything to go on as it had done. Now the queen, havmg great confidence in Melville, had previously requested him, that if he saw anything in her deportment, or management, or measures, which he thought was wrong, frankly to let her know it, that she might be warned in season, and amend. He thought that this was an occasion which required this friendly in- terposition, and he took an opportunity to converse with heron the subject in a frank and plain, but still very respectful manner. He made but little impression. Mary said that Rizzio was only her private French secretary ; that he had nothing to do with the affairs of the government ; that, consequently, his ap- pointment and his office were her own private concern alone, and she should continue to act according to her own pleasure in managing her own affairs, no matter who was displeased by it. It is probable that the real ground of offense RIZ2I0. 119 which the nobles had against Rizzio was jeal- ousy of his superior influence with the queen. They, however, made his religion a great ground of complaint against him. He was a Catholic, and had come from a strong Catholic country, having been born in the northern part of Italy. The Italian language was his mother tongue. They professed to believe that he was a secret emissary of the Pope, and was plotting with Mary to bring Scotland back under the papal dominion. In the mean time, Rizzio devoted himself with untirmg zeal and fidelity to the service of the queen. He was indefatigable in his efforts to please her, and he made himself ex- tremely useful to her .in a thousand different ways. In fact, his being the object of so much dislike and aversion on the part of others, made him more and more exclusively devoted to the queen, who seemed to be almost his only friend. She, too, was urged, by what she considered the unreasonable and bitter hostility of which her favorite was the object, to bestow upon him greater and greater favors. In process of time, one after another of those about the court, finding that Rizzio's influence and power were great, and were increasing, began to treat him with respect, and to ask for his assistance in gaining their ends. Thus Rizzio found his position becoming stronger, 120 MARY QUEEN OF SCOT^. and the probability began to increase that he would at length triumph over the enemies who had set their faces so strongly against him. Though he had been at first inclined to follow Melville's advice, yet he afterward fell in cordi- ally with the policy of the queen, which was, to press boldly forward, and put down with a strong hand the hostility which had been excited against him. Instead, therefore, of at- tempting to conceal the degree of favor which he enjoyed with the queen, he boasted of and displayed it. He would converse often and familiarly with her in public. He dressed magnificently, like persons of the highest rank, and had many attendants. In a word, he as- sumed all the airs and manners of a person of high distinction and commanding influ- ence. The external signs of hostility to him were thus put down, but the fires of hatred burned none the less fiercely below,, and only wanted an opportunity to burst into a explosion. Things were in this state at the time of the negotiations in respect to Darnley's marriage ; for, in order to take up the story ofRizzio from the beginning, we have been obliged to go back in our narrative. Rizzio exerted all his influence in favor of the marriage, and thus both strengthened his influence with Mary and RIZZIO. 121 made Darnley his friend. He did all in his power to diminish the opposition to it, from whatever quarter it might come, and rendered essential service in the correspondence with France, and in the negotiations with the Pope for obtaining the necessary dispensation. In a word, he did a great deal to promote the marriage, and to facilitate all the arrangements for carrying it into effect. Darnley relied, therefore, upon Rizzio's friendship and devotion to his service, forget- ting that, in all these past efforts, Rizzio was acting out of regard to Mary's wishes, and not to his own. As long, therefore, as Mary and Darnley continued to pursue the same objects and aims, Rizzio was the common friend and ally of both. The enemies of the mar- riage, however, disliked Rizzio more than ever. As Darnley's character developed itself grad- ually after his marriage, every body began to dislike him also. He was unprincipled and vicious, as well as imperious and proud. His friendship for Rizzio was another ground of dislike to him. The ancient nobles, who had been accustomed to exercise the whole control in the public affairs of Scotland, found them- selves supplanted by this young Italian singer, and an English boy not yet out of his teens. They were exasperated beyond all bounds, but 122 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. yet they contrived, for a while, to conceal and dissemble their anger. It was not very long after the marriage of Mary and Darnley before they began to become alienated from each other. Mary did every- thing for her husband which it was reasonable for him to expect her to do. She did, in fact, all that was in her power. But he was not satisfied. She made him the sharer of her throne. He wanted her to give up her place to him, and thus make him the sole possessor of it. He wanted what was called the crown matrimonial. The crown matrimonial denoted power with which, according to the old Scot- tish law, the husband of a queen could be in- vested, enabling him to exercise the royal prerogative in his own name, both during the life of the queen and also after her death, dur- ing the continuance of his own life. This made him, in fact, a king for life, exalting him above his wife, the real sovereign, through whom alone he drived his powers. Now Darnley was very urgent to have the crown matrimonial conferred upon him. He insisted upon it. He would not submit to any delay. Mary told him that this was some- thing entirely beyond her power to grant. The crown matrimonial could only be bestowed by a solemn enactment of the Scottish Parlia- ment. But Darnley, impatient and reckless, RIZZIO. 123 like a boy as he was, would not listen to any excuse, but teased and tormented Mary about the crown matrimonial continually. Besides the legal difficulties in the way of Mary's conferring these powers upon Darnley by her own act, there were other difficulties, doubtless, in her mind, arising from the char- acter of Darnley, and his unfitness, which was every day becoming more manifest, to be in- trusted with such power. Only four months after his marriage, his rough and cruel treat- ment of Mary became intolerable. One day, at a house in Edinburgh, where the king and queen, and other persons of distinction had been invited to a banquet, Darnley, as was his custom, was beginning to drink very freely, and was trying to urge other persons there to drink to excess. Mary expostulated with him, endeavoring to dissuade him from such a course. Darnley resented these kind cautions, and retorted upon her in so violent and brutal a manner as to cause her to leave the room and the company in tears. When they were first married, Mary had caused her husband to be proclaimed king, and had taken some other similar steps to invest him with a share of her own power. But she soon found that in doing this she had gone tq the extreme of propriety, and that, for the fu= ture, she must retreat rather than advance, 10-M»ry 124 MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS. Accordingly, although he was associated with her in the supreme power, she thought it best, to keep precedence for her own name before his, in the exercise of power. On the coins which were struck, the inscription was, "In the name of the Queen and King of Scotland. " In signing public documents, she insisted on having her name recorded first. These things irritated and provoked Darnley more and more. He was not contented to be admitted to a share of the sovereign power which the queen possessed in her own right alone. He wished to supplant her in it entirely. Rizzio, of course, took Queen Mary's part in these questions. He opposed the grant of the crown matrimonial. He opposed all other plans for increasing or extending in any way Darnley's power. Darnley was very much in- censed against him, and earnestly desired to find some way to effect his destruction. He communicated these feelings to a certain fierce and fearless nobleman named Ruthven, and asked his assistance to contrive some way to take vengeance upon Rizzio. Ruthven was very much pleased to hear this. He belonged to a party of the lords of the court who also hated Rizzio, though they had hated Darnley besides so much that they had not communicated to him their hostility to the other. Ruthven and his friends had not joined iiizzto. 1^5 Murray and the other rebels in opposing the marriage of Darnley. They had chosen to ac- quiesce in it, hoping to maintain an ascend- ency over Darnley, regarding him, as they did, as a mere boy, and thus retain their power. When they found, however, that he was so headstrong and unmanageable, and that they could do nothing with him, they exerted all their influence to have Murray and the other exiled lords pardoned and allowed to return, hoping to combine with them after their re- turn, and then together to make their power superior to that of Darnley and Rizzio. They considered Darnley and Rizzio both as their rivals and enemies. When they found, there- fore, that Darnley was' plotting Rizzio's de- struction, they felt a very strong as well as a very unexpected pleasure. Thus, among all the jealousies, and rival- ries, and bitter animosities of which the court was at this time the scene, the only true and honest attachment of one heart to another seems to have been that of Mary to Rizzio. The secretary was faithful and devoted to the queen, and the queen was grateful and kind to the secretary. There has been some question whether this attachment was an innocent or a guilty one. A painting, still hanging in the private rooms which belonged to Mary in the palace at Holyrood, represents Rizzio as young 126 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. and very handsome ; on the other hand, some of the historians of the day, to disprove the possibility of any guilty attachment, say that he was rather old and ugly. We may our- selves, perhaps, safely infer, that unless there were something specially repulsive in his ap- pearance and manner, such a heart as Mary's, repelled so roughly from the one whom it was her duty to love, could not well have re- sisted the temptation to seek a retreat and a refuge in the kind devotedness of such a friend as Rizzio proved himself to be to her. However this may be, Ruthven made such suggestions to Darnley as goaded him to mad- ness, and a scheme was soon formed for put- ting Rizzio to death. The plan, after being deliberately matured in all its arrangements, was carried into effect in the following man- ner. The event occurred early in the spring of 1566, less than a year after Mary's mar- riage. Morton, who was one of the accomplices, assembled a large force of his followers, con- sisting, it is said, of five hundred men, which he posted in the evening near the palace, and when it was dark he moved them silently into the central court of the, palace, through the entrance E, as marked upon the following plan. RIZZIO. 127 Plan of that part of Holyrood House which WAS THE SCENE OF RlZZIo's MURDER. L r I • • r E. Principal entrance. Co. Court of the palace. PP. Piazza around it AA Various apartments built in modern times. H. Great hall, used now as a gallery of portraits. T. Stair-case. o. ftra-e to Mary's apartments, second floor. R. Ante-room. B. Mary's bedroom D Dressing-room in one of the towers. C. Cabinet or small room m iothe other tower. SS. Stair-cases in the wall. d. Small entrance under the tapestry. Ch. Royal chapel, m. Place were Mary and Darnley stood at the marriage ceremony. Pa. Passage-way leading to the chapel. Mary was, at the time of these occurrences, in the little room marked C, which was built within one of the round towers which form a part of the front of the building, and which are very conspicuous in any view of the palace 128 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. of Holyrood. This room was on the third floor, and it opened into Mary's bedroom, marked B. Darnley had a room of his own immediately below Mary's. There was a little door, d, leading from Mary's bedroom to a private staircase built in the wall. This staircase led down into Darnley's room ; and there was also a communication from this place down through the whole length of the castle to the royal chapel, marked Ch, the build- ing which is now in ruins. Behind Mary's bedroom was an anteroom, R^ with a door, o, leading to the public staircase by which her apartments were approached. All these apartments still remain, and ^re explored an- nually by thousands of visitors. It was about seven o'clock in the evening that the conspirators were to execute their pur- pose. Morton remained below in the court with his troops, to prevent any interruption. He held a high office under the queen, which authorized him to bring a force into the court of the palace, and his doing so did not alarm the inmates. Ruthven was to head the party v.'hich was to commit the crime. He was con- fined to his bed with sickness at the time, but he was so eager to have a share in the pleas- ure of destroying Rizzio, that he left his bed, RIL'ZIO. 129 put on a suit of armor, and came forth to the work. The armor is preserved in the little apartment which was the scene of the tragedy to this day. Mary was at supper. Two near relatives and friends of hers — a gentleman and a lady — and Rizzio, were with her. The room is scarce- ly large enough to contain a greater number. There were, however, two or three servants in attendance at a side-table. Darnley came up, about eight o'clock, to make observations. The other conspirators were concealed in his room below, and it was agreed that if Darnley found any cause for not proceeding with the plan, he was to return immediately and give them notice. If, therefore, he should not re- turn, after the lapse of a reasonable time, they were to follow him up the private staircase, prepared to act at once and decidedly as soon as they should enter the room. They were to come up by this private staircase, in order to avoid being intercepted or delayed by the domestics in attendance in the anteroom, R^ of which there would have been danger if they had ascended by the public staircase at T. Finding that Darnley did not return, Ruthven with his party ascended the stairs, entered the bed-chamber through the little door at d, and thence advanced to the door of the cabinet, his heavy iron armor clanking as he came. ISO MARY QtJESN OF SOOTS. The queen, alarmed, demanded the meaning of this intrusion. Ruthven, whose counte- nance was grim and ghastly from the conjoined influence of ferocious passion and disease, said that they meant no harm to her, but they only wanted the villain who stood near her. Rizzio perceived that his hour was come. The at- tendants flocked in to the assistance of the queen and Rizzio. Ruthven's confederates advanced to join in the attack, and there en- sued one of those scenes of confusion and terror, of which those who witness it have no distinct recollection *on looking back upon it when it is over. Rizzio cried out in an agony of fear, and sought refuge behind the queen; the queen herself fainted ; the table was over- turned ; and Rizzio, having received one wound from a dagger, was seized and dragged out through the bedchamber, B, and through the anteroom, R, to the door, o, where he fell down, and was stabbed by the murderers again and again, till he ceased to breathe. After this scene was over, Darnley and Ruth- ven came coolly back into Mary's chamber, and, as soon as Mary recovered her senses, be- gan to talk of and to justify their act of vio- lence, without, however, telling her that Rizzio had been killed. .Mary was filled with emo- tions of resentment and grief. She bitterly re- proached Darnley for such an act of cruelty as RIZZIO. IBl breaking into her apartment with armed men, and seizing and carrying off her friend. She told him that she had raised him from his com- paratively humble position to make him her husband, and now this was his return. Darn- ley replied that Rizzio had supplanted him in her confidence, and thwarted all his plans, and that Mary had shown herself utterly regardless of his wishes, under the influence of Rizzio. He said that, since Mary had made herself his wife, she ought to have obeyed him, and not put herself in such a way under the direction of another. Mary learned Rizzio's fate the next day. The violence of the conspirators did not stop with the destruction of Rizzio. Some of Mary's high officers of government, who were in the palace at the time, were obliged to make their escape from the windows to avoid being seized by Morton and his soldiers in the court. Among them was the Earl Bothwell, who tried at first to drive Morton out, but in the end was obliged himself to flee. Some of these men let themselves down by ropes from the outer windows. When the uproar and con- fusion caused by this struggle was over, they found that Mary, overcome with agitation and terror, was showing symptoms of fainting again, and they concluded to leave her. They informed her that she must consider herself a 132 MARY QtTEEN OP SCOTS. prisoner, and, setting a guard at the door of her apartment, they went away, leaving her to spend the night in an agony of resentment, anxiety, and fear. Lord Darnley took the government at once entirely into his own hands. He prorogued Parliament, which was then just commencing a session, in his own name alone. He organ- ized an administration, Mary's officers having fled. In saying that he did these things, we mean, of course, that the conspirators did them in his name. He was still but a boy, scarcely out of his teens, and incapable of any other ac- tion in such an emergency but a blind compli- ance with the wishes of the crafty men who had got him into their power by gratifying his feelings of revenge. They took possession of the p-overnment in his name, and kept Mary a close prisoner. The murder was committed on Saturday night. The next morning, of course, was Smi- day. Melville was going out of the palace about ten o'clock. As he passed along under the window where Mary was confined, she called out to him for help. He asked her what he could do for her. She told him to go to the provost of Edinburgh, the officer corre- sponding to the mayor of a city in this country, and ask him to call out the city guard, and come and release her from her captivity. ' * Go Eizzio. 133 quick," said she, " or the guards will see you and stop you." Just then the guards came up and challenged Melville. He told them he was going to the city to attend church ; so they let him pass on. He went to the pro- vost, and delivered Mary's message. The provost said he dared not, and could not in- terfere. So Mary remained a prisoner. Her captiv- ity, however, was of short duration. In two days Darnley came to see her. He persuaded her that he himself had had nothing to do with the murder of Rizzio. Mary, on the other hand, persuaded him that it was better for them to be friends to each other than to live thus in a per- petual quarrel. She convinced him that Ruth- ven and his confederates were not, and could not be, his friends. They would only make him the instrument of obtaining the objects of their ambition. Darnley saw this. He felt that he as well as Mary were in the rebels' power. They formed a plan to escape to- gether. They succeeded. They fled to a distant castle, and collected a large army, the people everywhere flocking to the assistance of the queen. They returned to Edinburgh in a short time in triumph. The conspirators fled. Mary then decided to pardon and recall the old rebels, and expend her anger henceforth on the new ; and thus the Earl Murray, her 134 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. brother, was brought back, and once more re- stored to favor. After settling all these troubles, Mary re- tired to Edinburgh Castle, where it was sup- Room in which Mary waa Imprisoned, posed she could be best protected, and in the month of July following the murder of Rizzio, she gave birth to a son. In this son was after- ward accomplished all her fondest wishes, for he inherited in the end both the English and Scottish crowub. CHAPTER VIII. BOTHWELL. The Earl of Bothwell was a man of great energy of character, fearless and decided in all that he undertook, and sometimes perfectly reckless and uncontrollable. He was in Scot- land at the time of Mary's return from France, but he was so turbulent and unmanageable that he was at one time sent into banishment. He was, however, afterward recalled, and again intrusted with power. He entered ar- dently into Mary's service in her contest with the murderers of Rizzio. He assisted her in raising an army after her flight, and in con- quering Morton, Ruthven, and the rest, and driving them out of the country. Mary soon began to look upon him as, notwithstanding his roughness, her best and most efficient friend As a reward for these services, she granted him a castle, situated in a romantic position on the eastern coast of Scotland. It was called the Castle of Dunbar. It was on a stormy promontory, overlooking the Ger- 135 136 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. man Ocean : a very appropriate retreat and fastness for such a man of iron as he. In those days, the border country between England and Scotland was the resort of rob- bers, freebooters, and outlaws from both lands. If pursued by one government, they could retreat across the line and be safe. In- cursions, too, were continually made across this frontier by the people of either side, to plunder or to destroy whatever property was within reach. Thus the country became a re- gion of violence and bloodshed which all men of peace and quietness were glad to shun. They left it to the possession of men who could find pleasure in such scenes of violence and blood. When Queen Mary had got quietly settled in her government, after the overthrow of the murderers of Rizzio, as she thus no lon- ger needed Bothwell's immediate aid, she sent him to this border country to see if he could enforce some sort of order among its lawless population. The birth of Mary's son was an event of the greatest importance, not only to her personally, but in respect to the political prospects of the two great kingdoms, for in this infant were combined the claims of succession to both the Scotch and English crowns. The whole world knew that if Elizabeth should die without leaving a direct heir, this child would become BOTHWELL. 