70 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Holyrood.
orders, who was on his way to Scotland at the
time of the murder. Darnley?s unsuccessful attempt
to obtain the crown-matrimonial roused
all the vengeance of himself and his father, who
now determined to put Rizzio to death and
deprive Mary of the throne.
How and why the conspiracy spread belongs
to history; suffice it that it was on the evening
of Saturday, the 9th of March, 1566, the conspirators
determined to strike the blow, in terms
of their ?Articles? with ?the noble and mighty
Prince Henry, King of Scotland, husband to our
sovereign Lady,? signed 1st March, 1566; and
they seem to have entered the palace unnoticed by
the sentinels, for Mary had, since 1562, a gardedu-
corps of seventy archers, under Sir Arthur
Erskine of Scotscraig.
In the dusk of the spring evening the Earl of
Morton arrived with 500 of his personal retainers,
and on being joined by the other lords, his
accomplices, assembled secretly in the vicinity of
the palace, into which they had passed, Morton,
ordering the gates to be locked, took possession of
the keys, while Damley, George Douglas, known as
the Postulate (i.e., a candidate for some office), the
Lords Lindsay and Ruthven, were waiting to proceed
to the queen?s apartments in the Tower of
James V., where they expected to find their victim.
It had been originally intended to murder Rizzio
in his own apartment, a plan abandoned for the
double reason that they might have failed to find
him, as he frequently slept in the room of his
brother Joseph, and that to slay him under
Mary?s eyes would malign and terrify her more.
At this time she, altogether unsuspicious,
was at supper in the closet with her sister the
Countess of Argyle, her brother Robert, Commendator
of Holyrood, her Master of the Household,
the Captain of the Archers, and Rizzio, while two
servants of the Privy Chamber were waiting by a
side-table, at which, Camden states, Rizzio was
seated. Ascending the private staircase, Darnley
entered alone, and kissing the queen, seated himself
by her side; but a minute scarcely elapsed
when Ruthven drew aside the tapestry, entered,
and without ceremony threw himself into a chair.
He was in full armour, with his sword drawn, and
looked pale, wan, and ghastly, having been long
a-bed with an incurable disease. Mary, now far
advanced in pregnancy, repressed her terror, and
. said, ?My lord, hearing you were still ill, I was
about to visit you, and now you enter our presence
in armour. What does it mean?? ?( I have been
ill indeed,? replied the savage noble, sternly; ? but
am well enough to come here for your good.?
?
.
cc You come not in the fashion of one who meaneth
well,? said Mary. ? There is no harm intended to
your grace, nor any one but yonder poltroon,,
David.? rcWhat hath he done?? ?Ask the
king, your husband, madam.? Mary now assumed
an air of authority, and demanding an explanation
of Darnley, commanded Ruthven to begone. On
this, the Master of the Household and the captain
of the archers attempted to expel him by force,
but he brandished his sword, exclaiming, Lay no
hands on me-for I will not be so handled ! ?
Another conspirator, Kerr of Faudonside, now
burst in with a horse-petronel cocked, and the
private stair beyond was seen crowded by others.
cc Do you seek my life? ? exclaimed Mary, on
finding the weapon levelled at her breast. ccNo,?
replied Ruthven ; ?? but we will have out yonder
villain, Davie.? He now tried to drag forth
the hapless Italian, who had retreated into the
recess of a window, a dagger in one hand, and
with the other clinging to the skirt of the interposing
queen. ?If my secretary has been guilty
of any misdemeanour,? said she, ?he shall be
dealt with according to the forms of justice.?
? Here is justice, madam ! ? cried one, producing
a rope, from which we learn by Knox and the
work of Prince Lebanoff, that the first intention
had been to hang Rizzio. Fear not,? said the
queen to him ; cc the king will not suffer you to be
slain in my presence, nor will he forget your faithful
services.?
?? A Douglas !-a Douglas ! ?? was now resounding
through the palace, as Morton and his
vassals rushed up the great staircase and burst into
the presence-chamber, the light of their glaring
torches and flashing of their weapons adding to the
terror of the little group in the closet. The
supper-table, which had hitherto interposed between
Rizzio and his murderers, was now overturned before
the queen, and had not the Countess of Argyle
caught one of the falling candles, the room would
have been involved in darkness.
on this fatal night was dressed in black figured
damask, trimmed with fur, a satin doublet,
russet velvet hose, and wore at his neck a niagnificent
jewel- never seen after that night - now
clung in despair to the weeping queen, crying,
U Giusfizia 1 Giusiizia 1 Sauve ma vie, madame,
-sauzIe ma vie f ?
But he was stabbed over her shoulder by George
Douglas with the king?s own dagger, and other
daggers and swords followed fast. By force the
usually half-drunken Darnley tore the queen?s skirt
from the clutch of the poor bleeding creature, who,
amid ferocious shouts and hideous oaths, was
Rizzio, who.
