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leven, and treated on the road with the utmost scorn and contempt. She was committed to the care of Murray's mother, who had been concubine to King James V. and whose insults added greatly to her afflictions.

Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Nicholas Throckmorton into Scotland, to expostulate with the conspirators about this barbarous treatment of their queen, and consult measures to restore her to liberty. But he returned without being able to obtain any satisfaction or relief for her.

After she had been imprisoned eleven months at Lochleven, and forced to comply with unreasonable terms, highly detrimental to her honour and interest, she made her escape from thence to Hamilton Castle, where there was drawn a sentence, declaratory that the grant extorted from her majesty in prison was actually void from the beginning. Whereupon such numbers of people came in to her assistance, that within two or three days she had got an army of at least 6000. Murray, on the other side, used the utmost expedition in preparing to attack the queen before she became too formidable and when they joined in battle, her army, consisting chiefly of new-raised men, was defeated, and she obliged to save herself by flight; travelling 60 miles in one day to the house of Lord Harris. From thence she dispatched John Beton to Elizabeth, with a diamond which she had formerly received from her, as a pledge of mutual amity; intimating, that if her rebellious subjects should persecute her any further, she would come into England, and beg her assistance. Elizabeth returned her a kind answer. But before the

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messenger came, she, against the advice of her friends, found means to convey herself, accompanied by Lord Harris, Fleming, and others, into England; and the same day wrote a letter to her in French, with her own hand, in which she gave her a long detail of her misfortunes, requesting her protection and aid against her rebellious subjects. Queen Elizabeth, in her answers, promised to protect her, according to the equity of her cause; and under pretence of greater security, ordered her to be conveyed to Carilisle.

Being denied access to Elizabeth, which her rebellious subjects were indulged in, and removed from one prison to another, for the space of about eighteen years, in which she had often struggled for liberty, and interested many in her cause; she was at length brought to a trial, condemned, and beheaded, for being concerned in a conspiracy against the life of Elizabeth; suffered with great equanimity, in the castle of Fotheringay, in 1586-7, and interred in the cathedral church of Peterborough: but her remains were afterwards removed by her son to a vault in Henry VIIth's chapel, where a most magnificent monument was erected to her memory.

Authors vary much in their sentiments concerning the character of this queen; but all agree, that she was most cruelly and unjustly treated. Mary was the great hope of the catholics, and Elizabeth's ministers aggravated the hate of their mistress, by a sort of crusading zeal, which has no pity or faith for a heretic. The letters pretended to be written by her to Bothwell, before the death of her husband, which Mr. Whitaker has shown to contain many internal evi

dences of forgery, without seal or superscription, were never, even in copies, submitted to her perusal, or that of her friends, so that she had no opportunity of exposing their falsehood. With a height approaching to the majestic, with a beautiful and benevolent countenance, dark hair and eyes, Mary had a flexibility of mind" which yielded to her feelings, even when her understanding should have taught her better. Prone to confidence and generosity, she seemed to expect it even where she had been frequently deceived; and before confinement had subdued her feelings, was hysterical under the impression of misfortune or unkindness. She wrote Poems on various occasions, in Latin, Italian, French, and Scotch; and Advice to her son, in two books: the Consolation of her long Imprisonment. A great number of her original letters were preserved in the King of France's library, and in the royal, Cottonian, and Ashmolean libraries.

CHARACTER OF JULIA AGRIPPINA.

JULIA AGRIPPINA was born in the city of Ubii, from her called Colonia Agrippina, at present Cologne, and educated by her grandmother Antonia, who saw, with sorrow, the children of Germanicus contaminated with the most odious and horrible vices. With all the pride and ambition of her mother, Julia Agrippina inherited none of her good qualities; but, unrestrained by any principle, she employed, without any shame or remorse, every charm of person and power of intellect, to the purpose of her own

aggrandizement. She was married, first to Domitius Enobardus, by whom she was mother of Nero: and after his death, her irregular conduct was so notorious, that she suffered public penance, and was banished by her brother Caligula, to the island of Pontia, on a charge of treason. On the succession of Claudius, the sentence was repealed, and she returned to Rome to pursue again her intrigues and cabals. She married, secondly, Cripes Passineus, a patrician of great wealth, which was soon all her own, as he lived but a very short time after their union. One object only now remained for her ambition, the imperial crown; and she accordingly practised so successfully upon the weakness of the emperor, that, through his niece, he married her, and in his name she held the reigns of government. Claudius had a son; but Agrippina had one also, that she was determined should succeed him; and for this purpose she obtained every honour and advantage for Nero, while the other was kept back from any thing that might give him consequence, or gain him popularity. Claudius at length was made sensible of his situation, and of the more than profligacy of her character; but he had no power to free himself from her toils, and some words, which were spoken by him unguardedly, when heated with wine, being reported to the empress, she thought it unsafe to spare him any longer, and he was accordingly poisoned by her orders.

Agrippina had attained the point for which she had waded through seas of blood and dishonour; and she now played her part with much policy. The death of Claudius was kept secret, and the young prince retained within the palace, until Nero was proclaimed emperor. This darling son seated upon the throne, she still ex

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pected to govern with the same sway; but Nero, though at first het reated her with great respect, soon learned to consider the consequence she assumed as an encroachment upon his authority. Notwithstanding her artifice, her threats, and remonstrances, Agrippina felt her influence gone. Her son took away her guards, and assigned her, instead of her magnificent palace, a mean house in the suburbs, where people were placed to mortify and insult her. By the force of her natural eloquence, she, however, contrived again to rise into favour; but a reconciliation between hearts so depraved, who feared and knew each other, could not be lasting; and distrust soon created a wish in Nero to rid himself, by any means, of one whom he hated.

He began, by affecting a more than common tenderness, and invited her to his villa at Baix, by a very kind letter, expecting she would have gone by sea, as a galley was sent for the purpose, and so contrived, that the part appropriated to her accommodation might be separated from the other, and sunk at any given time. Some dark intimations of danger, however, had put Agrippina on her guard, and she went by land; but the honour he paid her, and the affection he showed during her visit, so lulled every suspicion, that she was persuaded, as it was a fine night, to return into the vessel prepared.

Sleeping in a bed on the poop, at a given signal, Agrippina, and a lady with her, began to sink gently into the waves, for the parts had not been adjusted nicely enough to perform their office properly: and many of the crew, not knowing the intentions of the

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