han ever, how great was the change which the circumstances
of her life were undergoing.

[Illustration: PALACE OF HOLYROOD. With Salisbury Crags and Arthur's
Seat in the Distance.]

Horses were prepared for Mary and her large company of attendants, to
ride from Leith to Edinburgh. The long cavalcade moved toward evening.
The various professions and trades of Edinburgh were drawn up in lines
on each side of the road, and thousands upon thousands of other
spectators assembled to witness the scene. When she reached the Palace
of Holyrood House, a band of music played for a time under her
windows, and then the great throng quietly dispersed, leaving Mary to
her repose. The adjoining engraving represents the Palace of Holyrood
as it now appears. In Mary's day, the northern part only had been
built--that is, the part on the left, in the view, where the ivy
climbs about the windows--and the range extending back to the royal
chapel, the ruins of which are seen in the rear.[E] Mary took up her
abode in this dwelling, and was glad to rest from the fatigues and
privations of her long voyage; but she found her new home a solitary
and gloomy dwelling, compared with the magnificent palaces of the land
she had left.

[Footnote E: For the situation of this palace in respect to Edinburgh
see the view of Edinburgh, page 179.]

Mary made an extremely favorable impression upon her subjects in
Scotland. To please them, she exchanged the white mourning of France,
from which she had taken the name of the White Queen, for a black
dress, more accordant with the ideas and customs of her native land.
This gave her a more sedate and matronly character, and though the
expression of her countenance and figure was somewhat changed by it,
it was only a change to a new form of extreme and fascinating beauty.
Her manners, too, so graceful and easy, and yet so simple and
unaffected, charmed all who saw her.

Mary had a half brother in Scotland, whose title was at this time the
Lord James. He was afterward named the Earl of Murray, and is
commonly known in history under this latter designation. The mother
of Lord James was not legally married to Mary's father, and
consequently he could not inherit any of his father's rights to the
Scottish crown. The Lord James was, however, a man of very high rank
and influence, and Mary immediately received him into her service,
and made him one of her highest ministers of state. He was now about
thirty years of