At

anfwer all that he had preached upon, if he were permit. ted a fhort indulgence: but this was refufed him. length fire was fet to the pile; Latimer was foon out of pain, but Ridley continued to fuffer much longer, his legs being confumed before the fire reached his vitals.

Cranmer's death followed foon after, and ftruck the whole nation with horror. His love of life had formerly prevailed. In an unguarded moment he was induced to fign a paper condemning the reformation; and now his enemies, as we are told of the devil, after having rendered him completely wretched, refolved to deftroy him. Being led to the ftake, and the fire beginning to be kin dled round him, he ftretched forth his right-hand, and held it in the flames till it was confumed, while he frequently cried out, in the midst of his fufferings, “That unworthy hand!" at the fame time exhibiting no appear ance of pain or diforder. When the fire attacked his body, he feemed to be quite infenfible of his tortures; his mind was occupied wholly upon the hopes of a future reward. After his body was destroyed, his heart was found entire; an emblem of the conftancy with which he fuffered.

It was computed that, during this perfecution, two hundred and feventy-feven perfons fuffered by fire, be fides thofe punished by imprisonment, fines, and confif cations. Among those who fuffered by fire were five bishops, twenty-one clergymen, eight lay-gentlemen, eighty-four tradefmen, one hundred husbandmen, fiftyfive women, and four children. All this was terrible; and yet the temporal affairs of the kingdom did not feem to be more fuccefsful.

Calais, that had now for above two hundred years been in poffeffion of the English, was attack- A. D. ed, and by a fudden and unexpected affault, being 1557. blockaded up on every fide, was obliged to capitulate; fo that, in lefs than eight days, the duke of Guife recovered a city that had been in poffeffion of the English fince the time of Edward the Third, and which he had fpent eleven months in befieging. This lofs filled the whole kingdom with murmurs, and the queen with de

fpair; fhe was heard to fay, that, when dead, the name of Calais would be found engraved on her heart.

Thefe complicated evils, a murmuring people, an increafing herefy, a difdainful hufband, and an unfuccefsful war, made dreadful depredations on Mary's conftitution. She began to appear confumptive, and this rendered her mind ftill more morofe and bigoted. The people now therefore began to turn their thoughts to her fucceffor; and the princefs Elizabeth came into a greater degree of confideration than before.

Mary had been long in a very declining ftate of health; and having miftaken her dropfy for a pregnancy, the made ufe of an improper regimen, which had increased: the diforder. Every reflection now tormented. her. The confcioufnefs of being hated by her fübjects, and the profpect of Elizabeth's fucceffion, whom he hated; all thefe preyed upon her mind, and threw her, into a lingering fever, of which fhe died, after a fhort and unfortunate reign of five years, four months, and eleven days, in the forty-third year of her age,

H5

CHAP

NOTH

ELIZABETH.

OTHING could exceed the joy that was A. D. diffufed among the people upon the accef1558. fion of Elizabeth, who now came to the throne without any oppofition.

This favourite of the people, from the beginning, refolved upon reforming the church, even while fhe was. held in the constraints of a prifon; and now, upon coming to the crown, fhe immediately fet about it. A parlia ment foon after completed what the prerogative had begun; act after act was paffed in favour of the reformation; and in a fingle feffion the form of religion was established as we at prefent have the happiness to enjoy it.

A ftate of permanent felicity is not to be expected here; and Mary Stuart, commonly called Mary queen of Scots, was the first perfon that excited the fears or the refentment of Elizabeth. Henry the feventh had married his eldest daughter, Margaret, to James, king of Scotland, who dying left no iffue that came to maturity except Masy, afterwards furnamed queen of Scots. At a very early age this princefs, being poffeffed of every accomplishment of perfon and mind, was married to Francis the dauphin

dauphin of France, who dying, left her a widow at the age of nineteen. Upon the death of Francis, Mary, the widow, ftill feemed difpofed to keep up the title; but finding herfelf expofed to the perfecutions of the dowager queen, who now began to take the lead in France, The returned home to Scotland, where the found the people ftrongly impreffed with the gloomy enthusiasm of the times. A difference in religion between the fovereign and the people is ever productive of bad effects; fince it is apt to produce contempt on the one fide, and jealoufy on the other. Mary could not avoid regarding the four manners of the reformed clergy, who now bore fway among the Scots, without a mixture of ridicule and hatred; while they, on the other hand, could not look tamely on the gaieties and levities which the introduced among them, without abhorrence and refentment. The jealousy thus excited, began every day to grow ftronger; the clergy waited only for fome indifcretion in the queen to fly out into open oppofition; and her indifcretion but too foon gave them fufficient opportunity.

Mary, upon her return, had married the earl of Darnley; but having been dazzled by the pleafing exterior of her new lover, the had entirely forgot to look to the accomplishments of his mind. Darnley was but a weak and ignorant man; violent, yet variable in his enterprifes; infolent, yet credulous, and easily governed by flatterers. She foon, therefore, began to convert her admiration into difguft; and Darnley, enraged at her increafing coldnefs, pointed his vengeance against every perfon he fuppofed the caufe of this change in her fentíments and behaviour.

There was then in the court one David Rizzio, the fon of a mufician, at Turin, himself a mufician, whom Mary took into her confidence. She confulted him on all occafions; no favours could be obtained but by his interceffion, and all fuitors were firft obliged to gain Rizzio to their interefts, by prefents or by flattery. It was eafy to perfuade a man of Darnley's jealous uxorious temper, that Rizzio was the perfon who had eftranged the queen's affections from him; and a furmife once conceived, became to him a certainty. He foon therefore confulted with fome lords of his party, who H 6 accompanying

accompanying him into the queen's apartment, where Rizzio then was, they dragged him into the anti-chamber, where he was difpatched with fifty-fix wounds; the unhappy princefs continuing her lamentations, while they were perpetrating their horrid intent. Being informed however of his fate, Mary at once dried her tears, and faid fhe would weep no more, for fhe would now think of revenge.

She therefore concealed her refentment, and fo farimpofed upon Darnley, her husband, that he put himfelf under her protection, and foon after attended her to Edinburgh, where he was told the place would be favourable to his declining health. Mary lived in the palace of Holyrood houfe; but as the fituation of that place was low, and the concourfe of perfons about the court neceffarily attended with noife, which might disturb him in his prefent infirm ftate, fhe fitted up an apartment for him in a folitary houfe at fome diftance, called the Kirk of Field. Mary there gave him marks of kindness and attachment; fhe converfed cordially with him, and the lay fome nights in a room under him. It was on the ninth of February that he told him he would pafs that night in the palace, because the marriage of one of her fervants was to be there celebrated in her prefence. But dreadful confequences enfued. About two o'clock in the morning the whole city was much alarmed at hearing a great noife; the houfe in which Darnley lay was blown up with gun-powder. His dead body was found at fome distance in a neighbouring field, but without any marks of violence or contufion. No doubt could be entertained but that Darnley was murdered; and the general fufpicion fell upon Bothwell, a perfon lately taken into. Mary's favour, as the perpetrator.

One crime led on to another; Bothwell, though accufed of being ftained with the husband's blood, though univerfally odious to the people, had the confidence, while Mary was on her way to Stirling, on a vifit to her fon, to feize her at the head of a body of eight hundred horfe, and to carry her to Dunbar, where he forced her to yield to his purpofes. It was then thought by the people that the measure of his crimes was complete; and

that