1 MARRIAGE OF MARY AND BOTHWELL. 71
dragged through the bed-room to the door of the
presence-chamber, where the conspirators gathered . about him and completed the bloody outrage. So
eager were all to take part in the murder that
they frequently wounded each other, eliciting
greater curses and yells ; and the body of Rizzio,
gashed by fifty-six wounds, was left in a pool of
blood, with the king?s dagger driven to the hilt in
it, in token that he had sanctioned the murder.
After a time the corpse was flung down-stairs,
stripped naked, dragged to the porter?s lodge, and
treated with every indignity.
Darnley and the queen were meanwhile alone
together in the cabinet, into which a lady rushed
to announce that Rizzio was dead, as she had
seen the body. ?Is it so?? said the weeping
queen ; ? then I will study revenge ! ? Then she
swooned, but was roused by the entrance of
Ruthven, who, reeking with blood; staggered into
a chair and called for wine. After receiving
much coarse and unseemly insolence, the queen
exclaimed, ??I trust that God, who beholdeth all
this from the high heavens, will avenge my
wrohgs, and move that which shall be born of me
to root out you and your treacherous posterity ! ?
-a denunciation terribly fulfillkd by the total destruction
of the house of Ruthven in the reign of
her son, James VI.
In the middle of a passage leading from the
quadrangle to the ,chapel is shown a flat square
stone, which is said to mark the grave of Rizzio ;
but it is older than his day, and has probably
served for the tomb of some one else.
The floor at the outer door of Mary?s apartments
presents to this day a dark irregular
stain, called Rizzio?s blood, tlius exciting the ridicule
of those who do not consider the matter.
The floor is of great antiquity here-manifestly
alder than that of the adjacent gallery, laid in the
time of Charles I. ?We know,? says Robert
Chambers,in his ?Book of Days,? ? that the stain has
been shown there since a time long antecedent to
that extreme modern curiosity regarding historical
matters which might have induced an imposture,
for it is alluded to by the son of Evelyn as being
.shown in I 7 a a.?
Joseph Rizzio, who arrived in Scotland soon
after his brother?s murder, was promoted to his
vacant office by the queen, and was publicly named
as one of the abettors of Morton and Bothwell in
the murder of Darnley-in which, with true Italian
instinct, he might readily have had a hand. After
the tragedy at the Kirk of Field in 1567, the body of
Dmley was brought to Holyrood, where Michael
Picauet, the queen?s apothecary, embalmed it, by
her order; the treasurer?s accounts, dated Feb.
Izth, contain entries for ? drogges, spices-colis,
tabbis, hardis, barrelis,? and other matters
tiecessary ? for bowalling of King?s Grace,? who was
interred in the chapel royal at night, in presence
of only the Lord Justice Clerk Bellenden, Sir
James Tracquair, and others.
After Bothwell?s seizure of Mary?s person, at
the head of I,OOO horse, and his production of the
famous bond, signed by the most powerful nobles
in Scotland, recommending him as the most fitting
husband for her-a transaction in which her enemies
affirm she was a willing actor-their marriage ceremony
took place in the great hall of the palace
on the 15th of May, 1567, at four o?clock in the
morning, a singular hour, for which it is difficult to
account, unless it be, that Mary had yielded in
despair at last. There it was performed by the
reformed prelate Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney,
together with Knox?s coadjutor, Craig, according
to the Protestant form, and on the same day:in
private, according to the Catholic ritual. To the
Latter, perhaps, Birrel refers when he says they were
married in the chapel royal. Only five of the
nobles were present, and there were no rejoicings
in Edinburgh, where the people looked on with
grief and gloom j and on the following morning
there was fouiid affixed to the palace gate the
ominous line from Ovid?s Fasti, book v. : ?Mense
malus Maio nubere vuZgus aif.?
The revolt of the nobles, the flight oT Bothwell,
and the surrender of Mary at Carberry to avoid
bloodshed, quickly followed, and the last visit she
paid to her palace of Holyrood was when, under a
strong guard, she was brought thither a prisoner
from the Black Turnpike, on the 18th of June and
ere the citizens could rescue her ; as a preliminary
step to still more violent proceedings, she was
secretly taken from Holyrood at ten at night,
without having even a change of raiment, mounted
on a miserable hack, and compelled to ride at
th;rty miles an hour, escorted by the murderers
Ruthven and Lindsay, who consigned her a prisoner
to the lonely castle of Lochleven, where she signed
the enforced abdication which placed her son upon.
the throne.
Holyrood was one of the favourite residences of
the latter, and the scene of many a treaty and
council during his reign in Scotland,
In the great hall there, on Sunday, the 23rd
of October, he created a great number of earls
with much splendour of ceremony, with a corresponding
number of knights.
Another Earl of Bothwell, the horror of James
VI., now figures in history, eldest son of the
