of negotiations for the English alliance was checked. But, for reasons which I need not delay to explain, an agreement of marriage between Mary and Edward was afterwards signed. So strongly, however, were the masses of the people opposed to any measure that might bring Scotland under the power of the "auld enemy," and so enraged were they at certain humiliating conditions attached to the marriage contract, that the treaty was broken up within a fortnight after it had been signed. "I assure you," said a Scotsman to the English envoy, "that our nation, being a stout nation, will never agree to have an Englishman King of Scotland; and though the whole nobility of the realm should consent to it, yet the common people, and the stones of the streets would rise and rebel against it."

Henry VIII., whose patience was not his predominant virtue, was enraged at this opposition to his will, and hastened troops into Scotland, both by land and sea, with instructions so savagely cruel, that we could hardly believe them to have been issued did we not see them realized in the subsequent conduct of the soldiery. On the 3rd of May, 1544, an English fleet suddenly appeared off Leith, which, in conjunction with a land army, proceeded to carry out the instructions of their royal master, namely, "To put all to fire and sword, to burn Edinburgh town, and to raze and deface it when you have sacked it and gotten what you can out of it, as that it may remain for ever a perpetual memory of the vengeance of God lighted upon it for their falsehood and disloyalty." "Do what you can," the instructions continue, "out of hand and without long tarrying, to beat down and overthrow the Castle, sack Holyrood House and as many towns and villages about Edinburgh as you conveniently can. Sack Leith and burn and subvert it and all the rest, putting man, woman and child to fire and sword, without exception, when any resistance shall be made against you. And this done, pass over to Fifeland and extend like extremities and destructions to all towns and villages whereunto ye may reach conveniently; not forgetting amongst all the rest to spoil and turn upside down the Cardinal's town of St. Andrews, as the upper stone may be the nether, and not one stick stand by another; sparing no creature alive within the same, especially such as either in friendship or blood be allied to the Cardinal."

Another army sent into Scotland in September of the same year, converted the southern portion of the country almost into a waste, no scruple being made of burning mothers and children in their homes. Between the 8th and the 23rd of September, the army destroyed, among other things, seven monasteries, sixteen castles, five market towns, two hundred and forty-three villages, thirteen mills and three hospitals. These barbarities had the effect of uniting the two parties in Scotland and of retarding the very movement that Henry had hoped they should accelerate.

The greatest obstacle to the progress of Henry's designs on Scotland was still Cardinal Beaton. Beaton was not only a distinguished prelate, but also a statesman of European reputation. Henry was anxious to get him out of the way; but negotiations for his murder, though entered into on various occasions, fell through, because the interested parties could not agree on the price of the Cardinal's blood. However, the work was accomplished later; on the 29th of May, 1546, a band of conspirators entered the Castle of St. Andrews, murdered the Cardinal and, having dressed his corpse in priestly vestments, suspended it from the Castle wall. Henry was shortly afterwards called to his reward, but the war against Scotland was carried on by Somerset, the Protector, and in September, 1547, Scottish independence being seriously threatened, after the disastrous battle of Pankie, the young queen was quickly removed from Sterling and hurried away to the Priory on Inchmahone, in the lake of Menteith, in Perthshire. Here, unconscious of the fierce conflicts of which she was the occasion, Mary passed her days in childish sports, in company with her four playmates, who were destined to become her maids of honor--Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston.

Some decisive step with regard to the young queen had soon to be taken. The Estates convened and decided to give her in marriage to the Dauphin, and to send her to France to be educated. Accordingly, on the 7th of August, 1548, Mary, being then scarcely six years old, embarked at Dunbarton, and six days later landed at Roscoff, near Brest. Surrounded by every mark of respect corresponding to her dignity, she was conducted to the Court of Henry II., and was henceforward treated with the distinction due to a crowned queen (for the coronation ceremony had been performed in Scotland), and the betrothed of the heir to the French throne.

CHAPTER III.

THE YOUNG QUEEN OF SCOTS IN FRANCE.

Those who have been accustomed to hearing the French court of that time spoken of as dissolute and vicious, and who have furthermore taken for granted that Mary's early life was shaped by the unsavoury habits of the courtiers, and that the crimes of which she was afterwards accused were only the natural outgrowth of her early training, will do well to remember that her education was not intrusted to the French court or courtiers. Antoinette de Bourbon, maternal grandmother of the young queen, a lady eminent throughout France for her virtues, was the person in whose hands Mary of Lorraine had placed the religious education of her child. The brave Duke of Guise (who had won Calais from the English) and his brother the Cardinal, were also particularly interested in the welfare of their little niece. To these Mary, from the beginning, became warmly attached, and their landless and uninterrupted solicitude for her well-being, sealed that reciprocal love of uncles and niece which lasted until death.

Mary was already Queen of Scotland and betrothed of the future King of France, and would probably succeed to the throne of England; nothing, therefore, was overlooked that would help to qualify her for the high position to which she was destined. Her education did not stop with the lighter accomplishments suited to her sex and station; the deeper studies of literature, ancient and modern; history, Sacred Scripture, the languages and the fine arts, were assiduously attended to. An interesting document in the form of a Latin exercise book which she used when about twelve years of age, is preserved in the National Library in Paris. It contains sixty-four themes, written in clear characters, which, however, vary in appearance according to the quality of the pen and ink she happened to have at hand. She writes on subjects taken from Plato, Cicero and other classical authors; she cites different works of Erasmus; she discusses the history of certain learned women of antiquity; she speaks of the profit to be derived from the study of Holy Scripture if approached with a pure heart; and among other things she has a theme on Purgatory, thrown into the form of an epistle addressed to Calvin. Mary's physical, mental and moral development were studiously watched, and carefully reported to her mother in Scotland. When she had just completed her eleventh year, the Cardinal of Guise, in a letter to her mother, writes of her as follows: "Your daughter has grown much taller and she daily improves in goodness and virtue, in beauty and intelligence. She could not possibly make greater progress than she does in all that is excellent and of good reputation. Never have I seen her equal in this realm, either among high or low.... You may be assured that in her you have a daughter who