magnificent. The propension which the example of her husband had promoted was repressed by her decency and moderation. The excesses of an amorous monarch seem even to have induced her to adopt a more than common reserve and circumspection. Though a widow, at an age when the soft passions have their full power, no suspicion was ever entertained of her chastity, and her maids of honour recommended themselves to her by modesty, piety, and virtue. Her various endowments, and the many excellent qualities which gave her distinction, excite a regret that she should have been disgraced so completely by a frail obse quiousness to French counsels: yet for this fatal error, it is some compensation that her repentance was severe and painful. A few days before her death, she invited to her the Duke of Chatelherault, the Lord James Stuart, and the Earl of Argyle, to bid them a last adieu. She expressed to them her sorrow for the troubles of Scotland, and made it her earnest suit, that they would consult their constitutional liberties by dismissing the French and English from their country, and that they would preserve a dutiful obedience to the queen their sovereign. She professed an unlimited forgiveness of all injuries which had been done to her, and entreated their pardon for the offences she had committed against them. In token of her kindness and charity, she then embraced them by turns, and, while the tear started in her eye, presented to them a cheerful aspect. Her soul, melting with tenderness, and devesting itself of its prejudices, weaknesses, and hatreds, seemed to anticipate the purity of a better world. After this interview, the short portion of life which remained to her was dedicated to religion; and, that she might allure the Congregation to be compassionate to her Popish subjects and her French adherents, she

flattered them by calling John Willox, one of the most popular of their preachers, to assist and comfort her by his exhortations and prayers. He made long discourses to her about the abominations of the mass; but she appears to have died in the communion of the Romish church; and her body being transported to France, was deposited in the monastery of St. Peter, at Rheims in Champagne, where her sister Renée was an abbess."

QUEEN MARY.

MARY Queen of Scots was born in the royal palace of Linlithgow, on the 8th of December, 1542, a few days before the death of her father James V. At the age of six years Mary was conveyed to France, where she received her education in the court of Henry II. The opening powers of her mind, and her natural dispositions, afforded early hopes of capacity and merit. While Mary resided in the French court, her charms made a deep impression on the mind of the Dauphin. It was in vain that the Constable Montmorency opposed their marriage with all his influence. The importance of her kingdom to France, and the power of her uncles the Princes of Lorrain, were more than sufficient to counteract his intrigues. The French king applied to the Parliament of Scotland, which appointed eight of its members to represent the whole body of the nation at the marriage of the queen; and in the instructions of parliament to those commissioners, they employed every precaution which prudence could dictate, for preserving the liberty and independence of the nation, and for securing the succession of the crown in the house of Hamilton. The marriage was according ly celebrated with great pomp. Henry II. dying

soon after the marriage of the Dauphin and Mary, they mounted the throne of France. In that ele

vated station the queen did not fail to distinguish herself. The weakness of her husband served to exhibit her accomplishments to the greatest advantage; and in a court where gallantry to the sex, and the most profound respect for the person of the sovereign, were inseparable from the manners of a gentleman, she learned the first lessons of royalty. But this scene of successful grandeur and unmixed felicity was of short duration. Her husband Francis died unexpectedly, after a short reign of sixteen months.

In the year 1561, a convention of estates was held in Scotland, and the prior of St. Andrews was appointed to repair to the queen, to invite her to return into her native country, and to assume the reins of government, which had been too long committed to other hands. She was accompanied to Calais, the place where she embarked, in a manner suitable to her dignity, as the queen of two powerful kingdoms. Six Princes of Lorrain her uncles, with the most eminent among the French nobles, were in her retinue. After bidding adieu to her mourning attendants, with a sad heart, and eyes bathed in tears, Mary left that kingdom, the short but only scene of her life in which fortune smiled upon her. While the French coast continued in sight, she intently gazed upon it, and musing, in a thoughtful posture, on that height of fortune whence she had fallen, and presaging, perhaps, the disasters and calamities which embittered the remainder of her days, she sighed often, and cried out, "Farewell France! Farewell beloved country, which I shall never more behold!" Even when the darkness of the night had hid the land from her view, she would neither retire to the cabin, nor taste food, but, commanding a couch to be

placed on the deck, she there waited the return of day with the utmost impatience. Fortune soothed her on this occasion; the galley made but little way during the night. In the morning the coast of France was still within view; she continued to feed her melancholy with the sight; and, as long as her eyes could distinguish it, to utter the same tender expressions of regret. At last a brisk gale arose, by the favour of which for some days, and afterward under the covert of a thick fog, Mary escaped the English fleet, which lay in wait to intercept her; and on the 19th of August 1561, after an absence of near thirteen years, landed safely at Leith, in her native kingdom. She was received by her subjects with shouts and acclamations of joy, and with every demonstration of welcome and regard.

Mary was the most amiable woman of the age, and the fame of her accomplishments, together with the favourable circumstance of her having one kingdom already in possession, and the prospect of mounting the throne of another, prompted many different princes to solicit an alliance so illustrious. Scotland by its situation threw so much weight into whatever scale it fell, that all Europe waited with solicitude for Mary's determination. The person towards whom Mary began to turn her thoughts was Henry Stewart, Lord Darnly, eldest son of the Earl of Lennox, and to him she was afterwards married. This unfortunate alliance proved the source of all her future misfortunes and calamities; but as the leading facts in her history are interwo❤ ven with that of others, we shall here only observe, that after enduring incredible hardships, and languishing nearly nineteen years a prisoner in England, she was condemned to death by Elizabeth.

The tragical death of this queen, and her character, are transmitted to posterity by our author, in the following words:

On Tuesday, the 7th of February, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent arrived at Fotheringay, and demanding access to the queen, read in her presence the warrant for execution, and required her to prepare to die next morning. Mary heard them to the end without emotion, and crossing herself in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, "That soul" said she, "is not worthy of the joys of heaven, which repines because the body must endure the stroke of the executioner; and though I did not expect that the queen of England would set the first example of violating the sacred person of a sovereign prince, I willingly submit to that which Providence has decreed to be my lot ;" and laying her hand on a bible, which happened to be near her, she solemnly protested that she was innocent of that conspiracy which Babington had carried on against Elizabeth's life. She then mentioned the requests contained in her letter to Elizabeth, but obtained no satisfactory answer. She entreated with particular earnestness, that now in her last moments her almoner might be suffered to attend her, and that she might enjoy the consolation of those pious institutions prescribed by her religion. Even this favour, which is usually granted to the vilest criminal, was absolutely denied.

Her attendants, during this conversation, were bathed in tears, and though overawed by the presence of the two earls, with difficulty suppressed their anguish ; but no sooner did Kent and Shrewsbury withdraw, than they ran to their mistress, and burst out into the most passionate expressions of tenderness and sorrow. Mary, however, not only retained perfect composure of mind, but endeavoured to moderate their excessive grief; and falling on her knees, with all her domestics around her, she thanked Heaven that her sufferings were