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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
he had no knowledge of the action. Darnley was murdered, by his apartment being blown up with gunpowder.* Lord Bothwell, who was first accused for the murder of Damley, had for his judges those who had instigated him to take part in the plot. Bothwell got the queen into his power, and after various indignities, she was re- quested by her nobles to marry him ; she had no means to resist a step so fatal to her reputation and her future peace, which was solemnized on May 16, 1567. Factions and different interests
Srevailing among the great, every thing ran into isorder and confusion, loyalty and obedience to the royal authority were uo longer regarded, but despised and abused. The earl of Bothwell was forced to save his life by flight,t and the queen sent prisoner to Lochlevin, and treated on the road with the utmost scorn and contempt. After she had been imprisoned eleven months at loch- levin, and forced to comply with unreasonable terras, she made her escape,^ and in a few days she got an army of at least six thousand men. The regent Murray on the other side, raised an army, and Mary was defeated at Langside, near Dunbarton, on the I3th of May, 1568; she was obliged to save herself by flight, travelling sixty miles in a day to the bouse of lord Herries. She landed in England, at Workington, in Cumber- land, May 16, 1568,§ and was removed from one prison to another, for the space of about eighteen years, in which she haa often struggled for liberty, and interested many in her cause ; she was at length brought to a trial, condemned, and beheaded, for being concerned in a conspi- racy against the life of Elizabeth ; and suffered with great equanimity. She was interred in the cathedral church of Peterborough ; but her re- mains were afterwards removed to a vault in Henry Vllth's chapel, October II, 1612, where a most magnificent monument was erected to her memory.
The misfortunes of the beautiful and accoro- plishedqueen of Scots, whatever were her virtues or her vices, not only interested all Europe in the age in which she lived and suffered, but con- tinues to be a subject of discussion to the present time. Authors vary much in their sentiments concerning the character of this queen ; but all agree that she was most cruelly and unjustly treated. Mary was the great hope of the Catho- lics; and Elizabeth's ministers aggravated the hate of their mistress by a sort of crusading zeal which has no pity or faith for a heretic. The letters pretending to be written by her to Both- well, before the death of her husband, which
- This event took place at Klrkaaeld, a retired situation
from Edinburgh, on the night of February 9, 1587.
James Douglaa, earl of Morton, waa guillotined at Edinburgh, June 2, 1581^ for the supposed murdcrof lord Darnley.
t He retreated to the Orkneys, and driven from thence, committed some outrages on Oie trade of Denmark. He was finally taken and Immured in the castle of Malmoe, in Norway, where he died, after ten years* confinement.
t She was aided in her escape from Loclilerin, by the gallant George Douglas, In the night of the 3d of May, 1S68.
i See note page SI6, ante.
Mr. Whitaker, in his HiHory of Manchester, has shown to contain many internal evidences of forgery (Without seal or superscription,were never, even in copies, submitted to her perusal, or that of her friends, so that she had no opportunities of exposing their falsehood. She was of a height approaching to the majestic, with a beautiful and benevolent countenance, dark liair and eyes. Mary had a flexibility of mind which yielded to her feelings, even when her understanding should have taught her better — prone to confi- dence and generosity, she seemed to expect it, even where she had been frequently deceived, and,beforeconfinement had subdued her feelings, was hysterical under the impression of mis- fortune or unkindness. Mary was one of those characters which we meet with very seldom in the world ; and which, whenever they appear, are applauded for their generosity by a few, and condemned for their simplicity by the many. They have an easy affiance of soul, which loves to repose confidence, even when confidence is weakness. They thus go on, still confiding, and still confounded ; unable to check the current of affiance that runs strong in their bosoms, and suffering themselves to be driven before it in their actions. A generous confidence in the virtue of others is the mark of a soul conscious of the energy of virtue in itself, buoyed up by its own vigour within, and not yet drawn down by the attraction of earth below. Mary's was of this kind. Time, if time had been allowed her, would have forced her to learn the necessary wisdom of the world. The great multitude of mankind learn it without the aid of time. They look into their own hearts, and read it there. They have no stubbornness of virtue to subdue ; they have no forwardness of honour to restrain. Maiy had. She was cast in a much superior mould. And she died at last a martyr to the sincerity of virtue in herself, and to a resistance upon it in others.*
One great motive for the enmity of Elizabeth to Mary, was that the former could not be con- tent with the great superiority which she had over the latter, in a hardy vigour of understand- ing, in a deep knowledge oftne world, and in the mysterious refinements of policy, in the strength of her nation, and in the splendour of her govern- ment. She must anogate a superiority too, in the very orb in which Mary shone so transcen- dently. She must triumph over her in beauty, in dancing, and in dress; in those very accom- plishments which give the sex such an influence upon us, but in which we never think of rivalling them. Elizabeth was a man in most other respects. She would have been peculiarly one in this. But the womanly part of her pre- dominated here over the manly. And she, who
- The following very curioos passage in MelviWt
Memoirt, is pregnant with Intelligence concerning this under part of Elizibeth's character: — "The queen, my mistress," says Melvill, " had instructed me to leave mat- ters of gravity sometimes, and catC in merry purpotet, lest otherwise 1 should be wearied i the belngvieU ix/ormed 0/ that queen^M natural temper.'*
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