olyrood as long as she was allowed to live any where in peace;
and on account of certain very peculiar circumstances which occurred
just before the time that she left the palace, her rooms were never
occupied after she left them, but have remained to this day in the same
state, and with almost the same furniture in them as at the hour when
she went away. These rooms are called Queen Mary's rooms, and almost
every body who visits Scotland goes to see them.

The reason why the rooms which Mary occupied in the Palace of Holyrood
were left as they were, and never occupied by any other person after
Mary went away, was principally that a dreadful murder was committed
there just before Mary quitted them. This, of course, connected very
gloomy associations with the palace; and while great numbers of persons
were eager to go and see the place where the man was killed, few would
be willing to live there. The consequence has been, that the apartments
have been vacant of occupants ever since, though they are filled all the
time with a perpetually flowing stream of visitors. The circumstances of
the murder were very extraordinary. Mr. George explained the case
briefly to the boys during their visit to the palace, as we shall
presently see.

On leaving the hotel they went for a little way along Prince's Street.
On one side of the street there was a row of stores, hotels, and other
such buildings, as in Broadway, in New York. On the other side extended
the long and deep valley which lies between Prince's Street and Castle
Hill. The valley was crossed by various bridges, and beyond it were to
be seen the backs of the lofty houses of High Street, rising tier above
tier to a great height, looking, as has already been said, like a range
of stupendous cliffs, lifting their crests to the sky.

There were scarcely any buildings on the valley side of the street,
except one or two edifices of an ornamental or public character. One of
these was the celebrated monument to Sir Walter Scott.

[Illustration: SCOTT'S MONUMENT.]

The party paused a short time before this monument, and then went on.
They passed by one or two bridges that led across the valley, and also,
at one place, a broad flight of steps, that went down, with many
turnings, from landing to landing, to the railway station in the valley.
At last they came to the bridge where they were to cross the valley.
They stopped on the middle of the bridge, to look down. They saw streets
f