The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-21
QUEEN OF SCOTS BETHROED AT
 AGE OF SIX
Married at Fifteen She Was Widow In Two
 Years.

Mystery is a charm that never must be broken. Not to know the whole, is the enchantment to the hU- man mind. At the romantic door on which is inscribed the name of beau tiful and unfortunate queen, the in terest of the human race will forever knock-in vain. Today we celebrate the arrival in Scotland-August 21, 1561-after an absence of thirteen years in France, of Mary, Queen of Scots. Beautiful; besieged by men; brOken-h earted; beheaded, there is her life in an essence. She was born to a throne, she died on the throne of her protesting innocense. The hearts of men strew the path of Mary Stuart A glance of her beautiful eyes-and men succumbed to her. Around her name blow eternally counter-winds of detraction. villifcation, adulation. profoundest admiration, and troubled query. Mary Stuart was born in the big sixteenth century, that bulges on the map of the great centuries. She was the daughter of King James V of Scotland; this was at the era of the independent kingdom of Scotland.
 When six years of age the little beauty was bethrothed to the Dauphin Francis, and immediately sailed for France. Brought up at the Court of Catherine de Medici, a court that equalled imperial Rome at its worst, 1t is a marvel that the flower of Scot land was not utterly wilted in the fevered atmosphere. Debauchery and murder were matters of daily jests.
 At fifteen years of age, in 1858, she was married to feeble Francis Fran
 V,A ATrav-r sailed for Scotland. It was on this voyage that she composed the touch ing song, beginning
 "Adieu, plaisant France-pays de France"
 Civil strife had broken out in Scot land, between John Knox and his party and the Queen Dowage On this memorable date-August 21st- Mary first met John Knox, the only man ever able to withstand her charms. Their passage of arms is an amusing bit of historic picturesquen- ess One can fairly see the persOnages as they speak.
 MT. Knox. am, you know, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. Do you not fear me?"
 Madame. I fear God so much that I have nothing else to fear"
 Mary Stuart attached to herself and the court immediately four lovely maidens, whom she called the Queen Mary's," and whose romantic career, like that of their royal mistress, burns as a tear upon the cold cheek of history forever. The brilliant young courier, who accompanied her from France to Scotland, Chastelard, was the first of her voluntary victims. He expiated with his head the offence or misfortune of being detected at night in her apartments. Two years from death of Chastelard, she gave her heart at first sight to her kinsman, Lord Darnley. The two were married in secret at Stirling Castle, with Ca tholic rites. in the apartment of her secretary, David Rizzio. Darnley was a miserable fellow, and incurred the anger of two powerful earls of Scot land, probably a matter of jealousy over the charms of Mary Intrigue fol- lowed upon intrigue with alarming consequences. The besotted Darnley, connfving with the powerful Earl of Boutwell,, Rizzio was murdered at night in the Palace of Holy Rood in Edinburgh, in the very presence of
 the Queen, and dragged to the en- trance of the Queens apartments. There still is shown at Holy Rood the authentic and dark stains in the open floor of Rizzio's blood at the
 doorway. The slayers of the hapless
 Rizzio fled to England, and Darnley succeeded in protesting his innocence. A son was born to Mary, afterwards James VI of Scotland and I or Eng land, at Edinburgh Castle, whither she had fled from Holy Rood under an escort of 2,OO0 horsemen, con- l ducted by the fatal Bothwen. In | trigue, flights, successes, sparkling g | days, troubles with Elizabeth of Eng | land, assassinations, splendor, devo- | ton of courtiers, abandonment by them, imprisonment in DOchleven Cas- | tie on the Island of Lochlevtn, dis | guises, escapes, fears, errors, follow | in such amazing and rapid succession | that grave historians confess them-
 selves bewildered as they attempt to | explain her life.
 The dark Earl of Boutwell, succeed | ed in his suit, and Mary divorced the
 miserable Darnley, only to go to the | arms of a more dangerous partner ! who seemed to have fascinated her | as does a serpent charm his prey. 1 Scotland now rose against her and the | fatal Rothwell. In a moment of deS- | pair this brave, quick-witted, re-