66 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Holyrood.
CHAPTER X,
HOLYKOOD PALACE (continued).
.Queen Mary?s Apartments-Her Amval in Edinburgh-Riot in the Chapel Royal-? The Queen?s Maries ?-Interview with Knox-Mary?s
Marriage with Darnley-The Position of Rizzio-The Murder of Rurio-Burial of Darnley-Marriage of Mary and Bothwell-Mary?s Last
Visit to Holyrood-James VI. and the ? Mad? Earl of Bothwcll-Baptism of the Queen of Bohemia and Charles I.-Taylor the Water-poet
at Holyrood-Charles I.?s Imprisonment-Palace Burned and Re-built-The Palace before 1 6 5 T h e Present Palace-The Quadranglb
The Gallery of the Kings-The Tapestry-The Audience-Chamber.
A WINDING stair in the Tower of James V. gives
access to the oldest portion of the palace, known
.as ? I Queen Mary?s Apartments,? on the third floor,
and forming the most interesting portion of the
whole edifice, To the visitor, in Mary?s bedchamber
there seems a solemn gloom which even
the summer sunshine cannot brighten, ruddy
though the glare may be which streams through
that tall window, where we can see the imperial
crown upon its octagon turret. The light seems
only to lay too bare the fibres of the old oak
floor and all the mouldering finery ; a sense of the
pathetic, with something of horror and much of
sadness, mingles in the thoughtful mind; and
much of this was felt even by Dr. Johnson, when he
stood there with Boswell on the 15th of August,
r773.?
With canopy and counterpane, dark and in
shadow, there stands the old pillared bed, with its
crimson silk and satin faded into orange, wherein
slept, and doubtless too often wept, the fair
young Queen of Scotland-she who spent her
happy teens at the Bourbon court, her passionate
youth so sorrowfully in grim grey Scotland, and
who gave up her soul to God at Fotheringay, in
premature old age, and with a calm grandeur that
never saint surpassed.
On the wall there hangs the arras wrought with
the fall of Phaeton, now green and amber-tinted,
revealing the gloomy little door through which
pale Ruthven and stern Darnley burst with their
daring associates, and close by is the supper-room
from whence the shrieking Rizzio was dragged,
and done to death with many a mortal wound.
To the imaginative Scottish mind the whole place
conjures up scenes and events that can never die.
The day on which the queen arrived at Leith,
after a thirteen years? absence from her native land,
was, as Knox tells us, the most dull and gloomy in
the memory of man. She had come ten days
before she was expected, and such preparations as
the now impoverished people made-impoverished
by foreign and domestic strife since Pinkie had been
lost-were far from complete. The ship containing
her horses and favourite palfrey had been
lawlessly captured by an English admiral ; but
her brother, Lord James Stuart, supplied steeds ;
and Mary, who was accompanied by her uncles,
the Dukes d?Aumale, Guise, Nemours, the Cardinal
of Lorraine, the Grand Prior, the Marquis d?Elbauf,
and others, could not restrain her tears of mortification
at the gloom and general poverty that appeared
on every hand.
She made her public entry into the city on the
1st of September, and her reception, though
homely, was sincere and cordial, for the Scots
of old had a devotion to their native monarchs
that bordered on the sublime ; and now the youth
and beauty of Mary, and the whole peculiarity
of her position, were calculated to engage the
interest and affection of her people.
The twelve citizens who bore a canopy over
her head were apparelled in black velvet gowns
and doublets of crimson satin, with velvet bonnets
and hose. All citizens in the procession had
black silk gowns faced with velvet and satin
doublets, while the young craftsmen, who marched
in front, wore taffeta. The Upper and Salt Trons,
Tolbooth, and Netherbow were all decorated with
banners and garlands as she proceeded to Holyrood.
The apartments she first occupied were on the
ground floor, and BrantBme gives an amusing
account of the manner in which the citizens
endeavoured to provide for her amusement for
several nights, to the grievous annoyance of her
refined French atteqdants. There came under
her windows,? says he, ? five or six hundred citizens,
who gave her a concert of the vilest fiddles
and little rebecs, which are as bad as they can
be in that country, and accompanied them with
singing psalms, but so wretchedly out of tune
and concord that nothing could be worse.
what melody it was ! what a lullaby for the night ! ?
?They were a company of honest men,? according
to Knox, ?who with instruments of music
gave her their salutations at her chamber window.??
Mary, with policy, expressed her thanks, but removed
to a part of the palace beyond the reach
of this terrible minstrelsy.
She was only nineteen, with few advisers and
none on whom she could rely, and was ignorant
of the people over whom she had been called to
govern. Protestantism was now the only legal
Ah !?