1°" the monarch both of England and Scotland, and as such, one of the greatest personages in Europe. His birth, therefore, was a great event, and it was celebrated in Scotland with universal rejoicings. The tidings of it spread as news of great public niterest all over Europe. Even Elizabeth pretended to be pleased, and sent messages of c-S-tu at.on to Mary. But every one thought that they could see in her air and manner, when she re- ceived the intelligence, obvious traces of mor- tification and chagrin. Mary's heart was filled, at first, with mater- nal pride and joy ; but herhappiness was soon sadly alloyed by Darnley's continued unkind- ness She traveled about during the autumn, from castle to castle, anxious and ill at ease. Sometimes Darnley followed her, and some- times he amused himself with hunting and with various vicious indulgences, at different towns and castles at a distance from her He wanted her to dismiss her ministry and put him into power, and he took every possible „eans to importune or tease her into comph- ance with this plan. At one time he said he had resolved to leave Scotland, and go and re- side in France ; and he pretended to make h^ preparations, and to be about to take h.sleave_ He seems to have thought that Mary, though he knew that she no longer loved him. would 11— Mary 138 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. be distressed at the idea of being abandoned by one who was, after all, her husband. Mary- was, in fact, distressed at this proposal, and urged him not to go. He seemed determined, and took his leave. Instead of going to France, however, he only went to Stirling Castle. Darnley, finding that he could not accom- plish his aims by such methods as these, wrote, it is said, to the Catholic governments of Eu- rope, proposing that, if they would cooperate/ in putting him into power in Scotland, he would adopt efficient measures for changing the religion of the country from the Protes- tant to the Catholic faith. He made, too, every effort to organize a party in his favor in Scotland, and tried to defeat and counteract the influence of Mary's government by every means in his power. These things, and other trials and difficulties connected with them, weighed very heavily upon Mary's mind. She sunk gradually into a state of great dejection and despondency. She spent many hours in sighing and in tears, and often wished that she was in her grave. So deeply, in fact, was Mary plunged into dis- tress and trouble by the state of things existing between herself and Darnley, that some of her officers of government began to conceive of a plan of having her divorced from him. After looking at this subject in all its bearings, and BOTHWELL. ^^^ consulting about it with each other they ven- tured, at last, to propose it to Mary She would not listen to any such plan. She d.d not think a divorce could be legally accomplished. And then, if it were to be done, .t would she feared, in some way or other, affect the position and r.ghts of the darling son who was now to her more than all the world besides. She would rather endure to the end other days the tyranny and torment she exper enced rom her b'rutal husband, than hazard "j J^ J^^ degree the future greatness «"d gory of the infant who was lying in his cradle before her equally unconscious of the grandeur which awaited him in future years, and of the strength of the maternal love which was smil- ng ^pon him from amid such sorrow and teL, and extending over him such gentle, but determined and effectual protection^ The sad and sorrowful feelings which Mary endured were interrupted for a little time by the splendid pageant of the baptism of h^= child. Ambassadors came from all the im portant courts of the Continent to do honor to the occasion. Elizabeth sent the Earl of Bed ford as her ambassador, with a present of a baptismal font of gold, which l^^d cost a sum equal to five thousand dollars. The bapt.srn took place at Stirling, in December, wrth every possible accompaniment of pomp and parade, 140 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. and was followed by many days of festivitiel and rejoicing. The whole country were inter* ested in the event except Darnley, who de- clared sullenly, while the preparations were making, that he should not remain to witness the ceremony, but should go off a day or two before the appointed time. The ceremony was performed in the chapel. The child was baptized under the names of "Charles James, James Charles, Prince and Steward of Scotland, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Lord of the Isles, and Baron of Renfrew.'' His subsequent designation in history was James Sixth of Scotland and First of England. A great many appointments of attendants and officers, to be attached to the service of the young prince, were made im- mediately, most of them, of course, mere matters of parade. Among the rest, five ladies of distinction were constituted ''rockers of his cradle." The form of the young prince's cradle has come down to us in an ancient drawing. In due time after the coronation, the various ambassadors and delegates returned to their respective courts, carrying back glowing accounts of the ceremonies and festivities attendant upon the christening, and of the grace, and beauty, and loveliness of the queen. In the mean time, Bothwell and Murray BOTHWELL. I4l were competitors for the confidence and re- gard of the queen, and it began to seem prob- able that Both well would win the day. Mary, in one of her excursions, was traveling in the southern part of the country, when she heard that he had been wounded in an encounter with a party of desperadoes near the border. Moved partly, perhaps, by compassion, and partly by gratitude for his services, Mary made an expedition across the country to pay him a visit. Some say that she was animated by a more powerful motive than either of these. In fact this, as well as almost all the other acts of Mary's life, are presented in very different lights by her friends and her enemies. The former say that this visit to her lieutenant in his confinement from a wound received in her service was perfectly proper, both in the 142 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. design itself, and in all the circumstances of its execution. The latter represent it as an instance of highly indecorous eagerness on the part of a married lady to express to another man a sympathy and kind regard which she had ceased to feel for her husband. Bothwell himself was married as well as Mary. He had been married but a few months to a beautiful lady a few years younger than the queen. The question, however, whether Mary did right or wrong in paying this visit to him, is not, after all, a very important one. There is no doubt that she and Bothwell loved each other before they ought to have done so, and it is of comparatively little consequence when the attachment began. The end of it is certain. Bothwell resolved to kill Darnley, to get divorced from his own wife, and to marry the queen. The world has never yet settled the question whether she was herself his ac- complice or not in the measures he adopted for effecting these plans, or whether she only submitted to the result when Bothwell, by his own unaided efforts, reached it. Each reader must judge of this question for himself from the facts about to be narrated. Bothwell first communicated with the nobles about the court, to get their consent and ap- probation to the destruction of the king. They all appeared to be very willing to have the BOTHWELL. 143 thing done, but were a little cautious about involving themselves in the responsibility of doing it. Darnley was thoroughly hated, despised, and shunned by them all. Still they were afraid of the consequences of taking his life. One of them, Morton, asked Bothwell what the queen would think of the plan. Bothwell said that the queen approved of it. Morton replied, that if Bothwell would show him an expression of the queen's approval of the plot, in her own handwriting, he would join it, otherwise not. Bothwell failed to furnish this evidence, saying that the queen was really privy to, and in favor of the plan, but that it was not to be expected that she would commit herself to- it in writing. Was this all true, or was the pretense only a des- perate measure of Bothwell's to induce Morton to join him ? Most of the leading men about the court, however, either joined the plot, or so far gave it their countenance and encouragement as to induce Bothwell to proceed. There were many and strange rumors about Darnley. One was, that he was actually going to leave the coun- try, and that a ship was ready for him in the Clyde. Another was, that he had a plan for seizing the young prince, dethroning Mary, and reigning himself in her stead, in the prince's nam?. Other strange and desperate schemes 144 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. were attributed to him. In the midst of them, news came to INIary at Holyrood that he was taken suddenly and dangerously sick at Glas- gow, where he was then residing, and she im- mediately went to see him. Was her motive a desire to make one more attempt to win his confidence and love, and to divert him from the desperate measures which she feared he was contemplating, or was she acting as an ac- complice with Bothwell, to draw him into the snare in which he was afterward taken and destroyed ? The result of Mary's visit to her husband, after some time spent with him in Glasgow, was a proposal that he should return with her to Edinburgh, where she could watch over him during his convalescence with greater care. This plan was adopted. He was conveyed on a sort of litter, by very slow and easy stages, toward Edinburgh. He was on such terms with the nobles and lords in attendance upon Mary that he was not willing to go to Holy- rood House. Besides, his disorder was con- tagious : it is supposed to have been the small- pox ; and though he was nearly recovered, there was still some possibility that the royal babe might take the infection if the patient came within the same walls with him. So Mary sent forward to Edinburgh to have a house provided for him, BOTHWBLL. 146 The situation of this house is seen near the city wall on the left, in the accompanying view of Edinburgh. Holyrood House is the large square edifice in the foreground, and the castle crowns the hill in the distance. There is now, as there was in the days of Mary, a famous street extending from Holyrood House to the castle, called, the Cannon Gate at the lower end, and the High Street above. This street, with the castle at one extremity and Holyrood House at the other, were the scenes of many of the most remarkable events described in this narrative. The residence selected was a house of four rooms, close upon the city wall. The place was called the Kirk of Field, from a kirk, or church, which formerly stood near there, in the fields. This house had two rooms upon the lower floor, with a passageway between them. One of these rooms was a kitchen ; the other was appropriated to Mary's use, whenever she was able to be at the place in attendance upon her husband. Over the kitchen was a room used as a wardrobe and for servants ; and over Mary's room was the apartment for Darnley. There was an opening through the city wall in the rear of this dwelling, by which there was access to the kitchen. These premises were fitted up for Darnley in the most thorough man- 146 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. ner. A bath was arranged for him in his apart- ment, and everything was done which could conduce to his comfort, according to the ideas which then prevailed. Darnley was brought to Edinburgh, conveyed to this house, and quietly established there. The following is a plan of the house in which Darnley was lodged : Fields. M. Mary's room, below Darnley's. K. Kitchen ; servants' room above. O. Passage through the city wall into the kitchen. S. Stair-case leading to the second story. P. Passage-way. The accommodations in this house do not seem to have been very sumptuous, after all, for a royal guest ; but royal dwellings in Scot- BOTHWELL. 147 land, in those days, were not what they are now in Westminster and at St. Cloud. The day for the execution of the plan, which was, to blow up the house where the sick Darn- ley was lying, with gunpowder, approached. Bothwell selected a number of desperate char- acters to aid him in the actual work to be done. One of these was a Frenchman, w^ho had been for a long time in his service, and who went commonly by the name of French Paris. Both- well contrived to get French Paris taken into Mary's service a few days before the murder of Darnley, and, through him, he got possession of some of the keys of the house which Darn- ley was occupying, and thus had duplicates of them made, so that he had access to every part of the house. The gunpowder was brought from Bothwell's castle at Dunbar, and all was ready. Mary spent m.uch of her time at Darnley's house, and often slept in the room beneath his, which had been allotted to her as her apart- ment. One Sunday there was to be a wedding at Holyrood. The bride and bridegroom were favorite servants of Mary's, and she was in- tending to be present at the celebration of the nuptials. She was to leave Darnley's early in the evening for this purpose. Her enemies say that this was all a concerted arrangement between her and Bothwell to give him the op- 148 MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS. portunity to execute his plan. Her friends, on the other hand, insist that she knew nothing about it, and that Bothwell had to watch and wait for such an opportunity of blowing up the house without injuring Mary. Be this as it may, the Sunday of this wedding was fixed upon for the consummation of the deed. The gunpowder had been secreted in Both- well's rooms at the palace. On Sunday eve- ning, as soon as it was dark, Bothwell set the men at work to transport the gunpowder. They brought it out in bags from the palace, and then employed a horse to transport it to the wall of some gardens which were in the rear of Darnley's house. They had to go twice with the horse in order to convey all the gunpowder that they had provided. While this was going on, Bothwell, who kept out of sight, was walking to and fro in an adjoining street, to receive intelligence, from time to time, of the progress of the affair, and to issue orders. The gunpowder was conveyed across the gardens to the rear of the house, taken in at a back door, and deposited in the room marked J/ in the plan, which was the room belonging to Mary. Mary was all this time directly overhead, in Darnley's chamber. The plan of the conspirators was to put the bags of gunpowder into a cask which they had provided for the occasion, to keep the mass BOTHWELIi. 149 together, and increase the force of the explo- sion. The cask had been provided, and placed in the gardens behind the house ; but, on at- tempting to take it into the house, they found it too big to pass through the back door. This caused considerable delay; and Bothwell, growing impatient, came, with his character- istic impetuosity, to ascertain the cause. By his presence and his energy, he soon remedied the difficulty in some way or other, and com- pleted the arrangements. The gunpowder was all deposited ; the men were dismissed, except two who were left to watch, and who were locked up with the gunpowder in Mary's room ; and then, all things being ready for the explosion as soon as Mary should be gone, Bothwell walked up to Darnley's room above, and joined the party who were supping there. The cool' effrontery of this proceeding has scarcely a parallel in the annals of crime. At eleven o'clock Mary rose to go, saying she must return to the palace to take part, as she had promised to do, in the celebration of her servants' wedding. Mary took leave of her husband in a very affectionate manner, and went away in company with Bothwell and the other nobles. Her enemies maintain that she was privy to all the arrangements which had been made, and that she did not go into her own apartment below, knowing very well 150 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. what was there. But even if we imagine that Mary was aware of the general plan of de- stroying her husband, and was secretly pleased with it, as almost any royal personage that ever lived, under such circumstances, would be, we need not admit that she was acquainted with the details of the mode by which the plan was to be put in execution, The most that we can suppose such a man as Bothwell would have communicated to her, would be some dark and obscure intimations of his de- sign, made in order to satisfy himself that she would not really oppose it. To ask her, woman as she was, to take any part in such a deed, or to communicate to her beforehand any of the details of the arrangement, would have been an act of littleness and meanness which such magnanimous monsters as Both- well are seldom guilty of. Besides, Mary remarked that evening, in Darnley's room, in the course of conversation, that it was just about a year since Rizzio's death. On entering her palace, too, at Holy- rood, that night, she met one of Bothwell's servants who had been carrying the bags, and, perceiving the smell of gunpowder, she asked him what it meant. Now Mary was not the brazen-faced sort of woman to speak of such things at such a time if she was really in the councils of the conspirators. The only ques- BOTH WELL. 151 tion seems to be, therefore, not whether she was a party to the actual deed of murder, but only whether she was aware of, and consent- ing to, the general design. In the mean time, Mary and Bothwell went together into the hall where the servants were rejoicing and making merry at the wedding. French Paris was there, but his heart began to fail him in respect to the deed in which he had been engaged. He stood apart, with a coun- tenance expressive of anxiety and distress. Bothwell went to him, and told him that if he carried such a melancholy face as that any longer in the presence of the queen, he would make him suffer for it. The poor conscience- stricken man begged .Bothwell to release him from any further part in the transaction. He was sick, really sick, he said, and he wanted to go home to his bed. Bothwell made no re- ply but to order him to follow him. Bothwell went to his own rooms, changed the silken court dress in which he had appeared in com- pany for one suitable to the night and to the deed, directed his men to follow him, and passed from the palace toward the gates of the city. The gates were shut, for it was mid- night. The sentinels challenged them. The party said they were friends to my Lord Both- well, and were allowed to pass on. They advanced to the convent gardens. 152 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Here they left a part of their number, while Bothwell and French Paris passed over the wall, and crept softly into the house. They unlocked the room where they had left the two watchmen with the gunpowder, and found all safe. Men locked up under such circum- stances, and on the eve of the perpetration of such a deed, were not likely to sleep at their posts. All things being now ready, they made a slow match of lint, long enough to burn for some little time, and inserting one end of it into the gunpowder, they lighted the other end, and crept stealthily out of the apartment. They passed over the wall into the convent gardens, where they rejoined their companions and awaited the result. Men choose midnight often for the perpetra- tion of crime, from the facilities afforded by its silence and solitude. This advantage is, how- ever, sometimes well-nigh balanced by the stimulus which its mysterious solemnity brings to the stings of remorse and terror. Bothwell himself felt anxious and agitated. They waited and waited, but it seemed as if their dreadful suspense would never end. Bothwell became desperate. He wanted to get overthe wall again and look in at the window, to see if the slow match had not gone out. The rest restrained him. At length the explo- sion came like a clap of thunder. The flash BOTHWELL. 