custom of the Scottish church in that age, was new vertheless permitted to exercise his functions, and even to take a part in the regular routine of du ties, in the principal church of Edinburgh. See ing that an insult was intended, but at the same time willing to avoid a collision with men whom he had so much reason to fear, James called out, "Master John [the usual way of designating a clergyman in his time], that place was destinat for another; you must come down." Cowper answered, that he had come prepared to preach, it being his ordinary day, and, if it were his Majesty's will," he would fain de God's work." The King replied, "I will not hear you this day: I command you to come down, and let Mr Patrick Adamson come up and preach." Still Cowper parlied for permission to remain where he was, till at last the King good-naturedly said, that, since he was there, he might go on, provided he would obey the charge, and pray for his mother. To this Cowper replied, that he would do as the spirit of God should direct him; when James, well knowing what effects would result from such a pseudo-inspiration, peremptorily commanded him to descend. At that moment, the King's guard advancing to enforce his orders, Cowper gave a thump on the pulpit with his fist, and told the King that "that day should witness against him in the great day of the Lord." He then descended, exclaiming, in the true style of a Presbyterian seer of the time, "Woe be to thee, Q Edinburgh, for the last of thy plagues shall be worse than the first." The people, who were in the habit of paying a sincere and senseless regard to every thing which fell from their preachers,

rise up and cry, that they will not But they all went courtiers, and a few Adamson now got

attered a loud and universal howl at this denun ciation, and rose up to leave the church along with their favourite divine. James. was so indig nant at their conduct, as to "What devil ails the people, tarry to hear a man preach ?" out, leaving only himself, his of the nobility and gentry. into the pulpit, and preached an eloquent, and at the same time most inoffensive discourse, from a text in Timothy enjoining Christians to pray for all men. When he was done, James was under the necessity of conveying him to the palace with his own guard, to save him from the vengeance of the multitude. Cowper, who had preached elsewhere to the crowd which left the church in his train, was that afternoon, imprisoned, by order of the Privy Council, in Blackness; while two other ministers of Edinburgh, for insolent language used at his examination, were deposed temporarily from their offices. A more unhappy instance is not upon record, of the cheap. boldness displayed by the early Scotch preachers; for here their war is not altogether against the authority of their sovereign, which forms a specious excuse for them in so many other instances, but against the best and most generally recognised of the natural affections. *

Elizabeth eventually managed the execution with a great deal of regard to the feelings of King James. She contrived, by her boggling and her juggling, to dissipate, as it were, the effects of

Spottiswoode, 354,-Moyses, 115.-Row's History of the Church of Scotland, MS. Advocate's Library. Calderwood, 214.

her cruelty over a considerable space of time. Mary was put to death by the blow of an instant but, so far as her son was concerned, she might be said to have died gradually during several weeks. The bitter pill was dissolved in a large draught, and swallowed imperceptibly. James, though apprised of her doom for some time be fore the event, still entertained a lingering hope that Elizabeth would not proceed to the last extremities-that nature would at length get the better of her high political resolve. His ambassadors returned to Holyroodhouse on the 7th of February, the day before Mary's death: it was not till the 15th that even a rumour of the event reached him. On that day, an express came to his secretary from Ker of Cessford, warden of the Borders, informing him that Sir John Forster, the opposite English warden, had just communicated intelligence of the Queen's death. At first, the fact seemed to him so imperfectly vouched, that, on the 17th, he did not scruple to go to the hunting at Calder. There intelligence reached him, that Mr Cary, youngest son of Lord Hunsdon, and a kinsman of Elizabeth, was coming to Scotland; which circumstance, connected with the information brought by his ambassadors that the English Queen was to send him such a person to convince him of the propriety of sacrificing his mo ther, induced him to believe that there was more probability in Cessford's message than he at first allowed to it. He therefore, on the 20th, sent Mr George Young, his secretary-depute, to Berwick, to inquire of the ambassador if the news were true-to allow him to enter Scotland, if false; but, if true, to bid him enter at his peril. Young

returned on the 23d with a confirmation of the report, which gave James the most acute pain. It put his Majesty,' says a simple chronicler of passing events,* into a very great grief and displeasure, so that he went to bed that night without supper, and on the morrow by seven o'clock went to Dalkeith, there to remain solitary.' We are informed by Camden, in his Annales of Elizabeth, that he spent many subsequent nights in tears. Another minute annalist says, that his Majesty "investit himself with a duil weed of purple for certayne dayis;'t that is, a suit of mourning made of purple. The whole court followed this example, except the Earl of Argyle, who appeared in a suit of armour, hinting that he conceived that the proper fashion of mourning in which the nation should bewail the murder of their late sovereign.

It is a touching circumstance, that affection for her son was among the last sentiments expressed by Mary when about to part from the world. According to the narrative of her execution drawn up by the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who attended her, she paused at a landing-place in the stair, as she was descending to the fatal hall of Fotheringay, and said to the master of her household, "Melvil, as thou hast been an honest servant to me, so pray thee continue to my son, and commend me to him. I have not impugned his religion, nor the religion of others, but wish him well. And, as I forgive all that have offended me in Scotland, so I would that he should also; and beseech God that

I

• David Moyses, an officer of the King's household. + History of King James the Sext.

he would send him his holy spirit, and illuminate him." Moreover, in her last brief prayer before the block, she entreated God "to be merciful to her son.

A good deal of indignation was expressed in Scotland when the intelligence of her death became generally known. It was a custom of that time to express public sentiments, which could not otherwise be published, by the clandestine plan of affixing pasquile, by night, to the doors of the courtiers. Numbers of these were displayed on the streets of Edinburgh, urging the King and council to revenge Mary's death. But this feeling was far from being general. It was indeed almost exclusively confined to the relics of the Queen's faction, and to the favourers of the French interest. The greater part of the people, prejudiced against Mary, on account of her religion and the dubious circumstances of her history, accustomed also by their clergy to regard every thing done by Elizabeth with respect, heard of her murder without resentment.

Whatever really were the feelings of the King, it was totally out of his power to take any measures for their proper expression. Had he attempted to levy an army for the invasion of England, as his less considerate advisers would have done, it is not probable that he would have raised half the number of men which Lord Scroop had now ready to oppose him, in case of such a proceeding, on the south-western border. He had not even a minister who was inclined to revenge: Maitland, his chief adviser, was decidedly adverse to a breach with Elizabeth. It is also a strong fact in his favour, that many of his nobility secretly sent letters to