When this charming princess was nearly fifteen years of age, Henry II. began to urge her marriage with the Dauphin. He had incurred an enormous expense in her education, and was anxious not to lose the reward. Delay would only tend to increase the difficulties and dangers that beset the question. The Protestants in Scotland, who were now more numerous than ever, were opposed to it, on religious grounds. An attempt was even made to poison Mary; but the criminal was detected and executed. Many other reasons, which cannot be related here, helped to hasten the event. Accordingly, after consulting the Scottish Parliament, the 24th of April, 1558, was fixed for the celebration of the nuptials. The ceremony of betrothal first took place in the Louvre; but the marriage itself at the old and august cathedral at Notre Dame. Vast preparations were made for the event, as if for a great festival. All Paris was astir, and business was entirely suspended. The enthusiasm of the citizens was equal to the joy of the court and the royal family; for Mary was a universal favourite. The historians of the time all relate that she looked so inexpressibly beautiful on the occasion as to fascinate every beholder. As the superb procession moved towards the cathedral, a woman of the crowd, with indiscreet daring, pressed towards the princess, and stretched out her hand to touch her sacred person;' but she was immediately seized by the guards, and but for the intercession of the lovely bride, would have been punished. On being interrogated as to her motive, she replied, that she wished by touching to try "whether such a heavenly creature could be flesh and blood." The festivities and fêtes that succeeded this famous wedding lasted for fifteen days, and were concluded by a grand tournament. All the princes and nobles present engaged in these chivalric contests, except Francis, the poor bridegroom, who was too weak in body and timid in mind for such rough and warlike exercises. Apart from his high rank, it was felt that he was in no wise a fit husband for the beautiful and accomplished Scottish princess. As soon as the celebrations were fully over, he set out from Paris with his young bride, to one of his country residences, where he could live awhile in peace and quietness. He was now King of Scotland, and was also the heir apparent to the throne of France, which he would inherit, and share with his wife, on the death of his father.

This sad event took place much earlier than could have been anticipated; and before it would have happened but for the rashness of the king. About a year after the great wedding, the marriage of Francis's eldest sister was celebrated, when tournaments were again held, in which King Henry, against the urgent advice of his queen and courtiers, persisted in engaging. The contest proved fatal. The lance of his antagonist penetrated his vizor, and wounded him over the eye. After lingering eleven days, he died. Francis, though only sixteen years old, at once assumed the government. He was crowned at Rheims; and in his measures he evinced more energy and decision than were expected from him. He and Mary were now on the summit of earthly grandeur. But, alas! it was destined to be of brief dura

tion; for Francis's health gradually declined, and all the means resorted to for its restoration proved of no avail. After sustaining the cares and enjoying the honours of royalty for about seventeen months, he expired, leaving Mary Stuart an afflicted widow of seventeen. In addition to this bitter bereavement, she had lost her mother only a few months previously.

The death of Francis was followed by very serious consequences to Mary. She lost at once her queenly dignity and rank. All her friends were removed from their high stations, and others, hostile to her family, were put into their places. Under these adverse circumstances, she felt lonely, slighted, and unhappy in the court of France, and retired for a time into the country. Wherever she went, she was greeted with sympathy and respect; and from the white mourning which she wore, according to the custom of the times, she began to be known by the name of the White Queen.

Ambassadors were now sent over from Scotland to urge her return, to which she at last consented, and having taken an affecting farewell of the royal family, embarked, on the 14th of August, 1561, from Calais. As soon as the vessel that bore her set sail, she began to shed floods of tears, and continued, so long as the coast was visible, to cast her eyes towards the country she had left, and utter the mournful words, ' Farewell, France! During this voyage she had a narrow escape of being intercepted by some cruisers which Queen Elizabeth had sent out to scour the Channel, on the hypocritical pretence of exterminating pirates. A dense fog proved her salvation.

On the 19th of August, the galleys bearing Mary and her friends entered the harbour of Leith, from whence she was conducted to Edinburgh amid every demonstration of delight. On reaching the capital, she immediately took possession of the palace of Holyrood. She made an extremely favourable impression upon her subjects; but was herself much affected with melancholy at the contrast presented between the wildness and poverty of her native country and the joyous land she had just quitted. After reposing awhile from the fatigues of her journey, she roused herself to activity, and began to attend to her queenly functions. And now commenced the great difficulties, disasters, and errors which have made her life so romantic and tragical. In this slight sketch, however, it will be impossible to do more than indicate the baldest outlines of her sorrowful and guilty history.