153 brightened for an instant over the whole sky, and the report roused the sleeping inhabitants of Edinburgh from their slumbers, throwing the whole city into sudden consternation. The perpetrators of the deed, finding that their work was done, fled immediately. They tried various plans to avoid the sentinels at the gates of the city, as well as the persons who were beginning to come toward the scene of the explosion. When they reached the palace of Holyrood, they were challenged by the sen- tinel on duty there. They said that they were friends of Earl Bothwell, bringing despatches to him from the country. The sentinel asked them if they knew what was the cause of that loud explosion. They said they did not, and passed on. Bothwell went to his room, called for a drink, undressed himself and went to bed. Half an hour afterward, messengers came to awaken him, and inform him that the king's house had been blown up with gunpowder, and the king himself killed by the explosion. He rose with an appearance of great astonishment and in- dignation, and, after conferring with some of the other nobles, concluded to go and commu- nicate the event to the queen. The queen was overwhelmed with astonishment and indigna- tion too. The destruction of Darnley in such a manner 12-Mary 154 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. as this, of course produced a vast sensation all over Scotland. Everybody was on the alert to discover the authors of the crime. Rewards were offered ; proclamations were made. Ru- mors began to circulate that Bothwell was the criminal. He was accused by anonymous placards put up at night in Edinburgh. Len- nox, Darnley's father, demanded his trial ; and a trial was ordered. The circumstances of the trial were such, however, and Bothwell's power and desperate recklessness were so great, that Lennox, when the time came, did not appear. He said he had not /brce enough at his com- mand to come safely into court. There being no testimony offered, Bothwell was acquitted ; and he immediately afterward issued his proc- lamation, offering to fight any man who should intimate, in any way, that he was concerned in the murder of the king. Thus Bothwell es- tablished his innocence ; at least, no man dared to gainsay it. Darnley was murdered in F'ebruary. Both- well was tried and acquitted in April. Imme- diately afterwards, he took measures for pri- vately making known to the leading nobles that it was his design to marry the queen, and for securing their concurrence in the plan. They concurred ; or at least, perhaps for fear of dis- pleasing such a desperado, said what he under- stood to mean that they concurred. The queen feOTHWELL. 156 heard the reports of such a design, and said, as ladies often do in similar cases, that she did not know what people meant by such reports ; there was no foundation for them whatever. Toward the end of April, Mary was about returning from the castle of Stirling to Edin- burgh with a small escort of troops and attend- ants. Melville was in her train. Bolhwell set out at the head of a force of more than five hundred men to intercept her. Mary lodged one night, on her way, at Linlithgow, the pal- ace where she was born, and the next morning was quietly pursuing her journey, when Both- well came up at the head of his troops. Re- sistance was vain. Bothwell advanced to Mary's horse, and, taking the bridle, led her away. A few of her principal followers were taken prisoners too, and the rest were dis- missed. Bothwell took his captive across the country by a rapid flight to his castle of Dun- bar. The attendants who were taken with her were released, and she remained in the Castle of Dunbar for ten days, entirely in Bothwell's power. According to the account which Mary her- self gives of what took place during this cap- tivity, she at first reproached Bothwell bitterly for the ungrateful and cruel return he was mak- ing for all her kindness to him, by such a deed of violence and wrong, and begged and en- 156 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. treated him to let her go. Bothwell replied that he knew that it was wrong for him to treat his sovereign so rudely, but that he was im- pelled to it by the circumstances of the case, and by love which he felt for her, which was too strong for him to control. He then en- treated her to become his wife ; he complained of the bitter hostility which he had always been subject to from his enemies, and that he could have no safeguard from this hostility in time to come, but in her favor ; and he could not de- pend npon any assurance of her favor less than her making him her husband. He protested that, if she would do so, he would never ask to share her power, but would be content to be her faithful and devoted servant, as he had always been. It was love, not ambition, he said, that animated him, and he could not and would not be refused. Mary says that she was distressed and agitated beyond measure by the appeals and threats with which Bothwell accompanied his urgent entreaties. She tried every way to plan some mode of escape. No- body came to her rescue. She was entirely alone, and in BothwelFs power. Bothwell as- sured her that the leading nobles of her court were in favor of the marriage, and showed her a written agreement signed by them to this effect. At length, wearied and exhausted, she was finally overcome by his urgency, and BOTHWELL. 167 yielding partly to his persuasions, and partly, as she says, to force, gave herself up to his power. Mary remained at Dunbar about ten days, during which time Bothwell sued out and ob- tained a divorce from his wife. His wife, feel- ing, perhaps, resentment more than grief, sued, at the same time, for a divorce from him. Bothwell then sallied forth from his fastness at Dunbar, and, taking Mary with him, went to Edinburgh, and took up his abode in the cas- tle there, as that fortress was then under his power. Mary soon after appeared in public, and stated that she was now entirely free, and that, although Bothwell had done wrong in carrying her away by violence, still he had treated her since in so respectful a manner, that she had pardoned him, and had received him into favor again. A short time after this they were married. The ceremony was per- formed in a very private and unostentatious manner, and took place in May, about three months after the murder of Darnley. By some persons Mary's account of the trans- actions at Dunbar is believed. Others think that the whole affair was all a preconcerted plan, and that the appearance of resistance on her part was only forshov/, to justify, in some degree, in the eyes of the world, so imprudent and inexcusable a marriage. A great many 158 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. volumes have been written on the question, without making any progress toward a settle- ment of it. It is one of those cases where, the evidence beingconiplicated, conflicting, andin- Edinburgh Castle. complete, the mind is swayed by the feelings, and the readers of the story decide more or less favorably for the unhappy queen, according to the warmth of the interest awakened in their hearts by beauty and misfortune. CHAPTER IX. THE FALL OF BOTHWELL. The course which Mary pursued after her liberation from Dunbar in yielding to Both- well's wishes, pardoning his violence, receiving him again into favor, and becoming his wife, is one of the most extraordinary instances of the infatuation produced by .love that has ever oc- curred. If the story had been fiction instead of truth, it would have been pronounced ex- travagant and impossible. As it was, the whole country was astonished and confounded at such a rapid succession of desperate and un- accountable crimes. Mary herself seems to have been hurried through these terrible scenes in a sort of delirium of excitement, produced by the strange circumstances of the case, and the wild and uncontrollable agitations to which they gave rise. Such was, however, at the time, and such continues to be still, the feeling of interest in Mary's character and misfortunes, that but few open and direct censures of her conduct were 160 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. then, or have been since, expressed. People execrated Bothwell, but they were silent in re- spect to Mary. It was soon plain, however, that she had greatly sunk in their regard, and that the more they reflected upon the circum- stances of the case, the deeper she was sinking. When the excitement, too, began to pass away from her own mind, it left behind it a gnawing inquietude and sense of guilt, which grew grad- ually more and more intense, until, at length, she sunk under the stings of remorse and despair. Her sufferings were increased by the evi- dences which were continually coming to her mind of the strong degree of disapprobation with which her conduct began soon every- where to be regarded. Wherever Scotchmen traveled, they found themselves reproached with the deeds of violence and crime of which their country had been the scene. Mary's rela- tives and friends in France wrote to her express- ing their surprise and grief at such proceedings. The King of France had sent, a short time be- fore, a special ambassador for the purpose of doing something, if possible, to discover and punish the murderers of Darnley. His name was Le Croc. He was an aged and venerable man, of great prudence and discretion, well qualified to discover and pursue the way of escape from the difficulties in which Mary had THE FALL OF BOTHWELL. 161 involved herself, if any such way could be found. He arrived before the day of Mary's marriage, but he refused to take any part, or even to be present, at the ceremony. In the meantime, Bothwell continued in Edinburgh Castle for a while, under the pro- tection of a strong guard. People considered this guard as intended to prevent Mary's es- cape, and many thought that she was detained, after all, against her will, and that her admis- sions that she was free were only made at the instigation of Bothwell, and from fear of his terrible power. The other nobles and the people of Scotland began to grow more and more uneasy. The fear of Bothwell began to be changed into hatred, and the more power- ful nobles commenced forming plans for com- bining together, and rescuing, as they said, Mary out of his power. Bothwell made no attempts to conciliate them. He assumed an air and tone of defiance. He increased his forces. He conceived the plan of going to Stirling Castle to seize the young prince, who was residing there under the charge of persons to whom his education had been in- trusted. He said to his followers that James should never do anything to avenge his father's death, if he could once get him into his hands. The other nobles formed a league to counteract these designs. They began to assemble their 162 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. forces, and everything threatened an outbreak of civil vv^ar. The marriage took place about the middle of May, and within a fortnight from that time the lines began to be pretty definitely drawn between the two great parties, the queen and Bothwell on one side, and the insurgent nobles on the other, each party claiming to be friends of the queen. Whatever was done on Both- welFs side was, of course, in the queen's name, though it is very doubtful how far she was re- sponsible for what was done, or how far, on the other hand, she merely aided, under the influ- ence of a species of compulsion, in carrying into execution Bothwell's measures. We must say, in narrating the history, that the queen did this and that, and must leave the reader to judge whether it was herself, or Bothwell act- ing through her, who was the real agent in the transactions described. Stirling Castle, where the young prince was residing, is northwest of Edinburgh. The con- federate lords were assembling in that vicinity. The border country between England and Scot- land is of course south. In the midst of this border country is the ancient town of Melrose, where there was, in former days, a very rich and magnificent abbey, the ruins of which, to this day, form one of the most attractive ob- jects of iqter^st in the whole island of Great THE TALL OE^ BOTHWELL. 16B Britain. The region is now the abode of peace, and quietness, and plenty, though in Mary's day it was the scene of continual turmoil and war. It is now the favorite retreat of poets and philosophers, who seek their residences there on account of its stillness and peace. Sir Walter Scotfs Abbotsford is a few miles from Melrose. About a fortnight after Mary's marriage, she issued a proclamation ordering the military chiefs in her kingdom to assemble at Melrose, with their followers, to accompany her on an expedition through the border country, to sup- press some disorders there. The nobles con- sidered this as only a scheme of Bothwell's to draw them away from the neighborhood of Stirling, so that he might go and get possession of the young prince. Rumors of this spread around the country, and the forces, instead of proceeding to Melrose, began to assemble in the neighborhood of Stirling, for the protection of the prince. The lords und' r whose banners they gathered assumed the name of /Ae^rmc^'s lords, and they called upon the people to take up arms in defense of young James's person and rights. The prince's lords soon began to con- centrate their forces about Edinburgh, and Bothwell was alarmed for his safety. He had reason to fear that the governor of Edinburgh Castle was on their side, and that he might sud- 164 MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS. denly sally forth with a body of his forces down the High Street to Holyrood, and take him prisoner. He accordingly began to think it necessary to retreat. Now Bothwell had, among his other posses- sions, a certain castle called Borthwick Castle, a few miles south of Edinburgh. It was sit- uated on a little swell of land in a beautiful valley. It was surrounded with groves of trees, and from the windows and walls of the castle there was an extended view over the beautiful and fertile fields of the valley. This castle was extensive and strong. It consisted of one great square tower, surrounded and pro- tected by walls and bastions, and was ap- proached by a drawbridge. In the sudden emergency in which Bothwell found himself placed, this fortress seemed to be the most convenient and the surest retreat. On the 6th of June, he accordingly left Edinburgh with as large a force as he had at command, and rode rapidly across the country with the queen, and established himself at Borthwick. The prince's lords, taking fresh courage from the evidence of Bothwell's weakness and fear, immediately marched from Stirling, passed by Edinburgh, and almost immediately after Bothwell and the queen had got safely, as they imagined, established in the place of their retreat, they found their castle surrounded THE PALL OP BOTHWELL. 166 and hemmed in on all sides by hostile forces, which filled the whole valley. The castle was strong, but not strong enough to withstand a siege from such an army. Bothwell accord- ingly determined to retreat to his castle of Dunbar, which, being on a rocky promontory, jutting into the sea, and more remote from the heart of the country, was less accessible, and more safe than Borthwick. He contrived, ^though with great difficulty, to make his escape with the queen, through the ranks of his enemies. It is said that the queen was disguised in male attire. At any rate, they made their escape, they reached Dunbar, and Mary, or Bothwell in her name, immediately issued a proclamation, calling upon all her faithful subjects to assemble in arms, to deliver her from her dangers. At the same time, the prince's lords issued /Zfez'r proclamation, calling upon all faithful subjects to assemble with them, to aid them in delivering the queen from the tyrant who held her captive. The faithful subjects were at a loss which proclamation to obey. By far the greater number joined the insurgents. Some thou- sands, however, went to Dunbar. With this force the queen and Bothwell sallied forth, about the middle of June, to meet the prince's lords, or the insurgents, as they called them, to settle the question at issue by the kind of 166 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. ballot with which such questions were gener- ally settled in those days. , Mary had a proclamation read at the head of her army, now that she supposed she was on the eve of battle, in which she explained the causes of the quarrel. The proclamation stated that the marriage was Mary's free act, and that, although it was in some respects an extraordinary one, still the circumstances were such that she could not do otherwise than she had done. For ten days she had been in Bothwell's power in his castle at Dunbar, and not an arm had been raised for her deliver- ance. Her subjects ought to have interposed then, if they were intending really to rescue her from Bothwell's power. They had done nothing then, but now, when she had been compelled, by the cruel circumstances of her condition, to marry Bothwell — when the act was done, and could no longer be recalled, they had taken up arms against her, and compelled her to take the field in her own defense. The army of the prince's lords, with Mary's most determined enemies at their head, ad- vanced to meet the queen's forces. The queen finally took her post on an elevated piece of ground called Carberry Hill. Carberry is an old Scotch name for gooseberry. Carberry Hill is a few miles to the eastward of Edin- THE FALL OF BOTHWELL. 167 burgh, near Dalkeith. Here the two armies were drawn up, opposite to each other, in hostile array. ' Le Croc, the aged and venerable French ambassador, made a great effort to effect an accommodation and prevent a battle. He first went to the queen and obtained authority from her to offer terms of peace, and then went to the camp of the prince's lords and proposed that they should lay down their arms and submit to the queen's authority, and that she would forgive and forget what they had done. They replied that they had done no wrong, and asked for no pardon ; that they were not in arms against the queen's authority, but in favor of it. They sought only to deliver her from the durance in which she was held, and to bring to punishment the murderers of her husband, whoever they might be. Le Croc went back and forth several times, vainly endeavoring to effect an accommodation, and finally, giving up in despair, he returned to Edinburgh, leaving the contending parties to settle the contest in their own way. Bothwell now sent a herald to the camp of his enemies, challenging any one of them to meet him, and settle the question of his guilt or innocence by single combat. This proposi- tion was not quite so absurd in those days as it would be now, fbr it was not an uncommon 168 MARY QUEEN* OF SCOTS. thing, in the Middle Ages, to try in this way questions of crime. Many negotiations ensued on Bothvvell's proposal. One or two persons expressed themselves ready to accept the chal- lenge. Both well objected to them on account of their rank being inferior to his, but said he would fight Morton, if Morton would accept his challenge. Morton had been his accomplice in the murder of Darnley, but had afterward joined the party of Bothwell's foes. • It would have been a singular spectacle to see one of these confederates in the commission of a crime contending desperately in single combat to settle the question of the guilt or innocence of the ether. /The combat, however, did not take place./ After many negotiations on the subject, the plan was abandoned, each party charging the other with declining the contest. The queen and Bothwell, in the mean time, found such evidences of strength on the part of their ene-" mies, and felt probably, in their own hearts, so much of that faintness and misgiving under which human energy almost always sinks when the tide begins to turn against it, after the commission of wrong, that they began to feel disheartened and discouraged. The queen sent to the opposite camp with a request that a certain personage, the Laird of Grange, in whom all parties had great confidence, should THE FALL OF BOTHWELL. 