er and
brighter from the encounter with this gallant young prince. The poor
girl was already stricken for death, and had but a few months to live;
but it is very likely that her malady was that fatal but deceitful one
which leaves a more delicate beauty to its victims, and gives feverish
brightness to the eyes and colour to the cheek. A tender creature, full
of poetry and imagination, and most likely all unconscious of the fate
that hung over her, she loved the gallant cavalier from the first moment
of seeing him, and touched the heart of James by that fragile beauty and
by the affection that shone in her soft eyes. It was a marriage that no
one approved, for her days were known to be numbered. But perhaps some
faint hope that happiness, that potent physician, might arrest disease,
as it has been known to do, prevailed both with the anxious father and
the young man beloved, in whom tender pity and gratitude replaced a
warmer sentiment. At all events the marriage took place in Paris, in the
noble church of Notre Dame, in the beginning of the year 1537. The King,
we are told, sent to Scotland to invite a number of other noblemen and
gentlemen to attend his wedding, which was performed with the greatest
pomp and splendour. Not until May did the young couple set out for their
home, and then they were laden with gifts, two ships being presented to
them, a number of splendid horses fully caparisoned, and quantities of
valuable tapestries, cloth of silver and gold, and jewels of every
description. Perhaps the long delay was intended to make the journey
more safe for the poor young Queen. The voyage from Dieppe to Leith
lasted five days, and the bridal party was accompanied by an escort of
"fiftie ships of Scottismen, Frenchmen, and strangers." "When the Queen
was come upon Scottis eard, she bowed her down to the same, and kissed
the mould thereof, and thanked God that her husband and she were come
safe through the seas." There could not be a more tender or attractive
picture. How full of poetry and soft passion must the gentle creature
have been who thus took possession of the land beloved for her young
husband's sake! The Scottish eard indeed was all that she was to have of
that inheritance, for in little more than a month the gentle Magdalen
was dead. She was laid in the chapel of the palace which was to have
been her home, with "ane dolorous lamentation; for triumph and merriness
were all turned into dirges and soul-masses, w