Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-02-07

followed out when she was seated on
her native throne.
She sailed from Calais on the 18th
and arrived at Leith on the 10Th of
August, 1861, having escaped the
English ships of war which Elizabeth
dispatched to intercept her. She
wept as the shores of France faded
from her sight, and her tears flowed
anew when she beheld the rudeness
and poverty of Scotland. Her gov
eminent began auspiciously.
The Reformation claimed to have
received the sanction of the Scottish
Parliament, end if Mary did not for
mally acknowledge the claim, she
was at least content to leave affairs
as she found them, stipulating only
for liberty to use her own religion
a liberty which Knox and few of
the more extreme Reformers de-
nounced as sin against the law Of
God. She is said to have rejected
the violent counsel of the Roman
Catholics. 1t is certain that she
surrounded herself with Protestant
advisers, her chief minister being
her illegitimate brother, James Stew
art, an able, if ambitious, statesman,
whom she soon afterwards created
Earl of Murray. Under his guild
ance, in the autumn of 1862, she
made progress to the north, which,
whatever was its design, ended in
the defeat and death of the Earl of
Huntly, the powerful chief of the
Roman Catholic party in Scotland.
Meanwhile the courts of Europe
were busy with schemes for Mary's
marriage. The king of Sweden, the
king of Denmark, the king of France,
the Archduke Charles of Austria,
Don Carlos of Spain, the Duke of
Terrara, the Duke of Nemours, the
Duke of Anjou, the Scottish Earl of
Arran, and the English Earl of Lei
cester were proposed as candidates
for her hand. Her own preference
was for Don Carlos, the heir of what
was then the greatest monarchy in
Christendom and it was not until
all hopes of obtaining him were
quenched, that she thought seriously
of any other. Her choice fell some
what on her cousin, Henry Stewart,
Lord Darnley, son of the Earl of
Lennox, by his marriage with
granddaughter of King Henry VII
of England. His claims to the Sue
cession were believed to have the
support of the great body of Eng
lish Roman Catholics. But, except
this. and his good looks, he had no
other recommendation. He was
weak, needy, insolent and vicious;
his religion, such as it was, was
Roman Catholic.
Mary's husbands worthlessness and
folly became only to apparent she
was disgusted by his debauchery and
alarmed by his arrogance and ambi-
tion. She had given him the title of
king, but he now demanded that the
crown should be secured to him for
life and that if the queen died with
out issue it should descend TO his
heirs.
Mary hesitated to comply with a
which would have set aside
the settled order of succession, and
what she refused to grant by favor,
the king prepared to extort by force.
Mary's chief minister since Muir
rays rebellion had been David Ric-
clio. The king and Riccio had been
sworn friends. The king was now
persuaded that it was Riccio who
was the real obstacle to his designs
upon the crown. In this behalf he
entered into formal compact with
Murray, Ruthven, Morton and other
chiefs of the Protestant party, under
taking on his part to prevent their
attainder, or procure their pardon,