169 come to her, that she might make one more effort at reconciliation. Grange, after con- sulting with the prince's lords, made a prop- osition to Mary, which she finally concluded to accept. It was as follows : They proposed that Mary should come over to their camp, not saying very distinctly whether she was to come as their captive or as their queen. The event showed that it was in the former capacity that they intended to receive her, though they were probably willing that she should understand that it was in the latter. At all events, the proposition itself did not make it very clear what her position would be ; and the poor queen, distracted by the difficulties which surrounded her, and overwhelmed with agitation and fear, could not press very strongly for precise stipulations. In respect to Bothwell, they compromised the question by agreeing that, as he was under sus- picion in respect to the murder of Darnley, he should not accompany the queen, but should be dismissed upon the field ; that is, allowed to depart, without molestation, wherever he should choose to go. This plan was finally adopted. The queen bade Bothwell farewell, and he went away reluctantly and in great apparent displeasure./ He, had, in fact, with his characteristic ferocity, attempted to shoot Grange pending the negotiation. He mounted 13-Marr 170 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. his horse, and, with a few attendants, rode off and sought a retreat once more upon his rock at Dunbar. From all the evidence which has come down to us, it seems impossible to ascertain whether Mary desired to be released from Bothwell's power, and was glad when the release came, or whether she still loved him, and was plan- ning a reunion, so soon as a reunion should be possible. One party at that time maintained, and a large class of writers and readers since have concurred in the opinion, that ]\Iary was in love with Bothwell before Darnley's death ; that she connived with him in the plan for Darnley's murder ; that she was a consenting party to the abduction, and the spending of the ten days at Dunbar Castle, in his power ; that the marriage was the end at w^hich she herself, as well as Bothwell, had been all the time aiming ; and then, when at last she sur- rendered herself to the prince's lords at Car- berry Hill, it was only yielding unwillingly to the necessity of a temporary separation from her lawless husband, with a view of reinstat- ing him in favor and power at the earliest opportunity. Another party, both among her people at the time and among the writers and readers who have since paid attention to her story, think that she never loved Bothwell, and that, though ^K imf&^^^^ Mary, face p. ilO Surrender of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Carberry Hill. THE FALL OF BOTH WELL. 171 she valued his services as a bold and energetic soldier, she had no collusion with him what- ever in respect to Darnley's murder. They think that, though she must have felt in some sense relieved of a burden by Darnley's death, she did not fn any degree aid in or justify the crime, and that she had no reason for suppos- ing that Bothwell had any share in the com- mission of it. They thinlc, also, vhat her consenting to marry Bothwell is to be account- ed for by her natural desire to seek shelter, under some wing or other, from the terrible storms which were raging around her ; and being deserted, as she thought, by everybody else, and moved by his passionate love and devotion, she imprudently gave herself to him ; that she lamented the act as soon as it was done, but that it was then too late to retrieve the step ; and that, harassed and in despair, she knew not what to do, but that she hailed the rising of her nobles as affording the only promise of deliverance, and came forth from Dunbar to meet them with the secret purpose of delivering herself into their hands. The question which of these two supposi- tions is the correct one .has been discussed a great deal, without the possibility of arriving at any satisfactory conclusion. A parcel of let- ters were produced by Mary's enemies, some time after this, which they said were Mary's 172 MARY QtJEElJ.Ol* SCOTS. letters to Bothwell before her husband Darn- ley's death. They say they took the letters from a man named Dalgleish, one of Bothwell s servants, who was carrying them from Holy- rood to Dunbar Castle, just after Mary and Bothwell fled to Borthwick. They were con- tained in a small gilded box or coffer, with the letter F upon it, under a crown ; which mark naturally suggests to our minds Mary's first husband, Francis, the king of France. Dal- gleish said that Bothwell sent him for this box, charging him to convey it with all care to Dun- bar Castle. The letters purport to be from Mary to Bothwell, and to have been written before Darnley's death. They evince a strong affection for the person to whom they are ad- dressed, and seem conclusively to prove the unlawful attachment between the parties, pro- vided that their genuineness is acknowledged. But this genuineness is denied. Mary's friends maintain that they are forgeries, prepared by her enemies to justify their own wrong. Many volumes have been written on the question of the genuineness of these love letters, as they are called, and there is perhaps now no proba- bility that the question will ever be settled. Whatever doubt there may be about these things, there is none about the events which followed. After Mary had surrendered her- self to her nobles they took her to the camp, THE FALL OF BOTHWELL. 173 she herself riding on horseback, and Grange walking by her side. As she advanced to meet the nobles who had combined against her, she said to them that she had concluded to come over to them, not from fear, or from doubt what the issue would have been if she had fought the battle, but only because she wanted to spare the effusion of Christian blood, espe- cially the blood of her own subjects. She had therefore decided to submit herself to their counsels, trusting that they would treat her as their rightful queen. The nobles made little reply to this address, but prepared to return to Edinburgh with their prize. The people of Edinburgh, who had heard what turn the affair had taken, flocked out upon the roads to see the queen return. They lined the wayside to gaze upon the great cav- alcade as it passed. The nobles who con- ducted Mary thus back toward her capitol had a banner prepared, or allowed one to be pre- pared, on which was a painting representing the dead body of Darnley, and the young prince James kneeling near him, and calling on God to avenge his cause. Mary came on, in the pro- cession, after this symbol. They might per- haps say that it was not intended to wound her feelings, and was not of a nature to do it, unless she considered herself as taking sides with the murderers of her husband. She, how- 1Y4 UAHY QUEEN OF SCOTS. ever, knew very well that she was so regarded by great numbers of the populace assembled, and that the effect of such an effigy carried be- fore her was to hold her up to public obloquy. The populace did, in fact, taunt and reproach her as she proceeded, and she rode into Edin- burgh, evincing all the way extreme mental suffering by her agitation and her tears. She expected that they were at least to take her to Holyrood ; but no, they turned at the gate to enter the city. Mary protested earnestly against this, and called, half frantic, on all who heard her to come to her rescue. But no one interfered. They took her to the jirovost's house, and lodged her there for the night, and the crowd which had assembled to observe these proceedings gradually dispersed. There seemed, however, in a day or two, to be some symptoms of a reaction in the favor of the fallen queen ; and, to guard against the pos- sibility of a rescue, the lords took Mary to Holy- rood again, and began immediately to make arrangements for some more safe place of con- finement still. In the mean time, Bothwell went from Car- berry Hill to his castle at Dunbar, revolving moodily in his mind his altered fortunes. After some time he found himself not safe in this place of refuge, and so he retreated to the north, to some estates he hacl there in the re- THE FALL OF BOTHWBLIi. 175 mote Highlands. A detachment of forces was sent in pursuit of him. Now there are, north of Scotland, some groups of dismal islands, the summits of submerged mountains and rocks, rising in dark and sublime, but gloomy gran- deur, from the midst of cold and tempestuous seas. Both well, finding himself pursued, un- dertook to escape by ship to these islands. His pursuers, headed by Grange, who had ne- gotiated at Carberry for the surrender of the . queen, embarked in other vessels, and pressed on after him. At one time they almost over- took him, and would have captured him and all his company were it not that they got en- tangled among some shoals. Grange's sailors said they must not proceed. Grange, ea*ger to seize his prey, insisted on their making sail and pressing forward. The consequence was, they ran the vessels aground, and Bothwell escaped in a small boat. As it was, however, they seized some of his accomplices, and brought them back to Edinburgh. These men were afterward tried, and some of them were executed ; and it was at their trial, and through the confessions they made, that the facts were brought to light which have been related in this narrative. Bothwell, now a fugitive and an exile, but still retaining his desperate and lawless char- acter; became a pirate, and attempted to live 176 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. by robbing the commerce of the German Ocean. Rumor is the only historian, in ordinary cases, to record the events in the life of a pirate ; and she, in this case, sent word, from time to time, to Scotland, of the robberies and murders that the desperado committed ; of an expedition fitted out against him by the King of Denmark ; Both well Captured by a Danish ship, of his being taken and carried into a Danish port ; of his being held in imprisonment for a long period there, in a gloomy dungeon ; of his restless spirit chafing itself in useless struggles against his fate, and sinking gradually, at last under the burdens of remorse for past crimes, and despair of any earthly deliverance ; of his insanity, and, finally, of his miserable end CHAPTER X. LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. Grange, or, as he is sometimes called, Kir- caldy, his title in full being Grange of Kircaldy, was a man of integrity and honor ; and he, having been the negotiator through whose intervention Mary gave herself up, felt himself bound to see that the .stipulations on the part of the nobles should be honorably fulfilled. He did all in his power to protect Mary from insult on the journey, and he struck with his sword and drove away some of the populace who were addressing her with taunts and re- proaches. When he found that the nobles were confining her, and treating her so much more like a captive than like a queen, he re- monstrated with them. They silenced him by showing him a letter, which they said they had intercepted on its way from Mary to Both- well. It was written, they said, on the night of Mary's arrival at Edinburgh. It assured Bothwell that she retained an unaltered affec- tion for him ; that her consenting to be sepa- X77 178 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. rated from him at Carberry Hill was a matter of mere necessity, and that she should rejoin him as soon as it was in her power to do so. This letter showed, they said, that, after all, Mary was not, as they had supposed, Both- well's captive and victim, but that she was his accomplice and friend ; and that, now that they had discovered their mistake, they must treat Mary, as well as Bothwell, as an enemy, and take effectual means to protect them- selves from the one as well as from the other. Mary's friends maintain that this letter was a forgery. They accordingly took Mary, as has been already stated, from the provost's house in Edinburgh down to Holyrood House, which was just without the city. This, however, was only a temporary change. That night they came into the palace, and directed Mary to rise and put on a traveling dress which they brought her. They did not tell her where she was to go, but simply ordered her to follow them. It was midnight. They took her forth from the palace, mounted her upon a horse, and, with Ruthven and Lindsay, two of the murderers of Rizzio, for an escort, they rode away. They traveled all night, crossed the River Forth, and arrived in the morning at the Castle of Loch Leven. The Castle of Loch Leven is on a small LOCH LBVEN CASTLE. l79 island in the middle of the loch. It is nearly- north from Edinburgh. The castle buildings covered at that time about one half of the island, the water coming up to the walls on three sides. On the other side was a little land, which was cultivated as a garden. The build- ings inclosed a considerable area. There was a great square tower, marked on the plan below, which was the residence of the family. It consisted of four or five rooms, one over the other. The cellar, or, rather, what would be the cellar in other cases, was a dungeon for such prisoners as were to be kept in close con- finement. The only entrance to this building was through a windo\Y in the second story, by means of a ladder which was raised and let down by a chain. This was over the point marked e on the plan. The chain was worked at a window in the story above. There were various other apartments and structures about the square, and among them there was a small octagonal tower in the corner at m, which consisted within of one room over another for three stories, and a flat roof with battlements above. In the second story there was a window, w, looking upon the water. This was the only window having an external aspect in the whole fortress, all the other openings in the exterior walls being mere loopholes and embrasures. 180 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. The following is a general plan of Loch Leven Castle : This castle was in possession of a certain personage styled the Lady Douglas. She was the mother of the Lord James, afterward the Earl of Murray, who has figured so conspicu- ously in this history as Mary's half brother, and at first her friend and counselor, though after- ward her foe. Lady Douglas was commonly called the Lady of Loch Leven. She main- tained that she and been lawfully married to James v., Mary's father, and that consequently LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. 181 her son , and not Mary, was the rightful heir to the crown. Of course she was Mary's natural enemy. They selected her castle as the place of Mary's confinement partly on this account, and partly on account of its inaccessible posi- tion in the midst of the waters of the lake. They delivered the captive queen, accordingly, to the Lady Douglas and her husband, charg- ing them to keep her safely. The Lady Doug- las received her, and locked her up in the oc- tagonal tower with the window looking out upon the water. In the mean time, all Scotland took sides for or against the queen. The strongest party were against her; and the Church was agamst her, on account of their hostility to the Catho- lic religion. A sort of provisional government was instituted, which assumed the manage- ment of public affairs. Mary had, however, some friends, and they soon began to assem- ble in order to see what could be done for her cause. Their rendezvous was at the palace of . Hamilton. This palace was situated on a plain in the midst of a beautiful park, near the River Clyde, a few miles from Glasgow. The Duke of Hamilton was prominent among the supporters of the queen, and made his house their headquarters. They were often called, from this circumstance, the Hamilton lords. On the other hand, the party opposed to 182 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Mary made the castle of Stirling their head' quarters, because the young prince was there, in whose name they were proposing soon to as- sume the government. Their plan was to de- pose Mary, or induce her to abdicate the throne, and then to make Murray regent, to govern the country in the name of the prince until the prince should become of age. During all this time Murray had beeh absent in France, but they now sent urgent messages to him to return. He obeyed the summons, and turned his face toward Scotland. In the mean time, Mary continued in con- finement in her little tower. She was not treated like a common prisoner, but had, in some degree, the attentions due to her rank. There were five or six female, and about as many male attendants ; though, if the rooms which are exhibited to visitors at the present day as the apartments which she occupied are really such, her quarters were very contracted. They consist of small apartments of an octa- gonal form, one over the other, with tortuous and narrow staircases in the solid wall to as- cend from one to the other. The roof and the floors of the tower are now gone, but the stair- ways, the capacious fireplaces, the loopholes, and the one window remain, enabling the vis- itor to reconstruct the dwelling in imagination, ^nd even to fancy Mary herself there again, Mary, facep.1S2 Mary,^ Queen of Scots, in Captivity. 14-M»ry LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. 183 seated on the stone seat by the window look- ing over the water at the distant hills, and sigh- ing to be free. The Hamilton lords were not strong enough to attempt her rescue. The weight of influ- ence and power thoughout the country went gradually and irresistibly into the other scale. There were great debates among the authori- ties of government as to what should be done. The Hamilton lords made proposals in behalf of Mary which the government coulfl not ac- cede to. Other proposals were made by dif- ferent parties in the councils of the insurgent nobles, some more and some less hard for the captive queen. The conclusion, however, final- ly was, to urge Mary to resign her crown in favor of her son, and to appoint Murray, when he should return, to act as regent till the prince should be of age. They accordingly sent commissioners to Loch Leven to propose these measures to the queen. There were three instruments of ab- dication prepared for her to sign. By one she resigned the crown in favor of her son. By the second she appointed Murray to be regent as soon as he should return from France. By the third she appointed commissioners to gov- ern the country until Murray should return. They knew that Mary would be extremely un- willing to sign these papers, and yet that they 184 MAHY QUEEN OF gCOtS. must contrive, in some way, to obtain her sig- nature without any open violence ; for the sig- nature, to be of legal force, must be, in some sense, her voluntary act. The two commissioners whom they sent to her were ^Melville and Lindsay. Melville was a thoughtful and a reasonable man, who had long been in Mary's service, and who possessed a great share of her confidence and good will. Lindsay was, on the other hand, of an over- bearing* and violent temper, of very rude speech and demeanor, and was known to be unfriendly to the queen. They hoped that Mary would be induced to sign the papers by Melville's gentle persuasions ; if not, Lindsay was to see what he could do by denunciations and threats. When the two commissioners arrived at the castle, Melville alone went first into the pres- ence of the queen. He opened the subject to her in a gentle and respectful manner. He laid before her the distracted state of Scotland, the uncertain and vague suspicions floating in the public mind on the subject of Darnley's murder, and the irretrievable shade which had been thrown over her position by the unhappy marriage with Bothwell ; and he urged her to consent to the proposed measures, as the only way now left to restore peace to the land. Mary heard him patiently, but replied that she LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. 185 could not consent to his proposal. By doing so she should not only sacrifice her own rights, and degrade herself from the position she was entitled to occupy, but she should, in some sense, acknowledge herself guilty of the charges brought against her, and justify her enemies. Melville, finding that his efforts were vain, called Lindsay in. He entered with a fierce and determined air. Mary was reminded of the terrible night when he and Ruthven broke into her little supper-room at Holyrood in quest of Rizzio. She was agitated and alarmed. Lind- say assailed her with denunciations and threats of the most violent character. There ensued a scene of the most rough and ferocious passion on the one side, and of anguish, terror, and despair on the other, which is said to have made this day the most wretched of all the wretched days of Mary's life. Sometimes she sat pale, motionless, and almost stupefied. At others, she was overwhelmed with sorrow and tears. She finally yielded ; and taking the pen, she signed the papers. Lindsay and Melville took them, left the castle gate, entered their boat, and were rowed away to the shore. This was on the 25th of July, 1567, and four days afterward the young prince was crowned at Stirling. His title was James VL Lindsay made oath at the coronation that he 186 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. was a witness of Mary's abdication of the crown in favor of her son, and that it was her own free and voluntary act. James was about one year old. The coronation took place in the chapel where Mary had been crowned in her infancy, about twenty-five years before. Mary herself, though unconscious of her own coronation, mourned bitterly over that of her son. Unhappy mother ! how little was she aware, when her heart was filled with joy and gladness at his birth, that in one short year his mere existence would furnish to her enemies the means of consummating and seal- ing her ruin. On returning from the chapel to the state apartments of the castle, after the coronation, the noblemen by whom the infant had been crowned walked in solemn procession, bearing the badges and insignia of the newly-invested royalty. One carried the crown. Morton, who was to exercise the government until Murray should return, followed with the scepter, and a third bore the infant king, who gazed about unconsciously upon the scene, regardless alike of his mother's lonely wretch- edness and of his own new scepter and crown. In the mean time, Murray was drawing near toward the confines of Scotland. He was somewhat uncertain how to act. Having been ^bs^nt for some time in France and on thQ Jlary,/acep Mary Abdicating tlie Throne. LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. 