MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.

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ever have risen in rebellion against her.. Soon after her return to Scotland she married the Earl of Darnley. Being dazzled by the pleasing exterior of her new lover, she entirely forgot to look into the accomplishments of his mind. Darnley was a weak and ignorant man, violent and variable in his enterprises. She soon began to convert her admiration into disgust. There was then at her court, one David Rizzio, the son of a musician at Turin, himself a musician, whom Mary rashly took into her confidence, and bestowed on him many distinguished marks of her partiality. This enraged the jealously of Darnley; he consulted with some lords of his party; they, in company with him went to the Queen's apartment, where they found the Countess of Argyle, Rezzio, and some others, supping with the Queen. They dragged the wretched Razzio to an ante-chamber, where they dispatched him with fifty-six wounds, the unhappy princess continuing her lamentations while they were perpetrating the horrid act. But when informed that he was dead, she dried up her tears, and said she would weep no more, but think of revenge. She therefore concealed her, resentment from Darnley, and so far imposed upon him as to regain his confidence. He being in poor health at this time, she fitted up an apartment for him in a solitary house at some distance, called the Kirk of Field, where she said he would not be disturbed by the noise and bustle attendant on the Palace of Holyrood house. Here one night, the house together with the body of Darnley was blown up. As Bothwell had a short time before been taken into the Queen's favor, suspicion fell upon him as being the perpetrator of the dreadful deed; the Queen was also suspected of being privy to it; yet this suspicion perhaps would never have shaken the throne, had she not confirmed it by her precipitate and unjustifiable marriage with Bothwell, who was a married man, but who got divorced from his wife for the purpose of marrying the Queen. But alas! how dearly, like other wicked men, did he have to pay for his crimes and his follies. The people rose in just indignation against him;-he fled to Denmark, where he became a wretched maniac and died about ten years after the murder of Darnley, a poor horror-stricken being, in a loathsome prison in Denmark. Mary be ing a Catholic, while most of her subjects were Presbyterians, could not escape their indignation when thought guilty of such gross crimes. An association was formed that took Mary prisoner. She was confined in the Castle of Lochleven, where she suffered much from the severity of her keeper, and the upbraidings of her own guilty conscience. But even in a gloomy prison, her charms and her promises had such power over a young man by the name of George Douglass, that he contrived her escape. The news of her enlargement being spread abroad, a party of six thousand men were rallied to her standard, and then was fought the fatal battle of Langside, which forever decided the fate of Mary. Being completely defeated, the only hope that remained of saving her life, was, to make ler escape into England. But Elizabeth had ever looked on Mary as a formidable rival, and was by no means disposed to befriend her. After keeping her a prisoner in suspense between hope and fear for the space of nineteen years, she signed a warrant for her execution, and Mary was beheaded in the forty-fifth year of her age, 1587.

Historians generally agree that Mary, Queen of Scots, was not amenable to the laws of England; and that the part which Elizabeth acted towards Mary, being a fugitive Queen, who had fled to her for protection, was both cruel and unlawful. Yet we know not but that Elizabeth was an instrument in the hand of a just God, who will by no means spare the guilty, of executing upon Mary, that sentence which she certainly deserved, if she were accessory to the murder of her husband. Let no one think he can commit sin and not be brought into judgment, for his sin will surely find him out sooner or later, and unless repented of will rise up in judgment against him and call down the vengeance of a holy God, who will not look on sin with the least allowance. Carlisle, Sept., 1842.

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THE LADY'S PEARL.

JANUARY, 1843.

Original.

AS GOOD AS ANY BODY.

BY T. S. ARTHUR,

"HUMBLE to her! O no, indeed! I am as good as she is, any day."

"The best are they who act the wisest, Margaret," was the calm, but earnest reply of Mrs. Wheatly

"I cannot say that I understand what you mean by that remark," the young lady said.

"You say that you are as good as Mary Clarence. If so, your goodness will show itself in external acts that indicate a higher measure of wisdom than Mary possesses. Here is a criterion by which to prove yourself. You are either better than Mary, or she is better than you, and it shall be to you a matter of no ordinary interest to ascertain, if possible, which has the pre-eminence."

"You talk strangely, Mrs. Wheatly," Margaret Embury said, looking into the face of her friend with something of surprise on her countenance. "I don't see but that I am as good as any body I've come of as good family, I know, as Mary Clarence, or any body else."

"Your parents, Margaret,' replied Mrs. Wheatly, "were excellent persons, and highly esteemed. I knew them well, and always looked upon them as my most valued friends. But, what they were, adds nothing to your worth. You are only to be valued by what you are. And as there are relative degrees of goodness, you must as necessarily fall below some as rise above others. But what do you mean by goodness, in the sense in which you use it? It would be well to understand that."

"I don't know, Mrs. Wheatly, that I can explain my meaning fully," Margaret said, in a tone somewhat changed and more subdued. "I meant, that I was as good by nature as she was. That we were equals, and that, therefore, there was no reason why I should put myself in a position beneath her, or permit her to assume a position of superiority."

"And it seemed to your mind, that, by going to her, confessing your fault, and seeking reconciliation, you would be acknowledging that you were beneath her? Or, would, in other words, be humbling yourself to her?"

"Certainly it did; and does now."

"As I view things, Margaret," Mrs. Wheatly replied, "you would, in that case, have been elevating yourself."

"I cannot understand how that could possibly be, Mrs. Wheatly."