ndants, marking each parcel with
the name. She sat down at the table when supper was served, and
though she ate but little, she conversed as usual, in a cheerful
manner, and with smiles. Her friends were silent and sad, struggling
continually to keep back their tears. At the close of the supper Mary
called for a cup of wine, and drank to the health of each one of
them, and then asked them to drink to her. They took the cup, and,
kneeling before her, complied with her request, though, as they did
it, the tears would come to their eyes. Mary then told them that she
willingly forgave them for all that they had ever done to displease
her, and she thanked them for their long-continued fidelity and
love. She also asked that they would forgive her for any thing she
might ever have done in respect to them which was inconsistent with
her duty. They answered the request only with a renewal of their
tears.

Mary spent the evening in writing two letters to her nearest
relatives in France, and in making her will. The principal object of
these letters was to recommend her servants to the attention and care
of those to whom they were addressed, after she should be gone. She
went to bed shortly after midnight, and it is said she slept. This
would be incredible, if any thing were incredible in respect to the
workings of the human soul in a time of awful trial like this, which
so transcends all the ordinary conditions of its existence.

At any rate, whether Mary slept or not, the morning soon came. Her
friends were around her as soon as she rose. She gave them minute
directions about the disposition of her body. She wished to have it
taken to France to be interred, as she had requested of Elizabeth,
either at Rheims, in the same tomb with the body of her mother, or
else at St. Denis, an ancient abbey a little north of Paris, where
the ashes of a long line of French monarchs repose. She begged her
servants, if possible, not to leave her body till it should reach its
final home in one of these places of sepulture.

In the mean time, arrangements had been made for the last act in this
dreadful tragedy, in the same great hall where she had been tried.
They raised a platform upon the stone floor of the hall large enough
to contain those who were to take part in the closing scene. On this
platform was a block, a cushion, and a chair. All these things, as
well as the platform itself, were covered with black cloth, giving to
the whole scene