carried to the verge of excess. Her youth, for she was only eighteen when she returned to Scotland, increased the liveliness of her disposition. The Catholic religion, in which she had been strictly educated, was a great blemish in the eyes of her people; but on the whole, the nation expected her return with more hope and joy than Mary herself entertained at the thought of exchanging the fine climate of France, and the gaieties of its court, for the rough tempests and turbulent politics of her native country.

Mary set sail from France, 15th August 1561. The English fleet were at sea, and there is a great reason3 to believe that they had a purpose of intercepting the Queen of Scots, as a neighbour whose return was dreaded by Elizabeth. Occupied with anxious forebodings, the Queen remained on the deck of her galley, gazing on the coasts of France. Morning found her in the same occupation; and when they vanished from her eyes, she exclaimed in sorrow, Farewell, farewell, happy France; I shall never see thee more!'-WALTER SCOTT.

1 Elle excellait. 2 Les talents d'agrément alors à la mode parmi les dames. 3 Il y a grand lieu de.

XXVII. EXECUTION OF MARY STUART.

The two Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent came to Fotheringay Castle, and, being introduced to Mary, informed her of their commission, and desired her to prepare for death next morning at eight o'clock. She seemed nowise terrified, though somewhat surprised with the intelligence.1 She said, with a cheerful and even a smiling countenance,2 that she did not think the queen, her sister, would have consented to her death, or have executed the sentence against a person not subject to the laws and jurisdiction of England. 'But as such is her will,' said she, 'death, which puts an end to all my miseries, will be to me most welcome; 3 nor can I esteem that soul worthy the felicities of heaven which cannot support the body under the horrors of the last passage to these blissful mansions.' When the earls had left her she ordered supper to be hastened, that she might have the more leisure after (it) to finish the few affairs which remained to her in this world, and to prepare for her passage to another. She supped sparingly, as her manner usually was, and her wonted cheerfulness did not even desert her on this occa sion. She comforted her servants under the affliction which overwhelmed them, and which was too violent for them to conceal it from her. Towards morning she arose and dressed herself in a rich habit of silk velvet, the only one she had reserved to herself. Having passed into the hall, where was erected the scaffold, covered with black, she saw, with an undismayed countenance, the executioners and all the preparations of death. Here her old servant, Sir Andrew Melvil, took

K

an affecting leave of her.5 The warrant for her execution was then read to her; and during the ceremony she was silent, but showed in her behaviour an indifference and unconcern, as if the business had nowise regarded her. Before the executioners performed their office, the Dean of Peterborough stepped forth; and though the queen frequently told him that he needed not concern himself about her, that she was settled in the ancient Catholic and Roman religion, and that she meant to lay down her life in defence of that faith, he still thought it his duty to persist in his lectures and exhortations. She now began, with the aid of her two women, to disrobe herself; and the executioner also lent his hand to assist them. She smiled, and said that she was not accustomed to undress herself before so large a company, nor to be served by such valets. Her servants seeing her in this condition, ready to lay her head upon the block, burst into tears and lamentations. She turned about to them, put her finger upon her lips as a sign of imposing silence upon them, and having given them her blessing, desired them to pray for her. One of her maids, whom she had appointed for that purpose, covered her eyes with a handkerchief; she laid herself down without any sign of fear or trepidation, and her head was severed from her body at two strokes by the executioner. He instantly held it up to the spectators, streaming with blood and agitated with the convulsions of death. The Dean of Peterborough alone exclaimed, 'So perish all Queen Elizabeth's enemies!' The Earl of Kent alone replied, 'Amen!' The attention of all the other spectators was fixed on the melancholy scene before them, and zeal and flattery alike gave place to present pity and admiration of the expiring princess. Thus perished, in the forty-fifth year of her age, and nineteenth of her captivity in England, Mary, Queen of Scots; a woman of great accomplishments both of body and mind, natural as well as acquired.-HUME.

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1 De cette nouvelle. 2 Air. 8 Me sera des plus agréables. 4 Selon son habitude 5 Lui fit des adieux touchants. 6 Se présenta. 7 De donner sa vie pour. pour leur imposer silence. 9. Au second coup.

8 Comme

XXVIII. THE FAMILY OF WAKEFIELD BEFORE THE LOSS OF THEIR

FORTUNE.

I was ever of opinion that the honest man, who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single1 and only talked of population. From this motive, I had scarce taken orders a year before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife as she did her wedding-gown-not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well. To do her justice, she was a good

3

natured, notable woman, and as for education, there were few country ladies who could show more. She could read any English book without much spelling; but for pickling, preserving, and cookery, none could excel her. She prided herself also upon being3 an excellent contriver in housekeeping; though I could never find that we grew richer with all her contrivances.

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However, we loved each other tenderly, and our fondness increased as we grew old. There was, in fact, nothing that could make us angry with the world or each other. We had an elegant house, situate in a fine country and a good neighbourhood. The year was spent in moral or rural amusements, in visiting our rich neighbours, and relieving such as were poor. We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

As we lived near the road, we often had the traveller or stranger to visit us, to taste our gooseberry-wine, for which we had great reputation; and I profess, with the veracity of an historian, that I never knew one of them find fault with it. Our cousins, too, even to the fortieth remove, all remembered their affinity, without any help from the herald's office, and came very frequently to see us. Some of them did us no great honour by these claims of kindred; as we had the blind, the maimed, and the halt amongst the number. However, my wife always insisted that, as they were the same flesh and blood they should sit with us at the same table; so that, if we had not very rich, we generally had very happy friends about us; for this remark will hold good through life, 10 that the poorer the guest11 the better pleased he ever is with being treated; and as some men gaze with admiration at the colours of a tulip or the wing of a butterfly, so I was by nature an admirer of happy human faces. However, when any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house, I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction to find that he never came back to return them. By this the house was cleared of such as 12 we did not like; but never was the family of Wakefield known to turn the traveller or the poor dependant out of doors.

