ublic mind on the subject of Darnley's murder, and the irretrievable
shade which had been thrown over her position by the unhappy marriage
with Bothwell; and he urged her to consent to the proposed measures,
as the only way now left to restore peace to the land. Mary heard him
patiently, but replied that she could not consent to his proposal. By
doing so she should not only sacrifice her own rights, and degrade
herself from the position she was entitled to occupy, but she should,
in some sense, acknowledge herself guilty of the charges brought
against her, and justify her enemies.

Melville, finding that his efforts were vain, called Lindsay in. He
entered with a fierce and determined air. Mary was reminded of the
terrible night when he and Ruthven broke into her little supper-room
at Holyrood in quest of Rizzio. She was agitated and alarmed. Lindsay
assailed her with denunciations and threats of the most violent
character. There ensued a scene of the most rough and ferocious
passion on the one side, and of anguish, terror, and despair on the
other, which is said to have made this day the most wretched of all
the wretched days of Mary's life. Sometimes she sat pale, motionless,
and almost stupefied. At others, she was overwhelmed with sorrow and
tears. She finally yielded; and, taking the pen, she signed the
papers. Lindsay and Melville took them, left the castle gate, entered
their boat, and were rowed away to the shore.

This was on the 25th of July, 1567, and four days afterward the young
prince was crowned at Stirling. His title was James VI. Lindsay made
oath at the coronation that he was a witness of Mary's abdication of
the crown in favor of her son, and that it was her own free and
voluntary act. James was about one year old. The coronation took
place in the chapel where Mary had been crowned in her infancy, about
twenty-five years before. Mary herself, though unconscious of her own
coronation, mourned bitterly over that of her son. Unhappy mother!
how little was she aware, when her heart was filled with joy and
gladness at his birth, that in one short year his mere existence
would furnish to her enemies the means of consummating and sealing
her ruin.

On returning from the chapel to the state apartments of the castle,
after the coronation, the noblemen by whom the infant had been
crowned walked in solemn procession, bearing the badges and insignia
of the newly-invested royalty. One carried the crown. Morton,