a war with England. At length Henry Stewart, lord Darnley, the queen's first cousin, and Elizabeth's second cousin, was selected, and, after much controversy and long delay, the marriage was celebrated on the 29th of July 1565. Immediately the lords of the congregation flew to arms: Murray, Chatelherault, Argyll, Glencairn, and others, assembled their forces; but Mary took the field against them in person, and after a remarkable campaign, known as the "Round-about Raid," drove them into England, where they were safe under the protection of Elizabeth.

5. Darnley had been but a short time married to the queen when his insolence, extravagance, and dissipation, began to alienate her affections. Instead of assigning this change to the true cause, he fancied that some other person must have supplanted him; and his suspicions fell upon David Rizzio, an Italian musician, whose knowledge of languages had recommended him to the queen as her foreign secretary. Rizzio was ugly and deformed, and was scarcely the kind of person who could have made Darnley jealous of the queen's affections. But he was a man of learning and accomplishments, who could please her with such conversation as she had enjoyed in France; and her husband could not endure that a person of his class should exercise any influence over her. The fierce Scottish barons despised such acquirements as the Italian possessed, and were disgusted that a foreign fiddler should be employed in affairs of state. It was thus no difficult matter for Darnley to find individuals ready to stain their hands with his blood. On the 9th March 1566, as the queen was at supper in her apartment at Holyrood, attended by Rizzio and the Countess of Argyll, the king suddenly entered by a private passage, followed by Lord Ruthven and other conspirators in full armour. The unfortunate secretary, suspecting the object of such an unusual occurrence, took refuge behind the queen; but notwithstanding her tears, her threats, and her entreaties, "Signior Davie," as the conspirators called him, was dragged into an adjoining room, and despatched with a multitude of wounds. In a dark corner of the old apartments of Holyrood Palace they still profess to show the stains of his blood on the floor.

After the perpetration of this revolting murder, the queen was kept a prisoner and strictly guarded, Darnley assumed the sole power, and Morton, with his armed retainers, received injunctions that no one should be permitted to leave the

palace. Mary's courage and presence of mind, however, did not forsake her. During the following day she succeeded in alarming the fears and awakening the love of her husband, and prevailed with him to aid in her escape. She lulled the suspicions of her guards by retiring early to rest, and at midnight mounted a fleet horse, and, accompanied only by the king and another attendant, fled to Dunbar. Here she was joined by the Earls of Bothwell and Huntly, who raised an army of 8000 men, and compelled the murderers of Rizzio to seek refuge in England under the protection of Elizabeth, at whose intercession they were afterwards pardoned, and A.D.mitted to return to Scotland. On the the 19th of June 1566. following these events, Mary gave birth to a prince in the castle of Edinburgh, who was baptized under the names of Charles James.

per

The queen's husband had so deeply offended all parties, that he now found himself almost without a friend. While at Glasgow, he caught the small-pox, and before he had completely recovered, he was removed to Edinburgh that he might have easier access to his physicians. A lonely mansion called the Kirk of Field, situate where the college of Edinburgh now stands, but at that time without the walls, was fitted up for his reception, and here the queen assiduously attended him. On the 9th of February 1567, she left his lodging at eleven at night to attend the marriage of one of her maids at Holyrood, and at two next morning the house was blown up, and the body of the king found in an adjoining garden. The Earl of Bothwell was openly charged with the murder, but was acquitted after a mock trial. Shortly after this he forcibly seized upon the queen's person, and carried her off to Dunbar Castle; and then, as if this violence had been a mere form, she created him Duke of Orkney, and publicly married him on the 15th of May following.

6. Bothwell did not long enjoy his new dignity. Offended by his haughty conduct, and alarmed by his attempts to get Mary's son into his possession, the nobles entered into a combination against him, and having raised an army, marched to Edinburgh. The queen and her husband fled to Dunbar, and collected their forces, with which they met the con171367.} federates at Carberry Hill, the scene of the battle of Pinkey; but the royal troops discovered no inclination to fight, and while Bothwell made his escape with a few followers, Mary was obliged to surrender. After suffering many indignities,

she was confined in the castle of Lochleven, and compelled to sign a deed resigning the sceptre to her son, and appointing as regent the Earl of Murray, the natural son of James V., a zealous supporter of the protestants, and the most formidable opponent of his sister the queen. The young prince was soon after crowned at Stirling, and the government was then carried on in the name of James VI. Bothwell ended his days in a Danish prison, where he had been confined for piracies committed in the northern seas.

Mary had been nearly a year in confinement, when she contrived to elude the vigilance of her keepers and make her escape. She was speedily joined by a number of the nobility and gentry, whose followers numbered 6000 men. But the glimpse of prosperity that now shone upon her was of short 13th May} duration. At Langside, near Glasgow, her army was 1568. completely routed by the regent; and after witnessing the dispersion of her adherents, she fled in dismay, and never drew bridle till she reached the abbey of Dundrennan in Galloway, sixty miles from the field of battle. Being now on the confines of England, Mary determined, in an evil hour, and contrary to the earnest entreaties of her attendants, to seek the protection of Elizabeth. She accordingly passed over in a boat to Workington in Cumberland, whence she was conducted to Carlisle. To her request for a personal interview, Elizabeth answered that it would first be necessary for the Scottish queen to disprove the accusations against her, and commissioners were appointed to investigate the charges. In the meantime she was removed for greater security to the castle of Tutford in Staffordshire.

