sion of my sins, and to send me your absolution and
forgiveness for all the wrongs I have done you. I shall try to see you
in their presence, as they permitted it to my steward; and if it is
allowed, before all, and on my knees, I shall ask your blessing. Send me
the best prayers you know for this night and for to-morrow morning; for
the time is short, and I have not the leisure to write; but be calm, I
shall recommend you like the rest of my servants, and your benefices
above all will be secured to you. Farewell, for I have not much more
time. Send to me in writing everything you can find, best for my
salvation, in prayers and exhortations, I send you my last little ring."

Directly she had written this letter the queen began to make her will,
and at a stroke, with her pen running on and almost without lifting it
from the paper, she wrote two large sheets, containing several
paragraphs, in which no one was forgotten, present as absent,
distributing the little she had with scrupulous fairness, and still more
according to need than according to service. The executors she chose
were: the Duke of Guise, her first cousin; the Archbishop of Glasgow, her
ambassador; the Bishop of Ross, her chaplain in chief; and M. du
Ruysseau, her chancellor, all four certainly very worthy of the charge,
the first from his authority; the two bishops by piety and conscience,
and the last by his knowledge of affairs. Her will finished, she wrote
this letter to the King of France:

SIR MY BROTHER-IN-LAW,--Having, by God's permission and for my sins, I
believe, thrown myself into the arms of this queen, my cousin, where I
have had much to endure for more than twenty years, I am by her and by
her Parliament finally condemned to death; and having asked for my
papers, taken from me, to make my will, I have not been able to obtain
anything to serve me, not even permission to write my last wishes freely,
nor leave that after my death my body should be transported, as was my
dearest desire, into your kingdom, where I had had the honour of being
queen, your sister and your ally. To-day, after dinner, without more
respect, my sentence has been declared to me, to be executed to-morrow,
like a criminal, at eight o'clock in the morning. I have not the leisure
to give you a full account of what has occurred; but if it please you to
believe my doctor and these others my distressed servants, you will hear
the truth, and that, thanks to God, I despise