Holymod.] ? QUEEN MARY AND JOHN KNOX. 67
religion of the land, yet on the first Sunday
subsequent to her return she ordered mass to be
said in the chapel royaL Tidings of this caused
a dreadful excitement in the city, and the Master
of Lindsay, with other gentlemen, burst into the
palace, shouting, ?? The idolatrous priest shall die
the death!? for death was by law the penalty of
celebrating mass; and themultitude, pouring towards
the chapel, strove to lay violent hands on the priest.
Lord James-afterwards Regent-Moray succeeded
in preventing their entrance by main strength, and
thus gave great offence to the people, though he
alleged, as an excuse, he wished to prevent ? any
Scot from witnessing a service so idolatrous.?
After the function was over, the priest was committed
to the protection of Lord Robert Stuart,
Commendator of Holyrood, and Lord John of
Coldingham, who conducted him in safety to his
residence. ? But the godly departed in great grief
of heart, and that afternoon repaired to the Abbey
in great companies, and gave plain signification
that they could not abide that the land which God
had, by His power, purged from idolatry should
be polluted again.? The noise and uproar of these
companies ? must have made Mary painfully
aware that she was without a regular guard or
armed protection ; but she had been barely a week
in Holyrood when she held her first famous interview
with the great Reformer, which is too well
known to be recapitulated here, but whichaccording
to himself-he concluded by these
remarkable words :-cc I pray God, madam, that ye
may be as blessed within the commonwealth of
Scotland, if it be the pleasure of God, as ever
Deborah was in the commonwealth of Israel.?
The Queen?s Maries, so celebrated in tradition,
in history, and in song, who accompanied her to
France-namely, Mary, daughter of Lord Livingston,
Mary, daughter of Lord Flemihg, Mary, daughter of
Lord Seton, and Mary Beaton of Balfour, were all
married in succession ; but doubtless, so long as
she resided at Holyrood she had her maids ol
honour, and the name of ?Queen?s Maries?
became a general designation for her chosen attendants
; hence the old ballad :-
?Now bear a hand, my Maries a?
And busk me braw and fine.?
Her four Maries, who received precisely the same
education as herself, and were taught by the
same masters, returned with her to Scotland with
their acknowledged beauty refined by all the
graces the Court of France could impart; and in
a Latin masque, composed by Buchanan, entitled
the ?Pomp of the Gods,? acted at Holyrood in
July, 1567, before her marriage with Damley,
Diana speaks to Jupiter of her $%e Manes-the
fifth being the queen herself; and well known is
the pathetic old ballad which says :-
? Yest?reen the Queen had foyr Manes,
This night she?ll have but three ;
And Mary Carmichael and me.?
There was Marie Beaton and Mane Seaton
In a sermon delivered to the nobles previous to
the dissolution of Mary?s first Parliament, Knox
spoke with fury on the runiours then current concerning
the intended marriage of the Queen to a
Papist, which ? would banish Christ Jesus from the
realm and bring God?s vengeance on the country.?l
He tells that his own words and his manner of?
speaking them were deemed intolerable, and that
Protestants and Catholics were equally offended.
And then followed his second interview with Mary,
who summoned him to Holyrood, where he wasintroduced
into her presence by Erskine of Dun, and
where she complained of his daring answers and
ingratitude to herself, who had courted his favour;
but grown undaunted again, he stood before her
in a cloth cap, Geneva cloak, and falling bands,
and with ? iron eyes beheld her weep in vain.?
?? Knox,? says Tytler, ? affirmed that when in
the pulpit he was not master of himself, but must
obey His commands who bade him speak plain,
and flatter no flesh. As to the favours which had
been offered to him, his vocation, he said, was
neither to wait in the courts of princes nor in
the chambers of ladies, but to preach theGospel.
?I grant it so,? reiterated the queen; ?but what
have you to do with my mamage, and what are
you within the commonwealth 7 ? ? A subject
born within the same ; and albeit, madam, neitherbaron,
lord, nor belted earl, yet hath God made
me, however abject soever in your eyes, a useful
and profitable member. As such, it is my duty
to forewarn the people of danger ; and, therefore,
what I have said in public I repeat to your own
face ! Whenever the nobility of this realm so farforget
themselves that you shall be subject to an
unlawful husband, they do as much as in
them lieth to renounce Christ, to banish the
truth, betray the freedom of the realm, and perchance
be but cold friends to yourself!? This
new attack brought on a still more passionate
burst of tears, and Mary commanded Knox to quit
the apartment.?
Then it was, as he was passing forth, ? observing
a circle of the ladies of the queen?s household
sitting near in their gorgeous apparel, he
could not depart without a word of admonition.
? Ah, fair ladies,? said he, ? how pleasant were this
life of yours if it should ever abide, and then b
