e crime of lese-majeste, was condemned to
death. Mary entreated her brother that Chatelard might be sent back to
France; but Murray made her see what terrible consequences such a use of
her right of pardon might have, so that Mary was obliged to let
justice take its course: Chatelard was led to execution. Arrived on the
scaffold, which was set up before the queen's palace, Chatelard, who had
declined the services of a priest, had Ronsard's Ode on Death read; and
when the reading, which he followed with evident pleasure, was ended, he
turned--towards the queen's windows, and, having cried out for the last
time, "Adieu, loveliest and most cruel of princesses!" he stretched
out his neck to the executioner, without displaying any repentance or
uttering any complaint. This death made all the more impression upon
Mary, that she did not dare to show her sympathy openly.

Meanwhile there was a rumour that the queen of Scotland was consenting
to a new marriage, and several suitors came forward, sprung from the
principal reigning families of Europe: first, the Archduke Charles,
third son of the Emperor of Germany; then the Duke of Anjou, who
afterwards became Henry III. But to wed a foreign prince was to give up
her claims to the English crown. So Mary refused, and, making a merit
of this to Elizabeth, she cast her eyes on a relation of the latter's,
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, son of the Earl of Lennox. Elizabeth, who
had nothing plausible to urge against this marriage, since the Queen of
Scotland not only chose an Englishman for husband, but was marrying
into her own family, allowed the Earl of Lennox and his son to go to
the Scotch court, reserving it to herself, if matters appeared to take
a serious turn, to recall them both--a command which they would be
constrained to obey, since all their property was in England.

Darnley was eighteen years of age: he was handsome, well-made, elegant;
he talked in that attractive manner of the young nobles of the French
and English courts that Mary no longer heard since her exile in
Scotland; she let herself be deceived by these appearances, and did not
see that under this brilliant exterior Darnley hid utter insignificance,
dubious courage, and a fickle and churlish character. It is true that he
came to her under the auspices of a man whose influence was as striking
as the risen fortune which gave him the opportunity to exert it. We
refer to David Rizzio.

David Rizzio, who played such