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she deficient in sagacity, dignity, and spirit. But when we consider the state of the country of which she was the Sovereign-the nobles accustomed by ever-recurring minorities to habits of insubordination; ever ready to exert their strength and feudal power, for the purposes of personal ambition, or family aggrandizement, almost never for the promotion of their country's interests, or the support of the Crown's legitimate authority; and whose secret discontent, or open rebellions, had already caused the death of three of her ancestors, two of them men of unquestionable vigour and talent;-the people on the other hand, or a great majority of them, enthusiastically attached to the Protestant Faith, and taught by their preachers to regard every Papist as an enemy to God, and to the truth;-when a young female, educated in a religion which her subjects regarded as idolatry, was called upon to rule amid such rude and inflammable materials, we cannot greatly wonder at the train of misfortunes that ensued.

Mary arrived at Leith on the 19th of August, 1561, and all classes of her subjects seemed to unite in giving her a loyal and enthusiastic reception. Her beauty and graceful manners won their admiration, and the fears entertained by the Reformers for their religion were, by her prudence, allayed for the present. She issued a proclamation confirming the national faith as she found it established at her arrival; but as she refused to become herself a convert to the new doctrines, she soon became the object of their avowed dislike and aversion. The chief power in the administration of the government was entrusted to her brother, the prior of St Andrews, whom she created Earl of Murray. This was a natural son of James V., and the same person whom we have more than once men. tioned as the Lord James Stewart. He was successful in repressing the marauders on the border. and in the north he encountered and defeated the Earl of Huntly.

Mary was solicited in marriage by some of the first princes in Europe, but every negotiation of this kind was artfully foiled by the intrigues of Elizabeth, to whom Mary's policy induced her to pay much deference from her hopes of succession to the English throne, in case Elizabeth should die without issue. The English Queen,

concealing a deep-rooted enmity against her sister Sovereign under professions of the most affectionate regard, affected to aid her with her counsels in her matrimonial views, whilst the object nearest Elizabeth's heart was to keep Mary unmarried. After being treated for four years with continued duplicity, the Scottish Queen, disgusted by the detected arts of Elizabeth, resolved to give her hand to Lord Darnley, the eldest son of the Earl of Lennox, a youth of prepossessing exterior, but with no mental or moral qualities corresponding. Probably his chief recommendation to Mary was, that through his mother, the Lady Margaret Douglas, he possessed a claim to the English throne, second only to her own.

Henry VIII. had not only maintained a large band of spies in Scotland, but by a system of wide-spread corruption, most of the leading nobles being his pensioners, had continued to keep up a strong party in that country devoted to his interests; whereby he was able at all times to control its counsels, and to embarrass its rulers. The same system had been followed by the ministers of his son Edward VI.; and although Elizabeth, from her parsimonious habits, was more frugal of her money, she still attempted, by art and intrigue, to maintain an influence in the Scottish court. When Mary arrived to take possession of her throne, her movements were betrayed to her enemy by her own Ministers, who were all of them in secret correspondence with the English Cabinet. Elizabeth exerted herself to the utmost to prevent the marriage with Darnley; and Murray, foreseeing nothing but evil from the Queen's union with a person of Darnley's weak judgment and violent temper, also gave it the most vehement opposition. Finding the Queen firm in her purpose, he is said to have formed a plot to way-lay her as she returned from Perth, intending to seize and deliver up Lennox and Darnley to Elizabeth, and, at the same time, to imprison his Sovereign. The same report states the plot to have failed through Mary's activity, who, having got a hint of the danger, passed Kinross just two hours before the arrival of Murray's emissaries on their traitorous purpose. The marriage was concluded on the 29th of July 1565; and Murray, Glencairn, Hamilton, Argyle, and Rothes, broke out into open rebellion, but were

so hotly pursued by the Queen, herself accompanying her troops on horseback with pistols at her side, that they were obliged to take refuge in England.

VI.-Reign of Mary.-Continued.

FROM HER MARRIAGE WITH DARNLEY TO HIS MURDER. 1565-1567.

DARNLEY SOon showed himself utterly unworthy of the honour to which he had been raised. His folly and incapacity were such, that the Queen was necessitated to deny him all share in the government; and this led first to complaints, and latterly to such insolence and brutality on his part, that she was obliged to debar him from her presence. Darnley, with his father Lennox, now formed a plot for dethroning the Queen: and as a pretext for the meditated violence, alleged to the nobles whom they sought to engage in the conspiracy, that the Queen's estrangement from Darnley was owing to a guilty attachment on her part to her private Secretary, Rizzio-a Italian, and a Catholic, who, they said, was plotting the overthrow of the Protestant religion in Scotland.

