Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of France, an alliance calculated to strengthen the Huguenot or Protestant interest in that kingdom against the Guise family and the King of Spain.

But, previous to introducing a Queen into his kingdom, he esteemed it necessary that the feuds which agitated it should be somewhat stilled. For this purpose, at a Convention of Estates, which was held at Edinburgh in May 1587, he exerted himself to abolish some of the causes of wrath which existed among his nobility. The Master of Glammis, for instance, and the Earl of Crawford, had long been inflamed against each other; and the brother of the former had been shot by the servants of the latter, as he was passing along one of the streets of Stirling, only ten years before. The Earl of Angus entertained a vehement grudge against the Earl of Montrose, chiefly because Montrose had sat as chancellor on the jury which condemned Angus's uncle, the Earl of Morton; for in that age, as justice could only be obtained by force, so was its stroke looked upon by the sufferers as a matter no less to be avenged than an ordinary private injury and all this notwithstanding that Angus was a zealous religionist, even so much so as to be styled by James, for his friendliness to the Church, the Ministers' King. All these persons being assembled at the Convention, and every exertion having been there made by the King and his chancellor Maitland to adjust their disputes, James invited them privately to a banquet in Holyroodhouse, on a Sunday afternoon, placed them promiscuously at a large table, drank to them three several times, commanded them to live henceforth in peace and concord, and vowed to be a mortal

enemy to him who first should commit violence against another. We know not what success he met with on this first evening; but next night, when the banquet was repeated, the reconciliation of the nobles was solemnized by a social ceremony, which placed it beyond a question. After supper, when they had probably been mollified to a certain degree by liquor, the whole sallied out of the palace into the streets of the neighbouring city, exactly in the guise in which they had sat at table—that is, without sword and doublet, and, ranging themselves into a column, walked hand in hand to the market-cross, the King at their head, supported by his kinsman Hamilton, and they themselves each side by side with the particular individual against whom he had lately borne the most deadly hostility. So strange a procession attracted an immense crowd; and it was not without feelings of the highest gratification that the peaceable citizens beheld a scene which seemed to betoken conclusion to all civil war in the country. The magistrates, according to the report of one of their fellow-citizens, went in advance of the procession, dancing for very joy. The prisoners for debt were liberated from jail; the Cross was hung with ta pestry, and planted with trumpeters and singers ; the gibbets, which had stood there for years, to execute the numerous victims of civil discord, were hewed down and burnt; and a long table being placed upon the street, the King and the nobles sat down and partook of a civic banquet; while every window and outer stair in the neighbourhood displayed a similar scene of feasting and social joy. After all the individuals formerly at feud had publicly shaken hands with each other,

and drunk to each other's health, the whole returned in similar order to the palace, amidst music, the firing of cannon, and the blessings of a people which seemed absolutely transported with joy.

James, with the advice of his Parliament, now despatched ambassadors to the court of Frederick II., King of Denmark, to make proposals regarding a marriage with his eldest daughter. Elizabeth was averse from this match, and thought that the sister of the King of Navarre would be preferable, though, even with her, she wished James to delay any alliance for three years. Altogether, it is probable that he would not have achieved a marriage at all, adverse as Elizabeth was to such a measure, but for the Spanish Armada, which sailed next year against her kingdom, and which caused her to allow James this gratification, as part of the price of his steadfastness in her interest during a time of such danger.

James's behaviour throughout the year eightyeight was spirited, and all that Elizabeth could wish. He undertook various little expeditions against such of his Catholic subjects as had gone into arms with a view of assisting the Spanish invaders; and, when informed by the English ambassador that he was included in the threats which Philip gave out, he answered with a jest, that " he looked for no better favour than that which the Cyclops Polyphemus promised to Ulysses, to be the last devoured.

Yet all his good service could hardly purchase the permission he desired to marry. Elizabeth, by means of the Chancellor Maitland, who was devoted to her, threw a thousand little obstacles in

the way. His envoys, by her exertions, were sent with such limited powers, that Frederick, judging himself insulted, gave his daughter to the Duke of Brunswick. Even when James had condescended to seek the second daughter, he came, for some time, no better speed. Maitland crippled every embassy which he sent out. It was, at last, only by the humble expedient of spiriting up the trades of Edinburgh to raise a popular riot in favour of the marriage, that he prevailed upon his minister to countenance it. The Earl Marischal was then despatched with proposals which were judged reasonable by the Danish King; and in August 1589, the Princess Anne was married by proxy, and set sail for Scotland. She was at this time only fifteen years of age.

James, who had waited and laboured for his wife almost as long and as much as Jacob did for Leah, now expected that he was about to be gratified by her presence. To his great chagrin, a message, which arrived almost immediately after that which informed him of her departure for Scotland, gave him the unwelcome intelligence, that she had been driven back by contrary winds to the coast of Norway, where, in all probability, she should have to wait for fair weather till the next spring. This was too much for even James's sluggish nature. To be baulked by so adventitious a matter as the weather, after he had eluded the more serious difficulties presented by Elizabeth and Maitland, seemed exceedingly hard. He determined, by a violent personal exertion, to overcome

Frederick II. was now dead, and the contract was negotiated with his son, Christian IV.

this unworthy obstacle. Without consulting any one, he conceived one day, while living at Craigmillar, the resolution of sailing to Upslo, the port where the Queen had taken refuge, and there solemnizing his nuptials. This, says Miss Aikin, was a sally so little to be anticipated from his timid and indolent temper, combined with his known indifference to female charms, that it appears to have perplexed not a little all to whom his charac ter has furnished matter of speculation. But he had sufficient reasons for his conduct, both as to number and force; and fortunately he has stated them himself.

First of all,' says James, in a declaration which he left behind him for the satisfaction of his subjects, and which forms a capital specimen at once of his style of composition in prose, and his simple familiar character; I doubt nocht it is manifestlie knawne to all how far I was generally found fault with be all men for the delaying sa lang of my mariage. I wes allane, without fader or moder, bruthir or sistar, King of this realme, and air ap peirand of England; this my naikatnes maid me to be waik, and my inemyis stark; ae man wes as na man, and the want of hoip of succession bread disdayne; yea, my lang delay bred in the breistis of mony a grite jealousie of my inhabilitie, as gif I wer a barrane stok: Thir ressonis, and innumerable otheris hourly objected, moved me to haisten the treaty of my mariage; for as to my awne nature, God is my witnes, I could have abstenit langair nor the weill of my patrie could have per mitted. I am knawne, God be praised, not to be very intemperatly rashe nor concety in my wechtiest effairis; nather use I to be sa caryed away