Morning journal and courier., 1883-05-14
New Facts About Mary Stuart. From the London AthanarDo

Much as has been written about Mary Stu ! art the sources of information about her ar, ! far from being exhausted. Whether the con troversies with regard to her are ever to hay, 3 an end is another question, but it may b, ! hoped that the fuller light shed upon her ac slons by the modern spirit of research anG the freedom with which almost all stores O, { manuscripts are now thrown open to the in quirer will gradually dissipate prejudice an6 partisanship, and substitute for them large, and clearer views of the whole history of the period. Meanwhile the volume before us-
 ''The History of Mary Stuart" by Claude Nau-has special claim to attention, as giv. ing what to all intents and purposes must be considered Mary's own account of herself during that period of her life in which her actions are most canvassed. It is, indeed, only fragment in the handwriting of her secretary, Nan, and it is not written in Ma rvs name, but in the style of an indepen. dent history. There can, however, be no reasonable doubt that it was composed en-
 tlrely from information supplied by herself at the time the author was in her service and
 this being so, whatever view may be taken
 of Mary's character, it is clearly impossible to neglect what she says in her own defense.
 Yet, strange to say, this remarkable frae.
 menu has existed for nearly three centuries
 in what was almost all along the best known
 ana the most accessible collection of manu-
 scripts in the whole kingdom, namely, the
 Cettonian library, and no one till within the
 last few years took the trouble to decipher it
 and tell the world what was in It. The fact
 IS scarcely creditable to English research :;
 but some slight explanation of it is afforded
 by the fac-simile of the manuscript at the
 commencement of the book. The hand
 writing is singularly careless and illegible,
 and host of corrections and interlineations
 make it peculiarly difficult to follow the
 sense even for few brief lines, so that no mad h6 Sl1rp lot he insuffciency of the description in the Cot tonlan catalogue on which Father Stevenson comments: "A historical treatise concern ing the affairs of Scotland, chiefly in vindica- tlon of Mary Queen of Scots" The state in which the fragment has come down to us is easily accounted for. It is rough draft of what would one day have been careful and biography of Mary Stuart if the author had been allowed to complete his work. Here and there reference is made to letters and documents by expressions such as 'lequel testament sensuit," as if copv were subjoined in the text, though none is found there; and in other places occurs a ? notlhcatlon that such and such letters may be here inserted The work was in all proba- bll1ty broken off by Mary Stuart's removal from Chartley, when it would, of course, be seized and examined by Elizabeths minis. ters; but they must soon have satisfied themselves, notwithstanding the badness of the handwriting, that, however curious the facts might be in the eyes of a remote DOS ter1ty, there was nothing in them that could serve the purposes of the English govern ment, or help in the framing of the indict. ment against Mary. It remains for us to utilize and comment upon the intelligence which was cast aside as unproftable three hundred years ago.
 Although the information contained in the must have been supplied to the writer chiefly from memory nearly twenty years after the events recorded, the detsils are remarkably precise and accurate: and among the incidents thus revealed for the first time is the fact of Mary having had miscarriage at Lochleven, but for which she would have been the mother of twins 0y Boutwell,. This is not, perhaps, after all, material fact; but it shows how lit .le we are justified in imagining that we know everything, even about one of the pest explored pages in history, that it should never have been so much as suspected be fore. Greater interest, however, will be felt ln the story of Mary's escape from hat fortress, and of the circumstances that ed up to it. Nothing is said of the abor-
 i've effort to get the Queen away in dis rom the household at Lochleven before | 1er actual escape is attributed to the ex- press orders of Moray-orders SO unfinch- | ngly obeyed by the laird, who, it will be l was George Douglas own | brother. that he caused cannon shot to | 'e fired at him once when he entered the | och from the other side on horseback in | ,rder to make a signal to the Queen. | ieorge, however, was by no means daunt- |
 d, but was all the more determined to ef- | ect Mary's liberation. He endeavored to | persuade boatman to smuggle large box | nto the castle and bring it back It con aimed, he said, number of papers of D bn aw through what was intended, and told
 i'm he might as well speak frankly. To arry the Queen of in that box was impossi-
 le, but let Douglas show him a more hope ul plan and he would aid in it at the risk of
 is life.
 At the actual attempt the plot was twice in anger of being detected, and twice it was uccessfully covered by Mary's own dexteri- ?. The lady of Lochleven actually ob- trved troop of horsemen on the opposite ide of the loch, and proposed to send lessenger to see who they were. But the ,ueen to divert her attention, began speak lg about the Earl of Moray, expressing the lost vehement indignation at his conduct to- ard her, by which means she engaged the i pod dame in conversation and kept it up till lpper-t1me, which was Intentionally delayed ! lat everything might be in perfect order for sr escape. Again, when the laird of Loch- ] ven had conducted the Queen into her own ! 'om, he perceived from the window William ouglas driving little pegs of wood into the lains by which the boats were fastened his he was doing in the case of all the boats 1t one, to prevent their being serviceable r pursuit. The laird was angry at what he W. but apparently could not nave under { pod the matter, and called out to William at he was fool, probably thinking that he as only wasting his time. Mary took sud
 nly unwell, (perhaps it was not much of a z
 etense under the circun.stances), and gged for little wine, which the laird him If was obliged to go and bring for her, lite forgetting as he did so to inquire far CT what it was that William had been so in nt upon. The fragment is full of little in ients like these, not only about the Loch- 7en captivity and the flight to England, but out almost all the best known adventures, oh as the previous escape from HoIyrood 1 'lrs audacity.