to her own kingdom. She is said to have remained on the deck of the vessel that bore her from her beloved France, gazing on the shores of that country till they had completely disappeared from her view; then retiring below, she wrote some verses on the occasion, full of beauty and pathos.
She was welcomed with joy by her subjects, and soon after her return, Charles, Archduke of Austria, was proposed to her as a husband, by the Cardinal of Lorraine. But Elizabeth of England interposed, and desired she would not marry with any foreign prince. She recommended to her either the Earl of Leicester or the Lord Darnley; giving her to understand that her succession to the crown of England would be very precarious if she did not comply. Overawed by Elizabeth, and pleased by the beauty of Darnley, she consented to marry him; and creating him Earl of Ross and Duke of Rothsay, July 28th., 1565, he was the same day proclaimed king, at Edinburgh, and married to the queen the day after; thus uniting the two nearest heirs to the throne of England. She had one son by Darnley, born at Edinburgh, June 19th., 1566; afterwards James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England.
Of the events connected with the murder of David Rizzio, son of a musician at Turin, who had accompanied the Piedmontese ambassador to Scotland, and gained admission into the queen's family by his musical talents, and who so insinuated himself into Mary's favour, that she made him her French secretary, we need not give a detail, nor of Mary's subsequent conduct with regard to Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, and the violent death of Darnley, who, will be remembered, was blown up in a solitary house in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, called Kirk of Field, Mary, as some contend, being an accessary In this deed of blood. Into all these disputed points of the unfortunate queen's history, we need not enter. Her marriage with Bothwell, which took place about three months after the death of Darnley, gave a great appearance of probability to the injurious suspicions which attached to her in consequence of that sad event.
From this time a series of misfortunes attended the queen. The different views and interests of the nobility, clergy, and gentry, in regard to religion and politics, had so disturbed the peace of the kingdom, that all things appeared in the greatest confusion. Bothwell, defeated in a battle, was forced to fly to Denmark; and the queen was taken prisoner to Lochleven, and committed to the care of Murray's mother, who, having been the mistress of James the Fifth, insulted the unfortunate queen, by pretending that she was the lawful wife of King James, and that Murray was his legitimate child. When Queen Elizabeth heard of this treatment of Mary, she seemed very indignant at it, and sent Sir Nicholas Throgmorton into Scotland, to expostulate with the conspirators, and to consult about restoring her to liberty. But Elizabeth was by no means in earnest; and, if not the contriver of these troubles, as some have supposed her to have been, she secretly rejoiced at them. When Elizabeth was crowned, Mary, then in France, had been persuaded by the Roman Catholics to assume the arms and title of the kingdom of England; thereby declaring Elizabeth illegitimate, and her title null and void. This indignity Elizabeth never forgave.
Having been detained prisoner at Lochleven eleven months, and