187 Continent, he was not certain how far the peo- ple of Scotland were really and cordially in favor of the revolution which had been effected, Mary's friends might claim that her acts of ab- dication, having been obtained while she was under duress, were null and void, and if they were strong enough they might attempt to reinstate her upon the throne. In this case, it would be better for him not to have acted with the insurgent government at all. To gain information on these points, Murray sent to IMclville to come and meet him on the border. IMelville came. The result of their conferences was, that Murray resolved to visit Mary in her tower before he adopted any decisive course. IMurray accordingly journeyed northward to Loch Leven, and, embarking in the boat wliich plied between the castle and the shore, he crossed the sheet of water, and was admitted into \he fortress. He had a long interview with Mary alone. At the sight of her long- absent brother, who had been her friend and guide in her early days of prosperity and hap- piness, and who had accompanied her through so many changing scenes, and who now re- turned, after his long separation from her, to find her a lonely and wretched captive, in- volved in irretrievable ruin, if not in acknowl- edged guilt, she was entirely overcome by her emotions. She burst into tears and could 188 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. not speak. What further passed at this inter- view was never precisely known. They parted tolerably good friends, however, and yet Murray immediately assumed the government, by which it is supposed that he succeeded in persuading Mary that such a step was now best for her sake as well as for that of all others concerned. Murray, however, did not fail to warn her, as he himself states, in a very serious manner, against any attempt to change her situation. " Madam," said he, "I will plainly declare to you what the sources of danger are from which I think you have most to apprehend. First, any attempt, of whatever kind, that you may make to create disturbance in the country, through friends that may still adhere to your cause, and to interfere with the government of your son ; secondly, devising or attempting any plan of escape from this island ; thirdly, taking any measures for inducing the Queen of England or the French king to come to your aid ; and, lastly, persisting in your attachment to Earl Bothwell." He warned Mary solemnly against any and all of these, and then took his leave. He was soon after proclaimed regent. A Parliament was assembled to sanction all these proceedings, and the new government was established, apparently upon a firm foun- dation. LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. 189 Mary remained, during- the winter, in captiv- ity, earnestly desiring, however, notwithstand- ing Murray's warning, to find some way of es- cape. She knew that there must be many who had remained friends to her cause. She thought that if she could once make her escape from her prison, these friends would rally around her, and that she could thus, perhaps, regain her throne again. But strictly watched as she was, and in a prison which was surrounded by the waters of a lake, all hope of escape seemed to be taken away. Now there were, in the family of the Lord Douglas at the castle, two young men, George and William Douglas. The oldest, George, was about twenty-five years of age, and the youngest was seventeen. George was the son of Lord and Lady Douglas who kept the cas- tle. William was an orphan boy, a relative, who, having no home, had been received into the family. These young men soon began to feel a strong interest in the beautiful captive confined in their father's castle, and, before many months, this interest became so strong tliat they began to feel willing to incur the dangers and responsibilities of aiding her in ef- fecting her escape. They had secret confer- ences with Mary on the subject. They went to the shore on various pretexts, and contrived to make their plans known to Mary's friends. 190 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. that they might be ready to receive her in case they should succeed. The plan at length was ripe for execution. It was arranged thus. The castle not being large, there was not space within its walls for all the accommodations required for its in- mates ; much was done on the shore, where there was quite a little village of attendants and dependents pertaining to the castle. This little village has since grown into a flourishing manufacturing town, where a great variety of plaids, and tartans, and other Scotch fabrics are made. Its name is Kinross. Communica- tion with this part of the shore was then, as now, kept up by boats, which generally then belonged to the castle, though now to the town. On the day when Mary was to attempt her escape, a servant woman was brought by one of the castle boats from the shore with a bun- dle of clothes for Mary. Mary, whose health and strength had been impaired by her confine- ment and sufferings, was often in her bed. She was so at this time, though perhaps she was feigning now more feebleness than she really felt. The servant woman came into her apart- ment and undressed herself, while Mary rose, took the dress which she laid aside, and put it on as a disguise. The woman took Mary's place in bed. Mary covered her face with a muffler, and, taking another bundle in her LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. 191 hand to assist in her disguise, she passed across the court, issued from the castle gate, went to the landing stairs, and stepped into the boat for the men to row her to the shore. The oarsmen, who belonged to the castle, supposing that all was right, pushed off, and began to row toward the land. As they were crossing the water, however, they observed that their passenger was very particular to keep her face covered, and attempted to pull away the muffler, saying, "Let us see what kind of a looking damsel this is." Mary, in alarm, put up her hands to her face to hold the muffler there. The smooth, white, and delicate fin- gers revealed to the m.en at once that they were carrying away a lady in disguise. Mary, finding that concealment was no longer pos- sible, dropped her muffler, looked upon the men with composure and dignity, told them that she was their queen, that they were bound by their allegiance to her to obey her com- mands, and she commanded them to go on and row her to the shore. The men decided, however, that their alle- giance was due to the lord of the castle rather than to the helpless captive trying to escape from it. They told her that they must return. Mary was not only disappointed at the failure of licr plans, but she was now anxious lest her friends, the young Douglases, should be im- 192 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. plicated in the attempt, and should suffer in consequence of it. The men, however, sol- emnly promised her, that if she should quietly return, they would not make the circumstances known. The secret, however, was too great a secret to be kept. In a few days it all came to light. Lord and Lady Douglas were very angry with their son, and banished him, to- gether with two of IMary's servants, from the castle. Whatever share young William Doug- las had in the scheme was not found out, and he was suffered to remain. George Douglas went only to Kinross. He remained there watching for another opportunity to help Mary to her freedom. In the mean time, the watch and ward held over Mary was more strict and rigorous than ever, her keepers being resolved to double their vigilance, while George and William, on the other hand, resolved to redouble their ex- ertions to find some means to circumvent "it. William, who was only a boy of seventeen, and who remained within the castle, acted his part in a very sagacious and admirable man- ner. He was silent, and assumed a thought- less and unconcerned manner in his general deportment, which put every one off their guard in respect to him. George, who was at Kinross, held frequent communications with the Hamilton lords, encouraging them to hope LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. 193 for Mary's escape, and leading them to con- tinue in combination, and to be ready to act at a moment's warning. They communicated with each other, too, by secret means, across the lake, and with Mary in her solitary tower. It is said that George, wishing to make Mary understand that their plans for rescuing her were not abandoned, and not having the op- portunity to do so directly, sent her a picture of the mouse liberating the lion from his snares, hoping that she would dravs^ from the picture the inference which he intended. At length the time arrived for another at- tempt. It was about the first of May. By looking at the engraving of Loch Leven Castle, it will be seen that Ihfere was a window in Mary's tower looking out over the water. George Douglas's plan was to bring a boat up to this window in the night, and take Mary down the wall into it. The place of egress by which Mary escaped is called in some of the ac- counts a postern gate, and yet tradition at the castle says that it was through this window. It is not improbable that this window might have been intended to be used sometimes as a pos- tern gate, and that the iron grating with which it was guarded was made to open and shut, the key being kept with the other keys of the castle. The time for the attempt was fixed upon for 194 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Sunday night, on the 2d of May. George Douglas was ready with the boat early in the evening. When it was dark, he rowed cautious- ly across the water, and took his position under Mary's window. William Douglas was in the mean time at supper in the great square tower w^ith his father and mother. The keys were lying upon the table. He contrived to get them into his possession, and then cautiously stole away. He locked the tower as he came out, went across the court to Mary's room, lib- erated her through the postern window, and descended with her into the boat. One of her maids, whose name was Jane Kennedy, was to have accompanied her, but, in their eager- ness to make sure of Mary, they forgot or ne- glected her, and she had to leap down after them, which feat she accomplished without any serious injury. The boat pushed off im- mediately, and the Douglases began to pull hard for the shore. They threw the keys of the castle into the lake, as if the impossibility of recovering them, in that case, made the im- prisonment of the family more secure. The whole party were, of course, in the highest state of excitement and agitation. Jane Ken- nedy helped to row, and it is said that even Mary applied her strength to one of the oars. They landed safely on the south side of the loch, far from Kinross. Several of the Hamil- LOCH LEVEN CASTLE. 195 ton lords were ready there to receive the fugi- tive. They mounted her on horseback, and galloped away. There was a strong party to escort her. They rode hard all night, and the next morning they arrived safely at Hamilton. "Now," said Mary, *'I am once more a queen." It was true. She was again a queen. Pop- ular feeling ebbs and flows with prodigious force, and the change from one state to the other depends, sometimes, on very accidental causes. The news of Mary's escape spread rapidly over the land. Her friends were en- couraged and emboldened. Sympathies, long dormant and inert, were awakened in her favor. She issued a proclamation, declaring that her abdication had been forced upon her, and, as such, was null and void. She sum- moned Murray to surrender his powers as re- gent, and to come and receive orders from her. ' She called upon all her faithful subjects, to take up arms and gather around her stand- ard. Murray refused to obey, but large masses of the people gave in their adhesion to their liberated queen, and flocked to Hamilton to enter into her service. In a week Mary found herself at the head of an army of six thousand men. The Castle of Loch Leven is now a solitary 15-MKy 196 MARY QUEEK OF SCOTS. ruin. The waters of the loch have been low- ered by means of an excavation of the outlet, and a portion of land has been left bare around the walls, which the proprietor has planted %vith trees. Visitors are taken from Kinross in a boat to view the scene. The square tower, though roofless and desolate, still stands. The window in the second story, which served as the entrance, and the one above, where the chain was worked, with the deep furrows in the sill cut by its friction, are shown by the guide. The courtyard is over- grown with w^eeds, and encumbered with fallen stones and old foundations. The chapel is gone, though its outline may be still traced in the ruins of its walls. The octagonal tower which Mary occupied remains, and the visitors, climbing up by the narrow stone stairs in the wall, look out at the window over the waters of the loch and the distant hills, and try to re- create in imagination the scene which the apartment presented when the unhappy captive was there. CHAPTER XI. THE LONG CAPTIVITY. Hamilton, which had been thus far the queen's place of rendezvous, was a palace rather than a castle, and therefore not a place of defense. It was situated, as has been al- ready stated, on the River Clyde, above Glas- gow • that is, toward the southeast of it, the River Clyde flowing toward the northwest. The Castle of Dumbarton, which has already been mentioned as the place from which Mary embarked for France in her early childhood was below Glasgow, on the northern shore of the river. It stands there still in good repair, and is well garrisoned; it crowns a rock which rises abruptly from the midst of a com- paratively level country, smiling with villages and cultivated fields, and frowns sternly upon the peaceful steamers and merchant ships which are continually gliding along under its P-uns, up and down the Clyde. Queen Mary concluded to move forward to Dumbarton, it being a place of greater safety than Hamilton. Murray gathered his forces 198 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. to intercept her march. The two armies met near Glasgow, as the queen was moving west- ward, down the river. There was a piece of rising ground between them, which each party was eager to ascend before the other should reach it. The leader of the forces on Murray's side ordered every horseman to take up a foot- soldier behind him, and ride with all speed to the top of the hill. By this means the great body of Murray's troops were put in possession of the vantage ground. The queen's forces took post on another rising ground, less favor- able, at a little distance. The place was called Langside. A cannonading was soon com- menced, and a general battle ensued. Mary watched the progress of it with intense emo- tions. Her forces began soon to give way, and before many hours they were retreating in all directions, the whole country being soon covered with the awful spectacles which are afforded by one terrified and panic-stricken army flying before the furious and triumphant rage of another. Mary gazed on the scene in an agony of grief and despair. A few faithful friends kept near her side, and told her that she must hurry away. They turned to the southward, and rode away from the ground. They pressed on as rapidly as possible toward the southern coast, thinking that the only safety for Mary now was for her THE LONG CAPTIVITY. 199 to make her escape from the country alto- gether, and go either to England or to France, in hopes of obtaining foreign aid to enable her to recover her throne. They at length reached the sea-coast. Mary was received into an abbey called Dundrennan, not far from the English frontier. Here she remained, with a few nobles and a small body of attendants, for two days, spending the time in anxious con- sultations to determine what should be done. Mary herself was in favor of going to England, and appealing to Elizabeth for protection and help. Her friends and advisers, knowing Elizabeth perhaps better than Mary did, rec- ommended that she should sail for France, in hopes of awakening sympathy there. But Mary, as we might naturally have expected, con- sidering the circumstances under which she left that country, found herself extremely unwill- ing to go there as a fugitive and a suppliant. It was decided, finally, to go to England. The nearest stronghold in England was Car- lisle Castle, which was not very far from the frontier. The boundary between the two kingdoms is formed here by the Solway Frith, a broad arm of the sea. Dundrennan Abbey, to which Mary had retreated, was near the town of Kirkcudbright, which is, of course, on the northern side of the Frith ; it is also near the sea. Carlisle is further up the Frith, near 200 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. where the River Solway empties into it, and is twenty or thirty miles from the shore. Mary sent a messenger to the governor of the castle at Carlisle to inquire whether he would receive and protect her. She could not, however, wait for an answerto this message, as the country was all in commotion, and she was exposed to an attack at any time from Mur- ray's forces, in which case, even if they should not succeed in taking her captive, they might effectually cut off her retreat from Scottish ground. She accordingly determined to pro- ceed immediately, and receive the answer from the governor of the castle on the way. She set out on the i6th of May. Eighteen or twenty persons constituted her train. This was all that remained to her of her army of six thousand men. She proceeded to the shore. They provided a fishing-boat for the voyage, furnishing it as comfortably for her as circum- stances would admit. She embarked, and sailed along the coast, eastward, up the Frith, for about eighteen miles, gazing mournfully upon the receding shore of her native land — receding, in fact, now from her view forever. They landed at the most convenient port for reaching Carlisle, intending to take the re- mainder of the journey by land. In the mean time, the messenger, on his ar- rival at Carlisle, found that the governor had THE LONG CAPTIVITY. 201 gone to London. His second in rank, whom he had left in command, immediately sent off an express after him to inform him of the event. The name of this lieutenant-governor was Lowther. Lowther did all in Mary's favor that it was in his power to do. He directed the messenger to inform her that he had sent to London for instructions from Elizabeth, but that, in the mean time, she would be a welcome guest in his castle, and that he would defend her there from all her enemies. He then sent around to all the nobles and men of distinction in the neighborhood, informing them of the ar- rival of the distinguished visitor, and having assembled them, they proceeded together to- ward the coast to meet -and receive the un- happy fugitive with the honors becoming her rank, though such honors must have seemed little else than a mockery in her present condition. Mary was received at the castle as an hon- ored guest. It is, however, a curious circum- stance, that, in respect to the reception of princes and queens in royal castles, there is little or no distinction between the ceremonies which mark the honored guest and those which attend the helpless captive. Mary had a great many friends at first, who came out of Scot- land to visit her. The authorities ordered re- pairs to be commenced upon the castle, to fit 202 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. it more suitably for so distinguished an inmate, and, in consequence of the making of these repairs, they found it inconvenient to admit visitors. Of course, Mary, being a mere guest, could not complain. She wanted to take a walk beyond the limits of the ciistle, upon a green to which there was access through a postern gate. Certainly : the governor made no objection to such a walk, but sent twenty or thirty armed men to accompany her. They might be considered either as an honorary es- cort, or as a guard to watch her movements, to prevent her escape, and to secure her return. At one time she proposed to go a hunting. They allowed her to go, properly atlended. On her return, however, the officer reported to his superior that she was so admi- rable in her horsemanship, and could ride with so much fearlessness and speed, that he thought it might be possible for a body of her friends to come and carry her off, on some such occasion, back across the frontier. So they determined to tell Mary, when she wished to hunt again, that they thought it not safe for her to go out on such excursions, as her enemies might make a sudden invasion and carry her away. The precautions would be just the same to protect Mary from her enemies as to keep her from her friends. Elizabeth sent her captive cousin very kind THE LONG CAPTlV^lTY. '203 and condoling messages, despatching, how- ever, by the same messenger stringent orders to the commander of the castle to be sure and keep her safely. Mary asked for an inter- view with Elizabeth. Elizabeth's officers re- plied that she could not properly admit Mary to a personal interview until she had been, in some way or other, cleared of the suspicion which attached to her in respect to the murder of Darnley. They proposed, moreover, that Mary should consent to have that question ex- amined before some sort of court which Eliza- beth might constitute for this purpose. Now it is a special point of honor among all sover- eign kings and queens, throughout the civilized world, that they can, technically, do no wrong ; that they cannot in any way be brought to trial ; and especially that they cannot be, by any means or in any way, amenable to each other. Mary refused to acknowledge any English jurisdiction whatever in respect to any charges brought against her, a sovereign queen of Scotland. Elizabeth removed her prisoner to another castle further from the frontier than Carlisle, in order to place her in a situation where she would be more safe /r<9;72 her e7iemies. It was not convenient to lodge so many of her attend- ants at these new quarters as in the other for- tress, and several were dismissed, Additional 204 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Obstructions were thrown in the way of her seeing- friends and visitors from Scotland. Mary found her situation growing every day more and more helpless and desolate. Eliza- beth urged continually upon her the necessity of having the points at issue between herself and Murray examined by a commissioner, artfully putting it on the ground, not of atrial of Mary, but a calling of Murray to account, by Mary, for his usurpation. At last, harassed and worn down, and finding no ray of hope coming to her from any quarter, she consented. Elizabeth constituted such a court, which was to meet at York, a large and ancient city in the north of England. Murray was to appear there in person, with other lords, associated with him. Mary appointed commissioners to appear for her ; and the two parties went into court, each thinking that it was the other which was accused and on trial. The court assembled, and after being opened with great parade and ceremony, commenced the investigation of the questions at issue, which led, of course, to endless criminations and recriminations, the ground covering the whole history of Mary's career in Scotland. They went on for some weeks in this hopeless labyrinth, until, at length, Murray produced the famous letters alleged to have been written by Mary to Both well before Darnley's murder. THE LONG CAPTIVITY. 