said Mary; "it is the last trouble I shall give you, and the most acceptable service you have ever rendered me." queen seated herself on a stool which was prepared The for her. On her right stood the two earls; on her left the sheriff and Beal, the clerk of the council; in front, the executioner from the Tower, in a suit of black velvet, with his assistant, also clad in black. The warrant was read, and Mary, in an audible voice, addressed the assembly. She would have them recollect, also, that she was a sovereign princess, not subject to the parliament of England, but brought there to suffer by injustice and violence. She, however, thanked her God that He had given her this opportunity of publicly professing her religion, and of declaring, as she had often before declared, that she had never imagined, nor compassed, nor consented to, the death of the English queen, nor ever sought the least harm to her person. After her death, many things, which were then buried in darkness, would come to light. But she pardoned from her heart all her enemies, nor should her tongue utter that which might turn to their prejudice. Here she was interrupted by Dr. Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough, who, having caught her eye, began to preach; and under cover, perhaps through motives of zeal, contrived to insult the feelings of the unfortunate sufferer. Mary repeatedly desired him not to trouble himself and her. He persisted; she turned aside. He made the 3circuit of the scaffold, and again addressed her in front. An end was put to this extraordinary scene by the Earl of Shrewsbury, who ordered him to pray. His prayer was the echo of his sermon; but Mary heard him not. She was employed at the time in her devotions, repeating with a loud voice, and in the Latin language, passages from the book of Psalms; and, after the Dean was reduced to silence, a prayer in French, in which she begged of God to pardon her sins, declared that she forgave her enemies, and protested that she was innocent of ever consenting, in wish or deed, to the death of her English sister. She then prayed in English for Christ's afflicted Church, for her son James, and for Queen Elizabeth, and in conclusion, holding up the crucifix, exclaimed, "As Thy arms, O God, were stretched out upon the cross, so receive me into the arms of Thy mercy, and forgive my sins." When her maids, bathed in tears, began to disrobe their mistress, the executioners, fearing the loss of their usual ‘perquisites, hastily interfered. The queen remonstrated, but instantly submitted to their rudeness, observing to the earls, with a smile, that she was not accustomed to employ such grooms, or to undress in the presence of so numerous a company. Her servants, at the sight of their sovereign in this lamentable state, could not suppress their feelings; but Mary, putting her finger to her lips, commanded silence, gave them her blessing, and solicited their prayers. She then seated herself again. Kennedy, taking from her a handkerchief edged with gold, pinned it over her eyes; the executioners, holding her by the arms, led her to the block; and the queen, kneeling down, said repeatedly, with a firm voice, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." But the sobs and groans of the spectators disconcerted the headsman. He trembled, missed his aim, and inflicted a deep wound in the lower part of the skull. The queen remained motionless, and at the third stroke her head was severed from her body. When the executioner held it up, the muscles of the face were so strongly convulsed, that the features could not be recognized. He cried as usual, "God save Queen Elizabeth.” "So perish all her enemies!" subjoined the Dean of Peterborough. "So perish all the enemies of the Gospel!" exclaimed, in a still louder tone, the fanatical Earl of Kent. Not a voice was heard to cry amen. Party feeling was absorbed in admiration and pity. None of her women were suffered to come near her dead body, which was carried into a room adjoining to the place of execution, where it lay for some days, covered with a coarse cloth torn from a billiard table. The block, the scaffold, the aprons of the executioners, and everything stained with her blood, were reduced to ashes. Not long after, Elizabeth appointed her body to be buried in the cathedral of Peterborough, with royal magnificence. But this vulgar artifice was employed in vain: the pageantry of a pompous funeral did not efface the memory of those injuries which laid Mary in her grave. James, soon after his accession to the English throne, ordered her body to be removed to Westminster Abbey, and to be deposited among the monarchs of England. Such was the tragical death of Mary, Queen of Scots, after a life of forty-four years and two months, almost nineteen years of which she passed in captivity. To all the charms of beauty, and the utmost elegance of external form, she added many accomplishments; she was polite, affable, sprightly, and capable of speaking and of writing with equal grace and dignity. Sudden, however, and violent in all her attachments, and impatient of contradiction, because she had been accustomed from her infancy to be treated as a queen. With regard to the queen's person, all "contemporary authors agree in ascribing to Mary the utmost beauty of countenance and elegance of shape of which the human form is capable. Her hair was black, though, according te the fashion of that age, she frequently wore borrowed locks, and of different colours. Her eyes were of dark grey; her complexion was exquisitely fine, and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to shape and colour. Her stature was of a height that rose to the majestic. She danced, walked, and rode with equal grace. Her taste for music was just, and she both sang and played upon the lute with uncommon skill. Towards the end of her life she began to grow fat, and her long confinement, and the coldness of the houses in which she was imprisoned, brought on a rheumatism which often deprived her of the use of her limbs, "No man," says Brantome, ever beheld her person without admiration and love, or will read her history without sorrow." 66 3 1 queen-dowager, the widow of a king. 2 compass, to bring about, contrive, plot. circuit, a going round. "To make the circuit" of any place is to go round it. perquisite, that which servants and others receive beyond their wages or salary, on account of the office which they hold. The executioners were accustomed to receive the clothes of those whom they put to death. 5 tragical, mournful, distressing. contemporary, living at the same time. 6 THE LANDING OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS IN SCOTLAND. JAMES V. of Scotland died in 1542, leaving an infant daughter, Mary, who became queen. When she was only six years old, she was sent to France, where she was brought up. She there married a French prince, Francis, who became king of France. On his death, in 1560, she determined to return to her native country. She set sail from France in 1561, and the following lines describe her landing at Leith, August 19th, 1561 Scotland, involved in 'factious broils, |