t
I am not sure that there is any historical authority for it."

"And what became of Queen Mary, after she escaped in the boat?" asked
Waldron.

"O, there were several of her friends," said the guide, "waiting for her
on the shore of the loch where she was to land, and they hurried her
away on horseback to a castle in the south of Scotland, and there they
gathered an army for her, to defend her rights."

After this the boys looked down through a trap door, which led to a
dark dungeon, where it is supposed that prisoners were sometimes
confined. They rambled about the ruins for some time longer, and then
they returned to the boat, and came back to the shore. When they arrived
at the pier they paid the boatman his customary fee, which was about a
dollar and a quarter, and then began to walk up towards the inn.

"Well, boys," said Mr. George, "how did you like it?"

"Very much indeed," said Waldron. "It is the best old castle I ever
saw."

"You will like the Palace of Holyrood better, I think," said Mr. George.

"Where is that?" asked Rollo.

"At Edinburgh," said Mr. George. "It is the place where Mary lived. We
shall see the little room there where they murdered her poor secretary,
David Rizzio."

"What did they murder him for?" asked Waldron.

"O, you will see when you come to read the history," said Mr. George.
"It is a very curious story."

CHAPTER XII.

EDINBURGH.

From Loch Leven Castle our party returned in the coach to the railway
station, and thence proceeded to Edinburgh. They crossed the Frith of
Forth by a ferry, at a place where it was about five miles wide.

Edinburgh is considered one of the most remarkable cities in the world,
in respect to the picturesqueness of its situation. It stands upon and
among a very extraordinary group of steep hills and deep valleys. A part
of it is very ancient, and another part is quite modern, so that in
describing it, it is often said that it consists of the old town and the
new town. But it seems to me that a more obvious distinction would be,
to divide it into the upper town and the lower town; for there are
almost literally two towns, one upon the top of the other. The upper
town is built on the hills. The lower one lies in the valleys. The
streets of the upper town are connected by bridges; and when you stand
upon one of these bridges, and look down, you see a street instead of a
river below, with ranges of strange and antique-looking buildings o