205 as a part of the evidence, and charged Mary, on the strength of this evidence, with having been an abettor in the murder. Elizabeth, finding that the affair was becoming, as in fact she wished it to become, more and more in- volved, and wishing to get Mary more and more entangled in it, and to draw her still fur- ther into her power, ordered the conference, as the court was called, to be adjourned to Lon- don. Here things took such a turn that Mary complained that she was herself treated in so unjust a manner, and Murray and his cause were allowed so many unfair advantages, that she could not allow the discussion on her part to continue. The conference was accordingly broken up, each party charging the other with being the cause of the interruption. Murray returned to Scotland to resume his government there. Mary was iheld a closer captive than ever. She sent to Elizabeth ask- ing her to remove these restraints, and allow her to depart either to her own country or to France. Elizabeth replied that she could not, considering all the circumstances of the case, allow her to leave England ; but that, if she would give up all claims to the government of Scotland to her son, the young prince, she might remain in peace in England. Mary re- plied that she would suffer death a thousand times rather than dishonor herself in the eye§ 206 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. of the world by abandoning, in such a way, her rights as a sovereign. The last words which she should speak, she said, should be those of the Queen of Scotland. Elizabeth therefore considered that she had no alternative left but to keep Mary a pris- oner. She accordingly retained her for some time in confinement, but she soon found that such a charge was a serious incumbrance to her, and one not unattended with danger. The disaffected in her own realm were beginning to form plots, and to consider whether they could not, in some way or other, make use of Mary's claims to the English crown to aid them. Finally, Elizabeth came to the conclusion, when she had become a little satiated with the feeling, at first so delightful, of having Mary in her power, that, after all, it would be quite as convenient to have her imprisoned in Scot- land, and she opened a negotiation with Murray for delivering Mary into his hands. He was, on his part, to agree to save her life, and to keep her a close prisoner, and he was to deliver hostages to Elizabeth as security for the ful- filment of these obligations. Various difficulties, however, occurred in the way of the accomplishment of these plans, and before the arrangement was finally completed, it was. cut suddenly short by Murray's miser- able end. One of the Hamiltons, who had Mary Protesting against her Captivity. THE LONG CAPTIVITY. 207 been with Mary at Langside, was taken pris- oner after the battle. Murray, who, of course, as the legally constituted regent in the name of James, considered himself as representing the royal authority of the kingdom, regarded these prisoners as rebels taken in the act of insurrection against their sovereign. They were condemned to death, but finally were pardoned at the place of execution. Their estates were, however, confiscated, and given to the followers and favorites of Murray. One of these men, in taking possession of the house of Hamilton, with a cruel brutality char- acteristic of the times, turned Hamilton's fam- ily out abruptly in a cold night— perhaps exas- perated by resistance which he may have en- countered. The wife of Hamilton, it is said, was sent out naked ; but the expression means, probably, very insufficiently clothed for such an exposure. At any rate, the unhappy out- cast wandered about, half frantic with anger and terror, until, before morning, she was wholly frantic and insane. To have such a calamity brought upon him in consequence merely of his fidelity to his queen, was, as the bereaved and wretched husband thought, an injury not to be borne. He considered Murray the responsible author of these miseries, and silently and calmly resolved on a terrible re- venge. 208 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Murray was making a progress through the country, traveling in state with a great ret- inue, and was to pass through LinHthgow. There is a town of that name close by the pal- ace. Hamilton provided himself with a room in one of the houses on the principal .^treet, through which he knew that Murray must pass. He had a fleet horse ready for him at the back door. The front door was barricaded. There was a sort of balcony or gallery projecting toward the street, with a window in it. He stationed himself here, having carefully taken every precaution to prevent his being seen from the street, or overheard in his move- ments. Murray lodged in the town during the night, and Hamilton posted himself in his am- buscade the next morning, armed with a gun. The town was thronged, and Murray, on is- SLung from his lodging, escorted by his caval- cade, found the streets crowded with specta- tors. He made his way slowly, on account "of the throng. 'When he arrived at the proper point, Hamilton took his aim in a cool and de- liberate manner, screened from observation by black cloths with which he had darkened his hiding-place. He fired. The ball passed through the body of the regent, and thence, descending as it went, killed a horse on the other side of him^ Murray fell. There was a universal outcry of surprise and fear. They Mary, face p. 208 Assassination of the Earl of Murray. 16-Mary ^HE LONG CAPTIVITY. 209 made an onset upon the house from which the shot had been fired. The door was strongly barricaded. Before they could get the means to force an entrance, Hamilton was on his horse and far away. The regent was carried to his lodgings, and died that night. Murray was Queen Mary's half brother, and the connection of his fortunes with hers, con- sidered in respect to its intimacy and the length of its duration, was, on the whole, greater than that of any other individual. He may be said to have governed Scotland, in reality, during the whole of Mary's nominal reign, first as her minister and friend, and afterward as her competitor and foe. He was, at any rate, during most of her life, her nearest rela- tive and her most constant companion, and Mary mourned his death with many tears. There was a great nobleman in England, named the Duke of Norfolk, who had vast es- tates, and was regarded as the greatest subject in the realm. He was a Catholic. Among the other countless schemes and plots to which Mary's presence in England gave rise, he formed a plan of marrying her, and, through her claim to the crown and by the help of the Catholics, to overturn the government of Elizabeth. He entered into negotiations with Mary, and she consented to become his wife, without, however, she says, being a party to 210 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. his political schemes. His plots were dis- covered ; he was imprisoned, tried, and be- headed. Mary was accused of sharing the guilt of his treason. She denied this. She was not very vigorously proceeded against, but she suffered in the event of the affair an- other sad disappointment of her hopes of liberty, and her confinement became more strict -and absolute than ever. Still she had quite a numerous retinue of attendants. Many of her former friends were allowed to continue with her. Jane Kennedy, who had escaped with her from Loch Leven, remained in her service. She was removed from castle to castle, at Elizabeth's orders, to diminish the probability of the forming and maturing of plans of escape. She amused her self sometimes in embroidery and similar pur- suits, and sometimes she pined and languished under the pressure of her sorrows and woes. Sixteen or eighteen years parsed away in this manner. She was almost forgotten. Very exciting public events were taking place in England and in Scotland, and the name of the poor captive queen at length seemed to pass from men's minds, except so far as it was whis- pered secretly in plots and intrigues. CHAPTER XII. THE END. Mary did not always discourage the plots and intrigues with which her name was con- nected. She, of course, longed for deliver- ance from the thraldom in which Elizabeth held her, and was ready to embrace any opportu- nity which promised retease. She thus seems to have listened from time to time to the over- tures which were made to her, and involved herself, in Elizabeth's opinion, more or less, in the responsibility which attached to them. Elizabeth did not, however, in such cases, do anything more than to increase somewhat the rigors of her imprisonment. She was afraid to proceed to extremities with her, partly, per- haps, for fear that she might, by doing so, awaken the hostility of France, whose king was Mary's cousin, or of Scotland, whose monarch was her son. At length, however, in the year 1586, about eighteen years from the commencement of Mary's captivity, a plot was formed in which 211 212 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. she became so seriously involved as to subject herself to the charge of aiding and abetting in the high treason of which the leaders of the plot were proved to be guilty. This plot is known in history by the name of Babington's conspiracy. Babington was a young gentle- man of fortune, who lived in the heart of England. He was inspired with a strong degree of interest in Mary's fate, and wished to rescue her from her captivity. He joined himself with a large party of influential indi- viduals of the Catholic faith. The conspirators opened negotiations with the courts of France and Spain for aid. They planned an insurrec- tion, the assassination of Elizabeth, the rescue of Mary, and a general revolution. They maintained a correspondence with Mary. This correspondence was managed very secretly, the letters being placed by a confidential mes- senger in a certain hole in the castle wall where Queen Mary was confined. One day, when Mary was going out to ride, just as she was entering her carriage, ofiicers suddenly arrived from London. They told her that the plot in which she had been engaged had been discovered ; that fourteen of the prin- cipal conspirators had been hung, seven on each of two successive days, and that they had come to arrest some of her attendants and to seize her papers. They accordingly went into THE END. 218 her apartments, opened all her desks, trunks, and cabinets, seized her papers, and took them to London. Mary sat down in the scene of desolation and disorder which they left, and wept bitterly. The papers which were seized were taken to London, and Elizabeth's government began seriously to agitate the question of bringing Mary herself to trial. One would have thought that, in her forlorn and desolate condition, she would have looked to her son for sympathy and aid. But rival claimants to a crown can have little kind feeling to each other, even if they are mother and son. James, as he gradu- ally approached towards maturity, took sides against his mother. In fact, all Scotland was divided, and was for many years in a state of civil war : those who advocated Mary's right to the crown on one side, and James's adher- ents on the other. They were called king's men and queen's men. James was, of course, brought up in hostility to his mother, and he wrote to her, about a year before Babington's conspiracy, in terms so hostile and so devoid of filial love, that his ingratitude stung her to the heart. "Was it for this, " she said, ''that I made so many sacrifices, and endured so many trials on his account in his early years ? I have made it the whole business of my life to protect and secure his rights, and to open 214 MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS. before him a prospect of future power and glory : and this is the return." The Enghsh government, under Elizabeth's direction, concluded to bring Mary to a pub- lic trial. They removed her, accordingly, to the Castle of Fotheringay. Fotheringay is in Northamptonshire, which is in the very heart of England, Northampton, the shire town, being about sixty miles northwest of London. Fotheringay Castle was on the banks of the River Nen, or Avon, which flows northeast from Northampton to the sea. A few miles be- low the castle is the ancient town of Peter- borough, where there was a monastery and a great cathedral church. The monastery had been built a thousand years before. They removed Mary to Fotheringay Castle for her trial, and lawyers, counselors, com- missioners, and officers of state began to as- semble there from all quarters. The castle was a spacious structure. It was surrounded with two moats, and with double walls, and was strongly fortified. It contained numer- ous and spacious apartments, and it had es- pecially one large hall which was well adapted to the purposes of this great trial. The prep- arations for the solemn ordeal through which Mary was now to pass, brought her forth from the obscurity in which she had so long been lost to the eyes of mankind, and made her the THE END. 215 universal object of interest and attention in England, Scotland, and France. The people of all these nations looked on with great inter- est at the spectacle of one queen tried solemnly on a charge of high treason against another. The stories of her beauty, her graces, her mis- fortunes, which had slumbered for eighteen years, were all now revived, and everybody felt a warm interest in the poor captive, worn down by long confinement, and trembling in the hands of what they feared would be a mer- ciless and terrible power. Mary was removed to the Castle of Fother- ingay toward the end of September, 1586. The preparations for the trial proceeded slowly. Everything in which kings and queens, or affairs of state were concerned in those days, was conducted with great pomp and ceremony. The arrangements of the hall were minutely prescribed. At the head of it a sort of throne was placed, with a royal canopy over it, for the Queen of England. This, though it was vacant, impressed the court and the specta- tors as a symbol of royalty, and denoted that the sovereignty of Elizabeth was the power before which Mary was arraigned. When the preparations were made, Mary re- fused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court. She denied that they had any right to arraign or to try her. " I am no subject of 216 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Elizabeth's," said she. "I am an independent and sovereign queen as well as she, and I will not consent to anything inconsistent with this my true position. I owe no allegiance to England, and I am not, in any sense, subject to her laws. I came into the realm only to ask assistance from a sister queen, and I have been made a captive, and detained many years in an unjust and cruel imprisonment; and though now worn down both in body and mind by my protracted sufferings, I am not yet so enfeebled as to forget what is due to myself, my ancestors, and my country." This refusal of Mary's to plead, or to ac- knowledge the jurisdiction of the court, caused a new delay. They urged her to abandon her resolution. They told her that if she refused to plead, the trial would proceed without her action, and, by pursuing such a course, she would only deprive herself of the means of de- fense, without at all impeding the course of her fate. At length Mary yielded. It would, have been better for her to have adhered to her first intention. The commission by which Mary was to be tried consisted of earls, barons, and other per- sons of rank, twenty or thirty in number. They were seated on each side of the room, the throne being at the head. In the center Wa§ a table, where the lawyers, by whom the Mary, /act p. 2i6 Trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. THE END. 217 trial was to be conducted, were seated. Below this table was a chair for Mary. Behind Mary's chair was a rail, dividing off the lower end of the hall from the court ; and this formed an outer space, to which some spectators were admitted. Mary took her place in the seat assigned her, and the trial proceeded. They adduced the evidence against her, and then asked for her defense. She said substantially that she had a right to make an effort to recover her liberty ; that, after being confined a captive so long, and having lost forever her youth, her health, and her happiness, it was not wonderful that she wished to be free ; but that, in endeavor- ing to obtain her freedom, she had formed no plans to injure Elizabeth, or to interfere in any way with her rights or prerogatives as queen. The commissioners, after devoting some days to hearing evidence, and listening to the de- fense, sent Mary back to her apartments, and went to London. There they had a final con- sultation, and unanimously agreed in the fol- lowing decision: "That Mary, commonly called Queen of Scots and dowager of France, had been an accessory to Babington's con- spiracy, and had compassed the death of Elizabeth queen of England." Elizabeth pretended to be very much con- cerned at this result. She laid the proceedings 218 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. before Parliament. It was supposed then, and has always been supposed since, that she wished Mary to be beheaded, but desired not to take the responsibility of it herself ; and that she wanted to appear unwilling, and to be im- pelled, greatly against her own inclinations, by the urgency of others, to carry the sentence into execution. At any rate, Parliament, and all the members of the government, approved and confirmed the verdict, and wished to have it carried into effect. It has always been the custom, in modern times, to require the solemn act of the supreme magistrate of any state to confirm a decision of a tribunal which condemns a person to death, by signing what is called a warrant for the execution. This is done by the king or queen in England, and by the governor in one of the United States. This warrant is an order, very formally written, and sealed with the great seal, authorizing the executioner to proceed, and carry the sentence into effect. Of course, Queen Mary could not be executed unless Elizabeth should first sign the warrant. Eliza- beth would herself, probably, have been better pleased to have been excused from all direct agency in the affair. But this could not be. She, however, made much delay, and affected great unwillingness to proceed. She sent messengers to Mary, telling her what the THE END. 219 sentence had been, how sorry she was to hear it, and how much she desired to save her life, if it were possible. At the same time, she told her that she feared it might not be in her power, and she advised Mary to prepare her mind for the execution of the sentence. Mary wrote a letter to Elizabeth in reply. She said in this letter that she was glad to hear that they had pronounced sentence of death against her, for she was weary of life, and had no hope of relief or rest from her miseries but in the grave. She wrote, therefore, not to ask any change in the decision, but to make three requests. First that, after her execution, her body might be removed to France, and be de- posited at Rheims, where the ashes of her mother were reposing. Secondly, that her ex- ecution should not be in secret, but that her personal friends might be present, to attest to the world that she met her fate with resig- nation and fortitude ; and, thirdly, that her at- tendants and friends, who had, through their faithful love for her, shared her captivity so long, might be permitted to