heir side. She had a great deal
of trouble with the affairs of her brother, the Lord James. He wished
to have the earldom of Murray conferred upon him. The castle and
estates pertaining to this title were in the north of Scotland, in
the neighborhood of Inverness. They were in possession of another
family, who refused to give them up. Mary accompanied Lord James to
the north with an army, to put him in possession. They took the
castle, and hung the governor, who had refused to surrender at their
summons. This, and some other acts of this expedition, have since
been considered unjust and cruel; but posterity have been divided in
opinion on the question how far Mary herself was personally
responsible for them.

Mary, at any rate, displayed a great degree of decision and energy in
her management of public affairs, and in the personal exploits which
she performed. She made excursions from castle to castle, and from
town to town, all over Scotland. On these expeditions she traveled on
horseback, sometimes with a royal escort, and sometimes at the head
of an army of eighteen or twenty thousand men. These royal progresses
were made sometimes among the great towns and cities on the eastern
coast of Scotland, and also, at other times, among the gloomy and
dangerous defiles of the Highlands. Occasionally she would pay visits
to the nobles at their castles, to hunt in their parks, to review
their Highland retainers, or to join them in celebrations and fetes,
and military parades.

During all this time, her personal influence and ascendency over all
who knew her was constantly increasing; and the people of Scotland,
notwithstanding the disagreement on the subject of religion, became
more and more devoted to their queen. The attachment which those who
were in immediate attendance upon her felt to her person and
character, was in many cases extreme. In one instance, this
attachment led to a very sad result. There was a young Frenchman,
named Chatelard, who came in Mary's train from France. He was a
scholar and a poet. He began by writing verses in Mary's praise,
which Mary read, and seemed to be pleased with. This increased his
interest in her, and led him to imagine that he was himself the
object of her kind regard. Finally, the love which he felt for her
came to be a perfect infatuation. He concealed himself one night in
Mary's bed-chamber, armed, as if to resist any attack which the
attendants might make upon him. He was discov