he populace hailed her, seems to
have greatly disconcerted her polished attendants. But Mary herself
took every thing in good part, and, after a while, she so far
recovered her gayety, that the masques and dancing, the "fiddling" and
"uncomely skipping," gave great offence to John Knox and the rest of
the grave reformers, who inveighed against such practices from the
pulpit; and the former, with a violence and rudeness altogether
unmanly, personally upbraided her, so as to make her weep. In one
brought up in "joyousness," such austerity could not fail to excite
disgust, and a stronger clinging to the more kind and genial doctrines
of her own faith. But she made no retaliation; she sought, on the
contrary, to win the affection of all her subjects, and to introduce
happiness and prosperity, as well as a more refined civilization, into
her country. Her life for a few years was tranquil. She gave four or
five hours every day to state affairs; she was wont to have her
embroidery frame placed in the room where the council met, and while
she plied the needle, she joined in the discussions, displaying in her
own opinions and suggestions a vigor of mind and quickness which
astonished the statesmen around her. At other times she applied to
study. She brought a great many books with her to Scotland, and the
first artificial globes that had ever been seen there. She was fond of
music, and maintained a band of minstrels. Her other amusements were
hawking, hunting, dancing, and walking in the open air. She was fond
of gardening; she had brought from France a little sycamore plant,
which she planted in the gardens of Holyrood, and tended with care;
and from this parent stem arose the beautiful groves which are now met
with in Scotland. She excelled at the game of chess, and delighted in
the allegorical representations, so much in fashion in her day, by the
name of "masques."

Though Mary could not but feel some resentment at the injurious
treatment which she received from Elizabeth, yet she sought to
conciliate her, and there was a great exhibition of courtesy and
compliment, and "sisterly" affection, between them. Mary even
consulted Elizabeth about her marriage. But that sovereign, with a
littleness almost inconceivable, could not bear that others should
enjoy any happiness of which she herself was debarred, and her own
subjects could in no way more surely incur her displeasure than by
marriage. She now sought to delay that of Mary