sing, she knelt
down and groped her way to the block,--for her eyes were bound,--and
laid her neck upon it without the slightest mark of trembling or
hesitation. Her last words were, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit,
for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." At two strokes, her
head was severed from her body, and the executioner, holding it up,
called aloud, "God save the queen!" "So let all Queen Elizabeth's
enemies perish!" was the prayer of the chaplain; but the spectators
were dissolved in tears, and one deep voice alone answered, "Amen!" It
came from the Earl of Kent. On removing the body, and the clothes and
mantle which lay beside it, Mary's favorite little dog, which had
followed its mistress unperceived, was found nestling under them. No
entreaty could prevail on it to quit the spot; and it remained lying
beside the corpse, and stained in the blood, till forcibly carried
away by the attendants.

Elizabeth affected to receive the news of the death of her rival with
surprise and grief; she even carried her artifice to so barbarous a
length, as to render Davison, the secretary, and the innocent
instrument of her cruelty and dissimulation, the victim of her
perfidy. Under pretence that he had orders not to let the warrant go
out of his office, he was degraded, fined, imprisoned, and utterly
ruined. By this sacrifice, she hoped to appease the king of Scots,
whom the death of his mother had filled with grief and resentment,
which yielded, however, at length, to the necessities of his
situation. Having affected to admit the excuses of Elizabeth, and
to be satisfied with the sacrifice of Davison, he stifled his
indignation, and continued the semblance of amity with the English
court. Thus the death and sufferings of Mary remained unavenged,
while Elizabeth was suffered to reap the advantages of her malignity.

ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND.

This extraordinary woman, the daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn,
was born in 1533. Being educated a Protestant, and having adopted the
principles of the reformation, she was looked upon with suspicion and
treated with harshness during the reign of her sister Mary. She
devoted herself, however, to study, and is thus described at this
period: "She was of admirable beauty, and well deserving a crown; of a
modest gravity, excellent wit, royal soul, happy memory, and
indefatigably given to the study of learning, insomuch as, before she
was seventeen years of ag