On entering Scotland, she found the people riven into two great religious parties, Catholic and Protestant, each striving fiercely for the mastery. To attain this ascendency, any means that seemed to promise success were resorted to without scruple. Incessant plots, intrigues, sanguinary contests, and assassinations, form the leading features of Mary's entire reign and exile. Fully apprised by her advisers of the existence of this state of things, she at first wisely resolved not to interfere with her people in the exercise of their religion. But while she would not constrain others, she determined not to suffer constraint herself. Accordingly, on the first Sunday after her landing, she gave orders that mass should be celebrated in her private chapel.

The Reformers, headed by the stern John Knox, heard of it, and resolved that mass should not be celebrated. One mass,' said Knox, 'was more fearful to him than if ten thousand armed enemies were landed in any part of the realm.' The mass, however, was said, and a Protestant insurrection was the consequence; which, had it not been suppressed by the prudence and firmness of her brother, Lord James Stuart, must have been attended by fearful results. To calm the fears and conciliate the goodwill of these formidable antagonists, she made great concessions. To attempt to change the established religion of the country was made a capital offence.

Passing over the first three or four years of her reign, the next event of importance was her marriage to Lord Darnley. Ever since the decease of her former husband, she had been besieged with tempting matrimonial overtures from numerous princes and potentates, but which political reasons had compelled her to decline. Lord Darnley, by his parents, was connected with the two reigning families of England and Scotland, and was, therefore, considered an eligible match. He had been brought up in England, whither his family had been banished many years before; and considerable difficulty occurred in getting Elizabeth's permission for his return to Scotland, she being fully cognizant of its object. At length, however, leave was reluctantly granted; and Mary had her first interview with the long lad,' as Elizabeth had derisively called him, at Wemys Castle, whither she had expressly gone for the purpose. He was very young, tall, handsome, and graceful in his manners; and Mary was very much pleased with him. She had almost decided to make Darnley her husband before she saw him, merely from political considerations; but on finding him possessed of such striking personal attractions, she no longer hesitated. Her heart suddenly surrendered itself to his sway, and her warm imagination was filled with pictures of anticipated happiness. Queen Elizabeth, on hearing of the engagement, was in great rage, and commanded Darnley to return, which, however, he firmly refused, stating that he had entered the service of the Queen of Scotland. Many of her nobles, too, headed by her brother, the Earl of Murray, were opposed to the union, and formed a plan to waylay, seize, and imprison her; but having gained timely information of the treasonable plot, she contrived to elude their hands. This escape from the rebellious nobles took place in June, and the marriage was consummated in July, only six months after her first interview with Darnley. The ceremony was performed in the royal chapel at Holyrood, at six o'clock in the morning.

This alliance was in every respect unwise and unfortunate. It put an end to all hope of cordial union between the two queens; and from the precipitancy with which it had been entered upon, it utterly wrecked Mary's domestic happiness, and led her to the commission of crimes that have for ever darkened her memory. For a time, all was sunshine and affection; but, at length, the weaknesses and vices of Darnley's character manifested themselves most glaringly. All possible honours and distinctions were heaped upon him by his loving

consort, which he received as a matter of course, and was continually demanding more. Among other objects craved by his insatiable ambition was the crown matrimonial,' which would have rendered him king in his own right, and would have exalted him above his wife, the real sovereign. On being refused this unreasonable request, he grew sullen, took to excessive drinking, and often brutally insulted his consort, both in private and in public. Such unmanly and cruel conduct gradually alienated the queen's affections, and induced her to treat him with neglect, and to look to others for that sympathy and kindness which she ought to have received from him. Conspicuous among these friends and admirers of the unhappy Mary, was David Riccio, her confidential French secretary. His devoted attach

ment to his royal mistress, and the partiality with which he was treated by her, excited the jealousy and exasperated several of the noblemen of the court, and none more than Darnley. So much was he incensed against Riccio, that he resolved to compass his destruction. Having communicated his feelings to the fierce Ruthven and other unscrupulous lords, a plot was arranged for his assassination. This terrible deed was perpetrated in the queen's cabinet. About seven o'clock one Saturday evening, a band of conspirators, clad in armour, burst into the royal presence, and dragged away the trembling Italian, whom they savagely slew, his body having been pierced with fifty-six wounds. His corpse was then thrown out of a window into the courtyard. Deprived of a devoted servant, wounded in her honour by the taunts of the murderers, and despoiled of her power, Mary Stuart was now a dejected captive in the hands of her enemies. And what served the more to embitter her anguish was, the knowledge that her own husband, to whom she had been united only about a year, was an accomplice in these atrocities.

