Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-10-09

this water-girdled fortress certain rooms
adorned with pieces of tapestry on which
scenes OF hunting and hawking were de-
picted, and which contained an ample
store of rich and beautiful furniture.
In all probability during her impris-
onment at Lochleven she was permitted
to occupy these apartments. The keep
or square tower of the castle which still
exists in good preservation, appears to
have been erected shortly before the
time of queen Mary. It is four stories
in height, with round projecting turrets
at the corners, and was doubtless the
residence of the baron and his household.
Access was obtained to it by draw
bridge, which extended from building
in the courtyard, now demolished, to the
third floor of the tower. The ground
floor and the floor of the second story
we're vaulted and are still entire. The
courtyard was surrounded by high walls
flauked at the corners by towers, and
contained variety of buildings for the
accommodation of the garrison.
With regard to the place of Queen
Mary's Imprisonment, it is impossible
now to arrive at any certainty. Some
writer's have supposed that it was in the
upper stories Of the square towers
conjecture in the highest degree improb-
able. Miss Strickland authoritatively
asserts that Queen Mary's lodgings were
in the southeastern tower, in the court
yard, the principal room of which is cir
cular in form, only fifteen feet in diane
ter and forty-four in circumference.
Mr.. Froude, who adopts the same view,
describes the building as like lime kiln,
from seven to eight feet in diameter, with
walls four feet thick, formed of rough
hewn stone, rudely plastered, and pierced
with long. narrow Sits for windows,
through which nothing larger than cat
can pass, but which admitted daylight
and glimpses of the loch and hills. But
the eloquent historian has failed to notice
that the window Of the lower apartments
is really quite large enough to have af-
forded free egress to the queen and her
maids, and the tower, situated as it is at
the extremity of the courtyard, was the
most insecure part of the buildings. Be-
sides, it had no accommodation for the
queens attendants, and as it looked to-
ward the southeast it could not have af-
eo,lol bo, %,,o rooopo ~ MN, r,upioofipo
as we know she did, by signals with her
friends in Kinross; and her secretary ex-
pressly states that the lady of Lochleven
was in the habit of looking out from the
window of her apartment upon the loch
that she might notice who might be
coming from the village. Mr.. Marshall
is in all probability right in thinking
that Mary was lodged in a building
which closely adjoined the square tower.
The ruins of this structure remained
till the close of the last century and it's
outlines can still be traced. The garden
in which the queen was in the habit of
walking with her maids has long been a
waste, though it still contains few flow
ers and fruit trees in a wild and decayed
state.
Sir Walter Scott in 'sThe Abbot" has
adopted the common notion that old lady
Douglas, the mother of King James ",
of the regent Moray, treated the queen
very harshly, and some of the most ef-
fective passages in that novel consists of
the pungent remarks and repartees which
passed bttween them. But, so far from
being severe or unkind to the unfortu-
nate princess, the venerable lady was in
reality on her side. She was no resident
in the castle or on the island at the time
of Mary's imprisonment, but in the
original Kinross house, termed the New
Place, on the shore, which Miss Strick-
land fancied was on the island. In a
letter which Mary wrote to Catharine de
Medici, the queen mother of France, she
says: II am so closely watched that I
have no leisure but during their dinner
or when they sleep, for their daughters
sleep with me-" A good deal of indig-
nation mas been expended by Miss Strick
land and other biographers of Queen
Mary on this arrangement, under the
notion that these ladies we're the daugh-
ters of the Lady Douglas, the mistress of
King James. Even Hill Burton, who is
skeptical overmuch, though not unfre-
quently at wrong times, concurs in the
opinion that the arrangement in ques-
ton must have been very unfatasfactory
to the queen. But Mr.. Marshall has dis
covered that the ladies referred to were
in reality the children of Sir William
Douglas, and must at the time have been
very young gi:!s. The daughters OF old
Lady Douglas were at this period mid
die aged la les, who had long before
been married and had settled In ether
parts of the country. They were termed
''the seven fair perches of Lochleven
but they were in reality only three in
number. The lady of Lochleven castle
at that time-the wife of Sir William
Douglas-was daughter Of the earl of
Rothes, whose letters which Mr.. Marshall
has found among the papers in Kinross
house show that she was strong-mindsd
person, domineered over her husband
and household, and kept vigilant watch
over her prisoner.
Drifting for Two Years.
Seattla " r Posf Intalli0onoer