nd the new which was never more desperate than in her
bosom, and which, being a religious change chiefly, was one of life and
death: and with a monarch no longer native, but of foreign training and
thoughts, even if she had not been a woman and half a Tudor, the little
ship of State, the gallant little nation, plunged amid waves and
billows, not unfamiliar, indeed, but fiercer and wilder than ever
before, with winds so much increased in force as they raged over wider
seas.

The Stewards of Scotland here ended their special trust and gave in
their account. No race was ever more unfortunate, but I think we may say
that none more nobly endeavoured to discharge that high commission. With
one exception, and that doubtful--for a man may be weak and may not be
brave without being a bad man or even king--every bearer of this fated
name laboured with courage and constancy at the great work of elevating
his country. "Another for Hector!" cried the Highland warrior when his
young chief was in danger, and all the world has read the story with
moistened eyes. Another for Scotland! had been the cry of the house of
Stewart throughout more than a century. As one man fell he handed the
sword to another; to an infant hand trained amid feuds and anarchy, but
always clasping, as soon as it had force enough, the royal weapon with
royal courage and meaning. None of the Jameses lived beyond the earliest
chapter of middle age; all of them succeeded in early youth, most of
them in childhood; and, with but that uncertain exception of James III,
every one of them was actuated by a noble patriotism, and did his
_devoir_ manfully for the improvement and development of his country.
They were noble gentlemen one and all: the bigotry, the egotism, the
obstinacy of the later Stewarts were not in them. Knights and paladins
of an age of romance, they were also stern executors of justice, bold
innovators, with eyes ever open to every expedient of progress and
prosperity. Their faults were those faults of a light heart and genial
temperament, which are the most easily understood and pardoned. Under
their sway their country and their little capital came to be known over
Christendom as not unworthy to hold place among the reigning kingdoms
and cities through which the stream of chivalry flowed. They invented
the trade, the shipping, the laws and civic order of Scotland. Among her
heroes there are none more worthy of everlasting remembrance. They
fulfilled th