e at Stirling, in December, with every possible
accompaniment of pomp and parade, and was followed by many days of
festivities and rejoicing. The whole country were interested in the
event except Darnley, who declared sullenly, while the preparations
were making, that he should not remain to witness the ceremony, but
should go off a day or two before the appointed time.

The ceremony was performed in the chapel. The child was baptized
under the names of "Charles James, James Charles, Prince and Steward
of Scotland, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Lord of the Isles,
and Baron of Renfrew." His subsequent designation in history was
James Sixth of Scotland and First of England. A great many
appointments of attendants and officers, to be attached to the
service of the young prince, were made immediately, most of them, of
course, mere matters of parade. Among the rest, five ladies of
distinction were constituted "rockers of his cradle." The form of
the young prince's cradle has come down to us in an ancient drawing.

[Illustration: PRINCE JAMES'S CRADLE.]

In due time after the coronation, the various embassadors and
delegates returned to their respective courts, carrying back glowing
accounts of the ceremonies and festivities attendant upon the
christening, and of the grace, and beauty, and loveliness of the
queen.

In the mean time, Bothwell and Murray were competitors for the
confidence and regard of the queen, and it began to seem probable
that Bothwell would win the day. Mary, in one of her excursions, was
traveling in the southern part of the country, when she heard that he
had been wounded in an encounter with a party of desperadoes near the
border. Moved partly, perhaps, by compassion, and partly by
gratitude for his services, Mary made an expedition across the
country to pay him a visit. Some say that she was animated by a more
powerful motive than either of these. In fact this, as well as almost
all the other acts of Mary's life, are presented in very different
lights by her friends and her enemies. The former say that this visit
to her lieutenant in his confinement from a wound received in her
service was perfectly proper, both in the design itself, and in all
the circumstances of its execution. The latter represent it as an
instance of highly indecorous eagerness on the part of a married lady
to express to another man a sympathy and kind regard which she had
ceased to feel for her husband.

Bothwell hims