retire wherever they pleased, after her death, without any molestation. "I hope," said she, in conclu- sion, " you will not refuse me these my dying requests, but that you will assure me by a letter under your own hand that you will comply with them, and then I shall die as I 220 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. have lived, your affectionate sister and pris- oner, Mary Queen of Scots." Tlie King of France, and James, Mary's son in Scotland, made somewhat vigorous efforts to arrest the execution of the sentence vi^hich had been pronounced against Mary. From these and other causes, the signing of the warrant was delayed for some months, but at length Elizabeth yielded to the solicitations of her ministers. She affixed her signature to the instrument. The chancellor put upon it the great seal, and the commissioners who were appointed by it to superintend the exe- cution went to Fotheringay. They arrived there on the 7th of February, 1587. After resting, and refreshing themselves for a short time from their journey, the commis- sioners sent word to Mary that they wished for an interview with her. Mary had retired. They said that their business was very impor- tant. She rose, and prepared to receive them. She assembled all her attendants, fourteen or fifteen in number, in order to receive the com- missioners in a manner comporting, so far as circumstances allowed, with her rank and station. The commissioners were at length ushered into .the apartment. They stood respectfully before her, with their heads un- covered. The foremost then, in language as forbearing and gentle as was consistent with 17— Mary THE END. 221 the nature of his message, informed her that it had been decided to carry the sentence which had been pronounced against her into effect, and then he requested another of the number to read the warrant for her exe- cution. Mary listened to it calmly and patiently. Her attendants, one after another, were over- come by the mournful and awful solemnity of the scene, and melted into tears. Mary, how- ever, was calm. When the reading of the warrant was ended, she said that she was sorry that her cousin Elizabeth should set the example of taking the life of a sovereign queen ; but for herself, she was willing to die. Life had long ceased to afford her any peace or happiness, and she was ready to exchange it for the prospect of immortality. She then laid her hand upon the New Testament, which was near her, of course a Catholic version, and called God to witness that she had never plotted herself, or joined in plots with others, for the death of Elizabeth. One of the com- missioners remarked that her oath being upon a Catholic version of the Bible, they should not consider it valid. She rejoined that it ought to be considered the more sacred and solemn on that account, as that was the ver- sion which she regarded as the only one which was authoritative and true. 222 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Mary then asked the commissioners several questions, as whether her son James had not expressed any interest in her fate, and whether no foreign princes had interposed to save her. The commissioners answered these and other inquiries, and Mary learned fi;om their answers that her fate was sealed. She then asked them what time was appointed for the exe- cution. They replied that it was to take place at eight o'clock the following morning. Mary had not expected so early an hour to be named. She said it was sudden ; and she seemed agitated and distressed. She, how- ever, soon recovered her composure, and asked to have a Catholic priest allowed to visit her. The commissioners replied that that could. not be permitted. They, however, pro- posed to send the Dean of Peterborough to visit her. A dean is the ecclesiastical func- tionary presiding over a cathedral church ; and, of course, the Dean of Peterborough . was the clergyman of the highest rank in that vic- inity. He was, however, a Protestant, and Mary did not wish to see him. The commissioners withdrew, and left Mary with her friends, when there ensued one of those scenes of anguish and suffering which those who witness them never forget, but carry the gloomy remembrance of them, like a dark shadow in the soul, to the end of their days. THE END. 223 Mary was quiet, and appeared calm. It may, however, have been the calm of hopeless and absolute despair. Her attendants were over- wheln-ied with agitation and grief, the expres- sion of which they could not even attempt to control. At last they became more composed, and Mary asked them to kneel with her in prayer ; and she prayed for some time fervent- ly and earnestly in the midst of them. She then directed supper to be prepared as usual, and, until it was ready, she spent her time in dividing the money which she had on hand into separate parcels for her attendants, marking each parcel with the name. She sat down at the table when supper was served, and though she ate but little, she conversed as usual, in a cheerful manner, and with smiles. Her friends were silent and sad, struggling continually to keep back their tears. At the close of the supper Mary called for a cup of wine, and drank to the health of each one of them, and then asked them to drink to her. They took the cup, and, kneeling before her, complied with her request, though, as they did it, the tears would come to their eyes. :\Iary'then told them that she willingly for- gave them for all that they had ever done to displease her, and she thanked them for their long-continued fidelity and love. She also asked that they would forgive her for any- 224 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. thing she might ever have done in respect to them which was inconsistent with her duty. They answered the request only with a re- newal of their tears. Mary spent the evening in w^riting two let- ters to her nearest relatives in France, and in making her will. The principal object of these letters was to recommend her servants to the attention and care of those to whom they were addressed, after she should be gone. She went to bed shortly after midnight, and it is said she slept. This would be incredible, if anything were incredible in respect to the workings of the human soul in a time of awful trial like this, which so transcends all the ordinary conditions of its existence. At any rate, whether Mary slept or not, the morning soon came. Her friends were around her as soon as she rose. She gave them mi- nute directions about the disposition of her body. She wished to have it taken to France to be interred, as she had requested of Eliza- beth, either at Rheims, in the same tomb with the body of her mother, or else at St. Denis, an ancient abbey a little north of Paris, where the ashes of a long line of French monarchs repose. She begged her servants, if possible, not to leave her body till it should reach its final home in one of these places of sepulture. In the mean time, arrangements had been THE END. 225 made for the last act in this dreadful tragedy, in the same great hall where she had been tried. They raised a platform upon the stone floor of the hall large enough to contain those who were to take part in the closing scene. On this platform was a block, a cushion, and a chair. All these things, as well as the plat- form itself, were covered with black cloth, giving to the whole scene a most solemn and funereal expression. The part of the hall con- taining this scaffold was railed off from the rest. The governor of the castle, and a body of guards, came in and took their station at the sides of the room. Two executioners, one holding the ax, stood upon the scaffold on one side of the block. • Two of the commis- sioners stood upon the other side. The remain- ing commissioners and several gentlemen of the neighborhood took their places as spectators without the rail. The number of persons thus assembled was about two hundred. Strange that any one should have come in, voluntarily, to witness such a scene ! When all was ready, the sheriff, carrying his white wand of office, and attended by some of the commissioners, went for Mary. She was at her devotions, and she asked a little delay that she might conclude them : perhaps the shrinking spirit clung at the last moment to life, and wished to linger a few minutes 226 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. longer before taking the final farewell. The request was granted. In a short time Mary- signified that she was ready, and they began to move toward the hall of execution. Her attendants were going to accompany her. The sheriff said this could not be allowed. She accordingly bade them farewell, and they filled the castle with the sound of their shrieks and lamentations. Mary went on, descending the staircase, at the foot of which she was joined by one of her attendants from whom she had been separated for some time. His name was Sir Andrew Melville, and he was the master of her house- hold. The name of her secretary Melville was James. Sir Andrew kneeled before her, kissed her hand, and said that this was the saddest hour of his life. Mary began to give him some last commissions and requests. *'Say," said she, "that I died firm in the faith ; that I for- give my enemies ; that I feel that I have never disgraced Scotland, my native country, and that I have been always true to France, the land of my happiest years. Tell my son " Here her voice faltered and ceased to be heard, and she burst into tears. She struggled to regain her composure. *^ Tell my son," said she, "that I thought of him in my last moments, and that I have never yielded, either by word or deed, to anything THE'EfTD. 227 whatever that might lead to his prejudice. Tell him to cherish the memory of his mother, and say that I sincerely hope his life may be happier than mine has been." Mary then turned to the commissioners who stood by, and renewed her request that her at- tendants, who had just been separated from her, might come down and see her die. The commissioners objected. They said that if these attendants were admitted, their anguish and lamentations would only add to her own distress, and make the whole scene more pain- ful. Mary, however, urged the request. She said they had been devotedly attached to her all her days ; they had shared her captivity, and loved and served h^r faithfully to the end, and it was enough if she herself, and they, de- sired that they should be present. The com- missioners at last yielded, and allowed her to name six, who should be summoned to attend her. She did so, and the six came down. The sad procession then proceeded to the hall. Mary was in full court dress, and walked into the apartment with the air and com- posure of a reigning queen. She leaned on the arm of her physician. Sir Andrew Melville followed, bearing the train of her robe. Her dress is described as a gown of black silk, bor- dered with crimson velvet, over which was a satin mantle. A long veil of white crape, 228 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. edged with rich lace, hung dov/n almost to the ground. Around her neck was an ivory cru- cifix — that is, an image of Christ upon the cross, which the Catholics use as a memorial of our Saviour's sufferings— and a rosary, which is a string of beads of peculiar arrangement, often employed by them as an aid in their de- votions. Mary meant, doubtless, by these sym- bols, to show to her enemies and to the world, that though she submitted to her fate without resistance, yet, so far as the contest of her life had been one of religious faith, she had no in- tention of yielding. Mary ascended the platform and took her seat in the chair provided for her. With the exception of stifled sobs here and there to be heard, the room was still. An officer then ad- vanced and read the warrant of execution, which the executioners listened to as their au- thority for doing the dreadful work which they were about to perform. The Dean of Peter- borough, the Protestant ecclesiastic whom Mary had refused to see, then came forward to the foot of the platform, and most absurdly com- menced an address to her, with a view to con- vert her to the Protestant faith. Mary inter- rupted him, saying that she had been born and had lived a Catholic, and she was resolved so to die • and she asked him to spare her use- less reasonings. The dean persisted in going THE END. 229 on. Mary turned away from him, kneeled down, and began to offer a Latin prayer. The dean soon brought his ministrations to a close, and then Mary prayed for some time, in a dis- tinct and fervent voice, in English, the large company listening with breathless attention. She prayed for her own soul, and that she might have comfort from heaven in the agony of death. She implored God's blessing upon France ; upon Scotland ; upon England ; upon Queen Elizabeth ; and, more than all, upon her son. During this time she held the ivory cru- cifix in her hand, clasping it and raising it from time to time toward heaven. When her prayer was ended, she rose, and, with the assistance of her attendants, took off her veil, and such other parts of her dress as it was necessary to remove in order to leave the neck bare, and then she kneeled forward and laid her head upon the block. The agitation of the assembly became extreme. Some turned away from the scene faint and sick at heart ; some looked more eagerly and intensely at the group upon the scaffold ;* some wept and sobbed aloud. The assistant executioner put Mary's two hands together and held them ; the other raised his ax, and, after the horrid sound of two or three successive blows, the assistant held up the dissevered head saying, ** So perish all Queen Elizabeth's enemies." 230 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. The assembly dispersed. The body was taken into an adjoining apartment, and pre- pared for interment. Mary's attendants wished to have it delivered to them, that they might comply with her dying request to convey it to France ; but they were told that they could not be allowed to do so. The body was in- terred with great pomp and ceremony in the Cathedral at Peterborough, where it remained in peace for many years. Now that the deed was done, the great prob- lem with Elizabeth was, of course, to avert the consequences of the terrible displeasure and thirst for revenge which she might naturally suppose it would awaken in Scotland and in France. She succeeded very well in accom- plishing this. As soon as she heard of the ex- ecution of Mary, she expressed the utmost sur- prise, grief, and indignation. She said that she had, indeed, signed the death-warrant, but it was not her intention at all to have it executed ; and that, when she delivered it to the officer, she charged him not to let it go out of his possession. This the officer denied. Elizabeth insisted, and punished the officer by a long imprisonment, and perpetual disgrace, for his pretended offense. She sent a messen* ger to James, explaining the terrible accident, as she termed it, which had occurred, and dep- THE END. 231 recating his displeasure. James, though at first filled with indignation, and determined to avenge his mother's death, allowed himself to be appeased. About twenty years after this, Elizabeth died, and the great object of Mary's ambition throughout her whole life was attained by the union of the Scotch and English crowns on the head of her son. As soon as Elizabeth ceased to breathe, James the Sixth of Scotland was proclaimed James the First of England. He was at that time nearly forty years of age. He was married, and had several young children. The circumstances of King James's journey to London, when he went to take pos- session of his new kingdom, are related in the History of Charles I., belonging to this series. Though James thus became monarch of both England and Scotland, it must not be supposed that the two kingdoms were combined. They remained separate for many years — two inde- pendent kingdoms governed by one king. When James succeeded to the English throne, his mother had been dead many years, and whatever feelings of affection may have bound his heart to her in early life, they were now well-nigh obliterated by the lapse of time, and by the new" ties by which he was connected with his wife and his children. As soon as he was seated on his new throne, however, he 232 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. ordered the Castle of Fotheringay, which had Mary's Tomb at Westminster Abbby. been the scene of his mother's trial andj death, to be leveled with the ground, and h^ trans- THE END. 233 ferred her remains to Westminster Abbey, where they still repose. If the lifeless dust had retained its conscious- ness when it was thus transferred, with what intense emotions of pride and pleasure would the mother's heart have been filled, in being thus brought to her final home in that ancient sepulcher of the English kings, by her son, now, at last, safely established, where she had so long toiled and suffered to instate him, in his place in the line. Ambition was the great, paramount, ruling principle of Mary's life. Love was, with her, an occasional, though perfectly uncontrollable impulse, which came suddenly to interrupt her plans and divert her from her course, leaving- her to get back to it again, after devious wanderings, with great difficulty and through many tears. The love, with the consequences which followed from it, destroyed her ; while the ambition, recover- ing itself after every contest with its rival, and holding out perseveringly to the last, saved her son ; so that, in the long contest in which her life was spent, though she suffered all the way, and at last sacrificed herself, she tri- umphed in the end. Young People's Library. Price, 50 Cents Each. ROBINSON CRUSOE : His Life and Strange Surprising Adventures. With 70 beautiful illustrations by Walter Paget. Arranged for young readers. -There exists no work, either of instruction or entertainment, which has been more generally read, and universally admired. — Walter Scott. ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. With 42 illustrations by John Tenniel. " This is Carroll's immortal sK.oxyr —Athcmeum "The most delightful of childrens stories. Elegant and ^^\x- ciowsnoTiS^n^t.^—Sattirda;^ Review. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE. (A companion to Alice in Wonderland.) With 50 illustrations by John Tenniel. - Not a whit inferior to its predecessor in grand extiavagance of imagination, and delicious allegorical nonsense. -Quarterly Review. BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. With 50 fuU-page and text illustrations. Pilgrim's Progress is the most popular story book in the world With the exception of the Bible it has been translated into more languages than any other book ever printed. A CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. With 72 full-page illustrations. • Tells in simple language and in a form fitted for the hands of the younger members of the Christian flock, the ta e of Gods deaUngs Ihh his Chos.n People under the Old Dispensation with ifs foreshadowings of the coming of that Messiah who was to make all mankind one fold under one Shepherd. _ ___^^ ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. A CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. With 49 illustrations. G'jd has implanted in the infant's heart a desire to hear of Jesus, and children are early attracted and sweetly riveted by the won- derful Story of the Master from the Manger to the Throne. In this little book we have brought together from Scripture every incident, expression and description within the verge of their com- prehension, in the effort to weave them into a memorial garland of their Saviour. THE FABLES OF yESOP. Compiled from the best ac- cepted sources. AVith 62 illustrations. The fables of /Esop are among the very earliest compositions of this kind, and probably have never been surpassed for point and brevity, as well as for the practical good sense they display. In their grotesque grace, in their quaint humor, in their trust in the simpler virtues, in their insight into the cruder vices, in their inno- cence of the fact of sex, /Esop's Fables are as little children— and for that reason will ever find a home in the heaven of little chil- dren's souls. THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, or the Adventures of a Shipwrecked Family on an Uninhabited Island. With 50 illustrations. A remarkable tale of adventure that will interest the boys and girls. The father of the family tells the tale and the vicissitudes through which he and his wife and children pass, the wonderful discoveries they make, and the dangers they encounter. It is a standard work of adventure that has the favor of all who have read it. