ribing to Mary the utmost beauty of countenance, and elegance of shape, of which the human form is capable. Her hair was black, though according to the fashion of that age, she frequently wore borrowed locks, and of different colours. Her eyes were a dark grey; her complexion was exquisitely fine; and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to shape and colour. Her stature was of an height that rose to the majestic. She danced, she walked, and rode with equal grace. Her taste for music was just, and she both sung 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.

LORD DARNLY.

MARY having remained above two years in a state of widowhood, her subjects became impatient for her marriage, and wished the crown to descend in the right line from the ancient monarchs. The person to whom Mary began to turn her thoughts was Henry Stewart Lord Darnly, eldest son of the Earl of Lennox. That nobleman, having been driven out of Scotland under the regency of the Duke of Chatelherault, had lived in banishment for twenty years. His wife, Lady Margaret Douglas, was Mary's most dangerous rival in her claim upon the English succession. She was the daughter of Margaret, the eldest sister of Henry VIII. by the Earl of Angus, whom that queen married after the death of her husband James IV.

From the time that Mary became sensible of the difficulties which would attend her marrying a foreign prince, she entered into a still closer connexion with the Earl of Lennox, and invited him to return into Scotland. This she endeavoured to conceal from Elizabeth; but a transaction of so much importance did not escape the notice of that discerning princess. Darnly was in no situation to excite her jealousy or her fears. His father's estates lay in England, and by means of this pledge she hoped to keep the negociation entirely in her own hands.

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After two years fruitless negociation concerning the marriage of the Scotish queen, in which Elizabeth displayed the utmost envy and deceit, Darnly arrived in Scotland; and an affair which had been the object of so many political intrigues, and had moved and interested so many princes, was at last decided by the sudden liking of two young perLord Darnly was at this time in the first bloom and vigour of youth. In beauty and gracefulness of person he surpassed all his contempora ries; he excelled eminently in those arts which add ease and elegance to external form, and which enable it not only to dazzle, but to please. Mary was of an age, and of a temper, to feel the full power of these accomplishments. The impression which Lord Darnly made upon her was visible from the time of their first interview. The whole business of the court was to amuse and entertain this illustrious guest; and in all those scenes of gaiety, Darnly, whose qualifications were altogether superficial and showy, appeared to great advantage. His conquest of the Queen's heart became complete; and inclination now prompted her to conclude a marriage, the first thoughts of which had been suggested by considerations merely political

As Darnly was so nearly related to the Queen, the canon law made it necessary to obtain the Pope's dispensation before the celebration of the marriage. For this purpose she early set on foot a negociation with the court of Rome, and was busy, at the same time, in procuring the consent of the French king and his mother.

While Mary was endeavouring to reconcile foreign courts to a measure which she had so much at heart; Darnly and his father, by their behaviour, were raising up enemies to obstruct it. Intoxioated with the Queen's favour, Darnly began already to assume the haughtiness of a king, and to put on that imperious air, which majesty itself can scarce render tolerable.

Mary repeatedly endeavoured, but in vain, to procure the consent of Elizabeth; and she was equally unsuccessful with the Earl of Murray.

On Mary's return to Edinburgh from Perth, whither she had gone to hold a Convention, she summoned her vassals by proclamation, and solicited them by letters, to repair thither in arms; and she was obeyed with promptness and alacrity. This confluence of her subjects from all corners of the kingdom, afforded Mary an agreeable proof of her own strength; and in this prosperous situation, she determined to bring to a period an affair which had so long engrossed her heart and occupied her attention. On the 29th of July, she married Stewart Lord Darnly. The ceremony was performed in the queen's chapel, according to the rites of the Romish church; the pope's bull dispensing with their marriage having been previously obtained. She issued at the same time proclamations, conferring the title of King of Scots upon her husband, and commanding that henceforth all writs of law should run in the joint names of king and queen.

Darnly's external accomplishments had excited that sudden and violent passion which raised him to the throne. But the qualities of his mind corresponded ill with the beauty of his person. Of a weak understanding, and without experience, conceited, at the same time, of his own abilities, and ascribing his extraordinary success entirely to his distinguished merit; all the queen's favour made no impression on such a temper. All her gentleness could not bridle his imperious and ungovernable spirit. All her attention to place about him persons capable of directing his conduct, could not preserve him from rash and imprudent actions. Fond of all the amusements, and even prone to all the vices of youth, he became by degrees careless of her person, and a stranger to her company. To a woman, and a queen, such behaviour was intolerable. The lower she had stooped to raise him, his behaviour appeared the more ungenerous and criminal and in proportion to the strength of her first affection, was the violence with which her disappointed passion now operated. A few months after the marriage their domestic quarrels began to be observed, which the extravagance of Darnly's ambition alone gave rise to.

Rizio, whom the king had at first taken into great confidence, did not humour him in his follies. By this he incurred the displeasure of Henry; and as it was impossible for Mary to behave towards her husband with the same affection which distinguished the first and happy days of their union, he imputed this coldness, not to his own behaviour, which he had so well merited, but to the insinuations of Rizio. The haughty spirit of Darnly could not bear the interference of such an upstart; and impatient of any delay, and unrestrained by any scruple, he instantly resolved to get rid of him by violence; and he soon found

persons, impelled by different motives, ready to assist him in the perpetration of the horrid crime.

The conspiracy against Rizio was successful, and he fell a victim to their revenge. The king, meanwhile, stood astonished at the boldness and success of his own enterprise, and uncertain what course to hold. The queen observed his irresolution, and availed herself of it. She employed all her art to disengage him from his new associates. His consciousness of the insult which he had offered to so illustrious a benefactress, inspired him with uncommon facility and complaisance. In spite of all the warnings he received to distrust the queen's artifices, she prevailed on him to dismiss the guards which the conspirators had placed on her person; and that same night he made his escape along with her, attended by three persons only, and retired to Dunbar. He afterwards denied all knowledge of the conspiracy by public proclamations, and shamefully abandoned the conspirators to the rage of the queen.

The charm, which had at first attached the queen to Darnly, and held them for some time in happy union, was now entirely dissolved; and love no longer covering his follies and vices with its friendly veil, they appeared to Mary in their full dimensions and deformity. Though Henry published a proclamation, disclaiming any knowledge of the conspiracy against Rizio, the queen was fully convinced, that he was not only accessary to the contrivance, but to the commission of that odious crime. The queen's favours were longer conveyed through his hand. The crowd of expectants ceased to court his patronage, which they found to avail so little. Among the nobles some dreaded his furious temper, others complained of his perfidiousness; and all of them despised the weakness of his understanding and

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