kland.

The young queen was crowned by Cardinal Beaton, at Stirling, on
September 9, 1543. Soon after her birth, the Parliament nominated
commissioners, to whom they intrusted the charge of the queen's person,
leaving all her other interests to the care of her mother. The first two
years of her life, Mary spent at Linlithgow, where it is said she had
the small-pox, but the disease must have been of a particularly gentle
kind, having left behind no visible traces. During the greater part of
the years 1545, 1546, and 1547, she resided at Stirling Castle, in the
keeping of Lords Erskine and Livingstone. She was afterward removed to
Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the lake of Monteith; after
remaining there upward of two years, it was thought expedient by those
who had at the time the disposal of her future destiny, that she should
be removed to France. She was accordingly, in the fifth year of her age,
taken to Dunbarton, where she was delivered to the French admiral, whose
vessels were waiting to receive her; and attended by Lords Erskine and
Livingstone, her three natural brothers, and four young ladies as
companions, she left Scotland.

The thirteen happiest years of Mary's life were spent in France. She was
received at Brest, by order of Henry II., with all the honors due to her
rank and royal destiny. She travelled by easy stages to the palace at
St. Germain en Laye; and to mark the respect that was paid to her, the
prison gates of every town she came to were thrown open, and the
prisoners set free. Shortly after her arrival she was sent, along with
the king's own daughters, to one of the first convents in France, where
young ladies of distinction were instructed in the elementary branches
of education.

Henry, to confirm the French authority in Scotland, was eager to marry
Francis, his son, to Mary. Francis, the young dauphin, who was much
about Mary's own age, was far inferior to her both in personal
appearance and mental endowments. They had been playmates from infancy;
they had prosecuted all their studies together; he loved her with the
tenderest affection; it was not in Mary's nature to be indifferent to
those who evinced affection for her; and if her fondness for Francis was
mingled with pity, it has long been asserted that "pity is akin to
love."

On April 24, 1558, the nuptials took place in the church of Notre Dame,
with great splendor. Every eye was fixed on the youthful Mary; and,
inspired by thos