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. With 70 illustrations. It is the duty of every American lad to know the story of Chris- topher Columbus. In this book is depicted the story of his life and struggles ; of his persistent solicitations at the courts of Eu- rope, and his contemptuous receptions by the learned Geographical Councils, until his final employment by Queen Isabella. Records the day-by-day journeyings while he was pursuing his aim and his perilous way over the shoreless ocean, until he "gave to Spain a New World." Shows his progress through Spain on the occasion of his first return, when he was received with rapturous demon- strations ^nd piore than regal homage, Jiii displacement by tb^ ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. Odjeas, Ovandos and Bobadilas ; his last return in chains, and the story of his death in poverty and neglect. THE STORY OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY IN AFRICA. With 80 illustrations. Records the adventures, privations, sufferings, trials, dangers and discoveries in developing the "Dark Continent," from the early days of Bruce and Mungo Park down to Livingstone and Stanley and the heroes of our own times. The reader becomes carried away by conflicting emotions of w^onder and sympathy, and feels compelled to pursue the story, which he cannot lay down. No present can be more acceptable than such a volume as this, where courage, intrepidity, resource and devotion are so pleasantly mingled. It is very fully illustra- ted with pictures worthy of the book. GULLIVER'S TRAVELS INTO SOME REMOTE RE- GIONS OF THE WORLD. With 50 illustrations. In description, even of the most common- place things, his power is often perfectly marvellous. Macau'ay says of Swift: " Under a plain garb and ungainly deportment were concealed some of the choicest gifts that ever have been bestowed on any of the children of men — rare powers of observation, brilliant art, grotesque inven- tion, humor of the mo^t austr-re flavor, yet exquisitely delicious, eloquence singularly pure, manly and perspicuous," MOTHER GOOSE'S RHYMES, JINGLES AND FAIRY TALES. With 300 illustrations. ** In this edition an excellent choice has been made from the standard fiction of the little ones. The abundant pictures are well- drawn and graceful, the effect frequently striking and always deco- rative . " — Critic. ** Only to see the book is to wish to give it to every child one knows." — Queen. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Compiled from authoritative sources. With portraits of the Presidents ; and also of the unsuccessful candidates for the office ; as well as the ablest of the Cabinet officers. This book should be in every home and school library. It tells, in an impartial way, the story of the political history of the United States, from the first Constitutional convention to the last Fteai* ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. dential nominations, it is just the book for intelligent boys, and it will help to make them intelligent and patriotic citizens. THE STORY OF ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN SEA. With 70 illustrations. Compiled from authorized sources. We here have brought together the records of the attempts to reach the North Pole. Our object being to recall the stories of the early voyagers, and to narrate the recent efforts of gallant adven- turers of various nationalities to cross the " unknown and inacces- ible " threshold ; and to show how much can be accomplished by indomitable pluck and steady perseverance. Portraits and numer- ous illustrations help the narration. ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY. By the Rev. J. G. Wood. With 80 illustrations. Wood's Natural History needs no commendation. Its author has done more than any other writer to popularize the study. His work is known and admired overall the civilized world. The sales of his works in England and America have been enormous. The illustrations in this edition are entirely new, striking and life-like. A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Charles Dickens, With 50 illustrations. Dickens grew tired of listening to his children memorizing the old fashioned twaddle that went under the name of English his- tory. He thereupon wrote a book, in his own peculiarly happy style, primarily for the educational advantage of his own children, but was prevailed upon to publish the work, and make its use gen- eral. Its success was instantaneous and- abiding. BLACK BEAUTY; The Autobiography of a Horse. By Anna Sewell. With 50 illustrations. This NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION is surc to Command attention. Wherever children are, whether boys or girls, there this Autobiog- raphy should be It inculcates habits of kindness to all members of the animal creation. The literary merit of the book is excellent. THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS. With 50 illustrations. Contains the most favorably known of the stories. The text is somewhat abridged and edited for the young. It forms an excellent introduction to those immortal tales which have helped so long to keep the weary world young. ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES. By Hans Christian An- dersen. With 77 illustrations. The spirit of high moral teaching, and the delicacy of sentiment, feeling and expression that pervade these tales make these won- derful creations not only attractive to the young, but equally accept- able to those of mature years, who are able to understand their real significance and appreciate the depth of their meaning. GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES. With 50 illustrations. These tales of the Brothers Grimm have carried their names into every household of the civilized world. The Tales are a wonderful collection, as interesting, from a lit- erary point of view, as they are delightful as stories. GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR; A History for Youth. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 60 illustrations. The story of America from the landing of the Puritans to the acknowledgment witJiout reserve of the Independence of the United States, told with all the elegance, simplicity, grace, clear- ness and force for which Hajvthorne is conspicuously noted. FLOWER FABLES. By Louisa May Alcott. With colored and plain illustrations. A series of very interesting fairy tales by the most charming of American story-tellers. AUNT MARTHA'S CORNER CUPBOARD. By Mary and Elizabeth Kirby. With 60 illustrations. Stories about Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Rice and Chinaware, and other accessories of the well-kept Cupboard. A book full of in- terest for all the girls and many of the boys. WATER-BABIES; A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. By Charles Kingsley. With 94 illustrations. " Come read me my riddle, each good little man ; If you cannot read it, no grown-up folk can." .BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. By Prescott Holmes. With 70 illustrations. A graphic and full history of the Rebellion of the American Col- onies from the yoke and oppression of Enj[lan4, with -tibe causes ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. that led thereto, arid including an account of the second war with Great Britain, and the War with Mexico. BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION. By Prescott Holmes. With 80 illustrations. A correct and impartial account of the greatest civil war in the annals of history. Both of these histories of American wars are a necessary part of the education of all intelligent American boys and girls- YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN. By Prescott Holmes. With 89 illustrations. This history of our war with Spain, in 1898, presents in a plain, easy style the splendid achievements of our army and navy, and the prominent figures that came into the public view during that period. Its glowing descriptions, wealth of anecdote, accuracy • f statement and profusion of illustration make it a most desirable gift- book for young readers. HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. By Hartwell James. With 65 illustrations. The story of ournavy is one of the most brilliant pages in the w -rld's history. The sketches and exploits contained in this vol- ume cover our entire naval history from tlie days of the honest, rough sailors cf Revolutionary times, with their cutlasses and boarding pikes, to the brief war of 1898, when our superbly ap- pointed warships destroyed Spain' s proud cruisers by- the merci- less accuracy of their fire. MILITARY HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES. By Hartwell James. With 97 illustrations. In this volume the brave lives and heroic deeds c f our military heroes, from Paul Revere to Lawton, are told in the most captiva- ting manner. » The material for the work has been gathered from the North and the South alike. The volume presents all the im- portant facts in a manner enabling the youiTg people of our united and prosperous land to easily become familiar with the command- ing figures that have arisen in our military history. UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; or Life Among the Lowly. By Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. With 90 ilAistrations. ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 7 The unfailing interest in the famous old story suggested the need of an edition specially prepared for young readers, and elaborately illustrated^ This edition completely fills that want. SEA KINGS AND NAVAL HEROES. By Hartwell James. With 50 illustrations. The most famous sea battles of the world, with sketches of the lives, enterprises and achievements of men who have become fam- ous in naval history. They are stories of brave lives in times of trial and danger, charmingly told for young people. POOR BOYS' CHANCES. By John Habberton. With 50 illustrations. There is a fascination about the writings of the author of " Helen's Babies," from which none can escape. In this charm- ing volume, Mr. Habberton tells the boys of America how they can attain the highest positions in the land, without the struggles and privations endured by poor boys who rose to eminence and fame in former times. ROMULUS, the Founder of Rome. By Jacob Abbott. With 49 illustrations. In a plain and connected narrative, the author tells the stories of the founder of Rome and his great ancestor, /Eneas. These are of necessity somewhat legendary in character, but are pre- sented precisely as they have come down to us from ancient times. They are prefaced by an account of the life and inventions of Cad- mus, the ** Father of the Alphabet," as he is often called. CYRUS THE GREAT, the Founder of the Persian Empire. By Jacob Abbott. With 40 illustrations. For nineteen hundred years, the story of the founder of ihe an- cient Persian empire has been read by every generation of man- kind. The story of the life and actions of Cyrus, as told by the author, presents vivid pictures of the magnificence of a monarchy that rose about five hundred years before the Christian era, and rolled on in undisturbed magnitude aad gl^iy for many centuries. ADVENTURES IN TOYLAND. By Edith King Hull. With 70 illustrations by Alice B. Woodward. The sayings and doings of the dwellers in toyland, related by one of them to a dear little girl. It is a delightful book for chil- dren, and admirably illustrated. 8 ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. DARIUS THE GREAT, King of the Medes and Persians. By Jacob Abbott. With 34 illustrations. No great exploits marked the career of this monarch, who was at one time the absolute sovereign of nearly one-half of the world. He reached his high position by a stratagem, and left behind him no strong impressions of personal character, yet, the history of his life and reign should be read along with those of Cyrus, Caesar, Hannibal and Alexander. XERXES THE GREAT, King of Persia. By Jacob Ab- bott. With 39 illustrations. For ages the name of Xerxes has been associated in the minds of men with the idea of the highest attainable human magnificence and grandeur. He was the sovereign of the ancient Persian em- pire at the height of its prosperity and power. The invasion of Greece by the Persian hordes, the battle of Thermopylae, the burn- ing of Athens, and the defeat of the Persian galleys at Salamis are chapters of thrilling interest. THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE. By Miss Mulock, author of John Halifax, Gentleman, etc. With 18 illustrations. One of the best of Miss Murlock's charming stories for children. All the situations are amusing and are sure to please youthful readers. ALEXANDER THE GREAT, King of Macedon. By Jacob Abbott. With 51 illustrations. Born heir to the throne of Macedon, a country on the confines of Europe and Asia, Alexander crowded into a brief career of twelve years a brilliant series of exploits. The readers of to-day will find pleasure and profit in the history of Alexander the Great, a potentate before w^hom ambassadors and princes from nearly all the nations of the earth bowed in humility. PYRRHUS, King of Epirus. By Jacob Abbott. With 45 illustrations. The story of Pyrrhus is one of the ancient narratives which has been told and retold for many centuries in the literature, eloquence and poetry of all civilized nations. While possessed of extraordi- nary ability as a military leader, Pyrrhus actually accomplished nothing, but did mischief on a gigantic scale. He was naturally ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 9 of a noble and generous spirit, but only succeded in perpetrating crimes against the peace and welfare of mankind. HANNIBAL, the Carthaginian. By Jacob Abbott. With 37 illustrations. Hannibal's distinction as a warrior was gained during the des- perate contests between Rome and Carthage, known as the Punic wars. Entering the scene when his country was engaged in peace- ful traffic with the various countries of the known world, he turned its energies into military aggression, conquest and war, becoming himself one of the greatest military heroes the world has ever known. MIXED PICKLES. By Mrs. E. M. Field. With 31 illus- trations by T. Pym. A remarkably entertaining story for young people. The reader is introduced to a charming little girl whose mishaps while trying to do good are very appropriately termed " Mixed Pickles." JULIUS CiESAR, the Roman Conqueror. By Jacob Ab- bott. With 44 illustrations. The life and actions of Julius Csesar embrace a period in Roman history beginning with the civil wars of Marius and Sylla and end- ing with the tragic death of Czesar Imperator. The work is an accurate historical account of the life and times of one of the great miUtary figures in history, in fact, it is history itself, and as such is especially commended to the readers of the present generation, ALFRED THE GREAT, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 40 illustrations. In a certain sense, Alfred appears in history as the founder of the British monarchy ; his predecessors having governed more like savage chieftains than English kings. The work has a special value for young readers, for the character of Alfred was that of an honest, conscientious and far-seeing statesman. The romantic story of Godwin furnishes the concluding chapter of t'ne volume. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 43 illustrations. The life and times of William of Normandy have always been a fiiiitful theme for the historian. War and pillage and conquest were at least a part of the everyday business of men in both Ehq- lO ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. land and France : and the story of William as told by the author of this volume makes some of the most fascinating pages in his- tory. It is especially delightful to young readers. HERNANDO CORTEZ, the Conqueror of Mexico. By Jacob Abbott. With 30 illustrations. In this volume the author gives vivid pictures of the wild and adventurous career of Cortez and his companions in the conquest of Mexico. Many good motives were united with those of ques- tionable character, in the prosecution of his enterprise, but in those days it was a maiter of national ambition to enlarge the boundaries of nations and to extend their commerce at any cost. The career of Cortez is oue of absorbing interest. THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. By Miss Mulock. With 24 illustrations. The author styles it "A Parable for Old and Young." It is in her happiest vein and delightfully interesting, especially to youthful readers. MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. By Jacob Abbott. With 45 illustrations. The story of Mary Stuart holds a prominent place in the present series of historical narrations. It has had many tellings, for the melancholy story of the unfortunate queen has always held a high place in the estimation of successive generations of readers. Her story is full of rom.ance and pathos, and the reader is carried along by conflicting emotions cf wonder and sympathy. QUEEN ELIZABETH, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 49 illustrations. In strong contrast to the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, is that of Elizal»eth, Queen of England. They were cousins, yet im- placable foes. Elizabeth's reign was in many ways a glorious one, and her successes gained her the applause of the world. The stirring tales of Drake, Hawkins and other famous mariners of her lime have been incorporated mto the story of Elizabeth's Jife and reign. KING CHARLES THE FIRST, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 41 illustrations. The well-known figures in the stormy reign of Charles I. are brought forward in this narrative of his life and times. It is his- tory told in the most fascinating manner, and embraces the early ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. II Kfe of Charles ; the court of James I,; struggles between Charles and the Parliament ; the Civil war ; the trial and execution of the king. The narrative is impartial and holds the attention of the reader. KING CHARLES THE SECOND, of England. By Jacob Abbott. With 38 illustrations. Beginning with his infancy, the life of the ** Merry Monarch " is related in the author's inimitable style. His reign was signal- ized by many disastrous events, besides those that related to his personal troubles and embarrassments. There were unfortunate wars ; naval defeats ; dangerous and disgraceful plots and con- spiracies. Trobule sat very lightly on the shoulders of Charles II., however, and the cares of state were easily forgotten in the society of his court and dogs. THE SLEEPY KING. By Aubrey Hopwood and Seymour Hicks. With 77 illustrations by Maud Trelawney. A charmingly- told Fairy Tale, full of delightrauiL-entertain- ment. The illustrations are original and striking^ adding greatly to the interest of the text. ' ^ MARIA ANTOINETTE, Queen of France. By John S. C. Abbott. With 42 illustrations. The tragedy of Maria Antoinette is one of the most mournful in the history of the world. " Her beauty dazzled the whole king- dom," says Lamartine. Her lofty and unbendin;^ spirit under unspeakable indignities and atrocities, enlists and holds the sympa- thies of the readers of to-day, as it has done in the past. MADAME ROLAND, A Heroine of the French Revolution. By Jacob Abbott. With 42 illustrations. The French Revolution developed fe»w, if any characters more worthy of notice than that of Madame Roland. The absence of playmates, in her youth, inspired her with an insatiate thirst for knowledge, and books became her constant companions in every unoccupied hour. She fell a martyr to the tyrants of the French Revolution, but left behind her a car'^er full of instruction that never fails to impress itself up'T the reader. JOSEPHINE, Empress of France. By Jacob Abbott. With 4C illustrations* 12 ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. Maria Antoinette beheld the dawn of the French Revoluiion ; Madame Roland perished under the lurid glare of its high nt n ; Josephine saw it fade into darkness. She has been called *' Star of Napoleon ; " and it is certain that she added lui his brilliance, and that her peisuasive influence was often exertt.d to win a friend or disarm an adversary. The lives of the Empress Josephine, of Mari.i Antoinette, and of Madame Roland are especially commended to young lady readers, TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Charles and Mary Lamb. With 80 illustrations. The text is somewhat abridged and edited for young people, but a clear and definite outline of each play is presented. Such episodes or incidental sketches of character as are not absolutely necessary to the development of the tales are omitted, while the many moral lessons that lie in Shakespeare's plays and make them valuable in the training of the young are retained. The book is winning, help- ful and an effectual guide to the "inner shrine" of the great dramatist. MAKERS OF AMERICA. By Hartwell James. With 75 illustrations. This ^olume contains attractive and suggestive sketches of the lives and deeds of men who illustrated some special phase in the political, religious or social life of our country, from its settlement to the close of the eighteenth century. It affords an opportunity for young readers to become easily familiar with these characters and their historical relations to the building of our Republic. An account of the discovery of America prefaces the work, A WONDER BOOK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 50 ii •♦■rp<-inn« In this volume the genius of Ha>, uoiuc i^as shaped anew wonder tales that have been hallowed by an antiqui of two or three thousand years. Seeming " never to have been i ide" they are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its t " - as to manners and sentiment, and its own views of morai'** volume has a charm for old and young alike, for the auu not thought it necessary to "write downward" in order tc the comprehension of children. lOr 1 ^^^^J V7f;?v.„,v > ^ ^ * » ^ A^ v^ ^/>«;.. oA -r^. -"^^.^ , -^:^'*"./v->V^% %., y#v^*./% w'"' ^%'^m^s /^ ^'' c^ % ^^^-^^-^ f^:) ; o^ '7^ "^^ V^ ^ V- ^O. .^^ "oo^' :^ -^A v^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 390 571 5 ■:i:i-;iife;:!.',Vii'vi..;'':,.-v'^'