ed on Tower Hill, and
there he died like a brave man. He refused to have his eyes bandaged,
saying that he was not at all afraid of death; and he admitted the
justice of his sentence, and was much regretted by the people.

Although Mary had shrunk at the most important time from disproving her
guilt, she was very careful never to do anything that would admit it. All
such proposals as were made to her by Elizabeth for her release, required
that admission in some form or other, and therefore came to nothing.
Moreover, both women being artful and treacherous, and neither ever
trusting the other, it was not likely that they could ever make an
agreement. So, the Parliament, aggravated by what the Pope had done,
made new and strong laws against the spreading of the Catholic religion
in England, and declared it treason in any one to say that the Queen and
her successors were not the lawful sovereigns of England. It would have
done more than this, but for Elizabeth's moderation.

Since the Reformation, there had come to be three great sects of
religious people--or people who called themselves so--in England; that is
to say, those who belonged to the Reformed Church, those who belonged to
the Unreformed Church, and those who were called the Puritans, because
they said that they wanted to have everything very pure and plain in all
the Church service. These last were for the most part an uncomfortable
people, who thought it highly meritorious to dress in a hideous manner,
talk through their noses, and oppose all harmless enjoyments. But they
were powerful too, and very much in earnest, and they were one and all
the determined enemies of the Queen of Scots. The Protestant feeling in
England was further strengthened by the tremendous cruelties to which
Protestants were exposed in France and in the Netherlands. Scores of
thousands of them were put to death in those countries with every cruelty
that can be imagined, and at last, in the autumn of the year one thousand
five hundred and seventy-two, one of the greatest barbarities ever
committed in the world took place at Paris.

It is called in history, THE MASSACRE OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW, because it
took place on Saint Bartholomew's Eve. The day fell on Saturday the
twenty-third of August. On that day all the great leaders of the
Protestants (who were there called HUGUENOTS) were assembled together,
for the purpose, as was represented to them, of doing honour to the
marriage