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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III

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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 !?
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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
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