But one crime seldom comes alone. Sin multiplies with appalling rapidity and power. The tragedy, thus begun, went on deepening and darkening apace. Omitting much that occurred throughout the stormy months that succeeded this murder-during which Mary gave birth to a son, who afterwards became James I. of England-a brief notice must be taken of the crowning crime of her guilty and sorrowful life. Though afterwards reconciled to Darnley, it was not to be expected that she could ever again esteem or love him as at first; and, indeed, his subsequent conduct was not at all calculated to inspire such sentiments. He even went so far as to solicit military aid from some of the Catholic governments of Europe, to place him on the throne of Scotland, promising in that case to change the established religion from Protestant to Catholic. Circumstances like these weighed heavily on Mary's mind, and threw her into a state of deep despondency.

But during this long season of trial, a guilty and fatal passion was springing up in her heart-probably, for a time, unconsciously to herself. The object of it was the Earl of Bothwell-an enterprising, but dangerous nobleman, whom she had recently recalled from banishment. He was remarkable for bravery, audacity, and ambition; and, although nobly married, had formed the resolution to win the affections of the queen, and then wed her. Accordingly, by his chivalrous

devotion to her interests, and particularly by the aid he afforded her in her contest with the murderers of Riccio, he acquired great influence over her. Seeking to render him a faithful and useful servant, she speedily found in him a lover and a master. But the attainment of his ambitious desires was impossible during the life of Darnley, while his impatience was too great to endure any protracted delay. A fatal and wicked idea arose in his mind, which was nursed into a scheme for the murder of the queen's husband. The secret was imparted to many of the queen's councillors, who, being daily witnesses of her sorrow and dejection, were induced to aid in the organization of one of the most awful conspiracies on record. It was even hinted to Mary Stuart herself, in a conference sought by the confederates, and her sanction was unblushingly sought. The ostensible object of it was to rid her of the cause of her wretchedness. Although she refused all direct approval of the premeditated act, yet she expressed no indignation at the proposition, and only requested that nothing should be done "by which any spot might be laid upon her honour." Emboldened, rather than discouraged, by the result of this interview, the homicidal league swore, by a bond, to cut off the king as a young fool and tyrant, and justified it to themselves as a measure of state policy. The execution of the bloody deed was entrusted to Bothwell and his minions; the queen also, we grieve to relate, aiding in the development of the plot. The details of this assassination are too copious to be given in this short sketch: those of our young readers who are anxious to see a full and impartial account of the terrible tragedy, are referred to Mignet's History of Mary, Queen of Scots.'

The consternation and excitement occasioned by this deed were excessive. Public rumour at once indicated and denounced the great criminal; and the name of Mary was everywhere mixed up with the transaction. Demands poured in from all sides, and also from foreign courts, to exact a rigorous vengeance. But week after week elapsed, and no steps were taken. At length, finding the popular clamour did not at all abate, she strove to appease it by a mock trial of the Earl of Bothwell. No anxiety could arise as to the result, since nearly all the judges were confederates in the crime. After this scandalous acquittal, Mary lavished new honours upon her favourite, and greatly extended his power. His next step was to procure a divorce from his amiable wife, in which he succeeded. He then, by the intimidation of a body of troops, extorted the consent of the leading nobles to his marriage with the queen; which, it appears, had been decided upon by a contract signed by Mary herself seven days before Bothwell's acquittal. Thus everything was precipitated. As insuperable objections were sure to be urged to the celebration of these indecent nuptials so soon after the king's murder, he resolved to seize and carry off the queen by force; which was effected on the occasion of her return from Stirling Castle, where she had gone to visit her son. Letters exist to prove that she was a consenting party to this act of abduction. Bothwell took her to Dunbar Castle, where he detained her a prisoner about ten days. On being released, however, she pardoned him, and publicly declared her intention of wedding him