While Mary remained a prisoner in England, the Duke of Norfolk became secretly attached to her, and intrigues were covertly carried on to bring about a marriage between this nobleman and the Scottish queen. Many of the nobility both in England and Scotland gave it their full concurrence, and nothing seemed wanting but the consent of Elizabeth. The regent, however, who foresaw the downfal of his own power if the marriage took place, threw difficulties in the way of a sentence of divorce against Bothwell. This necessarily occaBioned a delay, during which Elizabeth got notice of the whole affair; Norfolk was committed to the Tower, while Mary was treated with increased severity.

In the end of 1569, the northern counties of England rose in revolt, under the Duke of Norfolk and the Earls of North

N

umberland and Westmoreland, with the design of liberating Queen Mary. They did not succeed, and being unable to oppose the royal troops under the Duke of Sussex, their forces were scattered, and the leaders took refuge in Scotland or Flanders. Their followers were pitilessly handed over to the executioner: in the county of Durham alone more than three hundred persons suffered death, and scarcely a town or village in the north of England was without its gibbet and its victims.

7. In the midst of his power and prosperity, a tragical death overtook the Earl of Murray; he was assassinated by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, who had been taken prisoner at Langside. Part of Hamilton's estate having been bestowed upon one of the popular party, the house was seized, and his wife turned out naked in a cold night into the open fields, in consequence of which she became insane. The injury made a deep impression on the mind of the husband, and, having vowed revenge, he shot the regent from a window as he passed through Linlithgow. The government had been assumed by the Duke of Chatelherault and the Earls of Huntly and Argyll, who stood up for the queen, and were called Queen's men. But the opposite faction, the King's men as they were called, from their professing to advocate the claims of the infant James, flew to arms under the guidance of the Earl of Morton, denied Mary's authority, and invited Elizabeth to send an army to their support. She complied: Sussex and Hunsdon entered Teviotdale, burnt 300 villages, and destroyed fifty border castles or peels, while Lord Lennox, now regent, was equally destructive in the west.

Queen Mary's affairs became daily further complicated by the indiscretion of her partisans: rumours of plots and conspiracies were continually alarming the Protestant party, and foreign powers were reported to be preparing to invade the kingdom. The Duke of Alva was said to be coming with an army to burn down London and exterminate Protestantism; the pope was to contribute his treasures, and give his benediction on the pious deed. For his share in the Rudolfi conspiracy to overthrow Elizabeth by the aid of foreign arms and money, the Duke of Norfolk suffered death, and the alarmed protestants called loudly for Mary's head. The St Bartholomew massacre, 23d Aug. in which 30,000 Huguenots were butchered in cold 1572. blood, filled all England with horror and affright: every papist was looked upon as a bloodthirsty enemy, from

whom no true believer could be safe. An immediate outcry was raised for the execution of the Scottish queen, and the whole bench of bishops joined in recommending the measure. At the same time the English ministry profited by the slaughter of the protestants in France to irritate still further the minds of the Scots against their queen. The regent Mar having died in 1572, was succeeded by the unscrupulous Earl of Morton, who devoted all his energies to two objects-the enriching of himself and obeying Elizabeth's instructions. He enjoyed his power nearly five years, but at length was stripped of his authority, and executed as one of Darnley's murderers.

A.D.}

1581.

During Morton's regency a serious contest took place between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. Although the establishment of a presbyterian form of church government, which implies the equal rank and power of the ministers, did not by name abolish the office of bishop, their place was supplied by superintendents who watched over the conduct of the clergy and presided in the church-courts. Such an arrangement could not long be satisfactory-and one party called for regularly consecrated bishops according to the English model, while others demanded a pure presbyterian organization. So great, however, was the influence of the nobles, who were in the receipt of the episcopal revenues, that it was agreed in convention "That the name and office of archbishop and bishop should be continued during the king's minority, and these dignities be conferred upon the best qualified among the protestant ministers, being subject in spiritualities to the General Assembly." These bishops, however, were never popular, and the contemptuous nicknames bestowed upon them showed that the people regarded them merely as the tools of the nobility. This form continued until 1592, when an act, known as the "Charter of the Liberties of the Kirk," was passed, fully establishing the presbyterian system. The supreme government of the church was vested in the General Assembly, or ecclesiastical parliament, composed of representatives lay and clerical from each presbytery. This great body was to meet once a-year. Inferior to it were the synods, having authority over a certain number of presbyteries; below them the presbyteries, including several parishes; and last of all, the kirk-sessions, one of which was constituted in every parish. 8. In England the state of the public mind was restless uneasy, and the most formidable evils were dreaded from

and