abled to put her enemies at defiance. This event served to
alienate Mary's affections from Darnley.

On June 19, 1566, the queen gave birth to a son; an event more fortunate
to the nation than to his unhappy mother, whose evil destiny received
aggravation from a circumstance which appeared so flattering to her
hopes.

Darnley, neglected by the queen, and despised by the people, remained in
solitude at Stirling, but alarmed by the rumor of a design to seize his
person, he thought fit to retire to his father at Glasgow. On his way
thither he was seized with a dangerous illness. Mary visited him, and
it is said prevailed on him to be removed to the capital, where she
would attend on him. Kirk of Field, a house belonging to the provost of
a collegiate church, was prepared for his reception. The situation, on a
rising ground and in an open field, was recommended for the salubrity of
its air.

At two o'clock on the morning of February 10, 1567, the city was alarmed
by a sudden explosion. The house in which Darnley resided was blown up
with gunpowder. The dead body of Henry and a servant, who slept in his
room, were found lying in an adjacent garden, without marks of violence,
and untouched by fire. Thus perished Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in his
twenty-first year, a youth whom the indulgence of nature and fortune had
combined to betray to his ruin.

This execrable deed gave rise to various suspicions and conjectures,
which, while they glanced at the queen from her new sentiments with
regard to her husband, were, with a general consent, directed toward
Bothwell. A proclamation was issued from the throne, offering a
considerable reward for the murderer. Neither the power and greatness of
Bothwell, nor his favor with the queen, secured him from the indignant
sentiment of the nation. He had a mock trial, in which he was acquitted.

The queen, on a journey from Edinburgh to Stirling, to visit her son,
was seized by a party of Bothwell's and conducted a prisoner to his
castle at Dunbar. Here he prevailed on her to marry him, and on her
subsequent appearance in public she was received with a sullen and
disrespectful silence by the people.

The transactions which had passed during the last three months in
Scotland were beheld by Europe with horror and detestation. The murder
of the king, the impunity with which his assassins were suffered to
escape, and the marriage of the queen with the man accused of being
their chief, were