most inhumanly forced to comply with demands highly detrimental to her honour and interest, she escaped, May 2nd., 1568, and went to Hamilton Castle. Here, in an assembly of many of the nobility, was drawn up a sentence, declaring that the grants extorted from her majesty in prison, among which was a resignation of the crown, were void from the beginning; upon which, in two or three days, more than six thousand people assembled to her assistance.
Murray, who had been declared regent of the kingdom, made all possible preparations; and when the two parties joined battle, the queen's army, consisting of raw soldiers, was entirely defeated; and she was obliged to save herself by flight, travelling sixty miles in one day, to the house of Maxwell, Lord Herries. Thence she despatched a messenger to Queen Elizabeth, with a diamond which she had formerly received from her, signifying that she would come into England, and asking her assistance. Elizabeth returned a kind answer, with large promises; but before the messenger returned, Mary, rejecting the advice of her friends, hastened into England, and landed May 17th., at Workington, in Cumberland; she wrote a long letter in French with her own hand to Elizabeth, detailing her misfortunes, and asking her aid. Elizabeth affected to comfort her, gave her dubious promises, and commanded, under pretence of greater security, that she should be carried to Carlisle.
Mary immediately perceived her error. Denied access to Elizabeth, she was kept wandering for nineteen years from one prison to another, and was at length tried, condemned, and beheaded, for being engaged in Babington's conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth. She professed to die for the Roman Catholic religion, and has been considered a saint by that church. She was executed at Fotheringay Castle, February 8th., 1587, and met her death with dignity and composure. Her remains were interred by her son, in Westminster Abbey, after his accession to the English throne.
Authors have differed about the moral character of this queen; there has been but one opinion as to her charms as a woman, or the variety of her accomplishments. She wrote poems in the Latin, Italian, French, and Scotch languages; "Royal Advice" to her son, during her imprisonment; and a great number of letters, many of which are now in the library at Paris. Some of them have been printed.
Such were her fascinations of person and mind that few could be placed under their influence without becoming convinced of her innocence of all the charges against her, and devoted to her service. She also possessed great powers of irony and sarcasm, which she sometimes used with too little discretion. Though at all times strongly attached to her own faith, she is free from the charges of bigotry and persecution. A melancholy interest attaches every heart to the memory of Mary of Scotland. It is painfully felt that fate or providence had designed her for suffering. Her charms of beauty and genius, that made her such a fascinating woman, unfitted her for the throne of a rude nation, in the most stormy period of its history. She had the misfortune to live among enemies paid to slander her; and few dared defend, while her proud and powerful rival queen was watching for an opportunity to crush her, whose misfortunes have furnished a subject for the tragic muse of Schiller and Alfieri.