Thus we lived several years in a state of much happiness; not but that we sometimes had those little rubs 13 which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favours. My orchard was often robbed by schoolboys, and my wife's custards plundered by the cats or the children. The squire would sometimes fall asleep in the most pathetic parts of my sermon, or his lady return my wife's civilities at church with a mutilated courtesy. But we soon got over the uneasiness caused

by such accidents, and usually in three or four days began to wonder how they vexed us.

My children, the offspring of temperance, as they were educated without softness, so they were at once well-formed and healthy; my sons hardy and active, my daughters beautiful and blooming. Our eldest son was named George, after his uncle, who left us ten thousand pounds. Our second child, a girl, I intended to call after her aunt Grissel; but my wife, who had lately been reading romances, insisted upon her being called 14 Olivia. In less than another year we had another daughter, and now I was determined that Grissel should be her name; but a rich relation taking a fancy to stand godmother, the girl was by her directions called Sophia so that we had two romantic names in the family; but I solemnly protest I had no hand in it.15 Moses was our next, and, after an interval of twelve years, we had two sons more.

It would be fruitless to deny my exultation when I saw my little ones about me; but the vanity and satisfaction of my wife were even greater than mine. When our visitors would say, 'Well, upon my word, Mrs. Primrose, you have the finest children in the whole country!' 'Ay, neighbour,' she would answer, 'they are as heaven made them-handsome enough if they be good enough; for handsome is that handsome does.'16 And then she would bid the girls hold up their heads, who, to conceal nothing, were certainly very handsome. Mere outside is so very trifling a circumstance with me, that I should scarce have remembered to mention it, had it not been a general topic of conversation in the country. Olivia, now about eighteen, had that luxuriancy of beauty, with which painters generally draw Hebe-open, sprightly, and commanding.17 Sophia's features were not so striking at first, but often did more certain execution; for they were soft, modest, and alluring. The one vanquished by a single blow, the other by efforts successively repeated.

My eldest son, George, was bred at Oxford, as I intended him for one of the learned professions. My second boy, Moses, whom I designed for business, received a sort of miscellaneous education at home. But it is needless to attempt describing the particular characters of young people that had seen but very little of the world. In short, a family likeness prevailed through all; and, properly speaking, they had but one character—that of being all equally generous, credulous, simple, and inoffensive. --GOLDSMITH.

1 Restait garçon. 3 Sans avoir beaucoup à épeler. 4 Pour les conserves au vinaigre, les confitures. 5 D'être. 6 Ménagère. 7 Ceux qui étaient. 8 Y trouver à redire. 9 Degré. 10 Il est vrai de tout temps. 11 Plus l'hôte est pauvre. 12 Etait délivrée de ceux que. 13 Petites misères. 14 Voulut qu'elle se nommat. 15 Que je n'eus rien à faire là dedans. 16 Car est beau qui fait bien. 17 Imposante.

2 Il y avait à peine un an que j'avais pris les ordres que.

XXIX. THE FAMILY OF WAKEFIELD AFTER THE LOSS OF

THEIR FORTUNE.

The place of our retreat was in a little neighbourhood, consisting of farmers who tilled their own grounds, and were equal strangers to opulence and poverty. As they had almost all the conveniences of life within themselves, they seldom visited towns or cities in search of superfluities. Remote from the polite, they still retained the primeval simplicity of manners; and frugal by habit, they scarce knew that temperance was a virtue. They wrought with cheerfulness on days of labour, but observed festivals as intervals of idleness and pleasure. They kept up the Christmas carol,2 sent true-love-knots on Valentine morning,3 ate pancakes on Shrove-tide, showed their wit on the first of April, and religiously cracked nuts on Michaelmas eve. Being apprised of our approach, the whole neighbourhood came out to meet their minister, dressed in their fine clothes, and preceded by a pipe and tabor; a feast also was provided for our reception, at which we sat cheerfully down; and what the conversation wanted in wit, was made up in laughter.

Our little habitation was situated at the foot of a sloping hill, sheltered with a beautiful underwood behind, and a prattling river before; on one side a meadow, on the other a green. My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's goodwill. Nothing could exceed the neatness of my little enclosures, the elms and hedge-rows appearing with inexpressible beauty. My house consisted of but one storey, and was covered with thatch, which gave it an air of great snugness; the walls on the inside were nicely whitewashed, and my daughters undertook to adorn them with pictures of their own designing. Though the same room served us for parlour and kitchen, that only made it the warmer. Besides, as it was kept with the utmost neatness, the dishes, plates, and coppers being well scoured and all disposed in bright rows on the shelves, the eye was agreeably relieved, and did not want richer furniture. There were three other apartments: one for my wife and me; another for our two daughters within our own; and the third with two beds for the rest of the children.

The little republic to which I gave laws was regulated in the following manner by sunrise we all assembled in our common apartment, the fire being previously kindled by the servant. After we had saluted each other with proper ceremony (for I always thought fit to keep up some mechanical forms of good-breeding, without which freedom ever destroys friendship), we all bent in gratitude to that Being who gave us another day. This duty being performed, my son and I went to pursue our usual industry abroad, while my wife and daughters employed themselves in providing breakfast, which was always ready at a certain time. I allowed