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Mary, by the advice of evil Counsellors, had been induced to sign the league, entered into by the Catholic Princes of Europe for the maintenance of the Romish religion and this not only alienated from her the affections of a great portion of her subjects, but inclined them to give ear to any slander, however unfounded, that might be uttered against her. How much reason they had to dread the dark plots formed by the Popish party against their religion and their lives, was fearfully manifested by the massacre of St Bartholomew, which followed shortly after in France; and by which 70,000 Protestants perished in eight days, under the remorseless hands of their Romish butchers, summoned at midnight to their bloody work by the tolling of the great bell of the palace— (1572.) And although men's minds had not yet been startled by this appalling spectacle, enough was known of the blood-thirstiness of the party to justify the alarm of the Protestants, when they saw that a league had been

formed for their destruction-that their Queen had set her hand to the infamous document and that Rizzio, believed to be its chief promoter in Scotland, was in high favour at Court. It was determined by certain of the Protestant Lords, that Rizzio should be murdered. The chief conspirators were Darnley, Lennox, Morton, Ruthven, Lindsay, and Lethington. These communicated with Murray, now an exile in England, alleging that Rizzio was the chief instigator of the doom of forfeiture about to be pronounced on him and his adherents; and Murray, dismissed in disgrace by Elizabeth, from whom he had expected support in his resistance to his sovereign, now looked to this plot as likely to create a revolution, whereby he might be saved from ruin, and restored to the rank and estates he had lost by his rebel lion. The English Queen and her Ministers were also consulted; and Elizabeth, with her usual duplicity, took no steps, either to reveal the plot, or prevent the murder, though she afterwards affected great horror at the san guinary deed.

The manner in which the conspirators executed their purpose strongly marks the ferocity of the times, and the brutality of Darnley and his associates. On the evening of the 9th of March, 1566, the Queen was seated at supper with her ladies, Rizzio, and a few others, when Darnley entered, and throwing his arms around the Queen, seated himself beside her: the other conspirators followed, and Ruthven drawing his dagger, cried, that it was with Rizzio they had to do. The miserable Secretary sprung behind the Queen, and holding her by the gown called on her to save his life. Mary's entreaties, menaces, and commands, were unheeded: Douglas stabbed Rizzio over her shoulder, whilst Car of Faudonside, held a pistol to her breast. Rizzio was dragged out and despatched with fifty-six wounds. When told that he was dead, Mary dried her tears, saying, "It is now no time to weep we must think of revenge." But it was not the intention of the conspirators to stop here. Mary was closely imprisoned in her chamber; whilst Darnley assumed the government as king. This special atrocity may be re garded as at once a political, an ecclesiastical, and a domestic murder. It was political inasmuch as it was in

tended to break up the Parliament, and thus shield Murray and his party from destruction. It was ecclesiastical, inasmuch as it was designed to remove a dreaded enemy of the Reformed faith. And it was domestic, inasmuch as a jealous husband sought thereby to cut off a suspect ed rival.

Murray returned to Edinburgh immediately after the murder and revolution, and found the Parliament, that had been called to pass sentence of forfeiture against him, dissolved by the usurped authority of Darnley. Poor Mary sent for her brother, and threw herself into his arms, saying, that if he had been here she would not have been so handled-little knowing how deeply he was involved in the treasonable transaction. The Queen seeing herself a captive, and fearing for her life, had recourse to art. By her powers of fascination, she won Darnley from his associates, and at midnight escaped with him to Dunbar. Here she summoned the nobles who remained faithful, and soon saw herself at the head of a force, which enabled her to drive the traitors from the capital, and the kingdom. Knox, who seems to have been especially obnoxious to the Queen, fled to the western coast, and never again appeared in Edinburgh till Mary's power was finally overthrown. On the 19th of June, 1566, Mary gave birth to a son, afterwards James VI.

Darnley, weak yet overbearing, ungrateful for past honours yet clamorous for new, was a source of continual embarrassment to the Queen and her Ministers. Mary, though resenting deeply the murder of her servant, and the savage and brutal circumstances by which the slaughter was accompanied, had prudence enough to see that there was little chance of re-establishing her power, and restoring tranquillity to her realm, if she held at mortal defiance the whole of that powerful party, by whom the treason had been planned and executed. She extended her mercy to all save the chief conspirators: Lethington received a pardon, and returned from his retreat in Athol: and Mary, softened by his intercession and that of Murray, at last consented to recall Morton and the other banished Lords. These proceedings filled Darnley with dismay and fury; for he knew well that those whom he had

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