5 Darnley. He was descended, like her, from Henry VII., and by a union with him she strengthened her claim to the English crown. He was a weak, worthless fellow, and she soon tired of him.

At that time an Italian, named David Rizzio, who had come over in the train of an ambassador from 8 Savoy, stood high in her favour. Darnley gradually grew jealous of him, and plotted with some of the nobles to kill him. One night when the hated foreigner was in the company of the queen, the conspirators seized him, dragged him to the top of the stairs, stabbed him through and through, and then pulled his dead body down the steps.

Mary resolved to 9 wreak the fullest vengeance upon the murderers of her favourite, but concealed her purpose till she saw a chance of 10 accomplishing it. She was especially bitter against her husband, and she soon had an opportunity of working her will on him. On his way to Glasgow he was taken seriously ill. When he was getting better his wife visited him, and, appearing all love and kindness, persuaded him that he would recover sooner if he were removed to 11 Craigmillar. He was borne upon a litter as far as Edinburgh, but then, in spite of his protestations, he was taken to a lonely house standing close to the city walls.

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One night Mary said she was going to stay with him till morning. She stayed till after twelve o'clock, when suddenly remembering there was at 13 Holyrood that night a dance which she had promised to attend, she went away. Not long after, a great explosion 14 occurred, blowing the house to pieces. The people who rushed to see what had happened found the body of Darnley under a tree forty yards from where he had been lying.

There can be little doubt that the murder had been planned by Mary and the Earl of Bothwell, the most faithful, the most reckless, and the most wicked of all

her followers. In three months the queen married the earl, who in the meantime had made the union possible by divorcing his own wife.

That Mary should take for her third husband the murderer of the second roused the indignation of nobles and people alike. The chief lords collected an army too strong for her to oppose, and within a month of the shameless wedding she was a prisoner in their hands. She was shut up in a castle standing on a small island in the middle of Loch Leven, and forced to give up the crown to her 15 infant son. In the six years that had passed since she was welcomed by the nation on her return from France, her wickedness and her folly had lost her the respect of her subjects.

Not that she was left altogether without friends : when, after eleven months of confinement, she managed to escape, a good many of the barons came to her aid, some for love of her, and more for jealousy of the lords in power. Her army, however, was defeated, and she was obliged to flee across the border.

The Reformation having taken deep root in Scotland that country without its queen was likely to be friendly to England. Elizabeth, therefore, did not wish to see her again upon the throne, and kept her a prisoner. But her presence in England was also a constant source of difficulty. She was the centre of every conspiracy into which the discontented Catholics entered. Three times she was concerned in plots which were formed for the murder of Elizabeth. The last time she was brought to trial and found guilty. The English queen hesitated a great deal about signing the warrant for her execution; she would gladly have had Mary out of the way, but did not want the blame of having put her to death. Though at last she did sign the warrant she actually punished the secretary who acted upon her authority.

After nearly nineteen years of imprisonment in

England, the unfortunate Queen of Scots-unfortunate though 16 erring-was beheaded at 17 Fotheringay Castle.

10

3

4

1 Policy, plan of government. 2 Dauphin, the eldest son of the king of France. rivalry, competition, strife. political, relating to the government. 5 Darnley. See Genealogical Table, page 222. 6 train, body of followers. 7 ambassador, a man sent to a foreign court to look after the interests of his own country. 8 Savoy, now in the south-east of France. 9 wreak, execute, carry out. accomplish, to achieve, finish, bring about. 11 Craigmillar, a royal castle three miles south-east of Edinburgh. 12 lonely house. It was attached to an old church, called the Kirk of Field, that is the church in the field. 13 Holyrood, a royal palace in Edinburgh. 14 occur, to happen. 15 infant son, then only a year old. He was James VI. of Scotland. erring, going astray, doing 17 Fotheringay, in Northamptonshire.

wrong.

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THE ELIZABETHAN SAILORS.

THE Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, the Danes and the Normans, all loved the sea; it would, therefore, have been strange if the nation formed by their union did not also love the sea. English sailors and fishermen were always famous for their skill and daring, but during the century and a half preceding the accession of Henry VIII., they had shown no 2 disposition to enter unfamiliar waters. Year after year the merchant ships visited the same ports, year after year the fishing smacks dropped their nets off the same coasts; but with the casting aside of ancient beliefs, with the discovery of a vast continent beyond the setting sun, there was a quickening of thought which put new activity into every department of life. During the reign of Elizabeth this new activity 5 manifested itself fully in maritime as well as in other

4

matters. Then did an Englishman first sail round the globe; then might English vessels be found 7 cleaving their way through unknown seas in the old world and the new. A few examples will best show the stuff

of which Elizabeth's sailors were made.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, reared close to a 8 busy port, seemed to have breathed in a love of the ocean with

its very air. Grown to manhood, he spent his fortune in fitting out ships for 9 adventurous voyages. Then `he asked the queen to send him in search of the 10 north-west passage to India. We may learn what manner of man he was from the noble words with which his 11 memorial ends. "Never, therefore," he says, "mislike with me for taking in hand any